#basically everyone there was brand new but instead of the nice coaching everyone else got they just openly mocked what I did

[redrockbutch]

DnD players will brag openly about making life as hard as possible for the DM and then wonder why they can't get a playgroup and never ever connect the dots

[a-n-conrad]

Sparring Partners (Bucky Barnes x Reader)

[Summary: Being the newest Avenger was a little rough. You appreciated how helpful most of the other Avengers were with getting you adjusted to life in the tower. However, you got a little too friendly with your new sparring partner. (She/Her Pronouns)

Warnings: SMUT (dirty talk, vaginal sex, unprotected sex, oral sex (female and male receiving), biting, slight hair pulling), not canon compliant (I’m too stressed for real angst), “Avengers Tower” AU, swearing, fairly long

Request: From my Request Form (https://forms.gle/GRTQ1eQt8rk7jJgf6)]

It was an odd adjustment, being the newest member of the Avengers. You really couldn’t complain about living in Avengers Tower. It was a nice facility, with everything you could ever need. The training center was high-tech, the kitchen was always fully stocked, and the infirmary was nice enough that you didn’t mind having to be the group’s healer. But the other Avengers were interesting roommates to adjust to.

Everyone had their own schedule, and it took you a little while to adjust to it. It took you a couple weeks before you stopped bumping into people on their way out of the kitchen. And you eventually realized that unless you wanted to accidentally be caught up in one of Nat’s sparring matches, training in the middle of the day was basically a no go. But eventually you started to get used to it.

You had figured out that if you got up early, the only people you’d run into in the kitchen were Steve and Tony. And you could avoid having to actually talk to them right away if you made them breakfast. Steve usually appreciated something lean and healthy, though you usually added a bit of shredded cheese to the top of his scrambled eggs anyway, because he really needed to stop worrying so much. And Tony would usually be happy with some bacon and coffee. Honestly, it was just good to get him to eat something.

And then, for most of the day, you would work in the lab or the infirmary, occasionally running through a few tests with Bruce. He was one of the few Avengers who didn’t stress you out. You really couldn’t help it. You may get most of your healing ability from your powers, but you still had some medical training. And that meant that you knew full well that every member of this team was a different brand of self-destruction. So you and Bruce were working on a few projects to help the team take at least slightly better care of themselves.

And then you’d train at night. Not many people trained at night. Usually just you, though occasionally someone would wake up in the middle of the night, and need something to do. Nightmares weren’t exactly uncommon among the team. Tony would occasionally be up late, testing out some new gadget of his. Sometimes Nat would go running late at night. However, the most common late-night visitor to the training facility was Bucky Barnes.

You knew that he had some fairly bad nightmares, though he refused to talk to you about it. And you could tell that they had been getting worse lately. He was visiting a lot more often, and getting a lot more aggressive with his training. You could tell that something was wrong, but you knew that Bucky hated when you tried to counsel him. So instead, you had just been monitoring him, watching out for anything more concerning than usual.

- - - - -

“Hey, (Y/N)?” Steve asked you one morning, as he leaned against the counter, waiting for you to finish making breakfast, “Have you noticed something weird with Bucky lately?”

You raised an eyebrow at the question. You were still fairly new to the team, so it was odd for anyone to consider you an expert on any of the team members, let alone someone’s close friend, “Why do you ask? You’re his best friend, you should know if there was something odd going on.”

“Oh, well,” Steve seemed a bit sheepish, “It’s just that you’re like the resident doctor, so I was wondering if he told you anything. He’s just seemed a bit upset lately.”

“Well, first of all, Steve, you know that Bucky refuses to talk to me,” You start, beginning to move the completed food to the plates that you had set out, “And second, even if he did tell me something, you know that I couldn’t tell you about it, in good conscience.”

“So you haven’t noticed anything?” He gave you that stupid golden retriever pout as you handed him his food. You wondered if that was part of why Bucky kept him around when he was just a scrappy kid getting into fights that he couldn’t win. It was just so hard to say no to him when he made that sad, puppy-dog look.

“I mean,” You sighed, “He’s been up a lot, training in the middle of the night recently. So, I wouldn’t say I haven’t noticed anything. I’ve just been minding my own business.”

“And you should keep minding your own business,” Tony spoke up for the first time through a mouthful of bacon, “If he wanted to talk to someone about it, I’m sure he would. You don’t need to pick up on any of Capsicle’s nosiness.”

“Oh, please,” Steve scoffed, “Like you’re one to talk about getting up in everyone’s business, Tony.”

Tony flipped him off, grabbing his coffee and slinking away back to his lab. You weren’t sure if he had slept at all the night prior, but that was decaf coffee, so you were hoping that at the very least he’d sleep during the day. It was the little things that kept these heroes alive.

“Ok, anyway,” Steve drew your attention back, “What has he been doing?”

“Just training, Steve. He’s just been going off on the training dummies. It’s clear that he’s just taking something out on the dummies. He’s got it handled, Steve. He doesn’t need anyone up his ass to try and ‘fix’ him. It’s just gonna piss him off.”

Steve nodded as though he understood, though you could tell by the look in his eyes that the conversation wasn’t really over.

- - - - -

You knew something bad was about to happen when Steve walked into the infirmary, Bucky being dragged along behind him. They didn’t get hurt. And they rarely needed to stop in for check-ups. So you had a feeling that this wasn't going to end well for you.

“What can I help you two gentlemen with today?” You asked, pausing the task that you were originally working on.

“Well, I was just thinking,” Steve started, already giving you his stupid puppy-dog eyes, “You really haven’t gotten a lot of combat training...”

“No, I suppose I haven’t,” you set your face into a neutral expression, getting ready to try and turn down whatever scheme he was trying to pitch to you. You didn’t know Steve that well, but you knew that he had a bad habit of getting into everyone else’s business to try to fix everything.

“Well, I would offer to help, but I know that you prefer to train at night, and I usually train early in the morning,” he was starting to ramble like a nervous teenager, trying to get all of his reasoning before you could say no, “So I thought Bucky could help you.”

You should’ve known. He was trying to get you to help Bucky work through whatever was going on. And he was hoping that you would just go along with it. And you hated that the puppy-dog eyes were working on you again.

“Steve, I’m not going to force Bucky to train me. What do you think about that plan, Bucky?” You asked him, hoping that he would give you the excuse that you needed to say no. He just needed to say no for you, and you would both get out of this.

You saw Steve turn to face him, that look still on his face, and you knew that you were done for. You really should’ve known that Bucky couldn’t say no to Steve either, “Whatever, I suppose our healer shouldn’t get herself killed on missions. Just try to keep up.”

And with that, he turned and left. And you were left behind, not quite knowing how to react.

- - - - -

It was that night that your training started. Bucky walked into the training room about half an hour into your regular training session, giving you just enough time to warm up. The look on his face told you that he wasn’t thrilled about the idea, though you had a feeling that it was for a much different reason that you had.

“Alright, training mat. Now.” He demanded, his tone sharp and gruff. It reminded you a bit of your gym teacher in school. He had never been your biggest fan, for one reason or another.

“Don’t you need to warm up?” You asked a bit timidly, not wanting to upset him any more than he already was.

“No.”

You nodded, following him as he walked over to the area that was designed for sparring. It was padded enough that no one should get hurt in a reasonable fight. The sparring matches around here were rarely reasonable.

You situated yourself in the center of the ring, facing Bucky as he set his stance. He looked so focused, his brow set as he got himself ready. You realized that it had probably been a very long time since he had actually done any formal sparring. At least, without the intention to kill. But something about his face, set into a look that you couldn’t quite read and covered slightly by a bit of hair that was hanging in his face, made your heart skip a beat.

He was an attractive man. You knew that. You had heard from Steve almost constantly about how much of a ladies man Bucky was back in the day. But you hadn’t really gotten a good look at him. He was always looking down. And he had definitely never looked at you with this much focus in his eyes before.

“Hit me,” he commanded, though there was a hint of friendly coaching in his tone. Like he was actually looking forward to training you.

“What?”

“Throw a punch. Hit me. I need to see where you’re at before I can teach you anything.”

You throw a sloppy punch with your right hand. He blocked it without even thinking. You tried again. And then tried a kick. Tried to get a new angle. Tried to sweep his legs out. You had tried everything you could think of, everything you tried being easily blocked or dodged. You were starting to get tired out, and Bucky hadn’t even thrown a punch. You threw another punch, aiming straight for his face, only for him to grab your fist.

Before you knew it, he had pulled you into a chokehold, your back pressed firmly against his chest, and his metal arm wrapped around your neck as his other hand twisted your arm behind you. You could feel him breathing, just as steady as usually, and you had to wonder if he could feel how flustered you were as your body pressed against his. You could tell your heart was picking up, but you hoped that if he could feel it, he’d just attribute it to the training.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” He muttered, his mouth so much closer to your ear than you had expected. You could feel your cheeks heating up as his breath made your hair move just a little.

“Y-yeah,” you managed to choke out.

- - - - -

You two had been training like that for weeks, and it was starting to get to you. The close quarters, the skin to skin contact, it was going to kill you. If you wanted to know what a siren would look like to you if they existed, it would be Bucky Barnes, coated in sweat and getting ready to pin you to the training mat. And you were definitely having a hard time staying focused during your training.

It was especially late one night, you were guessing somewhere around 1:30 AM. Your training usually stopped around 12:30-1, but you were running a bit long. You had been especially distracted that night. Bucky had gotten a haircut for the first time in a long time, revealing his bright blue eyes. You could feel them on you as you trained even more than usual. You hadn’t minded his long hair, but when it was out of his face, you could see him much clearer. And that wasn’t always helpful.

There was a predatory glint to them as he got into position to spar, like a wolf stalking its prey. And as he loomed over you, pinning you to the ground after another failed attempt, you couldn’t say you minded feeling like prey.

“Alright,” Bucky groaned, his metal hand still pinning you to the floor, “What the hell is your deal tonight?”

You tried your best to hold your voice steady as he straddled your waist, his legs brushing against your own, “What do you mean?”

“Come on, (Y/n). You’ve been improving a ton lately, I know you can do better than this. So what’s got you all distracted?”

His face was so close to yours. His metal hand was holding both of your arms above your head, and his other was positioned right next to your chest. You could feel his body heat against you, and you were sure that he could feel your face heating up. There was no way he couldn’t figure it out by looking at you at this point. You were trembling, your eyes dilated as they locked onto his eyes. You looked like an absolute mess.

You could tell that he saw it too as his eyes scanned your body. You felt as though time slowed down as you watched his expression change. He raised an eyebrow, making you squirm a bit. Soon enough, though, a smirk spread across his face that reminded you of the stories that Steve told of Bucky from before the war, though the wolf-like glint never left his eyes.

“I see…” He drew out. You didn’t know if it was on purpose, but you saw his tongue dart out and flicker across his lips for just a moment. He leaned down a bit more until his face was next to your own, his lips nearly brushing your ear, “You know, Doll, if you wanted to do something else, you could’ve just asked.”

You swallowed deeply as you felt his warm breath brush against your ear. It sent a shock down your spine. You went to say something, only for the words to get jumbled in your mouth. You felt like a babbling idiot as your breathing refused to steady enough to let you get a single word out. And you felt a cold, empty feeling creep into your chest as he pulled back, leaving you without the extra body heat.

The tension between you was palpable, and you had been awake for long enough that you were starting to lose your impulse control. As Bucky leaned back, letting your arms go and smirking in a way that told you that he was proud of himself for people able to get under your skin so effectively, you couldn’t stop yourself. Before you knew it, you had flipped him onto his back, taking his spot on top.

You had caught him off guard, and the surprised look on his face told you that. But you had to admit he looked just as good down there as he did when he was pinning you down.

“Oh, you’re feisty,” He said, shifting to make himself comfortable, “But what’s your plan, Doll? Go on?”

You knew that he was egging you on, just trying to get you to do something. And it was working. You had been holding back the entire time. And your will was wearing thin.

You pulled him up a bit by the collar of his shirt, meeting him halfway in a passionate kiss. It was sloppy, but you really weren’t going to complain. You didn’t mind the clumsiness to it, especially once he sat up the rest of the way, pulling you even closer to him. Without even realizing it, you had started to grind against him, rolling your hips without meaning to. He groaned into the kiss, his hands gripping your hips to hold you in place as he pulled away.

It was then that you realized exactly what you had been doing. Your face was flushed, your hair was a mess from him running his hand through it, and you could feel the thumb of his metal hand press into the skin of your stomach since your shirt had started to slide up. You looked utterly desperate.

“Doll, are you sure you wanna do this?” You could hear the insecurity seeping into his voice, and you felt the grip of his metal hand loosen as he went to move it away. You knew Bucky was insecure about his past, and that his metal hand was a symbol of that. But at that moment, as you felt his hard-on press against you through your pants, there was absolutely no way you could possibly understand that.

“James Buchanan Barnes, shut the hell up and fuck me,” you demanded, though you left him space to back up if he wanted to. You didn't really want to pressure him into anything, but your brain was foggy.

Luckily for you, he didn’t pull away. Instead, he flipped the two of you over again, pinning you to the mat again. He had the wolf’s glint in his eyes again, and it made you weak. And as he bit into the crook of your neck, soft enough to make sure that he didn’t hurt you, but hard enough to leave a mark, you couldn’t help but let out a moan.

“Shh, (Y/n),” He whispered in your ear, making you rub your thighs together as the frustration and desperation built up between your legs, “We don’t want to wake anyone up.”

You nodded, biting your tongue to stop yourself from making too much noise as Bucky started to slide one of his hands down your body. You could see him admiring you as he pulled your clothing away. He held so much want in his eyes that you couldn’t even imagine feeling insecure under his gaze.

“God, doll, you really are just perfect,” He muttered as he lowered himself, his face nearing your cunt as he pulled your pants and underwear away. He was looking at you like he wanted to eat you alive. And you wanted him to.

You could feel the cool air against your soaking wet pussy as he pulled you into the position he wanted. You could feel his breath and against your pussy, and that in itself was enough to make you hold back a moan. You needed him so desperately. And even as he moved to bury his face in your cunt, you could feel his eyes on you.

One of your hands moved to grip his hair as he started with a broad lick up the length of your core. The other moved to your mouth, hoping to, at the very least, suppress your whimpers. You weren’t even entirely sure what he was doing with his tongue as he went down on you. Your vision started getting soft around the edges as he swirled your clit around with his tongue. You were sure that if you weren’t covering your mouth and biting your tongue, you’d be screaming. You were surprised at how good he was at this, but you definitely weren’t going to complain.

The feeling in your lower gut began to tighten after about ten minutes, and you knew that you were getting close. Bucky could tell too, as your grip on his hair tightened, pushing his face in even more. He was enjoying watching you be so desperate for him. And as he slid his tongue into you and then across your clit one more time, he enjoyed watching you come undone even more.

It took you a few moments to recover from your high. Your chest was heaving, and your skin was glimmering with a thin layer of sweat. You looked like the most perfect mess that Bucky had even seen. He couldn’t help but sit up and admire you. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about you in the same way that you were thinking about him. And seeing you there, spread out completely in front of him, was what he was sure heaven would look like if he ever got to go.

After a few minutes, you had finally recovered, and you had decided that Bucky deserved a little bit of care in return. You flipped him back over, again surprising Bucky. He really did look pretty as he laid under you, and as you pulled his shirt off, you had even more to admire.

You could tell that he was a bit insecure, reaching to cover a few of the scars on his chest. But you brushed his hand away, choosing instead to distract him. You kissed slowly down his chest, choosing a few spots to nibble slightly, hoping to leave a few marks for him. As you reached the waistband of his shorts, you felt a hand on your shoulder, signaling for you to pause.

“You really don’t have to do this, (Y/n). I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything,” he said, his blue eyes soft as they looked down at you. Soft, and insecure, and sweet.

“There is nothing that I want to do more right now, but I won’t if you don’t want me to.”

He contemplated for a moment, and you waited, despite wanting so badly to keep going. Before long though, he nodded, giving you the sign to go ahead.

You freed his cock in second, moving quickly out of need. It was nice for both of you to finally have all of your clothes discarded, and he was a sight to see. Bucky Barnes was modeled like a Greek god, and you couldn’t keep your hands off of him.

You tried your best not to rush things, giving his cock a few soft pumps and kitten licks before taking it into your mouth. He was trying not to groan just as hard as you had been as you bobbed your head, sucking desperately. He was big enough that you had a hard time fitting him all the way into your mouth, so you added a hand at the bottom to pump as well.

He started to buck into your mouth as you swirl your tongue around the head of his cock. It was like a work of art to watch him writhe in pleasure as you sucked him deeper and deeper into your mouth, until you were gagging on his cock. His abs were starting to flex a bit on their own, and you could tell that he was getting close. And you pulled away.

“Fuck, that isn’t fair,” he groaned, trying his best to quiet his voice. But he couldn’t complain about the view as you pulled away, a string of saliva running from the tip of his cock to your perfect lips.

“Do something about it then,” you said, feeling bolder than you had expected yourself to be. And he took your invitation to heart.

You had been expecting it, but the feeling of his naked body looming over you, his eyes trained on you as his cock began rubbing against your entrance, was a kind of euphoria that you had never imagined. His lips were on yours in an instant, muffling your moans as he slowly pushed into you, filling you up completely. You couldn’t help yourself as you scratched down his perfect back, leaving large claw marks down the muscles of his back.

You threw your head back as he bottomed out, the tip of his cock already found the spot that made your eyes roll back into your head. It felt as though he was made for you, the way he felt so perfect inside of you.

He started to move slowly, thrusting softly as though he was scared to break you. Even then, he hit all of the right spots, but you needed more. You needed him to take you completely. And so you started to move with him, thrusting your own hips up in time with him, pulling him even deeper into you.

He buried his head in the crook of your neck, “Goddamn, doll, you feel amazing. It’s taking everything in me not to fuck you with everything I’ve got.”

“Do it. Please.”

He looked at you surprised, still not fully believing that this was real, let alone that you were here, begging him to let go and ravish you. He searched your face for any sign of doubt, and found none. You wanted him, and that made him feel more worthy of your attention than he had before.

“Bucky, please, I need you,” you whined, and he felt the walls of your cunt tighten around him. And he couldn’t control himself anymore.

His thrusts were hard enough to actually slide you forward on the mat, causing you to wrap your leg around his waist. You were starting to see stars as he continuously pounded into you, hitting the right spots every single time. You couldn’t keep quiet, fucking him was better than anything you had imagined. And so he moved a hand over your mouth to help keep you quiet.

The two of you were a sweaty mess, completely focused on each other’s bodies. You couldn’t think of a single thing besides Bucky. Bucky and his perfect body, and his cock so deep inside of you that you forgot what it felt like to not have him pounding into you. The rest of the world was more than irrelevant, it was forgotten entirely.

“Fuck, babe, I’m so close,” He groaned into your ear, making your eyes roll back into your head again. You were close too. And as his cock hit deep inside of you again, you felt the coil in your stomach snap.

The walls of your pussy fluttered and flexed around his cock as you came undone again. Velvety, warm, and wet, massaging his cock as you screamed into his hand. He couldn’t hold it back. He buried himself in you one last time, rougher than before even, and sprayed hot ropes of cum inside of you, filling you up even more.

You couldn’t remember your own name when he was done. The world around you felt as though it wasn’t real. Everything felt warm and fuzzy, the only cold coming in as Bucky pulled out of you, leaving you empty and exposed to the air. He collapsed onto the ground next to you, pulling you to his chest. You felt his breath heave in time with your own. It was the first time in a long time that either of you felt at peace.

“Well, doll, we really should get cleaned up and get to bed before anyone else wakes up,” Bucky sighed, his voice a bit gruff and unsteady.

You groaned softly and buried yourself into his chest.

“You can stay the rest of the night in my room if you want. But you definitely need to shower,” He added. And you reluctantly agreed.

(A/N: So, this is my first time writing smut... I honestly... got a little too into the sparring idea. Oops.)

[watermonkey0]

4th Point of Contact - Mission Report #7

Author: WaterMonkey0

Pairing: Do Kyungsoo / Harper Hasagawa (OC)

Current Chapter Rating: PG

Genre: Canon

Mission Reports: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7

I learned a lot more over the next few weeks about Kpop than I ever thought I would in my lifetime. Entertainment companies in Korea were not like the record labels back home. These agencies controlled every aspect of their brand, including: who they chose to train, what image they would portray, when they would begin their career, what type of music they would produce, everything.

Idols start their journeys off as ‘trainees’, having signed a contract with their company, but not ready to ‘debut’, meaning: start performing and stuff. They work daily with the choreographers, vocal coaches, linguists, and managers employed by their company until it’s decided that they are prepared. These baby idols live where I live, in the trainee dorm, either thriving or not in this highly competitive world. And when I say highly competitive, I mean highly competitive. Hell week in boot camp was bad, but at least I didn’t have to sing in perfect pitch while someone bounced a basketball on my stomach.

Tala also taught me that entertainment agencies trade trainees like Pokémon cards, and that’s how she ended up at SM.

~~~

Then of course, there were the boys. EXO came down to the lot nearly everyday, and Bacon made it a point to give me a high five. He always made the effort to speak to me, whether we were passing in the hall, the elevator, or when they were coming to pick up a van. It was sweet, even though I knew ‘hello’ was probably the extent of his english. And here I was, having downloaded three language apps, forced Tala to implement a Korean word of the day, and nearly drowned myself in Kpop...and the only word I knew was ‘yeoboseyo’. We were two peas in a pod, Bacon and I.

June came and went in a whirl of glitter, parking passes, and being constantly yelled at in Korean. By July 1st, I was ready to pull my hair out, but the look of smug victory I imagined on Chief Soo’s face kept me motivated. He wasn’t going to win, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to lose. I counted our interactions as battles in a thirteen year long war: the spark set off in his office where I took the lead, but he pushed back swiftly with carpool duty. So far, we were 1-1 and stalled, until July 4th when I couldn’t contain my desire for tacos any longer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, did you know that the largest military base outside of the United States is located 60 miles south of Seoul? Camp Humphreys is an army base, sprawling 1,200 acres, and only has plans to grow in the future. Men I served with in Japan would boast about the accommodations, how nice they were, how new. I would swiftly drop kick them over hacksaw ridge, but that’s beside the point. On this Independence Day, when I’d sold my soul to a Korean ‘Agma’ and all I wanted was a little taste of home, I sucked it up.

I didn't want to go to Humphreys, but I knew very little about the installations in the area and frankly...no one would look at me twice on a base that size. So I caught a bus south from Seoul, and dozed against the window. I wasn't the only one on the bus going to the camp so it was easy to go unnoticed in a line on new recruits. Thankfully, no one bothered to ask where my luggage was for someone fresh from america, and they glossed right over my rank. The unintentional disrespect pricked at the back of my neck, but I said nothing. I outranked everyone here, or at least...I used to. Your status follows you even into retirement, but what would be the benefit of making a spectacle of myself here? I'd announce, be saluted, go about my day, and then someone would inevitably ask where I'd been, why I didn't reelist like I said I would, why the legendary 'Baroness' was groveling for scraps in Korea, and those were questions I was nowhere near able to answer without resorting to violence first. So I stayed quiet, and allowed the guardsmen to lead the group of privates in. The commissary was brand new, which was nice, and it came fully equipped with the military comfort basics: Burger King, Popeyes, Starbucks, and Pizza Hut. Not to mention the fancy schmancy BX, where Samsung was doing well for business. I swear they sold bigger TVs here than back home. But the auxiliaries were hosting a special cook out for the holiday, and that's what I came for. I doubt anyone got off work, but they got hot dogs, so where was the issue? Thankfully, as I slipped into the serving line, I was correct about being anonymous. The biggest base in the world was used to constantly new faces, and the ladies who ladled my plate full of potato salad and baked beans smiled at me warmly. 'Thank you for your service' they said, and my stomach twisted into a knot. I claimed a small table with only one chair so no one friendly could try and join me, and chowed down to my heart's content. It's true that fast food can kill you, but I don't think anything could give you a sweeter death. I probably looked feral, shoveling the food into my face, but when you live off of ramen for a month, you get a manners pass. I couldn't order in Korean, so how was I supposed to go to a restaurant? It wasn't like anyone was itching to take me out to eat. Moody Kyungsoo barely looked at me, even when Bacon dragged them over, Chief Soo was busy trying to fire me, and CEO Kim wasn't exactly the 'take-you-out-for-Korean-BBQ' type of man. I supposed I could have asked Tala, but I bothered her enough as it was. I was just starting to feel comfortable again when my phone rang. With a groan, I licked hot sauce off my fingers and answered without looking. “Ms. Hasagawa.” The falsely chipper voice of CEO Kim made me shudder. “Yes, sir?” I replied, not even trying to pretend I knew how to say that in Korean. “After looking at the numbers, I would like to congratulate you on your success in our Vehicle Organization Unit.” “You mean the parking lot?” I snorted. “You have turned it into one of our most productive areas.” “Well look at me…” It was like, no matter what I meant to say, sarcasm just fell out of my mouth. “Your performance has been noted by your supervisor as well.” He added, and I paused at that. “You mean Chief Soo?” “Yes.” “I highly doubt he has anything nice to say on my behalf.” I grumbled, annoyed that I’d gone a solid fifteen minutes without thinking about my terrible boss only for him to be brought back up again. “Luckily I have him right here.” There was the district sound of the phone being switched to speaker, and I could feel the uncomfortable silence between an employee who didn’t want to say something and a boss who was making him. “Hasagawa.” He pretty much barked, and I had to pull the phone away from my ear for a second. “What?” I grunted, eyeing my burger that was getting colder by the minute. “Tell her about the trip, Laon.” I heard CEO Kim in the background dictating. “As you know, SM encouraged unity and happiness in its employees, and strives to make the workplace a desirable and productive place to work.” “Ahuh?” I slurred. “And every year, SM encourages its employees to attend their yearly team building retreat, this year held on Jeju island.” “Ahuh?” “And this year, your presence is requested.” His words were clipped short. “Ahuh…” “What else do you have to tell her, Laon?” CEO Kim asked, and I knew exactly what kind of face he was making behind Chief Soo’s back. “And…you’re being promoted.” I heard the sound of a whiny child in his voice, and I could have laughed. “Ahuh.” I said instead. “Will you stop your idiotic gawking and speak!” Chief Soo snapped. “Laon…” CEO Kim warned pleasantly. I could get used to having him around if he was able to keep Chief Soo on a leash like this. After the sound of an angry throat being cleared, Chief Soo gave me my second victory. “Harper Hasagawa, you are now assigned to the security detail of EXO. You will attend the retreat with them, and participate with the other officers.” “What happened to me being a stubborn, stupid American?” I chided with a grin. There was another pause, and I could tell he was working up to it, the words nauseating him. But CEO Kim was staring, so there was no way he couldn’t.

“I misspoke. I apologize.”

~

The SMTown retreat was all anyone was talking about once I made it back to Seoul. Tala nearly tackled me in the hallway outside my room. "Did you hear?!" She exclaimed as I pushed my door open. "Hear what?" I pretended, dropping my keys on the bed. She quickly slipped off her shoes while I didn't bother. That was something I was never going to get used to. It was that way in Japan as well, and Kojima never passed up an opportunity to remind me how uncivilized I was. "The retreat!" she squealed and jumped on my bed before I could sit down. She was moving too fast for my stuffed self, so I gave up and opted for the desk chair. "We're all going on the retreat!" "So?" I asked, picking up the closest book to me and staring at the page. It was a Korean-English dictionary, somewhere in the 'S'. When I didn't feed into her excitement, Tala started to pout, and crossed her arms with a huff. "You're going too." She said snobbishly. "Your name was on list with rest of security." "Probably need someone to park the cars." I snickered, and then actually did grin at myself. "Oh come on!" She cried, throwing her hands in the air. "This what you wanted! You get to work with EXO!" She grabbed for the book, but I pulled it from her reach. It was unavoidable now, and she knew she had my attention. "What are you going to do about Chief Soo?"  I would call it a moment of weakness, when I told Tala nearly everything about myself , but you can't really call it a moment when you do it over and over again. She was truly my only companion in the whole country, and I overused the ear she offered. So I mumbled and grumbled, tossing the prop book aside. What was I going to do about Chief Soo? I was up by one, but knowing him, this retreat that was not his idea was going to be the perfect place for him to get back on top. "What even is this trip?" I asked, and Tala smirked, knowing she'd hooked me. She liked being my source of information. "It's a workshop for employees. Trainees work on debut, idols work on comebacks, and security..." She wagged her eyebrows at me, "work on teamwork." "You're kidding me." I deadpanned, not interested in the slightest. "No! There's a competition every year to see who's the best!" Her face lit up suddenly, and she jumped off the bed and grabbed my arm. "You need to win it! Then Chief Soo can't touch you!" The taste of victory brought with it a little melancholy. If I won this competition, my war with Chief Soo would be all but over. He couldn't fire me if I had the backing of the company. Then again...how were the rest of the guards going to feel if I swooped in and destroyed them? Been there, done that. I shook Tala off my arm, but nodded to her. "When do we leave?" The company hadn't given me a whole lot of notice. It was tuesday and we were set to leave next monday. I had less than a week to get back into the kind of shape that would win me the contest. And then there was the fact that I didn't know what kind of contest it was. If it was a kimchi eating contest, I was out of luck. And they didn't use firearms in this country, so I was up a creek there too. My hand to hand was decent, but I feel like the guards at LAX were more surprised than outmanned. Not to sell myself short or anything. This was the land of Taekwondo, after all. Is that racist? I turned the parking lot into a workout center by doing pull ups on the doorframe of the shack, chair dips on the bumper of the vans, and making the managers park in a relay that I could run when no one was looking. It felt good stretching my legs again, oddly satisfying even. The day after the rescue, I felt every single punch and kick in my bones; I was sore for days. But exercising now, I could get back to that dreaded six minute mile Kojima had teased me about. The trainee dorms were buzzing come monday. Boys and girls last minute packing, darting from room to room, borrowing clothes, making promises to bunk together. It felt like I was going off to summer camp with a gaggle of my closest strangers. Over the last month, and no doubt due to Tala's nagging, the rest of the kids had warmed up to me. To my surprise, only one of them had been lying about being able to speak English. The rest truly struggled with the language, and I won them over by helping them with their studies. SM was outdoing itself this year, or so I was told. In addition to the groups like NCT, EXO, SNSD, Red Velvet, and more, CEO Kim also wanted to take actors, models, MCs, and others from his sub-labels SM C&C and Mystic Entertainment. The company would be taking almost 900 employees to this resort on Jeju Island, and I was already feeling cramped as we staged to leave for the airport. The flight to the island was a whopping hour and fifteen minutes, and from there, they would cart us to the resort by bus, another thirty minutes. A small part of my hoped that Tala would just adopt me without asking, and I wouldn't have to awkwardly follow along behind the cliques of girls and glitter... but it didn't happen. She disappeared with some of the girls from a group called Red Velvet and I was left with my stupid ruck, standing by the bus, hoping someone would come save me. 

~

The resort was stunning. Halfway between the beach and nothing, uniquely modern houses sat clustered around long day pools. Each house had many rooms, and their own porches that sported a hot tub for each. A volleyball court could be seen a hundred yards away where the water lapped at the sand, bordered by coconut trees and palm branches. It was the epitome of island life. At the far end of the resort, a large recreational building had been prepped to house a thousand dancing teenagers. "Harper came!" Baekhyun grinned from ear to ear as EXO unloaded from their bus. "Since when are you calling girls by their first names?" Junmyeon chided from behind him. "Since she told me to! I'm gonna go say hi!" And before anyone could stop him, the leader of the beagle line was off and all smiles. Kyungsoo watched forlornly as Harper's face, which had been a mask of boredom, blossomed into relief when Baek romped up to her. Kyungsoo had to admit that his brother had that effect on people, but he thought it would be really great if Baek didn't use it on her. A month had gone by, and she was still here. All the bets that had been made in regard to her stay were past paid. No one put money on the fact that she would stay longer than a month, let alone a week as a glorified valet. Junmyeon, not in so many words, had told everyone else about the war Chief Soo declared on her, and Kyungsoo couldn't fathom the depths of her hardheadedness if the only reason she was staying was to win. So he did his best to ignore her, and tried not to be associated with her. See, at SM there were no secrets. Everyone knew everything. But it was how each person used the information that differed. People knew she and Kyungsoo has history, but up until now, no one had decided to use that against him. It was just how the game was played here. He hated it, but there was nothing he could do but play.

Baekhyun grabbed Harper's hand and pulled her over to EXO. "Guys! Harper is going to eat lunch with us!" He declared, and Kyungsoo wondered how they communicated enough for him to even ask. She seemed to concentrate on the words that were being tossed around as the rest of the boys commented on one thing or another about the resort. It was a test really, to see how much she'd learned. After a moment, all eyes went to her and she visibly gulped. As smug as he wanted to be in that moment, when her eyes met his, he felt like he should throw her a bone. "B-Beautiful." She stumbled over the pronunciation, but the outcome was clear: she passed. At least she knew what they were talking about. Suho seemed much more proud than he should of as he patted her on the shoulder and gestured towards the rec building. A sign of good faith that he wouldn't lead her straight into the ocean. "How long are you gonna act like this?" Kyungsoo turned to Jongin, who was looking at him intently. The other guys started towards the cafeteria with Harper safely at their center. "Act like what?" Kyungsoo said defensively, hanging back from the group. "Like she's the worst thing in the world." Jongin watched as the other members took turns saying something to Harper and giggling when she barely understood. "I'm not." Kyungsoo snapped and readjusted his bag on his shoulder, unhappily defensive. "You refuse to breathe the same air as her most of the time." Jongin pointed out, and started behind the boys. Kyungsoo bit his lip, hating that his position on the matter was pitting him against his brothers. He hurried to Jongin's side and hissed into his ear, "She reckless." Hoping maybe he would sympathize. "And?" Jongin asked instead, and Kyungsoo sighed. He really was alone with the voice of reason. "She should have left when she had the chance." He grunted. But Jongin had the false sense of optimism that most maknae had. "You know...I kind of admire her courage." He commented, not leaving Kyungsoo for his objections. "It's not courage, it's stupidity." D.O. murmured, but Jongin grinned at him. "I don't know...standing up for what you believe in, keeping your word, staying reliable...those seem like pretty respectable traits, don't you think?" Kyungsoo grabbed Jongin's wrist and stopped him. With a little more space between them and those who could overhead, Kyungsoo asked, "What are you getting at?" Jongin wasn't usually one for confrontation, but from the outside, Kyungsoo knew he was being the aggressive one. "I'm just saying," He shrugged, letting Kyungsoo keep his hand, "she's not going anywhere. The least you could do is make peace." Kyungsoo let him go, and Jongin patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Besides hyung, Baekhyun likes her." And with that, he joined the group as they entered the rec center. ~ CEO Kim proudly stood before his empire, the massive crowd of celebrities he'd assembled that all carried his name. They were the biggest company in Korea, the one everyone wanted to be a part of, and he was the head of it all. The cafeteria was as big as a basketball court, with round tables that could seat whole groups (maybe not NCT). Everyone watched as he stood at the head of the room and addressed them. He welcomed them to the SMTown Retreat, and gave them all the basic information they would need. The managers were handling most everything. In fact, CEO Kim wasn't even staying. He'd flown in solely to give this speech, and to make sure his head of security had fallen in line. It may have been an oversight on his part, although he would never admit it, that he didn't realize sooner Harper hadn't been put into the correct rotation. But he wasn't there to cater to the whims of one american, even if he put her there especially. Besides, the situation had been rectified, and he had no doubt that she would be able to withstand whatever backlash Laon had planned for her.

~

Kyungsoo watched Baekhyun lead Harper through the line, pointing out what things were, talking like a motorboat in Korean, there was no way she could keep up. Deep down, he knew Jongin was right, that he should suck it up and keep the peace. She'd saved their lives after all. He shouldn't forget that. But it wasn't enough to make him get up and go translate for them. Baek could make a fool of himself if he wanted. It wasn't too much for Harper to slap him upside the head like she had in LA. When Baek finally lead her back to their table, Kyungsoo caught her shooting glances in his direction, like she was waiting for him to object to her sitting with them. If he was anything, he was competitive, and maybe that would be the best way they could survive this. So when she looked to him, he pulled the chair out for her to sit. Daring her to sit. Everyone else might have missed it, but a small smirk told him she saw his play, and she sat down. No one said anything for a moment. That's not true, Baekhyun never stopped talking, but they were all skilled at tuning him out. Harper kept her eyes locked on Kyungsoo's, playing chicken to see who would look away first. "Ooooh Harper, I know he's pretty but you really shouldn't stare!" Baekhyun cried, and she cracked a smile. Kyungsoo looked away, and she won. Both the staring contest, and his compromise. They'd find a way to live with each other. It wasn't like they had much choice. The rest of the boys joined in the teasing, and pretty soon, it was comfortable. They ate their lunch and talked about the sessions they had planned for the afternoon. There was no time to stop and sight see. It was straight to the grind day one. They could see the beach later.

[feetglider2-blog]

Ask Sam Mailbag: 11.09.18

Your Pelicans game report certainly sums up your positive view of Carter. I'm happy to enthusiastically agree. It's still very early but he probably would go several slots higher in a redraft and, as you noted, could even be in the rookie of the year conversation. It will be interesting to see how the bigs play together when Laurie and Bobbie return and how Dunn adjusts and hopefully evolves.

John Petersen

Sam: If it's about rebuilding/retooling/resetting then it's about incremental steps. It's not supposed to take as long as baseball because there basically is no NBA minor leagues for the best players, but it does take awhile because the top draft picks are so young. That's really what's most impressive about Carter, that all those cliches about the game going too fast and the rookie wall and rookie mistakes don't seem to apply. He's probably already the best on the team at playing fundamental position defense. Which also makes my point that with defense it usually is either you are or you aren't. You rarely become that. Though the GM survey named Carter for maybe best in five years, he doesn't have the athletic talent of some of the top players, like DeAndre Ayton, of course. The Al Horford comparison still continues, and Carter could be picked last when they pick the All-Star teams in three years. Which would be good because he'd be an All-Star. The Bulls would be fine with last pick. If the Bulls, indeed, got the next Al Horford it's been a coup.

I was wondering why Robin has been so left out. There is no way anyone has played so strongly that you couldn't give this guy a reason to take a shower. He is good for at least a couple of minutes. Will we continue to play roulette until Dunn gets back. It seems to me that though he has the least "talent/size", Arch is the best point we have to run Fred's system. The worst thing he does is hesitate when he has his shot, don't you think that will come with the more time he gets?

Tom Offa

Sam: I would not be surprised as you saw in the second half of the New Orleans game to see both Lopez and Arcidiacono playing more. Hoiberg has stated it remains about competition, so it wouldn't be surprising or unreasonable. You're upset? Play better. It's a more difficult scenario with Lopez. He's obviously not a part of the future team, and Felicio, like him or not, has two more years after this. So play Lopez to steal a game of two? Or try to force feed Felicio the playing time even if he doesn't produce so perhaps you get something out of him and develop him because he will be here a few more years? The latter from afar makes sense, though I do understand the immediate frustration when Lopez helps you more winning today's game. Tough choice for the coach. Much easier second guess.

Why does Hoiberg keep starting Cameron Payne when we all know if he really isn't a point guard? It's very clear that Ryan Arcidiacono is not only a better at running a team but a natural PG. 

Tom Choi

Sam: Part is you have to play someone through their highs and lows and for some sustained period to learn whether they fit and who they are. There's an expiration date on that; we just don't know it. We are starting to see Arcidiacono more, and who would have imagined that a year ago? And clamoring for him. Arcidiacono, though, strikes me as one of those coach favorite types who loves to please, like Doug McDermott. They actually listen to what the coach says and try to do exactly that. Spoiler alert: Very few NBA players are like that. But that's how you generally become an NBA player. With your imagination and lack of fear in trying something different or taking a chance.

Arcidiacono has started to take his shot a bit more. He is a committed defender, a really hard worker without telling you about it—coaches said at Windy City last year he was in the gym day and night every day—and good running a team. Speed limits him, which is why he didn't make the draft cut. But he actually worries about setting up teammates, moving and passing, which is not a general concern with the lineups the Bulls have had to play lately. Sometimes it's OK, like with Blakeney. He's in there to shoot. If he's missing, he comes out. It's OK. Though I do expect to see Shaquille Harrison some as with the additions of Harrison and Tyler Ulis it seems apparent that the backup point guard position remains a chorus line type audition. Lots of high kickers coming through. Just waiting for someone to distinguish himself.

Left from the class of '01:Parker, Pau, Zbo and Tyson. I was never the biggest Chandler fan given I was a kid when he was drafted and I was so excited for him to become the next KG based on all the hype during that draft and offseason. Given his rough go in Chicago due to his young age and the bad roster he carved out one hell of a career. A key factor in an unlikely Championship team in 2011 to a defensive player of the year award. Happy for the guy. But what's going on there? Is LeBron gunning for Luke Walton?

Mike Sutera

Sam: So, Jerry Krause was sort of correct. But patience wears thin, and Krause was on his last chance then after blowing up his Elton Brand draft. Tyson was advertised as the next KG with Eddy Curry the next Shaq, which was good for the justification of trading 20/10 Brand, but not so good for their development. And then Tim Floyd looked at them and said, "I have to win games now to get an extension." And so, boom! Then once Scott Skiles came in with his lack of general patience, which he was hired for, Tyson had no chance. It really wasn't until his sixth year and then playing with a Hall of Fame point guard in Chris Paul that he had a chance to become who he really was. Which wasn't Garnett because he really had little offensive game and was more Cliff Ray or Marvin Webster. Ben Wallace? The Lakers are his seventh different team with a couple of stops in Dallas. He made an Olympic team, he made an All-Star team, he has a championship ring. It's a heck of an NBA career. He also happens to be a terrific person, family and community minded, open and welcoming to fans, media and teammates. And how nice for him to finish his career back home in Los Angeles.

The Bulls were in too much of a hurry then to wait, and that was understandable with those disastrous post-championship seasons. Tyson was great, but a great role player. When he finally got cast in the correct part, he was able to excel. Often that takes longer than teams would like. Oh, yeah the Lakers. Don't blame LeBron this time. It looks like he picked his final destination and has plenty going and understands his legacy is way beyond the next Finals. This is all Magic, though general managers meet with their coaches a lot. Magic is impatient, as many former players-as-GMs are, and he was as a player. Remember, he asked for a trade in his third season because he didn't like coach Paul Westhead's offense. Westhead, of course, was fired (sadly for the Bulls to become their coach) and broadcaster Pat Riley became the Lakers coach. See Jimmy, it's not new. Magic wasn't too popular for awhile afterward and was well down in the All-Star voting that season even though he was the West's best guard. Magic recovered. Though when he left playing after his HIV diagnosis and returned eventually to coach he gave that up pretty quickly, also. Magic's got a lot going on in his life. Now, Magic's on the hook for the Lakers future. He got LeBron, which was huge, but he messed up by letting Paul George go to Oklahoma City. He could have made the trade with Indiana, but chose to save young players and wait. Oops. Now we'll see if Toronto can persuade Kawhi Leonard as well. So Magic needs to land someone really good to join LeBron. Is Jimmy Butler enough? He may have to be. So Magic likely is a little anxious about presenting a better product for recruitment. Remember, he said if he didn't get it to work quickly he'd leave. Luke's on Magic time now.

I think Hutchison is developing nicely. He really moves well on the dribble, snaking his way to the rim. And he defends. Best snapshot the other night was him ripping a board away from some Knick. He's going to be a good one – maybe our starting SF in a year or two. And I would like every Bulls fan who complained about Zach LaVine's contract to take a look in the mirror. Imagine if the Bulls had agreed and let Zach go to Sacramento? How would you feel reading those box scores? You'd be screaming that the Bulls blew it again and calling for Pax's head. Instead, we have a future All-Star to build around. So before your next rant against the front office, take a step back and realize what a terrible mistake you'd have made given the chance. Zach does have the talent and the attitude to become an All-Star, or even a 'franchise player'. And I love the fact that he always mentions his own mistakes. You can tell he's focused on perfecting his game.

Art Alenik

Sam: Being a fan is a love story. It means never having to say you are sorry for some really bad criticisms. Let's not get too much into I told you so, though. But it was surprising to me how anyone was suggesting not to match. Like what else were you doing with the money? But I also understand being a fan. It's often looking for the next thing, which is why free agency speculation often is more interesting to many than the actual season. And draft speculation gets even more attention. Now I'm getting mail about trading just about everyone to Atlanta, Phoenix and Cleveland for the hope of drafting someone from Duke not named Krzyzewski. Though this season the NBA begins flattening out the odds for the top draft pick with the teams with the three poorest records getting the same No. 1 odds of 14 percent (down from 25) and No. 4 12.5 percent. No. 4 today would be the Bulls with virtually the same odds as the worst three teams. So losing exceptionally isn't going to guarantee say a hill of beans or a hill in Jerusalem. As for Hutchison, I'm still with the it's early group since, well, it is. You can see teams playing way off Hutchison for his hesitancy to shoot. He has those long, graceful strides that are reminiscent of Scottie Pippen in the open court, and in Pippen's rookie year when he was 22 like Hutchison he didn't start a game because he couldn't outplay Brad Sellers and shot 17 percent on threes. What Hutchison really has going for him is an enthusiasm and desire to compete and improve. He seems like he'll be a keeper.

In my opinion, a good coach makes adjustments defensively and offensively within and between games to optimize the team's chance of winning. Players that don't play sufficient defense, turn the ball over repeatedly, and don't hustle or pass the ball deserve to be benched in my opinion while giving others a chance such as Shaquille Harrison. Also who coaches the defense on this team? I am not happy with the defensive coaching since Thibs left (at least he knew how to coach defense even if he was clueless about offense). 

Ashok Nagella

Sam: I would like to address the myth that Thibs was really the entire defensive line for the '85 Bears. It's not to denigrate Thibs because I still believe he is a good coach despite the mess he's helped allow to fester in Minnesota, and he was an excellent and ideal coach for the Bulls in 2010. He was the perfect guy dedicated to preparation and discipline for that team. Exactly what they needed. But remember, Thibs' Timberwolves are last in the NBA in defensive efficiency this season and were among the poorest in the league the last two seasons. Three seasons isn't a small sample. It wasn't because Thibs became a bad defensive coach. You can only coach who you have, and Thibs now has a lot of players who are young and who never were taught defensive principles, but he needed them to succeed or felt committed to them. In Chicago, Thibs had a roster filled with defensive guys and Derrick Rose. It was not unlike Larry Brown with Allen Iverson and four guys to rebound and defend, and that got a team with four starters barely ranked in the top 100 players into the Finals.

Thibs had four role type players who became all-NBA defensive players with a Defensive Player of the Year. He had Noah, Deng, Hinrich and Butler. And physical, defensive reserves like Kurt Thomas, Taj Gibson and Ronnie Brewer. Heck, you could have picked two league all-defense teams just from that roster. It's like getting the rock in the shape of The Thinker and being asked to put in the eyes. Johnny Bach was the great defensive assistant for the champion Bulls. When he was head coach of the Golden State Warriors in the 80s, they were one of the league's worst defensive teams. Because his star was Joe Barry Carroll, known as JBC whom many said meant Just Barely Cares. Then it became a small shooting team with gunners like Purvis Short and Sleepy Floyd. It was much easier to have a good defense when he coached Jordan, Pippen, Grant and Bill Cartwright.

I'll take some Jabari hate back: watching him is about as enjoyable as watching Wade in his Bulls year (that means "not enjoyable at all"), but he is giving the team offense and some rebounds when we're missing our top two PF's. He's not the problem. There, I said it. Having said that, I can't imagine Fred wanting to play him when Portis and Markannen return.

Alejandro Yegros

Sam: Ah, the rub. That scenario is setting up as one of those that you don't want to look at but won't be able to turn away from. I understood Hoiberg saying he'd play Parker at small forward because Parker seemed to be one of the team's five most talented players and we all have heard about this "positionless" NBA now where everyone can play anywhere, which isn't exactly true, though it sounds good. So, yes, what happens to that power forward when two power forwards return? I don't believe it's going to be as big an issue as it seems. I think the positionless thing the Bulls are thinking more about is four/five, that Portis more so, but Markkanen also can play some stretch center.

It actually sounds better on paper since while we weren't looking there are some really big and really good centers around, like Embiid, Jokic, Drummond. Heck, even Steven Adams, Whiteside, Kanter. So the Bulls are not going to be able to play smaller/thinner players like Portis and Markkanen at center that much. Perhaps Lopez plays more than we all thought. Maybe they need Felicio more? Though I seem to be contradicting my own argument as I go through this. John Paxson said in a radio interview when the season began that Parker's conditioning needed some conditioning, and Parker now seems to be moving better. He has a nice shooting touch and is pretty good inside, especially with mismatches. He's going to walk into scoring double figures every game. It's not something the Bulls can easily dismiss. I think the Bulls will experiment with some of those smaller lineups trying to get teams to match down to them. It seems to work for the Warriors. Size is not dead in the NBA, but skill remains transcendent. Having too many players who can produce is not one of the Bulls main problems.

Kris Dunn remains a what if. What if the Bulls brought Derrick Rose back next year? All of this is contingent on him continuing his current pace. Why you may ask? Yeah, the backcourt defense would be awful but no one is playing defense in the NBA anyway. He could potentially recruit Kevin Durant. If I remember correctly, they are friends and former summer workout partners. Older DRose probably now realizes the importance of recruiting. Plus no NBA team wins a "ship" without a two five player. It's not like to Bulls are above such a move. They brought back Scottie Pippen after torching management and he's an ambassador now. 

Jerrold Washington

Sam: True, we do forget feuds in the NBA. It is a very mature world despite the occasional evidence to the contrary. Of course, the way Derrick is going now they might not have enough money to pay him. Obviously, it's great for Rose and no matter the attitude from some here previously, it's hard to not appreciate Rose's story and comeback. Actually, Derrick was close with Westbrook and he isn't going anywhere, and I believe Durant left Oklahoma City mostly to get away from Westbrook. Plus, I think Derrick always has made it clear he'll play with anyone and it wasn't his job to decide whom. I actually prefer that quaint notion about teamwork. I agree that we don't know yet about Dunn, and hopefully he's not out too long so the Bulls can find out. But no matter what they decide, I'm sure their future at point guard relies on someone much younger than Rose. I also believe there's enough "been there, done that" for Rose regarding Chicago, New York and Cleveland. Probably Utah, also.

Even though the record doesn't show it, I actually believe the Bulls are going to be very good in the future. The thought of having a lineup of Carter Jr., Markennen, Hutchinson, Lavine, Dunn could be very good defensively in spite of Lavine. I actually think the bulls should look to trades to gain more draft assets. Parker could be a valuable piece at the trade deadline to flip for a 1st rounder. Jabari Parker+Justin Holiday to Memphis for Chandler Parsons + unprotected 2019 1st round pick Robin Lopez + Bobby Portis + Cameron Payne to Phoenix Suns for Ryan Anderson + 2019 unprotected 1st round pick.

When was the last time the bulls enticed an A+ free agent to come to Chicago. The reality is they don't, so the bulls should be looking to use their cap space to take on salaries to gain more draft capital in what could be a deep draft. The move also frees up playing time for players that will be apart of the future. I'd like to keep Portis but I'd trade in a heart beat if it meant gaining a potential lottery pick in this year's draft. 

Rocky Rosado

Sam: LaVine, Markkanen and Dunn for Duke's starting lineup? Can't we at least get Bobby back before trading him? I get the point about the concern regarding free agents. But there are a lot of big names like Kawhi, Jimmy, Durant, Klay, Cousins, Kyrie, Kemba, and there are only two teams in Los Angeles. I know the Bulls have been disappointed before, but there are possibilities. I understand about taking on the money, but I'd rather take the free agency chance. Those No. 1s in the salary dumps, when teams do that which isn't often, generally are well protected and can extend two and three years away. No one's trading you an unprotected lottery pick next draft no matter how much money you take. Denver did a salary dump last June with a protected pick. You want an unprotected pick? Throw in Carter Jr.

We have reached the blossoming of Chicago basketball. The seeds were planted via the Butler trade. Beautiful plants are growing.  Wendell Carter Jr.'s development, unmistakable glimmers of excellence from Chandler Hutchison combine with sparks from Blakeney and Arcidiacono and waiting in the wings are Dunn, Valentine, Portis and Markkannen. Throw in the star power of LaVine and voila, you can envision a future contender.  The threats to the garden are real. Injuries, lack of growth, bad trades, bad lack of trades, bad chemistry, etc. But for now, I can envision beauty. The question is how do you keep the garden growing. Too many plants can stunt growth. It is early in the season, and after we get our injured players back should we ask if Jabari Parker needs to be weeded out to allow others to grow? I want to like Parker and want him to succeed. You can see he has talent. So much young talent and what to do?   

Bruce Roberts

Sam: There will be growth in the spring, I agree. Growth has its seasons. It's now their fall and winter. Then we get spring and summer. There will be growth as long as the roots are not severed. Then all will be well in the garden. You can watch it on TV. Call it chance.

Source: https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/ask-sam-mailbag-110918

[efosa123]

Lazy Attractive Profits Review hey everyone welcome to my lacy attractive profits review I'll show you the members area I'm going to show you what the opposite of so much it would cost an top of that I've got some really cool bonuses that I think you're going to absolutely love so I'm actually going to start off with the bonuses and then I'll show you what the members area and this is gonna be a pretty short worthy because it's very easy to explain what it is so let me start off with the bonuses first of all you're going to be able to get a free copy of instabuilder which is my favorite page builder it will allow you to create squeeze pages really easily and you can actually create full-on sales pages as well if you were to buy this from their official site it would be $77 let's actually take a look at their side right now just to prove to you that I'm not making this up so if you go down here and click get instabuilder we'll see here that four seven four three sites would be $77 unlimited live since 97 developers aizen's hundred ninety seven let's say you just one on one domain $77 get that as a bonus for picking up lacy attractive profits through my link that's gonna be below here now second bonus is going to be I'll show you how I made two thousand dollars in one day you see a method anyone can do now I'm not guaranteeing you that you will make that like by no means so I say that but I'm saying that I did I did I just the other day actually made one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four dollars and I made all in all between six and ten thousand dollars for using this specific method and it really is something that everyone can do again I can take I can't guarantee that you will make those kind of numbers yourself but it's a very simple method and if you use it you had great chance of making money if you just put it that way bonus number three is going to be one week free trials the endgame which is my coaching program that I have with Trevor and you may still be able to hop on a live webinar with us and you can ask us any questions you want now bonus number four is can be licensed rights to Lindgren lacy method which will give you a hundred percent commission on everything in that product funnel except for the 1997 product you'll get 50% on that so which would be a thousand dollars ish bonus number five could be a live webinar with me well we'll chitchat I reveal some awesome stuff so I actually just had a webinar just like that a couple hours ago I was a ton of fun we talked for two half a lot of it really wants to chat shot I'm going to Vegas in a few days so we were talking about Vegas and ice cream stuff but I also did reveal some pretty cool stuff and that's what we can do as well so that's gonna be bonus number five now let's go into the actual product let's take a look at the sales pitch first and I'll explain what the actual process is about so make the buyers come to you how I make 10k plus per month with a simple strategy warning they don't want you to know this now let me be completely honest as I always have in my reviews will you be able to make 10k plus per month with this most likely not like is it possible like if you take insane massive action maybe you could I would say a more realistic amount would be probably between 500 and maybe $2,000 a month with this but I would say for most people that actually take action I would expect around 500 to maybe $1,000 but then if you're a massive action taker you can make more this is a method that it's not a brand new method to be honest it's something you might have heard of before there is a slight twist to this how Carl is actually making this happen by in short it has to do with Facebook and it has to do with making a nice-looking profile so you can set up a new Facebook profile if you want for this if you don't want you to personal one where perhaps friends and family sees you do this so let's say you make a new profile Carly's going to show you how to make it look really nice and how you can basically attract people and then once you post on your Facebook it's going to show you how to get people that are interested in what you're doing as well so once you post on your Facebook wall people will contact you because they will basically be like hey can you give me a link where I can purchase this which is pretty cool but yeah as I said if you do this like a couple times a month or so I'd say a realistic number between 500 and 1,000 dollars definitely don't expect ten thousand dollars five hundred dollars though should be very very possible so this is something you can use the new spare time is that going to take a lot of time and it's something that can pay off a few of your bills but this is not something that will allow you to quit your job it's also not something that I think that you should focus on like a hundred percent because even though this method works and it will continue to work for several years it's not something that will really like it's not paid traffic like learning Google ads for Facebook ads or YouTube ads and it's not SEO where you learn a skill like you can use a really scale things up with this is something that you were you're pretty stuck like were like how much money you can make you can obviously keep kind of implementing what Karl is teaching you to make a little bit more but generally speaking as I said five hundred thousand dollars per month that's what you make if you take action on this which is still really good because it's not going to take you a whole lot of time so let me get into the actual product though so what what are you going to learn first of all it's gonna be the big picture Karl is going to show you basically what it is like you set up an attractive character which is gonna be yourself and if for some reason you don't want to use your own face you can use whole fake persona if you want Karl doesn't recommend it I wouldn't recommend it it's way better to build up a relationship with people using your real picture and stuff and also how do I track your audience and turn them into buyers and that's pretty much all I have to say about this product how do you get the targeted traffic how to find a product to promote how to turn your leads into buyers and then some expert advice and how to sell high ticket offers how to get offers by the way it's crushing it these days and that's what I'm going to show you in in my bonus tea let's see I think it may this for how many two thousand one one day plus in one plus day sorry I I have had a few drinks today so this is going to be how I sold two products that made me over or in almost two thousand actions that I the one that I made a few days ago but the couple a couple months ago I made like two thousand one hundred dollars I think two thousand three hundred dollars in one day so this was really like two or three sales and obviously I may like Russia thousand dollars per per sale I think that's with high tech is a high ticket in sure is awesome it's something that you can make a lot of money from so that's what color is gonna show here it's well like how you can sell high ticket products through Facebook and this is something that I know for a fact works I used to talk with that girl a couple months ago who was doing a very similar method to Carly and she crushed it she made like $20,000 in a month or something using a very similar method to what college teaching in and that's how to sell high ticket offers kind of one-on-one with people not through Skype or anything like that basically just messaging them and Carly's got a script for what you can say here as well so in short that's a product that's what you're going to learn how to basically get people to your Facebook how you can then sell on Facebook and it's pre Marshalls let me show you the funnel here so first one it's going to be okay so 1295 for the front end up still number one thirty seven dollars so they're almost hundred percent done for you viral list building system okay so thirty seven dollars there is a downside on 417 just pick that one up if you wanted stairs just click no on the first one and get seventeen upsell to experts training forty seven dollars get this for $27 just click no and get down instead then UPS number three sixty seven dollars you can get that with forty seven dollars that's a hundred and commissions throughout the entire funnel if you must sell this product yourself which is pretty cool so that is actually pretty much it I'm not going to keep you any longer I think by now you already know if you want this or not I know I would say this like in short like a summary if you already have several products that you purchased over the last couple of months or so that have to do with Facebook and how to basically draw attention of people to get them to ask you for more information and stuff Dulli this product probably not could you use my bonuses learn how I made over two thousand dollars and and stuff yeah you may want to pick this up regardless I would say this as well if you're currently focusing on learning paid ads or something like this should you pick this up if you want to make a couple hundred bucks extra per month just you pay off your paid ads yes we're going to focus on an SEO when you pick this up it depends on where you're at like if you're already making sales from SEO you're racking like a freaking boss and you're getting Commission's on a daily basis maybe you'll be better off just focusing on SEO but if you could use a couple extra hundred bucks per month with very little effort to pay off some tools like 8h rafts or SEMRush or whatever yes this could be useful for you but I would say like so again just a quick summary if you're this subbu focus in something else it may not be for you but if you want to learn how to make a couple hundred bucks extra per month with fairly little work it's literally guest posting on your Facebook profile once you've gotten people to actually connect with you with Carl it's going to show you then yes this could be pretty cool especially with the bonus like you get instabuilder for free this because it's seventy seven dollars you're going to get to see how I made over two thousand dollars in a day you get one week free trial to end game you get license rights to my own product and you get a live webinar with me well we'll chitchat and I'll reveal some awesome stuff this webinar will take place like two weeks because I'm going to Vegas in one day and I'll be there for a week so webinar will probably take place around the I would guess maybe the 15th of March or so but yeah you'll be invited on you can ask me questions so we can have a good time I might have some drinks as well I did today on the webinar that was kind of fun so that's pretty much it so if you want to pick up lacy attractive profits click link in the description below get all my cool bonuses learn how you can build a following on Facebook basically and that is it thank you so much for watching my lacy attractive profits I hope you liked it I feel any questions just send me an email it's a Jonas underscore underscore Lindgren after hotmail.com you can see right here and i will get back to you so again thank you for watching have a great day it's currently 12:02 a.m. i'm off to bed but yeah i'll talk to you soon see ya thanks

[tialovestelevision]

Superstar

From wrestling to fame, but oddly the fame story is a Buffy story instead of an Angel story, which means, I hope, less grit and more silly, since the basic strengths of the two shows are that Buffy does silly better and Angel does grit better. We’ll find out, I guess. 1. Apparently we get to deal with the emotional fallout of Riley not recognizing Faith wasn’t Buffy when Tara did. Also, Adam. And Jonathan, who we last saw bringing a high-powered, scoped rifle to school to shoot himself. This sounds like a blast! 2. Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Anya are fighting vampires. They killed one, but then found four eating somebody. So they need to get help. 3. Now they’re at a mansion. The help they went to get is Jonathan. Who gets dime-store Bond music. 4. You know… if they’re going to insert Jonathan into the opening credits like he’s an essential part of the show - which absolutely makes sense given what appears to be the episode premise - they also have to credit his actor in the opening credits. It doesn’t work otherwise. 5. Anya, Buffy, Willow, Jonathan, and Xander are at Giles’s house, getting weapns and drinking milk. Jonathan is training Buffy, and out-sparring her. Jonathan is better at everything than the best cast member at that thing is, so they all kind of act as decoys and backup for him. 6. Wow, he’s patronizing Buffy and she’s taking it and this is uncomfortable. But Buffy also seems aware that this wasn’t as good as she usually is. Slayer magic resistance? 7. Jonathan just caught Spike creeping around. “Wonder Jonathan and his Fluffy Battle Kittens.” Buffy’s one-liners are terrible. Whatever has changed reality hasn’t raised Jonathan up; it’s pulled everyone else down enough to make a barely-better Jonathan suddenly the best. 8. God, Jonathan’s one-liner is also bad. Better than Buffy’s, but bad. 9. … Willow and Tara have a Jonathan shrine and holy FUCK this is creepy. 10. Riley has a Jonathan poster in his room. And… is that a framed picture of Jonathan, too? He’s no Jonathan. Riley isn’t eating Initiative food, and they haven’t been able to track Adam. Buffy doesn’t want to sit near Riley. And she can’t sink baskets. She wants Slaying to be a competitve sport, so they can have figure staking. She left. 11. Buffy is talking to Jonathan about how terribly Faith messed everything up. She also put sugar in Jonathan’s coffee for him, and Jonathan is signing autographs mid-conversation. He’s creepy, but he’s not wrong about what’s upsetting Buffy. Buffy’s not right, though, that Riley couldn’t have known. Tara knew. When Giles was transformed, Buffy knew. Jonathan has a shoe brand. 12. Colonel George Haviland is here, and has taken over the Initiative. They’re having a facility review and also chasing Adam, and have called Jonathan in as a tactical consultant. He’s way shorter than the Initiative guys. Adam doesn’t eat, and is powered by by a small nuclear reactor. He doesn’t need his head and has to be annihilated. 13. A woman is watching Jonathan’s house, but now she’s being attacked by a fuzzy naked demon that’s very gross and ot actually that fuzzy much more mangy. 14. Now Jonathan is giving Riley advice. And shooting apples off soldiers’ heads blindfolded. 15. Now there’s a swing band playing at the Bronze. Anya was calling out to Jonathan when she and Xander were having sex. Buffy thinks Anya can beat Xander in a fight. I’m with her. Now Jonathan is going to sing for Riley and Buffy. He’s… not bad. Not great, but not bad. Buffy and Riley are going to dance, apparently. Jonathan has repaired Buffy and Riley’s relationship. And now he’s playing jazz trumpet from his new album. Xander and Anya are going to have sex. Pretty sure they’ll both be moaning Jonathan’s name. 16. The girl from outside Jonathan’s house is there. Jonathan took her to his manion. Buffy’s there too. Karen’s going to tell them about the demon. It had a mark on its forehead. Riley gave Karen paper to draw it. She gave it to Jonathan, who looks momentarily horrified. He is also hiding the picture of the symbol, and is dismissing the idea of hunting the demon, which he called a monster or an animal. Buffy is suspicious. 17. Adam is at the computer lab. He’s never heard of Jonathan, and says that the pictures on the TV are lies and the world has been changed. Adam knows every molocule of himself. That’s the most interesting thing about him so far, actually. Adam says that the magic that changed the world is unstable and corrosive and will lead to chaos, and he’s interested in chaos. 18. Jonathan has a pair of attractive blonde women asking him to come to bed. But he’s too busy looking pensively at the fire instead. He has a brand of the symbol from the demon’s head branded on his back. 19. Jonathan got the Class Protector award at the Prom. Buffy and Willow and Tara were walking and talking, and Tara went home, so now Buffy’s talking with Willow. Tara’s in her dorm, and hears growling. Doors slamming. The demon is there, attacking her with its claws. She got out of its grip and is is casting a spell, but she’s wounded. She conjured fog to slow it down, and locked herself in a supply closet. Now Buffy’s at Tara’s place, and Tara’s terrified. She was in the closet all night. Describing the demon to Buffy, who recognizes it as the creature that attacked Karen. She apparently saw the symbol, and is showing it to Tara. Willow is disbelieving because Jonathan said they were safe. Does that imply Willow has less magic resistance than Buffy? 20. Buffy is at Xander’s basement to look at his collection of Jonathan stuff. Anya is reading Jonathan’s book. Buffy asks if it’s weird that Jonathan is so good at everything. Anya is trying to make Buffy feel better. Apparently, Anya once granted a wish to make a man fall in love with Bill McKinley, who I’ve been using as my example of what I expect from Presidents for a while now. Anya is describing the kinds of alternate realities magic could make, like a world without shrimp or a world with nothing but shrimp or a freaky world where Jonathan is some kind of not-perfect mouth-breather. 21. Jonathan apparently crushed the bones of the Master, blew up the Mayor, and coached the Women’s US World Cup Soccer Team. And starred in the Matrix. And graduated med school. Riley is backing Buffy up. Buffy doesn’t know what to do. Giles has a Jonathan swimsuit calendar but doesn’t want to admit it. Buffy found the mark on Jonathan’s back in the calendar, but Jonathan just arrived at the house. Whenever Jonathan fights the monster, he gets confused. But he put the mark on his back to remind himself not to underestimate the creature. Buffy basically compelled him to join her in a hunt for the monster or lose face. 22. They ran into Spike, who’s being creepy. Spike wouldn’t give info to Jonathan, but Buffy threatened to cut his supply off, so Spike’s telling them where the monster is. 23. Riley is learning about magic. Maintaining spells takes concentration, but casting them doesn’t always - Xander set his book on fire. He shouldn’t speak Latin in front of the books. Willow found the mark, though… an augmentation spell that turns the caster into some sort of paragon. It also creates a monster to balance the good the sorcerer can do once the spell’s been cast. Xander: “So he did a spell to make us think he was cool?” Giles: “Yes.” Xander: “That is so cool.” 24. Huh. There’s a notable value to this episode - it gives us a decent relative measure of the various characters’ resistance to magic. Adam has the most, followed by Buffy, then Willow and Tara. After them comes Giles and Anya and, I think, Riley, followed at the end by Xander. I wonder if that’ll shift as the show goes on? 25. Anya is worried Jonathan’s going to betray Buffy. 26. They found the monster, and it knocked Jonathan out. Willow and Anya are surprised Buffy is right. Buffy is fighting the monster, then Jonathan gets a stalactite. He knows what the monster does, but is helping Buffy fight it anyway. Apparently, if she hurts the monster, the world will start to shift, restoring her power and knowledge while stripping his. Buffy is remembering how her fighting of evil actually works as she fights the monster. It almost tossed her into the hole, but Jonathan tackled it into the hole and Buffy caught him. Now the spell is broken. 27. They’re talking about it, so they do all remember. Nobody can remember who starred in The Matrix now. Buffy saw Jonathan and went to talk to him. They had an interesting little talk, and now Buffy and Riley are kissing. Looks like episode end. Overall: Wow, do I have mixed feelings about that episode. The episode was the show taking the easy way out of a bunch of heavy emotional stuff for Buffy and Riley, and less so but still significantly among the rest of Buffy’s circle of friends. I don’t actually mind that - television is meant to be entertaining, and frankly the long, rough soul-searching that would have eaten the rest of the season to deal with the fallout of the Faith two-parter wouldn’t have been fun at all to watch. It wouldn’t have even been enjoyable melodrama - it just would have involved watching people we love sticking knives of various sizes into their own and each other’s hearts for like three episodes and nothing really being resolved when it all stopped. So this wrapped that up as nicely as it could have been, allowing the show to move on from a necessary and very good story without getting bogged down in the things that story would have done to people. On the other hand… good God was Jonathanworld creepy. It reduced the overt misogyny the story would be burdened with by having Jonathan reduce the stature of Giles and Riley and Spike nearly as much as he did Buffy’s, but having one of the very few woman-led action shows on TV get taken over by a mediocre white guy even for one episode was still a bit of a gut punch. The cast does a lot of rescuing of the premise here, with Nick Brendon and Emma Caufield bringing enormous humor to every scene they were in and Anthony Stewart Head being utterly delightful in his reaction to the question of if he had a Jonathan swimsuit calendar. I… think this one goes in the list of Good Buffy Episodes rather than Bad Buffy Episodes? But it teetered on the brink of disaster basically the whole way through.

[efosa123]

Lazy Attractive Profits Review hey everyone welcome to my lacy attractive profits review I'll show you the members area I'm going to show you what the opposite of so much it would cost an top of that I've got some really cool bonuses that I think you're going to absolutely love so I'm actually going to start off with the bonuses and then I'll show you what the members area and this is gonna be a pretty short worthy because it's very easy to explain what it is so let me start off with the bonuses first of all you're going to be able to get a free copy of instabuilder which is my favorite page builder it will allow you to create squeeze pages really easily and you can actually create full-on sales pages as well if you were to buy this from their official site it would be $77 let's actually take a look at their side right now just to prove to you that I'm not making this up so if you go down here and click get instabuilder we'll see here that four seven four three sites would be $77 unlimited live since 97 developers aizen's hundred ninety seven let's say you just one on one domain $77 get that as a bonus for picking up lacy attractive profits through my link that's gonna be below here now second bonus is going to be I'll show you how I made two thousand dollars in one day you see a method anyone can do now I'm not guaranteeing you that you will make that like by no means so I say that but I'm saying that I did I did I just the other day actually made one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four dollars and I made all in all between six and ten thousand dollars for using this specific method and it really is something that everyone can do again I can take I can't guarantee that you will make those kind of numbers yourself but it's a very simple method and if you use it you had great chance of making money if you just put it that way bonus number three is going to be one week free trials the endgame which is my coaching program that I have with Trevor and you may still be able to hop on a live webinar with us and you can ask us any questions you want now bonus number four is can be licensed rights to Lindgren lacy method which will give you a hundred percent commission on everything in that product funnel except for the 1997 product you'll get 50% on that so which would be a thousand dollars ish bonus number five could be a live webinar with me well we'll chitchat I reveal some awesome stuff so I actually just had a webinar just like that a couple hours ago I was a ton of fun we talked for two half a lot of it really wants to chat shot I'm going to Vegas in a few days so we were talking about Vegas and ice cream stuff but I also did reveal some pretty cool stuff and that's what we can do as well so that's gonna be bonus number five now let's go into the actual product let's take a look at the sales pitch first and I'll explain what the actual process is about so make the buyers come to you how I make 10k plus per month with a simple strategy warning they don't want you to know this now let me be completely honest as I always have in my reviews will you be able to make 10k plus per month with this most likely not like is it possible like if you take insane massive action maybe you could I would say a more realistic amount would be probably between 500 and maybe $2,000 a month with this but I would say for most people that actually take action I would expect around 500 to maybe $1,000 but then if you're a massive action taker you can make more this is a method that it's not a brand new method to be honest it's something you might have heard of before there is a slight twist to this how Carl is actually making this happen by in short it has to do with Facebook and it has to do with making a nice-looking profile so you can set up a new Facebook profile if you want for this if you don't want you to personal one where perhaps friends and family sees you do this so let's say you make a new profile Carly's going to show you how to make it look really nice and how you can basically attract people and then once you post on your Facebook it's going to show you how to get people that are interested in what you're doing as well so once you post on your Facebook wall people will contact you because they will basically be like hey can you give me a link where I can purchase this which is pretty cool but yeah as I said if you do this like a couple times a month or so I'd say a realistic number between 500 and 1,000 dollars definitely don't expect ten thousand dollars five hundred dollars though should be very very possible so this is something you can use the new spare time is that going to take a lot of time and it's something that can pay off a few of your bills but this is not something that will allow you to quit your job it's also not something that I think that you should focus on like a hundred percent because even though this method works and it will continue to work for several years it's not something that will really like it's not paid traffic like learning Google ads for Facebook ads or YouTube ads and it's not SEO where you learn a skill like you can use a really scale things up with this is something that you were you're pretty stuck like were like how much money you can make you can obviously keep kind of implementing what Karl is teaching you to make a little bit more but generally speaking as I said five hundred thousand dollars per month that's what you make if you take action on this which is still really good because it's not going to take you a whole lot of time so let me get into the actual product though so what what are you going to learn first of all it's gonna be the big picture Karl is going to show you basically what it is like you set up an attractive character which is gonna be yourself and if for some reason you don't want to use your own face you can use whole fake persona if you want Karl doesn't recommend it I wouldn't recommend it it's way better to build up a relationship with people using your real picture and stuff and also how do I track your audience and turn them into buyers and that's pretty much all I have to say about this product how do you get the targeted traffic how to find a product to promote how to turn your leads into buyers and then some expert advice and how to sell high ticket offers how to get offers by the way it's crushing it these days and that's what I'm going to show you in in my bonus tea let's see I think it may this for how many two thousand one one day plus in one plus day sorry I I have had a few drinks today so this is going to be how I sold two products that made me over or in almost two thousand actions that I the one that I made a few days ago but the couple a couple months ago I made like two thousand one hundred dollars I think two thousand three hundred dollars in one day so this was really like two or three sales and obviously I may like Russia thousand dollars per per sale I think that's with high tech is a high ticket in sure is awesome it's something that you can make a lot of money from so that's what color is gonna show here it's well like how you can sell high ticket products through Facebook and this is something that I know for a fact works I used to talk with that girl a couple months ago who was doing a very similar method to Carly and she crushed it she made like $20,000 in a month or something using a very similar method to what college teaching in and that's how to sell high ticket offers kind of one-on-one with people not through Skype or anything like that basically just messaging them and Carly's got a script for what you can say here as well so in short that's a product that's what you're going to learn how to basically get people to your Facebook how you can then sell on Facebook and it's pre Marshalls let me show you the funnel here so first one it's going to be okay so 1295 for the front end up still number one thirty seven dollars so they're almost hundred percent done for you viral list building system okay so thirty seven dollars there is a downside on 417 just pick that one up if you wanted stairs just click no on the first one and get seventeen upsell to experts training forty seven dollars get this for $27 just click no and get down instead then UPS number three sixty seven dollars you can get that with forty seven dollars that's a hundred and commissions throughout the entire funnel if you must sell this product yourself which is pretty cool so that is actually pretty much it I'm not going to keep you any longer I think by now you already know if you want this or not I know I would say this like in short like a summary if you already have several products that you purchased over the last couple of months or so that have to do with Facebook and how to basically draw attention of people to get them to ask you for more information and stuff Dulli this product probably not could you use my bonuses learn how I made over two thousand dollars and and stuff yeah you may want to pick this up regardless I would say this as well if you're currently focusing on learning paid ads or something like this should you pick this up if you want to make a couple hundred bucks extra per month just you pay off your paid ads yes we're going to focus on an SEO when you pick this up it depends on where you're at like if you're already making sales from SEO you're racking like a freaking boss and you're getting Commission's on a daily basis maybe you'll be better off just focusing on SEO but if you could use a couple extra hundred bucks per month with very little effort to pay off some tools like 8h rafts or SEMRush or whatever yes this could be useful for you but I would say like so again just a quick summary if you're this subbu focus in something else it may not be for you but if you want to learn how to make a couple hundred bucks extra per month with fairly little work it's literally guest posting on your Facebook profile once you've gotten people to actually connect with you with Carl it's going to show you then yes this could be pretty cool especially with the bonus like you get instabuilder for free this because it's seventy seven dollars you're going to get to see how I made over two thousand dollars in a day you get one week free trial to end game you get license rights to my own product and you get a live webinar with me well we'll chitchat and I'll reveal some awesome stuff this webinar will take place like two weeks because I'm going to Vegas in one day and I'll be there for a week so webinar will probably take place around the I would guess maybe the 15th of March or so but yeah you'll be invited on you can ask me questions so we can have a good time I might have some drinks as well I did today on the webinar that was kind of fun so that's pretty much it so if you want to pick up lacy attractive profits click link in the description below get all my cool bonuses learn how you can build a following on Facebook basically and that is it thank you so much for watching my lacy attractive profits I hope you liked it I feel any questions just send me an email it's a Jonas underscore underscore Lindgren after hotmail.com you can see right here and i will get back to you so again thank you for watching have a great day it's currently 12:02 a.m. i'm off to bed but yeah i'll talk to you soon see ya thanks