#job hunting for a YEAR with no success. decide to try to finish a degree to improve chances of being hired

[glittergroovy]

can't get food stamps if you're a full time student, have to be a full time student to get financial aid for school

???

[20somethingartist]

Recap of what I’ve been up to the past year (part 1)

2019-2020, it’s been on and off with making art. There was so much I’d planned to do: I wanted to produce good work while personally learning from it, compile a stellar portfolio, and establish online presence. While I was still in school, I was up to my ears in creative ideas. Stories to tell, illustrations to make, concepts to explore ~ I was itching to be done with school and start working on new projects, chasing my own dreams... 

By the time I graduated in winter 2018, I was burned out. I came home and fell into a slump. I played around with the ideas in my sketchbook now and then... started projects but never finished... slowly lost motivation... and became overwhelmed with adulthood. [ pressure to make an income, job hunting, loneliness, trying to figure out what to do with my life... which can be a whole post in itself but I won’t get into that now ]

2019: I studied various artists and practiced to improve my draftsmanship. I wrote many rough drafts for stories and characters I had in my head. I was productive yet scatter-brained. The challenge, for me, was learning to balance my lifestyle: I started to become a workaholic, yet never really finished anything because I only wanted perfection. It was a stagnant and unhealthy mindset. I even developed a bad case of imposter syndrome, which surfaced when I made my first big sale. My seller’s guilt caused me so much anxiety, I took a complete hiatus from painting. 

Imposter Syndrome: my 2 cents

Imposter syndrome partially comes from self-doubt; it can be a fear of failure or even a fear of success. Like reaching a level you feel like you can't live up to (if that makes any sense). I don't know why it's so common among artists to feel this way.

( this paragraph is just my personal experience; feel free to skip ) // I had a bad experience with imposter syndrome too, the first time I sold an oil painting. Even though I knew the buyer was happy to pay for and support my work, I felt extreme guilt as soon as I received the payment. I worried that I charged too much for my painting, and that they would start to think it wasn't worth the price. I started comparing myself to other artists and felt anxious about showing my work to anyone. Even though I'd studied painting and earned a degree in studio arts, I still felt like an imposter. //

What helps me is remembering why I enjoyed making art in the first place. Maybe take a break from posting your work online; and stop comparing. Remember that being an artist does not mean having a following, getting a degree or making a profit... and those things aren't a measure of how good of an artist you are (though those are all good things). Being creative makes you an artist; and enjoying what you do and striving to improve makes you successful. At least that's the way I see it.

[ I might write more about imposter syndrome and seller’s guilt, if I could just figure out why it is and how to deal with it... PS this was my response to a thread on Reddit; my username is SunnyGrace7. Sometimes I post feedback/critiques. ]

In November, I signed up for 4 life drawing sessions at a small studio called Kline Academy of Fine Art, in LA. It was for 3 hours every Saturday with the same model and pose. I learned a lot about light and shadow on the human figure; but it was much more time than I needed for the piece and I wasn’t sure what to do for the last couple hours, haha. Maybe I needed to be more patient and meticulous with refining the details. This is the finished result:

I liked Kline Academy and would want to sign up for more workshops, if only it wasn’t such a long drive from where I live. Maybe one day I will move to the city... Anyway, I’d decided I needed more practice with life drawing and started searching for other options. Preferably a session with various poses held for shorter times, so I could practice gestural drawings and movements. Because I had ambition to one day become an animator ~

{ to be continued }

[tangodancerxxxmumu]

meet... adira selwyn 

age: 25

pronouns: she / her

birthplace: somerset, england, united kingdom

species: vampire ( former “hunter” )

sexuality: bisexual

occupation: museum curator & pianist

faceclaim: skyler samuels

&. “she holds herself like someone braced for tragedy.” --carol goodman, “the lake of dead languages”

under the cut contains multiple triggers, including ( tw infertility, tw emotional neglect, tw parental abuse, tw body horror, tw anxiety, tw panic attack, tw death, tw alcohol, tw alcoholism, tw self harm, tw depression, tw murder ). if i seem to have missed anything, please let me know.

adira iris selwyn was born at the end of summer, the first child and daughter to odessa and augustus, famed hunters. augustus himself came from a long line of hunters--it was the family business. they were old money, politically savvy, deeply influential. while the thought of a daughter had initially not been too upsetting, within the first few months, as they tried to conceive again, it became apparent that their luck had run dry with one. secondary infertility.

augustus selwyn had been fine with having a daughter, but once he learned she was all he would get, he began to despise the girl. the selwyn name was a proud one, one that had been passed down through generations of men, only to die with this brat in his house. he told his wife that the girl would be her responsibility and her’s alone. odessa, being a busy politician, was hardly at home.

adira had a rather lonely childhood. her father refused to even look at her, dine with her, take her out in public. her mother was hardly around, and when she was, it was to prime adira to be the “perfect child” for magazines and papers. and she was... on paper. in photos. at home, she was more a ghost than a child, flitting from room to room and keeping to herself.

her mother set her up to be an impressive child--home tutors from a young age, language specialists to help teach her multiple languages, a top-notch piano instructor. adira’s favorite, though, was the extensive selwyn library, carrying rare copies of classics and books on almost every moment of history within the past two hundred years. Journals, too, from past Selwyn hunters, which she devoured easily.

the only time she saw her father was when he decided that it was time for adira to learn how to hunt. it was the family business, and while he’d rather a son, he’d settle for a daughter with a good eye who could shoot. while adira had decent aim, good posture, and a steely expression when she wanted to, she knew she wasn’t a killer. she could shoot a target with ease, but the idea of shooting a living creature made her skin crawl. despite how the supernatural were described in the selwyn family journals, she couldn’t just eliminate them. over time, and with each new weapon she learned, the feeling only grew--this wasn’t her.

the selwyns were good friends with the rosenfelds. both were good hunter families, and, as such, they allowed their children to see each other. evan rosenfeld was perhaps the one person adira was able to see alone, and he became someone she trusted deeply. their contact with each other would ebb and flow over the years, but he was perhaps the only person adira considered truly family.

at the age of sixteen, adira learned of a selwyn tradition all of the selwyn hunter had refused to write about--the branding. on her sixteenth birthday, she was dragged from her bed at two in the morning by two trusted housekeepers, crying and screaming. she was terrified, shaking, and by the time she saw her father with the poker in his hand... she screamed when it hit her skin. the smell of burning flesh became too all familiar to her. as she was finally let go, she backed up, looking down at the red flesh on her left forearm. it was her family crest, and with it, her father gave her a ring, but not without telling her he’d always wished he’d been gifting it to a son instead of a daughter. he left her alone, crying from the pain and the shock.

in the years that followed, adira did her best to get out of every hunting trip she could. she’d fall suddenly ill, have a broken leg, anything to get out of it. for the most part, it worked, and the hunting trips she had to go on weren’t successful. luck, for the first time in a long time, seemed to be on her side. 

until she was eighteen. on her birthday, her father managed to drag her on a hunting trip. they were searching for a werewolf pack in eastern germany. just as things were looking unsuccessful, they stumbled upon a smaller wolf. adira fumbled, but her father took the shot, and she watched as the wolf shifted back into a girl as she fell. she couldn’t have been more than fifteen. while her father went to finish the job, adira threw up in a bush. she didn’t quite recover, and while her father went to bed that night, she locked herself in the bathroom. looking down at the branded mark on her arm, she felt her blood boil, and, not knowing whether she wanted to die or whether she just wanted out of the family business, she began to claw at the mark with her own nails. she only stopped when she was too weak to, and, realizing what she’d done, she began to have a panic attack. she felt as if she was dying... but she didn’t. as soon as she calmed herself, she quickly bandaged it up and went to bed. her father didn’t notice.

she managed to hide her deformed branding for another three years, always wearing long sleeves, always being careful. when she was twenty-one, she went on another fated hunting trip. her father brought her and some family friends, and they were tracking down a group of elves. it was a fucking massacre when they found them, and adira stayed behind, unable and unwilling to shoot. her father noticed and grabbed one of the elves, holding it out for her. he commanded her to do it, and, instead, she shot her father in the leg. the elf got away, and adira ran.

her mother found her in a villa in porto a week later, leaving with her a bag of clothes, some books, and a rare edition of satie compositions. odessa couldn’t look at her daughter, and told her that she was never allowed back in selwyn manor again. odessa then wrote her a check for five million and told her to stay out of england, or her father would kill her. it was the last kindness she would do.

adira spent the next two years finishing history degree while traveling, not taking a single semester off. she did all of her work online, immersed herself in small cities and towns throughout england. she had a lot to work through, years of guilt for not standing up to her father sooner, but she was free. that freedom brought with her a sort of bliss, and she began planning a life for herself. she felt hopeful for the future.

romania changed everything. adira had been excited to visit a few of the preserved medieval towns there, having just finished her degree. however, while walking back to her hotel one night, she felt the strong arms of a man pull her into an alleyway. she was a strong woman, but as she tried to pull away, she realized just how helpless the situation was--the man had superhuman strength. he was a vampire, an original, she found out. he knew who she was, and he turned her pretty unceremoniously. perhaps he’d wanted to hurt her family, not knowing they cared little for her anymore. cain, his name was. she was left with a ring and not much else.

she ditched her family ring for a daylight one, a vampire now. her first night, she killed three men without much hesitation, her thirst for blood strong. by the time she was sated, she was fully disgusted with herself and fled the city. she’d become the killer her father had always dreamed she’d be. she kept to herself for months in the romanian forests, feeding only from animals and trying to figure herself out. by the time she left romania, her parents had somehow gotten word of her death. she saw a news article about her funeral.

she spent the next two years still traveling, but mostly keeping to herself. she learned that blood was easier downed with wine, and her control could be mastered if she focused hard on it. her newfound vampirism was becoming easier to cope with, and while she didn’t let anyone too close to her, she found herself shying less and less from people. in northern italy, after four years, she was able to rent a piano and play again. she nearly cried. 

but she was tired of traveling. she wanted a place to settle down and make connections. she wanted the community and friends she never had before, and only one place really came to mind--evan’s hometown, bellport. perhaps her old friend would be able to see past her newfound monstrosity and help her feel at home in the world. so she went. she bought a small house outright, furnished it to her liking, and suddenly found herself in a place she’d only been to a few times ( and not allowed outside of evan’s house, either ). 

adira knows six languages: english, italian, french, portuguese, german, and arabic. she’d been attempting russian when she was turned into a vampire, and has been looking for the spare time to get back to it.

while adira is mostly alright, she still struggles with control from time to time. she’s friendly, but quiet. her moral code is... questionable at times, depending on her love.

[shianhygge-imagines]

Silver Rose [Vergil/Reader] {Devil May Cry} Gifts

AN: Been a little more than a while since I posted the last part to this. It’s a bit long... so I hope it makes up for my slight absence. The personal assistant gig is pretty sweet, although commuting so early in the morning is a pain the ass.

Basic summary: The background behind Reader’s gun, the Silver Rose

|Masterlist Link|    |First Chapter|    |Prev. Ch.| --- |Next Ch.|

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The gifts started arriving to your Red Grave City residence nearly three years after Vergil disappeared into the Underworld. You’d returned to your home after Dante had convinced you to take a break to find a single rose on your bed pillow. It was a beautiful, unassuming rose with all the thorns carefully cut off, though your gaze found interest in the royal blue ribbon tied to its stem.

At the time, you’d darted out of the room to seek out Dante, who was busy taking a sip of water from a clean glass. “Dante? You didn’t… leave anything in my room, right?”

“Hm?” Dante hummed, slowly swallowing the mouthful of water, “Uh, no. I actually didn’t know you decided to have a home in Red Grave.”

“Well, while I love the house, I didn’t pick it. Ver-” your breathe hitched as you darted out of the room, “Vergil!”

“Wait! Y/N!” Dante called after you, following close behind in worry. “What about Vergil?”

“This!” you answered as you made the last few steps towards the bed, picking up rose and gingerly touching the ribbon. “The color seemed familiar, and Vergil’s the only one besides you and I who know about this house.”

“So you think he’s out of Hell?” Dante guessed, tipping his head to the side in question.

“Either that… or someone’s playing a very cruel joke on me.” You whispered, gingerly clutching the rose to your chest. “And maybe I’m being naive or purposefully dense, but I don’t want to think that someone could be so cruel.”

“I hate to break it to you, Y/N. But if Vergil’s back, I think he needs to stay away for a while.” Dante’s ocean blue eyes glanced down to stare at your abdomen. “Even if you still love him, what he did to you was just wrong. If you love someone, you don’t hurt them.”

“Vergil is…” you wanted to give an excuse for you husband’s behavior, but found that the words felt bitter on your tongue. Resigned, you gave a heavy sigh and sat back on the bed. “You’re right. I can’t keep making up excuses for his actions. And I have to hold him accountable for his actions.”

“So… what are you going to do? Are you going to go look for whoever left you that rose?”

You shook your head, though held the rose to you possessively, “No… If they wanted to talk to me, then they have to come here and wait for me. Maybe I won’t move on from loving Vergil, but I’m not just going to sit here and wait.”

True to your word, you’d moved on with life, taking up several demon hunting jobs alongside Dante to varying degrees of success. When Vergil… or your admirer didn’t show their face, you’d simply pushed the gift to the back of your mind, hoping that it was just a one time thing.

In hindsight, you should have known better.

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

A year after the first gift, you’d returned home to find another gift waiting for you. This time, it was a neatly wrapped box placed upon your bedroom vanity. It was an unassuming thing, the size of a small pot, but wrapped in tasteful silver parchment with a royal blue bow as decoration.

At the time, you’d glanced at Dante in suspicion since he’d been the one to escort you home, but your brother in law had merely shrugged, “It wasn’t from me, I swear!”

Puzzled, you’d continued to stare at the present until Dante asked, “So… are you going to open it?”

Dante seemed to have been bursting with excitement for you, though you didn’t share his enthusiasm. “It’s a strange package on my vanity, Dante. What if it’s booby trapped?”

The younger twin snorted in amusement, “You said ‘booby,’’’

You weren’t impressed and you made it known. “Dante… please? Don’t you find this a little strange?”

“We hunt demons for a living, Y/N. Our whole life is considered strange.” Dante scoffed before pouting when you settled a stern gaze on him. “Oh, fine. My keen devil ears don’t hear any mechanic inside, so it’s not a bomb. As for a demon trap… well,” he quickly summoned Rebellion, “If something happens, I’ll take care of it. Now come on! I wanna see what’s inside.”

Apprehensively, you picked the delicate package up, hoping that it wouldn’t explode. It was heavier than expected, though still light enough where you could comfortably toss it in your hand. You could hear Dante shift in anxiousness as you pulled on the ribbon holding the bow together, tossing it back onto your vanity before peeling away the layer of silver paper. The box underneath the paper was equally as unassuming with its matte black coloring and cloth. It was almost like it was… when you flipped the lip open, you gasped in surprise at the sapphire necklace nestled in the box.

“Holy shit.” Dante whistled lowly.

“Umhnnn.” You agreed, speechless at the size of the main jewel and of the diamonds decorating the sides.

“You have a rich admirer.”

“…” Y/N.exe has stopped working

“Y/N?”

“Yahuh?”

“I think it’s from the same person that left you the rose.”

“… Me, too.”

You needed better security in your home.

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

After the last gift, you’d sat down with Dante to figure out who or what kept breaking into your home to leave gifts. It was impossible to try and figure out who or what they were as all the detective work in the world didn’t make a difference when your admirer left no trace of themselves. With no clue on narrowing down a person, Dante suggested looking at the dates that the two gifts appeared.

You were always gone on jobs when it was your birthday, so you’d never put two and two together. That the gifts always seemed to appear after your birthdays.

Against Dante’s wishes, you’d resolved to confront your admirer, making sure to have Lady drag him off on a mission so that your brother in law wouldn’t suddenly appear on your doorstep. Still, Dante couldn’t help but worry, making you promise to call him every day so that he could check up on you.

So, you did what you had to.

For a whole year, you prepped for your twenty-fifth birthday, knowing that the truth might be a disappointment… might be a mistake.

But you were going to risk it.

You simply had to know.

Eleven months seemed to fly by so quickly, and then it was a month before your birthday. True to your word, you’d taken a break from your work, opting to stay in Red Grave City and wait.

“Yeah… I’m doing fine, Dante… no… still no sign of anything.” You muttered the answers as you stared outside your bedroom window, watching the rain pour down and lightning crackle in the sky. “I’m starting to get a bit on edge from the waiting, though.”

Your birthday was a few minutes away, but you were tired and weary, having psyched yourself out the entire day.

“I think you should get some shut eye, Y/N. I get that Mr. Mystery might pop in and stuff, but you should dead on your feet.” From the other end of the line, you could hear Dante firing off Ebony and Ivory, not even bothering to give the fight much of his attention. “Sleep with Tostsuka beside you, okay? Just in case…”

“Just in case I get pounced on in my sleep?”

“Don’t even joke about that, Y/N.” Dante growled, not wanting to think about such a situation.

“…sorry.” You apologized, bashfully lowering your head even though you knew that Dante couldn’t see it.

“…I just want you to be safe, Y/N. So, please… just… exercise some caution.” Dante pleaded, and you could hear the desperation in his tone.

“Okay. I won’t do anything reckless.”

“Good. I better hang up now. Gotta practice what I preach and all that.” Dante laughed before whispering affectionately, “Happy Birthday, Y/N. I’ll see you soon.”

The line hung up before you could reply, though you still smiled and whispered to yourself, crawling into bed. “Be safe, you dingus.” Eyes getting heavier, you used the last of your energy to switch the bedside lamp off before falling asleep, bringing a peaceful darkness with the calming sounds of a thunderstorm.

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

Patter patter pat pat patter

It was well into the night, and the rain still pelted the world outside the safety of your lonely home, when a figure seemed to materialize into your bedroom out of nowhere. There was silence in the room aside from the rain and thunder. There was no light except for the flashes of lightning from the storm. And for the longest while, the figure simply stood at the center of your room, watching your peacefully dreaming face as if enchanted.

Ba-BoOM

A particularly loud crack of thunder bellowed outside, and you jolted in your sleep, eyes opening in annoyance as you turned to your side, wanting to settle back into the peaceful darkness. When you turned, however, your eyes met the dark form stood in the middle of your room, and you froze. Holy shit.

Hidden under Vergil’s pillow, your hand gripped the handle of your blade just in case the figure moved to harm. But minutes passed, and the figure had yet to make any movements, just standing there and, despite the fact that the helm betrayed nothing about them, you could tell that it was staring at you.

“W-who-?”

You weren’t given a chance to finish the question when the figure moved forward, as if awakened by your voice. It was fast despite the clanking of its armor, and before you could even sit up, it was knelt at the side of your bed, its hands reaching forward to present a gift, this time the size of a shoe box, but still wrapped in tasteful wrapping paper and a blue ribbon.

“You’re the one leaving the gifts for me?” The question was out of your lips without so much as a stutter.

The figure… the man, did not so much as utter a reply, only continuing to stare and offer the gift, patiently waiting. Strange as it was, you allowed a moment of weakness to shine through, gingerly taking the gift and unwrapping it in front of your… admirer.

Inside the box was a beautifully crafted six-shooter with silver roses decorating the black and white aesthetic of the revolver. You gasped in awe as you pulled the weapon out, admiring the black barrel and ivory grip. The metal was light, but seemingly dense, as you’d never seen such a metal before.

“A silver rose made of Gilgamesh metal.” The voice coming from the armored man sounded hollow, as if they weren’t really there with you.

Reaching out a hand, you tried to grasp the man’s helm, only for it to pass right through his form. “You’re not… really here?”

“I do not have to be to leave gifts.” The man’s helm snapped to the side, as if listening to something, before he stood with a subtle nod. “This will be the last. I have been found out.”

The mysterious figure turned to walk away and into the darkness, but you found yourself leaping out of bed to stand in front of the man, stopping him as questions tumbled from your mouth. “Who are you? Why did you give me a gun? And what do you mean that this will be the last!”

The man stood and stared at your confused expression before reaching out as if to touch your hair. “My will may not be mine for much longer. To keep you safe, I must never come back. I am one that is lost. One whose name was written over. The silver rose… a promise made long ago, and a symbol of hope. I can’t be here to protect you, but I can give you a tool to protect yourself with. Y/N… One day soon, I hope that I can fixe what wrong I’ve done.”

A shocked tear rolled down your check. You knew this man.

“Vergil?”

And before your eyes, the man’s figure started to disappear in wisps.

Transparent fingers reached out to attempt a caress, and your love was only able to utter one more thing before he disappeared from your life again. “Happy Birthday, Y/N.”

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

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-fi!

[inactiive-shit]

When The Violence Causes Silence

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Warnings: apocalypse, zombies, fighting zombies

Pairing: platonic Moxiety

Words: 2,900

Summary: Virgil has to train the New Recruits.

And he is just ecstatic about it. /s

I’ve been trying to finish anything recently because I am working on a thirteen chapter story and I just need something to be finished to feel like a successful person. So I wrote this. Happy Hunting.

They were on a mission. In full honesty, it wasn’t even a particularly hard mission. They were just going to go into the nearby town for food and supplies, and avoid the reanimated corpses while they were at it. The town had mostly been wiped out of zombies already, which was why it was a great training ground for new recruits.

Virgil, on the other hand, was not a new recruit. No, he was the lucky member of his mid-apocalypse society that was chosen to show the new recruits the ropes.

Fortunately, he wasn't alone. Talyn was chosen to help him, though they didn't get his annoyance with the situation at all. Somehow, they thought teaching the scared people who should know better by now was fun. Then again, Talyn thought puke was fun. Maybe their ideas of what constituted enjoyable were a little fucked up.

But whose weren’t, nowadays?

Anyway, the point remained: Virgil hated this work. He hated doing it, he wasn’t good at it, talking to people and showing them how to do things they should rightfully already know was absolutely not something he could force himself to do with any degree of effectiveness. But they made him, because newbies didn’t die on his watch. What he did could not be classified as teaching; it was coddling and everybody pretended it was a good thing because nobody wanted to be on training duty and Virgil was new enough that he wasn’t allowed to complain too much.

So Virgil sat brooding in the passenger seat of the jeep with the three new recruits in the back and Talyn driving. They were going about a hundred feet back from the edge of the forest and then they’d walk the rest of the way into town, fill their packs, and head back out. It was a nice, easy little introductory trip that let them get used to moving with packs, using their brains to decide what was a need versus what was a want, got them used to seeing zombies, and, most importantly, how to take down a zombie in real time.

Talyn threw the car into park. Somebody whimpered. Virgil tried not to groan.

“C’mon, get your bags and stay quiet,” Virgil ordered. He climbed out of the car and didn’t wait for them to set off for the city. They scrambled after them, and Talyn shushed them before turning to Virgil.

“You think any of ‘em are going to die?” they asked. Virgil snorted.

“That’d ruin my record,” Virgil said back. It was Talyn’s turn to huff a laugh in that silent way you did when in a forest that there could be zombies wondering through. Virgil grinned at them, and Talyn smiled too. It was warm enough out today and there was plenty of sun. Not the best for going unseen, but it felt amazing on Virgil’s skin and it was way better than being cold.

“So, uhm, where are we going?” asked one of the newbies. Virgil shot Talyn a look. They rolled their eyes.

“The town.”

“Are we going to be...ya know? Killing things?” the man asked. He was walking close enough to be stepping on the backs of Virgil’s shoes. They were about to get their first real-time lesson early, and it was going to be about personal space.

“I don’t know,” Virgil hummed. “Are you holding a knife?”

“I-yes?” the guy stammered.

“I wonder why on earth that would be,” Virgil said. He chanced a glance back. The one speaking was eyeing the forest around him like they were going to be swallowed up any minute. The woman was walking cavalierly like she didn’t have a care in the world, knife in her hand and swinging by her side in a way that tickled Virgil’s anxiety. The third man was hunched in on himself, eyes darting around the trees at every noise, knuckles white from how hard he was holding onto his own hands.

Weird. He’d done pretty damn good in training. Wonder what he was so worked up about.

“Oh, well-” the first man started, but the woman cut him off.

“We only kill them if we see them. We’re not looking for them,” the woman said. “That’s what you said, right Tal?”

“My name is Talyn,” Talyn replied, and Virgil knew they were going to have fun with this batch. Conflicting personalities and all. “And yes, if you listened you would know that we’re only here for supplies and some controlled-environment action, should any show up.” The group slipped through the fence and crept up behind the first building. Talyn sent a chilling grin over their shoulder at the newbies. “Word of advice: don’t get bit.” That garnered another whimper, and Virgil sighed through his nose. This was going to be a long day.

They went through a quick round of rock-paper-scissors, which Talyn lost. “Damn. Alright, you two with me. We’re on a food run.”

“We’re splitting up?” squeaked the one Virgil was taking; it was the man who hadn’t spoken at all to this point. Virgil repressed another sign of his exhaustion and nodded.

“They’re on food, we’re on meds. Trust me, we’re better off,” Virgil said. “You know how to make a lot of noise?” He nodded, eyes wide. “Good. Don’t do that and we should be fine.” Virgil spun around, surveyed the empty streets, and then set off. The newbie kept almost on top of Virgil, obviously terrified despite his proficiency. Virgil waved him back, and he only stayed back for a few yards before getting close enough Virgil couldn’t breathe without bumping him again.

“Dude, back up,” Virgil snapped, glaring. “You’re fine. Stop acting like a fucking toddler and get your shit together.”

“I’m sorry,” the man said. “I just-I don’t-”

“I don’t care about your sob story,” Virgil cut in, sighing again. “We all have one, and I guarantee I’ve heard it before. Right now, you need to focus. Don’t think about what’s already happened to you or all the bad things that might right now. You are getting supplies for a community that is depending on you with a partner who is very good at he does. I know this isn’t the first time you’ve been around the zombies, you were out here for a long time before you came to us. You’ve lived this already, you’ll be fine right now. Okay?” The man seemed sorry-confused-embarrassed, but nodded nonetheless and then Virgil continued on. He lead them right up to the pharmacy with no other problems, and he carefully showed the man where to step so that he wouldn’t crunch the broken glass littering the floors and alert every dog-eared dead thing in the town.

“Alright, look,” Virgil said quietly. “Do you see how most of the shelves are empty? That’s because we hid a lot of the meds. It’s so that they’re not all in one place and if we’re sacked or over-run or whatever there will still be some for emergencies. Got it?” The man nodded. Virgil stared him in the eyes for a moment, examining his broken glasses and freckles, the deep brown eyes that...didn’t seem scared. Something else, maybe. Like hesitant or reluctant, but not afraid.

Stranger and stranger.

Virgil looked away. “For now, you’re just going to empty all of this section into your bag.” Virgil pulled open a few sets of cabinet doors hiding a treasure trove of bottles.

“Yeah kiddo, alright,” the man said quietly. Virgil wondered how old he was; if he was any older than Virgil himself or younger. It’s hard to tell, everyone so dirty and tanned and wrinkled and gray-haired well before old age. Anway, age didn’t really matter at the end of the day. What mattered was what you had been through, what had aged you whether or not you had the years to match, and Virgil knew for a fact that this man could not hold a candle to what Virgil had been through already.

He didn’t say that. Instead, he sighed again and started to shove droves of pill bottles into his pack.

The man made quick work of the pill bottles, and he moved astonishingly quietly. They barely even clacked as he dropped them in. Virgil wondered if this had been his primary job with whatever group he’d been with before. Getting in, getting supplies, and getting out quickly and quietly enough that no fighting had to be done. Virgil wondered what had happened to his old group that he had shown up alone in the middle of the night, half dead and being followed by a dozen zombies. 

Either way, it didn’t matter. It didn’t do to ask questions about where people had been or who they’d been with or what they’d done. It really was all just one communal sob story, varying a little from one person to the next. Virgil had his own leg of the journey stored away in a locked box; he didn’t need anybody else’s.

Getting all the supplies they needed only took a few minutes, and then Virgil was showing him again where to step. They made back onto the street without incident, and Virgil began to lead the way back at a leisurely pace. There was no way Talyn’s group would be done with the grocery run yet, and even if they were, Virgil wanted all the time away from those two as he could get. They were both so loud and talked so much it made Virgil want to scream. After living so long in silence, loud was hard to adjust to.

The shuffle of feet echoed around a corner a few yards behind them, and Virgil spun around. Perfect. A fucking zombie.

The newbie let out a short, trilling scream and pinwheeled to get behind Virgil. “Let’s go, let’s go. We need to run. We have to go, please. Please, we need to go.” The man wrapped one hand in the strap of Virgil’s bag and started to tug, trying to force him to move. Virgil planted his feet wondered how long it would take before the man gave up and left without him.

“Nah,” Virgil said. He motioned. “That one’s yours.”

“What? No.” The man shook his head wildly. “No no no. I can’t. I can’t do this, I’m not-I’m not made for this, please, we need to leave.”

“We will,” Virgil said. “Just as soon as you kill it.” He reached over and unsheathed the knife at the man’s side and pressed it into his shaking hand. “You know how to hold a knife, and how to dispatch a rotter. I’ve seen you in practice. This is your next piece of practice. Go do it.” Virgil dragged the man to stand slightly in front of him.

“No, no. I can’t. I can’t do it.” The man frantically pushed back against Virgil, but as much as he tried he still had nothing on Virgil’s strength.

“Why can’t you?” Virgil asked.

“I’m scared,” the new recruit whimpered.

Virgil, who had been scared most of his life, said, “We’re all scared. Be angrier than that. Be spiteful. Be compassionate. And do it anyway.”

“Compassionate?” the man whispered.

“They're suffering. If you're too afraid to do it for yourself, put them out of their misery. Bring food back to the kids. Find a reason that’s bigger than your fear and go.” Virgil shoved the man harshly at the zombie. He froze for a second, then brought his knife up in precisely the way he had been taught - he was surprisingly good in practice, caught on quicker than most, but moved with a certain stiffness and fear that they needed to work out of him before he was being depended on for protection - and slashed at it. The swing wasn’t perfect - most things weren’t - and it didn’t completely decapitate the zombie.

Three more rounded the corner.

“Shit.” Virgil ran up to the combat-engaged newbie. “You just worry about this one. Make it stay down.” He continued past him, drawing his own knife. His first hit drove the blade right into the temple of the first zombie to reach him. It went down like a ton of bricks, but the knife caught in its skull. Virgil released it and drew his second knife. Either he’d win and have to time get that weapon back after, or he wouldn’t be needing it anymore. It could wait for him.

The second zombie he kicked in the stomach. It staggered back and then crashed down to lie with the first. Not dead-dead yet, but out of the way for the moment so it wasn’t two-on-one. Virgil brought his knife up and, in a much better rendition of the same move the other man had attempted, slashed through the neck and spinal cord in one. The zombie fell. Virgil dropped to his knee near the last creature and jammed his knife through this one’s forehead. The knife hit concrete on the other side, and Virgil yanked it back out. He wiped the brain matter on the dead thing’s rags, and then man-handled the other knife out of the head of the other zombie. He wiped that one on the same rags and turned around to see whether or not the newbie had lived through his induction.

The man was standing, staring at Virgil with those wide, disbelieving eyes. He looked sick, and there was something on the ground next to him that could definitely have been puke. Virgil stalked over and poked at the zombie the man had killed with his boot.

“Good job, uh,” Virgil said. 

“Patton,” the man supplied, still shaking.

“Good job, Patton,” he reiterated. “You did it once, despite not wanting to. Now ya just have to do it again.” Virgil turned and began walking away. Patton looked almost dead himself when he got to Virgil’s side.

“Does it ever get easier?” he asked, and Virgil was struck with the urge to play dumb and pretend he didn’t know what Patton was asking about. Or to lie, and tell him what he probably wanted to hear - what Virgil wanted to be the truth.

Instead, he sighed. “For some people. For some people it gets easier, for some people it was never hard to begin with. But-but for people like you? I doubt it.” Patton let out a breath.

“Good. I don’t want taking life to be easy. Even if they’re already dead.” Virgil stumbled slightly at the words, turned to look wide eyed at Patton, but he seemed to not realize what he’d said at all. He kept shuffling along quietly, gray in the face and eyes scanning their surroundings quickly enough Virgil doubted he was seeing anything that was actually there.

He wondered what Patton was seeing.

Virgil shook himself out and grumbled, “I’ll make sure they don’t put you hunting duty, then.” It startled a laugh out of Patton, who then clapped a hand over his mouth and gave Virgil a sheepish look.

“Sorry. You just-you caught me by surprise there, kiddo.” He smiled, looking actually kind of genuine. Virgil didn’t return it.

“Yeah, well, get used to it. There’s plenty enough surprises out here.” Virgil sped up slightly so that Patton was following him instead of walking even with him, and they made the rest of their trek in silence.

Talyn was back at the jeep with the other two already, leaning back, doing a poor job of concealing their worry. Virgil waved a hand and they jumped up, watching closely as they approached.

“What took you so long? I thought we were going to have to send out the search party.” They raised an eyebrow - something they did roughly as often as Virgil sighed.

Virgil sighed. “We ran into a little trouble.” He stole a glance at Patton, and decided Patton probably wouldn’t want anybody to know that he’d killed anything. It wasn’t going to be a point of pride for him like it was for some. “We handled it, though. Wasn’t a big deal.”

“Did you kill one?” demanded the woman, eyes locked on Patton. “No, I bet you didn’t. He said ‘we’, so you probably didn’t help at all.”

“He was very helpful,” Virgil said.

“Unlike you,” Talyn added, sending a terrifying look at the pair. “They almost got us killed. Not once, not twice, but four times.”

“Wow,” Virgil said, deadpan. “I think that might be a new record.”

“People can always get stupider.” Talyn sighed, rubbing at their arm.

“I wouldn’t feel too bad about it, kiddo,” Patton said. “I cried when the zombie came up.” The woman and man looked oddly relieved at this information, and Virgil looked at Patton.

“Maybe we should all practice together,” the man suggested. “You know, so we’re all better next time.” Virgil made eye contact with Talyn. They shook their head. Virgil had absolutely no idea what was going on right now. He sighed.

“Get in the car. We’re heading back before something else shows up and somebody does die.” He climbed into the passenger seat, bag settled between his feet, and stared out the window. Yeah, what Virgil did? It wasn’t teaching. It was coddling and everybody knew it. He didn’t know why they had to send him out on these missions. He wasn’t any good at it.

In the backseat, Patton started to hum.

[talabib]

How To Plan For A Long And Successful Career.

If you ran a marathon, how would you pace yourself? Well, provided that you hope to cross the finish line before collapsing from exhaustion, you would start out at a moderate speed and save some energy to give your all on the home stretch.

A marathon is a long and demanding challenge, which may make you want to avoid it in the first place. What you may not realize, however, is that you have a marathon lying ahead of you – or perhaps you’re already running it now. This marathon is your career journey, and you may well be going at the wrong speed.

Let’s remind you how long a typical career path is. You will learn about the different stages of your career and which strategy you should apply in each of the stages. Find out how to develop your skills and see what it takes to succeed in the rapidly changing working world of today.

Job expectations are changing, so we need to rethink how we build our careers.

When you think of your dream job, what do you see? How important is it that your work is appreciated and rewarded? Do you want to be able to learn, have fun and grow as you go along?

These are the kind of questions that The Futures Company asked in 2015 when they tried to get to the bottom of what Americans consider a fulfilling career today.

What they found was that people want a combination of financial success and happiness. Their poll found that 70 percent of people will choose happiness over financial perks when making career decisions; at the same time, however, 86 percent chose money as the most important factor overall.

This tells us that financial success is important, but ideally, this money won’t come at the expense of happiness or a healthy work-life balance.

As a result, we are seeing an increase in flexible work schedules, with more part-time roles, as well as freelance jobs, work-from-home opportunities and job-sharing offers. All of these are now viable alternatives to the traditional nine-to-five job.

So the question now becomes: how can I put together the right strategy to build a flexible, fulfilling and balanced career? The answer to this lies in taking all the aspects of your life into consideration and emerging with a path that allows you to be successful without sacrificing important things like family, friends and health.

After all, as career and motivation experts like Dan Pink and Tom Rath point out, a happy work life directly translates into higher productivity, better health and increased satisfaction.

Build a new career model that is based on long-term success.

Would you rather be given a dollar today or be able to save two dollars next month? Many of us would choose the first option, and we tend to make similar choices when it comes to our career by focusing on immediate rewards over long-term success.

However, if you are serious about securing a fulfilling career, you’ll eventually need to look at things from a long-term perspective. After all, a career path covers a very long period of time, and the average US employee will spend more than 100,000 hours at work. This is more time than we’ll spend sleeping, and even when we’re not at work, we’re often thinking or worrying about it.

But most people come at their careers from the wrong angle by only considering how to succeed as quickly as possible, rather than planning things out for the long term.

There’s a saying that your career should be thought of as a marathon, not a sprint. And every marathon runner knows that they can’t start off running at full speed, or else they’ll never make it to the finish line.

Much the same way, it’s important to consider that the average retirement age is 65, so you need to have the right mindset for planning that far ahead. This implies keeping important aspects in mind, such as your education, networking and your and your family’s happiness.

Accumulating wealth is important, but keep in mind that most of this happens later in life. According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, 85 to 90 percent of your personal wealth will likely be accumulated after your fortieth birthday.

Until then, it’s best to take your time and figure out what you really like doing and how you can become an expert in your field. This way, you won’t be stuck doing something you hate for the next 45 years.

Prepare for a lasting career with a varied skill set and experiences.

There’s an old adage that says good things come in threes, and this applies to the three best ways you can spend your time in order to help create opportunities at any stage in your career. These three pillars are transferable skills, meaningful experiences and enduring relationships.

To understand how important your skills are, picture being 40 years old, losing your job and being forced to start all over again on your own. For this scenario to work out, you’ll need a strong set of talents, which is why you should spend your twenties and thirties gaining skills.

Now, the best ones to have are transferable skills, which can be applied to a variety of different jobs. You can get these by picking up academic degrees, foreign languages and computer skills, as well as more personal characteristics like communication skills and emotional intelligence.

Having strong and persuasive communication skills is an excellent trait for any job, whether you’re in sales or a political activist trying to win people over. No matter what, this is an essential skill for success. These are especially important nowadays since the modern job market is unpredictable and constantly changing, so having transferable talents gives you a clear advantage.

Now, while you’re collecting skills, you should also be working in different environments in order to build meaningful experiences.

People who spend their career in one environment probably know how to do one thing efficiently but get overwhelmed when confronted with something out of the ordinary.

With a diverse job history, you’ll improve your decision-making skills by picking up different perspectives, which will make you more appealing to potential employers.

So take chances and move from a corporate environment into an entrepreneurial one that might provide the opportunity to launch a new brand from the ground up. Or perhaps work abroad for a while. Either way, don’t be afraid to fail, as failure also comes with important lessons.

Strong contacts are valuable to a successful career.

Whether you know it or not, work relationships offer the biggest source of support for your career, because no matter what field you’re in, the smartest and most successful people all got there with advice from others.

The best relationships you can form all fall into one of four levels: The first level is your basic contacts, which covers everyone who’s ever entered your life.

These are unfiltered connections that include all your social network platforms, including e-mail, LinkedIn and Facebook contacts, as well as Twitter and Instagram followers.

These might not be the strongest connections, but they’re useful for sharing a message, such as the launch of a new product, with as many people as possible.

However, if you want one of these contacts to take action on your behalf, you’ll have to raise them to one of the following levels.

The second level contains the experts, who are people that carry specific knowledge and have access to certain information that could one day be the solution to a major problem. It’s important to maintain a good relationship here, which you can do by readily offering them your own expertise.

At the third level are the critical colleagues, which include your boss and other people who have the most impact on your career success. They might be the deciding factor in promotions and pay raises, and are largely responsible for your general happiness at work.

Finally, the fourth level contains the champions, such as your mentors and the small number of people who are there to offer support and advice. These might include a former professor or colleague who can provide a good reference for you. Naturally, these are people who should receive regular appreciation and goodwill.

Now that you have them in order, it’s good to regularly check in and identify your key contacts. And it’s always good to spend the most time with those who make you feel intelligent, stronger and more able to conquer your career goals.

Your first career stage is about self-improvement and making connections.

Careers last an average of 45 years, which is such a long time that it can be helpful to think of it in three separate stages, each of them lasting for about 15 years.

The first stage is all about getting yourself in the game, so this includes putting together a plan for your job search and building connections to land that first gig.

Creating a spreadsheet can be useful, as you can fill in the first column with around 20 different companies that you would be interested in working for. Then, start researching these businesses and try to find contacts that can help you get your foot in the door.

LinkedIn can be a good tool for establishing these contacts, as can your alumni network, which might contain someone who works at one of these companies.

Once you find a connection, send a short e-mail, along with your resume, to see if they’d be willing to spend 15 to 20 minutes talking about their job.

A short phone call will give you the chance to find out what skills the company is looking for, what the company culture is like and what your contact likes and dislikes about the job.

In job hunting, having a connection within the company always provides a huge advantage and increases your chances of getting that first interview and landing the job.

This first stage is also a time to discover what you are good at and improving these skills. Discovering what you are good at can be as simple as creating a list of what you enjoy and don’t enjoy doing.

No matter what, the 15 years of the first stage in your career should always be about finding ways to continue accumulating knowledge, better understand your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.

Everyone has weaknesses, such as public speaking, for instance, which can be improved by taking a class to learn different tips and tricks for making yourself comfortable in front of others.The main goal here is to lay a solid foundation to build upon during the next two stages.

The second stage of a career is the time to find your sweet spot and build a solid team.

Just as stage one is about finding what you’re good at, stage two is about becoming an expert at it by building upon your core strengths and making sure you stand out from the rest.

A great way to set yourself apart is to find your “sweet spot,” which is the intersection between what you are good at, what you love doing and which service you can provide the world.

So, if you’re are a talented communicator, you might focus your time and energy on building a reputation as being the best public speaker in your company.

Or, if you are a creative genius, work at becoming the company’s visionary and go-to person for innovative ideas. Whatever it is that you’re good at, highlight it and make sure others recognize it as well.

During this second 15-year stage in your career, you should be familiar with your weaknesses as well as your strengths. You can use this information to your advantage by building a strong team that contains people with skills that complement one another.

No one is perfect, so use this time to surround yourself with teammates that can compensate for the areas that aren’t your strongest.

Maybe those public speaking classes still didn’t make you a master of delivering a sales pitch to potential investors – so keep an eye out for the person that is great at selling ideas and winning people over.

During the second stage, you can put together all the pieces you need to sell your expertise as something that could benefit any company.

The third stage of a career is about planning the best ways for you to pass along your knowledge.

Remarkably, the average life expectancy for those in first-world countries has grown by 30 years over the past century, which means a person’s career can last longer than it ever has before.

But there are still preparations that need to be made, which is why the third stage of your career is all about setting the stage to pass your expertise on to the next generation.

For many people, work provides a purpose and motivation to get up in the morning, while also being a source of satisfaction. As such, reaching retirement age isn’t everyone’s idea of a blessing. But if you plan ahead, you can still pass the torch on to others and maintain a sense of contribution and value.

Succession is one of the most popular ways to go about this, as it ensures your company is prepared and can seamlessly transition from one leader to the next.

The formal way to set up a succession is to write everything out in documents that detail all your responsibilities, contacts, ongoing projects and the long-term goals you have for the company.

Another way is to have internal training and mentoring sessions at the company to share your knowledge and all the best practices that you’ve developed over the years. These sessions can even be recorded and stored using programs like Google Hangouts.

Depending on your area and depth of knowledge, your third stage could include time spent teaching a college course or perhaps offering classes in your neighborhood to help people of all ages learn a new skill.

But just because this is the final stage in your career, it doesn’t mean you should stop learning. Things are changing quickly, especially in the business world, and it’s important to stay up-to-date on all the latest developments if your expertise is going to stay relevant. If you work in marketing, you can’t ignore emerging topics like e-commerce and marketing automation.

So, use your mentoring sessions with the younger generation to both pass on knowledge and stay informed on current topics. This way, the final stage of your career can be one of respect and personal accomplishment.

We often underestimate how long a career is and miss out on the big picture by focusing on short-term successes. We can fix this short-sightedness by recognizing the long journey that constitutes a successful career and equipping ourselves with the right skills and relevant experiences to attain long-term satisfaction.

[dalanmendonca]

Why I did my MBA?

My decision to pursue an MBA is amongst the most puzzling one's to many of my acquaintances. "You were already a product manager, why did you do an MBA?". Funnily enough, I also get asked the conjugate of this question, "How did you become a product manager without an MBA?". Sigh! Will people ever stop asking questions and think for themselves? Many can't, so here's a story.

Unlike most people after undergrad in india, I was not inclined to go for higher education of any sort. The rat race wants you to compete for IIT and then compete for IIM. Having studied engineering in a relatively elite/top-tier college, I was astounded by how shitty the education was. India's colleges suck at imparting knowledge and relatedly, 90% of people are there are just there because their parents told them to be there. Once bitten, twice shy; I didn't want spend time and money on this scam again. Though I was a decently good rat, my eyes were open and I was happy with taking my time and choosing something sensibly instead of rushing into the cliche. Plus, finishing your undergraduate degree is (mostly) mandatory, else you're significantly disadvantaged in socio-economic system; not true for an advanced degree. It's totally optional.

So, I decided to explore by working. And work was fun! I was fortunate enough to join amazing companies, meet people from different backgrounds, learn new things and grow. Today I might pass off as a human and sometimes even an extrovert, but this was not the case for the first 22 years of my life. I had always been a pure geeky shy awkward robot.

Lots of things happened and I enjoyed my career progress, that progress allowed me to ignore the question of whether I should study further. About 2-3 years into working, I was considering doing a Masters, and choosing between ML/AI (what I had mild experience in) and Human Computer Interaction (what I had been utterly fascinated by). I wrote the GRE and TOEFL but ended not putting in the final applications. Between getting a promotion at work and the uncertainty over studying abroad, I just stopped. No one in my family had even done a masters degree, lets alone done one abroad, it was scary and confusing path that I ultimately abandoned.

So, I just continued working and switched to becoming a PM, at Paytm no less. I felt cool about getting the manager title and being slightly ahead of my friends in career terms. But then a new question popped up, "Should I do my MBA?". I initially dismissed it. I had gotten my break. I was a "manager". I was not looking for further career transitions. I had a great alumni network and brand from going to top-tier university in undergrad. Doing an MBA would not make me CEO. I could just grow organically.

Having been fooled once by the system, I looked at MBA degree not an education system but a combo of brand + network. The brand gives your resume a bump, the network gives you access to talented/awesome folks who can bring you unique opportunities. Anyone who believes anything else is deluding themselves, or so I believed.

What changed my mind was my abysmal success at the getting a fancy job after working as a PM for 3 years. I knew I had done a good job in the startup I had worked in, we had grown immensely in terms of revenue and there were tangible product+strategy changes that I had contributed to. But I went on the market and to try to move to a big fancy firm, I saw many weird things. Despite the awesome work I had done, I hard got any calls from the fancy firms like Amazon or Google. When I looked up on LinkedIn, I saw that entire product teams at these companies were populated by MBA graduates. Why?! You can do this work without this degree (as I had!).

I got a chance to interview at some mid-tier firms like LinkedIn, Grab and Myntra; but I bombed all my interviews. In hindsight my mistakes are obvious. I thought I'll just show up and talk about experiences and that should be it. What's better than the story of someone who's 100Xed the volumes, right? That didn't work out.

Oh, did I mention that I was doing this job hunt at a time when I was severely burnt out after working like crazy in a startup and watching it teeter on the edge of death and failure as it ran out of funding?

Bathing in this cauldron of rejection, failure and frustration. I looked for a way out, a way to continue career progress. The MBA stamp from a place would ensure I at least got a foot in the door when applying. The network would increase the expected value of my net worth. Plus I wanted a break but a not a long one. I still had qualms about two year MBA programs which effectively take 2 years out of the prime of your life and also rob you of income. So I was focused on 1 year programs like ISB and INSEAD. INSEAD didn't happen, ISB did it. And that's how I ended up going to B-school.

Did it work out? Were the promises fulfiled this time or was it a scam again? Find out on the next episode!

[because-its-important]

transitions & transformations

i. the rest of my batch at RC

I spent the first six weeks of my batch at Recurse Center in an out-and-out sprint. I learned Python, built and released projects, and wrote blog posts every week. I wasn’t sure where my limits were, but I was determined to find out - preferably by overshooting them, then adjusting after the fact.

A curious thing happened. I kept finding that I was more than capable of starting and finishing projects, especially when I had a firm mental image of the end goal. There were at least as many unexpected good-turns as there were setbacks, and I certainly didn’t come up against any inscrutable barriers. Mostly the challenge was in overcoming the distance between a thing that doesn’t exist and a thing that does, which I was able to sort out pretty handily through a consistent application of effort across time.

Who’d have thought?

A selfie taken on my birthday, which also happened in the last few months and was really great!

The second half of my batch was not so visibly productive - with the exception of The Question Game. The Question Game is a simple game designed to help groups of people get to know each other better IRL. I designed it with my friend Brittany a few years ago as an icebreaker when we found ourselves in a group of folks who knew us but didn’t really know each other. The game only really needs a method of generating random numbers for a small but arbitrary group size, but building it out as a toy webapp was a good excuse to get practice working with a JS-only stack. I learned React, got a lil more familiar with node, and even went as far as to attach an otherwise completely unnecessary PG database and Sequelize ORM. You can see the code for it here. Outside of this project, however, I didn’t publish any code. I didn’t publish any writing, either.

So I’d like to take a moment and shine a bit of light on the work that I did during the rest of my batch.

🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘

First, I made the decision to leave community.lawyer, the social impact startup I co-founded in 2016 following the Blue Ridge Labs Fellowship.

I’m happy to report that I left on the come up, which seems a rare and privileged thing for a founder to be able to say. Gaining traction in a hyper-specialized industry like legal tech takes a gargantuan amount of sustained forward momentum, and I departed just as we began to reap the fruits of our labor. In the last few months community.lawyer has reached final approval on partnerships a year in the making, won federal grants we’d submitted to in 2016, and every day our software is being used to help connect people who have legal needs with credible lawyers. Our first two partners were exactly the types of legal organizations at the heart of our mission: the Justice Entrepreneurs Project and the DC Reduced Fee Lawyer & Mediator Referral Service.1 Based in Chicago and Washington DC respectively, these orgs are specifically chartered to deliver quality services at rates that more Americans can afford. I am so proud. ⚖️

Second, I started my first ever job hunt as a software engineer. Wowee, this was scary! I knew that I had to prepare for interviewing, which meant a) getting my career change narrative straight, b) studying Data Structures & Algorithms 101, and c) learning how to perform my handle on both of these in a live, semi-adversarial environment.

At one point during my batch my laptop broke. I read through this wonderful illustrated book during the two days it was being fixed.

In order to direct my search I also had to craft a set of selection criteria of my own. Foremost: “What good will my work do for the world?”2 Additionally, “What degree of access will I have to supportive mentors?”

Getting started with interview prep was a challenge, at least partly because I had so many options for where to start. But I did get started! I read Cracking the Coding Interview, I did the free trial and weekly free problems on Interview Cake. I attended a few group mock interviews at Recurse Center and signed up for a 1-1 mock interview with an RC alum. Her name is Leah, and she’s amazing - the superbly friendly and encouraging Comp Sci TA I wish I’d had years ago. 💚Brittany also set up mock technical screens for me with her pals, Leaf and Ian. They were the vanguard against my outsized anxiety about programming for an audience and they each took the time to give me solid feedback.

Third, I extended my batch at Recurse Center by another 6 weeks. I had decided early on I wouldn’t extend (for no real reason) and stuck with this decision up until two days before my batch ending. A small group of folks - Lily, Connor, Alicja and I - went to NYX in Union Square to try out lipsticks. We played with different colors and finishes (satin! matte! shimmer!) for half an hour or so. There came a point when I looked up, glanced across the narrow makeup store at my beautiful friends’ beautiful faces and thought, “You know, you don’t have to leave yet, right? What’s the rush?” I’d already accomplished my primary goal, to forcibly rework my identity as an engineer, but it sure seemed that I could stand to reach for a second one. That night I decided to extend my batch, with the intention of sampling a more open method of self-directed learning, i.e. with a little more chill and a lot less panic. Specifically, I wanted to practice connecting meaningfully with my limited supply of social energy.

In my bonus six weeks, I: gave three talks (2 planned, 1 impromptu) under encouragement from Ayla and Lily, learned to juggle thanks to instruction from a fellow RCer, Edward, who also loaned me a book about learning, made it into weekly Feelings Check-in (read as: opt-in support group) fairly regularly, picked my first ever lock, saw a live-coding show and then later attended two live-coding workshops (one on TidalCycles, another on Super Collider), sat in a dark room and played howling wolf clips while Microsoft Sam read grimoires aloud, got my hair braided for the first time in a decade, made dumplings and DJ’d for a dinner party, connected with folks about queer-poly relationships, gave fiery advice, and received compliments so earnest and rational and persistent that it was difficult to refute them.

Zine fair plus Lightning Bolt concert inside a movie theater in Times Square??

I also put my interview prep to use and interviewed with a handful of Recurse Center partner companies. Job searching meant squaring off against impostor syndrome and a ton of related anxieties in rapid succession. I successfully choked most of that down when it mattered, though, and it was only a couple short weeks before I received my first offer.

To that end, I’m super happy to say that I’ll be joining Blink Health as a Fullstack Product Engineer! Blink Health is a healthcare startup in SoHo. They make it easier for people to afford prescription drugs, especially for those with limited insurance plans or none at all. These savings aren’t trivial either: an extra $50 can spare someone from choosing between groceries or medicine that week, and for some folks Blink saves many times that. I’ll be starting at the end of this month. ✌️🤓

The last two years have been a wild ride: participating in a social impact fellowship and accelerator, busting my product chops and learning web dev to get a public benefit company off the ground, then diving into four months of self-directed learning at Recurse Center. I’m really looking forward to having some externally imposed structure again. Real health insurance, too.

ii. some hard truths

I made a few radical life changes in 2016, like getting involved in activist spaces, dating more, biking everywhere, building strong friendships, going capital-B Boogying, programming full-time. As I carried those changes forward through 2017, I began to notice a lot of mental and emotional reconfiguration happening to me.

Did you know that along its way to becoming a butterfly, a caterpillar nearly completely liquifies inside its cocoon?

Psychological growth is confusing, full of false starts, and generally painful. You’ve got the static pain of stretching beyond your limits, the pleasure-pain of feeling an old knot finally release, the frustrating pain of stubbing your toe because some helpful asshole has been rearranging your psychic furniture when you weren’t looking. There’s the more dramatic knife-in-the-gut pain of realizing that just because you’re growing doesn’t mean the people closest to you are, and that now in certain cases what you previoulsy regarded as friendship actually looks a whole lot like run-of-the-mill exploitation or even emotional abuse, if you're being honest, and it's a realization that only hurts more because it’s so irredeemably cliche and boring. And despite all that pain you gotta go ahead and grow anyway, claw your way out of the relative comfort of ignorance. Transcendence may not be the only show in town but afaik it’s the one most worth watching.

Prior to attending Recurse Center I’d spent lots of time exploring my surroundings and cataloguing people and places worth coming back to. My view of myself did change (and positively!) as a consequence. But sooner or later, ya get tired of the taste of low-hanging fruit.

So, armed with the bookshelf of a philosophy grad and a burgeoning psychoanalytic vocabulary begging to be let off leash, I decided to use my time at RC to try confronting a few of my Hard To See truths in addition to becoming a better programmer.

Here’s what I’ve found so far.

Truth #1: People like me a lot. This causes me problems.

I’ve been metabolizing this one for some time. I remember having a conversation with Brittany in January of 2016. I don’t remember what social anxiety I’d been vocalizing, but I must have been worrying that someone “hated me.” Brittany cut me off, exasperated in the way that only a friend can be in the face of utter delusion: “No one hates you Nicole! You’re always worried that people don’t like you and it’s never true!”

I carried that admonishment with me through two years of voracious friendship-building. On the whole, seeing that people do in fact enjoy and seek out my company has curbed the most egregious overreaches of my social anxiety. But reckoning with my anxiety honestly has also meant acknowledging that my compulsive instinct to withdraw from social situations is also a protective (if suboptimal) response to a few very real dangers.

Most acutely: being friendly, generous, and intensely empathetic makes me a ready target for users. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt for as long as I can, which makes me proportionally susceptible to being taken advantage of and then gaslighted about it. A lifetime of socialization as a petite woman don’t help, neither. This leads to a pattern where, semi-regularly, I look up and take stock of how someone has been treating me and realize that the answer is Very Badly, For Quite A While. This in turn leads to rough periods of cutting ties and moving on. Ideally I’d like to be be able to filter bad actors out sooner, but I also want to stay open, giving, and hopeful beyond reason. Those desires are fundamentally at odds with each other - raising vs. lowering one’s defenses - but it’s clear that I need to come up with a strategy that balances both.

More broadly, though, I operate under an ever-present dread of inevitably disappointing everyone who knows me. Whether people project onto me because they already like me or like me more because they project positively onto me, I am extremely sensitive to the fact that when people meet me the conception they form has waaay more to do with what they want to find than what’s actually there. My body is a surface readily projected upon: young, female-shaped, ethnically ambiguous, small, smiling. These well-intended projections cause me the most trouble when people see me interacting socially; they’ll witness fifteen minutes of seemingly effortless extroversion on my part and extrapolate out massively. As far as they’re concerned I’ve got plenty of social energy to spare, and if I don’t spend it hanging out with them, it must be because either my friendliness is fake or I don’t like them.

Pretty much none of this is conducted consciously, of course, but it still creates a lot of unnecessary pressure that I can’t pretend not to feel and resent. I know there are people who dream about attaining this kind of “popularity” - to be assumed Cooler than one truly is - but getting buffeted around by folks’ totally unexamined, unarticulated psychological desires mostly sucks.

Truth #2: I’m non-binary.

I’ve also spent a very long time resisting this one. Two decades on the rack, easy. As such, the story of getting here is long. Perhaps one day I’ll tell it. 😛

The short of it, though, is this: I’m probably at least as much of a boy3 as I am a girl. Outside of where my life has been mutated by the chronic background radiation of sexism, “benevolent” and otherwise, I don’t strongly identify as a woman. Furthermore, I find the two-gender system to be infinitely more alienating than comforting. Gender is a social construction designed to impose order on the natural messiness of sexual experience, and as far as I’m cool with that, I am decidedly Not Cool with the “normal” state of affairs, i.e. aggressively shoving whole human beings into an absurdly reductive false dichotomy.

Between its either-or-ism and its forced assignment, the traditional approach to gender reveals itself to be obviously bullshit to anyone who spends more than a few minutes thinking about it. Its boundaries are arbitrary, inconsistent, and generally ill-fitting at the level of individual experience, which why they require such an outrageous amount of coercion and bodily violence to enforce. As much as other folks want to participate in a system of ritualized violence I guess they are free to? Personally, I’d prefer to see it actively dismantled.

If gender is to be saved it’ll be by subverting it, taking it apart, remaking it into something life-affirming. Not the dehumanizing garbage we’ve got now.

As of yet I don’t have any plans to change my presentation because I don’t fuckin’ gotta!

I do have a preference towards They / Them pronouns, but She / Her is still fine. For most of my friends this isn’t going to be at all surprising nor will it in any way negatively impact our relationship. Anyone who needs me to just-be-a-girl, however, can expect turbulence.

Truth #3: My righteous anger is justified and I am good at using it to help others.

I have felt conflicted about my anger for a long time. Since a very vocal childhood I have been regularly frustrated by prejudices and injustices, and I was frequently the first voice of dissent against them, whether that meant challenging adults or my peers. Unsurprisingly, I became well acquainted with the standard strokes of the backlash.

When you are confronting bigotry in a mixed environment, the voice of the status quo will generally manifest in one of two ways:

Gaslighting, e.g. “you are wrong to have said this at all, obviously I am a Good Person, you are just imagining that what I said sounded like XYZ, honestly how could you even think this, as a matter of fact it is I who is offended!”

Tone policing, e.g. “you’re too upset about this! after all, I, the person who did Fucked Up Thing, am perfectly calm about Fucked Up Thing, so any amount of anger makes you irrational by contrast, and I get a raincheck on whatever this is about!”

I know these responses are repulsive. I know they are merely the signs of a weak and imperiled ego acting out of fear. And yet I still spend an inordinate amount of time second-guessing my own anger. Gaslighting and tone policing are a favored weapon of the status quo because they work, and they work in direct proportion to how agreeable their target wants to be.

content warning: the following segment talks about sexual harassment and assault

About couple weeks ago I had the misfortune of being sexually harassed at a club in Bushwick. After numerous rejections and explicitly telling a creep bothering me, my friends, and other women in the club to get lost, I finally went to get a bouncer to eject him. The bouncer got the creep to leave. When I went to thank him, the bouncer told me a whole story about how the creep was “a harmless guy.” Then he reached down and grabbed my ass. Presumably he felt entitled to do this after helping me get rid of a person I asked him to remove... for unwanted touching.

It Really Sucked.

At every turn during the whole ordeal (and its aftermath) I had to hold onto my anger, convince myself that I wasn’t overreacting, remind myself that anyone who thought this was acceptable to do to me is almost certainly doing worse to more vulnerable people. I kept picturing myself the way this guy, this man in a position of power, must have seen me in order to feel okay doing what he did. That I was young, small, female, too friendly to say No, already indebted anyway; that he was one of the Good Guys, that his behavior was also “harmless” because he had decided it was. I conjured up as much anger as I could, pushed down the nausea of envisioning my own degradation from an attacker’s POV, and got to work. I reached out to the club and was quickly put in contact with the owner. The venue now has a publicly posted zero tolerance sexual harassment policy. The entire staff is going through training with a local org dedicated to creating safer nightlife spaces. And that motherfucker has been fired.

I demonstrably made the world better. I wasn’t alone, but all that happened because of my actions. Me and my anger, we did that.

I wish more people were this fucking angry. 💢

~ end of content warning ~

iii. an opinion

My Saturn return is upon me, y’all. As Frank Ocean serenades, we’ll never be those kids again. I have lived a few of these here nine lives and it seems only prudent to be moving forward with some sort of opinion on the matter.

My opinion is this: us folks with financial and physical security should be spending more time fixing shit around here. Figuring out what needs fixing and how you might help are the first steps.

If you’re operating on a similar scale of privilege as I am, maybe that means changing jobs to do more mission-oriented work. If you can’t swing a change of that magnitude, maybe it means showing up to community events and engaging with, caring for, supporting people you otherwise wouldn’t talk to. Churches, libraries, volunteering, supporting local artists, participating in local politics - this all counts. If you’re already doing this sorta thing, that is awesome! Maybe you also have a friend worth inviting who you sense is just itching for a chance to exercise compassion?

I’m using “fixing” pretty loosely here, too. Fixing, to my mind, means making the world brighter, safer, and sweeter for your fellows, human and otherwise. We’ve all got different ideas about what that looks like, and there are definitely folks - myopic or malevolent or both - who will swear up and down that their fear- and hate-driven behaviors will bring about better world. Ultimately, though, I believe that many hands reaching towards their personal vision of Better will in fact make things Better, especially when that vision is informed by meaningful interaction with the real world and its real sorrows and its real triumphs.

But ya gotta reach. Ya gotta try.

I am so tired of hearing my well-fed, well-homed friends piss and moan about late capitalism4 without lifting a damn finger in service of the communities bearing the brunt of material hardship. Unfettered capitalism sure does have a marked tendency to wreak havoc on organic life! But capitalism is not a monolith, and lamenting the abuses perpetuated by its principle benefactors as unchanging or inevitable only normalizes them. Any investigation into the history of capitalism (or the broader phenomena of how a Few come to subjugate the Many) will very quickly disabuse you of the notion that this shit is going to stop without a great deal of active resistance.5

So unless you are personally doing work to put our current strand of democracy-withering corporatism six-feet-under, seriously, just STFU instead. Your nihilism is boring! You don’t sound woke! Save it for your local DSA working group!

Which isn’t to say that I’m not convinced of the wickedness6 of the problems we’re facing: skyrocketing wealth disparity with no relief in sight; the destruction of most of Earth’s biodiversity via mass extinction; a pernicious climate of racism and xenophobia that scapegoats black and brown folks and then visits misery upon them; the weight of an aging population bearing down on the shittiest healthcare system of any nation in its class; a widely disenfranchised electorate further fragmented and fatigued by hyper-polarization; the gendered terrorism that is inflicted daily on women, trans and non-binary folks, and queer people at large; a rising wave of depressive anxiety as people become more aware of these problems and how thoroughly they’ve been disempowered from changing things for the better.

So yeah, I get it. These are hard problems. I just don’t see any better option than trying anyway. I want to spend my time fixing things around here and encouraging others to try their hand too. You already know the bad news: real change is hard and it can take a very long time. You might work your whole life sowing seeds whose fruit you never get to taste.

The good news, however, is that you can get started whenever and wherever you are. The good news is that a sense of purpose is its own reward.

iv. how to get started

When you’ve got hard work ahead of you, your best bet is to use your beautiful human brain and create some leverage. Ask Archimedes about it.7

Lever systems got two parts:

The lever, which is the tool you use to amplify your effort. The longer your lever is, the easier your job will be.

The fulcrum, which is the wedge the lever rests on. The nearer your fulcrum is to the thing you want to move, the easier your job will be.

If you’re starting from zero - “I want to do more for the world but I don’t know how!” - my advice is to forget about the lever arm for now. A lever ain’t shit without a fulcrum, anyway. Your time is better spent exploring the world, keeping an eye out for problems you’d like to solve, and identifying nearby points of leverage. If you want to get into activism, a fulcrum might be volunteering to fold pamphlets for an organization with a mission you believe in. If want to see more self-expression in the world, it might be might be inviting your friends to a zine-making class or hosting your own arts and craft night.

The best fulcrum is one that makes you Feel Good when you apply any amount of effort against it. Too many people get caught up in a self-defeating belief that if they can’t give 110% of their creative energy to something they might as well not try. I can confidently say that trying is itself a virtue. Every time you try even a little bit you make it easier for yourself to try again later, and more importantly, you make trying easier for others. A bunch of people altering their behavior a smidge in the same direction doesn’t add up to nothing; on the contrary, it’s a sea change.

If you’ve got a decent idea of the types of problems you want to solve, though, and you’ve tested your fulcrums, and you are thinking, “Okay, but is this all I’m capable of giving?” then it’s probably time to work on your lever. Given your own interests and inclinations, what skills can you develop that will increase the good you’re doing 10x, 100x over? This is the long game, but it scales a whole lot better than “keep doing what I’m already doing, but more.”

For me right now this means deepening my technical knowledge, building a resilient support network, and sharing what I’m learning. Helping others has been a powerful motivator for self-improvement, not the least of which because it’s a convenient shortcut through the snarl of self-confidence issues.

I am so grateful that Recurse Center was a stop on lengthening my lever! What a concentrated cluster of helpful, considerate beings.

I’ve spent the last two years wandering around New York City in wide-eyed wonder, asking myself the most ambitious question I could think of: how do you save the world?

Getting older comes with a lot of downsides, but asking yourself big questions and living your life as the answer is the primary pleasure of adulthood. It took a ton of courage to get started and I am still frequently awed to find myself moving in the right direction. I’m humbled by the grace and fortitude of the folks who’ve been at this for way longer.

I’m also a hell of a lot happier. This summer’s gonna be rad. ☀️

There are lots of extraordinarily sexy company names like this in the legal world. ↩︎

Having the choice to direct my energies in this way is a privilege. Working in tech gives me this freedom of motion and I have been drawn to software engineering in part because it is the freest of the free (if you still gotta labor for your living). ↩︎

😱😫😖😬😬😬... 😏 ↩︎

Substitute with whatever modifier is en vogue. As a point of fact, “late capitalism” is a term that’s been floating around for literally over a hundred years. ↩︎

Thankfully, history also clearly demonstrates that the tide can be turned. ↩︎

“The use of the term ‘wicked’ here has come to denote resistance to resolution.” Wikipedia page. ↩︎

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world,” etc etc. ↩︎

[justlistenuniverse]

Sterek Headcanon

So Stiles is the 24-year-old son of a successful company and a foundation owner

His mom died pretty early in his life but he still remembers her (and yes, he misses her)

He's expected to take over the company once he turns 30 but he always misses important meetings and seems to spend too much money and no-one knows what he buys

When he misses a foundation-event (which is very unusual because Stiles absolutely loves playing with kids and trying to get them to be happy for a little while), he's called into an emergency meeting as tabloids and internet blogs have picked up on his absence and are publishing articles about him being drug addicted

The most important people of the company, including his dad, demand for him to explain where he always spends his time and since his father picked up on his frantic excuses that are getting more obvious lies every day he's not amused my Stiles' stutters

But when his dad says that Stiles is the future of the company and should learn to take responsibility and maintain a positive image he snaps

He yells at them that it's his life and they can't tell him what to do and that he doesn't want the future they want him to have and runs

He takes a random flight of a random country and ends up somewhere in the Alps in Switzerland, booking into some hotel and spends the first day curled up in his room, phone off, TV showing some documentary about wolfs

The next day Stiles decides to go for a walk, managing to get lost when it starts snowing heavily

He's hopelessly running through the woods, clothes all wet from the snow, not seeing a thing and calling for help when he stumbles over a cabin

The door isn't locked, so he walks in and collapses on the floor

When he wakes up he's lying on a couch, staring at a huge, handsome man, who's scowling down at him

Stiles yelps and falls off the couch

"What the fuck, dude? What's your problem?"

"You are the one that broke into my house."

"I... the door was open."

"Doesn't give you permission."

And the guy won't stop glaring and frankly, it's getting on Stiles' nerves

"Alright, grumpy cat. No need to glare me to death. Just let me use your phone and I'll be out of your hair in a minute."

"I don't have a phone."

"Uhm, E-Mail?"

"No Internet-connection."

"Then would you consider driving me to the next town?"

"I don't have a car either."

"And hooow am I gonna get back to civilization?"

"There's nothing out here. The next town is several miles away. Walking would take a whole day."

"And how do you stay alive out here? Do you hunt down innocent rabbits or something? Steal eggs from birds? Look for berries? Get water from the lake that must be around here somewhere?"

The guy scoffs at Stiles. "I have someone who brings me food and other stuff once a month."

"And when is their next visit scheduled?"

Cabin-man (who kinda looks like Superman. If Superman would wear henleys and dark jeans and won't shave for some weeks. Stiles is a tiny bit intimidated) sighs like Stiles is the worst thing he ever encountered. Which, rude.

"In two weeks."

"Great, I'll stay here for the time being."

"No way. That's not happening."

"And where do you suggest me to stay instead? Think one of your many neighbors has a guestroom he doesn't need?"

The guy sighs again - honestly, doesn't he know how to use words? - and rolls his eyes

"Fine. Two weeks."

"Great. Do you have a second bed or will I take the couch?"

Stiles gets to take a shower - how is it that grumpy cat has a huge house (seriously, it's huge and beautiful, all woody and glass) and hot water but no phone or internet? - and caveman lends him clothes that aren't dripping with melting snow (and are only a little bit too wide because Stiles and he share the same high but the guy also has the build of Superman and not just the face and that's so unfair)

Caveman introduces himself as "Derek" and raises one impressive eyebrow when Stiles offers a "Stiles Stilinski"

They drink coffee and Derek shows Stiles a surprisingly comfortable guest room. He even gets two blankets because yes, it's damn cold even inside the house

The next day, Stiles wakes up to Derek chopping wood outside and they silently eat breakfast together

Stiles is pacing around, drumming beats on every surface when Derek snaps at him to please keep quiet or read a book

Stiles snaps back that he can't stop it because he hasn't had his Adderall (and nearly pulls out his hair when he realizes that he'll go into withdrawal in the next few days)

Derek snorts and is all "Nice, so I'm stuck with some Idiot who managed to get lost in the middle of a snowstorm and to top that off, said Idiots has ADHD?"

"Woha dude, you seriously need to lighten up."

"Don't call me dude."

"Alright, grumpy cat, you really don't have a phone or a laptop? Fax? Light symbols? An owl?"

"No. You have to play Harry Potter somewhere else."

"Ha, so you  know pop culture!"

"I choose to live like this. Doesn't mean that I always did."

Stiles spends the rest of the day asking Derek tons of questions - "Who's your favorite character? Do you know Star Wars? Can we please talk Sherlock?" - and only getting one-word answers

Most days go like this until Stiles starts cooking because he already read half of Derek's (impressive yet boring) library and needs to keep his hands busy

Derek mostly reads or work on texts and keeps to himself and it's bugging Stiles because there's nothing to do around here

"Seriously, can't you answer one of my questions with more than two words?"

"No."

"Why are you here anyway? I mean you clearly aren't from Switzerland."

"What gave me away."

"Mark the date! Derek said more than two words! And your ability to speak English with an accent that sounds a bit like mine."

"Derek. Deeerek."

"What."

"It's so quiet."

"Yes."

"It's too quiet."

"No."

"Derek!"

"Hey, grumpy cat?"

"Stiles."

"Don't you have anything to do for me? I'm really bored."

"... Do you play chess?"

Turns out that both of them are really good at chess (and that Derek hasn't played in ages because "it's a two-person game, Stiles.")

Derek starts to open up a bit more. At one point, he talks two hours about why Remus Lupin is his most-favorite character. And another two hours on why John Snow is boring.

Stiles tells him about his life (born in Beacon Hills, moved to New York after his mom's death). He also tells him that while he loves the foundation of his family, he hates the company and secretly studies at Columbia University which is where the money goes everyone thinks he's spending on drugs and why he misses some events

(Derek is actually impressed)

Derek quietly tells him that he used to be a middle-school teacher but won't tell why he moved out there

They actually get along well with Stiles finding himself falling for Derek because the guy may glare more than laugh but he's a huge marshmallow underneath

But then Stiles stumbles into Derek's room one morning to lend another shirt and Derek's not there so he goes to the closet and finds a small box under the shirts

It's filled with old articles cut from magazines, a picture of a huge family (Derek had to be around 13 on that photograph) and a small stuffed wolf

And when Stiles sees the picture it clicks

Because Derek is Derek Hale from Beacon Hills who's family died in a fire (Stiles only knows this because he stayed in contact with his kindergarten friend Scott who told him about that)

Derek comes into the room when Stiles is staring at the photo and loses it

He yells at Stiles for touching his stuff and why he can't just leave Derek alone

And Stiles accidentally lets the picture fall because Derek scared him

He runs out, quickly getting lost again in the wood and are those wolfs he hears?

He's running around for hours, not knowing where he is and slowly freezing because he didn't take a jacket with him

But right when he thinks that he'll die out there, Derek's there, pulling him into his arms with a breathless "Stiles." when he sees him

Back in the cabin Stiles gets covered with every blanket Derek can find

And while he drinks tea and a fire is crackling away in the fireplace, Derek tells him his story

His family, the Hales, were pretty famous in Beacon Hills. Thalia Hale was a well-known advocate, her brother Peter owned a wolf sanctuary and her husband Dave was an author

When Derek was 15, his mom managed to frame one Gerard Argent who had killed several people as a doctor in a hospital by poisoning them and watching them slowly die ("Like that guy in Sherlock?" "Yes, like that guy in Sherlock.")

Thalia got several threats against her life and that of her family but finished the case and Gerard Argent was charged with murder and had to pay a huge sum to the families of the victims and also faced a life imprisonment

The Argents were in the papers for months even though Gerard's kids didn't have anything to do with it

When Derek was 16 he met Kate, an older woman who was clearly interested in him and he dated her, kissed her and slept with her

She always asked about his family but he thought it normal since he got many questions about them anyway

But One night, when his whole family was gathered due to his dad's birthday, there suddenly was a fire. It spread fast and they couldn't make it outside because all the doors were looked

Laura, Derek, and Cora where the only survivors

Laura took them to New York were she finished her degree and managed to pick up Thalia's job while Derek decided to study to become a teacher once he finished High School

But some years later, when Derek was 25 ("Wait, how old are you now?" "I'm 32." "Holy shit."), they started to get threats

Cora went missing the next day

When Derek was 27, Cora's remains were found. Evidence led to one Kate Argent, Gerard Argent's daughter who wanted revenge for her dad.

Before the police could catch her and before Derek could tell Laura, Kate managed to crash her cars into Laura's, killing both of them on impact

Derek fleed to Switzerland, believing that it was his fault because he didn't see the danger Kate displayed or the person she really was

"Why Switzerland, though?"

"My mom loved snow and peace. This was our family getaway because here, no-one knew us."

"Oh, that's why this place is so huge?"

They talked some more about everything and anything and when they parted for the night, Stiles hugged Derek close

"You aren't at fault, Derek. Kate Argent is the villain here. I hope you know that."

And if Derek pulls Stiles a little bit closer and buries his face in his neck, no-one has to know but them

The next couple of days were filled with a new kind of warmth

Derek chopped wood while Stiles made breakfast, they played chess and somehow, Derek started to read Stiles some of his favorite passages from his favorite books (which aren't as boring as Stiles thought)

The day before Stiles is set to leave, they cook together and make s'mores over a candle. And they laugh a lot and Stiles doesn't know how he ended up so close to Derek but there's this gorgeous face of this gorgeous man and Stiles kisses him

It's slow and sweet and Stiles doesn't want to stop

They don't have sex but they cuddle and kiss the whole night on Derek's bed, falling asleep shortly before the sun starts to rise

Waking up in Derek's arms makes Stiles want to stay but when he tells Derek so, the man tells him to go because he can't stay with him forever

They fight because Stiles doesn't want to go and also doesn't think that Derek should tell him what to do because that is the thing that made him run from his own dad in the first place and it ends with Stiles leaving with the delivery guy

When he looks back through the window, he swears he can see Derek crying

When he reaches the hotel his dad is there

Turns out he got really really worried when he couldn't get a hold of Stiles after the fight that he let someone trace Stiles' credit card and followed him to Switzerland

Stiles never hugged his dad so hard in all of his life

Back in New York - and after he let Scott know that he was fine and alive - he calls a meeting himself, telling everyone who has something to say about the company that he doesn't want to take over the company and that he's studying at Columbia

They settle on Stiles taking over the foundation because he always loved it and him helping them to find someone suitable to take over the company once his dad had plans to retire

Stiles get's to go to Columbia without having to make up some lies and the press quickly picks up on it. There are still scandals about him but he has a pretty positive image now

A month later, Scott comes to visit him

And it takes the man all but two minutes to see that Stiles isn't happy at all

Stiles tells him the story of Derek and Scott smiles at him

"You are in love with him."

"What?! No! No way!"

"Stiles. Go get him."

And maybe Scott is right. Scratch that, Scott is definitely right and Stiles needs to mark this date on his calendar because Scott is rarely right about something

But he won't go to Switzerland because Derek wanted him to leave

Three days later, Stiles gets picked up by Derek once his classes have finished

The fucker just leans against a really beautiful Camaro, wearing that red thumb-hole jumper Stiles really loves and looks all hopeful when he spots Stiles

Funnily enough, Stiles first question isn't what Derek is doing here

"Where did you get that car?"

"I left it here when I run to Switzerland."

"And what made you come back?"

"I don't know."

"Well, we better make you find a good reason then."

And they kiss against the Camaro

"Wait, how did you know when I have classes?"

"I googled your company - yes Stiles, I know how to use the internet, don't look at me like that - and went to see your dad-"

"You went to see my dad? Holy crap, you love me."

"I... I do. I love you."

"Good. I love you too."

Bonus:

Derek decides to move in with Stiles. He ends up applying and getting accepted as a middle school teacher for English and history. Stiles is not surprised.

Stiles' dad loves Derek and vice versa. The two of them like to watch baseball together. The "Call me John, son." wasn't a surprise to anyone

The Company chooses one Lydia Martin as Stiles' "lifesaver", as he calls it. She's a young, beautiful, incredibly intelligent woman. They hit it off immediately, two clever people finally having someone to challenge them

Stiles graduates with honors and several job offers. No-one but Derek knows what exactly he studied but they are all extremely proud of him.

"Sterek" become the Dream-couple of charity work. Whenever Stiles does something, Derek is there too and when Derek starts to work with kids who lost their family, Stiles is there to support him along the way

Derek cries when Lydia asks him to be the godfather of her first child ("No Stiles, I haven't forgotten about you. But Jackson really wanted Derek to be the godfather and I have no idea why but he was the second one on my list so he'll get the job this time.")

They sometimes have bad days. Derek is in therapy now but it resulted in the worst nightmares once he started going. Stiles one day finds a letter from his mother addressed to him in one of the books she loved and he wanted to give to Derek. He isn't able to leave the bed for days. But they are always there for each other.

The tabloids ship them. So does everyone else.

Derek is 36 when he finally realizes that he found a new family. It's Christmas and he ends up in the center of a massive group hug, carefully of his goddaughter sleeping in his arms, when he tells them he loves them.

Stiles and Derek still use the cabin as a getaway.

[nervousruinscreation]

This might be a bit self indulgent - but I have been really excited for the session with Heather Croall because The Adelaide Fringe has been an important arts festival for my career.

I grew up in regional South Australia, and I was really lucky that we had one of the few regional arts companies nearby. I did a few after school drama classes, and i fell in love. It wasn’t so much the idea of wanting to be an actor and dreaming to be famous, like many kids. But having a connection to the arts, beyond the curriculum arts and crafts projects you do in school as a means to develop fine motor skills. 

When I was 14 someone dropped out of the senior ensemble because they got into a very prestigious acting program at a university interstate, and they asked if I would join the project. This was ground breaking because it felt very special and i knew that the show was going to tour to Adelaide for something called the fringe festival. At this point in my life I hadn’t spent much time in the ‘city’ and I was quite naive. This sounds silly but in a way thinking about Adelaide was mostly based on ideas of what it meant. Like it seemed so huge it may as well had been New York.

Traveling to Adelaide with a cast of people older than me, seeing shows, pop up venues (this was when the garden of unearthly delights was essentially just one tent). I just had no idea that there was the whole other world out there and the fringe just seemed like this big electric playground.

I also felt like many of the skills that i had finally made sense. And i had so much drive to learn about all things related to the arts. visual arts. theatre lighting. photography. 

Pictured above: myself to the left and the cast of LANDED.

Our show LANDED, ended up winning a fringe award - back in the day when its wasn’t weekly awards but just one big awards night.

That experience led me to my first job out of highschool, working as an arts administation trainee at that youth arts company. I was learning how to apply for grants, attending arts conferencing, organising art exhibitions and programming. 

Looking back I felt like i was very brave, or braver than how i feel now.

Me at 18, shooting photos for a big collaborative art project, taking photos in iconic places in my home down but making them larger than life. This is the ruins of a house that I used to drive past every-time i made the commute to Adelaide and back. The CFS assisted with the lighting and the giant coloured smoke. The young people involved in the shoot aged 8-16 were all dressed like  clowns.

So i feel like i have been on this search back to my roots, and i feel like i am myself most when I am being creative, working collaboratively with others and building community. 

I went on to study visual arts, encouraged by all of my experiences until that point, I enjoyed developing my owns practise but noticed that I wasn’t as driven in comparison to working with other curious, excited and enthusiastic others. 

My career pathway took a weird turn, as i got very involved with activist spaces and Australian politics. And I even spent 5 years working in Australian federal politics as an electoral staffer for a Senator, with one of the highlights being meeting Julia Gillard in her office the week before she got rolled.

I think eventually i got burnt out, the time i stopped working in that area just just as the Australian postal plebisite was finishing. I was really over getting letters and emails from constituents that included homophobic rhetoric. As a queer person i felt like this effected my mental health, and I felt like i needed to re centre myself. 

I started focusing on writing again.  

trying to meet other people who were interested in working on projects together.

We produced, wrote and made performance based work for the Adelaide Fringe, I took on a lot of the PR/social media marketing/producing parts of it. because at this point I hard started the double degree that I’m doing now and thought that I should try to develop more skills.

Eventually we got to the point of producing a show that was going to tour internationally, to the Edinburgh Fringe.

I wasn’t planning on going at all, but after 6 months of job hunting while studying, i wasn’t getting anywhere. I figuired that I could continue studying if i brought a laptop with me. So in one day i decided that I wanted to go too, bought a plane ticket for the next day, and rushed off to go and buy a suitcase.

Exploring the Ed Fringe as an adult, I felt like the 14 year old discovering the Adelaide fringe all over again. The trip was a massive risk for me, because i only has a limited amount of savings, and no job lined up, i had never been overseas and i am not the kind of the person to take massive risks like that or so i thought.

And i see this theme of how when you’re chasing things that you’re really passionate about the scary what if parts, can have a bigger pay off, even if the success or result you find at the end wasn’t the one that you thought that you were going to get. 

Every day i had a new office, working on essays in the foyer of our venue, a standing desk in the tiny room we were renting on drop of a dresser, or any cafe that looked like it wouldn’t mind me using their wifi for a few hours.

Obviously there were lots of decisions that led me to this point, but I feel like there is a really solid thread between all of these experiences. 

And so i guess thats like part of my origin story about why I was very stoked to listen and talk to one of the cultural leaders who is CEO of a festival that had so much influence over my life.

[autieanondiary]

Faking It

It was a Saturday. I had to wake up really early to spend a whole day at this seminar. I sat there listening to the same information I have consumed on youtube. Here it is, they were marketing it for tens and thousands of dollars. What is the difference? Structure I guess. I didn't feel the same burning desire to prove myself as I had been a few years ago. I guess growing up had taken that giddy and fluttering part of you away. 

It was a conference to make you the most successful coach that you can possible be. I had dreamt of being a life coach. Back in 2004, they didn't have a name for it, I only finished my Bachelor in Science, majoring in Psychology, when I got this job in a start up company where they had decided to promote this American's Speaker to Australia. Being only twenty, I was infatuated with the whole industry. Naive and innocent. The managing director, the person who started it was only five years older than me. He was chubby and middle eastern. He had offered to pay me  but being an Asian female that was conditioned to be humble and showed submission, I declined, and instead I would get free seat at the event. My education junkie me was over the moon. But of course, people who paid with cash somehow got better treatment. 

That's a lesson that now, I understand, paying with actual money carry a different value than when you are paying with your services. Which is why as women, you should not do anything for free. At the event I remembered the chubby guy asked to give up my seat for a client and asked me to sit at the back. Yes, you get to see people's real characters in those little moments. 

The teaching of the speaker was really good, something I still revise every now and then, but the promoter company itself was playing the image game. Much like the social media now. Glossy on screen, trash on the in real life. For the next four years, I flotaed in and out of the company. Always being put on the side line. This is Australia afterall, you can be living here your whole life but if you are not white, you are somehow are not a player. Or, that is how I felt anyway.

I left to continue my mainstream education, in business, pursuing MBA, and then came back when there was a leadership change in the company. The operational guy has decided to buy the company off the middle eastern guy. This time I was in Administration, and doing general office duties. Back then, CRM, Accounting and Inventory were not integrated as they do now. So everything was basically needed to be done manually.

I was still infatuated and believing, naive. But that started to crack of course. When as part of administration I started receiving calls from BMW chasing default payments of the previous chubby middle eastern managing director. He would still come back, having decided that he would like to be a speaker himself now. He would boast about being one the front page of one of the most popular community paper amongst commuter at that time. Of course, the PR people knew what's up and asked directly "How much did you pay for that?" . The chubby managing director who was trying not to be chubby anymore because now he was trying to change his image, just evaded the question , confirming the fact that they had indeed paid for the marketing piece. He did not get front page because of his merit, but because he paid it, because the paper needed the advertising money.

This success that consistently being rubbed off to the sale people was merely smokes and mirrors, evident by the amount of times I had to say to the BMW's debt collector chasing for the chubby's managing directors debts of around $5000 "He is no longer work here".  An amount that I remember he used to say was little. As tempted as I was to give to his personal details, I did not. Of course the older me judged him less now, trying to launch a business is no easy treat. There is a lot of risk, and sometimes, that mentality of faking it until you make it is still prevalent in society. And there is nothing wrong with that.

I was still young and hopeful, with the new leadership, the next wave of new age movement was taking over Australia. The Secret was about to be released and our sepeaker was in it. However, old habits died hard, cash flows problems would still be the hardest to deal with. Like any other business, now I think about it. I remember having to deal with a lot of screaming, cursing, of declining people's request for refunds. The numbers for these programs usually between $2000-$6000 AUD. The problem was of course the target audience was people like me, who did not have money, but aspire to greatness.

Vulnerable  people, was the accurate words. I am sure we really did help a lot of people. It is like any tool, it will work, if you work it.

So here I was, sitting in this 9 hours free event promising your success again, if you buy their products. This company was an off shoot of that company, since the old company had finally rolled up its carpet after a scandal a few years back. I was not surprised, the goal from the company was to make money, not to change people's lives. I think intention played a big role in how a company is run. The leader or the founder's intention becomes the heart beat and the soul of a company. A higher vision that even if you have a very messy operation day to day routine, would always win.

This time, I did not feel any excitement. Unlike the participants surrounding me. As usual in this kind of event, you were forced to interact with people next to you. In order for you feel like you are involved and being part of a community, which means you would be more likely to commit and join the community that was being created right before your eyes. I saw their infatuated eyes towards the speaker, much like I was. The parroting of every single words that was said by the speaker, like I did. The general manager's housemate of the company I used to work for used to joke that she was working for a cult. I could see it now. That utter devotion and worship could be intoxicating.

This off shoot survived the culling of the personal development industry's witch hunt down. I wanted to think, maybe the best way to do business, is always to do it the honest and straight forward way. I had done my research this time, and I know the pricing was fair, as the local university was offering a similar course for double the price without the support system. Of course, if you do the University's program  you will get the prestige.

One thing I learned, if you want to get a job, you need to go to University or College to get that piece of paper so you can negotiate your salary, but if you want to have a business, none of that will make a difference at all. Business is about the market and your skills. The market will chew you up, regardless how many degrees you have under your belt. The market as Gary Vee described it is the market. It does not care who you are, whose your mother is, where you went to university, what you daddy does, or whose your friend is. What matter is how good you are. You. Just you.

Now, I see the same players old players promoting Gary Vee, using the same "hype" method, I have seen many times before. Maybe they never learned, as there is always a bushy, wild eyed, infatuated, naive girl that needed hope.

[sweatybridge00-blog]

Relevance Of Job Scheduling

Profession indicates career, which we wish to adopt for earning livelihood, and setting up implies good move or to generate correct conclusions.

Pre- preparing inside our everyday living performs vital purpose in each facet of lifetime, to operate in a suitable flow, and pre-organizing for profession, which we wish to go after inside our upcoming in advance after attaining specific degree of diploma is additionally pretty needed in today's competitive globe.

In accordance with the Thorndike dictionary

"A aim that you simply motivation to accomplish in a specific discipline or profession by using a very well-believed out strategy, to obtain you there is named Occupation Arranging."

The world is now going really quick, and some time has occur when this meritocratic society accepts only Those people, owning appropriate qualification and right abilities.

Olden times are gone, when only a diploma would support someone to obtain superior profile career by offering bribe or applying Various other mean. Now It really is high time, in the event the transparency in task recruitment has taken location.

Troubles and Opposition tend to be the Component of present-day society, and as a consequence, Career Planning is the one task, which often can guideline us to complete what we wish to do in our daily life, as an alternative to just aimlessly switching work constantly in long run.

We've witnessed numerous Pakistani, who soon after completing Intermediate don't know where to go, how to proceed and We have now also observed graduates, who aimlessly do graduation with no specialization. Therefore, they earns just in six-eight figures.

Occupation Preparing is probably the broader elements of Discovering within our existence. Many of us have some intentions and most of us Assume to have security inside our upcoming life, and for that reason, Occupation Scheduling serves as being a essential to success.

Career Preparing helps make a person to think suitably with regards to their favourable and adverse areas. All with regards to their curiosity, about their creativeness results in being doable by means of good examining ourselves.

Profession Planning basically commences, when anyone finishes Secondary/ Greater Secondary standard of training. After that level, anyone could go for that academic degree, which might enable them out to possess a great career prospect Based on their competencies at the best time.

Career Arranging helps us to layout and formulate our potential smoothly. Like, If a person wants to be considered a banker, then they would decide to Opt for ACCA or CA or MBA in finance soon after completing Intermediate in commerce and Graduation in commerce/ company administration.. Else he/ she would Choose CAT course or Masters in Commerce or perhaps upto doctorate stage.

This pre-scheduling might be productive and would give him/her Positive aspects following reaching academic targets properly. Additionally, it will help us To judge our very own individuality, which aids us to realize that which style of job would accommodate us In line with our want and capabilities.

In short, Career Arranging is like mapping our long run. With out correct organizing, not one person could consider acquiring a sought after work in potential.

Think what we wish to do and obtaining out more about The type of training, education, and capabilities we will require to realize our occupation objective could be the core objective of career preparing.

It support us realizing the character of the roles that desire us, for example educational prerequisites, salary, Doing the job conditions, fringe Gains, advertising likelihood, long term prospectus, and assistance us focusing in the proper dimension.

Job organizing directs us, motivates us, and helps us to accomplish what we want. A profession purpose is a specific eyesight such as an architect or possibly a Instructor or simply a profession purpose can be a specific field, which we want to do the job in, like Media, Training, Medication, Engineering etc.

For many who will take into consideration their future and job immediately after finishing training without any lasting preferred targets tend to be the one, whose all try may conclude in smoke.

There are some situations and problem, which bound an individual to pre-prepare in advance, these like family members superior family members company standing, lack of interest in scientific studies or common position, minimal drive, reduced money standing and many others or some earlier educational traumas, which experienced designed anyone to system just after wards.

Vocation setting up is usually a lifetime time approach we're often Mastering and growing, and as we do, our passions and needs also modify. Vocation arranging is not just building strategies to obtain our career, but In addition it assist us to make several adjustments there will be along the methods we learn throughout our life.

All those who have thriving Occupations like educators, business gentleman, manager, pilot, architect, banker, medical professional and so on will be the one, who's got produced their techniques by means of proper assistance.

Without doubt, that our mothers and fathers have some needs and anticipations from us, but We've our possess much too. Hence, we also needs to look at Other people impression. For that we could get assistance from an educational counselor to improve direction in the direction of new dimensional fields in addition. Instructor, gurus, vocation guidance Sites, Head educational consultants can also tutorial us, to possess a much better solution for our long run.

We must have independence of Talking and flexibility of selecting our profession as we really need to direct our life which interest us. We have to attempt to own an open mind so that you can choose the ideal profession on appropriate time.

According to a single renowned professor,

"Number of of us want to decide for all those degree programs, which their family or Mate has encouraged them to undertake which inappropriate knowledge trapped them into an excellent mistake and

In this manner, They can be unable to get superior job prospects according to their passions. Only Correct Occupation Assistance would support somebody to become on the best path right before hand. Handful of of us consider to hunt the appropriate path and take steering from family or teacher to tell them what is good for them, which career is in demand from customers and which occupation fits their desire."

The longer term is un-predictable, nevertheless, we could nevertheless make our position On this meritocratic entire world by creating occupation objectives and ideas in advance, for convalescing chances in today's pluralistic and globalize environment.

We must pre-system our aims beneath the supervision of pros in mindful condition of thoughts, to ensure we could strategically keep our aims and follow it in direction of The trail of effective long term.

Munir Moosa Sewani is without doubt one of the famed, outstanding and creative identify in the field of Training given that eight many years. He is a Grasp Trainer In Distinctive Instruction, Put fashion up Graduate, Instructor Educator as well as a Trainer. He is a Freelance Writer and Photographer as well. He can be an author on the famed self-released storybook for children named as "The Ethical STORIES For youngsters" and has also penned Biology class guide for Secondary Lessons. He has penned Virtually much more than twenty content articles on social, well being, academic and cultural problems, which can be internationally regarded and published in almost all of the well known globe vast websites, magazines and newspapers.

He is usually a Social employee, non-public tutor, career counselor, musician, lyrics writer and also have multi- dimensional abilities.

His potential strategy is to jot down dozens of insightful textbooks and content and to operate for education and media also, in an effort to develop the perception of comprehending several Proportions of everyday living through his creativeness.

[brainwad]

Cosplacon 2017 Con Report

 Okay, so, I’ve just spent the last few days at Cosplacon.  It’s a fairly small event (compared to the likes of Dragoncon, etc), but it is so much fun.  Maybe because it’s so small, it has a really great atmosphere.  It’s also pretty much the only con in town, as it were, unless you want to make the trip out to either Saint Louis or Kansas City.  (Mind you, there were attendees who came from Topeka, which is realy impressive.)  This is my third year attending this con (any con, in fact), and the first time I’d stayed for the whole thing. 

DAY ONE

Thursday was interesting, because (as some may know) I have been gearing up for a move, and that move took place on Thursday morning.  So, I’d spent the first half of the week frantically packing and boxing and getting things ready, and Thursday morning was spent trying to get stuff loaded into the new place so my parents would have less to do when the time came to unpack.  (Yes, i live with and help take care of my parents, who are both disabled to one degree or another.  They encouraged me to attend the con, because I pretty much spend all my time working either at my job or at home, and need a break to do something for myself.)  So, when the time came to leave, I was sweaty and dirty and desperate for a cold shower.  (June in Missouri is no fun.)  Once I was feeling relatively human again (though still kinda tired) I donned my Rocket grunt costume from last year and joined the festivities. 

The con has a Pokemon League (strictly for fun, not an official Pokemon Company thing), and I registered my team for that.  It’s pretty cool.  The folks running it do it as a labor of love, and it really shows.  Not only do they spend their own money printing trainer cards and making gym badges, they created a region with lore and even a *soundtrack*.  I tried to do the “story mode” challenge, but got flattened by the Flying-Type leader in my second match, so then it just became trying to get as many badges as possible.  I’m not super knowledgable when it comes to competitive play, because I don’t really do much of that sort of thing, but I did put together a pretty solid team.  I might do a separate post about that later.  Maybe.  Meh. 

Every year, the con also does a sort of scavenger hunt, with little stuff scattered throughout the hotel.  Collect all these “achievements” and you win...something.  I think it’s a pass for next year.  I probably could have done it this year, but I chose to spend most of my time between specific events hanging out with the Pokemon League crew.  Some of the achievements included finding the key to the TARDIS, Facehugger eggs, and the stones from the Fifth Element.  (This being the fifth year of the con, there was a Fifth Element theme.)

There weren’t a ton of events that first night, but I did catch the Iron Cosplay competition (teams are given a collection of random pieces out of which to create a costume and character backstory), which was a lot of fun.  I kind of wished I could have attended some of the panels hosted by the Egg Sisters on Prosthetics and Make-up, because I think that kind of thing is really fascinating, and they are amazing at it.  I didn’t rally go much into the game room, where there were Smash Bros tournaments and things like that.  Most of the gaming stuff I did was just playing Pokemon.  After Iron Cosplay was the Welcome Party, which was also a lot of fun.  After that, I hit the sack.  There’s usually some kind of dance party or other kind of late night hootenanny, but I’d been up since 5 am and was exhausted.

Turns out that would be a running theme.  Not only were the people in the next room pretty rowdy (I think they were teenagers out on their own for the first time), but my room was directly adjacent to one of the maintenance/cleaning closets, so I got to hear all the banging and thumping of the door and housekeeping carts. 

As a sidenote: If a hotel room door is locked, STOP TRYING TO GET IN.  Also?  Instructions for the damn shower would be nice. 

DAY TWO

After waking up WAY too early, I finish up my Janky McCree cosplay (which I should have gotten a picture of before it all fell apart) I headed down to the League and did a bit of battling before leaving for the Q&A with Eric Stuart--the voice actor for James and Brock of Pokemon, among others.  It was enjoyable and informational, but I think a lot of us kinda blanked when the opportunity arose to ask questions, and the majority of questions came from the same handful of people.  He struck me as a really cool guy, though. 

I would have liked to go to the Marvel vs DC Round Table or the panel on samurai swords by Samurai Dan, , but I opted to go to the Q&A instead.,  That happened a lot.  Like, a lot of the events that I wanted to attend were scheduled at the same time, while other times, there were stretches where nothing really jumped out and said COME TO ME.  I kinda wanted to go to the Cosplay Runway, which was a non-competitive costume parade of sorts, but I wasn’t too happy with my McCree cosplay and also wanted to keep challenging gym leaders.  I definitely wanted to go to the Harry Potter round table, but things with the Pokemon League took longer than expected, and I missed half of it.  That was okay, though, because I still had fun.  And if you’re enjoying what you’re doing, that’s what’s important, right?  Also, it’s important to schedule time for things like food.  So you don’t, like, die. 

That even was the cosplay skits.  They’re usually good, but this year, they were AWESOME.  I tried recording everything, but I did end up missing a couple because I had to run up to my room and grab my phone charger.  I did miss a dance number I hope someone recorded and will post to youtube or something, but the other skit, I wasn’t too upset about missing, mostly because the guy doing it was a creep who’d caused problems with the League crew, and wouldn’t have been very entertaining anyway.  There were dance numbers, musical performances, short dramatic skits, a HILARIOUS Gothic Lolita presentation (”SQUAT!!! Wigglewigglewigglewiggle!  CRRRRRROOOOUUUCH!!!”) and a couple of girls tossing inventive shade at each other, which I kept expecting to turn into a number from Wicked.  Normally, the winner of the skit competition wins a pass for next year, but there were so many awesome skits, the judges decided to award one to everybody (including that creepy guy, but they couldn’t very well say “Everyone but you). 

Following that was a really fun Avatar: The Last Airbender discussion.  I kiiiinda wanted to go to the Fifth Element Ball afterwards, but I was feeling pretty shy about jumping into a dance party, seeing as I dance like a parody of a white guy, so I hung out with the League and got some food. 

Then, so friends of mine from work showed up and we wondered about a bit, taking in the sights before deciding to go to the drag show, which was a lot of fun.  I did have to explain to my friends what a drag king was.  They had an intermission, and I kinda wanted to stay for the rest, and I kinda wanted to go do karaoke, but it was near midnight already and I was bushed.  So, I said goodnight and tied again to get some sleep, getting only nominal success. 

DAY THREE

I finished up my Guzma costume after getting Not Enough Sleep.  By the way, I nearly blinded myself twice putting on eyeliner.  There wasn’t a whole lot grabbing my attention as far as morning events, but I did have fun battling with other Pokemon trainers and just walking about taking pictures and even getting my picture taken.  I was really bummed, though, that a lot of the attendees who did Team Skull grunt cosplays weren’t doing them that day, because I would have LOVED to get a picture with as many Team Skull peeps as possible.  I did attend a need panel on digital art, hosted by the head of the con, Rodney. 

After that was a Pokemon Speed Training tournament.  basically, each person was traded three random level one pokemon and we were given an hour to train them up as much as possible, before facing each other in 3v3 battles. I ended up with a Klefki, a Corsola and a standard Grimer.  i wasn’t too terribly happy, but I figured I would give it a shot.  (Again, I’m not a super competitive player, but even I knew Corsola wasn’t super viable for competition.)  And I actually managed to get to the final two!  Unfortunately, my opponent had a well trained Golem and one-shotted everyone on my team with Earthquake.  But I had fun! 

Again, not a whole lot scheduled after that which grabbed my attention, so, more hanging out before heading in to the Cosplay Royale.  The Cosplay Royal is the big cosplay competition, with professional judges and everything.  There were some AWESOME cosplays in this one, though not as many entrants as there were last year, if i’m remembering things correctly.  But the quality of the costumes were so good, they added a couple categories. 

After that, Eric Stuart gave an acoustic concert, and I got a signed CD.  I’m always a little leery when someone says they’re Also A Musician, because a LOT of people are Also A Musician, but he was actually really good.  There was one slightly obnoxious guy who tended to talk through the performance, and not super quietly, either.  After that, I wanted to go to the Dance Party or even the Cosplay Burlesque, but I reeeally needed food and sleep.  Which Brings us to...

DAY FOUR. 

Today!  I got a little more sleep this morning, despite there being a HUGE thunderstorm crashing around outside.  No cosplay today, just dressing comfortably.  Everyone was pretty low-energy today compared to the previous few days.  I think there were a lot of hangovers, and the accumulative effects of Not Enough Sleep.  Even Rodney, the head of the con, aka “The Green Flash”, was subdued.  There was the Father’s Day brunch and the Pokemon Carnival, where everyone got the chance to battle the League again, but not a lot else.  Most people were gearing up to leave before checkout at 11.  I did actually get all eight badges, but didn’t succeed in challenging the elite four.  Then came the closing ceremony, after which people basically headed out.  The hotel is pretty empty right now, and I enjoyed a nice long nap.  I will probably sleep better tonight and be in a pretty good state when I leave tomorrow, which is good, because I still have basically unpack all my crap at the new house. 

[hvacrepair886-blog]

Commercial Hvac Poll Of The Day

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8 Effective Mechanical Companies Elevator Pitches

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The quantity of power they have to work varies dramatically as both the systems are predicted to serve the requirements of distinct places. Unless you're an HVAC professional, quite simply isn't a DIY project. You don't have to devote a HVAC San Leandro system that is whole.

20 Trailblazers Leading The Way In Hvac System

It might require some maintenance whenever your own HVAC system begins working efficiently. Since HVAC techniques use vents to push against the atmosphere it is challenging to vacuum the ducts. Since HVAC techniques lose about 5 percent of their efficiency for each year they aren't maintained you might be losing a great deal of money. If your HVAC process is more than a decade old think about replacing it using a system which will perform more faithfully and better.

It is possible to locate a neighborhood technician to deal with the job. No matter whether that's accurate or not, it is a good means to generate a living although on construction websites electricians are believed to be the Primadonnas of building. The contractor who installs this furnace ought to be certified within this particular sort of furnace. Just like different trades, until they qualify to choose the exam necessary HVAC journeyman or mechanical contracting are required to have finished a number of hours of on-the-job and classroom training.

Understand before you begin your organization how to repair homes. With the understanding that is proper and the tools, you can begin a trailer repair business right out of your home. A neighborhood home builder who wanted to supply a higher degree of exceptional HVAC installations started the business. The thing that is great is that we are an HVAC firm that will deal with them. This supplier is the company I have had the displeasure of working with. So as to make an educated choice there are community AC companies you may look at customer testimonials.

HVAC system's type you select for your house is a decision for factors. An HVAC process is a thing of technology and there are lots of factors that contribute to it running at maximum efficiency. An HVAC system will be a boost at the resale value of your home as buyers won't be likely to require a replacement after buying the residence.

The sort of HVAC system you need to buy is dependent on the age, size, and structure of your house. Your HVAC system has been made to satisfy specific heat and humidity setpoints to guarantee relaxation in your construction, therefore it is essential to be sure that the sensors are functioning correctly. It is true, it's possible to repair your HVAC system, Jesse stated.

As a homeowner, it's important to be aware of the manner in which they operate as a means to find the absolute most out of your system along with the roles your HVAC system performs. Whether your HVAC process is brand new or old, it is wise to place money into preventative maintenance and focus. Not all buildings have the level of filtration needed as LP-1 for thought though HVAC systems provide you some level of particle filtration.

8 Go-to Resources About Boiler Repair

HVAC systems are available in four types. If your HVAC system was in your home then it's time for you to have a new one. When you put in a new HVAC system in your house you will install a thermostat that is sensible also.

Boiler repair isn't a DIY project! At precisely the exact same time, it is a job which postponed or can not be avoided at all. If it's the repair our technicians are ready to diagnose the matter and repair it so that the home is back to usual.

Get in touch with our group of technicians to receive your system back up and functioning when you are in need of a boiler repair. You'll be insured of boiler repair if it's done through the channels. There might be times when boiler fix would demand for a means is successful on that sort of boiler, that you get in contact with the manufacturer.

They are not resistant to wear and tear while boilers are reliable and tough. If your boiler seems to be operating it is intelligent to schedule a boiler support appointment at least once annually and whenever you suspect a boiler difficulty. The very thing that you want to suffer through is really a boiler particularly in the winter months leaving you using a tall plumber charge for an emergency repair.

Warrenton Heating And Air Conditioning is pleased to function as regional Luxaire dealer. Paso Robles Heating and Air has technicians that are experienced in the best way and most AC scenarios to repair them and the work done right the very first moment can be secured by us. Industrial Heating East Cooper Heating And Air Conditioning is, in addition, the title which you are ready to rely on if you get needing commercial heating services.

Our Charleston HVAC firm is devoted to a satisfaction together with the evolution of our community. The HVAC service company is full of unscrupulous technicians which are only trying to upsell you on services and products that you don't need, looking on those walks through the door to earn a buck. Although you want to hunt for the firms whose technicians are knowledgeable with the technology. A trusted Atlanta HVAC firm won't just fix and maintain your system, they'll also help remove future issues that may arise.

As quality professionals, you can depend on us to help you in locating the suitable solution for each of your heating and cooling requirements. Columbia MO AC Setup Peters Cooling and Heating offers Columbia ac setup when you might be all set to upgrade your system. In any event, Perfect Star Heating and Air Conditioning may discover the device that suits your pocketbook and your residence needs. Combine these with quite a few checks, and adhering to the appointment you're able another year to relax knowing your air conditioner is prepared to keep you comfortable.Our heating differs. For homeowners, it will help expand a home's entertainment area . You may be considering installing a heating and ac system on your property.

Some individuals just have to get a system that controls one unit, some may have. A passive solar system, on the flip side, ought to be built into a house from the start. It is difficult to even identify which homes use passive solar in some instances because of the way it works in a home.

You would like your system efficient while it's running but you would like it to last. Quite simply, if your system utilizes a 20 x 20 x 1 standard filter which you can really see through, and you'd like to put in a filter that is better, you can wish to install a bigger size so the precise quantity of air could pass through the blower. Because of this my strategy had leaks at that region for the previous 3 decades. So go to your regional home repair shop and have a look at and also the manner in which they handle what you ought to do. It's very much crucial that you keep the systems up . In order to reach comfort and coziness throughout the calendar year to your home, it's imperative to devote a heat pump system in your residence.

A neighborhood home builder who desired to deliver a higher degree of high-quality HVAC installations launched the business. When selecting a firm make certain the service will be completed by accredited technician, learn how long has the hvac firm has been at the company, request the references and samples of prior work and don't neglect to ask whether the company is totally insured. Deciding on a HVAC business in your area is crucial.

You need to make your organization a location where stay and people may wish to go, he clarified. Additionally, the business prides itself on always being on time, so much if they're even 1 minute late, so you will obtain a discount. Whatever the case, you might locate a business that's partnered to give you the HVAC gear featuring energy saving and generation features. It is essential to choose the most appropriate firm for your house services.

Mechanical Contractors: All The Stats, Facts, And Data You'll Ever Need To Know

You're very likely before choosing to have us handle your projects to should investigate our HVAC support, and we understand that entirely. Before you phone for HVAC assistance do your homework, there are two or three things which you need to start looking into. You might need the help of an HVAC contractor, Since blows chill off by your town.

Air Quality Solutions has trained technicians that are experienced in the best way and all AC scenarios to repair them, and we could complete the work right the very first time. Professional HVAC technicians may offer air ducts the care they require in order to boost the efficiency of the system. Choose Only A Professional Technician for HVAC Repair in Duluth A technician might check the heating system to discover whether any parts need to get replaced so you won't needs to find emergency fix in the center of winter in the event the furnace stops functioning due to failing parts.

Prior to your HVAC system fails and will not operate, there'll be noticeable signs of a matter. It is simply a couple of years old, or whether it is currently nearing the end of its service life, breakdowns and performance issues can occur at any time, leaving your Macon home without heating or cooling. It is a great idea to search for the best HVAC system of your own pick.

When it's to do with your HVAC systems, any problem whatsoever can be a massive supply of anxiety and distress. HVAC methods provide three purposes to enhance the climate inside your house. Your HVAC system impacts everyone in your house, which means you deserve the very service that is superior accessible. You've got to replace an HVAC system in your own residence.

[banshake]

Personal Life Resurrection

Beginning this month, I will officially be starting my journey to becoming a happier person in life. In other words...post-graduation freedom life.

I’ve created a weekly schedule Word document for myself that I will update every Saturday night to set up my upcoming week. It breaks down every half hour of every day of the week, and what I will be doing during that time.

One thing I’ve learned about myself over the years is that I struggle with overthinking and indecisiveness, and therefore waste tons of time trying to decide what to do with that time. I usually end up achieving only a very small percentage of my goals within any given day. When I reflect upon what I’ve completed during a day at night before going to sleep, I realize I could have achieved so much more with my time had I not been so indecisive and lacking of commitment. And when I reflect upon the decisions I did make, I always feel that I could have done better, or could have been more effective. This results in becoming angry with myself and doubting my decisions every night, which lowers my self-esteem. It is honestly pretty pathetic.

I’m experimenting here with an effort to eliminate that side of my daily self. I figure if I have everything planned out instead of wondering what I could/should be doing next, I’ll minimize (or completely eliminate) the need to ponder my next move(s). Rather than spending time trying to blindly spear fish one letter to focus on in an active pool of the entire alphabet, or questioning whether the letter I ended up spearing was even in my own language (sorry for the weird metaphor), I can find comfort in knowing that whatever I’m doing is me doing everything according to plan. Maybe eventually when I’m all caught up on the things I believe I’ve been missing out on for so long, real spontaneity can become a regular part of my life.

I’ve been compiling an extremely long list of things I’d like to achieve or complete in life for the past several years. Most of these list items are things I ended up deeming to be unachievable as a full-time college student. School has honestly always been really hard for me, and I never actually wanted to pursue a Bachelor’s degree, let alone continue my education following high school. But my parents expected me to pursue it and to excel in it, just as my older brother, the golden child, also did. As an appreciative son who would sacrifice anything for the sake of my parents’ happiness, doing this one thing for them seemed doable.

I decided to do everything necessary to make my parents proud. I forced myself to set my personal desires aside indefinitely in order to focus on my schoolwork and finish my academic career as proudly and effectively as I could for them. In the end, my efforts in this practice proved to be worthwhile, as my grades continuously improved as I continued to block out my actual desires. Although it was a miserable hell for me feeling like I had no soul for quite awhile there, I did end up achieving my goal for them.

I am now a college graduate. Despite receiving F grades in 9 of my completed semester units during a very difficult time in my life and wanting nothing more than to quit this seemingly useless endeavor, I carried on. I ended up with an overall GPA of 3.263 over 6.5 years of being enrolled in college classes full-time within 3 different majors. Of course, my GPA won’t even matter when it comes to finding a job requiring a Bachelor’s degree, but the point is I completed something I am terrible at (school) and completed it well. I also founded the Men’s Soccer Club at my most recent university, a foundation of which has proven to be a great success even today while I am no longer directly apart of it. I am and always will be proud of these things.

I can finally put that painful chapter of my life that lasted far too long to rest. I can also get to the point here and put this painful blog post to rest.

I have a lot to look forward to in my upcoming days. I have so many hopes and dreams I hope to see through. To begin, I have made a To-Do list just for 2017. Here it is:

Music

-          Finish Piano Album

-          Continue preexisting side projects with friends

-          Begin new side project(s) with friends

-          Catch up on newer music releases I’ve been missing out on

-          Enroll in the Hans Zimmer Masterclass (music scoring)

Art

-          Finalize my university’s Soccer Club logo

-          Draw Anime & Video Game Fan Art

-          Design my own characters & share my illustrations

TV

-          Watch all the Anime my friends have recommended to me

-          Watch the Netflix shows I’ve been putting off watching for years

PC Work

-          Clean out my 1000s of emails, only saving the important ones

-          Organize my computer files distributed in 5 different hard drives

PC Gaming

-          Play StarCraft II (beat all 3 campaigns first, then online play)

-          Beat every level in Roller Coaster Tycoon

-          Create Steam account, play games with friends

Console Gaming

-          Play FIFA 17 / create team of friends & bring to manager mode

-          Play Overwatch with friends

-          Finish FFXV

-          Finish FFVII

-          Start & Finish FFX/X-2

-          Set up my Wii, play & complete games I am borrowing from a friend

Reading

-          Read my mini collection of books I have not yet had time to read

-          Read my collection of magazines built up from 4+ years

-          Research lifestyles of other countries, apply some to my own life

-          Read my manga collection I have not read a single page of yet

Income

-          Survey Savvy (online surveys for cash)

-          e-Rewards (online surveys for GameStop PowerUp Rewards)

Job Hunt

-          Glassdoor (research jobs & improve online profile)

-          LinkedIn (research jobs & improve online profile)

-          Craigslist (research jobs)

-          Facebook/Instagram/Tumblr (create professional profiles)

-          Portfolio (add work, organize, and create more pieces to add)

Personal Health

-          Create & stick to a workout plan, adjust plan every month

-          Take better care of my teeth (start flossing regularly -- damn it)

-          Create & stick to a meal plan, adjust plan every month

-          See new podiatrist (suffering from tendonitis for 10+ months not good)

-          Find job to begin paying back school loans

-          Begin playing soccer again (after foot is healed)

Shopping

-          The Motley (received a gift card)

-          WorldSoccerShop (received a gift card)

-          Whole Foods (received a gift card -- will use on Beyond Burgers)

Future Plans

-          Visit my brother in Oregon

-          Start dating again

-          Donate clothes (must return to goal weight before doing so)

-          Experiment with new recipes (both cooking and baking)

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Davis Baer of OneUp, a software for scheduling your social media posts.Some stats:Product: Social media scheduling toolRevenue/mo: $1,500Started: January 2017Location: Pittsburgh, PAFounders: 2Employees: 2Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?My name is Davis Baer, and I am the co-founder of OneUp, a social media scheduling tool that helps business make more money and automates time consuming tasks.OneUp differs from tools like Buffer and Hootsuite because we allow for post to be set to automatically repeat at set intervals, such as daily, weekly, monthly, every 3 months, 6 months, or annually.Our customers consist of startup founders, e-commerce store owners, small business owners, bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, and social media managers - basically any kind of business, or even people who are just building their personal brand.Here are a few examples of how some of our customers use OneUp:We have an ecommerce store owner that has a whole bunch of posts, each highlighting a different product he sells. He has them scheduled out to post one per day. However, once it gets through all the posts, those posts will automatically repeat. Before, he was taking the time to do all of this manually. Now, he has an automated way of consistently driving traffic back to his site and those products.We have a radio station that used to manually copy and paste the same social media posts about certain programs starting at various times of the day, every Monday through Friday. Now with OneUp, they just set those post to repeat, freeing hours of tedious labor every week.We have real estate agents that have weekly repeating posts of the houses they are trying to sell. Once the house sells, they stop the post. Then they start it again with the next batch of houses they are trying to sell.We have bloggers who create evergreen blog posts (meaning those posts will still be relevant months and years down the road). Before, they would share it once on social media, then just hope that SEO would bring them ongoing traffic. Now, they set their blog posts to repeat every few months, resurfacing the content for anyone who missed it before, and giving it another chance to be shared and take off.OneUp is currently making over $1500 in monthly recurring revenue, growing from $250 MRR just a couple months ago.What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?In 2012, I graduated from a small school in Pennsylvania called Grove City College, where I got my degree in finance. After graduating, I worked a few jobs in corporate finance and absolutely hated it. The sad part was that almost everyone I worked with also hated their jobs, and would trudge through their misery week after week, motivated only by the promise of a weekend off, or those glorious 2–3 weeks of vacation each year. The golden handcuffs are a very real thing.A few years ago, I had the opportunity to leave the corporate finance world and join a startup that a former classmate from college was starting. I came on board to help with marketing, but took a pretty substantial pay cut from what I was making before, as the founder of that company had only raised a small friends-and-family seed round to get things up and running.That ultimately didn’t end up working out, as we ran through the money faster than projected — the development of the site and mobile app was being outsourced to freelancers, and, fun fact, those development costs never really end. However, that role gave me great experience, and made me realize that it’s possible to actually enjoy work. Prior to that, I had never felt that my contributions actually made a difference in the large organizations I was working for.After spending a little time doing some freelance marketing and working on a few no-code side projects, I joined my co-founder Vishal Kumar at OneUp. We created OneUp to help increase visibility of content on social media.Whenever you share something on social media, it is typically only seen by roughly 5% of your followers. Despite this, most people put crazy amounts time and effort into creating social media posts and share it just once across their social media channels, guaranteeing that most of their followers will never see that post.OneUp helps these people by automatically driving traffic and engagement to the content that they have worked so hard on producing.Take us through the process of building the product.OneUp started in 2017 as a side-project for Vishal, which he worked on over nights and weekends while working at his day job.He is the technical co-founder, and has built everything himself using the domain expertise he picked up during an internship at a social media management company a few years ago.The original product started as a very minimal MVP, and went through many different iterations in terms of landing page copy, UI, onboarding process, flow, and functionality, all in search of product-market fit.The product was ultimately too complicated and confusing, so we decided to strip it down and aim for an extremely easy and intuitive experience, so that first-time users can jump in and immediately understand how to use OneUpDescribe the process of launching the business.Vishal originally launched OneUp on Product Hunt, where it did pretty well and attracted some of the first paying customers. This was a major form of validation, because you never really know if you have a good product unless someone is willing to pay you for it. We did, however have some validation going in from some of our competitors, like Hootsuite and Buffer, who do millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue.The initial launch provided the opportunity to talk to customers, work out the bugs, make improvements, and see what kind of features users are looking for.Virtually everything we build is the direct result of customer feedback. For example, Hacker Noon, one of the largest publications on Medium, was looking for a way to automatically post to their social media page every time they published a new blog post – and also have each post repeat again once a month for the next 3 months on social media.We could definitely build this, but we wanted to be sure that we were building something that customers actually value enough that they are willing to pay for it. So we worked out a custom pricing agreement and secured payment before ever working on this feature.A week later, OneUp made it easy to import any blog, podcast, or YouTube RSS feed, and have posts from those feeds automatically shared at your preferred intervals across your social media accounts.Most recently, we launched OneUp 2.0 on Product Hunt in September of 2018, and finished fourth for the day with over 550 upvotes. This led to over 1400 visitors on launch day and the following couple days.While the Product Hunt performance provides great social proof and will probably serve as a small source of traffic moving forward, it is not a long term plan for success as many people on Product Hunt aren’t in our target market.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?10x contentI was listening to Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko, on a podcast recently and he talked about how he consistently gets his content to rank near the top of Google for his target keywords.The answer: Create something 10x better than what currently exists.I decided to take this approach for OneUp.When you Google "social media scheduling tools", you find lists of the "Top 10 Social Media Management Tools". How could I make something 10x better?Create a spreadsheet of EVERY single social media scheduling tool.So I took the time to compare the free plan (if any), starting price, and social networks of 90 different scheduling tools and put them in a Google Sheet.I shared this spreadsheet to a few Facebook Groups and subreddits centered around social media marketing, and these are the types of comments I would get:It has kind of caught fire and has received consistent traffic:Because OneUp is frozen to the top row of the sheet, it has brought in a respectable amount of quality traffic and signups in the first couple weeks of its existence:...and also led to many visits on the blog post version of this list that I created and linked at the top of the Google Sheet.I believe this has helped with the “SEO juice” of the blog post, because it now ranks near the top of Google for the search term “Social media scheduling tools”, which gets 880 searches per month and would cost nearly $20 per click if we wanted to pay Google for an ad placement – something we can’t really afford at this time.QuoraWe have also found that Quora has been a great source of quality traffic.There are tons of questions with people asking for recommendations on different types of social media tools, so we are working hard to get OneUp near the top of the answers. Almost everyone coming from Quora represents a high-quality potential user, because they are actively seeking out a solution to their problem.Manually monitoring Facebook groups and subredditsOther more manual efforts have led to paying customers as well, such as actively monitoring relevant Facebook Groups and subreddits for people asking for solutions to their problems:It turns out our image scheduling Chrome extension was the perfect fit for what this redditor was looking for, and has since become a paying customer.Same for this person in a Facebook Group:How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Through our content marketing efforts, we are acquiring new paying customers almost every day. Our current pricing starts at $5 per month (or $3 per month if paid annually) for up to 10 social media profiles, which is much lower than the competition.The commonly heard refrain in SaaS is always “raise your prices”, which has a lot of merit to it. However, we have decided to use our price as a differentiating factor, and have seen conversions go up dramatically since lowering our price from $10 per month.Our customer acquisition cost is $0. We have been able to find customers using free methods, so we plan on continuing that and seeing how far we can get before we explore paid advertising options.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Yes! I wanted to take advantage of being small and, as Paul Graham has famously said, “do things that don’t scale” by really wow-ing the users during the onboarding experience.First, I tried sending a personal email to each person after they signed up. That failed miserably. Maybe it was the copy I used, or maybe I didn’t personalize it enough, but I got virtually zero responses from it. I believe most people thought it was just another automated email.So I started thinking about different ways I could make it 100% clear that this a personalized message from the co-founder. My idea: I would record a short personal video using Loom, introducing myself and thanking them by name for signing up.This made a huge difference! You can’t really fake or automate this, which has led to almost a much higher response rate to these welcome videos. People are normally taken aback by the fact that someone took the time to record a personal video message for them.There are 3 great things about this:It starts the relationship on a great note, and let’s the user see that there is a real person behind the company.It makes getting feedback much easier. You’ve already opened up a conversation channel, and built at least some rapport. I’ve had people take the time to let me know that they will not be using the service, when they would normally just leave without notice. This has given us the opportunity to figure out what went wrong, or what features they were looking for that we didn’t have.Some people are so wowed by the personal touch that they’ve shared it on Twitter.Here are some of the responses I have received:Recording each video only takes about 15 seconds, so while it may not scale forever, there is no reason why we can’t continue it into at least the near future.This personalization helped us land Nir Eyal as a paying customer. For those that are unfamiliar, Nir is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, which is co-written by Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover.It helped that I already owned his book and was holding it in the personal video I sent him. He was really blown away by the personal touch, and agreed to give a testimonial that we added to our landing page:What platform/tools do you use for your business?Loom for personalized videosCrisp for customer supportSlack for internal communicationTrello for product roadmap and task trackingMixpanel, Google Analytics, and Hotjar for analyticsOneUp for social media :)What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?The Indie Hackers podcast is probably my favorite podcast. Courtland Allen does a great job at finding successful founders that share amazing insights into how they grew their company. I am always inspired or have a “light-bulb” moment after listening to an Indie Hackers podcast.For anyone trying to improve their SEO, I would highly recommend Brian Dean’s blog and YouTube videos. If you need landing page help, Julian Shapiro’s Growth Guide is an amazing resource.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Just start something, and set a minimum length of time that you will work on it. So many people start something, whether it be a blog, podcast, or website, but then don’t have the willpower to keep pushing forward after the the early excitement wears off, and once you enter the infamous “trough of sorrow”.For example, if you are starting a podcast, that might mean promising yourself to record and publish 20 episodes before you consider giving up.Consistency is the key to success for so many things.Where can we go to learn more?You can check out OneUp at oneupapp.io, and you can find me on Twitter at @daviswbaer.Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM