#and i would absolutely buy it if i had the funds .. is there a discount if getting the clothes i could also get the man ahah 😰

[hyunpic]

HYUNJIN for WKOREA & VERSACE

[plague-parade]

same anon: im asking this because im a person with pots as well as a person with chronic pain (about 10 years now) that causes walking to be pretty painful.

could you possibly explain what it was like to get a wheelchair as an ambulatory user ? im looking into it myself due to my issues walking (and near passing out while walking) but know that if i dont get doctors approval, i will not be able to afford it without a lot of financial assistance

so im really lucky that my family had the financial ability to buy it without insurance (its technically my graduation gift lol) from hearing what other people went through to get their chairs like waiting over a year to get approval, i thought it would be best for me to just get it now because i needed it right then.

i had scoured my insurance’s policies and realized that they probably weren’t going to cover it fully (i dont need it for accomplishing activities of daily life (ADLs) at home, which my insurance required) plus my doorways arent wide enough to get my chair through so i wouldnt be able to use it inside my house anyway.

right now im in the process of getting an hEDS diagnosis, so im hoping that once i get it insurance might cover power assist wheels for me.

if insurance doesnt cover yours, you should try crowd funding for it on something like gofundme, there are also charities that will give wheelchairs for free, ill link them in the post. i also recommend looking for second hand chairs on ebay, i couldnt find one that fit my measurements, but theyre usually under $1000 that way! ill also link a resource to measure yourself for a chair so you know your measurements. if you look for a second hand one, the main measurement to know is the seat width and depth. theyre usually written width by depth, so mine is 18x16. i got very excited to find a tilite for $800 when i realized it was 16x18 and not 18x16 :/

how to measure:

wheelchair charities that i know of:

(this one is christian fyi)

an article with a few:

also it seems like medicare and medicaid are more likely to cover wheelchairs than private insurance (if youre in the US)

i got my wheelchair from 1800wheelchair.com, their customer service is absolutely amazing, and most of their products are discounted! my chair full price would have been $2370 but we paid $1500

[chartercapital22]

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[xiao-cafe]

money sense — zhongli oneshot

pairing: zhongli x gn!reader tags: fluff, established crush on zhongli and everyone knows except him, a little bit of crack, ambiguous ending but it’s not sad summary: funds are running low so aether dumps zhongli at your door one day and asks you to teach the man how to haggle. wc: 1.3k 

It was a little past three in the afternoon when Aether arrived at your door with Paimon, screeching incessantly. Startled by the sudden intrusion, you emerged from your workroom to see a familiar trio by your door. 

Your heart skips a beat when your gaze lands on Zhongli, standing beside Aether while engaging Paimon in what could only be described as a one-sided argument. You take a few seconds to calm yourself down whilst also finding amusement in the trio’s predicament.

Before you could even raise a hand in greeting, you get interrupted by Paimon.

“We have no money left!” Paimon cried, clutching dramatically at her little head. “Y/N! Please teach this guy how to haggle, you’re the only one we know who’s the best at getting discounts!” Clinging onto you, the guide points an accusatory finger at Zhongli, with an angry pout on her face.

Aether nodded along furiously, crossing his arms as he sighed heavily while looking at Zhongli who seemed to not be the least bit bothered by their lack of Mora. Certainly, being an ex-god, the man had his quirks. 

One that was simply unacceptable for a group of travellers. 

Lack of money sense.

“Please Y/N, we’ve seen you haggle at the harbour and getting nearly half off,” Aether said earnestly, admiration shining in his eyes. It took you less than a second to remember what he was talking about. No doubt, he was referring to the time you spent almost an hour at Xigu Antiques, bargaining as if your life depended on it. 

Unsure of whether you should be embarrassed or flattered you simply put both your hands up in surrender while ignoring the subtle rise of blush on your cheeks when you meet Zhongli’s strong gaze. The man nods his head at you in greeting and you hastily nod back, hoping that you didn’t look too eager when you did so. 

“I’m flattered, but are you guys sure you’d want me to teach him how to haggle?” You ask, tearing your eyes away from Zhongli’s face as you spoke directly to Aether. 

“Please.” Aether and Paimon say simultaneously, in all seriousness. It was almost comical, the way Aether and his guide were absolutely in sync for once.

“I agree, I believe haggling is part and parcel of Liyue Harbor’s culture and learning such a skill would certainly become a benefit.” Zhongli’s deep voice resonated easily in your small home.

You realised that your guests had been politely standing by the entrance, save for Paimon who was always quick to break a few rules. Heat rose to your face as you gestured for them to come in.

“P-please come right in! I’ll make some tea right now!” You stumbled across your words, embarrassed that you had forgotten your manners. As you were about to make your way to the kitchen and make tea, a warm gloved hand lands on your forearm, holding you in place.

“It’s fine, Y/N. It was our fault for intruding upon you.” Zhongli assured, his sweet half-smile causing your heart to race. 

You nod meekly, not trusting yourself to speak without stuttering. You rubbed at your skin where Zhongli had touched, feeling the goosebumps that emerged.

“Then I guess we’ll leave him to you then, Y/N!” Paimon announced gleefully. The little guide floats towards your face and leans in to whisper in your ear.

“Good luck!” Paimon whispers, winking secretively.

Rather than luck, you wished you’d have a stronger heart.

“I believe these tomatoes are of the highest quality. Fresh and grown with care, these tomatoes are suitable for Y/N’s diet. Farming is a skill honed with years of experience as such I will buy all your tomatoes.” 

You wanted nothing more than to knock yourself unconscious with the nearest pillar.

It had been an hour since you began your shopping trip with Zhongli for groceries. It was supposed to be a simple lesson, teaching him how to pick which store to buy from and how to obtain a discount from the store. 

Yet, Zhongli and his infinite knowledge were attempting to burn a hole through your wallet. 

“Stop!” You throw the vendor an apologetic smile and drag Zhongli away by the arm. 

“Zhongli... We’re supposed to be buying only what we need, and obtaining a discount.” You explained once more, hoping he’d understand. “I understand you hold great respect for excellent farmers but this,” You gesture to your wallet, “Has only 500 Mora.”

You hear a snicker behind your back and immediately lower your head, shoving your wallet back into your pockets.

Zhongli was quiet for a moment as he stared at you intensely. You were beginning to wonder if you had something on your face. 

“I see... It was my mistake. I’ve only been seeing things in the perspective of a seller’s ideal customer. Please continue to teach me how to haggle, I am certain I will do better this time around.” He said, “So, please continue the lesson... Y/N Sensei.” Chuckling to himself, you watch Zhongli head back to the store with your face bright red and your mind short-circuiting from the witnessing Zhongli’s laugh.

An inexplicable warmth bloomed in your chest as you jogged to catch up to Zhongli.

“Pardon me, but I’d like to buy 5 tomatoes,” Zhongli said, glancing over to you. You nodded and smiled back at him, encouraging him to continue. 

“That’d be 600 Mora.” 

Boring your gaze onto Zhongli’s side profile, you could only hope that he had learned from his previous mistake. 

“My partner here only has 500 Mora, would it be alright if you’d lower the price for them please?” 

You smack your face into your hands, sinking to the floor. The mention of yourself being Zhongli’s partner barely made it through your mind as the barely-contained giggles from the vendor filled your ears.

“I-I’m sure... I can make ah... ha... an exception t-today.” The vendor managed to get out. 

“Y/N, he agreed to the discount,” Zhongli stated, satisfaction practically rolling off of him in waves.

Through the gaps of your fingers, you see Zhongli turn and pause. Possibly because you were crouched on the floor and he had no idea what he had just done.

“Do you not have 500 Mora? I thought you-”

Unable to take it any longer, you stand up quickly and hand the money over, receiving your bag of tomatoes in exchange. 

“Thank you...” You mumbled to the vendor, red-faced, holding on tightly to your bag of tomatoes. 

“My pleasure! I wish both of you happiness!” The vendor grinned.

Before you could protest, Zhongli had intercepted. 

“Thank you for your kind words.” He replied, graciously accepting the handshake offered by the vendor. Shaking your head in disbelief, you chuckled to yourself as a form of comfort and took upon the chance to gaze upon Zhongli unabashedly while he was distracted.

As the hustle and bustle of Liyue Harbor reached its evening peak, the setting sun cast a warm glow against the city, illuminating everything within reach, golden. 

Yet, your focus was only on him. 

Everything about him ensnared your senses and forced you to only look at him. 

His dark hair that faded to ombre at the tips shone a bright gold in wisps and his eyes that seemed to hold an abundance of intellect and mysteries only made you fall for him more.

You let out an appreciative sigh, unaware that Zhongli’s conversation with the vendor had long since ended.

“Y/N?”

You blinked a few times, snapping out of your trance.

“I think we’ll end today’s lesson here.” You hastily respond, giving Zhongli a warm smile. “You did well.”

“Naturally. I was taught by the best.” He replied smoothly. “Though, I think I much prefer to call you partner rather than Sensei... I guess imitating Childe wasn’t for me.” He muttered, resting his chin between his pointer finger and thumb. 

You could only laugh as he fell into deep thought. 

Surely, one day you’d have the confidence to let him know about your feelings.

“Then I’ll head home first, Zhongli.”

“Of course, goodbye Y/N.”

As you waved goodbye to him, you could only think about the next time you’d see him again.

end.

This is my first genshin impact fic and it’s for geo daddy who still refuses to come home. anyways, hope you guys enjoy this one-shot and feel free to raid my inbox lol i’m looking for mutuals on here :3c

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tories pass Grenfell costs onto tenants

In 2017, at 72 people were burned alive when London's Grenfell Tower went up in flames. It had been skinned in highly flammable "decorative cladding" to make it less of an eyesore for rich people in nearby blocks of luxury flats.

That charnel house was the opening act on a yearslong odyssey of cruelty that just reached a new climax in Parliament, as Tory MPs ensured that working people - not landlords, developers or manufacturers - would fit the bill for removing cladding from their homes.

Here's what happened, and what's happening. After Grenfell, there were a series of (ahem) burning questions. For example: where would the people who lost their homes live? This fell to the (Tory) Kensington Council, which had been trying to oust poor people for years.

Kensington Council found a way to realise its twin goals of discouraging poor people from living in the borough and doing the absolute least to satisfy its legal obligations: it had the Grenfell survivors bid against their neighbours for homes:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-fire-survivors-bid-permanent-homes-housing-kensington-council-rbkc-a7905341.html

With that question settled (!), the next question raised by Grenfell was, "Do I live in a building with flammable cladding, and if so, what happens next?" These should have been easy questions to answer, but Tory MPs did everything they could to keep the nation in the dark.

Take the question of who should pay to make homes safe. Tory MPs had repeatedly voted down legislation that would have required landlords to pay to make their buildings fit for human habitation. One bill was voted down just months before Grenfell.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/corbyn-tried-pass-law-make-homes-safe-last-year-conservatives-rejected-49103/

That the Tories voted against a bill that would protect tenants from landlords is no surprise. After all, David Cameron's 2012 "war on safety culture" paved the way for Grenfell, and the committee that killed the bill was composed of MPs who were mostly landlords themselves.

Neither the landlords, nor the parliament in their thrall, would pay to make the country's firetraps safe.

Theresa May (who found £1B to bribe the bigoted loons at the DUP) told local councils they shouldn't expect anything for cladding removal.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-cladding-scandal-council-funding-government-no-guarantee-local-government-budgets-a7809216.html

The rest of the country was just wising up to something May knew: there are hell of a lot of future Grenfells out there. Conservative councils had been on a highly flammable cladding buying spree, because it was 5.7% cheaper than the safe alternative.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/08/grenfell-tower-more-costly-fire-resistant-cladding-plan-was-dropped

The only reason the cladding was for sale at all was because the companies that made it had committed fraud, falsifying their safety reports (the "war on safety culture" had ended, making this kind of lethal fraud easy to get away with).

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-fire-latest-inquiry-london-cladding-building-safety-uk-celotex-a8362186.html

The local councils who'd saved pennies buying these fraudulent materials went into full CYA mode. They told their residents that information about which homes were affected needed to be kept secret, lest arsonists burn them all down (no, really).

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/16/towers-with-grenfell-style-cladding-at-risk-of-arson-and-terrorism

Still, the cladding had to be replaced, and so work began. The same property developers who'd padded their bottom lines by skimping on fire-safety and installing the cladding made millions replacing it.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-fire-cladding-exclusive/exclusive-after-grenfell-fire-same-builders-rehired-to-replace-dangerous-cladding-reuters-finds-idUKKBN1E714Z

These companies sent gleeful notes to their shareholders announcing massive increases in their profitability:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/08/rydon-profit-rises-grenfell-tower-contractor

and the people who lived in the buildings got sent the bills:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/17/citiscape-croydon-2m-recladding-bill-prompted-grenfell-disaster

It's been four years since Grenfell, and at last, a new Fire Safety Bill is working its way through Parliament. The Lords amended it to shift the costs of replacing cladding to the landlords who bought it, the developers who recommended it, and the manufacturers who sold it.

But the Tory Parliament of Landlords voted the amendment down. Millions of English people (Wales, Scotland and NI are a different story) are now on the hook for £40-50K in costs.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/03/the-ultimate-grenfell-betrayal-uk-government-leaves-victims-of-cladding-crisis-holding-the-bill.html

They're already paying huge insurance premiums because their homes are deathtraps. Banks won't extend mortgages because their homes are deathtraps. They are obliged to spend hundreds of pounds a month for fire-prevention "walking watches" because their homes are deathtraps.

These leaseholds are the cheapest in the country and their residents are the most economically precarious leaseholders. Many are selling at steep discounts to cash buyers, losing everything.

A survey found 90% of the people in these buildings are experiencing declining mental health as a result of the inaction and uncertainty.

These people had nothing to do with the decision to convert their homes to deathtraps, but they are now stuck with the bill.

The three main manufacturers - Celotex, Kingspan, and Arconic - were all determined to have falsified their fire-safety test data and ignored whistleblowers who warned management about the risk.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/12/how-they-built-grenfell

The newly privatised standards bodies - the British Board of Agrément, British Standards Institute, British Research Establishment - that certified the buildings also operate a revolving door with execs from firms whose work they certify.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/29/fir1-n29.html

None have paid a price. Quite the reverse! Arconic billed HM Treasury for £500k in furlough subsidies last year.

The £5.1b that Parliament has approved for cladding replacement does not come close to the total cost, and tenants are being stuck with the shortfall.

In particular, buildings with fewer than 7 storeys will get *no* subsidy - instead, the government will offer the people unlucky enough to live in them loans that they can't afford.

And while these are tenants, they can't move. They are "leasehold tenants" with 99-999 year leases: they don't own their flat, but they own the right to live there for a century. The building is owned by a freeholder - typically an aristocrat or financial speculator.

These leases are sold as though they were property - when a leaseholder "buys a flat," they actually buy the lease, typically with a mortgage. These leases are now underwater, because they are leases on deathtraps.

To move, they'd have to convince someone to buy their flammable leases. To stay, they have to borrow £40-50k to make their homes safe. They didn't create this situation, but the Tories have stuck them with the bill.

[telehxhtrash]

Tele, I raise you HIGHSCHOOL AU + KISSING BOOTH + PRACTICE KISSING.

Ysabel I am going to pass out because of how much i adore this idea. I. I'm in love. This is it. I'm an absolute SUCKER for dumb rom-com clichés and you managed to put 3 of those in the same thing and i- it's perfect. honestly i dont even have WORDS fjdngjkdngjk it's so PERFECT IT WOULD WORK SO WELL OMFG SO LIKE this is how i imagine itd go (buckle up it's gonna be the most cliché thing you've ever read - and also probably extremely badly written but pls bear with me)

• Gon is ofc the extremely popular kid, in every sports club he could ever possibly join, extremely athletic and very kind to everyone and loveable - basically everyone is in love with him.

• Killua is the rich (ok remember that he's rich pls it's important), smart kid who mostly keeps to himself and pretty much scares people away because he's always sarcastic/doesn't want to be bothered.

And of course, they've been best friends since forever. They grew up together, always do everything together, hang out everyday.... And it's because they're so different that it works. They both allow each other to shine brighter.

Prom is pretty close, and all the excitement surrounding it totally flies over Killua's head because he's never been and will NEVER go, thank you very much. The mere thought of being in the same room as thousands of horny teenagers is enough to make him want to puke.

But Gon, sweet, adorable, peppy Gon, runs full speed at Killua down the hallway the SECOND he hears about prom, like he's been doing for the past 3 years.

"Gon I swear to god if you ask me to go to prom again after i told you a thousand times that i will NEVER go i will-"

"Mh-mh Killua ! That's not it ! I had a brilliant idea on how to fund prom this year !!" that sentence and Gon's wide grin and the glint of mischief in his eyes make Killua very scared of what's coming next...

"A kissing booth !! I'm gonna set up a kissing booth !" hold on- WHAT??

Gon can't set up a kissing booth - Gon has never kissed anyone in his life, he told Killua so himself a few weeks ago, and now he wants to set up a kissing booth where, knowing his popularity, he'll probably kiss hundreds of people??? Just the thought of it makes Killua's stomach drop - Gon's first kiss wouldn't be with him. Of course it wouldn't. Just because they did everything together didn't mean Gon wanted to do those things with him. Holding hands. Going on dates. Kissing. Who was he kidding.

But Gon looks embarassed, putting his hand on his neck and looking down at the ground, but why would he be, he has no filter and-

"But Killua... I've never kissed anyone remember... W-What if I kiss the first person and I do terribly bad and then no one will come and I will be the reason why prom is cancelled and then everybody will hate me and all of this because i can't kiss and i-"

"I mean, we could practice." Killua finds himself interrupting, and Gon looks up at him, looking extremely shocked.

"...I-If you want of course ! I'm your best friend, it doesn't bother me" Killua feigns nonchalance.

But Gon's shocked expression turns into one an excited puppy would make. "REALLY KILLUA ?? You'd do that for me??" and Killua tries to keep his cool and just replies with a "yeah, yeah, no big deal".

So they decide to meet up at Gon's place the same day, after school. Killua has homework but for once, he'll let it slide. 

Killua is a nervous mess when he sits on Gon's bed, not knowing what to do with his hands and his palms are so sweaty, he feels like he's gonna pass out any second - 

"So, are you still okay with this Killua? We don't have to if you don't want to !!" "N-no it's nothing, idiot ! I'm the one that offered to help you out. Don't worry about it." 

It feels like Killua's face is gonna fall off because it feels so red.

Gon sits next to him, and Killua turns his head around to get a good look at his face and oh- his eyes are sparkling, his face is getting closer to his, and it's only when their lips are so close together that he can feel his breath on his lips that Gon whispers:

"Can I kiss you, Killua?"

And Killua crosses the distance between their lips, letting himself completely fall.

The first kiss is chaste, just a quick peck on the lips. The second is a bit more experimental, a bit longer but also a lot more teethy - but it's no secret that Gon has always been eager and impatient. Their third kiss makes Killua's heart jump to his throat, because Gon's tongue is in his mouth and it's messy and way too overwhelming, but Killua feels like he could die on the spot because this is everything he's ever wanted. To kiss Gon.

During the few weeks that preceded the Kissing Booth Event, Killua and Gon made a habit of going to Gon's house to "practice" and "make sure he doesn't get rusty" as Gon said. Not that Killua minded.

The day of the Kissing Booth event, Killua, fueled by a sudden strike of courage, decides to wake up as early as possible to be the first one in line at the kissing booth. I mean, he's the one who helped Gon get as good at kissing as he is right now, it's only fair to pluck the fruits of his labor, right ? And it's only fair compensation for the amount of homework Killua missed because he was too busy kissing Gon and thinking about Gon's lips and how soft they felt against his and how good it feels to be able to put his fingers in his hair to drag him closer -

So yeah, Killua was definitely going to be the first one there. He'll fight anyone who tries to steal his spot. But luckily, it seems no one comes here before him, but seeing Gon looking so adorable setting up his little booth makes Killua want to run away as fast as possible because he was so, so stupid - gon was just practicing with him there was no way he would ever want to kiss him for real, he'd probably say something like "I'm sorry Killua, I can't be seen kissing you in public, it's kind of embarassing you know...." and UGH why was Killua such a dumb idiot-

But Gon flashes his brightest smile at Killua and yells so enthusiastically his name that Killua forgets all thoughts and decides to just get this over with. He can do this ! 

As Killua walks towards Gon, Gon just says with a snarky smile "Killua ! Are you here to see if all our practice paid off ?" Killua can only mumble "Shut up idiot.", before sliding 100 jennies on the booth with shaking hands because he feels like he might just die this instant.

It's only when he feels Gon's finger touch his chin and slowly lift his head up that he realizes just in what situation he's in, but Gon's eyes look so bright and warm and they make him feel so calm, that when Gon presses his lips onto Killua's for a chaste kiss, Killua just lets himself melt into the kiss.

When they break apart, Killua is so dazed and at loss for words, but still manages to reach into his wallet for 100 more jennies, putting them on the booth slowly, while still staring into Gon's eyes in complete silence.

And Gon obliges, going in for another kiss, smiling against Killua's lips.

On his 5th kiss, Killua starts to realize that there is ambiant noise surrounding them now, and people are waiting in line and starting to get impatient. Oh god, he can't believe what he's about to do. 

He digs into his wallet and puts 50 000 jennies in front of Gon, and barely manages to spit out any coherent words but he still tries : "W-would that be enough to buy all the kisses you have available?"

And Gon just lets out the most open, beautiful laugh Killua has ever heard. He leans in slowly and says, voice barely above a whisper 

"If you wanted to kiss me you could've just said so, Killua. I can give you a discount." 

And the next thing Killua knows, Gon's lips are on his again, but this time it feels different - it feels more eager, like Gon is claiming him, like Gon has been waiting for this. And when they break apart, Gon grabs Killua's hand, looks at the people waiting in line, flashes his best smile and says: "Sorry guys, but we reached the goal for prom, we're all out of kisses ! I would tell you to come back later but I think we got a very persistent customer here who wants to have a monopoly on all my kisses, sorry !"

Killua just wants to melt into the ground because how can someone be so embarassing!!! He's truly trying to kill him !! But Gon's hand lets go of his to rest on his cheek, slowly dragging Killua's lips towards his once again.

And Killua can't help but think : best. purchase. ever.

omg HONESTLY if anyone who has better writing skills than me wants to have a go with this trope i beg of you go ahead i will give my life away to see this highschool kissing booth + kissing practice AU come to life, i would do ANYTHINGGGG to read a proper fic about this HAHAHAH 

thank you so much for blessing my day with this ask ily ♥♥

[words-writ-in-starlight]

THE UNTAMED, YOUR CHOICE OF OURAN AU, SOUL EATER AU, S&S AU, OR CORPSE BRIDE AU

OKAYI’M GOING TO DO THE OURAN AU BECAUSE I THINK IT’S REALLY FUNNY AND I MADE THEBAD CHOICE™ OF READING A BUNCH OF NEWS TODAY.  Uh.  Mycomputer crashed halfway through this and I think somehow it got longer,so.  Sorry about that one.

ONE

Wen Ning is a scholarship student.  He’s more than ascholarship student, really, he’s a here by the grace of every godever and also his sister student who also, incidentally, is ona scholarship.  The phenomenally wealthy Wen family recently went down ina blaze of indignity and political scandal, but newly-broke Wen Qing is not hearing any arguments about sending her babybrother to a less-than-top-of-the-line high school, especially since he acedthe tests and was given a full ride except for books and uniform.  SinceWen Qing was halfway through med school at the time of the Wen scandal, they’reburning through their meager inheritance to get her degree and make ends meetfor food, on the gamble eventually they might be able to move out of their absolutelyshit one-bedroom apartment on a doctor’s salary and also because Wen Ning pointblank refused to let her drop out.  Therefore, when Wen Ning tries to hideout in an empty music room and accidentally breaks a very expensive vase, he hasa moment of abject dread and–well, yeah, okay, he’ll work it off, he guesses.

TWO

WeiWuxian isn’t actually planning to charge this kid for a vase that is definitelyworth more than the entire apartment building he lives in!  Wei Wuxian isnot an asshole!  It’s just that he hasnever seen this scholarship kid with the secondhand clothes and the long hairhiding his face and the unfortunate name speak to anyone outside of absolutelymandatory conversation, and it’s kind of depressing.  So, Wuxian has decided to adopt him, teachhim how to talk to people, and maybe buy him a ponytail holder.  He has about five seconds to get all of thatout on the third day since recruiting Wen Ning, when a very petite woman in ared coat storms in like a hurricane and corners Wuxian alone (or rather, withonly Lan Wangji, which is as close as it gets) with apparently homicidal intentto snarl, “If you’re messing with my brother’s head, no one will ever find yourbody.”

(WenNing did not mention being low-key press-ganged into a host club on the firstday.  On the second day, he came home ina real uniform that actually fit, with his hair cut into something thatresembled a style and pulled back from his face, and he had to spill hisguts because not even Wen Qing’s sleep schedule was going to make her miss thatone.)

Turnsout that the sister Wen Ning mentioned, implying that she was the same kind ofangelic creature as Jiang Yanli, is fucking terrifying.  Wei Wuxian rambles through hisexplanation so fast that he kind of doubts Wen Qing gets all of it, and then hewaves his hands helplessly and says, “I don’t know, he just seemed kind oflonely?”  Wen Qing narrows her eyes athim.  “It’s true!  I never see him talk to anyone!”

“A-Ningis a good kid,” she says, shoving a finger into Wuxian’s chestthreateningly.  “Our family never likedhim because he’s too nice, and no one else likes him because of his name, so ifI hear you’re messing with him…”

“Iswear,” Wuxian says, raising his hand.  “Ijust thought maybe it would be good for him, having some people to hang outwith.”

WenQing studies him for another moment, and then she steps back and nods and says,“It will be.”

Andthat’s how the host club gets a part-time manager in addition to its latestrecruit.

THREE

Thehosts are:

[rose_petal_animation.gif]

WeiWuxian, whois nominally in charge because he came up with this whole idea, on the argumentthat, quote, “Jiang Cheng needs to learn to be nicer.”  It was also tacitly agreed that he and JiangCheng needed something that would keep them out of the house and therefore outof Madam Yu’s way after school, and they’d already been kicked out of themartial arts club after a slight incident involving Wei Wuxian’s fist, JinZixuan’s face, and Jiang Cheng’s unapologetic support.  Wuxian went around and recruited some folks,and now he has a host club, which, in his opinion, is markedly more fun thanthe martial arts club.  The Mischievoustype.

JiangCheng,who has spent three years in this circus and is not noticeably nicer.  He’s likable enough with the guests, but nomatter what Wei Wuxian says, Jiang Cheng does know how to be civil whenthe situation calls for it.  He spends mostof his time trying to reign in his brother’s more wild ideas, but his successrate isn’t great, because their sets-and-costumes guy is a horrible enablerwith family money who is more than willing to contribute to all kinds ofnonsense as long as he can show up with a fan and look mysterious while hewatches the chaos at their events.  JiangCheng says he’s the Long-Suffering type but actually he’s the Bad Boy typebecause of his temper.

JinZixuan,who is only here because his mother said he’d be grounded until he graduatesunless he found a good extracurricular and he didn’t know who ran the host clubwhen he blurted out that he was planning to join it.  Now he’s committed because his mother will notsupport him leaving and it’s been three years and also he still hasn’t gottenJiang Yanli’s phone number, which has become absolutely necessary because thethree minutes he sees her every Thursday when she comes to get her brothers fortheir weekly sibling dinner are the best of his week.  There is a good chance Zixuan’s going to getpunched again when he finally gets his courage up to ask her out, but sometimesit be like that.  The Princely type, althoughhe’s hopeless when he’s not playing a part.

LanWangji, treasurer,who is only here because Wei Wuxian asked him to be, and everyone (except WeiWuxian) knows it.  He’s still remarkablypopular with the guests, despite the fact that most people are lucky to get fiveconsecutive words out of him and it’s a known fact that he’ll bow out of aconversation with nothing more than a brief apology and a nod the moment Wuxiancalls him.  Somehow, three years later,Wuxian has not picked up on the fact that Wangji is really not here tolearn to talk to women.  Save him.  The Stoic type.

LanXichen, generalsource of stability if not necessarily common sense, who is here because hisbrother is here.  He and Wen Qing bondimmediately over their shared Protective Older Sibling energies, although WenQing is very much here to beat up anyone who looks sideways at her brother andXichen is very much here to wingman his brother as hard as he can manage.  He’s a year older than the others, graduatingthis year, and the most popular host by a long shot.  The Chivalrous type.

WenNing, who,yeah, is wide-eyed and shy and tends to start stuttering if more than threeguests are looking at him at any given moment, but he has an apparently innatetalent for sweet and unassuming kindness that’s a big hit.  The guests are charmed by his nervousness andthey’re always happy to listen to him talk about his favorite subjects (his sister,his friends, and archery, which he currently can’t afford to do but knowseverything about, in that order). The Natural type.

Honorablemention to Nie Mingjue, who graduated last year and was only partof the host club because Lan Xichen made him. Which is to say, Xichen smiled at him and talked about how gladhe was that Wangji was making friends and how good it would look onMingjue’s college applications as a complement to his more athleticextracurriculars and how happy Huaisang would be to do something withhis brother, and then Mingjue blinked and boom, host club.  He doesn’t have any idea what happened.  Xichen is like that.  The Jock type.

FOUR

NieHuaisang has been Wei Wuxian’s top enabler and partner in chaos since they werein middle school and he also knows everyone and everything despite hisreputation as a top-notch dumbass.  Hisentire rationale for not being part of the host club is that it wouldrequire him to admit to knowing things, and he Won’t, which—top student Wei “IHandle My Adequacy Issues By Being Smart But Also Have Guilt About It” Wuxiandoesn’t totally get that, but sure, okay, proceed.  Huaisang does, however, have anexcellent grasp of how to acquire all manner of strange things, so he is theirone-man supply center for all manner of wild concepts.  One time he got an entire apple treenext-day-shipped just to prove he could.

Also,Huaisang is personally responsible for making most of the host club’s money,because he has a camera and a good sense for the kind of pictures that peoplewill pay for.  Even funneling most of the money back into funding the club activities, Huaisang is still managing to turn a decent profit all told.  He takes a nice 7% cut for himself (friends and family discount), which is half the reason Mingjue didn’t kick up even more of a fuss about it.

Huaisang’svisceral hatred of the head editor of the school paper is the best kept secretin the school but on god Huaisang’s connections are better than that JinGuangyao asshole’s and he’s going to take him down before graduation.

FIVE

Halfwaythrough the school year, Wei Wuxian gets in a car wreck and the way Lan Wangjireacts to being the first number the paramedics find in Wuxian’s phone is informative.  It’s taken five and a half years, four brokenribs, a punctured lung, a concussion, and a spirited yelling sessionfrom Jiang Cheng, among other things, but Wei Wuxian has finally managed to geta clue.

Anda boyfriend.

Nowall they need to do is resolve Huaisang’s vendetta, figure out how the hell afirst year like Xue Yang managed to so comprehensively destroy ex-teacher XiaoXingchen’s reputation, and try and make it to Wen Qing’s graduation on time,and they’re golden.

[alexandermoovie]

[~GUARDA~] Io sono Nessuno (nobody) [2021] Streaming~ITA

Io sono Nessuno 2021 Hutch Mansell, padre e marito sottostimato e trascurato, è abituato a non reagire a nessuna umiliazione. Quando una notte due ladri irrompono nella sua abitazione in periferia, rifiuta di difendere se stesso o la sua famiglia, speranzo di prevenire violenze maggiori. Il figlio adolescente Blake è deluso dal suo comportamento e la moglie Becca comincia ad allontanarsi maggiormente da lui. All'indomani dell'accaduto, la rabbia che Hutch cova esplode spingendolo a manifestare tutta la violenza di cui è capace. Si ritroverà allora a dover difendere come meglio può la sua famiglia da un pericoloso avversario e ad assicurarsi di non essere mai più sottovalutato da nessuno.

Rilasciato: 2021-03-18 Durata: 92 minuti Genere: Azione, Thriller, Crime Stelle: Bob Odenkirk, Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Ironside Regista: Tobey Maguire, Mary Vernieu, Marc S. Fischer, David Leitch, Bob Odenkirk

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Io sono Nessuno streaming ita gratis after attempts to host racing in 2019 and 2021 for the America’s Cup teams were cancelled due to delays and disease, the four AC75s will officially line-up for America’s Cup World Series Auckland and the Christmas Race (December 17-20, 2021 in New Zealand; December 16-19 in North America). While the PRADA Cup Challenger Selection Series is still a month away, the results from this racing will determine the pairings for the three challengers. While not yet do or die for the teams from Great Britain, Italy, and USA, the challengers are dying to know how good they are. Expect them to push hard. If the Kiwi team had one mandate for this America’s Cup, it was to ensure the greatest audience ever, but with the New Zealand border still closed due to COVID-19, the broadcast will be vital. Altadefinizione Io sono Nessuno streaming ita completo 4K However, if history is our guide, expect nothing and prepare for change. The event website explains how to watch on screens, with the American Magic team telling U.S. viewers they can choose to watch America’s Cup racing on television via the NBC Sports Network, streaming on www.nbcsports.com (with cable subscription), or streaming via the NBC Sports Gold America’s Cup Pass.

The ABC is one model of public broadcasting. Seed funding unique Australian content that might be broadcast via a host of streaming or privately owned free-to-air mediums is another. The case for the ABC is gone. Io sono Nessuno completo ita Marc Hendrickx, Berowra Heights, NSW As an ABC shareholder, along with 25 million other Australians, Paul Fletcher has my proxy. I expect him to challenge the ABC board when circumstances demand. And I expect the board to respond meaningfully and respectfully rather than throw a hissy-fit. The ABC’s charter is to report the news, not to create it. Malcolm Overland, Griffith, ACT

Ron Hobba (Letters, 16/12), China may have significantly increased its absolute amount of carbon emissions since 2005 while Australia reduced its by an average of about one per cent a year, but while China is busily manufacturing most of the things Australians like to buy it still has a per capita emissions rate that is less than half ours: 8.12 metric tonnes a year compared with our 17.27. Io sono Nessuno completo in italiano Lesley Walker, Northcote, Vic Some might say the 8000 or so residents of the “green island in the sky” (as Mount Tamborine is often called) have their heads in the clouds, Dave Chibeba (Last Post, 16/12), yet the vigorous debate on climate and environmental issues in the two local newspapers would clearly suggest the community is engaged and well informed on these and a broad range of topical issues. Rather than being a “smouldering bastion of climate deniers”, can I suggest the pristine environment of the mountain provides a clear view, unobstructed by activism or alarmism, where most would rather grow a tree than hug one.

[thechildoflightning]

Forecast

Title: Forecast

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Pairings: Remile

Word Count: 3217

~~~

Summary: 

An average fall morning with Remile, ft. depression fog, broke college students buying expensive coffee, teeny tiny pumpkins, emotional distress, and succulents (not in that order). 

For the lovely @illogicallyinclined’s hockey au.

Warnings: Depression, Seasonal Affective Disorder

[ao3 link]

~~~

Forecast

Remy had mixed feelings about October and the approaching holidays and seasons. 

On one hand- October meant Halloween which meant seasonal drinks like Pumpkin Spice. It also meant that decorations went up and he and Emile would get a bunch of those ittie bittie pumpkins to put literally everywhere in their apartment. Emile would light his candles and the apartment would smell like falling leaves, and apples, and pumpkin pie. He loved it. 

On the other hand- October brought the beginnings of Remy’s seasonal affective disorder- which he had just nicknamed “The Big Sad.” Seasonal depression adding onto his regular depression was just another weight on his back, until it became an almost struggle to just be at a decent mood level. He hated it

This year had hit him hard.

He wasn’t even sure why.

So here he was, lying on the bed he shared with Emile, blinking up at the ceiling and trying to convince himself to just… get up.

He could. He knew he could. 

It was always the mornings too. The mornings were a bit harder than everything else because now he had the whole day looming ahead of him and it just seemed so long and forbidding.

Over the years, Remy had counteracted this with a routine. If mornings were always going to be hard for him, might as well give him something to get up for, right? So he had collected succulents over the past few years, slowly decorating the apartment. He’d check them all every morning, fingers gliding over their leaves carefully to take note of growth, decay, light damage, shade damage, soil dryness, and much more.

Had he really expected to learn this much about succulents? No. But he had. And he loved it. 

Most importantly, it gave him a reason to get up.

He would then make himself breakfast, and Emile some too if he was around, before heading to classes, work, practice, or whatever he had that day.

The routine kept him moving, kept him active, kept him from not sitting in bed all day long. 

These days, it generally wasn’t even a struggle. But he woke up on the third day of October with a weight in his bones and the faint smell of ginger and cinnamon in the air.

His alarm had gone off twice now. The second one was his safety. His “okay, you’re having a rough day, here’s a few extra minutes, but then you need to get up alarm.” 

He hadn’t gotten up.

Nope. Instead, he was blinking lazily up at the ceiling, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes and a heavy weight settled across his chest. Fuck depression. Fuck SAD.

This was, of course, when the door opened.

“Remy!” his roommate? friend? boyfriend? partner’s voice cheered as he entered the apartment, “Guess what! The cafeteria put up little pumpkins today and I remembered we hadn’t gone out and gotten any yet and we don’t have weights or Zumba today, and you don’t work until later so we totally have time to-”

Emile cut himself off as he realized that the kitchen area (that was more than a kitchenette but less than an actual kitchen) did not actually contain the person he was attempting to rant to.

Remy would give him to the count of three. 

Sure enough, right as Remy ticked the final number off in his head, the door to their room (which had technically started as Remy’s but was now really both of theirs) was pushed open by Emile.

“Rem?” the voice called.

He couldn't quite make his vocal cords work, but he could shift slightly under the bed covers.

Seconds later the light in the room was flickering on and Emile’s warm gaze met Remy’s cold one.

“Oh,” Emile said, taking in the situation, “Hi.”

“Hi,” Remy replied meekly.

Emile sighed at the reply. But it wasn’t one of those sighs of frustration or annoyance. It was one of those small sighs that was just a breath of air. A reassurance. Emile always sighed like that. Remy thought it was maybe a stupid thing to love, but he loved it nonetheless.

Emile walked forward and settled on the edge of the bed, extending an arm with the palm face up. 

A knot grew in Remy’s throat, even as he extended his own hand to grasp Emile’s.

“You’re usually up by now,” Emile offered.

“I know,” he said.

“What are you at?”

Remy sighed. This sigh wasn’t like Emile’s nor was it one of frustration. No, it was a sigh representative of the crushing weight of everything in the world building up and accumulating, dragging Remy down with it.

“Big SAD’s at like a six or seven? It’s, it’s not so bad. Just used to it being a lot better now. This year hit hard,” Remy confided.

Emile nodded and rubbed his thumb soothingly against the back of Remy’s hand.

“I need to get up,” Remy said.

“You usually check on your plants,” Emile said. It was his way of agreeing, his way of encouraging and supporting Remy on days like this without providing pressure. Holding his hand and grounding him, reminding him he wasn’t alone. Talking about his plants and their needs, reminding him he had a routine. That getting up seemed impossible, but it wasn’t.

Remy groaned loudly before dropping Emile’s hand and rolling to the side of the bed. He let his weight carry himself over the edge, caught him just before he fell, and stood.

He made it out of bed. That was something.

(Emile’s soft laughter at his behavior was also quite the reward).

As Emile continued to giggle, the faint outline of a smile graced Remy’s face. He rushed forward and lifted Emile up, twirling him once before setting him down and giving his hair a soft kiss. He released Emile, and then started for the day.

“Plants first,” Remy said, “Then breakfast. Sound good?”

“I can help with breakfast,” Emile offered.

“No,” Remy insisted immediately, “No I always make breakfast, it’s okay.”

Emile shrugged, but relented without further argument.

Remy moved to the windowsill that contained his plants, and began to check the first one’s leaves. Emile stood right next to him, not quite in his way, but close to it.

“Maybe I should get some plants. Maybe some flowers that can grow indoors.”

“Em, honey, you don’t have the time.”

Em pouted, sweater paws folding over his chest, but didn’t protest Remy’s claim. Remy laughed at the sight and moved to the next plant.

The fog of depression still settled in his brain, but now that he was up and talking and moving, it seemed to be lifting a bit more. It was settling back to be manageable once more, instead of overwhelming. He could deal with that.

“Remy! This one has flowers!” Emile suddenly exclaimed, from further down the windowsill, which considering the windowsills length, was just a few more inches down.

Remy pulled his attention away from the current succulent he was inspecting, and directed it towards the plant Emile had been pointing out.

Sure enough, just in between two thick green nubs, a long green stem with tiny blooming white flowers appeared. Remy smiled at the sight and Emile tucked into his side.

“It’s pretty,” Emile claimed.

“Mmhmm, yeah,” Remy agreed, hooking his head over Emile’s own, and holding him there for a minute. He wasn’t really quite tall enough to do such, so he had to stand on his tiptoes and raise his chin a bit, but it was so worth it.

They stood there together a bit, peering at the little white flowers, before moving onward with their day.

~

During breakfast, Emile re-explained what he had started to that morning when he had first entered the apartment. 

He told Remy about how the main dining hall now had the tiny baby pumpkins up in it and how they absolutely had to get some for the apartment themselves. He was practically begging, coming up with a billion and one reasons that they should get them, as if Remy didn’t love them just as much.

After breakfast, they cleaned up, and Remy showered and dressed, before heading out to get said pumpkins. Emile had been right, it was hard to find substantial time when they were both free to do things together, and Thursday mornings happened to be one of the few times. They still didn’t have a lot of time, but it was something.

They were walking in the direction of the grocery story when Emile came to a complete halt. Remy blinked and tried to figure out what had happened.

Just a minute ago Emile had been talking about one of his classes. Remy had been trying to listen, really he had, but the fog in his brain had started to pick up again, making each step a little bit harder and listening to even mindless chatter almost impossible

It also meant that if Emile had given any warning or explanation for stopping, Remy had completely missed it.

“Emile?” he asked.

“Let’s get coffee,” he said, gesturing to the Starbucks in front of them.

Okay, that wasn’t fair. Emile knew he was going to say yes.

“Coffee’s expensive,” he mentioned. They were broke college students which was why it was completely unfair of Emile to say they were getting coffee because of course Remy was going to say yes but they couldn’t keep buying the stuff if they wanted to have food for meals and tiny pumpkins.

“Yeah, but I know you love the seasonal drinks. My treat,” was Emile’s response.

“Emile, I’m literally the one with the discount.”

And the one with the father that was more than willing to fund Remy’s coffee addiction three times over but he was trying to adult himself with minimal support from parents. Minimal support meaning yes please pay for my education and part of rent that is very appreciated but also I should probably learn how to feed and clothe myself I’ll let you know if I’m failing at that and then you can swoop in and save me.

“Okay. Then your discount, my money. Mostly my treat.”

Emile’s defense was weak at best but it didn’t really take much to convince Remy in the first place. Plus, he had that blinding smile on his face that just made Remy melt.

“Okay,” he agreed, “Okay. Coffee. But we can’t make it a habit.”

Emile shrugged, nodded, and pulled him towards the door.

“We won’t,” he promised, “Just today. Special occasion.”

Remy grinned lightly. Emile was always saying stuff like that, calling mundane things special or important. Remy pretended to hate it, but somehow, whenever Emile did it, it really did make whatever event just a little bit magical.

“And what, pray tell, is so special,” he drawled, dropping his arm onto Emile’s shoulder.

Emile shrugged and moved forward to get in line, Remy trailing afterwards, leaning his weight against him just to piss him off. (It didn’t seem to be working as Emile just sorta snuggled into his side and, great, now he was blushing).

“It’s special because…” Emile trailed, before his eyes lit up like gems, “Because you got out of bed this morning!”

A lump grew in Remy’s throat and he had the urge to take his arm off of Emile’s shoulder. The blush that had spread across his cheeks faded.

“I did,” he said, aiming for casual, “Y’know, it’s pretty simple. You just yank off the covers and hop out. Or fall off in this morning's case.”

Emile gave him a look.

“Yeah. It is simple. Doesn’t mean it's easy,” Emile said, with that wisdom he seemed to always carry and spew out. Damn emotional intelligence.

Remy did drop his arm this time, pulling it away from Emile.

Emile frowned and opened his mouth, but didn’t get the opportunity to say anything more as they made it to the front of the line. 

Remy moved forward quickly and ordered for himself. When he was done, he went to order for Emile like he always did, but stopped when he realized that Emile hadn’t actually told him what he wanted this time.

See, Remy always ordered for Emile. Emile’s anxiety made it harder for him to talk to strangers, especially when it involved ordering or asking for something. It was certainly something Emile was capable of doing, and something he sometimes insisted on doing just so that he knew he still could, but it was also something he generally preferred not to do. Remy had no such issues and so Emile would tell him what he wanted and Remy would order for them both.

But Emile hadn't gotten the chance to tell him what he wanted. Remy could guess, but he hated to do that when Emile was right here and could choose what he wanted himself. He hated to assume, even if he was usually pretty spot on. Knowing Emile for such a long time made it pretty easy at this point.

The worker was looking at them now, as Remy’s pause went on for a touch too long.

“Emile?” Remy asked.

“Oh, uh,” the other boy stuttered, before rattling his own order off.

They didn’t really speak until they had left the shop and continued on their way to the grocery store.

“Earlier,” Emile started, “I know you can get out of bed. I wasn’t trying to- I dunno- mock you or something. I just know that it can be hard for you- that it was hard this morning. I-” he shrugged, “I’m not proud of you because that’s just-” he wrinkled his nose up, “That’s not something for me to be proud of, but you… You should be proud of yourself.”

Remy sighed and reached out to clutch Emile’s hand.

“I know,” he agreed, “It’s just that…” he sighed, and the fog in his brain continued to swirl around, “Thank you,” he said instead and worked on trying to maybe take Emile’s words to heart. The swirling didn’t seem to like it, but it could fuck off because he was going to buy little mini pumpkins with his- his Emile and it was going to be great.

Emile squeezed his hand.

“Pumpkins?” Remy offered, and Emile just smiled and nodded in return.

~

They didn’t have the time to decorate their apartment with all the little pumpkins they bought because they were starting to run late for morning skate. So they left the clump on the small table in the main room before getting ready and heading towards practice.

As they did so, a little foreign weight dropped in Remy’s stomach. It wasn’t like the fog. It was more like dread. It was starting to become a familiar feeling whenever practice and games approached. Remy absolutely hated it. Plus, morning skate wasn’t even really practice, it was just to get them moving so why the hell did Remy feel this way?

He enjoyed hockey. He did. He really really did.

(Just maybe not lately).

But he ignored the feeling, as well as the concerned look from Emile and headed out the door. They had morning skate to attend.

~

It wasn’t until late evening that they were both home at the same time.

The moment Remy walked through the doors he wrestled Emile away from his studying because come on Em, you can take ten minutes to decorate the apartment. Emile relented, standing to give a soft kiss on Remy’s jaw, and moved towards the pumpkins from earlier. Remy absolutely did not blush whatsoever and followed.

“Remy,” Emile commented once they were finishing up, “Are you- Are you doing alright lately?”

The fog buzzed louder.

Remy let out a weak chuckle.

“I’m always doing alright,” he said.

Emile just gave him a look.

“No really,” Remy insisted, even as a lump formed in his throat, “I’m- I mean. I’m okay. Uh- this morning was hard. Today wasn’t- wasn’t the best. I can tell this year isn’t going to be the best. But yeah, yeah Em I’m okay. I promise.”

Emile’s worry dropped a bit but didn’t fade completely.

“Okay,” he said, “I- You’ve just seemed more stressed lately. Uh- with Logan-” Emile swallowed and Remy squeezed his eyes tight for a second, “With Logan… out. I mean, it’s a lot more on you.”

“I’ve been Starter before,” Remy said gently.

“Yeah. I know.”

Because Remy had been Starter before. But not- not like this. Never like this before. And they both knew it.

“It is more,” Remy admitted, “But it’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Emile said, and let it rest.

What Remy didn’t say was that it wasn’t the extra games, extra playtime that was getting to him. 

It was the team’s faces. 

It was how they went into games expecting to lose and Roman and Patton couldn’t agree on a single thing and Remus was getting reckless again and even Deceit was joining him and Virgil just seemed off and the fans hated that Remy was taking Logan’s place because it was Logan’s place and sure Remy was good but he wasn’t Logan good and they all knew it and it wasn’t even a bad thing but it did mean that even playing his best Remy knew he was letting his team down, letting Logan down, letting himself down. 

But it wasn’t the playtime. 

Oh no, it was so much more than just the playtime.

The fog expanded, pushing down and back on Remy’s brain, encoating him in a layer of discontentment  and hopelessness and misery.

Remy sighed. He set the last pumpkin down.

“I think I’m gonna head to bed,” he said.

Emile nodded. He usually checked the clock when Remy announced he was retiring for the night, making sure that it hadn’t gotten too late yet. But he didn’t bother this time. They both knew it was still much too early for either of them to be sleeping.

“Okay,” Emile said, and smiled, but it didn't quite stretch across his face like it usually did, “I have work to do still, but I’ll join you in awhile.”

“Okay,” Remy agreed.

And they both stood there staring at each other.

Then, suddenly, Emile lurched forward and grasped Remy tightly, clutching the taller boy in a tight hug. Startled, but not about to deny the hug, Remy gripped back, just as tight.

He didn’t start to cry, but it was close.

“Love you,” Emile said.

“Love you too,” Remy responded, voice muffled from where his head was buried in Emile’s neck and trying not to cry.

With that, he headed off to bed.

Later, Emile would slip in next to him, acting in a rare occasion as the big spoon. That next morning would be a little bit easier and three mornings after that would be a little bit harder. Remy would continue to get out of bed.

Hockey would continue and Logan wouldn’t return and tensions on the team would get worse. Through all of it, Remy would be caught in the absolute worse position as Logan’s replacement.

But for now, Remy would go to bed early, fog pressing down, harsh and unforgiving, but still much softer than the upcoming storm. Because that’s really all this was, wasn’t it? The calm before the storm.

~~~

taglist below

-ask to be added or removed-

@mewithanie @eddies-spaghetti @lemonyellowlogic @savioursailor @goldteethandacurseforthistown

[scholasticbabe]

25 Ways To Save In College That Work

Let’s face it, most college students are flat out broke. Yet the temptation to live it up and blow through whatever money you do have is absolutely crazy.

I’ve been there. Hell, I practically lived there.

During my freshman year, I blew through most of my savings. It was so bad I really had to start getting serious and see where could I cut back so I could still enjoy going out with my friends occasionally. It was hard at first because I was so used to not thinking about how I was spending.

But saving is like a superpower once you realize it’s possible it becomes easier. You don’t have to fall into the broke college student stereotype! College is filled with tiny ways you can save that will save you thousands over the long hall.

Now if you’re like me you’ve probably read a few of these “10 easy ways to save” articles a million times and the advice can be pretty sketchy and not easy to implement in your life at all.

Well here are ways that I’ve actually used as a college student myself, to not only save but still have fun while doing it.

1. Shop at the dollar store

You would be surprised at what you can get at the dollar store! Everything from small personal care items to cleaning supplies. My favorite thing to do is to stack up on all the cheap snacks and host movie nights in my dorm room.

2. Share account access to streaming services

This was something my roommate and I did. We wanted to watch more shows that were not on Netflix so we decided that I would pay for Hulu and she would pay for HBO. Our dorm was the best place to be because just about every movie or tv show you could think of, yet neither of us had to foot the whole bill. So try sharing accounts with friends and family.

3. Stop buying books use your college library instead

For over two years now I've worked at my college library and it blows my mind that a lot of students don’t know that they can find textbooks at their college library.

Not only do professors sometimes submit copies of books to the library, but a lot of humanities textbooks are in the general collection! Always always check your library to see if they have a copy of your textbook before you start looking online.

4. Don't do unpaid internships/ apply for college funding

I have a secret. I’ve never done an unpaid internship (and I don’t plan to). Not only am I broke but it’s unethical to work for long hours without getting paid and not everyone can do that.

As a history major almost ALL internships are unpaid. I’ve gotten around that by applying for internship stipends through my college.

Almost all colleges have them, so if you get internship contact your school’s career center and ask about funding opportunities! You don’t have to use your own money and you really shouldn’t have to.  

5. Unsubscribe to marketing emails

Yes, I’m looking at you with an inbox filled to the thousands filled with promotional emails.

Something I did this year when I was trying a no spend month was to unsubscribe from particularly tempting stores. It’s hard to focus on what you have and what’s important to you when you’re always being sold to. Do yourself the favor of cutting that shit out. Marketing emails are truly the devil.

6. Download coupon apps

This one is such an easy fix and yet so many people don’t do it! I use Honey for my online shopping purchases and I’ve never not saved on a purchase! For in-store shopping I use retailmenot to find coupon codes. These are such passive ways to save you’re losing money if you don’t use them.  

7. Abandon your cart

This is a sneaky trick I learned by accident. Once I was looking for a backpack and I was browsing through and I added the bag to my cart but I was still on the fence of dishing out 60 dollars for a backpack. When I checked my email only to see the company sent an email to remind me of the bag in my cart and offered 30% off. I was blown away and ever since then I always abandon my cart to see what kind of deals companies give.

8. Use influencer codes/links

You really should be doing this. The people you follow should add value to your life and one way that can add value is to provide you with discount codes! If there’s a product you're interested in you might want to look up reviews of that product or just mentions and see if there are any influencers who have codes for that product. Not only do they get a commission but you get to see the product in action and then save on your purchase.

9. Pack your stuff well at the end of the year

If you live out of state (or even in-state to be honest! ) you can lose massive amounts of money at the end of the year by throwing out perfectly good items because you have nowhere to put them. To combat this start packing your stuff early like a week or two before moving out and strategically pack your stuff and put a protective covering over things that can be damaged easily.

There’s no reason for you to have to keep repurchasing the same items every time you move back into college.  

10. Read the instruction on your clothing

This is something I recently started doing and it was an eye-opener. If you don’t do this you might not realize a lot of clothing have specialized care instruction and most time you just throw everything into the washer without looking to see what those care tips are.

If you’ve ever had a nice top that looked raggedy after you threw into the dryer then you might not realize that item was supposed to be air-dried. Save your self the time and money from constantly having to repurchase items due to improper care.

KEEP READING 

[dacxiglobal]

7 Reasons Why Cryptocurrency Belongs In Your Retirement Portfolio

Across the world, governments are faced with the reality that most households aren’t saving enough for retirement. 

Sadly, the era of company-sponsored pension plans is long gone and both Millennials and Boomers are bombarded with the high costs of basic priorities such as housing, education and healthcare that compete directly with investment plans and retirement savings. 

According to a recent study carried out by Ramsey Solutions, about half of Americans are not saving for retirement, and the few who do save aren’t saving enough. Folks, that’s a crisis. 

In another survey, only 3 in 5 households headed by someone between the ages of 45 and 54 had a retirement account with an average value of $83,000, and 13% of people in their 40s had absolutely no retirement savings. 

Apparently, 56% of Gen X folks have no clue how much they will need for retirement. This is according to a new study conducted by Bankrate. In addition, nearly half of working households will experience lower living standards during retirement, as revealed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Save for Your Retirement By Investing in Crypto

It’s never too late to start planning or saving for your retirement. Its a fact that most people dread putting their money in risky (read: liquid and volatile) areas such as cryptocurrencies. 

We will tell you for free that any viable future financial plan should include Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which will provide a secure hedge against existing shaky financial systems. 

Today, many people are searching for opportunities that deliver high ROI within a short time frame, possibly through options like private equity funds, venture capital, real-estate investment trusts and lately cryptocurrency.

 And there are many people that continue with the struggle to max out their 401(k) contributions, stashing money in traditional IRA or mutual funds. 

Of course that’s crucial, but since the majority of retirement plans adhere to the “contribute and coast” rhetoric, ensuring smooth operations and optimal earnings, they eventually demand rebalancing of your finances as the global financial landscape evolves. 

Keep in mind that cryptocurrency is one of the biggest and most disruptive technologies in the financial arena in recent tim 

Cryptocurrency is coming into the broader market as a new asset class. The puzzling price swings in Bitcoin are luring millennials into pouring their money into risky investments. Interestingly, even the IRS has approved cryptocurrency IRAs. 

At this juncture, people are wondering which crypto asset class belongs to the retirement accounts, which crypto and retirement portfolios can feature in their investment strategy and if buying crypto is a great idea for long-term investing? 

Why Cryptocurrency Has Become Such a Big Deal?

Well, it’s the next big thing. Ask Wall Street fund managers — they say it is the future! 

Don’t be surprised when your friends and family start channeling their retirement dollars into cryptocurrency sooner rather than later. And don’t be startled when you see the cryptocurrency index or exchange-traded funds start to appear on the New York Stock Exchange. 

While the crypto space is susceptible to volatility, there are numerous indications that point to Bitcoin and blockchain as being a strong bull ideal for building exchange-traded funds as well as other instruments that are great for retirement savings. You too should be bullish on blockchain, Bitcoin and other cryptos. 

Rafael Carmona Toscano, a private investor and scholar of cryptocurrency who has been accumulating Bitcoin since 2013, notes that Bitcoin has a bright future. Rafael boasts hands-on experience with cryptos as he started out mining Bitcoin, and later purchased it. 

“Bitcoin is a bank for the unbankable,” he says, while stating that many people in the world have no bank accounts and hence cryptocurrency would solve a huge problem for those folks. 

Digital assets represent a new, fundamental asset class — one that is being considered carefully by investors. The main reason for this can be illustrated by Real Estate Investment Trusts, abbreviated as REITs. 

The underlying concept of REIT was first introduced as an asset class designed for legal investment in 1960. The investment grew gradually in subsequent decades, but did not gain momentum until the 1990s. In short, the early investors profited incredibly. 

Similarly, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are probably the fastest growing asset class in the financial space. But do they qualify to be in your retirement account? Many experts believe so. 

Here are 7 reasons why you should include a cryptocurrency IRA (individual retirement account) in your retirement portfolio. 

#1: Diversification

The rule of thumb is never put all your eggs in one basket! Did you know that diversification is one of the strategies used to minimize exposure to a single asset class while still ensuring its growth? When it comes to retirement planning, one of the most effective ways to diversify is to put your savings in multiple mutual funds for different reasons such as income, growth, investing etc. Thereafter, you may need to re-balance your portfolio to ensure any rapidly growing segments of your portfolio do not skew your intended allocation. 

In traditional financial markets, most of the available tax-deferred retirement accounts restrict diversification to only two classes — bonds and stocks. But, as much as diversification involves spreading the risk across different asset classes, this should extend beyond bonds and stocks to include real estate, cryptocurrency and precious metals, among others. Since cryptocurrency is a promising new asset class with exciting upside potential, it is worth considering as a retirement plan alternative for your diversified portfolios. 

#2: Government Hedge

No government can directly control cryptocurrency. This is one of the reasons that has fueled its growth as an alternative currency. However, government regulations and policies do impact the bond market or Wall Street. In addition, central banks debase traditional currencies such as the U.S Dollar with evolving approaches to exchange and monetary policies. In contrast, digital assets like Bitcoin are immune to the effects of changing governmental directives. As such, we can consider cryptocurrency as an asset class capable of shifting in the opposite direction to dominant markets. This gives more credence to its diversification potential. 

#3. Long-Term Growth Opportunities

Keep in mind that while cryptocurrency is proving to be an ideal long-term investment, it is also volatile. And just like any other volatile investment, what skyrockets today can plummet tomorrow and that can be bad for your health! 

But do you know what other investments can be volatile? Stocks! That’s right. We all remember the Great Recession that happened from 2007–2009 where the U.S equities lost about 50% of their value in less than 18 months. 

But we’re not talking about day-to-day transactions. Retirement planning is a long term horizon where individuals count on accruing tax deferred benefits for several decades in order to achieve a given milestone. It’s this long term view that got those who saved for retirement out of the muddy waters of the Great Recession. 

Remember the lowest level for the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the crunch? It was at 6,547. Most notably, its highest level before the crash was at 14,164. A decade later, and the market has drastically risen over those points of the Great Recession. 

Similarly, while the price of cryptocurrency and particularly Bitcoin is significantly low at the moment, it is obviously higher when compared to early 2017. I bet that anyone would be quite happy with the returns, with the coin price having increased beyond double from its value of about $2,000 in May 2017 to the current November 2018 prices of around $4,000. 

#4. Cryptocurrency is Still Cheap

Is the current price tag of Bitcoin turning you away? Well, think again and remember even if Bitcoin’s not cheap, other cryptocurrencies are. 

The most important question is not whether or not cryptocurrency is cheap, but will it have appreciated in value a decade later? 

If you believe Bitcoin’s price will be in the range of $10,000, $100,000 or $1 million, then the coin is damn cheap today! 

While you may not be that guy who spent $100 in 2010 and now has a net worth of $7.4 million, you can still take the advice provided by Wences Casare, PayPal board member that you “put 1 percent of your income into Bitcoin and forget about it for ten years.” 

#5. Bitcoin Is Highly Resilient

Bitcoin is huge and the news of its death as highlighted in the 2013 smug LA Times article was premature, given that the coin is aging well. 

While the Bitcoin market has faced some tumultuous times, like earlier in the decade when it lost about 70 per cent of its value overnight, the coin has recovered — along with other cryptocurrencies. Realistically, the thought of Bitcoin fading away is impossible as long as the concept of cryptocurrency still exists. 

#6. Crypto Is Going Mainstream

You can use cryptocurrency on the online ecommerce marketplace, Overstock. Restaurants in Kenya and Silicon Valley will accept and give you a discount for using it. You can also buy your Sacramento Kings tickets with it. 

Some of the biggest companies on the planet like Microsoft, Dell, Tesla and Virgin Galactic are accepting Bitcoin. And why not? Its price is likely to be more tomorrow than it is today.

BitPay, a global payment company is already working with over 125,000 merchants across the globe that accept Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. The company goes a notch higher to allow Bitcoin users to hold a Bitcoin Visa credit card which enables users to transact anywhere this Visa is accepted. 

In essence, the fiction that “you can’t use Bitcoin to buy anything” is a fallacy, not a fact. Of course, We don’t expect you to hit your grocery store with it now, but you might be interested in knowing that a guy purchased a house with Bitcoin and made a $1.3 million return on the deal. 

#7. Supporting Technology

The world of technology is evolving so rapidly and its successful integration into crypto and retirement portfolios will depend on how fast its functionality will allow holders to quickly and smoothly trade coins and exchange cryptocurrency for fiat currency or non-tokenized assets in their portfolios, while ensuring complete automation, transparency and record-keeping. This will reduce the need for having “middlemen” that drive up charges and cost layers. 

The maturation of technologies that support trading in crypto is poised to increase its value, while pushing it into becoming mainstream. 

Ideally, the emergence of more retirement platforms that support the technological characteristics of cryptocurrency exchange and portfolio integration have the power to increase crypto gains for the early adopters. 

One example of a supporting retirement platform is Dacxi, an innovative platform that empowers new customers looking to hold on to their assets for the long-term. The company’s Dacxi Bundle is a first-of-its kind, combining the major coins by market capitalisation with an emerging coin with rapid growth potential. Ultimately, this helps new customers to spread their risk across four crypto assets automatically and at zero transaction fees! 

Tokens or bundles purchased by users are kept safely in 2FA, secure wallets. Users are able to rebalance amounts and adjust their portfolio as they choose. 

Take The Plunge

So, why be a statistic among people whose biggest regret is not saving enough for retirement? 

How much do you plan to spend when you finally take the plunge? The answer to this question is — as much you can afford. Only you know your own risk tolerance and capability to save or spend. 

Dacxi is proud to support people on a path to prosperity with crypto. If you would like to find out more then please join us at dacxi.com. We’re here to help.

[luwupercal]

heres the most important post ill ever post to this website: the primarchs’ opinions re: platonic ideal of the “Philosopher King”

baseline: i, op, fucking hate it because philosophers suck and kings suck and trying to be both is like. youre just telling me your iq is huge when iq isnt real. youre telling me youre a billionaire when money is a madeup concept. i dont give a shit. youre a privileged little rat and if you had to clean a bathroom you wouldnt even know where to start. you have no emotional intelligence if you define yourself as a philosopher-king or admirer of philosopher-kings not in the sense that oyu dont have empathy but in the sense that you dont know what the purpose of having empathy is. get out 

anyways

lion: came up with the concept of the philosopher king independant of plato and still believes in it, unfortunately, but also considers plato secretly kind of a copycat, so i cant hate him. would claim to be a philosopher king himself but secretly have hangups

fulgrim: pre heresy, would genuinely unironically consider himself a philosopher-king. post-heresy/laer/etc he has seen the true light that the dichotomy isnt Leader/Masses but instead emotional intelligence/immaturity (chad vs virgin) and has decided to be immature while pretending to be emotionally mature for clout and fuck all else

perturabo: probably buys into the idea and thinks of himself as a philosopher king but i know theres something gnawing at him about it. i know and i encourage it. i know its gnawing at him i know it is im not going to stop

khan: diogenes-adjacent chad so probably doesnt but still pays lipservice to the idea. if he had any doubt philosopher kings arent real i think the heresy threw them in the garbage. post heresy hes literally living in a barrel in the webway pissing in the drukharis amphitheatre i cannot overstate how chad-like this behavior is

leman russ: the worst of both worlds. believes in philosopher kings and takes shits on your living room table. the philosopher king in question is daddy dearest. post-heresy hes probably moved on to be purely diogenesian though in an astounding act of character development

rogal dorn: believes in the idea of a philosopher-king but contends with the realm of ideal concepts thing. halfway there bro

konrad curze: THE MOST DIOGENESIAN PRIMARCH, literally lived in a barrel drinking water out of puddles, nothing but respect

sanguinius: pays lip service to platonic ideals but doesnt truly sincerely believe in it

ferrus manus: Please subscribe to ferrus manus’s philosophy/life coaching podcast today on maximumfun.org and then go to audible.com and enter “ferrusmanus” for a 25% discount on your next Seneca audiobook

angron: please look at him

guilliman: trying really fucking hard to believe philosopher kings are real but oh my god the 42nd millennium is TESTING him (come to the dark side guilliman we dont have toilets)

mortarion: terminally online irony poisoned dirtbag political, spiteful enough to launch a chicken at your face for daring to classify man as anything but Piece of Shit, you tell me if this motherfucker believes in philosopher kings

magnus: ABSOLUTELY FUCKING BELIEVED IN PHILOSOPHER KINGS AT ONE POINT probably still does to some extent because hes full of juicy hubris like a pastry. hes like the most niche parts of terminally online soft pastel sangled icon LGBT discourse combined with the hell on earth that is an unironical plato believer. For the love of god montresor please fucking help me

horus: believes in philosopher-kings in the same way a trust fund jock believes in the Dow

lorgar: used to be really into philosopher-kings as an idea to properly articulate the emperors divinity. doesnt do that anymore

vulkan: one time ferrus tried to explain to him the concept of plato’s cavern and the whole ideals/concepts coming before their physicality thing and they both agreed it was fucking bullshit but ferrus wanted to keep arguing the reasons why it was bullshit and vulkan was just like .can we please keep playing minecraft dude

corvus corax: hes literally a prison abolition anarchocommunist you tell me

alpharius omegon: dont know what a philsobbie is and are scared it’s too late to ask

[marketingagencynetwork]

5 Marketing Automation Best Practices every Marketer must know

If I had a dollar every time a marketer underestimated marketing automation, I would be able to start and fund my own marketing automation startup. Although 75% of businesses (founders, marketers, and CEOs) have started to tap into the potentials of marketing automation, many are unaware of some of these awesome marketing best practices. These practices have been tried and tested personally by me and I can assure you, it works.

5 actionable Marketing Automation Best Practices

Let’s dive directly into the marketing automation best practices and learn how you can automate your marketing efforts right away.

Create personalized and interactive email campaigns

While sending an email, personalization will help you stand out. Out of a list of hundreds of spammy emails, a personalized email will grab eyeballs. Have you seen the show ‘Bandersnatch’ on Netflix or read any “choose-your-own-adventure” type book? It feels fun because you get a sense of connection while reading the book or watching the movie. It works with emails as well.

Here’s how you can create email personalization

Map your user’s journey: Create an outline that defines how an average user interacts with your business.

Make triggers for your user in their journey: There are certain checkpoints on how a consumer will behave with your business. For example, if they use your product for 10 days. It could trigger one.

Write a creative drip email campaign: You can write separate emails or create a follow-up email campaign in the same thread after each of these checkpoints/triggers.

Automate a personalized email series with trigger-based marketing automation software.

For example, you run an eCommerce clothing business. Your regular customer, Matt adds 5 T-shirts in their cart. Then, he gets distracted and leaves your website. You can create a trigger for this action. Now, your marketing automation software will send an email that looks something like this:

Hey Matt,

Looks like you forgot to complete your transaction. Your 5 T-shirts are waiting for you in the cart to be taken out for delivery. Just a friendly reminder to complete your order in case you forgot.

Have a nice day. Stay safe.

Regard,

Besides, you can also create triggers every time someone subscribes to your newsletter, signs up on your app, completes certain days with your business, etc. You can get as creative as possible. Being creative is a crucial part of business process automation. You can choose a marketing automation tool like Mailchimp if you have no idea on how to get started.

Software recommendation – Mailchimp, Hubspot

Capture lead information with only useful data and innovative ways

Many marketers use the same old technique of putting a form to collect user information. You need to get innovative here. You can use lead generation tools to capture data from your traffic.

Also, it is necessary to ensure that your form is short and only asks for information that is absolutely useful for your business. People don’t give away information like their phone numbers easily. Chances are that your form will get abandoned completely.

Make use of exit pop-ups and form builders and create different strategies for different web pages. For example, ask for their email address when they are on your blog, so they can join your newsletter. But if they are on your features page or on your pricing page, ask for their name, position, and email address. You can also capture more lead information if you put a reward at the end.

Businesses have ups and downs in their sales cycle throughout the year. But there are certain days, weeks, or even months where you see a boom in the sales of your products or services. 

For example, if you are in a SaaS business, you will see a high number of leads and buyers on Cyber Monday as most SaaS tools provide discounts on these days.

Analyze your customer’s buying cycle and find out the peak points when you can sell more. Use predictive analytics to get the right data. Start catering to your customers according to this buying cycle. Create innovative marketing automation strategies like personalized exit popups, creative forms, etc to engage with your customers at the right moment. You can also push your ad budget if you are getting enough ROI out of it.

Software recommendation – Optin Monster, Typefor

Design a Lead qualification process

Designing a lead qualification process will allow you to target the segregated leads through marketing automation.

There are various types of leads such as Hot lead, Cold lead, Engaged lead, Marketing/Sales Qualified Leads, Disqualified lead, etc. You must create a process to differentiate leads according to their traits.

For example, there are 20 people who saw your product and only one of them actually bought it. Why? 

Because 19 people had certain factors in their way that stopped them from buying from you.

What are these factors?

It really depends on your business. But you can use the classic 5 factors of qualifying a lead i.e. 1. Need, 

2. Interest, 

3. Budget, 

4. Timing, and 

5. Decision maker’s role.

You can also consider internal factors like how well did you solve their problem, your promptness in answering their doubts, etc while designing the lead qualification process.

SEO companies

Just remember you can’t treat every lead as your customer. Study your users and put them in categories that would help you measure their interest in your product or service.

For example, if David asks you questions about the features of your product and whether you can provide him a discount or not. Whereas, Raj is asking you what problem does your business solves. David is a hot lead and Raj is a cold one.

Channelize your social listening 

People are creating stories, sharing experiences, and basically talking all the time on social media. There are some people who also talk about your brand. You don’t wanna miss out on what they are saying about your business. This would include praises, brags, feedback, and questions that people have for your brand.

“The keyword in social media is “social” so socialize! Talk to your audience, make conversation, build relationships. Consumers are people and they don’t want to be sold to, they want to be engaged so engage them.”

Solve your customers’ problems and engage with your target audience through the power of social listening. 

Software recommendations – Agorapulse, Keyhol

Predetermine the metrics to measure outcomes

If you are giving all these efforts to streamline your marketing automation, you must have a way to measure and evaluate it. Create metrics to determine your marketing automation outcomes at all stages. Predetermine what metrics you are going to use to measure the success rate of your automation processes. Don’t just keep conversion rate or sales rate as a metrics for every process as it might demotivate the employees. Also, conversion/sales rate isn’t always the right way to evaluate marketing results. It is a good idea to keep specific metrics to judge specific outcomes.

For example, if you are using an email marketing automation software, your metrics can be reply rate, open rate, link click rate, etc. 

Or if you are collecting lead data and have kept a form on your website, the number of forms filled can be a success metric.

The best part of marketing automation software is that almost every software will give you analytics. You can choose whichever is good for you and stick to it throughout. Analyzing and measuring performance will enable you to make data-driven decisions and form a strategy to reach your targeted outcome.

Conclusion

Congratulations. You just learned the top 5 marketing automation best practices. From Lead generation to send a personalized email campaign to your loyal customer, everything is important. Start any of these practices right now and you will start learning from your experience. These best practices have been formed from our understanding and experiences in marketing automation. While you implement these, you will find out that new and interesting things which will become your best practices. If you think we missed out on any marketing automation best practice, let us know in the comments.

[menswearmusings]

Black Friday 2019

Last year I joked it should be called Black Fri-week. This year, some stores have been offering “Black Friday” sale pricing two weeks ahead of time. Check below for links to the shops that I am keeping an eye on—some have started BF sales early, others have not yet. Check back for additional links and updates throughout the week!

While I think the arms race to get Black Friday sales starting earlier and earlier is, on the whole, a sad commentary on our materialistic culture as well as the psychology behind sales (hint: if they know they’re going to offer it at 20% off, it’s probably priced 20% too high to begin with), if there have to be sales, might as well make them more convenient for everyone. Last year I eschewed clothing purchases for tech purchases and a video game or two. This year, I‘ve bought several things in the lead up to Black Friday that if I pick anything up it’ll be a smaller, or less expensive item or two. Anyway, enough with the commentary. Below, Black Friday sales I’m looking at plus some product picks. Mostly clothes but also some other picks.

(stay tuned for new updates as the week progresses)

Clothing shops

Spier & Mackay (20% off site wide with code BF2019)

L.L. Bean (20% off everything with code THANKS20)

Beckett Simonon (two pairs for $289—I have and recommend the Durant Adelaide)

Billy Reid (20% off $250, 30% off $500, 40% off $1,000)

Brooks Brothers 

Kamakura (Half off a selection of shirts, including OCBDs and their Sport collection, which have unlined collars)

No Man Walks Alone (up to 30% off, prices as marked, no code needed)

Nordstrom

Abercrombie

Ralph Lauren (40% off $100+, code TAKE40)

Todd Snyder (use code BLACKFRIDAY)

Saint James (20% off all fall/winter items; 50% off past season items, all week)

J.Crew

Drop 93 (last year they had a 20% off code; not sure if they will yet this year)

Oak Street Bootmakers

Tech

I recently bought an iPad Pro to be the computer I run my blog from. I absolutely love it. With iPadOS’ improvements to core functionality and apps like Lightroom, it’s an amazing product for photo editing and blogging. Here are some iPad deals (I love my Pro but the Air was a major contender, and the regular 10.2-inch iPad is an extremely capable tablet for a great price).

iPad 10.2-inch for $250 at Target or Staplesor Walmart

$150-250 off iPad Pro models at Best Buy

My wife and I also recently sold our fantastic Canon 6D and bought Canon’s new EOS RP, which is the less expensive full-frame mirrorless camera, released in February 2019. We absolutely love the sharpness and picture quality; handling has taken some getting used to, as coming off a more professional camera, the reduction in physical buttons (plus just a different layout) has been an adjustment. But you cannot get a better price on a full-frame camera from anyone; mirrorless just makes it lightweight and small.  

Canon EOS RP for $999 at Adorama including accessories and RF-EF mount adapter

(Help support this site! If you buy stuff through my links, your clicks and purchases earn me a commission from many of the retailers I feature, and it helps me sustain this site—as well as my menswear habit 😉  Thanks!)

Some specific clothing products I personally would love to buy if I had the funds:

L.L. Bean

Wicked Good Moccasins

With their amazing customer service and product warranty, these are well worth the asking price, particularly with 20% off.

No Man Walks Alone

Kaptain Sunshine Traveler Coat sold out sadly

I absolutely love the design of this coat. The plain car coat front (as opposed to having a dressier-looking lapel) in a single breasted cut, with applied flapped patch pockets (with a little ticket pocket), all with a longer cut

Heschung Thuya

I recently decided these ugly shoes are actually pretty baller. If you’re a fan of the Wallabee (and I have recently become one after discovering they are the most comfortable shoe of all time), these are a bit more rugged yet also have a more pleasing shape. 20% off is your best time to buy them.

Polo Ralph Lauren

Double-breasted Officers Coat

Timeless and classic. $600 is a worthy price for this (after the 40% off discount)

Spier & Mackay

Outerwear

Teal barleycorn tweed polo coat

Dress trousers

Mid-gray flannel trousers

Light gray flannel trousers

Mid-blue tweed trousers

Charcoal tweed trousers

   Read more at Menswear Musings

[tisfan]

Wow. Death threats and accusations of being in the slave trade, because I said that Condo Boards aren’t necessarily the root of all evil?

Do you know what a HOA or a COA is? It’s socialism. It’s not run by some anonymous “they” who are trying to keep the man down. It’s run BY the NEIGHBORHOOD. It’s run by the home owners. And it’s run on volunteer time. No one is GETTING PAID to tell you to mow your lawn or take down your lawn ornaments. 

(the too long stuff below the cut)

From Wiki

In the United States, a homeowner association (or homeowners’ association, abbreviated HOA, sometimes referred to as a property owners’ association or POA) is a private association often formed by a real estate developer for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling homes and lots in a residential subdivision.[original research?] Typically the developer will transfer control of the association to the homeowners after selling a predetermined number of lots. Generally any person who wants to buy a residence within the area of a homeowners association must become a member, and therefore must obey the governing documents including Articles of Incorporation, CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions) and By-Laws, which may limit the owner's choices. Most homeowner associations are incorporated, and are subject to state statutes that govern non-profit corporations and homeowner associations.

Ideally, the homeowners association’s purpose is to POOL resources from the community to:

1) take care of common areas and safety (pools, street corners, decorative park areas near the homes, mail facilities)

2) in some cases, lawn care, trash disposal and exterior repairs are covered by these fees, including pool and clubhouse facilities if you have them, parking lot repair, street upkeep, lights and maintenance of management facilities. Plowing. The city plows the neighborhood loop, and that’s all. Everything from my house to the main road is paid for by the association. They even shovel the walks.

3) Flood and natural disaster insurance are taken out of these dues, and a large scale discount is provided. (for instance, one home with flood insurance may be $200 a month as a rider on your regular insurance; the community of 100 homes gets that same insurance for $75 a month per home, and that comes directly out of your dues. So while you may be paying $300 a month in dues, you’re not paying $200 per month extra in insurance.)

There’s always a home owner’s association book, a charter. In that charter, which is voted upon by original residents, contains all the rules for the neighborhood. If you’re moving into an area that has an HOA, you will be given a copy of these rules to read. If you rent a home owned by someone who rents out the building, you will be given a copy of these rules. 

You know who controls the rules of the neighborhood? The residents. Every year, they’re given a vote on the budget, on who should run the association, everything. Except where the rules in the HOA go against the laws in the city/county/state. My HOA, for instance? The association would LOVE to let people have gas or charcoal grills. But that’s a city regulation that says any building with four or more families cannot have open fire within 10 feet of the building. For safety. Not because the city doesn’t want you to have a steak, but because the city doesn’t want Joe to be bbqing hot dogs and accidentally put three other families out in the street.

Because of that, discussions have been underway to turn one of the common areas into a park where there can be residential grills and picnic tables, and that will be paid for out of the dues collected.

When our neighborhood had to have the roofs replaced, EVERYONE got a new roof. With 50 year shingles. We did four buildings a year, and we had a contract and the contractor did the job. 

If just I had to replace my roof? $20,000.

For having the whole neighborhood done? We got them done for $14,000 each. And the money came out of the dues. 

Most communities pay a management corporation to take care of the fees and funds, (because unfortunately, people who aren’t bonded sometimes cannot be trusted to not, say, borrow money from the HOA) but they’re not allowed to collect any fees unless the president of the HOA signs off on it. 

And that person lives in the neighborhood. They’re not getting paid by the association. They’re not getting ANYTHING out of it. Our association officers get an extra parking space. That’s it. A parking space. To spend upwards of 20 hours a moth of their free time to make sure the budget is balanced. To make sure the trash goes out and that the lawn care people do their jobs. To pay the insurance. And the power bill. 

And they can be voted out. There’s a reaffirmation vote of the board every year, but if there’s a lack of faith issue? Any resident can call to replace a board member. There’s usually a percentage of the residents needed to vote, but you can give a proxy vote to your friend, if you don’t have time to go to the meeting. Get your neighbor to collect the votes and vote out a board you don’t like.

My experience with boards is simple. Show up, show an interest in helping, and they will put you on a committee to HELP OUT.

Property Values:

Yes, okay, a lot of people move into a home with no intentions of ever leaving, so what the property is worth does doesn’t affect them.

But a lot of people do move out. They get new jobs in other states, or they downscale their home because their kids moved out and they don’t need a five bedroom place anymore. They become disabled and can’t stay in a 2 floor place because they can’t do stairs. Their mom becomes disabled and has to move in with them. 

They need to sell their home. Property value matters. It sucks that it does. It sucks that people will judge the home of their dreams based on the fact that the next door neighbor has a “TRUMP MAKES AMERICA GREAT” sign in their front yard. It does. We shouldn’t care that people make those judgement, but the honest truth is-- they do. People won’t buy a home if they walk in and see the walls are painted mint green even though painting is easy and cheap. Any real estate agent will tell you the same thing, when you’re selling your home. Repaint everything neutral colors, take down all personal paintings and pictures. Put up mirrors so people can See THEMSELVES becoming a part of this home.

Home Owners Associations are in place in 53% of the homes in the US.

That means slightly less than half do not have an HOA.

Some HOAs are terrible, I’m not saying they’re not. But they’re terrible because the people running them are terrible. Not because the idea is terrible.

The idea -- the ideal -- is socialism. We’re a neighborhood, let’s all pool our resources so that all of our neighbors can have a nice, safe place to live. So that when your roof caves in, there’s money to fix it. So that when there’s flooding, you’re insured. So you don’t have to haul your trash to the dump, we’ll pay to have someone pick up the dumpsters every day. So that the common areas are trimmed and maintained.

Does this mean that no HOA ever, say, keeps people of color out of the neighborhood, or unfairly enforces their rules against people they consider undesirable? Of course not, I’m not an idiot. Yes, there are certainly places and boards that do that. 

Which is why if you’re thinking about moving into a neighborhood, and they have an HOA, if you can, see if you can meet the board. Find out what the rules are, how they’re enforced, and how to change them. Things like flags and doors and lawn gnomes are rules that can absolutely BE CHANGED by the people who live there.

When our board was given the option to discontinue some of the flood insurance (based on the Flood lines being altered by FEMA) and only carry flood insurance on the 18 homes that were considered A zone, which would have been a HELL of a discount on the insurance and would have been reflected by LOWERING dues accordingly) they offered it to the neighborhood. Go vote. Decide if we want to save $40 in dues per month and risk flood damage that’s not covered by the association’s policy, or keep the insurance at its current rate.

40% of the homeowners came out to vote.

We kept the insurance.