#i am IGNORING!! for example! that it has the power to choose to section off a part of it’s own lung

[that-ari-blogger]

Ascension (Whatever It Takes)

Let’s talk about active and reactive characters, and what that tells us about a given story.

Whatever It Takes sets up Vaggie and Carmilla as… foils? Parallels? Opposites? The series is open ended in this field, it gives us archetypes, and invites us to draw our own conclusions.

As such, these two are protectors, but the way they go about it is both similar and wildly different. It’s complicated.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (Hazbin Hotel, Castaway)

The difference between an active and a reactive character is in the name. An active character takes actions and pushes the plot forward to further their own goals, while a reactive character responds to others and acts in accordance with that.

For example, Zestial is a fundamentally reactive character. He responds to the floor shifting underneath him in the previous song with damage control.

He watched the person who is ostensibly closest to him get undermined, so he tries to pick her up. In that way, he’s a pretty decent friend. He offers aid when she’s feeling low, and whatever he gets out of it, the man’s primary goal here is to help.

“What weighs on your soul, old friend? I explore you to share the load.”

At this point, I feel the need to explain my bias towards this character. Zestial is one of my favourite individuals presented in Hazbin Hotel, and it’s not because he’s benevolent, or powerful, or composed. It’s not because of his design, or his writing. It’s because I am weak, and his voice is smoother than the ocean at night. I don’t have to explain myself further.

Zestial is also reacting to the power dynamic being presented by the Vees. They didn’t do any damage, but Velvette felt comfortable making threats, and was utterly unintimidated by Carmilla, so Zestial feels like he needs to start moving his pieces to counteract that.

“If it was thou who slew the angel, why not let your fear be known?”

Essentially, Zestial needs to get himself and his friend back on top, and back to being untouchable. He wants to go back to not having to act at all.

But a side note here, notice how the rhyming scheme in this section is slanted, that’s because rhyming wasn’t always a thing in English poetry. It was ported over from other languages as previous poetry conventions were focused on the musicality and other elements of the words.

It doesn’t map out exactly, rhyming grew to popularity during the medieval times, and judging by Zestial’s dialect, that’s where I’d put him historically. But it does convey a sense of age to his words that adds gravitas to what he is saying.

When Carmilla starts singing, the music itself backs off to a quet guitar. She’s being vulnerable, rather than all powerful, and that contrasts with Zestial to exacerbate their differences. Zestial’s oomph makes Carmilla seem smaller, and Carmilla’s pensiveness amplifies Zestial in return.

As an example of an active character, Charlie and Velvette are fundamentally active characters whose actions make up the majority of the plot. Charlie pursues her dream, makes bargains, offers forgiveness, and Velvette… well she has one song, but Carmilla and Zestial’s actions are in direct response to that song’s ambition.

However, here’s the kicker. In my opinion, there is no such thing as active and passive characters. It’s a gradient.

The classification exists for a reason, it helps audiences understand, but in practice, nobody exists only on one side of the equation. Being reactive is a biproduct of existing in relation to other stuff. Chuck Noland, from Castaway, despite being the only character on screen for most of the movie, reacts to his environment and to his situation like a human being. Even if a character chooses to ignore their surroundings, that’s still a reaction to something. The decision to do nothing is still a decision

On the other end of the spectrum, all characters are active, because otherwise they aren’t characters. Being active is simply the practice of doing things. In the first Ranger’s Apprentice book, Baron Arald and Sir Rodney are generally pretty reactive characters, but their choice to challenge the Kalkara is an active decision.

In that sense, Zestial is a character who leans towards reactivity, but is still motivated to take action when threatened.

For the sake of visualisation. I have a graph.

We can start by putting Zestial and Charlie on opposite ends and filling in from there. I would say Husk is pretty reactive as a character, usually acting in response to Angel or Alastor, while Velvette is active in terms of antagonism, but she reacts to the death of the angel. Vox responds to Alastor by taking action, Adam responds to the death of the angel with violence, etc. Eventually, our graph looks a bit like this:

Now, you may notice that there is a gap in the middle. Despite all appearances, I am analysing Whatever it Takes, so guess which two characters go there.

This was actually a pretty difficult choice, and it comes down to my grievances with this episode, and my critique of the show as a whole.

I laid this out in more detail in the previous post but suffice to say that Hazbin Hotel is too short, and that hinders episode three because the series doesn’t have enough time to capitalize on anything that is set up here.

Carmilla suffers enormously because of this, because the dynamic with Vaggie doesn’t go anywhere (other than Out For Love, but we will get there when we get there), and she doesn’t have much screen time beyond this, so we don’t really know where she sits on the scale.

The song that I have been dancing around sets up a place in the centre of the graph and makes them parallels because they fit in the same slot here, but then Carmilla isn’t in the rest of the series much, so she ends up falling further towards the reactive end of the scale.

The reactiveness itself isn't what I have an issue with, its the inconsistency.

Once again, I blame this on management not understanding their own product, but it’s important to understand how that has affected the end result.

So, the key metaphor established in this song is that of the keeper and armour. The protector and the guardian, and that is what sets up their place on the scale.

Armour isn’t a character, and even in terms of what it does, it’s not a particularly proactive item. You can’t hit someone with a helmet unless you really want to, and even then, it's going to be less effective than most of your other options. But what armour does do, is get in the way.

Armour interposes itself between you and danger, sacrificing its own wellbeing for yours. It’s a guardian, a protector.

Vaggie is positioning herself as a someone who will do whatever it takes to save those she cares about. She is the knight who will stand in the darkness and ward it off to protect the light. She is not a disgrace. She is vengeance. She is the night. She is... Batman!

I’m humanising an inanimate object here, because Vaggie is doing the complete opposite. For Vaggie, love is putting her partner above herself, to the point of self-sacrifice. It means that she is willing to let go of her will to live to get in the way of any danger coming towards Charlie. She is dehumanising herself and saying that her desires are forfeit for Charlie’s dream.

“I’ll be your armour, Do whatever it takes, I’ll make the mistakes I’ll spend my life being your partner”.

Now, Charlie has done absolutely nothing to persuade Vaggie of this. She has been supportive, if a little headstrong. Vaggie has reacted to Charlie putting herself in danger and decided that was how she was needed.

There is one scene that I’ve seen pointed to as Charlie re-enforcing Vaggie’s attempt at self-sacrifice, that being the training scene. But that’s just asking for help, that’s not manipulation, that’s shared responsibilities on a task. That’s teamwork.

Yes, Charlie is oblivious to this side of Vaggie’s motivation, but that’s because Vaggie hasn’t told her about it. Vaggie vents on an abandoned boat, alone, singing to herself. Charlie doesn't know that because Vaggie is convinced that if she is vulnerable, she won't be useful.

So, if it isn’t Charlie who told Vaggie that her individuality is worth sacrificing, I wonder who did. Maybe a military leader of some kind who values subservience above all else. Maybe someone who surrounds themselves with masks so that they don’t have to realise that people are individuals. I wonder who that points to.

Carmilla, meanwhile, positions herself as a keeper of secrets, a profession and a type of action she can take. She sets herself up as responding to news and stamping it out, taking action to hide things.

“I always thought that I would keep blood off my face, But when that thing attacked, I had to act To cross that line and keep them safe.”

I want to restate that Carmilla is a hypocrite. She makes weapons and is convinced that her wealth will protect her from the consequences. Or rather, she was a hypocrite.

It took an angel rocking up out of the blue and nearly killing one of Carmilla’s children to jumpstart her character development. Just like Zestial, she was bulletproof, except that she had people she cared about.

The angel made Carmilla think. Her wealth didn’t protect her, the weapons did nothing to stop the assailant, and the violent response to a violent problem only brought about more issues. There might be a war on the horizon within hell, and both sides will have weaponry given to them by Carmilla. If the war starts, both she and her daughter will be killed, and it doesn't matter which side by, they will die at the hands of weapons she made.

As a response, Carmilla takes action, trying to recover her safety by keeping the secret of her vulnerability. She’s still not a good person, but she’s had her security compromised, and that’s a start.

Which brings me to the parallel between Carmilla and Vaggie, and I think that it is limited, but important to note. Both are protector characters; both respond to danger and take action. But that serves to show their differences even more. Vaggie is self-sacrificial and openly vulnerable so that her ward doesn’t have to be, and Carmilla is closed off and defensive all the time.

This is reflected in their music. One of my favourite parts of Hazbin Hotel is the fact that whenever they sing duets or even chorus pieces, its never everyone singing the same set of notes in their own register. In this case Vaggie’s music is more floaty, and according to Musescore, in a different key to Carmilla, who is dynamic, but grounded.

Zestial's design strength comes back here. He has too many eyes and a mouth that's a weird shape. What expression is this? What emotion? Is he confused? Disappointed? What's going on? Having a manipulator character have a mask is good, but making their entire face an unreadable blank slate is even better.

But the difference is also conveyed by their actions. Carmilla is static while she explains herself to Zestial. She is focused on the people she is protecting and the person whom asking for help from.

Vaggie’s section doesn’t really show Charlie at all, except through the geography. Vaggie is constantly climbing when she sings, constantly rising, as if her love lifts her and brings her up from rock bottom. Even though she’s not dancing, the choreography is telling a story.

When the camera shows her face, she is always looking upwards. Charlie has given her hope.

Final Thoughts

Episode three’s problems aren’t its own fault. The episode is setting up elements that never arrived, and that causes it to feel bloated.

I actually like this song, although for a while I couldn’t articulate why. I like to listen to it, but as far as analysis went, I was at a loss. This post has taken me the longest that any has in a while. But I ended up with something, so I’m happy.

But, from the series’ weakest episode, to its strongest. Next week we start episode four, talking about Poison, and… oh boy that one’s going to be a lot.

Previous - Next

[hpowellsmith]

You recently wrote about narrative parts that are "too important to be optional". What kinds are these? Are they like the finale of Noblesse Oblige, where the event must be interacted with but can be cancelled? Or do they have canonical resolutions/roles, where they will have a role that is the same in every possible path?

Obviously if this is actually a linear work and it is too important to be optional for you as the author rather than the reader you should ignore this ask.

It's not actually either of those! It's a section of a chapter (for Honor Bound). This example may be a bit obtuse as I don't want to give too much away, but it would be the equivalent of something like:

- there are a few different ways in which you can choose to spend your day

-one is going horseback riding, one is going to church, and one is going shopping

-all three are characterful and move some plots along in various ways, and can have different resolutions

-But in the shopping scene, there's a dispute between two craftspeople about the correct way to carve the town sign for a festival. This sign happens to be an important piece of setting/worldbuilding information that relates to a bunch of characters' attitudes, and will be followed up on in more depth later on

-I realised I needed to move the "sign" scene from being branched-off to being something that everyone can interact with in some way, so that players will always have the context of what's going on with it when the follow-up happens. But within that scene there will be different ways of relating to the craft of signs, artistic approaches, and the outcome of what carving goes on the sign

It can be a bit annoying when I realise things need to be moved from branched to core paths because it's something else to think about for the shape and pacing of the chapter!

When designing my CoG games I am really cautious about "canon" outcomes of something a PC has done; there are always core events but it's important to me that a PC can interact with and affect those events in varied ways, including in ways that might be unexpected later. There are plenty of other ways of doing it but with CoGs I prefer to be very careful not to overuse situations where a PC doesn't have a choice about how something plays out, so that it's extra emotionally powerful if it does happen.

I hope that makes sense!

[transcarcinization]

actually on the point of murderbot’s design. it’s been driving me crazy recently so i’m going to ramble. we know several things about it

- it has a significant amount of skin/flesh on its back, based on the amount of times it comments on getting shot there & that really good description in NE of flesh peeling off and dripping down it’s back in chunks

- it has enough mechanical parts visible from the outside of it’s body that it would NOT be able to pass as an augmented human naked (also: it does not have genitalia). tapan only ever saw it in full clothing but she noticed and commented on it having a LOT of (presumed) augments. it is unclear what she saw to give her this impression

- it’s legs/feet don’t look like human feet at all, but it’s hands, face, and neck (excepting the data port) can pass as human.

these are all fascinating because like. from a functional standpoint. mb says that it’s feet don’t look human because the company ‘wasn’t concerned with making that part look human’, meaning probably it’s hands and face look human for at least partially cosmetic reasons. HOWEVER. the fact that it has flesh on it’s back signals at least to me that there is SOME practical benefit to giving it actual human muscle/skin? the benefits are probably a) that human muscle is malleable and stretches well, and can hold form and shape in a way that we certainly can’t reproduce now (and from the tech seen in full bots in the mb series, i don’t think they can either); and b) if they’re using it for muscle

so then this implies it has muscle & skin where flexibility is an issue. this makes sense; the main issue with recreating a human form robotically would be those parts. i assume it’s feet are fully or mostly robotic for wear purposes, and because feet really do not have that much stretch with the muscles involved. the back, on the other hand, would probably be a nightmare to try to make fully robotically without flexible robotics

this implies it’s stomach/front are probably human for the same reasons. on the other hand, there’s no real flexibility reason for it’s arms to be human, especially with the gunports; that would depend on how much human muscle is actually the muscle behind secunits. i assume with some weird future tech cloned tissue could be significantly stronger, and having a skeleton made of hsla steel would theoretically remove the upper limit humans currently have. if the muscle is human then it needs human parts on its arms from its back at least halfway down its forearms, and likewise it would need it’s thighs and at least halfway down the back of its lower leg. on the other hand, if there’s some mechanical way to power the strength behind secunits, then there’s really very little reason for human parts on its limbs at all besides shaping it to wear clothes functionally.

there’s also the issue of space: mb definitely needs processor space (i’m sorry i’m NOT accepting it doesn’t have a full human brain in it’s skull. it can have two brains i can’t imagine you could cut a human brain in half and just have that be fine it has a full brain) and it needs battery and reactor space. it also probably needs general space all throughout it’s body for wiring, servos, ect.

battery, reactor, servos, aka Big Stuff, are probably in it’s midsection. it doesn’t have a digestive system so presumably there’s just a lot of Space there. it’s mentioned that this is usually where humanform bots have their brain, and i don’t know where in the world else all of that would go, so it goes there. i assume it has some kind of flexible cage between it’s ribs and it’s hips, or possibly it’s ribs extend further down; this is just because it gets shot in the stomach a LOT!! and the idea of it’s brain being there and it’s just chill with that is giving me hives.

i’m not even going to address the battery/reactor thing because accepting self charging batteries & small localized reactors is just something that comes with sci-fi. it doesn’t make any sense but nothing works otherwise so we are Looking Away. anyways that’s probably also in it’s midsection. presumably there’s a split between servos and battery/reactor around it’s waist, similar to where [liver/stomach/assorted small organs] and intestines differ on a human. i would probably put battery/reactor on the intestines half since presumably it’s bigger and less important

everything else, wires and stuff, are probably handled either by running through bones or right over bones (i CANNOT remember if it has coolant in canon or if that’s something someone said in a fanfic and i internalized). it probably has several cords in the place of a spinal column doing double duty both AS it’s spinal column and as the main connector between it’s brains, which actually makes the location of the dataport seem like a very intuitive place. (i also think it mentions the gov module functioning somewhere around here, but i can’t remember whether the gov module had like a physical component or if just the fry-u-up bit was there?) it’s not hard to imagine wires traveling with/similar paths to veins in the body. same shit really

this is a very long post that said very little but it helped ME

[tarobytez]

disability in the Six Of Crows Duology; an analysis of Kaz Brekker, Wylan Van Eck, and the fandom’s treatment of them.

****Note: I originally wrote this for a tiktok series, which im still going to do, but i wanted to post here as well bc tumblr is major contributor to what im going to talk about

CW: ableism, filicide, abuse

In the Six of Crows duology, Leigh Bardugo delicately subverts and melds harmful disability tropes into her narrative, unpacking them in a way that I, as a disabled person, found immensely refreshing and…. just brilliant. 

But what did you all do with that? Well, you fucked it up. Instead of critically looking at the characters, y’all just chose to be ableist. 

For the next few videos paragraphs im going to unpack disability theory (largely the stuff surrounding media, for obvious reasons) and how it relates to Six Of Crows and the characterization of Kaz Brekker and Wylan Van Eck, then how, despite their brilliant writing, y’all completely overlooked the actual text and continuously revert them to ableist cariactures.

Disclaimer: 1. Shocker - i am disabled. I have also extensively researched disability theory and am very active in the disabled community. Basically, I know my shit. 2. im going to be mad in these videos this analysis. Because the way y’all have been acting has been going on for a long ass time and im fuckin sick of it. I don’t give a shit about non-disabled feelings, die mad

Firstly, I’m going to discuss Kaz, his play on the stereotypical “mean cripple” trope and how Bardugo subverts it, his cane, and disabled rage. Then, I am going to discuss Wylan, the “inspiration porn” stereotype, caregivers / parents, and the social model of disability. Finally, I will then explain the problems in the fandom from my perspective as a disabled person, largely when it comes to wylan, bc yall cant leave that boy tf alone.

Kaz Brekker

Think of a character who uses a cane (obviously not Kaz). Now, are they evil, dubiously moral, or just an asshole in general? Because nearly example I can think of is: whether it be Lots’O from Toy Story, Lucius Malfoy, or even Scrooge and Mr.Gold from Once Upon A Time all have canes (the last two even having their canes appear less and less as they become better people)

The mean/evil cripple trope is far more common than you would think. Villains with different bodies are confined to the role of “evil”. To quote TV Tropes, who I think did a brilliant job on explaining it “The first is rooted in eugenics-based ideas linking disability or other physical deformities with a "natural" predisposition towards madness, criminality, vice, etc. The Rule of Symbolism is often at work here, since a "crippled" body can be used to represent a "crippled" soul — and indeed, a disabled villain is usually put in contrast to a morally upright and physically "perfect" hero. Whether consciously on the part of the writer or not, this can reinforce cultural ideas of disability making a person inherently inferior or negative, much in the same way the Sissy Villain or Depraved Homosexual trope associate sexual and gender nonconformity with evil. ”

Our introduction to Kaz affirms this notion of him being bad or morally bankrupt, with “Kaz Brekker didn’t need a reason”, etc. This mythologized version of himself, the “bastard of the barrel” actively fed into this misconception. But, as we the audience are privy to his inner thoughts, know that he is just a teenager like every other Crow. He is complex, his disability isn’t this tragic backstory, he just fell off a roof. It’s not his main motivation, nor does he curse revenge for making him a cripple - it is just another part of who he is. 

His cane (though the shows version fills me with rage but-) is an extension of Kaz - he fights with it, but it has a purpose. Another common thing in media is for canes to be simply accessories, but while Kaz’ cane is fashionable, it has purpose.

The quote “There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken.” is so fucking powerful. Kaz does not want nor need a cure - its said in Crooked Kingdom that his leg could most likely be healed, but he chooses not to. Abled-bodied people tend to dismiss this thought as Kaz being stubborn but it shows a reality of acceptance of his disability that is just, so refreshing.

In chapter 22 of SOC, we see disabled rage done right - when he is called a cripple by the Fjerdan inmate, Kaz is pissed - the important detail being that he is pissed at the Fjerdan, at society for ableism, not blaming it on being disabled or wishing he could be normal. He takes action, dislocating the asshole’s shoulder and proving to him, and to a lesser extent, himself, that he is just as capable as anyone else, not in spite of, but because he is disabled. And that is the point of Kaz, harking back to the line that “there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken”. 

I cried on numerous occasions while reading the SOC duology, but the parts I highlighted in this section especially so. I, as many other disabled people do, have had a long and tumultuous relationship with our disability/es, and for many still struggle. But Kaz Brekker gave me an empowered disabled character who accepts themselves, and that means the world to me. 

Keeping that in mind, I hope you can understand why it hurts so much to disabled people when you either erase Kaz’s disability (whether through cosplay or fanfiction), or portray him as a “broken boy uwu”, especially implying that he would want a cure. That flies in the face of canon and is inherently fucking ableist. (if u think im mad wait until the next section)

Next, we have Wylan.  

Oh fucking boy. 

I love Wylan so fucking much, and y’all just do not seem to understand his character? Like at all? Since this is disability-centric, I’m not going to discuss how the intersection of his queerness also contributes to these issues, but trust me when I say it’s a contributing factor to what i'm going to say.

Wylan, motherfucking Van Eck. If you ableist pricks don’t take ur fucking hands off him right now im going to fight you. I see Wylan as a subversion another, and in my opinion more insidious stereotype pf disabled people - inspiration porn.

Cara Liebowitz in a 2015 article on the blog The Body Is Not An Apology explains in greater detail how inspiration porn is impactful in real life, but media is a major contributing factor to this reality. The technical definition is “the portrayal of people with disabilities as inspirational solely or in part on the basis of their disability” - but that does not cover it fully. 

Inspiration porn does lasting damage on the disabled community as it implies that disability is a negative that you need to “overcome” or “triumph” instead of something one can feel proud of. It exploits disabled people for the development of non-disabled people, and in media often the white male protagonist. Framing disability as inherently negative perpetuates ideals of eugenics and cures - see Autism $peaks’ “I Am Autism” ad. Inspiration porn is also incredibly patronizing as it implies that we cannot take care of ourselves, or do things like non-disabled people do. Because i stg some of you tend to think that we just sit around all day wishing we weren’t disabled. 

Another important theory ideal that is necessary when thinking about Wylan is the experience of feeling like a burden simply for needing help or accommodations. This is especially true when it comes to familial relationships, and internalized ableism.

The rhetoric that Wylan’s father drilled into his head, that he is “defective”, “a mistake”, and “needs to be corrected”, that he (Jan) was “cursed with a moron for a child” is a long held belief that disabled people hear relentlessly. And while many see Van Eck’s attempted murder of Wylan as “preposturous” and overall something that you would never think happens today - filicide (a parent murdering their child) is more common than you would like to believe. Without even mentioning the countless and often unreported deaths of disabled people due to lack of / insufficient / neglectful medical care, in a study on children who died from the result of household abuse, 40 of 42 of them (95%) were diagnosed with disabilities. Van Eck is not some caricature of ableist ideals - he is a real reflection on how many people and family members view disability. 

Circling back to how Wylan unpacks the inspiration porn trope - he is 3 dimensional, he is not only used to develop the other characters, he is just *chefs kiss* Leigh, imo, put so much love and care into the creation of Wylan and his story and character growth that is representative of a larger feeling in the disabled community. 

That being said, what you non-disabled motherfuckers have done to him.

The “haha Wylan can’t read” jokes aren’t and were not funny. Y’all literally boiled down everything Wylan is to him being dyslexic. And it’s like,,,, the only thing you can say about him. You ignore every other part of him other than his disability, and then mock him for it. There’s so much you can say about Wylan - simping for Jesper, being band kid and playing the fuckin flute, literally anything else. But no, you just chose to mock his disability, excellent fucking job!

Next up on “ableds stfu” - infantilization! y’all are so fucking condescending to Wylan, and treat him like a fucking toddler. And while partly it is due to his sexuality i think a larger portion is him being disabled. Its in the same vein of people who think that Wylan and Jesper are romantically one sided, and that Jesper only kind of liked Wylan, despite the canon evidence of him loving Wylan just as much. You all view him as a “smol bean”, who needs protecting, and care, when Wylan is the opposite of that. He is a fucking demolitions expert who suggested waking up sleeping men to kill them - what about that says “uwu”. You are treating Wylan as a burden to Jesper and the other Crows when he is an immensely valuable, fully autonomous disabled person - you all just view him as damaged. 

And before I get a comment saying that “uhhh Wylan isn’t real why do you care” while Wylan may not be real, how you all view him and treat him has real fucking impacts and informs how you treat people like me. If someone called me an “uwu baby boy” they’d get a fist square in the fucking jaw. Fiction informs how we perceive the world and y’all are making it super fucking clear how you see disabled people. 

Finally, I wanted to talk about how the social model of disability is portrayed through Wylan. For those who are unaware, the social model of disability contrasts the medical model, that views the disability itself as the problem, that needs to be cured, whereas the social model essentially boils down to creating an accommodating society, where disability acceptance and pride is the goal. And we see this with Wylan - he is able to manage his father’s estate, with Jesper’s assistance to help him read documents. And this is not out of pity or charity, but an act of love. It is not portrayed as this almighty act for Jesper to play saviour, just a given, which is incredibly important to show, especially for someone who has been abused by family for his disability like Wylan, that he is accepted. 

Yet, I still see people hold up Jesper on a pedestal for “putting up with” Wylan, as if loving a disabled person deserves a fucking pat on the back. It’s genuinely exhausting trying to engage with a work I love so much with a fandom that thinks so little of me and my community. It fucking shows. 

Overall, Leigh Bardugo as a disabled person wrote two incredibly meticulous and empowered disabled characters, and due to either lack of reading comprehension, ableism, or a quirky mix of both, the fandom has ignored canon and the experiences of disabled people for…. shits and giggles i guess. And yes, there are issues with the Grishaverse and disability representation - while I haven’t finished them yet so I do not have an opinion on it, people have been discussing issues in the KOS duology with ableist ideals. This mini series was no way indicative of the entire disabled experience, nor does it represent my entire view on the representation as a whole. These things need to be met critically in our community, and talked about with disabled voices at the forefront. For example, the limited perspective we get of Wylan and Kaz being both white men, does not account for a large portion of the disabled community and the intersection of multiple identities.

All-in-all, Critique media, but do not forget to also critique fandom spaces. Alternatively, just shut the fuck up :)

happy fucking disability pride month, ig

[mittensmorgul]

Can’t everyone use tumblr how they want?

YES!

This site is exactly what people make of it for themselves. That was the exact point of that post. The fact that people reacted negatively to it at all proves my point. Seriously.

I have a number of other anons that are clearly from people who don't actually follow me, and are only here in a reactionary fashion having seen it on someone else's reblog, or else heard about it in passing and decided the best reaction to an ultimately harmless and rather bumbling post was to take personal offense and bring anonymous hate to a stranger on the internet. (and at least one not-anonymous "go kill yourself" type comment on the post itself)

THAT was the point of making that post.

For people who might be new to this fandom or new to tumblr in general (or even for people who have been here for years), your experience here is exactly what you make of it. I haven't seen that sort of vitriolic kneejerk reaction to anything I've written or posted in years. That post touched nerves. So it was a bit of an experiment, and I'm sorry to everyone who experienced any of that negativity second-hand. NOBODY should be made to feel like shit when engaging with something that is supposed to be fun. But I've learned over the years that that's exactly what some people consider fun.

There are new people to this fandom since the absolute free for all of the weeks after November 5th. We all reveled in those weeks before the show collapsed in on itself two weeks later. It was like 15 years worth of Hiatus Blogging followed by... well... some of the worst genuine hurt and disillusionment I've ever experienced or witnessed inflicted on a fandom by a piece of media.

There have to be at least a few people who floated into this fandom during that emotional roller coaster who want to make sense of it all, who were at least curious enough about how a show could've brought the characters to that emotional moment in 15.18 before effectively ignoring it all and burning the entire 15 year narrative to nothing just two episodes later.

Some folks stuck around to dig through the ashes of fandom in search of carrion, and that's fine. Some have zero desire to ever engage with the show or the fandom beyond mocking it for ever having existed at all, and that is also fine! But some folks? They might be wondering why anyone ever saw anything in this narrative to begin with, and they might be interested in knowing that there is this vast collection of information available to them (funny that none of my self-righteous anons even mentioned those, outside of one pointing out that my phrasing introducing that section of links was easily interpreted as condescending... which... yeah... again that was the point, and no I will not edit that language. none of us are free from sin).

Tumblr hasn't "changed." It was always this way. This site is not a monolith. Fandom is not a monolith. Even smaller groups within fandom aren't monoliths. Things that are considered "tumblr standard etiquette" do not exist across this entire website. And even within the supernatural fandom, and even within the tumblr-destiel-portion of the fandom there aren't "rules" dictating how you interact with anyone. Well, the one specific rule we should all be able to agree on is that you don't bring hate to real actual human beings, and yet...

There has ALWAYS been the option to engage with fandom here on whatever level an individual chooses. And that hasn't really changed since the finale aired. Anyone who thinks that Tumblr or the fandom has "evolved" or "changed" has likely just fallen in with a different fandom bubble then they'd existed within before. None of the bubbles have actually popped or disappeared. But which one you experience is entirely your own choice. You curate your experience here.

That was the point, illustrated by the vast array of comments I actually got on that post, structured with a little bit of everything including "tumblr mom from 2014." Everything pisses some people off, you know? Even the perception that some stranger on the internet might dare to lay down an arbitrary "rule" that zero people actually have to follow. See what I mean?

Because if any of the people who kneejerked at it actually followed me, or knew me at all, they wouldn't have kneejerked. They would've seen the point.

So your experience is what you make of it here. There are resources for people actually interested in engaging with the narrative or the fandom or the history of it. People mock "tumblr moms" or "fandom moms" all the time, but there wouldn't ~be~ a fandom without the people who actually build those resources. I.e. adults with the time, money, and personal investment in actually sustaining the fandom, instead of running around with torches trying to burn it down at every new whiff of perceived ~drama~ to latch on to.

For example, all of the scripts we've been acquiring and sharing with the entire fandom free of charge. I know that the fandom bubbles who seize on those scripts like hungry vultures to cough back up out of context "gotcha" posts postulating whatever theory of the differences between script and screen will dredge up the most drama or outrage in their fandom bubble... they haven't even considered how those scripts were acquired and made available to them. To them, they are "leaks." They are gifts that fell out of the sky and landed in their laps. There isn't even the barest curiosity about their origins or relevance beyond whatever social nourishment they derive by making up stuff and spouting it out with unearned authority. It's sad. But if that's how they enjoy the fandom, it's nice to remind them that none of the fandom they cannibalize would exist without the rest of us, too.

Yes, even the people you disagree with. Even the people who ship the things you find disgusting or repulsive. Even people who have an entirely different experience to your own. Even the people who are only here for those gotcha posts.

Fandom is not by nature a nihilistic shitshow, or no fandom would survive the amount of drama the 1% try to bring to it. Here have a fanlore article about this phenomenon. Right now, in Supernatural fandom, it feels like more than 1%, but I promise it really is only 1%. They're just really loud. There's actually other avenues to participatory fandom available to anyone who chooses to find them. Parts of this vast fandom that aren't focused on that 1% of reactionary leg-chewing at every turn. None of them are (as the linked article confirms) truly 100% free of unnecessary drama or bad behavior (including ME, I mean I MADE THAT POST!), but on tumblr you can curate your own experience. Fandom actually can be fun without burning down the thing you claim to be a fan of, or attacking other real human people for having the audacity to exist on the internet in a way you might believe is out of touch or pathetic. Seriously, nobody deserves to experience that from anyone over a fucking television show. Like seriously, take a step back and examine your life and your choices at that point.

Tumblr was exactly the same as a fandom community when I joined as it is now. Throughout my entire time here, I've curated my own personal experience to exactly what I derive the most personal satisfaction from. During that time I have had numerous friends and mutuals lament that their personal experience had become so toxic, but they were afraid to trim those blogs from their dash for fear of having no content left to engage with at all. For years there have been follow lists and blog recs and people desperate to find a more "peaceful and fun" fandom experience. People grow exhausted and embittered when their entire experience of fandom is an emotionally draining drama train. It's like pandemic doom scrolling, but for the thing that should be a respite from that sort of mindset, something that's supposed to be entertainment. The show did enough to us all, we don't have to turn around and re-inflict it on each other day in and day out on tumblr dot com.

So if even one person saw my post and thought well shit maybe I actually want to engage with a wider swath of fandom and see what's there, after seven months of post-finale drama, this whole other region of fandom is still here, still being the curators of the archives, the creators of stories and art and meta and gifs and videos and actually caring about it all that will keep this fandom going long after the current round of exhausting drama inevitably plays itself out.

The amount of in-group language in the negative replies I got was unsurprising. It's like folks are living in an alternate universe that doesn't mesh at all with what I experience on this exact same hellsite. Almost like we exist in entirely different bubbles of fandom, with entirely different purposes for existing at all. Everyone on this hellsite gets to pick which bubble (or bubbles) to take up residence in. Some people simply forget that their personal bubble isn't the universal defining experience of this site. Unfortunately, I doubt my little disruption to their bubbles will actually make any of them see that, but you anon... I think you did.

You are highly encouraged to engage with fandom EXACTLY THE WAY YOU CHOOSE. You have the ultimate power in controlling your entire experience here. Tumblr and Supernatural Fandom on tumblr is not Just One Thing that everyone who wants to participate in must conform to one specific code of ethics or behavior to be part of. And that NOBODY has the right to tell anyone else they're doing it wrong (including ME! I am 100% including myself in this!).

It's not MY job to dictate how anyone else experiences this fandom, as much as it was not the job of the people who reblogged my post (which I did not personally shove into their eyeballs with a demand for compliance... how did any of those people even *find* my post?) solely to tell me how *I* need to change how I experience the fandom, you see? Don'tcha love hypocrisy!

But the point was made for those who care, and a lot of people got to update their block lists (I still don't block anyone, as I said I curated my fandom space here and generally don't follow folks that don't personally make me happy and enrich my life by engaging with their content. However other people choose to engage with *my* content (any of it, going back nearly 50k posts over the last decade) is their business entirely. Sometimes I just feel the need to draw out people who are all too eager to expose their own whole asses in public. Mission accomplished.

[thekrazykeke]

Title: This Time is Different

Fandom(s): Dragonball/Dragonball Z

Pairing(s): Goku x reader

Rating: T+

Series: You’re Perfect

Summary: I want someone to look at me the same way I look at chocolate cake.

Warning(s): Species change. Goku’s shenanigans (bc I mean, did you expect any less?). Training used as foreplay(?). Mild angst.

Taglist:  Click here to be added.

Tagging: @misspooh​ @ginghampearlsnsweettea @naomithenerdgirl @wojtud-widvut-fecret​ @indigorose049​ @queenofhearts579 @fallinoutoforbit @ashthebootyholetickler​ @one-twisted-bee​ @stichpatchedsoul @supremethunda @mattiekins @zenon-babie @moustachioed-tactician @sml200117 @fivefootab-i-tch @seventeen-stan-1027 @wolfdragon731

Once again, just letting y’all know that I used a randomizer in order to find husbando number 2. How many times will this be happening? To infinity and beyond. LOL! Just kidding. Or, am I? Currently, I’m flexing my writing muscles and going outside my comfort zone to write in different fandoms. As long as there’s interest in the husbando or waifu that I write for, I will continue to write about them; so have no fear, y’all. Levi isn’t going to be abandoned.

Anywho!

Enjoy your time with Earth’s absent minded hero and if you’d like to spend more time with him, pretty please make certain to hit that like button, comment or reblog all about it <3

~ Episode 2

Learning the Controls Special Privileges

Someone is poking your cheek.

At first, it’s easy enough to ignore and you think you’ve gotten rid of the annoying pest after half heartedly swatting in their general direction without opening your eyes. This person is insistent to get your attention though, because after a few seconds, you can hear the rustle of clothing, they’re leaning in... Mere seconds after their finger can make contact, you keep your eyes closed and use the heel of your palm to make contact with their face; hard. You heard a yelp and someone falling over.

Opening your eyes, you sat up and stared.

It’s a tall man with spiky black hair and dark eyes wearing that iconic bright orange gi, the symbol of the Turtle school printed boldly on the fabric.

There’s absolutely no way that you can mistake this person for anyone else. After all, you’d grown up watching his adventures on TV every single day before real life got in the way and later, you’d forgotten all about it in favor of different anime. The Earth raised Saiyan who had the worst luck with not dying. The man, the myth, the legend, who reached past his limit every single time and literally embodied the saying, “Never give up”.

Son Goku.

“Haha! Geez, [Your Name]. You sure had worried me for a second there.” Quickly sitting up again, legs crossed beneath him, he rubbed the back of his neck, laughing lightly. “I think I might have hit ya too hard with that last attack and I’m out of senzu beans.” Brows furrowed, face scrunching up with guilt. “You’re okay, right?” He looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Tail lashing out angrily in the air before sticking up straight, fluffed out, you open your mouth, about to read him the riot act, only to stop as you brain threatened to crash. ‘...Tail? Wait, what the fuck?’

Time paused and familiar ghostly writing appeared in front of your eyes.

/ Dragonball Z: AT Chronicles is a story based game that features player choice. The consequences of all your in-game actions and decisions will affect past, present, and future. Choose wisely. /

‘Okay, yes. I’ve already been through this once before. Get to the point!’ Try as you might to ignore it, you really can’t ignore the fact that you have a brown monkey tail.

/ Due to the game survey you completed prior to purchase, the system has deemed that you’re a Saiyan female and randomly generated your character features, fight style, default attacks, health and stats. Stat points can be stacked and more powerful attacks will be awarded the stronger you become. However, fight style and character features can be changed only once per game.

Would you like to do that now?

a.) Yes? b.) No? /

After you chose to ‘Yes’ and return to the Main Menu, you’re grateful to see that none of the settings have altered and after much hemming and hawwing, you decide to turn Tutorial Mode off. There’s a flash of green light and soon a tiny block of text informs you that the action has been selected for all future games you play and can be turned back on at any time.

Hints and tips can be found in the section marked ‘Other’.

Once that’s finished, you focus on adjusting your stats. Pressing Customize, then reset attribute points, which returns the randomly assigned stat points back to zero for each category; health, stamina, ki, etc. A drop down menu appears every time you selected a category, and you’re given a brief description with examples of how to improve your base form.

Max Health (42) Max Stamina (25) Max Ki (26) Basic Attacks (51) Strike Supers (30) Ki Blast Supers (49)

Pressing save and exiting out of the customization screen, a small sigh escaped you. To your knowledge, this particular build would make you a fairly average Saiyan.

...You hoped.

It wouldn’t do to compare yourself to or put yourself in the leagues of Goku and Vegeta as both were on a whole other level from jump. Besides, this was just your base form, so in theory, it’d be possible to go Super Saiyan and even further, right?

Shaking your head, as if you could physically shake away the uncertainty, you swiped right, and a full body screenshot appeared.

Gorgeous brown skin, lush curves, and full lips, this is you alright. Hand on your hip, head tilted to the side just so, dressed in the standard Saiyan battle armor that came equipped with the power level scouter, monkey brown tail wrapped tight around your waist, you radiate complete confidence and sass.

Thankfully, for your sanity’s sake, unlike most full blooded Saiyans, your hair isn’t completely trippy. It’s pulled into a ponytail to the back and bangs frame your face neatly.

After you skim over your default attacks, you set your fight style to balanced which meant you’d be able to do a fair amount of damage with either just your fists or with ki blasts or a combination of both. Instead of solely relying on energy attacks or being built like a tank and capable of dealing or taking lots of punishment but sluggish as a tradeoff for speed, this was a happy medium between the two options available to start with. Now more than a little antsy to actually get into the game and see what it’s all about, you decide to forgo reading the backstory and glancing at the friendship stats for the moment.

Since this is a game taking place in the DB universe, it’d undoubtedly revolve around fighting for at least ninety percent of the time anyway.

Exiting the Main Menu, almost immediately after, a set of options appeared in front of your face.

[“You’re okay, right?” a.) “Of course I’m not okay, you dolt! I gave you very specific instructions and you of course went off doing your own thing anyway, incapacitating me in the process. Urrrgh, how humiliating!” b.) “Wipe that concerned look off your face, it’s insulting. We’re Saiyans, this is nothing.” c.) “......” d.) “If that was an accident, then I want to see you actually trying.” ]

The urge to face palm is overwhelming.

Or maybe gently bang your head against a wall and give yourself a concussion to avoid the sheer tsundere-ish nature that seemed to be a common trait with each character you’ve played as so far.

‘Then again, all Saiyans are pretty much asshats except Gohan, Vegeta’s brother, Tarble, Goku’s mom, Gine, and Broly.’

Smooshing both hands to your face, just barely holding in the goofy laughter, you know you can’t put this off forever. Deciding to bite the bullet and power on through this trainwreck, you selected the final option.

Time unpaused and you find yourself repeating the sentence to Goku, watching as the man-child blinked, staring at you with an odd expression before nodding with a grin and striking his fist into an open palm twice. He hopped to his feet and held his hand out to you.

Bemused by the gentlemanly gesture, you grasped the outstretched hand, and he gripped yours tight, but instead of being helped to your feet like you expected, the world went topsy-turvy.

Glass shattered around you in a thousand tiny shards and belatedly, you realized that you’d been thrown out a window but you didn’t feel any pain. Body moving on autopilot almost, you did a backflip or two, avoiding Goku who swooped in low with a heel kick aimed at your face.

Even after you manage to get upright again, he doesn’t stop pressing the advantage, throwing a left and right hook which you block, and he followed up with a jab. That connected and hit you in the ribs. And then you were hit with an uppercut to the chin. You guarded pretty well against the next blow though you were pushed backwards.

‘I see, so gameplay is intuitive and instinctive. It’s not difficult to get the hang of but you can get trounced--’

Goku grabbed you by the front of your armor, choking you almost before catapulting you high in the air. “If you don’t take this serious...” And then gravity did it’s thing as you came plummeting downdowndown, him raining hits on you as the two of you fell. “You’ll lose!” The earth crumbled and splintered beneath your combined weight.

Dust kicked up and billowed everywhere.

Once it cleared, Goku blinked, surprised to see you gone. He looked to the left and to the right but you were nowhere to be found.

And then he looked up.

Spotted you gathering energy for a massive attack and made a move to counter you, deciding quickly on, “Kame...hame...hame...”

“Take this!” Thrusting both hands out, you fired the ki blast directly at him.

“HAAAAA!”

Goku’s signature attack, the Kamehameha, collided with yours. The overwhelming pressure from both attacks coming into contact with one another caused significant damage to the surrounding area.

The very air seemed to hum and crackle with energy.

For a few seconds, both attacks were deadlocked. Neither getting over the other. Then you felt yourself beginning to lose ground. Gritting your teeth, you poured more of your power into the attack but it isn’t enough. The Kamehameha overpowered yours and is on a collision course with you. Reaching out with both hands, you instinctively try to shove it back, and as you realized it’s futile, let out a shout of anger.

Everything went completely white for a second, maybe less, as the blast detonated.

Blinking, breathing heavily, Goku kept his hands stretched out. “I....won....” Huffing, he managed a weak smile but then it hit him too late. “! Shoot. [Your Name]--! Augh.” He was suckerpunched in the back of the head and collapsed onto his knees. “Oww!”

“I win.” You declared imperiously. Your armor is broken and falling apart, a smoky ruin. “Honestly, you’re the worst. What were you thinking hitting me with a Kamehameha during training? I could have died!”

“I was thinkin’ that ya could handle it, and I was right.” Poking his bottom lip. “Besides, I didn’t use my full power anyway...” he muttered underneath his breath.

“What was that?” You demanded, voice sharp and cutting. “Don’t mumble. Speak u--”

For the second time that day, you’re caught off guard.

Goku had managed to get to his feet surprisingly quick, which made you honestly wonder if he only let you sneak up on him, and he’s...kissing you.

He’s kissing you and he’s good at it, and you feel simultaneously confused and horny. Your hands, which had been limply hanging at your sides, goes to his chest, some part of your subconscious is screaming at you to push him away, push him away now!, but then he let out this sexy growl deep in his chest that turns your knees to water and makes your tail unwind, swaying gently in the air behind you. Goku doesn’t seem to mind that he’s practically holding you up now, hands sliding down to cup your backside and then he’s lifting you as if you’re light as a feather, and your legs wind around his waist to avoid falling and you can feel him, hard and throbbing with every step that he takes.

As soon as you’re back in the house, far too soon, he’s dropping you onto the comfy mattress that you’d woken up on, and for a tiny moment, clarity returns. Goku is supposed to be married to ChiChi, they have a kid together and, and he can kiss?! ...Your brain has deduced that the last fact is most important. You return to the present as his knee is wedged betwixt your legs, pushing them open wider as he crawled between them. And then you felt his tongue as he licked along the column of your throat. It’s a highly erotic move that further destroys your sanity and demolishes your potentially very logical reasoning for why this is a bad idea.

{Goku Affection increased by twelve. Goku wants you.} {Gained the ‘Unbreakable’ trophy} {Gained the ‘Saiyans are always hungry’ trophy}

/ Congratulations! You’ve made your first significant choice that delved into a hidden branch choice which can be forged into a deeper connection. Saying ‘No’ is always a valid and accepted choice. Refusal will not be used against you and your partner will always respect it. If you’d like to opt out of the mature scenes and have them fade to black, you can do so from the Main Menu.

Would you like to do that now? a.) Yes b.) No /

As of right now, you feel as if you’re going to absolutely die of embarrassment or sexual frustration or choke on your own confusion, one or all of those things and you’re not for sure which. Conflicted despite the horny part of you screaming, ‘Fuck morals!’, you instead select ‘Yes’ and return to the Main Menu. This time, you swipe right until you come to the backstory.

You’re completely floored and deeply horrified. You’re the last full blooded female Saiyajin, yet it might as well be an empty title. 

If Frieza wasn’t having Zarbon and Dodoria knock you around as a child and simultaneously threatening to have his soldiers take turns “handling” you, then you were belittled and ignored by Vegeta and mocked and jeered at by Nappa. Raditz was the only one who showed you an iota of respect which later became a secret friendship and even something vaguely resembling a sibling like bond. You went to Earth with Vegeta and Nappa, being the only one who had aspirations to actually try and avenge Raditz. 

No one counted on Goku’s instant and total visceral reaction to you, nor his deep desire to protect you, especially after seeing Nappa pummel you halfway to death. 

Putting it in simple terms, you’re Goku’s mate.

Vegeta didn’t like that. Not one bit and so he destroyed you on the spot. 

Skimming through the rest of the backstory, as it largely followed the canon that you did know. 

Only subtle things changed, like Goku and ChiChi deciding to get a divorce and agreeing to co-parent Gohan. Goku was a lot more ruthless and brutal in his fight against Nappa and later against Vegeta, the prince coming especially close to death’s door though he managed to escape only barely. 

Going to Namek with the plan to revive all their friends, and you. Fighting the Ginyu Force, being quietly furious with Vegeta after he ran away like a coward to avoid fighting Ginyu, the fight against Frieza and Vegeta revealing his little sob story, which finally let Goku somewhat forgive him, your revival on Namek, watching Goku become a Super Saiyan and avenge the Saiyan race, etc. etc. 

Disquieted by what you’d read, you checked out your friendship stats. Nappa was greyed out, signifying him being dead you guessed and didn’t care, Raditz is also greyed out. 

Vegeta is at level 0 and his bar is almost fully filled out. Krillin is at level 2, but under halfway filled. Tien is at level 2 and halfway filled. Chiaotzu is at level four and looks to be about to receive a level up. Yamcha is at level one and looks like it only recently got there. Piccolo, surprisingly, is at level five. ChiChi is at level 3, neatly on the halfway mark. Bulma is the same as ChiChi. 

Gohan is a level 8 and only needs a little bit more time before seeing a level up. 

Goku’s stat level is six. Underneath his small bio, it details how he sees you as important and to be protected. However, he’s conflicted by his own nature and reactions to you, but despite that, he still wants to get to know you better. 

Swiping right the final time, up popped the familiar screen. 

/Save and Continue or Save and Exit?/

                               »»————-　　————-««

Dun, dun, duuun. And thus concludes another chapter. Things are getting more interesting and complex by the day. Are you enjoying yourself? Would you like to continue? Don’t be shy~ It’s not a bad thing to ask for what you want you know~?

[ryuspike]

Thoughts on She-ra

Just finished watching She-ra and the Princesses of Power today.  My overall feelings are positive.  I might consider doing a full blown review one day, but I have too much on my plate to do that.  So a list of pros, cons, and thoughts will have to do.  A clarification does need to be made before I write down the list:

I am pro-lgbt and believe in equality between men and women of all races.   That said, I will have opinions that may challenge your viewpoints and that is okay.  Great even.  Having different opinions does not make anybody enemies.  It is the refusal that there are opinions besides your own that animosity is born.  Now, onto the list.

Pro

The main cast of characters are likable and each have their character arcs (will get into those later). Design-wise, their outfits look great and I can imagine plenty of great cosplay to come from it.

Writing is not perfect, but is not awful overall.  There are no giant gaps of logic that make you go, “That doesn’t make sense.”

Main heroine, Adora, is a great character as she displays both weakness and strength that make sense of her character. There is still plenty to learn about her past as future seasons will likely dive into.

Bow is just a great support male lead.  He is written to be somebody who is in touch of his emotional side, and also show competency when the need rises.

Glimmer was somebody I thought I would find annoying because she was sort of a brat.  As the show went on, she slowly became one of my favorites as she eventually learns to be more mature.

The villains are great.  Not only are they as evil as I would hope the villains should be, but they also have a lot of depth to them.  Shadow Weaver is a great antagonist as she demonstrates an emotional obsession that is both dangerous to the heroes and the Horde.  Hordak is also really great despite his lack of screen time. But the best villain has to be...

Catra.  Catra is the best character hands down.  She goes through a character arc that absolutely steals the show for me.  Her design is great, her personality is perfect, and her relationship with Adora is filled with so much nuisance and depth that short summery isn’t enough to describe it.  If there is one character to love, it has to be Catra.

Con

The animation, I feel, could use with some improving, Certain action scenes have less impact to them as several characters and objects don’t have as fluid a flow to them as they are meant to.  I suspect budget or time restraints to be the cause of this, and any improvement will have to wait until the second season.

While the main characters are written well, the side characters (the princesses for example) are mostly bland or one note.  They aren’t bad, but they mostly depend on personality quirks rather than something more complicated. Entrapta and Scorpia started off seemingly to follow this path, but later episodes actually gave them more depth.  The Dragon Prince also suffered from having too many quirky characters being quirky during serious scenes.  The balance of levity is hard to master as most creators try to please a large range of viewers without alienating any of them.  Success is mixed, but later seasons always help that balance.

Glimmer’s mother, Queen Angella, is not a bad character, but she falls into an archetype that is sadly very predictable. The overprotective mother that wants to keep her daughter out of danger. While I sympathized with her more than Glimmer at first, her shtick kinda got old as she acted more motherly than queenly.  Makes me glad that she and Glimmer upgraded their relationship as I hope a season 2 will allow her to “spread her wings” as far as characterization goes.

Princess Frosta’s eleventh hour moment felt... unearned.  I feel like there should have been a scene of her talking with somebody that convinces her to aid the heroes and rejoin the alliance.  Last time we saw her, she was telling off Adora for being a rude guest and cementing her neutrality within the war.  After all that, why does she join them?  It is a plot hole that needs to be addressed.

This is something I imagine would tick off some people as it is about the canon lesbian couple, Netossa and Spinnerella.  Not because they are a same-sex couple.  No, that is great.  What isn’t great is that they are given the worst screen time out of all the princesses.  They don’t even get any lines or characterization other than “And then there is those two.” until the final episode of the season with powers that would have great to have around during the Best Friend Squad’s previous adventures.  Even their relationship wasn’t made clear until their proper introduction.  I think they might’ve been mentioned during the Prom episode, but by that point, they were mostly forgotten already.  Season 2 will need to do better to include them more often so it doesn’t feel like they are just background characters.

Related Thoughts

It is a pain but it would be ignorant to not point out the controversy that bloated to the point where it’ll make an inflation fetishist blush. So, yes, most of the female characters in this cartoon are super flat.  For the many teen characters, this isn’t a big deal, but it becomes odd when all the adult women are depicted in the same way.  Especially the motherly Queen Angella who people would expect to have breasts after childbirth and rearing. The fact that everybody is flat is not a problem for me.  If it was, this would be in the Con section.  No, the reason I am even mentioning this potential ball of toxic drama is because there are a few female characters in the show that do have breasts and they are not depicted in a sexual light.  If the fear of sexualization was behind the decision to make every female character flat, then why are these characters exempt from the rule?  Was it something that was looked over during character modelling process, or is it something that the show runners intentionally done?  That is something to think about if you are trying to form an argument for either side.

There are people that feel like breasts are a sexual taboo and that giving breasts to girls under the age of 18 is an act of sexualizing minors.  Others say that the removal of breasts is a form of body shaming towards those who were naturally endowed.  Everybody has their reasons and chooses a side.  Both seeking to set up a victim they swear to protect, but is more like an excuse to get their teeth and nails soaked in blood.  It is just sad to think that it should happen over a cartoon that is suppose to introduce a younger generation to a show that my generation loved.

There were a lot of references towards She-ra’s connection to He-man in this show.  It is actually an overarching plot point really.  Eternia and Grayskull are name dropped, and I am getting a good feeling that the “First Ones” are them.  Now what this could mean about this show’s version of He-man and the Masters of the Universe is hard to tell.  They could have Eternia be from a different dimension or from another planet.  Maybe Eternia is destroyed by this point?  It is all a mystery.  All I can imagine is that Adora’s family (Prince Adam and his parents) will become important within season 2 or 3.  The circumstances behind why Shadow Weaver is so obsessed with keeping Adora so close to her should also be revealed then as well.

There is a Kowl plushie and it is pretty cute.  They should introduce Kowl next season and make him as cute and lovable as 2011 Thundercats’ Snarf.  Even that new Thundercats reboot, which people hate with a burning passion, based their Snarf off that one.  Cute sells.  It sells more than sex.  This is the absolute truth.

Phew!  This was more than I intended but I feel like I got my points across.  Despite those cons you see, I feel like Netflix’s She-ra did a good job for its first season.  As somebody not blinded by hate or rainbow-tinted lens, I feel like this is good enough to introduce my niece to. I can only hope that Catra will be her favorite.  It will fill me with pride if she can recognize who the best character is.

[livingcorner]

How I Turned a Grass Lawn Into a Garden Plot

Chris Telden is an avid gardener of edibles. A former city dweller, she’s always learning of ways to reconnect with the earth.

I used manual tools like this loop weeder to remove the grassy sod and create a nice garden plot for vegetables.

You're reading: How I Turned a Grass Lawn Into a Garden Plot

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Turning a Grass Lawn Into a Garden by Hand (No Power Tools!)

I converted a large area of my lawn into a nice, usable garden space. It was very satisfying, but it also makes me want to rant just a bit.

Can someone please tell me why people ever thought lawns were a good idea? To me, lawns are a waste of good gardening space. They’re labor-intensive, yet they reap little reward. Turning a field of green carpeting into a productive vegetable and herb garden has to be one of the noblest tasks humankind can do.

At least, that’s what I told myself as I set out to turn our grassy lawn into a vegetable and fruit garden. After all, everyone in our household has to pull their own weight—shouldn’t the lawn have to do the same?

Hard Work With Hand Tools

So that’s what I did. With my own hands (yes, me, a born Chicagoan), I turned sections of our lawn into a garden plot. I did it the (modest cough) hard way—with hoes, scythes, and hand tools. I turned both previously untilled lawn and soil that had been tilled the previous year but now was overgrown with grass and weeds into soil that we could grow things in. May I just say—yay!

Manual tools I used to turn lawn into garden.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

A lasagna garden in progress

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Why I Didn’t Use Other Methods, Like Power Tools or Lasagna Gardening

Because I am not inspired by using gas or electric powered equipment, I did not use a rototiller, string trimmer, or anything else that could run off madly on its own if I lost control of it. Because I am impatient, I did not use the pleasurably lazy “lasagna gardening” technique in which you lay down straw or black plastic mulch over cut foliage and then let it all stew for six months to a year.

Although I like lasagna gardening in other areas, I was in a hurry to clear up space on the lawn to plant, so I didn’t want to wait. My goal was to get the grass out of the way, make the soil nice enough not to strangle the roots of the plants I wanted to grow, and plant ’em. Maybe I’d even mulch with bark or coco coir or black plastic to tell those weeds they weren’t comin’ back, no way.

Garden hand tools I used, including Red Pig tools, a Japanese ika hoe (second to left), a mighty Wilcox All-Pro camping trowel (upper right), and a Hoedag (left)

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

My Experience as an Amateur Gone Ambitious

So that’s what I did. I did it not knowing a thing about garden tools, weeding, digging, or—let’s face it—gardening. I was fortunate that my sister-in-law spearheaded the project in terms of figuring out the plans for the garden and providing the types of soil amendments needed. She bought most everything, except the tools I ended up using the most.

And somehow or other, it got done. It’s maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing garden ever, but still, food we can eat! Grown right here! On formerly-useless lawn! What could be better?

Sharing My Technique to Spare You the Trial and Error!

It occurred to me that other people might want to know how I got rid of the layer of grass—not because I did anything particularly amazing. I mean, it’s just gardening, and I can’t exactly take credit for reinventing it—but because it was, well, hard, you know?

I would have loved it if someone could have just told me right at the beginning what I would need to have and do. Then I wouldn’t have had to research and try all different sorts of tools before I found the right ones. I wouldn’t have had to learn ALL the important techniques through the trial-and-error method.

Rogue 80S Scuffle Hoe – A triangle hoe sharpened on all 3 sides, canted at an angle to use as a push-pull weeder. It took me several tries to learn to use it effectively.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

I Needed Old-Fashioned, Durable Tools, Not Sissy Walmart Tools

As an example of my trials and errors: When I started this project, I’d hardly ever used a hoe, and then only a lame, bone-jarring one. I decided early on to get a quality Rogue hoe. Rogue is an inexpensive American brand, and they make STRONG hoes. They also have a wide assortment to choose from.

My Five Rogue-Brand Garden Hoes

I ended up getting several—about five (yes, I took this seriously!). I ended up using primarily four in the garden-to-be and ignoring the last. Plus, I learned from experience that two (the 40X and 55A) were essentially interchangeable. I sure wish I’d known that when I ordered them. Below, I describe the tricks and techniques I discovered for using all the equipment that I had no clue how to use when I started.

70F Field Hoe by Rogue Prohoe moves our water-logged clay soil like nobody’s business, and isn’t fazed by the occasional rock.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

My Challenges: Why Digging the Garden Was So Hard

I found my biggest challenge was finding tools that could handle the work. The next biggest was staying uninjured—which largely came down to the tools, as well.

We are in the Pacific Northwest, with damp, muddy, dense clay. This means I needed strong hoes and digging implements that wouldn’t break when used to pry up the dirt, like the cheap chain-hardware-store strawberry hoe I broke trying to dig out lawn.

We have a thick, fibrous layer of thistles, Himalayan blackberries, weeds, and tall grass (we’re talking eight feet tall in places) taking over our lawn. Our sod is mighty sod. I needed tools that were sharp and fast for getting out both thick, deeply-rooted weeds and long, tortuous roots.

Our lawn has rocks, from pebble-sized to brick-sized, buried in it. So the blades of the tools I used had to not be wimpy, but able to withstand the occasional impact against a rock.

I have overcome chronic back, knee, and foot pain in the past, so I needed the physical work to be ergonomic enough NOT to set things off again. I was careful to keep my posture healthy and use tools that I could handle with ease and that were the right size for me (I’m petite). I did manage to hurt my knee at one point due to wearing my otherwise beloved Muck boots instead of my favorite moccasins on a rainy day. (Tell you more about that another time.) But it just confirmed my overwhelming experience that to prevent injury, the right tools were absolutely essential.

How Tough Is Your Garden Lawn?

Tools I Used to Transform the Lawn Into Garden Soil

I used these tools to remove the thick layer of grassy lawn and replace it with nice dirt for planting a garden.

Tool Name Use Comments

Rogue Hoe – 55A and 40X

For powerful digging/turning of sod

Though slightly different shapes and weights, these turned out to be functionally very similar. You don’t need both.

Rogue Scuffle Hoe – 80S

For push-pull weeding and loosening dirt

You kind of slice this thing through the soil in any direction you want. It’s super sharp and does what I imagine a Japanese sickle weeder can do if you tilt it at an angle.

Rogue Hoe 70F, Field Hoe

For moving dirt fast

This long-handled tool has a long reach and a big face that allows me to carve and shave clay dirt almost effortlessly into fluffy dirt, then pull it along. It also cuts well and has a hefty weight to it.

Japanese Kusakichi brand Ika (Squid) Hoe

For removing stubborn grassy clumps, sifting weeds, and breaking up chunks of dirt

Very heavyweight for its size.

Hoedag

For cultivating dirt (especially breaking up clumps of sod), targeting young/new weeds during planting and generally taking around with you

This is a convenient, lightweight hoe I found easy to lug around and use often.

Wilcox All-Pro trowels

For digging out rocks, slicing deep roots, and sifting through dirt

I didn’t use these a lot, but occasionally they were “just the tool.”

Rock Rake – brand unknown

For raking weeds and dirt

I used a sturdy rock rake mostly for smoothing dirt in the last stages of preparing the soil.

Glaser Stirrup Hoe

For weeding and sifting weeds

Read more: How to Grow Watermelon: 5 Tips For Planting & Harvesting

Because I was weeding a wide swathe, I used the largest one with the 7″ head. I probably should have gotten the slightly smaller one to use for weeding in narrow areas once things were planted.

European Scythe

For cutting down high grass, thistles, and blackberries

Honing stone and peening anvil highly advised!

Pitchfork

For moving large clumps of weeds

Particularly helpful if you have a lot of high grass when you start.

Landscape Anchor Pins (Ground Staples)

These nifty mega-staples hold black plastic down for composting or mulch

Black Plastic Mulch

For lasagna gardening/composting large or small plots

This is so not green, but so convenient…what can I say?

Garden Gloves

For protecting the hands from thistles, thorns, poison plants, blisters, and yucky things.

I highly recommend your keeping at least 2 replacement pairs if your soil gets muddy. That way you’ll always have a pair available when the gloves get too muddy and water-logged to use.

Coco Coir, Planting Soil, Fertilizer, and other soil enhancers

For making the soil airy, light, fluffy, rich, and water-retaining without being water-logged

What you use as a soil amendment depends on your particular soil conditions.

Steps I Took to Turn Our Lawn Into a Garden

To turn our lawn quickly into a garden plot, I did the following. (This is the short version.)

I scythed the grass and weeds to a manageable height.

I dug out the sod.

I put the weeds and grass where they could compost.

I added soil enhancements.

I shaped the dirt into raised, sloped beds (about 10″ high)

I planted and mulched.

One Section of the New Garden, formerly lawn, now ready for planting in raised beds.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

How to Turn a Lawn Into a Garden Plot: The Long Version

So all of that sounds really easy, summarized in six short steps. Not gonna lie to you here, it’s not. If you don’t like to sweat and work for hours on end, you probably want to go rent a rototiller and skip to step 4. It’ll still be hard work, just not to quite such an, um, spiritual level.

Step 1: Taming the Tall Weeds

If your lawn is neat and well-managed, you’ve already got a head start – just mow your lawn in preparation for Step 2, digging.

However, if your grass is wildly overgrown or the weeds are more than a foot tall, you probably want to do something about that before you start breaking into the sod. Sod, by the way, means the top layer of lawn dirt – the part with all the grass, weeds, and roots tangled up in a big thicket.

Scything Isn’t Just for the Grim Reaper Anymore

If you have a lawn that gets out of control, or you hate using lawn mowers, consider the old-fashioned scythe. You can scythe in the rain, you can scythe for just 5 minutes, there’s no big equipment to operate or store, and, well…it’s therapeutic, a gentle workout, and fun!

Scything isn’t mandatory, even if your grass is out of control. I mean, if you like to use (or aren’t intimidated by) a string trimmer – also called a “weed wacker” or “weed eater”—to handle that level of roughage, then go ahead and use that. The idea is simply to get the grass and weeds down to less than a foot, and ideally just a few inches high.

Because I am intimidated by power tools, I opted instead to use a scythe to mow my lawn to a reasonable level. I’d started scything our field last year. The grass had grown out of control and was taking over the property, along with some Himalayan blackberries, thistles, and other aggressive intruders. I found scything to be incredibly efficient, cost-effective, and convenient.

So when I went to tackle the neglected lawn area to turn it into a garden, the scythe was my first tool for taming the highest weeds and grasses.

What Is a Scythe?

A scythe is a long crescent-shaped blade attached to a long handle called a snath that you swing along the ground from side to side to cut grass and weeds. It’s not the same as a sickle, which is typically short-handled and wielded anywhere you put it. You need to keep the scythe well-sharpened, which means peening (hammering out the edge of the blade) periodically and honing with a whetstone every ten minutes or so. It’s not as intimidating as it sounds, honestly!

One advantage of using a scythe is that you end up with the grass cuttings that you can use for compost. In my case, some of the cut grass went into little compost piles, and the rest went toward my own version of lasagna gardening in another area of our property, which is another kind of composting.

Which Type?

You have two choices if you’re going to use a scythe: American style with the grass blade or European style. The European scythe is lighter. We have both. I use the stronger, heavier American scythe where there are a lot of thick blackberries and coarse weeds to cut. I use the finer, more easily honed, but needing more frequent honing, European scythe to cut regular grass and light weeds like wild peas, thistles, and SMALL blackberry vines.

How to Use a Scythe

Scything is kind of an art, and I highly recommend this site by a long-time scything family for learning how it’s done.

Raking and Piling All The Weeds

After you cut the grass, you need to do something with it. Raking is almost an afterthought. You forget you’re going to need to do it, but after scything or hacking down an abundance of weeds, you’re left with a huge, messy pile of foliage, and you realize it’s in your way.

You can discard the foliage for composting, or use it on your own compost pile. I raked much of it onto other sections of field, covered it with black plastic sheeting, pinned the mulch to the ground, punctured holes in the mulch with my pitchfork to let in moisture and air, and that area is destined to be a lasagna garden.

As to style of rake, I used a rock rake/bow rake. DO NOT USE A LEAF RAKE. the kind with long metal tines that flex. For this job, such a rake is a wimpy, difficult, and ineffective tool. Use instead one of those long, wide rakes with short, rigid, widely spaced tines.

A pitchfork is useful, but not necessary, for heaving the mass of grass onto the compost heap. It all depends on your volume.

Here’s the picture again, larger this time, of an area that has been prepared with black plastic sheeting.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Step 2: Digging Out the Sod

This is the step you’ve probably been dreading: removing the actual grassy layer.

This is where things get hard. Literally. Dry soil can be tough to break up. If your soil gets very hard when it’s dry, then try to choose a digging day after a light to medium rain. Water-logged soil after a hard rain, too, can be a pain to dig and turn. Sometimes, though, you just want to work with whatever you’ve got, because you’re in the mood to dig. That’s a good reason to have durable tools. It’s on days where the digging conditions aren’t optimal that it’s easiest to break flimsy tools.

Here is a video of me using the Prohoe Rogue hoe 55A to turn the turf over.

Note: Sorry for the awful quality of the video. I took it with a 15-year-old digital camera, and to compound the matter, I took it by swinging this hugely heavy hoe in one hand and holding the camera in the other. The first attempt had me knocking the handle against my shin. This version is professional cinematography by comparison.

Me Swinging My Firefighter’s Hoe: With One Hand! (Don’t Try This at Home)

How to Dig With a Firefighter’s Hoe

Why did I use a Rogue firefighter’s hoe? (55A) It was very similar to the trenching hoe (40X). Both of these are heavyweight and have blades on both ends. Both have a handle the right length for swinging. The 55A I liked slightly better, because the big adze end is wider and sharpened on three sides. But really, both worked equally well. Just for kicks, I’ve included some photos so you can compare them.

Two Rogue Hoes for Turning Sod – 55A and 40X. Either one would do. You don’t need both.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

The two Rogue hoes, compared in another view.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

And yet another view…

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Here is a comparison of their thickness.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Sod-Digging Technique

To dig out the sod, this was my technique:

Holding the handle at a comfortable place, raise the hoe high overhead, but not so far back that it upsets your balance.

Swing the hoe to the ground. This movement is a combination of at first letting the hoe fall and then adding to the building momentum at the end with a surge of power. So by the time the blade hits the lawn grass, it sinks in deeply below root level.

With the blade sunk into the dirt, pry the grassy chunk of dirt out by pressing/pushing on the handle. Flip over the dirt, using the blade as necessary to chop any remaining strands of grass.

You now should have dirt exposed in one small area with a clump of upside-down grassy sod. It has begun!

There are a few things you can do at this point. You can dig a long trench down the length of the lawn using this kind of stroke, then follow your cleared trench at an angle with this hoe, flipping over more sod kind of like peeling a carpet of turf. Or, you can rinse and repeat, taking the tool madly to the lawn and making it look like moles have had their annual party there. I, an undisciplined sort, did the latter.

Bending Woes and What to Do About Them

I don’t know about you, but I have chronic back troubles. To be specific, I have spondylolytic spondylolisthesis and neural foraminal stenosis. It was critical for me to keep good bending posture the entire time I was doing this, or my back would go “out.” Now, I learned last year that the supposed “correct” way to bend – at the knees – wasn’t actually good for me at all. So I learned the truly ergonomic way to bend at the hips (not the knees and not the waist) and that’s made all the difference. If you want me to describe how I do it, just ask in the comments.

Loosen the Dirt From the Grassy Clumps

Once your lawn is filled with these intimidating but satisfying clumps of upside-down grassy sod, then you must do some bending. I used a heavyweight trowel (the Wilcox All-Pro 14″), the Hoedag, and the Japanese Ika Hoe to loosen the clods and break the dirt apart. (You may need to wait a day or so for the clumps to dry out if they are very damp.) I used a chopping motion to break off big clumps, then picked up the main clump, gave it a shake, spat out the dirt that came into my mouth, and threw the grass and root part that was left onto a pile to compost later. Rinse and repeat.

If bending isn’t so friendly, you could use the long-handled 80S scuffle hoe, or better yet, a heavier hoe like the one that stayed in my garage, to break up and loosen the clods. That was a smaller Rogue 70G garden hoe by Prohoe. I’ve used it for that purpose before, but when I was doing the yard I was too lazy to make the trip to get it out of the garage! How you use it is you both chop with the broad end, then turn the hoe so the sharpened flat end is on the clump and chop with that, too. Because it has a long handle, you can stand up straight while you work.

Note the Red Pig Tools hoe on the left, next to the red-handled Wilcox All-Pro Digging Trowel, and the forked Japanese squid hoe and hoedag in the background. Any of these would work well.

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Composting the Weeds

I won’t say a lot about composting here, mostly because I do not know a lot. I do know, though, that what I did was fairly easy to do, and cheap. It hasn’t had a chance to fully compost yet, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I basically stuffed a huge black plastic contractor’s bag full of the dirt & weed clumps, then turned it over so the open face was on the ground. Pierce a few holes in the top to let in water and air, and then…voila, instant composting bin.

Using the Rogue Triangle Scuffle Hoe

The scuffle hoe is a push-pull weeding hoe. That means you don’t so much chop with it as pull it toward you and push it away from you. I used the Rogue 80S, one of the bigger scuffle hoes, and got fairly proficient at using it after about an hour. The main thing to know is it’s actually harder to use when you keep it level and exactly horizontal. At that angle, you have to press down to make it effective. However, if you tilt it at an angle, then push and pull, it slices under the plants at the roots with its sharp blade edges and points. It’s very satisfying. Not what I’d call effortless, but not too hard, either.

Rogue Scuffle Hoe

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Step 3. Prepare the Beds

With the hardest part over, what you do at this stage depends on your soil, the size of your garden, and what kind of garden plot you want. What I did was this:

There were still a lot of weeds in the now-bare-faced yard. I weeded these stragglers mostly using the Rogue 80S scuffle hoe (it’s shaped like a triangle) and the hula hoe – actually called a stirrup hoe or loop hoe – by Glaser. I also chopped at them with the Hoedag and ika hoe. Then I rather laboriously raked the weeds into the compost pile.

Note that while I tried to get out all of the roots, many small bits and pieces of weed and grass remained. This was as good as it was going to get, though, as I didn’t see myself sifting the soil pint by pint.

Then, when the dirt was mostly dirt at last, I took the 70F Rogue field hoe and the rock rake and moved dirt around. Most of the dirt I was dealing with had been soil enhanced the previous year, so I was mixing that with the natural clay ground. If your soil needs enhancement, this is the time to add it.

The 70F cut and moved dirt like a dream. I took a short video and have included it here, but I don’t think it adds much because the quality of the video camera and my filmmaking was lacking. Note, though, that this huge hoe was cutting dirt even though I was only wielding it one-handed (using the other hand to hold the camera).

Me Using the 70F Field Hoe By Rogue

Using the Stirrup Hoe

Unlike the Rogue 80S, the Glaser stirrup hoe – and I presume any hula-hoe style tool – takes just a few minutes to figure out how to use. You lay the sharpened blade end of the head (the bottom part) on the ground and begin sliding the hoe toward you and away. The hoe is ratcheted in such a way that it rocks back and forth on the handle – that’s how it works, slicing patiently at dirt and plants. Although it’s easier when you start on a patch of dirt, you can actually get to work on top of short foliage, and if you do it long enough, you’ll eventually scrape away the weeds and hit dirt.

Sometimes the hoe will catch on a root or stem; when this happens, don’t try to force it. Just keep sliding back and forth, and if that doesn’t work after a few tries, get a different tool, like the Wilcox All-Pro trowel, the 55A Rogue garden hoe, the Red Pig Tools hand hoe or dandelion weeder, or anything that chops or pries and is convenient.

Note that this push-pull weeder, and the Rogue 80S, both are for removing weed tops and only roots that are just under the soil, not deep.

Long-handled stirrup hoe

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Rogue Scuffle Hoe 80S 8″ x 5″ x 5″

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Rogue 80S again

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Dirt-moving Field Hoe 70F by Prohoe (Rogue line)

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

At this point, I piled dirt a couple of feet high into long hills about 2-3 feet apart. Then I walked along each hill with my rock rake and spread out the dirt, pulling it toward me (easier) and occasionally pushing it away (harder). The goal was to create beds 3-4 feet wide, with a foot-wide path between them.

As I smoothed out the raised beds, I removed additional weeds as they came up. I mostly left the grass blades and leaves, and focused on those ominous white, slim root strands that are so tenacious with grass.

Cutting or Prying Out Surprise Roots

Underneath the surface, lawns are messy, busy things, with lots of meandering, active root systems that will surprise you. Occasionally, I’d see some thick roots sticking out of the ground. I’m not sure if these were grass roots (we have every inhospitable kind of grass there is in our yard, I suspect), or other weeds’ roots. Whatever they were, I disposed of them by wielding the heavy ika hand hoe, the Red Pig hoe (that thing is MIGHTY) or, when the big guns were needed (usually, when the roots went deep into the clay soil), the Rogue 55A or 40X again, as described above – raise tool overhead, control the fall-swing, pry out of ground.

My four workhorse hoes. The fifth one I’d bought (a general garden hoe) remained in the garage for this project.

Read more: 6 Ways to Keep Rabbits Out of Your Garden

Chris Telden, All Rights Reserved

Amazon Carries Some of The Tools I Used

This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.

© 2013 Chris Telden

Comments? Questions? Want to Share How YOU Turned Lawn Into Garden?

Carnette Eigsti on May 02, 2020:

Thank you for this article!! I started my front yard gardening yesterday. Wish I had seen this before I started.

Jill Townley from Portland, OR on April 11, 2020:

It really is best to dig out the sod. I tried to kill sod with cardboard once and it didn’t work well. I love Red Pig Tools! I bought their scuffle hoe for weeding similar to your Rogue one.

jeannie on March 25, 2018:

Seriously great job! I found no errors! lol I used to do all of my gardens by hand (with the same tools – old school, they last forever!), then I got old…now I am looking for one of those hated, environmental footprint machines ’cause I miss my fresh herbs and my flowers so much. Oh, to have teenage grandchildren:)

Chris Telden (author) from Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. on June 13, 2014:

Hi Rozalyn,

Gardening does a number on us, doesn’t it? When my physical therapist asked if I get exercise, I mentioned that I gardened. She scoffed, “That doesn’t count.” When I mentioned the same thing to my cardiologist, he wrote on my report that I got regular exercise. I think I can safely guess my PT wasn’t a gardener, but my cardio was or at least knew someone who was….!

Rozalyn Winters on June 13, 2014:

Great article! This is what I spent my day doing yesterday. I hate clay. Thankfully, it had rained the entire day before I started, which helped a little. But today I hurt all over–especially my hands, from all the digging.

JR Krishna from India on July 25, 2013:

Congratulations on hub of the day.

I loved reading your hub, pictures and videos.

rose-the planner from Toronto, Ontario-Canada on July 25, 2013:

Congratulations on HOTD, well deserved. Wow……………….this was definitely an insightful tutorial on turning a grassy area into a usable garden. The scything video was amazing but swinging that tool around looked a little scary, lol. My father and mother had the same feelings as you towards grass. Growing up we had a relatively large property and my parents, being avid gardeners, removed all the grass from the backyard and converted it into a thriving, unbelievably incredible vegetable garden. They even had a huge Pergola with grapes growing on it. They also had fruit trees and huge pots of colourful flowers. It was really something spectacular to see. This was wonderful! Thanks for sharing. (Voted Up) -Rose

Author Victoria Sheffield from Georgia on July 25, 2013:

How long did it take you to put together this hub? Great work!

Melissa Flagg COA OSC from Rural Central Florida on July 25, 2013:

I’ve been wanting to do this to my backyard for quite awhile now, but I just wasn’t sure how to go about doing it. This is a fantastic hub, and quite worthy of HOTD. I’ve bookmarked it so that I can come back to it when I start my garden!! Voted up and shared!

Liz Elias from Oakley, CA on July 25, 2013:

Congrats on HOTD! Well done!

We have a lawn in front–I like it. It is a cooling patch of green on hot summer days, and makes an excellent “platform” for our holiday display. We get hot summers, and chilly winters (but no snow). We don’t live in a bad area, but we are on a path kids use to and from a nearby school, and kids being kids, we’ve already suffered some mischief–I don’t think a veggie garden would survive well in front.

In back, we have a very large lot, but at our age (senior citizens; husband on disability and me recovering from knee replacement), it’s already too much to manage, and I have to have my grandson come to mow the green weeds…it’s not true lawn–very weedy, but at least it’s green.

Our main problem in both these areas is ROBO-GOPHERS! Nothing we plant is safe! We don’t have the money for materials to create raised beds, so, we use a very small side yard to grow a very few vegetables, but this year, we just didn’t have the energy or ability. **sigh** and this is the ONLY area (knock wood) that the (shh…gophers)..don’t seem to have discovered…

I admire your gumption, and I wish you bumper crops!

Liz Rayen from California on July 25, 2013:

I love gardening and love any information about gardening! This is a well designed hub with so much information. I am one who is truly grateful for you sharing this hub! Voted up and across and shared!

—-Lisa

Chace from Charlotte, NC on July 25, 2013:

How cool! I wish I had such a big yard. I’ve just started gardening and I’m in love with the idea of going out to pick some food I grew with my own hands and eating it!

Voted up and AWESOME. Congratulations on HotD!!

Chris Telden (author) from Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. on July 25, 2013:

Thank you so much, everyone. I’m so happy about my first Hub of the Day! The garden has been so much fun this year. I did receive my broadfork – a great, big, strong, hulking one by Meadow Creatures – and it’s helped make the work of breaking brand new ground so much easier, without killing my back or knees (yet). It hasn’t broken even though I’ve used it in dry, tough clay and rocks. What I’ve been doing is first using the broadfork to loosen the soil. THEN using a hoe to turn and break up the clumps, then the rake, etc.

Good luck to those of you intending to convert your lawns…it’s truly worth it. Things have obviously changed so much regarding our food supply, but you never know what might happen.

I was just reading a book about food in the middle ages in England. Back then, most home garden plots were a quarter acre in size, and a plot 100 square feet by 100 square feet was considered tiny. Wow, has that perspective changed…

RTalloni on July 25, 2013:

Congrats on your Hub of the Day award and for successfully turning your lawn into a garden plot. You’ve shared loads of detail here to help/encourage anyone interested in developing their own garden plot. Thanks for info and your experience with the tools.

Patricia Scott from North Central Florida on July 25, 2013:

Great instructions. There are so many possibilities when we have large yards. I hope to begin turning sections of my yard into homes for food. The soil is excellent here.

Thanks for sharing. Congrats on HOTD ps Pinned Angels are on the way to you today

Marsha Musselman from Michigan, USA on July 25, 2013:

Voted up and funny although it’s also informative and interesting. Also pinning.

I have hopes of turning a portion of my front yard into a flower garden although I will probably use a rototiller for most of the work, or hire that part out. By the time I will have the resources to get this done I will be close to retirement age, and I’m sure I won’t have the energy to work at it as you have.

I think you cold put some of your Amazon ads near the areas where you discuss their implementation.

Thelma Alberts from Germany on July 25, 2013:

Congrats on the HOTD! Great hub! A very well deserved, too. I agree with you that having a grass lawn is just a waste of space. It´s good if you turned it into a very productive garden. Thanks for sharing this very useful hub. Have a great day!

Lana Adler from California on July 25, 2013:

I’m totally for turning the lawn into something useful like a vegetable garden. People are so precious about their lawns, watering them, trimming them and putting up the “no poop zone” signs. What for? What’s so great about your sprayed or artificial grass no one can walk on? Now I’m ranting

It seems like it took a lot of effort on your part to turn your lawn into a garden. Great job! Thanks for the useful hub.

Chris Telden (author) from Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. on July 03, 2013:

Jean: Yes, it does seem like community gardens have gained a lot of momentum in the last 10 years or so…it’s exciting to see people taking their food intake into their own hands, so to speak. Regarding my bum knee…the problem isn’t so much kneeling, because, well, I don’t kneel anymore…too risky. It’s twisting the leg while bearing weight. I don’t THINK a broadfork should exacerbate it, but I haven’t tried one yet. Does anyone know…?

Chris Telden (author) from Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. on July 03, 2013:

Lesliebyars: Thank you so much! I really went all out trying to dig up all the stuff that I’d have liked to see before I started this project (pun intended). I just wish my video quality were better. Must do something about that!

lesliebyars on July 02, 2013:

Nice hub and the layout was perfect. Love the videos, pictures and the poll.

Jean Bakula from New Jersey on July 02, 2013:

A lot of towns are beginning community gardens in my area, in N.J. It’s fun and provides fresh veggies, and just looks good too. Then many realized food banks would really like to add some fresh foods to what is usually canned goods given to food pantries for people who need help paying for food. One near me let gardeners just put little flags on areas of what they grew that they were willing to give away, so the gardener doesn’t even have to be there. Just a thought. I never found a good way to not wreck the knees either. You could kneel on a mat of some type, but then you have to keep moving it.

Chris Telden (author) from Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. on July 02, 2013:

Thanks, Jean. I’m amazed at how many stories like yours I’ve been reading – of people turning soil that’s hard and difficult to work, for whatever reason, into productive soil. I think in these tough financial times, people are looking at their own labor differently and thinking, “You know, people way-back-when might have had the right idea, doing things by hand!”

We do live on quite a sizable area, at least, small for a farm, but large for a city girl! It’s not ours, but I’m free to garden it as I want. I’ve been thinking about other areas of the property that don’t have any soil amendments. I’ll probably need to go a bit deeper into the dirt and do more work and will need something to aerate the deep, compact soil – so I’m getting a broadfork to try. Here’s hoping it doesn’t wreck my knees!

Jean Bakula from New Jersey on July 01, 2013:

Wow, very impressive! I live on a wooded lane with terrible soil, and fight with it every year. I think those perfect, green, rug like lawns were the 1950s ideal, until people got wise to how bad all the chemicals they were using for that perfect lawn was destroying the environment. My soil (if it can be called that) is mostly clay and rock too. I have so much shade all I can really do are some herbs and flowers, but it does give me a lot of satisfaction. My fave tool is my Father’s old rock hammer, but my area of work is not as large as what it looks like you tackled in your excellent pictures. You should be proud, you did something useful, by growing food, and something better for the Earth, by getting rid of the lawn. There was a lawn here when my husband and I bought the house, but on further inspection, the seller just put down those strips of green sod, and there wasn’t enough light to support them for long. Mulch is great for unsightly areas where you really can’t do anything, and I also use planter pots to add a little color or something else to look at. Great job!

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/how-i-turned-a-grass-lawn-into-a-garden-plot/

[athousandroadstonowhere]

2020: A Delightful Sh*t Show!

The annual review.  The coming of a new year is a good time to look back on everything that happened in the previous year, evaluate what was learned, what was lost, what was gained, and what, if anything, needs to change moving into the next. Here we go.

The year began hopeful. Ignorance is bliss as they always say, and being the person that I am who refuses to actually watch any news and literally learns everything that is happening in the world from the internet and my social circles, I only had an inkling that anything like what was going to happen in this year could happen.  The novel Coronavirus doing damage in China seemed a distant threat, and nothing that would actually impact my life.  Boy was I wrong.  

I was in the process of getting fed up with another management job, and trying to focus on how to find some stability in my schedule so I could spend more time with my then boyfriend and his daughter.  Little did I know that we would soon have a TON of time to spend together.

I had just begun the journey really of waking up from the traumatic fog of the loss of my husband just a couple of years before that.  I went back to work for IHOP at the end of February on the condition that I would still be able to take the family vacation that we had had planned for a year.  There was talk about how Covid might effect our business, but I was hell bound and determined to go on that trip and take Jade to see the Grand Canyon. 

Australia had burned, Kobe had died, and it already seemed like all the really bad shit had been bad enough and things just couldn’t get worse.

Then we had to cut the trip short and head back to Memphis because the world was shutting down.  Having been on vacation while everyone else was panic buying toilet paper (I will never understand that phenomenon), when we made it home to an overwhelmingly wiped out Sam’s Club, as I got laid off on my way to the check out, I broke down crying in the middle of Sam’s Club. I was scared for my family.  I was scared for my career.  And I was scared generally of what the world had to offer.

Thus began Quarantine and Paranoia.  We all stayed home. Some lessons were learned in that relationship that would ultimately kill it, and though financially we were able to remain secure thanks to the additional unemployment, it is my belief that that time together on lock down ultimately showed me the areas of incompatibility that would lead to me deciding that I needed to live life on life’s terms independently. I also learned in Quarantine that even with the world locked down, I couldn’t sit still for extended periods of time.  I started a small baking business that brought in some decent money, but that didn’t fully replace my income from pre-Covid times.  So as the world began opening back up, I got a job serving.  The funny thing about that for me is that it was really just looping back to what the original plan was when I was moving back to TN. And y’all, the money was GOOD this summer.  People tired of being pent up for months were willing to come out and wait an hour and half for a table in dining rooms limited to 50%. The work was harder than it had been in previous years, and more stressful (you never knew which unmasked diner might be the one give you the Rona on top of the already annoying stress of handling a full section and a party of 15 all at the same time), but it paid well.

Finally feeling financially secure enough to take care of myself without government dependence, and having done a lot of work on my credit score over the previous year, I applied for an apartment and got it! Though the ending of that relationship was sad, I was very proud of Luis and I for recognizing and learning that love is not enough to keep a relationship healthy, and that the best example we could set for his daughter was to end it on good terms and continue to help each other through that transition. He and I were better as friends.  And I will always be grateful for the time we shared.

The journey of living alone has been interesting.  Anyone who has ever been a server knows that the income can be incredibly inconsistent.  As a result of that reality, I picked up extra gigs here and there eventually extra whole ass jobs.  The most recent addition I’m thinking is going to be long term.  I was willing to show up when an opportunity was presented, and ran with it.  So far it’s going really well.

So we get to the lessons learned or reaffirmed in 2020.

This year I lost some friends.  Not through death, but through me realizing that I cannot be the only person in any relationship investing more time and effort than the other party.  I will probably always work at least 50 hours a week, if for no other reason than that’s what I tend to do.  With the limited hours left over in a week for time for family, friends, and hobbies, I have become very careful about how I allot those leftover hours.  If someone isn’t investing their time or attention with me, I’m not going to be the one reaching out all of the time anymore.

It is both ok to ask for help when I need it, and to dig my heels in and do the work myself when I know I am capable.

I literally can learn to do just about anything.  It may take some time, it may take stretching the bounds of my understanding and accepting help from people much younger yet more experienced in some things than I am, but it is possible.

Time alone is sacred.  Though I have spent much time lamenting going to parties, and hanging out with friends, and seeing family all together in one big group, I have learned how to keep myself busy all alone with me and my dog and cat. And there are more times than not that I’d rather just be alone. 

Willingness is the key to success in every endeavor.  

Science can be just as beautiful a spiritual path as any other.  

Faith is a constant journey only made stronger through experience and being wiling review previous events.

Love is powerful yet not always practical.

Oxytocin is a helluva naturally occurring drug.

And when all else fails, just keep going.

As I enter a new year with so many things lined up to make it wonderful, I choose to look forward with hope. Though I doubt our government will ever get its shit together, (the failure of the two party system hasn’t been a new lesson for me, but I feel like a lot of y’all are finally starting to see it, that’s a long conversation for another day), we are at least collectively more aware of the ways in which it is fucked up. Though two weeks to slow the spread has turned into the longest, weirdest year ever, I have learned who is capable of basic human courtesy, and who is willing to throw caution and good sense to the wind. 

Basically 2020 taught me more about the importance of evaluating who I allow into my circle, and why they should or shouldn’t be there.  I have learned that being of service isn’t always a direct action, but sometimes can be ultimate inaction. Life is only full of bullshit if I allow it to be so.  

We’ll see what fresh hell 2021 has to offer.  And hopefully, the lessons learned in the previous year have placed me in a position to use my time more wisely, to be able to love more authentically, and to take care of myself in healthy ways that allow me to experience peaceful time without chaos with ease.

[uclexhibitionproject2016]

Divine Seafood Xu Zhe Hardcore Dialogue: How come hedging an important skill for miners?

2020 may be the most particular 12 months for Bitcoin in the past eleven years. A lot of mining machines are facing various dangers and life and death assessments. Supply chain delays have avoided large-scale brand-new mining machines from showing up, and mining has a "zero-sum video game" In today's state, there are increasingly more abilities that miners have to master. On May 26, Shang Silin, co-founder of Mars Fund and Us president of Mars Cloud Mine, had a hard-core dialogue with Cobo & Yuchi co-founder Shenyu and well-known trader Mr. Xu Zhe, focusing on hedging-a must-have for miners in 2020 Skills to talk about and discuss, the following may be the dialogue textual content collation.

The guests' main point of view is that mining is a zero-sum game, and the excess returns are attained when other miners fall. Hedging is a device to resist violent marketplace fluctuations and dark swans. When the 312 crash, the number of mining machines was even more than halved. Every miner should consider his own danger exposure and do not ignore it since it will be complicated or not intuitively suitable. Hedging can be life-saving in acute cases. It is a important means to determine whether miners can obtain excess returns using their opportunities, or if they can recover their costs. Selling part at the proper price may be a risk-averse strategy commonly used by miners, nevertheless, you may possibly not be lucky enough to understand the chance, so our strategy would be to consider reducing chance exposure before making a decision, and at least section of it Set out the electricity bill. Mining is a stock game market. The low the price of the currency, the greater bitcoins can be mined by a one mining machine. Consequently, many friends who have not done hedging may find the fact that marginal cost and the marginal revenue are inconsistent, and open the opportunity to reduce electricity. Shut down. Xu Zhe miners must very first ensure that they are able to survive and do not escape, otherwise, the blockchain trend has nothing in connection with you. You don't have to think about whether the black swan should come. The dark swan will definitely come. It really is nothing more than when also to what extent. This can't be prevented. Regardless of the higher or low insight cost, you need to have this sort of thinking. It isn't that hedging is highly recommended when investing a large amount of capital. They have nothing in connection with additional money and less overall. You'll want a risk handle thinking to survive. To do hedging, you need to choose to use futures or choices to lock in the value from the currency at a time when mining is profitable. I purchased a batch of mining machines myself, and then short the futures, combined with some option combinations, to create a relatively stable asset value, which can continue steadily to generate cashflow. Most miners have faith in Bitcoin and will not short all their result, as long as they short the electricity bill. Then use futures to short 60% of the future bitcoins produced by the mining machine. In this way, your electricity bill must be guaranteed every month before day you pay out the electricity bill, you'll be able to continue to dig. Don't speculate. Anyone who has a little speculative mindset will be trained by the market. Don't confront the father of the market. It is possible to hedge as much as you need. Interview textual content finishing Shang Silin (host): Nowadays we share the theme of uncovering the secret of hedging. Today's miners have more choices than in the early years, but what I see now is whether it's depositing coins to earn attention, mortgage financing (staking BTC to obtain USDT), whether it's paying electric bills or in the supplementary market Operation, they are to help everyone keep Bitcoin and keep the position in hand. I personally understand that hedging isn't the same as the above two, and it is not entirely a currency standard. Because Bitcoin will be highly volatile, additionally it is important whether your currency can be anchored in the value of fiat currency. However, after encountering 312, and current marketplace fluctuations, miners will encounter a reduction in halving earnings, an increase in doubt, and better volatility. It is estimated that many people have a training in blood and tears, therefore now we are talking about hedging. This topic comes at the proper time. Let me give you a brief introduction to today's two guests. Shenyu is a big miner that has experienced several halvings. He is furthermore the co-founder of Cobo and the co-founder of Yuchi, the world's largest Bitcoin mining pool. Xu Zhe is a well-known financial head on Zhihu, and the author of "Zero Pie inside the Sky". He's got written many content articles about Bitcoin. It is estimated that many people beyond your circle understand that Bitcoin will be through Xu Da's post. He is furthermore a front-line hedge The chief strategist from the fund. We myself (Shang Silin) ??worked in the media for more than ten years and venture capital for 3 years, and now I am the co-founder of Mars Finance and the president of Mars Cloud Mine. We usually talk about how to do hedging and how to avoid the risks from the supplementary market. It just happened that today, because the spokesperson of a new miner, I furthermore talked about hedging with two experts. When did Shenyu start hedging? Shang Silin: When do Shenyu start hedging? That which was the opportunity? Like a senior miner, what do you consider is the utilization rate of hedging in the currency group? Shenyu ??: I didn't have this awareness at the beginning. After stepping around the pit, I noticed that we have to use this solution to hedge dangers. In 2013, we made silverfish mining machines. In those days, our mining machine strategy was not the same as that of present mining machine producers. After we finished the potato chips, we focused on mining by ourselves. In those days, the break-even stage of mining Litecoin was calculated to be around 30 yuan, and close friends from traditional financing around me personally suggested that we carry out hedging. But initial, because the price of Litecoin has been still relatively higher in those days, more than 100 yuan, with several times the net profit, everyone believed it had been OK; second, lack of professional financial knowledge, therefore no hedging. With the gradual bulk production of the device, the price of the currency fell all the way after 380, and fell to the cheapest of 5 yuan in 2015. The cover up cannot cover the expense of electrical power and can no longer continue to dig. We elect to shut down throughout the day, because electrical power is very costly in the commercial park throughout the day, and during the night may be the valley, therefore we utilize the electrical power at night. Later on, I found the fact that electrical power at night could not be supported, therefore i had to turn off. Later on, when resuming the market, we will recall that if we create an integral part of the position at the proper currency price, for instance, if we set out the electrical power bill for a period, it would not be turn off later; in addition, compared to additional mining machines, we It could dig for longer, therefore with regards to currency standard and legal currency standard, it could get more benefits. This matter touched us a whole lot. Since then, when making investment decisions in the mining sector, we will initial be sure to reserve a period of electric bills and reserve a degree of cash. Derivatives weren't so developed in those days. We all sold the spot straight. For example, if we purchased 1,000 mining machines, we could mine 1,000 bitcoins in two years, and the electrical power bill accounted for 30-40%. After that we are in a far more appropriate one. First sell 400 bitcoins at the price and keep the electrical power bill. In this way, whether or not the price of the currency goes up or falls, you will see no closures; compared with other competitors on the market, we can dig more bitcoins during the life cycle from the mining machine.

Image resource: Weibo @?BTCer Shang Silin: Selling a part in an appropriate price may be a risk aversion technique commonly adopted by miners. Shenyu ??: Indeed, but you may possibly not be lucky enough to grasp the chance, so our technique would be to consider reducing risk exposure before making a decision, and at least cover part of the electricity bill. Shang Silin: A pal said at the moment that hedging is now a tool commonly used by miners, best? I think it isn't. Shenyu ??: As far as I know, some huge miners who have stepped around the pit are aware of hedging and could begin to use strange ways to try to build hedging positions. A lot of small and moderate miners haven't any such consciousness. They think it doesn't matter, they are all in directly, the amount of assets is also small, and they gambled, but this mentality isn't so healthy in the currency circle. A lot of miners mentioned that hedging is very simple, just short in the futures marketplace. But as the futures marketplace has a lot of inconsistencies with the market, as well as vicious events such as for example needle insertion and door painting, if you don't have professional financial knowledge, you'll transfer your danger contact with the futures marketplace. So how exactly does Xu Zhe formulate a hedging technique? Xu Zhe: If a miner sells coins as soon as he digs a coin every day, his typical selling price may be the typical price of coins sold every day during the mining period. If the average price is lower than the shutdown electrical power price, the mining will eventually lose more money. There is no way to avoid the risk of falling currency prices, because I don't know when the currency price will fall or just how long it will fall. Consequently, for hedging, you need to choose to use futures or choices to lock the value from the currency at a time when mining will be profitable. For example, the electricity bill from the mining machine now accounts for about 60%. That is to say, if you can mine one bitcoin a month and you have to use 0.6 bitcoin to cover the electricity bill, nowadays there are two choices: One would be to short all of the power bills within the next a year, 12⊙0.6=7.2, short 7.2 bitcoins initial; mine 12 coins per year and remove 7.2 coins to cover the electricity bill, in order that even though the bitcoin drops to 3,000, If it can't hurt you, it means you don't need to turn off if you're around 3,000, but other people have to turn off. If another person shuts down, the difficulty of computing strength will be adjusted, and you can get more bitcoins. Furthermore, after covering 60% from the electricity bill, there is still cashflow still left, and some liquid assets are still left for yourself. When the currency price does not rise, the difficulty of computing strength increases, and the monthly output from the currency decreases again. Regarding a degree of liquidity, life can be rescued. In addition to shorting electric bills, there is another substitute for short all output. That is to treat it as a real asset. Or assume that certain bitcoin is created every month, and first short the output within the next a year (12 bitcoins), after that what you get is the motivated future dollar cashflow, after which use this future motivated dollar cashflow as cashflow The discount algorithm is calculated so far. Review it with the price of the mining machine to find out if it's cost-effective along with a good purchase. If it's, you'll be able to do this. However, most miners have faith in Bitcoin and will not short almost all their output, as long as they short the electrical power bill. Then use futures to short 60% of the future bitcoins produced by the mining machine. In this way, your electricity bill must be guaranteed every month before day you pay out the electricity bill, you'll be able to continue to dig. You must first ensure that you can survive and do not escape, otherwise, the blockchain revolution has nothing in connection with you.

Sometimes mining will encounter some unexpected circumstances. Shenyu will need to have encountered more than I have experienced, such as unexpected network fluctuations or hardware failures. I originally said that I could mine one bitcoin in a month, but in the end it was only 0.95. One, 0.94, this is very possible. What if you shorted one bitcoin on futures and then mined 0.94 bitcoins? When the currency price continues to be rising now, after that futures will undoubtedly be vacant, isn't it a reduction? So you have to save some remaining cashflow to safeguard yourself. I have already practiced every one of the above strategies, and when We haven't practiced them, We dare not talk about them in vain. I purchased a batch of mining machines myself, and then short the futures, combined with some option combinations, to create a relatively stable asset value, which can continue steadily to generate cashflow. Shang Silin: Will the hedging percentage be adjusted according to the proportion of electricity costs. For example, the existing high proportion of electricity costs indicates the fact that currency price is usually relatively in a minimal period; the low proportion of electricity costs indicates the fact that currency price reaches a high level. Adjust the percentage of hedging? Xu Zhe: Zero, the proportion of electric bills has nothing in connection with whether the currency price is overestimated. The currency price can also rise once the proportion of electricity costs is low, and the currency price can fall when the proportion of electricity costs is high, that is different from the thought of ??traditional spot commodities. In the traditional bulk commodity market, for instance, oil has fallen below the mining cost of oil fields, and copper and iron are less than the mining cost of mines, so prices cannot fall. Because in the case of limited stocks by the traders that produce spot goods, if the mining manages to lose money, the supply will also decrease. For example, when crude essential oil fell to greater than a dozen US dollars some time ago, many essential oil fields stopped starting; before iron ore plummeted, mines stopped mining. Because the supply of commodities on the planet decreases, prices rise, so prices will never be less than mining production costs for quite a while, but Bitcoin is different. Bitcoin mining makes money again, or even loses money again, in addition, it raises by 50 bitcoins, 25 bitcoins, 12.5 bitcoins, and 6.25 bitcoins every 10 minutes. Even though the mining machine loses its cost, it shuts down and sells at a discount. Regarding the two times when scrap iron comes, it still items 6.25 bitcoins every 10 minutes. The supply rate is quite certain and will not change as the miners are losing money. Consequently, if Bitcoin mining electrical power costs are particularly high, you won't affect the supply, and it'll not change in any way, but only modification the difficulty of mining. Which means you can't say that electric bills be aware of a higher proportion of electric bills. Bitcoin gets the potential to rise in the foreseeable future. Can I reduce my hedge? Extremely hard. It isn't scientific to utilize the proportion of electric bills as a research indicator for future years of currency prices. Don't speculate, any speculative mindset will undoubtedly be taught by the market. Don't confront the market dad, simply hedge as much as you need. So how exactly does Shenyu formulate a hedging technique? Shang Silin: I'd like to inquire Shenyu, how do you determine the timing and percentage if you are creating a hedging technique? Shenyu??: There are several time nodes in the mining process. The very first time node would be to decide whether to purchase a mining machine. At the moment, we will create a design to calculate the payback period, how long it will be for the existing computing power, electrical power bill, etc., and then according to the trouble of the market and the predictable trouble Cycle, roughly estimate the return period and profitability, in the end, this can be a big investment. Before placing an order for any mining machine manufacturer, We already had an over-all psychological expectation. Understanding whether the mining machine will pay back again the cost in 120 days or 200 days, you'll be able to basically determine the composition from the electrical power bill-or before the cost is paid back. The amount of money flow of electric bills have to be prepared when online profit is attained. Usually if you are determined to get a mining machine, the price of the mining machine and the price of the coin are still fairly good; or the coin price is quite poor, and the mining machine is significantly undervalued, such as for example after a sharp drop. So at the moment, we elect to hedge part of the currency in line with the currency price. For example, if the currency price is higher, we may cover up the electrical power bill for the whole life cycle; if the currency price is low, at least 30 days to a quarter from the electrical power bill. In this way, it could be guaranteed that even though the market falls sharply in the foreseeable future, these mining machines can still be turned on. At the moment, Xu Da furthermore mentioned the fact that mining market is different from the traditional oil mining marketplace. Mining is a stock game market. When the currency price is lower, the greater bitcoins a one mining machine can dig, a lot of friends who have not done hedging may find the fact that marginal cost and the marginal revenue are inconsistent. Consequently, the electricity bill will be protected by means of hedging, so that the mining machine can still be mixed up in market once the currency price is lower, and can dig more bitcoins. At exactly the same time, because we are a currency-based investment, or you want to acquire more bitcoins, a number of the online revenue of mining machines are stored by means of coins. If there is a large-scale increase in the currency price, for instance Like the marketplace in 2017, you will see two parts of benefits: One part may be the coins dug out following removing the electricity bill, and the rest of the coins with this part can also be valued. Furthermore, the mining machine is a kind of hardware resource, and the price of the mining machine will react violently during the fast price increase. Because hardware developing is usually cycled, and price increases occur rapidly, the distinction between these two parts of earnings is already spectacular for miners. So we just need to hedge, make sure that we are still running the device in the worst case, and dig more bitcoins than our competition on the market, and we will win. Xu Zhe: Indeed, I agree. Live life, live to the day when there is a chance. There is an old saying in the industry-losses are dependant on yourself, and wealth depends upon the market. I don't know whether Bitcoin will rise to 14,000 or 18,000. Just how much it goes up and how much cash you make are dependant on the market. But you can decide how very much you hedge, whether you intend to cover half of it or the full set, or simply cover 1/10. It is possible to decide whether you can survive, and then the market determines how much you can get wealthy and what we can do Just make sure you can survive initial. So long as you reside long enough and do not choose the incorrect market, you will definitely have the ability to make money. If you cannot survive, no matter how good the market is, you can only break up your thigh. So my advice to many people are: whether you are doing contract trading or mining, everyone will need to have a bottom line, that is, to ensure that they endure. There is no higher principle than this. Shang Silin: Indeed, it is actually fighting contrary to the risk of Bitcoin volatility. What function can hedging play? Shang Silin: You two can talk about the specific function of hedging in the extreme marketplace of 312 and in working with the halving? Shenyu: Within the few days once the 312 plummeted, the currency price fluctuated between three and four thousands of. The S9s which were on the market had been all turn off, a lot more than the number of halved shut downs. There was a touch upon Weibo before that everyone laughed at Jiang Zhuoer for hedging more than 8,000, and the hedging was halfway in the mountain. However, after a sharp fall of 312, searching back at the hedging price, although the price may possibly not be high, it still made him perform less badly beneath the extreme market. Although the duration of 312 was not so long this time around, it rebounded rapidly, but under normal circumstances, the currency price will stay sideways at the bottom for a long period, so hedging can be guaranteed to be in a bottom variety. When many people are turn off, let's do it. The hedged mining machine can also be powered happily. Lots of people have lost their self-confidence in mining in the bottom interval. If indeed they do hedging, you will see a big floating profit at the moment. You can also stop an integral part of the listing and quickly discount it.

Image resource: Weibo @?BTCer

The other may be the halving. The halving provides about a substantial reduction in the earnings of miners. A lot of miners turn off in the early morning of the day from the halving, as the electrical power bill in those days (specifically the electrical power bill during the dried out season) could not cover the result in those days. If you do hedging at the proper time, even though the electrical power bill is fairly high, you can still continue mining. At the very least you should use exactly the same mining machine. If you open it for a period longer than additional miners, then your income margin will undoubtedly be produced. , The payback period becomes shorter. Therefore, hedging is a very good financial tool and methods to resist violent marketplace fluctuations and black swan events. I suggest that every miner carefully think about this danger exposure, not since it will be complicated or undesirable intuitively. Thing, simply ignore it. Hedging can be life-saving in acute cases. It is a important means to determine whether miners can obtain excess returns using their opportunities, or if they can recover their costs. How come hedging required? Xu Zhe: Although I haven't already been mining for a long period, I know from my communication with close friends of miners that it's not that mining must make money. In history, there were many incidents of miners getting out in large numbers. This fish employer must have experienced it. . You don't have to think about whether the dark swan should come. The dark swan will definitely come. It really is nothing more than when also to what extent. This can't be prevented. Regardless of the higher or low insight cost, you need to have such thinking. It isn't that hedging is highly recommended when investing a large amount of capital. They have nothing in connection with additional money and less overall. You'll want a danger control thinking to survive.

And the fact of living will actually bring you benefits. To become cruel, you might have additional benefits which are accomplished by those that do not have danger control escaping .. This market is quite cruel, and the target laws of the market are like this. Shenyu ??: Indeed, when carry out miners make the most money? After the crash, the surviving miners find out excess bitcoins, therefore each round from the crash will generate the rise of a new drive of miners. Some miners with eyesight and unique danger control features survive on the market. , Has accumulated resource advantages.

[marymosley]

“Eddie Isn’t With Us At This Time”: Engineer Charged With Train Wrecking In Alleged Attack On The USNS Mercy

There are many surreal aspects to this pandemic but Eduardo Moreno is still something of a stand out. The California engineer attempted to ram his locomotive into the USNS Mercy because he was suspicious of its real purpose in Los Angeles. His effort took the train off the rails and across a remarkable distance before stopping short of the ship. The family has started a GoFundMe page that cryptically says “Eddie is not hurt physically but isn’t with us at this time.” The case has resulted in a relatively rare federal charge of training wrecking. By handing Moreno over to the federal prosecutors, state authorities minimized his defense options and maximized the potential sentencing.

Moreno was operating a Pacific Harbor Line train on March 31st when he decided to try to reach the ship at high speed. According to the U.S. Attorney, “Moreno ran the train off the end of tracks, and crashed through a series of barriers before coming to rest more than 250 yards from the Mercy.” The site Heavy has a good description of the events.

It is still not clear to me how the train could have possibly reached the ship despite traveling over an impressive distance after derailing. That fact could be used to contest allegations of an intended collision as opposed to the current current charge of train wrecking. Nevertheless, the charge still brings a potential 20 year sentence.

We are never address a train wrecking charge before on this blog. Since we are unlikely to have another occasion soon, here is the provision:

§1992. Wrecking trains

(a) Whoever willfully derails, disables, or wrecks any train, engine, motor unit, or car used, operated, or employed in interstate or foreign commerce by any railroad; or

Whoever willfully sets fire to, or places any explosive substance on or near, or undermines any tunnel, bridge, viaduct, trestle, track, signal, station, depot, warehouse, terminal, or any other way, structure, property, or appurtenance used in the operation of any such railroad in interstate or foreign commerce, or otherwise makes any such tunnel, bridge, viaduct, trestle, track, signal, station, depot, warehouse, terminal, or any other way, structure, property, or appurtenance unworkable or unusable or hazardous to work or use, with the intent to derail, disable, or wreck a train, engine, motor unit, or car used, operated, or employed in interstate or foreign commerce; or

Whoever willfully attempts to do any of the aforesaid acts or things-

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

(b) Whoever is convicted of a violation of subsection (a) that has resulted in the death of any person, shall be subject also to the death penalty or to imprisonment for life.

As indicated by the family’s statement, the only defense is not to contest these elements but Moreno’s mental state. It seems rather that Moreno, 44, has a questionable mental state to put it mildly. He could not explain the basis of his suspicions or why he thought a hospital ship had some nefarious purpose. Prosecutors simply recounted that Moreno confessed (after he tried to flee the scene) and said that he “was suspicious of the Mercy and believing it had an alternate purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover.” He also later said that he wanted to “wake people up.”

That brings us back to the federal standard for insanity. Here is the code provision at 18 U.S. Code §17:

(a)Affirmative Defense.—It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under any Federal statute that, at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts. Mental disease or defect does not otherwise constitute a defense.

(b)Burden of Proof.—The defendant has the burden of proving the defense of insanity by clear and convincing evidence.

After the assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan, Congress passed the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984. Like many in the criminal defense field, I am a critic of the law in making it far more difficult to bring an insanity defense. Those changes are likely to impact Moreno in a particularly profound way. It put the burden on the defense to establish insanity by clear and convincing evidence while (more importantly) eliminating diminished capacity defenses.

Moreno’s effort to flee and his operation of the locomotive could present a problem for the defense. It is better suited for diminished capacity or irresistible impulse defenses which are no longer allowed. Many doctors have rightfully objected to the elimination as ignoring available science on the scope and variation of mental illness. I believe that the Alabama Supreme Court had it right in 1887 in Parsons v. State when it held that it is not enough to simply conclude that a defendant could tell right from wrong. I discussed that standard in a prior column in relation to the Andrea Yates case. Rather there is also the question whether, through “the duress of such mental disease [that] he had … lost the power to choose between right and wrong.” Thus, “his free agency was at the time destroyed” and “the alleged crime was so connected with such mental disease, in the relation of cause and effect, as to have been the product of it solely.”

Moreno strikes me as the prototypical example of a diminished capacity or an irresistible impulse defense. There is no indication that he failed to understand that his actions were wrong (including his attempted flight) or that his actions would put the ship (and areas around the ship) into danger.

The interesting element in this case is that Moreno was initially in state control but then turned over to the federal prosecutors for charges. California follows a similar type of M’Naghten (or McNaughten) rule that allows insanity as a defense when the defendant did not understand the nature of his criminal act or did not understand that it was morally wrong.

However, California may have been a better jurisdiction for Moreno due to its application not of diminished capacity but “diminished actuality” tests. Like the federal government, a single case resulted in a fundamental change in its insanity standards for criminal cases. It was not the Reagan assassination but the murder of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk by Dan White. White offered the infamous “Twinkie defense” that he had a temporary chemical imbalance of the brain resulting in diminished capacity.

The public was outraged by the defense after White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Thus, in 1982, the voters eliminated the diminished capacity defense. Instead, a new law was passed allowing for “Diminished Actuality”. Under California Penal Code Section 28(a), the defense may present evidence that a defendant suffers from a mental disease, mental defect, or mental disorder “solely on the issue whether or not the accused actually formed a required specific intent, premeditated, deliberated, or harbored malice aforethought, when a specific intent crime is charged.”

This has resulted in a slightly more favorable standard for defendants as opposed to the federal system. Thus, by handing Moreno over to the federal prosecutors, state authorities put him into a more restrictive system with historically harsher sentencing on such crimes.

It is worth noting however that intentional train wrecking does have a pronounced interstate and federal element, particularly when the target was a federal ship. Even without the differences in state and federal laws, the federal prosecutors would have made a strong case that Moreno should be tried in federal court since he was trying to attack a U.S. military vessel responding to a national pandemic emergency.

“Eddie Isn’t With Us At This Time”: Engineer Charged With Train Wrecking In Alleged Attack On The USNS Mercy published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[lapsed-bookworm]

More Rambling About Theatre Inaccessibility

This is not a new discussion that I’ve seen, either. It prominently rose in reblogged posts when Hamilton opened because a whole lot of people realized they actually couldn’t afford to see it. (Yes, I’m aware of the lottery, but that requires someone to gamble on the costs/time/energy to get there and wait in line with the possibility that they’re not getting a ticket from the lottery.) The cost of travel in gas usage or an airplane ticket, travel within NYC to the theater itself, the ticket, and either trying to leave that same night or staying somewhere and leaving in the morning (and you might want to eat at some point).

Most people want to see a show with someone, too, which can double some of the costs (and it’s only more if you have more people). My sister is in a wheelchair, and fun fact, you can’t just take any old seat that may be the cheapest ticket option when it comes to wheelchair seating. There’s often a very particular section to choose seats from, which is only added onto factoring in if she can get to the theatre, enter it, and get to her seating in the audience. (A true gamble with some theatres, unfortunately.)

Join me in why thinking that not filming staged productions is better is bullshit. Under a cut due to length. (No caps or shouting, promise, just a long post.)

~

{Keeping in mind that the original post talked about a show not going on tour, which comes with its own hurdles in terms of getting to the “closest” city thought large enough to be a place on the touring schedule, I will be ignoring Hamilton going on tour for the examples in this.}

“How many people are going on this hypothetical trip?”

Moi, my sister, and my mother. For context, my sister is unable to stand, take a few steps, or walk ‘short’ distances unassisted, so she needs to be in either her power chair (her normal) or a manual wheelchair (not impossible for short amounts of time, but awkward for long periods of time).

“What’s the wheelchair accessibility of this theatre?”

Theater Access [http://theateraccess.nyc] allows for filtering a search by accessibility needs, and I’m specifically pulling out wheelchair relevant info from Hamilton’s listing at this link:

Wheelchairs: Wheelchair seating is available in the middle of the orchestra level.

Seating: Orchestra rows A - K are the only seats accessible without steps.

Elevator\Escalator: There are no elevators or escalators at this theatre.

Entrance: There are no stairs into the theatre from the street.

Restroom: Restrooms are available downstairs. A wheelchair accessible restroom is located on the orchestra level as well.

“Can I get wheelchair seating?”

As of 2 am on June 11, 2019, I’m being told there isn’t any seating available on all of the current hypothetical dates (even matinee, non-weekend showings). However, I can find out that a lot of the other orchestra seating is $350 or $375 per person depending on the date. $350 x 3 = $1,050.

“How long does it take to drive to this theatre?”

9 hours from a quick Google search that doesn’t reflect actual driving time, delays, construction, etc. Throw in an hour for food (have you tried driving that long without eating?). At least 20 hours round trip. Knowing that my mother doesn’t let the tank get to fumes and not knowing the additional driving within NYC, I’d estimate at least 2, maybe 3, stops for gas before we’d get back home.

“Do we really want to drive back immediately after a show?”

Honestly, no. Even if my mother and I switch off, after the drive to get there (starting at about 8 am to factor in lunch, dinner, driving in NYC, and cushion to get to an 8 pm show), we’re going to feel like dying at the thought of driving until 7 or 8 the following morning.

“Can we stay somewhere for the night?”

We’ll feel like shit if we try to sleep in the van, but in theory, a hotel room could work. Pricing is annoyingly variable, but we’ll just guesstimate an even $200 to account for not bothering to work out gas.

“You know people in NYC, though. Can you crash on someone’s couch?”

It depends on if their building is wheelchair accessible. I can hit up as many people I ran into during undergrad as possible, but no one’s got a magic wand.

“Will the accessibility kit providing an extra drain on the van’s battery, which results in it getting plugged in to a charger when not in use at home, cause issues with driving this much and going way out of state?”

Um. Probably not. I’m like 90% sure we’ll be fine.

“What about flying?”

An hour’s drive to the nearest airport, which means the wheelchair accessible van will be left behind. About 2 hours nonstop, and it varies from 4.5 to 8.5 hours with connecting flights. Probably no more than an hour from an airport to the theatre, so about 4 hours estimated (8 round trip).

“Could we bypass needing a hotel?”

Potentially. A matinee show in particular will leave enough time to not be navigating the city with the airport [our capital] at a fuck-you time of day.

“What about tickets for a flight?”

A rough Google is estimating $470 - $560 just for the flight to NYC (3 seats). Even lowballing, it might be $940 round trip.

“What about the wheelchair?”

The power chair is basically a small car in terms of price. Like, there’s no fucking way a power chair is going on or in a plane. Manual chair it is.

“What about the seat sizes? Family’s not exactly tiny.”

It has been a while since some of my family’s flown, but the last I knew, they only needed to buy one seat. We’re probably alright on that regard.

“You left the wheelchair accessible car behind. What do?”

It takes extra effort and transferring my sister in and out of the chair, but manual chairs can be folded and stored in a trunk while people ride in the typical seats. I think it’s about $70 a day for a car rental in NYC.

“You didn’t cover all pricing.....”

Food. Sales tax. Accounting for getting off the wrong offramp and driving extra. Yeah, this got a bit saddening as I kept tallying, so I stopped digging.

Driving: $1,250

Flying: $2,060

Realizing it’s far cheaper to not see a show on Broadway: Priceless

[bowlofoatmealarts]

Brad Troemel & Gilda Williams reading notes

Brad Troemel - Athletic Aesthetics

     page 1 - In the final paragraph on the first page Troemel poses the question, “Posting work to the internet without a network of viewers in place raises the same questions as the proverbial tree falling in an empty forest. If a Tumblr post has no notes is it art?”  Cycling back to their definition of athletic aesthetics, which is someone pushing out art rapidly and their sense of immediacy, this statement can mean a lot. Having had art pages online on Tumblr and Instagram myself I have not had a lot of exposure and have wondered myself if what I was making was actually art. There are other artists out there who have assimilated a mass gathering of followers for their art and comparing them to an artist of similar work and talent makes you wonder how they have gotten that far while the other has not. I think it is how much the artist creates and uploads their work online, thus gathering more views and chances to catch someone’s eye.

     page 3 - “Instead of creating a few thoroughly worked pieces, the aesthlete produces a constant stream of work in social media to ride atop the wave in viewers’ newsfeeds, or else become the wave itself, overwhelming them with material.” This affirmed my above notes about why and how many likes/notes/hearts/etc affect the posted art or medium on someone’s social media platform or service. As mentioned, it reverses against the fewer thoroughly worked pieces as those in the past had worked on, and pushes forward what is immediately available. 

     page 4 - “Athletic aesthetics amounts to the supply-side gamification of the art attention economy. Notes, likes, and reblogs server as the quantitative basis for influence in an art world where critics’ written word has been stripped of power.” in the second to last paragraph of this page, these two sentences start the paragraph off and immediately I think of the comparison of art critics and food critics. Are they both in similar boats, where food is judged on social media and it’s amount of interaction it receives? I feel like they may be similar but I might also be reaching on this comparison. It’s an interesting thing to think about though how critics have fared in art since the popularity and rise of artists online, publishing their content rapid fast. 

     page 6 - In the first paragraph on this page Troemel talks about a guy named Nick Faust, who posts an immense amount of art related content on Facebook daily. Ranging from various types of art, from historic pieces to new age abstract and everything else the audience chooses which they prefer and the ones that aren’t interacted with as much are as said by Troemel, “ignored, photo sets serve only to reinforce Faust’s commitment to sharing as much as humanly possible, whether that material is popular or not.” I follow a page like this on Facebook myself and find myself interacting with specific posts that I enjoy more than others. Having directly interacted with a similar page as mentioned in the article is interesting.

     page 8 - “The internet-induced stress that Lovink refers to is born from the infinite expanse of storage the internet opens up. Without a clearly defined limit on content where does a creator start or stop?” Prior to this statement Troemel was talking about how in the past artists were stuck to the constraints of the amount of content they can fit in their studios, on a cd, in articles and other aspects. Because of this open mass amount of space the internet provides it’s possible for anyone to be an aesthetlete, posting all of their art daily and gathering a following. Specifically on instagram there is an option where if someone has enough followers they can get a verified symbol to show that they are genuine. I think that’s one of the ways that they can be found.

Gilda Williams - How to Write and Artist Statement

     page 1 -  under the ten most common pitfalls (& how to avoid them) section, I note that I am guilty of the first listed; they all sound alike. Since I’ve written some statements in the past, I do believe that I have started many that begin with, “my art.” oops.

     page 2 - under #4 Williams uses an interesting example of an artist who writes a statement regarding their relationship with wood and steel as a medium. While some might find it phony, it conveys the relationship the artist has with wood and how they don’t click. It’s emotion in the writing is interesting and I think it really stands out in writing something unique and special to the artist in their statement. I’ll definitely keep track of this when I’m writing/revising my statement because it’s something i’ll definitely try. It avoids the pitfall which #4 is titled; “they have nothing to say.”

     page 4-5 - “How to write about a single artwork” Reading this section I realize that I’ve never really thought to write about a single piece of work. It’s an interesting idea and I think that I might be able to convey more about my work in my statement as I feel like having an umbrella statement for all of my work might get a little frustrating for myself. Forcing myself to think about my processes might help in focusing my statement and related things.

[topicprinter]

The one question I get asked a lot is if I had to start my local business all over again, how would I do it...And it's a good question because once you have been doing something long enough, you know how to do it better.But here's the thing, from helping hundreds of local business owners, I've learned not only how I should start over, but how you should too.So, I created a 30-da plan on exactly how I would launch my local business if I was starting FROM SCRATCH again.Thought I'd drop it here for you guys.Below is a MONSTER post that covers exactly how I would build a new local business if I Suddenly LOSE EVERYTHING and only had 30 days to start over from scratch.You can always reach out to me with any questions or for advice and I will do my best to help you.Ready?Let’s jump in.​Day 1: ReflectionOk! Day 1.I want to take the time to make sure that this is what I want to do, and to set my commitment for it*I know this will not be an easy journey the next few months, however, I am doing this to give myself true financial freedom and power over my future.So, I will take two hours to write down my thoughts and hopes for this business into a journal. I will also write down what my long-term goals really are, and then work backwards to see if they are aligned with this business.But most of all I will take time to kick back, relax, and get motivated. Because now that I’ve committed it is time to get down to business.*This is an important day, even if you feel like you won’t be doing a lot. What you are really doing is gaining clarity on what you want to do. You do not want to commit to a business and then find out months or a year later that it is trapping you and not letting you do what you really want.Day 2: Getting Down to BusinessToday is where we start looking at all the amazing opportunities and different types of local businesses in our area to see what lights a spark in us.Go for a walk for an hour or two in your town or city and really look around at all the businesses that you see. Look at the cars passing you by and you'll see plumbers, electricians, bathroom remodellers, or appliance installation services.You probably never thought about this before, but all the businesses that just passed you by or you walked pass? The vast majority of those are 6 & 7 figure businesses. Run by people who have absolutely no business experience but are just good at what they do.They are small operations, but they can bring in serious money. So, start taking notes on businesses that you pass by, just a giant list of every single one. Now when you get home, go through that list and pick the top 5 appealing ones, or the ones you've never thought about before that seem interesting.And just start playing around, go on YouTube and learn about those five different niches. How they work, how much they charge, and so on. Lastly, take a moment to think of the possibilities. Because most of these businesses are being run the same way they were in 1980 and 1990, and you have access to some of the most amazing marketing and sales knowledge FOR FREE. Strategies that work in 2019. You need to realize the power at your fingertips.Because tomorrow you're going to decide on your niche and get going for real.*Really do this because it far more insightful than just visiting Yelp and looking at the different niches.Day 3: Decide on Your NicheToday is arguably the most important of the entire 30-day plan, because you are going to decide the niche that you will be working in for the next few years. Yesterday when you looked through your 5 chosen local niches, chances are one or two of them appealed to you more than the others. So now it's time to decide between your top 2.A couple important qualities to help you narrow the choice down:-Should have good profit margins (above 20%)-No licensing required in your state (some industries, like painting in certain states require thousands in licensing fees and are a very real bottleneck)-Do not require you to personally be in the field-Already have companies in your area doing well in that niche (means there is plenty of business on the table)Here's a very important tip: If you're really struggling between the top 2 and you just can't choose... Choose the one that will leave your options open for growth later.For example, I run a cleaning company, which has allowed me to expand to window cleaning and carpet cleaning services as I have grown. Over the next couple of years, I can even start offering home organisation if I want to.And if you are still unsure, shoot me or the community and message. I'll be happy to help you choose. Regardless, you really need to choose TODAY because this is one of those decisions that if you let it, will stall you forever.Tomorrow is going to be interesting because we're going to look at your local competition and use their weaknesses as our strengths.Day 4: Scout Out the CompetitionWelcome back!Today, we will be doing competitive research on your chosen local business niche. This will be a quick, but powerful lesson for you because it will set the foundation of your branding and marketing. For this lesson I will use the example of a cleaning company in Spokane, Washington. Just replace this term with your chosen niche and city.You may have heard of a SWOT analysis in a marketing or business class, but I assure we will not be filling out any boring charts or tables. Rather, we will be doing a rudimentary and real-world analysis. A quick and dirty SWOT analysis, if you will.Ready? Let’s Go.Head on over to Yelp.com or Google.com and search “cleaning company Spokane wa” and “cleaner Spokane wa”. Now, open the top 10 companies that appear and grab a notebook. Go to their reviews section but ignore the 5* reviews for now. Instead, focus on their 1*, 2*, and 3* reviews.Start taking notes on why the cleaning company got that bad review. You may find that some of the most common reasons are:1.People don’t answer their phones2.People show up late and don’t tell you3.Their team rushed the job4.There was poor communication before, during and after the cleaning job5.They are unwilling to fix an issue the customer foundNotice something?None of these reasons are related to the actual cleaning part of the job. They are all to do with the customer service side of the business.Here’s the beauty in this – if you can do a better job than the competition on customer service your customers will always prefer to work with you. So many local businesses are run by amazing technicians who are great at what they do. The reality is they can’t be good at everything and often their weak spot is customer service.What you can do is take the top 5 patterns of bad reviews you wrote down and turn them into your strengths. You can start branding yourself as having great customer care, easy to reach, and always willing to make an issue right. The fact is, you don’t need 20 years of cleaning experience to own a great cleaning company! You just need to hire the right people and provide a great experience to your customer.Treat your customer onboarding like a 5* hotel check-in and make the entire experience flawless. All we are doing is finding out what annoys our future customers and just not doing that.That’s it!Day 5: Residential vs CommercialNow that we've chosen our niche, for many of us the next step is to choose if you're going to be doing residential or commercial work from the get-go. This is a really important decision to make because if you try do to both at the same time, you'll find that the marketing and sales process for them is very different from one another.I want you to concentrate on one at least the first year, so you can allow yourself to build a level of competency within your niche and your focus. Take painting – residential exterior and interior painting are a whole different ball game then commercial painting, or new construction painting. They have different marketing, different profit margins, different expected turnaround times, and different scales. To the point that you can have a painting company for 20 years and never explored other types of painting.It's the same with cleaning. My cleaning company does primarily residential and vacation rental cleanings. We have never done a single commercial or office job in years because we need to hire a different type of cleaner, on a different schedule, with different pricing. Far better to double down on what is already working until you need to add services to grow.Take some time to think about which one you want to start with, but here's what I will say. If you are a new business owner, I would recommend residential at first. Commercial can scale larger more quickly than residential but residential is a much better starting option because the marketing and sales process tends to be a lot easier. And there is less risk of having all your eggs in one basket with a big commercial client (who pays you two months late and causes payroll issues…).This is a really short-day guys so I don't want you to spend all day consumed by worrying about making the wrong decision but do give it some serious thought today and commit to one or the other.Day 6 & 7: Create Your Website & Online PresenceWelcome Back!The next two days are very important ones, because you will be making the first real step in starting your local business. We will be setting up our online presence to make our business easy to discover and convenient to book.So, first off what online presence is essential for us to have?Here is what you need to have:Website – there are three parts to your website that you will need to include, at a minimum.The first is to buy your domain name and hosting once you have chosen a name for your local business. I recommend Namecheap (I personally have dozens of domain names through them). Their support is phenomenal whenever you have a problem, which is almost unheard of in that industry.The second is to buy a good-looking website theme. Chances are, somebody has already made a beautiful theme for your niche that you can buy for less than $50. There are dozens of great cleaning themes for $27-$47 and I am sure there will be for yours too. Do not pay a professional at first, instead use that money for marketing later.The third and final part you will need on your website is a convenient booking form so that customers can book without any hassle. Nowadays, so many potential customers expect to be able to book online and don’t want to be forced to call…so you best make sure you make it as easy as possible for them! See if there is a specific booking form for your business first – if not then use a more general one.Please don’t spend a week on your website trying to make it look perfect, it should just be professional and convenient!As well as a website, you will need to claim all your social profiles immediately. That includes Facebook, Next Door, Alignable, and any well-known local social sites in your area. If relevant to your industry Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube may all be worth including.I won’t lecture you on why you need to claim your social media profiles…at this point I think we all know just how powerful social media can be for any business.Finally, once you have claimed your social profiles and built your website, the last step to take is to build your profiles on relevant marketing channels.Across industries the most impactful ones currently are:Google My Business (very important)YelpThumbtackHomeAdvisorAngiesListAnd if you are in the UK Bark has been making a big splash lately.It is worth spending considerable time on your profiles and templates for these websites because for the first year most of your customers are likely to come from them. One way you can make sure you do it right is by finding the top pros in your area and in major cities. Study their profiles on these sites and see what they are doing to promote themselves.“Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.” – Bruce LeeI bet you didn’t expect to find a Bruce Lee quote in a plan about building a business, did you?One last points – make sure you build your profile on smaller region-specific marketing platforms too. Most people don’t bother, and you can turn this to your advantage. Often just having a couple good reviews on smaller platforms is enough to propel you to the top and claim all the jobs that come through. You can dominate these small marketing channels with little effort and a worthwhile reward.At this point, do not start spending money on advertising platforms yet, we will get to that soon.That’s it for today!Good work.Day 8: Choose A Booking Software, Payment Processor & Phone SystemDay 8 is very close related day's 6 and 7 and is an integral part of how you will do business every single day.I touched on the booking software briefly yesterday, but I wanted to give you a little more insight into that. There are great general booking softwares/CRMS out there like MindBody or Jobber, but if you can see if you can find one specific to your niche. There are booking softwares that only do cleaning companies for example, and their forms and structure are optimized with cleaning companies in mind. If you have chosen pressure washing, painting, appliance repair or whatever...see if there's a booking form specifically for those if you can.The second thing is your payment processor. I'm just going to go out and say it 99% of the time you should use stripe. I haven't used Square myself but I do know about people who have you swearing than happy with it so I think that's a fine option as well, particularly if you take card payments on location.A good virtual phone system is also crucial. Now, my VA business runs over 50 local businesses for the owners, so we have great insight into pretty much every virtual phone system out there. The two that...while not perfect and they have their own flaws, I would recommend are Grasshopper and RingCentral.This is very important. Do not use you personal cell phone number. I cannot tell you the number of times I have talked to business owners who used their personal phone number in the beginning and have had to change their personal phone number or get a new one.Get a separate number for your business. This is not negotiable.If you've read this far, we're now on week 2. I know there's been some fluff at the start but a lot of this is very important to set the groundwork correctly for your business. But from here on out, we're starting to get into the nitty gritty and launch this baby by figuring out pricing, hiring our first team, starting marketing and getting our first few customers.See you tomorrow!Day 9: Figure Out Your PricingPricing is something you can spend a lot of time optimizing, but I recommend you use a simple pricing method your first year so you can get on with building the business.Look at your top five competitors (have the best reviews and a good customer base), and either copy their pricing or add 20% on top of their pricing at first.What you are going to do when you start with 0 reviews is tell people your price, then discount their first booking. This gives them an incentive to book with you. I know, I know, everyone says to avoid price shoppers, but guess what? When you have no reputation or reviews that is who you are stuck with, so get on with it and make them happy. This is how as a new company I was able to get hired hundreds of times off of thumbtack over the course of a few months, outranking companies who have been around for years with impeccable reviews (we also followed up like crazy).The strategy goes a little something like this, regardless of the platform: The first 10 people receive a 35% discount and you really push them for a review, when you have 10 reviews you drop it down to 30% discount, when you have 20 drop down to 25%, when you have 30 down to 20, and so until your typical charging your normal price or giving them a small discount as a first-time customer.Day 10: Take A BreakSeriously, take one. You’re doing a LOT in a short amount of time, even if it feels manageable right now. We want to build good momentum, not bad momentum that heads us towards a crash because we never take a break.Day 11: Put Together A Budget ($500, If I can)Ahhh budgeting, how fun! This is another one of the most important days, especially if you are a student or you don't have a lot in savings. Putting together your budget is a necessary part of starting a business. You can start a service business incredibly cheaply and do the labour yourself the first few weeks to build up some cash reserves, but in my experience if you can it is better to start with teams from the beginning. I know many owners who get trapped being the tech in their own business and it can take years to transition out of that mindset and role.You could buy a window cleaning kit for $50 and start knocking door to door…this still works brilliantly in 2019, by the way. But if you want to build a real service business then we need a bit of money for your website and marketing.If you can swing it, I recommend $1000 for everything to start. you can't I strongly advise $500 minimum, because that would be very tight as it is. The truth is you are not going to know where your money is best spent at first, so you need some time and money to figure out what marketing is working best for you.So, put together your budget with as much as you can set aside (there are always small unexpected costs).Day 12: Create Your First Job PostLet’s jump straight into it today and create our first job post!Go on craigslist and indeed.com, see what job posts are doing well in your niche start to craft your own in a similar style. Here’s one I use for cleaning that I tweaked from one I found (funny enough, on reddit!) years ago that has always worked well:Subject Line: Looking for Two Person Cleaning Teams (Washington)Looking for Two Person Cleaning Teams ({Washington DC} & Surrounding Areas)We're a cleaning company that expects a rush of clients as the summer winds down and we need a few teams to help us out.This is for residential cleaning. We pay per cleaning.**Residential Cleanings***Studio Apartment - $75*1 Bed 1 Bath - $85*2 Bed 1 Bath - $95*3 Bed 2 Bath - $125*4 Bed 2 Bath - $135**With Extra Services Tacked On (Example: Inside Fridge, Cabinets, and Interior Windows)***Studio Apartment - $90*1 Bed 1 Bath - $105*2 Bed 1 Bath - $115*3 Bed 2 Bath - $155*4 Bed 2 Bath - $185We typically send two-person teams, so extra points if youA) Have a cleaning partner you can work withB) One of you has a carIf you're interested, please fill out our application here to begin the application process -yourwebsite.comThank you very much. We'll respond quickly.Try not to spend more than 3 hours searching and creating your job posts. To start, create two totally different ones and post them on both craigslist and Indeed.Day 13: Interview Potential TeamsMost of the stuff you're going to read about hiring doesn't really apply to you. A lot of it is about corporate recruiting, tech recruiting, and review processes that are too in-depth and cost a boatload of money.Unfortunately, there are not that many good resources recruiting for local businesses, but here is an excellent one to get you started: https://academy.getjobber.com/tags/hiring/They have job posts and descriptions for all kinds of niches, along with hiring tips and questions. I wish I knew about them when I was getting started. Go through their hiring vault and start drawing up a list of questions to ask your potential candidates. If feasible, have them do a trial service at your place so you can get an idea of if they can do what they say they can.Straight up make sure they are polite, have reliable transportation, are citizens, can submit to a background check, and already have years of experience. Remind them the day before the interview, AND the morning of the interview.At first, aim to bring on two good contractors even if you don’t have any work at first. As contractors, they already have other work to keep them busy, so they are not solely relying on you for income. The other reason you want two teams is if one of them decides to no-show the first couple of jobs, you could reschedule with the backup team.Day 14: Hire My First TeamWe have our first job ads up, candidates are applying, and you think you’ve found a couple winners!There is a few important things you have to do to formally bring them on as an employee or contractor. I'm going to assume you're going to use independent contractors for now.Non-negotiables:-Have them fill out a W9 BEFORE doing their first job. You will need this at the end of the year to issue them a 1099.-Draw up a subcontractor agreement for working together.-Background check them using a service like Onfido.-Make sure they have insuranceWith those done, you are going pay close attention to the first three jobs. The first few jobs you want an outstanding experience, because this is the Foundation of your business' reputation that you are building in the early days.If you have all of those pieces sorted, start to walk through expectations of working together. How much they will get paid, how you will send them jobs, and so on.With those done, you are going pay close attention to the first three jobs. The first few jobs you want an outstanding experience, because this is the foundation of your business' reputation that you are building in the early days.Day 15: Start Organic MarketingWhile everyone is talking about optimizing Google Adwords campaigns, Facebook Ads/Clickfunnels, and the latest paid service, you can get a ton of business completely free.Here are four quick ways we get several bookings per week consistently for years, without spending a dime:Local Facebook groups:Go join local mum groups, discount groups, flea market groups, student groups and local networking groups on Facebook.People love to interact, get helpful advice from each other, and recommend each other.If you have a slow booking day where your schedule is just not filling up, you can offer a crazy discount to flea market/garage sale groups and often get some bookings. The goal is not to make a profit on the discounted clean, but to have them become a regular at your normal price.Do this 2-3x a week in various groups and you will start building authority and bookings from that group. When you post make sure you include a screenshot of some 5* reviews of your business so they know you are legit and let them know you are the owner.Next Door:Next door is such a wonderfully underrated platform, and it's the way Facebook groups should be. You have your neighbours in a discussion board just for them, and recommendations feature that you can get other members to recommend your business. Our cleaning company has gotten a lot of business from Next Door, simple by asking our customers already on there to recommend us. We also provide a neighbour discount exclusively for them.Hell, we even hire cleaners from Next Door sometimes by asking others if they have a good cleaner they know looking for more work.This is a great avenue, if you authentically engage and be helpful, instead of just being salesy. Spend 5-10 minutes a day on there commenting and giving your own recommendations. I often see handymen recommended on there and know they get a ton of referral business from it.Alignable:Alignable is useful because it allows you to connect with other local business owners without having to pay BNI or your chamber of commerce a bunch of money every year. This is a fantastic platform to refer each other business and create interesting service partnerships. As an example, what we do is every spring season get together with window cleaners and home organisers to specials where people can get 2-in-1 or 3-in-1 services done at the same day, with us taking a chunk of the profits.Door-To-Door:I'm not going to say too much about door to door, but it is still very powerful method in 2019 for getting a lot of business, particularly for high-ticket seasonal services like painting and pressure washing.There are a dozen wonderful organic marketing methods I could talk about, but here are just a few to get you started and thinking. Set a goal to be doing some sort of organic marketing every single day consistently. Because once you start getting more bookings from organic marketing it starts to speed up and referrals start coming in naturally. This is a key advantage over paid marketing.Day 16: Choose Your Top 2 Paid Marketing Channels To TestYou do not want to try out 10 different paid marketing channels your first few months, you will go broke and waste your money getting no bookings. Instead, focus on two great ones in your area and become an expert at them.Here is my recommended list for new service businesses to explore. Keep in mind EVERY CITY is different and certain ones will perform better than others:Google Local Ads – this is Google’s new service, and it is performing far better than Adwords across most of the country. Get in while it is hot since most competitors aren’t using it yet.Yelp – sorry, I know their management sucks, but they can get you a lot of business. If you do go with yelp, make sure you build up 10-15 positive reviews before paying for ads.Google Adwords – don’t do this at the start unless you already have experience or a big enough budget to pay an expert to do it for you. I recommend not paying someone for Adwords help until you hit around $10,000/mo in revenue.Thumbtack – Still a fantastic platform to get hired through, but follow-up is key (it always is, but even more so for thumbtack). Send a quote, then follow-up when they see it, follow-up end of day, the next day, two days later, and three days later with a final message. Revisit them 6 months later and ask them if they need service.Facebook Ads/Funnels – don’t play around with these yet. Facebook marketers will tell you these work for every niche, but they don’t.Craigslist – placing ads is still cheap and can get you a lot of inquiries, so this is very worth it at the start.Amazon Seller Central – they take a cut of each job, but they WILL get you jobs. This is great the first few months when you are doing discounts, because even if you don’t make money on the front-end you can push to have them become regulars.HomeAdvisor – it CAN work, but your leads are not exclusively sent to you and they charge a really high cost per call. If you have a big budget try it out, if not try others on this list at first.Day 17: Rapid Fire TestingRapid Fire Testing is a crucial and painfully overlooked part of every business owners marketing strategies. Often, we just throw more money at a marketing campaign we THINK is working, without going through to calculate our ROI or optimize them.Here is a quick way to rapid fire test the marking platforms you are already using.Let us pretend we are trying to decide between 2 different marketing channels.For example, if you use Thumbtack with a $150 monthly budget. Assume this gets you 10 quotes, and of those 10 quotes (assuming you have a tight follow-up system in place), you close 4. Your other marketing channel is HomeAdvisor, also with a $150 monthly budget. But HomeAdvisor only brings in 8 quotes, of which you closed two.Essentially, we are comparing our customer acquisition costs.For Thumbtack, we get one quote for $15 on average, and 1 sale per $37.50 on average. Whereas for HomeAdvisor we get one quote for $18.75 on average and get a sale for $75 on average.From this very simplistic comparison we can see that Thumbtack would do far better for you, and it would be worth taking the $150 that you're currently spending on HomeAdvisor and doubling your Thumbtack budget instead.This is what we want to do regularly from the get-go. Later on, you also want to compare the average ticket sizes that we get for each platform, because as you dial things in more it becomes more important. For example, exterior painting the ticket sizes are often larger than interior painting, and if you're using porch and thumbtack, you may find that the average exterior painting jobs that you close are higher on porch than on thumbtack.This is a rapid-fire test that should be done at least quarterly.Having said that, do not over complicate, it's just a quick marketing health check and asset reallocation. So do your rapid-fire test and stick with just the top 1-2 performing marketing channels.Day 18: Soft LaunchYour soft launch is just an announcement that you are open for business and is a commitment to yourself to really do this.This can be a good way to get your first few customers, and I see people recommend that often, but to be perfectly honest it can also be really annoying to push your friends and family to buy your business services.The important thing here is the mental aspect that this is now a real business that you own. It is more for yourself than anyone else and is a safe way to start without being fully ready to go yet (otherwise you may fall prey to perfectionism). Just let people know you are trying this new side hustle out and are excited to see where it leads.Day 19: Learn How To Pitch & CloseThe first in golden rule that I tell people is to treat your potential customers like a hotel reception does when checking-in new customers. Treat them like they're going through the checking process already booked and you are just gathering their information. Assume the sale and walk them through your booking form step by step, answering their questions along the way but making sure that you return to the next step.There are so many books about sales and so many sales tactics, but to be completely honest with you, if someone is calling you because need their lawn trimmed, or their fridge installed, they just want it over with and are already committed to just getting on with it. Some people price shop, but it is a surprisingly small number of people who do.Now, as a new business with no reputation, I do recommend offering a discount at first if they resist. I see a lot of business owners say that you should not discount service or devalue yourself, but I think the mindset is so wrong.What you're doing is offering them peace of mind that you're willing to work with them this first job. Sure, a few people may try and take advantage of you but the vast majority of people do respect you and only ask for a discount the first time.This is smart to do, because when you discount you increase your sales conversion rate, which allows you to do a stellar job and then makes it 10 times easier to sell them on a recurring service afterwards. So, I typically treat the first booking like a loss leader similar to how a supermarket gets you in the store with cheap milk and bread, because they know you're going to want other stuff or services (which is where the profit is).If you think about it this is exactly how paid marketing works too. You have a conversion cost when you run an Adwords campaign, and you typically only make a little bit of money or even no money on that first booking (if you have a lower priced service), but your hope is to convert them to a recurring customer and keep them week after week, month after month, where the profit really kicks in. You are doing the exact same thing at the start before you have reviews by offering them a discount. Just sweetening the deal a little bit for them.One cool thing that has been effective for me, is offer them $25 off their first 3 bookings because it gives them an incentive to come back and still profitable for me at each booking. Find a reasonable amount you can discount that you are slightly uncomfortable with, but you can still make work and try that.Lastly, do not do not do not get them on the phone…. then tell them to book online. When you do this, you are doing it because it is more convenient for you. It is more inconvenient for them, and you're giving them a chance to slip away and check out a competitor’s website and maybe book there. Walk them through and book them while you have them on the phone because your chance of closing that sale once you're off the phone with them drops dramatically.Obviously, this is just a super brief tip of the sales iceberg overview, but this is a good first framework to use for the first 50-100 bookings.Day 20: Take A BreakYes, really.That’s all today folks, check back in tomorrow after taking a nice walk and chilling.Day 21: Create A Follow-Up SheetIf this is your first business, then you probably suck at follow up, and if this is not your first business you may have an overly complicated system that you don’t use consistently. Totally normal, but it’s time to use a simple system that does work.Below you can see my two-follow-up sheet that I use for my cleaning company, as well as my virtual assistant agency. It is very simple, but very powerful when followed with consistency. I will be releasing a download of the sheets as well for you soon.📷📷Hopefully, it is mostly self-explanatory. But here is in brief explanation of how to use it just in case:For follow-up calls, start using this google sheet and fill out the two follow-up sheets with a) Customers after their service and b) Leads who contact you but don’t book immediately.Page 1 is for new leads, and Page 2 are for people who just had their first service that you want to convert into a regular.Here is a process to follow-up with each person (we basically stop when we get a NO):Day 1 - Call the lead at 3 different times of the day (only leave a voicemail on the third call). Shoot them a text after the first call to let them know who you are and why you are calling.Example: "Hey this is Sara from ABC Clean. I was just calling regarding your request for the discounted deep cleaning you want this week. Is this a good time to call?"So, Day 1:CallText (asking for permission and a time to call)CallCallVoicemail Left On Last CallDay 2:CallCallFinal Text Asking Them To Confirm InterestDay 3 and beyond:Shoot them a call or text once a day for the next week, beyond that you can let the lead rest a week then try again. It’s always worth trying old leads again in the future.As a rule, ONLY CALL AND TEXT. No emailing unless you are responding to them. I recommend setting a specific block of time in the evening or lunch to get these done, whenever you think your customers will be available.Basically, you want a written and categorized track record of every leads that comes to your business from every source. This will not only dramatically increase the number of bookings you get over time, but it will also be helpful when we go back and do our next rapid-fire test. You can visually see over time what sources you get the most new business from.Day 22: Create A List of Sales KPIsOk this is the last big day on sales, then we're going to move on to the last few important things.Last thing you need to do is get a sales structure in place by creating a list of key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will regularly update and follow. I think most of us at this point know what KPIs are, but most of us are probably not actually using them because we just think of them as this boring idea from a business class or a YouTube video.They are Lifesavers. Here are the KPIs I recommend you start out using. Put them into Google sheet and track them once a week. If a KPI is way off target see how you can get it back on target. If one is performing particularly well see if you can do even more of that:-Number of leads (eg phone calls in a week)-% of leads that turn into a sale-% of one-time customers that convert into a recurring customer-Total adspend-Average booking price-Hottest upsell servicesIf you do this, you will be way ahead of people who've been in business for years and you will find yourself growing far more quickly than someone in the same business who isn’t tracking KPIs.Day 23: Form A Legal EntityThis is not legal advice, but just a friendly opinion of mine. Please talk to your accountant or business advisor about incorporating and have them tell you their professional opinion.If it were me starting over from scratch again, I would personally form an LLC right away, and get a separate business bank account from day 1. I know people who have been in business for 15 years and do not still have an LLC. I cannot tell you how nervous that makes me for them because it only takes one big accident for them to be completely screwed.Forming an LLC only costs a couple $100 maximum and is worth the extra protection it gives you. For me personally, I would file this as soon as I possibly can. Again, this is not legal advice, this is just what I would do if I decide to start another local service business. Remember, this is what I would do if I had to start over from scratch.Day 24: Figure Out Your Profit MarginsKnowing your profit margins is essential because this is going to be the key that will help you decide how much to pay your teams, how to price your services, how much you can afford to put into marketing and operations, and finally how much to pay yourself out of every $100 that you bring in.Typically, local service businesses have a much lower profit margin than software or digital marketing businesses. Sorry, just what it is. What we have more consistent revenue and long-term customers than they do (often 10-20 year long customers!)Brick and mortar is almost always at the bottom here because you have to pay for the physical storefront, products, equipment, rent and other necessities. Your profit margins are usually in the range of 5 at the lower end to 20% at the very high end.A good business friend of mine used to run a very tight ship at his day spa, where they did almost a million dollars per year in revenue. Let me just say the guy is really good at business he knew how to run his day spa far better than most did, and he was still only able to get about 10 to 12% profit when he (honestly) factored in all expenses.Most local service businesses are going to be in the 15 to 35% profit margin rate. Think of house cleaning, roofing, window washing and so on. Labour is almost always your biggest expense for this type of business.At the higher end, certain services like exterior house painting you can get up to 50 or 55% profit margins, and I know dozens of painters who do between 45 and 55% profit margins regularly, but this is not common across niches.You should do some serious research to find out average profit margins for your industry. I want you to join a couple Facebook groups and communities for business owners in your niche and talk to them about it, because you really need this information to know if you're doing it right to make this business worth your while.-CONTINUED IN COMMENTS.Where to go from here?Hit me up with any questions, or if you're looking to join a dedicated group of local business owners and we can get something really cool going.

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Mini-Farm North of Eureka Springs, AR

This 6.6 acre homestead is located near the beautiful Holiday Island mini-city - but it's not part of Holiday Island. No HOA/POA fees here, and small livestock is allowed on this 6.6 acre mini-farm north of Eureka Springs, AR.

Check out the other great things about this home:

The solar panels on this home keep the electricity bills to a minimum. Sellers will be paying them off at closing - no hassle and no worries, just all of the advantage to the new buyers! Roof beneath panels are less than 5 yrs old.

Huge barn with stalls for goats

Hen-house with chicken yard

Listing Details for the Mini-Farm North of Eureka Springs

MLS 1312990

Montgomery Whiteley Realty (870) 423-2950

Broker: Ronnie Whiteley www.Mwrrealty.com

Listing agent: Roxann Riedel (479) 409-3429

Link to listing: https://portal.onehome.com/en-US/share/1066360x06507

Floor plans, Seller's Property Disclosure, and the very light restrictions are all uploaded to the MLS - have your agent pull them or give me a call!

Source: Mini-Farm North of Eureka Springs, AR

[samuelfields]

Money Dials: Why you spend the way you do

Do you ever wonder why people spend their money the way they do?

Why take an expensive Uber when you can walk 20 minutes to get to the same place?

Why pay for first-class tickets when we’re all going to the same place anyway?

Growing up in Sacramento, I used to see guys who loved buying old cars and repairing them. I didn’t get it. Why spend money to create more work for yourself?

Later I realized I was looking at it all wrong. In fact, now I completely understand why people would pay money to do any of these things.

It’s all about Money Dials.

What are Money Dials?

Every one of us has an area that we naturally love to spend money on. I call these areas Money Dials, and I’ve identified 10 Money Dials that we LOVE to pour our money in. If you look at your own spending, what gets you excited? Think about:

Travel

Health / fitness

Freedom

Relationships

Self-improvement

The above are five examples of our Money Dials, and I’ll share all 10 Money Dials below, but if you had $25,000 to spend on any of the above, which would you put your money into? Your answer — the one you instinctively came to within seconds — is likely your number-one Money Dial.

Knowing your Money Dial can transform the way you think about your spending, because it lets you understand what you spend money on and why, and it enables you to redirect your spending from other areas to spend extravagantly on your Money Dial. THIS is what true Conscious Spending looks like.

You might recognize this concept in my Conscious Spending system. Money Dials are the evolution of that system and zoom in on the concept of spending extravagantly — guilt-free.

Let’s take an example: LeBron James.

He spends $1.5 million a year keeping his body in top form, according to this article from The Ringer, investing in nuanced health-promoting practices like cryotherapy and hyperbaric chambers. Not to mention his personal chefs and trainers who help him adhere to a strict diet and routine.

I LOVE IT.

Everything in his life, down to the last detail, is focused on achieving peak physical fitness. He’s not just spending $100 on a massage and calling it good. His number-one Money Dial is health and fitness, and so he’s architected his life and finance around physical fitness and investing a significant amount of money in it.

Fitness isn’t the only Money Dial, though. For example, I have a friend who’s in his 40s and earns multiple six figures every year working in tech. He has enough money to do basically anything he wants to do. He can travel the world. He can retire early and buy a bunch of cars.

Instead, he chooses to live in Palo Alto — one of the most expensive areas in the U.S — to be close to his family. He’s not considered rich there. If anything, he’s middle class where he lives. He also chooses to send his kids to private school, which costs tens of thousands per year. To top it off, he just bought a house AND he’s building a dream house with a special suite for his parents.

He chose to make his relationship with his family his number-one Money Dial. The trade-off means he almost never goes on lavish trips or buys anything fancy for himself — but none of those things matter to him.

The common theme between LeBron and my friend is that they’ve built a life that allows them to spend extravagantly and unapologetically on the things that truly matter to them (fitness and relationships, respectively), but also allows them to cut costs mercilessly on the things that don’t matter.

This is the power of Money Dials.

Finding your own Money Dials

To find your Money Dials, you just have to ask yourself one question: What do you LOVE to spend money on?

That can be a deeply uncomfortable question to ask. It can actually be a little scary for some of you. Our culture and society love to demonize spending, especially when it comes to spending on yourself. It comes with guilt, shame, and judgment. Don’t believe me? Head to the comment section of any Money Diaries piece. You’re going to find a TON of comments like these ones:

What a judgmental reaction — as if it’s forbidden and downright evil to spend on the things you love (and have the means to).

But what if we take these same judgmental people and examined their spending for a month? I bet you I’d be able to find areas in their life where they’re “wasting” their money, too.

It’s OK to recognize that you have areas you naturally love and want to spend on. What others think of your spending doesn’t matter because everyone has different Money Dials. It’s simply a matter of different priorities! In other words, what you value will be different from what others value. If you LOVE to spend your money on week-long trips to exotic locales every week, but someone else would rather spend that same amount of money on having the latest iPhone, then that’s great — and perfectly normal!

It’s just being true and honest to ourselves and what our Money Dials are.

In fact, when we’re honest about acknowledging our Money Dials, we can adjust the dial (hence the term) as we need to be moderate or turn them all the way up to spend even more on the things that bring us joy and more pleasant experiences (think splurging on first-class tickets instead of economy all the time, for example).

This is crucial psychologically.

Not only will we have more money and energy to spend on the things that bring us happiness, but we’ll be able to spend on those things guilt-free, since we know we’ve freed up the money by ignoring everything else.

It’s intimidating and liberating at the same time. It allows us to say, “Hey, this is important to me — and that’s not.”

The most successful people I’ve met are all very conscious about how they spend their money. That doesn’t mean they don’t spend at all. It means that they choose HOW and WHERE to spend their money, and are unapologetic in allocating significant resources to live a better life.

10 most common Money Dials

Do you know what you naturally gravitate toward spending on? Most people don’t — even though everyone tends to have a few overriding priorities for their discretionary spending.

When it comes to Money Dials, though, people’s spending almost always matches up with these 10 priorities.

Convenience

Travel

Health / fitness

Experiences

Freedom

Relationships

Generosity

Luxury

Social status

Self-improvement

I want to take a look at the four most common Money Dials. As you read, take note of how they fit into your spending habits.

Money Dial #1: Convenience

This Money Dial means spending on anything that makes your life more convenient.

Examples:

Travel apps

Ubers

Extra iPhone charger

Pre-cooked meals

Everything delivered

Automated bank accounts (and automation in many parts of life)

I love spending my money for convenience. I spend more than $50,000 a year on a personal trainer, chef, and other luxury services to streamline my life and reduce stress in those areas. However, this is my extreme end because I’ve turned the Money Dial all the way up. That’s why I have a VA who…

Optimizes my calendar for me

Arranges all my travel — right down to the perfect seat on the perfect flight and the perfect route to the airport

Schedules all my appointments and calls

If you want more convenience, simpler examples would be buying pre-cut vegetables at the grocery store so you can avoid the messy chopping work at home. Here are other examples from our readers:

“For a year we spent money on Blue Apron. It made life easier to come home and know what we were having for dinner and everything was right there in the fridge. We’d still be doing it if I hadn’t been diagnosed with gestational diabetes and unable to eat many of the meals. I love buying back my time!”

“Splurged on a luxury car service to take me from Los Angeles to Huntington Beach. Cost hundreds more than an Uber would have, but I wanted the convenience of *knowing* I’d have a ride at the time I wanted. I rode in style and comfort and didn’t need to worry about the logistics of that trip: I learned that when you splurge on a ‘luxury’ experience, they take care of things like showing up on time for you — you don’t need to worry about that.”

“The $350 I spent on a Roomba was a game-changer in the dog hair game.”

Money Dial #2: Travel

People with the Travel Money Dial spend heavily on travel.

Examples:

On January 1st, they already know where they’re traveling this year

They’re often masters of points/travel hacking

They have an overflowing list of travel destinations saved and their conversations revolve around where they’ve been and where they’re going

They have strong opinions about the “right” suitcase, the right way to pack, and the best seats on the plane

If you turn this Money Dial all the way up, it means traveling for months every year; joining a travel group; splurging on high-end travel experiences like a safari, Inspirato membership, or multi-generational travel; and developing strong perspectives on travel, including which friends to invite, how much “authenticity” matters, and specific parts of the world to return to.

Some examples from our readers who value travel as their primary Money Dial:

“I didn’t really think it would be travel, but realized that my husband and I have owned three campers now (which is still much cheaper than a flight — so it doesn’t feel extravagant) but still eats into a significant amount of our free time and discretionary funds. I am not into camping at all, so this is shocking to me. Having a camper allows us to travel with our dogs without worrying about whether a place will be pet-friendly or trying to get them on a plane. My husband gets to do the type of travel that he wants, which is to be in the middle of nowhere, and I get to do the type of travel I want — which is to explore a new city — all in the same trip because we can move every day (or not) without the inconvenience of changing hotels. Between the payment, insurance, and parking, our monthly cost is about $550. That doesn’t include gas or fees for parks (if we stay in one). That is a lot of money on our budget, but it’s worth it because it gives us the type of freedom we want to explore.”

“We have spent $15,000 two years in a row (and will probably do it for another five years, even though it extends our budget and we make sacrifices in other places) for a week-long family trip with kids (8 and 11) to Tavarua Island in Fiji. Best family time, surf time (my passion), and dedicated time with family and friends every year. My kids want us to book it for next year the second we start to pack up. May have to sacrifice a year or two at some point to make sure we keep overall finances in check.”

“I spent on family Disney vacation. We stayed at the Disney’s Polynesian (right on the monorail line) and bought the full meal plan and the full ‘Park-Hopper’ tickets for the entire vacation. I know it was a crap ton of extra money than trying to go cheap. But my family and I spent the entire vacation just having fun. We never worried about food. We never worried about where we wanted to go that day because we had complete freedom. The memories are priceless.”

Money Dial #3: Health and fitness

This Money Dial is becoming more and more common, especially in big cities.

Examples:

Membership at a gym based on quality, not necessarily distance to your house / apartment

Personal trainer + nutritionist

Choosing food based on macros, not simply taste (e.g., Ezekiel bread)

Selective about your workout gear (Lululemon + Nike are the best)

Taken to its logical extreme, the Health and Fitness Money Dial can mean annual yoga retreats, always checking restaurant menus before you go, joining social groups based on fitness. I’ve added this as a Money Dial in the last few years. Some examples from readers whose number-one Money Dial is health and fitness:

“Currently paying a nutritionist $275/month for a six-month program.”

“I spend around $12,000 per year in personal trainer for Pilates and Gyrotonics class. It’s absolutely worth it.”

“Right now I am spending a bit more than average of my monthly income to go to a specific karate dojo in town. I take classes with one of the best masters of karate in Europe. It was one of the best decisions. I am in better shape than ever, physically and mentally (this master is old school so he includes all the spiritual parts of karate in his classes).”    

Money Dial #4: Experiences

This Money Dial focuses spending on fun and unique experiences.

Examples:

Skydiving

Concerts

Unique vacation activities like swimming with blue whales

Dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants

The Experiences Money Dial is perfect for anyone who values novelty and unique experiences over material possessions. Here is how our readers spend money on experiences:

“I always buy concert tickets VIP.  Box seats have a great view, private wait staff with better food, etc. I’m not smashed next to sweaty armpits (I am short so this is reality), and VIP parking is usually included and is extremely close to the venue. Sometimes there’s a catered event pre-show or meet and greet with different bands. I’m not 15 anymore — roughing it is not my style. I’ve spent $100 and [as much as] $1,000 on a single concert ticket. It’s like a game to find the best tickets, and I never regret going to a show.”  

“I bought 2017 World Series tickets: $2,600 for two bad tickets, but I HAD to experience it.”

“I spent $1,000+ (a LOT of money for me) to go to Las Vegas to see Stevie Wonder in concert. I didn’t care about going to Vegas, but it was one of only two places Stevie was performing this year. He is my favorite living musician, but I’d never seen him live before. I splurged and got a great seat — on the floor, in the center, 13 rows back. He was, as you would expect, a wonderful performer, and I had a fantastic time. It made me so happy to be alive. I would absolutely do it again.”

NOTE: I cover all of the Money Dials in my course How to Win the Game of Advanced Personal Finance.

What’s your Money Dial?

I always say, “Show me a person’s (Google) calendar and I can show you their priorities.”

Well, I have a newer version of that: Show me a person’s spending, and I can show you what they love.

And I find it incredibly fascinating for several reasons (not just because I’m a big weirdo):

People go to where their time and money go. Fit people spend time and money being fit. Fashionable people spend time and money on fashion. Etc.

People often get their own spending priorities wrong. For example, some might say that family is their #1 priority, but if you looked at their calendars and spending, family isn’t even in the top 10.

People’s Money Dials are an easy way to determine what they claim is important vs what is actually important. A lot of people say they love to travel, and when they actually do spend money and time on it they have a miserable time and just want to be back home. Clarifying their Money Dials can allow them to refocus on what’s important to them.

My favorite part of Money Dials: Once you recognize yours, and you accept it, you can zoom in on what you love by turning the dial all the way up, as I’ve done for myself for convenience.

This might seem extreme to some — but for me it’s a complete no-brainer. Because I know my Money Dial and can focus on it, I actually free up time to invest in my company … and I can earn even more money as a result.

Money Dial Challenge

Here’s my challenge for you to do this week: If you can afford to, take $500 and spend it extravagantly on something you love.

That’s going to be a lot of money for some of you — but that’s the point. Spending money on the things you love can be uncomfortable at first. Especially when you consider all the Invisible Scripts, the ubiquitous assumptions that we no longer question in our lives, and noise around spending.

Guess what? I’m giving you permission to put that $500 toward your Money Dial this week.

I also want you to go to the comment section and share two things:

What’s your #1 Money Dial?

What are you going to do with your $500 to start implementing it this week?

I can’t wait to read your comments.

Money Dials: Why you spend the way you do is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/money-dials/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[bluejanuarysky]

SEO for Better and Faster 2019

Search engine optimization, in any other case known as SEO, can be utilized within blogging and in other web marketing techniques to drive visitors to any webpage of your own choice, whether it is the blog, Squidoo lens or the traditional website page. This totally changes black head wear SEO tactics to gain relevance for various searches by making pages that are individually designed for different keywords. L. S Please note that SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques works on the vast majority of websites. SEO agencies offer providers that change from writing next text messages to giving advice on the particular subject of the website, plus choosing the best directories which usually the website can be authorized at. A few unethical SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agencies have given the business a bad name through intense marketing strategies and attempts upon gaining ranks in unfair methods. 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