#i remember about a decade ago there was this guy working on my local farmer's market

[mercurytrinemoon]

Idk who am I crushing on harder: Austin Butler or his natal chart 😂

That Jupiter cazimi in Leo is TO DIE FOR 🤤

And the Venus-Mercury conjunction ooofff

[swifty-fox]

Please tell me about 1920s Russian socioeconomic policy

PLEASE LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT 1920′s RUSSIAN SOCIOECONOMIC POLICY

 so 1920′s Russian socio-economic policy was in a few short words. entirely fucked.  Granted the issue goes farther back than 1920′s! basically up until then Russia had been functioning as a mostly closed society in that they rejected the industrial age of the mid to late 1800′s. They believed that they were superior as a country and did not want interference from other religions and cultures (the Great Schism took no prisoners) So essentially at the turn of the 20th century Russia was still almost in the middle ages (granted there was some technology leakage etc. it was more prevalent in upper society to be more modernized) BUT they still had peasants and serfs and people living as they had done hundreds if not thousands of years ago (something like 80% of Russians were impoverished and working as serfs ((that might only be white Russians there's like 32 ethnic Russian groups nobody likes to talk about)) ) 

cutting for length

so naturally people are like mad pissed about that right? they want to be part of the progression of the world they want to be educated and to travel and to have access to medicine and technology and all the benefits of ‘modern’ society. but Tsar Nikolai says no. This is a huge part of his downfall, his unwillingness to change (also vague antisemitism ((they used to conduct these things called Pogroms which was basically localized exterminations of Jewish people. it was fucked up and vastly condemned by a lot of people but the powers that be used the Jewish people as a scapegoat because uhhh 1800′s and 1900′s be like that)), being REALLY bad at war, Rasputin, excessive spending and wealth, a little spice of police brutality and a few massacres as well as aggressive heavy-handed tactics against terrorists. Great family man. Bad leader.) 

Anyways fast-forward through the Russian revolution that's a whole can of worms

Now we have a new government. not a better government but a NEW one with vastly different ideas of what they’re going to do. 

Another sidetrack, lets talk about Communist Theory for a sec. I’m going to go into Karl Marx’s original intention as Russian Communism is actually a twice bastardized idea of Communist (Lenin developed his theory of communism from people like Georgi Plekhanov and  Nikola Chernechevskey’s book What Is To Be Done?  who were also putting their own spin on Marxism) 

ANYWAYS. The basic idea of of Karl Marx’s Communist theory is that society will eventually, over the course of hundreds or thousands of years, develop through capitalism and unto a utopian world where we have no need for things live government or taxes or money. The concept here being over hundreds or thousands of years and NATURALLY.

The Bolsheviks (Led by Lenin) Looked at that and said mmmm no lets do it in like twenty years. 

it’s 1921 and Lenins NEW ECONOMIC POLICY (fondly nicknamed NEP) enters STAGE LEFT (get it) 

The basic idea of NEP was to blend capitalist (i.e a private market) with communist ideals (i. e. no market) and Fast-Track us to glorious utopian communism in not a few hundred years but in a few years! 

sounds doable right? 

the basic idea of NEP was that there would be limited private property that would ultimately be mostly owned by people that Lenin approved of (allies, benefactors, heroes of the glorious revolution for mother Russia and so on) There were things called prodravzyorstka  which was forced grain requisitions by the communist party for the good of the people  basically soldiers would come in and take most of the famers grain and left them to starve. There was also an imposed a tax on farmers that could be paid in -you guessed it!- more grain! NEP abolished that and instead allowed for a cash payout the harder that farmers worked. Productivity went up like 40% in the years following! Pretty great!!

It also incentivized and supported the formation of unions (they were communists remember, those bitches love unions) All in all it was....pretty decent? It wasn’t exactly communist as essentially it was just tax returns or the government buying grain from peasants rather than the peasants having to sell the grain themselves. Pretty great right! 

But it created an imbalance. Again, that Russia wanted to do was industrialized! they wanted to become modern but they didn't want to follow the way any other country did it and they wanted to do it in a fraction of the time! As the government and the ECONOMY began relying on the small farms for grains and vegetables and resources, the big factories and institutions that were privately owned were STRUGGLING!  as a result, they had to raise their prices to try to pay for themselves. But now those same farmers couldn't afford the industrial things they needed! like equipment for their farm tools and tractors or household goods. So now they have to raise THEIR food prices in response. It was a great way to inflate the economy after WII and the revolution. But obviously we all know where this is going. 

And then Boom. Lenin dies. The man had one too many strokes and croaks out in his country home without a successor named. The government is in chaos. Nobody knows what to do. Shortly before his death lenin wrote a (frankly quite funny) letter saying all his successors were fucking idiots and he hated them all.

In steps Stalin. If you think Lenin was bad...Stalin is a fucking bastard. The guy is even MORE antisemetic, brutal, corrupt, mysogynistic and RACIST. The man really hated the chinese. he also hated Georgians (the country not the state) which is pretty funny because he was Georgian. 

Anyways, he abolishes NEP and implements something called the Five Year Plan (NEP 2 for the jokesters out there) 

Stalin shifts the focus away from boosting agricultural development and focuses on rapid industrialiation in, you guessed it, FIVE YEARS. The stats on this plan are fucking insane man get this:

Staling wanted an 111% increase in coal production, 200% increase in iron production and 335% increase in electric power!!! in FIVE YEARS. 

(he also eliminated a class of people called “kulaks” which were richer farmers by turning the poor farmers against them. By elimate I mean they were murdered and their property distributed amongst the poorer farmers.)

I could go on and on about all the ways this failed, all the brutality, unethical and unsafe work enviroments, the continued programs, the amoutn of people who were murdered, the prison(slave) labor used, the rounding up and mass murder of anyone who spoke out against Stalin, the Five Year Plan or the russian government. This is really where the Soviet Union as we know it as westerners got its reputation. 

Also he caused TWO famines because he made all the farmers move into the city to be industry workers so they ddint have any food and didnt accept help from the Red Cross or other countries because MUHHH MOTHERLAND

but you know what it kiiinda worked? Capital increase was almost 160%, consumer goods increased by 87% and total output was up almost 120%!

But also it caused one of the worst famines in the western world with an estimated 6million (some people argue as many as 10million. We will never know the true number because it was mostly peasants and ethnic people suffering) people dying across the entire Soviet Union. Poeple were dying out on the streets in broad daylight, people were selling their dead children to be food. You can see pictures if you google it but they’re very graphic.

Generally, the Five-Year-Plan was lauded as a massive failure and a hotbed of absolutely disgusting human abuse and cruelty. And you knwow what Stalin said? He said nah it went well and implemented about FIVE MORE (theres been twelve in all but they exent up into the early 90′s) I wont touch on them as they were all pretty much iterations of Stalins original one and they all sucked.

Basically Russian Socioeconomic Policy is a hotbed of bad decisions, human rights violations and a LOT of interpersonal drama that i do not have the time to get into. (like the fucking DRAMA between Stalin and Nadezhda Krupskaya (lenins wife))

theres also a LOT more to it I just tried to condense like 40 years into one post so please feel free to go out and research your own! I used Peter Kenez’ “A History of the Soviet Union From the Beginning to its Legacy” while in class. It’s a little dry but effective 

theres also this book by my professor who is a DELIGHT https://www.amazon.com/Red-Arctic-Exploration-Soviet-1932-1939/dp/0195114361 and while I havent read it im sure its told with the same humor and zeal that he conducted his lectures 

also this bOOK THIS BOOK RIGHT HERE is SUCH a good read!

https://www.amazon.com/Vasily-Grossman-Soviet-Century-Alexandra-ebook/dp/B07P9HJMLM/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=the+soviet+century&qid=1589727805&sr=8-4 if you read any of them read this one! it examines the entire rise and fall of the communist party through the story of Grossman who was a jewish-russian writer and pretty famous in his own right though he died penniless and scorned. He’s got a couple movies based off his books out there two which were shelved for criticizing the party for decades! please read it i beg you

[the-headbop-wraith]

1_12 Contracts

Summary: The Mystery Skulls spend a night exploring a condemned welding plant rumored to be haunted.  The group encounters shadow people lingering and cold spots, but one spirit in particular offers cryptic advice regarding a shy spook that doesn’t wish to be bothered.

The mom and pop diner had been around for a quarter of the century and sustained its self through the regulars and travelers passing through, or infrequent few that come by from the thoroughfare where the line of hotels and motels had sprung up over the decades.  A steady fog of amber sun gleamed through the thin paned windows that faced the parking lot, beyond awaited the road and the distance motels.  It was customary of restaurants with outdated stoves to raise a dull haze into the ceiling, for which the air transported rich currents of coffee, sizzling bacon and eggs, and cooking potatoes.

This old time atmosphere was lost on regulars who frequented these places, the promise of good coffee and a warm meal the only acquisition worth the time allotted.  Sometimes this reward was a ruse, and the disappointed customer would mark it down on the migration as a place that would never see a bill from their wallet again.  Vivi didn’t care, as she had her fair share of substandard meals that were not prepared by strangers, food was food.  Traveling as her group did on a tight schedule and a stricter budget, beggars couldn’t be choosy.

“I must interject,” Arthur began, as he scooted his coffee mug nearer to the edge of the worn plastic table when the waiter came by.  Arhur waited until the waiter refilled his mug and stepped away, before he continued, “that this spirit you guys saw may have been screwin’ with you.  Lewis in particular.”  Arthur took a sip before the steam could settle.

Vivi shrugged.  She tapped away at the computer, about twenty tabs open in each of the search engines she skimmed through.  “I don’t wanna come off as sounding naïve, but he seemed genuine,” she said.  “Anyway, he didn’t really mention anything about Lew.  Just gave us the fetch quest and wished us a good luck.”  Vivi pause and placed her elbows to the table top and entwined her fingers together, and set her chin on the bridge her knuckles formed.  “I don’t think he was from the plant.  He had a nondescript following him, same color as him; like with Lew and his deadbeats.”

Arthur cut his sausages with his fork, while picking up a chicken tender from the appetizer plate set between their individuals plates.  The chicken tender disappeared under the table, and Arthur selected another one in the same fashion, jaws clacking below.  “A suicide may not be impossible to look up,” Arthur says, and another chicken tender goes under the table while he pokes at a sausage with his fork, “but it may be well hidden unless we look for some more specific details.  A date, a time?  There would have to be an unrelated article somewhere.”

“I keep trying the factories name,” Vivi says.  More tabs in the search engine, a few others closed.  She sips at her warm tea and sighs.  “Maybe I’m trying to be too specific.  Er… damn?”

“Freeze up again?”  Arthur’s question was answered, as Vivi hefted up the laptop and passed it over the table to him.  “Hold up a sec.  You got Firefox opened too?”  He pushed his half eaten plate away and set the laptop down.  “It sucks when you got Chrome open.”  Arthur yelped when a loud snarl came from under the table, followed by a clank.  “I wasn’t talking to you!”

“Forgot I was using it,” Vivi says, as apology.  She fumbles with a piece of bacon on her plate and looks out the large window beside them.  “‘The one you should be looking for,’” she repeats.

__

“He’s hiding from you.”

Lewis had moved to stand between Vivi and the other when its voice found them, but Vivi had gently nudged him aside and raised her camera to get a picture.  She never took her eyes off the gloomy figure, maybe as tall as Lewis, standing on the first step of a set of cement stairs leading to a higher level of the factory.  The voice had a thick grating, as if the bearer was older in life, if not in death.

The condemned welding plant had been shut down for years, following its closure.  The drums and machinery left behind emit a heavy vapor of rust, traces of seeping propane and oil fumes filled the air with a thick tar.  The only light source came from a flashlight Vivi carried, and what moonlight drips down from the large thick shutters high above in the ceiling.

“Who… do you think we should be looking for?” Lewis asked.  He looked over as Vivi checked the view screen of the camera, and showed him the figure carefully hidden by dark folds of shadows and grease.  But Lewis could make out dissimilar features, a bald head, bright eyes gleaming, and a dark suit.  The figure looked human, but for its eyes.

“I don’t come here often,” said the other.  He watched Vivi carefully.  “The others, they remain.  I know none of them.”

Vivi waited.  She noted a shape huddled on the steps somewhere above the other spirit, a dull glow emitting from its chest which had a coloration that matched the heart of the spirit whom addressed them.  It was too cold to be standing around, the factory absorbed the heat and expelled icy drafts that clung to bones.  “So this guy, you wouldn’t know his name?” she says.  “He’s a he?  Right?”

The spirit crackled, his voice hollow but it failed to echo around them.  “I sometimes come around here.  After the place was shut down, but even then that was a long time ago.”  A strange sound came from him, a rattle or crinkle, and the nondescript shadow on the steps faded.  “But you’re here, you must be looking for him.”

“If you say so?” Lewis said, unsure himself.  “We’re just paranormal investigators, trying to catch some evidence of unusual occurrences.  Namely, spooks.”

“I see,” the other said.  “Then I’m right.  You should be looking for him, and he is hiding from you.”

Vivi pulled her backpack around and slipped the camera into a side pocket.  “I hope you don’t tell us we’re wasting our time, wandering around here,” Vivi says.  She adjusts the straps on her shoulders and thumbs at the walkie-talkie in her hand.  “Because we have ways to draw out the shy ones.”

The eyes of the other spirit brightened.  “You do?” he said, and glanced away for a moment.  “It would help if you had a unique item of his?”

Vivi took a step toward the steps, and the spirit snapped his gaze back on her.  “Immensely.  Is there something in this factory he favored, or owned?”

“No, not here, I don’t think,” the spirit said.  Above him, the lingering nondescript reappeared, nearly missed in the gloom as it drifted down to its companion.  “I know a few very interesting details that will help you, should you want to speak with him.”

 Vivi jarred.  She heard Arthur’s voice in her ear and tried to answer him on the walkie-talkie.  She blinked, her heavy eyelids struggling to stay down as she drew her face back from the table’s surface.

Arthur winced and withdrew his hand from her shoulder.  “Sorry,” he said, and held up the laptop in his good arm.  “I fixed it, but you looked really beat.”

“So why’d you wake me?”  Vivi pulled her back upright, and fixed the magenta glasses on the bridge of her nose.  She looked to where Arthur was pointing to the plates, dangerously near the edge of the table.

“You are such a restless sleeper.”  Arthur set the laptop down in the space before her, and pulled the top screen open.  “I had to go back and retrieve a bunch of your browsing history, but I don’t think you’ve checked this link yet?”  His metal arm reached around the screens side and indicated one of the non-highlighted links.

As Arthur pulled back the plates from the edge of Sparta, Vivi clicked on the link.  “It didn’t have a lot of visits, so I just forgot about it.”  A shabby and self-made webpage appeared, the font very simple and all of the simplicity of the site gave off the strong vibe of do-it-yourself-or-don’t.  The links did work, the list included Home page, Town history, Images, and a few others.  Vivi selected Businesses.  She took a scoop of her eggs as she read down the page, a long list of shops, farmers, and one page for the welding factory they had visited.  “Okay, fingers crossed,” she announced, as she clicked the link.  She took her last piece of bacon and passed it under the table.

“Remember,” Arthur says, chewing on a buttered biscuit.  He shifted his food into his cheek like Galahad would, before he went on, “Even little things can be enlightening.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vivi muttered.  “I always check.  Last on my list though.”  She read through the numerous articles, more history, she picked some of the dates and historical value of the old factory.  “Yes!  Got it!”  She spun the laptop around, nearly knocking Arthur’s coffee over as she pushed the computer toward him.  “Name. Got a name.”

Arthur rescued his coffee, and took another sip as his eyes wandered to the page.  “Local man commits suicide?  You sure that’s the one?” he asked.  Suicides weren’t uncommon, said to say.  Arthur didn’t like the topic far less than others.

Vivi ordered another tea, before she leaned over to the computer.  “This one’s it because he worked at the factory.  I know it doesn’t say it there – like you said they don’t tell people about these things, but he worked at the factory, and he killed himself there.  It’s him.”  She spun the computer back around and stooped over, to the wall under the window where her backpack rested.  “Some of his family still resides in the city.”

“No, you’re not getting my sausage,” Arthur said, under the table.  He scooted his plate from the edge, and gave a cough.  “Yeah, about messaging between family and the deceased,” he grumbled.  “I hate that!”

“They’re not direct relatives,” Vivi says, struggling to keep her voice low.  “Descendants.  We’ll tell them we’re curious about some… bogus family history.  That ghost said—”

“That ghost was a complete dick!”  Arthur sighed and rubbed his face as he sat back.  The booth seat was so uncomfortable, but after a night of walking around in that drafty factory… no, he still hated the hard cold seat.  “We’re going on a fetch quest, why?”

“Because the ghost we want committed suicide.  And he was hiding from us,” Vivi says.  She smiles sweetly to the waiter when he brought more hot water and a new teabag.  “I want to know why he’s hiding from us.”

“Have you seen Lewis lately?” Arthur mumbled, looking into his empty coffee mug.  “He’s hard to miss.  Fucking scary too.”  He said that last part under his breath.

“Where is Lewis by the way?”  Vivi had two windows on the laptop open, just like her days attending college and writing book reports.  One window was a phonebook with names and addresses, the other tab was left open for the history of the welding factory.

“Went for a walk,” Arthur said.  He finished off his sausages and poked at his hash browns with his fork.  “I think.”  He thanked the waiter as more coffee came his way.  “You think he’s jealous you were talking to another ghost?”

Vivi put her sleeve to her lips as she giggled.  “No,” she says.  “He better not be.”  Arthur smirked and gave a light snicker.  “Do you think he gets hungry?  Or, maybe he’s around food he gets hungry?  Like, does he even smell?”

“Not bad?” Arthur said.  He chewed on some of his hash browns, and winced when Vivi tried to pop him on his good shoulder.  “Hey!  These are tasty, and I’m not done,” he growled.  “No-no.  No potatoes for you Mystery.”

“What about eating?”  Vivi continues.  She watches as Arthur picks up his mug of coffee and lifts it to his lips.  “Do you think he could….?  Never mind.”  She looks away and presses her lips together.

“Huh?” Arthur says.  And takes a sip.

“I was just thinking about Casper.”  She had his reaction pegged to a dime.  Arthur snorted and began coughing.  “Sorry.”

“My good pants!” Arthur snarled, as he went for the napkins and began blotting up the black mess now all over his plate and the table.  “Just got them from home!”

“That was pretty good,” Vivi says.

“Yeah, it was,” Arthur grumbled.  He took the half glass of water and poured some water onto his pants.  “I’m up to get you next.  The scores…. Eh, three and two.  I’m still winning.”

“I still say pointing out Lewis is shaped like a Dorito doesn’t count,” Vivi says.  She cut off a piece of her egg and ate it, then went back to scrolling and writing.  “Only because it is true, and that’s a foul.”

“You still laughed, and that’s what counts,” he said.  Arthur’s pants weren’t stained too bad, a few drops that the water had diluted enough.

“I feel bad about it though,” Vivi said.  She took a few more sips of her tea and finished off her eggs, then took the remainder of Arthur’s biscuit.

“I don’t think it bothered him that much,” Arthur says, as he scoots the tatters of potato remains around on his plate.  “He’ll just never look at a Dorito the same way.  No loss.”

“No, I mean—” Vivi stopped and stared at Arthur for a moment.  Recognition of who he was and their topic source hitting her hard.  She took a breath and sipped at her tea a little more.  “You eat a lot of Doritos.”

“Doritos, Pop Rocks, and Energy drinks,” Arthur pipes.  “Anything to keep me running when the headlamps are blazing.”  He looks under the table.  “Mystery, are you seriously licking the floor.  Gross.”  He stops the waiter and gets a fresh mug of coffee, before slipping it under the table.  “Careful, it’s hot.  Want sugar?”  There’s a bark.  “One or two?”  Three barks.  “Humming bird.”

Vivi paused in writing to watch Arthur and smirked.  “When he’s bouncing off the walls, I’ll remember this,” she warns.

“Lew can handle him.”  Arthur’s smirk faded.  He put some creamer into his own coffee and sipped.  “And the case?”

“Right,” Vivi took a breath.  She scrolled up reading through the historical document.  “No mention of the death, though there were a lot of accidents reported.  Then, the former owner passed away.  Hmm.”  She scanned through the font.  “‘Faulty equipment… Inability to acquire new equipment following The Stock Market crash of twenty-nine.’  Rough stuff.”

“A lot of businesses went bankrupt,” Arthur said.  “A lot of the owners couldn’t deal with it.  Does it say how the factory owner died?”

Vivi took a moment to write a few more notes in her notebook, before she answered, “It just says natural causes.”  She finishes copying down the addresses and sketches out a quick map on the next page.  “There’s not too many, most our time will probably be spent driving around until we find the right relations.  That’s IF the spirit was being honest.” 

“I should hang back with the van, while you guys go harass people in their homes,” Arthur says.  He reaches under the table and brings back up the empty coffee mug.  “That way when you guys get arrested for trespassing, I can bail you out.”

“It won’t come to that,” Vivi said.  She turned to look out the window and noticed the sun had risen higher above the distant rooftops during breakfast.  “As long as they’re not weirded about random strangers visiting out of the blue.” 

Arthur says, “Pot.  Kettle.  Black.”  Vivi throws a crumpled up napkin at him, which Arthur catches and sets aside. 

“I’ll go see if I can find Lewis,” Vivi says, as she tucks the beaten up spiral notebook into her backpack.  She takes up the half eaten biscuit and finishes it off.  “Want anything else?”

“I’m good.”  Arthur scoots over as Mystery clambers up, claws scratching at the plastic seat.  Arthur reaches over the table and pulls the laptop around and shuffles some of the plates and begins organizing the mess on the table.  “Here’s the keys,” he says, and holds up the ring with the boo charm on it.  “In case.”  He doesn’t let go of the keys when Vivi grabs them, and only looks up at her from under his thick eyebrows.

“He can’t just keep running away from us,” Vivi murmurs.  Arthur doesn’t comment, but releases the keys.  Vivi grabs her backpack and slings it over her shoulder as she walks off.  She looks to the other side of the diner, toward the half that is gift curious and jewelry but with Lewis stature it should be impossible to miss him.  There was clothing and coats at the furthest back, but she could still see the wood panels of the stores rustic backside.

At the counter within the midpoint of the diner, across from the glass door entrance, Vivi gives pause and waits for the cashier to finish with her customers.  When the family disperses around Vivi, she steps forward to the cashier.  “How was your meal?” the darker woman asks and smiles.

Vivi returns the gesture, her eyes still scanning behind the cashier should Lewis materialize (literally) out of nowhere.  “Splendiful, thank you.  Hey listen, I’m wondering if you’d see my friend lingering around here?” she says.  “Grizzly-tall guy, poof hair, purple sweater.”  The woman begins to shake her head and frowns a bit.  “He’s wearing these big, dorky ass sunglasses.”

“Oh!  Yeah,” the cashier said, with a grin.  She motions over her shoulder with her thumb.  “Guys in the back doing dishes.”

Vivi scowls.  “WHAT?”

Lewis is in the back doing dishes. 

For everything of him he couldn’t remember the last time he had done dishes.  Probably when he was still working for his family at Peppers Paradise, either cooking or doing the dishes.  Sometimes he preferred doing one over the other.  If he was feeling invigorated and playful he had the urge to create, to bring simple ingredients together into zesty splendor; sometimes experimenting with the ingredients of the dishes his Mamma and Pappa had spent years mastering.  Some free reign ambition was good, other times… well, Lewis and friends didn’t mind eating his creations.

Dishes were simple, dishes were autopilot.  He’d been doing dishwashing so long he didn’t need to think, he could let his mind wander off.  Go back a few years, reunite with simpler times though they may be lost. 

Water gushed, steam hissed.  Lewis scrubbed at the rock like crust of black, scouring the inside of pots forgotten too long on the stove with the hard scrubber.  If the task was impossible he’d fill the dish with hot water and some degreaser, then leave it be moment while he slid off.  The floor was slick enough he could get away with it, as he’d seen another kitchen aid skidding by on his own black heels a moment before.  Luckily, everyone’s eyes were elsewhere or they might’ve caught the hot pink sparks leaving scorch marks on the tile.

He moved further down the sink line, to the smaller pots and sauce pans in the deep basin.  An apron was tied to his front over his sweater, the sweater sleeves rolled up his forearms, and a pair of thick gloves were pulled up to wrap snug over the bundled ends.  He turned the heavy tap on and let water cascade into the deep sink and put a dab of the degreaser in, he skids over and put a little more in the large pot for good measure and skid back.  He took the rag and scrapped off the stains of food, scrubbed the pot clean and rinsed it then slid it down the stainless steel ramp to the next kitchen aid drying off the pots for the cooks.

The water practically boiled around his arms, but it was hard to tell with the thick suds.  He raises up an aggravating knife with a stubborn crust of something on it, and examined the sharp blade as it glint under the harsh phosphorus light.

“Knife coming down,” Lewis called, and slid the blade towards the dryer.  Soon there were stacks of plates, mugs, plastic cups rolling down the glistening wet ramp.

“Give me a sec, Lew,” the dryer called.  The dryer finished buffing two plates and set them into wire rimmed slots in a cart at his back.  While on pause, Lewis let the water drain out and rinsed the deep sink. 

“We’re short on pots.”  One of the cooks, dressed in a white uniform, approached Lewis.  “I’ll dry’em, don’t worry about it.”  The chef adjusted a towel laid over his forearm.

“How many?  What kind?”  Lewis was already pulling a few of the smaller pots from the stack and dunked them into the steaming bubbles.

“Two,” the cook answered.  “Lids too.  And three ladles.”  He rubbed at his brow with the inner side of his shoulder as Lewis scrubbed and rinsed.  He held open the towel as Lewis handed over the pots, plus lids, and spoons. 

“Got them?” Lewis asked, as he stuck the ladles into the pots open top.

“Yep, thanks,” the chef said.  He began pawing at the dishes between the towels.  “Whoo.  Hot, hot.  These are scalding.  Don’t your hands burn?”

Lewis shrugged as he turned back to the deep sink.  “Nope,” he chimes.  “I’ll turn the taps temp down, though.”  He freezes when the door across from him sweeps open and in charges Vivi.

“Lew—” Vivi’s words cut off when the sunglasses drop off his face and hit the floor, one of the lens pops out and skips up under one of the stainless steel counters.  “Oh shit!”  Vivi fidgets around as if trying to pick up a wild, spewing bottle of soda but uncertain how to do this feat without getting her clothing all wet and stained.

“I’m sorry, blueberry,” Lewis begins, holding up his slick gloved hands.  “You were eating, and I was going to—” He emits a brief but loud shriek, when Vivi jerks him down by the collar of his suit.  The lights in the kitchen flicker and dim causing the nearest of the kitchen aids to pause and look up, after a short sputter the lights brighten without problem.  “What?  What now?”  Lewis stares as Vivi jerks her sweater off over her head.  Underneath the sweater Vivi always wore a darker blue T-shirt that matched her skirt, but she preferred the extra comfort of the sweater.  Lewis doesn’t get out another sound before Vivi shoves the puffy sweater down over his face and she begins shoving him toward the swinging doors.

“Your face, Lew.  Your face,” Vivi hisses into his back.

“Ah.”  Lewis puts his hands up and pushes the doors away as he’s herded out.  A voice calls from the side, and he detects a presence hurry at them.

“I’m very sorry,” Vivi says around Lewis shoulder, her voice strained.  She pauses in the entry of the swinging doors as the taller man stares at them from the kitchens interior, between her and Lewis but mostly at Lewis with the sweater sagged around his face.  “He’s got… a bad nose bleed,” Vivi said, and kept going with the evasion, nodding.  “He gets them sometimes.  I gotta get him outside, get him some fresh air.”

“O… kay,” the older man said, staring with confusion.  Lewis thought he sounded like a compact version of his father.  “I’ll just need the gloves back, and the apron.  Also, I wanted to let you know we took some of your bill off, since he was doing the dishes.  It’s only fair.”  He nods.

“Right, um, thank you.”  Vivi pulls on Lewis sleeves and turns him away from – who she suspects could be the manager, or assistant manager.  Vivi slips off the rubber gloves and pulls the damp sweater down over Lewis’ suit.  She tugs at the apron, until Vivi finds the one cord at Lewis’ back that undoes the elegant little tight knot.  Vivi slaps Lewis hands away when he tries to help take off the apron, and instead he leans forward to allow Vivi the range to pull the aprons loop off from over his sweater garbed head.  Lewis doesn’t realize how fortunate he is that Vivi’s hands are full, otherwise she’d punch him.  “Really, thank you.  I’m so sorry about this.”

The kitchen aid waves her off.  “It’s no prob, nose bleeds suck,” he says, taking the gloves and apron.  “He’s really good at this gig.  I hope you’ll come by again before you head out.”

“Yes!  Most def.  C’mon Lew, let’s get you some napkins.”  Vivi pulls Lewis by his cuffs, guiding him out into the main interior of gift store.  She guides him around the few aisles and finds the little exercise is much easier than what it would be, if Lewis was just any other person.  The cashier watches them from the counter island in the center of the store, but says nothing as Vivi guides Lewis towards towards the glass doors of the restaurants entrance. 

People are still coming in, and too many stop to stare as she hauls Lewis out.  Vivi turns to the diner’s interior, scanning along the many large windows that face the parking lot and catches Arthur’s gaze as he looks up from the laptop in front of him.  Seated beside Arthur, Mystery catches his movement and looks up as well.  Arthur slants his eyes and makes a vague gesture with his good arm, twirling his hand at the wrist.  Vivi frowns and shakes her head, she gestures back with a sort of cutting motion and points out the door.  She has only a slight hint to what Arthur had signed, but he probably already gathered up the sum of what occurred in the kitchen.

It took a little longer than it normally would for Lewis to get his bearings together and pull on his Alive appearance.  Vivi had waited outside the doors of the van, as he sat in the back soundless and weightless.  For the duration Vivi would watch people walk by on the sidewalk across the parking lot.  The van was parked with its back facing the crumbling old wall of the restaurants side, and she felt confident no one would get close enough to the front of the van to make out the curious movement within through the large windshield.

“I’m sorry I startled you,” she began, when she heard Lewis creep out onto the back bumper.  It was tricky to tell, but she was getting accustomed to his airless movements.  “I panicked, but I guess I shouldn’t have.  You have to be more careful, though.”  She turned to the open door where Lewis now stood, dark eyes with the bright glimmer in their depths staring at her dubiously.  “You gotta work on not getting surprised when something random happens, or work on recovering faster.”

Lewis sort of frowned, his nose wrinkling in a way that seemed natural.  “It’s not as easy as I’m making it out to be, y’know,” he says.  “It’s not like there’s a little switch in me and when I feel like it, I flip it and change the way I look.”

Vivi sighed.  “I know.  I’m scared, that’s all.  But I’m not sure how—” She stopped and looked away as if something had caught her attention.  “I worry about you,” Vivi says.  “I worry about you, and I don’t want to worry about something taking you from us.”

“Mi arandano,” Lewis hummed.  He stepped over to Vivi and put his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.  “I think I’m far beyond that threshold of being taken by someone else.”

Vivi kept silent for a moment, her arms curled up and pressed back into Lewis’ sleeves.  She listened to the distance traffic on the roads, and somewhere else the muffled patter of the locket Lewis carried.  A frail breeze crooned over the hard concrete and Vivi took a deep breath, taking in the thick scent of the earthy weeds growing between the cracks in the cement along the road, and the old oil baking on the asphalt.  There was… an unfamiliar scent to her long travels, something foreign to the countless roads and parking lots she had visited throughout the states.  The aroma was somewhat sweet and fresh, like after shower rains in a forest.  Or is it more electrical, like a thunderstorm charging across the untamed plains of the open desert?  She takes a tentative breath.  It was so pleasant and out of place, under the rash bake of the warm sun on cool pavement.  She leaned over and sniffed at Lewis sleeve.  That was it.  It was Lewis.

“What kind of soap were you using?” Vivi asked, as she pressed her nose into his sweater.  “On the dishes?”

Lewis looked away from a family that was walking by on the nearby sidewalk, towards the restaurants front.  “Just the usual industrial lemony-antibacterial stuff,” he said, distracted.  “I never really noticed it, I guess.”  He glanced over as the family entered through the glass doors.

“Hmm.”  Vivi could remember Lewis just drenched in the stuff from long hours in kitchen, on the late evening when he was washing the endless cycle of dishes that lay siege on the kitchen.  That was his smell when they were younger and while they were home, and she grew to like it.  That was not what he smelled like now.  But this was nice, whatever it was.  Vivi took one last deep breath of his sweater.  “You smell really nice,” she said, and stepped away from him.

Lewis stood there, arms open.  “Thanks?”

Vivi made her way around back to the front doors of the diner.  “I have to pay the bill,” she called back.  “And I’ll get you some new glasses from the gift shop.”

“Make sure they’re fashionable,” he hails after her.  “And purple!”

[dunderklumpen]

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau interview: Lannister’s greatest battle yet — defending the Amazon

The Game of Thrones star is now a UNDP goodwill ambassador on climate change. It’s hard to care about dragons when the rainforest is burning, he says

Was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau — best known as the “Kingslayer”, Jaime Lannister, the sexy, incest-loving baddie (turned goodie, turned . . . it’s complicated) from Game of Thrones — devastated when the hit television show ended this year?

The Danish actor shrugs. “No, I was fine.” After eight series, though, many of the cast were apparently inconsolable. “Yes, I heard that, but I wasn’t. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, I really enjoyed it, but at the end of the day it was just a television show. I would work on it for a maximum of 30 days a year, then I would do other stuff that I would spend more time on. Of course it was a bit sad, when you’ve spent 10 years with a group of people, to know you won’t be seeing them regularly any more, but the job was over. It had run its course — you couldn’t really squeeze any more out of it.”

When he was cast in Game of Thrones a decade ago, Coster-Waldau, long a jobbing actor on both sides of the Atlantic, had no clue that the production he had signed up to would become a cultural phenomenon.

“Actually, when the show started there was a lot of stigma. When I told people I’d got this job with HBO, they were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to be amazing — is it about gangsters?’ And when I said, ‘No, actually it’s a fantasy with dragons’, they were like, ‘Oh well then, good luck.’ A lot of people had to be almost forced into watching it before they realised the supernatural stuff is really not what it’s about.”

If Coster-Waldau sounds dismissive about his part in TV history, it’s because, post-Thrones, he has been busy. As well as finishing a couple of Danish films, the 49-year-old is making a documentary about the nerdy world of “comic cons” — comic-book conventions. He keeps in touch with a handful of Thrones pals, especially Gwendoline Christie, who played his non-sororal love interest, Brienne of Tarth.

He has also become a goodwill ambassador on climate change — and on gender equality — for the UN Development Programme. Why do actors seem compelled to bang on about climate change, even when the public makes it clear they don’t enjoy receiving lectures from luvvies whose job consists of jetting around the world to prance around on sets with carbon footprints greater than most of us will produce in a lifetime?

“I acknowledge 100% that actors talking about climate change annoys people. It is ridiculous. I understand why people say, ‘Why should I listen to him? — he’s a f****** actor’,” he says.

“They’re right. You shouldn’t listen to me. It’s what I’m saying: don’t listen to me, but do listen to the experts, the scientists, the people who actually have their feet on the ground and know what they’re talking about.”

Coster-Waldau, 6ft 2in, understands the public are more likely to pay attention to him than to a group of scientists. Dressed in sensible Scandi weatherproof gear, he is determined to talk about his recent visit to the Amazon rainforests of Peru, which have been devastated by fires set by farmers and loggers.

“There’s a huge spotlight on Game of Thrones and I’m happy to use that, because I believe climate change is a global problem and we all have responsibility for each other,” he says. “The UN is a very flawed organisation, but I still think it’s the way forward.”

There is a pleasing Nordic frankness to Coster-Waldau’s refusal to provide simplistic or patronising narratives about the cause of the fires and how they can be prevented. “Fires are very scary and very visually stunning, and there’s no question the deforestation of the Amazon is a huge problem. But when you’re actually there, you realise that everything is complex.”

The actor has long been an activist. When he was a child, his mother “dragged” him on anti-nuclear marches (his late father was an alcoholic).

“In my teens I was very involved in the anti-apartheid thing and we did a lot of ridiculous stuff. There was one night called Close the Doors of Power, when my friend and I went round at night putting sealant into all the locks of every bank and every insurance company. If I saw it today I’d be like, ‘You kids are so stupid. One guy will have the job of cleaning this all up, and nothing’s going to change.’ But at the time it was very fulfilling.”

Coster-Waldau is mindful of what happened when another do-gooding star meddled in complex local issues. “When I was a kid in Denmark, there was the big campaign by Brigitte Bardot and Greenpeace to end seal-clubbing. I remember those posters of her with the cute baby seals. We were like, ‘How can anyone kill them?’ Well, that campaign succeeded, but it also pretty much destroyed the livelihoods of the Inuits in Greenland, so Greenpeace is hated in Greenland. They destroyed a community. That’s what can happen when f****** actors tell us what to do.”

Coster-Waldau is big on Greenland, where on a previous UN trip he witnessed the rapidly melting ice caps. His actress wife, Nukaka, is a former Miss Greenland. She has never seen an episode of Game of Thrones. “She promised me she was going to sit down with my mum [to watch it], but it’s a long series. It requires some dedication.” So his mum hasn’t seen it either? “No, it’s not her thing,” he giggles. “Nor have quite a few of my family. Actually, it’s quite nice when there’s so much craziness surrounding it.”

At least his 19-year-old daughter has watched it. “My 16-year-old has started, but she finds it weird to see me as someone else. I mean, in the first episode I’m having sex.” And not just with any woman — with Jaime’s sister. “Yeah, exactly,” Coster-Waldau sighs. And Jaime then pushes a 10-year-old boy who catches them in flagrante out of a window. “Actually, for some reason people find that bit OK. It’s always the sex that gets people going. But without those scenes, we wouldn’t have had a show.”

No matter how deep into the rainforest he travelled, Coster-Waldau was recognised. The indigenous people had watched the series on the internet — which is also where they had educated themselves about climate change.

“In my own ignorance, I assumed they wouldn’t have much knowledge about it, which is really embarrassing because of course they did. They have a very clear understanding that what is happening to the Amazon is not great. This is their home, which they love and have real interest in seeing preserved, but it’s a question of people doing things to survive. You can’t say to them, ‘Why don’t you go and do something else?’ They have got to feed their families. There are no other jobs — it’s an impossible choice.”

Does Coster-Waldau, who was rumoured to be earning more than $1m (£760,000) an episode for the final series of Game of Thrones, plant trees to offset his hefty carbon footprint, like his fellow eco-warrior Emma Thompson?

“Yeah, when I buy a flight I do that thing of paying extra [to offset]. I just got an electric car. But listen: I don’t have a leg to stand on. I have two homes, one in Denmark and one in Los Angeles, which is absolutely horrific. But we also have to live in this world. I just don’t believe that anyone can magically transport themselves back to living how it was 100 years ago. We need to move away from that guilt thing.” Is he attacked for hypocrisy? He snorts. “I don’t read the comments.”

It is important to be optimistic, he adds. “If we can come up with so many amazing inventions, surely we can find solutions to this. I hate to believe we are so stupid we are just going to destroy ourselves.” This may all sound a bit woolly, but — as Coster-Waldau has made abundantly clear — he’s only a f****** actor.

By Julia Llewellyn Smith December 22 2019, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

[thewritewolf]

Nino’s Quest Chapter 8: The Quest Begins Again

Adrien and Marinette are a stuttering mess for reasons unknown to the Lord DM, but that won't stop him from pushing this story forward. The party seeks out a dread enemy - The Necromancer!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 (Final)

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3.  My ko-fi.

Nino knocked at the door to the familiar apartment and heard his girlfriend’s voice call, “Come in!”

Stepping inside, the first thing he noticed - after Alya, of course - was the bags of groceries on the table. A warm smile lit up his face as he recognized them as the ingredients for one of his favorite meals that he’d ever had at the Cesaire household.

“Is all this for me, babe?”

Alya quirked an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip. “Well, I was hoping that you’d share with the rest of the party…”

“Hm…” He tapped at his cheek, pretending to give it some thought. “I guess that’s a fair deal. Need a hand cooking it up?”

She scoffed. “No, but I wouldn’t turn down help if you’re offering.”

The sound of chopping vegetables and the sizzle of the meat on the stove was all the noise that passed between them for a few minutes. The two of them worked well together, especially when it came to the kitchen. As Nino was busy cutting the carrots, he finally broke the silence.

“So where is everyone today?”

“You probably guessed Nora is at a tournament. If you did, congrats - you were right.” Alya leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms. “Took awhile but she’s finally in a league that she doesn’t just completely wreck instantly.”

Nino nodded along. “That’s totally sweet. She needs to be challenged if she’s gonna get any better.”

“Her point exactly. Ella and Etta are with mom and dad. They were going to the park, then to a movie. We should be clear for the next few hours, at least.”

“That’s not far off from what our last couple dates have been like.” Nino chuckled. “Park, movies, although we did go out for dinner a few days ago…”

“It’s good exercise. Can’t be too out of shape when Ladybug calls us back into the fight.”

“Right on. And if we are already out and about, it's way easier for you to go charging into an akuma battle phone-first, yeah?”

Alya had the decency to blush at that. “So, ah, you noticed that, huh?”

“Mhm. Don’t worry, babe. It’s all good to me, so long as we’re chillin’ together.”

“Aw, thanks babe.” She turned around to stir the rice some more. Still stirring, she asked over her shoulder, “By the way, have you seen the footage of the last akuma battle?”

He snorted. “Babe you say that as if you don’t have me read all your posts to edit them.”

“Okay, fair. So you’ve noticed that Ladybug and Chat Noir have been acting… kinda weird lately?”

“Understatement of the year. Stealing glances at each other, stutters when they actually manage to talk to each other, all those blushes. They’re the second biggest mess of all the couples in Paris.”

“And the biggest mess is our babies, right?”

“Yup.” Nino dumped the carrots in with what Alya was stirring. “All props to Ladybug and Chat Noir though - they’re giving our kids a run for their money, even though Marinette has had way more practice being awkward. And my boy Adrien is right there with the best of ‘em.”

Alya sighed. “It’s a mess. But I bet we can fix-”

“Babe.”

“What? I’m just saying if we-” Nino put a finger on her lips, silencing her despite the glare she shot his way.

“You gotta let them figure it out on their own. They’ll get there eventually.”

“Yeah? Well, let’s see how you feel after this session. You haven’t had to see them together nearly as much as I have.”

“Yeah, I really wish Ms. Bustier would start letting us do groups of four.” He paused. “Is it seriously that bad?”

Her eyes widened for a moment, remembered exasperation crossing her face. “You’ll see, cappy.”

Her phone went off. “Well, that’s them. Just in time for lunch, too.”

---------------------

As he’d expected, Marinette and Adrien were quiet and blushy as ever. This ultimately left the leadership of the party in Alya’s hands - a task that she was uniquely qualified for as they sought out leads for the Necromancer’s lair.

“Alright, dudes. We’ve all leveled up. You’ve just finished shopping in the marketplace and you’re ready to leave town on a moment’s notice. But you’ve got no clue on where to head out. What’re you going to do about it?”

Silence greeted him as Alya looked between their friends and the way they very deliberately avoided each other’s eyes while surreptitiously staring as much at each other as possible.

“Right, well…” Her eyes sparked as an idea occurred to her. “So we’re basically drumming up leads, right? Doing research, chasing down rumors of this bad guy?”

“Yeah, babe, you got it.”

She rubbed her hands together in excitement. “Now that is something I can do. What’s the marketplace look like? What sort of people do I see there?”

“Besides the locals? Rough mercenary types, travellers dusty from the road, wandering merchants, that sort of thing.”

There was a pause as she narrowed her eyes in thought. “Tell me more about the travellers. What do they look like?”

He rolled a perception check behind his DM screen. “You notice that a bunch of ‘em are sticking together and they’ve got kids with them. Their threads are pretty similar too, like they got ‘em from the same place. They seem pretty uneasy, casting suspicious looks around them.”

“It’s not normal for wanderers to take their children with them, yeah?”

“Not usually, no. Unless they’re nomads.”

She shook her head. “Nah. Nomads wouldn’t be that freaked out by new people. It sounds like they’re country folk that were driven into the city. Which means…”

“...Refugees?” Adrien supplied, frowning at the table.

“Only one way to find out. I’ll walk up to them.” Alya cleared her throat and adopted her character’s voice. “Excuse me, can I ask you where you’re from?”

Nino dropped his voice an octave. “Doesn’t matter much anymore, does it? Nothing left to go back to now.”

“What do you mean?”

“‘Strange happenings up in the mountains, lass. Smoke billowing out. Scared me to my bones, it did. We picked up and headed out.’ The dude gets a distant look, like he’s remembering the sight. ‘Been on that farm for six generations. But I hear we were the lucky ones.’”

“I thank him for his time. What do you guys think?”

Marinette and Adrien seemed to have forgotten their embarrassment for the moment. Adrien shuffled his character sheets again. “Do I know any legends about the mountains? Like, monsters that lived up there, or old forts? Maybe it’s not the Necromancer at all but something else.”

Nino took a long sip of his pop. “Roll it.”

A grin split Adrien’s face as the die landed high. “What’ve you got for me, bro?”

“You remember hearing stories about a lost dwarven city out there. It went quiet decades ago, though.”

“Dwarves…” Marinette cupped her chin, her eyebrows creased with worry. “Like, big forges, deep mines, strong doors? Enough space to arm and equip and army? That sort of dwarves?”

Nino finger gunned at her. “One and the same, my dude!”

Alya buried her face in her hands. “Fantastic. If the Necromancer isn’t there, I bet he wished he was. Let’s go.”

“Don’t we want to look for other clues?” Marinette asked.

“Y-yeah.” Adrien swallowed heavily, dragging his eyes away from Marinette to Alya. “He could be somewhere else.”

“Doubt it. And even if he isn’t, someone is driving honest people away from their homes. Necromancer or no, we’ve got to do something about it.”

Steely determination dawned on their faces. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil…” Marinette began.

“...Is that good people do nothing,” Adrien finished. “Guess it’s settled then.”

With their goal in mind, the rest of the session was spent on travel. They met more people on the road - battered survivors and the usual wanderers alike. It put a strain on their supplies, but they helped out as best they could while approaching their destination. After a couple hours of social encounters and skill checks to help the displaced, they were close.

“Looming on the horizon are the great western mountains. While they’re usually supes gorgeous, something about ‘em feels off. Just like the farmer dude said, there are smoke plums coming from somewhere in the mountain range. And that…” Nino said as he closed his DM notebook, “Is where we’ll end today’s session. If you chose right, next session might totally be the end of the Necromancer, and this adventure.”

The tapping of Adrien’s pen came to a stop, Marinette’s packing finished, and even Alya looked up from her character sheet. All of them wore similar expressions of surprise.

“Wow, really? It doesn’t feel like its been that long…” Alya muttered.

Marinette frowned. “It can’t be almost over already, can it?”

“No way!” Adrien brushed the thought aside. “I’m sure we’ve got plenty of adventures still in us.”

“That’s up to you, my dudes. This campaign might be almost over, but there could be more.” Nino shrugged and chugged the last of his pop. “If you want to, I mean. But anyway, that’s a question for later.”

Slightly more somber, they finished packing up. Adrien took Marinette and Nino home

----------------

Direct Message to Adrien

Nino: So Bro Wanna tell me whats goin on between you and M?

Adrien: There isn’t anything Which is half the problem But don’t worry about it

Nino: No can do We’re best buds Its my job to worry about you

Adrien: And I get that I really do! But you’ve gotta trust me There isn’t anything you can do Sorry :(

Nino: Well… okay. I’m here if you need me dude

Adrien: I know [heart emoji]

-----

Direct Message From Alya

Alya: Did he tell you anything?

Nino: Nah, babe Clammed up U?

Alya: dang No Mari is hiding something Not sure if it is a BAD something But def something

Nino: Not much we can do about it I guess Just let ‘em figure it out

Alya: Speak for yourself, cappy Theyre almost there They just need… ...a little push

Nino: Alya...

Alya: What? It won’t be much Just a gentle nudge Really

Nino: [eye roll emoji] Alright fine What did you have in mind?

Alya: heh heh heh Okay so! We get them into class early Like SUPER early Maybe like an hour

Nino: Alright… Tough to pull off Esp for Mari But doable

Alya: ...and then we lock the door behind them And we leave them alone We don’t open it until either they’re dating Or class starts Preferably the former

Nino: That’s What No Stop

Alya: Why not? It worked for us And it smells a whole lot nicer too

Nino: point You know what? Sure We’ll do it Otherwise we might be waiting on them for a g e s

Alya: I knew you’d see it my way. ;)

[jvonirsik-blog]

Running With The Devil

There was a time in my life where I thought being a heathen was fun. I enjoyed the attention I received when I would shock my little Kansas town, mostly made up of farmers and ranchers and some brightly colored Oil Field trash. I grew up on a farm a few miles from this little 4 horse town. I would see the lights and could see from one side to the other, with binoculars I was able to see ppl walking around. I grew up somewhat sheltered, as my only interaction with friends was the occasional birthday party, but mainly through schooling. At the age of 8 I was put in charge of feeding the animals. I would start with the chickens, dogs, cats, horses, then jump in the truck and drop hay across the pasture. This wasn't that bad. As I grew older I began to get frustrated with the fact that I had so many responsibilities that it almost became impossible to even go to the pool in the middle of a work week. I began to slack off on the farm and the married in family, whos family owned the farm since the beginning of the town, started to really show their true colors. I had always known that my step dad was a POS. He liked to drink when he wasn't hauling cows across the country, talking uppers and being gone most the time. When he was home it was like boot camp. When my step dad decided it was time to work for the family farm he became a full time fixture in my life. We had known each other from the age of 5 and my brother 3. in the beginning it was ok, my mother just raised us out there, but as time had progressed and with me already a victim of sexual exploitation, my step dads furry in having to raise kids that were not his own heated up. I seemed to alway getting into trouble, most the time I didn't know what I had done to trigger such violence. I was supposed to be going to my dads but with him working in the oil patch that was few and far between. When I was just a young boy I had pretty much listened to what my mother listened to. It is still to this day music that I enjoy. Because I had been driving the farm truck for a little while my uncle form my fathers marriage decided that it was time to do some back roads drinking. I'm not asking for ppl to trash this guy, it was in fact the time period that allowed for it. But to me I was down, got to drive this guy who I looked up to around while we rocked out to some of his favorite music. That day I was introduced to Metallica both And Justice for All and Kill Em All. Both albums that I will always fully enjoy. And Justice for All top tier. That night I would sneak out to my uncles ride and snatch those two albums and hide them in my boots as I figured they would look in my bag. I can remember him getting kinda grumpy, it took a day to notice but I heard about it. I remained innocent for a really long time. That year I would start to transform into the being that I will later look back too as a hard lesson in life. This steeling of cassette tapes would lead me down a road in a high speed chase with guns drawn. A city looking me straight in the eyes and telling me to get out of their stores. I was beginning to become black listed. By the time I was 16 I had become the thug everyone wanted me to be, the kid who was a drop out. All his friends still in school and that made for a boring holiday. I asked to return that following semester. My parents trying desperately to convince the principal to let me back in. You see I had been kicked out of a tiny farm school for being a redneck and shooting a gun on school property. Not at anyone not during school hours but in the gym because it was unlocked. Anyways his option once he told my parents he would allow it, was that I had to do a book report of the book The Black Bible. It was a genuine copy that he pulls out of his desk like he has a few. Me being a full blown metal head, accepts the challenge. Until then the pentagram had just been something metal to throw around. No religion involved. I'm moved to tell my story as the movie The Dirt, hopefully a realistic rendition of the members of Motley Crue. So far it seems to be the caliber of what I remember going up crying to their extremely popular ballads. I remember getting Dr Feelgood from a friend and I couldn't put it down, the guitars were crunchy and the bass was in front, which by the way I had wanted to become a bassist. Nikki Sixx was an inspiration to me. I can remember looking at these cats like superhero's. Unfortunately bands like KISS kinda ruined it when that played cartoon characters. But whatever I remember just looking forward to when Nikki would do interviews or be in the headlines. I was a kid in the 80's like I said it was the time period. We would roll out with our Walkmans and oversized kicks, I ended up going from running shoes to the lovely Cortez kicks and now for about 15 or plus years been with chucks. I like the way they allow me to do it all, the are sports shoes business casual, heck even work hoes if you got some nice ones. But this isn't a shoe commercial. This is about Opiates, this is about an epidemic and I heard Nikki Sixx say exactly what went wrong. What happened is they launched an addictive substance designed to help our bodies recover then we became reliant on them. They made our pain receptors like little wusses. I am 40, I had a major football accident, and throughout the years I have sought after these high dollar pills on the streets because the Dr new I liked drugs. I had always thought that if administered correctly we could have had a decent relationship but that wasn't the case. I have spent many years trying to fight myself in this battle and finally won a few years ago. Now I face the task of fixing my life. Because I had become so dependent on these blue and yellow purple pills. I had sold things that I needed. I spent more money on pills that life and now I can't find the front door. I don't know what way is up. I hope that somewhere down the line we can find a solution to get ppl like me who never intended to have a shitty life, we were handed everything to accomplish these things. I, being a sound mind individual could use a reset. Growing up the false accusations that turned a town against me, never to receive an apology or even a, Hey we know you didn't do it, know that we are allowing you back into society. Nope it was all boots to the ass. So I hit the road and made something of myself, I never made it famous but I did successfully operate my own metal showcase podcast, a radio spot at a local station and have toured the country from cost to cost. I now reside with my wife and child. I missed out on two children because of my social anxiety issues. I would sink into drugs and alcohol. I never entered a relationship where these two things were not present in both of us, the issue became when I would do my own thing and they would begin to hate me. Hate is a strong word when kids are involved. It almost always inssures you will have a harder time. I regret ever giving into the demands of my x's who would say that I am a low life POS but I have many others, we just didn't have kids who would argue against them. It's clear in cases with kids its either all or nothing. I was only just 13 years old when i was rocking out to Motley Crue's Decade of Decadance album on the way to Colorado Springs to drop my mother off at the airport. This would be the year I would knock my step dad out and the last time he would ever lay down leather on my arse again. I took that trip with them and now I will take that trip with them once again. I was just a kid but I had to grow up fast. Here is to Nikki Sixx and I hope this book on opiates gets bought. We need to get away from these designer drugs. #NikkiSixx #MotleyCrue #80sMetal #WhiteKnuckleRadio

[darlingseraa]

The Immortal Journey Headcanons || Ideas by SojaOkita

Alright, so, since my post about my headcanon for Irelia / Talon seems to be pretty popular with you guys, I’ve come up with some more interesting ideas I thought could be an addition to it. Feel free to comment if you have any ideas that you would like to see included / developed / mentioned in this post ! I’m trying to develop a more expansive headcanon / fan lore (for lack of a better term) for a possible story I’d like to write for this skin line (If you liked this, I may try to imagine some headcanons for the other champs of the Immortal Journey, aka Fiora, Janna and Yi)~ THIS IS A FAIRLY LONG POST, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Immortal Journey - Irelia

Personality:

Humble - Kind - Loyal - Affectionate - Strong - Born Leader - Fair - Just - Steadfast - Accepting - Patient - Calm - Selfless - Somewhat prone to slight anger when faced with enemies.

Backstory:

Irelia is a demigoddess, meaning she was born from a pair of beings in which one was divine (aka, a literal god) and the other was mortal. In her case, I believe she would be born to a human mother who was of humble birth, meaning that she had no riches whatsoever except for the few coins she would get by selling the produce from her gardens or working on her family’s farm. Irelia grew up aware of her divine ascendance, but never truly acknowledged it since her mother had always made it known that divinity didn’t mean she was superior to anyone in this world in any way. That is why she grew up valueing humility and making it the one value / quality she has centered her life around. 

She grew up with her mother’s family, who were either merchants or farmers. She soon learned to value family just as much as humility, and recognized that, often enough, the ones who do so are the happiest. Others who value wealth over all things are often the loneliest of souls.

At age ten, Irelia experienced true violence for the first time. Brigands ransacked her family’s farm and the adjacent village in search of valuables. They killed her mother that night. The demigoddess swore to live by the teachings that her mother had taught her.

Two years after her mother’s death, Irelia began training in combat at the local temple, amongst future warriors of Ionia. She showed exceptional talent and technique -especially when wielding her magical blades-, so much so that by the end of her eight years of training and her joining Ionia’s top warriors, she was one of the nation’s most respected figures. She was twenty years old.

Immortal Journey - Talon

Personality:

Arrogant - Prideful - Confident - Impatient - Reserved - Secretive - Strong - Ambitious - Somewhat entitled - Somewhat curious - Anger issues (sometimes) - Can be friendly - Loyal.

Backstory: 

Talon is a dragon born centuries ago, in the seas south of Valoran, to the King and Queen of the seabound kingdom, thus making him a prince. He was quickly used to palace life and, as such, developed a strong sense of entitlement that faded slightly over the years. He aged like any youngling would, quite fast, and then stopped aging completely when he turned about fourty years old.

Very early on, Talon was taught to consider himself as the leader of his people, for he would one day replace his father at the head of the lands he reigned over. He also discovered the powers his family has bestowed upon him at his birth; control over the tides and the sea, as well as transformation, allowing him to shift from dragon to human forms as he pleased.

Curious by nature, Talon soon was out and about, exploring the seas surrounding his kingdom and going as far as venturing on land. His adventures outside the palace lead him to encounter the creatures his second form was inspired from, the humans, and he immediately felt quite superior to them.

Talon was often told by his father that humans were easily impressed creatures, although quite deadly if they weren’t careful. He was never to return to the human lands.

When his parents passed, the burden of ruling over the seabound kingdom of the dragons fell unto him. Now being free of his father’s decisions, he decided to return to the human lands in the hopes of conquering them, out of ambition, pride and arrogance, meaning to prove his superiority over all creatures of the landbound world.

COMMON STORY (applicable to both Talon and Irelia):

When Talon returned for the first time in centuries, much had changed in Ionia (which is the land he had visited before, unbeknownst to him). He touched shore on a beach, alone and in human form, and on this beach he met a young woman with hair a pure black color and eyes of ocean blue, whose name he hadn’t asked. He had immediately known she was different from other humans, but never knew why he had sensed that about her. They spoke for a bit, he decided to be friendly to this girl, as she was intriguing to him. When she left, he had a new desire to find her again.

A month or two later, he returns to shore, this time venturing into the dense forests not too far from the beach he had come to. In human form, he discovered a village where, to his surprise, he found her. Seemingly happy to have found her, he walked up to her, introduced himself again. She remembered him. And he finally asked for her name. Irelia. 

Growing ever more curious about this woman, Talon spent more and more time on land, even forgetting why he was there in the first place. He spent his days either exploring this place the mysterious Irelia lived in, or he spent his time with her. They quickly became friends, and soon enough, they had both fallen in love with each other.

Talon still often returned to his people in the sea, to be sure they were faring well. Every time he returned, he was reminded of his objective, and swore that he would one day rule over both land and sea. 

About a century passed when he finally decided it was time to act on that promise he had made himself. Over the years, the thirst for more power, for dominion over Valoran and its people had become impossible to quench by remaining by his beautiful companion’s side. It wasn’t enough to have acquired Irelia’s love; the dragon wanted more. So one day, lying to his beloved about his intentions, he set out to conquer the nations of Valoran, setting cities ablaze and terrorizing most of the peaceful kingdoms of the land.

When Irelia finally heard of Talon’s actions, she set out to stop him. Hurt that she would dare try to foil his plan, he returned to his people in the sea, to whom he bragged ceaselessly of his supposed ‘victories’ in the landbound kingdoms. Irked by his behaviour, Irelia ventured into the seas and marched into the underwater palace, where she found the dragons’ court assembled around their king, her former lover. 

Irelia thought a lesson was to be learned here. She was not doing this out of spite or because of a desire for revenge, no. She challenged Talon to a duel. Knowing that she was the most feared duelist in all of the human lands, Talon thought this was an opportunity to prove to his court that his words rang with truth, that humans truly were inferior to them. Although the battle was violent, it ended with Irelia’s victory. She sealed away his powers within her six divinde blades and bound Talon to his human form, tasking him with learning humilty amongst the mortals he so brutally assaulted.

Humiliated in front of his entire court, the dragon king Talon exiled himself to the human world, spending decades roaming Valoran’s lands in an attempt to learn to be humble, and trying to regain Irelia’s love, to be pardoned by the demigoddess for the senseless actions he had comitted. He had hopes that she still loved him, just as he still loves her. 

[glookie]

Looking back

Yesterday we celebrated my clubs 10th anniversary. It was nice to watch old pictures of my team members and to see how they fenced back in the days. You could really see the development In HEMA during the last decade just by looking at pictures and old videos. It happened a lot during the years I’ve been a member, and that is not particularly long at all – in November I’ve been doing hema for 3 years. Before going to the anniversary party I was thinking about holding a speech, but I didn’t. I wasn’t prepared, the thought crossed my mind a bit too late. That is the reason why I wanted to write this text. So many thoughts came to me, and I feel that it’s important for me to share this thoughts with you.

The first thought that came to my mind was: Where was I ten years ago? I was 19 years old. Had just finished school. I didn’t know what I wanted at all, I had a very hard time seeing the future in front of me. If someone had told med then: Ten years from now, you will be doing martial arts with swords. And! You will be pretty good at it also. Oh my god. I would have laughed them straight in the face. Me? Doing martial arts? No fucking way! With swords? You gotta be kidding me! I am no one, not good at anything. Especially not at martial arts, I can barely take instructions on choreography doing theatre! That what was I was doing at the time, theatre. It took all of my time, rehearsing, rehearsing. That year, 2007, I played a role in Shakespeare’s “A midsummer night’s dream” in the summer.

I’m the one in the back, wearing that multicolored vest 

That was also the year my theatre group started to rent a local that we could have as our own, that was a big step for us. I think I was in three or four plays that year.   The years went on, still was into this theatre making. I loved every minute of it. It was my own bubble, my escape from reality. I had a hard time being a part of the society, I had a hard time finding myself and fitting in. Theatre was the perfect world for me to be in, it was almost like a drug. I never stopped, just wanting more. People still talks about a particular scene I’ve made during 2009, I played a five-year old. Today I have a hard time understanding that I really made all those things. Who would have thought that the shy girl from school could be able to stand on a stage like that? Not me, not anyone. But I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mJ3G7BSluU&t=3s Me playing the five-year old. It’s on Swedish ;)

The thing is, I never had an interest in playing theatre before I started doing it. I came into theatre because of my sister. She had a role in a play 2004, the year after they wanted her in another role. She didn’t want it, they asked me instead since we were related. I thought, sure. Why not? I did it, I got a role as a maiden named Lotta who had a little brother named August. We sang together at the stage. Looking at that video today is loads of fun, I am so tense! I’m saying my lines, but that is also it. What a difference just a few years later, it’s almost like I turned into someone else.

Me in my first play 2005. 

I did a lot of stuff, sure. But I felt lost in an everyday manner. I had friends, was productive and tons of energy. At least it looked that way. I still had days and periods I didn’t feel at home at all. That feeling of not fitting in was always hanging over me, I felt like I was in the way at my parents. Almost like they didn’t want me there at all. I worked at my dad’s friend’s place, washing chicken stables and also helping them picking all the chickens up when it was time for them to go to slaughter. Those days when I got home from washing the stables I was filled with birds spilling all over me. It got stuck in my hair and my clothes. I did this a couple of times in every month. We also helped other farmers sending their chickens to slaughter working night shifts. Not a glamorous job at all. Coming home all tired and covered in dust every time. I worked hard, like I always have. One day I got a phone call from another farmer who needed someone who could wash their stables, they had a pig farm. I went there, washed some of their stables and then I got stuck there for 2 years or so. Swords nowhere to be seen. If you don’t count a pitchfork for a sword ;). Somewhere in between those years my mum kicked me out from home. Leading me to making stupid decisions. I leant my sister’s apartment for a while, I was 21 at this time, felt like shit. I was unaccepted, unwanted and in my own eyes not worth the shoes I was walking in. I didn’t care anymore, I just wanted to get away from everything. I started to chat with a guy over the internet. We decided to meet on a date. And so we did. I’ve met him in the city, Örebro, and I remember I thought: No, not my type. But what the hell, I don’t care. I just want to get out of my situation. We started to see each other more. My lack of self-respect made me start a relationship with this guy, even though I didn’t even like him. I couldn’t get anything better anyhow, I thought to myself. I was way out of line, I had shut myself down. I decided to move to him in Eskilstuna on a very short notice. That wasn’t especially smart of me, but I was in a crisis. So much going on inside of me. Thinking: “Things can’t be worse than they already are”. Never think that way. Things can always be worse. They did. When I moved in I started to notice strange things. For example, I was there and put some clothes there one weekend. The next time I showed up (this was before I actually moved in but still) the TV and the lamp in the bedroom was missing. And some other things to. I asked him: Where are these things? - They are, gone. Me: But, how? A TV can’t just disappear. - It did! I had to push him, he told me after a while that it was his ex who came by to pick her things up. We talked through it, I accepted it. But still thought it was a bit weird.. My guts told me that this was bad shit going on but I held it to my senses. I pushed that feeling away trying to not think about it. A month later he received this message from her, saying that we had to move out. Then I realized that the apartment was hers, not his. God. What a mess. It was me paying the rent and all the bills from my savings. He didn’t do a shit. We moved out. Lived at his friend for a while. I managed to get another apartment. We moved in there. Lived there for a month or so, then he started to act really badly. I’ve seen tendencies to this before, him having this anger issues smashing things into walls, hitting his hand in tables and stuffs for what seemed to be no reason at all. I was always afraid for something to happen. My money started to run out. I was going home for a week to work, just some days before that he became so mad at me for hanging the laundry in the wrong manner. His eyes were all black. I ran into the bedroom when he became aggressive. I closed the door, and I could see the laundry basket that were made out of plastic, coming at the door through the air. I shut the door and heard a bang. I went down behind the bed. Scared as hell, was this the last minutes of my life? He came in. Screaming. Throwing something at me. Went out. I was shaking. I could hear him watching TV. I told myself I had to do something, just anything. I went out in the hall and into the kitchen. I started to make the dishes. I cried. He heard me. Still angry. He yelled: SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! I couldn’t handle it anymore. I sat down at the floor, managed to crawl in beneath the dishing bench. I sat there in this hole mad for a dishwasher. I never felt so lonely and scared in my entire life. He came out after a while. Calm. He told me in a calm manner: I realized something, we don’t need a laundry basket. I was out of my mind. What the fuck was he saying?! I told him he was a lunatic, he just nod against me. “Yes I know, but we don’t need a laundry basket” Oh my god. This human being was a special kind of human in the bad way. I got home, worked for a week. Hell break loose, he making weird stuff that he couldn’t afford. Being out with his gang, buying them drinks for money he didn’t have. I was pissed. When I finally got home after some troubles along the way (long story). I come into my apartment together with a friend. He is stoned. Starts to yell at us. Getting pissed. He getting those dark eyes again. I can’t really say what happened after that. I know he got out and hit both me and my friend, and that we managed to get him back in the apartment and run away to call the police. I told him to never get back. Never. I moved back to my mum and dad. Lived there for a year or so. Got my own apartment In Hallsberg. After a while I managed to get both a full time job as a personal assistant, I moved to Kristinehamn where I also had a boyfriend. I worked too much, slept too little. I hit that famous wall. Quit my job, started to study in Örebro. Told my boyfriend to get lost since we didn’t worked out so well together. After the first term on the university I got lost, I broke down so much I had a memory loss and started to hallucinate. I only existed one moment at a time, only remember who I was and what connection I had to people. I couldn’t remember things I’ve went through, things that happened were completely gone. I panicked, I freaked out. The time was running away from me, I couldn’t catch it at all. This made me see all the people around me getting old and die in front of me. I saw it, like it was for real. I couldn’t hold myself together. I screamed being so afraid of myself and what was happening to me. Somehow I managed to get through this, without help. I found the source to what was happening to me and dealt with it. I had to accept the fact that we are mortal. I was afraid of dying, and it stressed me out that I couldn’t handle time anymore. That it was running away from me. I found my own way through it and became my own therapist. I got back to school, never had to take a break from it. Then I started to suffer from insomnia. Slept like 2-3 hours per night. I still managed to study though, don’t ask me how but I did. I contacted a friend who helped me with a sleeping program, which helped but it was a hell to get through. I started to sleep normal again. Life became a bit easier. For a while. Through a friend I met this girl who needed somewhere to stay. She had a baby and a dog. I lived in a big apartment that I couldn’t really afford by myself, I let her move in. Of course, with my luck, it was a person with problems. She couldn’t handle her child, calling her 9 months baby an idiot. Yelling at her. Lifting her up and screaming at her when she just wanted food. You name it. I did everything I could to protect this child, I got up and gave her the bottle as soon as I could so the mother wouldn’t be angry at the morning. I took the baby up and walked around with her. She was a very calm child. Didn’t want so much attention. Slept during the nights (when her mother was away atleast) ate, and only wanted attention when she needed food, love or a diaper change. I almost adopted her as my own, when she was with me she was calm. Everytime her mother went away the baby slept early. As soon as the mother got her hand at the door, the child started to scream in panic. It was like this for some months. She lied a lot, it came to me that she had told others that it was her apartment and not mine. And other things. I decided to kick her out. My mum told me that this was the girl who had threatened to kill my bigger sister ten years ago. What the fuck life. What have I done against you? I thought. It felt like I was living in a bad movie. This couldn’t be real. Anyhow, I kicked her out. She was pissed. I didn’t care. I started to live alone. Had a friend that came over every other week, since he worked in the city. Things were starting to get back to normal, again. My dad had been feeling badly for a while. Having a hard time working as normal. One day my mum calls. I got this bad feeling. She tells me dad wants to talk with me. Dad never talked to me in the phone. Never. She hands over the phone. Dad tells me he got diagnosed with ALS. ALS is a disease that cut the nerve signals from your body out. Making you more and more paralyzed. I sat down. Didn’t know how to handle the situation. This big black hole started to fill up my body. Sadness. Frustration. Anger. During this time a friend of mine who I met through larping, tried to pursue me into this fencing shit. At least, I thought it was shit. I thought he talked about sport fencing, and believe me. He had to talk about it for 1,5 years before I actually tried it out. His finals word that made me go there was: We need more tough girls. My mind: Tough girls? I AM ONE! I came by in the middle of a term. Being a bit nervous. What was I getting my ass into? This was in the middle of November 2014. I had to meet a whole bunch of new people who already started in the beginner’s course that term. I felt insecure, had to stand in a corner by myself and a trainer. Feeling dumb and silly. I couldn’t even stand correctly in a stanse. Making a fool of my self. But I got stuck in it. 

Meanwhile my dad got so bad I dropped out of university to work for him as a personal assistant. I helped my dad with stuff that is normal for other people. I had to help him eat, help him to the toilet and so on. In the end he got moved to a home for old people who can’t take care of themselves. I did my best at training. I got new friends there, and bruises. A lot of them. I started to compete just 6-7 months after I started, getting my head into it. My dad got more and more ill. I couldn’t handle it. I got sick from seeing it. The last three months of his life I wasn’t there. I couldn’t anymore, it hurt me so bad seeing my dad becoming a wreck. Not being able to do anything at all, he was shutting down more and more. By that time I was ill myself. Couldn’t go out the door. Most of the days I laid in bed doing nothing at all. Tried to go out, got a panic attack from it. At the worst I had 5-6 panic attacks every day. I was a mess. I didn’t give in though. Every day I went to training. Refusing to give in for anxiety and depression. Some days that was the only thing I managed to do. I got up and got out. How hard it felt, I didn’t care. I got there. That was the only thing that mattered to me. Training, with swords. If it wasn’t for my trainer, Carl, I wouldn’t have continued at all. But somehow he made me got my ass up and go there. Every. Single. Time. Not like he forced me to, but he made me want to go there. No matter how bad I felt. My team members have seen me cry during practice. They have also seen me getting panic attacks both on trainings and on events we’ve been on together. I sometimes wanted to give up, I still feel the same way today. How much can you handle? But I never did. They never gave up on me, especially not Carl. I ain’t going to either, that is the easy way out. But shortcuts making it all much harder in the end. You miss a lot if you take them. Ten years ago I couldn’t imagine myself being where I am today. I even had a hard time imagined myself being 29 years old, life didn’t seem to be for people like me. But here I am. Having a job which I’m good at. Having a lot of experience in acting. Being one of the greatest women in Swedish HEMA fighting (hard to believe, I know. But the facts says so). Last, but the most important; having a big bunch of friends who been following me through those years, they are my family and I love every single one of them. Now I am actually looking forward to the next ten years in life, I didn’t back then. Never give up. xoxo Lotta

[comicteaparty]

November 2nd-November 8th, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from November 2nd, 2019 to November 8th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is your elevator pitch for your comic?

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

"A ghostly princess sails a haunted ocean to save her soul from a death god known as the Red Tide King." (http://www.phantomarine.com/)

Quick pitches are HARD. But a friend forced me to narrow it down over the course of a single lunchtime, and it really helped

Cronaj

Mine is: "A mysterious amnesiac finds clues to his dark past with the help of a determined farmer's daughter." Definitely needs work, but it's something (https://www.callous-whispers-of-the-past.com/)(edited)

Nutty (Court of Roses)

"A fantasy tale following a ragtag troupe of bards out to solve a murder mystery!" https://courtofroses.spiderforest.com/

keii4ii

"Three guys work out their emotional baggage while traveling together in Magical Asia." https://heartofkeol.com/ I'm not 100% happy with the word "traveling" being in the pitch. It isn't inaccurate, but it conveys this leisurely adventure vibe that doesn't match the tone of the story. I'll keep tweaking it, I guess! I actually like its non-sentence, non-serious version better for the tone: "three bois with emotional baggage, in Magical Asia." It sounds like a potentially serious story (which it is), just described in a non-serious manner. Or maybe it's just me?

Cronaj

@keii4ii Maybe the word "questing" instead of "travelling"? I mean, they are on a quest, are they not?

Or journeying?

keii4ii

Questing is too RPG-tastic for me?

Cronaj

These words, to me, depict a bit more of a goal for their travelling

It is a difficult problem to solve though, word choice

keii4ii

Journeying, to me, is forever associated with 'it's all about the journey, not the destination' so it's the opposite of goal-oriented. Problem is that the story is neither about the destination nor about 'explicitly not focusing on the destination.'

Cronaj

Honestly, I want to change "determined farmer's daughter" to something else.

keii4ii

Yeah, wordsmithing is hard!

Cronaj

I mean, I know all about my character, but putting her into words is hard!

Especially since her profession really is keeping house on a farm

Words are a struggle

keii4ii

I can't imply an importance on "goal" with mine, because that in turn implies a shared goal. Problem is HoK is nooooot about shared goals, lol

In fact, not sharing goals is kind of key

Cronaj

So maybe play with that idea

Maybe just changing it to "travelling the same path with different goals" or something like that

keii4ii

I mean I could leave out "while traveling"

Cronaj

shrugs

I'm no expert(edited)

I just try my best, lol

keii4ii

We all are. Trying our best, that is

kayotics

My elevator pitch was part of a joke but ended up working pretty well. “A wizard with anxiety fights off demons of his own making”

Copper Mouflon

Ok let me try this then. Scotty Robinson must relive the worst days of his life in an attempt to solve a mystery four decades old. Will he accept what happened so long ago and discover the missing pieces to his story - of love, loss and tragedy - or will a murderer escape punishment and the mystery remain unsolved forever? https://m.webtoons.com/en/challenge/missing-pieces/list?title_no=192867

IzzyNinjaMaster

"Five adventurers that team up and explore a world of magic. Oh, and there's bad guys."

http://unlikelyheroes.thecomicseries.com/

sssfrs

I always say “A story about living and dead pirates”

It doesn’t convey a whole lot of information thoigh. A better pitch might be a summary like “A band of pirates discover the dead body of their friend and they have to carry out the terms of his will” https://m.tapas.io/series/JoeIsDead(edited)

Cronaj

@sssfrs Wow, that sounds intriguing!

sssfrs

Thanks! You should check it out if you want

I’ve been planning this story for years

Cronaj

@sssfrs lol, I'm already reading it right now

I love the art style oml

sssfrs

Ohh thank you!! I hope you enjoy reading

spacerocketbunny

Ghost Junk Sickness is an action packed sci-fi about two bounty hunters with an unstable dynamic who are pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost" http://www.ghostjunksickness.com/

We had to really work on something that was easy to remember bc trying to pitch it at cons was a bit of a mess

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

Elevator pitches are always super hard haha. For Heirs of the Veil it would be something like: "A young witch discovers her family's secret in an unfamiliar place, while searching for her lost mother."

MJ Massey

Black Ball is easy: "A magical murder mystery in the 1920s!"

Desnik

Mine is 'Here's my academically cited thesis on hell, oh and I guess there's a story attached to it too'

Capitania do Azar

I have two elevator pitches depending on the audience. For my locals, just mouthing the words "future romans in Régua go find an alien crashlanded in AROUCA" is the funniest thing ever a D is guaranteed to bring results. For a more international audience, I like to go with something on the lines of "Future romans on a mission to find the remains of an ancient satellite end up finding something else. There's dams, computers and probably aliens"

AntiBunny

For AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/ it's this. Humans have enough trouble getting along with each other. Now imagine if humanity wasn't the only sapient species on the planet. Now imagine if you're a member of that species. Try living your life in the shoes of those downtrodden.

[wetrumpfeed]

Afternoon MAGAthread: YOUR WEEKLY PRESIDENTIAL RECAP!

HAPPY SATURDAY DEPLORABLES!

This is u/ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back with all things dank & spicy from the past week! For those that missed any past recaps you can check those out here!

Sunday, March 31st:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

“Outrageous, it’s the Adam Schiff problem. People abusing the access to classified data to then go out in public and make allegations that didn’t prove to be true. You look at a decision to essentially investigate a political rival. Who made it?” James Freeman, @WSJ

The Democrats are allowing a ridiculous asylum system and major loopholes to remain as a mainstay of our immigration system. Mexico is likewise doing NOTHING, a very bad combination for our Country. Homeland Security is being sooo very nice, but not for long!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Virtue signalling only goes so far

Creepers Veepers

🤣🤣🤣

Sen. Rand Paul offered an amendment, which, if approved, would reveal what role former President Barack Obama played in the investigation of the Trump campaign

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

When Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns

Clearing up the misunderstanding.

Posted in UK airport bathroom. If only Islam allowed women to read

12-year promise

Monday, April 1st:

TODAY'S ACTION:

One Nomination Sent to the Senate

Proclamation on World Autism Awareness Day, 2019

Ivanka Trump Visits Toyota Plant in Kentucky

President Trump Participates in the 2019 Prison Reform Summit and First Step Act Celebration

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Now that the long awaited Mueller Report conclusions have been released, most Democrats and others have gone back to the pre-Witch Hunt phase of their lives before Collusion Delusion took over. Others are pretending that their former hero, Bob Mueller, no longer exists!

Democrats, working with Republicans in Congress, can fix the Asylum and other loopholes quickly. We have a major National Emergency at our Border. GET IT DONE NOW!

Can you believe that the Radical Left Democrats want to do our new and very important Census Report without the all important Citizenship Question. Report would be meaningless and a waste of the $Billions (ridiculous) that it costs to put together!

The cost of ObamaCare is far too high for our great citizens. The deductibles, in many cases way over $7000, make it almost worthless or unusable. Good things are going to happen! @SenRickScott @senatemajldr @SenJohnBarrasso @SenBillCassidy

No matter what information is given to the crazed Democrats from the No Collusion Mueller Report, it will never be good enough. Behind closed doors the Dems are laughing!

Democrats should stop fighting Sen. David Perdue’s disaster relief bill. They are blocking funding and relief for our great farmers and rural America!

Everybody agrees that ObamaCare doesn’t work. Premiums & deductibles are far too high - Really bad HealthCare! Even the Dems want to replace it, but with Medicare for all, which would cause 180 million Americans to lose their beloved private health insurance. The Republicans..... ... ....are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare. In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare. Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win...... ... ....back the House. It will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America. Also, Republicans will always support Pre-Existing Conditions. The Republican Party will be known as the Party of Great HealtCare. Meantime, the USA is doing better than ever & is respected again!

The Democrats today killed a Bill that would have provided great relief to Farmers and yet more money to Puerto Rico despite the fact that Puerto Rico has already been scheduled to receive more hurricane relief funding than any “place” in history. The people of Puerto Rico..... ... ....are GREAT, but the politicians are incompetent or corrupt. Puerto Rico got far more money than Texas & Florida combined, yet their government can’t do anything right, the place is a mess - nothing works. FEMA & the Military worked emergency miracles, but politicians like..... ... ....the crazed and incompetent Mayor of San Juan have done such a poor job of bringing the Island back to health. 91 Billion Dollars to Puerto Rico, and now the Dems want to give them more, taking dollars away from our Farmers and so many others. Disgraceful!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Remember, we here at CNN always give you the REAL NEWS! Only the stories that matter. #FactsFirst #OrangeManBad

Does anyone have any info on who made this GIF we at CNN would like to uhhh give him an award!

BIDEN 2020!!!

A 13 year old can get an abortion without her parents knowing but she can't go see a movie about abortion without a parent accompanying her

AP reports Beto gives speech in Spanish...his native language. Ted Cruz sets them on fire.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

We’re coming to assimilate, obey the laws of the US and vote Republican!

I love CNN! They are the most trusted name in news... and I especially love that manly guy Brian Stelter! And he’s just so cute too. He reminds me of Winnie the Pooh! He’s like a cuddly little Teddy Bear that I can trust to tell me that Orange man is indeed, bad. Happy 1st of April everyone!

Congratulations CNN!

We here at CNN want to pay our respects to our fearless commentator Ana Navarro. She never lets the thought of Americans murdered by illegals keep her from doing her nails. Keep slaying Queen!

Tuesday, April 2nd:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate and Appoint Individuals to Key Administration Posts

President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees and United States Marshal Nominee

First Lady Melania Trump Visits with Students in Florida

President Trump Welcomes the 2018 Stanley Cup Champions to the White House

President Trump Meets with the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Vice President Pence Meets with Family Members of Executives Detained by Maduro

President Trump Participates in an Expanded Bilateral Meeting with the Secretary General of NATO

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA.... ... ....The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump. So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted. Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation!

In 1998, Rep.Jerry Nadler strongly opposed the release of the Starr Report on Bill Clinton. No information whatsoever would or could be legally released. But with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM! @foxandfriends

World Autism Awareness Day 2019: Significance, history and theme via @htTweets

Robert Mueller was a God-like figure to the Democrats, until he ruled No Collusion in the long awaited $30,000,000 Mueller Report. Now the Dems don’t even acknowledge his name, have become totally unhinged, and would like to go through the whole process again. It won’t happen!

There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!

After many years (decades), Mexico is apprehending large numbers of people at their Southern Border, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. They have ALL been taking U.S. money for years, and doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for us, just like the Democrats in Congress!

Video

“I haven’t seen any Democrats down here at the Border working with us or asking to speak to any of us. They have an open invitation. We are getting overrun, our facilities are overcapacity. We are at an emergency crisis.” Art Del Cueto, National Border Patrol Council.

Today, we celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of Americans with ASD and reaffirm our commitment to work together to ensure that every member of our society is afforded equal opportunities to reach their full potential. #WorldAutismAwarenessDay

Today, it was my great honor to welcome @NATO Secretary General @JensStoltenberg to the @WhiteHouse!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

I can't believe how much lies exist about this subreddit

Worst Racist Ever

82.5% of /r/Socialism users are Middle School to College aged. 61% live with their parents. No wonder Reddit loves Socialism, they've never had to work for anything in their life.

Powerful moment from President Trump’s Prison Reform Summit. Gregory Allen, one the people who have benefited from the First Step Act explained, "Two months ago, I was in a prison cell and now I'm in the White House. Let’s continue to make America great again!"

YES OR NO: Did she marry her own brother? SNOPES: Well, "like many other people" - she can't answer if she married her own brother because it's "complicated" - NO IT F'ING ISN'T SNOPES!

Many of CNN's national security analysts have undisclosed ties to oppressive Qatari regime - Conservative Review

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Right!!!

we lost the guac

Democrat Priorities

Well.... IT'S TRUE AF

Wednesday, April 3rd:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Memorandum on Combating Trafficking in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods

President Trump is Briefed by Senior Military Leaders

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

I was never planning a vote prior to the 2020 Election on the wonderful HealthCare package that some very talented people are now developing for me & the Republican Party. It will be on full display during the Election as a much better & less expensive alternative to ObamaCare... ... ...This will be a great campaign issue. I never asked Mitch McConnell for a vote before the Election as has been incorrectly reported (as usual) in the @nytimes, but only after the Election when we take back the House etc. Republicans will always support pre-existing conditions!

Congress must get together and immediately eliminate the loopholes at the Border! If no action, Border, or large sections of Border, will close. This is a National Emergency!

The First Step Act proves that our Country can achieve amazing breakthroughs when we put politics aside, and put the interests of ALL Americans FIRST. http://45.wh.gov/gF3mc7

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

President Trump is hilarious and savage! LMAO "I Went To Kiss The General And I Felt Like Joe Biden"

Two more women accuse Biden of inappropriate touching

"Contractually all I have to do is not fake a hate crime." Tracey Morgan trashes Jussie Smollett while discussing his new role on Empire. 😂😂

Ratings for CNN and MSNBC continuing to crash, as viewers migrate to Fox News prime time. Karma comes calling, as Tucker Carlson alone draws a million more viewers than CNN's entire prime-time lineup.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Nooooooo Joe, NOT DURING THE APOLOGY!

GAME OVER AMERICA, GAME OVER

Biden 2020

Just imagine

r/The_Donald actually has 6 million subscribers and is 3rd most active community on Reddit.

The Expert | 2054

Thursday, April 4th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Nine Nominations Sent to the Senate

President Trump Participates in the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council Meeting

President Trump Meets with the Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS THE PARTY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM!

Despite the unnecessary and destructive actions taken by the Fed, the Economy is looking very strong, the China and USMCA deals are moving along nicely, there is little or no Inflation, and USA optimism is very high!

According to polling, few people seem to care about the Russian Collusion Hoax, but some Democrats are fighting hard to keep the Witch Hunt alive. They should focus on legislation or, even better, an investigation of how the ridiculous Collusion Delusion got started - so illegal!

There is nothing we can ever give to the Democrats that will make them happy. This is the highest level of Presidential Harassment in the history of our Country!

The New York Times had no legitimate sources, which would be totally illegal, concerning the Mueller Report. In fact, they probably had no sources at all! They are a Fake News paper who have already been forced to apologize for their incorrect and very bad reporting on me!

WELCOME BACK JOE!

Thank you @Trish_Regan!

“Democrats need to help fix the border crisis or get out of Trump’s way”

“Conservative support for Trump wall soars to 99 percent”

.@ByronYork: “How bad does border have to be for Democrats to admit it's an emergency?”

I am pleased to announce that Jovita Carranza will be nominated as the new @SBAgov Administrator. She will be replacing Linda McMahon, who has done an outstanding job. Jovita was a great Treasurer of the United States – and I look forward to her joining my Cabinet!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Just heard MSNBC pays Rachel Maddow $7 mil a year. The average salary for a garbage truck driver is $40,000. Why is delivering garbage worth 175 times more than hauling it away?

The tables have turned! A new poll shows that 47% of Americans now suspect that Hillary Clinton was the one who might have colluded with foreign operatives.

DESPITE BEING 13%...

WikiLeaks: Assange will be expelled from Ecuadorian Embassy within 'hours to days' - would be removed and subject to arrest by British authorities.

Islamists Arrested After Plotting to Massacre Kindergarten Children

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

🐄 Milking A Dead Cow 🐄

2020s memes are going to be fantastic.

That face you make...

The Left Today

The Logic of the Left

Friday, April 5th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Individual to a Key Administration Post

President Trump Delivers a Statement Upon Departure

Proclamation on National Volunteer Week, 2019

President Trump Participates in a Roundtable on Immigration and Border Security

President Trump Visits the Border Wall in Calexico, California

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

“Trolling the Mueller Report. Democrats Lost On Collusion. Now They’re Inventing A Coverup.” @WSJopinion James Freeman @LouDobbs

The Crazed and Dishonest Washington Post again purposely got it wrong. Mexico, for the first time in decades, is meaningfully apprehending illegals at THEIR Southern Border, before the long march up to the U.S. This is great and the way it should be. The big flow will stop....... ... ....However, if for any reason Mexico stops apprehending and bringing the illegals back to where they came from, the U.S. will be forced to Tariff at 25% all cars made in Mexico and shipped over the Border to us. If that doesn’t work, which it will, I will close the Border....... ... ....This will supersede USMCA. Likewise I am looking at an economic penalty for the 500 Billion Dollars in illegal DRUGS that are shipped and smuggled through Mexico and across our Southern Border. Over 100,00 Americans die each year, sooo many families destroyed!

Heading to the Southern Border to show a section of the new Wall being built! Leaving now!

JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!

Congratulations to Brian Hagedorn on his big surprise win over a well funded Liberal Democrat in the Great State of Wisconsin for a very important Supreme Court seat. Republicans are producing big for Wisconsin!

I’ve employed thousands of Electrical Workers. They will be voting for me!

“America Created 196,000 Jobs in March, Beating Expectations for 170,000”

The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! They can’t stand the fact that this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs. They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!

Will soon be landing in Calexico, California to look at a portion of the new WALL being built on our Southern Border. Within two years we will have close to 400 miles built or under construction & keeping our Country SAFE – not easy when the Dems are always fighting to stop you!

Just arrived in Calexico, California!

Join me in California for a Roundtable on Immigration and Border Security!

Just checked out the new Wall on the Border - GREAT! Leaving now for L.A.

(Retweeting The White House) Americans will write our own economic destiny. Never believe the pessimists: Pro-growth, pro-worker policies work. America is OPEN for business!

Congratulations David, a very big deal!

(Retweeting The VP)The struggle in Venezuela is between dictatorship and democracy, and freedom has the momentum. Nicolas Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power, and Nicolas Maduro must go!

THANK YOU @DHSgov, @CBP, and @ICEgov!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

President Trump's message to illegal aliens: The country is full, turn around

President Trump skips 'boring, negative' Correspondents dinner. Will be having a MAGA rally instead

YUGE! Plaque marking Trump's first Border Wall section awaits his visit to Calexico today.......We have the best commemorative plaques, don't we folks???

JUSSIE SMOLLETT OWES CHICAGO $130,000 AND MISSED YESTERDAY'S DEADLINE TO PAY IT

Mueller Report: Court Rules Attorney General Must Redact Grand-Jury Info. Democrats will complain, but the attorney general can’t be faulted for following the law.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

👶 Pint-Sized Passport 👶

Soy overdose

Islam hates chess

The_Donald is so good, even the former VP retweets our shitposts

The DNC every time one of their candidates gets knocked out by r/The_Donald

Saturday, April 6th:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

“The lowest average jobs number for any President since 1951, 4.1%. Economy doing great. If the Democrats win, it is all over.” @Varneyco @foxandfriends I agree!

“Collusion was a Hoax from day one.” @dbongino @foxandfriends

(Retweeting Jesse Waters) TOMORROW: It’s a star-studded FOX episode of @WattersWorld with @seanhannity , @LouDobbs , and @marklevinshow ! What will they have to say in my world? Tune in at 8PM ET to find out. #WattersWorld #FoxNews

(Retweeting The White House) "There is indeed an emergency on our southern border. It's been loud and clear."

Thank you to two great people!

I have not read the Mueller Report yet, even though I have every right to do so. Only know the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion. Likewise, recommendations made to our great A.G. who found No Obstruction. 13 Angry Trump hating Dems (later brought to 18) given two..... ... .....years and $30 million, and they found No Collusion, No Obstruction. But the Democrats, no matter what we give them, will NEVER be satisfied. A total waste of time. As @FrankLuntz has just stated, “Enough, America has had enough. What have you accomplished. Public is fed up.”

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Good Morning! This is your information for election this week

Obams in private meeting in Germany with Merkel violates 18 U.S. Code § 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments, and can be subject to 3 years in prison. Lock. Him. Up.

Maher defends Biden, says women should call out misconduct 'in the moment' rather than 'five years later'

"President Donald Trump’s approval rating has reached its highest point in the last 23 months, according to daily tracking poll surveyed by Rasmussen Reports."

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

BuT DoLaN’s TaX rEtUrNs!

You already know.

Joe on Joe. Now that some funny shit people.

🤡 There Are So Many DEMOCRAT 2020 Candidates, They Need A Second Car! 🤡

WEEEEW LAD!

Of course, no recap is complete without some tunes to get you jamming through all this WINNING

Sunflower

Wait A Minute!

Aftermath

Fuck Love

Tadow

MAGA ON PATRIOTS!

submitted by /u/Ivaginaryfriend [link] [comments]

[euroman1945-blog]

The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip – News From Around The World

Monday 6th August 2018

Good Morning Gentle Reader….  Well we have made it to the start of yet another week, Monday is upon us, another week in the long cycle of weeks has arrived, and it’s only 21 weeks and three days to Christmas Day, and I bet some of you have already got the presents for everyone either picked, or purchased and packed away…My Sister Wendy who is now long departed, used to buy all her Christmas Cards in January in the sales, along with wrapping paper at a discount, I wonder what she would have made of Facebook?? Well the walk went well this morning and the temperature has fallen a little, well every bit helps as the actress said to the Bishop…. Bella and I have returned to the house, hot and tired, and looking for fresh cold water and coffee, same as yesterday, Bella is sound asleep at my feet, the coffee tastes especially good this morning.. So let’s take a look at what’s happening on this little blue planet we call home…

FACEBOOK DELETES DOZENS OF SUSPICIOUS ACCOUNTS…. Saying it had identified campaigns designed to mislead and influence voters in November’s midterms, the social network confirmed it had removed 32 pages and accounts suspected of meddling from both Facebook and Instagram. Facebook came under fire recently for allowing the proliferation of accounts peddling fake or misleading news during the 2016 presidential election, and it’s working to blunt charges that its business model is bad for democracies. The accounts in question have not been formally linked to Russia, but Facebook officials said their content resembled the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency’s 2016 efforts.

SWEDES NOT FAST ENOUGH FOR CROWN JEWEL BURGLARS…. Thieves in southeastern Sweden escaped by motorboat with two historic crowns and a royal orb on Monday, according to media reports. The daylight heist of the 17th-century accoutrements happened at the Strängnäs Cathedral, about 50 miles west of Stockholm, and the culprits led police on a boat, helicopter and car pursuit before vanishing. “It’s 1-0 to them right now,” a police spokesperson said. The items, including the crown originally buried with King Karl IX in 1611, were on public display in glass boxes. Authorities are asking for witnesses to come forward.

JEWISH COMMUNITIES EXPERIENCE A REVIVAL IN UNEXPECTED PLACES…. Call it a comeback. During a time when Jewish communities in major cities like Paris and New York City are dwindling — and reports of anti-Semitism are rising — they’re experiencing a rebirth in places from which they’d all but disappeared. From Yangon, Myanmar, to Kraków, Poland, new communities are sprouting up, spurred by youthful enthusiasm, technology allowing people to work remotely, and local political conditions that make a religious rebirth possible. Although rebuilding Jewish life is neither cheap nor easy, these small communities seem bound to grow.

WHY ARE KENYANS EATING MORE RABBIT MEAT?.... A decade ago in Kenya, rabbits were either pets or a poor man’s dinner. No respectable restaurant had them on the menu. But with an increased demand for meat, coupled with decreasing land holdings, climate change-induced cattle feed shortages and health concerns, bunnies are now giving staples like chicken and beef a run for their money. With even wealthy consumers savoring the once-shunned protein source, it’s good business for the country’s only rabbit abattoir, as well as small farmers — so much that demand’s leaping past supply.

STUDY SAYS NUKING MARS WON’T MAKE IT HABITABLE…. Sorry, Elon Musk. The SpaceX founder once said there’s a quick way to terraform Mars: Blast its polar ice caps with nuclear weapons. That would release carbon dioxide, create a greenhouse effect and warm the planet to sustain liquid water and life. But whoa, space cowboy, say scientists whose NASA-sponsored study was published in Nature this week. “Our results suggest there is not enough CO2 remaining on Mars” to blanket the planet, said researcher Bruce Jakowsky, so terraforming won’t work — at least with today’s tech.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the news from around the world this, morning… …

Our Tulips today are Red cast against a blue sky..

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Monday 6th August 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus #Spain #Facebook #Sweden #Religion

[tortuga-aak]

6 things I learned from interviewing 19 millionaires

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

On the hunt for a mentor in Portugal, Ben Davis started meeting self-made millionaires who told him their stories.

Most of what he learned about wealth and success had little to do with money, directly.

He thinks anyone can apply their lessons to their own lives.

While doing my PhD in Germany, I developed CFS/adrenal fatigue and I feared I could not work for much longer. I didn’t know much about finances or investing at the time – I had only invested in the stock market for a few years using very simple strategies.

Therefore, I decided to educate myself financially, reading over 100 books on personal finance and investing in general. I did a few projections and I set the goal to retire by the age of 33 in Portugal (I literally live where people vacation!), and today I am well on track to do so, primarily through real estate.

As I educated myself, I decided that I needed a mentor. And I figured I would look for one in the area I wanted to retire in – mid-east Portugal, Europe.

If you’ve ever tried to get a mentor yourself, you know how difficult it can be at times. I asked many people whether they wanted to teach me how to get rich doing the same thing they did, but the answer came back negative over and over again. Until one person said:

"Well I don’t have time for that, but I can tell you my story, maybe you’ll learn from it?"

To this day I still remember how my brain started connecting the dots right then and there! I quickly shot back, “you’ve got time today?” and that was the beginning of something remarkable.

I went on to interview 19 self-made millionaires and multi-millionaires who taught me more than they’d ever know. I would invite them for a coffee, take out my notebook, and then ask them to tell me their stories. I would take notes like a professional reporter.

Finding them was a nightmare, however. At times I felt like I was wasting my time, and at others I felt like I had won the lottery and was learning things I would never have learned if I hadn’t talked to them.

I had all sorts of people interviewed. From cocky to humble, bankers to farmers. You’d expect to find a pattern in how they looked, but I didn’t. Some were dressed up, others looked close to homeless. Only a few told me their actual net-worth, but all of them, probably unconsciously, told me things that were instrumental for my own journey to wealth.

In this article, I will summarize six lessons I learned from them. I hope you can relate to them, and even more importantly I hope you apply some of them to your own life.

Lesson #1: Life is about way more than money

Sergi Alexander/Getty Images for Haute Living

Antonio wanted to get rich desperately. He wanted to show his father how capable he was. He never told me what his father said that hurt him so much, but I could sense some revenge in the way he talked. He wanted to prove a point.

He told me his biggest mistake in life was barely living at all: “I barely had a life until today. I could never enjoy a dinner with my family or my wife’s cake. I could never stop thinking about improving my business and making more money. Even today, it seems that I don’t have enough – and that leaves me nervous.”

Antonio has a medium-sized retail business, which sells farming machinery. Back in the day, he used to run from small village to small village in order to find local farmers who would buy his equipment. Today, he stays at the business and sends his workforce to work. He looks like a concertmaster coordinating an orchestra.

He pays attention to every detail and has a huge hand-written database of clients and their needs. “This is worth gold” he told me, regarding his small notebook he started writing in long before e-mail was a thing. This guys knows marketing and the value of keeping a big record of clients, I thought.

The biggest lesson I learned from Antonio was that, even if it seems like it, life ain’t about the money. Not always, at least. Antonio ended up developing an inability to feel good when achieving something. He’s always wanting more. Even now that his business has expanded into 6 cities, he’s not satisfied. He never will be.

Lesson #2: Do what you love, and the money will come

Tinxi / Shutterstock.com

Jose told me he never thought he could become a multi-millionaire selling tiles. “I never thought anyone could make a decent living doing this, even though I always loved home renovation and tiles.”

(If you’re thinking this is a strange thing to love, btw, know that Portugal has a history with tiles, bricks and stones. If you ever visit Lisbon you’ll understand why!)

“I wanted to become rich, so I started multiple businesses. I would move from business to business, looking for one that was really profitable, until I started selling homes.” But Jose never really made significant money selling homes. “The market was always very volatile, and crashes were terrible for us. This is not London or New York – it is a small city with a small market.”

A prospective buyer once told Jose he would buy the home he showed him, but only if he could find someone to renovate it for him on the cheap. He didn’t like the tiles in the kitchen and in the bathroom, but Jose knew no one he could refer to.

“I remember looking for days, asking all the other brokers in the company, but no one knew any business doing that.” Eventually that led to Jose setting up his own renovation business, and he started buying tiles in massive amounts for not only his own business but for other contractors too. Contractors who normally buy tiles in bigger cities, like Porto. It was a costly and slow process, but Jose saw an opportunity and jumped on it – eventually making more money on the tiles themselves than all the renovations!

He finally gave up the renovation business and focused solely on what he loved the most – selling tiles. Which eventually made a multi-millionaire. “Whenever anyone asks me what I do, I very proudly say that I sell tiles!”

Lesson #3: Taking risks is a part of wealth-building

Flickr / Carla MacNeil

“I mortgaged my house and I didn’t tell my wife. She would have had killed me if she knew!” I cannot name the guy who told me this as part of our agreement (he said I was the only one he ever told!), but for the sake of this article, I will call him “A.” A. was definitely the richest guy I interviewed, even though he didn’t reveal how much his net worth was. (He also didn’t pay for the coffees either.)

A. had a wonderful life. He had “the most beautiful girl in town!” and owned two paid-off homes by the age of 25 (and this was about 50 years ago. “No one had a house back then – only the rich!”) I asked him whether he was rich then, and he told me that he only became rich later on – after risking his two homes in a matter of months.

The story goes that this guy use to run a bike business. Back then, bikes were a true luxury and not many people had them. He would fix and sell bikes for the rich, but he “would never become one in the bike business.” Eventually, the real estate where he had his business was listed for sale. He decided to mortgage his home to buy it.

“It was not a smart move at first – my rent was fairly low so it didn’t make sense. I was starving for wealth – it was an impulse buy.” But a few months later, when he sold his business, he became highly aware of the value of that piece of real estate. “The guy who bought my business didn’t want to pay me dividends as part of our agreement, so instead I charged him a higher rent on the property I still owned – and he accepted!”

A. eventually realized he could replicate what he had just done, so he opened another bike business in a nearby town, bought the location from under it, and then listed both the business and the attached real estate for sale.

The word spread fast, and A. would sell his businesses for small losses, but more than recoup the money from the lucrative rents attached.

He’s still doing this today, decades later. Creating and franchising businesses to owners, who then agrees to move shops where A. wants them to: at his own locations! I remember this story every time I pass by a McDonald’s, as they have a pretty similar model as well.

(Interesting to note, A. still owns that first location he rented out and the bike business is also still there, now run by the second generation of the family.)

See the rest of the story at Business Insider from Feedburner http://ift.tt/2xMesAx

[heliosfinance]

What I Learned From Interviewing 19 Millionaires

[Hey guys! Welcome Benjamin Davis from FromCentsToRetirement.com to the blog today. He’s been on an interesting journey lately hanging out with millionaires, and stops by to share some insight :) What a great way to soak up some knowledge, eh? Only costs you a cup of coffee!]

********

While doing my PhD in Germany, I developed CFS/adrenal fatigue and I feared I could not work for much longer. I didn’t know much about finances or investing at the time – I had only invested in the stock market for a few years using very simple strategies.

Therefore, I decided to educate myself financially, reading over 100 books on personal finance and investing in general. I did a few projections and I set the goal to retire by the age of 33 in Portugal (I literally live where people vacation!), and today I am well on track to do so, primarily through real estate.

As I educated myself, I decided that I needed a mentor. And I figured I would look for one in the area I wanted to retire in – mid-east Portugal, Europe.

If you’ve ever tried to get a mentor yourself, you know how difficult it can be at times. I asked many people whether they wanted to teach me how to get rich doing the same thing they did, but the answer came back negative over and over again. Until one person said:

Well I don’t have time for that, but I can tell you my story, maybe you’ll learn from it?

To this day I still remember how my brain started connecting the dots right then and there! I quickly shot back, “you’ve got time today?” and that was the beginning of something remarkable.

I went on to interview 19 self-made millionaires and multi-millionaires who taught me more than they’d ever know.  I would invite them for a coffee, take out my notebook, and then ask them to tell me their stories. I would take notes like a professional reporter.

Finding them was a nightmare, however. At times I felt like I was wasting my time, and at others I felt like I had won the lottery and was learning things I would never have learned if I hadn’t talked to them.

I had all sorts of people interviewed. From cocky to humble, bankers to farmers. You’d expect to find a pattern in how they looked, but I didn’t. Some were dressed up, others looked close to homeless. Only a few told me their actual net-worth, but all of them, probably unconsciously, told me things that were instrumental for my own journey to wealth.

In this article, I will summarize 6 lessons I learned from them. I hope you can relate to them, and even more importantly I hope you apply some of them to your own life.

Lesson #1: Life Is About Way More Than Money

Antonio wanted to get rich desperately. He wanted to show his father how capable he was. He never told me what his father said that hurt him so much, but I could sense some revenge in the way he talked. He wanted to prove a point.

He told me his biggest mistake in life was barely living at all: “I barely had a life until today. I could never enjoy a dinner with my family or my wife’s cake. I could never stop thinking about improving my business and making more money. Even today, it seems that I don’t have enough – and that leaves me nervous.”

Antonio has a medium-sized retail business, which sells farming machinery. Back in the day, he used to run from small village to small village in order to find local farmers who would buy his equipment. Today, he stays at the business and sends his workforce to work. He looks like a concertmaster coordinating an orchestra.

He pays attention to every detail and has a huge hand-written database of clients and their needs. “This is worth gold” he told me, regarding his small notebook he started writing in long before e-mail was a thing. This guys knows marketing and the value of keeping a big record of clients, I thought.

The biggest lesson I learned from Antonio was that, even if it seems like it, life ain’t about the money. Not always, at least. Antonio ended up developing an inability to feel good when achieving something. He’s always wanting more. Even now that his business has expanded into 6 cities, he’s not satisfied. He never will be.

Lesson #2: Do What You Love, and The Money Will Come

Jose told me he never thought he could become a multi-millionaire selling tiles. “I never thought anyone could make a decent living doing this, even though I always loved home renovation and tiles.”

(If you’re thinking this is a strange thing to love, btw, know that Portugal has a history with tiles, bricks and stones. If you ever visit Lisbon you’ll understand why!)

“I wanted to become rich, so I started multiple businesses. I would move from business to business, looking for one that was really profitable, until I started selling homes.” But Jose never really made significant money selling homes. “The market was always very volatile, and crashes were terrible for us. This is not London or New York – it is a small city with a small market.”

A prospective buyer once told Jose he would buy the home he showed him, but only if he could find someone to renovate it for him on the cheap. He didn’t like the tiles in the kitchen and in the bathroom, but Jose knew no one he could refer to.

“I remember looking for days, asking all the other brokers in the company, but no one knew any business doing that.” Eventually that led to Jose setting up his own renovation business, and he started buying tiles in massive amounts for not only his own business but for other contractors too. Contractors who normally buy tiles in bigger cities, like Porto. It was a costly and slow process, but Jose saw an opportunity and jumped on it – eventually making more money on the tiles themselves than all the renovations!

He finally gave up the renovation business and focused solely on what he loved the most – selling tiles. Which eventually made a multi-millionaire. “Whenever anyone asks me what I do, I very proudly say that I sell tiles!”

Lesson #3: Taking Risks Is a Part of Wealth Building

“I mortgaged my house and I didn’t tell my wife. She would have had killed me if she knew!” I cannot name the guy who told me this as part of our agreement (he said I was the only one he ever told!), but for the sake of this article, I will call him “A.” A. was definitely the richest guy I interviewed, even though he didn’t reveal how much his net worth was. (He also didn’t pay for the coffees either. :-))

A. had a wonderful life. He had “the most beautiful girl in town!” and owned two paid-off homes by the age of 25 (and this was about 50 years ago. “No one had a house back then – only the rich!”) I asked him whether he was rich then, and he told me that he only became rich later on – after risking his two homes in a matter of months.

The story goes that this guy use to run a bike business. Back then, bikes were a true luxury and not many people had them. He would fix and sell bikes for the rich, but he “would never become one in the bike business.” Eventually, the real estate where he had his business was listed for sale. He decided to mortgage his home to buy it.

“It was not a smart move at first – my rent was fairly low so it didn’t make sense. I was starving for wealth – it was an impulse buy.” But a few months later, when he sold his business, he became highly aware of the value of that piece of real estate. “The guy who bought my business didn’t want to pay me dividends as part of our agreement, so instead I charged him a higher rent on the property I still owned – and he accepted!”

A. eventually realized he could replicate what he had just done, so he opened another bike business in a nearby town, bought the location from under it, and then listed both the business and the attached real estate for sale.

The word spread fast, and A. would sell his businesses for small losses, but more than recoup the money from the lucrative rents attached.

He’s still doing this today, decades later. Creating and franchising businesses to owners, who then agrees to move shops where A. wants them to: at his own locations! I remember this story every time I pass by a McDonald’s, as they have a pretty similar model as well.

(Interesting to note, A. still owns that first location he rented out and the bike business is also still there, now run by the second generation of the family.)

Lesson #4: Money Cannot Be Sitting In The Bank

This is also something I learned from A., as well as most of the other guys. All that A. does today in his holdings is making sure that liabilities are never too low and that money is always available. “I cringe if debt is too low – there must be something wrong!”

But what is really bad according to him is “money simply sitting in the bank.” He says there are 100 reasons to put it to work, and not one to hold onto it. I am not sure he didn’t overdo it there – as I think that holding onto cash can be an intelligent decision too. However, I totally understand why he said that, and that philosophy has worked quite well for him over time.

[Editor’s note: I agree there’s nothing wrong holding onto some cash – not every dollar always needs to be maximized! They all have their own place in the equation….]

Most of the guys I interviewed told me that money is not made to stack up. “You can stack it at the top but it will vanish from the bottom” one of the millionaires said. These guys all lived through high inflation periods, so even those making more money than they could spend understand the power of inflation.

Lesson #5: Working For Someone Else Won’t Do The Trick

The only guy I interviewed who still worked for someone else was a banker. Yet, he had so many investments and had invested for so long that he could barely keep track of them all. When I asked him why he hasn’t left yet when he obviously can, he said “I like working at the bank, that is why I never quit. Plus, the benefits are great!”

He’s following lesson #2 :-)

All the other guys I interviewed, however, had businesses of their own. Though to be fair, finding millionaire employees would have been way more complicated to find so I didn’t even try – thinking I wouldn’t find many anyways. At the end of the day, most of the millionaires told me that they would have never accumulated so much wealth working for somebody else.

Manuel was the biggest advocate of self-employment among the 19. “I did $100k in one month, and almost $1 million total that year (this was probably in the 90s – my notes fall short on this, sorry!). Tell me a job where I could make that much? I only worked for somebody else when I was 14. I realized that it wasn’t for me when I had to deliver the profits at the end of the day and be given only a small portion of it. That made no sense to me…”

“Working for yourself is the best thing you can do. No boss, no rules and no limits.” Manuel went on to say. He even told me he “felt sorry” for some of his employees because they’ll never truly understand how much better off they’d be going out on their own.

I personally still work for a university where I do research part-time, so I see the merits of working for someone else, especially in what pertains to safety and comfort. However, I want to work entirely for myself after March 2018. My real estate portfolio should yield enough money to employ me by then :)

(Editor’s Note: I have to disagree here. While it may take longer getting wealthy working for someone else, it’s still very much do-able. Check out this 401(k) millionaire! You also have to keep in mind that not everyone has the personality or would be GOOD at running their own business. It takes a certain personality, along with a whole lot of risk. So if you know yourself well enough that a 9-5 is the place for you to be, then keep on rockin’ it and continue doing your thing. Self-employment can be amazing, but it’s not for everyone (nor is it the only path).)

Lesson #6: Educate Yourself Financially… and on Everything Else!

The first step I took towards becoming financially independent was educating myself by reading tons of books on personal finance. It surprised me that most of the millionaires I interviewed didn’t know who Robert Kiyosaki was (whose quote, “If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there” led me to interview these people in the first place!), or even who Warren Buffett was.

Side note: If you haven’t yet, you should read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, or check out my own Rich Dad Poor Dad summary!

But it’s obvious they educated themselves financially in other ways, like by reading the newspaper every day and learning through their own businesses on how to negotiate, make more money and ultimately scale. Most of them learned through trial and error.

I also noticed how most of them were really curious about how things worked in general. One asked me “How much do you think this café makes every year?” as we were sitting there in it. I didn’t know the answer, and neither did he (he was just trying to take an educated guess and fostering discussion) but it showed how his brain worked. During another interview, the guy started asking me so many questions about my own job that it seemed like I was the one being interviewed!

So basically, knowledge is key. And it seems that the rich understands this like nobody else.

I’m in the process of writing a big book on all these notes I’ve collected over the interviews, and if you’d like to be alerted when it comes out, be sure to sign up to my blog. It will include parts of all my interviews and many more lessons that I haven’t put here.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the article!

******** Ben blogs at FromCentsToRetirement.com and covers everything from investing to real estate to how to be a great landlord. He’s also published a book on early retirement titled, My strategy to retire early: My journey to become financially independent and retire in my early 30s.

What I Learned From Interviewing 19 Millionaires published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

[fesahaawit]

What I Learned From Interviewing 19 Millionaires

[Hey guys! Welcome Benjamin Davis from FromCentsToRetirement.com to the blog today. He’s been on an interesting journey lately hanging out with millionaires, and stops by to share some insight :) What a great way to soak up some knowledge, eh? Only costs you a cup of coffee!]

********

While doing my PhD in Germany, I developed CFS/adrenal fatigue and I feared I could not work for much longer. I didn’t know much about finances or investing at the time – I had only invested in the stock market for a few years using very simple strategies.

Therefore, I decided to educate myself financially, reading over 100 books on personal finance and investing in general. I did a few projections and I set the goal to retire by the age of 33 in Portugal (I literally live where people vacation!), and today I am well on track to do so, primarily through real estate.

As I educated myself, I decided that I needed a mentor. And I figured I would look for one in the area I wanted to retire in – mid-east Portugal, Europe.

If you’ve ever tried to get a mentor yourself, you know how difficult it can be at times. I asked many people whether they wanted to teach me how to get rich doing the same thing they did, but the answer came back negative over and over again. Until one person said:

Well I don’t have time for that, but I can tell you my story, maybe you’ll learn from it?

To this day I still remember how my brain started connecting the dots right then and there! I quickly shot back, “you’ve got time today?” and that was the beginning of something remarkable.

I went on to interview 19 self-made millionaires and multi-millionaires who taught me more than they’d ever know.  I would invite them for a coffee, take out my notebook, and then ask them to tell me their stories. I would take notes like a professional reporter.

Finding them was a nightmare, however. At times I felt like I was wasting my time, and at others I felt like I had won the lottery and was learning things I would never have learned if I hadn’t talked to them.

I had all sorts of people interviewed. From cocky to humble, bankers to farmers. You’d expect to find a pattern in how they looked, but I didn’t. Some were dressed up, others looked close to homeless. Only a few told me their actual net-worth, but all of them, probably unconsciously, told me things that were instrumental for my own journey to wealth.

In this article, I will summarize 6 lessons I learned from them. I hope you can relate to them, and even more importantly I hope you apply some of them to your own life.

Lesson #1: Life Is About Way More Than Money

Antonio wanted to get rich desperately. He wanted to show his father how capable he was. He never told me what his father said that hurt him so much, but I could sense some revenge in the way he talked. He wanted to prove a point.

He told me his biggest mistake in life was barely living at all: “I barely had a life until today. I could never enjoy a dinner with my family or my wife’s cake. I could never stop thinking about improving my business and making more money. Even today, it seems that I don’t have enough – and that leaves me nervous.”

Antonio has a medium-sized retail business, which sells farming machinery. Back in the day, he used to run from small village to small village in order to find local farmers who would buy his equipment. Today, he stays at the business and sends his workforce to work. He looks like a concertmaster coordinating an orchestra.

He pays attention to every detail and has a huge hand-written database of clients and their needs. “This is worth gold” he told me, regarding his small notebook he started writing in long before e-mail was a thing. This guys knows marketing and the value of keeping a big record of clients, I thought.

The biggest lesson I learned from Antonio was that, even if it seems like it, life ain’t about the money. Not always, at least. Antonio ended up developing an inability to feel good when achieving something. He’s always wanting more. Even now that his business has expanded into 6 cities, he’s not satisfied. He never will be.

Lesson #2: Do What You Love, and The Money Will Come

Jose told me he never thought he could become a multi-millionaire selling tiles. “I never thought anyone could make a decent living doing this, even though I always loved home renovation and tiles.”

(If you’re thinking this is a strange thing to love, btw, know that Portugal has a history with tiles, bricks and stones. If you ever visit Lisbon you’ll understand why!)

“I wanted to become rich, so I started multiple businesses. I would move from business to business, looking for one that was really profitable, until I started selling homes.” But Jose never really made significant money selling homes. “The market was always very volatile, and crashes were terrible for us. This is not London or New York – it is a small city with a small market.”

A prospective buyer once told Jose he would buy the home he showed him, but only if he could find someone to renovate it for him on the cheap. He didn’t like the tiles in the kitchen and in the bathroom, but Jose knew no one he could refer to.

“I remember looking for days, asking all the other brokers in the company, but no one knew any business doing that.” Eventually that led to Jose setting up his own renovation business, and he started buying tiles in massive amounts for not only his own business but for other contractors too. Contractors who normally buy tiles in bigger cities, like Porto. It was a costly and slow process, but Jose saw an opportunity and jumped on it – eventually making more money on the tiles themselves than all the renovations!

He finally gave up the renovation business and focused solely on what he loved the most – selling tiles. Which eventually made a multi-millionaire. “Whenever anyone asks me what I do, I very proudly say that I sell tiles!”

Lesson #3: Taking Risks Is a Part of Wealth Building

“I mortgaged my house and I didn’t tell my wife. She would have had killed me if she knew!” I cannot name the guy who told me this as part of our agreement (he said I was the only one he ever told!), but for the sake of this article, I will call him “A.” A. was definitely the richest guy I interviewed, even though he didn’t reveal how much his net worth was. (He also didn’t pay for the coffees either. :-))

A. had a wonderful life. He had “the most beautiful girl in town!” and owned two paid-off homes by the age of 25 (and this was about 50 years ago. “No one had a house back then – only the rich!”) I asked him whether he was rich then, and he told me that he only became rich later on – after risking his two homes in a matter of months.

The story goes that this guy use to run a bike business. Back then, bikes were a true luxury and not many people had them. He would fix and sell bikes for the rich, but he “would never become one in the bike business.” Eventually, the real estate where he had his business was listed for sale. He decided to mortgage his home to buy it.

“It was not a smart move at first – my rent was fairly low so it didn’t make sense. I was starving for wealth – it was an impulse buy.” But a few months later, when he sold his business, he became highly aware of the value of that piece of real estate. “The guy who bought my business didn’t want to pay me dividends as part of our agreement, so instead I charged him a higher rent on the property I still owned – and he accepted!”

A. eventually realized he could replicate what he had just done, so he opened another bike business in a nearby town, bought the location from under it, and then listed both the business and the attached real estate for sale.

The word spread fast, and A. would sell his businesses for small losses, but more than recoup the money from the lucrative rents attached.

He’s still doing this today, decades later. Creating and franchising businesses to owners, who then agrees to move shops where A. wants them to: at his own locations! I remember this story every time I pass by a McDonald’s, as they have a pretty similar model as well.

(Interesting to note, A. still owns that first location he rented out and the bike business is also still there, now run by the second generation of the family.)

Lesson #4: Money Cannot Be Sitting In The Bank

This is also something I learned from A., as well as most of the other guys. All that A. does today in his holdings is making sure that liabilities are never too low and that money is always available. “I cringe if debt is too low – there must be something wrong!”

But what is really bad according to him is “money simply sitting in the bank.” He says there are 100 reasons to put it to work, and not one to hold onto it. I am not sure he didn’t overdo it there – as I think that holding onto cash can be an intelligent decision too. However, I totally understand why he said that, and that philosophy has worked quite well for him over time.

[Editor’s note: I agree there’s nothing wrong holding onto some cash – not every dollar always needs to be maximized! They all have their own place in the equation….]

Most of the guys I interviewed told me that money is not made to stack up. “You can stack it at the top but it will vanish from the bottom” one of the millionaires said. These guys all lived through high inflation periods, so even those making more money than they could spend understand the power of inflation.

Lesson #5: Working For Someone Else Won’t Do The Trick

The only guy I interviewed who still worked for someone else was a banker. Yet, he had so many investments and had invested for so long that he could barely keep track of them all. When I asked him why he hasn’t left yet when he obviously can, he said “I like working at the bank, that is why I never quit. Plus, the benefits are great!”

He’s following lesson #2 :-)

All the other guys I interviewed, however, had businesses of their own. Though to be fair, finding millionaire employees would have been way more complicated to find so I didn’t even try – thinking I wouldn’t find many anyways. At the end of the day, most of the millionaires told me that they would have never accumulated so much wealth working for somebody else.

Manuel was the biggest advocate of self-employment among the 19. “I did $100k in one month, and almost $1 million total that year (this was probably in the 90s – my notes fall short on this, sorry!). Tell me a job where I could make that much? I only worked for somebody else when I was 14. I realized that it wasn’t for me when I had to deliver the profits at the end of the day and be given only a small portion of it. That made no sense to me…”

“Working for yourself is the best thing you can do. No boss, no rules and no limits.” Manuel went on to say. He even told me he “felt sorry” for some of his employees because they’ll never truly understand how much better off they’d be going out on their own.

I personally still work for a university where I do research part-time, so I see the merits of working for someone else, especially in what pertains to safety and comfort. However, I want to work entirely for myself after March 2018. My real estate portfolio should yield enough money to employ me by then :)

(Editor’s Note: I have to disagree here. While it may take longer getting wealthy working for someone else, it’s still very much do-able. Check out this 401(k) millionaire! You also have to keep in mind that not everyone has the personality or would be GOOD at running their own business. It takes a certain personality, along with a whole lot of risk. So if you know yourself well enough that a 9-5 is the place for you to be, then keep on rockin’ it and continue doing your thing. Self-employment can be amazing, but it’s not for everyone (nor is it the only path).)

Lesson #6: Educate Yourself Financially… and on Everything Else!

The first step I took towards becoming financially independent was educating myself by reading tons of books on personal finance. It surprised me that most of the millionaires I interviewed didn’t know who Robert Kiyosaki was (whose quote, “If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there” led me to interview these people in the first place!), or even who Warren Buffett was.

Side note: If you haven’t yet, you should read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, or check out my own Rich Dad Poor Dad summary!

But it’s obvious they educated themselves financially in other ways, like by reading the newspaper every day and learning through their own businesses on how to negotiate, make more money and ultimately scale. Most of them learned through trial and error.

I also noticed how most of them were really curious about how things worked in general. One asked me “How much do you think this café makes every year?” as we were sitting there in it. I didn’t know the answer, and neither did he (he was just trying to take an educated guess and fostering discussion) but it showed how his brain worked. During another interview, the guy started asking me so many questions about my own job that it seemed like I was the one being interviewed!

So basically, knowledge is key. And it seems that the rich understands this like nobody else.

I’m in the process of writing a big book on all these notes I’ve collected over the interviews, and if you’d like to be alerted when it comes out, be sure to sign up to my blog. It will include parts of all my interviews and many more lessons that I haven’t put here.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the article!

******** Ben blogs at FromCentsToRetirement.com and covers everything from investing to real estate to how to be a great landlord. He’s also published a book on early retirement titled, My strategy to retire early: My journey to become financially independent and retire in my early 30s.

What I Learned From Interviewing 19 Millionaires posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

[rachelclewis]

Double Sided

I spent the summer of 2001 working (unpaid) for a small artists’ venture called St. Jayne’s Theatre Company. The company was founded by a girl I knew from college, who I would have described as a “frenemy” if we had that word back then.  She was passionate and driven and was dying to produce good theatre.  But she could also be vain, obstinate, and a bit of a drama queen.  I was concerned when she asked me to be on her board of directors because I didn’t trust her leadership and I was worried the project would end badly. I also wanted to be making theatre and there were a number of other people on the board I respected, so I said yes. I thought there was a good chance we would pull it off.

I was wrong, though. It didn’t end badly. It started badly. It got worse as it went along. And then it ended in tears, accusatory phone calls, and terminated friendships. What I hadn't counted on – what I didn’t realize at the time – was that I could also be vain, obstinate, and a bit of a drama queen. And the two of us together, my frenemy and I, twisted our vain obstinate energy into a vortex of destruction and bitchery. But somewhere in the middle of all of that, we put on a play.

I’m glad that I did it, though. I learned a lot. We overcame some serious obstacles to persevere and I am still proud of the production.  The play was SubUrbia, and there are two things that I remember most about it.  Both require a little bit of explanation. The first one is the sound wall.

We were doing the play outdoors at a music venue called Kilby Court, which is in the center of a block in an industrial area of Salt Lake. It made sense because the play takes place in the parking lot of a Kwiky Mart-type convenience store, but if a band was playing on the stage across the alley, it was too loud to hear the actors. So the board decided that we would need to get a contract from the owner of Kilby Court that stated that we had exclusive performing rights on the nights of the show and we tasked the founder of the company, my afore described frenemy, to get the contract signed.

I asked about the contract during rehearsals and my frenemy responded by saying vaguely, “yeah yeah, it’s fine… it’s taken care of.” In fact, she had approached the owner with the contract and he refused to sign it because he couldn’t afford to lose the profit from the bands and take the risk that we would be able to deliver a similar amount. It was smart, and I understood where he was coming from. We never drew in the same sized crowds as the bands. But she was afraid to tell us what happened, so she just… didn’t. We didn’t find out until the weekend before the show opened that the owner of Kilby Court had booked bands in his other space for every single night we were performing.

That night we were sitting on the deck trying to figure out how we could possibly make it work. We talked for hours and a plan began to form.  Twenty four inventive hours later, we stood in the alley of Kilby Court looking up at our brand new, functional sound wall. That day, we rented two stories of scaffolding from a construction site, assembled it ourselves, and filled it with a ton of hay that we bought off a local farmer. Then we covered it with tarps. It wasn’t beautiful, but it worked. The show could go on!.

The second thing I remember most about SubUrbia is the giant purple dildo.

The main female character in SubUrbia is a twenty-something girl named Suze who is planning to move to New York to become an artist. In her first scene on stage, Suze presents the performance art piece that she has been developing.

The monologue is a fuming estrogen-angst filled rant that is desperate to be shocking, but comes off as a poor knock-off of Ani DiFranco lyrics from the early 90s. We wanted it to be a parody of clichéd performance art. We had a trunk full of props. We put her in a body suit that she could paint on as she wore it.  And best of all, we got The Blue Boutique to donate a large double-sided dildo in exchange for advertising in our program. Every night, Suze ended her monologue by swinging the dildo over her head and then letting it go, making it thwhack the brick wall behind her and fall down behind her feet with a thud.

The only problem was that people actually lived at Kilby Court and there were a couple apartment windows that ran along the wall that we were using as our Kwiky Mart. So we were really careful to choreograph the dildo-throw to make sure that it always hit the bricks and only the bricks.

I was elated when closing night arrived. After a series of ugly arguments, my relationship with my frenemy had devolved to fit under the less complicated “enemy” category. We were a handful of livid phone calls away from never speaking to one another again. The audience turn-out was a less than half of what we had hoped for. Everyone involved in the company was losing money, and I couldn’t take the stress much longer.

I was sitting in the audience, thinking “all I have  to do is get through this performance, unload a ton of rain-sopped hay, disassemble two stories of scaffolding, return it to the construction company, and I will be done with Saint Jayne’s and I’ll never have to do theatre again…” when, something went wrong with Suze’s dildo-throw. For some reason, after weeks of perfect executions, the throw went wild and the dildo sailed through the air and disappeared through one of the darkened apartment windows with a slap and the tinkle of shattered glass. The audience must have known that wasn’t the plan, because that was the only night we didn’t get a big laugh. There was some laughter but it was mostly uncomfortable.

“Oh my God, ohmigod, ohmahGAWD!” I was thinking, as I snuck out of the audience by squeezing through a gap in the hay. “We’ve killed someone. We’ve killed someone. At the very least, we’ve killed someone’s cat…”

I I pictured a leathery old man – recently homeless, reentering society through the devalued rental property of Kilby Court – sitting in a rocking chair and reading a tattered paperback copy of Keats poems. When suddenly, without warning, there was a crashing sound and… “wisht, wisht, wisht…” something long and purple spinning through the air, and then, “BAM!” right to the forehead, knocking him backward, over, and out of the rocking chair! And then, SILENCE. Death by dildo…

I found one of the managers at Kilby – a really nice guy named Mike – and I told him what had happened. He told me not to worry about it. He said he knew the guy pretty well, and he would talk to him. I snuck back into the audience and watched the rest of the play, which unfolded without further incident, but I was distracted. We were going to be sued; I was sure of it. I was twenty-four, unemployed, and done with theatre. And, at that moment, I was quite certain that I was going to have to go into some sort of indentured servitude to pay for the ex-homeless man’s funeral and a new window for Kilby Court. At that point in my life, I would have had to go into indentured servitude just to buy the man a new cat.

But after the show, I found Mike again to see what he found out and he told me the man wasn’t home. “Whew. That’s a relief,” I said.

“Trust me; it’s fine. I’ll talk to him when he gets home.”

I expected to hear more, but I never did. I wasn’t even contacted about paying for the new window, which I thought was the least that would happen. About half of the cast showed up to help me return the scaffolding to the construction company, and a friend with a truck was kind enough to come and take all the hay out of Kilby. I was done with the show and I promised myself that I would never use my degree in theatre again, and I have mostly kept that promise.

Then, ten years later, I spent a weekend this fall at a writer’s retreat in southern Utah. I was one of six other writers staying on a small ranch outside the desert town of Torrey. We were all from Salt Lake City and we spent the days writing and the evenings talking about writing and making one another laugh.

One of the writers was a musician named Jeremy Chatelain. Jeremy has toured with a bunch of east coast bands over the years, but he has also been in a lot of bands here in Utah. Another writer remembered him from a band called Iceburn Collective and the two of them started talking about these old local Utah bands that I’ve never heard of. In fact, I was basically tuning out of the conversation until he mentioned that he had been in a band with a guy named Gentry.

I interjected then and said, “Wait, Gentry Densley?”

And Jeremy said, “No way, you know Gentry?”

And I said, “No, not at all. But I remember that his band played at a fundraiser for a theatre company I worked for a decade ago called Saint Jayne’s. He was great.”

Another one of the writers named Adam said, “I remember Saint Jayne’s.”

“That’s not possible,” I said. “We lasted one summer and no one came to our shows.”

“Oh no, I remember. I was living in an apartment at Kilby Court that summer. And they were doing a play called Suburbia. And I remember that I came home from a late shift at the hospital one night to find broken glass everywhere and I giant purple dildo in my bed. And this guy, Mike, who was running things at Kilby, came running in and was like ‘oh dude, I was hoping to catch you before you got home… I wanted to try to explain…’ But I was like, ‘Dude!? How? How could you ever explain THIS?”

And I said, “Oh my God… I’ve spent the last ten years wanting to ask you if you were okay! I remember watching it go through the window and thinking, ‘oh Christ what have we done?’ So let me just finally officially say to you, I am very very sorry about that.”

I didn’t think we would ever stop laughing. I was relieved to find that he wasn’t angry. He was just disappointed that they didn’t let him keep the dildo.

“I was going to frame it and hang it on the wall so I could point to it when I told the story.” Then he pointed at a random spot on the wall and said, in an old man voice, “And that thar is the very same dildo that came through my window that night…”

“Really?” I said. “Because we didn’t get it back!  I would have let you keep it, for sure. Mike would have known you shouldn’t use it after it’s been in contact with broken glass, right?”

The next morning we told the rest of the writers the story and Adam said, “I’ve been telling that story for so long now, as an example of the texture of Kilby Court and what it was like to live there. Who knew I would come down to Boulder Utah and meet the person from the other end of that dildo?”

��U

[robertmcangusgroup]

The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip

 Thursday 16th February 2017

 Good Morning Gentle Reader…The sound of the surf pounding on the beaches of Estepona Spain greeted Bella and I as we left the house this morning … Strong easterly winds are blowing, clouds are hurrying across the early morning sky making me pull my jacket tighter .. Bella doesn’t care sniffing here sniffing there as she explores the town .. needs satisfied, we turn towards the house Bella knows the routine, Food for her and Coffee for me and a Digestive .. going to live life to the full!

OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE.. WHEN WE PRACTICE TO DECEIVE…White House Grapples With New Russian Contact Reports.. The trouble may not end with security adviser Michael Flynn’s Monday resignation over his secret Russian contacts. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the president’s men hadn’t contacted Russian officials during the campaign, but phone records intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly show that campaign officials were in touch with senior Russian intelligence personnel, though there’s no evidence they cooperated in election-related Russian hacking. Now there’s a growing bipartisan call for more investigation into President Trump’s Russia connections, though some senior Republicans are still hedging.

IS THE NATIONALIST TIDE EBBING??? Switzerland Votes to Simplify Citizenship Rules….. Three-fifths of Swiss voters have approved a measure aimed at easing the path to citizenship for third-generation immigrants born and raised in Switzerland, after opponents of the referendum argued it would erode “Swiss values” as more Muslims become citizens. In fact, about 60 percent of the 25,000 people who’d be affected by the change, which requires a constitutional amendment, are of Italian descent. The referendum could have far-reaching future implications, though, as about a quarter of Switzerland’s population of 8 million is currently foreign-born.  

ONE IS NOT ENOUGH….Ceres is a dwarf planet that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, in a place called the asteroid belt where most of the asteroids in the solar system live. It is believed to have more subsurface ice than we have fresh water on Earth, with a chilly temperature of about  -73 degrees Celsius during its day and -143 Celsius during its night. In 2015, NASA's Dawn spacecraft discovered a 4-kilometre-tall ice volcano and named it Ahuna Mons. Thus far, they haven't been able to locate any others. In other words, Ahuna Mons is all alone on Ceres. This has baffled scientists somewhat, as they expected to find more. Pluto, Europa, Triton, Charon, and Titan, are all believed to have many cryovolcanoes, not just one. "Imagine if there was just one volcano on all of Earth," said Dr Michael Sori, a Planetary Geophysics researcher at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, in a statement. "That would be puzzling." So why is Ahuna Mons all on its lonesome? One potential explanation is that it formed quite recently, assuming that the rest of the planet is just geologically inactive right now. Another is that it may not have always been this way, and there once may have been many cryovolcanoes on Ceres millions, or billions of years ago. "We think we have a very good case that there have been lots of cryovolcanoes on Ceres but they have deformed," said Sori, who was the lead author of the new paper.

IT’S NO WAY TO GET INTO ONE’S GOOD BOOKS….    London Thieves Disrupt Rare Book Market With $2.5 Million Heist. Thieves rappelling into a warehouse near Heathrow Airport allegedly stole more than 160 rare volumes heading for the California Book Fair. Reports indicate the gang of robbers targeted specific books, including a 1506 edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy and works by Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci, and that they may have been working on behalf of a specific collector. The works could prove difficult to resell, as experts will be on the lookout for the stolen editions.

“MIEN KAMPF” HE WILL DO MORE THAN STRUGGLE… A Hitler lookalike has been arrested in Austria on charges of glorifying the Nazi era, local officials say. The 25-year-old man reportedly calls himself Harald Hitler. The man, sporting a side parting and a trademark moustache, had been seen having his photograph taken outside the house in Braunau am Inn in which Adolf Hitler was born. The lookalike had recently moved to the town on the German border, police spokesman David Furtner told the BBC. Adolf Hitler moved from Austria to Germany in 1913. Mr Furtner said this was not a joke or a piece of performance art. "The young man knows exactly what he is doing," the police spokesman said. He said the man had also been spotted in Vienna and Graz. Pictures of the man were published by Austria's Heute.at news website on Monday. Glorifying the Nazi era is a crime in Austria.

CUTTING CORNERS…..A Chinese hospital has admitted accidentally infecting five people with HIV because a staff member reused medical equipment that should have been discarded. Officials said that a technician reused a tube used to treat an individual with HIV on other patients. Provincial authorities described it as a "severe violation of procedure". Five people had been sacked at Hangzhou's Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, they said. Provincial health officials said they were informed of the situation on 26 January. But in a statement (in Chinese) they gave no information on how many other patients might have been exposed, what they were being treated for or when the infections occurred. Those affected would receive treatment and compensation, the brief statement said. Two decades ago low safety standards and insufficient regulation helped spread HIV/Aids in China, and the news of the hospital incident sparked shock and criticism from social media users. "A provincial-level hospital doesn't follow protocols, who can we trust as average citizens?!", wrote one person on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.  "This case is exposed, but what about cases that we don't know? There must have been many more!" wrote another. Cases of HIV/Aids rose sharply in China after a major scandal in Henan province in the 1990s, when farmers who sold their blood contracted HIV through poor safety practices. Donors' collected blood was pooled together and the lucrative plasma removed. The remaining blood, now cross-contaminated, was then injected back into the donors so they could donate again soon.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the news from around the world this, Thursday morning…

Our Tulips today are good enough to have as your "Wallpaper" on the computer....now that's a thought... 

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Thursday 16th February 2017 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in ….. Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus