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ramp-it-up · 1 year ago

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Bucky Barnes and the Summer Soldier- One

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Enhanced! Reader

Summary: Bucky has been looking for you for a while. Is he going to destroy you before you complete your mission?

Word Count 2.2K

Warnings: 18+ Only, Minors DNI. S MUT! Read at your own risk. Curate your own experience. Reader is confined in a mental health faculty, suppressed memories, Pursuit, implied former combat, kidnapping, coercion, mind control, dub con. Raw s ex, hair pulling, rough s ex, cream pie, c um play/oral (m receiving), a ssault. Google translate Hausa and Russian. Not Beta’d. All errors my own.

A/N: This is a result of this ask from @flordeamatista. I have taken great liberties with the MCU cannon and timeline. This is fiction! As always, reblog if you like it!

I don’t have a taglist. Please follow @rampitupandread and turn on notifications to learn when I post!

I Do NOT Consent to my work being reposted, translated or presented on any other blog or site other than by myself.

You ran for your life, lungs burning, feet flying.

You looked behind you to see that the one pursuing you was not far off. You ducked down a hallway and into an open door.

Your chest heaved as you leaned against the wall and looked around for a hiding space.

Fragmented memories were coming back to you during this pursuit, and at this moment, the sense of running barefoot through tall reeds on the banks of a river overwhelmed you.

You shook it off, although you couldn’t help yourself from looking to the air for your favorite brightly colored water fowl. Your heart dropped when you looked around to register an empty room with a solitary gurney. The fact that you were trapped in a mental hospital and not outside it sucked the air out of you.

And then you heard his footsteps.

Bucky slowed his pace as his ears perked up, and he opened the same door you did moments before. He’d come for you an hour ago and you’d managed to evade him ever since. Typical for one who’d taken the serum. You were a hard target to acquire, but he was determined.

He scanned the empty room, checking for trap doors or hidden panels. He walked over to the windows, which were sealed shut. He looked down on the courtyard that patients weren’t allowed to use and shook his head, then, he made his way out of the door again.

You waited three minutes after you heard his footsteps retreating before you moved the ceiling tile and dropped down from where you’d been hiding.

For some reason, the man you were hiding from you terrified you. Ever since you saw his face weeks ago when you fought him on a mission, you’d been plagued with strange memories. Which made your Master have to reset you again and again. You resented that.

Despite the fact that you felt impelled destroy him, you did not want to face the dark-haired man in black with the piercing blue eyes again. You may not know your own name, but you knew that man had some mysterious power over you. Even more so than the Power Broker.

Just as you reached for the doorknob, the door jerked open, the man in black returning your stare with a rueful grin. You’d been too lost in your own thoughts to be fully aware of his presence.

“Daga karshe na sameki masoyiyata.”

Your ears perked up at the language that the man spoke. You understood it, although you’d spoken French for as long as you could remember, which wasn’t long. Maybe this horrible institution wasn’t your home.

“Why did you call me that?”

Your eyes widened when English came out of your mouth. It seemed a natural response to this man. You were very confused, more than you normally were, which was always.

The man was inching closer to you now.

“Because that is who you are, Soyayya ta.”

“No! That’s not true!”

You hurled yourself at the man, climbing up his body and winding up with your legs around his neck. You squeezed, hoping to choke him out while he grinned up at you.

“Yes it is.”

His voice was weak, as if he was gasping for breath. For an unknown reason, you let up on his windpipe.

Suddenly, you were sat on the gurney, your right leg in his left hand. You could not get out of his grip and you two stared at each while he held your legs apart. When he licked his lips was when you kicked him in the sternum. Clearly, he was surprised at the force, which caused him to double over, but he quickly recovered and caught you before you moved two feet, grabbing your bicep and bringing your arm behind your back, placing you none too gently against the wall.

You grunted as you felt all of him, including his manhood, pressed hard and insistent upon your back.

Was he going to violate you?

Did you want him to?

Yet another language flowed out of his mouth, which was close to the shell of your ear. You suppressed a shiver as you heard his velvet voice.

“Sygrayem v nashu malen'kuyu igru, kukolka?”

He snaked his left arm around your neck and pressed you back further into him as his gloved hand turned your face to his. He leaned around, as if he was going to kiss you, and opened his mouth. His breath fanned your face as he bared his teeth and bit the pointer finger of the black leather glove he was wearing. He used his mouth to tear the glove off to reveal a black and golden hand. You were mesmerized by it until it was quickly clamped over your mouth.

The sensation was familiar and when you tasted the metal; it was nearly orgasmic. Your eyes rolled baack into your head and you all but ignored the man’s other hand roaming your body.

“I’m just checking you to see if you’re okay, Doll.”

The hand tasted like home, like warm air and smells of your favorite foods. It tasted like beautiful people and excellence and safety and…Wakanda. Your eyes flew open when you realized.

Vibranium.

You sobbed as memories came flooding to your mind. The pathetic sounds were muffled by the vibranium hand.

Your mother. Your father. The river that was your home. Your weapons. Your money. The vow you took when you became a Dora Milaje and Shuri’s personal guard. The same vow that you broke when you fell in love with Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier…

“Farar kerkecina.…James…”

“Shhhh Doll. I’m here now.”

Bucky pulled you into his arms from behind, and you held on to the limbs that were wrapped around you as you cried, one human and one created by the Princess, Shuri.

Finally, you turned around and looked up at the love of your life. He peered back at you, eyes full of concern, but also a mixture of relief, love, and yes, need.

“Are you okay?”

You didn’t answer him, instead, you asked your own question.

“How long, James? How long have we been apart?”

Bucky brought his hand up to your face, thumb tracing your chin and fingers in your dense curls.

“A little over two years.”

You gasped and tears fell again fresh and new.

“I searched for you every day. I promise, Doll. And you’ve been right under my nose…”

Your heart melted.

“I know you did. The Power Broker is devious. She did horrible things. Made me do…”

And then he kissed you. His lips were the softest and strongest you’d ever tasted. You licked into his mouth and fisted his t shirt between you.

“You don’t have to tell me. I know. And I’m going to find her and bring her to justice.”

Bucky was panting as your hand strayed to touch the bare skin and the metal under his shirt. He smirked when you pinched his nipple.

“She is mine to destroy.”

Bucky’s smirk turned into a full fledged grin when you glared up at him and opened his pants. He shivered when you fisted him.

“There’s my girl.”

You separated from him as you pulled your shirt over your head. Next went your pants and underwear as Bucky’s eyes roamed your body. He licked his chops, just as the White Wolf would.

“You sure you don’t wanna leave, Doll? Need to check you out. Need to get you an examination… get you safe…”

You backed away from him toward the gurney.

“I need to have you James. Please. I remember. It’s been so long. I need some control back. Please.”

Bucky couldn’t stop himself from moving toward your upturned ass as you bent over the gurney and looked over your shoulder at him.

“You told me the serum heightened everything. But I didn’t understand before. I need you now, James.”

Bucky was drawn to you as if on a string.

“I get it, Doll. Everything is so much. You sure you alright, Doll?”

You hadn’t said that you were before, but you avoided the topic again.

“See for yourself, farar kerkecina.”

Bucky rubbed your ass, eyes glazed over, lust flowing through his veins. It had been a long 26 months and visions of you clouded not only his dreams, but every spare waking moment. He couldn’t help it.

His metal hand quickly undid his belt and pants while his right, his flesh, dipped into you, feeling the wetness between your legs. You reached back to the arm that shined, incrementally trying to bring him into you. He held you off, but he did slowly start to swipe his cockhead through your neglected folds.

“Oh…”

Bucky watched and drooled as he took in the vision of your mouth and that wide open, perfect O of those perfect lips.

“So gorgeous… Soyayya ta..”

He slowly breached your tight hole, and your mouth widened impossibly even more as the stretch almost took you out. It hurt, but it hurt so good, the only positive sensation you’d had in over two years.

This time, Bucky let you reach back to grasp the base of him, slowing down as he saw the difficulty with which you were having taking him. You adjusted his aim, and he paused, hand on your hip as you spread your cheeks so that he could get inside you. Your eyes met in surprised sensation as he was finally able to slide all the way home.

“Feel so damn good, White Wolf!”

You started moving faster on his cock as his hands slid up your wiast to your tits, squeezing, groping, making up for lost time.

He was stroking a slow, steady, deep pace, as his metal fingers made their way into your open mouth, pressing down your throat as your tongue swirled around your native metal.

“So goood….”

You were gagging around his fingers, partly because of his actions, and partly because he felt so good inside you. You reached back and grabbed his shirt, pulling on it as you took his thick cock inside you, looking back at him stretching your tiny hole with awe. You looked into each other’s eyes as you felt him swelling impossibly.

“Love your bald head, but I like this hair, Doll. I can do this…”

And Bucky grabbed your curls, pulling on your roots deliciously and stretching your neck so that he could engage you in a filthy kiss while he drove into you. You separated, gasping for breath.

“Bast! James, is your cock made of vibranium too?”

He laughed at the old joke, which made the rounds of the Dora until you found out the truth.

“You make me feel like it is, soyayya ta.”

Bucky let you go so that you could hold on to the gurney and fuck yourself on his cock.

He grabbed your breasts again and the look of surprised lust came was mirrored on both of your faces as you felt yourself squeezing him with your impending orgasm.

“C’mon, Soyayya ta. Give it to me.”

“James, oh James. Oh….!”

“Good god!”

You bent fully over the gurney when you came, and Bucky had a clear view of your beautiful cream on his cock. That’s when he started pounding you out properly, using you to reach his end. Your senses were so alive that you felt each stream and splash of his cum inside you, and it caused your sensitive cunt to shudder. You lay there under him as he collapsed on top of you, relishing the feel of him.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…”

Bucky kissed your shoulder and down your back as he looked around for something to clean up with. You looked back at him, and stood up, Bucky’s spend leaking down your legs.

“Let me.”

You gave him that look as you bent over, taking his still semi-hard cock in your hand. You stared at him straight on as you took him in your mouth and cleaned him off.

“That mouth, those eyes… you’re killing me here…”

You smiled around his girth and then opened your mouth to let him see the effects of your handiwork.

“On my life, Doll. I will never get enough of you.”

He pulled you up to standing and leaned down to give you a filthy kiss.

“So glad to have you back in my arms.”

Bucky turned around and leaned on the gurney as he held you. You leaned into him, tears pricking your eyes as you felt the same emotions, but knowing what you had to do.

“I love you, farar kerkecina…”

You gave him a tender kiss on the lips before you delivered a blow to his vagus nerve. Bucky went out immediately, and you gently laid him on the gurney before you got dressed again.

“I have to finish this with the Power Broker, and I know you will try to stop me.”

You tucked the underwear that you’d cleaned up with into his jeans pocket, trading them for the keys to this asylum.

“We will be together soon, my love.”

You gave him a kiss on his perfect lips before you quickly made your out of the hospital, on your way to kill Sharon Carter for making you the Summer Soldier and taking the child from your belly.

Daga karshe na sameki masoyiyata (Hausa)– "I finally found you my love"

Soyayya ta (Hausa)— My Love

Sygrayem v nashu malen'kuyu igru, kukolka? (Russian)-- "Shall we play our little game, Doll?"

Farar kerkecina (Hausa).… "My white wolf"

#ask dj #sebastian stan #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x black female reader #bucky barnes x reader smut #bucky barnes x black!reader #winter soldier smut #winter soldier x reader #winter soldier x dora milaje reader #bucky barnes x dora milaje reader #bucky barnes x enhanced reader #falcon and the winter soldier #captain america and the winter soldier #bucky barnes smut #sharon carter #power broker

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anakinsbugs · 4 years ago

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Squarespace Vs. Wix

New Post has been published on https://walrusvideo.com/squarespace-vs-wix/

Squarespace Vs. Wix

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Wix

takes the prize for simplifying the process of making a website. Its drag-and-drop interface, hundreds of apps, and wider pricing options mean anybody can whip up a website without breaking a sweat.

Squarespace

has a better selection of design templates but its customization options require more technical confidence. Squarespace also outperforms Wix’s blogging and ecommerce tools by a very small margin, but the more flexible Wix has something for everyone.

Squarespace or Wix: Which is Better?

Squarespace’s sleeker, more professional-looking template designs are best for creatives who place a high value on aesthetics. Its grid-style editor requires a little bit of time to get to grips with, making it better for those with technical experience.

Turn your ideas into a visually-appealing Squarespace website for free.

Wix is best for beginners who want an easy way to create a website pronto . It has a drag-and-drop interface so building a website is as straightforward as solving a kiddie puzzle. It also comes with hundreds of templates and features to give users creative freedom regardless of their skill level.

Start your own free and stunning Wix website today

A Review of The Best Website Builders.

A good website builder spells the difference between an idea that grows into something big and one that fizzles out. To give you a head start, I’ve mustered up my experiences with building websites and reviewed

the top website builders

that may fit your needs.

Wix has proven once again why it’s considered a major player in the industry. Squarespace, though not included in the list, has its own perks that appeal to those with a specific set of criteria.

Squarespace Wins

Unlimited storage space: All of Squarespace premium plans come with unlimited bandwidth and storage so you can host unlimited files while ensuring media files will download smoothly. While the majority of Wix plans do offer unlimited bandwidth, none of them provide unlimited storage so you can’t just upload any files to your heart’s content.

Structured page editor : Squarespace doesn’t have the exact drag-and-drop functionality Wix is famous for. Its page elements are packed inside content blocks which you can move around and snap into rows and columns. Restrictive as it may appear, though, this feature helps you create your page within a more controlled environment, which can help prevent inadvertently sloppy designs.

High-quality, professional-grade template designs : Wix may offer more template choices but Squarespace trumps its competitor in terms of quality. It has over 60 template designs that are not only aesthetically superior but also easier to navigate both for the builder and viewer. Regardless of what template you choose initially, you can customize or replace it with another one anytime.

One-click color palette customization : Squarespace takes the guesswork out of choosing the right color theme that matches your brand. All you have to do is select a palette and Squarespace will apply it throughout your website.

Like Wix, Squarespace also offers the freedom to pick specific colors for individual elements. But since most users don’t have a design sense, Squarespace’s preselected color schemes take the headache and guesswork out of your site’s aesthetics.

Well-thought-out in-house features : Squarespace may have fewer features than Wix but what it lacks in numbers it makes up for in execution. Its in-house features are meticulously designed and built into its editor so you can manage your website even without installing third-party extensions.

Its restaurant menu editor, for example, uses a markup language so adding items is like filling out a simple form. In contrast, Wix accomplishes the same task through a relatively more tedious process that requires several clicks.

Squarespace’s donation system is likewise superior to Wix’s because it goes beyond providing a donation button by offering donor-specific checkout, donor email receipts, and suggested amounts.

Seamless podcast syndication : Starting a podcast? Squarespace also beats Wix’s basic podcast player by being the only one in the industry to offer syndication. With this feature, you can submit your podcast to Spotify or Apple Podcasts where a legion of potential fans can discover you.

Curated third-party apps : Whatever Squarespace lacks in-house, it offers as a third-party extension. Even Wix’s in-house features that Squarespace doesn’t have can be matched by a third-party counterpart so you won’t miss out on anything.

For example, the Wix Events app enables visitors to book tickets online whereas Squarespace can be integrated with Eventbrite to do the same thing. Similarly, integrating Memberstack with Squarespace accomplishes the same thing as the Wix Members app.

Ready-to-use blogging tools : With Squarespace, you can start blogging and showcase your best content to the world right off the bat. Unlike Wix that requires you to install a separate blog app, Squarespace has built-in blogging tools.

Basic features like post tagging, categories, comment moderation, and drafts will help you create professional-looking blogs regardless of your industry. Working with multiple authors is also a breeze as Squarespace allows you to collaborate with them on a single post or assign them different roles.

Sophisticated ecommerce functionality : When it comes to building your online store, Squarespace gives Wix a run for its money. It offers the same basic features you’ll find in Wix like custom email receipts, point of sale system, and automated cart recovery.

To maximize your profits, however, Squarespace steps up its game by offering features that Wix doesn’t. These include gift cards to help with your brand promotion. You can also use “back in stock” and “low stock” notifications to create a sense of urgency without being too pushy.

24/7 online support : Should you encounter technical issues with your Squarespace website, you can reach out to their customer support team via email, Twitter, or live chat. These online channels allow their team to get to the bottom of your issue faster.

Squarespace has excluded phone support because their existing support channels allow them to troubleshoot your issues comprehensively without the need to put you on hold.

Squarespace Losses

Lacks intuitive drag-and-drop interface . Squarespace’s page editor works like a minimalist grid system so you can’t drag and drop elements as freely as you can. Less freedom means less opportunity to play around with the design. It also takes a longer time to get used to so Squarespace is not as beginner-friendly as Wix.

Limited creative control : Squarespace’s biggest advantage is also its disadvantage. The “structured” editor may enable you to customize a website design within the realm of what’s acceptable but it also means you have less creative control.

The templates are on par with professional designs but you can’t edit, move, resize, or re-color the page elements as easily as you can with Wix. You also can’t display both the site title and logo at the same time.

Limited template designs . Fewer design choices also make it more difficult to stand out. Most photographers, for instance, trust Squarespace to host their portfolio sites.

With limited templates to choose from, they’re more likely to pick the same template. As a result, they may end up with portfolio websites that have the same look and feel as other sites in their industry.

Less generous ecommerce plans : Squarespace outnumbers Wix’s ecommerce features but you won’t benefit as much if you’re only subscribed to its basic plan.

Squarespace’s basic ecommerce features cost $18 per month (Business plan) while its Wix counterpart is a tad higher at $23 per month (Basic Business plan). However, you won’t save as much with a basic plan as Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee unless you upgrade.

You also won’t have access to some crucial features like abandoned cart recovery if you’re not under the Advanced Commerce Plan that costs $40 per month.

By contrast, Wix charges no transaction fee on any of its ecommerce plans and offers abandoned cart recovery even to those in the basic plan.

Wix Wins

Scalable pricing : Wix has a wider range of pricing options so you can start your website anytime and easily scale as it grows. The free plan is available for beginners who are still learning the ropes and are not bothered by Wix-sponsored ads and subdomains.

If you want a custom domain, you can switch to the most basic plan for only $4.50 a month. From here, you can upgrade to any of the three higher website plans or start an online store for as low as $17 per month for the Business Basic Plan. Squarespace, on the other hand, only offers four pricing tiers starting with the Personal plan at $12 per month. It doesn’t come with a free plan and most of the important features are only available in higher plans.

Beginner-friendly interface : Wix’s drag-and-drop editor remains its top selling point. It gives you a template to create a simple website in minutes without learning how to code. Squarespace is also a “no-coding” website builder, but its grid-style editor makes it cumbersome for some beginners. With Wix, you can have full control of the layout and even add functionality by dragging and dropping widgets on your page.

More in-house apps: Name any feature you want your website to have and Wix has an app for it. Do you want to create a forum? Look for Wix Forum in the App Market and install it for free. Planning to add a live chat to connect with your visitors in real-time? Try Wix Chat, another in-house app you can add for free. If none of the built-in Wix apps is what you’re looking for, don’t worry as there are still over 200 free and premium third-party extensions to choose from.

Free email marketing tools : With this built-in feature, you can send email campaigns to your contact list and even create workflows to manage your own sales funnel. Measure how well each of your campaigns is doing through the stats tracker that lets you see how many people open and engage with your emails.

Wix’s email marketing tools are part of the Ascend all-in-one business solution that gives you access to other marketing tools like live chat, social media integration, and SEO tools. The best part is you can have access to a limited number of features for free or upgrade to one of the three paid plans to enjoy the full benefit.

Robust SEO features : Wix has its own game plan to help your content rank high on Google. What’s great is Wix puts all its strategies in one place so users can learn SEO themselves and improve their online presence. The SEO Wiz contains step-by-step tutorials, achievement updates, and tons of other learning materials so you can start improving your site’s visibility even if you never heard about SEO before.

Multiple customer support channels : Unlike Squarespace, Wix offers phone support so you can rest assured that humans and not bots are handling your concern. Wix also provides support through forums, social media, and email but not through live chat. In case you get stuck or confused while working on the page editor, there are small question marks on the screen that you can also click to get quick solutions without leaving the page.

Automatic backup-and-restore feature : Wix is a proactive website builder that anticipates unfortunate events and has developed a counteracting feature in case they happen.

Through Site History which you can find inside your site Settings, you can restore a previous version of your website. You can restore revised versions of your site regardless if it’s saved manually or automatically.

Best of all, the previously saved version of your site can be restored without affecting published blog posts and changes made in your email list.

Wix Losses

Underwhelming template designs : Wix focuses on quantity over quality when it comes to design. Its over 500 customizable templates easily beat Squarespace’s 70+ designs. But with more choices comes more time wasted picking and overanalyzing which one suits a website idea best.

A “quantity over quality” approach also leads to many Wix templates failing to make a great first impression. While there are hidden gems, it takes time to find them as they are outnumbered by generic templates, some of which are downright cheesy.

Unstructured page editor : Wix’s drag-and-drop interface has its own flaws. While it helps even non-pros create websites quickly, the changes you make in the desktop version may not necessarily sync to its mobile version. For instance, when you move an image from the top of the page to the bottom, the same change won’t reflect in the mobile version unless you make the same change twice. With Squarespace’s structured editor, movements are much more restricted but any change you make will reflect in both screens.

Complicated color changes : Wix lacks the preselected color palettes that Squarespace has, so changing text and background colors are not as straightforward. This is the downside of having more freedom to manipulate page elements. You may be free to choose the colors of individual page elements but if you don’t have a background in design, knowing which colors will work best without preset recommendations can be really tough.

Limited bandwidth and storage space : Wix doesn’t have the unlimited resources that Squarespace offers in all its plans. Therefore, the cheaper your Wix plan is, the more restrictions you’ll get on how many files you can store and how much traffic your website can get per day.

Wix’s cheapest plans, Connect Domain and Combo, only offer a bandwidth of 1 GB and 2 GB, respectively. This is enough if your website receives only a handful of visitors per month. However, once a website gets at least 1,000 visitors a day, it will require about 8.5 GB of bandwidth monthly, something that Wix only provides starting with its Unlimited plan that costs $12.50 per month (billed annually).

Mediocre blogging tools : You can create a decent blog with Wix but if you’re looking for more features, you’ll get it from Squarespace. Wix is capable of scheduling posts, adding tags or categories, and saving drafts. However, it doesn’t allow comment moderation so you can’t filter comments and publish only those you approve of. On top of that, Wix doesn’t have a built-in blogging feature. You have to add the free Wix Blog app yourself before you can start creating content.

Limited flexibility for free plans : When you start a free website with Wix, you won’t pay for anything but it comes at the cost of flexibility. The Wix subdomain, ads, and the look of a free site tend to come off a lot less professional. If you want to experiment with a free site, that’s fine, but you’ll have to upgrade to premium Wix plans to really establish your own brand.

Comparing The Top Website Builders.

Do you want to build a website from scratch without touching any codes? With a website builder, you can do that and more. If you want to get started,

here are the best website builders I recommend

Wix

— Best for general use

Weebly

— Best for beginners

Shopify

— Best for ecommerce

WordPress

— Best for content management

Wix is the undisputed website builder of choice

if you want to quickly launch a website even without the technical know-how. Its drag-and-drop interface requires a short learning curve while its hundreds of templates and features allow you to elevate your website any way you want.

But for a more professional site with a stronger design aesthetic and more customization options, especially one you’re willing to take some time to build,

Squarespace will be the better choice

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Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

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t-baba · 5 years ago

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How to Boost Your Developer Career with a Personal Brand

Personal branding is one the most (in)famous trends of the last decade.

In this article, I’ll talk about what a personal brand is and how building one can help boost your career. I’ll show you how to stake your claim in the online space as well as three paths you can follow to level up your brand. That’s plenty to talk about, so let’s get this started.

The argument for a personal brand as a developer

Our first stop is Wikipedia, where we can find the following definition:

Personal branding is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual, group, or organization.

That’s the part most of people have in mind when they think about personal branding. They think about the current diva of the day. About famous media celebrities. About publicity stunts that are meant to push you into the limelight. About presenting a fake facade in order to obtain undeserved rewards. And many other less-than-pleasant examples.

However, there’s another aspect to personal branding — the other side of the coin, so to speak. Right after the definition above, the Wikipedia article has the following phrase:

In Be Your Own Brand, first published in 1999, marketers David McNally and Karl Speak wrote: “Your brand is a perception or emotion, maintained by somebody other than you, that describes the total experience of having a relationship with you.”

In other words, your personal brand includes what other people say about you when you’re not there. It includes your reputation, your body of work, the testimonials other people give about you. Nowadays it includes your tweets and your posts on Facebook. To many people, your pictures on Instagram matter just as much (if not more) as your contributions to open-source software. Want to travel in the USA? Be prepared to let them know all your social media accounts for the last five years. (Sources: Sophos and BBC). And the examples can continue.

Everything you say and do affects your public image and your reputation. And that can have devastating impact on your career. Remember the Aria Richards case back in 2013? She was a developer taking part in a conference where she published a tweet about some male developers making sexual jokes behind her, including their picture. In the fallout, one of the guys was fired, but Aria lost her job as well, because her action was deemed to be damaging to the reputation of the company employing her. (Sources: ArsTechnica and CBSNews).

Fortunately, it’s not just about mitigating possible damage. A great personal brand can increase your leverage at a level you wouldn’t dream about it. It can put you in a better light when applying to a new job, and you’ll have better negotiating power when discussing the salary and the perks of the position. If you have your own business, it can bring you more and better clients and projects. What’s not to like about it?

But there’s one caveat in all this: be authentic. Don’t do it to project something you aren’t, or as a money-grabbing move or, worse, to cover negative aspects. That’s the main reason people react badly when hearing about personal branding.

This subject alone (the pros and cons of personal branding) can fill a whole book and goes beyond the scope of this article. So, stop letting others write your story and take control of your narrative. All this being said, let’s push forward.

Stake your claim and establish your presence

The first phase in building your personal brand is staking your claim in the online space and laying down the foundations for further expansion. It is, in my opinion, the most important part of the process. If you do nothing else from the other things we’ll talk about later, but you work on this part, I’m confident you’ll get a lot further than many other people.

We’re currently living in the age of social media, so you might be surprised to hear that this foundation is actually your own website. Yes, a website. The old-fashioned kind, where you buy a domain name, arrange hosting and upload the files on the server for everyone else on the Internet to find.

“That’s the dumbest idea I’ve heard,” you might say. “I don’t need a website. I have my CV on LinkedIn, my pictures on Facebook and Instagram, my articles on Medium, my code on GitHub and I keep in touch with everyone on Twitter. Why would I waste time and effort with a website that I have to promote as well?”

From a certain point of view, all that sounds quite reasonable. But all those options have one thing in common: they’re all third-party platforms, and you’re actually renting the right to use them. You might not pay with money, but they are gathering data about you and your habits that’s either used to target ads your way or it’s passed to third parties for the same reasons. Remember, if you’re not paying for something, then you are the product being sold.

It all comes down to a simple truth: you can’t build your home on rented land. You can lose access to social media at any moment. All these platforms have somewhere in their terms and conditions a clause that allows them to terminate their service to you at any time without having to provide an explanation. Or your account could get hacked or deleted. Your tens or hundreds of thousands of followers? All gone in a blink of an eye if you lose access to the platform.

That’s why you need something you own completely — a place to present yourself without being beholden to a platform that only cares about their own interests. You need a way to gather contacts, followers, connections and clients and be able to keep them. Yes, websites and servers do get hacked. But in that case, all you need to do is install the latest backup and you’re up and running again.

Let’s get down to the trinity of items needed to establish your online presence:

A domain name

You need your own custom domain name for multiple reasons. It gives you more legitimacy and it opens the gates for further options down the road. www.johnnydev.com is a lot better than johnnydev2335.github.io, don’t you think? We can have a very long discussion over whether it’s better to choose a “brand name” or your own given name for the domain. However, that’s a conversation for another time and place.

Hosting

There are plenty options of free hosting for developers: GitHub Pages, Netlify and many more. In many cases, that’s all you need to have a website up and running. For some of the more advanced options, though, it’s better to get some classic dedicated hosting.

Custom email address

This is the same story as with the domain name above. I think we can agree that [email protected] is more professional than [email protected] or some other email address you created when you were 16 years old.

Now all you have to do is upload your site and let everyone know about it. You can go from something as simple as a single static page to something complex like a WordPress blog or a static site generator like Gatsby or Hugo. Don’t despair if design isn’t your strong point. There are plenty of free themes and templates available.

Remember, you don’t have to code the website yourself. You get extra brownie points and bragging rights for writing as much code as possible yourself, but that’s not a requirement. If time’s at a premium for you, just grab a free template or theme and get started. Be sure to check the code for any hidden, unpleasant surprises, though, or use trusted sources, like curated collections and communities. All major players, like WordPress, Gatsby or Hugo, come with curated themes that you can choose from.

Once you have a website

Congratulations! You just became the proud owner of your own piece of online real estate. You how have a place where you can link all your social media profiles, upload your CV, write some blog posts or even articles. If you want to take it even further and remove further your dependency on other platforms, you can start your own email list. But that’s a topic for another time. For now, we’ll focus on three paths you can take to further increase your influence, your reputation and, ultimately, your personal brand. These are paths that other developers have taken before, and they got a lot of benefits out of that choice. They’re also not mutually exclusive. You can mix and match until you get the combination that works best for you.

Continue reading How to Boost Your Developer Career with a Personal Brand on SitePoint.

by Adrian Sandu via SitePoint https://ift.tt/2RY9gXb

#CSS3 #HTML5 Branding #HTML5 Weekly #HTMLl5 demos #Javascript Branding #Javascript Weekly #Mobile #Mo

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suzanneshannon · 5 years ago

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Creating a Diversity Scholarship Program for Your Conference

My partner and I ran a design and development conference company for eight years. During that time, we produced hundreds of hours of conferences, both on-site and online. Diversity scholarships were only becoming a typical conference offering around the time we decided to sunset our business. So, when we committed to collaborate on an updated ARTIFACT conference, I knew right away I wanted to make Diversity Scholarships available.

We always worked on making our events inclusive, so adding a program that would enhance that inclusion even more seemed like a no-brainer. When I started to research how to create a diversity scholarship program, though, the only examples I could find were finished programs, and not much documentation about the thinking or planning that created them. It’s not unusual to improvise a solution to a problem and make changes on the fly, in fact it's pretty routine when you run a small business. A diversity scholarship program was something I wanted to get right, though — or at least as “right” as possible — the first time around. I decided to look a little deeper than what was available online.

Tech conference organizers: have you offered diversity scholarships for your events? Would you be willing to answer a few questions about it? PM or @ me if interested. TIA!

Other sentient beings reading this: Can I get an RT to reach as many organizers as possible? Thanks!

— Ari Stiles (@ari4nne) March 11, 2019

Twitter helped me find conference organizers who had created and run diversity scholarship programs. I ended up talking to several organizers about their experiences, in addition to comparing a couple dozen programs and applications online.

Between sessions at the Open Source Summit (photo courtesy of the Linux Foundation)

Before we dive in

There are two types of readers I’d like to address:

If you don’t think the lack of diversity in tech is a problem, or don’t see why a scholarship program is necessary, this article is not for you. It is written with the assumption that the reader is already convinced of the merits of diversity, and is looking for ways to build a more diverse audience at the conferences or tech events they host; or

If you are overwhelmed by the lack-of-diversity-in-tech issue, so much that you feel uncomfortable even addressing it, you are not alone. The problem is systemic, with deep, historical roots. It’s important to remember that you alone cannot solve the problems of an entire industry with one program or one event. Focus instead on what you can create, even with limited resources. Ask for help when you need it — most conference organizers I’ve met are glad to help.

From the beginning

So much of the planning for an inclusive conference takes place before you even begin talking about things like diversity scholarships. If your destination city is a relatively inexpensive and easy place to visit; if your venue is accessible and you’ve made plans for accommodations like live captioning; if your ticket prices are reasonable; and if your speaker lineup is genuinely diverse, you’ve got a strong foundation to build on.

Most of this can be accomplished with research. Cities popular with tourists tend to have reasonable transportation and accommodation prices. Cities with big tech hubs often have large, sometimes state-of-the art meeting spaces to hold conferences. Finding cities that have both can be a challenge, but the combination ultimately makes your conference more accessible to different types of attendees.

Creating a diverse lineup of speakers may attract a more diverse set of attendees (left to right: Sample speaker lineups from Hopper Celebration, Alterconf, and Clarity Conference)

A little more work may have to go into your speaker lineup. Although there has been some progress on this issue, the majority of tech conferences still mostly feature white men. There have been plenty of articles written on how to create a diverse speaker lineup, but one of my favorite tips is to focus on your conference content first and foremost. Thinking in terms of content makes it easier to look past a potential speaker’s popularity. It also works against your natural bias toward picking “friends” or people you have worked with before. By focusing instead on the content a speaker provides, you can evaluate how that content might add to your overall theme and how it might affect your audience. Curating content is more work than just lining up a group of well-known speakers, but it pays off in the form of a more focused conference and — usually — a more diverse lineup.

You'll also need to encourage open discussion among your co-organizers about diversity issues. My first job in conference planning was for South by SouthWest Interactive (SXSWi), and I feel lucky to have gotten my start working in an environment where these discussions were regular, open, and just “part of the process.” As with any skill, the more you practice talking about diversity, the easier it becomes.

Craft Conference has put together a video about their diversity program. These testimonials may help further the conversation with your colleagues.

Ask yourself why

Diversity and equity scholarship programs have become popular offerings at tech conferences for many reasons. We need more diversity in the industry, and the current thinking is that more diverse conferences can create more leadership and presentation opportunities for underrepresented populations. Diversity can lead to more robust discussions, too. This goal stated plainly on the Web site for #Perfmatters, run by Estelle Weyl:

"We want to ensure the conversation is stimulating and help everyone see their own Web app issues from new and different perspectives. For that, we need attendees with different perspectives. While we love everyone, conferences where all attendees come from corporations with generous continuing education budgets aren’t as interesting for participants as when attendees represent different work and life experiences."

It can be useful to do a little soul-searching to think about why you and your co-organizers want to do this. “More than anything,” says Tenessa Gemelke, organizer of Confab, “we wanted to remove obstacles, not just check boxes.” It’s easy to tell ourselves that because we’ve recruited a few women or people of color, we’ve “taken care of” conference diversity and we can move on to the next task. The needs of your diversity scholarship recipients are not checklist items — they are the building blocks of a more inclusive community.

Brainstorming a bit about the reasons you want to build a diversity scholarship program can help you set goals, identify problems specific to your target audience, and define limits. You might even discover that you have secondary objectives, which is not unusual.

Justin Reese is the Founder of Code & Supply and co-creator of several conferences based in Pittsburgh, PA. In addition to the traditional uses for diversity scholarships, he and his staff occasionally use scholarship funds to send up-and-coming hometown speakers to other cities. “We want people to see the talent and resources we have here in Pittsburgh,” says Reese. He and his team think of Code & Supply scholarships as a way to showcase local talent and build a robust, diverse tech community in their home town.

At ARTIFACT, we think of diversity and inclusion as the future of technology. So, in addition to building a robust, inclusive community, we see our diversity scholarship program as a vital part of a forward-thinking conference. Techniques and workflow change not only because of new gadgets and platforms, but because of new audiences and different types of teams.

Taking stock

Once you’ve settled on your “why,” it’s best to determine your “what” — as in, what you have to offer. Do you have any resources or perks on hand that will require no help from sponsors? For example, some conferences have more space than they need. Can you give some tickets away for free, or at a discount? Or if you have limited space, can you make a few free or discounted tickets possible by bumping up the cost of your other tickets? Make a list of what you can offer for free or from simple changes to your conference plan.

Other services that you might consider offering through your diversity scholarship program:

Assisting with travel

Assisting with accommodations

Meal stipends

On-site childcare

On-site nursing / feeding spaces

Some organizers even make travel and hotel reservations for their diversity scholarship attendees. It makes sense — most conferences already make these arrangements for their presenters, so it’s easy to do it for a few more people. This service may help scholarship dollars stretch a little further too, if the extra travel or booked rooms are available at a bulk discount.

If you want to offer more than just the basics, you will probably have to work with sponsors. The good news here is that sponsors often enjoy investing in diversity initiatives. Before approaching a potential sponsor, though, it’s wise to be clear on how you plan to spend the money. Consider creating a one-sheet that states your goals, the underrepresented groups you are trying to recruit, and what perks the sponsor can expect for participating. This way, you have something to leave behind for sponsors who want to think it over or who need to present the idea to others before it gets approval. Be sure to include your contact information.

Set your goals

It’s useful to think about how many diversity scholarships you’d like to offer in an ideal situation. In practice, that perfect number will probably drop based on your budget or lack of space, but having a lofty goal may encourage you to try a little harder.

Among the conference organizers I spoke with, the number of diversity scholarship recipients ranged from two to fifteen percent of total ticket sales. Those with higher numbers started with higher goals.

Attendees at JSCamp Barcelona

Making it happen

Figuring out the logistics of a diversity scholarship plan may be the most complicated part of the process. Trying to figure out how to juggle all the tasks involved is what spurred me to do all this research in the first place!

Implementation will include some combination of the following steps, not necessarily in this order:

Put someone in charge

Your entire staff may be involved with processing diversity scholarships, but it’s a good idea to have one person oversee the whole program for the sake of continuity. There is a great deal of communication involved with this process, so it helps to choose a point person with strong organization and communication skills. The most significant qualification, though, is a real passion for creating a diverse conference community.

Create a reasonable timeline

With input from your team, set application deadlines, reviewing deadlines, and scholarship offer deadlines. Every organizer I spoke with suggested making these deadlines early in the process and sticking to them.

You’ll need enough time to review applications and make scholarship offers early enough to give your attendees time to plan. Remember that they might have to request time off work, make family care arrangements, and deal with other obligations. People from out of town need at least two months notice, and international attendees may need three months or more. Early deadlines help everyone. No one in your organization wants to review applications at the last minute anyway, since conference planning gets more intense in the weeks leading up to the event.

Any unclaimed scholarship resources can be used by qualified local attendees in the weeks leading up to your event. Since they don't have to factor in travel or accommodations, it is easier for local attendees to make plans at the last minute.

Make your scholarship program easy to find

Devote a page to your diversity scholarship program on your site, then link to that page as reasonably often as possible. If you can‘t list it in your main menu, consider linking it from the site footer and from the ticket sales page, in addition to posting about it regularly on social media.

Clearly state who qualifies for aid

The list may vary a bit based on your typical audience, but we chose the following criteria:

People of color

Indigenous persons

People with disabilities

People who identify as LGBTQIA+

Women

Veterans and new graduates just beginning their tech careers

Full-time students

People who work for nonprofit/educational/government institution with limited funds

People who are 55 years old or older

People who are currently unemployed / underemployed

People experiencing temporary financial hardship

Be sure to list the types of aid available (determined earlier, when you were “taking stock"). It’s also good to let your applicants know that not every application will be accommodated, and that all applications will be verified.

Collect the information you need

Most conferences use some kind of online application form to collect and organize data. If you are not able to code one yourself, Google Forms or Wufoo make it pretty easy to build a form. Keep the application as simple as you can — you’ll need:

name,

contact information,

the reason(s) they qualify for aid (instead of a blank field, consider listing qualifications on the form as a way of reiterating the types of attendees you are trying to recruit),

the type of aid they are requesting (again, listing they types of aid available will help applicants understand what’s possible), and

maybe a statement about why they want to attend or why they need aid at this time.

You’ll want the form to compile data in a way that will be easy to sort through later, like a spreadsheet.

Preserve the anonymity of your applicants

Asking for help in a society that values self-sufficiency over shared responsibility can be tough. Don’t make it harder by asking applicants to divulge too much personal information, participate in open interviews with committee members, or meet with sponsors as part of your program. If a committee will be reviewing applications, consider anonymizing the entries before review.

Verify applications

This should be an ongoing process for several reasons. Some applicants will qualify for your program for reasons that are not always verifiable, so the person doing the vetting may need to contact them and clarify the request.

Other applicants may either misunderstand or overlook your qualifying criteria. The most common mistake many applicants make is assuming they qualify for aid only because their employer won’t cover the cost of the conference. This is where additional information will help: why isn’t this covered? Does the company have very limited funds, or is their travel budget just maxed out already? Does the applicant qualify for a diversity scholarship on other grounds? Applicants should know early in the process if their application is refused or if more information is needed.

Evaluate applications

Once the application deadline is met, evaluation begins. If your applications have been properly vetted, then the hardest work is already done. If a committee is evaluating applications, it’s good to not only figure out a way to anonymize applications, but also to streamline the evaluation process. Maybe give each committee member two or three questions to rate for each applicant. Possible evaluation questions:

How clearly is the need for aid stated?

How much aid is needed?

How much would this attendee impact the conference?

How much would the conference impact this attendee?

These can be rated on a scale, maybe one to ten, with ten being highest. This makes calculating scores easy. Other data you might choose to consider: when was the application received? Do you want to consider more local applicants than those from out-of-town?

Make and process scholarship offers and refusals

Evaluations have been made, so you are probably left with a set of applicants you want to offer scholarships to, some applicants you are not sure about yet, and a few that you plan to refuse. Start by making offers to those applicants you want to help attend the conference. Clearly state how much help you are offering and a deadline for accepting or refusing the offer.

If you are working with a particularly long waiting list, or the process is going slowly (more than two weeks since you began awarding scholarships), it’s courteous to let people know they are on a waiting list.

At ARTIFACT, we are assuming that some applicants may have a change in plans and therefore may have to refuse the scholarship. In that case, we will be passing along their offer to the next person on our waiting list.

Once all the offers have been made and accepted, it’s time to email the rest of the applicants, thank them for their participation, and let them know they won’t be receiving a scholarship offer. If you can, it’s nice to offer something to those who didn’t receive a scholarship: maybe a discounted ticket if they still choose to attend, or an invitation to any after-hour events, where you have room for a few extra people.

Create feedback mechanisms

In addition to all the input you sought from your colleagues in the beginning, you’ll need feedback on every aspect of the program. Make that easy to do by including an email address or link to a feedback form on your scholarship description page, your application form, and anywhere else on your site that seems appropriate. Once you start awarding scholarships, make communication a high priority. Consider creating a way to collect anonymous feedback from scholarship awardees and sponsors—easier to do if you have a larger conference—to foster honest, less inhibited comments.

Wait and see (and listen)

Now that everything needed for your diversity scholarship program is in place, it’s time to follow your plan and take note of what works and what doesn’t. Stay flexible, as you may have to change some parts of your program on the fly. Keep thinking in terms of equity for all of your applicants, and communicate openly about any changes you make. Applicants are more likely to trust a transparent process.

Listen more than you talk. Always.

Scholarship recipients for the Tapia Conference, a conference that celebrates and nurtures diversity in computing

Follow up

Once ARTIFACT 2019 has concluded, I’ll be compiling all of our results and feedback in one place and writing a follow-up to this article. Until then, I’d like to thank all the conference organizers who took the time to answer my questions about diversity scholarship programs: Tenessa Gemelke, Estelle Weyl, Justin Reese, Val Head, Dave Poole, Jenn Strater, Ádám Boros, and PJ Hagerty.

In the meantime, here are some other resources you might find helpful:

Follow Ashe Dryden on Twitter. She gives presentations on diversity and inclusion, and is currently working on two books about the subject.

Take a look at AIGA’s Diversity and Inclusion resources.

Anita Singh wrote a pretty comprehensive piece on diversity and inclusion in hiring for Code Like a Girl, and plenty of it applies to conference diversity, too.

The post Creating a Diversity Scholarship Program for Your Conference appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Creating a Diversity Scholarship Program for Your Conference published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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siliconwebx · 5 years ago

Text

Creating a Diversity Scholarship Program for Your Conference

Tech conference organizers: have you offered diversity scholarships for your events? Would you be willing to answer a few questions about it? PM or @ me if interested. TIA!

Other sentient beings reading this: Can I get an RT to reach as many organizers as possible? Thanks!

— Ari Stiles (@ari4nne) March 11, 2019

Between sessions at the Open Source Summit (photo courtesy of the Linux Foundation)

Before we dive in

There are two types of readers I’d like to address:

From the beginning

Creating a diverse lineup of speakers may attract a more diverse set of attendees (left to right: Sample speaker lineups from Hopper Celebration, Alterconf, and Clarity Conference)

Craft Conference has put together a video about their diversity program. These testimonials may help further the conversation with your colleagues.

Ask yourself why

Taking stock

Other services that you might consider offering through your diversity scholarship program:

Assisting with travel

Assisting with accommodations

Meal stipends

On-site childcare

On-site nursing / feeding spaces

Set your goals

Attendees at JSCamp Barcelona

Making it happen

Implementation will include some combination of the following steps, not necessarily in this order:

Put someone in charge

Create a reasonable timeline

Make your scholarship program easy to find

Clearly state who qualifies for aid

The list may vary a bit based on your typical audience, but we chose the following criteria:

People of color

Indigenous persons

People with disabilities

People who identify as LGBTQIA+

Women

Veterans and new graduates just beginning their tech careers

Full-time students

People who work for nonprofit/educational/government institution with limited funds

People who are 55 years old or older

People who are currently unemployed / underemployed

People experiencing temporary financial hardship

Collect the information you need

name,

contact information,

the reason(s) they qualify for aid (instead of a blank field, consider listing qualifications on the form as a way of reiterating the types of attendees you are trying to recruit),

the type of aid they are requesting (again, listing they types of aid available will help applicants understand what’s possible), and

maybe a statement about why they want to attend or why they need aid at this time.

You’ll want the form to compile data in a way that will be easy to sort through later, like a spreadsheet.

Preserve the anonymity of your applicants

Verify applications

Evaluate applications

How clearly is the need for aid stated?

How much aid is needed?

How much would this attendee impact the conference?

How much would the conference impact this attendee?

Make and process scholarship offers and refusals

Create feedback mechanisms

Wait and see (and listen)

Listen more than you talk. Always.

Scholarship recipients for the Tapia Conference, a conference that celebrates and nurtures diversity in computing

Follow up

In the meantime, here are some other resources you might find helpful:

Follow Ashe Dryden on Twitter. She gives presentations on diversity and inclusion, and is currently working on two books about the subject.

Take a look at AIGA’s Diversity and Inclusion resources.

Anita Singh wrote a pretty comprehensive piece on diversity and inclusion in hiring for Code Like a Girl, and plenty of it applies to conference diversity, too.

The post Creating a Diversity Scholarship Program for Your Conference appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐CSS-Tricks

#Silicon Web Design #Ahmedabad #India #Web Development #WPBeginner #Silicon URL #Web Site #Cloud Host

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dcroofingarizona · 4 years ago

Text

Top Things To Do In Tucson AZ

This article Top Things To Do In Tucson AZ had been originally submitted on: the DC Roofing Company blog

Tucson Offers So Many Options!

Saguaro National Park

Tucson is well-known for its plethora of giant saguaros, a type of cactus that can grow to be over 40 feet tall. These majestic plants, found only in a small portion of the United States, are protected by Saguaro National Park on both the east and west sides of the city. You can drive, hike, bike, or horseback ride through either park.

University of Arizona Art Museum

Art lovers need look no further than the University of Arizona Art Museum to satisfy their art cravings in Tucson. Operated by the University of Arizona, the site also includes a museum and has permanent exhibitions that include over 6,000 exhibits from all corners of the art world such as sculptures, textiles, prints, and hand drawings. The art on show here is diverse and focuses on both European art as well as American art.

The Tucson Desert Art Museum

The Tucson Desert Art Museum is one of the best things to do in Tucson AZ for art lovers. The collection of paintings includes some of the biggest names of the Southwest: Peter Nisbet, Thomas Moran, Maynard Dixon, and Ed Mell. The Museum is a rare and enticing establishment where one can learn about the history of the region through its peoples art.

The Arizona Inn

A popular historic Tucson hotel is the Arizona Inn. This charming boutique hotel spans over 14 acres of gardens, fountains, flowers and lawns. Centrally located, it's a great place to stay if you plan on traveling to all parts of town.

Old Town Artisans

One of the main tourist attractions is the Old Town Artisans , a restored 1850s marketplace. It includes an entire city block of galleries and stores all set in unique buildings. The stores offer selections of art, jewelry, crafts, home decor, and other items by artists from Tucson and around the state. Other items you can find here include pottery, paintings, metalwork, photography, Native American wool rugs, and carvings.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum offers an intimate look at the desert landscape around Tucson. This museum is a wonderful family outing with a zoo, natural history museum, and botanical garden all in one. Displays showcase living animals and plants native to the Sonoran Desert, including some endangered species such as the Mexican wolf, thick-billed parrot, ocelot, margay, jaguarundi, desert pupfish, Sonora chub, bonytail chub, razorback sucker, and Gila topminnow.

Transcript

I'm Coyote Peterson, and today we're going behind the scenes at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. - This morning we made the beautiful drive across the Sonoran Desert to arrive in Tucson Mountain Park, which is home to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, established in 1952, by William Carr and Arthur Pack. Their vision was to create a living museum, where visitors could come see animals living in completely natural looking environments. Since childhood I have been visiting this location, enthralled by all of its animal species, and inspired to live a life of adventure and animals. Today I'm lucky enough to walk the grounds with Will Bruner, the museum's curator of animal experiences, a job that as a child, I could've only dreamed of. The first stop would be the mountain lion exhibit. This elusive desert cat has been an ambassador for the museum since 1952. Wow, look how beautiful that cat is. - His mother was killed. He was found as about a four month old cub in California. Obviously, too young to survive on his own in the wild, so that's how he came to us here. - So, this cat weighs about 100 pounds now, and will grow to be about 200 pounds. - Yeah, almost 200 pounds. - So, almost double in size. It's amazing even from this distance you can see how big this cat really is. - [Will] The great thing about this exhibit is that one of our goals is not only to create naturalistic, but also to create interesting environments for the animals. We vary sometimes feeds, we'll vary placement of food. So, this gives him a lot of choices, and choices are a really important thing to an animal in its environment. - [Coyote] Is that kind of why you hide food throughout the enclosure, so it forces him to almost have to hunt, and search out what it is he wants? - Exactly, we want him using all of those natural abilities. The ability to track his prey by scent or visual. He can actually work those muscles as if he were taking down prey, basically stimulating their environment. Even putting scents in here might cause him to actually go and scent mark, which is another behavior he would do in the wild. - [Coyote] So, what's he snacking on there? - [Will] A little bit of everything. We feed a variety of diets, but sometimes the favorite treats like whole animals, a ground meat product that's specifically made for wild cats in captivity. Believe it or not, one of his absolute favorite treats is cream cheese. - [Coyote] On bagels, or on ground squirrels? - A little bit of both. - [Coyote] Yeah. You guys, he's going up into his little den area there. He says, "I've had my snack, "now it's time to take a nap." Okay, so Will, I feel like I'm standing right in the middle of the Sonoran Desert right now, but we're really just in part of the museum at this point, and it's amazing. I mean, you guys have designed this place to feel like you're actually in the environment. - [Will] That's one of the missions of the museum. We want you to really appreciate this area because the Sonoran Desert is like nowhere else in the world. It's a little bit of a microcosm of all the Sonoran Desert habitat here at the museum in a small space. So, you can do the whole Sonoran Desert, which would take you months to walk it, if you did it, but here at the museum you can do it in a couple of hours. We're a natural history museum, as well as a zoo, and a botanical garden. All of those roles play a really important part in the museum's mission to educate people about the Sonoran Desert. - Wow, cool. Alright, well let's go find some more animals. - Great. - So, right now we're working our way down. I can see them over there by the side of the fence, Javelinas, this is like one of my favorite animals that lives out here in the Sonoran Desert. What I know of javelinas, Will, is that they are these little power houses of muscle, and ferocity, and I mean, I can clearly see them, I mean, this guy's no bigger than a golden retriever, but he looks like he's built like a tank. - [Will] They are, and actually they're incredibly powerful little animals for their body size. Literally, just the muscles on the head, and the neck, and the shoulders support that, you know, the large jaws. They work together as a family to defend themselves, and defend their territory as well. - Now, I just saw two of them. They were kind of like rubbing each other's butts on each other's head's. What were they doing there? - They actually, that's a social behavior. They have a musk gland, or a gland on the top of their back they'll rub as a way of sort of coating everybody in the same scent, and that's the way they identify themselves, so it's like a social grooming, and a bonding behavior. - So, what are javelinas typically feeding on out here in the desert environment, and then do you guys provide them with any sort of food, or they just eat what's naturally here in their habitat? - No, we do actually provide them with food, and the desert food is often seasonal. So, the prickly pear fruit, which you'll see, which they do really like is only around this time of year. - [Coyote] They have real tough skin on their noses, and spouts right, so those little spines, it doesn't bother them at all. Look at those tusks. Now, do they use those tusks for anything defensive, or for eating? - Yeah, they're defensive. They're basically used in any social altercations, and also for defense. Those tusks are actually amazing. The way they line up in the javelinas mouth is that as they move back and forth, even with the open and closing your mouth, they're constantly sharpening those tusks. - [Coyote] Wow. We're gonna take a short cut, one of the perks of being behind the scenes at the Desert Museum, on our way to go see the Bighorn Sheep. Now, this is a very important part of the conservation work that you guys are doing here. Tell us all about these sheep. - [Will] Well, these are Desert Bighorn, and they are native to the area, but we're also part of a captive breeding program with this species. We've just recently received a female from the Los Angeles zoo. She had a lamb about six months ago, which continues our breeding program, but also both her and her mother are unrelated to our male, which means they can continue that captive breeding program here at the Museum. - [Coyote] This is the lamb right here, right? - [Will] Yep, this is the youngster, and she's done amazingly well. - When I think Bighorn's, I always think of that famous opening scene from Marty Stouffer's Wild America, where you have the two males, just boom, crushing heads with eachother. - [Will] In the wild, they would break into male and female groups outside the breeding season. Within the male groups they would start jousting, and basically establishing who was gonna be the dominant animal to breed. - [Coyote] So, what then is the ultimate goal of this species survival plan? - [Will] It's to maintain a genetically diverse population within a captive setting, but not only for exhibitory, and zoological institutions, but also in the event of a population crash in a wild population. - [Coyote] There is so much to experience at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and more animal and plant species than we could ever pack into a single episode of breaking trail. From rescuing animals to species survival plans, Arthur Pack and Willaim Carr's original vision of a living museum has truly grown into one of the world's most renowned natural history, and zoological establishments. Will, I can't thank you enough for taking the crew and I out here today. Truly a once in a lifetime experience to get behind the scenes, and see all the amazing conservation, and education work you guys are doing here. I had a fantastic time. I'm Coyote Peterson. Be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on the next adventure. If you thought that was one wild adventure, check out these other animal encounters, and don't forget subscribe to follow me and the crew on this season of Breaking Trail. This episode of Breaking Trail was brought to you by the BuyPower card from Capital One. Every purchase brings you closer to a new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, or Cadillac vehicle.

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tripstations · 5 years ago

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5 New Standout Hotels in London

Well established as a design capital — the famed Victoria and Albert Museum was founded in the 19th century as a design museum — London has become the world’s best hotel city.

There are the pillars of timeless elegance, like Claridge’s and The Connaught, which set the hospitality bar quite high while injecting glamour into the hotel cocktail bar and restaurant.

England’s capital also hosts upstarts like The Hoxton, which opened its first hotel in 2006 in Shoreditch, an East End neighborhood, helping to transform the district and redefine the hotel lobby as a creative hangout, aglow with laptops.

Game-changers like Chiltern Firehouse — opened in 2013, still white hot, and not just because it’s got a secret smoking room — and The Ned, the 252-room hotel and members club opened in 2017 by the founder of Soho House, continue to rewrite the rules of what hotels can be: a place to rest your head, of course, but cultural touchstones, too. That’s why The Standard chose London for its first address outside the United States — on Euston Road in a striking 1974 Brutalist building, opening officially in the fall.

In the city’s current hotel-opening boom times (the Great Scotland Yard Hotel is due late 2019), here are five standouts.

Vintry & Mercer

Named for the 14th-century merchants and traders who established this district in the City of London, this 92-room hotel is 100 percent powered by renewable energy and has a rooftop terrace, where lunch comes with views of St. Paul’s and the Shard.

Velvet headboards, leather door handles and vintage-map wallpaper give the individually designed rooms lush character; lots of plants in the public spaces create a business traveler’s bolt-hole; and Do Not Disturb, an underground speakeasy with leather banquettes and images of Zeigfield Follies girls on the walls, has its own sultry entrance set back on Garlick Hill.

Vintry & Mercer; from about $225; 19-20 Garlick Hill, City of London.

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

Just before a major renovation was to be unveiled last year, a fire ripped through this property, so the old-world behemoth had to be renovated again — for a total cost of $192 million. The results are shockingly luxurious and certainly not for the faint of wallet (nor for anyone with a shopping, er, problem, given the proximity to the fashion temples of Knightsbridge), but well suited to one of the few hotels on Hyde Park.

You can set your Rolex by the Royal Horse Guards riding by every morning at 10:30 on the way to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

Very near Tower Bridge and the Tate Modern, this 193-room hotel is a refurbished 1905 magistrate’s court. While there’s a whiff of businessman’s hotel design in the rooms (it’s part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection), some details from the architect John Dixon Butler’s Edwardian original are intact — such as the Y-shaped central staircase.

There are cheeky allusions to the building’s history, too: a coffee table in the Orwell Suite was made from benches etched by former prisoners, a glass chandelier in the lobby is made up of tiny handcuffs, mug shots decorate the Courtroom bar and the coffee roasted on site is called — wait for it — Shakedown.

The Dixon; from about $320; 211 Tooley Street, Southwark.

Belmond Cadogan Hotel

The original Cadogan Hotel, where Oscar Wilde was arrested in 1895, was built in 1887. After a four-year, $48 million restoration, it’s now a 54-room (and suite) boutique hotel in central London with lots of exclusivity, including access to the mulberry trees and tennis courts of the private Cadogan Place Gardens.

Original design details — working fireplaces, mosaic floors, wood paneling — have been preserved, and rooms have a plush residential vibe with little sofas, intricate molding and eclectic art under recessed lighting. The hotel also landed a couple of key collaborations: with an independent bookshop, John Sandoe Books, for a small library of British literature; and with the chef Adam Handling, a 30-year-old Scottish darling of the London food scene, for its restaurant and all of its food and beverage.

Belmond Cadogan Hotel; from about $600; 75 Sloane Street, Chelsea.

The Hoxton, Southwark

A new 14-story building among the converted factories on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge, London’s third Hoxton hotel is due to open in September. The 192 rooms — designed by Ennismore Design Studio — come in five categories: Shoebox, Snug, Cosy, Roomy and Biggy, all fitted with British-made new and antique furniture.

The rooftop restaurant overlooks the Thames. Perks standard to the brand include a minibar that guests can stock with local products from the hotel’s shop (at supermarket prices) and a free breakfast bag delivered daily to the room.

A new twist: the inclusion of Working From_, a six-floor shared work space within the hotel, with 744 desks, five meeting rooms, its own entrance, a winter garden and a wellness studio with class programming curated by the every-body fitness company Refinery E9.

The Hoxton, Southwark; from about $265; 40 Blackfriars Road, South Bank.

52 PLACES AND MUCH, MUCH MORE Follow our 52 Places traveler, Sebastian Modak, on Instagram as he travels the world, and discover more Travel coverage by following us on Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter: Each week you’ll receive tips on traveling smarter, stories on hot destinations and access to photos from all over the world.

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

Text

5 New Standout Hotels in London

Well established as a design capital — the famed Victoria and Albert Museum was founded in the 19th century as a design museum — London has become the world’s best hotel city.

There are the pillars of timeless elegance, like Claridge’s and The Connaught, which set the hospitality bar quite high while injecting glamour into the hotel cocktail bar and restaurant.

In the city’s current hotel-opening boom times (the Great Scotland Yard Hotel is due late 2019), here are five standouts.

Vintry & Mercer

Vintry & Mercer; from about $225; 19-20 Garlick Hill, City of London.

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

You can set your Rolex by the Royal Horse Guards riding by every morning at 10:30 on the way to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

The Dixon; from about $320; 211 Tooley Street, Southwark.

Belmond Cadogan Hotel

Belmond Cadogan Hotel; from about $600; 75 Sloane Street, Chelsea.

The Hoxton, Southwark

The Hoxton, Southwark; from about $265; 40 Blackfriars Road, South Bank.

Sahred From Source link Real Estate

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heartvalue2-blog · 5 years ago

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Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Philly’s First Project NorthStar Conference

Events

Two of the event’s leading organizers — Aniyia Williams and Francisco Garcia — tell BizPhilly what the three-day tech conference means for the city and what attendees can expect to gain.

Philadelphia’s inaugural three-day Project NorthStar tech conference will kick off on October 3. Courtesy photo.

At the start of October, Philadelphia will host its first ever Project NorthStar conference, an endeavor that seeks to make equity and inclusion in the tech community a priority for the city. Black & Brown Founders, Mayor Kenney and the city’s StartupPHL arm say the conference will be a means to help Black and Latinx people find pathways into an innovation economy that often leaves them out.

And big players like Microsoft for Startups, Comcast NBCUniversal, Bumble, the Kauffman Foundation, and Uber all support the mission — These organizations all are backing the three-day conference beginning October 3 that’s expected to attract about 500 people from near and far.

BizPhilly sat down with two masterminds behind the project — Black & Brown Founders executive director Aniyia Williams and Francisco Garcia, Philadelphia’s director of business development for innovation and technology. The two leaders explain what the conference means for the city, what attendees can expect to gain and why now’s the time to begin gearing up.

But before you scroll down to the conversation, be sure to check out the conference’s webpage here to secure your tickets and check out the impressive lineup of speakers, events, activities, perks, opportunities and more.

BizPhilly: What is the purpose of Project NorthStar and how’d it come to be?

Garcia: This project came about after the mayor had some experiences at other conferences and events around the country. [Following those experiences] he challenged us to provide a platform not only for discussing current issues in the tech industry, but also for getting people to think about ways to establish programs and targeted changes so that diversity in the Philadelphia tech community is not just an abstract thing.

BizPhilly: What are the conference’s goals?

Garcia: The conference has three main focus areas. They are providing business development opportunities for entrepreneurs, providing a path to tech careers for a pipeline of youth, and there’s also a focus on students to determine how we can retain the diversity and talent we have here. We want to bring the stakeholders in these three areas together.

Aniyia Williams at the Black & Brown Founders Hustle House during SXSW 2018. Courtesy photo.

BizPhilly: And how does Black & Brown Founders fit in with these goals?

Williams: After we did an event here last fall — the Black and Brown Founders Project — it was really clear that there was alignment between [Philadelphia’s] vision to pull together founders of color in the city and Black & Brown Founders’ focus.

Philadelphia is my hometown, and I’m dedicated to bringing what I’ve experienced in Silicon Valley back to a place where we can show how it can be done right. Everyone puts the Bay Area on a pedestal when it comes to technology, but I think there are quite a few things that they haven’t gotten right. With Philadelphia doing it in a way that’s authentic to the city, the opportunity is boundless. Entrepreneurship is Black & Brown Founders’ core focus, but as [Garcia] described, we’ll also be focusing on workforce development and how to get a job in tech. That’s not something we’ve done before, so we’re working with partners to curate those areas to ensure that everything is robust on both sides.

BizPhilly: Who are some of the partners you’re bringing in?

Williams: For programming on the career side, we have LaborX, whose founder Yscaira Jimenez, launched the program to help get people of color hired. She calls the process “linking in the linked out.” We are also partnering with Black Girl Ventures and their Pitch Black pitch competition. We’ve brought in REC Philly for some of the entertainment elements, like the local talent who will perform at the event. We’re also partnering with a number of other local organizations that are represented on our advisory committee like Coded by Kids and folks from the School District of Philadelphia. We are really excited about making this a community effort.

BizPhilly: The conference is taking place at the 2300 Arena. Was it your intention to shake things up by bringing the conference to a space that typically hosts sporting events and concerts?

Williams: I’m really happy with where we have arrived with this venue. Due to time constraints and the fact that this falls during one of the busiest times for conferences, a lot of the dream places we had in mind were unavailable. So we thought, “We’re going to have to think outside of the box on this one.”

Our friends at the CVB were super helpful and introduced us to the 2300 Arena, which was not on our radar. When we first heard of it we were like, “Wait. It’s a place where they do MMA fights and boxing matches. Is this the right thing?” But when we walked into the space, we could just see that it was actually going to be really cool. There is so much we can do in it, and we really like the idea of repurposing and refashioning something that has been used in different ways. We also like the idea that we are going to be building our own mini Wakanda in the least expected place.

Scene from a Black & Brown Founders Philly event. Courtesy photo.

BizPhilly: When Mayor Kenney attended SXSW, he blasted the conference for being “too white” and urged the city to create its own version, but one that’s representative of Philadelphia. With the way things are shaping up, do you think you’re hitting the Mayor’s concern? Who do you expect to attend?

Williams: I definitely think we’re hitting it based on what we have seen at our previous events and who’s already registered. We expect to see mostly millennials in terms of age and largely Black and Latinx folks. All of our past events have been entrepreneurship focused, so most [attendees] have been either people who have started a company or want to start a company and are particularly in the earlier stages of their journey as a founder.

Garcia: This year I attended Black & Brown Founders’ Hustle House day of programming at SXSW, and I brought two old friends with me who both live in Austin now. One works at Facebook and the other at Samsung. These two young men of color in tech were blown away, and said they had never seen anything like that. So now we’re asking and trying to address, “Why can’t we have this type of gathering in Philadelphia?”

Williams: And I want to emphasize again that the content is told from the perspective of and is specifically targeted at Black and Latinx people. But, it is open and welcome for any and everyone who wants to come. If you want to come and learn about how to build a startup when you’re broke or how to get a job in the tech industry, there will be valuable information for you and you should come. If you come into the space with love, you will get love in return.

BizPhilly: Last fall’s Black & Brown Founders conference brought a lot of outsiders into Philly from places like Portland and Maryland, for example. Will this be the case with Project NorthStar?

Williams: Right now, there is a mix of registered folks who are local and from outside. Most of them are from that [Mid-Atlantic] corridor. And then we have been talking to some of our community partners, folks who are just general friends or speakers, about what we are calling “delegations.” I know that Portland has a mind to send some founders out again, and we’ve been talking to folks in San Marcos outside of Austin who are interested in sending a group of people. A lot of them are thinking, “We want people who are driving decisions in our city to attend so that they can have an example of what something can look like in our market.” I’m not sure what our final day ratio is going to end up being, but I do expect that we will have a good group of folks from out of town.

BizPhilly: Though Philly will be the site of the conference, how are you all making sure that Philadelphia itself and its tech community are represented?

Williams: We’re making sure Philadelphia is represented through our partners and the advisory committee members that we have. The advisory committee is made up of all Philadelphians who are running organizations that work in the ecosystem. We’ve had multiple conversations with most if not all of the people on the committee to talk about how their work can be amplified through [Project NorthStar]. Some of our programming partners are Philadelphians and others are not. If they do not have a direct tie to Philadelphia, then we are bringing something that we think will allow Philly to further blossom.

On the speakers front, we did a call for entries and got somewhere between 140 and 150 applications to speak at NorthStar. There is so much talent there, and a majority of these entries came from Philadelphia or the greater Philadelphia area.

BizPhilly: Is Project NorthStar being modeled after something else that’s already out there or is the conference really in a league of its own — a model that doesn’t currently exist?

Williams: I want to say both. There is a lot of inspiration coming from other events happening in this space. Black Wall Street: Homecoming, for example, is one of those events, and it’s taking place in Durham the week before. Generally, I’d say there’s so much value in the gathering of people who look like us and have similar ambition to really take part in this innovation economy. We are so separated from each other, kind of in silos, so just bringing everyone together is so valuable. A differentiating factor for NorthStar is that we’re interested in helping Black and Latinx folks learn how to make money. At the end of the day it’s about closing the wealth gap and the redistribution of wealth. Technology is really the most promising tool that we have for that.

Scene from a Philly Black & Brown Founders event. Courtesy photo.

BizPhilly: Can you give our readers a rundown of how each day of the conference will be organized?

Williams: We are going to have two tracks. The first is entrepreneurship and the idea behind that is how people can go from zero to one when they’re working with modest resources. We’ll be talking about getting funding, and obviously the thing that everyone talks about — getting money from investors. But we will also talk about alternative forms of funding. We are going to talk about marketing and sales, and hopefully we will have some room to talk about design. I would also like to do some legal basics since everyone always has questions about corporate structure and intellectual property.

Our second track is careers, which will be split into three subcategories. One will be focused on people who are already working in tech and are trying to figure out the nuances of navigating the system as they continue to level up. That track will run mostly during the first two days.

The second category for the careers track will feature content for people in the position to hire others into tech jobs. This content will focus on evaluating talent, building infrastructures for entry-level talent, and opportunities to bring more black and brown people into these workspaces.

The third category will focus on job seekers, people on the outside looking in who are curious about what it means to work in tech. This content will fall on day three, and that day will be free to attend. We’re expecting youth — kids in high school and college — to come through on day three to learn about future opportunities.

BizPhilly: Can you talk a little bit about the Mayor’s Summit taking place the day before the conference?

Garcia: The Mayor’s Summit will bring together business and civic leaders both from inside and outside of Philly who will look at data around the conference’s three focus areas (business development, pipeline development, and business & talent retention) and discuss best practices. We’re bringing in national folks because we want these leaders to talk about best practices in tech from around the country. We want people in the room to say, “Hey, we had this problem in my city and this is how tackled it.” We want these leaders to determine how we can make the conference’s three focus areas successful and how we can measure these things over the next year and every year that we do NorthStar.

BizPhilly: How can registrants begin gearing up for the conference now to ultimately get the most out of it?

Williams: First and foremost, connect with people. We’ll be launching a conference app where you’ll be able communicate with other attendees before the event. Connections are so huge and so valuable.

I’d also ask each person to come prepared with whatever thing they think is holding them back. Come prepared to ask questions about it. Also come ready to take advantage of mentorship opportunities that we’ll have onsite. We’re setting up a system that will allow people to start making appointments with mentors before the start of the conference.

And be ready to have some fun, too! We’ll have a couple of happy hours and a larger performance, but I can’t say who will be performing yet.

Source: https://www.phillymag.com/business/2018/09/13/project-northstar-conference-philadelphia/

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mouthtin2-blog · 6 years ago