#and it will never be better til the media gets better. or more optimism is injected. or ppl just wise up to the fact that theyre making

[3416]

anyway. this is maybe my favorite thread i’ve found on twitter the past couple days about why empathy directly translates to being able to enjoy sports regardless of the outcome. we’d all be better off and less bitter if we were willing to embrace the randomness of sport (especially ice hockey) or admit that the people we’re watching are actual people, lol. thank you twitter user himbeaux_on_ice for the logic in a sea of ugliness lkjsdklfjsdkl

[azucanela]

prologue

pairing: bakugou katsuki x fem!reader

warnings: alcohol consumption. cursing.

word count: 3k

summary: the internet is enamored with the idea of y/n l/n and bakugou katsuki, two renowned pro heroes, dating. the first issue? the pair rarely interacts. the second issue? apparently, they hate each other, not that anyone knows about that bit. of course, after one night of many mistakes, the whole world knows. 

series masterlist

THE NIGHT OF THE GALA, it quickly came to Y/N’s attention that she definitely should not have waited til the last minute to get ready. But, her own procrastination had bested her, especially since she didn’t want to go, at all. It isn’t that Y/N wasn’t excited to see all her peers, it’s just that...

Y/N wasn’t excited to see her peers. 

Or anyone for that matter, she was exhausted after having just recently returned from one of her longer missions, and though her publicist had insisted the timing was perfect Y/N had to disagree.

She was really hoping for a break, not to be forced into socializing with everyone. And though Y/N didn’t want to seem arrogant in any way, she was a woman who had amassed quite the influence in her years as a Pro Hero. Meaning people wanted to talk to her, they wanted her favor.

Y/N wasn’t in the mood to have conversations with people faking kindness at the moment, which was the primary reason she found herself grimacing as she slipped on her second heel. Nearly falling to the floor had she not caught herself on the edge of the doorway as she hopped out while adjusting her shoe. 

As though things couldn’t become more chaotic, Y/N’s phone rings, causing her to jump at the sudden noise in shock before cursing, hand reaching into her small purse and digging around for the item as she continues towards her door. Just before she can pick up the phone, the call promptly ends, and a knock sounds at the door— causing Y/N to groan in annoyance as she comes to a proper stand and begins to make her way towards the entrance of her home.

The knocks become more rapid, and Y/N suddenly realizes just who is at her door as she rolls her eyes, calling out, “I’m coming you impatient hag.” 

Y/N can practically hear the scoff of her publicist as she finally opens the door, revealing the woman who stands with her brow raised. “We’re going to be late.”

Before her stands Lorelai Flores, one of the most renowned publicists of their time. Y/N was lucky to have scored her seeing as she was one of few Pro Heroes who hadn’t had a scandal yet, miraculously. In fact, Y/N had been one of her first clients shortly after they’d met in a local café— the woman had come from America and Y/N couldn’t help but wonder if life there was more chaotic with how well she handled all her clients.

The woman in question stands before Y/N in a green dress as she removes her glasses, eyes scanning Y/Ns figure before saying, “you look nice.”

A smile finds its way onto Y/N’s face as she lightly shoves Lorelai, stepping out of her apartment and locking the door behind her before the pair begins to head down the hall, “you look great as well!” 

The click of their heels brings Y/N a satisfaction she cant describe as they exit the apartment complex, Y/N lived in a quiet area, an attempt to escape the unavoidable fame being a Pro Hero brought on. It was especially worse when you saw all the posts.

God, Twitter is insane, Y/N learnt that the hard way. Despite the fact that she and Bakugou Katsuki hadn’t been in the same room since graduation— for a reason— the internet had taken to shipping the pair. It was an idea that Y/N abhorred given her history with the boy. After all, they’d practically been butting heads since they met. 

But it was appealing to the masses, the idea of someone “soft” like Y/N, someone known for their charity work and kindness, their sweet smile and endless optimism. And someone... like Bakugou. Harsh, almost ill-mannered and rude— though there was no denying that he’d made progress since their UA days, not that Y/N could confirm this seeing as she hadn’t seen him in so long. That and the fact that last she checked, most of the major headlines involving Bakugou were... not very positive.

Y/N started to avoid social media once she discovered this ship. She and Bakugou didn’t have the best relationship during their time at UA, it was practically a rivalry in their last year especially. 

“All your friends are going to be there.” Lorelai hummed, scrolling through her phone as she side eyed Y/N, the pair slipping inside a limo with ease once they stepped out of building, met by one of many men that Lorelai had hired. She had insisted that now that Y/N was a Pro Hero, she’d be a target too. And of course, her publicist was right. 

Her brow raises, as she settles in the car, deciding to simply reply, “yes, I’m aware they’ll all be there.” It’s a curious comment, seeing as it was an obvious fact. They were all heroes, and given their history with UA, well... the world had been anticipating their debuts for a while. Meaning they all quickly rose to fame, some faster than others, and some remaining in the spotlight far longer. 

Surprisingly, Y/N was included in that bunch, unsurprisingly, Bakugou, Todoroki and Midoriya were as well. Tokoyami had also carved out a nice spot for himself at Hawks’ agency, and Yaoyorozu had managed to become a sidekick to a rather renowned upcoming hero. 

Y/N had also earned a spot at Hawks’ agency, the man demanding her presence because she had “reminded him of himself,” for some reason. And seeing as he was one of the top heroes, who was she to disagree? The man seemed to understand her desire for distance, allowing her to go on missions that tended to be further out from where she’d grown up. And she was more thankful for the space.

She’d taken to philanthropy as soon as the money started coming in. Y/N had never understood just how much money Pro Heroes made until she was earning it as well. Although, seeing as she wasn’t ranked all that high, it wasn’t until she started branching out and doing other work that it became ridiculous.

“All of your friends, Ms. L/N.” Lorelai looks up to her, brow raised as she crosses her legs, resting her clasped hands on top of them.

Y/N offers her a tight lipped smile before waving her off, “I told you to call me Y/N, we’ve known each other how long?” 

“Don’t change the subject.”

Sighing, Y/N shifts uncomfortably in her seat, eyes drifting towards the window to see there are already dozens of flashing lights lined up, surrounding the venue of the gala, hoping to catch one of the Pro Heroes before anyone else does.

With a sigh, Lorelai directs her eyes outside as well, hands clasped together as she straightens herself in her seat, “funny isn’t it? That such a vital job requires so much publicity?” A tight lipped smile forms on their face, “I suppose I should be grateful for it. After all, it’s the reason I have a job but...”

But, Y/N hated it, and so did Lorelai. 

“It’s horrid that my dress matters more than any life I save.” 

And with that, the car comes to a stop. Alerting them that they’ve arrived, coupled with a short and swift knock on the door to signal that it’s time to get out. 

Inhaling deeply, Y/N looks back to Lorelai, who takes out a pocket mirror and removes her glasses, Lorelai eyes herself in the mirror momentarily, blinking once, twice, before saying, “most people don’t bring their publicists to such events you know.”

A small laugh escapes Y/N, and she knows its Lorelai’s attempt at helping her wind down before going inside, though she replies, “you’re more than my publicist.” Offering her a smile, Y/N simply says, “and why suffer alone when I can bring my friend, and who else will make sure I don’t do anything dumb?” 

It was true, it was always nice to have a partner at such functions, someone to hang around or return to. Or more accurately, someone to use as an excuse to leave the more annoying conversations. Though Lorelai always enjoyed the free foods and gift bags— that had items worth more than her rent, Lorelai had once said— and agreed to join Y/N/

Rolling her eyes, Lorelai simply knocks at the door, letting their chauffeur know it’s time before momentarily turning back to Y/N as they say, “ladies first.”

And with that, the door opens, revealing the pair to the world and exposing them to all the flashing lights of the mob awaiting them. People shouting out her Pro Hero name, Empatha.

Named for her quirk, Empathic Mimicry. Granting her to use the ability of those she touches for as long as she wants. However, in that period of time, she can feel their emotions and pain, and the quirk she uses comes with the setbacks of the user. If the person she touches is quirkless, it is possible to get other skills of theirs, but once again there are setbacks. 

Todoroki spent much of his free time at UA theorizing that she and Monoma Neito were secretly related in some way. Monoma on the other hand, seemed bitter about the fact that Y/N was “a better version” of him. Despite this, the memory of Todoroki’s odd question brings a genuine smile to her face as she steps onto the red carpet, swiftly making her way past as she waves towards the cameras. 

It’s just as overwhelming as it was the first time. And the second time. And the time after that. Even if Y/N had taught herself to control her abilities, no longer feeling the emotions of those surrounding her. But she didn’t need her ability to feel the excitement, anxiety— and worst of all the ambition. Ambition tended to be dangerous in the hero world. The reason behind unnecessary deaths, and exposed scandals. In Y/N’s experience it was a dangerous emotion, but she wouldn’t deny it had produced some impressive people. 

The lights are blinding as Y/N maneuvers inside, colliding with someone, warm hands come to rest on her forearms as the person in question mutters out, “watch where you’re going.”

Y/N finds herself freezing, recognizing him almost instantly. By the time her eyes have readjusted to the light, she finds that Bakugou is staring right back at her, mouth gaped open.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Y/N scoffs, tearing her arm from his grasp as he quickly as she attempts to collect herself, inhaling deeply.

Y/N probably should’ve guessed it was him from the screams, pose for a picture! Why don’t you two get a little closer! Can you comment on your relationship? They’re yelling for Bakugou too, wondering why he finally decided to make an appearance. Y/N is curious as well, for different reasons of course.

Bakugou is rolling his eyes before she can continue, “please, it’s not like I wanted to see you either.” 

Y/N nods slowly, offering him a bitter smile as she inhaled deeply— taking a few steps back. “Great to see you Bakugou, truly.” Sarcasm dripping from her tone as she stands beside him begrudgingly, putting on a false smile, “I hate you just as much as I used to.” 

Pausing, Bakugou’s hand comes to hover over her waist, as he stares into the cameras, muttering, “why?” 

“We both have reputations to maintain, do we not?” Comes her response, looking to him, Y/N reminds herself not to scowl as she straightens herself beside him, waving to a group of people and inciting more screams as she beams from beside Bakugou.

His laugh is a bitter one as he replies, “right.” Y/N inhales shakily, removing herself from Bakugou as she offers him a sarcastic smile, “thanks for the show, Sweetheart, but you aren’t all that important. You aren’t doing me any favors right now.”

A laugh escapes her, and the number of flashes increases exponentially, only for her to turn to Bakugou and say, “really now? Well, I suppose you’re right I’m not important seeing as you’re the one on the front page every week for a different scandal.” Bakugou looks away, scoffing, and Y/N nearly flips him off before reminding herself where she is and saying, “And I don’t want your thanks. I don’t want anything from you.”

And then she’s off, offering tight lipped smiles to those around her as she moved further into the venue for the gala, grabbing a drink off the tray of a passing waiter, Y/N mumbled out words of thanks before downing the drink instantly. Making her way past each person when a hand grabs her wrist.

“Y/N?”

Izuku Midoriya, better known as Pro Hero Deku, had intercepted Y/N on her way to the sanctuary of every party. The bathroom. Though he was probably the best person to have caught her, and undoubtedly someone she actually wanted to speak with. Y/N had a feeling he could tell something was wrong from the way he looked at her, concern clear in his eyes, Izuku was always easy to read. But she had somewhere to be and—

And Bakugou would be entering anytime soon. And what infuriated Bakugou more than she did? Izuku Midoriya.

So, Y/N puts a smile on her face as she says, “hey Midoriya.” She clears her throat, moving to stand beside him as she asks, “how are you doing?” 

He beams back at her, his smile as genuine as ever as he responds, “I’m well! And so are you it seems, there are rumors that you’ll be entering the top 100 heroes this year, you know?” 

Y/N had heard such rumors as well, if they were true, she’d be the first of her class to become a part of the top 100. Seeing as they were still basically fresh out of UA, it would be quite the achievement for her to do so at such a young age. Rivaling the progression of even Pro Hero Hawks. 

Raising a brow Y/N shoves him lightly, “scouting out the competition are you, Midoriya?” 

Midoriya’s eyes widen and he immediately begins shaking his head as his cheeks flush a bright red, “absolutely not!” He exclaims, “I’m just so amazed by how far you’ve come and it’s been so long since I’ve seen you.” 

A small laugh escapes her at his reaction, her eyes drifting towards her empty glass as she replies, “well I have no doubt that if I do miraculously enter the top 100, you’ll be close behind.” Inhaling deeply, she meets his eyes, “now if you’ll excuse me, I was on my way to the restroom when you caught me.” Once again, his cheeks flush a light pink as he begins to sputter apologies, and Y/N simply smiles as she says, “but we should definitely catch up sometime soon, maybe we can hang out sometime soon?”

A bashful smile finds its way onto his face as he nods slowly, “yeah. I would like that.”

And with that, Y/N waves goodbye to him continuing to the bathroom and managing to avoid any more conversations though few tried. Likely hoping for some good publicity themselves, she could see people beginning to swarm Deku in the distance now— and Y/N finds herself feeling bad that she left him so soon.

But as Y/N makes her way inside the restroom, it finally hits her.

Lorelai meant it when she said all her peers are coming, the woman had probably meant it as a warning. It was rare for Bakugou to attend social events, especially since they rarely ended well when it came to him. Most days, he ended up the headline of every single news sources when it came to his public events, rarely did Bakugou have a good run in with the press. Y/N was shocked he’d made it this far in the hero industry with his poor reputation only worsening at every event.

Oh she needed a drink. Y/N needed a lot of drinks. She couldn’t do this right now, not at all.

But more importantly, she needed fun, she needed lots of fun. So, taking one last look at the mirror, Y/N inhales deeply before exiting the restroom, spotting Izuku Midoriya almost instantly. She makes her way towards him, calling out for him, “Midoriya!” Her words distract him from his conversation, drawing the attention of those around then and the people who were initially speaking to him. 

The boy seems relieved that someone has come to save him from whatever conversation he was having, waving to Y/N as he says, “Y/N?”

A grin comes onto her face as she extends a hand to him, looking to those around him, “sorry to interrupt but—” She turns back to Izuku, “may I have this dance?

He offers her a nervous smile, only sparing those around him a glance as he replies, “definitely.” 

And with that, she drags him to the dance floor, and Y/N can feel the eyes on her as she does. It certainly is a curious sight. Two of the big up and coming heroes heading to the dance floor together after barely any public interactions. Y/N is sure that once the word gets out the internet will be going insane, and so will the press. Weaving together stories of insanity to boost their readership.

At this rate, Y/N didn’t care. 

This was Y/N L/N’s first mistake of the night, but it certainly wouldn’t be her last seeing as by the end of the night, Y/N L/N and Bakugou Katsuki would be on every front page and headline. 

note: lmk how this was pls i need validation <3

[vldchaewon]

a playlist consisting of  8  tracks that remind me of chaewon.   (  listen here + plus one bonus track because spotify doesn’t have track 7  )

track 001: rainbow kitten surprise, painkillers.

“living just comes with a bit of heartache, heartache comes with a bit of young faith faith stays young ‘til your heart gets broken, hope grows up to become someday i’ll never hurt no one and no one will ever hurt me, i believe, i believe, i believe faith plays dumb ‘til the doubts all leave.”

chaewon has always been laughably optimistic. a lot of people misunderstand her as being naive, and she’ll never correct them; she doesn’t think naive is a bad thing to be, anyway. the truth is that she’s just as uncertain as everyone else, but she’s found that the best way to silence her self-doubt is to fake confidence until it becomes real. you could say that she has too much faith in the universe, but sometimes, faith is exactly what you need to become who you want to be.

track 002: lauv, billy.

“to all the people that were mean, he just channeled your energy. and hey, look who’s laughing now, he said thank you for your doubts. and to the people that believed, he just channeled your energy.”

chaewon definitely wasn’t destined to become an idol. she was a clumsy, awkward kid without an ounce of coordination, and when she first started dancing, she was laughed at endlessly — even by her family. everyone tried to gently turn her away from performing, but she pretended that she didn’t know what they were doing and used their laughter as motivation to get better. to make sure that no one would ever have a reason to laugh at her again.

track 003: onlychild, lost.

“together we will never be lost, keep running and we’ll never be caught. and once you get the feeling, don’t stop, together we will never be lost.”

chaewon is the type of person who lives in the moment and takes every risk, regardless of the probability of failure. she believes that the only way to get what she wants out of life is to run towards it without fear — this applies to anything from her bigger goals like becoming an idol to the smaller ones, like just having a good day. she tries to encourage those around her to have the same outlook.

track 004: sleeping at last, body.

“there’s magic in our bones, a north star in our soul that remembers our way home. god, it’s easy to forget that there’s magic in all of this.”

all things considered, chaewon views life as a very beautiful experience. she’s able to find something positive in even the worst circumstances ( even if it’s a reach ), and that optimism helps her to enjoy every moment while it lasts. she’s constantly reminding herself of what a blessing it is so be alive, to be here, to have the opportunities that she has. she’s the only one living life through her eyes, and to her, that’s magical.

track 005: lorde, team.

“we live in cities you’ll never see on screen; not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things. living in ruins of a palace within my dreams and you know, we’re on each other’s team.”

as much as chaewon truly does want to be an idol, she can’t deny how difficult the process is. it takes a toll on even the strongest people, and she’s sure that it will only be harder when she debuts and everyone’s watching even more than they already are. but she doesn’t let the bad things crush her spirits — she’s excited for her future and where it will take not only her, but the other members of lark, too. they’re a team, and as long as she’s with them, she’s confident that she’ll be okay.

track 006: ajr, 100 bad days.

“100 bad days made 100 good stories, 100 good stories make me interesting at parties. no, i ain’t scared of you, no, i ain’t scared of you no more.”

a lot of bad ( ahem —— embarrassing ) things happen to chaewon, but she wouldn’t change any of it. to live a life with no obstacles can hardly be called living, and even if something gets her down in the moment, she can usually look back on it and laugh, or at least be happy that it’s a thing of the past. at this point, she’ll gladly tell life to do its worst.

track 007: alec benjamin, on your speakers.

“tell me you won’t forget. remember the night we met, rewind like an old cassette and i’ll be the song that’s on your speakers, playing for you, you, you.” 

everything about chaewon’s life before she became a trainee was inglorious, and in my ways, her life still is. there’s nothing that she’s ever wanted so much as to become someone she can be proud of, someone who can cause the best kind of scene and leave things different than they were before she found them. she’s ready to take on the world, but at the same time, she’s afraid of leaving behind who she was and even who she will be. she never wants things to end, but she knows everything has to, sooner or later, so she only hopes to leave such a mark on people that the memories will remain forever.

track 008: this wild life, catie rae.

“you’ve always been just what i’m missing, but never ever knew. you’ve always earned just what you’re given, never handed to you. you’ll always be my best decision, my one and only truth. you’ll always be my heartbeat, my rhythm, it’s always been you.”

this is a love song, BUT i think it depicts how chaewon feels about lark very well. she’s always wanted to be a performer, but she probably wouldn’t still be so passionate about it if she wasn’t grouped with girls whom she loves to the end of the earth. she always seemed confident & like she knew where she was headed, but chaewon didn’t know what she was walking into when she joined summit media. but she found something better than she ever could’ve hoped for with the girls; her loyalty will always lie with lark.

[spreadupon1stuff-blog]

SEO Agency In-House Or Freelance

Social media advertising has a phony popularity. For many an executive from the industrial department, this exercise sums as much as a string of signups over a number of social networks randomly and every so often, multimedia, article postings and advertising over Fb and Twitter. This is positively not the best shot!

SMM is more than just being present within the Social Media Sphere. It is a sharp commercial engagement that will simply turn into total havoc if not dealt with correctly. The aim of Social Advertising and marketing in cyberspace is the same as the real-world thing. It's about delivering Distinctive Promoting Factors that may find yourself into concrete and sustained gross sales. It is about changing an anon right into a brand advocate at finest. Attaining this objective follows principally virtually the same guidelines apart from the Miami social media marketing fact that Social Media allows a better, more personal and customizable, so to say Social method of the targets. Similar rules apply but with kind of variations. Assessing the prerogatives, context, environment and toolsets is the essential start line of any Social Media Advertising campaign. It implies thorough setup and clinical precision in the way messages and attitudes are to be delivered by dedicated channels. Inside such campaigns, posting on Fb, on a fan page, group web page or personal web page isn't the identical process.

Listed here are 10 guidelines points before partaking into Social Media Advertising and marketing:

Define your base technique. Setup a budgeted roadmap with intermediate white stones that may assist at nice tuning the marketing campaign all along the way in which.The roadmap should keep in tune with what is being executed or what has been executed in the actual-world. Social Media Advertising is never an innocent act. It's time-consuming and will incur expenses. Being exact concerning the marketing campaign will certainly decrease the burden. As mentioned SPREADUPONSocialMediaManagement earlier assess the principle goal and methodology. For example, you could need to totally revamp your actual web site so as to permit SM integration and SMO. Make your campaign keep SMARRT - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reasonable, Related and Time-sure. Either go for Awareness or Sales or Loyalty. One after the other! Do not attempt to goal for all goals in a single go. Bear in mind! Stick with your company's marketing and communication coverage.

Assess and understand your marketing campaign's setting. RESEARCH and don't cease til' you get sufficient! One surely doesn't need to bounce into dark waters with out primary precautions and headlamps. So do you with your Social Media Advertising Campaign. Diving recklessly into Social Media can spell COMPLETE MESS especially when dealing with building awareness and product popularity. Constructing an effective Online Social Technique implies thorough data of the opponents' doing's on widespread platforms (after all)... however above all, take an humble preview of how others from completely different sectors have completed or are doing. Get into both profitable and failed case studies. Learn more about technical potentials of every Social Network and platform.

Establish these platforms and toolsets that are relevant and positively responsive to your roadmap. Social Media Advertising and marketing is about delivering the identical consistent message through the whole spectrum of interwoven Social Networks. The intertwined winning triumvirate is fabricated from the Blog, Fb and Twitter, to which you'd add a YouTube account should you would have video clips uploaded on a regular basis. Select strategically. For example, you may feel the need of Slideshare and LinkedIn accounts as a substitute of a Foursquare one, if your product or service is extra into pitch-intensive B2B. Your toolset must also be made up of listening and monitoring wares.

Realistically finances and dimension your Online Advertising. Use the complete potential of Google AdSense and Fb's advertising platforms, however make sure to focus on wisely. Goal-tied Advertising Campaigns mean nothing with out correct advertising. Intuitive Internet advertising is now accessible by way of just a few clicks and will definitely unleash its power to speak about your brand on a global basis. They'll also improve diffusion to limited zones. Take into consideration figuring out and assessing your targets on geographical grounds. This can assist at optimizing your online commercial funds. Selecting PPC or CPC is as much as you accordingly to your fundamental roadmap necessities.

Setup a Social Media taskforce from inside your staff and look for an outsider to function as a Neighborhood Supervisor. The net by no means sleeps. Social Media Marketing is a 24/7 perpetual roll-on. As such it is time and useful resource-consuming. One ought to never expect to be capable of handling a Social Media Advertising marketing campaign alone, particularly if other major company duties are at stake. As a substitute, invite a few of your employees to interact explanation into social networking on what you are promoting's behalf. Be picky though! Those indulged in such a delicate and interactive job must write well, be tactful, artistic and constant. Outsider Neighborhood Managers are seldom biased and are limited to the sole duty of consolidating your taskforce's actions over related Social Networks. In any case it's best to build a team whose most important targets and capabilities are to hear, be taught and reply in tactful method.

Desire influential relationships. Get your group to determine main Bloggers and mainstream Social Media activists who fringe with your zones of curiosity and trade. This process is likely one of the hinges of success for your campaign. Getting to talk to Social Media heavyweights is like hiring evangelists when relationships get entrusted. Getting Woman Gaga to love your pair of boots is like tapping SPREADUPON Social Media Managementstraight into a sea of alternatives as extensive as 9 million people who would simply observe Gaga's recommendations. Getting her to purchase one would imply speedy success. CAREFUL however! The adversarial effect is also proportionally as massive as your contact's notoriety. Make certain of what you sell to him or her. A profitable Social Media Advertising and marketing campaign starts right here.

Determine relevant measuring and benchmarking tools. They are proof of your marketing campaign's success or want for tremendous tuning. For example, the increase in the number of likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter is an indicator of your campaign's health. Getting to know how many instances your model is talked about across the net and score these comments assist at wonderful tuning the campaign. You should also be able to preserve monitor of your on-growing relationships and visitors that comes from Social Platforms. Figuring out prospects for future opportunities helps at growing higher strategies. Beware! On the actual state of affairs, Social Media Metrics might be tricky! In truth you have to a very big selection of results coupled to trending reviews to be able to depict the exact snapshot of your on-going campaign.

Identify offline parts that shall be needed to complement your Online Social Marketing. Offline occasions are powerful conversion instruments when geared the right and relevant approach. Offline elements may additionally mean socializing with individuals off the online, in the Here is Wikipedia actual world, providing actual-world prizes and items, organizing rallies, bar camps, conferences and seminars... etc Determine how these elements can improve your target's brand experience and the way they are going to relevantly match into your Online Marketing Scheme.

Urge for high quality relevant content material when posting articles, multimedia and comments. Praising your 270hp 1974 pink Corvette once you advocate for ecological products on your blog isn't the perfect of methods. You'll want to lay editorial guidelines that may define constant cross-platform content material manufacturing each in terms of straightforward-reading literature and technical specifics. Ought to an uploaded video be in HD each on YouTube and on Fb? How long needs to be an article? Should an article contain a generic frequent byline for multiple authors or should it bear the precise creator's identify and on what grounds? One should always outline these strains accordingly to the focused viewers.

Urge to stay HUMAN at every stage! Putting up a Social Media Advertising and marketing technique is about constructing your model's Social Media presence where your quality accessible content will likely be delivering values of your organization. Social Media is about... Socializing first! Persons are touchy in relation to attitudes and postures. They do not wish to bullied or taken as immature customers. Being too techy, too commercial, demotes the social experience. Simple language and "real-worldlike" politeness are the bases for the perfect of approaches. It's sometimes extra fruitful to start a discussion that will seem miles away out of your product and its campaign targets. With the need to listen and the ability to communicate clearly, high conversion rates are never far ahead.

Conclusion

Whoever engages into Social Media Advertising and marketing is certain to search out himself pulling on very many strings on the same time. Assessing, understanding the campaign's atmosphere via research and pre-dive studying is a must. Though the advertising and marketing process may appear just like the true-world factor, the Online Social Expertise entails mastering every stage with much more precision, as a result of you possibly can by no means see or analyze actual-time behaviors,spreadupon.com/ except for what the prospect writes from behind his monitor, should or not it's true or false. A Social Media Marketing Strategy is solely the results of the conjunction of human competences and webtools that allow social interplay, interchange and sharing to the profit of a brand. It's a two-method site visitors by which the seller has an on-spot obligation of being a psychologist, sociologist or an ethnologist. Be reassured you do not need to be these really since you're a human being who is supposedly used to human social codes generally.

[thesinglesjukebox]

VAMPIRE WEEKEND - HARMONY HALL [7.10] So I was going to re-use one of our taglines from previous entries as a hat-tip to self-referencing, but none of them made sense in context. So you'll have to make do with editorial whingeing instead.

Joshua Copperman: Like most people, I pressed play expecting to gawk at how much of a mess this is, and "Harmony Hall" initially sounds like the slick, misguided pop crossover everyone feared, but the melancholy edge of Modern Vampires is both less noticeable and more present than ever. An early Vampire Weekend song could start with that guitar riff, but not the low, warm synth pad. Even Modern Vampires would be gloriously cluttered with sounds, yet Manny Marroquin's mix is intensely spacious -- the choirs panned to the left and stay there, the delays ping-ponging then abruptly cutting out. No one listens to Vampire Weekend for social commentary, but Koenig goes beyond "Trump bad," instead focusing on the return of hate groups and the reemergence of anti-semitism (hiding that particular vulnerability "beneath these velvet gloves"). The callback to "I don't want to live like this/but I don't want to die" works because how tired it sounds. The line was gleeful and drawn-out in 2013, but in 2019 it's just a throwaway line to nod to the default mood. Another week, a thousand media jobs laid off, another hate crime, another swastika on a college campus, every refresh of a Twitter feed another potential verse of "Love It If We Made It" (obviously intentional on Matt Healy's part.) This isn't happy-but-secretly-sad; it's what happy sounds like when sad is normal. [9]

Ian Mathers: I think I emitted an audible little laugh in my cubicle when I first heard "I don't want to live like this, but I don't want to die" (you and me both, buddy). Something about that "Sympathy for the Devil" rolling percussion and the piano and even Ezra Koenig's current delivery makes this mostly sound like something I might have heard on oldies radio on a family road trip when I was a kid (i.e. before they added the 80s and 90s to those stations), except... better? I don't know, every time I think I'm done with these guys they grab me again somehow. I guess you can sign me up for [checks stories about new album]... Father of the Bride. Sigh. [8]

Claire Biddles: Vampire Weekend are virtuosos at encapsulating a very evocative (and I hate to say it, very millennial) melancholic yearning: a hyper-specific nostalgia for the recent past. How delicious, then, to find this distilled not just in the lyrical content, but conceptually: a callback to an album track from five years ago, when our troubles felt so huge. [7]

Thomas Inskeep: Starts out sounding like wimpy early '70s male folk, and by just past the chorus it's almost got a '73 Stones vibe going (we're this close to a gospel choir coming in, and yes, that was a vibraslap) -- so is this their Arcade Fire arena move? The biggest problem here is that, it's still Vampire Weekend, so it's still all too wimpy. [4]

Katie Gill: This is a friggin' weird song. The beautiful discordance of the depressing lyrics with the bubbly sound makes sense. The surprise piano solo in the middle of the song kind of makes sense. But I just can't wrap my head around why this song sounds so intensely dorky. Is it the plinky piano background? Is it that dumb percussion bit before "anger wants a voice"? Is it the Is it the fact that it's 2019 and I'm getting Paul Simon flashbacks? Seriously, swap out that piano for a horn section and you've got the b-side to "You Can Call Me Al." No matter what, you have to hand it to Vampire Weekend. They've certainly made something with a unique sound and something that I suspect will be talked about for weeks, if not months. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: With "Harmony Hall," Koenig's revealed himself as having anxieties aplenty, and it's loudly signaled with a self-referential lyric ("I don't wanna live like this, but I don't wanna die"). There's grief caused by the corruption hidden inside seemingly honorable institutions, and the song's chipper and (regrettably) Grateful Dead-like instrumentation mimics this duplicity. But more than this, such revelations have found Koenig reflecting on his own identity -- as a musician, as a Jewish-American, as a member of the upper middle class -- and what he can do. In hearing the guitar figure constantly repeat, one becomes privy to its false sense of security: "I thought that I was free from all that questioning/But every time a problem ends, another one begins." The melody's smooth ascent and cascading descent is an unmistakable Dave Longstreth contribution, but this fact doesn't make "Harmony Hall" any less about Koenig's personal turmoil; it finds him stepping out to unearth concrete answers. [5]

Josh Love: Vampire Weekend are valedictorians of indie's last decade, having not made a significant misstep, cranking out the consistently tuneful and clever alt-pop that's made them a hip millennial's staple and a top-shelf critical darling. Unlike say MIA or LCD Soundsystem or Arcade Fire, they've never seemed like overreaching or underdelivering, all of their endeavors perfectly-coiffed. After a lengthy hiatus, not a hair's out of place and you can't point to anything being demonstrably wrong here. What's worrying though is that "Harmony Hall" accomplishes in five minutes no more than it could have managed in half that time. The first couple of verses and chorus are catchy, smart, and sufficiently dynamic, Koenig meditating on Jewishness and doing call-backs to the even more faith-informed "Finger Back" from the band's last album, over a piano lick that puts me in mind of Andrea True Connection's "More, More, More," or more more more specifically, the better song that nicked it, Len's "Steal My Sunshine." Too bad the last half of "Harmony Hall" is all diminishing returns; I kept waiting for something to make this elongated running time worthwhile but the back end offers nothing more than a baroque passage and a new piano flourish or two. Hopefully this song's not entirely a harbinger for the remainder of Father of the Bride; I'd hate for Vampire Weekend to have aged into being that former head of the class who's a self-satisfied bore at the reunion. [6]

Vikram Joseph: I've always associated Vampire Weekend with clear, sparkling late winter days; there's something about their sound that lends itself to that kind of light, and a wide-eyed optimism that suggests warmer days might not be far off. Fitting, then, that "Harmony Hall" should appear now; they've never sounded so crisp, so open or just so much like Paul Simon. The intricate Baroque guitar and flurries of electric piano are accoutrements which could render a song starchy and formal, but Vampire Weekend carry them off with effortless flair and a nonchalant grin. Ezra Koenig alludes deftly, though unambiguously, to politics; "Anger needs a voice/voices wanna sing/Singers harmonise 'til they can't hear anything" is a pretty eloquent description of the chaos of current discourse. Much like a young Stuart Murdoch sang with just the right combination of pathos and conspiratorial wit to pull off Belle & Sebastian's red-wine-stained stories of sexual misadventure and tentative affection, Koenig's voice has an intoxicating blend of empathy, lightness and desperation which in the past has allowed him to get away with a lot of highbrow wordplay, and which here makes the song's headline ("I don't wanna live like this, but I don't wanna die") feel like both a weary joke and a howl of personal, political despair that rings out through decades. Musically, though, "Harmony Hall" is a fleet-footed thing of joy, the balletic "ooooh"s in the post-chorus like arcs strung out across the country, a reminder that beauty exists even in dark times. [9]

Matias Taylor: Getting the words to dance as much as that nimble piano line is tricky, but six years on Vampire Weekend's lyrical and melodic gifts are as sharp as ever. [9]

Alfred Soto: As allusive as usual -- I hear George Michael, "Mrs. Robinson," their own "Finger Back" -- the latest from the sometime quartet, an-album-every-six-years men of leisure, affirms their faith in keeping them from the brink of the great surrender. "I thought I was free from all that questioning," Ezra Koenig yelps, a self-deception. He's smarter than that. Yet he clings to his arpeggios as a grandmother to a handrail. He knows music. It won't keep him safe. [7]

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[rkcheri]

#interview: halloween edition ! ° [ + ] lee, jihyun —————— ✦ ˟   › ! royal survival &. episode five: interview   ┄ ·˚₊

the last time she had an interview of this magnitude had been during dream high. a panel of the cast and crew, stacked side by side; each with their own questions to answer -- their own smiles placed right before the camera. at the time, she wasn’t alone. if she messed up, she had daehyun or hongbin -- someone else to tide the question in their direction, garner a laugh out of the press and that’d be it. it’d be a mishap of nerves and end on an abnormally good note.

but this, these were the types of interviews she had always dreaded. where lee jihyun had no one else to rely on but herself; and she knew deep down, she didn’t have the patience nor courage to find that type of self-empowerment. two weeks couldn’t help instill it, either. with these types of interviews, it was more dog-eat-dog than pansies and daisies. 

the ones that drilled question after question, ones far worse than the first. with people who seemed to know every lie even before it was said. she tells herself she knows better than to give too much away. tells herself not to get carried away with the questions that burn holes into her psyche. it’s borderline frightening knowing just one slip-up could land her on a one-way ticket back into the depths of royal’s basement. it brings shivers down her spine just thinking about it. fingers flutter over gold filigree, a brief stand-in for her usual crescent that lays by her collar. it keeps her at ease, only for a moment. it’s a brief summoning, a wishing away of nerves.

the calm before the storm, that is, until one of the producers emerges from the shadows, in tow are the dispatch reporter and the camera operator. at least this time, it’s not under the guise of flashing lights and the scrutiny of more than a dozen pairs of eyes.

two pairs will do.

jihyun emerges from her seat, bent at the waist as she greets them; hand already out, taken by the reporter within a moment’s notice.

       ❛ hello,  ❜  comes the rosy tones, soft and light -- breezy.                                             ❛ i’m lee jihyun.  ❜

their eyes meet and jihyun feels the loss of words; a slack of jaw from the immediate contact. a ringing in her ears; a little spew of dizziness that catches her, their own intensity blinding her momentarily. hands slip from grasps; seats are taken. her smile resonates, catching up to the slew of stolen grace that had consumed her seconds earlier. from the nonchalant chatter to get the interview off it’s feet to the more long-winded roles of family, allows the conversation to occur without spontaneous pausing. it keeps her at ease, talking about something that genuinely makes her happy. it was no secret how close jihyun was to her family, if any indication of having them plastered all over her social media had any say on it. despite the enormous distance laid between them, she tried to stay connected.

                        ❛ so, you said you were born in busan --                                but we’ve found that your family                                currently resides in new york ? ❜

there’s a laugh wedged in there somewhere, properly placed; hidden behind her smile as she recounts fond memories, not so nice times and the more lighter half of her childhood. “i was born in busan but when i was eight, my family and i moved to the states. we ended up staying in new york, or well -- they ended up staying in new york while i came back.” it’s a white lie -- a deviance of the actual tales that laid between the time she left home and the time she actually came. but she knows, that’s the least of the public’s worries. none of that really needed to be known, anyways.

                        ❛ that must’ve been hard -- leaving korea at such                            a young age and beginning again, elsewhere.                            was new york not what you expected, is that                            why you came back to south korea ?  ❜

she keeps her eyes softer than usual, placed in contact at all times -- attention give wholeheartedly to the reporter. not staring but not gazing, either. it’s a battle of wills to keep them from slipping, from fingertips tapping and legs shaking. fingers are crossed between the other, laid in her lap; one ankle over the other. oh, how her mother would be so proud! all those years of etiquette and it seemed today of all days did they finally pay off.

“it was hard, at the time.” she nods, a slow drawl of her words; reciting them once before reiterating them again silently. it’s a slow rush of emotions, a reel of memories that begin at once.  “i was young, i’ve never really been anywhere else but we went for my mom. it was a great opportunity for her; and i had my family, and at the time, it was all i needed.” she consumes too much of nonchalant comments, answers unsaid questions where they’re otherwise not needed. it’s too much going on and she has to pause to actually think of what the reporter was asking of her, what he had actually wanted to know. “but new york was my mom’s big break, as i got older, i realized i wanted my own. i wanted to find my own place where i knew i could shine. and i left knowing that new york wasn’t it.”

                        ❛ your mother ? you mean, lee miyeon or, georgiana,                           as broadway knows her.                            she’s rather famous in america, isn’t she ?                           do you think her success has helped you ?                           perhaps, paved the way to where you are today ? ❜

only a few questions in and already jihyun feels the nip of frost; the closing of one chapter and the entrance of another -- training wheels loosened and the wolves were eager with hunger. the only sheep she can find was the one stacked right before her own wolf; recorder split between them. the producer at the side the least bit of help as the questions slowly begin to escalate. she shifts in her seat, uncrosses her ankles to cross them another way. breathes in twice, blinks a few more times than necessary. 

“i-,” a precursor lies between her words; picks up time where there isn’t any to be found. “i wouldn’t say so.” it’s denial at it’s finest. the first string to the many she’s upped her arsenal in. she knows to be prepared but how much is an understatement as she’s currently understanding.

“my mom is my idol, the very first role model i’ve ever had -- she chased her dreams and got to where she was because she never stopped believing in her own.” she tries to fill in the gaps the best she can; finding words that test the questions in a different way. drives them further from negativity and spins them where they can only be sought as positively. “i can’t say her success hasn’t impacted me, because personally -- her success incited a determination in me like hers. it taught me to not give up so easily, no matter the obstacle. i can say, from the bottom of my heart, that i wouldn’t be here without her or my family. they have supported my dreams since the beginning, like we’ve supported hers, and i think that it has helped me the most.”

she breathes, calms her nerves -- an overactive high that diminishes the moment she sees the reporter nod. a sliver of a smile. jihyun isn’t sure how to take the reaction but easily deduces it with a grain of salt. she’s survived the first string of bullets drawn her way, would the rest be avoided just as easily?

                        ❛ it seems you’re set on being an idol --                            if you had the chance, no -- if you were born again,                            would you want to be an idol ?  ❜

she counts the significance of this question on a single hand -- the amount of times it’s been heard is laughable to a fault. as a child of few expectations and a little too much indecisiveness, her parents had constantly prompted her on trivial questions. from the very first time to the last second before she left new york, each time was more different than the last. to hear it again, after years of having her heart set on consistency, brings her back. jihyun’s smile is a little more fonder, kept in that easy grace unlike the last question had -- as if she’s taken back eons to a better time.

“i think, in another life -- i wouldn’t want to be an idol. i think the purpose of having a different life is to do something new, try to become someone your other life was unable to be -- become. i’m not sure who i’d be but i don’t think i’d want to become an idol, it’s as if i’m putting this life to shame by trying to redo it again.” was she making any sense, it’s a twist on words -- a real tongue-twister to try to put things in a more theoretical aspect. but it’s all jihyun can do to make it a little more her, revealing enough -- but not too much -- of what and how she thinks.

“i’d like to think that when i’m gone from this life, i lived it to the fullest it could be -- with no regrets, whatsoever. as idealistic as it may be, that’s how i want to live my life.”

                        ❛ i see. it seems like you’ve already got your life planned                            ‘til the very minute detail. do you know where                             you’d be in five years, where you see this life headed ?  ❜

the way the reporter weaves to and fro between the questions varies upon intensity; it’s a whirlwind ride trying to react accordingly to what they’re trying to provoke from her. she wants to stay passive but it’s unlike her to let the conversation escape from her grasp without some kind of emotion leaving her. not yet the industry robot, not too far set in her ways, does she let slip the thinnest hum from her lips.

“it seems like i do, right? i don’t, actually. if i did -- i probably wouldn’t be trying my luck on this show if i already knew where my life was headed. i guess, that’s the thing with life; it’s full of surprises. as for me, i’m always ready for what it has in store for me that i stopped trying to predict what will happen next. if i get my hopes up too high for it to,” she bites her tongue; a small reminder that what she’s saying hits a little too close to home ( wasn’t it just a month ago she was almost on the out ? ); “... fall, that wouldn’t be living my life to the fullest, would it?”

                        ❛ you’re rather optimistic, lee jihyun-sshi.                            that optimism must have helped during the last                            three years. was it worth it -- being a trainee this                            long when most of the girls on the show are younger,                            have been training less than you have;                        are on the same level as you, someone who has                            trained longer, is older than they are ?                            do you feel at a disadvantage ? ❜

an avoidance of ums and uhs are hard to come by when one is put on the spot, especially when they’re taken off guard. thinking the worse had already come had been a premature, rookie-esque mistake. it seemed the dispatch reporter had more in store for her than she thought. her eyes stray from their piercing gaze, the first time despite the lengthy interview, that she does. a moment’s notice delayed as she tries to come up with her best options, none of which require her to faint, run out of the room, or embark on a vicious tantrum because suddenly she’s left speechless. none of them are things she’d really do, but it was worth a shot if it meant avoiding answering such a question. one of which -- had always seemed to come back and bite her in the ass.

“i admire my peers, they’re so young and have so much potential ahead of them but it’d be far too unrealistic for me to think i’m at a disadvantage.” it’s the best way she can say her deepest desires without stepping on too many toes. it’s also the only way she’d be able to answer the question with the least bit of spite she knows she’s harboring. because it is true, the others were younger, they had less time on their hands unlike she, out of the royal trainees who were showcased on the show, had the longest rapport with their company. it was unfair, but was life. you didn’t always get what you wanted, something she’s known for much longer than she liked to admit. “i know where my strengths are and i know i can do that better than anyone else can.”

she knows it sounds cocky, but jihyun did know where her potential, her own worth lied within the company. whether she would debut this term or not, she couldn’t decide that but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worth it. jihyun knew she was talented, nothing was going to change that.

( at least, that was what she was going to keep telling herself )

                       ❛ optimistic and confident. but of course, that’s in your ...                           talent. what about your looks ? you’re not getting any                           younger, have you ever thought about going under                           the knife or have you done so, already? ❜

the interview seems to keep fishing, a long reel of words that come up are suddenly up for repetition; trying in earnest to find what made her tick. they all are meant to provoke and so do they; it causes discomfort where usually there would be none. but it’s hard to deflect when all your shields are diverted like a leaf in the wind; blown away by the big, bad wolf. 

“i’ve thought about it, sure -- who hasn’t. and if they say they haven’t, they’re lying.” it buys the least bit of time and will probably be the worst part of her commentary for the time-being for such a touchy subject but it’s what’s done and there’s no way she can take it back especially when she’s already feeling the after effects, the exhaustion that comes from sitting and allowing such questions to be said. “i guess, if you think i’ve done something i guess it really says something about my genetics. which, i have my mom to thank for -- i guess i’m pretty as i am because of her.” though, she’s sure -- among the contestants, she was far from the prettiest but it does say something about being thought to have gone under the knife. did she look fake or was she just that pretty?

                        ❛ don’t worry, lee jihyun-sshi, we’re about done.                            the last question, i promise it’s an easy one.                            what’s it like being on stage ? is there something                            you’d rather have in exchange ? ❜

"there’s a dozen of things that come to mind that i wish could be exchanged for the feeling i get from being on stage but it’s not the same. the feeling i get from being on stage is different than anything else i’ve experienced and it’s weird to think about. because i’m young -- well, not that young but i consider myself young enough to not have experienced enough, yet. i’ve still got a whole life to live but for now, i don’t think there’s anything that i would want to exchange for the feeling i get when i’m on stage. it’s a euphoria of some kind, different than adrenaline or any other joy that comes to mind. i’m just happier, when i’m on stage. i feel like i can do anything, conquer the world, maybe? or -- like i’m on top of the world, for that matter.” fingers push her fringe from her eyes, heartfelt as her smiles becomes one with the warmth bearing from deep brown and hazel. “i’m just better when i’m on stage.”

                       ❛ and that’s a wrap !                          thank you for your time, lee jihyun-sshi. ❜

it’s the end in the ongoing torment she feels has yet to cease but a good in between nonetheless. a breather, if there ever was one, was necessary and the tiny gap they had given her allows her smile to form. she nods, happy for the small ease; a breakaway from the tension that had filled her shoulders from the last question.

                         finally, it was over.

the niceties come in and out, as quick as their faces come and go. jihyun pays her respects and bends at the waist, falls in line with the way they disappear without a moment’s notice before taking her seat once more. a final breath appears from thin air and she’s left exhausted by their long interrogation of this and that. now that it was finally over, she felt relieved. as if a weight, among the many that have left her this season, had been lifted. 

but eerily, it feels too good to be true. she rises from her seat, left to mingle by her lonesome. it’s the first in the hour she’s been in the room, that she’s actually had the time to venture throughout it. going through the beautifully and intricately designed costumes to pass the time, who knows when they’ll be back. she’s hesitant at first, reaching out for a moment only to pull back, doubting her actions as she moves away from the mannequins that held the pieces. 

jihyun turns away from them, ready to take her seat once more only to hear a slight buzz. was it the halloween spirit or were her ears playing tricks on her? her neck cranes, turning slight to spy her mannequins from behind. they didn’t look like they had moved but one couldn’t be too sure, now? especially with the season of tricks and treats upon them, who really knew what the producers had up their sleeves. 

or perhaps, she was overthinking it. maybe nothing was going on -- maybe it was all in her head. that was the way to go, jihyun thinks. there was no way that mannequin had moved. no way. 

at least -- until it decided to crumble right before her eyes, body parts flung about to lay by her feet; tearing an atrociously sized rip in one of the dresses. 

if her blood-curling scream wasn’t enough, her scampering away from the scene should have been a feast for the eyes that caught her red-handed. heeled soles kicking away the pieces of mannequin that lay demolished by her side. her expression a picture-perfect scene of fright. 

“i-i-” the stutters begin, as fingers try to push away tresses from her eyes; the color having yet to return to her face.

the designer, she presumes is the one that flies right past her to the dress; picking up the pieces with disgusted fingertips. her own screams of disbelief outdoing her own that have finally ceased. all she can hear is the heavy beating of her frantic heart in her ears and the newly-unveiled place of blame that has hounded her heavy shoulders.

“WHAT DID YOU DO ?!” she hollers and jihyun feels herself shrink further; shame reveling in every pore and frame. she’s actually trembling, hands unable to shake the quivers that unnerve her from seeing the mannequin actually break before her eyes. was it work of a ghost? was the studio actually haunted?

the accusations come flying; like bullets, far more severe than the questions she had just answered. they hit every bone and fragment that laid her as an easy target. she’s unable to defend herself except for the vowels that seem to compromise her very being. “i-i didn’t mean to, well -- i didn’t. i mean -- it,” her fingers rattle, shamefully pointing at the disembodied mannequin. 

“are you blaming the mannequin?” the producer asks in disbelief, one that mirrors her own. was she really blaming an inanimate object right now? but who else could she rely on than her own two eyes -- she had seen what had happened, but could they really be able to verify what she said was true? even jihyun was a little freaked from the words that were coming from her own lips. 

“i can’t believe this.” 

neither can i -- almost comes jihyun’s own remarks but she’s far too frazzled by the mess to even be spited from the other’s hostility towards her. 

“y-yes, i mean-- no! it is my fault, i wasn’t looking where i was going and i must have bumped into the mannequin and caused it to fall.” in the end, there’s no knowing what had happened -- even jihyun, who had seen what happened, didn’t really believe it. a mannequin moving on its own accord, what was this -- a horror flick? “i didn’t mean for this to happen --”

“i really am sorry,” here comes the excessive pleading, the apologizing that comes when someone is caught red-handed with their dirty hands in the cookie jar. though, right now it is sans the dirt nor the jar; but she feels burdened enough by shouldering the blame. there was no real way to prove it wasn’t her, so why should she continue spouting nonsense when it’d get her no where?

fingers run through her hair, eyes darting back and forth to the crazed designer and the frustrated producer; her own expression probably one of downright dismay with a sprinkle of fear mixed into the mess. “i’ll try to pay for it in whatever way i can -- i don’t have a lot but i can work for it. it looks like it cost a fortune, i’ll do everything in my power to fix this. i’m really sorry for this.” she knows it sounds like excuse after excuse but there’s no way she can avoid it -- not when she’s already knee deep between the two. could this get any worse? “it won’t happen again, i’m so sorry.”

leave it to good o’ halloween to be up to his dirty tricks.

[howtoloseweightfastsafely]

Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Part II:

Moving on, I feel compelled to share this next short piece, because it concerns a topic that is near and dear to my heart: depression and low self-esteem.

This essay of sorts was actually written to a friend of a friend who has been struggling with his own depression, low confidence, and feeling "stuck" for lack of a better word.

Also, this man, Chris, is not exactly dealing with the best of circumstances.

He is a young, 18-year-old man just out of high school, coming from a single-family home in gang-heavy Camden, NJ (one of the deadliest and most under-served cities in the U.S.)

The good thing is he is on the right path and has entered college as of September 2013. And from what my friend tells me (she was his high school mentor), he is a very smart, kind, and caring young man.

Chris wrote my friend, Melissa, an email telling her how life has been very tough, he's sad all the time, has trouble finding true friends at school, and that he feels like he's stuck with "no way out".

My friend then asked for some guidance from me, as I've dealt with many of the same exact issues myself in the past.

Here's what I said, and here's what I think anyone can apply to their life, whether depressed, just feeling down, out of luck, or feeling "not good enough" or "not worthy" or "defeated" or who think it's "too hard", or whatever it is keeping them from their goals, desires, and dreams:

 "I know how you must feel, but it's not true that things won't get better. They always do. It just takes longer for some.

But that's never a reason to give up.

And I know it's hard to see now, but there's a good side to this, as there is with everything in life.

In this case, the good side is you're getting stronger every single day that you push through the struggles, hard feelings and negative thoughts.

You get so strong that by the time you overcome this (it always happens), you're a machine and nothing fazes you.

You will see amazing things come into your life and you will start doing amazing things.

And while everyone else is doubting themselves when the going gets tough...you'll laugh and get through difficulties like a walk in the park.

Because you've already done the hard work. You've seen the living hell on the bottom and you still fought it and made it out.

You've developed a massive level of inner strength and confidence, whether you realize it or not.

And when you bring this strength to anything in life, whether its writing music, starting a business, getting lean, or doing whatever you want in life...you'll see that it's much easier for you than anyone else.

You've already done the much harder work of battling depression, and you're winning. Keep this with you when your mind keeps filling with negativity and self-hatred. As real as it feels, every single second you fight it, you get better, smarter and stronger.

Here's a fun little exercise: think about anything and everything you want, no matter how insane it sounds. And write it down. If you want ten million dollars or a threesome with some gorgeous models or you want to buy your own island, or be famous, or have a 3 car garage with a Mercedes, Ferrari, and Aston Martin...or if all you want is to be happy every day, write it all down.

And understand that you can have it ALL. And you will.

When the time comes that you realize your true strength and potential, you'll see a miraculous transformation where you go after all your goals and desires...without letting anything stop you.

You'll rip shit up and destroy the competition, and you'll do it better and faster than anyone else.

So as bad as it looks now, just keep looking up. Keep on searching and striving for more.

A lot of people are stuck in depressive, hellish situations, and it definitely sucks, but there is ALWAYS a way out. Don't give up.

Also, there are little things you can do every day to start feeling better.

You see, every day is a chance to have an amazing life and do amazing things. Even more so, every day is a chance to help someone else or do a simple little thing to brighten someone's day.

The thing about life that most people don't tell you is...to build self-esteem and to feel better, you have to:

1) Do esteem-able things

2) "Fake it til you make it"

Remember that you're the shit and you have an amazing personality. You have so much to give to others.

So much so that it'll make them smile and laugh and love their life...and after you do this, you'll see the rewards and happiness come back to you tenfold.

To be clear, you don't have to anything above and beyond to reap the benefits.

A simple smile or hello or just holding open the door could mean the world to someone.

While you're in your own dark spot, someone else could be in the same spot too. And you never know if you saying "hi" or smiling to them was the 1st nice thing someone said to them all week.

That simple little gesture could make someone's day, week or month. You just never know. So give a little bit back whenever you can. And when you see the joy it brings them, you'll slowly but surely feel better too."

Moral of the story: NEVER give up. Keep pushing, keep working, and keeping reaching to be the best you can be. And one day you'll get it. And then you'll move on to even bigger and better things. Most importantly, keep helping others. Give all that you can through love and kindness, and you will reap the rewards tenfold. Challenge yourself and greatness will come. It isn't always easy, that's for sure, but it is definitely worth it.

 Interested in losing weight? Then click below to see the exact steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...

Read the previous article about "Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality"

Read the next article about "Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality"

Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll share so you can lose weight even faster, and feel great doing it.

Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.

Topic 1: How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days - And How You Can Too

Topic 2: How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It

Topic 3: The #1 Ridiculous Diet Myth Pushed By 95% Of Doctors And "experts" That Is Keeping You From The Body Of Your Dreams

Topic 4: The Dangers of Low-Carb and Other "No Calorie Counting" Diets

Topic 5: Why Red Meat May Be Good For You And Eggs Won't Kill You

Topic 6: Two Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than Ever Before

Topic 7: Everything Popular Is Wrong: The Real Key To Long-Term Weight Loss

Topic 8: Why That New Miracle Diet Isn't So Much of a Miracle After All (And Why You're Guaranteed To Hate Yourself On It Sooner or Later)

Topic 9: A Nutrition Crash Course To Build A Healthy Body and Happy Mind

Topic 10: How Much You Really Need To Eat For Steady Fat Loss (The Truth About Calories and Macronutrients)

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

Topic 13: How To Determine Your Optimal "Macros" (And How The Skinny On The 3-Phase Extreme Fat Loss Formula)

Topic 14: Two Dangerous "Invisible Thorn" Foods Masquerading as "Heart Healthy Super Nutrients"

Topic 15: The Truth About Whole Grains And Beans: What Traditional Cultures Know About These So-called "Healthy Foods" That Most Americans Don't

Topic 16: The Inflammation-Reducing, Immune-Fortifying Secret of All Long-Living Cultures (This 3-Step Process Can Reduce Chronic Pain and Heal Your Gut in Less Than 24 Hours)

Topic 17: The Foolproof Immune-enhancing Plan That Cleanses And Purifies Your Body, While "patching Up" Holes, Gaps, And Inefficiencies In Your Digestive System (And How To Do It Without Wasting $10+ Per "meal" On Ridiculous Juice Cleanses)

Topic 18: The Great Soy Myth (and The Truth About Soy in Eastern Asia)

Topic 19: How Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply)

Topic 20: 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply

Topic 21: How To Protect Yourself Against Chronic Inflammation (What Time Magazine Calls A "Secret Killer")

Topic 22: The Truth About Buying Organic: Secrets The Health Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

Topic 24: A Recipe For Rapid Aging: The "Hidden" Compounds Stealing Your Youth, Minute by Minute

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

Topic 26: The 10-second Trick That Can Slash Your Risk Of Cardiovascular Mortality By 37% (Most Traditional Cultures Have Done This For Centuries, But The Pharmaceutical Industry Would Be Up In Arms If More Modern-day Americans Knew About It)

Topic 27: How To Clean Up Your Liver and Vital Organs

Topic 28: The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)

Topic 29: How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

Topic 30: 7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)

Topic 31: How To Sleep Like A Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)

Topic 32: The 8-step Formula That Finally "fixes" Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested (If You Ever Find Yourself Hitting The Snooze Every Morning Or Dozing Off At Work, These Steps Will Change Your Life Forever)

Topic 33: For Even Better Leg Up And/or See Faster Results In Fixing Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested, Do The Following:

Topic 34: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 35: Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 36: Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 37: Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 38: Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 39: How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence (These Strategies Will Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity And Show You How To Fulfill All Your Dreams)

Topic 40: Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results

Topic 41: If You Want Maximum Results In Minimum Time You're Going To Have To Work Out (And Workout Hard, At That)

Topic 42: Food Planning For Maximum Fat Loss In Minimum Time

Topic 43: How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain

Topic 44: Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

Topic 45: How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)

Topic 46: Advanced Fat Loss - Calorie Cycling, Carb Cycling and Intermittent Fasting

Topic 47: Advanced Fat Loss - Part I: Calorie Cycling

Topic 48: Advanced Fat Loss - Part II: Carb Cycling

Topic 49: Advanced Fat Loss - Part III: Intermittent Fasting

Topic 50: Putting It All Together

Learn more by visiting our website here: invigoratenow.com

[terriblevalveartandocs]

About Valve OCs and the blog

This has been on my mind for a while.

This blog never got a satisfying end in my books, and I’m sure for other readers as well. Even though closure is a myth perpetuated by mainstream media, I will make this post to try to rectify past mistakes and general truancy of this blog. I have my own suspicions that most of my readers are dead (considering all of the porn bots are now starting to follow me), so I write this post in the darkness of the night into the void that is Tumblr. Read my cry if you care.

Firstly, this blog will never update again. There are multiple factors that have led to this blog’s extinction and I think they’re important to address

Motivation

This blog took up a large chunk of my life back when it was active. Don’t get me wrong, bad art still gets me to cringe and I find myself on occasion still pining over weird ocs and art styles on Deviantart. However, maintaining it as a blog with daily updates became a chore for me along with promising critiques of ocs and such. I’ve come to discover that I can’t do what I love as “””work”””. While bad art still remains a passion for me, I don’t see myself continuing this in blog format.

OCs have changed

The OC market has changed. Base art has definitely taken a downturn in the past few years and you’re more likely to see people hand-drawing their ocs or writing them out. Thanks with the culture of memeing about bootleg fandom ocs (This is my own original character blonic, donut steels) , it seems that people are more drawn towards creating their own worlds and characters rather than shoving their mary sue into their current fan favorite content. These are good changes in terms of originality for artists and writers in my opinion.

However, a lot of the formats for OCs have changed as well. There tends to be an emphasis on their sexuality and race in OC culture now. I don’t consider that a bad thing but I’d rather not poke that hornet’s nest of gender identity and race of fictional characters. What used to be the standard straight, bi, gay has expanded into other territories that I am unfamiliar with and now we have more ocs outside of the standard white chick but with Japanese last name because the creator really likes naruto. Again, this just seems to be the trend and I think my last few revival posts kinda show them.

Valve as a games publisher

LOL when’s half life 3???

Valve has definitely moved from being a game developer to a digital distributor.  Steam definitely seems to be their focus outside of Hat/Weapon Skin collecting and online gambling (and also their weird consoles/controllers???). Not that I would continue this blog if they released more content (They published another update to the TF2 comic, can’t wait for that to get updated in a year).

Along with this slump of their own original content, this has led to a slump in original characters for their franchises. There are not as many fan ocs and art isn’t being produced for their franchises (except maybe with comic updates for TF2 and nostalgia for old games).

This blog was created at the optimal time imo with L4D2 still being fresh, TF2 still having an active userbase, and Portal 2 giving some great content in terms of creative material.

Also I’m not interested in reviewing Dota 2 art and I don’t think there are enough Counterstrike ocs.

Negativity

I don’t know if this blog was a source of positive or negative energy. On one hand, I was ridiculing people’s art without much hesitation and not acknowledging how much time and effort that might have been put in by the artist. But on the other hand, it provided laughs for people during its duration and gave me a creative outlet in terms of humor, arguments, and writing. I think I did my best to avoid any harassment for these artists by removing any watermarks that might lead any rude reader to them, but I’ll never know if they suffered any bullying. Obviously I’m not going to put this on my resume as work experience but I like to think that this blog help think critically about their content, regardless of what role you played on the blog be it me, a submitter, an observer, or the subject. Maybe if some supreme being questions why I started this blog in the afterlife, I can tell them I did it for the lolz.

In the end, I think I did more harm than any general good for the world and nobody will really understand that weird pain if I try to repent for it publicly. I don’t know of any key examples of this (or really remember because I haven’t done this shit in years), but I do apologize if I ruined anyone’s ambitions for writing/drawing.

I’m glad there is a stronger hugbox mentality for artists who aren’t very good and I embrace that style of encouragement. I guess my only concern is veering too far into that and just embracing everything as perfect and awesome and never improving. Criticism has its place in society.

Perhaps the real lesson is that who the hell gives a shit about what you post on the internet. Why should you give a stranger any control over how much your art is worth? However, this also gives the argument into determining if any of your art is worth anything based on your preconceived notions on your art’s merits since you are only a stranger to me. Why should you tell me that your art is valid and equal to anything else produced when it looks like you drew it with your tablet pen stuck up your ass?

Maybe we all just need to learn to stop giving invisible voices the power to ruin our emotional states and work on our self satisfaction.

Growing up????

I wrote most of this blog like a million years ago. It was a stronger part of my identity and a part of a community in a way of similar blogs in the same style. But I don’t really relate to the content as much I used to. Valve games are still near and dear to me, but they’re more nostalgic than my current flame and muse. I feel the same happened to other blogs in the same vein as mine. Perhaps also age and the changes of time led to our own focuses in our own lives than looking at the scribbles of some stranger on the internet. While it’s still one of my internet past times, it is not my main focus in life to critique bad art (unless it starts paying serious dosh). I just don’t relate to the words and passions anymore. In a way, this is my own cringe that artists produce when they’re young on Deviantart. It’s kind of funny in a weird way.

This blog will continue to remain up but I’ll probably move into another blog of some sort (I accidentally made this my primary blog and I can’t delete it). It sort of became my main lurking blog and I guess its time that I make a less weird not ghost blog (I’m probably confusing a lot of the people that I follow with my constant hearts and comments).

I guess I wanna say thanks for all of the people who followed this blog and its contents. I probably wouldn’t have continued for very long without followers so you’re all to blame for this negative impact I’ve made on the world (jkjk). I like to think we’re connected with our mutual spirit in improving how we create things and wanting to see improvement in others. I think this blog helped me see the dumbest of things and not be afraid to say it was dumb and I hope it did for you as well. I also hope it brought you laughs in the content that was displayed or the humor I attempted to convey. It did genuinely warm my heart whenever I got a heart, reply, reblog, or messages to keep up the work. It kind of makes me sad to think that I left rather abruptly, but better blogs have died quicker and quieter. Simple fact of life really. Thank god my ego keeps me in check to constantly remind people of my existence.

To any artists out there, bad art is a fact of life. You do not come out of the womb knowing how to do two point perspective and 3d shapes. You mess up doing 3d shapes each any every time until you get it and then move on to the next thing you’re not good at. There’s a common TIL leddit post about how Michaelangelo burnt all of his old works so nobody would know how bad he was when he was starting out. I don’t know how true that is, but that’s not a great mentality to have for your art. Seeing that bridge between your former self and current self is important for seeing self growth in your skills. Plus you won’t have those juicy likes and comments on instagram when you do the art redraw and show how far you come like how can you skimp on that you dingus.

All of the great content creators right now love showing off the shitty art they did as kids because it gives them a sense of progress in their work and their accomplishments and continues to drive them in their own works. (unless you’re rebecca sugar and drew ed edd and eddy shipping porn lol). Heck, some of them even take the stuff that was once cliche characters and expanded on them in their own Original Universe Donut Steel. And thanks to their own Original Universe Donut Steel, now tens of thousands of impressionable young artists can look at it and say “that’s awesome, but it would be way better if there was my own character...”.

OCs are weirdly one of the ultimate ways of fan expression where you enjoy the content so much you wish you were part of it. Even though it’s very disjointed and out of place, it’s usually done in a place of love for the franchise or the characters. So for those of you that are doing that still, keep at it I guess.

Fan art is sorta in the same way where you enjoy something so much that you want to replicate the style/themes/characters in your own or the content’s style. While not as extreme, it’s still in the same place of love and people generally like that more than original shit anyways so continue to make it so I can buy your posters at anime conventions without supporting the original creator lol. 

If you want to harass me further for my sins against budding artists, I guess I’ll link my personal blog if anyone actually asks me. I also wrote this at 3 am so it is extremely unedited and awful but it’s the most “pure” for my usual diatribe. Consider it my first OC for the blog.

Good night, good life, and farewell.

[yummraj]

A delivery pop up (delhi NCR) of fusion onam sadya , bengali dishes by Pritha sen & Malayali dishes by Prima Kurien)

This is a series about how eating out is, post COVID lockdown. Read about the previous dining out / takeaway / home delivery experiences after the COVID pandemic lockdown here – amar Jyoti tres spectra threesixtyone Tenali bagundi potbelly divine cafe lungta 

In a NUtshell

An OUT OF THE WORLD experience – food (heaven), everything else (hell) – meeting expectations, items promised in the menu missing, logistics, packaging. Lunch arrived at 3.30 pm!!! No expectation setting, no warnings, no proactive updates.

Address & other details: onam pronam

Meal for 2: ₹ 2600

Cuisine type :  vegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster

Short description- in case u r in a hurry

Our first onam sadya was at our friend Dilip Jayaram’s house in mumbai 5 years back. We were floored the the amazing food that we had that day. The standards were set just too high. We’ve had many more sadyas since then – some great, some good.

Kerala has a more plural religious mix than most other states of India – slightly more than 50% is the hindus & 45% is Muslims & Christians put together. Onam is a harvest festival (originally based on Hindu mythology) that is celebrated by people from all religions. Interestingly sadya is eaten during this festival by malayalis from all religions & the food is vegetarian for all.

Traditionally this multi dish meal is served on a banana leaf. There is a certain logic to which curry / item is served in which part of the banana leaf. A ripe small banana is also served along with the rice & Curries. Sadya has a sweet dish as well. We were told that most people eat the Curries / chutneys in a certain sequence.

We have been to many pop ups by food historian, journalist & food artist Pritha Sen & have always loved them. Each of her pop ups are unique & totally different from the past ones. We vividly remember food that we had a 7 years back, by Prima Kurien, at Dastkar haat, Delhi. She runs a catering business, serving some great Kerala food in Delhi NCR.

So when we heard about the collaboration by these two ladies for onam, we were super excited. The idea was to have onam sadya with Kerala dishes & bengali dishes that go with the theme.

When we read the social media post further, we got to know that the event is being organised by THE SOUL FOOD COMPANY. We had a slightly strange experience with them few weeks back. Nevertheless onam pronam seemed to be way more interesting, to avoid.

We paid the full amount for onam lunch (Sunday 30th August) in advance 6 days before the lunch. Payment options were google pay or bank transfer. The guy from SOUL FOOD told us that he will send details of delivery on Sunday.

On Sunday morning we checked. We were told that lunch will reach by 1.30 pm. At 1.05 pm, we were told that the lunch will arrive between 2-2.15 pm due to ‘extreme delay in kitchen’. When we connected with them at 2.20 pm, we were told ‘delivery guy got caught in rain. He will reach really soon’. The really soon of course did not happen. We thought at that point – Even the best in the hospitality industry make mistakes, but the best ones make up for it (I always admire TAJ hotels on this front).

We were thinking of calling friends to share the food. Thanking our luck that we did not do – else we wud have had to keep our guests waiting till 3.30!!!

The food came in a torn paper bag. Inside the bag were two kinds of paper/papier-mâché containers. The paper ones were un-sealed (2 of them were closed using cello tapes).

Many liquid items had spilled out. In a situation where restaurants are going the extra mile to deliver safe food, I don’t even know if someone has drank some of the sambhar onway, or ate some curry, before delivering to us.

There were 6 items for which we paid but did not receive – Payasam, Pachadi , Aumbole, Samandhi podi (totally unacceptable), Mango pickle (ok, don’t mind that much), Ripe Banana (no worries). The courier boy either ate lunch from those or he just threw them away to reduce weight of the bag.

SOUL FOOD company’s actions led to us getting FOUL MOOD on an otherwise lovely Sunday . Second time in a row!!!

The way I see it is SHIT HAPPENS. But what one does in such situation, (‘to set expectations’ / update / proactively communicate/ make it up / apologize etc) differentiates the serious long term players vs. the non serious/ inexperienced players. The guys in question here did not bother to do any such thing – it’s the worst thing to do, to keep people sitting & waiting for food. An intimation & expectation setting would have led to arranging alternative options.

The heavenly food made up for all the torture. We were speechless after eating the food.

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

The choice of bengali dishes was stunning. It blended beautifully with the concept. For someone who did not know this was fusion, he/she might not have understood that this is a marriage of two different cuisines from two places 2400 km apart, with almost everything different but for the love for CPIM & literacy (Ha Ha).

All bengali Curries except malai curry were cooked without onion & garlic.

Teetar daal (daal with karela, this making it bitter – meaning teeta in bengali) – it was outstanding, the grains of daal cud be felt, grated coconut gave it texture, ginger made its presence felt – we just cud not stop raving about it. Rate it 4.75/5

Inji curry (Kerala) was made from ginger juliennes, tamarind & jaggery. It was neither too sweet nor too sour. Infact the ginger pieces, when chewed, tasted a bit bitter. Very different from the ones we have had before. Enjoyable. Rate it 3.5/5

Chenchki (Bengal) was made from stem of banana plant (called thore in bengali). This was mind blowing. Juicy, crunchy, minimally spiced. Flavors of methi made its presence felt. Grated coconut added texture & flavor. Absolutely stellar. Rate it 4.95/5

Sambhar (Kerala) was thick (maybe due to leakage as well). It hit the perfect spot when it came to the balance of taste & flavors. Absolutely loved the vegetables – they were able to retain their texture well. Rate it 4.75/5

Thoran (Kerala) was made with French beans, topped with grated coconut. This was good but we have surely had much better. The beans were crunchy, on the borderline of being sub optimally cooked. Rate it 3/5.

Morich jhol (Bengal) – I guess the thin gravy from this had leaked away too. What remained was a thick dry gravy that climbed to the vegetable – jhinga tori/ ridge gourd. The split yellow pea dumplings were daanedaar & absolutely wonderful. Loved it. Rate it 4.75/5

Theeyil (kerala) was whole shallots in thick gravy of roasted coconut, dhania & tamarind. This one was one of the few dishes which had more spices. The texture was grainy. The taste was a medley of sweet, sour & salt. Very enjoyable. Rate it 4.5/5

Chorchori (Bengal) – this is a melange of vegetables, bori (vadi/ lentil dumplings) & a saag. Pumpkin, gourd, brinjal etc were the veggies, pui shaak (Malabar spinach) was the saag. Spicing was apt. The vegetables retained their main texture, yet mixed beautifully with other vegetables. It was like the best of orchestra. Rate it 4.5/5

Pachidi (Kerala) – we did not receive.

Chhokka (Bengal) – pumpkin & Bengal gram curry. Slow cooked. Lovely texture. The Bengal grams & pumpkin had become soft, yet retained their texture. Methi flavor made its presence felt. Rate it 4.5/5

Okan (Kerala) – this was a curry of cow peas (a kind of lentil) & ashgourd. Two distinct textures. Two distinct mouthfeel. They came together very well. Rate it 4.5/5

  Malai curry (Bengal) – this was bottle gourd cooked in coconut milk & with onions. This was very good on its own. Coconut milk flavor or texture did not make its presence felt. Never had this earlier. Always have tasted chingri malai curry (prawns) or evening crab. Rate it 3.5/5

Kootu (Kerala) – this was a dry curry of green banana & full moong dal, cooked in coconut oil. Fabulous. The robust flavors of curry leaf & coconut, the fantastic texture of both the main ingredients & the beyond perfect taste. Rate it 4.95/5

Rice (Kerala) was outstanding. Never had this as good outside Kerala. Perfectly cooked. Did not leave a grain of it. Rate it 4.95/5

Aumbole (Bengal) – we did not receive

Sambharam (Kerala) – this had a thin raita kind of base, with raw onions, ginger in it. Ginger made its presence felt.

Absolutely loved the jujube pickle (Bengal). Could not stop eating that. Sticky. Sweet & sour. Flavor of ginger. Perfect. Rate it 4.95/5

Til badam jhuri (Bengal) – very interesting, like podi. Loved having it with rice.

Payasam (Kerala) – did not receive.

Samandhi podi, mango pickle – did not receive.

Overall rating of food at this pop up averages out to 4.43/5

A phenomenal score for such a long menu.

Rating of the organisers – 0/5

Wud be wary to order again from SOUL FOOD, fearing FOUL MOOD. Hope they learn from their mistakes.

Onam pronam (SOUL FOOD COMPANY) A delivery pop up (delhi NCR) of fusion onam sadya , bengali dishes by Pritha sen & Malayali dishes by Prima Kurien)

[theblognobodyfoundlastyear]

8 years later, and have we still not  moved on?

Woo. Tumblr has changed their user interface again. I suppose that’s what you get for a platform that’s effectively all about stealing other peoples’ ideas and posting it on your own news feed. Then again, that’s what all social media platforms inherently do. Wow, are they really all the same? I’m sure LinkedIn, no that has this... ooh, how about email? Well, not many people would call that “social media” anymore, but there is always email forwarding, so... yeah. All social media platforms all do the same thing with a different flavour.

Anyhoo, there’s been a query on one’s mind as of late: Why haven’t you resolved the 8-year old problem? As a disclaimer, I will not disclose what said problem is, although I imagine I’ll vaguely remember what it was, should I read over this in the future. To help you along, I may (or mayn’t) pepper some hints along the way, so pick up those morsels as you see them. You’ll need it.

Most people generally don’t allow problems to fester and get outta control for 8 consecutive years. Unfortunately, I am not most people, and 8 years ago I’d have been a foolish young lad in the middle of high school, unknowingly getting tangled in some long and painful journey ahead. And you know what? That’s fine. Mistakes were made. Milk was spilled. Cheese was wasted. Yoghurt was, uh... whatever you do with spoiled yoghurt these days. One thing I’ve recalled as of typing this out is that the past is the past. Not much you can do about foolish mistakes, despite how much life would have been had said mistakes not have been made. So acknowledging there was room for improvement is often the most optimal start.

Now for the hard part: The consequence. Perhaps you might deduce that I’m one of those karma chargers or whatnot, but it’s no surprise that something is bound to come your way, should a mistake be made with the foolish thinking that “I’ll just let future me handle that”. To which future me would respond with “YOU @*!KING LITTLE PIECE OF $%&~ I WILL FIND WHERE YOU LIVE AND %^#@ THE !*&^% OUT OF YOUR $&@!” One way to progress is to double down on said mistake, going as so far as risking it all for a slim possibility of making it out well-off. And maybe that’s the best option at the moment. Long term thinking isn’t ever a walk in the park, which is not to say you shouldn’t do it, rather it involves a certain headspace to correctly quantify good decisions instead of  greedily thinking of how to get from one point in life to another. And even with that said, a good decision isn’t always guaranteed, and might take years to actually find a decent solution to the aforementioned problem.

So you’ve been wading around this ball pit of life, hoping to find a lucky break to the problem on hand. And so? You stop. You look left and right. You listen. You find the headspace you were looking for. And sure, it could very well take a considerable amount of time to get there, but some people tell me it’s worth it. “Pepper Pot” Pete, Layton Vickles, “Amarjeet”, Genghis and Khan. How to get there? Time is one necessary ingredient. But I think it also needs a hint of yearning for something more. After all, you can’t solve a problem if you don’t firmly believe in the existence of a final solution.

Lastly, the fix. As you’ve read so far, we’ve run through some non-descript problem with a fast-forwarded process of finding a solution. So how to go about solving the problem at hand? And what to do when the beast drags you back into the depths? Having faced a multitude of problems previously of all sorts of different scales and stakes, whether it’s almost deleting critical information off a database to choosing an iced tea flavour, I can say with 34.5% certainty: Solving a problem is rather easy, the real challenge is how to solve the same problem in different circumstances. Here’s an example of what I mean, which by no means implies any details about the previously named 8-year problem: Hunger. You’re at the university labs, and you’re craving some food like a lunatic. Fortunately, you remember to pack a can of tuna a slice of your favourite raisin toast, and before you know it, you’re back to being you again, disappointingly. But what if you packed something less favourable, such as a can of sliced button mushrooms? You face a choice: Eat the mushrooms and hopefully get back to work, or starve and avoid having to eat those random canned mushrooms that you packed into your bag for no good reason. And what if you had your tuna and raisin toast on hand, but those chips in that vending machine is almost *licks lips* irresistible. So to eat one’s food or spend money on more favourable food items? I could write the rest of this blog post just about that one example, but the premise still stands (somewhat raggedly, might I add): You might solve situation A, but if it knowingly leads to situation B, how to resolve that when it happens?

I can’t say I have a solution, except to live and learn. As in most cases, a problem has much to learn when trying to face it with a certain outcome in mind. So do what you think is best, assess its effectiveness and try yet again. After all, Edison once said: “...I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.”. Wait, I think we were meant to put down the quote about 10,000 ways of failing is just 10,000 ways of knowing what doesn’t work. So expect this 8-year old problem to continue for yet another 8+ years? Well, people change for the better or for the worse. Let’s just hope there’s enough left at that point in time to even consider arriving at a satisfying conclusion...

‘Til next time, young padawan,

Because some people realized they’d already lost the war without needing to fight in the first place. You might even call them “the real winners”, as it were.

[bizmediaweb]

28 Twitter Statistics All Marketers Need to Know in 2019

Whether it’s the latest news or the latest meme, Twitter consistently punches above its weight in our cultural consciousness. And it’s an important space for brands to make an impression on potential customers. We’ve gone ahead and compiled all the Twitter statistics that you need to know to market among the microbloggers in 2019.

Bonus: Download the free strategy guide that reveals how Hootsuite grew our Twitter following to over 8 million users and learn how you can put the tactics to work for your business.

General Twitter stats

1. 500 million tweets are sent each day

That’s 5,787 tweets every second.

Yes, this official number is impressive, but let us please note it was first announced in 2014 and hasn’t changed in the years since.

2. Twitter only became profitable in 2017

It wasn’t til Q3 2017 that Twitter posted its first profit: 91 million dollars. And according to analysts, that was based more on cost-cutting (in sales, marketing and R&D) than business growth.

However, Twitter has been consistently profitable for the last four quarters, and it posted its largest profit ever in Q3 2018. The stock market likes this bump: Twitter was #21 on Forbes’ Top 100 Digital Companies list for 2018 (beating out Facebook at #26).

3. The most popular emoji on Twitter in 2018 was the laugh-cry face

Followed by heart-eyes at #2, and cry-cry at #3.

What better way to celebrate #WorldEmojiDay than with some ????✨data✨?????

These are the most used emojis on Twitter the past year: ➖???? ➖???? ➖???? ➖❤️ ➖???? ➖???? ➖???? ➖???? ➖???? ➖????

— Twitter Data (@TwitterData) July 17, 2018

(Okay, you didn’t really need to know that. But you wanted to.)

Twitter user stats

4. 326 million people use Twitter every month

That’s nine million fewer than in mid-2018, and four million fewer than late 2017. Management blames bot purges, Europe’s new data privacy laws, and some technical issues for the decline.

5. 9% more people are using Twitter on a daily basis

While monthly users decrease, the number of daily users has been increasing consistently since 2016.

Source: Recode

This lines up with Pew Research’s finding that 46 percent of American Twitter users visit the site at least once a day.

CEO Jack Dorsey stated that Twitter is focussing on making the platform “a healthier and valuable everyday service.” If these numbers reflect Twitter’s goal to be more attractive to good users while booting bad ones, they may translate to higher-quality audiences for advertisers.

6. 80% of Twitter’s users aren’t American

259 million of those 326 are international users. Twitter supports these users with 35 offices around the world, and the platform operates in 33 languages. (34 if you count emoji.)

Additionally, Twitter actively supports uptake in the developing world via Twitter Lite, the app’s data-friendly alternative. Twitter Lite is available in more than 45 countries, and this dedication to growing new markets has translated to increased international revenue growth for Twitter.

7. 24% of US adults use Twitter

Of those adults, Twitter users tend to skew urban, educated, and higher-income.

Source: Pew Research

For more detail, check out our comprehensive breakdown of Twitter’s demographics.

8. User growth is predicted at less than 1%, in the US

Emarketer predicts that Twitter will only add 500,000 American users in 2019. Most of the new users will be adults over the age of 25.

9. Only 6% of US teens say Twitter is the most important social network

According to Statista, teens don’t prioritize Twitter over other platforms. (Yes, Snapchat still reigns supreme.)

Source: Statista

10. 80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials

That’s what Twitter says, anyway. This number lines up with what we know about the platform’s general demographics. 45 percent of American 18- to 25-year-olds say they use Twitter, for instance.

But does it line up with the fact that the most retweeted tweet of all time is a plea for free chicken nuggets?

Twitter usage stats

11. 71% of Twitter users are reading news there

And, according to the same study by Pew Research, that works out to 12 percent of all Americans. No other platform rivals Twitter for bleeding-edge news and up-to-the-second happenings.

This relevance is quite possibly the reason Twitter continues to be such a major player in the social media landscape, despite size and reach. After all, Twitter invented the hashtag, and live-tweeting. (And Vine. RIP Vine. Never forget.)

12. Twitter is the number one platform for government leaders

Twitter outdoes Facebook and Instagram among powerbrokers. According to the 2018 Twiplomacy study, 187 governments and heads of state maintain an official presence on Twitter.

And in related news that is surprising to no one, Twitter is politically polarized. But since outrage is the most viral emotion on the internet, at least marketers can count on Twitter users being engaged. Just keep the relatively volatile nature of this environment in mind as you build your Twitter marketing strategy.

13. People are 31% more likely to recall what they saw on Twitter

This, as opposed to what they recall while browsing online in general.

Apparently, Twitter maintains a special place in its users’ hearts and minds. Or is it just that pithy content is stickier? Regardless, this is a notable lift that’s worth capitalizing on.

Twitter stats for business

14. 75% of B2B businesses market on Twitter

Source: Statista

And 65 percent of B2C businesses are marketing there. That means Twitter outranks Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat.

15. 85% of SMB Twitter users say providing customer service there is important

One of the top reasons businesses feel they need to be on Twitter is customer service. It’s almost de rigueur now to @ your airline about every twenty-minute flight delay.

However, smaller brands can also jump on the opportunity to turn frowns upside down.

16. Only 3% of customers will @ you when they complain

According to Edison Research, brands need to put in some legwork and broaden their Twitter customer service horizons.

Check out our full guide to social listening here. Or, if you haven’t already, demo the sentiment analysis tools from Hootsuite Insights.

Twitter advertising stats

17. Twitter posted a 50% increase in ad engagements between October 2017 and 2018

As of their Q3 2018 conference call, ad engagements on Twitter continue to rise. If Twitter’s ROI wasn’t competitive last year for your industry and audience, it may well be now.

18. Twitter also saw a 14% decline in cost per engagement over the same period

Likewise, given lowering prices, if you’re not paying for Twitter ads right now maybe it‘s time to crunch those CPC and CTR numbers again.

19. Twitter ads are 11% more effective than TV ads during live events

More effective at “stimulating mental engagement,” to be precise. (And 9 percent better at memory encoding). This is according to a NeuroInsight study that also found people spend 4 percent more time on Twitter during a live event than they would normally.

Take, for instance, the 4.8 billion Tweet impressions during Superbowl LII last year, most of which—I can only assume—was everyone looking at pictures of Nick Foles holding his baby.

More than any other platform, Twitter lives for major events. That kind of predictable surge in interest is worth experimenting with in your paid strategy.

20. 40% of users say they’ve made a purchase because of an influencer’s tweet

Twitter is an indispensible platform for many experts and thought leaders, not to mention comedians. Have you considered complementing your traditional ads with a well-placed shout-out from the right voice?

Twitter publishing stats

21. The half-life of a tweet is 24 minutes

In other words, a tweet gets half its interactions in the first half hour, and then starts a long, slow decline into the fog of time.

This is why some guides don’t have upward limits on the number of times a brand ought to tweet in a day.

22. Brands tweeted an average of 122 times a month last year

Source: Statista

What does that work out to, four tweets a day? Six per workday?

Although, we hope they aren’t only tweeting on workdays. A better idea: schedule your tweets in advance to catch your audience when they’re online and engaged.

23. The best time to tweet is 3 p.m. on weekdays

In our studies we’ve found that engagement on Twitter peaks around mid-afternoon, if you’re a B2B brand.

B2C brands might have even better results scheduling around working hours. (Think commutes and lunch hours.)

That said, check out your audience’s habits using Hootsuite Analytics if you want to fine-tune your timing.

24. Tweets with a GIF get 55% more engagement

Twitter studied 3.7 million accounts in order to reach this, the conclusion everyone already knew.

But it’s nice to know the exact percentage, right guys?

Twitter video stats

25. 93% of Twitter videos are viewed on mobile

This statistic from Twitter’s internal data is a good reminder that video content needs to be equally effective whether or not users have their sound on.

In fact, mobile optimization across the board is a good bet: short, punchy, and vertical.

26. Tweets with video attract 10x as much engagement

We’re all still smarting from Facebook’s (um, alleged) inflation of video views, but this is a pretty compelling number. If you haven’t brought your video assets to Twitter yet, now is the time.

27. Promoted tweets with video saved 50% on their cost per engagement

Since Twitter Business is the one who came up with this statistic, it feels almost like they’re announcing a discount. However, it could make for an easy ROI lift for those of you with spare video content in your back pockets.

28. In-stream video ads lift purchase intent by 6%

Twitter’s new type of video ad is pre-roll before video content from Twitter’s publisher partners. Essentially, you can position your 15 second ad before desirable, “brand-safe” content (think: sports highlights, models talking about dogs) from big publishers like Condé Nast, Fox, Reuters, et cetera.

According to Nielsen Brand Effect’s data, these ads are performing effectively for their brands and are worth considering if you’re looking for a new tool to reach your audience.

Source: Twitter

Save time managing your Twitter presence by using Hootsuite to share video, schedule posts, and monitor your efforts. Try it free today.

Get Started

The post 28 Twitter Statistics All Marketers Need to Know in 2019 appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

28 Twitter Statistics All Marketers Need to Know in 2019 published first on https://themarketingheaven.tumblr.com/

[freeyoutubemarketing-blog]

10 Checklist Points Before Engaging In Social Media Marketing

Where to Begin?

Social networking marketing has a reputation that is bogus. For most an executive in the industrial division, this exercise amounts up to a series of signups over many social networks randomly and from time to time, multimedia, post postings and advertisements within Facebook and Twitter. This is certainly not the perfect shot!

SMM is much more than simply being present from the Social Media Sphere. It's a sharp business participation that may just become complete havoc if not managed correctly. The objective of Social Marketing in cyberspace would be just like the real world thing. It is about providing Unique Selling Points that can wind up into tangible and continuing sales. It's all about converting an anon to a new urge in the best. Achieving this goal follows essentially the very same principles but for the fact that Social Media enables a closer, more private and customizable, so to state Social strategy of their aims. Same principles apply but with less or more variants. Assessing the prerogatives, circumstance, environment and toolsets is the key starting point of any Social Media Marketing effort. It implies comprehensive clinical and setup precision in how attitudes and messages must be delivered via dedicated channels. In these attempts, posting on Facebook, on a fan page, category page or personal webpage is not the exact same procedure.

Listed below are 10 checklist points before engaging in Social Media Marketing:

Define your foundation plan. Installation a budgeted roadmap with intermediate white rocks which will assist at fine tuning the effort all over the way.The roadmap must remain in tune with what's being done or what's been achieved in the real world. Social Media Marketing is not an innocent action. It's time-consuming and will incur costs. Getting precise about the effort will surely reduce the weight. As said earlier evaluate the most important purpose and objective. By way of instance, you might have to completely revamp your real website in order to allow SM integration along with SMO. Make your effort remain SMARRT - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Relevant and Time-bound. Either opt for Awareness or Sales or Loyalty. One at a time! Do not attempt to target for all goals in 1 go. Remember! Stick with your institution's advertising and communication coverage.

Assess and understand that your effort's environment. RESEARCH and do not stop til' you get enough! One surely doesn't want to jump into dark waters without basic precautions and headlamps. So do you with your Social Media Marketing Campaign. Diving recklessly into Social Media can spell TOTAL MESS especially when dealing with building awareness and product reputation. Building an effective Online Social Strategy implies thorough knowledge of the competitors' doing is on shared platforms (obviously )... but most importantly, consider an humble record of the way that others from various businesses have done or do. Get into both unsuccessful and successful case studies. Find out more about technical abilities of each and each Social Network and stage.

Identify these programs and toolsets which are applicable and perfectly responsive to your roadmap. Social Media Marketing is about providing the exact same consistent message during the entire range of interwoven Social Networks. The amalgamated winning triumvirate is created from this Blog, Facebook and Twitter, where you'd include a YouTube account in case you'd have video clips uploaded on a regular basis. Choose strategically. By way of instance, you may feel that the requirement of Slideshare and LinkedIn accounts rather than a Foursquare one, in case your service or product is more into pitch-intensive B2B. Your toolset also needs to be composed of listening and tracking products. For more details click BoostYoutube.net - Trusted Youtube Marketing Service

Realistically size and budget your own Online Advertising. Utilize the entire potential of Google AdSense and Facebook's advertisements platforms, but be certain that you target sensibly. Goal-tied Marketing Campaigns mean nothing without proper advertisements. Intuitive Online advertising has become available through several clicks and will surely unleash its capability to share your brand on a worldwide basis. They are also able to improve diffusion to restricted zones. Consider assessing and identifying your aims on geographic grounds. This will aid at optimizing your internet advertising budget. Selecting PPC or CPC is up for you so for your basic roadmap requirements.

Setup a Social Media taskforce from inside your team and Search for an individual to function as a Community Manager. The internet never sleeps. Social Media Marketing is a 24/7 endless roll-on. Therefore it's period and resource-consuming. An individual shouldn't expect to be able of managing a Social Media Marketing effort independently, particularly if other main business duties are at stake. Rather, invite a few of your employees to participate into social media on your company's behalf. Be choosy though! Those indulged in such a sensitive and interactive endeavor should write well, be tactful, creative, true. Outsider Community Managers are rarely biased and therefore are confined to the sole duty of consolidating your taskforce's actions over applicable Social Networks. Whatever the case you need to build a staff whose chief targets and skills would be to hear, learn and answer in tactful method.

Prefer powerful relationships. Get your staff to spot big Bloggers and mainstream Social Media activists who participates together with your zones of curiosity and business. This undertaking is just one of the hinges of achievement to your effort. Getting to speak to Social Media heavyweights is similar to employing evangelists when relationships become entrusted. Obtaining Lady Gaga to enjoy your set of boots would be like tapping into a sea of chances as broad as 9 million people who'd simply follow Gaga's guidelines. Getting her to purchase one would imply instant achievement. CAREFUL however! The negative impact can be proportionally as large as the telephone's notoriety. Make certain of what you sell him or her. An effective Social Media Marketing campaign begins here.

Identify applicable measuring and benchmarking tools. They're proof of your effort's success or desire for fine tuning. As an instance, the gain in the amount of enjoys Facebook or followers on Twitter is a sign of your effort's health. Getting to know how often your brand is cited throughout the net and rating these remarks assist at fine tuning your effort. You also need to have the ability to keep tabs on your on-growing traffic and relationships that arrives out of Social Platforms. Discovering prospects for future chances helps at creating better plans. Beware! In the true condition of affairs, Social Media Metrics could be catchy! Actually you'll require an extremely broad range of results coupled with trending reports to have the ability to portray the specific snapshot of your continuing campaign.

Identify offline elements which will be necessary to match your Online Social Marketing. Offline events are powerful conversion tools when targeted the appropriate and appropriate way. Offline components might also imply interacting with folks off the net, in the actual world, offering real-world prizes and presents, organizing events, pub decks, conventions and conferences... etc Determine how these elements can improve your goal's brand experience and the way they will relevantly match into your Online Marketing Scheme.

Urge for quality related content when posting articles, multimedia and remarks. Praising your 270hp 1974 red Corvette if you urge for environmental products in your site is not the best of plans. Make sure you put editorial principles which can define consistent cross-border content creation both with respect to easy-reading science and technical particulars. If an uploaded movie maintain HD equally on YouTube and on Facebook? Just how long ought to be an report? Should an article have a generic shared byline for a number of writers or if it bear the true writer's name and on what grounds? An individual needs to always specify these lines so into this targeted audience.

Urge to remain HUMAN at each point! Putting a Social Media Marketing plan is all about creating your brand's Social Media existence wherever your quality reachable content will be providing worth of your company. Social Media is all about... Socializing first! People are touchy when it comes to positions and attitudes. They do not want to bullied or accepted as immature customers. Being overly techy, overly firm, demotes the societal encounter. Straightforward vocabulary and"real-worldlike" politeness will be the foundations for the very best of strategies. It's occasionally more fruitful to initiate a conversation which will seem miles apart from your product and its effort aims. Together with the will to pay attention along with also the capability to communicate clearly, higher conversion rates are not far ahead. Conclusion

Whoever participates into Social Media Marketing is bound to find himself yanking on quite many strings in precisely the exact same moment. Assessing, knowing the effort's surroundings through study and pre-dive learning is crucial. Even though the advertising procedure may appear like the real world thing, the Online Social Experience involves mastering every point with much more accuracy, since you'll never be able to see or examine real life behaviours, except for what the prospect writes from supporting his track, if it be true or untrue. A Social Media Marketing Strategy is the end result of the mix of individual competences and webtools that enable social interaction, sharing and direct into the benefit of a new. It's a two-way traffic where the vendor has an on-spot duty of being a psychologist, sociologist or a ethnologist. Be reassured you don't have to be these really because you are a human being who's allegedly utilized to human societal codes generally.

[foursprouthappiness-blog]

Your Guide To Better Sleep Habits

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/your-guide-to-better-sleep-habits/

Your Guide To Better Sleep Habits

You’re reading Your Guide To Better Sleep Habits, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Nothing can be more frustrating than laying on bed at night and waiting for sleep that won’t come. There are many reasons why you’re having a hard time dozing off. You may be suffering from insomnia, experiencing immense stress or practicing unhealthy lifestyle habits. It’s also possible that you have an underlying medical condition that affects your ability to get good sleep.

According to the sleep experts at National Sleep Foundation, an adult aged 18 to 64 should be sleeping for 7 to 9 hours each night. Older adults, aged 65 and older, are advised to get 7 to 8 hours of nightly sleep. If you’re not meeting these sleep recommendations, you’re jeopardizing your health. Studies suggest that sleep deprivation can cause “increased blood pressure, impaired control of blood glucose and increased inflammation.” It’s linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. People suffering from insomnia and other sleep disorders are also likely to develop anxiety and depression.

Here’s a guide to a healthy daily routine for better sleep.

#1: Have a gadget-free sleeping area

Photo courtesy of Daniel Putzer via Pexels

The blue light emitted by your laptop, tablet, and smartphone is interfering with your circadian rhythm. It suppresses the sleep hormone melatonin, stimulating the brain at any time of the day/night. This is why you could watch movies ’til dawn without feeling drowsy.

Tip: Turn off your gadgets at least 1 hour before bedtime. Better yet, turn your bedroom into a gadget-free zone to help you fight the temptation of browsing social media at 11 p.m.

#2: Make exercise a part of your daily lifestyle

Photo courtesy of Burst via Pexels

Fitness activities are good for your physical and mental health. Harvard Medical School considers exercise as one of the three pillars of health, together with nutrition and sleep. A healthy adult should get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week. A study published in The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine revealed that exercising has positive impact on attaining proper sleep even among people diagnosed of insomnia. In the study, the participants, mostly in their 60s, were sleeping at least 45 minutes more a night after four months of active lifestyle.

Tip: Don’t have time to hit the gym everyday? Check out free fitness videos on Youtube on routines you can do at home. You can learn 15-minute exercises that don’t require any gym equipment. Schedule 15 minutes of exercise in the morning and 15 more at night on weekdays, and 30 to 60 minutes of vigorous routines in the gym on weekends.

#3: Schedule your coffee time

  Photo courtesy of Kaboompics via Pexels

Is coffee affecting your ability to sleep at night? It depends. You may have read a number of studies supporting the positive points of consuming caffeine. These include lowering cholesterol levels, boosting liver health, and reducing depression risk. It helps boost one’s mental performance and memory. But you should know that the effect of coffee can last anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. So if you drink a cup of black brew late in the afternoon, you’d likely stay up past your bedtime.

Tip: Enjoy a cup of coffee, not during breakfast when you’re energy is up, but at around 10 a.m. Your energy levels typically drops mid-day and again at around 3 p.m. Avoid caffeine after 4 p.m.

#4: Practice mindfulness meditation

Photo courtesy of Tan Danh via Pexels

Stress is a major cause of poor sleep. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 70 percent of those experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety have trouble sleeping. Their sleep problem, conversely, increased their anxiety. The solutions seem straightforward: reduce your stressors. But this is easier said than done especially when you’re living in urban areas where you’re exposed to congestion and various forms of pollution.

Tip: The root cause of stress is one’s obsession with thinking about the non-existent past and future. The core of meditation, probably the most effective stress-busting activity, is to be present. Take a 3-minute break from working or studying every 2 hours. You can stay still on your chair or walk toward the window, then clear your mind. Think about nothing, just feel your surroundings.

#5: Declutter your room

Photo courtesy of Mary Whitney via Pexels

Does your mind keep on running even during bedtime? This is a manifestation of stress. “Our bodies and brains evolved to relax and cool down after dark and to spring back into action come morning,” the American Psychological Association noted. But stress causes hyperarousal, wreaking havoc on your sleep-wake cycle. If not managed, stress can lead to high blood pressure, obesity, heart diseases, and cancers.

Tip: Identify your stressors. If your desk reminds you of an unfinished task, you better find a new place for your work area. You can also clean up your desk and put away your laptop and journal. Declutter your room. The visual chaos can be a stressor that interferes with your sleep.

#6: Eat light at night

Photo courtesy of rawpixel.com via Pexels

Your diet has a lot to do with your ability to attain proper sleep. Spicy and acidic foods for dinner can cause heartburn and acid reflux that might disrupt your sleep. Eating a lot before bedtime has the same impact. Is a carbohydrate-heavy meal bad for your sleep health? It depends on the time and volume of your meal. Carbs or not, if taken in large quantities and near bedtime, may keep you up all night.

Tip: Eat a heavy breakfast and light lunch and dinner. For dinner, you can have sleep-inducing foods such as turkey, tuna, lettuce, and brown rice. Have a cup of hot chamomile tea before bedtime.

#7: Create a conducive sleeping environment

Photo courtesy of Burst via Pexels

If you’re having a hard time dozing off at night, you should take a look around your own bedroom. Do you have a lot of stuff in your room? Is your bed mattress still comfortable or is it starting to cause muscle pain? Does your room have ample air ventilation? Is it cool throughout the night? The overall atmosphere in your bedroom can make a lot of difference to the quality of your sleep.

Tip: Move your work desk into another room in your house, as well as your entertainment system. Keep the television and stereo in the living area. Keep all clothes in the closet and other items in storage. You may want to replace your old mattress with memory foam for optimal sleep quality. Keep your room dark and cool at night.

#8: Decide to improve your sleep

Photo courtesy of Stefan Stefancik via Pexels

You need to change your mindset about sleep. It’s not an interruption of your daily activities. It’s an essential part of your life. Sleep is as important as healthy diet and regular exercise. It’s more important than accumulating wealth or earning fame.

A healthy night sleep, sadly, is widely neglected in our fast-paced society. “The combination of a deeply misguided definition of what it means to be successful in today’s world—that it can come only through burnout and stress—along with the distractions and temptations of a 24/7 wired world, has imperiled our sleep as never before,” Arianna Huffington, business leader and author, wrote in her bestseller “The Sleep Revolution.” Make a real change in your life. Aspire to achieve healthy sleep habits.

You’ve read Your Guide To Better Sleep Habits, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

[dedkismett]

Lyric Breakdown:: Call It Want You Want (taylor swift) 🍁🍂

"my castle crumbled overnight"

the whole kimye drama seemed to happen all within an evening. it was still the same night when taylor released her letter on instagram, trying to save her fast changing reputation. this "castle" of hers can also be referenced in other songs: Long Live ( "we were the kings and queens" "how the kingdom lights shined just for me and you"), New Romantics ("i could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me"), and LWYMMD ( "i don't like your kingdom keys. they once belonged to me.")

"i brought a knife to a gun fight."

beyond the point that whenever i hear this i think "west side story," taylor here expresses that she just wasn't strong enough to save her reputation as the media and celebrities ganged up on her. whatever she did seemed to make it worse.

"they took the crown but it's alright."

again, taylor knows that her reputation changed and so in effect her "crown" or reputation as America's sweetheart was handed over to the ones who didn't deserve it. this line can also reference Long Live when she sings, ("cause for one moment a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world.")

"all the liars are calling me one."

obviously a reference toward katy perry (who told a completely different story to james corden and others), kim k (saying taylor lied about the phone call with kanye), and kanye.

"nobody's heard from me in months."

reference to her 6 month hiatus.

" i'm doing better than i ever was"

all this drama might be going down but taylor is doing great personally.

" cause my baby's fit like a daydream, walking with his head down, i'm the one he's walking to."

taylor and joe have a rather private relationship. heck, we didn't even know they were together for a year til taylor said it at a secret session and even before all we had was a picture of them on a balcony.joe walking with his head down references this secret relationship as he has to keep his identity hidden when going to see taylor. we all remember taylor's rare sightings during the hiatus. she was always wearing a hoodie and shades to keep a low profile.

"so call it what you want"

message to the media? the media loves to twist stories, even when there is no story. by saying, "call it what you want" taylor's basically saying she doesn't care what the media may say about her and joe. she's happy. she knows they'll try to twist them into some drama but she's come to the conclusion that she can't do anything to change that so they might as well say whatever they want.

"my baby's fly like a jet stream. high above the whole scene"

joe isn't a very well known actor. for taylor that's a good thing. to her he can remove himself from the drama easily and that is what she wants too.

"loves me like i'm brand new"

joe doesn't care about the drama. he doesn't care that taylor may have dated other high profile men and wrote about them. he doesn't care about what he may have heard about her in the media before they met. to him, taylor is just taylor. she's a normal girl and he loves her for that and for her that's a change; having someone genuinely care without judgement of past mistakes.

" all my flowers grew back as thornes. windows boarded up after the storm."

she's guarded and defensive. just like she sings in LWYMMD ( " i don't trust nobody.") all the drama made her bitter. especially calvin harris dissing her after their breakup. he was someone she trusted and loved and he turned on her. the same guy who wanted to marry her. it makes me think of Mine when she sings (" i was a flight risk with a fear of falling wondering why we bother with love if it never lasts."). i mean just think of the toll it took on her. it's like, do people really love her for her or just pretend for the fame?

"he built a fire just to keep me warm."

joe saved her, or at least helped her get back on her feet. he took care of her.

"all the drama queens taking swings. all the jokers dressing up as kings."

yes, this is most likely about katy, kim, and kanye. but i like to think she is also talking about the people in the media. the talk show hosts, the internet shows, everyone who gave their input to the drama. all the people who commented snake emojis. they hurt her too.

"they fade to nothing when i look at him."

they may of hurt her but she has him, and that made all the problems seem to fade away. they weren't as important.

"i know i made the same mistakes, every time. bridges burn, i never learn, at least i did one thing right."

people always like to say taylor plays the victim but this is just one example of her owning up to the mistakes she's made. she knows she did some things to fuel the drama. but that still doesn't excuse all the hate she got. she's human and all she can do is say sorry and move on. for reference, she also owns up to her wrongs in Dear John (" maybe it's me and my blind optimism to blame") and I Knew You Were Trouble ("i knew you were trouble when you walked in so shame on me.")

"i'm laughing with my lover. making forts under covers. trust him like a brother. yeah you know i did one thing right."

she's happy and she trusts him. she may have made a hell lot of mistakes but this relationship is not one of them.

"starry eyes sparking up my darkest nights."

he was there with her through the tough times and helped her through them.

" i want to wear his initial on a chain round my neck"

you can always see her wearing her "j" necklace in her recent pictures. she's proud of him and to be with him. she's so in love. i reminded me of when girls in the old days "got pinned" and wore their boyfriend's pin or when they wore his jacket. cute.

"not because he owns me, but cause he really knows me"

i really believe this was written here for the media to know. they like to portray taylor as a girl who will do whatever her man wants and be submissive; a trophy wife. they like to say that she claims to be a feminist but has no problem being "owned" by a man and that she's a hypocrite. but she's not. she doesn't think he owns her or even wants him to. she loves him and that's why she wants to wear his necklace. this is also a powerful lesson for young girls to be their own woman. that's it's okay to be in a relationship but not have that relationship be the only thing that defines her; that's she's so much more than 1/2 of a couple.

"which is more than they can say."

a whispered lyric that often gets lost. one of my favorites actually. joe knows taylor. the media doesn't. they don't know how she is behind closed doors and so the words they write about her can't affect her personally. the media won't ever be able to say they know taylor. because they don't.

"i recall late november. holding my breath, slowly i said, "you don't need to save me. but would you run away with me?" "yes" "

november was the beginning of their relationship. and of course with all the drama joe must have felt the obligation to "save" taylor. but she didn't want to be. she just wanted someone to come along with her. sometimes to heal, you just need someone to listen not try to fix it. that's what joe is doing.

@taylorswift

[ncmagroup]

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