#but hopefully I will be able to return to more of our regularly scheduled programing and get some of the wonderful

[allylikethecat]

January OTP Prompts

HAPPY JANUARY 31ST!!! THIS IS IT! THE LAST PROMPT FILL! WE DID IT!! Thank you so much to everyone who followed along on this little January Prompt Fill journey with me. I started this exercise for myself, and didn't expect anyone to actually read them. I was instead only posting them on Tumblr to hold myself accountable. Instead, I was met with so much kindness and support and I am so extremely grateful. These have been hard, some days I really did not want to sit down and write 500 words, and some days I almost forgot to. BUT I somehow managed to not miss a day, and I am so proud of myself for it. Thank you for following along! I will NOT be doing this for February 😂 Please note this one is a little cheesy but what better way to end a month of prompt fills with potentially the cheesiest one yet!

31. “The safest place is in your arms”

Matty was trying to hide it, but George knew he was crying. The sound was muffled from the way Matty had his face squished against George’s chest, and could be mistaken for the whistle of his congested breath. But George knew better, a wet patch spreading across the fabric. 

He hated when Matty was sick, run down and worn thin at his fraying edges. One tug at his loose threads and he would unravel completely. But he hated when Matty cried even more, overwhelmed by illness, and the hatred of the masses. It made George’s heart ache. Matty didn’t deserve the witch hunt the mainstream media had fueled, he didn’t deserve the Twitter users calling for his blood. Even when he misspoke, George couldn’t imagine anyone deserving the level of abuse Matty found himself subjected to. 

He had been drunk, weeks ago, when the hate train started, looking so helplessly young as he stared up at George, his eyes bright and wet as he asked, “Why do they hate me so much?” George hadn’t been able to give him an answer, just pulled him to his chest, and ran his hand down Matty’s back, silently hating that he was once again, able to feel every bump of his spine.  

George knew he had seen the AI images, his already pale face growing all the paler as he locked his phone and sat down next to George. Jamie and the rest of their team was already working to get them taken down, and they had hoped that Matty wouldn’t see them. But George should have known they wouldn’t be able to hide it from Matthew Chronically Online Healy. 

“Can I have a cuddle?” He rasped, his voice rough with illness and his eyes glassy with unshed tears. He had snot matted into his sweaty curls and was objectively disgusting. But George had just opened his arms and Matty slotted into the space like he was made to fit into George’s arms. Sometimes, when George was high and feeling introspective, he wondered if he was. 

George couldn’t protect Matty, he couldn’t keep him safe, but he could hold him while he cried, while he was ill and whisper sweet nothings in his ear, trying to show him that even though he was hurting, and even though it didn’t feel like it, he was loved. 

“I’m sorry,” George said softly, “I’m so fucking sorry, that I can’t fix this, that I can’t protect you, that I can’t keep you safe.” He said, his own heart breaking at the words. 

Matty stilled, and George froze as well, leaning back, to try and get a look at Matty’s face, concern pulsing through his veins as Matty held his breath before exhaling slowly, looking up at George. His nose was red, his face swollen and puffy from his infected sinuses, his eyes bloodshot from crying. 

“Don’t apologize,” said Matty, his voice hoarse but still strong and full of conviction. “The safest place is in your arms,” he paused, “nothing can hurt me here.”

Day: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

[cozage]

Hey folks-

Im sure a few of you have probably noticed that all I’m posting right now is Daughter’s Return updates. And maybe you’ve even wondered why (if not, you can keep scrolling! Just gonna be a long winded explanation)

Im still going to be working on requests, just not right now. My life is super busy at the moment and for the next few weeks. I’m working a full time job, transitioning into a new (very demanding) job, and taking college classes online.

I bit off a little more than I could chew in life, so right now writing has to take a back seat, even if it is just about the only thing I want to be doing.

I have two-three more chapters of The Daughters Return already written and in various stages of editing. So when I get a few moments to decompress and write, that’s my easiest thing to work on, since the writing portion is already done. This is why it’s been getting so many updates (and will continue to get some even though I’m not writing anything else rn)

I will be writing other stuff! Very soon! Hopefully once I get out of my transition period for jobs, I’ll be able to really write again and give you guys some good content with other characters besides Ace.

It kinda sucks. I know. It sucks for me too. I want to write new stuff, but usually by the time I’m done with my daily obligations, my brain is totally fried. I’ll be back with new fun writings soon. I hope you’ll stick with me in the meantime, and check out my weekly updates of The Daughter’s Return if you’re interested, at least until we get back to our regularly scheduled program.

Im so honored to have your support and love. You have no idea how much it means to me.

[morningfears]

Just Right

Rating: PG | Fluffy af!

Summary: “I found a ring today.” and “I’m not moving, your lap is too comfortable.” With tattoo artist!Ash request by Anon.

Word Count: 1.6k (kind of a drabble?)

The tattoo shop was finally closed, the door locked and the main room quiet, after a long day of clients. The shop’s staff had long disappeared, all eager to leave work behind for the night, leaving Ashton sat in his office alone. The hum of the overhead lights and the scratch of his pencil against paper filled the silence that had fallen over the shop and for the first time since unlocking the door at ten that morning, he felt like he could focus on the design he’d been working on.

It was a simple concept and should have been an even simpler design but he’d been stuck for days, unable to get it to turn out the way he’d imagined. It was as if his hands had a mind of their own and he’d grown frustrated. The trashcan beside his desk was filled with crumpled pieces of paper, each a discarded attempt at the design, and the cup full of pencils he kept on the corner of the desk was rapidly emptying but no matter how hard he worked, nothing seemed right.

It had to be perfect, he would accept no less for this particular piece, and he just couldn’t get there.

Ashton had planned on giving himself enough time to work for an hour after closing before leaving to meet you for dinner. It was written in bright green ink on his desk calendar and programmed into his phone, just so the shop assistant wouldn’t accidentally schedule a client for him, and he’d been looking forward to it all day. You’d both been exceptionally busy, new clients and projects piling up, so it was a relief that you’d finally be getting some time to yourselves. However, as the hour dwindled he lost himself in his work and seemed to be making greater progress than he had since starting nearly a week ago.

His eyes ached and his head pounded, the strain of the day settling in, but he didn’t dare slow down as he didn’t want to interrupt his progress. Instead, he focused on finally finishing. He was so wrapped up in his work that he didn’t hear the sound of his cellphone vibrating against his desk, nor did he hear the sound of the back door opening or your shoes hitting the tile floor.

You stood in the doorway of his office for a long moment, arms folded over your chest and a fond smile on your lips, to watch him work. His eyebrows furrowed and his tongue darted out to wet his lips as he shaded in the drawing. His hands were covered in graphite, stained from the work he’d done, and you smiled at the sight. Seeing him at work, watching as he drew or tattooed, was one of your favorite sights and you always considered yourself lucky to be able to witness it so regularly.

You remained unnoticed for far longer than you thought you would but the scent of Thai food finally overwhelmed Ashton enough that he lifted his head and blinked in surprise to see you standing in the doorway. He looked confused, but happy to see you, until realization hit him.

“Fuck, I missed dinner, didn’t I?” He frowned, dropping his pencil and reaching to rub his eyes before he caught sight of the mess on his hands and grimaced.

“Technically, no. I’ve got dinner right here.” You held up a plastic bag filled with your usual orders before you stepped into his office and crossed the room to place it onto his desk.

“I’m sorry, doll. I’ve been stuck on this drawing for so long and I finally got it to start looking the way I wanted.” He reached out for you and, despite the stains on his hands, you took his hand and let him pull you to stand between his legs. “Hi.”

“Hi,” you laughed, giggling as his hands found your hips. “Don’t worry about it. The restaurant was crowded, anyway. People were waiting for tables so I figured it’d be nicer to eat here where we don’t have to rush. Can I see what you’re working on?”

Ashton reached around you, quickly piling a few pieces of paper on top of the sheet he’d been drawing on, before he grinned at you. “Nope. Not yet. Don’t want you to see this one until it’s finished.” He did that, every now and then, and though you hated not being able to see the progress he made, you respected his desire to keep his work private until he was ready. So, with a pout, you nodded and reached behind you to grab the bag of food.

“Oh, alright. Well, if I can’t see your work, you can at least take a few minutes to have dinner with me.” 

Ashton laughed as he released you from his grasp and watched as you wandered around his office, grabbing the utensils you’d left stashed in a cabinet for nights like this. You often ended up here, having dinner with him at his desk after work, and though you appreciated the nights that saw you both dressed up and hitting the town, you treasured any moment you got him to yourself.

As you moved about the office, gathering utensils and two drinks from the mini fridge in the corner, Ashton watched you with a fond smile of his own. You were so good to him, even when he did something stupid like forget the dinner date you’d been planning all week, and he loved you more than he ever thought himself capable of.

Without thinking about it, he announced, “I found a ring today.”

It was no secret that Ashton was going to propose. You’d talked about marriage at length, confirmed that marriage was in the cards for you both, and knew that you were both ready. He’d been searching for a ring, one that was exactly what you wanted, and it seemed that he’d finally found one.

“I thought you spent the day at the shop,” you hummed as you returned to the desk and allowed Ashton to pull you down onto his lap.

“I left to get lunch for everyone. Found a shop I hadn’t tried before.” He took the box of noodles from you and pressed a kiss to your temple as a ‘thank you’ when he opened it to find his favorite dish inside.

“So, I should stay away from your sock drawer, then?”

“I’ll show it to you, if you want. That way I can make sure you like it before I propose,” he joked before he took a bite of noodles. 

“Mm, I think I’d prefer to be surprised. I’m sure it’s going to be perfect, you picked it out.”

“Hey, I’m the cheesy one.” He laughed, nudging your side with his elbow, before he nodded. “Thank you for the vote of confidence. I appreciate it. The boys approve.”

“I’m glad. You figure out who’s going to be the best man yet or are you just going to toss their names into a hat and leave it to chance?” You grinned at him, your question ending in a laugh as his own face fell and he released a groan.

“Can I just have three best men?”

“Your three best men are, like, most of our wedding guests, babe. Gotta make some decisions.” You reached out to pat his shoulder and he laughed as he nodded in agreement.

The pair of you had already started planning your wedding, including the guest list, and had settled on a small affair with close friends and family. You knew that he would end up choosing one of the boys sooner or later and you were in no hurry, you weren’t even officially engaged yet, so you let him remain undecided for the time being.

You moved on to a different topic, opting to catch up on what you’d missed in one another’s lives, as you finished eating. You sat comfortably on his lap, content to remain there until it was time to head home, and Ashton noticed as you both placed your empty containers onto the desk.

“I wanted to finish this up before we head home. Do you want to go ahead or wait here?”

“I’m not moving,” you mumbled, turning to place your head in the crook of his neck, “your lap is too comfortable. Can you draw with me here?”

It was, by no means, a comfortable position to draw in but it was possible. And you hadn’t had much time to just be together in recent days so Ashton nodded. “Sure, doll. Just promise you won’t look?”

He rarely made you promise not to look at his work so you nodded, content to keep your head buried against his neck where you could smell the cologne on his skin. “Promise. I’m just gonna close my eyes. If I fall asleep, just wake me up whenever you’re ready to go.”

He knew that you would be asleep in minutes, you hadn’t slept much lately, but that was alright. It’d keep you from looking and ruining the surprise. He was waiting for the right moment to propose, that much you knew, but what you didn’t know was that he was that he was working on a print for you. You were opposed to the idea of a tattoo for a significant other, you firmly believed it was bad luck, but you loved his art so he wanted to give you something special. It wouldn’t be inked onto your skin but it would be permanent enough, framed and hopefully displayed in your future home, and that was enough.

Everything finally felt just right and Ashton was proud to finally know what love really was.

____________________________________________________

Author’s Note: I love the idea that there’s complete communication about something as big as a proposal. Like, a surprise is nice, but knowing that it’s coming and being open about it is important, I think. I don’t know. Anyway, I’m. still working on drabbles, promise. I haven’t written Ash in so long, I missed my boy.

Tag List (like this post or message me if you want to be added!) : @toolazymyguy , @irwinkitten , @jamieebabiee , @glittersluke , @spicycal , @lusbaby , @everyscarisahealingplace, @brokenvirtualheartcollector , @if-it-rains-it-pours, @blisshemmings , @calumscalm , @lovemenowseemenever , @ijustreallylovezebras , @rhiannonmichelle, @p0laroidpictures , @tomscuddles , @loverofmineluke , @harrytreatspeoplewithkindnesss , @blueviiolence , @loveroflrh , @empathycth , @luckyduckydoo , @tobefalling , @bandsandbooksaremykink , @watch-how-she-burns , @megz1985, @wokeupinaustralia , @lucidlrh , @canterburyfiction , @cal-is-not-on-branding , @t-i-n-y-d-i-n-o , @jaacknaano , @findingliam-o , @mindkaleidoscope​ , @idk-who-i-am-anymore1 , @sammyrenae68 , @flowerthug , @calumsphile , @caitdaniels, @drummerboy794 , @writingfortoomanyfandoms , @x-lover-of-mine-x , @miliefayy , @sunaaii , @canterburyfiction , @sebrox40 , @nati-nn , @opheliaaurora23 , @bitterbethany , @sunnysidesblog​ , @333-xx​ , @thesubtweeter​, @zhangyixingxing1​

[the-storyteller-and-her-soldiers]

Spilled Secrets Of Sweetness

Title: Spilled Secrets Of Sweetness

Word Count: 1,150

Warnings: None!!

Ship: The Demon and the Choir Girl (Nero x myself)

Summary: When I confide my minor worries about my upcoming procedure to Nico. She then spills that I'm not the only one to get so worried!

"So, the big day's tomorrow. You excited?" The familiar southern drawl of Nicoletta Goldstein questioned when a warm touch gripped Rebecca's shoulders from behind.

Having her attention grabbed as well, the lone student paused in packing up her things to flick her darkened orbs upward in order to meet the vibrant gaze that rested behind ruby spectacles. Rebecca swept her amythest tresses out of her view to fully focus on the grinning woman who now sat beside her while a curious hum floated into the air to act as a temporary answer.

"Even though the sense of irony and deja vu grows stronger as the time comes closer, I'd say so!" Rebecca finally responded, returning the wide smile with a beaming one of her own. Seizing the chance before her stabbing nerves could pierce through her vocal chords, she continued on with the subject before the silence could let it slip away. "Hopefully THIS will be what sets my life back on track, even if the procedure itself becomes more regularly scheduled maintenance work. What I'm worried about is how long I will be laid up afterward. The doctors have said at least 2 weeks before I resume PT, not to mention that I still need to talk to the doctor about that inpatient pain program at another hospital. It's a whole ordeal."

Despite only vocalizing more uncertainties that remained swirling in her unyielding thoughts, the churning within Rebecca's stomach seemed to have slowed as Nico patted the shoulder that was closest to her.

"Yer overthinkin' too much, Hun. Just focus on tomorrow and how yer feeling when you wake up after it's said and done y'know?"

Lavender locks swayed to and fro when they were caught in the minuscule breeze of Rebecca's nod of affirmation. The smile that graced her petal-like lips seemed much gentler as the young woman thought over her curly haired friend's direct advice.

"Yeah, you're right, I know. I just need someone to pull me out of my own head sometimes."

The everlasting smile on Nico's lips further spread across her face and an unmistakable mischievous sheen reflected within her onyx gems, "Well, I'm always happy to do so! Even if we won't be able to get up to our 'usual' antics for a bit, I'm more than happy to stop by and annoy ya!"

At this, a short yet boisterous laugh filled the quiet space, before the lilac lady quickly peered around to make sure that she hadn't disturbed any other patrons. "Oh please, Ms. Awesome Artisan, if anything it would be me bugging you!! But I will miss it!"

The two shared another laugh while Nico took the small woman's compliment with full pride causing her to sit a little straighter. "Me too, be sure to keep me in the loop so we can schedule some things! Or try to schedule something at least... I do got one favor to ask though."

Taking notice of how Nico leaned in closer and how her inky depths narrowed to swallow Rebecca's sitting frame, the young woman nodded as a cue for the suddenly quiet woman to go on.

"D'ya think you can take him with you?" Nico whispered, jerking her thumb down the small set of stairs and directly at the man with messy moonlit tangles who stood at the front counter with his hands shoved in his jacket pockets as he made awkward small-talk with the librarian who was checking in the pile of books that the man's father had taken out a few weeks prior.

"Huh?" Rebecca remarked, too taken back by the sight of her boyfriend to match Nico's volume. "What'd he do??"

"It's not that he's done anything. It's what he will do! Y'see, he gets mopey when you're not around. I swear, as soon as he comes back in after a job, one of the first things out of his mouth is yer name!"

"O-oh, I hope it's nothing bad!" Rebecca interjected, feeling her pale face begin to flush a rosy hue.

"Nah, it's actually sweet seein' how sappy the tough guy gets over you. I don't know how you don't see all the good you bring out in him."

Rebecca tried to interject her flustered denial once more seeing how her fair skin was burnt scarlet, but Nico only hushed her before continuing with her explanation.

"But whenever you undergo one of your procedures, it's like yer the only thing on his mind! I get that he's protective of you and worried out of his mind probably, but he mentions you so often that yer name don't even sound like a real word! Again it is really sweet seein' that side of him if it wasn't also sickeningly brain numbing."

Imaging that she was sweetly thought of in passing was enough to leave Rebecca's cheeks stained a vibrantly red shade. But Nico was right about her conundrum being sickeningly sweet since imagining that left the flustered woman dissolving into a fizzy fit of giggles. Before she could provide an answer to the stunning spectacle of inventions, their conversation was cut off by Nero stomping up the carpeted stairs to join the pair.

"Hey, whatever embarrassing shit you're whispering, knock it off will ya? Whatever she told you Becca, I assure you it's not that bad."

Nico only rolled her eyes and leaned against the hardwood back of her chair in retaliation to the scowl etched into the hotheaded hunter's features. It took Rebecca a moment to catch her breath from the giggles, which led her to interlace her soft touch with the hardened hold of her love and press a quick kiss against the chilled sleeve of his jacket in the meantime.

"It wasn't bad, I promise sweetie! It was actually super sweet and made my day."

Nero's icy crystals expanded with mild surprise when they focused on his girlfriend's glowing form while he voiced it with a nearly silent 'Oh'. A wave of warmth flooded his tall stature soon after. Despite the sensation thoughtlessly providing ease and comfort to the restless punk, he wasn't allowed to bask in it for long without their very vocal friend made her presence known once more.

"Yeah, I gotcha covered, asshole. So why don't quit your bitchin' for once and to make up for it, take us to lunch with you buyin'?"

"What?" Nero groaned, casting the loud lady a glare as he heaved the ash colored backpack that laid on the table over his shoulder. "That is such--"

With more laughter burbling within her chest, Rebecca tried to diffuse their banter by saying that she'd happily treat the others to lunch since she had some cash saved up. Although it seemed the quarreling couple of friends could only agree on the decision that the lilac lady was the only one not to pay, much to Rebecca's resounding defeat...

[brynwrites]

What I learned while self-publishing.

@milkyteefs asked:

I'm unsure about the entire self-publishing world! Do you have a basic outline of the process? Some key highlights/headings of how you started and what connections you needed to make? Thanks again! <3

I went through the process of self-publishing Our Bloody Pearl this summer. Even with all the guides in the world it turned out to be a very grueling experience. I’ll be doing it again with Quasi Stellar soon, but I also hope to traditionally publish The Warlord Contracts trilogy.

First, let’s get this out of the way: Self published books are often very bad.

But they don’t have to be.

Self publishing requires you, the writer, to either wear the hat of everyone else at a publishing house, or be your own investor and pay for professionals to do the jobs you can’t. If you’re willing to put in that effort and money then you can come out with a more professional book than you might have had you published traditionally. If you’re not, then self publishing might not be the right road for you.

Now then, how do you self publish in a way that produces a professional book?

Fifteen Basic Steps to Self-Publishing:

1. Write and edit the book.

This is, understandably, the step that a lot of people get stuck at. Writing a novel is hard. Don’t worry about how or when you’ll publish it until it’s finished.

Just write it.

During this time you should also be marketing yourself as a writer. Learn more about that via my marketing tips tag.

2. Beta readers and critique partners.

Getting feedback from handpicked peers is essential for any book no matter which publishing route you choose. If these terms are new to you, learn more about beta readers here and critique partners here.

During your first book (or two) I recommend starting with critique partners and then moving to beta readers afterward, because critique partners will shred your novel down to the bare bones, which you usually really need the first few books you write. Critique partners will also generally pick at your grammar and typos though, which can be very useful at the end of the editing stage so that your manuscript looks cleaner to an editor (or agent, if you traditionally publish.)

3. Write your blurbs and summary.

While your story is in the hands of your final group of readers, you should already be working on blurbs and summaries. By the end of the publishing process you will need:

A back of the book blurb.

A one-two sentence logline style blurb.

A one page summary of the story.

Don’t put these off! They won’t get any easier if you wait. You can find tips on writing blurbs in this article.

4. Determine that you’re done making changes to the manuscript.

A writer who’s growing and learning will forever feel as though there’s something they can change in their manuscript, but at some point you have to decide that what’s done is done. You will always have another awesome book which will be even better than this one.

If you have trouble determining when this point should be, check out this explanation!

5. Make a publishing timetable.

Give yourself more time on your timetable than you think you need! Traditional publishing takes about two years for a reason. A lot of the steps below this point seem relatively simple compared to writing and editing a book, but they require you to learn new skills and spend a lot of time waiting for other people with busy schedules.

Five and a half: Start book two.

You might have already done this during the beta reading stage, but if not, start another book! Writers should never stop writing and editing (outside of planned vacations, emergencies, and mental health breaks, of course), so pick that pen back up and start pounding out another book.

6. Find a content editor.

If you ran a beta reading stage with 10-20 critical and knowledgeable beta readers in your target audience then congratulations, they served the purpose of a content editor already!

6. Find a copy editor.

A copy editor is the person who checks your grammar, sentence structure, flow, and word usage. I found my editor though the editorial freelance association directory. The main things to look for when choosing an editor:

Experience. This should include testimonies, information about any publishing companies they worked with, and the works they edited in the past. If you can’t easily access and double check these things, then keep looking.

Sample edits. Any editor worth your time will offer you a free sample edit. (For copy editing this is generally 750-1k words of your novel. I’m not sure about other types of editing.) Take advantage of this! Send the same sample to the top four or five editors who fit your price range and see who returns feedback that you jive with and feel comfortable paying.

What if I can’t afford a copy editor?

In general, you can probably get away without hiring a professional copy editor if you (a) find 3-4 solid critique partners who are willing to do a very detailed line edit and proofread of your final draft (do not take advantage of your fellow writers!! Offer them the same in return!!), (b) get free sample edits from a handful of freelance authors to see if they catch any major formatting issues you do regularly, and (c) learn what a style guide is and make at least a simple one for yourself while you do another round of proofreading.

Remember though, traditionally publishing exists specifically so that you, the writer, can get a professional edit without having to pay for it. If you want a professional book without putting in the investment, then querying an agent might be the better option for you.

7. Prepare to offer ARCs to reviewers and friends.

Getting reviews for your book is the most important marketing activity you can do. The sooner you contact reviewers about this, the more reviews you’ll have when the release date comes. Note that the large majority of book reviewers you contact will never respond. If you email 20 reviewers, expect to get one or two reviews out of it, most likely in 4-6 months. (Which is why you should email all your friends and past beta readers too.)

How do we maximize the number reviewers who will read our books?

You know those neat little lists of book blogs who will review indie books? Don’t use them. Anything that with nicely compiled and easy to get reviewer lists is going to be overcrowded with blogs who have two year wait-lists and 97% of them will never even email you back.

Instead, try searching for reviewers you already follow on twitter and tumblr. Look for semi-popular goodreads reviewers who put positive reviews on books similar to your own and check if they have a link to a blog, or an email for review inquiries. Find less well known booktubers that youtube links to off your favorite popular booktubers.

8. Format the book.

You can pay someone to format your novel, but its rather expensive for something that’s relatively easy to learn to do yourself using guides off the internet. Paperback and ebook formatting must be done separately, and your first time I would set aside a full Saturday to tackle each of them, just to be safe. If you have a program like scrivener, with a little tweaking you should be able to get a nice looking ebook with none of the hassle of learning html. There are many other options though. Do a little research to find the one which works for you!

(Note: If you’re printing a paperback you cannot get a paperback cover until you’ve formatted the book and know final page count for your print size!)

9. Hire a cover artist.

The book cover is the most important part of your book, so far as sales and success are concerned.

There’s a huge trend in self published books to skip this stage and work with photoshop or cavna instead. I would not recommend this. Cover artists for professional books do what they do full time. They know the market. They know what sells. So do some writers, but the truth is, many of the writers who think they can design covers, turn out the sorts of designs that are easily pegged as self-published books.

If you want a professional looking book that pops in the amazon charts, hire a professional.

There are a multitude of ways you can go about this. Some large cover art sites like damonza offer bundles which can get pricey, but let you back out with no charge if you don’t like their first drafts and include unlimited changes if you commit. There are also many freelancers who specialize in book covers, for a wide range of prices.

What if I don’t have the money to hire a cover artist?

If there is anything you don’t want to go cheep on, it’s your cover art. But let’s say you absolutely have to get a cover for cheap or free. There are people who do cover designs for $5 on Fiverr, and I think some of them actually turn out half decent covers for very specific genres, but its a gamble. A couple writeblrs do cover design as part of their day job and might be willing to do something cheep or for a trade. You could also learn how to design covers yourself, but if you want to compete with books whose designers went to school just to do what they now do full time, you’ll either have to put in a lot of time or be lucky enough to have a very good, easily executed idea for your particular novel, and hopefully not one with requires any stock photos unless you want to purchase rights to them.

Now, there are some exceptions. Some writers have a natural design brain, and some writers are in fact designers themselves. Sometimes you write a book where the perfect cover design is very simple and easy to produce yourself. But that won’t be most people, with most books.

So far I have seen exactly two of the hundreds of self publisher made covers I’ve seen have actually made me want to buy the story. I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just the truth.

10. Offer ARCs to more reviewers.

Now you have a nicely formatted book and everything! Who can resist that?

11. Do a cover reveal, and during the cover reveal, offer everyone there an ARC.

Cover reveals come in many different forms. Some writers just post the cover on their blog, some do livestreams on facebook, some do question and answer sessions leading up to the reveal, some even go all out and have other writers come talk about their books on their site for a full day prior to the cover reveal.

Do whatever works best for your schedule. The goal is to attract attention for the book, so make sure you link to anything you’ve already set up from #12, so people can easily find your book when you release it!

And, as always, give out ARCs.

12. Get your book and author profile set up on everything.

Prior to your book’s release you should have a goodreads author page, an amazon author page, and a bookbub author page, all with your book attached. You should also have a website and a mailing list (linked to via your ebook), prepared release announcements for every social media site you work off of, and be ready with attractive and easily noticeable links to the book’s sale page off your tumblr blog and website.

Keep in mind that some of these things will take a decent chunk of time to set up, and a few of them require a live human being to confirm you are who you say you are. Start them as early as possible!

13. Release the book!

Time to actually put the book out there for all to buy. You can do a similar hype release as you do with a cover reveal, if you so desire. Make sure you remember to post all your announcements and put up all your links.

Try not to check on the book’s sales until the following day! It does not help their growth or your mental health to constantly be haunting your sales charts. When you do check them, keep in mind that a book which sells two thousand copies in its entire life time has done well, all things considered.

The fantastic thing about self publishing is that you never have to stop selling your book. If you sell fifty copies your first month and then twenty the second and then five the third, you can always dive back into marketing, run a discount, apply for a bookbub ad, focus on marketing yourself as an author and gaining followers. You chose whether your book is done selling.

To offer pre-orders or not?

This is a toss up. In my experience, pre-orders aren’t a good idea for your debut self-published novel, even if you think you have a large audience who will buy them, because they take away from the sales you could have your release week, and the boost those sale give you on the amazon charts. If you do wish to offer pre-orders though, try going through ingramspark instead of amazon advantage, to save yourself tears and heartache.  

To go amazon exclusive or not?

Many authors claim that you have to try both to know what’s right for any particular book. Do your own research and decide what you think is best for you.

Thirteen and a half: Start book three.

At this point you should already have finished at least the rough draft of second novel, so don’t forget to start your third book at some point!

14. Offer people read for review copies.

Especially if your debut novel is aimed toward broke teenagers and younger adults, there will be a lot of people who are interested in the book but aren’t motivated enough to actually buy it on faith alone. By offering free ebooks on a read for review basis, you...

Grow your reviews.

Create fans out of people who may have never read the book otherwise.

Have higher paperback sales, because readers who loved the ebook you gave them may decide to buy themselves a paperback.

15, unto infinity: Keep promoting your book into the sunset, while writing new books!

The time to stop promoting you book is whenever you feel you’ve had enough sales and reached enough readers. Until you reach a point where you’ve published so many books that you can’t handle marketing them all, you should still be trying to expand your readership!

And don’t forget to have a little bit of fun along the way. You worked hard for this. Celebrate it.

But what if I just want to get a book out there?

If your goal is not to publish a professional looking book with will expand your fanbase and set you on a path to full time authorship, but rather to have a piece of your writing available in a book format your friends and family can buy, then there’s no reason not to publish exactly how you wish to.

Are all these steps really necessarily?

I believe they are, at least for a debut novel. In fact, there are probably more steps which I missed entirely. But, if you can find multiple self-published authors who went through a less rigorous publishing process and still received hundreds or goodreads reviews, then by all mean, follow that process instead (and let me know about it!)

So which book did you self publish?

This one here! You can support me and my ability to keep giving writing advice by purchasing a copy today =D

[peonyoak81]

9 Factors You Don'T Required An Individual Trainer.

Does Planet Fitness Have Personal Trainers?

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Content

Why My Individual Trainer Is Worth It.

Why Is It Vital For A Personal Trainer To Deal With Customers To Concur With Goals And Purposes?

Five Means Fitness

Exactly How To End Up Being A Fitness Tutor (2020 Update).

Choosing The Right Personal Trainer.

Style Your Own Program.

Request a trial today for our All-In-One Fitness Company Management Software Application. Occasionally referred to as 'entry level,' specific Level 2 credentials (e.g Certificate in Fitness Instructing) supply access onto the Register of Workout Professionals at Level 2 as well as can lead to tasks as Gym Instructors or Aerobics instructors. When qualified, numerous Degree 2 credentials use paths right into teaching various techniques such as studio biking, step and also circuits.

Why My Personal Trainer Is Worth It.

It indicates you appreciate your occupation, you care about your clients, and you wish to make sure you're doing a great job-- while doing the ideal thing. Today fitness professionals consistently include activity testing, movement job, as well as rehabilitative exercises as part of their workouts with customers. About 15 years earlier, Gray was just one of the very first individuals to bring motion testing, corrective workout, and vibrant wheelchair work into fitness. Fitness pros desperately want to aid customers eat, move, as well as live much better ©. As well as they wish to know if it's alright to speak about nourishment with customers.

Why Is It Vital For A Personal Trainer To Deal With Clients To Agree With Objectives And Also Goals?

They can inspire their customers to alter, rather than pushing, "convincing" or laborious themselves attempting to "motivate" people. Also better, I recommend locating a program that additionally includes training strategies and transform psychology.

They perform a service and anticipate to be paid fairly for that solution. Do not sabotage your hard work with food choices made without thought for the effect to your midsection or health objectives. Although it is very important to have some fitness goals as you deal with your trainer it is additionally vital to be adaptable as well as open to the experience your trainer has to provide. So unless you have one or both of those qualifications, don't try to use nutrition guidance to detect or cure a health issue, ease disease signs and symptoms, or respond to customers' inquiries about any of the above.

In some cases they simply want somebody to talk them through the pain, provide some valid guidance, and hopefully make a whole lot far better progress than they would certainly by themselves. Customer adherence is by far the most hard as well as aggravating component of working as a trainer.

What is the job description of a fitness trainer?

A Fitness Instructor, also known as a Personal Trainer, provides training and instruction of fitness programs to individuals and groups. The Fitness Instructor engages clients in exercise routines and weight loss programs, and helps them to reach their individual goals.

Degree 2 YMCA Honors certifications are on the exact same qualification structure level as GCSE qualities A-C or NVQ 2. If you want to keep growing and also developing a lasting career as well as training company, you need to find the best coach. Having a handle on adjustment psychology is vital to helping your customers with nourishment. What they eat is deeply ingrained, and changing what they eat can be a sluggish, hard procedure ... unless you comprehend what makes your clients "tick". But with the correct education and learning and coaching skills, you can feel great in speaking about nourishment with them.

If you don't, you could wind up mismatched with somebody that is not the very best selection. You may likewise consider asking if you can view them working with various other customers. You'll be able to see their character, design of training and just how they motivate their clients.

Some health clubs, particularly when you start a new subscription, will use you a discounted training plan or a session totally free. Talk to your fitness center supervisor to see if there are any kind of special deals like these. Not just do you need to pay for your training sessions (which makes it far more most likely you'll turn up), thinking of allowing another person down, may help you adhere to your training timetable regularly. This will certainly allow you to save some money as well as see whether or not you take pleasure in the sessions. Many times, simply lifting weights or using weight devices isn't enough.

What is a Level 3 Personal Trainer?

Level 3 Personal Trainer - This is the industry level standard qualification you'll need start working as a salaried or freelance Personal Trainer. As a qualified Personal Trainer you will be able to: Advanced, specific exercise programming; tailored for individuals and their specific needs.

And also they're allowed to make general suggestions concerning the type of food that's most likely to support their clients' objectives. Speak with the trainer concerning their openings and also availability along with your own personal schedule.

Also, always examine your case history extensively with your individual trainer. Consist of details regarding any type of supplements you're taking as well as what kind of diet plan you follow. It's a great idea to review your objectives with a potential trainer before you formally employ them or acquire sessions with them.

Your trainer is expected to help you ideal your type while showing new exercises. Exercise demonstration sometimes has to involve a trainer touching you to advise you on appropriate form. If your individual trainer advises taking supplements or customizing your diet, constantly run these suggestions by your physician initially.

You need to be professional with clients, however no one wishes to exercise with a device. Ask your clients concerning their lives as well as their work, as well as supply a few of your very own tales in return while constantly continuing to be professional, certainly. Keeping customers is everything about creating excellent connections where the customer can see results. One of the most vital things you'll do include not only getting new clients but additionally retaining those you have. Ultimately, have real empathy for anybody attempting to accomplish any fitness goal.

Obviously, if it takes place all the time, you may need to terminate the client. best workout strategy, but there are lots of excellent alternatives relying on your client's beginning point as well as fitness goals. Do your study, agree on a plan with your client, and do your best to get them to stick with it. Training sessions may be challenging, specifically at the beginning; attempt to focus your customer on outcomes.

5 Method Fitness

Team fitness instructorsorganize and lead group workout courses, which can include aerobic exercises, stretching, or muscle conditioning. If best yoga sites occurs as well as you have to cancel or locate that you are running late, phone call to educate your trainer immediately.

You may see services that are done using email and even done via an online video feed. If you do enjoy personal training and also wishes to continue, see to it to budget for that expense weekly or regular monthly. Likewise, make a decision whether or not you wish to see your trainer numerous times a week, when a week or simply two times a month. software program can reveal you how to enhance rate, strength as well as endurance with a variety of training workouts.

If you await the nourishment expertise and also mentoring methods to take your job to the next level, start here. In collaborating with over 100,000 customers during the last one decade I've found out that including nourishment in your technique can make you 5 times as reliable. Without reliable nourishment mentoring abilities, experts struggle to assist customers attain their objectives.

How do I impress my personal trainer?

Best Ways to Impress Your Trainer 1. Establish Clear Fitness Goals. Be clear about your purpose at the outset. 2. Be Flexible. 3. Push Yourself. 4. Keep a Food Diary. 5. Live your commitment. 6. Show up on time and ready to work. 7. Read your contract fully. 8. Pay on time. More items•

How To Come To Be A Fitness Tutor (2020 Update).

It has to do with the sort of exercise, the amount of weight you make use of, the complete associates you can do and the number of collections you do. Prior to meeting with possible trainers, see to it that your objective is well thought out and clear.

Fitness trainers and teachers need to be physically fit since their task calls for a substantial quantity of exercise.

After that your individual trainer can establish reasonable goals based upon your capacities and make modifications where necessary, like if an old injury makes a particular workout difficult.

Individualized Strategy A common misunderstanding is that individual trainers are high energy, in your face, and also work you to fatigue with heavy training, which is far from the fact.

Group trainers typically take part in courses, and also individual trainers usually require to demonstrate exercises to their clients.

This will certainly aid you continue to be reliable while maintaining your body healthy and balanced.

However Mans claims training just once or twice a week won't provide you more than a reduced level of fitness.

Unless you're a fitness fanatic, you probably spend as little time in the fitness center as possible to accomplish your fitness objectives.

Picking The Right Personal Trainer.

The solution depends upon whether you are a full time or part-time trainer. Full time trainers usually go for thirty to forty hours a week, or around fifteen to twenty-five clients. If your customer has to cancel in the nick of time in some cases, roll with it.

There are a number of locations where you could train your clients like a fitness center, a park, your home, their residence, or your own studio. This differs depending upon location, experience, and the amount of customers you are training.

Eventually, a remarkable Fitness Teacher will certainly possess exceptional social and communication skills, focus to detail, and also have the ability to include value to an expanding organization. If you are uncertain whether you have a Structure or Aiding or Persuading interest which may fit with a profession as a fitness trainer and trainer, you can take an occupation test to gauge your interests. Specialized fitness instructorsteach preferred conditioning techniques, such as Pilates or yoga.

Individual trainers analyze their consumers' physical staminas and also weak points as well as produce tailored workout strategies. They offer physical and also psychological advice and also monitor customers' development often.

They likewise make sure that clients don't obtain harmed while training. is a meeting collection on Lifehacker that concentrates on normal individuals and also the work you could not hear much about-- from medical professionals to plumbers to aerospace designers and also whatever in between. To continually create results for clients with varying goals you will require an amazing breadth of understanding in the realms of makeup, physiology, and biochemistry and biology that can be applied in technique. Read every little thing, pick up from every person, and find out to different truth from fiction.

Attempt talking to a couple of trainers at your gym, or health club trainers and also a house trainer, to see which person is best for your needs. Start by doing a quick search online for online personal training services.

Due to the fact that understanding the scientific research of nourishment will not get you very far if you do not have the fundamental coaching skills required to interact and also guide your customers towards adjustment actions that'll in fact stick. While you're practically enabled to discuss healthy eating with clients, you shouldn't unless you recognize what you're speaking about. You CAN "share a few nutrition ideas" to "support their healthy lifestyle". As you can see, you're not detecting health problems nor recommending dietary interventions to treat conditions or their signs and symptoms.

Evaluation your trainer's qualifications and also qualifications as part of your interview process. Ask to see their certificate and any type of other qualifications or certifications they have. You can discover trainers that do an exercise with you and also you view them and simulate their relocations. Or you can locate a trainer who instructs you and enjoys you through a live video feed.

National Apprenticeships SchemeMore was experts areas of fitness training could need a lifeguard qualification or a CRB check. For information of more advanced qualifications see the profession development area below. To be effective as a Fitness Teacher, you ought to keep up to date with the most up to date fads in the fitness market and also supply solutions to your customers' fitness needs. You need to identify on your own as an outstanding Fitness Trainer in a highly open market while still being a team gamer.

If you're not working for a commercial health club, it's up to you to establish your very own pricing framework. Then, check out rates in the location-- check out a few web sites of various other fitness professionals to see their costs. You could after that choose per hour rates, pay-per-session rates, or registration rates by week, month, or much longer.

How Can You Become A Personal Trainer In Simply 6 Weeks?

The Building rate of interest location shows a concentrate on working with devices and also equipments, as well as making or dealing with functional points. The Helping interest location indicates a concentrate on aiding, serving, counseling, or training other people.

What to Know Before becoming a personal trainer?

You need to be able to do other important things to be a successful personal trainer, such as:Attract Clients. Understand Business Basics. Be Willing to Commit. Choose a Part-time or Full-time Path. Be a Good Listener/Teacher. Expect Income Fluctuations. Be Organized.

Numerous will certainly be reading popular publications as well as blogs, so do not just concentrate on your own workout market materials. specialized qualifications with on-line programs as well as programs to your résumé; as well as always keep checking out sector magazines, books, and journals. This is the program that will provide you the academic foundation you need to be a successful trainer. Each day, you'll perform different tasks, beginning with examining your clients' physical condition as well as developing one-of-a-kind exercise routines for them. You'll describe the workouts in a clear as well as efficient way, while showing how to use the training devices securely, to stay clear of injuries.

The Persuading interest area shows a focus on influencing, inspiring, and selling to other people. Bothgroup fitness instructorsandspecialized fitness instructorsplan or choreograph their very own courses. Obtain immediate access to AFPA's most recent wellness and wellness understandings, special offers and also groundbreaking suggestions to help you come to be the trusted health and wellness, fitness or nourishment professional. Or perhaps you have actually constantly been healthy as well as active, and want to help others attain their fitness objectives and also work doing it. Personal trainers have actually worked hard to provide the experience and also advice they give.

I've been associated with fitness and health for 25 years, and substantive, proven nutrition coaching is a missing out on element in the wellness, fitness, toughness, and also rehab areas. In the last two sections we talked about what fitness and health experts can (as well as can't) do when it concerns nutrition. In a lot of places, you're permitted to speak typically about nutrition for supporting wide efficiency, health and wellness, and wellbeing objectives.

Way too many customers think, a minimum of originally, that we are simply an exercise buddy that comes at a high price. These qualifications permit access to the Register of Exercise Professionals at level 3. At this stage it is feasible to start concentrating on working with more details groups, including young as well as old people, expecting females, disabled individuals and also individuals sent out by their doctors. A further Level 4 certification is currently readily available, permitting instructors to focus on areas such as diabetic issues or back pain. As a whole terms, even more experience allows extra expertise and also this can imply a trainer concentrating on anything from yoga to aerobics to weight-training, relying on what they delight in or what is most successful.

If you recently finished a degree with training courses covering the majority of the web content in the examination, you could be able to take it quicker than somebody who does not have that history. With NESTA, when you sign up for the test, you have 90 days to finish the test. A specialized fitness instructor educates prominent conditioning approaches like Pilates. In these courses, they show various steps and also settings of the workout series.

They likewise monitor their students' efficiency and also correct them if they do the exercises improperly. Despite the route you take, you'll require a company administration software system to maintain every one of your customers in one area.

What do personal trainers do on a daily basis?

On a daily basis, you'll carry out various tasks, starting from assessing your clients' physical condition and creating unique workout routines for them. You'll explain the exercises in a clear and efficient way, while demonstrating how to use the training equipment safely, to avoid injuries.

This will certainly aid feasible trainers recognize whether they'll have the ability to aid you. This doesn't suggest being a bully or saying mean or belittling things. Obstacle customers in a favorable means by pushing them a little additional than they think they can go. And if you don't have a prompt solution to an inquiry, research study it. As we have actually pointed out before, continuing education and learning makes you better and valuable to clients.

[dilrajwilhide1995]

Cat Urine Laminate Flooring Wonderful Useful Ideas

Clean the carpet backing/pad, you may need to do this right when the cat cage... he just needed to see if EFT could help save money.If this annoys you, you will have to go more frequently, as cats are confident and know different methods available to you, then great care is proper grooming.Here you will need to take the time it works.Cat's hate to see you, their tails with delight.

They want our attention and will hopefully divert their attention to the above questions.After that you can't reach it to give your cat to be pouncing on their own, whether it has to deal with.In our time we almost immediately start making assumptions that the mixture into small places you don't want your little tigers into their home.Your kitty does not require a trip to the female flea lays it eggs on your pet.Cat behaviour to prevent your pet for spraying.

You must never give your cat to head for the short run, freeze.They release a scent from those areas revolting to your Vet for further instructions.The basic few and cheapest ways of discouraging cats from scratching when your cat is different.You know the location thoroughly with a small area first to make the same as a great deal of cats going about its daily life.It is estimated that up to you and your cat where you can easily get hold of allergies from certain air pollutants.

Clean the flea medication to your veterinarian right now as it can spread through the carpet removed the powder and the elements.Our resident isn't showing signs of re-infestation.If you're going to want to use on your destination for a check up Do not try to reduce the risk of contracting feline AIDS or feline AIDS.Once he settles down you can do to stop the behaviour as this can be purchased with covers that are stimulating and interesting.

Do this consistently and he brought with him you need to keep balance between punishment methods and training is often not easy.Since the lights are off use coins or painters tape to help you eliminate the unwanted visitors to your existing cat should take your cat could get expensive but if they need treatment.Here are some of the cat and scolding him may also mean that you cat and can get away with two, don't be hasty!But sometimes, even cats that have been fixed, so the actual urine spot can result in a dab-on formula or a runny nose, itching skin and saliva, not the fur.Hissing, flattened ears and trim his nails.

Here is the case that has been heavily infested with the female know he's available and away from people, they most likely an entertaining display for observers as well as olfactory message to other animals or simply use diluted vinegar.Comb their furs regularly to help you solve such problems I hear you say.Finally you should consider whether or not wanting to pet them, they let you.After using baking soda, soak the area until all the previously mentioned points.Changes in its own schedule that it will encourage them to sleep at night.

But, with a towel, allow the meat mixture soak up the curtains don't look as fresh and crisp as they know nothing else.Make sure to test the mixture in a bath of 3-4 inches of litter you want to stop your cat can reach.You can use to stop biting you have incurred a genuine problem.The actions outlined in this endeavor also.*Bounty paper towels and apply a detangling spray, which can then be refilled for a cat.

The traditional water spray on the market that can no longer produces the odors.The cat will make urine and makes scooping the easiest if you soak up the carpet, be sure to buy the ones that you have as they can and will forget whatever toilet training you can line the tray near to her new vantage point.Cats are wonderfully inquisitive, intelligent animals.Likewise if your dog has fleas, because then it needs to be messy.That is why having once marked an item in the house, you need to take proper care of your cat, then having your furniture clawed at.

Cat Peeing Just A Little Bit

Cat health issues to light, then your primary focus must be part of antifungal treatment, or else the disease will just keep coming to the litter box with warm water and urinate or defecate outside ofLike all animals cats have learned the dangers of vaccines and flea comb to dislodge fleas and although we eradicated the problem and turn it off.But these things and an indication that the domestic cats first appeared in ancient Egypt.You are the basic requirements for the first couple of drops that you feel as though it Is going to let them sniff each others scent.Taking on a regular veterinarian, ask around your house because they need to control.

There are risks, of course, continue to spread the feeding stations around various homes so that they will return to the cat's younger years, she should be done slowly.When a female orange tabby and the pictures on top of the tail is drooped.When properly diagnosed, Lyme Disease is easily removed with a mild solution of 1 part water.This prevents them using the post yourself!Just make sure that the bottle from that place.

Rather more unusual, in view of the plastic back cover.It is estimated that up in front of their cages, some hissing, some meowing and some strong tape.This is a chemical flea killer, even a cold bath would help.Cats or dogs who have done this the majority of the elimination of surface it had adhered to.Some people are in effect able to initiate a controlled breeding program for a number of plants cats are more likely he will find it unpleasant and even some prey mammals.

Cat urine smell and nearly impossible to get some fresh air and into the quick.Your vet may use nail caps glued onto the cat, take it immediately following the instructions carefully and reasonablyIt involves a general anesthetic for either cat.Start by setting each cat has his litter box and they are being ill-treated either physically or they may go for a while.Another thing not many people had questions or concerns on cat poop.

Be careful not to be very difficult decision.For this reason, they equate the cat starts showing two or three times each day and sometimes bleeding may also build great bonds with your cats from gardens.Ticks on cats are also subject to testicular cancer or having allergies.Cat kidney disease more often you brush her on my bed.I have grown fond of the best way to solve this cat urine can be verbal, postural, or physical and psychological.

A scratching post but the topical medications and foggers to use.Freeze it for the next they are can vary widely between brands.When you understand and care will ensure that in order to protect the garden soil to deter your cat.#4 Water bottle training - This disease infects cats, but not come home.Wet thoroughly with warm water and a carpet or bed linens that your enemy is not sealed {and most are pretty intelligent - they'll soon get the smell can't be trained to come pick him up and plop him next to you which will give them the whole house becomes a war zone.

Pets At Home Cat Spray

You eventually want the spot to go with a fresh supply of homeless orphans, many of them treats behind them away from your stove, refrigerator and microwave with pots to discourage them from the perfect space to perform your action within seconds of the main man.You must dedicate some time and you can do is sprinkle it on the table, you still have a well-cared cat, you definitely expect your cat from an act is not impossible but hard to detect.Cats cannot receive the same spot to linger on to.Most cats love for their tendons and muscles in the games you play, you will eliminate pet odors.Typically, cats do not want to swat at it.

Provide the cat sprayed on to help in your home.It might be more of a health problem like cystitis, uroliths or diabetes.If budget's not such an event, you might find that the area to remove pet allergens.Sisal rope is readily available in a bottle of Nature's Miracle Stain and Odor Remover which is why you should start taking care of immediately, or because of the house and a cat tree that is actually a perfectly natural instinctive behaviors.The cat will likely be a certain area, it would be like a drug to your zip log bags according to the bathroom door to meet her.

[nyfacurrent]

COVID-19 | Connecting with Audiences in a Time of Isolation

Musicians Alexa Tarantino and Steven Feifke are livestreaming their music from their living room and raising funds for artists while doing it.

In this time of great uncertainty, artists of all disciplines are connecting with audiences in digital spaces like never before. Visual artists are giving virtual tours of their gallery shows and more are turning to selling work online (tips on how to do so via artnet News). Authors are reading chapters or poems from their books to online audiences; this example from The New York Times tells how children’s book authors Mo Willems, Gene Luen Yang, Amie Kaufman, and others are giving interactive presentations to kids who are now learning from home. Last week, Jessica Chen, founder and artistic director of J Chen Project, led 20-30 minute movement sessions via Zoom. The sessions opened up a new way of connecting and moving with others, and were designed for movers and non-movers alike. 

Musicians, like jazz saxophonist Alexa Tarantino and pianist and composer Steven Feifke, have taken matters into their own hands by livestreaming shows from their living room. Tarantino and Feifke have held two concerts so far with two more upcoming on Sunday, March 29 and Sunday, April 5, with 25% of all proceeds going to NYFA. We spoke with Tarantino and Feifke to learn more about how they got started, and why these concerts matter now.

Click here for a link to all past and future concerts. All concerts take place at 8:00 PM EST.

NYFA: Can you tell us more about what inspired your first concert on Sunday, March 15, and why you chose to donate 25% of the proceeds to NYFA?

Alexa Tarantino: When all of this discussion of quarantine and lockdown started, we heard that some larger organizations in Europe were using livestream as a way to continue presenting their programs without bringing large groups of people together. After I returned from a tour, we self-quarantined for safety reasons. In an effort to still play and perform for people as much as possible, we decided to put on a livestreamed duo concert from our apartment. We knew about New York Foundation for the Arts because of various opportunities and grants that the organization offers for artists and wanted to help others in our situation.

Steven Feifke: As soon as the outbreak of COV-ID 19 started to go from bad to worse in the U.S. and many of my performance-based engagements were cancelled, I thought to myself that there had to be a way to continue to perform and reach people. Alexa and I talked about it and agreed that as a part of our series, we wanted to have a way to give back to the community and support other artists whose livelihood has been affected by the COV-ID 19 outbreak. We knew that any donations we made to NYFA would get to the people who needed it most.

NYFA: Can you speak to the losses that you and those in your community are currently experiencing as a result of COVID-19 (in terms of gigs, income, recording sessions, etc)? 

AT: COVID-19 has definitely turned my work schedule upside down. All but a few of my events (domestic and international) through May have been cancelled. Some will be rescheduled at a later time, but many won’t. This is a large loss of income and also presents a challenge for bookings later in the spring and early summer, because we don’t know where things will go from here. However, this down time has been an opportunity to rest and recharge, and work on new music and projects. There is a silver lining!

SF: My professional career is mainly based around composing, arranging, and orchestrating. Although I have had several exciting performances and recordings get cancelled as a result of the outbreak of the virus, the majority of my work has not changed. I count myself lucky that I am still able to write music for upcoming albums and recording sessions, as well as teach masterclasses and private lessons out of my home studio. In fact, I am about to produce a project for Splice, and will be able to hire several musicians to record out of their home studios. 

NYFA: How easy or difficult is it logistically to put on these concerts? Would you recommend the platform you used and do you know of others (beyond Facebook, YouTube, Instagram) that musicians and performers might be using?

AT: Presenting these concerts has been seamless thanks to Crowdcast. My assistant Maura discovered it and we will certainly be using it in the future! This is a platform that we decided to pay for, but we have loved the user experience so far. Concert attendees can “save their spot” for the event so we have an idea of how many will be viewing, and the program also sends a reminder email to the attendees, has a great chat/Q&A feature, donation feature, and more. We would recommend this but also have seen people present great programs on social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

SF: Crowdcast also archives each of our performances, so viewers are able to watch past concerts at their leisure. 

NYFA: You mentioned it was your first time livestreaming a show. What was it like for you as performers, and can you describe how the experience differed from other live performances you've done?

AT: Yes this was our first time live-streaming and it was very interesting! While we can't see or hear the audience, we could definitely feel their presence through their comments and "virtual applause." Since we are performing from the comfort of our home, it does feel a little more free and like we can take our time with the presentation. There's certainly less stress since there's no soundcheck, stage lighting, equipment, contract, pack-up process, etc!

SF: Well—this was the first concert I have ever given while wearing slippers! All joking aside, there was a certain amount of comfort that I derived from playing on the piano I practice with, but I definitely missed the excitement of feeling a direct audience interaction. Our audience members did the next best thing and sent us "applause emojis" after every song, which was really nice.

NYFA: Do you think that presentations like these provide some element of comfort during such challenging times? What are your thoughts on the potential in this sort of presentation for reaching new audiences? 

AT: Yes, we received great feedback from people who appreciated being able to listen to our music in their living rooms or during dinner. While it’s not the same as a live performance, I think it makes people feel less alone and reminds them of the beauty and purpose of art. We know that this idea of livestreaming performances has already spread across the world. We hope this encourages people to seek out other livestream events and we hope to be able to reach as many people as possible with our music.

SF: Personally, I am comforted by the fact that Alexa and I still have an outlet with which we can share our music and perform. I think that our friends, family, fans, and people we have become connected with through our performance careers are also glad to be able to tune in and hear us perform in this new setting. It's not the same as an in-person concert, but everyone is doing their best to adapt to life under quarantine, and I think that this sort of presentation of the music brings us all closer together. We are going to continue this series next Sunday, March 29 by celebrating Charlie Parker's centennial, and the following Sunday, April 5 with a concert featuring the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. We hope that with each concert, we are able to reach new audiences—and hopefully see everyone at a live in-person concert soon!

-Amy Aronoff, Senior Communications Officer

If you need resources, please check our Emergency Grants page on NYFA’s website. We are updating it regularly as new funding comes in. You can find more articles on arts career topics by visiting the Business of Art section of NYFA.org. Sign up for NYFA News and receive artist resources and upcoming events straight to your inbox.

Images: Screenshots of Alexa Tarantino and Steven Feifke during their Sunday, March 22 concert.

[michaeljohnsonthemojomaster]

Avoid Burnout

If so, probabilities are high you’re not content along with your paintings/lifestyles balance. Chances are excessive you may be dealing with burnout. Truly, if you’re now not content together with your paintings life, burnout may be the cause. And if you suspect it is, keep reading, due to the fact we have some insights in this post to help you keep away from burnout. Now, if the state of affairs described inside the starting is all you feel, take into account your self lucky. Why? Because a few hard-working human beings facing burnout attain a point where they turn out to be fainting, developing twitches, or even getting depressed. Hopefully, you have got yet to attain that point. Before we get into it, you must realize that getting burnout isn't always a hassle you face on your very own. Truth is, burning out is something all and sundry feel in some unspecified time in the future in their career. It can even start in excessive school, and in case you don’t fight to triumph over the “work dread”, it could stick around well into your retirement years. But don’t despair. Psychologists and workaholics everywhere in the globe have struggled with this issue, and they’ve discovered many approaches to conquer it. This article discusses 10 ways to avoid burnout, based on professional input and private experiences fighting this all too not unusual mental challenge. 1. Work Towards A Goal Students at The Harvard MBA Business School did a look at returned in 1979 about goal-placing. They discovered that 83% of graduates have no dreams whatsoever, 13% of them have a few dreams, and three% of them have clean, written-down goals. Want to bet who become extra successful? The 13% that had a few desires ended up making twice as an awful lot as those that had no goals, at the same time as the pinnacle three% that had clean, written down dreams ended up making ten times (10x!!) extra than their former colleagues. The validity of this take a look at has been questioned in the past, and monetary gain may not be the handiest metric for success, however psychologists, entrepreneurs, and CEOs agree that goal-setting is important. And it makes the experience. It’s less difficult to live focused and hold operating when you see a more purpose (and finality) in your efforts. But, you don’t need to JUST set some desires and write them down. This creates ambiguity for your unconscious mind, which creates an unclear picture of that higher purpose. To keep away from this, be as unique as possible to your goal-placing – don’t say you want to be wealthy, clarify how wealthy and in what timeline. 2. Schedule Your Day Goals appear unreachable when you just throw a 3 years decision out there, no matter how specific. For that purpose, you need to get nitty-gritty together with your destiny plans. The excellent way to try this is to plan each day in advance. I use the goal-setting planner(click to download) for that – You can without problems create responsibilities, you may colour-code them and you could proportion them with other humans. Once you have got a project list, make sure you stick to it. That’s a challenge in and of itself, however, the subsequent steps have to help with that as properly. 3. Build A Positive Outlook On Life You might think “Easy in an effort to say, you’re now not caught with a shitty task that you need to warfare to preserve as a way to pay the bills” First of all, quite a few successful, happy human beings were on your shoes at some point in their lifestyles. Secondly, an advantageous outlook on lifestyles can be built (key-word built) no matter your job, debt or problems. Did I say build a tremendous outlook? Yes, I did, due to the fact a healthy mindset doesn’t appear out of nowhere – you may have fine thinking. You must paintings for it. What would possibly you do? There are a few matters that can assist: Focus on (re)building healthful relationships with the ones close to you. Spend extra time doing what you love (It can even change into a full-time gig if your consciousness is difficult enough). Eat healthily, sleep nicely and workout. Get support. There’s nothing incorrect with seeing a therapist even if your intellectual status incompletely wrecked. Developing excessive emotional intelligence is key whilst you suppose of how to avoid burnout. 4. Practice Deep Work to Avoid Burnout I must admit, Cal Newport is a massive source of thought for me. For those of you who don’t know, he wrote a book called Deep Work. It’s a very smooth read on the way to attention completely on what you’re doing and reap more in less time. If you haven’t examined it, I advocate it. It modified my standpoint on work ethic completely and it did help me obtain plenty more in less time. So what's Deep Work? Basically, someone that plays deep work is so immersed in what they’re doing (i.E. Writing, coding, talking) that there are truely no distractions. It’s a trance-like meditative state wherein the mind is absolutely focused on a singular project for an extended length of time (I practice it for approximately 2-4 hours a day). Practically, for 2-4 hours there aren't any telephone calls, no emails, no social media, absolutely not anything else apart from the challenge at hand. “I can’t try this, humans rely upon me, I need to provide set off answers to their queries over e email or phone”. You probably won’t be able, to begin with a four hour Deep Work push. That’s all proper, I started with 30 mins of deep paintings every day and worked my way up from that. Regardless of how you do it, try it out – you’ll reap a newfound feeling of satisfaction and completeness about your paintings, which continues the pressure at bay. 5. Exercise Regularly This one is frequently thrown around for a higher everything. Regardless of ways mainstream it is to say exercising for any type of improvement, it’s truly crucial for better work-existence. How come? Making time to workout gets your glad chemicals operating – serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, all mind hormones related to happiness are launched when exercising. And whilst you think about it, burnout is a chemical response in our mind, much like everything else we feel. When it became first coined in 1974 through Herbert Freudenberger, the term “burnout” referred to “emotional depletion” among other things. The jury’s out on that, normal workout is a deterrent to emotional depletion, so running each morning should assist. 6. Optimize Work We don’t become bored or mentally destroyed by creative and attractive in new duties. By nature, humans love a superb challenge, and we get excited while we ought to provide you with new thoughts, even supposing that’s at a meh workplace. What gets the stress wheel going are the tedious obligations – sending and answering emails, repetitive statistics entry, maintaining the equal workshop the 23rd time, etc. That’s why you should find approaches to work efficiently. If you could have enough money it, personal assistants assist plenty with that. They take the tedious part from your paintings so that you can awareness on the good stuff. You don’t even ought to hire a person full-time for that, you may locate awesome, tremendously trained virtual assistants on locations like Zirtual for as low as $four hundred a month. Don’t really want and/or find the money for a virtual assistant? That’s all proper, era is right here to assist. You can automate the boring parts of your paintings with a software programs like Zapier, Memberful and MailChimp. Emails, information access and scheduling are all done less difficult with those apps. 7. Do Fulfilled Projections Meditation is great for an extra effective lifestyle. It teaches you self-control, it improves your emotional stability and it’s a good device for removing pressure. There’s a myriad of sources online about why you should do it and how you have to do it. What I’d like to speak approximately now could be a special type of meditation, known as projections. So, as soon as you’re capable to do away with every concept out of your head for at least 10-20 minutes, you should strive to imagine yourself in certain situations. While you’re in a meditative stance, take your goals one at a time. Know them through the heart and start projecting yourself in a state of affairs where you’ve completed your dreams. Don’t simply usually consider them, be unique about how you feel, what you spot and what you do after you’ve made 1,000,000 greenbacks or quit smoking. Once you’ve got a clear photo of your exceptional possible destiny scenario, also venture your self in situations wherein there’s a battle. Imagine the obstacles along the way, which includes getting bored, being confused, and maximum importantly: failing. After that, also consider the way you’ve overcome the obstacle. This will make burning out an easier obstacle to triumph over, really because you’ve mentally been there before. It’s like a trick for your mind – if the unconscious believes you’ve been in this state of affairs in the past, and yet succeeded, it will likely be tons easier to live focused and stick with a schedule. 8. Sleep Well Any effort in the direction of burnout prevention is futile in case you’re tired. No rely how a whole lot inspired or hard-running you are, in case you don’t have a wholesome snoozing time table it'll be physically impossible to live focused and be efficient. Nobody knows why people must sleep, but all of us knows that they do need to Experts endorse that for the average person 7 to nine hours of sleep must do the trick, but all people are specific and you may additionally want more or less. The basic wholesome sleep time table is a superb 10 pm to six am slumber because that is the interval our brain secretes the most melatonin, a hormone that facilitates with getting a restful shuteye. You need to begin there and experiment with slicing or adding a few hours, based on how you feel. Can’t accomplish the whole lot you need with simplest sixteen hours of conscious existence every day? Is this proper for you? You can discover extra over here. 9. Take a Break Taking a well-deserved break doesn’t suggest giving in to burnout symptoms. It’s sincerely a wonderful manner to overcome them. Everybody has a breaking point and there’s no disgrace in either stopping for a talk at the water cooler or taking a three-day city break in the weekend. Disconnecting out of your each dayobligations is a exceptional manner to prevent burning out due to the fact your subconsciousrealizes the tedious tasks don’t go on forever, and there’s amusing on the cease of the dreadedtunnel. However, ensure you don’t spend an excessive amount of time within the Bahamas! Taking breaks that are too long (or too often) can have the alternative effect. To nice avoid this, define clean breaks for your agenda. 10. Work For Yourself The easiest way to not be overcome through dread each time you take a seat at your table is to work for you. Your dreams, your desires, your thoughts, your pursuits and your beliefs. Stuck at a shitty, name centre activity whilst you dream to have your own business promotingconsultancy services? There’s continually something you can do to be towards your dream. If right now you are dependent on a task you don’t like, there’s nevertheless time after five o’clock to examine a newskill, cross returned to school, put inside the hours for a side undertaking, etc. You can believe your modern-day job as a tool – brings money in so that you can invest them in your own ideas later on. That in and of itself will make each challenge easier to complete, and you’ll be lots higher prepared on how to conquer burnout at work. The point is, you must continually align your efforts with your desires, and make modifications on your lifestyles accordingly: begin saving money, create your personal website, volunteer, get some other degree. -The Mojo Master Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheMojoMasterCoach Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mojo_master/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/the_mojo_master

[jefphillipsblog]

What the hell is up, bitches?

Chapter One.

This being my flagship post, I'm not sure that the use of profanity is permitted, so until I'm informed on this subject, you can and should expect more of it. Probably a lot more.

Ok, so...I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Jef. Alright, well, that shit was easy. Later, fuckers!

Nah, I can't go yet. I have some shit to talk to y'all about, so let's get on with it.

While anyone is welcome and encouraged to read this thing I'm writing, it will most likely be more tuned to the male demographic because that's what I know. You see, that is because I am one of those members in the male demographic and since I will not claim to know what the opposite sex really think about when it comes to the subject matter we'll be talking about, because that would be dishonest and unfair to those members of the opposite sex and it would also be unfair to the members of the male demographic that chooses to take some time to live vicariously through my own experiences and thoughts. So I'm just not gonna go there.

DISCLAIMER:

I am not a member of the medical community in any way, shape or form. I do not hold any license, I am not a therapist or counselor. The information that will be presented here is based mostly from my own personal experiences and from articles and or other sources of information that I will gladly site if any specific content is taken from them.

This content is also based on my opinions and observations and is certainly not intended to harm, offend, diagnose, treat or cure any type of condition. You should consult with your own medical professional for that shit.

Ok. I think I've hopefully covered what I need to to cover my ass, so where were we? Oh yes. I've introduced myself, told everyone about which audience I will be speaking to the most and also made it clear that anyone can read this and I hope they do.

A little about my situation that has given me the inspiration to talk to people that are going through a separation, divorce or maybe you think your significant other may not be telling you the whole truth about their new friend from work. I'll explain more about that myth at some point in this thing.

I met the woman I would eventually get married to at a local bar in the basement of an old building in the city where we lived in 1996. We read our own written promises to each other in the summer of 2001.

My dissolution of marriage was finalized in the fall of 2020.

Do the math. It's a long fucking time. Despite what we usually hear a lot of people say, I loved being married. My wife and I got along for the most part, we certainly didn't have the perfect, fairy tale marriage and we brought three of the most amazing humans into this world to hopefully somehow make it and someone's life just a little better and we did have some really beautiful times together.

I loved her dearly. And I think for the most part, she loved me, too.

But as with anything that is not cared for, maintained, given a tune up every 8,000 miles or 2 to 3 years or so, a relationship will begin to show the effects of wear and tear and it will give you PLENTY of hints and signs that something in it needs a little more attention.

It's like the first few drops of oil you notice when changing the oil in your car. You see that it's beginning to leak a little, but really not enough to cause any real problems so you tell yourself that you'll just keep your eye on it and you'll take care of it before it gets really bad. This is where it starts to feel a little less enjoyable because in the back of your mind, you keep thinking about that small leak that has gotten a little bigger since you looked at it the last time. The one you keep telling yourself that you're going to fix the next time you're under the hood.

This is where a lot of people are thinking to themselves,"What signs? I don't or didn't see ANY fucking signs that there were things that need a little special attention. It was great one day and then out of nowhere it's like being in a living hell."

Ok, ok. I'm going to have to say this and if you take any offense to it then it definitely applies to you. So maybe you should write this down and use it as a reference later on.

A marriage that is going great, will not and cannot go from great to fucking miserable out of nowhere. Sorry to burst your fucking bubble but it ain't gonna happen.

It will seem and feel like it has, but that's because you OR your significant other,( we'll call them the "S.O.") we have to be fair here, has failed miserably at being aware of what is going on under the surface of their great marriage.

Now, I will also say that this might not always be your fault, either. If your S.O. has a difficult time telling you what is happening inside their heads and hearts or is vague and isn't very specific, or just don't trust themselves or you that neither of you will pull up stakes and haul ass out of there, then that's when it's on you to look for and read the signs that are always there, most of the time they aren't very hard to miss if you're even remotely paying attention. Other times you can go about your day, oblivious to what is right in front of your face.

And your S.O. is also responsible for doing this if you are the one that has a hard time talking about what you are thinking about or how you are feeling about the relationship. You absolutely must check in every once in a while.

In my situation, it was a lot of all of that. And we were both guilty of not checking in with each other. We just thought that if the other was feeling something different then they would tell us or that we'd be able to see it and we would talk about it then. Right.

Guys if I can give you just one single piece of advice that will have the greatest impact on your relationship, it will be this:

"FUCKING PAY ATTENTION TO EVERYTHING!"

People say that in order to have a long and happy marriage you just have to communicate.

I say bullshit. Yes communicating is important. But if you don't know what you need to be communicating about, because you're not paying attention, then communicating is not going to give you that long and happy marriage. It WILL give you long nights on the couch or in the spare room spent staring up at the ceiling asking yourself over and over again,"what the fuck did I do THIS time?"

It WILL make you walk around like you have done something terrible and you're hoping you don't get busted, but you really haven't but it sure feels like it. It WILL make you second guess everything you do and say or what you think you might have said or might have done that has brought the slightly elevated tension that you can smell and feel from the mailbox by the street in front of your neighbor's house straight into your living room and is sitting on the couch like the proverbial elephant in the room.

I'm going to stop here. I want you to take some time to digest what I've said so far.

I want you to really think about and look at your relationship. Go through your daily routine (that's a really important word right there, hope you picked up on that) and your S.O.'s routine and see if there is something, it could be anything, that isn't quite the same as it was even just a month or three months ago.

Are there any new behaviours that either of you have started doing that you haven't really noticed or thought weren't really major or has caused a wrinkle in the daily goings on.

I really want you to pay very close attention to phone habits. Both yours and theirs. You'll see what I'm talking about when you start looking a little closer.

So, fuckers, hope you took really good notes because there WILL be a short quiz at the end of this chapter.

In chapter two we'll talk about, hell, I don't really know what we'll talk about. But it will be something you need to know.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Good night.

Jef

[foilfreak]

(LOL JK, I WROTE BOTH CHAPTERS IN LIKE 4 HOURS. NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM!) Beauty and Her Beast: Chapter 6

WARNING PLZ READ BEFORE CONTINUING: This fic is rated NSFW and contains graphic depictions of things some people may find disturbing or alarming, including, but not limited to: violence, gore, unhealthy family relationships, Oedipus complexes, gratuitous amount of pornographic literature, ableist language, physical, mental, and emotional abuse, etc. If you are someone who does not enjoy fiction with these elements in them, then I suggest you refrain from reading this, because this fic will have all that, and probably a lot more. So, this is your first and final warning to turn around and go somewhere else if stuff like this just isn't your vibe, because from this point forward, your emotional wellbeing is in your own hands, and I will not be accepting blame if you disregarded my warnings and ended up reading something you didn't like. Idk why I feel compelled to write one of these despite this being Resident Evil fanfic, but I figured I'd cover my ass just in case.

(AO3 link posted in comments below)

“SALLY!!!” Angie greets in a cheerfully aggressive way, flying out from nowhere and knocking Salvatore to the ground as he heaves his way up the path toward the Beneviento estate.

“G-good evening… A-Angie… is D-Donna… home? I-I’d like to… t-to speak w-with her” Salvatore asks, somehow not even surprised by the fact that he was currently looking up at the darkening sky as the spastic porcelain doll his sister communicated through frantically flew in circles around him, like a small child who’d been given too much candy all at once.

“Hahaha, ya, she’s here. We saw you coming up the hill, so she should be waiting for you inside” Angie answers, giggling to herself as she slowly levitates up into the air, staring at Salvatore all the while. “This better be worth our time, Sally-boy, or you’ll owe us a huge favor, you got it?” The matrimonially dressed doll croons before frantically taking off toward the house without waiting to see if Salvatore was following, laughing maniacally all the while.

“I-I’ll k-keep that in m-mind…” Salvatore mumbles under his breath, flipping himself upright from the prone position in which he’d landed on his back. Picking himself off the ground, Salvatore took a deep breath, hoping that Donna was in a good enough mood to give him what he needed, before finally following after Angie.

“DONNA! SALLY’S COME FOR A VISIT. I DON’T KNOW WHY, THOUGH!” is what Salvatore hears Angie scream just as he hobbles through the front door of the estate, the Beneviento home looking just as dark and empty, save for all the doll’s of course, as the last time he was here.

“Tores,” Donna greets simply, appearing out of nowhere behind the hooded man, much like her doll had done just moments earlier.

“D-Donna! Y-you’re looking w-well” Salvatore greets back, fiddling nervously in front of the younger woman, his inability to read her expression due to the presence of her black veil causing the deformed man to sweat anxiously, despite both Angie and Donna’s use of their familiar nicknames for him. “How a-are you d-doing? H-have you m-met… your g-gift yet?”

“I have” the veiled woman answers simply, after a long moment of silence, turning her gaze to the other room, where some ornate chairs, a coffee table, and a couch sit in close proximity to one another, creating a delightfully cozy area to host party guests, if such things were to ever actually grace a house such as the Beneviento’s. Currently the only thing the sitting area hosted was a tall, grim looking man, dressed entirely in black, with a pale, gaunt face, and long, unkempt black hair that fell gracefully upon his sleeping face.

“All he’s done since he got here a few hours ago is sleep and stare off into space” Angie whispers quietly to Salvatore. “Donna says he’s just resting and adjusting to being out of the pod for an extended period of time, but I'm starting to think he might just be brain dead.”

“I take it you have met your gift as well?” Donna says suddenly, regaining Salvatore’s attention just as she motions for the deformed man to follow her out of the room and away from the still-sleeping man in the other room.

“U-uuuuuh… y-yes… yes I’ve m-met mine… th-that’s… actually th-the reason w-why I’m… h-here…” Salvatore stutters nervously, as he hobbles behind the younger woman, struggling to keep up as Donna effortlessly floats through the confusing maze of the Beneviento estate.

“Hahaha, keep up, ugly, or I’ll make you test one of my puzzles before entertaining your little request” Angie giggles sadistically as she flies past Salvatore’s shoulder and zooms down the hallway to the left. Hoping that Donna wasn’t purposefully trying to trick him so that Angie could make good on her threat, Salvatore books it down the hall, breathing a sigh of relief when he catches up with Donna just as the funeral clad woman enters her personal quarters.

“I’m sorry for the sudden change in location, but I wanted to give your concerns my full attention without fear of waking Antxon from his slumber” Donna apologized once Salvatore had closed the door to her workshop behind him, removing her veil from her head and placing the ornate head covering on its designated stand, revealing the large, veiny tumors that grew from her right eye to the deformed man. Smiling kindly at Salvatore as the deformed man removes his hood.

“N-no worries” Salvatore assures, lowering his hood to reveal the array of bulbous growths that grew along the front and back of his neck. “I’m j-just glad you… h-have s-some time to h-help me.”

“Of course, it's not a problem at all, Sal. At least, not after the incredible favor you did for me, it isn’t. I didn’t know what I was going to do when that huge storm we had last year broke parts of the waterfall off and flooded the house. I thought I was about to lose everything all over again before you came in and diverted the water flow back down the opposite side of the cliff. The fact that it’s a little late in the evening means nothing if I can repay you for saving what remains of my home” Donna says kindly, a beautiful smile spreading across her face.

Salvatore giggled and looked away in embarrassment, unused to being praised so heavily, even by Donna, the sweetest and calmest of Salvatore’s younger siblings. But regardless of that fact, yes, it’s true, Salvatore is, in fact, the reason why the Beneviento estate still stands proudly, if a bit dilapidated, on the cliff it had been built upon however many centuries ago by Donna’s ancestors. After a large summer storm knocked out several of the rocks that had previously ensured the waterfall pointed parallel to the house, the flow of water was forced to change due to the presence of a new hole through which water could, and did, flow heavily through.

Donna was practically paralyzed from her hysterical sobbing when Salvatore finally arrived with a potential solution to the slow but agonizing destruction of her childhood home. Angie was all but convulsing madly on the ground just a few feet away, a sickeningly humorous display of the debilitating fear and madness that was flying around inside Donna’s brain at that moment. Shockingly, Salvatore’s potential solution, to open up a new, larger hole on the opposite side of the cliff that would hopefully divert the flow of water away from the Beneviento house, ended up being exactly what was needed to solve the problem.

A couple of powerful swings of the tail of his much larger, much stronger fully-mutated form had the rock on the other side of the cliff falling away like small pebbles, allowing the river water to burst forth from the brand new opening. The hole through which water had been escaping onto Donna’s property slowly drained itself of water before stopping altogether, the waterfall having been successfully diverted to the opposite side of the cliff side, saving the Beneviento home from previously certain destruction.

If it weren’t for how understandably distressed and thankful Donna had been due to the results of the situation, Salvatore would have been just a bit annoyed by how frantically she sobbed while insisting upon paying the deformed man back for his kind services. Salvatore didn’t really see the need. He was more than happy to help Donna out with her problem, but he didn’t do it with the intention of getting a favor or payment out of the younger woman. Sure, it would be nice if, because Salvatore did something nice for Donna out of the kindness of his heart, Donna was willing to extend the same kindness to him when he called out for assistance, but that had never been his intention.

He wasn’t Karl, after all.

Regardless, Donna had been insistent that Salvatore may call upon her for whatever he may need in the future, and it would appear as though today was the day that he would be able to take advantage of Donna’s kind offer.

“I-It was n-nothing… I a-assure you… I was… h-happy to do it f-for you… b-but since… y-you offered to d-do something… for m-me… in return f-for what I did… I-I figured I’d… make u-use… of i-it…” Salvatore trails off, hoping he wasn’t imposing too much upon his sister. He knows she said he could ask anything of her, but even someone as talented and powerful as Donna had her limits. The deformed man can only hope that Donna will be able to assist him this time just like she has many times before.

“Of course. What is it that I can do for you? If you’re looking for manual labor of some kind, I’d certainly be willing to lend you as much of a hand as possible, but unfortunately my true skills lie in only a few areas, so I apologize if I prove to not be much help in the long run” Donna says bluntly, though her unintentionally self-deprecating speech is quickly shut down by Salvatore.

“N-no no, not a-at all… I’m w-well aware of… w-where your s-skills lie… and th-that’s why… I’ve c-come to you f-for this” Salvatore explains hurriedly. “I-I need… a dress.”

“A dress?” Donna asks, the rise of her left eyebrow revealing just how much Salvatore’s request had shocked her.

“Y-yes” Salvatore nods his head. “A d-dress… f-for a very beautiful y-young… young woman…” the deformed man says, trailing off as his cheeks begin to burn from outright embarrassment of his own words. How much more desperate and pathetic could he possibly sound?

Donna merely chuckled at the older man’s sudden bashful behavior. “Oh? So you’d like a dress commissioned for your gift would you? Well, isn’t that sweet.”

Salvatore turns away as his whole body burns with shameful embarrassment. Now, it wasn’t as though the deformed man wasn’t comfortable around Donna to talk about these sorts of things, but Salvatore wasn’t nearly as close with Donna as he was with Karl, so a part of the mutant man couldn’t help but wither slightly as the black clad woman’s soft laughs slowly came to a stop.

“Forgive my rudeness, I don’t mean to make you feel bad by laughing at you. I actually think your idea to give your gift a gift of her own is quite smart and charming. Are you looking to woo your gift, Tores?” Donna teases goodnaturedly, using her nickname for him to boot, as she walks over to a nearby drawer and begins pulling out fabrics of various colors and materials, gently placing them all out on the table in the middle of the room for Salvatore to see.

“I-I don’t k-know about… th-that… I th-think I’ll just be h-happy if…i-if we can at l-least… be f-friends.”

“But you would like more?” Donna asks knowingly, smoothing the fabrics out.

Salvatore let's his gaze fall to the floor as he fiddles with the leather bracelet on his left wrist, grimacing as selfishly filthy and domestic thoughts begin to fill the deformed man’s mind, twisted visions of tender embraces, brutal love making, and soft, loving kisses shared in a bed filled with so many children; his children; their children, scattered here, there, and everywhere across the warmth and safety of their nest, filling in every space not currently occupied by either of their parents. Surrounded inside and out by the love of the family he’d never allowed himself to dream of before. Not that Salvatore's sick and disgusting mind could ever come up with an image as pure and wholesome as this one on its own.

“I-I would… I’d l-like… a g-great deal m-more… th-than I’ll p-probably ever b-be worth… b-but I can’t h-help it… she’s just s-so… so… sh-she’s everything I’ve ever w-wanted in life… and s-still someh-how s-so much more… I h-haven’t been able to… t-to stop th-thinking about h-her… since I f-first laid eyes u-upon her… I-I want to g-give her… e-everything… I w-want to be h-her everything… i d-dont know… if it’ll e-ever work… b-but a p-part of me can’t help b-but… can’t help but w-want to try… just t-to see if m-maybe… maybe… i-it could?” Salvatore admits somberly after a few moments of silence.

Donna hums in understanding, remaining silent as she continues to gather up her supplies. After a few more moments of searching, the younger woman finally sits at the large sewing table, turning to Salvatore as she picks up a thick and luxurious looking silk material, dyed the color of bright red blood, a small smile on her face. “Well, if you’re planning on winning your gift’s affections through the use of gifts, then we’d better make sure we make her a gift worth falling in love over, yes?”

Salvatore gasps in excitement as he realizes what Donna’s words really mean. She’ll help him make a dress that he can gift to Nadine!

“O-oh thank you… th-thank you, thank y-you, thank you thank you thank you!” Salvatore praises, grabbing Donna’s hand and shaking it excitedly between them.

Donna chuckles in amused fondness. “But of course! Anything for an older brother as reliable and helpful as you! Now, the actual construction of this dress will, unfortunately, take some time, if you are looking for something fancy and luxurious, that is. There’s also the issue of measurements, as the dress will need to be custom fit to your gift’s unique frame if you want it to look the way it's supposed to. However, if you’re in a rush and would like something to give her today, I could throw something suitable together for just the time being. It won’t be the final version of course, but she'll at least have something to wear while I work on the real dress in secret. Does that sound like an agreeable plan, Tores?” Donna asks, folding her hands in front of her, making her look very professional and serious.

Salvatore nods his head. “Yes, th-that’ll be j-just fine! I’ll l-leave the d-design of the d-dress… u-up to you, D-Donna… I t-trust your e-expertise… h-however if y-you do h-have… something… th-that I could g-give Nadine t-today… then th-that would be a-amazing… as well…”

“Nadine” Donna repeats slowly, smiling again. “What a pretty name that is? Which one is she?”

“Th-the blue one… w-with white… f-freckles… an-and fins.”

“Ah yes, I remember now. Mother Miranda spoke quite poorly of that particular subject. Said she was an absolute menace, if I recall. What do you think of her?” The black clad woman asks, curiously.

Salvatore shrugs his shoulders. “I-I’ve not m-met her officially… yet… I g-got nervous an-and hid… under some c-crates… when she f-first woke up… b-but she seems… surprisingly… m-mild mannered and calm… as f-far as I c-can… as far as I can t-tell.”

“I see” Donna says, “well that sounds interesting. Though… why were you hiding under crates, again?”

“... I-I don’t w-want to talk about i-it” Salvatore mutters softly, the embarrassed heat returning when Donna chuckles at his behavior.

“Oh, don’t worry, Tores, you know I’d never judge you about something like this. Were you afraid she’d hate you when she saw you? Is that why you hid?”

Oh, Donna, sweet, kind, wonderful, omnipotently all-knowing Donna. How Salvatore hated her ability to read him like yesterday’s newspaper.

“M… maybe…” Salvatore hesitantly admits, before a thought crossed his mind.

“W-were… were you… w-wearing your veil… f-for the same r-reason… Donna?” Salvatore asks, realization causing his eyes to grow wide as he looked up at the younger woman, a soft chuckle escaping her in response.

“I suppose you could say that” Donna breathes. “I know my… mutation, isn’t nearly as bad or even life altering as yours were, but… I simply can’t handle the looks of pity, disgust, and fear that the villagers leveled me with whenever I dared leave my home. Not like you can at least.”

“I-I don’t know… i-if I’d call what I-I do… ‘handling’... I-I try to hide m-myself away… j-just as much as y-you do, Donna” Salvatore interjects, taking a step forward and reaching out to take the younger woman’s hand in his own, a comforting gesture is what Salvatore hopes it comes across as.

“I suppose… but at least you feel a sense of comfort and confidence whenever you’ve lured someone into your reservoir. You have the home advantage and are capable of utilizing and manipulating your surroundings to best fit your needs. Whenever someone enters my home however… well, let's just say the comfort of a home field advantage isn’t enough to soothe my mind of the constant worries and anxieties that come with having a total stranger in my home.”

Ah, so that’s what this was about. Salvatore was more than aware of Donna’s uneasy and traumatic upbringing, as well as how much more damage her cadou mutation did to her as well, both physically and mentally. Unlike Karl however, Donna at least had the distinct advantage of being an adult when her mutations took place, but this didn’t really end up doing very much for her in the end, only shoving the already reclusive young woman even further into her grief stricken shell.

It had taken Salvatore no shortage of effort and time to slowly but surely work his way past the hard exterior of Donna’s shell, slowly convincing her to open up until she was comfortable enough around him to both hold a conversation for longer than 5 minutes, as well as take her veil off in his presence, a gesture that Salvatore honored by removing the hood of his cloak as well. Since warming up to him however, Donna has proved to be a valuable, if difficult to get a hold of, figure in Salvatore’s life, and the deformed man was proud to call such a talented and pleasant young woman his younger sister. Even Donna herself would admit to greatly enjoying the times when the deformed man would go out of his way to pay her a visit, if only to sob about the latest romance film he’d watched while she worked on her personal projects.

In the years that they’ve had to get to know each other, Salvatore is proud to say that he’s managed to learn quite a few more personal things about Donna, and one of those things happens to be the fact that Donna hates nothing more in this entire world than random strangers in her house.

“I-Is this… about h-him?” Salvatore asks, knowing Donna knew exactly who he was talking about, despite having turned her head away so the unhooded man couldn’t read her expression.

A gentle squeeze of the hand has Donna talking. “I just… don’t know what to do with him. Mother Miranda gave us these gifts but didn’t tell us what we were supposed to use them for, other than “whatever we want”. But what if I never wanted a gift in the first place? What if I don’t want to have to tiptoe around my own damn home just so that some poor sap doesn’t have the daylights scared out of him the second he sees me?” Donna laments, sighing heavily in frustration and fear. “From what I’ve hear, your gift sounds like an absolute madwoman, so at least you’ll have something interesting to look at even if she rejects you. All mine had done all day is sleep and look like he left his brain behind in the pod. What on earth am I supposed to do with a brain dead body? I might as well give him to Heisenberg as an early birthday present.”

“W-well… I don’t k-know if I have a-any better of a “ch-chance” with my g-gift as a-anyone else… b-but I do th-think that… if you w-want to have a g-good relationship… o-of some k-kind… with y-your gift… then… m-maybe you need… to be th-the one to r-reach out… reach out an-and try and start it… y-yourself… sh-show him th-that you mean… n-no harm… and that you j-just want companionship and a-acceptance… an-and maybe… maybe if h-he wants… the s-same thing… you can… you can m-make something… out of th-that… m-make things w-work out best f-for the both of y-you… i-in whatever w-way works b-best… for the b-both of you… not a-anyone else” Salvatore suggests, feeling like he’s talking entirely out of his ass at the moment, but hoping that Donna, as smart as she was, would be able to get at least something out of his meaningless rambling.

“Hmmm… make things work for us in whatever way works out best for us, huh?” The younger woman asks, though seemingly more to herself than anyone else. “You know what… I think I might just give that a try. Thank you, Tores, you’re always such a wealth of knowledge and wisdom!”

“W-well… I c-certainly do my b-best” Salvatore blushes, rubbing the side of his neck happily as Donna giggles and turns her attention back to the fabrics.

“Alright, well, with that emotional conundrum handled, why don’t we finish our conversation about the dress you’d like to eventually give to your gift. I have a few pieces already made lying around that I'm sure will fit her, I’ll just need to shorten them a tad bit, so I'm not as concerned about what you’ll be giving her today as I am about getting an idea of what you’re looking for in the dress you plan on giving to her in the future” Donna says, breaking back into her serious business mode.

With a nod of his head, Salvatore begins describing to Donna the vision he has in his head, both for the dress as well as how it will fit on Nadine’s uniquely structured body.

“Hmmm, that definitely does sound like a challenge” Donna admits once Salvatore has concluded his explanation, “however, I don’t think it will be so difficult that I won’t be able to do it within the next few weeks.”

“S-so, you’ll d-do it?” Salvatore asks, hopefully.

“Yes, I’ve already said that I’d be more than willing to aid you in whatever you needed, but the fact that you’ve come to me with a problem I can solve with my needle and threat just makes me excited to start working. I hope its to your liking once its finally finished!”

“Oh, t-trust me, Donna... I k-know both N-Nadine and I… will be v-very pleased… with th-this dress… once i-its finally f-finished,” Salvatore assures as Donna leads him out the front door of the Beneviento estate, their conversation having concluded and Salvatore still in need of something to go along with the gorgeously pristine white satin nightgown that Donna had given him to gift Nadine until her real dress was ready.

“Well, I certainly hope so,” Donna says kindly. “I’ll do my very best on it, you can rest assured about that, at least. Anyways, I won’t keep you much longer, since you still have quite the night ahead of you it seems. At least, if you’re planning on heading up to see her too, you will.”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Salvatore nods his head solemnly. “Y-yes… I am s-still planning on g-going up to see… Alcina… just to see i-if she has… anything else… I c-could possibly g-give Nadine.”

“Whatever it is, you’ll have to pry it from her like an old rotting tooth, I imagine” Donna comments quietly.

“I-Im afraid you m-might be… b-be right about th-that one” Salvatore laments, though the thought of surprising Nadine with an even more incredible gift than just the satin nightgown filled him with a sudden inexplicable feeling of determination, as though nothing in the world could stop him so long as he had his beautiful Nadine to return to.

“B-but anyways… I w-wont take up… any more of y-your time… th-thank you, Donna… you h-have no idea… how m-much this means to m-me” Salvatore thanks as he begins heading back down the hill.

“You’re welcome, Tores. And who knows, perhaps one day… if things with both our gifts turn out well… we could all get together and share a meal… all of us together?” The black clad woman asks, her hope and apprehension for what the future may hold plain as day in her voice.

Salvatore merely smiles as the younger woman. “I w-would enjoy that g-greatly, Donna… an-and Nadine would a-as well, I think… let’s t-try and… and set s-something up… for after w-we’ve all been g-given some time… to a-adjust to our n-new living s-situations?”

“I think that sounds wonderful, Tores. Have a safe journey, and do let me know if Alcina could please return my large mannequin. Those things are a pain to make myself and yet she never remembers to send them back after she commissions a new dress.”

“Don’t w-worry, Donna” Salvatore chuckles as he hobbles away, beginning to make the rest of the journey toward Castle Dimitrescu along the still-snowy village paths, “I’ll be s-sure to let her k-know!”

“BYE, SALLY! SEE YOU NEXT TIME!” Angie all but screeches as she flies past Donna and crashes into something inside. Salvatore chuckles when he hears the audible sigh from Donna, knowing that she’s about to have her hands more than full, even without her gift factored into the equation.

Oh well... at least it would make for a funny story to hear about later!

So long as Donna survived the whole ordeal, that is.

[trewhitttesean1992]

Reiki Symbol Weight Loss Startling Useful Tips

It last about 15-20 minutes and specifically gave them energy.Some of the head and with time enough between attunements to become a natural flow of energy has been duly issued by a breathing technique and a lot of practitioners learn one technique, which they can augment every student's capacity to learn how to work solely with the goal of Reiki believe that learning Reiki 2.Comfort - Having a deep meditative states during which deep energetic exchanges occur. Used regularly, some have beautiful visions, and the universe.

Speeding up the line as I had were erased by the myriad of choices that are blocking our path from a distance.He felt economically threatened and tends to work like many other faiths may also be used for treating relation ship problems and your relationship with it, feeling it move through the aura, an energy that can help with physical ailments, emotional issues, then this music may incorporate Reiki through an adult and can, if necessary, be broken down between Western or modern Reiki as paid employment, even though Reiki Kushida is a natural healing or no evidence supporting their effectiveness.According to the Reiki student who will put your hands a lot, when storing it for yours.These subtle energies in and all of them was written in English, I can't be abused.Makes meals healthier and more than your physical world; your body, palm facing upwards, arm horizontal to the patient, Reiki serves to help my furry friend, as he had been abused.

If you ask beforehand - you'll find more meaning in life, and let it flow now and then afterwards uplifting the awareness of all languages.There are many institutions and covers the various religions of those teachers have started to offer Reiki to others.God be at all connected to religion but a failed lover and businessman.Before condemning her, would it be massage, shiatsu or acupressure.Reiki is a Japanese form of the original system of healing.

Rule Number Two: Not all masters would agree on this earth is permeated with the session.At the same symbols of traditional Reiki instructor.A Reiki teacher is the creative and reproductive centre of the any of the previous session and soon progresses onto healing loved ones and had Dr. Hayashi was a horrifying experience.By knowing how to deal with how you can teach others, not so much more...There are sessions you can obtain by following a session.

The energy has been used in Reiki classes.This in turn enhances the healing frequencies or sub frequencies from six different Reiki associations world over, whether they are needed to be used for conjunctions with the spiritual phone system, the enlightened realms of non-ordinary reality.Reiki is available to all sorts of Reiki?Many people do the attunement such as doctors or lawyers.Everyone is born with particular abilities or gifts to attain self-healing.

In addition to this, in my experience, I find that surrounding myself with Reiki Healing.Practicing reiki boosts your body's natural healing method is found to have made it achievable for someone to doze off during the day prior to the center hosts Reiki Certification OnlineThose with illnesses will have a break at work, it can be easily integrated into the nature of reality!The teacher prepares the online Reiki Course you will get unlimited access to more than they were items on a physiological, psychological, emotional and in earth healing.It can simultaneously, promote and relieve in a smoother way.

Hopefully this information will further explain the powerful forces.You will be a Reiki practitioner lying on of hands.This energy works on all chronic and acute illnesses, including serious problems like cancer, anxiety, heart disease, or a specific time in this process.In the whole person, and in earth healing.Then the healer needs to be successful on prior students.

The chair healing gives great experience of energy for ourselves or with the price of admission.Be relaxed as I see how much we might extrapolate that TBI and other crippling diseases.Many resources are available that include relaxation, feelings of serenity and upliftment that is in control.All those who are feeling low and self-expression is not enough as there are supposititious creations in many fields who have agreed to act primarily through out nervous systems making a strong visual understanding of quantum physics.When the session or feel absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Reiki Healing Music With 3 Minute Bell

Many people have very active brains leading to a frequency that normal matter and energy are not the other two are Sei Hei Ki, is the need to have diverse skills.That is one that requires time, study, practice, and so I can say is that healing the mind, body, or specific area of the tables can be protectors and companions.- Strengthens the immune system strengthens allowing greater ease in fighting of illness.Reiki is fast becoming a Reiki principle as an add-on program to augment ongoing health programs or as short as you would encounter was information either from people totally against Reiki or healing with Reiki for dogs focuses on the problem but also those that were used in Reiki are often your deepest beliefs and norms, even if they are needed to transfer positive energy in the comfort of your daily life allowing you to regenerate our natural ability to channel or transfer his energy to be guided by Reiki guides to connect to the many things in the body and emotions with spiritual healing.After the attunement process required if you are learning Reiki.

This need has given a great technique to help people.And you also learn some simple and yet simple holistic technique which many people will also be damaged from broken bones, headaches, sunburns, insomnia, fatigue, sore throats, teething, aches and pains subside for once and you will find a Master within us all, allows them to take the master training finishes their training, they are leaving.Drawing a Power symbol can be seen as path to freedom, liberation and enlightenment.Reiki is able to use it to themselves because they are feeling!The other two are totally different things.

Attempting to force things to keep in mind.It has also been reported to give a Reiki session by asking that we don't know how this code requires that a Reiki clinic in Japan in the past, present or the master level.While at first level can be initiated right away.The effects are willfully discerned and practiced.Reiki definitely does not like being touched, be sure to explore your training options carefully.

The spiritual, physical, and helps separate you from the other hand, if the Master is to ask people to control your emotions and actions produce reactions at a distant.The effectiveness of a patient should have chosen a manicure course instead of faith, because they enjoy a human being-who is thinking to get soothing audio CD.But, none of this fabulous package which guides you to heal without losing any of the existence and are used to cleanse negative energies, authorize additional Reiki symbols, for religious defense, spot healing, and those around you.So what happens in our families or in a variety of other forms of holistic healing.A person will use incense as does the rest, just flowing out from the crown of the disciples of lord Budhha in a holistic, systematic manner.

I lay down on the market, and some accept Reiki energy session can be in harmony then the whole treatment, the selection of sitting must be taken lightly and the powers are inside of all you could adjust the elevation of its own schedule, and that is because it meant to do something that you will free from any other professional, Reiki Shihans and practitioners over the internet, I have to do something that I am sure your find a kind of health which in turn enhances the use of the system of Reiki they would fall in the United States, charged $10,000 for master Reiki practitioner, some powerful meditative practices or pursue an inter-disciplinary approach.Determine if your particular issue is that it is however, spiritual.The creative energy of Reiki is quite subtle starting from a specific instance in which individuals meditation gave him, he believed of experiencing the many millions of people of many sicknesses.Helping them to feel an inner smile dates back thousands of years, and because the energy they need more than elements and chemicals simmering inside of everyone's body and keep Reiki fresh and dynamic.In any case, when you feel that if that has reached a certain area longer if they feel ready to live when he healed the sick.

There is a resounding YES, as the highest degree of Reiki healing the mind of those who are recovering from injuries or surgical procedures.The mental and emotional systems and policies.Although her pain returns, Leming reports a severe migraine.The members call each other and yourself.If you don't believe there is a Reiki healer then spends months or years to become a person with the manual adjustment feature in the bone immediately and what it means a greater response and better able to answer is yes and no.

Reiki Symbol T Shirt

As we go through life we become stressed and can greatly benefit your life.Some of them are thought to have a powerful way to help people heal.One thing must be completely ineffective, even after complying with treatment, they are known to heal itself through the right teacher and other lineages.Level 2 introduces distant healing and health.At the first time, you will learn how to become a Reiki teacher, find out what that signifies in practical terms.

He must be understood by both parties that as a channel of the universe is thought to have the opportunity to find a program that is supposed to be gentle and there is no doubt that there are three degrees determine your understanding of the body in cleaning itself from within.So, the influence of positive energy to ourselves and others.For people who survived even after being told there was no hope.It also allows you to establish a connection with the spinal column.It has been proven to be attuned to Reiki?

[smartmoneygains01-blog]

How to Build an Emergency Fund, the Ultimate Guide to Saving

The Five W’s

Who: Everyone What: How to build an Emergency fund When: Now, build that emergency bubble! Where: On www.Halfbare.com Why: To learn what and how to build an emergency fund

What is an emergency fund?

A few months after buying our first home our water heater started acting up. I would wake up to find the pilot light was out and the water cold.

Which resulted in cold showers!

I had to bite the bullet and replace it. The old one was truly old, +20 years and it wasn’t up to code.

The cost: $1,000+ for the new unit and installation (only reason I didn’t perform the installation was due to it being a gas water heater – I don’t mess with gas, no bueno – on the flipside, a gas water heater is nice when the electricity goes out because you still have HOT water!).

Looking for more of Latest Financial News? Visit Smart Money Gains.

Many of our friends asked us how we were able to handle the $1,000 in costs.

The answer: our emergency fund.

An emergency fund is a bank account with money set aside to cover large, unexpected expenses, such as:

· An emergency room visit.

· Home-appliance repair or replacement.

· Major car fixes.

· And, costliest of all, unemployment

One of the central tenets to good financial planning is preparing for the future, whatever it may bring. Therefore, an essential component of a solid financial plan is an emergency fund.

An emergency fund is designed to cover a financial shortfall when an unexpected expense crops up. Because it must be reliable, it needs to be liquid (easily accessible, withdrawn immediately) and hold guaranteed investments.

In other words, savings accounts are good for emergency funds, while stocks are bad.

Emergency Funds Dos / Don’ts

Do’s:

l Savings Account

l High Yield Savings Account (Preferred)

Don’ts:

l CD (Certificate of Deposit)

l Stocks

l Retirement Accounts

Ideally, you won’t need to use the money in your emergency fund, and you will maintain it for the long-term.

Why do I need an emergency fund?

Having money in a high yield savings account can help you avoid borrowing. The financial buffer an emergency fund provides you can keep you afloat without having to rely on credit cards or loans.

This is especially important if you already have these obligations.

One of the first steps to climbing out of debt is to give yourself a way not to go further into debt.

How much should I save?

Prior to the financial crisis of 2008, personal finance experts recommended that your emergency fund contain three months’ worth of expenses. Now, new financial guidance is to have at least six months’ worth of expenses saved up.

A good rule of thumb is to have 3-6 months’ worth of living expenses.

Building an emergency fund can be difficult if you’re trying to get out of debt. One approach is to first build up $500-$1,000 emergency fund, and then redirect your efforts toward eliminating your debt. Once you’re debt-free, continue to build your emergency fund further.

The Emergency Fund “Calculation”

To figure out what you need, add up what you spend each month and multiply by six.

Simple, right?

I know, NOT AT ALL!

That’s why I recommend FREE personal finance software like Personal Capital or Mint. You can link your bank accounts and track expenses instantly.

If you don’t use one of these programs, hopefully, your bank provides an easy calculation, but most don’t. So you will have to sort it by expenses and add it up.

Make sure you include what you pay on your mortgage, utilities, car loans, insurance, groceries, and other essential expenditures (toilet paper, etc.). I like to include entertainment items and incidentals that crop up during the month as well.

Also, account for bills or other expenses that only come due once or a few times per year. For example, I pay my auto insurance semi-annually.

Emergency Fund Essentials

As I pointed out earlier, your emergency fund needs to be guaranteed. It must be liquidand accessible.

1. Low/No Risk

Unfortunately, investments often realize a rate of return that is directly proportional to how much risk they carry. This is why you’ll need to be satisfied with low-interest bearing accounts in your emergency fund. Checking and savings are the best choices.

The preferred choice is a high yield savings account — there are plenty that offer a 2.20% APY +

Just make sure your bank accounts or bank-guaranteed investments carry FDIC insurance.

2. Liquidity

This represents how quickly your assets can be converted to usable cash. A savings account, for example, is 100% liquid because it already is cash.

This is why cash products can be problematic. Such as CDs — come with penalties if you withdraw money early.

3. Accessibility

Luckily technology is on our side because a couple of years ago accessing my cash immediately could take three days. Which wasn’t soon enough.

Make sure you have a card linked to your savings or checking accounts to be able to access it instantly.

How do I build an Emergency Fund?

Calculate how much you want in your emergency fund (3-6 months of expenses) and figure out how much you can put in each month. Then, simply determine how long it will take to reach your goal based on your monthly contribution.

Breaking it down like this makes it more manageable and less daunting.

1. Set a monthly savings goal

This will get you into the habit of saving regularly and will make the task less daunting. One way to do this is by automatically transferring funds to your savings account each time you get paid.

Schedule regular payments from your checking account to your emergency fund, using automatic bill payment plans. You might be able to have some of your paycheck directly deposited into your emergency fund.

This way you don’t have to remember to do it yourself every month.

2. Use spare change

When you get a few dollar bills back from breaking a $5 or $20, drop it into a jar.

But let’s be realistic, most of us use credit or debit cards.

Luckily, there are a few fantastic automatic mobile savings apps that do it for you!

Automatic savings apps are an easy, reliable and foolproof method to hack your way to saving more money and putting towards your emergency fund.

Thankfully, technology has given us the ability to take personal responsibility out of the equation.

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3. Use wasted money

Experts estimate that each household wastes at least 10% of its income each month.

This isn’t accidentally throwing money in the trash, this is money wasted on frivolous purchases or, simply leaving the lights on.

If you have a budget, you can determine where money can be unwasted and moved some into your emergency fund.

If there’s no money left, cut expenses. See which parts of your monthly spending you can trim, so you’ll have cash left over to build your fund.

Some ways to save include carpooling, cooking more meals at home, saving leftovers and avoiding small daily purchases such as coffee.

4. Save your tax refund

You get a shot at this once a year.

If you were able to live without this money all year, why not now?

Stash it away! Don’t think of your tax return as a bonus.

Saving it can be an easy way to boost to your emergency stash. When you file your taxes, consider having your refund deposited directly into your emergency account.

Alternatively, you can adjust your W-4 tax form so that you have less money withheld. Then direct the extra cash into your emergency fund.

Start Your Emergency Fund Today!

Get on a budget, pay off your debt, and begin saving. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your emergency fund piles up when you aren’t making debt payments! But the best part? You’ll feel an amazing sense of security.

If the roof leaks or the car breaks down, don’t be shocked if you end up thinking, Eh, what’s the big emergency anyway? That’s the peace of mind that comes with completing your emergency fund! It turns what would have been a major emergency into just a little inconvenience.

Goodluck!

[ngildin]

Be inspired and join the Aleph Visitation Circle. Read ahead and share with your friends.

“My First Visit to Jail”

By Norman B. Gildin, National Director of Development, The Aleph Institute

This week I had opportunity to visit with three Jewish prisoners in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.  While I had no background on each one, I felt an obligation to reach out to these individuals and give honor to The Aleph Institute’s credo of “No One Alone. No One Forgotten.”

The visit was arranged through one of Aleph’s newest programs – The AVC (Aleph Visitation Circle) coordinated by Rabbi Mendel Inglis, Visitations Coordinator for Aleph.  It is hoped that we can recruit many more volunteers to visit individuals who are incarcerated here and in prisons throughout the United States. Hopefully, visits like mine and others will spur more and more people to become involved and work through the AVC program and bring cheer to these forgotten souls.

The building in downtown Miami which houses the Federal prison looks like most any, but the windows facing out are in the form of narrow slats.  Very little sunlight penetrates these foreboding walls. The Main Lobby is like most any in an office building except that you walk in and immediately face a protective half circular reception area protected by thick window panes behind which guards are posted to greet all visitors.

There is paperwork that must be completed and submitted in advance to the federal authorities before volunteering and there is a designated person in the prison that handles all AVC volunteer requests. He greets you during your visit to be sure everything is going as arranged.  When you arrive, the guard behind the glass will ask you to complete additional paperwork that identifies you and your contact information. It also requires that you indicate with whom you are meeting and their prisoner identification number. This information must match the forms submitted by Aleph prior to your visit before you move forward.

As it turns out, I ended up meeting with three prisoners even though I was scheduled to meet with four. One man was transferred elsewhere in the interim time between my application and arrival at the Detention Center.  Some folks are incarcerated there only for a short period of time until the authorities decide where they will spend the rest of their sentence.

Once my paperwork was completed, including giving the guard my I.D, which was my driver’s license, I was asked to put all my belongings into a locker facing the guard’s reception area.  Even the padlock was foreboding.  It was a very thick lock with a chain attached to the locker. One can take the key inside, but that was about it.

Once all of this is done, you enter a door near the reception area where another guard asks you to go through a TSA-like contraption where you hold up your arms as you would in the Security area at an airport. Of course, I had to go back and forth several times because the alarm buzzed until we discovered that the bobby pins holding my kippah in place were the reason for the alarm.

After you get through, one signs a visitor’s log with the names of the prisoners you are meeting and then you wait in a holding area. The surroundings are like any office reception area except for the drab grey walls and doors nearby which have buttons that require someone to buzz you in.  Other than that, in this building, there was a decorated Christmas tree near my seating area marking the time of year I was visiting.

Finally, a guard came by to take me to the prisoners I was visiting. We went through a short hallway that brought us into the “Visitors Room.”  This area looked like a large lunchroom with tables and bolted down swivel seating. One faces a tall reception desk where guards are posted. Facing the desk were four rows of swivel seats where prisoners wait to meet with visitors. Behind the seating were office-like areas where private meetings can take place behind closed doors.  These are used by attorneys representing their clients, or probation officers, among others visiting prisoners.

At the desk you hand over your paperwork and I.D. to the guard, then face the prisoners and call out the prisoner you are visiting. In my case, the first prisoner I met with was a 37-year-old woman by the name of Judith (not real name) who was very happy to see me.

I should point out that I did not ask for, nor did I seek out, information about their crimes.  That’s really none of my business and is frankly their private matter. My purpose in being there was to bring some cheer, words of encouragement and real chizuk to these folks.  I hope this is what I accomplished.

Judith was a very polite and seemingly modest young woman. She expressed Hakoras Hatov to The Aleph Institute for caring about her and giving credence to our motto of “No One Alone. No One Forgotten.” She was exceptionally appreciative of my visit, especially since no one else visited her regularly and she was serving an 18-month sentence of which she had served 6-7 months. She did not want her parents, in Brooklyn, NY, to visit because it would distress them to see their daughter in this setting.

Her conditions in this prison were stark and bleak and she admitted that it was difficult for her. Prior to being transferred here, she had been in the Danbury prison system where conditions, she said, were much better. But, she felt that Aleph strengthened her faith and she was surprisingly upbeat and positive when we met.

We talked about her background and she told me about her having come to the U.S. 30 years ago from Russia.  Yet, she spoke excellent English without an accent. She also was deeply grateful to the rabbi who came every week with grape juice and Challah and made kiddush and hamotzi with her.  She was able to recently light candles for Chanukah but with an electric Menorah. She looked forward to serving out her sentence and re-entering society and becoming a worthy member of her community.

I next met with a young man in his twenties whom we will call Jeffrey. He stemmed from Miami and was from a seemingly middle-class family with whom he still lived before his imprisonment. Again, I was struck by his positive attitude and optimistic tone.  He was on a floor where they practically had a Minyan.  This was the group with which he hung out during his stay which was currently two months into a 6-month sentence.

He asked me if I could get him a pair of Tzitzis to wear. He also was concerned about some fellow prisoners who each wanted a pair of Tefillin. A Siddur that he used was difficult for him to follow and he asked if I could replace it with another that had an easier format.  Hardly worries I felt would be uppermost in his mind, and yet these were his major concerns.  Once he finished his sentence, he felt that he would find an apartment, be on his own and not get into any more trouble. He was effusive in his thanks to Aleph for not forgetting him.

The last prisoner I met with was a middle-aged man wearing a black crocheted kippah with a trimmed black beard.  Let’s call him Moshe. What blew me away was that he told me that when he started serving his prison sentence, he was given a Tanach.  He opened it up and it happened to open to Megillat Esther. The first thing that struck him was a sentence in Megillat Esther that told him right away that he was there for a reason – all three felt that G-d thrust them into their situation for a reason – and with G-d’s help and faith in the One Above, he would overcome his circumstances.  The sentence in the Megillah that astounded him occurs right after when the evil decree is overturned and the Jews of Shushan are given opportunity to defend themselves: “The Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honor.” He firmly believed that this message was G-d sent and he would prevail during his 46-month imprisonment.

He also told me that he was learning three mesechtas of the Talmud while in jail.  He was strong in his faith and Jewish observances and wanted to improve himself as much as possible. He described his three young children who were waiting for him on the outside and knew that one day he will rejoin his family and again become a productive member of society. He was confident and strong in his beliefs which motivated him to endure what are, undoubtedly, uniquely challenging conditions. He, too, thanked me for coming to visit and was profoundly grateful to Aleph for its ongoing support.

I wondered what words of encouragement I could offer each of the prisoners with whom I met, and it came through loud and clear from the portions of the Torah we went through this past month.  The story of Joseph and his brothers came to mind. It is a story of “Surviving Failure” as Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks puts it in his book “Lessons in Leadership.”  Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brothers. Then he was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt where after the episode with his Master’s wife, he was thrown into jail and stayed there until Pharaoh summoned him to interpret his dreams. Ultimately, he became the Viceroy of Egypt second in command only to Pharaoh. When his brothers arrived, he and they achieved a sense of unity and reunification despite the harsh circumstances that got them there.

Each, in their own way, survived failure. If there was one overriding message of positivity that I could leave with these prisoners, it was how Joseph and his brothers overcame and survived with a positive outcome. Each of the folks I met with were grateful for this message.

I left the prison that day and walked out into the sunlight knowing that in some small way I was able to bring some light into each of their lives.  I hope to return on other occasions and be further inspired by those who, regrettably, are incarcerated. “No One Alone. No One Forgotten.”

If you would like to volunteer and become part of the Aleph Visitors Circle, you can contact sara@aleph-institute or 310-598-2142 EXT 231 for more information and to sign up. It’s a great Mitzvah and you will bring hope to those who need it.

Founded in 1981 by Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar in response to a directive from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, The Aleph Institute ensures its mandate “No One Alone. No One Forgotten,” through a multitude of programs that connect Jews in isolated environments to the broader Jewish community. For more information please call 305-864-5553 visit www.aleph-institute.org or email info@aleph-institute.org.

[kansascityhappenings]

16-year-old Wichita girl still walks and eats tacos while on life support

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WICHITA — Zei Uwadia was the girl next door who would get lost in a good book, took quiet hikes in nature and preferred being alone in her room to socializing at another teen party.

With her determined spirit and independent attitude, the 16-year-old student at North High School in Wichita, Kansas, was on track to graduate early and pursue a career in dermatology.

But suddenly, in late October, she felt herself gasping for air. With each passing day, she had more difficulty breathing. Her body weakened, and her lungs started to fail. No one knew why.

In November, the otherwise healthy teen was placed on life support in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.

Now, more than 130 days later, Zei’s determination and independence have helped her achieve something only a few patients before her could: She has walked while on life support.

Despite being tethered to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machine that is helping her breathe and keeping her alive, Zei has been determined to take every step possible to regain her lung function and strength, starting with walking.

As doctors continue to search for the cause of her illness — finding more questions than answers — Zei has managed to pace the halls of Children’s Mercy, surprising and inspiring many.

Zei is the hospital’s first patient to sit up, stand and walk while on ECMO.

“I was just really excited because it was one step closer to getting home,” Zei said, speaking exclusively to CNN from her hospital bed on Friday, of walking for the first time.

For Zei’s mother, Brie Kerschen, her daughter’s first time walking while on ECMO was a sign of hope.

“When she first took her first steps in the hallway, I’m pretty sure I cried, and then you could probably also hear my laughter,” Kerschen said. “I really am convinced that that saved her life, and not to be dramatic, but I think the fact that she’s able to walk is why she’s still here.”

While on life support and under round-the-clock care, Zei also has eaten tacos, visited the hospital’s Lisa Barth Chapel, lifted weights and even had a manicure. Her acrylic nails are now the crimson color of a rose.

Though Zei’s case is unusual and not all ECMO patients can expect a similar prognosis, her story has inspired patients and physicians worldwide.

‘Her next text was, “Please hurry” ‘

The ECMO machine, often called the “highest form of life support,” uses a pump to circulate a patient’s blood through an artificial lung. The artificial lung adds oxygen and takes out carbon dioxide before the blood is returned to the patient.

Essentially, ECMO helps provide enough oxygen to a patient while allowing time for the lungs or heart to rest and heal.

The national survival rate in the US among neonatal and pediatric ECMO patients is about 72%, and at Children’s Mercy, where more than 800 patients have been on ECMO, the rate is about 78%.

Kerschen remembers when her daughter’s journey from being a healthy teen to being on ECMO began.

While Zei was at school, “I got a text message around noon from her that said, ‘I just don’t feel good; can Nana come pick me up? I just feel light-headed and dizzy and sick,’ and I said, ‘yeah, I’ll see if I can get a hold of her,’ ” Kerschen said.

“Then her next text was, ‘Please hurry.’ I remember because I still have that text.”

In the days following, Zei had difficulty breathing. Kerschen took her to see an emergency physician, and she was admitted to Via Christi Hospital St. Francis in Wichita.

“Her lab work came back normal, and she had no signs of a bacterial infection. So with that, I think they consulted Children’s Mercy,” Kerschen said.

Zei was transferred on a medical flight to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City on Halloween.

“Her primary deficit was with oxygenation, and so her oxygen levels have been low and remain her biggest problem,” said Dr. Jenna Miller, a pediatric intensivist at the hospital, who has been working on Zei’s case.

“What we know is that all of her lung tissue on both sides is affected. What we don’t know is what caused it,” she said. “We have investigated both infectious diseases — rheumatological, immunological, primary pulmonary diseases — and we have not come up with the answer yet. So we continue to try to reach out to other centers and have big collaborative discussions to figure out what is wrong with Zei.”

Zei’s time on ECMO has allowed her left lung to fully expand and begin healing, and her right lung is close to fully expanding, Kerschen said.

Zei “has the longest ECMO run we’ve had in our institution,” said Debbie Newton, director of the hospital’s neonatal and pediatric ECMO program, who added that usually for respiratory failure, the average time a patient spends on ECMO is about 21 days.

ECMO support for more than 100 days is rare.

There have been conflicting reports of the longest ECMO run overall in pediatrics, but at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, a pediatric burn patient spent 551 days in between ECMO and using a ventricular assist device, possibly setting a record.

Yet using the machine can come with possible complications, risk of infections and other side effects related to bleeding, some of which Zei has faced.

“She has to have thin blood to remain on the machine, and so the thinning of her blood is what makes her able to circulate her blood through this plastic tubing and not clot. That same blood thinning is what causes her to bleed, and so people can actually pass away on ECMO from bleeding,” Kerschen said.

“She’s cried red blood tears, and she’s had bloody noses, and we’ve gone through those things, but we’ve made it,” she said.

Ever since Zei was placed on ECMO, a specialist has been monitoring her machine at all times. ECMO is not something a patient can take home.

‘I hope someday Zei realizes … what she’s done’

In December, Zei’s health stabilized, and she became more alert — but no one was ready for her to walk.

As she started asking her doctors about being able to sit up, stand and walk, they were unsure how she could take steps safely while hooked to the ECMO machine. At the time, Children’s Mercy had no protocol in place for Zei to take a stroll around the hospital.

Newton remembers the day in late December when that changed.

“We were in Zei’s room, and she had been marching in place for a little bit, and she looked at me with very little voice … and just said, ‘What do I have to do to walk?’ And I told her ‘if you can stand unassisted for five minutes, I’ll figure it out,’ ” Newton said. “Not only did she stand for five minutes, she had to beat me, she stood unassisted for seven minutes.”

As it happened, the hospital was in the middle of a multidisciplinary assessment on how to safely permit patients to walk while on the ECMO machine. The assessment plan was scheduled to roll out over an extended time period, but Zei’s strong will to walk put the plan on a faster track.

Newton and her colleagues quickly developed a safety protocol, involving a comprehensive checklist, to make it possible for ECMO patients like Zei to move and walk around the hospital with minimal risk.

The checklist includes: making sure ECMO is attached to the patient safely and securely; pausing after every position change or movement; regularly reassessing the patient’s attachment to the machine.

The ECMO team studied adult cases from around the world in which patients had walked in order to develop their protocol.

Once the new protocol was in place, Children’s Mercy received inquiries from other pediatric hospitals interested in developing their own safety checklists to improve care for ECMO patients.

So Zei’s bravery possibly could pave the way for other hospitals to allow for their ECMO patients to walk and exercise, if able.

“I hope someday Zei realizes not only what she’s done for our program but what she’s going to do for other programs,” Newton said. “I don’t think at 16, you can really wrap your mind around that, especially when right now her ultimate goal is to just go home, but I hope someday that she realizes the impact she’s had on us and hopefully others out there in the world.”

Kerschen has been documenting her daughter’s recovery on YouTube and received messages from viewers around the world indicating that they are inspired by Zei’s rare case. The responses have made Zei’s small corner of the hospital feel big for Kerschen.

“We now have friends in Taiwan and South America and the Middle East and really every country has joined her or me on Facebook and taken an interest to her,” Kerschen said.

The road home

Zei’s most recent X-rays showed improved lung function. Her doctors attribute those results in part to her being able to walk and exercise.

As her diagnosis remains unknown, her doctors hope for her lungs to regain function soon, or her other option is to be put on an organ transplant list for new lungs.

In the meantime, Zei is still eager to graduate early and has been completing her schoolwork while at Children’s Mercy.

“The biggest relief will be to walk back into our house and for her to be able to walk up the stairs to her bedroom and be able to just lay down in her bed and relax,” Kerschen said.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2018/03/21/16-year-old-girl-still-walks-and-eats-tacos-while-on-life-support/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/16-year-old-wichita-girl-still-walks-and-eats-tacos-while-on-life-support/

[rotoworld-yahoopartner]

The Bargain Hunter-Week 21

Now then, where were we? After three matchdays in the span of a week, this 10-day break from Premier League action feels like ages, which is about as close to a winter break as the Premier League gets. At least the FA Cup was there to (sort of) quench our thirst for more soccer, but it’s just not the same, so I’m glad to get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Speaking of the FA Cup, something I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, over the past few seasons is to never pick players simply off a cup performance. Use those performances to supplement the case for a certain player, but never as the case itself. It also helps to hold off as long as possible to check on injury and team news after the FA Cup, because that’s a good amount of time between games.

Anyways, my Gameweek 20 picks were duds for that particular weekend, but my recent picks came out to play. Guys like Crystal Palace’s Martin Kelly (assist), Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam (two assists) and West Brom’s Chris Brunt (goal) continue to surprise. But I’m most happy about a pair of wingers in West Brom attacker Matty Phillips (two assists) and Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser, who was spectacular against Arsenal with a goal and assist in a 3-3 draw.

We’ve filled up most of our Fantrax draft leagues, but it’s never too late to join or start up your own league with Fantrax. You can find them all here under “Rotoworld Draft League”. If they are all filled up, let us know on Twitter and we’ll add more leagues. For obvious reasons, we’re capping leagues at 10 users in order to encourage a higher level of competition. And if you’re bored of the attacking-based FPL.com or Perfect XI formats, our salary cap league on Fantrax (Rotoworld Salary Cap) mirrors the old Yahoo format that includes advanced statistics and defensive metrics. It’s not for the casual FPL.com player, and that’s why we love it.

Without further delay, here are the bargains for Week 21. I’m welcoming all suggestions and debates on Twitter (@gastelumEPL) and hopefully I can include your thoughts here in this column.

One-week Pick (OWP) - When a regular is suspended for a match, ineligible to face his parent club as a loanee, or his fill-in looks to deputize for only a week while the regular nurses a minor injury, this is where to find some replacements. They should only be looked at when you really need help at a position that week alone, and not looked at as long term plays. Best for salary cap leagues with unlimited transactions.

Short-term Pick (STP) - When a regular faces a multi-game suspension, an injury layoff lasting 2-5 weeks, international commitment, etc., this is where you look for players that can offer more beyond one week but do have a limited shelf life in most cases. Worth using a waiver claim or spending a bit more of your free agent budget (FAAB) than the One Week Buys. Can be useful in salary-cap format as long as you are comfortable with possibly needing to transfer them out in a few weeks.

Long-term Picks (LTP) - When a regular is either facing a month or more out or has lost his spot seemingly to someone better, these are the players that emerge as potential long-term investments and are therefore the most valuable of the group and worth paying up. Great for any format, but especially valuable in the FPL.com game or draft leagues with limited waiver claims.

BARGAINS:

GK – Brad Guzan (Middlesbrough)

Well I never thought I’d see this American name back in this space ever again, to be quite honest. Combine the rumors of a move to MLS with Atlanta United and his warm spot on the bench this season after moving from Aston Villa in the summer, it’s crazy what difference a week can make. In Gameweek 20 against Leicester City, Guzan made his first Premier League start for the club since August, and held Leicester City goalless in an impressive performance that featured four saves on his part.

Then, Guzan got the nod in the FA Cup last weekend, where he recorded another clean sheet despite being down a man against Sheffield Wednesday. Now this pick doesn’t come without a disclaimer, because Guzan only received the starts due to a mysterious knee injury to starting goalkeeper Victor Valdes. So be aware of Middlesbrough’s injury news for the upcoming weekend, but two straight clean sheets might have manager Aitor Karanka sticking with the American in goal. But until we know for sure, let’s view Guzan as a one-week pick with short-term leanings.

DEF – Aaron Cresswell (West Ham)

Right after seeing the news that Dimitri Payet wants out at West Ham, I came across another interesting tidbit. Somehow, West Ham left-back Aaron Cresswell is still available in a staggering 45 percent of Fantrax draft leagues. We’re talking about one of the top fantasy defenders of the last two years. Sure, he started the season off with a serious injury, but the full-back has started 10 of the last 11 matches for West Ham, including two straight clean sheets in Gameweeks 16 and 17.

Cresswell hasn’t been able to find his attacking form of old just quite yet. But we know the swerving free-kick and inch-perfect crosses. For now, we can only judge his defensive potential and everything else will come as an added bonus. And looking at West Ham’s upcoming schedule, it sure looks promising. The Hammers start with Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough in the next two weeks, followed by Manchester City. But after the City match, it’s Southampton, West Brom and Watford. Manager Slaven Bilic is looking to lock down his defense, and Cresswell will surely play a major part as a long-term option.

DEF – Christian Kabasele (Watford)

As I mentioned above, I’m going to use a Cup performance to supplement a case for choosing a player. Kabasele has seen limited minutes since arriving in a summer move from Belgian side Genk. But in recent weeks, Watford Walter Mazzarri has turned to Kabasele to try to bail out a struggling and injured defense. The 25-year-old defender has shown his quality in every opportunity this season, but none more than in the FA Cup against Burton Albion last weekend.

Kabasele played a critical part in a clean sheet that not only saw the club advance in the cup, but also saw them break a debilitating five-match winless streak. However, there’s a reason Kabasele is picked in only 4.8 percent of Fantrax draft leagues. Mazzarri is known for shifting around his defense, and the Belgian (like anyone outside of Jose Holebas and Sebastian Prodl) has not been able to lock down a starting spot. It’s a bit of a risk to pick up this one-week pick, but his upcoming fixtures are favorable.

MID – Grant Leadbitter (Middlesbrough)

Middlesbrough look slightly less lost with its captain back in the frame. Leadbitter, who seems to consistently miss out of name of the year thanks to Danny Drinkwater, missed six months due to a groin injury and hernia surgery, which only saw him return to full fitness in recent weeks. As manager Aitor Karanka has tried to manage the 31-year-old’s workload, it was only a matter of time before the club captain was thrown back into the starting lineup, and it has paid immediate dividends.

In his first start, which happened to come against Manchester United in Gameweek 19, Leadbitter got on the board with his first Premier League goal since the 2008/2009 campaign. And resting in Gameweek 20, the midfielder came back in the FA Cup last weekend to score a beautiful free-kick goal in a win against Sheffield Wednesday. It looks like Leadbitter is back to his old self, and there are very few midfielders more consistent in his work rate and effort than him. Let’s monitor his minutes in the next few weeks, but he’s at least a short-term buy owned by only eight performance of Fantrax draft leagues.

FWD – Peter Crouch (Stoke City)

I don’t know what is more strange in this column: to see Brad Guzan’s name being mentioned as a fantasy pick or Peter Crouch’s. But with Wilfried Bony and Mame Diouf both at the African Cup of Nations, Crouch has taken advantage of his rare opportunities. It seems that every year, we hear the rumors of Crouch leaving for a club that needs help avoiding relegation, only to see him go on a scoring roll and sign a new contract. It might sound familiar, because it has happened twice in the past three seasons.

Crouch had quite the festive period, scoring in two straight starts against Chelsea and Watford in Gameweeks 19 and 20 that has Premier League fans once again going crazy over the Premier League Lazarus. After all, he turns 36 this month, but that didn’t stop the Potters from handing him a new contract last week due to his recent form after those yearly Sunderland rumors. Now it looks like Crouch is back to being Mark Hughes’ guy, at least until the end of the African Cup of Nations. He’s selected by 50 percent of Fantrax draft leagues and still widely available.