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oh-so-scenarios · 5 years ago

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Loose Ends | two

⇢ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀ ʟᴀsᴛɪɴɢ ɪᴍᴘʀᴇssɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ...ᴛᴏᴏ ʙᴀᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ sᴛɪᴄᴋ ᴀʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀᴍᴀɢᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀᴜsᴇᴅ.

⇢ᴄᴇᴏ! ᴋɪᴍ ɴᴀᴍᴊᴏᴏɴ x ᴀᴅᴍɪɴ ᴀssɪsᴛᴀɴᴛ! ғᴇᴍᴀʟᴇ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ, ᴇx-ғɪᴀɴᴄᴇs!ᴀᴜ, ᴀɴɢsᴛ, ᴇɴᴇᴍɪᴇsᴛᴏʟᴏᴠᴇʀs

**A/N: There are errors! Please ignore them! This chapter is a little awkward(imo), but it’s just laying down the foundation but it will pick up. (Word Count: 4.9K)

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《 PAST 》

Y/N:

“So we’re partners?” I said, sitting down at the empty desk. I glanced over at the quiet boy sitting beside me. His head was down and he focused his attention on the black sheet of paper in front of him.

Maybe he was shy? I couldn’t be sure, but what I did know was that I wasn’t planning on slacking off.

They say your freshman year of high school will determine the rest of your years and I will not get off to a bad start. I was already a push-over in middle school, letting myself get tricked into doing all the work. But I am entering high school with a new confidence. I will keep my head high and speak up when I feel wronged.

“Your name is Namjoon right?” I called softly. I leaned over, trying to catch his eye. I knew he could hear me, seeing him side eye me momentarily. He finally lifts up his head and looks my way, showing a shy smile.

As I finally got a good look at him, I couldn’t help but smile. He has high cheekbones, kind eyes that were behind thick circular glasses and his hair is jet black, brush forward and covering his forehead. There are a few pimples on his face, but he’s a cute guy.

“Hi.” He says quietly, his ahead falling back to his desk. He’s shy. I can’t help but giggle, noticing his eyes widen at me. My giggles stop short, my eyes also widening.

“I’m not laughing at you or anything!” I rush out, “I just think you’re...cute.” My giggles start up again, a blush growing throughout his face.

“I’m Y/n.” I stretch my hand out and he shakes it briefly. He opens his mouth to speak but is interrupted by the teacher.

“Alright! I gave you some time to get familiar with your partner! Don’t worry you’ll have time to talk some more! They will be your writing partner for the rest of the school year!” The teacher gives everyone a big smile before turning back to the board.

I settle into my seat, leaning back into the chair and smiling. I can’t help but glance over at the shy boy was didn’t speak much.

《 PRESENT 》

This is cruel. This is unforgiving and devilish. Why should I have to see Kim Namjoon again, let alone work for him?

My gut was telling me to turn down this job, and it wasn’t wrong. I shouldn’t be here. It should have been someone else. Fate couldn’t be this cruel. It just couldn’t. I thought I could have gone another 10 years before I had to lay my eyes on that man again.

I lean my head against the cold metal wall of the elevator. I watched the elevator doors close, leaving me to stare at my own reflection. It’s now day 2. Only 238 more days till this contract is over. I can’t help but chuckle at how ridiculous this situation is.

I finally reach for and press the button for the 23rd floor, the elevator pings and shifts as it went upwards.

I didn’t let my emotional breakdown yesterday stop me. I went to the bathroom, cleaned myself up and walked back into the office, doing the work that was expected of me. I am grateful that I didn’t have to see Mr. Kim again till he was leaving his office for the day. He didn’t spare a look my way.

Maybe he doesn’t recognize me? How much can a person change in 3 years? Or he counts our time together as a different phase of life? He probably doesn’t see the need to mention the elephant in the room. Rather let sit there, and bother both of us. He thinks it bothers me more and if he does, he’s right.

Today I wore a long sleeved mustard yellow blouse that was tucked in into my black and white houndstooth pattern pencil skirt. It’s not a look I usually go for, but I wanted anything to distract from the dread that was clear on my face. The outfit was cute and the colors worked wonderfully, so I praise myself for that.

I looked down at my peach-nude heels and thanked god that it matched. I was practically a zombie as I walked out the house today. I couldn’t remember what shoes I put on. My hair was down and I kept my make-up natural.

My purse hung on my shoulder, only carrying my schedule book for Mr. Kim, my phone, keys and wallet. The elevator dinged once more, and the doors slid open to show the pearl white walls. It’s day two. Another fresh start. The past doesn’t matter here. Just work performance.

I stepped through the doors and started down the hallway. As I hear the clicking of my heels, my nervousness vanishes. I am simply an assistant. As long as Mr. Kim plays it cool, so should I. He doesn’t owe me anything.

“Good morning.” I called as I walked in. My words stopped short as I realized that Sana wasn’t there. I look at the watch on my wrist. It’s twenty to eight. I guess I am a bit early, but that’s better than late. Most employees don’t start coming in till about 8:30. Mr. Kim arrives somewhere between 8 am and 8:30am.

I grab my schedule book and set my bag under the desk. I wasn’t too out of it yesterday to forget to write my to-do list. I turn on the computer and my desk and look through my email to find the needed documents. I want to have them done before anyone else can get in my way.

I sent the documents to the printer and soon found myself moving back and forth in the office. I walk through the double doors that lead to the cubicles of the employees and go to the copy room. I’m making copies and finding folders to pack them into. It didn’t feel strange with it being just me in the office.

It feels better to work in silence, with less people around me. After printing, copying and organizing all the documents, I made my way towards the empty conference room and spread the folders out.

Mr. Kim has a meeting with some employees about the books that were to be published in the next 3 months. That meeting is followed by another meeting on authors to sign with. I printed and copied the documents for the second meeting. I took those folders back with me. They were stacked in my arms, and blocked my view.

I managed to waltz into the lobby area and to my desk just before they started slipping out of my hands. I grabbed the empty white box that once held my belongings and dropped the folders in there.

I stood up straight, smoothing my skirt and reaching for my schedule book on what to do next.

I took a seat and started sending out emails. It wasn’t long before I heard footsteps approaching, Heels clicked in a speedy matter, the jiggling of keys mimicking the quick movement. Sana comes around the corners in sand colored dress pants and an ivory white blouse. Her keys are in her hands and her bag is clutched in the other hand.

“Oh you’re here!” She wails, through her hands up as if saying thank you to a higher power.

“I forgot I’m not the only secretary anymore.” She mutters as she walks towards the desk. I resume typing up the emails, giving Sana a pointed look as she plopped into her seat.

“Sana, get in the habit of coming in early. I was able to do the needed work for the morning on my own, but it won’t always be like that.”

She nods, still catching her breath, “Or course! I don’t want to slack off! I want to learn from you.” She lazily tosses her bag on the floor and switches her computer on. Her acrylic nails tap against the desk as she hums a tune to herself.

“Let me help prepare the meeting docu--”

“Done.” I deadpan. She narrows her eyes at me and a small smile pulls at the corners of her lips.

“Seriously?” She was in disbelief.

“Yes,” I answered, sparing a glance.

“And the deadline emails?” She questioned, leaning over to sneak a glance at my computer screen.

“That’s what I am doing now.”

“Wow, Y/n! You’re killing it!”

I try to keep from rolling my eyes, “The sooner you do things, the smoother they run. Once Mr. Park arrives, I’m going to get the financial report of the previous quarters and make copies for the meeting with Jung Hoseok of Jung Funding.”

“That meeting isn’t till 3.” Sana points out like I’d forgotten.

“Do we have to wait till 2 pm to get started on that?” I raise my eyebrows at her as she shakes her head no.

“Exactly.” I answer back.

“What if Mr. Kim changes something at the last minute?” She leans back in her seat, a grimace appearing on her lips while she looks off to the side. She must have dealt with something like that previously.

I sigh, “Then we just go with it. It happens, there is nothing that can be done about it.”

I press send on the last email, check the time on the computer. It’s 8:20 am. Mr. Kim should be on his way in--

“Get started on the documents for the first meeting. It’s been moved up 30 minutes.” His voice cut through the lobby like a knife. The light weight atmosphere created by small talk was stepped on by his demanding presence.

“They have been completed sir.” I stood up from my seat as he walked in, walking like he was taking a stroll in the park.

His steps stop, and he puts both hands into the pocket of his pants. His outfit today was missing the coat. He wore a white dress shirt with a dark grey vest and pants that matched. He kept his head down, giving us a view of his profile.

I try to ignore the pounding in my ears as I stare at him, waiting to hear what he says. I work to keep my breathing under control since it felt like my heart slamming itself against my rib cage.

“You’ve done that already?”

“Yes sir--”

“And the paperwork for the potential authors meeting?”

“That is done as well.” I answered back, keeping my tone neutral while giving a friendly smile. I hope it didn’t look as stiff as it felt.

He doesn’t say anything else and trods into his office.

“He was totally looking for something to be angry about.” Sana says in an annoyed tone.

I don’t reply but sit back down in my seat, sorting through emails. I can’t be sure how much time goes by before I hear footsteps coming down the hallway. This time it’s accompanied by chatter and laughter. The sounds get louder and a big group of employees turn the corner.

Did they all wait to come up at the same time? There were about 9 of them. They were chatting among themselves but it seems there was on person who was the center of all that talk. A man I haven’t seen before.

“Mr. Park?” I called out. It was a guess, but I wasn’t left feeling stupid as the man stops mid laugh, He looks around then meets my questioning expression. The two women that stood around didn’t hide their glares. I ignored them, looking at my computer screen for a moment before standing up from my seat.

“Good morning Mr. Park, I am--”

“Y/n L/n.” He cuts me off, a smile pulling at the corner of his lips. Wow. What a good looking man. He must be a charmer, and with how the women of the office flock around him...he’s trouble. His hair was jet black and parted to the side and slicked back. He wore a sharp black suit with a white dress shirt underneath.

He carried a suitcase that he handed to one of the women that were clinging to him. The woman gladly takes it.

“You’re the new administrative assistant right? I’ve heard a lot.” He says while flirtatious light comes to his eyes. I don’t miss the way his eyes move along my face and body. His attention is brought back up to my eyes and he smiles innocently like he wasn’t just checking me out.

“I need the financial reports for the last eight quarters. If you could please gather that up and email it to me.” I sat back down to grab a sticky note, jotting down my email and holding it out.

He takes slow steps towards the desk, and since my patience is short this morning, I simply stick the note to the desk surface.

When he takes the note from the desk, I can feel his eyes on me. I look up from the computer screen to see the smile on his lips widen.

“I am Park Jimin, but you can call me Jimin.”

I exhale, taking my hands off the keyboard and leaning back in my seat, “Mr. Park, I need those reports quickly.”

“Don’t let his smile fool you, Mr. Park is not a man to get wrapped up in.” Sana mutters from beside me. I noticed the women that were glaring at me earlier entering into the employees area, through me another stank look before letting the doors close behind them. More employees were slowly making their way in for work, not of them batting an eye at Mr. Park who was leaning against the desk.

“It takes a lot more to fool me than a smile.” I said to Sana.

“You heard her Mr. Park, you’d be wasting your time.” Sana jeers. Mr. Park doesn’t acknowledge her words at all, only slowly stepping away from the desk then turning around to walk into the employees area.

“Looks like Mr. Park has set his eyes on you.” Sana says, still looking through some paperwork.

“That doesn’t feel like a good thing.” I sneer.

She chuckles, “It’s not.”

The next hour goes by smoothly. Not instructions or emails from Mr. Kim and Mr. Park sent the reports over. I am in the process of printing and copying them when I hear a booming voice.

I step out of the copy room just in time to see other employees shying away from the voice. I can’t help but sigh as I realize it’s probably Mr. Kim. Ugh. He’s found something to be angry about and it isn’t even noon.

“Ms. L/n!” A voice roars. I roll my eyes knowing what’s coming. I’ve been yelled at many times, so there is nothing Mr. Kim could do to faze me.

“Yes?” I call out delightedly. I keep my voice light as I round the corner to see him stalking down the aisle.

The angry look on his face with the hands on his hips tells me all I need to know. His ears are turning red, as they usually do when he’s angry, and his brows are furrowed. The creases in his forehead as he glares at me, ages him a bit.

“Why am I getting phone calls from angry authors?” He yells. Everyone around me flinches as he shouts. I can only stare up at him with a blank facial expression, not moving an inch as he yells at me.

He steps closer, a familiar cologne whisking off of him. Not overbearing, but present enough that you want to lean in to smell more.

“I am not sure sir. I do not have a complete understanding of the situation.” I answered calmly. Employees around us were pretending to work, but it was clear that they were listening in. I notice Mr. Park watching from a distance, his facial expression unreadable.

“The deadlines you emailed were incorrect! These dates are impractical! 2 weeks? Come on Ms. L/n! Use your head! I thought you were supposed to be smart.” He hisses. I can say, I have never seen Namjoon like this. The Namjoon I knew would never raise his voice like this, at least not in front of other people.

I cleared my throat and answered back confidently, “I will send the deadlines to you for correcting sir.”

I watched his face contort in confusion, “Excuse me? To me?”

“Yes sir.”

“Why the hell would you do that?”

“Well, those are the deadlines you wrote up for me sir. I was not aware that the dates were incorrect, for it was only my first day. I am so sorry for the stress that was caused to your authors. I will email each other apologizing for the mix up.”

“You have some nerve. Ms. L/n, are saying this is my fault?” His voice is quieter this time, but the menacing tone didn’t flatter.

I smile sweetly, “Of course not sir! I will simply issue apologies to the authorities and make sure the correct deadlines are given to them.”

“Don’t even email them. Call them personally.” He adds.

“Of course, sir.” I nod. The whole office I silent as I keep the appearance of my small smile, holding the folders close to my chest as he glares at me in silence. Though it isn't showing in my face, it felt like my heart could explode in that moment.

Who is this man? So familiar but so foreign.

“When you’re done with your paperwork, come to my office.” It felt like he was towering over me, and for once I can feel the difference in levels. This is not Kim Namjoon, the dorky boy I knew in 9th grade English. This is Mr. Kim, wealthy CEO of KM-Moonchild Publishing.

“Of course sir.” I reply before he turns around and exits the way he came in. I simply shrug and turn around to go back into the copy room when someone calls out to me.

“You really talked back to er. Kim like that?” It was a female voice. I groaned, spinning around to face the voice. It was a woman with dark red hair and a black and white jumpsuit. She was pretty. Her figure was slim with an hourglass shape. Her hair was in gracious waves that effortlessly rested on her shoulders and down to the middle of her. I'm certain that she’s one of the girls that were gossiping about me yesterday.

I stared at her, and I’m sure my gaze came off as bored, because I was. I don't care what this lady has to say. It’s nothing of use.

“I was just having a conversation with Mr. Kim. A conversation requires two people to speak.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, “You have no respect! It’s one thing to think you’re better than us, but can your ego relax. Mr. Kim isn’t someone to--”

“I am not here to be lectured. I have work to do. I haven’t been fired yet,when I am I will make sure to come and cry that you were right so that your ego can get the boost it needs.” I try not to laugh at the expression on her face but a slight chuckle leaves my lips as I turn into the copy room.

I hum to myself as the copy machine does it’s job, being and humming as it does so. I’m tapping my fingers against the buzzing machine when I sense a presence behind me.

“Yes?” I called out, looking over to spot Mr. Park leaning against the doorway with a smug smile.

I bit my tongue to keep back the groan that wanted to leave my lips. Not this guy again. I already feel the need to have HR on speed dial.

“Are you here to bother me?” I say out, and turn my back to him again. It’s quiet for a while before I heard a soft sigh.

“I’m not here to start any trouble, I just think it’s very cool the way you handled things back there.” His tone was different from when we spoke earlier.

“I always handle things. Mr. Kim is no different from the other people I have worked for. I have been yelled at many times.” I grab the newly printed papers and turn to face Mr. Park just so I could place the papers on the table. I started my second batch of copying before he spoke again.

“You’re not worried about being fired?”

I shrug, pushing another button on the machine, “I’ve already been paid 50% of my contract payment, so I could care less. Mr. Kim only has me for eight months.”

“Eight months huh? That’s too bad.” He mutters to himself.

~!~

“He’s so gonna fire you.” Sana whispers to me. I don’t look away from my computer, typing up the emails for the new deadlines that were sent to me by Mr. Kim. He must have realized he was in the wrong, seeing how the corrected deadlines were sent to me before I could return to my desk from the copy room. But when I returned to the desk, Mr. Kim was in his first meeting of the day. So here I sat with Sana who had heard about what happened as one of the women were giggling about it on their way out the office.

“Let’s hope he does.” I mumble. Sana hears me, looking my way and pouting.

“Do you not like it here?”

“It doesn’t matter if I hate it here or not, it’s my work.” I didn’t think much of it when Sana didn’t say anymore. I was finishing up the email with the new deadlines when some heavy footsteps came from the employee area, and the double doors opened to reveal Mr, Kim who was being trailed by some employees.

I could see them out of the corner of my eyes. I focused on the computer screen once more, pretending I didn’t notice the glance my way from Mr. Kim. The two men stand in the middle of the lobby speaking about the meeting that just ended.

I spend the last deadline email and turn to another page in my scheduling book to begin the apology phone calls. That doesn’t go far because Sana nudges me with her arm. When I look at her, she’s looking forward. I follow her gaze to see Mr. Kim practically glaring at me.

“Ms. L/n, my office please.” He says. His voice was too neutral for the scowled that was burned onto his face. I didn’t get the chance to respond before he spun around and zoomed into his office.

I stood up, smoothing my skirt and grabbing my scheduling book. I ignored Sana’s puppy dog's eyes, seeing as she was scared for me.

I strolled to the heavy wooden doors, knocked and opened it to see him standing behind his desk.He hands were behind his back and he was zoned out. His attention was elsewhere and his mind was far off somewhere else.

I closed the door behind me and fought back the smile curling at the corner of my lips. The lost look on his face reminds me of Namjoon from high school. The smart boy who would daydream in class.

“Mr. Kim?” I call out. His neck snaps up and his eyes grow hard and dark. The gentle expression on his face was no more.

I approached his desk, holding the schedule book close to my chest.

“You wanted to speak to me?” I say, feeling nervousness bubbling up in me. Something about the atmosphere has shifted. By the look in his eyes, I know what he's going to do.

“Why are you here?” He asks in an icy tone. I raise an eyebrow at him, pretending to be clueless.

“What do you mean Mr. Kim? If this is about the deadline--”

“Y/n, cut the shit.” He deadpans. I press my lips into a tight line, gripping the schedule book tighter and clear my throat.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Did you come here to torture me?” He says quickly, ignoring my attempt at feigning ignorance. My face scrunches up in offense. I took a step back before shaking my head in disbelief.

What the fuck? He thinks I came here on purpose?

“I came here to work.” I hiss, “I didn’t know a damn thing about this job when I got the offer. You think’d I take the job I knew I would see you?”

He runs his fingers through his hair and I watch him intently, waiting for him to speak again. When he doesn't voice my thoughts.

“I came here to work. Not to torture you, not to bug you. I couldn’t care less about you and what you’re doing. Separate work from personal and keep it moving.”

“Of course that’s easy for someone as heartless as yourself.” He jeers, laughing humorless. My breath catches in my throat and I take a second to collect myself. That one stung a little bit.

“Insulting me isn’t going to change anything.” I kept my voice level, hoping that the trembles that were starting to climb up my body wouldn’t show in my voice.

His eyes narrow at me, one corner of his lips turning up in a sinister smile. The loathing touch to his sharp eyes made me feel small in that moment.

“You’re standing here talking to me like a fucking robot. Does seeing me not invoke any sort of emotion?”

“I am just here to work, Mr. Kim.” I repeat for the third time, mustering a strained smile. I try not to think back to the crying fit I had the day before. The shock of seeing Namjoon truly took everything out of me, but it doesn’t matter. Things couldn’t go back to normal even if we wanted it to. Too much damage has been done.

“If that’s all sir, I’ll be taking my leave. I have authors to call and apologize to.” My legs feel shaky when I take the first step to turn around, and I stumble a bit. I catch myself, and just pray that Namjoon chucks it up to losing the balance of my heels.

“How is your sister doing?” He rushes out, like he wanted to keep me from leaving the room. I put my hand on my doorknob debating what to reply.

“I’m not going to pretend to care about the current state of your life, so don’t pretend to care about mine.”

“I am not--” I open the door and step out quickly, letting the door close on it’s own. My quick trot to the desk made Sana gaze at me with sad eyes.

“That was quick. It was probably a rough lecture wasn’t it?”

I plop down in my seat, “Nothing I can’t handle.” I lied.

I’m lying. I can’t handle this.

∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ❣

Things are a bit awkward, in terms of the writing but it’ll get there. More info will be revealed later.

Let me know what you thought of this chapter! How do you feel about this story?

#kim namjoon #bts #bts rm #bts namjoon #bts kim namjoon #bts angst #bts fan fic #bts ff #bts reactions #bts scenarios #kim namjoon angst #namjoon angst #kim namjoon x reader #namjoon x reader

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iholdmysaiproperly · 4 years ago

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This is my contribution to the @daredevilexchange, a fic for @valinorbound using the prompts, Foggy, Karen, and Matt setting up their new partnership, a post-Defenders reunion, and team as family.

“What do you mean you haven’t spoken to any of the other Defenders?” Foggy asked as he strained to squeeze a conference table into the space above Theo’s shop. The Three Avocados, as Foggy liked to call them, were busy trying to convert space previously used for storage into a semblance of a lawyer’s office.

Foggy and Karen were trying to treat Matt’s vigilante side job like a normal extracurricular activity. But it was proving to be a little harder for them than if Matt had taken up, say, the violin. Foggy thought that Matt was better off in a team up, rather than working alone - safer that way - and had brought up the Defenders. It turned out that Matt hadn’t spoken to any of them since the Midland Circle debacle.

Matt, after trying to duck the question for at least five minutes by attempting to clear some clutter from what was soon to be their waiting room and keeping up a running commentary of what he guessed the items were, had finally mumbled something about not having seen them since the building had come down. He hoped they would drop the subject, but judging from Karen’s quick intake of breath and the fact that Foggy had completely stopped all movement for about 10 seconds told him that this was never going to happen.

“Matt, buddy,” Foggy began, “I saw them after it all happened. When we all thought you were, you know,” he dropped his voice to a whisper, “dead.”

Behind him, Karen rolled her eyes, but stayed silent, emptying out an old file cabinet she hoped they could use.

“And, let me tell you, man, they were pretty broken up about it. I mean, you stayed down there when they all came up. That leaves a mark on people. Hell, Matt, YOU leave a mark on people, and you really need to get better at the whole,” here he stopped his futile efforts with the table and leaned against it, “you know, communicating thing. Starting with NOT LETTING PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT YOU GO ON BELIEVING THAT YOU’RE DEAD.”

“What Foggy is trying to say,” Karen interrupted, shooting Foggy a look over her shoulder as she approached Matt, “Is that even if you don’t team up with these people again, you should at least let them know that you’re ok.”

“I’m sure they’ve heard by now,” Matt answered them dismissively. “It was a little hard to miss Daredevil’s return; it was all over the news!” Hearing both Foggy’s and Karen’s heartbeats start to pick up, he asked, “What?”. They were both getting worked up about something, but he really just wanted to focus on what they were doing - making a fresh start for the new Nelson, Murdock, and Page and making sure they were ready to open the doors on schedule.

Seeing that Foggy was about to yell again, or possibly pull his hair out in frustration, Karen placed a hand on his arm and took a step forward, “Matt, don’t you think that they might want to hear it from you? Whatever the four of you went through down there, it was pretty intense. And then to think that you stayed down there when they all got out. That had to have been difficult for them. I think you owe it to them to at least let them know that you survived.” As she spoke, Karen moved slowly toward Matt, as if toward a skittish cat. “They may not love you like we do, but I’m sure they’d be happy to hear from you again if you were to reach out.”

Matt sighed, running his fingers back through his hair and turning away for a moment. They were right. He knew they were right, but at the same time, his plate felt awfully full just then. The Yakuza seemed to be trying to make a play for the hole left by the Hand, he, Foggy, and Karen were attempting to get their new partnership underway, which meant a lot of physical work as well as paperwork, and he was making more of an effort to be a better friend to both of them. This meant trying to juggle a worklife, social life, and his nightlife, and he lived in constant fear that one of those balls was going to drop on his head.

The thought of reaching out to three more people, even if it was just socially, was more than he really felt up to at the moment. Admitting that, however, was something that he just didn’t think he could do right now, either. He couldn’t see their faces, but he could picture the sympathetic looks that Foggy and Karen would give him, as well as the requisite pep talks and encouragement to cut back on his nighttime activities if he so much as hinted that he was feeling a little overwhelmed.

After a moment, he decided that the only way through this was to admit that Foggy and Karen were right, and call up the other Defenders. Maybe he would get lucky and a quick phone call would suffice.

____________________________________________________________________________

Murdocks don’t get lucky, Matt thought as the limo he sat in propelled him through the city. We get hit, we get up, we use pain to keep us going, but we never get lucky.

Matt’s hope and plan went off the rails with his first phone call. It was to Jessica, who first hung up on him, then called him back to yell at him until he had to hold the phone away from his ear fearful of hearing damage. She hung up on him again, then called back, clearly inside a bottle, to yell some more. It took him two days before he recovered enough to call Luke, who was overjoyed to hear from him, but a lot more sane about the call than Jessica had been. Fewer expletives as well.

The call had gone so well, in fact, that he immediately called Danny, a decision he was now regretting. Danny had also been overjoyed to hear from him, and had immediately suggested that the four of them meet and catch up. “You don’t have to do a thing,” he promised over the phone, “I’ll arrange everything. Hey, did I tell you I bought that restaurant we all met at? Yeah, after the car came through the front window, I sort of had to in order to avoid being sued. Anyway, it’s mine now so I can host you all there for a reunion dinner! I’ll call the others and set it up, how’s the 20th work for you?” Given that it was the 1st, and the 20th seemed ages off, Matt agreed and hung up the phone wondering what he had gotten himself into.

The next few weeks flew by as they continued getting Nelson, Murdock, and Page up and running. They were officially open for business, and the word about the hot shot pro bono attorneys was spreading. Karen was almost never in the office, off following some lead while Matt and Foggy did their best to keep up with the unending stream of people who flowed through their doors.

They were so busy, in fact, that Matt had completely forgotten about his dinner with the Defenders until a limo had pulled up outside of the shop one evening, and a beaming Danny - he could actually hear the man smile - had him by the arm and inside the limo before he had time to blink.

Any attempts Matt made at stalling or entering the restaurant quietly were thwarted by Danny, who pulled him inside, while calling out enthusiastically to the others the whole time. Matt was immediately greeted by a punch to the gut and an, “Asshole!” from Jessica, who was clearly still mad at his failure to communicate the fact that he was still alive. He struggled to get his breath back while he felt Luke watching him, “I’m STILL not giving you a hug,” the bigger man told him, his hands folded inside his hoodie, “But I am glad to see you, man. Glad you’re still with us.” And with that, he good naturedly swatted Matt on the arm while Matt tried not to flinch, remembering the wallop he had just received.

Luke moved off toward Jessica, who Matt could hear pouring shot after shot of what smelled like cheap whiskey. Guilt flooded him for a moment as he faced the fact that his decisions had caused this pain. But, he had promised Foggy and Karen that he was going to start doing better, so he took a deep breath and steeled himself for what was coming next.

Danny, who hadn’t let go of his arm as if afraid Matt was going to turn around and leave again, pulled him further into the restaurant toward a table in the back that was already filled with food. Given how much Danny could eat, that wasn’t surprising. Matt seated himself and began to toy with this knife and fork. For a moment he was actually thankful to be blind, as it meant he didn’t have to make eye contact with anyone as the others seated themselves at the table and dinner got underway.

The meal started out somewhat awkwardly with Danny doing most of the talking. Eventually, Matt managed to get a word in edgewise, and apologized to the others for not reaching out sooner. There was a brief pause while the others let him squirm for a moment, and then things relaxed and the evening became a lot more, if not fun, then at least enjoyable.

So enjoyable, in fact, that when Jessica announced she had to leave to follow up on something, the other three decided to join her. A lot of whiskey went into this decision, but Jessica had said this was a routine surveillance, after all, so what could go wrong?

____________________________________________________________________________

Matt cursed the Murdock luck again as he ducked what sounded an awful lot like a computer printer flying at his head. The paper tray had come loose and was sliding outward in one direction while the power cord whipped around in the other, making a whistling sound that distracted him. He dodged the printer easily, but the cord caught him across the face. He grabbed it and used it to swing the printer back at the thug that had thrown it at him, knocking the guy backwards so that he stumbled into the man standing behind him, taking them both out.

Jessica’s “routine surveillance” had turned out to be on a very angry and destructive executive who had been caught slipping back into his office presumably to destroy evidence that showed the fact that he had been appropriating funds. Jessica was acting on a tip that the scumbag was planning on leaving the country soon, and she was hoping to gather evidence of this tonight.

A security guard clearly on the man’s payroll spotted Jessica taking pictures, though, and all hell had broken loose. The next thing any of them knew, they were engaged with several hired goons who had clearly been instructed not to let them get away. When the hired thugs realized that they were clearly outmatched, they became desperate, throwing everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at the group. It didn’t really matter in the end, but it did slow the Defenders down enough that the evidence was destroyed before the executive was out the door and into a town car. This led to a heated argument about whether they should follow him, or simply turn over the images that Jessica had managed to take before the shit hit the fan and walk away from the mess. Matt was personally torn on the subject; this wasn’t normally his game, but he hated to see guilty people slip away. Luke was all for turning over the evidence and getting out of there before someone called the cops on them, and Matt was leaning toward agreeing with him, but Jessica and Danny were outraged and argued that it wasn’t enough to simply send some images when the guy could be anywhere within an hour.

In the end, it was decided that Matt and Danny would trail him while Jessica and Luke got the images into the right hands. Thankfully, the guy was easy to trail from the rooftops, and they were able to keep reporting on his whereabouts while Jessica and Luke got the info to her client, who was able to go to the police with his case.

It was dawn before Matt made it back to his apartment. He managed a quick shower and a quick nap before he dragged himself into the office for the day. For the first time in ages, he actually considered calling in, but he knew that if he did the others would worry, and he had enough guilt to deal with. Making them worry wasn’t something he could bring himself to do just then.

Foggy and Karen were waiting for him, both of them clearly eager to hear about how his evening had gone. Matt could hear them talking excitedly when he entered the shop and headed for the back stairs. They were hoping that he had enjoyed himself and that maybe he would consider working with one or more of them in the future, which Foggy felt would be safer for him in the long run, to have someone watching his back, what happened at Midland Circle notwithstanding. Matt was touched, and had to pause for a moment before he let them know he was there. He didn’t want them to realize that he had overheard them. That, and he was pretty sure he looked terrible after last night, plus he was moving a little oddly due to Jessica’s punch, which had left him a very sore, and black and blue stomach.

He could smell coffee, though, and in his rush to arrive on time he hadn’t had any yet. He was so desperate for caffeine he was willing even to drink the coffee if Karen had made it. In fact, he might have to ask her to make him his own pot; he was so tired he was afraid he’d end up doing something dumb like forgetting to put the carafe under the stream.

Pausing outside the door, he straightened up, suppressed a hiss of pain from his bruised abs, and plastered a smile on his face. He knew he looked bad, but he wasn’t sure exactly how bad until he went in and heard both Karen’s and Foggy’s heart rates jump up about 50 beats a minute each. They were both silent for a moment before they rushed him, talking at once.

“Matt! What happened,” Karen asked as she ran to take his cane and steer him toward a chair.

“Matt, buddy! What the hell happened last night? I thought you were having dinner with Danny, Luke, and Jessica!” Foggy was alternating coming in close and quickly backing up again, obviously not sure what to do. “You look like shit, buddy. Don’t tell me you blew them off and went out Daredeviling,” Matt could hear the frown in Foggy’s voice and was quick to reassure him.

“No, no, I did meet up with them. I swear. And it was nice, really. I mean, Jessica punched me in the stomach when I first walked in,” Matt paused as he heard Karen’s sharp intake of breath. She reached a hand toward his stomach, but he brushed it away with a shake of his head. “I’ll be fine, really. And I did deserve it. I realize now that I shouldn’t have left them hanging like I did. And, can I get some coffee? Please? I was out till dawn, and I haven’t had any yet.” He trailed off, his head starting to pound from caffeine withdrawal. He must have looked as bad as he felt since Karen got up to fill him a cup without asking any questions.

“So, what, did Luke and Danny take turns on the rest of you? It looks like you got smacked in the face by a whip,” Foggy had finally succumbed to his need to be close to Matt, and was gently turning Matt’s face toward the window with his fingers so he could get a better look at the damage.

“Actually, it was the power cord from a printer,” Matt said sheepishly as he took the cup of coffee from Karen, “Thanks,” he told her, “this is exactly what I need.”

“A power cord?” “From a printer?” Foggy and Karen spoke over one another in their confusion. Matt had to laugh in spite of himself.

“Yeah, I know, it sounds weird. But… trust me we did have a great time. It was a little awkward at the beginning, but then we relaxed and it was good to catch up. I apologized for not having reached out sooner.”

“And they whipped you with a power cord?” Foggy interrupted. He and Karen were both confused, and starting to wonder if Matt had hit his head.

“No, no, that happened later,” Matt laughed. “Jessica needed to go to check up on something for a client. We decided to follow her, and if I’m honest a lot of whiskey went into that decision. Things went a little sideways, which is where the printer came from. I’ll spare you the details, but the cops arrested the guy just before 4. We split up then and I made it home before 5, grabbed about two hours of sleep and here I am. We agreed to stay in touch, though, maybe make dinner a regular thing if not the fighting.” Matt smiled at his friends, who he could tell were torn about how they felt on this subject.

“Well,” Foggy began slowly, “are you sure you want to be here today? No offense buddy but you really do look like shit. In fact, I’m not sure you should see any clients; I think you’ll scare them.”

Matt started to protest, but then paused, weighing Foggy’s words. It was true his appearance might be off putting to some of their older clients if Foggy and Karen’s reactions were anything to go by, and it was also true that he was trying to be more open about how he felt with Foggy and Karen - part of their agreement when they decided to work together again, but he honestly didn’t want to leave either, despite how gnarly he felt. He decided to come clean.

“Yeah, I know I probably look awful, and frankly I’m not feeling that great either, but I think I’d really rather be here with both of you than home on my own.” He paused to try to get a read on the others, but they were still and silent, heartbeats steady. More nervous now, he continued, “I could just hole up in the back, take care of the back end details, Foggy you could handle the face to face for the day,” he trailed off, as the others were still not giving him anything to work with.

Evidently, though, they had both come to a decision, “Sure thing, buddy,” Foggy said, standing, “Why don’t we clear off that table near the closet and you can work there for the day. It’s kind of hidden behind those weird Chinese screens my mom stashed up here, so no one will see you. And besides,” he said, with a glance at Karen, “I think I speak for both Karen and myself when I say that we’d probably be happier to have you here with us where we can keep an eye on you than have you off on your own, knowing that you’d be likely to jump off a fire escape or something just to help an old lady across the street.” He was smiling, Matt could hear it in his voice. Karen said nothing, but refilled his coffee cup and went to start clearing off the back table.

Matt smiled at Foggy in relief, glad to finally have no secrets between him and his friends - his family.

#daredevil exchange #daredevil fic #defenders #matt murdock #daredevilexchange

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clothingbrand1 · 4 years ago

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Guidelines for Anybody Who would like to Start out a Clothes Brand name

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how to start a clothing brand

In this article are a few strategies to any person all set to or considering about launching their own individual clothes line.

Idea # 1. Don't Rush

What I signify by that is choose your time when it comes to the start of your respective line. There may be a great deal of levels of competition to choose from these days, establishing some social media marketing web pages using a t-shirt coming shortly is not really likely to cut it. Have you ever ever received excited about a Fb site with twelve likes and "a clean new apparel brand coming soon"in the about me part? Me neither.

Tip # two. If you cannot style and design, then shell out someone that can.

A lot of street don start-ups launch their model with just their title inside a script font, screen printed over a black t-shirt. Now I am all for supporting a manufacturer, however, you want to no less than put some thought and creativity into your apparel, usually individuals will see that you'll be much like the rest of the clothing brands that have started off and failed. If you can't draw or style and design, pay someone who can. You happen to be gonna want stable types if you prefer to stand out and it will not have to be expensive. An awesome web-site for style and design do the job is called Designcrowd. This website makes it possible for you to put up your style and design brief, set your spending plan, then wait around for designers from everywhere in the entire world to write-up their entry and also you can opt for the best one particular.

Tip # 3 Really don't rip-off other folks!

Just about every brand wishes to be as productive as Obey, Stussy and Hype, but blatantly copying their strategies, style and ripping off their designs will not be planning to get you there. In reality, It really is much more likely to have a negative result simply because these models are very well known, highly regarded as well as their hundreds of fans will know that your outfits models usually are not primary.

Suggestion # four Imagine outside the box.

You've got most likely heard this stating right before and although it is much easier stated then done, a great method to start off will be to do a good bit of exploration to collect your own personal ideas. Check with you which kind of clothes do I would like to create? What are my favorite brand names? What do I appreciate in life? When you finally know the solutions to these thoughts then you can start to study brand names, jot down tips, choose photographs and doodle to actually make an image with the style of street don things you would like your brand to be manufacturing. But make sure you never dismiss idea selection 3 whilst doing your investigation!

Idea # five Analysis your product or service.

Given that you have got a handful of layouts or concepts that you would love to see printed on the t-shirt, it can be time for you to look into what organization you may use to supply your blanks. There are many companies which make blank outfits ready for printing so this component might be a little bit overwhelming, but choosing your funds and who your focus on industry is will seriously assist to slender down the choice.

Gildan and Fruit on the loom are at the most affordable end of the scale however they are likely to possess a boxier in shape and you're not likely to seek out a lot of reputable apparel brand names printing on them.

Tultex and Anvil print a great high quality tee for a fair selling price if you prefer a high-quality come to feel but your spending plan will never extend to high-priced blanks.

And on the greater finish are American Attire and Alternate Attire. Although these might be highly-priced, the quality is phenomenal and so they also have a range of colours and items which will make your model stand out through the rest.

Tip # 6 Don't lower corners.

If you want being taken severely being a brand name, creation will be the 1 position you need to do not need to rush or slice corners. Firstly, choose a good printing business. It'll cost you a great deal extra time, cash and energy inside the prolonged run should you commit to print having a man in his bedroom who prints your layouts wonky and gets chocolate stains on the t-shirts when he's printing them.

You will find numerous respected firms by typing in "Screen printers" in Google, and don't forget to shop all over. Octomuffin and Woven Inc are rated highly during the United kingdom.

Secondly, think about your brand name graphic. Would you like to generally be thought of being a experienced brand? In the event you do, then your going to want custom neck labels, swing tags and some neat packaging. This doesn't ought to be high-priced, but little touches like that will possess a long lasting impact on the client.

Lastly, don't print a lot of. Any time you initially release a structure, you'll have no clue how it will provide, so it truly is most effective to purchase a lesser quantity at the beginning to test the h2o. Really don't fret about promoting out swiftly, it's going to make your manufacturer appear common when you do so you can constantly just re-order far more.

Idea # seven Website, and pics.

You don't require a massive finances for making a good looking and practical web-site, there are so many e-commerce platforms readily available now which supply fantastic looking web sites for any minimal regular monthly price tag. Significant cartel, retail store envy, volusion and shopify are only the tip of your iceberg in terms of these.

As soon as you have selected your world wide web platform, get a domain. Domains are so affordable in recent times apparel manufacturers haven't any justification to not buy one particular, and it helps make you glimpse much a lot more professional whenever you arrive to start.

Now you are ready to upload your items and pictures. It's important to help make absolutely sure you can get some specialist searching pictures taken of your respective items and not types which look like they may have been taken on a three mega pixel mobile phone digital camera. Your shots tend to be the only way your consumers can connect with your merchandise over the web, should the pics are little, blurry or don't demonstrate adequate of the items depth, you happen to be possible not to receive a sale.

Idea # eight And now we wait.

After you to start with launch, the joy might be a bit as well a lot and you happen to be likely being expecting huge things inside of within a shorter duration of time. Try to remain grounded, things take time, a lot of time, so don't get disheartened if you have not offered out inside your initial thirty day period and just retain likely. It truly is also an excellent idea to test and acquire feed-back from family and friends to view should the merchandise are literally nearly as good when you think they may be.

And that's it, I really hope your observed this article appealing and hopefully a little practical, as I discussed before I'm not an expert while in the avenue have on market, but individuals are just a few of the points I've learnt along just how.

References Clothing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing

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ourladyhart · 5 years ago

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Ethical Gift Giving (But On A Budget)

I stumbled across this today and I absolutely love it! This is a fantastic chart to get you thinking about ways you can give during the holiday season whilst reducing our future impact on the environment and get creative at the same time. Definitely a win/win!

I have a couple of extra tips to add for those of us on a low income or those who are on a tight budget. The holiday season can be particularly tough when you’re living below the poverty line or are barely making your pay check stretch month to month. It can make us feel excluded or even ashamed of ourselves; and whilst this couldn’t be further from the truth – you are so valid regardless of your financial position – there are lots of different ways that you can still give and feel included with little to no funds.

Give Memories: Lovely photo frames are easily found at $2 shops or op shops; and if you don’t have access to a printer, you can print from your phone or USB at Kmart for about 10 cents a print. Our generation often forgets how nice it is to have physically framed photos and getting a photo that means a lot to your friend or family is a beautiful personal touch.

Total cost: Less than $5

Experience days don’t have to be a trip to the movies, an escape room or ice skating, and the cost of these activities can rack up quickly. Instead, you can make a “movie day” at home for you and a friend. You could even give them this gift in the form of a handmade “IOU 1 Movie Day”. Set up a picnic on the living room floor and watch your favourite movie together. You can also bake together or get some cheap snacks from the supermarket whilst you both veg out.

Total cost: Less than $10

Give Your Time:

I love this one! Again, you could hand make cute vouchers for these, “1 Day of Helping You Organise Your Wardrobe” or “1 Day of Building Your Website”, etc etc.

Remember, in this busy day and age sometimes all we want is actually just time spent with the people we love; and your company is often enough. If your friend suffers from chronic pain or a mental illness; they may love some help with cleaning. Perhaps they don’t often eat a home cooked meal and you could whip something up for them. These actions are often invaluable.

Total cost: Free – Your time

Upcycle:

Well you know this one is absolutely going to be my favourite! I am huge on street finds and items I procure; fixing them up and then passing them on. You can often find great items of furniture or knick knacks in council clean ups. It’s a good idea to check out when the next dates will be in your area; so you can get ready for some “late night shopping”!

If friends give me hand me down items throughout the year, they often come with “Oh, it was almost perfect, but…”. I listen to what they didn’t like about the original item then give it a total up cycle before giving it back to them. It’s often a lovely delight! My favourite of these was when an old flatmate gave me a sad looking lamp. I gave it a really good Tiki Bar sort of look (which she was obsessed with) and gave it back for Christmas. To this day, it’s her favourite object she owns.

Total cost: Free – $50 depending on which materials you use

I’m going to add three of my own sections in here:

Re-Gift:

We all get gifts throughout the year that we’re not sure why they were gotten for us but you’re not really sure what to do with. SAVE THESE ALL! I put all mine in a bag or box in my laundry so when Christmas time comes round, you’ve already got a haul of presents to give. My husband and I often get thank you gifts of alcohol from the community, but neither of us drink. Other people certainly do though and this is a lovely gift for people who do drink to receive.

I know there is a bit of controversy on re-gifting, but I know if I gave a gift that wasn’t quite right, I would love for it to be passed on to someone who could truly appreciate it.

Total Cost: Free

Save The Accessories:

I can’t recommend hanging onto gift bags, used wrapping paper, birthday candles, banners, and cards throughout the year. You can even ask friends or family at the end of their parties if you can have the gift bags or wrapping if they’re going to just throw them out. This saves SO MUCH money each year on having to buy new wrapping equipment, and it’s readily on hand when you need it. If you haven’t been doing this already, start now and put them in with your re-gifting stash for the end of each year. You’ll thank me next Christmas!

Total Cost: Free

Ask:

Your friends and family probably have a whole heap of storage stuff they haven’t been through in ages; and once they do will be looking to unload a lot of stuff. I love to help my friends organise their stuff in exchange for anything they want to give me. The old adage “Ask and you shall receive” is gold here, so pop on your thrifty hat and don’t be afraid to ask those around you if they’ve got anything they want to get rid of.

Total Cost: Free or Time

Buy Second Hand:

Op shops are my definitely jam, with about 95% of my clothes being second hand. My wedding dress was a $45 vintage dress from Vinnies Newtown.

Op Shops (or Thrift Shops for our American friends) are TREASURE TROVES of second hand trinkets, clothes, furniture, and weird things you can only imagine. Give yourself plenty of time to wonder around and let objects or clothes let themselves known to you.

Boutique antique stores can often come with a boutique price tag, but you can find just as wonderful vintage and antique pieces at markets or throughout op shops.

eBay and Gumtree are also great places to find items for a lot cheaper than RRP prices and you can often barter for a lower price or find something similar for a lot less.

Total Cost: $2 plus, depending on what you’re after

Make: One of the most sentimental gifts I made was with a $2 ball of wool and some knitting needles. I sat night after night and knitted my friend a scarf for her birthday. Along with it, I included a beautiful note about how the scarf helped me with my recovery after a hospital stay in June; and that I wanted her to always be warm and cosy. She wore it every day of Winter this year! Other things I’ve made over the years for gifts include hats (of course!), costume pieces, spell jars / spell kits often for success and love, candles, cookies, paintings and general pretty things.

Cooking or baking makes a lot of treats for minimal bucks. You can bake up a large batch of cookies, and even save a bit more cash by buying recipe boxes when they’re on sale at the supermarket. Decorate them then pop some into a tie up bag, it’s a super cute and delicious gift!

Total Cost: $2 plus, depending on what you make

Buy:

Finally, if you must buy; buy independently. Buy from small businesses, buy from artists. Your money will be funding groceries for another week for a family, or maybe even a special treat like going to the movies or purchasing new towels. Buy compassionately and support those who need it most. I can promise you the gift of support you give to these businesses and artists will cause the biggest smiles for Christmas; and that’s what spreading the true joy of the season is all about.

Bonus Tip!

You can also save money on feeding the masses by opting for food options designed to feed a lot of people at once. Meals like spaghetti bologanise, BBQ, pizza, rice and so forth may not be typically Christmassy; but they will stretch to feed a lot for less.

You can also ask everyone to bring a dish and then all the guests can share a bounty of food whilst keeping in with the community spirit.

Total Cost: $5 plus depending on what you make

#DIY #Christmas Ideas #Christmas Gift #diychristmas #tipsandtricks #lowincome #christmas on a budget #thrifty gift

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sciencespies · 5 years ago

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The Decade's Biggest Technology Disappointments

https://sciencespies.com/news/the-decades-biggest-technology-disappointments/

The Decade's Biggest Technology Disappointments

Like most teen years, the past decade in technology started out someplace relatively innocent before growing moody, dark and disillusioned. In 2010, we were excited about new iPhones and finding old friends on Facebook, not fretting about our digital privacy or social media’s threat to democracy. Now we are wondering how to rein in the largest companies in the world and reckoning with wanting innovation to be both fast and responsible.

Over the past 10 years, new technology has changed how we communicate, date, work, get around and pass time. But for every hit, there have been high-profile disappointments and delays. That includes overpriced gadgets for making juice, face computers, promises of taking a vacation in space and companies claiming to be saving the world.

The failures served a purpose, acting as reality checks for the technology industry and the people who fund, regulate or consume its products. Tech companies spent the last decade first trying to grasp, then distance themselves from, their impact on society. Facebook’s famously decommissioned “move fast and break things” motto sounded plucky in 2010 and laughably misguided in 2019, when the company had, in fact, broken things.

It was a decade when billions of dollars were thrown at tech companies, and yet many of the promises those companies made never materialized, blew up in our faces or were indefinitely delayed. And while tech failures are nothing new, taken together they brought the innovation industrial complex closer to earth and made us all a bit more realistic – if less fun.

Like proper adults.

The benevolent, world-saving tech company

“Don’t be evil” read Google’s famous motto, which sat atop its code of conduct until 2018, when it was quietly demoted to the last line.

At the beginning of the decade, that is exactly how many of the largest tech companies and CEOs marketed themselves. Their products were not only going to make daily life easier or more enjoyable, but they also would make the entire world better – even if their business models depended on ads and your personal data.

“Facebook was not originally founded to be a company. We’ve always cared primarily about our social mission,” chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a 2012 letter, just before the company’s initial public offering. He outlined lofty visions going forward, including that Facebook would create a more “honest and transparent dialogue” about government through accountability.

Instead, the decade turned toward disinformation, and hate speech spread on social media. Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube were used to spread disinformation ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, while Google briefly worked on a search engine for China that would censor content. Companies profited off mountains of user data they collected but failed to protect, as major data breaches hit Equifax, Yahoo and others.

In response, workers are pushing back, growing into quiet armies attempting to redirect their companies toward social goals.

Face computers

Google co-founder Sergey Brin debuted Google Glass in 2012 by wearing a prototype of the smart glasses onstage. Its real PR outing came later that year when skydivers live-streamed their jump out of a blimp above San Francisco during a Google developer conference.

By showing information in front of the face instead of on a phone, Google said, the $1,500 Glass would allow people to interact more with the world around them. Instead, its legacy has been questions about our right to privacy from recording devices, the word “glasshole,” and at least one bar fight. The company stopped selling Glass to consumers in 2015 and shifted it to a workplace product, targeting everyone from factory workers to doctors.

Google was not alone. Microsoft made HoloLens, a technically ambitious piece of eyewear that looked like round steampunk goggles and used augmented reality. Facebook bought virtual-reality goggle maker Oculus for $2 billion and heavily invested in and promoted it as a gaming and entertainment device (and the future of social media). Magic Leap, another augmented reality headset promising immersive and mind-blowing entertainment, managed to raise $2.6 billion and only release one $2,295 developer product.

Eventually we may wear glasses that display useful information on top of the real world, outfitted with smart assistants that whisper in our ears. Google’s early attempt at a consumer face-wearable was not destined to be that device.

A more efficient way of eating

Juice. Colorful, thirst-quenching, packed with vitamins, on-demand juice. It seemed an unlikely thing for Silicon Valley to try to disrupt. But in the 2010s, entrepreneurs’ impatience with preparing and even consuming the calories necessary to survive led to a number of eating innovations.

One of the decade’s most memorable tech failures asked the question: What if you spent $699 for an elaborate machine that squeezed juice from proprietary bags of fruit and vegetable pulp for you? The answer, discovered by intrepid Bloomberg journalists in 2017, is that you could squeeze those packets with your hands instead of overpaying for a machine. That machine was Juicero, and it raised $120 million in funding before shutting down just five months later.

Other food innovations have fallen fall short of their revolutionary promises. Smart ovens became fire hazards; meal-kit delivery start-ups went under; robots tossed salads, mixed drinks and flipped burgers; and pod-based devices for random foods (cocktails, tortillas, cookies, yoghurt, jello shots) failed. And then there’s Soylent – a meal in drink form, designed to save time by cutting out “tasting good” and “chewing.” Soylent has managed to find a small but enthusiastic fan base, and even got into solids recently with a line of meal-replacement bars called Squared.

The decade’s real food change came from delivery apps that pay on-demand workers to bring meals made in actual kitchens to your door. Those companies are dealing with employee protests over low and confusing pay while trying to become profitable.

Non-Facebook social networks

Remember Path? Color? Yik Yak, Meerkat and Google Buzz? And iTunes Ping, Apple’s short-lived attempt at making its music hub social? Start-ups and the tech giants alike launched social products over the past decade, but few succeeded.

In 2010 there was Google Buzz, which was quickly replaced by Google+ in 2011. The service struggled to attract users and experienced privacy issues, such as a bug exposing more than 52 million people’s data. It was finally declared dead this year, though some of its best features live on in Google Photos.

Vine burned bright for too short a time before being closed in 2016 by Twitter, which had bought the company for a reported $30 million in 2012. (Speaking of Twitter, it hung on thanks in part to its popularity with politicians, celebrities and people who are mad online, though it is far smaller than Facebook. Snapchat and TikTok have also carved out niches.)

Facebook dominated at the start of the decade and continues to dominate at the end, in part by buying or blatantly copying any competitors along the way. It acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, integrating both more closely with the Facebook brand. Even with major scandals and fumbles, its global user base grew to more than 2 billion people.

A crowdfunding, DIY revolution

For a short time, it looked as though the next generation of gadgets would come from outside the usual Silicon Valley idea factories. They would be dreamed up by passionate hobbyists, prototyped on 3-D printers and funded by fans instead of venture capitalists (though still manufactured in Shenzhen, China). Despite some notable successes – Oculus, Peloton, Boosted Boards – it turns out getting an idea from your cocktail napkin to market is pretty tough.

Notable failures include the disappointing Coolest Cooler, which featured both Bluetooth and a blender and raised more than $13 million on Kickstarter in 2014. It failed to deliver products to a third of its backers; many that shipped didn’t work. Others never materialized, such as iBackPack, which was supposed to produce a WiFi hotspot. The people behind it raised more than $800,000 and were accused by the Federal Trade Commission of using those funds to buy bitcoin and pay off credit cards. Skarp Laser Razor, a razor with dubious hair-removal technology, managed to get more than $4 million in pledges from interested customers before Kickstarter suspended its campaign for violating policies on working prototypes.

(Kickstarter said the vast majority of its products make it to production and that it aims “to be quite clear about the fact that not all projects will go smoothly.”)

Consumer 3-D printers also failed to live up to the hype. We were supposed to have a printer in every home, spitting out replacement LEGOs and screws, art projects, and even food. The high cost of the devices and the skills needed to use them could not compete with overnight shipping.

Drones dropping deliveries

“Could it be, you know, four, five years? I think so. It will work, and it will happen, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun,” Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said.

The year was 2013, and Bezos was on “60 Minutes” to unveil the next big thing in package delivery: drones. He said that within that time frame, quadcopters would be able to drop packages from warehouses at customers’ doors within 30 minutes. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

In 2016, Amazon showed off its first commercial drone delivery in a rural area of the United Kingdom, a 13-minute delivery of an Amazon Fire TV streaming device and a bag of popcorn. Its latest drone iteration was on display earlier this year at MARS, its weird tech conference, again promising that drone deliveries were coming soon.

But as of the end of the decade, Amazon packages are still being delivered by humans. In fact, Amazon announced in 2018 that it was adding 20,000 delivery vans via third-party delivery partners to its ground fleet. Other companies, including Uber, UPS and Alphabet’s Wing, have also been testing drone deliveries, and it’s possible that we will have boxes from the sky onto porches in the next decade.

Vaping to fix smoking

It was supposed to be safer than smoking and a way to quit nicotine altogether. While vaping has indeed caught on, its biggest selling point has blown up in recent years. Eight deaths and more than 2,500 cases of lung-related illnesses have been linked to vaping in the United States.

Critics say fun-sounding flavors and colorful devices, most notably from the company Juul, have made vaping wildly popular with teenagers – one in four high schoolers vapes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now the FDA and lawmakers are investigating vaping companies. But if we draw on experience from the cigarette industry, vaping is not likely to disappear anytime soon.

Amazon’s big phone play

Apple and Google have direct access to billions of people with their smartphone operating systems and hardware – 2.5 billion devices run Google’s Android operating system, and 900 million iPhones are in use.

One company noticeably absent from our pockets is Amazon, but not for lack of trying. After several years of stealth development, Amazon announced its Fire Phone in 2014. The smartphone did not look like much, started at $199, ran on a customized version of Android and was available only on AT&T. Amazon reported $83 million of unused inventory in late 2014, and it discontinued the Fire Phone a year after its introduction.

Now that Amazon is competing against those two companies for voice-assistant dominance, its lack of a smartphone is even more glaring. It has put Alexa in anything with a microphone, from cameras to headphones and, soon, eye glasses. (It is on smartphones, but you have to open the Alexa app first.) Meanwhile Apple’s Siri and Google’s Assistant are already in pockets, built into the core of the devices and listening for their next cue.

Tourists in space

It is no secret that big-name billionaires love space. Despite their passion, the three boldest aspiring space barons have made and missed deadlines for sending people into space this decade.

Richard Branson said Virgin Galactic would fly tourists into space by 2020, but its last test mission was two test pilots and a crew member at the start of last year. Bezos said at an Air Force Association conference in late 2018 that Blue Origin would send a test flight into the upper atmosphere with people on board this year, but the most recent test flight, on Dec. 11, contained no humans. In 2017, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX had taken deposits to fly two passengers around the moon in 2018. That flight did not take place. He has the whole next decade to hit a different goal, set in 2011: sending someone to Mars by 2031.

There are plenty of interested customers. Virgin Galactic has sold tickets to more than 700 people wanting to take a trip to space at $250,000 a seat.

If there is one thing on this list we would not want to rush just to meet a deadline, it is loading civilians into private rockets and hurling them into space.

#News

#12-2019 Science News #2019 Science News #Earth Environment #earth science #Environment and Nature #Nature Science #News Science Spies #Our Nature #planetary science #Science #Science News #Science Spies #Science Spies News #Space Physics & Nature #Space Science #News

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magzoso-tech · 5 years ago

Photo

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/the-decades-biggest-technology-disappointments/

The Decade's Biggest Technology Disappointments

Like proper adults.

The benevolent, world-saving tech company

“Don’t be evil” read Google’s famous motto, which sat atop its code of conduct until 2018, when it was quietly demoted to the last line.

In response, workers are pushing back, growing into quiet armies attempting to redirect their companies toward social goals.

Face computers

A more efficient way of eating

Non-Facebook social networks

A crowdfunding, DIY revolution

(Kickstarter said the vast majority of its products make it to production and that it aims “to be quite clear about the fact that not all projects will go smoothly.”)

Drones dropping deliveries

“Could it be, you know, four, five years? I think so. It will work, and it will happen, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun,” Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said.

Vaping to fix smoking

Amazon’s big phone play

Tourists in space

It is no secret that big-name billionaires love space. Despite their passion, the three boldest aspiring space barons have made and missed deadlines for sending people into space this decade.

There are plenty of interested customers. Virgin Galactic has sold tickets to more than 700 people wanting to take a trip to space at $250,000 a seat.

If there is one thing on this list we would not want to rush just to meet a deadline, it is loading civilians into private rockets and hurling them into space.

#Miscellaneous

0 notes

theonyxpath · 7 years ago

Link

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary art by Mark Kelly

I just got off the phone with an old friend wanting advice on their new Kickstarter they’re hoping to run. This is not the first time I’ve been asked to help friends new to the wonders of Kickstarter, and I’m always glad to give some thoughts. My first question is always: Why Kickstarter?

Just in working out that question, I’ve actually had folks realize that they did not, in fact, need crowdfunding for their project, and that by using KS they would actually be taking on a whole lot of hassle and expense they didn’t actually need. But their bosses thought Kickstarting was a magic money fountain, so they were pushed into using it.

Kickstarter is NOT a magic money fountain.

You can do quite well with the amounts raised, even in the tabletop RPG business (Hi, John! Hi, Monte!), but the KS and then the post-KS fulfillment is a huge amount of work that I guarantee eats up a huge percentage of the pledge dollars raised that aren’t ear-marked for printing and shipping the main KS rewards. It becomes a huge part of, if not the new focus of, your TTRPG company.

If you’re not careful.

C20 Ready Made Characters art by Aaron Riley

I never wanted Onyx Path to go “all in” on any one method of delivering our projects to our community, so I never used all those pledge dollars to hire KS fulfillment staff to take over for our developers or other creators, and I’ve tried to learn from our craziest KSs, many from before we really learned the stresses and demands of getting out all the varied Stretch Goals. I put those dollars aside in order to cover the costs of making all the projects from any given KS while using our normal development processes and staff.

That way, we’ve always been ready to pay each bill as it comes due. Which I kind of think is important long-term.

Along the same lines, I didn’t turn us into only doing Kickstarters for every book as a business model. We started with Deluxes, with covers we could not afford without the KS upfront money for specialty printers, then the Prestige covers that had effects that our PoD printer couldn’t do but which were the same (more or less) as our original print runs for the New World of Darkness lines.

And now we’ve added Kickstarters to fund traditional print runs larger than we have been doing, in order to use our new distribution connections to get into retail stores and do different sorts of projects like the Prince’s Gambit casual card game.

Basically, we have continued to evolve and improve our Kickstarter processes even while experimenting with different methods and kinds of projects. For example, we have not in the past felt the need to Kickstart our Chronicles of Darkness 2nd Edition core books. Partly, because of the idea I noted above about not putting all our eggs in one delivery method basket, and partly because we had plenty of ideas for 20th Anniversary WoD projects and only so much available time to run KSs.

Now, with us easing back on the 20th Anniversary books with the “Big Five” core books all out or in progress, and with WW revving up their first 5th Edition projects, there is time to experiment with KSing Changeling: The Lost 2nd. (See the Kickstarter part of the BLURBS!, below).

Having Jammin’ James Bell as our new Kickstarter wrangler and all-around good guy, has also helped open up a lot of what we can do with KS, especially next year once he has his sea-legs, and you are going to love what he’s got planned for the CtL2 Kickstarter. James can focus on making sure each Kickstarter campaign is an event, which is really what they should feel like considering all the time and energy our backers pour into them.

W20 Changing Ways art by the legendary Ron Spencer

And all this year we’ve been steadily delivering KS Stretch Goal projects as well, which we are very thrilled to be able to focus on, even to prepping for delivering Werewolf 20th Kickstarter backers their long-awaited free version of a W20 Dice Rolling App. (More on the whole Dice Rolling App another week, because it is not just for W20).

Finally, in all the madness of running KSs and delivering KS projects, we’re also looking towards making sure that our special Kickstarted books from 3 or 4 or 5 years ago can find good homes with folks that really want them. So, we’re having a sale at Indy Press Revolution for the last remaining Deluxe and Prestige books and screens that they have been selling for us!

The “last” until we send them more of our printer overruns to make available, that is. Check out the details in our IPR section of the BLURBS!, below!

This has run pretty long, actually, and I was planning on telling you more about our other “new guy”, Eddy Webb, and what he has been doing as a sort of “roving developer” for us, but that’ll have to happen next week. Until then, remember our motto:

Many Worlds. One Path.

BLURBS!

ON SALE!

Check out our Halloween Sale at IPR and get scary discounts on our Kickstarter printing overruns! If you missed a KS, wish you had upgraded, or just want a beautiful game book of your favorite 20th Anniversary WoD, or Chronicles of Darkness core books…THIS IS THE SALE FOR YOU! http://ift.tt/1pOsnTb

This includes products like:

Demon: The Descent Prestige Edition

Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition: The Dark Ages Deluxe Edition

Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Edition

W20 Book of the Wyrm Deluxe Edition

W20 Changing Breeds Deluxe Edition

…And much more! Lots of nice solid Storyteller Screens to pick up, too!

This 50% off sale runs until midnight Halloween night! Awhoooo!

It’s very SPOOKY here!

Welcome to DriveThruRPG’s Halloween Sale!

First, we have a super sale on Mummy: The Curse: http://ift.tt/2zej9nV

And then the big sale itself! Over 170 Onyx Path PDFs discounted! It’s terrifying!

http://ift.tt/2zuDvKm

KICKSTARTER:

The Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter is OVAH! Thanks to our energized and friendly 885 backers, we raised funds just shy of 800% of our funding goal, and we’re well set to finish Cavs and get onto the Stretch Goal projects! Thank you all again for your support!

NEXT, we’re pulling together the Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Kickstarter, and our Kickstarter muscle-man, Jammin’ James Bell, has got my notes and is speedily piecing the KS page together. We think folks will dig what we’ve got planned, with even a few surprises to keep things interesting! Because of some art delays, we aren’t going to be able to get this KS started on Halloween, which is hugely disappointing for appropriateness if nothing else, but early in November instead.

Which also means that our Trinity Continuum Kickstarter will start in early January – since it makes no sense to start a KS mid-December!

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook stores on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble). Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Andand six more more:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

And even more books are now on Amazon and the Nook store!:

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://ift.tt/1pOsnTb

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Is a life of running and hiding a life worth living? We say yes. There’s always something between the running and the hiding, and those moments of grace make it all worthwhile.

The Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology is a perfect companion piece to Changeling: The Lost, 2nd Edition. These stories spin tales of the Lost, of those abducted and enslaved by fairies. Those who escaped, but whose captors will stop at nothing to find them. These fairies summon forth the Huntsmen, primordial hunters who understand nothing but pursuit and capture. The Huntsmen are unstoppable monsters, and the Lost can only look to each other for respite, rare comfort, and rarer trust.

The Hedge parts on Wednesday and you can get the Advance PDF of The Huntsmen Chronicle Fiction Anthology for Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition at DTRPG.com!

For over 20 years, the artists of Mage: The Ascension have conjured spirits and constructed hypertech that can transform reality on a whim.

Within this retrospective, those artists and images depict the ever-changing face of magick. From the debut edition to the twenty-first century, this book explores the people behind the pictures, the process of putting such books together, the story behind Mage’s Tarot iconography, and more.

Featuring the artwork of Echo Chernik, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, Michael Gaydos, Mark Jackson, Leif Jones, Michael Kaluta, Steve Prescott, Alex Sheikman, Christopher Shy…and many, many more.

The Art of Mage: 20 Years and More has manifested on DTRPG in PDF and physical book PoD versions! Here: http://ift.tt/2iwP1Rr

A Land Where Legends Walk

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still living.

The Award-Winning Fantasy Setting Returns

Scarred Lands has been a favorite fantasy setting since the release of the Creature Collection for the d20 System in 2000. In subsequent years, over 40 titles were published for Scarred Lands, making it one of the most fully supported fantasy RPG settings ever and the premiere product line of Sword & Sorcery Studios.

Available in both 5th Edition and Pathfinder compatible versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://ift.tt/2fEO9YJ

http://ift.tt/2fELqyx

Heroes, Villains, and Others in Between!

This tome is a revision of the original book by the same title, originally published for use with 3rd edition rules for the world’s most popular roleplaying game. In this revised edition of The Wise & the Wicked, all the same characters have returned (and we’ve added some new ones, too!), for use with the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide.

Champions of Gods and Titans

The Wise & the Wicked introduces a rogue’s gallery of the Scarred Lands’ movers and shakers, characters who carry out the will of the gods or the fallen titans. These non-player characters can be friends, enemies, or simply convenient resources for the player characters in your game.

Inside, find villains such as King Virduk of Calastia, the Black Dragon, along with his wife, the beautiful (and black-hearted) Queen Geleeda; the Grand Vizier to King Virduk, the wicked warrior-mage Anteas; and the sinister general of Virduk’s northern armies, Archduke Traviak the Steel-Fisted. At the other end of the spectrum, meet the gracious Lady Ariniel, the Swan Knight, champion of Madriel; Kimer the Shatterer, bearer of the Earth Sword of Scarn and tenacious foe of the titanspawn of the north; and King Thain the Just, the Aleking, ruler of Burok Torn. And many others beside!

Here you’ll find a fascinating compendium of characters from the Scarred Lands, but easily transported into campaigns set elsewhere. In addition, find multiple appendices full of new magic items and artifacts, class archetypes and prestige classes, new feats, new creatures and races, and more.

Available in Pathfinder and 5th Edition versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://ift.tt/2zdVHXS

http://ift.tt/2zeEpd8

From out of the Dreaming, the C20 Jumpstart: Yours To Keep PDF and PoD are now live on DTRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2fmlF3s

There is magic hiding everywhere. You just need to know where to look.

You are a changeling, a faerie soul hiding in a mortal body, fighting the chill of Nightmares and the oppressive weight of Banality with the pure creative power of Glamour. You have lived many lives, but the story of this one? It outshines them all.

In this hidden world, knights in steel and leather clash sword to sword outside the homecoming dance, dragons fly between skyscrapers, and fantastic castles rise from suburban lawns. A world of magic, intrigue, and adventure, and now that your fae side has awakened, it’s your world too.

“Yours to Keep” includes a rules and setting overview, as well as pre-generated characters and a complete introductory scenario for Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition. It’s perfect for jumpstarting a new Changeling chronicle!

The PDF and PoD versions of C20 are now on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2w4Eq2m

Twenty years ago, White Wolf published Changeling: the Dreaming, the fifth of their promised five game-lines that together comprised the World of Darkness. Seen by some as a lighter, more fantasy-based setting in the modern-day, and by others as the darkest game White Wolf had yet created, players had to face the question of what happens once creativity and magic fades from their world.

This 20th Anniversary Edition of Changeling: the Dreaming returns to that deceptively bright yet terrifying world and both compiles and completes the concepts of the previous two editions. Led by veteran White Wolf and Onyx Path developer “Blackhat” Matt McFarland, our writing team consists of longtime Changeling creators like Ian Lemke, Jackie Cassada, Nicky Rea, and Peter Woodworth, as well as familiar names such as John Snead, Maggie Carrol, Matthew Dawkins, and Krister Michl. One and all are dedicated to making Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition the most playable edition yet – while not losing the wonder, awe, and majesty that Changeling is known for.

A revised and up to date look at the World of Darkness through the eyes of the Kithain – what has happened to the Dreaming in the last 20 years, and what is the state of Glamour and dreams?

Rules for all of the kiths including in 2nd ed, plus fan favorites from other books: selkies, piskies, clurichaun, and both Arcadian and Concordian sidhe.

Rules for the Gallain: The inanimae, the hsien, the Nunnehi, and others!

An overhauled and reimagined system for fae magic, including new Arts and the powerful but dangerous practice of Unleashing!

New full-color beautiful artwork as well as classic Changeling illustrations including remastered full page pieces of the kiths by Tony Diterlizzi.

Calling all Good Dogs! The Pugmire Core Rulebook PDF is now available on DTRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2wAaAp3

And the actual physical book, screen, and dice, are available to order on the IPR and Studio2 websites!

Studio2: http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing. There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more!

CONVENTIONS!

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. November 2-5: http://ift.tt/2xsOnuzMyself, Monica Valentinelli (Hunter: the Vigil 2e, Dark Eras), Manda Collis (Exalted 3e), Scott Holden (Scarred Lands), Matt M McElroy (Operations Manager) and other folks from the OPP crew will be there!

Also in November, the Onyx Path crew including Rich, Matt, Lisa, Neall, Dixie, and Meghan will be at the first ever PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, November 17-19. http://ift.tt/2kBzmfv

In December, Matthew Dawkins, Dave Brookshaw, and Eddy Webb are going to be at Dragonmeet in London. https://www.dragonmeet.co.uk/ Expect plenty of playful class warfare as these three mix it up, represent Onyx Path, and generally redefine the term “hooligans”.

Planning ahead for 2018, we’re heading back to Midwinter Game Convention in Milwaukee, January 11-14, where we’re going to be bringing a big crew of many of your favorite Onyx Path designers and we’ll be running demos and making some special announcements at the show! http://midwintergamingconvention.com

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Redlines

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Scion: Origin (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WW Manuscript Approval:

Editing:

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Cavaliers of Mars – Need to figure out new art budget and I’ll get to contracting that.

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Book of Freeholds

DtD Enemy Action

Changeling: the Lost 2 – Artists are arting.

Trinity Continuum – Splats for core book with Mr Jones, prepping multi-cover single piece of artwork for illustrator.

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Beast PG

Pugmire/Scarred Lands Community Content

VtR Half Damned

Pentex Indoctrination Manual

Proofing

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Second proof going out to devs today.

Wraith 20 – Waiting on layout proof notes from RichD.

M20 Cookbook – At WW for approval.

Becket’s Jyhad Diary – At WW for approval.

C20 Ready Made Characters – Second proof going out today.

At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – On a boat to the US. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Waiting for PoD proofs.

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – Deluxe Edition cover and Screen in the works. Full proof sheets arriving tomorrow.

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology PDF – Advance PDF going on sale Wednesday.

Pugmire Trick, Condition, and Initiative Cards – PoD proofs ordered.

V20DA Jumpstart – Errata phase.

Prince’s Gambit – Errata phase.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: It’s Weird Al’s birthday! You ever notice how many of his song stylin’s are about food? I Love Rocky Road, Eat It, My Bologna – the list goes on.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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ricardodcbm775-blog · 5 years ago

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Availing Weekly Delivery of Flowers

"Everybody desires their IT services totally free. When you become the CIO, you've got to find an answer to the awful question of just who's going to pay you for all of those fancy IT services that your department can supply.

Sometimes there's a single IT budget for the whole company that everyone draws from. However who gets what? Does everyone get the very same amount? Do successful departments get more IT services than other departments? If they do not, then will they begin to establish their own IT department? It appears like another issue that you're going to need to solve when you are the CIO ...

Spending plan, Budget, Who's Got The IT Budget plan? In the majority of the civilized world, clean drinking water is easily readily available all the time. Given that it's always readily available and we do not really pay quite for it, we use it like there is no tomorrow.

Who appreciates leaky faucets? Run the yard sprinklers, fill the pool, and so on - there's really no charge to being wasteful with the stuff. This is all great and good until something occurs. When there is an unexpected shortage of water, suddenly we end up being much more familiar with simply how valuable it is.

I reside in Florida and when a hurricane (or the risk of one) looms, bottled water is what everyone starts to stockpile on. We can go without electricity for days, but not water.

The services supplied by IT are the exact same method - if no one has to spend for the helpdesk, or the onsite support, or the printer paper, then all of us utilize them like they were totally free - which they essentially are. As a CIO you have actually got a loan problem. The internal consumers that you serve are going to want you to do more and more for them while at the exact same time they are going to anticipate to not have to spend for any of it. Sounds like you have actually got a problem on your hands.

Flower Power Tim Moran has had a look at how the company has dealt with this very issue. When it comes to 1-800-Flowers, they had actually produced a problem by purchasing other business who occurred with their own IT departments. They centralized the IT services; nevertheless, they were entrusted 14 different brand names and businesses.

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Each of these separate businesses uses IT services; nevertheless, they didn't need to spend for them - the IT financing came out of a main spending plan. This suggested that everybody did not hesitate to demand as many laptops, Blackberrys, and cellular phone as their little hearts desired since they were all, efficiently, free to them. You can think of the CIO headaches that this was triggering - there was no financial IT positioning.

Pay To Play Conserves The Day There is a great deal of discuss how CIOs require to discover methods to innovate within their departments. Over at 1-800-Flowers CIO, Steve Bozzo revealed some development when he chose to fix this problem by starting to charge each of the company's brand names for the IT services that they were using.

It turns out that this isn't truly all that hard to do. There are plenty of excellent software application out there that allow you to do this type of item-by-item billing using the Internet to offer online access to the bills. The real obstacle is filling all of the data into the system in the first location.

There will be difficult decisions in numerous locations. Where servers are being utilized to support applications that are used by numerous departments you are going to have to discover methods to divide up the expenses between all celebrations involved. Bozzo went about transitioning to this new method of doing service in a creative fashion.

As soon as the internal billing system was set up, he right away started sending out the organisation heads so-called ""mock expenses"" that showed them what their IT costs would have been if the chargeback procedure was actually being utilized. This, of course, triggered some shocked service executives to have some rash discussions with IT.

The new IT billing system went ""live"" at the start of 1-800-Flowers new . Having seen the mock expenses and having had time to reduce their IT costs somewhat allowed each of business units to request the proper funding for their part of the annual IT budget plan. No solution is perfect, however this approach enabled 1-800-Flowers to get a handle on their IT costs.

What This All Method For You 1-800-Flowers is now able to allocate every dollar in its IT budget plan to a company system. This includes their whole infrastructure management from servers, security, voice services, to network services.

What this has permitted the business to do is to finally get a true insight into just precisely where all of the cash that they are investing in IT is going. Although it might not remain in your CIO task description, when you end up being CIO supplying this kind of transparency into your IT spending plan would be a good idea.

Once you are able to convince your firm's senior management that you are certainly spending carefully the money that they've allocated to you, then they'll be most likely to offer you with additional funding to work on those new tasks that you actually wish to work on."

#flowers #flowers wholesale

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seriouslyhooked · 8 years ago

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Wedded Bliss and Asterisks (A Modern CS AU) Part 2/?

Emma Swan is an enemy of love who just happens to be an up and coming wedding dress designer. She’s convinced that a fairytale kind of romance is nowhere in her future but when she meets Killian Jones, whose magazine is covering the opening of her new boutique, things change. Suddenly Emma finds herself drawing up new plans for her life, ones that seem to all be leading towards her own form of wedded bliss. Rated M.

Part One Here. Also on FF Here.

A/N: I just want to start by thanking all of you who reviewed and commented for the lovely response to the start of this story! As promised, this chapter brings us Killian’s POV and as such we can see that this is hardly a one-sided infatuation. Hopefully you all enjoy and let me know what you think!

Killian Jones had a million and one things on his plate. That was the nature of his job, as the editor in chief of Citizen NY. His time was rarely his own, thousands of people depended on him, and the absolute perfect story was always just out of reach. There was always something else coming down the pike that was bigger and better and that needed to be uncovered by his team, so try as he might Killian could never clear the ledger. There would always be more to do and achieve and aspire to.

Despite the hectic pace Killian loved that part of his work, this need to constantly be on the go was familiar to him and brought comfort when to most people it would bring nothing but pain and stress. He was good at this, finding a kind of adrenaline rush in getting the magazine to press each week and pursuing the best stories, the best photographers, and the best artists to be a part of this publication that was by all accounts his living legacy. It was always tasking to get each issue off the ground despite the bevy of support he had from his more than competent staff and often-silent co-owners. This was hardly a low-stress industry and that was just the way Killian liked it.

There was only one slight hiccup in the normal current of his life and it had been present for a few months now, or rather she had been present: the transfixing women on the train who held more life in those wide green eyes of hers then he’d witnessed ever before. It was his job to know people, to see things, to chronicle for the record big moments and important figures, to set tastes and frame the narrative, but there was just something about her that outshone all that.

Case in point here he was, swamped on a day where there were deadlines and meetings a plenty and all he could think of was that enigmatic look she’d sent his way hours ago and the way her voice washed across his skin when she spoke to their fellow passenger about the drawing she was working on. On the one hand Killian had been elated – the siren had spoken and that was a gift indeed, but it wasn’t to him, much as he wanted it to be.

It also wasn’t enough. Killian didn’t know much of anything about her, not where she worked or if she actually utilized whatever kind of drawings the man commented on this morning for said occupation. He didn’t even know her name, but it didn’t matter. He’d been granted a snapshot into who she was by riding the train alongside her and what he saw through that window was fast becoming the highlight of his world. How could a practical stranger feel like the most important thing in his life when he had all this? He didn’t know the answer. All Killian knew was there was this sense of loss in moments like this one when he wasn’t in her presence.

Just get to the end of the day, Jones. She’ll be waiting for you then. The thought brightened Killian’s mood substantially even if he knew he should be embarrassed about the power one perfect stranger held over his emotions.

For a long time now, this mystery woman had been the deciding factor in the worth of any given day. The best successes at work were always heightened by the glimpse of her smile or undone by her absence from the line, and afternoons spent talking budgets or quarterly meetings were vastly improved by the moment their eyes caught across the train car.

It was borderline ridiculous really, how enamored Killian was with the entrancing blonde who happened to ride the same train as him day in and day out, but it couldn’t be helped. There was just something about her that called to him and that made the rest of the world fall away. The all-consuming business of his life, the break-neck pace that he kept to make his magazine and his company a success, it gave way to her. She was the answer to problems he hadn’t even realized he was grappling with.

“Mr. Jones?” Killian’s head snapped towards the speaker on his desk through which his assistant (who everyone fondly referred to as Tink) spoke. He picked up the phone and smiled as he replied.

“Let me guess: there’s someone in the waiting room who would find it suspicious if you called me by any of those mocking nicknames you’ve so kindly bestowed on me with Will?”

“Yes, sir. You’re brother is here, hoping to speak with you before the meeting.”

Killian bit back a groan. He loved Liam, he really did, but in the midst of a day like this when two of his head columnists had called out for personal matters, the printers were citing technical difficulties, and he’d only managed to have three cups of coffee, Killian didn’t want to deal with his brother. Not that he had much of a choice, seeing as his brother was largely in charge of the family fund that made all of this possible. He was a silent investor in Citizen NY (just as Killian was) come to check on his investment. That he’d decided to ambush Killian wasn’t a surprise. Liam was a shrewd businessman and more than a little tough on Killian hoping to see him succeed.

“Send him in then.” Tink agreed and in a moment his doorway was filled with his brother’s frame and appraising look. Liam glanced around their surroundings, not intending to scrutinize, but doing it all the same and then he turned to Killian and continued his silent analysis.

“Liam, it’s good to see you.”

“No it isn’t. It’s a damn tedious headache in the scheme of your day and you know it.”

Killian grinned at that and Liam did the same, pulling Killian in for a brisk hug. Some of the tension was cut away now but Liam’s mission, whatever it was, hadn’t changed. If Killian knew his brother (and he did very well) then whatever it was would remain the forefront of the meeting no matter what.

“Blunt as always, brother. Let me rephrase: What can I do for you on this rather unfortunately crazed day?” Liam took a seat and Killian did the same back around his desk.

“Just coming to check in. I was hoping you’d changed your mind about all this, but with the returns I just got from the quarterly report I doubt that’s likely.” Hardly. Nevertheless Killian was surprised at the semi-direct praise. Liam must really be impressed if he’d even given credence to the profit Citizen turned.

“So if you knew that then why come at all?” Liam cleared his throat and straightened up some from his already immaculate posture in his chair. This meant he was finally ready to get down to business.

“It’s come to my attention that we’re approaching a crossroad.”

“Is that right?” Killian asked, thrown off slightly by his brother’s sudden flustered expression. Usually Liam was the picture of austere control. Right now though he seemed younger and a bit bashful, which Killian was completely astounded by.

“Aye. Oh I’ll just come right out and say it. Neither of us is getting any younger and I think it’s time we both of us settled down.”

A beat past and then another before Killian broke and found himself laughing harder than he had in a very long time. This was an absolutely phenomenally delivered joke and Killian couldn’t help but laugh heartily at it. His brother, the adamantly work-oriented control freak, was thinking of settling down? That was jus too rich. But when Killian collected himself again Liam remained there completely unimpressed. Only then did it begin to dawn on him that Liam might actually mean it.

“You’re serious?” Killian couldn’t believe it.

“I am. I’ve consulted an elite relationship consultant -,” Oh Jesus.

“You mean a matchmaker.” Liam blinked at the interruption. “Just call it what it is, brother.” Liam ignored that request entirely and pressed on.

“I’ve given her our requirements and backgrounds. She’s come back with some suggestions. Five for each of us.”

“Oh it’s us now, is it?” Liam harrumphed at that. “Have you actually gone mad?”

Killian didn’t know why he even bothered to ask the question. If Liam thought it was at all appropriate or necessary for him to look not only for a wife for himself but for Killian too then he was more than daft. And what was all this talk about requirements? Did Liam really expect Killian to consider such a scheme, one where they bulleted out lists of what the ideal woman might consist of? It was sheer nonsense and he wanted absolutely no bloody part of it.

“It’s a smart move, Killian, a wise investment in the future of our company and our family.”

“Can you hear yourself right now, brother? You’re looking at marriage like it’s a business. It’s not some bloody contract negotiation.” Killian realized too soon that he’d allowed Liam an in with that metaphor.

“That’s literally what a marriage is, Killian. The service guarantees companionable compatibility and discreteness -,”

“Let me just stop you right there, Liam. There is no way in hell that I am ever submitting myself to such an arrangement and I know, you fancy yourself a man above emotion, but even you deserve actual love, brother. Not some woman who fits you on paper, but one who means the world for reasons you can’t explain. You won’t find that this way. You’ll be settling for less than what makes marriage worth it.”

Killian expected coldness or maybe anger at his rebuttal but what he didn’t expect was a smile to appear after Liam had a moment to digest Killian’s words. His brother leaned back and grinned like the cat who caught the damn canary. It was unsettling and Killian felt himself go red, which only added to Liam’s delighted response.

“You’ve already found someone and you didn’t tell me!” Busted. Killian was so totally busted.

“I beg your pardon?” The feigned ignorance didn’t work at all and Liam just steamrolled over his questioning tone.

“So either you’re embarrassed of her or you haven’t told her how you feel. I almost hope it’s the former. If it’s the latter we are in rougher shape then I expected.” Killian ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“I never said anything about finding someone at all.” It was a weak reply and Killian knew it. Liam looked liable to contradict and dig for more when a knock sounded at the door and Tink’s head popped in.

“I’m sorry, sir, but you have that staff meeting starting.”

Killian hoped his relief wasn’t incredible obvious but in many ways his prayers had been answered. He was spared this conversation with his brother, who Killian was convinced was actually a little crazy. Who was this man hell-bent on matrimony and what had he done with his elder brother? Liam meanwhile stood up and buttoned his jacket back up, that shit eating grin still plastered on his smug face.

“When I get back from London you’ll introduce us.” Introduce them? Killian hadn’t even said a word to the woman in question. What was he going to do, walk up to her with a smile and an offer to meet his family day one? Not bloody likely.

“No I won’t.”

“Oh yes you will, or I start making these little visits a daily occurrence.” Killian groaned.

“Don’t you have an empire to oversee?” Liam laughed and slapped a hand on Killian’s shoulder.

“Sometimes work can wait.” Killian scoffed.

“Since when?”

“Since right now.”

With that Liam left and Tink stared after him, clearly surprised at the lingering smile. It was so rare an occurrence that she probably hadn’t witnessed it in all the years she worked for Killian. He understood the feeling. Everything his brother had just said left him relatively shell shocked despite years of thinking himself beyond being surprised. Killian was still staring after Liam and fighting off ideas of introducing him to the woman on the train (which was actually certifiable since she probably wanted nothing to do with him) when Tink spoke out, pulling him to the present.

“You okay?” Killian nodded as he buttoned his suit and readied himself to head to the meeting.

“Aye. Just Liam being Liam.” Tink nodded as if she understood though Killian wasn’t sure anyone could.

“You know there’s a foolproof way to assure him right?” Killian raised a brow at her statement. Did she listen in somehow to the meeting? No, she couldn’t have and even if she could Tink wasn’t that kind of employee.

“Is there now?”

“Well according to Ariel in the marketing office we could sell an extra ten thousand subscriptions easy if you included a photo of yourself on the letter from the editor.”

Killian barked out a laugh appreciating the joke from Tink and glad for the fact that she didn’t actually know what the meeting was really regarding. He played along with her jest, however, not interested in hashing out the true cause for his brother’s bizarre visit.

“If Liam isn’t reassured by our already fantastic earnings then nothing will change his mind, love, not even my smiling face winning hearts across the city.”

“All right, all right, no need to get a big head about it. It was just a thought.” Killian shook his head as he smiled and they departed for the meeting, finding that the conference room was already full of people all waiting for him.

“Right then. Let’s just jump right in. Where are we at with the next issue?”

“What, no hello?” Killian smirked at his second in command, Will Scarlet, who sat across from him at the other head of the table with a smile on his face.

“Hello. Now, status updates?”

Will sighed dramatically as some people around the table laughed, but Killian knew underneath Will’s goofy and comedic exterior was a man just as driven and focused as him. They had been best mates since childhood and though Killian never understood how Will managed to be so good humored all the time, he respected it. It made for a more relaxed chain of command. His friend had found a sweet spot between demanding the best of their employees and still keeping things light enough to not make the work a chore.

“Everything is all set for this issue. No last minute headaches despite the staff changes. We’re in good shape. As for next issue… we’ve got a couple of holes to fill most notably features.”

“What happened to the piece on that guy trying to build a castle on eighteenth?” Killian looked over to Sydney, the man who’d been writing said piece.

“Just got sued for fraud, all assets frozen, so bye-bye castle.”

“Well that’s shit luck. Okay so what else have we got?”

A few of Killian’s writers pitched ideas but none of them felt right. He’d learned to trust his instincts on matters like this and he had a pretty good read on the public and their audience in particular. He wanted something fresh but approachable. This was a feature and it should tell a story that was unique but identifiable.

“I might have something… but it isn’t fully developed. I was thinking of saving it for a while but it actually might be better to do it now.”

Killian looked to one of his newer writers, Belle French, who was seated only a few spots away from him. She had been hired less than a year ago from a bigger publication. She was a definite asset to their team and her best skill was her ability to be discerning. Belle didn’t follow a story for the sake of filling pages. If she had a hunch, he was willing to follow it.

“Hit me.” She smiled and laid it out for them all.

“There’s a new place, not too far from here actually, that’s a one stop shop for weddings: planning, cakes, dresses, media announcements you name it...” Killian found himself interrupting despite his usual tendency to listen fully.

“Matchmakers?” Belle smirked and shook her head.

“No, but I’ll pass along the suggestion. That would be a riot. Anyway, they even have an in-house dress designer. She’s fantastic, a rising star and easily the biggest selling point.”

“Who is it?” One of the women asked across the table and Belle replied but at that moment Killian’s phone buzzed with a text from Liam.

L: Two weeks brother. I mean it!

Killian cursed, and put his phone away, apologizing. He’d missed the name of the designer, but it didn’t matter. Her name was a mere detail, and it was clear from some of the new excitement around the room that there was name recognition there.

“Sounds good. But is it a story?” Belle smiled and leaned forward a bit, eager to tell them all.

“That’s the thing. They’re all friends. They met day one of college orientation and they’re all incredibly different. One’s old money from Newport, another was in the foster system. But they’re confident enough to launch something like this and from everything I read online their first day has been going great.”

“How do you know all this? What’s your in?”

“I met one of the friends through her last job. She might have more industry contacts then I do.” Killian chuckled at the thought. It was very unlikely, after all, given Belle’s resume.

“And it’s never been done? There aren’t any other one-stop-shops for marital bliss?” Belle shook her head, smirking at his phrasing.

“Not like this there aren’t.” Killian nodded.

“Then run with it, but keep me updated.”

“Will do boss.” Killian noticed the clock at that moment across the room and promptly jumped from his seat. It was later than he’d expected and time to get home. If he didn’t hurry he was going to be late for his train.

“Okay then. That’ll be all today. See you all tomorrow.” With that everyone was dismissed but as Killian rushed down the hall, he was stopped by a smiling Will.

“You’re certainly in a hurry mate. Afraid you’ll miss the train? You do realize you have a company car at your disposal, and oh wait, any of the dozen cars your brother has to choose from.” Killian grumbled about his friend being too nosey for his own good.

“I’m watching my carbon footprint.” That was a lie and the truth was he’d gone on the train one week because his car had been in the shop and had stumbled upon his own personal angel. The want to drive never returned and he’d been train bound ever since.

“Bull shit! What’s it really about? You join one of those performance troops or something? Are you a flash-mobber now? Or perhaps mariachi is more your speed.” Killian rolled his eyes as he grabbed his bag and made sure he had everything before walking out of his door again.

“You’re looking for an angle that isn’t there.” Will laughed again, following Killian as he moved through the floor.

“Now you’re lying to me?! You know that’s only going to make it worse, right? I’m a journalist. It’s my nature to investigate when someone doesn’t want me to.” Killian’s prayers for a quick elevator wait were answered when the moment he pressed the button the door opened.

“So I should start digging deeper into the feelings you have for Belle?” Will blanched as Killian stepped into the elevator car and he smirked. “Yeah I know about it, and no it’s not obvious. Just a reminder not to come at me of all people with that kind of threat.”

“Whatever it is, it must be good,” Will said after collecting himself and Killian couldn’t help but think that his stranger was better than good. She was perfect.

“Goodnight, Will.”

The doors closed as his friend waved goodbye and Killian moved quickly from there. He wove through the street down the block to the station and managed to get there just in time to make his usual train. It brought a sense of profound relief and then excitement in its least tamed form. The adrenaline rushed to the surface and as the train car moved to her stop and all he could hope was that she’d be here, than he’d catch a glimpse of the woman who was never far from his thoughts in their days and nights apart.

When her stop arrived Killian was worried that she wouldn’t come, but after an influx of people before her, he spotted her golden hair tied back tight. He was spellbound by her but he had to try and keep his cool. He realized that was likely impossible, and there was a very good chance the lady was simply too kind or too wary of his constant leering to say anything, but he attempted to be discrete as she found a spot across the car.

God she’s gorgeous.

The thought was an obvious one, but it couldn’t be denied. Killian worked with words for a living but they failed them when it came to her. She so far superseded radiant or magnificent. She deserved a language all her own and as her attention turned from the car around them to her drawing pad Killian felt freer to observe her. He must have lost himself in the process though, for a few moments later he felt an arm shoving into him from the seat beside where he was standing.

“Are you just going to stare at her all night, or are you going to man up and introduce yourself?”

Killian stammered a bit in reply at the old woman who had chastised him and he looked to the man beside her who only shrugged and smiled as he held the woman’s hand.

“My wife doesn’t have great manners, but she does have a point.”

Killian was a bit thrown by having someone actually speak to him on the train (he would bet anything that they were tourists) but his eyes naturally moved back to his stranger. This time, however, her eyes were on his and a moment past where the whole world simultaneously clicked into place and fell away entirely. He was tangled up in a host of feelings he was unfamiliar with that always found him when she was near. There was need and desire, wonder and awe, but there was something deeper, a sensation that they knew each other or that they were meant to.

“What are you waiting for?” The old lady whispered and Killian cleared his throat.

Fuck it. I’ll never know if she’s interested unless I ask, right? Besides Liam will use that weird new sixth sense of his to muck up my life somehow if I don’t.

Killian was about to get it together and actually move her way when the shrill ring of a phone cut through the whirring ambient hum of the train. He was remiss to find that it was hers, but there was a slight balm on his feelings when he heard her answer. Despite the bit of bite he could hear in her words, it was still the most surreally beautiful sound he’d ever heard.

“Ruby, I was just there. What could possibly have gone wrong since I left?” Killian stood there paralyzed and he dropped his gaze. It moved back to the older couple and the woman tutted remorsefully.

“Well that’s just bad luck. Perhaps she’ll hang up before your stop.” At that moment the bell sounded and the automated voice sounded out his station.

“Unfortunately not.” Killian was about to move towards the door when the old man spoke once more and left him with some final words.

“Take my advice, son. We only get so many tomorrows. You gotta make the most of them.” Killian nodded and bid the couple goodnight but as he slipped out the door and took one last look at the train, he swore that the woman looked as sorry to see him go as he was to leave her.

That’s it. Tomorrow this ends. Tomorrow I man up and ask her to dinner.

The resolution in his chest was empowering and with this new path decided on, Killian felt better than he had in a long time. There was a not so subtle sense of hope that clung to him from the train to his home and then well into the night. Because maybe, just maybe, being brave would pay off and he’d get the chance not just to admire this woman but to know her too, and Killian could hardly think of a single thing in the world that he wanted more than that.

Post-Note: So this story is coming to me in waves but it’s so nice to be at the start of a plotline again. Anything is possible and nothing is set in stone (except for the fact that CS end up happy and there’s lots of smuff along the way). I know some of you are probably a little impatient and were wishing for more meaningful contact between our two heroes this week, but next week will bring that for us. I wouldn’t call this a slow burn so much as a slow-for-me-burn. Anyway, thank you all so much for reading and let me know what you think! I love the feedback and am so interested in hearing what you all are hoping/imagining for the story.

#captain swan #cs modern au #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #captain swan au #cs au #cs fic #cs ff #cs fluff #emma swan #killian jones #will scarlet #belle french #liam jones #ouat au #wedded bliss and asterisks #wedded bliss 2 #cs multichapter #cs mc

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poppykendo6-blog · 6 years ago

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Freelance Friday 038 – January 18 2019

Today is the last day to get this Google Analytics Course from my friend Cinthia. I went through it and it’s great.

This week was my first real productive week back at work for 2019, and even then my wife has been sick so I’ve been doing a bit more around the house than usual during work hours. I also started to try lay out my priorities for my actions. The short list I came up with for the week was:

Family

Outside/exercise

Reading/Education

Business

I’ve been doing some documentation and updating of that to the camera this week and you should see that in the coming weeks. What is your list, and how is your day to day time spent reflecting that?

If you’ve found my content helpful then new in 2019 I’ve opened up a Patreon page. You can help ensure that more helpful content keeps coming.

Monday I shared the homescreen setup of my 12.9” iPad Pro. If you’re looking to go iPad first, then get a few tips about your setup.

My friend Adam did a review of my book The Art of Focus for episode 40 of Should I Read It. He recorded it with the built in mic on his phone and I did a very little bit of processing to cut some breath sounds. I was surprised how good it turned out.

It is the time of year to be sick, unfortunately. Wednesday I shared a vlog of a day of sickness at my house and how I was trying to deal with a few deadlines that had to happen. Love to hear how you deal with being sick and work.

If you’ve been looking to do podcasting with your iPad then you’re in luck because I took a look at Ferrite Recording Studio for The Sweet Setup. I don’t edit audio any other way anymore, Ferrite is just way more awesome than any other app I’ve had my hands on.

1. Not the only one doing iPad Web Development

Eric in Laravel News:

The idea of working entirely from an iPad has always appealed to me. The portability, the battery life, and of course the touch screen makes it an excellent device.

The downside is that everything is sandboxed. You can only run programs from the App Store which makes doing crazy things like installing a development server on the machine unattainable, but there are other ways to work around the limitation with existing apps and a little ingenuity.

Eric went the same way I did, with a remote development server. I’ve been doing this for around 8 months now and am still very happy with my iPad development workflow.

2. On the future book

Craig Mod writes in Wired that though we envisioned some futuristic multi-dimensional book that would just go deeper when we picked something to focus on, this book is not here. What we do have is books written in email newsletters. Books funded on Kickstarter. Books in audio format.

Our Future Book is composed of email, tweets, YouTube videos, mailing lists, crowdfunding campaigns, PDF to .mobi converters, Amazon warehouses, and a surge of hyper-affordable offset printers in places like Hong Kong.

So no, we don’t have a “future book” like someone envisioned 30 years ago, but we have a lot of great content that we can think of like a book and learn from.

3. The Distraction Free iPhone

Jake Knapp and shutting the distraction out of his iPhone which was spurred on by an honest question from his kid. “Dad, why are you looking at your phone?”

He wasn’t trying to make me feel bad or anything. He was just curious. But I didn’t have a good answer. So why was I looking at my iPhone? I didn’t even remember taking it out — it had sort of materialized in my hand. All day, I’d been looking forward to spending time with my kids, and now that it was finally happening, I wasn’t really there at all.

He took that moment of frustration with himself for not being present with his kids and turned it into action.

With my pulse pounding in my temples, I mashed the screen till the icons wiggled. Then I started deleting those goddamned apps.

I began with the obvious attention thieves. I deleted Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I deleted YouTube, ESPN, and all my games. Then I went into the settings and removed Safari. I was like David Bowman in 2001, shutting down the psychotic computer HAL so I could fly the spaceship by myself.

Even email went. What he has is a phone with a blank home screen. The ability to make calls and send text messages on the dock and then a few apps pages back.

I’ve had a distraction-free iPhone for six years now. And there have been costs. I lost my reputation for instant email response and immediate task turnaround. Without the tug of my phone, I drifted off of Facebook and lost touch with some friends.

He sees it as a competitive advantage.

Here’s the thing: When I stopped instantly reacting to everyone else’s priorities, I got better at making time for the projects I believed were most important—even if they weren’t urgent or nobody was asking for them. I invested effort in documenting and promoting my design sprint process. And, after a lifetime of putting it off till “someday,” I finally started writing, eventually publishing two books.

My wife has noticed something with Screentime, she spends a few hours a day on her phone and doesn’t have any idea where that time came from. She says she doesn’t have 2 hours a day to be on her phone and yet the numbers don’t lie.

Jake recommends we take the time right now to delete every application that can notify us. Then ask yourself hard questions every time you have to put anything back on your phone.

I find that every time you say you have to do something you need to examine your beliefs. You don’t have to get your kids everything they ask. You don’t have to be in Twitter, or Instagram or Facebook.

Jake has more questions I think are worthy of your attention. He got me the pair back the apps I have on my phone. Next, I need to reorganize my home screen and focus on just the apps I use as I test out some vlogging for 2019 over the holidays.

4. On the Kindle Paperwhite

Justin Tadlock says:

The second complaint I have is mostly a non-issue when you spend 99% of your time actually reading. The Kindle isn’t quite as responsive to swiping and tapping as modern cell phones and tablets. I imagine this has to do with the technology being different and geared toward the reading experience. It’s fine when simply flipping to the next page in the book. But, on other screens, it’s a minor annoyance.

I actually find this one of the biggest benefits to the device. It’s only good at reading, even the built in GoodReads navigation is terrible. So you read without distractions.

I read 99% of the time on my Kindle and then purchase the books that stand out to me as needing a second or third reading.

Also Tadlock must be extra awesome because we both enjoy Brandon Sanderson.

5. Joe has an all access pass

It’s only $399 and includes a bunch of stuff. If you’re looking to get better at:

Podcasting

Creating Online Courses

Gutenberg

Beaver Builder

PHP

Then you should grab this all access pass while it’s around.

Also, Joe is awesome and a fellow iPad first person so….he’s extra awesome.

Source: https://curtismchale.ca/2019/01/18/freelance-friday-038-january-18-2019/

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clothingbrand1 · 4 years ago

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Guidelines for Anybody Who would like to Start out a Clothes Brand name

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how to start a clothing brand

In this article are a few strategies to any person all set to or considering about launching their own individual clothes line.

Idea # 1. Don’t Rush

What I signify by that is choose your time when it comes to the start of your respective line. There may be a great deal of levels of competition to choose from these days, establishing some social media marketing web pages using a t-shirt coming shortly is not really likely to cut it. Have you ever ever received excited about a Fb site with twelve likes and “a clean new apparel brand coming soon"in the about me part? Me neither.

Tip # two. If you cannot style and design, then shell out someone that can.

A lot of street don start-ups launch their model with just their title inside a script font, screen printed over a black t-shirt. Now I am all for supporting a manufacturer, however, you want to no less than put some thought and creativity into your apparel, usually individuals will see that you’ll be much like the rest of the clothing brands that have started off and failed. If you can’t draw or style and design, pay someone who can. You happen to be gonna want stable types if you prefer to stand out and it will not have to be expensive. An awesome web-site for style and design do the job is called Designcrowd. This website makes it possible for you to put up your style and design brief, set your spending plan, then wait around for designers from everywhere in the entire world to write-up their entry and also you can opt for the best one particular.

Tip # 3 Really don’t rip-off other folks!

Suggestion # four Imagine outside the box.

You’ve got most likely heard this stating right before and although it is much easier stated then done, a great method to start off will be to do a good bit of exploration to collect your own personal ideas. Check with you which kind of clothes do I would like to create? What are my favorite brand names? What do I appreciate in life? When you finally know the solutions to these thoughts then you can start to study brand names, jot down tips, choose photographs and doodle to actually make an image with the style of street don things you would like your brand to be manufacturing. But make sure you never dismiss idea selection 3 whilst doing your investigation!

Idea # five Analysis your product or service.

Gildan and Fruit on the loom are at the most affordable end of the scale however they are likely to possess a boxier in shape and you’re not likely to seek out a lot of reputable apparel brand names printing on them.

Tultex and Anvil print a great high quality tee for a fair selling price if you prefer a high-quality come to feel but your spending plan will never extend to high-priced blanks.

Tip # 6 Don’t lower corners.

If you want being taken severely being a brand name, creation will be the 1 position you need to do not need to rush or slice corners. Firstly, choose a good printing business. It’ll cost you a great deal extra time, cash and energy inside the prolonged run should you commit to print having a man in his bedroom who prints your layouts wonky and gets chocolate stains on the t-shirts when he’s printing them.

You will find numerous respected firms by typing in "Screen printers” in Google, and don’t forget to shop all over. Octomuffin and Woven Inc are rated highly during the United kingdom.

Secondly, think about your brand name graphic. Would you like to generally be thought of being a experienced brand? In the event you do, then your going to want custom neck labels, swing tags and some neat packaging. This doesn’t ought to be high-priced, but little touches like that will possess a long lasting impact on the client.

Lastly, don’t print a lot of. Any time you initially release a structure, you’ll have no clue how it will provide, so it truly is most effective to purchase a lesser quantity at the beginning to test the h2o. Really don’t fret about promoting out swiftly, it’s going to make your manufacturer appear common when you do so you can constantly just re-order far more.

Idea # seven Website, and pics.

You don’t require a massive finances for making a good looking and practical web-site, there are so many e-commerce platforms readily available now which supply fantastic looking web sites for any minimal regular monthly price tag. Significant cartel, retail store envy, volusion and shopify are only the tip of your iceberg in terms of these.

As soon as you have selected your world wide web platform, get a domain. Domains are so affordable in recent times apparel manufacturers haven’t any justification to not buy one particular, and it helps make you glimpse much a lot more professional whenever you arrive to start.

Now you are ready to upload your items and pictures. It’s important to help make absolutely sure you can get some specialist searching pictures taken of your respective items and not types which look like they may have been taken on a three mega pixel mobile phone digital camera. Your shots tend to be the only way your consumers can connect with your merchandise over the web, should the pics are little, blurry or don’t demonstrate adequate of the items depth, you happen to be possible not to receive a sale.

Idea # eight And now we wait.

After you to start with launch, the joy might be a bit as well a lot and you happen to be likely being expecting huge things inside of within a shorter duration of time. Try to remain grounded, things take time, a lot of time, so don’t get disheartened if you have not offered out inside your initial thirty day period and just retain likely. It truly is also an excellent idea to test and acquire feed-back from family and friends to view should the merchandise are literally nearly as good when you think they may be.

And that’s it, I really hope your observed this article appealing and hopefully a little practical, as I discussed before I’m not an expert while in the avenue have on market, but individuals are just a few of the points I’ve learnt along just how.

References Clothing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing

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originaldetectivesheep · 7 years ago

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A Life of Riley Part 4: The Dumptrucks of the Gods ch 4

Chapter 3

With all the work that we had to do in the lab over the next two weeks, I almost forgot about Mel and the fish – Mel and her bizarre grinckle-reducing station that turned out to be, exactly as Carolína must have half-suspected, dug in to the machine room under the undergrad lab members' condo. She was down there, under a fume hood with a gas mask and a kitchen knife, probably making the ghost antsy by stealing its food to run through her essentializing processes, and after we'd finished getting all of the rest of the dislocator parts out of the machine room, we were back day and night in the lab, finishing the assembly as Riley converted prior versions of the dislocation machinery into this new so-called Raging Potato. I slept under the drill press again, missing Simon terribly, and in every waking moment I ate, drank, sat, fidgeted and daydreamed high-energy physics and circuit design. In a fugue of machinery noise from everyone working around us mixed with abrasive Ash Borer and Netra echoes from the buds on the top of my ears, I worked and reworked the abstract mathematical calculations required to parse through the state space, built DIs and cannibalized old printer cables into control harnesses, and fabricated random chunks of metal to Riley's inexplicable, incomprehensible blueprints.

We were all in; all of us, Carolína and Sajitha and Riley and me switching on and off through every single part of the Potato's subsystems from control software to turning bolts in the outer housing, and because the work was so great, and Riley was so adamant about its completion, we ended up impressing the others: Leo assembling parts together, running harnesses and checking cables, and Remy building the larger parts of the frame together and checking the composition of our few coolant or hydraulic systems, making sure there wouldn't be a corrosion or fault risk once the horrific energies we planned to operate at started thundering through this imposing pile of metal and wire wrapped around the better part of a thermonuclear bomb. There was well more than enough work for all of us – even as we got the frame assembled and the control systems built and integrated, there was always something more to do: automation routines that needed optimization, heavy-duty power cables from the capacitor cells in to the reactor that needed to be audited and repaired, more capacitor power supplies that just needed to be built and sealed and tested for function. Check it, test it, rebuild it, repeat, continue.

I was in the middle of one of these cycles adding in a few functions to the control software for the power-transfer circuit board that was going to manage the dump-in of the initiation energy for us – there were too many supplies and not enough cables to do this by hand – when Riley brought me out of my trance, banging on the top of my monitor with a wrench. "Yuping! Yuping! Wake up! Are you done with the commit on the state-pathing decider? What are you working on?"

I blinked and pulled my earbuds out. "Yes, finished; commit is done back and build is building. Making new control break in power-transfer onboard controller; almost done."

Riley held up a hand. "Don't bother. What we have should be good enough – if the lab doesn't melt when we shoot this off, we'll think about improvements for v2. For right now, I need you to back up your station onto the department cloud share, and anything important that you have local on your phone or a flash drive, any paper drawings that you have notes on that you didn't put over to digital anywhere, you need to come over and throw it in Leo's duffel bag." I stood up, following Riley's thumb back over to the doorway, where Carolína was struggling with a stack of rolled-up paper schematics and how to fit them into a barely-large-enough duffel that looked to already have a couple laptops inside.

I leaned back over and started the backup, then ejected my thumb drive and took the headphone cord out of my phone. "Okay," I said, "Only drive and phone, not much on them, but why?" Riley was already heading back over, and I followed, hoping for some kind of explanation before I got there. There was a strange tang in the air, a taste even beyond the usual strange tastes we got in the lab from ozone and atmospheric metal pollution – a feeling like something was about to happen, like we were about to cross over a border.

"Your phone goes in the bag because I want to insulate us from observer effect," Riley said, shuffling at the insides of the duffel to make room, "and we're doing the backup and loading in everyone's removable data because I'm like eighty percent sure that after we go up, any state that we transition back to is going to be one where we smashed the Potato right up through the goddamn roof, and the lab is going to be wrecked." I pulled up, stunned, thumb still on my phone, and Riley noticed, hastening with more of the explanation.

"Mel texted me a couple minutes back, and the grinckle potion is good to go. So, we're going. I know there's stuff that we want to fix, that we want to get improved, but we've been more or less ready to start up the Potato for most of the last fifteen hours, and it just happens that Mel is done with the fish stuff right when we're coming up on a flyby window where we'll have a relatively less-shitty path up to the ship. I'd prefer to go in another three hours, when they'll be on their closest approach, but apparently there is some garbage about the fish chemicals having to be fresh that would make that harder – I don't pretend to know chemistry, much less alchemy, so I'm taking Mel's word on this one – and so we're going now, or at least as close to 'now' as we can get all our shit together.

"The cannon is loaded. There are a couple of our modded nailguns already inside. If you want to take a machete or something to mess up any aliens in person, you can go and take it. Sajitha's downstairs picking up confined-space rebreathers from her co-workers in Facilities in case the oxygen concentrations inside the grinckle spawn areas are shitty. And Melanie is on the way over with this filterized and essentialized or whatever theoretical pure concentration of grinckleness, which according to the stuff she was putting out in alternative journals about ham and crap, probably ought to modify our state coherence enough that a path to the grinckle originating point will be doable with our energy budget if we can get a close enough approach."

I was trying to think this through, to put all the pieces together, and with that, I could finally speak. "Riley," I said, "so – plan is – plan is start up Potato and go to space? To stop grinckles by fighting alien?"

Riley nodded, like there wasn't anything wrong or crazy in that sentence at all. "Yeah, that's about the shape of it. Maybe we'll be able to rip them to bits with the cannon and that'll be it, or maybe the satellite is an automated probe that someone else somewhere else is using to strew grinckles for the lulz, but if there are aliens on this alien satellite or alien spaceship, we're going to go kick the shit out of them till they stop. You think we're not set up for it? I think that between the five of us we should have things pretty well under control: the nailguns aren't that great, but Remy's a taekwondo champ, Carolína's a mean hand with a machete, you're not so bad with one either, and I certainly wouldn't want to be in front of Sajitha when she's got her brass knuckles and a mad on. Maybe some molotovs would help, but I dunno if we've got the time to buy gas, or if they'd burn in that atmosphere." As usual, Riley was looking at this as a purely operational problem, with any ideas about the wisdom of going to space in an iron bucket by shifting its quantum reference frame to go fight aliens in the first place completely ignored.

"Five?" I asked, "Not Leo?" I wasn't looking to try and talk Riley out of this plan, or to poke holes in it – I certainly didn't have a better and smarter idea for us or anyone else to do something about something that wasn't just in orbit but discontinuous with the observed local quantum state – but if I was going to go to orbit strapped in on top of a nuclear bomb, I wanted to have as much information about what we were trying to do as I could get.

"If you haven't noticed, it is kind of super cramped inside the Potato," Riley said, nodding over at the massive pile of steel and cables hogging most of the middle of the lab, "and even five is pushing it, but we can fit, and I need as much skills as we can lift up. Honestly, I really wish that I could leave you here and take Leo, because you're the only one on the crew that's really attached to anyone not stuck in it with us, but even with the autotune, you've got the best hand for state coherence out of all of us. We're going to friggin space pasted on top of a self-containing tokamak: there is zero room for error here, so I've got to take the best, no ifs ands or buts.

"If we had the spare power and the internal volume, I'd want to take Leo, too," Riley continued, slapping him on the shoulder, "but we don't, and so he's got another important job down here: not just holding our stuff in the short term, but maybe holding onto the lab in the long term. I'm not gonna say 'if anything happens' – if the engine's got something screwy in it that we couldn't get out with the diagnostics, well, that's a megaton and change of a physics package in there, and all our component atoms are gonna end up looking for new jobs real quick. But if we don't turn this campus into a glowing hole on startup, and something happens later, then in that case, some future day when the administration wants to fund an AP lab again, then Leo is, not just by accident, exactly who I would want as a designated-survivor to continue the traditions of the Applied Physics lab as we are – not as we were, as we are – I'm not planning on getting any of us killed, or crushed by the roof, or marooned in space, not if I have anything to say about it." Leo still gulped at this; looking at him, I wasn't quite sure whether he was getting emotional at receiving Riley's trust, or about to have a panic attack thinking about what might go wrong when we started the reactor.

"You can, and you really should, take some time and like text or maybe call Simon," Riley said, nodding over at me unconcerned. "We've got some time before Mel gets here with the grinckle juice, and I know it's not fair to put this on you with like, just today. Just make sure that you get your phone in the bag, and you get your coveralls on before we have to load up." I nodded and took a few steps off sideways towards the isolation fridge.

I opened up the phone contacts to call Simon directly, because I didn't want to end up vaporized and the last thing I said to him was something about making sure we ground up that one last avocado for guacamole before it went completely mushy. The phone clock was showing 13:10, though; by now he was teaching a class, and if I called him, it would take him out of his class, and take him out of himself, and he'd be worried sick about me because I'd called instead of texted and that meant that I was worried, that it was not just possible but likely that I would actually end up dead in space. I took a deep breath, and another, in and out. I thought about what we were going to do, the state that the Raging Potato was in, everything we'd built and all the problems that we'd had, all the things that we fixed; where the last little bits were that we might have improved or reinforced if we had another day – the urgent ones that we might have been grinding on right now if we had another hour. I knew everything – nearly everything – in this jumped-up dislocation chamber backwards and forwards, and in my view, everything was coming down to the very same thing.

There was exactly one point of significant difficulty in this entire system. There was, in a high-level analysis, only one thing that could go wrong. It would be hard to move the Potato into orbit by directly pathing across time-sequenced quantum states to displace it in x-y-z, but it was possible – it was what the dislocation circuits were kind of built to do. If we had to board an alien ship, the atmosphere might be crap, but I knew enough astrobiology just from living with an astronomer that there were practically no atmospheric mixes that were both friendly to any of the possible energy-transformation paths associated with complex life and not fixable with a confined-space rebreather. No, if something was going to go wrong, really wrong, it was going to go wrong from the start, when we dumped ninety gigajoules of energy into a decades-old nuclear weapon and crossed our fingers that the fusion reaction would start burning in exactly the way it was supposed to in order to contain itself, rather than expanding aggressively and immediately like every other hydrogen bomb of its generation. That was it – that was the only part we hadn't tested forwards and backwards. If the Ceiba worked as designed, we could go to space, and I would probably come back in one piece. If it just blew up, there wouldn't be any time for regrets – and Wetmore Hall was only a couple hundred meters away, well inside the primary fireball at the yield Riley was estimating. If we went, we would go together.

I thumbed down to open a new text conversation and punched in my message:

> riley has me kind of stuck on a lab thing > I probably can't make dinner, out too late > and might be dangerous > well, little bit dangerous > so if something happen, remember, I love you

I held the power button down on the side of the phone, and walked back to toss it in the duffel. Simon probably wouldn't see it until the end of his class, but it was okay: it would be less time for him to be worried, and if I could do that for him, I would. Leo zipped up the bag around the phone, and I picked up my coveralls to start getting ready.

There was kind of a stir from out in the hall as I pulled the top part up to put my arms through; I looked back, and immediately saw why. There were people passing in the halls, and Mel Wolfram had come through the middle of them carrying a large thermos bottle wrapped in biohazard caution tape and wearing an army-surplus gas mask. And not wearing it on top of her head, wearing it on the front of her face – it was Mel's hair and Mel's lab coat, so I could know it was her and not some cybergoth or something doing public performance art, but I had no idea how campus security had managed to not see her and decide she was a biological terrorist. I zipped up quickly to get back with the others and get whatever Riley wanted with the contents of the bottle done before the police showed up.

This turned out not to be a thing: Riley hustled Melanie inside the lab, then securely closed the door behind her. "Yuping, Remy, bring it in; Leo, you probably want to back off a little if you don't have a gas mask. It's better if you stay inside for this part and then get clear with the bag later. Speaking of gas masks," Riley continued, turning to Mel as she started cutting away at the tape around the thermos with a pocketknife, "what the hell? I thought this was the deal that you would come up here with the stuff under containment. And it at least looks like it is – why the mask on?"

"It is under containment," Mel replied, her voice muffled and modulated by the rubber mask and the charcoal filters, "but you can't be too careful. It's metastable short-term, mostly, but if it let go in the car, I wouldn't've had time to pull the mask down and probably would have crashed into something." The caution tape and what looked like several layers of plastic shopping bags were cut through, and the thermos bottle was now clear enough that she could start opening the top. "And it's not just the smell – as it turned out, the best carrier compound for the Lebensfisk is high-proof tequila, so a significant spill would also be packing enough alcohol fumes to knock out a horse." This was sounding immediately bad for us as well as abstractly horrible – especially since Riley was scrounging up five mugs or cups or plastic screw caddies.

"Well, all right," Riley said, obviously not feeling it, "what matters is that you're here, not how much cop aggro you did or didn't pull on the way. Hold off on pouring for a second; I've got to explain this to the crew, and if it's that bad I don't want to have it sitting out breathing while I convince them to stop wibbling and drink it." Melanie nodded, keeping a hand over the bottle's screw-off plug, and the rest of us looked around at each other in open dread and horror as Riley began the explanation.

"So before you durfing mud turtle impersonators go and lose all your shit meeping about ham potions and 'scientifically ludicrous' and 'self-intentionally toxic' and other crap, look, this is the rules. Melanie has consumed a lot of her time and her effort and your basement demon's grinckles in order to make this valorized attunement solution, which she is calling Lebensfisk because she invented it, she gets to name it, and in recognition of that achievement, we are going to do shots with it before we fire the capacitors that are loading right now into the Potato and get moving." I shot a quick look back at the capacitor banks; Riley must have started them up while I was getting changed, but they were loading in, the lights on the indicators showing them ramping on and on towards full charge.

"And I know, that's where you're gonna go next, omagawrf, you're gonna do shots and drive a nuke-powered high-energy relativistic Faraday cage to space. Right, smart. No. Look, it is one shot, nobody here is that lightweight, and we're gonna be lifting off by autotune anyway, there's no way that human beings could manage the state transitions manually until we get clear of the atmosphere and there's less particles to care about. That is the point of the autotune, to handle state displacement in a 3-space-shifting frame of reference." Riley took a deep breath and stabbed down with two fingers at the workbench.

"The point of this Lebensfisk thing is that when we intake it, in some form like this with the tequila carrier that gets the right concentrations in in the right way to make them biologically available – I'm stressing that it's done this way to not poison us, so can it – we shall attain a degree of elemental grinckleness that will make us stickier on states with high grinckle prevalence than would otherwise be the case. This will help us conserve power as we approach the alien ship, because once we get above the atmosphere, that thing is going to be, relatively speaking, a goddamn grinckle gravity well, and we are going to effectively fall down the state space through it and then light up their shit."

"A grinckle gravity well," Carolína interrupted, her forehead in knots like she was having trouble wrapping her brain around how horrifically weird this whole idea was. "A sort of philosophical presence turning into a fundamental force, which we tune to by magic. By magic fish tequila." She was speaking for, I think, all of us – all of the rest of us who were struck dumb by how idiotic and unscientific this was, even in comparison to all the intensely strange and dubiously possible things that we usually did around the lab.

"Look, do not call it magic," Riley said, obviously put out, "this is a scientific institution and we are going to do goddamn science with this fish potion. It's not magic: say rather 'experimentally indeterminate theorized applications of unverified principles responding to inadequately-investigated problem domains'. We reason under incomplete information all the goddamned time; I don't know why this is special or why you're kicking about it."

"Because, Riley, the last time someone drank one of Mel's meat alchemy things, she had to go and get her stomach pumped," Remy answered, his voice cracking and hoarse. "And that was with a neutral carrier – we're at college, ain't you heard that just tequila by itself is kinda constantly awful?"

"Mel had to get her stomach pumped because she drank a friggin gallon of the ham potion – you try drinking a gallon of something with that much salt in it and see how you feel," Riley shot back. "This is a shot. This is for like today – it is not a whole life rejuvenation or in this case grinckleization treatment. You will pound a shot of the Lebensfisk tequila – we will all pound a shot of the Lebensfisk tequila – and it will probably be awful, but we will get on with it and fire up the Potato and get over it. Like I said: this is going to be hard as crap, and we have no room for error, so every corner I can work, I will do it – and if I'm doing it, then you're going to do it for state consistency."

This wasn't getting anywhere. Riley was going to make us drink this fish poison, one way or another, and the only thing that would change would be how mad we all were at each other before we stuffed ourselves into a packing crate sitting on top of a hydrogen bomb. I put up my hands. "Okay," I said. "Okay, it's bad. Will probably be very bad – might make worse. But if works, then it's better – and if doesn't, we'll live. This lab, we build cannon – we overvolt capacitor even if sometimes melt down – we find nuclear weapon lost in jungle and take home. Can drink a fish cocktail that was in blender. This is maybe least dangerous, least dumb, least bad thing we do today – let's do it, let's go." I dropped my hands onto my knees with a slap, in resignation as much as anything. The rest of the lab was looking at me; they still weren't any more enthusiastic about drinking Mel's grinckle thing, but at least it looked like the fight might be over.

Sajitha shrugged, and put her hands on her head. "Fine! Fine – all right, I'm in. I'm with Yuping: this is going to be awful but it's got a long way to go before it's the dumbest thing we've done this week. Let's just shoot 'em and forget this was ever a thing." Remy nodded, and Carolína took a deep breath to pull herself together. Riley lined up the cups, and Mel braced herself over them, like she had to gather herself, even under her gas mask, before she opened up the bottle and released the horrifying stench inside.

Of course, she would – she'd made it, she knew what she was getting into. The bottle opened, and the rest of us were almost bowled over by the indescribable brain-gnawing tidal waves of rotten, fermented fish stink somehow married to dead-at-ten-paces rotgut tequila fumes and blended up with the back-alley effluvium of a paint factory that decided illegal dumping fines would be cheaper than hiring someone to drag their garbage away. The smell was so violently bad that I almost wondered if one of the capacitors had shorted, and was throwing a fatal arc through me, rewiring all my senses backwards before it burned the nerves completely away. But no, I was not dead – I was still alive, and that meant that there was still my own tumbler of pureed dead grinckle sitting out in front of me.

I grabbed for it, and somehow around the weird blue and purple shadows that were blotching my vision from the fumes and the stench, I could see everyone else having the same idea: the longer these stupid, vile, insane beakers of poison were sitting on our lab bench rather than setting our guts on fire, the longer they were going to stink up the lab. I threw my head back and slammed the shot – the double shot, there was more liquor in this cup than there had any right to be – at a single swallow, feeling the tequila hit my stomach like an exploding cannon round, and I fought down the urge to puke as the dirty-rutabaga-skin taste of a hundred or a thousand grinckles charged back up into my throat, back up into my nostrils. This had better work – this had better frigging work – because if it didn't, there was nothing on earth that could redeem this obscenely stupid shot.

I braced myself on the bench, breathing hard; Remy was holding his stomach, wincing, Carolína had her coveralls ripped open at the neck, squeezing her throat and grimacing, and Sajitha, fists clenched into white knuckles, was shuddering with her head vibrating at a frequency we could barely get out of our power drills. Even Riley was looking knocked out, bleary-eyed and coughing, and Leo was backed up to the door, wide-eyed, like he couldn't wait to get the hell out of this place, the hell away before Riley came up with anything worse.

"All right," Riley said, back in command despite a last spluttering cough, "all right – that's it, that's it, let's go. Get yourselves squared away and get in the Potato – we're gonna hit full power in about a minute and there's no need to wait a second longer than we have to. Leo, Mel, get clear, close the door, lock up behind you; no observers, no observer effect."

"Good luck," Leo said, his voice showing exactly what he thought of our chances, as he closed the door behind them; inside the lab, Carolína had got her coveralls back together and her rebreather onto her belt, so I could give her a boost up into the Potato and climb up the Ceiba housing into the chamber after her. Riley finished checking the cable connections from the capacitors in to the reactor initiator a few seconds later, and followed me up, locking down the panel to close us in.

"Sajitha, turn on the interconnect panel." Sajitha turned on the panel that Riley meant, and because there was barely any way not to see it, how close we were all packed inside the metal dislocation cell, we all saw the capacitor banks all coming up green. "Right – we're coming right up on full power. Carolína, open the power-connection interlock, that's the key under your right elbow." Carolína turned around, sort of, and fiddled with something in the wall of the chamber. Something clicked up by the ceiling, and Riley opened up a metal latch cover to reveal an impressive button with a heavy idle-contact shield all around it.

"If you want to grab on to someone or something," Riley said, glancing over at the interconnect readout panel, "now would be a great time. Otherwise, you're probably going to be holding mostly the floor until we get the hang of this. Full power – firing in three – two – one –" Riley's finger stabbed the jumpstart button, and ninety billion joules of electrical power dumped in through the ignition manifold, summoning Hardtack Ceiba forth from its sixty years of silence. Just like that – that was it.

Chapter 5

#nanowrimo #alifeofriley #fiction

0 notes

iyarpage · 7 years ago

Text

35+ Crowd-Fund Campaigns for Designers This Black Friday

If huge discounts at the mall aren’t enough to drag you away from the turkey leftovers, then we’ve got the perfect solution for you: We’ve put together the 35+ best crowd-funding projects that are live right now, so you can spend your hard-earned green with the least effort possible.

Crowd-funding sites are packed with tempting offers, from must-have gadgets, to community projects you’ll be proud to back. Take a look at some of the best projects that are funding now, and need your support.

Pens & Pencils

If there’s one thing crowd-funding sites do well, it’s writing instruments.

Pen Comet

Pen Comet is a stunningly minimal pen that uses magnets to attach its cap. Available in silver, gold, or space gray, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a desk littered with Apple products.

Woopen

Woopen is a wooden pen that doubles as an anti-stress device thanks to its unique shape. It takes standard refills, and comes with a nice case. With weeks to go it’s 20% funded already.

pencil+

Redefining how we use pencils, pencil+ is a sharpener, extender, and transporter. It lets you use your pencils right down to the nub. With over a month to go it’s fully funded already.

TTi-108 Titanium Pencil

Claiming to be the best made titanium pencil in the world, it certainly looks the part. Don’t be fooled by the prices listed in Hong Kong Dollars, rewards start around $150.

Ti Arto EDC

A solid titanium pen that takes any kind of refill without the upsetting wobble. With a month to go it’s reached its funding goal twenty times over!

Community

Crowd-funding isn’t just about buying crazy gadgets, it’s also about helping out other people and making the world a better place.

Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole is the senior show for a group of design students from California State University, Long Beach. Everyone deserves a senior show, it’s a great cause with some cool swag.

Hello World: The Film

Hello World: The Film is a documentary exploring the world of code, what it powers, and the coders who write it. If you’ve got $5000 to spare, you can even get yourself in the credits.

Bay View Printing Co

This letterpress print shop wants to become a creative hub for Milwaukee, by opening up their studio to the local community. Back them and grab some letterpress swag.

U&I PCA Graphic Design Final Show

Another senior class hoping to crowd-fund their final show, this time at the D&AD New Blood Festival. This one’s fully funded but the personalized rap song reward is still up for grabs.

Home Computer Museum

Bart van den Akker is setting up a home computer museum in the heart of Europe. The ambitious project is the perfect opportunity for a tech giant looking to hand out sponsorship.

Tech

The mainstay of crowd-funding sites are innovative tech gadgets. Here’s our pick of the best projects to back right now.

Migo

Migo’s a portable, internet-enabled, industrial quality 3D printer. A great entry level device for introducing yourself to the world of 3D printing, they’re just reached 100% funding.

Bolt

Bolt’s a fully integrated internet of things platform, with built-in machine learning. Their previous crowd-fund missed its goal, this time they’ve passed 300% funding, good job!

Kappa

Kappa is a 3D printer developed at the University of Singapore. Successfully funded over on Kickstarter, it’s now available on Indiegogo on demand.

Cinego

A personal, immersive, 4K cinema experience, Cinego looks like a VR headset, but is really a high-quality 2D screen. They’re running a limited time 50% discount for Black Friday.

Typography

If you’re a fan of typography, you’ll find lots of projects to back on crowd-fund sites.

Vaughan Oliver Archive

A legendary album designer for bands including The Pixies, The Breeders, and more. This project wants to collect Vaughan Oliver’s work into book form.

Web Typography

Richard Rutter’s guide to web typography is critically acclaimed already. The project is fully funded and past deadline, but you can still order the book.

Garamond Corpvs

A great gift for anyone who loves typography, these detailed posters take the idea of the anatomy of letters a step further, by illustrating the skeletal structure of type.

Martin Luther Handwriting Font

This project aims to create a script font based on the 500-year-old letters of Martin Luther, of reformation fame. Contribute to this project and get the licensed font when it’s ready.

W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design

The biography of W. A. Dwiggins, one of the 20th centuries most important designers. Fully funded on Kickstarter you can grab the perks for the standard edition on Indiegogo.

Vignelli: From A to Z

Based on 10 years of lectures at Harvard design school, this popular design book has been unavailable for years. This project is working to reissue it.

Learn to Code

Do you want to learn to code, or would you like to help kids learn? Either way there’s a ton of options.

MatataLab

MatataLab is a coding toy for kids aged 4–9 that lets them program a robot, create music, and make art. This one has already passed 100% funding with almost a month still to go.

Code Cards

A fun social way to learn to code, Code Cards are basically a gamified version of the flash cards you used in school. Choose from HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Ruby decks.

Erase All Kittens

Erase All Kittens is an epic adventure game that teaches kids, especially girls, how to code. A third of the way to its target, pledge before 21st December and gift membership to kids you know.

Learn Bootstrap 4 By Building Real World Projects

A comprehensive course designed by expert tutors to get you up to speed with Bootstrap 4 fast. This one only has 48 hours to go, so if you want to back it, act quickly.

DevKit

DevKit is an iOS application that helps students build apps without the need to learn to code at all. Pledge just $10 and you’ll get a year’s subscription.

Pip

Pip is a Raspberry Pi powered device that lets your kids tinker with code, starting with a simple drag and drop approach and building up to full code.

Accessories

Crowd-fund sites are stocked with hundreds of designer accessories. Here are some we’d love to see on our desks.

Halo Wireless Phone Charger

Using wireless charging technology to keep your cellphone running, this is a great looking device that would grace any desk. With 20 days to go, they’re halfway to their target.

The Minimalist Notebook

If you’re tired of Moleskines, why not grab an architect-designed pure white notepad edged in natural copper. They’ve got a month to find 95% funding for this beauty.

Mara Pen

Mara Pen is a new breed of motion controller, perfect for design pitches, or conference talks. Fully funded back in February it has since raised 939% of its target. You can still grab the perks.

Ingo Stylus

Ingo Stylus is a compact stylus that extends to full size telescopically. It’s fully analogue so you don’t need to worry about charging, syncing, or device compatibility.

Photography

Photography is one of the world’s most popular hobbies, so it’s no surprise that budding entrepreneurs are pitching to that market.

Prynt for Android

Prynt turns your Android device into an instant camera, just like a Polaroid. It’s the best thing to happen to mobile photography since Instagram.

Reflex Analog Camera

Resurrecting the 35mm analog film format is Reflex, the first newly designed SLR camera in a quarter of a century. The body uses a standard lens format, and there are no megapixels to care about.

Fishball for iPhone

Fishball claims to be the world’s first 360 degree smart phone lens. Simply clip it directly to your iPhone and start recording video and images that are perfect for VR.

Capsule

Capsule’s a safe place to store digital photos without uploading them to the cloud. Its built-in AI will help you sort your collection as well, so all you have to do is shoot from your devices.

De-stress

If you want to boost your creativity, the best thing you can do is de-stress, and get a good night’s sleep.

Qoobo

Quite possibly one of the weirdest products you’ll ever see crowd-funded, Qoobo is a pillow with a tail. The tail wags when you cuddle it. Perfect if your landlord won’t let you keep pets.

Circa

Circa is a standalone smart alarm that aims to help you get a restful night’s sleep by keeping your smartphone out of the bedroom. Great for anyone who can’t turn off Facebook.

Somnox

Somnox is a sleep robot that helps you get a better night’s sleep with breathing regulation, sounds, and affection. Can’t afford the robot? They have socks too.

SmartphoneBOX

SmartphoneBOX is a rubber dock for smartphones that does nothing except take your phone out of your hand. If you struggle to disconnect, this might work for you.

Special Exclusive Black Friday Deals!

Source p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;} .alignleft {float:left;} p.showcase {clear:both;} body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;} 35+ Crowd-Fund Campaigns for Designers This Black Friday published first on http://ift.tt/2fA8nUr

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webbygraphic001 · 7 years ago

Text

35+ Crowd-Fund Campaigns for Designers This Black Friday

Pens & Pencils

If there’s one thing crowd-funding sites do well, it’s writing instruments.

Pen Comet

Pen Comet is a stunningly minimal pen that uses magnets to attach its cap. Available in silver, gold, or space gray, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a desk littered with Apple products.

Woopen

Woopen is a wooden pen that doubles as an anti-stress device thanks to its unique shape. It takes standard refills, and comes with a nice case. With weeks to go it’s 20% funded already.

pencil+

Redefining how we use pencils, pencil+ is a sharpener, extender, and transporter. It lets you use your pencils right down to the nub. With over a month to go it’s fully funded already.

TTi-108 Titanium Pencil

Claiming to be the best made titanium pencil in the world, it certainly looks the part. Don’t be fooled by the prices listed in Hong Kong Dollars, rewards start around $150.

Ti Arto EDC

A solid titanium pen that takes any kind of refill without the upsetting wobble. With a month to go it’s reached its funding goal twenty times over!

Community

Crowd-funding isn’t just about buying crazy gadgets, it’s also about helping out other people and making the world a better place.

Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole is the senior show for a group of design students from California State University, Long Beach. Everyone deserves a senior show, it’s a great cause with some cool swag.

Hello World: The Film

Hello World: The Film is a documentary exploring the world of code, what it powers, and the coders who write it. If you’ve got $5000 to spare, you can even get yourself in the credits.

Bay View Printing Co

This letterpress print shop wants to become a creative hub for Milwaukee, by opening up their studio to the local community. Back them and grab some letterpress swag.

U&I PCA Graphic Design Final Show

Another senior class hoping to crowd-fund their final show, this time at the D&AD New Blood Festival. This one’s fully funded but the personalized rap song reward is still up for grabs.

Home Computer Museum

Bart van den Akker is setting up a home computer museum in the heart of Europe. The ambitious project is the perfect opportunity for a tech giant looking to hand out sponsorship.

Tech

The mainstay of crowd-funding sites are innovative tech gadgets. Here’s our pick of the best projects to back right now.

Migo

Migo’s a portable, internet-enabled, industrial quality 3D printer. A great entry level device for introducing yourself to the world of 3D printing, they’re just reached 100% funding.

Bolt

Bolt’s a fully integrated internet of things platform, with built-in machine learning. Their previous crowd-fund missed its goal, this time they’ve passed 300% funding, good job!

Kappa

Kappa is a 3D printer developed at the University of Singapore. Successfully funded over on Kickstarter, it’s now available on Indiegogo on demand.

Cinego

A personal, immersive, 4K cinema experience, Cinego looks like a VR headset, but is really a high-quality 2D screen. They’re running a limited time 50% discount for Black Friday.

Typography

If you’re a fan of typography, you’ll find lots of projects to back on crowd-fund sites.

Vaughan Oliver Archive

A legendary album designer for bands including The Pixies, The Breeders, and more. This project wants to collect Vaughan Oliver’s work into book form.

Web Typography

Richard Rutter’s guide to web typography is critically acclaimed already. The project is fully funded and past deadline, but you can still order the book.

Garamond Corpvs

A great gift for anyone who loves typography, these detailed posters take the idea of the anatomy of letters a step further, by illustrating the skeletal structure of type.

Martin Luther Handwriting Font

This project aims to create a script font based on the 500-year-old letters of Martin Luther, of reformation fame. Contribute to this project and get the licensed font when it’s ready.

W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design

The biography of W. A. Dwiggins, one of the 20th centuries most important designers. Fully funded on Kickstarter you can grab the perks for the standard edition on Indiegogo.

Vignelli: From A to Z

Based on 10 years of lectures at Harvard design school, this popular design book has been unavailable for years. This project is working to reissue it.

Learn to Code

Do you want to learn to code, or would you like to help kids learn? Either way there’s a ton of options.

MatataLab

MatataLab is a coding toy for kids aged 4–9 that lets them program a robot, create music, and make art. This one has already passed 100% funding with almost a month still to go.

Code Cards

A fun social way to learn to code, Code Cards are basically a gamified version of the flash cards you used in school. Choose from HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Ruby decks.

Erase All Kittens

Erase All Kittens is an epic adventure game that teaches kids, especially girls, how to code. A third of the way to its target, pledge before 21st December and gift membership to kids you know.

Learn Bootstrap 4 By Building Real World Projects

A comprehensive course designed by expert tutors to get you up to speed with Bootstrap 4 fast. This one only has 48 hours to go, so if you want to back it, act quickly.

DevKit

DevKit is an iOS application that helps students build apps without the need to learn to code at all. Pledge just $10 and you’ll get a year’s subscription.

Pip

Pip is a Raspberry Pi powered device that lets your kids tinker with code, starting with a simple drag and drop approach and building up to full code.

Accessories

Crowd-fund sites are stocked with hundreds of designer accessories. Here are some we’d love to see on our desks.

Halo Wireless Phone Charger

Using wireless charging technology to keep your cellphone running, this is a great looking device that would grace any desk. With 20 days to go, they’re halfway to their target.

The Minimalist Notebook

If you’re tired of Moleskines, why not grab an architect-designed pure white notepad edged in natural copper. They’ve got a month to find 95% funding for this beauty.

Mara Pen

Mara Pen is a new breed of motion controller, perfect for design pitches, or conference talks. Fully funded back in February it has since raised 939% of its target. You can still grab the perks.

Ingo Stylus

Ingo Stylus is a compact stylus that extends to full size telescopically. It’s fully analogue so you don’t need to worry about charging, syncing, or device compatibility.

Photography

Photography is one of the world’s most popular hobbies, so it’s no surprise that budding entrepreneurs are pitching to that market.

Prynt for Android

Prynt turns your Android device into an instant camera, just like a Polaroid. It’s the best thing to happen to mobile photography since Instagram.

Reflex Analog Camera

Resurrecting the 35mm analog film format is Reflex, the first newly designed SLR camera in a quarter of a century. The body uses a standard lens format, and there are no megapixels to care about.

Fishball for iPhone

Fishball claims to be the world’s first 360 degree smart phone lens. Simply clip it directly to your iPhone and start recording video and images that are perfect for VR.

Capsule

Capsule’s a safe place to store digital photos without uploading them to the cloud. Its built-in AI will help you sort your collection as well, so all you have to do is shoot from your devices.

De-stress

If you want to boost your creativity, the best thing you can do is de-stress, and get a good night’s sleep.

Qoobo

Quite possibly one of the weirdest products you’ll ever see crowd-funded, Qoobo is a pillow with a tail. The tail wags when you cuddle it. Perfect if your landlord won’t let you keep pets.

Circa

Circa is a standalone smart alarm that aims to help you get a restful night’s sleep by keeping your smartphone out of the bedroom. Great for anyone who can’t turn off Facebook.

Somnox

Somnox is a sleep robot that helps you get a better night’s sleep with breathing regulation, sounds, and affection. Can’t afford the robot? They have socks too.

SmartphoneBOX

SmartphoneBOX is a rubber dock for smartphones that does nothing except take your phone out of your hand. If you struggle to disconnect, this might work for you.

Special Exclusive Black Friday Deals!

Source from Webdesigner Depot http://ift.tt/2jW4k6Y from Blogger http://ift.tt/2hSMhu5

#Blogger

0 notes

unixcommerce · 7 years ago

Text

35+ Crowd-Fund Campaigns for Designers This Black Friday

Pens & Pencils

If there’s one thing crowd-funding sites do well, it’s writing instruments.

Pen Comet

Pen Comet is a stunningly minimal pen that uses magnets to attach its cap. Available in silver, gold, or space gray, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a desk littered with Apple products.

Woopen

Woopen is a wooden pen that doubles as an anti-stress device thanks to its unique shape. It takes standard refills, and comes with a nice case. With weeks to go it’s 20% funded already.

pencil+

Redefining how we use pencils, pencil+ is a sharpener, extender, and transporter. It lets you use your pencils right down to the nub. With over a month to go it’s fully funded already.

TTi-108 Titanium Pencil

Claiming to be the best made titanium pencil in the world, it certainly looks the part. Don’t be fooled by the prices listed in Hong Kong Dollars, rewards start around $150.

Ti Arto EDC

A solid titanium pen that takes any kind of refill without the upsetting wobble. With a month to go it’s reached its funding goal twenty times over!

Community

Crowd-funding isn’t just about buying crazy gadgets, it’s also about helping out other people and making the world a better place.

Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole is the senior show for a group of design students from California State University, Long Beach. Everyone deserves a senior show, it’s a great cause with some cool swag.

Hello World: The Film

Hello World: The Film is a documentary exploring the world of code, what it powers, and the coders who write it. If you’ve got $5000 to spare, you can even get yourself in the credits.

Bay View Printing Co

This letterpress print shop wants to become a creative hub for Milwaukee, by opening up their studio to the local community. Back them and grab some letterpress swag.

U&I PCA Graphic Design Final Show

Another senior class hoping to crowd-fund their final show, this time at the D&AD New Blood Festival. This one’s fully funded but the personalized rap song reward is still up for grabs.

Home Computer Museum

Bart van den Akker is setting up a home computer museum in the heart of Europe. The ambitious project is the perfect opportunity for a tech giant looking to hand out sponsorship.

Tech

The mainstay of crowd-funding sites are innovative tech gadgets. Here’s our pick of the best projects to back right now.

Migo

Migo’s a portable, internet-enabled, industrial quality 3D printer. A great entry level device for introducing yourself to the world of 3D printing, they’re just reached 100% funding.

Bolt

Bolt’s a fully integrated internet of things platform, with built-in machine learning. Their previous crowd-fund missed its goal, this time they’ve passed 300% funding, good job!

Kappa

Kappa is a 3D printer developed at the University of Singapore. Successfully funded over on Kickstarter, it’s now available on Indiegogo on demand.

Cinego

A personal, immersive, 4K cinema experience, Cinego looks like a VR headset, but is really a high-quality 2D screen. They’re running a limited time 50% discount for Black Friday.

Typography

If you’re a fan of typography, you’ll find lots of projects to back on crowd-fund sites.

Vaughan Oliver Archive

A legendary album designer for bands including The Pixies, The Breeders, and more. This project wants to collect Vaughan Oliver’s work into book form.

Web Typography

Richard Rutter’s guide to web typography is critically acclaimed already. The project is fully funded and past deadline, but you can still order the book.

Garamond Corpvs

A great gift for anyone who loves typography, these detailed posters take the idea of the anatomy of letters a step further, by illustrating the skeletal structure of type.

Martin Luther Handwriting Font

This project aims to create a script font based on the 500-year-old letters of Martin Luther, of reformation fame. Contribute to this project and get the licensed font when it’s ready.

W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design

The biography of W. A. Dwiggins, one of the 20th centuries most important designers. Fully funded on Kickstarter you can grab the perks for the standard edition on Indiegogo.

Vignelli: From A to Z

Based on 10 years of lectures at Harvard design school, this popular design book has been unavailable for years. This project is working to reissue it.

Learn to Code

Do you want to learn to code, or would you like to help kids learn? Either way there’s a ton of options.

MatataLab

MatataLab is a coding toy for kids aged 4–9 that lets them program a robot, create music, and make art. This one has already passed 100% funding with almost a month still to go.

Code Cards

A fun social way to learn to code, Code Cards are basically a gamified version of the flash cards you used in school. Choose from HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Ruby decks.

Erase All Kittens

Erase All Kittens is an epic adventure game that teaches kids, especially girls, how to code. A third of the way to its target, pledge before 21st December and gift membership to kids you know.

Learn Bootstrap 4 By Building Real World Projects

A comprehensive course designed by expert tutors to get you up to speed with Bootstrap 4 fast. This one only has 48 hours to go, so if you want to back it, act quickly.

DevKit

DevKit is an iOS application that helps students build apps without the need to learn to code at all. Pledge just $10 and you’ll get a year’s subscription.

Pip

Pip is a Raspberry Pi powered device that lets your kids tinker with code, starting with a simple drag and drop approach and building up to full code.

Accessories

Crowd-fund sites are stocked with hundreds of designer accessories. Here are some we’d love to see on our desks.

Halo Wireless Phone Charger

Using wireless charging technology to keep your cellphone running, this is a great looking device that would grace any desk. With 20 days to go, they’re halfway to their target.

The Minimalist Notebook

If you’re tired of Moleskines, why not grab an architect-designed pure white notepad edged in natural copper. They’ve got a month to find 95% funding for this beauty.

Mara Pen

Mara Pen is a new breed of motion controller, perfect for design pitches, or conference talks. Fully funded back in February it has since raised 939% of its target. You can still grab the perks.

Ingo Stylus

Ingo Stylus is a compact stylus that extends to full size telescopically. It’s fully analogue so you don’t need to worry about charging, syncing, or device compatibility.

Photography

Photography is one of the world’s most popular hobbies, so it’s no surprise that budding entrepreneurs are pitching to that market.

Prynt for Android

Prynt turns your Android device into an instant camera, just like a Polaroid. It’s the best thing to happen to mobile photography since Instagram.

Reflex Analog Camera

Resurrecting the 35mm analog film format is Reflex, the first newly designed SLR camera in a quarter of a century. The body uses a standard lens format, and there are no megapixels to care about.

Fishball for iPhone

Fishball claims to be the world’s first 360 degree smart phone lens. Simply clip it directly to your iPhone and start recording video and images that are perfect for VR.

Capsule

Capsule’s a safe place to store digital photos without uploading them to the cloud. Its built-in AI will help you sort your collection as well, so all you have to do is shoot from your devices.

De-stress

If you want to boost your creativity, the best thing you can do is de-stress, and get a good night’s sleep.

Qoobo

Quite possibly one of the weirdest products you’ll ever see crowd-funded, Qoobo is a pillow with a tail. The tail wags when you cuddle it. Perfect if your landlord won’t let you keep pets.

Circa

Circa is a standalone smart alarm that aims to help you get a restful night’s sleep by keeping your smartphone out of the bedroom. Great for anyone who can’t turn off Facebook.

Somnox

Somnox is a sleep robot that helps you get a better night’s sleep with breathing regulation, sounds, and affection. Can’t afford the robot? They have socks too.

SmartphoneBOX

SmartphoneBOX is a rubber dock for smartphones that does nothing except take your phone out of your hand. If you struggle to disconnect, this might work for you.

Special Exclusive Black Friday Deals!

Source p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;} .alignleft {float:left;} p.showcase {clear:both;} body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;}

http://ift.tt/2oZDI69

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