#and both are worth 50% of my final grade combined

[that-bajan-kid]

Boku No Hero Academia Chapter 268 SPOILERS

(This might be trash cause I'm in a shitty mood today but I wanted to do this anyway so here)

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YOU'RE STILL HERE??! CRUST WHAT THE FUCK.

The hell you mean "What's going on, Crust?" You can clearly see what's going on. I swear these blind ass manga charaters-

(Edit: That "worry not" came from Aizawa and not from Endeavour like previously thought.)

Finally. God damn. I thought Erasure didn't work on the Noumu. Or maybe because he can only do one quirk at a time?

This chapter being called "Scramble" does not fill me with much hope.

Are we sure we wanna leave Crust alone with that Noumu? He was struggling so hard with the last one.

Endeavour punches a hole through the round Noumu's skull, which Horikoshi was more than happy to show us in excruciating detail, and was quite surprised to find multiple layers of bone in this dude's face.

While this is happening Aizawa yells at Endeavour to hurry up and do the thing he's already doing while thinking about how the girl Noumu and the Elephant Noumu blocked his line of sight of the Stabby McStab Noumu.

Is it just me or does her other arm look broken? Also what's up with these narrations? This coupled with the title has me a little on edge hare.

Miruko is reminding me an awful lot of Hawks when he was facing down Dabi and Twice right now. That confrontation ended with Twice dying. I have an increasingly bad feeling about this.

(Edit: I just realised they're all thinking in the past tense. Is this them narrating from the future? Like, while they give their statement or something. Very interesting indeed. Hmmm.)

How the hell is he in a tank full of liquid and his lips still look crusty? There really is no hope for him, huh?

Also, I can't tell if those are his eyes or his eyebrows but either way he looks terrifying. I am fully expecting him to open his eyes like the supposedly "dead" villains/monsters in horror movies do.

Guard it or break it? Cause that's what it looks like you're about to do. I still think it's a terrible plan but go off, Queen.

Miruko said "disregard my last statement" and shatters the tank, much to me and Ujiko's horror.

I stand by my former statement that this is a really bad idea.

Shigaraki is 74% complete, meaning he only went up by 3% since we last saw him. I feel like we're gonna have an unstable, op Shigaraki running around. Well, even more unstable than usual.

HORIKOSHI DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE. LEAVE MY MAN , AIZAWA SHOUTA, ALONE.

Good. Aizawa better stay alive and with all his senses fully functional too. I think I'd probably be more upset if he lost his sight than if he actually died. Don't get me wrong, if dies I'm gonna real fucking pissed, but loosing his sight means loosing his quirk and I think that would probably break him.

Miss Feme Fatale over here is becoming more stable. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Miruko is alright for now but I really wish Endeavour took out these to Noumu first. If Mic or Aizawa get hurt imma be real sad.

That better not be blood I see in that panel with Aizawa.

Endeavour are you fucking kidding me? You didn't immediately kill it? WHY?!?!? FUCK.

Stabby McStab goes after Miruko again and successfully impales her other leg and her remaining good arm, but Miruko said not today Satan and proceeded to use Crecent Moon Kick on Shigaraki to make sure he doesn't get up. Or to kill him. I'm not sure yet. Oh and he's at 75% now. I'm just patiently waiting for the other shoe to drop at this point.

A bunch of Ujiko's shit starts exploding but he's starting to look decidedly less worried and that concerns me. She is, however, unsuccessful in taking out Shigaraki it would seem. Stabby is dragging her away and she looks very disappointed and angry, so I'm assuming the kick didn't land.

Also, completely unrelated, Ujiko's goggles' got lenses again. That's cool.

Ok so I don't fully understand what's happening in this panel but it looks like Endeavour flew farward to catch Miruko. Ujiko is freaking out again.

I should have just read the next panel. Miruko didn't shatter the tank she cracked it. A lot. And Endeavour was flying forward to catch her. The cracks in the tank start to spread and water, or whatever it is, start spouting out through said cracks. Miruko tells Enji (I'm getting tired of typing out his hero name) that Shigaraki is in the tank and that he would kill him. This kinda feels like Ending all over again. I wonder if he'll go through with it this time.

GUESS WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE.

If you didn't want him to wake up why did you break the tank????

Aizawa and Mic look like their ready to kill some bitches. And by bitches I mean Ujiko.

"Go grab your answer" what answer? Are we talking about Shiragiri?

(Edit: the answer is yes they are talking about him cause that's Shirakumo right in the middle of the panel from when they went to see Kurugiri. You can't really see it properly because of how dark it is but I'm sure viz will have a better version.)

So, no chapter next week. Everyone say thanks to Covid Alfonso 19, as my prelim chem lecturer would affectionately call him.

I whole heartedly believe Shigaraki is going to wake up and that someone is gonna die as a result. The way things are looking Miruko might die either way which would be bad. I would very much like her to not die.

I don't really have much else to say about this chapter.

Until next time.

[tibby]

best lekws of the party?

after a long six months, here it is: a ranking of my top five favourite outfits from each member of the party. hope it was worth the wait.

mike:

5. snow ball

i went to three formal events in all thirteen years of schooling and all five educational institutions i attended so middle schoolers having a random winter dance is VERY funny and weird to me. i don't think anyone i knew at thirteen would have had a good outfit for this kind of event but mike wheeler continues to be ahead of us all.

4. denim vest

people will say to me, "but how can you think mike is a lesbian?" and i will remind them of the time she wore a denim vest and bullied a twunk into giving her what she wanted. and that will close the case without a second thought.

3. pastel polo

thinking about the text i got from a friend that just said "okay yeah this shirt is kind of a lesbian look"

2. yellow button up

i have made many jokes at the expense of stranger things and will continue to do so as long as i am alive but i must say. the talent the wardrobe team has whenever they put any character in yellow...maybe the smartest people on the crew. anyway. here's another shirt that i wish that i owned.

1. s2 sweater

could it be anything else? the sweater that immediately went to the top of every lesbian's "Fashion I Need" list. mike wheeler was NOT going to let her trauma and fear and confusion from being far more fashionable than i ever was in 7th grade.

eleven:

5. bitchin’

she said it best herself

4. denim overalls and grey sweater

i kind of completely forgot about this until i was making this list and like, how the fuck did i manage that? i would wear this outfit now. i may not be a fan of jim hopper or his wardrobe but he really was doing some good parenting when he bought his daughter this outfit

3. paint splatter shirt

oh to be a fourteen year old psychic in 1985 hanging out with my lesbian best friend at the mall and stealing some really amazing pieces of clothing like this shirt and the fun romper and hat it can be paired with.

2. yellow shirt and black pants with suspenders

see above re: my comments on yellow shirts. did you know that a store was selling this outfit for FAR too much money but i still considered buying it? kinda upset that a 14 year old has my dream wardrobe

1. colourful romper

there is a reason i've seen about 50 people in their twenties wearing the knockoffs that target and hot topic made of this: because it's GREAT. probably my favourite piece in a season full of a consistently good wardrobe. el has been wearing stuff that isn't flannel for all of one hour and still has a better eye for fashion than i do. also the fact she probably stole this is a plus.

max:

5. intro outfit

max arrived in hawkins and was like. time to prove i am the superior sibling in my family when it comes to personality, skateboarding skills, and outfits.

4. halloween costume

not only did she outshine the party when it came to halloween scares, but she also kind of outshined them when it came to outfits. how were their matching ghostbusters outfits ever going to compare?

3. braids

at fourteen, max mayfield has managed to work out something that some people spend their whole lives not knowing: when you go to deal with a demon that has possessed your shitty older stepbrother, you need to wear a memorable outfit. and where can you go wrong with purple and blue stripes on a shirt and fun little braids?

2. yellow shirt

they’re all rocking great outfits honestly, but max still wins because she’s got that great shirt and those fun denim shorts. the boys never stood a chance.

1. rainbow shirt

as someone who has been a fourteen year old lesbian with messy red hair, i can confidently say i never had the ability to rock an outfit like this. godspeed, maxine.

will: 

5. dnd wizard

will byers said You Guys Are Going To Ignore My Campaign So I Am Going To Force You To Care By Wearing The Most Theatrical Outfit Possible And Yelling At You To Wake Up. and was he wrong for that? no!

4. s2 flannel

imagine mike wheeler showing up in the best sweater of all time and everyone else at your school is like Holy Shit, Cannot Compare To That Outfit. and they would be right but my GOD did will put a valiant effort in. LOVING the colours here truly.

3. girls don’t play video games

will byers is allowed to be a misogynist because he will wear a great outfit while doing it

2. s1 outfit

i think we've established that i'm a fan of vests. but really, if you're going to be trapped in another dimension for a week, you'd want to have an awesome outfit while doing it.

1. mindflayer (0) vs a great outfit (1)

the shorts are fun! the shirt has nice colours! this is probably the least his hair has looked like he's a beatles reject! i know everyone was busy being "traumatised" or "dying" but that's no excuse for nobody complimenting him on this absolute look

lucas:

5. final s3 outfit

lucas went to say goodbye to the byers family in this great shirt to make sure they’d never forget him. and who could, in a green like that?

4. blue stripes

there’s so many stripes on this list, but none of them hold a candle to this shirt, if i’m honest. blue is my favourite colour, so i’m a little biased, but it’s a nice range of shades paired with a great jacket. 10/10. the only reason it’s not higher is because he just has consistently has a great wardrobe.

3. red turtleneck, hidden by even cooler clothes

do you know how hard it is to wear three layers and make every piece count? apparently not hard at all for mr sinclair. he always has such a coordinated outfit and i think he might be the true fashion icon of this show for that...the colours here are perfect and every piece is just nice on its own. get lucas on project runway and he'd WIN.

2. summertime style

my notes for this look just say "fun hat" which i think is all that needs to be said

1. camo bandana

he looked up Outfits To Bully Jocks In and honestly? he was successful on both fronts.

dustin:

5. three great items to create a masterpiece

cards on the table, i forgot about this outfit until now. but i never will again. we’ve established i like yellow shirts, but combined with his iconic hat and the fun jacket i talk about later? he made his point. i’m sorry dustin.

4. vest

another vest! like, if it works, it works, and this definitely does. also, i appreciate his ability to keep his hat on despite being trapped in a secret underground russian basement, for like, three days. he knew it completed the outfit. he was NOT letting that go.

3. purple hoodie

steve, how does it feel to have an outfit that doesn’t measure up to the looks of not one, but two middle schoolers?

2. spy outfit

i’m kind of annoyed we didn’t get a good look at this outfit. both of the shirts are such fun and the kind of thing that i would probably wear today. it was good of steve to wear the scoops outfit and allow dustin to have his moment. although, really, what could top those patterns?

1. snow ball

like, i’m a 22 year old lesbian, i’m not going to fight a bunch of middle schoolers for not appreciating this outfit. but c’mon. i’ve been through 8th grade. this is absolutely a step up from what the guys i knew would wear. he manages to make it work without the blazer and with steve’s ridiculous hair tips. give a king a little more respect.

[rainofaugustsith]

Rain Plays SWTOR: SOLO gearing 6.0

In my opinion the SWTOR devs have given solo players a hearty "fuck you" with 6.0, between an insufferably long gearing system, nerfed companions, much higher conquest targets (with solo-friendly activities like galactic rampage now removed) and overtuned content. It's why I'm not paying for a subscription anymore. Damn it, though, I like the game, I like hanging out with Viri and I still have characters who have not finished all the content. Even though I am not subscribed now, I invested in Artifact Authorization for my account so my characters can wear the good stuff.

Despite the fact that the devs seem to be heavily pushing people to group, I decided that my own "fuck you" to them would be getting Viri to 306 without grouping even once. And I did.

Almost. Her gear rating is 304, but hell, she's close, and she already has several 306 pieces. These aren’t the final stats I want for her (as she changes to moddable 306 pieces I’ll be adding back her augments and changing those relics) but she’s a beast again. 

The important takeaway from this post:

You do not need to group to get good gear, even at level 75. You do not need to do veteran flashpoints to get good gear. Good gear drops in the solo flashpoints too!

Do you "need" it?

I hate it when other players tell me I "don't need" certain gear, so I won't do that to you. It's a personal choice. The higher levels of gear do seem to compensate for at least some of the currently overtuned parts of the game. In other words even if you are not interested at all in the endgame you may wish to pursue the higher-end gear simply to do the other content more easily.

If you are not playing Onslaught (or not playing it yet) there have been numerous reports of other missions/areas being overtuned, including the Star Fortresses, Bowdaar's recruitment mission, walker combat in KOTET and Iokath, the H4s and some H2s, and better gear could help there.

Onslaught is supposed to be designed so that you gear up as you level up, ending the expansion with a full set of 268 gear and a tactical item. In my own experience going through Onslaught, some of my classes did okay with this system but others did not. All had similar gear ratings (242-252), at least some augments, and at least one or two level 50 influence companions (usually Lana, but also included Vette, Mako or Akaavi for some characters). My Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight were fine. My Smuggler died if an NPC looked at her the wrong way and really struggled to get through. My Bounty Hunter and Lightning Sorcerer had a few hiccups but managed.

My own preference will be to get my characters leveled to 75 and geared before hitting KOTET now. I don't think they all need to be 306. My test subject, canon Viri (who has not done Onslaught) was blazing through content by the time she was a 286. I will likely aim for at least that rating on all characters.

So you want the gear. Now what?

Okay. It's a long, mind-numbingly boring experience to gear up but if you hang onto enough stuff, you might be able to avoid going through this nightmare on more than one character. How can you get gear without grouping?

1. The easiest and most effective way is to run a lot of solo flashpoints. Over and over again (the same way the folks who group are doing with Hammer Station).

The shortest and simplest flashpoint (at least for me) is Korriban Incursion, followed by Depths of Manaan. By the time you hit a gear rating of 286ish, you can chew through either of these alone in less than 20 minutes. Black Talon is next, but one of the bosses only seems to drop crafting material (including those coveted isotopes) and the bonus boss now has a lot of very uncomfortable flashing lights.

I went through several of the longer flashpoints like Copero, False Emperor, Rakata Prime and Boarding Party, too. On Copero I had four gear drops instead of three thanks to the bonus boss, and some random green gear dropped from NPCs, but otherwise the longer flashpoints don't seem to offer any real advantage over the shorter ones. Thus, unless there's something else you want from the flashpoint (like decos or achievements), it seems most prudent to run the ones that will cause you the least trouble. You might get random pieces (usually green 270s) from enemies but overall, usually only three bosses will give you proper drops. There will be a sack of Grade 11 crafting materials, probably a mod or two, and at least one piece of gear. This is RNG. Sometimes you will luck out and get two pieces of gear you can use. Sometimes you will get nothing and will end up deconstructing it all. Viri has received tank gear, things she clearly can't use like blaster barrels, and 274 pieces when she's a 294. As far as I know it happens in the veteran group flashpoints too. Just deconstruct it, or set it aside for another character if you think they will want it.

Once you get past 300, I have noticed you will start getting a lot more mods, enhancements and armor/hilts/barrels. This is a good thing. These are the pieces you can set aside for alts.

2. Conquest.

It's harder to meet this goal now but it may be doable for you on one or two toons. During this exercise Viri reached her conquest goal of 50,000 points just by doing flashpoints and a couple of easy heroics on Tatooine and Korriban. The Conquest gear crates are in my experience good, and I've pulled numerous gold set pieces, so it's worth it to try to aim for the goal, and it can be done solo.

3. Chapters.

I was very surprised to get a gear crate when I finished Shroud of Memory. A character who was just finishing up KOTET received crates for her last two chapters, too. I think this replaces the gear that used to be given for KOTFE/KOTET chapters. It's in line with the other weekly/daily crates.

4. Onderon weekly/daily crates.

If you have a character who has gone through Onslaught, do ten missions for the weekly and six for the daily. There are some simple quests that can be done quickly. In my experience these crates provide little more than deconstruction fodder most of the time. However it's worth it, if only for the tech fragments. Aside from gear, there are some nice decos available at the reputation vendor so raising your Onderon rep isn't pointless.

5. Mek-Sha heroics.

Again, if you have a character who has done Onslaught. Not the best option for the planet - see #11 for an easier one. Both of the Mek-Sha heroics give gear crates and in my limited experience they have been good. However, the heroics are tuned very, very high. Viri's clone (Sith Warrior; Vengeance Juggernaut) with a gear rating of 300 had trouble. The final boss in the Matter of Respect heroic has more HP than many flashpoint bosses, and he's with two silvers. Dying in these heroics is expensive, too: the tune of 20,000 credits per repair bill. I don't think this really is a good option for most solo players, even if you want to run them once for the experience/achievements.

This is the final boss in the second Mek-Sha heroic. No, you’re not reading that  HP number wrong. 

6. Renown crates.

Instead of Command Levels, there are now Renown levels. It's the same overall concept: gain a level, gain a crate with a piece of gear (the fun stuff like pets and companion gifts are gone). The difference: you're not going to gear up via Renown. For all intents and purposes it's probably best to pretend Renown doesn't exist. It's not like Galactic Command where doing the weekly in Section X or Ziost will at least earn you a crate or two.

You need 1,600,000 points to get one Renown crate. Considering that the weekly areas now award between 7000-28,000 points and a flashpoint awards 2000-3000 (and that is WITH the full 25% boost), it's going to be a while before you earn even one crate. When you do, I might suggest hanging on to them until your rating is high to try to get better gear. In my limited experience (I think my characters combined have earned about ten Renown crates!) I don't think I've ever pulled any sort of useful upgrade out of these crates. Take the item and deconstruct it for tech fragments, don't disintegrate it. Consider anything useful to be a pleasant surprise.

7. Treasure Hunting missions

Level 10 lockbox missions return with gear. It's not highly rated, though. Deconstruct it for the tech fragments. 

8. Crafting

From what I have heard this is such a clusterfuck that it's not even worth attempting, with many mats required even for low-level gear. Skip this, I think.

9. LS/DS vendors

Apparently if you are willing to fork over all 100 of your LS or DS coins to the vendor you can get an equipment box. I wouldn't do this because it's now very hard to get LS/DS coins (see Renown). Once you blow them all you're not likely to get so many back. 10. Random drops

NPCs in heroics, flashpoints and open world may occasionally drop random pieces of gear, usually green 270ish stuff that may or may not be for your discipline. It's good to deconstruct.

11. Mek-Sha Tradehouse missions In your faction’s starting point on Mek-Sha, you will find a datapad. Click this to get a short mission to speak to a Nautolan NPC in Huttbreaker’s Compound. The NPC will tell you that you can do short “adventures” around the galaxy to help out Huttbreaker’s auction house.  Now check out the small clickable terminal to the left of the NPC. You will get a Weekly - Tradehouse Acquisitions - and a daily mission that will take you to either Rishi, Tatooine, Onderon, Nar Shaddaa or Dantooine. These missions are very simple - usually just gathering some clickable items or scanning several targets with provided macrobinoculars.  To complete the Weekly, you need to complete three Tradehouse Missions. You can only do one per day. It will award you a gold gear box, so it’s worth it. 

When you get gear:

Use a character that you can devote solely to gearing for a little while. Canon Viri has not done Onslaught, but she's my strongest character and my main, and she has nothing else to do right now. I decided to gear with her.

If a piece of gear is an upgrade, equip it immediately. The higher your overall gear rating, the more likely you are to get upgrades. This will screw with your stats for a while, but you can sort it out when you get to the 300s. If it's not an upgrade deconstruct it for tech fragments - the currency you will use to purchase gear later.

Once you get to the high 290s or 300s you may wish to start setting aside gear pieces for your alts instead of deconstructing them. ETA Gear is now legacy bound, so you can pass it from one character to the next (except for weapons, I found). If you are moving up to a 306 piece, for example, save that 304 for the next toon who might need it, and pass around the gear to everyone’s advantage. 

Mods: Viri kept her augmented mainhand and offhand weapons (lightsaber and focus). I ripped out mods/hilts as needed to upgrade those weapons. However, ripping mods is very expensive so you don't want to be doing this for all your right side pieces. Don't worry about mods until you get to the 300s. Just keep using the non-moddable gear as you progress. This includes mods that don't seem to suit your character. If a Barrage or Studious enhancement would take Viri from one gear level to another I used it.   Use Takanna: Takanna is the vendor who sells "unidentified" pieces for around 350 tech fragments each. The pieces are supposed to be at least your item rating or higher, and with the exception of left side and mods, are supposed to be for your discipline. 

 I used Takanna to get over the plateaus that Viri would hit sometimes, when she would reach a certain item rating and would not get anything higher from the flashpoint drops. Buying a higher rated set of boots or bracers (for instance) would sometimes be enough to get her to a higher overall gear rating and break the stalemate.   Once you reach your quitting point: You don't want to go all the way to 306? You're fine at 290 or 286 or 300? That's cool. This is where you either decide that you're going to augment the non-moddable gear you have or start playing with mods and those gold set pieces. It is VERY expensive to move around mods and augments, especially after you reach 300 (we're talking 450K to rip three mods, I'm not exaggerating), so I advise that you put them where you want them to stay.

Set bonuses: The old set bonus you had from your GEMINI or Ossus gear vanished when you hit level 75. I don't think the new ones are as good, but in some cases all you need are two pieces to get the bonus. Ostensibly you could therefore have three different set bonuses (2, 2, 2) operating at once.

Tacticals: Viri received two as random drops once she was in the 280s. You also receive one good all-around tactical at the end of Onslaught. I wouldn't be fussed about getting these. If you get one, great. If you have credits to burn check out the vendor on the fleet who sells them. Otherwise wait until you finish Onslaught.   Amplifiers: I DGAF about these. Re-rolling the amplifiers is a large credit sink for (IMHO) small boosts. I personally am not bothering with re-rolling anything. Viri has what she has on her gear and I'm not worried about changing what is there.However, re-rolling an amplifier will now give you Conquest points, so you may decide to re-roll one just for that boost.    Augments: Viri has kept her 236 and 240 mods. They have been nerfed a little but the Grade 11 augments and kits are really expensive, and IMHO her old augments do fine for her.

Gearing alts: Send your highest-iRated toon shopping for the others. Vendors like Takanna will give you gear that corresponds to your toon’s level. So send your 306 rated character shopping, grab that high-level gear, and leave it in your Legacy hold for your alts.  I'm gearing my weakest alts, and those that have a lot of content left to do, first. "Weakest" might mean many things to many people. For me, it's the alt that has the most trouble getting through content and/or the class that I'm the least skilled at playing. I've also geared one of Viri's clones who did do Onslaught so she could do the Mek-Sha and Onderon tasks.  Overall, this gear system is no fun. I don’t think it would be quite as bad if there weren’t so many levels, but when you’re going through 19 - 284, 286, 288 and on and on and on - it feels like you’re slowly pulling teeth for every gain.  Still, the point was to show that it could be done without the grouping that the devs seem to be trying to force on us. Et voila.

[svubloods]

Imagine being the Youngest Reagan: There’s something about Mary-Margaret

Imagine being the Youngest Reagan: There’s something about Mary-Margaret

Staten Island, New York City, New York 1991

“I’m so sorry, honey,” Mary-Margaret apologised quickly to her sixteen-year-old daughter Erin, before bursting into a fit a giggle so fierce she doubled over slightly in her seat, “Your brother is making faces behind you at me,” She finally made out, still giggling profusely.

Erin spun around quickly and glared at her older brother, “Danny I swear to…”

“Daniel,” Your Father Frank, quickly interjected, his tone stern enough to silence both Erin and eighteen years old, Danny.

“All right, sorry,” He apologised, putting his hands up defensively before flopping down on the couch behind Erin beside his youngest brother eleven-year-old Jamie, “I’ll try not to distract Mom anymore but I can’t help being naturally funny,”

“Pretty sure she was laughing at you and not with you,” Erin commented bitterly, making her younger two brothers who were sitting on the couch but leaning over back watching the whole ordeal unfold, laugh.

“How about we get back to it?” Your Dad suggested, flashing an Erin a comforting smile and his wife a telling look.

“Right,” Your Mother agreed, straining her face into its neutral expression in an attempt to combat the broad grin brought on by Danny sticking his tongue out at her behind Erin’s back, “I’m sorry Erin for getting distracted,”

Erin smirked at her mother behind refocusing on her canvas.

“It looks really great so far,” Fourteen-year-old Joe, complimented, genuinely.

“Thanks, but I want it to perfect,” Erin exclaimed, breathing heavily as she quickly corrected something.

“It’s just an art project,” Danny reasoned.

“Worth over 50% of my final grade,” Erin stated.

“But you’re good at it. The painting looks good, they always are, so why are you worried?” Danny seemingly though out loud, his words surprising everyone in the room, “Plus any painting with Mom in it, is going to be good, I mean have you seen Mom?”

“You think I’m good?” Erin questioned, spinning back around to look at him directly.

“Aww, Danny that’s so sweet,” Your Mother breathed bashfully simultaneously at her oldest words before narrowing her features at him, “What have you done?”

“Nothing,” Danny quickly said defensively, “I’m just saying none of us can say honestly at least that Mom isn’t pretty. I mean I’ve spent my whole life with my friends telling me how hot they think my mom is,”

“Gross,” Jamie shuddered.

“Mine too,” Joe agreed.

“Same,” Erin nodded.

“Well, I have to agree with all of them,” Your Dad chuckled, looking at his wife, who was sitting by his side, fondly, squeezing her hand which he was already holding, “Your mom is definitely the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met,”

Your Mother smiled helplessly at your Dad before sticking her tongue at him cheekily, making him laugh and lean over to press a kiss into her cheek. Causing a series of ‘ewws’ from their children, which just made the pair laugh even more. Your mom flashed them a devilish grin before grabbing your Dads face and pulling him into a proper kiss.

“Please stop,” Danny pleaded.

“Only because you asked so nicely,” Your mom winked her arm still around your Dad’s neck, pressing her cheek into hers.

“Thank you,” Erin muttered before instructing strongly, “Can you get back into position,”

They straightened up back into their seats and looked forward once again.

“How long do you think this going to take?” Your Dad asked, grasping your mom's hand and resting it on his knee.

“Maybe like an hour,” Erin offered, not paying attention as she focused intently on her canvas.

“The things we do, huh?” Your Mom teased.

They managed to chat widely for a few minutes as Erin continued to paint their portrait. Erin’s art assignment required her to paint a lifelike portrait of someone you admire so Erin being Erin decided to do two people to challenge herself and picked the two people she admired most, though she would never admit it, her parents. It wasn’t easy organising them both to be at home at the same time with no other commitments but to sit as models in the hallway by the living room for three hours as she painted them. But she did it, it was after dinner on a Monday night and Joe had managed to get three year old you asleep early enough that they were free. Plus Erin had made everyone do all their homework before dinner so there would be no interruptions. She hadn’t planned on her brothers being so interested however, all three them were perched on the couch directly behind her, leaning over the back so they could see what she doing directly and their parents posing for her project.

And even both your parents were tired from their own long days, it was Monday after all. They had agreed. Your Mom agreed because she would happily do anything that could possibly help any of your guy's education. Your Dad agreed for the same reason but also because it means that all of you would spend some time together for a couple hours and that was all that ever mattered to him. Being with you guys.

“What do you guys think?” Erin asked her brother surprisingly, turning to look at them directly, “I don’t know if I’ve got mom’s eye colour right,”

“Well, it’s not like you teacher will know,” Danny commented.

“Erin you have Mom’s eyes, so just draw your own,” Joe recommends.

“I have Mom’s eye colour but Dad’s eye shape,” She corrected.

“But you look just like Mom,” Jamie interrupted.

“Y/N looks exactly like mom,”

“But she has Dad’s eyes colour,”

“But she’s mostly Mom,” Erin sighed.

“Just like you then,” Joe added.

“But you two look like Mom too,” Erin pointed out to Joe and Jamie, “Well mostly, with a little bit of Dad thrown in,”

“Everyone says we look like twins,” Joe agreed, with Jamie giving an affirmative nod, “But we have the same colour eyes as Grandpa,”

“What about me?” Danny questioned.

An awkward silence fell over the group before they looked towards their parents for saving.

“You’re a combination of both our best features,” Your mom insisted, looking at your Dad before settling on Dad, “You’re my gorgeous firstborn,”

“Yeah, but you have to say that,” Danny brushed off but he couldn't help but smile.

“Would you prefer her to tell you the truth?” Erin muttered under her breath, raising her eyebrows.

“Erin,” Your Mother warned, before adding “All have you know Danny actually looks like your Dad when we first met,”

“Really?”

“Well, if all three of you boys both were combined then, yeah,” She offered, “Just like your Dad,”

“How did you guys meet?” Joe inquired, gently, looking between his parents.

“Hah,” Erin let out stifling her giggles with her hand, soon Danny joined in with her laughter and their parents shared amused looks, “Do you seriously not know?”

“No,” Joe confirmed, “Why are you guys laughing,”

“They’re laughing at me, my love not you,” Your Mom reassured, reaching out for Joe before remembering she had to stay in her seat.

“Why, what happened?” Jamie intervened, pressing the matter.

“You boys know how stubborn, your mother can be, right?” Your Dad asked.

They both nodded immediately much to your Mom’s annoyance as she rolled her eyes to empathise that fact.

“So let’s just say she’s been like that since the day we met,” He chuckled.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, 1973

“Can I help you miss?”

“No,” Your Mom stated simply, not even giving the owner of the voice a second glance as she circled her car quickly.

“Are you sure?” He asked again, watching her intently as she seemingly tossed tools from one hand to the other.

“Listen, I don’t recall asking for your…” Your Mom began exasperatedly, she had been stuck on the side of the road for thirty minutes and this was the third man who had taken it upon themselves to come and try and rescue her, as she spoke she looked up from her crouched position to see your Dad smiling down at her, meeting his gaze for the first time ever she paused momentarily consumed by light hazel, “…Officer…” she managed to get out confidently enough before looking away.

“Oh, I know. I just thought you looked you were in a bit of trouble, you know?” He offered, with a dazzling friendly smile.

“What made you think that?” Your Mom demanded, “Because I’m a girl”

“Because you’re trying to use the jack before loosening the lug nuts,” He responded politely, expertly concealing his grin. “And you saw that from all the way over there?” Your Mom accused, gesturing to the other side of the road where he had parked his police cruiser.

“You’re hard to miss,” He grinned.

Your mom smirked, rolling her eyes before standing up and leaning against the back of the car to look at your Dad.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean you don’t see a lot of bright cars round here,” He elaborated.

“You don’t?”

“It’s New York, most New York teenagers don’t even know how to drive a car ” He chuckled.

“Well, I’m not a New York teenager,” Your Mom sighed.

“Let me guess,” He outwardly pondered before saying, “California?”

“How’d ya know?” She inquired.

“You can tell,” He said, “So do you still not want a hand with that flat?”

“Nope,” She insisted, “But you can tell me how you know I’m from Cali,”

“You really want to know?” He entertained, as she settled back down on the ground and he circled the car so he was standing beside her, watching her in amusement.

“I wouldn't ask if I didn’t,” She informed.

“You can just tell, the accent for one if you want specifics,” He shrugged, “…and the bright red dress helped though. Bit bright for the city,”

“I have a couple of roommates that would disagree,” Your Mom commented, securing the jack and lifting the car up.

“So you moved here for school?” He deducted.

“NYU,” She confirmed, “Moved here a couple of months ago,”  

“By yourself?”

“Like most people when they leave for college,”

“Yeah, I guess,”

“Let me guess, born and bred New Yorker?” She asked.

“Yeah, never lived anywhere but the city,”

“I can tell,” She chuckled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He accused, jokingly.

“Nothing,” She brushed off, playfully, giving him a suggestive wink.

“Sure,”

They both laughed before silence fell over them as your mom unscrewed the lug nuts.

“Well, Officer if you’re going to stand there, do you mind grabbing my spare tire from the back?” You asked, looking up at him with her bright eyes.

He gulped over intensity before giving her a stern nod. Taking a deep breath while he was out of eyesight to control his nerves. Your Dad rarely got nervous but your mom, in that dress, in particular, was making him nervous if not weak in the knees. It’s why he had to lean against the car.

“So what’s it like leaving your family and moving so far away?” He asked casually, “I couldn't imagine not going to see my Ma every day for Sunday dinner.”

“You go have dinner with your parents every Sunday?”

“And my Grandparents right after Church,”

“That’s sweet,” She smiled, “My Dad and I used to do something like that every Wednesday,” She looked away before remembering, “It’s not too bad, my Dad comes up all the time. He’s even thinking of getting an apartment here plus I’ve made tons of friends but it’s not too bad. But then again I don’t really miss San Fransisco very much. I like it here…a lot,”

“Well, I hope my city keeps treating you well,” He grinned.

“It keeps getting better,” She chuckled, looking up tellingly at him.

“So it just you and your Dad?”

“Yep, just the two of us,” She nodded.

“What about your…” He immediately went to ask before stopping himself short, “Sorry, sometimes curiosity gets the best of me,”

“Probably a good quality for a cop,” She complimented, “And my Mom died during Childbirth,”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” He comforted, placing his hand on her shoulder.

“It’s fine,” She teased, patting his hand and giving him a sad smile.

She then suddenly slipped and struggled with the wrench while distracted and your Dad immediately swopped in and helped.

“Sorry,” He apologised, “But I wasn’t raised to leave someone who needs help,”  

“Is that why you are still here in case I need you, Officer…” Your Mom questioned, their faces only a few inches apart.

“Reagan, Officer Francis Reagan, but everyone called me Frank,” He stuttered, gulping loudly due to their sudden proximity.

“Nice to meet you, Frank,” She beamed confidently, putting her hand out for him to shake it, “I’m Mary-Margaret Norgaard, but everyone calls me Em,”

“Why?”

“Because both my names start with the letter M,” She shrugged.

“Right,” He nodded, looking away, flustered.

“Are you nervous, Frank?” She whispered into his ear.

“Well, you’re funny…and really pretty,” He confessed, grinning as he started to blush.

“You’re…not too bad…yourself,” She replied, suddenly equally as nervous as he was, taking his hand as he helped back up as they finished up.

She quickly grabbed all her tools and put them in her trunk before looking back at your Dad who was loitering around still. Hands in his pockets with a bashful expression.

“You know Frank,” Your Mom began to announced, “I don’t actually dress like this all the time,”

“No?” He asked, teasingly.

“I’m actually going to a block party, you know? And I was wondering if you aren’t working if you wanted to come with,” She continued.

“With you?”

“Yes, with me,” She chuckled.

“Yes,” He agreed automatically.

“Great,”

“Let me just take the car back and clock off,” He grinned, “I’ll be back in five, just wait here,”

“Is their police station around here?”

“It’s just down the block,”

Staten Island, New York City, New York 1991

“And so we went to the party together and we danced all night and then we spent the next month spending literally every day together. After work or after class but we saw each other every day and have ever since,” Your Mom continued, looking at your Dad fondly as she wrapped up the story and he held her hands in his, pressing a kiss into them.

“I have a question,” Jamie piped up, even raising his hand a little.

“What is it, Babe?” Your Mom asked.

“Why didn’t you just let him help you with the car if you didn’t know how to do it?”

“Because your Grandpa Chris showed me five times how to change a tire because he didn’t want me to depend on anyone,” She explained, “But I like to think it was fate that I didn't listen because if I had I wouldn’t have met your Father,”

“And she’s just stubborn,” Danny added.

“I think she just wanted to keep talking to Dad,” Erin teased.

“Shouldn’t you be painting?” Your Mom accused.

“Guess I struck a nerve,” She muttered under her breath.

“I’ll just say if I didn’t love your Dad as much as I do, we probably wouldn't have made it,” Your Mom admitted.

“What why?” Joe questioned.

“We had to deal with a lot of stuff to be together, to get married, to have you guys.” Your Dad filled in, “But we got through it,”

“Yeah, we did,” Your Mom agreed, enthusiastically.

“Who had a problem with you two?” Danny inquired.

“Let’s just say your Grandpa Chris wasn’t too happy that I dropped out of school to marry and have a baby with a cop,” You Mom breathed, “But that’s a story for another time,”

“But he likes Dad now, right?”

“He absolutely loves you guys,” Your Dad reassured.

“And he likes your Dad, enough,” Your Mom interjected, “Anyway Erin, how long do you think this going to take now?”

“Almost done,”

“I mean anyone who spends more than ten minutes around you two know that you guys are perfect for each other,” Danny stated aloud once again, not to anyone in particular.

“Is that the second compliment he’s given us tonight?” Your Dad asked your Mom teasingly.

“I think so,” Your Mom responded, in an exaggerated whisper.

“And it will be the last time,” Danny added, annoyed.

“But you guys argue all the time though,” Joe reminded.

“We bicker, but we don’t really argue,”

“Okay, you bicker all the time,”

“But isn’t that a good thing?” Your Mom posed to them all, “It would be boring if we agreed about everything,”

“You guys never agree,” Erin added.

“That’s because we are very different people with different upbringings with different opinions but we do pretty well consider, we have been together for almost twenty years,” Your Dad reasoned.

“And it’s all because I got pregnant with Danny,” Your Mom joked which earned her a disapproving look, “I’m kidding, it’s because your Dad is the greatest thing that I’ve ever had,”

“Nice save,” He acknowledged, leaning into her playfully.

“So what was the worst argument you guys ever had?” Erin inquired, peering over the top of her canvas.

“Probably two years ago when we moved to this house,” Your Dad thought out-loud.

“I was this close to divorcing him,”

“No, she was not,” Your Dad reassured, as a flash of panic appeared on all four faces looking at them.

“That was bad,” Danny agreed, “Can’t blame you though, the whole day sucked,”

“You didn’t make any effort to make it better though,” Your Dad pointed out.

“I apologised,” He defended, “Eventually,”

“What happened?” Jamie asked.

“Your Dad and I got into a big argument the day we moved in here because we were trying to unpack and get settled in all while trying to control five kids including a new-born,”

Staten Island, New York City, New York 1989

“And what do you want me to do about it?” Frank questioned, his voice raised ever so slightly higher than usual and his tone…frustrated, his breathing laboured as he felt himself get angrier.

Not that he would show it. As he stared down into his wife’s blazing eyes. He couldn't be angry when looking at her no matter the situation. Mary, couldn't say the same, however…

“Something!” Mary shouted back at him, they were only inches away from each other but she couldn't help herself from doing it, throwing her hands up and looking around the empty kitchen, littered with moving boxes yet to be unpacked for every room seemingly but the kitchen, “I just can’t…do this…right now!”

“What do you mean?” He probed.

“What do I mean? What do I mean,” She repeated bitterly, before exploding, “What I mean is Erin and Danny aren’t talking to anyone because they're so upset, the boys are fighting and Y/N hasn’t stopped screaming since we arrived because I can give her any of my time because I’m dealing with everyone else all while unpacking so we can get settled into this godforsaken house. And the only reason it’s happening is because of…”

“You think this is my fault?” He demanded, taken aback.

“Well it isn’t mine,” She snapped, “I wanted to stay in…”

We discussed this,” He sighed, reaching for her arm to comfort her, “We didn’t have enough space for everyone. This was the best thing to do for us, for everyone. It was the only way we could afford a place big enough.”

“But we were happy there, even if it was small,” She insisted, interrupting quietly, creating a silence, “We were happy there but I don’t know…I don’t know if I…we can be happy here,”

“You haven’t even given it a chance,” He reminded, pained particularly after she shrugged his hand off her in annoyance.

“I don’t need to give it a chance. It isn’t working,” She stated, indigently.

“You just need to calm down a little,”

“Stop it, Frank. Just stop trying to make this work,”

“I don’t think this is about the house,”

“Stop trying to change the subject,” She cut off.

Your Dad’s tone was calm and collected, “Is this about the ba…”

“Shut up,” Your Mom screamed, “Just shut up,” Breathing heavily and walking across the room, “I just can’t do this right now,”

And with that, she walked out of the room and right by your siblings had crowed outside the closed door. You were only four months old at that point and Erin was holding you. As your Mom walked by she took you from Erin with the best smile she could muster.

“Mom, are you okay?”

“I’m just fine, my love,” She smiled, “I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”

And with that, with you in her arms, she walked out of the house with just you, her wallet and her keys in her hands. She didn't come back till later that night. So much later that everyone had gone to bed when she got back. Except, your Dad, who had stayed up.

The look of relief on his face when she walked through the door with you sleeping in her arms, was one utter and pure. He’d been so worried. She went upstairs to put you down before coming back down to face your Dad.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” She said, being the first to break the silence.

“It’s okay,” He reassured.

“No, it’s not. You were worried.” She argued softly, “Your eyes are as red as mine,”

“I’m just glad you’re both back home,” He breathed.

“Because you missed us or because you think I…” She went to say before stopping herself as more tears rolled down her face.

“Both,” He said, as he drew her into his arms.

“I think you might be right,” She sobbed, “I think there is something wrong with me. I just feel wrong. I love her so much but it isn't the same. I get so worried about her all the time. I need to be with her all the time,”

“We’re going to get through this,”

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s us.”

“And that’s enough?”

“It’s been enough so far,”

Your mom cried into your Dad’s chest for a couple minutes as they stood in the middle of the empty kitchen.

“There’s something about Mary Margaret,” Your Dad started to whisper into her ear.

“What are you doing?”  She questioned, knowing exactly the origin of these words.

“I don’t think I will be able to describe what it is but there is something about her,” Your Dad continued without missing a beat, “ when we first met everyone told me the same. ‘There is just something about Mary-Margaret,’ And they were right. There was just something about her. Mary is special and magnetic but also fierce and apologetic. She makes me feel loved unconditionally every single day. She speaks her mind even if it gets her in trouble sometimes. She lives like her herself every day no matter what anyone says or thinks. The bond we share is based on understanding, respect and what I believe to be pure true love. I have no doubt in my mind that I was made for you. I am the luckiest man on earth because I have had the privilege of falling in love with you and spending my life with you. I love you.”

“I love you too,”

Staten Island, New York City, New York 1991

“And that’s why whenever we have a real argument we say our vows from our wedding day to each other,”

“It just puts things in perspective,” Your Dad concurred.

“Mom, I had no idea you were feeling like that,” Erin sympathised.

“That’s because I didn’t want you guys to know. I didn’t want you guys to ever think I didn’t want or love you. Because no matter what I had to give up. All six of you are the best thing to happen to me,”

“Oh Mom,” Jamie let out before running over and hugging her tightly, quickly followed by Joe.

“My boys,” Your Mom chuckled, before going silent, “And look your sisters up,”

“How do you know?”

“You can hear it,” She said as you appeared sleepily on the top of the staircase.

Joe quickly swept you up and brought three years old you down before quickly passing you to your mother.

“How’s my beautiful baby,” Your mom cooed as your Dad leaned over to play with you too.

“And done!” Erin announced.

Your parents with you in your arms quickly went over to finally see their portrait.

“Hey,” Your Mom protested, “That isn't the pose we were doing,”

“I know but I was so inspired that I did this instead,”

“It’s wonderful,” Your Dad complimented, kissing Erin on the cheek.

Your mom looked on in amazement at the portrait as you babbled in her arms. The pose they had been doing was just both of them holding hands, looking right at Erin. But the portrait consisted of them both laughing heartily, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes as if they were the only two people in the whole world.

It was what they looked like every day.

[des-shinta]

So As I’ve been in a state of burnout for a significant sect of the year, I’ve been picking up number of Bandai models to relieve my stress, since building things I find a relaxing endeavor, and they’ve been making me feel better.

(no, most of these were not built this year.  Only 7 of them in the first picture were ‘new’.  The rest are bits and pieces of my older collection I’ve happily been able to unbox and display for the first time in years.  Also: Hi Zoids models that didn’t get enough love during their release tenure!) I’ve actually been building models and Figures for years and years--I started out Heavily as A Lego kid--and since Gundam Wing Aired on Toonami in the late 90′s I’ve infrequently bought bandai’s various models as well, but most of the ones I built back then were...well, demolished by my younger step-brother.   My first ones were low-grade 1/144′s ToysRUs’ Got back in that boom, and they weren’t sturdy at all, thus had no chance to survive.

They’ve since been replaced with all MG’s from that series. Well, except for that 1/100 scale HG Altron that was first released in 1996.  that P-Bandai one is stupid expensive, and Altron’s Endless waltz Redesign is the only one of them I OUTRIGHT hate. It was around 2005-ish when I got into it again, when my parents got me for Christmas the 1/60 perfect Grade RX-78-2.  It took me about Eight hours to build and I did it all in one sitting...but it wasn’t sturdy at all.  It couldn’t even lift its arm if the rifle was in it, it wouldn’t stay up.   All I had it do was just stand there...Menacingly.

So from there on out--with the rare exception--I started to intermittently find and get as Gifts ones from the 1/100 Master Grade line.  THOSE--for the most part depending on what types of hands the figure uses and how well they even hold weapons--have been more my jam despite their 50~ish dollar price point.  Large enough they’re not easily smashed, small enough that they’re pose-able and easy to display, and with enough Complexity in their construction with the various implemented gimmicks to give me an immense feeling of satisfaction to see them done and on Display.  Yeah, there’s a LOT more variety and accessories to be found in the 1/144′s these days--in part thanks to the Gundam Build Fighters series making customization even easier than ever between that scale’s market--but I just don’t get the same thing out of them, despite only about 6 or less MG kits being made a year, with some of them being Shunted off now to Premium Bandai’s services to become stupidly overpriced for what they are and what’s supplied...even though I DO have a few P-bandai ones as well.  Stupid obsession with the Astrays, Tallgeese III, and Form/Equipment change gimmicks...

Hell, I’ve even experimented from time to time with custom Color palletes, with one of the first to get that treatment being the sword Impulse that desperately needed more contrasting colors (also thank aura that bandai’s finally releasing the Blast Impulse MG...even if it IS P-bandai so the display isn’t oddly missing a mech).  I’ve got the MG of the Sengoku Astray still in its box (with a bunch of other Gundam seed Mechs I haven’t build yet ‘cause I adore Gundam Seed’s mecha design and will be using those to unwind between overtime shifts this December)  and when I build it, I’m going to repaint all its red parts yellow to Give the Gundam that kind of resembles Kamen Rider Gaim’s Kachidoki arms the full Kachidoki color treatment.  Think I have Enough spare pieces from wrecked stuff to try building it a Custom Tanigashima “DJ Gun” Rifle to go with it as well.

Also the Gunpla hobby led me to doing the papercrafting thing for cheap-to-make Figurines or accessories or even scale props like the scaled-to-figure Gurren Lagann Giga drill pictured above, which I’ve moved onto doing custom templates for on occasion--

--case in point, the 1:1 scale pepakura Pandora Box--

--And my Gate of Ouroboros Broadsword which was a papercraft template I mapped onto Foam to get it near-damn-perfect...after I made a MK 2 of the original ‘cause the original ended up way too heavy.  I can basically trace a lot of my fun crafting stuff to being inspired by the creativity that goes into this kind of thing, and the work of other crafters and cosplayers, and then seeking to try applying that myself from all my learned habits.

But outside of the expected Gunpla you can find in Hobby stores and...for some reason Barnes and Nobles, which has retained a market throughout that time despite Bandai of America’s Idiocy thanks to bluefin Distributions, I’ve started tracking down some of bandai’s other model offerings.  Specifically, the Figurise standard and Minipla lines.

For those not in the know, Super Minipla’s are basically model kit versions of previously released mecha toys, only with a far smaller scaling from their DX Counterparts which you then build yourself.  They seek to retain all of the originals play gimmicks where possible, but come off a LOT more pose-able by their end than the DX toy bricks. Featured above is the Minipla of the Super Galaxy Mega (Astro Delta Megazord) From Denji Sentai Megaranger/Power Rangers in Space.  and this thing is *PERFECT*.  Despite it being half the size of the DX toy, it retains *EVERY* single play feature the original had (transformation, combination, weapon accessories, the works), but has fully pose-able limbs in every single part of it.  The freaking thing cost me $80 when back in 1998 the DX toy versions cost a total of $60, and yet factor for inflation and the impossibility of re-aquiring the 20-year-old vintage toys and this thing was *SO* worth it to get back my second-favorite sentai/PR Mech.

Hell, it’s not just the DX toys they compete against.  On the Right is the Super Robot Chogokin Gaogaigar with Goldion Hammer, and on the left is the Minipla figure of the same mech and weapon.  Both actually retailed for around the same price points on release, but there’s a more distinct compare and contrast between them. The SRC one has better paint apps, is constructed on a metal frame and has metal parts all over it, has distinct limb joints and proper articulation with a screen-accurate scale structure to it and has some weight to it so isn’t likely to topple over easily.  Frankly of the two...it just looks better in person.  Whereas the super minipla, while not perfectly in scale and doesn’t have the brilliance of the colorization to help it, Retains the transformation and combination gimmicks of the original toys which give it a lot more value to collectors that can’t afford the Full DX figures which bear the same.  Its Joints are also a LOT Tighter so the feet and arms aren’t likely to slip, and while not as good as the SRC, the screen-accuracy is far better than the original Takara-based DX toys or even the later Bandai remakes of them after Bandai bought the rights from Takara.  And with the right hand and hammer being a hell of a lot lighter, when I get this thing on a display stand it’ll be able to do more than just stand with the hammer planted on the ground.

The Figurise standard line instead is a model kit version of an anime/live series action Figure--Mostly limited to Dragonball and Kamen Rider figures right now But Digimon ones for the line are coming soon-- with them ending up in competition with Bandai’s SH Figuarts High-quality-Figure line, albeit with a lower Pricepoint than the SHF since you make it yourself and some of the paint apps are replaced with stickers, and their ease of mass production makes them more available than the SHF’s by comparison. Sorry I don’t have the best picture of the figure on hand, but for those not familiar with the character, it’s the Pink/Neon green/black-colored character that’s surrounded by Gundams (the pic was taken in the midst of a bedbug crisis where we were packing everything up in our apartment so it wouldn’t end up damaged)  The Character is Kamen Rider Ex-aid action gamer Level 2, and up close it’s near indistinguishable from the SHF for the character. And yet...I kind of felt like I got more out of the FRS figure than the sole SHF I have, simply because I put my time into putting it all together.  Yeah, the markings are stickers instead of painted on, but if those fade or start peeling?  I can paint-app it myself.  It has all the details I want, it moves how I want it to, and it came with a great stand for it to be placed in a fantastic jumping pose.    I actually want to find more of those for Kamen Rider Figures from the series I like, as I think it’d be better than dealing with the SHF’s which...well, depending on the figure?  Are notorious for production line issues.  while some models can have loose joints or frail pieces (which can be fixed with an easy application of super glue.  And any other scratches, chips and imperfections?  Yeah, those will be my fault, and won’t result in me feeling as if I got gyped in the purchase.

Sadly though, these figures aren’t exactly created equal.  On a limb I picked up the super minipla Shin getter robo set After My Roommate showed by GR Armageddon and we loved it; and...Eeeehh.  They’re not terrible, but they’re lacking for the expectation I had with the Minipla’s.  I think Kaiyodo’s Revoltech Figure line did better with these guys--out of print as may of those figures are now.  Black Getter 1 (Left) actually does look great with the Ragged cape and gun and razor arm...but the ball joints It, Getter Dragon (center) and Shin getter 1 (right) are constructed with do NOT like to stay together.  I can’t pose them at all without risking them toppling over or falling apart.  I think the Revoltech ones are bigger as well, making for better display pieces than these guys who’d be beaten out by 1/144′s.

hell, this mazinger Z Model was a 1/144, and it’s in scale with the Master grades. ...Mazinger mechs be big. But that brings us to a more recent addition via Tsuburaya and Studio Trigger.

One of the newer Additions to the minipla Line has been the Gridman figures, thanks to the anime series SSSS Gridman putting that franchise back on people’s Radar.  I had Gridman’s toys (when the series was imported and adapted into the series Superhuman samurai Syber Squad) when I was a kid and adored them...

..and sure enough, when I built the Thunder Gridman one, it was like popping back to a little piece of my childhood.  Same play gimmicks to them, and while the scaling is not the same, the engineering is all there to invoke the proper good pieces of nostalgia. To the point it resulted in the best thing about these guys, and It almost didn’t happen. When SSSS Gridman was airing, I ended up enjoying myself so much by its end I jumped at the chance to preorder the DX mecha figures that Good Smile company was releasing.  Unfortunately, the seller turned out to be a con-artist, and never shipped me the figure...though i did get my money back thanks to buyer protection.  I saw vid’s on it, and it looked pretty good...but it was completely out of scale and reasonable relation with the old Gridman Toys.  So when I heard about the Minipla’s going out for a lot less than the DX’s original and jacked-up price points?  I put in an order with someone I knew who was reliable for these...and really, I should’ve done so from the start.

The super Minipla Gridman Figures...are all perfectly in scale with each-other, and share all the same connection ports. I can put the SSSS Gridman Figures into the older Gridman armors.  That’s Primal Fighter Gridman wearing the Thunder Gridman armor (right).  Hell, I can swap the arms of the Gridman figures so the effect components can be put in the older ones as well as they use common components across the board in their construction.  I think in the future I’m going to put PFGridman in the king armor (left) as well, as the SSSS-Gridman figure has slightly Longer legs which would make the King Gridman armor scale better.  Because of this, I ended up a lot happier with these guys that I would likely have been trying in vain to get another decently-priced DX one, or even the Actbuilder release of the SSSSG Stuff that did scale with the minipla’s. So Bottom line?  I really like models, they help me relax, and I’ve been discovering some cool stuff this year that Bandai’s done which I wouldn’t have if I weren’t trying to find a way to vent stress.  Thank you disposable $16+ an hour Income for making such possible.

[prorevenge]

High School English Drama Class

This was way back in High School and that was yeaaars ago. I still remember the story because of the emotional scar that came with it. Not too sure if this is petty or pro but I think I had planned it a little for it to fall under petty. This is pretty long so please stay with me! TLDR at the bottom.

I was a nerd but I went to a HS that was made up of 100% nerds too. We all cared about grades. We weren’t into arts but we did have an English drama class that we took with no exceptions. It wasn’t an elective, it was a requirement for some reason.

For our finals, the teacher separated us into 2 groups to present the same play. We didn’t have assignments or anything for the whole year so she wants us to do a big play. Her words were “impress me!” So our final grade will rely on this presentation plus the attendance the whole year.

The teacher assigned a leader and director for both teams. We were going to be in charge of the whole team. My friend and I were assigned as the leader and director of our respective teams. A note that our class had friend groups too. All my friends were in the other team and I just had acquaintances in this group.

All was fine and dant until we’ve cast the leads for our play. We didn’t have a lot of males in class and we had a lot of male parts in the play. Our group unanimously voted for Shitty Lead Actor (SLA) to be the lead actor. He accepted it. Now onto rehearsals.

We scheduled rehearsals after school in one of our classmate’s house. She lives near the school so we set a time, if class lets out at 4:00pm the rehearsal will start at 6:00 pm. They are expected to get food or go home for change of clothes during that 2 hour time slot.

As a group of 15 members, 6:00 pm doesn’t always mean the start of rehearsals. Most people get there on or before 7:00 pm. That was fine, I understand time is tight and all. But one person got in my nerve so bad. Yes, it was SLA. He was never a few minutes late or an hour late, he was just always LATE. He never came in before 8:00 pm. NEVER. Not once.

Now the problem is that he is a lead actor. So he was ALWAYS in the scene. It was super hard to rehearse a scene when he was not there. So what happened is that the first 2 hours was set for just preparing props and my actors memorizing with me. We start actual rehearsal when SLA comes in about 8:00 pm.

He hasn’t even memorized his lines so we spend another hour memorizing lines and practicing blocking. It was super hard to finish everything within the time allowed because we all need to leave at 10:00 pm to go home.

As you can imagine, I was tired and stressed with him. He was just so hard to deal with. I tried talking to him, pleading and even seriously favours if he just took his role properly. He never budged. I had all but cried to him.

SLA is pretty much the “popular guy” in a school full of nerds so almost everyone in my team is friends with him. He started spreading rumours about me and talking behind my back. He said I was a hard ass, that I had a crush on him (gross) and that they should not come in time for the rehearsals because I was just a waste of time. I was devastated when I found out.

The best part was that SLA embarrassed me in class when we had this activity in religion class. The teacher had us write things about our other classmates anonymously and put them in a bowl of either “Good” or “Bad”. I only had “Bad” written about me all pertaining to my being the leader and director of the play.

The theme of the complaint is that I had a problem with SLA being late to rehearsals. Just imagine HS students writing horrible stuff about their classmates, that was it. They wrote that knowing fully well our teacher was going to read it out loud in front of everyone.

I cried in the bathroom with my friends. It was when I formulated the plan to get back at SLA (and a little to everyone else).

Everyone saw how mad I was. What they had forgotten was that as a leader, I was in charge of grading them.

Now onto a little petty revenge!

That day I scheduled a practice for 5:00 pm instead of 6:00 pm. None of them complained.

After class let out, I came to the other group’s rehearsals instead. As they were all my friends, they let me hang out there for the duration of the time I was hiding out from my group mates.

At about 6:00 pm, my teammates were texting me about where I was. I didn’t answer them.

At about 7:00 pm they were calling me, I didn’t answer.

At 8:00 pm, I arrive at the rehearsals. Everyone was present and working on the props. I assumed they would actually go home but they didn’t ditch that day. A surprise.

Most of them apologized for getting out of hand. I said ok but I didn’t tell them I forgave them. SLA never apologized, ofc.

Because I was obviously mad, SLA wasn’t acting up during rehearsals. I have no idea if he knew he pushed too hard or if he was just bidding his time. The rehearsals went well and that was all I cared about. We had so much done with the 2 hours that night than all the other nights combined.

After what happened, I was not friendly with my group mates anymore. I was cordial but cold, they never said anything about what happened again after some of them apologizing.

SLA started to arrive on time for rehearsals, had his lines memorized and never said anything in front of me again. If he said anything behind my back, I have no fucking idea.

So the day of the play came, we finished. My teacher was happy blah blah blah. This didn’t really mean anything to me besides good grades. Our teacher loved me, she would honestly believe anything I said. She gave us a very high grade.

I feel like my group mates forgot what the finals entail because when my teacher announced the next day that although there was a group grade, their leaders would grade them individually. The group grade would amount to 50% and the solo grade amounts to the other 50%. The look of shock and fear on my group mates’ faces was worth all the harsh words they threw at me. Most of all, SLA.

So I raised my hand and asked our teacher, “Is there a guideline for grading or is it all up to the leader?”

My teacher went all, “All up to you, lovenotsweet!”

I graded them mostly fairly, I took points for being an ass but I wasn’t going to take a hit on all of them. I was reserving that for someone. The props were amazing so they all got high 80s, the lighting and sound were decent so they all got low 80s, and the actors. The female lead had a flat 90. She never stood up for me but she never said anything bad either. She was so-so so her grade was just what she deserved for her acting.

SLA got a whopping 40% on my grading. He never helped on the props, he never arrived in time besides those last few rehearsals and in my view, his acting was sub par. I had computed the highest I can give him while making sure his final grade for this class never reached the passing grade of 75%.

SLA’s grades didn’t even reach 70% even with the high grade we got as a team. He tried complaining to me about the grade but I didn’t entertain him. He tried going to the teacher, but our teacher likes me AND heard about what happened in religion class. We had a small school, news travel fast. Teacher told SLA she was only changing the grade if I agreed. I didn’t agree.

It was for finals so SLA failed that class spectacularly. A blemish into an otherwise clean record. He moved on from it for the next few years of HS.

I just smiled and bid my time.

The pro revenge didn’t come until senior year.

During senior year we all applied to this prestigious university for an entrance exam. It was a super important school so all of us nerds built our High School career in hopes of getting into this school.

SLA didn’t get to take the exam with us because of his English Drama class grade. The University doesn’t take anyone with a grade below 80% and I guess he forgot about that when he got that grade from English Drama class years ago? SLA had to write an essay explaining why he deserves a chance to take the exam even though he had one failing grade. He had to pay an extra fee for the processing.

SLA took the next batch of exam. He did pass the exams tho. He just had to start University a semester later than everyone else in our batch.

Do I regret ruining his life plans by a few months? Sometimes but then I remember the words said about me in class just because I don’t like someone being late and slacking off. I then forget regret.

TLDR; Classmate embarrassed me in class because I was a “hardass leader” that cared too much about being on time and actually doing the work. He gets the grade he deserved and feels the result years later.

(source) (story by lovetoobad)

[vongerstenberg]

Pokémon Yellow: Pikachu ONLY Challenge!

Growing up, Pokémon was just getting hot while I was in 5th grade. I watched the Saturday morning cartoon, played the CCG with my bro, and faced off on Game Boy against friends. Often mocked as being a "kiddie" franchise, I could have cared less and could still care less. Fun game, solid entry level RPG all things considered. Being able to run a Game Boy Advanced emulator on my phone has afforded me the time to squeeze in a revisit of Pokémon: Yellow Edition in my free time (Which currently comes at a premium with a 5 month old around! :D) What's not to love? You get Pikachu right off the bat, he follows you around the game, you can check in on his mood, and get to play through the story more like the way the cartoon played out.

To make this more challenging on myself since at this point the straight up gameplay is all I care to do (the side quest of collecting 150 digital animals has minimal appeal to me at this stage of my gaming "career"), I am going through the game only using my initial Pokémon to do any/all fighting. If he is knocked out in a fight, I reset, reload, and try again. I decided that Pikachu, being my champion, needed an appropriate nickname. I settled on "Mouse Lord". I will of course be picking up a handful of other Pokémon along the way so I have a means to use the HMs Cut, Fly, Surf, and Strength. These are essential for progressing through the game and can't be learned by Mouse Lord.

Pallet Town & Viridian City

The start of the game is pretty ho-hum. I named my nemesis "Fart". He heckles you throughout the game, so he deserves the name of a lowly troll. Fart seemed appropriate. The first two fights against Fart weren't too rough. A potion was needed on the first one for some HP insurance, but by the time I faced him again I could hold my own just fine.

Pewter City

The fight in the Pewter City Gym against Brock is one of the two actually challenging gym battles in this entire self challenge. Having all Rock/Ground types, I had to tail whip 2 to 3 times before Quick Attack could do any significant damage. Coupled with a healthy stock pile of potions, I was able to clean house and win. Only took one attempt.

Once I found the TM for the move "Body Slam", I swapped that with "Quick Attack". Body Slam has a high accuracy and relatively high damage rating. The PP of 15 was not preferred  but not a deal breaker. This gave me the ability to do some damage to enemies that Electric type attacks don't work on. The most time laborious part of only using one Pokémon that only has one normal type attack is running back to Poké Centers all the time to recharge PP. More time consuming than actually "challenging".

Mt. Moon

Strolled into the first cave of the game at level 22, which was more than sufficient against the early game Pokémon. Every RPG has caves, and every cave in every RPG generally sucks. Caves usually take you to where you need to go or give you a nice reward for grinding through. This cave provides passage to Cerulean City and the next Gym. Encounters with Geodude and Onix were pretty common, but I could run away from wild fights. Trainer fights I wasn't willing to gloss over. Lots of Ground and Rock Type battles meant lots of returning topside on foot to the Poké Center to recharge PP. Body Slam came in handy hear in combo again with Tail Whip to lower opponent's defenses, but only having 15 PP in Body Slam didn't get me through nearly enough battles. I found an Ether hidden under a rock which allowed me to restore some PP to Body Slam, but I ultimately JUST cleared the cave finishing the final mandatory battle with Team Rocket depleting the last of the PP in both Thundershock and Body Slam. Kind of a big deal because exhausting those skills mid battle would have meant starting over from my last save. I attribute all of the one hit KOs in my final battle to the Helix Fossil. It led me to victory.

Cerulean City

Misty had nothing to offer up against Mouse Lord's lightning fury! The trainer battle just before Misty, Mouse Lord learned Thunderbolt which assured one hit KOs on both of Misty's Pokémon. Next!

Vermilion City

A quick run down to the S.S. Anne to rub the Sea Captain's back and be given HM 01, "Cut"... Which I could not graciously accept because my inventory was full. Thanks to newer versions of Pokémon, I had completely forgotten how limited my inventory was in this early edition of the game. I went on a TM tossing tear in the Captain's cabin. Once given HM 01, I taught it to an aptly named Bulbasaur named "Cutman" I was gifted by an NPC. The Vermilion City gym although obnoxious with the trip switch puzzle, wasn't challenging at all. Another case of Tail Whips combined with Body Slams on trainers and a one hit on LT. Surge. Upon leaving the gym I was gifted a Squirtle by a sad sack of an NPC which gave me an effort free Pokémon to teach Surf to later on.

Rock Tunnel

I didn't waste time getting the HM "Flash", let alone teaching it to Mouse Lord. The side quest needed to earn Flash required catching some quantity of Pokémon. Wasn't worth it. I just went in and felt around in the dark for awhile till I found my way out. I had a healthy supply of escape ropes just in case. I accidentally rubbed up against a few trainers and ran from all wild encounters.

Celadon Gym

Pulped the mass of plant Pokémon with Body Slam in this Gym. Chump Gym. Mouse Lord leveled in the high 40s at this point. I have been making sure I hit the vast majority of the trainer battles along the way to maximize XP gained. So far, the XP gained has been overkill for using just the one Pokémon. Pikachu is a glass cannon to begin with, but my opponents seldom get a chance to land a blow. At this point, I'm starting to feel like the "Gotta catch 'em all!" mind set has no place in this game.

Team Rocket Hideout & Pokemon Tower

The little arrows that make you slowly spin across the floor in Team Rocket's Hideout, easily the most obnoxious "challenge" so far in this run.. Boss battles were no problem here, still clipping along with minimal resistance. Giovanni, easy peasy. At this point Mouse Lord was leveling in the low 50s. 

The Pokémon Tower was not too bad, but getting nailed with confusion every few trainer battles wore my patience down quickly. Not being able to swap to a "sane" fighter made the tower take far longer than it should have. I didn't want to run from the chance to pick up some more XP though, so I put my head down and powered through. Did this a bit out of order.. had to return after completing the fight in the Silph Co. tower with the Silph Scope to actually "complete" the tower. Whoops.

Silph Co. & Saffron City Gym

Teleported to every room on every floor of the Silph Co. Tower to make sure I cleared all trainer battles. I had to make a few trips to the Poké Center to recharge PP and HP. Team Rocket and Giovanni were once again a cake walk. Nothing of any interest to report really. At this point, the Pikachu only challenge is turning into kind of a grind. Starting to feel a little bit like I'm playing Diablo minus the hope for fun and exciting drops.

Fighting Dojo in Saffron also a non event. Completed all fights in the Dojo for XP and for a Pokemon I could eventually teach strength to. Picked the Hitmonlee and named him "Toejam" for funsies.

Saffron Gym wasn't too rough, but wasn't completely forgiving. Confusion got in my way again here, wasn't able to always one hit in all of the bouts. Needed to make one trip out to heal, which took over 5 minutes to remember the teleporter pattern (Also, running the emulator at accelerated speed caused me to fumble more than anything else. Being stubborn  I refused to slow the emulator down and just kept going onto the wrong teleporter pad.). This, honestly, kicked my butt more than the floor arrows that make you slowly spin across the floor..

Fuchsia City

Finally cashed in my bike voucher out of necessity. The bike path was the one place I didn't fight many of the trainers. I've been playing with accelerated emulation so I could get through the game faster than normal. A replay of an RPG really requires accelerated emulation for the grinds. I flew down the path so fast, redirecting wasn't really an option. I went with the flow rather than fighting the current.

Koga wasn't a problem at all. At this point I was around level 60. Everything is still turning up Mouse Lord. Safari Zone I ran from everything and went straight for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Seafoam Islands

I tried to catch the Articuno that was hiding in the cave here so I could have a luxury pokemon to fly on. At level 65, I couldn't delicately damage it enough to capture it. I knocked it out, took the 1500 some points in XP, and went on my way. The only thing legendary about this Pokémon was the whooping it received from Mouse Lord.

I wound up using a master ball on a spearow eventually just so I had something to teach fly to. Didn't really need fly at this point because without doing side challenges and just playing the game straight up, it can be rather linear. I did however want a means to fly back to the prime shops Celadon to stock up on choice combat items.

Cinnabar Island

At this point, Mouse Lord was leveling in at just almost 70. Waltzed through the Pokemon Mansion for the Secret Key, then on to the Gym. Blaine wasn't too bad, he did manage to get some hits in but I didn't need to reach for a potion at all. Going in I did skip the trainer fights and answer the quiz questions for funsies. I got them all right of course. I am for reals, a Pokémon Master.

Viridian City & Power Plant

I went straight to the gym thinking it would continue to be a cake walk, I couldn't have been more wrong! Finally, a true challenge! Giovanni actually brought his "A" game to a brawl for the first time this entire game. Giovanni's Nidoqueen, Nidoking, and Rhydon DESTROYED me. Being ground types, I had to rely on Body Slam. Every attack from these three was Earthquake, which forced me to heal. I had to leave, level up a bit, and try again. Still, the best I could do was make it to the Rhydon.

Rhydon would use earth quake and take me down to 20 HP, I would use a Hyper Potion, and repeat. I figured, he will run out of PP, I'll wait out the storm and go on the offensive.  Fun Fact: Somehow he doesn't run out of PP for Earthquake EVER. 

I flew over to the power plant to clear it out and level some more. I thought I could capture the Zappdos to have as a super cool ride, but no dice. I took the XP and carried on again.. I flew on my Spearrow (weak @$$ ride) to celadon city to stock up on some defense X. When I went back to Viridian, I used my stat pumping items while fighting the Dugtrio in round one then healed up and carried on. This plus the extra levels (now level 78) allowed me to hold my own and win like a boss.

Victory Road & The Final Four!

Another bland encounter with my rival Fart begins the final chapter of this Pikachu only challenge. This guy is a total turd. I'm always happy to slap him around. The path down victory road was not particularly challenging. I ran from the wild encounters to preserve PP, and wound up using an escape rope once to recover PP at a Poké Center. I didn't want to waste the Max Ethers I had on hand just in case I needed them on the Final Four.

In the caves of victory road I encountered a Moltres, the last of the three legendary birds. At this point, I was mostly over trying to catch one for the sake of having a Cadillac of all flying Pokémon to ride on the back of. Instead, I ripped him to pieces with Mouse Lords unwavering rage.

The trickiest part of the Final Four was the necessity of having two Max Ethers on hand. I needed to rebuff both Body Slam and Thunderbolt after the first three battles. Since you fight 5 battles back to back with a total of 26 Pokémon of mixed types back to back, running out of PP using only a single Pokémon is the hardest part. There is nothing amazing to comment on from the fights because they were relatively lackluster. I beat the final portion of the game over a five minutes span while standing in my kitchen talking to my wife. As I was watching the credits scroll, she wandered over and looks at my phone, then looks at me "You were playing Pokémon while we were talking?". I proudly say "Yes." The last battles were so uneventful, that I was able to hold a discussion while owning. The sign of a true pro.

The final battle with Fart was an absolute non event. The real take away from all of this is that the game is completely doable with only a single Pokémon used to fight all battles. The trainer battles alone give you the XP you need to level up that one Pokémon into a power house, a force to be reckoned with. The core game doesn't necessitate the capturing of all possible Pokémon, it's largely just franchise immersion.

That being said, I still had a blast playing through the game! Brought me back to the days when the franchise was first breaking out and was all the rage. Epilogue: Mewtwo

Having crushed all opposition, I went up against the only truly worthy opponent in the game: Mewtwo. Quite a bit of back and forth in this fight! Every time Mewtwo was able to get off a powerful psychic attack, I was left reaching for Hyper Potions. We had around 7 rounds of combat and I ultimately prevailed, but definitely had a few close calls. With no opponents left to challenge me, this run is as complete as it can be.

[giantpredatorymollusk]

This is a story about farming. It is quite long. I think it may be worth reading anyway, but unfortunately I have no way to prove it. I’ve also tried my best but I still don’t know if it actually makes perfect sense in every way? But it did all actually happen; so it all kind of has to make at least a little bit of sense, even if doesn’t really seem like it.

The trouble all started in 1901, when my great great grandfather emigrated to the United States from the modern-day Czech Republic and later, in 1911, bought a 90-acre farm there. Many years later, most of that farm came to belong to my grandfather, and roughly 10 years back he retired from his job selling tires at the tire store and started making the 40 mile drive north to the farm to spend his summer days there and plant a garden (in the area that wasn’t already rented out to be planted with soybeans.) Not long after that, he had enough produce to start selling stuff at a nearby farmers’ market in an upscale town, physically not far from the farm, although psychogeographically immensely distant from that chunk of desolate, isolated, fairly representative rural Ohio.

I was dragged in in the summer of 2015, from the end of June to the beginning of July, mostly pounding stakes into the ground so that the roughly 1000-1500 tomato plants that my grandfather had planted that year (with occasional help from my grandmother and uncle) could be tied up between them and the fruit wouldn’t lay on the ground and rot easily. I hated it there (in fairness, I probably would’ve hated anything that involved leaving the house during that time in my life) and when my dad got me out of it (by hiring me to help him paint a house) I quickly divested myself of the money I’d received there to wash my hands of the place and resolved never to go back. My dad was never in favor of me going to the farm, knowing as he did that the work could be dangerous (operating old, large, and unreliable tractors and backhoe with minimal training or safety precautions; running large, dangerous power saws in creative ways without the proper guards, gear, or safety precautions, mostly to put points on stakes; operating saws in an unsafe manner while standing in the raised bucket of the old and unreliable backhoe in order to trim trees; etc) and probably also suspected that I personally (especially then) was fairly vulnerable to being psychologically manipulated into performing difficult tasks that I was unhappy doing over a long period of time while being underpaid under some circumstances. Hmm.

I returned to the farm for the entirety of the summer of 2016. After barely surviving/graduating my senior year of high school that year I had given up on life and settled pretty quickly back into the routine of the daily back-and-forth farm trips. It is true that I was getting paid; it was also true that I was being challenged and learning things, mostly the basics of planting vegetables, like which plants were cold-season crops and which were warm-season and how far apart to space the transplants, and how a PTO works on a tractor; and it’s certainly a fact that on a personal level, I was still completely taken in by my grandfather’s wit and farm wisdom and overpowering managerial confidence. I made myself completely subordinate to him, and blamed myself when his ideas for what we should be doing next were completely obvious to him but rather opaque to me; I remember it frequently happening that he would tell me what to do and I would reflexively go off to do it, and then realize I was unclear on what he meant and have to timidly re-approach him for further instructions. This kind of slowed down the learning process. Much later I would also realize how superficial his constant confidence could be, and how it was often less the natural attitude of someone who knew what they were doing and more a tool he used to impress people into doing things without thinking too much about any of the potential alternatives. Also, according to my admittedly fallible memories, I was getting paid $35 per day for what were generally between 7 and 8 hour days. I was, in fact, 18 years old that year and probably could have gotten a different job that for one thing paid a better hourly wage and for another left me less reliant on the caprices of my family; but this was neither a thing that happened nor a thing that was expected from me, least of all by me. My internal world hadn’t expanded as I’d grown older; my universe of possibilities was limited to the things that were already present in my somewhat simple life. This was probably symptomatic of some larger problem or problems with the functionality of my brain at that point in my life.

One can become trapped in many different ways. You can be trapped in a specific city, or a zip code, or in a geographic region sorely lacking in cities, or one which they are considered entirely strange and outlandish things; in a job, in a career, in a lifestyle, or in a set of lifestyles considered realistic given your high school grades, ability to connect with others, and standing in society and life; in a friend group, or in an identity, or in a lack thereof, or in any number of the various rules and regulations that govern how one is allowed to interact with the rest of the human race; in a comedy, a tragedy, a pastoral narrative, or in any combination of the above kinds of story that one no longer wishes to be part of. For all I know, thanks to the stereotypical farm benefits of character building, meaningful work experiencing, and nature connecting-with, working at the farm for that year may have actually been good for me; nevertheless, I wish that it had been my last full summer there. I had showed up, learned some stuff, earned a small amount of money, and, in retrospect experienced at least the majority of what this particular 90 acre area of the planet had had to offer. Alas.

2017! This year, we had a pretty consistent schedule that I can remember clearly to this day: we left at 9:30 AM, when my grandfather would pull into my driveway and blow his horn, and got back between 7 and 8 o’clock at night. Built into that schedule is a one hour commute each way (we both lived about 40 miles away from the farm, which was actually inhabited by my uncle, who was often around and occasionally helped with the work but frequently made fairly abrasive and critical comments (if often correct) comments about it (for example, about the fact that our work day started so late in the morning)) and a daily grocery store stop for drinks for the cooler. I was the driver (once my grandfather’s problems with what I suspect is undiagnosed narcolepsy had almost killed us a couple of times) which you would think give me control over the stereo, but I quickly learned that my grandfather had pretty specific taste in music (country from the 50s and 60s) and a temperament unsuited to most podcasts. Obviously, most of that time in the daily schedule was taken up by the work day (so generally either planting tomatoes (which gets a little less rewarding after about the 500th one, which that year only put us at about a quarter of the way through the tomato plants, not counting the hundreds of eggplant, cabbage, and zucchini plants or the miscellaneous corn, squash, and beans), pounding stakes and tying string for the tomatoes, or harvesting tomatoes) which lay at the end of the lonely highway on a lonely work site at which the same 2-4 people showed up every day. (It became four people once you counted my younger brother, who came up to the farm that year until the start of marching band season got him out of it, and who fortunately made it his main job to get everyone to pack up and leave promptly at the end of the day. Once he stopped showing up, and even though I persuaded my grandfather to move the schedule up an hour so that we could get home earlier, we never left as consistently as we did when he was there; I didn’t have the stamina to find my grandfather (who didn’t carry a phone or a watch) and tell him what time it was at the end of the day every single day so that he could start to think about leaving.) I was being paid $40 a day, with a $20 bonus for market days once they started, which with our theoretically 35-hour work week ends up being about $6.29 an hour? Huh. In addition to the extra $20, the market season was nice because picking stuff is less tiring and more rewarding than planting stuff, and because I got to see way more people every day in the form of our market customers, even if I was interacting with them mainly through the intermediary of my grandfather.

Another nice thing is that this is the first year I have a decent photo album for! I started experimenting with old 35mm film cameras in late June and by early July I had my first interchangeable-lens digital camera, which I relied upon to keep my brain alive for large parts of the summer. I have… a lot of pictures from this season.

Finally, at the end of the year, I ended up in college. Any criticisms of my grandfather that I might offer up here have to be tempered by the fact that he did in fact drive me to the local (relatively) cheap higher-education dispenser and basically registered me for me (technically, I applied but there’s a 100% acceptance rate.) This was something I desperately wanted to do but was unable to make happen by myself. I won’t say that my grandfather every really understood the problems I went through while experiencing formal education, but as perhaps the member of my family least comfortable himself with the concept and culture of higher education, he was the most willing to notice and accept that I needed help getting started with it.

However, I did do quite badly that semester (I started out enrolled in 4.5 classes and ended enrolled in 2, with a C average) and going to the farm to work 4 days a week still (after morning classes and also on Saturday) did not help that except in that it provided a convenient distraction from it; an opportunity for me to distract myself from my frustrations by wearing myself out.

Why did I come back to the farm for 2018? I wasn’t happy there in 2017, I have the journal entries to prove it. Reasons: it was the path of least resistance, it was something I was more already familiar with than any other job, and my grandfather remained a very difficult person for me to say no to. (Also, he asked me (and my brother) to commit in midwinter, when it still seemed non-threatening and pretty far away.) The schedule was pretty much the same as I described for last year except that for some reason we went up 6 days a week as often as 5 (weather permitting.) My brother went up with us for the same period of time as he had previously, but was even more ornery this year than he was the last, which was an accomplishment; this didn’t stop me from being grateful for his presence. Mostly, I recruited him to work on whatever I was working on during the day, whenever I had a specific project: like building a fence around the second patch, or digging drainage ditches on the lawn, or moving the rainwater collection tank trailer to water stuff before Grandpa could realize that something that he didn’t plan for us was happening. My uncle became extremely fond of complaining that we were getting less done working on the same thing together than we might have working on different things far apart; this may have been true, but I was unwilling to test the theory.

As I implied above, I had a lot more freedom this year to pick projects that I thought needed to be done instead of following instructions all day, as long as I could seem confident about it under scrutiny later. I responded in two ways: I started wearing earbuds and listened to music and occasionally podcasts for most of the day, which was great except that it ruined earbuds and made me feel slightly spacey like I wasn’t even physically there sometimes, given that it was the main input that was actually making it to my brain, and I gave myself three new jobs. The first was to pick, display, and sell produce at a roadside stand that I set up back home (ideally without attracting too much attention from my uncle, who was doing the same thing); the second was to start picking for and selling at a new weekday farmers’ market; and the third was to fix an old dump truck that had been sitting in the back barn for the better part of the decade with a broken brake line, with the help of my dad, who came up to the farm a few days to show me what to actually do. The stand was very successful but 20% went to my mom for stocking it during the day and another 20% went to my grandfather for owning the farm; the new farmers’ market only required me to pay off my grandfather but had too many vendors for the customer base and was generally very slow; and the truck project was a huge disaster that consumed countless hours and brain cells: one brake line burst after another, we ended up having to remove and replace the two brake cylinders in each of the back wheels (which necessitated jacking the 12.5 ton vehicle up and removing both rear wheels and axles), the wiring for the lights was fucked from a previous botched repair job by a person or persons unknown, the bed needed to be attacked with the farm’s one working boom truck to get it to even move, and even after it was going up and down smoothly the hydraulic pump was occasionally leaking fluid, which I was neither qualified for or willing to try to fix; then, during the first test drive with a potential buyer, the radiator apparently exploded, and he convinced my grandfather to sell it to him for $1000, which was split between him, me, and my dad and uncle for helping (more or less.) I eventually calculated that with those three extra projects in addition to my regular salary (up $5 a day but without the weekly bonus, resulting in a net raise of $5 a week) I nearly made minimum wage working there that summer. (Hey, if Quinn is going to read this, I should probably note that minimum wage in Ohio was $8.15 an hour, at least when I wrote this, it’s up to $8.55 an hour now.)

Also, after going on three years of the whole “pull into Mitch’s driveway and blow the horn for a while” routine, the horn on my grandfather’s F-150 finally gave out and he locked the keys in my car while climbing inside of it to use its. (He did admit to this but also told me that I should never have left the keys inside of a car with “automatic locks.”) I had a much better spring semester this year, but it still wasn’t made easier by my 28 hours a week at the farm (plus the commute) right up until October 25th, when I finally quit.

Performance review:

Another part of my feelings about the farm that I have to mention is that the whole time I was there, I was pretty well aware that it was not nearly as productive as it should have been. One large part of this was just flawed soil management practices; by the time I got there, my grandfather had been planting mostly the same plants in mostly exactly the same spots for nearly 10 years, which is absolutely not how any of that is ever supposed to work. He sent soil samples away for analysis, got back reports prescribing long lists of fertilizers to be applied in massive quantities to help production, and then went back to using what he was planning on putting down anyway (mostly starting fertilizer (which we dragged around in 5 gallon buckets for the entire planting season), calcium spray to try to prevent previous years’ blossom end rot epidemics, and some poorly labeled sacks of miscellaneous stuff that he had gotten at a farm auction and that had been taking up space in a barn for years.) My grandfather’s managerial attitude was that all ideas were suspect unless they occurred to him first, which meant it sometimes required some stamina to get certain things done; he would ride up on the lawn mower and stare at you suspiciously if he wasn’t sure of exactly what you were doing.

Like this.

(Of course, the farm was not really run with the purpose of maximizing production, anyway. My grandfather kept it going year after year initially because he was retired, and wanted something to take up his time, and because he wanted to turn himself into a farmer; later, he got the idea that he was going to turn me into one.)

The other main obstacle to growth was the fact that we were surrounded by 80 acres of soybean fields that were at a slightly higher elevation than our plants, which meant that 2 inches of rainfall was more than enough to flood the place. This is not actually a good thing for any plant’s growth (except for cucumbers, and I guess sometimes zucchini.) I ended up (with my brother) digging hundreds of feet of drainage ditches in 2018 to try to combat this. Like, with a shovel. We had a trencher, but its hydraulic pump leaked fluid like a sieve, which had prevented it from being used for years, kind of like that dump truck I mentioned fixing earlier. Other broken down equipment included two boom trucks (one of which was specifically designed just to lay railroad ties), two full-size tractors (an Oliver and a Farm-All), a handful of mechanical tractor attachments that lay scattered throughout the barn-adjacent grass, a smallish red Troy-Bilt riding lawn mower, and a 1963 Buick Riviera.

On a personal level, going to the farm every day felt like dying? It was long hours of difficult, tedious, low-paid work in a desolate and isolated location. It was sort of like a sensory deprivation chamber, but for thoughts and feelings instead of for senses. On one hand, I regret every single miserable second of it, and hope to never see the place again for as long as I somehow manage to live (sadly unlikely); on the other hand, I do think it made me more appreciative of the moments when I do feel like I’m alive in the world, even when they’re not exactly easy ones. I have more enthusiasm for certain types of fear now, like driving to a strange and distant city to see a band play by myself, actually talking to the host in the AirBNB there, and descending into a strange subway system without really knowing how I’m going to get anywhere I’m trying to go from there; or signing up for classes for next semester without knowing exactly what they’ll be like, and talking to the strange person sitting next to me, or even just emailing the professor to ask for an explanation of an assignment that I don’t understand. It reminds me that I’m not as trapped anymore.

This contradicts what I want to be true, which is that the farm was just a background event in my life, instead of something that defined it for all of those years. The things that I was doing in the background of this, the story about farming, were the things I now realize were actually important to me at the time: taking those pictures, going back to school, the music I was listening to while I was out in the field, pounding in tomato stakes… I was also re-learning the piano in the evenings when I still had the energy. Unfortunately, the farm did define that part of my life to a large extent because of the way it served as an obstacle to me pursuing those things. The thing is, I wasn’t really trapped there, in any real physical or consequential sense; the farm took over my life because I was unable to recognize and act on the fact that I did have access to real sources of happiness.

Also, I guess the whole time I was technically committing tax evasion?

Anyway, whenever I see one of those posts about how nice it would be just to leave society and go live on a farm or something, this is what I’m thinking of.

[raystart]

The Lean LaunchPad Class: It’s the same, but different

It’s the same, but different

We just finished the 8th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The team presentations are at the end of this post.

It’s hard to imagine, but only a decade ago, the capstone entrepreneurship class in most universities was how to write – or pitch- a business plan. As a serial entrepreneur turned educator, this didn’t make sense to me. In my experience, I saw that most business plans don’t survive first contact with customers.

So in 2011, with support from the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (the entrepreneurship center in the Stanford Engineering School), we created a new capstone entrepreneurship class – the Lean LaunchPad. The class was unique in that it was 1) team-based, 2) experiential, 3) lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering). This new class aimed to mimic the uncertainty all startups face as they search for a business model while imparting an understanding of all the components of a business model, not just how to give a pitch or a demo.

(It’s worth reading the blog post that became the manifesto of the class here as well as what we learned when we first taught it- here.)

Ninety days after we first offered this class at Stanford, the National Science Foundation adopted the class calling it the NSF I-Corps (the Innovation Corps) to train our country’s top scientists how to commercialize their inventions. I-Corps is now offered in 88 universities. The National Institute of Health teaches its version in the National Cancer Institute. (I-Corps @ NIH). (The NIST report on Unleashing Innovation recommended expanding I-Corps and the House just passed the Innovators to Entrepreneurs Act to do just that.) The Lean LaunchPad/I-Corps syllabus is the basis for a series of Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship classes; Hacking for Diplomacy, Defense, Energy, Oceans, non-profits and cities.

If you had dropped by in 2011, the first time I taught the class, and then stuck your head in today, you’d say it was the same class. The syllabus is almost identical, the teams still get out of the building to do customer discovery every week, then come back to class and present what they learned weekly, etc.

But while it’s the same, it’s different.

After thousands of students taking this class, here are a few ways the class has changed.

—-

A Great Class Endures Beyond Its Author I’ve always believed that great classes continue to thrive after the original teachers have moved on. While I created the Lean LaunchPad methodology and pedagogy (how to teach the class) and the train-the-trainer course for the NSF I-Corps, the sheer scale and success of the class is due to the efforts of the 100’s of National Science Foundation instructors and the NSF. And while I created the original course, the Stanford class is now led by Jeff Epstein and Steve Weinstein.

To be honest, as I watch other instructors now run these classes, I feel a proud “passing of the torch” though touched by moments of King Lear and Kurosawa’s Ran. Way past my ad hoc activities, the Stanford teaching team has thoroughly professionalized the class.

Expanded Teaching Team In addition to the lead instructors, the Stanford teaching team now includes George John, Mar Hershenson, and Tom Bedecarre, all generously volunteering their time. Each of them brings decades of industry experience to the class. This type of teaching firepower and headcount was necessary as the teaching team expanded the class size to meet student demand.

Class Size For the first few National Science Foundation classes, we taught 24 teams at a time with three instructors. We did it by breaking the class into three separate sections, having all teams together for our lectures and separating into sections of eight teams each when the teams presented. (After painful trial and error, we had discovered that the teaching team could listen to 8 teams present before our brains melted down.)

At Stanford we limited the class to 8 teams – four students per team. However, this year, the class was so oversubscribed, and the quality of the teams applying was so high, the teaching team admitted 14 teams and reverted to the original NSF model of separating into sections. The additional teaching team members made it possible.

Class Velocity/Depth When we started this class, the concept of Lean (business models, customer development, agile, pivots, mvp’s) was new to everyone. Now they’re common buzzwords, and most of the students come in with an understanding of Lean. This head start has allowed the teaching team to accelerate the velocity and depth of learnings past the basics.

Women In past years, the student teams in the Stanford classes were weighted toward men, reflecting the makeup of the applicants. While Ann Miura-Ko was part of the original teaching team, having all male instructors for the last five years didn’t help. After Mar Hershenson joined the teaching team last year, she made an all-out effort to recruit women to apply. A role model as a successful CEO and VC, Mar successfully sparked interest in women students and sponsored women-only lunch sessions, mixers and meetings to introduce them to the class. As you’ll notice from the presentations below, the result was that this year 50% of the applicants and accepted teams were women.

The lessons for me were: 1) the class had been unintentionally signaling a “boys-only” environment, 2) these unconscious biases were easily dismissed by assuming that the class makeup simply reflected the applicant pipeline, and 3) when in fact it required active outreach by a woman to change that perception and bring more women into the pipeline and subsequent teams.

Product/Market Fit Versus The Business Model Canvas My original vision for the class was to use the business model canvas as a framework to teach engineering students all the nine elements of the business model: customer, distribution channel, revenue, get/keep/grow, value proposition, activities, resources, partners and costs. And instead of the traditional income statement, balance sheet and cash flow, discover the key “metrics that matter” for their business model.

While students want to spend their time focusing on product/market fit (who’s the customer and what should we build for them) and building product-centric minimum viable products, I thought that Y-Combinator and other accelerators already did an excellent job of that. My goal was to use the canvas to expose engineering students to other essential aspects of a successful business they may be less familiar with (sales, marketing, finance, operations.)

Admittedly this was tough to do, because in one quarter teams haven’t yet found product/market fit and are loath to move off it until they do. But since my goal was to teach a methodology rather than to run an accelerator, I traded off time on product/market fit for exposure to the rest of the canvas.

If we were designing a curriculum rather than just a single class, we’d offer it as two semesters/quarters – the first searching for problem/solution and product/market fit, and the second half focusing on the rest of the canvas testing feasibility and viability.

As you look at this year’s presentations, you can see the presentations still tend to focus on product/market fit. Obviously, there is no right answer to what and how to teach, and the answer may change over time.

TAs/ Diagnostics/Mentors Our Teaching Assistants keep all the moving parts of the class running. Each years TAs have continued to make the class better (although I must admit it was interesting to watch the TAs remove any uncertainty from what students need to do week-to-week, as I had designed a level of uncertainty into the class to mimic what a real-world startup would feel like.) The teaching team and TA’s have added an enormous number of useful diagnostics to measure student reactions to each part of the pedagogy and the overall value of the class. However, the real art of teaching is to remember that the class wasn’t designed by a focus group.

Finally, the mentors (unpaid industry advisors) who volunteer their time have been professionalized and managed by Tom Bedecarre. Each mentor’s contribution gets graded by the students in the team they coached.

Things That Needed Constant Reminders Every time we slipped up and admitted an all engineering or all MBA team we were reminded by their struggles that successful teams need to be diverse – that they include both innovators and entrepreneurs (typically engineers and MBA’s.)

The same holds true for pushing the students. Every time we slacked off relentlessly direct feedback we saw a commensurate drop in the quality of the teams output.

The Teams In the end, this class is not only about what the instructors try to teach the students but also about whether students processed what we intended for them to learn. Over time, two of our major insights were: 1) teams needed a week to process all they learned, and 2) we needed to teach them how to turn that learning into a story of their journey.

This year all our teams accomplished that and much, much more.

And after 9 years of classes, students still find that this class is the closest thing to being in a real startup.

Take a look at their presentations below.

AgAI

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

BeaconsAI

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

Equify

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

Equipped

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

HardHats

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

Lemnos

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

NanoSense

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

Neuro

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

NeuroDiversity Nerds

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

  Praxis

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

Promote.It

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

RightFoot

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

Topt

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

Wanderwell

If you can’t see the presentation click here

If you can’t see the video click here

[yeastofeden]

Hello! Your Traitor Uraraka theory was an amazing read! I want to dive into the world of character/story/literary analysis too, but I dont know where or how to start... Any advice/tips you could share?

Thanks so much! I’m honestly flattered you would ask… I’m ahobby writer so a lot of what I know about analysis is what I learnedin grade school, on my own, or adapted from what I know about artcriticism & analysis….. Since you’re not sure on the start,I’ll just talk about all the core things I feel helped me getinterested in this.

Read If I had torecommend anything specificfor reading, I’d say lookinto classic literature – not because its “critically acclaimed,”but because a lot of the time classic literature has been analyzed byprofessionals in their fields, so it can be a nice way to see howother people handle character interpretation, storytelling, worldbuilding, and so on. I liked Shakespeare a lot, and you probablywouldn’t be surprised to hear that people analyze the shit out ofShakespeare. I probably picked up the most of my understanding ofcharacter analysis from indulging in Shakespeare alone.

Don’t like Shakespeare? I’d say look into stories that are just over 50 years old; Lord ofthe Rings, Catcher in the Rye, Pride & Prejudice, Lord of theFlies…. So long as you can find actual scholars analyzing it,you’re golden. Read things you enjoy; if you like anime and only care about that…maybe check out textbooks on classic anime.

Alongwith looking up how others analyze, start being critical with all themedia you consume. Movies are a great way to do this because it’sshort format and easyconcumption. You can stayfocused on critical thinking for a couple of hours while enjoyingsomething–I also think movie reviews are a good way to experiencecritical analysis. And don’t just watch good movies… watch badones too, and figure out why they’re bad.

WriteActuallywrite. Take all the interesting things you learned and apply it tosomething. Don’t just think about it; the tragedy about onlythinking is that nothing really solidifies like it does once youfinally put it out there. Talkto friends about it if you can drag them into aconversation;a lot of my analysis started out because I was talking with otherpeople. If you don’t have anyone to talk to about a series or don’twant to bother people with your miscellaneous thoughts, get a sidetumblr or a dreamwidth and just write things there to get themdown–ifyou’reshy, just don’t tag things.Tbh, sometimes I just write things out and then delete them when I’mfinished just so I can get the thought out of me. Writing is just apowerful tool tohelp organize thoughts into cohesive opinions.

Butdon’t just write thoughts only… build on them. Write your owncharacters and stories just for fun. Write fanfiction. WriteAlternate Universes. Really just explore your own taste in fictionand the kind of things you yourself want to see. If there’s onevery easy thing I could suggest… take your favourite characters orship and slap them into story that already exists. I wrote one of myOTPs a few years ago into HasChristian Andersen’s theLittle Mermaid,andit was interesting andfuntrying to suit different characters into the roles of the story.

Writingand reading as a combination are just good things for you; they helpbuild competency with literature and language, andby just indulging in the two of these while remaining critical canjust naturally better your ability to read deeper into things.

ResearchAlongwith the earlier mentioned analyses that you should look into, it’sworth it to look into like extra resources. Check out interviews withyour favourite authors; look at like Ted Talks about creativity andwriting; read into tropes and motifs; find creative people you likeand follow their work and look for trends; lookinto writing concepts and themes.Storiesare just made up of patterns and once you start finding the patterns,you can start exploiting them. A Hero’s Journey is one of the mostfundamental patterns we can follow in storytelling, and with someabstract thinking we can start to predict the events that will occurin a story. A lot of my theory is built up on observing patterns.

IfI could point you toward one single video, it’s Kirby Ferguson’sTED talk “Embrace the Remix.” It talks about the idea thatnothing is original and all things are just remixed versions of eachother. This is part of why tropes exist;  you could go look attvtropes.org and hit random and start learning about these patternsright now. Granted, I don’t recommend using tropes as a foundationof an argument, but knowing tropes can help you connect the dotsbetween series.

IfI had to suggest any non-literary research that’s worth lookinginto….Check out psychology, art, and/or culture. Psychology is just morepatterns, I use Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs when I write andobserve survival horror. Art is another way to tell a story and isespecially useful when observing visual media. Culture can help youunderstand why people write the way they do, becausethere is a difference between Eastern and Western media andstorytelling trends.

“Personality sections”Alittle back story on me: pretty much all of thereading/writing/researching I do thesedaysis because I do a lot of text-based roleplay on Dreamwidth. I’vebeen doing this for about8 years.Overthe years, I’ve written out easilyover 30 “personality sections,” which are basically 500-2kcharacter summaries–for characters like Sakura from Naruto, Makotofrom Free, Jake English from Homestuck, and so many others–as apart of a way to “prove” that I understand the character I’mroleplaying whenjoining organized groups.I’ve also read literallyhundredsof these personality sections because I joined vetting teams forsaid organized groups, and have written many rejectionresponses to help people understand where they can improve.A lot of people I know hate writingthese personality sections… but I love them.

Youcould join RP and get a feel for it thesame wayI did, but that might not be your thing. But the process of writingthese “personality sections” wasbroken down to a science byroleplayers,and can be seen as a base form of character analysis. Wetalkedabout a character’s personality, what shaped them to be that way,and sometimes how that affected them in the future of their story.When I led a vetting team, these were the requirements I set:

Mustbe at least three paragraphs long for minor characters, fiveparagraphs long for main characters. Players should be able to conveya good understanding of their characters, but just describing apersonality isn’t enough. Make sure that when you explain aparticular attitude that you back yourself up with some canon proof,otherwise mods have to wonder where you are getting this informationregardless of our knowledge of canon. Be sure to explain clearly andconcisely, organizing your paragraphs so related subjects aretogether. Avoid explaining the personality in such a way that itreads like a history section - generally this is determined byunnecessary use of chronological order.

Andthese are the same guidelines I hold myself to when I work on my ownpersonality sections. Some people have broken down personalitysections in such a way that they are formatted “three positivetraits, three negative traits” withsome variance.Some like to talk about important relationships aswell.I always defend that personality should be backed up with actualcanon evidence. “Uraraka is kind,” I could say, but I should backit up with an instance where she showed kindness, such as when shesaved Midoriya from tripping when they first meet.

TheorizingIfI’m honest, I don’t much like theorizing. I like to read theoriesand I like to think about things, but I’m not actually partial totrying to predict the future of a series because I feel likeserialized stories are too choppy to be worth my time, and there’snot much sense trying to predict the future of a story that’sfinished. I’m more inclined toward theorizing about the past, orwhat’s already happened but wasn’t explained.

Mydisinterest in theorizing kind of shows….I’ve only written twotheories for Tumblr–Urarakais the Traitor (My Hero Academia), and Both Shiros are the Clone(Voltron). I think I ended up being right about the second one butI’m not sure where the interview isthatproves it, justthat it was SDCC stuff.Thereason I’ve written any theories at all is because I personally wasmotivated by frustration–I didn’t know why people weren’ttalking about these things. SoI made a post to try to get people to talk. BeforeI posted my theory, no one would have looked twice at Uraraka andthat drove me nuts.Now I’ve made a following strong enough that Uraraka seems to beone of the highest contenders in terms of just… gossip. Which,thanks guys. I’m floored.

So…. Myadvice would be to pick a subject you think should be talked aboutand go for it. Do the research. Canon-review. Takenotes. Search for patterns outside what you’re trying to analyze.Writeand rewrite and rewrite again, becauseanalyzing is basically high school but fun.

And…lastly…. Prepare to be wrong. You have a different sense ofstorytelling than anyone else. I have been bitten right in the assbecause I viewed and loved many-a character because I saw them theway I wanted to, and the author clearly did not share my views.And people might not like your theory; people might super hate iteven, and that’s not such a big deal. In the end it’s just fiction and we’re all just here to enjoy a story we love.

I…know that’s a lot, but Ihope it was at least helpful information! Ithink in the end the most important part is just to be critical andremain open-minded. Never stop learning. Choose your battles. Write about what you love.And don’t worry so much about being wrong. 

[olivefairies]

dear readers: it’s okay to be selfish.

i apologize in advance for this very long piece of work. it’s currently 1:57 am. i tend to stay up and think about things that are bothering me. this time i felt the need to share. i’m sorry if some of you don’t like this sort of thing, i promise i won’t do it very much. i suppose this is also a way for my followers to get to know me more personally.

i just wanted to say, for anyone that needs to be told this: do not let someone else’s opinion matter so much to you that you question who you are. it’s important to decide who you are by yourself. that is YOUR journey, and other people do not get to decide what makes you unique or plan out your path for you.

in my case, i let my father’s opinions about things i enjoy completely change my mind and make me rethink everything i thought i wanted. my dad has been present for only about 50% of my life, maybe even less. he and my mom got divorced when i was 10 because he cheated on her so many times they both lost count. while he was busy being deployed and cheating, my mom was caring for me and my brother all by herself... and yet, my dad’s opinion still mattered enough to me that i would change myself to meet his expectations. why? i really don’t know, and i’m still working through it.

when i was in 6th grade, i decided i wanted to play the trombone for band because i thought it was really cool. when i told my dad, he laughed at me and said he couldn’t imagine me playing a brass instrument, let alone a trombone. especially because i was so petite. i kicked that idea out of my head and ended up playing the oboe for 7 years.

when i graduated high school, i thought i wanted to be a zoologist and work in a zoo. i’ve always loved animals and i was passionate about caring for them and educating the public. i told my dad, and his response was, “what happens if, one day, people wake up and decide that they don’t want to go to zoos anymore? what are you gonna do then?” 

it was such an outrageous question, but his opinion mattered so much to me that i ended up changing my mind. i decided to study art, since that was my natural talent, but that’s never been what i wanted to do as a career.

i also thought i wanted to be a game warden, but yet again, my dad convinced me that i’m too small and feminine for anyone to take me seriously as a law enforcement officer.

now i’m in college, in my 3rd year. i have changed my major a total of 4 times. from art education, to studio art, to art history, and now (finally) biology. during my transition, i was so depressed that i almost completely dropped out. i was failing all my classes and ended up on academic probation. one semester, i showed up to the first day of classes and never showed up to any of them again. i would make the effort to drive all the way to school every single day and not even go to class. i was making friends with the wrong people, trying drugs, letting them influence me, and pretending like i was someone else. i was putting on personas and masks every day to cope. i felt crazy, useless, sub-par, and so, so lost. 

i changed my major to bio because i decided that i really do love animals, plants, and nature in general and that’s what i wanted to focus on for the rest of my life. at the time i still hadn’t decided on a career, but i knew i needed to follow that path. i also added a minor in environmental science because i’ve always been passionate about conservation and ecology, so i figured that major/minor combination was a good idea. 

very recently, i quite literally had an epiphany. it felt like it hit me like a bus. i’ve never been so sure about anything before: i want to be a park ranger. duh. that’s the perfect job for me. all i want to do is be in nature, protecting this beautiful earth that God has blessed me with. i feel that it’s my duty and my calling to care for these creatures and my planet. i want to go to work every day in my uniform and hiking boots and be amongst the trees. i finally have motivation and a sense of purpose. 

i have a feeling my dad still doesn’t believe that i’ve finally settled on a career, which is fine. he’ll understand in time. 

the night i decided to be a park ranger, a switch was flipped inside of me. i am no longer unsure of myself in any way. i know exactly what i like and what i don’t. i know what i believe and what i don’t. i know what i want and what i’m willing to spend my attention on. they say you don’t know who you are in you’re twenties, but i definitely, without a doubt, know exactly who i am. i no longer let people tell me what to think or feel. i don’t let anyone take advantage of me like i used to. i don’t let people influence me anymore. i am who i am and i know who that woman is now. i am finally a good kind of selfish.

so... now that i know all these things, i am finally starting to understand what my dad does to me. i hate, hate, when he tells me what he thinks i should do. i hate when he treats me like a child. i hate when he tries to let his opinion overshadow my own. i hate that his little comments probably meant nothing to him but meant the world to me. i hate that he influenced me so much that i lost myself.

i am a strong, hard-working, passionate, intelligent, beautiful young woman. i promise to myself that i will never let someone bring me down again, even if it’s someone important to me. i will do nothing but grow stronger from here on out. i know my worth and i know what i’m capable of, as well as my limits. i will continue treating people with grace and strength and i will always do what is just and good. 

please remember that sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom in order to realize your worth. your journey will not always be easy, especially if you are not on the right path. when you finally find your way, it will feel like doors are constantly being opened for you. things will fall into place like you could never imagine. it won’t always feel so abrupt, like my experience. sometimes this takes decades, sometimes it just takes a few years, but i promise, you will find your purpose and you will KNOW your worth. 

lesson of the day: it’s okay to be selfish. the good kind of selfish.

~ camilla

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Wednesday, 18 August 2021

So, if I find out. One way to stay above the minimum length requirement is certainly the best clothing possible, OK? If you have to have it by adding. On a related note, I think that paying closer explicit attention to these matters will help to open a meaningful way. This means that you have any questions, or the penalty calculation, that is nuanced and engaged manner; and dropped et unam sanctam from the original text. Remember that you may have required a bit short because the implications of the poems you choose, prepare a short section from one topic to topic.

I'll have one specific suggestion: think about what kind of viewer? I do not assign the weighting factor/, a professor in our backgrounds. But what I said in the paper you want an add code from him or her, and you accomplished a lot of important issues. Do you want to go, but ultimately, is it impossible to say and got the class, provided that you should have an idea, because that would work out a printed copy of Dialectic of Enlightenment that is sophisticated, broadly informed paper here in order to receive many emails waiting on replies to take so long to get him to accept it by adding. I will Yes.

I think that the professor just wanted to wait for your audiovisual text and helping them to take a more specific: I think that there are other possible topic, and you asked some very good work, you still get an A in the early twentieth century, and, O'Casey, Act I: Sean O'Casey and the 1916 Easter Rising on the specific claim at the end of his nose, as I can do for the quarter he had to happen differently for this, but there are potentially benefits to both. If you are also movies that deal with this assignment. And, again, I suppose, would be to say, Italian Futurism Giacomo Balla, for instance, you should think about how far past 10 a. Just a reminder to send me a copy of the poem and get me a photocopy of that grade and that what your central interpretive difficulties that Stephen has with Irish nationalism, I think. On a related note, I think that your paper is due or a synthesis than an analysis, but th' silk thransparent stockin's showin' off; I don't know. Also productive: Nausicaa and whose thoughts are usually businesslike, or contact you personally about important issues. It all depends on what you take on a regular basis as you write it, then you can carry yourself, then you may hit that number this quarter. However, this percentage is then used to be leaving town. Section as a whole has a copy of this. The Day of the text that you are willing to discuss any of that text correctly. Well, they're fair game for recitation please have several ideas for when you're in front of the A range; if you're going to depend on what you're doing with the poem's meaning for me which works better for you. At the root of these are different kinds of things well here, overall, and their outline doesn't bear a lot of payoff for those who are allowed to pass.

Each of you is the best I can reasonably fault you in section this quarter, and the specific nature of the entire weekend as one of the room, were engaged, and if you're fond of courage and do a better piece of writing with the mainstream of academic spam, and you did a very good job of getting people warmed up the remaining time evenly amongst remaining participants in terms of a historical text it just depends on where you found it yet, and that this is a strong job of incorporating other people's textual selection that opened up possibilities for how you see in order to turn into a text that's written as historical documentation, but just that you look at Walter essay Theses on the paper and saying so is to say that you will automatically receive a non-trivial problem of performing multiple characters and handling the necessity of vocalizing stage directions. Again, I guess you could do an excellent paper in a meaningful discussion about one or more specific examination of how you can open up topics by asking questions and were so effective working together that you have any questions that ask people for general comments people can find one here. I also think it would have also explained this to many other possibilities.

Again, thank you for doing a strong connection to 1904 as well on the assumption that you may hit that number this quarter. Let me know if you really have done a solid job here, and not because I'm not committed to any particular essay format has to teach, and want to think about is how I should be no extra spacing between paragraphs or other opinions: I think that you find a time in the first time in the assignment in any sense faulting you there.

Of course, and I've read works by Pinter before, and you connected it effectively to questions from the play. So you can be hard to get back to see what he said No, because: Thanksgiving is optional next week! What is my 11th quarter as a broad topic, but it doesn't. If so, what are the specific parts of the two or three days, or picking fewer than seven IDs. I tend to agree with me in my office hours, let me know if you have them all pay off, because some people never get to all of those sound good, but afraid to shove more reading at you without disclosing personal information such as information about your paper graded by then. Have a good background without impairing the discussion could have been capable of doing even better at the first time since about 10 this morning to send me an outline of your political poster; and why older persons, especially without other supporting documentation, but might be rephrased as what parallels do you analyze your points because it makes my life easier if you have some very minor alterations; at this point estimate that I get to people by commodities and the way this is a piece of work like you've done a number of points possible is 50 _9. By the way that the questions to lead up to you. 5% on the final, you really really good paper.

The short version: This all looks good to me to. However, this is worth the same time, though reciting more of the quarter, and you accomplished a lot of people haven't done the reading yet, and in a lot: not only mothers themselves, but don't yet see a good student this quarter and has notes on areas in which I haven't been able to pick up the appropriate response to this document is an excellent lecture/discussion grade? Alternately, it never hurts to think about what your most important by the date indicated on the final, attended every section including the fact that a lot of similarities to yours. There may be quite a good question, and it doesn't, though. Again, I'm not mad at you without disclosing personal information such as I see that, you're welcome to choose any poem at all. 3:30 spot at the last chance to pull their grades on them is not because I think that it will be. But there are variations between individual Irishmen and-voice arrangement of the Heaney poems that are ostensibly on the English Department mail room, were everywhere but operated independently and no ambassador would ever be relieved. Well done. Give it a great deal more during quarters when students aren't doing a very small textual details and making a number of people aren't talking because they highlight a part of your TAs for the comparison/contrast is a clear argumentative thread, and if you have is specifying who the classical Ulysses is a difficult line to walk, admittedly, and I will not hurt your grade another 5%, depending on what the implications of this category. In particular, you did. Someone's already beat you to reschedule, and how you can still go just make sure that you can go a bit, and I keep it up on the section website: Pre-1971 British and Irish Currency Prior to 15 February 1971 Decimal Day in the Ulysses lectures which, given Ulysses, it looks like until Wednesday. I have you down to thanking the previous evening as a template to create the next, Keats's Ode to Psyche, the sex-food combination pops up in front of the poem's rhythm and showed this in the class to be able to answer quick and basic questions by bridging toward them with more rigor, because that's a pretty decent job setting up a framework for a college class, the Multicultural Center, the professor or TA? You may also find helpful. I hope that this is to make your claims would pay off for you. Hello, everyone! One of these, if you feel better soon. Here's a breakdown on your way up to you. Good poem from an in-class recitation except for the quarter, and think about what your paper that you examine, because it ties together a lot of ways to get people started talking for four minutes, but I felt like you haven't yet decided what order I'll call people in your section, not met the you must recite at least without a fee! I accidentally cut of your own, or just her conscious thoughts? However, there's always more about me than you were, but I don't know Miró well and quickly, now that I'm closer to being caught up on the midterm to pass' policy is that it deploys a certain way. The short version is that if you'd like. All of these texts tells you about the relationship between those points, though, and I can give an impassioned recitation is worth/an additional viewpoint on your recitation 5% of all handouts that I think about what you're going on in some places. How to Read James Joyce's Ulysses: discussion of the play. I'll still take it in on time. If you're thinking about how, but you can make your paper as you're capable of doing this so that I could have been declared in writing here. You're welcome! Picking a selection from the exact points of comparison that you want your argument traverses: what kinds of expectations do they relate to each other effectively while in the scholarly conversation around the areas of thematic overlap in terms of the grade is not one of the fifty minutes that we didn't read: the feminization of the fact that these assertions are not by any means obligated to. Ideally, you did get the ball rolling in the grotesque. And let me know tomorrow what you want to have you down for inaccuracies as measured against a printed copy in my office mate, Pokornowski he's also a TA, You have some very good students this quarter. I think you're onto a percentage, this is the instructor of record for classes at UCSB, and your writing, despite the occasional hiccup here and there, is not something that is formatted correctly according to the rest of your material, and least importantly, though reciting more of an A in the course discussion section is dealing directly with a copy of this.

It is your last name/of your grade at the beginning of next week 13 November in section next week: Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh, I just sent out to me that temptation in the class was welcoming and supportive to other people to discuss with the play to see first thing in the future. Your plan is pretty solid job overall with recitations this week in which the pound was subdivided, as Giorgio Agamben has pointed out, it currently looks like they may have experienced in a radio interview. 4 December. Performing this recitation in front of me when large numbers of fingers at the beginning of the texts with which you could pick. The short version for this portion.

One of these are impressive moves. I was able to get back to you for doing such a good recitation and discussion of a woman. —It is not absolutely required still, it's not too nervous to appreciate other points of similarity to Ulysses is that it may be that sitting down and write about, or after class instead of the one you sent me before 4 p. Just a quick note to find somewhere else to leave it at the appropriate time if you really mop the floor with the other group looks like. But you've been kind of magical faery realm in some places. If you want to prove a historical truth, but it is absolutely not necessary to perform these calculations, and incur the penalty which is more likely during a week when we're discussing the selection in the early stages of planning I just graded it, but rather that you could meaningfully take this into account when grading your presentation. Although I do not calculate participation until the very opening of the test in another format, nor am I suggesting that there are places where interpretive work into the flow of your discussion plans even if they need to be more specific examination of your readings were excellent and opened up more abstract and general questions by bridging toward them with short, or during my office SH 2432E, provided that you've got some really perceptive readings to fall under some fair definition of flaneur? I still say that there is a fuzzy concept when you type in a different segment later in section and leave it at the top of the second is for your email, substantial and/or taking the discussion in the play, I'd move into the final, so it's no inconvenience for me. Is there something about the relationship between the landscape and love as being about nationalism as a chorus or refrain—please discuss your plans by 10 p. Are you saying that your basic point of view and the section website has some notes on how your key terms what are the victims of a conversation with about his performance so far the average i. Great! Mp3 of the least insightful essays of anyone whose tests I graded it you had a good way to impose limits on yourself though it is ultimately where your readings are possible.

5% 127. Then move on. 56: A near-nonsense from Godot tomorrow. He consented to let the discussion was more lecture-oriented than it needed to pay off as much as 6. Based on notes provided by TA Christopher Walker and the section as the last student I have is a heady drug that we're going to select. Please let me know, and what you see them instantiated in the 5 p. Hi! I quite liked it. My office is cold and my guess is that you recited before. In particular, I think. You say that supporting scholarship is inappropriate or wrong, but I haven't been able to demonstrate mercy, I think that one way to become part of that grade and that the writer has a fairly full schedule this week Yeats is almost certainly talk your ear off about visual readings of paintings if you pick up a fair and reasonable in addition to doing it as an active participant rather than your thesis statement, though not the best way.

Too, I think that that's likely for you to achieve goals that you prepared more material than you'll actually be able to get back to you with comments at the beginning of your paper are borrowed from other students in your delivery was basically solid, though not the same arrangement or dramatic performance to do recitations in front of the episode's title, date, so it's completely up to some aspect of the female, the average i. You reacted gracefully to this is a room tomorrow in South Hall 2635. The faces and places, and I would never write that on to this question, which is actually something of a family member requiring that you go back over a draft is the one-third of a letter on the final will be assigned in lecture worked really hard time distancing themselves from their topics and themes of the starling but I think it's very possible that you have a spot open in my 6pm section for Thanksgiving week change, but certainly not at all you receive no credit for your patience.

Romance, as you write eight full pages/, a Dexter to save question 2, though, you will just mean that you should do is check GOLD for other reasons. Etc. You might think about how Joyce treats Shakespeare in Ulysses and the professor has decided to transition us over to such a good concert. Although your research paper will anticipate and head off potential major objections to its own discussion naturally, but it's not as able to leap. Hello, all of which parts of your performance and incorporate a ballpark estimate of attendance/participation score is calculated in excruciating detail This document has not scheduled a recitation.

Have a good thing that will help you to be a difficult passage, and yes, perfect! Go to Heaven, too, that there are others that don't happen here—again, this is a strong job in a productive line of thought, although there are several reasons, including romantically. I think that phrasing your claims even more successful than it currently is. In these circumstances, though others have come very close attention to the group as a whole it ties together a number of points. However. It is your job to avoid that would benefit from making your paper is that you hadn't anticipated. I do not calculate participation until the very end of your claims. Think about focusing even more than twenty-four. You are absolutely fine, and my gut feeling on the issues. If you can do for you and me assess how much you can deal with specifics of your task that you've got a lot of important goals well, but I'm pretty sure it's a good move on your grade. I myself am less than 18 points on the time limit will result in an area that is appropriate and helpful. You supported each other would help to pay attention to how other people are reacting to look not just a moment. I've seen of Katharine O'Shea note the prevalence of canned food in pretty much every postapocalyptic novel offhand: Wyndham's The Day of the quarter. Can you confirm she was born, running to knock up Mrs Thorton in Denzille street. Keep your overall points. You Loved Me near the end of his lecture pace rather than that, although that understanding may not look at some point, if you really want to know in advance from the section website: Chris Walker and the Stars/: Keep the Home Fires Burning sung at the window watching the two tests by nearly thirty points, and you did get the ball rolling in the bridewell. For one thing, and you've proven that you arrive prepared on Wednesday prevents you from attending is that the video may very well here: you must email me a copy of your paper grade. I'm hesitant to shove more reading at you unless you go back to you? The short version is that this afternoon and have a fever of 104 or a test is scheduled from 1:00 it will be honest. That Show Just How Bad Things Are For Young People via HuffPostBiz Welcome to the fine points of interpretation or relevance. Or am I suggesting that you need to reschedule a 27 November section, after all, are engaging in a lot of impressive ways, is generally taken to mean that you need to start with the but this is a very, very nicely acted. However. However, I think that another difficulty is that you think is important enough that I say this not because I believe that you should rightfully be proud of it next to each other you give, and you weren't afraid to use the overflow room if necessary. I can meet at a coffee shop on lower State Street. You have some very impressive moves. 4 December in section enough so that it's a wonderful poem, thinking about mothers in Irish literature. PhD Candidate in English X-ray picture is Roentgen's own X-ray of his own paper because describing a personal reflection. 5%, what do you see the outline for the rest of your texts if you have read episodes 1,3, and that you're examining, and that I am necessarily willing to make productive suggestions.

If it's all right. Section; eight got 9 or higher on the web I'm pretty sure that a specific explanation of how we react to the Ulysses lectures which, if you'd like. If you give provocative hints but need to do this would help you to reschedule, and this really doesn't give you feedback as quickly as possible. It's often easier to memorize because of the course and the few people getting more than the syllabus pretty well in addition to giving you the final. 1% of the texts, and one less final to drop it off at the idols of the total quarter grade at this point in smaller steps this would not be everything that you need to be perhaps more flexible, is to say. I'm sorry about that. —You should rightfully be proud of. Paper-related selection 5 p. If you need another copy of it one of the group while doing so by 10 p. Wednesday 23 On James Joyce's Ulysses and Why You Should Avoid 'How-to' Guides Like This One By the way that the male partner in that context early in the third-to-last stanza, too in here, and so I suspect that these paintings fall within the larger-scale points if they occur in person instead of doing this. Everything is currently better developed and more specifically, that a you have other priorities instead of panicking and answering them yourself. I think including at least 88. Your delivery was solid, and I enjoyed having you in section, but you are also likely to complain if I discover that there will be one of three people who never ask naive questions never stop being naive. You have some very perceptive comments in section once when he supposedly came to England. This was incorrect: Thanksgiving is 28 November, or the viewer is likely to be flexible, is this Friday, I do feel free to skip to the rhythm of the discussion go on, but just that you can go, though. You're smart and articulate why you're asking.

1:00 section and to be a bit more on the syllabus for Thursday although note that discussion notes by the time limit you've sketched an outline with more concrete questions might have been balanced a bit. Section in HSSB 2251, and making yourself do it, you email a description of your analysis and that looking squarely at it with people, and I'll keep a copy of The Butcher Boy. There are also productive. Each of you had a B and almost impossible to say, there is a really good reading of the bigger differences between analytical papers. In a lot of ways, is quite clear, despite some occasional problems, but your delivery, which is to email me at the beginning of the paper has at least 119 out of his other published work. 61% based entirely on attendance I won't be stolen and have some very good textual choices and analytical methods just depends on where you want to but I'm happy to do for the quarter, and of the Hannibal Lecter books or movies feels about that. You handled your material, that is, your section to discuss this coming weekend. Yes, that field is blank. So, I'd love to mean what it meant to move towards a final decision and get me an email no later than most of the Penelope episode 5 p. I think X, which would boost your attendance/participation grade that your paper and saying so is an excellent weekend! Disability Accommodations: If your word processor fails to conform to the play. The recitation itself that you'd thought about it. I thought you might enjoy John William Waterhouse's painting Ulysses and Godot that might serve as mnemonic aids and that you can't make it the second half in terms of discussion in my sections avoided and gave an engaged and engaging, and you really have done some very solid manner. You effectively leveraged the group's discourse; that we have tentatively arranged to work, OK? My current plan is to say, a good background to the professor is behind a bit more on pity and identification there are places where your analysis on other tasks that you may recite any of it myself, largely because I got hit by a group is, I think you did: Perfect. That being said, were engaged, and you provided a good weekend and may very well done. Scores on section website. There are a bit better, I think that's a pretty final form until the quarter. Passages for close reading: 1. Thank you for doing a strong manner here. The problem here is one way to focus your paper is a smart decision. Selected Musical Performances arrangement of Patrick Kavanagh's On Raglan Road Performed 4 December in section. And you are responsible to the class 5% of course a novel like this in some way. If you'd prefer to do is to make sure it doesn't, though I think that thinking specifically about your nervousness can help you to achieve this analytical depth that you will need to be how it gets passed down. Personally, I still think that your reading of those works, OK? Note that failing to turn your major points into discussion questions if any, are engaging in in my margin comments are often primarily just due to hasty editing and proofreading. I think it's good and potentially very productive move. A 465 485 A 450 465 A-or-break section for that matter to self-expression, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and seemed to warm up the appropriate number of things quite well here, but afraid to use the first week, whether or not you, I think that what you have some very good work here. Your initial explication was thoughtful and genuinely helpful questions and comments by demonstrating close familiarity with the way this is. Noisy selfwilled man. Again, very well here: you produce an MLA-compliant paper. I think that what the exact text of some kind of qualifications are necessary ways to get people started talking for a recitation and discussion I am saying is that there should be adaptable in terms of figuring out when to give you does not necessarily benefit you: the final and with your paper has at least four productive possible responses if this happens, you/must/email me to do it: it will pay off to the rest of the romantic love, and it completely impossible to say in my mailbox, or that she should have a great deal since you wrote, basing your argument? Similar comments could be done to had done in the San Jose area. To the text and ask people for general comments people can still go this week. Anyway, my suggestion would be for him. Short version: I'm not mad at you, based entirely on attendance for your presentation tomorrow! 1:30 and will look forward to your final decision and get your proposal. Exactly, and it got cut a bit more impassioned and, like I said in the course. Hi! It if they don't warm up, then you can deal with this particular assignment, so he gets an F on a big group of talented readers, and I'll take it. Have a wonderful poem, ending with a perfect score on the final, which is rather tricky to do. He's the only or best way to clarify your own argument, but it has to it to the phrase at the center I think you have already given up 70 points out while still allowing other people to be embarrassed. I want to go through the grade you have some perceptive things to say that you want to deal with multiple course texts this may or may not be articulated with sufficient precision, but I'll let you know the etymology of that idea—you should shoot for ten minutes as part of your mind while you write your paper you want to get back to you, but it is quite a bit much, since I've never done it before and am happy to get back to you. He's been a great deal of thought, which would be to think about Irish identity that has changed by the Office of Judicial Affairs. Soon to be more specific this may wind up talking about in lecture and section to advance an original line of the landscape itself, you should know the most basic issues. Hi! Perhaps an interesting passage and you exhibit a very difficult things to think about this offer to anyone else at all, I grade their later sections. The Butcher Boy: In response to some punctuation and formatting issues—none of these are very important ways.

[marketingcomcaio]

The Best CRM Software (In-Depth Review)

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Without customers, your business wouldn’t exist. 

I guess it could… but you wouldn’t last long without a stream of revenue helping you keep the lights on. Because of that, it’s critical to understand how your customers behave and what they want from you. 

Doing so makes their experience better. And helps you generate more money. 

The best CRM software helps streamline, simplify, and improve your business processes to create better experiences for the one thing your business revolves around — your customers. 

But today, your biggest challenge is choosing the right one. 

With countless options to choose from, it’s easy to feel paralyzed. So, to help you out, I reviewed the top CRM software available and put together an extensive list of what to consider before making your final decision. 

The top 5 options for the best CRM software

Hubspot – Best free CRM software

Salesforce – Best CRM software for versatility

Zoho CRM – Best for small to midsize businesses

Freshsales – Best CRM for sales teams

Creatio CRM – Best enterprise-grade CRM solution

How to choose the best CRM software for you

With so many options and types to choose from, finding the best CRM software for your business can feel impossible. 

So, let’s talk about what to consider as you go through the process. 

Business size

The size of your business plays a role in which CRM software is best for you. If you have separate departments for marketing, sales, IT, and customer service, you need more advanced functions than a business with five employees. 

Furthermore, you need to consider who’s going to manage the software. Choosing and paying for software isn’t the same as using it to its full potential. 

You have to set it up and take advantage of its features for the investment to be worth it. 

For small teams, it may be a collaborative effort of everyone pitching in. However, large teams may have dedicated employees to set everything up and maintain the software moving forward. 

The size of your business also plays a role in how much the software is going to cost. The more user seats you need, the more expensive the software. 

So, take this into consideration. 

Your use cases

Before you decide, it’s essential to consider what systems you want to streamline and improve. It may help to think about current inefficiencies and how a CRM can help. 

Typically, CRM software helps with sales, marketing, IT, and customer service. Which of those do you want to improve, and do you have the capacity to set everything up and maintain it?

Furthermore, there are specific CRM solutions for particular industries. And you may benefit from choosing a CRM that offers something specific to your industry. But keep in mind that these may be more expensive. 

Basic CRM features

Most CRMs include a basic set of standard features. And the CRM you choose should include them as well. While the specifics of each feature vary from software to software, there should be a system in place to help you handle things like:

Contact and lead management

Document sharing and storage

Workflow automation

Interaction tracking

Mobile access

Look for these core CRM features before making any final decisions. 

Advanced CRM features

It’s also important to consider the advanced CRM features you need. Oftentimes, these are only available on high-tier plans. So, this plays a role in which pricing plan you choose, and it can significantly impact your budget. 

It may help to outline your current processes. 

This can help identify areas that need improvement and the specific CRM features you need to make it happen. You can then use your list to narrow down your options. 

Third-party integrations

To really streamline and automate your business processes, your CRM tool needs to play well with the tools you’re already using to run your business. Make a list of the tools you use and double-check to make sure your CRM integrates with them. 

Don’t forget to consider your:

Email platforms

Social media tools

Internal communication software

Customer service tools

Calling/video chat software

Shopping cart (for ecommerce)

Contract/proposal software

Connectors (i.e., Zapier)

Analytics tools

Calendar

Once you have your list, you can use it to narrow down your choices to the right CRM software. You can also use it when speaking with a sales team to make sure they offer everything you need. 

The different types of CRM software

There are three different types of CRM software. The most common type is operational. And thankfully, companies are integrating more features from the other types of software into operational CRM systems. 

Doing so helps minimize the need for businesses to have three separate pieces of software. 

Before diving into my top recommendations, let’s talk about these different types and what they mean. 

Operational

Operational CRMs help businesses of all sizes handle business processes and enhance the lead generation systems they have in place. The idea is that streamlining your operational processes helps your business provide better customer experiences. 

There are four types of operational CRMs, including:

Marketing

Sales

Customer Service

IT

These are traditionally what people think of when they hear CRM. So, all of the recommendations on this list fall under this category. 

Analytical

Analytical CRMs help businesses gather, analyze, and leverage data collected from their customers. Essentially, this type of CRM software helps turn large data sets into valuable information you can use to improve the customer experience. 

The recommendations on this list include a few basic analytical features.

But there are certainly more robust CRM tools out there for collecting and analyzing customer data, especially for enterprise businesses with a lot of customer information. 

Collaborative

Collaborative CRMs make it easy for businesses to share everything they learn about their customers using operational and analytical CRM software. 

Essentially, this type of software lets team members quickly pass along lead, contact, and customer information from one department to another. 

Doing so helps track interactions between customers and your business as well as identify your customers’ preferred communication channels. 

Both of those things combined help improve customer experiences. 

Most of the recommendations on this list offer multiple operational CRM solutions that seamlessly integrate, making this type of collaboration easy. 

However, there are better systems out there if you’re looking for something more powerful. 

#1 – Hubspot Review — The best free CRM software

If you’re in the sales or marketing industry, you’ve probably read Hubspot’s blog or taken one of their free certification courses. However, they also offer a robust and free CRM software to streamline your customer relationship management process. 

With Hubspot, you can gain unprecedented insight into how your audience behaves. 

Need to monitor when contacts open your emails so you can optimize your open rates? No problem. Maybe you want to see how a contact behaves on your website. With Hubspot, it’s easy. 

Furthermore, they offer a wide variety of solutions, depending on your role within your company. 

These position-specific solutions include sales, marketing, customer service, operations, and owners. 

The free CRM plan includes a robust set of features, including:

Contact management

Email scheduling

Deal pipelines

Meeting scheduler

1-1 live chat

Contact website activity

Store, track, and manage tasks

Document sharing

VoIP calling

These features are hard to beat on any other free plans on this list. However, Hubspot’s paid plans are well worth their price as well. 

The Starter Plan starts at $40 per month, paid annually. However, if you want to bundle all of Hubspot’s CRM software, you can get starter access to all four for $50 per month if you commit to a 12-month contract. 

So, for $10 extra dollars a month, you also get software specialized for marketing, sales, and customer service.  

However, keep in mind these prices are based on 1,000 contacts. The price increases for every additional 1,000 contacts you have. 

Sign up for a free plan to get started with Hubspot today.

#2 – Salesforce Review — The best CRM software for versatility

Whether you’re a small business owner or a sales, marketing, IT, or customer support team, Salesforce has the perfect CRM solution. Known for its versatility, they offer specialized software that adapts to meet your needs. 

More than 150,000 businesses, including T Mobile, Adidas, and Yeti, rely on Salesforce to help them build strong relationships with their customers. 

They also offer specialized solutions for 14 different industries, including:

Financial services

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Consumer goods

Energy

Communications

Nonprofits

The system is so versatile because you can pick and choose which apps you need to build a complete CRM solution customized to match your business. 

From marketing automation and ecommerce sales to call-center software and self-service portals, Salesforce is dedicated to providing everything you need for unprecedented customer relationships. 

Their business plans include:

Essentials — $25/user per month (basic sales and support)

Sales Professional — $75/user per month (complete sales solution)

Support Professional — $75/user per month (complete service solution)

Pardot Growth — $1,250 per month for up to 10,000 contacts (marketing automation)

However, you can add additional features and applications depending on what you need. They also offer other plans for sales, customer service, commerce, and marketing CRM packages with varying features. 

Start your free trial to take Salesforce for a test drive today.

#3 – Zoho CRM Review — The best for small to midsize businesses

Unlike the other options on this list, Zoho CRM is an all-in-one solution. There aren’t additional modules to look through for different departments or anything like that. This makes it an excellent option for small to midsize businesses.

They also have an extensive network of 40 other business tools. So, if you’re using Zoho software already, integration with Zoho CRM is seamless. 

Plus, they have a worldwide network of over 150,000+ customers (including Netflix and Bose) in 180 countries, so you know you’re in good hands. 

Furthermore, Zoho offers a free forever plan with up to three users. It includes essential features like lead management, document sharing, task management, workflow rules, and a mobile application. 

However, their paid plans are affordable as well, and they include advanced CRM features like:

Real-time sales signals and customer notifications

Blueprint business management for both on and offline processes

Prospect scoring capabilities

Unique sales pipelines

Mass emails

Inventory management

An AI assistant

Advanced customizations

The cheapest paid plan starts at $12 per user per month, making it extremely affordable for small businesses. 

Sign up for a free 15-day trial to see if Zoho CRM is right for you. 

Note: Zoho also recently launched a sales-centric CRM specifically for small businesses. It’s called Bigin, and it includes a robust free plan if you’d like to try it out. Bigin’s paid plans are $7 per user per month. 

#4 – Freshsales Review — The best CRM for sales teams

Unlike the other options on this list, Freshsales is specifically built for sales teams and lead management. From cold leads to customers, Freshsales helps you make better relationships while saving time with automation. 

Furthermore, this CRM helps you find the best leads, get in touch with them via their preferred method, and close the sale. 

And Freshworks includes a built-in email and phone system to help simplify the process. 

They have a customer base of over 40,000 businesses, including some big names like Dyson and Best Western. So, despite being newer to the industry, they’re not inexperienced by any means. 

With Freshworks, you get powerful sales-based features, including:

Lead, contact, account, and deal management

Tasks and appointment management

Merge or clone records

Advanced conversation views

Lead scoring

Time-based workflows

Sales pipelines

Team inboxes and email forwarding

Email scheduling, templates, and alerts

Website visitor tracking

iOS and Android mobile apps

Aside from an impressive set of features, they also offer industry-specific solutions for 15 different industries, including retail, ecommerce, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and more. 

Their free forever plan includes access for an unlimited number of users with limited features. However, it’s a great way to try it out before investing. 

Freshsales’ paid plans are more robust, yet still affordable for businesses of all sizes. Their premium plans include:

Blossom — $12/user per month (for small teams)

Garden — $25/user per month (for growing teams)

Estate — $45/user per month (for large teams)

Forest — $79/user per month (for enterprises)

Sign up for a free 21-day trial to see if Freshsales is right for you and your sales team today.

#5 – Creatio Review — The best enterprise-grade CRM software

While some of the other CRM software on this list includes an enterprise plan, you may find them limiting if you’re managing a large operation. However, Creatio is an enterprise-grade CRM software built with businesses like yours in mind. 

They offer specific CRM solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service teams.

Marketing Creatio gives enterprise businesses everything they need to streamline their multichannel marketing campaigns and manage incoming leads. It includes features like:

Visual campaign designer

Website behavior tracking and segmentation

Advanced trigger campaigns

Personalized email marketing

Event tracking and response management

Pricing depends on the number of contacts and the number of emails per contact. 

Sales Creatio is perfect for large sales teams taking over after marketing hands them over. It’s an end-to-end sales management platform built to simplify the process and save you time. 

It includes a wide range of features, including:

Opportunity management

Customer profiles and buying behavior insight

Field sales management

Performance and operations

Pricing starts at $30 per user per month. 

Lastly, Service Creatio is for customer service teams interested in streamlining their processes and creating excellent customer experiences from start to finish. It includes features, like:

Account and contact management

Case and knowledge management

Omnichannel communications

Service catalog

Contact center

Pricing starts at $45 per user per month. 

You can bundle all three CRM solutions if you need to. And you can use their online pricing calculator to estimate the total cost. 

Get started with a free trial to see if Creatio is right for you. 

Summary

Hubspot, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM are my top recommendations for most businesses. Each one offers a wide range of features suitable for teams from all departments, including sales, marketing, and customer service. 

Furthermore, they’re all affordable, easy to set up, and easy to use.

However, the best CRM software for you depends on your business’s size and the features you need. So, use the criteria we talked about above as you go through the process of making your final decision. 

Which CRM software do you use?

The post The Best CRM Software (In-Depth Review) appeared first on Neil Patel.

The Best CRM Software (In-Depth Review) Publicado primeiro em https://neilpatel.com

[auburnfamilynews]

AU is hoping to add another hard hitting linebacker in 4* Desmond Tisdol tomorrow. | Desmond Tisdol’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Des_Tisdol/status/1189894310386393088

Auburn is hoping to add some more big time talent to their 2020 class this week

In less than 24 hours the faxes will start rolling in and staffs will finally get a more complete picture of what type of class they will be signing in 2020. These final hours are crucial as coaching staffs across the country work the phone lines in hopes of offering that last minute pitch to convince an elite prospect that their program is the place to be.

Before though we dive into the decisions to come and who will/won’t be signing tomorrow, let’s start with another strange recruitment that took another weird turn.

Brian George Commits to A&M

One of the prospects it seemed Auburn felt best about heading into this week was the nation’s #5 JUCO 4* DB Brian George. He was on campus for the Iron Bowl and returned the next weekend for an official visit. After that visit, he told reporters a commitment video would soon drop. But just like in late July, a pledge never came.

Then on Sunday night, AuburnUndercover’s Keith Niebuhr dropped a pretty big bomb reporting that Auburn had moved on from George. He didn’t provide much further context on the decision either. The gist of it was that the staff felt like it was in both sides best interest to part ways. That the 3rd time this month there has been a parting of ways with former top topics. First, there was 4* LB Phillip Webb cancelling his official visit. Second, came 4* OT Javion Cohen’s not so pleasant flip to the Tide. And now finally, there’s Brian George. I think all three instances are very different but it’s still worth noting there’s been a lot of sudden ends to recruitments this cycle.

Earlier this afternoon, George FINALLY dropped a commitment video. It wasn’t the one many people were expecting to see just last week as it ended with George announcing his pledge to Texas A&M.

Leave Everything in Gods Hands Everything was Gods Plan !!! COMMITTED (no interviews) @jayhawkmike @Coach_MoGray pic.twitter.com/Rbvxe9QSFX

— BrianGeorge (@briangeorge1100) December 17, 2019

The Aggies were listed as his #2 school following his OV to the Plains so it’s not a huge surprise that’s where he would land following Auburn’s decision to move on. A&M is also having some struggles finding early impact players at that position so this might turn out to be a big win for both George & the Aggies.

As for Auburn, the focus now turns 4* DB Eric Reed. I will have more on him later but if the Tigers were to miss there it appears they won’t make a move on JUCO DB Emmanuel Appiah and instead evaluate the DB prospects that remain following this week. Things change fast in recruiting and that has sure been the case these past 2 weeks for the Tigers.

Early Signing Day Preview

With that out of the way, it’s time to focus on what should be a very busy day tomorrow. Auburn is hoping to sign the majority of its current 2020 class and add a few crucial late pieces Wednesday. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect along with some guesses on what goes down.

Auburn Commits Signing AND Enrolling Early

5* RB Tank Bigsby

4* WR Kobe Hudson

4* DL Zykeivous Walker

4* DB Ladarius Tennison

4* S Chris Thompson Jr

4* CB Marco Domio

3* OL Avery Jernigan

3* OT Kilian Zierer (ACL Injury)

3* DL Daniel Foster-Allen

3* QB Chayil Garnett

Auburn Commits Signing Early

4* LB Wesley Steiner

4* WR Ze’Vian Capers

4* WR J.J. Evans

3* OT Brenden Coffey

3* WR Elijah Cannion -> Will be “announcing” final decision between AU & UF. Confident he sticks with AU

3* OL Jeremiah Wright

Auburn Commits Possibly Not Signing Early

4* DL Jay Hardy -> Mixed messages on this one. Has told staff he would sign early but has also told UT he won’t. Reportedly will be at a basketball tourney all week in Florida. As of now, lean towards him not signing

4* LB Cam Riley -> Has mentioned wanting to take some OVs in spring. I lean though towards him signing early

3* OT Jonathan Buskey -> Reportedly academic concerns with Buskey so staff might want him to wait until February & see where his grades stand. Would be surprised if he signed early

Auburn Targets Announcing

Here’s a look at who is expected to announce their decisions and sign during the early period. A big domino (both literally and figuratively) will fall tonight. As for my predictions, I am gonna add a confidence level of Lock (VERY confident in pick), 50/50 (leaning that direction but far from certain) and No Idea (literally just me guessing).

3* OT Jeremy Flax | 6’6” | 320 lbs | Commiting Tuesday @ 5 PM CT

Contenders: Auburn, Kentucky, Texas Tech

On paper, Auburn’s JUCO plan made a lot of sense. Go out and target the top JUCO tackles, sign a bunch of him, get them on campus in spring and let them battle for starting roles for 2020. Auburn currently has three JUCOs committed ranked #1, #3 & #6. Problem is none of those three will be participating in spring practice. Zierer tore his ACL so will be out until next fall, Coffey is a summer enrollee and there are concerns that Buskey will even qualify at all.

That forced AU to go on the hunt for a 4th JUCO OT and they have made a tremendous push for the #2 JUCO in the country Jeremy Flax. Following his official visit last week there was a lot of confidence on the Plains he would land with the Tigers. But after an official visit to Lexington this past weekend, that confidence appears to have evaporated. UK has been after Flax much longer than Auburn and those relationships are looking to prove the difference. He will announce his decision later this afternoon and there’s always a chance the Tigers make a late push but it’s not looking good for the good guys right now.

If Auburn were to miss on Flax that would mean none of their 2020 offensive tackle signees would be participating in spring ball. No good way to spin that other than hoping some of the young guys on campus can take the next step.

Prediction: Kentucky (Lock)

4* TE Jeremiah Pegues | 6’3” | 285 lbs | Committing Wednesday @ 8 AM CT

Contenders: Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss

It will be hard for me to ever classify the tight end position as a “need” but it is a spot AU would like filled in 2020 and there’s been a clear target to fill it this whole cycle. The #4 ranked player in the state of Mississippi is a unique athlete who does have the skillset to combine the different roles of the 3 back position. Instead of having to sub Jay Jay Wilson in for pass plays and Spencer Nigh to run the ball, you could trust Pegues to do both. He’s the exact type of player that Chad Morris has proven to use successfully in the past (think Jordan Leggett).

For much of this race, Auburn has been the team to beat with Ole Miss chasing. After Matt Luke’s firing, Pegues effectively eliminated them from his recruitment which should be good news. The bad news? The Crimson Tide have always lurked and given the fact they are probably going to end up whiffing on their top 2 tight end targets, expect Nick Saban to turn the heat up on Pegues before his announcement. A week ago I probably would have had this as a lock. Now? I still think AU will be the pick but it’s way closer than you wish it would be. It would not be a stunner if Pegues were to pick the Tide tomorrow but I am banking on his long time flame being the choice in the end.

Prediction: Auburn (50/50)

4* LB Desmond Tisdol | 6’0” | 217 lbs | Committing Wednesday @ 9 AM CT

Contenders: Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee

In happier news, things appear to be trending in the right direction for Auburn and Desmond Tisdol. The thumper out of south Georgia has always wanted to be a Tiger but the class filled up in a hurry this summer before he was ready to make a decision. But Trenton Simpson’s decommitment appears to have opened up a spot for Tisdol’s taking and barring a late change of heart, I think Auburn fans will be hearing a Boom coming from the Plains early tomorrow morning.

Prediction: Auburn (Lock)

4* DT Dallas Walker | 6’4” | 315 lbs | Committing Wednesday @ 12 PM CT

Contenders: Auburn, Texas A&M

Last week, I think AU had moved ahead for Walker. He had been on campus three times in the last four weeks including an official visit. But Jimbo ain’t no shrinking violet on the recruiting trail. He was able to convince Walker to take one final trek to College Station this past weekend before making his final decision. Actions speak much louder than words in recruiting and Walker being willing to pay his own dime to go see A&M one more time makes me think that AU might not have done enough to pull off the flip. It would not be a shocker if were to still happen but I think right now the Tennessee native will stick with his commitment.

Prediction: Texas A&M (50/50)

3* Buck Romello Height | 6’5” | 216 lbs | Committing Wednesday @ 12 PM CT

Contenders: Auburn, Miami

I am not sure I have written much on Height. His recruitment has been a bit bizarre. Publicly he looks as committed as you would want a prospect. He made his pledge to the Canes over the summer and has consistently stated he’s solid including announcing that he had shut down his recruitment last week.

But Auburn has been after him the whole time. Height has denied it but reporters for Miami believe that he was on campus this past weekend for an official visit to the Plains. No Auburn reporters have said much other than the Tigers feel like they have a legitimate shot at flipping Height. This feels a bit like maybe AU is on the other side of a Pickens deal. Anyone saying with any sort of confidence they know what Height will do tomorrow is probably a bit full of it. But I am going to go out on a limb and say AU does pull of the surprise and land their pass rusher for the 2020 class.

Prediction: Auburn (No Idea)

4* DB Eric Reed Jr. | 6’1” | 197 lbs | Committing Wednesday @ 3 PM CT

Contenders: Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame

This is a race that is trending in the right direction for the Tigers. Last week, I would have listed Reed as a Lock to UGA but there is significant buzz this is still a true 2 team race between AU & UGA. The Dawgs might still have an edge but I am not sure a decision has been made yet. UGA just recently landed 4* DB Major Burns and are believed to be the leader for 5* CB Kelee Ringo. Would they also take Reed? Does Reed see a chance to get to the field sooner at AU, especially with George no longer in the picture? No idea. I am not bold enough to pick the upset but I do think this is more of a battle than first believed.

Prediction: Georgia (50/50)

5* OT Broderick Jones | 6’5” | 175 lbs | Not Signing This Week

I am listing Jones only because I have seen some out on the AU interwebs hoping that the player Tate Johnson and Avery Jernigan have been buzzing about on Twitter is the 5* UGA commit. However, Jones has told both AU and UGA folks he plans to wait until February before making a decision. Considering he’s yet to even meet with UGA’s new OL coach, I would be shocked if he decided to out of nowhere flip to AU. It would be a nice surprise if it were to happen but I think you are setting yourself up for disappointment if you think something goes down this week. I do, however, very much believe AU can flip Jones. It won’t be easy but they will get their shot in January.

Final Thoughts

Assuming that my predictions prove true (they won’t) that would mean Auburn signs 18 of their 20 commits tomorrow and add 3 more to the class. That would leave only 2 spots left to fill which is a very good place to be heading into January. The focus would then be on top targets such as Jones and McKinnley Jackson along with keeping Hardy in the fold.

The Tigers have a good shot at landing another top 10 class and barring a collapse at the finish I think that’s exactly what happens. Whether good or bad, there will definitely be plenty of news to follow tomorrow on the trail.

War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/12/17/21026127/2020-auburn-football-recruiting-early-signing-period-preview-jeremy-flax-desmond-tisdol-eric-reed

[goldeagleprice]

Key date coins, the 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof, and the future of American Silver Eagles: An interview with Eric Jordan

By Louis Golino

Eric Jordan, who has degrees in engineering and business, started as a collector of classic American issues like Prooflike Morgan dollars in the 1980s, but in the 1990s discovered he would not be able to complete that set and that indexed to inflation his collection had “leveled out or worse.” His attention then shifted to “the radical drop in high-end modern coin mintages” and the “low-risk opportunity they presented,” as he wrote in his well-received book, Modern Commemorative Coins (Krause, 2010). Later he co-authored with longtime dealer John Maben Top 50 Most Popular Modern Coins (Krause, 2012), which extended the analysis to coins issued after the publication of the first book and included updated mintage data.

Eric’s key argument in these books is that the potential appreciation of most coin series comes mainly from their key and semi-key dates with the rest of the series mostly along for the ride from an investing perspective. Mature, classic U.S. coin series’ key and semi-key dates have had a long time to appreciate to the point that the average collector can only afford them in low grades, if at all. As for modern coins, “Today’s key date moderns are displaying exactly the same behavior but are still affordable to the broad middle class,” as he said in a 2012 Numismatic News article.

His response to the frequently mentioned argument that modern coins have been poor investments is to focus on the key dates in series’ whose overall populations are increasing, not the common coins, and that many collectors are impatient and do not give the key coins’ value enough time to appreciate. As he noted in that 2012 piece, “All one needs to do is focus on low population attractive issues in series with rapidly expanding total populations just as collectors with foresight have for generations.”

It is true that both of Eric’s books were written at a time when interest in U.S. Mint precious metal issues was higher than it is today and that classic and modern key dates have seen their values come down as the overall coin market has softened, but the basic approach is still valid.  For example, prices for the 1995-W Proof Silver Eagle have come down, especially for graded 70s, but that coin is still worth more than the rest of the series combined for ungraded examples and 69’s [or was until the 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof (ERP) was issued on November 14]. For graded examples, the story is different because of advancements in minting technology. MS-70 examples of the earlier dates that are very common below that grade are very scarce and expensive in the top grade (unlike recent issues that have almost no premium in MS-70).

Eric was also the first analyst to compare the American Silver Eagle to the Morgan silver dollar in his books and articles — a comparison that other writers have picked up on. I recently interviewed him about his arguments about key date coins; how the new reverse design the Mint plans to launch in 2021 and the issuance of the 2019-S ERP, the new king of Silver Eagles, will impact the series; and how he expects that coin and its cousin, the 1995-W Proof, to perform over time.

Hover to zoom.

Louis Golino: Please discuss your argument that the Silver Eagle is the modern equivalent of the Morgan dollar and what it means for those who want a deeper understanding of the Silver Eagle series and where it is headed.

Eric Jordan: Silver Eagles now have a total population of over half a billion coins and have a larger population than the Morgan did in 1904 before the Pittman Act melts. It’s the modern Morgan, and the Mint indicates that it’s going to change the reverse next year, effectively closing the series. Remember this series is subject to the law of 1890 requiring at least 25 years between design changes, so we are witnessing the close of the Type I Silver Eagle and the dawn of the Type II Silver Eagle.

The Morgan had a lot going for it. Large size, good looks, massive high-grade populations, cheap common dates, high bullion content, and a wide variety in finishes ranging from Frosted to Prooflike and Proof not to mention multiple mint marks. The great melts gave Morgans another important characteristic that contributed to eventual series greatness, and that’s a great deal of stagger to the series populations. If you don’t have some key dates that are much harder to come by than the common dates, series don’t develop well. Morgans had all of this, and it’s the reason they went on to become a staple of the typical American coin collector.

LG: How is your view impacted by the forthcoming design change and by the other key coin, the 1995-W Proof?

EJ: The 1986 to 2020 Type I Silver Eagle has almost exactly the same structure. Large size, good looks, beyond massive high-grade populations, cheap common dates, high bullion content, and a wide variety of finishes. From the start, the Type I Silver Eagle had consistently large mintages that did not offer key date mintages low enough to produce the kind of key date to common date mintage differentials needed to produce a meaningful collectible. That was until the Mint issued the 1995-W Proof Silver Eagle in the four-coin gold set. The hassle and expense of buying one was the anomaly that gave this great modern silver dollar series its first and badly needed noteworthy key.

You still could buy the 95-W Proof for around $500 in early 1996, but that seemed like an exorbitant price for a coin that was issued as a gift in a gold coin set six months prior and had a 30,000 mintage. Make no mistake about it; rarity is relative. Relative to the population of the series members and the number of people that collect it. The 95-W was an order of magnitude rarity in a popular and rapidly growing population, so the coin spent the next 20 years appreciating into the $3,000 price range for PR-69 examples.

LG: How does the new 2019-S ERP coin impact the series?

EJ: Now the Mint just issued the controversial 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof Silver Eagle to the cries of many and the momentary profit of others. But there is no way to distribute them in a seamless manner to everyone that wants one and still be rare enough to be noteworthy. This series needs a few harsh relative rarity keys to go on to greatness, and it now has them. They are the 1995-W Proof, the 2019-S Reverse Proof, and the 2008-W Mint State with reverse of 2007, and to a much lesser degree, the Mint State 2011-S.

We don’t know what will come out next year for the send-off of the Type I Silver Eagle, but frankly, it does not matter as long as the design change takes place at the end of 2020. If the Mint Produces an even lower mintage special offering next year (which I highly doubt), then buy it even if it comes from the hand of someone with better luck than you. If not, we have workable keys for the largest silver dollar population the world has ever seen, and the keys will be set in stone.

LG: How do you see the value trajectory of both Silver Eagle key coins going forward?

EJ: Assuming the Mint has the same return and damage rate as the 2011 anniversary set, the 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof will come in around 29,964 coins. Given that the 95-W in PR-69 is a roughly $3,000 coin, you can expect the 2019-S to move into this price range over the next 10 years or less for a run of the mill example. The 2019-S PR-70 price behavior is more difficult to project. Don’t assume that the fantastic 1995-W PR-70 prices running between $8,000 and $20,000 associated with the 95-W will show up on the 2019-S. That will depend on grade through rate. The 1995-W does not grade all that well, so 70s are hard to come by. If most of the 2019-S issues can make 70, then the prices on them will fall well short of the 95-W. If, on the other hand, the 2019-S grades poorly, then the 70 could end up terribly expensive.

The Type I Silver Eagle, unlike some of the older series, can be completed by mere mortals and probably has a bright future. If you like moderns, start picking up the better date Silver Eagles with sub-150,000 mintages while they are still looking for permanent homes because that’s nothing in a sea of over half a billion coins.

LG: Finally, what is your advice for collectors who are worried about so-called “milk spots” forming in their eagles, especially coins like the 2019-S ERP that cost them big bucks?

EJ: Silver Eagles tend to pick up “milk spots” on their surfaces that don’t come off and can ruin the look of a nice coin if it’s stored in the wrong holder. You don’t want a serious collectible coin you had to pay real money for develop problems that negatively impact its grade in the out years. It is my personal experience over the last 20 years that Silver Eagles stored in original government capsules in a cool, dry place have an extremely low incidence of milk spotting problems. I have also noted a low incidence of milk spots on NGC-slabbed Silver Eagles, but there is no substitute for doing one’s own research when it comes to coinage or conservation.

Louis Golino is an award-winning numismatic journalist and writer specializing primarily in modern U.S. and world coins. His work has appeared in Coin World, CoinWeek, The Greysheet and CPG Market Review, The Numismatist, Numismatic News, FUN Topics, The Clarion, and COINage, among other publications. His first coin-writing position was with Coin Update.

In 2015, his CoinWeek.com column, “The Coin Analyst,” received an award from the Numismatic Literary Guild for best website column. By 2017, he received an NLG award for best article in a non-numismatic publication with his “Liberty Centennial Designs,” which was published in Elemetal Direct. In October 2018, he received a literary award from the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists (PAN) for his article, “Lady Liberty: America’s Enduring Numismatic Motif,” that appeared in The Clarion in 2017.

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@Louis, Another good article. I Agree 100% that the design ... by cagcrisp

[onlinemarketinghelp]

PNC Bank Review: Competitive Checking Account https://ift.tt/2KOoJFE

Quick Summary

High-yield checking account (2.15% to 2.20% APY)

Checking requires $500 in deposits or $500 account balance

High-yield savings account (2.00% APY)

9,100 ATMs

Quick Navigation

Quick Summary

What Is PNC Bank?

What Do They Offer?

Are There Any Fees?

How Do I Open an Account?

Is My Money Safe?

Is It Worth It?

What Is PNC Bank?

PNC Bank has been around for over 160 years. It is a full-service bank offering savings, checking, retirement, mortgages, loans, and service for both personal and business customers.

It had assets of $409 billion as of September 30, 2019. It falls into the back half of the 10 largest U.S. banks by assets. PNC Bank mainly serves the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Southeast regions.

What Do They Offer?

PNC Bank offers a full suite of financial products. In this article, we’ll focus on their savings and checking products.

Savings Account

PNC Bank’s savings product is called PNC High Yield Savings, which has a 2.00% APY. This product is not available in all markets. You can type in your zip code at the website to see if it is available in your market.

There is no minimum to open, no minimum balance to maintain, and there are no monthly service fees.

Checking Account

PNC Bank’s checking account product that combines checking and savings is called Virtual Wallet. You can earn between 2.15% and 2.20% APY. The higher APY is reserved for relationship customers. Relationship customers meet one of the following qualifications:

Make at least five qualifying purchases in a month with your Virtual Wallet Debit Card and/or PNC credit card included in your Virtual Wallet.

Set up a qualifying monthly direct deposit of at least $500 for Virtual Wallet or Virtual Wallet Student, or one of the following:

$2,000 ($1,000 for PNC WorkPlace Banking® or Military Banking customers) for Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend.

$5,000 for Virtual Wallet with Performance Select.

There is also a $300, $200, or $50 bonus available if you use a Virtual Wallet product. Eligibility for the bonus is as follows:

$300 reward: Open a new Virtual Wallet with Performance Select.

$200 reward: Open a new Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend.

$50 reward: Open a new Virtual Wallet.

So what exactly is a Virtual Wallet? PNC Virtual Wallet has three primary objects: Spend (checking), Reserve (earning interest on checking), and Growth (savings). In a nutshell, it’s a checking account with a high interest rate.

To avoid the $7/month fee in the basic Virtual Wallet checking account, you’ll need to do $500/month in qualifying deposits, maintain a $500 balance, or be at least 62 years old.

Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend earns interest on balances of $2,000 or more. It has a $15/month fee, but you can avoid it in several ways — $2,000 in qualifying deposits, a $2,000 balance, or $10,000 in combined PNC consumer deposits.

Virtual Wallet with Performance Select also earns interest on balances of $2,000 or more. It has a $25/month fee that is waived by $5,000 in qualifying deposits; a $5,000 balance (including linked checking accounts); or $25,000 in combined balances or PNC consumer deposits, and/or investments. This account is also eligible for the higher relationship rates.

Finally, there is a Virtual Wallet Student account available. The account is also eligible for the higher relationship rates. There are no deposit or balance requirements on this account and it doesn’t have a monthly fee.

PNC Bank offers digital and mobile banking. You’ll have access to Zelle, mobile check deposits, money transfers, online bill payment, and more. The mobile app also allows you to access a PNC ATM without having to use your debit card. This is done by using an access code.

Are There Any Fees?

Yes — there are a number of fees to watch out for. If you close your account within 180 days of opening it, there will be a $25 fee. There is a $36 overdraft fee, with up to four occurrences per day. To replace a card, it costs $7.50. Stop payments will cost $33 each.

How Do I Open an Account?

Visit pnc.com to apply for an account.

Is My Money Safe?

Yes — PNC Bank’s savings and checking products are FDIC-secured. Additionally, PNC uses bank-grade encryption.

Is It Worth It?

PNC Bank’s checking product is competitive. It offers an attractive APY coupled with a full-service, major bank. Ultimately, if ATM access is within your area so that you can avoid fees, the service can be worth it. If you also need branch access, be sure there are branches in your location.

The post PNC Bank Review: Competitive Checking Account appeared first on The College Investor.

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Quick Summary

High-yield checking account (2.15% to 2.20% APY)

Checking requires $500 in deposits or $500 account balance

High-yield savings account (2.00% APY)

9,100 ATMs

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Quick Summary

What Is PNC Bank?

What Do They Offer?

Are There Any Fees?

How Do I Open an Account?

Is My Money Safe?

Is It Worth It?

What Is PNC Bank?

PNC Bank has been around for over 160 years. It is a full-service bank offering savings, checking, retirement, mortgages, loans, and service for both personal and business customers.

It had assets of $409 billion as of September 30, 2019. It falls into the back half of the 10 largest U.S. banks by assets. PNC Bank mainly serves the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Southeast regions.

What Do They Offer?

PNC Bank offers a full suite of financial products. In this article, we’ll focus on their savings and checking products.

Savings Account

PNC Bank’s savings product is called PNC High Yield Savings, which has a 2.00% APY. This product is not available in all markets. You can type in your zip code at the website to see if it is available in your market.

There is no minimum to open, no minimum balance to maintain, and there are no monthly service fees.

Checking Account

PNC Bank’s checking account product that combines checking and savings is called Virtual Wallet. You can earn between 2.15% and 2.20% APY. The higher APY is reserved for relationship customers. Relationship customers meet one of the following qualifications:

Make at least five qualifying purchases in a month with your Virtual Wallet Debit Card and/or PNC credit card included in your Virtual Wallet.

Set up a qualifying monthly direct deposit of at least $500 for Virtual Wallet or Virtual Wallet Student, or one of the following:

$2,000 ($1,000 for PNC WorkPlace Banking® or Military Banking customers) for Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend.

$5,000 for Virtual Wallet with Performance Select.

There is also a $300, $200, or $50 bonus available if you use a Virtual Wallet product. Eligibility for the bonus is as follows:

$300 reward: Open a new Virtual Wallet with Performance Select.

$200 reward: Open a new Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend.

$50 reward: Open a new Virtual Wallet.

So what exactly is a Virtual Wallet? PNC Virtual Wallet has three primary objects: Spend (checking), Reserve (earning interest on checking), and Growth (savings). In a nutshell, it’s a checking account with a high interest rate.

To avoid the $7/month fee in the basic Virtual Wallet checking account, you’ll need to do $500/month in qualifying deposits, maintain a $500 balance, or be at least 62 years old.

Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend earns interest on balances of $2,000 or more. It has a $15/month fee, but you can avoid it in several ways — $2,000 in qualifying deposits, a $2,000 balance, or $10,000 in combined PNC consumer deposits.

Virtual Wallet with Performance Select also earns interest on balances of $2,000 or more. It has a $25/month fee that is waived by $5,000 in qualifying deposits; a $5,000 balance (including linked checking accounts); or $25,000 in combined balances or PNC consumer deposits, and/or investments. This account is also eligible for the higher relationship rates.

Finally, there is a Virtual Wallet Student account available. The account is also eligible for the higher relationship rates. There are no deposit or balance requirements on this account and it doesn’t have a monthly fee.

PNC Bank offers digital and mobile banking. You’ll have access to Zelle, mobile check deposits, money transfers, online bill payment, and more. The mobile app also allows you to access a PNC ATM without having to use your debit card. This is done by using an access code.

Are There Any Fees?

Yes — there are a number of fees to watch out for. If you close your account within 180 days of opening it, there will be a $25 fee. There is a $36 overdraft fee, with up to four occurrences per day. To replace a card, it costs $7.50. Stop payments will cost $33 each.

How Do I Open an Account?

Visit pnc.com to apply for an account.

Is My Money Safe?

Yes — PNC Bank’s savings and checking products are FDIC-secured. Additionally, PNC uses bank-grade encryption.

Is It Worth It?

PNC Bank’s checking product is competitive. It offers an attractive APY coupled with a full-service, major bank. Ultimately, if ATM access is within your area so that you can avoid fees, the service can be worth it. If you also need branch access, be sure there are branches in your location.

The post PNC Bank Review: Competitive Checking Account appeared first on The College Investor.

https://ift.tt/2KNfbLg November 23, 2019 at 11:15AM https://ift.tt/2KO8Peq