#its like the one in-app purchase i ever made the other being for my posing app

[thechaoticfanartist]

Fun fact: I do all my drawings on my phone. Even the paintings. And the paintings I do all on one layer except for the background and added effects.

For example this is what the Sith Obi-Wan painting looks like in the app:

[multiplefandomsblog]

Shuichi x fem!reader fluffshot

desc; shuichi with a fem!s/o who enjoys wearing dresses. she goes out of her way to buy a dress for a date.

warnings; they're in highschool? i think???, suggestive depends on how you look at it, fluff, so many clichés, i did some fake text messages bc i didnt know how to type the text message format

word count; 2k

“Hmm...” You hummed frustratingly as you skimmed through the dresses in the shop, not finding one you were happy with. You were trying to find a dress that you thought Shuichi would like, but so far you haven’t found one that piqued your interest. You furrowed your brow at a blue dress that you came across on, looking at the back in interest. You grinned as you finally found the right one, the one you were going to wear for the date you had with Shuichi.

As you brought it to the counter and took out your wallet, you couldn’t stop thinking of how Shuichi would react. You felt giddy from the excitement of seeing him flushed from the sight of you. Quickly purchasing the dress, you grabbed the handle of the bag the dress was in and made your way back home with a bounce in your step.

As you sat in one of the public bus seats, you checked your phone for the time. Your eyes widened in panic when you saw the big bold letters read, “5:00 pm” That meant you only had 1 hour to prepare for the date you had with Shuichi. You put your phone back in your pocket and started fidgeting with your fingers in distress, predicting how much time it would take for you to get home, shower and dress up. ‘Would there be enough time?’ You thought. Shifting uncomfortably in your seat as the anxiety bubbled up inside you, waiting to pour out.

Whilst you were panicking in the bus seat, Shuichi was at his house trying on multiple shirts that he was unhappy with. He stood in front of his full body mirror with faux confidence, “H-hey there uh, you look great!” He spoke to the mirror with a nervous smile, picturing you in front of him. His face dropped as he sighed, “Great? Great!? Get it together Shuichi, we both know that she’s much more than great.” He grumbled to himself as he took off his shirt and--yet again-- put on another one.

He looked in the mirror, examining the black button-up on his back. He made a sound of uncertainty before nodding, “Eh, okay.” He inhaled before faced the mirror again and looking himself dead in the eyes. “S/o, would you be my girlfriend?” He said--surprisingly--without a single stutter, before breaking character and groaning. He squatted down and muffled his screams in his knees, face red from shame. “I can’t do this,”

“No, I-I can do this. What would Kaito say if he saw you being such a coward?” He muttered as he stood up and paced the room stressfully, before stopping and staring at the flowers he got for you. He had an internal battle in his head between ‘What if she says no?’ and ‘But what if she says yes?’ In the end, he decided that future Shuichi would decide.

~~~

Once the bus stopped near your home, you quickly hopped off the stairs of the vehicle and started jogging to your house. You unlocked the door to your house and rushed to your room. Checking the time again, it read 5:14 pm. ‘Perfect.’ You thought as you hastily stripped yourself of your clothes and showered. No longer than 10 minutes later, you carefully got out of the shower, careful not to slip. While you dried yourself, you heard your phone ring. Unlocking your phone, you smiled at the message from Shuichi.

Shuichi yelped as he pressed send, throwing his phone at his bed. You replied back with trembling fingers and rosy cheeks.

You laughed loudly as you watched his calm composed texts turned into embarrassed apologies. Your nerves easing as you laughed. Taking a small breather, you replied back with a goofy smile on your face.

You left his last message on read as you dried your hair with a victorious smile. Whilst you basked in glory, Shuichi was at his house, trying his best not to imagine you naked. “Keep it together, Shuichi!” He told himself, voice muffled by his hands. He lightly whacked his head, trying to stop where his thought process was going. He really didn’t want to picture you naked; He would never look at you the same way if he did. Shaking his head of his strange thoughts, he went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face.

~~~

Once you dried your hair thoroughly, you got out of the bathroom, shivering as you felt the cold hair hit your damp skin. You quickly slipped on your undergarments, wanting some sort of material on your cold body. After slipping on your undergarments, you made your way towards the small paper bag you had left near your room door. You reached into the bag and grabbed the dress, grinning excitedly as you saw the glossy dark blue fabric.

You put on the dress and went to go check yourself in the mirror. Looking into your reflection, you beamed at how your dress looked on your figure. You felt like a fucking Disney princess. You made a few funny power poses in the mirror to hype yourself up. This might be your new favourite, you thought, you just hope that Shuichi likes the dress just as much as you do. You did a few playful spins in the mirror, before glancing at the clock on your wall, ‘5:35 pm.’ Looks like you had more time than you needed.

You sat down on your bed, picking up your phone, and opening the messaging app to text Shuichi. Your thumb hovered over the keys, as you hesitated. You decided it would be rude to ask someone if they wanted to go earlier when you had already agreed on a time. So, instead, you exited the app and scrolled on Tumblr, occasionally laughing at a shitpost.

〜〜〜

Shuichi stared at his phone, waiting for the screen to light up with a notification impatiently. His ahoge perking up every time he saw his screen brighten up with a notification, but deflating when he saw it wasn’t you. He glared at the small box before caving in and grabbing his phone. He opened the messaging app, about to text you when suddenly, his phone started vibrating. He almost dropped his phone from surprise, fumbling it until he caught it. Unfortunately, his thumb had tapped on the answer button before he could see who it was.

When he finally held his phone in his hands to look at it clearly, his eyes widened as his heart thumped when he saw your name. Clearing his throat, he quickly brought his phone next to his ear, letting out a squeaky, “Hello?” He winced at the unwanted pubescent sound his throat made, face-palming as his voice failed him.

“Uh-Hi! Is-is your throat okay?” You asked, unsure if who you heard was Shuichi. “U-um yeah- No, my uh, my throat is fine.” He cleared his throat once again. It was as if he had forgotten to speak, somehow managing to mess up each word. “S-so, why’d you call?” Shuichi asked nervously, trying to steer the conversation away from his squeaky voice. He awaited your answer as he laid on his back on his bed, gripping his phone with one hand and leaving the back of his other hand on his forehead.

~~~

“No reason, really. Guess I just got impatient and wanted to hear your voice.” You slyly replied, your face heating up with every word that made its way out of your mouth. You see, that was a lie. You had actually been trying to change his contact name to something funny but you had accidentally pressed the call button. What? Did you really think you would have enough confidence to call him yourself? Hah, you wish! You should be thanking your ginormous fingers.

Shuichi sighed dreamily, basking in the sound of your voice. He was so entranced by the sound of it, that the lovesick idiot forgot to reply. Causing your thoughts to go into overdrive and your confidence to go ‘poof!’, “Oh! I-I’m sorry if that’s weird! I just mea-” He snapped out of his daze the moment he heard your panicked voice, quick to dismiss your thought process, “N-no, it’s not weird! To be honest, I wanted to hear your voice too but I just d-didn’t have enough confidence to call.” He admitted quietly, face flushing from his mini confession.

“O-oh.” You were sure you were going to pass out from overheating, he wanted to hear your voice too! You lived in the thought that Shuichi likes the sound of your voice. Shuichi continued the conversation, “So... Tell me about the dress you said you thought I’d like, I’d love to hear about how it looks.” Shuichi smiled fondly, knowing how much you love dresses. As the image of you in a summer dress popped up in his head, he felt his heart warm up. He’s extremely grateful that you enjoy wearing dresses because he enjoys seeing you in them just as much.

Every time he sees you approach him with a dress on, he’s on cloud 9. He swore he was the luckiest man alive when you accepted to go out with him. As you giggled at his words, you were unaware of the effect your giggle had on this man. Your giggle was near fatal for a love-sick fool like him, you made his heart pump just a little bit faster in his chest.

“Nice try, Saihara-Kun. But it’s a surprise! Don’t worry about it though, I am positive you’ll like it.” You teased, running your fingers on the glossy blue fabric in thought. Shuichi chuckled underneath his breath, making your heart skip a beat this time. “You caught me,” Shuichi confessed, laughing quietly. You pressed your hands against your red cheeks, feeling how warm they were.

Glancing at the clock, you spoke, “Oh hey, it’s already 5:46 pm. Are you going to pick me up, Mr. Detective?” You purred, standing up and searching for your purse. Shuichi checked the time on his phone, eyes widening at the time, “Already? It felt much shorter than that.” You shook your head and laughed, “Time goes faster when you’re having fun.” You chimed. “That’s the most cliché thing I’ve ever heard you say.” Shuichi deadpanned, causing you to chuckle at the tone of his voice.

“But it’s pretty accurate isn’t it?” Shuichi sighed in defeat, “I guess so. Or maybe the author was too lazy to write more.” You hummed in agreement, “That’s probably what happened, yeah.” You smiled softly before saying the words neither of you wanted to hear, “Hey, we have to hang up now.” Shuichi felt dread wash over his body at the thought of not hearing your voice, “You have to pick me up remember?” You reminded, cleaning your room a bit before you left. “Don’t hang up.” He pouted, not wanting to stop hearing your voice.

“Shuichi, I’m going to see you in, like, less than 10 minutes.” You giggled at his desperate tone of voice, “Trust me, I don’t want to hang up either.” Shuichi exaggerated his sigh, “Okay, okay, I’m on my way. I’ll see you in 10 minutes, yeah?” He quickly got up, smoothening the wrinkles on his dress shirt. “Yup!” You gushed, feeling caught up in the moment you blurted out, “Love you!”

Crazily enough, Shuichi didn’t seem to notice it either as he replied, “Love you too.” As both of you hung up, you paused. ‘Wait.’

Shuichi also froze, ‘wait a second.’ The two oblivious idiots simultaneously had a mental breakdown, both realizing that they both had just confessed to each other. What did this mean? Were you two a couple now?? Shuichi pushed the thought to the back of his head, focusing on the fact he had to drive to your house and he couldn’t be distracted(drive safely!). He picked up his keys and the roses he had gotten for you earlier today, and made his way out the door.

You slipped on your heels with one hand while you held your purse with the other. Looking in the mirror one more time, you adjusted your dress slightly before taking a peek at the clock. 5:59 pm. You made your way to the door and opened it. Jolting when you saw Shuichi’s tall body right in front of you, “Shui- Why didn’t you ring the doorbell?” You questioned, cocking your head to the side. Shuichi looked at you in awe, you were right, he really did love your dress.

“I... Uh...” He couldn’t say anything as he marvelled over the way you looked in the blue dress. You grinned bashfully, twirling a bit for him. “You like it?” You bit your lip, looking up at him. He simply nodded, not able to think of any words to describe how godly you looked at the moment.

Holy shit, he really, really wanted to kiss you.

He found himself slowly leaning towards you, eyeing your lips. “Shu?” You tried to snap him out of his daze, before realizing where his eyes were trained on. Realization dawned over you and you flushed, eyeing his lips as in turn. Reaching up to grab his face, you gently put your hands on his jaw and craned your neck to kiss him. Thank god for the heels, you would’ve had to pull him down without them.

His eyes expanded due to the fact you made the first move. Closing his eyes, he gripped your hips, sliding his hands over the material of your dress. As he kept going for more of your lips, more of your touch, more of you, the more he became intoxicated. But to his dismay, you pulled away, breath fanning against his chin. “Ditch the date?” You asked, trying to gain your breath back. “Ditch the date.” Shuichi eagerly replied, curling his arm around your waist and pulling you inside your house, closing the door behind him.

this is so long ;--; and unedited- hsbhjbdkndfx i hope you guys enjoyed this! super fun to write brooo, and hey! its only 1 am! proud of me? :D - mod chia

[gateauxes]

the war on gender terror

At this point in my life, the presence of mostly-white liberal feminism is inescapable. While I'm excited to see more people taking baby steps to a radical analysis, largely I am frustrated. On the other hand, involuntary exposure to popular feminism is the reason why I'm noticing a trend in it. Here's my report from where I'm standing: the liberal feminists don't know it, but reactionaries are trying to scare them.

Reactionary feminist projects begin the same way as any other reactionary project - concern trolling liberals over topics at arms' length from the main goals of exclusion and domination. With regard to reactionary feminists the progression of topics are well-known: women's sports & 'human trafficking', then domestic violence shelters & kinky porn, then policing gender-segregated bathrooms, defunding trans healthcare, and opposing sex work of any kind. I've been watching a pessimistic thread emerge in liberal feminist (and radical!) circles which I believe has been pushed into place by reactionary feminists. This bio-pessimism places women into a perpetual state of victimhood that can never truly end due to the essential rapacious nature of men. If this seems like the same shit the second-wave lesbian separatists were peddling, that's because it is. What I want to question is how today's essentialist pessimism differs from its initial appearance.

RADFEMS ARE OBSESSED WITH DICK

Reactionary feminists have not dispensed with a religious-conservative perspective on the power of the penis - and by extension they imagine women identically to how the rest of the right views women. The penis, apparently, is the mechanism by which rape becomes possible. Therefore, any engagement with a person with a penis is a grave risk. Vulnerability is a mistake if you might be dealing with a rapist. The MeToo movement activated an enormous public forum about how incredibly prevalent the violence is, but I now see it used as a tool for re-framing this prevalence as a biological reality. (MeToo, even without being used as a tool, was ineffective at acknowledging that violence is perpetrated by all sorts of people). An explosion of survivors talking openly about violence as an unacceptable status quo has been infiltrated by reactionary feminists who whisper that this is the fate of all women, always. The new bio-law absorbs the third wave's progress in acknowledging diversity of experience - right up to the point where it would be forced to note that sexual nature, like categories of racially-dictated nature, is a myth.

This pessimism rooted in the power of the penis is hypervigilance beyond a realistic assessment of risk. (I also blame true crime podcasts and the media in general) This is not the careful awareness of one's surroundings which comes naturally to many of us. What I'm describing is avoiding going out at all, because of statistics on sexual violence which may not even reflect the risks in the neighbourhood. This, for instance, is purchasing and insuring a vehicle for the express purpose of avoiding public transit. I frequently notice that popular discussion of domestic violence neglects to mention the disproportion of violence toward people with disabilities, asserting that all of us have identical risk. Ultimately, this is the justification for a culture of exclusion as the only recourse to the ever-present threat of men. The fortress must be defended, and the enemy could be anywhere.

BUT HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET LAID?

I do not want love or children, so my interest in sex is purely recreational. I have been told this is not in line with my female nature - I stand before you deviant and happy. However, anyone attracted to men must grapple with the contradiction of desire and very real risks. I support caution, and even precaution. My concern is with a bio-law that requires a baseline of suspicion if one is to survive, the assumption that one is always a moment away from violence. To be explicit, how am I supposed to have fun when I am letting the enemy penetrate my figurative fortress?

I think this is why kink is such a problem for reactionary feminists. The only way to make the horror of sleeping with the enemy worse is to find that some people like to confront, satirize, and role play the power dynamic. To choose recreational pain or literal bondage flies in the face of the notion that a woman’s lot is to be in constant pain, and to tolerate penetration as a miserable necessity. The reactionary feminist must sleep with one eye open, aware that her biology has already sealed her fate, and mitigate vulnerability by excluding the threat, since she can’t defend herself (biologically speaking). This is why trans women can’t stay at the domestic violence shelter, this is why you should worry for your life if your boyfriend watches kinky porn. As with vanilla dating, there are true risks - and reasonable precautions. But kink is about play with vulnerability - there is no room for play under the martial law of bio-pessimism. By hijacking post-MeToo popular feminism, reactionaries can reinsert the bone-chilling suggestion that it’s all rape, all the time. All the men want kinky sex, because it’s the closest they can come to hurting women the way they secretly wish to. According to this logic, the only way to safely navigate the risk is constant surveillance of men, the self, and any woman who could be a traitor. He’d better not be watching kinky porn, you’d better not be watching kinky porn, and the women in the kinky porn are either hapless victims or remorseless collaborators. Once we have arrived at this point, it’s obvious why the next step is a crusade against any pornography, and a mission to ensure that kink is understood as something men want and women tolerate. 

How can reactionary feminists get this done? By linking the prevalence of trauma with the increased visibility of alternative sexuality & gender, from kink-at-pride to polyamory to transcending assigned gender. They ask, do you feel uncomfortable when you see all this change? We’ve all been traumatized - who do these people think they are, flaunting a lifestyle that feels wrong to feminists like you? You should trust your gut, they urge. Perform a little more vigilance to be sure you’re safe. If you find yourself unable to open a dating app or sit next to a man on the bus without feeling deep dread and revulsion, that’s vigilance, and realistic given the state of things. Any - and most - men mean women harm.

REDPILLS AND RADFEMS BELIEVE THE SAME SHIT

Incels hate women, reactionary feminists love a certain kind of woman. This distinction is relevant, especially since incels pose a physical threat to women in general whereas reactionary feminists only attack trans people, black athletes, sex workers, the wrong kind of queers, kinksters, child athletes... Despite their own active hostility toward many types of women, reactionary feminists hold up incels/redpillers/the far right as evidence of the threat that all women live under. There is no doubt that women face misogynist and antifeminist violence. Reactionary feminists are are far from the only ones highlighting this. What’s worth investigating are the given reasons that a target is vulnerable, and what should be done to mitigate risk in the future. In these, an incel and a reactionary feminist are in perfect harmony. Instead of a realistic assessment of risk at an individual level, or an assessment of group dynamics that allowed a survivor-victim to fall through the cracks, both parties will insist that all women are simply unsafe at all times. This notion suits a reactionary feminist’s goal of closed-rank suspicion, and an incel’s dream of terrified submission. This perspective neglects to really ask why things turned out the way they did, because that’s not the point. Whether women are innately inferior or innately vulnerable, we must travel in flocks if we want to survive. The reactionary feminist offers herself as the shepherd, having assured the flock that the enemy is close at hand. Women cannot, of course, be a pack of wolves. Members of a wolf pack work cooperatively but diverge at will.

THE WAR ON GENDER TERROR

The cumulative effect of this mindset and focus is a miserable hypervigilance, which is further hostile to any who are not miserable and vigilant. We know this scrutiny well from living inside a war on terror, which resulted in a vast expansion of state power to exclude, surveil, and punish. Because they have not abandoned their desire to dominate, reactionary feminists would like to do the same along the lines of gender law. Exclusion requires a concrete set of criteria by which a person can be marked acceptable or unacceptable, and there is trouble when a person shifts between the two. Whether you’re an immigration agent or an officer of the gender police, you’ve got to demonize those who shift, and shifting itself. Special attention should be paid to possible ulterior motives. At the overt end, this looks like the myth of the predatory trans woman and the slavery-complicit sex worker. However, these will not be widely accepted until the audience is made nervous by less ridiculous threats with a basis in reality. Sex trafficking is real, and pickup artists really do share tips online about how to pick up, manipulate, and coerce women. However, alarmist chain-mail suggesting that ‘gang members’ are stealing women off the street via box trucks does not reflect reality, but rather supposes that the threat could be any construction worker or labourer with a truck. Given the way people of colour are disproportionately represented in blue-collar work, the implications of this racially-biased hypervigilance should be obvious. The rapid dissemination of information (true or false) online is useful when stoking fear of ulterior motives. Genuine desire to spread a message that could save another woman fuels the sharing of partially-true and emotionally charged statements. Given the existence of incel and pickup artist subcultures, it seems believable that most men could have consumed advice on how to covertly film during sex, or remove a condom without being noticed. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant - the thing to do is be cautious. No matter how they seem, anyone could be concealing their motives. It begins to make sense to suspect a male social worker, or police bathrooms. Furthermore, failure to agree to this assessment of risk is evidence of insufficient solidarity with the rest of the female sex. Solidarity is imperative, given the horrors made visible by feminists who just want to protect women. Inaction could suggest complicity, and asking for a source on a claim is indicative that one does not believe victims. An avalanche of scorn awaits those who ask questions out of turn. the terror cannot end until the defenses are fortified and the infiltrators exposed. As footage of atrocities is replayed during news coverage of foreign occupations, the danger inherent in womanhood must be grimly acknowledged when we consider stepping out into the world.

WHAT IS MY POINT?

Reactionary feminists cling to the second-wave notion of sex and gender as stable categories by which most oppression can be measured. For reactionary feminist strategies to be accepted by a popular feminism informed by intersectionality, popular feminists must at least partially believe in the inherent vulnerability of women or the base instincts of men. While this sentiment was more readily at hand during the second wave of feminism, third wave feminism resists homogenizing by sex, race, or class. While white liberal/popular feminism has an embarrassing tendency to acknowledge intersectionality only out of politeness and/or use it as a cudgel, even performative acknowledgement is a ward against overt essentialist dogma. For this reason, reactionary feminists must harness movements like MeToo, incel attacks, and further misconstrue actual misogynist violence to encourage hypervigilance against terror. The war on gender terror perverts the desire to confront diverse facets of misogyny into the pursuit of covert internal threats. The war compels commitment to defending the home front. A feeling of perpetual vulnerability is the perfect environment for the proliferation of exclusionary strategy. We must feel our goodness and our weakness to the core. Fully enjoying relationships with men, sexual diversity, and private moments of peace are collateral in pursuit of remaining ever-vigilant.

[rightnowyoucanttell]

𝘼𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝘼𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣, 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 || .G.D.

(This songs an oldie, but It popped up on my random artist playlist, and I was inspired. Haha, enjoy ig..)

Title: Alone Again, Naturally 

Summary: Veronica Chandler seems to be only destined for heartbreak. After a failed attempt to rebound on her toxic ex, she makes a routine trip to her local 24 hour Starbucks, in which she meets a handsome stranger.. and oh,  who happens to be the spitting image to the photo of the tinder date who stood her up....

Relationship: Grayson Dolan and Veronica Chandler

Word Count: 2,034

Tags (*updated*) : @dzoint ​ @graysavant @blindedbythelightt ​ @tadadolan @heartofalionxo  @beatement-l   @grayswhore @tattoogray ​@saggitariusagirl

Author’s note: First, this is total shit, i’m sorry. Second, I  did the stupidest thing of all time. I gave my OC the same name as the main character in the novel i’m writing on wattpad (to self plug, or not to self plug that is the question; i’ll take self plug for 100, Alex) why am i so stupid? Well, i'm too lazy to change it so. 

Third, i was inspired when the twins talked about dating apps and just like idk where this came from, must be out of my ass because it’s shit. 

I actually laughed at that...

Fourth, feedback is like the most important thing to me, like ever? So, feel free to lmk what y’all think, if this becomes a series I will be taking concepts. 

Veronica Chandler is destined for great things. Planning her future, modeling and working as a struggling actress, she could go off and marry some lawyer. But, the only thing she did seem destined for was heartbreak.

Ronnie knew it had been too soon. Not even a month ago she had broken up with her ex, Jonathan. She also knew this, when she was attracted to a man on tinder with the same name, mostly because of the name. She wasn’t over the man who man who ruined her life to all hell. But, the comfort of a relationship was all she needed and desperately strived for.

Jonathan, was an artist, mad at the world needing to find himself. So, each night he did just so. Jonathan would go out to ‘find himself’ and along the way he found, Roxanne, Malibu, Dianne and Eileen. Jonathan drank, and he would physically and mentally abuse a good strong woman, who for the longest time couldn’t bring herself to walk out of his life.

Each time, from the first to the third she was too lonely, desperate and down on herself to let him loose. But, after he cheated on her with a married forty-year-old woman with four children, that was when Mama Chandler intervened and scared him half to fucking hell. That woman raised no fool, and if she did it was Veronica’s older brother, Noah.  Veronica was just a sad young woman who couldn’t keep a man because they used her.

This night in particular was her rebound date at a local vegan restaurant. A fancy one. With velvet rugs, chandeliers, expensive wines, however with decently sized portions. Veronica stood outside waiting for Jonathan. Who was described in his photo as muscular, a builder with brown hair and eyes and often in there messages boasted about such muscularity.

It was dark. He planned to meet her at 5:30. It was 7:30. Groups passed her. Parties on the street began talking, while the mannequins in store fronts slept under the lights. But, Ronnie was sure, this guy was genuine, and would be the best rebound. 

But, her plans and dreams were foiled when 8:30 hit, she decided to leave embarrassed and ashamed she thought it would turn out differently, she should have known. Her mosquito allergy becoming aggravated just as much as her. She sulked. She never really dressed to impress others, she wore heels, a leather jacket paired with a silk revealing top and boot cuts black jeans. That’s when the heaven on earth shone down upon her, a burning bush of sorts.

           A 24 hour starbucks.

As she walked down the sidewalk slowly, she was tired of being let down; tired of catering to the whims of others, ready to return home and make a stray of financially irresponsible choices online, she entered through the glass doors and into the small shop in Hollywood. The cool yet humid summer air from outside was left behind in the warmth of the shop, that’s when she saw him.

A tall handsome stranger, brown hair and eyes, with muscular arms. She fell for him immediately, he was gorgeous. But, then. Veronica realized something, the same man, the handsome stranger, was either the same person or a bicep by bicep replica of the man she was supposed to meet tonight, at that Vegan restaurant.

The fire fueled deep down, but she ignored it when she got in line to the left of him ready for her Pink Drink and croissant so she could run to the nearest Ralph’s and purchase two tubs of strawberry ice cream, she’d be needing it. The line shifted. She shifted on her feet, he did the same.

Veronica tapped her foot. That’s when the stranger started talking,”Whoah. Slow down there ‘Miss i’m on a mission’.”

His voice was deep and hoarse, he sounded like he had been having a night himself. Veronica ignored the voice that in some ways drew her closer.

“I’m Grayson, By the way..” the named stranger drifted. That’s when Veronica snapped. The man was Jonathan or she thought, and he was ignorant enough to poach the woman he stood up, again, she thought.

“How can you be so arrogant and glib, after everything you’ve done?” Veronica whipped her head to the right of him snapping out of anger and then with no response

“Ah, she’s brave. Calling me arrogant and glib, without even knowing me, cool.” Grayson scoffed and nodded, shrugging it off, and moving forward in the line before stopping yet again.

Ronnie tapped her foot miserable an angry…”Without knowing you? I know you. Your the kind of guy who’s shows up a girl, and breaks the rules because you think it’s cute.”

“Do You think it’s cute?” He lanced over to her smirking a devilish smirk. She scoffed and crossed her arms with her jacket draped over one of them, shaking her head as the crazily long late night line, shifted forward. ‘Grayson’ may have won the battle by showing her up, but his blatant lies would lose the war to Veronica.

“Spare me your routine, i assume that’s what this” she gestured to Grayson,”-cut it out okay? Or, i’ll make your life a living hell.”

“Sorry, not into a relationship at the moment,” he joked before turning back to face the options board, even though his order was almost always the same. Ronnie rolled her eyes. Ronnie's eyes were tired. She felt physically ready whoop this man;s ass, but mentally and emotionally drained.

“And, by the way. No. I do not think it’s fucking cute..” Veronica replied after a few moments of silence. Veronica mumbled cruising, barely audible to Grayson. Veronica was so confused, and so irritated, she didn’t no what to believe. She sighed and went for her phone fumbling for her back pocket, and opening the tinder profile of ‘Jonathan’, “Explain this.”

The screen illuminated a photo of Grayson with the name Jonathan below it. He had still had long hair at this point, right before it’s annoyance shaggy length.Grayson was shirtless in the photo with a chain necklace around his neck. Grayson squinted to examine the photo on the app and chuckled as he passed it back to Veronica.

“You, my dear, got catfished. By someone posing to be, yours truly. I’ve never had tinder and haven’t used a dating app since I was like, fourteen..” Veronica rolled her eyes at his comment before scrunching her brows in confusion but not enough to continue to pry,”..don’t believe me? Search ‘Grayson Dolan’ on instagram or twitter, you’ll owe me an apology.” Grayson snapped as hurt in reply and turned away from the fabric keeping a distance between the two. 

  Grayson felt for Veronica, he could hear the pain in her silence, the sadness in her eyes, the facade of a mask she put on,  even if he didn’t know her name, like her he had been pining for love. The same night he had been dumped via text by his ex girlfriend, also his ghost of days of business past, ex- assistant, before Sterling. He should have known it was a mistake, and Ethan warned him several times, but  much like Veronica with OG Jonathan, he blamed love for his feelings. 

Grayson was tired, wanting to head home with a cup of joe, but this unidentified juliet, across from him caught his eye, and there was no turning back. 

The line shifted. Hesitantly she opened instagram and search the name and she stopped, in her tracks. She owed this man apology, Grayson Dolan, he was a real guy, with a huge following however she never heard of him. She followed him, sighed and put her phone back into her pocket.And yes, he was good looking, she fell for the looks a little more than the name.

“..i--i’m sorry. Guess you were right, I was wrong..” Veronica managed to croak out. Grayson’s phone notified him from his pocket, he checked it smirked, followed her back and placed it back into his pocket.

Grayson looked over to the brunette Brazilian to the right of him. She tapped her foot nervously, as she picked her brain for a better apology. She felt herself loosen, knowing he was just trying to help, and didn’t stood up. Her demeanor changes, this man was a kind stranger who just happened to be the man in the photos she was catfished with, the real Grayson did nothing wrong.

“-., so this Jonathan, what happened?” He asked looking into her dark brown eyes, meaning it. Wanting to know everything about the stranger that made him want to know here. She laughed flashing a smile all the while. Her laugh, Grayson thought. The way she talked and laughed, when she was enjoying herself, it was all so lyrical, it made him want to laugh.

He looked at Veronica, like, really looked at her. The way the lighting reflected on her sparkly eyeshadow. Her dark green eyes, her long luscious and free riding dark brown hair, that had been straightened from its naturally curly form.

“..Well, I uh, met him on Tinder and he stood me up. I just got out of a nast relationship and he was my rebound, but he’s probably some weird guy living in his mother's basement-” she sighed opening up to him. She smiled at her own comedic relief comment. Hiding behind humour was something she did.

Grayson laughed, becoming serious,”I’m sorry, that sucks. What about your ex?”he pried further, there were only three people in front of them, all by themselves, swarmed by the world living in their phones.

“He was a cheater, a drinker and beater, who just so also happened to be named Jonathan..” the negative memories stirred up again in front of her. The pain on her shoulder came back, so did the reminiscence, drawing and pulling her into a melancholy flashback. 

                                                    ~~~

"Where would you like me to go, hmm? Ronnie!" he shoved her to the ground and she fell backwards dislocating her shoulder. She winced in pain, it had pulsated throughout her body. She knew she had to do this, for herself, the well being of herself for once. Did she want to? No. It scared her. He scared her.

Once he got the clout he wanted he changed, he was living off of her earnings, living in her apartment at the time, using her car, and she was forced to nod and smile along with it like some big ugly joke of a play. 

"How about for starters-" she managed between heavy sobs of pain and trying to prop herself against the reclining part of the sofa she was thrown in front of,"..hell? Take your toothbrush and your shave kit, and try some bleach in your cereal, i'm done. Okay? Go away, J!"

                                                            ~~~

Ronnie was back to reality when she heard Gray's voice,"..Safe to assume you have a type, then?"he asked really looking at the beautiful woman in front of his eyes.

 “Yeah. I try so hard but,”Veronica felt sad,” but, i’m never the one.” she felt even sadder memories of her ex flashing before her, she shrugged it off and continued,”…alone again, naturally, I guess.”

Grayson and Veronica were now the first in line,”Hey, let me buy your drink. Maybe we could be alone again, together…” Veronica smiled, and nodded.

“I’d like that..”

                       ~~~   

Later that night the two walked into the humid, yet comfortingly cool, heat together side by side after a two-hour conversation just on life.

“I, uh, better walk to my car.” Veronica said in front of Grayson’s porsche. Her jacket was around her shoulders and covered her arms,”I had fun, tonight” she held out a starbucks napkin she secretly wrote her number on, the wind tossed it gently back and forward. He smiled and breathed out a friendly, good night. He hated to see her go so soon, but would love to watch her leave.

“Wait, I never got your name-”he hollered down into the cold night on the streets of Los Angeles. Veronica turned around and continued walking backwards, her hair following and tracing her every move.

“It’s Veronica.” she breathed before giving him one last look with her deep green eyes and turning back down the sidewalk, heading to her car and driving into the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Should I make this a series? If so, what to name it, i’m thinking lyrical and each chapter is a song name? lmk. 

AHH i'm nervous to post this, but fuck it, right? No day but today. 

i’ll stop. 

[langdvnshepherd]

Good For You (Duncan Shepherd x fem!reader)

Summary: You’re a broke ass college student whose one night stand with the infamous Duncan Shepherd leads to the development of a rather interesting relationship between the two of you. OR This is literally just the birth of sugar daddy!Duncan.

PART TWO ~ PART THREE

Word Count: 6.7k

Warnings: (pre??) sugar daddy!Duncan, fem! reader, plot heavy (sorry y’all I got carried away agAIN), mentions of alcohol, smut, fingering, daddy kink, choking, das it i think

A/N: Alright girls and gays someone asked for sugar daddy!Duncan and this probably isn’t exactly what they meant, but it’s what my two remaining brain cells could come up with. Also, this is the first time I’ve ever written smut so pls disregard and ignore if its bad lol. Honestly I’m not half mad at how it turned out plot wise, but that’s just meeee. I was going to split this in half, but I couldn’t find a good place to stop so I just left it as one. As always please lmk your thoughts I thrive off of feedback!

     School had been kicking your ass lately, which is how you’d wound up planted in a leather bar stool in the lounge of an upscale hotel. The hotel was always swarming with D.C.’s elite, one of which was bound to buy you a few drinks before inviting you up to their room before fucking you senseless. Hitting up the hotel for a quick fuck wasn’t something you did very often, only when you were particularly in need of some stress-relief. Sure, you could have went to the grimy pub down the block from your shitty apartment, but men your age never tickled your fancy. Plus, finessing rich, middle-aged white men out of their money was pretty entertaining. Today was definitely one of those days where you needed release, so you shimmied into your most expensive dress that you kept in the back of your closet and made your way downtown to the hotel.

     You scanned the room occasionally, hoping to find someone that would be worth your time. No one had caught your eye all night, which had you contemplating on throwing in the towel and jumping on the next train home. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. By this time, you were usually way past tipsy on another man’s dime while a mildly attractive, salt-and-pepper haired lobbyist would creep his hand up your thigh. All of the men in the lounge tonight were either preoccupied with kissing their dinner guest’s asses or far too old for your already mature taste. 

     Just as were about to ask the bartender to close your tab, he slid you another martini. Before you could even open your mouth to tell him you hadn’t ordered another drink, he signaled to the group of men with a tilt of his head. They were all in suits and from what you overheard from your seat, were loudly and disruptively chattering about some congressman’s most recent sex scandal. The one in question was already staring you down. He had honey brown hair that curled at the ends, delicious looking stubble, and the bluest eyes you had ever seen. He was noticeably younger than the men you usually encountered at the hotel, but his good looks and dominating demeanor made up for what his age lacked.

     Bingo. 

     You locked eyes with him for a moment before taking the glass in your hand and raising it to him. A smirk lingered on your lips as you held his gaze and took a sip from your glass. He watched you with a pleased yet strained expression, like he was holding back from throwing you on the counter top and taking you right there. Good. The man quickly tossed back the rest of the dark liquid in his glass before patting one of his buddies on the shoulder, presumably signaling his departure from the group. Making his way over to you, he called for the bartender to whip him up another drink. You shifted in your seat as he took the open space beside you as an invitation for his introduction.

     “You mind telling me how a beautiful woman such as yourself ends up at a hotel bar all alone on a Friday night?” He posed as he took the first swig from his new glass of whiskey. A cocky smile was painted on his face as he spoke.

     Deciding to test him, you retorted, “What makes you think something went wrong? What if I just really happen to enjoy hotel sushi and being suffocated by the testosterone of middle-aged republicans?” He snorted into his drink at your comment before responding.

     “For starters, I’d say you’re a liar. I’ve had the sushi before. It fucking sucks.” You playfully rolled your eyes at him whilst trying to suppress your laughter. At least he has a sense of humor.

     “What’s your name?” He asked as he sat his glass on the bar top and began tracing the rim with his finger.

     “Y/N. And you are?”

     “Duncan. Duncan Shepherd.” He proudly stated with a shit eating grin.

     “Well, Mr. Shepherd,” he shifted somewhat awkwardly in his seat at your use of his name. Maybe he didn’t like being called that? Or maybe he liked it a little too much. “What brings you here on a Friday night?”

     “The foundation that I’m in charge of held a conference in one of the ballrooms to discuss the app I’m developing.” You could tell he was proud of that one. As if you were supposed to know what the fuck that meant in any kind of capacity. “What do you do, Miss Y/N?”

     You hesitated before you answered. Not knowing whether or not to make up an elaborate story like you always did, you opted to mostly tell him the truth. You told him you were in school, and only hit up the bar every once in a while. Leaving out small details like the part about you only coming here to get dicked down by some grown man that was born with a trust fund. As you two conversed, you found yourself getting lost in the blue of his eyes, and the way his lips moved as he spoke. There was something about him that was encapsulating. The conversation flowed from one topic to another, and the two of you had breezed through numerous rounds of drinks before realizing most of the patrons had cleared out for the night and left the lounge nearly empty.

     Duncan chewed on his bottom lip as he sized you up for the millionth time that night and leaned over his seat to position his large hand over the part of your thigh that was exposed from where your dress had ridden up.

     Like fucking clockwork. It was almost comical the way every man you’d met at this hotel seemed to take the same course of action when pursuing you.  

     “You want to continue this conversation up in my room?” He seductively muttered into your ear as you felt his breath tickling your neck. Just as you’d expected. You knew exactly what was happening next.

     “Lead the way,” you replied as you slid your cell phone into your purse and shook the numbness from your legs. You really had been sitting there with him for quite some time. Let’s get this show on the fucking road.

     Guess the night wasn’t going to turn out so boring after all.

     As soon as the door to Duncan’s hotel room clicked shut, he had you pinned against the wall with a firm grip on your hips. You let out a shaky sigh as you suppressed a moan. The elevator ride up to his room had been hell. You could have cut the sexual tension in the air with a butter knife, and the old lady you had to share the elevator with did nothing to help the situation. You’d been pressing your thighs together since before you’d even left the bar with Duncan, aimlessly trying to ignore the wetness pooling in your panties. When the elevator doors slid open and the woman walked out in front of you two, you were practically stepping on the backs of Duncan’s heels as he led you to his room. 

     Duncan’s lips immediately collided with yours. He tasted like whiskey and the scent of his cologne was like something you knew you were too poor to even pronounce. Teeth clashing, noses rubbing against each other, tongues fighting for dominance as you both finally let yourselves go. It seemed like he was just as desperate for some action as you were, which only added to how fucking attractive he was. He gave your bottom lip a tug between his teeth before he latched his lips on to your neck. Your hands found purchase in his curls as he left hot, wet kisses from your jawline all the way down to the bottom of your collarbones. 

     Just as Duncan hit that sweet spot behind your ear with his tongue, your hips jutted forwards into him to gain some kind, any kind, of friction. As you moved, you felt the growing bulge in the front of his pants graze your core. He let out a deep, guttural moan and decided he was done taking his time. Before you could blink, he removed the vice grip he had on your hip bones and snaked his arms around your backside to grab a firm handful of your ass while simultaneously pushing the hem your dress up, exposing your panties to the cool air of the hotel room. You wrapped a leg around his waist, once again grinding against him as you reattached your lips to his. He was trying so hard to keep his cool, to not let you know that you were driving him fucking crazy. In his attempts, he slightly pushed you back against the wall and lifted your dress the rest of the way up over your head. Not caring where it landed, he tossed it behind him and prepared himself to fuck you into the mattress.

     “Jump.” Duncan mumbled against your lips. Bracing yourself, you pushed off the floor with the ball of your foot that wasn’t wrapped around his waist and he caught you by placing both of his hands on the undersides of your thighs. Duncan carefully made his way over to the bed whilst making sure he never broke the kiss. Lowering you down to just above the comforter, he loosened his grip on your thighs and let you fall the rest of the way down as he climbed on top of you.

     Taking in the scene of you underneath him, Duncan nearly came on the spot. Your hair splayed around in a halo on the pillow, lips swollen and glossy with his spit, eyes glazed over, purple bruises already forming in a line down your neck where had marked you with his teeth and tongue. He still didn’t have a clue why you were actually in the lounge earlier, your story seemed to have a couple holes in it but he didn’t care anymore. You looked like a fucking goddess and you were at his mercy.

     Slowly, his hand trailed down to your underwear and cupped your clothed cunt. He rubbed small circles over the wet spot that had soaked through with the ends of his fingers. “God,” Duncan quietly sighed to himself as he felt the dampness of your panties. All you could do was grind down on his palm and let out small breathy moans. He had barely touched you, and you were already a mess. He took one arm and hooked it around your waist so he could lift your hips from the bed and remove your underwear. Tossing them away from the bed to join your dress on the floor, he used his free hand to unclasp your bra. After making sure to give each of your bare breasts a few hard kneads with his palm, he then parted your thighs and was able to see just how wet you really were. It was kind of embarrassing.

     “You’re so fucking wet. Look at you. Soaking through your panties. And it’s all for me, yeah?” he asked. You swallowed hard at his words and simply nodded your head. It was becoming almost unbearable how badly you needed him inside of you. Finally, he brought his hand back to your core and ran his fingers through your folds, swirling your arousal around your pussy. Your eyes immediately rolled back into your head and you let out a low moan as he sunk his middle finger inside of you until he reached his knuckle. Fucking finally. He pumped his one finger in and out of you slowly at first, his other fingers softly brushed against your clit each time he filled you. After making sure you were absolutely dripping for him, he seamlessly added his ring finger into your cunt without straying from his initial rhythm. Your arm instinctively went to grip Duncan’s bicep at the feeling of being twice as full. He began to mercilessly scissor his fingers inside of you, with his thumb rubbing tight circles on your clit. You were surprised how quickly you were coming undone from this random man’s touch, but it wasn’t that surprising once you considered how turned on you’d been ever since you laid eyes on him. When Duncan started to curl his two fingers upwards into your cunt, you knew you weren’t going to last much longer.

     “Duncan, I think I’m gonna c-”

     With that, he immediately withdrew his fingers from inside of you. You whimpered at the sudden emptiness. He took the opportunity of having free hands to finally begin undressing, all the while still kissing your swollen lips. 

     Growing tired of waiting, you figured you’d help him get out of his clothes. Once you tugged his under-shirt off over his arms, you reached for his belt buckle. His hands shot down to swat your hands away from their position, making it clear that he was the one in charge. You retracted your hands from his waist and laid them patiently at your side. When he removed his pants and slid off his boxers, his rock hard cock sprang from its restraints and was already leaking with precum. You couldn’t help but stare at the beautiful man before you that you absolutely knew for certain was going to have you screaming in a matter of minutes.

     “See something you like?” Duncan asked as he began taking back his place of hovering over your naked body. Such a fucking smart ass. You huffed out a sigh, watching him with hazy eyes, waiting for him to do something. Anything. As he made his way back up to meet your face, he took both of your hands into his large one and pinned them above your head. Looking you up and down once more, truly savoring the sight of you powerless and naked beneath him, he trailed his free hand down the valley of your breasts before reaching down to stroke his cock. Thank fucking god. The teasing was over.

     His expression softened momentarily, silently asking for the go-ahead from you. You responded with a quick nod, biting down hard on your bottom lip. He took his cock and agonizingly ran it through your slick folds before slowly inserting the tip into your cunt. As he inched his way inside of you, your mouth hung open in a small ‘o’ shape as your shallow breaths left your chest heaving and breasts bouncing softly. 

     When he had filled you to the hilt, he drew himself almost completely out before slamming back into you. The moan that came from deep within your chest was the most pornographic sound you had ever heard. Not being able to grasp at anything with your wrists pinned above your head, you were writhing underneath him as he set his pace. Soon enough, the room was filled with the sounds of your sweaty bodies snapping into each other and the huffs and grunts coming from both of you. After a particularly hard thrust that hit your g-spot, you let out a strangled, “Holy shit.”

     “You like that?” Duncan seemed to move faster at your words. All you could muster up in response was a short nod of your head. “I’m sorry, what was that? I asked you a question.”

     Closing your eyes and swallowing hard, you let out the shakiest, “Yes,” of your life. You certainly weren’t in the position to be speaking given the fact that Duncan was pile-driving his dick into your pussy without remorse.

     “Yes, what?” Oh. That’s what he wanted. It wasn’t surprising. Most of the big wigs you’d fucked in this very hotel were into the same kind of dirty talk, guess he wasn’t any different.

     “Yes, daddy.” You responded as seductively as you could, placing extra emphasis on the word you knew he was yearning to hear.

      Your words successfully triggered something within Duncan, because he abruptly grabbed the back your thigh and pressed it forwards into your shoulder so he could fuck you harder and deeper. His actions quickly flooded your stomach with a warm pooling sensation, and you felt the coil inside of you being pushed to its limit. “Fuck, I’m close.” you told him. He took it upon himself to speed up the process, dropping his head down to take one of your breasts into his mouth and running his tongue over your nipple. Your legs began to shake and your body was arching backwards so intensely that you thought your shoulders might pop out of place from where they were locked above your head by Duncan’s grip. Duncan himself began to falter as his head moved from your breast back into the crook of your neck, unable to pay attention to anything other than the way your cunt pulsed around his cock. You could feel his heavy breaths tickling the dip of your collarbones. He wasn’t going to last much longer either.

     “Let go of my arms,” you demanded, needing to be as close to him as you possibly could before you came undone. Based on how Duncan’s face shifted from one of absolute pleasure to something that resembled annoyance, you could tell he really didn’t want to. But he did it anyway, still keeping his ruthless pace of rocking into you. You immediately wrapped your arms around his chest and pulled him closer until he laid flush against you, raking your nails down his back. Duncan seemed to be caught off guard by your actions as he let out another deep groan.

     “Are you gonna cum inside me, daddy?” you egged him on as he placed one of his hands at the base of your throat to use as leverage while he moved even closer towards his release. You wrapped your hand around his and squeezed, forcing him to apply more pressure to your throat. Duncan’s eyes turned almost black at the sight of you blissed out from being choked by him.

     “Is that what you want? You want daddy to cum inside of you?” This time, you really couldn’t answer him with words. A nod of your head was going to have to be enough for him. The feeling of Duncan’s fingers closing in on your throat and his cock felt like it was damn near hitting your cervix was overbearing.

     It only took Duncan rubbing a few small circles against your clit for you to come crashing down around his cock. You let out something like a mix between a moan and a scream as your orgasm ripped through you. Duncan came immediately after you, the way your cunt convulsed around his cock sent him directly over the edge. You felt his cum paint your walls and seep out onto the inside of your thighs and drip down onto the comforter. 

     Duncan softened and removed himself from inside of you a he collapsed on the empty space next to you. You both stared at the ceiling as you caught your breath and regained your composure. It must have been some sight: both of you covered in beads of sweat, hair wet and matted against your forehead, limbs still shaking. Glancing over to look at the clock on the nightstand you realized how late it was.

     “Ah fuck. I’ve gotta go,” you said to yourself as you jumped out of bed and began feeling around the floor for your clothes.

     “Geez. Was it that bad?” he attempted to joke with you, not knowing what you were really talking about. He scratched at the back of his neck as he watched you redress.

     You let you a brief chuckle before answering him. “It’s not that. The last train for the night comes in 20 minutes. I’ve got to get to the station in time or else I won’t be able to make it home.”

     “Uhh, why are you taking the train?” he asked almost in disgust. You’d forgotten that the boy had probably never been inside of a public transportation station in his life given how much he bragged about his successful family business the whole night at the bar.

     “I pay for my tuition out-of-pocket and work at an over-priced coffee shop part time. Do you really think I can afford a $50 cab ride home when I have to eat instant ramen 4 times a week out of necessity?” You didn’t even mean to say it, but you did. It came out pretty condescending and you felt pretty bad considering this man had just given you one of the best orgasms of your life. Duncan didn’t say anything in response, just looked at you with a somewhat sympathetic look in his eyes. 

    As you pulled your dress back down over your thighs and slipped your feet back into your heels, you turned to face him for the last time and say your goodbyes. Leaving was always awkward, you never really knew what to say. Thanks for the dick? See ya later? Yeah, no thanks. You both stared at each other for a brief moment before you broke the silence. “Well, I’m gonna go.” You began to slowly creep towards the door.

     Duncan took in your body one last time before pressing his lips into a straight line and nodding. “Have fun catching the train. Be safe.”

     You decided he deserved a proper send off, so you smiled kindly at him before responding, “Yeah, I will. Good night, Duncan.” Turning on your heels, you walked out of his room and towards the elevator.

     Mission accomplished.

~

     A few weeks later, you were attending a university social with your fellow classmates. You weren’t really sure what the point of it was, to be honest. You heard that it was open bar, so you figured you could sit through however many boring sponsorship speeches if it meant you could get plastered for free while doing so. It took place at none other than the glorious hotel in which you had spent many restless evenings. You laughed to yourself as you walked through the revolving doors and into the lobby. If your classmates only knew how well-acquainted you really were with this place.

     You leaned against one of the table tops in the ballroom as you mindlessly chatted with your best friend and roommate about how boring the night was going to be, joking that it was going to take about 4 more drinks before you were ready to listen to old people drag on about how important higher education is for an entire evening. Just as you looked up to inspect the crowd, your eyes caught a pair of familiar icy blue ones. Propped against a table identical to yours, only on the opposite side of the room was Duncan fucking Shepherd. The same cocky grin appeared on his lips when he pinpointed the exact moment you realized who he was. Damn, he looked good.

     “Oh fuck.” you loudly whispered before craning your neck down to get him out of your line of vision. What the fuck was he even doing here anyway?

     “What?” asked your friend. Should you tell her? Or would she go off and run her big mouth if she knew? She’s practically your best friend, so you might as well let her in on it.

     “That guy...across from us at the table...in the turtleneck and jacket. I fucked him a couple weeks ago.” Not even bothering to be secretive about it, she whipped her head around to see Duncan for herself.

     “Well shit, he’s pretty hot. Do we have class with him or something?”

     “No, I just met him when I was out one night.” She knew of your taste for rich, mature men, so she put the pieces together quickly; only slightly confused by the fact that he wasn’t as old as your usual hookups.

     “Well, I hope it was good because he’s coming this way.” She gave you a pat on the back as she took his approach as her cue to leave you alone with him. Duncan didn’t face you as he spoke, he replicated your position of facing the crowd to keep his facial expressions hidden from you.

     “Y/N.” he greeted you as he placed his glass down on the table beside you.

     “Duncan,” you mimicked whilst also looking ahead of you, “What are you doing here?” You really wished he’d just go away. You didn’t want to have to deal with this awkward encounter.

     “Don’t you pay attention in class? The Shepherd Foundation is one of the top sponsors of your university. My mother is speaking here on our behalf tonight.”

     “Nice,” you huffed uncomfortably. Of-fucking-course they were. You had never casually ran into one of your one night stands before, so you were at a loss for words. Not to mention you had recently decided Duncan was officially the most attractive man you’d been with, so being in his presence again was sending sparks straight to your core.

     “Have you eaten yet?” he started.

     You chuckled once before answering. “What are you? My dad?” There you go again, talking out of your ass. You couldn’t see them, but his eyes darkened a shade as the words left your mouth.

     “Well, based on what I can recall from the other night, you didn’t seem to mind the idea of that. I actually think you loved it, even.” You tried to casually cross one leg in front of the other to clench your thigh together at his words, hoping to relieve the burning feeling in your cunt. “I asked, because I have a room here again tonight. I was thinking you could join me for dinner and we could spend some proper time together. I can pay for your cab home so you can stay longer.” You didn’t say anything as he shuffled around in his pockets and slid a white card across the table towards you. Looking down, you realized it was his room key. “I don’t need an answer right now. If you want to, I’m in room 721 when you make up your mind.” With that, he grabbed his drink and sauntered off into the sea of people.

     You spent the entirety of the evening too preoccupied with your encounter with Duncan to listen to anything the speakers had to say. His room key felt like it was made of lead where it sat in your clutch wallet. Sure, you would love nothing more than to feel him inside of you again. But was it a good idea? He offered to pay for your cab, which meant he must really want to fuck you again, too. Then again, a hefty cab fee to you was chump change to him. Maybe he just wanted someone quick and easy. Or maybe, he didn’t.

     At the end of the night, everyone began clearing out. It was time to make to choose. Go home to your bed, or go up to Duncan’s room. Your roommate approached you, asking if you wanted to carpool with some classmates or take the train home. Fiddling with the room key in your hand, you made the impulsive decision to tell her not to wait up for you, you’d find your own way home. You slid out the rear doors of the ballroom and made your way into the elevator, anxiously pressing the button that would lead you to Duncan.

~

     You woke up that next Friday with a fluttering feeling in your stomach. You were meeting up with Duncan for the third time tonight. The night you saw Duncan at your university social, he had coerced you into meeting up with him again. Apparently he loved your pussy just as much as you loved his cock. Which wasn’t any problem for you. The man really knows precisely which angles to hit that make you scream. Making your way to the kitchen for some breakfast, you were greeted by a few loud knocks at your door. “Coming!” you chimed.

     Whoever had knocked didn’t stick around for you to answer. You unlatched the chain lock only to be confronted by an empty door way. You almost closed the door back when something bright red on the ground caught your eye. It was a massive bouquet of roses placed next to a large white gift box. You scanned the hallway of your apartment building, looking for any clue as to who might have dropped off the package. Not wanting to let the freezing winter air into your apartment, you quickly grabbed the roses and accompanying box and sat them on your kitchen island.

     After inspecting the gift box, you decided it wasn’t a bomb or of any threat to you. You had no fucking clue who would be sending you flowers and gifts. If anyone, it had to be Duncan, but he didn’t even have your phone number let alone know where you lived. 

     You were snapped out of your state of thinking as your roommate entered the kitchen. “Jesus Christ, who in the fuck is sending you flowers this early in the morning?” Your face was beet red, it was time to explain. You told her about what happened the last time as well as your plans to see him tonight, which is what prompted the delivery in the first place. “Well, what’s in the box?” she asked.

     “Let’s find out,” you answered anxiously. Lifting the lid to the giftbox, you were first greeted by an envelope with a card inside. With shaky hands, you slid the card out and read what was written inside.

    Looking forward to seeing you tonight. I’ll send a car to pick you up at 8. Enjoy the gifts. Hope everything fits. And please, for the love of god, buy some real food and stop eating so much ramen. Stop taking the train, too. Ramen is terrible for you, and the metro is filled with creeps.

xx Duncan 

��    Attached to the inside of the card was a check made out in your name for an ungodly amount of money that wouldn’t just cover your groceries, but more like your groceries + your whole month’s rent for several consecutive months.

     “Uhhh, what the fuck?!” Your roommate finally broke the silence as she peered over your shoulder to read the note and the amount written on the check. Yeah, ‘what the fuck’ was exactly right. Duncan never seemed that into you. As far as you were concerned, he was only into fucking you. Never anything more. Which is why you were so confused as to why he would do something like this.

     Inside of the box was a collection of some of the most expensive things you’d ever seen at one time. A baby pink, lacy Agent Provocateur lingerie set, nude Louboutin pumps, Cartier tear-drop shaped diamond earrings with a matching necklace, Chanel perfume. Again, what. the. fuck.

     “Wait, is this some kind of sugar baby shit?” your roommate questioned.

     “What are you talking about? That’s not what this is.” No, it obviously wasn’t. You two hadn’t spoken much about anything other than random topics on the night you first met. There was no way that that’s what these gifts insinuated. Duncan was not your sugar daddy and you were not his sugar baby. He’s so young, could he even technically be a sugar daddy if he wasn’t much older than 30?

     Your roommate continued. “Okay, well I’m gonna be honest it kinda seems like it. First, he made you call him daddy. That kinda says all you need to know right there. Second, he offered to pay for your cab ride home after he fucked you without you even asking? THEN, you wake up to thousands of dollars of lingerie and jewelry at your door along with a check big enough to pay for a full semester of school? All because you fucked him a couple times? I might be a dumb bitch, but I know some freaky shit when I see it. I think you’ve found yourself a sugar daddy, Y/N.”

     She was right. It did kind of make sense, but you needed to be sure. You weren’t going to accept his gifts or his money if there was some kind of gross catch to all of this. After talking to her a bit longer, you decided you’d meet with him tonight as planned and confront him about it. You needed some clarity. With that, you slipped away to your room with the gift box in tow to get ready for what the night might bring you.

~

     You resituated the waist tie of your coat as you stepped out of the fancy, black car Duncan had sent for you. Making your way into the same goddamn hotel that was beginning to feel like a second home, you pressed the ‘up’ arrow on the wall next to the elevator. Your mind was racing a mile a minute as you nervously twirled the diamond earrings Duncan had sent you this morning around your ear. If this was some kind of sugar daddy shit, would it be wrong to go along with it? Duncan seemed like a nice guy. Definitely still a rich, republican asshole, but he never seems like he means any harm. Would his conditions really be all that harsh? You’d have to blow him or do something extra kinky for him every now and then, and he’d hopefully keep those checks coming, right? That didn’t seem so bad to you at all. You could use some actual fruit and vegetables in your kitchen, and Duncan was right. The metro is definitely filled with creeps.

     Before you knew it, the elevator dinged, indicating you had reached Duncan’s floor. Your new heels clicked down the hallway as you stopped right in front of Duncan’s room. Once again fiddling with the room key he had left you, you were filled with nerves. You needed some answers and would hopefully get them without tainting the relationship between the two of you. The door unlocked with a click as you slid the card into the slot and pushed down on the handle.

     Duncan was perched in one of the arm chairs across from the bed with a glass in his hand. He perked up as he saw you slowly come out from the darkness of the entryway leading into the room. “You’re here.”

     “Yeah, I am.” you rocked back and forth on your heels as you wrapped your arms around your chest in attempt to sooth yourself.

     “I see you got my gifts. I’m assuming everything fit well?”

     “About that. I need to ask you a few questions about that.” You took a few steps closer to him and pressed your back against the dresser that was close to where he was sitting.

     “Did you not like them? You can take it back and get something else if you like.” He was acting as if this was a normal conversation between the two of you, and it made you kind of angry.

     “Duncan, stop. Cut the shit. What is all of this? First, you offer to pay for my ride home. Next, you’re inviting me over again and sending me thousands of dollars worth of gifts to my apartment. For Christ’s sake, how did you even get my address?”

     He didn’t respond at first, only looked you up and down with that look that you’d become quite familiar with. And it sent that same fuzzy feeling straight to your core. He stood from his seat and made his way over to stand directly in front of you. Placing his hands behind his back, he finally started talking.

     “Y/N,” he began. “My family is one of the most powerful and influential families in D.C. next to the president. I have my ways of finding out where you live, or anyone for that matter. But if you must know, it was easier to just get it from the university’s admissions office. Might I remind you that the Shepherds have quite the influence over there given how much money we donate to them each year. And about the gifts. If you really don’t want them, just return them. Keep the money. God knows you need it. But, they do suit you quite well if I must say so myself. I can’t wait to see what’s under your coat.” He spoke very calmly and matter-of-factly as he stuck his hand out to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear and further inspect the earrings and necklace he had picked out for you.

     “I just... don’t get it. What do you want from me? You wouldn’t do all of this if you didn’t want something out of it.” You asked him with shaky breaths. You couldn’t tell if you were nervous, scared, turned on, or all three.

     “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Just show up when I ask. Mostly, I just need this from you,” he closed the space between the both of you and pressed himself against your front. Your noses were practically touching as he continued. “Let me know what you need, and I’ll take care of you. If you thought my gifts from this morning were too much, you should see what I’m really capable of giving you. I want to take care of you, if you're willing to do the same for me.”

     Breathing in his scent, you closed your eyes as you braced your arms on his shoulders. So many thoughts were running rampant in your mind. Your roommate was right. She always was. Duncan wanted to be your sugar daddy, and you were about to let him. You were worried that this would get you into some kind of trouble eventually, but you also didn’t give a fuck at the same time. There had always been something about him that was different. Different than all of the guys you had slept around with. You had tried ignoring it, but it was always in the back of your brain. He was being genuine, he wanted to take care of you. Maybe this was a bad idea, but who cares? Worst case scenario, things end badly with Duncan and you get a few months of free rent out of it.

     Finally embracing the situation for what it was, you pushed on Duncan’s shoulders where your hands were resting and walked him back to sit on the bed. You didn’t say anything, you just reached for the tie on your coat, untied the knot, and let the fabric pool at your feet. Duncan hissed at the sight of you in the lingerie he had sent you. The brassiere hugged your breasts in every possibly correct way, and the high waisted suspenders complimented your ass perfectly. You knew you looked good, and judging by the growing bulge in Duncan’s pants, so did he.

     You leaned forward while keeping your feet planted in front of him, resting your palms against his thighs and sticking your ass out. Your thumbs wrapped around his legs and dug in dangerously close to his cock, making sure to stare directly into his crystal blue eyes as you did so. His breath hitched in his throat the feeling. Just as he went to close the gap between you two and bring his lips to yours, you slowly lowered yourself onto your knees. Reaching for his belt buckle, he stopped your hands in their path just as he had done the first night you met. “What are you doing?” he asked through gritted teeth, clearly flustered.

     Taking a moment to reach up and press a few light kisses against Duncan’s jaw, your hands went back to unbuckling his belt with one hand and palming his throbbing cock through his pants with the other. His eyelashes fluttered at your touches, pleasure fully taking over him as he realized you were literally on your knees for him. You locked eyes with him from your crude position on the ground as you finally parted your lips to speak.

     “I’m gonna to take care of you. Is that alright, daddy?”

PART TWO ~ PART THREE

~

I know no one asked, but I’m gonna tag some ppl that I love that I think might mayyyyyy be interested in reading this?? Please tell me if I’m annoying you cuz I will cut the shit immediately lmao

@omg-hellgirl @langdonsoceaneyes @wroteclassicaly @ccodyfern @langdonsinferno @thedeviltohisangel

[des-shinta]

So As I’ve been in a state of burnout for a significant sect of the year, I’ve been picking up number of Bandai models to relieve my stress, since building things I find a relaxing endeavor, and they’ve been making me feel better.

(no, most of these were not built this year.  Only 7 of them in the first picture were ‘new’.  The rest are bits and pieces of my older collection I’ve happily been able to unbox and display for the first time in years.  Also: Hi Zoids models that didn’t get enough love during their release tenure!) I’ve actually been building models and Figures for years and years--I started out Heavily as A Lego kid--and since Gundam Wing Aired on Toonami in the late 90′s I’ve infrequently bought bandai’s various models as well, but most of the ones I built back then were...well, demolished by my younger step-brother.   My first ones were low-grade 1/144′s ToysRUs’ Got back in that boom, and they weren’t sturdy at all, thus had no chance to survive.

They’ve since been replaced with all MG’s from that series. Well, except for that 1/100 scale HG Altron that was first released in 1996.  that P-Bandai one is stupid expensive, and Altron’s Endless waltz Redesign is the only one of them I OUTRIGHT hate. It was around 2005-ish when I got into it again, when my parents got me for Christmas the 1/60 perfect Grade RX-78-2.  It took me about Eight hours to build and I did it all in one sitting...but it wasn’t sturdy at all.  It couldn’t even lift its arm if the rifle was in it, it wouldn’t stay up.   All I had it do was just stand there...Menacingly.

So from there on out--with the rare exception--I started to intermittently find and get as Gifts ones from the 1/100 Master Grade line.  THOSE--for the most part depending on what types of hands the figure uses and how well they even hold weapons--have been more my jam despite their 50~ish dollar price point.  Large enough they’re not easily smashed, small enough that they’re pose-able and easy to display, and with enough Complexity in their construction with the various implemented gimmicks to give me an immense feeling of satisfaction to see them done and on Display.  Yeah, there’s a LOT more variety and accessories to be found in the 1/144′s these days--in part thanks to the Gundam Build Fighters series making customization even easier than ever between that scale’s market--but I just don’t get the same thing out of them, despite only about 6 or less MG kits being made a year, with some of them being Shunted off now to Premium Bandai’s services to become stupidly overpriced for what they are and what’s supplied...even though I DO have a few P-bandai ones as well.  Stupid obsession with the Astrays, Tallgeese III, and Form/Equipment change gimmicks...

Hell, I’ve even experimented from time to time with custom Color palletes, with one of the first to get that treatment being the sword Impulse that desperately needed more contrasting colors (also thank aura that bandai’s finally releasing the Blast Impulse MG...even if it IS P-bandai so the display isn’t oddly missing a mech).  I’ve got the MG of the Sengoku Astray still in its box (with a bunch of other Gundam seed Mechs I haven’t build yet ‘cause I adore Gundam Seed’s mecha design and will be using those to unwind between overtime shifts this December)  and when I build it, I’m going to repaint all its red parts yellow to Give the Gundam that kind of resembles Kamen Rider Gaim’s Kachidoki arms the full Kachidoki color treatment.  Think I have Enough spare pieces from wrecked stuff to try building it a Custom Tanigashima “DJ Gun” Rifle to go with it as well.

Also the Gunpla hobby led me to doing the papercrafting thing for cheap-to-make Figurines or accessories or even scale props like the scaled-to-figure Gurren Lagann Giga drill pictured above, which I’ve moved onto doing custom templates for on occasion--

--case in point, the 1:1 scale pepakura Pandora Box--

--And my Gate of Ouroboros Broadsword which was a papercraft template I mapped onto Foam to get it near-damn-perfect...after I made a MK 2 of the original ‘cause the original ended up way too heavy.  I can basically trace a lot of my fun crafting stuff to being inspired by the creativity that goes into this kind of thing, and the work of other crafters and cosplayers, and then seeking to try applying that myself from all my learned habits.

But outside of the expected Gunpla you can find in Hobby stores and...for some reason Barnes and Nobles, which has retained a market throughout that time despite Bandai of America’s Idiocy thanks to bluefin Distributions, I’ve started tracking down some of bandai’s other model offerings.  Specifically, the Figurise standard and Minipla lines.

For those not in the know, Super Minipla’s are basically model kit versions of previously released mecha toys, only with a far smaller scaling from their DX Counterparts which you then build yourself.  They seek to retain all of the originals play gimmicks where possible, but come off a LOT more pose-able by their end than the DX toy bricks. Featured above is the Minipla of the Super Galaxy Mega (Astro Delta Megazord) From Denji Sentai Megaranger/Power Rangers in Space.  and this thing is *PERFECT*.  Despite it being half the size of the DX toy, it retains *EVERY* single play feature the original had (transformation, combination, weapon accessories, the works), but has fully pose-able limbs in every single part of it.  The freaking thing cost me $80 when back in 1998 the DX toy versions cost a total of $60, and yet factor for inflation and the impossibility of re-aquiring the 20-year-old vintage toys and this thing was *SO* worth it to get back my second-favorite sentai/PR Mech.

Hell, it’s not just the DX toys they compete against.  On the Right is the Super Robot Chogokin Gaogaigar with Goldion Hammer, and on the left is the Minipla figure of the same mech and weapon.  Both actually retailed for around the same price points on release, but there’s a more distinct compare and contrast between them. The SRC one has better paint apps, is constructed on a metal frame and has metal parts all over it, has distinct limb joints and proper articulation with a screen-accurate scale structure to it and has some weight to it so isn’t likely to topple over easily.  Frankly of the two...it just looks better in person.  Whereas the super minipla, while not perfectly in scale and doesn’t have the brilliance of the colorization to help it, Retains the transformation and combination gimmicks of the original toys which give it a lot more value to collectors that can’t afford the Full DX figures which bear the same.  Its Joints are also a LOT Tighter so the feet and arms aren’t likely to slip, and while not as good as the SRC, the screen-accuracy is far better than the original Takara-based DX toys or even the later Bandai remakes of them after Bandai bought the rights from Takara.  And with the right hand and hammer being a hell of a lot lighter, when I get this thing on a display stand it’ll be able to do more than just stand with the hammer planted on the ground.

The Figurise standard line instead is a model kit version of an anime/live series action Figure--Mostly limited to Dragonball and Kamen Rider figures right now But Digimon ones for the line are coming soon-- with them ending up in competition with Bandai’s SH Figuarts High-quality-Figure line, albeit with a lower Pricepoint than the SHF since you make it yourself and some of the paint apps are replaced with stickers, and their ease of mass production makes them more available than the SHF’s by comparison. Sorry I don’t have the best picture of the figure on hand, but for those not familiar with the character, it’s the Pink/Neon green/black-colored character that’s surrounded by Gundams (the pic was taken in the midst of a bedbug crisis where we were packing everything up in our apartment so it wouldn’t end up damaged)  The Character is Kamen Rider Ex-aid action gamer Level 2, and up close it’s near indistinguishable from the SHF for the character. And yet...I kind of felt like I got more out of the FRS figure than the sole SHF I have, simply because I put my time into putting it all together.  Yeah, the markings are stickers instead of painted on, but if those fade or start peeling?  I can paint-app it myself.  It has all the details I want, it moves how I want it to, and it came with a great stand for it to be placed in a fantastic jumping pose.    I actually want to find more of those for Kamen Rider Figures from the series I like, as I think it’d be better than dealing with the SHF’s which...well, depending on the figure?  Are notorious for production line issues.  while some models can have loose joints or frail pieces (which can be fixed with an easy application of super glue.  And any other scratches, chips and imperfections?  Yeah, those will be my fault, and won’t result in me feeling as if I got gyped in the purchase.

Sadly though, these figures aren’t exactly created equal.  On a limb I picked up the super minipla Shin getter robo set After My Roommate showed by GR Armageddon and we loved it; and...Eeeehh.  They’re not terrible, but they’re lacking for the expectation I had with the Minipla’s.  I think Kaiyodo’s Revoltech Figure line did better with these guys--out of print as may of those figures are now.  Black Getter 1 (Left) actually does look great with the Ragged cape and gun and razor arm...but the ball joints It, Getter Dragon (center) and Shin getter 1 (right) are constructed with do NOT like to stay together.  I can’t pose them at all without risking them toppling over or falling apart.  I think the Revoltech ones are bigger as well, making for better display pieces than these guys who’d be beaten out by 1/144′s.

hell, this mazinger Z Model was a 1/144, and it’s in scale with the Master grades. ...Mazinger mechs be big. But that brings us to a more recent addition via Tsuburaya and Studio Trigger.

One of the newer Additions to the minipla Line has been the Gridman figures, thanks to the anime series SSSS Gridman putting that franchise back on people’s Radar.  I had Gridman’s toys (when the series was imported and adapted into the series Superhuman samurai Syber Squad) when I was a kid and adored them...

..and sure enough, when I built the Thunder Gridman one, it was like popping back to a little piece of my childhood.  Same play gimmicks to them, and while the scaling is not the same, the engineering is all there to invoke the proper good pieces of nostalgia. To the point it resulted in the best thing about these guys, and It almost didn’t happen. When SSSS Gridman was airing, I ended up enjoying myself so much by its end I jumped at the chance to preorder the DX mecha figures that Good Smile company was releasing.  Unfortunately, the seller turned out to be a con-artist, and never shipped me the figure...though i did get my money back thanks to buyer protection.  I saw vid’s on it, and it looked pretty good...but it was completely out of scale and reasonable relation with the old Gridman Toys.  So when I heard about the Minipla’s going out for a lot less than the DX’s original and jacked-up price points?  I put in an order with someone I knew who was reliable for these...and really, I should’ve done so from the start.

The super Minipla Gridman Figures...are all perfectly in scale with each-other, and share all the same connection ports. I can put the SSSS Gridman Figures into the older Gridman armors.  That’s Primal Fighter Gridman wearing the Thunder Gridman armor (right).  Hell, I can swap the arms of the Gridman figures so the effect components can be put in the older ones as well as they use common components across the board in their construction.  I think in the future I’m going to put PFGridman in the king armor (left) as well, as the SSSS-Gridman figure has slightly Longer legs which would make the King Gridman armor scale better.  Because of this, I ended up a lot happier with these guys that I would likely have been trying in vain to get another decently-priced DX one, or even the Actbuilder release of the SSSSG Stuff that did scale with the minipla’s. So Bottom line?  I really like models, they help me relax, and I’ve been discovering some cool stuff this year that Bandai’s done which I wouldn’t have if I weren’t trying to find a way to vent stress.  Thank you disposable $16+ an hour Income for making such possible.

[yogaadvise]

5 Top-Rated iPhone Apps for Yogis

If you wish to discover yoga, you no much longer need to study, order, as well as wait on a DVD to find in the mail. Nowadays, you simply need to grab your phone.

Learning yoga in individual can be a reliable, much more social approach. You could not always have accessibility to a workshop, or have the funds to pay for classes.

There are hundreds of yoga exercise apps and it's hard to tell which ones are excellent. Prior to you hand over loan to purchase an application, or even prior to you download and install a complimentary one, have a look at these evaluations of the most effective yoga exercise apps presently on the market.

Yoga Studio by Modern Lotus 

$ 3.99 for Mac items just: iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini

This is the best-selling yoga application and also the one with one of the most positive testimonials. It has a 5-star individual ranking as well as was elected runner-up in "Ideal Application Ever Before" Awards in the health and fitness group for 2012 and also 2013. Yoga Workshop has 65 prefabricated high interpretation video clip courses for beginner, intermediate, or innovative students. When you click a prefabricated class, it will certainly download to your gadget. The documents are large due to the fact that they're fired in HD. There is a yoga position library with 285 poses. When you click a posture you get an image of the pose, a summary, the benefits, and also alterations as well as counter-indications. The individual interface is spick-and-span as well as easy to use.

You can develop your own custom-made classes with pose blocks, which are brief series that you can connect together to create a flow. Yoga Studio's smart-link feature can perfectly connect with each other poses, which might not normally stream together as well as the video-stitch attribute transforms your series into an entire class.

I have checked out numerous yoga applications and this set is the absolute ideal I have actually seen and well worth the purchase rate. Take a look at the Yoga Exercise Workshop App.

Daily Yoga by DailyYoga.com 

Free to download and install with In-App purchases. You can upgrade to the professional version for $29.99 per year for iPhone or Android.

This is a close second to the Daily Yoga exercise app. The most effective component of this app is that it's totally free to download and also even more than 25 courses are included in the totally free variation. The background music is additionally goes actually well with the courses. With the totally free variation, you get a soundtrack called Yoga Moments. When you upgrade to the pro variation, you get additional soundtracks. The app has a clean, simple interface as well as is visually pleasing. The yoga exercise models also have a bio page. The video clips are clear, very easy to comply with, and also the voiceover directions are detailed without being overbearing. Each class has a different style such as hip openers, sun salutations, or easy joint activity. You can open added classes with the professional version.

Daily Yoga exercise has a position collection and also you can attach to a global area with the application. Since October 2015, there were a great deal of customer issues concerning current updates triggering the app to crash as well as various other issues concerning customer solution not being attentive.

This is a good application and also you can take lots of courses with the totally free version. Have a look at the Daily Yoga App.

Pocket Yoga HD by Rainfrog LLC

$2.99 for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and also Windows 8

The yoga model in the Pocket Yoga HD is computer generated, which can take some getting made use of to. It's virtually as if you're enjoying a cartoon character do yoga. As you advance in the poses, you obtain to "update" your background. You may have a computer-generated desert background and also you can upgrade to an ocean sight as you advance in your method. The app, funky computer-generated features apart, has received favorable evaluations. In February 2014, MacWorld offered Pocket Yoga exercise HD rave evaluations and USA Today called it one of the "best fitness applications" in 2013.

It has full yoga courses and also does not require network connection. Pocket Yoga HD has a detailed position dictionary with explanations, which might be especially valuable to yoga teachers in training.

There are a great deal of individual issues that the poses change as well rapidly which there are no clear demos on just how to do postures. This application is not for newbies. For those that prefer to custom-made build their own courses, this app does not have that ability. As well as various other individuals have actually grumbled regarding the exercises being too repetitive. Inspect out the Pocket Yoga Exercise App.

Simply Yoga Exercise FREE by Daily Exercise Apps LLC

Free download, professional version available for $3.99 for iPhone, iPad, Android, Google Play

I included this app due to the fact that it has gotten a great deal 5-star reviews as well as its standard version is totally free. In addition to those reasons, I'm not impressed.

It does not appear like programmers but a lot of effort, thought, or sources into making the app appealing. The videos look like they were videotaped in a person's living-room with a residence camera. It's practical as well as standard.

The advantage is they have 20- to 60-minute workouts with degrees one and two. The name of each present shows up on the screen in English as well as in Sanskrit. The history track, which does not alter, is ocean noises. There is a schedule tip to send you notifications for exercising. You can customize your workouts with the professional version.

The one major annoyance, in the totally free variation of this app, is that there are advertisements stumbling upon all-time low of the display throughout your yoga class. Look into the Just Yoga Exercise Free App.

Yoga.com Studio by Plus Sports

$ 3.99 for iPhone and also iPad and Free for Andriod with In App purchases

This application has a modern and smooth interface. There are 45 yoga programs as well as 300 yoga presents. You can select a program or customize your class. In the position base, you can see a presentation along with a 3D muscle mass photo of the position. You can also pick from various sound histories. An additional excellent feature is that you can have the position named in English or Sanskrit and you can leave the instructor's voice on or transform it off in the app setups. Yoga.com Studio additionally includes 4 breathing exercises as well as meditations.

Some of the reviewers grumble that the workouts are longer than mentioned and also that the routines do not stream in between poses. Obviously, you can not transform off the position presentations feature. There have actually been issues of the app cold up commonly, and also that the upgrade to the professional version is ineffective. Yet In my viewpoint, this is just one of the better applications. Take a look at the Yoga.com Workshop App.

Nothing is as authentic and also comfortable as remaining in a real class with real people. Yoga apps can be a superb option when you're taking a trip or merely can't get to a yoga course.

[aabapk]

OfferUp App

Get OfferUp app, learn everything about the OfferUp and Letgo platform, complete guide on how to use OfferUp and set up account also shocking reviews of customers.

Download OfferUp App Apk

What is OfferUp App Apk.

Buy. Sell. Letgo. – OfferUp and Letgo are now one big mobile marketplace.

Buy, sell and shop deals on thousands of unique items nearby! So whether you want to make some extra money by selling your used furniture or want to do some clothes shopping the choice is yours with OfferUp.

OfferUp App makes it easy to find great deals on the things you want and make money on the things you want to sell. Ditch the Classified Ads and garage sales — this is the best way to buy and sell in your community or neighborhood with a mobile marketplace you can trust.

Cars, clothes, shoes, vintage fashion, and more! Here’s how shopping and selling with OfferUp works:

9 Best Features of OfferUp App.

1. Instant Sell

2. Best deals

3. Reputation-based Dealings

4. Local Market

5. In-app Messenger

6. Build your profile

7. Easy Browsing

8. Community

9. Simplicity

Instant Selling of the products:

There are countless online marketplaces these days. All claiming to be great but not delivering what they promise. The efficiency of a platform usually narrows down to a point where you can estimate your selling time. The selling time of an item also explains how many active users a platform has, the more people active the more quickly will be the sale. OfferUp app claims to be one of the quickest selling platforms, you can buy or sell anything within 30 seconds. That really is quick.

Best Deals in the house:

As there are millions of users online every day using e-commerce platforms to get their purchases done. There are chances of high-quality product sales. OfferUp comes with millions of active users which make the market more competitive. This could be a bad thing for a seller to some extent as they have to keep fewer margins but on the other hand, it widens the scope for buyers. They can find great deals on items, discounts on many purchases like clothes, shoes, furniture, vintage fashion, cell phones, electronics, baby & kids items, sports equipment, used cars, home goods, and more.

OfferUp Seller Reputation:

Shopping online always comes with a risk of being scammed. You never know who you are dealing with, You know what are you buying but you never know what you will end up buying. This has posed a huge challenge to online marketplaces like Alibaba, Made In China, eBay, etc. So companies have ever been trying to come up with a solution for this. OfferUp calls it “Reputation”. It is a metric based on reviews. So people who have bought things from a particular buyer using the OfferUp app will leave feedback, this feedback will build the reputation of a seller. If you are going to buy something on the OfferUp app don’t miss that.

Carefully check what are the reviews of the buyer, Is the product exactly the same as the seller described, was it delivered well, what was the behavior of the seller and how many stars does the buyer has. This will help you a great deal in deciding whether to buy from a particular buyer or not.

Get in touch with Local Market through OfferUp App:

Getting products from Alibaba or other platforms like it causes one big problem, They are being shipped from another country. So it will take a lot of time before you get it, and then if it is not what you expected there is going to be a big problem. OfferUp app on the other hand gets you in contact with people near you. The local market, where you can physically go and meet the seller, inspect the thing and then deal, is an amazing feature. You get in touch with the local market and people, save a lot of time and get the best products. The offer up near me feature gives you this huge power to look for the deal just around the community you live in.

Communicate through OfferUp in-app messenger:

Sending an Email is an old, time-consuming method. Contacting through other means might breach your privacy, like sharing your Phone Number, WhatsApp, etc. So this has been solved by OfferUp App by introducing in-app messenger. So you can chat freely with the people you are dealing with. it is efficient, keeps a record of your chat history. Gets you connected to people out there instantly. You can chat with the person in real-time and close the deal. You don’t have to leave the app.

OfferUp Seller Profile:

This is the most important part when it comes to online selling. Your profile is the backbone, there are so many people out there who are selling things. Why would someone buy from you? Your unique profile is going to tell that to your potential customers. OfferUp App gives you the freedom to create your own unique profile and make it look professional so that it outshines every other seller. Build your reputation and create an appealing profile on a unique seller profile page.

Easy browsing through OfferUp App:

Now that we know that there are millions of people on this amazing platform. We know that there are thousands of items being posted every day. Searching through them is a daunting task. OfferUp app has taken the responsibility to take care of this daunting task for us. You can Browse easily within the app and narrow down your search to the item of your liking within seconds. It gives you the options of search by category, post date, price range which can then further be narrowed down to the newest posts.

You can also type the name of the item in the search bar for quick results. It doesn’t stop there, Once you start looking up an item, Its AI learns your search patterns and shows you the relevant items by default on your home screen. Last but not the least, you can use location to search too. Enter the location and see all the deals happening there.

OfferUp community:

One of the best things about this thing is building a community of its users. Get connected to people through the deals that you make. You become part of one of the biggest online markets. Find people you can trust which makes it easy for you to buy things from them.

The simplicity of the app:

Gone are the old days when you need to go out to buy things or garage sell your items. This is a simple yet swift way of striking deals and makes your life easy. I would suggest download OfferUp App Apk right now and sell that bicycle that is in your garage for the last 10 months within 10 seconds.

Fun facts about shopping and selling with OfferUp:

1. With OfferUp you can easily sell anything like clothes and shoes, used cars, electronics, vintage fashion, and furniture. 2. OfferUp shows you what’s selling nearby in your local community. 3. Communication between buyers & sellers happens through the app via secure messaging. 4. OfferUp is better than a garage sale; you can do your shopping right on your phone or tablet.

Be A part of the community:

We’re making local shopping and selling an experience that everyone can try and trust. The community at the heart of our marketplace is what makes that possible. When you join OfferUp, you’re joining millions of people helping each other make money and save money around the nation — and right in the neighborhood.

From shoes to cars, vintage fashion to furniture – unearth unique items that you can’t find anywhere else with OfferUp. Download OfferUp today and enjoy the mobile marketplace with plenty of hidden gems just waiting to be discovered.

OfferUp and Letgo:

“My vision for OfferUp has always been to build a company that helps people connect and prosper,” said Nick Huzar, OfferUp CEO, in a statement about the acquisition. “We’re combining the complementary strengths of OfferUp and letgo in order to deliver an even better buying and selling experience for our communities. OLX Group has unparalleled expertise and clear success with growing online marketplace businesses, so they’ll be a great partner as we continue to build the widest, simplest, and most trustworthy experience for our customers.”

One giant joins forces with another. The two leading mobile marketplaces in the U.S., OfferUp, and Letgo, are joining forces to create a new powerhouse. OfferUp acquired Letgo on July 1, 2020.

This has made the company a marketplace of more than 20 million online active users, making them the largest platform of the online marketplace after Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook marketplace of course. This means now the users don’t have to get their household items, cars, furniture or electronics posted on several different apps. With OfferUp and letgo combined users have got access to a much broader community.

OfferUp and letgo after joining forces have launched their new app, which is both in one. So you need to download the new app for offerUp and letgo. To keep buying or selling.

How to use OfferUp App:

Here we will go step-by-step method of setting up your OfferUp and Letgo App.

1. Download the app using Apple Store or Google Play or get The OfferUp Apk.

2. Install the App on your device.

3. It will then ask you for your permission to access your location. You can choose either to enter the zip code or allow the OfferUp app to find your location.

4. Then you will be prompted to sign up. You will have all the options to sign up, choose from Google account, Facebook, Apple account, or Email.

5. Once Signed up you will be asked for Phone verification. To Verify it type in your phone number, you will get the code, and then just use that code to verify your phone. you can also skip it if you don’t want it.

6. Then you will be taken to the home page of the website which is going to look like this.

OfferUp App Overall ratings and Experience:

In my opinion, this is among the best apps in the market now. It has a clean design, seamless experience. Nothing is cluttered and the app is not sluggish with the overall Fantastic experience. It is very easy to find items. It’s easy to post things for sale, just a few clicks. Messenger works great, it doesn’t act up. Add payment method is also easy, it works with apple pay just fine.

Offer Up User Reviews:

This is where things get a little bit against the OfferUp app. Many Users have voted against this platform on TrustPilot. It is overall rate bad on trust pilot. Above 1000 reviews are unsatisfactory. To quote a few:

I used to love Offerup

I used to love Offerup! Now, it’s full of Scammers! I don’t know why they don’t fix this problem! I mean almost the entire site is a Scam now! Be very cautious when dealing with this site!!! “Trust Pilot”

—Pure Wasted Time—

This site is awful! The people who run it I have created a money-sucking scheme that’s all about earning money off of constantly promoting ads.

Complete crap! There’s no cracker even. (Crap on a cracker). “Trust Pilot”

someone created an account with my…

someone created an account with my email, cant contact their support or deactivate it because everything needs you to be signed in. Completely trash site, do not use. “Trust Pilot”

So to conclude things, OfferUp and letgo combined created a huge marketplace for people to trade C2C. They have to keep improving in terms of security and safety. They also need to provide the best customer support services.

Also, Check The Best Fitness app and make the right decision for yourself.

How to Download OfferUp App Apk:

You can easily download the app from your browser by following these steps.

1. Read the whole features of the game and then tap on the Download button.

2. Wait for the Download File to generate

3. Once it is generated. Tap on the Download button again

4. This will start the file to download.

5. When the download is finished, a confirmation window will pop up.

How to Install :

Once you have your downloaded file ready follow this guide.

· First of all, go to your device’s settings

· Go to Privacy> Unknown Sources Installations> Enable

· If you have a newer Android device, then make sure to enable the Unknown Device option in your Browser Settings.

· Now Select the Apk or Mod apk file that you have downloaded.

· Simply open it and tap on Install.

· That’s it

You can also get it from Google Play.

DownloadFree OfferUp App Apkand enjoy everything for free.

Get 100% free moded aplications, games and softwares on AabApk.

[archteriorbd]

BEST FREE LANDSCAPE DESIGN SOFTWARE-5 FREE COMPARISONS FOR THE BEST Methods for Landscape Design

BEST FREE LANDSCAPE DESIGN SOFTWARE

With a tad of innovativeness and some extra time, arranging can flip into perhaps the most productive exercises of your lifetime. There's in no way like walking around your yard or patio and participating in the view that used to be conceived from the profundity of your creative mind. It offers a vibe of heavenly fulfillment, presently not to call attention to the truth that it's a wonderful exchange starter each time you're having companions over. Just with the guide of having the danger to state "I idea of this myself", you'll flash the pastime of many. In any case, how would you select which one to get?

5 FREE COMPARISONS FOR THE BEST Methods for Landscape Design

DreamPlan Home Design Software

iScape

SketchUp

the Visualizer

Gardena Garden Planner

A CLOSER LOOK

The landscape software projects can make this strategy a whole parcel less confounded because of the reality it offers you the risk to organize your thoughts. Thus, it will be less hard to impart your considerations to family, companions, or specialists utilized to see this arranging position through. Yet, on record that spending money on a specialist software program is something householders, for the most part, decide to evade, we've assembled a portion of the first-class picks in quite a while of arranging format software program that is gratis.

The most effective method to CHOOSE

n the indistinguishable pattern as purchasing for any item, it's continually fundamental to ask your self some passing inquiries to decide out how to choose the one that is excellent for you. Since that might need to be particular based on what's top-notch for any other person. Thus, sooner than choosing a landscape plan program, ask your self this:

Will I utilize this application extra than once?

Do I want it genuinely for spreading out my task or do I want more noteworthy extraordinary designs?

Am I technically knowledgeable or should I appear for an application that has an insignificant examining bend?

Since we're managing the fa ree software program in this article, there's no need to pose inquiries identified with value range (since that would be a recognizing part in any case). Be that as it may, with these three simple inquiries, you should be in a situation to perceive out or possibly thin down, which software to get.

Arranging TIPS

Obviously, nothing that is ever genuinely moneymaking is also simple. Indeed, arranging can be difficult work, especially when you have no contemplated the spot to begin. There's a reason why decorators are making so a dreadful part of just: because of the reality they have predictable inventiveness flashes, they concentrated to catch shade and structure mixes, and they can think of troublesome plans on the most proficient method to make a fantastic view.

However, there are householders that, sooner than recruiting a contractual worker, want to accept out every little component for themselves. They decide to supply their shocking nurseries that individual contact that describes each person… and who can accuse them? In any case, here and there, these individuals have no thought about the spot to begin. Are there, maybe, some useful finishing rules to kick them off?

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR YARD?

The primary mystery lies in giving a reason to your landscape. There will be an enormous qualification between a yard that should be youngster agreeable and outfit masses of the utilization for family exercises, and the yard of a nature-darling and a cultivating enthusiastic, who loves to respect the most sweet-smelling and beautiful vegetation and analyze the digital book in the shade of his trees. The inquiry is: What should be the rationale of your nursery?

WHAT OBJECTS WILL YOU INCLUDE?

On the off chance that you are such a character that loves to engage companions or experience that the wonderful method to spend a bright Sunday evening is utilizing cooking a grill on the whole with the whole family, it's fundamental to point of convergence on elements that encourage such exercises. A gazebo will turn out to be almost compulsory in such a situation, presently not to bring up an equipped external kitchen. There need to furthermore be a relaxing region, conceivably even a TV, for sports exercises fans.

Most of the householders want to be competent to encounter their properties every inside and out. That expertise that arranging is furthermore a be tallied of progression. This converted into comfort, even as you venture outside. This can be done through fit external lighting, delighted entryway furniture, and perhaps even a chimney.

Space TO GROW?

Individuals enthusiastic about cooking and healthy dwelling will truly want to have a vegetable nursery, no depend upon how little. On the off chance that there's not, at this point adequate space, a spice terrace might be a higher alternative. This should be set close to the kitchen passageway of the house. Besides the evident wellness benefits, spices have extraordinary smells that can be cherished on cool mid-year nights, as you go for a walk through your nursery.

LEAVE ROOM FOR ERROR

Each idea spins around the intention of the nursery, nonetheless, considers drawing everything being equal. If you're out of the entryway, the zone is restricted, there are exclusively so numerous components that you can put, so outline well and, when required, keep up it basic.

TOP 5 TOOLS FOR FREE LANDSCAPE DESIGN FEEDBACK

Since we acknowledge as evident inside the power of finishing software, notwithstanding, we're also cognizant that it's a more value that a portion of our perusers aren't slanted to resolve to, we've uncovered profound to find if there are any achievable software program picks free of charge. 

1. DREAM PLAN HOME DESIGN SOFTWARE

Viable With: Windows 10, XP, Vista, 7, eight and 8.1; OS X 10.5 or above

3D Mode: Yes

Requires Download/Install: Yes

dream graph Home landscape Design is a software program that causes you to chart each of your inside and your finishing thoughts. You can envision how your terrace would appear to resemble verdure and trees, anyway moreover allows you to adjust the territory encompassing the house. You can add factors, for example, a pool, to get a higher thought of how to set up yours out of entryways space.

In case you're focusing on an additional uncommon design, you can moreover import 3D forms and work with them. As a result of its smooth interface, DreamPlan Home Design can be utilized in any event, utilizing individuals who aren't well informed. The means are natural, so becoming acquainted with how to utilize this software program is actually a speedy cycle. There is an additional specialist model that you can buy, known as DreamPlan Home Design Software Plus, but the software package is free for non-business use.

Pros

Reasonable for inside & scene design.

2D & 3D delivering accessible.

Landscape customization.

Supports 3D life-sized model import.

Cons:

Slow interface speed.

Favorable to Tip

The free model of this software program is wonderful for people who favor an essential interface that is convenient to analyze and utilize.

Break

2. iScape

Viable With: iPhone, iPad, and iPod contact (requires iOS 9.0 or later)

3D Mode: No

Requires Download/Install: Yes

Basic, free, and available for each your iPhone and your iPad: this is a phenomenal method to portray iScape. It's a cell software program that is close by in the App Store and which grants you to make your fantasy patio other than investing energy concentrating how to utilize expand apparatuses. It offers clients a brief look at what their arranging challenge would seem like.

Through its accomplices, iScape can assist you with purchasing the finishing objects you need, eliminating the difficulty of going through hours searching for them for yourself. Through its sharing highlights, iScape allows you to work together on your main goal and without trouble in front of it to your contractual worker, or perhaps amigos (expecting you to lean toward their assessment sooner than proceeding with the undertaking).

Pros::

Thing stock for easy buy.

Sharing highlights.

Coordinated increased truth highlights.

Cons:

Restricted in-application plant library.

Supportive of Tip

This is a software program application committed to clients of movable Mac gadgets, who pick a basic device, aside from such a large number of highlights, to help them to imagine the stop arranging result sooner than distinguishing to delegate a temporary worker.

3. SKETCHUP

Viable With: all incessant web programs

3D Mode: Yes

Requires Download/Install: No

In case you're a specialist looking to check perhaps the most renowned sketch hardware on the planet, you indeed decide to endeavor the free model of the notable SketchUp Pro. While the basic homegrown individual can mess with SketchUp too, the dominating way might need to flip out to be drawn out and muddled, nonetheless, it depends upon how energetic you are on sorting out new software.

Fundamentally, SketchUp was once made to go about as an expansion of your hand, helping draw whatever, at whatever point. You can work in each 2D and 3D landscape design while coordinating a bunch of extremely powerful gear that will seem interesting if not, at this point in the fingers of a specialist. You can retailer your attraction to the cloud, anyway also locally. Obviously, the paid model is also an updated one. The electronic SketchUp does not have a few features that a specialist may require, similar to augmentations and the occasion to alter or make materials.

Pros:

2D & 3D work modes.

Backing for Trimble Connect.

Viable with all important programs.

Saves records to the cloud.

Cons:

Needs angles from the paid adaptation.

Favorable to Tip

This is an internet browser-based model of the world's most notable demonstrating instrument, which is normally utilized by engineers, manufacturers, designers, and planners.

4. SHOWOFF THE VISUALIZER

Viable With: WinXP, WinVista x64, WinVista, Win7 x64, Win7 x32, WinOther

3D Model:

Requires Download/Install: Yes

Windows clients that pick a simple and instinctive software program to graph their resulting dream display need to appear to be no further.Showoff.com the Visualizer favors you to imagine your ensuing display task while providing the appropriate gear to customize your current arrangement. By sincerely choosing/transferring a photograph of your advanced yard, you can start including components, for example, greenery or outside furnishings.

The hardware and catches are inconceivably parts plain as day, making this extremely convenient to secure software program for people who own personal a Windows PC. There is an index of depictions to choose from, as appropriately as a library of devices separated into seven helpful classifications. You can choose between a porch garden, entryway furniture, and even display plans. You will discover photographs in each subcategory, which you can add to your current base picture, to envision what your patio would seem like with an exact thing.

Prose:

Solid neighborhood conversation board & exhortation.

Photograph transfer.

Seven photo classifications.

Non-plant factors included.

Cons:

Requires enrollment information sooner than the establishment

Supportive of Tip

This software program is magnificent for Windows clients that favor a simple method to add variables to their advanced lawn arrangement, to get a brief look at their future test sooner than requesting these petunias.

5.GARDENA GARDEN PLANNER

Gardena Garden Planner

Viable With: All regular web programs

3D Mode: No

Requires Download/Install: No

Clarifying the Gardena Garden Planner is a breeze, for the most part, because of the reality this is the simplest and cutest internet arranging application we've seen up until now. The representations seem like drawings, making it a great pleasure to utilize the application. There is a menu with all the gear wished to draw your nursery, anyway furthermore inclinations to add to your home, outside furnishings, plants, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

You can easily attract your lawn with the assembled plot surfaces include. There are pre-attracted objects to choose from, and all of these devices can be upgraded, contracted, turned, and moved, to the pride of the organizer. An exceptionally cool trademark is the reality that you can add your own personal sprinkler framework, helping you to design out a watering test to hold your nursery and greenery unpracticed and sound. There are many formats you can select from, on the off chance that you're presently not certain the spot to start your task.

You can play ara around with lakes and pools, amusement devices like grills, outside lighting, and you can even add vehicles, to chart each rectangular inch of the rea accessible.

Pros:

Simple plot floor drawing.

Accessible layouts.

Library with plants, entryways furniture, and vehicles.

Simple to utilize.

Charming interface.

Cons:

Thing library is phenomenally restricted.

Favorable to Tip

This online software program is an amazing gadget for people who favor a quick method to outline their garden anyway decide to avoid downloading bundles on their pc or perusing through stores of things. This is effortlessness at its best.For more information click here.

Conclusion

The main component to hold in thought is that the scene plan software program that is close by with the expectation of complimentary will scarcely ever be as convoluted or have a full article library. Notwithstanding, the majority of the world's five-star finishing software program moreover has a preliminary model for clients that might want to give the application a turn sooner than spending money on it. While you can't foresee having all the features of the dad help software program as a free application, there is regardless a beneficial scope of items and moves that can help you to design your landscape.

If you're not the slightest bit utilized la finishing software program previously or are looking for something simple and easy to utilize, verify your stay away from additional master hardware that is fundamentally founded on the 3D drawing outing of experts, for example, draftsmen, specialists, or master decorators. The posting above comprises of some extremely perfect software program choices, from ones that can really be dominated in significantly less than 60 minutes, to extra muddled alternatives that are phenomenal fitting for people who've utilized such software program previously.

Need a modern landscape backyard design? You can visit our site-3d landscape backyard

[pogueman]

The tiny, 4K Mavic Air crushes other DJI drones

Every consumer product goes through three stages of life. It’s invented; it’s improved and adjusted; and, finally, it becomes a commodity. There’s not a lot of innovation anymore in microwave ovens, ceiling fans, or toilets — they’ve pretty much stopped morphing. They’ve reached the third stage, their ultimate incarnations.

Drones, love ‘em or hate ‘em, are still in the second stage: They’re rapidly changing direction, gaining features, finding out what they want to be. It’s an exciting period in this category’s life, because new models come out fast, each better and more interesting than the last.

For proof, just look at the Chinese company DJI, the 800-pound gorilla of drones. It releases a new drone or two every single year.

They’ve just introduced a drone called the Mavic Air ($800). It’s so small and smart, it makes you wonder why anyone would buy the 2016 Mavic Pro, which costs $200 more — but it’s not what you’d call perfect.

The new Mavic Pro is incredibly tiny, stable, and lightweight.

  Meet the Air

The 15-ounce Mavic Air is small — and that’s huge. It folds up for travel: its four arms collapse against the body to make the whole thing small enough to fit into a coat pocket, about 6.5 inches by 3.5 inches by 2 inches. (The top two arms swing horizontally, as you’d expect. The bottom two, though, are hinged in two dimensions: They fold downward and inward, and you have to remember to do those before you do the upper arms. You’ll figure it out.)

The Mavic Air’s arms fold up.

Of course, there are plenty of small drones — but not in this league. The Mavic Air, for example, can capture gorgeous 4K video. And its camera is on a three-axis gimbal for stabilization; the video looks like it was shot from a tripod even when the drone was being buffeted by 20 mph winds, as you can see in the video above.

The box includes the drone, a remote control (it uses your smartphone as its screen), a battery, a charger, a set of propeller guards for indoor flying, and a spare set of propellers (in crashes, they’re the first to go).

The Mavic Air comes with four propeller guards for indoor flight, 1 battery, a case, spare propellers and a charger.

The Mavic Air is also smarter than any sub-$1,000 drone DJI has ever made. It has depth-sensing cameras on three sides — forward, down, and backward (that’s new) — so that it can avoid collisions automatically in those directions.

Like most drones, this one has an automatic Return to Home feature that kicks in whenever the battery is getting low or if it loses the signal with the remote control. (You can also call it home with one button press whenever you’re just feeling anxious.) Thanks to the cameras underneath, this thing lands exactly where it took off — within a few inches.

The competitive landscape

The Mavic Air’s primary competition comes from two other DJI drones. Here’s the rundown:

Mavic Pro (2016 model, $1,000). Twice the size of the Air. Folding arms. 4K video. “27 minutes” of flight per charge (in the real world, 22 minutes). Front and bottom collision avoidance. Remote control included with built-in screen (no phone necessary). Very few palm control gestures (see below).

Mavic Air (2018 model, $800 — the new one). Folds up. 4K video. “21 minutes” per charge (more like 18). Front, bottom, and back collision avoidance. Remote control folds up tiny — even the joysticks unscrew and store inside the body, for even smaller packing. Has the most palm gestures of the three drones — and the most reliable palm gestures. 8 GB of internal storage for video and stills, so you can still record if you don’t have a micro SD card on you. Another $200 buys you a “Fly More” kit that includes two extra batteries, an ingenious folding four-battery charger, and even more spare props.

Spark (2017 model, $400). The smallest body of all, but its arms don’t fold, so it winds up being bigger for travel. 1080p video. “18 minutes” per charge (more like 11). Front and bottom collision avoidance. Remote control is an extra purchase ($120); uses your phone as a screen. Responds to hand gestures, but not reliably.

The Spark may look smaller than the Mavic Air, but remember that it doesn’t fold up.

True, the Mavic Pro gets a little more flight per battery. And there’s an even more expensive model, the $1,100 Mavic Pro Platinum, that gets “30” minutes per charge.

(Do those seem like incredibly short flights? Yup. But that’s drones for you. As it is, a modern drone is basically a flying frame designed to haul its own battery around.)

But in my book, the Air’s tiny size is far more important than the marginally greater battery life. As the old saying doesn’t go, “The best drone is the drone you have with you.”

Only the front “arms” have landing gear (the white thing), which fold up for travel.

In-flight entertainment

You can fly the Mavic Air in three ways.

First, you can use the included remote control. If you insert your smartphone into its grippers and connect the little cord, you get a number of perks — like actual joysticks, which make the drone much easier to fly than using the phone alone. The remote also has a dial at the outer corner for adjusting the camera’s tilt in flight, as well as a switch for Sport mode, which unlocks the drone’s top speed of 42 mph (by turning off the obstacle-avoidance features).

The remote also gives the drone a much greater range. It uses a Wi-Fi connection to the drone, instead of the proprietary radio connection of the Mavic Pro. DJI says that still gives you 2.4 miles of range, but I say baloney; even in the middle of the Texas desert, you’ll be lucky to get half that distance. It doesn’t really matter, though, since Federal Aviation Administration rules say you can’t fly a drone out of sight. (Speaking of the FAA: You don’t need a license to fly the Mavic Air as a hobby, but you do need to register the drone itself. And if you intend to fly it professionally — this means you, wedding videographers, filmmakers, construction firms, realtors, police, and farmers — you have to get permission from the FAA.)

The second way to fly the drone is using your smartphone. It works, but you get a much shorter range (about 250 feet), and it’s harder; DJI’s app has become one super-crowded, complex piece of software.

The third way: using hand gestures. The drone must be facing you at all times, and it has to remain pretty close to you, so this trick is primarily useful for positioning it for “dronies” (selfies from the air). Keep in mind that you also need the phone app with you, though, to turn on the palm-control mode.

You stand with your arm out, palm forward, in a “Stop! In the name of love!” pose. Now, you can “drag” your hand up, down, or around you; the drone follows as though connected to your palm by a magnet. It’s the next best thing to The Force.

New, two-handed gestures let you push the drone farther away or pull it closer to you. And you can now make the drone land by pointing your palm toward the ground and waiting.

In the previous model, the Spark, those palm gestures were super iffy; sometimes they worked, sometimes not. The Mavic Air makes them far more reliable, although I never got the new “take off from the ground” gesture working.

As in other DJI drones, the Mavic Air can follow you as you ski, bike, drive, or run (it tracks you optically — you don’t have to have the remote control on you). Unlike earlier ones, this one doesn’t just hover when it encounters an obstacle; it actually attempts to fly around the obstacle and keep going.

How’s it look?

“4K” may be a buzzword, but it doesn’t automatically mean “great picture”; it could refer to 4,000 pixels’ worth of ugly blotch.

The Mavic Air contains the same tiny camera sensor as the Spark and the Mavic Pro. The footage and stills generally look terrific — anything shot from the air is automatically kind of stunning, and the Air uses more data (100 Mbps) to record data than the Pro does.

Unfortunately, this sensor is still fairly disastrous when it comes to dynamic range. That is, it tends to “blow out” bright areas and “muddy up” dark areas. Alas, those are things you get a lot of when you’re shooting from the sky.

  The Mavic Air’s footage is often marred by blown-out highlights (sun, left) and goopy, murky shadows (people, right).

The Air can also do half-speed slow motion (in 1080p, not 4K), and take high-dynamic range photos (not videos).

All of these drones offer preprogrammed flight patterns, called QuickShots, that make great 10-second videos, incorporating flight maneuvers and camera operations that would be incredibly difficult to do yourself.

For example, the one called Circle makes the drone fly around you, keeping the camera pointed toward you the whole time; Helix makes the drone spiral out and away from you; and so on. There are two new ones: Boomerang flies a grand oval around you, up/out and back. Asteroid combines a flight up and away, with a spherical panorama. On playback, the video is reversed, so that it seems to start with a whole planet earth viewed from space, as the camera rushes down toward you. Here, have a look.

But it’s small

Like all drones in this price range, the Mavic Air is complicated and sometimes frustrating. It does a lot of beeping at you, it’s still full of options that are “not available now” for one reason or another, and it still doesn’t come with a printed instruction manual.

And yeah, someday, we’ll look back and laugh at an $800 drone that flies for only 18 minutes.

But you can’t buy a dream drone that doesn’t exist. And among the ones that do, the Mavic Air is ingeniously designed, impressively rugged, and incredibly small. Its features beat the cheaper DJI Spark in every category — and even the more expensive Mavic Pro in almost every category.

In other words, if you’re the kind of person considering a drone, the Mavic Air strikes a new sweet spot on the great spectrum of drones, somewhere between beginner and pro, between tiny and luggage-sized, between cheap and pricey. Invest as much time learning it as you’ve invested in buying it, and you’ll be flying high.

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. On the Web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You can sign up to get his stuff by email, here.  

Read more:

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[lit--bitch]

Charlotte Geater, ‘poems for my FBI agent’ (2020)

(Disclosure: I don’t know Charlotte Geater, but as I’ve previously stated I am familiar with Amy Acre and Jake Wild Hall from Bad Betty Press — though I don’t particularly know them well).

poems for my fbi agent is a convoluted, multi-faceted investigation into surveillance and our present-day predicament. Who is watching us? Who is watching those who watch us? Every time an advertisement appears boasting a lipstick from a brand we were talking about just yesterday, do we still call this serendipity? Or is it evidence that we’re being observed? And is our relationship with “our agent” a symbiotic one, where we share, even indulge, in each other as voyeurs? Unlike Crispin Best’s Hello, Charlotte Geater’s collection probes more sinister pockets of Internet culture: of spy and spied.  It’s provocative, surreal and deeply disturbing. It’s also encrypted by so many different subtexts and jarring imagery, which makes this a challenging and very personal read, because it entirely depends on you and your experiences. So strap yourselves in.

Whenever I start a new book, I always read the acknowledgements first. I do this because I’m nosy. I like to make sense of the writer, I like to know who they are thanking, where work might have been previously published (particularly if it’s a poetry collection or a photobook). Because beyond the author’s name, the acknowledgements page is the writer’s final note. Afterwards, you’re flung into the book’s meat, and you’re on your own. 

I flicked to the acknowledgements and I had a look at what Charlotte had written. At one point she says: “[I thank] all of my friends, for being supportive when I said, “I’ve started writing some poems inspired by a meme that is already kind of dead.”’ I understood what she was referring to. She’s talking about memes like this: 

It’s interesting to see that we as a generation deal with a lot of our problems in meme-culture (and that is a whole separate conversation from this review). The FBI memes were one such example. They’re designed to nullify and humour our digital anxieties about being spied on. We have developed an acute self-awareness both outside in real time, and on the Internet. We know that we are constantly being watched, whether it’s through cookies or CCTV. Privacy is a luxury. It can be purchased like groceries. We’re not automatically entitled to being left alone. And that brings up questions about authenticity, self-identity, self-integrity. It throws up all kind of worries and fears, as our online presence and real selves chafe against each other. But unlike these memes, poems for my fbi agent doesn’t minimise your worries, it amplifies them. 

I couldn’t always penetrate this collection and hold myself to one specific intepretation; it flummoxed me. I was really confused by the dislocation of imagery, the subtlety of Charlotte’s writing style. It’s exactly how Sam Riviere put it: “a Lynchian rabbit hole”. The series of images, which seemingly bear no relation to each other, is quite jolting. You have to make the connections yourself, you have to look within and draw on your own references to access what certain poems “mean” (I’ll expand on this later). At one point I just sat back in bed and gulped. Because I thought “how the fuck am I going to write a review about poetry I don’t always understand?” And I was panicking because, I thought, “there’s a plethora of ways to understand this work, I don’t have to hold myself to one specific interpretation”, but I was struggling to grasp the imagery and syntax. So I figured talking to my mother about it would be useful because sometimes you need to discuss a book and bounce off one another to engage with it. So really I owe a lot of this review to her and our discussions. 

One of the most disarming things about this collection is its perturbing elusiveness. As my mum said, “I can’t put it into words what she means, but I can feel what she means”. 

A pretty good example of this (and what I mean by jarring imagery) is in ‘my FBI agent is a mathematical problem’:

and not just a philosophical one. if i ask who watches the agent  who watches me, it sounds insincere;  but let’s get down to it in our underwear [...] who does he text when he’s lonely?  who gets to see his underwear, [...]

So far, I’m with Charlotte. I too ask the very same questions. Who is keeping our agent under watch? Y’know, does it become a situation of meta-surveillance where everybody is a threat, even the ones who supposedly work “to prevent threat”, like the agent? Is the agent part of, or rather, included within the same system? Or more worringly, do they sit at the top of the hierarchy, and are therefore untouchable? 

if i type a poem instead of writing it out first it feels closer to god, by which i mean closer to you, watching me and if i am not a problem, are you there? 

The FBI agent and our traditional conceptions of “God” as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, are conflated here. It’s true; the agent has total power and knowledge over everything we do and investigate, even the things we plan to do. The agent can wield time, can document and record. The agent can create business and yet the agent is our business. The agent can defend and attack, break things, read your mind. It’s in the agent’s “god-like” apparition (you can’t put a face to your agent like you can’t with God I guess), and in the agent’s “god-like” power, that we are wholly subservient and are most afeard, because the FBI agent knows all our conversations, thoughts, and internet searches. That access to our personal psychologies makes for an entity like that of God. And it’s all supposedly in the name of our protection, to defend from terrorism or people who might break into houses and axe us out of the blue. The question is: If we’re not posing a threat, or being threatened, where’s the need for the agent? Does the agent evaporate? Do they move only when we move? 

matter changes when it’s hit am i a problem for you yet?  the lake turned to ice improbably fast; and the custard became a rock inside your mouth. 

I mean like, lake? Ice? Custard? This is so random and strange. I sat there scratching my head for ages about this. But I’ve sort of hazarded the best guess I can. And there’s two things. Firstly, this idea about matter changing when it’s hit, liquid states and solid states. So in quantum theory, there is a  suggestion that observation affects reality. So for example, if you wanted to observe electrons and how they move, you have to get them to behave with a proton. And electrons know that they’re being observed when they’re forced to interact with protons, because their wave function changes. It’s horrifically complicated and I don’t know enough about quantum mechanics to really unpack it in detail. But basically, what it means is, simply observing something can change the appearance of how it is perceived. It can have an affect on outcomes. And I’m linking a pretty good, simplified article about this here. 

The second interpretation of this really odd image is a little easier to understand, and again relates to this “lake turning to ice impossibly fast-custard to hard rock” metaphor. So ages back, there was this Doctor Who episode (when David Tennant was the Doctor), called ‘Blink’. In that episode, they were these aliens appearing in the form of stone angel statues, called The Weeping Angels. If you get touched by a Weeping Angel, you get zapped back in time and the Angel feeds off all the energy you might have potentially lived in the present-day. They move impossibly fast. Like they can make their way from a garden into the kitchen within a blink. Here’s the snag: they only ever move when they’re not being watched. The minute you look at them, they turn to stone. They can’t even be seen looking at each other, if they are facing one another, they’ll never move again. 

I think about this episode a lot still, and whenever I watch it, it never fails to get my heart racing. But when I read “matter changes when it’s hit”, I was reminded of the clever, foolproof defence mechanism of the Weeping Angels, which renders them the loneliest creatures in the universe. There were parallels between this and the statement implied in the poem. Is it possible then that like the Weeping Angels, the agent’s movements are rendered undetectable when we try to watch them back? When we catch them in the act, say when our phone randomly opens up an app we closed, does the agent freeze? Or is it the reverse? And how lonely that must be. How alone the agent must feel. It was at this point I became more aware of how I was receiving the writing. When I thought about Doctor Who, and made comparisons from the bulk of my own references, I really tapped into the essence of the work, which is written so cleverly. 

Remember how I said earlier that, to understand what Charlotte’s getting at, you have to look within and draw upon your own experiences, in order to access the work? What I meant was, understanding the random collage of images requires understanding your own anxieties, about being watched all the time, reaching into your own pocket of knowledge, and relating all of it back to the work. Like how I drew upon my memory of Doctor Who. And it’s very much like social media, or Wikipedia. You’re constantly having to manage cookies or accept cookies, so you can continue using the programme. Likewise, you’re constantly forced to share more of yourself in order to access a level of understanding in Charlotte’s poetry. So for example, ‘my FBI agent takes me on a date’. This is Page 28. At this point, the gender pronoun of the agent has shifted. The agent is no longer “he”. “He” is now she. 

and decorates her hair with crane flies  prawn cocktail lips / when i said scare me she listened badly  [...]

[...] and I hate anything with a see-through body  plastic wings dancing no,  it’s the legs are wrong in the air like that  it’s the compartments, the exoskeleton  it’s that she doesn’t know how & she pries me open early  & she has teeth that she thinks give more pleasure at the cracking / she says i will like it 

that she has heard fear / makes us braver people in the end & she eats from within

You can feel the discomfort, the repulsion, in this poem so keenly. Sentences like “& she pries me open early // & she has teeth that she thinks give more pleasure // at the cracking / she says i will like it”, it’s so menacing. I could vividly picture the clacking of plastic wings, the sensation of sharp teeth, the cracking. It’s just horrible. And when you try to think about what a “date” is, and what that means when it’s with an FBI agent, you get something really odd, intimated by the gender shift of the agent to being “she”... When I read this transition, I saw it as an indication that ‘I’’s conscience had evolved. At some point, we become so self-aware of everything we say and do online, that we develop the objectivity like that of the agent. If I’m to assume that the ‘I’ is a she here, it’s arguable that and that the ‘I’ and ‘she’ in ‘my FBI agent takes me out on a date’, are the same entity. 

I think this poem implies that as we reveal more of ourselves online, the acuteness of our self-awareness intensifies. We become our own agents, we assimilate the role of our watchers and watch ourselves. We become transparent, as we study our profiles through our own focalisation. This, to my mind and my mother’s mind too, is the “exoskeleton” that Charlotte resents. It’s the imagery of self-consumption, the self-destruction in laying yourself bare to the world, where in turn it’s you that becomes the meal, it’s you who dates yourself, it’s you who tucks into yourself. We become indiscernible from watching and watched, and in these inexactitudes, we end up disorienting ourselves. We have to share so much in order to be able to “progress” or access sites or information we need. It’s parasitic. This is what Charlotte means by “she eats from within”. As though we’re the parasite and the host, we eat of ourselves. 

Other perplexing images: ‘my agent, a rational object / the same size as a mannequin’ (from ‘my FBI agent takes a holiday’) I found this image really wonderful and so apt in defining the agent’s agency... The mannequin is like, your anonymous blank slate. You change its clothes, it remains the same sculpture. It’s something you imprint, and it projects what it wears, how it wears it. The agent being depicted as a mannequin is again, another non-sequitur of a metaphor in this poem, but it makes absolute sense. The agent’s identity is subsumed in the person they surveillance. The agent is in a strange way, our personal twin, which is basically saying, we’re bonded. 

This symbiotic relationship is reflected on deeply throughout the work, oscillating between the way we are watched, how we watch, and how we watch ourselves. Take ‘my fbi agent doesn’t like to read’:

i read a lot of ebooks because i am always thinking  of him                           and his lack of access to an academic library  marxist monetary theory  kate millett’s sexual politics william morris biographies  [...]  i like to read through his eyes 

This is a profound image. As if the agent and the ‘I’ here are sat together. Whatever ‘I’ indulges in for reading pleasure, the agent indulges in also. Ultimately this is not a space that the agent is invading, when we’re aware we’re being observed. Like in those ‘fbi’ memes, we welcome the agent in, to laugh, to trust that everything, as uninnocent as it all is, is still ultimately innocent. No harm, no foul. So with that assurance, we make do with their elusive presence, content to let them read over our shoulders. 

One perplexion I do have about this work, and perhaps it’s an intentional move from Charlotte, is the inconsistency of grammar and capitalisation. Most of the poetry is written lowercase, it reads like the way we text. But every now and then there’s the odd full stop, or comma or semi-colon, that just doesn’t seem to sit right, and I wonder what the motivations are behind introducing punctuation at certain points. It’s something to think about when you’re reading the collection. Similarly with capitalisation, the book cover title is in lowercase “fbi” whereas all the poems are in the uppercase acronym: “FBI”. Funnily enough when you type ‘fbi’ into your phone, it will autocorrect it to uppercase. So that was an interesting distinction I found. Ultimately I don’t think this writing is yearning to read entirely like a text message, it is inviting punctuated sentences, grammar, clever choices in the positioning of semi-colons. But it’s not always clear why they appear within certain poems at particular points, and I question the impulse behind their inclusion. The form too, is fairly consistent, bar ‘my fbi agent talks me through my facebook ad settings’ on page 14, which really experiments with sentence length and the ‘/’:

i say: is this how you see me?  birthday in october / close friends of men with a birthday in 7-30 days / close friends of ex-pats / commuters / gmail users // 

i want to know about data in poetry when it’s bad data & i want to know about how you see me in these systems when they’re bad, i don’t mean morally, i mean shitty, incomplete, i mean you know too much and it’s all worth except. except for the ways in which it works for you. 

I perceived the ‘/’ here as not just a spacer. I think of it as an imitation of a navigation menu, the “clicking and loading” from one page of information to another. The writing itself also stretches right across the page, like it would across a computer screen. The best way to edit your Facebook ad settings is on a computer, not a smartphone device. And similar to Crispin Best, Charlotte’s line breaks often occur less than half way across the page of the book, imitating the dimensions of a phone screen, again. But in this poem, there’s more elongation, there’s more steps. For that reason, it really stands out and it’s also one of the more clogged pieces in terms of its references. The random assemblage of information pertaining to the ‘I’ and their profile, problematises the way information is harvested on social media. It’s loads of ubiquitous, vacuous crap which is all vested in the same person, but ultimately means very little. The only connection in having a birthday in October and being close friends with ex-pats is simply in the ‘I’, here. But there’s about a bajillion other people out there who could have the same thing in common. This poem is a criticism of the conjectures that the agent makes based off watching everything about us. What is the point in having all this crap on me? How boring. How confusing. 

I understand now why I lack conviction in a lot of my own thoughts about this collection, and it’s also why Charlotte Geater is incredibly talented. Everything in our world is open to reasonable doubt, even more so with technology. That same notion is integral to this collection’s thematics—we doubt who we are, we doubt what we do, we doubt what is around us and worst of all, we know that someone is recording those doubts and documenting them as evidence. The fact that Charlotte can recreate our digital anxieties, forcing us to think and overshare with ourselves so we can access an understanding, in the same way that the Internet does, that’s powerful. That is a technique. 

poems for my fbi agent articulates something much greater than ourselves, and yet we have the power to dispel of it whenever we want, collectively as a species or simply as individuals. Otherwise, morbid consequences follow (and are already a reality): ‘your coffin / is there / for the rest of your life’. This absolutism of our persona’s enduring presence that remains long after physical death is the ultimate artifice of reality, and immortality. We’re never truly dead and gone, we’re never really buried, when the evidence we lived is always there. 

It took me time to wrap my head around it, and tbh I don’t think I’ll ever totally wrap my head around everything, but I loved this collection, and I’m interested to see what Charlotte produces next. This is an incredible debut with an amazing press.

If you want to read some of these amazing poems in full, you can view them in some of Charlotte’s previous publications here, here and here. Or you could skip the bullshit and just buy this amazing work at Bad Betty Press, and follow Charlotte on Twitter. 

[qisnutz]

Flowers? This term is relative & nothing is real.

APH Rare Pair Week, day 1

Prompt: Flowers.

Characters: Estonia & Finland (OCs).

Kalju Salumäe (Estonia) belongs to @brothuania, Jaakko Järvelä (Finland) belongs to me. Drabble available on ff.net & ao3. Enjoy! c:

Early mornings are never easy. Especially when the time is just a concept and your early mornings are other people's early afternoons. Jaakko sighed deeply, as he entered the kitchen. No matter how much time he'd spend in this house, he would always run into new gadgets or other so called decorations Kalju seemed to be a bit too fond of to let go. When exactly did they acquire a new microwave? Jaakko must have been distracted by something else when the purchase was being made. Or, the Estonian secretly made use of one of those shopping apps he hoarded among other obscure software the Finn will never fully comprehend. As long as it functions, I guess, he thought as he proceeded to the real goal of his visit in this room.

The fridge was purring quietly in its usual place, at least that didn't change overnight. Several magnets from Estonian and Finnish cities decorated the metal door. Jaakko couldn't help a small smile slowly creeping onto his face. Before grabbing the handle, he raised his finger to trace the soft texture of those tiny rectangles with panoramas of cities he knew so well. Tallinn, Helsinki, Tartu, Turku, Parva, Kuopio, Jyväskylä, Pärnu ... there was even one from Rovaniemi, shaped like a Santa's hat, with seasonal wishes engraved in it. That one was probably the tackiest magnet he'd ever seen in his entire life, but they had no heart to get rid of it. There was a story behind it, a story not intended for the ears of the unauthorized. Alcohol, bad decisions and risky adventures were involved, of course. Knowing Jaakko and Kalju, none of that should still be surprising.

Persistent stomach rumbling snatched him out of this sudden reverie. The mundane needs turned out to be louder than the needs of the spirit, by all the means. Opening the fridge eventually, Jaakko scanned its contents. Even someone as skilled in the (doubtful) art of drinking as this Finnish man, would experience painful consequences of a Friday night spent with one or two bottles of hard liquor. In other words, some items seemed blurry, nearly impossible to distinguish from one another. He found out about them owning a bottle of vinegar the hard way by nearly downing it, thinking it's water all along. Jaakko spat all of it into the sink and cussed. A bunch of other profanities soon followed the initial one, the Finn was known for his broad array of swear words after all. Kalju would have to be deaf, absent, or deep in a dream not to hear it.

"Are you okay?" The Estonian sounded worried. But he didn't come to see what happened. Jaakko was a big boy and certainly wouldn't appreciate any further displays of concern, ready to treat them as patronizing.

Living with the Finn was certainly an adventure, yet he had agreed to that very eagerly. He might not have been too open about his feelings, but neither have Jaakko. Squeezing affection-based talk out of either of them bordered on a miracle. Maybe they were not the most emotional couple in the world, but it was okay. Just each other's close presence was enough. Being within one another's fingertips. Filling the cold emptiness on the other side of the bed.

"Define okay, perkele," Jaakko mumbled under his breath. The sour taste of vinegar still lingered in his mouth. Not even wringing his face helped and yet he kept doing it in severe distaste. This unpleasant occurrence didn't stop his adventurous attitude though (or maybe his stomach kept nagging him for something to be filled with).

Shoving various products to the sides, he kept digging in the fridge in search of something his picky hungover person seemed to fancy most. Before he found something acceptable, however, his hand encountered a mysterious jar. Its content was just as weird as it was gross in Jaakko's humble opinion. Whatever this today's endless loop of unfortunate events was, it had to stop immediately.

"Mikä vittu tämä on..?" *

Trying to come up with a good answer for that on his own would only result in a headache, so he didn't even bother to begin. Turning the jar in his hands, the Finn decided to confront his boyfriend about it. A hangover snack can wait a bit, especially now that his appetite almost literally flew out the window. Storming (or at least attempting to do that) into the bedroom, Jaakko stretched out his hand with the jar in it. Kalju looked up at him over his laptop. The other looked endearingly comical in his current pose and with this accusatory expression all over his face. Pretending he hadn't noticed the source of the Finnish astonishment, the Estonian decided to carry out this conversation in a bit teasing manner.

"Oh, there you are. It's good to see you in one piece, Jaakuke. Pray tell, what on Earth were you up to in the kitchen?"

"Mitä homemunaskuja sulla on lasipurkeissa?" **

"What are you talking about, Jaakko?"

"Don't pretend you don't understand Finnish," Jaakko replied, clearly irritated. "What's this moldy egg and why is it in your fridge?"

"It's my refrigerator as well as yours now, don't forget that," the Estonian was having the time of his life. "You're responsible for its content now on the same level as me."

"For fuck's sake, Kalju! I'm not really in the mood for your games now. I'm hungover, hungry, and on top of that experiencing extremely mixed feelings about that ... thing. I can't believe I have to clean up your mess. I'm going to throw it out now."

"No, you're not," Kalju sighed resigned before getting up and approaching the other man. "Fine. Listen to me now. This tiny guy here is not mold. For starters, however, I literally cannot believe you thought so low of me. I would never let mold grow in my fridge."

The sudden admonishing glance had Jaakko completely baffled. He felt like a child reproved by his mother for some major offense. Or at least that's how Kalju wanted him to feel while piercing him with his blue irises.

"This is moss. A moss ball, järvepall, to be exact. A very intriguing fellow. He enjoys cold water, and that is why you found him in the fridge. And I decided to give him home. You, out of all people, should be able to tell moss from a mold. Weren't you raised in the forest?"

"Yeah, but..." Jaakko was dying to be able to defend himself somehow, but Kalju wouldn't let him come to the voice. That way he was forced to listen to the entire reprimand. A well-deserved one to be honest.

"What I'm trying to say is that no one is allowed to bash järvepallid in my presence. Under no circumstances. Understood?"

"Yeah, yeah... Anteeksi."

"You should apologize to him, not me."

Had Jaakko been less hungover and overall taken aback, he would have started laughing right away. But at that moment he was not amused at all. He didn't even dare question that request, regardless how exceptional and bizarre it was.

"Fine, fine. Sorry, uh. Whatever your name is, fluffy buddy."

"This one still needs a name, actually. I'm slowly running out of ideas for them."

"... them? Kalju, what the everloving fuck?"

"So you haven't ... of course you wouldn't notice. There are more moss balls in the house. I just hid them all well."

Jaakko furrowed his brows, trying his hardest to force his overheated brain to function at higher revs. Is he pulling my leg, he pondered, or am I truly that ignorant? As if he wasn't embarrassed enough, god damn it.

"... more... are you sure they're harmless?"

At this point of the conversation, Kalju was ready to give up his pretended strict sergeant attitude and go easy on the Finn. A playful spark flickered in his eyes and his voice noticeably softened.

"Jaakuke, come on... they're balls of moss, nothing more, nothing less," for some reason this sudden Jaakko's caution seemed plain adorable. A several wars' veteran, afraid of a tiny plant. Perhaps all the last night's liquor hadn't evaporated from his body yet. "They won't crawl out of their jars at night to devour your brain or whatever else you're scared of losing. Trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing."

"Mhm..." It was this part of the conversation in which the Finn would resort to communicating via grunts of various intensity.

"Oh, come on, stop moping," Kalju gently took over the jar and pressed his lips against the corner of Jaakko's. "You know I wasn't serious when scolding you, right? Just ... accept the new flatmates, okay? I'm sorry if I made you feel bad. I'll show you the rest if you want."

"Mmm..."

"I'll take it for approval."

"Kaljuke?"

It always took a lot of negotiations and compromises to make the Estonian ditch all his electronics and go to bed eventually. Jaakko, as laconic as he could be about his feelings, would not skip a chance to move a tiny bit closer while lying next to Kalju, wordlessly asking for a physical display of affection. And Kalju was more than willing to provide him with it. In countless diverse ways.

"What is it?" he replied, absentmindedly caressing Jaakko's arm with his fingers.

"Pretty sure you're not willing to listen, but I thought of a name for the moss ball from the fridge."

"I'm scared already, kullake. Shoot."

"... Homemunasku." ***

An Estonian curse word, as well as a muffled Finnish laughter, echoed in the tranquility of the night, so abruptly disturbed by Kalju trying to suffocate Jaakko with a cushion.

* - What the fuck is that?

** -  "What moldy eggs/testicles do you have in glass jars?" (this is the joke alright)

*** - Mold Egg, or actually, Mold Testicle. Balls, if you will.

[toriashappy]

Marketing in the 21st Century

Today, i’d like to take everyone through something i’m passionate about: marketing. I’m in my final year at my business school and though i’ve learned so much from my classes and professors, it’s important to consider the information we’re taught in a bigger context. It can be helpful to not only know what to do, but to see examples of what to do in action with the contrast of marketing that did not go as planned and needs to be learned from in order to improve in the future. So please read on to enjoy the contrast of two companies with marketing as a huge part of their business: Fyre Media Inc. (behind the 2017 Fyre Festival) and L’Oreal (behind many of the most popular cosmetics, skin care, nail care and hair care brands). 

Introduction

For my project, I have chosen two companies which I think representation both my marketing major and interests. I wanted a way to pursue my interest in business and my creativity at the same time, which is why I chose marketing as my concentration. One day, I’d love to have both my marketing world and performing interests collide so I can have a career pursuing both of those interests. I don’t have a selected marketing career in mind, but I’m interested in working in industries like entertainment, cosmetics, mental health, music or publishing. So, the two companies I chose reflect two of those interests, a company based in the entertainment industry and another that is a dominant force in the cosmetics world.

As my unethical company of choice, I have chosen to discuss Fyre Media Inc. Fyre Media Inc. was behind the infamous Fyre Festival in 2017 which was promoted as a “luxurious music festival” that promised, “the full VIP experience” with tickets ranging from $500 - $25,000 per person (Hanbury, 2019). Their main marketing of the event involved many prominent influencers like Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid partying on a Pablo Escobar’s private island in the Bahamas where the festival was set to take place (Hanbury, 2019). However, when festivalgoers arrived, they were greeted with school bus transportation, crowded hurricane tent accommodation and cheese sandwiches for dinner (Hanbury, 2019). The aftermath of the event included a $100 million-dollar lawsuit and their 27-year-old CEO Billy McFarland faced a six-year prison sentence for allegedly defrauding investors (Hanbury, 2019). I chose Fyre Media Inc. to study as I believe Fyre Festival is a good example of what unethical and misleading marketing looks like in the 21st century. McFarland illustrates some unethical leadership concepts caused by bases of power, shadows of power, personality disorders, the romance of leadership, faulty decision making and more. I think it is important to understand that having a marketing career means that you need to have a good understanding of proper practices when advertising your product to the consumer and that the image that a company chooses to project can eventually hurt them if they present themselves in an untruthful light and don’t fulfil what they promised.

The organization I have selected as my ethical organization is L’Oréal. L’Oréal is a house of brands and owns over 30 cosmetic, haircare and skincare companies such as Urban Decay, Clarisonic, Maybelline New York and Lancôme. The brands that L’Oréal owns are sold in high-end stores like Sephora and drugstore brands that are in Shoppers Drug Mart. L’Oréal has been recognized by Ethisphere Institute as one of the most ethical companies in the world nine times (L’Oréal, 2018a). L’Oréal prides itself on being one of the only companies in the world with a “Chief Ethics Officer” (L'Oréal, 2018a). L’Oréal identifies four core ethical principles it works to abide by which are trust, integrity, courage and transparency (L’Oréal, 2018a). Not only was L’Oréal named one of the most ethical companies, but it was also in the top 10 for the diversity and inclusion index. (L’Oréal, 2018b). I chose L’Oréal because I want to dig deeper into how it upholds its core principles through avenues like communication of expectations, proactive influence tactics, commitment, consistency and the Caux principles.

Before I start, it is important to consider that no company is ever perfect. Every company, no matter how successful they are can always strive to better themselves as there’s always something to learn about the world and processes that could be tweaked. And it’s now more important than ever before to recognize that marketing a company truthfully to the consumer is critical in the 21st century.

Overview of Fyre Media Inc.

Fyre Festival was posed to be one of the coolest events the world has ever seen. The purpose of the festival, however, seemed to get lost in the actual execution of it. Before Fyre Festival was born, in 2013 McFarland had released his first viral company called Magnises (Bloomberg, 2017). Magnises was marketed specifically to millennials as an exclusive black card, which turns the user’s current credit card into a sleek metal rectangle so they can “swipe in style” (Bloomberg, 2017). The duplicate card gave its members access to exclusive workshops, wine tastings, hotels, fashion shows and even a clubhouse where members could go to socialize with other millennials (Bloomberg, 2017). McFarland stated that Magnises had 100,000 cardholders by 2016 but crowd funder Wefunder (who brings startups and investors together) only listed 10,000 members, a tenth of what Billy indicated (Bloomberg, 2017). Unfortunately, Magnises also had its problems including a $100,000 lawsuit after the clubhouse they rented out was completely trashed (Bloomberg, 2017). Many of its millennial customers indicated they were not happy with their experience as they would purchase tickets for events but wouldn’t receive the tickets or they would be cancelled at the last second (Bloomberg, 2017).

While Magnises was taking off McFarland decided to put his attention into launching a new company with hip hop artist Ja Rule called Fyre Media (Gabai et al., 2019). Fyre was supposed to be an online marketplace where customers could go to book celebrities for their events such as birthday parties and weddings (Gabai et al., 2019). When McFarlane’s team was developing the marketing plan for the app, one of the Fyre employees MDavid Low suggested they host a kickoff festival with some of the talents that could be found on the app (Gabai et al., 2019). What started as a small concert, grew into what is now known as Fyre Festival. Once McFarland bought Pablo Escobar’s (an infamous drug lord) former island to host the festival on, McFarland and Rule immediately decided to create a promotional video to create a buzz on social media, without the actual logistics of the festival planned out yet (Gabai et al., 2019).

McFarland paid over four million dollars to get the most famous supermodels on the planet to participate in the video and then post about the festival on social media (Gabai et al., 2019). The video shoot ended up being more of a party than a marketing tactic as 90% of the footage was not marketing friendly and the talent didn’t understand what they were there to do (Gabai et. al., 2019). Before the video was released over 200 influencers posted an orange tile in what McFarland described would be the “best coordinated social influencer campaign ever” (Gabai et. al., 2019). When the teaser was released it was not clear to many people what the purpose was of the festival or who the target market was, as many consumers didn’t realize that this was to support the marketplace (Gabai et. al., 2019). When the campaign went live, McFarland immediately lost Escobar’s island as they were not allowed to mention him in the promotion, which they unfortunately did. The Fyre team scrambled to find a new island and moved the festival to the Great Exuma Island and only had about 100 days to pull it off (Gabai et. al., 2019). Though the Fyre team promised a luxurious experience in a cabana, partying with the hottest celebrities and being treated like a VIP the 100 days of development was not enough time to make a dent into seeing McFarland’s vision go through (Gabai et. al., 2019). The experience began with school bus transportation to a camp that was covered with hurricane tents for the attendees to sleep in which made so many people furious and began the disastrous public fallout for McFarland and his team members (Gabai et. al., 2019).

A few days after Fyre, a few dozen of the attendees banned together to get their lawyers in court to go after McFarland for $100 million in compensation for their experiences and he was soon afterwards arrested (Gabai et al., 2019). As the district did not have too much evidence yet, McFarland was released on a $300,000 bail but instead of laying low he went back to his old ways (Amato et al., 2019). A few weeks after the festival former attendees started to receive emails from a Frank Tribble at NYC VIP Access offering tickets to the Met Gala, The Victoria Secret Fashion Show, Beyoncé concerts and even Coachella VIP passes (Amato et al., 2019). As people would not recognize Tribble’s voice, McFarland wrote Tribble a script to follow when calling each customer about buying tickets (Amato et al., 2019). However, the tickets were determined to be a scam as individuals can only receive a personal invitation from Anna Wintour to attend the Met Gala and Coachella passes were not yet on sale (Amato et al., 2019). McFarland was later rearrested and plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud, which meant his unethical behaviour was finally catching up with him (Gabai et al., 2019).

Overview of L'Oréal

           L’Oréal’s mission can be described in three words “Beauty for All” but its strategy is one word: universalization (L’Oréal, 2018b). L’Oréal has over 86,000 employees that support their 36 brands and distributes its products to 150 countries around the world, grossing over forty billion dollars last year (L’Oréal, 2018b).  L’Oréal has a global vision where they are striving to deliver the best products globally that are not only made with the highest of quality and safety in mind but that L’Oréal “captures, understands and respects differences” (L’Oréal, 2018b). Not only is L’Oréal committed to delivering amazing products, but they have committed themselves to not only delivering financially but actively encouraging its team to be committed corporate citizens (L’Oréal, 2018b).

“In the 21st century, only companies that have integrated ethics in their culture, strategy and day-to-day practices will be sustainable” was said by the CEO of L'Oréal Jean-Paul Agon as the forward for their 40-page code of ethics report (L'Oréal, 2015). Agon is right, now more than ever companies need to think of sustainability as the most important part of their business plan which helps establish a healthy workplace creates mutual respect between superiors and their followers and reinforces the best practices for conduct in both personal and professional lives (L'Oréal, 2015). L'Oréal has four main ethical principles it guides its team with which include courage, transparency, respect and integrity (L'Oréal, 2015, p. 3). L’Oréal knows that consumers trust their brands, so they have tried to operate themselves with transparency so that consumers know exactly what is put into their products (L’Oréal, 2018b).  L’Oréal is focused on maintaining both an in-store presence, growing its online presence and broadening its technological capabilities by experimenting with virtual reality, artificial intelligence and data processing (L’Oréal, 2018b). The people behind a company can make it or break it so L’Oréal only hires the most passionate and committed people to make sure their brand is of the utmost excellence (L’Oréal, 2018b).  

Analysis of Fyre Media Inc.

Bases of Power

Two of the bases of power you can see reflected in McFarland’s leadership is expert power and referent power. Expert power is the influence that comes from having valuable skills or knowledge in a specific area (Busch & Wilson, 1976, p. 3). One of the reason’s McFarland had expert power was because he was viewed as trustworthy and credible by his followers (Lunenburg, 2012, p. 4). Billy’s credentials from him practically being an entrepreneur since he was 9 years old which built up his expertise and made others believe he had gained the necessary credentials since he did end up starting Fyre in the first place (Lunenburg, 2012, p. 4).

The second base of power McFarland possessed is referent power which comes from being viewed as a role model who is deeply beloved by his followers (Busch & Wilson, 1976, p. 3). As McFarland was viewed as a very talented salesman, he often turned his followers into admires of his outward traits such as his “compassion has no bounds” or that “Billy was and still is a visionary” (Amato et al., 2019). When McFarland needed character references during his trial, many people praised him for his kindness, creativity, talent and one even said that “He is the most inspiring and motivating person I have ever met aside from my mother” (Amato et al., 2019). So, because Billy was highly admired, many people respected his decision to proceed with the festival as many thought he knew better since he had a good reputation and was very charismatic (Lundenberg, 2012, p. 4).

The Shadows of Power

Arguably, the shadow that counted for McFarland’s downfall was the shadow of mismanaged information. Mismanaging information involves choosing between hiding the truth or lying (Johnson, 2018, p. 14). Leaders may keep information a secret, so they avoid certain questions or delay any repercussions (Johnson, 2018, p. 14). Not only does mismanaging information involve lying, but it also includes fudging the numbers, so they look more attractive than they actually are (Johnson, 2018, p. 15). McFarland often inflated the numbers he told his employees and even the public about so that he could gain the necessary investment and trust necessary to keep his schemes operating (Gabai et al., 2019). When McFarland was arrested the FBI was able to find discrepancies between what he said to investors and the truth (Gabai et al., 2019). For instance, McFarland told investors he owned over 2 million shares of Facebook when in actuality he owned about 1000 shares (Gabai et al., 2019). McFarland also indicated in a spreadsheet that the Fyre team paid over 34 million dollars for talent when they only paid 1.5 million dollars (Gabai et. al, 2019). If employees knew about the Facebook shares, they may have been resistant to spending more money, which would have affected McFarland’s vision and investors may have pulled out if McFarland didn’t get the talent, he said he would hence his delay of the truth. Not only did he spend less than he indicated but he charged some of his bills to his employee’s personal credit cards, charging as much as $150,000 (Gabai et al., 2019). In the Hulu documentary (the only interview he was willing to do if he was paid) McFarland stayed resistant to releasing any truth as his responses would involve using the line “I cannot legally discuss this”, even though legally he could (Amato et al., 2019). When McFarland was called out for allegedly lying, he asked the interviewer to let him know of one thing he said that wasn’t true, which they were able to prove more than just one time (Amato et al., 2019). McFarland engaged in an ongoing practice of impression management, so he could create an ideal image called a prototype in his followers’ minds (Johnson, 2018, p. 16). McFarland took the societal ideal of an entrepreneur like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs so that people would accept his influence (Johnson, 2018, p. 16). The issue with impression management is that it can be difficult to tell if a person is acting as a character or as themselves (Johnson, 2018, p. 17).

Personality Disorders

           Not only did McFarland have bad leader traits, but he also appears to have had aspects of all three of the personality disorders outlined by Johnson. McFarland did appear very narcissist, especially when he refused to alter his grand festival vision and he did have “a very unrealistic sense of what he could accomplish” (Johnson, 2018, p. 40). His obliviousness to the limits of his vision was seen when he refuted failure claims with the unwavering belief that he’d handle everything and that all everyone had to do was stay positive (Gabai et al., 2019). McFarland’s narcissism projected traits like confidence, not being afraid to think big and appearing as inspirational to followers, but those traits also made it more likely that he would partake in unethical practices (Johnson, 2018, p. 40). As a narcissist he was not afraid to abuse his power so he could meet his personal interest of greed, claiming special privileges like excessive partying and had an lead in an autocratic capacity where what he said goes and any feedback from others would be ignored as he believed they did not know better than him (Johnson, 2018, p. 40). McFarland’s vision was impossible to implement as not only did he have a tight timeline but he fired the caterer a few days before the festival, the island was practically a construction site and he did not allow any of his team members to alert any of his investors that everything was going wrong (Gabai et al., 2019). McFarland kept his methods of getting more money or more investors close to his chest so he did not have his employees believe he was untruthful and so they kept doing their jobs (Johnston, p. 43, 2018).

           McFarland also possessed Machiavellianism, which is described as the ability to manipulate everyone while maintaining a highly virtuous image, even if it meant he was upkeeping his image by engaging in unethical practices (Johnson, 2018, p. 42). When everything was bursting at the seams, McFarland tried to think of every twist he could implement to get more money such as offering a $25,000 yacht party with Kendall Jenner or listing a $50,000 cabana on the website, even though both of those offers did not exist yet and most likely wouldn’t come to fruition (Gabai et al., 2019). McFarland wanted to successfully execute his vision even if it meant he scammed investors, customers and even his own employees (Gabai et al., 2019). People who are highly Machiavellian often remain cold and emotionless (Johnson, 2018, p. 42). McFarland remained stoic when he was asked about things that would make most people very emotional like his close mentor passing away and if he had any remorse for what he did (Amato, 2019).

           The final personality disorder McFarland demonstrated was psychopathy. Psychopaths are not remorseful and use their charm to rise the ranks with the goal of prestige and wealth (Johnson, 2018, p. 43). McFarland took advantage of the fact that the people he was closely working with were very inexperienced such as his marketing director didn’t have any previous event experience and the talent booker was 22 years old and had never booked talent in his life (Gabai, 2019). Instead of hiring more workers when he realized more work needed to be done, he kept increasing the workload of his employees which disheartened his workforce and made them no longer enjoy the place they worked (Johnson, 2018, p. 44). McFarland was focused on the short-term gain of wealth and did not seem to consider how he would pay back his investors in the future or the shame his employees would feel if his event was a failure (Johnston, 2018, p. 44). When more problems started to pile up during the festival, McFarland was often absent and just drove around on his scooter and completely disappeared when the backlash started to leave his team to pick up the pieces (Gabai et al., 2019). And of course, psychopaths are the ones we are most likely to engage in fraud which is what McFarland was later arrested and plead guilty for (Gabai et. al, 2019).

Faulty Decision Making

           Faulty decision making also played a large role in McFarland’s downfall as a leader. McFarland did not have a realistic view of how the world works as he did not consider how other parties could be affected, that his unethical behaviour could be exposed to the public or that the decisions he made could cause long term consequences to his future (Johnson, 2018, p. 44). Even when the festival was over and McFarland was out on a $300,000 bail, he lived in a penthouse and continued to live his life as if we were still at the top of the pyramid (Gabai et al., 2019). McFarland may have seen his unethical behaviour as his way to save the festival and protect Fyre Media so he could justify his actions (Johnson, 2018, p. 46). McFarland was not very sensitive to any moral issues and options, as shown in the failure of moral imagination. McFarland did not care that he offered packages that did not exist for thousands of dollars which drove people to sell everything they owned just so they could go (Gabai et. al., 2019). His failure is further proven when he introduced the Fyreband which was an RFE bracelet each attendee could add their money to so they could pay wirelessly (Gabai et. al, 2019). McFarland failed to take into consideration the impact the bracelet would have on others, some attendees added up to $800,000 to their bracelets and he was happy to take all of their money even when he knew the bracelets would be worthless at the end (Gabai et. al, 2019).  McFarland even had some of his employees call attendees to pressure them into adding more money to the bracelet, which further demonstrated that he was not ashamed about what he was doing (Gabai et. al, 2019).

The Romance of Leadership

One of the most important things to consider is that McFarland alone is not responsible for the downfall of Fyre Media or the Fyre Festival. The press added to this illusion that he was responsible by normally including his name and Fyre Festival in the same headline. In fact, McFarland’s counterpart Rule was barely mentioned in the news headlines. In Meindl and Ehrlich’s essay on the romance of leadership, they found that leaders were most likely to be mentioned if results of the company were either a complete failure or a total success (Meindl & Enrlich, 1985). So, if things were at the extreme ends of the spectrum of failure to success, the executives were the ones in the spotlight and the impact from other lower level employees were not considered (Meindl & Enrlich, 1985). The time period of the festival was also only a few months after the tumultuous election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, which meant that more people were interested in learning about leadership as many citizens felt like they were in a downturn and were more likely to ignore other contributors (Meindl & Enrlich, 1985).

Another individual the Fyre staff wanted removed from the company was the marketing director at Fyre named Grant Margolin. Margolin was described as very hardworking, but he had no prior experience with advertising festivals or events in general, so he did not have the expert power needed to be a good leader (Gabai et al., 2019). Many of the workers cited Margolin as abusive and that he caused a lot of problems, although that matter was not further elaborated on (Amato et al., 2019). McFarland’s counterpart Ja Rule seemed to be more interested in not doing any work and instead party all the time but still get the credit (Gabai et al., 2019). One of the clearest moments that it’s apparent Ja Rule didn’t take things seriously was during a toast “here’s to living like movie stars, partying like rock stars and f**king like porn stars” (Amato et al., 2019). Though McFarland hired the best of the best to help him with his marketing and social media reach, another issue was that the groups worked in different offices, so each team couldn’t get the full picture of what was going on which meant none of them were clear on what the festival was actually becoming (Gabai et al., 2019). The social media company McFarland hired Jerry Media, said it felt an overwhelming sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) since the festival to them looked so great, but they never set foot on the island until the real event (Gabai et. al., 2019).  

Seeking Forgiveness

           In the aftermath of the festival, McFarland did not apologize to the public and would not take responsibility for his actions. Many attendees with access to the internet posted photos of the now infamous cheese sandwich, the barbaric experience of everyone fighting for tents and the loud music that played while trying to quiet everyone’s complaining (Gabai et al., 2019). When McFarland was informed about the negative posts, he had his lawyers send cease and desist letters to each account and threatened to pursue legal action (Gabai et al., 2019). He made many excuses in interviews including that someone stole the key box to the 250 villas he rented on the island and that the rain the evening prior was to blame and refused to take personal responsibility (Amato et al., 2019).  It wasn’t until he was a month into his six-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud that he released a public apology from prison (Keating, 2018). McFarland seemed to realize that apologies are critical in rebuilding or repairing relationships and that he has to say more than just sorry to start repairing his image (Kadar, 2009, p. 3).

In McFarland’s apology he shared with the magazine PEOPLE he seems to follow some aspects from Kadar’s 5-R model for apologizing (Johnson, 2018, p. 124). The first step is recognition, he did not list every wrong he committed but said overall “I am incredibly sorry for my collective actions and will right the wrongs I have delivered” (Keating, 2018). He then took responsibility for his actions and did not place blame on anyone else using “I made many wrong and immature decisions along the way and caused agony” (Keating, 2018). He used remorse at the beginning of his statement with “I am incredibly sorry” (Keating, 2018). Following his apology, McFarlane took restitution and spoke about trying to aid the people he has hurt “I’ve lived every day in prison with pain, and I will continue to do so until I am able to make up for some of this harm through work and actions that society finds respectable” (Keating, 2018). He finalizes his statement with repetition to show that he will not repeat his behaviour with “I’m devastated, but accepting, and I’ll use this opportunity to live my apology and become the family member, friend, business person and good citizen I should have been all along” (Keating, 2018).

Analysis of L’Oréal

Proactive Influence Tactics

L’Oréal has a lot of great things going for their corporation. L’Oréal’s leadership team demonstrates four proactive influence tactics to help motivate its workforce in the right direction. The first tactic is rational persuasion which uses logical arguments or explanations that will help tackle company objectives (Johnson, 2018, p. 212). One example of rational persuasion is seen in L’Oréal’s code of ethics where they put a lot of money into research and development so they can deliver consumer products that are “innovative, highly effective, practical and pleasant to use and which are manufactured to the most demanding standards of quality and safety” (L’Oréal, 2015, p. 3). The second tactic is apprising which acts to explain the benefits of complying with someone’s wishes (Johnson, 2018, p. 212). At L’Oréal apprising is a common tactic used especially in areas of social responsibility, which employees and investors may not understand on how it benefits them. For instance, L’Oréal shows the benefits to why potential job seekers would like to join “L’Oréal has already – thanks to its initiatives and the positions it has taken – managed to establish its position as an opinion leader and driver of change in a number of areas in the beauty industry” (L’Oréal, 2015, p. 3). The third tactic is inspirational appeals, which are clearly demonstrated when L’Oréal communicates it’s corporate responsibility passion with “We want to make a positive contribution to the countries and communities in which we are present, and respect local cultures and sensitivities” (L’Oréal, 2015, p. 3). The fourth tactic is consultation, so that management can create a conversation within the workplace so that they can constantly improve the business (Johnson, 2018, p. 212). To make sure consultation can occur L’Oréal encourages “an atmosphere of openness, courage, generosity and respect, so that all our employees feel free to come forward with their questions, ideas and concerns” (L’Oréal, 2015, p. 3).

Communication of Expectations

Because L’Oréal is such a large company, they’ve set strict standards and targets that they want to achieve so they can be the best company possible. L’Oréal has taken the practice of communicating its expectations so that company wide performance is consistent (Johnson, 2018, p. 215). The L’Oréal team realizes that goals cannot be accomplished overnight or even within a year, so they’ve set targets that they believe are possible for hot issues like climate change or labour (L’Oréal, 2018b. Not only have they laid out their goals, but they’ve added benchmarks that define what success means for them and how they will know they’re closing to their goal (L’Oréal, 2018b). Even though L’Oréal is not 100% emissions free or completely green, they celebrate how far they’ve come with stats like their emissions have been reduced by 77% and that 88% of their brands have assessed their social or environmental impact (L’Oréal, 2018b).  L’Oréal uses three of the channels that signal high or low expectancies. Climate is the environment leaders have created for their followers and in most of L’Oréal’s materials they have raved about their award-winning diversity movement as well as how flexible their work schedule is (L’Oréal, 2018b). Feedback may occur internally, but it is also reflected in L’Oréal’s annual reports which provide detailed feedback on how they are doing and describes the performance of each division (Johnson, 2018, p. 215). The third channel is input, which is how leader’s may give challenging projects to their workers to help advance their careers so that they are encouraged to stay motivated and perform positively (Johnson, 2018, p. 215). L’Oréal uses its company website to showcase what each division is doing and will even spotlight select employees on their website when they have made big accomplishments (L’Oréal, 2018).

Commitment and Consistency

           One of L’Oréal’s biggest strengths currently is its unwavering commitment and consistency towards its vision. L’Oréal hired their ethical leader in 2007, where the world wasn’t that aware to issues like climate change, child labour or animal testing which to many investors at the time, could have been viewed as a risky choice. L’Oréal was committed to being more than just a makeup company, they wanted to change lives (L’Oréal, 2018b). But as mentioned by Johnston, once we as individual’s or as a company take a clear stance, we will experience pressures to behave according to what we’ve promised (Johnston, 2018, p. 229). And when a company like L’Oréal commits to end its emissions, they become way less likely to abandon that vision because of the public pressure (Johnston, 2018, p. 229).

The Caux Principles

           Some of the principles that seem integral to L’Oréal’s commitment to corporate citizenship are the Caux Principles. The first principle is that corporations must go beyond what concerns their shareholders even if it means they sacrifice some profit (Johnston, 2018, p. 394). L’Oréal has clearly followed their own vision, as they have taken on environmental initiatives that cost them money to change which would take money out of shareholders pockets (L’Oréal, 2018b). The second principle is that corporations need to recognize the impact they can have in society moving forward so they can enrich the lives of others (Johnston, 2018, p. 394). L’Oréal is already thinking towards the future which is shown by its adoption and research put towards technology so that they will make the most innovative products and keep up with the growth of technology (L’Oréal, 2018b). The third principle is that businesses need to promote a culture that is transparent and honest (Johnston, 2018, p. 394). L’Oréal’s commitment to the third principle is shown by having an established code of ethics that is made available in every language and contains pertinent information for each business unit (L’Oréal, 2015). The fourth principle is that international rules must be respected, which must be the case since L’Oréal has expanded into 150 countries (Johnston, 2018, p. 394). The sixth principle is that companies have a duty to protect the environment through sustainable development (Johnston, 2018, p. 395). It’s quite well known that L’Oréal has an established environment program where they are committed to reducing their carbon footprint and finding more environmentally friendly ways to develop its products (L’Oréal, 2018b). And the final principle is the companies need to conduct themselves ethically and should not engage in illegal activities (Johnston, 2018, p. 395). Luckily, L’Oréal has ethics lines available to workers so that if they are suspicious of any activities happening at the company, the concerns can be communicated safely (L’Oréal, 2015, p. 7).

Recommendations

           When caught in a sticky situation, to save the company’s reputation there needs to be apologizing not just to the public, but individually to the people he has hurt. Not only did McFarland need to apologize but he should demonstrate “a commitment to move that desire into practice” (Kadar, 2009, p. 15). The next step McFarland should take is getting into contact with the people’s he’s hurt individually to show that he has accepted responsibility and does express remorse for the pain he has caused (Kadar, 2009, p. 15). McFarland should not ask for forgiveness but to recognize the consequences he caused by his actions and should not make the other party feel guilty for him (Kadar, 2009, p. 17). It’s important that McFarland realizes that his apology cannot undo the pain he’s caused or suddenly make everything better, but “transformational leadership can sometimes get close” to restoring the relationship (Kadar, 2009, p. 19). If McFarland can make his way into the working world again, there are a few things he should keep in mind to help fix his leadership issues. One area he could work on is temperance which is “enjoying life’s pleasures but not being controlled by them” (Johnson, 2018, p. 74). McFarland is shown to have an overwhelming desire for more wealth, so he needs to learn how to control his impulses by acknowledging them and understanding the pain that they can cause (Johnson, 2018, p. 75).  McFarland needs to understand what issues or trigger points may push him towards wanting more wealth like social pressure from others to keep doing great things (Johnson, 2018, p. 75). To avoid having the pressure placed on himself to make decisions, McFarland should also seek to practice wisdom and prudence (Johnston, 2018, p. 76). McFarland should let employees ask more questions about the work they do and be willing to work collaboratively with them so they can mitigate problems together (Johnston, 2018, p. 76). McFarland should always think in the long term and contemplate what decisions he makes today could affect him or others around him in the future (Johnston, 2018, p. 76).

           For L’Oréal to expand into new countries they need to have a good understanding of the four value orientations and how they can be applied to each culture so that their products sell. The first orientation is power distance which is a culture’s preference for unequally distributed power and status which is decided by both leaders and the followers (Hofstede, 2011, p. 9). For instance, one culture may expect a tier of roles for convenience and the other may have a separation of roles just based on spreading the status of members (Hofstede, 2011, p. 9). This could affect L’Oréal if they try to move into a country that is against makeup and does not let any women wear it, which would be a big problem for L’Oréal’s operations. Uncertainty avoidance is how a culture responds to uncertainty which is based on three indicators; anxiety level, employment stability and rule attitude (Hofstede, 2011, p. 10). For L’Oréal uncertainty avoidance could mean that some places will not be appropriate to launch new products unless the culture is familiar with what they are. The third value is regarding the attitudes about gender roles in a culture which is called masculinity versus femininity (Hofstede, 2011, p. 12). Gender roles may be the most important consideration L’Oréal can make if they decided to release a campaign that just had men wearing makeup, but it’s released in a country that dislikes breaking gender norms and would receive lots of backlash. The fourth and final value is individualism versus collectivism, where the former is based on each individual’s needs and desires and the former is based on the collective needs of society (Hofstede, 2011, p. 11). An issue L’Oréal could run into is if the message of the campaigns is “makeup for everyone” or “makeup to help you stand out”, depending on if they like to be joint or separate. Therefore, it is important that L’Oréal keeps these programmed value patterns in mind if they decide to expand to more unfamiliar or underdeveloped countries.  

Conclusion

We live in a day and age where everyone’s appearances can be carefully manipulated in both good and bad ways. Even if you don’t join a company, everyone has their own individual brand that they need to protect and learn how to best operate in the society. Marketing is the act of showcasing the vision of your brand and often in the best way possible, but it was important for me to pick a company where marketing blinded the behind the scenes chaos and how a company should conduct itself especially in the marketing world. It was important for me to get across that McFarland’s manipulativeness & unethical conduct did not start or end with Fyre Festival. His deception is still ongoing and it’s difficult to imagine McFarland recovering from this incident and ever having the same power he did before, especially since he is banned from serving as a CEO or director for the rest of his life (Amato et al., 2019). Many of the team members admitted that if they knew how things were going to end, of course they wouldn’t have gone through with helping him (Gabai et al., 2019). I also want to point out that Jerry Media produced the Netflix documentary I refer to in the case, so there could be some bias or more blame shifted onto McFarland that he doesn’t deserve and may just be a self-preservation tactic of Jerry Media. And though L'Oréal is my ethical example it’s important to note that no single company in the world is perfect and they all have more room to improve their strengths and work on their weaknesses. And hopefully when I’m out in the real-world next year, I can find a way to positively impact those around me with the most ethical marketing possible.

References

Amato, J., Barkin L., Freedman A., Gandhi S., Gasparro M., Miller D., Zwickel J. (Producer), Furst J., Willoughby Nason J. (Director). (2019, January 14). Fyre Fraud [Documentary]. United States: Hulu.

Bloomberg. (2017, August 30). How a Black Card for Millennials Went Down in Flames. Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2017/08/30/fyre-festival-billy-mcfarland-magnises/.

Busch, P., & Wilson, D. T. (1976). An Experimental Analysis of a Salesman’s Expert and Referent Bases of Social Power in the Buyer-Seller Dyad. Journal of Marketing Research, 13(1), 3–11. doi:10.1177/002224377601300102

Gabai, D., Purzycki, M. (Producer), Smith, C. (Director). (2019, January 18). FYRE: The Greatest Festival That Never Happened [Documentary]. United States: Netflix.

Hanbury, M. (2019, January 19). These photos reveal why the 27-year-old organizer of the disastrous Fyre Festival has been sentenced to 6 years in prison. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/fyre-festival-expectations-vs-reality-2017-4#fans-were-expecting-to-see-blink-182-perform-14.

Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014

Johnson, C. (2018). Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, ISBN-13: 978- 1506321639

Kador, J. (2009). Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Keating, C. (2018, November 6). Fyre Festival Founder Apologizes from Prison: 'I've Made Many Wrong and Immature Decisions'. Retrieved from https://people.com/music/fyre-festival-founder-billy-mcfarland-prison-apology/.

L’Oréal. (2015, November 20). Code of Ethics - The Way We Work. Retrieved from https://www.loreal.com/group/governance/acting-ethically/code-of-ethics-and-speak-up-policy/code/list.

L’Oréal. (2018a, December 2). L'Oréal named as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the 9th time - L'Oréal Group: World Leader in Beauty: Official Website. Retrieved from https://www.loreal.com/media/news/2018/feb/2018-wme.

L'Oréal. (2018b). L'Oréal Finance: Annual Report 2018. Retrieved from https://www.loreal-finance.com/en/annual-report-2018.

L’Oréal. (2019). Frequently Asked Questions - L'Oréal Group: World Leader in Beauty: Official Website. Retrieved from https://www.loreal.com/sustainability/l'oréal-answers/the-question-of-animal-testing/frequently-asked-questions.

Lunenburg, F. C. (2012). Power and leadership: an influence process. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1-9.

Meindl, J., & Ehrlich, S. (1987). The Romance of Leadership and the Evaluation of Organizational Performance. The Academy of Management Journal, 30(1), 91-109. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/255897.

PETA. (2010, July 7). L'Oréal is included on PETA's "do test" list. What does that mean? Retrieved from https://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/is-loreal-cruelty-free/.

[orly661tinderfree-blog]

Need Confirmation Email Resent Tinder Gold

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Tinder will take a step up from it is current premium service 'Tinder Plus', with a brand new service 'Tinder Gold'. Some customers appear to assume it is a waste of income. Eventually, it will be up to your dating style and how frequently you like to interact with your apps. The most significant situation some persons have with Tinder Gold is that the worth is not worth the characteristics. For some people, adding however one more subscription to their ever-increasing list of paid platforms is just not worth it. If you can afford to spend for Spotify, Hulu, Netflix, Tidal, Match, and Tinder Gold, go for it. If you have to reduce some corners, Tinder Gold may possibly not be for you.

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Fundamentally, it really is just a step above a regular like, and it shows your possible match that you are actually interested. With Tinder Plus, when you have applied your current super likes, you will be offered five (5) totally free ones each and every 12 hours. Super likes can be a genuinely exciting way to support oneself stand out from the pack, and sort of poke your head above the crowd when in front of a lady that is just your sort.

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Now I was ready for Tinder Gold and to ultimately uncover out who had been liking me. When flattering, it wasn't dissimilar to just swiping through matches. I never consider the volume had any bearing on my profile, given quite a few were properly out of my usual age bracket. Quickly bored and sort of spooked, I discovered myself wishing I'd spent the cash on a good lunch. On best of that, Tinder kept asking me to drop some much more money on extra boosts.

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[mirika]

This weekend I went to Amsterdam Comic Con. Although I must say it was better than last year’s, but they’ve still got some work to do. However, the merchandise that was being sold was finally more to my taste and not as repetitive.

Again, I was Mimi from Digimon like last two conventions. Now off to writing about my weekend.

Day one!

Saturday I went with a friend of mine. I slept horribly that night (and so did she coincidentally), so this day was thrice as exhausting as a regular day, not to mention I was rather nervous because I was going to see Carice van Houten that day (known for Game of Thrones but to me she will always be Minoes) and I wanted to get myself to ask her a question. I did not in the end as the time flew by during her Q&A. I actually kinda wanted an autograph when I saw she signed Minoes images as well, but I had no money to spend after knowing what merchandise was laying around. I did snatch some faraway photos of Carice!

I stared at her a fair bit at her autograph stand and all I could think was ‘wow she is so pretty’ - I thought the same when I saw Ellie Kendricks in real life; she was adorable! Part of me thinks I should’ve told her she was adorable but I don’t think I could ever have the guts. Oh, and as to Carice, her Q&A was in Dutch and that was very refreshing actually! She talked about her heavy robe in Game of Thrones, how she did not like wearing the necklace, stuff like that.

But moving on! This time the con had enough merchandise shops for my friend and I to spend the entire day shopping! We actually took really long to look through it all, haha.

So Saturday I found a stand, ‘Team Rocket Shop’, and they actually had Digimon merchandise! DIGIMON! I was so excited that I went back the next day for more, but Saturday I picked up Palmon because it would complete my Mimi cosplay (I did not pick more right away because they are expensive!).

I am loving the details in this - I have many Digimon plushes and nearly all of them are from childhood, but none are like this. When I got home I looked them up (they are an eBay shop) and looked up more and saw that all these plushes are about the same price (which is why the next day I bought more); I actually urge to believe these are newer released ones. I’ve got no clue, but the quality was sweet!

Unlike my Greymon, but I got him off really cheap because of its damage (it was from another shop).

Greymon is a second-hand plush and the material on its face and claws are very broken. I fell in love with the fact he could stand up though, so I did not care and bought him right away. Who cares he’s broken? He was cheap and he can stand up AND IT IS GREYMON!

I did buy more than plushes though, I also bought the last Funko I needed for my Once Upon A TIme collection (Regina with Fireball) and Gandalf.

Oh yeah, and there was a shop with pride flags and buttons so I snatched a flag. I also found the stand with the key chains of Miraculous Ladybug. If anyone read my Dutch Comic Con post, over there I wrote about a gift a friend gave me. It was Ladybug and because I wanted Chat Noir as well, I spent so much time looking for the shop... well, fun story: the shop is owned by a former teacher of mine! I found her that day and bought Chat Noir. If I flip it over, like the Ladybug one, you see his ‘secret identity’!

By now, if people track my Comic Con posts, there might be a confusing factor with my post layout as I did not mention cosplay photos yet... but that’s because I only found one person during the entire weekend that I wanted to take a photo with!

Well... I mean, I saw Kilgrave and Jessica, but I had already taken like three photos of the guy dressed as Kilgrave when he was The Doctor and the last time he said ‘again’ so now I never dare ask him again, but! I did find Frodo!

I still need to learn to pose, I know.

There was an Overwatch cosplay that I also found worthy of taking photos of despite not playing the game or whatsoever. It’s actually quite abnormal for me to take photos of cosplay without me standing next to them!

So everyone who plays Overwatch knows him; it’s Lucio. I only know him from promotion material in Heroes of the Storm (a game I only played for a mount in World of Warcraft); I know him as a very vibrant, disco and dancey dude. I assume he shoots stuff, but I only know him from promotion material.

Well... loud music was playing in the hall Saturday and a large crowd. I didn’t understand why, and as we got closer.

There he was, dancing, being vibrant as I expect him to be, so happy with his dreads flying through the air. It was really fun to see and I think I said multiple times ‘if this doesn’t make you happy’-related things. It was really fun to see even as someone who doesn’t play Overwatch. It was really great. And yeah, of course he was on roller blades!

I think that sums up day one, and otherwise I can always go back and edit my post, haha.

Day two!

Sunday I went alone. I knew I would encounter a friend of mine there (someone I met at Dutch Comic Con and stayed in touch with through Blizzard App) and I ended up wandering with him all day.

Today I was going to see Billy Boyd (gosh that accent of his is still amazing) and John Rhys-Davies, who are likely to be known as Pippin and Gimli!

You could see from their interaction that they’re mates; they have great humour together. I’m sad I forgot what kind of jokes they made other than guessing people’s names and what their career will be (poor Brian). They did tell the whole Sean Bean climbing mountains story, of course, and how they would happily wave at the poor guy climbing in full costume. I also recall Billy saying winter is coming and saying something about Sean Bean always dying as they explained the whole ‘Nine’ fellowship tattoo (I did not know that John’s stunt double got the tattoo, haha!). They have talked about so much though, and I’ve had such a laugh.

Oh, this day I also had a fair amount of compliments on my cosplay. I can’t help but be happy about that. Some were screams of recognition (’Mimi from Digimon!’) and others would be actually complimenting the dress, few actually wanted a photo. I think one person actually complimented my appearance, but I honestly couldn’t deal well with all the positivity so I can’t even remember all that was said. There was a child too that did not know Digimon, but I guess she wanted to take a photo with a big candy cane like me, haha!

One thing I do need to look out for, is a few more professionally taken photos from a dude I ended up in a lengthy conversation with about Digimon (wow, I’m gonna have proper photos!).

And uh, I said I bought more merch... yeah... more Digimon...

IT’S BIG AND ROUND AND FLUFF AND I WILL HUG IT.

Gomamon was also purchased cause no Digimon store ever sells Gomamon; such an underrated creature (I guess Tentomon has it worse as someone also hoped so much for a Tentomon as she wants to cosplay Izzy).

Look at that derp! Ohhh all my money went into the Digimon plushes...

And food. A lot of money went into food. Not that I wanted so, but it happened anyway. Only small portion went into red velvet stuff from some American shop.

Also in this photo: a Frodo key chain. 

I have a better photo too though.

That’s about it. That sums up Sunday as well. 

Hardly any cosplay for me to take a photo with, but more merchandise for me to purchase (so no money-spending on stupid stuff like the cats, dogs and bunnies).

I’ll probably edit this post when I get those other photos of me, or any memories that return to me. Sunday I got to talk a lot about Digimon!

ACC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) DCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) RCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) ACC 2016 - Hook (Once Upon A Time) DCC 2016 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) DCC 2015 - Sunday - Hobbit (Lord of the Rings) DCC 2015 - Saturday - Ellie (The Last of Us)

I have been to Elfia in 2015, but I cannot find this post. I was Donna Noble and I actually had a really bad day, which is why I have never returned to Elfia.

[wineanddinosaur]

We Asked 20 Brewers: What Are the Worst Trends in Beer Right Now?

Not all beer trends are created equal. Some have staying power and become national or global phenomena, while others fizzle quickly. There are several movements coursing through American breweries that are worth celebrating, but, for now, let’s focus on the absolute worst. We’re examining the garbage gimmicks that deserve a good riddance. That leave a bad taste in your mouth. That make you want to White Claw your eyes out.

Below, beer makers confess the recent developments they wish would disappear.

“Lactose in IPAs. Not a fan.” — Brandon Tolbert, Owner and Brewer, Short Throw Brewing

“Big Beer creating new breweries in popular beer-centric destinations while posing them as independent startups. The average consumer is unaware that their money is not supporting the local craft-beer community, but rather the international beer conglomerates.” — Ignacio Montenegro, Co-Founder, Tripping Animals Brewing Company

“I’m tired of breweries ignoring sexual harassment and sexism and treating it as ‘boys being boys.’ In over half of the breweries I’ve worked at, I‘ve experienced examples as blatant as a head brewer telling everyone he would screw me straight. Or less obvious instances where a man asks why I’m the one carrying something heavy. It’s 2019 and I demand equality and respect.” — Megan Stone, Brewer

“I think ratings on apps and websites have taken some of the human element out of craft beer. While it’s great to have craft-beer fans excited about beer X, Y, or Z, I often see consumers relying too heavily on ratings to drive what they purchase as opposed to having a conversation with their bartenders and brewers. Most all of my beer ‘Aha!’ moments have come through connecting with someone and trying something completely new and unfamiliar. I think it’s our jobs as brewers and bartenders to help guide more of those experiences for craft-beer fans.” — Corey Gargiulo, General Manager, Evil Twin Brewing NYC

“The packaging and selling of unfinished beer. Many small breweries don’t have the necessary pasteurization capabilities in order to make a product stable after blending in various fruits and juices, so they package it in cans and warn the consumer to ‘keep it cold’ to avoid the cans exploding. For me, this is a trend I’d like to see fade away. Either buy a pasteurizer for your cans, or simply keep it on tap in your taproom where it can be controlled.” — Paul Wasmund, Head Brewer and Blender, Barrel Culture Brewing and Blending

“The ‘slow pour’ pilsner. I appreciate and cherish the craft of beer and can see why this is desirable. However, there are other ways to achieve optimal flavors and aromas without bartenders having to wait five to seven minutes to serve the beer.” — Mark Johnson, Brewer, DuClaw Brewing Company

“Seltzers in breweries. I think the trend will leave a negative impact on the integrity of the industry. I understand the desire to diversify, especially given stagnant sales across the industry of late, but hard seltzer is not the answer. I can get down with hazy IPAs, pastry stouts, and even beer cocktails. Seltzer is a quick copout for a lot of fledgling places. I’d like to see low-calorie beer or even nonalcoholic craft options fill the void. At least it’s still beer.” — Chris Gilmore, Brewer, Lone Tree Brewing Company

“A trend making me sad, but I don’t see it ever going away, unfortunately, is the ouroboros of hype. People want to get a beer everyone’s talking about, stand in line for its release or pay scandalous money, sometimes more than eightfold the initial price, and of course they will rate it marvelous even if it’s just O.K. Nobody wants to admit putting a lot of effort, be it time or money or both, into just a good beer. So they call it exceptional and more people want it. And here we go again. This leaves out of the spectrum of attention thousands of really good breweries. Plus, there is enjoyment-versus-price ratio. Do you feel that beer was worth every penny you paid? Sometimes you pay a lot but feel cheated because the beer wasn’t as great as you expected it to be. And if someone pays way more than the brewery price and is not happy, all the discontent unfairly goes to the brewer, not to the secondary market trader in part driving the hype.” — Lana Svitankova, Speaker, Varvar Brew

“Was glitter beer ever a trend?” — Mike Shatzel, Co-Owner, Thin Man Brewery

“Not enough minorities, blacks, and Hispanics drinking craft beer. I’ve been in the brewing industry since 2015 and have experienced nothing but greatness from the beer to the people who enter our establishment. What I do not see, though, is a lot of color. … Overall, I’ve experienced great beers and breweries but I would love to see more diversity in the industry.” — James Higgs, Intern, Forager Brewery

“Distributor consolidation and the buying up of craft breweries and brands by large multinational companies is creating a super-challenging retail environment for all the independent craft brewers.” — Ron Jeffries, Founder and Brewer, Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales

“Whole pastries, instead of constituent ingredients, going into stouts. You’re not even thinking about flavors anymore, you’re just trying to do something for Instagram.” — Ethan Buckman, Co-Owner and Head Brewer, Stickman Brews

“The liberal interpretation of double dry hopping, or DDH, is a pet peeve of mine. DDH is an actual process where the first dry hop is added during active fermentation and the second in secondary. But most people simply just dry hop multiple days. And also, double of what? Since most brewers don’t disclose their original dry hop rate, they’ve started a dry hopping arms race. I’ve seen as high as 15 pounds per barrel, and that’s just a waste! Only so much hop oil can dissolve in beer. At a certain point it’s literally throwing money down the drain.” — Morgan Clark Snyder Jr., Owner and Brewer, Buttonwoods Brewery

“I’m over the meatheads who still think it’s O.K. to put out sexist beer labels and social media posts. It’s not edgy or tongue in cheek. It’s gross, it’s harmful, and it should be beneath us as an industry. I also think it appeals to the type of crowd who have no problem commenting on a female bartender’s appearance, but would only take a beer recommendation from a dude. No one needs more of that.” — Jonathan Moxey, Head Brewer, Rockwell Beer Company

”It’s exciting that the popularity of high quality and well-made lagers is on the rise. It’s a huge bummer, however, when brewers chase trends and make lagers with cheap ingredients, poor brewing techniques, and fast tank times. It has taken a long time and a great deal of hard work to get well-made, vibrant, and incredible lagers out to the U.S. beer drinker. I believe that innovation and tradition can go hand in hand with this realm of beers, but the key is for the brewer to respect the scope and the challenge of brewing lager beer.” — Josh Pfreim, Co-Founder and Brewmaster, pFreim Family Brewers

“The beer community is a vocal one, and we love how people freely review, discuss, and share their opinions about beers they try. However, a trend I see that isn’t constructive is a tendency of people to default their reviews to a comparison of any given beer to an archetype of that beer style. As opposed to evaluating a beer as an independent expression of a style — and most importantly whether they liked it! — it becomes more a question of does it taste like X beer or is it better than Y beer. We as a brewery place primary importance on innovation and are never trying to duplicate an expression of any given style. So, we believe it would be a positive move for craft beer if the community would keep an open mind and evaluate beers as unique steps along an evolution of a style, not a catalog of archetype imitations.” — Harris Stewart, Founder and CEO, TrimTab Brewing

“I honestly hate the unfermented, super-fruited beers, the ones where you can literally chew on the fruit particles like a smoothie. The first time someone let me taste one I thought it was some sort of beer slushie. These aren’t safe unless you have a way to pasteurize. Then more power to you. But at that point just go down to Jamba Juice and get yourself a smoothie.” — Alyssa Thorpe, Head Brewer, Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery

“As a Belgian brewer who believes in the artistry of beer, I am afraid brewers are complacent with the ‘Chardonnization’ of their beers. We are bound by styles and rules but we’re not able to differentiate ourselves. You sell a kettle sour, a porter, and an IPA. Oh, great. So does Starbucks — sorry, I mean the brewery on the other side of the street. How do you make your taproom stand out? Is it the liquid? Is it your ties to the community? I challenge brewers to think out of the box. If you have an IPA that’s fruity, can you describe it differently than an IPA? Can you educate the consumer who hates IPAs on how they can appreciate this emerging style that now has so many subcategories? Unfortunately, we have seen winemakers go down the road and sell their wine by grape variety in the new world or by region in the old world. Creatively, I think we can push ourselves even more!” — Peter Bouckaert, Co-Owner and Brewer, Purpose Brewing & Cellars

“Overloaded sweetness. Great for sipping, but ruins the session and really messes up your gut.” — Tim Matthews, Head of Brewing Operations, Oskar Blues Brewery

“The eternally unsatisfied drinker.” — Antonio Lopes, Owner and Brewer, Lupum

The article We Asked 20 Brewers: What Are the Worst Trends in Beer Right Now? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/20-worst-beer-trends-craft/