#fun coloring practice with cfo

[vampirevitals]

hi charles

[feyzakeskin]

𝐅𝐄𝐘𝐙𝐀 𝐊𝐄𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍 — 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚝𝚘 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚙𝚙-𝚑 𝚒𝚗𝚌.

[ ! ] — it seems that [ FEYZA KESKIN ] has entered the scene ! she looks exactly like [ neslihan atagül ]. this [ 33-year-old ] is the [ cto ] of [ APP-H INC. ]. it’s a small wonder since she is known for being [ passionate + eclectic ] and [ short-sighted + self-involved ]. she has been involved with the company for [ 8 ] years. [ ADMIN MADDE | 26 | SHE+HER | GMT+3 ]

𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲.

feyza was born in istanbul, turkey. she was the second child in the family and eventually became a big sister to two younger siblings. growing up, she felt like everything about her life was average. her family wasn't wealthy but they weren't poor. she wasn't an only child but she didn't have a small army's worth of siblings. she didn't get the best grades but she didn't get the worst grades. she wasn't the most popular girl in class but she wasn't bullied. everything about feyza keskin was so average that it nearly drove her mad as a teenager.

feyza wanted to be something remarkable. she wanted people to remember her laugh or smile, remember what she had to say. she wanted to have cool stories to share. she wanted people to think that her life had substance. she needed to prove to the world that she wasn't just one of many but an unique soul, a one of a kind person.

becoming a computer science major did not exactly fit with feyza's idealistic dreams but it was the one thing she felt like she was better than average at. she liked coding, she had a terrible posture from sitting at her computer for hours, and she liked how black and white computer science was.

but... the studies did not exactly suit feyza. her classes were long and boring and she felt like they were being taught unimportant things or things any self-taught coder had learned ages ago. she got frustrated and bored and before she knew it, she had dropped out before even finishing the second semester.

in search of meaning and stories, feyza moved to london. the move happened against her parents' wishes who thought london was too dangerous a place for a 20-year-old who knew nothing about the real world. they were also horrified by feyza's decision to drop out of uni. she bid them farewell and packed her backs. life was too short for worrying about practicalities!

feyza worked in retail and did her fair share of odd jobs every now and then in order to be able to afford the one room she was renting in southeast london. her life wasn't exactly fun with all the work but it was exciting. being in a new country all alone was exciting and it made her feel like the opportunities were endless.

in order to earn a bit of extra money, feyza did a lot of coding as a freelancer. she found her best friends in those circles as well: a group of 20-something-year-olds who were all a bit lost and poor.

eventually one thing lead to another and their little group of friends began to develop their first app. their little joke of a project grew bigger than they ever could have imagined. they were excited when they hit one hundred users, ecstatic when they hit their first thousand, and outs of their minds when photograpp-h had half a million downloads.

2014 was a year of changes. feyza had money to move into a real apartment, she finally had a salary hig enough to save up money. it's mostly thanks to app-h inc.'s ceo and cfo that photograpp-h became a money making machine. they worked hard to keep business afloat, they went on to build an empire, and feyza just followed along and worked on improving their products. occasionally she feels like an impostor whenever compared to her two friends who look like business masterminds to her.

creative work was for feyza. she liked problem solving, she liked picking colors... she did not enjoy long meetings with serious men in suits, she did not enjoy rubbing elbows with rich strangers, and she did not know how to appear sophisticated and educated in a crowd of eton alumni. she left the limelight to her friends. now that she was surrounded by people who knew nothing about the concept of average, she realized she liked the safety and modesty.

feyza's not much of a schemer but she is competitive as hell ! it's the only reason why her teeth are sharp, and why she's still in the game. money matters little to her now that she has plenty of it... but having the best products, the most impressive portfolio, and the coolest conglomerate is important to her. it keeps her going and gives her life substance.

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.

to be added !

[thescorpioracer]

Sen Çal Kapımı 1 - Episode Recap

To be honest, this series of posts is mostly going to be a fashion roast. But DISCLAIMER! I really do love this show and Turkish TV in general, it’s just my preferred mode of media analysis is to pick things apart. 😂And I need everyone to know that I am very pro-women, and believe people should be able to dress how they want and not be judged for it or be looked down upon for it. But oh my god this wardrobe department/costumer needs to be STOPPED. I also have zero credentials to be talking about fashion, but will that stop me?

I’m going to make these posts assuming you’ve watched the show, and just comment on whatever comes up. There will be spoilers. Let’s go!

We start off with a voiceover from Eda Yıldız, an A+ romcom trope. (It wasn’t until my rewatch that I remembered that Eda used to do VOs at random intervals, and I’m kind of glad she stopped tbh.) She is a strong woman who wants to get her education and become a landscape architect/designer. She was all set to do that until- dun dun dun! - Serkan Bolat destroyed everything. 

Check out that dart board of a man (and this is the only time we see that photo there). And these outfits are probably the most normal and reasonable clothes she wears in the show. She’s a beautiful young woman, who was a college student, and now works outdoors as a florist. 10/10 outfit. 

Of course that transitions us into an epic slomo of Serkan exiting his private jet. He of course begins to berate his assistant on the phone in a way a friend described as reminiscent of The Devil Wears Prada.

@teamnick​​‘s commentary back when she first started the show. 

Serkan returns to his office for the first time in 2 months after working on business deals in London. Chaos ensues: Miranda Priestly is baaaaaaack.

See... here we have some good fashion choices! We meet the girls for the first time, while they try to sneak off to their graduation without making Eda feel bad that she won’t be receiving her diploma. Melek “Melo” is dressed in a sweet dress with a bold, romantic color, which captures her personality perfectly. Ceren, the rich daughter from a family of lawyers, looks a bit more high-fashion. The dress is short but it has long sleeves and no cleavage so it works out to be chic and elegant. Fifi is unapologetically herself with her full-black, punk wardrobe. Eda is again dressed in a pretty, but casual outfit. Nicely put together for her lower-middle-class lifestyle and her job as a florist.

Enter: the plot device to get our protagonists together. Serkan’s face says it all.

We are then introduced to the main couple’s respective cars. Serkan has his 2020 BMW (though the show blocks out the copyrighted branding) while Eda’s beat up SUV is clearly unreliable. What’s that? Another plot device being introduced? I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Also, I just noticed this, but for someone as uptight as Serkan, I’m surprised at how fun his suit jacket lining is. If I’m not mistaken the pattern is of a bunch of rainbow fish. #Snazzy, but they seem out of character?

Plot highlights:

Eda learns she can come back to school and finish her final year, but she’s lost her scholarship and will have to pay. She can’t.

Serkan gives his talk at the graduation (?)-- Is his talk just for architecture students? If so, why are Ceren, Fifi, and Melo there? We’ll never know. I know, I know... it’s all for the ~plot~

Eda calls Serkan out in front of everyone for taking away the scholarship that she earned from his company, Art Life. He is confused but unrepentant. She refuses to tell him her name.

She tries to deface his car with lipstick after keying the side (we never hear about the damage to his car after that). He catches her and wants to call the police, so she impulsively handcuffs them together with the plot devices from Selin’s wedding invitation sitting on his passenger seat.

They then have to go to Serkan’s urgent business meeting with an out-of-town client. Eda drives while they’re handcuffed together. Bickering ensues.

What is this? Foreshadowing? Symbolism?? Eda’s last name “Yıldız” is the Turkish word for “star” so... file that away for later.

One of my favorite parts about watching Turkish dramas is the experience of trying to decipher the fan translations. Add to the fact that Turkish only has 1 pronoun *chef’s kiss* 

Eda refuses to take the elevator to the 15th floor (we’ll learn about her claustrophobia later). Serkan is equally as stubborn, saying she owes  him for screwing up his day. But he has met his match in Eda with regards to stubbornness. They take the stairs.

More highlights:

First instance of fake dating - they need to hide the handcuffs from his client so Eda pretends she’s his girlfriend and a fellow investor.

The girls track Eda’s phone to the hotel and try to find her by asking around the premises. 

Eda charms the client into selling his land to Serkan.

We learn that Serkan is allergic to strawberries and has a lot of health anxiety. He’s a very tightly wound person.

Serkan says “Mashallah,” translator hears 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Engin brings way too many people to open the handcuffs and chaos ensues.

I feel like nothing can do justice to the comedy of 58:45 to 1:00:00 with Fifi using a bobby pin as a lock pick. The dramatic editing is 👌🏼

Leyla gets fired for somehow causing this drama??? And she is so happy to leave that stressful workplace omg, we don’t deserve her 🥺

Serkan and Eda go their separate ways, Eda prepared to never see her enemy again, but of course her phone and purse are still in his car so she has to go to his office at Art Life and confront him again.

Serkan has found out that Whoops, Art Life did cancel the study abroad scholarships to cut costs, but his CFO did it without telling him. And Serkan is pissed, but I think mainly about the fact that Eda did have some (SOME) grounds for yelling at him in public.

Leyla then explains the nonsensical reasoning behind her being fired-but-not-fired and still working. (Spoiler alert: she never goes anywhere and she is my favorite side character to this day).

Eda: “How can I piss Serkan off?” Leyla: “Find a mistake he’s made and he will fixate on it forever. But you won’t find anything.” Eda: “Hold my beer.”

Eda walks into Serkan’s office and his meeting. She gets her purse back and they fight about him not being willing to apologize for ruining her life and education. He refuses and says she owes him an apology for embarrassing him in public (no, dude).

He wants to give her back the scholarship and make it all go away but she rightly tells him that it won’t fix her broken pride from begging the company and her university for a second chance. But somehow her calling him a heartless “Robot” is what gets to him???? And he short-circuits. Eda walks out triumphant. 

~dRaMa!~

MEANWHILE

Melo, as well as being a perfume sales girl, also works as a flight attendant and wants Eda to cover her shift (we’ll get into how that doesn’t make sense in a minute) 

Eda says no, she’s going to meet her boyfriend, Cenk, who she hasn’t seen in months and has just returned from Italy.

Enter: Selin. Serkan’s ex who he dumped a while ago and is now engaged to the heir of a hotel empire. Serkan doesn’t like this. The two of them grew up together and are set to each inherit 50% of the holding company that Serkan’s father currently runs.

Right away Selin serves us with a gender reveal level color scheme.  Personally not a fan. They confirm that Serkan is coming to her engagement party tomorrow.

Meanwhile Eda  meets up with Cenk. Her outfit is still reasonable and cute for her character. He looks mildly like a hobo and doesn’t seem to have anything going for him (I know he’s a throwaway character but the two of them really don’t have anything in common).

This creeper keeps staring at them, but Cenk tries to explain it away and says he’s busy and can’t meet her again until the day after tomorrow. Eda is disappointed but accepts this. Creeper girl remains and remains a red flag to viewers, but apparently not to Eda.

Cut to later that evening, and of course our broody main man enjoys astronomy in his free time (???) idk what he’s charting and to what purpose but okay? 

Eda finds a mini first aid kit in her purse that Serkan put there before returning it. Queue montage of them treating their respective wrists for handcuff-related injuries. #couplegoals

Of course we also needed a sepia-toned flashback to earlier that day when the handcuffs contrived their faces to get too close together. #romance

Finallyyyyyyy it’s morning again and a new day.

Since Eda can’t see Cenk (good, he’s so boring), she agrees to fill in as a flight attendant for Melo, who’s side job is for a private plane company.

Now. This should not be a thing. Eda was in college to be a landscape architect and now works as a florist for her aunt... Where has she learned any relevant skills to work as a flight attendant?? Presumably nowhere. And I really don’t think a private plane company would be so easygoing about just having a random person fill in to cover for her friend? 

But does this show care about that? What do you think...

Also, instead of the standard white shirt, black skirt uniform requirements, the girls decide that this skimpy dress and heels is fine? Hmmm

Also lol @ Melo for assuming that the client who wants jasmine tea and fruit salad is probably a woman. And her telling Eda that the PRIVATE JET COMPANY would in fact have its own tea was very random and unnecessary. 

Back at the Bolat house compound, we meet the parents: Aydan and Alptekin. We’ll see them again later. Selin’s engagement party is today. 

Meanwhile Eda is just.... being a flight attendant, I guess??? And who could possibly be the passenger she has to take care of? Take a wild guess. Of course it’s Serkan Bolat.

And of course that tiny dress (THAT ALSO HAS A LEG SLIT?? WHY?? I really don’t need to see her vagina) looks very practical and professional... not! (Hande Erçel is a gorgeous human, and the dress looks good on her, don’t get me wrong. BUT THIS IS SITUATIONALLY INCORRECT ATTIRE). Also him just folding his vest and then social distancing from it... K? 😂

Eda panics and doesn’t want Serkan to see her and runs away back to her seat pod thing - Serkan takes issue with his fruit salad for ~plot reasons~ (EDIT: I’ve been informed that it’s because there was a strawberry in his fruit salad and since he’s allergic, of course it needed to be fixed. Why doesn’t the plane have a note of that??) and comes back to find this mystery flight attendant.

Eda is very stressed out about this encounter and is also starting to have a panic attack because, surprise, she’s also claustrophobic. 

After Serkan calms her down, they have a cute/civil conversation for the rest of the flight.

When they land, Eda realizes they’re on an island 2h45min away from Istanbul and she isn’t sure what to do with herself (How did she not already know where they were going, as the FLIGHT ATTENDANT??? So may red flags with this private jet company).

Serkan convinces Eda to come with him and she can hang out at the beach while he’s at Selin’s engagement party.

At the engagement party we finally meet Selin’s fiancé Ferit. He’s sweet and non-threatening and clearly insecure about Serkan being Selin’s ex.

This dress/skirt outfit Selin is wearing isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t scream rich socialite to me. Anything with feathers seems... a bit tacky/too showy? Like someone pretending to be rich? Idk, this outfit isn’t one I’m going to really take a stand on.

Does this engagement party warrant being a 2h45 min flight away? No. They try to explain it away as the couple wanting to have something small and private, even though they also invite the press?? But okay whatever, as long as Serkan and Eda cross paths again, I suppose.

Kaan Karadağ has been mentioned a couple times in passing, but now we finally meet our “villain.” Ferit’s friend, and Serkan & Selin’s childhood acquaintance, who has it out for Serkan bc he somehow bankrupted Kaan’s dad? Idk and I don’t really care but tl;dr they’re enemies. 

Another thing I love about Turkish dramas is the censoring. Like, they’ll allow alcohol to be on screen, but they won’t say the word and they’ll just blur out the bottle and any liquid that we’d assume is alcoholic 😂

In the evening, Serkan is tired and wants to leave and Ferit snidely jokes about how Serkan is too picky to have a fiancé of his own. Serkan flashes back to 1 entire day ago when he and Eda pretended to be dating at his business meeting, and says that actually he is engaged to someone and then peaces out.

Serkan finds Eda on the beach, and they are preparing to leave when a crowd of people (Selin, Ferit, and Kaan mainly), arrive to get a peek at Serkan’s new “fiancé.” Eda very reluctantly plays along (good thing she has that unnecessarily sexy “work” dress to help her look the part) and Serkan notices that for the first time ever, Selin is jealous of another woman. #drama

After they finally escape the crowd, Serkan makes an annoyed Eda an offer: Pretend to be his fiancé for the 2 months leading up to Selin’s wedding so he can get them to break up and prevent Ferit marrying into the company. In return, he will pay all the fees to help her complete her last year of studies in Italy.

Eda refuses, stating that she doesn’t want anything from him, and besides she has a boyfriend (Sure Jan; Cenk is such a joke). They have it out and then fly back to Istanbul. But of course the gossips at the engagement have spread the news of Serkan’s new woman so the paparazzi corner them at the airport when they land. 

So glad that we got to see this random mechanic find out the news (???)

They escape the cameras and Serkan takes her home, saying that Art Life has a press conference tomorrow, and she should come so he can save face and tell everyone that she was his assistant accompanying him for work to the party. Eda agrees. 

It should also be mentioned that Serkan still doesn’t know her name at this point?? She refused to tell him and Engin still hasn’t sent him the names of the scholarship candidates so it’s a bit miraculous that their relationship was at all believable.

The next day, Cenk wants to meet but Eda has to go to the press conference. The girls come too for whatever reason, and Melo is convinced that Cenk wants to propose. Eda just lets that fantasy take hold (why tho?), and Cenk shows up unexpectedly right before the press conference and takes Eda into the nearby hotel’s cafe so they can talk.

Eda seems ready for a proposal (they haven’t seen each other or really communicated in months??) but Cenk wants to break up. Eda is shocked (???) but then Cenk mentions that he has a new girlfriend from Italy that he adores, and oh by the way, it’s the creepy girl from the other night who also happens to be here right now?

Okay fine, I guess??? Cenk: “She’s doesn’t speak Turkish” Girlfriend: *clearly a Turkish actress*

Eda is upset that he brought his jealous girlfriend with him to break up with her and says something about how actually, she’s seeing Serkan Bolat now (maybe it’s just me being someone who doesn’t follow tabloids, but are business people really that popular in every day society where everyone knows who they are?). Cenk laughs at Eda, saying that everyone wants to be with Serkan Bolat, and that she’s bluffing.

Eda makes an impulsive decision, and walks away, over to where Serkan has started the press conference. And seals their fate as fake dating in the public eye.

Queue confetti. No really.

And there we have it. That’s the episode!

In all seriousness, it’s a pretty great pilot, especially for a romcom. It hits all the right beats, includes enough tropes, and tells us a lot about what we should expect in the episodes going forward. And no matter how much I make fun of it, I really do enjoy this show! It’s been such a nice distraction from Current Events. I’ve spent a lot of time watching these episodes just saying “oh my god” out loud to myself as I watch all of the cute/romantic gestures that give me a lot of second hand embarrassment (I forget that PDA makes me kinda uncomfortable 😂).

There wasn’t actually that much terrible fashion in this episode, which I didn’t notice until my rewatch. If I continue with this series of posts, I’m hoping they’ll end up being less plot-centric, and more about the situationally inappropriate outfits and strange subtitling choices. 

See you next time? 

[iron-touch]

My Name is Cab Cavazo

TWO YEARS AGO...

As she was the CFO of a successful marketing company and he was almost always out of the house at soccer practice or a training session with his boxing coach, Cab often had little time to spend with his mother. That being said, they were as close as a parent and child could be—being a single mother often had that effect on their sons.

Though what little free time they had together was often made up of one or both of them being exhausted from the rest of their day, there was always time set aside just for the two of them. Whether it be a simple game of chess or a going out to lunch or the rare occasions she would convince her son to get a pedicure with her; they always made sure this time was well spent.

Hiking was usually Cab's preferred way to spend time with just about anyone, including his mother, and she thought it was a great source of exercise. Naturally, they ended up traversing forested trails often. The two of them usually filled the air with idle banter, with him rambling about school, sports, and spicy schoolyard secrets while she would complain about cussed coworkers.

On that day, however, he was completely silent.

He didn't mean to be. There was a lot to talk about, after all. It was his senior year of high school—finals were rapidly approaching, he needed to make a choice about where he would be going to college, and find a cute girl to ask out to prom. Yet all of those issues were dwarfed by his main concern: he didn't feel passionate about sports anymore. It was what he was good at, it was what he was expected to do; but whenever he scored a goal or landed a knockout lately, he didn't feel the same rush of adrenaline and pride in himself that he used to. He only felt apathetic to it all.

Besides, the only reason that he was good at either of those things was because he had special abilities that no one else had.

"What's bothering you?" She asked the question after about 15 minutes of hiking in complete silence.

Pulled from his thoughts, Cab suddenly became aware of the world around him; underneath his feet were crunching leaves, blowing past his body was the chill of a faint breeze, and above his head were the birds chirping in the trees. He turned to his mother and mustered up the best lie that he could.

"Nothing's bothering me," he asserted.

His mother folded her arms at him and raised a brow. "Cab. I know you better than that. If you're being this quiet, then something's on your mind." They each took one big step up a small incline and brushed back some stray leaves that stuck out from the shrubs in front of them, revealing a cliff with a breathtaking view of the rest of the forest. This was nothing new, they had hiked this trail several times before, but seeing the murky pink sky over the trees as the sun fell below the horizon was enough to ease his mind just a bit. "You know you can tell me anything, right? I'm your mother."

Cab groaned and sat down next to her, the flaky dirt sticking to his jeans. No point in continuing to hide it. "I don't know if I want to keep doing sports," he confessed.

The loud gasp that his mother responded with made him want to rip his hair out. "What do you mean you don't want to keep doing sports? You've been doing them your whole life. Why stop now?"

"I don't know," he sighed with a shrug. "I just don't really have fun doing them anymore. There's no challenge in it."

"That's because you're so good at them." She leaned over and pinched his cheek. "Is it soccer or boxing that you don't want to keep doing?"

"Both."

She tilted her head to the side. "What ever happened to wanting to be the heavyweight champion? You've been going on since you were a little kid that you wanted to be the next Buster Douglas."

Biting his lip, Cab carefully considered his words. I win every fight and every match because of Quiet Riot. There's no challenge in it anymore. I'm just going through the motions. That was what he wanted to say, but how the hell was he supposed to explain Quiet Riot to her? Oh, I've had this compass ghost follow me around for as long as I can remember that no one else can see or touch. He scratched his neck. Maybe he could give her a demonstration of Quiet Riot's ability? How would she react then? Would she panic and run? Call him a freak of nature? Just the thought made Cab feel nauseous.

"People change, Mom," he responded, "and I just don't think that soccer or boxing would make good career paths. What about when I'm 40? Or 50? I need to find something more financially stable than being a sports star." That was the best excuse he could muster up, and he was quite proud of it. With her being a businesswoman, surely she could sympathize with it.

"Well, you know how I've always felt about boxing." They both recalled the days of his youth, when she would scold him for sneaking out of the house on weekends to beg regulars at the local gym to teach him how to fight. One day, she finally relented and signed him up for professional lessons after one of said gym regulars followed him back to the house and refused to leave. "But I don't think you should give up soccer. If you do well at the game next week, I really think you could get a full ride scholarship to college. You've got one hell of an aim with your feet. It's like it's your destiny to play soccer." She affectionately nudged him. "You're destined for great things, Cab."

Cab rested his head in his hands. She could have a point. It wasn't like everyone had their own Quiet Riot that could help them aim their shots.

"Speaking of the game tomorrow," she continued, "are you nervous? Excited? I'm excited! I'm sure you'll do great, honey." She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. "Are you inviting your father to come?"

"Why would I invite him?" Cab rolled his eyes. "I haven't spoken with him in years now. You know that."

"I know, I know. I just figured that you might want him to come, considering it's going to be one of your last big games before you go off to college."

"It's just another game," he replied with a shrug. "He cheated on you and walked out on us. I don't see any reason to keep in contact with him."

"He is your father," she justified. "No matter what any of you do, that will never change. For what it's worth," her face lit up like a candle, the tone of her voice suddenly much lighter, "I certainly wouldn't mind seeing him again."

"Stockholm syndrome," Cab muttered under his breath. Gazing out to the sky, he considered her words. Sure, he was his father, but why did that matter? The man hadn't done anything fatherly for him since he was 10. It had been longer than he could remember since he had received any letters from him, the ones that used to ask him how he was doing in school or when his next game was, worded so eloquently that he always assumed that his mistress had written them out of pity. The crescent moon peeked out from the trees, the sun barely visible anymore. He pulled away from his mother's embrace and stood up. "Come on, let's start heading back. It's getting late."

She nodded and pushed off from the ground as she attempted to stand up. Clumps of grass and dirt crumbled beneath her hands and descended off the cliff into the forest below. Having lost her balance, her body lurched forwards, carried by the force she had put in her hands. She threw her body back and tried to grab onto the ground, but it only collapsed under her weight. A panicked scream left her lips as she fell off the cliffside.

Cab outstretched both his and Quiet Riot's arm out in an attempt to catch her, but she had already fallen out of reach. A few seconds later, he heard a loud THUD! somewhere very far below him. He felt the color drain from his face.

"MOM!"

~~~~~

THREE MONTHS LATER...

"Martin..."

That was the only word that Cab's mother had uttered since she entered her coma, and it was the name of her ex husband.

Not once did she mutter Cab's name, and she barely responded to any input from him. Even after he stopped attending school and skipped out on all his other commitments just to be with her (to the chagrin of his teammates), the only reaction he got out of her were occasional eyelid twitches, her pupils shifting under them when he spoke to her. Even as he squeezed her hand in his through her full-body cast and tearfully babbled out "I love you, you're going to wake up soon, everything's going to be okay," on repeat for hours on end, she never said anything else aside from his father's name.

Cab didn't need to be a relationship expert to know that she was still in love with him, even if he had fallen out of love with her long ago. He couldn't see why; not only had he cheated on her, but he was rude, argumentative, and self-absorbed. Having him out of the house had only improved their lives. Gone were the noise complaints from neighbors when he would scream at them just to show off how loud his voice was, the disdained grumbles when he overheard Cab listening to his favorite songs on the radio, and the long nights of his mother sobbing herself to sleep when he spent the night at another woman's house. The day that he packed his bags and left was one of the best days of Cab's life.

Yet, as she fell closer and closer to death's door, she called out the name of her emotionally abusive ex-husband and not her baby boy.

She didn't have much time left—the way that her doctors always avoided eye contact with him told him that much. The turning point came when one of them tapped him on the shoulder and said: "don't get your hopes up," on their way out the door. The doctor kept his eyes focused ahead of him, rather than on the grieving son below.

If she really wanted her last moments to be with him, then so be it. So it was how Cab found himself in front of his father's home.

It was a dingy place, really. One story with a flat roof covered in leaves, a bland gray paint job that had begun to chip off, the garden so overgrown that Cab couldn't see his own feet as he walked to the door. Surely this couldn't be the address of his prideful father. He double checked the address. Had he really spent months digging through phone books and real estate listings just to get the wrong address?

No. There couldn't be two idiots named Martin Cavazo. Not to mention the orange Pontiac Firebird, his pride and joy, that was parked in the driveway.

Cab pounded on the door. "Hey, Martin! It's me, Cab. You know, your son? I need to talk to you about something."

The door creaked open under the force of Cab's fists. Whatever obscenity he had lined up to say caught in his throat. Why had the door been left unlocked? Martin was a lot of things, but forgetful wasn't one of them. Cab vividly remembered being scolded by him whenever he failed to unlock the door after coming home from school. As eager as he was to add "hypocrite" to his father's long list of toxic traits, he proceeded through the door, closing it behind him.

Though he wasn't sure what he was expecting from the inside of the house, it certainly wasn't this. It somehow looked smaller on the inside than it did on the outside. Only a dirty kitchen with flies hovering over half-eaten plates of steak to the left; a living room in the middle with only a broken recliner, bulky CRT, and numerous empty beer bottles strewn about the floor; and a couple of doors to the left. One was halfway open and lead to the bathroom, while the other Cab assumed went to the bedroom. Dust hung in the air like pollen in spring, coating just about every surface in the house. It nearly made him cough up is lungs as he entered the house. There was also something to the left that reeked worse than anything Cab had ever smelled before. He would've assumed that it was coming from the bathroom, but whatever it smelled like, it didn't smell like feces. Perhaps a dead rat had gotten stuck in the plumbing?

Obviously, the house looked abandoned, or at the very least like it had not been maintained in a long time. Cab's shoulders fell at the prospect of another dead end. No way in hell he'd leave his house like this, he reasoned as he walked forwards, dust rising from the floor with every step he took, he must've skipped on the bills and had no choice but to jump ship. But if that were the case, why would he leave the Firebird out in the driveway?

Since the house was so small, Cab figured that he could gleam just about everything about the kitchen and living room just from his initial impressions of them. They were filthy and cluttered with trash, but he doubted that he could find any clues under piles of beer bottles and dirty dishes. He turned to the left and surveyed the two doors in front of him. The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar, and through it he couldn't see anything peculiar. Just a sink with an old shaving razor resting on the countertop and the edge of a toilet. There was still the smell, however, and if there really was a dead rat or something similar clogging the drains, he'd rather investigate it as a last resort.

The second door, however, was firmly shut, revealing no details about the bedroom. That was probably the best place to start his search. Hell, maybe Martin was passed out drunk on the bed, too lazy to get off his ass and maintain the house on his own now that he didn't have a woman to do it for him. Cab gently opened the door.

"Dad, are you in—"

The last thing he remembered seeing before fainting was Martin's limp body laying on the bed with a bloody crevasse in place of a head and a shotgun in his lap.

~~~~~

Cab hadn't remembered how much time had passed since that day. He could still see his father's decaying corpse in his mind's eye like it was still in front of him.

Even after what must've been more than a year now, the turn of events felt surreal. First his mother fell off a cliff and fell into a coma, then he quashed his opportunities at a college scholarship by wasting three months of his life trying to track down his ghost of a father, only to find his actual dead body and to be told not long afterwards that his mother had passed while he was away. Despite legally being an adult at that point, Uncle Roger had offered to look after him until he could get back on his feet. Cab didn't even know if he was still there or not. He never left his room long enough to find out.

How could something so horrible happen to a kid like him?

That was all he could think about since that day. Could this be some sort of cruel punishment? Some justice for an evil deed he had committed? But what, Cab wondered, have I done that could possibly deserve this? His entire life played through his mind at a snail's pace. There was that time when he was five when he pulled down his neighbor's pants at the park. There was the time when he was nine when he made fun of his substitute health teacher so badly that she nearly threw her shoe at him. There was the time when he was fifteen and stole the car one night to go to a party then wrecked it on the way home. And of course, that said nothing of the countless other boys he had Quiet Riot demolish in the ring. Was all of that combined really the equivalent to watching his mother fall to her doom and walking in on his father's suicide?

No, he realized, that can't be it. There are men out there much eviler than I am who haven't endured half the amount of pain that I have.

Then what? Was it just bad luck? Some malevolent God out there who deemed him to be a worthy punching bag? He scoffed at what his mother told him: "you're destined for great things, Cab." Like what destiny had ended up giving him was some great reward.

You're wrong, Mom. He stood up and opened the window, letting the crisp outside air blow against his face. This wasn't my destiny. This wasn't anyone's destiny. We chose to go hiking on that trail that day. Dad chose to kill himself. There isn't any outside force controlling us. We're all victims of our own free will.

After all, how could fate be real when it had dealt him such a bad hand?

He stared at his reflection in the window. Heavy bags weighed his eyes down, matted curls hung over his face, his once bold muscles nearly deflated. He hardly recognized himself. If "destiny" was so keen to make him this way, then why should he bend over and take it?

I'm choosing to be miserable, he decided. Without a second thought, he set his shoulders back and fully opened his eyes. Not anymore. I'm going to find myself.

The next morning, he packed his bags and left, determined to do just that.

~~~~~

IN THE PRESENT...

I remember that she was a little confused as to why I didn't tell her for so long, but other than that she was happy that I had a Stand of my own.

Among the waterfall of bullshit about curses and fate that spilled from her mouth the day before, that was the one line from Michelle's monologue that Cab connected to. She had the guts to tell her mother about her Stand, despite the fact that her mother wasn't a Stand user. Now Cab could only dream about having the same opportunity. No matter how much he told himself that it's different, her dad was a Stand user too, it didn't change the regret that simmered in his heart as the sentence played over and over again in his head like a broken record.

Staring at her now, as she begrudgingly played tour guide to Sara on their way to Paris' border, he couldn't help but feel jealous.

"Hey, Michelle." He meant to address her more delicately, but it came out as more of a statement than anything.

Jaw clenched after hearing the assertiveness in his voice, she turned her head to him.

"What was it like to have a mom who knew you were a Stand user?"

Michelle furrowed her brow at the question and studied his face like a map. "Why do you ask?"

He bit his lip and rubbed the back of his neck. "No particular reason."

[steamishot]

Awkward

today i was in a meeting with some important people: director of labor relations, CFO, CAO, DIO of ACGME, residency director, residency manager, GME analyst, med ed people, and my bosses - academic HR manager and HR director. as the resident union was officially ratified yesterday, lots of new changes will ensue. wins that residents will now have: $1,000 housing allowance/month (almost double from what they had last year), $300 in meals every month and $25/day for ubereats when practicing at an affiliate hospital, 4 weeks of parental leave (instead of 2), smartphones instead of pagers, guarantee of one major holiday off, etc. our residents have much better benefits and perks than matt does. they also get up to $2750 in moving costs. but dude, the $1000 housing allowance/month is everything. for all the work they do, they definitely deserve it. crossing my fingers that his union will be able to achieve good things too. 

i get overly anxious when i’m around others who are way superior to me, as i rarely participate in meetings with them. generally, i already don’t like participating in meetings where i have to talk. 

the residency manager megan is my age, a friendly and pretty white girl who just started her role a few months ago. she’s really nice and knowledgable, passionate about what she does and overall a great person to have on the team. i sat next to her and observed how she acted. the really high status people (DIO and CAO) are white women as well. as they entered the room, megan welcomed them with a warm smile and they were just as happy to see her. my interactions with the CAO when i see her in the hallway are just a half smile or bland “hey”. not saying that they would only be that friendly with you if you’re white, but i think it does help because there’s some familiarity and similarities in culture. i thought of white privilege this afternoon, and about how growing up in a middle class or above american household equips you to communicate the way that (white) americans do, which is so very helpful in professional settings. many of those in the meeting today spoke so elaborately, intelligently, and articulately. it made me wish i talked more growing up, as i was frequently socially isolated and very introverted. a perk of being the dumbest one and lowest on the totem pole in that meeting was being uncomfortable, which is a catalyst for growth. i hesitated whenever i spoke and overthought my responses, hoping i didn’t embarrass myself or my boss. i beat myself up because i felt like i should have been more prepared. it could be that i really sounded stupid, or it was a product of my social anxiety where i overthink things that people don’t really care about, or both. 

anyway, i noticed that a lot of the admin directors are white. at least the residency director and CFO in the meeting today are asian men. due to the restructuring of our department, 4 people (including my work mom) were promoted to MSO, a managerial role. there are now 6 MSOs in our department, with my ex boss as one of them. the MSOs are aware of the wage disparity. my ex boss, a white female, outearns the other 5 by a lot, yet their duties are practically the same. the other 5 are females of color - hispanic, armenian, black, filipino. i believe my ex boss will be compensated at around 80k whereas the others will be around 58-65k. i also noticed that at ucla, black females are compensated the least. 

when we were in taiwan, matt and i had an interesting conversation. i don’t remember how we even got here, but i asked if he were reborn, would he want to be a male or female? he said he’d want to be reborn as an attractive white girl because of their privilege. “if one goes missing the whole world is looking for them” lol. 

today, i finally booked our broadway tickets- we will be watching the lion king in NYC and hamilton in london. watching plays in london is much cheaper. we got pretty good seats for hamilton for about $165. it would easily cost $300+ in the states. during the time he was on his shift a few days ago, he was texting me about getting broadway tickets (as a way “fun break” from writing patient notes in the hospital). however, because he was multitasking and at work/stressed, his texts to me were extremely straightforward and intense. fun, my ass. “you need to....”, followed with another “you need to...” and another “you need to...” informing me how to buy broadway tickets and kind of dismissing what info/screenshots i was sharing with him. i tried to stay patient and yield to his requests while hiding my annoyance and being like “this fuckin bitch” to myself lol. he acted the same way when we were buying airplane tickets. what i learned is that, he’s not in the right state of mind during these times to have a cordial conversation. apparently it’s how they communicate to each other at the hospital because of the scarcity of time, all communication has to be straightforward. is it a justifiable excuse? yes. but is it necessary? no. because his mind at the time lacks the capacity to process things clearly, so it ends up being a waste of energy trying to communicate with him. he realized afterwards how bossy he was being and apologized after rereading the text convo. i think the best thing to do is to ignore him during these times and wait for him to be relaxed. otherwise his stress will transfer over to whatever we are discussing. and also, i keep reminding myself to apply bruce lee’s quote  to life: “You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you”. 

during our facetime call today, he was impressed by my selection of tickets and said the lion king seats will be the best seats he’s ever sat in. I’m happy that I got to purchase one of the “best seats” according to a seating chart for a reasonable price. back to the sweet matt: you’re the best, thank you for planning, etc. i’m blanking out on the first half the convo, but for some reason, i remember him saying something about being with me “til the end”. he also reminded me today to “consider moving to NY”. i like when he throws in cute words/expressions. it catches me off guard and is a nice surprise each time. can’t believe i’ll be in NY in 10 days. the months of LDR felt long yet short at the same time. 

[renojobshub]

Lending / Brokerage Division Manager

Hughes Private Capital is an expanding Real Estate investment firm that specializes in the acquisition and management of homes, providing healthy and stable returns to our investors.

Our core values include:

OurInnovation and Creativity drive consistently superior resultsOurEntrepreneurial Spirit fosters growth and independent thinking

We haveRespect for Others and Ourselves

We areAlways Learning by building new skills through our successes and our failures

We are continuallyCreating a Positive Impact through honest, constructive interaction with team members, investors, and clients

We always remember toHave Fun, creating balance and enjoyment at work

Job Summary:

We are seeking a strategic and innovative LENDING / BROKERAGE DIVISION MANAGER

with excellent people leadership skills. This is a pivotal role that will launch our new business model from the ground up. This critical position requires an entrepreneurial mindset to develop strategy, build high-performing teams, foster a culture that aligns with our company’s vision and core values, and has a proven record of driving exceptional business results. The ideal candidate is a humble leader that has effective motivational communication skills and leads by example with excellent business acumen. If you are passionate and self-driven, with proven success in creating and propelling new business ideas into successful business results, you could be the perfect fit.

Responsibilities:

Operational:

Develop, implement, and manage industry specific strategies to achieve both short- and long-term goals; provide market insight and strategic advice for 1, 5, and 10-year plans

Develop, implement, generate, and continuously grow revenue; identify business opportunities, design strategy, and set growth goals

Oversee the company’s business operations, financial performance, investments, and ventures

Optimize operating capabilities by assessing and implementing processes and new technologies to maximize organizational competitiveness and health

Communicate and embody the company vision and values

Ability to see the big picture, and translate into tactical execution, with a laser focus on business results and continuous improvement

·        Spearhead strategies to steer the organization in a positive direction, enable agile and flexible tactics to enable continued growth in a niche market

Financial Activities

Responsible for all operational financial activities

Analyze accounting and financial data with the CFO

Oversee budget activities and proactively conduct all resource forecasting

People

Provide supportive leadership and ensure that the company is meeting or exceeding targets and goals from both an operational and cultural point of view

Delegate responsibilities to ensure teams grows to the fullest potential; use various initiatives to coach employees to optimize their capabilities

Foster an environment of continuous learning and idea generation

Evaluate performance, productivity, and enable career growth opportunities

Additional Responsibilities and Duties:

Practice and adhere to corporate vision, values, and exceptional service standards

Conduct business with the highest standards of personal, professional, and ethical conduct

Build strong relationships and represent our company with integrity and the highest standard in our community and across the nation

Perform and assist with any and all duties, as required, to maintain workflow, and meet deadlines

Notify management of obstacles, equipment or operating problems requiring the need for additional support and/or supplies

Participate in meetings and workgroups to acquire and maintain necessary levels of knowledge relating to business developments, industry requirements, policies, and regulatory guidelines; collaborate on projects and communicate issues

Ensure all safety precautions are followed while performing the work

Ensure company standard operating procedures (SOPs) and policies are current and followed

Perform tasks, special projects and other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

Required

Exceptional leader

Drives a company’s strategic visions

Degree in business, marketing or related field

Excellent motivational communication, negotiation, and presentation skills

Strong knowledge of different business functions

Experience in developing and implementing strategic and business operational plans

Problem management, multitasking, and time-management

Preferred

Master’s degree in business or related field

Real estate background

Entrepreneur

15 years of industry experience in leadership positions

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. This job operates in a professional office environment.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, talk and hear

This is largely a sedentary role

Compensation and Benefits:

Competitive salary

Paid vacation time

Paid sick time

Paid Federal Holidays

Vesting in employee investment program

Hughes Private Capital provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

from Reno Jobs Hub https://ift.tt/2tAlJHC via Lending / Brokerage Division Manager

[mathematicianadda]

MIND Blog Rewind: October 2019

Each month on the MIND blog, we share stories of how our organization, our partners, and educators across the country are advancing the mission to mathematically equip all students to solve the world’s most challenging problems. We also share resources for educators and students, and cover some of the exciting events we take part in across the country.

Sometimes it feels like we're moving and evolving just as fast as the leaves in autumn, and we want to make sure that you don't miss any of it. Welcome to the MIND Blog Rewind! Here is a recap of important news, content, and resources coming out of MIND and our community for October 2019.

What makes a great math leader? Calli Wright, Education Engagement Manager, asked this question to teachers, math coaches, and principals from around the country. And thankfully, they answered! We hope this compilation of tips and resources helps you wherever you are in your journey to support math education for students.

On our International Podcast day episode, Brian LeTendre welcomed MIND’s Lead Mathematician Brandon Smith back to the show, for a discussion on project-based and problem-based learning. Brandon talked about the similarities and differences between the two, and provided guidance on how to get the most out of project and problem-based learning by increasing student choice, creatively reframing problems, and adding more fun to the process. Listen to the full discussion on the Inside Our MIND podcast.

If you want to build creative capacity, you want to develop a student's desire to take risks, and to fail quickly and to iterate, and then to actually get to a point where they really complete the problem, or solve it.

-Brandon Smith, MIND Research Institute

Have you heard of the Global Math Project? Their mission is to inspire educators everywhere to ignite and sustain in their students a love for learning mathematics. The Global Math Project believes that everyone is part of the global math community, and each year Global Math Week brings teachers and students around the world together through joyful math experiences. As part of our ongoing partnership with The Global Math Project, we made more of our ST Math games available for free on our website. Play now!

We’re big fans of Halloween at MIND Research Institute. Creative members Jo and Julie Zafra created Paco Patch Halloween coloring sheets for students and adults alike to enjoy. Our example coloring sheet was completed by Genna Conrad, a Partnerships Operations Assistant at MIND. Also included in the post are fun pumpkin stencils, like Pac-o-lantern and JiJi disguised as a witch, to make your Halloween even more fun. Check out our free Halloween resources and even treat yourself to Paco Monster, a free mathematical candy game.

At MIND Research Institute, we believe that teachers, administrators, families, and communities are part of a student’s learning ecosystem, and we work to support that holistic system. Which is why we partnered with 100Kin10! We are excited to be part of this group of over 300 leading academic institutions, non-profits, foundations, companies, and government agencies. Together, we are mobilizing a national effort to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021. 

MIND Research Institute CEO Brett Woudenberg reflected on what brought him to the organization and how MIND’s mission to mathematically equip all students to solve the world’s most challenging problems holds resonance for him. His story is one of incredible perseverance, productive struggle, and lifelong learning. We’re proud to have him lead our organization. Thank you for sharing, Brett!

Today, parents and students are going a mile a minute. But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed much over the years—homework and the way that some students feel about it. Thankfully, there are best practices that you can implement to make homework an important priority and a positive experience in your household. Check out these 8 great homework tips for parents from experts (and parents) at MIND.

Online learning for children is here to stay, and it's no secret that our students need supportive adults in their lives who can challenge, mentor, and push them to meet and exceed their potential. CFO of Detroit Public Schools, Jeremy Vidito, shares tips for parents around online learning for children, that will guide you in how to best assist the students in your life.

Are you planning a family math night? Brian LeTendre, Director of Content and Communications, and Lead Mathematician Brandon Smith, explained four common missteps that can be avoided when designing family nights and provides guidance on how to provide an experience that parents and students wont forget. Listen to the podcast episode now!

Family engagement nights at school have the potential to change families’ relationships with math. Miami on a mid-October night is still warm, but south of the city, a gentle breeze made its way through the Air Base K-8 Center, where MIND's Taylor Masnjak, Brian Coffey, and Brandon Smith inspired learning through gameplay with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools community. Being able to engage families with math and games was a treat, and thankfully, Brian shared his experience.

Additional Highlights:

MIND Blog Rewind: September 2019

MIND Blog Rewind: August 2019

MIND Blog Rewind: July 2019

from MIND Research Institute Blog https://ift.tt/31Z3Mxv from Blogger https://ift.tt/2pkJy4l

[juliandmouton30]

BlogTourKBIS 2018 – Meet the Team

We could not be more proud to announce our 6th year of #BlogTourKBIS which will, once again, find team Modenus and 24 influencers in Orlando, Florida this January. You already know you can tag along at #BlogTourKBIS for all the latest coverage from the show floor and our wonderful offsite events and this year, if you can’t be there in person, you can participate too with #BlogTourKBISfaves. See details below and meet our team!

It’s easy to participate in #BlogTourKBIS Community Favorites:

Follow the hashtag #BlogTourKBIS from Jan 9-11, 2018 on Instagram

Repost your favorite finds using the hashtag #BlogTourKBISfaves

Post as often as you like, every day

We will draw a random winner daily from all reposts and announce on Instagram with link to the winner’s Instagram account

Daily winner receives a $100 Amex Gift Card

Our team of editors will select the Top 10 submissions for publication on Modenus.com with credit to the original post and reposts.

Rules: Not valid where prohibited. Random selection of daily winners via Modenus Media agency. Winners announced daily at 7pm ET on November 9, 10 and 11, 2018.

Meet the team:

  Claire Jefford began her Interior Decorating business, Creating Contrast Designs in 2011. Claire loves making a difference in peoples lives, by creating beautiful spaces that function for everyday living with an emphasis on quality & customer service.This year Creating Contrast Designs was named one of the Top 30 Interior Design firms in Ontario by Point 2 Point Homes and Claire is especially proud to be the highest reviewed design professional in the GTA on the houzz website, with over 75 reviews.Not one to shy away from Social Media, Claire began her own Youtube channel in January 2016 & has also been featured twice in videos created by local Toronto media company, Buzz Buzz Home. Claire’s firm specializes in 3D design, taking clients on virtual tours of their homes before committing to a renovation or decorating project. They also work on many custom decorating projects as Claire has a keen eye for detail & especially loves to mix patterns and fabrics. Claire recently created a free facebook group, Interior Design Business Strategies, a community focusing on the business of design. Her no-nonsense approach sees her sharing marketing ideas, processes for running a successful business and social media strategies to help others in the field to build confidence in how they work. Follow Claire on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

  Nyla Free is the Principal Designer and CIO (Chief Inspiration Officer) of Nyla Free Designs Inc., a company proudly built on relationships with both clients and suppliers, cultivated over the last 25 years. A graduate of the Mount Royal College Interior Design program, Nyla brings extensive knowledge, experience and integrity to each project. Her design approach is always one with a high level of respect for clients needs and budget. With travel an immense source of inspiration and education, Nyla’s bags are always packed and ready for any adventure.

  Maria Kovach and her full-service boutique interior design firm are here for you during each step of your design project. Serving in Madison, Wisconsin, and surrounding areas, her specialties lie in design for the home. From individual rooms to entire homes, she can take charge in full-scale remodels or incorporate those vital final touches that make a room sing.

She is a member of the National Association of Remodeling Industry (NARI), a NARI Certified Remodeling Project Manager, a licensed general contractor and serves on the board of her local National Kitchen and Bath Association chapter.

  Christine Kohut was dubbed the Design Ninja a few years ago by a client and the nickname stuck. She uses her ninja skills to create stylishly comfortable spaces for her clients, believing that there is an art to making a house your home. She is known for her humor as much as her decorating sense, which is showcased in her social media. She loves things that are beautiful yet practical, luxurious yet realistic, tasteful but not too serious. An avid learner of the latest technology and trends in design, she enjoys being able to share her finds as a Modenus Design Hound.

  Carla Aston is a Texas based interior designer with a boutique design firm in The Woodlands, a northern suburb of Houston, focusing primarily on remodel design. A BFA in Interior Design and 9 years working in architectural design firms provide her with a strong, practical background.

Carla’s design blog, Designed w/Carla Aston, is where she shares her passion for interior design with tips, project reveals, and all kinds of design goodness with her readers. She also writes ebook guides for sale on her website consisting of some of the most common design dilemmas she has encountered through the years.

  A design and color expert, Kristie Barnett has written 1,100+ articles and a top-selling book on home staging. She has been a featured writer for Houzz.com, Everyday Home magazine, and The Tennessean newspaper. Having trained over 150 home stagers, Kristie serves as Regional VP of the Real Estate Staging Association®. She was voted 2017 Redesigner of the Year and 2016 Innovative Product of the Year. Kristie developed exterior color palettes and color education for LPSmartSide®, and her design work has appeared in Southern Living, Better Homes & Gardens, This Old House, Romantic Homes, Washington Post, etc.

  Erica Islas is the founder and principal designer at EMI Interior Design, Inc., a full service interior design firm in Los Angeles since 2000.  A modernist at heart, Erica’s interiors are timeless and fun. “Form follows function” is Erica’s guiding philosophy. She approaches every project from an architectural perspective, never sacrificing usability and comfort. Her interiors are innovative, inviting and ultimately functional.  Known for her incredible Kitchens and Bathroom renovations, challenges such as small spaces and children’s rooms are welcome and embraced by Erica and her staff, as they creatively transform some of the smallest most unusable spaces to multi-functional rooms. Erica’s design work has been featured in Dwell Magazine , Real Kitchens, Real Simple Magazine, HGTV magazine and Smalls Rooms Magazine . Erica has also appeared on HGTV design shows and her pro-bono work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times.

  LeAnne Bunnell Interiors is a full-service boutique interior design studio working in Calgary and around western Canada since 2003. LeAnne and her crack team pride themselves on strong relationships and creating spaces that clearly resonate with  the clients they work with.

‘We believe you should love where you live everyday. We believe you shape your home and, in turn, your home shapes you. We believe in luxury and indulgence and that means different things to different people. We believe that it’s never wrong if you love it. We believe in candlelight, fresh flowers and pillows.’

  Sharon McCormick, principal of Sharon McCormick Design, LLC, is known nationally as “The Senior Executive’s Designer”. Her work is classic, colorful, and curated.

Sharon’s background as a CFO and CPA has uniquely qualified her to understand the time demands placed on senior executives. Her clients trust her team to execute their luxury interior design projects from beginning to end, while staying on budget, and with minimum disruption to their schedules.

Sharon McCormick Design has won two Greater Washington, D.C. Great American Living Awards, and the firm’s projects have been published in national and international magazines, as well as several books.

  Whether in the process of building a new home, tackling a renovation or transforming a living space, Jennifer Stoner provides high-level services to manage project details and effectively execute a plan of action.  She takes a team approach to these “Conception to Completion” projects, by being involved from the blue-print stage through installing the final piece of artwork.  Jennifer believes that the collaborative efforts of the architect, builder and interior designer will ultimately lead to the best finished product.  She achieved immediate success when she began working in the design industry over 18 years ago, by working on a vast array of projects, with varying degrees of scale and style.  Her projects have been featured on HGTV and TLC, as well as been published in several shelf magazines including Traditional Home Magazine, Home & Design Magazine, and Richmond Magazine, among others.

  Educated in Paris and New York in architectural design and interior design, Mary Douglas Drysdale is one of America’s most published designers as well as, being a frequent NKBA award winner. Her work has graced the covers of Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, K+BB, Kitchen Trends, Veranda, Southern Home and many other magazines. She was voted this year by her mid-Atlantic group to the Interior Design Hall of Fame, won regional NKBA first place for large bath, was a top ten finisher in the Modenus Top Design Influencer competition, and has been selected by High Point Market as a Style Spotter for 2018. In 2016 Drysdale was given the first ever ELEVATE award for the nation’s top designer working in the realm of traditional design. She is known for her strong ability with architectural detail and an original and memorable use of color. Her client base is from Boston to Miami and she works as a cross over designer, designing the total renovation of a house with a specialty in both kitchen and bath, as well as, the decorative elements required to furnish and decorate the entire house. Drysdale is a firm that is well recognized for its work, over a period of over 25 years. Mary Douglas Drysdale is a hands on designer maintaining the direction of design and details for every project she takes on

  Passionately living at the intersection of beautiful design and innovative technologies, Carmen Maria Natschke melds her love of art, architecture, interiors and travel with digital publishing platforms – her own at The Decorating Diva, and for premium design and lifestyle brands and media.

As an award-winning retail visual merchandiser with a whirlwind stint as a software engineer on NASA’s Space Shuttle program, Carmen delights in bringing a fresh perspective on design and lifestyle topics to her international audience as well as to her diverse business clients that rely on Carmen’s style aesthetic, and editorial artistry combined with her savvy analytical abilities and social and digital media expertise. Join Carmen online at: Twitter, Instagram, Facebookand Pinterest or her website.

  Sheri Bruneau is an Interior Design Professional from Calgary, Alberta.  Sheri’s company, Get It Together, offers full service renovations for her clients.  Whether it is a bathroom, kitchen, basement or full-home renovation, there is no space too small or too large for Sheri.

You can often hear Sheri talk about how function is number one on her priority list and once that functional design has been finalized, then Sheri takes that function and makes it pretty.  Utilizing technology, Sheri creates 3D design renderings that allow her clients to virtually see their space prior to any hammer being swung.  Sheri prides herself on her processes that allow clients to fully be involved throughout the process.  Through the budgeting stage right through to the construction calendar, Sheri’s clients are always informed with the renovation progress.

  Elizabeth Scruggs is a general contractor, interior decorator, and real estate stager. Focusing on kitchens and baths, she has been recognized as Wilson County’s Best Decorator four consecutive years, and finalist for Best Building Contractor those same years. In 2017, she released her first book which she co-authored with other industry experts.  Elizabeth is on the Board of Directors of the Nashville Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction, Tennessee State President of the Real Estate Staging Association, and a member of NKBA and IDS. Elizabeth resides in Tennessee with her husband of 26 years, twin girls and young son.

  Voted one of Atlanta’s Top 20 Residential Interior Designers by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Kandrac & Kole has been featured on HGTV as well as in The New York Times, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, Southern Lady Magazine, Atlanta Home Magazine, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Better Homes & Gardens and Southern Home Magazine. Kandrac & Kole has established a reputation well known for their approachable, dynamic personalities, their signature use of color, and their one of a kind, custom designs.

Popular bloggers, Joann Kandrac & Kelly Kole have been sharing upbeat and entertaining narratives regarding their design projects, travels and personal stories since 2009.  Joann and Kelly’s love and commitment to the power of interior design also extends towards their charity work throughout the U.S. and Guatemala.

  As the principal of Lisa Mende Design in for over two decades, Lisa is known for her bold, modern interiors rooted in tradition.   Her portfolio includes a vast range of projects that include everything from historic preservation to new construction. A member of Thermador and DXV by American Standards Design Councils, Lisa is an Allied Member of ASID, WithIt, and NKBA. She has been published in local, regional and national magazines such as Traditional Home, Atlanta Home and Lifestyles, and Southern Cottages. In 2009 Lisa founded her blog which is read by peer designers and consumer home enthusiasts throughout the US in major design cities like Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and countries around the world. As a tastemaker, readers look to Lisa’s blog for the latest in trends, and market finds. She has been privileged to serve on Modenus Blogtour London, Frankfurt, and Los Vegas KBIS. Follow her Designhound adventures on instagram, Facebook and twitter at lisamendedesign

   Luxury grounded in tradition and punctuated by on-trend style is interior designer Liza Jones’ hallmark. Since 2000, her Northern Virginia-based firm, Liza Jane Interiors, has transformed how her clients experience living in their homes, bringing them joy by creating environments that offer beauty, functionality, and comfort.

Working both in new construction, as well as homes that have stood for generations, Liza yields truly timeless designs, blurring the lines of past and present with thoughtful mixes of antiques and current styles. Her editorial-worthy spaces feel intrinsically home-y to her clients as she expertly brings together the universal principles of good design and deeply personal items, such as original artwork that moves their very souls.

Liza’s blog, Inspired Living, is in itself a study in luxury as she unpacks the worlds of design, art, travel, and fine living for her readers around the globe.

Because we believe the design process is as important as the results, we are a reliable, service-driven company with the highest standards of quality, integrity, and honesty. Our clients’ satisfaction is our first priority.

  Phoebe Oldrey; is an interior designer, blogger and the founder of Smartstyle Interiors . She is on a serious mission to create spaces that look great, function beautifully, and feel fantastic for the people who live and work in them. We call this holistic interior design and it means that all the different parts of a client’s interiors and lifestyle are connected to create stunning thoughtful places just right for them. This ethos is at the core of everything Phoebe and Smartstyle Interiors stands for. Last summer Phoebe share her passion in her TED X talk “It’s not about the beanbag  – The hidden power of Interior Design!”

  Jana Donohoe has been practicing interior design for over 13 years in North Carolina, the last 4 of which have been at the helm of Jana Donohoe Designs. Known for her signature design aesthetic of “casually tailored living”, Jana specializes in blending luxury and practicality to deliver sophisticated residential living that stands up to the rigors of everyday life. She has been featured in numerous publications both locally and nationally, and has left an imprint on her community while heading the design team of a non-profit foundation comprised of internationally recognized personalities and Fortune 500 companies committed to creating a therapeutic retreat for military families.  A consummate design professional, Jana is a member of ASID. When Jana is not designing interiors she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, baking and trying all things chocolate and coffee.

  Laurel Bern is an award-winning New York Interior Designer, blogger, brand ambassador and keynote speaker. Laurel’s design work has been featured in national as well as Westchester County shelter magazines. She is known for a having a young-traditional aesthetic and is one to buck many of the current trends unless, they happen to be classic favorites.

However, after 21 years as the principal designer in her firm Laurel Bern Interiors, she has turned her focus to blogging as a full-time occupation. Her award-winning blog, Laurel Home has drawn a large following due to her candid style of writing, useful information and warm community of readers.

In addition to designing and blogging, Laurel has authored three helpful online interior design guides, for professionals and design enthusiasts alike.

  As a freelance interiors trade show reporter, you’ll find Mary Middleton at some of the biggest European interiors trade shows such as Maison & Objet, London Design Festival and Milan Design Week – you might even have seen her contributions in Interior Design Magazine (Sandow publishing), The Milan Report and Metro. Mary writes weekly on her blog hellopeagreen.com where she uses her background as a trained interior designer to shed some light on trends in décor, new to market products and promote the use of colour in our homes. She’s an avid world traveller, a Pinterest​ addict and a lover of form, function and colour.

  Maria Killam is an internationally sought-after colour expert as well as the CEO and founder of Understanding Undertones.

Her experience as a design blogger, author, trainer and decorator has shown her arguably to be the most influential colour specialist of her day.

Her groundbreaking and innovative colour classifications transform how design enthusiasts and professionals alike learn how to accurately diagnose and describe colour and then how to apply colour successfully in all aspects of interior design and decoration.

Her proprietary system of Understanding Undertones is the cornerstone of her work in the world of colour, unlocking the secret of managing often-mysterious neutrals and their undertones.

Maria has been published in Style at Home, Canadian Living, Better Homes and Gardens and Dabble, her work has also been featured in Apartment Therapy, HGTV and House Beautiful, among other publications.

She has also been nominated for the 2015 WithIt Education Award and her blog has been featured, five times, in The Washington Post. Maria’s work has won the Best of Houzz awards for design and service in 2014 – 2017

  Heather Jenkinson is an Interior Designer, working on high end residential and commercial projects, in London. Following her training, at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, she set up her own design practice in 2006. Her favourite aspect of the design process, is working closely with her clients, creating stylish homes that reflect the people they are, and with an enhanced and organised approach of living. Being a modernist, at heart, Heather’s design style is recognised for it’s carefully considered proportions, and quiet, understated interiors. Aside from running a busy practice, she travels widely, on a neverending search for inspired colour work and beautiful lighting. Heather is active on social media, you can follow along with her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

  Sarah Wilson has had a love of interior design for as long as she can remember. After a 10-year career in IT, she returned to school in 2013. She attended Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in LA and received an AA, Interior Design, Professional Designation.

Sarah opened her business shortly after graduation, March 2015. Her first client was in June of 2105 with a kitchen remodel and she’s been working on spaces for clients ever since then.

She has worked really hard on her visibility and also getting referral from old clients. She loves what she does and she loves working with people to transform their houses into homes.

  from Julian Mouton Updates http://www.modenus.com/blog/interiordesign/blogtourkbis-2018-meet-the-team

[thecyberfront]

How Cybersecurity prepares for maintainable income development

Kerri Fry Data is control. It is likewise a wellspring of benefit, regardless of whether it's client information, licensed innovation or money related data. Securing this income stream ought to be need one for the C-suite. Furthermore, it is – for the CSO, CISO, CIO or other security-disapproved of administrators. For CEOs, CFOs and others with budgetary obligations, the case for putting resources into cybersecurity isn't so obvious.

Actually, it's a remarkable turn around. Any cost not straightforwardly affecting efficiency or enhancing edges is viewed as a range for lessened spending keeping in mind the end goal to enhance gainfulness. Very regularly, in any case, C-suite officials will compromise in their cybersecurity framework to spare a couple of fast dollars, just to endure the outcomes of an information break or other system issue not far off. The fleeting cost funds from holding back on foundation, staff or different assets, or not playing out a hazard evaluation, are supplanted with a long haul affect on profit.

This originates from the outlook that slicing cost is equivalent to producing income. With regards to cybersecurity, the C-suite needs to move point of view and see income from the outside in. For instance, an information break is a diminishment of income, not only a cost to the business in fines. That is on the grounds that a rupture brings about loss of put stock in, restrictive data, exchange insider facts and purchaser certainty. Then again, putting resources into cybersecurity and break readiness makes trust, helps purchaser certainty and prompts development – all generators of income.

Putting forth the Defense for Cybersecurity

Luckily, it is feasible for taken a toll cognizant administrators to see the money related advantages of a strong, very much contributed cybersecurity act. This should be possible with a well-thoroughly considered coordinated security program without burning up all available resources. Amid my years in back, I've seen CEOs and CFOs hold onto cybersecurity as basic to development. Here's the secret:

Influence cybersecurity to some portion of your association's DNA. Presidents set the tone for an association. On the off chance that they lead in light of security, their workers will take after. This best down approach guarantees security is incorporated all through the association and elevates a cooperative way to deal with chance administration – instead of putting obligation on the IT group, CISO, or CTO.

There are a few approaches to influence security to some portion of your association's way of life. IT security can perform social building tests and talk about outcomes. They can make security preparing fun and charming, yet practical and simple to actualize. Reliable preparing programs that are intuitive influence representatives to feel like they are learning, rather than having their hands slapped. Group building exercises, for example, dark colored sack cybersecurity snacks or update cards for workers can keep cybersecurity mindfulness best of psyche. Transparently incorporating security into discussions and gatherings – for instance, examining the most recent information breaks in the news and how they happened – is a decent approach to feature stick phishing, malware and the social spilling of data, and talk through how to limit these dangers. Making a comprehensive and positive organization culture can likewise moderate displeased workers and ruptures.

Comprehend the genuine advantages. To welcome the estimation of cybersecurity, be set up to legitimize the expenses. Archiving them well will enable CFOs to comprehend the expenses of compromising. A couple of more tips:

- Use a dependable strategy for computing cybersecurity budgetary advantages.

- Think fresh from conventional ROI philosophies. Consider having a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) done to help assess your association's redone needs. A BIA gives a strategy to characterize how particular hierarchical units and capacities (for this situation, IT) considerably bolster the achievement of the association's central goal and to measure the outcomes of problematic occasions, breaks, and other unfavorable events. The procedure requires huge partner inclusion with a specific end goal to be viable. The coordinated effort required guarantees that the conclusions drawn mirror the information and aptitude of the association's partners.

- Know your dangers and the expenses of those dangers. A hazard or hole evaluation can help you unmistakably distinguish these.

- Understand the normal money related misfortunes from a rupture or other danger, including the expenses of lost clients and protection rates and appraisals.

- Know the arrangements accessible to relieve or stay away from these dangers – and the "timeframe of realistic usability" of these arrangements.

Assess foundation from a development and life span point of view. With an end goal to cut costs, it might entice to buy end-of-life or end-of-offer framework. That is a major mix-up. To comprehend your actual money saving advantage picture, it's basic to compute the cost of your hazard and the life span of your framework. Basically spending less now just to supplant everything in a few years will just cost more over the long haul. Furthermore, dissect your three-to five-year business direction and manufacture cybersecurity foundation and strategies from the earliest starting point for development.

Work with a trusted accomplice to give oversaw security administrations. Your merchant ought to have a profundity of security involvement with an accomplished, trusted and security-ensured staff. A decent oversaw security administrations supplier (MSSP) will be an accomplice, working together amongst security and IT, making a dynamic where security enables the IT to group see its blind sides. Since cybersecurity is a hot industry, many are utilizing the term to advance their business – despite the fact that they have few or no qualified, experienced workers. In the event that you don't have the financial plan for a committed IT staff, at that point a respectable security administrations merchant can work with you to guarantee that all gadgets are stayed up with the latest with the most recent firmware and security patches/discharges. They can likewise perform basic yearly or half-yearly appraisals – basic to overseeing dangers and recognizing holes.

Plan for an information break. Let's be honest, we live in reality, and about all associations will unavoidably confront an information rupture. Guarantee your association has a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan which incorporates an episode reaction design and that it's stayed up with the latest and tried yearly. This mitigates the harm and recover your association up and running with clear heading amidst a very upsetting circumstance.

The time is past due for cybersecurity to wind up noticeably a need for the C-suite. Instead of a vital insidiousness or a simple place to cut costs, cybersecurity is basic to an association's money related wellbeing and gainfulness. What is the arrival? Buyer and client put stock in, development and development. Information breaks and other security dangers put profitable data in danger, which can cost a business valuable income as far as downtime, loss of purchaser certainty and decreased trust. Then again a solid cybersecurity act secures significant resources and makes an energetic workspace where development and advancement can flourish.

[bethevenyc]

What This 66-Year-Old Model Learned on a Commune: 'Women Bring the Joy to the Table'

Cindy Joseph is a model, makeup CEO, and inspiration to women of all ages. (Photo: Heather Westin)

After more than two decades as a professional makeup artist who worked with top models around the country, Cindy Joseph, found herself in an alternate reality: in front of the camera instead of behind it.

That’s because a casting agent approached her on the street — when Joseph was just shy of 50 — wanting her to pose for a Dolce & Gabbana campaign to be shot by Steven Meisel. She was surprised but not deterred, and thus began Joseph’s flourishing, late-in-life career with Ford Models, which has made her the face of brands from J. Crew to Olay, Aveda, and Ann Taylor — always recognizable by her proud mane of silver hair.

Now, at 66, she’s also the CEO of Boom by Cindy Joseph, a pared-down, “pro-age” skin and cosmetics line consisting of natural moisturizers and color sticks.

So how did someone in the thick of the beauty industry become known for her all-natural look, her embracement of aging, and an outlook on life that is downright crunchy?

You could start by crediting her free-and-easy California upbringing, but those roots were only further strengthened through an adult experience: living as part of a commune for nearly six years. The intentional community — Lafayette Moorehouse, founded in 1968 and still going strong — first counted Joseph as a resident in 1999, when she lived for several years at its Yonkers, NY, outpost. Most recently, she spent time living at its original Lafayette, Calif. location with her husband Bruce, a semi-retired contractor, now the CFO and COO of Boom, whom she married in an intimate ceremony just four years ago, with her two grown children on hand to celebrate.

Cindy Joseph. (Photo: Chuck Baker)

The newlyweds recently settled into a new home in Cold Spring, NY, to be closer to East Coast friends and family — prompting Yahoo Beauty to chat with Joseph about all things beautiful and healthy, and the idea of finding pleasure in everything you do.

You learned a lot from your time on the commune. What can you tell us about the “pleasure principal” approach to life you nurtured there?

We live in a pain oriented society. In a nutshell, that means we relate with each other over pain — we can complain to our neighbors, friends, or strangers about how horrible the weather is or our health is, then they jump in and start complaining, too, and the conversation goes on forever. If you talk to someone about your success, or how well life is going, they might say, “Oh, that’s great.” But if you go on for very long, they become suspicious, like, why are they telling me this, are they bragging? What’s going on?

Another example is how, if you have a job and you’re working and your mother dies, it’s “take the week off, no problem.” You got stuck in traffic and have a flat tire? No problem. Sick? No problem. But if you said, “This is the first sunny day we’ve had in three months and I’m going to the beach,” they’d be like, “Well don’t bother coming back.” The more this was explained to me, the more I was like, “wow.”

Cindy Joseph in a D&G ad. (Photo: Dolce & Gabbana)

  Then [the folks at the commune] described how women are pleasure-oriented and men are goal-oriented, and that’s just how we’re wired. My whole life I felt like I wasn’t disciplined enough, focused enough, wasn’t enough like a guy. And when they said, “You are pleasure-oriented,” I felt like the shackles had been cut free… Women bring the party to the table — we bring the joy, the fun, and men respond to it. And your sexual orientation doesn’t matter. [The commune founders] discovered that when the women weren’t happy, everyone was miserable. So I decided I was going to start living my life according to pleasure — which they decided is a really strict discipline, as you have to really tune in, slow down, and pay attention to what feels good.

How did you work on this discipline?

I started taking better care of myself — taking bubble baths, paying attention to what I was eating. Instead of racing through the day with all these goals, I stopped to smell the roses. And the more I did that the more my persona really changed. That’s when I threw away the bottle of dye and let my hair grow out, and started enjoying my age.

Why do you think that’s such a challenge for most women of a certain age?

As we stand in front of the mirror, which is where we usually stand to criticize ourselves and fix, fix, fix, [the women of the commune] taught me to stand in front of the mirror and find something I could approve of, even if it was one small thing — my right eyebrow arch, my cryptic smile, my front tooth, my ankle, whatever you can find. And what’s fascinating about that is as soon as you find one thing right and approve of it, you suddenly see something else and something else. Women become more beautiful under approving attention — “Oh, your hair’s so pretty!” “You’ve got such a cute smile!” “Wow, that was a very profound thought you just shared with me!” We come alive, we eat it up — it’s delicious to us. It’s what started happening to me.

Cindy Joseph. (Photo: Heather Westin)

And what were the immediate effects?

I mean, I certainly didn’t fit the status quo of the modeling world. I was 49 years old — I was under five-foot eight, my hair was gray. Hello! I had crow’s feet! I had all those things, and was approached on the street and asked to model. I was in studios all my life and no one had ever said I should get in front of a camera.

Lafayette Moorehouse seems to have a nagging reputation as being a sex cult…

I like to say, “Yes, I got this tattoo, and they injected me with this weird stuff, and I’m part of the cult.” It’s so ridiculous, but people are nervous and, back to pleasure, hedonism, “the devil” — it’s gotten a really, really bad rap for a couple centuries, in our country as well as England… But I’m following me and I’m following what I’m interested in, and if everyone did the same and put more attention on their own path than everybody else’s, we’d probably be getting along much better.

It was so much fun living there, and you could talk about what you wanted everyday, including sensuality and sexuality. [In our society] there’s sex everywhere, porn everywhere, yet if you sit down and really talk about it in a practical manner, people get all squirmy. I loved that it was just as normal as brushing your teeth.

(Photo: Melanie Acevedo)

Are you still modeling at all?

I just came back from a four-day shoot for Coolibar SPF sunscreen clothing, and I was just up for a couple campaigns, one for Buick, one for Nivea, but I’m slowing it down a bit, because I’m focusing on other things. I don’t need to model for a living anymore, I’m making a living from running my company. But I still think it’s really import for women of my age to be in advertising, for women of all ages, so I’m continuing for that reason. I’m just not accepting as many jobs.

How do you square your all-natural hippie vibe with modeling and beauty, which seem incompatible?

I love that question! I’ve thought about it a lot, because [for much of my life] I rejected hair and makeup and all of that, and had hairy legs and hairy underarms. And then I started thinking about humankind, and how we’ve been decorating our bodies from day one — with piercing and scarring and tattoos and braiding — and we have been playing dress-up for a very, very long time. So when people say it’s not natural, I think it’s very natural. However, the motivation behind what we’re doing has changed — at least in Western society — and it’s about fixing something that’s wrong, rather than celebrating what we already are and have. We’re doing it to try to fix flaws and conceal things, and that’s the part I don’t agree with. And I won’t take jobs that are based on that premise. I won’t do it. I have never done a hair-dye job, I have never done anti-aging skin cream.

When I decided to be a makeup artist I thought, I’m going to get into the very industry that played with and challenged my self image and my self-esteem — and if I’m in the position where I have credibility in the world of beauty, people are going to listen to me more seriously than if I’m just Jane Doe down the street criticizing all those models and the fashion industry. I can now say I was behind the scenes, I’ve worked with all the famous models, I know how long it took to make them look like they had flawless complexions. And they’re all people, and they have the same highs and lows and challenges and emotional pain and joys that everybody has. And people listen to me, because I have the credibility. So it’s a powerful position, with a lot of responsibility.

Related:

Sexy & Grey: 13 Women Who Prove That One Does Not Negate the Other

Tia Mowry Embraces Her Gray Hair in Glamorous Selfie

How My Kids’ Blunt Observations Have Helped Me Age With Grace