#i wanted to make a new style but i have the creativity of a mosquito

[lyknest]

laal ishq ✘ high school frenemy for @dokrakpam | [inspo. ★ ☆ ★]

[siddyyyyyyyy]

Imagine Damian with a sunshine reader but they sometimes turn into a whole new person with jay from the kubz scouts humor "I swear if this doesn't work I'll take off ___ headband wipe my ass with it put it back on bird box style and give myself pink eye" 😭

Anyway good night/morning

Don't forget to eat and drink well!!

Strange Kind of Humour

Older!Damian Wayne x Reader

wc: 1.2 K summary: you hate bugs (sorry for the people who love bugs) warnings: lots of bad words. a/n: thank you so much for the request and sorry for the late reply, but this is really funny and had to educate myself on that kubz scouts guy (i watch him regularly now) i couldn't really come up with such creative words, but this is the best i could do. enjoy! (divider)

75% of all animal species are insects, most of them have wings and can fly. However, only some of them look cute and are not some venomous, useless, shit-eating bastards who are trying to get into your stupid tent.

Someone came up with the perfect idea to go camping for two days, to finally relax from everything that‘s been going on. Bruce was very reluctant but eventually got blackmailed into joining, not having any possible way of working since you are all in the middle of the woods, trying to have fun.

Damian invited you to go with him, actually begged you, so he isn‘t alone with all these lunatics, and you‘ve never been more happy to join a trip. He knew you would be happy to join, just hoping the others won‘t make fun of him for being ‚soft‘ for you, or else this small family-trip will end up in a blood bath. So far, it‘s been actually pretty good so far, you had something warm to eat, having grilled together, had something vegetarian for Damian. You talked a lot with Dick and Tim, noticed the funny dynamic between Jason and Tim, befriended Cass, and made fun of Damian together with Duke as he failed to build the tent up three times.

Now, that everyone has tents and sleeping bags, you can all take a rest for the day and sleep. If it weren‘t for the bugs trying to fly in and annoy you both. Damian didn‘t seem to mind much, just curling himself up in his sleeping bag so no one can disturb him. But this is enough.

»I swear to god, if these little shits won‘t stop coming in, I will pull my fucking hairspray and a lighter out and burn this whole fucking forest.«

You mutter under your breath, but Damian caught wind of it. Of course he did, he is laying right beside you. His head shoots out of the sleeping bag, looking at you in the dark.

»How about we don‘t?«

Damian suggest quietly, slightly puzzled on how annoyed you are over such a thing. It‘s just bugs.

»I‘m sure they will leave us alone sooner or later. Just put your sleeping bag over your head.«

he tells you, hoping to soothe you down and hope that you won‘t be disturbed for the night. It‘s just one night, after all.

You huff out and do as told, shifting to put your sleeping bag over your head, curled up like him in his own bag.

zzzz

You want to punch that mosquito right then and there. Normally you would just brush it off and try to get it away, but this won‘t do anything since you are literally in a forest, camping. It only makes sense for bugs and insects to be there.

It‘s silent for a moment before the high-pitched buzzing starts again, already done with this.

»Look, I‘m gonna get this thing, track its whole family down and behead every single one-«

»Okay, how about we relax and open the tent for a moment so it can fly out, hm?«

He finally sits up and wraps his arm around your shoulder to keep you seated in your sleeping bag. No matter how many times you curse and say out-of-pockets things like that, it always surprises him when you do that. It usually happens whenever you are annoyed or upset, and right now he is pretty sure you are exasperated. Which doesn‘t make this any better.

Eventually, he managed to lay you back down to sleep after a few moments, having some annoying buzzing around, but it‘s nothing too bad. You both fell asleep after a while, getting woken up later in the morning by a scream. Damian immediately goes to check, peeking out of the tent and cursing himself for not bringing his katana to the trip.

Looking out, he sees Tim at the small camp fire, holding a stick out at a… racoon? What the hell is a racoon doing here? Don‘t they live somewhere else than.. oh, well.

Damian sighs out, getting out of the tent to help him out.

»Relax, Drake, they don‘t bite… usually.«

Tim looks to Damian briefly before staring back at the racoon wide-eyed, still pointing the stick at the innocent animal that was just curious on what these big people and tents are.

»What do you mean ‚usually‘?!«

Damian finally gets fully out of your tent, keeping his eyes on the racoon while approaching it slowly. He ignores the literal panic radiating off of Tim, gently shooing the animal away, but it just stays on its spot, not budging.

It‘s then, when you wake up, having caught some of the conversation between the brothers. You finally peek out of your tent as well, gasping as you see the racoon. The round, fluffy animal keeps its dark eyes on Damian, just sitting relaxed while your boyfriend is trying to shoo him away.

You didn‘t gaps out of disgust, but out of surprise and awe. There‘s not a lot of days you see a cute racoon, a stubborn at that as well. Sure, it‘s a wild animal, but why does it look so squishy then?

Coming out of the tent, you stand beside Damian, trying to get closer to the animal. Damian tries to get you behind him, but you have none of it.

»You need to step back, this is a wild animal— «

»No! Look how cute he is, I just want to pet him quickly!«

You protest, definitely blind by hthe cuteness of the racoon. Damian huffs out, turning to look at you.

»What are you? Snow white, or something? Just step back, let the poor thing run away.«

You whine in protest, really wanting to pet the racoon still. The small argument wakes the rest up as well, having thought it‘s nothing bad at first, but hearing that you both won‘t stop bickering, it made the others curious.

»What the hell is up with you guys?« Jason grumbles tiredly from his tent, still sitting in it but peeking out. Damian turns his attention to the voice, sighing out in defeat. Eventually, you take the opportunity to get closer to the racoon while Damian distracts himself with Jason, arguing with him now.

You get disappointed as the racoon runs away from you, not havnig been so brave after all. With a small huff, it all falls back to normal, the trip comes back to what they consider normal, eating some breakfast before playing frisbee all together. It turns into a competetive game, everyone including Bruce, trying to catch the frisbee and make the other drop or not even catch it in the first place. It‘s a bit chaotic, but it‘s never not chaotic with them. Not that you complain, you really like their dynamic overall and that they are all so sweet to you, although they do tease Damian a lot whenever he is affection with you.

A bright orange, plastic hits your side, yelping at the sudden collition. Of course someone had to accidently hit you with the frisbee. Duke gasps, immeditialy feeling guilty and really wants to sink into the ground at how embarrassing it is. Especially with how Damian glares at him, looking ready to kill.

»Damn, you trynna get me killed?!« You shout before this could escalate, throwing the frisbee back to him, landing at against his stomach with a grunt.

The tension melts away and you proceed to play the game until one finally wins, making the rest groan in defeat.

a/n: how you enjoyed it!!

[shirtsbargain]

Sizzling Summer Stock: A Retailer's Guide to Keeping Shelves Cool and Customers Cooler

Ah, summer season! The season of sun, fun, and... Frantic shoppers trying to find the appropriate outfit. As a retailer, you are probably feeling the warmth already. But fear no longer, fellow style purveyor! I am here to help you flip your store into an oasis of fashion with customers flocking in like seagulls to a seaside picnic.

Polo Shirts: Not Just for Preppy Golfers Anymore

Let's begin with the Mighty Blank Polo shirt. These collared wonders are just like the Swiss Army knife of summer time style - they do it all! From backyard barbecues to informal Fridays, polos have got your customers included. Stock up on a rainbow of colours and fabric to make human beings feel cooler than a cucumber in a freezer. Brands like Port Authority and Sport-Tek offer polos so comfy, that your customers would possibly forget about they may be wearing shirts in any respect!

Blank Tees: A Canvas for Creativity (and Pit Stains)

Ah, the standard T-shirt. It's the tofu of the fashion world - bland on its very own, but oh-so-versatile! Stock up on wholesale t-shirts and watch as they fly off the shelves quicker than ice cream on a hot day. From artsy sorts seeking out a new canvas to corporations trying to slap their logo on something, all people needs a good blank tee. Gildan, Bella Canvas, and Next Level have got you included with tees so gentle, they'll make your clients want to hug themselves.

Sweatshirts: Because Summer Nights Can Be Chilly (and Mosquito-y)

“Sweatshirts in summer?”I listen you cry. Trust me on this one. Those balmy evenings can flip nippy quicker than you may say “brain freeze”. Light blank hoodies are ideal for the ones “I ought to have brought a jacket”; moments. Stock up on neutrals that will go together with the whole thing - like Champion and Hanes sweatshirts. They are comfier than a warm hug from grandma but way much less awkward.

Activewear: For When "Getting in Shape" Means More Than Just Round

Summer is when everyone suddenly remembers their New Year's resolution to get fit. Be ready with activewear that'll make them look good even if they're just "training" for a marathon Netflix session. Go for moisture-wicking fabrics that'll keep them dry... or at least make their sweat look intentional. Sport-Tek and District have gear so stylish, your customers might be motivated to use that gym membership.

Workwear: Because Someone's Gotta Build Those Summer Patios

Not everyone gets to lounge by the pool all summer. For those brave souls working under the sun, sturdy workwear is a must. Stock up on high-vis vests brighter than a traffic cone and shirts tougher than your grandpa's war stories. Carhartt and Portwest make gear so rugged, it might outlast the buildings your customers are working on

The Grand Finale

There you have it, folks! A summer stock list is more diverse than a music festival lineup. Remember, variety is the spice of life (and retail). Offer a smorgasbord of options and watch your summer sales sizzle like a hot dog on the grill. 

Now go forth and conquer this summer season! May your shelves be full, your customers be happy, and your air conditioning never fails. Happy selling, and may the retail gods be ever in your favor!

[originalwinnercheesecake]

First Impressions and predictions based on the coven Leaders

After a full first season their fame adorning the banners and walls, who they are being hailed, yet they themselves being kept in the shadows we now get first looks (and throughout 2a will meet) the emperors top dogs: The coven leaders. I will not lie as a group... these guys dissappoint me. Making the majority of them very human in appearance for me is a big no. Compare this group to the many colorful and fantastical creatures that are shown teaching at hexside and the hexside teachers are far more creative, unique, and fun. Maybe the artists decided to make the coven leaders look more like normal people so the audience would have an easier time understanding their expressions and body language. Maybe the more humanoid whitches are a higher class and have a easier time climbing higher than the more beast and demon like residence.? We will have to wait and see. 

Seperate this group into individuals (like how we will hopefully meet them) and most of them become far more interesting, So below lets take a look at each coven leader individually, where the artists may have taken inspriation, and what  What kind of characters they could maybe turn out to be.

The Beast keeping coven Leader: One of the only two that are not humanoids. What type of animal is he? At first I was sure he was a hedgehog, but maybe he could also be like a chipmunk or a squirrel. I get the feeling he might be partially inspired by Sonic from Sega. I was really into Sonic back in middle school. I liked the cartoons and read through the archie’s old comic series. But I kinda out grew him since then. I know from helping to take care of kids though that he is still popular with the younger generation. That’s kinda how I thin the Beast Keeping Coven leader will be: less interesting for older viewers, but a real fun charcter for kids.

The Healing coven leader: Now this guy looks like fun villain all around. Is some kind of witch docotor? a Dark Priest? The size the purple Grin, he looks like the phantom boss from those horror films where you get trapped in nightmares. Tell me he has scary theme song music and talks in a very high pitched voice. I’ve heard some people wonder if he could be Selena (oracle girl from hexside)’s dad. I don’t thinks so, the macaroni crescent shape n his head looks more like a fancy cowl than part of his actual head. Also him having a daughter in Luz’s class could be used as a reason for him to change sides, I want this guy to stay as a villian/antagonist. We all know that with this size group some will stay with the emperor and some will defect to Luz’s side (possibility a couple will die, we haven’t seen yet just how dark Dana is willing to go). Personally my view with redemption arcs and if a character “deserves them” is it depends on what it will do for the story/character afterwards? IF redeeming them opens more doors for the characters and directions the story can take, do it. IF it closes doors leave them as they are. I absolutely hate when clever and well written bad guys get “redeemed” in to boring, plot useless, weebs. The only reason I could see having this guy change sides is for him to “cure” Eda and Lilith’s curse, and I would much rather see the two of them gain control over their forms than be “cured” of them.

The Illusion coven leader: Another fun looking antagonist. My third favorite of these nine. If the healer guy is horror movie based. This guy is Disney based all around. Looks like one of those Vegas suave showmen styled character. Love it. I guarantee you he does not actually look that young or slicked back, but is using illusion magic to make himself more pretty. Not sure if he will stay with the emperor or not. Illusion is Gus’s track and I could see Dana having the leaders of Luz’s friends tracks be the ones to stand by them. If so I am fine with that (in the case of the abomination leader I will beg for it). Gaining the respect of someone as high up as a coven leader could be really great for Gus’s character. Just as long as I get plenty of laughs from Gus and this guy both along the way.

The Potion coven leader: My second favorite and in my opinion the most creative idea of the whole bunch. A mosquito that works in potions! Does he suck them up with his nose and carry them in.. whatever it is mosquitos store blood in. Also he looks angry. Like everyone else is either amused or board. This guy is fed up and ready to do something about it. Not sure if it is the Emperor, the other leaders, or the owl gang he is mad at, but it should be a worthwhile show down.

The Abomination coven leader: Yes this is my favorite design. Yes it is because he is such a beautiful man. Would never have expected someone who creates mucks (the pokemon) with legs would be so fine. Its more than that though. He looks the most kind. Their is no malice or guise in his smile and his green eyes are bright and relaxed. I wondered what the purpose of the Abomination track was and why it had “more opportunity” all last season. Well slight spoilers if you haven’t seen episode 2x02 it is the industrialist field. When you learn about Industrialization usually the idea is that it is done to help the human race reach its full potential, and it is up to each individual to decide what to do with that potential. Whether you call that the passion of a creative mind or the carelessness of a fool would also be up to you. But I really don’t want this guy to be all bad. If for no other reason that more spoilers for episode 2 * with the interest/caution the emperor is showing the blights I expect this guy to show up to their house, probably meet Amity, and we really do not need another not so nice adult in her life. She has had enough.

The Oracle coven leader: What is this? He’s got nails/caws at the ends of dread thingys like Kikimore, so is this her father? Does he have anything to do with her being in the Emporor’s coven? But this is my least favorite. Like what was the inspiration behind this guy? With so many legendary oracles in mythology and we get this guy who mostly looks saggy, washed out, tierd, and just Blah. Hope thier is more to him, but here is one who I am not holding my breath for an episode on.

The Plant coven leader: based on her banner I was expecting something like the Swamp Giant from ALTA. Instead they went in the direction of a very traditional witch desgine: An old women with a wrinkled face and really messy hair, who probably lives alone in the woods, with maybe the exception of a cat, and dances around a fire at night. Okay. She is definitely going to become an ally of the owl gang. This is the only female of the group,and it is neither in Dana’s message nor would it be popular with her target audience to make a villain or even an antagonist out of a women who managed to climb the later into a male dominated success level. I am actually looking forward to seeing her, because it will probably be in a Willow based episode, and after 2x02 (which I personally feel should not have been a luminaty episode but rather a Willow and Amity one finishing up their reconciliation arc), Willow deserves an episode with potential centered around her. An episode where she goes against the Plant track Leader would be that. This witches Grin isn’t exactly friendly, but its more mischievous than wicked. She gives off vibes as one of those people who like to test the mains, and if you pass her tests than you earn her respect. I have no doubt Willow could win at her little games, and doing so would be a huge boost the confidence she has spent the show building.

The Construction coven leader: Oh joy here’s the other one I am unimpressed with. Unlike with the Oracle guy I know where they got his design. To everyone saying that we first saw him at the convention, your not backing far enough up. If you have ever seen any cartoon ever where the main character wanders past or onto a construction sight you have seen this man. Every trio of workers sitting on a iron frame eating from a lunchbox. Every pig that makes a catcall at a disgusted women. Every exhausted worker who watches as your slapstick mains chase each other past at quitting time... they all looked EXACTLY like this guy. This is really the character leading the track Dana herself has said she would pick to join? They could have done a Golem made of brick an stone that resembles a palace. They could have done some kind of humanoid ant with super strength. They could have done a wizard with shapes and mathematics on his robe who carried a scroll everywhere that he compulsively scribbled blueprints onto. But instead we get Mr. Generic here.

The Bard coven Leader: This is R, Eda’s old friend from her hexside days. Did I save R for last because of this connection? Partially. I am also unsure what R’s pronouns are. To me R looks physically male. I have seen other posters use “she” when posting about R. One person posted that Dana had confirmed R uses “they” and if so awesome, I would really like to see that tweet. What ever R’s pronouns though their appearance in the show will be tied with Eda, er past, and what she had to give up in order to live free. I look forward to this new insight onto her character

[theseathatsparkles]

On Bugs

so for creative writing class we were told to imitate Amy Dillard’s writing style. This is the essay on bugs that I ended up making. Not Bleach, I know, but I thought someone might enjoy it. 

This took so long to write oh my god ;-;

also, I am fully aware that not all insects are bugs, and that spiders aren’t either of the two, but. bug is much more fun to say.

Word count - 1500 on the dot

@despairforme THE BUG ESSAY. IT’S HERE. @onenicebugperday you inspired me to write a four page essay about bugs i hope you’re happy

When I was in third grade, I dropped a dandelion down the back of my classmate’s shirt. She was upset, having thought the rather inconspicuous dandelion was a daddy long-legs spider. She’d screamed, slapped me on the chest in an attempt to escape her arachnid harasser, and had decided to wage war against me for the rest of our time together in school.

I never was afraid of spiders the way she was. Spiders and snakes and all sorts of bugs, so long as I could be assured they weren't poisonous, had always held a special place in my heart - and, more often than not, my hand. Growing up in woody, wet Germany gave me a healthy dosage of ladybugs, crickets, and snails at a young age, and I never looked at a bug with anything other than fascination. 

It’s the middle of winter, now. There aren’t many bugs around. Forty-two little silhouettes in the light above my desk, but none of them move, empty exoskeletons like shells. They’re probably dry, and if I touched one I’m sure it would crumble under my fingers. There seem to be more of them every time I look up; it’s the middle of winter, so the warmth of the indoors must be especially tantalizing. Right now, there isn’t any wind outside, but the world seems to be painted in shades of grey. Even looking outside makes you feel cold, and the drifts of iced-over snow outside of the window just emphasize this.

I have mixed feelings about winter. I love the snow, love having an excuse to stay inside wrapped in blankets on the days I don’t have school. I love that there aren’t mosquitoes to follow me around - I must taste good to them, since they always seem to swarm me. But the lack of the bugs I do like - spiders, caterpillars, grasshoppers, even the jeweled dragonflies that swarm our canoes in summer - makes winter feel especially harsh. 

When I’m feeling more grey than usual, I turn to the internet to soothe me. My computer has a tab open - one nice bug per day. The third picture that appears on image search is a gorgeous skeleton leaf moth, the row under that containing a domino cuckoo bee. I smile, looking at the pictures.  A photo of a hissing cockroach wearing a tiny paper party hat jumps out at me, curled around a leaf. I click on the picture, save it to my gmail by emailing it to myself. I’ll take some time to admire them later.

The bigger the bug the better, of course. Small bugs are hard to track, and the idea of one getting somewhere without me knowing about it gives me chills. That’s probably why I hate ants; they swarm up your legs and into your shoes and socks and it takes far too long to extract them all, and you feel phantom itches on your body for the next day or so. 

The fear of ants is called myrmecophobia, and often goes hand-in-hand with entomophobia - the fear of insects. When I was young - still in Elementary school, at a time before my decision to quit soccer - I’d practice with my mom in the field a bit southeast of the elementary school tucked at the base of the mountain pass. The playground had been north of us. I always wanted to go back to the playground. The whole complex had been a good half hour’s drive from my house, so we didn’t go there often, but it had an excellent jungle gym and some new swings. It got hot easily, out there under the sun; if I didn’t bring water, the ninety-degree weather would feel twenty degrees hotter, the sort of heat that makes you lightheaded and grumpy. 

But my mom had told me to play soccer, and she wasn’t the sort of person who you could say no to easily. I tried, of course, in futile attempts that would end with me in tears and my mom seething, but always ended up on that field, kicking the ball back and forth as my mom chastised me for skipping to the goal. Skipping, apparently, was slower than running.

 I’d hated soccer. 

It was one of those days that solidified my fear of ants. Wyoming doesn’t have fire ants or most other nasty biting bugs, so I was never in real danger, but that didn’t stop the whole experience from being traumatic. My mom, of course, had laughed about it later; it seems to be a habit of adults to take the irrational fears of children lightly. The ants crawling up my leg had probably been just as afraid of me as I was of them, but knowing that didn’t help any. Adults will tell you that the shark that bit off your arm was just as afraid of you as you were of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that your arm’s gone. 

I’d been unlucky enough to step right in an ant nest, the sort that stays hidden by the short grass until something, or someone, disturbs it. It hadn’t looked different from the regular ground from my five feet, but the moment I felt a tickle on my leg, I knew. 

I’d screamed. I think anyone would have screamed when confronted with one of their worst fears, so I never was ashamed of my reaction, even if I’d hated the exasperation and faint amusement on my mom’s face. The ants had come right off, lady fortune smiling on me that day, and I hadn’t found any tiny ant corpses in my shoes when I took them off that afternoon - a rarity; ants always seem to turn up in unexpected places post-encounter. I’d been paranoid, though, and had hopped around on one foot until I was a safe distance from the nest before shoving my hands down my socks to search for any lone ants. There were none.

I refused to resume play until I was positive there were no ants on me, of course. Even when we started the game again I was wary, taking light steps and watching the ground like a hawk for any sign of another insect. It had taken the fun out of the game pretty quickly, and we went home soon after.

The internet goes out for a moment, and the photo of the mantis I’m looking at shifts to a grey screen. I frown, take a second to stand up and stretch. My legs and shoulders are especially sore. By the time I sit down again, my picture has loaded again, and I scroll to the left to see a swallowtail butterfly looking out of the screen at me. They have yellow fur around their eyes and antennae, and look vaguely curious. This picture also goes to my saved folder to look at later, and I keep scrolling.

When I was in second grade, we studied bugs in science class. Not extensively; there’s only so much work you can get done as a scatterbrained second grader, and bugs weren’t on the top of my list of priorities. But we studied them, and after a few weeks our teacher imported seven Madagascar hissing cockroaches to be our class pets.

Nobody in my class was afraid of them; I think we were too young to be afraid of something as hideously cute as those little insects. They remind me of pugs now, disgusting in the sort of way that makes you want to coo over them. We’d kept them in a little glass terrarium in the back of the classroom, and took them out during lunch break and sometimes to sketch them during art. Our teacher had told us how to tell the males and females apart, but the information had gone straight in ear and out the other, like water through a sieve. There are two things I can remember about them now: first, that they would shed their skins sometimes and we’d have to clean out their terrarium; second, that if you poked their heads, they’d hiss.

The second thing was the most important to my little second-grade brain. My classmates and I took great satisfaction in poking the cockroaches and watching them puff up and make little hissing sounds like air coming out of a tire. They’d always make their funny wheezing sound, and we’d sit there for minutes on end - the longest amount of time our young minds could stay on track for - and tap them, giggling uncontrollably as they got progressively more frustrated.

I like bugs. I’m no entomologist, I would never spend my days in the wild watching them through magnifying glasses. But I still like them. Their colors remind me of spring and summer, and I love their size - perfect to pick up and put on a fingertip. They’re much more simple than people, never worried about money or jobs or politics. They have no worries, no fears.

I would love to be a bug.

[spn-j2-blog]

CW Star Jensen Ackles Invites AD Inside His Family Home in Austin

Danneel, a Tony Duquette superfan, was over the moon when Santini brought the stained glass pendants she’d bought from his estate.

The slightly sunken living room with the deep blue banquette couch, white shag rug, macrame chair, and muscular oak beams is Jensen’s favorite space.

The home’s entry was designed to feel like an outdoor living space according to Santini, who sourced an 1850s English table and unusual Swedish lantern from the 1820s to anchor the room. The woven stools are from Tidelli, and the headless deer with ferns are by Italy’s Imperfetto Lab.

Architect Paul Lamb’s significant removal of walls led to a feel-good expansiveness where there are no boundaries. “It all kind of flows,” says Jensen. “You never feel like you’re in just one room.” In the media room, they did the least amount of work, painting the dark ceiling trusses to lighten the space and putting a German smear on the orange-y fireplace to tone it down.

The most Texas room in the house is the Marfa-imbued dining space, where the couple’s cherished Boyd Elder bull skull hangs. It’s part of a 10-piece series from the ’70s, the most famous of which was on the cover of the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits album. “Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s bands on tour wanted to have an artist with them, and Boyd was like the muse for the Eagles,” says Danneel, adding of the late artist, “I believe he dated Joni Mitchell, and she has one of the pieces.”

Behind the sofa is a gold birdcage artwork by Austin artist Micky Hoogendijk. It’s an observation on “women who seem to be trapped by money and possessions and they’re OK with it; they like living in that gilded cage,” says Danneel. “It looks intense but when you get close to it they’re all smiling and happy and unaware that they’re in this cage because they’re gold and perfect. For me that’s just somewhere I never want to be, so I was really attracted to that.”

Danneel spends a lot of time in the babies’ room (22-month-old twins Zeppelin and Arrow) and the kitchen, where the kids’ favorite toy is a rolling acrylic table from the ‘50s. (“Fern would have a heart attack,” she laughs.) They tore the space down to nothing and built it back from scratch. “It was a totally different feel, and very kind of country looking, which didn’t blend well with the rest of the house,” Jensen says. Now, to Lamb, “the kitchen’s glossy painted wood boards look like pinstripes, crisp and good-natured, like a happy kitchen in the Hamptons.”  

“There’s not a space they don’t use,” says Santini of the house she worked on with Jensen and Danneel. The reimagined pool room taps into their proclivity for spooky oddities with framed tarot cards and a game table that could work for board games or even séances, says Lamb, who added a secondary kitchen for big gatherings with access to a barbecue area on the lawn, and a wine room.

A native Southerner, Danneel fought hard for the addition of a screened-in porch, which Lamb had the vision—inspired by Greenwood Plantation in St. Francisville—to make two stories tall. “I wanted more than anything to be able to sit out there, not get eaten alive by mosquitos, and look at the lake and watch the boats go by,” says the actress. Jensen’s favorite piece in the house is the long table, custom made using a 2,000-year-old cypress log that had sunk and was buried on the West Bank of New Orleans.

The bar—black walnut with black and white veined marble—is on one end of the large living room and is the site of frequent small parties involving music, either live or from the McIntosh turntable. The cabinets were specially made to light prized bourbons, and on the side is a white taxidermy peacock Santini tracked down over months. Flooring throughout the house is hand-scraped Texas post oak with character to spare.

The master bedroom and the adjacent sitting room are clad in reclaimed barn wood, juxtaposing the whimsical wallpaper covered in sections by Japanese-inspired barn door panels that allow for flexible boundaries. Jensen said of the scheme, “You guys are losing me, but it sounds awesome, so knock it out!” Danneel already owned the two petrified wood and resin log tables that sit in front of the vintage ‘50s daybed with Mongolian lamb, though the majority of what’s in the home was selected or made specifically for it.

Inspiration for their master bathroom shower came from an Architectural Digest story featuring a steel and glass shower in the home of Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka. Lit by Apparatus fixtures, Lamb conceived a simple vaulted space with a white oak board ceiling and fumed and cerused walnut cabinets with a slight Tansu feel. A Kyle Bunting cowhide rug is centered on the room, and Holly Hunt ombre-dyed handkerchief linen window treatments frame the lake view.

The pair’s five-year-old daughter, JJ, helped pick out all her own bedroom decor. “The more color the better,” says Danneel. Santini calls it “hippie in training.” Like in the rest of the home, her walls are plaster.

The ultra-private home looks out at a nature preserve across the water. Durable throw pillows around the house were made of old quilts purchased online. “We bought a lot of them and mixed them all up,” says Santini. “There’s nowhere in the house where you feel like you have to tip toe around or can’t sit. That was definitely intentional.”

Inside and out, Lamb and Santini ensured that the Ackleses’ Austin home “expresses them—young, bold, and irreverent. It had to be full of humorous and endearing eccentricities and it needed to radiate a comforting yet exotic familiarity.”

(c)architecturaldigest

There’s a lot going on inside the Lake Austin home of actors Jensen and Danneel Ackles—a lot of color, a lot of texture, endless elements begging their stories to be told. If you need a quick snapshot: The living room is scattered with guitars and, on the shag rug, Technicolor floor pillows; antique Venetian dioramas of Lilliputian-sized rooms are embedded into the white-oak walls, while a hanging cage traps gilded Barbie dolls by Micky Hoogendijk; on top of a shelf housing a record player, a photograph of Tom Waits sits next to a chicken skeleton; a regal white peacock perches on the side of the mercantile-style bar. There’s the master bedroom swaddled in Trove wall covering bearing vintage photography of 1920s opera boxes. And the two-story screened-in porch holds a table crafted from a 2,000-year-old cypress sinker log, a storied Boyd Elder cow skull, and four-foot glass lanterns from Tony Duquette’s estate.

Indeed, Danneel and Duquette share a similar philosophy. “More is more is more!” Danneel says emphatically. “More is the most.” Still, the Ackleses' five-bedroom, 7,500-square-foot residence isn’t actually an ode to opulence but rather an evocative tribute to key passions at the core of their personalities: the music and aesthetics of the late ’60s, Austin’s art scene, and imaginative oddities and occultist ephemera, perhaps appropriate considering Jensen’s longtime role on the CW’s Supernatural.

After deciding to leave Brentwood, California, and coming this close to putting in an offer on a Lake Austin fixer-upper, the couple set their gaze on a house three doors down, sans “for sale” sign. “As we drove by, Danneel and I both looked at our real estate agent and were like, ‘See, that is the kind of house we’re looking for,’” recalls Jensen. Adds Danneel, “we wanted something less ostentatious.” Fortunately, the owner was willing to sell, but the property was far from turnkey and required an overhaul to go from what Danneel calls the “Texas Tuscan look"—generic stuccoed track mansion—to a wood-clad ranch-style stunner.

Jensen and Danneel enlisted Austin architect Paul Lamb and Abode principal interior designer Fern Santini to kickstart what ended up being a very collaborative renovation—even the Ackleses' eldest child, five-year-old JJ, got into the fun, choosing everything in her Pinterest-worthy bedroom. At their initial meeting with Santini, the potential for partnership was evident when she pulled up in an auspicious 1967 E-Type Jaguar. “I mean, it’s just like the coolest thing ever,” says Jensen of the car, which was made in the same year Danneel had said she wanted to recreate in the Austin home so as to pay tribute to the Laurel Canyon bungalow where the couple once lived. “People like Carly Simon had played guitar there,” Danneel says. “It was a magical little place. So when Fern pulls up in that car ... We just bonded over music and a love of that time period and had our vision right off the bat.”

Executing that vision involved blowing out the majority of the house’s interior, taking it down to the studs, and reconfiguring it. “It was very closed and very ‘90s,” says Santini. Extensive structural work was devised by Lamb, one of Santini's frequent creative conspirator. “Paul is from New Orleans and I’m from Louisiana, and we have the same odd sense of humor and style,” says Danneel, who saw a residential elevator he’d done entirely in red velvet and said, “That’s the guy for me!” The foursome worked beautifully together—that is, after Jensen learned early on to keep his mouth shut if and when he doubted any stylistic choices. When shown the idea for a rich, royal blue sofa, “I was like, ’Y’all are crazy!’” says Jensen. “But then I just thought, I’m not going to get in their way.”

Smart man, considering a highly personalized space began to unspool under Santini and Lamb's direction. “It was imperative that the house express the Ackleses—young, bold, and irreverent,” Lamb says. “It had to be full of humorous and endearing eccentricities and it needed to radiate a comforting yet exotic familiarity.” He simplified and opened spaces, flipped the feel from a masonry house to a wood-framed home—thanks to exposed beams, larger expanses of windows, and rich wooden ceilings—and, perhaps most transformational, added a breezy two-story screened porch that altered the entire profile. “The former house was straight-laced and vaguely Mediterranean,” Lamb says. “Now it is an eclectic, free-spirited, Austin-style lake house.” Santini calls it “a cross between Joni Mitchell and the Serge Gainsbourg–Jane Birkin thing that was going on in Paris at the same time. It’s very hip but it’s low-key.”

Musically, the home is rich with sound, thanks to Jensen’s collection of guitars and the McIntosh turntable Santini says she “has real fetish for, after spending my entire career trying to hide stereo equipment.” There’s also a surfeit of historical and meaningful music-related artwork—think photographs of Yasgur’s Farm in Woodstock and a house where Bob Dylan recorded. “The hand-scraped wood floors undulate quite heavily, and we’ve got these giant beams and wood all around that feel like you’re in the hull of a giant ship,” Jensesn says. “What that does is it creates an amazing acoustic sound. We’ve always had music in our lives, and we wanted to pass on that tradition.”

The parents of three also are active supporters of local art. “We’re not the type who need it to all be the same. That’s criminal to me, almost,” says Danneel of their home full of diverse pieces from Austin and Marfa, including female artists from galleries like Women and Their Work. Santini describes the pair as risk-takers who both led the charge on outside-the-box thinking and let her push the limits. In their third home together, the Ackleses hit their stride, nailing a personally reflective infusion of edge, humor, and spirit.

“It goes to that having a history, having a story,” says Jensen, who, with his wife, selects works based on a gut feeling as opposed to popularity or perceived value. It’s the same way Danneel approached design. “We have so many friends who come into the house and are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love this—it’s so crazy and unexpected. But man, I would have never picked out all these things, and I wouldn’t have been brave enough to do it!’” she says. “I’ve heard this over and over, and I wish more people would just be brave and go with what makes them happy.”

[marshmallowfin]

Marshmallow’s Monster Prom Guide: (Incompete)

Last Updated on: 05/18/2018

So I don’t know if this will help anyone because I’m gay and bad at math and don’t know how stats work in this game but here/s basically what happened to me which playing monster prom. 

Sorted by character, so if you’re looking for an interaction with Scott and Liam it should be under both characters. 

If anything seems unclear or confusing please feel free to message me! I’ll try my best to help! 

QUIZ QUESTIONS:

SEEN THIS POST: http://marshmallow-wagon.tumblr.com/post/174031514875/marshmallows-monster-prom-question-guide

Miranda Vanderbait

Food poisoning: (Polly/Miranda)

I surely do! It’s entitled “Silver-wear” and it’s where you take your most expensive cutlery and dress it in very fancy tiny outfits. (Miranda)

Yup. It’s called “dying”.

Silverware: (Miranda/Damien)

The fishing knife. (Miranda)

A spoon. What, you need a blade they kill people?

Their own sport: (Liam/Miranda)

Obviously the sport bard assigns inspiration kicks to the metaphysical linebacker, who scores 11 points for each poem he successfully publishes in The Atlantic. Didn't you read the rule book? (NOT SO CREATIVE, -2 fun and -1 bold)

Don’t you see? The points were inside us all along!

A new kind of serf: (Polly/Miranda)

Ooh, Miranda, you should get a puppy surf! It’s not an actual serf —  dogs! (Miranda <3)

You should get a party serf,Polly! A surf to experience your hangovers for you!

Inventing new silverware: (Miranda/Scott)

The salad harp.

Hands. (Scott <3)

Damien La Vey

DamienXLiam fanart: (Damien/Liam)

What the fuck is this? This fuckery, dear Damien, is ART. I present to you...yaoi. (NOT SO CREATIVE. Damien <3? -1 fun and -1 bold)

Don’t be silly! You don’t want to fight me…you're clearly fighting against your urge…for cuddling!

Silverware: (Miranda/Damien)

The fishing knife. (Miranda)

A spoon. What, you need a blade they kill people?

Duct Tape: (Scott/Damien)

Don’t worry Damien, you can keep the Duct Tape of Retribution for your nefarious purposes.Coven, why don’t you use the Scotch Tape of HEY, Cut That Out! instead? (NOT SO CREATIVE, Damien <3. -2 fun, -1 bold)

Scott, you don’t really care about the DUCT TAPE, right? You like having a cool shiny thing! But watch me as I use my sweet negotiating skills to get — wait for it! — Two cool shiny things!!!

Interdimensional bachelor part 2: (Scott/Damien)

Sign the name of Tyrelliott the Terrible, thus summoning him.

EAT THE CONTRACT. (SO BOLD, +2 fun and +smart)

Badge Bikini: (Damien/Polly)

You know what crazy chaotic? Being single and partying forever! Destroying the institution of marriage. (SO BOLD, Polly <3, +2 fun and + bold)

Chaos is always better with some sensible agony — replace all the water in the school with swarms of mosquitoes!

Where to hide the body: (Damien)

Disguise him is a drinking fountain. No one will know the difference.

Just chuck him in my garage. He’ll blend in perfectly with my collection of vintage dead bodies. (SO BOLD, +2 smarts, +1 charm)

Think fast of get punched: (Damien)

Jokes on you, pal: I am a pragmatist. I avoid any kind of idolization of the past because it has no use, and therefore refuse feeling any kind of melancholy.

No time to think of anything clever… Start dancing for no reason! (SO FUN, +2 Bold and +1 fun)

Angry at a Banana: (Damien)

Defend the bananas honor.

Eat the banana. (SO BOLD, +3 bold)

Scott Howl

Fad Diets: (Scott/Polly)

Have you heard of the Imhotep cleanse? It’s where you only eat things that came from mummy. Mummies are rare, so you get super skinny. Plus you get to Rob tombs!

You’ve heard of the Paleo diet. Not try the Jurassic diet! You can eat anything that isn’t dinosaur. Killing a T Rex alone will get you super buff! (SO BOLD. Scott <3. +2 charm and +2 fun)

Duct Tape: (Scott/Damien)

Don’t worry Damien, you can keep the Duct Tape of Retribution for your nefarious purposes.Coven, why don’t you use the Scotch Tape of HEY, Cut That Out! instead? (NOT SO CREATIVE, Damien <3. -2 fun, -1 bold)

Scott, you don’t really care about the DUCT TAPE, right? You like having a cool shiny thing! But watch me as I use my sweet negotiating skills to get — wait for it! — Two cool shiny things!!!

Mobile Game: (Scott/Damien)

Show them at the phone equipped with Pokémans Go can also be used as a football! (Scott <3)

Say nothing. Help them with steamed vegetables.

Power “Drink” aka Cocaine: (Scott)

using your vast knowledge of aromatherapy, give him some lavender-scented cocaine to neutralize the regular-scented cocaine and relax him a bit.

GIVE HIM A FLASHY FIDGET SPINNER. (SO FUN, +2 charm and +1 smart.)

Eating food: (Scott/Liam)

Obviously the lychee-fruit flavored custard with a side of tofu and a drizzle raspberry extract is the most superior food on the plate.

Go for the brightly-colored bag of meat biscuits that somehow has...an anime drawing of Scott’s face on it?! That says “SCOTT SNACKS”?! (Scott <3)

Interdimensional bachelor part 2: (Scott/Damien)

Sign the name of Tyrelliott the Terrible, thus summoning him.

EAT THE CONTRACT. (SO BOLD, +2 fun and +smart)

Get him back on the team: (Scott)

Spike the punch with Coke on prom night! If the whole schools team is on Coke, coach will have to let you all play! (SO FUN, +2 fun and +1 fun)

All we gotta do is convince coach that cocaine is a good thing! A little hands-on demonstration won’t hurt…

Goat Head Potato Chips: (Liam/Scott)

Assemble an army of vengeful on the go torsos. (SO SMART, +2 creative and +1 smart)

Write an extremely mean blog post.

Sexiest Monster: (Liam/Scott)

Make your own version of the magazine, featuring a three-winged chupacabra on the cover.

Lean heavily on the “warrior” part — storm MONSTER Magazine and hold the editor-in-chief captive until he promises to stop exclusively promoting one aesthetic as the pinnacle of monster sexiness. (SO BOLD, +2 fun and +1 charm)

What should we cheer for bro?: (Scott)

We should cheer for the working class! Nothing will aid the rise of the proletariat like a hearty cheer!

We should cheer for each other, because friendship is the greatest part of all. (SO CHARMING, +2 bold and +1 fun)

Scotch: (Vera/Scott)

Yeah, it’s called Scott’s, but today is opposite day, so everything that Scott’s is actually Vera’s. (Vera <3)

You’re right Scott! That drink is your birthright! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!

Inventing new silverware: (Miranda/Scott)

The salad harp.

Hands. (Scott <3)

Damien vs. you: (Vera/Scott)

Here’s what I’m gonna do, Vera: I’m gonna give you hundred bucks, and you’re going to teach me your secret Oberlin combat style. (NOT SO WEALTHY, -2 bold and -1 fun)

I don’t know. Probably die, unless some big, strong, good-at-sports man decides to teach me how to fight. But where whatever find such a man?

Liam de Lioncourt

Liam’s writing: (Liam)

Passionate argument for the legalization of recreational chimera toxins.

A chilling expose the pasta industry’s Griffin-trafficking. (NOT SO BOLD, -2 charm and -1 smart)

Bats are so chiche: (Liam)

A hotdog stand.

A general feeling of unease. (NOT SO CREATIVE, -2 bold and -1 smart.)

Time Machine: (Liam)

3.85 billion BC, so you can be into existing before was cool.

Everyone knows that the dopest time in monster history was 1925… Specifically July 26, 2 AM to 5 AM. (NOT SO SMART, -2 fun and -1 smart)

Their own sport: (Liam/Miranda)

Obviously the sport bard assigns inspiration kicks to the metaphysical linebacker, who scores 11 points for each poem he successfully publishes in The Atlantic. Didn't you read the rule book? (NOT SO CREATIVE, -2 fun and -1 bold)

Don’t you see? The points were inside us all along!

DamienXLiam fanart: (Damien/Liam)

What the fuck is this? This fuckery, dear Damien, is ART. I present to you...yaoi. (NOT SO CREATIVE. Damien <3? -1 fun and -1 bold)

Don’t be silly! You don’t want to fight me…you're clearly fighting against your urge…for cuddling!

Eating food: (Scott/Liam)

Obviously the lychee-fruit flavored custard with a side of tofu and a drizzle raspberry extract is the most superior food on the plate.

Go for the brightly-colored bag of meat biscuits that somehow has...an anime drawing of Scott’s face on it?! That says “SCOTT SNACKS”?! (Scott <3)

Goat Head Potato Chips: (Liam/Scott)

Assemble an army of vengeful on the go torsos. (SO SMART, +2 creative and +1 smart)

Write an extremely mean blog post.

Sexiest Monster: (Liam/Scott)

Make your own version of the magazine, featuring a three-winged chupacabra on the cover.

Lean heavily on the “warrior” part — storm MONSTER Magazine and hold the editor-in-chief captive until he promises to stop exclusively promoting one aesthetic as the pinnacle of monster sexiness. (SO BOLD, +2 fun and +1 charm)

Liam’s got no game: (Polly/Liam)

Coating yourself an insect pheromones. Don’t go after people: make people go after you. (SO SMART. Liam <3. +2 charm, +1 smart)

Dancing so hard that you also separate into a cloud of locusts.

You can’t sit with us: (Vera/Liam)

Well, I guess I’ll be going then, because there’s no way anyone could ever be as cool as Liam.

Let me ask you this: would an uncool person be giving Vera 50 Monster Dollars right now? (Vera <3)

Monster-Judge: (Vera/Liam)

True hideousness is on the inside — in your organs! A person with their organs on the outside would be the most hideous. (NOT SO CREATIVE, Vera <3?, -2 smart and -1 creativity)

A toned body, symmetrical face, nice features… Because traditional beauty standards are hideously mainstream!

Polly Geist

Liam’s got no game: (Polly/Liam)

Coating yourself an insect pheromones. Don’t go after people: make people go after you. (SO SMART. Liam <3. +2 charm, +1 smart)

Dancing so hard that you also separate into a cloud of locusts.

Badge Bikini: (Damien/Polly)

You know what crazy chaotic? Being single and partying forever! Destroying the institution of marriage. (SO BOLD, Polly <3, +2 fun and + bold)

Chaos is always better with some sensible agony — replace all the water in the school with swarms of mosquitoes!

Indementional game show: (Polly/??)

I present you with my grandmother‘s wedding ring… Still attached my Naked grandmother!

(Jaw unhinges, bees pour out.) (SO BOLD, +2 creative and + bold)

Financial Slaves: (Vera/Polly)

You can easily grow this arrangement into a business…just escalate and delegate! Have the financials slave go and acquire his own financial slave to give HIM money, and THAT financial slave go and find a financial slave… (Vera <3)

TELL HIM TO MARRY A LLAMA. (Polly <3)

Make them look dumb AND make money: (Vera/Polly)

why don’t you make up a phony work out craze? It worked for Frank Pilates, the inventor of Pilates. (SO CREATIVE, +1 creativity, +2 smarts)

Oh man, do I have a great praying for you: I call it “stealing”.

Food poisoning: (Polly/Miranda)

I surely do! It’s entitled “Silver-wear” and it’s where you take your most expensive cutlery and dress it in very fancy tiny outfits. (Miranda)

Yup. It’s called “dying”.

A new kind of serf: (Polly/Miranda)

Ooh, Miranda, you should get a puppy surf! It’s not an actual serf —  dogs! (Miranda <3)

You should get a party serf,Polly! A surf to experience your hangovers for you!

Fad Diets: (Scott/Polly)

Have you heard of the Imhotep cleanse? It’s where you only eat things that came from mummy. Mummies are rare, so you get super skinny. Plus you get to Rob tombs!

You’ve heard of the Paleo diet. Not try the Jurassic diet! You can eat anything that isn’t dinosaur. Killing a T Rex alone will get you super buff! (SO BOLD. Scott <3. +2 charm and +2 fun)

Reverse Romanian Wilkinson: (Polly)

I love… Done that one loads of times! Just name a time and a place, and I’ll reversus all over your Romanian Wilkinson. (SO CHARMING, +3 fun)

Throw a smoke bomb and escape while leaving a replica of yourself. That should buy you time to figure out what a Reverse Romanian Wilkinson is!

Bored forever: (Polly)

You don’t have to. Whenever you get tired of existing, just go piss off a priest. (SO FUN, +2 bold and +1 creative)

Meth.

Casino date: (Polly)

Walk up to the closest blackjack table and that at all… On red.

Find the nearest horse race in literally bet your life on it. (SO BOLD, +2 fun and +money)

Impersonations: (Polly/Scott)

WOOF WOOF, IT’S ME SCOTT: A DOG BOY WHO IS BAD AT IMPRESSIONS.

LOOK AT ME I’M POLLY LOOK AT ME GO!!! (Scott <3)

Vera Oberlin

You can’t sit with us: (Vera/Liam)

Well, I guess I’ll be going then, because there’s no way anyone could ever be as cool as Liam.

Let me ask you this: would an uncool person be giving Vera 50 Monster Dollars right now? (Vera <3)

Monster-Judge: (Vera/Liam)

True hideousness is on the inside — in your organs! A person with their organs on the outside would be the most hideous. (NOT SO CREATIVE, Vera <3?, -2 smart and -1 creativity)

A toned body, symmetrical face, nice features… Because traditional beauty standards are hideously mainstream!

Her stalker: (Vera)

Threaten to feed a damsel to a sea monster. That’ll distract him.

He looks Greek. Why not bribe Zeus, the King of the Gods? (SO WEALTHY, +2 fun and +1 smart)

Cools and Un-Cools: (Vera)

Un-Cool students should have to carry Cool students from class to class chaises. (SO CREATIVE, +2 money and +smarts)

Rotting squid should be thrown at Un-Cool students to remind them how uncool they are.

Perfect Poker alternative: (Polly?/Vera)

Russian roulette.

The stock market. (SO SMART, +2 fun and +1 money)

Scotch: (Vera/Scott)

Yeah, it’s called Scott’s, but today is opposite day, so everything that Scott’s is actually Vera’s. (Vera <3)

You’re right Scott! That drink is your birthright! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!

A Dinner gift!: (Vera)

A magic mirror that will always tell her how fabulous she looks.

The head of her greatest enemy. (NOT SO BOLD, -2 charm, -1 bold)

Financial Slaves: (Vera/Polly)

You can easily grow this arrangement into a business…just escalate and delegate! Have the financials slave go and acquire his own financial slave to give HIM money, and THAT financial slave go and find a financial slave…

TELL HIM TO MARRY A LLAMA. (Polly <3)

Make them look dumb AND make money: (Vera/Polly)

why don’t you make up a phony work out craze? It worked for Frank Pilates, the inventor of Pilates. (SO CREATIVE, +1 creativity, +2 smarts)

Oh man, do I have a great praying for you: I call it “stealing”.

Damien vs. you: (Vera/Scott)

Here’s what I’m gonna do, Vera: I’m gonna give you hundred bucks, and you’re going to teach me your secret Oberlin combat style. (NOT SO WEALTHY, -2 bold and -1 fun)

I don’t know. Probably die, unless some big, strong, good-at-sports man decides to teach me how to fight. But where whatever find such a man?

SOMETHING HAPPENED TO…

Banned from the club: (Vera/Polly) (This depends on who has the higher charm score, the names don’t super matter.)

______! It’s hard to admit, but they could charm the pants off a statue — and have, on several occasions!

______! No kidding, I want to watch them seduce the entire population of Lemuria from orbit!

(If right: SO CHARMING, both gain +2 fun and +1 charm) 

______’s cultural literacy: (Liam) Sabotage

______’s is so cultured, they can tell the difference between theater and theatre. (Gives ___ Liam <3, +3 creative to you)

______’s is so uncultured, they think “sonnet” is a female son.

Polly’s Deathday Party: Sabotage

______?! That reckless bastard eats gluten! GLUTEN, I tell you! She’ll be dead by noon, probably. (They get Polly <3, you get +3 fun)

______ is going to be around a loooooong long time, trust me — she already has a place reserved in a retirement community, and has taken up bingo, and became an expert knitter...game over. I mean game not over. Not for a long time. She is gonna die an old, old monster.

Interdenominational Prince

Help him fix his TV

Fuck that, let’s make up our own ritual. (+4 creative)

How about the ritual where you give me a pile of money and go away.

Indementional game show: (Polly/??)

I present you with my grandmother‘s wedding ring… Still attached my Naked grandmother!

(Jaw unhinges, bees pour out.) (SO BOLD, +2 creative and + bold)

Interdimensional bachelor part 2: (Scott/Damien)

Sign the name of Tyrelliott the Terrible, thus summoning him.

EAT THE CONTRACT. (SO BOLD, +2 fun and +smart)

THE COVEN:

An Adventure?

Stop the crime ghost who’s been taking over children’s bodies and using them to rob banks. You have a never-before-seen plan… (+4 creative)

Take on the greatest villain of all: income inequality.

Reverse Romanian Wilkinson:

You are trapped tackling online searching in a very short-sighted way… you need to come up with unexpected search terms that will point you in the right direction. (NOT SO CREATIVE, -2 charm and -1 smarts)

Use your people skills to get the three witches to admit they know what a Reverse Romanian Wilkinson is, and to tell you what you need for it.

COACH:

Drink of choice?

Both. (+4 bold)

Whiskey.

[flurrys-creativity]

🌸Get to know me 🌸

I was tagged by @inkofyoongi Thanks so much for the tag! I think I haven’t done this one so far... or maybe I did and my goldfish brain just doesn’t remember.. anyway.. let’s go!

When is your birthday?

5th of October

What is your favorite color?

Black and Blue

What’s your lucky number?

13

Do you have any pets?

My parents have three dogs.. does that count?

How tall are you?

166cm which is 5′6 I think?!

How many pairs of shoes do you own?

somewhere between 8 and 15 I think? I recently got some from my sister cause she didn’t want to wear them anymore.. and I just wear my shoes until they fall apart..

Favorite song?

Answer by Ateez... I feel like that won’t ever change again..

Favorite movie?

How to train your dragon?, The Croods?, Inside out?.. I know those are all childrens movies but I don’t care.. I like them and they are awesome!!! Otherwise let me say The Old Guard

What would be your ideal partner?

Uhm... human? Actually... just living the rest of my days together with a cat doesn’t sound soo wrong.. you know what... my ideal partner will be the one where it just clicks..

Do you want children?

Maybe adopted.. one day.. but for now... ABSOLUTELY NOT.. though they are cute.. some of them.. as long as I can give them back..

Have you gotten in trouble with the law?

Not really in trouble.. but there had been a misunderstanding once.. a reason why I don’t trust the law too much.. it’s a long story.. but the short version: another girl and I had an accident on our bikes and because she got injured and I didn’t the police called me the culprit and her the victim... which was unfair because she rode her bike into me and was too dumb to not fall.. sorry not sorry.. 

What color socks are you wearing?

None at the moment but if I have to then black

Bath or shower?

shower

Favorite type of music?

Rock, Pop, Metal...

How many pillows do you sleep with?

1

Which position do you sleep in?

I’m turning a lot at night? So it changes a lot.. though usually on my side..

What don’t you like when you’re sleeping?

Mosquitos... sometimes when I’m overwhelmed light and noise too... though I usually listen to music to fall asleep..

What do you have for breakfast?

Toast with cheese and strawberry marmelade.. or muesli with yoghurt..

Have you ever tried archery?

Yes, it’s awesome and I love it!!!

Favorite fruit?

Banana... though I love a lot of fruits..

Favorite swear word?

fuck

Do you have any scars?

A few... one on my wrist, one underneath my lower lip, one of my tattoos is slightly scarred, one large one on my knee and another large one on my ankle, a small one on my forehead.. maybe even more but those are the ones I know off..

Are you a good liar?

Yeah, had to be..

What’s your personality type?

Ambivert, calm, observing, funny (at least I think I’m hilarious and that’s the most important thing), usually nice..

What’s your favorite type of girl?

Yes.. just girls I vibe with I guess.. does that count as a type? As long as we respect each others boundaries and stuff there won’t ever be a problem..

Left or right handed?

Right handed when I’m writing.. left handed for everything else..

Favorite food?

Curry.. a sweet curry with rice..

Are you clean or messy?

Yes... messy until I can’t take it anymore.. then I get obsessively clean..

Favorite foreign food?

Still curry...

How long does it take for you to get ready?

Usually like 10 to 30 minutes.. for special occasions maybe more..

Most used phrase?

Fuck.. I guess.. I don’t know.. 

Are you a good singer?

MAybe? I stopped singing in front of others because my grandfather made fun of me for singing not loud enough when I was sick, sixteen and singing the part of a middle aged male singer in a duett with my sister (without having ever learned proper technique or anything) everyone else during that birthday party told me I was really good though.. (but you know teenagers... they don’t care what strangers say when their own family pulls them down..)

Do you sing to yourself?

Yes.. a lot... I hum a lot as well... and I do the old people thing where I sing what I’m doing.. sometimes..

Biggest fear?

I don’t know.. let it happen so I can tell you..

Do you like long or short hair?

On myself?! SHORT HAIR.. I’m lazy and during the summer it’s too hot otherwise.. on anyone else.. I don’t care.. whatever suits them..

Are you into gossip?

*sigh* 

Extrovert or introvert?

Ambivert.. leaning to introvert though..

Favorite school subject?

History.. if it weren’t for the constant reminder of what the Germans did during WW2... like I get the reminder but most teaching methods are like guilt shaming us what ancestors (we don’t even knew ourselves) did.. and I hate that.. but as soon as I’m learning about other countries and cultures.. I love history

What makes you nervous?

Not being in control.. new situations.. stuff like that..

Who was your first real crush?

I don’t know?! I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast... how am I supposed to know that! I remember this one guy though during my dance classes... he asked if I wanted to dance with him when all the students had partners already.. he was kind of a teacher’s apprentice I think..

How many piercings do you have?

1.. not counting my normal shots through my earlobes..

How fast can you run?

What kind of question is that?! Why would I want to run?! Not even during a zombie apocalypse I would run... I’m too lazy for that shit.. also endurance is more my style than being fast..

What makes you angry?

There are things... like overstepping my boundaries.. making fun of me in an ill manner.. and other things..

Do you like your own name?

I accepted it.. I used to hate it.. but I came to terms with it now..

What are your weaknesses?

Who knows..

What are your strengths?

My creativity and lot of other things..

What is the color of your bedspread?

dark blue with a kind of flower print..

Color of your room?

Dark grey and light blue

Once again I won’t tag anyone.. unless you haven’t done this and want to share stuff about you.. feel yourself tagged!

[voidofteeth]

I partially made this blog so I can yell about my trash excellent taste in media into the greater void instead of at a groupchat that was supposed to peer pressure me into doing more creative things >.>

Anyway please appreciate my favourite parts of Higanjima’s first ending.

The fight heavily features Miyabi’s personal plushie room! Because why wouldn't he have a plushie room in this random tower they are fighting in??

Protag: *sets up an ambush*

Miyabi: *is a vampire that can smell blood. Like the blood protag is bleeding right now*

Protag: *shocked Pikachu face*

The very important Labor just being there so Miyabi can go on a grande Evil Villain Speech is amazing! Say what you want, the man has style! It almost makes me not question why you would have a Vampire Mosquito Blood pool on top of this random giant tower.

Protag: Ha HA! I have managed to put the anti-immortality serum into you!

Miyabi: .....you do remember that even without the immortality, I'm still a very hard to kill vampire?

Protag: .....Oh shit, you're right! Uuuuuhhhh *panics and tries to smash miyabi's head with a microscope*

Miyabi: *summons giant demon vampire dog to protecc his body and attacc protag till anti-immortality serum wears of*

Protag: Oh no! I shall hide in this random room to regain some strength!

Miyabi: ....I am still a vampire that can smell you bleeding!!

Protag: *shocked pikachu face*

Miyabi: *regains immortality*

Protag: Oh noes! But I know a foolproof solution! *throws Miyabi down a tower*

Miyabi: *goes splootch*

Protag + every human watching the fight: Ha! Finally, we can rest easy!

Miyabi: *survives anyway cause you know....immortal*

Protag + every human watching the fight: *the most shoookeths of pikachu faces*

10/10 Deeply entertaining!

Gonna start reading “Saigo no 47″ soon, so if there is a fandom active here: Hello hi, I’m new to this, let’s talk

And I need to find and watch the movie cause I might or might not be unhealthily attached to this franchise now oO

[laconservancy]

Forty Years of Membership: An Interview with Two Conservancy Members

The Los Angeles Conservancy has been a member-based organization since our founding in 1978. As part of our fortieth-anniversary celebration, we wanted to share some perspectives on Conservancy membership from long-time and new members. We spoke with Marjorie Wong Mishkin, a member since our founding, and Samantha La Rocco, who joined the Conservancy this year.

Marjorie Wong Mishkin

Q: You’ve been a member of the Conservancy since our founding. Why did you join in the first place? 

A: John Welborne and other neighborhood friends joined at the same time. That’s how I heard about the Conservancy. I was born at St. Vincent’s Hospital. I grew up in L.A. and my children did, too. I went to Marlborough School. My parents took us to Wilshire Country Club and the Coliseum and LACMA when it was built, and downtown even before there was a Music Center. We went to all the Rams games when I was growing up. I love the buildings, but more than the buildings I love the people.

I had a strong attachment to Olvera Street, the Mission, and downtown LA. My father (a Chinese doctor and graduate of the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco) spent a lot of time offering volunteer health care services at the Mission. We all learned Spanish. He never billed his pro bono patients or whomever he considered a friend. However, we did eat well!

Q: Even though you’re not in Los Angeles full time now, why do you think it’s important to remain a member of the Conservancy?

A: I want Los Angeles to remain important; a lot of the buildings are very important. Michael Graves (the architect) built the building where I now live in Miami.  He always said the space around the building is more important than the building itself.  I agree completely.  

Q: Where did your interest in historic preservation come from?

A: Probably my friends and my family. When my kids were in school, we moved to June Street. And as a child, I lived in the mid-Wilshire area, when Bullocks Wilshire was actually Bullocks Wilshire.

Q: What is your favorite historic building in Los Angeles?

A: The First Congregational Church on Commonwealth Avenue and Sixth Street. My parents donated a chapel there called Wong Chapel. The altar tablet was conceived and painted by a Danish artist named Kay Nielsen, and the original stained-glass windows are still there today. I started going there when I was about four years old and was married there. Even though the [pinnacles] were damaged by an earthquake, the church has done a good job at preservation. [Editor’s note: The project to replace the pinnacles and restore other elements of the tower earned a 2012 Conservancy Preservation Award.]

Q: What do you think are the biggest issues or challenges facing preservation in Los Angeles moving forward?  

A: I hate tearing down buildings and putting up boxes. We’re looking forward to the Olympics; they’re going to update the Coliseum. I want Los Angeles to be livable – it doesn’t have to be as it was before, but it should be livable and it should be historic.

Samantha La Rocco

Q: You say that Los Angeles is the only place that’s ever felt like home to you. Why is that? 

A: I grew up in suburban south Florida, which I experienced as a flat, punishingly humid, mosquito-ridden suburban hellscape.

The wildlife was the most interesting thing for me. The most “exciting” thing to happen near me was Anna Nicole Smith’s untimely death. It never felt like the place I was “meant” to be. I moved to L.A. to go to USC, but it had been a place I’d felt drawn to since I was a lonely imaginative child.

For me, as it has for people for over a century, it represented opportunity, where I could find an artistic family and write my own narrative, and an enticing element of risk, if I’m being honest. As a performer, which I fully recognize is a cliché, I embraced being in a place where so many other people who felt like they didn’t belong elsewhere made a home – creatively, geographically, and emotionally. And of course, what teenager wouldn’t love [the book] Hollywood Babylon?  

Los Angeles is diverse in every single way imaginable: you get mountains, you get beaches, you get old, new, weird, chic, delightfully garish...there’s so many different cultural veins running through it, it’s like a million cities in one.

I love driving around and being able to identify when a building was built, the style it was built in, who might have lived there. And having grown up in a place that was essentially two dimensional, I’ll never stop being amazed by how hilly it is! There are CLIFFS here!

There’s Victorian architecture! Made out of WOOD! Do you know what happens to wood homes in Florida? There’s buildings shaped like barrels! There are signs in non-Indo European languages! There’s a twenty-four-hour restaurant in a dining car that looks like it belongs in a David Lynch movie!

At USC, I took a course about the history of this city, which included walking tours. At the time, I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now. It really sowed a seed of historical curiosity and passion that’s grown since I graduated. I love being able to spout fascinating trivia about buildings I drive past. 

Q: How did you find out about the L.A. Conservancy, and why did you decide to join?

A: For me, it was the aggressive developer greed eroding what I see as the unique character of this city, with giant behemoths of buildings that all look like one another, far too big for their lots, standing out like consumerist tumors, pushing out people and communities that have been here far longer. For example, near where I live, Du-par’s, a diner that has been around since the ’30s, has been torn down for a Sephora. (We really need another Sephora?)

Cities in Europe seem to value their older buildings, their history, in a way that the powers that be in Los Angeles do not. I’m tempted to go on a political rant but I’ll spare you! For me, ultimately, the threat to the history and character of this city felt intensely personal.

I found out about the Conservancy after seeing something circulated on Facebook about a much beloved historical building being torn down for something like a Whole Foods or expensive apartments. I went to your website and looked at all the amazing buildings in danger, and all of the ones that had been lost, and I wanted to cry. 

Q: Why do you think it’s important to be a member?

A: I think conservation is incredibly important and beneficial – it has the power to create jobs, enhance the reputation and ultimately tourist revenue of a city, and promote historical curiosity and a sense of community.

I’m admittedly not normally someone who thinks I can make a difference individually, but the slow erasure of Los Angeles is so close to home, so immediate, that I really felt like it’s a cause I have to fight for. 

Q: Where did your interest in historic preservation come from?

A: I’ve been a history nerd since I could read. I collect antiques. I truly believe an understanding and appreciation for the past enriches the present. Coming from some place rife with creepily cookie cutter housing developments like tiny Stepford cities, slowly encroaching on ecologically invaluable swampland, I really appreciate the home I chose here and its history. It’s really just heartbreaking to see it disappear. 

Q: What is your favorite historic building in Los Angeles?

A: That’s like asking me to tell you which of my dogs is my favorite! I’m a sucker for whimsy.  The first thing that comes to mind for me is the Magic Castle in Hollywood. It’s a turn-of-the-century mansion with a piano that takes requests and secret passages. Sold. There’s also a little cluster of storybook-style apartments on Formosa Avenue in West Hollywood that I’ve always loved. Apparently Charlie Chaplin lived there at one point. I’m sure I’m going to lie awake in bed tonight and think of all the other buildings I could have said. 

Q: What do you think are the biggest issues or challenges facing preservation in Los Angeles moving forward? What would you like to see the Conservancy focus on in the next forty years? How can the Conservancy stay relevant as the city grows and changes?

A: I think the decentralized nature of Los Angeles tends to work against conservation efforts, even if just from a logistical perspective. I’d definitely love to see the Conservancy increase its visibility. I’d love for there to be more limits on demolition and development – I think that’s massively important. I think enough coordinated efforts from the Conservancy and presence at town halls could achieve that. As with most things, relevancy lies in recruiting a younger generation. I’m so glad the Conservancy is offering youth and school programs, which I think are invaluable, to both the students and the cause.

Show you support for preservation by becoming a Conservancy member today >

[brainmassfinance]

Test, build, accelerate and scale: Meet the 4 cycles of Jeff Bezos. 14 principles to take a company from zero to first.

I know I don't have to explain who Jeff Bezos  . The founder and current CEO of Amazon is the richest man in the world, and his online store has redesigned our present in ways we didn't even imagine. The concept of his business was not, in itself, original (there were already other online stores), but his vision, his mastery of risk and his creative strategy separated Amazon from its competitors until it became one of the companies that , in many ways, defines our time.

Things don't happen by accident. Businesses do not grow "naturally" or "wildly", as if they were a small tree that is enough to water to become an oak. Businesses require leadership, vision and strategy. Jeff Bezos describes this vision and his strategies in his letters to his shareholders each year. The first of them, that of 1997, already clearly shows the path that Bezos was undertaking

Back then it wasn't obvious that Amazon would be a hit. It was a young company with a great idea, but still losing money on all four sides, exploring new ways to solve old problems. In his book The Bezos Letters , Steve Anderson makes an analytical summary of the Bezos System, which is summarized in four cycles and fourteen principles of growth.

ADVERTISING

The four cycles are: Test, Build, Accelerate, and Scale . Take out a pencil and paper, because this gets interesting.

CYCLE ONE: TEST

Nice that you have a great idea! Scented mosquito candles? Very good. Organic and ecological drink? Ok. An app for locating dogs? Okay. It all sounds great. But before you sell your house and leave your job, do what the greats do: test if there is a replicable process and a market that wants to buy it.

Don't wait to have the perfect product to go out, or waste too much time at the design table. On the contrary: generate prototypes and minimum viable products (MVP) and explore the jungles of your market.

Growth principles:

1. Promote successful defeats

Our culture fears defeat and humiliates those who make mistakes. This generates an innovative paralysis: nobody tries new things for fear of failing. Companies that grow, try hard and fail a lot . For every great Google service, there are dozens that fell by the wayside. Try and celebrate these "wrong" ideas. Exploring is the only way to find new paths.

2. Bet on big ideas

You have launched exploratory expeditions. Out of ten attempts, eight failed. Good: now you have two that do work. It's time to bet on them. Redirect time and resources to the things you've tried, raising your chances of success along the way.

3. Practice dynamic innovation

Your vision has to stand firm, but in the processes, there are no things written in rock. Whether your company is digital or made of concrete and brick, install systems that allow you to receive information in real time about your processes. Then keep designing and improving your processes until you get closer to their optimal status. Never, never stop learning.

SECOND CYCLE: BUILD

When you have a proven idea, it's time to lay the groundwork. Now you do have real information that tells you that your idea is viable: that it can be a business. It is time to build.

Different companies have different product creation systems. For example, a digital or creative-based business is not the same as a cake factory or a horse farm. Develop systems that allow you to respond to current demand, anticipate the future and, also (this is essential), space to continue your dynamic innovation process.

Growth principles:

4. Become obsessed with your customers

Big ideas, zero sales - that's the story of thousands of companies that fail along the way. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how great your product is. If nobody buys it, then you are dead. Amazon developed a search, rating and feedback algorithm whose sole goal was - still is - to understand and delight each of its millions of customers. Understanding your customer is a task that requires effort and time, but it pays off handsomely and prevents you from wasting too much time on roads that lead nowhere.

5. Think long term

If you are not born to be the best then what are you born for? You may not be the biggest company on the planet, but you can - and should - aspire to be the best in your own niche, no matter how big or small. That is not built in two days. Amazon lost money for many years before starting to win, but from day one they set a goal that was well worth the effort. It is preferable to try the impossible and fail, than to try the achievable and achieve it.

6. Make your customer your center of inertia: the Flywheel model

Many sales systems are based on the funnel model or sales funnel , which is a process of filtering customers. The purchase is at the end of the funnel and with it, the sales process is “finished”. The center system inertia and Flywheel It changes the focus of the process and puts the customer (not for sale) at the center of the entire experience, attracting, falling in love and learning to generate a strong long-term relationship. The funnel is great for one-time sales, but the Flywheel is great for repeat sales. The customer returns again and again to a changing ecosystem around him. In more ways than one, the client is the architect of their experience.

THIRD CYCLE: ACCELERATE

You have a proven model and a customer base that allows you sustained growth. Congratulations - you have a real and successful company! This is where most of the companies that exist stop: with a business model that works, and in which they choose to stay where they are and not grow any more.

To grow is to believe. It is time to move to the next level.

Growth Principles:

7. Generate high-speed decisions

The bureaucracy can hang medium-sized companies. A leadership review is required at this time to sustain growth with swift strategic decisions. Not all founders are good CEOs! Sometimes a change of baton is convenient; some others it is the same leader who continues ahead. Courage and risk control are required to be able to add value where it is needed and eliminate what is left over.

8. Make the complicated, simple

Simplify, reduce, save and clean processes and products that take time, resources or effort. Structures that have not lived up to their potential are likely to be born in the testing and construction stage: not all have to stay there. Stay with the best and make life easier for your clients, attending to your core business , your mission and your vision, which must be clear, current and shared with your entire organization.

9. Speed up time with technology

Technology can be your best ally. Don't be afraid to try new things. For example, Amazon One Click Purchase , which was patented at the time, was a revolutionary element that reduced friction to a minimum and made life easier for the customer. Automate, lighten and accelerate growth with the technology at your fingertips. Even small and medium businesses can find ways to do it.

10. Promotes a sense of ownership

Through this process in which the company begins explosive growth, maintain a team culture and a common vision. Amazon allows, like many other companies of the modern era, the option of holding shares for its employees, with which they are direct beneficiaries of growth. However, money is not everything. Neither stocks nor bonds exceed the sense of belonging and purpose that gives a clear vision and positive leadership.

FOURTH CYCLE: SCALE

Not all businesses can be Amazon. But they do develop a scale-up strategy that allows them to serve the needs of more people without destroying the core of who they are and have built. This will only be possible if the bases indicated in the previous cycles have been previously established. This is the difference between serving hundreds and serving thousands or millions, and it is the key to a business with an impact beyond its initial niche.

Growth principles:

11. Maintain your culture

The risk of tearing is imminent. Not a few companies have been lost due to uncontrolled growth that makes them lose their center, their style and their mission. Take care of the communication channels so that the feeling of being a team or, better yet, a family, does not succumb to pressure and distance.

12. Focus on high standards

Distance and speed can very easily impact the way things are done. A poor delegation system can result in poor quality, poor service, and dissatisfied customers. With the prestige of the brand and the future of the company at stake, this is not the time to lower our guard.

13. Measure what matters, question what you measure and trust your intuition

The amount of numbers and information that is generated in a wide-range operation can be noisy and confusing. Manage your information flows to measure what matters and have the data you need to make decisions at hand. But decisions are not automated: they require the intuition, experience and risk sensitivity of the leadership in the company. Businesses that go automatic soon reverse.

14. Think it's always day one

Stay hungry, stay curious , are the words Steve Jobs famously ended his Stanford speech with. Throughout his annual letters, Jeff Bezos has maintained and repeated this phrase as a kind of mantra: we continue on day one.

The companies that can see the future are those that constantly reinvent themselves and that have in their purpose an impossible ideal that never fails to inspire and thrill the curious mind.

It is always day one

for a company that grows, that makes a mistake, that falls, that starts again, and that is always hungry to eat the world.

[deejessy]

Finding happiness in different ways

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve written a full fledged post and seeing as how summer is sadly almost over, it seems like it’s the perfect time to write and just reflect on this past summer and fill you in on what I’ve been up to. 

• In the month of July, my parents were sweet and wonderful enough to pack a carry-on of my Summer + Fall clothes with a few groceries, Chinese mosquito ointments, and some of my mail and my stimulus check. My Dad met me and my better half at a midpoint of New Jersey and passed along my belongings. I felt a comfort to see at least one of my parents and that’s actually helped me for the rest of the time I’ve been living in Jersey. I was expecting Dad to be a few pounds heavier, but he hasn’t changed at all. Kudos to him!

• After receiving my $1200 stimulus check, I knew what to do with it and that was to invest into a new laptop and I had my eyes and heart set on a MacBook Air for over a year. Now for the past month, I have transitioned happily over from a Dell Inspiron (2011) to a MacBook Air.

• As you can see I have been cooking with different ingredients and getting creative. I’ve made bruschetta for the first time, actually 2x to be exact so far and it’s been bliss. Definitely pairs well with all of the light beers or Margarita mix I have stashed in the fridge. Last night was my first time making Japanese curry chicken and I’m so happy I didn’t mess it up. I made enough to last me 2 meals and for lunch, I am planning to make curry udon since I have leftover udon chilling in the fridge that needs to be eaten. I’ve also been making cold soba noodles salad which is healthy and delicious.

• I’ve been exercising and pushing myself a lot more for longer walks or more walks. On good days, I can walk past 10,000+ steps. 

• I must say when you’re cooking for yourself it can be quite difficult. You don’t want to eat the same thing everyday, but you also don’t want to waste the food you have and save your wallet. Some days, I must admit I don’t want to stand by the stove, cook, and then wash the dishes. Some days, I am proud of what i make and it tastes yummy. Recently, on my lazy days I just order a take-out, which isn’t horrible right? I’m also supporting local businesses in the process.

Recently, I started looking at my Yelp account and right now I am at 800+ reviews, close to 900 reviews and I’m thinking is there still a point to write my experience about places I’ve eaten at or from? I’ve noticed many friends and acquaintances don’t really like Yelp because reviewers can be harsh in their reviews and not honest. I used to write to share my experience whether someone reads it or not. I wrote to remember what I ate, where I ate, and what and where I want to eat at.  I am a Yelp Elite for 10 years now and am thinking if I want to continue on to hold that award and write to share? As for this blog, I do hope to find time and write a lot more like I used to. In High School & College, my blog posts on Xanga were a different style and time of my life. I definitely appreciate my writing a lot more now then before. 

[meandwhatmore]

Thriving at 30

I gave a shot at Accenture interview and was in the last round. The interviewer asked which was considered so typical back then- where do you see yourself 10 years down the lane? Me, with all flying mode, already having an offer in hand, remember shrugging off and replying him- I would see myself in the cover page of Time magazine. Looking back, it was fun. I eventually sucked at that interview and joined Cognizant –which raised me up for the most part of the next 10 years followed.

I’m here to jot down the yearly habit of writing notes. I missed the 2018 train and dont want to make missing a habit. But yes, let’s cut some slack for the new daddy and the full time entrepreneur (?!)

She and him.

So follow-up to where I ended my 2018 post. That december disaster indeed got real. In the middle of 2019, I was married to Gomathi and sometime in the year followed, we had a boy. It’s now, like the next two years with commitment rate of 300%. Someone please let this life breath well and take it slow? Hunting a name for the boy or planning a small getaway, it’s by far been a long quest in finding a common ground. I’m more thrilled about this year as we begin to build the family full time.

V

The best company you can ever get. The cognizance, the style, questioning just everything, taking care of little ones, V is nicely doing it all- and with passion and elan.

Work

We moved to a new dedicated place from the garage (immediate saving: no mosquitoes!). And this helped us scale team (now we are four), explore new markets, create a new name (roopac along with cardnival), and the ride by far is nothing but fascinating. As we pan out new and creative ways to reach market, we had some convincing numbers to validate our experiments and we are now all in, doubling the efforts. If there is a new thing I’ve personally learnt, it is snowballing small clients and seeing it become a large amount. Along the run, we even had to grievingly let go one of our latest sales hires.

Reads and Cinema

Ride of a lifetime by Disney boss, Shoe Dog by Nike boy, Deep work from Cal Newport, and Yuval’s 2018 release: 21 lessons resonated so well. A rare find on twitter, Naval Ravikant’s wisdom is so beautifully told to an extent that I tried exploring ways to name the kid of us with Naval but ended up with Agan Murugasamy.

OTTs and Podcasts were so much 2019, I’ve subscribed to what not and listened/seen almost everything that was brought to me by internet. Staying current with Shunya One and She says she’s fine. I also loved seeing the might Forrest Gump for the first time and watching Super Deluxe (Tamil) was an acing experience

Running

I have kept at running for most part of the year. A mile a day, 20 runs a month-at a pace of 10.5-11.25 minutes a mile. Fairly good isn’t it? I skipped running half marathons and I might pass this year too. Best find was Annamalai University ground- but would be sad to see it go this year. In all, the days with no morning run somewhow felt shaddy. Did I also tell, transit to Chidambaram- Tiruppur covered most of my foursquare checkins?

If true wealth is Time and Freedom, you gotta hustle and earn. No further closing notes this year- I’m glad and feeling content doing things that I am currently with and hope to keep at it, in the year and the nexts to come. What’s your decade plan? 

[uptightcitizensbrigade]

Annie Clark is not where she’s supposed to be. At the last minute, the artist known as St. Vincent decided that instead of trekking to a country store as planned, she wanted to stick closer to her studio in the hills of Los Angeles’s Laurel Canyon. When I arrive at our new meeting spot, breathless from a steep climb, the first thing I notice is that neither of us is dressed appropriately for a rendezvous in the domesticated wilderness. Of course, in Clark’s case, this means looking pretty damn cool, in a sky-blue duster, gray sweatshirt, and leopard-print shorts, her trademark curly dark hair (which took a silvery lavender turn last album cycle) pin-straight and tucked under a Duran Duran cap. We make our way to a picnic table in the middle of a hiking trail that apparently enjoys more use as a bird lavatory. “Is this OK?” she asks, straddling the bench and setting down her mug of Yogi tea. It is. Anything to stop moving vertically.

“Up,” however, is a fitting direction for the 34-year-old Clark. Over the past decade, she has evolved from a clever multi-instrumentalist to critical darling to indie icon—her last record, 2014’s St. Vincent, took home the Grammy for Best Alternative Album. She’s a road warrior (with the bed bug stories to prove it), having toured for much of her life, beginning as a teenager when she was the tour manager for her uncle’s jazz duo, Tuck & Patti. And her latest album, MASSEDUCTION, is most definitely a career summit. It’s her Lemonade, her OK Computer—whatever reference conveys the urgency with which it demands to be listened to when it drops on October 13. “This one’s better,” she says of her fifth solo effort, nodding. “I was focused on writing the best songs I’d ever written.”

That goal comes at a cost, or so Clark’s body language seems to say on this late-August evening. She stifles a yawn, and cradles her tea. For the last couple of months, she’s been celibate and sober. Some of the monasticism she favors during recording stuck: An illness last March prompted her to quit alcohol altogether. “I loved my white wine,” she says. “But I just can’t stand the smell anymore.”

She is also insanely busy, still recuperating from yesterday’s flight home from Australia for press, not to mention the whirlwind trip to Tokyo that preceded it, where she performed at Summer Sonic (and shot this cover). And while it’s been three and a half years since she released an album, Clark’s been working on it all the while. “I’ve just been collecting things, bowerbird-style, and making elaborate plumage,” she says. Meanwhile, she’s been flexing her creative muscles: A week ago, Lionsgate announced that the Dallas native would be helming its female-led adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. (Clark made her directorial debut earlier this year with a short called “The Birthday Party” for the female-driven horror anthology XX.)

She’s also spent a good part of the last year getting over her breakup from 25-year-old British supermodel and actress Cara Delevingne. The pair dated for 18 months, thrusting Clark into a tabloid existence she’d never known before. You won’t find her in any formal pictures from (the old) Taylor Swift’s last Fourth of July bonanza in 2016, but she and her soon-to-be ex were captured by paparazzi in a private embrace. “It was really bizarre,” she says. “No joke, I’ve been in high-speed chases in London with at least five cars and six motorcycles following me and Cara. You’re going to kill someone, and for what? A photo of a sweet girl?”

The last thing she wants to talk about is how much of this album was informed by that relationship. She’s baffled by such inquiries—she only just recently admitted that 2011’s Strange Mercy was partly about her father being sent to prison for investment fraud. “I never think, ‘If I only knew who Kate Bush was singing about in “Running Up That Hill,” I could enjoy the song,’” she says, shooing a mosquito off my shirt. “I do not wonder who or what songs are about. And the Texan in me is like, ‘It’s none of your goddamned business.’” I ask whether she cleared the disclosure of her dad’s incarceration with him beforehand. “Is it OK with me that he’s in prison?” she responds dryly, but quickly adds, “I’ve only ever spoken highly of my father.”

Clark is a vivid storyteller whose knack for relating tales of dirty policemen or down-on-their-luck friends would make her the most popular guest at a dinner party. On MASSEDUCTION’s first single, “New York,” which debuted last June, she sings along to a plangent piano about “the only motherfucker in the city who can handle me.” While the song’s grief over lost heroes could easily apply to David Bowie or Prince, as Clark has suggested, it’s the identity of the “motherfucker” that piqued curiosity. “I totally understand it, I do,” she says, and frowns thoughtfully. “But the point is for the song to mean whatever it means to somebody else. Some people have a real hang-up about being misunderstood. I don’t care.” She stops to clarify this point: “I would be concerned if someone was like, ‘Wow, she seems like a Holocaust denier.’ But racism, sexism, or homophobia aside? I’m happy to be misunderstood.”

In the past, Clark’s music was more often respected than adored, like Love This Giant, her 2012 album with Talking Heads savant David Byrne. She is a masterful guitarist, a performance artist unafraid of experimentation. Artificial sounds, brass sections, unhurried choruses? All play a part in her eclectic repertoire, and she rarely stays monogamous to any one genre or rhythm.

“A lot of people are skilled at bending notes, but I think she actually bends the parameters of what guitar is,” says longtime friend Carrie Brownstein, whose prowess on the same instrument helped usher Sleater-Kinney to stardom. “She doesn’t approach it in a traditionally worshipful way. While she’s playing guitar, she seems to be destroying the very concept of it, which I think is very exciting.”

The opening track of her last album famously depicted Clark running naked from a rattlesnake. MASSEDUCTION (pronounced “mass seduction” on the title track) somehow finds her even more exposed. Clark says “New York” was the first time she ever wrote something and thought, “This could be somebody’s favorite song.” The same could be said of many tracks on the album, which, taken as a whole, sounds like Clark violating her own sense of privacy in order to grant access to her vulnerability. “I’m not eschewing any of the work I’ve done in the past,” says Clark. “But I was less concerned [here] about doing a lot of musical tricks that to me are intellectually interesting. The point of the record was to go, like, mainline to the heart.”

For this, Clark enlisted co-producer Jack Antonoff. Through his work with Lorde and Taylor Swift, as well as his own band Bleachers, Antonoff has developed a reputation for channeling ideas and emotions into their most approximate, frequently synth-driven expressions. “Jack changed my life for the better,” says Clark. “He makes you feel like anything is possible. We were merciless, trying to push all these songs past the finish line to accept the gold medal.”

None of which is to suggest that Clark has sacrificed any virtuosity or ambition. Several of the best songs break off into their own compelling codas. “How could anybody have you and lose you and not lose their mind, too?” moans Clark on “Los Ageless,” backed by an aggressive beat that would not be out of place at an adults-only club, before dissolving, like a film melt, into a series of bleary synths and barely audible whispers.

The theme of Clark’s last record was “near-future cult leader.” Here, having traded in those wild lavender-platinum curls for an austere black bob, “It’s dominatrix at the mental institution,” she says. “I knew I needed to write about power—the fiction of power and the power of fiction.” The concept is at its most powerful on the more adrenalized songs, like “Pills,” whose opening lines function like a Valley of the Dolls reboot: “Pills to wake/ Pills to sleep/ Pills, pills, pills every day of the week.” The words are delivered by Delevingne in a demented, cheerfully vacant chant.

“You mean Kid Monkey, obscure DJ,” says Clark, gamely referencing her ex’s pseudonym. “It needed to be a posh British voice. I was like, ‘Cara, wake up. I need you to sing on this song.’ And she’s kind of grumpy. And I’m like, ‘Please. It sounds so good. One more time.’” That song, too, starts with a blinking alertness but finishes drowsily, like Pink Floyd at the planetarium. Clark says the inspiration came to her after popping a sleeping pill on tour, and speaks to larger issues of opioid addiction that have affected people she cares about.

But the song that’s most likely to be picked over lyrically, for obvious reasons, is “Young Lover.” It’s set in Paris, where gossip rags once reported that Delevingne, proposed to Clark. The relationship described in the song suffers as a result of the titular subject’s hard-partying ways. “Did I have experiences that emotionally resonated in the way they do for that character? Abso-fucking-lutely,” says Clark, who’s also been linked briefly to Kristen Stewart. “But did that exact scenario happen? No!” She makes a dismissive face.

Clark didn’t grow up feasting on the sordid details of celebrity coupledom, though she admits to a fascination with Kate Moss, Shalom Harlow, and the early-’90s supermodel set. (The musician has recently done some modeling herself as one of the new faces of Tiffany & Co.) Her parents divorced young, and Clark lived with her social worker mother and two older sisters. “I was free to be a wild card, because the other roles were spoken for,” she says. A breeze kicks up and she rubs her legs as they prickle with goosebumps.

A tiny part of her early musical education includes a crate of CDs that fell off a truck in front of their house. “It was good taste for someone in the suburbs of Dallas,” she says, citing Nine Inch Nails and Pet Shop Boys. Clark started playing guitar at 12, and was encouraged by her maternal uncle, who hired her as a tour manager for his jazz duo when she was a teenager.

Eventually, her family swelled to include eight siblings, with whom she is close. A younger brother now works as her assistant. “We grew up hearing my dad talk business on the phone, and it was ‘motherfucker’ this and ‘fucking cocksucker’ that,” she says, laughing. In part, this informed her curse word of choice on “New York.” “If people don’t curse at all, I always think they’re hiding something,” she says.

The next day, Clark is filming a video for MASSEDUCTION’s as-yet-unannounced second single at a soundstage in Hollywood. She spends more time on the West Coast now that she has built a studio here, but still keeps properties in New York and Texas. She hesitates to use the word bicoastal, which feels “kind of douchey,” she says.

The video set changes from a Pepto-Bismol pink beauty salon, where the pedicure tubs are filled with green slime, to a yoga studio. Clark is dressed in a cheetah-print leotard with an open-face hood. She’s been bending over for 15 minutes straight in order for director Willo Perron to get a dolly shot of her face hanging between her legs. I marvel at her stamina. “Are you really asking me how I’m good at bending over?” she says, wryly. She rests between takes, curling up on the yoga mat like a cat in a sunbeam.

Clark wasn’t involved with the concept for the video. Back in Laurel Canyon, she admitted to being preoccupied with Dorian Gray, working with Elle screenwriter David Birke and rereading the book for the first time since high school. “I jumped at the chance to explore themes of transgression, narcissism, youth, beauty, queerness, but through a female protagonist,” says Clark, who’s currently considering a cast for the project. She’s new to this milieu, but credits Tuck & Patti with teaching her the rigors of knowing her shit. “They really were the coach in Rocky,” she says of her uncle’s duo. “I learned how to be professional. It’s not as if I need to be a camera expert in order to direct something, but you have to have the respect of the crew. This is not a vanity project. This is something I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Melanie Lynskey, who starred in Clark’s XX short, was pleasantly surprised by the musician’s command of the set. “It was like working with someone who had been doing it a very long time,” she says. “She’s so smart and she had such a clear idea of what she wanted, but gave me all the room in the world to come up with ideas and collaborate.”

In the meantime, Clark is also preparing for this fall’s Fear the Future Tour. As we slowly make our way down the hill, clutching at branches to steady ourselves, she says there won’t be as much postmodern dancing this time around. “The record is full of sorrow, but the visual aspect of it is really absurd,” she says. “I take the piss out of myself. The last tour I sat atop a pink throne, looking very imperious.” She kindly helps me down the last step. “This one will let people see that I have a sense of humor.”

[tecronet]

200+ Best Whatsapp Status in English

Most of the below cool status are new Whatsapp status, cool Whatsapp status and many others. WhatsApp Status allows you to share text, photos, videos and animated GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. Fortunately, Whatsapp is a Facebook-owned platform, where you can chat with one other, have fun and also share your thought as Whatsapp status on the official Whatsapp app, which can be downloaded via your phone app store. Anyways, be very much aware that Whatsapp Gold isn’t advisable to use. Before you begin using the app, you have to complete Whatsapp registration with your number and you are good to go. Here is the best Whatsapp status, you can use to express your feelings. Whatsapp status is the best way to let out your feeling, tell people which mood you are and reveal your views. Your status Whatsapp helps you to make Whatsapp friends, that are according to your type, that is why, it is advisable to get the best status and the latest Whatsapp status, that will explain your current well-being, how you feel and what’s on your mind. Whatsapp status is categorized into different types, there is the Whatsapp status love, Whatsapp Quotes, Whatsapp status quotes, status quo, cool WhatsApp status quotes, along with Whatsapp status, funny WhatsApp status quotes, life attitude WhatsApp status quotes and romantic WhatsApp status quotes. And when it comes to languages format, there are two most preferred Whatsapp status, the Whatsapp status in Hindi and Whatsapp status in English. Alright, let's check out the list of the best Whatsapp status.

Best Whatsapp Status Quotes in English

Below are the top best Whatsapp status quotes and they are all written in English. The Whatsapp status in English one line is meant for anyone with short words. And there is the English status about life, there includes, funny Whatsapp status in English, short status for Whatsapp, Status for Whatsapp in English for love, alone status for Whatsapp, best Whatsapp status ever. Others are Love Whatsapp Status in English, Sad Whatsapp Status in English, Romantic Whatsapp Status in English, Alone Whatsapp Status in English and Friendship Whatsapp Status in English.

Funny Whatsapp Status Quotes

Here is some hilarious and funny Whatsapp Status to complete your day and that of your friends. 1. My biggest concern in life is actually how my online friends can be informed of my death..!! 2. I Wonder What Happens When Doctor’s Wife Eats An Apple A Day… 3. Life is Short – Chat Fast! 4. Doing nothing is a very hard thing to do…you never know when to finish. 5. People that Change Love status after 30 Sec… GF is the Reason… 6 A book-store is only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. 7. Mosquitos are like family. Annoying but they carry your blood. 8. If College has taught us anything, it’s texting without looking 🙂 9. The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary. 10. Light travels faster than sound…that’s why people appear bright until they speak 11. I wonder how police on bikes arrest people. “Alright, get in the basket.” 12. Guys are like stars, there are millions of them, but the only one makes your dreams come true. 13. Love starts with a hug, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear. 14. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. 15. Life isn’t about how many breaths you take but about the moments that take your breathe away. 16. I’m not lazy. I’m on energy-saving mode. Now hush, or you’ll drain my battery. 17. I have 1% battery left. Whoever calls me or sends me a message will become my enemy. 18. I only pretend to work. They pretend to pay me for it. We don’t like to talk about it. 19. Silence may be golden, but duct tape is shiny and silver. 20. You’re just jealous because of the voices like talking to me more. 21. Girls Phone Numbers For Friendship

Latest Cool Whatsapp Status Quotes

Want to be cool and still be funny with few humour words on Whatsapp? Here is the best list for you. 1. I didn’t change, I just grew up. You should try it once. 2. I love buying new things but I hate spending money. 3. I’m not arguing, I’m simply tried to explaining why I’m Right. 4. I’m jealous of my parents, I’ll never have a kid as cool as theirs. 5.. I don’t have an attitude problem, I just have a personality that you can’t handle. 6. Courage is grace under pressure. 7. I’m thankful for every moment. 8. One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. 9. Where words fail, music speaks. 10. Music in the soul can be heard by the universe. 11. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. 12. We came equals into this world and equals shall we go out of it.

Love Whatsapp Status Quotes

Each day/week, it is amazing to share at least one love Whatsapp status quotes, to make that person feel special. 1. In love Never say “Sorry”!..2. When I think about U…I don’t feel so alone….3. If you were thinking about someone, while Studying you’re definitely in LUV…4. Luv is that ,which can never explained.5. Love is That Which can not see the Religious, Caste, Rich, Poor in life..6. I want to be in your arms, where you hold me tight and never let me go.7. I don’t like waiting, I’m so impatient. But I’ll wait forever, as long as I end up with u.8. The person who makes u happiest is the person who can hurt you the most.9. No matter how “busy” a person is…if they really love, they will always find the time for you !10. Every night I go to sleep hoping and wishing that dreams come true. Every night, in my dreams, I am with you.11. A beautiful girl with gorgeous EYES, a hidden world of HURT & LIES.12. It isn’t the bad memories that make you sad, but the best ones that you can’t bring it back.13. Pretending to be happy when you’re in pain is just an example of how strong you are as a person.14. You’re better off being alone than being with someone who makes you feel like you’re alone.15. I love to cry in the rain because that’s the only time no one can hear the pain.16. I don’t understand why life keeps trying to teach me lessons I don’t want to learn.17. What is love? In math, it’s an equation. In chemistry, it’s a reaction. In history, it’s a war. In art, it’s a heart. In me, it’s you.18. To meet you was fate. To become your friend was a choice. Falling in love with you was out of my control.19. I fell in love the moment I saw you, and you smiled at me because you knew. Read: Good Morning Text Messages For Her

Sad Whatsapp Status Quotes

At times, Life happens to be unfair to us, we just have to let it go and free ourselves from the agony of Mother Earth! 1. The greatest pain that comes from love is loving someone you can never have. 2. Sometimes, you have to smile to hide your fears and laugh to hide your tears. 3. A beautiful girl with gorgeous EYES, a hidden world of HURT & LIES. 4. It isn’t the bad memories that make you sad, but the best ones that you can’t bring it back. 5. Pretending to be happy when you’re in pain is just an example of how strong you are as a person. 6. You’re better off being alone than being with someone who makes you feel like you’re alone. 7. I love to cry in the rain because that’s the only time no one can hear the pain. 8. I don’t understand why life keeps trying to teach me lessons I don’t want to learn. 9. Given that you know a lot about me, doesn’t mean, am still that person. 10. Everyone is going to hurt you. You just have to find the ones who are worth suffering for. 11. All of the problems that you face become smaller if you confront them instead of dodging them. 12. Be kind to everyone you meet. You don’t know what struggles they’re facing. Read Also:  Romantic Messages

Best Romantic Whatsapp Status Quotes

Wanting to make that “special person” feel wanted, loves and cared for. This is the best Romantic whatsapp status for you. 1. Someday, when my daughter smiles at me and asks me who my very first love was, I don’t want to have to pull out a photo album to show her. I want to point across the room and tell her “he’s sitting right there”. 2. I’m not afraid of dying. Death doesn’t scare me either. It’s losing you that frightens me the most. 3. I pray every night that you will be here someday. Tonight, I will count all of the stars in the sky and hope that when I close my eyes, you will once again be right by my side. 4. I can make one promise to you: I will always love you more than any other person who enters your life. 5. I love how you make me so happy; love the ways you show that you care. I love the way you whisper “I love you,” and the way that you’re always there. 6. Nothing is perfect, but when I’m with you everything is perfect. 7. Thinking of you is easy, I do it every day. Missing you is the heartache that never goes away. 8. I love my life because it gave me you; I love you because you are my life. 9. There are only two times that I want to be with you… Now and Forever. 10. If I could choose between loving you and breathing I would choose my last breath to say I love you. 11. Life can give us lots’ of beautiful persons, but only one person is enough for a beautiful life…

Life Attitude WhatsApp Status Quotes

This shows people who you are, what you’ve become and who are you are definitely going to be! 1. A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t go anywhere until you change it. 2. Excellence is not a skill, it is an attitude. 3. The quickest way to double your money is to FOLD it in half and put it back in your pocket. 4. Before you judge me make sure that you’re perfect. 5. It’s better to live alone. There is no friendship with a fool. 6. Style is a way to say who u are without speaking. 7. Always remember you are unique, just like everyone else. 8. People say I have a dirty mind, but I’m saying it's just creative! 9. Hey! I found something under my shoe. Oh, wait. That’s just your attitude. 10. My attitude is not a problem. You just can’t handle my personality. 11. I don’t have an attitude. I really am that good. 12. Don’t confuse my personality and my attitude. My personality is who I am, but my attitude completely depends on who you are. 13. Patience is not about developing the ability to wait. It’s about learning how to keep a good attitude while you’re waiting. 14. Luck is success without a positive attitude. Achievement is a success with a positive attitude. 15. Your attitude is just as important as your skills when it comes to success.

Alone Whatsapp Status Quotes

1. Don’T Afraid Of Being Outnumbered. Eagles Fly Alone. Pigeons Flock Together. 3. Never Depends On Others Too Much Because Someday You Will Have To Walk Alone. 3. I Forgive But Don’T Forget, Because I Never Want To Be Hurt The Same Way Twice. 4. When You Feel Like You're Fighting Alone In Life That's When You Should Be Fighting The Hardest! 5. All Relationships Have One Law. Never Make The One You Love Feel Alone, Especially When You're There. 6. Sometimes I Feel Like I Just Want To Be Alone! But What I Actually Want, Is Someone To Just Hold Me And Tell Me Everything Will Be Ok! 7. It’s better to be alone than surrounded by people who make you feel alone. 8. I only have 2 to 3 real friends. I just tolerate everyone else. 9. Sometimes I wonder what happened to the past glory of friends flocking around me. 10. Will they ever be lovely people in this world of ours? Read: Long Paragraphs For him

Friendship Whatsapp Status Quotes

1. A Friend Is Someone Who Knows All About You And Still Loves You. 2. Only A True Best Friend Can Protect You From Your Immortal Enemies. 3. A Good Friend Is Hard To Find, Hard To Lose, And Impossible To Forget 4. Best Friend Is Someone Who Loves You When You Forget To Love Yourself. 5. I Would Rather Walk With A Friend In The Dark, Than Alone In The Light. 6. A True Friend Is That One Which Takes Your Hand But Touches Your Heart. 7. Good Friends Are Hard To Find, Difficult To Leave, Impossible To Forget. 8. Friends Are Like Stars, They Come And Go, But The Ones That Stay Are The Ones That Glow 9. Good Friends Will Share The Umbrella. Best Friends Will Steal It And Yell: Run Loser Run! 10. The Best Way To Stay Close To Someone Is By Being Just Friend. Nothing More And Nothing Less 11. Friendship is a lot like money. It’s easier made than kept. 12. We can never be friends because I’m still in love with you. 13. You know you’re the ugly one when your friends ask you to take the group picture. 14. Good morning, beautiful friends. May you smile often and enjoy each moment of your day. 15. A friend never leaves his buddy for a slice of pizza.

Whatsapp Status for Girls

Just like guys code, there are also girls code. Below are the top latest and best girls Whatsapp status. 1. My love for you is a journey_ that starts at forever and ends at never in Life….. 2. I lost my Heart Can Any body See…?? 3. Love is like an Air ..We can’t see it but! we can feel it.. 4. Love is that which, cannot see the poorness… 5. Love in Life, Make the life beautiful.. 6. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the Heart. 7. In life, I need only U! 8. My “Heart” is always Ur! 9. Love is like the sun which coming out from the clouds and warming Ur soul. 10. True Love = No doubts + No jealousy + No worries then life is good.

Motivational Whatsapp Status Quotes

Try to motivate and enlightens someone mood today! 1. Always remember that life is short. Believe slowly, forgive others quickly, let go of your silly ego, laugh louder, love truly, and don’t ever avoid anything that makes you happy. 2. Be the kindest to unkind people. Those are the ones who need it most. 3. To be a true champion, you have to keep believing in yourself even when others stop. 4. Start wherever you are. Use whatever you have. Do whatever you can. 5. Success means never giving or taking any excuses. 6. Don’t worry about failing. Worry about those chances you never take. 7. Be brave. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Nothing in this world can substitute experience. 8. It’s never too late to dream another dream or set another goal. 9. You won’t find a rainbow if you’re looking down, so look up to the sky. 10. When you’re determined and you take action, it’s never an impossible feat to reach your goal.

Best Whatsapp Status Images

There are a lot of Whatsapp Status in Hindi, which showcases Whatsapp status in hindi love, funny, attitude, sad and hindi status for life. Note that, Whatsapp status can also be sent as Whatsapp SMS, or in a Whatsapp group chat. Indeed, the above good short status for Whatsapp are the best whatsapp status ever and they are generally accepted in all languages, remember that before someone could see your status on Whatsapp, you need their Whatsapp phone numbers. Whatsapp now accepts videos as status, you can try that option out, Whatsapp status download. Read the full article

[tipsycad147]

How To Host A Powerful Lunar Ritual For Your Friends

Julie Hopkins

As witches, we have so many things to celebrate! We have the sabbats, the astrological shifts, and of course, the many phases of the moon. The moon, in particular, is perfect to create a ceremony around because it is a powerful source of energy, and you can celebrate the moon no matter what phase it’s in!

When people gather together with a shared intention, the intention is strengthened by the collective energy and focus on the group. Because of this phenomenon, performing magic with other people and the moon is usually highly effective.

Another reason to host a moon ceremony is that it can serve as an energetic check-in for yourself and your friends. You can reaffirm your goals or choose new ones as you work with the lunar energy in a ceremony.

My favourite reason to host a moon ceremony is that it’s just plain fun. It’s a magical party you can throw with your loved ones whenever you want.

So if you’re ready to give this form of group magic a try, here are some tips for hosting your very first moon ceremony!

Tip #1: Create an overall intention for your moon ceremony.

Everyone who attends your ceremony can create his or her own intention, but when you’re planning your ceremony, it’s helpful to set an overall intention or theme.

I prefer to do this ahead of time so I can plan spells or set up my moon altar according to the overall intention I’ve chosen. I take into account two factors when I do this.

Current Moon Phase - Many witches enjoy gathering with friends, family, or coven members for the new moon or the full moon because these are often considered the most powerful phases in the lunar cycle, but you’re certainly not limited to those times. You can have your moon ceremony at any point in a lunar cycle. Just keep in mind the energy of that particular phase. If it’s a waxing moon ceremony, think about the energy you associate with that moon phase and what kinds of spells you enjoy performing. If you love doing financial abundance spells during a waxing moon because you associate the waxing moon with growth and abundance, use that as the theme for your moon ceremony. Set up your moon altar with colours, crystals, and herbs that make you think of wealth and growth.  

Current Month or Season - Each lunar cycle comes with its own set of traditions created by different cultures over the centuries. You might have noticed that each monthly moon has a variety of names and associations. These names came from different groups of people and cultures over the centuries based on weather patterns, the behaviour of animals, growth cycles, and the activities of people during that time of year. You can choose to use these traditions to set a theme for your moon ceremony if you like.

I also recommend you create your own traditions for each monthly moon. You can give the moon its own name based on traditions and cultural events you and your friends celebrate during that time of year. For example, if a holiday happens during a specific lunar phase such as Mother’s day during the May lunar cycle, you can call the May moon “Mother’s Moon” and select colours, crystals, and spells that you associate with motherhood.

Tip #2: Pick a perfect location for your ceremony.

You’ll want to pick a place where you won’t be distracted. The sounds of traffic, other people walking around, mosquitoes, hot or cold temperatures, the amount of wind, and the general energy of the space can create distractions during your ceremony. Take all of these things into account. There’s no right or wrong place to have your ceremony. It doesn’t matter if it’s inside or outside. One isn’t necessarily more powerful than the other. It’s more about what you think will be most comfortable for you and your group.

Tip #3: Create an altar.

Altars are a big part of moon ceremonies. Many witches will set up an altar in the centre of the space and have everyone sit or stand around the altar. This creates a powerful point of focus for the magic that will be performed during your ceremony.

To create an altar, think about what shapes, colours, and magical tools will best support the energy of your particular ceremony. I often use circles when setting up my moon ceremony altars because a circle represents cycles (like a lunar cycle) and it’s also the same shape as the full moon.

I like to use tarot cards, crystals, candles, herbs, and flower petals to create different “layers” around the centre of my altar. You can also have all the participants bring their favourite magical tools to add to the altar.  

The bottom line with your moon altar is that you have complete creative freedom. Make it look however you want. If you want some ideas for moon altars, check out Pinterest or Instagram for some beautiful examples.

Tip #4: Cleanse and charge your ceremony space.

You can cleanse and charge your space just like you’d do for any witchcraft your perform. Some witches like to prep the space by cleansing it ahead of time, but it’s also important to cleanse a space right before you begin your ceremony as well. This is a great way to begin your ceremony and get everyone focused before you all begin your magic.

Tip #5: Plan your spells, meditations, and rituals.

Structure your moon ceremony however you want. There’s no set length for a ceremony and it’s up to you how many spells or meditations you wish to perform. My recommendation is to brainstorm a list of all the things that you might want to do during a ceremony and pick the activities you think will be the most appropriate.

I like to plan out the structure of the ceremony ahead of time, and I’ll keep those notes with me as I’m leading the actual ceremony. This helps me know how long to take for each part of the ceremony, and it ensures that I don’t forget any important steps.

That being said, you can wing it if that’s more your style. Do whatever is most comfortable for you.

Here’s a list of things I’ve done during moon ceremonies:

Talking about the current lunar energy

Talking about the current astrological energies

Performing tarot readings, scrying, throwing bones, reading tea leaves, or other forms of divination.

Visualisation meditations

Banishing spells

Manifesting spells

Making vision boards

Singing songs

Dancing

Sharing intentions

Sharing personal stories

Eating and drinking

Making art (drawing, painting, sculpting with clay, collaging, making jewelry)

Creating flower bouquets or flower crowns

Journaling

Ritual fires

Star-gazing

Chanting

In addition to any magical activities you choose to do during the ceremony, be sure to include any other rituals you’d normally perform when doing your witchcraft such as calling in and dismissing the elements, casting a circle, and charging your space.

Tip #6: Consider asking everyone to abide by certain rules to create a safe space for the group.

You might find it helpful to create some rules for your ceremony. Things like, “What is shared in the circle, stays in the circle,” or “Let each person speak without interruptions from others,” can create an environment that feels comfortable and safe for everyone in the group.

You can state the rules at the beginning of the ceremony and ask everyone to verbally agree, or you can let people know those expectations when you’re inviting everyone.

I went to a moon ceremony where everyone agreed to refrain from comforting anyone in the group while they were sharing a personal story. This meant no hugs, no words of encouragement, no reaction whatsoever. The intention for that activity was to “hold space” for every person in the circle so that each person could process or release his or her emotions without interruption. It felt counter-intuitive at first, but because we had all agreed to it beforehand, we had an understanding. It created a unique energy that was appropriate for the ceremony.

You can ask everyone to come up with rules together at the beginning of the ceremony. This can be as formal or informal as you want. If your friends or your coven have a lot of experience having ceremonies (or just hanging out) together, you all may have formed a set of unspoken rules.

Tip #7: Honour the shifting energy of the group.

Each ceremony will have an energy or “personality’ of its own. This is because whenever people gather, their individual vibrations combine and form a unique energy. Even if it’s the same group of people gathering each time, you’ll likely still notice differences. That’s because people (and their relationships to others in the group) are always changing. Keep that in mind and allow for it. Feel free to make changes to your ceremony on-the-fly if you sense it’s better for the group. Trust your intuition and be confident in your decisions.

Tip #8: Practice self-care before and after your moon ceremony.

It takes courage, vulnerability, and A LOT of energy to host a moon ceremony. There’s the physical work of setting up an altar for the ceremony. Then there’s the mental work of creating a plan for your ceremony. On top of that, you might find it draining to lead a group of people in a magical practice. Keep that in mind when you’re scheduling things around your ceremony. Make sure you give yourself lots of time to rest and recuperate.  

https://thetravelingwitch.com/blog/how-to-host-a-powerful-lunar-ritual-for-your-friends