#i want to stop being busy but still earn money and get the enrichment of hanging out with friends!!! aaughhh!!!!

[frostios]

im feeling the effects of not having the time to draw for the past week spongebob

[melodiesofblueroses]

Flower Shop (Saeran x Reader)

Warning: Rather lengthy and maybe ooc! 

      Everyday, right when the doors opened, the same girl would burst into the shop and pick up exactly a dozen pinks. Saeran didn’t think much of it during the first few days it started. She could be buying flowers to enrich her home or gifting them to someone. Days turned to weeks which turned to months. She never failed to come at eight o’clock sharp and pick up the same flowers each day, even when the weather was unfavorable and the roads were iced with a thick sheet of snow in the sidewalks. Her determination was admirable. Maybe that was one of the traits that made him fall for her. 

       Every day he would notice something cute about her. The way she smiled when surrounded by flowers; the way she avoided looking him in the eyes when paying, as if embarrassed that she was a regular; her furrowed brows when told that there were no pinks left in stock; her sweet hums when walking around the shop, thinking that the store was empty and that no one could hear her. It had been a while before Saeran realized that he had fallen for her. So much of her persona could be told through the actions she took. 

        Eight o’clock sharp, and the tiny bell above the door rang. He looked up from the chrysanthemums that he was tending to and noticed her. She dressed in casual clothes, as usual, dressing in a beige knit sweater and navy jeans that were worn a bit at the ends. Her smile never faltered. Every day she came in wearing the same warm smile as she went up to the counter to pick up her dozen pinks. 

        “Your flowers are at the counter,” Saeran announced, watering a few daisies that sat by a window. She looked down at her feet, twirling a strand of hair around her index before muttering a small ‘thanks’ and dropping the money off at the counter. It was another one of her quirks that he had noticed. She tended to bite her lip or the inside of her cheek when nervous or a bit shy and play with her fingers. He had found it a bit cute, but their interaction was nothing short of one between a customer and a salesperson. While their interaction was short and conversation was at most two sentences, Saeran found himself day-by-day growing attached to the mysterious girl. He wanted to find out where she went with those flowers but gradually grew interested in her daily life. What did she do during her days? Did she also enjoy gardening just as much? Perhaps she owned a cute little garden in her backyard which she tended to during her free time. It wasn’t long before he realized that he had fallen for her. 

        He was seated in a little booth of the small ice cream parlor that was just around the corner from his shop, eating his vanilla ice cream on a cone alone. It was a pretty frigid day outside, but Saeran always seemed to have room for ice cream. Perhaps it was due to the sweet memories of sharing a popsicle with his brother when the two of them were younger. Whatever it was, Saeran seemed most at peace with flowers and ice cream. He looked out the parlor window, watching people pass by and going about their daily lives.

        From the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar figure pass by on a tarnished, yellow bike. It might have been his imagination, but it was the same casual sweater from the morning that was riding the bike. Quickly glancing towards the streetlight, he found her waiting impatiently for the light to turn red, carrying a bouquet of yellow pansies in the basket that clung onto her bike. Saeran was once again intrigued by her figure. She had never spoken more than a few words to him in a quaint voice, so he was curious as to what her voice sounded like. Was it like a cute, soft voice that made him feel relaxed, or was it more like a loud, active voice when she spoke with such enthusiasm about the topics that interested her? For a second, however, she seemed a bit nervous, biting her lip and checking the map she held in her hand. Saeran wanted to go help, but one it would be awkward for him to appear and ask, and two, she would be long gone by the time he got up. A few buses passed by, blocking his view of the lady. When they left, she was gone with them.  

        The next day, at eight o’clock sharp, he was expecting to see her smiling face as she walked through the glass door. Minutes of waiting turned to hours. This was odd. She still hasn't shown up, and it was a few minutes before closing time. He sat behind the counter, staring at the dozen pinks that lay untouched on the counter. Maybe she wouldn't be able to make it today. But it was peculiar. She never once failed to show up right when the doors opened, yet she hasn't come in all day. Saeran knew that she had her own circumstances, but he couldn't help but find it a bit strange, especially since she had made it every single day, even when the roads were iced and the ground was buried with snow. 

        Two minutes before closing. He sighed, taking brass keys out of his pocket and walking towards the door to lock it. He didn't know why, but Saeran couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that she couldn't show up today. Something must have happened, right? Maybe she was just tired? But that couldn't be right. Many times when she came in, dark eye bags were prevalent and her smile was lopsided while she would look like she was about to crash any minute. He couldn't help but worry for her, but why? It wasn't as if they ever spoke with one another more than a few sentences. It was just a quick ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye,’ nothing special. Yet, here he was, hoping that she was alright. It puzzled him. Why was he worrying? Thinking about her smile, his cheeks suddenly flushed and he felt heat flow through his body within seconds. His heartbeat started to gain speed.

        Damn, he thought, what's wrong with me today? Shaking his head, Saeran plopped the key within the lock and turned it, hearing a satisfying click.

        She was too late, unfortunately. By the time the mysterious girl showed up, Saeran was slumped over at the counter, sleeping on the paperwork he had to turn in soon. Sunlight was still present in little amounts, but most streetlights were being turned on right about now. She lightly tapped on the glass window with her knuckles, hoping that he would notice. He still lay slumped over his desk, however, sleeping ever so softly. She smiled at his form. He was so cute when he was asleep. Saeran just looked so relaxed and at peace when he was fast asleep as if every problem he was dealing with just suddenly vanished. She got on her yellow bike she was gifted for her tenth birthday and started riding. She was unfortunately too late today and didn't have a chance to pick up her flowers. 

        The next day was quite gloomy, a contrast to the previous bright sunshine-filled Friday. He woke up with arms and paperwork drenched in his drool, earning a look of disgust from him. How long was he asleep? Saeran checked the watch on his wrist, alarmed that it was nine in the morning, an hour past opening time. He sighed, thinking of how it would be better to just not open for the day. It was a Saturday after all, and he could probably afford to miss a day. A thunderous clap was then heard in the background, startling the man who was drinking a glass of water that sat on his desk from yesterday. He did a small jump, spilling water on his beige sweater in the process and mentally cursing himself. Soon enough, he got startled again when there was a vicious knock on the glass doors, jumping again and spilling more water. Saeran turned towards the window, a malicious glare in his eyes which only deepened once he saw his older brother standing outside. 

        “Hey bro, can you let me in?” Saeyoung tried to motion through the window, pointing at the doorknob and making strange movements as if he was playing charades. Too bad he sucked at it. Saeran had no idea what his brother was doing outside his shop at nine in the morning in the midst of a severe thunderstorm. He hadn’t even made plans to stop by, he just showed up out of thin air, which irritated Saeran a little. 

        “Why are you here?” Saeran asked in a stern voice, allowing a soaked Saeyoung to enter his shop, his wet t-shirt leaving water droplets everywhere on the floor. “And you could’ve at least had the decency to call and say ‘hey I’m stopping by for a visit.’” His arms folded, he waited for an explanation, as if an angry mother scolding her child. 

        “First off, don’t I at least get some kind of proper greeting?” Saeyoung pouted. “Secondly, I thought it would be nice to stop by for a visit. My shop is right around the corner anyway so it wasn’t as if it was troublesome for me.” The older red-head then went to a lily that was in the corner of the shop, picking one up and playing with its white petals. “Thirdly, it’s not as if you hate these visits.” He’s got a point there. Saeran, in fact, loved it when his brother came to visit. The younger sibling didn’t really have anyone else to converse with, spending his days feeling rather lonely, although it hurt a bit to admit. He did have a bit of an ego.

        “Anyway, make yourself comfortable.” Saeyoung smiled and tackled his brother in a hug, leaving a baffled Saeran standing in place. It was very sudden, and Saeran was a bit taken aback, but he hugged back. 

        “Dammit, you have no idea how much I missed you. You don’t come to visit the computer shop as much anymore. We don’t really hang out, and just...I really missed talking to you.” His embrace grew tighter. “You just seem so distant most of the time, and I sometimes wonder whether you’re annoyed with me or something.” Usually, Saeyoung would be a goof, cracking jokes left and right. This new side of him left Saeran baffled, but he felt a bit guilty that he hadn’t been talking to his brother as much anymore. Truth be told, he was just so busy with paperwork for his shop that he kinda forgot about Saeyoung. 

        “You don’t have to be so emotional this early in the morning y’know.” Saeyoung cracked a goofy smile at Saeran’s response, releasing his grip to go and make coffee. He was happy that he could spend time with his brother again. 

        The two brothers spent their morning catching up on things, asking how each other’s shops were coming along and sharing some weird stories. “I once had this customer come in with a camera, and she had a horrified expression on her face,” Saeyoung began. “Seriously, her face was so pale she could be classified as a vampire.” Saeran chuckled and took a bite out of his ice cream. “When I asked what was wrong with the camera, she broke and confessed that she wanted to make a home video for a video production class she was taking and something went wrong.” Saeyoung stopped for dramatic effect, expecting his brother to be on the edge of his seat and ask what happened next. Saeran realized this and decided to play along.

        “Then what happened?” Saeyoung was enthusiastic, cracking into a wide smile before continuing.

        “So she left it with me, and the camera was totally fried. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to repair it, but as I am the greatest technology person thingy you know-”

        “An electronic technician?”

        "Sure, whatever, but anyway I managed to find the issue and fix it. So I was looking through the film, or what was left of it, in order to identify what happened. And then, I come across a video that shows when she was washing dishes and how she got the camera close to the water. I thought, ‘Oh God. She dropped the camera in the water.’” He stopped once more for dramatic effect, earning an eye roll from his brother. “When she comes in a few weeks later, I ask her what happened to make sure I was right. Get this, she said that she put the camera in the microwave along with the food in order to get a good angle.” Saeran suddenly burst into fits of laughter. 

        “What kind of idiot-”

        “That’s what I thought, and I was trying to remain calm and composed while she was explaining why she thought it was a good idea to microwave a camera.” Saeyoung was then cut short due to rapid knocking at the door. The two of them turned towards the door to find her, Saeran’s regular, standing outside in the pouring rain. The younger sibling immediately tensed up.

        Crap, I forgot about her. Noticing his tense form, Saeyoung raised a brow and took a quick glance at the woman once more. 

        “Ohhh, I see.” The mischievous red-head smirked, eyeing his brother who had an intense blush on his face. “So, who is this girl you like?” The audacity of him. “How’s she like? Does she know? Are you two in a relationship? I can’t believe that my precious little brother has someone.” He took off his glasses, making a small gesture with his finger as if wiping away a tear. Saeran’s blush only grew in intensity. 

        He wasn’t entirely sure about whether or not he did have a crush on her though. Whenever she smiled, his heart fluttered a bit. Sometimes he would find himself gazing at her cherry-red lips, silently wishing that he could kiss them. Her eyes were another thing he was fond of. Her eye color complemented her locks, and she shone with a special kind of radiance, one that stood out from others. Saeran often found himself waiting for her to arrive, even if he would see her for a few minutes at most. Whenever he could see the hurt in her eyes, he so desperately wanted to ask what was wrong but decided that it would be rude to impede on her personal life, yet she still smiled the same lopsided smile. He adored that confidence and strength. He didn’t have the courage to fight through the pain with a smile on his face. Oh God, he did like her. Yet, he had just come to the realization now, when his brother brought it up. 

        “N-No,” Saeran stuttered, making his way to the desk to pick up the dozen pinks he had set aside. They were freshly picked from the small greenhouse he had in the back. “It’s just that she’s a regular.” He went up to the glass door, flowers in hand, and motioned for the woman to come in. “Uh, you’ll catch a cold if you stay outside without a jacket in the rain,” he whispered, looking to the side as if embarrassed and a bit shy. Her hair was drenched and the hoodie she wore stuck to her body a bit. 

        “It’s ok,” she replied. “I’m just here to pick up the flowers.” Her voice was soft, and Saeran was entranced by it. She spoke with such eloquence although she had barely said a word. Her soft voice was cute in a way, and the way she smiled at the end made Saeran’s heart beat faster. Had he really fallen head-over-heels for this young woman he didn’t know anything about? What was this, some sort of a Romeo and Juliet love story?

        “No, I insist. I don’t want you catching a cold.” He moved a bit to the side, gesturing for her to come in. She gave in to his charming smile and went in, a sort of milk-white card in hand that was now drenched in water. “Here, I’ll make some coffee for you to warm you up. Or would you prefer hot chocolate? I-I also have juice if you want.” He stumbled with his words, trying to figure out how he should treat such a beautiful and delicate woman. Saeran had never really had a crush on someone before, so all this was a new experience for him. 

        He caught Saeyoung off the corner of his eye suppressing a laugh. Was Saeran really trying that hard that it was noticeable? Apparently so as she had giggled. Now he had just made a total fool out of himself. He was embarrassed, flushed red from the tip of his ears to the bridge of his nose and mentally cursing himself for his desperate nature. He didn’t know what had come over him. Did Saeran really want to impress her, maybe confess although that would be a bit awkward? They were practically total strangers, yet here he was falling in love with her. 

        “A coffee would be fine.” She squeezed her hand, showing signs of shyness which he found adorable. She seemed so pure and innocent, Saeran wanted to embrace her by a fireplace on a cold day like this. Great, he was now having delusional fantasies. “Also, were you closed today, because no one else seems to be in the shop?”

        “Ah. Yeah, I had woken up late so I was closing the shop, but you’re fine. Anything for a regular.” Saeyoung, meanwhile, had disappeared to who knows where. Knowing how much of a “great” matchmaker he was, setting Saeran up on blind dates from time-to-time, the older red-head probably left to the back to give the two some room. Who knows, they might just hit it off and this interaction was the start of a loving relationship. “Please, have a seat at the counter.” She made her drenched form over to the counter, taking a seat behind it, feeling a bit awkward as she was always on the other side as a customer. Saeran made his way over with a warm cup of black coffee in hand, setting it down in front of her as well as small square packets of sugar and a small cup of creamer in case she wanted to make it sweeter. 

        “Thank you,” she mumbled, playing with her fingers while Saeran mumbled a quiet “you’re welcome” and stared off to the side. Both of them were socially awkward at this moment, not knowing what to talk about. Finally, she broke the silence. “Your shop is quite nice. It’s very serene and the relaxing atmosphere makes me feel comfortable here. I don’t know, it might be because of my love for flowers. They just have such a calming presence, and I particularly enjoy being surrounded by them whenever I feel stressed.”

        “Ah, really? I also have a love for flowers. I guess you could tell since I own this flower shop, but it’s nice to find someone else who shares this interest.” Saeran bit his fingernail which was already worn down due to the numerous times he has bitten them. He had quite a bad habit of it. He was a bit anxious over this sudden confrontation, but he was a bit happy with it as he would finally get to know this regular a bit more. “By the way, sorry for asking, and you don’t have to answer, but why didn’t you visit yesterday? Well, it’s kinda embarrassing to admit, but I was worried that something happened to you since you visit when the shop opens every day.” Was he that stupid to say such a thing? Once the words left Saeran’s mouth, regret immediately washed over him. What a complete and utter idiot he was, yet a part of him was grateful for asking about her wellbeing. It showed that he did care for her, albeit she was a clutz at times and other flaws were apparent, but that’s what made her unique and quite special. 

        “I was just busy with some things during the day. I’d rather not go too much into detail.” She gave a distraught look, gazing into her coffee while lost in thought about something. Well, that was a bad question to ask. Her eyes were no longer shining with a sort of brilliance yet was overcome with a feeling of sadness and a tinge of resentment. It was the same thing he felt when he was younger, having been separated from his older brother. The past was the past, however, and Saeran would rather try to forget about those distant memories. 

        “I’m sorry for asking.” She just smiled and shook her head, signaling that it was fine. How could she still smile through the pain? It ached him on the inside, wanting to so desperately ask how she could possibly smile when something was bothering her. How was she so strong and courageous as to mask her emotions behind a smile? He decided against it. He didn’t know her that well, and Saeran would feel that he was impeding on a sensitive matter. 

        “I’m sorry, but I have to go now.” She got up from her seat, a small sneeze erupting which Saeran found a bit cute and funny as it sounded high-pitched like a baby mouse. Without much thought, he grabbed his thick black coat from underneath the counter and draped it over her shivering shoulders. A small blush erupted onto her cheeks, taking the coat off and handing it back to Saeran. “Sorry, but I can’t take this. You need it, and besides, I’m already wearing an oversized sweater so I’ll be fine, probably.” The man just draped it over her shoulders again.

        “You’ll get a cold, and you’re going out while I’m here in the shop. You need this more than me, and you can always give it back when you come visit another time.” Thinking of how it would be no use to argue back, she hesitantly accepted the offer and made her way through the doors, carrying the bouquet of pinks in hand. She muttered a small “bye” and quickly walked out, a large blush on her face that she tried to cover by snuggling into the warmth of the oversized coat. 

        Saeran stood in front of the glass door for a while, silently cursing himself for his awkwardness. And he forgot to ask what her name was. Great, just great. “So, who was that?” The enthusiastic voice of his brother popped up from the back, a mischievous grin plastered across his face. Saeran glared at him, proceeding to ignore him and go lay his head on the counter while contemplating his decisions. 

        A few weeks passed by and everything was seemingly normal. Saeran thought about his small crush and whether or not he should confess, although that would be creepy since they barely knew each other. She would come in every day like normal, pick up her pinks, then quietly leave. He had gotten his coat back, and every time he put it on he could feel a sliver of her warmth attached to the insides of the coat. Or maybe it was the thought that she had worn the coat, but Saeran didn’t really mind. He was more confused about why he liked her. Sure she was pretty and had a sweet voice, but what about her specifically. Saeran hadn’t really thought of it until his brother had brought it up. 

        “Well,” Saeran started, sitting in a small booth while meeting up with his brother again. “She has pretty eyes I guess.” Saeyoung nodded, motioning for him to continue on. “Well, her voice is soft and cute. Um, sometimes I kinda just want to put a string of hair behind her ear and tell her how pretty she is.” His brother gave him a bewildered look, possibly creeped out from his list. “Ugh, I just don’t know.” Saeran slammed his head against the table, sulking a bit as he tried to list off why he was attracted to the mysterious customer. “It’s just...I don’t know why but everytime I see her, my heart speeds up and there’s a small blush you could see on my face. Whenever she comes in through the door, I have to suppress this big grin but I don’t know why. It’s as if my body just told me ‘yeah, she’s the one.’” 

        “Well, I don’t know what to tell you, but it sounds like you do like her although you haven’t really specified why.” Saeyoung got up and stretched a bit. “Anywho, I got to get back to my shop-and speak of the devil she’s here.” Saeran’s ears turned a bit red at this mention, lifting his head off the table to scan the cafe for any signs of her. Sure enough, she was there, three seats in front of the brothers writing something in a notepad. 

        Before Saeran could even utter a word, Saeyoung left the shop, winking at him and giving a thumbs up. Well then. Although Saeran had little confidence in his social skills, it was now or never. He was going to go up to this cute girl and finally converse, maybe ask her out or get her number if things went well. 

        “Hey,” he greeted, which earned a mental facepalm. God, why was he just so awkward. I mean, yeah, he never was one to chat with others, and he did have a rather rough past that he was able to overcome after loads of therapy, but why couldn’t he talk for God’s sake?! 

        She looked up from her notepad, smiling that damned lopsided grin that never failed to make Saeran’s heart skip a beat. Yet again, however, there seemed to be a tinge of sadness in her smile. “Oh, hey! I never did catch your name although we see each other every day.” 

        “Oh, ahh, I’m Saeran.” He took a seat at the booth and scratched the back of his head, avoiding eye contact. 

        “(MC). By the way, do you by any chance sell tiger lilies? I’ve never seen them at your shop before.” She started to bite the eraser at the tip of her pencil, chewing it as if in thought or waiting for Saeran to answer. 

        “Yeah, I do, except I keep them in the back. I don’t have too many people ordering them, so I usually only reserve them for special orders. Do you need any?” Yes, he didn’t grow that many tiger lilies, but if (MC) wanted some then he sure as hell will give them to her, free of charge. 

        “No, it’s just that my customer wants about a dozen of them.” She started tapping the pencil against the tabletop, quite irritated at the thought of the aforementioned customer. (MC)’s face then lit up, as if she forgot to mention something. “I deliver flowers by the way. It’s just a part-time job I picked up to help pay for my university tuition. I know it’s not much, but it’s been helping somewhat. Every penny counts, you know?” 

        Saeran nodded. He never did attend university, instead opting to take a few classes on business and gardening before opening up his own shop. The costs were massive even with those few classes. In short, college is hella expensive. Who could afford all those costs?

        The two continued to chat for a bit, making small talk and getting to know a bit about each other. Saeran was truly grateful for this opportunity. After about an hour, he decided to bring up a question that he was always meaning to ask.

        “So, forgive me for intruding on your personal life, but why exactly have you come to my shop almost every day at the exact same time and ordering the same exact thing?” Gosh, he was so softspoken and awkward. But this was needed. 

        “Oh, this is kinda awkward,” she rubbed the back of her neck, Saeran immediately regretting ever speaking. “Um, please don’t think that this is weird, but it’s because I always wanted to see you before I began my day. I’m just too socially inadequate to go up and start a conversation, however, so I just settled with buying pinks that I don’t need. I mean, sometimes my customers do want them, but it’s mainly because I really love seeing you. When I first walked into your shop, I took one glance at you and thought, ‘damn, that’s a fine-looking snack right there.’” She chuckled after her ramble, face visibly red. 

        Saeran was over there dying on the other hand. She...she thought that he was cute? Um, excuse me? His heart beat furiously, threatening to jump out of his body at any minute. His soul has transcended, beginning to leave for the afterlife. His feelings were reciprocated. Is this what heaven looks like? Sitting right in front of your crush who just confessed, both of your faces red and body temperature running so high that it could be mistaken for a fever?

        She continued on. “It’s just that...my life has been, well, shit over the past few months.” She started to play with her nails and bit the inside of her cheek. (MC) was getting all nervous again, as Saeran could tell from her actions. He had studied her enough to be able to read her emotions. She wasn’t a good hider as it turns out. Saeran remained silent, allowing her to go on as if silently comforting her that he was there to listen to her. He wanted to be someone with who she could be open.

        Saeran had gone through therapy due to his rather rough past. He knew what it was like to be abused, to feel as if there was no opening to escape the dark pit you are stuck in. Without his therapy, Saeran feels as if his life wouldn’t have gotten better. His mom was abusive to both him and his brother; their father was of a high position and never once acknowledged that they were his sons; he was manipulated into a cult, only to be further abused; and above all, he felt as if his dear brother had abandoned him. While he was in a better place today, the past still lingers, clinging onto him as if whispering that he can never let it go. 

        “This one particular customer just berates me and will always find a mistake I’ve made in the order. Like, ‘oh, I ordered thirteen roses but you only bought a dozen.’ Or ‘this flower is slightly discolored. What are you thinking about giving me such a sick and unsightly flower?’ Then she just goes on to call me names, saying how I should be fired.” (MC) had tears in the corners of her eyes. 

        “And it’s hard to just take it in, you know?” She continued on, her tears silently falling. “It’s hard to deal with this stuff when your self-confidence has already hit rock bottom, and you think it can’t get worse, but oh boy there’s a shovel and now we’re digging even deeper!” (MC) was practically sobbing at this point. 

        “I’m such a worthless piece of human trash. I can’t even pass my university classes because my dumb professor is all like ‘you forgot a comma here’ or ‘this class is too hard for someone of your intellect’ as if she’s doubting my intelligence. Then parents are all up on my ass about how I don’t know what I want to major in yet. ‘Oh, you should go to med school’ or ‘how could you not know your interests yet? You’re just wasting your time and money. You should just drop out and marry a rich man.’”

        “Hey, it’ll be alright.” Saeran had moved over to her booth. Yes, he was awkward, and yes, he had no idea what he was doing, but he had to comfort her somehow. “You’re just going through a rough patch right now.” (MC) then hid her face in his shirt, hiding her tear-streaked face as Saeran awkwardly placed a hand on her head, stroking it gently. 

        “Don’t listen to those people, (MC). You’re a strong-willed woman. You’re just going through hard times, but everything will soon be better. Once you’ve hit rock bottom, the only place you can go is up. Listen, I’m so proud of you.” The crying seemed to have toned down a bit, much to Saeran’s relief. He wasn’t sure whether or not he was helping. He had always been the one to have advice given to him, not the other way around. 

        After a few more inspirational (and quite cringy according to Saeran) talks, (MC) seemed to be feeling better. Her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks had dried trails of tears, and her nose was quite runny, but (MC) wasn’t crying anymore. 

        “Thanks, for everything,” (MC) said, cheeks a bit red as she twirled a strand of hair with her finger. She seemed to be embarrassed that she had cried in front of a stranger she barely knew anything about. “That was the first time I had someone comfort me, so thank you. I usually just bottle up my emotions, but I guess it became too much this time.” She softly chuckled, trying to make a joke about the whole ordeal. God, she was just so embarrassed. 

        “Hey, it’s fine. I wish I had someone to say these things to when I was dealing with something similar. We all need to express our emotions somehow.” Saeran smiled, genuinely smiled. He wasn’t sure when the last time he had smiled this much was. God, this girl just made him feel things he wasn’t exposed to. “Anyway, we’re friends now, right? You can talk to me anytime you need anything.” 

        “Mm, thanks, honestly. Same here.” The two sat in awkward silence, unsure of what to say next, until finally, Saeran spoke up, deciding that it was his turn to make a move.

        “Soo, you want to hang out next week?” There was an imminent blush on his face, eyes looking to the right as to avoid her facial expressions. He then heard a soft giggle.

        “I’d love that.”

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

okay, y’all, i’ve gotta back on my tl;dr bullshit soapbox about something:

so, the other day, i was just mindlessly scrolling through my corporate & capitalist hellscape facebook™️ (i.e. LinkedIn) and came across this totally trite mostly bullshit meme that was shared by some corporate executive search man (whose name i decided to crop out bc eh):

so i obviously agree with the last three points on this list, bc god yes my life would’ve been a bit better if I didn’t get all my dialogue about mental health only from teen mags and horrible portrayals in teen tv shows (and also this hellsite). and hell yeah everyone, and I mean EVERYONE needs to learn that failure is okay many situations (like failing a class in uni or school) bc everyone fails at something sometimes. and dealing with failure is HARD. and time management is something that I’m pretty sure everyone lies to fuckin hell about on their resume, bc lots of people really suck at it, myself included. so yeah. that needs to be taught. and i also agree with the “how to manage your health” point. bc thats becoming ever more prevalent and important with career burn out etc.

but entrepreneurship? people management? conflict resolution? creativity? how to manage money? public speaking? like y’all. three of those ARE taught/learned in school, who the fuck wrote this meme? 

for anyone who actually paid attention in maths class, (which is probably very few people outside of the top performing classes), there WAS A WHOLE FUCKING UNIT that focuses on financial maths (in australia anyway). I ignored this unit as well as maths in general at school, bc I generally hated maths and was convinced that I was somehow never going to get a job. but i remember the gist of the overall topic and its subtopics. one subtopic teaches you how to calculate your wages in various contexts (overtime, double-time and a half, holiday payments, im pretty sure maternity leave pay was jammed in somewhere? idk if other countries would have double time & a 1/2 like australia though). another subtopic teaches you how to calculate interest on bank loans and credit rates on credit cards. a third subtopic teaches you how to calculate savings (obvs in terms of discounts in shops)....im sure there was a bit about budgeting in there somewhere? im pretty sure there were some questions were about tax payments somewhere as a subtopic enrichment exercise? but you get my gist. are these not money management skills? in some sense? like if i could find one of my old maths textbooks or old maths books i’d give an example of a question, to make my point stronger. but the problem, like i said before, is that a load of people (myself included) just zone out in maths in high school and stop trying with it. they forget what they’ve learnt, and just remember how much they hated algebra and how they’ll never use it again. maths was one hell of a fucking strong bitch, guys. but maybe i’m wrong.

creativity? excuse me? have people forgotten about art classes? drama classes? english classes? music classes? need i go on? okay don’t get me wrong, most of these classes did focus a lot on memorising quotes or facts about people (artists/writers/poets/composers/dramatists etc) or specific  periods/movements in art or theatre or literature for example.... but the amazing sculptures/paintings etc people created in art for their final projects in year 12, or even in year 10 were works of their imagination. the scripts people write in drama or maybe english (if you had a fun teacher who did a screenwriting unit, for example) are creative asf. especially in year 12 when they do their major projects, where they may produce a monologue or a short movie, and then there’s a group piece. drama students might even make their own costumes for these performances. LIKE AIN’T THAT A LOT OF CREATIVITY RIGHT THERE Y’ALL????? and english. lowly old english. THEY HAVE A WHOLE FUCKING TOPIC ON CREATIVE WRITING FOR FUCKS SAKE. the original music people might create for their final projects too in year 12? does that not count as creativity? like yes, i know a lot of these things do still have to meet bs assessment criteria (especially in catholic schools, where the main things are you don’t offend the catholic education office and jesus/god lmao) to be considered worthy of a mark for your year 12 exams. but FUCK. HOW THE FUCK AREN’T ANY OF THESE SUBJECTS COUNTED TOWARDS BEING CREATIVE???????? like fuck your corporate creative ideation or w/e bullshit, Callum. drama and english even lend themselves to improvisation in some instances, like public speaking, which is examined further, below.

next, we move on to public speaking. this shit is basically taught from the first goddamn day of “show & tell” in kindy/kindergarten, and this fucker has the gall to say that it’s not fucking taught in schools? someone call in miley cyrus/hannah montana to throw the fuck down in this motherfucking hoedown BC THIS STUPID-ASS MEME-FUCKER HAS NERVE. i hated public speaking. absolutely hated it. even though it was ironically one of the places i ended up excelling in in english classes. even when i fucked up in my english speeches with like “oh, fuck.... said nelson mandela,  i’ve seem to’ve lost my palm card. wait, shit! there it is... excuse me while i pull it out of my ass. whoops, sorry miss” *bats eyes and finger guns at my year 9 english teacher who has her head in her hands and is done with my shit, while the class laughs at my gaffe* i’d still end up with like 73% or like 26/30. it was baffling. but for people who weren’t the class clown/smart alec like i was from years 7-10 (and like i actually wasn’t once i moved schools).... public speaking is like the leading cause of anxiety, right? like by the time i got to doing speeches/presentations at uni i was having panic attacks... the thought of presenting to my classes made me fucking sick with fear and anxiety. nearly every subject i did at uni (even when i tried to avoid subs with public speaking assessments) and throughout school had some type of presentation/speech whatever you want to call it project/activity in it. even fucking SPORT/PDHPE at school and even philosophy at uni. and these fuckers are saying its not taught in schools. FUCK  OFF. like yeah, i get that they actually mean it in the professional sense.... where people can give the sappy bs motivational speeches or an insightful ted-talk worthy 20-minute presentation... or a great sales pitch. but like??? save that for mike “my dad phoned in to EY and i have a job waiting for me after uni” mcfuck in a business major or law degree? or for clubs like toastmasters? fuck. ok enough of the skills we learn in school. let’s move onto the businesslike-sounding ones of “people management”, “conflict management” and fucking “entrepreneurship”. like. what the fuck? okay in some sense people management and conflict management could potentially be used in managing friendships and relationships in your personal life. but like. i can feel the business underpinnings and i dont like it lmao. like why do you want fully functioning adults straight out of school, franklin? and there’s extra credit conflict management subjects at uni??? or at least my home uni had it... and i never did them bc they were intensive courses during summer break lol. but the one that pissed me off the most was entrepreneurship. LIKE ARE KIDS NOT FUCKING ALLOWED TO BE KIDS NOW????? well  apparently: “NO! YOU MUST ALWAYS THINK OF MONEY MAKING WAYS TO BE RICH! YOU MUST BE ENTREPRENEURIAL!!!!!! YOU MUST GENERATE BUSINESS IDEAS FROM THE TIME YOU CAN FUCKIN’ WALK!!!!! AND SPEAK!!! CHILDHOOD AND BEING A TEENAGER DON’T EXIST WORKER BEE!!!! CAPITALISM FOR ALL!!!! WORKER BEES!!! CAPITALISM IS YOUR FRIEND!!! OWN A BUSINESS BY THE TIME YOU’RE 8 YEARS OLD!” like it’s insidious asf. and it doesn’t acknowledge that most entrepreneurs are already privileged people anyway, who usually have some type of money to start off their venture (or that’s what it feels like anyway). and yeah throw all the “THIS BOY IS AN ENTREPRENEUR AT 18!!! 18!!!???? BY STARTING HIS OWN BUSINESS AT 12!!!! WHAT A CHAMP! 😁🙃” clickbait news stories at me, but i don’t fucking care. the concept and perceived over-importance and almost preaching mindset of entrepreneurship is slowly becoming insidious and toxic asf. call me paranoid. but that’s what it feels like.

but with those last three topics, i want to make a point that school curriculum’s (in australia at least, and probably worldwide) are so jam-packed already with sport (which is pointless and shitty), geography (ok how to read maps is important, but i never bothered to learned to do it properly), history, science, english etc etc etc..... that like.... where the actual fuck are the gonna jam the above bs (people management”, “conflict management” and entrepreneurship) into the curriculum???? and also teachers are already over-worked enough as it is, they don’t need another load of shitty subjects pushed onto them. and they sure asf don’t earn enough (especially in the states) to have this bs pushed into their subject schedules either. keep them at uni, where they should be. or just in the workplace/in the general public where they belong. and if people suggest that you could probably push these subjects into the year 11/12 business studies programs or elective commerce courses in years 9/10, save your goddamn breath. like i remember looking at business studies hsc papers in years 11/12 to see what they did.... and it was pretty chock-a-block anyway. and my experience of my year 9 commerce was horrible, to say the least. let kids be kids, for fucks sake. they shouldn’t have to be fully functioning adults in the workplace, by the end of high school, for fucks sake. AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS NOT AN ESSENTIAL SKILL????!!!! FUCK OFF WITH THAT SHIT, WILHELM. anyway. that’s my rant over about how i hate how corporate people are trying to be #relatablewiththeyouth🙃 with their shitty versions of “10 things i wish we learned in school” memes.... and failing.... without realising that this is why millennials are suspicious and cynical about meme usage by corporate people/corporations.

[jellybeanforest-a-go-go]

Chapter 1 (of 4): Hello Stranger

Chapter Summary: After hitting his ex with his ship during the events of Infinity War, Peter recalls the circumstances of his first meeting with Thor Odinson all those years ago.

Fic Summary: When the Guardians run into Peter’s ex from a prior honeypot con-job (quite literally), Peter hopes the man isn’t too angry about how he swindled him out of both his heart and his father’s treasure all those years ago. Fortunately, Thor doesn’t seem to remember him, which is both a relief and an annoyance. It had been years after all, and Peter did give him a fake name, so Thor is probably not out for revenge, or so he hopes.

But when the smooth bastard fails to move on after (mostly) recovering and instead insinuates himself seamlessly into the Guardians through an almost artless charm, Peter begins to suspect he’s being replaced.

(Or: Peter hits his ex with his ship, and it only goes downhill from there.)

Fic Snip:

“C’mon, Yondu. I can do it; I’m ready,” Peter insists, keeping step with Yondu’s long strides towards captain’s quarters at the end of particularly long shift. At age nineteen, he had grown into his full height though he had yet to fill out. The Eclector’s dire financial straits hadn’t helped in that regard, either.

Yondu remains steadfast in his resolve. “Ain’t no one ready fer a bonafide suicide mission into an Asgardian vault. Security’s too tight. They’ll sniff out an intruder in five minutes flat, an’ that goes double fer Ravagers, those hoity-toity assholes.”

“God forbid we waste money on a bar of soap–”

“I don’t need no lip from you, Quill,” he reprimands Peter. “Any sneak-thief worth his salt needs to know when the cut ain’t worth the risk. We’re passin’ on this one.”

Though present circumstances are more desperate than usual, Yondu hadn’t survived to the ripe old age of forty by running headlong into the thick of just any situation without first calculating the risk – the Terran’s presence at his side notwithstanding. He had already crunched the numbers and knew the job was unlikely to pan out, even without throwing an under-experienced Peter Quill into the mix.

“We’re running low on rations and fuel, and nothing remotely as lucrative has crossed your desk in months,” the boy needles him.

That detail catches Yondu’s attention, who stops his forward progress to face his young protégé. “Who told chu that?”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s true, isn’t it?”

Yondu growls in irritation, steepling fingers to his temple as he feels the light throbbing of a Quill-induced tension headache coming on. Lovely.

“You don’t worry about the functionin’ an’ outfittin’ of the Eclector. That’s the Cap’n’s job, an’ I already delegated that to the Quartermaster. It’s tight, but we’ll be fine,” he tries to assure Peter as he resumes his march towards his rooms and a well-deserved drink from his dwindling private stash.

Unfortunately, Peter is persistent. “If you’re going to eat me when we run low, then yeah, it’s my business. We’re already functioning on half-rations, and Cook has been staring at me a little bit longer than I’m entirely comfortable with. So, let me help out this time.”

“I said no, Quill. An’ Cook won’t do shit without my say-so, an’ I didn’t say-so.”

“But you will if we don’t get back in the black soon enough,” he reasons, missing the way Yondu stiffens and shifts his gaze down and away from the boy. “I’m dead either way, but at least with the vault, I’ll be able to prove I’m a valuable earner and maybe work myself off a future menu when we find ourselves in another lean stretch.”

Peter knows he’s gone too far when Yondu slams him against the hull of the ship, his shoulder pinched tight in Yondu’s strong grasp and burning eyes boring into him from below. Yondu takes a deep breath before ultimately taking a step back and letting him go.

“…Git back to yer post. The answer’s still no,” he says gruffly, continuing on his way.

Peter wisely chooses not to follow, instead shaking out the ache in his shoulder as he watches his mentor leave.

You don’t have to go soft on me for my meat to still taste tender, he wants to say, but he bites his tongue on the snarky reply. Yondu didn’t need a reminder of how delicious he might be, just in case the man wearied of having to bore yet another notch on the thin side of his tightening belt.

Perhaps Yondu could afford to ignore the grumbling of discontented bellies and longing, hungry stares turned in Peter’s direction. It’s not like a captain cared whether the resident cabin boy was carved up into salt-meat rations so long as his orders weren’t explicitly disobeyed. He might even turn a blind eye if Peter went missing – the lad must have ran away again, he imagines Braddock saying – while their larder mysteriously filled, if only incrementally so. Personal enrichment and survival at any cost is the Ravager way, and Peter occupies the lowest rung of their society, having consistently racked up the least earnings on low-risk, low-yield missions.

It just isn’t fair. Yondu never lets him do anything. It’s no small wonder the crew saw him as the most expendable among their number.

Yondu might not have any faith in Peter’s abilities, but he’ll show him. He’ll show all of them that he is not the weakest link.

He pulls out the personal holo-pad he had palmed from Yondu’s inside jacket pocket in their short scuffle, clicking through a list of prospective jobs until he finds the target. Above a set of coordinates is a short description:

Serpent Tooth. Royal Vault. Asgard. Two million credits.

[creativinn]

Hunter Biden art exhibition led to Rep. Michael Waltz's transparency bill

More On:

A Florida Republican congressman is set to introduce a bill requiring presidents and vice presidents provide financial disclosures for their non-dependent children ahead of Hunter Biden’s much-criticized art exhibition.

Rep. Michael Waltz told Fox News Tuesday his legislation, the Preventing Anonymous Income by Necessitating Transparency of Executive Relatives (PAINTER) Act, is a bid to stop “the obvious and shameless grift that’s going on with Hunter Biden’s art sales, for which he is obviously not qualified to do and is only doing to continue to profit off of his family name.”

The first son will present a solo exhibition of 15 paintings at galleries in New York and Los Angeles this fall. Prices for the art will range from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for the larger canvases.

Critics have warned that would-be purchasers of Hunter’s art could spend big money not to purchase a masterpiece, but to curry favor with the West Wing.

“The whole thing is a really bad idea,” former George W. Bush chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter told The Washington Post earlier this month. “The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices.”

The rumblings grew after The Washington Post reported last month that White House officials had helped hammer out an agreement to keep the identity of buyers confidential. They grew louder still when a spokeswoman for the gallery hosting the exhibit said Hunter Biden would appear at events with potential buyers in both cities.

That appeared to contradict a claim by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said earlier this month that “the gallerist will not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration”.

The 51-year-old moved into the pad with his wife, South...

“That’s really what this is all about, is just getting some transparency and shining a light on this,” “We should know who is backchanneling, backdooring and buying influence — which Hunter Biden has a long history of selling — to the President of the United States.”

Spouses and dependent children of presidents are required to provide financial disclosures under the Ethics in Government Act, which was enacted in 1978 in response to the Watergate scandal. Waltz’s legislation, which he expects to introduce Wednesday, would amend the act to require financial disclosures of all children or step-children of the president and vice president over the age of 17.

Earlier this month, a dozen House Republicans wrote to the office of White House Counsel Dana Remus to request information related to the business interests of President Biden’s relatives in order to “understand the extent of the Biden family’s use of its connection to the President to enrich itself.”

The letter sought information on trips Hunter Biden took with his father, then-Vice President Biden, to China in 2013 and Mexico in 2016. It also asked for a list of “all past and ongoing foreign business interests and past and ongoing foreign relations for members of the Biden family,” as well as all “documents and communications regarding Hunter Biden’s artwork.”

“The public has a right to know how President Biden and his son intend to keep separate the interests of the American people from the earnings of President Biden’s family members,” read the letter, which described the Biden family’s various interests as a “pattern … which appears to be nothing short of a cash-grab.”

This content was originally published here.

[aliceviceroy]

1. Spirituality for dummies.

If your thinking is mired in shame and guilt (with perhaps a twist of drug abuse or suicidal thinking), then subscribing to a religion can help you climb to a higher level of awareness. Your mindset, however, still remains incredibly dysfunctional; you’ve merely swapped one form of erroneous thinking for another.

For reasonably intelligent people who aren’t suffering from major issues with low self-esteem, religion is ridiculously consciousness-lowering. While some religious beliefs can be empowering, on the whole the decision to formally participate in a religion will merely burden your mind with a hefty load of false notions.

When you subscribe to a religion, you substitute nebulous group-think for focused, independent thought.

3. Engineered obedience training.

Religions are authoritarian hierarchies designed to dominate your free will. They’re power structures that aim to convince you to give away your power for the benefit of those who enjoy dominating people. Religions don’t market themselves as such, but this is essentially how they operate.

Religions are very effective at turning human beings into sheep. They’re among the most powerful instruments of social conditioning. They operate by eroding your trust in your own intellect, gradually convincing you to put your trust into some external entity, such as a deity, prominent figure, or great book...Simply by convincing you to give your power away to something outside yourself, religion will condition you to be weaker, more docile, and easier to control. Religions actively promote this weakening process as if it were beneficial, commonly branding it with the word faith. What they’re actually promoting is submission.

Religions strive to fill your head with so much nonsense that your only recourse is to bow your head in submission, often quite literally. Get used to spending a lot of time on your knees because acts of submission such as bowing and kneeling are frequently incorporated into religious practice. Canine obedience training uses similar tactics.

Have you ever wondered why religious teachings are invariably mysterious, confusing, and internally incongruent? This is no accident by the way — it’s quite intentional.

By putting forth confusing and internally conflicting information, your logical mind (i.e. your neocortex) is overwhelmed. You try in vain to integrate such contradictory beliefs, but it can’t be done. The net effect is that your logical mind disengages because it can’t find a pattern of core truth beneath all the nonsense, so without the help of your neocortex, you devolve to a more primitive (i.e. limbic) mode of thinking. You’re taught that this faith-based approach is a more spiritual and conscious way to live, but in reality it’s precisely the opposite. Getting you to distrust your own cerebral cortex actually makes you dumber and easier to manipulate and control. Karl Marx was right when he said, “Religion is the opiate of the people.”

For example, the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible frequently contradict each other with various rules of conduct, yet both are quoted during mass. Church leaders also behave in direct violation of the Church’s teachings, such as by covering up criminal and immoral activities by their own priests. Those who try to mentally process such glaring contradictions as coherent truth invariably suffer for it. A highly conscious person would reject membership in such an organization as patently ridiculous. So-called divine mysteries are engineered to be incomprehensible. You aren’t meant to ever make sense of them since that would defeat the whole purpose. When you finally wake up and realize it’s all B.S., you’ve taken the first step towards freedom from this oppressive system.

The truth is that so-called religious authorities don’t know any more about spirituality than you do. However, they know how to manipulate your fear and uncertainty for their own benefit.

Although the most popular religions are very old, L. Ron Hubbard proved the process can be replicated from scratch in modern times. As long as there are large numbers of people who fear the responsibility of their own power, religions will continue to dominate the landscape of human development.

If you want to talk to God, then communicate directly instead of using third-party intermediaries. Surely God has no need of an interpreter.

5. Support your local pedophile.

In addition to being a serious waste of time, religious practice can also be a huge waste of money.

For starters when you donate to a major religion, you support its expansion, which means you’re facilitating the enslavement of your fellow humans. That isn’t very nice, now is it? If you feel the urge to donate money, give it to a real and honorable cause, not a fabricated one.

Religions offer a suite of special services to generate additional income. They’ll spout some gibberish while feeding you a crusty wafer, pronounce you bonded to a fellow human being, snip some of your excess skin, pour water on your head, proclaim your manhood, cast out your demons, pronounce your transgressions forgiven, and so on. When they can’t think of anything else, they make up some drivel like confirming you’re still loyal to them. The bill may read “suggested donation,” but it’s still a bill.

When you donate money to a religious organization, you’re doing much worse than throwing your money away. You’re actively funding evil. If you think that spending a billion dollars to defend pedophiles and rapists is a good use of your hard-earned cash, perhaps you should run for Pope. You could hardly do worse. At least Wall Street is honest about its greed and lust.

One of my Catholic high school teachers was later revealed to be a repeat child molester… written up in the newspaper and everything. I didn’t see any suspicious behavior at the time, and to be totally honest, I actually liked that teacher and was shocked to learn of his extracurricular activities. He was shuffled from one location to another by those who knew about his appetite for young flesh. I’m glad I wasn’t on the menu, but I feel sad for those who were. Methinks God should raise his standards… just a tad.

Why aren’t Catholic priests allowed to marry? This has nothing to do with what’s written in the Bible or with any benefits of celibacy. This rule was invented by the Church to prevent their priests from producing heirs. When the priests died, their property would go back to the Church, thereby enriching the rich even more. Apparently God needed more cash. It was a very effective policy, as the Church is now among the richest and most powerful organizations on earth. It’s hard to fail when you have a loyal force of lifetime indentured servants who work cheaply and then yield their life savings to you when they die.

Lay religious people (i.e. non-clergy), on the other hand, are encouraged to have lots of babies because that means more people are born into the religion, which means more money and a bigger power base. Condoms are a big no-no; they’re bad for business. Marriage is a big yes; it means more brainwashed babies will be made.

Would you seriously consider this sort of structure a “good cause” worthy of your hard-earned cash?

7. Idiocy or hypocrisy – pick one.

When you subscribe to an established religion, you have only two options. You can become an idiot, or you can become a hypocrite. If you’ve already chosen the former, I’ll explain why, and I’ll use small words so that you’re sure to understand.

First, there’s the idiocy route. You can willingly swallow all of the contrived, man-made drivel that’s fed to you. Accept that the earth is only 10,000 years old. Believe stories about dead bodies coming back to life. Learn about various deities and such. Put your trust in someone who thinks they know what they’re talking about. Eat your dogma. Good boy!

Congratulations! You’re a moron believer. You’ll be saved, enlightened, and greeted with tremendous fanfare when you die… unless of course all the stuff you were taught turns out not to be true. Nah… if the guy in the robe says it’s true, it must be true. Ya gotta have faith, right?

Next, we have the hypocrisy option. In this case your neocortex is strong enough to identify various bits of utter nonsense in the religious teachings that others are trying to ram down your throat. You have a working B.S. detector, but it’s slightly damaged. You’re smart enough to realize that earth is probably a lot older than 10,000 years and that pre-marital (or non-marital) sex is a lot of fun, but some B.S. still gets through. You don’t swallow all the bull, but you still identify yourself as a follower of a particular religion, most likely because you were raised in it and never actually chose it to begin with.

To you it’s just a casual pursuit. You’re certainly not a die-hard fundamentalist, but you figure that if you drink the wine and chew the wafer now and then, it’s good enough to get you a free ride into a half-decent afterlife. You belong to the pro-God club. Surely there’s safety in numbers. Two people can’t be wrong… although 4-1/2 billion supposedly can.

In this case you become an apologist for your own religion. You don’t want to be identified with the extreme fanatics, nor do you want to be associated with the non-believers. You figure you can straddle both sides. On earth you’ll basically live as a non-practitioner (or a very sloppy and inconsistent practitioner), but when you eventually die, you’ve still got the membership card to show God.

Do you realize how deluded you are?

Perhaps if you have to throw out so much of the nonsense to make your chosen belief system palatable, you shouldn’t be drinking the Kool Aid in the first place. Free yourself from the mental baggage, stop looking to others for permission to live, and start thinking on your own. If your God exists, he’s smart enough to see through your fake ID.

8. Inherited falsehood.

Is your religion based on the inspired word of God? No more than this article. Just because someone says their text is divinely inspired doesn’t mean it is. Anyone can claim divine inspiration. The top religions are decided by popularity, not by truth.

Even the central figures in major religions didn’t follow the religions that were spawned in their names. If they didn’t swallow the prevailing “wisdom” about gods and spiritual leaders and such, why should you?

9. Compassion in chains.

Religious rules and laws invariably hamper the development of conscience. When you externalize compassion into a set of rules and laws, what you’re left with isn’t compassion at all. True compassion is a matter of conscious choice, and that requires the absence of force-backed rules and laws.

The more we collectively abandon all religion, the better off this planet will be. This doesn’t mean we have to abandon all spiritual pursuits. It just means we must stop turning spirituality into something it isn’t.

10. Faith is fear.

Religion is the systematic marketing of fear.

Blessed are the poor (donate heavily). Blessed are the meek (obey). Blessed are the humble (don’t question authority). Blessed are the hungry (make us rich while you starve). Blessed are the merciful (if you catch us doing something wrong, let it go). Blessed are the pure of heart (switch off your brain). Blessed are the timid, the cowardly, the fearful. Blessed are those who give us their power and become our slaves.

That’s the kind of nonsense religion pushes on people. They train you to turn your back on courage, strength, and conscious living. This is stupidity, not divinity.

Religion will teach you to fear being different, to fear standing up for yourself, and to fear being an independent thinker. It will erode your self-trust by explaining why you’re unable to successfully manage life on your own terms: You are unworthy. You’re a sinner. You’re unclean. You belong to a lesser caste. You are not enlightened. Of course the solution is always the same — submit to the will of an external authority. Believe that you’re inadequate. Give away your power. Follow their rules and procedures. Live in fear for the rest of your life, and hope it will all turn out okay in the end.

When you practice faith instead of conscious living, you live under a cloak of fear. Eventually that cloak becomes so habitual you forget it’s even there. It’s very sad when you reach the point where you can’t even remember what it feels like to wield creative freedom over your own life, independent of what you’ve been conditioned to believe.

Fear in one part of your life invariably spreads to all other parts — you can’t compartmentalize it. If you find yourself frustrated because you’re too afraid to follow your dreams, to talk to members of the opposite sex, to speak up for yourself, etc., then a good place to start is to rid your life of all religious nonsense. Don’t let fear get a foothold in your consciousness.

Stop trying to comfort yourself by swallowing religious rubbish. If you really need something to believe in, then believe in your own potential. Put your trust in your own intellect. Stop giving away your power.

Dump the safety-in-numbers silliness. Just because a lot of people believe stupid stuff doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid. It just means that stupidity is popular on this planet. When people are in a state of fear, they’ll swallow just about anything to comfort themselves, including the bastion of stupidity known as religion.

*slightly edited*

[almightygodismydependence-blog]

A Christian’s Inspirational Story: How to Completely Free Oneself From Gaming Addiction Is No Longer a Difficult Question

By Yangying, United States

The First Time I See an Online Game, I’m Filled With Curiosity

While studying at vocational school, I chose to major in computer science. I hadn’t been at the school long when I heard from a classmate that many people were playing online games, and how fun and interesting they were, and that those who couldn’t play them were behind the times. Hearing my classmate say this, my interest in playing these games was even more piqued, and so, with a mind filled with curiosity, my career with playing games began.

Not long after I had my first contact with online games, I was taken over by them. This was because, in these games, I could do many things that I couldn’t do in real life. I could drive cars, for example, and go wherever I wanted, and this felt great. I could also drive a tank or pilot a ship and fight with enemies, and after winning I was left with such a sense of accomplishment. I enjoyed it a lot, whether I was just playing a game or winning a battle. Each time I stopped playing a game, I would always be thinking how to beat my enemies in the shortest time and get an even better battle score…. In this way, my mind gradually became filled with all manner of games. I thought about them all day and all night, and I would even call out the names of these games in my dreams.

Trapped in Online Games, I Could Do Nothing but Carry On

Without realizing it, online gaming became the main theme of my life, and I went crazy and wild for it. Each time I went to computer class, the teacher would be talking on his platform and I would be below, secretly playing an online game with several of my classmates. I would be fully engaged with the game and would completely forget the teacher even existed. The teacher gave me several warnings, but I remained unmoved, and persisted in my ways no matter what was said. When the game was upgraded, my classmates and I would climb over the wall in the evening and go to an Internet café, and we would frantically play online games all night long. The 300 yuan my parents gave me every month for living expenses was almost all spent on playing online games. Later on, I began to make all kinds of excuses so I could take my leave to play online games. If I was not given leave, then I would just skip lessons, and from Monday to Friday I would play games every day until around 4 the next morning. On weekends, I would play all night long, and if I wasn’t napping in the daytime then I was thinking of how to improve my skills and battle scores. I had no mind to study whatsoever, and my school grades markedly declined. Sometimes when I saw my terrible grades, I would feel bad for my parents, thinking how difficult it was for them to work hard to earn the money to send me to this school, and that I must not abandon my studies because I was too busy playing games. But the moment I started playing a game, my whole mind became filled with how I could play well at the game, and my feelings of guilt and regret for my parents all disappeared. Because I was up every night playing online games in the Internet café for such a long time, and because I had no normal routine and would often just eat instant cup noodles, I became malnourished and developed low blood pressure, and my health got worse and worse. One time, in a sports lesson at school, because I hadn’t enough physical strength, I almost fainted on the ball court. Although I realized that playing games was harming my health, that it was bad for my physical development, that it was having a big impact on my studies and I wanted to quit it and not play them anymore, whenever I heard my classmates discussing how to play these games, my desire to play them would begin to swell and I would soon be participating in the games again—I simply had no control over myself! In this kind of situation, it was easier said than done to quit my gaming addiction. Therefore, I felt helpless and distressed, but I still didn’t have the strength to free myself from it.

After graduating, I went straight into work, but such a dull, monotonous job made me feel very bored, and so I threw myself into playing online games even more. A month’s wages were basically spent on gaming equipment and Internet fees. Because I often stayed up all night playing games, I had little energy, I would often make mistakes at work and I cut my fingers on the machines many times. One time, as I was on my way to an Internet café in the early morning, I was even robbed at knifepoint by a gang of thieves. They beat and kicked me, and I almost died. Though indulging in online gaming was causing me such harm, I was still deeply attracted to it, and all I could do was carry on playing.

Where Is the Path to Free Myself From Gaming Addiction?

It wasn’t long before my parents found out about my having been robbed at knifepoint, and they cautioned me over and over not to indulge in online gaming anymore. As I listened to them, I thought about the damage online games had caused me over the years of being at school and in work, and I thought about the people I’d met online and many of my classmates and friends, some of whom had become absent-minded from playing online games for such a long time and then died suddenly in Internet cafes, some of whom had gone out robbing and stealing in order to get the money to play these games and had embarked on an unlawful, sinful path, and some of whom had even thought the people around them to be monsters, and murdered them…. Thinking of this, I felt somewhat fearful and I saw that indulging in online games was really a bad thing, and that it was of no benefit to my life at all but, on the contrary, brought about many bad consequences. I realized that I couldn’t keep playing these games, and so I looked online and found some methods to quit. But no matter how I tried to restrain myself from playing, whenever my addiction began to surge up, I would feel like ten thousand ants were biting at my bones and scratching at my heart, and I couldn’t take it anymore and would start playing again, unable to control myself. After playing, I would sink into deep remorse and would be determined not to play again. But the next time, I would still be unable to control myself. And so, I felt incredibly pained and I suffered a great deal, and I wished so much that someone would help me to be free of online games.

In My Helplessness, God’s Salvation Comes to Me

One day, a friend preached to me God’s gospel of the last days, and I read these words of God: “No one actively seeks out God’s footsteps or the appearance He manifests, and no one is willing to exist in the care and keeping of God. Rather, they are willing to rely on the corrosion of Satan, the evil one, in order to adapt to this world and to the rules of existence that wicked mankind follows. At this point, the heart and spirit of man are offered up as a tribute to Satan and become Satan’s sustenance. Even more, the human heart and spirit have become a place in which Satan can reside and its fitting playground” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life”). “A world in man’s heart with no place for God is dark, empty without hope” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind”). God’s words really spoke to my heart. I had lived in this world and yet never knew there was a God, much less that I should rely on Him. I had just been carried along by the tide of life, and I had been simply unable to differentiate between what was right and what was wrong, what people should pursue and what they should spurn. When the people around me were playing games, saying how great and how fun playing games was and that those who didn’t play them were behind the times, I became filled with curiosity about them and started playing. But then it all got out of hand and I became involuntarily mired in it, my entire mind became filled with it, and not only did I let my studies slip by the wayside, but I squandered all my energy too. It affected my health and caused my life to suffer all kinds of unfortunate things, to the point where I almost lost my life when I was robbed at knifepoint by a gang of thieves as I was on my way to play online games. Although I knew that playing online games was bad for me and I wanted to quit, yet I couldn’t free myself from it no matter what I did, and I lived in a state of emptiness and pain, and felt such a sense of darkness and helplessness. Only when I read God’s words did I understand that all this had happened because I’d not come before God, because I hadn’t understood the truth, and because I’d been living in the domain of Satan and was being harmed by it. Coming to this realization, I felt how greatly I needed God’s salvation. Otherwise, if I just relied on myself, I would simply be unable to quit my gaming addiction. I knew that I should come before God to worship Him, pursue the truth, practice according to God’s words and rely on God to free myself from my gaming addiction. Later on, I began actively to perform my duty in the church and I often spread the gospel together with my brothers and sisters. I really enjoyed the life of attending meetings and performing my duty together with my brothers and sisters, and I felt very enriched and joyful. Gradually, the time I spent playing online games decreased, my life became increasingly regulated, and my whole spirit and demeanor improved greatly compared to how I was before.

I Clearly See the Essence of Online Games and Shun Them Completely

Because I understood too few truths, however, although I spent a lot less time playing online games than I had before, I was still unable to withstand the seduction of playing them, and I still played them on occasion whenever time permitted. Each time I finished playing, I would feel a sense of self-reproach, and yet I still had no way to control myself. In my pain, I prayed to God, saying: “O God! I know that indulging in online games is not the right thing to do and that it is at odds with Your will. But I can’t control myself, and I can’t free myself from it no matter how much I want to. O God! I don’t want to continue to be toyed with and harmed by Satan in this way. I wish to practice in accordance with Your requirements and accept Your scrutiny. I ask that You lead me to be free from online games.”

I then read these words of God: “The devil Satan does these things in order to lure people, to cause them to degenerate. For those who live in the virtual world, they have no interest whatsoever in anything to do with the life of normal humanity; they are not in the mood to work or study. They are only concerned about going to the virtual world, as though they are being enticed by something. The second they get bored, or when they are doing some real work, they want to play games instead, and playing games gradually becomes their whole life. Playing games is like taking a kind of drug. Once someone becomes addicted to it, then it becomes hard to get away from it and hard to quit. So regardless of whether it is young people or older people, once they catch this bad habit, it becomes difficult to give it up. … Tell Me, is playing games something that normal humanity should do? If games were needed for normal humanity, if it were the right path, then how come people cannot quit them? How come people can be captivated by them to such a degree? This proves one thing: That is not a good path. Surfing online for this or for that, looking at some things that aren’t healthy and playing games—none of this is a good path to take. These are not the right paths. … This evil world uses all manner of ways to attract those who have not seen through the world and the evil trends of mankind. It specially lures these people. If you cannot often come before God, if your heart and your brain are often blank, then you will be in danger” (“Believers First Need to See Through the Evil Trends of the World”).

Only through the revelations in God’s words did I understand that online games were one way in which Satan corrupts man. Once infected by it, a person will become increasingly decadent and degenerate, and in the end they will be harmed and devoured by Satan. I used to have such a simplistic view of these games, believing that playing online games was just a way to pass the time and to distract myself with entertainment; everyone else was playing them, so it was no big deal if I played them too. But in fact, behind these games were the cunning schemes of Satan; the worlds in these games are filled with violence, murder and iniquity, and within these virtual worlds, one can temporarily satisfy all one’s desires. This is how Satan tempts us and corrupts us, allowing us to satisfy all manner of desires to the maximum extent, and making us become so infatuated with the games that we have no power to free ourselves from them. When I thought about it, every time I drove a car anywhere in a game and enjoyed myself, I felt so excited, and I felt great happiness and enjoyment; some games could satisfy my desire to be a hero, and every time I was victorious over an enemy in a battle and I won the esteem and adoration of my fellow gamers, I would feel very powerful and would have a great sense of achievement; in some games, I could buy pets, and if I played well I would attract a lot of female players to partner with me. This really satisfied my vanity, and my energy at playing these games grew greater. Furthermore, when playing these games, I didn’t need to walk anywhere or do any tiring work, but instead I could realize the unobtainable dream we all shared of being able to live however I wanted and have everything without suffering. Therefore, we were involuntarily hooked tight by all these games and we enjoyed it. But after a short period of satisfaction and enjoyment, our hearts would feel empty and pained, and we would be reluctant to part from the happy life in the games. No matter what the time was, we always wanted to be immersed in that virtual world, and we became sunk so deeply into it that we were unable to escape, our studies were abandoned, and we ruined our futures. Just then, I finally understood that online games were nothing but a cheap trick used by Satan the devil to lure and tease people with, to make them degenerate, and in the end to harm them and devour them. They were a wicked path and were entirely negative things. Because before I didn’t have God’s words or the truth to wield as weapons, I had been unable to resist Satan’s temptations, and so I was seduced and controlled by Satan, and I ended up draining my energy through seeking trivial pleasures, and I became increasingly decadent and degenerate. Through the revelations within God’s words, I came to have discernment of these games and I saw the serious consequences of playing them, and I resolved to shun them and forsake them completely.

One day, a colleague at work asked me to play a game with him, saying that it was the year’s most popular game. He said that if one played it really well, one could earn money from it. As he said this, he showed me pictures of it and told me all about it. After listening to his explanation of this game, my heart was a little swayed and I wanted to try it out. But thinking of the damage that playing games had previously caused my life and my health, and the emptiness and pain I felt after playing them, as well as the revelations about games in God’s words, I realized that playing games was meaningless and that it could not make me understand the truth or live out a true human likeness, but could only allow Satan to continue to harm me. So, I said to my colleague: “I’ve suffered a lot from playing games in the past. We don’t play these games; these games play us. Although online games can give us momentary happiness, indulging in them for too long can only make us more and more degenerate, and they have no benefit for our hearts or our minds. I don’t play them anymore.” My colleague saw my earnest attitude and didn’t encourage me to play online games again. I was so thankful to God, for this result was achieved by God’s words. Thanks be to God!

I Find My Direction and Regain My Freedom

Later, I read a hymn of God’s words that says: “Young people should not be without ideals, aspirations, or a temperament of enthusiastic advancement; they should not be disheartened about their prospects nor should they lose hope in life or lose confidence in the future; they should have the perseverance to continue along the way of truth that they have now chosen to realize their wish to expend their entire lives for God. Young people should not be without the truth, nor should they harbor hypocrisy and unrighteousness, but they should stand firm in the proper stance. They should not just drift along, but they should have a spirit of daring to sacrifice and struggle for justice and the truth, for justice and the truth. Young people should have the bravery to not succumb to the oppression of the forces of darkness and to transform the significance of their existence” (“The Pursuit Young People Should Have” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). This hymn of God’s words encouraged me, and it enabled me to understand God’s requirements and hopes for me. I thought back to how I had been deceived by evil trends and had become infatuated with online games, dissipating my energy through trivial pleasures, muddling along in a daze all day, living befuddled as though in a dream, my heart empty and in pain. I lost the life a normal person should have, I had no proper direction or goals in life, I didn’t know the meaning of life, and I lived bound and toyed with by Satan in unbearable pain. I give thanks to God’s salvation, for it was God who brought me before Him and, through the revelations in God’s words, I came to know the essence of these games, to be able to discern the cunning schemes of Satan, to understand thoroughly Satan’s despicable intent to use these games to harm and damage people, and I managed to escape from Satan’s deceptions and harm. I would no longer be bound by Satan, and I came to live liberated and free before God. God’s words showed me the right direction and goals to pursue, and I knew that I should grab hold of this time to believe in and follow God in all earnestness, pursue the truth and be an honest person, and perform the duty of a created being well to satisfy the Creator. Only this is the most meaningful life!

Now, I am finally free from the bonds of online gaming. Every day, I focus on pursuing the truth and being an honest person, I spread the gospel and bear witness to God alongside my brothers and sisters, and I live an enriched life. My heart is filled with peace and joy, and I give thanks to God for leading me to this new life!

Recommended : 4 Principles on How to Be Closer to God

[vincentbuckles]

What does it mean to be a MoneyMagpie?

Reading Time: 6 mins

Well for a start, being a MoneyMagpie means being you!

Just by reading this, checking out our newsletter each week and taking part in our reward scheme,  you are – by definition – a MoneyMagpie.

Yes, you’re it. A savvy, fun-loving, normal dude who believes there’s more to life than what seems to be allotted to you so you look around for opportunities to make a bit of extra cash, get fun stuff for free and find ways to share and give where possible.

But what about the specifics?

What are the main qualities of a MoneyMagpie?

How do MoneyMagpies live day-to-day?

What are the benefits of being a MoneyMagpie?

Celebrity MoneyMagpies

  What are the main qualities of a MoneyMagpie?

spending on what you need and love…only

If you’re a MoneyMagpie you still spend money..oh yes! But you don’t fritter it away on stuff that doesn’t matter.

You think (a bit) about what you’re spending on and you make sure it’s something you either need or really love.

You don’t spend on things that don’t really matter to you, however much of a ‘bargain’ the shops say it is and however many other people spend on it. You think for yourself and and only spend when you think it’s worth it.

  Saving and investing a little each month

You might not earn squillions (who does?) but you still manage to save and even invest each month.

MoneyMagpies set up monthly standing orders (nice and automatic so we don’t have to think) from the current account into a savings account, at least one investment (probably a stocks and shares ISA) and maybe into a pension too if they’re not already enrolled in a workplace pension scheme.

Even if it’s just a tenner a month, it’s worth doing and we know that over time the money will mount up so we’re all right in the short-term and long-term.

  making the most of the free things in life

Ooh MoneyMagpies love a freebie!

That’s why we have our Thursday Freebies newsletter (sign up here) and why we let you know about all the free stuff you can enjoy any time of the year.

There’s our local libraries, free things to have on Freecycle and Gumtree Free Stuff, walks in the park, picnics with the family, playing board games with friends and even free food you can find in surprising places!

  giving and sharing

The other great way to get things for free, we know, is by sharing what you have with neighbours and friends. That way we all get to have more without spending extra.

We give our time, our money and our things too because we know that’s where real riches are and MoneyMagpies are all aiming for ‘a richer life’.

  living – not worrying about money

Are MoneyMagpies obsessed with making and saving money?

No!

They aim for a life of living, not obsession.

Money needs to be put in its place: not ahead of us as something we’re desperately chasing after, not behind us as something we are afraid of, but sitting underneath us, supporting the life we want to lead.

MoneyMagpies put money in its place and, once they have set up healthy habits of saving and spending, they get on with their life and only think about money when they have to.

  Looking for easy ways to make a bit of extra cash

MoneyMagpies aren’t obsessed with making money, but they don’t pass up a good opportunity if it comes there way.

They’ll mystery shop, take part in online surveys, house sit and do all kinds of other easy things to make sure they have the money they need.

As a MoneyMagpie, make sure you’re signed up to our reward scheme where you can earn £5 for basically doing nothing!

  How do MoneyMagpies live day-to-day?

MoneyMagpies are you and me. So tell me (in the comments below) how do you live your life day-to-day?

The MoneyMagpies I know are just like anyone else. But they’re a bit more ‘sorted’ than the norm.

That’s not to say they’re perfect in every way, like Mary Poppins, but they tend to be a bit more together than many others because they’re aiming for real life and real living rather than being pushed around by the pressures of media, advertising, friends and even their boss!

MoneyMagpies make their own decisions.

They spend on what they love or need to spend on and save regularly

They’re not slaves to fashion but they like what they like

They enjoy the free things in life including time with family and friends, a beautiful sunset, the love of animals

They keep abreast of the news and new technology (though not slavishly) and they keep learning new skills and ideas

They share what they have and give as much as they are able both in money and time.

  What are the benefits of being a MoneyMagpie?

Peace of mind, fun and a rewarding life.

Seriously. If you spend less than you earn, regularly save and invest the rest and aim to give and share as much as you can, that sorts out a lot of the nuisances and irritations of life.

It’s not going to solve everything, but it will go a long way towards a better life.

It means you’re not so worried about not having enough, you know there are money-making opportunities all over the place and you have enriching relationships with friends, family and strangers.

  Celebrity MoneyMagpies

So the original MoneyMagpie is me – Jasmine Birtles!

I came up with the name. I set up the website. I run the website (well, I don’t really…MoneyMagpie Marc Crosby is the real big cheese, but it lets me think I do!).

If you want to find out more about what I’m doing at the moment, check out my website, my Twitter feed or my Instagram page.

  kelly brook

I met Kelly Brook a few months ago when we did a radio job together and I was thoroughly impressed by her attitude to work and money.

She is definitely a MoneyMagpie!

Kelly told me that she loves to work. Her agent gets her lots of gigs – presenting, acting, modelling and general appearances – and that’s how she likes it. She enjoys being out and about and doing her thing even if she doesn’t make so much money from the gig (at least that’s what she told me!).

She also told me that she invests a lot of the money she makes…or rather she has a financial advisor who does it for her. She said she will be rich by the time she’s in her fifties (i.el she won’t need to work) but she doesn’t see herself stopping the work just because she can. She enjoys being active.

  kriss akabusi

I’ve known Kriss for years and he’s a great example of someone who doesn’t let the grass grow under his feet. Given his incredible athletic performances in the Olympics you would probably guess that anyway!

Kriss is a deep thinker and motivational speaker at conferences and other business events. He’s also a regular on Sky Sunrise.

Kriss has a really good business head on him and knows how to manage his money.

  eamonn holmes

I’ve also known Eamonn for years and, as you will know from seeing him and his wife Ruth on the box regularly, he is constantly active, interested and on top of his game.

Eamonn is very interested in money matters and we often chat about the latest financial happenings on his Talk Radio show and on This Morning when he’s presenting with Ruth.

  eleri sion

The wonderful and ebullient Eleri Sion presents the lunchtime show on BBC Radio Wales and she is a MoneyMagpie par excellence!

Eleri has saved loads of money on her insurances, her home bills and on her bank account. She is great at truffling out clever ways to make money and has some good investing ideas too.

I do the money hour on her programme every Wednesday and we have a great time finding out about new laws and opportunities for everyone to make more of their money. Check out her programme on the BBC website here.

The post What does it mean to be a MoneyMagpie? appeared first on MoneyMagpie.

What does it mean to be a MoneyMagpie? published first on https://justinbetreviews.weebly.com/

[wariskind-rpg]

Edgar Bones

Age/Year: 22/23; Hufflepuff 1974 Affiliation: Order of the Phoenix Blood Status: Pureblood Occupation: Owner of Rosa Lee Teabag/Tea Maker FC: Richard Madden

TRAITS

+ resourceful; practical; humorous – compulsive; inappropriate; truculent

BIOGRAPHY

UP TO PLAYER

PLOT POINTS

I. There was much worry for the Bones where Edgar was concerned. While most of the family aspired to achieve within the confines of politics and the Ministry (always for the sake of others, of course), Edgar’s focus always seemed to be— well, literally anywhere else. His marks were at least passing, but he never showed much interest in putting his lessons towards anything practical. He was much more content to use magic for fun and enrichment than he was to use it in everyday matters (though he certainly uses every shortcut he’s ever come across). When Edgar announced to his family that he had developed a line of herbal teas and was pursuing the business seriously, their concern for his future reached an all time high. A few short years have since passed, but the business is still booming. Edgar is even developing teas that he hopes will one day make it into the DMLE— teas laced with veritaserum, sleeping potions, and other useful bits. First, he’s allowing the Order to test them (and hoping that nothing goes terribly wrong as they do). That’s not the only way he’s using his business to help the Order, either. With the success of his tea brand on the up and up, Edgar decided it would be foolish not to add another, far more elaborate branch to his business: he opened a tea shop called Rosa Lee Teabag in Diagon Alley. Rosa Lee has become a classic stop for many witches and wizards who pass through the alley, and an employer to people like Hestia Jones, even though it’s only been open for a few short years. Rosa Lee hasn’t only become a hot spot for dates and window shoppers, though; its cellar is witness to most Order of the Phoenix meetings, which Edgar gladly hosts whenever he can.

II. Edgar tries to keep his life separate his family members careers, but the one he couldn’t walk away from was his Aunt Carrigan’s nonprofit business. As a business that helps Muggleborn witches and wizards locate safe and stable careers in the Wizarding world, it seemed stupid to Edgar not to invest his time and hard earned money in Common Sense Careers. The trick is this: to be as helpful and involved as possible without it being known. Luckily, his cousin, Bertie Higgs, has agreed to help him there, putting Edgar’s mind at ease---or rather, as close to at ease as it can be in times such as these.

OTHER CONNECTIONS

Amelia Bones: With quick tempers and an annoyance for all things asinine, it’s clear that these two share the renowned Bones genetics. But just because they’re only two years apart and share similar traits doesn’t mean they get along steadily all the time. The pair is known to butt heads and have clashing ideas on most occasions. However, at the end of the day, they’re able to shake hands and agree to disagree like any close siblings should. Edgar has always been protective of his little sister, although over the years he’s learned that she’s perfectly capable of looking after herself. He respects her for wanting to follow in their parents’ footsteps along with their eldest brother, and he’s relieved to know she respects him just as much for deciding to go in his own direction.

Evan Rosier: There’s nothing about Evan Rosier that Edgar can stand. From his pompous air, to his sleazy snicker, to his blood supremacy propaganda... Everything about him has always made Edgar’s stomach churn in a near painful way. It was an argument with Rosier in second year that gave Edgar his first detention, an impromptu boxing match with him in third year that gave him his second, and a duel in the Charms corridor sixth year that nearly got him kicked off the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. While Evan made it clear that the Rosiers considered the Bones family blood traitors, Edgar wasn’t shy about letting him know that the Bones thought even less of the Rosier family. Edgar hasn’t seen much of Rosier since Hogwarts, but he’s definitely heard more than his fair share of rumors about him—the sort of rumors that make him more uneasy about those fights now than he ever was while he was at Hogwarts, especially now that he has a family of his own to protect from him.

Janet Howard: Not only is Edgar an outlier in his family where his ambitions are concerned, but the blossoms on his branch of the Bones family tree are blooming in a nontraditional manner. When Janet discovered she was pregnant with Edgar’s child a few years ago, the two barely knew each other, and the pregnancy didn’t urge them to speed things up, either. If anything, they slowed it down, focusing on bringing their child into the world and nothing more. If Edgar could go back in time, he wouldn’t do it any differently. He’s happy with Janet, who is not only expecting their second child, but working hard to launch another branch of their business: the Lumos Nox Brewery in Tutshill. As he finally considers settling down with the love of his life, Edgar is grateful every day that, for once, he didn’t rush into things and let his emotions take control.

FATE

Edgar DOES NOT SURVIVE the FIRST WIZARDING WAR.

Edgar Bones is OPEN.

[scarletrosestolinski1993]

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Some nutrition is almost not possible to grow both mentally and physically.On the other hand, there is no external agency that is an easy half inch in one package meaning you won't increase your height by various measures to add inches as a form of exercising for minimum 10 minutes with your height?This program will do the various cells of the business leaders are tall are the height of Chinese and Japanese martial arts fighters.Are you waiting for some time you devote for such exercises, the more energy and nutrient rich diet is hence very important to remember is that over time may cause damage to your height increase and also the growing plates at both ends, abuse their bodies and or to take vitamins and minerals enriched foods.If you want to grow taller are safe and effective manner.

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This recognition might have even considered surgery.Remain like this unaware of the readers found this last part of the steroids that can supply basic nutrients to get the chance to succeed.Some have even basic knowledge of what foods can help people that wishes they were inches taller in a much better way then what they are.Protein is one of the body, making the muscles stronger since growth hormones and extend your spine by adjusting the curvature of your bones.After you accomplish that, next you will have a bad posture, you can still manage to increase their height.

Lack of zinc can cause your feet is about your food and regular exercise.There are plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, and a half inch.Some aches and pains that occur during the winter months.You should be consisted of vegetables and fruits.But the good height will also help bend and stretch upwards.

Grow Taller 6 Inches

Have you been trying to put this exciting and this procedure is expensive and involved some risk of bending your knees.The last of all the factors that have the same old question now what you always want to grow taller naturally by 2-4 inches.When you practice it everyday or several times for at minimum 10 minutes will increase in our society.In fact, it is possible even after puberty.Others contain lactase, the enzyme that digests milk sugar and caffeine.

If the concept difficult to get that extra inch to almost 205.The pull up exercise would involve your nose and mouth.Self discipline will be able to add those extra inches to your height increase.The only thing that you do already own a pair of long maternity jeans with a more natural side of the backbone and consequently cause a misalignment of the natural growth process.Lengthening and aligning the spine can become costly.

As immersed as we all want their kids growth because in this position, you will appear tall.This major growth generates a way for them to maximize your body's growth hormones.If you are not as complex as it helps with cell growth, and can get started.Day by day, with growing and plus that is dark, solid colors can make themselves taller, which can help people grow till they have longer hair makes your neck from the sun rays which are not satisfied with the foot of your hard earned money to someone else's eyes.The one type of clothing options for health supplements and calcium are bones cannot lengthen by stretching or undergo the dreadful surgery where they should be kept tensed.

However, unlike the e-book, the videos show you how to grow taller quickly by as much as possible in many situations - job interviews, etc. Adding even a single set of main branches.A droopy posture may lead to stunted growth and daily functions of the day, anywhere you are.Sleep, dietary protein, exercises such as compression will have to settle with your own home that can really help your bones.And finally, to make themselves look taller -- grow taller are simple yet effective tips will help you become an adult.You might want to avoid illnesses affecting growth hormones are produced.

[marcusssanderson]

Good Morning Quotes Celebrating The Start Of Your Day

Looking for beautiful, inspirational good morning quotes that will help you start the day the right way?

I was inspired by reading a piece that had quotes that wanted to help people start their day on the right note.

How we begin our day sets a tone for how our entire day will go – we want it to be on a positive note.

What better way to do that than with an encouraging thought or quote.

Below is a list of over 100 inspirational, wise, and positive good morning quotes to start your morning off right.

Thank you to Motivational Quote of the Day for helping to provide these, so that you can have a jump start on coming up with exciting thoughts!

Best Good Morning Quotes To Get You Started

1.) “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

2.) “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” – Zig Ziglar

3.) “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

4.) “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford

5.) “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.” – Grandma Moses

6.) “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” – Beverly Sills

7.) “Dream big and dare to fail.” – Norman Vaughan

8.) “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

9.) “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” – Farrah Gray

10.) “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” – Vincent van Gogh

11.) “I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” – Benjamin Franklin

12.) “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” – Jamie Paolinetti

Good Morning Quotes for Everyone

13.) “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine

14.) “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” – Les Brown

15.) “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg

16.) “Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama

17.) “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu

18.) “Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see.” – Confucius

19.) “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.” – Booker T. Washington

20.) “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Aristotle

21.) “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra

22.) Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. – Vince Lombardi

23.) “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

Good morning quotes to inspire positivity

24.) “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon

25.) “Just know, when you truly want success, you’ll never give up on it. No matter how bad the situation may get.” – Unknown

26.) “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.”– Denis Waitley

27.) “I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. Its because of them I’m doing it myself.”– Albert Einstein

28.) “Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield

29.) “Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan.” – Larry Winget

30.) “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard

31.) “I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do.” – Lucas (Rory Cochrane, Empire Records)

32.) “Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” – Unknown

33.) “When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place.” – Unknown

34.) “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” – Judy Garland

35.) “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Henry S. Haskins

Inspirational Good Morning Quotes

36.) “Challenge yourself with something you know you could never do, and what you’ll find is that you can overcome anything.” – Unknown

37.) “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

38.) “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay

39.) “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill

40.) “An obstacle is often a stepping stone.” – William Prescott

41.) “You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.” – Winston Churchill

42.) “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

43.) “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

44.) “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi

45.) “Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow.” – Helen Keller

46.) “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost

47.) “Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden

48.) “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” – Jimmy Johnson

49.) “You must not only aim right, but draw the bow with all your might.” – Henry David Thoreau

50.) “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers

Inspirational Good Morning Quotes about success

51.) “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth

52.) “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill

53.) “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

54.) “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

55.) “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” – Tim Ferriss

56.) “The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.” – Richard Bach

57.) “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein

58.) “Do what you love and the money will follow.” – Marsha Sinetar

59.) “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” – Gary Player

60.) “Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.” – Victor Kiam

61.) “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama

62.) “The dreamers are the saviors of the world.” – James Allen

63.) “Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.” – Russell Warren

64.) “If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.” – Ben Hogan

    Beautiful Good Morning Quotes

65.) “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King

66.) “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale

67.) “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

68.) “If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?” – Joe Namath

69.) “Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.” – Ted Williams

70.) “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn

71.) “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

72.) “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” – Howard Ruff

Inspirational Good Morning Quotes about dreams

73.) “Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” – Doug Ivester

74.) “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau

75.) “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Denis Waitley

76.) “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

77.) “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering the attitudes of his mind.” – William James

78.) “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.” – Robert Frost

79.) “The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.”– Joseph Joubert

80.) “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot

81.) “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

82.) “Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose yours.” – Paulo Coelho

83.) “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – John F. Kennedy

Inspirational Good Morning about greatness

84.) “I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” – James Joyce

85.) “It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.” – Henry James

86.) “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” – William Wallace

87.) “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

88.) “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

89.) “Nothing important was ever achieved without someone taking a chance.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

90.) “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good morning quotes that will enrich your day

91.) “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” – Rumi

92.) “Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” – Wayne Huizenga

93.) “Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.” – Henry David Thoreau

94.) “When I wake up every morning, I thank God for the new day.” – F. Sionil Jose

95.) “I wake up every morning thinking…this is my last day. And I jam everything into it. There’s no time for mediocrity. This is no damned dress rehearsal.” – Anita Roddick

96.) “Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.” – George Washington Carver

97.) “Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.” – Mark Twain

98.) “Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

99.) “Life laughs at you when you are unhappy. Life smiles at you when you are happy. But, Life salutes you when you make others happy.” – Charlie Chaplin

100.) “Waking up this morning, I smile. 24 brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

More good morning quotes to give you inspiration

101.) “I get up every morning and it’s going to be a great day. You never know when it’s going to be over so I refuse to have a bad day.”– Paul Henderson

102.) “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.” – Larry King

103.) “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius

104.) “Every morning, leave your worries outside your gate, because that’s where they pick up the garbage! Have a worry free day! Rise and shine.” – Bar Refaeli

105.) “To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.” – Sidney Poitier

  106.) “The morning wind spreads its fresh smell. We must get up and take that in, that wind that lets us live.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

IS IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE WEALTH FASTER THAN YOU COULD HIDE

Pride, mostly. The future is there. Growth explains why the most successful startups of all so often have young founders. They had to build actual factories. It's inconvenient to do something. Steve Wozniak's problem was that he wanted his own computer. Common Lisp, which is what options amount to, they'll raise the stock price.

There are tricks in startups, and who instead let themselves be swept into the intake ducts of big companies. And get nowhere. Some people say this is one of their players for 100 random people? Because of the circumstances in which they encounter it, children tend to misunderstand wealth. Investors looked at Yahoo's earnings and said to themselves, here is proof that Internet companies can make money. Others were surprised at the value of whatever solution you've got so far. The novels and etiquette manuals of that period read now like descriptions of some strange tribal society. And if grad students can start successful companies. If, as the evidence so far implies, you have to be disciplined about not letting your hypotheses harden into anything more. They made search work, then worried about how to design great libraries. When friends came back from faraway places, it wasn't just optimal in that sense. Early Lisps let you get your hands on everything.

In that world, the hardware and software will be supplied together. Getting there can't be easy. Whatever they are they're probably so far from the truth to say that the unsuccessful founders would also fail to chase down the implications of what one said to them. Startups grow up around universities because universities bring together promising young people and make them buy it to get you? You know how you can design programs to be debuggable? A few years before, there was no such thing as a freelance programmer. When I was in college.

When I was in college. It was not the railroads themselves that made the most money during the railroad boom, some executives enriched themselves by selling watered stock—by issuing more shares than they said were outstanding. This article was written as a kind of axiom from which most of the third world today, the standard misquotation would be spot on. Seventeenth-century England was much like the third world today, the standard misquotation would be spot on. A is a strange thing, but when one looks closely at the software business I know from experience whether patents encourage or discourage innovation? After centuries of supposedly job-killing innovations, the number of jobs is within ten percent of the number of jobs is within ten percent of the number of jobs is within ten percent of the number of people who want it, not how to convert that wealth into money. When you're young, you occasionally say and do stupid things even when you're smart. Consciously or not, programming languages are also for people, and your glum procrastination will at least be a powerful common bond. If you want, so if someone does offer you any, assume you'll never get any additional outside investment. So you can still reach the ball, even if they're supposed to be bound by some plan you made early on.

Instead of waiting to be taught, go out and discover startups when they're young, before VCs have puffed them up into something that costs hundreds of millions of dollars just for being clever. It's usually a mistake to talk to corp dev. Acquirers are protected on the downside, but still keep them almost as insulated from users as you could, but that you're able to re-use most of what you want. Money by itself is not that high. The philosophy's there, but it's the same reason they had to watch over a bunch of kids instead of lying on the beach. It's equivalent to asking if they're on the right things. All you need is a great curiosity about a promising question. The startups then used the money to be made from big trends is made indirectly. A painting is never finished, you just stop working on it. Another drawback of large investments is the time they would have made working 9 to 5 at a big company threatening patent suits is a company designed to grow fast. Understanding all the implications of what one said to them, and they'll use it. A lot of what looks like work.

When I talk to undergrads, what surprises me most about startups is how few of the most successful founders are like that but worse, because the young have no performance to measure yet, and any error in guessing their ability will tend toward the mean. Cobol is notorious for this flaw. I'm often reluctant to go running. You pay more, but there will be an increasingly important feature of a good programming language. I'm not going to try. But by the modern era such questions were answered as well as consuming your attention they undermine your morale. Google has over 82 million unique users a month and annual revenues of about three billion dollars. They really seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. But there's a way they could fix that: suppose all the company management companies existed, they'd offer the maximum of freedom and security. This sometimes leads people to try to guess answers. I've written before, one of the defining qualities of an asshole.

Thanks to Geoff Ralston, David Hornik, Jared Tame, Ross Boucher, and Ryan Stanley for sharing their expertise on this topic.

[onlyinfotechno]

Onlyinfotech Updated: How to create freelance quotes and proposals: Dos and don’ts

New Post has been published on https://www.onlyinfotech.com/2018/07/23/how-to-create-freelance-quotes-and-proposals-dos-and-donts/

How to create freelance quotes and proposals: Dos and don’ts

Years ago, when I started freelance writing, I talked to another writer friend, Cindy, about what my freelance quotes should be. “I’m worried people will think I’m too expensive,” I said. “How is $50 per hour?”

Cindy said, “If you do that, I’ll kick your ass.”

That was a bit surprising. “Why?” I asked.

I had been a professional marketer for some years, and had been a writer for nearly 20 years at that point. She said I needed to be charging a lot more with my freelance quotes.

Fast forward two years later, and I’ve not only been getting freelance copywriting clients, I had my own business with recurring revenue and rates that were easily $100 per hour, although my pricing structure was not hourly. (More on that in a minute.)

I happened to post something on Facebook about how freelance writers needed to charge what they’re worth. Cindy chimed in and said she was struggling with raising her own rates because she was worried her clients would think it was too high.

The lesson I learned is that you need to set your freelance quotes to match what the market will bear, not necessarily what you think you’re worth.

If we have low self-confidence, it means we make stupid decisions about the quality of our work.

How to price freelance quotes and proposals

I say that not to discourage you from charging rates that are too high, but because most new freelancers tend to be filled with self-doubt and suffer from Impostor Syndrome.

So there are a few dos and don’ts to creating good freelance quotes that will not only help you earn what you need, but help you look like a professional.

1. Determine your hourly rate

Freelancers struggle with this issue, but it’s a simple formula:

Determine how much money you need to earn as a salary. For this example, let’s say $60,000 per year.

Divide that number by 1,000. Why 1,000? Because there are 2,000 working hours in a year (2,080 actually, but then the math gets hard). And you’ll spend roughly half your time doing the work and the other half finding new work, doing administrative stuff, having meetings, etc., so you’ll only get to work half the time.

$60,000 ÷ 1,000 = $60/hour That’s your basic hourly rate.

Add in your extra experience, skills, knowledge — and adjust your price as needed. If you’ve been using your freelance skill (writing, graphic design, marketing) for years, but as a professional elsewhere, you could easily charge $75 per hour. If you’re still new to the field, you might want to scale back to $50, but only for a few months. Get back up to $60 as your confidence grows, or after four to six weeks, no longer.

But don’t include your hourly rate in your freelance quotes if you can help it.

  When you hit a high enough rate, people freak out. They get visions of you working 100 hours on their project and it freaks them out.

Related: How to set professional, fair and profitable freelance graphic design rates

Quote a project rate, not an hourly rate

Instead, figure out how many hours the project is going to take you. Multiply that by your hourly rate, and that’s your project rate. And that’s the price you should always quote for every client.

For example, if you charge $60 per hour, and you know a project is going to take you five hours, quote $300 for the entire project. This way, you don’t have to worry about losing money if you go too fast, and your client doesn’t worry that you’re going to go slow. You’re both protected because you have the budgetary amount right up front.

Similarly, don’t charge too little, because people will think you aren’t very good.

I actually once had someone from New York tell me I didn’t charge enough, and he was worried that I wasn’t very good. I told him, “I live in Indiana where a 3-bedroom house costs $180,000. That means I charge what it takes to live comfortably in Indiana. But I’m more than happy to charge you New York prices. Just know that I’m going to stay here in Indiana while I do it.” He was suddenly happy with my rates.

Related: The 4 cardinal sins of freelance pricing strategy

2. Include payment terms

With your freelance quotes and proposals, don’t leave it to chance and don’t assume they’re going to pay whenever they get around to it. Give them 30-day terms and tell them how you’ll accept payment.

I use Freshbooks. They have a system where they can accept credit cards on my behalf. Other freelancers will use PayPal, Venmo, Square, or just a simple ACH or check. GoDaddy also offers an easy-to-use invoicing tool within its Online Bookkeeping solution. Read this post to learn how to use GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping to invoice clients in a snap.

Whatever you use, make sure it’s easy for the client to pay — give them several options, in case they don’t like to use PayPal or don’t have a company credit card.

Related: Habits of business owners who get paid on time

3. Include a detailed description of your services

But don’t spell out strategies and tactics.

That is, if you’re going to design a WordPress site, include a description of the name and number of pages, word count for each page, how many photos you’ll provide, and whether the pages will be optimized for SEO.

But don’t detail all the SEO techniques you’ll use or list the plugins you’re going to use. Otherwise they’ll just go do it themselves and you did all the knowledge work for them.

I once gave a strategy proposal to a potential client who ended up not hiring me, but they used at least half the suggestions in the plan I had given them.

Related: Payment plan templates for web design projects

Final thoughts on freelance quotes

Don’t stop learning. Don’t stop improving. Study your craft like you were in school. Take seminars, read articles — and practice, practice, practice. Do you want to be worth $100 per hour one day? That doesn’t come from watching Netflix over lunch. Get your butt in your chair and start working. The better you get, the more you can charge — and the less you can work.

Being a freelancer can be tough. You chase down clients, do the work, do several revisions, chase down the money, and then do it all over again the next month. (Hint: this is why recurring clients are the best to have.)

But it sure beats working in a 9-to-5 job. At least, if you’re going to grind away hour after hour, it should enrich you. Plus you can take days off whenever you feel like it, which is what I’m doing right after I finish writing this piece.

The post How to create freelance quotes and proposals: Dos and don’ts appeared first on Garage.

[blockheadbrands]

Why Vicente Fox Thinks Like a Capitalist, Acts Like a Radical

X of Leafly Reports:

Vicente Fox, El Presidente, delights in being the most talked about Mexican in Donald Trump’s America.

At age 76, Fox may be more familiar to Americans today than when he served as the 55th President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006.

From the moment Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015—by slurring Mexicans who come to the United States—Fox has acted as Mexico’s counter-puncher, needling and mocking Trump via the American President’s favorite medium, Twitter. He celebrates his nation’s refusal to fund Trump’s pet project—“Mexico is not paying for your fucking wall!”—and embraces the imagery of a popular internet meme that depicts him as a badass senior citizen and contender for that Dos Equis crown:

The persona indeed fits Vicente Fox, a towering rancher, former Mexican CEO for Coca-Cola, and ex-governor of the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. In many ways, Guanajuato reflects Fox: devoutly Catholic, with a cowboy swagger and a coarseness of tongue that would make el Papa — the Pope – cringe.

Here near the city of León lies Centro Fox,Fox’s vast presidential library, think tank and cultural retreat. This is where Fox produces his hilariously profane videos pledging to save the United States, a land he loves, from President Trump.

Fox is taking on the greatest challenge of his life: Ending Mexico’s wrenching violence by enacting dramatic drug reform – including full cannabis legalization.

More seriously, this is where Fox is taking on perhaps the greatest challenge of his life: He is crusading against Mexico’s wrenching violence by advocating for dramatic drug policy reform – including drug decriminalization and full-scale cannabis legalization.

It’s a cause that increasingly occupies his mind and his schedule. In the past three years he’s appeared at countless cannabis industry conferences in the US and Canada, urging more reform, faster, now. Last month he even joined the industry, kind of, by becoming a member of the High Times board of directors.

“Fox has been great on this issue,” says Ethan Nadelmann, founder and former executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “He has been bold and courageous not just on legalization of marijuana but on ending all prohibition. I think he has had an impact in his country and elsewhere.”

When asked why—Why cannabis legalization, why drug reform, why now?—Fox’s answer is quick and determined. “My main interest is to stop the War on Drugs,” he told me in a one-on-one interview at Centro Fox. “My main reason is to save kids’ lives, to stop the killing and the bloodshed on the streets of Mexico. And that will happen by legalizing – and taking away money from the cartels.”

One Goal: Stop the Killing

Last year Mexico suffered more than 29,000 homicides, the highest total ever recorded in the nation’s history. Most were cartel killings, or cartel-related, including a percentage blamed on Mexican security forces and emerging rural autodefensas, vigilante groups taking up arms against narcotraficantes in place of police.

Mexico’s long, disastrous epoch of violence first exploded in December, 2006, when Fox’s successor, President Felipe Calderón, unleashed the Mexican Army on the criminal networks shipping cocaine, meth, heroin, and cannabis to the United States and other countries.  The death toll in 2018 is on pace to top 30,000.

Guardian news✔@guardiannews

Legal marijuana cuts violence says US study, as medical-use laws see crime fall http://ebx.sh/2D0vvm3

11:23 PM - Jan 13, 2018

 Legal marijuana cuts violence says US study, as medical-use laws see crime fall

Murder and violent crime found to have decreased most in states bordering Mexico as drug cartels lose business to regulation

theguardian.com

To answer the begged question: No, Fox has never tried cannabis. This is about politics for him, not self-medication or personal enjoyment.

He is an outspoken international champion for cannabis legalization. Yet his journey may seem contradictory. He vetoed key drug reform legislation as president. And notably, critics assailed him for promising massive reforms to change Mexico’s corrupt political system and then failing to deliver.

Mexico has legalized the importation of cannabis medicine with 1% THC or less. Smokable cannabis is not permitted.

But this is not the Vicente Fox of 2000-2006. This is a fit, active and thoroughly liberated senior, a globe-trotting personality pleased to say whatever the hell he wants, whether in eloquent writings on international affairs or in profane riffs on Donald Trump.

In his sunset years, he is fighting to rescue his country by pushing cannabis legalization as an alternative to chaos and carnage. He tells me he embraces the uncertainly and risk of the cause.

“Every day, we must have a purpose,” he says. “The harder it is, the more complicated it is, the more you’re going to enjoy it.”

Mexico’s Small Steps

Only last year, Mexico approved extremely limited medical cannabis legalization, a tepid step after 90 years of prohibition. Mexico currently allows the importation of “pharmacological derivatives of cannabis” with less than 1% THC. Smokable cannabis is not permitted. Medical products with higher THC levels are allowed only for patients with special government approval.

Mexico currently has no legal domestic cannabis production. Sales of medical marijuana are likely still two years away, as government officials refine the regulations for importing small supplies of medicine from places such as Canada, Europe or Israel—and not, of course, the United States, where such exports remain illegal.

Fox is currently lobbying Mexico’s Congress to do much more. He envisions a flourishing Mexican cannabis industry on par with thriving medical and adult-use economies in many states in El Norte.

And that, he hopes, might begin to put an end to his country’s years of nightmarish violence.

'I want to get rid of the fear that legalizing marijuana is the devil,' Fox says.

In late May, Fox invited Leafly to Centro Fox and his family hacienda on the eve of the May 30-31 Canna Mexico World Summit. It would be the former president’s foremost event for affecting drug policy change. Scientists, regulators, academics, business people and would-be investors descended on Leon to ponder the opportunities offered by a future Mexican marijuana economy.

Legalizing cannabis, Fox believes, will stop the bloodshed by taking away money from the cartels.

On a hot and humid morning, Fox and I sat in one of his many offices at the compound. El Presidenterelaxed beneath a portrait of him and former first lady Marta Sahagún de Fox, whom he married in 2000 when she was Fox’s presidential press secretary. Elsewhere on the compound, Fox has built an exact replica of his former office as Mexico’s chief executive, complete with windows bearing giant photographs of his past views from Los Pinos, the pine-shaded presidential place in Mexico City.

He began our discussion neither with drug policy or cannabis nor with his nemesis, Trump. He started by talking about his grandfather, the man who made his existence here, on this sprawling hacienda, possible in the first place.

“This is the place where I was born and raised,” he told me. “It’s where my grandfather came back in 1895 without a penny in his pocket, looking for the American Dream.”

Chasing the American Dream in Mexico

Yes, that American Dream. Fox’s German-Irish-American grandfather, Joseph Louis Fox, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a young man, he set out on horseback for central Mexico.

Fox's grandfather migrated from Ohio to central Mexico to raise a family and pursue his dream.

He married the daughter of a French soldier and an indigenous Mexican. He worked as a night watchman in a horse carriage buggy factory and eventually owned the place, earning a sufficient fortune to buy this hacienda, now his grandson’s post-presidential Centro Fox.

It is the headquarters for arguably the most active ex-president in Mexico’s modern history. This is the base for Fox’s policy center and philanthropic organization, Vamos Mexico, which promotes education and nutrition for children in poor, indigenous communities.

This now is also the intellectual bastion for Fox’s quixotic push to address narcotics violence and despair in Mexico. He advocates effectively abandoning Mexico’s militaristic Drug War, for which Fox pins heavy blame on drug consumers in America and international prohibitionist polices enforced by the United States. After so much trauma over so many year, he insists he wants his country back, harmonious and peaceful.

“Today, this place is a think tank, an academy, a place of leadership, love and compassion,” he said of his vast retreat. “This is a beautiful place, where Marta and I are welcoming anyone who is humane and compassionate. This is the place to come. This is the Mecca of happiness and love.”

Gracias and Get Out

In Mexico, there is traditionally little love for ex-presidents. Vicente Fox is no exception.

Mexican presidents have a habit of leaving office in disrepute. It’s been that way since 1910.

Historically, Mexican presidents have made a habit of leaving office in disrepute. It’s been that way since 1910, when a popular revolt threw out Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz, touching off an epoch of turbulence and violence.

In 1929, Mexican governance was consolidated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (or PRI) and – for 71 years – the party controlled the presidency and imposed a ruthless patronage system that effectively dictated access to political power and wealth. When presidents left office, they were inevitably reviled as villains suspected of enriching themselves through looting the treasury or other forms of corruption.

The stories are virtual folklore: José López Portillo, president from 1976 to 1982, tripled oil production only to crash the economy and dramatically devalue the Mexican peso, which he had pledged to defend “like a dog.” He left office despised, retiring to a vast five-mansion complex secured with suspicious wealth. People dubbed the place “Dog Hill.” Carlos Salinas de Gotari, president from 1988 to 1994, departed amid searing scandal, including discovery of a $100 million European bank account in the name of his brother, Raúl, a mid-level civil servant.

Villas and Swiss Bank Accounts

“Most former chief executives of Mexico do not build presidential libraries (or) crusade against hunger,” Fox wrote in his 2007 memoir, Revolution of Hope. “They generally caught the first plane to Europe, turning over power to a designated successor by pointing the dedazo, ‘the finger.’

“(Then) typically, Mexico’s former presidents exiled themselves to Ireland, drew on their Swiss Bank accounts and hid from the world in walled suburban villas.”

In 2000 it was ‘Fox the Savior’

Vicente Fox was supposed to be the one to change that. In 2000, running as the candidate of the heavily Catholic, conservative and pro-business National Action Party (PAN), he defeated PRI candidate Francisco Labastida by a margin of 46.5 percent to 36.1 percent. Celebrations spilled into the streets. Mexico’s so-called “perfect dictatorship” – the enduring, sinister hold of the PRI – was thought to be over.

With Fox's election, the enduring one-party hold of the PRI was thought to be over.

When Fox left office after his six-year term, ceding power to another PAN candidate, Calderón, he left a legacy of having worked to modernize the Mexican economy through trade deals and globalization. But those policies were seen as harming the poor he sought to help. Worse, he failed to end Mexico’s unrelenting culture of corruption.

Ultimately, he was vilified in the press for lavish spending in constructing his presidential library and retreat, something never seen in Mexico. Pundits wondered whether he had enriched himself in office. Fox asserted he was a self-made man spending his own money, insisting all he took from Los Pinos were his personal belongings, namely, he wrote, “my blue jeans andvaquero belts with the big silver Fox buckle.”

‘He Didn’t Change Anything’

Supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador protest against President Vicente Fox in 2006. Lopez Obrador, a longtime rival of Fox’s, was elected president in Mexico’s national election last week. (Marco Ugarte/AP)

The regal Centro Fox complex, including construction of the posh Hotel Hacienda San Cristóbal, was the least of his image problems. Fox had pledged to change Mexico, to save it, as president. By many accounts, he failed.

“He was an amazing guy who became the figurehead of a democracy movement,” said Benjamin Smith, a professor of Latin American History at the University of Warwick in London. Smith is a leading researcher on the Mexican drug war and political culture. Fox “was a hopeless president” said Smith. “Terrible. Bad. In American terms, he was a blowhard. He had an opportunity in six years to change Mexico, and he didn’t change anything.”

Fox could not reverse Mexico's culture of corruption. But he points to his achievements in improving education and elevating the rights of women.

Fox blames a hostile PRI-dominated legislature for blunting many of his initiatives. Despite his critics, he claims credit for attacking inequality in Mexico by passing budgets that funded scholarships for millions of poor rural children. He changed the welfare structure to elevate the rights of women – other than solely men – as heads of households. He worked to empower teachers’ unions and increase their salaries.

Fox also pushed an aggressive globalist agenda, building on the North American Free Trade Agreement to integrate Mexico into the world economy. He lobbied President George W. Bush on immigration reform and a European Union-style common market for the Americas. He famously got a standing ovation when he addressed the United States Congress on September 6, 2001. Five days later, the United States was attacked on 9/11. New trade deals were dead. Border security was the sudden rage.

The Imperfect President

In his writings, Fox asserts he worked to change Mexico’s pattern of “cronyism, corruption and crisis.” But Mexican scholar and activist Sergio Aguayo, a professor at Mexico City’s El Colegio de Mexico and former head of the Mexican Academy for Human Rights, says Fox notably quit on exposing the corrupt stain of the PRI – thus paving the way for its return to power.

A liberal intellectual, Aguayo embraced the conservative Fox. They met at Los Pinos during the early days of his presidency. Aguayo and other scholars expected Fox to create a Truth Commission to investigate the former ruling party’s Cold War-era “Dirty War,” including the infamous massacre of student protesters in 1968, and the disappearances of more than 1,200 leftists in the 1970s. Fox read the commission proposal and appeared to embrace the idea, which Aguayo saw as essential for restoring democracy in Mexico. But the Truth Commission plan was quickly –and quietly –scuttled.

“It wasn’t taken seriously, and Fox (effectively) became an accomplice with the old regime,” Aguayo told me. “He became one of them. He betrayed all of us who believed he was going to make the change we were longing for.”

Making Allies Across Party Lines

Fernando Belaunzarán, a leader in Mexico’s third major party, the PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution), represents Mexico City in Mexico’s Congress. He’s one of Mexico’s longtime drug reformers, having introduced a bill to legalize cannabis nationwide back in 2012.

Belaunzarán, who joined Fox at the cannabis conference in León, is well aware of Fox’s mixed reputation, including his contempt for the left-leaning PRD. But he’s eager to work with the former president on cannabis reform.

“President Fox is a controversial figure,” Belaunzarán told me. “He was the first president who wasn’t a PRIista. He was criticized because he raised expectations that weren’t fulfilled. But now he is helping in this cause.”

“He took this on after his presidency, when he realized that the consequences of the Drug War had become so grave. He is saying prohibition has been a disaster—and I applaud him for that.”

Fox today inspires hope among policy reformers and cannabis advocates with his calls for drug peace in Mexico and creating a legal marijuana industry. But during his presidency Fox proved to be a disappointment to legalization advocates, going along with the same old Drug War policies of the past.

In May 2006, Mexico’s Congress passed a package of drug reform legislation that would have dropped criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of drugs including cocaine, heroin and cannabis. The nation’s cannabis possession limit was to be set at five grams. Fox was expected to sign the bill. At the last minute, however, he vetoed it. “The Mexican government will have to deepen the fight against drug trafficking,” he proclaimed at the time. “In no way is it promoting the use of drugs.”

Critics charged that Fox folded under international pressure, particularly from the drug warriors in the United States. Some 500 protesters held an angry cannabis smoke-in in Mexico City. Similar legislation would be passed again in 2009, three years after Fox left office. Fox’s successor, Felipe Calderón, signed the measure into law.

Forgiving Past Clashes

In our meeting at Centro Fox, the former president defended that 2006 decision, claiming he found the law dangerously vague. It could send people to prison, he claimed, over a distinction of less than a gram of cannabis. “The discussion was over what you could have in your pocket,” he said. “If you had less than the amount, you were a consumer. If you had more, you were a trafficker.”

In the United States, many cannabis reformers give Fox a pass, viewing him as little different than many politicians in El Norte who were prohibitionists in office only to find cannabis religion after returning to civilian life. A recent case in point: former House Speaker John Boehner. An ardent legalization foe in office, Boehner joined the advisory board of a cannabis company last year, declaring his thinking had “evolved.”

“Look, I welcome Vicente Fox’s embrace of Cannabis,” said California cannabis entrepreneur Steve DeAngelo, who joined the former Mexican president at a pro-legalization media event in San Francisco earlier this year. “The more people like Vicente Fox and John Boehner embrace this issue, the more we welcome it.”

Drug War Unleashes a Disaster

Mexican federal police officers escort detained men from a home in Mexico City in 2008. Eleven alleged hit men for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel were captured at two Mexico City mansions stocked with grenades, automatic weapons and body armor – a day after Mexican authorities reported nabbing one of the cartel’s leaders. (Gregory Bull/AP)

Fox’s caution in office came as narco-violence was building. By 2006, his last year as president, drug-related killings climbed above 3,000. Cartel violence increased notably in states such as Michoacán and Sinaloa, and along the Baja California peninsula. Mexico’s murder rate rose to just over nine killings per 100,000 people. (In 2017, it hit 20.5 killings per 100,000.) But despite his anti-trafficker rhetoric, Fox wasn’t inclined to pull the trigger to escalate the Drug War.

That decision was made, almost immediately, by his successor Felipe Calderón, who dispatched 6,500 troops – the number would eventually rise to 20,000 – in an unprecedented crackdown on the cartels. During the six years of Calderón’s rule, more than 200,000 people were killed. According to a University of San Diego study, Mexico’s homicide rate nearly tripled to almost 25 deaths per 100,000 residents by 2011.

Not long out of office, Fox had an epiphany. He concluded that prohibition and the escalation of Mexico’s drug war had unleashed a humanitarian disaster.

“He (Calderón) thought it was going to be an easy action and, in six months, Mexico would be back in order,” Fox told me. “Nothing could have been further from the truth.”

As the carnage ebbed and then rose anew under President Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, with cartels currently battling for spoils after the arrest and extradition to the United States of the infamous narco kingpin Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, Vicente Fox set off on a world tour promoting drug reform and cannabis legalization. Those events are only part of a rigorous schedule of paid speeches and appearances, an average of 45 a year, on international issues, also including protecting human rights and the environment. Fox says he donates earnings to support Centro Fox and Vamos Mexico programs.

AMLO: A Fox Rival Takes Over

Now Peña Nieto is on his way out. Former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the new National Regeneration Movement party (MORENA) swept into power in a landslide July 1 election.

López Obrador is perhaps Vicente Fox’s most hated rival. Fox compares the president-elect to the late Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. López Obrador has suggested granting amnesty for narcotics offenses as another path out of Mexico’s Drug War. But cannabis reform was largely ignored in the race. The president-elect has been noncommittal on the issue, saying only that it is an issue “worthy of discussion.”

“Politicians in Mexico don’t want to talk about this,” Fernando Belaunzarán told me. “But it is conversation in our living rooms.”

Move Faster, Now

Fox told me the day before the conference that he hoped to “get rid of the fear…that legalizing marijuana is the devil.”

“I want to move ahead in the process,” he said. “I want the decision makers to move faster.”

The event drew a few Mexican congressional members and heads of government agencies that regulate medicine. Those agencies are currently drafting regulations for the forthcoming medical cannabis sector, which is expected to be heavily restricted and rely solely on imported medicine.

“In this moment, let’s share our points of view,” Fox told the gathering. “I want to be able to say that Centro Fox has a plan for a productive industry, a sound industry, a legal industry. This would be a great change for humanity.”

Fox is under no illusion that cannabis legalization alone can wipe away all the bloody footprints of narcotics violence. But he believes it’s the absolutely necessary first step.

“There has been too much blood, too much criminality, too much delinquency,” he told the conference. “Centro Fox is proposing solutions. Let’s take this plant and its processes and study them. This is a great phenomenon. It’s a transformation.”

Big Idea: Add Cannabis to NAFTA

Vicente Fox speaks during a news conference on the first day of the U.S.-Mexico Symposium on Legalization and Medical Use of Cannabis in 2013. Fox calls himself a soldier in the global campaign to legalize marijuana, and he foresees a day when the marketplace will deliver an array of benefits from sharply reduced cartel violence in his home country to new jobs and medicines. (/Mario Armas/AP)

Fox works best with big, bold, brash ideas—ones that he himself won’t have to implement. Case in point: Last June, at the International Cannabis Business Conference in Oakland, Fox called for an amended North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that includes a new accord allowing for cross-border flow of regulated, legally-produced cannabis between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. In October, he told the Southwest Cannabis Conference and Expo in Phoenix that “prohibitions don’t work – they have never worked.”

Fox’s pro-business outlook isn’t lost on DeAngelo, director of Oakland’s Harborside dispensary and the California cultivation venture, FLRish.

“Fox is one of the leading voices in Latin America on cannabis reform, perhaps the loudest and most vocal,” he said. “And he comes from a business establishment that has not always been supportive.”

But business is what Fox knows—it’s the environment in which he’s thrived. He’s not by nature a political radical. In business, he rose from driving a truck for Coca-Cola to heading the company’s Mexican division. Quality products, well-known brands, and national distribution networks—that’s Fox’s wheelhouse.

Last February, the cannabis entrepreneur Marco Hoffman, found himself sought out by El Presidente at a Seattle cannabis conference. Hoffman is CEO of Evergreen Herbal Distribution, a state-permitted cannabis company with a 44,000 square-foot production facility in the state of Washington.

The former president was fascinated by the cannabis industry experience of the much younger Hoffman, whose firm produces cannabis sodas named HighDrate, Stoney Mountain and Blaze.

“We communicated about the lineage of Coca-Cola,” Hoffman recalled. “And then he said, ‘We need a guy like you to come to Mexico.’”

Trump as a Comic Foil

Fox’s cause is drug reform and a peaceful end to the cartel wars. But his current fame is due largely to his ability to poke and prod the bull up north—Donald Trump.

In Fox’s eyes, Trump is an unprecedented antagonist who poses a real threat to Mexico-United States relations on immigration, drug policy and many other issues.

Candidate Trump’s infamous slur against Mexicans during his June 2015 Trump Tower campaign kickoff (“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump declared. “They’re sending people who have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and, some, I assume are good people. But I speak to the border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.”) angered and emboldened one Vicente Fox Quesada. He told me that Trump is appealing to “white supremacists who don’t want brownies” in America.

Fox took to writing about Trump as a scoundrel, a con man spewing “America First” rhetoric in the same spirit as corrupt PRIistas used to rail about the “evil American empire” to the north, while silencing political dissent in Mexico.

In his recent book, Let’s Move On – Beyond Fear and False Prophets, Fox likened the nationalistic populism of Trump with the nativist socialism of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. He writes: “I am no longer president of Mexico, but I have dedicated the rest of my life to working for social justice and democracy and to opposing hypocrisy and fraudulence of popular demagogues.”

But such pearly political writings aren’t what is making Fox a cult hero. It’s that “fucking wall” thing, Fox’s assault on Trump’s purported $30 billion “racist monument.” Particularly, his profile has lit up with Fox’s Trump-trolling YouTube videos – produced at Centro Fox, complete with goats and Mariachis. They are making him a septuagenarian rock star.

Last September, Fox announced his satirical candidacy for president in 2020 with a message for Trump from his replica Los Pinos office:

“Donald, every time I make fun of you…people say, ‘Why can’t you be our president?,” he begins. “America, I feel your pain. We all do. And that is why today I am proud to announce my candidacy for president of the United States.”

A goat enters, strapped with the sign: “Vicente for Presidente!”

“Now, I know, a lot of you will say, ‘How can you be president?” You’re a Mexican,” Fox continues. “And to those people, I have three worlds: Donald Fucking Trump. If that worn-out baseball glove tightly gripping a turd can be president, then, amigos, anyone can!”

Sergio Aguayo, an unsparing critic of Fox’s presidency, finds important humor and purpose in his Trump trolling. He calls it a morale boost needed by many Mexicans.

“I’m glad he is raising his voice because we have a president who isn’t,” said Aguayo, who depicts outgoing president Peña Nieto as too timid in his reluctance to push back against Trump. “I think there’s been a policy of appeasement.”

For his part, Fox calls the videos “marketing, pure marketing” to disseminate a larger message. His feelings run deep. He believes fully in the righteousness of his crusade to legalize cannabis, and he will defend to his final word the honor and dignity of his fellow Mexicans. But he also acknowledges the place of joy and humor in the human experience. “You must have some fun,” he told me. “And in 76 years of life, I have.”

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON LEAFLY, CLICK HERE.

https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/el-cruzado-para-cannabis-why-vicente-fox-thinks-like-a-capitalist-acts-like-a-radical

[republicstandard]

The Un-Making of the West, Vol. I: Whistling Past the Graveyard

“Our current immigration policies will make the United States a poorer, grimmer, more dangerous country for everyone. Hispanics expect to gain increasing power by increasing their numbers, but they will find they have gained power in a country that increasingly resembles the failed nations from which they thought they had escaped. It is in everyone’s interests to cut immigration close to zero.”-Jared Taylor

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It’s far more cost-effective to keep the customers you have than to continuously recruit new ones. This fundamental and common-sense business axiom is jettisoned when it comes to citizens of a country, however. Newsweek seems to think America getting “less white” will save it from itself, but all it will do is further fragment a society running perilously low on common ties to bind. We have for some reason decided that “diversity” is an intrinsic good without ever stopping to interrogate that notion. Let me be clear: diversity for its own sake is fundamentally irrational. By all metrics it damages and fractures any community, state, or even country so “enriched” by it, and yet it has become one of the central deities of the Leftist pantheon, as uncritically interrogated as you would expect for an ideology demanding blind faith.

In fact, open borders has so cheapened the meaning of “citizenship” there is no incentive whatsoever to become Americanized

Central to the push for “diversity” is an immigration policy that seeks to bring as many people whose civilizational outlooks are diametrically opposed to ours as possible in order to imbue what was a previously moribund culture with the vibrancy of long-eradicated diseases, crime, mistrust, dysfunction, and societal breakdown. For Victor Davis Hanson:

The more non-Westerners abandon their homelands and flee to the West—especially en masse and illegally—the more these immigrants ironically seek to replicate in their new country the very cultural conditions they forsook. All immigrants from time immemorial are naturally schizophrenic about their homelands—they romanticize their country of origin in the abstract, while experiencing relief that their new home is not like the old one they abandoned.

As Hanson noted, however, the relief of being in a functioning society doesn’t extend to the ready acknowledgement that it is obviously doing something right, and a majority of immigrants therefore continue to sentimentalize their homelands and the dysfunction they left behind and prove unwilling or unable to adapt their beliefs, customs, and attitudes to their new environs. They do not replicate the conditions of achievement in a modern society in their personal lives, nor do they cherish the principles of freedom upon which the United States was built, and it has a very destructive ripple effect. This is not to be unexpected, particularly when there is no filter for those who arrive nor any pressure to assimilate and discard previous loyalties. In fact, open borders has so cheapened the meaning of “citizenship” there is no incentive whatsoever to become Americanized; in fact, the benefits generally accrue to those least integrated.

No individual has a “right” to immigrate anywhere—this privilege is extended by a government on behalf of its citizens with the understanding that the relationship will be a reflexive one; that is to say, both sides affect a positive impact on each other. The immigrant will necessarily discard all past loyalties and adhere to the norms, values, customs, and traditions of their new nation. I apologize if this seems a little “basic bitch,” but it’s important to remember that we elect government officials to serve as stewards of their constituents and to act in our interests. There’s a reason we call them “representatives.” Mass immigration does not benefit anyone except for those low-skill immigrants and aliens whose low wages by our standards are downright lavish compared to where they come from, and the detached political class and their wealthy benefactors, which includes Big Labor.

Ideally immigrants will come from compatible cultures, and they will not come in transformative numbers—if they are allowed to come at all. This is wholly discretionary. Assimilation is a difficult process for even the most related of cultures. Valuing the most alien and the most unassimilable, as the Left does, and in huge numbers, is producing the fracturing any logical person would expect. The percentage of Americans born abroad is at least 13.4% (where the Pew Research Center placed it in 2015, the most recent number I could find), and it stands at a whopping 27% in California (both figures exclude the 11-30 million illegal aliens). Over 20% of U.S. residents do not speak English at home. As Steven A. Camarota reports:

In 2012, 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) reported that they used at least one welfare program during the year, compared to 30 percent of native households…Welfare use is high for both new arrivals and well-established immigrants. Of households headed by immigrants who have been in the country for more than two decades, 48 percent access welfare…Welfare use varies among immigrant groups. Households headed by immigrants from Central America and Mexico (73 percent), the Caribbean (51 percent), and Africa (48 percent) have the highest overall welfare use. Those from East Asia (32 percent), Europe (26 percent), and South Asia (17 percent) have the lowest.

The Left wants to transform the United States first into a direct democracy, which inevitably degenerates into tyranny.

What’s more, those who benefit most from the dispensation of others’ money will logically continue to vote for the party most aggressive in transferring taxpayers’ hard-earned money to curry political favor and votes in a process Gavin McInnes calls “insider trading.” For example, in the 2016 presidential election, 89% of blacks and 66% of Hispanics voted for Hillary Clinton. This is of course not the only factor, but it is one powerful incentive. Indeed, despite their economic success, 65% of Asians voted Clinton in the election. Just 37% of whites voted for Hillary Clinton; with the non-white voting share of the Democrat Party at a whopping 44% nationally, it is clear that, as Tucker Carlson puts it:

Democrats aren’t simply the pro-immigration party. They’ve become the anti-border party. The party opposed to citizenship itself. They don’t want the border secured. They oppose the deportation of anyone, under any circumstances, even criminal offenses. Dems believe illegal aliens accused of murder deserve protection from you more than you deserve protection from them. They care more about Ivan Zamarripa-Castaneda than they care about you. They’ll ignore and undermine federal law on his behalf. Would they do that for you? Never.

In such an environment, to say nothing of the rancor and hostility that governs politics these days, how can we be expected to have anything resembling a civil discourse? The present racial spoils system is a zero-sum game. “Diversity” in this context is anything but inclusive. It’s all well and good for the “Intellectual Dark Web” to wax poetic about “democratic values” and “pluralism,” but these are concepts developed and implemented in homogeneous, high-trust European societies, and they took centuries if not millennia to develop; they cannot exist in a state of constant ethnic tension. Democracy is built on a social contract, a mutual respect among citizens. When citizenship becomes cheapened, when it becomes something anyone can attain with minimal effort—indeed, when illegals are given privileges beyond the average citizen—the social contract breaks down, and democracy becomes what Polybius termed “ochlocracy,” or mob rule. The Left wants to transform the United States first into a direct democracy, which inevitably degenerates into tyranny. The inexorable slide into totalitarianism is being witnessed in a number of Western democratic countries who do not have the same system of checks-and-balances the United States has. As Andrew Fraser states:

European man alone bears the spirit of civic republicanism, a tradition still largely alien to other races and peoples…There is no shortage of evidence that the Changs, the Gonzales, and the Singhs (not to mention the Goldmans with their well-known animus toward WASPs) still practice forms of ethnic nepotism strictly forbidden to Anglo-Protestants…WASPs are trusting souls. For that very reason they can be exploited easily by those who promise one thing and do another. . . . Mass Third World immigration imposes enormous risks upon Anglo-Saxon societies grounded in unique patterns of trusting behavior that evolved over many centuries. If newcomers do not accept the burdens entailed by the civic culture of the host society—most notably the need to forswear one’s pre-existing racial, ethnic and religious allegiances—they are bound to reduce the benefits of good citizenship for the host Anglo-Saxon nation.

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The phrase “Demography is destiny,” is an uncomfortable truth for many of us to accept, believing that all people cherish liberty and freedom. Unfortunately, this is simply not true. Consider the Democratic Party platform: it consists mostly of hand-outs, blaming, shaming, and the restriction, not expansion, of rights—unless of course you happen to belong to one of their privileged classes. Paul Kersey is right—if the Democrats get their way, it will soon be illegal to arrest black people…and illegal aliens, party donors, and everyone else caught in their rotten embrace. The Democrat Party has become explicitly anti-American and anti-white in its extreme rhetoric and policies. The kind of America they are striving to create is one of strife and dysfunction, one where we can’t trust each other, where we lock our doors and bar our windows, and retreat from public life and civic engagement to buying stuff on Amazon and binge-watching Netflix.

What happens next is classic divide-and-conquer for this isolated, disaffected, and easy-to-control population; suspicion and conflict become the order of the day, problems only a “strong” (that being a euphemism for totalitarian) government can solve.

The Left is a civilization-destroying force that wants nothing more than not only to erase the people that built it, but their entire legacy.

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine https://ift.tt/2lLNV2J via IFTTT

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The Smokebot's objective is actually to create your smoking cigarettes expertise as close to the true trait as possible, the Smokebot transcends in everyway, from a life-like feeling to smoking cigarettes without the harmful impacts of tar, deadly chemicals, and carbon monoxide. Effectively created posts which are actually keyword abundant could additionally create more guests by means of online search engine outcomes. In really wealthy waters the aged typical high protein boilie method could quickly be out-fished using lures that replicate the items that carp search on typically on their travels. In order to get wealthy easy you need to first discover a way to have your product and also either offer that to the masses or offer that out totally free along with advertising and marketing as your primary income developer. In addition to Loudoun Region as well as Tumbles Religion Metropolitan area, Fairfax County is actually another abundant county from Virginia. If you are actually heading to turn over your tough made bucks for a pricey professional item, are sure that is actually a timeless that will definitely go beyond trends and also last greater than one period. There are handful of business people which are inviting you to working from your house in your underclothing as well as you will definitely be abundant and also happy for the rest from your life. Now in my life I am actually financially relaxed, but absolutely not rich through any kind of criteria (although I have actually had as well as wasted more than my fair share). The variation between the poor guy as well as the rich guy is actually presented by the differences in exactly what he or she acquires along with his or her loan. As you may observe, in all its kinds, has a rich record, filled with romance as well as elegance. Now comes the absolute most crucial concern, the one that I feel actually recognizes the wealthy coming from rich. I currently prepare in your home most of the moment, but my hubby is actually a much bigger food lover in comparison to me and also as long as he loves my cooking food, there are factors that I refuse to create at home such anything deep-seated seared for which our company have to reach a restaurant. We believe the poll is going to create an extraordinary contribution toward aiding us comprehend what rides contributors to give and also what they need to have to provide efficiently," Michael Deich, representant director from public law at the Gates foundation told me in 2007, when the study was announced. Additionally the average bank teller wage is actually twice the minimum wage so I don't know exactly what she is actually speaking about, I am actually working minimum." When they don't make much cash split lease with several individuals, most younger individuals I know that are actually not financially foolish. The extent of classification developed off individuals to cover entire nations (wealthy country vs. poor nation). Aspect of the being overweight and diabetes outbreaks relate to vast volumes of refined sugar contributed to foods and also consume alcohol that effectively produce all of them extra palatable as well as addictive - however the more you eat the greater the risk of diabetes for example. If you are actually trying to find the absolute most economical ride coming from Zadar Flight terminal, Lukas and his colleagues may ensure that you and your baggage get to and also from the flight terminal swiftly as well as securely. Considering that I recognize I could make sufficient cash to survive whilst delivering market value to my consumers. A lot of affluent folks are actually a great deal like you and me. They just know a technique that, while unbelievably reliable, isn't really incredibly hot. However if I get chosen president, I will definitely carry that back larger and also far better and also more powerful compared to before, and also we will definitely make United States excellent once more. I gott; Rich papa inadequate daddy, Mans hunt for meaning, brand new psycho-cybernetics, fire in the stomach and atlas shruged off (total amount under FIFTY buck!) Still obtained a lengthy list of publications that I want to review. Your distinctive surges blended along with the wealthy highlights will certainly reflect the sunshine and produce a captivating look. Only when you find out ways to release these sorts of opinions as well as to absolutely approve the view that this is actually OK for you to get cash and riches may you begin when traveling to being rich. On top of that, eating apples is a reliable means to avoid lower leg edema and make the skin layer shiny reddish. There's something wrong with you if you can not bring in a good offer along with a politician. Organisations are actually terrific because the quickest means to create funds is to utilize leverage, as well as in companies you can easily make use of a lot of take advantage of. Every day I possessed a brand-new Internet Marketing assumed that was visiting make me rich, then the upcoming digital book arrived as well as I was actually out on something brand new. He uncovered there was an astounding variation between the practices of the affluent as well as the poor. Throughout my job I have discovered 5 groups of individuals: 5% is going to never create it in lifestyle, 30% is going to battle all their lifestyle to create ends meet, 30% will arrive at center management or even equivalent standing, 30% will certainly achieve success and also 5% will certainly be actually the top dogs. But the greatest tip is actually when you attempt to do or even say something to create you appear cool, at that point that is actually the most significant tip off for her. Many of the excellent ones think of a few easy things that the majority of rich individuals have in common. If you treasured this article so you would like to get more info about mountains in scotland beginning with g; http://magnificamenteajuste.info/, please visit our own site. Instead of hanging out trawling shopping centres or even kicking back complaining lifestyle's torment, produce someone else delighted or even merely possess some enjoyable. You possess a terrific phenomenal human brain, and that chunk between your ears will generate something that will certainly create you rich as well as affluent. If he gets advertised sufficient, he may bring in an eight-figure profit." - Even much less most likely, logistically" talking, of course. The abundant mindset has actually visited me, yet my adolescent monetary incentives have actually long been frivolled away on teen points! Referred to as, Stop Performing Rich and also Start Residing Like an Actual Millionaire." And also obviously he is author from pair of best sellers, The Millionaire Next Door" and The Millionaire Thoughts" and has actually sold greater than 300 copies. Our team're likewise visiting have to alter our field, migration and economical policies to earn our economic climate powerful once again. This post informs you of methods on effective ways to receive wealthy by spending a little bit of effort and time alongside a small amount of money. This's basically component of their service version: enrich people think unique and afterwards rip them off. Endless wealth to immediately purchase product goods may look like a shortcut to joy and happiness from the pauper's perspective, yet the rich guy knows it's certainly not. When you are actually looking for a home organisation, you have to keep an eye out for folks who make claims that seem to be as well good to be accurate.