#i remember when i first watched it i was procrastinating a very complicated project

[vuelode-irbis]

Been wanting to draw some fanart for Poor George MAP since it's my favorite one, and because it was its anniversary recently, I finally did it :>

ID: A digital drawing in two panels with characters from Warriors. In the panel above, there's Yellowfang watching Brokenkit play with a moss ball, she looks endearingly at the little kit; they're in a green environment and plants surround them. In the panel below, Yellowfang is in the same possition, looking down at an adult Brokenstar at her feet, already dead, she looks sorrowful. Fireheart is by her side, looking at her with compassion. They're at ThunderClan's medicine den.

[bbhyeoliskooks]

Hi, could you make a scenario when one day txt wake up with cat/dog ears and tails on them? I was thinking of this bc I saw how taejun are called 냥냥즈 (kittenz XD) and the rest are 댕댕즈 (puppiez XD). Thank you so much and also, I love your carrd XD

﹡⊹﹡ 𝟐𝟒 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬, 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐏𝐞𝐭? ﹡⊹﹡

Cat boys and dog boys were certainly the end of you... 

﹤⳾⳾⳾ U・ﻌ・U ..﹡⊹﹡.. ໒・ﻌ・७  ⳾⳾⳾﹥

Genre: 9 3/4 cups of fluff !!

Warnings: Unedited~~

Song: Cat and Dog

(Omg, I'm so sorry that this took so long! As you can expect, this girl who wrote it had a project right here and needed to do it before the due date since she procrastinated??? Yes that, but i'm so sorry that it’s a bit short too :cc However, I hope you enjoy! I wrote this in an hour, so I hope it’s good enough !)

﹤⳾⳾⳾  /ᐠܻܻ   ့⑅ܻᐟ\  ..﹡⊹﹡..（๑´ﻌ｀๑）⳾⳾⳾﹥

"Y/N, Y/N! Wake up, please wake up!"

At eight am in the morning, the side of your cheek was being tickled with something soft...? Something... something... wait, is that supposed to be fur? Yeonjun's velvety voice echoed through the room worriedly as if there was an important event you were missing, and you could say you were tempted to open your eyes until you remembered one, particular thing.

Groaning quietly, you turned to the side while shaking your head in annoyance. If this was another one of his pranks, you swore you were going to punch him in the gut for disrupting your beauty sleep. You shouldn't expect so much from him when you knew he should've been sleeping during this time anyway. Normally you'd gone up to help him, but after everything that happened this week it was safe to say you wanted nothing to do with him- yet. This was one of the only days you could catch up on sleep after stressing about the things you had to do, and you weren't going to lose it to some tiny prank he'll laugh about all day.

For a few moments, you thought he was finally going to leave you alone, the silence being refreshing for you to fall back into the soft arms of comfortable sleep. Well, that was until the boy screamed into your hear again.

"Y/NNN," he whined, tugging your blanket enough to make it scramble off the bed, landing on the floor with a quiet yet noticeable, ploof.

Okay, this was enough.

Throwing the pillow you were holding so dearly in your arm with a harsh grimace quickly permeating throughout your face, you were going to slap him away when you noticed that in your blurry vision... there were grey, furry cat ears on Yeonjun?

It wasn't your usual cat ears on the headband that kids bought whenever they wanted to pretend to be a feline, but those grey cat ears were seemingly attached to his head, almost as if it was sewn into the crown of his head. Stunned, you gasped at the sight, your right hand flying up to cover your dropped mouth.

His eyes were blown wide in pure innocence too, causing you to subconsciously gush at the sight. They both watched your movements intently, sparkling with what you could see mischievousness as well. From before, you knew that they were like this but... they weren't as gigantic and cute from before?!

You weren't able to stop yourself now, rubbing on his ears as he sighed in euphoria. As you expected, the ears were soft and you petted them all the more, feeling satisfied when you felt him seemingly purr due to what you assumed, your touch. He melted into your embrace, nuzzling his cheek against your neck while you giggled with delight.

"Yeonjun, what did you do? Question is, how did you do this all without me knowing?" It was at the very least to say that Yeonjun was simply adorable as his fur tickled the top of your chin, choosing to snuggle up against your chest in blissfulness.

From the corner of your eye, you could see his grey tail lazily spin around in circles while you ran your fingers through his freshly dyed, hair. You weren't sure how he became like this, but you had to admit that you weren't complaining! It was a secret to everyone that you adored cat boys and now that Yeonjun was like this, you could feel your heart swell with joy.

"I didn't do anything," he murmured, closing his eyes when you scratched the back of his ears, "I just woke up like this, next to you." A content smile spread throughout his face and you could feel your own human ears burn from how nonchalant he was about that last sentence. You couldn't recall how you didn't feel him squeeze up next to you last night while you slept soundly, but obviously there were no complaints either.

"Hey, it's alright! We'll figure this out later when all the other boys wake up. Maybe at least one of them would know these things?"

Speaking of the devil, you heard the door slam open with two of the boys running around in circles just to see you. They ceased their steps at the doorway, paralyzed when they both saw Yeonjun in your arms, stopping as if they walked into something they shouldn't have.

The amount of gasps you elicited once you saw them, gently pushing Yeonjun away from you, your steps carrying you towards Beomgyu whose sighed mixed with a low groan. His ears were ones of a golden puppy dog, twitching when you neared closer, pressing up a hand against the top of his head. Oh my goodness, talk about cuteness 1000%?!

Taehyun, on the other hand, was adorned with brown cat ears, revolving around in circles when you stared at him with wide, surprised eyes. He didn't allow you to touch his ears until you shot him a grin- a sign you weren't going to do anything bad to him. Eventually he softened up, turning his head to the side so that you wouldn't see his cherry cheeks while you petted him.

Yeonjun then stomped to the three of you, clinging onto your back with possessiveness. There wasn't anything much that happened other than him waking up with cat ears and a tail to along with that as well, but when you easily got up just to wonder thoughtlessly about their condition, he felt himself burning up from the inside with jealousy. Maybe it was his instincts that came along- like he noticed the first time you petted Beomgyu- but there was no denying he was turning green.

You laughed at the predicament, shaking your head without a care in the world. What really happened last night that you didn't know of? They couldn't have been that bored that they figured out how to appear as hybrids when they woke up.

"You guys... don't tell me that the rest of you are like this too? Because Yeonjun woke up with cat ears, although it can't get that much worse..."

You spoke too soon.

Another pair of puppy dog ears bust through the doorway, budging between the clingy bodies of Taehyun and Beomgyu while panting loudly. Your face turned white at the sight, all the warmness in your forehead disappearing without a trace. Why were you shocked at this point? If the three of them woke up with new body parts, then there would be no surprise if the rest of them did as well.

Your smile could only grow even wider, taking in the endearing pile of boys who zoomed close enough to feel their breath against your nose. Both Kai and Soobin were both playful puppies along with Beomgyu too?! Yes, and with the ears and tails too that stirred in several shapes! You held back a high-pitched scream that could possibly damage their sensitive drums. 

“Soobin...? Kai...? The same thing happened with you too?” 

They just had to be the cutest babies you’d ever seen before, despite them fiddling with their fingers in a nervous fit in fear that you weren’t going to like it.

“No, no, no! I’m the one who should protect Y/N since I was the first one she saw,” Yeonjun whined, pulling you against his chest. You fell against his warm embrace, feeling the corners of your lips turn into a tiny grin that clearly didn’t go unnoticed by the others. 

“Yeonjun, that’s not fair! You didn’t even let us get a chance with her yet!” Soobin pulled you away from Yeonjun and you giggled at the two of them fighting as Taehyun spoke up again.”

“Um first of all, we shouldn’t expect a lot from her? She wouldn’t want to be near any of your musty as-”

“Shut up Taehyun!” They all yelled, and you groaned at how complicated the problem became now.

You ran your hands over your face, the fatigue in your body definitely catching up after staying up to turn in an important document. All of this yelling back and forth about who was going to spend time with you got to your tiredness, and you made a suggestion of which you hoped with all your heart that they would accept. 

“Guys, I know I’m the only one who needs sleep here after staying up into the wee hours of the night, but can we please figure this out when I’m more awake? I need to get some sleep for the time being so that I can understand these things.”

You weren’t surprised when they all cuddled up against you while you tried to doze off for the nth time. 

﹤⳾⳾⳾ U・ﻌ・U ..﹡⊹﹡.. ໒・ﻌ・७  ⳾⳾⳾﹥

“Oh my gosh! They’re adorable, aren’t they?!”

“Who could’ve believed this would happen?

“Awwe, Y/N with fluffy ears? This must be a disease!”

“Beomgyu, hurry up and take some pictures!”

Kai’s voice was the last thing you heard in your sleep then you stirred, taking a look at all the boys who crowded around you. 

What was happening now? It must’ve been two hours since you dozed off, your eyes landing on the clock that read 10:47am. Tiredly, you stretched and the whispers of the boys grew louder with every second that passed. Your arms made contact with something soft and you assumed that was one of the boys ears until you felt something so foreign twitch on the top of your head. It was almost like... almost like- wait a minute!

Now the same exact thing was happening to you. 

---

Posted: 2/27/21- 5:00pm

Tags: 

[fieldsofview]

AU Yeah August Day 19: Reverse Crush & Day 20: Coffee shop - “Crushtomer”

You can check out all my fics here on AO3, and the rest of my contribution to AU Yeah August here.  If you’d rather read this on AO3 it’s here.  

Summary: 5 times barista Adrien struggles talking/flirting with the cute customer Marinette, and one time he doesn't. Pure Adrienette fluff.

-1

“Hi! What can I do for you today?”

Whap!

Adrien jumped at the sound of the card hitting the counter with a slap. The girl in front of him hunched over under the weight of her near-exploding book bag. Her loose black hair hung around her shoulders and her sunglasses reflected his own face back at himself.

“Sorry.” She pulled the glasses from her eyes and looked at him with her bright blue eyes. “Can I get a black coffee? Whatever your largest is?”

Adrien chuckled and put on his most reassuring voice. “No problem miss, having a rough day?” He took her card and swiped it through the machine before turning around to fill her coffee from the brewer urn behind him.

She rubbed her hand over her face. “Yeah, sorry. I’ve got an exam tomorrow and I’m so not ready. I don’t mean to be so grumpy.”

“Well, that’s what we’re here for. Caffeine is every student’s best friend.” He smiled at her and handed her the coffee. “Good luck!”

“Thanks.” She picked up her card and sunglasses from the counter and walked away.

With no one behind her to help, Adrien watched her go for a moment before turning around to return to his previous task of stocking straw dispensers. He pressed the button on the headset, knowing Nino had probably heard most of that interaction from where he was cleaning one of the espresso machines. “She was so cute.”

Adrien heard Nino laugh over the headset. “Black coffee girl? Yeah, she was. What’s her name?”

“I didn’t ask.” He groaned.

“Ask her next time, she comes in every day. Always gets a black coffee or a soy latte.”

“She does?”

“Nearly. Usually earlier than this though, but I think I heard her yesterday tell Rose that she quit her internship to make room for her coursework.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been one for flirting at work. It can complicate things.”

“Dude, it’s just a name. What’s the harm?”

“I guess you’re right. I’ll think about it.”

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

-2

It took two days for Adrien to see this mysterious black coffee girl again, and when he did, she looked to be in a much better mood. She came in with her hair pinned back and held herself higher. Her book bag was significantly less full, too. Again, she managed to arrive during one of the few slower moments when no one else was in line.

He smiled when he saw her. “Black coffee again?

“Oh, you remembered?” She smiled. “Actually today I’d like a soy latte if that’s alright. Just a small.” She fished through her wallet for cash this time.

“Sure thing. How’d that exam go?” He punched her order into the screen.

“Well, it went. I think I passed but it’s hard to tell with these things.”

“I bet you did great!” He saw Nino in the background sweeping the lobby of the shop. Nino stopped and looked at him pointedly. “Can I get your name, by the way?” Adrien looked down at the screen when he asked.

“Marinette.”

He typed it in. “Marinette. That’s a pretty name.” He looked up and smiled at her as they exchanged money.

“Why thank you, Adrien.” She giggled as he jumped at his name. “You have those name tags, but I bet a lot of people don’t pay attention to them, huh?”

“Oh yeah,” he glanced down at the name printed on his apron. “Most people don’t notice.”

“It was the same when I worked for my parents. People never noticed.” She glanced behind herself, where a few people had lined up waiting. “Oh! I’m sorry, I’ll get out of your way.”

It’s no trouble, Marinette. Your drink will be out in a moment.” He gestured towards the counter where they hand out most drinks. “See you soon!”

A few moments later, when Adrien had finished ringing up the last customer in line, Nino spoke to him over their headsets. “So can I be the best man at your wedding?”

“Dude!”

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

-3

The next day Marinette came back in, again asking for her soy latte. Adrien wasn’t stationed as the cashier, but rather as the barista making the drinks. She came in when there were quite a few other people, but he tried to talk to her even as he was distracted by making all the orders.

He called over the glass barrier, “Good to see you again, Marinette!”

“You too Adrien,” she called back.

He spun around to the counter behind him and worked on another customer’s iced tea. Looking over his shoulder, he said, “What’re you working on today?” He turned back around to the espresso machine so that he could steam a pitcher of milk for someone’s mocha.

“��� so it shouldn’t be too much to do.”

His distraction with the drinks and the noise of the steaming milk made him miss most of her answer. “Sorry, I couldn’t really hear that.”

She leaned forward and increased her voice. “I just was saying that I have a break before midterm exams.” She cringed a little at her volume, especially since the loud steaming stopped halfway through her sentence.

He finished off the mocha and started working on her latte. “That’s great! I don’t think I ever asked, what are you studying?”

“Fashion design and business marketing.”

“Oh wow, doubling up! Good luck to you.”

“Yeah, thanks!”

He handed the drink over to her. “Maybe I’ll, uh, be able to see something you’ve designed.” He felt very sheepish saying that.

She smiled at him, and he only just noticed the beautiful red lipstick she was wearing today. “I could do that. Maybe I-”

“Excuse me, is my nonfat vanilla latte ready? I’ve been waiting here for over 10 minutes.” A middle-aged woman leaned over the counter and looked harshly at Adrien.

He had half a mind to sass her for interrupting his conversation, but that probably wasn’t the best idea. “I’m sorry ma’am. Are you Nancy? I’m working on your drink next.” He glanced at the sticker label for her drink, saying it was only ordered 3 minutes ago, but he didn’t say anything.

The woman, Nancy, didn’t say anything, but she grumbled and hovered by the counter waiting.

“I’ll let you keep working Adrien. Thanks for the latte.” Marinette started walking away before Adrien could say anything.

He huffed and hoped he’d get to see her tomorrow with more success. And if he let Nancy’s espresso shots sit longer than the standard 3 seconds so that they would grow bitter, well, no one would know but him.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

-4

The next day, Marinette was already seated at a table when Adrien arrived to start his shift, and she had a friend with her. The two girls were laughing away over something Adrien couldn’t hear, and they’d already ordered and paid, their drinks half drank.

He'd hoped to see her later for a refill or something, but sometime while he was cleaning the restroom, she and her friend had left. He joined the other baristas behind the counter to start cleaning the floors and grumbled to himself about missing her.

“Bro just ask her out or something, this is getting ridiculous.” Nino handed him an extra headset as he spoke, obviously wanting to continue the conversation while still being able to work.

Adrien put the headset on and flicked the button before carrying one of the non-slip floor mats into the back room for cleaning. “You know I could never do that, Nino. Dating a customer would be weird. What if she turns me down? Then it’ll make working awkward. Or make her not come back, that’s bad for business.”

“You’re overthinking it. It’s just a date, and you like her. She’s a customer, so what? She’s your one crushtomer, these things don’t happen to you often.”

“Crushtomer? Seriously?” He dropped the mat with a slap.

“Hey, you know I’m right. Just ask her. The worst she can say is no.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

-5

The next time Adrien saw Marinette it was over a week later. She came in looking much like she did the first time he saw her, with her hair down and a bit frizzy. She was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and sunglasses. Her book bag was nearly exploding again. Despite all this, Adrien was excited to see her after all this time. There was no one else in line, too, so it was the perfect time for Adrien to talk to her.

With one quick look, Nino switched places with him so that he could ring her up. “Been a while, Marinette. I thought maybe you’d stopped coming.” He said it with a cheerful, teasing voice, but there was a small note of truth to it.

“I was trying to enjoy some time without exams, but it’s come back to bite me. I procrastinated too much and now I’ve got 4 midterms and a project all due in the next week.” She leaned her elbows on the countertop and rubbed her hands over her face, displacing her sunglasses.

“Oh no, I’m sorry. Black coffee today then?”

“Yeah, whatever you can give me that’s the strongest. I’m going to be here for a long time, and I haven’t slept more than 2 hours the past 2 nights.” She dropped her bag onto the counter with a thud and started fishing through it for her wallet. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking to pull my wallet out sooner.”

Without thinking, Adrien said, “It’s on me today. I’ll put a couple extra espresso shots in there for you. It seems like you’ll need it.”

Her head snapped up so she could look at him. “Are you sure? You don’t have to do that!”

“Really, Marinette, it’s fine.” He smiled at her reassuringly as he typed up the beverage and selected the button for sampling and recovery drinks. After thinking a moment, he said, “Although it might not taste too good, it’ll be quite bitter. Did you want me to put some milk or sweetener in there?”

"Whatever you think is best, Adrien. I’m sure it’ll be exactly what I need.”

He nodded and walked over to make her drink personally. When he finished he handed it to her, “Give it a taste. If it’s awful I can make you something else.”

She smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Tasting it, she said, “It’s great! I mean, you’re right, it is a little bitter, but it’s just what I need.”

“Great! Good luck working on all of that!”

She picked up her bag and started walking towards one of the empty tables. “Thank you so much, Adrien. I owe you one!”

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

+1

A few days later, Adrien was just clocking out to take his lunch break when Nino called into the back room, “Dude!”

“Yeah?” Adrien walked towards the entrance to the main floor and met Nino halfway.

“Your crushtomer is here,” Nino smirked at him.

“Aw, I just clocked out for lunch,” Adrien pouted.

Nino smiled widely. “That’s perfect! Go sit with her on your lunch!”

Adrien’s eyes grew wide, “There’s no way I could do that. I can’t interrupt.”

“Just ask! The worst she can say is no.” Nino started walking back out onto the main floor, leaving Adrien to think.

He stood there for a moment, thinking. Finally, he smiled wide, set on his plan. He ran back to where he’d left his packed lunch and water and then walked out onto the main café floor. He saw her sitting at one of the small tables at the far side of the café, and with one last deep breath, he walked straight towards her.

“Hey, Marinette.”

She jumped a little and pulled her earbuds out of her ears. “Oh, Adrien, hi.” She smiled at him.

He knew he must be flushed, but he tried not to think about it. Taking another breath, he said, “I’m on my lunch break, and, well – uh, I was wondering if, uh, can I – could I maybe sit with you?” He forcibly lifted his gaze to look at her instead of his shoes.

“Sure Adrien, I’d like that.”

Adrien’s smile didn’t leave his face for the rest of the day.

[juicy-cookie]

Through The Valley - Chapter 14

AO3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10075958/chapters/26444541

Tags: @rickdixonandthefandomlifeposts @embracetheapocalypsewithme @kinkozan @lupienne @theblack-wolf @lovingzombiechaos @dragonracer @miiraal

Pairing: Negan X OFC

Chapter Summary: People getting handsy

Word Count: 4011

“Morning George.”

“Good Morning Miss Lilly.” The older man shuffled up the hallway with his mop. “Have a good day!”

“You, too!” Lilly called back and ran down the stairs and into the cafeteria. Greeting some early eaters, she walked up to the lieutenant’s table, where Seth and Laura had already started their breakfast.

“Morning guys.”

“Mhh,” Seth grunted, not even looking up from the papers in front of him. Lilly didn’t mind. Seth was a combination of ‘Not a fucking morning person’ and ‘Master procrastinator always trying to finish his shit when it’s almost too late’.

“Morning Lil.”

“Morning Laura. What’s for breakfast?”

“Eggs with deer jerky and those fresh cucumbers.”

“We still have jerky?”

“Yeah, not much, though. Do you think you can go out again soon?”

“Sure. I can try. Gotta keep all you gluttonous savages well fed.”

“Are we talking seven sins? Because we can totally contribute.” Jax and Connor had come up behind Lilly to join them for breakfast.

“If y’all could wait with the dick talk until lunch, I’d appreciate it,” Seth grumbled from his end of the table.

Lilly grinned before a wave of sadness hit her. Her thoughts had automatically strayed to Negan and how he would have loved to join in this particular kind of conversation. But their leader had been keeping his distance lately. Lilly should have been happy that he was making it easier for her to keep him off her mind. As it were, though, she missed him terribly.

She got herself a plate of food and joined her friends again, listening half-heartedly to their conversations. Her mind was in the penthouse and by the end of their meal she was angry with herself for being unable to keep Negan out of her head.

After breakfast, the group disbanded with Lilly and Jax migrating to a picnic table outside while everyone else started to get busy with their assigned jobs. Lilly sighed a breath of relief, from both the fresh air and the prospect of having a conversation with her closest friend.

“Day off?” Lilly asked. She and Jax sat down opposite each other on the benches.

“Yep. Gotta wait for Andrei to get back here so we can make another tour of the outposts.”

“Good. I missed your stupid face.”

“Aww. So much love in one morning, I can barely breathe.”

“Everything good between you and Connor, then?”

“We actually talked about moving in together.” Jax grinned and blushed. Lilly almost squealed. “He already spends all of his time at my place, so we thought… why hog a room someone else could use?”

“Hmm, yeah. Very practical,” Lilly smirked. A seat cushion hit her square in the face.

“Enough about my love life. What about yours?”

Lilly placed the cushion on the table in front of her and laid her head on her arms. “You know I don’t have one.”

“Well that’s not exactly true, is it? You could get some if you wanted to. I’m sure Andrei would be up for it.”

“But I don’t want to get some.”

“You used to be way more relaxed about just fucking someone for fun.”

“And when was that, Jax?” Lilly looked up scowling. “Remember when I used to be like that after Brian? Going out almost every night, getting shit-faced drunk. You even held an intervention.”

“I’m not saying you should do that again. I just think you should have a bit of fun. Find a distraction. Stop all this moping.”

“I’m not moping…”

“You were moping just ten minutes ago during breakfast. I know your moping face.”

“You’re a moping face.”

They looked at each other for a moment and then chuckled.

“I suppose you have a point…”

“Thank you,” he declared with a triumphant smile.

“The greenhouse project was a good distraction. Going hunting used to be great to get my mind off things, but being alone with my thoughts turned out to be quite counterproductive. I thought I was over the whole thing.”

“Pretty sure Negan wouldn’t appreciate you calling him a ‘thing’.”

“Keep your voice down!” she hissed and glanced around the courtyard.

“Oh come on, it’s not like no one already knows about you and him.”

“There is no ‘me and him’. And Sherry and Valerie hate me enough as it is. I swear I’m going to burst into flames one of these days from the way they look at me. I just want things to calm down.”

“Fuck them. What are they going to do? Throw their bras at you?”

Lilly giggled before getting serious again. “I know you like to ridicule them, but at least Sherry does have some kind of influence here. And I don’t just mean over Negan, but Dwight, too.”

“Well fuck Dwight, too. It’s pathetic the way he stills hangs on her tit.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you think he’s moping?”

“That’s different. Dude should have more self-respect.”

“He still loves her, he can’t help it. You can’t just turn off your feelings for someone.” She looked down and started fiddling with a loose string on the cushion.

Jax sighed. “It’s just your luck that you fall in love with one of the most unavailable men. And in the fucking apocalypse, too.” Lilly’s eyebrows knit together. “What? You’re gonna deny it?”

“Love is a bit of a strong word. Especially when it comes to him.”

“Why? Because he’s the King Dick Motherfucker around here? Is there some kind of rule I’m not aware of that you’re not allowed to feel that way for him?”

“It’s complicated.”

“No, it’s not. In fact, I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.”

She looked up at him. “Bullshit. He’s happy with his wives.”

“See, I know for a fact that this, at least, is not true. Apparently, Valerie has been bitching to Connor that Negan has been ignoring them all for quite some time now.”

“Ugh, will you please stop participating in the stupid fucking gossip?”

“And I already told you that he has at least considered ditching them.”

“Oh, you wanna talk about your little heart-to-heart with Negan in the garage again?”

“No thanks,” he grimaced, “I’m still recovering from the last verbal castration. What I’m trying to tell you is, all signs point towards him having feelings for you.”

“Elementary, my dear Watson! Why are you even championing Negan so much? A man with a harem, a potty mouth and a penchant for objectophilia. Wouldn’t you want a nice, good man as a potential brother-in-law?”

“There are no more nice and good men, Lilly. At least with Negan I know that he’ll keep you safe. Besides, who else would put up with your annoying ass?” He winked at her.

“Not him, apparently. He told me that he’s done chasing me.”

“And was that before or after he tried to kiss you?” Lilly sighed and kept fiddling with the cushion. Jax put his hand over hers. “Listen, you should go do something. All this sitting around in between runs, doing nothing but brooding… it’s not good for you.”

“Yeah…” She got up. “You’re right. I’m gonna go patrol the fence for a while.”

“I thought more along the lines of yoga, or reading a book, but… okay. Oh and come over to my place tonight. We’ll have a drink, or two. Or three. Play some cards. I’ll tell Laura and Seth, too.”

“Okay,” Lilly smiled, “Thank you, Jax.”

“You know I’m always here for you, right? And if you need some more one-on-one time, just say the word. Connor won’t mind if I kick him out for a couple of hours.”

“I know. I’ll see you later.”

She ran upstairs to get her bow from her room and back down to start walking along the perimeter of Sanctuary. Lilly made sure to carefully examine every segment of the fence to look for holes. She watched the undead to see if any of them got free, or too decayed. At the greenhouses, she made a quick stop to look inside and talk to the gardening crew before resuming her walk.

When she was almost back at where she had started, she noticed that some of the barbed wire on top of the fence had become rusty. Lilly looked up and thought about telling Carson, to make sure it would be replaced, when she heard someone approaching. She glanced sideways and her heart beat faster. Apparently, the reason for her taking a walk around Sanctuary had had the same idea. She figured he would pass her without a word and she kept her eyes stubbornly on the fence, but he stopped next to her, his leather jacket brushing her arm. They stood like this for a while in silence.

“What the fuck are we looking at?”

“The fence. The barbed wire up there needs to be replaced.”

“Oh… thought you’d seen a funny shaped cloud. Giant flying dick in the sky or something.”

Lilly tried her best to keep it in, but it was no use. She snorted with laughter for what felt like the first time in weeks. When she had calmed down, she looked up at him and saw him smiling down at her. Their eyes met and his face changed to an almost sad look. Lilly turned her head back to the fence. The walkers on the other side had become active at the noise she had made. She watched them squirm and groan when she felt his hand slip into hers. Their fingers intertwined. His thumb stroked over her skin. Lilly kept her eyes on the undead, a lump forming in her throat and she let go of him to take a step back.

“I uhm… I gotta go find Carson. Tell him about the fence.”

“Sure. Yeah. I’ll see you around.”

She gave him another half-smile and walked around the corner to go back inside through the side entrance. Her path was blocked by someone.

“Oh sorry, didn’t see you there Sherry.” The other woman merely looked at her, her face unreadable. “Uhhh… do you mind? I gotta go find Carson.”

Sherry’s face split into a radiant smile. It made Lilly uneasy, but at least Sherry stepped to the side to let her pass.

“Of course. Have a nice day, Lilly.”

“Yeah. You too.” Lilly frowned. She walked up the hallway and turned around again before rounding the corner that led to the cafeteria. Sherry was still watching her. Lilly shrugged and continued her search for Carson.

That night in Jax’s room, Lilly successfully shut up the thoughts in her head with the help of her friends and a bottle of Jack Daniels.

“You know what you guys? I wanna thank you all for not making me feel like a fifth wheel. You’re all pretty awesome.” Lilly’s words were already a little slurred, but she got her message across. Even Seth broke out into an exaggerated “Awwwww.”

“You gotta bring a date next time, Lil,” Connor called over from the table where he, Jax and Seth were playing poker, “We could do some couple’s shit, like brunch or a wine tasting.”

“Or rent a cabin and do karaoke,” Seth added sarcastically.

“How about a big orgy? I mean, our options are kinda limited nowadays.” Lilly laughed at the shocked faces that came with her suggestion.

“I think you’ve been spending a little too much time with our leader.” Connor wiggled his eyebrows over his glass of whiskey.

“No, she hasn’t. Shut up Connor!” Laura was always very protective of Lilly. They put their heads back together to continue their whispered conversation on Jax’s bed.

“It all comes down to the wives, doesn’t it? I mean, you’d be game if it wasn’t for them, right?”

“At this point? Fuck yeah. And you know what, and I really need you to keep this between the two of us…”

“Of course, Lil.”

“...but I’m drunk enough tonight to just get it over with and fuck him. Just… walk into his room and climb that big, muscly, hard…”

“Okay, okay, I got the message…” Laura interrupted her with a look of thinly veiled disgust.

“What? You can’t deny he’s attractive.”

“Not really my type. I mean… he’s got an OK face, I guess. Needs some tattoos, though.”

“On his face?”

Laura giggled, a sound that stood in stark contrast to her tough looks. “You’re too drunk, Lil.”

“No, I’m not!”

“You’re right. Here, have some more.” She poured Lilly another glass. “I know you’re talking out of your ass, by the way. If you just wanted to fuck him, you would have done so ages ago.”

“Let me keep lying to myself, okay? That way it’s easier to lie to others, too. Including him.”

“You know what, though… if he’s not willing to get rid of those bitches, he’s not worth your time.”

“Don’t call them that.” Lilly frowned into her drink. “By the way, I ran into Sherry today. She was acting so weird.”

“Isn’t that kind of her default? On no, wait, default is bitchy. Can you believe that she went into the kitchen this week and demanded they add more meat to the wives’ plates from now on?”

“Oh shit, that reminds me… I gotta go hunting tomorrow.” Lilly climbed off the bed to the protests of everyone in the room. “Hey, you can either have drunk and tired me for a couple more hours, or some juicy meat tomorrow night…”

“I know I’m already gonna get some juicy meat tonight,” Jax piped up and grinned at Connor.

“Aaaaand, that’s my cue. See you guys tomorrow.” Lilly bade them all goodnight and staggered to her room, congratulating herself on not getting lost in the courtyard, or in the many halls of the Sanctuary.

Grateful for the numbing buzz the whiskey had caused, she quickly got into bed to take advantage of the drunken tiredness and hopefully get a couple of hours of sleep.

It was still the middle of the night when she woke up again. Her first thought was that she had had a nightmare. Her heart was racing and cold sweat broke out on her entire body.

Lilly opened her eyes with her mind wide awake and her body trying to catch up as fast as it could. Her stomach felt like she had just downed a glass of ice cold water. Looking around frantically, she slipped her hand underneath her pillow to reach for her knife. All she found were the wrinkles in her sheets. A shadow slipped into her periphery and suddenly, someone was on top of her and Lilly hissed from the sharp pain on her neck. She immediately calmed the violent movements that had been her first instinctual reaction.

“That’s right bitch, you better calm the fuck down before I slit your throat,” a woman’s voice snarled.

Lilly tried to adjust her eyes to the darkness by concentrating on the lighter spots on her attacker’s form. Lots of exposed skin, long hair. The legs straddling Lilly were naked. She heard the sound of leather creaking with every one of the woman’s breaths. A wife? But not Sherry, nor Amber.

“Listen, I don’t have anything of value. I don’t know who you are. Please, just let me go and leave. No one will know about this.”

“Oh, but you’ve got something of value. Your pretty face. Once it’s gone, he won’t look at you again.”

The pain left Lilly’s neck and went to her cheek right next to her ear. Her left hand shot up and slapped the intruder’s arm out of the way, while her right fist sunk into her stomach. The woman’s body doubled over. She used the moment to fumble for the knife, barely registering slicing her palm open when she tried to pry open the hand holding the weapon. Lilly threw another punch into the darkness, not even knowing where it went. A grunt of pain and the woman’s fingers opened just enough for Lilly to pull out the knife. She stabbed the blade into a patch of pale skin. A scream of pain and Lilly threw off her attacker. She scrambled over her bed to her nightstand and switched the camping light on.

Valerie was lying on the crumpled, bloody mess that was Lilly’s bed, holding her right shoulder. She was wailing and cursing.

“You killed me you fucking bitch,” Valerie cried and looked up at Lilly.

“Calm down, you’re not dying.” But Lilly felt the first prickling stabs of panic travelling up her spine. The realization of what had just happened hit her with full force, now that the immediate threat to her life was gone. She heard the door behind her fly open and spun around, knife at the ready.

“Holy shit! What happened?” Laura stared wide-eyed at the scene before her.

“Lilly tried to kill me. She stabbed me,” Valerie whimpered from the bed.

“You tried to mutilate my face. You attacked me,” Lilly yelled.

“Give me the knife, Lil. Let’s just calm down, okay?” Laura held out her hand and Lilly handed over her knife. Behind Laura, Dwight and Seth burst into the room, their sleepy faces contorting in shock when they saw the scene in and around Lilly’s bed.

“Oh shit…”

“What the fuck?”

“We heard screaming. Shit Lil, you’re bleeding.”

Lilly didn’t even register who was talking. She sat down between her bed and her nightstand, her back to the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest, her face in her hands.

“Laura, stay with her. I’ll take Val to Fisher.”

“And I’ll go get Negan.”

The room went silent. Lilly heard a cupboard door opening and closing and then someone sat down in front of her. Gentle fingers tried to pry away her hands from her face.

“Come on Lilly. Let me have a look at you.” Laura rummaged in the first aid kit and came back with some gauze and a bottle of iodine. Lilly stared at her palms. Blood was seeping out from the cut on her left hand. Her whole body started to shake violently.

“I didn’t want to hurt her. She tried to cut my face. I didn’t…”

“Okay. It’s okay Lilly. Looks like she didn’t just try.” Laura dabbed the gauze on the wound right next to Lilly’s ear. The resulting burning was a welcomed sensation. “Those cuts look nasty. I think you need stitches.”

Lilly looked up at Laura. Her face was pale and full of concern.

“What’s going to happen now?”

“I don’t know, Lil. We have to wait for Negan. For what it’s worth, I believe you. I know you would never hurt anyone just out of nowhere.” Laura continued cleaning Lilly’s wounds. She wrapped a bandage around Lilly’s hand, but she couldn’t do anything for the cut on her face for now.

Laura had just put a blanket around Lilly, when they heard heavy footsteps barreling up the hallway. Lilly couldn’t bring herself to look up when they stopped in her doorway. She was back to watching her palms and the dark red spot blossoming on the white bandage.

“Valerie attacked her. She was just defending herself.”

“Get the fuck out Laura.”

“But…”

A moment of silence. A different, lighter set of footsteps leaving the room and closing the door. A heavy sigh and then the sound of someone sitting down on the bed next to where Lilly was crouching.

“Will she be okay?” Lilly whispered and started dabbing her index finger into the red spot on her bandage. A large hand closed around hers to keep her from messing with her wound.

“She’ll live.” The hand pulled away again. “I need you to tell me exactly what happened in here. Every tiny fucking detail.”

“I woke up because someone was in my room,” Lilly started, her voice hollow in her own ears. “I went for my knife. I had forgotten that I had lost it. Then she was on top of me. Held a knife to my throat. It’s mine, isn’t it? The knife?” Lilly looked up for the first time. Negan held her knife in his hand. It was coated in blood, both hers and and Valerie’s. Her eyes found Negan’s. His brows were furrowed, but he kept silent, waiting for her to continue. Lilly looked back down at her knees. “I told her to just leave. That no one would find out. She started to cut my face. Said she’d take it away so he… you... wouldn’t look at me anymore.” She glanced back at Negan. He rested his elbow on his leg and pinched his nose. “I punched her. Was able to take the knife from her. I just wanted to get away from her. I didn’t… I stabbed her, but I didn’t want to kill her.”

Lilly fell silent. She waited for Negan to say something. When she heard nothing for a while, she looked back up at him. He sat motionless with his head hung low, staring at the knife in his hands.

“Negan…”

“You hurt a wife, Lilly.” He still didn’t move.

“I didn’t mean to…”

“But you did.”

“I was defending myself.” Lilly couldn’t believe that she had to justify her actions. The numbness she had felt since Laura had showed up dissipated to be replaced by anger and confusion.

“That’s not the story she’s telling.” He started to twirl the butterfly knife. Open. Close. Open. Close. “She says she found your knife and wanted to give it back to you. Says you attacked her out of nowhere.”

“She wanted to give me my knife back?” Lilly jumped up to stand over Negan. “At three o’clock in the fucking morning?”

“That’s what she’s saying.”

“Look at me Negan!” He slowly raised his head as if it took him a huge effort to do so. When his eyes fell on the cut on her neck and then the one still bleeding on the side of her face, he grimaced. “You believe her?”

“It’s not about who I believe, Lil. You stabbed one of my wives. You know the fucking rules. You know what happens to those who touch them.”

A wave of panic washed over Lilly. “You can’t be serious. Negan, she attacked me.”

“It doesn’t fucking matter.” He got up and walked to the window, his back to her. “When they agree to become my wife, I make a fucking promise to protect them. And you all know that no one is allowed to lay a hand on them whether it is to fuck them, or to hurt them. Those are the fucking rules, Lilly.”

“Negan, please...”

“You want me to make a fucking exception for you? Tell my men that the rules don’t apply to you? Wanna explain to Dwight why he gets punished and you don’t?”

“So now what? You’re going to finish what Valerie started and destroy my face with your iron?”

He sighed and hung his head again. Lilly wished that he would turn around. She was trapped in a nightmare and she knew if he would just look at her, see what Valerie did to her, he would come to his senses and she could wake up.

“I ca… I won’t hurt you. But you need to go.”

“No! No, Negan, please, don’t do that to me.” Her eyes filled with tears.

You need to go, Lilly. I don’t ever want to see you in Alexandria again.

“You can’t stay at Sanctuary. You will go to an outpost.”

“Please Negan! This is my home.”

Alexandria is my home, Rick.

Not anymore.

“Not anymore, Lilly. You have until morning to pack up your shit, but you’re not allowed to leave this room. I’ll send Fisher to look at those cuts.” He walked to the door while Lilly collapsed onto her bed, sobbing. Negan stopped in the doorway for a moment, his hand on the wall. He turned his head a little as if he wanted to look at her and say something. A moment later, he was gone.

[oscar-randle-bct]

Project MAJO - my pros and cons in summary. (We didn’t finish)

(We didn’t finish :( -  I initially wrote this blog post under the presumption that our team would pull it off but sadly this has not been the case. Under the “cons” section of this post I have made a small edit explaining things but the post is otherwise unchanged and is written as if our project was complete).

Pros:

Learning -

Group work:

Working on this project has been one of the most valuable experiences iv’e ever had. Not only do I feel like I have developed my general skills within the creative technologies field - but I have used this opportunity to learn invaluable lessons about teamwork and group dynamics. This is the first time I have ever worked in a team at this level, In fact nothing comes close. Remembering our successes and our failures, I now feel like I have a grounded understanding of how to operate and conduct behavior in a group surrounding as well as how to select ream members for next time. I believe that I have got most of the basic mistakes out of the way and I feel prepared for next years challenges with this in mind.

 Here’s are the most important things I learned -

Aim to work with people with all manner skills, personalities and backgrounds - despite similar interests, try not to work only with other men. Diversity of thought and opinion is vital.

Make a time-table as early as possible and stick to it.

Delegate team member roles firmly and fairly from the start. 

Confront your group with your concerns directly and without hesitation.

Communicate regularly.

General work:

Aside from the group dynamic, I have learned a great deal about my own personal work practice.

Most important things - 

Set up a timetable for my own work and stick to it

Seize the opportunity to learn new skills and develop my current ones - don’t be lazy.

Work on my procrastination issue

Stop sucking at programming - watch some videos over the break

Game development:

All in all - the prospect of getting involved in game design is something that excited me from the start. Unlike team work - this was my very first time developing a video game. In retrospect - I’ve learned so much about how this industry functions. Because this is just as much of a personal interest as it is uni work, I am very happy to have had this experience in first year. If I was as clueless as I was at the start of this project and attempted something like this next year - I would have been in trouble.

Important things i learned about effective game development.

Build your game from the ground up - not the other way round

Thoroughly examine and firmly establish a satisfactory context and setting of the game in the first week or so of work - then iterate on it but avoid drastic change from the original theme. This was a major problem with our team work.

Ensure that you examine logistics as a part of the early creation process as well as everything else.

Use concept art and music as a means of creative inspiration - It seriously helps.

Again - making a timetable and sticking to it is vital - leave yourself time for screw ups.

Game development is a complex web of interdisciplinary work and expertise - communicate clearly and frequently with your team because at some point all your work will have to fit cohesively together and so it’s important to be engaging in constant discussion about the direction your work is going in. 

Make sure your team members know and  what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Even if your’e work is different - make sure you know and understand all your team mates work.

Our result - 

I would describe our project as weird and wonderful. We succeeded in a lot of what we ultimately set out to accomplish as a unit. Overall, although this is a subjective thing - I believe that our project is a very interesting concept investigating an area of thought that is perhaps under explored.

In the end I am quite proud of our team. We all got on and worked reasonably well together. But more so - If nothing else we were not afraid of challenging ourselves and we launched head first into a ballsy, unconventional project, putting a lot of hard work into the mix along the way.

Whatever your opinion might be - our end result can only be described as a product of creative technologies. 

Cons:

Group work - 

As expected from a team of hastily assembled students working on an unconventional concept - our team had its fair share of issues as well as strengths.

Poor time management - 

Firstly - I don’t think its fair or accurate to say that our team had poor time management from the get-go. At the beginning and throughout our work - the team made special efforts and considerations in order to assemble a well thought out time table on Trello as well as a number of other methods. For the first while - we met the demands of our time table effectively. However - as with all things like this, our work became more complicated and we began to miss our deadlines. Our issue wasn’t so much with organizing ourselves as it was with correcting ourselves when we fell behind. 

*Edit* This ultimately resulted in us being unable to finalize our game before the due date. As I edit this blog post - it’s 2:am on Monday morning - our team leader @synergybct gave it his all to get it finished but, after days of exhausting work for him and for all of us, he’s in no state to continue programming. Obviously we are all really disappointed to put it lightly. We all thought that we would be able to pull it off but in the end all that stood between us and completion was a bit of programming vital to our games completion. specifically i’m referring to the dialogue screens and the narrative cut-scenes not having these implemented presents a variety of issues. Nonetheless the spirit of our project and it’s intention exists in our journey and our documentation. *Edit*

Inexperience -

Many of our issues stem from the fact that this was a first time in game development for all but one of us. The main problem I had with our operation is the inadequate level of importance placed on our theme and game aesthetic early in our process. A friend of mine in the second year (@joachimpearson​) is also developing a video game this semester. A week or so ago, I asked him how long it took his group to settle on their game aesthetic. When he told me that they made their minds up inside a week or so I was a little disappoined that it took us so long. The bread and butter of our concept is based on physical and digital construction - so it is expected that this takes precedence over other things. However our team only decided on our final aesthetic inside a month before due date. We could and should have been faster. 

From a personal standpoint given my role in the group - My contribution is directly influenced and dependent on our game aesthetic choice. I had to constantly work around and factor in our shifting theme through a majority of the project meaning I spent a lot of time on things that wouldn’t end up in the game. I made a blog post about how my work during this time wasn’t a waste of time but I also had so much more planned for this games sound score that I just wasn’t able to achieve due to limited planing and actuating time.

I feel disappointed because I don’t feel like there’s anything particularly special about what I have ended up creating. Its not very original and little more than just thematic filler for the ears. This is the exact same mistake I made for my final project last semester. I had a very similar role in my final solo studio project last semester and I ended up with a disappointing grade - not because I didn’t work hard but because there was little uniqueness about my premise. Sound tracks have the potential to be so much more than just audible filler and I wish that I had explored that potential this in the project. Next time I will be better.

Our result -

As I said - I find our premise interesting. But i’m not convinced this is easily the case for other people. A good project is self explanatory in my opinion. As a result of falling behind - we didn’t even get to play test and adjust our finalized game. So we basically have no clue whether our work is balanced in terms of difficulty and overall just makes sense to outsiders. This is less than ideal because we missed out on the chance to make important iterations to improve our game and fix potential issues. Our game is dynamic but it’s also not particularly simple and I hope that we are able to steer the player in the necessary direction to complete the game without assistance.

This is the main gripe I have with out project. There are obvious ways to improve the game and our overall experience, but I think it functions well for the purpose it was intended for - experimentation. 

[mustdang-100]

Shifting Perspectives

Mob Psycho 100 Fanfiction

How many espers does it take to rescue one abducted conman?

Months after the events of the World Domination arc, Reigen disappears sometime between leaving the office and after-work plans. Serizawa finds himself the unwilling leader of a bunch of former Claw members and a couple of stubborn teenagers, determined to get Reigen back.

Read on AO3 Ch.1|Ch.2 Tumblr Ch.1 - below|Ch.2

Chapter 1 Reigen swung his legs down from where they’d been propped up on his desk and stared, flabbergasted, at Serizawa. "What do you mean, you ‘thought it was cute!?’ That spirit had three rows of teeth! And I would know, I got the best look at them!"   Serizawa came out of his reverie with a start, nearly dropping his mug, instantly apologetic.  "It, it was just so small… I was just wishing I’d come up with another way to stop it, but I didn’t have time for anything but an exorcism when it went straight for your face!” Serizawa sputtered.   Reigen continued to stare at him, now merely projecting indignation to hide his growing amusement.    “It was fluffy! And, and pink!" Serizawa flushed. "I like pink."  Reigen couldn’t hold back; he burst into laughter, putting his own mug down before he could slosh tea all over his desk. Serizawa flushed a deeper shade of red, ducking his head a little, but Reigen still saw his small, sheepish grin.    “You’ve been spending too much time with Matsuo lately, to start thinking of them as cute,” Reigen said, wiping at his eyes as his laughter finally died down. 

It was almost six p.m., approaching closing time at the Spirits & Such office, and Reigen was procrastinating on completing some insurance forms to chat with Serizawa over tea. A leisurely teatime had become something of an end-of-the-day ritual for them over the past few weeks, ever since Serizawa’s break from classes meant he was able to stay at the office until closing. Reigen found the ritual comforting – and had been chagrined to realize just how much he enjoyed having the company. If he was honest with himself, he was secretly resenting the day when night classes started back and he would lose this time to Serizawa’s other interests and school friends.  Less selfishly, though, he’d been pleased that the extra time Serizawa spent at the office meant Reigen could watch even more of his ongoing transformation from the timid and insecure man he’d started as to the quiet, confident professional he was becoming. Reigen had recently even been encouraging him to deal directly with the customers – though never without his being there, of course. Reigen considered himself quite necessary to this business, particularly when a client’s problems weren’t actually spiritual in nature. And whenever something got complicated in an actual exorcism, he was there to smooth it over. He and Serizawa had fallen into a pattern, one that resembled less that of an employer and employee and more that of a partnership: the businessman who got the jobs and the esper who completed them.   It was… nice. Reigen thought he might even be able to call Serizawa a friend – but he’d been wrong before. And he didn’t want to jinx it. You had to take jinxes seriously in his profession.  “Reigen? What are you looking at?”  Reigen focused his eyes to find that’s he’d been staring straight into Serizawa’s puzzled face for the past however many minutes. He blinked.  “Oh, sorry! I was thinking about something else.”  He realized belatedly that the other man was packing up in preparation to leave. Serizawa’s emptied mug sat on his own desk, the surface streaked with a pattern of yellow-orange lines from the light of the setting sun filtering through the blinds.   “Right, ‘bout that time, isn’t it.” Reigen drained the rest of his own lukewarm cup and stood to stretch, joints popping. He asked, casually, “You doing anything interesting tonight?”  Serizawa snapped his bag closed. “Oh, I’m getting drinks with Minegishi and Koyama and them – the usual bunch.”  Reigen felt the sinking feeling in his gut that tended to rear its ugly head every time Serizawa mentioned hanging out with his friends, either from school or, increasingly lately, some of the other former Claw members.   It was stupid. Reigen was glad Serizawa was building healthy relationships and integrating himself back into society. He really was; in fact, he was incredibly proud of the progress Serizawa had made after being so shut off for most of this life, and then horrifically misled, and even, Reigen suspected, emotionally abused. But there was still a small, terrible part of him that whispered, nastily, that Serizawa was now actually fitting into society better than he himself did, and just what did that say about the sad state of his own life?  He was being petty, and jealous, and awful. He knew it. Which, really, had to be a sign that he was improving – he’d learned his lesson about trying to manipulate people into spending time with him with his mistakes with Mob, and now recognized the inclination when it appeared. He fought it by being twice as encouraging.   “Sounds like fun! You’ve really been spending a lot of time with them lately, huh? Probably good for you all, like… a Claw recovery group or something-”   “Actually, I was, uh, going to ask you, if you’d like to join us?”  “Oh!”  Reigen paused to school his expression into one of only minor interest, even as excitement bubbled up in his chest. “Ah, well, I do have some plans for this evening, of course, but really it’s nothing important, I can probably rearrange… uhh, although-”   Reigen remembered something slightly awkward.   “Do you think it’s been enough time that they’ve gotten over the… misunderstanding about my psychic abilities..?”  Serizawa’s face broke into a grin that he quickly tried to hide with his hand.  “Yes, don’t worry it’s all fine. Once they got over their anger at being tricked, they decided that tricking them so thoroughly was a talent by itself, not to mention all the things you’ve therefore managed to accomplish without psychic powers. They chalked it all up to your extraordinary leadership abilities and by the end of it were just twice as impressed. And,” Serizawa added, blushing again for no reason that Reigen could see, “I think they’d be happy to see you again.”   Reigen stood a little straighter.   “Well, that’s, that’s good. Very good. I mean, I am rather impressive… ok then. So, yes. Drinks. Happy to join you! Just gotta, finish up some paperwork and stuff, and, yeah I’ll, I’ll meet you there.”  Serizawa beamed.  Reigen blinked, caught completely off-guard. That was a rare expression from his nervous employee, and it was… like the sun coming out. He almost – almost – told Serizawa that the smile looked good on him, or something similarly unforgivably cheesy, before shoving the reckless inclination aside. But that grin begged for a response, and he couldn’t help but give a half smile in reply.   Once Serizawa had left, Reigen scrambled to finish up the paperwork – it really did have to be sent before tomorrow, damn it all. Once it was sloppily signed, scanned, and faxed, he stepped into the bathroom.   Reigen eyed himself critically in the bathroom mirror.   Drinks. With a coworker. Or, employee – whatever. With a friend? A friend, and his friends. The suit he had on was probably okay for that, right? Or should he change? He had a spare suit stashed in his desk – but then he’d just be changing one very similar suit for another, that was stupid. He had another tie somewhere though, a darker one, more suited for a night out… No, no, then Serizawa would know that he’d bothered to overthink this enough to change what he was wearing, and-  He took a breath.  Which is exactly what you’re doing, overthinking. This is just some casual, after-work drinks, with a coworker who might be a friend, and some other acquaintances. Er, most of whom had tried to harm either himself or one of the teenagers in his care on at least one occasion, and that detail somehow managed to be at the bottom of his pile of worries-   Stop.  Deeper breath. One last look in the mirror to check his hair, which looked the same as it always did, and he turned to march out the door.    Just be… casual. Breezy. Yeah, breezy. Smooth.   He tripped on the rug on his way out the door.   ***  Serizawa tapped his fingers anxiously against his glass, glancing at his watch before taking an automatic sip of his water.  “So ya finally asked ‘im?” Koyama slapped Serizawa on the back in congratulations as he slumped into an empty seat at their usual table, tucked into the back of the dive bar. Serizawa let out a small noise, both in protest and in reaction to the rather forceful hit; Koyama tended to forget his strength in his enthusiasm, and he fancied himself a matchmaker. Serizawa felt his cheeks grow warm for what must have been the dozenth time that day.  “Just… just to join us for drinks! You know, like, like friends! Not, um, not like that. I told you, I still don’t know if he’s interested that way!”  Koyama grinned hugely anyway, raising his eyebrows suggestively, before taking a long pull from his beer bottle.  It was true – Serizawa found it incredibly difficult to tell what Reigen really felt about anyone. No, that was a lie; to anyone who spent any amount of time around him, Reigen was obvious about who he genuinely liked, and who he was just pretending to be nice to. Serizawa was just still uncertain about whether Reigen felt anything more towards him than simple friendship.   At first he’d blamed himself for this, thinking it was his own lack of social skills that clouded his ability to determine how other people felt. But the more he’d interacted with other people, the more he’d come to suspect that that was just the way Reigen was; someone who talked a lot, but usually about nothing deeper than surface-level, especially his feelings concerning other people. No, you had to watch Reigen’s actions to know for sure how he felt.   And Serizawa had been watching. He watched the way Reigen acted towards clients, and the teenagers he cared for, and he knew for a fact that it was different than how Reigen acted around him. And not to mention those moments he couldn’t quite describe, when perfect camaraderie that led to a tension in the air that seemed very… “more than just friends”-esque.   Asking him to join the group for drinks was his first active step towards confirming just how Reigen felt about him; how did Reigen react to him, compared to other friends his own age, outside of work hours…  Serizawa shook himself back to the present.   “Stop teasing him, Koyama,” Sakurai was saying from the other side of their usual table in the back of the dimly-lit bar, adjusting his glasses while peering down into his gin & tonic. “He’s nervous enough as it is. He’ll ask Reigen when he’s ready, or not.”  “I’m just sayin’!” Koyama spoke louder to be heard over the pop song that began blaring overhead, “He’s really beating around the bush here! Just ask ‘im out, he’ll say yes or no, and you can move on!”   “Not everyone is as blunt as you, you ass,” Tsuchiya chimed in, tapping her emptied bottle against Koyama’s head good-naturedly as she stood up to grab another beer from the bar.  Minegishi was the only one who did not offer his opinion, slowly stirring his mostly-full drink with a straw, eyes flicking from person to person as they contributed to the conversation. Probably because he had expressed his opinions on the matter to Serizawa before.   One of the longest friendships that Serizawa had ever experienced, and the only member of the former Super Five he’d really stayed in touch with, Minegishi was also the most critical of Serizawa’s pursuing anything more than friendship with Reigen. Only a week before, Minegishi’s snide comments had finally driven Serizawa to ask him why he felt so negative about him turning his and Reigen’s relationship into something more.  “To be completely honest, I… am concerned about the sincerity of your feelings towards Reigen.”  “W…what!? What do you mean?” “I know you believe they are genuine, but…”  A pause.  “Reigen hired you to work for his business just as you were cut loose into a world that frightened you, floundering for a new purpose. I worry that you’ve formed an attachment to him due to his helping you through a time when you were vulnerable, and you are misinterpreting your gratitude towards him as something deeper, more meaningful. That could produce an uneven balance of power in a romantic relationship, which is unhealthy, and could lead to you resenting him later.”   Minegishi knew Serizawa about as well as anyone did. But despite mellowing since leaving the clutches of Claw, he could still be incredibly pessimistic. Serizawa knew Minegishi was wrong about him and Reigen, but had stumbled over his words, unable to express just how well they worked together, how he was sure there was something more there. Eventually, they’d had to agree to disagree. But Serizawa knew that if he and Reigen started dating Minegishi would be watching them, looking out for any warning signs.   He supposed, sighing heavily, that he should be grateful to have friends who cared so much.   “So,” Tsuchiya asked as she slid back into her seat, fresh bottle in hand, “…when is he gonna get here?”  Serizawa checked his watch again. It had now been over an hour since he’d arrived.  “I’m sure he’ll be here any minute now.”  ***  Reigen was running late.  When the almost-unintelligible voice came over the train speakers yet again, announcing their second delay of the night, he cursed loudly. The woman sitting next to him with a young child in her lap turned to look at him disapprovingly, covering her child’s ears.  Oh, don't be so overdramatic. No way kids that young understand words like-    The toddler turned her pigtailed head to look over at Reigen, smiling cherubically, and opened her mouth.   “Fuck!” She gleefully bounced up and down, repeating the word.   The mother glared at him with murder in her eyes.   Reigen decided it might be best if he just walked the rest of the way to the bar. He was pretty confident that he knew the way, and at this point it’d probably be no slower than waiting for the train – not to mention the lowered risk of homicide.  ***  Reigen was lost.   He examined the map on his phone again, following the path through virtual streets with one finger. When he thought he had it memorized he tucked the phone back into his pocket and strode confidently down the street. He was determined to follow the map from memory; he didn’t want to look like one of those people who had to follow their phones every step of their route.  Despite the cooling evening air, he’d begun to sweat at his brisk pace. Of course. The sweat really wasn’t that unusual for him though; Serizawa probably wouldn't even notice. Maybe the other espers wouldn’t either…   Who all had Serizawa said would be there? He couldn’t remember. Some from the former Seventh Branch, for sure – he found he was actually somewhat eager to see them again. He’d been weirdly proud of them when they’d shown up out of nowhere to band together and fight against the organization they’d once been a part of. I mean, Claw had gone after them first, but he liked to think he’d been a good influence on their decision to rejoin non-esper society-   A car he hadn’t heard coming up behind him pulled up next to the curb.  Reigen stepped back in surprise, all thoughts of espers jolted from his mind. The driver window rolled down to reveal a dark-haired woman, smiling at him just a little sheepishly.  “Excuse me, sir? We’re looking for the closest train station to drop my husband off, any chance you could point us in the right direction?”  Reigen liked to be helpful, but halted his automatic response, taking a another hesitant step back from the car and the woman inside it.  Something seemed… off.   The sedan was a relatively new model, but not too pricy, and dark in color; the textbook definition of ‘inconspicuous.’ Except that the vibe the blandly-smiling woman gave off was just a bit wrong; her eyes were too intense for her mild expression.   Reigen’s mirror-perfect reflection in the windows heightened his nervousness. They were tinted darker than was legal, as demonstrated by the complete lack of light penetrating through the windows from the closest streetlamp. A light source which, now that he bothered to notice, was a little further away than he was really comfortable with…  He glanced up to see that they were in a gap between streetlight coverage – the bulb in the light that was helpfully right overhead was almost burnt out, emitting only a dim orangey-yellow light that traveled no further than top of the streetlight pole.  Reigen almost laughed as his heart rate sped up, responding to a rush of adrenaline.  You’ve got to be kidding me… Okay. Either you’ve been watching way too many terrible crime shows and are completely overthinking this, or these are literally the lamest bad guys ever.   He heard someone coming up behind him, and whirled to face them. Mid-turn, every muscle in his body erupted into excruciating pain.  Reigen hit the ground, spasming; the impact of skin and joints on asphalt barely registered amidst the full-body agony. He could barely think, his brain forming nothing coherent but for an endless string of please stop please stop stop stop hurts hurts HURTS.   Was he even breathing?   The pain went on, and on, and on, seconds becoming an eternity…  And then it stopped as instantly as it had begun.  Reigen slumped limply against the ground at the sudden relief. His brain started working again. Someone – or multiple someones – were looming over him. And he was fairly certain he’d just been tasered.  Well, that’s a new one for the books. They say life should be full of new experiences.   The part of his brain not occupied with witty commentary was screaming at him to shut up.   You are in a terrible position, you are surrounded and you must get up, get up get up get up.   He tensed his muscles, preparing to spring up fighting, but never got the chance.  He felt a needle prick his neck.   In seconds, everything went dark.

[miximax-hell]

Hey there! It sure has been a while, huh. ww; But, hey, I kept my promise!

So, how have you guys been? I’ve been rather busy. America is cool, but this university is quite demanding sometimes. I’m not complaining, considering I came here to work and all, but I wish I had some extra time. All I want to do after I’m done with my classes and homework is be lazy, to be perfectly honest.

What have you all been up to? Since I last showed my stupid head around here, I beat Undertale (just beaten—no true endings whatsoever), Layton and the Unwound Future (SO GOOD AND SO SAD) and Portal. I have also been rewatching Inazuma with my significant other, which is awesome! Oh, and I watched the newest Tri movie. It might not be perfect, but I get so easily pumped with that.

…And I have also been working on this nightmare.

Never in your wildest dreams would you assume that these four views took well over 20 hours of work (although I’d be willing to bet it took over 30). And that’s if we don’t take into account the amount of time I spent on OLDER VERSIONS OF THIS. I have been procrastinating on Fubuki’s miximax for years because I knew it would kill me. But, luckily, I’m not dead. I just wished I was a couple tens of times during the process. I hope @miyukiko​ won’t kill me either when she sees this, considering what I’ve done to her baby.

But it’s done! The result might not be the best and the rust might not help either, but this is it! Fubuki is finally done!! And, considering I have been working on this little shit for 2-3 years, I have my fair share of ideas about him. I’ll only cover one subject today, though.

Anyway, just in case anyone has never watched Digimon (which is a sin according to 8 different major religions), Fubuki is miximaxed with Gabumon, one of the main characters from Digimon Adventure, 02 and Tri! Not my personal favourite, but fairly awesome nonetheless.

As usual, more about FubuGabu under the cut.

It’s 2:30 am right now. You know, just for reference. If I eventually start not making sense whatsoever, please keep that in mind and spare me. I will gladly fix any nonsense as long as you haven’t stabbed my heart yet. ww I’ll hopefully be done quickly, though, so I might not have time to screw up too much.

Okay, let’s do this!

As I said, there’s a lot to say about FubuGabu. For once, I know what FubuGabu’s powers and hissatsus are. There’s a lot of little things to say about his design. I have details about his backstory and even about small, useless facts. I know about FubuGabu’s personality, Keshin and even Soul. But, today, let’s go for a much anticipated approach. …Not really.

Since I already mentioned it once, let’s talk about groups. If you don’t know what I mean with “groups,” feel free to check this out.

I will assume you all remember what I already mentioned about Fubuki and Someoka forming a duo within this project (and not just within this project, honestly—they make a pretty great team!). If you are late to the party or your memory is simply almost as bad as mine, though, feel free to check THIS LINK to see what the heck was going on there.

First of all, let’s look at what (else) ties them together. I will skip the points I already explained last time, though.

The first and most obvious new point that puts them together in a group is, of course, that they are both miximaxed with monsters! And not just any kind of monsters, but the best kinds of monsters. I can hear someone screaming “MONSTER RANCHER SH*TS ON POKÉMON EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK” from here, so let’s point out that we are talking about popularity here. Ww

Pokémon and Digimon have always been the big guys when it comes to monsters beating the crap out of each other, but they have always been big rivals. For decades, people have punched each other’s faces while debating which franchise is better. Someoka, too, once considered Fubuki his biggest rival and a big piece of shit. But Fubuki and Someoka grew to be great friends, and, now, much like them, Pokémon and Digimon have joined for a common cause too:

Kick ass. (not really)

Because of this, with a bunch of love in my heart for these two, I call this group the Monster Duo. Beast Duo sounds better to me, but the “mon” in Digimon and Pokémon is there for a reason, all right.

So, yes, fictional monsters link Someoka and Fubuki together. But that’s far from being all. Combining the two concepts I have already mentioned, note how both of them have miximaxed with ice beasts! This doesn’t just make them awfully strong, but it also boosts their compatibility a great deal!

This is especially obvious when this terrific duo performs its combination hissatsu, Wyvern Blizzard. Not only it gets a powered up, but Someoka goes all out and, instead of summoning his usual wyvern, Zekrom himself comes to the field and wreaks havoc. This imbues the ball not only with Fubuki’s ice, but also with Someoka’s electricity, creating a shot like none other before.

Fubuki does something very special too at the time of kicking the ball, actually, but that will have to wait until we talk about FubuGabu’s powers some other day.

Okay, we know that these two are ready to kill people. That’s awesome and all. But what about them? What’s their dynamic like?

We all know Fubuki and Someoka. They actually have a really courteous and kind relationship! They truly care about each other and their well-being. But, in this story of sorts, they have already known each other for a good while now. It’s been well over a year now. Before this whole and unknown mess happened, Someoka and Fubuki were each playing for the respective schools—in other words, away from each other.

Being able to play together again is a breath of fresh air for them both. They came to trust each other a great deal during their Aliea and FFI days, so their first goal is to recover the complicity they once had. They will soon find this to be much more challenging than they thought it would be, however.

There is a big difference between growing apart from someone and growing without someone. Someoka and Fubuki haven’t just been sitting on their butts. They have practised and learnt a lot on their own, at Raimon and at Hakuren.

Suddenly, their style doesn’t match anymore. It doesn’t click as immediately as it once did. Fubuki isn’t the same he was when he first met Someoka, and Someoka’s view of life is completely different too. Fubuki’s mind is at peace now that the spirit of Atsuya isn’t screwing up with him, and he isn’t the reckless and mindless beast he once was. Someoka has come to trust himself more than anyone else after not being selected for Inazuma Japan during the first selection. In a sense, their roles have reversed. This wasn’t an issue when they could still train together often, but time has opened a rift between them. A rift that seems too big to jump across.

This is not to say that they aren’t friends, though, and that’s what makes it tough. It’s not that they don’t feel like playing together anymore—it’s that they are starving for it, but they fail whenever they try to. It’s rather frustrating to be fond of someone and see that you simply can’t understand them anymore. Their old dynamic is lost, and trying to work around it is useless.

…Or is it?

This is where their miximaxes come into play. Kyurem’s incomplete on its own and seeks to join forces with someone compatible with it out of sheer instinct. Gabumon’s (or, rather, Garurumon’s) savage style resembles the fierce plays Atsuya’s spirit once brought to the field. This might be just what these two close friends needed in order to remember what used to make their teamwork great: fast, ferocious and dependent plays that wouldn’t work without a perfect bond.

It’s not enough to bring them back to the position they used to be in, but it’s just enough for a reminder. This change in their attitude—as I have mentioned before, people’s personality changes upon mixitransing—brings them to a middle point that they can work with. Their plays begin to connect. They can see why and how things work now and not before. It gives them a starting point—a way to learn how their friend has changed and how to cooperate with him. To put it simply, they are learning again that they are reliable partners.

There is probably a lot more to say about FubuGabu and SomeKyu, but the fact that SomeKyu is way newer than FubuGabu hasn’t allowed me to think of their relationship as much as I have thought about everything else. …And whom am I trying to kid? I have purposefully avoided thinking about FubuGabu for OBVIOUS REASONS. But, hey, I can work around things! If you feel like I missed any important points, please let me know and I’ll see what else there is to say!

In any case, I really love Monster Duo and pretty much everything about them. Their story isn’t as dramatic as it could be, but I feel like these two have already endured enough drama before. Let them focus on other things instead, even if it’s just for once. They deserve to be happy and have problems that are easy to work with! And, needless to say, they deserve soccer-related problems. That would actually be new. ww

Oh, and I want Monster Duo to have a brand new combo hissatsu, but I’m still thinking about it. It’s 4 am now, though, so I’m definitely not going to figure it out right now, I’m afraid. It’s sleepy time for me.

...Zzz.

(Oh, and my personal favourite is Tentomon.)

[thejustinmarshall]

A Psychologist Rates The Strategies I Use To Deal With Stress And Anxiety

Like you, I am trying to get better at dealing with stress and anxiety. I am aware that I suck at it, and that the methods I have used to try to deal with it, along with not being created or recommended by any mental health professional, also suck. But I thought I would get a professional opinion on how those methods suck, and even maybe how much they suck, so I asked my friend and psychologist Dr. Trevor Davis for his professional opinion. He rated each strategy from one to five stars, one being bad and five being good, and wrote some notes in response to each one:

Strategy: Thinking “Everything Will Be Fine Once I Get [Thing] Done”

In this strategy, I do nothing to mitigate feelings of anxiety and stress when things are piling up on me and it feels as if it’s all very out of control. Instead of actually changing the way I look at things, or do things, or even stopping every once in a while to do some calming breathing exercises, I just keep going, for hours or days at a time, telling myself that once I finish a creative project, or meet a deadline, or get moved into a new house, or get through a public speaking event, I will feel better and things will be OK.

Rating: 2 Stars

Dr. Davis’ notes: Man, this one seems all about context and the big picture. Do this for a few hours, not a big deal. Do this for a few days? That is a recipe for some stomach ulcers. Like a hamster on a wheel, there’s always something to be done. Sounds tiring. While this strategy is probably better than procrastinating, the long-term consequences are what will get you eventually. Limited balance today means limited balance tomorrow.

  Strategy: Saying Yes To Everything That Scares Me

The idea behind this strategy is, theoretically, personal growth—saying yes to a thing that is outside of my comfort zone, in order to push myself to rise to the occasion and therefore improve, or prove to myself that I was better/stronger/more capable than I assumed I was. And eventually, be scared of nothing, which will decrease or eliminate anxiety (I guess?) Examples: ultramarathons, mountaineering objectives, creative projects, contract gigs I am not qualified for on paper, writing a book on a subject I don’t know that much about, any sort of professional interaction that will cause me to have impostor syndrome (all of them), etc.

Rating: 3 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: This one has a lot of potential. If you would change the “everything” to “some things,” you have a winner. The problem with saying yes to too many scary things is that you’re always scared, which I generally don’t recommend. But, with balance (there’s that word again) I think this is a great example of pursuing your values, like pushing yourself. Just remember to keep this in check with remembering your own worthiness without having to “do it all.”

  Strategy: Thinking Of Every Single Thing That Could Go Wrong In Advance, In The Belief That If I Have Thought Of Something That Could Go Wrong, It Won’t Actually Happen

Example: In advance of a complicated travel itinerary, if I go over in my head all the ways I could fuck it up (or it could get fucked up without any input from me), everything will go smoothly—i.e. I could hit traffic on the way to the airport and be late for my flight, check-in could take forever, TSA could take forever, they could change my gate at the last minute, my flight could be delayed and I could miss my connection, at the other end my bag could not arrive and I could be late for the last train, and so on.

Rating: 1 star

Dr. Davis’s notes: This one actually makes me anxious just reading it, but  a lot of people use this strategy, even me. This might be less of a strategy but more an example of anxiety. Tolerating uncertainty is something most people struggle with in one way or another. What’s interesting is that while you may not like uncertainty, you do a lot of things that have a good amount of it – climbing, ultramarathons, traveling. For those of us who can get loaded down by uncertainty I find that it helps to first acknowledge the unknowns of the situation we are facing. But don’t stop there. Actively pull your mind to times where you accomplished something in a similar situation, or another time that things went well even when there was an unexpected setback or challenge. Remind yourself that you’re capable of managing changes and challenges, even when you cannot control all of the variables.

  Strategy: Eating A Whole Pizza

Even if it’s not a whole pizza, it is an amount of pizza higher than my caloric needs for the day, or two days, and I am not eating it to satiate hunger, but moreso to “feed my emotions.”

Rating: How big is the pizza? 1-5 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: The usefulness of this one depends on a number of things. Sometimes emotions are hungry and it’s OK to feed them. Is it a treat, or is it a regular occurrence? Are you going to hurt yourself by doing this? I also know that if you tell yourself “No” you’re probably going to want to do this even more. That’s why restriction based diets don’t really work. I’d recommend improving this strategy by examining how much benefit versus harm it brings. Once the scale tips to more harm than good it’s worth finding a way to balance it out. It’s probably not a great strategy long term, but next time just invite me over and we can finish it together.

  Strategy: Eating A Whole Pizza, But Instead Of Pizza, An Unreasonable Quantity Of Ice Cream

Rating: 1 star

Dr. Davis’s notes:  I’d say go for it sometimes, but again, keep track of the risks involved. I’m “dairy sensitive,” so for me (and those around me) the risks are just too high.

  Strategy: Working Late At Night To Get Just A Couple More Things Done So I Can Go To Bed Not Having To Think About Those Things

Working, of course, involving a glowing screen of a laptop or iPad.

Rating: 2 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: This one isn’t necessarily horrible, but it is going to vary case by case. How late are you staying up? How often are you doing this? Is it harmful to your relationships? I’d encourage a review of time management and how many things you’re taking on at once. Give yourself time to pre-plan the next day, before it gets late. Prioritize. Try to give your eyes (and brain) and break from the screen at least 30 minutes (if not more) before bed. It’s also good sleep hygiene to try and keep a consistent sleep/wake routine. Of course, life happens. There’s always a need for flexibility.

  Strategy: Running Long Distances To The Point Of Extreme Discomfort

A twofold strategy, in that running until the point of extreme discomfort allows me to forget all my worries for the period of minutes or hours that my legs and body hurt so much that I can’t think about anything else, and also in that the hours and even days following a long run provide a flush of endorphins that make me feel calm for a while.

Rating: 2 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: You know, a lot of these strategies could be improved if they were less . . . extreme. Exercise is great for the bodymind and health, but too much can just be too much. Personally I’d worry about that extreme discomfort turning into an injury and then you’re left without running at all.

  Strategy: Watching Crappy Action Movies

This is a way of escaping reality for two to three hours, through watching a movie, but not just any movie—a movie with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 55% or lower. I don’t know why I do this, or why so many people have to die violent deaths on screen, or why I can’t just watch documentaries, or even just good movies instead.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Dr. Davis’ notes: This could be 5 stars if you were more accepting of how much this helps you. It is OK to take a break. Ever heard of it? Invite me over for this, and I’ll bring the pizza.

  Strategy: Treating Everything In Life Like A To-Do List, In Order To Be So Busy I Don’t Have To Be Present, Check In With Myself, Or Even Think About How I’m Feeling

With enough to-do lists, and enough action toward completing items on those to-do lists, and continually adding to those to-do lists, I can go entire days or weeks without ever realizing I don’t feel that great!

Rating: 1 Star

Dr. Davis’s notes: I suppose this is better than the alternative of not doing anything, but this strategy you’ve described is a perfect recipe for burnout. The good – making lists, taking action on goals, reviewing goals and accomplishments. The bad – ignoring your other needs and not checking in with yourself. The ugly – not noticing the other emotional needs. Again, the best thing to do is strive for some balance and make some space for checking in with how you are doing. Consider something like a daily check-in, asking yourself how you are physically, emotionally, in your relationships, and how is your progress on some of these important goals/tasks.

  Strategy: Taking A Nice Relaxing Stroll, But Instead Of Being Alone With My Thoughts, Listening To An Audiobook Or Finding Something Else To Distract Me

Could just take the dog for his evening walk and relax, but no, let’s plug in some ear buds and listen to a harrowing survival story, or, even better, a story of a shipwreck tragedy with no survivors. Or scroll through social media apps, real estate listings, weather apps, bank accounts, then repeat, ad nauseam.

Rating: 4 Stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: A relaxing stroll sounds like a great strategy for anxiety management. Do those “distractions” help you relax? If so, great! Nothing is inherently wrong with any of the things you listed, as long as they’re done intentionally. Entertain yourself sometimes, but sometimes practice saying no. When you say no your mind will kick and scream for a little while but eventually it will calm down and that urge to distract will settle.

  Strategy: Same As Above, But Replace “A Nice Relaxing Stroll” With Just About Any Situation In Which I Would Be Alone With My Thoughts

Rating: 2 Stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: Wherever you go, there you are. It’s totally OK to take some time away from thinking. Distraction is not always bad, but learning to be alone with your thoughts is important in managing anxiety in the long run.

  Strategy: Trying A Meditation App For 1-3 Sessions, Then Failing To Establish A Regular Practice Of It, Then Quitting

In this strategy, I think to myself several times a day for several weeks, “Maybe I should try meditating,” and then I download a meditation app, and two or three days later, I give it a shot. I may do only the first session, I may do a couple sessions, or even a session every day for three days in a row. Sometimes, I’ll even do a few sessions, fail to do any more sessions for a week or so, and then start over. No matter what way I start, I never manage to keep it up.

Rating: 4 Stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: This is very good. It’ll take multiple starts to find the right fit and the right habit sequence. Keep trying, and pay attention to the specific things that work or don’t work. And, practice not putting yourself down for not keeping it up. It’s supposed to be a good thing, let it be.

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to help keep Semi-Rad going, forward this piece to someone who’d like it, consider making a Patreon contribution, check out the Semi-Rad Shop for posters and other fun stuff, or buy one of my books.

—Brendan

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[olivereliott]

A Psychologist Rates The Strategies I Use To Deal With Stress And Anxiety

Like you, I am trying to get better at dealing with stress and anxiety. I am aware that I suck at it, and that the methods I have used to try to deal with it, along with not being created or recommended by any mental health professional, also suck. But I thought I would get a professional opinion on how those methods suck, and even maybe how much they suck, so I asked my friend and psychologist Dr. Trevor Davis for his professional opinion. He rated each strategy from one to five stars, one being bad and five being good, and wrote some notes in response to each one:

Strategy: Thinking “Everything Will Be Fine Once I Get [Thing] Done”

In this strategy, I do nothing to mitigate feelings of anxiety and stress when things are piling up on me and it feels as if it’s all very out of control. Instead of actually changing the way I look at things, or do things, or even stopping every once in a while to do some calming breathing exercises, I just keep going, for hours or days at a time, telling myself that once I finish a creative project, or meet a deadline, or get moved into a new house, or get through a public speaking event, I will feel better and things will be OK.

Rating: 2 Stars

Dr. Davis’ notes: Man, this one seems all about context and the big picture. Do this for a few hours, not a big deal. Do this for a few days? That is a recipe for some stomach ulcers. Like a hamster on a wheel, there’s always something to be done. Sounds tiring. While this strategy is probably better than procrastinating, the long-term consequences are what will get you eventually. Limited balance today means limited balance tomorrow.

  Strategy: Saying Yes To Everything That Scares Me

The idea behind this strategy is, theoretically, personal growth—saying yes to a thing that is outside of my comfort zone, in order to push myself to rise to the occasion and therefore improve, or prove to myself that I was better/stronger/more capable than I assumed I was. And eventually, be scared of nothing, which will decrease or eliminate anxiety (I guess?) Examples: ultramarathons, mountaineering objectives, creative projects, contract gigs I am not qualified for on paper, writing a book on a subject I don’t know that much about, any sort of professional interaction that will cause me to have impostor syndrome (all of them), etc.

Rating: 3 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: This one has a lot of potential. If you would change the “everything” to “some things,” you have a winner. The problem with saying yes to too many scary things is that you’re always scared, which I generally don’t recommend. But, with balance (there’s that word again) I think this is a great example of pursuing your values, like pushing yourself. Just remember to keep this in check with remembering your own worthiness without having to “do it all.”

  Strategy: Thinking Of Every Single Thing That Could Go Wrong In Advance, In The Belief That If I Have Thought Of Something That Could Go Wrong, It Won’t Actually Happen

Example: In advance of a complicated travel itinerary, if I go over in my head all the ways I could fuck it up (or it could get fucked up without any input from me), everything will go smoothly—i.e. I could hit traffic on the way to the airport and be late for my flight, check-in could take forever, TSA could take forever, they could change my gate at the last minute, my flight could be delayed and I could miss my connection, at the other end my bag could not arrive and I could be late for the last train, and so on.

Rating: 1 star

Dr. Davis’s notes: This one actually makes me anxious just reading it, but  a lot of people use this strategy, even me. This might be less of a strategy but more an example of anxiety. Tolerating uncertainty is something most people struggle with in one way or another. What’s interesting is that while you may not like uncertainty, you do a lot of things that have a good amount of it – climbing, ultramarathons, traveling. For those of us who can get loaded down by uncertainty I find that it helps to first acknowledge the unknowns of the situation we are facing. But don’t stop there. Actively pull your mind to times where you accomplished something in a similar situation, or another time that things went well even when there was an unexpected setback or challenge. Remind yourself that you’re capable of managing changes and challenges, even when you cannot control all of the variables.

  Strategy: Eating A Whole Pizza

Even if it’s not a whole pizza, it is an amount of pizza higher than my caloric needs for the day, or two days, and I am not eating it to satiate hunger, but moreso to “feed my emotions.”

Rating: How big is the pizza? 1-5 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: The usefulness of this one depends on a number of things. Sometimes emotions are hungry and it’s OK to feed them. Is it a treat, or is it a regular occurrence? Are you going to hurt yourself by doing this? I also know that if you tell yourself “No” you’re probably going to want to do this even more. That’s why restriction based diets don’t really work. I’d recommend improving this strategy by examining how much benefit versus harm it brings. Once the scale tips to more harm than good it’s worth finding a way to balance it out. It’s probably not a great strategy long term, but next time just invite me over and we can finish it together.

  Strategy: Eating A Whole Pizza, But Instead Of Pizza, An Unreasonable Quantity Of Ice Cream

Rating: 1 star

Dr. Davis’s notes:  I’d say go for it sometimes, but again, keep track of the risks involved. I’m “dairy sensitive,” so for me (and those around me) the risks are just too high.

  Strategy: Working Late At Night To Get Just A Couple More Things Done So I Can Go To Bed Not Having To Think About Those Things

Working, of course, involving a glowing screen of a laptop or iPad.

Rating: 2 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: This one isn’t necessarily horrible, but it is going to vary case by case. How late are you staying up? How often are you doing this? Is it harmful to your relationships? I’d encourage a review of time management and how many things you’re taking on at once. Give yourself time to pre-plan the next day, before it gets late. Prioritize. Try to give your eyes (and brain) and break from the screen at least 30 minutes (if not more) before bed. It’s also good sleep hygiene to try and keep a consistent sleep/wake routine. Of course, life happens. There’s always a need for flexibility.

  Strategy: Running Long Distances To The Point Of Extreme Discomfort

A twofold strategy, in that running until the point of extreme discomfort allows me to forget all my worries for the period of minutes or hours that my legs and body hurt so much that I can’t think about anything else, and also in that the hours and even days following a long run provide a flush of endorphins that make me feel calm for a while.

Rating: 2 stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: You know, a lot of these strategies could be improved if they were less . . . extreme. Exercise is great for the bodymind and health, but too much can just be too much. Personally I’d worry about that extreme discomfort turning into an injury and then you’re left without running at all.

  Strategy: Watching Crappy Action Movies

This is a way of escaping reality for two to three hours, through watching a movie, but not just any movie—a movie with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 55% or lower. I don’t know why I do this, or why so many people have to die violent deaths on screen, or why I can’t just watch documentaries, or even just good movies instead.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Dr. Davis’ notes: This could be 5 stars if you were more accepting of how much this helps you. It is OK to take a break. Ever heard of it? Invite me over for this, and I’ll bring the pizza.

  Strategy: Treating Everything In Life Like A To-Do List, In Order To Be So Busy I Don’t Have To Be Present, Check In With Myself, Or Even Think About How I’m Feeling

With enough to-do lists, and enough action toward completing items on those to-do lists, and continually adding to those to-do lists, I can go entire days or weeks without ever realizing I don’t feel that great!

Rating: 1 Star

Dr. Davis’s notes: I suppose this is better than the alternative of not doing anything, but this strategy you’ve described is a perfect recipe for burnout. The good – making lists, taking action on goals, reviewing goals and accomplishments. The bad – ignoring your other needs and not checking in with yourself. The ugly – not noticing the other emotional needs. Again, the best thing to do is strive for some balance and make some space for checking in with how you are doing. Consider something like a daily check-in, asking yourself how you are physically, emotionally, in your relationships, and how is your progress on some of these important goals/tasks.

  Strategy: Taking A Nice Relaxing Stroll, But Instead Of Being Alone With My Thoughts, Listening To An Audiobook Or Finding Something Else To Distract Me

Could just take the dog for his evening walk and relax, but no, let’s plug in some ear buds and listen to a harrowing survival story, or, even better, a story of a shipwreck tragedy with no survivors. Or scroll through social media apps, real estate listings, weather apps, bank accounts, then repeat, ad nauseam.

Rating: 4 Stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: A relaxing stroll sounds like a great strategy for anxiety management. Do those “distractions” help you relax? If so, great! Nothing is inherently wrong with any of the things you listed, as long as they’re done intentionally. Entertain yourself sometimes, but sometimes practice saying no. When you say no your mind will kick and scream for a little while but eventually it will calm down and that urge to distract will settle.

  Strategy: Same As Above, But Replace “A Nice Relaxing Stroll” With Just About Any Situation In Which I Would Be Alone With My Thoughts

Rating: 2 Stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: Wherever you go, there you are. It’s totally OK to take some time away from thinking. Distraction is not always bad, but learning to be alone with your thoughts is important in managing anxiety in the long run.

  Strategy: Trying A Meditation App For 1-3 Sessions, Then Failing To Establish A Regular Practice Of It, Then Quitting

In this strategy, I think to myself several times a day for several weeks, “Maybe I should try meditating,” and then I download a meditation app, and two or three days later, I give it a shot. I may do only the first session, I may do a couple sessions, or even a session every day for three days in a row. Sometimes, I’ll even do a few sessions, fail to do any more sessions for a week or so, and then start over. No matter what way I start, I never manage to keep it up.

Rating: 4 Stars

Dr. Davis’s notes: This is very good. It’ll take multiple starts to find the right fit and the right habit sequence. Keep trying, and pay attention to the specific things that work or don’t work. And, practice not putting yourself down for not keeping it up. It’s supposed to be a good thing, let it be.

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to help keep Semi-Rad going, forward this piece to someone who’d like it, consider making a Patreon contribution, check out the Semi-Rad Shop for posters and other fun stuff, or buy one of my books.

—Brendan

The post A Psychologist Rates The Strategies I Use To Deal With Stress And Anxiety appeared first on semi-rad.com.

[quarantinedskull]

Time management is the key.

21 time management tips..1. Complete most important tasks first. This is the golden rule of time management. Each day, identify the two or three tasks that are the most crucial to complete, and do those first. Once you’re done, the day has already been a success. You can move on to other things, or you can let them wait until tomorrow. You’ve finished the essential. 2. Learn to say “no”. Making a lot of time commitments can teach us how to juggle various engagements and manage our time. This can be a great thing. However, you can easily take it too far. At some point, you need to learn to decline opportunities. Your objective should be to take on only those commitments that you know you have time for and that you truly care about. 3. Sleep at least 7-8 hours. Some people think sacrificing sleep is a good way to hack productivity and wring a couple extra hours out of the day. This is not the case. Most people need 7-8 hours of sleep for their bodies and minds to function optimally. You know if you’re getting enough. Listen to your body, and don’t underestimate the value of sleep. 4. Devote your entire focus to the task at hand. Close out all other browser windows. Put your phone away, out of sight and on silent. Find a quiet place to work, or listen to some music if that helps you (I enjoy listening to classical or ambient music while writing sometimes). Concentrate on this one task. Nothing else should exist. Immerse yourself in it. 5. Get an early start. Nearly all of us are plagued by the impulse to procrastinate. It seems so easy, and you always manage to get it done eventually, so why not? Take it from a recovering chronic procrastinator — it’s so much nicer and less stressful to get an earlier start on something. It isn’t that difficult either, if you just decide firmly to do it. 6. Don’t allow unimportant details to drag you down. We often allow projects to take much, much longer than they could by getting too hung up on small details. I’m guilty of this. I’ve always been a perfectionist. What I’ve found, though, is that it is possible to push past the desire to constantly examine what I’ve done so far. I’m much better off pressing onward, getting the bulk completed, and revising things afterward. 7. Turn key tasks into habits. Writing is a regular task for me. I have to write all the time — for school, work, my student organization, my blog, etc. I probably write 5,000 – 7,000 words per week. The amount of writing I do may seem like a lot to most people, but it’s very manageable for me, because it’s habitual. I’ve made it a point to write something every day for a long time. I rarely break this routine. Because of this, my mind is in the habit of doing the work of writing. It has become quite natural and enjoyable. Could you do something similar? (Read “The Simple, Powerful Guide to Forming Any New Habit“) 8. Be conscientious of amount of TV/Internet/gaming time. Time spent browsing Twitter or gaming or watching TV and movies can be one of the biggest drains on productivity. I suggest becoming more aware of how much time you spend on these activities. Simply by noticing how they’re sucking up your time you’ll begin to do them less. 9. Delineate a time limit in which to complete task. Instead of just sitting down to work on a project and thinking, “I’m going to be here until this is done,” try thinking, “I’m going to work on this for three hours”. The time constraint will push you to focus and be more efficient, even if you end up having to go back and add a bit more later. 10. Leave a buffer-time between tasks. When we rush from task to task, it’s difficult to appreciate what we’re doing and to stay focused and motivated. Allowing ourselves down-time between tasks can be a breath of fresh air for our brains. While taking a break, go for a short walk, meditate, or perform some other mind-clearing exercise. 11. Don’t think of the totality of your to-do list. One of the fastest ways to overwhelm yourself is to think about your massive to-do list. Realize that no amount of thought will make it any shorter. At this point in time, all you can do is focus on the one task before you. This one, single, solitary task. One step at a time. Breathe. 12. Exercise and eat healthily. Numerous studies have linked a healthy lifestyle with work productivity. Similar to getting enough sleep, exercising and eating healthily boost energy levels, clear your mind, and allow you to focus more easily. 13. Do less. This is a tactic recommended by one of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta. Basically, do less is another way of saying do the things that really matter. Slow down, notice what needs to be done, and concentrate on those things. Do less things that create more value, rather than more things that are mostly empty. 14. Utilize weekends, just a little bit. One of my favorite memes depicts a gentleman casting his work aside, declaring, “It’s Friday! F#%$88u this shit.” The following image reads “Monday”, and the man is stooping to pick up the papers he’d tossed to the ground. This is comical, but I’ve found that it’s amazing how doing just a little bit on weekends can really lessen the workload during the week. Aim for 2-4 hours per day. You’ll still leave yourself plenty of free time for activities. 15. Create organizing systems. Being organized saves tons of time, and you don’t have to be the most ultra-organized person in the world either. Systems aren’t complicated to implement. Create a filing system for documents. Make sure all items have a place to be stored in your dwelling. Unsubscribe from e-mail lists if you don’t want to receive their content. Streamline, streamline, streamline. 16. Do something during waiting time. We tend to have a lot of down-time where we don’t try to do much. Waiting rooms, lines at the store, time on the subway, on the elliptical at the gym, etc. Find things to do during this time. I tend to have a lot of reading for classes, so I bring some of it almost everywhere I go and read during waiting time. 17. Lock yourself in. No distractions, no excuses. Sometimes, the only way I’m going to get something done is if I’m under lock and key, alone in a room. If you’re like me, realize it, and act accordingly. 18. Commit to your plan to do something. I kind of mentioned this already, but it’s worth repeating. Don’t flake on your own plan to do something! Be resolute. Be committed. Be professional about it, and follow through. A firm will to accomplish what you decide to accomplish will take you anywhere. 19. Batch related tasks together. Let’s say that over a given weekend you need to do two programming assignments, write three essays, and make two videos. Rather than approaching this work in whatever order you feel, group the like tasks and do them consecutively. Different tasks demand different types of thinking, so it makes sense to allow your mind to continue to flow with its current zone rather than switching unnecessarily to something that’s going to require you to re-orient. 20. Find time for stillness. In our go, go, go world, too many people don’t find time to just be still. Yet, it’s extraordinary what a stillness practice can do. Action and inaction should both play key roles in our lives. Discovering time in your life for silence and non-motion reduces anxiety and shows you that there is no need to constantly rush. It also makes it easier to find your work pleasurable. 21. Eliminate the non-essential. I know this one has been mentioned in one capacity or another already, but it’s one of the most useful tips you can take away from this post. Our lives are full of excess. When we can identify that excess and remove it, we become more and more in touch with what is significant and what deserves our time. One Last Tip (The Best One) There’s one final tip I want to mention. If you remember one thing from this post, remember this: Enjoyment should always be the goal. Work can be play. We get so caught up in busyness that we forget to enjoy what we’re doing. Even when we focus on working smarter, we’re still often too focused on getting things done. This should never be the point. Always ask yourself: What can I do to spend more time enjoying what I’m doing? The goal should be to arrange your commitments in a way that you’re happy living out the details of your daily life, even while you’re working. This may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s more possible than ever in today’s world. Be curious. Be open to opportunity. Know yourself. Embrace your passions.

[runwright]

A look back at 2016

2016 Goals

Running/ Health and Fitness

I didn't hit any of the fitness goals I set for myself. I took the entire winter and almost the entire spring off running. My bike needed to be fixed and I didn't get it repaired until October.  Exercise was sporadic at best for most of the early part of the year and by the time summer rolled around, I was carrying some extra weight, feeling heavy and stiff and not able to train for any races. Needless to say, I didn't even attempt to train for the marathon.

Financial

As the year progressed, I learned more about myself and about life and changed my financial goals. I put some things in place to start following one of my passions. I knew it would take a while before it would be financially feasible but now I get to do what I love. The bills are still being paid but I wasn't able to pay off my debts or save much. That continues to be a goal for 2017.

Personal Development

I completed my reading challenge to read 100 books by December 31st. It took me the entire year to get to that number because while I got ahead of the schedule during the summer months, in the fall I got consumed with other projects and that was also the time I started spending way more time exercising and going on other adventures and slouched on the reading. When I got back to the challenge, it was a race to try to finish by the end of the year but I did it. Other reading challenges and goals that I completed in: Non-Fiction reading challenge ( I read enough NF to get the Master title) Winter Reading Challenge - I read 12 of the 14 books but couldn't get to the category to read 2 books with the same title. They had to be the same spelling and everything and I just missed out on that part. I participated in the Popsugar Reading Challenge and read 35 of the 40 categories. I read 20 of 26 qualifying books for the ABC challenge. I took 2 John Maxwell workshops I trained 2 Pathfinders to complete their syllabus so they could be promoted to the next class. I took a challenge to be fluent in French and while fluency still evades me, I did get a lot of practice.

Writing

2016 was the year where my life changed. I finally released my first book, a short story collection entitled It's Complicated: Short Stories About Long Relationships. With that, I became a published author with nationwide distribution and my print book made it to several international countries. Off the top of my head, I can tell you that I have readers in USA, Canada, Germany, Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad, Malawi, Sudan. For a tiny self-published book where I didn't spend a dollar on marketing, I'd say this is a dream come true and a motivator to keep writing. I also released a Kindle version of my book on Amazon so I can't say where in the world awesome people are downloading and reading my book but it is a joy to get a little residual check every month that comes straight from writing the things that make my heart sing. I wanted to publish more books in 2016 but I got a little sidetracked by success :-) so I have to push those other goals to 2017. I did do a lot more writing though so I have a lot of new material that just needs to be collated and edited. I participated in NaNoWriMo and wrote almost an entire new novel from that project. I also returned to my first love - poetry - and put together a collection that just needs a little fine tuning before I can make it available to everyone to read.

Spiritual

I didn't complete the challenge to read the Bible in a year but that was to be expected since I've never done it. Maybe it's not a realistic goal for me while I'm reading so many other things. Maybe I should just focus on reading and studying parts of it as I've bene doing.

Blog and Social Media

I am not good at tracking finances, especially keeping track of blog income but I do know I didn't make anything close to the income I'd wanted to get from this blog. I had hoped to have way more followers on my social media but it's hard going sometimes, especially when you get a little distracted or demotivated and stop posting the kind of content people look for. That's something I have to be better at doing in the future.

Travel

2016 was a disappointing year for travel. I didn't go on any of the trips I had planned at the beginning of the year but I did fit in some other spontaneous adventures - hiking, backpacking and staycation trips so that kinda made up for it. And how did I stick with my daily resolutions and intentions?

2016 Resolutions

Start everyday with worship and intentional living reminders - Check Study Sabbath School lesson and read Bible everyday - Check Drink 8 cups of water everyday - Yes. I spent 2016 being very well hydrated Get high-intensity workout for at least 20 minutes everyday - I got better with this as the year wore on Practice French for at least 5 minutes everyday - Most days, I spoke in French, even if it was to myself. Visit sick and shut-in members more often - Yes Work on my to-do list everyday instead to stop procrastinating - Yes Be intentional in my relationships - Yes Do something creative everyday - write, draw, compose music, sew, make art, create videos - Yes. I even increased the medium and took on YouTube in 2016 Keep sugar intake to a minimum - I tried. I did stop buying big bags of candy to store in my cupboards so that was a step in the right direction Keep my blog fresh and relevant with layouts, good content and interesting images - Hmmm. You'd be the judge of that, I guess. Stay engaged with my social media followers. I tried. Keep in touch with my family. I did reconnect with some family members. Take better care of my hair - Yes Make everyday an adventure - Yes. Most days, I made time for a mini adventure, even if it was just taking a different way home :-) Overall, 2016 was a great year.

The Overview

I wrote and published a book and it brought some experiences I know I wouldn't have had without making that step. I had book signings where people introduced me as an author, I went to a couple of book events and met other authors. My best book signing was probably the one where I was autographing copies of my book on a bus heading across state lines.  I also met some famous authors like JoJo Moyes I started a YouTube channel called Runwright Reads where I focus on bookish discussions. It was a new challenge to not just put my thoughts in the written word but also to see how I could engage with a viewer and communicate my personality through self-filmed video. In just about six months, I have about 230 awesome followers and every one is a new friend to talk with about something I'm passionate about. I went to some live concerts and heard some engaging music, watched some artistic movies, read informative and entertaining and motivational books, took some inspirational classes. I went to a Yankee Game, went to Giants stadium and met current and retired players. I met some great people online and IRL. YouTube subscribers and blogger friends aside, I also made a few new friends through my work, through church, and a few fitness enthusiasts through the running and bike clubs. There were also a few people I've known for years and who, in 2016, our conversation changed to include talk of more enduring themes. All of these, as well as my family and friend relationships made my year a very social one. On a sad note, I lost some friends and family members in 2016. My dear, dear friend Leslie Phipps died suddenly in June. After spending the day in her company at church, she went home and went to bed and didn't wake up. That was the most shocking loss I think I've ever experienced. In December, Uncle Harry, a man whose face still bears a extra wide smile in all my memories of him, also passed away after a short illness. And sprinkled throughout the year, there were several church family and extended family members who just fell. I heard about the passing of several friends in Jamaica who I remember from my childhood, neighbors and family friends who I will never see again when I return to Jamaica. Each of those losses was hard to recover from but I tried to focus on the good memories to move on. It helps to have good people  to talk things over with and have fun with now. It was hard to say goodbye to 2016. It was a very good year and I want to carry that progress into 2017 as I focus on accomplishments. What was your best memory of 2016?

This post first appeared on http://runwright.net

[allenmendezsr]

Daily Goal Software - Tools To Improve Your Life

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/daily-goal-software-tools-to-improve-your-life/

Daily Goal Software - Tools To Improve Your Life

 Buy Now    

If you can spare us just a few minutes of your valuable time, we’ll show you how you can make those minutes back, and more, many times over, every single day.

Does that sound like a fair deal?

OK, in just a moment, on the page below, we’re going to reveal to you a simple system you can begin using today – right now – that will teach you how to avoid procrastination and increase productivity.

This system is so effective that it will let you to reclaim more hours in your day, more days in your week, and more weeks in your year – easily.

If you’re the sort of person who looks back at the end of each day and wonders where did all those hours go, and why haven’t you accomplished anything, or if you need procrastination help, then this is the perfect solution for you.

This system can help you with the boring, day-to-day tasks you have to do (e.g. dealing with emails, catching up with the news, even eating or taking the dog for a walk), as well as the larger, more important project activities (e.g. marketing campaigns, new product development).

  As somebody who turned procrastination into an art form (“I even put my procrastinating off until tomorrow” used to be my motto!), I can vouch for how good a daily time management tool this is to help me focus on whatever the task at hand is.

Mark

  So, now that you’re ready to find out the three simple steps you need to take to learn how to stop procrastinating and get stuff done, read on …

Here’s The Simple A-B-C System:

Write down everything you want to get done for the day (i.e. your daily goals).

Everything literally includes anything and everything, from writing, creating content, planning your next project, reading and answering your email, running an advertising campaign, balancing your checkbook, cold-calling prospects, going for a walk, relaxing at your hobby, or maybe just some quiet time to contemplate life.

Assign a specific time to each task or group of tasks.

This can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours, although research has shown that the most effective duration is no more than 30 minutes without a break or a change.

Choose a task, start a timer (like an egg timer), and focus on nothing but accomplishing that task.

You must be really strict here, because this means you don’t answer the phone, you don’t check your emails every few minutes, you don’t get up for a drink, you don’t log on to Facebook – none of that stuff. You remain focused solely on the task-at-hand!

We guarantee that when you follow these three simple steps, every single day, your ability to get things done, as well as your entire life, will be completely revolutionised!

  I never thought I’d be saying this, but even for a die-hard procrastinator like me, it’s as though a switch has suddenly been turned on and you feel compelled to keep working until your allotted time is up – and if you’ve not finished the task, you just want to continue until you’re done (which, of course, you mustn’t do – when your time is up, that’s it, for now, because that’s how this time-boxing thing works).

Stuart

  We encourage you to take another look at those three little steps, let them sink in and percolate, and you’ll soon begin to see the sheer genius in both the structure and purpose behind them.

We’re not saying this to boast – we can’t, because we’re not the people who developed this system. We’re saying it because we really believe it, and because it really works.

So, your interest is piqued, and you’re probably wondering …

Why Does This System Work So Well?

Well, we have to confess that we’re no psychologists, so we can’t tell you for sure why this system works so well, but what we can do is share with you what effect using it has on our brains in order to practically compel it to want to take action on a consistent basis.

As we see it, there are three key elements involved here that make this such an effective strategy to overcome procrastination and getting stuff done, day in and day out:

An identified end result or goal (i.e. each of your daily tasks)

Our brains love goals, and it doesn’t matter if they’re big or small, because our brains have evolved over time to be the ultimate goal-seeking machines. When you give your brain a goal, it will immediately spring into action, trying to find ways to achieve it.

A specific deadline or timeframe (i.e. the time you assign to each of your tasks)

Once your brain has been given a goal to achieve, a deadline is the clarion call that motivates it to act! And it turns out too that the closer the deadline is, and the less time you have to do what you need to do, the more revved up your brain gets – it just loves a challenge.

Believability (i.e. the structure of the system and the order it imposes)

Instead of accepting the inevitability of an unproductive day, because all you can see before you is an overwhelming, out-of-control, homogenous mass of “stuff to do”, this system forces you to break everything down into smaller and more manageable chunks.

You can then see each of these chunks as discrete pieces of work that are doable, and this in turn gives you the belief that you will accomplish these tasks, one by one – with ease. Our belief systems drive us, and when you believe you can do something, you will actually do it!

The interesting thing is that when these three elements come together, they create a synergy that utterly transforms the way you look at all the things you have to do – both emotionally and psychologically.

This effect is so strong, that after you’ve used the system for a relatively short while, it almost becomes addictive – you just want to take action.

And that’s certainly an addiction we can live with very happily – especially after years of wondering how to overcome procrastination!

Making A Good System Great!

While this system is incredibly powerful, when you start using it every single day, you begin to notice a few irritations that sort of get in the way and make you feel like it could be even more effective than it already is. For example:

You have to manually make your daily list the slow, “old-fashioned” way – using pen and paper.

You have to remember what must be added to the list, including all of those tasks you need to take care of on a regular basis.

You have to find a timer (a kitchen timer, or maybe a watch, mobile/cell phone or PDA) and repeatedly set/reset it for each task.

You have to constantly refer back to your daily list to manually cross off the items that you’ve finished.

Now, while we have direct personal experience of using this system, and can vouch for how effective it is, we knew that there would be many other people out there, like us and like you, that could benefit from it as well.

However, we also realised that some of these minor annoyances would undoubtedly get in the way of using the system to its best advantage, or maybe even cause people not to try it because they couldn’t be bothered with all that apparent extra work.

On top of all this, psychology research has demonstrated that the better your mind can visualise something, the more real it becomes, in your mind, and the more likely it is that you will actually take action on it and, surprise, surprise, this applies just as much to your daily plan as to anything else.

The good news is that this is the 21st century and we’re no longer stuck with quill pens and ledgers – we have our ever-present companion, the computer, to assist us!

The Birth Of An Idea

So, the goal was to create a computer program (to do list software, if you like), to support the use of this system, that would:

make it really easy to add and work with your daily tasks

automate the creation and setting of timers

provide on-screen visual feedback once a task had been finished

have an interface which was simultaneously intuitive and visually appealing

And here is the very first rough sketch of how this time boxing software might look:

And this is what that rough idea became…

Introducing: The Daily Goal Machine

Simple • Intuitive • Effective

Those three little words – Simple, Intuitive and Effective – perfectly embody what The Daily Goal Machine is all about – it’s business productivity software like you’ve never seen before.

The aim of The Daily Goal Machine is brilliantly simple: to give you an easy way to visually structure your day in such a way that you feel absolutely compelled to take action and get things done, once and for all – no more daydreaming, no more procrastination, no more being side-tracked and distracted every few minutes by inconsequential stuff!

When you use The Daily Goal Machine, you don’t need to learn or remember any complicated time-management “system”, because all you need is:

A list of tasks.

We’re pretty sure you have no shortage of those!

Time to get those tasks done.

On the basis that you’re alive and reading this website right now, we’ll assume you have that too.

A finger to click your mouse.

If you don’t have one of those, then you’ll just have to find something else.   🙂

That’s all there is to it!

So, not only is this personal productivity software specifically designed to support a system that can’t fail to motivate you to take action, consistently, but the interface also helps you be 100% clear about your day and what is required of you, allowing you to visualize your time and accomplishments at-a-glance.

See The Daily Goal Machine In Action

To see Version 2 of The Daily Goal Machine in action, and to see just how easy it is to use, please watch this short narrated video by clicking the Play button – and then read on to see all the new features that have been added to Version 3:

See What’s New In Version 3

The Daily Goal Machine was always a great tool to help you get things done, but there are a bunch of new features in the latest release (Version 3):

Improved Interface

The overall look and feel of The Daily Goal Machine is still the same, but all of the graphical elements have been improved so that they now have more of a “pop” and are more interactive.

Customizable Background

If you would rather change The Daily Goal Machine’s background image, then you can. There are over 30 backgrounds to choose from, but if that’s not enough for you, you can use your own, either from your computer or from an image on the Internet.

12/24 Time Format

For those who live in a country where the 24 hour clock is standard, you can change the default time display (at the top right) from 12 hour format (i.e. with AM/PM indicators) to a 24 hour format.

Action Reminders

If you hover your mouse over the pulsating dots in the right tool bar, you will be presented with one of several Action Reminders, which are quotations and questions to get you thinking about how to become even more productive.

Priorities

You can now set visual priorities (i.e. Low, Medium, or High) on any actions, so you can see at a glance which are the ones you should be focusing on first.

Add An Action Panel

To help you create new actions even faster, there is a panel where you can select pre-defined times, priorities and verbs (e.g. create, review) so all you need to do is fill in rest.

Quick Time Adjustments

If you see that you need a bit more time to complete an action, you can quickly add five minutes to the timer (as many times as you need).

New Timer Groups

As well as the default 50 timer groups that were always available, there are 38 new ones – one for each day of the week, and one for each day of the month, so if you have certain tasks that you need to do every Monday, or on the first of the month, say, you can set those up for repeated use.

Break Timer

If you’re working on a longer task (e.g. several hours), and you need to take a break (which you should), you can set the Break Timer, which will pause any active task timers until you’ve had your break, when an alarm will sound to remind you it’s time to get back to work.

Active Timer Sounds

If you want added motivation to get those tasks completed, you now have an option to have a ticking sound playing whenever a timer is active – even if you’ve minimized The Daily Goal Machine to the taskbar. (But if you find that annoying, don’t worry, as it can be turned off.)

Notifications

Two notification options have been added to help you stay on track – one to play an alert when you a certain number of minutes (which you can choose) are left on an activity, and one that will play an alert every 30 minutes, say (although you can change this to whatever number of minutes you like).

Customized Audio Options

You can select from several different sounds for alarms, the ticking clock, and notifications, or you can turn any of them off if you’d rather not use these.

Volume Slider

You can quickly adjust the volume of all the different sounds using a slider, or you can instantly mute them (e.g. if you get a phone call).

New Report Option

You can include activity notes in the generated reports, to remind you of the details of what you did as part of each activity. These notes can, of course, be copied to the clipboard, saved to disk or printed too.

Scoreboard

There is now a Scoreboard that lets you set a target number of hours you want to work during a certain period (e.g. a week, a month), and then gives you a visual indicator of your progress, so that you can see at a glance whether you’re on schedule or not.

Mac Version

And lastly, and something that has been requested several times, The Daily Goal Machine now includes a version that will run on Apple Mac computers. Both Windows (7 through 8 but not 10) and Mac versions are within the download file, so you can choose which you want to use, depending on what types of computer you run.

How The Daily Goal Machine Gets Results

The Daily Goal Machine is the ultimate action machine – see how you can’t fail to get stunning results:

Beat Procrastination, As You Laugh In Its Face

All you need to do is take any task that you’ve been putting off, allow yourself 30 minutes to get it done, start the timer, and then watch what happens. This process, which The Daily Goal Machine automates for you, may seem simple, but it creates a “virtual” space in your brain for that task that you feel inexplicably compelled to fill with its completion!

Sharpen Your Focus

Using The Daily Goal Machine on a regular basis helps you get into the habit of eliminating productivity-killing distractions so that you focus all your concentration and energy on the task at hand.

Activate Your Internal Action Switch

Where you once might have been paralysed by the thought of tackling big tasks that seemed unachievable and overwhelming, you can now use The Daily Goal Machine to help you split these monster projects into smaller tasks that will instantly feel doable, and once you believe you can achieve them, you will.

Be The Master Of Your Time

Using The Daily Goal Machine helps you to become much more aware of how and where you’re spending your time each day, and as you become more aware of these habits, you will be easily able to find ways to use your time more productively, eliminating time-wasting activities that you were previously unaware of.

Vaporise Those Nagging Small Tasks

You know what we’re talking about – they’re tasks that are important, and they need to be done, but they’re small and you never seem to find time to get around to them so you can cross them off your list. Use The Daily Goal Machine, set aside a measly 30 minutes, and don’t just chip away at your list – smash it to smithereens!

Brain Storm Yourself To Freedom

Experience the liberation and creativity of brainstorming by setting aside a finite amount of time before starting work on any project, big or small. Once you get in the groove, even a short, time-boxed brainstorming session – it needn’t be more than 15 minutes – can produce eye-opening results.

Great Is Good … But Good Enough Is Better

One of the biggest productivity killers is the quest for perfectionism. Nobody wants to produce less than their best, but if you wait until you’ve dotted every I and crossed every T, you’ll never actually complete any project. However, once you apply time-boxing principles to the way you work, you’ll free yourself of this laudable but unproductive habit – it’s amazing how a ticking clock can spur you on to action, once you realise it’s better to produce something good than to never produce something great.

Achieve Life Balance

The Daily Goal Machine will help you make sure that you spend the appropriate amounts of time on both work and play – too many families are destroyed by an addiction to work, and however well-intentioned this is, with the desire to provide for the ones you love, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the fact that your family includes everybody. So, what could be easier than deliberately allotting chunks of time to business, home life, leisure and whatever else is necessary to achieve the balance that so many find elusive?

Become An Unstoppable Force

The more you use The Daily Goal Machine, and the more tasks you complete, the more you’ll find that you build an unstoppable momentum as you become addicted to getting stuff done.

Put Yourself On A “Time-Snack” Diet

We’re not saying you should go cold turkey and give up checking email, Twittering, and updating your Facebook page completely – we’re simply suggesting that you allocate a set time to indulge yourself in the frivolity of social networking and the such like, and then once The Daily Goal Machine’s timer goes off, you close all of those time-wasters down and get on with whatever’s next on your daily plan.

Don’t Ignore Your Dreams

If you’re like us, you barely have time to stay still, never mind move forward – day-to-day stuff gets in the way, constantly. But what Confucius said is true – “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. You can (and should) therefore use The Daily Goal Machine to allocate time every day – even if it’s only 15 minutes – to taking those little steps, that will ensure you are consistently moving towards your dreams.

Here’s How The Daily Goal Machine Makes It Super-Easy To Take Action

The Daily Goal Machine help you to:

Plan Your Day In A Minute (Or Less)

Although the Daily Goal Machine already comes pre-loaded with dozens of common tasks, you can also add as many of your own tasks as you want – quickly and easily. All of this makes it really simple to get your day planned with the minimum of time and effort, so that you can actually get on with doing the important stuff – your work (or whatever you’ve got scheduled for the day).

See Your Day With Never-Before-Experienced Clarity

Instead of your day being some blurry, hodge-podge of “stuff you need to do”, The Daily Goal Machine uses an intuitive graphical display that enables you to visualize it, making it more tangible and achievable to you.

Do Many Different Tasks, Even On Your Busiest Days

The Daily Goal Machine lets you display up to 12 timers, from 5 minutes up to 3 hours each, simultaneously, so you’ll always have plenty of flexibility to plan and manage even your busiest days.

Feel A Stronger Sense Of Achievement

Whenever you finish a scheduled task, The Daily Goal Machine provides you with visual confirmation that you’ve successfully finished yet another task, which in turn helps you build even more momentum as you continue making progress.

Start Using This System Right Now

Because The Daily Goal Machine has such an intuitive and simple interface, it usually only takes a few minutes (five at most) to master it, so that you can get straight on with the important jobs – like getting stuff done!

Make A Habit Of Using It

The Daily Goal Machine uses up very little of your computer’s resources, which means there’s no excuse not to use it every single day – you can leave it running constantly, without any adverse effect on whatever else you’re doing on your computer.

Discover Which Black Holes Are Sucking Up All Your Time

Click just one button, and The Daily Goal Machine will instantly start generating a report that details all the different actions you’ve finished, thus helping you to quickly understand how and where your time is really being spent.

Are You Ready To Start Seeing Results?

We’re sure you don’t need us to remind you that your time is the most valuable asset you have, because you already know this.

You see, understanding the value in time, and in your time specifically, isn’t the real challenge here – it’s probably the lack of an effective way to manage it to achieve the maximum results.

So, consider this question: with what you’ve already seen and read about The Daily Goal Machine, do you think it’s possible that you could claim back 100 hours per year that are currently being lost to activities you can’t account for?

If you’re not quite there yet, then how about just 75 hours? Or 50? Or maybe only 25 hours over the course of a year (which is less than half an hour a week)?

  Even though I already had a weekly plan, used a calendar, used the ABC method to prioritize my list and single-mindedly focused on the next task at hand, this program has saved me 45 minutes every day, over 4 hours/week.

Daniel Wood LookingToBusiness.com

  Whatever your answer, just think what that additional, valuable time could mean for you:

More time with your kids?

More money in your pocket?

More time to learn and grow?

More time contributing to and helping others?

More time enjoying your favorite hobbies?

More satisfaction from knowing you’ve been able to stop procrastination?

More time to throw up your feet and enjoy life?

Regardless of everything you will gain from using The Daily Goal Machine, we want to offer it to you for a fraction of its true worth – just $27.00.

What You Get With The Daily Goal Machine

The Daily Goal Machine

The first thing you get, obviously, is The Daily Goal Machine itself.

This is a software program that you will be downloading to your computer, installing and using in just a few minutes from now.

Two versions of this program are supplied – one that runs on Windows (7 through 8 but not 10), and one that runs on Apple Mac computers.

The Daily Goal Machine Installation Guide

Secondly, even though The Daily Goal Machine is really easy to install, and will only take you a minute or so, you will also get a full Installation Guide, with step-by-step instructions on what to do, just in case you run into any problems.

Note that this Installation Guide will be delivered as an Adobe PDF document and applies only to the Windows version of the software.

The Daily Goal Machine User Guide

Thirdly, you get a detailed and illustrated 49-page User Guide that walks you through all of the different features of The Daily Goal Machine, with hints and tips on how best to use it, as well as a short section on the minor differences betwee the Windows and Mac versions.

Note that this Installation Guide will be delivered as an Adobe PDF document.

You Also Get These Bonuses Too…

4 Letter Killer

This ebook is a perfect complement to The Daily Goal Machine – it’s only 13 pages long, but the content explains the key difference between those who are successful and those who are not.

If you only read one of these bonus reports and books, please make sure it’s this one – but don’t just read it, do what it says.

Time Out

With more and more people choosing to work from home these days, a disciplined approach to time management is a must, as you will find all sorts of distractions (e.g. television, your kids) that will slow down your progress.

This guide was specifically written with the home business owner in mind, and its 29 pages cover some important concepts, some practical hints and tips, and even some worksheets you can print off and use to help you manage your time effectively.

The Speed Reading Monster Course

The pace of life today is ever increasing – more to do and less time to do it in. We are inundated with information, and we need to find a way to absorb it efficiently and quickly.

The Speed Reading Monster Course covers both aspects of speed reading – not only the techniques to physically read faster, but also the ability to comprehend and retain that information, otherwise, it doesn’t really matter how fast you read.

Powerful Ways To Sharpen Your Memory

Having a real passion for mnemonics, and having used these memory training techniques since I was just eight years old, I am happy to be able to offer you this great 65-page book that contains some very effective tips and tools to help you improve your memory, with a specific technique for remembering numbers that I know works, as I’ve used it for over 40 years.

The Law Of Attraction

With movies such as “The Secret”, the Law Of Attraction has become very popular recently.

This book provides an excellent overview of what it is, how it is believed to work, and some of the key principles behind putting it into practice.

Your 100% Money-Back Guarantee … Good For 60 Days!

Grab the The Daily Goal Machine today and use it every day, as much as you want, for the next 60 days.

We’re so confident you’ll love it that we’ll give you our 100% unconditional, 60-day guarantee!

Yes, that’s right – if you’re not completely thrilled with using the The Daily Goal Machine, and the incredible results it helps you produce on a consistent basis, then simply request a full refund.

No questions asked, no complaining, no whining – guaranteed!

Grab Your Copy Of The Daily Goal Machine … Now!

Click the “Buy Now” button, below, to order your copy for the low, low price of just $37.00 $27.00:

Internet Security Note: The secure order form on the next page will look like this:

Well, it’s up to you now – do you want to continue as you are, constantly feeling like you’re slipping further and further behind with your work, with no time to yourself or for your family, and feeling guilty about your inability to achieve anything, or do you want to take control of your time and become an unstoppable human dynamo, a veritable action machine, getting stuff done day after day after day, with the help of the ultimate procrastination solution?

Whatever you decide, we wish you every success,

P.S. Of all the things you can improve in your life, your ability to take action is one of the most important – without a doubt! Use The Daily Goal Machine risk-free for the next 8 weeks and finally experience what it feels like to get things done!

Copyright 2009 – 2020 © DailyGoalSoftware.com

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Daily Goal Software - Tools To Improve Your Life

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/daily-goal-software-tools-to-improve-your-life/

Daily Goal Software - Tools To Improve Your Life

 Buy Now    

If you can spare us just a few minutes of your valuable time, we’ll show you how you can make those minutes back, and more, many times over, every single day.

Does that sound like a fair deal?

OK, in just a moment, on the page below, we’re going to reveal to you a simple system you can begin using today – right now – that will teach you how to avoid procrastination and increase productivity.

This system is so effective that it will let you to reclaim more hours in your day, more days in your week, and more weeks in your year – easily.

If you’re the sort of person who looks back at the end of each day and wonders where did all those hours go, and why haven’t you accomplished anything, or if you need procrastination help, then this is the perfect solution for you.

This system can help you with the boring, day-to-day tasks you have to do (e.g. dealing with emails, catching up with the news, even eating or taking the dog for a walk), as well as the larger, more important project activities (e.g. marketing campaigns, new product development).

  As somebody who turned procrastination into an art form (“I even put my procrastinating off until tomorrow” used to be my motto!), I can vouch for how good a daily time management tool this is to help me focus on whatever the task at hand is.

Mark

  So, now that you’re ready to find out the three simple steps you need to take to learn how to stop procrastinating and get stuff done, read on …

Here’s The Simple A-B-C System:

Write down everything you want to get done for the day (i.e. your daily goals).

Everything literally includes anything and everything, from writing, creating content, planning your next project, reading and answering your email, running an advertising campaign, balancing your checkbook, cold-calling prospects, going for a walk, relaxing at your hobby, or maybe just some quiet time to contemplate life.

Assign a specific time to each task or group of tasks.

This can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours, although research has shown that the most effective duration is no more than 30 minutes without a break or a change.

Choose a task, start a timer (like an egg timer), and focus on nothing but accomplishing that task.

You must be really strict here, because this means you don’t answer the phone, you don’t check your emails every few minutes, you don’t get up for a drink, you don’t log on to Facebook – none of that stuff. You remain focused solely on the task-at-hand!

We guarantee that when you follow these three simple steps, every single day, your ability to get things done, as well as your entire life, will be completely revolutionised!

  I never thought I’d be saying this, but even for a die-hard procrastinator like me, it’s as though a switch has suddenly been turned on and you feel compelled to keep working until your allotted time is up – and if you’ve not finished the task, you just want to continue until you’re done (which, of course, you mustn’t do – when your time is up, that’s it, for now, because that’s how this time-boxing thing works).

Stuart

  We encourage you to take another look at those three little steps, let them sink in and percolate, and you’ll soon begin to see the sheer genius in both the structure and purpose behind them.

We’re not saying this to boast – we can’t, because we’re not the people who developed this system. We’re saying it because we really believe it, and because it really works.

So, your interest is piqued, and you’re probably wondering …

Why Does This System Work So Well?

Well, we have to confess that we’re no psychologists, so we can’t tell you for sure why this system works so well, but what we can do is share with you what effect using it has on our brains in order to practically compel it to want to take action on a consistent basis.

As we see it, there are three key elements involved here that make this such an effective strategy to overcome procrastination and getting stuff done, day in and day out:

An identified end result or goal (i.e. each of your daily tasks)

Our brains love goals, and it doesn’t matter if they’re big or small, because our brains have evolved over time to be the ultimate goal-seeking machines. When you give your brain a goal, it will immediately spring into action, trying to find ways to achieve it.

A specific deadline or timeframe (i.e. the time you assign to each of your tasks)

Once your brain has been given a goal to achieve, a deadline is the clarion call that motivates it to act! And it turns out too that the closer the deadline is, and the less time you have to do what you need to do, the more revved up your brain gets – it just loves a challenge.

Believability (i.e. the structure of the system and the order it imposes)

Instead of accepting the inevitability of an unproductive day, because all you can see before you is an overwhelming, out-of-control, homogenous mass of “stuff to do”, this system forces you to break everything down into smaller and more manageable chunks.

You can then see each of these chunks as discrete pieces of work that are doable, and this in turn gives you the belief that you will accomplish these tasks, one by one – with ease. Our belief systems drive us, and when you believe you can do something, you will actually do it!

The interesting thing is that when these three elements come together, they create a synergy that utterly transforms the way you look at all the things you have to do – both emotionally and psychologically.

This effect is so strong, that after you’ve used the system for a relatively short while, it almost becomes addictive – you just want to take action.

And that’s certainly an addiction we can live with very happily – especially after years of wondering how to overcome procrastination!

Making A Good System Great!

While this system is incredibly powerful, when you start using it every single day, you begin to notice a few irritations that sort of get in the way and make you feel like it could be even more effective than it already is. For example:

You have to manually make your daily list the slow, “old-fashioned” way – using pen and paper.

You have to remember what must be added to the list, including all of those tasks you need to take care of on a regular basis.

You have to find a timer (a kitchen timer, or maybe a watch, mobile/cell phone or PDA) and repeatedly set/reset it for each task.

You have to constantly refer back to your daily list to manually cross off the items that you’ve finished.

Now, while we have direct personal experience of using this system, and can vouch for how effective it is, we knew that there would be many other people out there, like us and like you, that could benefit from it as well.

However, we also realised that some of these minor annoyances would undoubtedly get in the way of using the system to its best advantage, or maybe even cause people not to try it because they couldn’t be bothered with all that apparent extra work.

On top of all this, psychology research has demonstrated that the better your mind can visualise something, the more real it becomes, in your mind, and the more likely it is that you will actually take action on it and, surprise, surprise, this applies just as much to your daily plan as to anything else.

The good news is that this is the 21st century and we’re no longer stuck with quill pens and ledgers – we have our ever-present companion, the computer, to assist us!

The Birth Of An Idea

So, the goal was to create a computer program (to do list software, if you like), to support the use of this system, that would:

make it really easy to add and work with your daily tasks

automate the creation and setting of timers

provide on-screen visual feedback once a task had been finished

have an interface which was simultaneously intuitive and visually appealing

And here is the very first rough sketch of how this time boxing software might look:

And this is what that rough idea became…

Introducing: The Daily Goal Machine

Simple • Intuitive • Effective

Those three little words – Simple, Intuitive and Effective – perfectly embody what The Daily Goal Machine is all about – it’s business productivity software like you’ve never seen before.

The aim of The Daily Goal Machine is brilliantly simple: to give you an easy way to visually structure your day in such a way that you feel absolutely compelled to take action and get things done, once and for all – no more daydreaming, no more procrastination, no more being side-tracked and distracted every few minutes by inconsequential stuff!

When you use The Daily Goal Machine, you don’t need to learn or remember any complicated time-management “system”, because all you need is:

A list of tasks.

We’re pretty sure you have no shortage of those!

Time to get those tasks done.

On the basis that you’re alive and reading this website right now, we’ll assume you have that too.

A finger to click your mouse.

If you don’t have one of those, then you’ll just have to find something else.   🙂

That’s all there is to it!

So, not only is this personal productivity software specifically designed to support a system that can’t fail to motivate you to take action, consistently, but the interface also helps you be 100% clear about your day and what is required of you, allowing you to visualize your time and accomplishments at-a-glance.

See The Daily Goal Machine In Action

To see Version 2 of The Daily Goal Machine in action, and to see just how easy it is to use, please watch this short narrated video by clicking the Play button – and then read on to see all the new features that have been added to Version 3:

See What’s New In Version 3

The Daily Goal Machine was always a great tool to help you get things done, but there are a bunch of new features in the latest release (Version 3):

Improved Interface

The overall look and feel of The Daily Goal Machine is still the same, but all of the graphical elements have been improved so that they now have more of a “pop” and are more interactive.

Customizable Background

If you would rather change The Daily Goal Machine’s background image, then you can. There are over 30 backgrounds to choose from, but if that’s not enough for you, you can use your own, either from your computer or from an image on the Internet.

12/24 Time Format

For those who live in a country where the 24 hour clock is standard, you can change the default time display (at the top right) from 12 hour format (i.e. with AM/PM indicators) to a 24 hour format.

Action Reminders

If you hover your mouse over the pulsating dots in the right tool bar, you will be presented with one of several Action Reminders, which are quotations and questions to get you thinking about how to become even more productive.

Priorities

You can now set visual priorities (i.e. Low, Medium, or High) on any actions, so you can see at a glance which are the ones you should be focusing on first.

Add An Action Panel

To help you create new actions even faster, there is a panel where you can select pre-defined times, priorities and verbs (e.g. create, review) so all you need to do is fill in rest.

Quick Time Adjustments

If you see that you need a bit more time to complete an action, you can quickly add five minutes to the timer (as many times as you need).

New Timer Groups

As well as the default 50 timer groups that were always available, there are 38 new ones – one for each day of the week, and one for each day of the month, so if you have certain tasks that you need to do every Monday, or on the first of the month, say, you can set those up for repeated use.

Break Timer

If you’re working on a longer task (e.g. several hours), and you need to take a break (which you should), you can set the Break Timer, which will pause any active task timers until you’ve had your break, when an alarm will sound to remind you it’s time to get back to work.

Active Timer Sounds

If you want added motivation to get those tasks completed, you now have an option to have a ticking sound playing whenever a timer is active – even if you’ve minimized The Daily Goal Machine to the taskbar. (But if you find that annoying, don’t worry, as it can be turned off.)

Notifications

Two notification options have been added to help you stay on track – one to play an alert when you a certain number of minutes (which you can choose) are left on an activity, and one that will play an alert every 30 minutes, say (although you can change this to whatever number of minutes you like).

Customized Audio Options

You can select from several different sounds for alarms, the ticking clock, and notifications, or you can turn any of them off if you’d rather not use these.

Volume Slider

You can quickly adjust the volume of all the different sounds using a slider, or you can instantly mute them (e.g. if you get a phone call).

New Report Option

You can include activity notes in the generated reports, to remind you of the details of what you did as part of each activity. These notes can, of course, be copied to the clipboard, saved to disk or printed too.

Scoreboard

There is now a Scoreboard that lets you set a target number of hours you want to work during a certain period (e.g. a week, a month), and then gives you a visual indicator of your progress, so that you can see at a glance whether you’re on schedule or not.

Mac Version

And lastly, and something that has been requested several times, The Daily Goal Machine now includes a version that will run on Apple Mac computers. Both Windows (7 through 8 but not 10) and Mac versions are within the download file, so you can choose which you want to use, depending on what types of computer you run.

How The Daily Goal Machine Gets Results

The Daily Goal Machine is the ultimate action machine – see how you can’t fail to get stunning results:

Beat Procrastination, As You Laugh In Its Face

All you need to do is take any task that you’ve been putting off, allow yourself 30 minutes to get it done, start the timer, and then watch what happens. This process, which The Daily Goal Machine automates for you, may seem simple, but it creates a “virtual” space in your brain for that task that you feel inexplicably compelled to fill with its completion!

Sharpen Your Focus

Using The Daily Goal Machine on a regular basis helps you get into the habit of eliminating productivity-killing distractions so that you focus all your concentration and energy on the task at hand.

Activate Your Internal Action Switch

Where you once might have been paralysed by the thought of tackling big tasks that seemed unachievable and overwhelming, you can now use The Daily Goal Machine to help you split these monster projects into smaller tasks that will instantly feel doable, and once you believe you can achieve them, you will.

Be The Master Of Your Time

Using The Daily Goal Machine helps you to become much more aware of how and where you’re spending your time each day, and as you become more aware of these habits, you will be easily able to find ways to use your time more productively, eliminating time-wasting activities that you were previously unaware of.

Vaporise Those Nagging Small Tasks

You know what we’re talking about – they’re tasks that are important, and they need to be done, but they’re small and you never seem to find time to get around to them so you can cross them off your list. Use The Daily Goal Machine, set aside a measly 30 minutes, and don’t just chip away at your list – smash it to smithereens!

Brain Storm Yourself To Freedom

Experience the liberation and creativity of brainstorming by setting aside a finite amount of time before starting work on any project, big or small. Once you get in the groove, even a short, time-boxed brainstorming session – it needn’t be more than 15 minutes – can produce eye-opening results.

Great Is Good … But Good Enough Is Better

One of the biggest productivity killers is the quest for perfectionism. Nobody wants to produce less than their best, but if you wait until you’ve dotted every I and crossed every T, you’ll never actually complete any project. However, once you apply time-boxing principles to the way you work, you’ll free yourself of this laudable but unproductive habit – it’s amazing how a ticking clock can spur you on to action, once you realise it’s better to produce something good than to never produce something great.

Achieve Life Balance

The Daily Goal Machine will help you make sure that you spend the appropriate amounts of time on both work and play – too many families are destroyed by an addiction to work, and however well-intentioned this is, with the desire to provide for the ones you love, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the fact that your family includes everybody. So, what could be easier than deliberately allotting chunks of time to business, home life, leisure and whatever else is necessary to achieve the balance that so many find elusive?

Become An Unstoppable Force

The more you use The Daily Goal Machine, and the more tasks you complete, the more you’ll find that you build an unstoppable momentum as you become addicted to getting stuff done.

Put Yourself On A “Time-Snack” Diet

We’re not saying you should go cold turkey and give up checking email, Twittering, and updating your Facebook page completely – we’re simply suggesting that you allocate a set time to indulge yourself in the frivolity of social networking and the such like, and then once The Daily Goal Machine’s timer goes off, you close all of those time-wasters down and get on with whatever’s next on your daily plan.

Don’t Ignore Your Dreams

If you’re like us, you barely have time to stay still, never mind move forward – day-to-day stuff gets in the way, constantly. But what Confucius said is true – “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. You can (and should) therefore use The Daily Goal Machine to allocate time every day – even if it’s only 15 minutes – to taking those little steps, that will ensure you are consistently moving towards your dreams.

Here’s How The Daily Goal Machine Makes It Super-Easy To Take Action

The Daily Goal Machine help you to:

Plan Your Day In A Minute (Or Less)

Although the Daily Goal Machine already comes pre-loaded with dozens of common tasks, you can also add as many of your own tasks as you want – quickly and easily. All of this makes it really simple to get your day planned with the minimum of time and effort, so that you can actually get on with doing the important stuff – your work (or whatever you’ve got scheduled for the day).

See Your Day With Never-Before-Experienced Clarity

Instead of your day being some blurry, hodge-podge of “stuff you need to do”, The Daily Goal Machine uses an intuitive graphical display that enables you to visualize it, making it more tangible and achievable to you.

Do Many Different Tasks, Even On Your Busiest Days

The Daily Goal Machine lets you display up to 12 timers, from 5 minutes up to 3 hours each, simultaneously, so you’ll always have plenty of flexibility to plan and manage even your busiest days.

Feel A Stronger Sense Of Achievement

Whenever you finish a scheduled task, The Daily Goal Machine provides you with visual confirmation that you’ve successfully finished yet another task, which in turn helps you build even more momentum as you continue making progress.

Start Using This System Right Now

Because The Daily Goal Machine has such an intuitive and simple interface, it usually only takes a few minutes (five at most) to master it, so that you can get straight on with the important jobs – like getting stuff done!

Make A Habit Of Using It

The Daily Goal Machine uses up very little of your computer’s resources, which means there’s no excuse not to use it every single day – you can leave it running constantly, without any adverse effect on whatever else you’re doing on your computer.

Discover Which Black Holes Are Sucking Up All Your Time

Click just one button, and The Daily Goal Machine will instantly start generating a report that details all the different actions you’ve finished, thus helping you to quickly understand how and where your time is really being spent.

Are You Ready To Start Seeing Results?

We’re sure you don’t need us to remind you that your time is the most valuable asset you have, because you already know this.

You see, understanding the value in time, and in your time specifically, isn’t the real challenge here – it’s probably the lack of an effective way to manage it to achieve the maximum results.

So, consider this question: with what you’ve already seen and read about The Daily Goal Machine, do you think it’s possible that you could claim back 100 hours per year that are currently being lost to activities you can’t account for?

If you’re not quite there yet, then how about just 75 hours? Or 50? Or maybe only 25 hours over the course of a year (which is less than half an hour a week)?

  Even though I already had a weekly plan, used a calendar, used the ABC method to prioritize my list and single-mindedly focused on the next task at hand, this program has saved me 45 minutes every day, over 4 hours/week.

Daniel Wood LookingToBusiness.com

  Whatever your answer, just think what that additional, valuable time could mean for you:

More time with your kids?

More money in your pocket?

More time to learn and grow?

More time contributing to and helping others?

More time enjoying your favorite hobbies?

More satisfaction from knowing you’ve been able to stop procrastination?

More time to throw up your feet and enjoy life?

Regardless of everything you will gain from using The Daily Goal Machine, we want to offer it to you for a fraction of its true worth – just $27.00.

What You Get With The Daily Goal Machine

The Daily Goal Machine

The first thing you get, obviously, is The Daily Goal Machine itself.

This is a software program that you will be downloading to your computer, installing and using in just a few minutes from now.

Two versions of this program are supplied – one that runs on Windows (7 through 8 but not 10), and one that runs on Apple Mac computers.

The Daily Goal Machine Installation Guide

Secondly, even though The Daily Goal Machine is really easy to install, and will only take you a minute or so, you will also get a full Installation Guide, with step-by-step instructions on what to do, just in case you run into any problems.

Note that this Installation Guide will be delivered as an Adobe PDF document and applies only to the Windows version of the software.

The Daily Goal Machine User Guide

Thirdly, you get a detailed and illustrated 49-page User Guide that walks you through all of the different features of The Daily Goal Machine, with hints and tips on how best to use it, as well as a short section on the minor differences betwee the Windows and Mac versions.

Note that this Installation Guide will be delivered as an Adobe PDF document.

You Also Get These Bonuses Too…

4 Letter Killer

This ebook is a perfect complement to The Daily Goal Machine – it’s only 13 pages long, but the content explains the key difference between those who are successful and those who are not.

If you only read one of these bonus reports and books, please make sure it’s this one – but don’t just read it, do what it says.

Time Out

With more and more people choosing to work from home these days, a disciplined approach to time management is a must, as you will find all sorts of distractions (e.g. television, your kids) that will slow down your progress.

This guide was specifically written with the home business owner in mind, and its 29 pages cover some important concepts, some practical hints and tips, and even some worksheets you can print off and use to help you manage your time effectively.

The Speed Reading Monster Course

The pace of life today is ever increasing – more to do and less time to do it in. We are inundated with information, and we need to find a way to absorb it efficiently and quickly.

The Speed Reading Monster Course covers both aspects of speed reading – not only the techniques to physically read faster, but also the ability to comprehend and retain that information, otherwise, it doesn’t really matter how fast you read.

Powerful Ways To Sharpen Your Memory

Having a real passion for mnemonics, and having used these memory training techniques since I was just eight years old, I am happy to be able to offer you this great 65-page book that contains some very effective tips and tools to help you improve your memory, with a specific technique for remembering numbers that I know works, as I’ve used it for over 40 years.

The Law Of Attraction

With movies such as “The Secret”, the Law Of Attraction has become very popular recently.

This book provides an excellent overview of what it is, how it is believed to work, and some of the key principles behind putting it into practice.

Your 100% Money-Back Guarantee … Good For 60 Days!

Grab the The Daily Goal Machine today and use it every day, as much as you want, for the next 60 days.

We’re so confident you’ll love it that we’ll give you our 100% unconditional, 60-day guarantee!

Yes, that’s right – if you’re not completely thrilled with using the The Daily Goal Machine, and the incredible results it helps you produce on a consistent basis, then simply request a full refund.

No questions asked, no complaining, no whining – guaranteed!

Grab Your Copy Of The Daily Goal Machine … Now!

Click the “Buy Now” button, below, to order your copy for the low, low price of just $37.00 $27.00:

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Well, it’s up to you now – do you want to continue as you are, constantly feeling like you’re slipping further and further behind with your work, with no time to yourself or for your family, and feeling guilty about your inability to achieve anything, or do you want to take control of your time and become an unstoppable human dynamo, a veritable action machine, getting stuff done day after day after day, with the help of the ultimate procrastination solution?

Whatever you decide, we wish you every success,

P.S. Of all the things you can improve in your life, your ability to take action is one of the most important – without a doubt! Use The Daily Goal Machine risk-free for the next 8 weeks and finally experience what it feels like to get things done!

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