#it's been a long hard career on the internet learning about this though

[marticoresims]

Custom career - Psychologist!

I edited LientebollemeiS2I's Psychologist career, changing nearly everything about it. What stayed are links to uni majors, the icon (which is also a uni major) and some inspiration for chance cards. IMO this career has a strong Maxis vibe, with "start from nothing" first levels, NPC references and silly chance cards.

Each level title has a number added to it, like in this mod.

The 4 skills required for this job are: Logic, Charisma, Cleaning and Creativity.

IMPORTANT EDIT: With LientebollemeiS2I's guidance, I also edited the GUID of the career and changed PTO (paid time off) back to default. Now you can use both our careers at the same time! The GUID is: 0xC6A05A9D. In case you need to check if you have something that uses the same one (it was generated, so might repeat).

DOWNLOAD (SFS)

List of levels with descriptions:

Psychology Books Enjoyer Lvl 1 You'll take any book that has anything to do with the topic of psychology and devour it instantly, hoping this knowledge will be useful some day.

Internet Mental Health Advisor Lvl 2 You dive into web forums to find the most interesting psychological cases and comment on them. Your aspirations are high, but you don't have the skills or degrees yet to become a real therapist. One can dream, though!

Social Bunny Lvl 3 You've actually made it to a real mental health institution, and not as a patient, but as an assistant… sort of. Don't forget to be the fluffiest bunny out there because what you're doing here is really helping other Sims. And all you ever wanted was to help others, right?

Therapist in Training Lvl 4 It's been hard, but you've made it to an actual psychology path. Just stay strong and you'll definitely open your own private practice office one day.

Social Worker Lvl 5 Whether it's leaving children home alone for too long, starving them or not dressing them appropriately to the weather… you'll be there to collect them and find more responsible families for them. It's a tough job, but it's something you have to get through in your training.

Private Counselor Lvl 6 You've finally made it! You're officially a therapist and working in your private office. Now, your mission is to care for your clients in the best way that you can. So don't stop educating yourself!

Psychology Researcher Lvl 7 Your passion for psychology is never-ending. You've decided to take it to the next level and do important research to contribute to the science. Good job!

Personality Specialist Lvl 8 During your research, you've grown very interested in the depths of Sims' personality. What can change it? To what extent is it genetic? What's that thing about werewolves?

Clinical Psychologist Lvl 9 Regular therapy practice and deep research were not quite enough for you. Now it's time to make real diagnoses, assist psychiatrists in their work, and make the world a better place. Keep on learning and you might become the ultimate Therapist.

Therapist NPC Lvl 10 It's time to deal with the real Wretched Outcasts and Doddering Deadbeats. In order to do it, you needed to learn teleportation, hypnosis and partial invisibility. If someone is in crisis, you're the Sim they'll always turn to.

As for clothes and cars (or lack thereof 👀), you'll have to see for yourself in game 😎

DOWNLOAD (SFS)

Hope you like it! I've always wanted a therapist-like career in The Sims 2.

Made with Bidou's Career Editor (now part of SimPE).

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Zack Beauchamp at Vox:

When Donald Trump flew to Pennsylvania for a 9/11 anniversary event this week, he brought an unusual companion: a 9/11 conspiracist named Laura Loomer. Loomer has been a quasi-journalist on the fringe right for about a decade, with a penchant for saying things that make even hardened MAGA types recoil. She is a self-described “proud Islamophobe” who has cheered the deaths of migrants and called for Muslims to be banned from driving for ride-hail apps. She ran for Congress twice, in 2020 and 2022, and failed both times. More recently, Loomer has called Kamala Harris a “drug-using prostitute” and warned that, if she wins, “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.” Despite all of this, Trump has long displayed a soft spot for Loomer. He endorsed her House bid in 2020 and, in 2023, tried to offer her a spot on his campaign — only to back down after aides revolted. Undeterred, he hosted her at Mar-a-Lago afterward, repeatedly boosted her content on Truth Social, and traveled with her on the 2024 campaign trail.

It’s not clear what Trump gets out of this relationship. But his ties to Loomer have become a major controversy since the 9/11 event, with some of the former president’s closest allies speaking publicly against Loomer. “The history of this person is just really toxic,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the HuffPost. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — who claimed a Jewish family was using space lasers to start wildfires! — thinks Loomer is a bridge too far, calling Loomer’s tweet about Harris and curry “appalling and extremely racist.” (Loomer responded by accusing Greene of sleeping with a “Zangief cosplayer.”) It’s hard to take these condemnations all that seriously. Trump and his vice presidential pick have spent this week pushing a nasty conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating people’s pets that appears to have inspired real-world hate crimes. If you’re worried about racism and conspiracy theorizing, maybe take a look at the top of the ticket. But what makes Loomer different from Trump is that she has literally no filter. She says the quiet part out loud, every single time. The more time Trump spends with her, the harder it is to deny that his thinly veiled bigotry is anything but the genuine article. And that, for the Republican Party, is a very big problem indeed.

Who is Laura Loomer?

Loomer isn’t a household name for most Americans, but she’s been a presence in the conservative media ecosystem for quite some time. She first attracted attention in 2015 when, as a college senior at Barry University in South Florida, she secretly filmed a meeting with administrators in which she attempted to form a campus club supporting ISIS. The video was released by Project Veritas, the conservative group that specializes in (questionably edited) sting videos. Loomer worked for Project Veritas during the 2016 presidential campaign and learned to build a career out of political stunts. She grabbed the national spotlight in June 2017 when she stormed the stage at a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in New York that dressed the Roman general like Donald Trump. The disruption earned Loomer a booking on Sean Hannity’s show.

“You were making a very strong point. I applaud you for what you’ve done,” Hannity told her. Loomer parlayed the notoriety from the Julius Caesar incident into a kind of internet celebrity on the pro-Trump right. The problem with celebrity, though, is that it can give you too many opportunities to show yourself. And Loomer proved to be someone with truly out-there opinions. After an ISIS supporter killed eight people with a truck in November 2017, she went on an Islamophobic rant on Twitter, blaming popular ride-hailing apps for employing Muslim drivers. “Someone needs to create a non Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver,” she wrote. The two services subsequently banned her, the first of many bans from high-profile tech platforms.

[...] This particular cocktail of hate speech and conspiracy theory misinformation became the hallmark of Loomer’s political style, prompting bans from major social media platforms. The straw that broke the camel’s back on Twitter, for example, came in November 2018 when Loomer tweeted that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) supported female genital mutilation because she is Muslim. In response to the ban, which came a year after Twitter stripped her blue check mark (then something given to notable people rather than a badge to be purchased) as punishment for similar false and offensive claims, Loomer physically chained herself to Twitter’s headquarters in New York while wearing a Nazi-style yellow star. It’s worth noting here that Loomer is Jewish but has long had tight links to the white nationalist movement. She is, for example, close with the avowed anti-Semite Nick Fuentes who dined with Trump in 2022, and once broadly boasted that “I’m going to fight for white people.”

Presenting herself as a victim of Big Tech censorship, she found allies in popular far-right publications like Breitbart as well as in Washington. In December 2019, then-President Trump retweeted a Loomer supporter calling for donations to her campaign. In May 2020, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) sent a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr calling on him to open an investigation into Loomer’s Facebook ban. She was reinstated on Twitter after Elon Musk’s purchase of the site.

[...]

Why Laura Loomer matters

There is a reason that Laura Loomer has even Marjorie Taylor Greene panicking, and it’s not just that the two reportedly have personal beef. It’s that Laura Loomer makes the rest of the Republican Party look terrible. For decades, right-wing flirtation with racism has taken place through dog whistles and coded messages. Ronald Reagan’s attacks on “welfare queens” didn’t involve actual racist slurs but conjured up a mental image for some white voters of a poor lazy Black woman exploiting taxpayer dollars to live comfortably. Liberals would call this rhetoric racism, conservatives would say liberals are just trying to shut down legitimate debate, and round-and-round we went. [...] But after capitulating to Trump, the GOP fell back into its old habits. No matter how outrageous Trump’s rhetoric and even his actions became — from the Muslim ban to family separation — liberal critiques were met with the same kinds of dismissals. Trump’s rhetoric about immigration and crime can’t be racist, they would say; he’s just speaking the language of forgotten Americans left behind by globalization. Liberals, they’d say, are making everything about race when it’s not.

Vox gives an insightful overview into the right-wing MAGA shill that's too toxic for even MTG and virulently anti-Islam hack Laura Loomer.

See Also:

MMFA: Donald Trump and “pro-white nationalism” pundit Laura Loomer: A guide to their relationship

MMFA: Trump amplified Laura Loomer on Truth Social over 20 times in 9 months

[spaceoperetta]

today I learned a new phrase!

tw suicide, long post where I talk about how awful I've been feeling

'passively suicidal.'

of all things, I saw it on a twitter post about kendall roy

and, uh, that's what I'm going through right now I'm having a bad time.

I'll be fine I'm not going to do anything but I have cried every day for the last two weeks. don't give yourself constant jaw pain by letting a new-to-me dentist file down the side of your tooth. (I needed a filling replaced early bc of pain but it was nothing compared to this, I'm so stupid and instantly knew something was wrong after, I legit got home and wanted to hurt myself, but when I called the dentist back they wanted to file more shit down to fix it and, no.)

Ways to fix it run anywhere from 'get the filling adjusted by a different, trusted professional' (done, but they can't build up what was ground down) to 'try a mouth guard' (better but doesn't fix the issue) and I guess I'll need a crown or to cope with unending pain in my jaw for the rest of my life. except they make crowns off your current tooth and it's not right! and I got a filling since then elsewhere! something I am utter shit at because I caused it by saying yes it's not like I was hit by a car

hurts to talk, no singing from me, and I still can't do all that much shit with my wrists and therefore hands because, still recovering from wrist surgery. and my neck's been hurting for two months.

going to see a new therapist next week, at least. unfortunately due to my first hand POV of my siblings extensive health issues I always think my health issues will never go away/get worse. because that's been my past two years and also my past six months

anyway turns out 'passively suicidal' is the correct phrase for what I went through in college due to my whole breakdown and it's back except I'm not in school and it's in my body and even though I know it doesn't matter, they're issues I caused myself, one way or another. (and that's what's driving me crazy with self-loathing amidst the pain)

working on fixing things but I have no energy and mostly just sit around like a lump and crying a lot. I need a routine but that's hard when all I want to do is sleep or do nothing, barely keeping on with 'massage healing surgery site 3x a day' my first one was at 2pm today.

so, uh, I'm feeling up there with said college breakdown for worse consistent feeling in life. I'm not going to do anything I just feel sad and upset and awful most of the time either that or nothing and I have successfully zoned out for a few hours watching streams or internet videos. I have trouble imagining any future for myself, career-wise, personal life-wise, anything. I've never been good at that, and granted, I've spent more of my adult life being depressed than being productive.

anyway, hopefully like the mountain goats say, there will come a day when I will feel better, but when that day's coming, who can say?

I got some prozac from my pcp but haven't started it yet due to imagined, easily resolved barriers

I just feel like if I don't fix things it'll be like this forever and this will never go away. because it's fucking jaw pain and I have to fix the bite issue. my orthodontist said my bite's always been shit and my dentist said my bite is 'perfect' and uh I believe one of the more than the other.

I've just had a lot of health issues this year and half of them were caused by saying 'yes' to something I shouldn't have and now I'm in pain and the other half were 'so you played too many videogames two years ago to distract from the desire to self harm and now you just think about how that harmed you even more than that moment of slapping yourself would have'

yes I know it's all stupid

[nonbinarygerard]

this is a rant about AI generated art because I am enraged.

if you want to hear a professional artist speak on AI art more elegantly than me then I highly recommend Steven Zapata’s video. he said everything better than I ever could: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjSxFAGP9Ss&t=5s

the more i learn about AI art the more i literally believe in like 10 years or so we will somehow live in a worst capitalist dystopia where most artistic professional jobs don't exist. You pay a subscription fee to some AI company that just spits out art, movies, comics, novels etc whatever you want on mass, so fast, that art will be personalised to you as in you know how google and other companies track you everywhere on the internet well so will AI companies. they’ll know you more than you know yourself. their algorithms will be fine-tuned just to ur tastes. you won't even need to type in prompts, it will do it for you and show you hundreds, thousands, of art in your feed. You can scroll forever and the algorithm will just make more art. the AI will be so trained to keep ur retention, making ur session time longer and longer and you’ll lose more hours.

Like how many tiktoks do you actually remember? vs how many hours do you stay on the app? do you think the time you spend on tiktok is worthwhile? i use tiktok as an example bc that's only the start of how good AI algorithms can get. give them a few more years with more silicon valley companies competing to be the next big app and they’ll get smart and better in ways you can never imagine.

in the eyes of companies, humans make flaws and humans take too long to make art. it's ripe for automation. companies don't give a fuck about real art and human expression. they only care about profit, profit, profit. what all tech companies want is ur time, your attention, they want to fill all ur waking moments with their products. literally billions of dollars have already been put into AI and though some of the AI art right now might be cringe or just funny, it wont be at some point. In a few months, years, decades, who knows, it will a lot more indistinguishable from human art. that's going to be a problem. you're not going to be able to avoid it because you're not going to be able to what was made by a human and what was made by an AI.

you may think that humans will stop watching or consuming AI art that is bland and seems well AI generated but thats the thing, it will always evolve. In fact companies might just make up fake people to say it was made by and you will never know how much of it was made by humans and how much was made by AI algorithms. if you dont think at some point a bunch of big budget movies, video games, tv shows etc wont be written by AI when it's possible to create a script that doesn't seem like it's written by an AI then you’re crazy.

its going to be a lot harder to make living if you’re not one of the top artists because how the fuck do you compete again AI. you can’t and that’s the point.

its so fitting for evil capitalists that they would rather fund billions of dollars into AI that was designed to replace artists than ever pay artists fair wages.

i dont think people will stop creating art but i do think that a lot of professionals are going to find a hard time keeping their careers without serious changes. you really cant become a master of ur craft without being a professional artist, it just takes that long to gain the experience, knowledge and insight to walk in the footsteps of the masters before. thats what art is. hard work, dedication and discipline. its not something that only a divine few who have the gifts of the gods can do. anyone can become a master artist it just takes devoting ur life to pursue your craft and what a fucking insult it is for billionaires to just fund their extreme amount of money into some goddam shaddy af AI companies to replace professional artists' job, well thats their hope anyway.

this isnt the same like photography was to painting or digital was to traditional. its true that those technological innovations did destroy a lot of jobs but also created new artistic jobs, and they did have massive effects on the industry and i dont want to minimize the number of people who’s careers were destroyed bc of it. But those were massive changes in tools. They didn't actually replace the concept of artists themselves. AI is meant to do as much, if not all, of the artists work for them, so artists don't need to exist in a professional sense.

why would a games company hire concept artists if an AI can come up with hundreds of different concepts in a matter of seconds? maybe human artists might be better but when the AI is good enough a company won't give a shit.

I dont know when this change will happen or how it will occur and how people will react to it but mark my words these AI companies are going to try to make it happen while maintaining the face of just their just simply pushing human progress and this was somehow just a natural evolution of technology.

none of this was natural it was funded by billionaires.

this is not even to mention how these AI’s train on copyrighted artworks with no permission from the artists. and this process is not like how humans learning from other artists, AI’s dont think, they just copy, steal, combine artworks very fast and on mass scale in away no human could ever do. You cant compare how AI’s and how humans learn. there are not the same no matter how big shot programmers try to make them more similar, AI is a machine we could never do what it does. and it is stealing from artists every time it generates art.

I study programming and literally you dont even know the number of jobs there are in AI. its a field that's expanding every day. it's not just a few companies but every big tech company putting massive resources into it. for them, algorithms are the future of humanity.

I am not saying there isn't some actually usefulness in AI created images for example i think getting insane highly specific poses and references at the click of a button is extremely useful but that's just a by-product of what these AI companies want out of their product. they are meant to replace artists' jobs by the click of a button. that's their dream.

AI companies dont care about integrity or intention or the artistic cannon or mastering one’s craft. Companies don’t pour billions of dollars into a technology just for it to be used for meme culture or quirky images. Every time you type in a prompt you are training the AI, its how neural networks work, by releasing them for free to the public you are training the AI for them. and they will train faster than you ever thought. i cant even imagine what the AI images will look like this time next year and they will improve drastically. mark my words.

You are a fool if you dont think AI won’t have a massive and very dystopian effect on society. Capitalism is somehow killing art even more.

maybe you think I’m being dramatic and I hope I am wrong but there is no doubt that AI generated art will change commercial and professional art as we know it.

[feeneeweenee]

What has happened ever since Saturn has entered my 12th House!

Let me give you some context about my chart, first and foremost: I'm a Virgo Sun, Aries Rising, and Pisces moon. My moon is in the 12th house, which opposes my Virgo sun. My Mars is also in Virgo, so that's also being opposed in this Saturn transit. Alright, lets continue..!

Gone To Therapy For The First Time: I hit a very harsh hurdle in my life. A lot of social circle changes were taking place, and things were indefinitely ending. I was extremely fearful of getting into therapy, but something made me bite the bullet. You'll read what exactly has changed for me in this post!

Started My First Ever Job: I was beyond scared to start my first job, since I was often fear mongered about the outside world.

Ended Long-Term Relationships: Specifically, I've ended two. One of them, 5 years, the other.. a year and a half... maybe? It was made clear to me through very uneasy feelings (such as fear and anxiousness), endless conversations with these two, and constant bickering that I should move on, and drop them both.

Created a More Solid Foundation With My Spirituality: I've been functioning with my spirituality out of truth, realism, and skepticism. Not that I haven't before, but its been more implemented in a way. My belief in spirituality, my workings, etc is more solid than ever!

Started Learning How To Drive: ...with no fear attached! I remember when I was 15 yrs old, I'd constantly have anxiety attacks behind the wheel, I wasn't ready in the slightest. Now though? Absolutely no fear. This was such a big milestone for me, along with me getting my first job!

Starting Thinking About Moving Out Seriously: In the past, I was extremely scared of the thought of moving out. Now, I'm suddenly more comfortable with it. I feel fearless to move in with my boyfriend!

Changed My Identity And Mission On The Internet: So, for anyone who doesn't know, I Vtube. I used to say "Im a Vtuber", but recently I've noticed that doesn't resonate with me anymore. I started showing my face a lot more, and let my real name be known. I feel this need to show myself to my full potential, and my full range. Btw, by "mission" I just mean what content I want to create :) This is also something I heavily feared.

Been Separating From My Mother a Lot More: Adulting is hard when you have a helicopter, or codependent, parent. I've been forcibly separating myself from my mom, teaching her that I'll be perfectly fine without her in all of my corners. This is yet ANOTHER thing I was extremely scared to do.

Seriously Thinking About How To Provide Solid Foundations For All Of My Projects: Almost, in a way, thinking about permanence? In terms of my future, specifically career. Thinking about especially the financial plan I have for my future business.

Seriously Thinking About Going To College: I've never been a very college-fond person. I've always despised school, however recently I've been thinking about what degree I want to MAYBE use in order to have a very solid career later in life, no matter if I'm employed under someone or I end up becoming the entrepreneur I dream of.

How Is This Accurate?

Saturn: - Restraint - Maturing - Lessons - Academics - Reality - Wisdom

12th House: - Endlessness - Dreams - Emotions - The Unconscious - The Creative Mind / Left Brain - Spirituality - Permanent Endings - Loss - Fear

The Constant Themes I Experienced So Far: - Breaking of ones fears. - Breaking free from restraint. - Truth seeking / Seeing extremely clearly. - Karma being served. - Maturing / Adulting. - Heightened intuition, more visions. - Clearer retrospect. - More healthy realistic thinking. - Learning how my energy alone can shift my reality. - More fearlessness in general, once I got the ball rolling.

My Conclusion:

When you put both of these together, the energies of the old collide with the concept of mature growth, aka the new. This Saturn in Pisces is extremely beneficial for anybody who is not resisting to Saturn's lessons!! And this is coming from a girlie who was born on their Venus line!! So yeah bitch, accept Saturn's movement!!! I've grown so much. In conclusion, this transit has affected me positively. The opportunities I was given were shown to me through my own efforts. I was shown what I can do, and more. I am STILL being shown what I can make, change, initiate for myself. Thank you, Saturn!!

[badwritinghabit]

Chef's Kiss | Carmy x fem!OC x Luca | Chapter 4

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Masterlist | Ao3

Warnings: Mentions of suicide, Carmy panicking

Word Count: 2,501

Summary: Sophie and Sydney bond over dealing with Carmy's bullshit. And Sophie and Carmy get close in the kitchen.

Sophie started building a friendship with Sydney, the sous chef in Carmy’s kitchen. Their short time cooking together at The Beef acted as an introduction and when Sophie ran into Sydney at a farmer’s market, they reconnected and ended up spending the afternoon together. They wandered the market and eventually decided to chat over coffee and pastries at a coffee shop nearby.

The two bonded over their experiences in restaurants, exchanging stories. Sophie learned about Sydney’s catering experience and her time in culinary school. Sophie shared about her time in San Diego, how she missed California but had to admit Chicago had its own charm.

Sydney updated her about the restaurant. Carmy and the crew at The Beef had found money Mikey was hiding in cans of tomatoes. And they were planning to rebuild into an entirely new fine dining spot, with a window to keep hold of their roots and still sell their famous sandwiches.

Sophie was happy for them. Carmy had talked about his dream to help Mikey turn the restaurant into the Bear for so long. Syd was also excited to be working in a restaurant more fitting of her experience. She deserved the role of CDC and Sophie was thrilled for her.

“I needed this,” Sydney sighed into her coffee mug, looking at Sophie after she vented some of her frustrations. “Carmy is driving me insane.”

“Yeah?”

“He’s been even more unresponsive lately. And I know after his brother– I mean, I can’t imagine.” Sydney had quieted. “Tina was telling me how close they were. How Mikey had been a little unstable but no one ever expected–” she trailed off and Sophie went cold.

“Richie told me he had passed but I didn’t realize.. he- Mikey killed himself?” Sophie asked, feeling her heart start to race.

“You didn’t know? Oh shit. I assumed since you and Carmy were friends you must’ve– it was all over the internet too. With the Beef. There was a couple articles. And Carmy being Carmy…” Sydney was clearly uncomfortable, feeling guilty for spilling something she worried she shouldn’t have.

“No it’s okay, Syd. Carmy and I hadn’t really talked since he went to work at Noma. And I hadn’t really kept up with his career,” Sophie regretted not trying harder to keep track of where he had ended up.

“It’s hard because I know it explains some of this. I can’t blame him. But also, this is my future too. I can’t risk my career if he isn’t all in. And he keeps leaving me hanging.”

“You are absolutely right. Even if he has a reason it doesn’t make it okay for him to abandon you,” Sophie agreed, head still spinning with the news of Mikey’s suicide. “Damn, sorry Syd. I wish I could help. I don’t think me talking to him would be any help though.”

“Did something happen between you? It seemed like you two were talking and now you’re avoiding each other,” Syd said, leaving it open for Sophie to respond.

“It’s a long story. We had a bit of a disagreement,” she paused. “But I wish I knew about Mikey. My dad– uh. My dad also took his own life. A few years before I met Carmy actually. So I know what it’s like,” she said, softly. “Should have given him the benefit of the doubt. He has other things on his mind,” she explained.

“Oh I’m so sorry Sophie,” Syd was instantly sympathetic and Sophie nodded. “I’m sure you and Carmy will work it out,” Syd smiled at her encouragingly.

Sophie hoped she was right.

---

It seemed as though Sydney must’ve said something, done some urging, because Carmy called Sophie a few days after they spoke. He asked her to visit, to come see what they were doing with the new restaurant. And to discuss their decor decisions. He said she had the better eye for art and design. She disagreed, Carmy was one of the most detail oriented people she’d ever met. But she did enjoy it and it was a good excuse to put what happened behind them.

Her visit was fairly short and Carmy was quiet, as usual. She learned a little about the stress of kitchen prep, getting all of the permits, making sure the new space was up to code. She met Carmy’s sister Sugar and offered her help where she could.

She still felt a little awkward around him, a little annoyed at him and herself. But she wanted Carmy’s restaurant to be successful. He deserved it.

She left before they could ever interact without Sydney or Sugar also there.

---

Weeks later, Sophie received a call. Carmy’s voice sounded through her phone. “Soph. I– I know this is sudden. But I have an idea for a dish and I was hoping I could cook it for you.”

“A new dish for the menu?” she asked, confused.

“Yes. I had this idea and I couldn't get it out of my head. Could I come over? I want you to try it.”

“Oh– of course, Carm. Tonight?”

“Yeah. If that’s okay,” he sounded unsure. As if he just realized he was making a strange request.

“Yeah. That would be fine. You can come over whenever.”

Carmy called when he got to the front door and she found him outside, looking slightly flustered, holding a giant bag of groceries. She grinned at him and led him upstairs.

“I won’t get in your way but let me know if you need help. Or a taste tester,” she said. She walked back to sit on the couch and tried to work a little on her laptop.

Something about the sounds of Carmy cooking in her apartment made her feel at peace. Like all of the nights in New York, shuffling around in her tiny apartment, cooking into the early hours of the morning. She missed it. The comfort of just having him around. Eventually she stopped pretending to work and found herself just looking over at him while he cooked.

“This feels a lot like New York, doesn’t it?” he asked, as if he could feel her attention on him.

“I was just thinking about that”, she admitted, walking over and leaning against her kitchen island to get a better view of his cooking. She hummed. “Do you remember that night we made those god awful ginger prawns?”

Carmy laughed, loudly, caught by surprise. “Fuck, I forgot about that.”

“My roommates were so mad. Our apartment smelled terrible for a week.” She shook her head with a grin.

“This smells amazing though. Almost like–” She stopped for a second when she saw the chicken and herbs in the cast iron skillet on her stove. “Chicken Paillard?”

“It is. A little bit of a twist. Because you used to be obsessed with potatoes. And bacon lardons.”

“This is like our lazy sunday dish.” She was astonished. “But French.”

“A little French. A little Danish. Mostly just– our dish. It’s what I want the Bear to be. All of the things I love.” Sophie blushed at the softness in his voice.

He had started plating it, his hands sure as he placed the chicken over the salad of greens, roasted veggies, and crisped polenta– alongside the small caramelized potatoes. An herb and lemon scented pan sauce carefully poured over the top. He turned and handed it to her.

She bit her lip but took the plate and looked it over. Devouring the details, the mix of colors, the golden potatoes and the bright greens and the crispy, browned chicken. She took a bite.

“It’s amazing,” she said, knowing she was blushing. After another moment of thought, she looked up at Carmy with wide eyes. “I remember these potatoes. The Danish recipe.” He had cooked them for her the night he told her he was applying to Noma. She remembered so clearly sitting and watching him cook for her. Sad about his possible departure but happy for him. He was so excited. And he deserved good things.

This dish was all of it. It was New York. It was them, sitting in the kitchen at 2am laughing over complete nonsense because they were so exhausted they had become giddy. All of the quiet joy they had found amidst the chaos. She took another bite. Then she slid the plate over to him. He reached over and took a bite as well, looking at it thoughtfully. “You’re too talented for your own good,” she said, voice too intense for what she meant as a way to play off how much it meant to her. For him to make this dish.

He smiled at her, his own cheeks flaring pink. “I’ve been so fucking lost. Making the menu for The Bear. Syd has helped a lot but we’re both just taking swings wildly, trying to make something memorable. But for some reason this afternoon I couldn’t get our chicken dish out of my head. And I wanted to make something that felt like that. I wanted it to feel like your kitchen in New York.”

Her heart pounded. She was getting caught up in him again. She didn’t want to mess it up. She knew what he was going through. With Mikey. Didn’t want to make things worse for him.

“It’s perfect,” she blinked and looked away, trying to cut the tension. “But you improving on our dish feels a little like that terrible Bobby Flay show,” Sophie joked, lightly. He huffed out a laugh before looking at her with his unbelievably emotional eyes. “I think this is my new favorite dish,” she said, thoughtfully. His eyes lit up and she decided to tell him just how much she loved his cooking– had always loved his cooking. “For years my favorite has been that veal saltimbocca you made for us on our last night in New York,” she admitted quietly, hoping he didn’t feel odd about her obsession with his food.

“That was your favorite?” he asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah. Are you kidding me? It was simple but perfect. Back to basics, that’s what we talked about back then, remember? I was so annoyed with fine dining then, turning everything into foam. I feel like that conversation, that dish changed my career. It has stuck with me ever since.” She realized she had rambled, gotten too passionate, and bit her lip.

Carmy had stepped closer to her. “That day– those dolma you made? I tried for months to get that recipe right,” he said to her, eyes burning into hers. She felt the air leave her lungs. It had changed– the energy between them. Her hands gripped the edge of the counter, nervous. “And those caneles– I get a canele every time I see it on a menu now.”

She blushed, feeling nervous energy shoot up her spine as he stood in front of her, hands on either side of her hips against the counter. “I remember wanting to make something so you wouldn’t forget me when you were off traveling the world,” she responded softly.

He was standing so very close and shifted even closer, she moved slightly, making space between her legs so that they were on either side of his hips. Her heart pounded. He moved his hands and the feeling of his palms on her thighs burned through her jeans. “It worked.” It was a whisper.

And then his lips were on hers, the taste of lemon and smoke still on his tongue from the dish. He was soft and gentle, hands unmoving on the outside of her thighs. But she wanted more. She lifted her hand and tangled it into his hair.

Her thoughts had found her here numerous times before but none of it compared to the reality. The feel of his lips against hers. His hands as they smoothed up from her thighs to her hips, pulling her against him. His hand traveled up the curve of her back and cupped the back of her neck, fingers entwined in her hair. She was burning, every inch of her he touched suddenly alight.

And then it was over.

He pulled back and she found herself looking into his eyes. Something had changed. He was pulling away again.

“Wait.” He stepped back and pushed a hand to his forehead. “Shit, I shouldn’t have.” He was panicking, eyes wide. Gripping his hair, he turned and cursed to himself.

She reached out to him, still breathless. Her brain struggled to catch up but something kicked in, seeing Carmy’s clear distress. “Carm, it’s okay. I know you are about to start a restaurant. Not a good time to make things complicated,” she said, quickly changing to comforting mode. She was still thrown for a loop, her lips and fingertips tingling from the kiss. But she was worried about him. “It’s fine,” she said, again. Trying to mollify whatever feelings he was having. Remembering what she learned about Mikey. Knowing he must be so fucking exhausted with it all. She didn’t want to be another problem.

“No.” He shook his head, hands running through his hair. “Fuck. I ran into Claire. From high school.” She recognized the name, of course. The two had talked about their childhoods and she came up. “We ran into each other and then I helped her move some furniture. And she took me to a party.” He had let go of his hair and it fell across his face. He looked disheveled and broken and apologetic. She realized what was happening. He was choosing Claire. Then why did he kiss her?

Her heart raced. Shame burning the pit of her stomach. But she forced herself to respond. The embarrassment and hurt could come later. “Oh that– that’s good, right?” She asked, her voice sounding much more clear and confident than she expected, even with the stutter. “I know what she meant to you,” she said when he remained silent.

Why did you kiss me? She wanted to ask. Wanted to rewind and have him take it back. It wasn’t fair to do this to her. Make a dish for her. For them. Kiss her. Then say he was with someone else.

“I’m–fuck.” His hands were shaking. “Fuck I’m so sorry, Soph.” He walked over to the table and grabbed his jacket. “I’m going.” And he ran out the door.

She stood there in the kitchen as he left. Eventually she turned to look at the plate of food. Their relationship on a plate. Their hopes and dreams as young chefs. The little safe friendship they had built. She grabbed the plate and threw it into the trash.

She felt tears streaming down her face before she realized she had started crying. She walked over to her couch, grabbed her cellphone from the table, and called Mallary.

“Hello?” her sister’s voice answered almost immediately.

“Mal,” Sophie’s voice wavered, a sob escaping before she could help it.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“He kissed me.”

[nihilnovisubsole]

Thank you! That actually helps a lot. I'm the anon who sent you that question you about what your writing journey has been like. I just recently graduated from an M.A program in English and so I'm sorta in a slump and feeling dejected as I look for jobs, so I think it is more so professionally as I'm in an in-between moment in my life. I've been writing for a long while, my own snippets of original works as well as fanfics in my free time while I was earning my degree, though right now I do feel in a similar spot that you describe being in during your late teens. I'm scared of failure, the thought I might be wasting time, and that I'm not good enough. Writing is something I love and hunger for in a professional scope, but my worries are also getting in my way and make me feel as if I am at a standstill or making no progress. Though I know I just have to start and go and that writing something is better than not doing anything at all. So I just need to get out of that funk I'm in now.

And if it's no trouble, I would love to hear about your job-hunting. I think it would be very useful to hear.

well, it sounds like you're already most of the way there. you're right. we do just have to start. the only way out is through. i find transitional phases in life are, in general, hard, and it's difficult to set off when you don't know where you're going. i think it's why i've thrown myself at so many over-scoped, half-cocked, abandoned story ideas in the past three years. pandemic time is altered, and you have to put that energy somewhere, even if you later find out the project isn't going to work.

so, job-hunting. full disclosure, i can only speak to game writing, because that's what i've been working in since 2017. game writing - or narrative design - is odd. full-time, salaried NDs are a small group, and big studio openings are very rare. i also take rejection hard, which made things interesting, because applying to jobs is like baseball: 90% failure. you have to have a thick skin to make it in a creative industry. i do not! i've just developed coping mechanisms for it. there's nothing like vacuuming the whole house when you're upset. you know that scandinavian guy who said, "i chop wood until i'm too tired to care?" he gets it.

[although, it's funny, since you brought it up: the "academia to gamedev" pipeline is more common than you might think. i work with a former professor, and i have another pal with a Ph.D. my theory is that all the research trained their brains to crunch systems.]

sometime in 2019, i became unsatisfied with the mobile romance job. it happens. time to go somewhere else. i learned fast that i couldn't go on indeed and search "narrative design." most openings came through word of mouth, and some weren't public at all. in short, if i were to hear about a writing job posting, i'd hear about it through the grapevine, and that meant networking. being active on twitter became non-negotiable. i had to meet other game writers and see what they were up to. there's an inherent tension there, because you're looking for a job, but you have to genuinely want to share your work and learn about theirs. i mean, we should always be genuine, but people can tell when you're only out to get something from them. [not that you would! it still bears bringing up.]

if this sounds excruciating, remember, despite the permanence of the internet, people don't get hung up on awkward encounters like we think they do. i was so annoying that first year, faking it 'til i made it, like a 21-year-old who insists she's mature enough for her parents' martini lunch. in time, i met people who were closer to my pay grade. i did a couple of game jams. i settled in. it felt good.

but i still wanted a job! so i timidly applied to a few studios. it took me three months to land an interview. i bombed it. it was humiliating. the thing about being early-career is that every app feels life-or-death, like every interview will be your last chance to prove yourself. "if you screw this one up, nothing will ever come around again!" and it often didn't, for months at a time. but i was stubborn. i kept at it.

still, after a year of that, i grew so burned-out and desperate that i had to swallow my ego and ask people for help. a friend of mine hooked me up with another indie contract. i got job coaching, which prescribed some hard-to-swallow pills. mainly, i needed more experience. mobile games could be a tough sell to AAA studios, and dangerous crowns would never substitute for game work. i can't lie, that frustrated me. i had to go through a grieving process. when i emerged, i gained a level of emotional detachment about it. when you realize you have homework, it doesn't matter how you feel. your assignment is to do a good job and meet your intended goal. i made contrition. i joined a portfolio-building workshop. i began planning dressed to kill. if that was what it took, that's what i had to do.

that's when, mysteriously, things shifted. i got more interviews. in summer of '21, i applied to obsidian for the first time. i said, "what the hell, college-me would kill me if she heard i didn't apply to The New Vegas People." i got rejected, but learned i'd made it to the final round. that was different. that was intoxicating. they liked me. i'd almost made it. they encouraged me to apply again, something i once found unthinkable. but, hey, i'd gotten close, right? so i took the company of heroes contract, which ended up being great. and in winter, when obsidian posted another job, i applied again.

there were other things. participating in the VOW writers' strike put my friends and i in game news. that was a pleasant, intimidating surprise. if nothing else, i learned that, like love trouncing your fear of failure, your desire to push through has to be stronger than your shame. trust me, i know. i'm ashamed of everything. but when it really counts, i think your instinct will tell you that it's worth sticking with it.

[stinkrascal]

If it's not spoilers could you please talk about vlad? Like what does he like, hobbies and how he feels about his family, the small stuff, thank you! And I can't wait for your Breanna and Vlad spinoff

hello anon thanks for the cool question!! and thanks so much, i really hope u guys enjoy the backstory reprisal!! im getting so close to finishing it, i can't wait to post it for everyone to read!! <3

i'm putting this under a cut because ohhhhhhhh boy did i ramble so hard lol.

vlad loves reading and writing a lot! he reads almost constantly, and he's a bit of a braggart when it comes to his vast knowledge of many different things, which he's learned about from books alone. he has no formal education, so reading was his only avenue for learning for a long, long time. after becoming a vampire, and before meeting breanna, he spent many centuries alone, with his only company being the books he surrounded himself with, so reading very quickly became a huge pastime for him. before becoming a vampire, vladislaus was actually illiterate and couldn't read or write; he was taught to read and write in english and in russian by yakov petrova, a natural-born vampire whose native language is russian. so, vlad honestly has a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to his own intelligence. because of this, he tries to make up for that insecurity by being as well-read as he possibly can. even after all these years, he still has that lingering fear in the back of his head, so he's almost always reading in an attempt to learn more and more! as far as writing goes, he enjoys using his writing as a way to vent about his frustrations, and often he uses his writing to delve into the deeply personal history of his past, as well as some of his crueler intrusive thoughts he doesn't wish to admit to anyone aloud. he isn't a professional by any means, and his writing is something he doesn't share to most people, not even to breanna at times, but it does help him significantly. if he were to pursue any career, he would be an author!

he also really loves music! one of his greatest hobbies is collecting new vinyl and listening to it with breanna, so they can discuss how they feel about the music. he's listened to literally everything, and since vampires integrated with humans and were granted access to internet usage, now he can listen to all the underground artists he never would have been exposed to when vampires only lived among themselves! not only does he love music, but he's musically gifted himself; he can play the piano and the organ, and he's a good singer. he's shy about his talents, though, so he won't often play for people. occasionally, he'll play for his family, though :-)

vlad is EXTREMELY family oriented, and he cares very very deeply about his family. this has been true of him his entire life, even before becoming a vampire. in his human life, he lived on a farm with nine younger siblings. as the oldest child, he took on much of the childcare for his younger siblings, and as such became something of a surrogate father to them, as their real father was often gone, and their mother was bedridden from various illnesses. so, even at a young age, he's been rather paternal and nurturing in nature, always wanting to provide for others. vlad has this deeply-rooted insecurity, where he needs to feel needed, he needs to feel as though his help contributes to something greater, and to him, fatherhood satiates that desire. so, as you can imagine, he puts ALL his effort into his family, honestly, to the point where he's extremely distrusting and dismissive of people outside of his family, and he can be extremely overbearing at times. he's the type of person who always thinks he's right, so when he sees his children in need, he's not shy to give his input on what he thinks they ought to do to better themselves. sometimes this is appreciated, but other times it can come across as condescending and patronizing. which, rest assured, he is condescending and patronizing, but he doesn't mean to be--he's just seen a lot of suffering in his lifetime, and he can't imagine that suffering being inflicted onto his wife and children. he feels very responsible for the wellbeing of those he cares about, so he'll do practically anything he feels will keep them safe. at the end of the day, though, he's just happy to have his children around. honestly, if vlad had it his way, none of his children would ever move out of the house! they'd all just live together in one big, happy family forever and ever. he's the person who's always organizing family dinners, outings, and vacations, the one who always texts and facetimes his children without so much as a warning, just to ask them about their day, and if anything cool has happened. and if nothing cool happened, that's fine! he just loves the sound of their voices. after going so long without a genuine connection with anyone, he relishes in the fact that he has such a large family with such a close bond!

i've mentioned this a lot before, but vlad is VERY overprotective of breanna especially. obviously he feels this way about his children too, but he has such a close bond with breanna, being away from her feels unthinkable. he always wants to be around her, he's constantly checking up on her and making sure she's okay, she's happy, she's cared for, etc. they met during a time where they both felt completely alone, isolated from the world around them, with no friends, no ambition, and no care for their own wellbeing. he honestly sees a lot of himself (and a lot of his younger brother, who will be talked about one day far in the future lmao) in breanna. in a lot of ways, even though he didn't know breanna when she was a human, he feels personally responsible for her troubled upbringing, and he feels this even more now that they're together. whenever she faces any problem, he feels like he personally needs to fix it, as to alleviate the hardships she's endured.

so, it's no surprise that he's EXTREMELY clingy and needy, and honestly very codependent. if you asked vlad about himself, i think he'd have a hard time coming up with an answer which doesn't revolve around him being a father and a husband, him caring for his wife and children, because he's honestly just so enmeshed into that lifestyle and especially w/ breanna that it's hard to see anything else. i amount that to him being a deeply insecure person, someone who constantly feels anxiety and someone who constantly needs reassurance that he's needed in this world. it's definitely one of the reasons why he's so attached to breanna, because she makes him feel needed. obviously there's other reasons too!! like, they genuinely just get along and treat each other well. but there's no denying she itches this particular scratch for vlad (and it's the same for breanna too, i would say their relationship is very symbiotic in this sense).

what i'm trying to say, is that while i think this man seriously needs some therapy to work on the centuries worth of insecurities he's woven into his very being... he does genuinely love and care for his family very much, and he wants nothing more than to see his family happy. it's just that sometimes he expresses this feeling in very questionable and unhealthy ways.

he's just a very paternal and pathetic and pretentious man and i love him so very much for that <3

[polyamorousduckie]

A Lot Has Changed

It's been 2 years since my last post, and I've been doing a lot of things to try and take care of myself.

B and I moved in with her partner and we all bought a house together. And made our living wills together. And our power of attorney together. And started a business together.

I got to do a play that was a bucket list item. It was... tumultuous, but we all made it through. So much went wrong with that show. Not the way I wanted to end my acting career (as far as I know it).

I ended up dating someone for a little while. It was... meh. She was someone who wanted to be chased, but didn't really want to do anything apart from go out to eat and come home and get laid. Granted, the sex was fun, but I started feeling uncomfortable when she told me she had a breeding kink. Children are for NO with me. And she wasn't willing to put in the same effort I was in the relationship, because she was more interested in vibes and smoking. The last time we spoke, she was complaining to me that she had to get on Tinder. You know, instead of talking to me. Whatever.

After that, I got really dark. The spiraling thoughts were taking me to bad places. I couldn't do right at work, I couldn't do right at home. I eventually got in to see a good therapist. She's been working with me through CBT and just recently EMDR therapy. I've been making really good strides.

I'm also in a cantata for Christmas. It feels good to sing again.

But I'm lonely. What else is new, right? This is different, though.

At this point, I'm not feeling a longing for anyone. I miss being around my friends, but there's no one I want to have as more than that. It hasn't been for a lack of trying. I've been trying to get together with some people to see if I have some kind of feeling for them, and there's just... nothing. I think it's because between work and our business, I don't feel like I have time for anything else. I have to do my part to keep the business going.

But something in me has just... turned off. It's different than before, where whenever I started having feelings for someone, I'd be self-destructive and come up with reasons why they wouldn't be interested in me. Now... I take a look at others and just have no interest, or no interest in trying to have an interest. Whenever I've tried, I come up with reasons why I SHOULDN'T even try. "This one has kids and needs to find themself again" or "this one needs to grow the fuck up and learn how to support themselves" or "I am NOT about to be someone's first/rebound/savior".

Maybe it's because I'm trying to take care of myself. Maybe it's a form of hypervigilance. Maybe because of where I live, I'm tired of saying I'm polyamorous and people being immediately afraid that I'm hitting on them. Maybe I'm just getting older and I'm tired of the chase.

But on the flip side, I've lost touch with so many people. I don't get to talk to that many people these days. My days are in the office where it's too quiet and hardly anyone talks to me unless they want me to do something, or I come home and spend a couple of hours with the family before everyone goes to their separate rooms and I'm all alone again. I don't go out much. I don't drink much anymore, so bars are more or less out now. When I do go see a show or go to the symphony, I either take B or I take my best friend. And sometimes, if they're not available, I end up going by myself. And hardly anyone watches my streams anymore, so it's hard to get the energy to be just another fat white bearded guy on the internet playing video games.

It is what it is, I guess.

[sasquapossum]

Software can be a harsh business, and no segment more so than games. Anybody who goes into it should expect to encounter mostly negative sentiment. It has long been known as a rule on the internet that people are more likely to express disagreement or condemnation than agreement or approval. Right here on tumblr dot com, I've gotten so tired of the scolds and pedants (cops at heart even though they say ACAB) that I've considered leaving more than once. In four decades online I've never found a venue where the rule doesn't hold ... but I digress. Back to games. Let's look at some recent examples of how I've written about the games I've played.

I've been kind of hard on Baldur's Gate 3. On the other hand, that's against a background of most people positively frothing with praise for it. It's sitting on a 96 score at Metacritic, in a three-way tie for best of the year, with an 8.9 user score. I'm seriously not worried about anyone's ego being bruised. Au contraire.

I've criticized many things about Diablo 4, but also stood up for them more than once when I felt criticism was unjustified. They don't deserve an 8.9 user rating for sure, but nor do they deserve the 2.1 that they actually have.

I've generally praised Deathloop, even though most people's reaction (6.5 on MC) has been lukewarm at best. "Arkane's weakest game" is a common refrain that I don't think is deserved. Take a look at the reviews for Redfall (which I haven't played) to refute that. BTW, "this was so bad it hurt my opinion of 3 different companies" might be unkind but it did make me laugh anyway.

Game developers, designers, and product managers need this kind of feedback. They need to know not only that people like or dislike a game, but how much - which we convey via the strength of our language. They also need to know which parts people like or dislike. That's how they make the next one better. The one thing I will never do is just say "this game rocks" or "this game sucks" without any elaboration. That is truly unhelpful, whichever way the sentiment runs.

Part of the reason I can say this with such confidence is that I've also been on the receiving end. I was in the industry for over 30 years, covering a dozen companies and even more products. Every single one was attacked from one direction or another. Near the end of my career I was a maintainer for a semi-well-known project. I was one of several, but my particular role within that group included being its public face. I gave the most public presentations. I engaged the most (by far!) on social media. I often had to deal with criticism that was harsh and untrue and very public. Sometimes it even came from people who were my "stablemates" on a related project in the same company - people who I had considered friends, who should have known better, whose own work had its own flaws which I had avoided discussing publicly out of professional courtesy. Nothing I could say about a game, as an outsider, will ever compare to those stabs in my back.

As I said, it's a brutal business. I learned to develop a thick skin, to ignore the hyperbole and try to engage with some of the other criticism in good faith even when I didn't believe it had been meant that way. The products I worked on got better because of that. If any game developer or designer can't handle the kind of criticism I've given, I suggest that they are in the wrong business and/or the wrong role.

[timemanagementtipsforva]

𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐬

Freelancers work at their own pace and on their own time. However, with the demand for work, excellent time management skills are highly needed for productivity.

Whether in the family or your day-to-day schedule, it’s tough to juggle all of these, especially when loads of work begin to pile up. One of the biggest internal battles everyone is facing, including freelancers, is time management.

How you value your time and allocate the number of hours in a day determines the success and production rate of your goal every day. Here are some tips to keep your eye on the ball to effectively manage your time.

𝟏. 𝑰𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎.

We have different commitments and responsibilities in our families, careers, and businesses. The question is, what keeps you busy? Are the things you do right now worth your effort toward your goal? What consumes your day? We all have different priorities. Your priorities may be different from the others. How you set your priorities depends on the things that matter to you the most.

Identifying your priorities is the first step in time management. You need to ask yourself the most important things. What makes you happy, and what is it that you want? When you know what your priorities are, you know what to treasure and what to value. When you have finally figured it out, you have a clear direction on what you want to start.

𝟐. 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅

If you don’t plan, you will be doing things that are not valuable, and it is a waste of time. Not planning ahead is quite costly, and our main rival is time itself, and you don’t have much of it. Planning ahead means directing your day to allocate sufficient time to complete the tasks and get to your routine to be more efficient and productive. Some secrets to success are preparation, hard work, and learning from failures. Part of the preparation process is to plan ahead to identify the things you have accomplished and have not done in a day. To do so, make a daily schedule and go into details like allocating specific time to finish a task and stick to your routine.

𝟑. 𝑺𝒂𝒚 𝒏𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔.

Facebook and other social media sites are the leading distractors that deviate many from their focus. That is because of easy access to the internet. You can easily access and browse these sites. Not knowing you have already spent 20-30 minutes scrolling for nothing. The time you spent scrolling on FB and other social media sites could have been enough to complete one task. So it is still a matter of self-discipline. You must deviate from doing things not written on your schedule to have effective time management skills.

𝟒. 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔

Even the “Super you” need support. There will be a limited output if you work independently, regardless of how much hard work you put into it. Trying to do things alone might result in poor quality, missed deadlines, and burnout.

Freelancers often keep accepting projects even though their hands are full and their schedule is tight. So, to avoid this, it is better to delegate the task to lessen the burden, as the saying goes. “If you want to go fast, walk alone; if you want to go far, walk together.” You need a team working with you to get things done immediately.

𝟓. 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚

Sit back and think about what you have accomplished and missed that day. By simply looking back at your schedule, you can identify the following:

The things you have achieved

Things you missed

What took so long to finish a specific task

Why does it take you so long to accomplish the task, and so on

With these, you already have a guide for improvement and better scheduling next time.

𝟔. 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂 𝑪𝒉𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝑫𝒂𝒚

A checklist helps you to be more organized and make sure to catch everything in the process. It’s easy to forget things you need to do in a day, but you can avoid this if you have a checklist. Some of the benefits of having a list are the following:

• Save time

Instead of remembering what you will be doing that day, you can make most of the time doing the tasks.

• Productive

You can easily prioritize the most important task and keep track of what you do that day.

• Motivate

A checklist motivates you to take action and complete the task. Since a checklist makes you more successful and productive, it encourages you to work on your writing.

𝟕. 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒕

After all the hard work and getting things done, you need to reward yourself too. It could be having a vacation, pampering yourself, or simply sleeping well and not doing anything to give you time to breathe and relax. You can only do so much by working so hard. If you fail to give your body a rest, you might be burned out. You may be working so hard to pay the bill for the hospitalization.

Effectively managing time can be very challenging for some.

Time management takes self-control, self-discipline, and commitment to stick to schedules. Time is the scarcest resource. Unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.

-Peter Drucker.

[time-management-tips]

Time Management Tips

Freelancers work at their own pace and on their own time. However, with the demand for work, excellent time management skills are highly needed for productivity.

Whether in the family or your day-to-day schedule, it’s tough to juggle all of these, especially when loads of work begin to pile up. One of the biggest internal battles everyone is facing, including freelancers, is time management.

Time Management Tips

1. Identify the priorities and stick to them.

We have different commitments and responsibilities in our families, careers, and businesses. The question is, what keeps you busy? Are the things you do right now worth your effort toward your goal? What consumes your day? We all have different priorities. Your priorities may be different from the others. How you set your priorities depends on the things that matter to you the most.

Identifying your priorities is the first step in time management. You need to ask yourself the most important things. What makes you happy, and what is it that you want? When you know what your priorities are, you know what to treasure and what to value. When you have finally figured it out, you have a clear direction on what you want to start.

2. Plan ahead

If you don’t plan, you will be doing things that are not valuable, and it is a waste of time. Not planning ahead is quite costly, and our main rival is time itself, and you don’t have much of it. Planning ahead means directing your day to allocate sufficient time to complete the tasks and get to your routine to be more efficient and productive. Some secrets to success are preparation, hard work, and learning from failures. Part of the preparation process is to plan ahead to identify the things you have accomplished and have not done in a day. To do so, make a daily schedule and go into details like allocating specific time to finish a task and stick to your routine.

3. Say no to distractions that make you lose your focus.

Facebook and other social media sites are the leading distractors that deviate many from their focus. That is because of easy access to the internet. You can easily access and browse these sites. Not knowing you have already spent 20-30 minutes scrolling for nothing. The time you spent scrolling on FB and other social media sites could have been enough to complete one task. So it is still a matter of self-discipline. You must deviate from doing things not written on your schedule to have effective time management skills.

4. Delegate tasks and chores

Even the “Super you” need support. There will be a limited output if you work independently, regardless of how much hard work you put into it. Trying to do things alone might result in poor quality, missed deadlines, and burnout.

Freelancers often keep accepting projects even though their hands are full and their schedule is tight. So, to avoid this, it is better to delegate the task to lessen the burden, as the saying goes. “If you want to go fast, walk alone; if you want to go far, walk together.” You need a team working with you to get things done immediately.

5. Evaluate at the end of the day

Sit back and think about what you have accomplished and missed that day. By simply looking back at your schedule, you can identify the following:

The things you have achieved

Things you missed

What took so long to finish a specific task

Why does it take you so long to accomplish the task, and so on

With these, you already have a guide for improvement and better scheduling next time.

6. Create a Checklist for the Next Day

A checklist helps you to be more organized and make sure to catch everything in the process. It’s easy to forget things you need to do in a day, but you can avoid this if you have a checklist. Some of the benefits of having a list are the following:

• Save time

Instead of remembering what you will be doing that day, you can make most of the time doing the tasks.

• Productive

You can easily prioritize the most important task and keep track of what you do that day.

• Motivate

A checklist motivates you to take action and complete the task. Since a checklist makes you more successful and productive, it encourages you to work on your writing. `

7. Rest

After all the hard work and getting things done, you need to reward yourself too. It could be having a vacation, pampering yourself, or simply sleeping well and not doing anything to give you time to breathe and relax. You can only do so much by working so hard. If you fail to give your body a rest, you might be burned out. You may be working so hard to pay the bill for the hospitalization.

Effectively managing time can be very challenging for some.

Time management takes self-control, self-discipline, and commitment to stick to schedules. Time is the scarcest resource. Unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.-Peter Drucker.

Right now these tips helps me a lot to manage my time as a virtual assistant like scheduling my own social media contents. Feel free to visit my social media sites.

Website link : https://albvirtualassistance.wixsite.com/albvirtual/post/time-management-tips

https://www.instagram.com/albvirtuala/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/albvirtual/

https://twitter.com/AlbVirtual

Original Source: https://courses.thesurgemarketplace.com/time-management/

[amnasahad]

INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN KERALA

WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?

Digital marketing is the process of promoting the products and services of a company through social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) by using different social channels(SEO, SMM, sem, etc.). It is also known as online marketing or internet marketing.

WHY IS DIGITAL MARKETING IMPORTANT FOR BUSINESS THESE DAYS

Digital marketing is a growing career opportunity that will become mandatory in every business field. it is going to run the world within a few years. The world is running digitally now and everything is at our fingertips this is because digital marketing plays a major role in this. It is through digital marketing that most of the business is running. India will soon be a global player in digital marketing, according to Sundhar Pichai. Digital marketing is the most cost-efficient and less time-consuming way of marketing a business compared to traditional marketing. In this manner, it can bring high revenue with less investment.

DIGITAL MARKETING AND KERALA

Digital marketing is something that is slowly growing in Kerala. According to New India Express Kochi was named the sole Indian city on American technology cognizant's list of "21 places of the future" for artificial intelligence, data science, and the internet of things. Kochi is the IT hub of Kerala and it is one of the fastest-growing sectors in digital marketing as well. There are online and offline modes of digital marketing courses in Kerala. Most places provide online course, but offline course is much preferable than online because digital marketing requires practical training. Digital marketing requires more practical training because nowadays most youngsters lack practical skills which are essential when entering a company. Opentutor focuses more on industry-based training and internship programs to improve the efficiency and skills of the students. Opentutor has been able to provide good training programs and was able to place their students in good companies.

ARE CERTIFICATIONS IMPORTANT IN DIGITAL MARKETING?

Even though students focus more on certifications, companies look up to employees' portfolios. Only a few companies give value to certifications, companies focus more on your skills and talents. Few companies help students in building portfolio websites. One of the specialties of Opentutor academy is that it also focuses on training students to build aesthetic websites as well.

HOW LONG WILL THE DIGITAL MARKETING COURSE TAKE TO COMPLETE

Commonly digital marketing takes almost four to six to eight months in some places while there are two months of courses in other places. It is more about focusing on hours there are places where the course duration is 3 months and in other academies, it is four months but the term is the same at both places. while you are taking admission you should check on the duration instead of months. Digital marketing is a good course if you are looking for a short-term course with a great scope at a minimum budget.

WHY INTERNSHIP? WHY IS IT GOOD TO HAVE INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE?

In any work sector knowing to do fieldwork is more important than just learning how to do it. Internship means an employee who works in a company without getting any stipend, just as trainee, in this way it will benefit the employee in building experience and the company can get a few of their work done without paying for the employer. I know some people still wonder why we should waste our time doing internships if we don't even get a stipend. But an internship will help you build experience in that particular field, mainly the scope of getting a job is higher if you have done an internship. most of the time it is hard to get jobs for freshers so it is better to enter as an intern and build experience. Most of the digital marketing academies provide internship opportunities as well, it will help build experience and help them gain more skills in the field.

HEARD ABOUT OPENTUTOR ACADEMY IN KANNUR?

Opentutor is a leading digital academy in Kannur. We offer agency-based learning techniques. Our course is completely offline-based. Well-trained professional mentors with really good experience in this field. we focus more on practical classes in order to provide office-like real-time experience. The specialty of our academy is we built our students into successful digital marketing freelancers and entrepreneurs. We focus more on client pitching and getting hired. One doesn't require a base in IT or the business sector in order to join digital marketing.

WHAT WE OFFER

Social Media Marketing: Social Media Marketing (SMM) is online marketing performed on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and so on. SMM is a way of running ads to the targeted audience and generating leads. Search Engine Marketing: Search engine marketing is a digital marketing strategy used in order to increase the visibility of your web page on the search engine result page. Search Engine Optimization: Search Engine Optimization is a strategy used in order to increase the visibility of your website in search engines. Content Creation: In content creation, we create unique and impressive content in order to attract the target audience and generate leads. Web Designing: Web Design is creating amazing websites for companies.

CONCLUSION

As we all know the world is going completely digital and the scope for digital marketing is getting higher day by day. There is no business that can't work well without digital marketing. Digital marketing is going to dominate the business because of the high competition in the market. Every business requires digital marketing in this era.

[dzpenumbra]

11/29/22

Big day. Seems like a lot of those lately. Got the conflict with my mom addressed again to clarify, with some time to reflect. We've been having this shit going on where the problem is referred to as "a communication problem" or "a miscommunication" and that usually is like... a wink and nod at me like I'm not communicating well. It really created a complex in me for a very long time, because... you know... I'm a writer... and an artist... and a musician... Communication is kinda my thing. So it kinda has always felt like throwing me under the bus, because every one of these problems (at least with my mom) are because she is not communicating something that's bothering her, not communicating plans, making assumptions or making decisions on my behalf without my consent or consultation. Or because she doesn't understand what I'm communicating and she doesn't ask any questions to clarify. This is a problem I've had with others as well, I think it's a pride thing? But also an anxiety thing. And... it's really hard to know that it's a mental health issue... and to still be like... firm about it? Because otherwise I just get scapegoated, and that's just... extremely unhealthy.

So I think we got some really important stuff communicated, namely "do not change plans or make decisions or commitments on my behalf without consulting with me, just call or text me first." It's really painful to be a 36 year old and have this problem, which is like... a problem that teenagers and college students have... I guess I just picked the wrong career, huh...

I got the internet set up to transfer over to my new place. I'm in talks to see if I can just sell my old car to the dealership and trade it in for a lease of the car that I'm renting. I have no idea if I should even own a car, to be frank. I kinda need one for vet appointments and visiting family, but if it weren't for that... I'd be really tempted to just get a OneWheel and just ride that fucker around anytime I want to go somewhere. And I mean that! On one of the drives today, I remembered that there was a pivotal moment in my life when I was ready to buy a motorcycle. It was going to be my thing. I had already done a big solo road trip, I always wanted either an old Army WWII era Jeep (which I could learn how to fix and maintain) or a motorcycle. Maybe even both. But my mom somehow convinced me to get a service dog and an SUV.

I loved my dog with all my heart, she changed my life forever - though I really wish I never saw her as a service dog, just a best friend, it took us way too many years to get to that healthy relationship - but I always look back and wonder how different my life would be if I just took the money I had saved up from streaming... Didn't give the money to my ex to pay off her debt... But instead spent it on a motorcycle. Or that old Jeep. How different of a person would I be? Is that even a life I still want? I think so, honestly. Some version, at least.

As far as the car goes, all of the repairs I'm trying to just flat-out sell the car because of - I've been waiting a week for them to even order parts, they can't even order parts right now! - all that damage came from neglect. It came from the car just sitting in the driveway and not being driven for months, years. I feel horrible. I wish I just had goddamn friends to do things with and none of this would have happened. And I really worry that this new car is just going to suffer the same fate. It really sucks, because it's like... you have to pay money on gas to go drive this vehicle literally anywhere just to spare yourself paying more money in repairs. What a fucking black hole of money. Ugh. But I'm literally moving my entire life by myself and trying to take care of an elderly cat with health problems, so... I wasn't really prepared to go fucking car shopping. If I was prepared, I'd probably get an electric. Assuming you can charge those at home? I don't know enough about those things. But yeah, I'm kinda just caught off-guard and reacting to put these fires out. My mom suggested doing a lease, then I can just like... renegotiate it if I need to. I guess that makes sense. That's the plan we're running up currently.

I took a run up to the apartment. It took me like 2 hours to pack the car, I packed it literally to the fucking brim, like I could barely even fit food in the car, it was almost air-tight. I got up in good time, didn't need to use GPS or anything. I got it all unloaded in less than 40 minutes. That's including getting a new litterbox set up in a closet and exploring what I'm dubbing the "art cave". Check this shit out. My new apartment is a loft, so its got a big common room, a staircase going up to the bedroom and in the wall at the top of the stairs is a hatch that goes into a big carpeted storage space. But this storage space is like... big enough to stand up in. And it has a light in it! So, my plan... back in college, I had a wall in my apartment that I covered in paper and I had it as basically a graffiti/mural wall that anyone who came over could draw on. I want to either do that with this space and turn it into an art cave, or try to soundproof it and turn it into a recording booth. Either way, I'm really excited to play around with that space.

I drove back, the drive went super quick. Got Taco Bell on the way back, super underwhelming. I was considering just doing the last bit tonight, making a grand total of about 8 hours of driving, but I decided to just do it in the morning. I figured it wouldn't really be fair to Max to spend like an hour packing and then put her in a crate, drive her 2.5 hours and then bring her into a brand new home at like... 1:30AM. That doesn't give her a lot of time to get acquainted with the space with me. Because I'm just going to give her her meds and pass out. So I decided to do it tomorrow, and then we can have the day to pack slowly and settle in to the new place together.

The only other thing that happened today was soaking a goat skull. That's a sentence you don't hear everyday... I'll keep this story brief if you haven't heard it before, but last summer a woman contacted me on a dating site. I had it listed on my profile that I was looking to get into more 3D mediums this year - wood, stone and bone. She said she lived on a farm in a rural area nearby and offered some bones, if I was interested. I was shocked that anyone even wanted to speak to me, this was literally a week after I put my dog down... so I just was glad to have the company. We FaceTimed for like 10 hours, told stories, bonded. Then she offered to bring some bones over and hang out the next day. I said sure. She showed up and pulled 2 5 gallon buckets full of goat bones in varying stages of decomposition out of her car and gave them to me. I was so overwhelmed with the social interest that I didn't even process what I was getting into. And now, almost 6 months later, I still have a box full of goat bones in my living room. They're too thin to work with, at least the stuff I know how to do. And I honestly just don't know their story, which makes me feel uncomfortable. I've handled dead animals before - I've had to dispose of rabbits that foxes have mangled, and a disembodied deer leg, and a dead red-tailed hawk that snapped its neck and died in my yard. These were all very solemn, respectful events. I knew what happened, I treated them honorably and it was done. But these, I just get a weird vibe from these. I can't put my finger on it. I feel bad, because I would really love to honor these animals, there's just a mental barrier there for some reason.

Today... I tried to push through the barrier, and somewhat succeeded. There were two skulls included in the bone pile. One was a bit rotted on the bottom, the other was cracked around the nasal cavity (those bones are always super fragile) but seemed to not be decomposed. It's pretty large. I was planning on carving either a mandala or just... sorta intuitive abstract designs into it, and either using it as an ornamental piece or, if I can figure out a good way to do it, an incense burner. But I'm still a little weirded out by it. And again, I can't really figure out why. Maybe it's just the memory associated with it? Maybe because it was like... a domesticated animal and not a wild animal? Like if this was a deer skull I don't think I would have these feelings at all. I don't know. Welp, either way, it's out soaking on the porch overnight, to clean it up and decontaminate anything that might be lingering on it. We'll see if this feeling passes and I feel okay carving it. Either way, I'm going to have to figure out how to get rid of these bones in a not sketchy and respectful way. I was thinking of contacting animal control and telling them the story, I bet they know what to do with animal bones. We'll see, I have some time to figure that out.

Right now, it's late so I need to go get my kitty her meds and get ready for bed. Next journal entry will be from my new place. Assuming the internet works... Fingers crossed!

[prayassarwadhikari]

How this Digital entrepreneur transformed 50k students’ career miracally: Free teaching on Youtube ?

“Entrepreneurship is the new way of living”

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

The 21st century has been a blessing to all humanity. Everyone witnessed modern innovations and terrific entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, and Waren Buffett globally. The craze of entrepreneurship also emerged in India. The Tech CEO of OLA Bhavish Agarwal, the Ceo of PayTm, and many other entrepreneurs showed their class.

But what was the most common thread most probably the common trait that everybody above possessed? 

Mindset

Money

Confidence

Talent

Hard work 

Skill 

But let me tell you the most common trait is self learning skills. 

In this digital era when everything is readily available on the internet for free. But the  most important question is, can anyone blindly rely on free content?

The same questions emerged in my mind and I wanted to find answers to these questions. I had dreams and I too wanted to become someone like the above personality.

“That’s where I realized that I needed skills”

“Getting Transformed in the most fascinating way”

Coming from a lower middle-class family it was difficult for me to enroll in some premium institutions to grab some skills. 

The motive was clear to learn high-paying skills and earn a standard lifestyle.  

My journey started from reading books about these entrepreneurs and then shifted to youtube. Being a non-techie guy I was underconfident and guilty. But somehow I managed to stop my anxiety and started to focus on the booming career in Digital Marketing.

I explored various digital marketing channels and got some idea about What Digital Marketing Is? But somehow I couldn't connect myself with any digital marketers available on Youtube except Alok Kumar Badatia. Coming from the same background and having faced struggles in his personal life fascinated me. 

The True Saviour ?!

Alok Kumar Badatia is a digital entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Digital 365 and the Digital Marketing training institute AADME. 

He has a successful Youtube Channel with more than 70k subscribers and 450+ youtube videos posted on it. 

Being an entrepreneur one should be the intrapreneur at first. Alok Kumar Badatia lives this reality by providing high-quality free digital marketing content. 

A realistic approach to the digital marketing industry makes him stand out from others. 

The man who helped me become my guide, my mentor. 

Understanding the right way to do any business,

A step-by-step procedure to get more leads and sales

Building a personal brand

Skills like Content marketing, funnel building, web development, copywriting, SEO, and a lot more.

This changed my life and helped me with my career.

No matter who you are, a fresher, working in a company, freelancer, housewife, or business owner, Alok sir will help you.

At the start we discussed the most common trait that is self learning. Alok kumar Badatia highly values the skill of self learning that’s why he helped more than 50k thousand worldwide through his free youtube videos.

His youtube videos is a masterclass for all the digital marketing aspirants who wants to learn high paying skills without investing a penny. 

So I highly recommend you focus your time on learning a skill from the right mentor, who knows what he is doing and who respects you, and who has the best interest in their mind and help you in every way possible. 

For better guidance You can check his Free Teaching on Youtube, if you wanna learn and improve your skills and eventually decide which career path to choose.

Spoon feeding, in the long run, teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon”

Getting started is easy, and having an intent is hard but finding the right mentor is the hardest. Though there are plenty of entrepreneurs who provide free content doesn't mean that we can blindly rely on them. Entrepreneurs like Alok Kumar Badatia stand apart and have a selfless attitude when it comes to paying back to society. Thanks

[veliseraptor]

hi Lise. I really like your writing & blog- I don't have a tumblr, but I like to check in with a few blogs related to my interests. lately though, I've found tumblr’s moral purity/callout culture & discourse exhausting. I feel like it's affecting how I think about everything, making me paranoid to trust/like/learn from people & media and scared of becoming misinformed if I step away. do you have thoughts on how to handle this? asking bc you’ve survived tumblr for years & seem like a kind person.

I don’t know that I’d call myself a “kind person” but I at the very least try to act like it.

Oh man, I don’t know that I have a great answer for this. What I’ve done is a combination of aggressive curation - I basically never go in tags, I’m very careful about who I follow and who I talk to, I overall try to steer clear of discourse posts or discourse in general and try to keep my bitching to a minimum and well tagged so that people can avoid it. I make liberal use of the block button. 

Then the other prong is that I just shut it out. Which is, I think, an acquired skill! I feel like I’ve gotten better at it, over time - better at filtering, better at recognizing bullshit, and better at knowing to pay attention to the people I trust and my own research over noise from strangers. It’s been about...I think a lot of it has to do sometimes with...you know how you learn to recognize conservative dogwhistles? I feel like I’ve learned to recognize fandom dogwhistles too, and therefore know when to tune things out. 

Re: the information thing - people yelling at you on the internet is not actually a good learning environment. It’s much more productive to, if you’re worried about being misinformed, do your own reading and your own research, and, again, parsing signal from noise. 

And some of it is just...giving yourself a little bit of trust/benefit of the doubt. Recognizing that we are all fuckups who fuck up sometimes, and that most of the time it isn’t malicious, and more important than not fucking up is how you react to fucking up. Life is a process of learning and growing eternally, etc. etc. and so on. You can’t anticipate everything. You can’t know everything. No one is born woke and no one is woke all the time.

The last thing, and I’m afraid this really just may be something that comes with time because it’s something that continues to come with time, for me, is learning to give fewer fucks about loud and angry strangers on the internet. Sometimes you just have to look at someone telling you that you’re a genocide apologist because of your fictional character preferences and go “yeah, okay, but I know that’s not true and I think you do too, deep down, and I’m done with this conversation.” Let it go.

But yeah, I think a lot of my strategy really does just boil down to finding ways to filter it out altogether. Curating my follow list and becoming more aggressive with the block button were two of the best choices I ever made about my Tumblr experience.