#it feels like all electronics are expensive pieces of trash

[bethlammen]

Tag rant

[firespirited]

Our town has Red Cross used clothes and shoes donation bins, your town probably has something similar.

Supposedly you put cleaned and folded donated clothes in a sealed bag and they are given or sold in their shops. asterisks required because they only sell items that are in like new condition and properly placed in closed bags, the rest is sold to shady textile recycling companies.

(readmore for length)

The problem is that people use them the way they used to use the sturdy textile recycling bins the town used to have back before the Red Cross bought the right to replace those. You'd pop in your clothes, local charities would sort through them for the sellable items, items they could transform into fabric yardages or pet beds or rags for school art classes... *then* they'd sell the textile waste for centimes to the red cross to flip. Now the various charities place ads in the newspaper and at the shopping centres to come collect at your house or for you to drop off stuff at their shops. Anything I fix goes to a charity shop a town over on the road to where my carer lives.

There are two "Reduce - Reuse - Recycle" charities and the Red Cross in town and they're a mile out from where I can walk so I haven't had the chance to visit yet. They do repair courses and crafting days. Our local recycling centre even makes insulation from shredded jeans!

I was able to talk to one of the Red Cross shop volunteers and she was really interested in how to clean up toys as they throw out a ton.

Anyway, all that to say that

1/ The donation bins don't work as intended AT ALL with about 5% (at best) actually saved and 95% sold as waste to Eastern Europe triage centres then off to West Africa. I don't resent the Red Cross for making their money but I do resent that they cut out the local middle men charities and their bins are very poorly designed.

2/ I can back up the claim that people donate damaged junk items to charity and throw quality items in the regular trash. The donation bins overflow regularly and stuff gets rain drenched or thrown into the closest bins which is where lil scavenger me has been picking through items that can be frogged into yarn or repaired when I feel like a hobby challenge. It's only been three months of peeking in the donation overflow and 9 months of peeking in the bins, but the difference is obvious.

In the regular trash: clothes, shoes, toys, cosmetic gifts and electronics are either busted and worth throwing away *two thumbs up so long as you removed batteries first and used the correct bin* or in excellent condition: they clearly just got new stuff and threw out the old like second hand doesn't even cross their mind, they don't even stick it on ebay. Most expensive trashed but high quality items are brand-name sneakers and children's clothes. I really hope it makes a mom's day when they find them in the charity shop and don't have to spend $70 on last year's sneakers for the teen and $40 on a proper winter coat for the kid. I know teen me cherished the charity shop Reeboks until they fell apart.

Red Cross donation bin items almost always have damage: lots of crumbling pleather, ripped clothes, stained tablecloths and unravelling sweaters. I'd like to think it's because people don't bother to read and use them like the old textile recycling containers but reading local articles about residents complaining about the bins kind of confirms "the homeless will be glad for junk" theory.

On the other hand, I am "the poors happy for junk" LOL at least for challenging myself to craft projects since I replaced the zip slider and insertion box on a jacket using online tutorials, sewed up the damaged pocket and lining tears and have a fabulous leather jacket. I dismantled the crumbling pleather (it made such a mess!!) and fur jacket and sewed the fur sides into a long wrap scarf with hooks in 3 40-minute sessions. I'd love to make matching bear hats from the back piece.

[djnusagi]

11, 25, 29 for the music asks!

ok so I wound up having a LOT to say for these

11. a popular song you think is Good, Actually

this is hard cuz I actually do love pop music and admire pop songwriting as an art form. call me maybe is definitely a song I would consider to be great, like the whole thing is brilliantly written and arranged. I love Avril Lavigne’s early work. I also love all the big singles from the black eyed peas’ “electro era”, I gotta feeling, dirty bit, imma be etc. I also like most of katy perry’s early hits but her output hit a brick wall for me when she switched from dumb but well made party anthems like tgif and california gurls and started making faux inspirational empowerment anthems like roar and firework. thank u next by ariana grande was brilliantly produced even though the lyrics are oversimplistic in a way that hurts the vibe and the lyrical gimmick gets old imo.

25. a music artist you like(d) but don’t tell people you do

I was a huge deadmau5 fan for many years and even saw him live in 2017. I don’t really listen to him anymore mostly because his music doesn’t appeal to me as much anymore, his recent output is kind of trash, and I’ve also come to loathe him as a person. obviously there’s the transphobia but beyond that there’s two main things I kind of hate about deadmau5 as a person. the first is his approach to and perspective on music. he seems to view music production and the creation of electronic music generally in terms of a meticulous, rigid set of rules that you have to follow, and the closer you follow them the better your music is. this can manifest positively in his music. his track are incredibly detailed and precisely controlled and every SOUND in his tracks is gorgeously crafted. however, this (combined with his fetishistic obsession with analog purity and large, expensive hardware) also wound up leading to his creative stagnation and the increasing blandness of his music. it also plays a role in my second big issue with deadmau5, which is that he’s a juvenile egotistical jackass. aside from just generally being a noxious shitbag he holds every piece of music to his arbitrary standard of technical perfection, ignoring that a track may be using it’s mixing and mastering for creative aesthetic purposes or that it may be prioritizing sonic experimentation/songwriting/literally anything else over “being perfectly suited to a big club system or an expensive hi-fi”. his view of music and the world is fantastically narrow. I think Joel’s noxious personality is best exemplified in a livestream clip where he “reacts” to the song love u need u by slushii, and just keeps calling the song “aids” and “seriously autistic shit”.

29. what do you look for in a song or artist?

this is really hard to answer but I guess anything that really grabs me and stands out as unique and special. but I also have a lot of appreciation for songwriting, production, sound design and lyricism as “crafts” on their own. even if it’s not terribly unique I can still appreciate it if it’s “well made” if that makes sense.

[404fmdminjung]

creative claims — blueming

summary: written during the course of promotions for loveforclosure. she finds one sense of home in the fans, writes a song to the people that shower her with love. (basically coming off a high of a well-received comeback). warnings: none wc: 1906 (not including lyrics)

in retrospect, time changes a lot of things.

a year prior, and a flop of a song — the signs all pointing straight towards the shackles of gold star’s dungeon. now, they’ve shined her up. polished the record out for the masses, and the pour of public love in the horizon. no longer a flop, the rough and jagged edges of each comment to tear her apart and strip her semblance piece by piece become softened, blurred at the lines. angry voices poured at the expensive of fingers tapping against the keyboard with the anonymous faces now refreshed and shifted towards positive praise, comments statured with hearts and support.

how do you handle the sudden 180 when your heart also falters, and teeters towards the change of pace?

minjung surely doesn’t know. doesn’t know how to cope, so her hands remain on the edges of her notebook, one hand out pulling the pages apart inside a moving van that takes her to the first schedule of promotions.

blue. she jots that down quickly, let’s the dips in the road add character to each crooked line scrawled on the stage. blue used to be synonymous with dreary melancholy, strapped down to the midnight dreariness of a city that never sleeps. she painted herself blue once, downed by the ridicule of modern day public execution via the comments. now, she blooms.

-

stages after the first two become easier. synonymous with echoes and the small trinkets and packages of gifts given when she hops back into the guise of privacy, into the van. she’s back at stage one, notebook in pocket, phone in hand.

she remembers the first few instances hopping into a kakao chat dedicated to her —  even manages to get kicked off a few times before staying on, and hearing the outpour of cheer and love dedicated. 

when she gets off, says her goodbyes, she realizes one thing’s changed: her heart blooms, softens with each message sent. enough to stir the grin across her cheeks when her smile hangs steady with eyes that gleam over the page written ‘blue’.

it’s an uncanny feeling, feeling filled more to the tips of the brim with each passing day — a feeling novel, something she still can’t handle whole.

what i said what’s up i really meant i miss you.

all along, the missing shade of blue she’s forgotten on the canvas layered and layer, is love around. memories wiped from a missing skeleton of her pass, and she fails to realize — the love settled around, is the one she’s neglected to see for more than face value till now.

in each and every emoji my subtle feelings keep changing, i wonder if you know

she recollects the past five minutes on her phone in the group chat, the small tidbits of surprise now caked onto a revelation. her monotone speech patterns and quick sent texts, subjugated to a more personalized form as the seconds tick on. busyness, fatigue. it’s all an empty excuse when her heart flutters with a tinge upward, thoughts of fans now filling the crevices of her fragmented heart.

insomnia, lack of sleep. she’s running on two hours bustling from one schedule to the next. but seo minjung has never followed the textbook rules of what to feel and at what time. she’s an outsider looking in, going against the force and the nature of tides pushing one way to another. because where fatigue should rest heavy on her shoulders, now — she’s no longer drowning. instead, stepping higher into the clouds like stargirl. girl with a light heart, and now she’s drunk with a scent of resolution.

i’m making roses blossom with my thumb i think i’m getting drunk with the scent it’s in our own secret garden.

-

the high doesn’t wind down as schedules persist. instead, each day she’s met with the feelings of a hurricane. ripped from her roots, heart fleshed open when the smile no longer seizes itself faux, but as a token of genuine ties each time she sits down, resorts back to the words compiling on the page.

this song’s for them. the lyrics, each one in a one-on-one head-first conversation. ideation that perhaps, this becomes a fleeting moment. a transient piece where they’re sitting at top of the climax before it all topples over, downward straight to hell. but she’s not a worrier, doesn’t bother looking back.

(for once, she chooses to relish this moment right here).

i feel bloom, i’m sending you one more flower updating you with my all-nighter work the author of this interesting piece of work, that’s me maybe this is the climax of the relationship

the nip of her pen glides freely against the page, her own welcome to her headspace. no beat, no notes in mind. rather, it’s the diary that opens up the beginnings of what’s right in her heart now.

—

there’s an itch under her skin — one rarely ignored. it comes at a pang to her gut, knocks the sleepless night right into her, prompting her to make a beeline towards the makeshift studio in her apartment.

here and there, she tries to think of a tune. a slow pull of languid minors, layering on the heaviness of desolation in navy’s. she doesn’t want that, least not a ballad coming off the tails of another — she scraps that, saves the file and backlogs it for another day. then comes the juxtaposition of jazzy facts, the strong isolation of saxophones and trombones — a drop in a rough beat, painting the song a vibrant cobalt. it’s one worth dancing to, boppy tunes to wreck havoc on a stage. still, it renders itself useless by the time she shoves that rendition straight to the trash can.

no notes in any sort of transition, instead she finds solace on the guitar she hasn’t touched in a near two months. it hangs, lingers on like a presence in the room — she makes a note, guitar. scribbled at the top of her page before ushering herself back to the confines of her bed.

-

a day off, and the song resurrects itself through the guitar nestled in her arms. she strums herself a chord in a minor, a major — finds the three notes, clamored down to the cacophony of something bright. still, decides it remains a stretch to keep it with too much embellishment. instead, she plucks the notes apart from each other — one by one, f into c. c into e, hitting a baseline at g.

at this point, it drops the seedlings to something promising and light. the shade of periwinkle she’s envisioned all along — it’s light to touch, easy to the ears. breathless in a come-and-dance with me switch. minjung repeats the plucking, one by one, till the solidification of the notes come full circle once the record button presses and her voice hums along to the melody etched in-between.

it starts at an easy lull before she paves way with the full-on start of the chords all at once by the time the chorus hits. two chords, a pause. then the entrance of the next two in repeat — at this point, it’s no longer and algorithm of what makes the numbers on the chart or a fragment of herself embodied into a play. instead, it’s the drive of having fun, enjoying each second put into the process.

(trust the process, nobody ever said it was going to be easy).

it sounds digital by the time she puts the first line of guitar work down. the recordings now becoming repetitive, one after another — a simple base in bare bones, nothing flashy or a change in the tempo. it all charges steadily, following expectations of the song’s natural rhythm.

her mouse clicks around and by now, it’s the addition of the percussion. the simple add-on to where she imagines the first verse tuning in — the deep percussion adds a depth to the periwinkle, the wrinkles of something more saturated, less fluttery. 

the essence of the song’s been fluttery heartbeats. the intangible things unspoken from her to the fans, and for now — she makes her mark by saving the file, setting aside for another day with her arms stretched out, enough for the yawn to escape in broad daylight.

no makeup, sitting inside some rugged sweats and a t-shirt. (this feels like the first in a long time where home’s presented a new look).

-

by the time she resorts back, it’s the end of promotions — free days shifted in between preparations for fuse’s next comeback. her heart’s no where near hands-up, long far with her cold shoulder response becoming synonymous with the lackluster dead-eyed expression for a mind that’s been humming hte melody to the song written in the books.

her own sense of peace, and her piece of privacy. solo work, now trumping and reigning on top of anything else presented to her.

she’s thought about it all day — the backing vocals, the ad-libs. where to start, and where to end. by the time she finds herself situated in front of her screen, her notebook sprawled out and jaded eyes that click around to the record. she starts with the ah-ah-ah’s, the makeshift forced rhymes that fall at the end of each verse. tunes her voice back in for the lulls of simple humming.

yet, by the time she sits down, plays back the puzzle pieces of what’s the marred total composition on her screen, she furrows her brow. bites down on her lip, pen in hand. the end of the pen taps on the surface of her desk, mind still buried inside the missing facet. imagination and creativity doesn’t spur when you want it to — it’s once again the process and the clicks of the mouse transitioning one type, to another.

seo minjung settles on the synth and the slow paced transitioning of warping her voice to an electronic belt. like stereo noise, it thins out where she wants it to be. almost muting it down to a subtle pull, a settled flesh of a song that makes her hear from the next room over. her mouth furls into a grin, a toothy grin saved for instances like these.

because what this song isn’t a piece of her anymore. nor a recollection of heartbreak on repeat.

instead, it’s fruitful, light and airy. like she’s floating on a cloud, far far away with her hands reached far apart, slotted to the love the fans boost her on. whether they’re a mirage of fusions or the few that brand themselves as a heart only filled by hear — she doesn’t care. it’s all an ode to them at this point.

no longer hiding behind her cowardice, wallowing around in the has-beens and the what-ifs of a play by play scenario. this time, this song goes out to a crowd that helped her remain stationed and whole, billowing with the calm sense of comfort.

comfort comes in many ways, home defines itself new each time.

only, this time she doesn’t sway from one new cloud or another pillar of stability. she’s still a nomad, wandering from one welcoming house to the next, filled with the fireplace of warmth and a comfortable meal. whatever food they home, they offer. she accepts — home’s a place where you define it. right now, seo minjung defines home with where the people are, wrapped up in open arms and a belonging.

whether she’s the ballader on stage. the travesty walking on yesterday’s heartbreak or the dancing diva in haphazard movements —they’ve accepted her for what she leaves at face value. the songs weren’t meant to soothe wounds or an album to flesh out the bad — it was an attempt at closure. and what she got in return, is the closure she least expected.

[sheeple]

Real thing | 7: The G in ‘gala’ is for everything goes wrong

GIFS NOT MINE. THIS IS ALL FICTION. Genre(s): mafia!au / hacker!au Group(s): NCT Pairing(s): Qian Kun x fem!reader / Jung Jaehyun x fem!reader Summary: (Y/n), a college student who joined WayV ─ an international crime organization ─ for some extra cash as one of their hackers. But what happens when she gets mixed up in a lot more heavy stuff than only sitting behind a computer and disabling security cameras? Warning(s): Just mafia stuff / illegal things [Masterlist] [Mini masterlist]

I walk down the stairs towards the entrance hallway where I see Qian ─ and to my surprise ─ Lucas standing next to him, conversing in a soft murmur. 

Lucas is the first to notice me and whistles, his eyes shamelessly going up and down my figure. I roll my eyes and fold my arms in front of my chest. I cock my head to the side and let my eyes glide over his appearance. 

Lucas is wearing a dark grey suit with small dots and crosses embroidered all over the jacket and pants, and a matching polo in the same colour as the suit underneath it. His hair is black and swept back. 

Qian turns around too'. He’s wearing a blue-red striped suit, a white dress shirt underneath it, and a dark red tie, matching the colour of my dress. The handkerchief that peeks out from his breast pocket is black with small, white flowers. 

Now I know what they mean with a man’s impact is different when he’s in a well-tailored suit. 

“I never knew you could look anything more than trash”, remarks Lucas with a sly grin on his face and I punch him. He yelps and strangers away, holding his arm with a hurt expression. 

“You look... beautiful.” Qian’s voice is soft as he looks at me in almost something that looks admiration. 

“Oh, thank you, sir. You don’t look so bad yourself. The colour really suits you.” I look shyly down and put my hands in my pockets. 

Qian’s eyebrows raise as he notices the pockets. “Are those pockets? That’s pretty nice.” He mirrors my action and puts his hands in the pockets of his pants. 

Lucas coughs at our awkwardness. “Don’t you need to give her something?” 

Qian looks towards Lucas and nods, walking towards a side table and grabbing a clutch from it. It’s black with sparkles. 

He opens the clutch and pulls out a small semi-automatic handgun. “I entrust this to you. It’s for emergencies. When there is absolutely no way out and you have to protect yourself. Do you know how to use it?”

I nod slightly and take the semi-automatic in my hand, feeling the weight of it in my hand. “My dad used to have a shooting range so I’ve shot my fair share of weapons. Is it loaded?” 

Qian nods, taking in a sharp breath as I pull back the top to hear it click and aim at the window before putting it away in my bag. 

“Great, we’re ready to go”, says Lucas as Qian keeps staring at me with an unreadable look in his eyes. 

I sit next to Qian on the way towards the venue, Lucas sitting next to the driver. I nervously play with one of the rings on my fingers as the radio softly plays in the background. 

“Listen, I have to discuss a couple of things with you, (Y/n).”

I look up with a gasp as I didn’t expect Qian to say my name. “Yes, sir.”

“Firstly, you don’t have to call me ‘sir’. Just Kun or even honey is enough since you are playing my girlfriend. Secondly─”

My eyes grow wide as saucers. “Yo- your girlfriend? Sir-- I mean...” I blink confusedly. What do I need to call him now? 

“...Kun”, he says slowly. 

“Yes, Ku- Kun. You never said anything about me playing your girlfriend?! Only─”

“My date, I know,” Kun nods and straights the cuffs of his jacket, “but it is a far better alibi to be my girlfriend. Mostly for your safety.” A deep sigh leaves his lips. 

“The people that attend this gala won't be your teacher or everyday businessmen. They are powerful assets in the underworld, crime bosses and cartel runners. If they know you are... mine... they wouldn’t dare to touch you.”

I clench my jaw. “And here I was thinking that WayV was just a small crime organisation.” The words leave my lips in a mumble but Kun still catches them.

“I keep it that way on purpose. When one of you get caught or arrested, you aren’t a threat to the whole organisation. That’s my privacy policy.”

Lucas throws me a look over his shoulder. “Only seven in total know the base of WayV, also Yangyang, Kun, and I.”

Before I can say something, the driver cuts in, “Sirs, ma’am. We’re here.” 

Lucas gets out of the car and opens Kun’s door first before Kun walks around and opens my door, leaning a hand so I can climb out. 

“Thank you, Huang. You are free for the evening, just give the keys to valet once you parked the car.” Kun closes the door after saying that and the car sets off.

I turn around and look at the big and beautiful mansion made of white marble and gold. It’s absolutely magnificent to look at. 

I grab Kuns arm and wrap my hands around his biceps, taking deep breaths before walking in. 

Once inside, Kun is greeted by the people we come across with a deep bow or a shake of his hand. We do another round of greetings before settling on one group of socialites with champagne in our hands. 

I put on the best smile I can and opt to zone out all the business talk until I notice that all the eyes are on me. 

“Oh... I’m sorry?”, I smile politely and the group laughs. 

“We were talking about you, baby.” Kun smiles down at me and my breathing stops momentarily. He has to smile more often, it really suits him. 

“Yeah, we didn’t catch who she is, Mr Qian”, says a guy in begin twenty with jet black hair and high cheekbones.

“This is (Y/n), my lovely girlfriend.” Kun looks down with a lovesick grin and I smile back, playing my part the best I can as I notice that Kun’s going all in. 

“It’s nice to meet you all. I was actually quite nervous to come with him as this is the first time he asked me to join him to any business parties.” I raise my glass to my lips and take a small sip. 

“Oh? How did the two of you meet?”, asks a tall woman with cat-like eyes. 

I look at Kun, expecting him to answer that but he shakes his head. “No baby, you tell. You can do it better than me.” 

Motherfucker. 

“Well,” I begin, pulling out everything I learned during my creative writing course in high school. “Kun came to my college and gave a talk about economics and how you plan your company’s strategy. It was actually quite hard because he sometimes uses big words.”

A laugh ripples through the group and I notice how other people also seem to listen in. 

“So I went to him after he ended his presentation and asked for some extra explanation. We ended sitting together for almost an hour, talking about everything and nothing. We ended up hitting it off pretty good.” 

I talk animately with my hands, making sure I don’t spill my champagne and look at Kun with a soft smile, not missing the surprise in his eyes.

“And then? Did you guys go on a date after that?”, asks the same tall woman and I shake my head. 

“No, we didn’t see each other for a month after that. Until I saw him again in a cafe off-campus. And the rest is history.” I end with a sigh and the woman coos. 

“Look at you, Qian. Finally getting your life together after all these years.” An evil smirk forms on her face and Kun glares at her. 

“Yeah, you could say that.” He pulls me closer by my waist and I let out a gasp. “Now, if you will excuse us, I want to show (Y/n) the buffet table.” 

He whisks me away from the group and I look over my shoulder, the group immediately whispering to each other. 

“I actually didn’t expect you to make such a believable story on the spot. It kinda surprised me, to be honest.” 

I glance over the table with expensive-looking food and shrug. “I’m just doing my part.” I glance over my shoulder and see the group looking at us. I quickly stand on my toes and bring my lips towards Kun’s ear. 

“They’re looking at us, so I’m improvising”, I whisper as he looks at me weirdly. 

“Chill, you two love birds”, groans Lucas as he walks towards us, a plate full with food in his hands, “you don’t want to whole room to see you kiss.”

Kun makes a snarky comment back and they start to bicker back and forth. I turn my head around and scan the room. 

No familiar faces, only men in expensive suits and snobby women, showing off the diamonds on their neck and wrists. 

Until I suddenly see a familiar face staring at me from across the room and I stop breathing. 

Jung Jaehyun. He’s wearing a brown three-piece suit with a white blouse underneath it, the collar pulled high. His eyes focused on me with an unreadable expression. 

I look away I shock and turn my back towards him. “He’s here”, I hiss, making the men look at me. “Jung Jaehyun’s here and he has spotted me. This is not good.”

Kun glances casually over my shoulder and spots Jaehyun too. “Great”, he rolls his eyes annoyed. “What now?”

“I don’t know, I’m asking you!” The panic in my eyes is visible as I feel his eyes burn the back of my head. 

“Here’s the plan”, says Lucas. “You’re just going to be doing what you have to do; be pretty, answer relationship questions, and stick to Kun’s side. And when Jaehyun corners you, act like you don’t know that you ‘boyfriend’s’”, Lucas uses air quotations for the boyfriend part, “real job is. Just some high up in an electronics company.”

I nod and sigh deeply. That’s the plan and I’m going to stick to it.

[hazbinextgeneration]

A Little Cold Can Go A Long Way

Ah, Hazbin Hotel. A wondrous place of new hope and peace within hell's normally chaotic place....SO you would think that today would be unlike any other. The most chaotic thing you'd expect would just be a fight between guests and staff right?...Well tell that to the mysterious things that kept happening around the hotel. It all started when all the shot glasses exploded. Sending glass onto the floor. Luckily noone was hurt but there was a giant mess. Everyone blamed it on Husk being drunk at the time and his magic going out of control but he insisted it never happened before. Yeah nobody believed him, that was until the kitchen's refridgerator actually came to life and tried to eat Nifty alive. Ok. Husk's magic was powerful but no where near the levels of bringing an icebox alive. It took tipping it and unplugging it from the wall to get it to stop. And that wasn't the end unfortunately. Vaggie broke out in orange polka dots, to which Angel laughed at. A vase flew across the room and smashed into the next wall. A crystal chandelier fell and almost hit Charlie over the head. The stairs became slippery. The basement flooded. Things kept breaking or flying around or coming to life and scaring everyone and no one knew what was happening or how to stop it. ..But everyone got a pretty good idea who it might've been when Angel screamed when he caught one of the bandits ripping through his new expensive dresses and crushing his make up kits into tiny pieces. ...Of course. OF FREAKIN COURSE IT WAS ALASTOR!! Why wouldn't it be him?! Why didn't they make the connection sooner when the radios went haywire? Electronics running wild, powerful magic, crazy shadow....things!? It had his name written all over the darn thing! Why? He didn't care. NO ONE messed with his sh*t and got away with it. Of course Charlie wouldn't be much help. All she did when everyone complained was poke her head in there once before slamming the door closed and giving a nervous grin.  "Uh...H-He's not feeling too good. I-It'd be best if no one disturbed him. Hehe." Of course she'd say something like that. But the VERY last straw was his hair being yanked by a laughing shadow to which he may or may not have tried to shoot dead and instead left a bunch of bullet holes in the walls. Ok. He was tired of this! Mess with him once: shame on him for not realizing it was AL sooner. Mess with him twice: Shame on the actual guy who did it. But pull on his hair?! OH! He was freakin asking for an a$$whopping!! He didn't care if this was one of the most powerful beings on the nine circles of hell! No one messed with his stuff like it was yesterday's trash. Which is why the angry fluff spider marched up to the a-hole's room with enough fury to crack a diamond, and pounded his hand against the wooden thing. The noises echoed down the dark hallway and did a round about to death ears. "AL! YOU CREEPY STRAWBERRY PIMP LOOKIN' MOTHERF**KER!!!" The spider's angry voice echoed down the hall spooking off anyone who wasn't already scared of disturbing the feared Radio Demon. "YA BETTA GET CONTROL OF THIS PROBLEM BEFORE I SHOVE A BAZOOKA UP YOUR-" The door suddenly and slowly swung open by itself making the spider pause mid yell and stare at the thing, catching him off guard. Well...that was weird. He wasn't expecting that. The dark greeted him and absolute silence behind it....After a few awkward seconds he backed away slightly. He maybe have been regretting his descicion slightly. A long pause followed and a small noise finally came out...It sounded like. "*CHEEEEO*!" "What the fu- F**K!!" A gust of wind and a shadow rushing at him was enough to knock the spider onto his rump and a shadow thing coming at him was the spooky cherry on top. He landed on the ground with a thump and watched as the creature smiled at him before zooming down the hall to presumably to cause more trouble. The experience left him dazed and staring down the hall for a bit before another noise made him look back to the doorway. "*cough, cough*......Oh dear." "Al? Oh, f**kin'-" He groaned when he got up and dusted himself off. Straightening himself out and giving an annoyed look inside. "Al you creepy old goat. You in there?" Two red eyes and a yellow fanged smile shown from the dark back to him and another cough sound came from him. "Oh my. Don't you know it's rude to barge into another man's room?....*cough*" "Rude?! HA! Do ya even know what your stupid shadow looking mother**kers have been doin around here?!" His arms crossed except one which he pointed at him. "You're d*m goon messed up some sh*t of mine." He growled. "I don't like my stuff destoyed ya hear?" His head tilted slightly still keeping that stupid grin of his and he chuckled. "Is that so?" He found it amusing the spider was angered so eagerly. He always found things like loss of self control so fascinating. And the way he was looking at him was so amusing. "Well. Quite frankly speaking. It's a little bit beyond my control dear boy. There's a slight static within the radio waves." The spider demon stared confused at him. "....The f**k izzat supposed ta mean?! If I gotta knock 'em back into place then so-" "Achzzzzzzzzzt*!" He was stopped in his tracks by a weird AF noise. The radio demon on the other hand was snapped forward and his eyes became dials of all things, as soon as it came his left. With a shake of his head, his eyes were returned to their normal red form and he resumed looking at the dumbfounded looking spider. "I do beg your pardon." "...What the f**k was that sh*t?" He threw his hands out towards him. The thing had sounded like the f**cker had tried to sneeze or something and all that came out was static. "Are you sick or somethin'?" A clapping sound effect seemingly came from no where as Alastor ever the show off gave a few clap alongs as well...from a bed from what he could tell from in the dark. "What a discovery! What will the amaizing cakeeater do next?" Angel decided to ignore that comment and instead just walked in carefully mind you. He didn't know what else this crazy cook might do, cocking his head to the side, he gave the deer demon a curious look over with his eyes. "...Is everything around here going haywire because you're f**kin' sick?" "It would seem like that definately." Angel sighed and reached one of his hands up to rub at his face. Great. Of course something like this would have to happen today and on the same day his stuff was destroyed too. Without another word, the spider demon turned on his heel and left the room leaving the door wide open. Alastor watched curiously but eventually went back to lying down, giving a few more coughs. He was left alone peacefully for a few hours, during that time letting out a few more unintentional magical outbursts he was sure caused some problems somewhere, before the sounds of approuching footsteps caught his attention and he turned his head to a most curious sight indeed. Angel was back, but he had brought a few things with him. In his many limbs were a tray of food and silverware, what looked like an extra blanket, and a small bag. ..Drugs perhaps? A frown on his face. "...I see you've been downgraded to roomservice." "Oh, shut up." He came walking in and went over to the bed. The first thing he did when close enough was put the small baggy on the nightstand and forcably push him back onto the bed which caught him slightly off guard. ...Out of all the demons he's met, Angel was one of the few who didn't seem to be scared of him. Cautious surely but not entirely scared. The covers were pulled back over him and the extra blanket was thrown on top of the ones he had. Alastor blinked and tilted his head when Angel forced the tray into his lap. "There! I dunno sh*t about this... jumpy-belina stuff you like, but you need something hot in you or else your body is gonna get worse. And dammit I ain't havin' any more of this sh*t. Now eat." He blinked and looked down the food. He was pretty sure Angel was talking about not knowing how to make 'jambalaya', but what he got instead was a plate full of spegetti and what spelt like tea with it. He tilted his eyes back up to the demon with brows raised in question.  "...What? It's like the one thing Im good at cookin'. Don't judge me."  "Oh, Angel. I didn't know you cared.~" For once the spider groaned at his tone, before throwing the small baggy from the small table which landed on his chest. "Just eat the stuff, and take the stupid cough drops I got ya." Before turning and walking out the door he gave the deer one last frown and pointed at him. "You owe me big time for putting up with this bullsh*t." "Oh...I think you'll get someone from me soon. Don't fret dear boy." ******************************************************************** "ACHOO!! F**KIN' H8LL!!!" The spider was curled up on the bed, wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and holding it over his head much like a hoody. Poor Charlie had brought him up some food and water but it didn't stop the spider's sour mood and shivering. Alastor on the other hand was amused at this all this. Oh he got something from him all right. He got the idiot's stupid cold!  "Why Angel. You don't look too well? But not too worry." He gave an evil smile. "You'll be compensated fully with me here to take care of you." Angel groaned and face planted into the mattress away from him. 

A Radiodust fic I wrote for my pal @star-the-werewolf All characters belong to Vivziepop

[dougbeamer]

Brightburn - Movie Review *Spoilers*

I saw this movie almost a month ago. I tried doing a video review for it several weeks ago and idk...nothing stuck. What I wanted to say just felt like it could be the same as everyone else. I just don’t think I’m gonna add anything new to the consensus.

But then I got thinking about it again for some reason I felt a desire to talk about it again.

So! Let's start with the plot and what this movie is about.

Brightburn is a film that came out in May of 2019 and tells the story of a family Tori and Kyle Breyer trying to have a kid. By a miraculous miracle, a spaceship crashlands on their farm and they adopt the baby boy inside naming him, Brandon. Many years later the family begins experiencing weird things with their now 12-year-old child. He sleepwalks to the barn where the ship he crashed landed in mumbling a strange language and trying to get inside. 

Eventually, Brandon Breyer’s powers take effect and he starts using them to kill people rather than saving people. Brandon Breyer’s is on the full path to becoming a supervillain.

With the plot, in a nutshell, I can tell you there isn’t much more to it than that. If there is anything that I don’t like when making my reviews is explaining the plot. I know I need to in order to give everyone a heads up of what I am talking about but I never seem to talk about the plot specifically enough. I never actually describe it well. My store manager had an opportunity to see this film and said it pretty simply. “It’s like Superman meets Annabell”

While I never have seen Annabell it seems like an apt description. Annabell seems like a small film in scale and terrorizes folks who come close to it. The stakes are personal, intense and not much beyond what you are given. Of course, Superman is the spot on the comparison you can give because this film screams, “WE ARE SHOWING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SUPERMAN WENT EVIL!” as a concept piece.

Every time I think about this film the less I like about it. 

I know there are some people out there that probably L-O-V-E this film and can’t wait to see what is next in this obvious start to a twisted franchise. 

This film is basic. Very basic. Nothing more to it than a kid coming to his own with superpowers with his parents in denial of what he is capable of. The father is less in denial than the mother is who refuses to think her child is capable of such things.

At the beginning of this film, I actually loved it. The took just enough time to create the conflict between these two that they wanted a child. Just then their house is rocked by an earthquake and they proceed to check it out. It was mysterious, it was solid. 

The rest of the film...not so much. 

When I watch a film I lookout for a few things. One of them being dialogue, moments to establish the relationships as true, real and tangible, stakes that make sense no matter how much it derails the people involved, and above all else how the film constructs this. Bring it all together with enough pomp and circumstance to say we are functional.

To me, this movie is barely functional.

Dialogue is stiff. When people talk to one another it's so short and to the point that it feels like there is more than can be said. This may not be a legitimate critique but I do feel like the technique of talking is wasted here.

There was a scene where after Brandon crushed a girl's hand and the following scene the parents were all talking in the principal's office. The mother of the daughter was clearly upset and rightfully so. She was spouting this and that, “he should go to jail” and other justifiable remarks. Until...she talks about Brandon's real mother and calls her an inbred psycho. This obviously crosses a line as Tori simply states that if trash-talking a 12-year-old child helps erica sleep better at night maybe she is the one that needs help. After that, the scene wraps up and it's over. It's not without consequence, of course, but I feel that the scene was stunted with a lot of missed opportunities with dialogue. Instead of Erica overstepping her bounds and Tori putting her in her place within seconds of the scene ending I felt that should have been the biggest conflict in the scene. A longer more emotionally driven scene. 

Granted I know the script has been flipped and instead of Brandon being the good guy he's bad. The parents are sticking up for him wrongfully but are on the side of good and Erica is in the middle. The scene conveys mixed emotions that I feel no one is good, no one really knows what to say or do. Brandon is not arrested, he is suspended and will have therapy there afterward and one simple insult closes this off and they move onto the next subject. With the knowledge of the looming fate, Erica will endure.  I feel the scene should have been at least a few minutes longer where we are given a chance to really understand where other people are coming from. By this point, we know where Kyle and Teri are coming from but not Erica. She is actually smack dab in the middle of a situation she has to immediately respond to. Before that, she only was apart of Brandon’s birthday and saw him throw a temper-tantrum where the electronics around him went out. No speaking lines and that may be enough for her to call Brandon a psycho but allow me to point out...

There is an entire bit of backstory faded out to the prolonged stare Teri was making with her son Brandon. A lot of dialogue was muffled out do to her zoning out. They only time she snaps out of it is when insults are being thrown out towards Brandon and questions of who his real mother is. 

That entire scene should have been insightful! Erica could still stay as the emotional mother who just hears and sees the aftermath of her daughter's hand crushed but we could have known at some point where she stood with the family, what kind of friends they were and some back history. Cause we just found out in that very moment more than just the family knows about Brandon’s adoption. That there in of itself leaves me to believe a lot has to be assumed in order to understand where everyone is coming from.

My mind goes to the phrase Expectations vs Reality. When I think about this movie there were a lot of expectations and when the reality hit we basically see what could have been opposed to what we got. Brightburn had a criticism that its full potential was not realized.

This is where I have to disagree. 

Yes, I have to disagree. 

We have had over 10 years of great storytelling and bad storytelling at our expense thanks to Marvel, DC, various TV shows throughout the last decade. We know exactly what we want in these types of films. So when we get a what-if concept there are only a few ways we can go with it.

Our expectations are seeing a complex take on the tale of Superman becoming evil and the reality is we see a kid who is being manipulated by a ship speaking an evil language. We don’t really see where the kid is coming from except for getting upset that he is different and was lied to for 12 years.

The reality is this is probably the best way to convey a what-if piece. Keep it Simple. Keep it just as grounded as it is right now. My biggest gripe is how everyone talks to one another. How the situations play out are almost perfect to convey such an excellent concept. 

So sticking up for this film in this regard, it did exactly what it was setting out to do. Become a concept piece that would show the makings of a villain that was based on one of the most powerful superheroes we will ever know. In fictional terms of course.

The fact that it didn’t go in any direction we were really hoping it to is not a bad thing though. Sure maybe we could have seen the makings of a villain rise up and maybe the parents are in on it. Maybe the mother takes Brandon under her wing and teaches him to channel his evil tendencies towards people that deserve it much like dexter. Instead, Patricide and Matricide are inflicted, Uncles and Aunts are killed, and next-door neighbors are terrified in cliche fashion before they are horribly killed.

What really doesn’t make this film work for me is not really buying into the fact that this kid who seems well to do, not a single psychopathic bone in his body is suddenly turned when the spaceship he crashed landed in, activates.

The film does not do a good job giving us anything that could give us a clue into Brandon’s head. Is he being controlled? Is he acting out of rage? Well, the answer to that is yes and yes. But when? When are those moments? Because one scene he is going back to the girl (the one whos wrist was broken) and tells her that she is the ONLY person who knows how special he is.

One scene before it or after it I can’t remember which...shows him going into a rage as soon as he figures out what the alien message is saying to him. So he either had a small influence then took what he could and left the rest. Or he gets small doses of this throughout the time he first encountered it. Its really unclear.

One big thing is how people write off each weird happenstance throughout the story of the film. The father, Kyle believes Brandon got in and killed some chickens late at night. The best excuse Tori has is that a wolf opened up a locked door and killed some chickens. 

I mean, the reasonings of what to talk about and what not to talk about is out of this world.

The parents find Brandon's secret stash of naked women that soon turn more grizzly where there are pictures of surgical diagrams and graphic photos of organs. Tori exclaims, “Maybe we should have the talk”

In the next scene, they go on a camping trip and the father and son have an awkward conversation about this. But the only thing mentioned was sexual urges and nothing more. DUDE, you found diagrams and organs! That is much more specific than showing off a desirable swimsuit model! TALK ABOUT THAT! This stuff gets pretty redundant after a while. You get it. Dialogue doesn’t work, the scenes and situations mentioned don’t add up when they need to talk about more important things, the relationship between the mother and father work but not with the kid, sadly. 

I feel this movie did deliver upon its potential I just feel it could have been written better. I could care less that it was a cliche horror murder movie. Give me something basic and grow from there. You could have had the characters a lot smarter, capable, flesh out the scenes better and you would have had one solid film on your hands. 

Perhaps I don’t have anything better to say than anyone else but this movie came close to frustrating me on how it presented itself.

The ending sparked more curiosity and obvious means to a sequel that I feel should have been introduced in the middle of the film. But, hey, that's just my expectations talking. 

I know there are some out there that love the film. One who can justify actions and means of what really could have been going down. But I am a very literal person so if it ain't shown to me I am not going to assume so much happened in-between scenes. I am not a psychic so I don’t know what one is thinking and if you keep a kid quiet I won’t know where he is coming from. 

That is exactly what this film did. It alienated me. Me no likey.

**/***** (2 out of 5)

[chaniters]

Crisis Control

The second part of the new series with @kruk-art‘s Awan!

 Anathema visits Awan! 

Spoilers ahead!

______________________________

The tweezers slide off your hand at the last moment, and you can smell the burnt electronics as the device dies once more.

“Shit!” you say slamming your fist against the wall.

It’s your third attempt, and it ended up just like the first two. The scrambler you’re working on should throw Void’s targeting systems off if you ever get it to work. That could give you an edge, you’re tired of his perfect aim...

“Mrreeewww” Pidgeon says rubbing against you.

You pet him absently, instantly feeling a bit calmer… the simplicity of his mind is soothing. It’s very complex work, and you’re not a specialist, but you’ll get it working, doesn’t matter if it takes one or twenty attempts.

You can do this…

“Hungry Pidgeon? Let’s get you some food… and then we’re going to work the hell out of this thing”

After attempt number seven, it finally works, and you fall on the bed exhausted, Pidgeon climbing over your arm and falling asleep, with you soon following. 

_______several hours later__________

“Let me out! I don’t like this!” You yell desperately.

“Don’t be so dramatic!” Nathaniel says, his arms crossed, from the other side of the glass on your chamber

“But it stings!” you say looking at the industrial shower nozzles above you. “Water pressure is insane on that thing and the chemicals...” 

“It’s just a regular procedure! Your skin is still adjusting to being out of your pod!” 

“You haven’t ever done this before! You don’t know how it is!” You’ve done this dozen of times now...

He sighs.

“You’re just being one big child. You’ll get used to it!” 

“I’d want to see you get used to it!!” you challenge him

“Oh, you would like that, you little runt? Well, I’m going to show you!” he says starting to take his clothes off.

“Nat, I’m not sure you should do that...” the operator starts...

“Shut it, Jeff. I’m going to show my doll how much of a whiner he is!”

“Alright... Suit yourself. You show him who’s boss” Jeff smiles. 

“I know you’re the boss Nath, I just want to get out! This isn’t... Aaaahhh!!” you yell as the pressurized water starts running down, piercing you like daggers. The chemicals get into your eyes and it burns like fire. This is hell...

“Oh come on! It’s not that bad!” he says standing in his underwear in front of you. 

“Let me show you,” he says entering the adjacent chamber. “Hit me, Jeff!”

“Alright!”  

“You’re always complaining about everything!. This is just a bit of water and... Ghaaa!!!” he screams as water starts running on his own chamber too, the excessive pressure pushing him to the floor.

Jeff just giggles as you bot keep banging on against the glass doors. There’s no release to be had until the cycle’s complete.

 ________________________________ 

Banging on the door…

You cover yourself with the sheets

“Hello?” someone asks.

“Wha…” you asks opening your eyes and coming out of the dream.

“Anyone home?” the familiar voice says.

You know who he is even before your powers pick up the mind behind the door.

Anathema.

“I’m coming!”

“Pidgeon… sorry, time to move” you say putting the cat down. “Why is he here?” you wonder getting some pants on and walking to the door.

“Awan are you in here?” more banging

“IM COMING!” you say as you hurry for the door.

Open it up, just a bit, with the chain latch on. It could still be some kind of trap… you never know.

“Hey!” he says looking at you through the small opening. “Came to check on you.”

Friendly smile, check. Plausible reasons for showing up unannounced, check. 

Genuine concern, check. Darn. He’s already scored 3 points ahead of you.

“Hi,” you say almost reluctantly. “I’m fine”

“Ortega told me you got shot.”

“Yes, but I got better”

“Uhu,” he nods. He’s clearly not buying it.

“Yeah. It was nothing really”

“He told me it was two shots to the chest”

“He’s being dramatic”

“And then you ran away having some sort of breakdown”

“He’s exaggerating. It was late so I came home.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that”

“Good”

“I mean you’d tell me if things weren’t ok, right?”

“Obviously” you lie.

“But nothing’s wrong”

“Nope”

“Perfect. So can I come in?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m your friend?”

“We can be friends from here”

“I did invite you to my place… and I paid for your dessert last time… and it was a big one”

“You did…” It was one big expensive ice-cream, you have to admit.

“So you owe me”

“ … “

“Open the door Awan”

“Uh… Do I have to?”

“Yes, unless you want to have a puddle of acid instead of a door.”

“But I told you I'm fine!”

“Yeaaah… that’s bullshit. Open up already, let me see what we’re dealing with”

You freeze for a few seconds, pondering over your options. You could still escape through the window… Or just block the door with furniture…

“Fine. You can come in” you concede in the end.

“Thanks!” he says with a bright smile as you close it, remove the chain and let him in.

He takes a few steps inside, smiling at you.

“I didn’t know you were coming! Didn’t have time to tidy up!” you say quickly, moving to the side to let him in.

“Oh it can’t be that bad” he keeps walking forward…

Until he freezes, his eyes going all over the current state of your apartment. The broken boards… The cracked paint. The disassembled electronics laying around all over the place. The cat, eating from your unfinished meal over the table. The mess that is your bed. Your clothes, laying around everywhere. The broken chair laying in pieces on a corner…

“... And you had the guts to tell me you were fine…” he says taking a deep breath.

Why the hell did you open that door…?

------A few hours later-----------

You’re exhausted… Anathema became a pure force of nature, and you had no choice but to join him in cleaning the whole place. Throwing the trash, ordering your stuff, folding your clothes, doing laundry…

You’ve got to admit it’s looking pretty decent now. Almost like a real home. Even Pidgeon approves, now that he has his own place on a cushion and most of the obstacles and trash have been removed.

“Isn’t this better?” he asks.

“Yes,” you answer embarrassed. It’s obviously so much better.

“You’ve got to take care of yourself man”

“I know”

“How’s the chest wounds?” he asks, still concerned

“THose are fine!” you say quickly. “Not going to a hospital”

“Fine.. fine… “ he says a bit startled “I don’t get it what’s with you and hospitals”

“I don’t trust them”

“Alright, I won’t insist,” he says letting it go. “I’m just worried about you”

“I know… and.. “ 

“Hmm?” he looks at you a bit puzzled.

“Thank you,” you say, swallowing hard. “Thank you for coming here I mean…”   Thank you for caring, is what you actually want to say.

“Hey it’s ok!” he grins “I’m here for you, I told you.” he looks at the bags of trash ready for the recycling bins “How did it get so bad?”

Now that’s a good question.

“I don’t know… I guess I’ve been alone too long? At some point… it stopped mattering”

“Well, things like this do matter… Or at least they should. It’s your house after all. You live here”

“That’s true…” you admit. You hadn’t really thought about it… This was just your hideout. A base. A place to sleep in while you plan your next move. Somewhere you could keep Pidgeon safe. Not a home. Not a place to live in…

“There’s life beyond all that,” he says pointing at your large clue board” he smiles. “Don’t let it consume you.

“I’ll try not to,” you say returning the smile.

“I know all about this…” he says “...I mean I had some severe depressions too”

“I’m not depressed…” you say, doubts invading your mind the moment you say it. Are you?

“You say that but... letting go of yourself like this, It's a clear sign, you know?”

You sigh. There might be more truth to this than you can admit to yourself…

“Does it get better?” you ask, immediately feeling embarrassed. Why are you admitting this…? Why let him know how you …

“Yeah” he answers putting a hand over your shoulder. “It does get better. Trust me, it does”

You chat for a few more hours after that. 

Time seems to go fast.

Talking to him comes naturally, and makes you think about stuff you hadn’t ever considered. Your projects for the future. Your thoughts on the city. Gossiping about the other rangers. Hearing his experiences with his transition...

Something slowly begins to crack in your armor. He’s doing with Void’s bullets could not. 

_____________________

My Fanfics: https://chaniters.tumblr.com/post/181692759294/my-fanfiction-for-fallen-hero

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and the setting of the Fallen Hero: Rebirth and upcoming Fallen Hero: Retribution games written by Malin Riden. I do not claim ownership of any characters from the Fallen Hero wold. These stories are a work of my imagination, and I do not ascribe them to the official story canon. These works are intended for entertainment outside the official storyline owned by the author. I am not profiting financially from the creation of these stories, and thank the author for her wonderful game/s, without which these works would not exist.

[lemonietrinket]

Always Find Me, Yeah? ||| Stray Kids, Soft Apocalypse AU ||| Chapter Two

Summary: The anniversary of The Change, a surge in natural disasters caused by climate change that knocked the modern world back into the dark ages, is nearing. After losing contact with the rest of the group who remained stranded on the mainland, Chan and Felix are offered an opportunity to get them back. Now, they’ve just got to find them.

Genres: Dystopia/Utopia, Adventure, slight Angst (moreso at the beginning), Fluff I guess

Warnings: It is an apocalypse scenario, things might be a little bleak for some? Also it’s stupidly self-indulgent

Word Count: 2.4K

Other Chapters:   Chapter One Chapter Two

AN: This is not only my first fanfic on Tumblr, but also my first fanfic in years, so I may be a lil’ rusty. My apologies if it’s trash. I don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s also a multiparter, and I feel like it’s going to be super long so, oops. Thanks for reading!

The rain pattered against the window, running in small threads down into the gutters lining the road. The rumbling of the wind resembled thunder and drummed its irregular beat through the studio, lit only by a single sliver of glass. The beam of the morning light illuminated the monitor screen alone, the rest of the desk wedged in darkness, leaving a blade of reflected glare to cut at his eyes. Chan was perched on the edge of his chair. He’d wheeled it away from the table and into the dead centre of the room, directly below the shattered crown of the broken lightbulb. If he looked down he would be able to see where one of the shards had scraped at the varnish of the wood, but he didn’t. His focus was ensnared by his desktop, with his software and microphone sat dusty and neglected. The plugs remained switched on at the walls, on the off-chance that they would miraculously carry a current once again. But he knew it wasn’t going to happen. 

He cursed in his head. Why had he relied so closely on technology? If he hadn’t he wouldn’t have lost everything. But he had. He could hear the songs so strongly inside his skull but they were gone now, stored within the clasps of a cloud that had risen out of reach. He had his acoustic guitar of course, and it sat in the corner behind him, but no one had asked him to play and so that had been neglected too. It wasn’t the same either. His style had been permeated with electronic melodies and beats that no instrument could replicate. Instruments were embroidered within the songs but he’d always used technology to embellish them, make them his own. They could be reperformed acoustically, but acoustic covers were considered bonuses to the originals. Even if he wrote out every single musical part from memory onto paper, the songs would never be the same. His entire discography was lost.

Mixtape #2 was perhaps the only one that could still be performed.  

He caught his hand stretch towards the guitar while his feet shifted to push the chair back so he could reach. He halted himself just as his fingertips brushed the fretboard. He pulled away, just clipping one of the strings so that it made a withered, offkey hum.

Part of him wanted to pick it up, wipe off the dust, and nurse it back into tune. That part of him wanted to take the guitar with him, but the rational brain silenced the whim immediately. There was no space for a whole guitar, and his rucksack was heavy enough without another weight to haul around. However, the longer he stared at it, the worse the longing became. So he swiftly strode out of the room, closing the door behind him, keeping his eyes to the tiles.

He bundled down the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet, though before he could fetch Felix, he had to check in elsewhere first. He turned the corner into the dining room, where he found Lucas sat up the table, scrawling tinily with a nearly blunt pencil.

“What have you got there, bud?” Chan asked, drawing up a chair.

“Song lyrics,” Lucas replied, eyes still very much focused on the paper. 

“Ooh! Can I see them?” he leant over the table playfully, as his brother quickly pulled the sheet away, shooting him an eye smile.

“No, you can’t see them! Not yet.”

Chan pouted. “Please…!”

“No!”

When he heard him laugh, he finally felt a little more at ease. “Oh alright, but promise me you’ll let me read them when I get back?”

Lucas shook his head even more strongly this time, “Nope!”

“But why not?” Chan cried, folding his arms. 

“Because I’ll sing them, so you won’t have to read it.” He returned to writing, the words packed together as tightly as he could. In fact, Chan wasn’t sure he would have been able to read it if he’d been allowed to try. 

“Well, that’s a fair answer. I look forward to it! Though,” he leant his chin on his palm, “why are you writing so small?”

“To save paper. Mum said there wasn’t much left.”

“Ahh, that is true, there isn’t much plain paper left” he nodded, before whispering, “but there is some proper sheet music paper in my studio if you ever want to use it.”

The boy’s head shot up, “Really?! I can go in your studio?!”

“Of course! But, you could always go in my studio…?” he replied confusedly.

“No, Dad said I couldn’t,” Lucas sulked, “he says the stuff in there is expensive, and if I broke it I would be in humongous trouble, so he said that it’s probably better I didn’t.”

Chan rose from his chair. “Well, I say that the stuff in there is expensive, but doesn’t work anymore so there are no worries about them being broken. And since you’ve got more of a muse going than me,” he gestured to the sheet of paper, “then I say the studio is better in your hands than mine. The acoustics there are great, you know?”

“Are you leaving now?” Lucas questioned, suddenly very urgently.

“Well, I gotta pick up Felix first, otherwise he’ll get lost, and we don’t want tha- oof!”

The boy launched himself onto Chan, wrapping his arms around his waist that he could barely breathe. “Please don’t be long,” he mumbled into his sweater, “I don’t want to forget how the song goes.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” Chan hugged him back, peering down at his younger brother who was most certainly growing much faster than he expected. “And at this rate, maybe we’ll have someone in the house that can reach the top shelf!”

Lucas giggled, gazing up at him with shining eyes. “I will grow taller than you!”

“Of course you will, bud,” he ruffled his hair, and as much as it pained him, he shifted his weight backwards, so that Lucas knew it was time to pull away. As soon as he caught a glance of a tear tracing down his cheek he knelt down and wiped it away. “Hey, hey, it’s not like I’m going forever!”

“I know,” he wavered, “it’s just, you’ve only just come back and now you’re going again. I asked Mum what the land is like, and she said she didn’t know. I asked Dad what the land was like and he didn’t know either! There could be pirates or zombies or something!”

Chan chuckled, hushing him gently. “I am sure that there’s no pirates or zombies - or zombie-pirates!” he added before Lucas could. “I’ve just got to go check on my friends to make sure they’re ok, and bring them home where it’s safe.”

Lucas thought for a moment. “So it’s not safe there?”

“I… yes, no, uh…” Kids, he thought, smarter than you think.  He cleared his throat. “We don’t know, yeah? The news reports suggest that it’s a little bit messier over there than it is here, because they got hit by the earthquakes and tsunamis and stuff.”

“Plate tectonics?” Lucas interrupted proudly.

“Yes! Them! They made it a bit worse for the mainland, but it’s probably calmer now like it is here. So it’s not unsafe, it’s just, probably, better here, yeah?” Lucas nodded, rubbing at his eyes. “Ok. Right,” he exhaled sharply, “don’t cause too much trouble for Mum and Dad and Hannah yeah? And if the patrol is actually there, then I won’t be able to see Mum and Hannah again, so tell them I love them one more time for me please?”

Lucas scrunched his nose. “But you said it, like a hundred times yesterday!”

“Yes well, a hundred-and-one times isn’t going to hurt then, is it!” he ruffled his hair as he got to his feet once again. “Love you, bud.”

“Love you too Chris,” he echoed, but much quieter.

Chan stepped round the table, tucking his chair in as he went, before slotting himself halfway out of the back door. He was greeted by the sight of his father trying to get an old bit of machinery working. He had no idea what it was, but he knew better than to ask. It was sputtering way too much smoke for Chan to feel that it was safe as well, but he decided that it wasn’t the best time to question that either.

“I’m off, Dad.”

He squinted upwards, leaning back and stretching. “Are you? Ok. Be safe.”

Chan swallowed, feeling the familiar face of guilt raise its head in his gut. “I’m sorry I’m going and that it’s so soon.”

“No no, it’s alright.” Chan wasn’t sure if he was mad or not, as his tone was so neutral. Then he sent him a grim-set smile. “You need to go find them. That’s only natural. So go.”

He wanted to say a lot of things, show his gratitude, but couldn’t seem to find the words. They were all jumbled up in his head, like pieces of a jigsaw, but they all came from three different boxes. “Love you, Dad.”

There was a moment that flickered, where he thought his father wasn’t going to reply. But then, “You too, son. Now hurry up, that kid is still waiting for you, and knowing him, is going to start panicking soon.”

“Right, yes. See you later!”

Removing himself from the situation so he didn’t change his mind, Chan quickly headed back inside, ruffling Lucas’s hair as he passed, and headed out of the front door into the rain.

.

.

Felix unfurled his palm into the rain, feeling the heavy droplets nestle in his skin and morph from icy to lukewarm. He was taking shelter under the makeshift canopy of the old bandstand just behind the community garden. Some plastic chairs had been donated and placed haphazardly around the hexagon, and he’d already rearranged them into a neat circle.

In fact, he’d finished all the work he could do. It wasn’t a particularly warm day, the rain was doing a lot of the work for the gardeners, and many things had already been planted that needed to be. Over the past couple of days, he’d been given the job of sharpening and cleaning the various tools for the coming months, but they were now all in top condition and back in their places in the shed. He had nothing more to do. Julie and Peter were back to arguing again, on what to do about the outbreak of gall wasps festering inside the young lemon tree. He tried to blot them out as best he could, but the rain had calmed by the time he reached the stand, thus there was little noise. 

He hoped that Chan would hurry up, but he also knew to say goodbye to his family wasn’t easy. It had taken him a little while too. But the patrol would arrive soon, and they were nowhere near the community hall in the first place. The downpour could harshen again and then they’d have that to deal with too.

Soon, he heard footsteps coming up the path behind him, and to his luck it was Chan, though he didn’t seem in a good state.

He greeted him gently, heading over to him to save him the journey. “Shall we go then?”

Chan nodded, a darkened hue to his eyes. Felix couldn’t help but let his face fall, but he managed to work up a smile as they hastily exited the gardens and headed into the streets.

“Do you know where they’re going to be?”

Chan affirmed with a nod. “Yeah, don’t worry.”

“Good, because I can’t remember!”

He sent him a side-eye glance, a knowing grin glimmering across his lips.

It was a lie of course. Felix had his... moments... but his memory wasn’t bad. He could remember the street name with ease. It’s just he wasn’t confident that would be where his feet would take him. 

“Packed everything?” he asked.

“Yes!” Felix strongly nodded, his hands slipping under the straps of his rucksack.

Chan cleared his throat, staring determinedly ahead. “Toothbrush?”

“Yes.”

“Pillow?”

“Definitely.”

“Food?”

“Of course!”

“Form of identification?”

“Almost but I left it on the side to make sure I picked it up this time-”

“Blanket?”

Felix’s mouth was left open. “Uh...”

“Don’t worry,” he jutted his thumb back at his own bag, “I brought extra.”

“Thank youuu!”

“Knew it would happen,” he muttered, shaking his head. The air remained playful though.

They turned the corner, and at the bottom of the road, where the crackled tarmac tapered off, was a military truck. It was as nearly as wide as the street itself, with wheels built to stand mudflats or snow or both at once - or at least, Felix imagined that that’s what they were for. He was worried about it being anything else. 

He subconsciously slipped further behind Chan’s footsteps, letting him talk to the soldier that immediately stepped up to them when they reached the perimeter.

“Can we help you, kids?”

Chan ignored the final part. “We’re, uh, here for the trip to the mainland?”

The soldier, who, if Chan lifted him onto his shoulders, would still be taller than them, nodded, holding out his hand behind him. Another soldier ran over, giving him an official-looking document, which he began to leaf through.

“We registered before we came, with the officer that came round yesterday? His name was Choi? I think?” Chan winced at the lack of emotion on the man’s face. “Sir, they may not be our family, officially, but they’re, like a family to us and we have to find-”

“Surnames Bang and Lee?”

“Yes,” Felix piped up.

“Yup, just sign here and then you can throw your luggage onto the back of the truck and go through to the tent over there for supplies, or say some last-minute goodbyes. Though, if you do then I advise you don’t go far, as we’ll be leaving dead on the hour. All clear?”

“Yes, thank you,” he sent him a polite grin, handing the pen across to Felix, before ambling towards the vehicle. 

Felix began to scribble as neatly as he could, before catching the man’s eye. “Can I ask a question, please?”

“Of course.”

“Where are we...” he analysed his face, with a straight nose and angular jawline, but felt nothing, “...headed on the truck?”

“Ah,” the man turned to the side, pointing to the horizon. “Down to the takeoff site, over there.”

Satisfied, he handed back the pen. “Ok, thank you, have a nice day!” And with that, he shuffled after Chan, sending a gleaming smile over his shoulder.

~~~

Well, I don’t like this part much. It will get better I promise! In the later parts

[omg-laylakingmattress-thing-blog]

Layla Mattress Review (2019) – The Perfect Two-Sided Mattress

layla quenn mattress In order to genuinely get  the perfect fit for you, buying another sheet material should be fairly more required than scrambling toward a dozing cushion retailer and setting down on a lot of dozing pads. There are a great deal of fascinating focuses; your resting temperature, how fragile or firm you like your dozing cushion, what the certification looks like, paying little mind to whether the brand offers a period for testing. Regardless, one of the best interesting points when you're obtaining another sheet material is the circumstance wherein you rest; on your back, side, or stomach.

 If you lay best on your side, consider yourself to be blessed. Back sleepers every now and again have wheezing and rest apnea issues and stomach sleepers would involvement be able to back and neck torment from setting down with a turned head for the duration of the night. In any case, side sleepers are at an extended risk of back torment in light of the way that, by resting on your side, you're making more edges that are left unsupported. If you have a tendency that your head, shoulders, and hips are bearing the most noticeably awful piece of your weight while you rest, it's the perfect open door for another dozing pad.

 Side sleepers who need another sheet material, read on – we've amassed a summary of most likely the best resting cushions for side sleepers out there to keep you torment free and napping effectively.

 Side sleepers on a spending breaking point don't have to oversee back anguish; the incredible individuals at Tuft and Needle have your back (decently really)! Delivered utilizing amazing adaptable foam, this dozing cushion offers reciprocals part sensitivity and backing. So also as basic, it gives extraordinary weight help. Furthermore, the foam is made with graphite and cooling gel touches, promising you won't wake up sweating in the midst of the night. Have a significant other? You'll both welcome the limited skip, as you won't feel even the most on edge accessory flinging and turning. Clearly, you don't have to confide in us, Tuft and Needle offers a 100-night fundamental close by a 10-year obliged ensure.

 You're not imagining. Nectar gives full scale comfort an incredibly reasonable sticker cost. The resting cushion itself joins both standard and gel adaptable froth, perfectly molding to your body without hanging. Without a doubt, Nectar finds the sweet spot among robustness and sensitive quality, so the side sleeper who supports a firmer sheet material will love this one. It's also made with a Tencel cooling spread, expected to wick away warmth and stream air as you rest. Likewise, Nectar offers customers a 180-day chance free rest starter. On the off chance that you're sorrowful you can reestablish the dozing pad, no shrouded commitments. Furthermore, as if that wasn't adequate, the association moreover keeps up an unfathomable length of time ensure.

 Acquiring a Layla dozing cushion looks like having two sheets in one. Why? Regardless, it incorporates a novel, flippable arrangement; one side is medium sensitive and the other is firm. In the event that you're feeling a press in your back one morning, essentially flip it before bed later on for an other rest association. Perhaps more fundamentally, Layla uses copper-infused adaptable froth. The copper itself helps accessible for use and the general foam gives the cushioning expected to suitable spinal game plan and weight easing. Your back will feel much improved and you'll rest longer. Also, the dozing cushion limits development move; you won't feel your assistant moving or your pooch bobbing up close to the start of the day. To complete it off, Layla licenses a 120-night rest starter. In the event that you're pained, they'll get your bedding, offer it to an area charity, and give you a full markdown.

 — Our editors review and endorse things to empower you to buy the stuff you need. In case you make a purchase by clicking one of our associations, we may secure somewhat offer of the salary. In any case, our picks and emotions are independent from USA Today's newsroom and any business propelling powers.

 There is constantly a conventional arrangement happening some spot, yet in case your finger isn't on the beat of the online retail space (or in case you quit perusing your trash messages a very long time earlier) you may miss your chance to shop your favored stores for splash limits. Luckily for you, Reviewed has a gathering of electronic shopping and game plan pursuing experts who experience our days scouring the web for as far as possible and offers from top stores like Amazon, Wayfair, Nordstrom, and that is only the start.

 On the key day of the week, we've quite recently got stores of unfathomable offers we have to guarantee are on your radar if you're in the market for anything these retailers are selling. Besides, we'll be including more as we find them all through the whole week, so make a point to bookmark this page and return every day to see what's going on!

 Center in the occasion that you've anytime expected to guarantee and use All-Clad cookware yet can't legitimize the generally high sticker value that goes with the name (hi, you gotta pay for quality a portion of the time). Starting today and through to June 14, All-Clad is holding one of their observed VIP Factory Seconds bargains. in a general sense, what happens is some cookware, and consistently basically the cases they come in, gets hurt in some minor way, making it unsellable on a store rack. So All-Clad breaking points everything all around significantly to get out their stock, and it's a surprising strategy to score their stuff at insane expenses. The sorts of damage you may see are the equivalent than what happens in conventional use, so you won't see a qualification following a large portion of a month.

 — Our editors review and recommend things to empower you to buy the stuff you need. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our associations, we may acquire somewhat offer of the salary. In any case, our picks and evaluations are self-governing from USA Today's newsroom and any business sparks.

 There is constantly a tolerable arrangement happening some spot, anyway in case your finger isn't on the beat of the online retail space (or in case you quit perusing your trash messages a very long time earlier) you may miss your chance to shop your favored stores for drench limits. Luckily for you, Reviewed has a gathering of online shopping and course of action pursuing experts who experience our days scouring the web for as far as possible and offers from top stores like Amazon, Wayfair, Nordstrom, to say the very least.

 If you need to scrutinize furniture regions in mission for that one perfect piece that matches your present complex topic yet moreover exemplifies your real style, you should channel through a great deal of superb decisions that are in like manner on exceptional. Right now, Allmodern, one of Wayfair's sister goals, is running a June Closeout Sale where you can get crazy points of confinement on everything from floor covers and lighting to bed housings, relax seats, and rockers. Furthermore, when you use the code "SHADESON" to get an extra 15% over as far as possible.

 Sateen: The yarn in one bearing floats in excess of a couple of yarns the other way, giving this kind of weave a smoother feel than a fundamental, system like percale. Our analyzers will as a rule lean toward sateen for its sensitive quality.

 Fleece: The outside of fleece surface is brushed so it traps in air to keep you warm, anyway that system moreover makes it feel sensitive and agreeable.

 Microfiber: These sheets are made of too pitiful polyester strands and give a rich smooth feel. They won't feel as ordinary as cotton sheets, anyway they're normally considerably less expensive.

[pixiesstolemyapples]

Stormy Nights Chapter 4

A/N: Here is the newest chapter! This has been fairly easy for me to write lately, maybe because of how much I’m really loving Voltron! But I sure hope you all enjoy this chapter, I had a really fun time writing it! If you’d also like to read this chapter on my FanFiction or my AO3, please click on those links!

Chapter 1/Chapter 2/Chapter 3/Chapter 4

               Pidge stirred, feeling slightly stiff but contentedly calm as she opened her eyes. Why... am I sitting up..? she wondered to herself. Did I fall asleep like this? She yawned, rubbing her eye, suddenly realizing someone was leaning against her. The more she woke up, the more she became aware of her surroundings and remembering where she was in the first place. She remembered not being able to get to sleep, wanting to play a game until she got tired and watched Lance play some Killbot Phantasm until she eventually fell asleep.

               Lance and her were leaning up against the side of his bed, Lance's head resting against the mattress and Pidge's head at the same time. At least in that sense they were fairly comfortable. Pidge's arm lightly wrapped around Lance's limp forearm, taking a deep breath and exhaling shakily as she realized how incredibly close they currently were. It wasn't like she was uncomfortable, in fact she was the exact opposite. She felt incredibly at ease being this close to Lance. After all, she was able to fall asleep barely fifteen minutes after she cuddled up to him when she couldn't fall asleep before. And he was sound asleep too. Wasn't he playing the game late last night because he couldn't fall asleep as well?

               Pidge went to push her glasses up on her face when she realized they weren't there. Her freckled cheeks dusted pink. He must have taken them off when I fell asleep. She giggled, a warm feeling embracing her chest and a fluttering in her stomach. Not that she needed them to see, but it was a nice gesture all the same.

               She glanced over at Lance, not being able to see his face unless she moved, not wanting to wake him from his sleep. She could hear his steady breath, the feeling of his shoulder rising up and then down making her feel even more at ease, a small smile appearing on her face.

               She then realized that she could still hear the soft soundtrack of Killbot Phantasm and noticed the controller laying in Lance's limp hand. Chuckling, Pidge grabbed the controller from his hand, careful not to wake him up. It looked like he had finally gotten past Freya's mansion, happy that her advice had obviously helped him. He was back in the town nearest to the mansion with the Ruby Brooch of Freya Von Trennis in his party's possession, ready to return it to her great, great granddaughter in order to get the next piece to the Millennium Map. He'd done pretty well, then, hopefully using some of her advice when he was fighting the boss. She looked down at Lance's hand, her hand almost touching his. Pidge didn't want this reverie of hers to end so quickly, of her being so close to Lance. Every time he'd slept next to her she'd woken up alone. This was the first time he was still there when she woke up. She just wanted him to stay there a bit longer.

               She saved Lance's game, carefully using her toes to restart the system to get onto her own file of Killbot Phantasm. She was at least three areas ahead of where Lance was in the game, but she was sure he wouldn't mind if she played in front of him. Plus, he wasn't even awake, so there were no spoilers to be had there. She just.. didn't want to end their closeness yet. She couldn't exactly place why she felt so anxious to not wake him up, why she still wanted to feel the warmth from him, the feeling of him weighing slightly on her. Everything was just so incredibly pleasant feeling. She didn't want the tightness in her chest, the twinges and butterflies in her stomach to stop.

               She exhaled, beginning to focus a little more on where she was in the game. She relaxed a bit more against Lance's body, squeezing his bicep in her elbow a little as she pushed the buttons on her controller. She was already halfway through the Rotale Woodland, the once gentle and quiet wood now cursed to be a rotten, putrid swamp full of poisonous enemies that was now known as the Fetid Forest. Poison levels weren't exactly her forte, she liked more haunted areas and water levels in video games, but she knew enough to get by. Didn't mean she liked poison levels. The main thing she needed in poison levels or when fighting against poison enemies was high resistance, which was hard to come by in this game. She could always grind for exp, but the most she gets at level up is +1, maybe +2 res at a time, and at this late in the game it took a long time to get to the next level. Plus seeds of resistance only worked on one character per seed given and weren't easy to find in the first place.

               Pidge's only options to get through this forest without dying were using armor and weapons that up resistance at the cost of attack and maybe defense, but lowered defense was better than a high chance of getting poisoned. Antidotes were expensive, rare to find in chests and took a lot of items to synthesize that she could be using for more useful alchemy. And poison meant negative HP for each character afflicted each turn, which means she's having to use more potions or healing magic instead of attacking. Making it to the middle of the level oughta help her, which is when her magician is finally able to learn to Recover, a spell that heals poison, paralysis and confusion, right before she fights the mini-boss. But getting to that point can be a bit tricky nonetheless. Nothing Pidge couldn't handle, though.

               She already made sure to give most of her seeds of resistance to her magician, who even though has high magic defense, unfortunately has pretty low resistance, and equipping her hero the metal boomerang, which had a bit lower attack power but was able to hit a full line of enemies at once, helped take out Bittersnakes and Water Hags.

               "You're pretty good at this game," a voice suddenly said. Pidge yelped, moving away and dropping the controller. Lance smirked, a glint in his dark blue eyes.

               Pidge, desperately trying to calm her racing heart, asked him, "How-How long have you been awake?"

               Lance shrugged. "Maybe about ten minutes?" God, that long? Just sitting there, saying nothing with me pressed up against him? Pidge blushed, not exactly sure what to say. Lance side smiled, glancing at her up and down for a moment. "Why didn't you just wake me up?"

               "Um.." Pidge stammered for a moment. She couldn't just tell him it was because she liked cuddling with him, that would be nuts. "Y-You said you couldn't get to sleep before, so I just didn't want to wake you up."

               Lance shrugged and smiled, choosing not to think much into it, much to Pidge's relief. She picked the controller back up and relaxed against his mattress again. "I guess I'll trek back and find a save point then."

               "Awww, why?" Lance fake pouted.

               "Well, I'm sure you don't want to see any spoilers, so.."

               "Come on, I don't mind, I like watching people play video games," Lance said, snaking his arm around her shoulder, draping his other arm over his knee and leaning himself on her, causing a hot blush to creep over Pidge's cheeks. "Maybe I can learn a thing or two from you. You did help me beat that dungeon last night."

               Pidge was happy she was able to help, smiling at the thought of Lance actually listening to her. She started playing the game again, pushing up on the directional pad to go further into the festering woods. It was fun to have him watching her play, him asking the occasional question, squeezing her closer to him whenever he laughed at a joke she made or when she easily defeated a low level enemy.

               She realized it was so nice just to hang out with him, just to talk with him. She'd been so preoccupied with trying to find her family that she hadn't had much time to really sit down and just hang out with him. There had been quite a few times they've talked one on one, but this was a rare time they could just sit and relax, to just talk and laugh, sit close... Pidge's heart skipped a beat when Lance lightly pushed his forehead against the side of her head for a moment as a laughed at a silly moment between the hero and the magician. Pidge exhaled as slowly and quietly as she could so Lance couldn't hear her anxiously try to still her wildly beating heart.

               It had been an incredibly long day; intense training, returning a distress signal from a nearby planet being attacked  by Galra forces, and for the fifth time in a row Keith showed up at the last minute to form Voltron and finally push back the rest of the remaining attackers. With Keith nowhere to be seen, the best Allura and Lance could do was hold off the Galra while Pidge and Hunk touched down on the planet to get the nearby inhabitants to a safer location. Everything ended up fine in the end, and Keith has been doing amazing work with the Blade of Marmora the last few months, but it was an incredibly close call there for a while. Needless to say, Shiro was less than impressed with Keith.

               With all of that and then a massive and grueling training session from Shiro, not to mention Pidge still finding time that night to try and fail to find more intel on her missing brother and father.

               All of that and Pidge still couldn't get to sleep. She could barely feel her arms and legs, her eyes felt heavy. She even took a warm shower to help tire her out more, but still nothing. She was just floating somewhere in between being awake and actually sleeping, which was worse than not being able to sleep. She sat up, an exasperated sigh escaping her throat. She stared around her dimly lit room, looking around at all the things strewn about the floor, clothes, electronics, trash paladins. Her eyes fell on her two blue and green space caterpillars sleeping soundly on one of her trash paladins. At least they can sleep, she thought to herself.

               She just didn't understand. It had been almost two weeks since Quaid and she had only gotten a handful of even slightly restful nights. She'd tried everything to make herself sleepy, training, warm milk, stretches before bed, even resorting to counting sheep. Still, nothing helped her.

               Pidge groaned and got up from her bed, slipping her glasses on. She paced around, and paced, and paced, and paced some more. Finally coming to the conclusion that she wasn't going to tire herself out by simply pacing about, Pidge opened her door and stepped out into the dimly lit hallway. Tiredly padding past her room, she scratched her head, lightly slapping her hand to her cheek as she wracked her brain at what to do. This was really starting to get irritating, two weeks of little sleep really was enough. Plus with all the missions, training, and analyzing countless sets of data to try to find her family should have been wearing her out to the point that she should fall asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow. How could she not find the outlying issue here?

               Pidge then heard a noise, turning her head and seeing Lance walk out of his room, rubbing the back of his neck and covering his mouth as he yawned. Suddenly realizing she was there, he said, "Oh, Pidge. I didn't see you there."

               She side smiled, sympathy in her eyes. "Hey, Lance. Are you alright? What are you still doing up?"

               He smiled in tandem. "I'm fine, Pidge, thanks. I appreciate the sympathy. It's nothing though, I just-"

               "Can't get to sleep," they both said in unison. Lance raised his eyebrows in surprise. Pidge cupped her hands together, leaning her back on the wall and looking down at her feet. Lance leaned his side against his doorframe, crossing his arms as he stared at her.

               "So...." Lance murmured, biting his bottom lip, craning his neck to try to look at her face. "Are you alright, Pidge?"

               She looked up at him, puffing her bangs away from her face, a small side smile appearing on her face. "I'm fine, just... haven't been able to sleep and I-"

               "Don't know why," they said in unison once again. Pidge furrowed her brows, looking back down again, putting her thumb to her lips, thinking. She looked back up at him, a tired albeit inquisitive look in her eyes.

               "When was the last time you were able to get to sleep, Lance?" Pidge asked quietly. Lance looked upwards, his mouth squishing to the side in thought.

               "Uh, I'm not really sure I guess," he quietly chuckled. "I fell asleep not long after I beat that mansion you helped me get through." Pidge raised her eyebrows in realization. "And, you know, I actually slept pretty peacefully when you were so scared of the thun-DER!" Lance oofed as Pidge suddenly pushed him off the doorframe, turning him around and maneuvering him into his room with both hands on his back.

               "Uh Pidge?" Lance said confused as he heard his door close. She pushed him onto his bed, landing on his back with a wild look on his quickly reddening face. "Pidge?!"

               "Shh," Pidge said, bumping his legs onto the bed with her knees.

               "Wha, but-"

               "Shut up," she shushed, crawling into the open spot next to him. "I want to try something."

               "T-Try what," Lance breathed. Pidge grabbed his shoulder, pulling him closer and pressing her face into his chest so he couldn't see the bright red blush powdering her freckled face. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest, her idea could prove meaningless if she couldn't get her heart to calm down. Although Lance's was also beating swiftly in tandem. Nonetheless, there was no going back, no relenting now. Let's see if this works.

               Lance set his hand heavy on her waist, fiddling with her soft sleep shirt, finding difficulty in searching for the right words to say in a situation where a girl pushes you onto a bed. He gently set his hand to her shoulder, pushing her away to look at her face. She looked down sheepishly, then tentatively looked up to him. The room was dimly lit by the floor lights, Pidge barely able to see his face, but his blue eyes were huge. She could smell his minty breath, she could feel his warm hand squeezing her shoulder. Suddenly he leaned forward, causing Pidge's heart to skip a beat. She squeezed her eyes shut, only to feel his hands on her face, slipping her glasses off her face. She ripped open her eyes as he leaned over her to set her glasses next to his bed.

               Her heart almost couldn't take it, not that she was entirely sure what she was expecting. She desperately tried to calm her labored breathing, hoping to god he wasn't hearing it. She squeezed herself to the bed, hiding her face in his chest once more. She felt his hand weighing back on her waist, curving around to her back, gently squeezing her sleep shirt between his fingers. For a moment Pidge thought that maybe this was a mistake, feeling her heart beating so fast may be making her feel too anxious to sleep.

               But he was so warm. And so close, with his arms tight around her. She felt so at ease and so content and so.... safe. She felt her eyes drifting shut, a floaty, wispy feeling falling over her as she finally fell into the warm and welcoming embrace of sleep.

[ayersschofield8-blog]

What You Should Know About Dealing With Your Automobile

Wondering how to proceed whenever your automobile fails is a kind of style for a lot of. Improvements could be quite expensive, and completely wrong techniques could cost you even a lot more. So, how would you like to manage the next repair? Can you instead not think about it? Rather, why don't you learn new things and then deal with everything appropriately the next time about. Be extremely careful when coming in contact with the electronic digital pieces on your automobile. You must not effect cables unless the whole method is turned off. You must take note of the alert labeling around the various areas of your vehicle holding some parts could be dangerous even when your vehicle is switched off. Be sure your auto professional is capable to work towards your particular vehicle. Motor autos are complex equipment with each brand name has exclusive characteristics. Some manufacturers demand specific instruments, parts, and procedures. A lot of standard car technicians both lack these materials or do not keep these things easily available. Without the need of these things, they can't fix your car. When using your car or truck to the mechanic's, you must not keep just before developing a complete diagnosing what has to be set. In case the mechanic refuses to look at the car immediately or fails to want to offer you a quote for the issues he clinically diagnosed, find someone different. If you want an important repair carried out, get many estimations. Though aspects are reliable on the whole, you might continue to find yourself spending in excess of you ought to. Find a go shopping that has a reputation for deal with your make of auto. These shops are in a better position to handle your automobile maintenance. Make sure that you clear your car during the cold months too. Although it might appear ineffective, the wintertime months could cause lots of problems. Road sea salt and sand cause rust and abrasion. Take care to free of moisture your car before driving a car it yet again. You wouldn't want ice-cubes to make. You are able to resolve tiny dings by using a suction cup ding puller. This usually works for tiny dings that can easily be covered with the suction power mug. When the mug fails to work, you should utilize some filler in the damage, fine sand and painting till it gets unseen. Listen for any peculiar disturbances that your particular car can be making. This can be popping sounds, knocks, squeals, or something in addition. They can be absolutely signs of some sort of issue that requires vehicle restoration. Have a log of whenever you pick up them, and be aware the kind of driving you had been carrying out when they occurred. click here can help the car retail outlet detect the situation appropriately. You can easily fix scuff marks oneself. You will need to complete the mark using a primer that corresponds to the colours of your respective car, utilize some fresh paint when the primer is dried up and yellow sand the complete location. Start with a great beach sand pieces of paper and increase the grain gradually before waxing. In case you have by no means accomplished any auto restoration all on your own, you need to keep with tiny careers and do a great deal of research to learn how to do larger careers. Be certain to not begin to take your vehicle aside should you aren't positive how you can put it together again. Prior to starting any car fix career, ensure you supply the required parts and tools in position so you know specifically what you need to because of full the job from start to finish. Generally ask for a thorough costs to the fixes carried out to your automobile. Go over the costs having a auto mechanic and request queries should you not comprehend the type of work that had been completed on the auto. Check with the time was invested in each and every product and make certain this results in everything you were charged for labor. If you take your car or truck to an auto repair shop to obtain one important thing fixed and so they inform you that other improvements are essential, thank them for that information and drop any additional services. Head to other locations and have quotes well before letting them do any more work with your vehicle. Watch out for signs by using a technician. There are many indications to find once you speak to them about your car. Once they consider talking truly quick concerning the necessary repairs, can't appear you in the vision when talking for you, or try and clean you away from, you must get yet another auto technician. They may be camouflaging one thing or they can only value the funds. There are a few shady mechanics on the market, and they can resort to severe lows to obtain your hard earned money. If a technician informs you that your particular axle boot is split, question to discover it. A real damage will be jagged and fatty. If it is a direct minimize, inform them you are aware of they do the harm and you will definitely talk to a attorney when they don't fix it totally free. Speak with the producer when you have a safety problem which could be lethal. This is usually a recall scenario but the manufacturer demands to be familiar with the matter for the recall to take place. The manufacturer may possibly repair the problem at no cost to you personally. Even though it is attractive to utilize less expensive upgraded components in your car, it is advisable to opt for Initial Devices Manufacturer (OEM) elements. They are parts designed by the maker of your respective auto. The suit is ideal. To get a equipment as expertly designed as a present day auto, this will expand the lifestyle of your own auto. Make your rate very low through the original 1,000 kilometers from the dealer. This is recognized as the split-in time and is a fragile time. Relax along with your vehicle through these very first 1,000-2,000 kilometers then feel free to tear it loosened. Naturally, this is only if you wish to maintain your vehicle in best-situation so long as probable. When you are looking at an auto maintenance commitment, be sure that it says endorsement should be given on paper prior to work can be accomplished. There are many mechanics that will consent to execute a career at the specific cost, however they are doing far more and let you know that the retail price has risen. Should you move up to a service station while their tankers are still there, take-out and are avalable back one more working day. The original day time although tankers continue to be filling up the tanks on the service station, the strain will mix the grime and trash towards the bottom from the below ground aquarium. Car difficulty might be infuriating. But, for those who have some basic understanding of car fix, there is no need to be concerned. Always keep this article helpful for periods when you need a simple hint.

[blogsteveclark12]

How You Can Save Money The Eco-friendly Way with Your Family

In this crazy times and economic challenges many of us are looking to saving money and living as frugal as possible.  So to keep living green and healthy and still save money, we have been making some small changes. Some ideas I listed below might seem so small that you’ll wonder how they can make a difference, but everything counts and adds up.

Leave the car at home and walk:

Bike or take public transportation when possible. Instead of using the car, save money by biking or walking to your destinations. We have baby seats and a trailer to bring the younger kids along, and our oldest rides her own bike. It’s great because kids love the bike ride, you save the environment and money, and you get exercise at the same time. If public transportation is not possible and you have to take the car, combine errands into a single trip, and take along others who are going to the same destination.

Brew. Don’t Buy: Skip the daily visit to the coffee shop:

I know that on some days you feel as if a strong cup of coffee is the only thing that will help you survive. It might not seem like a lot of money, but since one latte can cost about $5, just multiply that by 7 and see how much that is in one week. By making your own coffee at home and having a reusable coffee mug on the go, you will save around $100 per month. If you’re not ready to give up Starbucks, then choose regular coffee because that’s cheaper. And bring your own reusable cup since lots of coffee places will give a discount if you bring your own cup.

Unplug all electronics if not using them:

Anything plugged into an electrical outlet uses energy even when not in use, so make sure electronics are plugged in only when being used. Or invest in a smart strip that automatically turns off power when not in use.

Don’t eat out so much, and skip the booze if you do:

Invest in a used cookbook, start following some inspiring home chefs and become your own master chef. Trust me, you can make it fun having dinner parties with home cooked food  instead take-out from  a restaurant, which is so much more expensive and not really that good for the waistline. If you still want to treat yourself to a meal out, skip the alcohol since that makes it more expensive. 

Bake your own bread: 

It only requires flour, water, salt and yeast or baking powder to bake so quarantine time is a great time start baking.

Lower heat and water heater:

Here on Zerowastefamily.com, I have already posted an article about how to keep your home warm the green and cheap way, so check it out.

Use recycled items for kids crafts:

Save print paper, old cardboard boxes, old toilet paper rolls, newspaper and textiles to use for kids’ crafts. It’s amazing what you can do with all this stuff. We have made a Barbie house and clothes, bird feeders and pirate hats from lots of recycled stuff. Our kids will look at a box and ask, “So, what can we do with this?”

Use cloth diapers and wipes:

Cloth diapers and wipes might be expensive but they’re a one time purchase. It will reduce trash that stays in the landfill for 100 years and save you money in the long run because the cost of diapers and wipes for about 2 years per child is pricy.

Do free online and or workout outside:

The best thing I ever did was to skip my gym and paid for online classes and head outside for my workout. These days, I hike, bike, power walk or run for exercise; and it’s completely free.

Buy used clothes:

The very best is to buy second hand clothes from thrift stores in Panama City Beach, FL.

Don’t throw food away:

According to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s food and agriculture program (NRDC ), the average American family throws away 40 percent of its food, adding up to $2,275 annually. I have to admit that we used to throw out food, too. However, these days I try to use up everything by freezing leftover cheese, onions, etc.

I even make bread crumbs from end pieces of bread or stale bread, and make soups and stews from the veggies about to go downhill. At the end of the week, I take inventory of what we have left and write it down so I can see what we have, then I make up dishes from it. We also have leftover Monday before our CSA box arrives, when we try to eat up all leftovers and create from what is available.

Make a menu and stick to it:

Having a menu posted on the fridge makes planning ahead easier, and we have fewer “uh-ohs,” when it would be easy to call for pizza because the kids are starved and no food is cooked. 

Write a shopping list and stick to it:

Once you decide on a menu, write a shopping list so you know exactly what you need. You will have less chance of coming home with things that you had not planned to buy.

Buy organic food from local farmers:

Some farmers markets are still open despite quarantine but some you can still order food from and have it delivered. The bottom line is that It’s local, which means less carbon dioxide, and it’s cheaper. If you don’t have access to a farmers market, subscribe to a CSA box from a local farm.

Don’t go shopping while hungry or tired: Duh, guess what? Shopping while hungry or tired is your best chance of coming home with highly processed food and snacks that are expensive but will not fill you up.

[condensed-theorem-shop]

Browsing old SSC posts and having (absurdly belated) thoughts regarding Do Life Hacks Ever Reach Fixation?

I am slightly baffled by the titular question. As far I can remember, every time I’ve seen a proposed life-hack, I’ve had one of the following responses:

(a) “That’s an incredibly inefficient way of solving a tiny problem with an item not meant for that purpose; why wouldn’t you just do it properly?”

(b) “...are there really people who don’t know that?”

(This is a bit of a lie. There are two other possibilities: (c) “That is straightforwardly false.” (d) “That’s not even a life hack, just a vague platitude.”)

Now, probably there’s some amount of “all problems I can solve are trivial ones” happening here; maybe it’s just that I’m classing all the life hacks I know and use as (b), and the ones I’m not used to doing as (a).

But at least from the inside, it really doesn’t feel like that. What it feels like is ... exactly the opposite of what the post suggests? People come up with clever ideas, and either they are in fact completely stupid and no one uses them, or they work and become standard knowledge.

As an example, let me grab a list of life hacks off google and classify them.

1. Tie a small piece of bright-colored fabric to your luggage. Saves you a lot of time to check if its [sic] your bag or not.

Rating: (b). I thought this was just common knowledge about traveling. ... And now I’m a bit concerned about what other common knowledge about traveling people might not actually know. You’re aware that you can bring an empty water bottle through security and then fill it at a water fountain on the way to your gate, right? And that you should pack a toothbrush in your carry-on in case your checked bag gets lost? And to wear shoes with socks, not sandals, so you don’t have to walk on the gross airport floor barefoot when you’re going through security?

2. When you want to cross out words you don’t want to be legible, instead of scribbling over them, write random letters and words over the original.

Rating: (b). I quite clearly remember having this occur to me sometime in elementary school, testing it, and proceeding to do it ever since; I assumed other people had done more or less the same. (In fact, you don’t even have to write letters; simply doing an irregular loopy scribble, instead of a bunch of parallel lines that the eye can easily filter out, works just as well.)

3. Use a rubberband [sic] to keep a door from latching.

Rating: (a). Can’t say I’ve ever wanted to keep a door from latching, specifically, but isn’t this what doorstops are for?

4. Does your dorm smell bad? Tape a dryer sheet over the AC unit and turn it on.

Rating: (a). Do you know how much dryer sheets cost? Use an air freshener, open a window, make tea, or clean your freaking room.

5. For people who use their phone to watch things often and are tired of leaning it onto something where it will fall down after awhile [sic]: Use your sunglasses!

Rating: (a). How about ... you just lean the phone on literally anything. Or get a phone stand. Why do you need to use sunglasses specifically. Do people really spend that much time watching videos on their phone while wearing sunglasses.

6. How to waterproof your shoes. [images of waterproofing shoes with beeswax and hair dryer]

Rating: (b). I have multiple old books on camping explaining how to do the same thing with paraffin (including my grandfather’s Boy Scout handbook). This isn’t a life hack, it’s just ... how to do a thing. (Life hack: use a hose and bucket to wash your car!)

7. Take a picture of business cards people hand you, just in case you lose it.

Rating: (a). The whole point of business cards is that they’re quick and easy and can be handed off smoothly as you finish an interaction. Once you’re in a good place to pause and pull out your phone and take a picture, you should just be putting the information in your (physical or electronic) address book.

8. When ironing a button-up shirt, flip it inside-out to easily iron over the button side.

Rating: (a) and (b) both, wow. Ironing over buttons: not in fact hard. But most nice clothes you should be ironing inside out anyway. Uh, also, life hack: sort your laundry into lights and darks. Life hack: if you take your clothes out of the dryer soon after it finishes, then fold them, they’ll be less wrinkly. Gosh, I can do this all day.

9. Put old newspaper at the bottom of your bin to absorb food juices.

Rating: (a). Any trash can you’re putting food scraps into should have a liner and be taken out on a daily basis anyway. I don’t see how this improves on that.

10. Tumble dry shoes without ruining them. [image of shoe in dryer, tied by its laces to matching shoe outside dryer]

Rating: ... (a) or maybe (c)? Tumble drying many shoes on low is fine, just loud. Shoes it’s not fine for, the problem is the heat, which that won’t help with.

11. Keep a card like this in your wallet, ideally in a highly visible place. It could save your life someday. [image of handwritten medical info card]

Rating: (b). Man, if this counts as a life hack, I can generate them indefinitely. Life hack: carry your health insurance card in your wallet, you might need to pay for unexpected medical treatment! Life hack: carry your driver’s license in your wallet, it might save you from a ticket if you get pulled over! Life hack: carry your credit card in your wallet, you can use it to buy things!

12. How to put away all your Christmas decorations. [image of various ornaments set back into packaging]

Rating: (b). Do people ... normally not store delicate things in their boxes? Life hack: keep all of the components of your Monopoly game together by storing them in the Monopoly box!

13. When traveling, keep a bar of scented soap in the same compartment as your dirty laundry. It will keep your clothes smelling clean.

Rating: (a). This again? Has no one ever heard of a pomander? It’s like this but without getting soap all over your clothes!

14. Cut a hole on the top corner of the juice carton, so it won’t explode all over your table.

Rating: ....... is this a problem people have?

15. Bounce batteries to see if their [sic] good or bad. Drop them on a table from about 6 inches. If they give one small bounce and then fall right over, their [sic] good. If they bounce around around [sic] any more than that, they’re [really?] dead or on the way out.

Rating: (c). Also (a). This is false, and even if it weren’t, why would you think it was a good idea to fling batteries around instead of storing your live and dead batteries separately.

...okay, I’ll spare you the remaining 85.  My point is: as far as I can tell, life hacks almost universally reach fixation if they

actually work.

I’m not sure why no one

else

seems to feel this way about them. My best guesses are:

(a) people are just failing to think of the things they already know and do, because they’re too obvious;

(b) the target audience for life hacks is high schoolers and college students, who just haven’t picked up on a bunch of basic life stuff yet (hence there being so many about housework); or

(c) lots of people share my feelings, but most of them are less rant-y about it than me.

Bonus terrible life hacks:

Yes, let’s do clever things we read online to the electrical outlets, this is definitely not the sort of habit that will lead to a house fire.

Other things that will do that: a bag of frozen peas. A frozen water bottle (don’t fill it all the way). An ice pack.

In what way does this improve on “always put your remotes back in the same place”? (You still have to always put them in the same place for it to work!)

I see no way this could backfire.

Even better -- a fun surprise for yourself when you forget and think you have one pad left! Good luck getting home!

... a taper. It’s called a taper.

Have you heard of a “““grocery list”””

(also, good luck remembering which things are absent from that photo.Or what vegetables are in that crisper. or which things are in the back. or half full.)

yes, getting pancake mix into a ketchup bottle sounds extremely low-mess

....ewwwww

Cribs are expensive! Pass that thing on to a friend!

“Boss, I had a great idea! Instead of life hacks, let’s start offering...... DEATH hacks!”

“Fantastic idea, Joe! I wonder what kind of dangerous things we can get people to do with knives!”

I like that they have you add food dye and glitter, just to make sure that when it melts and the top inevitably pops open, the mess is maximally disastrous.

Rulers: so 20th century.

what is even wrong with you

[griffinpxut452-blog]

10 Secrets About cmcpoker You Can Learn From TV

Which is not a shabby advertising and marketing tactic for Realtors either. Nevertheless, I am referring to getting a continuing stream of customer referrals from industry experts like CPA's, mortgage brokers, economical planners, attorneys and contractors. The best part is that it'll only require a individualized letter scripted by you, the coolest Realtor in the neighbourhood.

In brief, this referral letter advertising and marketing technique comes down this: Get your self a powerful listing of nicely-assumed-of professionals which have been most certainly to provide the exact variety of clientele that you'll sustain. Then you just jot down a private letter that in truth shows off who you happen to be and ship it to this checklist within the frequent mail (no electronic mail).

Make an effort to be creative with regards to the mailing bundle or envelope you make the most of as well as which includes a novel internet marketing piece with your letter. Adhere to up with Each individual Experienced by telephone, if possible, and move forward to mail/Make contact with them the moment a month.

You'd be amazed the number of thriving Realtors use this marketing plan for their total careers, essentially eliminating advertising expenses to acquire clientele.

Let us start off by using a sample listing of these industry experts that have the shoppers you're looking for...

- CPA's

- Residence Loan Consultants (I am selected you acknowledge this a person)

- Financial Planners and Advisors

- Real Estate Lawyers

- Transforming Contractors/Handymen

- Real-estate Appraisers

- Escrow Officers

- Household Electricians

- Plumbers (residential)

- Landscapers

- Tree Service Organizations

- Handymen

- Receive the notion?...

Naturally, there are numerous much more gurus so as to add towards the listing but that'll Have you ever heading for today.

Are you presently wanting to know how to get the information for these experts so you might mail them your letter? Fantastic concern, happy you asked. You have a pair of options Nevertheless they count on your advertising and marketing funds.

A person alternative would be to take a look at the yellow pages on-line. It's essential to have already got a geographical region you persist with so you will need to remain inside of that location, In most cases. If you don't intellect the handbook labor, this can be a nifty choice for you.

You will sift by means of to get the comprehensive name, cell phone number and mailing deal with of every Experienced. Like I mentioned, this may get a bit of time nevertheless it's cost-free.

Only purchasing a summary of these professionals might be your other alternate. From the indentical way you happen to be almost certainly on one or more Realtor or agent lists being sold available, nearly each occupation has their own personal listing on the market also.

Unwind, most of these lists are not illegal or unethical. These kind of Qualified lists are on the market for the reason that gurus (like us Realtors or agents) deliberately sign up for lots of publications, companies, occasions, etc.

It truly is a watch opener, is not ir?

You've got a lot more than respectable possibilities In relation to buying a listing organization to purchase your listing from. Make an work to pick an inventory organization that has each of the professions you're looking for, as an alternative to likely to different list firms for every job. I tell you, It's going to cost you a handful of pounds for this list but it is going to salvage you several hours of valued time!

Even so you select to acquire your listing of industry experts, upon getting it, it is time to kickoff creating your "individualized" letter. I can't depth how to write down income copy listed here, regrettably. That is a topic all by alone.

All you have to comprehend at this time is this letter can't be "salesy" similar to a letter you would mail on your farm listing of homeowners.

When among the list of pros on your own list will get your letter, you desire them to truly feel as when they're the only one who gained it, even if you may possibly replicate it and mail it to the remainder of your record.

Ponder regarding how you'd chat to these pros confront-to-experience and pen your letter in this way, that is the grand strategy listed here. Usually do not be like your neighborhood bank and jot down some sort of "this is so boring I could vomit" referral marketing letter. Speak to them just like a sincere specific and capture their desire.

By the way, this "personalization" goes for nearly all your advertising parts: postcards, flyers, ads, emails, etc.

The crux of one's letter absolutely need to set in plain phrases that you simply'd wish to begin a mutually useful, Experienced relationship with them (but Categorical it in a personal way, certainly). The large plan is for you to turn into these professionals "Realtor on-need", so to talk, and get all their shopper referrals For the remainder of your profession. You may need to emphasize how they will gain from this romantic relationship devoid of undertaking any selling, acquired it?

If you already know anything own regarding their enterprise or the region they perform in, toss it from the letter. Perhaps you Individually know of the customer who's utilised that cmcpoker.win Expert, toss that while in the letter also. It truly is hard to get "extremely" own in these letters Except if you decide to blab with regards to their momma, which I wouldn't recommend.

I would strongly recommend that you choose to pen your referral letter by yourself, instead of retain the services of anybody else to make it happen. But, should you absolutely detest penning this kind of marketing letter, your other alternate is to get maintain of a good independent author to get it done.

Do a Google seek for "self-employed writers" And you will find a variety of companies to pick from. With several with the web pages you'll find, you can pick self-used writers from all around the world, which can be pretty useful. You can see evaluations on them, come across whatever they're charging for prices, access them to talk to issues, and so forth. On quite a few sites, you are able to article an opening for that undertaking you require published and possess self-employed writers utilize to you. It is very fantastic.

Okay, so now that you've your advertising listing and referral letter prepared, it's time to send out it out. But make sure you Will not just mail it inside of a plain white envelope comparable to everyone else... make sure you!

In its place, seize a unique on the lookout envelope which has some exceptional dimensions or colour to it. The theory is you want your mailing piece to get noticed among the just about every other letter that Skilled is receiving that working day. Remember, hand-penning the return address and mailing address can help to Get the envelope or box opened and never thrown from the trash.

Simply Imagine how you opened your mail right now. The letters that appear to be hand-created get opened very first, proper?

A reward you'll be wanting to incorporate, in the package deal, is some type of marketing piece In combination with your referral letter. One advertising and marketing thought can be to put with each other a movie with Animoto, burn off it on the DVD and mail it with your letter.

Amongst my mates, a everyday living insurance plan salesman, despatched out an analogous mailing and incorporated poker chips with his contact info on them. This buddy of mine printed "Do not gamble together with your lifetime" on all of the poker chips.

Genius! That's the type of Artistic believed you need to be able to adhere out from your Level of competition, or at the very least you need to know wherever to get the Strategies!

By the way, With this referral letter, I would information them towards your internet site and phone number. Be certain you present them both equally decisions. Selected Men and women would rather get in touch with you and others prefer to glance around your internet site initial.

This last phase might be the most important. The number 1 rule in advertising is "repetition". Studies in the advertising and marketing earth have tested that to ensure that the general public to receive acquainted plenty of and response to an ad or internet marketing piece, they need to see or listen to it 7 times or more.

Adhering to up using this advertising and marketing listing of industry experts is important to getting the best response fee that you can. Subsequent up Using these gurus with another letter or even a telephone get in touch with each 4 months or so would be my recommendation. For those who have it, using an expert's e-mail address can be an honest observe up too.

You merely must be extra careful not to smother them with comply with-ups. It's a good line but you might want to notify them why you should be their "go-to" Realtor without discovering in a rude or bothersome style.

Rapid idea For those who have the advertising revenue: employ a school child to procedure each one of these mailers and preserve by yourself enough time. You could publish the referral letters yourself but have your hired-hand tackle the envelope, things it Along with the letter and internet marketing piece and possess them mail it out.

It's low-cost labor, similar to US providers do every time they seek the services of abroad personnel for their customer support get in touch with centers (did I just drop in a cheap shot?).

Base line, I basically Assume this is without doubt one of the far better marketing and advertising ideas for Realtors or brokers on the market. Finally, this marketing system can give you a cost-free circulation of prospects and prospective buyers that can Create you right into a best manufacturing Realtor or agent, so long as you stay with it and variety these referral associations proper.

Okay, many of us have noticed videos or Television shows in which counterfeiters throw revenue into significant dryers with poker chips or dice or Various other things for making the payments surface to are out in circulation when in truth they've just been printed. Very well, this has nothing to perform with revenue laundering Hence the three levels of money laundering are certainly not:

one) Gentle cycle – No bleach

2) Tumble Dry on Minimal Heat

three) No Starch

And don't confuse phases with actions or transactions. Productive income laundering, especially in large dollar amounts, is far much more than one-2-3 finished. Although some transactions can be quite uncomplicated, Other people are complicated and just take A great deal time and effort in an effort to stay clear of detection – and that's the last word objective – to stop detection. It would not do the felony any excellent to move and alter money if it can be quickly traced (and after that seized). And it is a activity where the applications and techniques are consistently transforming and evolving.

The Fiscal Motion Undertaking Drive, FATF for short, would be the multinational entire body that sets the global tone for AML efforts. Formed in 1989, it can be situated in Paris.The Money Action Process Drive (FATF) has A 3-element Operating definition. Just about every element in essence outlined one of the levels:

PLACEMENT – introducing the illicit funds in to the fiscal cycle. Even though the cash previously have been inside of a lender or brokerage account (as in circumstances of embezzlement or frauds), it is the fact that initial step as illicit cash that we are going to check out as placement. However, the most common illustration of placement may be the drug vendor who needs to get significant portions of more compact currency expenditures to the banking procedure.

LAYERING – the going and transferring from the resources in order to disguise the origins and genuine possession of The cash. This stage is usually The key and one of the most hard – it really separates the pros within the amateurs. Here the money can alter accounts, form, possession, state, and many others. It could go into and outside of trusts and shell companies, it should buy or offer real estate or tough goods, it could go through diverse jurisdictions – anything to confuse or remove a paper trail. And finally, You can find

INTEGRATION – This is certainly if the criminal requires economic advantage of the illicit resources and they appear to have come from legit sources. It's possible the drug supplier purchases a mansion, or a high end car, or a yacht, or even planes to maneuver drugs together with other dollars (in the situation on the planes, they will very likely be purchased through a front or shell leasing firm, who will lease it into a front or shell freight corporation, in order that any time a airplane is in the end impounded by legislation enforcement someplace, it cannot be traced again into the vendor).

So there These are, the 3 phases of cash laundering: Placement, Layering, Integration.

[henrysarticles-blog]

iPhone 7 Screen Replacement in Singapore

Many iPhone users know the feeling - the second the handset slips away from the hand, the heart skips a beat, the hands try clumsily to catch it, and almost in slow motion, the eyes watch in horror as the iPhone bounces a couple of times on the floor. Face up is lucky, face down, not so much, and when picking the phone up of off the ground reveals a crack in the face, everyone starts to offer their condolences.

At this point, users have to consider a couple of possibilities. The first is that only the exterior glass has been cracked, which is the case if the screen still displays the normal iPhone interface. This means that the butter-fingered iPhone user in question is lucky, the liquid crystal display, or LCD, is still intact, and replacement exterior glass pieces are less expensive to replace than is the LCD. However, if the screen has gone blank, the LCD of the dropped iPhone has been ruptured, meaning a more expensive repair is in order, that of an iPhone LCD replacement.

By definition, when an iPhone 7 screen replacement is in order, the exterior glass screen must also be replaced, as in order to break the LCD, the exterior glass must first be broken. However, while this means that the iPhone in question has been substantially damaged, it does not mean that the handset should be discarded. While a relatively expensive fix, iPhone LCD replacements are a fairly common procedure, and exterior glass replacement is extremely common. Both of these procedures, even in combination, are substantially less expensive than replacing an iPhone in its entirety.

iPhone LCD replacements are a relatively complicated procedure, and one that most users will probably want to have handled by a professional iPhone repair person. However, users who possess a high level of technical competency will likely be able to perform the replacement themselves, meaning that these users will need only purchase the replacement LCD and a new exterior glass piece. Even users who decide to have a professional take care of the replacement may want to check around for prices of replacement LCDs, if for no other reason that to know what the repairman should be charging for the parts. The labor costs of having the new LCD and exterior glass installed are usually nominal; making the outsourcing of this job to trained professionals generally the best option for all users except those with expertise in taking apart and reassembling computers, electronics, and/or specifically iPhones.

While cracking the face of an iPhone is never a fun experience, a broken LCD and glass screen are certainly not reason enough to replace an otherwise functioning iPhone. iPhone LCD replacements are increasingly becoming a commonly performed repair, meaning that they are gradually decreasing in price and inconvenience, and there are more and more replacement iPhone parts on the market every day. So rather than trashing an iPhone after a bad drop, users should remember that almost every part on an iPhone can be replaced, meaning that in most cases, an injured iPhone can be brought back to life at a fraction of a cost of a new one.