#i also wanna maybe look into getting a cracked copy of photoshop

[glowingplant]

i really should just like. take a BUNCH of screens and queue them up i love posting screens but i have such bursts of activity with it.

[graphicallysam]

Para: A Saturday with the Twins

Who: Sam and Mercedes

When: Saturday, 13 Nov 2010

Where: Evans' Home

What: Samcedes babysit the twins

Mercedes had gotten the text earlier in the day that Sam was in need of backup with his twin siblings.  Two against one were not fair odds when it came to tiny people that could team up on you, so she was more than happy to help.  She had met Stevie & Stacy at the football games when his family came to watch Sam play. She thought they were adorable, and Stevie was practically a carbon copy of Sam.  It also didn’t hurt that she liked kids.

Her mom let her drive to Sam’s house since she had her permit. She could get her license in another few weeks after her birthday, so every last bit of practice would do her good.  Once there, she grabbed her purple backpack out of the trunk and headed up to the door, ringing the doorbell.  She had packed her brother’s old Sega Genesis system that had a bunch of fun games the twins could try like Sonic and The Lion King.

Normally, Sam didn’t mind babysitting his siblings, but at five-years-old, they were like The Rugrats on crack. They pretended to be all innocent and sweet with their parents and around Quinn and stuff, but when it was just Sam by himself, they were The Kindergartners from Recess. Quinn was busy with a church thing or maybe a thing with her mom, Sam wasn’t entirely sure. So he sent out an SOS to Mercedes, hoping that she could save him, and when she agreed, he thanked God for taking mercy on him.

Since he’d started at McKinley, five months before, he’d made a lot of good friends. Finn had kind of invited him to be a part of his crew, which brought the unexpected but welcomed presence of Mercedes all of the time. Sam really liked Mercedes. She was one of his best friends at school, and they hung out all of the time when he wasn’t hanging with the guys or spending time with his girlfriend, Quinn. It was nice to have a friend that was into comics and video games and movies as much as he was. Not that Finn and Puck weren’t good for that kind of stuff, but it wasn’t quite the same. Mercedes just got it in a way no one else did. Quinn just wasn’t into the same things as him. She loved to read and spent most of her time with Rachel. They liked art museums and things he had no clue about. Sam liked art, but not that kind, and he hated reading because it didn’t come easily for him. Mercedes was just different than most of the people he’d met in Ohio. She didn’t think he was weird for speaking Na’vi, and she laughed at him impressions. Plus, she was really pretty, not that that mattered. He did have a girlfriend after all. It was just kind of a bonus.

The doorbell rang, breaking him from his thoughts and offering him salvation. He practically tripped over Stevie as they both rushed for the door. Luckily, height and gravity were on his side. So he got to the knob first and pulled it open as he shoved his brother out of the way. “Hey, Mercedes,” he said with an exhausted grin. “Ignore the mess. The twins promised they’d clean up like thirty minutes ago.”

“We’re still playing,” Stevie explained. He glanced at Mercedes, smiling shyly. “Hi, ‘Cedes!” He waved and then took off running.

“Hey, stop running in the house,” Sam called to him and sighed when his brother was out of sight. “Sorry...come in.” He stepped aside and let her in. Sam’s house was generally neat, but it always looked lived in. Both of his parents grew up on ranches in Tennessee and believe a house should look homely. But they were strict about chores, and the twins had toys scattered everywhere that would need to be cleaned up before they got home.

“Hey Sam,” she smiled brightly as he opened the door, his always adorable face saying more than he needed too in regards to the mayhem his siblings were putting him through today.  Sam had become one of her closest guy friends in lightning speed it seemed. He was so much fun to be around, he always made her smile. Whether he was doing impressions or talking with passion about his fave comic, he was just a really endearing person to be around, and she was happy that he and Quinn had started dating.  She knew he’d get a gorgeous girlfriend because he was fine as heck!

When she saw Stevie peek around Sam, she waved at him, laughing softly as he took off running. “If there weren’t toys around all over the place I’d be concerned honestly. Worried the twins got abducted by pod people or something.” She loved the Evans home, it was the perfect mix of comfy, inviting, and decorative. She loved looking at the pictures of Tennessee they had on the wall, and of course the family pictures as well.  “So, you ready to make a bet?  I bet I can get them to clean up their things in the next 10 minutes.  If I win, you have to let me and Stacey braid your hair.  If I lose...well, what do you want if I lose?”

Chuckling at the pod people comment because honestly, he’d probably think they were pod people too. They walked towards the family room, and he nearly tripped over a toy truck. “Yeah, we can make that bet...I don’t know how you’re gonna do it without mind control.” He stopped when the reached the room and looked at her. “You have to show me how to beat that one part of Asura’s Wrath.”

“A girl never tells her secrets, but I suppose I can help you out with the game,” she replied as she sat her backpack over by the entertainment center, out of the way of the twin tornadoes.  “Now watch me work my magic,” She gave him a wink before she scrolled through her song list and found “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5. The beat would get the kiddies moving, and she could make up lyrics that would cover up any suggestive stuff.  “Whoever gets finished picking up the toys first gets to pick something awesome out of my magic backpack.” She sang.

Sam rolled his eyes playfully. One day, he’d get her to show him even if he lost this bet. He wondered what she was up to when she went into her bag and was a little confused when she pulled out her iPod. He watched her curiously as the twins came running into the room to see what she was doing. She promised them a treat, and he was pretty sure that he’d never seen them so eager to clean up.

Mercedes was pretty good with kids. She babysat to earn extra money and had a nice clientele list. The majority of them were people in her church, and a few in her neighborhood.  She sang along to the music, dancing with the twins in between their battle to get the toys put away the fastest.  “The key to cleaning up is to make it fun, or to make it a competition.  If you can do both, you can do almost anything.” She said with a soft chuckle.

Once the twins had completed the tasks, she took out the Sega Genesis and the games, and then she handed them both coloring books with the special markers that would only work in the coloring books.  “I also brought some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but I’m pretty sure you can’t have any until after dinner.”  Last thing the twins needed was sugar in them right now, the hyper little cuties.

It wasn’t that the twins were bad, but it was almost impressive that she could get them to do what they were supposed to with a song and promise of a treat. His mom did similar things, but it  didn’t work when he tired. He nodded at the advice and gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks...you’re gonna be a great mom someday,” he commented before realizing what he’d said. “I mean...when we grow up,” he added lamely. Luckily, Stevie distracted him with a question so he had something else to focus on.

“Can’t we just have a half a cookie?” Stevie questioned, tilting his head to the side like a curious puppy as he spoke.

Stacy’s green eyes widened. “Mommy said no dessert before dinner!”

“Stacy,” Stevie whined, glaring at his sister.

Sam tried to hide his amused grin before he sobered a little. “Hey, hey...she’s right. No dessert before dinner, bud. You know that,” he said gently, hoping to kill the fight before it started. “Mercedes already gave you a nice treat. You should say thank you again and enjoy it.”

“Thank you,” the twins said in unison before going back to coloring.

She smiled, shaking her head slightly. “I’m not having kids until I’m at least 30. I’ve got so much I want to try and do, so when I finally settle down, I’ll be able to be a really good mommy.  Maybe.  I’ll have to get a husband and all that first, but yeah.” She ducked her head slightly, feeling a little silly talking about something that far off.

She sat down on the couch, thinking of a way to change the subject. “Oh, are you going to enter the art contest?” There was a contest to come up with a new school logo for tshirts and other school merchandise.  “I bet you’d do awesome at that.” She knew it wasn’t exactly his style of art, but he was good at a lot of styles.

Sam loved his art. He loved drawing and creating things in Photoshop. He even had his own Deviantart account, but he was still kind of shy about it. He’d only ever shared his stuff with a few people. She was one of them. “I don’t know. I don’t think I want to…” he said, ducking his head.

“That’s okay,” she smiled encouragingly. “I just want you to know that I think you’re good enough to win. Sometimes it’s nice to know that other people think you’re good at something you really love, you know?” She hoped that made sense.  “Do you still want to go to Wizard Con with me and Royce in the summer?”

“Thanks, Mercedes, that means a lot.” It wasn’t that Quinn wasn’t supportive of him and his art. She was, a lot, but it still felt nice to hear Mercedes say it. He really believed she believed he could win. Maybe he’d submit something secretly just in case it didn’t get picked. Then no one would know. “Yeah, I totally still wanna go.”

“Sweet! Start talking to your parents now, that way you have time to negotiate a deal if necessary.” She grinned. “Royce is very responsible and trustworthy so hopefully they’ll be okay with it.  Do you think you’re going to dress up or anything? Royce wants to go as Jax from Mortal Kombat.”  She peered over the back of the couch, checking on the twins who were still engrossed in their coloring books.

Sam was suddenly really stoked. He couldn’t wait for the summer to get there. “I don’t think they’ll be too strict. It’s just like a day or two right? I think since you’re brother’s going too then they know I’m not sneaking away with you,” he joked, but his mind immediately went to what it might be like to sneak away before he pushed the thought away. He had a girlfriend. He shouldn’t be thinking like that. “Oohhhh maybe I should go a Sub Zero.”

She nodded her head. “Yep. We can get two day passes and drive both days, but my dad might let us use his points for a free hotel room, maybe. We’ll have to work out all the details to see. Plus I don’t want Quinn to feel weird about that, so...yeah, definitely would have to get 2 hotel rooms, just so the parents and girlfriends don’t think we’re acting inappropriately.”  She felt her cheeks get super warm. “Not that that is remotely a concern, but parents are weird about things like that.”  A subject change was very much in order right now.  “Oh that would be cool! All the pictures will be taken.”

“Yeah, my parents would definitely think that's weird. Not Quinn though, you don't have to worry about that. She knows we’re just friends,” he said as a reassurance, but he didn't add that Quinn didn't know he was attracted to Mercedes or that he would've asked her out if he hadn’t ended up with her first. He’d never cheat on her or anything, but Mercedes was hot. And Sam really liked her.

“Quinn never has to worry about things like that, she’s easily one of the top prettiest girls in school.” She smiled as Stacy showed her the picture she had finished. “That’s amazing! You’re going to be as good as your big brother if you keep that up.”  She turned her attention back to Sam, amused at how much of a baby face he had.  His parents made very attractive kids. “But Santana is the hottest, I’m under best friend contract to say that.” She chuckled.

“True, she’s beautiful, but she’s not the only beautiful girl at school,” Sam replied looking at her as she looked at his siblings. She really had no idea how beautiful she was, he thought. Her compliment to his sister really made the little girl happy, and he was grateful he'd called her over. “Santana's hot, but she's not really my type.”

“Santana is a lot to handle, but she’s a really nice person. I went through this phase where I wanted her to marry my brother when she got older so she would be my sister.  I was a little kid, so don’t judge.” She smiled.  “You have a type? Well, I mean it’s obviously Quinn. So that means you like smart, sophisticated, and beautiful girls. Which makes sense, I can totally see that.”  She jumped slightly. “Oh, I forgot that I brought you something too!” She got up and headed over to her backpack.  “Stevie and Stacy, has Sam been a good big brother today?”

Sam mouth bowed into a wide grin as she told him the story about wanting Santana to marry her brother, but when she asked if he had a type, she was talking so fast that she didn't give him a chance to respond. He couldn't really say that Quinn wasn't the only kind of girl that fit into that category. He just ended up nodding and biting back a sigh. Then she walked over to her bag again, saying she had a surprise for him, and he waited in his spot to see what she had.

“I guess so,” Stevie replied after tilting his head in thought at the question.

Stacy, on the other hand, was always Sam’s biggest cheerleader. She nodded emphatically. “Sammy’s the bestest big brother.”

Mercedes adored Sam, but she did not want to hear him wax poetic on all the ways Quinn was the epitome of perfection. She knew it was silly, but the only person she could deal with the whole I love my boyfriend/girlfriend stuff from was Tana, and she never did that anyway.  She probably wouldn’t feel that way when she got her own boyfriend, but that was probably never going to happen before she graduated high school.  She chuckled softly at Stevie’s response, shaking her head a little. Stacy’s response didn’t surprise her at all.  “Well then, I suppose I can give him these since he’s the bestest.”  She pulled out an Avengers comic book and handed it to him.  “I hope you don’t have this one. I saw it and thought you’d like it.”   She knew he wasn’t a fan of reading regular books, but he really liked comics.

He wasn’t sure what she was handing him until he could see the cover properly. He looked down at the colorfully drawn graphics before him, and he expression changed from amused to amazed and surprised. “Whoa...I didn’t get this one! Holy-” He cut himself off when he remembered his siblings were in the room. “-heck! You didn’t have to do that!” He reached out and pulled her into a tight hug, careful not to crush his new prized possession, then stepped back again.

“What is it?” Stevie asked as he hurried to his brother’s side. Stacy was right behind him, and he leaned down to show them.

Sam’s expression was so freaking adorable that she wished she had thought to take a picture of him. She was usually pretty good at picking out gifts for her friends, so she was very happy she had gotten Sam’s right.  When he hugged her, Mercedes felt like the room had just jumped up a million degrees in temperature and she was super thankful that he stepped back so she could actually take a breath to get her senses in order.  Why did she feel like couldn't breath when he got that close?

While the Evans kids were busy checking out the comic, she busied herself with connecting the Sega Genesis to the tv.

Eventually, Sam took the comic to his room to read later and headed back into the family room where Mercedes was hooking up her Sega. The twins had moved into the room and were now coloring at the coffee table. So he sat down on the floor closer to the tv and picked up a controller. “What are we playing today?”

“Only the classics of course,” she had brought all the Sonic games, ToeJam & Earl, Golden Axe, Street Fighter 2, and Lion King for the kids. “I figure I can kick your butt at Street Fighter for a bit.” She was a pro at trash talking over video games, she had learned that from Royce.  She sat down next to him, but not too close.

Sam’s grin grew. He was impressed by her trash talking skills. She was seriously one of the fiercest gaming competitors he’d ever met. So he was ready to try his hardest to beat her in Street Fighter 2. “You’re on. I hope I don’t send you home crying.” He said before settling in to play.

[topicprinter]

Hey good people! So - I have been obsessing over Instagram for a bit more than an year and I have been through so much. I can't even begin to tell you.In the following blog I will share with you all my experiences, failures and successes with facts backing me up.I started out on Instagram with a Travel niche account about 11 months ago. This account I wanted to build 100% genuinely. No botting. No faking. Nothing. I spent 3-4 hours a day on Instagram. Liking and commenting on content that I actually adored. Not just spamming likes/comments to get attention.It took a lot of patience. I started with 700 followers (family/friends mostly) and ended up with 11.3K followers. We are talking about 3-4 hours a day for 11 freaking months.During these 11 months. I've done everything from buying and using virtually every bot out there. Opening around 30 accounts with different niches (botted). Buying offshore servers and running Fake Agent scripts. FL, MP, VT - I did it all. I bought 1000 Instagram accounts at one point. I botted them. Lost 300 of those accounts (got caught) - other 700 are still running. Spent a fortune on proxies, VPN, VPS, off-shore servers, FA, Bots and PVA accounts.Let me back up a bit (Glossary) VPN / VPS (Virtual private servers - I can't bot 1000 accounts on my laptop. I had to buy access to VPS with high config (24 cores / 64 gb ram) to run bots as they are resource intensive Proxies/IP (You can run 5 Instagram accounts on one IP address. So on my main IP (home) I ran 5 accounts. If I ran more than 5 I would get blocked. So I bought proxies. (dedicated proxies) I ran 3 accounts per proxy. FL,MP, VT - These are just some of the bots I used.Here is what I learned overtime. Something you will eventually realize yourself. Most of this you already know.FACTS / LESSONS1. Instagram IntroInstagram isn't stupid. Botting is not going to help in the long run. Yes I did manage to grow accounts from 0 to 38K in like 6 months but those days are long gone. Instagram has improved a lot! Its literally working 24x7 to crack down on these bots. So - this is a NO NO. Once again - this could have been done before. But no longer. Every other day I'm running into new problems with botting. My advice - don't chase this. (FL,MP ... all will soon go off)2. The Righteous MenGrowing 100% genuine is retarded. And I was one of the retards. Face it. Everyone is doing hanky panky with social media. Politicians, Celebs, Kids ... everyone.https://gizmodo.com/5970857/youtube-took-2-billion-views-away-from-sony-universal-and-others https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhhuuRGfaU& http://www.refinery29.com/2017/06/157127/katy-perry-fake-twitter-followersAs you can see - everyone from Sony to Katy Perry to POTUS has fake followers. So - you are the one who is losing out by not making any hanky panky. This is a FACT.You can never grow BIG by being righteous unless you wanna waste a decade on it. If you got time. Then you can.3. World of SpamEven kids have learned to spam and grow. This has become a trend. Look into follow train / like train. Find out on Instagram about this. You will see what I mean.Example: https://www.instagram.com/p/BbyinUwlVtx/?taken-by=kyliejennerLatest post by famous Kylie Jenner. See her comments. You'll find tens of thousands of teens commenting LB, CB and some other non sense. These are SPAM tactics used by teens and kids. LB = Like back. You like their photo. They'll like back. CB = comment back. FB = follow back.WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK EVERY ONE IS RESORTING TO FAKE FOLLOWERS, SPAM TACTICS, FAKE VIEWS, PODS, BOTS? (Something to think about)Anyways - you can spam on top celeb accounts (LB,CB) and if you are obsessed with it. You can get 1-2k likes and upto 100 comments. (Res assured these comments will be SUPER generic and copy paste)4. Engagement PodsTo me this was the closest way to make engagement happen. These are groups of people on Slack, Telegram, Whatsapp and EVEN in Instagram DMs who engage with each other.Its simple. I will like your photo. You like mine.But these 'pods' (if you find the right ones) are well moderated by admins - have decent people. Good quality Instagram accounts and all.You can safely get 2K likes and 500+ comments if you are in the right pods. It will be a lot of work but its worth itThe trick to engagement pods is to join ones that have high quality bloggers. There are also some networks that have exclusive pods for 10k+ accounts, 50k+ accounts and 100k+ accounts. You can imagine what miracles these can do for your posts. Getting 100 comments and 1000 likes from 100K+ profiles is MAGICAL.Advice - DO NOT use engagement pods that have 'rounds'. Those are filled with spam like / CPA Instagrammers who are there only for the purpose of scamming people.Join engagement pods that are of continuous cycle. I'll make a post on engagement pods and secrets to using them if I get a lot of requests for those down below.5. Holy Grail - the Instagram AlgorithmWhile everyone will beat around the bush as they don't know any better. At the time of this article being published - this is Instagram Algorithm.Instagram gives you 3 options to go big. 1. Pay them cash ( a ton of it - my advice? NEVER do that unless you're a millionaire) 2. Reach top post page for your hashtag (this will get you noticed between your niche audience) 3. Reach explore page (this is just pushing your content out into the 'front page' of Instagram)Lets talk about 2 and 3. Algorithm =If your post gets a TON of traction within first 60 minutes of going live on Instagram you will reach top post page for your hashtag.Case Study - I reach top post page for the most competitive hashtag once while learning about this.love (hashtag love)I made a post and injected 30,000+ likes to it (purchased) within first 10 minutes of post going live. I then managed to get 50 comments from 100K+ profiles via engagement pods.By 15th minute I was on #love top post page.This is how to reach the top post page.Lets say your hashag is #travel. You wanna get to top post page for that? Its easy. Search for #travel and see top posts under that and see how many likes they are getting. Find out average likes of all posts under top post page.So among 9 posts maybe average likes is 7000 likes for #travel.You need to get 7000++++ likes within first 60 minutes to reach top post page for that hashtag.If the hashtag is BIG and you keep your engagement running for first 60 minutes then you will probably stay on top post page for 24 hours.RESULT? Millions of people will naturally bump into your post. Make it pretty so they end up following you.LESSON Faking likes and reaching top post page = real traffic + real likes + real people / followersAbout reach explore page. You need way more traction than this.Technique is to reach top post page for 15 competitive hashtags. That by itself pushes your posts to explore.CASE : Once I targeted 30 top hashtags. Injected 30k likes to my post. Managed to get 177 comments in under 60 minutes via engagement pods from HQ accounts (10k+,50K+,100k+) ...I hit the explore page.RESULT? I gained 1100 followers in under 24 hours. They all engage with me till this day.This can be down on a massive scale.6. Content is KingYes it is. But everyone has good content these days. Every kid is decent at Photoshop and Lightroom and every iPhone is capable of doing wonderful things in terms of photography.Content is king - I guess so. Don't sweat on it. That part everyone can do and easy.Thats all for now. God damn. Haha. I had a lot on my plate I guess. Haha.One more thing - this is all that I have seen and noticed. Not encouraging anyone to juice stats or leave bots that they are already using or start buying fake shit. Do what you feel is right.I'll do another post on this sharing in depth about each topic (Engagement Pod, IG Algo in depth, Techniques used by Celebs, Social agencies to grow fast by faking it)Let me know if you guys need any of those topics covered!Cheers!