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moneymindsonline · 1 year ago

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What is Freedom Accelerator?

Hello lovely people, Today I am going to share a thoughtful review or you can say a helpful article for those who want to learn affiliate marketing but, don’t know where to get started.

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bumbershots · 4 years ago

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A CERTAIN ROMANCE

CHAPTER ONE: JUEVES

Author’s note: Hello! I’ve decided to give it a go, this is my first chaptered fic in this website. This story just occurred to me a while ago and I’ve tried my best to make some sense out of the concept which honestly is forever changing on my mind. I hope you don’t find many grammar mistakes, if you do please let me know. Enjoy! (:

Story masterlist ** Word count: 2.3K **

It's been years since Harry last had to use the tube, but it's not as hard as he thinks, buying the ticket was fairly simple and soon enough he was sitting on the train comfortably. The northern line wasn't too busy, no delays were announced through the speakers, his journey to Ladbroke Grove station was going to last around thirty six minutes. He suddenly can't remember how long the ride would be on a car. Maybe it's time to start using the London Underground a bit more, contributing to saving the planet, lessen his carbon footprint. With all the aeroplanes he takes a year, he should use it from now onto the rest of his life, he thinks with a bit of guilt.

He changes to the Hammersmith and city line with ease, passing by lots of people, no one truly pays attention to him. The school girls that would usually come up to him and ask for a picture are too busy gossiping among themselves, the grown up adults that are more fond of his solo work are too immersed into their own thoughts about annoying bosses. Harry likes to blend into the crowd that's gathered now at the station and awaits for the train. In the eyes of the others, he's just another guy patiently waiting for the train to hop on and get to his destination. Even though he was on his way to meet with the team that will take care of his house renovation, a property valued approximately on £4.175 million.

The train arrives and he follows the multitude that pile into the wagon, he isn't lucky to find a seat this time but doesn't mind as he finds a good spot to lean against, the doors close just as he skips the ABBA song he doesn't feel like listening at the moment and settles for Hanson instead. He bops his head along the tune before slipping back the mobile in his pocket, eyes traveling along the passengers' faces, trying to guess what they're up to.

A group of lads wearing the Tottenham jersey discuss the latest game, one of them praising Kane's goal and regretting him missing the next match. Harry knows a thing or two about football, he even plays it regularly with his friends not so far away from his home, but he doesn't keep up with Manchester United, perhaps he can do that from now on he thinks before letting his gaze fall upon the pack getting down on Baker Street and the few ones hopping on. Most of them are tourists chatting about the Sherlock Holmes museum, the singer smiles, remembering the first time he visited it with his family, many years ago. Sometimes he longs for those days to be back, so he can do the typical touristy things with the people he loves the most once in a while or have a date without a good amount of lenses focused on his every move.

Not that he regrets being a well known musician, actor, model. It comes with a lot of perks. But he's just moving on from a breakup that might have been his fault. He's a workaholic for sure, even though he's supposed to be taking it easy, his mind can't help but keep throwing song ideas for the next album. That is why Jeff suggested the home renovation, knowing that the project will keep him busy for about three months, maybe more if the contractors up sell their ideas.

Harry makes his way out of the station in one piece and without being spotted, he checks the address again on his phone, confirming the place where the meeting will be held is within walking distance and makes his way before choosing a Pink Floyd song for the six minute walk. He pulls his coat tighter around him, relishing in the forever changing weather of the city, this time he will stay and enjoy it in full, maybe even delight in the autumn too, have his mum over for a couple of weeks, maybe he'll even stay longer and take her to the ice rink.

Just as Harry plots on where to go when his favourite person pays him a visit, he reaches the private front garden off a beautiful car-free garden square. He remembers to text Jack, who doesn't take long to appear in the distance and unlock the gate for his friend.

"You're impossibly early mate," the man greets with an amused chuckle.

"Sorry, had to take the tube because of what you said about car-free development, probably miscalculated the time." Harry admits sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck as Jack leads the way through the garden. "Is this where they filmed Notting Hill?" He wonders with another look around.

"Couple of scenes that didn't make the cut, our neighbour Mrs. Black will tell you all about it, if you happen to run into her around Hugh Grant's birthday." Harry laughs as they reach a private entrance with a well-maintained front garden adorning the forepart of the property, he follows Jack inside the home where a strong coffee scent greets them both.

The musician quickly scans the large open plan kitchen/reception room with large glass sliding patio doors to a delightful independent garden where a round table is surrounded by four mismatching chairs. He doesn't remember Jack's old place, but it certainly didn't look as the dream home they're standing in right now.

"Thanks for agreeing to do the meeting here mate," Harry's words are sincere his companion can tell, he tries to shove it off as if it's nothing, handing him the mug with coffee while he pours another one for himself, "I know it can be a handful, the NDAs too." Now he's almost blushing.

"We should be thanking you H, work from home for the next couple of months, my dream come true." Jack manages to make him laugh and feel at ease again, just before the steps of a third party come from the stairs and grow closer towards them. "Just in time, Harry this is Fernando Gonzalez, my housemate and architect of the team." He introduces the tall man to his friend and watches them shake each other's hand, "Fernando this is our client, Harry Styles."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you Mr. Styles," his voice is soft and melodic, like an aerophone instrument.

"Please call me H, all my friends do," the musician knows this is business, but he wants to have fun too, like Jeff suggested. And the guy looks way too young to be calling him Mister Styles.

"I warned you Fer, he likes to keep it easy, breezy." Jack says motioning both of them to follow his lead and sit down in their dining table that is covered with house design magazines, floor plans of Harry's home and a couple of what the pop star assumes are sketch notebooks. "Alright, tell us about your vision for this project." In all honesty, Harry doesn't know how to answer that.

He fights the urge to say that he had purchased the property knowing that not much is needed to be done to the décor. The style and the flow of the house is already lovely. After a quick glance at the plan he thinks that maybe, more room is needed and, most importantly, a new kitchen-dining-living space that would be grand enough to entertain in, but cosy enough to be the central 'hub' of his home.

"The windows, for starters, have to be replaced." He begins with a tone so confident that the pair before him don't suspect he's improvising the whole thing. "New bathrooms, perhaps from Lusso Stone, demolish an existing rear extension from the top and design and build an entirely new expansive ultra-modern one, like the one at Lou's home." Jack nods understanding what he means, "I also want a kitchen diner extension, pink granite worktops, if possible." Harry finishes before grabbing one of the magazines and starts flipping pages just to look busy.

The whole project can take six months, they let him know, through the summer and autumn. He's elated at achieving double the time he hoped for in the beginning.

"We'll send the paperwork to your team and see you next week to sign it once they approve it," Jack concludes the meeting as they all finish their coffee. "Are you busy on the nineteenth?" His friend's voice is warmer now that he's not on business mode, it makes Harry smile.

"I don't think I am, why?"

"It's Freddie's birthday, you should come, catch up with the lads," Harry nods while thinking about it, a bit unsure because it has been a while since he's seen the rest of the pack, he's not sure they'll welcome him just like that. "They're always asking about you, could be like old times, lads doing laddy stuff," the green eyed musician chuckles at that, not sure if he wants to go back to those activities of their youth.

"Sure I'll go, text me the address a few days before," his friend nods in approval to his request, "I better get going, I have to pick up my sister for dinner, see you both next week." The youngest nods and shakes Harry's hand before Jack leads the way out the house and square. The sun is setting now and the sky is a mix of pink and purple hues just as the two men bid their goodbyes until they meet again in a week's time.

Harry scolds himself for buying a one way ticket earlier instead of sorting out an Oyster card, he'll do that next time, he thinks before stepping into the train and finding a seat in the middle section of it. Led Zeppelin is a good soundtrack for his journey back home, for some reason he is craving the powerful, noisy, speedy rebellion that came with the band's songs, he loved to get so lost in the music that whatever activity he did came in second, every single time. Which is why he almost didn't get off at the King's cross stop, he hurried out of the vehicle, laughing to himself for being so immersed into the music.

The way back to the northern line was now familiar, but not as busy, he decided not to walk too fast after confirming that he had enough time to go home and take a shower before going over to Gemma's. Waiting at the platform he decides to change his playlist, again. Just as he's about to settle for Wings, out of the corner of his eye he spies what the person next to him is listening to and he stops from hitting play on his own device.

The who.

It's been ages since he heard them, three years if he is being honest. The train arrives and the girl next to him puts her phone in her coat pocket as she prepares to board the wagon, Harry does the same, but instead of training his eyes on the descending passengers, he lets them focus on her. She's wearing a nice burgundy coat, a black newsboy cap, high-waisted jeans with a blue polka dot blouse tucked underneath them. She's much shorter than he is, probably about Helene's height, he thinks as they make their way inside.

Without meaning to, he follows her and leans on the wall, across from her. She doesn't seem to notice how his stare is burning holes into her face, he's itching to ask her where did she buy the red boots she's wearing. Harry knows the moment he speaks to her, it will all go to shit. Some of the school girls sitting nearby might recognise his voice, his dimple could pop out to play and give him away too. She might also think he's a creep and kick him in the shin, leaving a nasty bruise that would heal in about a week, unlike the invisible one in his ego.

"Are you telling me, you developed a ten feet tall crush on someone you saw on the tube?" Gemma asks later that night, her fork full of linguine was stopped mid-air, making her brother roll his eyes but nod bashfully. "I'm speechless." The fork resumes its trajectory and she chews her pasta slowly.

"It happens to everyone, only because you both know that there's almost no chance to see each other again." Harry shrugs and bites a piece of bread, still feeling weird about the situation.

"Did she make eyes at you?"

"What?" He's completely taken off guard by his sister's question, his northern accent coming out and making him drop the 't' at the end.

"Yes, did you flirt with each other making eyes," Gemma's eyelashes flutter as if she was a Disney princess meeting her love interest for the first time, Harry shakes his head in denial, "what was it then?"

"I don't know! It was weird, couldn't take my eyes off of her but... she didn't even notice, I sound like a dirty man," he does, his sister agrees but the pink spots on his cheekbones tell a different story.

"I once had a crush like that, with a cashier at Waitrose," she remembers before sipping her wine, "he was nice to look at, one day he wasn't there anymore, just like that." Gemma sighed and took her younger sibling's hand on hers before adding. "If our lives were a Nicholas Sparks novel, perhaps we would be getting ready to have a date with those lovely people but..." Harry laughed and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"How's the sunnies collaboration going?" He asked before taking the last of his gnocchi. Listening to his sister talk about things that she enjoyed was the highlight of his days, he managed to push his silly underground crush to the back of his mind.

But there was the truth of what Harry couldn't see, or say. He'd probably like to have a shot with a girl like that and if Gemma could only see her, she would agree. Agree that there might be a story around there.

///

Let me know if you like the story! *** Join the taglist!

///

Next chapter

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thesevenseraphs · 5 years ago

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Director’s Cut: Part II

Hey everyone,

This is Director’s Cut – Part II, a now mega-long update looking at the last six months of Destiny 2 and looking ahead to Shadowkeep, and maybe a bit beyond. If you missed Part I and have an afternoon to yourself, go check it out.

As the first section grew in length, I figured this section would be the last one. But at some point Avengers wasn’t going to be split into Infinity War and Endgame, either. So there will be another part. I love you 3000.

Looking Ahead (to Shadowkeep)

This fall is a necessary first step in turning Destiny 2 into the game we want it to be.

It’s been a busy year, so let’s recap:

We assumed publishing control of Destiny and wanted to get something new into your hands as quickly as possible (Shadowkeep!)

We paired it with a free entry point in New Light to welcome new Guardians into the fold.

We wanted to bring Destiny 2 to new platforms to keep heading toward the you can play Destiny anywhere dream (Steam and Google Stadia).

We’re taking the initial steps toward building Destiny as a single, evolving world.

And we’re doing all of this while cranking on a bunch of the systems changes we’ve talked about and will continue to talk about heading into Shadowkeep.

Here’s where we’re going this fall.

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE RPG: ADD DEPTH, IMPROVE CUSTOMIZATION

We want to give people who love the RPG aspect of Destiny (like many of us) more stats and depth on the character sheet to sink their teeth into. We want to give players more agency over how they look. We also want armor to have that deep pursuit players love about Destiny—which brings the victory of finding their perfect roll.

Let’s Talk About Armor, Part I: Mods, Stats, and Tradeoffs

In order to allow players to independently pursue gameplay mods and further customize their Guardian fashion, a lot of work has been done to update armor for this fall. We’ve refactored a number of the stats in the game, we’ve overhauled the UI, and we’ve begun to separate capabilities from aesthetics.

Time-out.

Before I go on, I want to interject: It seems like some comments from part I around MTX are being misconstrued. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Maybe it felt too ambiguous. Let me try and clear this up before we get into armor.

Destiny has and will continue to have Weapons, Armor, Ghosts, Ships, Sparrows, and Shaders that you can earn from activities to prove to the people looking at your character that you did the thing, whatever that thing is: I beat the Raid a bunch; I earned Iron Banner gear; I played a ton of Crucible; I wanted to gather rain in my shoulder pads so I played Gambit a ton; I made a sweet set of Astroshaman gear at the Rune table; I farmed that Strike for the Mindbender roll that makes people rage; et cetera.

Let me be crystal clear: That isn’t changing.

What we are doing with the new armor system is saying: Find the perks you want, find the armor look you want, (from the megalist of currently available Destiny 2 armor) and pursue that armor to get the elements/stats you want and combine them to make your Guardian.

Destiny also has an MTX store that houses things like Sparrows, Ships, Emotes, Ghost Holograms, Weapon and Universal Ornaments. The items in that store rotate and can be purchased with Silver or Bright Dust. And starting this fall, Bright Dust is just another in-game currency that you can earn by completing Bounties, instead of buying a bunch of engrams and sharding them to generate Dust.

In Shadowkeep, there are armor sets, weapons, Ghost, Ships, and Sparrows coming from the destinations and activities.

Time-in. Back to Armor.

We started out by looking at what period in Destiny’s history was a good starting place for evolving the stat game (we felt like it was The Taken King/Rise of Iron) and what principles were guiding our new designs (we want to separate gameplay and aesthetics to grant more agency over both).

There was a deep dive stream about this topic on August 14, but let’s recap some of the high-level points.

Armor now has an Energy meter ranging from 1–10.

You can use materials and currency to level up the Energy value on a given piece of armor.

Mods have both an Energy cost and an elemental affinity. In order for a mod to be equipped, your armor needs to have rolled the correct element and have enough Energy available (e.g., Hand Cannon Reloader costs three Void Energy to equip, so your armor must have rolled Void and have three Energy available in order to use it).

Fundamentally, this means we have additional vectors for tuning things like mods. We could tune their effect (how much speed does the reload effect add?), we could tune their cost (how expensive is this mod to socket?), we could add mods to the pool for a different affinity, et cetera.

When you acquire a mod from the game, it’s like getting a perk that you can put on all armor. So once you’ve found Enhanced Hand Cannon Reloader from pinnacle activities (enhanced perks will come only from pinnacle activities), you’ll be able to socket that mod into new armor that meets its criteria (the mod is not consumed and can be socketed in and out at a small cost).

Here are the elements of armor that can roll randomly:

Elemental affinity rolls between Solar, Arc, and Void

Armor’s starting Energy value can roll randomly as well (they can all be leveled to 10)

Stats all roll random values (intellect, discipline, strength, mobility, resilience, and recovery)

Like in The Taken King, the stats will have break points that decrease their cooldowns (yes, your Sparrow now shows up on the character sheet).

Begin Math Time:

Today in Destiny 2, the base recharge rates convert to a stat value of 30 in the new system. Getting to 30 isn’t too difficult, though of course some people (but certainly not you!) will ride the RNG roller coaster to get the stat they really want to 30. By chasing a good stat roll, you can achieve the fast recharge rates available in the game today without needing to use mods. It is totally possible to put together a +100 intellect build (100 is the cap) without socketing a single mod. Some of the new mods will provide +10 to a given stat to help you shore up stats you care about.

But, that specialization may come with a price. Because you’ve specialized in intellect, you may be making tradeoffs for other stats (e.g., grenades come back slower or something—it really depends on your stat rolls). But if your grenades came back slower, then maybe that Demolitionist perk that you’ve been dismantling (I know, I know, Demolitionist is actually pretty good on non-Primary weapons!) would start to look appealing.

End Math Time.

We’ve made a bunch of armor in Destiny, and we didn’t want to leave behind any of the armor that players can currently pursue. So, we’ve also updated every new drop in the game to integrate and leverage the new system. This means if you want to go back and get the small Titan shoulder pads from Sloane on Titan, you can go chase a roll of them that uses the new system.

A number of the current mods will not work in the new armor that’s dropping this fall. But those mods aren’t being deprecated at this time. For example, your Super mods on your current armor will still work, but Super mods cannot be socketed into the new armor (you could socket your armor with intellect mods instead, though).

We did this because, while we think the evolutions we’re making to armor are a great step for Destiny over the long haul, we want you to decide when you migrate to them.

Part II: The Armor Migration Amplifying depth and choice via the new stats system ushers in some changes to armor. We’ve converted all current Destiny armor to use the stats, so cooldown durations will change as we migrate to the new system. You’ll be able to see the cooldown timers of your legacy armor when Shadowkeep’s patch goes live.

Here’s what we don’t want to happen: you feeling like “the game deprecated my old armor and perks; that time I spent playing Forsaken and its Annual Pass content was a waste, since all of the perks on the armor got turned off while Bungie forcibly migrated to this new system.”

Here’s how we hope this works:

If you’re a pretty hardcore player (or really lucky!) and have a set of armor today with perfect-for-you perks (like a fully loaded Enhanced Gun You Like set of perks), I think you’re going to keep using them for a while. I certainly expect the World First raid teams are going to go in with Forsaken-era gear that they’ve infused up throughout their Shadowkeep Power progression.

As the weeks go by and players approach the Shadowkeep Power cap and start finding mods with enhanced perks, we think that’s when our most invested, progression-chasing players will start to move over. Players can totally mix and match between new armor and the armor they have today as well.

For players without perfectly rolled gear, we think the transition to the new armor system is one they’ll make pretty quickly. In our long-form playtesting, our internal teams (not Velveeta—these are other internal players and playtesters. Sidebar: I’m real disappointed I missed out on the “kraftiest” opportunity in Part I. Good catch, Reddit!) have found that they’ve used their current armor on their “main” Guardian but rapidly switched to Armor 2.0 on their less-played alts.

Remember LiveJournal? Let’s do it.

With how I play, it’s a crude mix of fashion, function, and economic efficiency. I rarely invest resources in an item until it’s an item I know I want to use. I don’t infuse very often unless I need a specific piece/roll for an activity. I do not have a favorite class, I play all three. I tend to rotate them based on what is most effective or needed for group play in a given moment. I personally love it when the game gets hard, and I feel as if we would benefit from more challenge (I really liked how Contest mode enforced an action game skill component on World First attempts!). I totally have my favorite weapon archetypes (which I’ll spare you), and I get really frustrated as a player when there is an archetype I feel like I absolutely have to use all the time because it is far and away the most efficient thing. This is because I do—when playing content that matters—have to be using the most efficient thing. This creates some interesting discussions with the team at work when they create something that is super fun but isn’t actually efficient to use. I will totally mess around and get a triple double in patrol with a weird weapon, but the weird stuff isn’t getting used in a Crown of Sorrows group early in the season. Even then, I want to get through that content as quickly as I can.

My characters generally look HIDEOUS on the climb, and then I start to make them look good again once I get to the end game (and since I’m color-blind, my friends think my characters look pretty hideous in the end game, too). I think for me, I’ll shelve my nicely rolled items, delete everything that I wouldn’t wear raiding, and start using new equipment while I power up and find some looks I like—and then, when it’s time to go on JacketQuest, I’ll infuse up my well-rolled raiding equipment.

End of LiveJournal post.

Back to what I started this with—we want the transition to ultimately be your choice, one that you decide to make when you want to make it. Maybe you’re ready to start tinkering with stats. Maybe you really want to start combining universal ornaments and currently dropping armor to up your fashion game. Or maybe, like me, you’ll do both at the same time (but hopefully with less mocking from your so-called friends).

THE PURSUIT OF POWER: INCREASING PLAYER AGENCY

We’d like the act of chasing Power and stats for your build to be something you have a bit more agency over. Not a full-blown “play whatever you want all the time”—because that means people just find the most efficient thing, rather than dipping their toes into a bunch of different activities—but certainly less restrictive than it’s been in the past.

We’ve also had a long-standing challenge in Destiny of making XP matter, and that feels like a real growth opportunity for us to dig into something we’ve wanted to look at for a while.

This section discusses Power and the changes coming to it this Fall.

Part I: Powerful Sources, Primes, and the World Like I mentioned in Part I, the number of powerful sources in Destiny 2 ballooned during the annual pass. We’re curating down the sources in Shadowkeep. Our target is to get the number of powerful sources closer to Forsaken-launch levels. In Forsaken, as you over-leveled an activity (meaning your Power gets higher than the activity), the activity’s rewards would become less valuable (the inverse was also true for being under-leveled). In Shadowkeep, we’ve changed that. Instead, the system will advertise a consistent expected powerful reward, regardless of your Power relative to it.

Over the years, we’ve come to discuss several parts of Destiny in terms of short-, medium-, and long-term goals.

In the simplest terms: Short-term goals can be completed in a night or a week, medium-term goals can take several weeks, and long-term goals can take anywhere from a Season to several Seasons. For some folks (like me), getting good at a part of the game may take a lifetime (that’s a personal-mastery goal).

We think reaching max Power can be a medium-term goal for Power-progression-focused players. For those players, we hope pursuit of stats and someday trying out new builds is their long-term goal. I say “someday,” because while we’re taking our first steps in buildcrafting with a new armor/mod framework this Fall, I think we’re going to learn a bunch about what making a viable build in Destiny requires. You’re going to surprise us with crazy, creative things we’ve never seen once this is live—we’re all looking forward to it.

Prime Engrams We’re doing some minor housekeeping on Prime Engrams. They’ll begin dropping once you hit 900, and you’ll accumulate charges for them as you make your way from 750 to 900. We’ve increased the number of Prime Engrams you can earn in a given week and rebalanced the value of each one to account for the increase in volume.

World Drops As far as contributing to your Power level, world drops often feel like a waste. To get away from that, we’ve made some changes that allow these drops to help players progress beyond the soft cap. World drops in Shadowkeep will have a chance to drop at a player’s current Power level.

Here’s an example: A player has an overall Power level of 912. Gloves are their lowest slot at 906. A player might open a Legendary engram and receive 912 gloves (an increase of 6 Power).

We’re making this change because we feel like the world Legendaries are a little undervalued at the moment. This isn’t some grand accelerant for Power progression, but rather a little quality-of-life experiment to reward your free-roaming adventures or random Legendary-activity drops.

Part II: Preparing for New Light One of the essential parts of New Light is crushing the barriers between friends. Today, one of those barriers is the Power level.

To players, Power level can mean “we have different goals, so we don't play together.” A new character starting at 10 Power would naturally feel that they had to go play all this other content—and in many, many hours you can play with the friend who recommended the game to you.

That does not sound very sweet. It’s like telling someone to play a MOBA and then saying “we’ll play with you in 100 hours when you’ve learned to last hit.” (This is what my friends said to me. Do I have bad friends? As I’m writing this, I’m starting to wonder.)

That’s not what we want in New Light.

We want to get new players and veterans colliding quickly. After Black Armory, we made a deliberate choice to try to do this with each Season. Both Season of the Drifter and Season of Opulence had bounties to boost up players’ Power levels. With New Light and Shadowkeep being bigger moments of collision, we’re continuing that philosophy, but optimizing the mechanics to fit the moment.

We’re setting the Power this Fall to 750 for both returning and new players. We want you to all be together when Shadowkeep opens. Here’s what this means:

Every single item in the game is being raised to a Power floor of 750 when Shadowkeep and New Light launch.

Every item in your inventory (and vault) is going to automatically jump to 750.

It's like a free global burst of infusion for all players.

Which means that right now, you could (should!) stop spending currency to infuse your gear sets or that C-tier of weapons that you're keeping around until the patch notes just in case they are going to be good after the changes (there are many buffs coming and it is very tempting to spoil a bunch of them, but I said this wasn’t gonna be the patch notes!).

Part III: More Power, More Problems (We originally had this as Mo’ instead of More, but I changed it upon the sad realization that there is an entire generation of players who missed out on Biggie, Puffy, and Mase in the Bad Boy era. Yes, it’s kind of weird that I changed this and left the Highlander reference in. Especially when neither is T for Teen.)

I’m the first to say it: Raising the Power of all players globally is indicative of a greater problem. It’s real weird that someone will boot up New Light for the first time and immediately be 750.

The capital P Power level in Destiny (or Light as it was called in D1) has been asked to do a lot over the years. For a time in Destiny 1, it was one of the only things players had to pursue. In D1, Power/Light meant something in terms of achievement—but that badge of honor had its problems (forever 29 via raid boots, etc).

Destiny 1 put the Light/Power level over the player’s head and drove players to raid and raise it. Over time, we gave players other paths to raising their Light/Power (Nightfall, Iron Banner). We took Light off the nameplate and made it three digits in The Taken King, trying to turn Light into something more like a three-digit item level, but without the stat budgeting assigned to it where the stats dictate true character power.

At D2 launch, we shortened the Power climb, over-simplified the game, made it too easy to get items, focused on bringing new players in, and hoped that players would pursue looks alone as their endgame (we were wrong!) while we continued to build features like what would become Forsaken Triumphs.

During that period, we also democratized Power so that players didn’t need to raid or play Nightfall to reach max Power. They could kind of just do any weekly. Forsaken introduced gold sources onto the map, and over the course of the year, the number of powerful sources continued to increase.

See, Power has a lot to do with the amount of damage players can both deal and receive. In fact, it's the biggest factor in it. It’s also been the thing to pursue. Our gameplay specialists—the roles where dedicated Destiny players come in and participate in long-form playtesting with their imported-from-home character—frequently point out that they can’t engage with a number of parts of the game ’til they’ve “completed the Power climb.” Over the years, we’ve made the Power climb shorter and shorter. We’ve made it easier and easier to reach max Power.

We’ve also introduced things like Triumphs, titles, and Collections to provide additional stuff to do as the prestige of Power waned.

In Shadowkeep, we’re trying something a little different.

First, we’re introducing a Seasonal Artifact, unique and thematic to each Season.

As the artifact levels up, it can do a few things: First, it becomes a source of seasonal artifact mods—unique mods that can be equipped only during that Artifact’s season. These mods may be brand new experimental mods or powerful mods with reduced energy cost enabling players (and us!) to experiment further in the buildcrafting space.

Second, the seasonal artifact can award players a Power bonus, but that bonus is not applied to gear (nor does it increase the Power of future drops), but instead to all of your characters. This is meant to give players who can’t or don’t want to play pinnacle activities a seasonal path to Power. This way, even if a player doesn’t play the raid, Iron Banner, or the [REDACTED], they can still have a high Power value for the Season. Leveling the artifact to raise your Power is meant to be Seasonal character growth. Each Season, we’ll have a new artifact with new mods that change how you play—and the Power bonus will reset.

In addition to curating the list of powerful sources, Shadowkeep will also introduce pinnacle powerful sources. These sources are the only way to earn gear drops above power 950 in Season 8.

Here's the thinking: Pinnacle reward sites can award players Power above 950. This is a way of reclaiming a little bit of the character Power prestige that the initial D1 Power climb created. If you inspect a player and see their gear is 960, you know they’ve done a bunch of pinnacle activities. It’s worth mentioning that as you raise your Power via pinnacle activities, other powerful reward sites will continue to drop powerful sidegrades.

All of this said, Power in Destiny 2 is still imperfect. We’re making some adjustments to it this year for Shadowkeep: things like Seasonal Power bonuses and pinnacle activities awarding pinnacle Power. But when we look to the future, we feel like the Power system may benefit from a rework further down the road. There’s real potential in creating more agency for players, figuring out if Power should be prestigious or not, and taking on the challenge of how to keep players relatively close together Season after Season, while still allowing them to make progress.

Here’s something I miss from Destiny 1: filling bars on my items and using materials to level items. Even though I ended up with more ascendant and radiant materials than I ever could’ve needed, the existence of these materials meant the hunt for powerful rolls could go on longer. I think wanting and needing materials is a good thing—as long as you know what you can do to go pursue that material. I’m glad we’re getting a little more of that back into Destiny with Shadowkeep.

Need Masterwork Cores? Well, we didn’t have a very good answer for that much of the year. Lesson learned.

Stay tuned to bungie.net for the third installment of Director’s Cut. It focuses on the action part of MMO-action game (think: combat and PvP, with a bonus section on the evolving world) coming to Destiny this Fall.

#Destiny #Destiny 2 #Destiny 2: Forsaken #long post

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liveonthisplanetanymore-blog · 6 years ago

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How Much Does Bark Box Cost a Month?

There are several more exciting things which are possible to teach your dog to do. If your pet will end up being outside in sunlight you then must take that extra methods to guard them from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Your dog demands special services to make certain it stays happy and healthy. Dogs are believed of as man’s greatest friend. Other dogs may be excitable or superior strung. Aging dogs must have brain games merely to continue to keep their minds sharp. Just about everyone loves to observe a sweet dog. After the dog is recent its typical lifespan, it normally shows a lot of the signs of human old age. The puppy has to find out how to have the smaller sized toys out. People that say that it’s costly to adopt pet canines may have observed the problems linked to an ill pup. There are certainly apt to be a great deal of techniques you may obtain your pet dog to avoid the behavior. I’ve always loved buying Klaus toys because his excitement is so apparent really. This is a pup who appreciates the actual fact that I purchased something for him really, or at least it appears enjoy it. Unlike my cats who actually couldn’t care much less about obtaining presents that aren’t edible. Obviously, when Barkbox reached out to discover if Klaus want to execute a review I jumped on the opportunity.

bark box working

Let’s execute a quick run-down of what BarkBox is and what they provide; BarkBox is a regular monthly subscription box for dogs of all sizes. Each box comes with two bags of treats, one chew, and two toys. Everything is tied with a theme together. All of the treats are organic and manufactured in the Canada or US. BarkBox monthly is billed, and decreases in cost if you invest in 6 or 12 month plan. You additionally have the option to become listed on the excess Toy Club for yet another $9 per month. The first box ships immediately and subsequent boxes ship on the 15th of each month.

Klaus getting a whole box of things was the absolute cutest! He would take a toy, run over to the other side of the living room, set it down, and run back to see what else we had for him. The box he received was New York City themed. Actually “Poo York City! ” I must say i enjoyed all of the silly takes on on words within the package. “Pawsonalize. ” “Guaranpeed. ” “ BarkBox r Middle. ” So cute! He’s not really picky about treats so that it was no surprise that he loved those (As seen in one of the photos above, Professor was also very interested in the bag of treats. A few days later he would rip open the bag and try to steal them. ) The toys were a huge hit too. I’ve mentioned in the past how much Klaus loves squeaky toys so I was stoked to find that both of the toys in his box had squeakers.

I was a little bit worried about the toys not holding up for very long though. Klaus is a selective plaything destroyer meaning there are playthings that he shreds instantly but something of an identical quality might last for weeks for no particular cause. Been in regards to a couple weeks it’s, and surprisingly plenty of he hasn’t destroyed either plaything. Better still fresh is that he discovered a fresh favorite toy, a ball shaped like the statue of libertyHe literally carries it everywhere, and is constantly placing it on my arm in hopes that I’ll try to steal it from him. Mmm. I love soggy toys. He is currently laying beside me on the couch with that ball under his chin. When he finally does destroy that toy I could purchase him another from the BarkBox actually, which is a real way to buy toys and treats without the subscription.

Klaus really, enjoyed the complete experience really. So much to ensure that I would feel guilty not doing this for him every month honestly. Barkbox was strike! At the chance of sounding cliche, and using the same silly expression everyone who provides ever written an assessment has said probably, I believe Klaus would up give it two paws! xoxoBarkBox Review

If you keep running out of doggie treats and goodies, or maybe you get the wrong ones, you need help. Thanks to Barkbox’s monthly plans, your furry best friend could have all the treats it requires because of its size and age. Barkbox may be the ultimate monthly pet dog subscription box program that will deliver playthings and treats for the one you love dog when they require it most.

Why a Monthly Pet dog Subscription bark box is necessary?

Dogs, like individuals get uninterested in the same toys and treats just. Barkbox offers not simply a variety of items but also an array of canine themed goodies. Different every month, think of it as a doggie present box!

What Comes in a BarkBox? Toys and Treats?

The themed goody boxes come with at least two impressive toys, a chew, and two bags of all-natural treats. Every month, the pet subscription box holds a different surprise for your dog, which they will love!

How do you Bark Box get started?

We can see that you currently need to get started - it's the best option ever designed for dog fans and dogs! To get started with, you need to simply take one of the plans available that are detailed below.

THE DOGMANS IN THE CITY BarkBox

This theme represents the miracle on the 34th squeak. It is the perfect festival package. If you forgot to get your honest and loyal furry dog a gift for Christmas, or you were unable to obtain the right present, this Barkbox: The Dogmans In The City awaits.

The featured toys for BarkBox this theme include:

Howliday Spectacular Dancers

This is a tug toy with other toys in it. The dancers have safe and sound T-clothing rope for a good tugging and grip. It is filled with three traditional squeakers shaped like lighting which your beloved will receive a kick out of.

Holly, Jolly, and GabeShould you have a chewer in the homely house, permit this plaything indulge it. Holly, Jolly, and Gabe come in one size and perfect for small to medium sized dogs. They also have different squeakers perfect for sinking teeth.

But these three colorful heroes Holly, Jolly and Gabe independently don’t hang, they hold on a pup, tummy safe, t- clothing rope well suited for tugging and gripping. They shall light your pup ’s spirits.

Squeaky Wish List

Everybody knows that pup that treats toys just like the most complex puzzles ever created, right?

Why not fulfill BarkBox that dog’s curiosity with the Squeaky Desire List?

This toy includes a squeaker mat with irresistible crinkly texture, and also a space to cover up treats. Hiding treats in the envelope will keep your loved one captivated for hours definitely!

Dogsmas Tree Delivery

This multi-part toy supplies the right dose of multi-part joy. It includes a gentle and squeaky car and also a detachable, fluffy tree that is squeaky too.

Canine Carols Collection BarkBox

This is the healthiest treat your pup needs. It is free of wheat, soy, and corn. It also has options for sensitive tummies and allergies.

Other than the squeaky toys, every dog needs a chew-thingy. This Six-In . Duck Chew is all organic and made with US-sourced meat.The plans available for you start from as low as $20 monthly. The best part is normally that the goodies you will receive every month are valued at over $40! All the boxes cost the same amount, no matter what the size of your loved one. Other than the monthly plan, there are six-month and total annual plans, which you can cancel from at any time. Note that you get free Barkbox shipping for all Barkbox plans any place in the United Canada and Claims. For clients, your first container gets delivered out between 2-8 business times. Then simply because a normal Barkbox subscriber your boxes will be shipped from the 15th of each month.

For a month’s membership of Barkbox, you can pay just $29.

The six a few months ’ subscription costs $25 per Barkbox. This course of action needs you to pay in advance with a discount - six months would be $142 in advance.

The total annual plan will cost you $20 per Barkbox. Once again like the 6 month plan if you pay for the whole year to begin it will only cost you $239!!!If you would like to gift a box to another dog lover then Barkbox have you covered as well! They have the option to send one box as a gift which includes a gift note for

You need to remember that every time you sign up for a plan, you are getting into a commitment that lasts the entire duration of the program.

The plans are renewed in the event that you don’t cancel the program automatically. Cancellation is suitable, at any right time. Worth mentioning may be the truth that you cannot get yourself a discount if you join the 6 or the 12 months strategy but cancel it throughout the subscription.

CHEWRASSIC Bark Box

This theme is filled with all sorts of dinosaurs that may arouse your dog’s interest once you open the box - your pet has been looking forward to 65 million human years for these treats so please usually do not delay them any more from these yummy doggy treats?

Some of the top prehistoric, never fossilized dinosaurs making up this theme include:

TOYS and BarkBox

This is an adorable, squeaky, plush dinosaur that comes with a crinkly shell. This toy promises to make your canine friend the happiest dog around, regardless of the mood they were in before!

Herbert the Herbivore

The use of unique and safe materials to make this toy ensures that your dog has the best tugging experience. Herbert the Herbivore has a super-durable spiky bonus toy inside and a pull-through, stomach-safe t- shirt rope.

Airborne Archie

Sounds fascinate dogs, and this toy makes that special sound that will fill your dog with joy. Airborne Archie includes a crinkly mat body and an enormous plush head.

Jurassic Pork and BarkBox

You cannot vacation to the prehistoric times without visiting the Jurassic Park, is it possible to? This deal with is delightful and manufactured in the USA. It has sweet potatoes, pork, and pumpkin, and it is free from corn, soy, and wheat. Pawfect for your loved one!

Dinosaur Meat, Basically

Since not all dogs have the strong teeth of a T-Rex, this soft and easy-to-chew chicken is perfect. It is dried up for the maximum chewiness and sourced froYour dog deserves the very best quality toy, which bone may be the best chew it could get. It is long lasting, nontoxic, and made out of great focus on detail. Though hard, thisall-natural nylon chew is certainly safe, and a very tasty is had because of it smoky flavor.

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exxar1 · 4 years ago

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Chapter 13: Ambassador Kosh, The Smoking Caterpillar, And Six Months Saved

3/16/2021

One of my favorite sci-fi shows from the 1990s is Babylon-5. It takes place on a space station in neutral territory between various warring alien and human empires in the mid twenty-third century. One of the alien characters, Ambassador Kosh, is fond of asking those around him, “Who are you?” Kosh is a Vorlon, a mysterious, cryptic species who’s true physical nature is hidden from others by an elaborate encounter suit. No one has ever been to their homeworld, and the Vorlons rarely interact with other species around them, so when one asks “Who are you?”, it’s a significant question that implies a need for an honest, significant, soul-searching answer.

That is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot these past few months. This week is the six month anniversary of my salvation. Looking back, it feels like I’ve crossed a gulf wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon. September 17th seems like almost a lifetime ago. And yet, it also feels like it was just yesterday. So much has changed in my life, and yet so much is still the same.

The other day I was looking back over my previous log entries from this new journey. The one from October 10th leaped out at me as I reread it:

“I just recently realized how much we change throughout our adult lives as we get older. Those passions and desires and things that interest us and consume our time when we’re in our twenties are not necessarily the same passions, desires, and things that we care about in our forties, or our fifties, or our sixties. We as people are not just flesh and blood. We are conscious, thinking, emotional, intellectual human beings, and the parts of us that make us who we are are those passions, desires, interests, and things that we care about. It’s what makes me me.

Some of those qualities can be defined as hobbies or interests, the things that I do in my spare time or what I’m passionate about in life. The fact that I have always been a science fiction fan, for example, or my writing. Other qualities can be emotional, or intellectual, or parts of me that aren’t necessarily physical. The fact that I’m gay, for example; or that I love to read, or that I’m an introvert, or that I once used to be an Atheist.

In other words, those things that make up who we are as an individual human being, that define us to the world and to other people around us, are not always constant or unchanging. And that’s what I had never realized until now. I have always been happy living my life on my own, by my own terms, and I found peace in being alone. I have never felt the need to have that “special someone” in my life, but now, for reasons I cannot explain, I’m no longer content with that. I think this is why so many people at this point in their mid-lives have a crisis. They buy a new car or get divorced or change careers. Perhaps my loneliness is nothing more than a mid-life crisis?”

At the time, I was attributing all my recent angst and internal unrest to aging, but now I recognize this for what it really was – and still is: sanctification. (or maybe it’s a little of both.) 2 Corinthians 5:17, one of the first verses that I had memorized long, long ago in Sunday school, says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” It’s one thing to know about a process, but quite another thing entirely to actually experience that process firsthand.

Who am I?

My name is Neal Timothy Jones, I was born on June 4, 1978, I currently weigh 205 lbs., stand at a glorious height of 5’5”, have blue eyes, brown hair – which I’m very slowly but surely losing (more than in the back than the front, I’d say), and a goatee that is now more silver than brown. My favorite color is blue. I’m a brother, a son and an uncle, but not a father or a husband. I was born and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho, and I’m an introvert. I’m often shy, quiet, used to have a hard time speaking up for myself and was afraid to be myself for fear of ridicule and shame. I’m a sci-fi fan (Star Trek in particular) and an avid Super Mario Brothers player. (If that was an Olympic sport I would hold a gold medal for most games conquered and exceptional fire flower skill.) I also read a lot, and, lately, I have a very hard time shutting off my brain. I’m always overthinking, overanalyzing, and overly critical of both myself and those around me.

My favorite food is Italian, especially pizza and pasta (hence the 205 pounds), and I despise coconut. I mean, like really, really hate it. Whoever decided that shredded coconut should be a topping on desserts should be strung up by their apron strings and crucified in their kitchen. Coconut – especially shredded coconut – has absolutely no taste for one, and for two, it has all the texture of grass. It’s vile and disgusting.

I have type 2 diabetes, and I’m a good twenty-five pounds overweight. I’ve always hated exercise. Yes, I enjoyed running around the playground and being outdoors in general when I was a kid, but I hated organized sports. I suffered one year of soccer in 7th grade because my parents insisted I needed to get out and do something besides always being alone under a tree with a book in between classes. (I think they were worried about my anti-social behavior far more than they actually let on.) That one year led to a life long revulsion of sports in general. Seriously, I don’t get it. Running up and down a field, chasing a ball or trying to make a goal – *yawn*. So overrated.

Also, for that matter, is competition. I’m probably the least competitive person anyone knows. I really couldn’t care less whether or not my coworkers beat me in upsells and product promotions. I don’t give a damn if my friends or family make more money than I do. I have no desire to rise the corporate ladder and be king of my local branch. I don’t really care what my house looks like on the outside compared to my neighbors. Nor do I give a rat’s ass if my car is the nicest one in the neighborhood. (And, frankly, given the neighborhood I currently live in, I most definitely do not want a super nice car that would attract nearby thieves.) I really do just march to the beat of my own drum, and if you’d like join me, great! If not, oh well. You do your own thing, and you be you. I’m not going to care one way or the other.

Who am I?

I’m gay. Or, rather, I was. Or maybe I still am. I honestly don’t know. And that’s been my problem lately. Clear back in September, right after I was saved, I was sure of two things: one, that I was saved and new child of God, and two, that I was gay. In just six months, though, I’m not so sure of that latter one anymore.

It’s funny how we sometimes take one thing in our lives – our marriage, our job, our sexuality, or maybe that one hobby or spare time interest – and we build our whole self-identity around that. For me, it was being gay. That was who I was, and I centered my entire self-identity around that one thing as soon as I left high school. After I left the Army, after returning home to Twin Falls and enrolling at the College of Southern Idaho, I immediately joined the Gay-Straight Alliance on campus. I spoke up for gay rights, and I even helped organize a petition for a gay float in the local Western Days parade. (I honestly can’t remember if we ever really accomplished that or not. I do remember the city council not being very happy with our little request.)

I watched pretty much anything on TV that had gay stories and/or main characters. Shows like Will & Grace, Queer As Folk, and Six Feet Under were my favorites. Same for the movies. Hollywood was my religion, the local cineplex my church. Celebrities like Ellen Degeneres were my idols, and I did my best to follow their wisdom and lifestyles. Throughout college and my early adult life afterwards, whenever I introduced myself to new friends and co-workers, I was quick to let them know I was gay. I was proud of that, and anyone who disagreed with that or tried to tell me I was wrong for living that way would quickly get shut down by my new, independent spirit and debating skills. I bought t-shirts with slogans like “I don’t even think straight” or which just had the symbol of the rainbow flag on the front.

Everything else was secondary, and when my life moved online to social media, I made sure to put my sexual orientation front and center on all my bios. I connected even more to the greater national gay community by joining Facebook pages that promoted gay rights, and I followed many gay activists and celebrities on Twitter and Instagram. In recent years, especially after moving to Las Vegas, I did quiet down a little with the in-your-face attitude, due more to aging than anything else. It was no longer that important than every single new friend or co-worker know right away that I was gay. Instead of announcing it with the first handshake, I let the subject come up organically in regular conversation. I also purchased Apple watch bands made in rainbow colors or plastic bracelets of the same design to wear as a silent testimony of my proud lifestyle.

Who am I?

One of my favorite scenes in Disney’s Alice In Wonderland is the one where Alice is confronted by the smoking caterpillar. He repeatedly demands of the young, lost and confused heroine, “Who. Are. You?” (Each word is punctuated by a perfectly shaped ring of cartoon smoke.)

In recent weeks and months, there have been days when I have stood in front of the mirror above my bathroom sink, looking at my reflection with puzzlement and curiosity, asking that very same question. Some days, I have felt like a true warrior of God, leaping from bed, excited to rush into the world and live the truth of Christ. Other days, I have felt small and weak, and conflicted, and wondering why I have kept giving in to the old lust of the flesh and breaking my vow of celibacy. (Yes, even just giving in to old desires and lusts in the mind’s eye are a sin in the presence of God. It doesn’t necessarily have to go as far as an actual, physical act with another man.)

One evening, about three weeks ago, as I got ready for bed, I was reflecting on my day. It was one of those mediocre days, not too bad, but not really exciting or exceptional either. I was feeling a little down and discouraged, but I couldn’t say exactly why. I sat on the edge of my bed, lost in thought, and tracing absently with my right index finger the outline of the tattooed cross on my left bicep. Since the tattoo was barely a week old, most of it was still one large scab, and I had been fighting the recent urge to pick at it. I glanced down and saw the plastic rainbow bracelet on my right wrist, right next to the other bracelet with white stars and a blue strip on a black background.

As if by some spiritual instinct, I reached out with my left hand and pulled that rainbow bracelet off. I held it up, examining it for a few moments, and then I opened the drawer of my nightstand. I tossed the bracelet inside and shut the drawer. I sat for a minute or two, thinking about what I had just done, and then I got up and marched across the hall into my office. I opened the bottom left drawer of my desk and rifled through the several dozen Apple watch bands that have accumulated there over the last few years. I pulled out all the ones that were rainbow striped or rainbow colored. I threw them in the trash. I also threw away the bag of rainbow bracelets (they had been 20 for $5 on Amazon). I turned out the light and shut the office door.

I went to bed that night feeling more at peace than when I had first asked Jesus into my heart just a few months before.

The next day, during my lunch break at Walmart, I went through all my social media accounts and removed the word ‘gay’ from my bios, as well as any emoji symbols such as the rainbow flag. That, too, felt right. I was now just ‘Christian’, not ‘gay Christian.’

I’m still honestly not sure what this means. Part of me has felt utterly terrified, as if I’m erasing more than just part of who I’ve been for all my adult life. The one thing that was the core of my self-identity has been essentially wiped away, as if God was one of the workers in the amusement park of Westworld, another of my favorite shows. In that not-so-distant future setting, the human-like androids are often re-programmed by the park’s engineers to change their personalities or even their entire character to match whatever new story is going to be enacted for the park’s biological visitors and tourists. Ever since my salvation, I have often felt that God is reprogramming me in the same way, erasing parts of the old sinful self and rewriting new software, giving me a new core identity. Right now, that process of sanctification has only just begun, and, hence, there are days when I don’t quite know what to call myself. Yes, I’m a Christian. Yes, I am a child of God. But I feel like there should be more than just that. I feel like the loss of my old identity means that that I also have nowhere to belong; there is currently no new community in which I can plug myself in order to have the same sense of friendship and comradery that I once had with my fellow gays.

And yes, I know what you’re already saying to your phone or computer screen as you read this: “Neal,” you say, “just being a child of God is enough. Just calling yourself a Christian is enough. That is the new community that you now belong to.”

Yeah, I know. But, at the same time, I still feel incomplete. Don’t ask me why. I feel like those Lego sets I used to play with as a kid. My favorites were the spaceships, especially the really big ones that came with about two hundred individual pieces. I liked those the best because I had the choice of either building the ship pictured on the front of the box, or I could assemble a different ship entirely using the same pieces but fitting them together in different ways. I feel like God is doing that with me right now. He’s completely disassembled me from the inside out, and his Spirit is slowly and gradually reassembling me into something totally new.

Part of me wishes He would just hurry the hell up and get to the finished product already! Why is He taking so long?? But the other part of me – the part that I am slowly coming to recognizing as the voice of the Holy Spirit is gently, firmly reminding me that this process can take a lifetime; that I need to learn to be patient and wait upon the Lord.

Who am I?

I am ALL of those things that I listed above – yes, even the homosexual. God hasn’t changed that completely. But that particular Lego piece is now on the worktable with all the others. And I no longer feel a need to advertise to anyone and everyone that I am still gay. For now, I am just ‘Christian.’ And I’m looking for a church family where I can truly belong.

I recently finished reading a book that dealt with this exact topic. The author is Greg Coles, someone I’ve mentioned before in these posts. The book is titled No Longer Strangers: Finding Belonging in a World of Alienation. There are many, many lovely and beautiful passages in the book where Greg gives his own testimony of finding his place in his particular part of the world and his church community after coming out as a gay Christian in 2017. But there are two passages, specifically, that I found most inspirational in my own journey of trying to find the church family in which God wants to place me. I’ve already posted them on my social media, but I’m going to quote them again here.

The first is from Chapter 5: Hide and Seek:

“But God—the real God—has only ever been interested in loving us, in redeeming us, in transforming us. He has no interest in an army of clones, a horde of wax figures and cardboard cutouts sent to approach him in bold unanimity while his heterogeneous flesh-and-blood children crouch in the shadows.

Those of us who love Jesus are indeed called to find our paramount identity in him. Every other identity is placed in submission to Christ, upturned and radically reordered by the logic of the kingdom of God. But our particularities are not erased in the process. We are not recycled paper, blended into a pulp and recast as a blank sheet. We are a painted canvas in the hands of a master restorer, painstakingly cleansed and healed and remade until we finally become the irreplicable artwork we were always intended to be.”

That ‘irreplicable artwork’ is what I cannot wait to see! That’s what I’m eagerly waiting for – that finished masterpiece. But I also know from the testimonies of my parents and Pastor Mark, as well as ones that I’ve read online from other Christian authors, is that there is a real possibility that I might never see that completely finished work; that God, in His infinite wisdom and grace, is never entirely finished with us. And that’s okay too. That’s what I need to recognize and reconcile with right now. The old saying really is sometimes true: it’s the journey that matters more than the destination. But, along the way, God does not want me to just melt into His crowd, to be one more clone in the Christian army. Instead, as Greg points out, God wants each of us to stand out, to share our unique gifts and talents with the body of Christ and with the world around us. We need to shine for Him, and we can’t do that if we just hide away, afraid to be more than just another smiling face in the crowd.

The other passage, the one that brought me to tears, was the final paragraphs of the book:

“I am my Beloved’s. He is mine. We belong in one another, with one another, to one another. We always will. We’re not going anywhere.

I’m not the only one making these vows with heaven, to be sure. A symphony of voices joins mine in the air. The song includes married folks as well as celibates like me, straight and gay and everything else. Our choir represents every race, every language, every nation.

But despite the grandeur of the choir, Christ still hears and responds to each individual voice. He isn’t content to declare his affection for us in form letters and megaphone announcements. He whispers to us one by one, into your ear and mine, exchanging promises of love. As long as these promises remain true—as long as our fragile memories can hold them—home will never be further than a whisper in our ears, never further than an ink drop beneath our skin. We are loved. And because we are loved, we belong.”

I have re-read that passage so many times over the last couple weeks, savoring it like piece of gold, a treasure of beauty and real wisdom. Greg’s completely right. Not only does God want us, just as we are, no matter how broken, how lost, or how sinful, but He also wants for us to belong in Him, and Him alone. This small piece of wisdom seems at once so simple and yet so complex. I have had to remind myself almost every day, especially those days when I’m feeling lonely, or a little lost, or discouraged because the church that I had hoped was going to be my new home didn’t work out after all, that I am first and foremost a child of God. I belong only – and solely – in Him. I need to understand that that is all that matters right now. The rest will come in time. Perhaps once I have understood and fully absorbed this first and important truth, then God will begin providing unto me the rest of his desired blessings and, especially, belonging within a new church family.

As a result of these blog posts, I have had the immense blessing and pleasure of reconnecting with old friends who had once taught and reared me when I was that stubborn, contrary, rebellious kid who gave out more sass and disrespect than a Las Vegas drag queen in a nightclub. One of those friends shared a quote by Leonard Ravenhill with me a few days ago that immediately touched my heart. I printed it off and taped it to the bottom frame of one of my computer monitors in my home office.

“Great eagles fly alone; great lions hunt alone; great souls walk alone – alone with God!”

The friend who shared this helped me to see that same truth that Greg pointed out in that second passage that I quoted above. It’s okay for me to stand apart from the crowd – Christian or otherwise. It’s okay for me to continue marching on my own. The only difference between my old life and this new, blessed one is that God is now marching beside me. He has changed the beat of my drum, and He has “…begun a good work” in me, as Paul says Philippians 1:6, and that work will not be completed until “…the day of Jesus Christ.” But, if I’m honest, I will say that, on most days, I don’t feel like the lion or the eagle. Not just yet. I feel more like a church mouse from a Beatrix Potter tale, crouching in the shadow of my Lord and Savior, and letting Him do His thing on my behalf.

One of my other favorite quotes that has had a special significance to me these last few months is by Socrates. He once stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I think God would agree, and the best form of self examination should always start with the following question:

Who am I?

#Christian #spirituality #gay #personal growth #sanctification

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zoebechtle-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Unlikely Epilogue

September, 2017

“Zo?” I was bent over the sink, spitting toothpaste out of my mouth. Niall was standing behind me staring, as he adjusted his towel over his hips. He’d just gotten out of the shower, and droplets of water riveted down his chest. I met his eyes in the mirror and quirked an eyebrow.

“Yesh?” I still had the toothbrush in my mouth.

“Anything you want to tell me?” The look on his face was semi-unreadable. His forehead was crinkled in deep thought, and he was looking at me like I had sprung another head. I wasn’t unaccustomed to this look (I got it often) but usually there was some warning or I could deduct something nuts that I had done. But I’d been getting ready for the day humming along to the James Bay playing in the bedroom of his L.A. house. I wasn’t wearing anything crazy, just a pair of shorts and a plain tank top with my hair pulled up into a messy bun. I cupped my hands to take a sip of water to rinse my mouth and spit, turning to look at him, furrowing my brow.

“Nooooo. What’s going on?”

“Are you sure? Nothing?” Now he had a little grin on his face and walked confidently up to me. What the hell? I put my hand on my hip and stared at him.

“You’re freaking me out, boo.” I put my hand up to stop him, resting it in his thick patch of chest hair.

“C’mere.” He stood in front of me and turned me back around to face the mirror, leaning in with his hands on my hip bones. Was he just being fresh? Because if so, good morning Zoe. I mean, we’d already had sex once since waking up, but after almost three months apart, I wasn’t going to turn down anything I could get from my beautiful blonde piece of ass, I mean, loving boyfriend. He dragged his nose up my neck, tickling me a little, the water from his head dripping down.

“Nothing? Not even this?” And he licked a spot right behind my left ear, caressing it. My eyes grew wide, and he mirrored my shocked expression. “Mmmm?”

“Holy shit!” I dropped my hairbrush and put my hands over my mouth. “I FORGOT! Jesus Christ!”

“How in the shit did you forget you got a tattoo?”

The tattoo was supposed to be a surprise. Okay, it was a moment of weakness when I wasn’t thinking. Three weeks after Niall’s break from his tour (which coincided with my birthday nicely) promoting his platinum solo album I was bored. I missed him like crazy. I didn’t not trust him, but it was just enough to make me panic a bit. I’d convinced myself that I wasn’t going to be that crazy girlfriend. This was his life and I’d gotten as used to extended absences as I much as I could. It was a fluke that I had gotten to spend as much uninterrupted time with him as I had. The rational part of my brain knew all this. But Crazy Zoe came out to play. A lot. To keep her at bay, I overscheduled my days. I took on heading up a grant application at work and filled in for other people so they could take vacations. Anytime anyone suggested plans, I jumped at them. I accompanied Carly and Jess to plays and movies, went shopping with Paul, and third wheeled with Hannah and Willie (and had gone with Willie last week to pick out her engagement ring, but shhhhhhhhh). I’d actually willingly gone to hot yoga on four occasions, for fuck’s sake. When Aaron asked if I wanted to spend a marathon Saturday afternoon with him while the next section of his tattoo sleeve was completed, I went along.

I’d spent time in tattoo shops over the years, holding the hands of friends as they had various body parts inked. My own small tribute to my Grandma Bechtle was a small quilt square on my ribcage, under the band of my bra (it hurt. So bad.) and Aaron had rubbed my hands and at one particularly bad juncture, even letting me bite his arm to stifle my pain - he was such a good friend (he also had a bit of a pain kink). So off we went. About two hours into the adventure, as my incessant chit chat was obviously annoying the artist (“Z, can you tone it down a bit?” Aaron had hissed) I wandered off to look at various designs. I watched a girl get a tiny piece behind her ear. It took less than five minutes and wasn’t noticeable in the slightest. I scratched my nail along the spot, and it was bearable. Poking at it reminded me how sensitive I was behind my ears, and made me miss Niall for a few minutes. No one else had ever quite mastered the spot the way he had. He jokingly always called it my Achilles Ear and had proclaimed it his fifth favorite place to kiss me (I’ll leave you to figure out the other four). In a moment of what I can only described as blind devotion and being so hard up for dick that it wasn’t funny, I decided to mark myself. With the most Niall thing in the world. An Irish flag.

The fates aligned with this decision by one of the artists, a skinny, bored-looking middle aged hipster, having a cancellation. We worked out the details quickly, and less than fifteen minutes later, I slid back into the room with Aaron. He noticed the bandage immediately and shrieked, “What did you do?!” and proceeded to cast harsh judgement. Within two hours, reality kicked in and I freaked out.

“Oh my God, Aaron!”

“Yep.”

“I tattooed a fucking Irish flag on MY HEAD!”

“Yep.”

“In a sexy spot in honor of a guy.” My mother was somewhere shaking her head.

“Yep.”

We started each other with wide eyes. Sometimes my impulsive nature knew no bounds. I opted not to tell Niall about the tattoo. I didn’t even tell Hannah because I didn’t trust her not to spill to Willie. Luckily I had my dad’s ears, which bent back more than was normal. It made a slightly strange profile, but I was grateful that it allowed my humiliation not to be completely public. And to fair, it was WAS tiny, smaller than the tip of my pinky finger. The only person who’d noticed it before Niall was a six year old at work who pointed to my “sticker” every session. (I usually started the day with my hair down, but by 11 am it was out of my face in some manner.) I’d moved on and found something else to obsess over, and honestly kind of forgotten about it. Until a month later, twelve hours into a week long visit for Niall’s 24th birthday.

“Um, uh…” I stammered, trying to buy myself time. How did I forget I had gotten a tattoo? “Well, the area has been greatly under used recently…,” I started, turning around to face his smirking face. I put my hands against the counter and leaned back a bit, widening the distance between us. That didn’t work for him, so he edged closer, reaching to touch my ear. I swatted at his hand.

“Off!”

“No way! I want to see it!”

I shrugged my shoulder up to block him. “Don’t!”

“Why not?” He’d gotten me trapped against the vanity as I unconvincingly tried to fight him off.

“Because it’s stupid. Niall, don’t!”

“Well, it’s on the Achilles Ear, and it’s an Irish flag, so I’m assumin’ it has something to do with me,” by this time I’d given up my protest and let him nudge his nose in there, nuzzling me. “And nothin’ concernin’ me and you is stupid. C’mere.” Grabbing my hand, he dragged me over to the window and stood facing my side, pushing the shell of my ear forward so he could get a good look.

“It’s trashy! Stop!” My embarrassment was complete.

“It’s fuckin’ hot. Jesus, Z,” his voice was scratchy and low as he ran his finger over the spot, “ya did this for me?”

“No, for my other Irish boyfriend. Of course I did it for you. I was horny, bored, and I missed you! It was an unholy trio!” I pushed him back a bit. I hated showing my weakness for someone, even for him. Especially for him. It did not jive with my independent woman vibe. I wanted him to be the one tripping over his feet for me. And he did. Often. I was that good.

“Goddamn it,” he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to him, dropping his towel in the process, and pulling on my ear again. “I want to fuckin’ lick and suck that all day. I can’t believe ya did that.” Before I could protest, his mouth was behind my ear, doing exactly what he promised. Within five minutes I was sprawled out on the bathroom floor with his head between my legs lapping like it was his last meal. Fifteen minutes after that, I was bent over the vanity, the two of us watching ourselves in the mirror as he took me from behind. He was total porn star mode and I loved every second of it. Maybe my next tattoo would be his name on my ass. After that reaction, I’d consider it.

That night we were locked in the house with carry-out, just enjoying time together and recovering from the day long fuckfest. I’d managed to make him snort Stella laughing at a story from work, and I’d then choked on a noodle at his reaction. His actual birthday was in two days, and tomorrow various friends from all over the world would be descending for a traditional weekend of debauchery. He’d been showing me blue print plans from his builder (Gary...we were all on a first name basis, and he’d brought me pastries last time I’d been to visit) to add a room off the kitchen. A new office. It looked nice, French doors and a window seat with built-in bookcases.

“But you have an office upstairs already, bugaboo,” I reminded him, kissing his cheek as I slid on the floor in front of his knees to take a better look. I was pretty sure that Niall just really liked Gary and enjoyed keeping him around. At this rate the house might become a Hollywood Hills version of The Winchester House. “And if you’re not sure, there are two other bedrooms, dude. We can move stuff around.”

“Jesus. You really are thick, aren’t ya?” He stared at me over the plans, rolling his eyes. “Notice where it says something about staining the wood teal? I swear, you complain about me bein’ oblivious to shit. The room is for you, Zo. It’s your office. I thought you might like a space of your own when we’re here. Especially when there are guests - I was pretty sure you were going to stab Deo last time.” This is true. He wouldn’t quit humming the theme to Doogie Howser, M.D.

Oh. Okay. I bit my lip, unsure of what to say. So I went with smart ass. “You know, your future wife will make you sell this house if there’s a room you built for your old girlfriend here. You’ll have to move to the Valley or something.”

“How about I make my ‘old’ girlfriend my wife, then? I get to keep the house and my girl. Two birds, one stone.”

“Yeah? You think?” My heart rate had jumped up about 400 beats a minute and I was barely holding it together. My face was burning hot.

“I know, Zoe Jane. Wanna marry me?” He whispered with a smile, but his eyes were nervous. His foot was jiggling so hard the whole sofa was bouncing.

“Quit fucking with me, Horan. That’s not nice.” Neither of us were blinking. Only our stubborn asses would be having a staredown over a marriage proposal. He put his hand out to grab mine and pull me up from my spot on the huge pillow on the floor.

“C’mere.” He pulled me upstairs to his (our? My mind was spinning.) bedroom and sat me on the bed, holding a finger up for me to wait a second as he disappeared into the closet. A minute later he returned, holding an orange box. Holy shitsnacks. This was Hermes. Better than a diamond. A handbag.

“I didn’t plan on doing this tonight,” he reached around to scratch the back of his neck with his right hand. “Not actually sure when I was going to. No time seemed right, and you deserve right. But we kinda go about things differently, yeah? And that just came out before, when you were busting my balls. Which is really the perfect thing, ya know? That’s how we roll.”

“Niall, you’re babbling,” I held my hands out for the box. Gimme.

“Calm your tits, Bechtle. I have a thing I want to say. Been thinking it over for months. Ya told me that first morning that you didn’t need me or anyone. That I was an accessory. A Birkin bag,” he handed me the box and I stared at him. “A ‘really fucking awesome, coveted purse that is frankly out of your budget, but still a bag.’” I know ya need don’t need this, or me, but I hope you’ll keep us both around. I hear these things never go out of style and will last ya the rest of your life.”

“But I can get other bags to carry, too, right?” I was crying.

“NOT what I was tryin’ to say.” We both started laughing, a nervousness to the room. Hopeful tension, maybe? My hands shook as I untied the bow and carefully lifted the lid on the beautiful chocolate colored leather.

“Ni, I...oh my god.” I was petting it with one hand and trying to touch his cheek with the other. I was officially mentally overstimulated.

“You should look inside,” he whispered. I fumbled with the openings, dropping the bag. Twice.

“Jesus, Zo,” he ran his hand through his hair and fell to his knees to pick it up. I pulled out a matching wallet and passport holder. Grand total this all had to cost more than my tuition my first two years of college.

“I can’t believe...It’s too...Niall!”

He took the wallet out of my hands and pulled out a small velvet box. Oh my god. OH MY FUCKING GOD. And he was still on the floor in front of me. On one knee. This was happening. This was really happening. He was building me a room. He bought me a bag. And now there was a ring. Fuck this noise. I slid off the bed and tackled him, kissing his mouth.

“Z, I love you more that I ever thought possi-”

“Yes, you ninny.”

“Yeah?” There was that cancer curing smile that I noticed the night we met. “Thank god. I had a fear you were going to beat me with the bag.”

“Still might. That is a ridiculous amount of money, you idiot. I can’t believe you remembered that purse analogy.”

“Thought about it every day since.”

“I was so proud of myself. That’s high level thinking.” I’d managed to his shirt off and was working on his pants. “Fuck, I love you so much.”

“Are ya even going to look at the ring? It’s a- Jesus, God.”

“Maybe later. Got things to do right now. I love you, Niall.”

Three days later I woke up with a screaming headache and bright desert sunlight shining right in my eyes. Ugh, we didn’t shut the blinds and the Vegas sunlight was blinding. And hot. I never did get the fascination with this place. A desert of drunk people and loud music. Unfortunately the boys loved it. And I’d dragged Niall to Oslo for six days for my birthday against his will (he wasn’t a fan of cold) so I had no place to put up a fuss. I didn’t remember actually starting drinking yesterday - it was a day long heavy buzz from bloody Marys on. Ooof, I’d gotten too much sun at the pool. My whole back was tender and hot. The beautiful man (my fiance-whoa) cuddling up to it wasn’t helping matters.

“Ow. Hot. Niall, you’re hot.” I whined. In response he tilted his hips up into my bottom.

“You’re hot, too, babe.” That sleepy, thick accent.

“Oh shut up, not like THAT. My back.” He scooted back to look.

“Shit, Zo, you’re fried.”

“Ughhhhh.” I flopped back dramatically, only to yelp for real and roll over to my stomach. “Ouchy. Will you grab the ibuprofen from my makeup bag? I’ll love you forever and ever.” To accentuate my point, I pouted my bottom lip at him.

“Fine. I’m gonna take a piss, though.”

“Wash your damn hands!” He stuck his tongue out at me as he walked by, and shook his bum once he knew I could see it. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and started flipping through messages and social media posts.

“Horan Gettin’ Hitched!”

“No More ‘Horan’ Around” (okay, that’s hilarious)

“‘This Town’ For Niall and Fiancee!”

Shit. There were pictures of us from yesterday and last night. Invasive, but sweet. With our friends, but always touching one another, even in some small way. Me tucking my head into his neck waiting for a car. Him rubbing sunscreen on my back (spoiler: it was ineffective) at the pool. Hannah and I cuddling in a corner at the club and Niall behind us in a conversation with his hand resting on my bare shoulder. I hadn’t worn the beautiful emerald ring he’d bought me this weekend-no official announcement had been made and we agreed to wait until after his birthday (and me safely ensconced back in the London under Bas’s watchful eye) to do so. So where the fuck were these headlines coming from? It wasn’t the first time we’d seen such rumors, but now that there was substinance to them, my radar was pinging. I clicked on the link.

“During his annual birthday extravaganza - this year in Vegas - former One Direction hottie and solo sensation Niall Horan was heard telling friends that he has proposed to longtime girlfriend, Zoe Bechtle. Sources report the singer referring to the regular-girl brunette as “the wife.” American-born Bechtle and Horan have kept their relationship mainly out of the public eye but rumors have her moving into his London home recently. Don’t forget the pre-nup, Niall!”

And the comments. Holy shit. The usual brain explosions, people wishing us well, others wishing me death, commenting on my ass (let it go, people, I’m big fucking boned), and people claiming to have seen us at the drive-thru wedding chapel. Christ.

“Niiiiii?”

“Be there in a sec, babe, beer shits!” Seriously, we were way too damned comfortable with one another. I maneuvered myself out of the bed, hissing at the pain and into the bathroom.

“I said I’d be right there.” Luckily he was pulling his boxers up at this point.

“Um, did you tell someone we were engaged last night? And refer to me as “the wife?” I put my phone in his face as he washed his hands so he could see the article. He motioned with his nose so I would scroll down as he dried.

“Well, shit. Cat’s out of the bag, I suppose.”

“Ya think? All the big blogs have it. I’m surprised your phone isn’t going apeshit.” He was not nearly as upset by this news as I’d thought he’d be.

“Fuck, it died last night.” He started fussing with the cords on the nightstand, plugging it in.

“I bought you that ginormous case with the char-”

“It looks bulky in my pocket!”

“Good Lord, you’re a dainty princess.” I gave his chest a little shove. “What should we do? Do you want me to call Kim?” He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at me for a minute. I could actually see the wheels turning in his head. “Boo? Hey!” I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

He looked at me intently. “Wanna just do it?”

“What? Call Kim?” I raised my eyebrow as I swallowed the ibuprofen and reached a t-shirt to cover up my naked chest.

“No. Get married. Now. Here.”

“Seriously?”

“Why not?” He stood up and walked over to me, carefully avoiding my crispy back side as he wrapped his arms around me. “You were already having a panic attack the other night about whether we have a wedding in London, Ireland, or in America. And who my best man should be. If Harry should be one of your bridesmaids. Security. If wearing white was out of the question since you’ve ‘given more rides than a bus’. The more time you have to think about something…”

“The more I freak,” I finished for him. I never really had been a fan of the pageantry of weddings. The parties were fun but too much drama. “Are you being 100% for real?”

“Zo, I would have married you on the bedroom floor the other night.”

“An officiant might have minded presiding over a ceremony where I ended up reverse cowgirl.”

His smirk light up his face. “That’s my dream fuckin’ wedding. Baby, you’ve had me since that second quiz night. I don’t care where we do this, and the sooner the better. I wanna be official. I bet I can make a few calls and we can get someone up here,” He teased, running his lips kissing my ear. “Marry me? Today?”

I sighed, my decision made three seconds after he suggested it. “I only do this if you get Elvis.”

“Deal.”

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three--rings · 5 years ago

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Okay, you think, then I’ll give to my local independent Religious Aid Nonprofit...nope. Let me tell you about the Mission in the town I used to work in as a social worker. This was a Faith-Based Christian Org that included a homeless mission, emergency financial assistance, ran the local food pantry, and had two thrift stores.

So first up, they picked and chose who they would take in to their shelter. Anyone they didn’t like the look of, anyone they thought would be trouble, nope, sorry. They were the only homeless shelter in town, but if you were lucky they’d buy you a bus ticket to another city to try your luck with their shelter. This included people with mental illness, people with any history of drug or alcohol problems, anyone non-Christian, anyone who had a bad reputation in town, etc. It was literally based on the rumor mill. If you did get in, there were a TON of rules to follow. I won’t go into all of them. But in return for housing, you had to work in their thrift stores for 24 hours a week. For free. So they had free labor for their profit-making enterprises.

Now, let’s say you’re someone who wants to get a job and get your own place, you just had some bad luck, maybe a bad relationship, whatever. Do they help you get a job? No. They make you work for them. And you have to be at dinner every day. And the morning prayer service. Good luck job hunting in your few unscheduled hours. Do they provide any transportation to job interviews or anything? No. Say despite all that you get a job. Great, now the clock is ticking. You have 30 days from getting a job before they kick you out of the shelter. Don’t get a job and you can stay for years. Get a job and you’re out. But there’s a six month waiting list for public housing assistance and that’s the only way you can get a place on minimum wage? Too bad, now you’re back on the street until you’re out of work again, then you can come right on back.

So they have these giant thrift stores. All the merch is donated by the truckload. They get so many donations they literally can’t store it all. They sent off weekly 18-wheeler trucks stuffed with things not nice enough for them to sell. They went south of the border, don’t know where they ended up. The good stuff goes into their stores. So no costs for the stuff, no costs for the labor (because slave labor), they own the buildings. So they bring in several thousand dollars a day per store. (I knew someone who worked there who told me how much they sold on average.) And all that to help house and feed...at most 50 people.

Oh that emergency financial assistance I mentioned? So say you’re someone who is about to lose your house because you can’t pay rent. So you go there. And they take all your household information, all your financial information, put you through a whole application process to determine if you’re “worthy.” Then maybe they say “okay we can give you $300.” (I think that was actually high for what they would give a person. They had a limit.) And then they’d draw up a repayment plan. Yup, you’d have to promise to pay them back over the next however many months. They didn’t charge interest, but they wanted to know how you would be able to pay. It might not be a surprise to find out most people only ever tried going to them once, knowing they might spend several hours begging and not actually get any help after all that.

The food pantry? Oh that was all donated food, too, staffed by residents. So where was all that money going? Well they had a bunch of admin staff, didn’t they? Oh, plus the fundraisers. And the government grants.

So much of charity is a scam designed to prey on the poor and keep them dependent while conning the well-intentioned well-off out of their donations. So do your research. Give directly to people in need. Support government programs that have to have ACTUAL accountability and not faith-based bullshit.

DO NOT SUPPORT SALVATION ARMY

#charity #the worst part was the self-righteousness of the people running the place #like I know they believed they were helping people #and the fact they drove a BMW was just a well-deserved reward for good deeds #meanwhile my state employed ass was in a $2000 car.#every quarter I had to spend a week accounting for my time on a scantron down to each 15 minute period to make sure I got enough work done #and no one was taking too much taxpayer money #but those guys it's just like a slush fund that money pours into #and no one watches what is done with it

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mysydneymemories-blog · 6 years ago

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Why Boomers can't talk about the 'R' word

One reason is a bloke who lives nearby. I don't know him well we've never got much past banal chats about the weather or footy but he hasn't had a job for a few years. I suspect he might have been "let go". Or simply retired. He appears a bit lost, like a man chasing things to do. His bins go out earlier than before. Takes his time over domestic chores. He grew a beard, too, which was a mistake. It's all grey. Makes him look much older than he is. Like a slimmed-down Hemingway. Seeing him, I've opted to keep shaving. Then there's the man I'll call Gary, with whom I worked over several decades. I left; he stayed. I caught up with him a while back. He said he felt under pressure at work and was taking medication for stress. The job was killing him. He had to get out. He did, months later. Then I saw him again at the funeral of another former colleague. He'd put on weight. His face looked puffy. Asked about life since escaping the office grind, Gary replied: 'I don't know what to do now. Wonder if I made a hideous mistake.' Asked about life since escaping the office grind, Gary replied: "I don't know what to do now. Struggle to find reasons to get up. Wonder if I made a hideous mistake." This felt like another warning. Was this what happens when you move from full-time work to no work at all, or bits and pieces of stuff you call work? Is this what retirement looks like? A financial guy had already talked me into a transition-to-retirement scheme. I'd focused on the transition, not the r-word. Skimmed over the bit where a payment was called a pension. But the fact was I'd gradually moved transitioned from a Monday-to-Friday job to a four-days-a-week-job, then to several smaller jobs, not all of which involved earning money. During the four-day phase, Wednesdays were mine. For dog walks. Swims. Shopping. Cooking. Stuff. I loved Wednesday. It was a peaceful island in the midst of a fast-running river I had to cross every week. A place to take stock and not answer calls. But maybe Wednesdays were special because of what came before and after. If I had a week of Wednesdays, things would seem different. I could end up with a bad case of the Garys. Perhaps I'm being unfair to him. It's possible he was just having a bad day at the funeral, which was a shocker. Too long, too many speeches, and a prevailing sense that we were there for a popular man who'd had a heart attack while riding his bike with mates. He was 51. Much younger than me. And still 14 years off what used to be set in stone as retirement age. That's how it was: you hit 65, retired, went off and played golf or got a caravan. Or a Winnebago, like Jack Nicholson's character in the 2002 movie About Schmidt, which explores what happens to Warren Schmidt after he retires from an insurance company. Early scenes show Schmidt counting down the last hour of employment and enduring awkward speeches at his office farewell. Then he's hit by a double-whammy: the sudden loss of his wife and a lack of purpose. He takes off, alone, in the Winnebago, in what becomes a kind of oldies' road movie. It makes poignant viewing now. Nicholson's last film came out in 2010. Since then, rumours have swirled about his health. In 2013, he told Vanity Fair he didn't consider himself retired, just less driven. Appropriately, About Schmidt came out the year Nicholson turned 65 the age still linked with the r-word. It's actually an outdated historical construct.

Appropriately, the film "About Schmidt" came out the year its star, Jack Nicholson, turned 65 the age still linked with the r-word.Credit:Alamy In Australia, a government-funded retirement pension dates back to 1909, when it was paid to men from the age of 65. For women, the magic age was 60, from 1910. These pensions, to support ageing victims of tough times from the 1890s, included income and residency tests. They didn't represent a crushing burden for the government, as just 4 per cent of the population was over 65. Life expectancy was about 55 for men, 59 for women. Today, by contrast, about 15 per cent of Australians are over 65 and life expectancy has leapt to about 80 for men and 85 for women. For any budget-conscious government, that represents plenty of potentially costly retirees. And they can be a cranky lot. Hence Prime Minister Scott Morrison's backdown late last year on the Abbott-era plan, from 2014, to increase the pension age from 67 to 70, starting in 2025. Steady increases in age eligibility would have seen it hit 70 by 2035. This was portrayed as a move by penny-pinching politicians to force honest folk to scrap retirement plans and work until they dropped. Doing his man-of-the-people impression, Deputy PM Michael McCormack told Sky News: "If you're a tradie or a brickie or a shearer in rural and regional Australia, you don't want some suit in Canberra telling you you've got to work until you're 70." Absolutely not. Labor didn't protest about this as much as might have been expected, because it was under then prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2009 that the pension age was lifted from 65 to 67 (from 2017). Rudd's treasurer, Wayne Swan, acknowledged the move would never be popular, but justified it by saying Australia faced a "demographic time bomb". An estimated 22 per cent of the population will be over 65 by 2057. The Council on the Ageing (COTA) says 7.9 million Australians, almost a third of the population, are currently aged 50 or above. Of these, 29 per cent of those still working think they'll never retire. Not surprisingly, it also found that "the expected age of retirement increases as household income level decreases". The importance of financial security becomes clear when I type the words "Retirement in Australia" in the online catalogue for the local library. The first entries include books about the future of property investing and keeping your self-managed superannuation fund simple. These books, not to mention Enjoying Retirement, The Retirement Living Handbook and Women and Retirement ("Challenges of a new life phase") are also popular. Most are already out on loan, with at least one reserve in place. Which is understandable. It makes financial sense to borrow a book instead of buying it. And libraries are popular with older people. Then again, how old is old?

Hillary Clinton was 69 when she ran for the US presidency in 2016.Credit:AAP Turning 50 is the first tipping point, a convenient age for headhunters making shortlists shorter, or managers trimming staff numbers. It's when you're over 50 that you start to receive brochures about investments, superannuation choices and that once-faraway place called retirement. Not 60, when you may find yourself eligible for a Seniors Card (a tad embarrassing, but fabulous for cut-price public transport). Or 67 (thanks, Mr Swan), when perhaps you'll put your hand up for a pension. It's 50. Ridiculous. Ken Rosewall was still winning matches in tennis tournaments in the early 1980s, just a few years shy of 50. And the three main contenders in the 2016 US presidential election Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were aged 70, 69 and 75 respectively. None are considered retirees.

Donald Trump was the oldest person to assume the office of US president, being 70 years, 220 days at his inauguration.Credit:AAP The retirement age, incidentally, varies considerably around the world. In Japan, which has the world's highest average life expectancy (just under 84), incentives may be offered to people to postpone a state pension until 70. In Brazil, the average retirement age is 56 for men, 53 for women. Brazil has generous pensions and a debt crisis. In France, the retirement age has been moved from 60 to 62; in Germany, it's 65 and seven months.

Royal Commissioner Kenneth Hayne. Just as the pension age is less fixed than it used to be, so is the concept of retirement. The titular character in About Schmidt struggles to adapt. All those years behind an actuary's desk were not fun, but what now? And why is it that some capable people still face compulsory retirement? Kenneth Hayne, who turns 74 in June, demonstrated impressive vigour and acuity heading the recent banking royal commission. He was able to take that on because he was deemed too old to continue sitting as a Justice of the High Court. Hayne had to retire from that job in 2015. Since a constitutional amendment in 1977, members of the Australian federal judiciary must retire at 70. The last judge not affected by this provision, having been appointed in 1976, was Justice Graham Bell. He retired from the Family Court of Australia in early 2015, aged 78, and took a swing at the new law on the way out: "These days, 70 is equal to 60 or 55 Judges should be able to go on till 80 provided they pass a medical inspection They are sent out to pasture too early."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg serves as a Justice of the US Supreme Court at age 86.Credit:AAP Three of the nine serving Justices of the US Supreme Court, including the legendary Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, would be gone if the US had a similar law. Here, it means that Geoffrey Nettle, who became a High Court judge in 2015 at the age of 64 (the oldest-ever appointee), will hit the mandatory retirement age in late 2020. He will serve a maximum term of just under six years, which seems a waste of a fine legal mind. It's possible we've been looking at all this the wrong way around. Instead of designating a retirement age, perhaps the question should be: how young can you get away with it? The devotees of a mantra called FIRE Financial Independence, Retire Early are reshaping ideas of what early retirement looks like. Forget your 60s; their goal is to bail out in half that time, or, in the case of J.P. Livingston, in your 20s. Instead of designating a retirement age, perhaps the question should be: how young can you get away with it? "I retired in New York City with just over $2.25 million when I was 28," she says on her website, The Money Habit. "I wholeheartedly believe that anyone can retire decades earlier than their peers." The secret, she says, lies in financial planning. (Luck and a solid financial base also help.) The FIRE movement started in the US but has since spread globally through myriad blogs and websites. A father figure is Jacob Lund Fisker, a Danish former nuclear astrophysicist, whose Early Retirement Extreme blog began in 2007. Fisker summarises his philosophy as "a combination of simple living, anti-consumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, resilience, and applied capitalism". The baton has now been passed to Peter Adeney, a Canadian. Writing as Mr Money Mustache, Adeney's ideas about very early retirement, which he achieved in 2005, age 30, gained so much traction that The New Yorker magazine profiled him in 2016. "Retirement, in his hands, is a slippery term," Nick Paumgarten wrote. "It doesn't mean playing golf or sitting on the porch. It is merely the freedom to do what he wants when he wants He disdains the idea of spending another minute of his life in a cubicle in order to afford a dryer or a Tesla." The profile described Adeney using a woodworking vice to squeeze limes. His wife, Simi, was quoted as saying: "I've gotten used to it all, but he's a weird dude." Maybe too weird. Last year, a Guardian article about the FIRE movement noted Adeney's influence but reported: "He and his wife divorced recently." Apostles of FIRE have firm ideas about what life should look like and it doesn't include employers. (Children are seldom mentioned, either.) Many have come from the financial or technology sectors and are resting on a solid base. It takes money to make money, or even save money. And as appealing as the idea of ditching a boss in your 30s may be, the question, even more daunting than for someone in their 60s, is the same: what's next? As nice as the idea of ending work in your 30s may be, the question, even more daunting than for 60somethings, is the same: what's next? For J.P. Livingston, "a successful and happy retirement is about changing chapters rather than one static image of constant adrenaline and adventure". But Fisker could be running out of steam. In February, he diverted blog visitors to Bertrand Russell's 1932 essay In Praise of Idleness. Russell is an unlikely poster boy for early retirement. He died aged 97 and was still writing into his final years. Anne Moore would love to follow suit. A social scientist and entrepreneur, she tells me from her Sydney office how she started a software business "at 57, mid-career". Later, she founded PlanDo, which offers career coaching and advocates embracing the idea that careers are no longer linear starting with a junior role and ending at 65 with farewell handshakes. She talks of the much-hyped "gig economy". "People don't retire any more," she argues. "They are working into their 70s." Or longer. Like many women, Moore juggled different sorts of work with raising a family. She thinks the random, disjointed careers familiar to women may become the norm for everyone. Retirement, she insists, "was never, ever on my horizon. I come from a working-class background and always had a strong work ethic. Just as the idea of being a young stay-at-home mum was never attractive, it never occurred to me that I would retire." Work, she says, can inform a sense of identity; can even be noble. The quest is to find work paid or otherwise that is purposeful and fulfilling. And it means thinking about work in different ways.

ABC newsreader Ian Henderson was happy to retire at 65.Credit:ABC Despite the rigidity applied to judges, ideas about retirement are, as Moore suggests, becoming more fluid. And I'm not the only one who resists the r-word. ABC Radio's Jon Faine recently announced that this year would be his last behind the microphone in Melbourne. He told a caller who rang to lament his pending departure, "I'm not retiring. I'm just going to be doing other things." Faine, now 62, says of his decision to move on: "Inside my head it is very important. I hope to still stay engaged, useful and busy, but not in an all-consuming job like this." I've heard many people ranging from cricketer Mitchell Johnson to former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett express variations of the same sentiment: once you start talking or thinking about retirement, you've already gone. We all thought Malcolm Turnbull was gone when he was deposed as prime minister last August. He even suggested he might go quietly. Then he went to New York. When he returned in October, he declared: "I'm not engaged in politics any longer. I'm retired." Hmmm, maybe At least Turnbull didn't shy away from the r-word. Another who didn't was Faine's former colleague Ian Henderson. Late last year, at the traditional age of 65, the Victorian TV newsreader declared that after 38 years at the ABC, it was time to embark upon "a long-hatched retirement plan". A key component was "a bush block; a couple of acres to play with". He calls me from there to discuss his new life. He'd talked of retirement, he says, because it was something people could grasp onto and understand. "I was informed partly by memories of my own father, who retired at 65," says Henderson. "He was a commercial traveller, a Depression boy; got one job and stuck with it. By the time he got to retiring, he was very much over work. I think he saw ahead a golden age that was perhaps not quite realised ... His idea of renewal was to build a dream home, something he did twice. He withdrew from the community, became quite isolated. To me, that was something of a cautionary tale." I was conscious that I needed a few things to fill the void; occupy myself. But it's also good to survey the horizon, see what's out there. At the bush block, Henderson says, "there's no shortage of projects; [my wife] Susie and I are consumed by them." So too, their adult children. There's a tiered organic vegie garden. And he's taken up baking bread. "I was conscious that I needed a few things to fill the void; occupy myself. But it's also a good idea to survey the horizon and see what's out there." Since he left the newsroom he's been spotted back at the ABC, doing some work for Catalyst. So has he un-retired? No. "When I stopped, I did not rule out dabbling in other projects. But I was not looking at a second career. My criteria for new things are that they are interesting, worthwhile and fun." The Catalyst project, which involved chatting to centenarians with a strong sense of purpose, ticks all those boxes. I'd thought he might fit the old stereotype of retirement: out at 65 to play golf. Hendo loves his golf. A knee problem, however, has restricted his time on the course since he stopped reading the news. Still, he declares himself "soooo busy there often aren't enough hours in the day". Later, he sends a photo of his tomato plants. With a caption: "My Babies". Some women like Sally, whom I've known for more than 40 years choose to reshape their lives. She did this once before, moving from the corporate world to a career teaching English as a second language at a high school. She stopped doing that around the time she turned 60. "If pressed, I would say that I'm retired in one sense of the word. But I'd rather say I'm just living in a different way. I've not withdrawn but restarted." I'm retired in one sense of the word. But I'd rather say I'm just living in a different way. I've not withdrawn but restarted. She expands on the theme: "I still derive an income, but not through recognisable activity what some call work. My income tax statement looks different. I still have goals and monitor my own performance. I am making different types of connections with people whom I wouldn't call colleagues or friends, but who share similar interests. I describe myself as 'occupied' rather than busy, because busy is a state I was constantly in as a teacher for 13 years. "I occupy myself now with activities which are of my choosing, including new activities for fun and out of curiosity. I have time now although I haven't fully capitalised on it yet for listening to more classical music, reading more widely and broadening my exposure to culture." She's working on a family-history writing project. She's tried ballet. ("It's meant to be an absolute beginners' class, but no way are they all beginners. Especially that 11-year-old with her hair in a bun, a pink tutu and pointe shoes!") And she's considering a beginners' hip-hop class. "I am having fun and have absolutely no regrets." American futurist Glen Hiemstra addresses the "what next?" question in this way: "The first quarter of the 21st century will see a great reinvention of the third phase of life, away from classic retirement and towards something like 'life fulfilment'. The end of retirement and beginning of life fulfilment may be a kind of liberation." Or, as an ad puts it: Shouldn't your retirement be the start of something new? Sure. But what, exactly? There are all kinds of possibilities and no simple solutions. In search of answers, or perhaps just some interesting questions, I enrolled in philosophy classes early in my not-retired life. I ended up doing two terms, which seemed like enough when Rudyard Kipling's poem If was wheeled out for inspiration. The classes taught me the value of pausing; of taking time out, even for just a few minutes, to dwell on the moment. And I liked the notion that anxiety can simply mean thinking about the future. Wondering, and often worrying, about what may lie ahead. I never told the Tuesday-night tennis guys that, for much of one year, my Wednesday nights yes, Wednesday, once my special day were occupied pondering topics like The Power of Beauty. I have lunch with Michael the lawyer in the city, not far from his office. He can't recall me losing my cool over his repeated jabs about "retirement". That's not surprising: it was some time ago. It also confirms that the incident meant more to me than him. He agrees the concept of retirement has changed dramatically since we both started working in the 1970s. It's something he's pondered, too. A few years ago, he was politely nudged out the door of the big law firm where he'd been a partner. Experience can matter less than billable hours. He faced an unsettling period that left him convinced he wasn't ready to walk away. So he sucked it up and moved on. Talked to people. Got offers from smaller, more flexible law firms. He's doing fine. When he insists on buying lunch, I protest, politely, then wonder if he reckons I can't be earning much in my new life. Stop it, I tell myself, you're being too sensitive again. Later, I send a thank-you message and can't resist two last questions. Can he imagine retiring? And what would that look like? "No," he replies. "I think 'retire' will likely exit my and others' lexicon. We will all just gradually wind down work, tennis, our social lives and everything else, until we fade away." I tell him I hope this will be no time soon. "Fading away" is another type of transition; something more unsettling than what we've known. Perhaps we can keep talking about this at tennis again next Tuesday night. To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times. Most Viewed in Money Loading https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/welcome-to-the-minefield-that-is-21st-century-retirement-20190409-p51c98.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

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bittenpath-blog · 6 years ago

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48cm:Rick Vosper: E-Bike Market Reality, part two: Inside the 'Invisible' EBD

In part one of this series, we discussed a core reality facing the IBD channel in the e-bike market. Although its share of market is growing, IBD brands still only represent a 25-30 percent of e-bike unit sales in the USA, depending on whose numbers you use. The ones shown here are from the BPSA’s sell-in data and the consulting group eCycleElectric (ECE), respectively.

The other 70-75 percent of the market represents some 120-150 active e-bike brands, according to ECE managing director Ed Benjamin. Market share is further broken down into consumer-direct brands (including e-bikes from car companies and bikeshare providers) and an emergent independent sector, which I’ve labeled the EBD (as opposed to the e-bike sector of the traditional IBD, or EIBD).

It’s the EBD niche I want to unpack in this installment, both because it provides the most direct competition for traditional IBD brands and dealers, and because it offers the greatest opportunities for synergy as well. But part of the challenge is that no one, not even e-bike industry insiders I talked to, have any idea how many of these EBD businesses there are. There’s a lot of volatility in the space, they agree, with EBDs continuously popping in and out of existence like quantum particles, and about as predictably.

So, who's number one?

At the BPSA/PeopleForBikes E-Bike summit in February, a data capture report from The NPD Group showed the leading EIBD brands as Trek, Specialized, Electra, Raleigh and Giant, in that order. This is a major shift from 2015, when the leaders were Stromer, Raleigh, Specialized, Haibike and Trek. Clearly the balance of power is still very much in flux.

On the EBD/Direct side of the business, Benjamin is reluctant to discuss details, although he agrees major players include Pedego and Rad Power. Overall, he says, the EIBD and EBD markets are about equal in size, while the consumer-direct segment controls about half of all units, but significantly less in terms of dollars. Traditional mass market stores like Walmart aren’t even on the radar screen, he says, and few of the large sporting brands. And that spells opportunity for brick-and-mortar retailers of all persuasions.

There’s a little fudge factor in these numbers, since some primarily direct brands are also sold by EBD and even EIBD retailers. But the bottom line is: the traditional designations of independent, sporting and mass channels are breaking down, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the booming e-bike market.

Of the main non-IBD brands Benjamin tags as industry leaders, Rad Power is entirely consumer-direct, aside from the sales floor at its Seattle headquarters building. And then there’s Pedego, which has a sales model all its own. Two of them, actually.

“One of the things that's made us so successful is we don't have the bicycle industry mentality. I come from the auto industry, and we brought that model to the e-bike business. It's not necessarily better, it's just different, but it works for us,” said Pedego founder and CEO Don DiCostanzo.

It’s obvious DiCostanzo has given this speech a time or two before, but it hasn’t damped his enthusiasm. As he says, the Pedego retailer model is based on the automobile dealership: an independent retailer 100 percent devoted to the Pedego brand. In exchange for that exclusivity, he explains, Pedego retailers have a protected-by-contract exclusive sales area and enjoy sales and marketing support beyond what IBD brands traditionally provide.

The traditional designations of independent, sporting and mass channels are breaking down, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the booming e-bike market.

Business is good, DiCostanzo claims, and getting better. “We currently have 108 Pedego retailers in the U.S. and Canada, including five or six opened since the first of the year. (That includes) two regular IBD retailers who’ve opened separate Pedego locations, and eight locations we own outright. We anticipate growing (the total) to about 150 in 2019.”

There’s another piece of the Pedego puzzle starting to fall into place, too. A hybrid retail model, a dedicated Pedego store-within-a-store concept, targeted at traditional IBDs who are willing to make Pedego their exclusive e-bike line. "We have applications from 15 retailers, currently signed three, working for a total of 10 in 2019 as proof of concept,” DiCostanzo says. “After that, we’ll see how it goes.”

“We did $50 million out of 108 stores last year with zero store failures,” he concludes, “and that makes us bigger (in e-bike sales) than Trek. Maybe not Trek and Electra together, but certainly bigger than Trek.”

“One of the things that's made us so successful is we don't have the bicycle industry mentality." — Don DiCostanzo.

Since Trek doesn’t publish sales numbers, there’s no way to determine the accuracy of this statement. But $50 million in e-bike sales from a single brand is nothing to sneeze at, either. As a bench mark, recall that we mentioned in Part One that the NPD Group estimates retail e-bike sales, through all the channels it measures, at $143 million for 2018.

Once again, we need to be clear about what’s being measured. NPD’s $143 million estimate includes retail dollar sell-through from participating retailers, sporting channels including Dick’s and REI, selected consumer-direct companies, and Amazon Direct (although not third-party retailers on Amazon). More to the point, it specifically does not measure sales in the EBD channel, including Pedego’s. Here’s the complete explanation from the BPSA/People For Bikes E-Bike Summit last month (note that although it’s labeled confidential, the slide is also labeled for “External Public Use”).

When cycling cultures — and products and brands and channels — collide.

I’ll unpack all this in more detail in the final part of this series, which is scheduled to go live Monday, April 11. But for the time being, I’d like to focus on a single question: Will the e-bike ultimately become an integrated part of the traditional bike business (as mountain bikes have done), or is it sufficiently different that it will become its own semi-independent channel (as with BMX or triathlon)?

Let’s start with DiCostanzo:

“People who buy Trek bikes do it because they're Trek customers and their family all rides Trek. But among potential e-bike customers coming into our stores, they don't even recognize the name. And if they do, they don't associate it with e-bikes. (…) At the end of the day, bikes are all commodities, and the differentiator is how the experience is delivered to the customer and the support the brand gets from the home office.”

On the other hand, this is a man who’s launching a project to seed his product into traditional bike shops, so it sounds like Pedego’s founder is in the semi-independent camp.

I also spoke with Noel Kegel, president of the Wheel & Sprocket group of stores in Wisconsin and Illinois. W & S has 10 locations, including what its website describes as an “E-Bike Superstore." Kegel is a thoughtful guy, and he articulates his experience clearly.

"The e-bike superstore was an experiment,” he says. “We separated it with a separate entrance, separate sign, separate manager, and separate marketing, sort of making it a different store. Though it was in the adjoining space in the strip mall to our regular store, and had a pass-through to it, the experiment was to see if there was a different customer and a different experience that we could tap into.

“In five years, 10 years, they'll come in saying 'I'm looking for a bike' and they'll mean an e-bike."— Noel Kegel.

“After one season experimenting, we’ve concluded to discontinue the stand-alone e-bike store. What we learned talking to customers and in focus groups was that the Wheel & Sprocket brand was primary to the e-bike portion. Most of the people coming into the e-bike store said they were coming in looking exclusively for an e-bike. But when we measured the stand-alone's sales against our Appleton store, a high-performing traditional location with a significant e-bike inventory, the mixed environment performed every bit as well.

“In five years, 10 years, they'll come in saying 'I'm looking for a bike' and they'll mean an e-bike. The hard line between e-bikes and traditional bikes is blurring quickly — this will no longer be a niche. I suspect that might be challenging for the e-bike only shops of the world, where customers can only get that product and not all the other parts, accessories and service that go with it. Or maybe the family comes in and the mom is interested in an e-bike and the dad wants a road bike and the kids want something else.”

So Kegel seems firmly in the “one happy family” contingent. But perhaps by virtue of its size, his Wheel & Sprocket stores enjoy an advantage the enormous majority of traditional bike shops don’t: they can be very selective which brands are represented on the floor. Currently, Kegel explains, his stores carry e-bikes from Trek, Riese & Müller, Felt, Tern, iZip and Yuba.

Finally, I put the same question to NBDA president Brandee Lepak. Here’s her take:

“As an association, we need to take a pause and think about what really helps our IBDs sell as many bikes as possible. And of course the same goes for EBDs too. We'd love to have EBD stores join the NBDA because we all learn from one another when we share best practices. I've seen an incredible opportunity for us in our own retail business (with e-bikes) and I'd like other retailers to have that opportunity, too."

Three industry leaders, three different views of where all this is heading for the traditional IBD channel.

But the upshot is not just that the e-bike is here to stay and represents a large and fast-growing opportunity. It’s not even about IEBD vs EBD vs mass or direct. The big picture here is that the e-bike has the power to disrupt the traditional bicycle business at every level and across all markets, just as surely as the mountain bike did in the ‘80s and the drop-bar 10-speed did 20 years before that.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about in part three.

#48cm road bike #Bicycle Retailer and Industry News

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nazaninlankarani · 6 years ago

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It Could Take 8 Years to Get This Patek Philippe. If You Can Get on the List.

If you are thinking of buying an automatic Patek Philippe Ref. 5711 in stainless steel with a black-blue dial, think again.

The Nautilus sports watch line, which includes the Ref. 5711, has been produced without interruption for 43 years. But demand for that particular model has so surpassed supply in recent years that neither Patek Philippe nor any of its retailers will sell one just because a customer is waving cash around. New watches go to carefully vetted clients who gained places on the waiting list thanks to longstanding relationships with the Swiss watchmaker.

And, while no one will specify, the wait is said to be as long as eight years.

“Why is the Nautilus so popular,” Thierry Stern, president of Patek Philippe, asked rhetorically in an interview last October in Milan during one of the family-owned house’s promotional events. “Of course I am happy about it, but honestly I don’t know the answer.”

For Mr. Stern, the subject is at once both somewhat irritating and a source of pride. “We make about 140 different models at Patek Philippe, and the basic Ref. 5711 in steel is just one of them,” he said. “We have many other models that are more complicated and arguably more beautiful.”

Tell that to frustrated buyers.

The first Nautilus, the Ref. 3700, was introduced in 1976, while Mr. Stern’s father, Philippe, was still leading the company. Gérald Genta, who had created the Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet four years earlier, designed the timepiece, both its name and the rounded octagonal bezel and case (inspired by a ship’s porthole) referencing Philippe Stern’s passion for sailing.

“When the Nautilus was introduced, the watch industry was confronted with the quartz crisis,” said Nicholas Foulkes, author of “Patek Philippe: The Authorized Biography” published in 2016. “Philippe Stern had an incredible vision that mechanical watches would come back.”

The advertising tagline said “one of the world’s costliest watches is made of steel.” And that, too, was something of a revolution for Patek, which previously had made only classic watches in precious metals. “What was interesting then was not that it was a steel watch,” Mr. Foulkes said, “but that it was a Patek Philippe in steel.” Within a few years, women’s versions were introduced and complications added.

In 2006, the Ref. 5711/1A debuted — a reworked version of the Ref. 3700 model in steel but with a bluer dial and an automatic caliber.

It was not Patek’s most expensive watch nor its most complicated. But the consensus among watch fans is that it is the most coveted.

“If I had a penny for every client who came in every day asking for a Ref. 5711 in steel, I would be long retired,” a salesman at Tourneau, an authorized retailer in New York, said last fall. The official retail price is $29,803 (or, in Europe, 27,040 euros).

Founded in 1839, and closely held by the Stern family since 1932, Patek Philippe does not disclose its annual production or revenue — but reports have estimated it produces 60,000 timepieces annually and generates 1.5 billion Swiss francs in sales. In January Bloomberg reported that the company might be offered for sale, with analysts estimating it could be worth $8 billion to $10 billion.

“We don’t discuss production quantities, but clearly we don’t make enough Ref. 5711s,” Mr. Stern said. “Today we are meeting maybe 10 percent of the demand, and it is going to stay that way.”

“For us, this is not a race to make more money,” he said. “It is a race for beauty, for the long term, and for greater choice in our collections.”

World record

Rarity breeds desire, but also speculation. The scarcity of the Ref. 5711 on the primary market has resulted in corresponding price increases for new and pre-owned models at auction.

Consider the new automatic Ref. 5711/1A in stainless steel with a so-called Tiffany dial that was sold in November at a Phillips auction in Geneva. The timepiece was accompanied by its Patek certificate of origin, showing it had been sold on July 30 at the Tiffany & Company Fifth Avenue flagship in New York.

Tiffany, an official Patek retailer since 1851, has stamped its name on the dial of certain Patek models; other retailers have had similar arrangements in the past, but now only Tiffany has such an agreement. Tiffany will not say how many Ref. 5711 dials it has stamped or how many have sold, but the watches are widely considered to be among the rarest in production.

For the consignor, whose identity was known to Patek, Tiffany and Phillips but was not made public, the payout was immediate and exponential: The watch sold for 125,000 Swiss francs or $124,362, including the buyer’s premium, setting a world record for a steel Ref. 5711.

“If you want to distinguish yourself with a Ref. 5711, you need that Tiffany dial,” said Aurel Bacs, the auctioneer who brought down the hammer. “This is the endgame in Ref. 5711s.”

Six stories

Several owners have their own histories with the Ref. 5711.

A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Claude Sfeir is a prominent Patek Philippe client who says he owns “almost all” the watches in the Nautilus series, including a one-of-a-kind prototype Ref. 3700 that he acquired a few years ago at auction.

“This prototype is the symbol of the success of the Nautilus and proof of the genius of Gérald Genta,” Mr. Sfeir said in a phone interview from Beirut, Lebanon. “This watch carries the history of all the Nautilus watches in a simple design that is still very current.”

The collector Claude Sfeir said he owned “almost all” the watches in the Nautilus series, including a one-of-a-kind prototype Ref. 3700. © Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

In May 2015, a 1978 timepiece called the Albino Prototype, for its white dial, came up for sale at Sotheby’s in Geneva. To bid without attracting attention, Mr. Sfeir recalled, he left the salesroom before the watch — lot 116 — was announced and made his bids over the phone from the hallway outside.

Estimated to sell for 30,000 and 50,000 Swiss francs, the watch was sold to Mr. Sfeir for 250,000 francs.

“My Ref. 3700 is unique,” Mr. Sfeir said, “and its real market value is in the millions.”

A 50TH BIRTHDAY GIFT

Patek’s well-known advertising slogan says an owner is “merely looking after it for the next generation.”

François-Jean Daehn, president of Montaigne Publications and director of Monsieur, a French men’s magazine, says he surely will pass on to his son the Ref. 5711 that he bought in 2014 as a 50th birthday gift to himself.

“I happened to be in Geneva, and it was my birthday, and also beginning of a new love story,” he said. “It is a watch I love because it has even more special significance for me.”

François-Jean Daehn plans to leave the Ref. 5711, which he bought as a 50th birthday gift to himself, to his son.

Mr. Daehn, who said he had been thinking about buying the watch for a long time, said its purchase made him realize that his tastes are actually very mainstream. “I always thought of myself as an independent tastemaker with a penchant for more exotic timepieces,” he said. “I see now the extent to which I am moved by established luxury icons.”

“When people ask me, ‘How did you get this watch?’, it is a little embarrassing,” he said. “ I wish it could go unnoticed.”

THE WISH LIST

Alexander Rosenbeck may be based in the small Danish town of Slagelse, about an hour’s drive southwest of Copenhagen, but he has 2.3 million followers on Daily Watch, the Instagram site he co-founded in 2013.

And guess what is at the top of his list.

“I already own the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15202 with an ultrathin movement,” Mr. Rosenbeck, 25, said in a phone interview. “But the watch I want now is the Ref. 5711, because it is classy and sporty, and you can spot it a mile away.”

Alexander Rosenbeck has an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15202, but “the watch I want now is the Ref. 5711, because it is classy and sporty, and you can spot it a mile away.”

Mr. Rosenbeck became interested in watches after he began working on Daily Watch, augmenting his knowledge with visits to various manufacturers. Today, the site’s events held in collaboration with watch brands allow him to live off his Instagram activities alone. But buying watches can be a bit difficult.

He hopes to get his name on a waiting list or to buy one on the secondary market, if he finds a “good deal.”

“Every month that goes by, the watch gets more expensive,” he said. “My friends think that paying so much just to see the time on your wrist is crazy.”

He is even considering a sacrifice.

“I might sell my Audemars Piguet because my budget will not allow me to keep both,” he said. “It is difficult to let go of this baby, but I am considering selling it for the Patek.”

INSTAGRAM QUEEN

Misha Daud is the woman behind Watch Fashionista, with 151,000 followers in Instagram. Based in Oman, Ms. Daud took over the women’s watches site started by Anish Bhatt, one of the best-known watch influencers, whose Watch Anish site now has 1.7 million Instagram followers.

“I have always loved watches, and people liked the photos I posted on my private profile,” Ms. Daud said in a phone interview from London. She said she owns all the watches she features (she wouldn’t specify how many that is) and attributes the site’s appeal to its fashion-savvy orientation (watches are shown worn with a stack of Cartier Juste un Clou bracelets or a Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra chain, for example).

Misha Daud owns a Ref. 5711 in gold and wears the Ref. 5712 she bought for her husband.

“The watch world takes itself too seriously, but a lot of women don’t want to be like that about watches,” she said. “For me, I will buy a watch if I love it. I trust my own judgment and taste in everything from art to watches and fashion.”

Ms. Daud said she owns a Ref. 5711 in gold — and when she had a chance to buy the steel version, she chose the Ref. 5712 with a moon phase complication instead.

“The 5711 is an appealing watch with a clean classic design,” she said. “But I prefer the Ref. 5712 and bought it as a gift for my husband, but he will not wear it because he has more classic tastes.”

So she wears it.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

John Reardon, who managed Patek Philippe’s sales in the United States for nine years, was at the company in 2006 when it introduced the Ref. 5711.

“It was like a breath of fresh air and we were all very excited at Patek Philippe,” Mr. Reardon said in a phone interview from New York, where he has been international head of Christie’s watch department since 2013.

“The retail price was around $17,500 then,” he added. “People wanted the watch, but there was no craziness over what was just a new watch in a line that people appreciated.”

In 2011, after he had left Patek, a reseller offered Mr. Reardon a pre-owned Ref. 5711 for $13,300.

John Reardon said he loved his Aquanaut, which has a rubber bracelet.

“I didn’t pull the trigger then and it is a decision I will always regret,” he said. “I should have said yes; it was my chance to buy a Ref. 5711.”

Instead Mr. Reardon opted for an Aquanaut, a similar model with a rubber bracelet, which he loves.

A LOVE AFFAIR

The watch that Mr. Bacs, a senior consultant at Phillips, wears almost every day is the Ref. 5711, a timepiece he bought 10 years ago at Patek’s Geneva salon for about 20,000 francs.

“I put it in on, it made a clicking sound and I fell in love,” Mr. Bacs said in an interview in Geneva. “Since then, this has been my universal watch.”

“It has traveled with me many times on every kind of business occasion, on airplanes, on the auction podium, and to every exotic destination I have traveled,” he said.

His passion for the Ref. 5711 began with a Ref. 3700: His mother gave it to his father as a 50th birthday gift in 1983.

“Back then, the Ref. 3700 was the ‘nec plus ultra’ in terms of style and wearability for an everyday watch,” Mr. Bacs said, using an expression that translates as “nothing further beyond.”

He worked his way up through a Ref. 3800, a smaller version of the Ref. 3700, to the Aquanaut, before finally purchasing his Ref. 5711 in 2009.

“Technically speaking, this may be the simplest Nautilus reference, but I like it because it does everything I ask from a watch without going beyond,” he said.

Aurel Bacs, an auctioneer, worked his way up the brand to buying a Ref. 5711 in 2009. © Pascal Mora for The New York Times

“It has the comfort of sneakers with the elegance of a tailored Savile Row suit. It still gives me the same pleasure as on the first day.”

In November, just as Mr. Bacs was about to close the record sale of that Tiffany-stamped Ref. 5711, he said that he saw no waning of the Ref. 5711 craze — and recently, he said his Ref. 5711 will never be for sale.

“After many horological one-night stands, this is the one you keep,” he said. “I can see myself growing old with this one.”

[Source]

#nazanin lankarani #watches

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momentumgo · 6 years ago

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Andrea Schmitz

Motion Graphics Designer/Animator www.andreaschmitzzz.com New York City Age 27 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I originally wanted to be a writer, and I faithfully wrote buckets of fanfiction and short stories up until the end of high school. I had actually planned on going to college for creative writing, but I was afraid of job prospects for fiction writing, and ended up going to Northwestern for film instead. Once I was there, it was clear to me that I hated film. For the first two years I felt like I was wasting time and money because I wasn’t learning anything that felt practical or interesting to me. It was also freezing in Chicago, and I quickly discovered that I hated filming on set (and I hated that most of the other film students only wanted to talk about film). Then, in 2012, I took the only animation class on campus, which taught puppeted character animation in AfterEffects. I was good at it, and it was fun, and so I decided to do that for the rest of my time there, along with sound design (because you could do both from a warm, snug bed).

I was one of three students interested in animation in my year, and one of three women killing it in sound design. I spent my time at school working project to project, designing opening credits for other film students’ web series, making a short animations for class, and sound designing other people’s short films. I tried to learn something new with each project, and eventually I worked with the animation teacher on an explainer series as an independent study in my third year. I also had two unpaid internships – one in Santa Monica making background screens for a 3D kids show, and one in my hometown of Little Rock where I did not do much actual work, but my supervisor gave me access to his Animation Mentor account so I could take some lessons.

In my last year at Northwestern I was terrified that I was nowhere near ready for a job in motion graphics or animation, and I didn’t want to do another four years of school. Over my senior year winter break, I showed a former Disney/Nickelodeon animator who had recently moved to my hometown one of my old sketchbooks that I had on hand at the time, and he told me that I was four years behind everyone graduating from an art school that year. I went back to my car and cried. I had been trying so hard to make something from the limited resources for animation at my school, and I still had so far to go. I made a plan to do everything I could to make up that time as quickly as possible.

This feedback triggered 3 years of panic-fueled creativity that I still have mixed feelings about because, although it kickstarted a creative growth spurt, it came from a place of fear, which affected the quality of the work. I took five classes that fall, blindly guessing pre-production for an animated short that I did not end up making in an independent study. Northwestern did not provide a 3D class, so I took the train once a week an hour south to take night classes in Maya at Columbia College on top of my regular workload (not for credit, because taking this six classes wouldn’t have been allowed by the school). Near the end of the year, I frantically applied to any and all jobs listed online, figuring that I would crash-course learn whatever I needed to and move wherever I had to to work. By the time school was ending, I had no job offers, but I had found a grad program that put equal emphasis on writing and art that felt just so me.

Two months before I graduated Northwestern, I applied and got into the MFA Visual Narrative program at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. I left NU three weeks later to start the program, and flew back every weekend to wrap up classes, graduate, and move out. The MFAVN program functions as an on-campus high-volume program for June and July every summer for 3 summers, but is an online course during the 2 years in between, so you can attend grad school and hold down a job in another state at the same time.

After leaving the first summer, I moved to Austin, and shortly after got a job making graphics for standardized tests. I couldn’t keep any work from this job for my portfolio since all of it was confidential, so sometimes it felt like I was making art all day and throwing it into a hole, but I learned vector illustration from that job. The next year, I moved to NYC for thesis year in order to be closer to the school and its resources, and worked 9am-2am every day for 6 months on a 10-minute frame by frame animation. By the time I left the MFAVN program I had three 5-10 minute animated shorts under my belt ( x, y, z ), but remained anxious about their quality because I had rushed all of them. I would try to fit huge concept projects into a tiny timeframe and overextended myself to reach my own goals. It took me a long time to physically and mentally recover after thesis, and the scale of the production did not achieve equal scale success. I learned a lot, but it took me a year to want to draw anything again.

It took me four months to find a job after graduating. I applied constantly – hours and hours each day searching and applying to anything that remotely sounded like what I did. I made short motion experiments in the meantime, and took CE classes at SVA. I ended up getting my first job – a paid internship – through networking on the Motion Design Slack. It was an internship with a pharmaceutical marketing company. I worked there for 6 months until it became clear they would not hire me full-time and I was very overextended. I got my next job, again, by talking to other motion designers, at New York Magazine as a motion designer. I had the opposite problem there, where I was free to do what I wanted when it came to explainer design, but I rarely had fully animated projects to work on, and had a lot of downtime. I made a lot of side projects during that time. A few months ago, after a year and a half at NYM, I got my latest job at Insider, where I do more character work than at any previous job and have similarly free reign over my explainer designs.

It’s only in the past two years that I’ve felt safe and secure enough to let the panic-fueled mania subside and start to focus on what I really want out of my career. I’ve started writing again, and exploring ways to introduce story back into my work. Although the ‘advice’ that I was four years behind lit a fire under my ass to work as hard as I possibly could to become a professional in the shortest amount of time, my work definitely suffered for it, and I think a positive reinforcement would have left me with a better mindset. Maybe then it would not have taken me so long to start thinking about what I really want out of my career.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way? I come from a privileged background. I am very lucky to have two extremely supportive parents, and they encouraged me to go to whatever school I wanted and pursue whatever career I wanted as long as I could make it work. They paid for both schools, and I had no loans. After I graduated, I lived off of leftover college savings money until I made my own income. Financial security and unwavering trust, love, and encouragement from my family gave me the time and safety to discover what I wanted to do and the means with which to learn it.

What are some best practices you use today?

I diversify the projects I invest my time in. If I animate all day at work, I’ll read or write or draw on the train, and bake or write at home. I’ll always have several projects going on at once, but I delegate them to specific times and places that work around my schedule. This way when I work on them it doesn’t necessarily feel like work, because rather than a constant slog, each task feels fresher and easier to jump into.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you? My primary goal in life is to write and publish a book, and then to sit on the floor of a Barnes and Noble and read the book without buying it. It would make 12-year-old me proud, and that’s the only standard I hold myself to.

Success in motion graphics to me is making a living and having enough time to comfortably make my personal projects on the side. Creating and animating stories is fun for me, but motion design is the job. I really want get into developing more narrative fiction animated work, but that’s going to be a long journey to make that a job.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

My boyfriend used to work odd hours, and now he goes to school in the evenings, and that’s greatly influenced my schedule. I try to get work done while he’s out of the house, and that way I can try to put my work down whenever he gets home so we can spend some time together.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself? I’ve been trying to go on more walks to break up the work day at my fulltime job. I try to stretch my neck, hips, back, and and knees as often as I can (IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START STRETCHING). I got an ergonomic mouse that changed my life. I try to take long breaks between the freelance projects I take on on the side. When I have a project assignment, I often feel like I have to get it done IMMEDIATELY, and will push myself into working long hours at nights and weekends to achieve that. If this is the way I’m going to keep working, the compromise is that I’m teaching myself that it’s ok to say no, and to not respond to the person looking for animation help that I am perfect for if I am not 100% up to it. I didn’t draw for about a year after I made my thesis film – I know now I need time to recharge.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Talk to people! I’ve learned so much from the women of the Motion Design Slack and the people of Punanimation! Make friends, let them know when you’re looking for a job! (Don’t make friends TO let them know you’re looking for a job, just make friends and hang out.)

Make your projects! Don’t wait for validation! I wanted to make a short film post-grad but had no reason to make a short film, so I made Things Took a Turn so I’d have a reason to make a short film, and it held me accountable because then other people also had to make short films and I was in charge. Don’t do that exactly because that was an insane idea, but just know that you have the power to create opportunities for yourself!

Don’t panic! Make side projects because you want to, not because you feel like you’re competing against the world. Scale and volume can help you grow, but time and thought can help you stand out.

Find where nobody is doing the work and do the work! Aim to be different! If you think your work does not look like the work of someone else’s whom you admire, that’s okay. Lean into your differences!

Explore other fields, you never know how different media could work together!

Avoid hero worship! Just because people make good art does not mean they would make a good mentor. Find your own standards and hold yourself to them.

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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Who Made Your Clothes? – The New York Times

Rumsinah, 44

Role: Zipper operator at PT. Fajarindo Faliman Zipper, which focuses largely on in-house brands

Where: Tangerang, Indonesia

“Most of my co-workers and I are all old-timers,” said Ms. Rumsinah, who has been working at the same factory for 26 years. “It’s a good factory, so no one really quits. There’s seldom any job openings — only if someone retires.”

She is paid about 3.4 million rupiah, or $241, per month, which she said is tight as a single parent. Her son recently finished high school. “He can’t work at my factory because there’s no openings,” she said. “He wants to be a teacher, but we don’t have enough money to send him to go to university.”

Though her job is tiring, “all jobs are tiring,” she said. “At least weekends are off, and the hours are not too bad.”

Waheed, 38

Role: Sewing bedsheets and curtains at a textile mill

Where: Pakistan

Waheed, who is being identified only by his first name, has been in the textile industry for 20 years and works seven days a week to support his wife and two young sons. They share a house with his parents, his sisters and his brothers.

“Most factories place a lot of restrictions on garment workers. Once they come in for their shift around 8 in the morning, there’s no knowing when supervisors will let them out. It may be 8 p.m. or 10 p.m. by the time they are allowed to leave for the day.

Workers at my factory don’t have it as bad. That’s why I’ve been here for the past 10 years. It’s a nice place to work. But some of the resources that workers really need aren’t provided, such as first-aid kits or pension cards.

It’s pretty common to get your fingers injured — sometimes needles break and get stuck in your bone if your hand gets in the way of the machine. Then you have to go to the hospital and get X-rays yourself.

It’s difficult to manage on the salary I earn. My expenses amount to about 2,000 rupees a day, including the cost of my children’s clothes, their education, my family’s groceries and other bills. But I barely make 1,000 rupees a day.”

Seak Hong, 36

Role: Sews outdoor apparel and bags at Horizon Outdoor

Where: Khum Longvek, Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia

Six days a week, Ms. Hong wakes up at 4:35 a.m. to catch the truck to work from her village. Her workday begins at 7 and usually lasts nine hours, with a lunch break. During the peak season, which lasts two to three months, she works until 8:30 p.m.

Ms. Hong has been in the garment business for 22 years. She earns the equivalent of about $230 a month and supports her father, her sister, her brother (who is on disability) and her 12-year-old son.

She hopes he will not end up in a factory, too, but the price of a quality education — about $20 per month — is beyond her means. While she is at work, her sister manages the household, taking care of their oxen and rice farming their land for extra food.

“I feel tired, but I have no choice,” Ms. Hong said. “I have to work.”

Yurani Tascon, 34

Role: Tracks daily production numbers at Supertex, which works with major active wear brands

Where: Yumbo, Colombia

“They spoil us a lot here,” Ms. Tascon said. “It’s a job with good stability.” Her workplace blasts music — usually salsa or something traditional — from speakers throughout the day while employees make coats, bathing suits and sportswear.

At 11 a.m., employees get “pausas activas”: active breaks with music.

Sarjimin, 39

Role: Makes shoes for a comfort footwear brand at PT. Dwi Naga Sakti Abadi

Where: Tangerang, Indonesia

Mr. Sarjimin has worked at the same factory for about 12 years. The job is relatively stable, and his workplace is spacious, bright and safe.

He earns the equivalent of $250 a month, and his wife also works at a factory. The family is able to send their children, a 13-year-old and a 9-year-old, to good schools. They recently purchased a computer for their older son, who is passionate about technology.

Mr. Sarjimin farms catfish to supplement his family’s grocery money. He started six months ago, filling a big empty drum with starter fish as an experiment. Now he has two drums with 300 fish each, and he sells them to friends, family and neighbors.

One day, he would like to raise catfish full time. “There’s a motivational speaker I heard once, ‘You have to dare to dream, how to get there is a question for a different time,’” he said. “I like remembering those words.”

Saida, 38

Role: Sewing machine operator at Pinehurst Manufacturing, which works with major active wear brands

Where: San Pedro Sula, Honduras

The factory where Saida has worked for the last 12 years is one of the few in the area. She earns about 8,200 lempira each month, roughly $331. “It doesn’t cover everything,” she said. “Vivimos sobregirados.” (“We live overdrawn.”)

Saida lives with her mother and her 19-year-old daughter, who goes to school. “I am the one who provides everything at home. The house, the water, the electricity,” she said. “You have to stop buying certain things to be able to cover the necessities.”

Her unit currently has one primary client, a major sportswear brand. This is a source of anxiety for her and her co-workers because they fear mass layoffs if the client leaves the company. “It’s really difficult having one client,” she said.

Bui Chi Thang, 35

Role: Stitching denim together for sustainability-focused brands at Saitex International

Where: Bien Hoa, Vietnam

Mr. Bui has been at his factory for seven years. “It matches my skill,” he said, “and the salary is enough for my family.” He earns approximately 90 million dong annually, roughly $3,880, which he uses to support his mother, wife and son.

During the average nine-hour workday, “I can finish 1,000 to 1,200 pieces a day, depending on the difficulty,” he said.

Santiago, 48

Role: Sews clasps and zippers onto dresses, blouses and pants at a factory

Where: Los Angeles

“I’m from Guatemala. I’ve been doing garment work for 16 years. I started because it was the only thing I knew how to do after leaving my home country,” Santiago said. “I came here because there were not as many opportunities back home, and with six children, there are a lot of expenses.”

In the last five years, he has worked in five to eight factories. They are often windowless and dirty, with little ventilation, he said.

When he first moved to Los Angeles, Santiago was working 11-hour shifts, seven days a week. Now he works about 50 hours a week, taking home up to $350. The majority of his co-workers — around 30 other people — are Spanish speakers from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

“I’m just making ends meet,” he said. “I’m always trying to figure out how to save money, how to buy food, how to not eat out too much.” Still, he said it is better than what he was earning in Guatemala.

Maria Valdinete da Silva, 46

Role: Self-employed seamstress

Where: Caruaru, Brazil

The last factory Ms. da Silva worked at produced men’s street wear. She spent eight years there, stitching side seams together in an assembly line with an hourly quota.

“Some companies, like the one I worked for, no longer have employees inside the factory and the seamstresses work from home,” she said. “They establish small groups, tiny factories, and they are paid per item, so they basically have the same production without any costs.”

In order to make minimum wage, outsourced employees “have to work from day to night,” she said.

Ms. da Silva now makes women’s clothing independently, producing fewer pieces and selling them locally. She makes “maybe half” of minimum wage, but she said it’s worth it to work at her own pace. “I love what I do,” she said. “I no longer see myself in that situation of sitting in front of a machine doing the same thing every day.”

She is planning on taking fashion design courses soon. “Seamstresses are the key element in the fashion chain, we are the ones who put the clothes together,” she said. “You basically have to kill yourself in front of a sewing machine in order to provide for your family.”

Antonio Ripani, 72

Role: Leather quality control at Tod’s Group

Where: Casette d’Ete, Italy

Mr. Ripani, who began working with leather at 14, has been employed by Tod’s for more than 40 years, where he assesses “practically all the hides that arrive” for quality.

“Alone it’s hard to do everything, so I have a group of ragazzi [guys] under me and I have taught them everything I’ve been able to understand after all these years,” he said.

Mr. Ripani doesn’t earn much, he said, but he sets his own schedule, often working eight to 12 hours a day. He has assistants and has received awards for his highly specialized work.

“It’s not so much the salary, it’s that I am here because we’re all one family,” he said. “When I started, I had long hair. Now, I am bald.”

Rukhsana, 48

Role: Security at Sitara Textile Industries

Where: Faisalabad, Pakistan

Rukhsana began working in the garment industry shortly after her husband died seven years ago. She works seven days a week.

“The hardest thing about working in a textile mill is that management kind of cuts you off from the world for the duration of your shift. If anyone calls you from home — with good news or bad news — you can’t take the call and management doesn’t tell you until the day is over.

Two years ago, my nephew died in an accident when I was working. My brother tried calling me, but management didn’t tell me about it until my family had already held his funeral. I was so upset, I quit my job.

Now that I’m in security, I know when someone comes to the mill and tries to contact a worker. But I’m still not allowed to tell the worker their relative has been trying to reach them.

It’s not just difficult, it’s impossible to survive on the salary the textile mills pay. Are we supposed to choose between buying food and roti or paying for clothes and medicine? And there’s always rent to pay in addition to that.”

(Employees store their phones in a locker before beginning their shift, a company spokesman said in a phone interview, and they aren’t allowed to leave the organization “without any written acknowledgment from the manager.”

He said that family can reach employees on their cellphones or by calling the factory directly, and that he was not aware of any incidents in which family was prevented or delayed from contacting an employee during an emergency. )

Vu Hoang Quan, 21

Role: Sews dress shirts for mass retailers at TAL Apparel

Where: Binh Xuyen, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam

Mr. Vu has spent the last four years working on a production line with about 30 other employees, each overseeing parts of the sewing process. On average, he earns about 10 to 12 million dong (about $432 to $518) monthly. He sends most of it back to his family.

“My favorite time is at 3 p.m., when we have an exercise session,” he said. “We stay at our work spot. We pause our work process, line up and follow the exercise instructions of team leaders.”

He recently participated in a talent show hosted by the company, where he performed modern dance. “I don’t have plans to leave this job anytime soon,” he said. “I’m quite satisfied with it.”

Catherine Gamet, 48

Role: Leather goods artisan at Louis Vuitton

Where: Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, France

Ms. Gamet began working with leather when she was 16 years old and has been employed by Vuitton for 23 years. “To be able to build bags and all, and to be able to sew behind the machine, to do hand-sewn products, it is my passion,” she said. “That’s how I got into it.”

About 800 employees work in Saint-Pourçain, spread out across four sites. Ms. Gamet said the workshops are well organized, bright and modern. “The time flies by,” she said.

S, 33

Role: Tailor making pants and socks for fast fashion and active wear brands at Shahi Exports

Where: India

S.’s shift begins at 9 a.m. She feels a lot of pressure from supervisors to reach quotas of about 90 to 120 pieces per hour and said many workers are afraid to take breaks or use the restroom because it will waste time.

Employees who can’t keep up are often pulled aside at the end of each hour, she said, and supervisors will yell at them and bang on tables. Many workers spend most of their 30-minute lunch breaks scrambling to finish more pieces to get back on track.

“We don’t even have the freedom to drink water,” S. said, adding that management doesn’t allow employees to bring in water bottles.

Instead, water is handed out by the factory. In the spring of 2018, the supplied water was making workers sick, and when employees gave management a letter with a variety of basic requests, including clean water, they were beaten in response. Their clothes were torn, and many of their valuables, including phones and jewelry, were taken.

The employees took their complaint to the labor department. The issues were resolved three months after the incident, after the factory faced public pressure from a report by an American watchdog group, social media and brands that worked with the factory.

Some conditions have improved: Employees get mineral water now. But the pay is still bad, S. said, and the main work space doesn’t have windows, air-conditioning or heaters.

“We want to ask for more salary, but people are scared after what happened last year to ask again,” she said.

(In an email, a spokesman from Shahi Exports acknowledged the 2018 incident and forwarded a statement outlining the preventive measures the company has since enacted.

In a separate email, a spokesman said that berating employees in any way “constitutes misconduct,” and instances brought to management’s attention would “initiate action” against the perpetrator.

“While we do strive to drive efficiencies, there is no scope to berate any employee on account of non-performance or deficient performance,” he said. The spokesman added that there “is adequate ventilation” within the work space and that the entire factory is “in compliance with the law.”)

S. is a single parent and picks up extra work in the evenings, along with taking out loans, to support herself and her daughter. “There are thousands of people” in her city in the same situation, she said. “My story is just one of them.”

Phool Bano, 38

Role: Tailor at Friends Factory

Where: Noida, India

Ms. Bano has been a tailor for about 22 years and works at a progressive factory that makes small batches of garments for high-end independent brands. The building has little luxuries like air purifiers.

“It feels nice working here,” Ms. Bano said. “It’s clean. There are some plants and trees also, you know, the kind that are meant for decoration.”

Helena Lúcia Santos da Conceição da Silva, 54

Role: Seamstress at Fantasia D!kas Roupas

Where: Nova Friburgo, Brazil

“I’ve always thought of myself as a seamstress. I even made my daughter’s sweet-16 dress. It looks like overlapping petals. It’s my greatest pride.

I start work at 7 a.m. We make everything: pants, shorts, tops. I work eight hours a day Mondays to Fridays with a one-hour lunch break. It’s a small company: me and five other seamstresses. We don’t have a quota. Here they value quality over quantity. I don’t even know how many pieces I work on in a given day. We don’t keep track.

Ms. da Silva does not make enough money from her day job, so she picks up extra work from private clients to complete on evenings and weekends, sometimes working until 10 p.m.

I prefer working for this manufacturer because I’m on the payroll, I’m entitled to vacations. It’s more secure. But my dream is to have my own atelier at home.”

Knvul Sheikh contributed reporting.

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newssplashy · 6 years ago

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Opinion: Will independent designers become extinct?

They drop their bags, they grab a baguette (or a green juice if they can’t stomach the carbs) and then, often on day one but almost never later than day three, they pay a visit to the Dries Van Noten men’s and women’s stores on the Quai Malaquais.

For many years, a ritual of sorts has existed among members of the migrant fashion flock when they alight in Paris on their twice-yearly fashion show rounds.

They go not necessarily to buy, though a lot of them do, but to marinate in the atmosphere, which is textured and emotive, like the clothes: full of antiques and oddities chosen by the designer from markets around the world, seemingly thrown together in unlikely yet mesmerizing combinations and colors. And they go because those two stores are the only ones in the Western Hemisphere (other than in Antwerp, Belgium, where the Van Noten brand is based), and the only ones fully controlled by Van Noten. They are perfect microcosms of what President George H.W. Bush once called “the vision thing,” which is what makes them so special.

I wonder if that will continue to be the case.

The news earlier this month that Van Noten had sold a majority stake in his company to the Spanish luxury group Puig (which also owns Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne and Nina Ricci) came as not entirely a shock. There had been rumors that, since March around the time of his last ready-to-wear show, the Belgian designer had been looking for what in fashion is called a “strategic partner”; that he was tired of the burdens of a business, which are heavy, and wanted the safety net of a bigger corporate parent.

Indeed, Van Noten has often said that one of the hardest things about running a fashion brand was not just the well-documented pressure to be creative on command but taking responsibility for the growing number of employees whose livelihoods depended on him. Van Noten is a worrier and a micromanager, and sweats the details. It’s part of what makes him so successful. But the change in ownership still should give the whole fashion industry pause.

Because it raises a very real question: Whither the independent designer in today’s fashion system?

There are other solo acts, of course (i.e. brands not owned by one of the big groups — LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Kering, Richemont, Puig, PVH — or by private equity): the megaliths that are Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana; the newly single Stella McCartney, who has ended her joint venture with Kering, and Rick Owens. And there are smaller indie designers who double-dip to support their own lines, such as Raf Simons, whose giant day job as chief creative officer of Calvin Klein funds his namesake brand.

But the sale of Dries pretty much halves the number of independent, critically lauded designers whose names resonate around the world and who are able simultaneously to work within the fashion system and to maintain a healthy distance from it; to just say no to endless pre-collections and shops in every port and celebs on every red carpet. They are increasingly looking like an endangered species. Now there’s really only one: Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons.

Van Noten said the deal was about long-term survival, not short-term growth — long-term survival being the bugaboo of the independent designer. It’s the question they are all forced to confront: What happens to the company they built and people inside it after they are gone?

There aren’t that many options: find an heir who will keep it going; sell to a corporate parent; become a private equity football; close. Van Noten, planning ahead, which is something he does, chose option B. Azzedine Alaïa, another famously independent designer, did the same when he sold his brand to Richemont in 2007.

And, to be fair, that group has done an impressive job of not acting like a big corporate boss, and essentially leaving the Alaïa house alone except to support it in whatever it wanted to do (sometimes have a show, sometimes not). Richemont was even smart enough not to try to parachute in a new designer after the unexpected death of the founder in November, and to let the studio carry on his legacy — which also happens to be protected by a foundation the designer created. But that approach has been the exception rather than the rule.

Despite the lip service paid these days to the idea of consumers in search of the rare and one-off in a world where the digisphere has made so much so available, the tendency has been, at least when it comes to the big groups, to make brands more available: to open stores and push e-commerce and make a bid for shopper’s attention at every point possible. But that was never the Van Noten way.

It’s possible that Puig understands this and will simply let Dries be Dries. He will, after all, remain the creative director (or chief creative officer) and executive chairman. The brand is staying in Antwerp. (Van Noten was an original member of the Antwerp Six, the group of Belgian designers, including Ann Demeulemeester and Dirk Bikkembergs, who after graduating from Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, transformed that city into a center of avant-garde fashion in the mid-1980s.) And there’s a good chance Van Noten would like a few more stores, and a little more market share — more recognition of what he does — plus a perfume or two without having to worry about the capital expense. No one ever said he was not ambitious. Plus, there’s always vacation.

And it’s possible that Puig’s reputation as highly conservative investors in its fashion brands, an approach that has driven many of their designers batty, may actually work in Van Noten’s favor.

But it’s hard not to think growth is going to be a part of the plan (I mean: who buys a brand so it can stay status quo?). After all, the news is always about bigger and better: Gucci is aiming to become a $10 billion brand; Céline is poised to jump to a new level with new lines.

History says that’s how it works. But Dries represented, for many of us, a willingness to embrace a human scale. And that was part of the house’s value, because it was embedded in the brand values. This is a man who, instead of throwing himself a big 100th-show party, used what in other hands might have been a Champagne budget to fly in his family of former models from around the world to walk in his show.

Maybe not having to worry about bills and real estate will free him up to do more of this. Presumably that is the idea.

But the thing is, whenever students coming out of art school talked about their role models, they used to name check Dries, Rei and Alaïa as three creatives who defined their own styles and their own paths and stuck to them no matter what, in the face of relentless pressure to Get Bigger! and Do More Collections! and Use More Influencers! and so on and so forth.

They were the dream. What happens to those dreams now?

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/opinion-will-independent-designers.html

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themoneybuff-blog · 6 years ago

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18 favorite financial rules of thumb (and some useful money guidelines)

Shares 392

After twelve years of reading and writing about money, Ive come to love financial rules of thumb. Financial rules of thumb provide helpful shortcuts for making quick calculations and decisions. You dont always have time (or want to take the time) to create elaborate spreadsheets when choosing a course of action. In these cases, its nice to have some rough guidelines you can rely on. Youve probably heard of the rule of 72, for example. This shortcut says that if you divide 72 by a particular rate of return, youll get the number of years itll take to double your money. If your savings account yields 4%, say, it will take about 18 years for your nest egg to increase by 100%. But if you were able to earn 12% on your investment, that money would double in six years. Like all rules of thumb, the rule of 72 isnt precise. It doesnt give an exact answer but a ballpark figure. Financial rules of thumb dont always hold true. But theyre true enough for us to make loose plans based on them. I have some engineer friends whod get tense at this sort of sloppy guesswork, but most of the rest of us are happy to trade a bit of precision for speed. Thats what rules of thumb are all about! The trick, of course, is knowing which rules of thumb to use. Most are handy, but some common guidelines do more harm than good. Rules Gone Wild In the past, youve probably seen my rant about some of my most-hated financial rules of thumb. Lets look at three things I think conventional wisdom gets wrong (and what I believe are better alternatives). How much should you save for retirement? For instance, I get frustrated when I hear financial advisers push the idea that you should base your retirement savings on 70% of your income. Instead of estimating your retirement needs from your income, it makes far more sense to base them on spending. Your spending reflects your lifestyle; your income doesnt. I think a better rule of thumb for determining retirement needs is this: When estimating how much youll need to save for retirement, assume youll spend as much in the future as you do now. Use 100% of your current expenses to calculate your retirement spending. (And if you want to build in a safety margin, base your future needs on 110% of your current spending.) How much should you spend on a house? As I mentioned last week, another rule of thumb that makes me cranky is this common guideline espoused by all sectors of the homebuying industry: Buy as much home as you can afford. No no no no no! Of all financial rules of thumb, this is probably the worst. Its certainly one of the most prevalent. This is how folks end up house poor, chained to a mortgage they resent. Lenders quantify this guideline by saying your housing payments should be nor more than 28% or 33% or 41% of your income. But, as David Bach wrote in The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, You should generally assume that the amount the bank or mortgage company is willing to loan you is more than you should borrow. A better rule of thumb? Spend as little on housing as possible. Spending less than 25% of your net income is best less than 20% is even better. How much life insurance should you carry? A third rule that bugs me is the one for determining how much life insurance you should buy. Different experts give different answers. Some say your policy should cover five times your annual income. Others say ten times. And Suze Orman recommends 20 times annual income needs. The truth is that not everyone needs life insurance. Like all insurance, its designed to prevent financial catastrophes. You only need it if other people like a spouse or children would face financial hardship when you die. If you dont have kids, if your spouse has a good income, or you have substantial savings, then life insurance isnt a necessity. Even if you do need life insurance, you probably dont need to carry as much as your insurance agent is willing to sell you. To find out the amount thats right for you, check out the Life Insurance Needs Calculator from the non-profit Life Happens organization. (How much life insurance should I carry? According to this calculator, I shouldnt have any at all. And I dont.)

Useful Financial Rules of Thumb Financial rules of thumb usually arent this bad. In fact, most are useful. Here are eighteen of my favorites. When estimating income, $1 an hour in wage is equivalent to $2000 per year in pre-tax earnings. The reverse is also true: $2000 per year in salary is equal to $1 an hour in hourly wage. (This rule works because the average worker spends roughly 2000 hours per year on the job.)How wealthy should you be? According to the authors of The Millionaire Next Door, the following wealth formula can tell you if youre on target: Divide your age by ten, then multiply by your annual gross income. Your net worth should be equal to this number (less any inheritances). So, if youre 40 and make $50,000 per year, your net worth should be $200,000. If you have less than half the expected amount, youre an under-accumulator of wealth. If you have twice the target, youre a prodigious accumulator of wealth. (Note that the authors are well aware that this formula doesnt work well for young people; its meant to be used by folks nearing retirement age.)On average, each dollar an American spends represents about $2.50 of after-tax value in ten years or $10 in thirty years. (If you live outside the U.S., the consequences of spending that dollar are probably even greater.) This is due to two reasons: taxes and compounding. When you buy something, you spend after-tax dollars. On average, Americans have to earn $1.33 to have $1.00 left over.Inflation is the silent killer of wealth. In the U.S., inflation has averaged 3.18% over the past hundred years. A lot of folks figure a 3% inflation rate when making money calculations. I think its safer to assume 3.5% or even 4% average inflation in the future.Historically, U.S. stocks have earned long-term real returns (meaning inflation-adjusted returns) of about 7%. Bonds have long-term real returns of around 2.5%. Gold and real estate have long-term real returns of close to 1%.If you withdraw about four percent of your savings each year, your wealth snowball will maintain its value against inflation. During market downturns, you might have to withdraw as little as three percent. If times are flush, you might allow yourself five percent. But four percent is generally safe. (For more on safe withdrawal rates, check out this article from the Mad Fientist.)Based on the previous rule of thumb, theres a quick way to check whether early retirement is within your reach. Multiply your current annual expenses by 25. If the result is less than your savings, youve achieved financial independence you can retire early. If the product is greater than your savings, you still have work to do. (If youre conservative or have low risk tolerance, multiply your annual expenses by 30. If youre aggressive and/or willing to take on greater risk, multiple by 20.)Building on the above, Mr. Money Mustaches shockingly simple math behind early retirement gives us a useful rule of thumb for determining how long youll need to save before youre financially independent. Figure out your current saving rate (or profit margin, if you prefer). Subtract this number from 60. Roughly speaking and assuming youve started from a zero net worth thats how long youll need to work before your nest egg is big enough to support you in retirement. (Note that this rule breaks down at saving rates over 40%. If you save a lot, subtract from 70.)Joe from Stacking Benjamins likes what he calls the penny approximation: Assuming a safe withdraw rate of roughly four percent, every $100 you save gives you one penny per day in perpetuity. Once you stack enough Benjamins you have enough pennies to sustain you forever. If you change your own brake pads and save $200, thats two cents a day for the rest of your life because you avoided paying a mechanic.

I hate detailed budgets because they bog people down. Instead, Im a fan of budget frameworks that focus more on the Big Picture. My favorite budget framework is the Balanced Money Formula: Spend no more than 50% of your after-tax income on Needs, put at least 20% into savings (including debt reduction), and spend the rest (around 30%) on Wants. This is a great beginner budget, but its also useful for transitioning to the mindset of Financial Independence. If you decide early retirement is a goal, then part of your Wants spending becomes additional savings.If you own your home, its wise to set aside money for maintenance and repairs. Each year, contribute 1% of your homes current value to a separate account. If you dont spend the money, keep it there for future remodeling and improvements.Is it better to buy or to rent? The price-to-rent ratio is a useful rule of thumb for making this decision. Find two similar places, one for sale and one for rent. Divide the sale price of the one by the annual rent for the other. The result is the P/R ratio. Say you find a $200,000 house for sale in a nice neighborhood, and a similar home for rent on the next block for $1000 per month, which is $12,000 per year. Dividing $200,000 by $12,000, you get a P/R ratio of 16.7. If the P/R ratio is low, its better to buy. If the price-to-rent ratio is over 15, its probably better to rent.How much does it cost to raise a child? As a rule of thumb, budget $10,000 per child per year. Thats not quite a quarter of a million dollars per kid, but its close.If you get a windfall, use 1% to treat yourself. (Or maybe 2%, tops.) Put the rest in a safe place and ignore it for six months. After youve had time to think about it, then take action. So, if you inherit $100,000 from Aunt Marge, only allow yourself a $1000 splurge. Stash the remaining $99,000 someplace you wont be tempted to spend it.To approximate a new vehicles five-year cost of ownership (in monthly terms), double the price tage and divide by 60. Looking at a brand-new Mini Cooper ? Double that $30,000 sticker price to get $60,000, then divide by 60. Is it really worth $1000 per month to get rid of your crummy Ford Focus?The standard rule of thumb is to save at least 10% of your income. I think a better goal is to aim for 20% and more is better. Financial guru Liz Weston says that if youre young, you should follow this guideline: Save 10% for basics, 15% for comfort, 20% to escape.Nobody agrees how much you should set aside for an emergency fund. Even the experts offer advice ranging from $1000 up to 12 months of expenses. (The most common suggestions range from three to six months of expenses.) One clever rule of thumb to determine how much you should have set aside: Your emergency fund should cover X months of expenses, where X is the current unemployment rate. In other words, because the U.S. unemployment is about 4% right now, you should aim to have enough money in the bank to cover four months of expenses.According to Consumer Reports, wen youre faced with the repair of an appliance (such as a refrigerator or washing machine), you should buy a new one if the appliance is more than eight years old (or if the repair would cost more than half what it would take to buy a replacement). Its important to remember that rules of thumb arent set in stone. Theyre guidelines. Theyre meant to help you make quick evaluations, not actual life-changing decisions. Financial rules of thumb are a starting point. Start with them, then adjust for your individual goals and situation. Other Useful Financial Guidelines Strictly speaking, rules of thumb deal with numbers. Still, there are a lot of non-numeric guidelines that I think are useful to know. If youve done any reading about personal finance, for example, youve probably heard the admonition, Pay yourself first. While not strictly a rule of thumb, this guideline is very similar. Here are some other useful financial guidelines: The more you learn, the more you earn. In the U.S., education has a greater impact on work-life earnings than any other demographic factor. Your age, race, gender, and location all influence what you earn, but nothing matters more than what you know.Bank a raise. When you get a salary bump, dont increase your spending. Stay the course and put the added income into savings.Always take the employer match on the 401(k).Never touch your retirement savings except for retirement.Never co-sign on a loan. (Ever.)Avoid paying interest on anything that loses value. Its okay to finance a home or a college education but avoid taking out a loan on a car.Speaking of cars: When you buy a vehicle, buy used or buy new and plan to drive it for at least ten years. (Do both and youll save even more!)Dont mess with the IRS. When it comes to taxes, dont try to cheat. Pay what you owe. Claim all the deductions you deserve, but dont try to stretch things.In general, save an emergency fund first; pay off high-interest debt second; and begin investing (at the same time you pay down remaining debt) last.It almost always makes more sense (and cents) to repair your old car than to buy a new one.If youre not willing to pay cash for it, then it doesnt make sense to buy it on credit. (I have a friend whose guiding principle is: If I wouldnt buy five, why would I buy one? Similar idea taken to an extreme.)Save for your own retirement before saving for your childrens college education. They can get loans for school. You cant get loans for retirement. Now its your turn. What rules of thumb did I miss? Do you disagree with any of those I suggested? What are some of your favorite rules of thumb? Shares 392 https://www.getrichslowly.org/financial-rules-of-thumb/

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iannoyinglysweetstudent-blog · 7 years ago

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Health Insurance?

"Health Insurance?

I've recently changed jobs. The job that I have right now doesn't offer insurance at the moment. While looking for affordable health insurance I got injured playing soccer (I was diagnosed with torn ACL). Any idea what shoud I do now? According to the doctor the surgery can wait few months. Should I hide my injury from the insurance company and get the insurance, then after some time fix my knee etc? Please help.

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