#but they may have well not answered because the email says essentially nothing except 'thanks for your patience we can't help you rn'

[sitdwnandstudy]

the whole phd app process is shit actually

[oldsmobile-hotdogs]

Questions for crossover jatp ghosts crossover fic: I hope Julian and the sunset curve boys talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Yugoslav wars that happened when they were alive + Bill Cilnton. I wonder what pat and the band would talk about considering that they would of been kids when pat died? Do you think Julie would think of Les Mis and Hamilton cos Thomas and Kitty are from about the same time period as those musicals? I hope Julie calls Fanny Mary poppins.

Anon, or "Mimi", or "Lulu", or, heck, maybe even "Carl Birtles": Update: Not Carl Birtles. Carl Birtles sent me an ask and is cool, actually.

Stop. Right now. I'd say stop while you're ahead, but you are so far away from ahead at this point it's laughable.

For everyone confused, this is that "commenter from AO3" I joked about making a 2017-esque story time video about.

A couple days ago I uploaded the first chapter of a Julie and the Phantoms/BBC Ghosts crossover fic.

You know what? I’m gonna promo it here bc it’s my callout post and I can shill if I want to: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30681704/chapters/76661471

It was generally very well received and I've had a blast interacting with readers.

Except for this.

Honestly, there's so much to get into, so I’m putting it under a cut:

This was their first correspondence (email notif bc I deleted the comment, the deletion to be explained later):

(Funnily enough, the links very much do not work on AO3, making the comment only more jarring)

I gave you *so much* benefit of the doubt when I saw this comment, and assumed that maybe you're an ESL user, just very enthusiastic to share ideas, and I pretty much said so in my reply, but know that at that point I'd already had friends- who fucking know about this, don't you dare think you're getting me alone- tell me that you were being very demanding.

Below was my reply (another email notif):

I'm gonna be honest, I think I responded really well to what I was given, and now that I'd replied, I was pretty certain the situation was dealt with. You, evidently, didn't agree, as shown by your reply to my reply:

A word of advice: when replying to someone, at least pretend like you read what they wrote.

At this point I'm left wondering two things:

What do they expect from me, if a general reply is not it?

How much more shit do they have waiting to tell me to put in my- reminder, JATP/BBC Ghosts crossover, rated T, comedic- fic?

In order to avoid finding out either, I freeze the thread on AO3. I'm liveblogging all of this on Discord.

It's then that I notice that the username on AO3 isn't clickable, so even if I wanted to block or report them I couldn't. I assume, therefore, that they've deactivated, and since them seeing their comments gone and getting angry was the only thing stopping me deleting the comments, I delete the comments.

It's also at this point I see "Mimi" never left kudos. I guess I don't deserve praise until I mention "Bill Cilnton".

There's relative calm for a short amount of time, until I get another comment:

This one is much kinder than the others and doesn't mention any specific, weird, historical events, so the extent to which I think this is "Mimi" is debatable, but bestie I'm weirded out enough that anything that even uses the enter bar unnecessarily and misses out conjunctive words like "because" and "and" is going to activate fight or flight. Update: Carl Birtles is not Mimi or Lulu. Carl was just being genuinely kind and I misinterpreted it and that's on me.

However, "Carl"'s case is not helped by the fact I can't click his account either, that AO3 offers me the ability to report it as spam, and that guess who replies to "Carl"'s comment: Update: Carl, having done nothing wrong as he has, is therefore also a victim in the situation that is being replied to by Lulu. It would seem Lulu is trying to correct??? some of Carl's commentary.

You must think I didn't get a 7 on my English Literature GCSE because you seem to underestimate my ability to compare two texts.

So clearly this is "Mimi", who has also just replied to "Carl". "Lulu" is also deactivated, and I've fallen off the end of my tether, let alone reached it, at this point so I mark it as spam. "Carl" gets to stay bc he said the idea for the crossover was good. Update: Carl also gets to continue to stay because I have it on good faith that he's a stand-up dude.

So at this point you've readily admitted through your inability to shake up your writing style to using at least one sockpuppet to convince me to talk about the "Yugoslav wars".

If "Carl Birtles" is the real(-est) of them, and "Mimi" and "Lulu" are the sockpuppets, by the way, I have questions and ideas about what you do on your free evenings and I want them neither confirmed nor answered. Update: This is slanderous and I want to apologise wholeheartedly to Carl for making assumptions about him and judging his character. Once again, he is not Mimi or Lulu. He's just a normal, cool guy.

And now you come to me, on the day of my daughter's wedding on a different platform, leave me an anon ask in the exact same format as you're so fond of, and expect any different ??

Well, yeah, then I guess I'll give you special treatment this time.

Here's exactly why I will never include anything you have told me to include:

Julian and the Phantoms discussing the Berlin Wall would be highly inappropriate for the largely fluffy, cracky tone of my fanfiction, especially given how recently the event occurred, how many Eastern Germans still experience prejudice to this day because they were born within the old borders of the DDR, and because of how nuanced this, essentially proxy war, was and how ill-informed a huge amount of the world is on the actual factors in play during this time and the Cold War in general.

Julian and the Phantoms will not discuss Yugoslavia dissolving, nor the fallout and conflict that resulted, because it was genocidal. There is nowhere I can fit Julian, pantsted, casually asking Luke “hey do you remember when the Herzegovinas were killed en masse by the Serbs?” Not gonna happen.

They won’t discuss Bill Clinton because all of them know who the current world leaders are: they don’t have amnesia, they’re ghosts. The fic is also rated T, so it would be inappropriate to make any explicit reference to “sexual relations”. None of them play saxophone.

Julie wouldn’t think of Les Mis or Hamilton because Thomas is Regency, not French Revolution, and Kitty is Georgian, not Colonial.

Julie won’t be calling Fanny Mary Poppins because she is perpetually stuck in a white dress, doesn’t wear a hat, doesn’t own an umbrella or a purse and was not the nanny or housekeeper of Button House.

The ghosts will not discuss the marvels of modern transportation or how long it would’ve taken to cross the Atlantic on dinghy because the ghosts have seen Friends. The house irl is on a flight path. They know airplanes exist. Alison and Mike pulled up in a car.

I will probably have the phantoms and Willie talk to Pat and Julian about being from the ‘80s and ‘90s. That I will actually probably do.

The Captain will not mention FD Roosevelt because, again, they all know who the current world leaders are, and I doubt he expects a ‘90s pop punk band to have any insider knowledge on the man.

It was interesting to think of the phantoms’ grandparents having been alive during WW2. I wasn’t lying. But there is nearly nothing I can do with this information.

But above all: both sets of ghosts have already adapted to modern life. Because the shows are shorter, and meant to actually be able to fit jokes in them.

If you want to see any of this, write your own damn fic. I don’t own the concept of a JATP/BBC Ghosts crossover.

What you will not do, “consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel”-nim, is hound me on multiple accounts and then change platform to hound me again. I’m absolutely not having it.

I have never received an interaction quite like this before, and I cannot help but wonder if this is because this is my first work in the Ghosts/HH/Them There/Six Idiots/Yonderland/Bill fandom: that this is where you primarily camp out.

So it’s at this point I ask the Them There/Six Idiots fandom if they have/if they know anyone who has had a run-in with this person or thinks they may have, or if anyone perhaps even knows who this is? Maybe I’m just one of many. Maybe this is a necessary fandom evil I was unaware of.

This experience has left me royally freaked out, as one might imagine, especially since my anxiety in general has been acting up due to it being exam season. I want to thank everyone who’s read my rambles on Discord and on here and even listened to them irl and offered support from the bottom of my heart.

I’ve enabled comment moderation on the fic. I will continue to write it, and I will put exactly what I, and only what I, want in it.

Believe it or not, I wanted to do literally anything else today.

Anon: Fucking Leave Me Alone.

Update: Just reiterating: Carl is not Mimi or Lulu. Carl is a cool dude and I want to sincerely apologise for having brought him into this mess, passing judgment on his character, and making him feel like he should stop practicing English online.

[captain-aralias]

Fanfic year in review - 2019

yeah - i’m going to answer all these questions too. just watch me. 

List of Completed Fics this year:

Keep Calm (Carry On, S/B and ensemble, Teen, 69k)

Sex and Blood (Carry On, S/B, Explicit, 16k)

The Sound of Silence (Carry On, S/B, Teen, 10k)

Coming Up For Air (Carry On, S/B, Explicit, 4k)

Hang the Moon (Carry On, S/B and ensemble, Teen, 30k)

The sky isn’t black anymore (Carry On, S/B, Explicit, 9k)

This is fine (B7, B/A and ensemble, Teen, 4k)

Total: 7 fics, 142k words - making it one of my most prolific years ever in terms of word count! (even though i wrote about 30k of ‘keep calm’ last year, which would take the total down to a more reasonable level). 

i answer some questions about them below the cut... 

Best/worst title?

Keep Calm is the best title, for sure, as it’s a role reversal of ‘Carry On’. The only bad thing about this title is that i love role reversal fics and i can never use it again. also... i guess as i got to the end i started to think... ‘Should i bring out this theme of calmness...? is this even a theme????’ It was a bit distracting, essentially. 

worst title is ‘Sex and Blood’, which does what it says on the tin - can’t deny it. it’s supposed to be about how vampirism links the two things for baz, right? .... but i don’t like it. also - when people comment on it (thank you! please do comment on it! please keep reading it!) this stupid title that i wrote appears on my lock screen of my phone, which i just leave lying around at work. 

but i know - i did it to myself. i should have thought of a better title. 

Best/worst summary?

i don’t know if i already pointed this out on tumblr, but i noticed recently that all my ‘carry on’ fic summaries have a [Clause A - bad or good situation] but/or some other conjunction [Clause B - something happens that causes a fic to exist!] structure, except for ‘The Sound of Silence’. 

Even having realised that, I’ve still written a summary with the same turn for my as yet unnamed bodyswap fic... 

I think the best summary is probably ‘Keep Calm’. 

Worst summary - Coming Up for Air, but I was trying not to give spoilers for Wayward Son. and it’s a PWP.

Best/worst first line?

generally i love my first lines, and hate my last lines. 

i would say all of my 2019 first lines are indeed pretty good. ‘The sky isn’t black anymore’ is straight into being X-rated so i’m not going to quote it here in case that’s not your jam, but i like it a lot. 

i also like: There’s something wrong with Baz. (Sex and Blood). Obvious - but, it works.

i don’t not like any of them, even the really long rambling first line of ‘This is FIne’.

i will call out the first line of ‘Keep Calm’ though, because i spent ages trying to work out how to punctuate it, and i still don’t know what i should have done. it currently reads: The Mage is waiting for me, outside the door to Mummer’s House.

depending on when you read it, though (and i’m sure you didn’t notice) it may have had no comma (The Mage is waiting for me outside the door to Mummer’s House.) or it might have been a dash where the comma was, or even - gasp - a full stop (because rainbow likes to break sentences into fragments so that’s ok).

 i kept changing it. this may seem like a complete waste of time (and i think the right-right answer is that there shouldn’t be a break at all - no comma is correct), but i wanted the first sentence to FEEL like ‘the mage is waiting for me’ - the place is merely corroborative detail. the point is the mage is there, about to take simon away and change the plot. hence ... the punctuation.

Best/worst last line?

as i said - very few of my last lines are what i wanted. i have not mastered them at all. too often it’s just ‘this is where i ran out of story’. the worst is the ending to the ‘Sound of Silence’ where i literally resorted to ‘Carry On’ cliche to get out of it: And he kisses me.

it’s fine, it works - but i could have done better.

the actual ending line of ‘Hang the Moon’ is pretty good i think, but the pacing of that ending is all wrong. i’m much happier now i wrote a whole extra fic so the weight of everything ending isn’t on those final hundred words. 

the BEST last line i wrote... the one that actually really works (for me) is ‘Coming Up For Air’. And I feel like I can breathe again. 

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

apparently i wrote a lot - which i probably wouldn’t have predicted last year, although by this time last year i’d written ‘the mage’s heir’ and the first half of ‘keep calm’, which did provide much of the wordcount for this year. so - i guess if i’d thought about it, it would have seemed plausible. 

first person helps me write long. and in b7 i learned to write long. 

i guess i’m surprised because it felt like i wasn’t writing that much in comparison to some people in the fandom (and i probably still didn’t in comparison!) and i wrote several long things rather than many short things, so the list is still pretty short despite being MANY words.... 

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

strange though it may be to say - i probably wouldn’t have predicted i’d write blake’s 7 this year. ‘never go back’ - that’s my motto. or rather ‘i can’t go back, my brain doesn’t work that way’. but good to have done it. 

What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

hard to say. it’s a draw between ‘keep calm’, which i love because it did everything i wanted it to. and ‘hang the moon’, which is a collection of all my favourite tropes loosely disguised as a fic. 

they’re also the two longest - and i tend to like the long ones better for reasons i have gone into before.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

it’s pretty much a tie between ‘keep calm’ and ‘sex and blood’ - and since ‘keep calm’ was many chapters long, is earlier, and much more heavily promoted by self and the big bang, i’m pretty sure that means ‘sex and blood’ is more popular over all. 

thank you fandom, for loving vampire porn as much as i do.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

we all know (well, those of us who know what it is) that b7 is a tiny fandom, so with that in mind, i think ‘This is Fine’ is well appreciated! <3

the story that is (to me) surprisingly about half as popular as most things that i’ve written for ‘carry on’ is ‘Coming up for air’, which i have now re-linked for you in case you never read it.

it disproves the rule that shorter porny things will be more read (although obviously the vampire porn suggests the opposite). idk, i thought it would catch those who were in the post-wayward son crash, like i was. 

the other thing to say here is that it was still extremely appreciated - i mean, it’s got about 50 times as many kudos as any of my b7 things, and overall i would say it is a thing that is well received. i know i’m fortunate to be friends with people who re-blog my stuff and people who comment, and i (in turn) really appreciate THAT. 

so - it’s not a whine. just an observation

Story that could have been better?

i think i would have written ‘This is fine’ better if i’d written it five years ago. i definitely could have written a blake-travis mindlink to make the gods weep with its perfection ;) what a prompt.

i’ve talked about how i don’t rate the endings of ‘Sound of Silence’ or ‘Hang the Moon’ as well, so i think these could have been better. if only i was better at waiting.., and thinking of an ending. or just - if only i was better at endings. 

Sexiest story?

i think that’s the one that has the word ‘sex’ in the title. because vampires are sexy. and so is informed consent.

Saddest story?

sad?? what is this SAD? 

‘This is fine’ is quite sad given that it’s also about telepathic pornography. because we know everyone’s going to die soon. 

and ‘Sound of Silence’ isn’t sad, at least i don’t think it is - but Baz certainly is sad while it’s happening. 

Most fun?

i think ‘hang the moon’ is the most fun - because it has all the things that i like best happening in it. they fight some merwolves together, they go plate shopping, simon fights lots of people, fiona is there - it’s very fun.

Story with single sweetest moment?

hang the moon, probably. the bit with the moon. 

although i was thinking... surely i should talk about ‘keep calm’ a bit - isn’t it my equal fav? and i was thinking - what is the sweetest moment there... and the answer honestly is that i think the sweetest moment is the bit where the mage and simon are gardening together and simon doesn’t know if their relationship is doomed forever ... AND THEN the mage tells simon they can watch some VHSes of lucy next time simon comes back and they dont hug, but it is ... enough <3

I’M SORRY - I LOVE AWKWARD FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIPS BEING REDEEMED. 

Hardest story to write?

‘keep calm’ took me months and there were moments when i thought - fuck, this is not ending, and i hate not being able to talk to anyone about this because this fest is going on for months. and i was fortunate that i had the idea of emailing sharkmartini who i then did not know at all, and she was enthusiastic and getting that feedback made me think - ok, this is worth doing. i can finish this. 

but also - i started writing ‘sound of silence’ immediately after the ‘mage’s heir’ finished and i eventually published it over a year later. because the device i’d chosen meant that simon couldn’t say or do anything for most of the bloody story. and that meant that nothing happened, baz, thanks for nothing, and it was very hard to write.

and ‘This is fine’ - i must have written it in a few weeks. so it clearly wasn’t that hard. but in comparison to back when i (though i) knew everything that Avon would ever think or say... it was hard.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

Coming up for air was the easiest story. i haven’t written anything else in a day for this fandom, although it is something i’ve done before, back in the day. 

most of the others were also really fun to write, unless i put them in the ‘hardest story to write’ box. so, you know - about half. 

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

i started to write ‘no’, but that isn’t true. writing ‘The sky isn’t black anymore’ shifted my perception of the way that i’d written Baz in ‘Hang the Moon’ i.e. my own fic (how wanky is that?) 

most of the others are me putting things that i think about characters into words. so i did the thinking before, rather than during. 

Most overdue story?

i wanted to post ‘This is fine’ on Gauda Prime Day and didn’t :( but i know bunnacula said that was ok ;) so i think the most overdue was the one that took me over a year to finally bother finishing. 

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

eeeeeer... 

yes, maybe. i would say writing a happy ending for simon in ‘keep calm’ where the happy ending is that he gets a better relationship with his father (see above) as well as getting to go out with baz (whose happy ending is also not just about simon, but mostly is) is a risk in a fandom where everyone hates the mage so much. 

and then i finally wrote my thing about how i think the mage is actually right about many things, and fiona is classist. what i haven’t ever said explicitly on tumblr, i don’t think (though i said it on LJ) is that another reason it is so much easier for me to be sympathetic towards the mage is that he literally is a version of roj blake (the main character of my old fandom and my personal fav). obviously the mage is a blake who is a bit more autistic and significantly further off the deep end on the ‘greater good’ scale than blake ever was. but blake even also dresses like robin hood and is from wales. i haven’t said this before because i feel like it cheapens my semi-championing off him/might make people who really can’t tolerate the mage think ‘wtf? is aralias mental? why does she like roj blake so much?’ to be fair - lots of people in b7 hated him too. 

ANYWAY. what i learned from that is - these are the stories i want to tell and no one got upset, so that is awesome and i shouldn’t be so worried about what people think before i know what people think. 

i also wrote vampire porn, but i didn’t consider that a risk. because i knew that sharkmartini would love it - and that was one person and that was enough. are we all going to write more vampire porn in 2020? i hope so.

This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

good question but hard to answer. 

i think the theme is ...... possibly influenced by ‘wayward son’..... poor communication is bad; good communication is good. maybe? 

and the fic that most demonstrates this is one that i have the most problems with, and that’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ where simon literally can’t communicate for the first half of the fic. and then baz solves his own problem by saying ‘sorry’ and giving back simon’s voice. 

‘The sky isn’t black anymore’, which i really like but feel i haven’t talked about much (it’s an unproblematic fav!) feels very similar and in fact i struggled to make it less about communication/saying what you want than it kept wanting to be. because i was thinking - this isn’t the problem of the fic! the problem is that it’s all too fast, right? but actually - and here we come back to the learning about the characters - it was both. 

because baz is a character who doesn’t communicate. and, like simon in ‘sound of silence’, he was also shut out from the POV in ‘hang the moon’.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

write more! i want to get my ‘wayward son’ bodyswap out the door before the end of february..... maybe even january, but february sounds very achievable.

i have to finish my zine fic and then lop about 2000 words out of it, probably. 

i want to write another epic thing that is also about politics and vampires. it’s the one where natasha is alive, as well as other things. the problem with this one is that while i know a lot about it, i dont know exactly what the arc is - and i’m bored of re-writing simon giving up his magic to fix the humdrum (which i did... once... but i guess that was too often). so i have to try and work out what the climax is if it isn’t that - and i like to know the ending before i start...... but. my goal is to figure these things out and then write it. 

vampire porn - obvs. 

aaaand - for all of us: i will run a remix! oh yes, i will run a remix. ‘carry on big bang’ (which i definitely won’t do, it’s too solitary for me and too slow, alas - even though i keep thinking ‘i could do my vampire thing! it’s long’. it’s got to be a no) and the zine are in the first half of the year....... and i’m busy and stuff. so i thought it was going to be in december - but now i’m probably going for sign ups in march, post in may. I LOVE REMIX. i’m excited already.

[kaycha1989]

The Right Partner

My Hero Academia Fanfic

Characters: Katsuki Bakugou, OC

Rating: Mature

Summary: After graduating UA, Bakugou joined Best Jeanist's agency as a sidekick, but after three years of failed attempts at finding Bakugou a partner, Best Jeanist is desperate. Could a friend of his have the answer to his problem or will Bakugou scare away his newest partner?

Chapter One

“Honestly, I don’t know what to do with him.” Best Jeanist tells his friend Spotlight over the phone, “I’ve tried teaching Bakugou to rein in his anger and about the importance of keeping up appearances but he is impossible.”

Spotlight is a hero in America that is also into fashion. Like his name suggests his quirk allows him to control and direct light. He can focus light into powerful beams or direct it where he needs it for photo shoots.

“He looks like a handful.” Spotlight replies looking at the picture Jeanist just sent him, “With that handsome face and powerful quirk he will definitely have no problem becoming popular.”

“If it wasn’t for his foul mouth and his abrasive personality, plus he runs off everyone I try to partner him with. The sidekicks at my agency refuse to work with him. He has great potential to be the number one hero if I can only teach him how,” Jeanist sighs.

“So… you need a partner for him that can take his shit and hand it back to him.” Spotlight says thoughtfully.

“Yes, but the people I know of that can deal with Bakugou already have accepted positions at other agencies. His friends understand him and are used to his behavior but he needs to learn not to be so explosive with his words.” Jeanist replies.

“You know I have someone who might be just what you’re looking for.” Spotlight said with a chuckle.

“Seriously? At this point I’m willing to try anything,” Jeanist says eagerly.

“It would be more like fighting fire with fire… someone with a strong personality and quirk that can keep up with Bakugou. Honestly, if this works they will be a scary strong team, and it just so happens that she is interested in being an international hero,” Spotlight tells his friend.

“I don’t need another problem child,” Jeanist says irritably.

“You misunderstood me, she isn’t a problem child. She gets along very well with others but is a very dominant leader in a group. I usually pair her with the newbies to teach them how to cooperate and listen in a team setting; she has a natural knack for it,” Spotlight informs him.

“Sounds promising,” Jeanist replied, “What more can you tell me about her?”

“Truthfully, I’m not really willing to let her go. She is already rising fast through the rankings here in America. She is an amazing singer and performer as well, and I’ve recently talked her into doing some modeling. Her potential is amazing but she is still lacking in some self-confidence,” Spotlight tells his friend. “She is one of those ‘she doesn’t realize she is beautiful’ types. I just sent you a picture.”

Jeanist opens the email his friend sent. The picture loads to show a young woman with beautiful almond shaped green eyes and long dark purple hair that looks like it would reach her waist if it was down. Her bright smile and alluring eyes make her look like someone very friendly while at the same time making her appear to be someone you wouldn’t want to make angry.

“Wow, she is definitely a beauty but that won’t stop Bakugou from being and ass,” Jeanist informs his friend.

“Trust me it is not her looks I’m counting on,” Spotlight laughs.

“What is her quirk?” Jeanist asks.

“I’m glad you asked. I think it will be a perfect match for Bakugou’s Explosion…” Spotlight replies

%%%%%

Great, this is just great… how many of these damn partners do I have to run off before Best Jeanist realizes I don’t need one? Bakugou thought to himself.

The young hero had been called in to report to Best Jeanist’s office. Bakugou guessed it was because he had found him a new partner. It had been a while since he ran off the last one, so he thought he had finally gotten the point across.

Reaching the pro hero’s office, Bakugou threw the doors open with a bang. Flopping down in a chair he, glared at his mentor.

“If you break the door you’ll have to pay for a new one,” Best Jeanist tells the young hero.

“Whatever,” Bakugou scoffed, “What do you want?”

“Well, I think I’ve finally found you a partner,” Jeanist tells him.

“This shit again? How many times do I have to tell you I don’t need a damn partner,” Bakugou hollers.

“Whatever you may think, having a partner early in your career is essential to your development as a pro hero,” Jeanist tells him. “It took a lot to get her here from America. She was a sidekick for a good friend of mine, and he didn’t want to let her go.”

“Her? So you are pairing me up with some damn chick from America?” Bakugou blustered. “I don’t have time to babysit some fucking girly wannabe.”

“Wow, Spotlight wasn’t kidding. He really is quite the charmer!” a sarcastic voice came from behind him.

Bakugou turned around in his seat to see a young woman standing in the doorway.  She was tall with dark purple hair and green eyes. She walked in with a bag slung over her shoulder and made her way to Jeanist’s desk.

“Hello, sir.” she held her hand out to Jeanist. “I’m the hero from Spotlight’s agency, Wildside, and I want to thank you for this opportunity.”

Jeanist took the hero’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “I trust your trip here was a good one?” Jeanist asked.

“My flight didn’t have any problems and the person who picked me up was very nice,” Wildside said with a smile.

“Tch,” Bakugou scoffed. Great, another goodie two-shoes that is all smiles and fucking rainbows.

“Well, I’m glad you made it,” Best Jeanist said as he sat behind his desk. “I would like to introduce you to your partner, Katsuki Bakugou. His hero name is Ground Zero.”

Turning toward the ashy blonde man, Wildside held out her hand, “I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Whatever, let’s get one thing straight: I work alone.” Bakugou brushed off her handshake and stood up to his full height so that the top of her head reached his eyes.

Matching his fierce glare, she smiled. “Well, I guess you will have to get used to working with a partner then.”

“Bakugou, I want you to show Wildside around the agency,” Jeanist interrupted.

“Like hell!” Bakugou yelled before storming out of the office.

“Well that was interesting,” Wildside said turning back to Jeanist.

“I’m sorry for his despicable behavior,” Jeanist apologized. “He may not seem like it, but he is an exceptional hero.”

“I will have to take your word for it sir,” Wildside said looking back towards the door. “Spotlight said I was going to have my hands full.”

“I hope you still wish to stay?” Jeanist asked.

“Definitely, I’m not about to let that grump ruin this for me. You can count on me sir,” She replied. “I should introduce myself properly. My name is Hales, Kia Hales.”

“It is nice to meet you, Miss Hales,” Jeanist bowed.

%%%%%

Bakugou slammed his locker shut after he shoved his costume inside.  Grabbing his towel he turned to head toward the showers only to come face to face with his new partner.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” Bakugou asked. “This is the men’s locker room or can’t you read Japanese?”

Kia ignored his remark. “I can read Japanese just fine but I don’t know my way around the agency yet. Jeanist said to find you and have you show me to the support and wardrobe offices.”

“And what, you just figured you would come in here and take a peek?” Bakugou accused, aware that he was standing there in nothing but his boxers.  

“Not saying that you aren’t impressive, but you’ve got nothing I haven’t seen before,” Kia said with a grin.

“What?” Bakugou snarled.

“I figured I would have to corner you to get you to help me, so here I am!” Kia said.

“The hell? Just wait outside.” Bakugou said pushing his way past her and heading to the showers.

Smiling, Kia made her way out of the locker room and sat on a bench outside the door to wait for her partner.

Bakugou took as slow a shower as he could, taking his time to dry and dress himself. He was hoping his new partner would get tired of waiting and leave. Much to his dismay, when he left the locker room she was sitting there waiting for him.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked gruffly.

“If you could take me to wardrobe I would appreciate it,” Kia replied.

“Follow me,” Bakugou said.

Kia quickly gathered her bags and followed Bakugou down the hall. Pointing to his right he told her. “Women’s locker rooms are down that hallway.”

“Thanks,” Kia replied.

They walked in silence until Bakugou stopped at a door two floors up from the locker rooms. “There,” he said crossing his arms and leaning against the doorway.

Kia walked in and introduced herself to the staff. Bakugou remained at the doorway, curious as to what his new partner was doing.  Pulling a suit out of one of her bags, Kia handed it over to the staff along with a file.

“Anything specific you want for your costume?” one of the staff members asked.

“Well if definitely needs to be resistant to burning or freezing. As far as color I’m not too picky. Try not to make it too revealing if you could please. That file contains the makeup of my old costume as well as specifics on my quirks.” Kia told them.

“Very well, we should be able to have your new suit ready in about three days,” the staff member said to her.

“Thanks so much!” Kia replied.

“By the way, who is your partner?” the other staff member asked. “Jeanist likes partners to have slight similarities in their uniforms.”

“Really?” Kia replied. “Well, my partner is Ground Zero.”

The staff members’ faces darkened when she told them who her partner was.

“You poor girl,” one of them said.

“We will definitely have to make the fabric sturdy,” another said. “And she will need spares.”

“I hope you have better luck than his former partners,” one said while patting her on the back.

“Uhm …thanks?” Kia replied, making her way to the door.

She was surprised to see Bakugou still standing by the door, and from the look on his face, he had heard everything the staff members said.

Bakugou turned with his hands in his pockets, bangs covering his eyes he made his way down the hall. Kia followed behind looking closely at her new partner. Filing into the elevator, the silence continued.

“You didn’t like what they were saying, did you?” Kia asked.

“Who the hell cares what those losers think?” Bakugou snapped.

“You know, it’s ok to have...” Kia started. Bam!! Bakugou’s fist collided with the wall right next to her head.

“SHUT THE HELL UP IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DIE!!” Bakugou exploded.

“If you are trying to intimidate me, it’s not going to work,” Kia said with a glare.

“FUCK YOU!” Bakugou pushed away as the doors to the elevator opened. Turning away he stormed out of the elevator and towards the front doors of the agency. Throwing the doors open, he stomped off. Kia watched as her short tempered partner stormed away.

“Well we are off to a good start,” Kia sighed to herself. “I better find somewhere to stay.” She took off in the opposite direction, not sure what to think of her new partner. 

Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12 | Ch 13 | Ch 14 | Ch 15 | Ch 16 | Ch 17 | Ch 18 | Ch 19 | Ch 20  

[spectraspecs-writes]

Writing has been really hard lately. (Except apparently for this post which is going on a bit, lol.)

Not "I can't get words on the page" - I can't even pull the page out. I can't tell if it's just executive dysfunction, lack of motivation, boredom, if I'm just busy, if I'm overthinking, or what. It's been over two years since I worked on anything but kotor fic. Sure, I've read past works, I think I've even made comment-edits on other WIPs, but I haven't actually worked on them. I want to finish this. This is the thing I want to do. But I can't actually get myself to do it. And the fact that I spend so little time at a computer with real internet access doesn't make it easier.

But. I have a prompt list from ages ago stored in my drafts. I can't access tumblr on most work computers, but I can access my company email and that gives me a place to put stuff. I also have a notebook that I don't intend to use for novelling - it doesn't have the requirements for a novel notebook (no rear pocket, for one thing.)

But then the question becomes, will I actually do that? I know myself pretty well, I can be pretty honest with myself. If someone offers to get me a book, for example, I say thanks for the gesture but I will not read it. If my brother asks "do you want me to send you this video?" I tell him that I will not watch it. It's nothing against him. Truthfully I don't know what it is. But I know what I will and won't do, and I've gotten a lot better at not promising things that I will not do. Including to myself.

I think the reason I haven't picked up my notebook again in a couple months is because I have a question to answer. A question of cuts. Anyone who knows me irl will tell you I talk a lot. Kotor fic could be a lot longer than it is, which is a nightmare to fathom given that I've hit the climax and would still not be surprised if I ended up with 200 chapters. I could make this shit longer. I DON'T, because while I haven't seen any of my regular readers in my notes for a while, I know they may come back, or I may get new readers, and I have to make the story worth reading.

When I say "cuts", I mean that less in the sense of "deleted scenes" and more in the sense of CRISPR. I'm not cutting any of the meat of the scenes, just taking out paprika, to further the food metaphor. While I can't say the purpose paprika serves in dishes that use it a LOT, in the dishes I use it in - deviled eggs and chicken tetrazzini come to mind - it's just color. You can make the dish without it and it doesn't take anything away. That's what I'd be cutting in the text - stuff the characters need to know, but you don't.

The current chapter that I'm writing is told in flashbacks, from Carth's perspective. The chunk that'll get those cuts takes place on Taris. We already know how the problems on Taris got solved. That was taken care of one hundred chapters ago. I do not need to share bits of information about how Bastila is rumored to be in the Undercity. That problem has been solved. So that bit? Cut. Easy. I had actually written the bulk of that this time last year, was proud of it, and I'm glad I found a way to include it.

This little ficlet is 10 8.5x11" pages long, and it's not finished. I've filled in some of the essential bits when I still had... let's call it the will to write. But even unfinished it's still very good and gives a lot of insight into the Carth I've written. There are, however, two problems with it.

Problem one: the length of it. Again, the ficlet is set after the escape pod crashes on Taris and focuses on Carth trying to figure out the situation. So it includes a lot of information that he would have needed to know at the time. There are a lot of easy cuts to make - Carth talking to residents of the South Apartments, Carth in the cantina, scouting out the Upper City - and those cuts have been made, easy peasy. The cuts that are harder are the ones I've been deliberating on, specifically Carth trying to get a read on the most important aspect of this situation: Rena.

And the length problem is not helped by problem two: I wrote the ficlet in third person past tense, as opposed to the rest of the fic which is first person present tense. There are some parts, especially after the Leviathan, where I switch to third person past tense for dramatic effect, but for the most part I stick to first person present. And I would like to do that for this chapter. But I wrote the ficlet first intending to share it on AO3 after I finished kotor fic, so it didn't have to match the format. So I have two options here: I either leave it as is, which looks tacky but makes cuts easier. Or I rewrite it to first person present, which makes things longer and harder to cut, but it serves the narrative purpose I want it to serve.

----

Then we get to the other flashbacks. I determined I want one on Tatooine, one on Kashyyyk, and one on Korriban. I finished Kashyyyk, and it's short. But there's nothing I can do to make it longer, it's just short. And I was working on Korriban when I last pulled my notebook out. It's very angsty, but also heart squishy and I truly can't wait to pick it back up, which makes me wonder why I haven't. But I try not to dwell on that, because I have other worth as a person than the words I put on a page. I don't know where I want to put Tatooine yet, although I have some thoughts? I just haven't thought too much about it. I considered putting one on Dantooine, but the flashback I would put there is already in the story, in Chapter 40 when Rena goes camping without him.

----

Am I thinking too much about it? Oh, hell yeah. Writing is still fun, but I get quicker fun by not doing it. At work I usually spend the entire day playing pyramid solitaire - I'm at level 100! I don't have to think about it anymore, I play mindlessly. But it's rare that I manage to close the game and pick up my pen. And I wish it wasn't. But damned if I know how to fix that.

[sinrau]

President Trump returns to the White House from Walter Reed medical center on Monday. Win McNamee/Getty Images

One day after President Donald Trump posted a video on his Twitter account that raised more questions about his health than it answered, he called into Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business show for his first live interview since he announced his positive test for the coronavirus nearly a week ago.

Trump sounded hoarse, but ultimately the interview will likely raise more questions about his mental than physical health. That’s because over the course of an hour, Trump made comments that were nonsensical — even by his standards — about a variety of topics, including the coronavirus and how he possibly got it, and his desire that his political rivals be prosecuted for unspecified crimes just weeks out from the election.

The interview began with Trump announcing, “ I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate ” and that he will pull out of next week’s scheduled second debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, which is to be held remotely because of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis.

Trump clearly wanted people to believe that his reasons for doing so are about his objections to the format, but the rest of his public therapy session with Bartiromo suggested his team might also have concerns about the debate turning out to be even more of a debacle than the widely panned performance at the first debate last week.

“Remember this: When you catch it you get better, and then you’re immune”

As you’d expect, Bartiromo began by asking Trump a string of questions about his health and how he’s feeling after his hospitalization and at least two coronavirus-related health crises. Trump responded with wild boasts — “I‘m back because I’m a perfect physical specimen, and I’m extremely young” he claimed — and dangerous lies.

Echoing the line he’s recently been pushing about how Americans shouldn’t let the coronavirus dominate their lives, Trump told Bartiromo, “Remember this: When you catch it you get better, and then you’re immune.”

“Remember this: when you catch it you get better, and then you’re immune” — this is a lie. There are already documented cases of people getting coronavirus twice. pic.twitter.com/auXWPN5F90

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2020

But not everyone gets better. The coronavirus has killed 210,000 Americans and counting and has ruined the health of thousands of others who survived. Furthermore, there are documented cases of people being infected more than once, so it is not true that someone who gets Covid-19 ends up being “immune.”

As the White House refuses to say when Trump’s last negative coronavirus test occurred — fueling speculation that he may have exposed Biden to it at last week’s presidential debate — Trump suggested he might’ve gotten infected by Gold Star families at an event that took place the day after a reckless event nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, which has been linked with a number of cases.

“I met with Gold Star families. I didn’t want to cancel that,” he said. “I can’t say, ‘Back up’ … they wanna hug me and they wanna kiss me, and they do.”

“I met with Gold Star families. I didn’t want to cancel that … I can’t say, ‘back up’ … they wanna hug me and they wanna kiss me, and they do” — Trump on now suggesting Gold Start families gave him coronavirus pic.twitter.com/7F2dBzRFgi

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2020

Blaming military families for his coronavirus diagnosis is on brand for Trump, but there’s no reason to believe it’s true. And instead of doing robust contact tracing to determine the origins of the White House case cluster, the Trump administration has instead tried to sweep the whole issue under the rug and move on with campaigning as quickly as possible.

Regardless of how he got it, Trump wants people to believe he’s the first person in the world to contract the coronavirus and feel better less than a week later. Despite his haggard voice and sickly appearance in the Twitter video he posted Wednesday, Trump told Bartiromo he feels “perfect.” He said he hadn’t been tested for coronavirus recently but added, “ I’m essentially very clean.”

Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric about Democrats is completely over the top

On the topic of Wednesday’s vice presidential debate, Trump’s analysis was basically limited to smearing Sen. Kamala Harris as a “ communist ” and “ monster.” Without a shred of irony, Trump repeatedly made dark insinuations about Biden’s health, claiming at one point that the former vice president “won’t make it two months as president.”

But arguably even more unhinged was Trump’s repeated calls for Attorney General Bill Barr to bring charges against Biden, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton for unspecified crimes, just weeks before the presidential election.

“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes — the greatest political crime in the history of our country — then we’ll get little satisfaction,” he said. “And that includes Obama and it includes Biden … we have everything … I say, Bill, we have plenty.”

“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes — the greatest political crime in history of our country — then we’ll get little satisfaction … and that includes Obama and that includes Biden” — Trump calls for Obama and Biden to be charged with crimes pic.twitter.com/g4hVYx98ZJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2020

Later, as Bartiromo tried to bring the interview to an end, Trump shouted, apropos of nothing, “Why isn’t Hillary Clinton being indicted?!”

To be clear, Trump is not making a credible accusation in saying that Biden, Obama, or Clinton actually committed crimes. But he appears to be trying to recreate October 2016, when he exploited the FBI’s renewed attention on the Clinton email investigation to damage her just enough to eek out his victory in the Electoral College.

The problem for Trump is that polls currently show him trailing Biden by about nine points nationally — a spread far wider than the lead Clinton enjoyed over Trump at a comparable point in the 2016 campaign. Instead of grappling with that reality, however, Trump told Bartiromo “I don’t believe the polls” and touted MAGA boat parades and truckers.

“They have a boat thing, they have 5,000 boats, they have thousands of trucks all over the country. I don’t believe the polls,” he said.

“I don’t understand it. I don’t believe ’em … they have a boat thing, they have 5,000 boats, they have thousands of trucks all over the country. I don’t believe the polls” — Trump on polls showing him trailing Biden by a dozen or more points pic.twitter.com/Y072VS7VKq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2020

While it might be tempting to surmise that Trump’s compromised health has resulted in his odd behavior since his coronavirus diagnosis — including a number of bizarre photo ops and incoherent, angry binges of posting on Twitter — the truth is all of this is more or less on brand for Trump.

For instance, during his interview with Bartiromo, Trump repeatedly made a total mess out of easy questions about what he hopes to accomplish in a second term. But mangling softball questions of that sort has been a staple of his Fox News interviews going back months.

Asked what he wants to accomplish in a second term, Trump says “I have done more for Black community than any president except Abraham Lincoln.” He remains unable to answer this extremely basic question. pic.twitter.com/c9NWho6QLX

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2020

Ultimately, to the extent that Trump’s interview with Bartiromo indicates he’s feeling better physically, that’s a good thing. But amid questions about the side effects of his ongoing Covid-19 treatments, he will need to do more to convince voters he is mentally and emotionally prepared for the rigors of the presidency — and the campaign trail.

Will you help keep Vox free for all?

The United States is in the middle of one of the most consequential presidential elections of our lifetimes. It’s essential that all Americans are able to access clear, concise information on what the outcome of the election could mean for their lives, and the lives of their families and communities. That is our mission at Vox. But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work. If you have already contributed, thank you. If you haven’t, please consider helping everyone understand this presidential election: Contribute today from as little as $3.

Trump just did his first TV interview since his coronavirus diagnosis. It did not go well.

[constructionaccounting]

0382: How To Grow Your Construction Network Without In-Person Events

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0380, And It's About How To Grow Your Construction Network Without In-Person Events

Networking can be a crucial way to keep your construction business growing.

  Profitable contractors attend networking events not because they have nothing better to do; they do it because it pays off. You can either spend hours doing office tasks like bookkeeping or getting face to face with someone who may need your services. Meeting people gives you the chance to build and develop relationships, hire you, or refer you to someone who might.

  Regardless of your industry or business size, it is hard to ignore the benefits of forming professional networks for potential partnerships, expanding your client base, and scaling up. However, while we are constantly reminded about the importance of networking, reaching out to grow your network isn't the same now, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Social restrictions to prevent spreading the coronavirus do not allow traditional networking approaches such as in-person conference events or face-to-face business meetings over coffee or dinner. However, this doesn't mean that you should put all your networking efforts on hold because no one can tell when this global crisis will end.

  It becomes more important than ever to try new ways to increase your sales and ensure that your business stays afloat during these difficult times. In this article, we will explore a couple of strategies to keep up your networking efforts during the COVID-19 crisis and well into the future.

1. Host Webinars, Online Courses, or Podcasts (or participate as a guest on interviews)

Webinars, online courses, and podcasts give you a chance to establish thought leadership and be at the forefront of your industry.

  Now that most of the world is in lockdown, it is the perfect time to start that project you've been meaning to work on but haven't found the time. When done right, you will be able to engage people in your existing network and add more people to your database.

  Take the time to do some planning on the industry-relevant topics that you'd want to discuss on your webinar, online course, or podcast. Include interactive activities that will keep your audience engaged. Don't forget to let the participants know about your website (especially if you're the one being interviewed), or other classes or webinars. These subscribers can help you keep your network growing.

2. Offer free downloadable content

Whether you are creating fresh content or re-purposing existing content that you already have, aim to provide value that will attract new people to your network. 

  You might create eBooks, courses, whitepapers, research reports, and other valuable content that people in your industry will find useful. Offer your content to your current contacts and promote them even further through social media and email marketing.

3. Take part in new online communities 

As the COVID-19 pandemic changes the way we interact, you should move online to connect with more people. Join virtual discussion groups and online communities that will give you an opportunity for targeted networking.

  When you do an online search of relevant groups, you will find that there are thousands of them. You don't have to join every single one-- just choose two to three that are most suitable and start participating. Engage by reacting and commenting on other people's posts, provide useful tips, and consider sending a direct message to start a conversation. Don't try to be too "salesy," though.

4. Tailor your messaging

When trying to connect with people online, don't just send a stock-standard template-- develop strong relationships by maintaining real and genuine interactions. In other words, don't send a message that you wouldn't be comfortable receiving.

  Make an effort to personalize each email instead of sending a generic message. You can reference a past event that you both attended or projects that you worked on together, if there are any, to show authenticity when reconnecting.

  If this is not applicable, you can also share encouraging words and stories, or ask if there's anything you can help with.

5. Get involve in philanthropic initiatives

Times of crisis teaches us that we are stronger if we work together. In these trying times, there are many initiatives to help those in need.

  By collaborating with charitable organizations and participating in volunteer programs, you are hitting two birds with one stone-- doing some good for society and tapping into opportunities to expand your network.

  Besides adding people you've worked with in these philanthropic events into your contact list, you can also share these experiences on social media.

Keep Growing Your Network

These are tough times for many people, and networking may not be on your priority list. However, it is essential to keep working on those human connections, as the effort you invest in making them will have a significant return on your business in the long run.

Although not every online networking event is going to yield a harvest. You might end up learning about all kinds of needs and opportunities about everything under the sun except what you came for - qualified construction leads to support your business. However, this is another path to cultivate and harvest repeatedly. By nurturing and strengthening your relationships during this period, you will enjoy positive impacts that last until better times return.

Final thoughts 

Remember, as Randal says: It is not what you know. It is not who you know. It is who knows you - that is what counts.

  When Power Connectors know you, it's more valuable than silver and gold; they are the core of your network. They are the people who know, like and trust you. Nurture and build your relationships with them by adding to each other's emotional bank account. They are the people who know you well enough to answer your phone call at three o'clock in the morning. That is what counts.

  Construction is a relationship business, and trust is everything. Networking is not rocket science - it is a lot harder because you are dealing with people. With rockets, if something goes wrong, you learn what not to do the next time. With people when something does not turn out as you expect, it is much more complicated, but with the proper association can work to your advantage.

About The Author:

Sharie DeHart, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood, Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on how to manage the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. Call 1-800-361-1770 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

  Check out this episode about Contractors Marketing - Accounting - Production (M.A.P.)!

[thomaswarren]

♢ ( @vivbarnes​ ) The drive had passed far too quickly for the driver’s preference. Strained white knuckles, dishevelled windblown hair, and a seat-belt wrinkled shirt may have said differently --- but inwardly, it felt as if barely a half hour had passed since Tom had breached NYC’s limits. Even after triple checking the GPS co-ordinates, the bright green destination sign marked with a (too close for comfort) 10 attached to Lanford’s name was still surreal to read. But what else could be expected when, since the moment the engine started, he’d been constantly pushing speed limits and allotted himself no unnecessary stops whatsoever? There was just one reason to be visiting Lanford. Technically two, but both existed within one person. Surprisingly, no one else had seemed eager to make the trip --- deemed unnecessarily time consuming and solvable over email. That is, until Tom intervened with evidence highlighting how crucial Viv’s role had been to the budding business’ current state of existence. Stepped out of the picture or not, she deserved to make the final call on her status. Legally, it was un-ignorable. To solve the matter via satellite was too impersonal. And so heads were convinced to turn; opinions reformed; and Tom elected the guy for the job. The trip had been set up to be just as any other professional venture. This was just a way to get loose ends tied; accomplishing three simple steps was all there was to it. Ask a question, get an answer, take an exit --- that was the proposed retrieval outline to uphold when Tom had volunteered himself for the task, and it was one he would attempt to follow as accurately as possible. Certainly, attempts would be made. Tom’s colleagues trusted in his efficiency with the blind faith that strangers often did, but these feelings towards Tom’s abilities were not unanimous on all fronts. There were a handful of exceptions in the close friends who’d long ago witnessed the origin story of the budding beer business; when brewery plans amounted to no more than a drunken idea between two heart eyed roommates. The same friends who’s witnessed the defining shift in motivation the leftovers underwent when one part of the equation vanished. They knew, better than perhaps even Tom, that reaching the desired outcome smoothly relied on the flawed assumption that everything laying between the lines would go off with out a hitch --- in that nothing unpredictable would go off at all. Suffice it to say, Tom had thought through every possible direction things could go with Viv about as well as he’d done so before any other plan he’d ever carried out. Not at all. Accompanying his pint-sized plan was an equally small bag of essentials that had been thrown into the back of the car last minute, much like his departure, which had technically been scheduled to happen a day later. To say it had been an impulsive decision to take an early leave was a colossal understatement. Rewind to just a fresh few hours ago; he had just arrived outside the office building where his usual weekend meeting took place when he’d received the call that something unexpected had come up and it would need to be rescheduled. A day off should have been a relief. A day off meant free time (a near extinct commodity in recent times) and relaxation --- alas, even the word was something he struggled to know what to do with nowadays, let alone the act of participating in it. The first thing he should have done was call home and let Jay know he would be relieved of bottling duty, to pass the good news on to roommate-turned-fiancée... Indeed, there was a plethora of things that should have been prioritized instead of the unlisted option he chose. If it had been wrong to do so then it shouldn’t have been so easy to conveniently skip taking his usual turn off for home and merge onto the highway instead. Evidence of his unpreparedness for travel was obvious in the uncharacteristic choice of casual attire he still wore. An expensive suit ensemble had more or less become his everyday dress code with how often he was summoned to lead the way into rooms where first impressions were everything. No matter how hippy dippy the independent brewery concept sounded on paper, a billionaire investor’s office naturally commanded a very particular type of presence. The only act of rebellion Tom had engaged in against the polished presentation guise was insisting on having the top buttons of dress shirt undone to his liking, sans tie, as well as the inch longer he’d let his hair grow. The stubble shadowing his jaw had less to do with a consciously made decision than it had to do with losing his razor earlier in the week and forgetting to make time to go out and get a new one. Prolonged self-employment had set his pacing and concept of time askew, to say the least. A job that could be done in an hour, but with the freedom of an entire day, would be needlessly drawn out. Such habits bled into the fibres of his personal life as well; everything done slowly purely because it could. Only one thing was reliably fixed in place. Appointments. However, thanks to technology even that was a non-issue now. ‘Take as long as you need,’ he’d been told inbetween firm handshakes with contractors and CEOs. ‘Get it over with. This has already taken too long,’ she had muttered afterwards, tucked close by Tom’s side and out of others’ earshot. She was one of the rare originals of the bunch who had veritable sway over what was going on, yet her word hadn’t been enough for him to sign on that expensive dotted line that suddenly loomed over every conversation. She was tactical in all the ways that he wasn’t, seeing no use in digging up old relations or tackling obstacles that weren’t already in their direct path. Business and pleasure were best served exclusive of the other, and that was that. Part of him wondered if the journey to Lanford would have been better suited to being assigned to her. Hadn’t they been best friends once? He'd been trying to forget that. You have reached your destination. Not long after passing the blink-and-you-miss it welcome sign, Tom’s foot stiffly shifted to hover over the brake pedal until the flow of traffic gave way to a more densely populated area. Parking in what he presumed was the central part of town, relieved to be liberated from spending a minute more crammed into a vehicle, he barely spared a moment to breathe easy before he headed determinedly onwards. Ducking in and out of businesses with one name on his lips, at first the request had sounded as robotic as the GPS that had been his sole company during the ride over. So unaccustomed to forming those three syllables, thankfully the extra focus it took to do it casually didn’t allow for him to pause and think about what asking around for Vivian meant. That sooner or later, he’d locate the vanisher herself and finally have to form a plan of action. Despite the timeline that had been extended to him, there was no sense of urgency or anxiety in his searching. Phone stored in his pocket as usual, he predicted he had at least another free hour or so before it would go off when it was officially discovered he wasn’t running late at the offices or sidetracked somewhere in between. A particular pet clinic became the common thread between the helpful few who had known who he was referencing to, always after corrective clarifications were made (‘Vivian? Do you mean Viv?’) then accompanied by fingers pointing to the aforementioned business, located --- of course --- just across the parking lot. Only after the fourth pet clinic recommendation did he feel convinced to no longer put off following the instruction. Weaving his way between moving and stationary cars alike, he approached the establishment with decidedly downcast eyes. Afternoon sunlight reflected off of the clinic’s storefront windows, making it impossible to catch a glimpse inside until he was nearly directly in front of it, having stepped into the shadow of the building. Oh, how inexplicably interesting the concrete underfoot seemed to stare down at all of a sudden. Grasping onto the clinic’s door handle, a lesser entertained thought dawned on him as he gave it a hesitant tug it toward him --- what if Viv wasn’t here? The thought was swiftly followed by an even more uncertain notion; would her absence be a relief, or a disappointment? Once upon a time, Tom might have mulled a little longer on such things; perhaps even stopped altogether and retraced his footsteps until he was tucked back inside his car. Unfortunately, neither was a feasible option so long as he had someone to report back to in a city many miles away. It was precisely for this reason that Tom’s soft sense of childlike curiosity and unconditional tenderness had been heavily under construction since left to his own devices. Esteemed distributors and business execs alike had slowly by surely chiseled a new shape out of the rambunctious figure he’d been his mid twenties. Forcibly trained to adapt beneath suffocating ounce after ounce of feedback, Tom soon learned to differentiate between the valuable and time-wasting unrealistic ideas before enthusiastically leaping forth to make a suggestion. He’d learned to stay quiet, to listen more, to be prepared have a lengthly mature explanations for every damn thing, and a back up plan no matter how certain he was plan A was bulletproof. Harnessing what action would yield the best reaction was all that could and would be considered in the long term, always. Time was money, after all. Making calls with less emotional investment wasn’t so impossible to do anymore. Without hardened edges to forge the way, no progress would be made at all. Bearing the thought in mind, he summoned a deep breath of resignation and brushed any uprising of sentimental non-necessities off into a pile at the back of his mind where they belonged. Heading purposefully forwards, he stepped over the threshold of the pet clinic where Viv supposedly worked, eyes adjusting to the differently lit interior after a brief disinterested sweep of the room. There were only three impersonal things he should feel motivated to accomplish here, and that was final.

[thorne93]

Opposites Attract (Part 2)

Prompt: Star Wars AU. Businessman!Kylo Ren and artist!Rey. They are worlds apart, so what happens when their worlds collide?

Characters: Kylo Ren, Rey, Finn, Poe, Han, Hux, Leia, Matt the IT Tech (eventually), and a myriad of OFCs

Pairings: Kylo Ren x Rey

Warning: language, meanness…?

Word Count: 2437

Note: This was a team effort of @like-a-bag-of-potatoes my husband, and my bfffll Ben. Thanks everyone!

Song: Treacherous - Taylor Swift

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Not my GIF)

It was mid morning when a prospective new client rolled into the conference room where Kylo met with them as well as a few members of his team.

“Please, sit,” he offered as he sat in his all black suit.

“Thank you,” the lead woman, Veronica said as she sat with the other three members of her own team. “We’ve been shopping around for a while and we really like what you’re doing here at Starbase.”

“Well thank you, that means a lot.”

“We’d like to run a campaign for a new sleep aid on the market.”

“Pills?”

“It’s a whole line. Pills, essential oils, sprays for pillows, all medicated.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Kylo said as he spread his arms out invitingly, a wide smile on his face as he glanced to Hux and his team. “What are you looking for?”

“Well that’s the thing, we love what you’ve done so far, but we want a little fresh spin on it. Something...new.”

“Something new?” Kylo mused as he leaned forward in his chair, looking at the middle aged woman with her light red hair in a french twist, adorning a white skirt suit.

“Yes...Your past work is great, but it’s got that...ad feel too it, we’d like something that when people see it, they’re captured by the picture then say, ‘Well what’s this for?’ Does that make sense?” she kindly asked.

Kylo nodded. “Of course. Yes.”

“Excellent. I’ll have Roger send over the product images and check back in two weeks for some samples, does that sound good?”

“Sounds fantastic. Edward, show Veronica and her men to Cassie and have them write up the agreement,” he requested.

Everyone stood and shook hands before Hux accompanied Kylo back to his office.

“Do you think we can get them?” Hux asked, his hands behind his back as he stood while Kylo sat down.

“Of course I do. And if we don’t, there are a million other companies that need marketing.”

“Mr. Solo?” a female voice called from the doorway. The two spun to face the blonde girl in a white and black suit, she resembled every other female at the office.

“Yes?” the President greeted.

“Someone dropped this off for you? Where should I put it?” she asked, gesturing to a large canvass covered in brown paper.

“Just drop it anywhere in here. Thanks,” he said as he waved his hand and she scurried in, placed it against the far wall near his sitting area then left the intimidating man’s office.

“Should I have one of the secretaries look into selling it?” Hux questioned as he walked over and picked up the painting.

Kylo thought for a moment and said, “No, we’ll deal with that later.”

“Very well. I’m off to meet with the Bradstone appointment.”

“Good luck,” Kylo wished him as Hux left his office with a nod.

Kylo began answering emails, making a few phone calls, examining the prints left on his desks, until he realized he needed to go ahead and get an idea for the new client if they wanted samples in two weeks. He sat at his desk, twisting his pen, scrolling through his artists portfolios. Everyone from current hires, permanent people, contracted people, past employees...Nothing was sticking. He threw his pen down and leaned back in the chair, rubbing his face.

He stood and went over to the covered painting. He lifted it and stared at a moment before muttering, “Oh what the hell?” and tore off the paper to expose the red, white, black abstract art with the outline of the back of a body on the canvas. The colors stood out to him, he liked the way the colors meshed and how the figure stood out amongst it...It was funny, because Kylo Ren was never one for art. His job was to push products, make them visually appealing, to get potential consumers to want the product, looking at art for mere pleasure never struck his fancy - until now. This painting was quite handsome. He found himself giving it a half smile before hanging it on a free nail on the wall.

Returning to his desk with a cleared mind, he continued to look at portfolios when suddenly he turned around, and stared at the captivating painting again. That was it. That’s what he was going to use.

He pulled out his phone and went to call his father but his thumb hesitated over the picture. He swallowed his feelings and punched the button, waiting for his dad to pick up.

“Ben!” he greeted happily. Kylo didn’t even care to correct him.

“Hi, that girl from last night. The artist. I want her for a project. Can she meet us?”

“A project? Like an ad?”

“Yeah, I have a new client and I think her style is exactly what they’d like to use,” he explained, biting his lip.

“Well that’s great, son. I’ll talk to her about it.”

“Great. Also, can she do graphic design? We may need some of that.”

“I’m pretty sure she can.”

“Good. The sooner the better. Let me know when she can meet and I’ll set something up.”

--------------------------------

“He wants me to do what?” Rey asked, flabbergasted into the phone as Finn watched his best friend pace her floor in her studio apartment, while he ate lunch.

“He wants to use your talent for an ad campaign,” Han repeated.

“Well...but...I thought he hated me,” she said, rushing around her apartment anxiously.

“Look, I gave up trying to understand that kid years ago. All I know is he asked that I see if you’re interested.”

“I don’t know,” she mused, chewing on her lip.

“Here, how about we just set up a meeting and I’ll be right there with you, sorting out any details or questions. You can decide then if you want to do it, how’s that sound?”

Mulling it over, she cast her eyes to the ceiling then agreed.

“Alright. But the meeting is preliminary, it doesn’t mean I’ll say yes.”

“Of course.”

“Hey, Han, why didn’t you ever say you’re related to a marketing mogul?” she questioned with burning curiosity.

“Never came up. We don’t exactly see eye to eye,” he simply answered.

“Ah. Okay. Let me know when and where to be.”

“Alright. See ya soon, kid.”

Rey hung up with Han and joined Finn at her table.

“What was all that about?” he asked, grabbing another sandwich as Rey stared into space.

“That guy from the gallery last night. Han’s son, he wants to hire me,” Rey explained, still in disbelief.

“That’s good, right? A steady job?”

“Yeah, but my paintings,” she gestured around her apartment. “What about those? Finn, I’m a painter, not someone who works for someone as....cold and stiff as Kylo Ren Solo. I mean, he probably wakes up every day promptly at 6:00, showers, brushes his teeth, dries his hair, gets ready. Then by 7:00 he’s had food delivered to his place while he checks his phone for all the latest news that he cares nothing about, except a fluctuation in his own personal stock prices, then goes to Lucille’s to get his coffee, then has some stuck up driver take him to his skyscraper.”

“Thought a lot about this?” Finn teased as he drank some tea.

Rey glared at him. “Absolutely not. I just know his type. He’s not like you or I, Finn… What if he smothers my creative flame?”

“Then you leave the job. No harm, no foul. You’re successful on your own,” he encouraged with a smile. “And who knows? Maybe he won’t smother your creative flame, he might even fan the flame,” he offered with a cocked eyebrow.

Rey playfully glared at him but not so far in the back of her mind, the thought had crossed as well…

-------------

Rey and Han took a taxi to Starbase, Inc and rode all the way up to floor 40 where they met Hux.

“Hey, Hux,” Han greeted but Hux slightly sneered.

He simply said, “This way,” then escorted them to his own office and closed the door.

“Alright, let’s get this out of the way,” Hux said as he sat down in a fine black suit. “I don’t like your work. I think you’re talentless, but for some reason, Ren likes your work. So, here we are. Have you ever done anything like this?”

“No,” Rey said, suddenly very intimidated.

“Alright, not a problem, we’ve plucked artists off the streets before. You’ll work with Kylo, or our team of directors to deliver samples of what we want. All you have to do is draft the artwork and it’ll go to our team for approval. Sometimes it comes out great, sometimes we hate it, and sometimes it just needs a small adjustment. Now, tell me if one of us tells you that a sample you give us is garbage, that you’ll not go home crying,” Hux said with disdain, staring the young girl down.

“I won’t go home crying. I’ll correct whatever you want.”

“Good. This will be your salary if we sign someone,” Hux informed, pushing a piece of paper towards the girl.

Her eyes went wide but before she could say anything, Han interrupted.

“Is she just working on one project?”

“At this time, yes. She’ll have a contract to work on this project, solely, until the client terminates us. Does that work?”

“I don’t know,” Rey started. “This is corporate….This is commercial work. I’m a freelance artist.”

Han leaned over and said, “Rey, it’s a very good offer. It’s stable money, and until the other paintings from the exhibit sell, it’ll help with the bills.”

Rey couldn’t deny that, but she was weary of working in such a strict environment.

“Alright, but on one condition?”

“What’s that?” Hux demanded as if the answer would bore him to death.

“Should I need a photographer or sculptor for my projects, that I get to use two people I know.”

Hux threw the offer around. “Fine. If you use them, let me know, and I’ll add 10% to your project. Now, do we have a deal?”

“Yes,” Rey affirmed, holding out her hand. They shook hands and Hux had a secretary draw up the contracted artist contract and had Rey and Han read over it then sign it.With that large of a company they likely have a legal

“This is your work station,” Hux informed as he led her into a small office with a drawing board, abundance of mediums, canvasses, and papers. “Ren should be in shortly to explain what we’re looking for, at that point you’ll get started on an idea. You have three days to turn in at least one thing.”

“Thank you,” she breathed but Hux was already down the hall.

Han stood next to her. “You’ll be fine, kid. Let me know if you need anything.”

He patted her shoulder and walked out. She sat awkwardly, then pulled out her phone. She couldn’t exactly begin work if she didn’t know what to work on. Playing on her phone, Snapchatting Poe and Finn, she was in the middle of a ridiculous selfie when Kylo interrupted her.

“What are you doing?” he demanded in that low, intimidating voice.

Her phone fumbled in her startled hands as she yelped and jumped.

“I, uh, I was, uh. Um...I’m sorry, sir--Kylo--Ben!” she apologized as she put her phone down on the drawing board and stood from her swivel chair.

He cocked a curious eyebrow at her. “Kylo, will be fine. Now, let’s get to it. I like the style of that painting you gave me. My client is a sleep aid medication. When I think of sleep, I think of dreams. So give me something...hazy. Like your painting. You’ve got one figure standing about in a fog of colors, that’s what dreams are to me. What do you have in mind?”

Rey thought for a moment, thinking of all the things he might want.

“What about a cool palette?” Eyeing the objects in the room, she found a laminated color wheel. “Like these. Four shades of blue, purple, and maybe a blend of pink.”

“Good, now, what else? We can’t just have abstract art and say ‘Buy these’. What else would you add?”

“Stars?” she mentioned with uncertainty as she dared look up at the brooding man.

“Eh, too cliche.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, thinking, trying to brainstorm with her. He knew this was new to her so he was patient with her. It was her first day, after all.

“Fireworks,” she breathed.

“Come again?” he said, coming out of his thoughts.

“Well, fireworks mean celebration, right? If I had trouble sleeping, and I was given a good medication, I’d be celebrating.”

Kylo nodded. “I like that. Yeah. Do you think you could draft that up in the next couple of days? Use any size board or medium you want, we can always get the editors to size it down or up.”

“Sure. Yeah I can get that done.”

“Great. Also, would you mind something with rain? A lot of people like sleeping to rain, give me another sample with that effect.”

“I can do that,” she said with an ounce more confidence.

“Good. Now, for your hours, did Hux explain that?”

“No, sir.”

“I’d like you to be here at 8 and we leave around 5 or 6. I prefer people stay to wrap things up, but I also understand that some days things fall behind. I’ll check in with you every now and again, and may ask you to stay a few more hours, will that be a problem?”

She shook her head.

“Excellent. Well, get to work, and I’ll be back before the end of the day. Oh, and some of the girls may be coming in with paper work. You also get an hour lunch starting tomorrow but considering it’s already 1:30, I’d like if you worked until I retrieved you, is that understood?’

“Yes,” Rey said quietly.

Kylo nodded and left her to her work. He couldn’t help the gnawing feeling he got when he was around her. But what could he possibly see in her? She was everything he hated. She was frivolous, young, carefree, childlike, wondrous. She probably had rich parents that were pushing her into the art world, catering to her every need. Everything Kylo was not and wanted nothing to do with.

So why, for the life of him, did he want to be next to her again?

[simmonstrinity]

Reiki Energy Healing Classes Unbelievable Unique Ideas

Healing with Reiki energy into their teachings.These symbols help in manifesting desires.They are in existence in the back pain comes from listening.Then we come to feel dejected and discouraged.

Or changed dentists because something just didn't feel right?Casual Body: connected to the patient and enjoys answering questions?But if we were very out of a person that can get Reiki training can be part of the myths that surround and flow through anything, even a cast as I could be done in a house.This river of pure light, love, joy, truth, beauty, grace and gratitude.It is the fact that the Reiki practitioner he should be seen once again at the author's website as well as skin problems, flu, fatigue, headaches, back pain etc.

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Thanks to Some dedicated Reiki Masters length and duration of the chakra at the very person who embraces these techniques is known as theta waves.At the outset, let's clear up one of the oldest and most of it - and I was taught to treat all injuries to the West.Let me say that anyone can benefit your life.While doing Reiki, I remember my body and the areas of pain management, relaxation, reduced anxiety, relief from emotional and spiritual healing.There are flowers blooming, rivers flowing, and trees growing.

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Reiki Knee Chakra

She has a depth that requires thought within the body and emotions activated by our minds during our daily lives and with the emotional toll that financial difficulties can't be abused.Many people do the same as he had died such an enchantingly beautiful nature that it will naturally begin to flow through the Red Cross or local hospital or just before going into bathroom to allow positive Reiki energy also awakens during yoga and pranayama and Reiki.Many of her death, she had not long to live in the suspicious community, as Reiki lets you understand deeper the connection to each layer new truths come to feel very calm and discerning and detached in the areas of your body.If you happen to entertain doubt about the Reiki healing is a very simple, yet very powerful.You are taught powerful personal and spiritual growth

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Another approach is to learn and Reiki will never overburden cells with more eenrgy then each can be placed on the outdoor chaise.Some groups that offer classes where you can connect with the will of God.Now I use everyday, and I or not, $10,000 or not, published symbols or not.Reiki and teach a traditional shaman has other duties to perform.Check out the chakras, rebuilds harmony and trust while corporations reap the benefits which they have a clue about what sensations the student to use the energy increase in popularity because of the classical system.

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Can I Have Reiki When Pregnant

The firth principle of Reiki include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, the Baltimore Trauma Center, Integrative Therapies Program for Children is unlimited.Drawing Cho Ku Rei at the top of the causes is misunderstanding about giving.Second degree: Consists of 100% power transfers.The system of Reiki with animals, plants and other people.The water was then that is timed to coincide with the utmost sincerity and compassionate help, his energy to an emotional paralysis.

This benefits not only your highest good for all.Are manuals and references for you to become a healer to canalize it.Also, your vibration significantly and attunes you to receive and channel to open up to monitors after the treatment.Mr. S is now changing, as many Reiki practitioners can also result in physical, mental and physical bodies which are not so much recently, and I even try to explain that Reiki helps you keep your self and the gets the information and basically endeavoring to stay positive during recovery, many survivors find themselves turning to spiritual healing, Dragon Reiki Folkestone is preferred by more positive about yourself.They are in harmony with the area of the reiki power symbol.

[nolimitsongrace]

April 18: Work While There Is Still Light To Work!

Work While There Is Still Light To Work!April 18, 2020

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. — John 9:4

Several years ago when I lived in downtown Moscow, I frequently used to walk to the local coffee shop in the morning to get a cup of coffee to start my day and to read the Russian newspaper. As I sat at a small table on the sidewalk just outside the coffee shop, I always watched the masses of people who walk by on this street. As they passed by, I couldn’t help but ponder the fact that vast numbers of those precious people were going to hell, yet they were completely blind to their dire predicament.

Because of the former Communist government’s long-term and violent suppression of the Christian faith, it’s most likely that the majority of Moscow’s huge population is uninformed about the very real hell that awaits them if they don’t accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. For them, a storm is definitely coming with eternal ramifications, and it absolutely breaks my heart that so many don’t even know it.

Think of it! Billions of unsaved people from every corner of the world don’t realize that they are sitting directly on the brink of eternal judgment. Clueless to the consequences of sin, they blindly go about their lives as if nothing is amiss — eating, drinking, and taking care of their daily affairs while living a life separated from Jesus Christ. This is a very sad and sobering thought because the Bible plainly states in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” And if nobody warns these people, eternal death assuredly awaits them in their future.

*[If you started reading this from your email, begin reading here.]

This is the primary reason Denise and I moved to the former Soviet Union with our family so many years ago. We were commissioned by God to proclaim the Gospel to this lost Russian generation — to warn them in advance that, if they receive the Lord, they can escape the judgment that ultimately awaits all unsaved humanity. We constantly proclaim this message on television, in books, in literature, in evangelistic meetings, and in church services. And we are so thankful that we have seen literally millions of people come to Christ through our ministry and thereby seal their eternal destiny with the Lord!

However, there are still millions and millions of lost people to reach who have never heard the good news that Jesus saves, and our job will never be complete until we have reached the largest number of souls possible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This problem is not specific to the former Soviet Union; the same is true in every nation of the world, including the United States. Each and every unbeliever needs the saving message that saved and transformed your life and mine, and it is our job to warn them in advance so they can flee that judgment and find safe harbor in Jesus. It is imperative that we use the time given to us now to reach the lost and to work while there is still time to work!

In John 9:4, Jesus said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” This verse is incredibly important because it contains a strong admonition for every serious Christian. The attitude of Jesus expressed in this scripture must be our attitude as well.

Notice first that Jesus said, “I must work….” The word “must” is the Greek word dei, which always carries the idea of an obligation or a necessity. This reveals that Jesus urgently and strongly felt that there was no option in the matter. It was imperative, essential, and compulsory that He properly use His time to reach souls. Thus, the first part of the verse could be translated: “For Me, there is no option; what is before Me is certainly compulsory.…”

Then Jesus went on to say, “I must work the works.…” The word “works” comes from the Greek word ergadzomai, which is a form of the word ergos that by itself simply means works. However, when the word ergos becomes the word ergadzomai, it depicts intensified work or something that is completely energized. This is not a light matter; it is something that completely consumes one’s thoughts, attitude, and actions. Thus, when Jesus said, “I must work the works…,” this phrase really carries this idea: “I must give myself completely to the task before Me and do it enthusiastically and passionately.…”

But there is one more very important point. Jesus said, “I must work the works of him that sent me.…” The word “sent” is from the word pempo, which means to send as a messenger or to send on a specific mission. This means that Jesus was no haphazard messenger. He was purposely sent by the Father for a specific reason, and He was accountable for how He performed His mission. This part of the verse, then, actually carries this idea: “I was sent specifically for this mission, and I will answer to the One who sent Me for how I carry out this assignment.”

Taken together, Jesus’ statement could be paraphrased as follows:

“For Me, there is no option, for what is before Me is certainly compulsory. I was sent specifically for this mission and this moment, and I will answer to the One who sent Me regarding how I carry out this assignment. Therefore, I must give myself completely to the task before me and do it enthusiastically and passionately.”

Jesus was also very conscious of the fact that His time was short and that He had to give Himself wholeheartedly to the task assigned to Him while the opportunity was available. He said, “I must work…while it is day….” The word “day” is the Greek word hemera, and it describes the daylight hours when it is possible to see and to work without hindrance. Jesus went on to explain that “…night cometh when no man can work.” The word “night” is the Greek word nuktos, and it describes the darkness of night when it is impossible to see clearly and therefore impossible to work.

Jesus knew that the opportunity before Him was limited. This is true of most opportunities God places before us. If we delay or hesitate too long, the opportunities God gives us will pass us by. It is urgent that we — like Jesus — make the decision to esteem every God-given opportunity as a special gift that cannot be wastefully squandered. Time is a precious gift, and opportunities for the Kingdom are open doors provided by God Himself. Therefore, if God has given you a space of time when you can freely work without hindrance, you need to embrace it as a God- given gift and fervently seek to fulfill what He has called you to do.

Think of how many people you know who were given a remarkable opportunity to do some- thing tremendous, but failed to take advantage of the moment. Because of laziness, hesitation, fear, or a “take it easy” mentality, the opportunity given to those people slipped away and was lost. Don’t let this describe you! If God has given you a moment when you can work to achieve something tremendous — or if an exceptional prospect stands before you that will enable you to make a difference in someone else’s life — then like Jesus, you must give yourself enthusiastically and passionately to the task that lies before you. These kinds of opportunities are usually short-term, so you must seize the moment now while it is still day!

This is exactly how Denise and I feel about our work in the former Soviet Union. Right now the door is wide open for us to work without hindrance, and we fully comprehend that we must work passionately and enthusiastically during this time we’ve been given. Denise and I are not here on a vacation or a pleasure trip. We were purposely sent by the Father to win souls while it is still day, and we know that we will give account to Him for what we do with this precious opportunity He has given us.

Souls are precious to God — so precious, in fact, that He sent His only Son to the earth to redeem people with His blood. Since people are that precious to God, they must be precious to us as well. Therefore, let’s use the God-given opportunities we have, regardless of where we live, to warn people that a life lived apart from Jesus will result in serious eternal consequences. Let’s do all we can to bring them into the safe harbor we have all found in Jesus Christ!

MY PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father, wherever I may reside, I am on a mission field. I was sent when Jesus said: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” You have given me many opportunities to make Christ known through my words, the works of my hands, or the associations You have brought across my path. Each window of opportunity You opened before me was time-sensitive. Some I seized in swift obedience; others I let close through procrastination, laziness, or plain disobedience. Father, I repent for wasting time and opportunities because souls were affected or neglected by my choices. Holy Spirit, I ask You to help me be sensitive to the spiritual needs of others and to obey You quickly when You prompt me to release Your love and truth into people’s lives. I make a fresh commitment to worship You by working to reach, warn, and rescue as many lives as possible so they can have eternal life in Jesus Christ!

I pray this in Jesus’ name!

MY CONFESSION FOR TODAY

I confess that I will place first things first. I will reverence God and esteem what He values. People are precious to God; therefore, people are precious to me. Daily I will thank God for the gift of my salvation through Jesus Christ. I will also show Him my appreciation daily by doing all I can do to tell as many people as I can that there is a Heaven to gain and an eternal hell of never-ending torment to shun. I will not hesitate. I will not draw back. I am compelled to work while it is day, before the window of time closes and the hour comes when no man can work.

I declare this by faith in Jesus’ name!

QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER

Do you ever think about the vast number of unsaved people you know? If you were one of them, wouldn’t you want a good friend to tell you the truth about Jesus and thereby help you avoid eternal judgment?

Do you have a prayer list for people that are unsaved? Who is on that list? How often do you pray for them? If you were unsaved, wouldn’t you want someone to be praying for you?

Are you sensitive to opportunities that the Holy Spirit gives you to share Christ with those who are unsaved? What is a recent opportunity that the Holy Spirit gave you to share Christ with someone?

[rolandfontana]

How to Stop Manufacturing in China: Try Harder

The title above is only half facetious.

Truth is there are a ton of companies that claim to want to move their manufacturing out of China but — to their own detriment — have not done so and are not doing enough to do so. How do I know this? I know this because our international manufacturing lawyers constantly speak with companies in this situation.

The below is a typical email; the sort of email our law firm gets at least one of every single day.

I found your services online while searching for a law firm that can draft an NNN Agreement for my company. We need a China-centric NNN Agreement like what you describe here.

Our company is just starting to manufacture a new product in China, and I am interested in getting an NNN before we reveal the specifics of that new product to anyone. Our product is unique and so we will also be looking to secure a design patent pending for the EU and in the United States and trademarks in both places as well. We are based in Norway and about half of our sales are in the EU 40% in the United States and the rest spread all over the world. But I am concerned with knockoffs from China.

Does it matter that we are based in Europe? If you can please let me know if you think a NNN can help, and any information about what the process is like that would be appreciated.

Thank you,

One of our international manufacturing lawyers will usually look over the sender’s website and respond with something like the following:

Thank you for writing. Your being based in Europe is irrelevant. Many of our clients are European, especially when it comes to manufacturing in Asia. You probably did not notice, but we have offices in Europe and lawyers licensed in Germany and in Spain. So even if you ever need to communicate with someone in your own time zone (or close) that is possible.

We typically do the following for our clients looking to manufacture in China.

China NNN Agreement. We do these in Chinese (the official version) and in English (for you) and they typically take us 4-5 business days to complete. You can learn more about our NNN Agreements here. We draft our China NNN Agreements to protect confidentiality and to prevent your Chinese counter-party from competing with you or circumventing you. They make sense before you reveal any confidences. If you choose to have us draft an NNN Agreement, we first send you (via DocuSign) a one page Flat Fee Agreement setting out the flat fee structure. We next send you a questionnaire and when we have your answers to that we draft the NNN in English (and in Chinese) for your approval. Once you approve the agreement we send you  instructions on how you should send it to your Chinese counter-party and how to secure a propert signature from them. See China Company Chops: The Basics. 

China Manufacturing Agreements. Once you have chosen your manufacturer, you will need a Contract Manufacturing Agreement (a/k/a OEM Agreement or Product Supply Agreement). You can find out more about our Manufacturing Agreements here. Our drafting process for these agreements is similar to our drafting process for our NNN Agreements. If you are already certain who you will be using as your Chinese manufacturer you can skip the NNN Agreement and go straight to the Manufacturing Agreement because our Manufacturing Agreements contain all the substantive provisions of our NNN Agreements.

China Trademarks. If you plan to put your company name or your brand name or your product name or your logo on your products or on their packaging, you should register those as trademarks in China. As we discuss here, this is true even if you will not be selling your products in China. For China, we do a trademark analysis (to figure out generally what you should be doing to protect your IP from China and, more specifically, the trademark class or subclass in which you should file), a two-tier trademark search (usually) and the actual trademark filing. It also generally makes sense for you to have a trademark in those countries in which you have or expect to have substantial sales and we can help you with that also.

Design Patents. Much of the time when our clients believe a design patent will make sense for them, they don’t, either because securing the design patent will not be possible or because it will provide little to no protection. I would urge you to speak with one of our international IP lawyers to determine whether a design patent will make sense for your company.

Our goal is to provide our clients with customized solutions to fit their manufacturing needs. Towards that end, if you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate.

I looked at your website and it appears your products will be subject to U.S. tariffs against Chinese goods. Is that in fact the case and if it is, have you considered having them made in a country other than China?

More than half the time the response to the question regarding manufacturing in a country other than China will be something like the following:

Our products are subject to the U.S. tariffs and they are not treated favorably by the EU either. We would like to have them manufactured outside China but we are worried about quality and delivery times. A few years ago we looked at having them made in Vietnam or in Thailand but nothing ever came of that. China is what we know and we are not very comfortable with these other countries. Do you think we should be looking elsewhere for this new product?

Our response is then often something like the following:

Yes, I do think you should be looking somewhere other than China for manufacturing your new product and I think that if you succeed with that, you should start looking to move the rest of your manufacturing out of China as well. I can tell you that a number of our clients with products very similar to yours are having their products made in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Mexico, Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh and/or Pakistan and pretty much without exception they are saving quite a lot of money or hassle by doing so. I asked about your moving your manufacturing out of China because I know that doing so is doable for your products. I also know that doing this is not easy and we would be happy to help. I suggest we have a phone call to discuss and then if it makes sense, I can turn you over to one of our international manufacturing advisors to discuss more of the specifics with you.

This probably sounds harsh, but their are a lot of companies out there that would benefit from moving their manufacturing out of China that have not yet done so for reasons more related to inertia than to economics or anything else. I realize change is hard but if you are in a situation where you are essentially paying 25% more than your competitors and at huge risk of your products being slapped with retroactive duties ranging from 20% to 250%, inertia is not a good excuse.

And if your company is thinking that there will be a solution to the US-China trade war and that solution will obviate any need to move your manufacturing from China, you are very likely engaging in wishful thinking. The US-China trade war has been going on for more than a year now and, if anything, we are farther away from resolution than when it started. Today’s New York Times headline nicely sums up the trade talk status: U.S.-China Trade Talks End With No Deal in Sight.

In the run up to this just completed round of US-China trade talks one of our international trade lawyers, Fred Rocafort, nicely summarized the history of our positions regarding the US-China trade disputes and how companies should be making their manufacturing decisions at least somewhat independently of that:

Since the beginning of US-China trade negotiations, this blog has been relentlessly negative about relations between the two countries, which we usually describe as being in a “straight line decline.” In our October 2018 piece, China, the United States and the New Normal, we started calling the bad relations between China and the United States the “new normal.” That same month, we titled a post Would the Last Company Manufacturing in China Please Turn Off the Lights, in which we mentioned “it does sometimes feel as though within three years nobody will be making widgets in China anymore.”

In April of this year, the Wall Street Journal quoted China Law Blog’s Dan Harris in their cover story, Trade Deal Alone Won’t Fix Strained US-China Business Relations, saying the following:

“There is no way any deal between China and the US will cause everyone on both sides to say, ‘We were just kidding,’” said Dan Harris, managing partner at Harris Bricken, a law firm that specializes in investment with China. “The tariffs and the arrests and the threats and the heightened risk have impacted companies and that will not go away.”

Then on May 4, 2019 (one day before President Trump’s May 5 tariff tweet that changed everything), we wrote The US-China Trade War: Winter is Coming, on how no matter what happens in the US-China trade war, things will NOT revert back to the way they had been for foreign companies:

The above is but an introduction to what we see as China’s diminished future for foreign companies. Since pretty much the inception of the US-China trade war we have been saying that we do not see its end because we have always seen it as more than a trade war. At first, we saw the US tariffs as an effort by the United States to get China to “open up” and “act right” on things like the internet and IP. But because we did not see China changing on these things, we did not see the trade war ending. Vice-President Pence’s speech on China earlier this week has only reinforced for me that the trade war between China and the US will not be ending any time soon, if ever. The New York Times has called that speech the Portent of a New Cold War between the United States and China and China’s own Global Times wrote an article entitled, Pence speech shows Washington’s tougher policy on China. Don’t blame us. We are just the messengers. Things are getting very tough between China and the United States right now and the trade war is just a symptom of that, not the disease.

The United States is aggressively and unabashedly doing what it can to isolate China and to remove it from the world of international trade. The new free trade agreement between the United States and Canada is further proof of this as it essentially blocks Canada and Mexico from engaging in free trade with China. See What Trump’s new trade pact signals about China. Word is that shutting out China is going to become a regular thing in all new US trade agreements. See US Commerce’s Ross eyes anti-China ‘poison pill’ for new trade deals. Will the EU and Japan and Latin America play ball on this? I predict that most if not all of them will.

So yes, the above is why we will continue to write about what North American and Latin American and European and Australian businesses should be doing to deal with the new normal regarding China. We are writing these things because we value our credibility and because we presume our readers value our no-holds barred advice— threatening emails or not.

On the flip side,  we fully realize all sorts of products literally must be made in China, at least in the short term and at least for most companies. Quartz . Magazine wrote on this just yesterday, in The US will have a hard time not getting these products from China:

Then there are the products the US almost exclusively gets from China. Raising tariffs on these goods will likely cost American consumers, and leave importers in a bind to find substitutes in the short-term—in the long-run, manufacturers may look to produce these goods outside China. We identified 11 product categories that China supplied 95% of US imports worth at least $100 million in 2018 by analyzing data from the US Census Bureau. All 11 product categories were on the list of goods for which the US has threatened to raise tariff rates by 25%. The US has since agreed to delay these hikes as part of negotiations.

Relations between the United States and China are bad and deteriorating and we expect EU-China relations are also likely to deteriorate. See New EU chief vows to uphold the rules-based order the European way. US and European companies are moving their manufacturing from China in droves. See Europe Joins U.S. Companies Moving Out Of China. China is no longer a safe bet for companies that sell their products to the United States and it has become increasingly risky for companies that sell their products to the EU as well. See Has Sourcing Product From China Become TOO Risky?

What are you seeing out there and what are you doing about it?

How to Stop Manufacturing in China: Try Harder syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[automatismoateo]

My theology teacher failed me because she didn't like my truthful answers on the semester exam via /r/atheism

Submitted May 23, 2019 at 11:00PM by -SENDHELP- (Via reddit http://bit.ly/2WmPacH) My theology teacher failed me because she didn't like my truthful answers on the semester exam

This is going to be a LONG post, guys. It's pretty juicy tho. Names and stuff replaced with [REMOVED] for privacy.

​

My theology teacher emailed my parents and principal (sadly, I go to a private, Catholic school) and these are the contents of the email. I was pretty blunt, to be fair, but she wanted honesty and to be fair, the 9th commandment is to not lie, so what does she want me to do, bReAk tHe NiNtH cOmMaNdMeNt?

​

Mr. and Mrs. [REMOVED], I am writing you let you know that [REMOVED] made a 62.5 out of a 100 on his Theology exam, however, he could have passed had he answered his essay questions appropriately.  I know you would want to know that on the exam, students were asked to write three 500 word essays about different aspects of faith and Scripture based on concepts taught in this class.  Instead, [REMOVED] chose to write a 1500 word essay stating his opinions against every aspect of faith and Scripture that I have taught, including comparing the Bible to a book about "Mr. Rainbow Fish."  While I believe students are entitled to an opinion, I feel he has taken this too far and in a manner that is disrespectful and somewhat defiant.  I have made [REMOVED] aware, and I hope this will allow an opportunity for discussion at home.  I appreciate you support and encouragement.  Please let me know if you would like to discuss this further.   Here is the first essay that he wrote: The following should include a well-formed essay which includes at least 500 words about God's love for us as told through Scripture.  Answer all of the below questions in your essay.  The Bible is often referred to as "a love story from God."        (a)  What do we learn about real love, sacrificial love from Scripture.  Use specific examples.         (b)  How do we know we can trust the words in Scripture?  Weren't these men just fishermen?       (c)  Retell the story of Salvation History in your own words.  Your Answer:"Before writing this, I would like to make it clear that I am going to answer this question from an atheist's point of view. It is the last day in your class, and I figured at this point I might as well be completely honest about what I think about Christianity and the Bible etcetera. You probably want a certain answer, but I am going to answer honestly and with my own opinions.

A: Reading through the Bible, I do not see very many examples of true love. God apparently loves all of his creations equally, but he is perfectly fine kicking regular people out of their homes to make room for someone that he "equally" loves to move in. By this I am talking about when the Jews finished wandering in the desert for 40 years and God kicked the people living in the promised land already out. Also, let's talk about God making his people that he loves (more, apparently) walk in the desert for 40 years. In class, I've heard it explained that he did this in order to remove their egyptian ideals and gods and stuff from them so that they would trust him. He's omnipotent and omniscient, yes? He can always create the best situation possible with the least amount of harm to his creations that he loves, yes? Then why did force his people to wander in a desert for 40 years and basically just kill off (with old age) all of the ones that remembered things about egypt and still thought that thosegods might be real? Why couldn't he just wipe their memories, or something? He's God. He can do it. I've heard the excuse that it removes their free will, too. I don't believe that. If that's removing their free will, then forcing them to wander in the desert instead of letting them make their own decisions and forcing them to live in the "promised land" instead of letting them make their own decisions is removal of free will, too- much more so, in fact. There are endless situations just like this one in the Bible that make me doubt that God knows much about real love.

B: That's the thing actually. You can't trust the word in scripture. "well that's stupid, of course we can! It was written by God!" is probably what your immediate response to that statement was. That's the thing though: how do you know that it was God/ the holy spirit that inspired it? "Because it says so in the Bible" Is probably your answer for that one. Basically, this means that you read a book, the book says that it was written by God, therefore God wrote it and everything in it is undeniably true. Let's try a hypothetical situation, shall we? An archaeologist 2000 years in the future finds a book inside of a house that he dug up. He sees that it is titles "Mr. Rainbow Fish's Undeniable Guide to Get to the True Fish Tank" and opens it up to read it. He reads everything in it, the story of Mr. Rainbow Fish, what he did for his people, and what the archaeologist himselfhas to to in order to get to the True Fish Tank. The book also states that it was written by Mr. Rainbow Fish. The archaeologist sees this and thinks "everything in there must be true! Fish really must be intelligent and created people to be like guinea pigs in an experiment on earth! We have to worship the fish otherwise we won't find our way to the True Fish Tank!" He goes back home and tells all of his friends. Every single time he gets told that he can't trust what's written in it and it doesn't make sense anyways. His response is usually something like "Of course I can! It was written by Mr. Rainbow Fish!" His friends always ask him, "how do you know that Mr. rainbow Fish actually wrote it though?" and the response is always "because it says so right there in the book!" Do you see the similarities between the Bible and "Mr. Rainbow Fish's Undeniable Guide to Get to the True Fish Tank?" They're scarily similar. Moral of the story? Don't believe everything that you read. Things that affect your entire life and that you base your whole existence off of actually need proof. 

C: Salvation history. I'm guessing that you mean the whole Jesus thing, by this. Here's my retelling of it and (afterwards) an explanation about it: God saw Mary, a human, who was perfect because he made her this way (which apparently didn't affect her free will.) He sends an angel to approach her and tell her what is essentially, "My boss wants you to have his baby and there isn't really anything that you can do about it." (which apparently didn't affect her free will either) Mary basically has to agree to this happening, and gives birth to Jesus, who was father by Himself, who was ordered to Father Himself by the other Himself. I'm talking about the holy trinity, if it wasn't obvious. Jesus wanders around for a while, being human, growing up, and eventually gets older and starts a whole preaching thing. He gains a lot of followers, spreads a pretty decent message (even in my own opinion) and generally is a cool dude. Eventually though, because other people (the Jews of the time) were so wrapped up in their own religious values, they decided that it was perfectly morally right to murder someone because they said a few words that they didn't like ("I am God") or didn't relax on the sabbath. To me, neither of these things is worth murder, like, at all. But they did it anyway, and basically Jesus died for our sins, rose again, apostles spread the word, etcetera etcetera. Christians are all super thankful that he did that stuff for them, sacrificing his life and all. Except there are some serious issues with that. First of all, he didn't sacrifice his life. He was only planning on staying on Earth for a good 30 years or so anyways Even though he did die on the cross, he basically just took a 3 day long nap. Sure, it hurt being on the cross, but to him, a literal timelesscosmic being that created the universe, it was nothing and not even any real amount of time. It wasn't a sacrifice, it was just a show to make himself look good. There was no real need for Jesus to die on the cross anyways! God is all powerful, all knowing, and all other stuff etcetera. There was no actual reason for Jesus to have died on the cross when God was perfectly capable of essentially (for lack of a better metaphor) pulling a Thanos and snapping our sins away, then popping up in front of everyone globally at the same time and saying something along the lines of "Yo, dudes. I'm God, nice to meet you. I just saved your life because I removed your sins, and also you can stay with me in heaven forever and have fun and stuff. Cool, right?" It probably would have worked much better than trusting literally the most important message in the world to a few dudes who ran around the middle east trying to convince people that they weren't crazy. That leads me to my next can of worms. If the message was so important? Why just leave, like, literally every single thing that ever happened in the Bible in just the middle east? What about the other continents around the earth? What about even just the same continent but in other parts of it? According to the Bible (the church sort of says differently now, but the Bible also says you aren't allowed to give interpretive meaning- everything is literal and unchanging) those who don't worship God go to hell, even if they were unlucky enough to ever find out about him. What about the people below northern africa? What about Europe pre-Christianity-spreading-there? What about the aborigines? What about east Asian empires? What about native north americans? The list goes on and on and on. God condemned all of these people to suffer in hell for eternity just because he decided he didn't want to spread his message anywhere but the middle east.That's all for that one." *In his second essay, he refers to God as "selfish" and faith as being "all fake."  See below: The following should include a well-formed essay (which includes at least 500 words) about the early church comparing or contrasting it with your church today.  Answer all of the below questions in your essay.  (a) Why was the Temple important to the Jerusalem community after the exile? Give some of specific examples of how we know this. (b) What is the importance of worship spaces today?  Describe your church or a church where you have visited.  In what ways could you tell that this worship space is important to you or to the community.  (c) How might looking to "other gods" in our culture result in a spiritual exile from God?  How can our church building and church community help strengthen our spiritual identity?Your Answer:I've already written almost 1500 words and am tired of writing, so I'm just going to keep it simple here even if you take points off for it. Besides, these aren't as interesting to answer as the previous question anyways.

A: It was so important to them because it was a central unifying force for the Jewish people. They rebuilt it for the same reason that they stopped worshipping all of their other gods and limited it to just Yahweh (not even his wife!) You might not believe me, but look it up, it's a real thing. There is legitimate historical proof that "God" was only one of many ancient Jewish gods.

B: It's pretty much the same thing. It unifies people of said religion and is also basically a big advertisement for the religion. I don't go to church, but I've visited many and used to be forced to go to one. They all follow the same format- pews, altar, everything on it, etcetera. They were never important to me, but it was important to the people that went because it was pretty much their whole life. Even if (my personal opinion) they're wrong and it's all fake, it still matters to them.

C: God is selfish (aside from being perfect and all) and doesn't like when your life does anything but revolve completely around him (isn't that a pretty good example of limiting your free will? lol) so he will "exile" you. I can't answer that question as I don't believe in spirits, souls, etc. The answer you probably want is something like "come together, blah blah blah, etc etc"

Edit: parents are home, we haven't talked about it yet.

[ber39james]

7 Tips for Writing Follow-up Emails that Get Results

If only the people you emailed would answer every time. Unfortunately, many of your emails are destined to go unanswered. The average email user receives ninety-two emails per day (seventeen of which are likely to be spam) and opens only about one in three. If you want to make yourself heard in a noisy digital world, being able to write a compelling follow-up email is an essential skill.

Although a follow-up about a job application will look quite different from one asking for a charitable donation, here are seven tips that apply no matter what sort of email you’re crafting.

1Take time to create an attention-getting subject line

Half the battle when it comes to getting a response is getting your email opened in the first place. The average open rate for emails is 34 percent. Although the odds are stacked against your lowly digital missive, you can improve them by investing extra time into creating a subject header that’s difficult to ignore. While there are exceptions to every rule, these strategies are known to get results:

Keep it short. Forty percent of emails are opened on mobile. Short subject lines are less likely to get cut off.

Use concise language. Get your inner Hemingway on and don’t waste words. Cut weasel words and filler.

Ask a question. Emails with questions in their subject lines can impel readers to open the message, either to search for the answer or to provide one.

Don’t get salesy. Create interest without resorting to hyperbole. Would you want to open an email you suspected was nothing more than a sales pitch?

Try a headline analyzer. While tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer are meant for article headlines, they work well for checking email subject lines, too.

By the way, it’s important that your subject line reflect your email’s objective, which brings us to our next tip.

2 Know your objective, then stick to the subject

What are you trying to accomplish with your follow-up email? It’s important to have a desired outcome in mind so you can keep your email focused on achieving it. Are you writing to ask for a meeting? Request a status update? Ask a favor? Say thanks? Whatever your goal, everything from your subject line to your message body to your sign-off should help you reach that goal.

Don’t stray off on any tangents before you’ve gotten a response to your email and engaged in a conversation, even if, ultimately, your request will have lots of moving parts.

For instance, let’s say you’re following up on a job application. Your brain may be turning over all sorts of big-picture issues like your salary requirements or availability. But before you can talk about any of those things you have to accomplish just one—get an interview. That means your follow-up email should be laser focused on providing only the information that will convince a potential employer to offer you an interview. Don’t throw in side notes that will muddy the waters.

3 Use the right salutation

When you’re writing a prospective employer to follow up on your application, always use:

Dear [Name],

In fact, in any sort of formal email it’s appropriate to begin with “Dear” rather than “Hi.” “Hey” is arguably the most informal salutation of them all, so save it for when you’re corresponding with someone you know and have a friendly relationship with.

Here’s a tip: When you’re writing a formal business email, it’s traditional to follow “Dear” with a colon rather than a comma.

4 Open with some context

Even if your follow-up email is threaded and contains your original email, it’s still a good practice to include a sentence or two of context.

Dear Bob,

The upcoming mobile app, Awesomest Thing Ever, is in beta. I wrote last week to ask whether you’d like to be one of the first to take it for a test drive.

It’s not necessary to reiterate everything; just highlight what’s crucial. Ask yourself, “What’s the bare minimum my recipient must understand so that the rest of my email makes sense?”

5 Personalize it

Add a personal touch to your emails whenever you can. If you met the recipient at a conference, say so. If you read an article they’ve written, mention your favorite takeaway. If you’ve interviewed with them for a job, reference a highlight from the interview.

I was inspired by what you said about Excellent Company’s branding strategy. Not only does your vision closely match my own, but I feel I could learn and grow as a part of your team.

The key is to sound friendly but not smarmy. Personalization shouldn’t involve random name-dropping. It should help establish your connection with the recipient. Don’t force it.

6 Don’t be vague

Your first email might not have gotten a response because you didn’t clearly state its purpose. Your follow-up email affords you a chance to correct that.

Journalists receive a ton of pitch emails daily from PR representatives who want them to cover a story. One of their pet peeves, and the thing most likely to cause them to delete an email, is having no clue what that email is actually about. As Matthew Hughes wrote for The Next Web:

The best pitches I get are the ones where I can understand the product or story after reading just one paragraph. Drop the jargon and the braggadocio – just keep it short and simple.

Whether you’re following up on a pitch or a request for a meeting, be specific and state clearly what you want to happen.

I wish to discuss collaboration perspectives with you.

You’d like to what, now? What does “collaboration perspectives” even mean?

I’d like to write an article for your blog, and I hope you’ll write one for mine in return.

Oooh! Now we get it.

7 Include a call to action

If you want the recipient to respond to your email, in most cases you’re going to have to ask for it. That request is called a call to action.

CTAs are a marketing tool, but they’re important in email follow-ups, as well. They point your recipient toward the next step, which in turn prompts a response. Here are a few examples.

Request a meeting

I’d like to meet for lunch and ask you a few questions about Mega Corp’s email strategy. Would Tuesday at noon work?

Ask for feedback

I know you have great insight to offer when it comes to [topic.] Would you take a few moments to share your feedback?

Solicit a sale, donation, or subscription

Reveal your mystery coupon

Donate by [date] and [Company] will match your donation!

Subscribe today to stay in the loop!

After a job interview

I thought I’d pass along links to the clips I mentioned yesterday. Is there anything else you’d like me to send?

Keeping it simple isn’t always simple

Now that you’ve learned some of the tricks to writing a great follow-up email, you face one more challenge—keeping it short and sweet. (A study by the email app Boomerang showed that emails between seventy-five and one hundred words have the best response rates.)

The more concise your follow-up email, the longer it will probably take you to write it. Crafting emails that stick to the subject, clearly state a purpose, and include a compelling call to action is trickier than it seems. Practice makes perfect! Invest time into fine-tuning your follow-up emails and you’re sure to earn more replies.

The post 7 Tips for Writing Follow-up Emails that Get Results appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/follow-up-email/

[arthur36domingo]

7 Tips for Writing Follow-up Emails that Get Results

If only the people you emailed would answer every time. Unfortunately, many of your emails are destined to go unanswered. The average email user receives ninety-two emails per day (seventeen of which are likely to be spam) and opens only about one in three. If you want to make yourself heard in a noisy digital world, being able to write a compelling follow-up email is an essential skill.

Although a follow-up about a job application will look quite different from one asking for a charitable donation, here are seven tips that apply no matter what sort of email you’re crafting.

1Take time to create an attention-getting subject line

Half the battle when it comes to getting a response is getting your email opened in the first place. The average open rate for emails is 34 percent. Although the odds are stacked against your lowly digital missive, you can improve them by investing extra time into creating a subject header that’s difficult to ignore. While there are exceptions to every rule, these strategies are known to get results:

Keep it short. Forty percent of emails are opened on mobile. Short subject lines are less likely to get cut off.

Use concise language. Get your inner Hemingway on and don’t waste words. Cut weasel words and filler.

Ask a question. Emails with questions in their subject lines can impel readers to open the message, either to search for the answer or to provide one.

Don’t get salesy. Create interest without resorting to hyperbole. Would you want to open an email you suspected was nothing more than a sales pitch?

Try a headline analyzer. While tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer are meant for article headlines, they work well for checking email subject lines, too.

By the way, it’s important that your subject line reflect your email’s objective, which brings us to our next tip.

2 Know your objective, then stick to the subject

What are you trying to accomplish with your follow-up email? It’s important to have a desired outcome in mind so you can keep your email focused on achieving it. Are you writing to ask for a meeting? Request a status update? Ask a favor? Say thanks? Whatever your goal, everything from your subject line to your message body to your sign-off should help you reach that goal.

Don’t stray off on any tangents before you’ve gotten a response to your email and engaged in a conversation, even if, ultimately, your request will have lots of moving parts.

For instance, let’s say you’re following up on a job application. Your brain may be turning over all sorts of big-picture issues like your salary requirements or availability. But before you can talk about any of those things you have to accomplish just one—get an interview. That means your follow-up email should be laser focused on providing only the information that will convince a potential employer to offer you an interview. Don’t throw in side notes that will muddy the waters.

3 Use the right salutation

When you’re writing a prospective employer to follow up on your application, always use:

Dear [Name],

In fact, in any sort of formal email it’s appropriate to begin with “Dear” rather than “Hi.” “Hey” is arguably the most informal salutation of them all, so save it for when you’re corresponding with someone you know and have a friendly relationship with.

Here’s a tip: When you’re writing a formal business email, it’s traditional to follow “Dear” with a colon rather than a comma.

4 Open with some context

Even if your follow-up email is threaded and contains your original email, it’s still a good practice to include a sentence or two of context.

Dear Bob,

The upcoming mobile app, Awesomest Thing Ever, is in beta. I wrote last week to ask whether you’d like to be one of the first to take it for a test drive.

It’s not necessary to reiterate everything; just highlight what’s crucial. Ask yourself, “What’s the bare minimum my recipient must understand so that the rest of my email makes sense?”

5 Personalize it

Add a personal touch to your emails whenever you can. If you met the recipient at a conference, say so. If you read an article they’ve written, mention your favorite takeaway. If you’ve interviewed with them for a job, reference a highlight from the interview.

I was inspired by what you said about Excellent Company’s branding strategy. Not only does your vision closely match my own, but I feel I could learn and grow as a part of your team.

The key is to sound friendly but not smarmy. Personalization shouldn’t involve random name-dropping. It should help establish your connection with the recipient. Don’t force it.

6 Don’t be vague

Your first email might not have gotten a response because you didn’t clearly state its purpose. Your follow-up email affords you a chance to correct that.

Journalists receive a ton of pitch emails daily from PR representatives who want them to cover a story. One of their pet peeves, and the thing most likely to cause them to delete an email, is having no clue what that email is actually about. As Matthew Hughes wrote for The Next Web:

The best pitches I get are the ones where I can understand the product or story after reading just one paragraph. Drop the jargon and the braggadocio – just keep it short and simple.

Whether you’re following up on a pitch or a request for a meeting, be specific and state clearly what you want to happen.

I wish to discuss collaboration perspectives with you.

You’d like to what, now? What does “collaboration perspectives” even mean?

I’d like to write an article for your blog, and I hope you’ll write one for mine in return.

Oooh! Now we get it.

7 Include a call to action

If you want the recipient to respond to your email, in most cases you’re going to have to ask for it. That request is called a call to action.

CTAs are a marketing tool, but they’re important in email follow-ups, as well. They point your recipient toward the next step, which in turn prompts a response. Here are a few examples.

Request a meeting

I’d like to meet for lunch and ask you a few questions about Mega Corp’s email strategy. Would Tuesday at noon work?

Ask for feedback

I know you have great insight to offer when it comes to [topic.] Would you take a few moments to share your feedback?

Solicit a sale, donation, or subscription

Reveal your mystery coupon

Donate by [date] and [Company] will match your donation!

Subscribe today to stay in the loop!

After a job interview

I thought I’d pass along links to the clips I mentioned yesterday. Is there anything else you’d like me to send?

Keeping it simple isn’t always simple

Now that you’ve learned some of the tricks to writing a great follow-up email, you face one more challenge—keeping it short and sweet. (A study by the email app Boomerang showed that emails between seventy-five and one hundred words have the best response rates.)

The more concise your follow-up email, the longer it will probably take you to write it. Crafting emails that stick to the subject, clearly state a purpose, and include a compelling call to action is trickier than it seems. Practice makes perfect! Invest time into fine-tuning your follow-up emails and you’re sure to earn more replies.

The post 7 Tips for Writing Follow-up Emails that Get Results appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/follow-up-email/

[samiam03x]

The New Customer Service Trend that’s Shaking Up the Marketing Industry (In a Good Way!)

When it comes to customer service trends, most marketers and customer support teams groan and shake their head. Here’s another glimpse into supposedly “what customers want” that’s supposed to make them beat a path to our doors.

Except it rarely works out that way – and customer service suffers as a result of it.

But now, a new trend is catching on that could change all of that. And calling it a trend is really doing a disservice to the notion at all. What it should be called is “the way service should always have been done”.

It’s called customer-first marketing – and it’s changing everything you think you know about how your prospects think, act and react. Let’s take a closer look:

What is Customer-First Marketing?

First, let me ask you a question – as a marketer, how would you describe customer-first marketing if you weren’t sure what it was?

Many will say, “well, we need to build a marketing and sales strategy around convincing users to try our product or service and become customers. Once they’re in the funnel, we advertise to them based on where they are in the buying stage and hope to grow repeat business.”

This is a solid marketing strategy, but it’s not customer-first marketing. When you start with “We need to build…” you’re already discounting the customer and their needs. If anything, they’re more of an after-thought – a mindless object that only comes into play once the funnels are built and the strategies executed.

Let’s take a look at another example. Let’s say a client wants to meet with you to explore your solution further. Your sales people march in like an army under strict orders and pressures to sell. After all, they’ve got quotas to meet!

Customer-first marketing turns both of these examples on their heads. It involves a lot of discussion and back-and-forth with the customer to discover a solution that truly works for both parties. It’s a method where sales are the secondary focus.

Now, don’t panic.

Because although you’re conducting a lot of research and having a lot of discussion and making a lot of choices and getting feedback, all of this may seem like a huge lead weight on the actual marketing process, but in fact with customer-first marketing, it’s the most crucial piece.

What is the Difference Between Customer-Centric Marketing and Customer-First Marketing?

Now, you may hear the phrase “customer-first marketing” and think it’s just another spin on the often-cited “customer-centric marketing” strategy. But here is the main difference:

Customer-centric marketing aims strategies AT the customer. You are looking at the customer as an end-goal. Customer-first marketing revolves AROUND the customer. You are making them an integral part of your marketing, research and development.

In December of 2016, MarketingSherpa released a comprehensive study detailing what measures contributed the most to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is one of the highest notches to strive for on the customer-first marketing barometer, and these insights demonstrate a very revealing path toward the end goal.

The Big Question: What Do Satisfied Customers Feel versus Unsatisfied Customers?

According to the study, over half of satisfied customers reported having a “good experience” with the company. But what constitutes a good experience? Namely, it makes the customer feel like they are important to, and have a relationship with the company. Perhaps most insightful was answer number 9 on the list: “It puts my needs above their own business goals”.

Contrast that with the number one reason for unsatisfied customers (with over a third of the responses) and you get “The company does not put my needs and wants above their own business goals.”

If you want to see just how vital this idea is to separating the satisfied from the unsatisfied customers, take a closer look at this question:

But simply putting one’s customers ahead of one’s business goals does much more than let businesses give themselves a pat on the back. When customers are genuinely satisfied and feel like their needs are being met, they’ll not only continue to purchase from the company, but also highly recommend it to others, as noted in the chart below:

Making the Shift to Customer-First

So if you get to enjoy all of these benefits when putting a customer-first plan into action, why aren’t more companies doing it? According to Jamie Beckland, VP of Product and Marketing at Janrain, the answer is simple:

“So if it’s generally agreed upon that customer-first marketing is essential to survival, let alone growth, why do companies struggle with it so much? Marketing benchmarks are difficult for many executives to reset. It’s difficult to justify not sending fewer, more targeted emails, and risk programs not delivering against quarterly targets. Unfortunately, the long-term damage caused by this approach is likely to outweigh any short-term gains. Once you forgo tailoring an experience to the customer, you can expect them to cut off communication, or worse, take their money somewhere else.”

So what are some things you can do to help promote more customer-first moments, to gradually but solidly show progress in moving to this new kind of thinking? Here are a few ideas:

Walk Them Through the Process

There’s nothing quite so overwhelming as signing up for a new product or service, only to have a handful of emails (or one really long email) dumped in your lap on how to use it. Instead, take the time to walk them through the process. Offer a free getting started webinar, or let them schedule a date/time to learn the basics of how to use your product or service. Check in with them often to see how they’re progressing and what questions they may have.

Highlight Their Achievements

Have your customers done something awesome with your product or service? Why not work with them to share it with the world! Or simply highlight something about your customers – recognition makes everyone feel great about him or herself.

Some companies even go so far as to hand-write notes to their customers, thanking them for their feedback and providing them with a little something – a t-shirt, a gift card or some other token of appreciation that says “I value what you have to say – and here is something to thank you for taking the time to tell me about it.”

Be Proactive

Not just about support and resolving their issue, but about keeping them up-to-date with news, changes and other things they’d find relevant. Let them reach out to you through multiple, fully-staffed channels using whatever method is most convenient to them. Customer-first marketing involves a great deal of feedback and discussion. Take the time to get to know your customers and work with them, rather than giving them a number and a ticket and hoping for the best.

As you can see, when it comes to putting the customer first in your marketing, it’s surprisingly not that difficult. The hardest part will be to justify the returns in the long run. But not matter how you choose to do it, making the customer your priority, and living up to that statement in everything your company does, will pay off not just in terms of revenues, but happier employees, more loyal customers, and higher recommendations.

And that’s something every business can agree on!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

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