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headspace-hotel · 2 years ago

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So I'm absolutely not an expert on the subject, and this post is just a bunch of thoughts I've been turning over in my head a lot, but: on the subject of Industrial Agriculture, the Earth's carrying capacity, and agroforestry

Writings from people who propose policy changes to secure the future of Earth treat energy use by organisms in (what seems to me like) the most infuriatingly presumptive, simplistic terms and I don't know why or what's wrong or what I'm missing here.

Humans have to use some share of the solar energy that reaches Earth to continue existing.

The first problem is when writers appear to assume that our current use of solar energy via the agricultural system (we grow plants that turns the light into food.) already is maximally efficient.

The second problem is when writers see land as having one "use" that excludes all other uses, including by other organisms.

The way i see it, the thing is, we learned how to farm from natural environments. Plant communities and farms are doing the same thing, capturing energy from the Sun and creating biomass, right? The idea of farming is to make it so that as much as possible of that biomass is stuff that can be human food.

So instead of examining the most efficient crops or even the most efficient agricultural systems, I think we need to examine the most efficient natural ecosystems and how they do it.

What I'm saying is...in agricultural systems where a sunbeam can hit bare dirt instead of a leaf, that's inefficiency. In agricultural systems where the nutrients in dead plant matter are eroded away instead of building the soil, that's inefficiency. Industrial agriculture is hemorrhaging inefficiency. And it's not only that, it's that industrial agriculture causes topsoil to become degraded, which is basically gaining today's productivity by taking out a loan from the future.

I first started thinking about this with lawns: a big problem with monocultures is ultimately that they occupy a single niche.

In the wild, plant communities form layers of plants that occupy different niches in space. So in a forest you have your canopy, your understory, your forest floor with herbaceous plants, and you have mosses and epiphytes, and basically if any sunbeams aren't soaked up by the big guys in the canopy, they're likely to land on SOME leaf or other.

Monocultures like lawns are so damn hard to sustain because they're like a restaurant with one guy in it and 20 empty tables, and every table is loaded with delicious food. And right outside the restaurant is a whole crowd of hungry people.

Once the restaurant is at capacity and every table is full, people will stop coming in because there's no room. But as long as there's lots of room and lots of food, people will pour in!

So a sunny lawn has lots of food (sunlight) and lots of room (the soil and the air above the soil can fit a whole forest's worth of plant material). So nature is just bombing that space with aggressive weeds non-stop trying to fill those niches.

A monoculture corn field has a lot of the same problems. It could theoretically fit more plants, if those plants slotted into a niche that the corn didn't. Native Americans clear across the North American continent had the Three Sisters as part of their agricultural strategy—you've got corn, beans, and squash, and the squash fits the "understory" niche, and the corn provides a vertical support for the beans.

We dump so many herbicides on our monocultures. That's a symptom of inefficient use of the Sun, really. If the energy is going to plants we can't eat instead of plants we can, that's a major inefficiency.

But killing the weeds doesn't fully close up that inefficiency. It improves it, but ultimately, it's not like 100% of the energy the weeds would be using gets turned into food instead. It's just a hole, because the monoculture can't fulfill identical niches to the weeds.

The solution—the simple, brilliant solution that, to me, is starting to appear common throughout human agricultural history—is to eat the weeds too.

Dandelions are a common, aggressive weed. They're also an edible food crop.

In the USA, various species of Amaranth are our worst agricultural weeds. They were also the staple food crop that fed empires in Mesoamerica.

Purslane? Edible. Crabgrass? Edible.

A while back I noticed a correlation in the types of plants that don't form mycorrhizal associations. Pokeweed, purslane, amaranth—WEEDS. This makes perfect sense, because weeds are disaster species that pop up in disturbed soil, and disturbed soil isn't going to have much of a mycorrhizal network.

But, you know what else is non-mycorrhizal? Brassicas—ie the plant that humans bred into like 12 different vegetables including broccoli and brussels sprouts.

My hypothesis is that these guys were part of a Weed Recruitment Event wherein a common agricultural weed got domesticated into a secondary food crop. I bet the same thing happened with Amaranth. I bet—and this is my crazy theory here—I bet a lot of plants were domesticated not so much based on their use as food, but based on their willingness to grow in the agricultural fields that were being used for other crops.

So, Agroforestry.

Agroforestry has the potential for efficiency because it's closer to a more efficient and "complete" plant community.

People keep telling me, "Food forests are nowhere near as efficient as industrial agriculture, only industrial agriculture can feed the world!" and like. Sure, if you look at a forest, take stock of what things in it can be eaten, and tally up the calories as compared to a corn field (though the amount of edible stuff in a forest is way higher than you think).

But I think it's stupid to act like a Roundup-soaked corn field in Kansas amounts to the pinnacle of possible achievement in terms of agricultural productivity. It's a monoculture, it's hard to maintain and wasteful and leaves a lot of niches empty, and it's destroying the topsoil upon which we will depend for life in the future.

I think it's stupid to act like we can guess at what the most efficient possible food-producing system is. The people that came before us didn't spend thousands of years bioengineering near-inedible plants into staple food crops via just waiting for mutations to show up so that we, possessing actual ability to alter genes in a targeted way, could invent some kind of bullshit number for the carrying capacity of Earth based on the productive capability of a monoculture corn field

Like, do you ever think about how insane domestication is? it's like if Shakespeare's plays were written by generation after generation of people who gave a bunch of monkeys typewriters and spent every day of their lives combing through the output for something worth keeping.

"How do we feed the human race" is a PAINFULLY solvable problem. The real issue is greed, politics, and capitalism...

...lucky for us, plants don't know what those things are.

#plants #thoughts #plantposting #ecology

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zodiactalks · 9 months ago

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These Zodiac Signs Demand Too Much of Themselves

Work, school, relationships, family life, friendships, hobbies, and more; nowadays, it seems like there's far too much to do and too little time to do it all.

The only consolation is that this is a trend exhibited across the board. We all feel like there's too much pressure and that we should be doing more to improve our situation...Or do we?

While it's true that we all feel a certain level of pressure to fulfill all of our obligations, the truth is that some people just pressure themselves more than others.

Call them perfectionists or highly-driven personalities; the following zodiac signs will run themselves into the ground in an attempt to excel at anything they do.

Virgo

August 23 - September

Virgos can be quite the perfectionists and are well known for putting too much on their plates.

They think highly of themselves and their abilities, which translates into the habit –both good and bad– of trying to do too many things at the same time.

For Virgo, being average is unnacceptable, and it shows with their insistence to try and do everything perfectly without any kind of outside assistance.

Cancer

June 21 - July 22

Cancers aren't known for being perfectionists, but they're known for having a hard time relaxing and just cruising by.

While they're okay with not being the expert in a subject, they still enjoy being the best around, which means their competitive spirit might shine through in the worst moments.

A Cancer will always try their best to be as well-informed and educated as possible on the subjects they care about, and if the opportunity arises to turn that knowledge into a competition, they'll be all over that.

Capricorn

December 22 - January 19

Known for their love of luxury and comfortable lifestyles, Capricorns aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty to get those things.

While working to fulfill one's dreams and expectations is always an admirable trait, Capricorns tend to take it to the next level and will actively work to the point of exhaustion just to get what they want.

We all want to achieve our goals, but Capricorns will go to hell and back to get theirs, even if no one asked them to.

Scorpio

October 23 - November 21

Driven and ambitious, Scorpios are the kind of person who will work relentlessly to get what they want and, more often than not, they will achieve it.

The problem with Scorpios, however, lies in the fact that they don't always know what they want.

Oh, they know what they want at the moment, but they're a naturally envious sign, which means "what they want" often depends on what other people have.

Because of this, Scorpios have a hard time being satisfied, and that leads them to demand more and more of themselves.

How's one supposed to stop and enjoy what they've achieved when you measure your success based not on your goals but on other people's?

Leo

July 23 - August 22

The king of the pride holds themselves to incredibly high standards, in part because that's just who they are and in part because they know some people look up to them.

Driven by their need to impress and to be the very best, they'll work as hard as they have to work to maintain the illusion; and it is an illusion, for no matter how much they like to pretend otherwise, Leos are but mere mortals who need as much rest as everyone else.

Their drive is commendable, but Leos could benefit from letting others see their more human side.

Aquarius

January 20 - February 18

Renowned for their creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, Aquarians are nevertheless trapped by this very talent.

They know they're supposed to be the creative ones, so they'll try their hardest to fit into people's expectations, even if they're feeling completely drained at the moment.

Aquarians will snatch victory from the jaws of success if it means appearing a little bit more creative, a trait that doesn't win them any fans amongst friends and co-workers.

While this drive to be the best and the most creative can be commendable, Aquarians need to understand that sometimes "good enough" is seriously good enough.

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scottguy · 4 months ago

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I am sick to death of right-wingers taking the asshole position on literally every major concern facing Americans or the world.

1. The left: People are being slaughtered by military grade weapons on American streets.

The right: We don't care how many schoolchildren are slaughtered! We wanna own big guns just because it's ... fun!

2. The left: The wealthy and corporate monopolies are driving up prices of food, housing, medical care, medicine, education and everything necessary to survive. We need to tax the rich and regulate capitalism better.

The right: Immigrants are the one and only cause of ALL our problems! Socialism is bad and you are a 'radical leftist' for wanting reasonable prices for food, housing, and medication! Commie! Libtard!

3. The left: Global Warming is such an established fact that military experts in the Pentagon are actively planning for wars that may occur over arable land. Rising temperatures will cause worse hurricanes, floods, droughts, fires, flooding of costal cities, as well as mass deaths from killer heat-waves that will affect your children, your grandchildren, and their children. The price of damage to economies and cities will ultimately be in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, a fraction of which could be spent prior to that damage occurring to invest in preventing that damage and stopping further destruction by switching to green energy as rapidly as possible without destabilizing the economy.

The right: Climate change is a hoax and thousands of independent climate scientist around the world world are risking their careers by lying! Years now of consecutive record world temperatures are a fluke! Besides it's "too expensive" to save our irreplaceable planet. Green energy is woke! Drill baby, drill! Only woke libtards listen to scientists. That's why we all skipped vaccines and refused to wear masks during Covid, because what the hell do doctors know? (Well, besides the fact that we go to them when we're really in sick because c'mon, they're doctors!) But, just because they have medical educations, they think they are "better" than us by giving us medical advice to wear masks and take vaccines. (The nerve!) My medical ignorance is just as good as your fancy education and expertise... doctor! You elitist! How dare you know more than me! I can search the Internet too and do research! It's easy to find exactly what you want to hear! One guy on Youtube tells me that decades of peer-reviewed research on the safety of vaccines are all wrong. He's saying that's because it's true and NOT because he gets paid per view and knows how to say what I want to hear. His utter lack of qualifications do not concern me if it agrees with my opinion.

4. The left: Women are dying in emergency rooms because of new abortion restrictions since Roe versus Wade was reversed, often despite the mother having an unviable or deceased fetus.

The right: It's God's will, he wants adult women to die, even if their lives or crucial organs are savable! My preacher said so and he tells me what to think! We don't care that if we allow a women to die or become infertile despite a fetus that is already dead or missing its brain because we really never cared about life, just fetuses, even if that, too will inevitably die. "Pro-life!" Right? Women need to follow OUR religious beliefs! It's about CONTROL! You, lady, need to die because you are hurting my "freedom of religion" otherwise. Your religion? Who cares? MINE is the ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS... just bleed out already....

5. The left: The men who wrote our US Constitution specifically excluded religion from having anything to do with American government because they well understood the senseless violence that religious wars had caused over the past 2000 years and even recently in the 1700s. Our founders knew that "beliefs" and "what God wants" are too arbitrary, subjective, and unknowable by men to serve as a rational foundation of government. There are many quotes in the Federalist Papers (essays written in 1787 and 1788 by the writers of the Constitution themselves, to explain the thinking behind the structure and purpose of the US Constitution) specifically stating why our constitution avoided establishing a state religion.

The right: The Founders wanted a Christian Nation! They didn't care about Jews, Muslims, atheists, or the people of hundreds of different other faiths that exist. To hell with them! Christianity should be the ONLY religion for everyone because we will base ALL OUR LAWS on it, whether others like it or not. Why? Because it's MY religion so screw you and yours. My religion is the only "right" one, so YOU have to follow MY religion's rules regardless of your own. I'm willing to fight over it because I "believe" so strongly! Simply holding a completely unprovable idea in my head gives me 'faith' and automatically makes me a righteous person no matter who gets hurt because of it!

6. The left: Trump is a rapist, a multiple count felon, a traitor, and a man who already literally attempted to overthrow a democratic American election by force to stay president and is thus is unqualified for office ever again. He also has adopted Project 2025 which is a plan designed to destroy our democracy from within by firing regulatory agency workers and replacing them with MAGA loyalists. He will then steal every freedom we take for granted and replace them with a Nazi-like dictatorship by declaring some arbitrary "emergency" and invoking an existing law called 'the Insurrection Act' (valid during 'emergencies) to violently (like he did during BLM protests) to suppress free speech and to destroy any public opposition to the loss of Americans' freedoms by locking up the protestors that weren't shot dead. Trump stands against EVERY SINGLE value that Americans have held dear for 250 years now.

The right: Trump is a hero who will save America! He's such a great guy! America was "better" under him because we could be openly racist and drive around in big trucks with Trump flags because we were SO PROUD that we had a fellow white supremacist in office! It was awesome! Trump taught us that we can simply make death threats to innocent school board members and other officials if they don't agree with our positions and our arguments based on false information from online and Fox. To hell with civility! Get your way or threaten to (or try to) hurt people! It works for Trump! We want America to turn into a big free-for-all where only the loudest and most violent get their way! THAT is the kind of society we want our children to grow up in! Being a bully is good! Peace, love, and kindness are for "libtards" and the "woke!"

7. The left: Republicans have already vowed (and voted) in favor of cutting Americans' Social Security payments and for privatize Medicare so it will belong entirely to for-profit companies with incentives to deny care and deny costly medication. (All medications will become expensive when the few existing price controls are repealed.)

The right: Republicans can do no wrong because the left is "woke!" It's better to be asleep than "woke!" We can't really define "woke" but we know that wanting to help others who are unusual to us is bad! I really don't care how badly I get screwed financially as long as the people I hate get screwed worse! Besides, Republicans are our friends on guns and religion so.. take our money as long as we get guns and christofascisim! Republicans wouldn't do something they have openly promised to do. They wouldn't screw the middle class just to to get more federal tax cuts just like they already did in 2017 passing a TAX CHANGE that RAISED taxes on people making UNDER $70,000 and which now still gives away billions in cuts to the rich and corporations at our expense. They wouldn't be that greedy, like they already were. Right? Oh look, an immigrant!

Honestly right-wingers. Don't you get sick of constantly being assholes.. about everything?

Worse, you act like self-righteous assholes despite doing the bidding of the objectively wicked Trump who has been blatantly lying every time he speaks since 2016. Nearly TEN YEARS LATER, you're absolutely blind to his lies because of the mindless adoration that cult members always feel for their leader, even if that leader abuses them by say, raising their taxes. Trump is the guy who promised Covid would just "go away" despite knowing it was airborne and would get worse.

Right-wingers, you expect us to respect your opinions which are based on well-documented lies by Trump, Fox and other news organizations who lie and tell you thing things they know you want to hear instead of what is actually true. You aren't just UNDER informed. You are actively misinformed, lied to, by right-wing media. You like it! You feel superior despite everything you THINK is TRUE being as false as the tens of thousands of DOCUMENTED LIES by Donald Trump.

You could change the channel but you're too afraid to shatter the artificial reality you've created and lived for ten years, where Trump, despite his crimes, his lies, his racism, his encouragement of violence is GOOD, DECENT, PERFECT and 'ON YOUR SIDE'.

BUT, we LIBERALS, who just want everyone including MAGA people, to have better lives by being able to AFFORD THINGS and get HEALTHCARE and not be cheated by our bosses or corporations that do awful things in the name of ever-increasing-profit, we, the left are somehow.... the bad guys in all this.

I don't hear any right-wingers saying openly they want better lives for ALL Americans. I don't hear any of you ASKING what can be done to fix outrageous prices for housing, food and medicine. All you've been told to do is blame Biden for everything. Every problem, if not caused by an immigrant, is caused by the evil and wicked Biden.

We're bringing manufacturing back to America but you hate the president who made those jobs one of the key priorities of his current administration. Even when Biden policies have improved your life by lowering the cost of insulin or asthma medication you still say, Biden is bad! If you recently have rural high speed Internet, that came courtesy of Biden's infrastructure bill. Infrastructure improvements have created jobs that rural Americans need.

Infrastructure programs are helping rural areas so much that Republicans, who voted against those things, are trying to take credit for them!

But, if it was up to Republicans... you would NEVER had gotten improved roads or bridges or rural high-speed Internet. No... Republicans need to save THAT MONEY for more TAX CUTS for the rich.

You, on the right, have been so blinded to both EVIL and DECENCY. You don't see the evil of Trump and you don't see the decency of Biden. It's just "us versus them" now. Trump and the media drove us apart.

It'd be sad if it weren't so SCARY right now, living on the edge of fascism with so called "patriots" on the right, actively rooting for a guy promising, literally promising, to run things like Hitler. He openly vowed to be a dictator on "Day One." (see link below from the Associated Press if you don't believe me)

I'm writing this to point out that, despite a long history of the right having some really hard-to-respect opinions noted above, we DO have common interests if we can just stop hating each other.

But, all you on the right can talk about are immigrants and how the left is "woke" as if those are the ONLY problems in your lives. It's simple and mindless. No thought is required at all. The people who fed this to you made sure of it.

What about the future lives of your children and grandchildren?

They could be slaughtered in the street or school by AR-15s. It happens.. a lot, why do you think your loved one is somehow safe?

It could be your wife or girlfriend dying in that hospital because of the chance misfortune of an ectopic pregnancy with the doctor threatened with jail for saving her life or her fertility.

It could be YOU starving and homeless because Social Security was cut SO far.

It could be YOU dying of cancer because privatized Medicare denied both your operation and the skyrocketing cost of your cancer medication.

It could be your spouse or child or parent locked up in a Nazi-like camp simply for being liberal and posting online, like this.

It could be your Southern state being bombed in retaliation when Trump decides to invade Mexico.

It could be all our lives and and much of the life on Earth anihilated for centuries when some MAGA flunky (completely ignorant of radiation drift and the built-in retaliatory launch systems & treaties of other countries) gets told to launch the nuclear bombs and is just "follows orders" thus causing worldwide nuclear Armageddon...

...all because Trump was having a bad day. I wouldn't put it past him, so selfish, so bitter, if he gets too old, to do just one last super-powerful selfish act just to boost his ego, you know, like mass shooters do when they've gotten too angry.

What scares us all on the left and in the middle, is that you, on the right, don't seem to CARE about anything ... except immigrants!

If we could stop all human migration on Earth, the rich will continue to make our lives miserable because the rich do not CARE about any of us! The wealthy have just been using voters for decades now by playing to tribalism, racism, and fear of the unknown.

We, left and right, should be UNITED against the wealthy who have spent billions by now buying our politicians (both left and right) and flooding our media with propaganda labeled "news" to get their way. The rich are experts at playing to your passions (guns, religion) and your fears (immigration, gays, tans people.) in order to manipulate you and slowly drain the middle class until there are just the super rich and the ultra poor left in America.

If the wealthy do get their way and we lose democracy, sooner rather than later, you will not like it. Eventually, like Hitler's Germany, everyone will eventually see their huge mistake.

Do you think Hitler had many supporters remaining after his actions reduced Germany to rubble? After the nation was complicit in the murder of six million completely innocent people? Germans still have to live with that knowledge.

Don't for a moment think that the USA is so damn special that, "It can't happen here!"

Hitler is what happens when you let a guy with zero ethics run a country! Trump has zero ethics!

Who will stop him? Not Congress or the Supreme Court. They've already proven that by their actions.

The wealthy are literally on the verge of stealing every American freedom that you hold dear with Trump's Project 2025 just to get richer and to force a particular religion on everyone because they have the money, the power, and just the right candidate running, to do it.

Care about that ... losing your freedoms... because it WILL matter to YOU also.

Below is the Wikipedia entry on Project 2025. This is no conspiracy theory. It is very very real and terrifying to any American who values freedom. Below that is the quote I promised on Trump's vow to be a dictator, on "day one."

This post probably won't change a single mind and will only be read by people who already agree, but man, it felt good (albeit frustrating to list right-wing intransigence so thoroughly) to write.

Remember blogging (like above) changes just about nothing. Vote, volunteer to phone bank when the election comes (you can do it at home), donate money to progressive media and liberal races if you can afford it. I write stuff like this because it feels good to get the understandable anger out of my system. I seriously doubt I will change a single mind.

Really the ONE crucial thing that could utterly change America towards the BETTER is if ALL the registered Democrats just SHOW UP and VOTE BLUE this November.

If even just THAT is ALL you do... it will be enough and so much better than the fool who doesn't vote and says lazily, "Oh nothing ever changes. Why bother?"

Yeah, then they took away Roe versus Wade and womens' constitutional rights to an abortion. The Supreme Court got packed and ruled the president can murder people be a king!

Like HELL, "Nothing ever changes!"

Look around you! Just because the sun rises every day and your PERSONAL LIFE doesn't feel impacted. (Have your rents gone up lately? Can you even afford health insurance?) People who say that are so used to being screwed that they've given up! How can anything ever be fixed if you give up? Not voting ... is surrender. You're saying, "You can't be beat." I post about this a lot so I'm not putting in my usual political cartoon of 2/3 of eligible voters saying "My vote won't change anything!" when, obviously due to the sheer numbers of them alone, they are wrong!

Things DO change depending on leadership.

All you can do is point which direction we go,

more to the left

RADICALLY more to the right! Dangerously more. Loss of democracy more.

If you DON'T choose, some MAGA or fool "independent" ("both parties are the same!" or "Biden's is old, corporate media run by the wealthy never covered any of his accomplishments and I didn't bother to find out about any, but the news did follow all of Biden's gaffes and almost none of Trump's or Trump's violent rhetoric or ever actually say Trump is a threat to democracy, not on the front page anyway.") So, let's vote for the guy who already tried to overthrow American democracy! He's a few years younger. Both parties are the same!

Seriously? I don't recall the Democrat party ever violently attempting to overturn an election. We concede even CLOSE elections for the good of democracy. Trump got destroyed and lost in court 60 times because he had utterly no proof of fraud, and STILL didn't concede!

Yeah, both parties are "the same!"

What the hell does that even mean right now?

Right now, the Republican party is rooting for a fucking wanna-be dictator!

So, vote, vote blue... or THOSE people will chose America's direction for you ... and then your vote may never count ever again.

#the right takes the asshole position on every major issue #the right don't care who they hurt even if it is themselves #if you are right wing it's because your heart has died #we live in rant-worthy times

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yotsuyuchanswonderland · 6 months ago

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1. I'm quite skilled when it comes to kissing. And yes, Dr. Wu taught me how to ❤️

2. Not that much. I wish I was.

3. Depends on the kind of game. I'm really good at horror and fighting games in general. I suck at sports and shooters though.

4. Aisho told me I had a beautiful singing voice. He may or may not have heard me sing a song I've written...

5. I don't know, I never dance.

6. I want to learn cello...

7. I love plants, but I wouldn't say I'm skilled at taking care of them.

8. I'm a Rock Human, duh, I'm one with nature.

9. Not something I often do, but yes, I can fight.

10. Human rules mean nothing for our species. We don't have to respect them as we have no need to. That doesn't mean I'd kill someone for fun though... or maybe... if I don't like you, I might... 😏I see you, Josuke. I'm in your walls.

11. I can cook some stuff like Rokakacake (yes, it's a cake with Rokakaka fruit, there's honey too because Rock Humans love honey)

12. Children are scared of me...

13. People really do that?

14. I hate parties. They're annoying and there's awful music...

15. Maybe, maybe not. Ask Dr. Wu.

16. That would be unfortunate if I wasn't... I mean, I'm an architect.

17. It's a human concept, right? Well, I don't know and I don't care.

18. I practiced kendo in college but that's all.

19. You wouldn't throw me in a pool, right? You know we Rock Humans can't swim at all, riiight?

20. I can't drive. Aisho said I'd be a terrible driver if I had a licence. No, it's not because I always ask Damo if he can run over humans I don't like 🙂

21. Do Stands count as magic?

22. Joshu hides vodka bottles under his bed, Damo has an OnlyFans, Jobin writes gay smut in his free time... Yes, Aisho, I know your secrets too 😏

23. I don't know, I don't use them.

24. Same as above.

25. Must have a blade or I'm not interested.

26. Why are humans so useless? Let's discuss. Wait, what do you mean that doesn't count as science??? It's science because I said so.

27. I don't have to, Rock Humans are always clean.

28. To be honest, Damo is our finance expert. I don't know much about that stuff, I've majored architecture, not economics.

29. If I start talking about how I see the world, I'll have an existential crisis. Yes, it's possible for us to have one.

30. Stands are considered paranormal, right?

31. I'm quite a fast reader. Also, Jobin, do you know where I can find the House of Leaves? I really wanna read it!

32. Kind of...

33. Time isn't a concept I experience like humans. My species can live up to 240 years old, so time doesn't really matter to us.

34. I'm an architect, obviously I'm extremely organized.

35. The twins put vodka in my cherry coke once. That didn't make me drunk.

36. I don't want to learn. Bikes are for humans.

37. We made a short animated movie in college and I did the voice acting.

38. No, don't put me on a boat, if I fall in the water, I'll drown.

39. Maths? What is that cursed thing? (please, don't mention that stuff around me... I understand mod when it says how much it's traumatized by that subject)

Muse skillset symbol meme

Send an emoji to learn how good/bad my muse is at that particular skill!

💋 — kissing

💄 — makeup

👾 — video games

🎵 — singing

💃 — dancing

🎹 — playing an instrument

🌷 — taking care of living things

🌲 — surviving in the wilderness

👊 — fighting

😇 — following rules

🍳 — cooking

🍼 — taking care of children

🎁 — giving presents to others

🎉 — hosting parties

💌 — romance/flirting

🎨 — art

🍀 — luck

⚽️ — sports

🏊 — swimming

🚗 — driving

🔮 — magic

🔎 — investigating

🔫 — long range weapons

💣 — explosives

🔪 — melee weapons

🔬 — scientific pursuits

🚿 — hygiene

💰 — finance

🌍 — knowledge of the world

👻 — communing with the paranormal

📚 — reading

🔧 — engineering/mechanics

⌛️ — time management

📥 — organization

🍺 — alcohol tolerance

🚴 — riding a bike

🎭 — performance art/acting

⚓️ — sailing

➗ — mathematics

#ask game #reblog

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hudsonmckenzie · 7 months ago

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Are you making these mistakes while hiring London immigration lawyers?

Moving abroad, whether for employment or simply to be near your family, is not a simple task. Would you like to relocate from London to another nation? Relocating requires a lot of labor, such as gathering resources from the ground up and completing a ton of paperwork until the very last minute to arrive at your destination. In certain situations, there may be additional tasks involved. When moving from London to any other place, the majority of people make blunders like doing everything themselves and squandering time and money. When relocating abroad, you require excellent assistance from someone who is familiar with all the paperwork and requirements you can encounter during the immigration process. Therefore, it would be best to engage professionals if you are moving because it is a difficult task that involves a lot of paperwork.

Consequently, bear in mind that the solicitor you choose to represent you in court should be an expert in immigration-related issues when you make the decision to work with a professional. Making a decision without taking specialization into account could get you into problems, and if it doesn't, you'll definitely waste time. Even if there are other attorneys who may assist you with your immigration issue, we advise you to look solely at specialized immigration solicitors in London because they are knowledgeable and have a thorough understanding of the legal system, allowing them to investigate your case swiftly.

When choosing to hire an immigration solicitor, exercise caution in your selection. Given that they are all immigration experts, what does it mean to make an informed decision? Yes, they are all experts, but do they also possess subject-matter expertise? This is where you would need to compare at least four or five different solicitors, as you would want them to respond to all of your inquiries before choosing the best fit. Therefore, before selecting one, shortlist four or five immigration attorneys. Make an appointment with each of them so that you can interview them and have a general sense of their degree of experience and demeanor. When you ask a question as a customer, they should be prepared with all the answers. If they delay answering, it's possible that they're trying to get you to answer them later. They are not the proper person for you or your immigration issues specialist, so you should remove their name from the list immediately. So, don't give up on finding one of the knowledgeable London immigration lawyers.

It is undoubtedly expensive to immigrate to another nation, and one of the costs you will incur during the process is hiring an immigration lawyer. Therefore, it is best to have a list of all potential costs ready, including the fees for your immigration attorney, the nature of your application, and additional paperwork. It helps to have a potential budget on hand when you begin the procedure. Knowing the approximate total cost will help you to rest till the procedure is finished. You will need to exercise patience as it may take many months for your application to be granted.

Stay in constant contact with your solicitor. They can have important questions about your application, so never put yourself out of their reach and make sure you answer their inquiries in a correct and appropriate manner. Thus, to ensure that your application is approved, communicate effectively.

#immigration solicitors in London

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angelsaxis · 3 years ago

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There's this annoying thing that white people do where people of color will say one thing and then yt folks wilfully misinterpret it into the dumbest and most malicious thing possible

PoC say very often "listen to us when we speak" and white people will very often respond with "so you want me to think your opinion is more important than anyone else's because of the color of your skin??"" Which is not at all what's being said, but the white person who says this was never interested in learning in the first place, and they're hoping to use the "gotcha" that skin color doesn't matter as a reason to disregard everything that a person of color who goes against them says

(never mind that not all people of color have brown skin in the first place)

But, for instance, I am Black. I have friends who are Asian. They point out a racist stereotype or sinophobic propaganda in something, and I read it and I listen to what the say--not because of """""the color of their skin""""" but because when they speak on that racist thing, they're speaking from multiple points of personal experience, observation, sociocultural context, and historical evidence, all of which has clear lines between the racist thing and the direct result of the racist thing (more racism).

And all this is obvious to me. I have enough braincells to know that racism is repeated in many of the same ways. I know that when someone says "X people don't like Y thing", I'm not taking what they say into consideration because of """skin color""" but because they have collective, expert knowledge in a subject that I do not. If I need to know more, I either Google it or ask. I don't dig my heels in and make assumptions about why they are demanding to be respected.

Do you listen to a doctor when they give you a diagnosis? Do you listen to a mechanic when they say your cars broken? Or the meteorologist on TV? None of these people get inane responses like "you just want us to listen because you're on TV or you have a wrench. What happened to everyone being valuable regardless of profession?"

You would listen to a Black person who gives a short history on Soul Food without saying "but your skin color doesn't matter, so why should I listen?" If a Chinese person starts talking about their culture, or an Indian person about theirs or a Nigerian about their own, and whether they're simply educating or correcting, they're speaking from a place of authority--do you start talking about how skin color doesn't matter? Do you realize how stupid this is?

Because when people who experience racism talk about racism, it's in white people's instinct to think we're bringing up the personal and historical patterns for the egotistical purposes of making everything about skin color. It's disgusting. "Listen to PoC" means "be aware that there are personal accounts, historical/cultural accounts, and myriad other evidence that proves this thing is harmful" not "my skin is dark so therefore I'm right".

#angel posts #like jesus fucking christ #long post #yall know who this is about

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chameliyun · 2 years ago

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"... hiding from love was something I had done my whole life. Because I was always afraid love would be conditional, would be snatched away. It was too risky. And so, again and again, I had refused the gift."

This quote in particular really punched me in the gut. I think it's so important to share things like this, because fundamentally, we all want and need to love and to be loved, regardless of whether we acknowledge it. What Julian wrote resonated with so many people, made their lives better, and his attitude about the whole thing and the realizations he has represent the true purpose of art to me: connection.

To me, though, everything like this always rings just a bit hollow. Because the universe, as an entity, isn't sentient. It can't ever truly love you because it's not capable. It's so, so close to getting to the truth of a loving Creator, but it just misses it entirely.

"And the universe said I love you because you are love." It's so close; it captures the fact that love really is the ultimate power and fulfillment, but it misses the source. "And God said I love you because I am love." There is no love apart from Him; it would not exist without Him. The universe itself would not exist without Him. He created it with love, as He did and does everything else.

I think maybe, every time someone has a realization like Julian did, in awe of the universe like this, they're on the cusp of something even greater. The only thing that could be greater than the universe is, of course, the One who created it. The One who created love, and who loves you. Who was, and is, and always will be, beyond the end of time. He has no end and no beginning, and He loves you. Always. No matter what you do or don't do (and that is a truth I have to constantly ask Him to reassure me of).

I'm not an expert, or even really anything beyond a novice (but then I never will be, with how vast He is). But I know that every time I seek the truth, in anything, it leads back to God. And I know that He made the universe, and that, in ways I still struggle to understand, He loves me.

Whoever you are, wherever you are in life, I promise you that God loves you. Even if you hate Him, or are angry with Him, or ashamed of Him. I know, because I have been in those places and more, and He doesn't change. He is.

The change comes when you respond. He changes you. It won't be comfortable, and it will sometimes even be painful. But it is worth so much more than you could possibly fathom just to be with Him. To let Him love you, the way love was meant to be experienced.

If you have questions about any of this, I would love to hear and respond to them as well as I am able. I know the subject is fraught with controversy and misconceptions, and I am not immune to those myself. But I want people to know the joy and love that I know, and my fear of messing up shouldn't get in the way of that.

I have no idea how to end this post so...bye

i know not many people would want to read a 10,000 word article about the minecraft end poem and how the author, Julian Gough, was never fairly compensated for his work and has made it public domain.

But it's a very well-written and heartfelt read, and he makes it very clear that none of this is a cash-grab and despite the fact that he is essentially a starving artist in this capitalist society, he only mentions his financial struggles despite Minecraft's huge huge success at the bottom of this article and not in the tweets so as to not dilute his message.

Anyway, I just think it'd be cool if those who are able to could support him in some way, that's all.

#god #my thoughts #minecraft end poem #love #religion #religion cw #me

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mellometal · 3 years ago

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Is it time to tear ANOTHER Dhar Mann video to shreds? YOU BET.

I've been sitting on this one for a bit because I wanted to make sure I talk about this tactfully. The subject of parents abandoning their disabled children is a very touchy one.

Parents abandoning their disabled children simply for being disabled is way too common. Like, I understand that not everyone has the resources to care for a disabled child (which is why you reach out for help, and why people like me, who work with disabled people, exist), but it doesn't mean you just walk out of their life. There are exceptions, like if you truly didn't want children or something like that, but just flat-out walking out of your kid's life BECAUSE they're disabled is fucked up.

I know someone personally whose biological mother abandoned her when she was born. Why? Because she's disabled. Physically, and mentally, to a point. I work with this woman on a daily basis. I don't really know WHY exactly her biological mother abandoned her, but I do know that her being disabled was part of it. It's sad. It doesn't affect her, thankfully. I'm happy that she's got her biological dad, her brother, and another maternal figure in her life, at least.

ANYWAYS. Before we get to the topic at hand, I need to put an obligatory trigger warning, like I do with EVERY Dhar Mann post:

This post will be talking about parents abandoning their disabled children simply for being disabled, treating disabilities like they're tragedies (in this case, we're talking about autism...again), divorce, and some SPICY ableist bullshit from an allistic (nonautistic) PIECE OF SHIT.

If any of this triggers you or makes you uncomfortable in any way, you don't have to read this post. This isn't worth putting yourself in a bad state mentally. I would never ask for any of you to put yourselves in that position all for a post. Put your mental health and well-being first. Consume media that sparks joy for you.

As far as my response goes, it's definitely more calm than normal. Funny....since this video is about autism spectrum disorder again. (Third time's the charm, huh, Dhar Mann? NOT.)

LET'S FUCKING GET IT.

The video starts off with these two parents (Gwen and Allen) in a psychologist's office. The psychologist tells the parents that their son (Chance) is autistic, and she tries to explain what autism is to the parents, but Allen cuts her off. Why? Because he teaches at a prestigious university, so he AUTOMATICALLY knows what autism is from that fact alone.

Um, excuse me? Just because you're a teacher at a prestigious university, it doesn't mean you're an expert in everything. It doesn't make you an expert in ASD or anything like that. Unless you SPECIALIZE in that area. Even then, shut the fuck up. The people who know about being autistic are AUTISTIC PEOPLE THEMSELVES! SHOCKER.

Hey, Dhar Mann! QUIT WITH THE VIDEOS ABOUT AUTISTIC LITTLE WHITE BOYS AND YOUNG WHITE AUTISTIC CISHET MEN! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF IT. It's annoying, ignorant, and it feels like you're doing this on purpose at this point to piss people off. If you're so uninformed about autism in women and girls, FUCKING ASK AUTISTIC WOMEN AND GIRLS! DO BETTER RESEARCH THAT DOESN'T INVOLVE AUTISM SPEAKS. The Autism Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and the Autistic Women and Nonbinary People Network (AWN) are great organizations to go to for any kind of research on ASD in women and girls. STOP GOING OFF OF THE BRAINS OF AUTISTIC WHITE BOYS AND AUTISTIC WHITE MEN.

I don't feel I need to go too deep into the fact that autistic women, autistic girls, autistic nonbinary people, autistic BIPOC, autistic AAPI, autistic LGBT people, autistic teenagers, and autistic adults exist. Y'all already know.

Gwen asks the psychologist if that means Chance isn't healthy. (I understand not knowing about autism, but don't treat it like it's a terminal illness. Please.) The psychologist tells her that Chance is fine, but he just learns differently and might need more support compared to his peers.

Yeah, autism can affect how you learn about certain things (limited and repetitive patterns), but there are other disabilities that can affect learning as well. Like how dyslexia can affect your ability to read, dyspraxia can affect your ability to do math, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can affect your ability to focus or on impulse control. Autism affects how your brain is developed, it affects you socially, behaviorally, and how you communicate.

Allen is upset, says that he can't have a son "with a learning disability" (ASD is a neurological disability, not necessarily a learning disability), and treats Chance like he's stupid for being autistic. Gwen tells her husband that autism doesn't make you any less intelligent, WHICH IS SO FUCKING TRUE. ABSOLUTE FACTS. I was totally with her until she began that little monologue with "Just because a person HAS autism". SAY "JUST BECAUSE A PERSON'S AUTISTIC" INSTEAD! IT'S NOT HARD. PERSON FIRST LANGUAGE ISN'T WHAT EVERY DISABLED PERSON PREFERS. Allen says that "they could have another kid" and "put Chance up for adoption". Gwen obviously wasn't down with that. Allen gives his wife an ultimatum that it's either HIM or their son Chance. Gwen says that she can't choose between the two, but she will stand by her autistic son. Allen gets up and leaves the office, saying he wants a divorce.

Years pass by, Gwen is single and taking care of her autistic son Chance, and Allen has a new life with a ✨perfect son✨ (Samuel). He never mentions the son HE abandoned (Chance). He's completely forgotten about Gwen and Chance. (YOU OWE SO MUCH CHILD SUPPORT, ALLEN.)

Hey, Allen, how much do you wanna bet that your ✨perfect son✨ Samuel is autistic too?

There's the SATs, they're announcing a winner, and guess who it is? IT'S OBVIOUSLY CHANCE, OF COURSE. He's got the highest score in the country, with Samuel in second place. Allen is PISSED.

Chance gives a speech about how his mom really helped him, he struggled with autism, how Allen LITERALLY ABANDONED HIM, and THE CROWD GOES FUCKING WILD. Samuel, instead of being a sore loser, APPLAUDS FOR CHANCE. Stay humble, Sam.

My thoughts on the video? If you cannot tell by my tone throughout this post, IT WAS DOG SHIT. This video was insensitive to the true reality of parents abandoning their disabled children just because they're disabled. What do I expect from Dhar Mann at this point?

Here's my response to his video below. Don't worry, I will fully type out my response soon for anyone who cannot read the screenshots easily. It's a lot easier for me to do that on the desktop site than it is for me to do it on my phone.

For anyone who can’t read my response, I’m typing it out for you. Like I said, it’s easier for me to type it out on the desktop site than it is for me to type it out on my phone. It’s a real royal pain in the ass. But because I’m trying to make my posts easier to read for people, I’m doing this anyway. /lighthearted

First, second, and third screenshots (broken up into paragraphs):

Hey, listen, I appreciate the message you’re trying to go for, but can you please stop putting autistic people into a box? Can you stop treating being autistic like it’s a tragedy? Not every single autistic person is a little white boy in elementary school who’s considered “wild and unruly” or “super quiet and makes no friends”, nor are they a young white cishet man who’s a super genius or is how Chris Chan was before she came out as trans. (For anyone who doesn’t know about Chris Chan, there are many documentaries people have made on YouTube, and I highly recommend Geno Samuel’s docuseries, if you’re really interested in learning about Chris Chan.)

Autistic women, girls, nonbinary people, BIPOC, APPI, LGBT people, teenagers, and adults all exist too.

It’s very apparent now that you get your resources from Autism $peaks, a hate group that spends the vast majority of their money on funding eugenics instead of helping autistic people like they claim, claims that only little white boys and young white cishet men are autistic and ignores all other autistic people who don’t fit that description, have no autistic people on their leader board or on any board for that matter, have members who have actually fantasized about k1lling their autistic children, treat autism like it’s a tragedy or a disease someone can catch (completely false), act like autism should be cured (there is no cure, and ABA therapy is a total shit show in itself), and treats autistic people like they’re broken and need to be fixed. Also, not every autistic person is a Super Genius(tm). That’s so demeaning to autistic people who aren’t seen as intelligent in any way. I’m autistic and seen as smart; however, there are subjects I’m stronger in than others.

If you can’t handle the possibility of having autistic children, or just disabled children in general, DON’T HAVE CHILDREN. If you can’t handle working with or alongside disabled people, including autistic people, maybe find a different profession. Even if you do that, you’ll never get away from disabled people. Disabled people aren’t a disease. We’re human beings just like neurotypical and able-bodied people.

Fourth and fifth screenshots (broken up into paragraphs):

I would highly suggest getting resources from reputable organizations for ASD, such as the Autism Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and the Autistic Women and Nonbinary People Network (AWN). Talk to any autistic person who isn’t a little white boy or a young white cishet man.

Instead of using the puzzle piece, which is a symbol that many autistic people, myself included, are offended by (because of Autism $peaks and other organizations before them using it, plus it symbolizes that only autistic children exist and that we’re “missing a piece” like we’re broken), use the rainbow infinity sign (for all neurodivergent people) or the red and gold infinity sign (just for autistic people). Instead of “lighting it up blue”, light it up red or gold. Do both if you want.

I’m actually really sick and tired of seeing just autistic little white boys and young autistic white cishet men being represented in the media, and y’all manage to fuck that up too.

Before anyone mentions Sia’s movie “Music”, that’s also very poor representation of autistic girls. Besides, the actress who played the autistic girl isn’t even autistic. She MOCKED autistic people. I know she’s a kid, but that’s still super fucked up. I hope she’s able to turn that around.

If anyone would like to discuss this topic with me or ask any questions, feel free to. I’ll answer as best as I can. Thank you and have a good night.

Before I get attacked for mentioning Chris Chan in my response, I bring up Chris Chan because allistic people think that every autistic person is like her (especially before she came out as trans). That person is part of why I wasn't open about being autistic or talking about my diagnosis until this year. I didn't want to be grouped up with Chris Chan because I do have very similar interests to her, I've been seen as cringey for having said interests, and just the way Chris treated autistic people who were formerly diagnosed with A$p3rg3r$ $yndr0m3 (like I was) really made me feel even more alienated.

Also, S1a supports A$ (Autism $p3aks). She's not a very good person to support. Some of her music is good, but her as a person....no. Her movie "Music" was gross, from what I've read about it and seen pictures of.

If you've read this far, thank you so much!

#mello speaks #dhar mann #dhar mann talk #dhar mann will live to regret his decision to make these fucked up cringe videos #dhar mann will live to regret his decision uwu #dhar mann is a piece of human garbage #please stop supporting dhar mann #autism isn't a tragedy #we need better representation for autistic people who aren't little white boys or young white cishet men #dhar mann is a cringe ass nae nae baby #tw abandonment #tw ableism #cw sia mention #cw chris chan mention #tw dhar mann

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dmsden · 3 years ago

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Personal Plot - Sage

IHullo, Gentle Readers. This month, our personal plot article is back in the Player's Handbook, as we look at the Sage background. This is a great background to represent anything from a school teacher, to a student, to a researcher. They have dedicated their lives to ferreting out the secrets of their chosen field of study, but now they're drawn to a life of adventure.

Right off the bat, my big question would be "why?" Why has this person decided to go out and adventure, rather than continue to pursue matters in the halls of academia? Have their theories been thrown into disgrace and dispute, and they're going out to look for proof that they're right about their ideas? Do they need to collect data to finish their magnum opus? Are they turning to the dangerous occupation of adventurer in order to try to quickly earn their exorbitant tuition money? I imagine there's got to be a reason!

Once you know the reason, it's likely to spur further story elements. You can dangle lucrative adventures at the sage who needs cash. You can offer adventures that tie into elements of what the sage's field of research is, in order to coax them out to seek the data they need.

I feel like Sage is another one of those backgrounds that has the built in possibility of a rival. Maybe the rival can be another expert in the same field with theories that contradict the PC's theories. This could lead to an Indiana Jones/Belloq like relationship, where the two of them are constantly trying to overcome each other's achievements. Or the rival lets the PC group do all the heavy lifting of bypassing traps, only to come in with their hobgoblin henchmen and lift the information or item the PC sage was after. Just make sure to give the PC the chance to get a leg up on their rival as well, or this will become un-fun for them.

The Sage's special ability involves knowing where to find information. If they don't know a piece of info, they should know where to find it. Just because they know, however, doesn't mean that it's easily obtained. If the PCs need the name of the Dead God of Pestilence, the Sage might know that this information is likely contained in the vaults of the Crypt of Kragmore. That still means, however, that the PCs will need to delve into the Crypt of Kragmore (a terrible dungeon, of course) to find it.

It doesn't have to be a dungeon or dangerous in order to be difficult to obtain. Maybe the Great Library of Palathari has the info, but they aren't willing to let outsiders waltz in and begin pawing through their valuable stacks of scrolls. They might, however, be willing to lend out one of their staff to locate the information...in exchange for a task. The Library uses Hellwasp wax to preserve certain scrolls about Infernal matters, and they're almost out. Luckily, they know where there's a Hellwasp nest, if only some adventurers could help them out?

The Sage is also a great way for the DM to get information into the campaign without using an NPC. Before the game, you could prepare envelopes with information about a subject. You can hand the envelopes to the Sage player with instructions only to open if they hear the phrase written on one. During the session, you could then say, "I've heard of a so-called Dead God of Pestilence, but I don't know much about it..." The PC has an envelope marked Dead God of Pestilence, so they can then open the envelope and read what's in there, presenting it as something they came across in their researches.

I hope this article has helped you think about plot for your Sage PC. Next month, we're sticking with the Player's Handbook and getting nautical! Until then, may all your 20s be natural.

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uncle-fruity · 6 months ago

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And NOT learning, NOT doing the work is (part of) what leads to massive misinformation issues. If you're being pressured to post something just to show that you are "on the right side of history" and you don't have time to learn about or process the events you're posting about, that's how misinformation gets spread. Sure, your favorite tumblrino who you think typically has good takes says that X is true, but do you know that for sure? Are you going to look for sources outside of social media? Are you going to say, "Hey, I need a little extra time to stop and learn about this before I post about it"? And are the people who say that they're on your side going to support that decision? Are you encouraged to seek out facts? Are you encouraged to read different perspectives? Do people trust you to do the work you need to do to understand the issues, or are they just going to tell you that you're a bad Christian activist for not saying the first thing that comes to your mind about complicated topics?

It just isn't how we're supposed to approach these things, if we want to be effective & authentic. These days, I can speak pretty quickly on issues about queerphobia, racism, and ableism because I have a foundation of knowledge that I worked on learning for *years* prior, so I don't need as much time to process what's being said, and I'm familiar with a lot of the typical parties involved in these topics. And even then, I know I have gaps in my knowledge & experience that limit my perspective. Keeping that in mind, there are things that I choose to shut up about because it's just not my place to talk about it, or my voice isn't needed in the conversation, or my energy would be better spent talking to people offline in my community to see what can be done with the limited resources & power we have. Beyond that, there are many subjects that I am not so well-versed on, that I don't have the capacity to research, and it has nothing to do with how much I care about the topic or the humans involved. Sometimes I just don't feel comfortable speaking up when I *know* I don't have anything helpful to say.

Also, there are a LOT of issues in the world and, despite many people having access to the internet, you simply cannot learn and post about them all, and certainly not with the nuance and detail that an expert on the subject should have. This isn't to say you shouldn't learn about something you don't know about, but merely to point out that humans have limits. Limited energy, limited understanding, limited time, limited resources -- you simply Cannot learn about every issue with the dedication it needs for you to be well-informed enough to have an opinion about an issue in a way that matters and moves the conversation along. So many folks choose to focus their efforts in one or two directions, instead of trying to spread themselves so thin they have only a passing understanding of all the topics they've read about. "Jack of all trades, master of none," as the saying goes.

Anyway yeah... y'all wanna do something good that feels like it's making a difference, but posting is possibly the lowest tier of activism you can do. And while I don't want to act like posting and spreading good, factual information doesn't help at all, I do want to encourage people to look beyond what they can do on the internet. The internet is limiting. The work you do outside of the internet is often tangible good. Learning to be around other humans in your community is important. Learning to speak to people outside of your personal bubble is important. Learning what you can do to help the literal people behind the issues in your community is important. It's hard to be bad at everything that activism has to offer offline, so there is likely to be a role that you can fill if you're looking to help. But if you're bad at posting (e.g. constantly spreading misinformation), you can actually do more harm than good. You GOTTA be vigilant about what you post, and sometimes that means not posting at all until you have the facts straight. ESPECIALLY if all you can manage is online activism. If you don't want to take the time to do it right, or you fear the peer pressure from your online community more than you fear misrepresenting a cause, then your online activism isn't helping, and is mostly there to serve your own feelings of doing "important" work and self-fulfillment.

Anyway. Anyone who wants you to rush to prove yourself to them aren't worth the effort. Take your time, post what you want, stop judging people without ever even speaking to them. And if they're so famous/unapproachable that you've never spoken to them directly and never will, then maybe what that person chooses to do with their platform isn't your business to begin with.

Loving the new counterpoint that not only is posting activism, not posting is complicity. Why doesn't everyone with any fame or internet presence immediately release a lengthy but perfectly-worded statement telling us where they stand on every issue? Is it because they're evil??? It must be because they're evil

And then the usual answer is "they don't post online very much". Which is all very suspicious, don't they know everything of importance is done by posts on social media now

#important #psa #misinformation #critical thinking #media literacy #online activism

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dukereviewstv · 5 years ago

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Duke Reviews Tv: Smallville 1x12 Leech

Hi Everyone, I'm Andrew Leduc, And Welcome To Duke Reviews TV Where We Continue Our Look At Smallville By Talking About Episode 12 Of Season 1, Leech...

This Episode Sees Superman Fighting Iceman As A Kid Named Eric Summers (Played By Shawn Ashmore, Who Not Only Played Iceman In The X-Men Films But Is The Brother Of Aaron Ashmore Who Will Play Jimmy Olsen On The Show From Season 6 To Season 8 And His Younger Brother In The Series Finale) Who Receives Clark's Powers During A Meteor Rock Lightning Strike Between The Two Of Them, Will Clark Get His Powers Back?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Leech...

The Episode Starts In A Forrested Area, Where Clark And His Geology Class Are Out To Collect Rocks, And It's Here We Meet Eric Summers, Who Is Flirting With A Hot Girl Named Holly Who's Boyfriend Tells Him To Back Off But When His Teacher Dad (Who's An Asshole) Enters, He Tells Eric To Get Back To Work Before He Leaves...

With A Storm Approaching, Eric's Dad Is Trying To Find Him As He's Not On Board The Bus And Offering To Go Look, Clark Goes Out To Find Him...

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(Start At 2:42, End At 3:42)

The Next Day, Unable To Get The Truck Out Of A Ditch, Jonathan Asks Clark To Push It Out Of The Ditch Only To Discover Clark Lying In The Mud With Blood Coming Out Of His Nose Which Leads Clark And His Parents To Believe That The Lightning Took Away His Powers As Both His Strength And Speed Are Gone...

Meanwhile At The Summers Household, Eric Has Breakfast With His Parents Only For His Dad To Lecture Him About Yesterday, And When He Tries To Hit Eric He Blocks Him Using Clark's Powers...

Having A Hard Time At First At Adjusting To Being Normal, Clark Goes To Check On Eric To Ask If He's Feeling All Right And If There's Anything Different About Him To Which He Says No And He Feels Great, So, Clark Walks Off As Eric Lifts The Highest Weight Number Possible On A Bench Press...

But As Eric Has A Good Time With His New Powers, Lana Discovers That Nell Is Selling The Flower Shop And The Building Next Door, The Talon Theatre And Is Mad At Her For Not Telling Her As The Theatre Has Memories For Lana...

Meanwhile At The Luthor Mansion, Lex Is Visited By Roger Nixon, Who Gives Him Some Analysis Him And A Few Experts Have Come Up With About The Porsche Incident, But Doubtful About Roger's Experts Lex Offers Him 10 Million A Name While Roger Believes That This Will Make One Hell Of A Story But Lex Warns Him That If He A Word They'll Have A Trust Issue...

Later That Night, Lex Talks With Clark About The Porsche Incident At The Kent Farm Asking Him To Tell Him The Truth About What Happened That Day...

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(Start At 2:24)

The Next Day...

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(Start At 0:00, End At 1:27)

Realizing That The Lightning Strike Took Clark's Powers And Transferred Them To Eric, It Has Clark Wondering If Those Years Keeping His Secret Was Worth It As Everyone Is Treating Eric Like A Hero...

But Realizing That Lightning Doesn't Strike The Same Place Twice (Unless You Have A Delorean Time Machine But That's A Different Story) Both Jonathan And Martha Believe That Clark's Powers Aren't Coming Back Anytime Soon And That He Should Just Live His Life And Do The Things That He's Always Wanted To Do Without His Powers...

With Chloe And Pete Praising Eric, Whitney Asks Pete And Clark To Join Him And A Friend In A Game Of Basketball After School Which Pete Tells Whitney That Clark Doesn't Play But Clark Tells Whitney That He'll Be There...

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(Start At 1:23, End At 2:26)

Meanwhile In Metropolis, Lex Meets With Victoria And Her Father, Sir Harry Hardwick Who Arrive Late Because They Were Closing A Deal, Reconsidering His Deal With Sir Harry, Harry Tells Lex That It Doesn't Matter As The Deal Is Off As He's Just Bought Cadmus Labs And That With The Profits Of The Patents, He'll Buy Luthorcorp Outright...

Back At The Talon Theatre, Lana Tells Clark That The Reason She's So Sentimental To The Talon Is That Her Parents Met Here And Because Of The Sale She Feels That Every Evidence Of Her Parents Existence Is Being Slowly Chipped Away But Telling Her That Sometimes Letting Go Means Moving Forward, Lana Stops The Subject As Clark Is Really There For Her English Notes As He Fell Asleep During Class...

Wondering If He's Okay As He Seems Less Clark Kent-Like, Clark Tells Lana That He Just Woke Up And Realized That His Life Had Changed And To Kick Back And Accept The Fact That He Can't Control Everything...

Returning Home After School, Eric's Mom (Who Needs Serious Acting Lessons) Tells Eric That People Have Been Calling All Day, But While Eric's Mom Seems Slightly Happy About This, Eric's Dad Wants To Take Him To A Doctor Before Taking Him To A Colleague In Metropolis Where They'll Most Likely Study Him...

Of Course, Freaking Out At The Idea Of This, Eric Tells His Dad That He's Not His Personal Science Experiment And That He's Not Going Anywhere, Before Lightly Pushing Him And Speeding Off...

youtube

(Start At 1:30)

Going To The Hospital With His Parents, Clark Runs Into Lex, Who Apologizes Saying Nothing Is What It Seems As Of Late And Plead Temporary Insanity...

youtube

(Start At 1:33, End At 2:14)

With Jonathan Stopping By To See Eric's Parents, He Discovered That They're Frightened Out Of Their Wits...

(Sarcastically) Oh, Yeah, Frightened Out Of Their Wits Eric's Dad Just Wants To Experiment On Him No Wonder Eric Is Having A Fit Right Now, If I Were Eric I'd Probably Do The Same Thing Only Difference Is That I Wouldn't Do What Eric Did At School...

Asking If They Were Ever Frightened Of Him, Jonathan Tells Clark That Aside From A Few Tantrums And Holes In The Wall, He Was A Good Kid But Unlike Clark, Eric's A Teenager That's In Way Over His Head...

Martha Comes In To Tell Jonathan And Clark That The Police Were At Eric's House And When They Tried To Restrain Him, They Couldnt. Knowing That He Has To Stop Eric Despite How He's Feeling Right Now, Clark Realizes That If Eric Has All Of His Strengths That He Might Also Have His Weaknesses...

There's Only One Problem, They Don't Exactly Keep One Lying Around The House So Where Do They Find One But Luckily Clark Knows One Place....

Back In Metropolis, Lex Meets With Sir Harry And Victoria As Harry Tells Him That He Discovered That Cadmus Labs Is Worthless, Revealing That He Planted False Information On His Computer, Knowing That Victoria Would Steal It...

Telling Sir Harry That His Father And Him Will Be Buying His Company In The Morning, Sir Harry Leaves While Victoria Asks Lex How He Could Do This With Lex Telling Her That She Did This All Herself, Slapping Lex On The Face Before She Leaves...

Visiting Lana At The Talon, She Tells Clark That She Heard About What Happened With Eric Which Leads Clark To Ask Lana To Borrow Her Necklace, Saying That He'll Give It Back To Her...

Visiting Eric's Parents At Their House, (That Looks Like Eric Bana's Hulk Ran Through It) Clark Asks Eric's Father If He Knows Where Eric Went Which Makes Him Remember About Eric Saying That He Was Going To Get Rid Of It In The One Place Where It Began To Which Surprisingly Clark Knows Where...The Smallville Dam...

Confronting Eric At The Bridge, Eric Smiles That Eerie Mystique Smile From The First X-Men Movie Without The CG Yellow Eyes...

Before Falling Right Off The Bridge...

Looking For Eric's Body, Eric Eventually Finds Clark...

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(Start At 1:23, End At 3:17)

With Eric Being Taken To The Hospital, Clark Is Officially Back To Normal As Jonathan Talks With Clark About How His Gifts May Be Apart Of Him But They Don't Define Him And How Seeing Eric With His Powers Made Him Realize How Special He Was, Which Leads Clark To Remind Jonathan That While Eric Had His Powers He Didn't Have His 2 Strongest Points: Him And Martha...

Back At The Luthor Mansion, Lex Gets A Phone Call From Lionel And Congrates Lex For A Job Well Done. After Hanging Up, Lex Gets A Visit From Nixon Who He Tells That His Experts Were Wrong, He's Closing The Book On The Crash And The Kents Are Off Limits But Before Nixon Goes He Hands Lex Pictures Of Victoria With Lionel In Bed...

Okay, 2 Things...

#1..

And #2...

Back At The Talon, Clark Returns Lana's Necklace To Her And Gives Lana The Box Of St. George That Lex Gave Him...

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(Start At 0:39)

And That's Leech And It's A Good Episode....

The Story Was Good, The Characters Were Good, It Was Just A Good Story, I Also Give It Credit For Being A Beginning And An End, A Beginning For Both Lana's Journey To Revitalize The Talon Theatre And Nixon's Obsession To Discover What The Kents Are Hiding And An End To Lex's Relationship With Victoria, But It's A Good Episode And I Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

#smallville #the wb #the cw #tv reviews #Tv #tom welling #kristen kreuk #michael rosenbaum #Smallville Season 1

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salvo-love · 5 years ago

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Do you own a DSLR but still take average, boring photos?

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Take Gorgeous, Attention-Grabbing Photos By

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Hi there,

Evan Sharboneau here…

As you probably know, I’ve helped over 9.2 million photographers create stunning images using digital cameras.

Above is an example of a recent personal work - these are the types of images you'll be learning to create inside my photography training course!

Now, I’ve got something NEW for you – and it’s very cool.

After helping beginners for 5 years, I see exactly what’s stopping you from taking photos that really impress your friends and family… and will sell online, at shows, and even galleries.

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I Used To Be Like You

Look, I understand how it feels to compare your own photographs with what we see in magazines, books, and online forums.

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Are These Questions And Concerns Stopping You From Becoming A Better Photographer?

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These shots were taken by me after I learned the secrets of professionals…

How did I go from beginner to having photographs showcased and featured on DeviantART, Flickr, print ads, billboards, posters, magazines, and book covers?

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Correctly decide when to use a TRIPOD – and know when it’s dumb to use one

Capture sharp, correctly exposed photos in LOW-LIGHT SITUATIONS… with no motion blur or noise

Take stunning photographs at NIGHT with or without using a flash or tripod

Know where to put LIGHTS in relation to your subject/model and how to control the mood of portrait photos

Choose effective LIGHT MODIFIERS, including umbrellas, soft boxes, beauty dishes and grids to establish the mood of the image (do you want the image to be dark, dramatic and shadowy? Soft and pleasing? Bright and happy? Do you want soft pools of background light? When would you want light to create texture across surfaces, and when wouldn't you?)

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Photo by someone who took my advice

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What’s better, I’ll show you how to succeed…

Without piles of books or college courses

Without years of experimentation taking “average” photos

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roughribo · 3 months ago

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Not yelling fire in a crowded theater is a socially constructed morality that is settled debate. The point that this is socially constructed and therefore is somehow invalid or outdated is a dull point.

This isn't about what society deems is and is not socially acceptable or how the majority of people are sex-negative puritans out to control others' bodies. I don't agree with those things either and falsely equating my response to those is missing what I was saying or to take my opinion as being in bad faith.

A few clarifications because people are taking my language out of context. Firstly, this post is a general response to many people who have replied or sent me objecting messages/asks about this post and is not directed at any one person. Secondly, when I use the term 'consent violation' I am not inferring that the level of severity of these violations is that of an assault, and thirdly, nor am I suggesting that these violations are severe transgressions that need to be policed by law. Some consent violations are minor, unintended, or coincidental, and some are severe, malicious, and rise to the level of criminal.

What I am saying is that the framework of consent (things like SSC, RACK, PRICK, or FRIES) does not go out the window just because you're in public. Yes, wild things happen in public and you should expect the unexpected. That's still not a social contract opt-out to do whatever you want. You treat others the way you want to be treated and you vocalize and advocate for your boundaries when people violate them. Yes, conservative people try to weaponize boundaries or social norms, that's not what I'm referring to here.

If I participate in the kink side of tumblr I understand I may come across things that are not to my tastes, maybe even trigger me, but that I am in a space where that might happen and so I should be prepared to continue and scroll past them. I know that coming across these triggers is a known risk for using this platform for this community in this context. I still choose to participate in this community and understand and consent to that ongoing risk. It is an opt-in space and we have socially constructed rules/tools we have set up here (dni lists or blocked tags for example) regarding who can even opt in and what they're opting in to.

Because of the nature of being in public, not only do we have no way to filter out people uninterested in your activities but we have no way to communicate to them beforehand why we are using that space and what people could potentially be opting in to, and we need to keep that in mind with how we use that space so that it remains accessible for everyone all of the time.

It's also just not the right tool for the job the vast majority of the time. I don't stroll through my local park or supermarket when I want to discuss the possible psychology of D/s or want to buy a flogger, but I can log on here and find many relevant conversations and flogger recommendations.

If you want to do your kink in public there are street fairs, meetups, dungeons, fetlife, conventions, online discords, etc that will give you a safe consenting environment, subject matter experts, context, anonymity, and an audience for your activity. These create opt in spaces with invaluable resources that give people the tools and autonomy to control their environment. Go to these spaces and opt in, many in-person kink spaces are in need of more community right now and they tend to be pretty well run (there's always outliers).

There is so much value in creating and participating in spaces for social purposes. Harm reduction centers are an excellent example of socially created spaces being a public good. They keep people safe, they let people have a space to do their thing without judgement of the people in that space, there are people there that can help in an emergency event, and people who may be potentially sensitive to those activities can avoid that specific space. It's a net positive for both everyone involved and not involved. So don't knock them down because they're born out of a socially constructed morality.

We have specifically cultivated groups and education around the topic of public play in the bdsm community for a reason. On average, kinksters study the topics of consent and boundaries more thoroughly than people outside of these spaces because a lot of us play with kinks where we need to learn those frameworks pretty thoroughly in order to safely and healthily interact with those kinks. Refusing to use these tools and resources when you've been made aware of them is kind of just stubborn for the sake of preaching personal autonomy. I do also know there are folks who don't have access to these tools and resources and I would never fault them for not knowing what they don't know or making educated decisions based off of misinformation.

Not using these tools and resources when you've been made aware is also not looking at the bigger picture of how your actions affect others' autonomy and consent, how those actions harm spaces like your local dungeon that push for a more accepting and accessible future, and how protecting others' agency also protects your own agency and your own ability to exercise healthy and safe boundaries and allows you to have these spaces where you can be kinky without any issues in the first place.

Sorry for the essay everyone, here is a cat meme from my collection, and I wish everyone a wonderful day.

Don't put your sub on a leash in public. Other people are around and they can't consent to your kink. Instead, make rules requiring them to hold your hand in public, walk on a certain side of you, stay within a certain distance of you in public, and needing permission to leave your sight. Punish disobedience to the rules and watch the mental leash you put on your sub become stronger and more satisfying than any physical leash ever could.

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tntmaxstuff-blog · 5 years ago

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minnievirizarry · 7 years ago

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16 Marketing Experts Share the Metrics They're Emphasizing in 2018

Which marketing metrics should your business monitor for higher ROI? Top marketing experts share all in this roundup post.

We’re living in a data-driven world, and numbers are everything. Your results won’t matter if you can’t prove them.

And you won’t be able to grow your business if you aren’t consistently tracking and working on the most important indicators.

However, a common mistake online business owners and even plenty of digital marketers make is spending too much time and energy on metrics that don’t bring results.

We like to call these vanity metrics.

You might be familiar with some of them and maybe have even fallen into that trap yourself.

Things such as YouTube views, Facebook likes, and Instagram follower counts are all metrics that brands care about these days.

What’s more, they obsess over it and invest more resources and effort into growing these, while leaving the rest behind.

Unfortunately, these can boost your ego and make your competitors jealous, but they won’t help your audience more, won’t take your business to the next level, and won’t increase conversions.

What companies should really be concentrating on are metrics such as user engagement, number of comments and shares on social media, time on page, number of opt-ins, etc.

These are the KPIs that count, that bring value, growth, and exposure.

But you don’t need to take our word for it.

Because we all need to revisit our metrics periodically and align them with our new goals and strategies, as well as current trends and tools, we gathered and asked experts in the field of Digital Marketing to share their best tips.

In this roundup post, you’ll learn about the top marketing metrics experts are using and monitoring consistently that have the best ROI, and which you can use as indicators for your business in 2018.

Andy Crestodina

Chief Marketing Officer, Orbit Media Studios

Click-through rate is going to be my obsession in 2018.

I'm making it my focus because it is the one metric common to all content marketing channels: search, social, and email.

It's also the one number that unites all marketers.

Without it, you'll fail at anything you do.

When it comes to click-through rates, the headline is the biggest factor.

Headlines take different forms in different places.

In search, it's the title tag.

In email, it's the subject line.

In social media, it's the post itself.

In the ongoing war for attention, we need to be more focused than ever on these aspects in any piece of content.

It's a key part of every past and future success and failure.

As a reminder of the importance of a headline, remember this: no one ever shares an article, they only share the headline.

All the advice we've read over the years is good. But in the future, we should use these tactics in combination, instead of using and relying on just one.

Add numbers.

Ask a question.

Use unexpected words.

Trigger emotion or curiosity.

Indicate a strong, specific benefit.

Also, tailor the headline for the purpose and the channel.

The title (search) doesn't have to be the same as the headline (social) or the subject line (email).

Remember that headlines that answer questions do well in search.

Headlines that trigger emotion do well in social and email.

Adapt your headlines for their placement and intended purpose!

---

Luke Fitzgerald

Head of SEO, Wolfgang Digital

Search visibility is our primary SEO reporting KPI moving into 2018.

Rather than focussing on the fluctuation of individually tracked keywords in a given location, the key to achieving better organic search results for our clients is in cumulatively moving the dial across a tiered and prioritized set of keywords, which we know will impact conversion.

Of course, visibility is borne of non-branded rank-tracking projects and will be shaped and defined by converting organic traffic metrics.

Our SEO tool metrics will go hand-in-hand with Google Analytics data for reporting purposes.

Competitive search visibility indexes across our tracked keyword sets in Moz, SEMRush, and Sistrix will be the dial for campaign success measurement.

We expect to see the role of voice search rise in prominence in the year ahead, resulting in a need to track some longer-tail queries and devise a course of action for optimising them.

Presently, that involves devising featured snippet strategies for our clients, based on the assumption that they'll remain the primary data source for voice assistants and mobiles to read aloud from the SERPs.

That may well change in 2018 as Google and other search engines up their game around voice search insights—perhaps we'll see a dedicated section in Search Console for them.

We'll be on hand to react and adapt to any changes in this regard.

Search visibility versus your main competitors is a vital metric to prioritize because it's really the only level playing field we have left to keep track of!

For example, should Google decide to move the goalposts at any time and say, introduce a 6th ad atop the SERPs or take over the entire first page, then there's not much that we, as SEOs can do about that!

The beauty of tracking visibility versus competitors as a reliable benchmark of success is that if that does indeed happen, then it affects the competition too and not just your site, making it a truly beneficial metric to track and measure as your website evolves within the ever-changing competitive SERP landscape.

My advice to any aspiring marketers looking to learn more about the search visibility metric is to check out what the various SEO tool providers have to say about it and consider adding it to your reporting arsenal sooner rather than later!

---

Cara Hogan

Content Strategist, Zaius

This year, I'm really focused on increasing referral traffic to our website.

It's a simple metric, but will help us measure a huge shift in our marketing strategy.

I have aggressive goals around guest blogging, PR, partner marketing, and influencer marketing.

All of these programs are focused on expanding awareness of the Zaius brand and reaching new and relevant audiences with our content.

All of these programs that drive referral traffic are not easy to execute.

Each takes time, effort, and a lot of writing to pull off.

But if done well, they can greatly impact the traffic reaching your site and get in front of a lot of new people who could become customers in the future.

Write up an actionable plan for everything, including a target number of guest blog posts, a target audience for influencers, and a focused strategy for partner marketing. Then, stick to it!

---

Ben Carpel

CEO, Cyfe

This year, I'm paying extra attention to metrics relating to my website's product feature description pages.

—that is, what percentage of new users viewed these pages before converting, which pages draw the most views and longest sessions, and what keywords referred search users to these pages and resulted in them converting.

As part of our recent website relaunch, we published several product feature pages that didn't exist in our earlier design.

We hypothesized that publishing these pages would be the key to attracting high-intent visits.

Tracking the impact of this strategy and optimizing its execution over the next few months is important to us.

The strategy ought to be a big success, on a theoretical level.

We just need to ensure these pages are as impressive as they can be, so they can become top-performing touchpoints in our customers' journeys.

I recommend that marketers turn their product feature description pages into valuable resources to provide readers with useful information—even if these readers never use your product.

If the information is helpful and is presented in a way that has broad appeal, it will naturally draw social shares and backlinks.

Over time, more people will discover your products thanks to this content and will eventually convert after having landed on your site.

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Guillaume Decugis

Co-Founder & CEO, Scoop.it

This year, our focus is on two things. Firstly, web share of voice, which is the number of times our brand is mentioned in web content vs. our competitors' brands.

And secondly, content performance vs. competitors, which involves shares over social networks that our content generates in comparison to our competitors.

Several dynamics make us want to focus on this.

We've historically been very focused on what happened with our own website and content as this is more directly within our control.

But as we built relationships with more and more influencers, we also saw a need to measure more broadly the impact of our influencer marketing—hence the need to measure share of voice on web content.

Content marketing is maturing and is becoming more competitive; it's content shock, as Mark Schaefer would say. As more and more marketers embrace this strategy, more content competes for limited attention. We want our content to stay relevant and perform in the top tier, hence the need to create benchmarks against competitors or industry references.

We didn't have a way to really measure these metrics, but now we do. We've just launched a content intelligence platform, Hawkeye, that provides these metrics among other things.

To optimize your marketing strategies, research content before creating it.

Following your inspiration is good, but it's not enough.

To make your content stand out, research your topic, benchmark competitive content, and identify influencers.

This will help you come out with the best possible piece.

If your time researching a new piece of content is less than half the time you spend creating it, you're doing it wrong.

If influencer marketing is or will be an important part of your strategy, start building relationships as early as possible.

Learn to give before you get. Start curating and sharing the content of others without asking anything in return.

You'll learn what their content is about, which will enable you to better understand how to approach them.

You'll also get in their radar, and they'll be much more receptive when you ask them to share your content.

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Natalie Lesyk

Digital Marketing Manager, Ning

Content monetization and community engagement are my focus in the year ahead.

Not only is content monetization one of the top trends in 2018, the internet is flooded with low-quality content.

Shifting the paradigm to the creation of deeply researched articles increases the ability to monetize your website or blog and guarantees that your content will stand out.

For sure you can create ebook and sell it on Amazon, but don't you agree that buying an ebook is not an impulse purchase?

Purchasing decisions can be difficult. High-quality content influences purchases.

With that in mind, article monetization is like shelling peas.

To effectively implement this strategy, build a community—your followers are the engine of your blog.

The more your followers like what you are writing, the higher profits will be.

So don't stay mediocre; take a helicopter view of what you have written and ask yourself sincerely, "If I stumbled upon this article, would I skip it or take every bite of it?"

Launch a paid access feature on your blog to monetize posts or articles.

NING could be a good fit for this. And don't forget to add a donate button.

If you are pursuing non-profit goals, it's a must. This button can be useful in many other cases too.

There are always grateful readers who will be happy to express their appreciation.

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Chris Nolan

Conversion Optimization and Growth Manager, BigCommerce

In 2018, we see a lot of opportunity in "soft-offer" lead capture.

We frequently see prospects requesting a product demo or starting a free trial for lack of a better choice, but they aren't really ready to experiment with the product.

By prompting those users with a soft offer—such as a content download, webinar invitation, or newsletter subscription—we give ourselves a better chance to nurture the lead to a point where they are more qualified and educated to take action within the product.

As marketers, it's important that we grow trial and demo numbers, but the most significant metric is what percentage converts to paid customers.

We've seen good success with softer offers in 2017 with respect to ultimate paid conversion, so we'll continue to invest in providing prospects for these 'micro' conversion opportunities in 2018.

It’s important that marketers know how to test and track. With the volume of content we are constantly producing, we luckily have a lot of options in terms of what we promote at any given time, and to which audience.

Understanding what works—and inevitably, what doesn't—comes down to identifying which cohorts you are targeting, testing different content, and content presentation (e.g., CTA, placement on the page, messaging, thank you page execution, etc.), and then relaying those insights back into similar campaigns or initiatives.

Also, marketers shouldn't be afraid to track at a very granular level. Do the changes you're making affect bounce rate, time on page, pages/session, and so on?

Are prospects engaging with your CTAs, but not ultimately converting (and if so, could it be the form)?

How does your change affect scroll depth? For every test, you should take time to define the right KPIs so you can answer questions about their effectiveness.

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John Rampton

CEO and Founder, Calendar.com

How many people opt in and how many shares will be my focus in 2018.

It's not about how many come to the website and visit.

It's about how many engage and feel compelled to share.

Audience engagement tells me that the content is relevant and valuable.

It also says we have a product and solution the audience is seeking.

The focus on results and conversions are integral to this change, rather than just traffic volume.

It's critical to create the best content possible because that will garner shares and get people to sign up for your newsfeed, blog, and email information.

That means planning out all that you want to share with your audience and also getting them to tell you what they are specifically looking for, so you can craft content around those needs and interests.

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Alexandra Tachalova

Founder of Digital Olympus, Digital Olympus

I want to learn more about how users interact with content.

I want to work with Google Tag Manager triggers to see whether it's possible to improve the bounce rate by changing the site's structure, by adding interactive content and videos, and by improving navigation and design.

Nowadays, user behavior is a very influential metric that contributes to a site's Google ranking.

I believe it is crucial to make the most of what you have.

This is especially true when talking about pages that have the potential to rank well with Google but have statistics that show users don't want to stay on them for very long before proceeding to other pages.

Using Google Tag Manager more often can achieve this.

Similar tools to try include Hotjar, which allows you to see how exactly users are interacting with a website.

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Aaron Orendorff

Editor in Chief, Shopify Plus

My priorities for 2018 are first, time on page, and second, in-PDF link clicks.

Far from a vanity metric, time on page can tell you not only how engaging your content is, but also what posts resonate the most with your audience.

Instead of waiting for SEO to kick in, time on page can quickly indicate what articles to promote and prioritize for lead generation.

By creating UTMs within gated assets—like PDFs—you get a secret window into a lead's readiness to buy and what topics to lean on, bring up in sales calls, and create additional content around.

To achieve this, I recommend that marketers create a custom Google Analytics dashboard just for time on page (and force yourself to ignore traffic).

For the in-PDF links, either use a UTM builder or—even better—link those links to your CRM (like Hubspot or Salesforce).

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Slavcho Panov

SEO expert, Seoslav

The factors I am going to focus on in 2018 are user experience and time spent on the site

The factors I am going to focus on in 2018 are user experience and time spent on the site because most people are struggling to gain organic traffic by ranking for different terms.

I am going to analyze these metrics by using the inbuilt features in Google Analytics and some paid Heatmap tools for A-B testing.

The most important thing after a user has landed on our website is to keep them there.

Of course, we should provide relevant information, products, or services they are interested in.

Once we have the user on our site, we have to analyze the overall user's experience to conclude why he or she has left the page or has continued browsing.

We should treat every single visit to our site(s) as a unique opportunity.

If we can attract the user's attention to visit our site, we should be prepared to keep them there by providing something exclusive.

Furthermore, give them something even better than what they searched for. That way we will get a faithful reader or a loyal client.

To implement this strategy, follow these steps.

Install a heatmap on your website. This will help you visualize the user's experience.

Keep track of your bounce rate's percentage. Combined with the heatmap, this will indicate why users stay or leave.

Analyze the collected data from your heatmap tool.

Make some minor changes to your site's structure, navigation, or design for A-B testing. Track down the result after every change you make.

Rinse and repeat.

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Zac Johnson

Founder, Blogging.org

In 2018, I would like to focus more effort on seeing what websites, blogs, and opportunities actually provide the most ROI based on the time and effort it takes to acquire such postings.

I've always been a big believer in content creation and guest blogging on other sites.

In 2018, I would like to focus more effort on seeing what websites, blogs, and opportunities actually provide the most ROI based on the time and effort it takes to acquire such postings.

Knowing which websites or blogs actually provide the most views, clicks, and engagement would be a huge benefactor, as it would allow me to know where to spend my time and effort wisely.

Contributing quality content definitely takes up a lot of time and resources, so eliminating any lower quality sites from the mix would definitely improve ROI across the board.

Today’s marketers need to focus on quality over quantity.

No matter what you are working on (content creation or SEO), always go for the higher quality method and try not to cut corners.

This will not only help in the long run, but it will also keep you on good terms with Google.

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Benji Hyam

Co-Founder, Grow and Convert

In the coming year, we're going to be emphasizing first-click attribution for ourselves and across all of our clients.

First-click attribution helps us understand how a prospect originally found out about us.

It's unlikely that a prospect converts on your site in the same session, and because most companies only measure last-click attribution, they don't have clear visibility into what channels are influencing a sale.

Most prospects don't convert the first time they've heard about your company.

Typically, they'll find out about you from a Facebook ad, a blog article, SEO, or some other channel.

Then, they'll do some research on your site to figure out what you're about and they may interact with you multiple times before ever converting.

If you measure last click attribution only, you're unlikely to see the point of origination where your prospect found out about you.

Thus, when you're making the argument to your executive team about where to focus budgets, you likely don't have the data necessary to argue that you should focus on certain channels.

First-click attribution gives you a more holistic picture of what's working in marketing.

Dig into Google Analytics’s new attribution feature to get started with first-click attribution.

You need to have your goals properly set up in Google, but if you do, check the first interaction analysis report in Google to see how first-clicks are influencing your conversions.

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Venkatesh C.R.

Managing Director and CEO, Dot Com Infoway

GAP analysis is one factor marketers and business owners should consider in the year ahead.

With the substantial amount of data available within the Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tool dashboard, one can easily evaluate the current traffic the website drives against the potential traffic the website could attract from search engines.

For SEO campaigns shifting the focus to content-driven strategy, GAP analysis is a must as it is the most effective analysis segment to ensure campaigns give the expected result.

Additionally, from GWT you can create a report that shows queries and landing page combinations that receive a high number of impressions but have a low CTR.

You can also pull in each page’s current title tag, meta description, and character counts, so you can quickly analyze which search snippets can be improved to boost your CTR.

Heat map analysis helps you spy on your visitors and make arrangements within your website or page to change your visitors into customers.

In a nutshell, you can use this for various purposes. A couple of my favorite elements are:

Improving internal links

Optimizing call to action and image placements

When heat maps are evaluated properly, this will be a pathway to increased conversions.

When it comes to GAP analysis, keyword ranking alone does not determine SEO success.

Even when a page ranks well for a website, the CTR determines the success of the efforts that helped bring the page to the top.

Users typically select a site in less than five seconds and click the first promising link they see.

Improving CTR using GAP analysis should be an ideal metric for success.

Additionally, when one spends a substantial amount of time and money in generating quality content, the GAP analysis is a must to reap the full benefits.

Heat map analysis gives us a hard reality check within our website.

Users scan the website before they make quick decisions.

If they're forced to scroll down pages full of content to find what they're looking for, they usually choose to go back to Google and look for information elsewhere.

Do not hesitate to spy on competitors to fix your GAP in content elements.

Tools like SEMRush have features like "Content GAP Analysis,” which is easy to use and collects sufficient data to optimize your content.

In heat map analysis, use short sentences. Pay attention to image placements and quick loading images.

Avoid lengthy scrolls. And remember to KISS—Keep It Short and Sweet.

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Srish Agrawal

Founder, Logo Design Team

Facebook remarketing is something we have been playing around with for a while now, but also something we can get much better at.

We will be tracking the many different ways to use Facebook remarketing, and also the individual post and sales pages being used.

We will be creating unique landing pages for these campaigns as well.

Remarketing is great for getting ads in front of visitors who may have left and didn't take action the first time around, but if you aren't split testing different options, who's to say visitors aren't going to just leave again anyway?

Look at as many different advertising options as you can for remarketing to your audience and getting them to come back to your site again.

Facebook Ads is a great option, but there are many other platforms and third party advertising solutions as well.

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Christopher Weaver

Director of Strategy, MWI

In 2018, my focus will be on revenue from Apple/iOS 11 and micro-conversions.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention is one of the major recent changes to the industry.

Due to its effects, the gathering of data regarding consumer web use is highly time sensitive.

Likewise, improvements to attribution tracking have started to confirm what we already know: a lot of things go into a purchase before it's made.

Now we can show this decision-making process easier through Google Analytics.

My advice to other marketers who find themselves in a similar situation is to tie Google Analytics to Adwords or add third party code to ensure you’ve covered your bases – and don’t forget to update your attribution in your Analytics tool beyond just last click attribution.

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Conclusion

These big names in the marketing industry are constantly revisiting their goals, updating their approach, giving new tools a try, and staying up to date with the latest trends.

As a result, they are now focusing on metrics such as brand mentions instead of just likes or follows.

It’s more important to know how many people share and comment on your content and updates than to just wait for new visitors to come to your website, thinking you’re doing it right.

Engagement shows that your content and products are relevant and provide value and that this is what you need to do more of to improve or even double your results.

In 2018, make sure you track the interaction between a prospect and all your platforms and online presence.

Hearing about you somewhere else, going to your website, and clicking a link isn’t enough anymore.

The relationship is built after a few more actions.

You only have someone’s trust and attention when they sign up for your newsletter, connect with you personally, download a file to learn more about your offer, and engage with your content instead of just skimming an article or liking a video.

With the beginning of the new year, take the initiative to rethink your marketing metrics and make sure they are relevant.

It’s okay to stop tracking many things and replace these indicators with new ones.

Innovation is a constant process.

After all, we’re here to serve people online, and that includes continuously adapting to user behavior and technology trends.

Georgi Todorov is a digital marketer. He recently started his own blog about digital marketing DigitalNovas . His passion is to help beginners to start and grow a successful online business. Hit him up on Linkedin or Twitter @GeorgiTodorovBG anytime.

The post 16 Marketing Experts Share the Metrics They're Emphasizing in 2018 appeared first on NinjaOutreach.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://ninjaoutreach.com/marketing-metrics/

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