#anyway! i should buy transfer paper. i think i can print the actual thing out elsewhere

[happylandfill23]

ok my earlier statement about needing a plain t-shirt and transfer paper and a printer that doesn't suck is even more important now. just designed a shirt :o

[swordarkeereon]

Tech Review for Writers: reMarkable2

I got myself a piece of interesting tech this year in hopes it would get me from out in front of a computer screen more often. Meet the reMarkable2, a distraction free (i.e. it’s not connected to the entirety of the internet) e-ink tablet workhorse that’s easy on the eyes.

The reMarkable2 Tablet

First things first. The reMarkable2 tablet is not for everyone and your average person probably won’t find it the least bit useful. So let’s talk about why you don’t want this tablet first.

reMarkable 2 is not for you if: 

– You want an eReader.  eReaders have a VERY DIFFERENT function than the reMarkable2. Yes, you can read PDFs on a reMarkable, but it’s more for *marking up* a PDF and commenting in the margins of a PDF. Not just reading. eReaders like Kindles and Nooks often have built in dictionaries, ways to bookmark pages or passages of text, etc…  that the reMarkable2 doesn’t have. You can search your documents for specific phrases and words and also highlight things in a light gray, but if you’re just looking for an eReader, I suggest a Kindle.

– You want a full functioning tablet that you can put apps on and surf the web with- If you’re looking for a full functioning tablet, you’ve missed the whole point of the reMarkable2. The main point behind reMarkable2 is so you can go to your creative place (wherever that may be) and brainstorm, free from ALL distractions. You can’t stop to surf FB or your Twitter feed on a reMarkable2, thus making it more likely you’ll stay on task and get more done.

– You want something with color so you can highlight because what you really want is a fully functioning ebook reader or tablet. This tablet is really more of a no frills brainstorming and note-taking tool for entrepreneurs, professionals, academics, and creatives (including engineers, writers, musicians, possibly artists if they like to sketch in black and white) who use a lot of black pens and plain paper.

I bought the tablet for the following reasons (which I wrote down BEFORE I received the device):

– I wanted an electronic notebook (not a tablet). I’m one of those people who goes through 3 packs of sticky notes every month, and countless notebooks every year. I am constantly jotting stuff down to keep myself focused and on track while running my own business and helping out at the family business.  My notes can be anything from putting together presentations, classes, and meetings, to extensive to-do lists for the day. Sometimes it’s just me keeping track of sales figures. As a result, my desk is always filled with papers and notebooks and I’m constantly searching for shit. The electronic notebook cleans up all this clutter and helps me organize my brain. (Have you seen my brain!? It’s a mess in there.)

– I  like to write freehand, especially when I’m plotting the next book or writing a blurb, or even writing a chapter – and it must be distraction free. This is something only fellow authors will understand. The fact that the reMarkable2 can convert handwritten notes to text sent via email has me excited because, if I’m lucky and it works, I won’t have to go through and transcribe all my handwritten notes. It basically saves me time by eliminating a step. I can copy/paste the note from my email into the appropriate file on my laptop. This will also save me the clutter and weight of carrying countless notebooks.

– I am involved with projects that require me to sketch out ideas for marketing and/or artwork. I do have tablets that can do this, but nothing that does it *well*. The closest is my Surface tablet, which can do a lot of things, but it still doesn’t feel like paper or allow me the fine detail paper allows. I’m hoping this tablet is a bit more responsive in this area. – I am forever printing out rough drafts of manuscripts for markup – wasting a ton of paper and toner in the process. All because I can’t edit on a backlit screen. My eyes get tired and I miss too many errors. If I can transfer my PDF drafts to the reMarkable and mark them up there with minimal errors left over, I could save some $$. I am actually estimating that I could easily save the cost of the reMarkable2 in 6 months to 1 year’s time by not having to purchase the paper, pens, and toner I usually go through in that time frame.  Plus, these marked up manuscripts often end up in a stack on my office floor for 6 months to a year after publication. 

– I am forever having to read PDFs of laws and regulations for the family business, and while I usually use them on the computer, I sit in front of a computer 8-13 hours a day. I need a non-backlit screen for reading in the evenings just to give my eyes a break.  Yes, I imagine I could do the same with a Kindle paperwhite, but I may just want to jot some notes in the same way I’d mark up a paper copy. I’m still a pen and paper girl. I’m really hoping the reMarkable is my replacement for that (most of the time anyway).

reMarkable2 test to sample the pen styles.

Some considerations I took into account before purchasing:

A lot of customers complained that it took too long to receive the reMarkable or to get support. From all of the research I did, and in reading their website, it’s clear to me that this company caters to academia and businesses. I ordered my reMarkable2 on January 16, 2021, and had it in my hands by January 25, 2021. 9 days. I also ordered it and paid for it through my business. I don’t know if that’s actually why I got mine so fast, but I wouldn’t be surprised. That said, I do think the company should work a little harder to increase their customer service efficiency. 

With regard to customer support – the website clearly states it can take up to 10 business days for support to get back to you. And a lot of the things people seem to be complaining about have troubleshooting instructions on the website. Clearly people weren’t going to the website to try to look up their issue through the support FAQs, which likely would have helped them out sooner.  They were just contacting support immediately, and angry when they weren’t getting a response after 3 days, when it’s clearly stated on the website that it can take up to 10 days due to the fact that reMarkable is a small company. But like I said earlier – they would be smart to increase their customer service team.

reMarkable’s folios are a custom fit and really pretty, but a bit pricey. I made the tablet more affordable by skipping the upgrade on the pen, because a friend of mine got the eraser feature and she wasn’t digging it initially (she loves it now), and I purchased a relatively nice folio from Amazon for under $30 (with no magnets – research told me magnets can cause dead spots in the screen of the reMarkable2). You can also just buy a 10″-11″ tablet sleeve and it would work much the same. There are also universal tablet folios that will fit 10″-11″ tablets that are free of magnets and will likely work just fine. All for under $20 bucks — even a few in faux leather. Remember that a case should protect your investment, not just make it *look* sharp. 

Right out of the Box.

Right out of the box I set the reMarkable up and started using it for brainstorming. Here were my first impressions:

1. It really is pretty damn close to writing on paper.

2. You can rest your damn hand on the screen and it won’t fuck things up or make it wobble as with traditional tablets.

3. My handwriting actually looks like my handwriting and you have almost the same control with this as you would with real pen and paper.

4. The interface is simple and intuitive and anyone who uses computers and tablets day and in day out will have no issues figuring this out.

Now some thoughts on the features:

Handwriting to Text: As an author who likes to occasionally spend time writing the old fashioned way, one of the things that attracted me to this tablet was its ability to translate handwriting to text. No writer wants to have to transcribe their written notes and waste all of that time. So of course I tested it with my horrific handwriting, vs purposefully trying to be neat, and the reMarkable2 was able to convert my chicken scratch into actual text that I could read. I was able to turn the handwritten notes into a PDF, but I was also able to send the handwriting converted to typed text as the body of an email, where I was able to cut and paste it into any program I wanted. I took it further and wrote 1000 words (about 8.2 pages) longhand. It converted all the pages to text in one swoop and I was able to copy/paste it into my manuscript. While there was a little formatting and editing involved — it was a lot faster than retyping handwritten notes. WIN! 

Handwriting for conversion test.

Conversion successful

PDF Transfer, Markup, and Signature: Transferring PDFs to the reMarkable is easy. You simply download the app on your phone and your desktop, and you can take any pdf from either device and import it onto your reMarkable, which you can then markup. I sent myself a slew of PDFs that I had to read and markup. It’s amazing how much more focused I am on a screen like this. I really got the same experience with editing on a digital PDF as I did with editing on a paper copy. My only caveat is that I don’t have more space to make notes since the margins are a bit small on the screen and there’s no “back of the page” to carry notes over to. I can likely manage. Despite that – what a great experience. Goodbye manuscripts all over my office floor!  Hello being able to drag editing work with me wherever I go!    

You can also transfer your PDFs that don’t have an electronic signature option to the device, sign them, and send them back. Talk about HANDY since I do that a few times a month by default. This just eliminates the print/sign/scan. Now I just have to transfer it to the device, sign the document, and email it straight back to whoever sent it. 

Digital Planners may be something I look into for 2022 because reMarkable actually makes them feasible. I tried a tester digital planner, courtesy a friend, on my reMarkable and I have to say – it offers just as much satisfaction as a paper planner. Plus, you can SEARCH large pdfs. It won’t find search terms in your handwriting, but it will find it in your PDF. That’s definitely a handy feature when you’re working with 500 page PDFs. That said, the tablet saves your place (last page you visited) as you’re navigating a PDF, so no need to search for the place you left off. However, there is no way to bookmark multiple pages.

ePub Reading: suppose I could sideload books as ePubs, but I really have no use for this feature. If I want to read ebooks, I use my kindle or the Kindle App on my tablet or phone. Unless I start doing editing of ePubs or want to check out an ePub format for something?  I didn’t buy this as an eReader, and it is terribly lacking as an eReader. Where the reMarkable excels is as a tool for marking up documents. So my guess is it would be great for that if you have a lot of files in ePub format that you have to go over. You also can’t change font sizes for easier reading. You can zoom in and zoom back out to regular size. That’s it. (And this is another reason this is not an eReader.)

Storage: Storage is a little over 6GB (you do not pay for the reMarkable website cloud-sync). But even with about 15 PDFs (some of them really long) on my reMarkable at any given time, I was only at .38 GB. 

reMarkable2 Storage

File System: Like I said earlier – the system is highly intuitive and easy to use. I made folders for my most common notebook uses, then I moved the appropriate PDFs to those folders, and created any notebooks I needed for those folders.

Exporting: You can export as .PNG, .SVG, and PDF.  Handwriting to text can only be sent as text via the body of an email. This is actually great for writing because then you just have to copy/paste from your email into your Word Doc, Google Doc, or Scrivener.

Importing: Imports PDFs and ePubs.

Templates: The templates are great. I generally only use graph paper, plain, and lined paper myself. But I could see how a lot of these would be useful to people. The to-do list is a crappy template just because it requires you to hide your menu to use it (you can’t tick the the checkboxes until you do this). To hide the menu tap the circle in the upper left top of the menu bar. So if you want a partial page to-do list, you can easily make your own checkbox lists using the graph paper option. There are also dot pages for the folks into bullet journaling.

A small sampling of reMarkable2 Templates

Search Feature: You can search within a PDF, but not through your own handwritten text. You must be in the PDF to search it, otherwise you can only search for file names. You can not search across documents for a phrase or word. So if you’re looking for something with the same search capabilities as a laptop or possibly a tablet, you won’t find it here.

Zooming: You can zoom in on PDF documents and write on them while zoomed. However, you cannot change font sizes to make reading easier.

Battery Life:  On days where I used it heavily (about 4-5 hours), I was using around 15% power in a day because I didn’t put it in airplane mode. Three days of 4-5 hours a day use drained my battery to 50%. So me, as a heavy user, not in airplane mode, will likely get 6-7 days out of a single charge. Possibly more since clearly not every day will be a heavy use day. The device does go to sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity.

Pen:The pens are a bit pricey. I did not buy the expensive pen with the eraser and I’m okay with that. But $60 for a pen is still a bit — ouch. 

Pen Nib: I am expecting I will be one of those poor unfortunate souls who will be replacing pen tips every 3-4 weeks during heavy use. Luckily the pen itself doesn’t use batteries. The pen nibs seem reasonable in price, just be sure to order a new pack with your device and when you start that pack, order another as shipping times on those can take a week or two depending where you are and how efficient your mail service is. You don’t want to accidently run out and find yourself without a pen. Yikes.

Security: You can add a password to your reMarkable to keep prying eyes out. But if you’re like me and self-employed, that’s not really an issue. Your remarkable has Wi-Fi, yes, but you can put it in airplane mode to cut the connection. Plus, it only syncs to your cloud storage. There really aren’t any entry points for viruses or people hacking into your device. But then I’m also not a tech person. Let’s just say I highly doubt security will be a huge issue on this thing. Besides, anyone who wants to take a peek at my tablet would likely find themselves bored stiff, unless they like reading really rough first drafts of speculative fiction.  LOL

Backup/Download: You can easily transfer your files back to your computer by opening the app and simply exporting your finished documents, etc… to your computer, backup drive or cloud drive. You can also just email yourself a copy to make it super easy.

My Wishlist:

1. I wish I could add or append new, handwritten pages to an existing PDF. That would definitely solve the space issue. Now, I just make notes in a different file and jog back and forth between the PDF and the notes, which is a little annoying, but doable. One way to solve this issue would be to save all your PDFs to double spaced. It might make markup a little easier. I’ll try that with the next books to go under the editorial knife.

2. I wish there were cheaper alternative covers. My $17 cover looks great and protects my tablet. reMarkable could easily come up with a few additional low-cost choices here. The ultra professionals are still going to buy nice leather folios. 

(I may add to this list in the coming weeks, but right now these are the two main things jumping out at me.)

Overall Review Summary

For writers, reMarkable2 truly is a remarkable distraction free device that can help improve your concentration and organization, give you the freedom to write out longhand and convert it to text without the tedious re-typing, and help you mark up drafts with ease. This would probably serve prolific and professional writers more liberally than the writer who takes a few years to pen a book. Plus, it will probably save you a lot of printer paper, toner, pens and notebooks. For business owners/users – reMarkable will likely save you pounds of sticky notes and legal pads, and hours of time transcribing your notes. Plus, it’s a great on-the-go working tool for content creators and people who review a lot of PDFs. 

Have some thoughts on the reMarkable2? Feel free to leave a comment below!

[winchester90210]

The BH 90210 Rewrite. 1x02: The Green Room

Masterlist

Read the previous chapter here!

Chapter Summary: Sparks fly when Y/N meets the school’s resident bad boy and experiences L.A.’s oceans for the very first time

Pairing: No one yet :)

Warnings: Swearing, Dylan McKay

Word count: Roughly 4,700

Disclaimer: My work is not to be reposted or edited without my expressed written consent. (Reblogging is fine and encouraged!!)

A/N: First episode down, folks! Tag list is below. Let me know if you would like to be added! This was super fun to write, I’m looking forward to the future dynamic between Dylan and Y/N :)

“Yo, West Beverly! It’s T.G.I.F. In a major way today, ‘cause the sun’s shinin’! And yours truly is stoked for some major tanning this weekend so check it out! If life’s a beach, then why not live it?! This here’s D.J. Mike M.C. The voice of rhyme and reason on KWBH…” The D.J’s voice rings through the schoolyard as you walk up with Kelly and Donna, sun beaming bright and early.

“Kelly, Y/N!” Brenda shouts, walking up, Brandon at her side.

“Hey!” You greet her, smiling.

“Brenda, hi.” Kelly stops, holding her new, very expensive purse at her front.

“You guys remember my brother?” She gestures towards Brandon. You and him exchange a knowing look, causing a shy smile to creep up on your face. Yeah. You might know him.

“Hi, Brenda’s brother,” Kelly smiles, wind blowing her bangs away from her face. You mutter a shy “hi” to him.

“Brandon,” He corrects, offering a “hi” to all three of you. His eyes wander to you as Brenda speaks.

“So, what are you guys up to?”

“This weekend? Working on my back. I spent last Saturday lying on it, so my tan’s totally uneven.” Kelly shares as the wind picks up.

“Hah, at least you have one! I’m starting from scratch.” Brenda laughs, fixing her dark chestnut hair.

“Me too, Wisconsin doesn’t get a lot of sun this time of the year or…ever.” You agree, slinging your red tote over your shoulder.

“You two should start this weekend, Secos beach will be a major scene.” Kelly begins, but she’s cut short by Brandon.

“Great. Look, I’ll see you guys later, okay?” And with that, he’s running off into the school.

“Actually, I should get going too. See you guys at Secos!” You’re already turning to leave when they offer their goodbyes. You catch up with Brandon and follow him into the WBB printing room.

“I was wondering when you’d waltz in here,” Andrea states, her tone agitated and demeanor…not so friendly.

“Well, good morning, Andrea. So nice to see you too!” Brandon barks back, softer than Andrea was, but still with a bit of a bite. “Hi, Ms. Rye!” You both follow Andrea over to the printer. Oh god. How were you going to tell them you BROKE the school’s only laptop? And following that up with telling them you don’t have the money to pay them back? You were dead meat. You dreaded what was about to come, a pit in your stomach.

“Our ace sports writers, always a pleasure.” Ms. Rye responds, red curls bouncing on the shoulders of her chiffon shirt as she turns away.

“Here, Ace. Your next assignment.” Andrea snidely remarks, handing him a paper and turning away. Brandon claps his binder closed. Everyone was tense and you hadn’t even told them the bad news yet. Not a good sign.

“Sorry, Chief. I don’t do editorials.” He follows Andrea over to her desk, while she holds a pencil in her mouth. “Especially when they’re called 'From the Midwest to West Beverly– A Transfer Student Speaks.’” He grumbles. You and Ms. Rye watch them bicker, letting yourselves be entertained.

“So change the title…or get Y/N to help!” Andrea practically laughs in his face, turning away to work.

“A little help, Ms. Rye?” Brandon calls out, still facing Andrea.

“I’m just the Adviser, she’s the boss.”

“Brandon, just try it! You might be surprised by what happens!” Andrea argues, “Besides, you’re too good just to cover sports anyway.”

“Really, you think?” He wasn’t buying it. He knew when he was being buttered up. He could smell it from a mile away.

“She does. And so does she.” She points to Ms. Rye, and then to you. Brandon looks at the two of you, his eyes lingering on you just a little bit longer.

“You’re alright,” you joke, smirking at him. He pauses, in thought. The clicking of the printers and keyboards fill the silent space.

“Ok, fine. I’ll try it,” He concedes, turning back around.

“Great. Deadline’s tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? That’s one day.”

“And a night!” Andrea replies.

“Andrea, I think it’ll keep till Monday,” Ms. Rye interjects, “Have Y/N work on it as well, she’s bound to have a fresh perspective on the situation too.”

“Morning. First thing!”

“You are relentless!” Brandon shouts, a playful tone behind his voice as he walks out to get something from his locker.

“Thank you.” Andrea counters, sitting down behind her computer.

“Hey, Ms. Rye? I need to talk to you about something.” Oh god. Here we go. This is where you die, isn’t it?

“What is it, Y/N?” She asks, glancing at you as she fills out paperwork. You feel overwhelmingly nauseous. Hey, maybe if you throw up everywhere you’d get pity forgiveness.

“Uh…I loaned out the school’s laptop the other day and it sort of…broke.” You swallow what felt like a boulder-sized lump in your throat. You grab your tote and place it up onto the table, frantically searching through it. “But I can pay to replace it! I just have to find the money!” You check your bag, then your pockets. Pulling out what you expected to be a dollar bill, you hand it to the adviser, until you realize– it was in fact not a dollar bill. It was the check. How the hell?

“Oh! Uh, paying to replace should be fine. You might have to work a few shifts in the library…but you should be okay,” she tries to soothe your slightly panicked behavior. You let out a long sigh of relief. Just add: Fight Steve Sanders onto your to-do list today.

“Awesome. Thank you,” You thank her, an apologetic tone lacing your voice. You pick up your assignment, placing it in your folder. “I told Brandon I’d meet up with him in the computer lab, so I better motor.” You speed walk down the hall, almost getting launched into Brandon by some guy pushing you out of his way.

“Hey,” You smile, leaning against the cold metal lockers.

“Hi,” He smiles back, closing his locker but his eyes almost never leave yours. You both walk down to the computer lab, getting a jolt whenever you two brush arms or hands. Stepping into the dark room, Brandon walks behind a freshman, hard at work. “What is it?” He asks.

“Floor plan,” the freshman responds, a proud smile on his face. The program sings and hums as he continues.

“What for?” You question, joining Brandon behind him.

“The perfect dance club!”

“I see you’ve done your homework man,” Brandon compliments.

“Looks are deceiving. I’ve never set foot inside a club! Everytime I try, I get carded,” The blonde freshman responds. A fake I.D. would fix that, you think.

“How’d you design it, then?” You ask, studying the computer as Brandon walks around the table, setting whatever he was dropping off down.

“I used my imagination instead of my experience,” The freshman smiles. Two rough looking seniors round the table, and begin to mock him.

“Oh, how sweet!” The one in the Letterman jacket speaks up, “How touching!”

“A little dork with big dreams!” They both walk on either side behind him.

“But no experience!” The Letterman jacket slaps his hand on the nameless freshman’s shoulder, spooking him like a deer in headlights. Oh god. Why did people have to be such dicks? Let the boy design his night club. You and Brandon watch, you notice him becoming alert, like he’s ready to jump into it at any second.

“At least I’m not the missing link,” the boy responds.

“What did you say?!” And with that, the poor, sweet freshman is yanked out of his chair by his shoulders and pulled close to that damn guy in the jacket. That must have been Brandon’s cue, because he jumps out.

“Hey, hey, hey! Take it easy, guy!” Brandon shouts.

“Where’s that erase command anyway, huh?” The senior in the gray long sleeve says, looking at the keyboard. Oh, you dick.

“Touch that board, my friend!” A fifth voice comes out, turning around from the back of the room. “Please, touch it.”

Oh, shit. Who was he? Pompadourian hair cut, single small hoop earring, the classic leather jacket and white tee. He joins the two asshole seniors at the other side of the room. “You know, the tragedy of this country is that creeps like you two end up running it,” you were in awe, watching how they let go of the boy and backed into the corner. God, this guy was totally hot. Yet, the one in gray still tries to mouth off.

“Yeah, losers like you end up–”

“Let me tell you something just…so you know in advance. I am not in a good mood today. In fact, I’m feeling a little hostile.” Oh-hoh-hoh shit. Were you blushing? You felt like you were blushing. Who was this guy?

“Woah…” and with that very intelligent comeback, the seniors scurry off. The pompadour nods in approval at the freshman’s computer.

“You’re doing a good job, kid! Keep up the good work,” he nonchalantly pats him on the back and just like that, he’s gone. You walk around one side of the table while Brandon goes around the other, both meeting at the confused, frightened boy.

“Your friend’s pretty cool,” Brandon says, a hint of suspicion in his voice. And totally sexy, but yeah. Cool. Let’s go with that.

“Yeah, no kidding,” You agree.

“I’ve never seen the guy in my life.”

Later, you and Brandon track down the… ahem…alluring mystery guy from earlier, finding him alone sitting on the stairs of the school, book in hand.

“Hey,” Brandon calls out, getting the guy’s attention, “My name’s uh, Brandon Walsh.”

“Brandon Walsh,” the guy repeats, it’s as if he was dissecting it. “Scotch or Irish?”

“Both, actually. By way of Minnesota.”

“What about you?” YOU?? Oh my god he’s talking to you. Words. Mouth. Move lips.

“Y/N. Y/L/N,” You respond. “From…Wisconsin.” You get nothing but silence as he looks at you, practically examining you.

“Listen, what you did to those two nimrods back there was great,” Brandon starts, stepping up a few stairs.

“Yeah, well, I just don’t believe in winning through intimidation,” He looks to Brandon, then to you. “Unless, of course, I’m the doing the intimidating.” He smirks and you feel a nervous giggle crawl up your throat. You couldn’t help but imagine how you looked right now. Blushed cheeks, dilated pupils, arms crossed.

“Are you hungry? I got next period off, all three of us could go grab a bite.” Brandon Walsh, ever the gentleman. The man scoffs, sun in his eyes.

“Yeah, let’s do lunch,” He pauses.

“Don’t see much water in the midwest.”

“Ton of lakes, not a lot of oceans,” You counter, brushing a hair behind your ear.

“My sympathies,” He stands up, striding down the stairs, “Come on!”

“Where we going?” Brandon asks, following him while you’re at his heel.

“Field trip.”

-

You pull up near the beach, listening to the waves, the birds…everything. Woah. You should’ve seen this sooner.

“I don’t know, Dylan, there’s this editorial we gotta write,” Brandon says, wind blowing in his hair. Man, he was cute. A surfer takes notice of the car.

“Yo, McKay!” A second surfer stands up.

“What’s up, bro?! Get in the green room!” The green room? What the hell was that?

Then, a third surfer, this time a girl, joins. “Come on, Dylan! Let’s catch some waves!”

You watch Brandon as he watches the beach in awe. “Man, I dreamed about this place!”

“Who doesn’t? Welcome to paradise, man. Welcome to your dream come true.” You had a feeling this little crush on the bad boy turned surfer might come back to bite you in the ass later. But hey, what’s the worst that could happen?

-

Before you know it, all three of you are in the water. Dylan on a surf board, you and Brandon on boogie boards. You’re totally kicking Brandon’s ass, by the way. You’ve only wiped out like, twice. You liked watching him trip back into the water with the giant flippers on his feet. He wasn’t very good, sure, but he was trying. And looking mighty fine while doing it. He watched you, too, as you managed to nail every single wave perfectly. You’re on your next wave as he gets crushed by the last one.

“WIPEOUT!” Dylan yells, causing his surfer bros to yell with him. You end up near Dylan after the wave, watching as the blonde girl helps him up.

“Yo, Minnesota? You all right?!”

“I love this!” He yells back, wet hair falling in his face. You’re wading the water, shaking your head and giggling at his excitement.

Then everything settles down after a while, Brandon and whoever that blonde chick is are sitting in the sand talking, meanwhile you’re swimming and talking with Dylan.

“So, Wisconsin, huh? What’s there?”

“Uh, Cheese, lakes, football, drunks,” You’re only half joking. You listen to the waves washing over the shore. You don’t think you could get tired of this place.

“How’d you end up with Minnesota?”

“What do you mean?” You ask, cocking your head at him in confusion.

“I mean, how’d you end up dating him? Was it his squeaky clean charm?” You let out a laugh.

“Me? And- and Brandon? No. We aren’t…No.” You laugh like that’s the craziest thing you’ve ever heard. He nods, studying you again. Really wish he would quit doing that.

“But you want to be.”

“No! I- Brandon and I…are friends. Nothing more. Nothing less. Got it?” You try to please your case with him.

“Then why does he look like he wants to jump your bones half the time?” What?

“…That’s just his face.” This time Dylan laughs.

“Whatever you say,”

That night, you found yourself in the backseat of Dylan’s car again, parked outside of the Walsh’s house. You had to majorly lie to get yourself here, but it’s not like you were doing a B&E. You were just going to hang out…with some friends. Some male friends. Some really hot male friends, sure. But still friends. Brandon interrupts your thoughts, hopping into the front seat.

“So, did we get daddy’s permission?” Dylan asks.

“Nope. We got mom’s,” Brandon shoots a smile towards the both of you. His stupid dumb face and his stupid pretty smile. Ugh. You hate him. You worked on the editorial with Brandon for most of the day, you could handle him at school. Anywhere outside of it though, you get giddy and shy. You hated it.

“So, is this what you call the sunset strip, man?” Brandon asks, as you both stand outside of what looks to be a nightclub, with Dylan’s radio blaring random rock music.

“No, that’s what tourists call it.” The surfer guys from earlier skate up, spinning around.

“Oh, maybe he’ll get hip by graduation,” One jokes.

“I think he’s fine right now,” Sarah says, waltzing up to Brandon, smile on her face. That bitch. Wait. Stop. She’s not a bitch. You know that. Why are you thinking that?

“I bet you do,” one of the guys says. You huff, quietly, but Dylan takes notice.

“What are you two doing here?” Dylan asks, walking up to them and away from his car.

Same thing you are– waiting for something to happen.“

"Yeah, well, it ain’t happening here. Come on.”

“Where you going?” Sarah questions.

“Anywhere but here, you want to come?”

“Yeah, sure Dylan, I’d love to!” She was SO nice. She had done nothing to you. Yet…you felt like you had to throw up anytime she went near Brandon.

“Hey, she goes where we go!” The doofier, brunette one of the two speaks up.

“Isn’t that her decision?” Dylan cocks his eyebrow, keeping the typical coolness in his voice.

“Oh, well, uh, you heard him. Decide!” Oh, Thing 2 speaks up as well. Wonderful. Sarah stays silent for a moment. You can’t believe she gets pushed around by those guys. What dicks.

“We’ll follow you,” She decides.

All 3 of you hop into the car, you in the back, the boys in the front.

“What’s this?” Brandon picks up a thick black book from the center console.

“Ah, a little leisure reading,” Dylan brushes it off.

“Byron– the collected works?”

“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. That was him and that’s me.” The whole bad boy thing would almost be cheesy if it didn’t work so well. Almost.

“Hey, do your surfer buddies know you ready poetry?” You comment, arm resting on the back of their seats.

“Oh, those bonehead wouldn’t know a poem if it walked up and bit 'em,” He laughs, “Except Betty, she’s cool.” Dammit. She’s so cool.

“She doesn’t think so,”

“She would if those guys didn’t treat her like a doormat. Hell, we all think we deserve something better, but…Betty really does.” You all exchange looks before the meatheads talk again.

“Yo, McKay, where we goin’?”

-

You pull up to the Bel Age hotel, neon signs and water fountains at the entry way.

Dylan leads you all in, acting as if he’s sneaking you guys in on a mission or something. Clasdical music plays throughout the building. Sarah and Surfer dude #1 goof around by the sculpture they pass, looking through it and making faces. You all simultaneously sit down in the lobby. Brandon parks himself at Dylan’s ear.

“What are we doing here?”

“Visiting friends.” Thanks, that’s not vague at all. You give Dylan a look. “I thought you people from the midwest were supposed to be so sociable,” he jokes. “Come on,” He says, springing up from the couch as his group follows him. You and Brandon are the last to follow him. He huffs, getting up hesitantly.

“You alright?” You ask, watching his anxious demeanor.

“I’m fine…thanks,” He gives you a reassuring smile and you trek down the hallways together. Again with the sneaking. Huh.

“Uh, so, Dylan. These friends of yours know we’re coming?” Brandon urges.

“Of course!” Dylan responds. Yeah, like he’s crazy for asking that. You’re galloping and sneaking the halls like some weird special agents. You all stop at a room and watch as Dylan shakes open the door. “Voila.” Oh. Okay. Maybe you were doing a B&E. Great. He opens it, slowly. Peering around the dark room he adds, “Well, don’t just stand there. Come on!” He looks around the room curiously. “Where do you suppose…ah!” He flicks the lightswitch, “let there be light.” His friends gasp as they see the luxurious room. Paintings, flowers, chandeliers. Furniture that probably costs more than you do.

“Oh, this is so outrageous!” You and Brandon both stay behind, feeling wary about this whole thing.

“Hey, don’t just stand there. Come on in!” Dylan welcomes you like he owns the place.

“Come on, Dylan. Let’s get out of here. Go grab a burger or something,” Brandon practically begs, hushed tone.

“Hey, I got a better idea,” He muses, picking up the landline, “Let’s stay and grab one.”

“Dylan…” You trail off, this was not how you expected your night to go.

He ignores you, calling into room service. “Room service. This is…room 211.”

“Dylan, come on,” Brandon cuts through.

“I’d like six cheeseburgers, please. Medium well,” he turns away from the phone, “Is that all right with you guys?” They give him the go ahead and he continues, “Yeah, six orders of french fries…” and then it all clicks. McKay. The Bel Age hotel. You don’t know how you didn’t realize this sooner.

“Alright, that’s it, I’m out of here.” His voice is tense and frustrated.

“Minnesota, really? You gotta relax.”

“Look, if I relax I’ll do it in my own room! Not somebody else’s!” Brandon rants…he would be right. If it wasn’t Dylan’s place.

“Hey, Brandon, wait.” Sarah stands up, walking over to him.

“For what? To get busted for breaking and entering?” Again, he would totally be right if the circumstances were different.

“It’s just for fun,” Sarah adds.

“Not where I’m from it isn’t,” he states, jaw clenching.

“Come on, Brandon, stay with me.” This girl was really getting on your nerves. I think that might be your cue to leave. Brandon shakes his head, walking out the door.

“I should go too,” You comment, joining your midwestern friend at the door.

“Hey, come on, stay,” Dylan pleads. “You better make that order for four,” he speaks into the phone, chasing after you and Brandon.

“Hey. Minnesota, Wisco, wait up!”

“The name’s Brandon! Brandon Walsh, it’s scotch-irish, remember?” Oh, he was pissed.

“How could I forget?” Dylan tries to calm him down. A cart with dishes of food rolls by.

“Excuse me, when your order’s ready will you be eating up in the terrace or in your suite?” The man pushing the cart turns to Dylan.

“Upstairs is cool, Tony, thanks.” You see everything click for Brandon as Dylan takes a fry from the dish.

“You live here,” He realizes shaking his head.

“Dad’s corporate pad. It’s mine when he’s out of town,” He states nonchalantly.

“And how often is that?” Brandon fumes

Okay. Better to stay silent during this. He has his claws out.

“Often as possible,” He replies, “You see, my parents, they’re not exactly into parenting. But oh- shh! Don’t tell them upstairs, wouldn’t want to spoil the fun.”

“No, no, we wouldn’t want to do that,” He snaps, a defined tightness in his voice. He turns around and starts walking away, and you follow him.

“Well, stick around! Henry downstairs makes the best french fries in town,” Dylan bargains, making Brandon turn back around. “Brandon, Y/N, come on. You wouldn’t want to ruin my reputation.”

“You’re right. I wouldn’t want to ruin the only real thing you’ve got,” He retorts, “You coming, Y/N/N?” You shoot Dylan an apologetic look, and start walking out again.

“Y/N, wait,” Dylan stops you. “You’re really going to let him run you out of here?”

“I’m not letting him do anything, Dylan!” You argued.

“Please, you’re leaving because he’s got you wrapped around his little finger,” he snorts, “Not to mention the entire time you were here you were jealous and crabby.”

You laugh. “Jealous? Of what?”

“Brandon and Betty!” Wow. He’s..totally crazy. Where the hell did he get that from?

“That’s crazy! I’m leaving because I want!”

“Fine, then leave.” He concedes, tone sharp, taking a step closer to you.

“Fine, I will!” You mirror him, stepping closer.

“Fine,” he takes another step.

“Fine!” And so do you.

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

When the word leaves your lips you can see him tense up, like he’s restraining himself. You gaze at each other, intensity behind both pairs of eyes. He moves forward, causing you to back off. “I should get going.” And this time, he doesn’t fight it. He just sighs, watching as you run out of the hotel and back to Brandon.

The day comes, and you’re walking down to Secos beach with Brenda at your right and Kelly and Donna at your left, enjoying the breeze and the commotion.

“This is great,” Brenda smiles. You readjust the beach bag in your hands.

“This is bogus. I don’t see a single person that I would want to talk to. Besides, I’m freezing,” Kelly complains.

“Well, you should’ve dressed warmer,” Donna tells her.

“Donna, I didn’t pay a small fortune to look like an eskimo!” Kelly argues.

“Um, I have to go check on my brother, he doesn’t know anyone else here,” Brenda walks down to the beach while you’re all stopped by Steve.

“Hey Kel, Y/N/N,” He greets you, “Warm enough?” You roll your eyes and walk right past him, not letting Steve be the thing that ruins your day.

You sit in the sand with the rest of the girls. Kelly has her arms crossed, shivering from the wind.

“This party is totally beat,” she says.

“Does that mean we’re leaving?” Brenda quips back.

“It means I am,”

“Me too,” Donna agrees. The three of them stand.

“I’ll go find Brandon,” Brenda says, brushing herself off.

“I’ll meet you over there, Bren,” You stand up, making your way over to your new friend over in the ocean, board in hand.

“Wisco, hey,” He sets his surfboard upright in the sand as you walk up to him. “About last night…”

“Don’t worry about it,” you wander a little closer.

“It was supposed to be fun. If it wasn’t well, I apologize. But it was supposed to be,” There’s something so genuine, so penitent in his voice.

“I know your intentions were good…misguided, for sure. But…sweet.” The overcast clouds and wind cool your skin as you speak.

“Sweet?” He asks, raising an eyebrow at you as you cross your arms.

“You could’ve taken us to a random 5 star hotel instead of your suite. It would’ve upped the thrill factor for you, but we would’ve gotten busted. So you didn’t. Brandon sees it as a way of keeping your reputation in tact and your record clean. I see it as a way of keeping your friends safe but giving them a good time all the same. Call me crazy if I’m reading too far into this, but…” The breeze blows your hair out of your face as you wait for his reply. The wind and the overcast skies leave you chilly.

He looks at his feet, leaning against his board. Sighing, he looks at you like he wants to speak.

“You’re not crazy.”

You give him a gentle smile. “You’re not nearly as mean and brooding as you think you are, Dylan,” your voice is soft as you put your hands in the pockets of your dress. You turn to meander off, but he stops you.

“Do you want to try it again sometime? You know, hanging out?” He asks.

“No B&Es?”

“No B&Es. Not even fake ones.”

You laugh softly, and nod. “I’d like that.” You turn and go off, and he watches you as you leave.

You walk over the Brenda and Brandon’s side of the beach, going to offer them a ride home, since you saw Kelly skidding off with Donna. You expect to see them talking, maybe lounging in the sand. But what you do is Brandon, carrying a soaked, unconscious girl out of the water. Your eyes go wide. What the hell. Is that…Betty? You run over there as fast as you could, the only thing keeping you down the sand beneath your feet.

“Oh my God, is she alright?!” You call out, your heart racing.

-

Beverly Hills Memorial Hospital.

“So you’re sure she’ll be okay?” Brandon asks, fidgeting with his fingers.

“Thanks to you three,” the doctor says, folding his hands. “Her body temp had already dropped two degrees from exposure.” It felt like a weight lifted off your shoulders. You may have been a little cold towards her, but you never wanted anything to happen to her.

“Is that normal?” Brenda inquires.

“Depends on what your definition of normal is. It happens all the time to alcoholics.” Oh, no. Everybody tenses up.

“Are you saying she’s an alcoholic?”

“Nobody drinks that much for fun,” the doctor sighs.

-

“Yooo, West Beverly! It’s that day of the week again, and this is D.J. Mike M.C.! Now listen up, cause this song ain’t dedicated to the one I love, but to the local heroes who busted a rescue move on Secos beach this weekend and saved someone’s life! Way to go, homies!” The DJ’s voice rings through the speakers at West Beverly once again as you stop a familiar face in the hallway.

Hey,“ he smiles.

"Hi,” it’s a comfortable silence as you walk to class together, at least at the moment. His face scrunched up lightly, like he’s deep in thought.

“How do you feel about Dylan?”

“Uh, he’s pretty cool… why?”

“I was just wondering…,” He trails off, “Steve thinks you’re sleeping with him.” Your jaw drops.

“What the hell? Where’d he get that from?”

“Well, you know Steve. If a girl and a guy make eye contact they’re automatically doing it,” Typical Steve, I guess.

“So by Steve Law we’re…” You trail off.

“Married,”

“Oh, yeah, obviously,” you jokingly concur as he puts his arm around you in a casual manner. You walk down the hallway together to your first class.

“Oh, yeah, obviously,” you jokingly concur as he puts his arm around you in a casual manner. You walk down the hallway together to your first class. Yeah, you could get used to this.

-

-

-

-

@be-patient-be-good @lilo-1988 @mpmarypoppins @fangirl-imagines @bevelyhills90210

[bluedraggy]

Beatrice Santello Part 2 - #14

Sometimes I just like an image even if it bears absolutely no relation to the chapter. This is one of those times. Hey, I’m being good and didn’t post any of the alternate versions!

Image by Onnanoko

Decisions

“Hi dad,” Bea said as she opened the door to their apartment. “Hold on a second. I’ll be right back.”

Her father was where he usually was when she got home, watching TV on the couch. She retrieved the envelope from Home Badger and took it back to the living room before sitting on the side chair beside her father.

“Hi Bea. What’s up? Should I turn off the TV?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

He got up and pushed the power button on the old TV. Vaguely it reminded Bea that they didn’t even have a TV with a remote control. At least it wasn’t black-and-white.

She took a deep breath and began.

“So, here’s the thing. A man from Home Badger came by yesterday. Actually he’d come in before a while back, but he didn’t tell me who he was then.”

“Home Badger,” her dad spat. “What do they want?”

“They want to buy the Ol’ Pickaxe, dad.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He left this paperwork to look at. Dad, they’re going to break ground on a new Home Badger location out by the Interstate.”

Her dad let out a sigh. “Was bound to happen, I suppose.”

“Dad, you know what that’ll do to us.”

“Yeah. I know. We’ve got maybe five years at best till everyone starts going over there. They’ll undercut our prices too, and we won’t be able to match them. I studied them, you know.”

“I know, dad. But here’s the deal they’re offering. They are going to keep the Pickaxe open, as a satellite of the main store. We can keep our staff too. And dad…” she paused for emphasis.

He sat up and looked at her. “Yeah?”

She pulled out the first page. The offering amount was in large type.

Her father’s eyes grew wide for a moment, before narrowing in suspicion again.

“Why so much? What’s the catch?”

“Dad, I don’t think there is a catch. After that situation in Sprayberry, I think they’re doing this to keep a good reputation - and our good will. Ever since that thing in the mine, I guess I’m kinda popular around here. But he said that as soon as the news of the new Home Badger is out, the offer will be removed.”

“Sounds like Home Badger. Gotta keep the pressure on. But you think it’s legit? We’d better have this looked over. Who knows what ‘gotcha’s lurk in the fine print?”

“Definitely. I read the whole thing and didn’t see anything, but we need a lawyer’s eyes to be sure. But I didn’t know if… well... if you’d be interested.”

Her father took her hands in his. She looked at them. Like his eyes, they were older than she remembered. Still big and strong, but more wrinkled, and the scales seemed looser.

“Bea,” he said, squeezing her hands for emphasis. “I’m getting older. I know the Pickaxe is all you’ve known. Even if we hadn’t lost your mother, I might not be able to run the place anymore anyway. I’m starting to forget things, Bea. I didn’t tell you, but I notice it. Bea… I think it might be time to sell.”

“Really?” Bea said, her eyes widening. But she immediately held back her emotions. She didn’t want to influence his decision. Despite her work there, it was ultimately his business.

“Yes I do. Bea, I know you always wanted to go off to college. What happened with your mother… it’s been hard on both of us. Maybe this is for the best, Bea. Are you still interested? In college I mean? You’d be starting late.”

Bea’s eyes started to burn. “Dad, I’ve never wanted anything more. I know this isn’t enough to live on, but if I could get a good degree, I know I could make enough for us both. And without that damn hospital bill hanging over us.”

“You sure you’re okay with it?”

Bea started to laugh. “Dad… I’ve never been more sure.”

“I thought you loved the Pickaxe!”

“I do… kinda.  But… Oh dad, thank you!”

“Why don’t you take this over to Mr. Akkerman tomorrow and have him look it over. Don’t get your hopes up too much. One wrong sentence buried in here can mean it’s not at all what it looks like!”

“Dad, Mr. Akkerman retired last year. We’ve got a new lawyer now. Mr. Dansky. Don’t you remember?”

Mr. Santello hit his head lightly. “Of course. I’m telling you Bea, it’s no fun getting old! Do that. Take it to Mr. Dansky.”

“I will. And dad… thanks!” she said, getting up and giving him a fierce hug that he returned.

“Thanks? For what?”

“For the Pickaxe, dad. We might be selling it, but we’d have nothing to sell without all the years you put into it!”

“Aw, thanks kid. But it kept us going all these years, didn’t it? That’s something, especially in this town.”

“That’s really something special, dad. You can be proud of it. I’m going to insist that they keep a picture of you inside the store.”

“Both of us, Bea. You’ve kept her going these last two years on your own. That should be remembered too.”

“Okay. Both of us! Maybe I can get them to rename it to Ol’ Santello’s.”

“Hey! That’s not a bad idea! Not like pickaxes sell anymore. I bet the younger folks don’t even know what a pickaxe is for.”

*****************************

Two days later, Bea got a call from Mr. Dansky. She left the Pickaxe early and walked to his home-office not far off Main Street.

The place smelled of books, like every lawyer’s office she’d ever been in.

He was sitting at the big mahogany desk and invited her to sit down.

“I’ve looked over the document and, Bea, I have to tell you, it’s as straightforward a buy-out as I’ve ever seen. I’ve also written up the two clauses you asked for and have spoken to Mr. Brown on your behalf. He’s agreed to both, and they’ll pay for the signage changes too! I don’t know how you managed to get an offer of this size though. You must really have impressed them, Bea!”

“Ah, I don’t know about that. I think they were just desperate.”

“Well, for whatever reason, they aren’t sparing any expense on this. Are you and your father free to come by on Friday? They want to get the contract signed as soon as possible. I suggested 1pm, if you can bring him in.”

“Sure! No problem. We’ll be here at 1pm.”

Mr. Dansky handed the envelope back to Bea, rising to show her out.

“And Bea… tell your father I want to congratulate him. Businesses in Possum Springs just don’t sell for that much. But I can also tell you I hope to be buying my hardware from Ol’ Santello’s for years to come!”

Bea thanked the young lawyer and stepped out into the late-spring afternoon. Suddenly, in the space of only a few short weeks, her life had changed completely. She had hope again.

********************

Friday couldn’t come soon enough. By noon she was back in her apartment, trying to help her dad get ready as best she could.  His suit no longer fit around the middle, but she persuaded him to wear it open anyway. But, other than Mae, she hadn’t told a soul about the impending buy-out.

At the meeting she met Mr. Brown again, along with two lawyers for Home Badger.  Her dad treated them respectfully enough, though his suspicions were on high alert - questioning everything he had to put his signature to. After a lengthy three hours, though, all the papers were signed and the transfer of ownership - as well as the new name - would happen on the first of the next month. Bea would stay on to help the transition for two months at full manager’s salary - more than she’d ever paid herself really - at the end of which her position would be open to her to continue if she wanted to, or open for anyone of her choosing.

Germ came immediately to mind for her replacement.

They walked out of the lawyer’s house/office and Bea felt the weight of the world suddenly lifted off her shoulders. She walked home with her dad, walking by the Ol’ Pickaxe on the way.

“Let me stop in, for just a minute, Bea?”

“Sure dad,” she said, and held the door open for him.

He made his way over to his accustomed place behind the counter, while Germ stepped out from behind it. The old wooden floorboards creaked in a way that somehow always reminded Bea of her dad. No one else made them creak in quite the same way, and it brought back memories of an earlier, happier time.

The old gator breathed in deeply.

“Still smells of wood and turpentine,” he said, opening his eyes. “Your mom used to sit here, on this very stool, Bea, when you were so little.  We used to have a closed-off area over by that window where you and Mae would play when you were kids. Do you remember that?”

“I remember it. Mae does too.”

“Then you used to come in… right about this time, after school. Right through that door. I can see you now, Bea. You’d be in your school clothes and the bell would ring over the door. We used to have a mechanical bell on a spring, you know. Not the electronic thing we have now. We’d hear that bell, and your mom would come running over. Oh, those were good times, Bea.”

“The best, dad.”

Mr. Santello sat still, looking at the door. His eyes went from bright, shining remembrance to heartbreakingly sad in an instant.

“God I miss your mom.”

Bea couldn’t stand it. She hugged her dad to herself. “I do too dad.”

“Bea. You know I’ve never been a religious man. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve been to her grave.”

“A long time, dad. Do you want me to take you there?”

“No, Bea. I want you to take me to Pastor Karen. I need to talk to somebody. I love you, Bea, but I think I need to talk to her. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, dad. I think I do. Let’s go see her.”

And with that, Bea walked her dad out of the Ol’ Pickaxe - soon to be renamed Ol’ Santello’s.

[subject-a0]

Thursdays [Part 1]

Covers

Thomas Brodie-Sangster x Reader

ALL | Next >

A/N: I’ve been feeling very… strange lately. I don’t really know how to explain it - like empty, kind of sad, okay at the same time? But anyway, that’s not important. I haven’t written in forever and I am severely inspired by Thomas Brodie Sangster’s new photographs from the Boys By Girls Magazine so here’s a little dabble, it was supposed to be a one shot but i’m getting tired and it felt right to end it where it did for now but I’m hoping to continue it (I’m scared that i wont find the time though huhu) Oh, and for the purposes of this I’m just going to ignore that TBS is filming the Death Cure at the moment lol, I hope I’m not too rusty on writing lol and more so, I hope you enjoy !!

The smell of new magazines were never really your favourite. It was this strong, almost rusty smell that punched you right in the nostrils when you pull back the plastic it had been encased in. Sure, when it was just one new magazine it was okay but the girth of the amount of glossy papers you had in your hands counted in a pile of eight. The stench was far from pleasant and this was what? The fifth bundle of new magazines you were placing in the cafe?

A sigh escapes you as you gathered the magazines and tapped their bases on the table to fix them properly before placing them face up on the table. The magazine at the very top of the pile had a masthead that read “Boys By Girls” with a photograph of a dashing young man with long chestnut hair slicked back, alluring dark eyes, toned arms peeking out from a black sleeveless top that was accented with red, and a crooked almost-smile on his lips.

“Ah? Finally fancy one of us English folk?” an accented voice teased as it passed behind you.

You straightened up immediately, eyes wide as they found your always teasing coworker who you were happy to call as not only your new best friend but also your flat mate. “I was just admiring the layout!” you defended as you followed her towards the front of the cafe.

Katie, your friend, rolled her blue eyes as she began tying up her blonde into a high ponytail. “Sure, love.”

“No, really!” you started as you put on your apron, “ Simple. Clean. Great choice of font.”

She nodded at you excessively which obviously meant she wasn’t buying it, “You know, you’ve been here for what, three months now? I know your a scholarship university nerd but don’t you think it’s about time you had a little fun and get yourself out there?”

You opened your mouth to defend yourself but Katie knew better to even give you the chance to respond, “And do not bloody dare give me the ‘I need more time to settle’ excuse. You already know your way around town without me, you’ve got rent and taking care of the flat in your routine, you’re killing it at university, you’re even better than me at this stupid cafe job and I’m the one actually working here - you’re only part time! Plus, you still get enough sleep. I don’t know how you do it but trust me, you have definitely settled in very well, Little Miss I’m-From-Abroad.”

“Okay, fine, I’ve settled.” you agree with a scoff as you move to take your place at the cashier in the cafe. “But I’m no hopeless romantic like you. Just because I may have stared at a stunning human being on the front of a magazine for a little over 2 seconds-“

“Oh you were staring for much longer, love.”

“Okay, well, for however long,” you exasperate, “It doesn’t stand for a signal to get myself out there. I just admire his appearance, I don’t have to do anything more than that.”

Katie rolls her eyes once more as she moves to the front entrance of the cafe, flipping the sign from ‘closed’ to ‘open’. “Suit yourself, Y/N, but the moment you turn into a fellow hopeless romantic like me I have the right to say I told you so.” she says with a smirk and a hand on her hip.

A laugh falls from your lips, “Alright, alright. I bestow you that right.”

Your friend beams, skipping to the cashier next to you. “Besides, you should choose a much more attainable English fella to chase after. That was Thomas Brodie-Sangster on that cover. You know that actor from Love, Actually and those Maze Runner films?”

“Oh!” you gasp, “No wonder he looks so familiar! He’s the one that looks like half his age in his films right?”

“That’s the one.” Katie says with a firm nod. “He is a looker though. I’ve never seen him in person but I have some friends who kind of know him. He’s a hard worker, loves bikes and spends most of his time with his family is all I know. He’s a really private person.”

You raised your eyebrows at the statement, “Hm, my kind of man. Low key, hard working, charming.”

Katie rolls her eyes at you yet again, “Aim low, Y/N. Aim low. You just got here don’t go thinking you’re gonna snag a hotshot like Thomas Brodie-Sangster just cause you moved to London 3 months ago.”

You laugh, “Trust me, it’s never going to happen.”

Katie laughs with you as the first few customers start to roll into the cafe. It was a Thursday morning, a day when you had no classes at university which was the perfect time to spend a whole day at your part time job serving coffee and pastries to cramming students, business men and women, professors during lunch break, hopeful romantics unlike Katie and everyone in between.

It was a decent job even if it was just part time. It got you the funds for rent, university - which was barely any since you were a scholar - and a tiny bit to spend but all you’ve been doing is saving it. Hm, perhaps Katie was right that you didn’t exactly do anything other than university, school and taking care of the flat. Maybe it was time to get yourself out there - not necessarily for the dating scene, but, maybe head out to a pub one night with your flatmate and her friends.

You shrugged at that thought after you served the third customer. “Those thoughts are not for today.” you thought as you remembered that you had some school work to go over during your break later.

You took a breath and smiled at the next customer, “Hi, I’m Y/N, what can I get you today?”

——————————

By the time you were nose in three different text books, hand scribbling messy notes into a notebook and eyes darting from printed text to the screen of your charging laptop the cafe was buzzing with all sorts of people and chatter. It was lunch break for you and Katie, with your friend deciding to eat out as usual. It was common for you to join her but again, you had other priorities.

You sat at one of the tables at the very back of the cafe, making sure to let Stephanie - a fellow part timer taking the lunch and afternoon shift on Thursdays - kick you out of the table if necessary, like when a customer had no where to sit.

You lightly hummed the song that cooed into your ears through your headset to block the busy lunch break chatter. “Just need to write a conclusion and format my references.” you think to yourself rather proudly, realising it had only been about an hour since you started your paper.

“Excuse me, is it alright if I sit here?”

You barely heard the soothing English voice - you swore British accents were something you would get used to but everyone just sounded so wonderful no matter what - over your music, but you already had the assumption that once you were talked to you had to boot out of the table.

Without looking up, you began to pull out your headset and closing the text books and your laptop quickly, “Sorry for the inconvenience, here’s you’re table. Is there anything that I can help y-“

“Oh, no, no please. It’s alright. I’m alone, please take your time packing up. You have quite a lot of stuff.” the man said politely as he set down his tray with a cup of coffee, a sandwich and a pocket book on the little space of the table you didn’t occupy.

You looked up then and your breath hitched with your eyes growing wide as they met with the polite man in front of you who smiled at you warmly. You felt your mouth part slightly but quickly caught it. There, standing in front of you, was the same dashing young man with long chestnut hair slicked back, alluring dark eyes, and crooked smile from the magazine cover that morning. The actor. What was his name? Thomas?

“Th-thank you.” you stutter, not really knowing what else to say as you mindlessly continued to pack up your things while staring at him. How in the world was this happening? You were literally just talking about this stunning human being - a celebrity at that - with your best friend and just like some ridiculous movie Katie probably sobbed at, there he was in front of you.

“Do you want any help with that?” he asks, motioning towards you.

“Oh! No, it’s fine, I don’t want to trouble you any further.” you say quickly, finally ripping your eyes off of him and piling the textbooks you had into a stack and closing your notebook then adding that to the pile.

He chuckled a bit, having already moved to pull out your laptop charger from the socket on the wall. “Please, you’re no trouble at all,” he started when he walked to step in front of you while transferring the hot charger from one hand to the next as his eyes scanned the little nameplate on your chest, “Y/N.”

You blushed either at the way he said your name or how kind he was for getting your charger for you. Either way you hoped he didn’t notice. Why on earth were you not born to have the social skills to interact with aesthetically pleasing human beings? You nodded and looked away as you muttered a squeak of a thank you and got the charger form him.

Your eyes landed on the cover of the magazine that he graced. Trying not to be as awkward as you already were, you attempted to spark a conversation. “Th-that’s you, isn’t it? Uh, Thomas…” you pipe, pointing at the magazine by the corner and not finishing his name since you couldn’t exactly remember it.

Thomas’s eyes followed to where you pointed and then it was his turn to look away. With a deep sigh, his lips form a straight line before admitting, “Uh, yeah, that would be me.”

Hearing him sigh made you want to slap yourself in the face. You just made this a thousand times worse. It astounded you how terrible you were at this. “I’m sorry, that must be so awkward for you. I’m so sorry.” you say quickly, wishing so much that you could just disappear.

Thomas chuckled and opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it as he pulled a confused but expression and watched you quickly move to the stack of magazines. A smile couldn’t help but creep onto his face as he asked, “What are you doing?”

You quickly grabbed the Boys By Girls magazine at the top of the pile and then switched it to pile in the middle rather than sit on top, not once stopping in momentum of how quick you were and quick to embarrass yourself were. “I’m switching the magazines so you don’t have to be embarrassed or find yourself in this awkward situation. I can switch out ever pile in the shop - sorry, we just put the new ones on top.”

The boy laughed this time and it almost put a smile to your lips but you quickly looked up at him with a worried expression instead, “Unless of course you do want them on top? Then, I can definitely arrange for that.” you say hastily, and bend down once more to re-rearrange the magazines.

Thomas gently puts a hand to your arm before you can actually switch it up once more, “It’s alright. There is no need for that.” he starts then send you another one of those to-die-for crooked smiles,  “Thank you though, I really appreciate your concern.”

You retreat your arm from his touch slowly, reaching to scratch the back of your neck as you stood up, and smiled nervously, “All part of the job, sir.”

He smiles, “I can’t imagine all the baristas and personnel to be as kind as you. So thank you, really.”

You laugh awkwardly, feeling your cheeks heat up as you drop your arms to your sides and grip at the fabric of your jeans tightly. You avert your eyes for a moment and suddenly remembered that all your stuff still occupied most of his table. “Oh, I should go. I don’t want to keep you from your book and hog your space on the table.”

Thomas only chuckled, “It’s fine, no worries. Are you sure you don’t need help?”

“I’m alright, really, thank you.” you smile at him and he nods, takes his seat and watches as you begin to pile everything into a stack. You could feel his eyes on you and you prayed in your head that you wouldn’t topple over by the time you were going to carry this out. You have been luging around this much stuff for about 3 months now - this was definitely not the time to suddenly become clumsy.

“So I assume with all that stuff you’re studying uni and work part time here?” he suddenly says.

You were already coiling your headset wire to place on top of your laptop that sat on top of your notebook that sat on top of the three stacked text books. “Yeah,” you smile, not really knowing why he was still talking to you or why you were so willing to open up so quickly, “just moved in 3 months ago actually, I’m not from around here.”

He nods, leaning back on his chair and taking a sip from his coffee. He looked like a perfectly composited painting despite doing something as mundane as sipping a cup of joe. How was this guy even real? “That explains the accent.”

Your eyebrows scrunched up as you set the headset down, “What accent?”

Thomas only laughed and you found yourself laughing with him, “That’s really cool though, You’ve just moved here, got into university and already work a job after class?”

“I’m just really lucky, I guess, and I like to work. I know that’s weird,” you giggle, “but yeah, I work here as often as I can after class during the weekdays but I do have whole day shifts on Thursdays.”

He nods respectfully then his eyebrows furrow as if suddenly remembering something, ”Oh, were you done with what you were writing by the way?”

“Not really,” you admit as you piled the rest of your stuff: a pencil case and phone.

He frowned, “If you need the time to finish it, please do use the table. I’m alone and just reading a book, I wouldn’t mind the company.”

You clenched your jaw to try and stop your cheeks from blushing, “Oh, my break is ending in a bit actually so it’s fine I should have packed up earlier actually.” you laugh, “Thank you so much for the offer though, that’s very sweet of you.”

Thomas looks away for a second, a small smile forming on his lips before he looks back up at you, “You’re very welcome.”

“Well, I’ll be off, do enjoy your meal and book. I really like that one by the way, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” you say, nodding towards the pocket book on his tray before picking up all your stuff. “If you need anything, I’m just at the counter. It was an honour meeting you, uh, Thomas.”

He smiles down at the book that you recognised as his fingers brush against the cover of it before looking back up at you, “The pleasure was mine, Y/N.”

You smile one more time, again hoping that he didn’t see the blush forming at your heated cheeks and quickly walked away with a small sigh of relief escaping you as you reached the back room of the cafe where you keep all your stuff, thankful that you hadn’t embarrassed yourself any further by falling or anything.

You set your stuff down and sat down at a small stool with a huff, burying your head in your hands. How on earth was this even happening. You just had a very, very pleasant conversation with Thomas Brodie-Sangster. A celebrity whose cover photo for a magazine you were literally ogling at just moments ago before opening the cafe. It felt like you were suddenly thrust into this fantasy dream world as if moving to England for your education wasn’t enough of a dream come true.

You took in deep and slow breaths, still not really letting the reality of the situation sink in. He was so sweet and charming and hella good looking. Now, you didn’t want to end up like a hopeless romantic like Katie and earn that ‘I told you so’ from her so soon but you couldn’t help it as you remembered that crooked smile that looked so much better in person. It really felt like he was being extra nice to you and even taking the time to know you and heck, he said he didn’t mind having you as company. What was this weird, squelching feeling rising in your stomach the more you thought about him? You wanted to blame it on the fact that you haven’t eaten much during the day but you knew that the real culprit was the beautiful human you had just met earlier.

But hey, it might have just been him being nice and polite. Maybe he was like that with everyone else? He was a celebrity, he had an image to uphold and maybe he was also raised incredibly well by his parents? Maybe it was just a mix of wonderful circumstances that made him an extra polite and sweet person to everyone. If someone were a special snowflake in this situation, it would be him not you.

“But then again…” you grunted at the thought, stomping your feet on the concrete floor once. Why were you even welcoming these thoughts? Just a moment ago all you could think about was your research paper - that by the way, wasn’t even finished yet. Well, okay, it was mostly finished. But Thomas Brodie-Sangster was still sitting out there and the not-so-awkward-kind-of-courageous-self in you said that the only way to find out was to chat with him again or stand in the counter and pray that he talked to you again.

Wow. You were starting to sound as desperate as Katie. Your eyes darted around the room, she wasn’t back from her break yet - where was she when you needed her? You groaned and slumped back into the wall.

You know what? Standing at the counter wasn’t a bad idea. Whether or not you met Thomas or if he was going to talk to you, you had to be out there for work anyway in a couple minutes. If he talked to you then - hooray! For some odd reason, these things were happening to you! Or you know, he needed a refill for his coffee or something. And if he didn’t talk to you - then at least you knew the forces of the universe weren’t going haywire.

You nodded at yourself and stood to your feet, quickly grabbing the apron and putting it on. You were definitely just over thinking this. All you had to do was do your job and whatever happened and will or won’t happen with the dashing and incredibly sweet man that was Thomas Brodie-Sangster will run its course.

You stood by the door for a moment, a certainly unnecessary wave of nerves flooding your system before you took a deep breath and stepped out.

[oogleboogleoogle]

Oh man I have so many stories from my faux-retail job: 

- Our lobby closes at 4 PM. Our lobby has ALWAYS closed at 4 PM. This is not something that we changed any time recently. We still have long-time members come in at 3:59 and joke about making it last-minute. Then, of course, MORE members will come in because so-and-so was in there, too, so they figured they’d come in and get their stuff done instead of going through the open drive-up. People will walk up to the already locked door after 4:00 and yank on it and then stand there looking offended and confused until they see the sign that has literally always been out there stating that the lobby closes at 4:00, then get back in their car and screech around to the drive-up window and act like we purposely locked the doors just to ruin their day. There have been many new and non-members that do it too. Particularly bad were a couple who had already been told that the lobby closed at 4:00 and if they wanted to return with paperwork for the loan they were trying to get then they needed to come in before then; who then came at 4:18 PM and tried to open the door and then stood there BANGING on the glass window and gesturing at us, then barged in through the door when I unlocked it to try to tell them to go around to the window. They were all “we know you’re locked up but we wanted to get this done today!!!!!” All they did was hand me some paperwork for me to copy and then leave. I was furious. (They were also vague about what the loan was for and it turned out they were getting an expensive puppy from a notoriously awful pet store that gets their dogs from puppy mills. I wanted to die.)

- Phones are becoming such a problem. My coworker put up signs with just a cell phone crossed out and I told her at the time that they were too vague and people would ignore them but she didn’t think so. She was wrong. I had a lady literally hold her finger up and hush me when I greeted her as she drove up to the window with her phone to her ear. I wanted to climb through the bulletproof glass, rip the phone from her hand, and smash it in the driveway. People will answer their phones in the middle of a transaction and ignore me when I ask important questions (do you want that in checking or savings, is this for a loan payment, how would you like that applied, this check hasn’t been endorsed properly, how would you like your cash back, etc) then after I’ve had to complete the transaction without their direction they say they didn’t want it done that way. Well, gee, Sharon, maybe if you’d GET OFF YOUR FUCKING PHONE, we could have done it right the first time. 

- That one lady that let her grandson take one of the toys because he screamed when she told him to put it back, claimed she’d bring it back later when she could get it away from him, then never did. 

- People who hand me cash or checks and tell me what they want to do with it and then just stand there and stare. There’s a deposit slip right in front of you. Use it. It’s there for both you and me - if I do something wrong, there is a record. If YOU do something wrong, there is a record. You’re literally setting yourself up if you don’t use it. (Not that people can figure out how to write them out properly anyway - it’s apparently rocket science to fill out a deposit slip that basically lays it out for you.) 

- When my coworker and I are both standing at the counter and one of us is clearly busy, people still go to the busy one. I’ll be standing there staring at them and greeting them and they’ll still go over to her, even though she usually has loan paperwork spread across her station and is very clearly doing something. She just awkwardly tells them to go to me and I internally facepalm. Oddly, the opposite happens when I’m on break. I sit in a corner behind a little wall but I can still see the teller area fairly well and people will walk in, see my coworker at her station, and still go to my empty station and start filling out their deposit slips. Sometimes they’ll move over to her, but most of the time she ends up going and grabbing their stuff, doing the transaction on her computer, and then going back to my station to give them their receipt. Like ??? okay. People. 

- One time a couple were both at my station making transactions and the guy just turns around, watches a person make a turn out on the street through the window, points and angrily follows the car’s movements while saying very loudly, “THAT WAS AN ILLEGAL U-TURN, I SAW THAT. I SAW YOU, MISTER.” What’s worse is that it wasn’t and people turn there 100 times a day, it’s just an awkward turn... But totally legal. It was weird.

- Personal hygiene, folks. Please. Sometimes we have to open all three windows in the lobby regardless of the weather outside because some folks smell like they just bathed in a lake of B.O. and cigarette smoke and leave a lingering haze after they’re gone. 

- The people who come in and jokingly say, “give me all of your money!” Har dee har har har, I haven’t heard that one 12164165 times in the 8-1/2 months I’ve been here... Add to it the people who say, “you’re going to give me $10,000 for free, right?! Ha! Ha!” 

- The people who call to have us transfer money or make a VISA payment for them but rattle it off so fast that I have literally no idea what words just came out of their mouth. Not to mention the assumption that we’re just standing next to the phone with a pen and paper in hand waiting anxiously for them to call and aren’t trying to multi-task because they totally didn’t just call while we were in the middle of something else equally as important as the transfer they could have done online. (Also in that vein, the people who call to ask what their account balance is when we have a home banking website. Or who ask if we can send them a copy of their statement (like once a fucking week) for free “because I don’t want to print it off of my email!” So we started charging $5 a page to get them to stop. They still don’t.) 

- “There’s a transaction pending in my account that I don’t want to go through, can you block it?” “Sorry, it’s already pending so we can’t.” “But this company is STEALING my MONEY. I need it blocked!” “The transaction is already in the process, there is literally no way we can stop it now. Have you perhaps tried talking to the company at any point to get them to stop these recurring payments?” “No, I signed up for their service and don’t want to pay for it anymore. I just want you to block it. I don’t want to talk to them anymore.” *facepalm* “You need to talk to them and cancel their service because it’ll be a $35.00 stop payment fee from us and there’s still no guarantee that we can stop the payment every time.” “Okay, I guess I’ll call them...” Repeat every month ad infinitum. 

- Also: “There’s a charge in my account that I don’t know what it is!!! Can you tell me!!! Can you return it?!?! I didn’t authorize this!!!” “Okay it came from [insert company name/check number/etc here], that’s all I can tell you. You might try calling the company and telling them what happened and see if they can reverse it. We can’t reverse the charge because we didn’t initiate it.” “Okay I’ll call them right now!!!” *Five minutes later they call back* “Hey about that charge... I forgot I made a payment/bought that item last week and it just went through yesterday... ha ha.” EVERY TIME. E V E R Y TIME.

- People who get weird about policies that have been in place since forever. No, Sharon, I can’t waive the 5-day hold on your $10,000 suspiciously ambiguous “insurance” check and let you walk off with the money scot-free. You want to talk to the boss? Sure, I will have the CEO come out and personally tell you the exact same thing I just told you. She loves taking time out of her CEO duties to tell you we can’t bend federal policy just because you think you deserve special treatment because you want to buy a car with the money tonight. Go to Wal-mart and pay their 3% fee or accept the hold like everybody else. 

- One time I had a lady get shaking-mad over a $5 cashier check fee when she wanted to take a fairly small (for us) amount of money out as a check instead of cash. She threw a fit and acted like I was holding a gun to her head and forcing her to take cash because she wasn’t about to pay a standard fee that every financial institution charges. She then called two months later to raise another fit about it and threaten to take her savings elsewhere. She had over $40,000 in her savings and we know she has other savings accounts with other banks on top of it. But that $5 charge to cover the cost of the cashier check made her see red. When I told my boss, she was like, “good, let her leave. Members like that don’t bring in any money for us so I’d even cut the check myself!” (We’re not profit driven but fees and loans keep us open - a simple savings account actually costs us money. Keep this in mind when your credit union charges you for services that take time and resources to complete.) 

I could probably write a novel on the weird and obnoxious experiences I’ve had in the short amount of time I’ve spent working in a credit union, which is basically a glorified retail job, but it’s 2:38 AM and I should stop. 

[canaryatlaw]

mmmm okay it’s late. today was mixed. most of it was okay, just some bad stuff at the end. same deal for court mornings, had my alarm set for 8:45 when I got a call at like 5:43, luckily I’m pretty good at being coherent on calls when I’ve just been awoken by them, it was just the lawyer on one of the cases that was up, they still have no idea what they’re doing with the hearings, it’s ridiculous. my boss is supposed to have one tomorrow and we have no idea what’s gonna happen because I guess it’s supposed to be over Zoom but I know she’s going to move to have it in person because there’s a ton of evidence and other stuff that would be very difficult over Zoom. the judge we had today was currently booking hearings in December but that was still up in the air, so we decided to just get a status date for setting a hearing. I like the other lawyer, he’s always been very pleasant and polite, he was actually the one I’d spoken to in like September of last year just after starting when I got a file shoved in my face and said my coworker couldn’t make it, so I opened the file and walked upstairs haha so I had pretty much no idea what was going on. and I met him then and he made the comment that he was “the nicest defense attorney you’ll ever meet) and I was just like well my dad is a defense attorney so that’s a pretty high bar, which he thought was hilarious. all of this to say though, since this case got transferred to me in January, I don’t think he’s actually made it to any of the court dates, I’m always getting a call a day or two before and there’s something going on so if I could just cover it, and it’s not a big deal and I really don’t mind doing so because it’s that much easier if I can just get in there, summarize the situation for the judge and ask for what we agreed, so it makes my life that much easier, I just thought it was kind of funny that he’d kept missing them. but oh well. When I logged in I told them I should be the only party on both cases and they said they’d try to get me in early (it seems like they are beginning to give attorneys preference, which was something they said they wouldn’t do at the beginning, so this is definitely good). there was some delay but I got in around 10:30, in and out quickly, easy peasy. I was on the hotline supervisor again today and then again tomorrow, it happens because we usually rotate Mondays and my regular day was Tuesday so I’ve done it before, this will actually be 3 in a row counting Friday too but oh well. not too many calls which was good because I had a lot of work to get done, but this one fucking call I wanted to scream and pull my hair out. without details, it was an elderly client who had a male “friend” helping her with tech and they were both fucking terrible with technology and then he’d insist he did everything right and it must be something on my end, all of which took place twice between submitting the papers and getting on Zoom. after so much shit we finally get to the hearing, the EOP gets granted, we’re almost good to go when this dude gets on the fucking line because he wanted to ask some stupid questions, then ended by telling the judge her laugh (because we were all laughing) reminded him of Kamala Harris, and that was a compliment, then finally got off the line. I was literally face-palming and laughing because this was just insane, and I stayed on the line a few extra seconds just to thank the judge for her patience (i’ve learned judges really appreciate hearing that) and thankfully we were all just laughing at the situation, because if this had happened with the judge two courtrooms over, the judge would’ve like, sent out sheriffs to go arrest him for contempt of court (this is the judge who kicked the defendant off the Zoom call in my one case because he was being an asshole, so I was very glad it ended up with this judge, she’s a criminal judge so I don’t see her much, she’s been on most of the criminal cases I’ve worked on (which is like, 3) and they just cycle the criminal judges through the EOP rotation so we end up in front of criminal judges sometimes, which can be both a bad and a good thing. but anyway, we finally got the damn thing, the dude calls me back and wants to know all this shit and I was like okay it’s in the email and I’m done with this you have no reason to call me again and blah blah and of course at the end he was like well we’ll call if you have any issues which was fucking great to hear. however, when I was entering their info into the system it turned out we had a conflict, so if they call me again I have to be like there’s a conflict and hang up, so I was happy for that at least lol. I finished up some paperwork (like printed out and getting put in envelopes, then went to meet friend for dinner, and this is where the bad part started. I was mostly good getting there which is like, two blocks over from me so not far, but right when we were about to sit down my legs started shaking and for some reason I didn’t just try to grab my cane so I just fell on my butt and I was like I’m totally fine this is nothing and it really wasn’t anything, but I was kinda irritated at myself for not going to grab the cane right away. but yeah, dinner was very nice definitely enjoyed, but afterwards instead of just walking home I made the mistake of walking to Walgreens with friend because I wanted some damn milk to make pudding with, and that was another few blocks over. so we’re walking there and mostly good, fine in the store but they were literally sold out of milk other than the one that’s like special and costs like $5 and I’m not buying that. they did have this really cool thing on their beverage refrigerator things with like a virtual picture of what’s on the inside, I don’t really know how to describe it but it was cool. but yeah, we check out and head home, and that’s where things really start to go downhill. it just started happening again and like I could barely get past the cars trying to get out of the parking lot we were working across, and we ended up having to stop and take a break to see if we could get it calmed down and it did a bit, we weren’t actually far from my apartment (we kinda did a loop so we were back on that side) but between where we were and where apartment was that dang huge intersection, it’s not the same one I had issues in, it’s one block north of it, and it’s so big and there were a lot of cars on the street. and so I start to get up and walk a bit but it just kept coming and I was like yeah there’s no fucking way I’m making it across that intersection, so we went over to the bench on the side of the road and called an uber to drive me like 3 blocks, because I couldn’t make it myself. by the time I got to my building I was mostly okay and able to get up the stairs and get into my apartment without issue, thankfully. at that point I was just more upset than anything else. I just don’t know what to do right now. like sometimes I can tell if it’s going to be bad that day if I go out, but other times it’s more sudden, and like, what am I just going to never leave my apartment or have to be stuck here every time it’s going bad? I can’t do that. and my whole thing with the cane was my effort to be able to walk by myself even when it’s giving me issues and like...it’s just not going to happen. there’s just points where I can’t walk without falling, and I just....I really don’t know. I’m going to call my doctor in the morning, I was already going to do so because I need a referral from her to the other neurologist that specializes in movement disorders, because the one neurologist is a specialist and one specialist can’t refer to another, so it needs to come from my primary care doctor, but the neuro people already clear it and everything so that shouldn’t be an issue. and yeah, when I got home I just kinda chilled and watched Psych until I decided to shower and start getting ready for bed, and now I’m here. I spent way too much time on this post but I guess I needed to get it out, and now I desperately need to go to bed, so I’ll be doing that now. Goodnight babes. Hope your Monday was better than mine. 

[lewisgabriel84z31]

Bitcoin for Dummies

Bitcoin for Dummies

Bitcoin for Dummies Explaining Bitcoin So You Can Actually Understand It

To start, do not let the title of this piece make you feel any less of a human being or think that you are in fact a bitcoin dummy. That is not the case! Bitcoin is complex. There have been several very intelligent computer programmers and system developers (We are talking people who have invented the very technology that allows us to even get online!) who are on record as saying that they even have trouble understanding Bitcoin fully.

Introduction to Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the first ever invented digital currency. It works the basis of the blockchain technology. It is continuously being created through a process called mining that involves computers solving cryptographic puzzles. Each block has its own cryptographic puzzle, and the unique solution represents 1 Bitcoin and the current state of all pending transactions.

Bitcoin is a digital currency.

Using encryption techniques is how it is created and how transactions are verified as legitimate and recorded to the ledger.

Operating independently of a central bank means that there is no person, company, government agency or any other single entity that controls bitcoin, it is governed by the very people who use it.

But before we can delve into the peculiarities of Bitcoin we need to lay some foundations.

What is Cryptography?

Imagine you have a letter, cut it to little pieces and scramble them. By doing so you are encrypting the information that is contained in the letter. Meaning that when someone stumbles upon the scattered pieces, they would not be able to understand anything. That is until they decipher, decrypt the message by placing the pieces in the right order. This visualization of sorting algorithms explains the process best.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain quite resembles a database. However, while traditional databases have a couple of locations where the information is hosted, blockchain hosts the information on each computer on the network. Hence the term decentralized.

Traditional banking works like Microsoft Office Documents and blockchain is like Google Docs. For the sake of simplicity let us assume that there is one spreadsheet that contains the state of all accounts balances and transactions.

If Sally sends John 10$ via a bank wire.

To reflect this transaction Sally’s bank credits her account in the spreadsheet, then the file would be sent to John’s bank to make their changes and then sent back to Sally’s bank so that they both have the updated version of the spreadsheet. Although there is no such spreadsheet, bank settlements operate in relatively the same manner – a lot of files being exchanged to reflect every transaction.

With blockchain when Sally tells her bank to send 10 BTC to John, the two banks simply both edit the Google spreadsheet and without any time wasted on exchanging files, the transaction is recorded.

If you have ever edited a Google spreadsheet simultaneously with many people, you would know that it will start bugging, the new information is just too much to be reflected at once. Therefore, the network separates the whole spreadsheet (there is no actual spreadsheet we are continuing the example) into smaller blocks of information that can be more easily processed.

Want a quick and condensed guide about the Blockchain Technology? Read our Blockchain Guide

What is Bitcoin?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Bitcoin as “a type of digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank”

However, this definition is for the whole system of Bitcoin. Each Bitcoin is nothing more than a 12-digit code that is encrypted.

Bitcoin is a Digital Currency! What is a Digital Currency?

A digital currency is money that has no physical form. Reach into your pocket, wallet or wherever it is you keep your dollars, Euros, Yen, Rupies, etc.. and pull out the equivalent of 1 US Dollar, or even a quarter, dime, nickel or penny. Hold it. Look at it. Feel it. That is called fiat, which is the currency of your nation (or some nation depending on what you may have.)

With digital currency, you cannot hold it. You cannot feel it. You cannot look at it. It only exists as a number entry in a transaction ledger on a network somewhere. Now, while this may make some people shun digital currencies, they are simply being childish and sort of ignorant. Think about it. Most people simply swipe a card and their money is magically moved from there account into the account of the store that they are paying, right? So technically, we all use digital currency already, we just have the ability to actually get some of the money to put in our pockets or respective money holding places.

A Really Deep Understanding of Money in General

Then to get even more technical about it, the money you may have in your pocket is nothing more than cheap paper and ink or cheap metals that have been stamped by a machine. It technically is not worth anything. It is nothing more than a marker that says you have the rights to spend the amount indicated on the bill or coin and the bill or coin simply is a guarantee from the national bank who issues it that they will cover the debt.

If you owed someone five dollars and wrote them an IOU on a piece of paper, it is no different than a 5-dollar bill in the sense that the money you have is nothing more than an IOU from the national bank who issued your particular currency. I can go to the store right now and buy a ream of copy paper, the 500-sheet pack for about $7 USD. You can fit 4 US Dollar bills of any denomination on each sheet, so if I used 100-dollar bills, that would be $200,000.00 USD. Does that make the paper worth $200,000.00 USD? I think not. So why would the paper that the national bank prints currency on be worth anything more? Well, it isn’t.

If you have never stopped to really think about it, do so now. That money in your piggy bank is nothing more than a guarantee from the Federal Reserve (if you are in the U.S.), or national bank of some nation that you are entitled to that much of the gold* that they own, and that you have the rights to trade that guarantee for goods and service and upon doing so, the receiver of the money will then inherit the same guarantee for the same value that is shown on the piece of paper or metal coin.

You Are the bank… Sort of

So, in all reality, the only real difference that Bitcoin offers is that it does not have a physical marker, or guarantee in the form of a mass printed, regulated piece of paper guaranteeing the holder to the value of the Bitcoin.

That actually sounds horrible. No guarantee that you have a right to the Bitcoin in the national bank? Well, you don’t need it. Nope. Not at all. Why, you may ask? Why would you risk not having that guarantee? Well, because you have the actual Bitcoin. Th national bank doesn’t have it, in fact, no bank or any other person or business has it. You have it. You hold it and when you send it to someone, it goes directly from you to them. When you receive it from someone, you get it directly from them. So, there is no guarantee needed. You have the actual bitcoin in your hands, err, well, figuratively speaking of course.

The balance of your bitcoin wallet is public record. The encryption methods used, which will be explained in later chapters, ensures that any and all transactions are legitimate and that the balance are absolutely correct. Don’t worry though, while the ledger of balances is public record, your identity is not. More on that later. While an explanation of how it all works is the focus of this entire piece, I will try and put it into perspective for you:

The technology that ensures that all balances and transactions are valid and legitimate is so ingenious, so technologically advanced that every single one of the 50 United States, as well as the Federal Government of the United States, Governments of the entire European Union, China, Japan, South Africa, The United Arab Emirates and many more nations have legislation either already voted into law or are in the process of putting into law, statutes that integrate the technology with the government and how it does day to day business.

That Wraps Up Digital Currency

So, hopefully you have an idea of what bitcoin is by now, but i will spell it out for you anyways; Bitcoin is money. It isn’t money you can touch with your hands and it isn’t money that a bank or government holds or controls, but it is money. It can be used to buy things online from Microsoft, Dell, Walmart, Overstock and thousands of other retailers. You can use it in the United States to pay the IRS and other government entities and you can send it to anyone who accepts it personally. The difference between bitcoin and the money in your pocket is that bitcoin is the same value in North America, as it is in all of Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and even Antarctica. That includes every single Island, Atoll or other landmass and hell, even all of the pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic Oceans as well. Basically, everywhere on the planet earth that you can go, Bitcoin will be worth the same exact amount.

*The gold reference is being used as a generalization. The national banks of the world hold more than just gold to determine their total wealth. It should be understood that other commodities, such as a nation’s chief exports, silver and other valuables are also used to back currency.

Who invented Bitcoin?

The simple answer? No one knows for sure. Someone, who was using the name of Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of bitcoin. Whether that is a single person, a group of people, a man, a woman or someone who is gender neutral is simply not known. However, since the name that was used is a Japanese male’s name, Satoshi Nakamoto will be referred to as “he” or “him”, since typing Satoshi Nakamoto at every reference is simply horrible grammar.

There lies a shroud of mystery behind Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a great mystery that has the entire community enthralled. There have been a few educated guesses as to his actual identity and even one man from Australia who has claimed that he is the creator of Bitcoin, but there is no definitive proof. All that is known for sure is that he is a genius who had an ingenious idea and he implemented it in such a technologically advanced way, that there is nothing to even compare it to that has ever been done.

Science Fiction from the Future

To try and put this in perspective for you, imagine when you were a child and watched Star Trek. Those hand-held communicators were science fiction for us at the time. 25-30 years later, we carry around mobile phones that not only communicate, but play videos, music, talk to us, provide virtual reality, etc.… Science fiction turned into reality.

Well, Bitcoin, in comparison is like The Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Yeah, they just came out recently, no, we cannot even fathom being able to travel through space with a fox, intelligent plant or any of the other stuff in the movies. Depending on where you get your scientific information from, we are somewhere between 100 years and never being able to accomplish that stuff, so Bitcoin is like 100 years away, at least, from reality.

Except that it’s not, it’s here already and was actually here before The Guardians of the Galaxy movie was. That is how technologically advanced and ingenious Satoshi Nakamoto is; was; might be again.

How it All Went Down

In October of 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the first bitcoin paper via a cryptology mailing list. This paper described Bitcoin in detail. The title of the paper was, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. On January 9, 2009, The Bitcoin software version 0.1 was released publicly on SourceForge.net.

Satoshi claimed that he was a male, living in japan and his profiles on the various forums and boards listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975. The first block (transaction verification) was mined by him on January the 3rd of 2009 and he left a text message within it that reads: ‘The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks‘ referring to an article in the New York Times that day. This has been dubbed, the Genesis Block and is timestamped at 18:15:05 GMT on January 3, 2009.

Satoshi Nakamoto or Houdini?

He handled all of the coding himself until mid-2010, when he handed over the project to the current lead developer, Gavin Andresen, distributed all of his digital assets, including domain names to other prominent members of the Newly Formed Bitcoin community and then simply vanished. His bitcoin Wallets have not had a single transaction since mid-2009 and currently contain approximately 1 million Bitcoins, valued at roughly 4.053 Billion US Dollars.

While you can search and find compelling stories that would prove to have discovered the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, in Newsweek, the New York Times, Investopedia and about a hundred other reliable Bitcoin news sources, the answer is still unknown. Whoever he or she is or they may be, bitcoin is a work of true and pure genius. There is no argument there.

How is digital currency created?

Each digit is unveiled by solving a cryptographic algorithm, or in simpler terms a something like a mathematical equation. The process of this calculation is called mining and is done by either processor-based operations or graphic-card based operations, performed by a large number of computers in complex installations. All of the transactions on the network are encrypted with a cryptographic puzzle that all participants race to solve. The solution of this puzzle creates and sets* the state of the network – all pending transactions and account balances. Once a computer on the network finds a solution it records the solution* on the blockchain; then all network participants update their ledgers. In the instant that this happens the information is set and sealed. No one can edit information on the blockchain unless their computational power is at least 51% of the whole network’s power, which almost impossible.

The money creation process of Bitcoin again involves solving cryptographic puzzles. We explained that the solution to the puzzle contains all transactional information; however, it also contains information about the digits of each Bitcoin. By helping people settle transactions, miners are also slowly uncovering the digits of new Bitcoins that would enter the system. There are only 21,000,000 Bitcoins. Once the last one has been mined there can be no further money creation.

How is its value determined?

When money was first created to determine its value, we used the gold standard. Each dollar or pound in circulation in the economy had a gold equivalent in the vault of the central bank. In other words, if someone went to the bank they could for their money get a certain amount of gold.

The value of bitcoin and other digital currency is backed by proof of work or computational power. The calculation of each BTC requires a certain amount of effort, think electricity, computers, software and rent. The network knows how much computational power is needed to uncover a Bitcoin, so once a computer calculates the 12-digit code, the network rewards miners for doing the needed amount of work.

Here comes the tricky part.  Each next Bitcoin always requires a bit more computing power to be mined than the previous. As we said, each BTC can be mined only once. The first BTC mined requires only the solution to the algorithm, and that it is. However, for every next BTC to be mined, after calculating the code the computer has to go through all the previously mined BTCs and it has to check whether this one is a new BTC or not. The more BTC are mined, the more newly generated Bitcoin requires.

Currently, the value of BTC is determined by two factors. The first one is how hard is mining, i.e. how much computational power is required for the calculation and check with the database of existing BTCs. If before it took a couple of graphics cards to mine one BTC for a predefined period “x”, now it takes much more computing power to mine a BTC for the same “x” period. The other factor is Bitcoin’s attractiveness as an investment. Currently, most people do not use Bitcoin so much as a medium of exchange, than they use and perceive as an investment.

What happens when the last BTC is mined?

Then free markets take over. The value of Bitcoin would then be determined only by the amount people that will be willing to pay for it.

Image courtesy of Bitcoin.org and seats2meet

http://ift.tt/2ixJoPu

[opepin]

september: week one

aug28: i felt awake but mentally tired when i woke up lol. i got myself to do hip hop cardio and then took my time getting ready. i was actually the last one in the office today :O but it wasn’t too bad because joe came in only a few minutes earlier than me, ahha. we both asked dave some questions and then went to work. i had a really productive morning even though i was pretty darn tired. i got lunch with cole and joe; i walked with them to al’s sandwich shop with my tea cup in hand LOL. i didn’t know we were going outside. i microwaved my lunch and ate with them in the kitchen area. it was nice catching up with cole again. i only see him like once every 2 weeks now @_@; lol last week, he didn’t know i came in the office on thursday :P after lunch, i went straight on a call and then stand up after. stand up lasted long again so i did some online gift shopping. i went straight to the washroom after and then to the kitchen to gee water. i was so parched lol. my concentration was pretty shot after... i got back into work mode after walking a bit and then at 4:30 pm, cole came to the office. he was all ready to leave so i finished what i needed to do (lol, i made him take a seat and wait for me) and then we walked to south station together.

he missed his train but right when i got to my platform, the trains were experiencing delays -__-” haha; it wasn’t too bad though. i got home and then i chilled a bit before i popped chicken in the oven, made rice, and then did an ab workout. my legs and hips gave out during those 30 minutes. o__o; it was scary but i was also like whaaat? haha. i took it easy for the rest of the day. i showered and then kevin came back and showered and made spinach to go with the rice and chicken. mmm. we watched an episode of agents of shield and then went into gaming! we played overcooked and battleblock theater. lol kevin and i have been having fun trying to “push” each other irl and copying the moves of our characters in battleblock theater ;P we played until 11:30 pm again and then i brushed and got ready for bed. i knew i was going to sleep a bit later than usual because i was working from home tomorrow.

aug29: i woke up later than usual because i felt tired. i managed to find two new recovery / low impact cardio videos for me to do. i did 40 minutes of it to make up for the lack of intensity haha. then i ate breakfast with kevin and sent kevin off to work. it took me a bit to get into the work groove but i worked on wireframes the entire day and then hopped on a client call for a bit. i got to spend some time stretching my muscles and foam rolling my legs. my quads are super tight and it’s basically the cause of all of my pain right now. so i need to stretch them out better. i ate lunch while watching an episode of agents of shield and then went back to work. i did get pretty angry at one point because we’re still waiting on the compensation for our extreme delay in copenhagen and kevin sent me something to fill out to say that they should transfer all the money to his account; i didn’t want to print something out and fill it out so i tried using my tablet -- didn’t work -- and then i downloaded something on my ipad and it kinda worked and then i had trouble sending the attachment and it made me lfnskfnsjkfsd. anyway, i watched some shield while working so it made me feel better. i also got my amazon packages and daniel’s package today! i like the jeffrey campbell slippers i got, but they seemed short? so i ordered another one in a size 8...lol. daniel got me a lululemon long sleeve cowl neck shirt -- the color is nice and it’ll keep me warm in the cold (: thanks, bud!

right at 5pm, kevin got back home and we went to the mall to get his pants. i stopped by dsw to check out the white adidas edge lux -- i might get these instead of keeping the nikes because the nikes are a bit too narrow... then we went to target and i tried using my high value coupon for shoe inserts but it didn’t work. oh well. then we went back home and chilled. we ate fried rice for dinner and then played overcooked and battleblock theater until 9 pm or so. kevin washed dishes and went to game with his friends while i did another 40 minute session of recovery cardio. i watched more agents of shield and got to the episode where kevin left off so i can’t binge it without him anymore LOL. after the workout, i showered and then hopped into bed. i went to sleep at 12:20 am after wasting time on my phone @_@; ugh, i’m picking up these bad habits again. i need to stop going on my phone in bed and just unwind before hitting the sack.

aug30: i woke up at 8:30 am feeling pretty tired again. i got myself to do a 30 minute cardio dance workout. my quads felt tighter today so i knew i had to foam roll them again and it probably means that my quads are super tight. i ate breakfast, sent kevin off to work, and got on the computer. i talked to cole for a bit in the morning and i decided not to lead a training session today because of the way i felt. it might be the weather? idk. well, i also need to stop buying stuff now because it’s causing me extra stress with all the returning and window shopping. so after i figure out the whole jeffrey campbell and training shoes thing, i will stop looking at shoes for a while. i still need a 2″ heel for fancier occasions but that can wait because after this wedding, i don’t think me and kevin will be going anywhere fancy anytime soon. i got myself to do internet errands and then got into doing work.

phil led the 2 hour session and then i finished wire framing during the rest of the work day. i felt out of it when kevin came back home. we got our luggage from the storage room and then i started making dinner: chicken and rice. then i made a list of things to pack. then kevin and i watched an episode of agents of shield. then kevin cooked spinach while i packed my luggage. we ate while watching another episode and then we stopped so kevin could pack and get ready for bed and i could exercise. i did a oblique workout today and then showered. i got the size 7.5 nike free tr7s and tried them on. again, they were super slippery on the floor and i felt like i was going to injure myself a few times while working out. x_x; when doing planks and squats, my left foot kept sliding... well, i finished packing and before going to sleep, kevin and i played a couple games of undercooked together. i was in bed before kevin...even though he had to get up at 5 am, what? ahah. we slept before 12 am i think.

aug31: i woke up to kevin’s alarm at 5 am and dozed in and out until he left. i closed the door behind him and then waited to check into my flight at 5:30 am. i texted him for a bit and then fell asleep and woke up when his flight was leaving. :) i did hip hop cardio and then showered and ate breakfast. i decided that after work, i would walk to the ups store in downtown to return the two zappos boxes i have. i had to carry two extra brown paper bags to work @_@; i went over my wireframes with dave and then printed and attached the labels to the boxes. i stopped by the dev room and said hi and then went straight into work. music really helped me focus today. i ate leftovers for lunch and watched some youtube videos. then i went back into work and then into stand up. i rescheduled my breakfast with daniel so that i could get kevin from the airport and then get brunch with daniel. i was pretty awake during the day -- i was surprised :O then kevin told me that he wanted me to pick up his shirt from milton’s at the mall. so i had the choice of driving or taking a lyft or uber. lol just thinking about this made my stomach churn and i was just frazzled the rest of the evening. i decided to lyft/uber. so then i looked for first time use codes online so i could get s discount with my work phone. i used a supposed up to $50 one and only got $5 for lyft -__- then i got $15 for uber.

i finished up my work at around 4 pm or so and then helped the dev team move to their new office (closer to us). we wished steve good luck in vegas (apparently, cole gave him $5 LOL) and then haowei stayed with us to return a cart. i walked cole to south station and from there, i walked to the ups store in downtown and return the two giant ass zappos boxes -__-” it wasn’t a bad walk really. i stopped by cvs and used my high value coupon to get insoles for the ball of my foot for the heels i’m going to wear to the wedding. then i took the train home. i snacked and watched a youtube video while looking at the prices for lyft to go down. i got a lyft for only $6 and then got to the mall after he dropped off the first person. i picked up kevin’s shirt and then called another lyft straight away. this drive was only $2 or so with the coupon! he didn’t pick up anyone else so it was a quick drive back home. it was like 7 or something already, but i worked out and then washed my hair during my shower. i microwaved chicken and rice and ate even though i wasn’t that hungry. then i took out the garbage and brushed my teeth and went to sleep at around 10 pm. i double-checked that i had everything and ko’d on the bed. i thought i was going to get a full night’s rest and sleep at 8 or 9 pm, but with all the stuff i had to do, it wasn’t probable. x_x;

01: i got about 4-5 hours of sleep but i woke up with no problem and brushed my teeth and made sure everything was good to go. i ended up leaving the closet light on... (i found this out when we got back to boston...oops). i got an uber for only $6 with my work phone and from there, it was a quick pass through tsa and dropping off my bag for check in. i found out that the starbucks doesn’t open until 4:30 am and it was like 4 am when i got there. there were lines forming at dunkin donuts and starbucks though lol. i hopped in line after making sure they would be open soon because my gate was right next to the store. i got myself a turkey bacon breakfast sandwich and a grande pink drink with no ice, but they gave me ice anyway? lol that’s been happening a lot lately. after eating and drinking, it was time to board. i got an aisle seat in the second row! i actually ktfo on the flight and i only woke up in time to get the belvita cookies and peanuts -- not even the water or whatever! it’s the first time in a while that i’ve completely slept on a flight. i woke up because the lady next to me kinda jabbed me on accident @_@;

my dad was waiting for me at baggage claim and we waited there for like 20 minutes to get my bag. i got home after an hour or so because of traffic as well. i was pooped. i ate some twizzlers when i got back and no one in my family seemed to really care about my new look with my glasses LOL. well, i did a good amount of work at home. for lunch, i microwaved the bibigo dumplings my mom bought for me lol. i watched four episodes of masterchef and an episode of love connection while working. after work, i felt pretty bored. i did low-impact cardio because my quads were still on fire and then i did some back exercises while watching ‘bridget jones’ baby.’ yeah, i know, it’s a weird movie choice. it was a weird movie. after that, i finally showered all that airplane grodiness away and then i tried taking a nap because i felt a bit tired. my mom came home and woke me up and we talked lol. then i got ready to eat with hillary and mindy! hillary picked me up (thanks bae!) and then we drove over to eden. right as we parked, mindy got into the parking lot. we rushed in there so hillary could pee haha.

we caught up on everything after we ordered our food. mindy got a frose (most alcoholic rose i’ve ever drank) and i got eden (mixed ginger beer, bitters, mint -- it was really strong and i was feeling dizzy after drinking half of the cup). we all split umami doughnuts and grilled octopus salad. mmmm. i got spatzle, hillary got the uni butter pasta, and mindy got the agnolotti. everything was delicious! lol when we got the check though, i realized we all spent like $40-60 on each of our meals. oh, we also split a very fancy strawberry shortcake. haha, it was a great welcome home dinner with the girls. <333 i’ve missed them so much. mindy gave me a belated bday gift and souvenirs from hawaii! i almost forgot to give the girls their souvenirs from stockholm. hillary really liked the royal palace money clip LOL. she drove me home and we talked on the way back. i’ll be seeing her the next time i come homeee (thanksgiving). it was like 9pm when i got back home so i just stayed in bed and went on the internet and stuff. i think i also looked in my room to see if i wanted to bring back anything else. lol at like 10 pm or something i went outside of my room only to realize my family was asleep already...weird. i went to sleep knowing that i will see kevin tomorrow ((:

02: i got up at 9 am or so and i thought about working out but i decided against it and i wanted to be on time to pick up kevin from the airport. so i ate some congee she made (best congee ever) and then my dad and i picked up kevin from midway. we waited for him at baggage claim because i didn’t know if he checked in his stuff or not ahah. it was a long drive home... why does midway have to be so far away? :( we got back, kevin unpacked a bit and then we ate more congee before heading out to meet up with ryan and nluu at ban po jung, a korean restaurant that i never heard of! they give out free vegetable pancakes and ban chan :O they ordered and i just snacked on the sides because daniel was going to pick me up from there so we could go get lunch together, lol. i just stopped by to say hi and chat. :3 daniel picked me up and we drove to wicker park to dine at rhyme or reason! this restaurant is now one of my faves. the decor is amazing and the food is soooo good. daniel and i split a flour sampler because i couldn’t pick just one bakery item to eat lol. i got the smoked samon avocado toast and he got the chilaquiles. everything tasted amazing. i died and went to heaven when i took a bite of their monkey bread and their macaron ice cream sandwich -- i think it was some other kind of cream, but it was semi-cold and it looked like ice cream ahha. i was sooo happy. :)))

daniel and i just talked and caught up. it didn’t feel like we haven’t seen each other in a long time haha. then daniel drove me home and when i was almost home, i really needed to pee. i was cramping from holding it in and daniel, being a great friend, stopped at the nearby wedny’s so i could pee. there was no toilet paper in my stall but luckily, someone next to me knew already and one of the workers just left to go get more and handed it to me. lol i’m so lucky x__x; then daniel drove me back home :P i chilled and digested my food for a while and then i spontaneously started doing insanity with my brother because he was setting up and then i was like ‘why not?’ lol i only did 10 minutes before forming a blister on the bottom of my big toe T___T because i wasn’t wearing shoes and there are a lot of crevices in my floor at home. so then i changed into actual workout clothes and then went downstairs to the basement and put on my old mizunos (thinking that these could be my new training shoes) and did my own workout. i did 40 minutes or so of low-impact cardio and then i realized it was almost 5 pm and kevin wasn’t back from climbing... oh, the shoes seemed like they would do a good job with my workouts but still not sure. i’ll bring them back to boston.

anyway, i freaked and ran to the shower and then kevin got back and i told him he has to hurry. i hurriedly changed, curled my hair to fix some parts, put on eyeshadow, some light eyeliner, and then got my shoes and put in gel inserts and yeah... we rushed out of the house basically. i messaged vivian and she said it was going to be okay because only 1/4 of the people were there lol. so kevin drove us to rosemont and we had trouble finding parking. we found it eventually lol (ofc with vivian’s help) and then found the bridge to the convention center and then found gbf, vivian, chansy, jessica, nancy, and ryan. we said hi to everyone and then kevin and i got water and felt a bit awkward. lol. we found vivian and just chilled with her until doors opened for seating. i was seated next to vivian ;D we talked with everyone and met jackson’s two cousins. then we got salad, heard the father speak, and heard some speeches from the bride / groom’s party throughout our dinner. lol, most of them were either tipsy or pretty drunk... so their speeches were interesting lol.

i got fish for my main entree. it was ok, but i didn’t finish it because i was still full from lunch and i wanted to make room for dessert. there wasn’t cake, but there was a dessert bar. i tried everything and i loved the matcha cookies from xa cafe in california! we all just chilled after until the dance floor was open. we had a good convo with one of jackson’s cousins, andrew about chicago and work and etc. then i got kevin on the dance floor and i think we danced for a few hours straight LOL. it was getting hot in there and i got a heat rash on my neck but i tuffed it out and all the itchiness went away. the dj was pretty bad... then requests started coming in and i was trying to dance to rap...LOL. kevin and i left at 12 am and said goodbye to everyone. i had a lot of fun dancing :) nancy and ryan seemed real tired. kevin drove us back home, we showered, and then went to sleep. we were beat. we slept at like 2-3 am. thanks for inviting us, jackson! we had a lot of fun and it was a good experience (:

03: we were lazy bums and stayed in bed until we had to leave for lunch at mahalo with ryan and nluu! we did a bit of packing before we left and then luckily found parking nearby. we had to drive my dad’s highlander and that is a huge af car... so we were pretty lucky haha. mahalo is so pretty but their food was sub-par. nluu’s dish was basically burnt two times... he asked for the kitchen to remake it and it never does that. .___. i guess i’m only 2 for 3 good restaurants this trip back. i got the spicy tuna poke, which was alright. their virgin pina colada is bomb though! everyone said it was an ‘okay’ spot to eat. other than that, our conversation was A+ and after eating, we went to ryan’s to play hanabi. it was my first time playing so i learned on the spot and we won! we left later than we were supposed to but, it’s alright ahah. we said goodbye to our friends and then drove back, quickly packed (thank you, kevin for helping me pack all of the things i somehow put around the house), and then we drove to chinatown to eat with my family. my grandpa and grandma on my mom’s side was there and my uncle as well. it was a small dinner; it was kevin’s first time meeting them though haha. it was pretty chill.

my grandma approves of kevin LOL. we ate and then my uncle got me my favorite tong sui for dessert. kevin and i ate two bowls. then my parents drove us to the airport and we said goodbye. i’ll see everyone and chicago during thanksgiving (; we got through tsa pretty quick and then we just waited to board. our flight was full and our steward was hilarious when he was giving us info on the plane. good times. we both tried to sleep even though it was like 8:30 pm but we ended up staying awake. kevin played final fantasy 3 on his phone and i started watching ‘the break up’ because i already watched ‘kung fu panda 3′?! when did i do this? idk. i think the guy next to me was watching with me lolol. the characters in that movie are super immature but i wanted to watch a movie about relationships and stuff like that haha. i was a bit congested and nauseous when we landed but i walked it off while waiting for our luggage to arrive. i managed to get to 10k steps and 30 active minutes LOL! the silver line took forever to get there but it got there, we took the train, and we were home. i picked up my size 8 jeffrey campbell mules from the concierge and then we unpacked everything and yeah... the shoes are a better fit so i’m keeping these and i need to return the size 7.5s. we snacked on fruit and the last of the matcha macs mindy gave me from hawaii. then we showered and ko’d at like 3 am. yeah, we landed at 11:30 pm but got home at like 1 am or something? idk. we were tired.

[heidigital-blog]

Más Vale Tarde Que Nunca

Good afternoon my readers! Since I haven’t given you the pleasure to read my latest blog yet, I will give my best now. And after this there is another task about few thoughts from the events that I participated in; this is obligatory, since I missed the lecture about Ultrahack. (I have met Ian McCready already, heard about Ultrahack personally from him and he actually got me a job of some kind in the Upgraded Life Festival, so I’m kind of familiar with what was on the lecture) Let’s have a look at previous week’s findings about digital world. As the title screams in Spanish, better late than ever.

Kwame Afreh

This lecture was about designing a webpage. Mr. Afreh is a freelance web designer and also a former Laurea student. He got us all intrigued, when having a look at Laurea’s own website design as a prospective student’s point of view. This is after all something, that we all have done at some point, I assume, when trying to figure out where to study. It was clear that there are some wonderful aspects but also many things to develop to make it more user-friendly. This is our task in the SSM project as well; trying to figure out, how they could improve their online looks with some gentle face-lifting. Having suitable versions to all three; tablet, mobile and computer are the things our team has been around for as well. Responsive design does play an important role on what image the peculiar company wants to have within’ users. According to Mr. Afreh, this is not even difficult to re-make, just use building blocks to maintain the same idea throughout and test your design widely. There was great slide “Heuristics For User Interface Design: Jakob Nielsen” that I would like to share with you, with some valuable tips for designers of all kind. Jakob Nielsen is a Danish consult, who has written an exciting book called “Designing Web Usability”, which I highly recommend to read.

It is important to understand, who are your users and why do they visit your webpage. This way you can understand your individual customer needs. Mr. Afreh guided us to use only one column layout and avoid multiple same features, when designing new pages. In addition to that, simplified form fields make the page much more visually attractive. Last but not least we learned about SEO & Website accessibility in general and he asked us to take a look at the competitive websites and pick clues from those. For example, the Posti webpage layout differs quite a bit from SSM’s one and Laurea’s webpage is different from Haaga-Helia’s competitive one. I must say, one of the best university websites is maintained in Helsinki University. Very simple and easy access to whatever you’re searching for. This lecture’s objectives were to be able to define market, users and individual users of the webpage, create stories/cases (SSM has great potentiality to spread this even wider), apply design principles and after all, design a responsive webpage. Our team had some great ideas for SSM to use on their websites and social media altogether.

Jari Laine

From Aalto University, the next speaker talked about digitalization and IOT. Mr. Laine’s presentation was visual and very humorous, I found it very amusing. His presentation was divided into four sections; consumer behavior, competitive innovations, cost reduction and technologies available.

Consumer behavior

First Mr. Laine asked us to define digitalization in our heads and said that Facebook is out. I would a bit disagree, for this module is mostly based on Facebook and all my future events is to be searched there the most convenient way for me. All of my news medias are right there all in one place and my relatives & friends around the world easy to reach. It is very much true though that the digital natives play with different rules and consumers are used to digital services. E-shopping is more and more common and despite the easiness (laziness), I still fancy the old-fashioned way. It is a really good question; What might be the future of eServices?

Digital natives are already hyper-connected and today’s omni-channel thinking will impact other industries, which is seen in consumer touch-points. “Steve Jobs killed Nokia”, stated Mr.Laine and somehow I agree with that. It’s quite a bit ironic that Mr.Jobs is no longer with us and Nokia making a bouncing comeback with their 3310 version of the old school Nokia. Consumers can also be lured by not to making any changes at all, which was the case in Burberry’s tactics. Their label is represented, not consumed. Mr.Laine mentioned fast decision-making to be the key when purchasing online. For example, when buying online flight tickets, don’t get surprised if the prices bounce to skies a week after your first scroll;) There were few sources missing on his presentation of who actually count as digital natives, but he had gathered the data quickly I understood. It is tough to define who is an active user and who is still in denial. This reminds me of the complexity of experimenting new services to potential customers and Henry Ford. When creating the car, the reason he didn’t ask the customers what they wanted, was simply put in his words: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Competitive Innovation

The saying “boys want what other boys want” is probably not the best to quote in a digital business blog, but I’m going to do it anyway. There is this technology hype that everybody wants to get their foot in. Start-ups are building digital services and traditional companies are challenged the way that they are forced to enter into digitalization. This means that the leading Finnish companies are having dialogue with customers online and via eServices even more, examples worth mentioning here are Fazer and Stockmann. They both have visually and strategically improved their looks online and created positive imago even further.

Cost reduction

Transferring services from traditional to digital world will eventually cut costs and this should get noticed in the public sector, says Mr.Laine. 3D-printing has already regenerated some items for good and works an amazing example on that what is possible in the world we live in today. Hospitals and medical students, warehouses and car factories and sports facilities are benefiting from this already, to name a few. Here’s a link to see what 3D-printing can do.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/07/adidas-latest-3d-printed-shoe-puts-mass-production-within-sight/ Adidas

Technologies available

Viking Line’s Digital Customer Experience was intriguing and informative. Shops on the go are already a savior for many people in a hurry and will be more and more diverse in the future. Our idea as an eService was that there could be just one platform to fill all the papers that need a governmental approval online. This could save some time and could be something to add on the digital registration of cars by Trafi. Similarly, voice recognition will be something that will revolutionize the technology, here’s a good example of that:

http://iamili.com/ WearableTranslator

All in all, technologies that eventually lack human to human touch, will more than ever need one thing for sure. TRUST. That is the valued part that is the glue that sticks the companies and customers together. Take a look at Uber, Airbnb and Tinder applications. Having tried them all, believe me, trust is the key.

Marcin Arcisz

The last speaker came all the way from Academic Work to show us opportunities that occur in the factor, where academic studies and work placement are possible to combine. Academic Work is doing business in cooperation with Laurea UAS. We got a nice presentation of what is the home of the young professionals and which are the new ways of recruiting. Through their company representation, we watched videos from their field of business and the examples shown were Kiinteistömaailma (“Who would ever want to be in the real estate business?”) website and imago upgraded and some talk about LinkedIn marketing & advertisement. Mr.Arcisz ended the presentation with “attitude is what counts” and that’s my thoughts exactly.

Laurea students’ Well-being Event in Seutula and Kivistö district

On a Saturday the 8th of April I got an opportunity to participate in physiotherapy student Jone Vallin’s scholarly thesis event. We worked together with Vantaa area entrepreneurs and students altogether for the well-being of the locals. The idea was to get the people living in Seutula and Kivistö area to come and familiarize themselves with the local offering and that’s where Laurea students hopped in. I was in charge of the marketing and informative site of the event with Jone. I was the only business student, since 95% were future physiotherapists.

There were yoga platforms, zone therapy sessions, massages, balance training, blood pressure tests, gym membership offers and Guasha-treatments. Then there was this option to do some beauty parlor treatments and the ladies went all crazy with that. I did measure my whole body fat and muscle mass with an expensive vehicle because it was free. Don’t know if I ended up laughing after that, but it was beneficial for my training.

What I learned when I wasn’t spending time online, but instead with people of all shapes and ages? I survived a long day with plenty of cups of coffee. I learned a lot from an elderly lady of 85 years old, when I stopped and just listened. I read people’s thoughts and feelings instead of online articles. I didn’t feel stressed after physical work. I slept way better that after scrolling Facebook in the evening. Sometimes it’s best to have these kinds of days as well, just to remind yourself that although everything is available online, you can still end up lost in Vantaa, if you don’t know where the right bus platform is (because your phone died!) and you actually have to talk to people instead of using GPS and online routes. Just saying.