#it’s an elevator… which was harder to convey with values than i expected

[disformer]

Deadlock wip

[fireemblems24]

Post Grondor Field AM Analysis

I'm prefacing this by saying that I'm still not sure I can write a good analysis of this scene for two reasons:

1. I don't know what comes after, and

2. I'm very emotionally involved in what happened.

But I tried my best. One thing is for sure though, what happened in Grondor in AM was an incredibly significant turning point for AM and Dimitri and my thoughts and analysis on it will definitely expand as I keep writing about and playing the game.

Part of me is just so happy I got to see Dimitri's supports, have the inevitable turn around, and get to do things like tea and dinner time again that it's hard to be objective about this scene.

And by "this scene," I don't mean that actual fight at Grondor, but everything from Fleche's attack to Byleth's words in the rain later.

It wasn't all about Byleth . . .

Given how poignant Dimitri's character arc has been so far, I had a deep rooted fear player-pandering would ruin it. Byleth, as a concept, isn't bad, but too often the heaps of praise feel underserved and other things (like Claude's intelligence, Edelgard's relationships with everyone else) get ignored to make more room for player-pandering.

Thankfully this did not happen. Byleth, throughout the early chapters of AM's part 2, failed to reach Dimitri. And, honestly, seeing Byleth actually struggle for once has done wonders for how I view her character. Still, I worried that player-pandering-power, rather than something that felt earned, would cause the inevitable eye-opener for Dimitri.

But it wasn't just Byleth. Fleche's vengeance kicked everything off, what veered Dimitri away from his fate in other routes. He accepted his death at her hands, not bothering to defend himself. Rodrigue stepping in the way and his parting words forced Dimitri to confront things he'd ignored. Throughout AM so far, people have posed questions to Dimitri who refused to answer them because he didn't want to face what they asked. But Rodrigue dying for him, spending his final words telling Dimitri to live for himself - combined with Fleche's attack - forced Dimitri to confront things he avoided. It wasn't until after all of that when Byleth steps in.

And Byleth didn't "fix" him either. Dimitri's supports show a young man who's still very much struggling with his mental health, poor self-image, his previous actions, and wondering if he deserves not only to live for himself - but if he even deserves to live. Byleth didn't hand-wave Dimitri's problems away.

Everything about the scene is stronger because it didn't fall back on player-pandering, but more earned, realistic, and dramatic actions and consequences - including Byleth's involvement which felt far more earned than usual because of prior failure.

But I wish Dimitri's friends played a bigger role.

Not everything was perfect though. I wish we got a little more than we did from Dimitri's house mates - especially his childhood friends Sylvain, Ingrid, and extra special mention to Felix and especially, especially Dedue.

Throughout all of AM, none of the above mentioned characters feel utilized to their full potential. This isn't a problem exclusive to AM, and by all means it's far from the biggest offender, but given how close all the ties are in AM, it's felt when it's not there.

I still don't know what exactly I would've done with them. Maybe I'd need to make the game an actual novel to do it, and you can't forget how perma-death has historically held back games at times, limiting major moments to a select few "retreat" candidates.

Still, though, getting a bit more from Ingrid, Sylvain, Felix, and Dedue would've made the scene even more powerful.

I actually really liked the scene in the rain.

I haven't made it a secret that I dislike Byleth. Or maybe disliked is more accurate. Lately I've been rethinking my stance on Byleth, in part because I've heard from people who like her or found ways to make her work and from my own thinking about the game while planning future write ups.

I don't think it's Byleth I really dislike, but the player-pandering. Separating the two isn't easy, but it's easier since I've starting coming around to seeing Byleth as her own character.

There's been a few moments that made me care for Byleth, and this scene in the rain was one of them. Because she didn't just fix everything. She tried and failed for months to reason with Dimitri, and despite everything she never gave up on him or failed to keep offering her hand.

I'm not going to lie. I got all the bubbly, heartwarming, heartbreaking feels the writers wanted me to in this scene. Seeing Byleth reach for something and fail, and then finally, finally get through was rewarding in a way many of Byleth's prior accomplishments aren't because this one felt earned. And by God did she earn it.

Some people will likely disagree with that last point, but I disagree with them. She asked Dimitri hard-hitting questions, forcing him to come to unpleasant conclusions rather than trying to force him into anything. She kept Dimitri from veering to far off course, even at expense to herself when she killed Randolph. She saved Dimitri from Fleche when he refused to save himself. She quietly supported him, coaxing out the good she knew was still there and refused to give up on.

I'd never in a million years say someone in real life should put up with Dimitri's toxic behavior and verbal abuse, even considering his extreme trauma and aggravated mental illness. But seeing someone fuck up so badly still get forgiven, still get supported, still struggle but honestly change for the good, still get loved, start to accept and forgive himself through the power of love and forgiveness from others is very powerful, especially since media so often downplays those "softer" things as weakness in comparison to the "badassery" of ambition and stoicism. Using Byleth, who previously had little experience with feelings, who was encouraged to experience them in healthy ways by Dimitri, return the favor isn't really the worst choice.

It's cliche, but cliches aren't always bad.

The mentor dies. Redemption in the rain. Revenge against the protagonist's actions opens their eyes. Etc . . . This scene was chuck full of cliches, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Tropes serve an important narrative purpose because a writer can rely on them to convey a message to the audience that either saves time or sets them up for something unexpected or even expected. Fire Emblem has always and will always be incredibly cliche and full of tropes. It loves tropes so much there's in-universe ones that make some unit or character discussions sound like a foreign language to people outside of or new to the fandom, talking about "Ests" and calling someone a "Camus."

What matters is if a story pulled something off well, not if it's terribly unique. A mentor dying is powerful because it forces the student to grow. Redemption in the rain is high symbolic of water washing things away + the somber atmosphere rain creates. Someone trying to get revenge against a character provides an eye-opening experience about the ripple effect of their actions. We see these things in fiction all the time because they work.

All the tropes worked like expected in this scene. Using images instead of cut scenes did make less of an impact, but more on that later.

Tl;dr: There's nothing unexpected or terribly unique about what happened. It was honestly painfully predictable, but that doesn't make it bad and is in a series that does this all of the time.

The voice acting carried because those images can't.

A major downside to this scene is that it used vague images instead of a cut scene. I get that budget and time were likely concerns, but many cut scenes from earlier in the game seem rather trivial. Did we really need that dance one? Really? I don't think so.

This was a hugely important, action heavy moment. Using one or two still images to convey everything that's happening and all those emotions, really makes it less than it could've been.

That said, the voice acting saves it. I've raved about how amazing Chris Hackeny is as Dimitri, so nothing new here. Rodrigue's and Fleche's VAs also did a fantastic job. No one oversold or undersold the emotions. Even without the cut scene, you felt what happened thanks to the skill of the actors. This scene would've been so much harder to engage with without them, if this was an older FE game where all you got was text. This is 100% one of the moments highly elevated by the decision to have a fully voiced game and choosing high caliber talent (let's not talk about Radiant Dawn's voice acting).

Questionable support timing.

One issue I had came right after the scene when I viewed Dimitri's supports. The nature of some - like his with Raphael and Alois - didn't quite line up with the character I saw in dialogue right after. I wish they staggered them a bit more or got picker about what you could get in part 1 or 2.

This isn't limited to Dimitri either. In the same support batch, I also got a Marianne B support where she still had no confidence or self-worth. And then like 10 minutes later I talk to her in the monastery and she mentions about how seeing all the death in Grondor made her value her life even more.

In the past, I've also received entirely valid opinions that Dorothea in part 2 is hard to understand because she's cherry and flirty in her supports, and morose and hates the war in her monastery stuff, making her seem inconsistent.

It's a bit jarring. It's not really an issue for characters who don't change much like Edelgard or Raphael, but even for characters with more subtle differences than Dimitri, Marianne, and Dorothea - like, say, Lorenz - you get a lot of weird stuff because of supports. I just think Dimitri's stands out because he's a main character with a really prominent, important turning point for his growth.

[we-bodybuildingmotivation]

Why Train Is Non-Negotiable For Individuals With Diabetes

Practice Weight reduction plan Diabetes is just certainly one of many many continuous sicknesses that is so prevalent inside the U.S. with a whole bunch of hundreds of people struggling yearly and a whole bunch newly acknowledged by the similar token. And whether or not or not you've got kind 1 or 2 diabetes, making healthful life-style choices inside the kind of prepare (bodily and psychological), weight reduction plan, and psychological properly being administration are crucial for preserving this life-threatening illness at bay. So, we’re going to offer consideration to the prepare side of diabetes administration on account of it’s an important aspect. Nevertheless, we’ll moreover briefly cowl weight reduction plan, and psychological prepare (meditation, and so forth) on account of these components all play an unlimited perform in your whole well-being. What Is Diabetes? Diabetes is a sickness that impacts how the physique makes use of blood sugar and it outcomes from extreme blood glucose, or blood sugar ranges. Now, glucose is supplied in our our our bodies from the meals we eat, after which it’s used for vitality inside the physique with the help of the hormone insulin; which is produced by the pancreas.

DiabetesHowever when this course of would not occur successfully as a consequence of numerous doable components like life-style habits and even family historic previous of the sickness; diabetes outcomes, which can then set off many properly being factors that will doubtlessly affect the middle, kidneys, toes and nerves. What’s The Distinction Between kind 1 and sort 2? The two sorts are kind 1 and sort 2 with the earlier being further excessive and the latter the most common sort that people bear from. Over 90% of people who have diabetes are kind 2. Type 1 means the physique not produces insulin, and it occurs further in children and youthful adults. Nonetheless it outcomes from the immune system attacking the cells in your pancreas which creates insulin. So, day-to-day remedy is totally important. About 10% or so of people acknowledged with diabetes are kind 1. Type 2 means the physique would not take advantage of insulin efficiently or that it doesn’t create it the least bit. This kind is further frequent in middle-aged and older of us nevertheless anyone can develop it. And quite a few analysis have confirmed the optimistic outcomes of prepare for the prevention and administration of diabetes and insulin resistance. Nevertheless, these outcomes are way more excellent along with making healthful life-style choices. So, How Does Practice Help With Diabetes? Let’s focus on how prepare helps to deal with and improve diabetes. It reduces stress Stress impacts virtually everyone and with the fast-paced, poor weight reduction plan, and the high-expectation world we reside in proper now, it’s no marvel we’re experiencing lots dis-ease inside the physique.

Stress causes hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to be launched in excessive portions, and when these hormone ranges are sustained inside the physique, properly being and sickness consequence. It moreover has a direct correlation with elevated blood glucose ranges and solely exacerbates the issue. (2) So, stress administration is a ought to for the sake of your whole properly being. And prepare is a extremely necessary weapon in your stress-management arsenal on account of it not solely helps to deal with the sickness however it moreover staves it off and would possibly even help to reinforce it. Practice releases feel-good chemical substances inside the thoughts often known as endorphins which straight affect mood and distract from a number of the standard stressors of life. Nonetheless it moreover strengthens the middle, doubtlessly lowers blood pressure, and gives you further confidence as correctly. (3) Fast-term stress is common nevertheless long-term stress is deadly. Confirm moreover the 4 tips to lower stress. It’s Mandatory For Weight Administration Overweight and chubby folks on widespread at a greater hazard of making kind 2 diabetes as a consequence of their bodily state of affairs. David Marrero, PhD, president of properly being care and coaching for the American Diabetes Affiliation has a wonderful saying close to the connection between weight and diabetes… “If I instantly take a bunch of gravel and throw it in the back of your automotive, you presumably can nonetheless possibly make 70 mph on the interstate. Nevertheless you’re going to make the engine work just a bit harder. If I put 1,000 kilos in your automotive, that influence will improve. I can possibly put adequate weight in so, finally, your automotive not can perform desire it should.” He moreover outlined… “What everyone knows in diabetes prevention, and in prediabetes, is {{that a}} very modest amount of weight discount has this large low cost in peril. You lose 7% of your physique weight, you slender your hazard by 60%. And, the reality is, for individuals who’re over 65, it’s over 70%.” As you presumably can see, prepare should not be elective, nevertheless considerably a necessity, notably for individuals who’re an overweight explicit individual. You have to be consuming loads of darkish leafy greens, little or no meat (substitute), full grains, healthful fats, good carbs, and some fruits. Nevertheless, the greens should make up the overwhelming majority of your weight reduction plan whereas difficult carbs, fruits, and fats have to be consumed in smaller portions. (4) And you will need to stay away from one thing processed, refined, and extreme on the Glycemic Index Scale. Nevertheless certain fats (saturated and trans fats) and even sodium have to be on the lower side. Do that textual content on why phytonutrients are so needed for continuous sickness administration. Practice Can Cut back The Impression Of Unhealthy Dietary Habits Usually a nutritious eating regimen is a hard issue to maintain up with all of the delectable decisions and lack of dietary info. Nevertheless the good news is that prepare can scale back the affect of a nasty weight reduction plan’s outcomes on properly being, in a society the place processed, fast-food decisions are the first provide of vitamin for lots of. And an enormous trigger is that it staves off continuous indicators associated to certain sicknesses. Nevertheless, don’t suppose you presumably can merely eat harmful, then prepare and all will doubtless be correctly on account of it doesn’t pretty work that strategy. Practice Improves Your Psychological Nicely being A evaluation of diabetes or one other continuous sickness is perhaps discouraging and it may undoubtedly do a amount on one’s psychological properly being. The reality is, of us affected by diabetes are at elevated hazard for melancholy, anxiousness, and even consuming issues. Then tack on the added duties regarding the day-to-day remedy schedule and it’s an precise drawback for some folks.

Nevertheless the illness itself can also convey on a psychological disturbance inside the beforehand talked about sorts due to the potential fluctuations of blood sugar ranges; which when all added up collectively, could trigger a state of affairs often known as diabetes distress. And plenty of suppose that there’s no use in attempting to do one thing to aim to reinforce this example as a consequence of feeling hopeless and helpless. And attributable to this reality, psychological properly being worsens from this doomed thought course of. Properly, completely the actual fact of the matter is, prepare is just as essential to your psychological well-being because it's for bodily properly being. They go hand-in-hand and one with out the other is always a recipe for sickness. And that is the explanation performing some sort of cardio and/or anaerobic prepare day-to-day is crucial for sustaining your properly being and well-being. A 12-week study found that widespread cardio train has a significant optimistic affect on self-importance and psychological properly being which is straight associated with a larger prime quality of life. So, regardless of train you choose, be fixed. Weight teaching, jogging, sports activities actions, pure cardio… these are all very viable decisions. And based totally on evaluation, every type whether or not or not cardio, anaerobic, or blended actions are equally good at enhancing HbA1c values. Nevertheless don’t overlook regarding the psychological prepare side of psychological properly being administration; like meditation, treatment, and so forth on account of with out these, you could be combating an uphill battle. Talking to any person and implementing cognitive strategies are going to make the most important distinction to your psychological properly being. Collaborating in aware/meditative actions will imply you can provide consideration to the present second and therapeutic, considerably than dwelling on the difficulty/s. And that's what number of people combat melancholy, improve their immune system, and improve cognitive abilities. How Lots Practice Should Anyone With Diabetes Do? This might clearly vary between folks based totally on current bodily state of affairs. For individuals who haven’t exercised shortly, start out very slowly as to not overwork your self. For individuals who’ve been exercising flippantly then flip up the depth little by little. And for individuals who’re crucial into well being, correctly, good on you! Keep it up and take into accout, it’s a strong weapon in your wrestle in direction of diabetes. The American Diabetes Affiliation recommends starting off with a lightweight stroll for people who've sedentary for a while. Nevertheless do it in a strategy that promotes a soothing experience. For example, take heed to a relaxing audiobook and/or take a stroll by way of your favorite house with a cherished one. And for these further expert with prepare, on the very least 30 minutes a day is enough. Moreover, vitality teaching have to be a part of your regime on the very least twice weekly to take care of sturdy and deal with blood sugar ranges too. Nevertheless, not at all overexert your self and always make sure that to convey a healthful carb provide with you need some fruit or a healthful snack in case your blood sugar ranges drop too low. And always search the recommendation of collectively along with your doctor sooner than doing any prepare to ensure the strategy runs simply and to your absolute safety. Sample Train Routine For These With Diabetes There’s no distinction within the sort of actions you presumably can participate in when as compared with any person who would not have diabetes. Do fulfilling prepare that’ll protect you impressed to take care of up collectively along with your actions. Nevertheless, try your best to not overdo it and stop as soon as you actually really feel decently drained.

Outdated Faculty Chest TrainNow, since weight teaching could possibly be very helpful for sustaining a healthful, we’ve put collectively just a bit train break up you can observe for on the very least a month sooner than switching up your routine. Make sure that to warmth up with lighter weight for just some items sooner than the working items which might be confirmed beneath, and stay away from using really heavy weights (which is why we’ve chosen common rep ranges). Nevertheless you will need to nonetheless apply with on the very least common depth to elicit outcomes. Proper right here’s an occasion weight teaching routine along with the instances and exercises…  modify as wished. Monday: Dumbbell lunge (Three items x 15 reps) Single-arm/single-leg Romanian deadlift (Three items x 12) Dumbbell side lateral improve (Three items x 12 reps) Dumbbell seated overhead press (Three items x 12 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Tuesday: Incline dumbbell press (4 items x 15 reps) Pec dec/machine fly (Three x 15 reps) Tricep rope pushdown (Three items x 20 reps) Lying EZ bar tricep extension (2 items x 12-15 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Wednesday: Seated cable row (4 items x 12-15 reps) Standing twisting cable extreme row (Three items x 15 reps) Standing alternating dumbbell curl (Three items x 12 reps) Dumbbell cross-body hammer curl (Three items x 12 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Thursday: Leisure day: Nonetheless do 30 minutes of moderately intense cardio (your different) or go for a brisk stroll. Friday: Physique weight squat (4 items x 20 reps) Lying leg curl (4 items x 15 reps) Dumbbell bent-over lateral improve (Three items x 12 reps for each prepare) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Saturday: Push-up (4 items x 15 reps or as many as doable) Pec dec/machine fly (2 items x 12 reps) Dumbbell bent-over row (Three items x 15 reps) One-arm lat pull-down (Three items x 10-12 reps) Tricep bench dip (4 items x 12 reps) Barbell curl (4 items x 12 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Sunday: Leisure day: Nonetheless do 30 minutes of moderately intense cardio (your different) or go for a brisk stroll. Repeat the routine on Monday. It's possible you'll apply your core 3-4 days per week as correctly by doing Three rounds of entrance planks, and lying side hip raises to take care of points straightforward starting out. When Is The Best Time To Practice? Not lower than one to three hours after a meal when your blood sugar ranges are seemingly comparatively elevated. Nevertheless, for individuals who take insulin always make sure that to confirm your blood sugar ranges earlier to, and following any type of bodily train. In case your ranges are beneath 100 mg/dL, eat one factor to convey it up because you is perhaps at extreme hazard for hypoglycemia. If ranges are over 250, then refrain from prepare for the second, because it may doubtlessly make the state of affairs lots worse. Moreover, it’s essential to confirm your ranges following any sort of train to be sure you’re inside a healthful fluctuate and to stay away from hypoglycemia. Wrapping Up Practice is a crucial aspect for the administration and enchancment of diabetes. You don’t have to go extraordinarily exhausting nevertheless you presumably can positively flip up the depth just a bit with out worrying about doing an extreme quantity of for individuals who take all of the necessary precautions beforehand. Diabetes is also an inconvenience in some methods nevertheless that doesn’t suggest you presumably can’t reside your life the best way you want too. And making it a priority to be energetic day by day will imply you'll be able to stave off a number of the doubtlessly unfavorable outcomes and indicators. So, get proper right into a routine and take administration by doing what’s necessary, Diabetes or not, bodily train is a key aspect for promoting and sustaining optimum ranges of properly being, every bodily and mentally. Nevertheless you don’t have to overlook how crucial weight reduction plan and psychological prepare (meditation, treatment, and so forth) are in a healthful regime for encouraging a larger life-style as every preventative aspect have to be as a lot as par. Read the full article

[jwillsocialfsu]

Mastery Journal Program Reflection

Mastery Journal Program Reflection:

As my entertainment business master’s program ends at Full Sail University. My initial goal starting this program was to obtain as much knowledge as possible and further my education at Full Sail University. All the classes from Mastery, Digital Marketing and Brand Management has helped me push my business to the next level and become a better person overall. I’m beyond grateful for this opportunity and excited for what’s to come next in my journey as an entrepreneur.

A major takeaway I will always have in my forefront is to always stay focus and never doubt myself no matter what gets in my way. Easier said than done but allowing yourself to be vulnerable in certain situations and open to new creative ideas and expanding your mindset is key. My instructors have all been so unique and has helped me developed new strategies to apply to my life. Failing will always be a part of the process but allowing yourself to see through mistakes and take them as learning opportunities is vital. As I embark on my next journey, I’m eager to apply all my knowledge and continue to meet new people in the industry and build upon my portfolio with substance and experience.

Mastery: Personal Leadership and Development

Within the course of my journey here at Full Sail, I’ve connected with all our readings and Go to Sessions regarding my leadership style and elevating my professional strengths. Greene and Maxwell both discussed meaningful traits that I’ve adapted into my own career goals. Such as never making excuses and always be willing to empower others who are in your circle and be a teacher that will make a difference. I’ve always sometimes gotten comfortable in my ways when it comes to work habits, deadlines or even just personal things. I think learning to be in control of your goals and not getting lazy or lackluster is essential.

Another skill that applies to my leadership style is expressing gratitude amid adversity. I think it’s very important to be able to keep positive energy and you’re spirits up when faced with challenges or difficulties. I am a true believer of self-motivation and not complaining about things you can’t control. I’ve been faced many times in my personal and professional life with not feeling like I had all the tools to flourish in the music industry and not sure if I would make the right connections along the way to get to where I want to be, but I had to realize it’s all a process that has its own time.

As a leader it’s important to look at different perspectives and see viewpoints from whomever you’re working with and your own, which I’ve adapted into my own personal leadership style. Lastly, I’ve learned from Greene and Maxwell is to nurture your passion and exude that energy into your opportunities. Music has always been my passion and has always been where I felt I belonged and now I’m working towards exceeding my expectations and investing into my future.  

Project and Team Management:

With Project and Team Management concluding, I can't help but to think about all the amazing things I was able to learn with this course. My biggest takeaways would be the importance of working effectively in a team and how to be a strong leader throughout your field of interest. With the music business being my focus and career path, this course gave me the knowledge I needed to plan out my official first project with my artist and be able to present it to future investors in a professional way. I also learned a lot about myself in this course when it comes to my personality traits and how I'm looked at by others which I thought was impactful. I’ve learned that I'm easy to pick up on the convictions, values, and worldviews of others and strive myself and others to unite the people around you in service of a higher ideal. Lastly, this course helped me see my influence the way I deal with people and the way I communicate and relate to others. I’ve really enjoyed this course and I'm excited for what's next in my degree program.

Business Storytelling & Brand Development:

As Business Storytelling & Brand Development ends, I look back and think about all the amazing knowledge and takeaways I got from this course. Starting out I wasn’t sure what exactly we would be discussing or what assignments might be about but I’m glad I went into this course with an open mind and ready to put my ideas for my personal brand and bring them to life. I’ve always had ideas on what exactly I wanted my brand to be and represent but never took those ideas and brought them to life until this course. I was able to really map out what was in my head and make a visual representation of my company and my brand.

My goal going into this course was to have something created for me to work upon continuously and build upon my idea of starting my company officially this year and giving it all I have. My favorite part about this course was the freedom I had to express my ideas and map out the exact messaging I wanted my company to convey. The entertainment industry has so many layers and so many over saturated parts so being able to create something from scratch and working upon it by figuring it out by target market, demographic, brand positioning was really liberating and inspiring.

This course gave me the tools necessary to progress my project and get a better understanding of building something completely new and dynamic. I’m eager to continue to enhance my brand and consistently apply new knowledge I learn throughout the rest of my program, I’m confident my goal to launch this year and take my ideas to the next level.

Entertainment Business Finance:

Upon entering this course, I was very hesitant due to not taking a finance course since undergrad. I was excited and eager to learn something new and tailor all the knowledge into my personal business ideas. Throughout the course I learned so much and got a real in-depth look at the financial statements, assets, depreciation. etc. Over the course of the entire four weeks we had a variety of financial cases and solved theoretical business scenarios. I personally enjoyed breaking down each case and analyzing cash flows and why things turned out the way they did. As someone who isn’t the most intuitive with math, I was extremely proud of how I was able to keep up with the assignments and understand what I was doing ultimately. My goal was to go into this class confident and ready for a new challenge, what made me so eager to jump outside my comfort zone was to think about my own business I want to build and how important the financial aspects applies.

As the course continued the very thing that I thought I wouldn’t comprehend, I did, and I was extremely proud of myself. Going into the Pro Forma Financial Statement I was extremely overwhelmed but having the guidance led by professor Christopher Woodward and the live sessions really helped me feel confident in the workload and gave me the push I needed not to give up.

While doing the final assignment I got to see my business laid out in a spreadsheet and it was extremely liberating to see everything broken down and see where all the financial components go and how successful I will be within my first year as a business owner. Overall, this class taught me so much and I’m grateful to receive all the knowledge I did throughout the last four weeks. I’m looking forward to the rest of my program and can’t wait to revisit my pro forma financial statement later.

Digital Marketing:

As the course Digital Marketing comes to a wrap, I’m very grateful to learn as much as I did and identify many things regarding my brand. I came into this class thinking it might be challenging and It would push me and my brand harder and help me pinpoint certain ideas and concepts. Now that we are near the end, I learned way more than I imagined and took away some great knowledge regarding digital marketing. My favorite part was the notion of KPI’s and measuring success of your business.

I think it’s extremely important to see the ROI and breakdown each goal and objective of your business. This course gave me the tools and helped me brainstorm how I want to measure my success and what targets I want to ultimately reach. I also enjoyed creating mockups for various concepts for my brand from my social media posts, networking event invitation, social campaign. Creating from scratch gave me a great visual into where I want my business to go and how I want it to relay to clients. Overall, having this course completed I got a full understanding of my business breakdown and where I see things going under my direction. Looking forward to the rest of my mastery journey.

Product and Artist Management:

After taking Product & Artist Management I learned so much creatively that I wasn’t initially expecting when I first started this course. This was by far my favorite course throughout my program at Full Sail. Each week I took away something different and discovered more about agencies, firms and best practices in relation to my own business.

I learned a lot about the type of leader I am and how to deal with certain clients I might come across like the momager, or the diva etc. I think it’s important to see how you can work with others who conduct business different from you and how your able to adapt and still get the job done especially when working with different personality types. Another takeaway I got from this course is keeping up with current events in the music industry.

We had various assignments that required lots of research and I learned a lot about current trends in the industry and how things are statistically proven and reported. I also learned how I will need to become more aware of music industry reviews from sites like Billboard, Social Blogs etc. The two assignments that I learned a lot from was the product planner assignment and the major players assignment both taught me a lot and challenged my way of thinking about the business and how to be strategic and master the tools of strategy.

The product planner assignment was a unique way to add additional layers to my business than just management, having a product line of some sort opens the door for more lucrative revenue and enables more growth for your artist. My favorite discussion question was week 4 were we had to watch a video with a few well-known panelists as they talk about their experiences within the industry and how social media is on the rise. I found the video super inspiring and it gave me some great ideas in relation to my own business. I’m happy I got to be a part of this course and learn everything I could from each week.  

Advanced Entertainment Law:

After finishing Advanced Entertainment Law, I am leaving this course with so much knowledge and many takeaways. Starting this course, I wasn’t sure what exactly I would be learning or what assignments might be like, but I was motivated to make every week count and make the most of this course. Week 1 covered IP Protection and Industry Risks, I was really intrigued by the information and the importance of legal liabilities my company could face and legal liabilities I never knew existed.

The IP Audit assignment was one of my favorites due to the listing of items that I wanted to protect under my company and what meant most to me from a liability standpoint. Upon learning more about legal liabilities, I also enjoyed the case research we did throughout the course. Researching different court opinions and reading about different cases that deal with copyright infringement etc. really set the tone for me on how important it is to protect your business and make sure you are always in front of something.

Week 2 was another highlight for me throughout AEL. Case Research and Contract review was something I didn’t know much about until this course. Having substantial research skills is important in any field but I think primarily in entertainment its essential to know what’s going on and how you can stay ahead of the game. Looking at different court opinions was another highlight for me of this course. There were many cases I didn’t know anything about until our Research Paper Outline assignment.

I learned about cases I’ve never heard of before and after doing my research it left me excited to continue to learn as much as I can about liabilities etc. Overall, AEL was a challenge but I learned so much and I’m excited to apply this knowledge to my business and utilize all the skills I learned from the course to further my advancement in my field.

Entertainment Media Publishing:

As I wrap up my remaining courses for my graduation of my program. I am so thankful to have taken Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution. This course was a well needed steppingstone into my future in the entertainment business. I’ve learned so many things throughout this course that have inspired my work within my business and the many tools I wasn’t aware of previous such as distribution, creative agents etc. With my creative content being a reality series, I got so much insight to the process from a query letter to an agent that will pitch my project, also my TV treatment that will represent my series based on how I envisioned it and how I want others to view it.

Looking back on my original goals from this course, I was able to complete each one of my goals which were learning about different distribution models for various creatives. Also, I wanted to learn more about the publishing process and what goes into bringing content to life on different platforms we all use today frequently. I wasn’t sure at the beginning of this course if we would be creating our own press kits etc. I was very excited to create my own TV treatment for my reality series which inspired me to keep going and perfect it as much as possible.

Everything I learned from this class gave me more insight on how the industry operates and how technology is advancing in every way. I think with the industry being so competitive this course gave me the tools necessary to make sure my content was unique and has a purpose which I really enjoyed. Overall, I would recommend this class to future leaders so much great information surrounding the distribution process and running a business.

Negotiation & Deal-Making:

Throughout the Negotiation & Deal-Making course I have learned so much when it comes to the entire process within the entertainment industry. This course turned out to be everything I expected it to be. Going into this course I expected to learn more about different contracts I might face and how to role-play different scenarios. Our weekly worksheets helped me break down the material and help me understand what each term meant and what was going on in each mock situation.

Another takeaway, I got from this course was the importance of being prepared for a negotiation and always doing your research on the person you’re meeting with etc. I found myself observing more negotiations while being in this course and I always looked for if the person speaking was prepared and did, they have an agenda for the meeting. I think being a facilitator and a great listener is so essential and that’s what this course taught me. The assignments helped me map out how I would go into a negotiation and what I wouldn’t say even if it sounds like the right thing to say.

Another key point I learned from this course is to focus on the general problem at hand and not necessarily the people involved. I think it can be easy to be intimidated by someone with the commander approach but ultimately both parties involved have a problem to solve collectively. While at my current job at iHeartRadio I’m constantly negotiating and before this course I thought I was doing things correctly but once I got further into this course I started to see ways I could improve and enhance my skills and apply them to my day to day conversations. Overall, this course has been a wonderful experience and has been my favorite thus far throughout my program I’m excited for what’s to come in the remainder of my program.

Business Plan Development:

My original goals of (Business Plan Development) was to learn as much as I could about the entertainment industry and how to create a proper business plan that reflected my business AfterMelody Media Group. Initially, I thought we would take more of a creative approach with creating our business plans but each week I learned something new and gained new insight on how to properly present my business and showcase what I bring to the table.

All my goals I set for this class were met, by the ways of the industry tactics we tackled and the information we were given from financials etc. The Business Plan Assignments were very helpful to get me prepared to set up my business AfterMelody Media Group. This includes the initial pitch, market description, target market, industry trends, competition and differentiation, and the complete sales process of my business. The pitch is a good example to describe my business in an effective way, and it encompasses all the efforts my business will make to bring new artists to success.

When looking at my business plan I was able to accomplish so much but mostly being able to tackle harder questions I might get from investors when talking about financials, competition and how my business is different from what’s out there. This course gave me the confidence to speak with purpose about what my company represents and how I’m making an impact and a return on my investment. I’m grateful for the guidance of my instructor and all the information he spoke of during our Go-To sessions. Overall, I learned so much from the course and I’m going to take all the information that I’ve applied to my business plan and continue to build upon my business and make the most of new opportunities.

[djgblogger-blog]

Trump may believe in the rule of law, just not the one understood by most American lawyers

http://bit.ly/2sHVc6W

AP

Donald Trump’s June 4 tweet suggesting he could pardon himself in the event that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation brings charges drew outrage among critics, part of mounting and long-standing concern about the president’s disrespect for “the rule of law.”

Many prominent lawmakers, law professors and journalists, among others, see the administration flouting this cornerstone value of American legal politics.

But what is the rule of law?

As a lawyer and political scientist who studies this question in diverse Arab countries and elsewhere, I can affirm that the answer is not obvious. The rule of law means a variety of things within and across countries. And they are not always consistent.

This helps make sense of the fact that Trump and some of his supporters may actually endorse one version of the rule of law. If this is controversial in the U.S., because it’s because Trump’s version is more dominant in nondemocratic political systems.

Meanings of the rule of law

Like “democracy” or “equality,” the rule of law is a popular ideal, but not always a clear one. For this reason, United Nations officials have tried to define it. Prominent organizations like the World Bank have measured it through basic indices, or complex criteria, such as civil rights, order and security, constraints on government power and absence of corruption.

Yet using an appealing phrase to describe different social phenomena can have real political consequences.

The “rule of law” has at least two broad definitions that exist in obvious tension.

One is a dominant dogma of American political history, as conveyed by Founding Father John Adams’ succinct phrase: “a government of laws, not men.” The idea here is basic. Government leaders, like all citizens, should not be above the law, but rather bound by it. This means, for example, that a U.S. senator who extorts money is no more immune to being charged with this crime than an ordinary American.

A second possible meaning, in tension with the first one but present in democracies nonetheless, is that law ensures that people obey government.

Law over leaders

Let’s first consider the rule of law as John Adams and the U.S. Constitution’s framers defined it.

The U.S. Constitution and courts’ mandate to review specific laws defines the rule of law as a value and set of procedures that provide legal protection to all Americans. The framers of the Constitution stressed in Federalist 78 the need for judges with autonomy from politics who could defend fundamental citizen rights. Equality under the law was popularized as a foundation of the rule of law in the wider English-speaking world by the 19th century.

A carving reads ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

This has not meant that all Americans, in fact, enjoy equal legal resources. Nor has it prevented powerful individuals or groups from using laws to their advantage. Nonetheless, institutions that enforce the idea that legal rules and procedures bind everyone, including leaders, are central to the U.S. and other countries. The expectation that rules will be applied to everyone also underpins contemporary international law.

The rule of law, understood as laws over leaders, takes on added significance in the U.S. Here, a comparatively large proportion of people become lawyers. In turn, many lawyers become bureaucrats and politicians. American leaders with legal training are educated to focus on specific rules, procedures and a close reading of legal texts.

Because of this, many government officials and members of the private and public-interest law firms who rotate in and out of government care about details of legal rules, procedures and transparency. A leader like Trump, whose tweets denigrate the neutrality of American judges, who refuses to submit to the same expectations of his peers or other citizens, who appears to interfere with an important legal inquiry and who argues that he has an absolute right to pardon himself, raises the hackles of other lawyers and politicians.

Many Americans who are trained in the importance of the autonomy of laws will mistrust a leader who seems not to respect such autonomy.

Thus, it was not surprising that as soon as Trump became president, lawyers mobilized against an executive attitude that demeans their sense of the rule of law. As Trump and his legal team make increasingly broad claims about executive power, lawyers continue to object.

Law and order

Trump and some supporters appear to embrace a different understanding of the rule of law. The president has in fact stated his dedication to the rule of law. Some argue that his leadership on certain issues, such as enforcing immigration law, has confirmed this commitment. This is not merely a case of alternative media. It underscores the importance of multiple meanings for the rule of law.

Trump seems to view the rule of law as deference to political authority and efficient law enforcement. This includes institutions that execute laws, which might be summarized as “cops, courts and clinks” (jails).

Part of candidate Trump’s appeal was his repeated charge that people in the U.S. who broke the law, particularly undocumented immigrants, were inadequately policed. Since taking office, he has stressed enhancing police power and loyalty to authority, especially his own.

This is hardly a fringe meaning of the rule of law. Efficient enforcement and state order are critical components of a legal system that also embraces citizens’ rights and protections. Yet these two key facets of the rule of law don’t always sit well together.

Strong policing can accompany denial of equal protection to suspected criminals, patterns of brutality and racism. Leaders’ natural interest in strong and efficient law enforcement and citizen loyalty can override their legal accountability.

Different political systems strike different balances with this tension. This helps explain Trump’s fondness for claiming presidential immunity from most criminal prosecution and some conflict-of-interest standards. This, and his impatience with protest and criticism against him, appear to show that the president cares about law as a tool to bolster his authority, rather than to enhance ordinary Americans’ rights.

The world is certainly seeing a trend toward leaders like Egypt’s President Sisi and Turkey’s President Erdogan, who wish to control law, rather than subordinate themselves to it.

Trump, and Americans who consider him a strong leader, likely believe in the rule of law, as they understand it. The controversy among many lawyers is that the level to which the new administration elevates efficiency, enforcement and executive privilege tramples their dominant sense of the rule of law as government by laws, not people.

Growing conflicts between the Trump administration and a range of lawyers, judges and activists stem, in part, from each side invoking real, contestable concepts of the rule of law.

Naturally, even if Trump and some supporters share a genuine belief in the rule of law as enforcement and order, this does not justify acts he may have taken that violate American laws. It should nevertheless serve as a reminder that using complex concepts like the rule of law without context or nuance may make it much harder to understand genuine political disagreements.

Indeed, the world may be witnessing less an outright rejection of democracy and more a subtle move by many elected leaders to concentrate power in authoritarian ways. With Trump’s appreciation of leaders with strong power, and the possibility of a constitutional crisis over the Mueller investigation, it is particularly important to clarify whether Trump’s idea of the rule of law matches up with most Americans’ sense of this important, but slippery, term.

David Mednicoff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

[zipgrowth]

The Greatest Challenge Facing School Leaders in a Digital World

As founding director of CASTLE (the Center for the Advanced Study of Tech­nology Leadership in Education), the nation’s only university center dedicated to the technology needs of school leaders, I have had the good fortune to work with administrators all over the world on digital leadership issues. Because digital devices and online environments can simultaneously be transformatively empowering and maddeningly disruptive, the work of integrating digital learning tools into schools is usually difficult and complex. Common challenges arise, however, and can be thoughtfully addressed by proactive leadership.

Vision

By far the most prevalent issue I see in schools struggling with their technology integration and implementation is the lack of a collective vision for how digital learning tools will be used to enhance learning. Schools often purchase software, computer devices, and technology-based learning systems because they are effective marketing tools for recruitment, or because they want to keep pace with the digital investments of rival institutions, or simply because they fear appearing outdated. None of these have to do with learning, of course, and inevitably are insufficient to smooth over the challenges that arise as digital tools enter classroom spaces.

Additionally, for some independent schools, the potentially disruptive nature of these devices and online spaces presents perceived threats to institutional history and norms. If a school’s reputation and pride are built on decades or centuries of “this is how we’ve always done things here,” resistance from staff, parents, and alumni to significant changes may be fierce. In such institutions, heads of school may have to steer carefully between deeply ingrained habits and the need to modernize the information tools with which students and faculty work—but they need to steer nevertheless.

Too often, when navigating faculty or parental resistance, school leaders and technology staff make reassurances that things will not have to change much in the classroom or that slow baby steps are OK. Unfortunately, this results in a different problem, which is that schools have now invested significant money, time, and energy into digital technologies but are using them sparingly and seeing little impact. In such schools, replicative uses of technology are quite common, but transformative uses that leverage the unique affordances of technology are quite rare. Teachers who used to lecture with a chalkboard or whiteboard may now lecture with an expensive interactive whiteboard. Teachers who used index cards or worksheets as quick checks for student understanding may now use more expensive student response systems (“clickers”) to do the same. Teachers who used to roll in the cart with the television and VHS/DVD player so that they could show movies may now locate YouTube videos online for their students to watch instead. And so on.

While these replicative uses have some value, particularly during early stages of technology initiatives, many schools fail to proceed further because they don’t have a collective vision of what more transformative uses of technology might look like, nor do they have a shared understanding of and commitment to what it will take to get to such a place. As a result, faculty instruction and the learning experiences of students change little or not at all.

The most successful schools that I see have rich, robust visions for how digital technologies will transform learning and empower students. These schools have taken the time to involve all stakeholders—including students—in substantive conversations about what digital tools will allow them to do differently compared with previous analog practices. Their visions promote the potential of computing devices to facilitate all of those elements we now think of as essential 21st-century capacities: confidence, curiosity, enthusiasm, passion, critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-direction. Technology doesn’t simply support traditional teaching—it transforms it for deeper thinking and gives students more agency over their own learning.

In these schools, faculty, staff, and parents have a shared commitment to technology-suffused communication, collaboration, and creativity. Models and exemplars of high-level, ­technology-enabled learning experiences are visible, transparent, and omnipresent. Ongoing discussions occur about how to navigate inevitable setbacks and how to ensure adequate bandwidth and technical support. Plans are in place to provide faculty with appropriate professional learning opportunities and, perhaps most important, heads of school have nurtured a school culture of risk-taking and innovation in which faculty feel safe to experiment, fail, and try again.

Fear

Another prevalent issue preventing technology change in schools is fear—fear of change, of the unknown, of letting go of what we know best, of being learners again. But it’s also a fear of letting kids have wide access to the Internet with the possibility of cyberbullying, access to inappropriate material, and exposure to online predators or even excessive advertising. Fears, of course, need to be surfaced and addressed. But what schools don’t need is to let such fears limit the very technologies that we are supposedly trying to promote. It’s as if we try as hard as we can to get digital learning tools into the hands of students and teachers and then try as hard as we can to prevent them from using them.

Fears about digital learning tools are especially tricky because they’re primarily emotional, not logical. Fed by our own uncertainties, occasional anecdotes, and sensational stories from the media, we ignore the data that overwhelmingly show that digital environments are no worse—and often better—than in-person environments. That is to say, the data show that in-person environments nearly always have higher rates of bullying, harassment, and abuse/predation than digital environments. The fear drives some schools to ban cellphones, disallow students and faculty from using Facebook, and lock down Internet filters so tightly that useful websites are inaccessible. They prohibit the use of Twitter and YouTube, and they block blogs. Some educators see these types of responses as principled stands against the shortcomings and hassles of digital technologies. Others see them as rejections of the dehumanization of the education process by soulless machines. Often, however, it’s just schools clinging to the past and elevating what is comfortable or familiar over the potential of technology to help them better deliver on their school missions.

Education will always rely on the guidance and wisdom of adults. And there will always be a place for teaching and learning that doesn’t involve technology. But we owe our children regular and substantive opportunities to master their current technology-suffused information, economic, and learning landscapes if they are to flourish in the present and prepare for their futures.

Heads of school don’t have to be skilled users themselves to be effective technology leaders, but they do have to exercise appropriate oversight and convey the message—repeatedly—that frequent, meaningful technology use in school is both important and expected. Nostalgia aside, there is no foreseeable future in which the primacy of printed text is not superseded by electronic text and multimedia. When nearly all information is digital or online, multi-modal and multi­media, accessed by mobile devices that fit in our pockets, the question should not be whether schools prepare students for a digital learning landscape, but rather how.

As school leaders, in order to achieve the types of successes that we hope for with technology, we will have to overbalance for our staff and parents the side of the scale that contains fears and concerns with countervailing, emotionally resonant stories, images, visions, and examples of empowered students and teachers doing amazing things. That’s fairly hard to do if we’re technology-hesitant or unknowledgeable about the educative value of technology ourselves, which is why so many successful digital leaders preach over and over again the necessity of personal engagement and modeling.

Independent schools have to choose which mindset they are going to adopt. I confess that I always feel sad for the students and teachers in the schools who choose to simply ban and block rather than do the harder but necessary work of enabling and learning from other schools that have followed a less restrictive, more creative path. I can think of no better way to highlight organizational irrelevance than to block out the tools that are transforming the rest of society.

Control

Many educators aren’t necessarily afraid of technology, but they are so accustomed to heavily teacher-directed classrooms that they are leery about giving up control—and can’t see the value in doing so. Although most of us recognize that mobile computers connected to the Internet may be the most powerful learning devices yet invented—and that youth are learning in powerful ways at home with these technologies—allowing students to have greater autonomy and ownership of the learning process can still seem daunting and questionable. It’s particularly tricky for educators who feel they need to cover certain content.

Luckily we can learn from schools that have gone down this path already. Places such as High Tech High (California), the New Tech Network, the Big Picture Learning schools, the PlayMaker School (California), and many others can show us what powerful student agency can look while still covering essential content and preparing students for college and beyond. The “beyond” is particularly important. When we give students some voice in and choice about what and how they learn, we honor basic human needs for autonomy, we enhance students’ interest and engagement, and we truly actualize our missions of preparing lifelong learners.

While it is possible to enable greater student agency without digital technologies, computers coupled with Internet access are powerful amplifiers. With today’s tools, students can connect with authors and artists from around the globe, create videos that mobilize local voters, or collaborate with other citizen scientists on crowdsourced projects. They can raise money to address community concerns, start their own businesses or nonprofits, or create websites, e-books, and code that benefit others. They can participate in online social justice projects, engage in geographically distributed political dialogues, or raise awareness for the environment and other causes. In short, these technologies allow students to learn and do things never before possible.

Independent schools that figure out how to blend powerful digital tools with greater student-driven opportunities in order to facilitate deeper learning and engagement—all while honoring past legacies and points of pride—will be poised for success in the decades to come. Innovative heads of school already have numerous possible configurations that they can consider, ranging from “genius hour” and “20 percent time” (in which the school allows students to explore their own project and learning outcomes for one hour a day or 20 percent of their time in school) to multi-week immersive projects to all-year grade- or school-level rollouts. New models of learning and teaching can be powerful “first-mover” differentiators in competitive independent school markets.

The goal of instructional transformation is to empower students, not to disempower teachers. While instructor unfamiliarity with digital technologies, inquiry- or problem-based teaching techniques, or deeper learning strategies may result in some initial discomfort, these challenges can be overcome with robust support.

Support

Independent schools must focus heavily on technology integration support if they expect to see differences in classroom practice. A few workshops here and there rarely result in large-scale changes in implementation. A number of potential support strategies exist to complement more traditional professional development offerings. For instance, teacher-driven “unconferences” or “edcamps,” at which educators propose and facilitate discussion topics, can be powerful mechanisms for fostering professional dialogue and learning. Similarly, some schools offer voluntary “Tech Tuesdays” or “appy hours” to foster digital learning among interested faculty.

In addition to existing IT support, technology integration staff, or librarians/media specialists, some schools have student technology teams that are on call for assistance when needed. A few middle schools and high schools go even further and assign teachers their own individual student technology mentors. These student-teacher pairings last all school year and comprise the first line of support for educators’ technology questions. The student technology mentors can also meet with a faculty advisor once a month to brainstorm other ways that the group can be leveraged for a school's benefit. These types of support programs have numerous benefits and can be a great way to tap into students’ usually underutilized technology expertise and enthusiasm.

Perhaps the most powerful form of professional learning occurs when we connect with others outside of our own schools. As teachers, heads of school, counselors, coaches, and librarians, we all now have the ability to participate in ongoing, virtual, global communities of practice. When we’re members of online learning networks, innovative peers in similar school positions can share lesson plans, classroom activities, teaching strategies, implementation ideas, online resources, technology integration tips, and many other practices that we might never know about otherwise. Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From, reminds us that connected learning networks fuel the most powerful innovations. Innovative independent schools will place a strong emphasis on connecting their educators to others around the world in meaningful, productive ways throughout the year, not just through occasional attendance at professional conferences.

Whether formal or informal, the focus of technology-related professional learning should be on student learning, not on the tools or devices. Independent school educators should always ask, “Technology for the purpose of what?” when considering the inclusion of digital technologies into learning activities. Technology never should be implemented just for technology’s sake. We can use digital technologies to amplify excellent instruction, but they will never save a bad lesson or activity and likely will only make them worse. Throughout our integration and implementation processes, there always should be a focus on instructional purpose and intent.

In the end, technology change in schools is not about the devices. It’s about robust, visionary instructional leadership. Magic doesn’t happen in classrooms just because schools bought a bunch of computers or invested in bandwidth. School leaders need to be active, engaged participants and modelers who recognize that digital learning is core work, not an ancillary add-on. We can’t simply delegate things to our technology coordinators and integrationists and be done with it all. We must take a visible, hands-on leadership approach to the technology-suffused learning and teaching that our students deserve today.

The Greatest Challenge Facing School Leaders in a Digital World published first on http://ift.tt/2x05DG9

[bigdatappt-blog]

Going up against the Mammoths: How to Pitch to Huge Organizations Notwithstanding When You Have Little Spending plans

Up until this point, our articles have been outlining how you can excel in business and execution through show-packaging the contextual investigations of different organizations and ventures. We some of the time do get enquiries from our customers whether we truly walk our discussion, and on the off chance that we can share our own contextual investigations of how we produce our own particular business, particularly since our specialty lies in boosting deals drive adequacy for our customers. Subsequently, we might want to impart to you, my dear peruser, how as a little and obscure preparing consultancy could win organizations from huge organizations, for example, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Holy person Gobain and some more, without spending any cash on publicizing. While our industry (corporate preparing in China) is one of a kind in its own specific manner, we are certain that there will be a few applications that you will discover pertinent for your business sectors too. Most importantly, I might want to impart to you a review about the market we serve, i.e. the corporate preparing market in China. While there are no genuine figures on how much market esteem the corporate preparing market is worth in China, what we do know is that all major worldwide preparing consultancies have effectively settled their essence in China, or are moving into China bigly. These consultancies incorporate major worldwide players, for example, DDI, Accomplish Worldwide, Franklin Group and so forth. On the flip side of the range however are innumerable of Chinese or Asian preparing consultancies competing for a share of any profits in China. In Shanghai alone, it is evaluated that there may be more than 10,000 preparing consultancies spend significant time in various territories working appropriate here. The worldwide consultancies will charge a superior expense for their projects and scholarly properties to shrivel Multi-National Organizations in China or to vast Chinese companies. A portion of the neighborhood consultancies then again, will confront significantly more rivalry and henceforth tend to get themselves secured value fights and battling for better edges. Subsequently, while a portion of the Chinese preparing consultancies may have high deals volume, their overall revenues are very thin. This means they as a rule utilize substantial quantities of sales representatives to give non specific preparing items that are estimated intensely with the goal that they produce enough deals volume to nourish their bigger workforce. What we plan to do is recently the turn around. We have a little group to alter preparing arrangements that can give us more beneficial edges that will facilitate our survival weights, which thusly enable us to invest greater quality energy and give better support of our clients. For what reason Would it be a good idea for anyone to Purchase from Us at the Value We Need? Thus, in the event that we need to get an alternate outcome from every other person in the market, we will then need to do things another way from them. Here are a portion of the zones that we might want to separate from the market: • Being a specialist in specific sorts of preparing arrangements, as opposed to simply being an operator to allude mentors for customers • Concentrating on a couple of key areas of mastery, as opposed to be the handyman. • Giving redid arrangements, as opposed to institutionalized, off-the-rack courses. • Sharing our skill and learning unreservedly however much as could be expected, instead of keeping data far from people in general. • Concentrating on tweaked in-house preparing arrangements, as opposed to advancing excessively numerous open workshops. • Prompting our customers how they can show signs of improvement comes about because of our preparation, with the goal that they require less preparing in future, as opposed to making our customers dependent on all of us the time. • Giving arrangements that will enhance business exhibitions, as opposed to just topping off our customers preparing timetable When we initially began, we picked the field of offers and deals administration as our space ability. While such a situating will mean, to the point that we will surrender a few chances to lead preparing for non-deals subjects, our clients feel they get an incentive by connecting with the specialists to help them. To strengthen this thought of being the master in the area of offers and deals administration, we made the Mind Offering TM brand, and continued to make our month to month bulletins that serve NOT to offer what we do, but rather give our perusers the bits of knowledge on how they can enhance their business execution. This pamphlet was made since Walk 2007, and hasn't ceased notwithstanding amid our busiest periods. Picking up the Up front investment from Huge Organizations Picking up the Up front investment from Huge Organizations It's insufficient to stop at the bulletins in the event that we need to get the consideration of the Enormous organizations to purchase from us. We have to: 1. Demonstrate to the Enormous organizations that we are fit for conveying viable preparing arrangements that are on par or shockingly better than the set up worldwide preparing consultancies; and 2. Position ourselves as having the learning of how global organizations work, and can enable these Enormous organizations to execute their accepted procedures in China Thus, we inject components of culturally diverse administration utilizing our comprehension of Chinese culture, history, outlooks and business rehearses. We don't simply stop at the bulletins, which are a restricted correspondence in content. Rather, we have the accompanying intends to make our advertising a more incorporated one: • Arranging our month to month Power Breakfast Hours to such an extent that we get the chance to do a "live" introduction on our pamphlet subjects, and we urge the crowd to collaborate with us. • Posting video cuts and even PPTs of our instructional meetings, talks and exercises on the Web with the goal that clients who couldn't go to our "live" occasions can see us on the web. • Working with built up key accomplices, for example, Psychogeometrics®, BlessingWhite and de Bono Thinking Frameworks among others to give more added-esteem answers for the market we serve. The Route Forward Pushing ahead, here are the ranges that we will concentrate on sooner rather than later: • An expanding center around studies, research and ranges where we can give logical information to the market we serve to reinforce our position as thought pioneers; • Expanded presentation to more Chinese and Asian organizations notwithstanding simply adjusting outside organizations in China and Asia; and • Upgrading our occasions by having a logbook of our occasions, for example, open workshops and evening talks notwithstanding our Energy Breakfast Hours. Basically, the deals and promoting exhortation and preparing content that we provided for our customers are especially the ones we use for ourselves. We are appreciative to work with the Huge organizations, and in the meantime, we trust it's not good fortune. We have been endeavoring to grow such organizations in the previous 3 years, and we will work harder AND more quick witted to convey more noteworthy incentive for our customers. c.j. is the world-class deals compel viability (SFE) master who have helped worldwide organizations accomplish quantum enhancements in deals benefits in China and past. Up until this point, c.j. Is the first and Just Asian deals constrain adequacy master to have been welcome to talk at the American Culture for Preparing and Improvement (ASTD) Universal Tradition. c.j. has made a difference: • International accommodation chains, for example, InterContinental Inns Gathering, Sofitel and the Ascott Gathering to locally available their recently elevated Chiefs of Offers to influence the change from deals to individuals to high-performing deals group pioneers • Leading pharmaceutical organizations, for example, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche and Pfizer to enhance their senior directors' administration aptitudes in order to energize their kin to remarkable execution Far reaching pioneers in the development market, for example, Philips Lighting, Holy person Gobain, Ingersoll Rand to create abilities in their business compel in order to accomplish quantum jumps in their business comes about. Preceding this, c.j. was Asia Promoting Director for a Fortune 500 coordinations organization, and also Corporate Preparing Administrator for Ringier AG, Switzerland's biggest media gathering, in China, where he was in charge of offers group improvement, and helped increment the level of new contracts to bring their first deals to a close inside 2 months by 30%, and additionally increment general deals focuses by over half. Visit http://www.trephelix.com/events for more points of interest. c.j. is likewise an ensured facilitator of Six Intuition Hats® and For what reason Should Anybody be Driven by YOU TM preparing programs

[altechml1-blog]

Divine mediation: Google's Nexus 7 is a fabulous $200 tablet Like Microsoft, Google demonstrates its own accomplices how one forms a tablet.

The 7-inch Android tablet is one of the scrappiest models in the device scene. Starting with one producer then onto the next, one year to the following, these tablets have neglected to discover a crowd of people or win any vocal supporters. However deals for the 10-inch iPad keep on vaulting higher with each quarter. At the same time, organizations continue attempting to make 7-inchers work, pounding without end at the shape consider, committing similar errors (underpowered internals, stout bodies, poor execution), expecting diverse outcomes.

The shape saw its initially measured accomplishment with the Kindle Fire, which split a couple of million unit deals in a solitary month amid 2011's vacation season. In any case, the Fire's gathering then, and deals execution since, doesn't recommend a heap of happily glad clients. While Amazon's tablet has a few energetic fans here at Ars, the figure in our survey that it would "wind up regularly as a blessing from early tablet adopters to late ones" appeared to work out. You wouldn't get one for yourself, maybe, however it was a sufficient present for the innovatively unresponsive: Mom, Dad, Grandma, or Technologically Illiterate Sibling.

Enter organize right—well, more like stage from over, the God of Tablets besieging down in a skydiving suit wearing Google Glass—the Nexus 7. Google embraced the internals of Asus' Memo 370 appeared at CES in January, redid the body, and granted the gadget with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. All while keeping up a $199 base value point.

The specs, outline, and cost all make the Nexus 7 appear like the Holy Grail of tablets. As we'll show later, it can even keep pace with the (fundamentally more costly) iPads in many regards. It's extraordinary. Suspiciously incredible. All of a sudden we have all that we need (well, near it), for less cash than we likely would have paid for it. Offering equipment shabby—with the expectation that more cash can be made somewhere else—is not another diversion. However, the Nexus 7 proposes Google will play that amusement harder and superior to we've found in quite a while.

More than anything, the Nexus 7 is Google's remark on the condition of the Android tablet. The organization has conveyed both a strike and some assistance to its lenient equipment accomplices (or if nothing else to Asus, which collaborated with Google on this model).Body

The Nexus 7 has a 10.45-millimeter thick body, with a Corning glass-secured IPS show and a bended, slightly rubbery, dimpled back. A long space for the speaker sits on the back, just before it bends into the edge where the microUSB port sits fixated on the base, alongside the earphone jack on the correct corner. The main catches, a rest switch and volume rocker, are along the correct hand side. The NFC sensor is set on the inverse corner. The Nexus 7 seems to have two pinhole mics, one around an inch over the NFC sensor (for sound dropping) and another on the upper left corner (for voice gathering).

The Nexus 7's bezel is thicker on the shorter sides, only a hair more than two centimeters, while on the more extended side it quantifies 1.1 centimeters. This makes it somewhat more agreeable and characteristic to hold in scene introduction (when writing, however, representation introduction is certainly prevalent). It's too terrible Google can't proper the iPad's capacity to part the console to make it nearer to the client's two thumbs in scene. As it seems to be, scene writing on a 7-inch screen still makes a great deal of strain (ten-finger writing is, obviously, right out).The console is not exactly as smart as whatever is left of the Nexus 7 encounter. It appears to once in a while miss letters, or need to get up to speed after a progression of letters are written, particularly directly subsequent to waking. This happened rarely, however was somewhat baffling when it did. Not at all like the Kindle Fire, the Nexus 7 is Bluetooth-able (this was one of our real strikes against the Fire's status as a tablet). Matched with a console, the Nexus 7 could without much of a stretch fill in as a portable work arrangement similarly as the iPad can.

Generally speaking, the body is exceptionally agreeable to hold. In bearing it, I felt I could deal with it more like a book than either the Kindle Fire or iPad 2. It feels strong without being too substantial, and the rubberiness of the back shields it from being excessively tricky. The dimpled back is by all accounts altogether a stylish decision, and an odd one at that, however we assume it may be a prevalent material decision for hiding fingerprints.

Like the Kindle Fire, the Nexus 7 has no equipment home catch. Rather, the three Android 4.1 Jelly Bean delicate keys are everpresent along the base of the screen: Back, Home, and Recent Apps, which will indicate applications you've utilized as of late in turn around sequential request. The exemption to the catches' appearance is the point at which you are e-perusing or watching motion pictures, when the symbols will blur totally or be lessened to dim dark dabs, respectively.By default, the home screen of the Nexus 7 is intended to chimp that of the Kindle Fire, with comprehensible media and sound gadgets masterminded up front. As we said in our early introductions post, the Nexus 7 accompanies a little determination of substance pre-stacked. This incorporates yet is not restricted to Swann's Way, duplicates of Popular Science and Esquire, and a couple of melodies from Google Play's Music store. One motion picture comes pre-stacked, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. That is a battery life analyzer's fantasy: turn the volume and shine up, press play, stuff it between two sofa pads, and go accomplish something else for over two hours.

The Nexus 7 weighs 11.99 ounces (340 grams), 2.6 ounces lighter than the Kindle Fire. While we found the Kindle Fire a tad excessively bulky and substantial, making it impossible to hold uncertain while perusing, the Nexus 7's lighter weight and sleeker body implies we can effectively hold it up like a book for 20 minutes to 30 minutes without our arm getting drained. Holding the Nexus 7 by the edge gets tedious somewhat snappier than holding it from the base, pinky and thumb propped in front, with the other three fingers supporting it from the back, similar to you'd hold a soft cover open.Camera and speaker

The stereo speakers on the Nexus 7 are secured by a recessed metal flame broil and call attention to out of the gadget, which means you'll get the best volume on the off chance that you can back it up against some sort of level surface. The speakers can get acceptably uproarious, and there's little bending at the most elevated volumes. The quality is not impeccable, but rather it's more than serviceable. Since the speakers are situated ideal by each other, the stereo impact doesn't generally become an integral factor.

The Nexus 7 has just a single camera, a front confronting one at 1.2 megapixels. That is one more camera than the Kindle Fire has. I made some video Skype approaches both the Nexus 7 and iPad 2 to perceive how the cameras analyzed, and was frustrated to find that the Nexus 7's camera is pretty terrible.Now, the iPad 2 front-confronting camera is no prize, being of VGA determination (0.3 megapixels). Be that as it may, holding it beside the Nexus 7 put the Nexus 7's camera to disgrace. Obviously, there are different components at play here: the nature of the association, and in addition inward equipment (yet I will take note of that my FiOS association is liberal in size, and was just out of gear use by one of my own PCs and the two tablets at the time).

We will most likely be unable to put the blame totally on the camera get together itself, yet whatever was going on, it was not working extremely well. The photograph above does not indicate it, but rather the limits of my face were in steady movement, as though I were being rotoscoped for a-ha's music video for "Go up against Me," "Go up against Me: Revenge of the Jilted Pencil Sketch Girlfriend."

We would have gotten a kick out of the chance to test the camera past the extent of video talk, however the Nexus 7 has no pre-introduced camera application. We found no plan of action in the Google Play store—evidently, every outsider camera application obliges gadgets to have a back camera for establishment. Unless you are a devoted enthusiast of Tumblr's Gratuitous-Picture-Of-Yourself Wednesdays (potentially NSFW), you won't utilize the camera much in the traditional sense at any rate. This cut our testing a bit short.Update: Some great soul has made a Camera Launcher for the Nexus 7 and put it up in the Google Play Store. We're calmed to locate that a great part of the camera's repulsiveness is the aftereffect of the video talk/Skype condition. All alone, the camera is simply your normal, scarcely acceptable 1.2-megapixel camera, yet outside video talking it can at any rate make out spots. The photograph above was taken utilizing the connected application.

Screen

The 7-inch screen is a 1280x800 IPS show, a sort that is eminent for its wide survey points. The Nexus 7's screen has a little however discernible drop in shine past around a 30 degree turn from head-on survey. The screen is equally lit in any case, so gatherings of people off to either side won't be at an incredible hindrance.

The alignment of hues in the primary symbols you see on the Nexus 7 make it appear a bit undersaturated. In any case, when we analyzed a wide assortment of hues on different screens, we found that the Nexus 7's screen is very piece more soaked than expected. Purples and reds specifically are a modest piece more dynamic, even to the point of mistake.

In contrast with the iPad 2's screen, whites on the Nexus 7 are on the warm side even at full shine, however the tinge isn't detectable when not being held up alongside another screen (Apple's iOS gadget screens do have a tendency to be cooler in temperature). This is a decent transform from some other extensive screened Android gadgets, which are regularly either too warm or exceptionally unforgiving at the brightest settings. At all shine levels, a dark screen is discernable from the bezel, yet even at 100 percent the dark is still very soaked.

[thespookydoor]

Tradewinds: Sole Survivor

From the cockpit of his beached Albatross, Roger Wilco could still see the explosion from around the bend in the shore, flinging debris from beyond the pines and into the sea. The explosion, which must surely have been Erix’s ship, was not what any of them expected, judging from the others’ reaction over the radio. From the way the others cried out her name, it was Roxy who got caught in the blast, leaving him with the sinking feeling the bounty hunter must have blundered into some kind of trap. As the noise of the explosion faded, along with the ringing in his ears, the pilot listened in tense anticipation. Far as he could tell, the others were still alive, though whether anyone else was harmed was too incoherent to determine. He watched Max run out into the open to see if there was anything he could do for them. Thus it was only when he felt a laser gun pressed against the side of his head that he realized he was not alone, that the spectacle outside was not only a booby-trap, but also a diversion. “Not one word, fat boy,” a soft, menacing voice warned him, “and not one move. You’re my ticket out of here. If you value your life, you’re going to start these engines and haul ass.” Sweat dripping down Roger’s back at the understanding that he was now all alone with the infamous outlaw they had chased all the way from the island of Yarbo. Found it difficult to make eye contact with his one good eye, grey and intense, even harder to linger on his dead, glassy left, with the trio of scars streaking down that side of his face. An old wound from the very foe he just acquitted himself of only moments ago. “It’s not that simple,” the pilot told him, half afraid to speak, but all too well aware of how a lack of cooperation without any explanation might be construed. Though he kept a revolver from his own dimension concealed under the dash, as a last resort, he cursed himself for not arming himself sooner, as it may as well be out on the nose of the plane for all the good it was doing him now. Instead, he struggled not to even look in its general direction, for fear of giving it away. “We took some heavy damage from the storm, and lost both engines.” “Do you expect me to believe that?” Erix demanded. “Just what kind of fool do you think take me for?” “No fool, I assure you,” the pilot replied, still struggling to regain his mental footing after being caught unawares like this. Sweating, trying hard not to think about the hidden killswitch concealed among some of the older control switches, which he had installed years ago, as an anti-hijacking measure. And engaged behind everyone else’s backs after they embarked on this ill-fated hunt for the man who now stood behind him. “We’re as stranded as you are.” “Start the engines now,” Erix repeated, “or I’ll just kill you and figure it out for myself.” “If you’ve never flown a plane from my world before, you wouldn’t figure it out in time anyway…” Roger sighed, reaching for the controls, relieved that he thought to engage the killswitch before anyone else could board, fearing that even the slightest hint of operability— damage or no damage— might arouse suspicions of sabotage or subterfuge. “As you can see, we’re grounded. Believe it or not, the bounty hunter was looking to capture your ship.” “That’s rich,” Erix snorted. “Wouldn’t’ve done her any good anyway.” “Roger, who are you talking to?” a young man’s voice piped up on the radio, for Roger’s mic was still set to voice-activated, and the pilot winced, having no idea how his captor might react. “But Max is out here…” another voice pointed out. “Then that means…” There was no mistaking the alarm in Max’s voice as the three companions arrived at the same ominous conclusion. “Roger,” one of them called out, “is Erix in there?” For his part, Erix slid his free hand’s index finger across his throat in a gesture the pilot understood all too well. “I see him!” one of them called out. “He’s inside with him!” “He means to maroon us…” the other realized aloud. “Back to the ship!” Max called out. “Not so fast!” Erix told them, well aware that his previous ruse was at an end. “If you’ve figured out I’m here, then you already know I have a hostage. If you value his life, you won’t show your face anywhere near this plane.” “The joke’s on you, Erix,” the first voice informed him. “That bird won’t fly anymore.” “Way ahead of you, Shades” Erix countered, “so don’t get smart with me. I’m taking this man as both insurance, and as my personal pack animal. He looks like he could use the exercise… We’re going to be rounding up some supplies, and then you’re going to let us just walk right out of here, got it?” “Dammit…” the other muttered. “Justin, he’s got us right where he wants us,” Shades reminded him. “But what about…” Max seemed to take some unseen cue to zip his lip. “You, get up,” Erix commanded. “Slowly, and no funny business. Your life ends at the same time as your usefulness to me, remember that. Your only hope of surviving this is getting me back to civilization, or a working ship out of here.” Roger doubted that, not just based on Roxy’s accounts of him, but a strong intuition that his first statement was truer than the latter, that even making it that far with him was no guarantee of survival. Despite several hours of elevation and applying cold packs, his leg was still extremely stiff and sore, so there was no hiding the full extent of his injury as he attempted to limp across the cabin at gunpoint, nearly falling on his face once he ran out of modular seats to lean on. “You’re off to a bad start,” Erix chided him. “Playing gimp will do you no good. After all, if you can’t haul supplies, then your use is at an end as soon as I’m clear of them.” “Just… just give me a moment…” Roger groaned, seeing something Erix apparently didn’t know about. Wincing in both pain and guilt, unsure how he could face Max after whatever happened next, he turned toward the compartment next to the tiny bathroom near the rear of the plane, telling his captor, “I keep some old military rations in here, in case I ever got stranded…” Sure enough, Erix was so focused on watching Roger’s every move, he failed to notice the black-and-white panther, still hiding behind some empty cargo crates after being spooked by the explosion, until Bandit reached out with a snarl and slashed Erix’s leg as he moved belatedly to evade him. “Holy shit!” Erix lost his grip on his power pistol as he staggered back against the cargo door. As the big cat lunged at Erix again, Roger wasted no time locking himself in the bathroom, while Erix’s second evasion caught his wrist on the door latch, hauling the cargo door back open. Pouncing again as Erix regained his balance, this time dumping him on the ground outside. “Bandit!” Max wailed, watching them wrestle on the ground before Erix came out on top, holding one of his now-activated laser claws up to his feline companion’s head. Bandit, seeming to realize the threat, his struggling ceased. “Good kitty. That’s more like it,” Erix remarked, dragging both of themselves to their feet. That cry, combined with the look on Max’s face, told him everything he needed to know about this one. Which was a good thing for him, since he could now see that they had the Albatross covered from three points, with his back to the sea. “Next, you’re going to toss me some rope to make a leash out of.” “Take me,” Max said instead, dropping his power pistol and raising his hands. Over six feet tall, and broad-shouldered, with shoulder-length blond hair bound by a headband adorned with an ancestral symbol. Though a swordsman and fighter of much untapped potential, none of his usual confidence was in evidence, his sea-grey eyes fixed on his feline friend. “Nice try,” Erix taunted. He already understood that killing Bandit would set all three of them off. That for all his previous self-righteous talk, Max would kill him, or die trying. Under other circumstances, that could make for an interesting contest, but here it would be three against one, surrounded, with nothing to even the odds. “But I want to see you squirm, for the way you humiliated me back in Anchor Point. If I can’t have a pack animal, I’ll settle for a meat-shield until I’m clear of you.” “But Bandit was injured in the crash,” Shades protested, figuring Erix would find out soon enough anyway. Though his sunglasses could make him seem opaque, the rest of his face betrayed his alarm and dismay all too transparently right now. Of more modest stature than his friend, his denim jacket and cargo pants somehow always conveyed an impression of armor, and Erix had already learned, holding him hostage many moons ago, that if nothing else, that gear contained a fair number of concealed weapons and tools. For now, though, his power pistol drifted groundward in his obvious hesitation. “Take me instead,” Max repeated. “But you know he won’t let you live,” Justin pointed out. Short and wiry, with black hair and a quick, narrow face, he held a double-barrel disrupter pistol. Frozen pointed right at Erix, trigger finger straining against a lifetime of experiences that informed every fiber of his being that he needed to pull it, cursing the fact that he couldn’t bring himself to do that to the pilot who saved their lives only hours ago. “How about I take you instead?” Erix drew his other power pistol to cover Bandit as he pointed at Shades. “We had so much fun last time, didn’t we?” Shades swallowed hard at that prospect in spite of himself. Though Erix kept a firm hand on the scruff of Bandit’s neck, the angle prevented him from piercing the big cat directly with his claws, instead keeping the pistol trained on him as he stood the rest of the way up. “I’m not going to tell you again,” Erix warned them. “Lower your weapons, and prepare to pack. One of you is going to be my new—” All eyes on Erix, so none of them saw it coming when a box went flying out of the cargo door, hitting Erix across the back of the head, knocking him flat on his face before he could make a move. “That’s fat man, to you!” Roger blustered as he staggered over to the cargo door. When he nearly tripped over Erix’s other power pistol, he merely scooped it up and appropriated it as his own as he hobbled over. “Nobody hijacks my Albatross!” For his part, Bandit bolted the second Erix lost his grip, scampering over to Max as fast as his injured paw would allow. “You killed my client, troublesome as she was…” Roger now stood over Erix, power pistol in hand. “You even tried to kill the rest of my passengers when we’re already stranded in the middle of goddamn nowhere…” “Roger!” Justin shouted. “Finish him off! Now!” Raising his own disrupter to do just that, as he feared this pilot lacked the wherewithal to go through with it himself. Max reached over to retrieve his dropped power pistol. Just when it looked like the dreaded outlaw Erix was going to die at the hands of some civilian pilot with almost no combat experience to his name, Roger looked over at them, as if realizing for the first time where he was, or what he was doing, and saw Shades facepalm at him. Thus Erix took Roger completely by surprise when he scissored his legs, tripping him. Roger howled in agony, landing on his injured leg. “You’re as soft as the rest of them,” Erix muttered as he snatched up his other gun, pointing it at the pilot while they were still entangled, before Justin could even readjust his aim. “Nobody move!” Rubbing the back of his head with his free hand, still keeping his weapon trained on the pilot. He could feel blood oozing down his torn pantleg, and wanted more than anything to shoot that damn cat, but knew he needed the right moment. “You may not serve as a pack animal, but you’ll still do as a human shield. Now get up.” “But my leg…” Roger groaned. “If you can’t get up,” Erix warned him, “your worthless life ends here.” “Then so does yours,” Max told him. Steadying his power pistol with stern effort. Trying not to think about what just happened to Bandit, lest he pull the trigger too soon and get Roger killed for sure. “We have you surrounded,” Shades reminded him. “You can’t shoot all of us at once,” Justin added. “If I die, I won’t die alone,” Erix assured them, watching Roger struggle back to his feet. “I can take at least one of you with me, and you’ll have no one but yourselves to blame.” Once the pilot was back on his feet, Erix stepped in close, keeping the pilot between himself and his enemies, to serve as a human shield if they tried anything else. The others kept their position, remaining spread out, uncomfortably aware that Erix could hide behind his hostage, and still get off shots at them if push came to shove. “Limp for your life,” Erix ordered as Roger hobbled along. “This is where we part ways. I won’t release him until you turn back for the ship.” “And just how will you release him?” Shades pressed, ignoring the sweat pouring down his neck with an effort. “Just from you, or also from the world of the living?” “What’s worthless around here is your word,” Max stated, “and he has no reason to cooperate if you’re just going to kill him anyway.” “You’re not getting past us,” Justin told him as they continued to bar his way past the abandoned seaside lodge, into the woods behind it. “Which leaves us at an impasse,” Erix admitted. “That bounty hunter wanted me, but you just want to live, right?…” Erix’s words drifted away from Roger as he thought hard. He could imagine no version of this where he would come out alive, and no serious chance of all three of his passengers surviving whatever happened next. He could leave his life in Erix’s deadly hands, or take it into his own. Taking one last breath, Roger tried to elbow him, but Erix felt him shift in mid step. He got the foot-long energy blades built into Erix’s glove, right through the chest for his trouble. Puncturing his left lung and piercing his heart. “So be it, Fat Man.” This fatal blow turned Roger into a human sandbag, dragging Erix down with him just as surely as if he ducked. Thus Justin, the quickest on the draw, missed him by a mile as Erix raised his power pistol and shot back, nailing him several times before he hit the ground. Now trapped in this desperate gamble, Erix turned on Max next, seeing him falter with Bandit in the middle of their shootout, only grazing his shoulder with one energy beam before going down. Shades thought fast, cutting loose with a barrage of stun shots, looking to avoid killing any of his friends while neutralizing Erix at the same time. But not fast enough, as Erix hit him while he was still tracking Erix’s sudden drop. Bandit was almost upon him, snarling in inarticulate rage, but Erix shoved Roger’s corpse at the big cat, tripping him up just as he was about to spring. Thus Bandit landed flat on his face in a most unfeline fashion, as Erix whipped out one of his twin laser blades and decapitated him. Kicking the dead cat as he staggered back to his feet. “Bandit…” Badly wounded, Max still hung on to his power pistol, struggling to regain his feet, lifting his arm with painful effort, one last thought etched on his face as he raised his head and looked Erix square in the eye. Too slow, too halting; Erix shot first as he pulled the trigger one last time. Offering the final word: “I told you… Hero’s die y—” The words caught in his throat as an energy beam pierced his own chest. For a moment, he could only stare in shock at the ghost who stepped out from around the corner of the abandoned lodge, cloak fluttering over squarish shoulder guards, one of several pieces of light armor she fortified military garb of unknown origin with. Caked with sand and soot from head to foot, her blonde hair blown all to one side in a manner that might have looked cartoonish if it wasn’t for the fire in her violet eyes. Her bulky disrupter pistol, with its wicked-looking bayonet deployed, aimed square at him, barrel smoking. “But how…” Erix struggled to raise his gun as the Cyexian bounty hunter put several more rounds in him, his power pistol clunking to the ground as he fell to his knees, then flat on his face. “The rocks,” the Hunter replied, still keeping a keen eye on him as she strode up. The same rock formations that grounded his ship having clearly shielded her from the worst of the self-destruct charges. “Just barely enough time…” Then her radio got damaged, so she chose to play dead and move in silence. And apparently took too long getting back. It all happened so fast, even as she was positioning herself. At point-blank, she shot him with a couple stun shots, to be sure he wasn’t playing possum, then fired up her laser staff and cut his head clean off. She spat in the dirt, the taste of this long-sought victory bitter to her tongue as she surveyed the cost. Though she doubted anyone in this backwater realm could even afford the bounty Erix had racked up, she was dead certain his head would no longer be recognizable by the time she made it anyplace that could be mistaken for civilization anyway. At this stage more of a personal point than a professional one, Roxy reached down and plucked out his glass eye. She then took his laser swords and energy claws, trophies he would never part with willingly. Proof of the deed, even if no one would honor the bounty for him. She then punted his severed head into the waves, deciding that the scavengers could have it, a fitting end for one who left so many others for the carrion-birds. Setting aside this matter, now dead as her nemesis, she turned to Roger, seeing that he had already bled out from wounds she would have no way of saving him from anyway. “You delivered on all your promises,” she told the pilot. “If anyone failed here, it was I.” Hearing a groan from off to the side, she perked up, seeing Shades rolling slightly on the ground in a vain effort to move, and rushed over to him. “Amy… John…” he moaned, trying to sit up, but finding his body no longer wanted to cooperate with him. Tears streaming from behind opaque lenses as his efforts grew steadily weaker. Eyes dimming, even as they filled with a vision of mountains, and a desert sunset beyond, the disappointing sense of being so close, yet so far away. So many close calls, all over the Sixth Dimension, just to fall here, in the middle of nowhere… “I’m sorry…” “I promise you… Dexter…” Roxy told him, choosing to speak the name his mother gave him, taking his trembling hand. During their flight from Anchor Point, she had added John’s photo, and all of Shades’ search information, to her datapad, just in case she met either of them anywhere in her own travels. “If we ever cross paths, I will tell them that you gave your life protecting your friends.” Seeing that there was nothing she could do for him anymore, likely not had she been even a couple minutes earlier and had the plane’s First Aid kit right beside her, she stunned him and put him out of his misery. Lifted his namesake sunglasses, closing his eyes before gently lowering the mirrorized lenses back in place. Reflecting that they just somehow belonged there, even in death. Laboring to stifle her own attempts at hope, she turned to Justin next, finding him already dead. “If I ever meet this Jesse Fletcher, I’ll kick his ass and let him know why.” She laid both of his disrupter pistols across his chest. “Then I’ll tell him about the real Justin Black…” Finding Max just as deceased, she bowed her head. “You were an honorable man, almost to a fault. If there is anything beyond this life, I hope you find peace there that you couldn’t find here…” Looking about the gravelly beach, the scene of so much death in just a couple short minutes, Roxy took a deep breath before offering them the closest thing she could manage to an apology for those who died fighting. “Rest easy, knowing you are avenged…” Finding herself standing all alone on an unknown shore, in an unknown realm, it took her a long moment to regain her focus and decide her next move. Seeing as how the place had offered no response of any sort since their crash landing last night, Roxy turned her attention to the derelict lodge. Now that she could focus on the building itself, she found she didn’t like the way the trees seemed to encroach on the surrounding buildings. Feeling hemmed in on all sides in a way that just didn’t sit right with her. Log cabin construction, with notched corners that protruded about half a foot on each end, cut flat and flush with each other. Wood shingles growing moss, a few sagging beams, a couple broken windows, and the lingering certainty that any damage was done solely by natural occurrences, such as last night’s storm. Deserted for years, by the look of it. A deep-hooded porch almost as wide as the front of the lodge, with steps leading up to the entrance. A long, flat hunk of driftwood hung from the eaves above the porch steps, the words Camp Stilton decoratively carved and burned into it. Much to her surprise, the front door was unlocked, letting into the dim mustiness of the interior. Log architecture, matching the exterior to a T, but only a few windows, all them dusty, admitting only limited light from outside, so she switched on the flashlight under the barrel of her disrupter pistol. As the door creaked open with a stuttering grind, announcing her presence louder than she would have preferred, she knew any pretense of stealth was past. Though Roxy suspected, after the whole explosion part earlier, as well as all the shooting, that anyone holed up in here would surely have flown the coop by now. Along with the total lack of any response at any point since their crash landing last night, the dusty silence only served to confirm her suspicions about the place’s abandonment. Still, she found a moment to wonder why it would bother her so much, what with all of the abandoned places she prowled on her hunts. Torn between leaving the door open to offer a hasty exit, or shutting it again for an early warning if anyone else tried to enter while she was inside, she settled for the quick exit, as she somehow doubted anyone else would be dropping by here any time soon. She could also tell from the smell that the roof was every bit as leaky as they had feared, adding to her relief that they didn’t have to abandon ship and stay the night in here. Creaky floorboards made sneaking impossible, raising dust with even small movements. Letting her eyes adjust to the gloom as she made her way past the foyer. Despite seeing no immediate evidence of illness or contagion, Roxy still whipped out a bandana from her belt pouch— often used to ward off her own smokescreen during raids— to tie over her face. After all, abandoned buildings could also harbor all manner of mold and fungus. Though by no means as foolproof as a respirator or dust mask, it was still better than nothing. She found the place deserted. As if everyone just packed up and left in a terrible hurry. For her, that was the eeriest part about it. No barricades or signs of struggle. Either they surrendered without a fight, or someone went to great lengths to clean up afterward. The latter, especially, made little sense if it was all just going to be left to rot in the end anyway. There were a couple broken windows here and there, but all of it looked more like incidental storm damage than the work of vandals or squatters. Much like how all the furnishings were intact and unsoiled by anything more than the occasional roof leak, as well as a general lack of indoor ‘camping’ squalor. The bathroom, though slightly mildewy, was also in order. Also didn’t look like it had been scrubbed down clean enough to eat off of, either, the best evidence it was not contamination or plague. Reconsidering the matter, she decided she could trust the apparent haste of their departure, that if a sickness was that bad, no one would have bothered to clean up after it on their way out. The whole place looking to have been hastily abandoned, with no signs of recent visitation. So much left behind, looking largely untampered-with in all the years since. She couldn’t help but wonder, after all this time, how such a viable, if remote, shelter showed no signs of appropriation, even in passing. Figured there had to be a reason, and feared she would find out all too soon, whether she cared to or not. Beyond the lobby and accompanying bathroom, was a mess hall that occupied most of the lodge, with half a dozen long, wooden tables and matching log benches. To her left was a massive stone fireplace, whose chimney she had spied outside on the way in, and the walls were mounted with a few dusty paintings, as well as old logging and outdoor tools. Looking up at the rafters, a whole level above, she noticed a loft above the lobby portion, with stairs climbing above the door to the adjoining kitchen. Turning that way, Roxy spotted a bulletin board. Mostly empty, as if a whole bunch of things all got cancelled at once. Might have failed to notice it at all if not for the pair of yellowed papers tacked to the center of it. The first one had the words MISSING GIRL scrawled across it in big, bold letters. Below that was the name Kelly Edwards, followed by a big blank space. Down at her feet, she very nearly stepped on an old, faded photograph of a little girl with short, dark hair, and a shy-looking expression, with a twinkle of small white gemstone earrings. Next to the first notice was another one, written in a shaky, frantic-looking hand that struck her as the embodiment of barely-contained panic, advising everyone to stay in the lodge or in their cabins until further notice. She quickly snapped some pics with her datapad. Something really bad happened here… Especially the absence of anything about search parties or rescue efforts one would expect for a missing child. This further notice sounding more and more like some sort of evacuation to her, and one grim enough to leave a child behind. Though likely meant to hold back outright panic, there was still something about the vagueness of it all that bothered her, mostly because it provided no clue if the threat that emptied this place out back then still existed. Seeing nothing else of interest in this main chamber, she mounted the creaky steps to the loft, finding the structure aged, but of solid craftsmanship. She wasn’t too surprised to find the loft served as an office of sorts, with a table against the wall, and an old-fashioned-looking two-way radio sitting on it. Spread across the wall above the emergency radio was a map. Shining her light upon it, she read the legend: COMMONWEALTH OF SINOVIA: Peninsula District. As the name suggested, this Camp Stilton was located on the coast, above the ‘shin’ of a boot-shaped peninsula, of what appeared to be a much larger landmass. More land than she had seen in one place in a long time. With an effort, she pulled her eyes away from the map and reached out to remove it from the wall, deciding it would be wise to take it back to the plane, where she could study it in more detail, and greater security. Even at a glance, she could see signs of hope and cause for concern, but wanted to take a closer look before figuring out her next move. Just a test, Roxy tried to activate the radio, and was not exactly surprised to when nothing happened. Radio dead, bare bulbs dark. There was probably a generator on the grounds somewhere, but much like those rusty hulks fenced outside, she doubted it would start anymore. She was about to examine the desk and cabinet, though she doubted she would find anything half as interesting as the map, when she spotted a note left on the table in front of the radio. That leaky roof having splotched it with so much mold, it was all too easy to mistake for more of the water damage to the tabletop, leaving only a couple fragments of it even readable. By far the biggest leak above the table, she noticed, and it was hard not to shake off the paranoid feeling that something was trying to destroy that note, the radio itself long-since useless. In between the blotches, all she could make out was: If anyone finds … leave immediat— … —e woods will … radio recep— … no signal fro— … to get the children out … but not to Rannigan’s … last seen — grove — never there bef— … woods have become too dangerous to sear— … —ay Kelly’s parents forgi— Even with all the missing puzzle pieces, Roxy still felt an ominous chill at what she was reading. Something menacing the camp? But what? Whatever happened, it drove them to abandon a child to apparently save the rest, a decision she could not imagine anyone making lightly. She frowned, putting the note back down and wiping her hand on her pantleg, making another datapad entry of it, then made her way downstairs and back outside, where she nearly kicked a small wooden sign lying on the ground next to the porch steps. As if it was once nailed to the roof support beam at the foot of the steps. She slid the toe of her armored boot under it and flipped it over, exposing faded red letters: WARNING! TURN BACK! DANGER AHEAD! “Tch…” Figuring it would’ve been all too easy if she found that first. As she looked up at the shore, toward the plane wreck, she spotted movement, raising her disrupter on pure instinct. At first she thought some aquatic creatures had dragged a bunch of seaweed ashore with them as they investigated the beach in front of the Albatross, but on closer inspection, she could see they were draping themselves over her fallen companions. She approached the masses of shimmering fronds cautiously, weapon trained on the nearest ones. Her first clear view of the creatures drove home what her subconscious had been way ahead of the curve about: chalk-white corpses festooned with seaweed, molesting the dead in an apparent feeding frenzy. From their soaking sheen, to their sea-brine smell, there was little doubt where they slithered up from. One of them, having apparently noticed the bounty hunter’s approach, looked up with rheumy, empty eyes, staring right at her. It parted its blood-streaked lips to reveal rows of needle teeth that did not belong in the mouth of any human being. Letting out an ear-splitting shriek that nearly caused her to fumble her weapon in spite of herself. Then she opened fire, and that got all of their attention right quick. At first they tried to crawl toward her, flopping and dragging themselves in a way that only made sense once she noticed that none of them had any legs, but once she put a couple of them down, the others shrieked in outrage. Then started flopping back toward the watery grave she was sure they meant to drag the dead into. Seeing that she had interrupted their frightful feast before it could rightly begin, she immediately set to dragging each of her travel companions’ corpses farther ashore. Stricken with a primal sense of disgust at letting such foul things have them, even in death. Keeping a wary eye on both the fallen ones, which she also beheaded with her laser staff, just to be sure, and one eye on the water, against their almost inevitable return. As ungainly and awkward as they were on dry land, she had no doubt they would make for much deadlier foes underwater. One by one, she hauled three old friends and their cat up to the nearest cabin, next to Stilton Lodge, placing each one in a bed. Fairly sure she’d put a strong fear in those creatures, as they failed to reappear in between rounds. Once all four of them were inside, she shut them in, carving their names on the door. The closest thing to a grave or a tomb she would be able to provide. Along the way, she had gathered the others’ weapons back at the plane. “I will do you honor with their use…” she promised them as she walked away from the cabin. Once back at the plane, she brought Roger aboard, propping him up in the pilot’s seat, figuring this was where he would want to be at the end. Though less than enthusiastic about sharing the cockpit with a corpse, she still felt she had done right by him this one last time. All the same, she still made sure to check that the cargo door lock still worked. Just glad Erix hadn’t blown or carved any holes in the hull or anything. That covered everyone except Erix, whom she left for the scavengers, but dragged away from the plane to help draw the corpse-things off, as she couldn’t help the intuition that she had not seen the last of them. Now certain she had brought this upon herself, Erix’s head spreading blood in the water, even the knowledge that she had no clue of their existence feeling like a poor excuse in hindsight. Given the foul creatures’ limited mobility on land, she figured she was safe enough as long as she kept the cargo doors locked. All the same, she kept her guard up, and a tool carefully balanced on the door latch, so that anything that disturbed it would make plenty of noise. Only then did she set herself to studying the map. According to which, they had landed in the Commonwealth of Sinovia, Peninsula District, at Camp Stilton. Most of the map depicting the coast above and below the boot-shaped Woodbine Peninsula, on which Stilton was just past the ‘shin’ of. The rest of what it revealed was less than encouraging. She stared long at that map, wondering just how big this realm of Sinovia could be. Farther along the shore, in the direction of Erix’s ship, or what was left of it, appeared to be a settlement marked Rannigan’s Wharf. The nearest location, probably less than a day’s walk from Camp Stilton. Much to her dismay, though, the name was X-ed out in black pen so hard it scratched the paper, with the disconcerting legends Don’t go! and No return! hastily inscribed next to it. Inland, several locations were marked, though most of it was a big blank space, simply marked as Durwyn Wood. A couple logging mills, officially marked Rigby Millworks and Pickford Mills. As well as a handwritten Ol’ Tobey’s near a road, about halfway between Stilton and the coastline on the other side of the peninsula. A more dubious scribble near the peninsula proper, marked Circle Stones? a little off the beaten path, which put her in mind of several ancient monuments she’d stumbled across in the course of her own journeys. Along the Woodbine Peninsula itself were marked several small names, each one with a hand-written question mark next to it. The only exception was farther up the coast from the peninsula, near the upper right edge of the map, a town marked Pickford. That map, as well as the note, had all the feel of having been left as some kind of warning, suggesting that the best course of action would be to put back out to sea. Not much help, in her situation. Even the part scribbled on the sea, with an arrow pointing to the peninsula, and a hastily-scrawled advisory to hug the coast, was not terribly encouraging. She wondered a moment if she even had the supplies to take the long way around. Though she had seen an inflatable life raft among the emergency gear, without a motor or sails, it would take days to row around that peninsula. All the while waiting for pale white hands to reach up for her… Even with the most conservative distance estimates, it would surely take more days than she had supplies for, to walk all the way around the peninsula, and the dubious state of the handful of settlements dotting it did nothing to inspire confidence. As much as she would prefer to avoid a long march through the woods, skirting the coast mostly just came across as a series of opportunities for those things to come back after her, whereas she doubted they could follow her very far on land. Based on the warnings— especially the map— and those creatures, an expedition to Rannigan’s Wharf sounded like a fool’s errand at best, a suicide mission at worst. She might have contemplated trying Rannigan’s Wharf in spite of the warnings, just because it was closer, but now she had seen for herself what likely awaited her over there, as well as along every step of the peninsula shore, she concluded that her best bet was to take the direct approach inland, and hope things went better in this Pickford place. She had also tried radio, figuring she was close enough to Rannigan’s to send and receive. But ultimately confirmed neither, instead hearing only static, along with what sounded like frogs croaking, and other, less distinct noises. Of course, she had learned in her travels that radio anomalies never portended anything good, and that was the final word on the matter. Pickford, it is. She could only hope that it wasn’t as abandoned as everyplace else on the map indicated. With her finger, she traced a line marked Hwy 13, that ran from Rannigan’s Wharf past Camp Stilton, then cut through the Durwyn Wood, all the way to Pickford. Reminded herself that people built roads, that they always lead somewhere. All she had to do was follow it. That resolved, she cooked lunch with a camp stove Roger kept onboard for emergencies, pouring him a libation, a cup of some of his finest stash. Toasted him once to send him off, and put the rest back in its compartment. Knowing all too well she would need to keep a clear head if she was going to survive whatever came next out here. She then turned to sorting out the most critical supplies to include in her pack. Leaving most of the canned goods so she could travel light and make better time with less burdensome foodstuffs, jerky and dried fruit, as well as some sealed military rations. Also leaving the camp stove and most of the fuel gel, taking one can with her, just in case she needed to start a fire in less than ideal circumstances. Packed a couple canteens, as much water as she could reasonably carry. An assortment of supplies Roger had picked up along the way in many realms. Both a handheld and a clip-on flashlights. One flare gun and a handful of flares. A cargo tarp, rope and utility knives she knew how to build makeshift tents and other useful things out of. Lighters and a waterproof tube of matches, as well as a couple camping dishes and cookware. A bottle of insect repellant Roger picked up while visiting some tropical island, as well as any other odds and ends she thought she might need out there. Loaded up what weapons and ammo she could reasonably carry, left the rest on the plane, figuring anyone else who got stranded out here would surely need it. Periodically looking out the windows, casting wary glances at the camp, and the woods beyond. She stood in the cargo door for a long moment, could see the late afternoon sun angling toward evening, daylight wasting. Certain that even she would lose her nerve if she had to enter that forest after sundown. For a long moment, she contemplated staying the night aboard the Albatross, getting a fresh start in the morning, but didn’t care to share the cabin with a corpse, and didn’t have the heart to dump him overboard, either. Also wasn’t sure how much defense the downed plane would actually offer, if those things came back in greater numbers. She glanced over, near the rocks, to see Erix’s corpse was already gone, those things having dragged his remains out into the sea while she was working. Short on pity, but still shuddered in spite of herself, wondering if someday a seaweed-thing that looked just like him might menace other unfortunate travelers… Regaining her resolve, she set out to enter the Woods in earnest, as armed and prepared as one could be for the Unknown. As she passed the lodge, she made a point of stopping by the nearest cabin to offer one final moment of silence for three adventurers of such recent, yet very eventful, acquaintance. Near the edge of the Camp Stilton grounds, the dirt road that wound through the camp led into the forest proper. Though the trees were already a strong presence in and around the camp, they practically formed a solid wall along the shallow stream at the edge of the grounds, that, according to the map, would bend a little ways downshore of Stilton to empty into the sea near the last big bend before the curve of the peninsula. The covered wooden bridge crossing it striking her as looking more like a tunnel into the woods. Though the bridge was old and creaky, and slightly warped, it still held, a testament to the craftsmanship of its builders. Little more than a trickle ran beneath it compared to the size of the riverbed, the Amarrack clearly at low ebb, which she could easily cross on foot if the bridge was too frail, she didn’t care to leave any wet footprints so close to her starting point. On the other side, the tree canopy fairly seemed to lean over the old dirt road on both sides, allowing only a scant, golden-green light to filter down to them through layers of leaves. Scenery she might have found rustic and scenic, if it didn’t feel so ominous. Even here, so close to the shore, the salty, briny smell of the sea became ever more muted, and the pungent, primal scents of the Woods began to take over, the sound of the tide completely lost. Resisting the temptation to look back, she put one foot forward, then the other.

[shadesmaclean]

Bonus “What If?” Story

“SOLE SURVIVOR” From the cockpit of his beached Albatross, Roger Wilco could still see the explosion from around the bend in the shore, flinging debris from beyond the pines and into the sea. The explosion, which must surely have been Erix’s ship, was not what any of them expected, judging from the others’ reaction over the radio. From the way the others cried out her name, it was Roxy who got caught in the blast, leaving him with the sinking feeling the bounty hunter must have blundered into some kind of trap. As the noise of the explosion faded, along with the ringing in his ears, the pilot listened in tense anticipation. Far as he could tell, the others were still alive, though whether anyone else was harmed was too incoherent to determine. He watched Max run out into the open to see if there was anything he could do for them. Thus it was only when he felt a laser gun pressed against the side of his head that he realized he was not alone, that the spectacle outside was not only a booby-trap, but also a diversion. “Not one word, fat boy,” a soft, menacing voice warned him, “and not one move. You’re my ticket out of here. If you value your life, you’re going to start these engines and haul ass.” Sweat dripping down Roger’s back at the understanding that he was now all alone with the infamous outlaw they had chased all the way from the island of Yarbo. Found it difficult to make eye contact with his one good eye, grey and intense, even harder to linger on his dead, glassy left, with the trio of scars streaking down that side of his face. An old wound from the very foe he just acquitted himself of only moments ago. “It’s not that simple,” the pilot told him, half afraid to speak, but all too well aware of how a lack of cooperation without any explanation might be construed. Though he kept a revolver from his own dimension concealed under the dash, as a last resort, he cursed himself for not arming himself sooner, as it may as well be out on the nose of the plane for all the good it was doing him now. Instead, he struggled not to even look in its general direction, for fear of giving it away. “We took some heavy damage from the storm, and lost both engines.” “Do you expect me to believe that?” Erix demanded. “Just what kind of fool do you think take me for?” “No fool, I assure you,” the pilot replied, still struggling to regain his mental footing after being caught unawares like this. Sweating, trying hard not to think about the hidden killswitch concealed among some of the older control switches, which he had installed years ago, as an anti-hijacking measure. And engaged behind everyone else’s backs after they embarked on this ill-fated hunt for the man who now stood behind him. “We’re as stranded as you are.” “Start the engines now,” Erix repeated, “or I’ll just kill you and figure it out for myself.” “If you’ve never flown a plane from my world before, you wouldn’t figure it out in time anyway…” Roger sighed, reaching for the controls, relieved that he thought to engage the killswitch before anyone else could board, fearing that even the slightest hint of operability— damage or no damage— might arouse suspicions of sabotage or subterfuge. “As you can see, we’re grounded. Believe it or not, the bounty hunter was looking to capture your ship.” “That’s rich,” Erix snorted. “Wouldn’t’ve done her any good anyway.” “Roger, who are you talking to?” a young man’s voice piped up on the radio, for Roger’s mic was still set to voice-activated, and the pilot winced, having no idea how his captor might react. “But Max is out here…” another voice pointed out. “Then that means…” There was no mistaking the alarm in Max’s voice as the three companions arrived at the same ominous conclusion. “Roger,” one of them called out, “is Erix in there?” For his part, Erix slid his free hand’s index finger across his throat in a gesture the pilot understood all too well. “I see him!” one of them called out. “He’s inside with him!” “He means to maroon us…” the other realized aloud. “Back to the ship!” Max called out. “Not so fast!” Erix told them, well aware that his previous ruse was at an end. “If you’ve figured out I’m here, then you already know I have a hostage. If you value his life, you won’t show your face anywhere near this plane.” “The joke’s on you, Erix,” the first voice informed him. “That bird won’t fly anymore.” “Way ahead of you, Shades” Erix countered, “so don’t get smart with me. I’m taking this man as both insurance, and as my personal pack animal. He looks like he could use the exercise… We’re going to be rounding up some supplies, and then you’re going to let us just walk right out of here, got it?” ��Dammit…” the other muttered. “Justin, he’s got us right where he wants us,” Shades reminded him. “But what about…” Max seemed to take some unseen cue to zip his lip. “You, get up,” Erix commanded. “Slowly, and no funny business. Your life ends at the same time as your usefulness to me, remember that. Your only hope of surviving this is getting me back to civilization, or a working ship out of here.” Roger doubted that, not just based on Roxy’s accounts of him, but a strong intuition that his first statement was truer than the latter, that even making it that far with him was no guarantee of survival. Despite several hours of elevation and applying cold packs, his leg was still extremely stiff and sore, so there was no hiding the full extent of his injury as he attempted to limp across the cabin at gunpoint, nearly falling on his face once he ran out of modular seats to lean on. “You’re off to a bad start,” Erix chided him. “Playing gimp will do you no good. After all, if you can’t haul supplies, then your use is at an end as soon as I’m clear of them.” “Just… just give me a moment…” Roger groaned, seeing something Erix apparently didn’t know about. Wincing in both pain and guilt, unsure how he could face Max after whatever happened next, he turned toward the compartment next to the tiny bathroom near the rear of the plane, telling his captor, “I keep some old military rations in here, in case I ever got stranded…” Sure enough, Erix was so focused on watching Roger’s every move, he failed to notice the black-and-white panther, still hiding behind some empty cargo crates after being spooked by the explosion, until Bandit reached out with a snarl and slashed Erix’s leg as he moved belatedly to evade him. “Holy shit!” Erix lost his grip on his power pistol as he staggered back against the cargo door. As the big cat lunged at Erix again, Roger wasted no time locking himself in the bathroom, while Erix’s second evasion caught his wrist on the door latch, hauling the cargo door back open. Pouncing again as Erix regained his balance, this time dumping him on the ground outside. “Bandit!” Max wailed, watching them wrestle on the ground before Erix came out on top, holding one of his now-activated laser claws up to his feline companion’s head. Bandit, seeming to realize the threat, his struggling ceased. “Good kitty. That’s more like it,” Erix remarked, dragging both of themselves to their feet. That cry, combined with the look on Max’s face, told him everything he needed to know about this one. Which was a good thing for him, since he could now see that they had the Albatross covered from three points, with his back to the sea. “Next, you’re going to toss me some rope to make a leash out of.” “Take me,” Max said instead, dropping his power pistol and raising his hands. Over six feet tall, and broad-shouldered, with shoulder-length blond hair bound by a headband adorned with an ancestral symbol. Though a swordsman and fighter of much untapped potential, none of his usual confidence was in evidence, his sea-grey eyes fixed on his feline friend. “Nice try,” Erix taunted. He already understood that killing Bandit would set all three of them off. That for all his previous self-righteous talk, Max would kill him, or die trying. Under other circumstances, that could make for an interesting contest, but here it would be three against one, surrounded, with nothing to even the odds. “But I want to see you squirm, for the way you humiliated me back in Anchor Point. If I can’t have a pack animal, I’ll settle for a meat-shield until I’m clear of you.” “But Bandit was injured in the crash,” Shades protested, figuring Erix would find out soon enough anyway. Though his sunglasses could make him seem opaque, the rest of his face betrayed his alarm and dismay all too transparently right now. Of more modest stature than his friend, his denim jacket and cargo pants somehow always conveyed an impression of armor, and Erix had already learned, holding him hostage many moons ago, that if nothing else, that gear contained a fair number of concealed weapons and tools. For now, though, his power pistol drifted groundward in his obvious hesitation. “Take me instead,” Max repeated. “But you know he won’t let you live,” Justin pointed out. Short and wiry, with black hair and a quick, narrow face, he held a double-barrel disrupter pistol. Frozen pointed right at Erix, trigger finger straining against a lifetime of experiences that informed every fiber of his being that he needed to pull it, cursing the fact that he couldn’t bring himself to do that to the pilot who saved their lives only hours ago. “How about I take you instead?” Erix drew his other power pistol to cover Bandit as he pointed at Shades. “We had so much fun last time, didn’t we?” Shades swallowed hard at that prospect in spite of himself. Though Erix kept a firm hand on the scruff of Bandit’s neck, the angle prevented him from piercing the big cat directly with his claws, instead keeping the pistol trained on him as he stood the rest of the way up. “I’m not going to tell you again,” Erix warned them. “Lower your weapons, and prepare to pack. One of you is going to be my new—” All eyes on Erix, so none of them saw it coming when a box went flying out of the cargo door, hitting Erix across the back of the head, knocking him flat on his face before he could make a move. “That’s fat man, to you!” Roger blustered as he staggered over to the cargo door. When he nearly tripped over Erix’s other power pistol, he merely scooped it up and appropriated it as his own as he hobbled over. “Nobody hijacks my Albatross!” For his part, Bandit bolted the second Erix lost his grip, scampering over to Max as fast as his injured paw would allow. “You killed my client, troublesome as she was…” Roger now stood over Erix, power pistol in hand. “You even tried to kill the rest of my passengers when we’re already stranded in the middle of goddamn nowhere…” “Roger!” Justin shouted. “Finish him off! Now!” Raising his own disrupter to do just that, as he feared this pilot lacked the wherewithal to go through with it himself. Max reached over to retrieve his dropped power pistol. Just when it looked like the dreaded outlaw Erix was going to die at the hands of some civilian pilot with almost no combat experience to his name, Roger looked over at them, as if realizing for the first time where he was, or what he was doing, and saw Shades facepalm at him. Thus Erix took Roger completely by surprise when he scissored his legs, tripping him. Roger howled in agony, landing on his injured leg. “You’re as soft as the rest of them,” Erix muttered as he snatched up his other gun, pointing it at the pilot while they were still entangled, before Justin could even readjust his aim. “Nobody move!” Rubbing the back of his head with his free hand, still keeping his weapon trained on the pilot. He could feel blood oozing down his torn pantleg, and wanted more than anything to shoot that damn cat, but knew he needed the right moment. “You may not serve as a pack animal, but you’ll still do as a human shield. Now get up.” “But my leg…” Roger groaned. “If you can’t get up,” Erix warned him, “your worthless life ends here.” “Then so does yours,” Max told him. Steadying his power pistol with stern effort. Trying not to think about what just happened to Bandit, lest he pull the trigger too soon and get Roger killed for sure. “We have you surrounded,” Shades reminded him. “You can’t shoot all of us at once,” Justin added. “If I die, I won’t die alone,” Erix assured them, watching Roger struggle back to his feet. “I can take at least one of you with me, and you’ll have no one but yourselves to blame.” Once the pilot was back on his feet, Erix stepped in close, keeping the pilot between himself and his enemies, to serve as a human shield if they tried anything else. The others kept their position, remaining spread out, uncomfortably aware that Erix could hide behind his hostage, and still get off shots at them if push came to shove. “Limp for your life,” Erix ordered as Roger hobbled along. “This is where we part ways. I won’t release him until you turn back for the ship.” “And just how will you release him?” Shades pressed, ignoring the sweat pouring down his neck with an effort. “Just from you, or also from the world of the living?” “What’s worthless around here is your word,” Max stated, “and he has no reason to cooperate if you’re just going to kill him anyway.” “You’re not getting past us,” Justin told him as they continued to bar his way past the abandoned seaside lodge, into the woods behind it. “Which leaves us at an impasse,” Erix admitted. “That bounty hunter wanted me, but you just want to live, right?…” Erix’s words drifted away from Roger as he thought hard. He could imagine no version of this where he would come out alive, and no serious chance of all three of his passengers surviving whatever happened next. He could leave his life in Erix’s deadly hands, or take it into his own. Taking one last breath, Roger tried to elbow him, but Erix felt him shift in mid step. He got the foot-long energy blades built into Erix’s glove, right through the chest for his trouble. Puncturing his left lung and piercing his heart. “So be it, Fat Man.” This fatal blow turned Roger into a human sandbag, dragging Erix down with him just as surely as if he ducked. Thus Justin, the quickest on the draw, missed him by a mile as Erix raised his power pistol and shot back, nailing him several times before he hit the ground. Now trapped in this desperate gamble, Erix turned on Max next, seeing him falter with Bandit in the middle of their shootout, only grazing his shoulder with one energy beam before going down. Shades thought fast, cutting loose with a barrage of stun shots, looking to avoid killing any of his friends while neutralizing Erix at the same time. But not fast enough, as Erix hit him while he was still tracking Erix’s sudden drop. Bandit was almost upon him, snarling in inarticulate rage, but Erix shoved Roger’s corpse at the big cat, tripping him up just as he was about to spring. Thus Bandit landed flat on his face in a most unfeline fashion, as Erix whipped out one of his twin laser blades and decapitated him. Kicking the dead cat as he staggered back to his feet. “Bandit…” Badly wounded, Max still hung on to his power pistol, struggling to regain his feet, lifting his arm with painful effort, one last thought etched on his face as he raised his head and looked Erix square in the eye. Too slow, too halting; Erix shot first as he pulled the trigger one last time. Offering the final word: “I told you… Hero’s die y—” The words caught in his throat as an energy beam pierced his own chest. For a moment, he could only stare in shock at the ghost who stepped out from around the corner of the abandoned lodge, cloak fluttering over squarish shoulder guards, one of several pieces of light armor she fortified military garb of unknown origin with. Caked with sand and soot from head to foot, her blonde hair blown all to one side in a manner that might have looked cartoonish if it wasn’t for the fire in her violet eyes. Her bulky disrupter pistol, with its wicked-looking bayonet deployed, aimed square at him, barrel smoking. “But how…” Erix struggled to raise his gun as the Cyexian bounty hunter put several more rounds in him, his power pistol clunking to the ground as he fell to his knees, then flat on his face. “The rocks,” the Hunter replied, still keeping a keen eye on him as she strode up. The same rock formations that grounded his ship having clearly shielded her from the worst of the self-destruct charges. “Just barely enough time…” Then her radio got damaged, so she chose to play dead and move in silence. And apparently took too long getting back. It all happened so fast, even as she was positioning herself. At point-blank, she shot him with a couple stun shots, to be sure he wasn’t playing possum, then fired up her laser staff and cut his head clean off. She spat in the dirt, the taste of this long-sought victory bitter to her tongue as she surveyed the cost. Though she doubted anyone in this backwater realm could even afford the bounty Erix had racked up, she was dead certain his head would no longer be recognizable by the time she made it anyplace that could be mistaken for civilization anyway. At this stage more of a personal point than a professional one, Roxy reached down and plucked out his glass eye. She then took his laser swords and energy claws, trophies he would never part with willingly. Proof of the deed, even if no one would honor the bounty for him. She then punted his severed head into the waves, deciding that the scavengers could have it, a fitting end for one who left so many others for the carrion-birds. Setting aside this matter, now dead as her nemesis, she turned to Roger, seeing that he had already bled out from wounds she would have no way of saving him from anyway. “You delivered on all your promises,” she told the pilot. “If anyone failed here, it was I.” Hearing a groan from off to the side, she perked up, seeing Shades rolling slightly on the ground in a vain effort to move, and rushed over to him. “Amy… John…” he moaned, trying to sit up, but finding his body no longer wanted to cooperate with him. Tears streaming from behind opaque lenses as his efforts grew steadily weaker. Eyes dimming, even as they filled with a vision of mountains, and a desert sunset beyond, the disappointing sense of being so close, yet so far away. So many close calls, all over the Sixth Dimension, just to fall here, in the middle of nowhere… “I’m sorry…” “I promise you… Dexter…” Roxy told him, choosing to speak the name his mother gave him, taking his trembling hand. During their flight from Anchor Point, she had added John’s photo, and all of Shades’ search information, to her datapad, just in case she met either of them anywhere in her own travels. “If we ever cross paths, I will tell them that you gave your life protecting your friends.” Seeing that there was nothing she could do for him anymore, likely not had she been even a couple minutes earlier and had the plane’s First Aid kit right beside her, she stunned him and put him out of his misery. Lifted his namesake sunglasses, closing his eyes before gently lowering the mirrorized lenses back in place. Reflecting that they just somehow belonged there, even in death. Laboring to stifle her own attempts at hope, she turned to Justin next, finding him already dead. “If I ever meet this Jesse Fletcher, I’ll kick his ass and let him know why.” She laid both of his disrupter pistols across his chest. “Then I’ll tell him about the real Justin Black…” Finding Max just as deceased, she bowed her head. “You were an honorable man, almost to a fault. If there is anything beyond this life, I hope you find peace there that you couldn’t find here…” Looking about the gravelly beach, the scene of so much death in just a couple short minutes, Roxy took a deep breath before offering them the closest thing she could manage to an apology for those who died fighting. “Rest easy, knowing you are avenged…” Finding herself standing all alone on an unknown shore, in an unknown realm, it took her a long moment to regain her focus and decide her next move. Seeing as how the place had offered no response of any sort since their crash landing last night, Roxy turned her attention to the derelict lodge. Now that she could focus on the building itself, she found she didn’t like the way the trees seemed to encroach on the surrounding buildings. Feeling hemmed in on all sides in a way that just didn’t sit right with her. Log cabin construction, with notched corners that protruded about half a foot on each end, cut flat and flush with each other. Wood shingles growing moss, a few sagging beams, a couple broken windows, and the lingering certainty that any damage was done solely by natural occurrences, such as last night’s storm. Deserted for years, by the look of it. A deep-hooded porch almost as wide as the front of the lodge, with steps leading up to the entrance. A long, flat hunk of driftwood hung from the eaves above the porch steps, the words Camp Stilton decoratively carved and burned into it. Much to her surprise, the front door was unlocked, letting into the dim mustiness of the interior. Log architecture, matching the exterior to a T, but only a few windows, all them dusty, admitting only limited light from outside, so she switched on the flashlight under the barrel of her disrupter pistol. As the door creaked open with a stuttering grind, announcing her presence louder than she would have preferred, she knew any pretense of stealth was past. Though Roxy suspected, after the whole explosion part earlier, as well as all the shooting, that anyone holed up in here would surely have flown the coop by now. Along with the total lack of any response at any point since their crash landing last night, the dusty silence only served to confirm her suspicions about the place’s abandonment. Still, she found a moment to wonder why it would bother her so much, what with all of the abandoned places she prowled on her hunts. Torn between leaving the door open to offer a hasty exit, or shutting it again for an early warning if anyone else tried to enter while she was inside, she settled for the quick exit, as she somehow doubted anyone else would be dropping by here any time soon. She could also tell from the smell that the roof was every bit as leaky as they had feared, adding to her relief that they didn’t have to abandon ship and stay the night in here. Creaky floorboards made sneaking impossible, raising dust with even small movements. Letting her eyes adjust to the gloom as she made her way past the foyer. Despite seeing no immediate evidence of illness or contagion, Roxy still whipped out a bandana from her belt pouch— often used to ward off her own smokescreen during raids— to tie over her face. After all, abandoned buildings could also harbor all manner of mold and fungus. Though by no means as foolproof as a respirator or dust mask, it was still better than nothing. She found the place deserted. As if everyone just packed up and left in a terrible hurry. For her, that was the eeriest part about it. No barricades or signs of struggle. Either they surrendered without a fight, or someone went to great lengths to clean up afterward. The latter, especially, made little sense if it was all just going to be left to rot in the end anyway. There were a couple broken windows here and there, but all of it looked more like incidental storm damage than the work of vandals or squatters. Much like how all the furnishings were intact and unsoiled by anything more than the occasional roof leak, as well as a general lack of indoor ‘camping’ squalor. The bathroom, though slightly mildewy, was also in order. Also didn’t look like it had been scrubbed down clean enough to eat off of, either, the best evidence it was not contamination or plague. Reconsidering the matter, she decided she could trust the apparent haste of their departure, that if a sickness was that bad, no one would have bothered to clean up after it on their way out. The whole place looking to have been hastily abandoned, with no signs of recent visitation. So much left behind, looking largely untampered-with in all the years since. She couldn’t help but wonder, after all this time, how such a viable, if remote, shelter showed no signs of appropriation, even in passing. Figured there had to be a reason, and feared she would find out all too soon, whether she cared to or not. Beyond the lobby and accompanying bathroom, was a mess hall that occupied most of the lodge, with half a dozen long, wooden tables and matching log benches. To her left was a massive stone fireplace, whose chimney she had spied outside on the way in, and the walls were mounted with a few dusty paintings, as well as old logging and outdoor tools. Looking up at the rafters, a whole level above, she noticed a loft above the lobby portion, with stairs climbing above the door to the adjoining kitchen. Turning that way, Roxy spotted a bulletin board. Mostly empty, as if a whole bunch of things all got cancelled at once. Might have failed to notice it at all if not for the pair of yellowed papers tacked to the center of it. The first one had the words MISSING GIRL scrawled across it in big, bold letters. Below that was the name Kelly Edwards, followed by a big blank space. Down at her feet, she very nearly stepped on an old, faded photograph of a little girl with short, dark hair, and a shy-looking expression, with a twinkle of small white gemstone earrings. Next to the first notice was another one, written in a shaky, frantic-looking hand that struck her as the embodiment of barely-contained panic, advising everyone to stay in the lodge or in their cabins until further notice. She quickly snapped some pics with her datapad. Something really bad happened here… Especially the absence of anything about search parties or rescue efforts one would expect for a missing child. This further notice sounding more and more like some sort of evacuation to her, and one grim enough to leave a child behind. Though likely meant to hold back outright panic, there was still something about the vagueness of it all that bothered her, mostly because it provided no clue if the threat that emptied this place out back then still existed. Seeing nothing else of interest in this main chamber, she mounted the creaky steps to the loft, finding the structure aged, but of solid craftsmanship. She wasn’t too surprised to find the loft served as an office of sorts, with a table against the wall, and an old-fashioned-looking two-way radio sitting on it. Spread across the wall above the emergency radio was a map. Shining her light upon it, she read the legend: COMMONWEALTH OF SINOVIA: Peninsula District. As the name suggested, this Camp Stilton was located on the coast, above the ‘shin’ of a boot-shaped peninsula, of what appeared to be a much larger landmass. More land than she had seen in one place in a long time. With an effort, she pulled her eyes away from the map and reached out to remove it from the wall, deciding it would be wise to take it back to the plane, where she could study it in more detail, and greater security. Even at a glance, she could see signs of hope and cause for concern, but wanted to take a closer look before figuring out her next move. Just a test, Roxy tried to activate the radio, and was not exactly surprised to when nothing happened. Radio dead, bare bulbs dark. There was probably a generator on the grounds somewhere, but much like those rusty hulks fenced outside, she doubted it would start anymore. She was about to examine the desk and cabinet, though she doubted she would find anything half as interesting as the map, when she spotted a note left on the table in front of the radio. That leaky roof having splotched it with so much mold, it was all too easy to mistake for more of the water damage to the tabletop, leaving only a couple fragments of it even readable. By far the biggest leak above the table, she noticed, and it was hard not to shake off the paranoid feeling that something was trying to destroy that note, the radio itself long-since useless. In between the blotches, all she could make out was: If anyone finds … leave immediat— … —e woods will … radio recep— … no signal fro— … to get the children out … but not to Rannigan’s … last seen — grove — never there bef— … woods have become too dangerous to sear— … —ay Kelly’s parents forgi— Even with all the missing puzzle pieces, Roxy still felt an ominous chill at what she was reading. Something menacing the camp? But what? Whatever happened, it drove them to abandon a child to apparently save the rest, a decision she could not imagine anyone making lightly. She frowned, putting the note back down and wiping her hand on her pantleg, making another datapad entry of it, then made her way downstairs and back outside, where she nearly kicked a small wooden sign lying on the ground next to the porch steps. As if it was once nailed to the roof support beam at the foot of the steps. She slid the toe of her armored boot under it and flipped it over, exposing faded red letters: WARNING! TURN BACK! DANGER AHEAD! “Tch…” Figuring it would’ve been all too easy if she found that first. As she looked up at the shore, toward the plane wreck, she spotted movement, raising her disrupter on pure instinct. At first she thought some aquatic creatures had dragged a bunch of seaweed ashore with them as they investigated the beach in front of the Albatross, but on closer inspection, she could see they were draping themselves over her fallen companions. She approached the masses of shimmering fronds cautiously, weapon trained on the nearest ones. Her first clear view of the creatures drove home what her subconscious had been way ahead of the curve about: chalk-white corpses festooned with seaweed, molesting the dead in an apparent feeding frenzy. From their soaking sheen, to their sea-brine smell, there was little doubt where they slithered up from. One of them, having apparently noticed the bounty hunter’s approach, looked up with rheumy, empty eyes, staring right at her. It parted its blood-streaked lips to reveal rows of needle teeth that did not belong in the mouth of any human being. Letting out an ear-splitting shriek that nearly caused her to fumble her weapon in spite of herself. Then she opened fire, and that got all of their attention right quick. At first they tried to crawl toward her, flopping and dragging themselves in a way that only made sense once she noticed that none of them had any legs, but once she put a couple of them down, the others shrieked in outrage. Then started flopping back toward the watery grave she was sure they meant to drag the dead into. Seeing that she had interrupted their frightful feast before it could rightly begin, she immediately set to dragging each of her travel companions’ corpses farther ashore. Stricken with a primal sense of disgust at letting such foul things have them, even in death. Keeping a wary eye on both the fallen ones, which she also beheaded with her laser staff, just to be sure, and one eye on the water, against their almost inevitable return. As ungainly and awkward as they were on dry land, she had no doubt they would make for much deadlier foes underwater. One by one, she hauled three old friends and their cat up to the nearest cabin, next to Stilton Lodge, placing each one in a bed. Fairly sure she’d put a strong fear in those creatures, as they failed to reappear in between rounds. Once all four of them were inside, she shut them in, carving their names on the door. The closest thing to a grave or a tomb she would be able to provide. Along the way, she had gathered the others’ weapons back at the plane. “I will do you honor with their use…” she promised them as she walked away from the cabin. Once back at the plane, she brought Roger aboard, propping him up in the pilot’s seat, figuring this was where he would want to be at the end. Though less than enthusiastic about sharing the cockpit with a corpse, she still felt she had done right by him this one last time. All the same, she still made sure to check that the cargo door lock still worked. Just glad Erix hadn’t blown or carved any holes in the hull or anything. That covered everyone except Erix, whom she left for the scavengers, but dragged away from the plane to help draw the corpse-things off, as she couldn’t help the intuition that she had not seen the last of them. Now certain she had brought this upon herself, Erix’s head spreading blood in the water, even the knowledge that she had no clue of their existence feeling like a poor excuse in hindsight. Given the foul creatures’ limited mobility on land, she figured she was safe enough as long as she kept the cargo doors locked. All the same, she kept her guard up, and a tool carefully balanced on the door latch, so that anything that disturbed it would make plenty of noise. Only then did she set herself to studying the map. According to which, they had landed in the Commonwealth of Sinovia, Peninsula District, at Camp Stilton. Most of the map depicting the coast above and below the boot-shaped Woodbine Peninsula, on which Stilton was just past the ‘shin’ of. The rest of what it revealed was less than encouraging. She stared long at that map, wondering just how big this realm of Sinovia could be. Farther along the shore, in the direction of Erix’s ship, or what was left of it, appeared to be a settlement marked Rannigan’s Wharf. The nearest location, probably less than a day’s walk from Camp Stilton. Much to her dismay, though, the name was X-ed out in black pen so hard it scratched the paper, with the disconcerting legends Don’t go! and No return! hastily inscribed next to it. Inland, several locations were marked, though most of it was a big blank space, simply marked as Durwyn Wood. A couple logging mills, officially marked Rigby Millworks and Pickford Mills. As well as a handwritten Ol’ Tobey’s near a road, about halfway between Stilton and the coastline on the other side of the peninsula. A more dubious scribble near the peninsula proper, marked Circle Stones? a little off the beaten path, which put her in mind of several ancient monuments she’d stumbled across in the course of her own journeys. Along the Woodbine Peninsula itself were marked several small names, each one with a hand-written question mark next to it. The only exception was farther up the coast from the peninsula, near the upper right edge of the map, a town marked Pickford. That map, as well as the note, had all the feel of having been left as some kind of warning, suggesting that the best course of action would be to put back out to sea. Not much help, in her situation. Even the part scribbled on the sea, with an arrow pointing to the peninsula, and a hastily-scrawled advisory to hug the coast, was not terribly encouraging. She wondered a moment if she even had the supplies to take the long way around. Though she had seen an inflatable life raft among the emergency gear, without a motor or sails, it would take days to row around that peninsula. All the while waiting for pale white hands to reach up for her… Even with the most conservative distance estimates, it would surely take more days than she had supplies for, to walk all the way around the peninsula, and the dubious state of the handful of settlements dotting it did nothing to inspire confidence. As much as she would prefer to avoid a long march through the woods, skirting the coast mostly just came across as a series of opportunities for those things to come back after her, whereas she doubted they could follow her very far on land. Based on the warnings— especially the map— and those creatures, an expedition to Rannigan’s Wharf sounded like a fool’s errand at best, a suicide mission at worst. She might have contemplated trying Rannigan’s Wharf in spite of the warnings, just because it was closer, but now she had seen for herself what likely awaited her over there, as well as along every step of the peninsula shore, she concluded that her best bet was to take the direct approach inland, and hope things went better in this Pickford place. She had also tried radio, figuring she was close enough to Rannigan’s to send and receive. But ultimately confirmed neither, instead hearing only static, along with what sounded like frogs croaking, and other, less distinct noises. Of course, she had learned in her travels that radio anomalies never portended anything good, and that was the final word on the matter. Pickford, it is. She could only hope that it wasn’t as abandoned as everyplace else on the map indicated. With her finger, she traced a line marked Hwy 13, that ran from Rannigan’s Wharf past Camp Stilton, then cut through the Durwyn Wood, all the way to Pickford. Reminded herself that people built roads, that they always lead somewhere. All she had to do was follow it. That resolved, she cooked lunch with a camp stove Roger kept onboard for emergencies, pouring him a libation, a cup of some of his finest stash. Toasted him once to send him off, and put the rest back in its compartment. Knowing all too well she would need to keep a clear head if she was going to survive whatever came next out here. She then turned to sorting out the most critical supplies to include in her pack. Leaving most of the canned goods so she could travel light and make better time with less burdensome foodstuffs, jerky and dried fruit, as well as some sealed military rations. Also leaving the camp stove and most of the fuel gel, taking one can with her, just in case she needed to start a fire in less than ideal circumstances. Packed a couple canteens, as much water as she could reasonably carry. An assortment of supplies Roger had picked up along the way in many realms. Both a handheld and a clip-on flashlights. One flare gun and a handful of flares. A cargo tarp, rope and utility knives she knew how to build makeshift tents and other useful things out of. Lighters and a waterproof tube of matches, as well as a couple camping dishes and cookware. A bottle of insect repellant Roger picked up while visiting some tropical island, as well as any other odds and ends she thought she might need out there. Loaded up what weapons and ammo she could reasonably carry, left the rest on the plane, figuring anyone else who got stranded out here would surely need it. Periodically looking out the windows, casting wary glances at the camp, and the woods beyond. She stood in the cargo door for a long moment, could see the late afternoon sun angling toward evening, daylight wasting. Certain that even she would lose her nerve if she had to enter that forest after sundown. For a long moment, she contemplated staying the night aboard the Albatross, getting a fresh start in the morning, but didn’t care to share the cabin with a corpse, and didn’t have the heart to dump him overboard, either. Also wasn’t sure how much defense the downed plane would actually offer, if those things came back in greater numbers. She glanced over, near the rocks, to see Erix’s corpse was already gone, those things having dragged his remains out into the sea while she was working. Short on pity, but still shuddered in spite of herself, wondering if someday a seaweed-thing that looked just like him might menace other unfortunate travelers… Regaining her resolve, she set out to enter the Woods in earnest, as armed and prepared as one could be for the Unknown. As she passed the lodge, she made a point of stopping by the nearest cabin to offer one final moment of silence for three adventurers of such recent, yet very eventful, acquaintance. Near the edge of the Camp Stilton grounds, the dirt road that wound through the camp led into the forest proper. Though the trees were already a strong presence in and around the camp, they practically formed a solid wall along the shallow stream at the edge of the grounds, that, according to the map, would bend a little ways downshore of Stilton to empty into the sea near the last big bend before the curve of the peninsula. The covered wooden bridge crossing it striking her as looking more like a tunnel into the woods. Though the bridge was old and creaky, and slightly warped, it still held, a testament to the craftsmanship of its builders. Little more than a trickle ran beneath it compared to the size of the riverbed, the Amarrack clearly at low ebb, which she could easily cross on foot if the bridge was too frail, she didn’t care to leave any wet footprints so close to her starting point. On the other side, the tree canopy fairly seemed to lean over the old dirt road on both sides, allowing only a scant, golden-green light to filter down to them through layers of leaves. Scenery she might have found rustic and scenic, if it didn’t feel so ominous. Even here, so close to the shore, the salty, briny smell of the sea became ever more muted, and the pungent, primal scents of the Woods began to take over, the sound of the tide completely lost. Resisting the temptation to look back, she put one foot forward, then the other.

[retracingpoliphilo]

Pilgrims

Love, I have been hesitant to share this - for the expansive open multi-personed love i reference, and fear of your reaction to it and its implications. Silly scared. Love is.  This is my most cohered and articulated of my vision, and the run through the trees at the end is the core of the vision I have referred to wanting to share but been unable to find written, was sure I had written as part of this draft. There is more to it, but as I attempted to put words to in just now, it slowed and stalled in interpretation. This was drafted September 3, 2013. -----

Una inhaled deeply as the lander's hatch opened. The air of her birthworld was a scent unmatchable in its ability to put her at ease and restore her balance. But, for the first time, it carried with it also a hint of bitterness. This was her last obligatory yearly pilgrimage. Once she completed her apogica the rites of the pilgrimage would still be open to her, welcoming and indeed - hopeful to have her. But, she would no longer be required to take part but every 10 years. Well, so long as she succeeded in her apogica. The yearly pilgrimage was not a thing all, or even most, people ever passed beyond. It came as a reality as one advanced towards the core and heavier transaction costs in their value added commerce. To travel inter-system, or even communicate interplanet, levied a heavy fee. Releasing those who pursued …   

Una arrives to ancestral home, greets family. Sits down to work on her (culmination), is approached by a younger sibling or niece/nephew/etc, asked about what she is doing.   

(Explains:) I am composing a biography, in fact, of the great biographer. What have you learned about her?   

(Child recites the basic backstory, replete with worshipful overtones). (Una responds:) Ah, yes. Thats very good, you're more intellectually advanced than most of your milieu (10 year generational cohort), yes? (Or have they accelerated the curriculum recently, she asked herself. There are the signs of it, in his tendency to worshipfulness in his recounting.) 

And how about biography? What have you learned about the core of our culture? (again, the child responds with a childs version of the accord - that journalism is a public service of maintaining a transparent view and awareness of reality for the general populace and that biography is the paired calling - helping people to not only step outside of their own shaping experiences and opinions but also to step into those of another, thus truly gaining understanding and insight into the broader reality that surrounds us, not winding ourselves into dark, blind, dead end alleys with no means of escape and a couple of big guys with heavy sticks. Yeah, sure, side passages could open up before the guys with sticks, or they could not. And, if they did, they could lead to escape, or they could unleash a totally unexpected danger on us. Perspective is gained by reaching a vantage point. A vantage point is composed of multiple views and is not only achieved, but as we live in a fluid reality, something that must be maintained and grown and evolved alongside that which it observes. 

The childs response was somewhat rote, but for such a complex concept, that was to be expected at this age, no matter their precociousness.   

And how about the (profession encompassing both trades)'s principles? Do you know those yet?   

And the child responds that they don't remember them all, but there is one, his favorite - because of the reality analysis exercises they do to teach it. It goes: Compassion is the core of culture and civilization, and is achieved through careful analysis and experience of reality. Accept and portray only reality, do not embellish it, do not apply insight or avenues to an experience that is beyond the years or experience of the subject being portrayed. This leads to false worship, unfair judgement, disconnection with reality and has the potential to stagnate a people, destroy a culture and decimate an ecology. In order to portray reality, one must have compassion, which is achieved only through continual work and engagement with the metier of one's subject matter. The ability to put oneself squarely in the mindset and context of another - to the extent of completely removing your own mindset and context but retaining your intellect and judgement in full operating order is hard fought, imprecise, and even harder maintained. It requires both a strong sense of self and an ability to be completely effacing as necessary, without distress, unbiased resentment or impossible expectations.   

The child looked puzzled, and asked, "But, if adherence to reality is such an important thing, why is the great biographer also called the creator of culture? Culture is created by those living it.   

Ahh, yes. and this was the tricky bit. Reality isn't simple, and there isn't just one - there are as many as there are sentiences in the infinite universe, which is to say infinity squared. This was one Una was currently banging her head up against in what appeared to be a somewhat altogether new way within her course of study. Of course, others had thoughts these thoughts before, and delved deeper into them, but more in the harder sciences, or the spiritual. Even the philosophical. 

Anyhow, it was time for her to head to her first husbands home and help prepare the pilgrimage supplies and equipment. Her first son and daughter were probably there already, preparing their year-name wear.   

As she opened the door her progeny both jumped her, reminding her of excited puppies. They both babbled incoherently at her in their excitement until all three split into grins and laughed. One last clasp and they released her. Aria automatically drifting towards the kitchen to bring refreshment, and Aidan settling back into his chair and picking up a book, Thoughtfully leaving space for mother and daughter to reconnect first, after the long months apart. Aidan had followed her into the inner systems for his trinary education - pursuing journeyman experience as a deepspace constructor and gaining access to the more esoteric materials and tools that could only exist in stable quantities away from the distortion of a planetary mass.

Aria had remained on the home world of her parents, pursuing a dizzyingly deep and broad wisdom of its ecology, and plying a myriad of artistic and creative trades through the seasons and her ranging studies. She sat down at the table next to her mother, depositing a tray of fresh and preserved snacks alongside two steaming mugs of spiced apple cider.   

How is your (culmination) doing? she asked. Una loved her daughters simple undemanding straightforwardness. She had the makings of a planetary leader, the way she was able to cut through any amount of noise and go directly to the heart of something without ruffling even one feather in passing.

All in all, really well, Una responded. I tracked down a neglected set of journals and work from Eva's late twenties and am elevating a number of seemingly odd notes to a fairly startling place, that is requiring me to delve into a surprising number of hard sciences and philosophies. That is all taking really fantastic shape, but I'm struggling to capture her mind in all of this. There is very little record of her activities during this time period, or, really, from that time period in general. …. Knox arrived, and embraced her in a way that was both as familiar as if he'd just kissed her goodbye this morning instead of nearly a year ago, while also conveying every ounce of missing each other that had passed and every iota of excitement, pleasure and anticipation at seeing each other again. And then, at the light undemanding touch on her hip, Una turned and similarly embraced her husband's home-wife and ruffled the hair on the heads of their two young children, as they scampered by underfoot after one of the cats.   

As she always did, she envied them good-naturedly their life, and appreciated her ability to be a part of it. Not all of those who moved beyond the orbits of their first marriages enjoyed such healthy relationships. 

She said a solemn hello with Miriam's older son Devereaux, while exchanging a secret wink with his mother. Devereaux had, at 12, declared his intentions to become a monk, not surprising for one who had lost half of his family at the age of 7. Miriam's first husband and daughter had perished in a freak space travel incident, and too much time had passed before their retrieval. Their last recorded consciousnesses had been forwarded in the chain, but energy and matter being what they were, the outcomes were always unpredictable. … I've had a link about Ica, Miriam told her later, over their traditional wives meal, sampling the best new eatery in the small town Knox and Miriam called home side Una's last visit. Her eyes shone with joy as well as the barely repressed dampness of imminent tears.   

My daughter has begun to re-emerge among a proto-herd of ilaxu and her parents have connected enough dots to realize what she was, thought it's not yet part of their repertoire, being a relatively new life form to (the cycle - give it a better name, mythologically related). As with all first children of first marriages, Ica was a new consciousness, and had only been forming itself for a scant 5 years when she perished with her father on a pilgrimage trip to his home world for her first formal rite of passage. Luckily it had been a long enough ship-board time voyage to require stasis, and the girls consciousness had been archived and copied through the parallels of (data backup term) for the first time since her birth.   

Recording a consciousness is not a pleasant experience, and was not done without dire need before a child's fifth year, and preferably not until after their tenth. 

Are you going to go visit? Una asked?   

I'd like to, and the her parents seem not only willing, but as if they would be happy for it. I gather she is somewhat of a struggle, unsurprisingly. But, the ilaxu homeworld is not close, and the cost necessitates a longer visit than I can reasonably accommodate for.   

Una clasped Miriam's hand, sharing her strength with the woman who not only shared her husbands heart, but also had a hold on her own. "Mir, don't even think about it. Plan the trip for after my (culmination). Take as along as you need, I will come home and step into your shoes. I'll be at loose ends anyways, and needing to take the time for reflection on my next move that this will allow me." 

At that, Miriam's control over her budding tears was lost, and she lowered her head and allowed herself a few deep shudders and re-emerged with glints of refracted light off of the tears rolling down her cheeks. The words "Oh, I had so hoped you would," poured from her mouth as she fully relaxed and ordered another round of raki. Her grip on Una's hand eased into gentle sensuality. … "Tyler and her family will be joining us," Una announced the next morning as she, Miri and Knox chopped, cooked and bound the meals for the pilgrimage. "Oh?" He asked, minimal with worlds as ever. 

"Yes, she's gravid with her first child." Una replied with some heaviness. Tyler was her mentor, the woman who had fostered Una's unusual talent and moved with her into the inner systems over the course of her education until Una entered her journeymanship. Tyler was an end cycle consciousness, completing her 23rd (number of chromosomes) form. She had begun her life in the central systems, and out migrated slowly over the years until she found a place to raise her final family on Earth, a backwater of the (culture) for sure, but also the home of its birth. She had been preparing for her second to last pregnancy when she encountered Una and took a detour to  foster her spark. Now, She had embarked upon her final forming, nearly 5000 years after her first awakening to consciousness.   

"Does she know where she is headed yet?" Knox asked? "No, she's hoping her path will be illuminated by this final forming. Which would be grand, but not expectable." 

"Well, I'm glad she will be joining us for pilgrimage and birth. That is an auspicious conjunction, almost as if she'd planned it …" He trailed off. Tyler had a known penchant for structuring her world along major lines of larger meaning. Not just a 10 decade (yearly pilgrimage), also a centennial pilgrimage and won't that line up her final pregnancy to fall into the millennial pilgrimage? He shook his head in amusement. Tyler and he and an affectionate if occasionally strained relationship. Among other things, She had taken his first wife from him, if one chose to view it that way. Which he didn't, but also which he couldn't entirely avoid. … Una pulled her bowstring back and nocked an arrow, tracking the buck down the ravine. They had just made the third deposit of pilgrimage goods at their ancestral long home village and were now continuing their journey into the woods, subsiding on what they could forage in the autumn wilderness. She wanted to bring a deer heart back to camp for Tyler. Her patron was entering her final days of gravidity and the heart would prepare her and her child for the imminent birth.   

Loosing the arrow as the deer lowered its head to nibble a blade of grass poking through the mat of leaves, her shaft hit home, stopping the deers heart even as it entered the left ventricle. The creature dropped as it's consciousness left it, and Una walked slowly towards it, reciting the benediction of the slain, thanking it for its bounty and wishing it well as it traveled towards its new embodiment.   

As she worked her knife deftly through the process of field dressing, she allowed her memories to wander to her first experiences with the gentle creatures. Two years old, she played in the mud at the edge of the stream while her mother washed their linens in its cold water, a fmaly of deer had approached her, the fawn clumsily nudging against her looking for a treat or caress.   

As she maneuvered the bulk of the buck onto her shoulders and stood she heard a rustling in the brush, and before she had even turned around and begun to walk towards this evenings camp the scavengers had begun to pick at the entrails she had left for them. Tonight she would be scraping deer hide.   

As she made her way through the trees she fell into reverie, her feet moving nimbly along the ground, in flow with the world. She was running, pure joy expressed in motion. She saw a flash through the distant trees of another figure on a parallel path. Dark, unable to be made out. For miles they ran alongside, trees flashing between them, each intensely aware of the other, yet never taking their sight from the glory of the living woods and skies. Then the air dampened and the ground took on a throbbing and they came to rest simultaneously at a cliffs edge, overlooking a cascading thundering fall of water, shaking the earth. Una now raised her eyes to the dark stranger and was struck with recognition, memories of childhood runs of the same nature through the same trees flooding back into her awareness.   

"You” she managed to get past her paralyzed lips. Suddenly overwhelmingly shy, she dropped to her knees and lowered the deer to the damp moss, taking breath gulpingly into her lungs, attempting to tether herself against the sudden and entirely unexpected flood of feeling.

[we-bodybuildingmotivation]

Why Train Is Non-Negotiable For Individuals With Diabetes

Practice Weight reduction plan Diabetes is just certainly one of many many continuous sicknesses that is so prevalent inside the U.S. with a whole bunch of hundreds of people struggling yearly and a whole bunch newly acknowledged by the similar token. And whether or not or not you've got kind 1 or 2 diabetes, making healthful life-style choices inside the kind of prepare (bodily and psychological), weight reduction plan, and psychological properly being administration are crucial for preserving this life-threatening illness at bay. So, we’re going to offer consideration to the prepare side of diabetes administration on account of it’s an important aspect. Nevertheless, we’ll moreover briefly cowl weight reduction plan, and psychological prepare (meditation, and so forth) on account of these components all play an unlimited perform in your whole well-being. What Is Diabetes? Diabetes is a sickness that impacts how the physique makes use of blood sugar and it outcomes from extreme blood glucose, or blood sugar ranges. Now, glucose is supplied in our our our bodies from the meals we eat, after which it’s used for vitality inside the physique with the help of the hormone insulin; which is produced by the pancreas.

DiabetesHowever when this course of would not occur successfully as a consequence of numerous doable components like life-style habits and even family historic previous of the sickness; diabetes outcomes, which can then set off many properly being factors that will doubtlessly affect the middle, kidneys, toes and nerves. What’s The Distinction Between kind 1 and sort 2? The two sorts are kind 1 and sort 2 with the earlier being further excessive and the latter the most common sort that people bear from. Over 90% of people who have diabetes are kind 2. Type 1 means the physique not produces insulin, and it occurs further in children and youthful adults. Nonetheless it outcomes from the immune system attacking the cells in your pancreas which creates insulin. So, day-to-day remedy is totally important. About 10% or so of people acknowledged with diabetes are kind 1. Type 2 means the physique would not take advantage of insulin efficiently or that it doesn’t create it the least bit. This kind is further frequent in middle-aged and older of us nevertheless anyone can develop it. And quite a few analysis have confirmed the optimistic outcomes of prepare for the prevention and administration of diabetes and insulin resistance. Nevertheless, these outcomes are way more excellent along with making healthful life-style choices. So, How Does Practice Help With Diabetes? Let’s focus on how prepare helps to deal with and improve diabetes. It reduces stress Stress impacts virtually everyone and with the fast-paced, poor weight reduction plan, and the high-expectation world we reside in proper now, it’s no marvel we’re experiencing lots dis-ease inside the physique.

Stress causes hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to be launched in excessive portions, and when these hormone ranges are sustained inside the physique, properly being and sickness consequence. It moreover has a direct correlation with elevated blood glucose ranges and solely exacerbates the issue. (2) So, stress administration is a ought to for the sake of your whole properly being. And prepare is a extremely necessary weapon in your stress-management arsenal on account of it not solely helps to deal with the sickness however it moreover staves it off and would possibly even help to reinforce it. Practice releases feel-good chemical substances inside the thoughts often known as endorphins which straight affect mood and distract from a number of the standard stressors of life. Nonetheless it moreover strengthens the middle, doubtlessly lowers blood pressure, and gives you further confidence as correctly. (3) Fast-term stress is common nevertheless long-term stress is deadly. Confirm moreover the 4 tips to lower stress. It’s Mandatory For Weight Administration Overweight and chubby folks on widespread at a greater hazard of making kind 2 diabetes as a consequence of their bodily state of affairs. David Marrero, PhD, president of properly being care and coaching for the American Diabetes Affiliation has a wonderful saying close to the connection between weight and diabetes… “If I instantly take a bunch of gravel and throw it in the back of your automotive, you presumably can nonetheless possibly make 70 mph on the interstate. Nevertheless you’re going to make the engine work just a bit harder. If I put 1,000 kilos in your automotive, that influence will improve. I can possibly put adequate weight in so, finally, your automotive not can perform desire it should.” He moreover outlined… “What everyone knows in diabetes prevention, and in prediabetes, is {{that a}} very modest amount of weight discount has this large low cost in peril. You lose 7% of your physique weight, you slender your hazard by 60%. And, the reality is, for individuals who’re over 65, it’s over 70%.” As you presumably can see, prepare should not be elective, nevertheless considerably a necessity, notably for individuals who’re an overweight explicit individual. You have to be consuming loads of darkish leafy greens, little or no meat (substitute), full grains, healthful fats, good carbs, and some fruits. Nevertheless, the greens should make up the overwhelming majority of your weight reduction plan whereas difficult carbs, fruits, and fats have to be consumed in smaller portions. (4) And you will need to stay away from one thing processed, refined, and extreme on the Glycemic Index Scale. Nevertheless certain fats (saturated and trans fats) and even sodium have to be on the lower side. Do that textual content on why phytonutrients are so needed for continuous sickness administration. Practice Can Cut back The Impression Of Unhealthy Dietary Habits Usually a nutritious eating regimen is a hard issue to maintain up with all of the delectable decisions and lack of dietary info. Nevertheless the good news is that prepare can scale back the affect of a nasty weight reduction plan’s outcomes on properly being, in a society the place processed, fast-food decisions are the first provide of vitamin for lots of. And an enormous trigger is that it staves off continuous indicators associated to certain sicknesses. Nevertheless, don’t suppose you presumably can merely eat harmful, then prepare and all will doubtless be correctly on account of it doesn’t pretty work that strategy. Practice Improves Your Psychological Nicely being A evaluation of diabetes or one other continuous sickness is perhaps discouraging and it may undoubtedly do a amount on one’s psychological properly being. The reality is, of us affected by diabetes are at elevated hazard for melancholy, anxiousness, and even consuming issues. Then tack on the added duties regarding the day-to-day remedy schedule and it’s an precise drawback for some folks.

Nevertheless the illness itself can also convey on a psychological disturbance inside the beforehand talked about sorts due to the potential fluctuations of blood sugar ranges; which when all added up collectively, could trigger a state of affairs often known as diabetes distress. And plenty of suppose that there’s no use in attempting to do one thing to aim to reinforce this example as a consequence of feeling hopeless and helpless. And attributable to this reality, psychological properly being worsens from this doomed thought course of. Properly, completely the actual fact of the matter is, prepare is just as essential to your psychological well-being because it's for bodily properly being. They go hand-in-hand and one with out the other is always a recipe for sickness. And that is the explanation performing some sort of cardio and/or anaerobic prepare day-to-day is crucial for sustaining your properly being and well-being. A 12-week study found that widespread cardio train has a significant optimistic affect on self-importance and psychological properly being which is straight associated with a larger prime quality of life. So, regardless of train you choose, be fixed. Weight teaching, jogging, sports activities actions, pure cardio… these are all very viable decisions. And based totally on evaluation, every type whether or not or not cardio, anaerobic, or blended actions are equally good at enhancing HbA1c values. Nevertheless don’t overlook regarding the psychological prepare side of psychological properly being administration; like meditation, treatment, and so forth on account of with out these, you could be combating an uphill battle. Talking to any person and implementing cognitive strategies are going to make the most important distinction to your psychological properly being. Collaborating in aware/meditative actions will imply you can provide consideration to the present second and therapeutic, considerably than dwelling on the difficulty/s. And that's what number of people combat melancholy, improve their immune system, and improve cognitive abilities. How Lots Practice Should Anyone With Diabetes Do? This might clearly vary between folks based totally on current bodily state of affairs. For individuals who haven’t exercised shortly, start out very slowly as to not overwork your self. For individuals who’ve been exercising flippantly then flip up the depth little by little. And for individuals who’re crucial into well being, correctly, good on you! Keep it up and take into accout, it’s a strong weapon in your wrestle in direction of diabetes. The American Diabetes Affiliation recommends starting off with a lightweight stroll for people who've sedentary for a while. Nevertheless do it in a strategy that promotes a soothing experience. For example, take heed to a relaxing audiobook and/or take a stroll by way of your favorite house with a cherished one. And for these further expert with prepare, on the very least 30 minutes a day is enough. Moreover, vitality teaching have to be a part of your regime on the very least twice weekly to take care of sturdy and deal with blood sugar ranges too. Nevertheless, not at all overexert your self and always make sure that to convey a healthful carb provide with you need some fruit or a healthful snack in case your blood sugar ranges drop too low. And always search the recommendation of collectively along with your doctor sooner than doing any prepare to ensure the strategy runs simply and to your absolute safety. Sample Train Routine For These With Diabetes There’s no distinction within the sort of actions you presumably can participate in when as compared with any person who would not have diabetes. Do fulfilling prepare that’ll protect you impressed to take care of up collectively along with your actions. Nevertheless, try your best to not overdo it and stop as soon as you actually really feel decently drained.

Outdated Faculty Chest TrainNow, since weight teaching could possibly be very helpful for sustaining a healthful, we’ve put collectively just a bit train break up you can observe for on the very least a month sooner than switching up your routine. Make sure that to warmth up with lighter weight for just some items sooner than the working items which might be confirmed beneath, and stay away from using really heavy weights (which is why we’ve chosen common rep ranges). Nevertheless you will need to nonetheless apply with on the very least common depth to elicit outcomes. Proper right here’s an occasion weight teaching routine along with the instances and exercises…  modify as wished. Monday: Dumbbell lunge (Three items x 15 reps) Single-arm/single-leg Romanian deadlift (Three items x 12) Dumbbell side lateral improve (Three items x 12 reps) Dumbbell seated overhead press (Three items x 12 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Tuesday: Incline dumbbell press (4 items x 15 reps) Pec dec/machine fly (Three x 15 reps) Tricep rope pushdown (Three items x 20 reps) Lying EZ bar tricep extension (2 items x 12-15 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Wednesday: Seated cable row (4 items x 12-15 reps) Standing twisting cable extreme row (Three items x 15 reps) Standing alternating dumbbell curl (Three items x 12 reps) Dumbbell cross-body hammer curl (Three items x 12 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Thursday: Leisure day: Nonetheless do 30 minutes of moderately intense cardio (your different) or go for a brisk stroll. Friday: Physique weight squat (4 items x 20 reps) Lying leg curl (4 items x 15 reps) Dumbbell bent-over lateral improve (Three items x 12 reps for each prepare) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Saturday: Push-up (4 items x 15 reps or as many as doable) Pec dec/machine fly (2 items x 12 reps) Dumbbell bent-over row (Three items x 15 reps) One-arm lat pull-down (Three items x 10-12 reps) Tricep bench dip (4 items x 12 reps) Barbell curl (4 items x 12 reps) Cardio of other for 20 minutes Sunday: Leisure day: Nonetheless do 30 minutes of moderately intense cardio (your different) or go for a brisk stroll. Repeat the routine on Monday. It's possible you'll apply your core 3-4 days per week as correctly by doing Three rounds of entrance planks, and lying side hip raises to take care of points straightforward starting out. When Is The Best Time To Practice? Not lower than one to three hours after a meal when your blood sugar ranges are seemingly comparatively elevated. Nevertheless, for individuals who take insulin always make sure that to confirm your blood sugar ranges earlier to, and following any type of bodily train. In case your ranges are beneath 100 mg/dL, eat one factor to convey it up because you is perhaps at extreme hazard for hypoglycemia. If ranges are over 250, then refrain from prepare for the second, because it may doubtlessly make the state of affairs lots worse. Moreover, it’s essential to confirm your ranges following any sort of train to be sure you’re inside a healthful fluctuate and to stay away from hypoglycemia. Wrapping Up Practice is a crucial aspect for the administration and enchancment of diabetes. You don’t have to go extraordinarily exhausting nevertheless you presumably can positively flip up the depth just a bit with out worrying about doing an extreme quantity of for individuals who take all of the necessary precautions beforehand. Diabetes is also an inconvenience in some methods nevertheless that doesn’t suggest you presumably can’t reside your life the best way you want too. And making it a priority to be energetic day by day will imply you'll be able to stave off a number of the doubtlessly unfavorable outcomes and indicators. So, get proper right into a routine and take administration by doing what’s necessary, Diabetes or not, bodily train is a key aspect for promoting and sustaining optimum ranges of properly being, every bodily and mentally. Nevertheless you don’t have to overlook how crucial weight reduction plan and psychological prepare (meditation, treatment, and so forth) are in a healthful regime for encouraging a larger life-style as every preventative aspect have to be as a lot as par. Read the full article