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thiscitychickk · 4 years ago

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How much time do rep/senators spend in DC vs their state? What about their staff? Do they just live in DC? Also do their staff have to be from their state? Hermione is from Seattle as James, but I'm not sure if that has to be the case. I never thought about these things before reading your fic. I also never read an AU modern political fic before, so it's so cool how your story gives some insight!

Great questions!

So the House and Senate average about 150 days a year in DC voting. They’re back home for ‘district work periods’ the other days of the year. All members have staff in their districts.

Senators, depending on the state, have offices spread across the state with a few staffer in each one. House Members, depending on how big the district is size-wise, have 1-3 offices since they have smaller budgets.

Every office is run like it’s a business that has to just work under the same ethics parameters. So they can pick out how many staffers they hire, how much they’re paid, if they promote internally or bring on new people, how many interns they have.. It’s a choose your own adventure situation.

Every day, I get emails from offices looking for communications directors or staff assistants etc and it’ll say ‘*insert state* ties preferred*. When you interview they’ll ask you what your ties are to the state the member is from, but for more senior jobs your skills and experience are way more important than those ties. It’s easier to learn about a state than how to actually do the job. But college internships are usually with your hometown member or the member where your university is, so that gives you an ‘in’ to get a job post-graduation in a district you have ties to.

I live in DC full time, but I’ll go down to my boss’ district for elections and events that they need me there for. Congress does not vote for about 6 weeks in the summer (it’s called August recess) and a lot of people go back to the district to work from home if they’re from the area or in an election year spend time working on the campaign side.

The DC staff is legislative and the district staff does constituent services. Normal office makeup (this is the House, Senate has a way bigger staff and budget)-

DC for House Members: Staff assistant, legislative correspondent, 2-3 legislative assistants, legislative director, communications director/press secretary, scheduler/executive assistant. Some have a digital director who manages social media and graphic creation OR a press/digital assistant.

Some chiefs of staff work from DC and some from district and some travel back and forth with the member.

District staff: district director, 2-4 caseworkers, 2-4 field representatives, perhaps a district scheduler (so there’s one in dc and one at home to focus only on events in a specific place).

Dirtsict staff focus on resolving casework problems with federal agencies (helping veterans receive the benefits they’re owed, connecting people to the IRS right now to make sure they get their stimulus payment, helping with social security payments, etc). They also stand in for the member at community meetings and events while they’re in dc and make sure that the member is represented at everything important going on in the district - that’s what field representatives focus on.

Descriptions: Staff assistant: bottom of the totem pole, sits at front desk, answers phones greets guests, lets staffers know that their meetings are there, inputs requests that come in for Capitol/White House/Treasury tours. (salary typically $28-35k)

Legislative Correspondent/LC: writes letters all day that responds to emails/letters/calls from constituents. Example- person calls asking member's position on banning automatic weapons. LC will draft a letter in the voice of the Member of Congress and send it back to them. (salary typically $35-40k)

Legislative Assistant/LA: most offices have 2-3 LAs. These people handle the different "issue areas" that come up in Congress. So an LA could have a portfolio of 'housing, animal welfare, agriculture, veterans, and homeland security' and another LA could have 'immigration, national security, treasury, human rights, and climate change.' They'll take meetings with groups that come in to discuss their specific issue areas, draft legislation on the issues in their portfolio and help the Member of Congress with questions/hearings if the member is on a committee that deals with those issues. (for example, in this story I have both Draco and James on the Energy and Commerce Committee which deals with health care, consumer protection, energy, environment, and digital commerce, so their health care staffer, Frank for JP and Theo for DM would come to committee meetings with them and help make sure they're prepared for those hearings)

(salary typically $40-50k)

Legislative Director/Leg Director/LD: this is the head honcho of a member's legislative shop. someone who's spent years as an LA and got promoted to oversee a member's entire legislative messaging/strategy. so they oversee the LAs and LC. they normally handle the member's primary issue, so that's why Frank handles health care for James, which is his number one priority in Congress.

(salary typically $80-100k)

Communications Director/CD/Press Secretary: this person runs a member of congress' social media and writes their newsletters, press releases and speeches and will set up interviews with the press. some offices have press assistants/digital assistants or digital directors, too, but the CD/ press sec is the primary contact for literally all writing in the office. (salary typically $50-100k, unfortunately varies depending on the office and how they value comms)

Chief of Staff/Chief/CoS: this is the boss of the entire office; district and DC. some chiefs only work out of DC, some only out of the district, some travel with the member. they are the babysitter for the staff and the member and usually have a very close relationship with the member. they are the only sort of hr or human resources that we have on the hill, so they also act as a therapist and mediator a lot of times between staffers.

(salary typically $125-173,900k)

$173,900k is the maximum salary a staffer can receive in the House.

$174k is the salary of non-leadership members of the House and Senate

Here's a super interesting look by the official Congressional Research Service on salaries in the House, if you're into that sort of thing.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44323.pdf

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purplesurveys · 4 years ago

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1021

survey by lets-make-surveys

1 - Do you have cats? Tell me about them. No. My sister used to have a cat, but Arlee passed away last April, I think a day or two before my birthday.

2 - Do you have an open fire in your house? Would you like one? Idk what that is, but it doesn’t sound appealing as I live in a tropical country as it is. More heat would just be uncomfortable.

3 - Are you a fan of making things cosy? What kind of things do you do to make your home feel cosy and snug? Cozy is nice, of course, but I wouldn’t always invest in them. I’d want my own place to have scented candles and fluffy pillows and blankets, but those three things are probably enough for me. I don’t really need fairy lights or oil diffusers or whatever.

4 - Do you still buy DVD’s or do you just use Netflix? Netflix. The last time I received a DVD was around...2013 maybe? when my mom gave me a DVD of Gone with the Wind for Christmas. I haven’t sought them out since, since everything is now online anyway.

5 - What kind of games console(s) do you have? What kind of games are your favourite? I grew up around video games but of all the people in my family who enjoys them, I was and am literally the only one who was never any good. I learned to be content with just watching my dad and cousins from the side, haha. Anyway, at home we’re currently using the PS3, PS4, and Switch.

6 - What was the last thing you had to drink? Water.

7 - Do you like things to be colour-coordinated or does it not bother you? Not for absolutely everything, but sure. My notes, back when I was still in school, were always color-coordinated. Also, when my parents asked me to reorganize their closets when I was younger, I liked fixing their clothes according to color too.

8 - Are you a big reader? Do you own many books that you’ve not gotten around to reading yet? I used to be, as a kid. Everyone called me bookworm and I embraced that title, haha. Then I got depressed and that never went away and everything got busy in life, and I was just slowly unable to finish books that I kept buying until I stopped reading altogether. I definitely have a number of books that are still unfinished to this day.

9 - Are you a fan of scented candles? What kind of scent(s) do you like? Mmm no, but I can see the appeal. I’d love to try buying one or two one of these days. They’d probably be perfect for Friday evenings after a work week.

10 - Do you believe that black cats are bad luck? No. I don’t believe in symbols like that. It’s also so frustrating hearing that black cats are still among the least-adopted animals in my country, because it only means people continue to believe in that ridiculous mindset.

11 - What’s your favourite breed of dog? Have you ever owned that breed before? Every breed is my favorite, except for, honestly, chihuahuas and pugs.

12 - Do you have laundry that needs to be done right now? No.

13 - Who or what was the last thing you shouted at? My family was playing Pictionary during the blackout yesterday and that was just a lot of constant yelling, lol

14 - Is there anything in your home that needs repairing or replacing? One of our electric fans broke a few months ago and we have a couple of leaks in the ceiling of our dining room which make it inconvenient whenever it rains. One of the lightbulbs in the kitchen is also close to going out, but I think my dad has already bought a replacement bulb for it.

15 - What kind of phone do you have? Do you use it often? iPhone 8. I’ve definitely been using it a lot recently. My depression for the last two or so months has made me reliant on background noise, so I have YouTube Autoplay all day long. I’m starting to see the effects on the battery hahaha, but it’s okay as I plan to get a new phone once I can finally afford a monthly plan.

16 - Who was the last person you spoke to on video chat? I was on video call with Angel and our HR supervisor on our first day last Monday.

17 - When was the last time you took any medication? Is this something you have to do regularly? I think it was a Biogesic for my headache, which is the only kind of pill I ever take anyway. No, I only pop one whenever I feel my temples start to throb, which isn’t too often.

18 - Where do you keep your shoes when you’re not wearing them? We have a storage space under the stairs, where our shoe rack also is. All my shoes are on there as we’re not allowed to bring any shoes upstairs (welcome to Asian homes, hahaha).

19 - Is your room/home generally clean and tidy? How long would you say you spent on housework each day? It’s clean. I don’t move around in here much except to sit at my desk to work and then sleep at the end of the day, so. As for housework, my mom’s a total control freak when it comes to chores, so even though I always want to help she wants things done her way, the steps of which only she knows.

20 - If you could have any snack in the world right now, what would you pick? What about a drink to go with it? I don’t have any particular craving right now, actually...maybe sushi? Deep fried maki sounds great rn. Just water would be fine.

21 - What’s everyone else in your household doing right now? Dad drove out for his work and my mom tagged along. No clue what my siblings are doing downstairs as I haven’t showed myself today so far.

22 - What was the last new item you bought for your home? (something like curtains or furniture, not something unique for you like clothes). Mom bought new plates as she felt like replacing the plate set we’ve had and been using since first moving here in ‘08. She also got a new tornado mop after the old one broke.

23 - Do you have a favourite mug to drink out of? Does your favourite change depending on what you’re going to be drinking? Yeah I used to love my color-changing mug with the wi-fi design, but now I’ve been using my mom’s Starbucks copper mug the most. As for the second question, no it doesn’t work that way for me. I’ll drink anything in my current favorite mug.

24 - What are five things you like to have within arms reach when you’re sat on the computer or settled down to watch TV? Phone, laptop charger, a hairtie, a blanket, and the cleaning cloth for my glasses.

25 - When doing surveys, do you have a certain routine or anything, or do you just sit and do them whenever and whatever? I don’t have a ~routine per se but I do have a few traditions, so to speak:

I prefer a cup of coffee to accompany me while taking them though I don’t always follow this, like now.

If I’m taking surveys in public, like at a coffee shop, I zoom out my Chrome to around 67% so that no one could see what I’m doing.

I try to check out Bzoink everyday for new survey leads, but sometimes Tumblr will be filled with good surveys (like now - there are so many good ones floating around on here recently??? I’m so not complaining) and I keep track of them by liking those survey posts to take in the future.

I generally avoid bolding surveys, but when I do take one I prefer to actually answer each item, so that it doesn’t end too quickly for me.

#survey #surveys

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amuslimsoul · 6 years ago

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Tag Game: 20 questions

Tagged by: @rabbigfirlee (Jazakallah Khair For Tagging Me, May Allah Bless You!❤️🕊️)

Rules: answer the questions (which you can change if you don’t feel like answering certain questions) then tag twenty followers you want to know better!

i. Nickname? I really don't have one lol, my family and friends mainly call me Aisha or Aissata

ii. Gender? Female

iii. Star sign: Aries, But don't believe in them

iv. Height? 5′5

v. Favorite Feature? My eyes, tho they are the color brown

vi. Favorite Color? I like baby blue, orange, black, white, and brown. I am also loving the color purple lately.

vvi. Favorite animal?

viii. Average hours spent sleeping? 5-6 Hrs

ix. Dogs or cats? Cats

x. The number of blankets you sleep with? 1

xi. What’s your dream trip? Mecca/Medinah, Seriously can someone take me there, my heart yearns for it to be there😭

xii. What’s your favorite tv show? I don't have one 😂 I honestly don't watch t.v anymore but I watched Ertugrul which seems like a pretty good show

xiii. When’s your birthday? April 18th

xiv. Favorite city that you’ve visited? None yet, but inshallah I will

xv. What’s your favorite flower? Sunflowers

xvi. Best places to visit in your town or country? Hmm..not sure really

xvii. Favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla & Chocolate, as well as Cookies & Cream

xviii. How often do you read? I haven't read books full time since middle school😭, now I barely read any. I have alot at home, but they all just sitting somewhere in my room

xix. Favorite study locations? Don't have one yet

xx. Favorite book? I have so many😭

I tag: @bintmydad @julaibib @hiddenukht @quietmuslimah @jannahisworthit @fazahxd @flowerety @khorasaniyyah @borntobemuslim @contentmuslimah and many more

(If you dont want to do it, that's okay, sorry if I tagged you and you didn't want to be tagged😭🕊️)

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practicingmedicine · 3 years ago

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Practicing Medicine: Chapter 5

LOADER V1. 1

EXEC VERSION 41.10

32K RAM SYSTEM

15452 BYTES FREE

HOLLOWTAPE LOADED: “THE-NEW-KID”

INITIALISING….

SUCCESS!

> STATUS

Battery Level: 100%

Wireless Signal: (?)

Operating Temperature: 87F

> HEALTH

BP: 120/90

SPO2: 100%

Temp: 98.5F

RR: 17

HR: 70

> TIME

Day: 24 SEP. 2176

Time: 06:12

> CLIMATE

Current Temperature: 80F

Atmospheric Pressure: 753 mm

Background Radiation: 0.431 RAD

---

I woke up to the pleasant smell of fresh-cooked bacon mingling with the less pleasant smell of rotting wood. I rubbed my eyes- had I really fallen asleep in the damn cabin? My back hurt, my joints ached, and, according to the pip-boy, it was 6:12 AM, almost two hours before my normal wake-up time. Though my back screamed at me to lay back down, I forced myself to stand, audibly popping at least a few joints in the process. I muttered some bad words under my breath and tried to stabilize myself against one of the shelves. Soon as I pushed on it, I could feel the wood yield, splitting and snapping off in one violent motion. I tumbled to the ground along with it and a heap of medical supplies. “Goddammit,” I groaned. I started trying to scoop up the fallen supplies. None of them seemed damaged, but so much had fallen- Bottles of pills, bags of rad-away, surgical implements from the bottom of the bag…

Suddenly, the wooden door creaked open. I made a noise like a caveman who’d just been spotted screwing his buddy’s wife, and turned around to face the intruder.

“Isaac- Oh my gosh, did you actually fall asleep in there?” I couldn’t tell if that was worry that I heard in her voice, or mocking. I looked away from her.

“Yeah. I was just cleaning up in here,” I said, scooping up a few more items and putting them back into my bag. I could feel Cook’s eyes on me as I struggled to reach for a couple of items that were on top of one of the intact shelves.

“Well, you can finish packing later. I made some home-style bacon, which as I’m sure you know has a pretty short tastiness half-life before it gets all weird and chewy.” I nodded.

“Um- yeah, you’re right. Is it that weird NCR ration stuff?” I asked, following her outside the shack.

“Technically, but I think you’ll like it. I can turn a pack of instant noodles into Taglioni ai enokitake-mutante! ” She wore a proud grin when she said that, and I gave her a weak little smile back.

“Mm.”

The rising sun felt painfully bright as I scanned the horizon, noting that we had passed the big radio-tower that loomed in the mountains beside Primm. Of course, we really hadn’t traveled far yet- I could still see Primm, with its neon signs and its indefinitely under-construction roller coaster standing out against the hilly background. The coaster had been the previous Casino-owner’s idea, but Mom had decided to see it to completion. She let me ride one of the parts that worked once; I quickly decided to never ride a roller coaster again.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be at home with mom- not the sick mom, but the strong, gambling, slightly-tipsy mom that I had spent my boyhood with! I blinked back tears as I stared at the home I was leaving behind, then quickly turned around.

“Goddamn sun is getting in my eyes,” I muttered, and kept limping towards the scent of Bacon.

Cook and I walked around the side of the shack, and over a little hill. Once we reached the crest, I could see the campsite below, just off the highway, behind a massive boulder. The wagon and its two brahmin sat off to one side, a few yards away from a shoddily constructed fire pit, where I could see Gram sitting in a folding lawn chair. Cook led me down the steep hillside, silently indicating for me to follow behind her. It took me a second, but I got the message after slipping on the third loose rock. Standing atop the boulder, I could see the unmistakable outline of Tandi, who I think was waving.

“Took you long enough!” she shouted, her voice amplified by her helmet. Cook gave her a defiant middle finger.

“I’ll spit in your dinner!” she shouted back, cupping her free-hand over her mouth. I assumed a look of quiet horror.

“Cook! That’s a textbook BSI violation!”

Tandi hopped down from the rock, executing a perfect tumble just as I remembered that she had a horribly injured leg. I almost shouted in protest, then realized that she was already standing again. She dusted herself off.

“‘Morning, fellas,” said Gram, tipping his hat at us from his rusty folding chair. I gave him a quick salute.

“‘Morning, sir! Sorry I took so long to get up.” Gram gave me a dismissive wave.

"You’re the one missing out on a hot breakfast. Check the fire, I’ll bet there’s some left.”

I don’t much like fire, but I also didn’t like how hungry I was feeling. So despite my fears about the safety of the fire pit, I walked up and knelt beside it. It wasn’t a big fire- it had been made from a couple of planks of plywood and a chunk of tire, though I was also pretty sure I saw something metal in there somewhere. It had been built inside a hand-dug pit, with the shovel still lying off to the side, which worried me a little bit. What if I fell in? Would I fall into my own fiery grave of burning embers?

Stupid. I was being stupid. The fire was burning low now, and there were two pans of delicious Brahmin bacon cooking over the stove. That was the important thing here.

“How do you recommend taking these out?” I asked, staring at the delicious bacon which awaited me in the pan below. It was tempting to just try to grab it, but… fire, you know?

Cook motioned for me to move out of the way. She was holding a machete covered in dried blood- Animal blood, I hoped, while I moseyed right-on out of the way. Cook stepped up where I had been standing, and nimbly scooped up four strips of bacon with the machete. She wheeled around on one heel to face me, and I froze, trying not to be worried about the blade that was now just inches away from my chest. Cook smiled.

“How many do you want?” She asked. I looked down at my poor, empty stomach, then back up at her.

“...Can I just have all four? I don’t think I ate breakfast, lunch or dinner yesterday.” Food had been the last thing on my mind.

“A man after my own tastes, I see! Stress-eating is the noblest kind of eating,” she replied. She tilted her machete downwards a bit, and I quickly cupped my hands to catch the sliding strips of meaty goodness. I juggled them around in my hands as the worst of the heat dissipated.

“You don’t know the half of it. Got any plates?” Cook shook her head.

“Nope. We have a couple of bowls for soup, but I just cleaned those. Find a rock or something.” She looked at me for a moment, and screwed up her face a little. “Why are you here anyways? No offense- I like Doctors, and you seem cool! But you don’t seem like someone who’s traveled before, and New Vegas is far away. What brought this on?”

I thought for a second. I had deliberately withheld that information from Gram because I wasn’t sure how he’d react, but I wasn’t really worried about Cook. Would she tell Gram? Would he be annoyed that I’d been withholding information?

Was I maybe overthinking this a little?

“My mom’s sick. I need to see the Followers to get her help, and they’re stationed in New Vegas now.”

There. Noncommittal- I didn’t say she was dying, just that she needed help. I didn’t let on too much about the circumstances, either. I just told the truth. And I always say, reluctant honesty is the best policy, on account of It fostering character growth or something.

Come to think of it, I was starting to see why characters in the books that father always read me didn’t just dump their deepest, darkest problems on each other as soon as they met. I’d always been of the mind that most of their problems would be cleared up if they were just honest with each other- that was my thinking behind the examination. But now, I was seeing firsthand the dangers of sharing information with new people. If I told Gram or Tandi the wrong thing, or presented it the wrong way, I could see myself winding up abandoned.

Cook seemed safe, though. Where Gram seemed to care only as it related to running an effective team, and Tandi didn’t seem to care at all, Cook seemed endlessly fascinated by most things. In the examination room, she had been interested by my hand, by her own strange biology, and seemingly just by me.

Based off of that, I was pretty sure she wasn’t testing me or looking for a reaction when she asked that question. She just really wanted to know.

“Oh. I’m gonna guess that what she has is terminal?” ventured Cook, trying to make scary eye contact for some reason. I sighed.

“...Yeah. My mom has cancer. Nothing I can do about it, but I know some doctors who I’m hoping to convince to come back and help. My Aunt Julie is kind of a big deal there, and I’ll bet I could guilt trip her.”

“Oh.” We both sat in silence.

Well, there went keeping that part a secret . Still, it didn’t really matter- if I was desperate enough to mosey on up from Primm to New Vegas and beg for help, anyone with an ounce of brainpower could guess that the situation was pretty serious.

I started munching on my strips of bacon, which admittedly brightened my mood a little. I think I was on about the third piece of bacon when Cook finally decided to try to restart the conversation.

“I’m really sorry- not about your mom- well, obviously about your mom, but also about…

"Bringing it up like that,” I said, finishing her thought for her. She tugged at the hem of her dress.

“Yeah. I don’t always think before I talk.”

Well, I could understand that, at least. Not that I didn’t think before I spoke, but that I didn’t think about the right things before I spoke. I’ve always tried my best to be kind to everyone, but my idea of kindness is a lot different than most people’s. For example, most people will tell you that they’d like for you to tell the truth, which is good- I like telling the truth, makes me feel better- but when you tell them the truth, they get all upset and tell you that you shouldn’t be so mean. It’s infuriating- if they want me to lie, why don’t they fuckin tell me so?

Well, actually, maybe that’s a bit too much to expect, but it would be nice if they didn’t preface it with, “ Be honest ,” seeing as how they expect the opposite. But I digress.

“It’s okay- I have a similar problem,” I replied. Then I thought back a little, and decided to be proactive. “Actually, can I ask you a quick question?”

Cook nodded. “Ask away!”

“When you say, “be honest,” do you mean it? Like, I’ve noticed that a lot of people tell me that, and then when I tell them the truth they get all freaked out. You ain’t going to do that, right?” I asked. She grinned.

“Oh, thank gosh- I thought you were about to start asking me about my past or something. Um, no, I definitely won’t freak out if you’re honest with me. Actually, I kind of hate it when people mince words to make things sound better,” she replied, scooping up another few strips of bacon with her machete. She offered me one.

“No, but thank you!” I instinctively backed up a few inches as the blade came within chopping-distance of my nose. She smirked.

“More for me, I guess.” I watched with confusion and fascination as Cook flicked her machete, tossing all three strips of bacon into the air, and then subsequently caught them with her mouth. I couldn’t pretend that that wasn’t kind of impressive, but I honestly wasn’t sure how to show my appreciation for a stunt like that.

“That was kinda nasty,” I offered. Cook scoffed at me through the bacon.

“Oh, come on, you’re a doctor! Isn’t your bar for what’s, “nasty” a little higher than that?” I shrugged.

“I never said that stuff wasn’t nasty. But, I poke around people’s guts all the time. I don’t think I’ve ever watched someone do that before,” I replied. That was a little bit of a fib- I actually didn’t root around inside people’s internals very often. In fact, yesterday was the first time that I’d done anything that involved so much blood. But, I’d seen father do the same thing a thousand times, and I’d practiced on corpses and looked at diagrams, gotten a sense for what it was like. Even by that time in my life, the smell of blood on skin was one I wasn’t ever gonna forget.

“I guess I’ll take that as a compliment- I made a doctor sick to his stomach,” she said, finishing off the last of the bacon and wiping her mouth. I shook my head.

“No, see, I didn’t say you made me sick, I said it was “ kinda nasty- ” there’s a big difference!”

“You two, shut up and pack your shit! We’re leaving!”

We both turned around to face Tandi, who had been stalking up behind us, helmet underneath her arm. She looked a lot better in the morning sunlight than she did in the sickly glow of the flash-lit shed. Her hair flowed behind her as the wind blew, and she was able to stand at her full, impressive height, which was at least a foot taller than me. Cook and I were both completely dwarfed by that woman.

“I’m already packed--Isaac isn’t, but that’s my fault. I fetched him for breakfast before he could finish,” said Cook, and I silently appreciated her jumping to my defense like that. Tandi rolled her eyes at us with her entire upper body, and pointed in the direction of the shed.

“Well get to it then! I’m gonna scout ahead, check the usual places. Don’t do nothing stupid,” she suggested, slipping her helmet back on. Before I could think of a clever retort, Tandi was already out of earshot. She gave Gram a lazy salute as she strolled past him, and he tossed her something- a rifle, I think. She caught it with practiced ease. Then she strode behind the boulder, and out of sight.

“She’s real scary,” I decided. Cook shrugged.

“I like her. I mean, she’s not usually this mean- She’s just not a morning person. Give her some time, eh? She’ll warm up.” I gave her a look that suggested the opposite.

“Really? What could she possibly like about me? I’m a small-town doctor, she wouldn’t let someone like me tie her boot-laces!” Cook looked annoyed now. Were they actually friends or something?

“Yeah, and I’m a cook, if you couldn’t tell! She doesn’t care what you do, she cares what kind of person you are. As long as you aren’t a complete coward or one of Caesar’s cronies, she’ll be fine with you.”

I sighed. “Okay, maybe. I’m still just gonna stay out of her way unless I’ve got to.” Cook didn’t argue with that. I looked up at the hillside that the shed lay behind. “Do you want to help me pack up?”

She shrugged. “I guess. I’ve really got nothing better to do.

That was fine by me.

-Break-

“How’s that yellow brick road song go? We should be hummin’ that right now,” suggested Tandi, strolling beside me and Gram. Cook was sitting on the top of the wagon, enjoying a midmorning snack of NCR rationed trail-mix.

“You mean the Elton John one? It’s like, “ When are you gonna come down, When are you going to Land -“ started Gram, getting into the rhythm of the song with his gravelly voice. Tandi shook her head.

“Nah, not that hippy shit! I’m talkin’ about the one that the little brat in the wizard movie sings!” I perked up at that.

“You’re talking about the Wizard of Oz!” I replied. That movie was like, one of three that I had ever seen! Tandi nodded.

"Yeah, that one! How’s the song go?”

“Well, it’s like, “ Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Follow the Yellow Brick road !” and then there’s a trumpet thing and then they start singing that they’re, ‘ off to see the Wonderful Wizard of Oz ,” I explained, doing a happy little jig as I sang each musical number. I couldn’t see Tandi’s expression, but I don’t think she was very impressed.

“That’s the gayest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. After a brief pause, she began to hum the song. I hummed along, and eventually, Cook caught on and started humming too. Gram just looked annoyed.

"We’re off to see the wizard ...” Gram rolled his eyes at me. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz! Come on, sing with me!”

“Yeah! I’ve heard you sing before, you’ve got a great voice!” said Cook. Tandi just kept humming along, walking forwards just a little faster than the rest of us as she hummed. The humming was surprisingly recognizable, given that it was being so grossly distorted.

“The Wizard of Oz is one becozzzzz…” I started, grinning evilly at Gram. He lit a cigar.

“I consider this your fault.”

Tandi began to hum louder, and Cook took that as a cue to join back in. I just grinned and kept humming along, happy to lighten the mood for the other two. It was getting really hot, after all, and we had already walked a couple of miles this morning.

Still humming, I checked the route guidance on my pip-boy. We were currently bound for Sloan, a little NCR mining town to our West, which was still many miles away. Thankfully, the highway was flat--slightly downhill actually, so the journey wasn’t even hard on my legs. Mom and I would go hiking up to the old cell tower back in the day, and I’d been keeping in decent shape by running the neighborhood almost every morning since then.

The others weren’t tiring either, which was refreshing. Tandi was so well exercised (and determined) that she could probably walk up a 90 degree slope, and Gram just seemed to be perpetually strolling through some sort of imaginary park. It wasn’t so much that he was fit, but that he saved his energy so well that it was almost supernatural.

Cook, on the other hand, was not big on hiking. I didn’t get the impression that she did any sort of dedicated exercises, and she was a lot heavier than any of the rest of us. So, she usually just sat on the top of the wagon, occasionally getting down and walking with us for a while. It was kind of fun to wave to her and shout back and forth from the ground to the top of the caravan though, so I didn’t judge.

Despite my ability to keep up, I still got the sense I was doing something wrong. The sun seemed to be getting to me a lot more than the others, which was strange considering how much time I spent outside. I was fanning myself off, taking little breaks behind the occasional shade-granting boulder, and even staying hydrated (despite our best attempts to run out our water reserves before we reached Sloan.)

So, I gave myself a mission: as we walked, I tried to look out for things that the others might be doing differently. At first, my search was fruitless--I didn’t notice anything different. We were all wearing long sleeves, (Except Cook, who was still wearing a sundress, and also keeping her back to the sun which I think meant she was taking my advice.) we were all walking at a comfortable pace, and we were all taking steps to stay hydrated. Then, as I was doing a quick scan, I noticed something-

H A T S

They all had hats!

Gram wore a bowler hat, Cook wore a baseball cap with a maple leaf on it (or sometimes a floppy hat,) and Tandi was rocking her ranger helmet. Did it really make that big of a difference? There was only one way to find out.

“Hey, Gram! Do you maybe have like, a hat I could use?”

Without even turning around, Gram chuckled at me- had he been expecting this? Did this happen to every new recruit or something? I felt a little bit like I’d failed another test.

“I was waiting for you to ask. Yeah, I got a few choices. You wouldn’t believe the difference they make!”

So he had been expecting this! I tried not to look forlorn as Gram stopped the Brahmin, opened up the back of the wagon, and ushered me inside.

I hadn’t ever seen the inside of the thing. The frame of the wagon was made of wood, I noted, and it had open sides, but Gram had covered it in brown-colored blankets, except for the place where a spigot for getting water stuck out the side of the wagon. The doors in the back weren’t locked in any sort of way, although there was a bar that Gram had to slide so that they could open up, probably so that it wouldn’t come open by accident.

Inside, there was a big black box- in fact, the frame of the wagon had been slightly modified to hold the thing, it was so big. The box was clearly locked, and it took up almost all the space inside the wagon. In the space that the box didn’t take up, there was a machine gun, a laser rifle, cooking supplies, some sort of emergency-medical-supplies box that I was pretty sure was made to hold stimpacks, a bunch of tangled up electronics that I wouldn’t even try to identify, and a few hooks with spare clothes hanging on them. At the tip of each hook was a hat or helmet, bobbing pleasantly as the wagon came to a complete stop.

“Well, Isaac, take your pick- if you can’t reach it, we can get Tandi,” said Gram, indicating the helmets in the very back of the wagon, a space that was hard to reach on account of the massive black box. I gave it a kick.

“What’s in here?” I asked. Gram shrugged.

“The NCR wouldn’t tell me- they just said that it was important, and sent me on my way.” He leaned over like he was getting ready to spill me a secret. I gave him my ear. “They promised me a hundred-thousand caps for this. None of those NCR dollars- good, solid caps. And a hunded thousand, do you know what that could buy? That’s enough to disrupt this economy in a big way. That’s more than I’ve made on every other shipment combined.”

Normally, I didn’t think much about money, but I had to admit that the number floored me. The things that a man could do with a hundred-thousand caps…

Of course, it was the NCR offering the money, so I was pretty sure Gram was going to get fleeced somehow. They would impose some ridiculous tax on his payment, or just plain sweep him under the rug, since the whole deal had presumably been made in secret. That was how the NCR operated- it was part of why the Followers had been so reluctant to work with them, and why father had hated them so much. And to be honest with you, I couldn’t disagree with him. The NCR wanted a police state, and freedom wasn’t something I took lightly. I figured that people don’t need a bunch of jackbooted thugs with barking-irons telling them how to live their lives, when they had been perfectly content before. Raiders were a problem, sure, but the NCR had really only made the problem worse by acknowledging the issue and then failing to do anything about it.

Of course, the NCR was also the only thing keeping the legion from coming in and killing us all, so I tolerated them for that. No matter how much the NCR might’ve sucked, they were better than Caesar’s Legion. At least some of them thought they were doing the right thing, even if most of them were hopelessly corrupt…

“Isaac? You gonna choose a hat?” Asked Gram. He only seemed a little bit bothered.

“Yeah, of course. Sorry,” I murmured, and started scanning the hats on display. There was a floppy hat, a tan ballistic helmet, an old firefighter-helmet, a police cap, another floppy hat...

“I’ll take the fire helmet,” I said, and pointed at the scratched grey helmet that shared a hook with a bomber jacket and a couple of sundresses. It didn’t have quite the same sun-blocking properties as a floppy hat, or the safety features of a ballistic helmet, but I’d worn a fire helmet before and it seemed like it would perform both roles fairly well.

“Alright. Can you reach it?” I nodded.

“Hell yeah I can reach it!” Though it was on one of the farther hooks, I compensated by pushing myself up to the top of the black box with one hand, and reaching for the helmet with my weird hand. I wasn’t tall enough to pull it off the hook, so instead I knocked it off from the bottom and grabbed it from on top of the black box. Once I had secured it, I let myself slide down.

“Got it,” I muttered, and slipped the helmet on. Because of some convenient rigging inside the helmet, it was surprisingly snug on my head, though I could feel it bob a little when I moved.

“Well, it’s loose for sure, but it’ll give you some good shade. Has your decision got anything to do with the thing on the front?” he asked, poking me in the center of my helmet with his finger, right where the emblem sat. I nodded sheepishly. Part of the reason I had picked it was, indeed, on account of the cool blue star of life on the front. I knew I wasn’t anything like the paramedics of the past, but I had considered them to be a sort of ideal when I was younger. Since then, I’d never quite shaken the idea of being like a pre-war medic.

“Well, come on, let’s not lose any more time. We’re closer than you might think,” he said, leading me out of the wagon. He shut the doors, and looked over the caravan with a big grin.

"In fact, riiiiggght around this bend, we’ll be able to see Sloan. We’re booming along today, just absolutely killing it! Who knows- maybe we can even get back on the road after we stop,” he continued, clearly trying to get a rise out of us. On cue, Cook groaned obnoxiously, and Tandi mumbled something about armor plates and sweat. I groaned too, but my heart wasn’t in it- I was on this journey to save mom, and the quicker it went, and the fewer hitches we ran into, the more successful I was likely to be.

“Sloan-Ho!” shouted Cook as the cart rounded the bend in the highway that had been necessitated by two giant, rocky hills. Tandi snorted at that, and I gotta admit that I smiled a little too. The town of Sloan, though still far away, was now straight ahead.

New Vegas was a long ways away from here, but I was glad that we were already making so much progress. Considering how well things had been going, it was all too easy to forget that I was on a tight, invisible timer, slowly counting down to, “too late.”

[+]

#fallout #fallout fanfic #fallout fanfiction #fallout fandom

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nux-morbid-art · 7 years ago

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Tagged by @cazador-fruit-pie, so i guess its ricky’s turn to have his business laid out in the open

GENERAL

NAME: Ricky Morbid

ALIAS(ES): Courier 6

GENDER: a dude my dudes

AGE: around 19-21 at the start of new vegas, 22-25 when he wanders into the commonwealth. he basically got his brain wiped clean and doesn’t remember his birth year and day. he’s a little babyfaced and just kinda goes off looks and teeth

PLACE OF BIRTH: a dirt floor farmhouse several miles from any civilization, at least he thinks so, as he dreams about it occasionally with glimpses of people who are, at best guess, his family.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: english and broken spanish

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: b-b-b-bisexual

OCCUPATION: courier (former, he’s terrified of taking any more courier jobs) caravan guard, eventually i’d like him to have a little ranch and raise livestock. he’d be happy doing that, but he doesnt know it yet.

APPEARANCE

EYE COLOR: Bright blue-green

HAIR COLOR: Black

HEIGHT: 5′4, smol and fighty

SCARS: a long scar curling around his right ear, where doc Mitchel spent a few hours digging lead out of his brain, and damage to the right eyesocket and lids. the eye is missing entirely. chest scars from top surgery, and various odd scars from doing stupid shit.

FAVORITE

COLOR: yellow, with a dopey, romantic fondness for cactus blossoms

HAIR COLOR: got a thing for redheads but really, no preference

EYE COLOR: red hair and blue eyes are quite the combo

ENTERTAINMENT: live music

PASTIME: people watching, and petting dogs

FOOD: its not something he thinks about alot, and just sorta eats to survive. but if you offered him a hot meal he’d probably cry.

DRINK: water is god in the desert

BOOKS: he’s a huge bookworm and reads pretty much anything, though he’s not a fan of romance. he loves technical manuals, books about computers, and comic books. i’d like to think he finds a tank girl book and is just like this chick /gets/ me

HAVE THEY

HAD SEX: no

HAD SEX IN PUBLIC: ricky is /incredibly/ shy about sex and intimacy. he will turn red and not be able to speak for a while if you make a dirty joke around him. so, no, and its not on the table.

GOTTEN PREGNANT: no

KISSED A MAN: nope, but i think maccready is endgame boyfriend for him

KISSED A WOMAN: no

GOTTEN TATTOOS: not yet, but i gotta get together some flash for him

GOTTEN PIERCINGS: streched lobes, a safety pin through the cartilage of his left ear, and a labret.

HAD A BROKEN HEART: no

BEEN IN LOVE: no

STAYED UP FOR MORE THAN 24 HOURS: frequently, he has alot of trouble sleeping due to intense paranoia and moderate hallucinations. its not unusual for him to go 38-72 hours straight and then pass out for 18 hrs.

ARE THEY

A CUDDLER: if you can get him comfortable with you, yes. its one of those you don’t realize youre touch starved until someone you trust hugs you and and youre like please dont stop

A KISSER: very timid and gentle about it, but yes.

A SMOKER: yes, he reeks of stale smoke 24/7 please give him a bath and some gum

SCARED EASILY: terrified of EVERYTHING but he tries hard

JEALOUS EASILY: no

TRUSTWORTHY: moderately, he tries but sometimes he fucks up.

SINGLE: and not emotionally ready to mingle

RANDOM QUESTIONS

WANTED TO KILL SOMEONE: nah hes actually... pretty non-violent. he gave benny a chance to talk it out in private and it wasnt until he tried to murder ricky a second time that he was like, alright, this asshole owes me a life

ACTUALLY KILLED SOMEONE: in self defense, only. doesn’t like to engage at long range either.

RIDDEN A BEAST: the best place to nap is laying across a brahmin’s back while she’s lazily grazing in the late afternoon tbh. he’s not a very good rider, he just kinda sits up there and chills w the animal.

HAVE ANY FEARS: 807 and most of them are some variation of what if none of this is real

FAMILY

SIBLING(S): he thinks he might have one younger sibling, based on the dream stuff, but he’s not sure.

PARENTS: a couple of dirt poor ranchers that he feels really bad about not being able to remember, find, and potentially abandoning

CHILDREN: none, but he’s actually almost as good with kids as he is with animals. they’ll be in his life, even if theyre not ‘his’.

PETS: none of his own, but the half wild dogs in the towns all know him

i am literally too tired to tag anyone but if you’d like to do this blame it on me, @ me say i tagged you, i love reading about people’s ocs!! i’m dead Fucking serious

#ricky morbid #ask meme #ramble

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anasianpotato · 4 years ago

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30 Days Writing Challenge

I just found this challenge on twitter and, well, i dont really have much things to do soooo here we go!!

DAY 1: its either im way too excited for things or idgaf at all, theres no in between. im socially awkward, especially around new people, but once you get to know me theres no way to stop me from talking! im a lil bit sarcastic and like to throw shades at people ehe and lastly, i love spilled tea but not spilling them #guilty

DAY 2: good music makeeeeeeessss me super happy, like literally it can set my mood for the day. i loveee cute animals, just looking at them makes me happy! and also mini-sized things makes me want to explode from happiness hehehe lastly, hugs and kisses

DAY 3: Bandung, June 22nd 2019. The place, the moment, the person. Everything was soooo perfect. We went to see Phum Viphurit and it was nothing less than amazing. The rough chair, the 8 hr trip, the sunset. We started to grow apart at that time, we both knew it but refused to talk about it. Joji’s Sanctuary just recently came out, he suddenly took out his earphones, plugged it to his phone, offered me the left piece, then he played the song. We were immersed in the song and lyrics and just enjoyed the sunset while sitting on the train.

DAY 4: Greece!!! UK!! Budapest!! Bandung!! Surabaya!! New York!! There are lot of places i want to visit but im in short of money soooooo yup :-)

DAY 5: They are doing pretty much good as parents. I mean they are not the best but also not the worst. I appreciate everything they’ve done for me and yeah im grateful to have them in my life even tho im not really fond of them, i guess?

DAY 6: Being single comes hand-in-hand with happiness. I mean, its literally the time and the chance for us to learn something new about ourselves. Being single means you are not tied down to do things that you dont want to do. Being single makes you realize that you are the ONLY one person that is responsible for your own happiness. Dont let other people define your happiness!!! lol this literally is something that i write for myself.

DAY 7: Cant pick one. I loveeeeeee romance comedy movies. Cheesy, i know. My favorites are the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, 500 days of summer, hes just not that into you, love actually, bridget jones’ diary, music&lyrics. I also love shrek the third, idk why i just love it, watched it hundreds time. The emperor’s new groove also my fav. Ghiblis’ movies are awesome too!! Spirited away, howl’s moving castle, the wind rises, and ocean waves are so so so so goodddd!! Oh and i also love Lalaland, The King’s Speech, theory of everything, the danish girl, and the imitation game.

DAY 8: Music is soooooooooo powerful!!!! I mean it. It really is powerful, well, at least for me. You know that feeling when you just found a really good song that somehow relates to you??? Music makes you feel things. I guess its just how art works? They make you feel things? Oh and also, music is the closest thing to time machine right now. See? Music, well, art in general can transport you!!

DAY 9: Happiness is def something that you need to earn by yourself. You cant just depend your happiness on someone/something else. Happiness is different for everyone, just try to find the meaning of YOUR happiness and go for it. Well, im still struggling to find my own happiness tho but lets just keep trying, shall we?

DAY 10: I dont really have that much of friend tbh but you know what they say, quality over quantity. My best friends are literally the main reason why im still here. They mean the whole world to me.

DAY 11: There’s nothing much to say about my sibling if im being honest. My sister lives in Jkt with her husband and her kids. My brother is autistic. I love my brother to death and will do anything for him. Thats all.

DAY 12: I LOVEEEEEE TV SERIES HAHAHAHA. From the good ones, to the shitty ones. Some of my favorites are modern family, the good place, brooklyn 99, stranger things, how to get away from murder, next in fashion, the amazing world of gumball, andddd i suddenly cant remember anything else

DAY 13: I dont really read books a lot, but one of my favorites is Norwegian Wood. Its just soooooo beautifully written. You can feel the love, the pain, the warmth, you can feel everything through Haruki Mukami’s words.

DAY 14: Im not the most stylish person you will ever meet. I wear similar things everyday. Neutral colors paired with culottes and sandals or sneakers. Thats it. I actually love colors but not confident enough to wear it.

DAY 15: New York or London. I dont know, i’ve always admired busy places. Cities filled with busy people doing their own thing. No one gives a fuck about what you do. Busy places make you think no matter how shitty your day is, there will always be tomorrow.

DAY 16: we used to do everything together. we used to talk for hours about everything. we used to share our favorite songs to each other. we used to laugh at our own stupid jokes. we used to go to music gigs together. we used to watch movies together. not sure if he is the one that im missing or is it just the memories? the time that we spent together was beautiful. its kinda funny to think now that we act like a stranger to each other but yeah time changes people. he was my first everything. sometimes i wonder what would happen if we’re still together to this day, would i be happier? or would i suffer more? this may sound ridiculous, but what we had was as beautiful as lyrics in songs, melodies in musics, colors in paintings. ewwwww this is sooo cringe worthy lol okay i’ll stop.

DAY 17: im so attracted to funny guys i dont know why lol i love guys who can make me laugh. i also love a guy who knows what hes doing. Guys with knowledge also turn me on lol oh and im sooo into guys with glasses.

DAY 18: 1. My full name is Bernadetha Sari Jasmine, 2. I was born in September 21st 1998, 3. I’m a middle child, 4. I’m socially awkward, 5. I literally overthink about everything, 6. I have low self-esteem, sad i know, 7. I’m majoring in Industrial Engineering, 8. I always speak the truth, 9. I’m loyal, 10. i love listening to musics, 11. i respect art, 12. i love the magic of cooking, 13. im an introvert, 14. i get shy around people im not close with, 15. im slow witted, 16. im detail oriented, 17. i know everything i want to know, 18. i wear glasses, 19. im the-go-with-the-flow kind of person, 20. i dont know what i want to do with my life, 21. i used to date a guy for 8 years straight lol, 22. i wear braces for 10 years (and still counting), 23. i hate dramas thus i always try to avoid it, 24. im a hopeless romantic, 25. im a pessimist, 26. i love ayam geprek so much!!! 27. i love buildings, 28. i also love the sound of the road when we drive around the city, 29. i daydream a lot, 30. i live in my own fantasy.

DAY 19: just read my writing for day 16

I think thats it for now, im getting tired lol prob going to continue this at some other time sooo see you!

#challenge #writing #writingchallenge #30days #30 days challenge #music #hobby #love #relationship #life #covid #covid 19 #virus #pandemic #stay at home #stayathome #stay safe #staysafe

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dragonnan · 7 years ago

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Big, Ginormous, Awesome, Epic Fic Rec!!

I’ve decided to share a pile of some of my favorite fics from multiple genres. There’s no way I’ll get them all here but I’ll do my best to fill this post with as many as possible!!

Also, I’m gonna include a few of my own works at the bottom :D

**************************

Anime:

The Lucky Ones by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (Inuyasha) Sometimes Fate hands you a gift you never thought you’d ever get, and it’s up to you to accept it for what it is. [Hand’s down the BEST Inuyasha post-series fanfic I’ve EVER READ!!! One note - this series was begun before the anime was completed so there are a few canon divergences. As it is, I prefer the way this story brought things to a close so I have no problems with that. Also, this is a MATURE story with good reason! Lots of sexy times throughout - but wonderfully written and absolutely crucial to the story progression. I never felt the sexy parts were thrown in purely for the smex.]

The Coyote Child by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (Inuyasha) Sequel to The Lucky Ones. Inuyasha and Kagome are asked to adopt a coyote-hanyou baby from Arizona. [WIP but worth it!!!!]

You're not Alone by Of Memories Past (Inuyasha) After the final battle with Naraku the well seals, forcing Kagome back to her time for good. Only Inuyasha knows a way for them to be reunited again, and it doesn't involve the well...

Always My Soul by dragonfly-rising (Inuyasha) Why is it always my soul people mess with? Kagome asked herself in a moment of hopeless annoyance.The attack had come with no warning. And in the end Kagome could find no reason why she, Inuyasha, or Miroku should have seen it

Stricken by Scribe Figaro (Inuyasha) A single blow fells Sango and reveals to Miroku a nightmare to which the Kazaana cannot compare.

Purity by Sueric (Inuyasha) Naraku is gone. Kagome has the jewel. After seeing InuYasha's torment, Kagome faces 'the truth' of his feelings. Kagome does the unthinkable, and in a final act of love, Kikyou offers InuYasha one chance to fix it. But is he too late? [Explicit rating but not pwp. Excellent first story in a long series.]

Two Good Legs by Harukami

Balance of Power by multiple writers (Fullmetal Alchemist) Full disclosure- I am one of the writers, though I joined the project well into its creation. Look, this thing is MASSIVE. And still has 3 arcs to go - though its been on indefinite hiatus. Still, what is there is basically complete and SOOOOOOOOOOO worth the read!! I assure you!! Time travel. Conspiracy theories. Leylines. Pop culture crack and bad movie references. Hackers, ghost hunters and detectives, oh my! When crossing the gate, be sure to look both ways...

Taken by Confusedrambler (Fullmetal Alchemist) An Ed!Torture fic with actual plot; A hurt-comfort story that explores the underbelly of Central. No Yaoi/Yuri. No inappropriate language. Rating changed to 'M' as of Chapter 6 "Turn" for violence and mature situations. Brotherhood/Manga-verse.

Giving Tree by Chrissy (Fullmetal Alchemist) ‘“Can you give me a house?“ asked the boy. “I have no house,” said the tree. “But you may cut off my branches and build a house. Then you will be happy.” And so the boy cut off her branches and carried them away to build his house. And the tree was happy.’ –The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein

Heroes Don't Exist by Brigidforest (Cowboy Bebop) A multichapter story following the oneshot: It's 2072, four years after Faye woke up to find out the world of Cowboy Bebop was all a dream. Ch 12: Spike Spiegel hated Earth.

The Story of Us by ChiisanaAnisa (Cowboy Bebop) This is a sweet song written from Faye's point of view on one year she spent with the members of Cowboy Bebop.

Avengers (and related MCU films):

Best Laid Plans by Sholio (Guardians of the Galaxy) Post-Vol. 2 fixit fluff, with blankets and huddling for warmth.

Hugs in the Aftermath by F-117 Nighthawk (Avengers) Following the Battle of New York, Tony Stark ends up with a penthouse full of Avengers and a damaged arc reactor. But everything's instantly bearable when Pepper arrives.

Break by blewoutthestars It’s Thursday and the last time he looked at the clock it had just gone three in the afternoon, but the rainclouds are making it dark and it feels later in the day than that. Tony’s been sitting in this armchair by the window for a good two hours, flipping the pages of a book but not really reading anything. Hell, he doesn’t even know what book it is, but turning the pages gives his hands something to do as he stares at the words and then stares out of the window and doesn’t see a damn thing in front of him.

Of Directions and Morning Runs by DinerGuy Alternatively titled, “Why Only Natasha Will Work Out with Clint Anymore"

Something Old, Something New by Sokaless It's been weeks since Sokovia and Tony has accepted that JARVIS is gone. Really, he has. Barring a few nightmares and sleepless nights, he's fine.Or, he thinks he is. And then, one night, the Vision shows up in his tower with an offer that's too good to be true.

Unscheduled Meetings by roboticonography A chronicle of the early years of the career of one Virginia "Pepper" Potts.

Finite by cat_77 (Avengers) It was right and logical and the math, as always, worked. That, at least, was something he could rely on when all else failed.

Human Resources by OracleGlass Perhaps she should have asked what the nice man at Stark Industries' HR to define what he meant by "eccentric."

Blind Opening by Skysalla When Clint's undercover assignment goes to hell, he finds himself thrust into a new mission without SHIELD's permission or approval.

Remaking by MusicalLuna I bet Clint was on a mission.

Next New Message by fabrega "YOU HAVE THIRTY. SEVEN. NEW MESSAGES," Clint Barton's phone announces. That can't be good. Spoilers for The Winter Soldier.

Comrades by Nefhiriel Five times Thor defended his friends from people who should've been on their side, and one time his friends defended him.

Give You Shelter by MusicalLuna Tony doesn't really understand what Steve's doing.

What Here Shall Miss by sheafrotherdon Tag to Iron Man 3: spoilers throughout. Warning for description of anxiety attacks and discussion of PTSD.

Gone Too Soon by Zelos A victim should not grieve his murderer, however unsuccessful the attempt.Tony Stark, and the process of grieving Obadiah Stane. (Or, five times Tony grieved for Obadiah, and the one time he stopped pretending to.)

9/11 by spockside Pepper Potts had only been working for Tony Stark six months when she found herself running away from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

All the Anger That They Eat by ClawR Tony agrees to see a therapist for his, you know, fairly obvious issues. No one is more surprised than he is. Written pre-Avengers, but remarkably canon-compliant.

Live Through This (Every Day) by tessercat (nekonexus) Tony Stark lives through a lot of shit, every day.

Survival Instinct by roguewrld When Tony leaves to get coffee, Bruce is eating breakfast. When he comes back, Bruce is gone and the Hulk is sitting on the floor.

Take a Drink by cydonic Tony's always wanted to prove to his father he was worthwhile. He never got the chance.

Five Times Pepper Potts Took Care of Tony Stark (and One Time Tony Stark Took Care of Her) byzauberer_sirin In Pepper's defense she really did try to keep things professional.

come on friends, get up now by jumpfall It won't be easy and it won't be pretty, they don't say. You're going to hurt faster than you heal and lose more than you win. The Avengers have one thing in common. They all sign on.

Eleven Other Bathrooms by PutItBriefly "It's our five week anniversary," he says, like its the most plainly obvious thing in the world. It isn't even true. They agreed to try this experiment in romance on a Saturday and today is Tuesday. Their five week anniversary was three days ago.

Leader of the Pack by windscryer During a fight, Steve goes down and Tony has to step up. It’s about as hard as he expected it to be (which is not hard at all) but he’d still rather never have to do that again, is that understood, Steven?

Crossovers:

The New New Yorker by kattahj (Doctor Who & Beauty & the Beast original series) The Doctor and Donna visit New Earth and are saddled with a responsibility they don't quite know how to handle.

Holosuite Avengers by marmolita (Star Trek DS9 & Avengers) Julian has a new holosuite program that he wants everyone to try.

Pay No Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain by JeziBelle (X-Files & Avengers) Phil Coulson died to save the world. Now he needs a place to start over, a cold beer, and some eggs.

Fishing Job by amcw177 (Burn Notice & Avengers) Michael gets some help and an unexpected offer.

It Starts Out Like an A-Word (As Anyone Can See) by Amy (Avengers & Sesame Street) This fic is brought to you by the letter Y, the number 12, and the Avengers' decision to help fix what Loki and the Chitauri did to destroy parts of Manhattan. (Mostly that last part.) [No, seriously, this is precious!!!!]

Blown Away by Maryilee (X-Files & Early Edition)

Patchwork by Lynse (Quantum Leap & Doctor Who - has multiple sequels) Sam's leaped again, but this time things are different. The original history's in flux, and Sam is left trying to puzzle out the mystery of one Doctor John Smith who seems to be caught up in the middle of it.

An Unexpected Partnership by Riverfox237 (Kim Possible & Danny Phantom) Kim gets a mission one morning to find a stolen 'interdimensional portal'. She ends up getting more help than she expected.

Like Paper In Fire by Calico (X-Files & Silence of the Lambs) Agent Starling is asked by an old friend in the FBI for some help. It may or may not lead to Dr. Lecter.

Danny Phantom:

Beyond Beasts by CatalystOfTheSoul Danny's abilities are getting less reliable by the minute, Tucker can barely keep up with damage control, and it doesn't help that Dash decided to tag along. There's something fishy about this vacation, and it's not the lake. The forest is playing tricks, water is appearing in places it shouldn't, and evidently there's a vacancy expected at Algernon's Summer Camp for Boys.

Phantom of Truth by HaiJu Locked away in a secret government lab with Phantom as her subject, nothing stands between Maddie and the truth... except, perhaps, herself.

Shadow of a Doubt by HaiJu The truth was supposed to save Danny. Fix things. The lab, the experiments, the lies, those were all in the past. Weren't they? Sequel to Phantom of Truth.

Doctor Who:

Time With Mother by Laurawrzz The newly regenerated 10th Doctor finds himself trapped and injured with Jackie in the stairwell of a shopping centre on Boxing Day, where they find they've got a little more to talk about than the sales. Maybe Jackie doesn't come at face value.

A Step in the Right Direction by flutterflap Back on the TARDIS, the Doctor needs a rest after the events of “Midnight.”

Voiceless by Veldeia "What if that thing took his voice with it? What if whatever it did was permanent?" An AU that branches off from Midnight.

Beneath the Midnight Sky by HiddenTreasures for badwolfrun The Dimension Cannon finally locks onto the Doctor’s position. When Rose makes the jump to him, she finds herself in for more trouble than she bargained for.

Vacation, Interrupted by shyday He closes his eyes, wishing for the TARDIS. Wishing for Donna. In his mind, the creature that was Sky screams as she's torn out into space. Missing scene for Season4 "Midnight."

Novi et Veteris by IuvenesCor She had the shadows of memories from times when every face he wore was hers, but not this face. Not whomever it was that she would now discover behind those beautiful, sad eyes. Change is a shockwave— and Clara is caught in its wake.

Spinach Shock by Goldy, mrv3000 The Doctor has a bad reaction to spinach.

Were He Not Romeo Called by Butterfly Human society does require a name more specific than 'Doctor'.

The Devil You Know by rosa_acicularis Better the devil you know. Rose and the Doctor after Journey's End.

The Difference by themuslimbarbie "He isn't you!" Rose cries. "He looks the same, sounds the same, usually he acts the same, but he isn’t you. He isn’t the Doctor. Not really." The Doctor suddenly looks so very old. She can see all of the love and pain and regret flashing in his eyes. "But," he answers slowly, "I'm not him."

The Old Have Bad Dreams by kashinoha Rory makes a late-night discovery. Takes place in season six, some unspecified time between Night Terrors and The Girl Who Waited.

Transfixion by tardisjournal After their latest adventure nearly gets him killed, the Doctor goes into a healing trance, but neglects to tell his Companions what he's up to. Nurse Rory tries to help. Things go terribly wrong.

What Is Essential by eve11 Rory has to put his trauma skills to use when he and the Doctor are trapped on the front lines of a planetary conflict.

Let Her Under Your Skin, Into Your Heart by starlingnight Someone’s figured out a way to save lives that involves painkillers, regeneration, and a lot of surgery. It’s not much fun for the Doctor - but it's saving people, and isn't that always worth the price?

Balance of Power by eve11 The Doctor has a plan to save a xenophobic society from itself. If only he could remember what it was.

The First Attack by DW_NuTs The Doctor is bitten and suffers excruciating mental attacks, but he doesn't know who his attacker was. As he grows weaker, it's up to Rose to find the cure.

The Scientist by orange_crushed He can barely remember that apartment; just the sensation of the neon lights from the deli across the street, glowing green and blue through the bedroom windows at all hours, soaking into his eyelids and coloring his skin.

How to Train Your Dragon:

To Save a Rider by nightfurylover31

Leið by AvannaK Astrid and Hiccup's "romantic flight" comes to an abrupt end when the Red Death follows them out of the nest. Following an unexpected and desperate fight, Astrid finds herself stranded on an island, injured, with a crippled and comatose Hooligan heir and his overprotective Night Fury. She's going to get them home—all three of them—or die trying.

Occupational Hazard by MidnightEternal During the failed siege of the Edge, Hiccup is hit with an arrow. Stoick knew his son was reckless, brave, but reckless. He just didn’t know how much. Until he saw the scars.

A weary leader by MidnightEternal Hiccup’s leg is hurting after a busy week, Snotlout is there.

Get Well Soon by Eastofthemoon Since arriving on Dragon’s Edge, the teens of Berk have had to face many challenges...but none as hard as attempting to care of a sick Hiccup.

A Normal Snoggletog by wingedflower When Hiccup somehow manages to break his other leg on Snoggletog Eve, he is sure the holiday is ruined. But that's what friends are for, right?

Small, Thin Fingers by LenleG Hiccup, 20 and suddenly the chief of Berk - exhausted, bruised, overworked and just generally having a really, really bad day (the whole ridiculous yak problem notwithstanding). He can't help but think his Father would have handled all this so much better. He tries to hide from it all in the forge, but he was never counting on Gobber being so... Gobber.

Growth Spurt by Eastofthemoon After getting a growth spurt, Hiccup had to make a new foot to go along with it. However, the kids realize that's not the only thing that has changed about Hiccup.

Lost and Found by sanctuary_for_all He had to make sure he wasn't dreaming.***Spoilers for "How to Train Your Dragon 2"***

Most of Him by Elfpen The battle is over, the day has been won. The Green Death is dead, the three-hundred year long war has finally ended. But even the greatest of victories always come with cleanup, and sometimes it can be rather gruesome. Follows directly after the battle sequence in the movie. Rated for gore.

Psych:

Latent by InsaneTrollLogic (deathfic) In Shawn Spencer’s six-year tenure as SBPD’s psychic detective, they’ve solved cases that wouldn’t be closed anywhere else in the country. But in a missing persons case with no leads, it looks like their luck might have run out… with Gus.

Never could get the hang of Tuesdays by Liviapenn The thing about Shawn is that he's brilliant, but you can never tell him that.

There’s A Sixteen Percent Chance That At Least One Of Us Is Going To Die by lapsus_calami The bad guy from their recent case forces Shawn and Gus to play a game of Russian Roulette. It’s about as fun as it sounds. Which is to say not fun at all.

There's A Thirty Two Percent Chance That At Least One Of Us Will Need Therapy by lapsus_calami In the weeks following the events in the basement Shawn finds his usual coping methods less than effective and struggles to admit that he might actually need some outside help.

The Last Man At The End Of The World by watanuki_sama It's 3:30AM and yet again, Carlton has no idea what Spencer is talking about.

A Whisper to the Living by Xparrot Ten years after the Psych agency closed, Shawn Spencer returns to Santa Barbara.

You Say My Brain's Bleeding Like It's a Bad Thing by Kansas42 This is what Shawn would be saying, if Shawn wasn't too busy having his skull sliced open.

For more of my Psych faves, visit the following link to Psychfic

Star Trek (various series):

Lessons by pimpmypaws As much as McCoy appreciated being given a project, did it have to be this one? Someone in Starfleet had gotten the damned fool idea that a machine would make a better doctor than a human. aka McCoy contributes to the EMH program by teaching him to be grouchy.

Is This the Real Life by halloweenjack21st What might have happened as a result of the events of the episode "Eye of the Needle".

New Beginnings by Jacks Post-Endgame, the Doctor finds life in the Alpha Quadrant very different from life on Voyager.

The Price Of A Memory by Marauder-In-Disguise There's only one thing in the world that the Doctor really wants...

Circle by VesperRegina Communications officers. A look at Hoshi Sato and Nyota Uhura.

Sisters by Orangeblossom If you took all the recurring female characters from TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY, you'd have a whole command crew. Wouldn't *that* make an interesting show?

Supernatural:

Until It Sleeps by Scribblesinink (Scribbler) Who knew cravings for Cheetos and a turkey sandwich could be dangerous? When Sam and Dean stop off at a gas station to stock up, they pick up a teenage runaway – and a whole heap of trouble.

Lost by CIFan812 (PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO WARNINGS) This was the only way to make sure that Sam lived and that they would both be okay without me dragging them down. *Final Chapter is up.* Rated for sexual & nonsexual violence, rape & language. No Wincest.

The Woods are Lonely, Dark and Deep by Zatnikatel (WARNINGS FOR NON-CON) Missy Bender was three things. She was obsessive. She was insane. And she was in love – with a tall, beautiful stranger who looked real purty when he was hurting. But unfortunately for Dean Winchester, one thing she wasn’t was still locked in the closet…

One Night In Pasadena by Tempestt A woman targets Dean, but they soon find out who is the more dangerous predator. Rated for violence and sexual content. DARK FIC

X Files:

The Ghost in Her Life by Joyce (Alysswolf) An accident radically changes the partnership between Mulder and Scully while opening Scully up to extreme possibilities.

Seasons: Fight The Future by: BeshterAngelus The work of five years for Dana Scully and Fox Mulder is gone. As they face what this means for their partnership, Scully becomes a tool yet again to strike Mulder the final blow in his quest for the truth.

My Works:

Asgårdsreia by dragonnan (How to Train Your Dragon WIP) Berk is preparing for the annual Fyr Bal. With the Dragon Riders back home for the festival, it's sure to be fun for everyone! However, between Stoick's awkward prying into his personal life and the pure boredom of being away from the Dragon's Edge, Hiccup needs a vacation from his vacation! Turns out, there are, actually, worse ways to take a break.

The Big Stink by dragonnan (Supernatural WIP) Monsters, demons, rouge angels, the Devil, freaking Leviathans. Whatever comes down the pipe, we can handle it. Gank it or box it up for later. This is no different. Same crap, different day, man. But, dude, for the record? This freaking sucks.

How You Get There from Here by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) A collection of missing scenes from Avengers and related films. Many will be Tony-centric. I write a lot of hurt/comfort so expect a lot of those types of stories.

Fades to Gray But Never Away by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Written for a prompt/request involving Tony Stark and sexual harassment.

Did You Make it to the Milky Way to See the Lights all Faded by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) If anything it was peaceful. All that black filled with stars. This other world. And vicious eel riding aliens. Couldn't forget those. Like literally couldn't forget them.

Simple Math by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Had Obadiah hated him that long? Years? His whole life? Or was it an absence of emotion? Was he just... inconvenient?

Obie's Dilemma by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Never should have let others do the job for him. This was his responsibility. He'd been there at the start. It only followed that he should end it too.

Not the Hero Type by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Maybe that was why he hadn't been paying attention. Or, maybe he'd been looking for this. He didn't know. He rarely cataloged his reasons for anything. He fired from the hip and most of the time it struck dead center. But when he missed, oh it was a spectacular miss.

Of Bonding and Baking by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys. Here's a cookie.

Play Me Some More of that Old Blues by dragonnan (Cowboy Bebop) Some things forgotten, some things remembered. Faye and Jet thought they were all that was left. Something from the past returns.

Find all of my Psych stories HERE

#fanfiction #multiple fandoms #fic recs

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lancecarr · 5 years ago

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How to Solve 10 Common Training Problems With Video

Most trainers, both formal and informal, have the same goal: to make learning that sticks.

The problem with that is, well, problems. There are tons of roadblocks that come up when you’re trying to get other people to absorb information, especially if you’re not the subject matter expert.

In this post, we examine ten pain points that video training addresses – the first of which is the time and money spent on face-to-face learning for repetitive tasks.

Problem #1: Face-to-face training is time-consuming and expensive

Thorough training for employees is entirely necessary for facilitating productivity and safety, but it can quickly become time-consuming and expensive. U.S. companies spent an estimated $70.65 billion on training in 2016 and, on average, lost 53.8 productivity hours per employee while getting them acclimated, according to Training Magazine’s 2016 “Training Industry Report.”

In most cases, scaling back training is not viable, especially for health care, finance, government, and other strictly regulated industries. But high-quality training in less time is a real possibility and is necessary for businesses that want to curb costs and inconveniences tied to face-to-face job preparation.

Step one is to replace certain face-to-face orientations and training with video-based learning content. In-person training occupies the schedule of at least two people at any given time – the trainee and the employee administering that training.

Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Easily Make Instructional Videos

While nuanced functions inevitably require physical demonstrations, more universal tasks such as filling out time cards or basic, repetitive knowledge work can be proficiently communicated with a well-produced series of on-screen demonstrations and lectures.

Moving appropriate face-to-face training to video-based training can reduce time, and therefore money. Record it once, share it as many times as you need.

Problem #2: Schedules can be a nightmare to coordinate

Time spent in face-to-face training sessions is often preceded by an uphill battle to coordinate schedules. Additionally, training coordinators are often under pressure to complete training within tight timeframes.

This is a struggle given how many people’s schedules need to be considered:

HR reps responsible for administering and/or coordinating training sessions.

IT team members needed to help with demonstration setups.

Subject matter experts brought in from other departments or locations.

New learners, who are all too easily double-booked as they ramp up.

Higher-level managers requesting to sit in on certain sessions.

The beauty of video-based training is that it can be easily recorded at a time that is convenient for those administering the session, and slotted into trainees’ schedules without excessive coordination between multiple parties. Sessions can also be saved and shared through web-based platforms to be used later as teams grow.

This way, nothing, and no one, falls through the cracks.

Problem #3: Training across the globe is difficult

Training is often a national or multinational endeavor that requires extensive resources and coordination. The costs of traveling to and from different office locations, and, in some cases, renting space to hold a training session, really add up. Meanwhile, coordinating schedules around multiple time zones can quickly become a hairsplitting exercise.

Language barriers can also present problems during training seminars, requiring translators to make sure everyone gets value from the experience.

All of this begs the question: Is the cost and complexity of global training justified?

In some cases, yes. But often, video can be used as a substitute. For instance, when onboarding new personnel, you can use screen recording or video editing software to record webinars and training demonstrations. These videos can then be edited to include captions or subtitles, translations or even quiz questions to gauge how well viewers are learning the content. More importantly, these training assets also work as scalable and repeatable resources.

In other words, with video, organizations can create concise, compelling reference material that employees can view asynchronously and worldwide, and captioned in their language, as needed.

Problem #4: I’ve only got one shot to capture everything I need from my subject matter expert

Video-conferencing between two or more people is a great way to share information and ideas. It is also ideal for communicating complex and technical information that may be specific to certain specialists, for instance, in medical fields.

This is because:

The brain processes imagery 60,000 times faster than words, according to Fast Company.

Humans retain content with imagery better than audio content alone.

But anyone who has participated in a meeting knows the feeling of trying to pay attention while also taking detailed notes. When the person on the other side of the screen is a busy subject matter expert who is not readily available, you need to ensure you get the right information the first time around. Or do you?

Screen recording and video editing tools let users record interviews so they can be 100-percent engaged during interviews and conversations.

Alternatively, a trainee could send a list of questions to a busy Subject Matter Expert (or SME), who can answer those questions in video-format. Either way, using video for SME interviews enables the creation of a permanent multimedia resource that can be played back on-demand at variable speeds, and even annotated with markers and notes if necessary. You can even get the video transcribed to turn the audio into text if needed.

Capture, consume, annotate, repeat.

Problem #5: The brain drain is real

In his book Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance, Jay Cross compared formal training to riding a bus, where the driver takes you where you need to be, and informal training to riding a bike, where you make your own route, according to Brainshark.

Just as you might need a bus one day and a bike another, formal and informal video-based learning both have their place in the modern business.

Formal training is effective for establishing a knowledge base for new employees. It’s also crucial for inflexible processes such as medical protocols and compliance management. Processes like this need to be exact, and therefore conveyed in a procedural manner rather than as ad hoc lessons learned. Formal training is typically given in a deliberate order, by a specific and sometimes certified trainer, within a required time frame – for example, an engineering safety procedure video series.

Informal training happens more on a learn-as-you-go basis. For example, imagine your company has a data management system that was built in house, but the employees who built it are leaving or retiring. All of their expertise and knowledge will also leave with them, causing a void in knowledge that will be difficult to fill. Informal training can solve this through employees creating training videos around their own areas of expertise. As business processes evolve and become more efficient, employees might create video content that shares self-learned best practices.

The great thing is, you can create both formal and informal training programs with video and screencasts easily and affordably across your entire organization.

Problem #6: I work with smart people. How do I learn from them?

There is a lot of value in a well-produced series of onboarding videos that help employees acclimate to their roles quickly and inexpensively. But there’s also value in the organic development of a training community that employees can contribute to, and learn from, ad hoc.

This process, called social learning, doesn’t happen formally, or at management’s request. Rather, it’s the natural outcome of democratizing visual communication tools. Case in point, if someone who is asked to explain pivot tables enough times has access to easy to use video creation tools, they might just go ahead and record a quick “How To” video.

The second part of that is having a hub where these videos can be uploaded and shared with a relevant audience.

With intuitive screen capture tools and a collaborative sharing platform, workplace knowledge and training can be crowdsourced.

Problem #7: Slide decks get boring…fast

Slide decks fulfill a useful function: to organize and present content-heavy training sessions with short, bullet-point summations and visual media.

The problem is that too many slide decks fail at the “ visual media” element by not using images or media at all. The goal of any good slide deck should be to tell a story, not to read facts and information from a screen verbatim. Part of telling that story is showing the audience something that visually communicates the message.

One of the best ways to avoid creating a mundane or overwhelming slide deck is to include screenshots, GIFs and video clips. Presenters can visually annotate screenshots to more effectively illustrate their points. No more excessively long, bulleted lists.

Video and animated GIFs also liven up the presentation.

Whoever said slide decks have to be boring?

Problem #8: Remember that training from three months ago? Me neither…

The biggest drawback of traditional, in-person training sessions and written training manuals is that it’s easy to forget the content, and hard to find it when you need it later. Instead of digging back through past notes from training sessions, what if the initial training had been recorded, and then broken into several short videos?

The videos would serve as short, digestible content that can be absorbed quickly, but also passively. In other words, it can be watched over and over again as needed, and with very little work on the part of the employee. Just record the original training, and break it up into microvideos for anyone to watch when they need to.

Another option is to include a table of contents for training videos, which let viewers jump to the most relevant topics in the video, depending on their needs at the time.

Present it once, watch it once and reference it as many times as you need.

Problem #9: So much training, so little time

Companies are taking twice as long to hire than they were just a few years ago, The Wall Street Journal noted. Understandably, managers are therefore eager to get new employees trained quickly. This means businesses are under pressure to teach employees faster in a shorter time period.

However, managers also don’t want to leave new hires feeling unprepared to handle tasks being thrown at them – which is too often the case. According to HR Morning, approximately one-third of hires quit within the first six months of employment, and the fourth most commonly cited reason for leaving is “inadequate training.”

One way companies have sought to change this is by using video to more effectively convey information in an engaging, memorable format. According to Forrester, employees are 75 percent more likely to watch training videos than to read training documentation.

As an added bonus for employers, many video editors let you add quiz questions to check if your viewer is learning the content correctly, so trainers can keep tabs on user progress.

With more friendly video creation tools on the market, it’s easier than ever to create engaging videos that include motion graphics, effects, and captions, rather than just a trainer talking through the content. Give the people what they want–engaging video-based training content that presents a message concisely and memorably–and they’ll be more likely to give you what you want: a shorter learning curve and a longer tenure.

Problem #10: Scaling training is complicated

Last but not least, as businesses grow and change, training must change with it to stay fresh.

A notable benefit of using video and other eLearning media is that you can create and share more training content in less time. Rather than developing a series of slide decks, coordinating schedules and delivering multiple sessions to users, training coordinators can focus on the production of multimedia training resources that can be delivered to trainees without any of the physical presentations or scheduling challenges.

Another big benefit of video-based training content is that you can always edit it if the content needs to be changed or updated, and then simply redistribute the updated content instead of calling everyone back together for face-to-face training.

Additionally, video enables the sharing of knowledge, presentations, and demonstrations among employees and ensures that there’s a community for both formal and informal learning.

Lights, camera, training.

Ready to start solving your training problems with video? Camtasia is the best all-in-one screen recorder and video editor that’s helped millions of video-beginners quickly create great instructional videos. Try it now!

The post How to Solve 10 Common Training Problems With Video appeared first on Welcome to the TechSmith Blog.

https://www.techsmith.com/blog/solve-training-problems-video/

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makthetortoise-blog · 5 years ago

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Why “The Tortoise”

Delving back into the world of children’s stories, I am relating myself to the tortoise in the story of the tortoise and the hare. Why anyone in the running community would want to equate themselves to a slow moving animal may seen very in-congruent with the idea of this speedster, division one athlete, but bare with me. There are many relevant reasons as to why I am certainly the slow and steady moving hero of our tale.

Let’s consider my running career.

At no point have I ever been the glorified and front running hare. I had a modest freshman year of high school running before I developed a stress fracture from the malnutrition I was experiencing from anorexia nervosa. I finished my early ending 2014 season with a 20:40 5k at the glorious News Herald Invitational. For years, that race held an extremely special place in my heart. I spent the winter ignoring the severe shin injury and continued to run until I injured my other shin as a result. I hobbled through my freshman year track season, racing at the state finals in trainers, taking 11th with a time of 11:34.

The summer before sophomore year is where things got hectic. I jumped to running around 10-12 miles a day 6 days a week, where I would run 16+ miles in one day regularly and sleep the rest of my day away because my body was so done. Additionally, I wasn’t eating much, and was working to keep my weight consistently under 100 pounds. Fall of cross country, I had one good race, then the wheels quickly fell off and I was injured. My coach had me stay in the pool consistently for 8 weeks and waited til I was over 105 pounds for News Herald. Then there was a huge change. I came in and broke 19 minutes, crossing the line in mainly a solo race in 18:57. The next weekend was a 18:51. Then the state finals came and I came in 7th with a PR of 18:47. For the first time in my life, I felt on top of the world.

I swam that entire winter with the varsity boys swim team and was in the pool religiously putting in upwards of 6000 yards a day. I was developing very unhealthy workout tendencies and destroying many healthy relationships that I could have been building in this severe commitment to my fitness at all costs. I would cry and panic anytime I couldn’t get to a pool for over 2 hours of consistent yards and drills. However, it seemed to help for track. I was the heaviest I had been in my life, 112 pounds with a strong upper body for the first time ever. I ran my PR of an 11:01 in a race I lead completely by myself, which I then carried over to a 3rd place finish at the state finals.

That summer had a lot of swimming too. Running was limited because I had hurt myself yet again. But as cross country got nearer and nearer, I got away from the swimming as much and was trying to run before I was healthy. For some reason, my junior year is very groggy and hard for me to remember. I know I ran a huge PR at the Wayne County Championship of 18:15 in the 5k and once again felt unstoppable. Then two days later, I noticed a twing of pain in my foot that would get worse and worse throughout the season. I eventually ended up in a walking cast and would only take it off to race. My school had moved up a division and I finished 28th at the state finals with an 18:48. Another All State performance in the books. Was I happy? Absolutely not. I was hurt and devastated to not come close to that 18:15 time ever again in high school.

Junior year track season was nonexistent. I raced one singular dual meet and ran incredibly slow. Turned out that pain I was trying to ignore in my foot from cross country ended up being another stress fracture. I told my coach I wasn’t coming back and trying to fight through the injury as I had in the past. I was suicidal, self harming, and reverting back to my eating disordered ways. I skipped school constantly, was doing horrible in classes, and could no longer handle the stresses of running anymore. I wanted it all to be over. And then I almost quit forever.

I transferred schools my senior year of high school because of the insane stressed and trauma I felt being in the high school I had been at. I joined a new running program that did not help me improve very much. In fact, I got injured yet again and was only able to squeeze out a modest 19:05 performance at the state finals for 71st? I’m pretty sure it was 71st. I don’t like to think about it. I hardly PRed in track too. Only a 9 second improvement to a 10:52 and an 11th place finish at the state finals. I was back to the place I was as a freshman. Realistically, the program was such a change to my body that I couldn’t find success no matter how hard I tried. I think I was either burnt out from the intensity or just not getting in enough mileage. It definitely just didn’t work for me. When Michigan State University said they were still interested in me, I was beyond shocked. How could they want me, a girl who had a moderately successful running career, at a program who had a national title to their name? I was a nobody to many division one programs and definitely a nobody to Big Ten programs. Even some division two programs rejected me. What the heck did they want me for?

But after so many changes in my post secondary plans, I ended up at MSU. I had a pretty decent cross country season for the two singular races I had. I ran a PR of 18:04 for my season opener and 17:48 for the closing race. I was dealing with a lot of mental health stress and PTSD after I was sexually assaulted during my first month at State. I had to spend a good amount of time in the hospital learning how to function as a normal human again. Running was secondary consideration in this process. After cross ended, I noticed another pain in my opposite foot from my junior year. Yet again, another stress fracture for a whopping 4 this time around. I spent November-March biking furiously for at least an hour everyday, making sure to spend 45 of those minutes at 170+ HR. I wanted to be in shape so bad for at least one race in track, but since it was my redshirt season, there was no point in trying to get better for something that wasn’t very meaningful, like a B race at a small invite.

So here I am now, sitting in my kitchen as I meal prep and listen to Call it Fate, Call it Karma by the Strokes*. I am almost always incredibly overwhelmed at and wonder why I am still in this sport. I believe in myself that I can do exceptional things if I can manage the injuries and what feels like never ending mental health problems. It seems possible if I keep to cross training rather than running everyday and try to stop comparing myself to others. The latter seems like the most difficult of the tasks when I am on a team where everyday I line myself up against some of the best girls in the nation. I still struggle greatly with my body image and want desperately to lose weight because it seems like that’s what all the good girls do when they have their breakthrough years. But like a tortoise, I am slow and steady, not the person that is in the spotlight from the get go. Slowly I will get to the places I need to be and in a sustainable way. And while all those other people bask in the spotlight, I’ll be there, working slowly to one day pass them and be able to prove to myself that being a happy and healthy version of myself is the best version.

Stay Tuned,

Mak.

*also check out the song One Way Trigger from the same album Comedown Machine

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bloojayoolie · 6 years ago

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Baseball, Bored, and Children: our new bestie hab arvived 58531 2 years old 59 lbs Good Looking 2 Year Old- Young, friendly, social, good manners, takes treats nicely, enjoys attention & affection - Microchipped & up to date on vaccines At Staten land ACC waiting lor Dove TO BE KILLED 5/11/19 YOUR NEW BESTIE HAS ARRIVED <3 Playful & Spunky Shortstop! A volunteer writes: Shortstop is very friendly with staff and volunteers at the center. He was very loose and excited to meet other dogs through our backyard fence. A Staff Member Writes: Shortstop is young, fun and a very handsome pup. He's been waiting on 3rd base, hoping to slide into another home! He's in adoptions at SIACC. A staff member writes: It's baseball season and who doesn't need a Shortstop? We have an awesome dog named Shortstop and he's so cute! Shortstop has the perfect name because he loves to play ball. He zooms around the yard so fast and he is definitely the MVP! This dog is very playful and loves to run around and have fun. He is such happy dog too! Shortstop is located at The Staten Island Care Center, so why not stop by and complete your team today. Volunteer Sandra Mcdonald writes: I love Short Stop, he fun, playful and oh so sweet...He can sit, give both paws and stay... Hes a great dog ... who would do well in an active home or with a big yard to run around and play in! A Staff Member Writes; Shortstop was brought to us because the finder wanted to keep him however, Shortstop and the resident dog didn’t get along. Shortstop was relaxed and playful with the children in their home. He is a playful pup that loves laying in the sun after taking a swim in the pool A Volunteer Writes: Shortstop is fun, energetic, and appears to be friendly with other dogs. He loves the water, and loves people. He is very bored sitting in his kennel most of the day, so he's been getting some extra play time in the yard to help him unwind. It's great to see him lounging in the pool on a warm spring day. Shortstop doesn't even wait for the pool to be filled up when he gets outside. He just poses in the frog leg position. Maybe one day he'll have a home and a pool of his own! Shortstop is in adoptions at SIACC! MY VIDEOS: Shortstop ~ Young and Friendly https://www.facebook.com/sishelterdogs/videos/361604461114076/ https://www.facebook.com/sishelterdogs/videos/1102701413248645/ https://www.facebook.com/sishelterdogs/videos/2202602016519628/ Jules and Shortstop in Playgroup Their caretakers post: It warms our heart when two dogs get along in playgroup. But I think we've uncovered a little secret between these two lovers. Shortstop and Jules are kennel neighbors on the inside. Who knows if they talk at night when no one is around! Jules is very depressed in there, and Shortstop was there to brighten her spirits up today. Shortstop has been here about one month already. That's a long time for a boroughbred to kenneled up most of the day. Please share them for a new home! https://www.facebook.com/sishelterdogs/videos/2316457155299021/ SHORTSTOP, ID# 58531, 2 yrs old, 59.2 lbs, Staten Island Animal Care Center, Large Mixed Breed Cross, Brown / White Male, Found Stray Shelter Assessment Rating: Medical Behavior Rating: Green INTAKE PROFILE - BASIC INFORMATION: Shortstop is a 2 year old intact, male dog that was brought in as a stray. Shortstop is friendly and outgoing. Shortstop spent time at finder's home with 2 children ages 7 and 10. He was relaxed and playful. Shortstop displayed aggressive behavior with finder's dog, who is a German Shepard. Finder stated that Shortstop would not stop barking at their resident dog. There is no known bite history and according to the finder Shortstop might not be housetrained. The finder describes Shortstop´s energy level as high. Other Notes: Finder stated that Shortstop destroyed items in their home and is not house trained. INTAKE NOTES – DATE OF INTAKE, 29-Mar-2019: Upon intake: Shortstop became tense while trying to scan for a microchip. Finder stated that when they brought him to the vet, he did not like getting scanned and displayed fearful behavior. He did allow collaring and positioning for a picture. MEDICAL EXAM NOTES 11-Apr-2019 Progress Exam Subjective: pre-neuter exam; loose stool the past two days, none observed today Objective BCS 4/9 EENT: Eyes clear, ears clean, no nasal or ocular discharge noted Oral Exam: minimal dental calculus PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupneic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G: MN MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, hair mostly regrown at previous patch of alopecia at mid-dorsum, pre-scrotal incision site- intact, no swelling or discharge CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Assessment appears healthy Plan: no treatment needed 3-Apr-2019 Spay/Neuter Summary [Surgery Template - Dog Neuter] Was this dog a cryptorchid? No If so describe - Pre scrotal Incision Spermatic Cord Ligation with: 2-0 PDS Sub Q closure: 2-0 PDS Skin closure? 2-0 PDS intradermal 3-Apr-2019 Pre-Op Exam Subjective: pre-neuter exam; loose stool the past two days, none observed today Objective: BCS 4/9 EENT: Eyes clear, ears clean, no nasal or ocular discharge noted Oral Exam: minimal dental calculus PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupneic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G: MI, 2 descended testicles MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, patch of alopecia at mid dorsum- hair regrowing CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Assessment patch of alopecia- R/O abrasion vs other; hair regrowing diarrhea- appears resolved Plan: neuter today 3-Apr-2019 Surgical Notes Anesthesia Summary: Canine NEUTER Pre Medication: Cerenia 10 mg/ml –2.6 ml SQ, once Morphine 25 mg/ml – 0.53ml IM, once. Dexmedetomidine 0.5 mg/ml – 0.16ml IM, once. Induction: Midazolam 5 mg/ml- 0.53 ml IV, once Propofol 10 mg/ml –10 ml IV, once. Testicular block: Lidocaine/Sterile water/ (1.3mL/ 1.2mL), administered pre-operatively. Anesthesia Notes: Size 9.0 mm ET tube placed, maintained general anesthesia throughout procedure on variable isoflurane and variable O2. Used (rebreathing) system with 2 L bag. 20g IVC placed in R cephalic vessel. Intraoperative IV LRS at 5-10mL/kg/hr at 250 mL/hr NSAID: Rimadyl 50mg/mL injectable, 2.1 mL, SQ, once post-operatively, for post-operative pain relief. Recovery Status: Uneventful Anesthetist/Surgical Monitor : 1289/1494 Start 1 tablet of Carprofen 100 mg SID PO x 3 days as pain management. 2-Apr-2019 Progress Exam Loose stool noted 4/1 and 4/2 BAR start proviable 1 capsule PO SID x 1 week 29-Mar-2019 DVM Intake Exam Estimated age: 2 years Microchip noted on Intake? scan negative History : stray Subjective: Observed Behavior - loose body, wagging tail Evidence of Cruelty seen - no Evidence of Trauma seen - no Objective BCS 4/9 EENT: Eyes clear, ears clean, no nasal or ocular discharge noted Oral Exam: minimal dental calculus PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupneic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G: MI, 2 descended testicles MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, patch of alopecia with central scab at mid dorsum CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Assessment: underweight patch of alopecia- R/O abrasion vs other Prognosis: good SURGERY: Okay for surgery *** TO FOSTER OR ADOPT *** HOW TO RESERVE A “TO BE KILLED” DOG ONLINE (only for those who can get to the shelter IN PERSON to complete the adoption process, and only for the dogs on the list NOT marked New Hope Rescue Only). Follow our Step by Step directions below! *PLEASE NOTE – YOU MUST USE A PC OR TABLET – PHONE RESERVES WILL NOT WORK! ** STEP 1: CLICK ON THIS RESERVE LINK: https://newhope.shelterbuddy.com/Animal/List Step 2: Go to the red menu button on the top right corner, click register and fill in your info. Step 3: Go to your email and verify account \ Step 4: Go back to the website, click the menu button and view available dogs Step 5: Scroll to the animal you are interested and click reserve STEP 6 ( MOST IMPORTANT STEP ): GO TO THE MENU AGAIN AND VIEW YOUR CART. THE ANIMAL SHOULD NOW BE IN YOUR CART! Step 7: Fill in your credit card info and complete transaction HOW TO FOSTER OR ADOPT IF YOU *CANNOT* GET TO THE SHELTER IN PERSON, OR IF THE DOG IS NEW HOPE RESCUE ONLY! You must live within 3 – 4 hours of NY, NJ, PA, CT, RI, DE, MD, MA, NH, VT, ME or Norther VA. Please PM our page for assistance. You will need to fill out applications with a New Hope Rescue Partner to foster or adopt a dog on the To Be Killed list, including those labelled Rescue Only. Hurry please, time is short, and the Rescues need time to process the applications.

#funny #lol #humor #memes #meme #memehumor #dank memes #funny pics #rolf #lmao #Baseball #Bored #and

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makingnewenemies · 8 years ago

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making of the AL video...

There was a time in my life when I swore I wouldn’t make a music video because they “always made the song worse for me”. Yeah I changed my mind...

I’m feeling a nice combo of caffinated and nostalgic so I will write write write until it comes times for me to get on a train to Seattle...

Making the Always Leaving video was one of the most fun projects I’ve worked on, for obvious reasons. I drove from Portland to Orange County by myself in a

long lunatic drive where I kept screaming “overcome!” to myself when I’d start to doze off at the wheel. Crawford flew in and we started filming in our hometown of Newport Beach, CA in the early morning, worked our way through LA, quick stop in Carpenteria and Santa Barbara (kinda regretting skipping Ventura), then pulled off and watched the sunset from a dirt road on the crest of a hill where we spent almost an hour trying to film this flying bat in the purple dusk (never got a good shot of it smh a waste of lots of gb’s). We pulled into SLO after dark and parked downtown on Higuera and stood outside the van drinking some of those pocket shots you can buy at the liquor store. After a couple we walked around the downtown bar scene filming myself standing idly infront of all the dressed up college crowd. Scantily clad party girls surrounded me as I stared blankly into the camera and we told them we were filming a video for Plain White Tees. They loved that. Some dude did a backflip. None of this made the video except a brief moment where I stand in bubble gum alley. We parked the van that night in Los Osos on a little dead end road by the bay water. I recall taking a piss in the trees and thinking about how much I miss SLO and how much of a gem this area is, then tried to fall asleep amongst all the camera cords and charging batteries and Crawford sprawling out on our futon bed as if he’s never shared a bed before. In the morning we tried to get drone footage of Montana De Oro at sunrise but the drone that my brother lent to us would come crashing down after a minute in the air and I wasted a beautiful sunrise cursing technology and nursing my bruised Go Pro. We drove over to Morro Bay and at last I got to surf underneath my beloved Morro Rock and the waves were fun that morning and smelled fishy and of course that Morro Bay ocean smell brought me back to my SLO years where I’d sit on my board staring up the coast at Cayucos contemplating Kerouac and Portland. Big Sur was grand of course but it was a hazy cloudy day and we’ve seen it better. Still the video gave us an excuse to explore some side roads and find views that we’d never seen in Big Sur before. Crawford was instagram messaging with some Big Sur instagram famous dharma yogi rainbow warrior and we thought she’d take us somehwere special but alas she stopped responding and we had to get to Santa Cruz. I saw my old pal Kurkjian and his crew in Santa Cruz, and while our shots of the boardwalk are nice they dont represent Santa Crux to me and I wish we’d gone elsewhere for our establishing show like Steamer’s Lane or that Taco Bell downtown that gets rowdy late night. Well that drive on the 1 from SC to SF is awfully gorgeous and we caught some epic norcal coastal sunset footage just north of Davenport, then met up with my brother Riley for some Chinese food in SF. I remember being so exhausted I began dozing off at the dinner table then we went home and filmed an action skit with Nerf Guns only to wake up to some news of a shooting... dont remember which shooting this was...doesn’t matter... Crawford immediately deleted his snap chats of our shoot out. My brother always brags about how he’d bomb the hills of Outer Sunset on his skateboard all the way to the beach so we decided to try it. We skitched on the back of his room mates truck to the top of a hill and down we went with Crawford filming from the truck bed. To my surprise my brother had become a really great skater and it was me who was speed checking every 20 yards or so. We got the shot, and I told Crawford that we’ll have to find a couple second clip where I actually look cool on the board and not constantly slowing down and looking for traffic. I still can’t believe how my brother would shoot through those SF intersections without taking his eyes off the ocean horizon below. Well we got some coffee at this toast and coconut place called like Trouble or something that my girlfriend and I heard about in a podcast. It was a whatever hyped place but a ton of friends came out to meet us and we had a pretty nice morning chatting and enjoying the Sunset district’s chillness. I was being a bit too casual as I suggested we all walk to the Mollusk surf shop and Crawford grew anxious and cranky because, he was right, we needed to get back on the road. So there’s that classic shot of the asian tourists with the selfie stick on the golden gate bridge and we were off into the big question mark of a landscape that is the Cali Coast north of SF! And jesus oliver christ once you get above Stinson Beach that norcal coast is just about as desolate and beautiful as you can get! We got epic shots of the dilapidated Point Reyes ship yard and cemetary at dusk and that shot of the whale mural through the fence is one of my favs (mostly cause of a specific Dick Diver lyric) and we arrived in Mendocino after dark where we took refuge in this mountainy dive bar that had a huge smelly moose head on the wall and uploaded our footage and charged batteries until the staff kicked us out and we slept in the van and woke up to that spanking gold coastal sun and I pissed in the tall green grass I was so happy. Well it was this last section of the trip that truly felt free and American frontier little boy with no rules exploration euphoria. We stopped in Legget at this roadside bar and grill where the custodian (clearly on meth or some upper) showed us around and told us all about the big country festival they have in the summer and how he brings girls back to his RV (covered in moss and parked in the trees behind the property) and how he has 12 different facebook accounts all with different aliases because you never know who is watching you. Then a few miles down the road we pulled the van off by a river and we jumped in naked and I laid out naked on this log that was sticking up and that warm bark on my back just about let me die right there and I jumped back in the water off this log and the footage of that is really not flattering... and on our way back to the van we came across this huge uprooted tree with a sort of hide out built out of it’s underside with all sorts of feathers and crystals and animal skulls aligned in patters like a Pagan shrine or Wicchan execution ceremony and it was legitiately spooky enough that we didnt stick around to get footage I dont think. Anyone who’s driven the 101 up here knows that Big Foot themed pull off with all the giant wood carvings and all sorts of mystical norcal souveniers. It was here I bought my coon skin cap and ya that was the moment I wished we could never go home and just romp around these mountains and coastline looking for adventure forever. I ate that bag of Famous Amos cookies all the way to Arcata where we met up with our wise philosopher friend and girlfriend for some basketball and bison viewing. She took us to some remote beach and for some reason we were all about to get naked but we decided to trek further up the coast to catch one last sunset shot. We stressed hard about that sunset shot when in reality we had plenty of sunset shots already but we needed that ONE GREAT SHOT to finish out the video. We didnt get anything epic except, cleverly I think, we pulled off to some beach and Crawford got that clever shot of my standing on the rock with my homemade alligator bumper sticker in the foreground and BOOM that was pretty much it. From there we took the north east pointing highway (i forget what number it is?) that goes through Cave Junction (spooky interesting place we should go back and explore) towards Grants Pass. We got that final shot of the Welcome to Oregon sign which we needed to conclude the whole vid and we stopped at a Denny’s for dinner around 2 AM. After that I blasted a bunch of old punk records and raced the 5 hrs back up the 5 to Portland to get Crawford to work ontime at his 6 AM radio gig. I dont remember what I did after that but I am assuming I slept and then went to nanny the kids that I was nannying at the time. The end!

#Walter Etc.#Walter Mitty And His Makeshift Orchestra #making new enemies #always leaving #van life

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maximuswolf · 4 years ago

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Applying the Satanic Rules of the Earth to my life - a success story via /r/satanism

Applying the Satanic Rules of the Earth to my life - a success story

TL;DR: Actively applying the 11 Satanic Rules of the Earth has greatly improved my life. If you’re thinking about it, give it a serious try. Go all in and I’m sure you’ll see results too.

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This is a rather long post, but my goal is just to give people a “real life” example of how you can apply Satanic principles to ones daily life. Everyone’s life is different, but this is how LaVeyan Satanism improved mine.

BACKGROUND

After denouncing my evangelical upbringing (homeschooled, extremely conservative) and during many months of searching for the right path, I happened to read the Satanic Bible. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I didn’t expect it to resonate with me as deeply as it did.

Even so, it took many years to leave the Christian brainwashing behind. I was conditioned to forgive and forget, to be passive and compliant, to bend over backwards for people who didn’t deserve it, and to feel guilty for instigating confrontation of any kind, even in self defense. It took many years for me to really embrace the Satanic Rules and begin putting them into practice, including employing rituals as a psychological method to achieve my goals.

For those unfamiliar, the 11 Satanic Rules of the Earth as written in the Satanic Bible are:

Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.

Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

Do not harm little children.

Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

While the writing clearly reflects LaVey’s quirkiness, the message here is solid. I personally don’t have any issues refraining from disrespecting someone in their own home, committing sexual assault, stealing, hurting children, or killing animals for sport, so I won’t get into numbers 3, 5, 6, 9 or 10. However, many of the others don’t come naturally to most people of Christian upbringing. It’s taken active effort to apply these principles to my daily life.

RULES 1, 2, & 8

I started out focusing on the rules that deal with keeping my mouth shut. It’s second nature to many of us to just spill our guts to random people throughout the day, participate in the constant bitching and moaning people do about everything, or give advice where it isn’t wanted. This just creates unnecessary drama and emotional labor. After working on this a while, I really noticed a huge difference in my friendships, my working relationships, and my home life. I no longer freely offer my opinions unless requested, I don’t complain to people unless they want to hear it (AND if it is constructive or will benefit me), and I don’t choose to insert myself into situations I know I’ll complain about. Basically, I keep my mouth shut about things that aren’t my business unless I’ve been invited to make it my business. As a result, I notice that I don’t get pulled into drama I don’t want to be involved in. It’s easier to stay out of things that aren’t worth my time and are really none of my business. I also get to choose what is worth getting involved in. It’s really freeing, mentally and emotionally, so i can invest time and effort into other areas of my life. Some aspects of social anxiety I struggle with were lifted, and I was able to put more distance between me and people I don’t care to associate with. At home with my partner, I learned to ask when to listen, when to give advice and when to sit back and just offer support. And I stopped contributing to the constant cloud of complaints that just hovers over my workplace. If i have constructive comments or opinions that will benefit me, I write them up in a professional manner and send them to my boss. I don’t bitch about it to my coworkers, which often doesn’t do any good. If I’m in a situation I feel the need to complain about, I take the initiative to change my situation rather than just idly wish it was different. This has actually helped me progress in my career as I’m seen as a problem solver who brings ideas to the table, rather than just pointing out flaws or starting drama.

RULES 4 & 11

So these rules are similar in that they lay the foundation for expecting respect and removing people from your life who do not give you the respect you deserve. These rules were hard for me because they deal with treating other people in a manner I was taught was “mean”, “disrespectful”, and “rude”. I used to bow my head to everyone. I never made eye contact. This stemmed from having low self-esteem and low self-respect. I grew up with an abusive mother and my father enabled her behavior. I was used to being treated like trash. It was normal, I expected it, and it’s hard to unlearn things than have been ingrained since childhood. I spent a lot of time thinking about what it meant to be an independent being with inherent worth and value. I needed to learn how to replace the respect I once had for a non-existant god with respect for myself because I am essentially my own god. I make the rules for my own life and no one has the right to impose themselves on my life, for which I have complete control and responsibility over. Then I got angry... and then I got therapy. In the process, I found a level of respect for myself and established a “no tolerance” policy for behaviors towards me that perpetuated my old mindset. Also, the introduction of regular self-empowering rituals (see the next point) have greatly improved my mood, my motivation, and confidence in myself to demand the level of respect I deserve from the people I choose to let participate in my life. After that, adopting rules 4 and 11 was easier than I thought. “Treat them cruelly” and “destroy them” sounds like strong language, but for me, this means “remove them from your life”.

For rule 4, I define “lair” as being my personal space. My home, my car, and anywhere I am privately. I don’t tend to invite people over, so I don’t leave myself open to this often. However, last year, I was sexually assault after a gig with my band. He was a friend of the drummer (who was also my friend and coworker) and had too much to drink to drive. His home was on my way home and I offered to give him a ride. Had I been the person I used to be, I would have blamed myself. I would have just let it go, not wanting to stir up trouble between this guy and our mutual friend. However, being the person I am now, I immediately made a police report (which is a whole story in and of itself) and pursued an order of protection (because he indicated intent to see me again at our shows etc). The male officers I spoke with told me that I should just “bring a cousin or brother along” if I was afraid for my safety. I told them I wanted to see their supervising officer. I reported them both and I got my police report. My assailant didn’t come to the first, second or third hearing and the judge said a single assault wasn’t grounds for an order of protection. However, at the fourth hearing, he showed up and signed a consent judgement, which essentially admits fault and agrees to the order being put into place. It is now visible on his public record and he has been removed from my path.

For rule 11, I interpret “open territory” to mean any public space where I am in contact with other people (work being the main example). I have encountered so many so-called “strong personalities” in my field, ranging from an openly racist boss, to an incredibly passive aggressive supervisor, to a verbally abusive staff member. In every case, I was personally and negatively affected by their behavior and it was impeding my happiness at work and my productivity, either directly or indirectly through negative impacts on other coworkers. The person I was would have kept my head down. The person I am now made a well thought out and professional HR complaint, all of which were taken very seriously and corrective action was implemented. Each individual was removed from immediate contact with me and I have progressed in my career in their absence. In addition, I have used these rules to remove my parents from my life. My mental health has exponentially improved since going no contact with them. I can’t even explain the level of emotional stability I have achieved through taking actions like these.

RULE 7

The use of magick.... this is the rule that needlessly trips everyone up. Ive heard some people say this is absurd and proof that LaVeyan Satanists believe in the supernatural. Magick is the act of causes change to occur in accordance with your Will. The only change that can occur is chance that occurs in accordance with nature. Ritual is a psychological method of manipulating your own mind to achieve something you normally wouldn’t. A basic example is your morning routine. Every morning, I have a choice. I can wake up early, take a shower, grab a cup of coffee, and plan my day, or I can snooze my alarm, roll out of bed, skip the shower and coffee. Personally, I am more likely to be productive and in the right mindset for the day in the first scenario. This is ritual. This is magick. My behavior affects my mindset. The physical motions I choose to go through have an impact on my future actions and the outcomes. If reading tarot or using special essential oils or performing elaborate rituals by candlelight help you achieve a mindset that allows you to achieve your goals, go for it. I performed “lesser magick” in various ways to increase my focus, decrease stress, increase motivation, and bring about change. I have also used a personalized version of the “ritual for destruction” included in the Satanic Bible in many cases to help me achieve the changes I want to see in the removal of people from my life. If it doesn’t work for you, it’s ok. Rule 7 says if it DOES work for you, go with it. Everyone is different and everyone will have different psychological ways of helping themselves succeed.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope it’s helpful for you. Always happy to chat with new (and seasoned) Satanists.

Hail Satan.

Submitted September 01, 2020 at 12:19PM by SubjectivelySatan via reddit https://ift.tt/2ED0IBR

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ah17hh · 4 years ago

Text

Applying the Satanic Rules of the Earth to my life - a success story via /r/satanism

Applying the Satanic Rules of the Earth to my life - a success story

TL;DR: Actively applying the 11 Satanic Rules of the Earth has greatly improved my life. If you’re thinking about it, give it a serious try. Go all in and I’m sure you’ll see results too.

————————-

BACKGROUND

For those unfamiliar, the 11 Satanic Rules of the Earth as written in the Satanic Bible are:

Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

Do not harm little children.

Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

RULES 1, 2, & 8

RULES 4 & 11

RULE 7

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope it’s helpful for you. Always happy to chat with new (and seasoned) Satanists.

Hail Satan.

Submitted September 01, 2020 at 11:19AM by SubjectivelySatan via reddit https://ift.tt/2ED0IBR

#IFTTT #reddit

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