#but it’s not a guarantee they’ll stay there indefinitely

[monarchisms]

for the theater mode enjoyers: unfortunately, the entire series was taken down from rooster teeth’s website around a week ago:

as explained by chelsea, all of the episodes had to be taken down because rt lost the rights to the films that were used in the show. on the bright side, excluding the aux episodes, every other episode has been backed up to the internet archive. it’s separated by group: achievement hunter, funhaus, and cow chop.

[yandere-sins]

So I thought I’d give a little life-update as there’s a lot going on at the moment and I think it’s visible on my blog as well. Maybe the positives first:

I do really like my new work, I like that I have set hours (even if I do overtime here and there) and though it got incredible stressful the last few weeks, I think the four people that work in my office space are the coolest in the whole company and I love the support I am getting, it’s something I always wanted for my work-life tbh! My dog is also doing very fine, she’s really a total sweetheart and I wouldn’t know what to do without her, and at least I, myself, am doing pretty okay-ish physically, so nothing to complain there.

Now to the negatives.

Unfortunately, my mom’s cancer returned but is quite hard to pinpoint. She went back to an even more aggressive chemotherapy and we’re hoping for the best. Honestly, I don’t wish cancer on anyone, it’s such a tough battle and even just as the primary caretaker it’s been really hard to deal with for me, luckily I have grandparents and a brother who all deal with it and help and support, so that’s good! My mental health though is suffering. It’s biting my own butt now, but I cancelled therapy to focus on work at the beginning of this year and now my therapist is fully booked, so I will have to sit out this month probably. I am telling that because that’s the reason I am struggling with concentrating on one thing for a long time, which includes writing, which explains the fluctuation of posts you are seeing, since I try to get requests and drafts done on the weekend when there’s less stress. Sadly only works like 30% of the time...

Going forward I have decided to indefinitely pause commissions. I have noticed that they put too much pressure with the deadline and expectancy on me when I am already struggling and sometimes need a day to myself. I can’t say when they’ll come back, but thank you all so much for your interest and support, it’s always a pleasure to write your ideas and I never had a bad experience with commission ♥

Good news for Mermay: it’s still happening! ... buuuut I am shortening the story I came up with. I think I was too ambitious with the three routes I teased, so I am trying to figure out how to ensure that it won’t drag out as much as Atreo’s story last year. Unfortunately, the start will be delayed some more, but we were going to celebrate Mer-June anyway, so at this point it probably doesn’t make as much difference (’:

Because the question arose a few times already, I will not be playing Honkai Star Rail. It has a few reasons, but the main one is I don’t have the time. Sorry to everyone who asked about it, but it’s just not the right time for me at the moment! ): I’ll probably be miserable again later when everyone has moved on to it and I am stuck behind but I have to make cuts somewhere ;;

I actually have some commissions and requests that I haven’t released yet, so I will try to schedule some of these in the meantime while I work out how to go about stuff. If you’ve been around for a while you probably know I like routines that’s why it’s always important for me to build them and keep them up. Other than that, I’ll probably focus on Mermay and my own writing projects which will happen rather irregularly. No guarantees on posting, sadly ):

I do realize tho that it just isn’t always possible to keep up frequency of posts and interactions I had when I started this blog, as much as it saddens me. I have to prioritze my real life before my internet presence (and I really need to not feel guilty about taking breaks from everything ever so often ;;), so if you see me vanishing for a few days, it’s just that really.

Thank you everyone who stuck around and supports this blog ♥ There’s another big milestone coming up veeery soon and I am always in awe that so many people would stay to read my silly little stories!! If you have some time and don’t mind waiting for a response, I’m always happy to chat and answer questions, so please don’t hesitate to hit me up!

Thanks everyone ♥

[vacantgodling]

re. about

ren (or rimz for cool kids). he/him. twenty five. black. queer. neurodivergent.

i'm redoing this because i'm losing steam (thanks work) and i'm pulling back on a lot of projects to mostly focus on things that make me personally happy. as is the nature of my brain, i will still jump back and forth between projects when i lose the flow for another, but i’ve narrowed my important wips down to just three main ones. other projects are currently being shelved, or put to the side as half baked ideas that i still need to keep in the oven before i introduce them to anyone formally.

(so if you don’t see a wip listed in the wips tab, it’s either shelved indefinitely or i want to work on it on my own for a bit. you can ask me about my other wips if you know/remember them but i can’t guarantee i’ll answer about them at this time. this also doesn’t mean i won’t ramble about them when i feel like it.)

important sideblogs = no pressure to follow just fyi

@babylonsfalling -> all my fandom and other nonsense goes here

@todazzlingreading -> this is a personal checklist for things i want to read by y’all that i don’t have time or spoons to get to at the moment i see it. once i read a post there i’ll delete it from that blog and rb it over here with any comments in the tags :3

to find my art commissions, please look here: https://www.tumblr.com/vacantgodling/715216537870532608/commissions-are-open

re. disclaimers / interaction

i mainly write fantasy; it’s a broad overarching label that covers all of my interests and it’s my first love in writing. horror and horror adjacent elements always make an appearance in my works. i emphasize complex mlm relationships and male leads, and romance is a great love of mine as you’ll notice from the king of my current wips. worldbuilding is also a great love of mine. i also love writing smut and talking about my characters having sex.

as such some disclaimers: following me is a very much curate your own experience. i don’t want to hold back talking about adult and mature themes so if you’re uncomfortable with anything i talk about i’d just suggest you unfollow lol nothing personal.

i’m open to asks and talking about anything but there’s no pressure. anons are always cool. i’m probably not gonna do writing based tag games too too much bc writing has been nonexistent lately but character asks or ramble ones i will do :)

also, as a personal ask: please do not refer to any of my characters as babygirl or girlie(s). shit makes me squick thanks.

re. main wips

linked are the main tags & once i finish the wip intros for paramour and tcol (revamping them) i’ll link them as well. feel free to ask to be on the taglist for any of these (i’m going to do better with these) — taglists will be activated for all writing and official posts. this won’t include ask games or random babbling.

PARAMOUR || “saved” from an imminent social death through arranged marriage, HYACINTHUS SHRAPNEL is whisked away to The Chateau aux Aisles D’or, where an unlikely sexual relationship with his butler AMON leads to far more than he bargained for.

THE CHRONICLES OF LATHSBURY (check out the crash course HERE) || The Aegean Guild of Explorers, led by the mysterious newcomer to Lathsbury Madja Fandel welcomes its newest contingent after the guild bid: PIPER FAIRWIND a MBW with a fighting spirit and desire for money and glory, DEUX UNDERSHIELD a naive protector seeking answers for her brother’s spurn, SANDRA “SAN” DEARBORN a vicious hunter with a chip on their shoulder, CLEAR BRIGHTENDALE a medic with a host of dark secrets, and FORTE SYMPHONIA a ranger seeking his own destiny, are as ready as they’ll ever be to enter the fray, to conquer the mysterious and dangerous LABYRINTH. Forces that have been in motion since before their lives even began are finally reaching their peak, and the five of them will have to use everything they’ve learned and then some to stay alive.

re. navigation

talking -> musings and personal thoughts

about renjamin -> insight to me / who i am

ren analysis -> when i get meta about my wips

ren mix -> a treasure trove of my music taste

ren polls -> any polls i make

ren reads -> for my ramblings and analysis as i try to get back into books

friends tag -> talking with friends or boosting my friends work

others work -> boosting other writeblrs work

hall of fame -> praise / things that make me happy that i want to keep

ren writing -> all of my writing in one place

ren poems -> all of my poems in one place

ren fic -> all of my fandom related writing in one place

ren art -> all my art

q eh you eh -> queue

sex mention -> tag for any sexual content.

worldbuilding -> all of my worldbuilding notes across all my wips

find the word tag -> for this game specifically so i can find it

last line tag -> for this game specifically so i can find it

ren hot cakes -> specifically for my overly opinionated opinions

writing recap -> tracking my writing journey so i can hold myself accountable

[my-music-1460]

How to Choose the Best Platforms for Your Music Using Deliver My Tune: A Guide for Emerging Artists

For emerging artists, distributing your music is one of the most critical steps in growing your career. With the sheer number of digital platforms available, selecting the right stores can feel overwhelming. Should you focus on platforms that offer higher royalties, or prioritize ones that provide better visibility for your genre? That’s where Deliver My Tune comes into play. This distribution service gives you access to multiple platforms, allowing you to strategically choose where to place your music. In this article, we'll explore how to choose which stores to distribute your music to using Deliver My Tune, based on essential factors like royalty rates, song live time, and audience reach.

For artists at the start of their careers, this decision can be particularly crucial. Choosing the right platforms can impact not just how many people hear your music, but also how much revenue you earn from your streams and downloads. We will cover everything from understanding which platforms are best suited for your genre to maximizing royalties and ensuring that your music remains live for as long as possible.

1. Focusing on Revenue: Royalty Rates

One of the first factors most artists consider is how much they’ll earn from each stream or download. When you distribute music using Deliver My Tune, you get access to a variety of platforms, each with different royalty structures. For emerging artists, this is vital because your income may initially come from streams, which means choosing platforms with the best payouts can significantly impact your revenue.

For example, some platforms like Apple Music and Tidal tend to offer higher per-stream payouts compared to Spotify, which has a much lower rate per stream but a larger audience. This trade-off between reach and revenue is important to weigh carefully.

Apple Music: On average, Apple Music pays around $0.01 per stream, which might seem small, but adds up over time.

Spotify: Spotify’s payouts are often lower (around $0.003 per stream), but the platform has millions of users, increasing your chances of being discovered.

Tidal: Known for its higher royalty rates, Tidal pays around $0.012 per stream, making it one of the most lucrative platforms for artists.

When deciding where to distribute your music, consider whether you prefer higher payouts or a larger audience to build exposure. The good news is, Deliver My Tune allows you to distribute across multiple platforms simultaneously, giving you the chance to explore both avenues.

2. Longevity and Staying Power: Song Live Time

How long your song stays live on a platform can also influence your success as an artist. Some platforms guarantee that your song will remain live indefinitely, while others may have time-based limitations. If you’re an emerging artist, ensuring that your music stays online for a long time is critical for building an audience over time.

Stores like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music generally keep your songs live indefinitely as long as the distribution agreements are in place. This offers a long-term benefit, as fans may discover your music months or even years after release.

With Deliver My Tune, you don’t have to worry about your tracks disappearing prematurely. The service ensures that your music remains available on the platforms you choose for the long haul, giving your music more time to gain traction and grow your fanbase.

3. Fan Discovery: Where Are Your Fans?

One of the biggest challenges for new artists is getting discovered. Different stores have different types of audiences, and understanding where your target listeners are spending their time can help you make more informed decisions. For instance, if your audience is younger and tends to consume music through streaming platforms, it might make sense to prioritize Spotify and YouTube Music.

Spotify: Spotify’s user base skews younger, making it ideal for pop, hip-hop, and indie artists who want to reach a digital-native audience.

Apple Music: While Apple Music has a slightly older demographic, it’s known for curated playlists, which can help you get noticed by tastemakers.

YouTube Music: For artists who rely on visuals to complement their music, YouTube Music offers an excellent way to merge audio and video, appealing to fans who enjoy music videos and live performances.

When using Deliver My Tune, you can distribute your music across all of these platforms, making it easier for your audience to find you, regardless of which platform they prefer.

4. Genre-Specific Platforms

Another consideration when choosing stores to distribute your music is genre relevance. Some platforms are better suited for specific genres, and distributing to the wrong ones might result in your music getting lost among millions of unrelated tracks.

Electronic and Dance Music: Platforms like Beatport cater specifically to electronic music, making it ideal for DJs and producers.

Bandcamp: For independent artists in niche genres, Bandcamp offers a direct-to-fan model, where listeners can buy your music and merchandise, giving you a higher share of the revenue.

Deliver My Tune allows you to distribute your music to a wide variety of platforms, but understanding which platforms are better suited to your genre will help you make the most of your distribution strategy.

5. Balancing Royalties with Reach

As an emerging artist, you’ll need to balance between maximizing your royalty earnings and getting your music in front of as many listeners as possible. For some, maximizing royalty rates may be the priority. For others, getting exposure may be the main goal. The beauty of using Deliver My Tune is that you can tailor your distribution strategy according to your needs.

Higher Royalties: If royalties are your primary concern, focus on platforms like Tidal, Amazon Music, and Apple Music, which tend to pay more per stream.

Greater Reach: If exposure is your priority, Spotify and YouTube Music offer much larger user bases, meaning more opportunities for people to discover your music.

By combining these strategies, you can achieve both goals—reaching a broad audience while still earning solid revenue from higher-paying platforms.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the process of choosing which stores to distribute your music to using Deliver My Tune is both an art and a science. As an emerging artist, your choices should be driven by factors like royalty rates, song live time, and where your fans are most likely to discover you. By focusing on platforms that offer a good balance between reach and revenue, you can maximize your exposure while still ensuring you earn a decent income from your music.

Ultimately, Deliver My Tune provides you with the flexibility to distribute your music across multiple platforms, allowing you to explore different avenues for both exposure and earnings. Whether you're aiming for visibility on large platforms like Spotify or targeting niche audiences on platforms like Bandcamp, Deliver My Tune ensures that your music is where it needs to be to help you grow as an artist.

[sabo-has-my-heart]

Hello~

I saw your emergency requests are open? I never asked for one, so I also have no idea if I truly should ask or not, so feel free to ignore it!

It's just my life is somehow crumbling apart? I don't know, everything feels so heavy, also I barely get myself through university and think of changing my directions. Maybe even dropping out, but the problem is what will my parents and family think? I don't want to disappoint them, even tho I feel like one whole disappointment already. Also I have an ED and depression and it gets worse again, I am kind of scared

So I wanted to ask maybe something fluff/comforting with Sabo who helps the reader through the change from university to maybe an internship or work? I don't know or just maybe some cuddling? I really don't know

So yeah! Thank you for reading! You can truly ignore this kf it makes you feel uncomfortable or you don't know what to write or whatever reason! I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable!

Please don't forget to drink so water and eat, also take some rest 🌻

Warnings: insecurities, vague mentions of mental and physical health problems, uncertainties

Word Count: 1020

Hi, yes, my emergency requests are open and so long as I’m not the one in need of one, they will likely stay open indefinitely. Don’t worry about asking for one, I’m happy to attempt to help. I’m sorry you’re going through this right now and I hope that either you have someone who can help you through it, can see a professional who can help you through it, or otherwise have some way to pull through, my heart is with you. Don’t worry about making me uncomfortable, it takes a lot more than this to make me uncomfortable and don’t worry, I’m eating and drinking just fine, gotta make sure to take good care of myself so I can take good care of my fans ❤.

Sitting on the couch, Sabo held you close, things hadn’t been going well lately. He’d made sure that, physically, you were taking care of yourself, but there wasn’t much he could do about your mental health. 

“It’s gonna be alright.” Sabo whispered, his hand running up and down your back. You didn’t want to be so worried over this, but what if you made the wrong choice? What if your family hated you for this? What if Sabo hated you for this? Part of you knew that he’d never hate you for something like this, he’d been supportive of all your decisions, good or bad, he’d been there for you through all of your anxieties and hardships and had worked with you through even the toughest of what he called ‘setbacks’. They aren’t failures, disasters, or fuck-ups, they were set-backs and obstacles, things that he would help you overcome. At first you’d hated how he called them ‘obstacles’. ‘Obstacles that make you stronger’, ‘this will just help you grow’. You’d heard it all. Sabo had just given you a sympathetic look and held you close like he always did. They weren’t there to help you grow, they weren’t put there to make you stronger, but they were there and he’d help you around it, together. 

“I just… I’ve put so much money into this.” you said, clinging to his shirt.

“Money that can be made back, money that was spent on figuring out what you truly want to do with your life, the path you want to take.” Sabo said, placing a gentle kiss to the top of your head.

“My parents, my family, they… they’ll be so disappointed.” you said, your eyes meeting his. The worry and fear in your gaze was so obvious even Luffy and Ace would be able to see it from a mile away.

“Your family loves you, they’ll understand in the long run. I can’t guarantee that they’ll be happy with your decision at first, but give them time, they’ll come to see that it’s for the best, that this is what makes you happy, that this is what you want, not what people think you should do.” he comforted, caressing your cheek.

“How would I even go about doing that? I don’t even know where to begin.” you asked, trying to think of how you would make the change.

“We start by asking around. We look into what kind of work you want to do, we decide what makes you happiest. Then we look into what you need for that. There are trade schools, internships, apprenticeships, so many options. Then we go from there.” Sabo explained.

“Go where? How? I-” Sabo placed a finger against your lips.

“We’ll figure that out as we go. It’s good to have a plan, but you can’t plan too much. So we’ll start with asking around and figuring out what you want to do, what you feel like you can do. We’ll start with taking one step at a time.” he said, placing another kiss on your forehead, “And no matter what happens, I’ll always be here for you. If you want to stay where you are, that’s fine, if you want to change majors, you know I’ll support you, if you want to work as a barista for the rest of your life? I expect you to start making my coffee for me in the morning.” Sabo joked, making you smile, “What matters most to me is that you’re happy, and I know it matters to the other people who care about you as well. If they love you, they’ll find contentment in your joy, even if it isn’t what the plan was. It might not be immediate, they might be upset at first, but they’ll come around in time.” Sabo reassured. You smiled and nodded, snuggling against his chest, his arms still wrapped tightly around you.

“You’ll always be here for me too, right?” you asked softly, the words muffled slightly against his chest.

“You couldn’t get rid of me even if you paid me or tried to drag me kicking and screaming. I’d fight through a thousand armies to stay here with you.” Sabo whispered, making you smile again. He was always so sweet, always knew exactly what to say when you felt so disheartened. Taking deep breaths, you let yourself relax ever so slightly, arms wrapped around him, his hold tightening around you, careful not to squeeze the life out of you but tight enough that you weren’t going anywhere. 

“No matter what happens, no matter your decision, no matter what hard times might try to tear you down, I’ll be here for you. Not even death itself will stop me.” Sabo breathed, making you smile.

“And how are you going to overcome death just to be here for me?” you asked. You loved hearing his silly answers, loved how he made you laugh, loved how willing he was to go to extraordinary lengths for you.

“There are a few ways. One is that I beat the shit out of death and make him bring me back to life. The second is to haunt you as a ghost and constantly cheer you on. You’ll come out of the shower and instead of the mirror saying ‘get out’ it’ll say ‘you can do it’. I hear that you can also challenge death to a game for a second chance at life. I could do that as well. No matter what, though, I’ll do whatever it takes.” he said, smiling as you laughed at his answer. To be fair, a ghost writing inspirational things like ‘hang in there’ and ‘I believe in you’ in red paint on the walls was a fairly funny thought. You took a deep breath, finally calming down as you lay on the couch with your boyfriend, a sense of peace settling over you. Come what may, everything would work out in the end, Sabo believed in you, would always believe in you and cheer you on, so you’d do your best, work hard, and things would be alright. 

[pleaserelaxfc]

Pregame: Gotham vs. Spirit (October 6)

Background and Momentum:

Gotham:

This game was originally meant to be played at Gotham's home stadium in New Jersey, but when Carli Lloyd announced her impending retirement, this game was moved to Philadelphia, close to where Lloyd is from and also about halfway between New York and Washington.

Gotham had a pretty rough run through August in September, with a seven-game winless streak that was only snapped in the very last game of September. However, that was a resounding win for them over the North Carolina Courage, which has been fairly strong throughout the season, although they have been in a bit of a scoring drought. Gotham will probably be coming into this game with a good amount of confidence.

Likely one of the decisive factors for Gotham in their previous win was the return of several players from injury - notably, wingers Margaret Purce (who started) and Paige Monaghan (who replaced her off of the bench) both played for the first time since the beginning of the winless streak, and both scored, with Purce also drawing the foul that led to Lloyd's initial penalty goal. Both should be available tonight, with Mandy Freeman, a centerback who had played every minute of the season until her injury in late June, the only player still out.

Gotham is currently in eighth place in the table, but is only one point behind the sixth-place cutoff (currently held by the Spirit), but they have at least one game in hand over all of the teams in front of them, and will play the last three games of the season against the two teams with the worst records. I think that they should be able to make the playoffs if they win those three games, but they won't want to rely on those, and will be looking to get a win here.

A win here would guarantee that they move at least into seventh, and possibly sixth, depending on the Dash's results; a draw combined with a loss for the Dash would move them into seventh as well, based on tiebreaks.

Spirit:

Turmoil has continued for the Spirit off the field - last week, following an NWSL investigation that determined that the Spirit did not act in the best interests of the league, Richie Burke was fired and barred from working with NWSL players, the Spirit ownership was indefinitely suspended from participating in league governance, and the league issued a notice of violation and gave the team 14 days to respond. The players also sent Steve Baldwin a letter, asking him to withdraw from any form of management of the team, and Baldwin did step down from his role as CEO and managing partner of the Spirit, leaving Ben Olsen, whom Baldwin had hired unilaterally, in charge. However, this did not fully meet the requests of the players, who publicly released a follow-up letter to him, strongly stating that they wanted him to withdraw from all forms of management with the team and to sell his shares to Y. Michele Kang, in order to end the off-field distractions that have been plaguing the team. He has not yet responded to that letter.

On the field, it's difficult to say much about trends for the Spirit, since they had to forfeit two of their last three games following positive COVID tests and determinations that players had violated COVID policies. Their last game (the only one they played in all of September) was a 2-1 win against KC, made slightly more impressive by the fact that they had to come from a goal down to win, and that they were playing at Segra Field (a poor surface in general, and particularly detrimental for the Spirit's playing style) with Ashley Hatch out of the lineup for a family commitment.

In the game against KC, they used a different shape than they usually do in the first half of that game, and had several players who would usually start coming off the bench between the first and second halves. Hatch should be back in the lineup today, however, and the only players on the injury report are those with season-ending injuries - Bailey Feist and Averie Collins, who have been out all season, as well as Jordan DiBiasi, who hasn't played since early June.

The Spirit currently hold sixth place in the league, the final playoff spot, but would be knocked out of it, at least for the time being, with a loss to Gotham. They probably need at least two wins and a draw, if not three wins, in the five games remaining in the season (including tonight's) in order to make the playoffs - with games against Louisville and the Dash remaining, as well as another matchup with the Courage, against whom the Spirit have done surprisingly well this season, a loss wouldn't put that out of reach, but it would become significantly more difficult. The Spirit will certainly be looking for a win tonight, and would probably accept a draw, but as the season winds down, I don't think they will consider a loss tonight to be acceptable.

Head-to-Head:

This is the second and final meeting for these two teams. The previous game was played at Segra, the Spirit's secondary home field, and some poor refereeing contributed to a 3-2 win for Gotham.

Both teams will be looking to maintain their momentum after wins in their last games, following a long winless streak for Gotham and two forfeits for the Spirit.

Predictions:

Scoreline: Draw, 2-2

Gotham XI (4-3-3):

GK: Sheridan

4: Dorsey, Johnson, Lewandowski, Dydasco

3: Long, Kawasumi, Zerboni

3: Onumonu, Lloyd, Purce

Spirit XI (4-3-3):

GK: Bledsoe

4: O'Hara, Staab, Sonnett, Nielsen

3: Sullivan, Bailey, Huster

3: Sanchez, Hatch, Rodman

Warm-ish Takes and Full Disclosure:

I'll be honest, I'm rooting for a Spirit win here. In part that's because I'd like both teams to make the playoffs and I think the Spirit need this win more, but mostly that's because I think they got a pretty poor call in the previous matchup that significantly affected the result there.

Gotham came back with a vengeance in their last game against the Courage, taking a top team down in a convincing 3-1 win. I think they will continue with the same lineup, although they might make a couple of tweaks. Since this is a Lloyd sendoff game, I think she will stay in the starting lineup as the central forward player, and will likely stay in for the full 90 minutes. Purce is a star for this team and her presence on the field seems to be a necessary component for their success, so I would expect her to be in the forward line as well. Ify Onumonu also started against the Courage, and has been having an outstanding season with the Olympians and injured players out, so I think she will continue to round out that line, although since she is at her most effective in the central role that Lloyd will likely be occupying tonight and Monaghan is at her most effective as a left-sided winger, it's possible Monaghan will start in Onumonu's place.

The midfield seemed to work fairly well together last week, although Gotham has done some rotation there recently - I think they'll continue with the same line, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see Lee or Cudjoe in in place of Kawasumi. The four defenders have been pretty solid when playing in a line together all season, so I don't see any changes being made to that to start, although they did sub Johnson out for Erika Skroski late in the game last week.

The Spirit came out in a 4-2-3-1 against KC in their last game, and it didn't work out very will for them. They left Trinity Rodman, Tori Huster, Dorian Bailey, and Tara McKeown on the bench, bringing them on at half time as they switched back to a much more successful 4-3-3. I think their lineup tonight will be similar to the lineup in that second half, although with Ashley Hatch available I think she will be in in place of McKeown.

One player that they seem not to know what to do with is Julia Roddar, the Swedish international. She's clearly a solid player, but with several solid players in the defensive and midfield positions that she plays, I'm not sure that she has a starting place. I thought she was pretty good off the bench at outside back (right back, I think?) against the Courage, but had a few mistakes at left back against KC. If they do start her, I'd rather see her in a midfield role.

I'm also still not entirely sold on the Sonnett as center back/Nielsen as right back structure - while I do prefer Sonnett as a center back to an outside back, I'd also like to see what she can do as a defensive midfielder with the Nielsen-Staab center back pairing that worked so well for most of the season.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

TLDR: the future of the country lies with the For The People Act, and Joe Manchin holds all the cards.

Whether or not Donald Trump runs for re-election in 2024 largely depends on whether the For The People Act passes in the Senate.

If it does, and elections are reformed with federal guidelines, AND if it survives the inevitable Supreme Court challenges (which is dubious given the 6-3 conservative majority), then no, Trump won't run again because he wouldn't want to risk losing a second time. He's humiliated, he has to pretend it was stolen from him so he doesn't have to acknowledge the fact that he lost like a little bitch. If the election reforms level the playing field, he wouldn't stand a chance of winning in 2024; he only won in 2016 because of voter apathy and suppression in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Turnout was WAY higher in 2020, and he got blown out of the water.

If the act fails in the Senate or is struck down by SCOTUS, then Trump will absolutely run again because Republican lawmakers will rig the elections in his favor in all the swing states he lost. If the reforms don't pass, all the states Biden flipped will flip right back because of even worse suppression and partisan interference. Republicans tried to overturn the results after he lost in 2020, but the courts prevented them from doing so; now they've had a taste for things, they know what they can and can't do, so they'll spend the next four years rewriting the rules in their favor so the courts will side with them in 2024. 2020 wasn't rigged, it was arguably the most transparent election in American history, and that has Republicans scared shitless; they know they can't win on policy, they're trying to win by technicality. They haven't legitimately won since Bush Sr in 1988; Democrats have won 7 of the last 8 elections, the only exception being 2004 at which point we were still reeling from 9/11 and were caught up in two new wars in the Middle East. Bush Jr had the incumbency advantage, and the wars made him more popular than he turned out to actually be (he left office with record low approval ratings in the 20s; in 2008 both parties ran candidates on the platform of "I am not George W. Bush"). Republicans know they can win without a majority, so that's what they plan on doing from now on. They don't need to care about popular opinion.

For The People is extremely popular, with majority support from Democratic, independent, and yes, even Republican voters, but their lawmakers are fighting tooth and nail to stop it. Not a single Republican will vote for it in the Senate, and Manchin and Sinema refuse to get rid of the filibuster, so it's as good as dead unless they change their minds or reform the legislative process. Back in the day, a filibuster was active, it required a senator to hold the floor and refuse to yield for as long as possible (the record is over 24 hours). Any member could filibuster a bill by taking the floor and delaying until they were exhausted, or until 60 senators voted to stop them. Starting in the 1970s, the filibuster became passive because the Senate decided that actually holding the floor was irrelevant so long as the other side couldn't get the 60 votes needed to stop it. Legislation has ground to a halt ever since, exacerbated by the election of Mitch McConnell as majority leader in 2015. He proudly became known as the Bill Killer, effectively vetoing every single one by simply refusing to let any of them go the floor at all; instead of opening up the chamber and letting members filibuster, he would simply let the bills die on his desk, even if they had enough support to pass. If he didn't personally want it to pass, then it didn't pass. End of story. There's a joke that if Congress were on fire, it couldn't even pass the Pour Water On Congress Act, and this is largely McConnell's fault.

If Manchin and Sinema agreed to change the rules to bring back the active filibuster it would allow more bills to move forward, but each one would almost certainly take DAYS or WEEKS to get passed. If we thought Republicans were obstructionist before, just imagine what they'd do if Democrats could simply wait them out. What will happen is that a handful of them will decide to filibuster, one after another, each one holding the floor for at least day, preventing anything from getting done. Because the other side doesn't have the 60 votes to stop them, they would keep talking until they got tired, then tag out for someone else. The thing is, once you stop talking, you can't start talking again, so they wouldn't be able to filibuster indefinitely, they couldn't recharge and give it another go, they'd have one shot each. Imagine dozens of Republicans holding the floor hostage for weeks, maybe months if they were dedicated enough; if every senator held the floor for a full day, that's 50 days, over a month and a half. Now, a lot of senators are old men who probably couldn't last that long, but others like Josh Hawley are quite young and would try for a publicity stunt by holding out for the longest filibuster ever (I could imagine him making it 2 or 3 days if he was dedicated enough, which would make him a Republican superstar and guarantee him the presidency).

Of course, such a prolonged filibuster would be torn to shreds by the media; just like a government shutdown, eventually popular opinion would turn against the obstructionists, and they'd eventually have to concede. The majority of Americans blamed the Republicans for the shutdowns under Obama AND Trump, so any prolonged filibuster would largely be seen as a waste of time (though it would score them big political points from their bases, it would unite the opposition against them, hurting their chances at re-election). It's all a game, and the outcome depends on the will of the players.

I could see some of the hardliners like Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Rick Scott, Josh Hawley, or Lindsey Graham filibustering until the cows come home and hoping to swing public opinion in their favor, but I think eventually even the other Republicans would grow tired of having to sit through days or weeks of meaningless noise and would vote to stop them and move the bill forward.

If by some miracle the Democrats manage to increase their majority in 2022, then Joe Manchin will almost certainly leave the party and start caucusing with the Republicans. He's in West Virginia, one of the most conservative states in the country; their own governor Jim Justice was elected as a Democrat in 2016 and became a Republican immediately after being sworn in. There's even precedent for Manchin to switch parties before the midterms; in 2001 the Senate was tied 50-50 for the first time, with Republicans having the majority because Dick Cheney was VP to break ties, but Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords became an independent and began caucusing with the Democrats instead, giving them the 51-49 majority until 2003 (fun fact: Jeffords was succeeded by none other than Bernie Sanders). I could see Manchin becoming an independent and caucusing with the Republicans to try and swing public opinion towards the conservatives. A slim majority of independents are left-leaning, with both independent senators caucusing with the Democrats (Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine). If Manchin became an independent and caucused with the Republicans, it would give the right-leaning independents someone to latch onto, allowing Republicans to make gains with centrists and moderates. Manchin has a snowball's chance in hell of winning re-election in 2024 as a Democrat; I don't think he's gonna go down like Doug Jones of Alabama and just let himself be voted out, he'll either decline to run at all or run as a conservative independent with Republican support (especially if Democrats keep the majority in 2022, then he'll see no point in staying on their side; they won't need him anymore)

2022 will be close, especially if For The People fails in the Senate. If it goes through, Democrats might be able to hold onto Georgia and Arizona, and could very possibly pick up Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. If it doesn't go through, then Georgia is gone, Arizona will be super close, and they'd stand to lose New Hampshire (it's been leaning further right in recent years; Republicans just flipped both houses of the state legislature).

Biden is already more popular than Trump, and Republican opposition isn't going to be nearly as united as it was against Obama for completely unknowable reasons *cough*cough*White*cough* That's not to say Republicans will cooperate with him, just that they won't be able to portray him as the super-liberal boogeyman they want him to be. He is a moderate centrist, he has been his entire career, Republicans offer him a modicum of respect because they've known him for decades, so I figure he'll stand a good chance at winning re-election in 2024, especially if the bill passes. If not, then he'll probably win the popular vote and lose the electoral college because of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

I don't see any one particular future as being the most plausible, I see a web of five or six possible futures with varying degrees of plausibility. If Democrats lose the senate in 2022, Biden won't get a single Supreme Court justice, paving way for a 7-2, 8-1, or God forbid a 9-0 conservative unanimity. SCOTUS will be the deciding factor going forward; Breyer needs to retire RIGHT FUCKING NOW so Biden can replace him with someone young, though Manchin will likely hold any appointments hostage, playing kingmaker, insisting that Biden only put forward nominees with bipartisan support. Remember, he voted for 2 of Trump's 3 justices, and only voted against the 3rd because it was too close to the election and he thought the Republicans were being hypocritical (they refused to let Obama seat anyone in 2016 citing the election, but railroaded through Asshole Conservative Barbie in 2020 without hesitation). It's not as though Biden's nominees would have been super-liberal either way, but Manchin will ensure they're as moderate as possible, turning a safe 6-3 into 6-2-1 or even 7-2. He also opposes expanding the Supreme Court, which Republicans will not hesitate to do if the filibuster is reformed. They would gladly wait out every single Democrat for months if need be just to turn 6-3 into 7-3, 8-3, 13-3, 435-3, whatever they want! Sky's the limit. Republicans have no morals, they only care about holding onto power by any means necessary.

If we don't change course as a country right now, things will only get worse going forward. We have never been this politically divided before; even during the Civil War both parties had conservative and liberal wings (like the copperheads and war democrats). Republicans never controlled the House under Ronald Reagan, but enough conservative Democrats sided with him to help him push his agenda anyway. Things are so polarized right now I can't imagine either side working together ever again. Nothing short of a constitutional convention or another civil war will make the parties come together, and even then the Democrats would end up compromising and appeasing much more then the Republicans. It's all going to boil over in the near future; it nearly boiled over in 2020, and if the state Republicans start rigging elections then it'll likely boil over in 2024 or 2025.

America as it exists today will not make it to 2030.

[costcohotdogslut]

DAY 1

“Welcome back viewers! As we just saw before the break, our celebrity housemates have all entered the Big Brother House and have officially started the game. Will personalities clash? Are alliances already forming? Let go to the live feed to find out!” said host Julie Chen.

As the screen shifts to a view of the living room, we see all the castmates lounging around and getting to know one another.

“So this is it everybody, the Big Brother House! I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait to get the game started!” said Jake.

Met with some cheers, Miranda decided to speak up. “I know, right? And it’s crazy that we all pretty much know each other already!”

This was true. Seeing as how this was the first season of Celebrity Big Brother in the US, the producers decided to go with a cast of the hottest, youngest, most talked about singers and actors. Apart from Jennifer, who was a milf, and James, who they needed as the sacrificial lamb to go home first. Plus, there was nobody messier than an ex-Disney/Nickelodeon act, so this season was guaranteed to be a disaster (in the best way possible).

“Which is why I’m assuming you’re all going to be fighting over me! Naturally I’m the strongest player here, the best looking, I’ve competed on Dancing With The Stars, and would’ve made the finals if it wasn’t for that stupid bitch from Full House.” James gloated, an awkward silence amongst the housemates as they all just stared at him. “Now, if you’d all make your case as to why I should be in your alliance, I can start making some decisions!”

“Loike… this is litcherally the first time I’ve even heard of you, and you’re acting a little dodgy mate, know what I mean?” Charli responded.

“Huh? Whatever, don’t want some foreign bitch in my alliance anyways. Anyone else?” James asked, only to be met with a chorus of boos.

Truth be told, James knew he was laying the asshole-ishness on a little thick, but he came into the game with a plan; he was going to be the season’s villain! Everybody loved a villain! But judging by the looks he was getting from everyone, not even 20 minutes into the game… he figured that he would lay low for a while until they all cooled off.

“Whatever. If you guys need me, I’ll be in the gym.”

As James awkwardly left the room, leaving the other housemates stunned, Dustin cleared his throat.

“So… who’s up for some cocktails?” He asked, met with enthusiasm, of course, because he was Dustin.

After an hour or two of socializing, naturally everybody began to go their separate ways, heading to the bedrooms to claim their beds and no doubt start strategizing about the game.

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“A twin bed? Are you kidding me??” Sabrina exclaimed, tossing her bag to the side and sitting down with a huff. “If the producers seriously think I’m gonna sleep on this pile of fucking rocks, then they have another thing coming!”

“I hear you bestie… JAKE! DIEGO! Come here now!” Logan yelled out, his current boyfriend and ex-boyfriend running over to his beck and call. “I’m gonna need you two to push all three of our beds together, like, now. I’ll let you two figure out who gets to share with me and who gets the floor. In the meantime, I’m gonna go find Charli and Lorde, we’re all gonna have a group meeting.”

As the two males quickly got to work and the blonde knocked over a bedside table in frustration, they heard Victoria call out from across the room.

“Hey guys, look what I found!” Victoria beamed.

In its own little part of the house was a separate room decked out fully in gold, with a small seating area and a huge California king bed.

“Oh, so this is where my bed is! Thank god I didn’t already start unpacking.” Sabrina said, throwing herself back on the bed and letting out a sigh of relief.

“Uhm, I’m pretty sure this is actually me and Dustin’s bed. I let the producers know about our accommodations before we entered the house.” Victoria replied, causing the blonde to give her a look.

“Err, no it’s okay, I’m fine having my own be-“Dustin said before Victoria put a finger to his lips to shush him.

“Don’t worry honey, I’ll handle it. Sabrina, get off, you’re messing up Dustin’s side of the bed.”

“No! Why do you two get this giant bed to yourselves! That’s not fair!” Sabrina shouted, getting in Victoria’s face.

“Oh, but for whatever reason you think you’re entitled to it?” Victoria shouted back, Kendall trying to pull her aside to stop the fighting.

“Guys, I think this bed might be for me, there’s an outlet next to it and I need somewhere to plug in my CPAP machine.” Lorde said, suddenly appearing in the room alongside them.

“Oh, this room is nice!” Raini said, appearing in the room with Carlos and Max beside her.

Housemates! I see you’ve all found the Master Bedroom. There’s no need to fight over it, as you’ll all have the chance to claim it, so long as you’re the current reigning Head of Household.

“See? There’s no reason for you two to fight over the bedroom after all!” Kendall said, throwing an am around each girl before they shoved him off.

“Stay out of it, Kendall!” They shouted in unison.

“But what about my CPAP machine?” Lorde asked.

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In one bedroom, Logan, Lorde, Sabrina, Charli, Diego, and Jake were all huddled together in a circle.

“Now, I’m sure you can all figure out why we’re together right now.” Logan said, standing up above the others. “You see, I’ve decided that I’m going to take all of you to the final six with me!”

As everyone cheered, Logan cleared his throat. “Jake, could you go stand guard at the door and make sure nobody’s around? We need to talk business. First plan of action, who are we evicting first?”

“I vote Carlos. Physical challenge wise, I think he poses the biggest threat.” Lorde said, with Jake nodding his head in agreement from the door.

“We can vote Carlos first. But if it’s a mental challenge, then I think Raini poses a threat too.” Sabrina said, Charli agreeing with her.

“You both have a point, I guess we’ll just have to see how the first challenge goes.” Logan responded, pacing around the room with his hands behind the back. To the side, Diego sat quietly, a troubled look on his face. “What’s wrong Diego, you look like you don’t agree with us.”

“No, it’s not that Logan, it just that… this alliance… don’t you all think it’s a little obvious? I’m sure the others already expect us to team up, and I feel like they’ll try to pick us off one by one. I don’t know, I feel like we’re just setting ourselves up to be targeted.”

“Gee, Diego, it sounds to me like you don’t want to be in the final six, do you? If you’re just going to sit there and backstab us already, feel free to leave the room!” Logan scowled, pointing an accusatory finger at Diego.

“NO! It’s just that-“ Diego responded before being cut off by Logan.

“Save it. All in favor of voting Diego out of the alliance, say I!” Logan barked, the other four all yelling out a cheerful “I!”.

“Fine. When this alliance backfires, Logan, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Diego said before storming out of the room.

After a brief, awkward silence, Jake spoke up. “Soooo… does that mean we’re the final 5 now?”

Before anybody could answer that, suddenly a loud crash came from the nearby closet, with Jennifer falling out in a tangle of clothing and hangers.

As everybody glared at her, she let out an awkward chuckle. “Okay, so maybe I was eavesdropping on all of… that… but what can I say? I live for drama!”

“Cool. So… would you be interested in joining our alliance and being in the final 6 with us?” Logan asked.

“YES! Oh my god, I’ve been avoiding Kendall all day, I just know he was going to ask me that question any second.” Jennifer exclaimed, being met with open arms by her new alliance mates.

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Meanwhile, in the common room, the rest of the housemates, minus James, Carlos, and Diego, were all gathered together. Max, Aly & AJ, Victoria, and Kendall were all playing charades, with Victoria, his partner, screaming at him for his god-awful impersonation of an mime (why couldn’t he have picked something more obvious, like a toucan?). On the couch sat Raini and Miranda, who were playing scorekeeper for each team.

And in the gym, James and Carlos were both lifting weights, with Carlos being James’s spotter.

“I can’t believe it’s already almost the end of the day, and NOBODY has asked me to be in an alliance with them! Everyone in this house must be a complete fucking moron if they don’t see just how valuable I am to have on their side!” James, said, grunting as he pushed the bar above his chest up and down.

“Uh, yeah.” Carlos responded, half-tempted to let go and let the bar fall on his former bandmate’s chest.

Truth be told, Carlos would rather be anywhere but here. Him and James had only spoken twice since the indefinite hiatus of Big Time Rush, and he was shocked/upset when he saw him walk in the house as a fellow housemate. They had had a bit of bad blood due to… something, that had happened between them back in the apartment.

Carlos wasn’t stupid. Earlier during their workout session, James had asked if he wanted to form an alliance, and he knew it was only because nobody else wanted to be around him. But, before coming onto the show, Carlos had binge watched every season of Big Brother, and if things went as they usually did, there was much more of a focus on physical challenges at the beginning of the show, with the challenges becoming more mental as the show progressed.

So he would be in an alliance with James, at least for the beginning. At least until he could join a stronger one.

“Well, whatever. Looks like it’s just me and you against the house then, bro.” James said, pushing the bar off of him and taking a swig of his water. “So I don’t know about you, but I say we vote that british chick out first. Didn’t like the way she was talking to me earlier.”

“Charli?? Why? She’s not even a threat!” Carlos asked.

“Well then let’s evict Kendall! He’s fucking annoying, and I’m pretty sure he was watching me get dressed to work out.” James responded, Carlos facepalming himself as James clearly had no idea how to strategize.

“Let’s… discuss it when the time comes. Do you mind spotting me?” Carlos said, but before he could say anything else, another figure had entered the room.

“Oh, hey guys… mind if I be in here with you for a bit?” said Diego, also donning his workout attire with a towel draped over his shoulder.

“Uh, yeah, that’s fine.” Carlos responded. He had never met Diego before, but he had certainly heard about him before. When he and Logan had broken up, Diego was the first guy Logan had rebounded with, and from what he had heard through the grapevine, things had gotten pretty serious between them. For whatever reason, they had broken up, seeing as how Logan was dating Jake now (not that Carlos was keeping tabs or anything, Logan’s personal life was just VERY publicized on gossip sites and the tabloids). He was going to question why he wasn’t with the others, as he had been before, but he decided against it, seeing how bothered he had looked when he walked in.

“Nice to see a fellow alpha male in the house. The name’s James.” The taller male said, putting out his hand to shake, which Diego reluctantly took.

“Diego.”

“Well Diego, me and Carlos here were just doing a few reps, care to join?” James said.

And for the next hour, the three of them did, falling into a… somewhat comfortable chit chat. They mostly just talked about fitness regimes, and then outside projects they had worked on (none of the ones James had named off ringing a bell in Diego’s head). Diego, of course, droned on and on about the podcast he does on woodworking, even if the other two didn’t seem as interested. And Carlos talked about life as a now-married family man, and the struggles of managing a career and a billion-dollar enterprise alongside it.

Eventually, the three of them had all tired out, taking the time to catch their breaths.

“Nice work out, man.” Carlos said, James nodding his head in agreement.

“Yeah, we gotta do this more often. You know, I was thinking… three alpha males likes us, dominating the competition? We’d be unstoppable, and nobody would suspect a thing. What do you two say we form an alliance?” James said, the other two taking a second to think it over.

“Yeah… yeah that sounds good actually.” Diego said.

“Me too… but first things first, I think we oughta hit the showers.” Carlos responded.

As the three of them made their way over to the restroom, James stopped dead in his tracks.

“Just so you two know, I’m not gay, so don’t get any ideas in there.”

However, despite his disclaimer, the three of them did end up fucking in the shower, with James in the middle, Diego in the front, and Carlos in the back.

Looks like some of our housemates are getting to know each other pretty well. To see the exclusive footage and catch other behind the scenes clips, make sure to tune into Celebrity Big Brother: After Dark.

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Attention housemates! If you would all make your way to the common area, we are about to begin our first Head of Household competition!

As everybody got situated on the couches, the main screen lit up, with host Julie Chen appearing on the screen.

“Welcome, everybody, to the first Head of Household competition. To start things off, and to commemorate our very first celebrity edition of Big Brother, we’re going to be doing things a bit differently this time. Prior to tonight, we asked viewers to vote for their pre-season favorite housemate, so hopefully you made a good impression in your introduction packages.” Julie said. “The winner of America’s vote will not only be the first Head of Household, they will also be responsible for choosing the first two nominations tonight, with one of you going home. Because we haven’t implemented a Power of Veto just yet, these two nominations will be locked in. Now, is everybody ready?”

“Ready!”

“Perfect. Now, in a landslide vote, America chose their favorite housemate to be… Raini Rodriguez! Congratulations, Raini, as the first Head of Household, tonight’s nominations fall in your hands. Feel free to discuss amongst your housemates, and let us know when you’re ready to nominate.” Julie said.

“Thank you, Julie, and thank you America for choosing me to be the first Head of Household!” Raini said. “So, first off, I guess I just want to say that whatever happens tonight, I hope there’s no hard feelings amongst any of us. We were all chosen to represent the first season for a reason, and I know that it’s going to be a great season. ALL of us are stars, and the sixteen of us are absolutely all within the same caliber.”

“Except for James.” Charli said, causing a VERY loud and hysterical reaction from everybody. Aly & AJ were rolling around on the floor, Miranda was fanning away the tears forming in her eyes, and Jennifer couldn’t stop cackling!

“Guys! Guys! No, I request the floor, guys!” James sputtered out, not expecting for him to suddenly be the laughing stock of the cast. “I’ll defend myself a little bit! No! I’ll defend myself a little bit! Guys! Okay, okay okay okay okay OKAY!”

“BITCH! Sit your ass down and shut the hell up, bitch!” Kendall shouted, standing up and feeling the blood rush to his head as everyone, if it was even more possible, became more hysterical and on the verge of pissing themselves. It was as if he was living a real life episode of drag race, and everybody else respected him and thought he was hilarious! Victoria had actually ended up peeing herself a little from laughing so hard, meanwhile Max was scrambling to take a hit from his inhaler.

Sitting down, still feeling flustered from all the praise, Kendall crossed his legs to hide his very obvious erection, no doubt needing to RUN to the bathroom after the eviction ceremony to take care of his little problem. Seeing how bright red James was, and the superiority complex he felt over the male that he had worshipped all these years… he actually already took care of his problem. Well, one of his problems at least. He’d have to change out of his shorts and do a load of laundry, now.

Once things had somewhat settled down, and James was sitting in his chair, steam practically shooting out of his ears, Raini stood up.

“Okay Julie, I think I’m ready.” Raini said, taking a second to compose herself. “This may not come as much of a shock, as seen by the… reaction, all of us had moments ago, but the first housemate I have to nominate for eviction is… James.”

“Oh fuck this! Are you kidding me?” James said, crossing his arms as he sat back, beyond furious with everybody around him.

“Very well, Raini. James, that means that you are up for eviction and are at risk of being voted out of the house tonight.” Julie said from the screen. “Now, Raini, please tell us who the second person is that you are nominating tonight.”

“Before I say her name, I just want to say that I have absolutely no ill will against this girl. She’s a great person, and a fellow Disney colleague of mine, but I feel like her attitude earlier today wasn’t the greatest. The second person that I am nominating tonight is… Sabrina.”

“WHAT! Is this some fucking joke?” Sabrina exclaimed, as producers told her to sit back down and not cause any more trouble.

“Very well. James, Sabrina, that means the two of you are up for eviction. Before the other housemates make their way to the confessional room, you each have 30 seconds to state your case and explain to the others why you deserve to stay in the Big Brother household. James, you are up first.” Julie said.

Standing up with his hands in his pockets, James was clearly agitated, but did his best to force a fake smile for the others. “Well, what more can I say than that I’m a strong player, a great potential ally, and if you all decide to keep me in the household, I’ll give you guys a shout out on my patreon, maybe even give you a feature on an upcoming song! We can do a vlog together for my Youtube channel! Whatever it is you guys want, I’m open to collaboration.” Sitting back down and still forcing a smile, he definitely felt a lot better about his standing in the competition.

“Thank you, James. Sabrina, you’re up.” Julie said.

“If you vote me, a GIRL, out of the house over a GUY, then that means you’re probably misogynistic.”

…….

“Is that it, Sabrina? You still have twenty seconds to make your case.” Julie asked.

“No, I think I made myself loud a clear.” Sabrina responded.

“Alright then. Housemates, one by one, you will make your way to the confessional room to cast your vote, and then we will announce which celebrity housemate will be leaving us tonight. Going alphabetically, Aly & AJ, you’re up first.” Julie said.

One by one, everybody cast their votes.

Aly & AJ: “We vote James. We didn’t like the language he used to some of the women here in the household, and we think it’s time for him to leave.”

Carlos: “James. I know we’re in an alliance, but I can’t align myself with somebody like him, it will only affect my game.”

Charli: “James.”

Diego: “I’m sorry to say it, but James.”

Dustin: “James.”

Jake: “I wanted to vote for Sabrina because she was being a little mean to me earlier, but I forgot she’s on my alliance, so I have to vote for… James.”

Jennifer: “James.

Kendall: “Well… I was going to vote for Sabrina, but I don’t want people to think I’m a misogynist! Plus I think he saw me earlier watching him undress, and I’m kinda afraid that he might put a pillow over my face while I sleep! So I vote for James! >~<”

Logan: “James. I fucking hate him.”

Lorde: “I vote for James.”

Max: “I thought he was a cool dude at first, but he really showed his true colors tonight, so James.”

Miranda: “I have to vote for James.”

Victoria: “James. But I have a feeling that Sabrina has her eye on Dustin, so I’m definitely watching out for her.”

As the housemates all made their way back to the living room, the camera panned on both James and Sabrina, both looking extremely nervous as they awaited the results.

“Thank you everybody for casting their vote. After tallying the votes, we had a 13-0 unanimous decision… James, I’m sorry, but you have been evicted from the Big Brother House.” Julie announced.

“You know what? FUCK all of you, you’re all a bunch of goddamn losers. I didn’t even need to do this show, you know! And to think my own two allies voted me out too, what a fucking joke.” James exclaimed, the rest of the cast glancing around to see who the two people were that he was referring to.

“And that concludes tonight’s eviction ceremony. James, please make your way to the jury house, and we will see you once more at the finale for the final vote.” Julie said, as James stormed off. “That has been tonight’s episode of Big Brother, tune in tomorrow to see what else our housemates have in store from this. Also, be sure to watch the live feeds on Big Brother: After Dark, and watch behind the scenes clips on BigBrother.com. This has been Julie Chen, thank you, and goodnight.”

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Day 1 Statistics:

Head of Household Wins:

Raini: 1

Current Alliances:

Alliance 1 – Logan, Lorde, Sabrina, Charli, Jake, Jennifer

Evicted Housemates: 16th- James

[hotforharrison]

His Service ch 1: You what?

His Service Masterlist --> Chapter 2

Pairing: Tom Holland/Reader, eventual Harrison Osterfield/Reader

Summary: A series of memories of memories relating to the love of your life, Tom, and his service in the Army.

Word Count: 647

Warnings: None in this part (shocking, I know), but definitely future language and smut.

A/N: As a former Army girlfriend turned Army wife, the new Soldier!Tom AU going around wouldn’t stop going through the back of my mind. This is a series of memories instead of an entire linear story relating to reader’s experiences with Tom, some loosely based on my own experiences.

“I may have done something without telling you,” Tom said, nervously, while you were lounging in bed with him on a lazy gray sky morning.

“And what’s that?” you asked. He didn’t usually hide things from you. In fact, you were the first person he usually told, about everything, and had been even when you hadn’t brought your online relationship to an in person one yet. It made you a little nervous.

At least you knew he wasn’t cheating on you. You’d had an open relationship since you started dating because of the many miles that separated you most of the time. You didn’t see that ever changing, even after you eventually moved in together. Neither of you were the jealous type.

“Well, I talked to a recruiter, you know, for the Army? I’ve been here long enough to serve, and there’s a lot of benefits. I get to help people. I can get my citizenship and then nothing can keep me from staying with you indefinitely. They’ll pay for university,” he said. “Lots of stuff.”

That most definitely hadn’t been what you were expecting. You honestly weren’t quite sure how to respond at first to something so life-changing and potentially life-threatening. “I, well, I can’t really argue with that, but I’m scared something will happen to you.”

“I’m not going to lie to you. I can’t guarantee it won’t. But something could happen to me driving back home from dropping you off at the airport next week,” he pointed out.

You paused for a moment, realizing you couldn’t really argue with that. “True. I want you to be happy more than anything. You know how much I love you.”

He pressed a kiss to your lips. “And I love you every bit as much, too, darling. That’s part of why I’m doing this. I want to make things better for us in the future. This will give us a fresh start.”

“That means a lot to me.” You nuzzled into his neck, craving closeness knowing that both your lives were about to drastically change. “When do you think you’ll be leaving for training, or do you have no idea yet?”

He took a deep breath. “They gave me a large sign on bonus to leave in a little over a month. I took it. I’ll be heading to Fort Sill in Oklahoma at the end of the month.”

“You already enlisted?” You wrapped yourself around him tighter, very surprised he hadn’t discussed it with you at all first. And that was so soon. You’d expected to have months left with him while things got sorted out, figured it’d take more time to process everything.

“I know. I should have called you before I signed the paperwork, but I was already massively freaking out, even though I’d made my decision. I know you, and I knew you’d support me regardless. I’m sorry for not talking to you first,” he apologized. “I hope you’re not upset.”

And you weren’t upset, not really. You were mostly just increasingly scared and anxious as you thought more about what would happen if he had to go on a deployment overseas, and definitely overwhelmed. “It’s okay. I get it. I promise nothing has changed between us. I’m here with you for the long haul.”

He was obviously relieved. “Good. I didn’t think things would change, but I’m glad to hear you say that.”

“So, this is our last visit before you leave?” you asked, hoping it wasn’t, but knowing it probably was. It would be almost impossible for him to arrange a visit with you with less than a month’s notice, while simultaneously having to make arrangements before he left for training.

“Yeah,” he confirmed, a bit sadly. “We’ve still got several days left together, though, and I plan to spend it all with you, doing whatever you’d like. Anything at all.”

tag list: @spooky-haz @farfromhaz @eeyore101247 @adayasgeorgia @moorehollandplz @softnessparker @dasexydevitt13 @imagine-lovebug @robbinholland @strang-ersclub @hollandisapuppy @goldenpeaxh @legendsofwholock @superheroesaremytea @tomblrholland @niiight-dreamerrrr @spidermanffh3000 @devildisguiseasangel @theyy-lovemo @spidergiirl @jinx4karma @tinycertain

[mrdantastic808]

Theme Park Closures

As precaution measures due to the virus crisis, Disneyland has closed last Friday.  As of tomorrow, Disney World in Orlando will follow, meaning that all Disney parks and cruise lines around the world are closed.  While Hong Kong Disney is closed indefinitely, the other parks will remain closed for the rest of the month.  They’re aiming to reopen in early April, but this could easily change.  Because of the unprecedented nature of these times, there’s no way to accurately predict when it will be safe to reopen.

This marks only the fourth time in history that Disneyland has closed due to outside factors.  In 1963, the park was closed for a national day of mourning following the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Then, in 1994, it partially closed due to the Northridge Earthquake.  Finally, the park closed on September 11, 2001 after the attack.  In each case, the closure didn’t last longer than a day. This marks the first time all parks are closed for such an extended period.  

If Disney’s parks are closed, it’s safe to say that all other theme parks are in the same boat. Universal Studios and Knott’s Berry Farm closed as of yesterday.  Six Flags, which has parks across the country, has begun shutting them down. Sea World has closed, starting today.

While there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty in the world today, it also provides an opportunity to evaluate what really matters in life.  Often, we don’t realize what we have until it’s gone.  With businesses closing, many are worried about their jobs and how they’ll provide for their loved ones.  How do you view your job?  For many, it’s just a job to get by.  Has that perception changed now that it’s in jeopardy?  

Many are stocking up in food and supplies in fear of the apocalypse.  There are many countries that don’t even have that luxury.  For them, they’d be lucky to get a meal in a day.  If they can still find joy in their lives, can you?

We’re encouraged to socially distance ourselves in order to contain the outbreak and lower the chances of spreading the virus.  It reminds me of how valuable people are.  As humans, we are designed for relationships.  Who are the friends and family in your life?  Sure, relationships have their ups and downs, but they are a gift. Seeing how many lives the virus has taken reinforces how short life is.  What would you do if tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed?  What would you do if tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed for your friends and family?

Theme parks will return. The economy will recover.  Life will resume.  It’s important to learn what we can from this virus crisis.  Are you grateful for what you have in your life? Who are the people in your life who matter, and how can you show appreciation?  What would it mean to live fully?

Stay safe.  Take all necessary precautions.  Everything will be okay.

[quickloanonlin-blog]

5 Simple Facts About Quick Loan Online Explained

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Making use of for online money advance loans or payday loans you will get $a hundred, $300, $500 or even $1,000 dollars. At a minimal be prepared to pay off your mortgage as planned together with your lender. Your precise apr will rely on factors like credit rating, requested loan Online Quick Loans quantity, mortgage time period, and credit history. All of the automobile title inside or the lenders initially get your car assessed by an knowledgeable as you mortgage amount utterly depends upon the condition of the automotive.From january subsequent 12 months, in the event you borrow £100 for 30 days and pay again on time, you will not pay more than £24 in charges and prices and somebody taking the same mortgage for fourteen days pays no more than £11.20. That's a significant saving. You should also be capable of make a guide online fee or name the lender's customer support quantity to make a payment over the telephone.

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While the corporate will nonetheless charge you a price to do this (usually $15 or $20) you will not be charged the incredibly excessive late fees that always come with payday loans that don't get paid off. If you do not pay your balances on time, there is a danger of constant your debt for an indefinite interval. The rates of interest charged are higher Quick Personal Loans Bad Credit even on no-credit score-check christmas loans; virtually half of the rate charged by regular no credit verification loans which are offered by low credit lenders during the remainder of the year. Our expertise will then match you to the proper lenders based on your software and credit profile. Many payday lenders don't run a credit check. Dollar monetary group can not guarantee it's accurate, full or current at all times. Helocs are revolving strains of credit score and the payment you make every month is predicated solely on the outstanding steadiness.

 Payday mortgage lenders advise that the loans are intended for brief-term use; is as a result of often when the loan becomes due, debtors want to increase the lifetime of the mortgage with the intention to maintain the cash flow they want for regular expenses. Different examples of soft inquiries embody an employer pulling your rating, or a lender sending you preapproved bank card gives. New zealand payday mortgage companies use a safe on-line system, such as verisign, mcafee or norton to secure information. Banks and credit unions Quick Payday Loans Bad Credit are official financial institutions that make private loans. The apr is extra consultant of the true price of the mortgage because it contains all charges that include the mortgage as well as the rate of interest. Payday loans are referred to as fast loans due to how fast they're accepted. Some pupil mortgage lenders present advantages such because the revenue-primarily based repayment plans and even refinancing. Licking county is experimenting with loans for residence quick online loans deposits or to pay again a payday lender, as nicely, jackson mentioned. If you have no credit or low credit score, you possibly can anticipate curiosity sky high rates of interest up to the authorized restrict of 29%.

[scentedrunawayshark]

What’s the Difference Between Term and Whole Life Insurance?

The two main types of life insurance are term life and whole life, and the price difference between these policies can be hundreds of dollars per year. Understanding who these policies are most suitable for as well as the benefits can help you make the best decisions for your future.

Contents [hide]

Why Is Life Insurance Important?

Differences between Term and Whole Life Insurance

Is Your Life Insurance Coverage Enough?

Choosing the Best Life Insurance Policy

Why Choose Term Life Insurance?

Why Choose Whole Life Insurance?

Why Is Life Insurance Important?

Life insurance gives you peace of mind that, in the event of your death, your funeral and other associated expenses will be covered, and your loved ones will be taken care of.

Few people like thinking about their own mortality, but it’s important to consider what kind of life insurance is a good fit for you. It protects against an unknown future, and can make life easier for bereaved loved ones during a challenging time.

Many employers take out group accidental death and dismemberment policies for those in high-risk jobs, but it’s important to remember that these policies only cover workplace-related incidents. Maintaining additional, broader coverage for day-to-day life is wise, too.

Differences between Term and Whole Life Insurance

The difference between term and whole life insurance lies in the period the policy covers. Term life insurance is a fixed-term policy that lasts for a predefined period of time — usually 10, 20 or 30 years. Whole life insurance runs for an indefinite period.

If a person dies during their term life insurance validity period, the policy pays out. If the policyholder outlives the term, the coverage comes to an end.

Whole life insurance remains active for as long as the person is contributing to it. In addition to being a life insurance policy, it also serves as a fund that can be accessed during retirement.

Whole life insurance can be several hundred dollars per month more expensive than term life insurance, with policyholders paying extra for the privilege of long term yet flexible coverage.

Why Choose Term Life Insurance?

The main reason to choose term life insurance is that it is far more affordable. Fees for a term life policy are much lower than fees for a similar value life insurance policy, making them a good option for those who don’t want to commit to high monthly premiums.

Term life insurance makes sense if you are at a high-risk job and are required to have a life insurance policy to take out a mortgage, or you simply want to make sure that your debts are paid out in the event of your death, and the future of your spouse and children is protected.

The main benefits of term life insurance are:

Lower monthly costs

Fixed payout amounts that are similar to those of whole life policies

Premium typically stays the same for the duration of the term

Flexible terms

The drawback of term life insurance is that the policyholder needs to look for another policy once the term ends.

It’s easy to find affordable life insurance as a healthy 30-year-old, but if someone takes out a 30-year policy at that age, they’ll find themselves shopping for a new policy at age 60. Finding an affordable policy at age 60, especially if they have any risk factors, might be difficult, and an affordable policy that pays out the amount they’d like to leave behind for their loved ones could be even harder.

Why Choose Whole Life Insurance?

Whole life insurance is a more costly form of coverage because it does not expire. You can start contributing at any age, and if you need to borrow some money at a later date, you can borrow against the policy. For smaller amounts, you may be able to make a simple cash withdrawal.

You can tap into the policy’s cash value for major life events or as a part of a retirement plan. In addition, since the policy never expires, you can feel confident that the money you’re paying into the policy is building value for you and those left behind after you pass.

Whole life insurance is a major commitment, but it makes sense for those who want stability. Benefits of whole life insurance policies include:

Fixed premiums, which mean the policy should feel less expensive over time due to inflation

A guaranteed death benefit

The cash value of the policy grows at a steady rate (although likely lower interest than other investment options)

Some whole life insurers offer dividends. These are paid out of the insurer’s profits, and you have the option of taking the dividend in cash or putting it back into the policy. Dividends are not guaranteed, and not all insurers offer them, but when they are available, they can be a nice bonus.

Is Your Life Insurance Coverage Enough?

According to a 2018 survey, one in five adults with life insurance says their coverage is not high enough.

It can be tempting for people who are taking out whole life policies to take out a smaller policy than they need to keep the premium low. This could backfire, because while it is possible to alter your premium later, the cost of buying a $250,000 policy at age 40 would most likely be higher than buying the same policy at age 30.

Whole life policies are most effective when low rates are locked in early.

The same applies for term life. A young person may wish to buy a short-term policy because their employer or mortgage lender requires them to do so. For a young person with no dependents, a cheap policy may be a good idea. Once a person starts a family, it becomes more important to choose a policy that takes those circumstances into account.

Choosing the Best Life Insurance Policy

If you’re not sure which policy is best for your needs, consider these questions:

Do you want a policy that builds cash value?

Do you want to leave money behind for your family?

If the answer to either of those questions is yes, whole life insurance could be the better option for you, assuming that it fits your budgetary needs.

It’s important to be realistic about the costs, though. A term life policy for a relatively healthy young person could cost less than $20 a month. That policy could be more than adequate to cover the holder’s debts and funeral costs if they were to die in an accident during the term.

A similar value whole life policy may cost over $200 per month. That’s a huge commitment for a young person to make when they cannot access the cash value for many decades.

Whole life insurance is a safe way of saving money for the future, but for low- and moderate-income families, there are other options, such as IRAs, that could offer higher returns, and it’s worth checking into those options first.

There’s another form of life insurance that rarely gets discussed called final expense. This type of policy features guaranteed acceptance, has very low premiums and pays out a small death benefit that can be used to cover funeral expenses. This is a useful option for people who have limited savings and want to make sure their loved ones are not left with out-of-pocket expenses in the event of their death.

If you’re unsure which life insurance policy suits you, look at our tool to compare life insurance plans. With a few simple questions, you can find the plan that best suits your needs.

[janeromas]

Ways You Can Help A Drug Addict

Family and friends who try to help a drug addict get a lot of mixed messages:

“You’re one of the single greatest influences in your loved one’s life.”

“You didn’t cause it, you can’t cure it and you can’t control it.”

The first statement and the “three Cs” of addiction recovery are often both true, making it a challenge to know how to help a drug or alcohol addict.

So how do you help an addicted loved one if you’re influential but aren’t in control? How do you stay close to a drug addict but avoid enabling? Here are a few suggestions from two women who have come face-to-face with the harsh realities of addiction.

What You Can’t Do to Help an Addicted Loved One

Make Them Quit

You can stage an intervention. And you may be successful. But you cannot force someone with a substance abuse problem to quit. Even in states that allow involuntary treatment, you can’t make someone get sober or stay sober in the long-term.

“You can keep throwing money at them, telling them what to do and trying to lift them up, but they have to commit to it,” says Eve Goldberg, a mom who lost her 23-year-old son, Isaac, to an opiate overdose in 2013. “I’ve learned you have to let go. You can’t control them or the situation, and the sooner you accept your lack of control, the sooner they can face the natural consequences of their actions.”

Do the Work of Recovery for Your Loved One

Even if the person you care for goes to drug rehab, you can’t do the work of recovery for them. You can’t hold their hand in recovery support groups or do the 12 Steps for them. You also can’t prevent relapse.

After Eve’s son completed addiction treatment, everything was going well. He had a job and was rebuilding his life. He told his mom “I’m never going back to that bad place again.”

Months later, he spiraled back into active addiction. She tried to talk to him about the signs she was seeing. But he didn’t want to admit to using. One night, Eve heard unusual breathing from his bedroom. When she checked on him, she couldn’t wake him up. After six weeks in a coma, the doctors told Eve that Isaac was gone.

Eve was well-educated about addiction. She stayed close to Isaac and kept the lines of communication open. Unfortunately, “Even if you see the signs, you can’t always do something about it.” Addiction hijacks the brain, leading people to hide, lie, and manipulate to maintain their drug abuse. Isaac didn’t want to die. He wanted to get better. But there is simply no logic in addiction.

Carole Bennett, MA, is the author of Reclaim Your Life: You and the Alcoholic/Addict and Is There a Dry Drunk in Your Life? and a counselor in private practice. After dealing with her own family’s substance abuse for over 20 years, she learned, “You shouldn’t babysit someone’s recovery. You can be a participant in their healing, but from arm’s length.”

For many, even those who ultimately maintain their recovery long-term, relapse is a common part of the process. Like other chronic diseases, it’s not unusual for those struggling with addiction to need multiple episodes of treatment. “Someone can go to meetings, have a sponsor and be a poster child for AA but still relapse,” says Bennett. “It’s a vicious cycle, and the person has to be willing to reach out for help to stop it.”

Accept Behavior That Violates Your Boundaries

To avoid enabling your loved one, you have to set boundaries. This is how to help a drug or alcohol addict. Once you’ve laid out your boundaries clearly with the person you care about, allowing those boundaries to be violated destroys your credibility and perpetuates your loved one’s addiction.

“If you don’t follow through with consequences when someone violates one of your boundaries, your word is like quicksand,” says Bennett. “If you say what you mean and mean what you say, even if they’re mad at first, they’ll respect you in the long-term.”

Boundaries can be basic. For example, the person has to be clean and sober if they’re in your home. If the boundary is broken, Bennett recommends calmly saying, “We talked about this, and this doesn’t work for me,” or, “I love you, but I can’t go down this road anymore.”

Then you should follow through with the consequence. Holding firm to your boundaries may mean disengaging for a period of time—or indefinitely.

Always Bail Out Your Loved One

If you’re trying to help a person struggling with addiction, you may want to or think you need to save them in certain situations. For example, substance abusers often struggle with their finances and sometimes get into trouble with the law. Many friends and family members of addicted loved ones try to help by bailing them out of jail, offering them money or paying for bills or lawyers. But if a drug addict knows they will always be saved, then they have less incentive to stop using.

It’s never easy to see an addicted loved one suffer. Your instinct is to help, but helping them doesn’t mean always bailing them out of difficult situations.

Of course, if an addicted loved one is really struggling to survive, then it would be necessary to take action, but it’s also important for drug abusers to face the consequences of their actions. Reaching rock bottom is often when someone decides they can’t continue feeding their addiction.

“Sometimes love is letting them hit bottom,” Bennett says. For evidence, she suggests going to an open AA meeting. “More often than not, you’ll hear people say, ‘Thank God my parent kicked me out/said no.’ As difficult as it is, you don’t have the power to fix it. Only they do.”

What You Can Do to Help an Addicted Loved One

Get Educated about Addiction

You can’t help fight an enemy you don’t understand. Learn about addiction. This means understanding addiction as best you can: the signs, the addiction treatment programs, and the relapse triggers. Follow this learning up by talking to your loved ones about drugs and alcohol from an early age. While education is no guarantee of healthy choices, it can be a powerful tool in preventing drug abuse and finding a way into recovery.

If your loved one goes into treatment, participate in any family programs that are offered. The education and encouragement that a drug rehabilitation center provides can help you support your loved one and take care of your own needs at the same time. Then continue to be a source of support and accountability post-treatment. This is often critical since this a time when drug cravings and triggers heighten the relapse risk. Bennett strongly recommends putting into place a family recovery contract when a loved one returns home from treatment or sober living. It’s “a plan for ones in recovery to incorporate doable, realistic goals AND consequences for falling short of those goals.”

She notes, “If the ‘addict’ doesn’t live at home, a recovery contract is important with fewer stipulations, but not imperative.”

Help a Loved One Find Treatment

It’s difficult to know how to help a drug addict without creating a co-dependent relationship. If you try to fix everything for them, then they won’t be able to develop their own coping skills. But avoiding co-dependency doesn’t mean you can’t offer reliable support to an addicted loved one.

One thing you can do to help a drug addict is to find a suitable therapist or treatment center for them. Research treatment facilities and counselors in your area who specialize in addiction. This is where being educated about addiction helps; you can do research on medical detox and inpatient treatment vs. outpatient treatment, and you can feel confident asking questions when you inquire about their programs.

Offering an addicted loved one money may enable their addiction, whereas helping to fund therapy sessions can do the opposite. For many drug addicts, mental health issues are what lead to addiction. Substance abuse can also worsen their mental health, so for many addicts, mental health treatment is necessary.

3. Take Care of Yourself

A critical lesson for Eve, mother of the son who struggled with opiate addiction, was the importance of being good to herself, regardless of whether her son was doing well. You can’t control another person, but you can make healthy decisions for yourself. This is necessary if you want to have any hope of being able to support and encourage your loved one.

For some people, groups like Al-Anon provide a safe place to get education and fellowship with others who are facing similar struggles. Others prefer seeing a therapist privately or joining a different type of support group.

Whatever your path looks like, “You have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep looking forward, not back,” Eve says. “There’s no way to make sense of it. There’s no reason why my son should’ve died. Give yourself over to a higher power—for me, it was the only way I could live my life.”

There’s a lot of pain and grief involved when you love someone with a substance abuse problem. Your other family members and friends may not grieve in the same way as you and may have their own ideas about how to handle the situation. 

Talk about It with Your Loved One and Others

Talking about addiction can be healing both for the person trying to overcome it and you, their loved one. An addicted person may be reluctant to come to you and ask for help, but open dialogue is your best chance to be there for them when they need you most. “Work on building a good relationship, without judging or accusing,” Eve suggests. “You have to step back, you can’t be on top of them all the time, or they won’t trust that they can come to you.”

When you’re trying to take care of yourself, nothing is more toxic to your healing than shame. Eve had many friends who struggled with addiction in their family but were too ashamed to talk about it. “We made a decision as a family to be up front about our struggles,” she says. “The more you talk about it, the more you realize everyone has a story, everyone has been affected by addiction in some way.”

For Eve, speaking her son’s name and telling his story is one way to keep his memory alive. “I still cry when I tell Isaac’s story, even two years later. And I can see people’s faces cringe when I talk about my dead child. They don’t know how to handle it,” she says. “But I can’t worry about making them uncomfortable. He’s still my son and I won’t pretend he didn’t exist.”

Get Addiction Treatment 

The realities of addiction are painful. It’s hard to hear that a loved one’s life is at risk and you can’t fix it. But once you accept certain realities, you may discover there’s empowerment beyond the powerlessness. It’s not always obvious how to help a person struggling with addiction, but there are steps you can take to help both them and you. Nashville recovery a number of addiction treatment programs that can help make a difference in addiction recovery.

Once you’ve taken those steps, you can take solace in knowing you did all you could in the face of a devastating disease.

[currentlyinmars-blog]

The Music Industry During Coronavirus

COVID-19 put the world on pause in March 2020. Jobs forced employees to work from home, colleges closed campuses and sent students home and major cities went on lockdown, enforcing curfews and making non-essential businesses close.

With government-enforced restrictions on large gatherings, the music industry has been one hit the hardest. It’s been forced to put one of its busiest seasons, the spring, on hold. Albums were pushed back, venues were closed and all scheduled festivals and tours have either been rescheduled, will be rescheduled or are simply cancelled. 

(MØ at the Electric Factory, Maranda Leecan, 2018)

Festivals

The spring is a phoenix season for the industry, with numerous events making up for the lack thereof in the winter. Local venues right now would typically be booked back-to-back with shows.

It’s also the beginning of festival season, which starts with two of the biggest in the United States – SXSW in Austin, TX in March and Coachella in Indio, CA in April. SXSW’s cancellation on March 6th would foreshadow how much of an effect COVID-19 would have on the industry.

SXSW takes over Austin, with events for all forms of media being held throughout the city. SXSW is known for its showcasing of up-and-coming bands and artists from all over the world that haven’t broken yet. Billie Eilish played SXSW when barely anyone knew her - now it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t.

Though SXSW is big for people who travel to attend, it’s safe to say it’s bigger for the artists and bands that travel to perform. Some bands that were scheduled to play had to set up GoFundMe pages to raise money just to be able to make it to Austin from other countries.

SXSW’s cancellation caused patrons a loss of money and time. But for these musicians, it’s cost them opportunities to meet people in the industry and make international fans of festival goers. Most importantly, it’s cost them multiple paychecks for each cancelled show.

(Billie Eilish at Coachella, Maranda Leecan, 2019)

The same can be said for the rescheduling of Coachella’s two weekends from April to October. Bigger artists slated to play the festival this year, like Frank Ocean and Travis Scott, will still be okay without the check. However, the smaller bands and artists on the lineup that a lot of people overlook won’t be.

These festivals give them exposure at a guaranteed sold-out festival, a larger than typical show paycheck and an opportunity to make more by touring the West Coast between the two weekends. Almost all shows around the festival were cancelled following the postponement.

(Shame at Coachella, Maranda Leecan, 2019)

Venues

While festival cancellations and postponements are awful, venues that host shows every night are getting hit harder by this. The two biggest promoters of live music in the U.S. are Live Nation and AEG. For these two, a loss in revenue for so many months can probably be survived, even though they’re still huge.

On March 12th, Live Nation was reported to have lost $8.32 billion in its stock price in only 30 days from its $15.84 billion market cap on February 12th. That same day, the company paused all its tours indefinitely through the end of March, which would then be reassessed.

As April to May hasn’t shown a slowdown of the virus, it’s safe to say this pause will continue indefinitely. Considering its costs, Live Nation may still be able to make it through this pandemic as a survivor - due to being such a known name in the industry and a multi-billion-dollar company.

The same can’t be said for independent venues. At the end of March, CNN ran a feature story on small nightlife businesses in New York City in the wake of COVID-19, including the independent venue, Elsewhere in Bushwick.

(Slayyyter playing at Elsewhere, Maranda Leecan, 2019)

It was, fittingly, Friday the 13th, when the crisis between coronavirus and nightlife began. First, gatherings of 500 or more people were banned in New York City. Then, all non-essential workers were mandated to stay home by the governor, which put the nail in the coffin.

With no employees to work, no artists booked and no patrons coming in, there’s no revenue to pay for the still incoming bills or to the employees for the time they’ll indefinitely have off. “In terms of lost revenue, we're looking at easily two, three months just completely wiped out,” Dhruv Chopra, co-owner of Elsewhere said

These stories seem like they will sadly continue for a lot of the smaller guys in the industry. Just this May, Great Scott, the music venue in Allston, MA, announced they won’t reopen after being forced to close during the pandemic.

Many venues set up GoFundMe pages to help in these times. However, they’re run solely on the goodwill of the general public, who are also losing their jobs and income. So, it can only go so far. As the CNN story notes, government assistance seems to be the only thing that could sustain those businesses long term. Without that, the future of smaller venues and promoters right now is uncertain.

The Recording Industry

While the live music industry has obviously been hit, the recording industry has had its downfalls, too. Spring is important for live shows, but it’s also important for press, promotion and more surrounding big releases for the spring and summer. Initially, a handful of albums had their dates changed due to the pandemic.

While most had moved back, Dua Lipa’s anticipated sophomore album, “Future Nostalgia” was moved up and released one week early. It could be tied to being leaked in its entirety two weeks before its original release date, but Dua also said that because it’s an album she made to be “fun and something to dance to and feel good,” the album should come out now more than ever.

Two other albums had their dates pushed back at the start of the pandemic. Lady Gaga had plans to release her sixth studio album, “Chromatica” but shared in March that it didn’t feel like the right time to release it with what was going on in the world. HAIM pushed back their third album, “Women in Music Pt. III” for similar reasons.

However, months later, their dates are back. At the end of April, HAIM announced their album would be coming out on its original date, June 26th. On May 6th, Lady Gaga announced “Chromatica” would be coming at the end of the month on May 29th.

(Amoeba Records in Hollywood, Maranda Leecan, 2019)

Now, a lot of people think that right now would be a great time to release music. Everyone’s trapped in the house, so listening to and streaming music should be happening even more. However, it doesn’t seem that it’s happening that way.

At the end of March, Rolling Stone reported that streams in the United States during the week of March 13th through the 19th, which was the beginning of closures and self-quarantining, dropped 7.6 percent.

As well as streaming, digital song and albums sales also predictably dropped. The future only seems to get worse with delays in shipment, most notably with Amazon pausing shipments from U.S. music providers to put priority to household essentials and medical supplies.

Going Live

In the music industry, a lot of acts are represented by a multitude of teams – management, agents, labels, etc. Though with social distancing, a lot of artists are representing themselves. They’re posting more on social media, connecting with fans and almost universally, they’re going live more than ever.

Instagram Live has been incredibly utilized during this pandemic as a way to connect. For smaller artists and bands, making money during this pandemic without shows has come from merch sales and donations.

Up and coming artists like Girli and Ron Gallo have performed full sets on Instagram live and asked for donations, if people had the means. Other established artists like James Blake and Rex Orange County have performed live without asking for anything. Publications have also joined the livestream club, including Pitchfork, who has hosted various lives with artists like Weyes Blood, Phoebe Bridgers and Nilüfer Yanya.

(Charli XCX playing at the 9:30 Club, Maranda Leecan, 2019)

An artist that has undeniably used going live to it’s full potential is Charli XCX. She started quarantine with a series of livestreams of her own, doing random things with other artists – like doing with vocal warmups with Tove Lo and taking a psychopath test with Rina Sawayama. She also has hosted DJ sets for others.

However, the most fascinating thing she’s doing is making a completely new album in a little over a month, solely while social distancing in her home in California. On April 6th, she announced the album, which is aptly titled “how i’m feeling now,” first on Zoom after tweeting the meeting code out. In the same meeting, she set the release date as May 15th, before she even started working on it. 

From there, she’s worked remotely with producers, sharing vocals and beats through the internet. For single covers, she’s enlisted artists that she’s come across online to rework photos her boyfriend takes of her in their house, after asking fans which pictures they like the most. She’s utilized Zoom more during the process, inviting fans and other guests to meetings to ask her questions. She’s used Instagram Live to share lyrics, production, and more with fans to have dialogue on what should make the album.

Future Implications

Looking at how the music industry has reacted to this pandemic leads to a lot of questions for its future. A lot of things will have to change, but what will they be? Precautions will inevitably come into play following COVID-19, as it wasn’t even a thought to anyone a few months ago but, has now put the entire industry on a halt.

(Governor’s Ball, Maranda Leecan, 2019)

Already, festivals like Governor’s Ball in New York and Firefly in Dover, Delaware had to cancel their 2020 plans instead of rescheduling. It’s becoming likely that COVID-19 will last until the summer, maybe even after. Outdoor events can only be held until the end of the fall and festivals can only be held on weekends. Other festivals have already rescheduled to the weekends that fit into that criteria and no more spaces are open for those making changes now, forcing cancellations.

In addition, many artists who were scheduled to play these festivals had to move around their own tour dates as well and will have to drop out. That means the fall weekends will be packed with festivals and the nights of fall will be packed with all the rescheduled tours. That’s assuming these events will happen, as they’re totally dependent on a vaccine, which could take up to 18 months to formulate.

Assuming the reschedules happen as planned, the end of the year will be oversaturated and will lead to people having to choose what they’ll make it to. Most people will also just be starting to make personal financial recovery from loss of job and income. Everything might get rescheduled, but will the shows be as packed as they once were with people having to choose what to attend?

(Tame Impala, Maranda Leecan, 2019)

In addition to financial recovery, social recovery will come into play as well. Will the forced distance of being separated for so long be beneficial or detrimental? Will it make getting back to shows and being around people even more important? 

Or will seeing now how we’re able to connect with artists and see shows (some being larger than anything that could happen in human form, like Travis Scott’s Fortnite show) from the comfort of our beds be something that people will want to continue even after we’re able to physically connect again?

These are questions that no one has the answer to right now, they’ll come with time. The only certain in this entire situation, for not only the music industry, but all industries across the world, is that everything is going to change after recovery of COVID-19. And right now, we can only hope it’s for the best.

[crazy4dragons]

I’m willing to go back to in-person in the fall because online learning really didn’t work with my school and I can guarantee keeping them out of school won’t encourage them to quarantine. They’ll just be running the streets instead, in a neighborhood where there’s been an average of 3 shootings daily since the lockdowns started and unfortunately, many of these parents work low-wage, but essential jobs so they can’t be around to supervise kids’ learning or whereabouts (and some straight up don’t care if their kids are out).

My district, as of now, is planning hybrid learning, so having 12 kids in class every other day is (for me) preferable to having no kids in class indefinitely and leaving them to wander and still be in danger because of the community they live in/lack of adult guidance as they get into trouble with theft, gun violence, fights, drugs, etc. (which is a definite reality for these students). Trying to hold parents accountable was living hell and many kids’ mental health visibly declined in the spring (some to the point of it being dangerous).

I’m not saying there won’t be a lot of challenges with the hybrid model. I’m sure there will be issues, but at this point I don’t really see a great solution that would work for everyone since every community is so different. I have middle schoolers, who will still be a challenge with the new guidelines, but they respond well to incentives so they should be easier than elementary (at least they don’t have recess anymore and honestly, although it took some work last year, most of them did learn to stay in their seats/at their desks). I’m planning to invest in a lot of incentives (candy, mechanical pencils/highlighters/other school supplies since they won’t be able to share anymore) and let them earn prizes by following guidelines. I might even buy a bunch of little hand sanitizers to give out, since my students (especially the girls) love Bath and Body Works scents and would be happy to have their own fun scent to keep at their desks. My students last year also liked cleaning, so I’m planning to buy a bunch of sanitizing wipes and have them wipe their desks at the end of each day. It’s gonna be a bit of an annoyance, but I think if you are going back, there’s ways to make it fun. It’ll just take some creativity.

Like I said, though, every community is different so there’s not really a one-size-fits-all solution, and the incentives I use for middle school admittedly probably won’t be effective for early elementary. So if you are going back (and I also hope districts will let teachers choose to be in-person or online only depending on their comfort level) my advice is try to be creative and make it fun. It’s not a good situation at all, but there’s ways to try and make the best of it.

[easyfoodnetwork]

Until the Government Orders a Rent Freeze, Here’s How Restaurant Owners Should Talk to Landlords About COVID-19

Photo: Shutterstock

Lawyer Jasmine Moy breaks down how to approach landlords — and why you need an attorney right now

With restaurants facing mandated dining room closures and decreased sales in the wake of COVID-19, many operators are struggling to make this month’s rent. To find out what options are available to them, Eater turned to go-to restaurant lawyer Jasmine Moy to learn more.

”I know it’s easier said than done, but if you can, try to relax and understand that most landlords want you to survive as a business and to stay in their premises,” Moy says. “Landlords understand that if they were to lose a tenant now, that there’s a great deal of uncertainty about when and how they’ll find the next tenant, and at what price. Their goal is to collect rent and your goal is to have a business that can afford to pay it. We’re all in this together and everyone, including your landlord, wants to see you up and running on the other side of this.”

Read on for more about how to start a conversation about what you can and can’t do for your lease.

Disclaimer: The materials available in this post are for informational purposes only and not for providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.

Q: How does COVID-19 affect my obligations under my lease?

A: It depends — and it’s worth revisiting the language in your lease to find out.

While your obligations will depend entirely on what is actually in your lease and what you or your attorney may have negotiated before you signed it, if you are looking for relief from your lease obligations and think that the “force majeure” clause (which usually comes into play during natural disasters and following acts of war) will aid you at this time, you’re likely to be disappointed. Even in the best circumstances, the force majeure clause usually only affects the landlord’s ability to claim a “default” (any failure to perform some lease requirement is a default) by you, the tenant, with regards to everything but the payment of rent and additional rent (e.g. your taxes and utilities). This means that a closure due to the pandemic might relieve a tenant of their obligation to make repairs to the premises required under the lease but more than likely doesn’t relieve the obligation to pay the landlord the monthly rent.

Q: So if my lease doesn’t get me out of paying rent, what should I do?

A: Communicate, communicate, communicate!

If you have a good working relationship with your landlord, great! Reach out to them (or have your attorney to reach out to their attorney) to open the dialogue about what to do next. Your approach doesn’t have to be super formal, but you want to: 1.) Acknowledge the hardship and let your landlord know what you’ve had to do with your business operations (whether that’s actually shut down entirely or have reduced service to take-out/delivery only) as a result of city or state requirements; 2.) acknowledge that this is unprecedented and that you are looking forward to working together to find a solution; 3.) get some confirmation that they are willing to look into some combination of abatements/deferrals/reductions and confirm they’ll be ready to document that in a lease amendment in the coming weeks; and 4.) get confirmation that they won’t issue any default notices (for non-payment of rent or otherwise) in the meantime.

Note: I would not say outright that you will not be paying rent, as within your lease there may be language that allows the landlord to claim you’re in default if there is a “threatened breach” and telling the landlord in advance that you won’t be paying rent would likely qualify as a threatened breach. Some leases also have opening hours requirements, so there may be a couple different areas in which you’re technically in default at the moment; be cautious of that, and have your own attorney discuss with you the risks involved with any communication with your landlord.

Anecdotally, I have sent many messages to landlords’ attorneys for my clients and they have universally thanked me for being proactive and have said they understand and are looking forward to working through this together. Obviously, you want everything you eventually agree to with your landlord in writing and signed by both parties, but there is an argument for waiting to see if the federal or state governments offer any assistance or credits to landlords and tenants as a result of the pandemic. Most the conversations I’ve had with those landlord’s attorneys have resulted in a “let’s check back in with each other in a couple weeks,” so we’re planning on revisiting how to set this down on paper when we know more about how long these restrictions might be in place and (hopefully) what aid may be available, which should be taken into consideration when renegotiating the lease terms.

If you have a bad, or adversarial relationship with your landlord, it might be better to have your attorney review your lease to let you know exactly how and when the landlord can claim you’re in default. “It also may be better to have your attorney reach out to the landlord’s attorney in a more formal way,” as they may have more civil conversations with each other than you and your landlord. Your attorney may also assist you with finding defenses to any defaults your landlord might claim, and can prepare to protect you at a moment’s notice if your landlord does claim a default at this time.

Q: What should I do if I have not paid rent and my landlord has sent me a default notice?

A: First, notify your attorney immediately.

Usually your lease will stipulate that you have a certain limited number of days to cure a default (e.g. perform a required part of your lease, like paying rent) before a landlord can try to terminate your lease and evict you, so any move you make has to be made before that clock runs out. Your attorney can first try to make an arrangement to settle the issue by negotiating some abatement and/or deferral with your landlord, but your attorney may also need to file an injunction. Real estate rules vary quite a bit state to state. There are likely particular laws and structures set in place as they relate to landlord-tenant litigation that may apply to your situation, so you should talk to a licensed attorney to evaluate the full range of options available to you.

Regardless, in case you couldn’t already tell, time is of the essence and any default notice is serious business (both for your company, and for you, personally, assuming you signed a personal guarantee as part of your lease).

Q: Can my landlord evict me for non-payment of rent?

A: It depends on where your business is located.

Some cities and states have created tenant protections in the wake of the pandemic, so talk to a local attorney for a definitive answer that applies to your business. In New York City where I am based, there is a hold on all eviction proceedings and the Governor of New York has ordered the shut-down/rejection of new cases indefinitely with any timelines for filing “tolled” (paused) unless the case qualifies as an emergency (and what does/doesn’t count as an emergency is a tad fuzzy at the moment). Because there’s no definitive time frame on this, if the pandemic is deemed to be under control in a matter of weeks, the ban on new cases could be lifted whenever the government deems it so.

The entire Q&A above is subject to change as many city and state governments are scrambling to provide small business protections, so I cannot stress enough that you should consult with a local attorney about your options.

This is also as good a time as any to call your elected officials to demand protections for small businesses and workers and, while you’re at it, please visit https://www.saverestaurants.co/ to add your voice to their efforts as well as signing the ROAR change.org petition here.

Jasmine Moy is a business attorney whose practice focuses on chefs, restaurateurs, and hoteliers.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3bpfUNG https://ift.tt/2JdfFch

Photo: Shutterstock

Lawyer Jasmine Moy breaks down how to approach landlords — and why you need an attorney right now

With restaurants facing mandated dining room closures and decreased sales in the wake of COVID-19, many operators are struggling to make this month’s rent. To find out what options are available to them, Eater turned to go-to restaurant lawyer Jasmine Moy to learn more.

”I know it’s easier said than done, but if you can, try to relax and understand that most landlords want you to survive as a business and to stay in their premises,” Moy says. “Landlords understand that if they were to lose a tenant now, that there’s a great deal of uncertainty about when and how they’ll find the next tenant, and at what price. Their goal is to collect rent and your goal is to have a business that can afford to pay it. We’re all in this together and everyone, including your landlord, wants to see you up and running on the other side of this.”

Read on for more about how to start a conversation about what you can and can’t do for your lease.

Disclaimer: The materials available in this post are for informational purposes only and not for providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.

Q: How does COVID-19 affect my obligations under my lease?

A: It depends — and it’s worth revisiting the language in your lease to find out.

While your obligations will depend entirely on what is actually in your lease and what you or your attorney may have negotiated before you signed it, if you are looking for relief from your lease obligations and think that the “force majeure” clause (which usually comes into play during natural disasters and following acts of war) will aid you at this time, you’re likely to be disappointed. Even in the best circumstances, the force majeure clause usually only affects the landlord’s ability to claim a “default” (any failure to perform some lease requirement is a default) by you, the tenant, with regards to everything but the payment of rent and additional rent (e.g. your taxes and utilities). This means that a closure due to the pandemic might relieve a tenant of their obligation to make repairs to the premises required under the lease but more than likely doesn’t relieve the obligation to pay the landlord the monthly rent.

Q: So if my lease doesn’t get me out of paying rent, what should I do?

A: Communicate, communicate, communicate!

If you have a good working relationship with your landlord, great! Reach out to them (or have your attorney to reach out to their attorney) to open the dialogue about what to do next. Your approach doesn’t have to be super formal, but you want to: 1.) Acknowledge the hardship and let your landlord know what you’ve had to do with your business operations (whether that’s actually shut down entirely or have reduced service to take-out/delivery only) as a result of city or state requirements; 2.) acknowledge that this is unprecedented and that you are looking forward to working together to find a solution; 3.) get some confirmation that they are willing to look into some combination of abatements/deferrals/reductions and confirm they’ll be ready to document that in a lease amendment in the coming weeks; and 4.) get confirmation that they won’t issue any default notices (for non-payment of rent or otherwise) in the meantime.

Note: I would not say outright that you will not be paying rent, as within your lease there may be language that allows the landlord to claim you’re in default if there is a “threatened breach” and telling the landlord in advance that you won’t be paying rent would likely qualify as a threatened breach. Some leases also have opening hours requirements, so there may be a couple different areas in which you’re technically in default at the moment; be cautious of that, and have your own attorney discuss with you the risks involved with any communication with your landlord.

Anecdotally, I have sent many messages to landlords’ attorneys for my clients and they have universally thanked me for being proactive and have said they understand and are looking forward to working through this together. Obviously, you want everything you eventually agree to with your landlord in writing and signed by both parties, but there is an argument for waiting to see if the federal or state governments offer any assistance or credits to landlords and tenants as a result of the pandemic. Most the conversations I’ve had with those landlord’s attorneys have resulted in a “let’s check back in with each other in a couple weeks,” so we’re planning on revisiting how to set this down on paper when we know more about how long these restrictions might be in place and (hopefully) what aid may be available, which should be taken into consideration when renegotiating the lease terms.

If you have a bad, or adversarial relationship with your landlord, it might be better to have your attorney review your lease to let you know exactly how and when the landlord can claim you’re in default. “It also may be better to have your attorney reach out to the landlord’s attorney in a more formal way,” as they may have more civil conversations with each other than you and your landlord. Your attorney may also assist you with finding defenses to any defaults your landlord might claim, and can prepare to protect you at a moment’s notice if your landlord does claim a default at this time.

Q: What should I do if I have not paid rent and my landlord has sent me a default notice?

A: First, notify your attorney immediately.

Usually your lease will stipulate that you have a certain limited number of days to cure a default (e.g. perform a required part of your lease, like paying rent) before a landlord can try to terminate your lease and evict you, so any move you make has to be made before that clock runs out. Your attorney can first try to make an arrangement to settle the issue by negotiating some abatement and/or deferral with your landlord, but your attorney may also need to file an injunction. Real estate rules vary quite a bit state to state. There are likely particular laws and structures set in place as they relate to landlord-tenant litigation that may apply to your situation, so you should talk to a licensed attorney to evaluate the full range of options available to you.

Regardless, in case you couldn’t already tell, time is of the essence and any default notice is serious business (both for your company, and for you, personally, assuming you signed a personal guarantee as part of your lease).

Q: Can my landlord evict me for non-payment of rent?

A: It depends on where your business is located.

Some cities and states have created tenant protections in the wake of the pandemic, so talk to a local attorney for a definitive answer that applies to your business. In New York City where I am based, there is a hold on all eviction proceedings and the Governor of New York has ordered the shut-down/rejection of new cases indefinitely with any timelines for filing “tolled” (paused) unless the case qualifies as an emergency (and what does/doesn’t count as an emergency is a tad fuzzy at the moment). Because there’s no definitive time frame on this, if the pandemic is deemed to be under control in a matter of weeks, the ban on new cases could be lifted whenever the government deems it so.

The entire Q&A above is subject to change as many city and state governments are scrambling to provide small business protections, so I cannot stress enough that you should consult with a local attorney about your options.

This is also as good a time as any to call your elected officials to demand protections for small businesses and workers and, while you’re at it, please visit https://www.saverestaurants.co/ to add your voice to their efforts as well as signing the ROAR change.org petition here.

Jasmine Moy is a business attorney whose practice focuses on chefs, restaurateurs, and hoteliers.

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