#not that i necessarily want a second bachelors but like. more marketable already

[mhaccunoval]

i've said it before and i'll say it again. it makes me so mad that mycology is a forbidden career for me

[taehyungsbabyygirl]

Socialità

Chapter 1

Genres: Light fluff, tinge of romance and wholesome(?)

Warning(s): The littlest bit of sexual tension if you squint

----------

Fortune, fame, beauty.

Those are the things that people had associated you with.

Who does not know Y/F/N Y/L/N? You're basically in every magazine cover, every Youtube thumbnail and news headline. Surpassing Kylie Jenner as quote unquote The World's Richest Young Businesswoman and even beating Ariana Grande as the most followed female influencer on Instagram.

Who really are you? Well, to explain it simply to people who are unaware of you, your businesses and socialite status, you are the owner of a multi-billion dollar brand.

What started with a small online business at 16 which sells nightwear for women with affordable, cheap prices had bloomed into a luxury brand known for their elegant, classy clothing line, ranging from lingerie to formal clothing such as glamorous dresses to charming suits and tuxedos for both men and women.

The brand name? After years of rebranding, it's finally official that the name is, Socialità. Fitting with your brand's target market which were rich socialites from across the globe. Of course there was a reason for that, considering that the materials were high quality, imported ones such as satin and silk from Japan, Egyptian cotton, and French lace, also the designing and productions team who were amongst the best in the art of fashion and exclusivity of everything that was made under the brand, without a doubt would result in a higher cost of production and simultaneously a higher price for the merchandise itself.

And all this success did not come easy, there were countless times when you wanted to hideaway and give up on everything you had invested on. At the age of 28, you finally got to where you are now, thriving with the business that you had built with your own bare hands from the confines of your own bedroom.

But, there was one thing that you were lacking in, the love department. Although you were pretty much well-known by youngsters to elders alike, luck does not seem to be on your side when it comes to romantic relationships. It's not that you weren't romantic or sweet enough, gosh you are a hopeless romantic actually, but you just somehow fall for the wrong person, time and time again.

All the people you had dated once you established a name in the fashion world were either self-centered jerks or gold-digging leeches who were only there for the fame and riches. It's as if you had dated way more men than Taylor Swift ever had, except, you don't call these people out in songs.

Aside from owning a lavish clothing brand and billions to your name, having to work with socialite circles, had granted you the socialite status too. You'd be lying if you say that no rich bachelor had tried to flirt around with you but, your previous horrible experiences with dating as a successful businesswoman made you put your guard up and in the end turning you into the most sought after bachelorette of the 21st century.

-----

"What??? The Bachelorette?? Gosh guys, that would be a horrible idea." You shook your head, swirling the red wine in your glass before sipping on it.

It was a normal weekend evening for you and your peers aka your personal management team which consisted of Selma, Carrie, Lulu, Trey and Giovanni. Sitting in the dining room of your enormous mansion in Calabasas while drinking cheap wine and munching on Cheeto Puffs.

You just finished ranting about how you are so unlucky in love and that you're almost turning 30, without being cuffed to someone. In your opinion, people in their late 20s had already met that person and having good balance in their work, social and love lives but you're here having a nonexistent love life instead.

Tired of constantly listening to the same rants over and over again, Giovanni proposed that you put yourself in a controversial yet exciting TV show, The Bachelorette.

"Girllll you should give The Bachelorette a try, I mean I know that the show is basically scripted but it seems exciting, no?" Giovanni chirped.

"Oh my god yasssss! I'd have the time of my life if I'm surrounded by a dozen of good-looking hunks!" Carrie joined in and daydreamed.

You snorted and put your glass down on the marble surface of the table.

"Yeah but the men on there are usually insincere and only in it for their 60 seconds of fame and the winner of the show is probably just motivated by money. What difference does it make with me going to a private party or nightclub and getting to know dudes there?" You retorted; brow raising to your two friends.

"Sis, the difference is, these men would have to submit a form regarding their background and audition for the show! If you want, we could even be your reps during the audition. We know who are the best people for you!" Selma answered your rhetorical question while pouring herself another glass of wine. She's your PA and bestie so she knew how to reply with the same energy as yours.

Sighing deeply with your fingers pinching your nose bridge, you thought once, twice, thrice and made your decision. Well, what's the worst that could happen right?

"Fine, fine! I'm in with the idea. But if this thing goes south, I.Am.Out." The dominant businesswoman persona in you presented herself whilst the others, especially Giovanni, cheered upon your agreement with their idea.

-----

After months of preparations for your big reality TV debut, it was finally the day for the first week of The Bachelorette. Although you're the one being the prize and the one being chased, you felt uneasy and nervous to meet the men who had passed the auditions to become contestants.

"Don't worry! Me and Giovanni made sure that we only let the best ones pass the audition. And when I say the best ones, I meant, socialites, doctors, businessmen and even kinsmen of royalty!"

"Only the best for our QUEEN!"

Those were the words that came out of Selma and Gio's mouths. Thankfully you have these reliable people to help filter through the applicants of the program. If you gave the show's producers 100% control over who comes in and comes out of the show, it'll be a hot mess and they'd probably choose the men based on their looks and bulkiness but not necessarily the brains and skills.

Throughout the audition process, all of the men's background and names were kept a secret from you by Selma and Gio, it'll be a surprise, they said and you trusted them with it.

Sitting at the back of a limousine alone, you started to fidget with the dangling diamond of your earring subconsciously; a habit that you developed whenever you had cold feet.

The vehicle was heading towards the villa where the first meeting would happen between you, the bachelorette and your suitors.

You and the production team had discussed about how the first meeting would be. You thought that the idea of having to stand in front of the villa's front door while the men arrive in limos were quite cringy and not to mention time-consuming and unnatural so you proposed the idea of having the men arrive in a first come first serve basis and sit in numbered rooms in the villa while awaiting you. In that way, you could see who was punctual and who was late. But the catch is, the contestants only have 5 minutes to chat up with you and leave a good first impression.

-----

Alas, you finally reached the villa and stepped out of the automobile. Your dress was a satin, rosé coloured one with a modified A-line, basque waist and halter neckline; glamorous yet not over the top, suitable for a socialite like you.

Not wasting any time, once the cameras started rolling, you entered the ginormous villa and headed upstairs to the rooms, knocking the door gently before entering the space.

The first man you met was Kim Namjoon, he introduced himself as an engineer, a sound engineer. He was confident from the get go and eloquent too.

"Hmm an engineer ay?" You propped your head with the palm of your hand; leaning against the couch's back pillows.

"Yeah.. My family insisted I do that. I wanted to be a musician at first, and that's why I took up sound engineering now." He gave out a dimple smile which you couldn't help but grin at. They're adorable.

You liked his presence and how outspoken he was but sadly the 5 minutes were before you knew it.

Next, you met up with a gentleman named Im Jaebum. A winery owner. He gave you a warm hug from the first time you entered the room.

"I heard that you're a wine conoisseur yourself Y/N? I'd love to take you to Napa Valley where my winery is. I'm sure we'll have a blast there." He smiled and acted a bit smug.

"That sounds like a plan.. I'm not a person who would say no to wine." You replied with a light wink, returning the smugness to him.

Continuing on, after Jaebum, you entered a room which looked bigger than the previous two you'd been in.

By the big window, there was a man with broad shoulders who introduced himself as Kim Seokjin, as he turned around, he greeted you and pecked your hand.

"Nice to meet you I'm Kim Seokjin, just call me Jin." He smiled softly, inviting you to sit down next to him.

"Nice to meet you too Jin.. So what do you do?" You asked carefully; quite intrigued by how good-looking he is with the slicked back hairstyle he has.

"Well I'm a professor of English and Korean Literature. Probably one of the most uninteresting jobs among the other guys." He timidly admitted; being quite humble.

You immediately disagreed with his statement, telling him that literature components are fascinating and that educating people about it is a magnificent job.

Afterwards you conversed with a man named Park Jinyoung. He was also extremely dashing and he's a car dealer. But not just any car, the ones he sells are top brands such a Lamborghini, Maserati, Tesla and Ferrari.

"My job is amazing. Good money, good image, but there was something missing and I think we both could relate to that, we both are looking for love." He half-bragged which didn't really impress you but you agreed nonetheless.

As you politely excused yourself to move on to the next room, where the man was leaning back and scrolling through his phone. Fair skin and contrasting ebony coloured hair.

This guy gave off a cold vibe to you but that made you even more intrigued to get to know him.

"Hi..." You sat on the couch with him and he gave a small smile as he put his phone the side.

"Min Yoongi.. Nice to meet you." He extended his hand out to shake yours. A pretty formal greeting despite the consequences you two were in at the moment.

You two kept the conversation going by talking about your jobs and background. Everything you asked, he answered in all honestly and you liked that. The push-and-pull game was a fun one to play but with Yoongi, the small talk you had was chill and relaxed, the most natural one you had the whole night.

Up next was a kind looking male, taller than Yoongi who seem to be nervous about meeting you for the first time.

"Hello!" You greeted him with a bright smile to ease his anxiousness.

"Hi, hi.. I'm Mark Tuan. I'm an artist.." He abruptly greeted you back.

"Ooh! Like musically or..?" You tilted your head.

"Visually.. I draw and paint."

You led the conversation with the man since he looked very hesitant and awkward the whole time.

The next room had a bubbly and energetic man who was basically radiating good vibes as you entered the room. His name was Jung Hoseok. As you peeked into the room, he immediately walked towards you and gave you tight bear hug with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Well besides my job as a paediatric specialist, I also enjoy dancing. Do you like to dance?" He jumped off the seat and proceeded to pull you up with him to playfully salsa. His actions made you laugh happily.

"You're so spontaneous!" You hit his chest lightly, still laughing at you guys' actions.

After the exciting interaction between you and Hoseok, you had to calm down and lower your expectations again after it skyrocketed because of the doctor earlier.

That's when you met a muscular man, if Hoseok earlier had radiated good boy vibes, this one radiated bad boy vibes.

He was Jackson Wang, a well-known socialite who is the heir of Wang Co. Ltd. A company which sells electronics such as smartphones, tablets and computers.

"Hello.." You said softly, slightly intimidated by the man's comparably bigger size to you.

"Hello, pretty lady." He took your hand in his and kissed it just like Jin had but his way of executing it was different. The male kissed each of your knuckle and it got you culture shocked.

"Oh wow.. Okay.." You laughed awkwardly as you looked at the man kiss your hand.

The conversation went well with him despite you noticing that he was practically staring at your with those deep brown eyes while you spoke about yourself to him.

The sexual tension was there and you were hoping, praying that the next man would tone down a bit and let you relax, thankfully custom jeweler, Park Jimin did.

"I'm a jeweler.. And can I just say, I adore these diamonds. You have remarkable taste." He proceeded to run his hand gently through the diamond earring you were wearing.

"Thank you! And I absolutely adore this choker you have on.." You reciprocated his action which made him smile softly.

Next up was the room of a private jet pilot named Choi Youngjae.

"Nice to meet you Y/N! I hope we could create good memories here. I'd love to bring you on a helicopter and show you the aerial view of California." He mused but you're not entirely impressed but acted as if you were in order to not hurt his feelings.

"Aww I'd like that. The view must be amazing!" You cringed at your own words but smart enough to mask it.

Hmm, you foresee someone who's potentially going to go home first in this show. His words lacked personality and character and not well thought.

Come on, you obviously had rode a helicopter and saw the aerial view of California. You ride it to work whenever the traffic is congested. He could at least thought of another country or state but instead he settled with Cali, the state where you are based in.

Disappointed, you moved on to the next room, surprisingly, the atmosphere was different, the area was dimly lit and the man sitting on the chair had his legs spread.

"Hi.." He spoke with a deep, low voice that caused you to bite your lip.

"Hello.." You smiled amidst the tense situation, making your way towards him.

"Kim Taehyung.. Fashion designer and owner of TH Couture." He answered without you asking.

The male was quite blunt but his demeanor was alluring. There was a mysterious aura circling him, totally someone to keep an eye on. The conversation was as intense as Jackson's but the two of you had the same interest which was fashion so you didn't feel as awkward as when you were with Jackson.

After Taehyung, it is down to three more people, you were already losing momentum and excitement as you already had spoken to 11 men that night. Before entering the next room, you took a deep breathe and loosen up your shoulders.

In the room was a man, he looked the most different, he had a lengthy name, a Thai one.

"Kunpimook Bhuwakul, but just call me Bam Bam.. I know my name's quite long and I'm also more comfy with Bam Bam.." He bowed to you like a gentleman and smiled handsomely at you.

"That's an adorable name! Bam Bam huh?" You sat down and grinned at the latter.

"You think so? You're adorable-er" He winked at you and caught you off-guard.

As the five minutes of jokes and flirty pickup lines ended, you bid farewell to the Thai man, little did you know that the person you just talked to was related to the Thai royal family.

Entering the 2nd last room, there was a tall man, looking around the well-furnished room but as soon as you came in, his attention diverted to you.

He greeted you with enthusiasm, introducing himself as Kim Yugyeom, an app developer and gaming streamer.

"Gosh you're pretty." He said straight-forwardly while smiling brightly and hugging you snugly.

"And GOSH you're tall!" You replied with those words and the same smile as what he had on his face. At this rate, reciprocation is really your best friend when you don't know how to react or reply to a certain remark from the suitors.

You talked about the apps Yugyeom had developed and the variations amazed you. He had created tons of apps such as games, workout apps, e-commerce platforms, online stores and sorts. But when he started talking about games, you began to lose interest in the chatter. Games weren't your strongest suit but you were happy that he is passionate about them and sharing it with you.

Finally! The last room! Which meant that this person is the last person to arrive to the villa. You wonder who this latecomer is and when you got into the area, your eyes widened.

Jeon Jungkook? He was somebody you had worked with and still actively working with. He is the person in charge of the photography and videography for Socialità and seeing him on The Bachelorette is a huge surprise.

"Wait.. JK?" You didn't know how to react.

"Hey! There's my girl!" He walked towards you with his bunny smile and gave you a hug. You couldn't believe that this was happening, Selma and Gio must've put him in to pull a prank on you.

"One question. Why?" You laughed in disbelief.

"Can't a man try?" He questioned back cheekily.

You two continued the conversation casually without any awkwardness as the two of you had known each other already. That was when you got to know that he had taken a liking on you ever since you two started working together. Everything he told you had sounded sincere so far.

-----

After the first meetings were over, all the men were put in the lounge to get to know each other's competition while you were interviewed by the crew regarding your first impressions of all of your suitors.

"Well everyone was pleasant. But there were a few who didn't pass my vibe check. I guess we just gotta see how it goes." You gave an ambiguous answer to the camera.

"Who do you think caught your eyes the most?" Henry, the producer asked.

"Hmm.. I don't want to seem bias, I mean this is the 1st episode after all but... Hoseok was fun to be around.. Jackson came off very strong. And well Jungkook too of course!"

"You seem to know him.." The producer stated.

"Yes yes.. We actually work together.. I didn't know that he'd want to participate in this show too." You shrugged and flashed a pearly white smile.

"Do you see anyone who might be going home soon?"

"Oof.. That's a dangerous question. That'd probably be ..."

To be continued (3 March, 12 AM, KST)

Author's note: Sorry for the delay guys! I underestimated the length of this chapter but I hope you guys like it! Don't forget to like and reblog this to show support! Also follow so you don't miss out on updates! This chapter is more of an introductory chapter so we'll be seeing more action and interaction between Y/N and de boyzzz.

Who do you think would be eliminated first?

Tagging @aretha170

[ryqoshay]

Promptober-2021: How to Handle a Nico: How to Handle Crystal

Primary Pairing: NicoMaki Words: 442 Rating: G Prompt: Cyrstal Parent Fic: How to Handle a Nico Time Frame: First Christmas after the couple becomes engaged

----------

Author’s Note: Entry for Oct 28th’s prompt

Summary: Nico is having second thoughts about her tableware collection

----------

Crystal.

Silverware. And china.

An entire counter full of crystal, silverware and china.

Nico sighed.

Why hadn’t she taken Maki’s suggestion for dishwasher safe stem, table, and dinnerware? For the first time in who knows how long, it had been Maki who had made the cheaper and more reasonable selection. And Nico had been the one to want to splurge and get something fancier to show off to guests.

As if anyone they had over would care.

Even Maki’s parents who wined and dined with the social elite on the regular were surprisingly down to Earth when outside those circles. Nico probably could have gotten away with serving her special sale curry on paper plates with plastic cutlery and they would have been fine. She had done so, at their behest in fact, a couple of times when joining the Nishikinos on vacation.

But this was Christmas. A holiday Nico knew full well was held in high regard by Maki and her family.

She and Maki had invited both of their families to their house to celebrate over dinner. And Nico had insisted on using their best of everything. Eight of everything. Well, only four tumblers for the dessert Scotch brought by the Nishikinos, but still. All of it needed to be cleaned by hand.

If she had listed to her fiancée, she could be crawling into bed with her while the dishwasher did all the work instead.

“Need a hand?”

Nico jolted at the unexpected voice behind her.

“I thought I banned Maki-chan from the kitchen.” She said without turning to actually face the redhead.

“For cooking, yes. For cleanup, no.” Maki appeared beside her. “Here, let me show you a trick I saw the housestaff use back home while I was growing up.” She produced a bottle of vinegar.

Nico refrained from pointing out she had already Googled that information but simply had not retrieved the vinegar yet as she had been preoccupied with lamenting the cleaning duty she had foisted upon herself. There was plenty of time to tease, but for now, she was simply grateful for the offered help.

Although…

“So, Maki-chan knows how to clean this stuff?”

“I helped a time or two, growing up.”

“Just like you helped with laundry a time or two?”

“… Yeah…”

Nico chuckled. “Sorry, I couldn’t help that one. Anyway, Nico’s hands are smaller, so why don’t I wash and Maki-chan dries?”

“Alright.” Maki nodded.

Nico smiled before closing the distance between them, pushing up on her toes and pecking a quick kiss on her fiancée’s cheek.

“Thanks, Maki-chan.” She said, turning back to the sink. “Now let’s get to work.”

----------

Author’s Note Continued: I fully admit I’m lazy. If a glass, plate or whatever cannot be washed in the dishwasher, if it somehow ends up in my possession, it will mostly likely gather dust in the cupboard. The one exception being the pitcher I use for the Soylent I consume during the work week.

In any case, I know many depictions of Maki have her with expensive tastes, not intentionally, just by virtue of how she was raised. However, I still strongly headcanon her going into bachelor mode upon leaving her parents’ home. And as she matures into adulthood, she comes to recognize that trait within herself and is willing to incorporate it into her preferences when it comes to purchasing things. She may not necessarily go out of her way to research special care for garments or dishes or whatever, but in this case, “dishwasher safe” is often displayed boldly on packaging as a marketing strategy, so I figure that would catch her eye.

[galvanizedfriend]

Fic: Speed Dating

KC Bingo 2020 by @klaroline-events

The prompt is: Losing a Bet

This is fluff inspired by an episode of House. I have no idea how successful this first endeavor into unknown territory was, but @itsnotacrimetoloveyou assured me it’s good and also confirmed that it is, indeed, fluff! Also, thank you for beta’ing this and for laughing at all the jokes! lol

I hope you guys enjoy it! :) Reblogs and comments are very much welcome!

______________________

There is something fundamentally wrong, Caroline thinks, in pitying the white, rich, genetically blessed art gallery owner she lives with. It feels like a waste of empathy. Klaus has the whole world at his feet. Wherever he goes, doors open, red carpets roll out, champagne bottles pop left and right. Which makes his brooding and scowling and antisocial behavior all the more inexplicable.

He isn't always like that, truth be told. When Caroline first moved in, Klaus was out and about all the time. Opening nights, exhibitions, soirées, premieres, parties - you name it. There were weeks when Caroline would barely see him. If he wasn’t at some event, then he was at the gallery, if not at the gallery, then locked up in his studio. As far as she knew, he was pretty much living the dream.

"He's never there," Rebekah said when she pitched the idea of rooming with her brother to Caroline. She used to share an apartment with Elena, but her friend had decided to take the next step with her dumbass of a boyfriend and since it was her name on the lease, Caroline was the one having to find a new place. Her money was short and so were her options. "Nik has this huge apartment all to himself and no one to really watch over it. All the plants I give him die within a week. He could use a roommate, honestly, and you'd be perfect."

"Is he looking for a roommate, though?"

"Not yet. He will be, when I tell him to."

"Rebekah -"

"Just come and see the place, ok? It's worth it."

It made no sense that a guy with his lifestyle and bank account would want to share an apartment with a complete stranger, and Caroline had the very strong feeling the idea never even so much as crossed his mind. Judging by the spirited spat she overheard between the two siblings while she waited outside, it was exactly the case. On her request, Rebekah went in first to talk to him; Caroline would only follow if he agreed to it. She didn't want to see the apartment of someone who wasn't looking for a roommate. She was about to sneak out through the stairs and pretend she'd never been there when Rebekah wrapped a hand around her arm and pulled her into the apartment. Before she could even manifest her exasperation, her snake of a friend walked out and locked the door behind her, leaving the two of them there to stare at one another in complete astonishment.

"I think we've been set up," she said, affecting an awkward smile.

"Rebekah has never learned the meaning boundaries, I'm afraid," he said, not nearly as fiery as he'd sounded a moment before while arguing with his sister.

"Look, this was not my idea, ok? I was just looking for a place, and Rebekah said — You know what, doesn't matter. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

Klaus looked at her — really looked at her — assessing her with such sharpness it stole the wind off her chest. Mikaelsons... they're an intense bunch.

"Since you're here," he said after a moment. "Can I offer you a drink for your trouble?"

He opened a bottle of wine that cost more than Caroline's previous rent and gestured for her to make herself comfortable on the giant leather couch in his living room. He wanted to know what she did for a living, how she knew his sister, why she was on the market for an apartment, what kind of place she had in mind, what her routine was like. It was all obvious questions you'd expect from a prospective roommate, but it never felt as though she was being interviewed. Conversation simply flowed, such an easy back-and-forth she didn't realize what was happening until it was hours later and Rebekah was back with a few shopping bags in her hands and a triumphant smile on her face.

"So, when do you move in?" she asked.

"Whenever she sees fit," Klaus replied, albeit glaring at his sister.

"Wait– what?" Caroline blinked, eyes cutting from one sibling to the other. "What do you mean?"

"A spoiled brat though my sister may be, she does have a point. This apartment could use another soul. If you feel so inclined, you can bring your things whenever it is convenient. The guest bedroom is furnished, but I can put it all in storage if you'd rather have your own set. There's also plenty of room for your personal things in the common areas, you can make it more to your liking. All I ask is that you don't replace the art on the walls. I rather fancy them."

Caroline's mouth moved wordlessly for a long time. "You... I thought you didn't want a roommate."

He shrugged nonchalantly, pouring himself another glass of wine. "I'm known to be rather volatile."

"But I can't — I mean, we didn't even discuss rent and expenses. I'm a med student, I can't afford this place."

"Nonsense. It's mine." Caroline drew the breath in for a righteous protest, and he added, "We can share the bills, if you insist."

And, well. It's not how Caroline likes to do business, way too sudden, with none of the meticulous in-depth analysis she usually applies to absolutely everything, from buying dish sets to choosing a new hairstyle. Moving in with someone she didn’t know at all seemed like way too big a deal for her to simply skip those vital steps. She didn't even compile her pros and cons list. But…

The neighborhood was fantastic, the type where she'd never afford to live in as a student, it was so conveniently close to school, and Elena was pestering the hell out of her to move out so Damon could move in. She'd been to four apartments already: two were incredibly dirty — which told her everything she needed to know about the people living there; another had a single bathroom shared between four people, and the last had a creepy guy across the hall. The floor to ceiling windows alone in Klaus' living room would've sold her the place, and paying next to nothing? It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The conversation with him had been rather nice, if she was honest, and he was Rebekah's brother, so if anything went crazy, she knew exactly who to call.

For the first so many months, the Klaus-is-never-home story was very true. After a while he started inviting her to tag along to some of his events, which she did in a few occasions, especially after he learned she could not say no to puppy eyes. "These people will bore me to death, love, please, save me." Klaus can be such a dramatic baby. The parties were great and the vernissages fancy as hell, but she didn't complain. Going out with him was fun. They got along well, the booze was always A level and Klaus enjoyed taking his time to explain stuff to her. Living with him, she got to learn more about artistic movements than in all her life before. It's more interesting than she ever gave it credit. Or Klaus made it seem so, anyway. The accent kind of goes a long way.

What Caroline came to learn about him after a few months, however, was that not everything was rainbows and unicorns for Klaus as it seemed at first glance. Nothing threw him off quite like his family. He only ever spoke about Rebekah, the only sibling who lived closed by and stopped for visits, even more so than usual after Caroline moved in. She did overhear him on the phone with Elijah a few times, too. The other three, though, Freya, Finn and Kol, Caroline only knew about through Rebekah.

"Nik doesn't get along with our siblings," Rebekah told her when she asked why he never spoke of the rest of the family. "I don't blame him. I don't know what mother nature was thinking when it gathered us all under the same genetic code, we're far too screwed up to be all in the same Thanksgiving dinner."

That was an understatement, in Caroline's opinion. Whenever Klaus went back to England to visit his parents and the rest of his siblings —- something he avoided like the plague but was apparently forced to do — he came back sullen and with a temper from hell. His sour moods could last for weeks. He'd stay locked up in his bedroom or at the studio for days on end, making Caroline slightly guilty for thinking she was the thing keeping him from circulating around his own place.

"Don't be ridiculous," he snapped at her once when she suggested she could move out if he'd changed his mind. "If you move out, I will hunt you down and drag you back here."

It was perhaps slightly too aggressive an answer to be sweet, but Caroline gathers that was Klaus' way of saying he didn't want her to go.

She stayed and learned how to navigate the storms caused by his occasional family reunions. Let him do his thing, don't ask about his parents, offer him food from time to time. They make do. But it still bothers her to no end. Like right now.

It's been a month since he came back from London, more upset than necessarily angry, and he has barely set foot out of the apartment. He stays in his sweatpants and ink-stained Marc Jacobs shirts all day, wavering between having too much coffee and too much whiskey. He hasn't even been painting, which points to an all-time low.

When she walks out of her room all dressed up, putting on her earrings, he's sitting in front of the television, flipping through channels nonstop. His eyes are so unfocused she doubts he even knows what he's doing, his finger just pressing the button mindlessly.

Caroline checks her wristwatch and sighs. Bonnie is gonna be furious if she's late, but Klaus sitting on his ass like that is a waste of a perfectly fine eligible bachelor.

"What are you doing tonight?" she asks.

"Watching a movie," he says flatly after a moment, the information that he'd been spoken to taking a second to register in his brain.

"You mean porn."

He turns his face to her, eyebrows lazily arched. "If you want specifics. I'd ask you to join me, but people are already talking."

She gives him a look and then bends forward, fixing the straps of her high-heeled sandals. "Don't you get tired?"

"Who gets tired of porn?"

"Of watching porn?" He just shrugs. "Men," she puffs out with an eye roll. "Come out with me tonight. I'm going speed dating."

"That's so very boomer of you. It reeks of despair."

"It's old school, so what?" she counters, checking herself out on the antique floor length mirror. She turns to one side, then the other, tosses her hair back. "Is this cleavage too slutty? I don't want to look too slutty."

"What are you aiming for? Moderately promiscuous?"

She turns to him. "I want to say hot but with class, not I have nicknames for my boobs."

He snorts. "You look stunning, sweetheart," he says, his eyes lingering perhaps a bit too long on her décolletage.

"Thanks," she says, crossing her arms in front of her chest, suddenly self-conscious. "Back to the subject."

He sighs, turning back to the television. "Haven't they invented an app for that?"

"I'm tired of apps. It's cold, photos are almost never consistent with the truth and when you ask for a real-time one, all you get is dick pics."

"I hate to disappoint, but you're fooling yourself if you think men won't lie to your face, too."

"You can't blame me for wanting to stay hopeful that men aren't all as cynical as you. I'd have to give up sex forever if I thought that."

Klaus' lips quirk into a lopsided grin. "Well, I wish you good luck on your endeavor."

"I think you need to meet somebody, too," she insists. "You're turning into a couch potato, Klaus."

"I refute that."

"When was the last time you had a date?"

"I don't do dates."

Caroline rolls her eyes again. She has never seen him with the same girl twice, and very few have actually made it to his apartment. Mostly, he's the one who spends the night, not the other way around. He laughed at her face when she tried to tell him he didn't have to worry about bringing friends over on her account. "That's sweet, love, but I don't bring people over unless I have no other option."

"Why not?"

"Because when they know where I live it's harder to get rid of them. Besides, it's such a bore when they decide not to leave in the morning. Women can be rather spiteful."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You are so full of crap. Typical. Sweet-talk women into sleeping with you and then call them crazy when they expect a minimum of respect in return."

"I respect them fine; I just don't want to have breakfast."

"Because that is such a commitment."

"It's far more than I'm willing to commit, yes."

"We have breakfast all the time. What, am I special?"

He simply smiled, the annoying dimples he uses to lure women into bed cutting into his cheeks.

"Fine," she says, stomping her foot. "Your last one-night stand?"

"Should I be flattered you're keeping such close tabs on my life?"

"See? You're becoming this insufferable creature that I can barely tolerate that answers everything with sarcasm. Soon enough, I'm gonna have to move out and I don't want to because I like this apartment."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Come out with me. This way you get to meet twenty somebodies at once."

"Is that why you're going?"

"Last two dates I had were exclusive two hours of complete disaster I will never get back. At least this way I speed up the process of elimination."

"Over five-minute conversations," he derides.

"Five minutes is more than enough time. If they can't impress me or at the very least make me intrigued, then they're definitely not worth a second date."

"You make it sound oh-so-alluring. Like a meat market."

"Klaus," she says, slowly, planting herself between him and the random Discovery Channel show on the TV. "It's dozens of women literally just waiting to be hit on. Your odds at a happy ending are much better than if stay home and watch porn."

He regards for a beat and then sighs in defeat. "How can I say no when you make me out to be a wanker if I refute your argument?"

 x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 "You brought a date?!" Bonnie cries out with indignation when Caroline arrives at the bar with Klaus on tow.

She considered giving her friend a heads up that he'd be tagging along, but she knows what Bonnie would say. She has been saying it for a while, any opportunity she gets. Just make a move already, Caroline! Fuck the guy's brains out and get over it or stop talking about Klaus all the goddamn time.

The fact she's brought him out to meet other people should probably tell Bonnie that she does not want to bang her roommate. Not that she wouldn't, because Klaus is obviously, you know... Alluring. Annoying, sure, prone to mood swings, but also witty and smart and refined and incredibly attentive when it comes to her, not to mention the whole exterior package thing. But they live together, she's friends with his sister, and it would be a totally stupid idea to ruin it with casual sex. Caroline sweeps the whole tension under the rug and keeps Klaus firmly on the realm of healthy, platonic friendship. But Bonnie would've found a way to claim otherwise if she'd said he was coming.

"He's not a date," she counters. "He's a dater."

Bonnie gives Klaus a pointed look. "Blink once if you were coerced into being here."

Klaus makes an effort of blinking, and Caroline gapes in protest. "I did not coerce you. Our couch has a permanent imprint of Klaus' ass. He needed to dive back into the pool. I'm just being helpful."

"I'm here for the drinks, mostly," he offers.

"Well, you just ruined these poor men's lives," Bonnie says, bobbing her head towards the line of guys standing around them, waiting for the thing to start.

She hadn't really noticed, but they're all staring at them. Not at her, or at Bonnie, but at Klaus, with looks that go from mildly concerned to openly hostile.

"Tough luck," she says with a light shrug. "Look on the bright side. They're gonna be forced to bring out their A game."

"Ahh," Bonnie says, smiling at last. "I see your plan now. That’s actually smart."

"What the bloody hell are you two babbling about?" Klaus asks.

Caroline cocks him a disbelieved eyebrow. "Seriously? You can't tell?"

"Look around, Klaus," Bonnie says. "All the girls are checking you out."

"Not uncommon," he replies matter-of-factly.

"And the guys are shooting daggers at you," Caroline adds.

He purses his lips. "Also not uncommon."

"Exactly. This is competition."

"It's not a beauty pageant, love."

"Life is a beauty pageant," she retorts solemnly.

"Let's put it this way," Bonnie cuts in. "Little girls who kiss frogs expect them to turn into you."

Klaus puffs out a laugh. "Why, thank you, Bonnie, for the rather flattering image. But I don't think I'm that good looking."

"Now you're just playing dumb, which is not sexy, by the way."

He turns to Caroline, cocking his eyebrows in doubt. "Yes, you are, Klaus." A sly smirk breaks onto his lips, and she realizes he'd just set her up into singing his praise. Before he can follow up with a snarky and probably inappropriate remark, she slaps his arm lightly. "Oh, shut up."

"I bet you'll walk out of here with everyone's phone numbers," Bonnie says.

"Except for ours, of course," Caroline adds.

"Why not yours?" he asks, somewhat offended.

"You already have my number."

"Not in this context."

"Yes, because I already know you and all the nasty little bits of your personality. These women, on the other hand, don't."

"So you're attributing every relationship I've ever had to my looks?"

"I thought you didn't do relationships."

"Not normally."

"Well, not the whole relationship," she muses. "Just the beginning."

"The rest are the dimples," Bonnie remarks with a serious nod.

Klaus shakes his head despondently. "And here I was thinking women aren't as vain as men."

Caroline turns to him, putting her hand out. "Wanna bet? You can't tell anyone you're a trust fund kid who runs an art gallery. You're unemployed. Don't pay attention to everything they say, pretend to be distracted. And lose the accent. One hundred bucks says you walk out of here with at least… Twenty names. And I'm being conservative."

Klaus narrows his eyes at her. "You brought me out here to get laid and now you want me to jeopardize my chances?"

"On the contraire. I'm saying you can make yourself out to be as interested as you really are, and still get laid."

He finally takes her hand on a firm shake. "You're on."

A gong rings and they all turn to see a woman with a bright smile beckoning them all to approach. "Ladies and gentlemen," she starts. "The fun is about to start. Ladies, please, take your seats. There's a table for each of you. When I strike this gong, each man should sit at the first table they've been assigned to. When I strike it again, date's over, move on to the next."

"Wish me good luck, then," Klaus tells her as they turn around to order a drink from the bar before moving to their respective spots.

"You won't need it, buddy."

 x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 "Hello, sweetheart," Klaus says pleasantly as he slides into the seat across from her.

Caroline lets out a weary exhale. "Hi, number..." she reads the tag on his chest. "26. What do you prefer, a weekend on the mountains or long walks on the beach?"

"Mountain, easy. Too much sand on the beach, it gets in all sorts of awkward places."

Caroline snorts into her martini. "That's actually the best answer I've had to this question so far. Or to any question, really." She raises her glass on a toast. "How's it going?"

He purses his lips. "I've had to answer that question unironically more than once, so I'd say not stellar."

"I'm sorry," she says around a chuckle.

"You don't look sorry."

"Because I'm not, really. It would be unfair for me to suffer alone. Seen anyone you like, at least?"

The smile on his face turns mysterious. "There's one so far."

"Just one?"

"It's hard to speed date when you're pretending to be slow, uninteresting and American, to be honest."

"You could just tell them the truth. That you were dragged here by a friend who took pity on you sitting around, watching porn all day. That would sure scare some of them away. Although some would probably ask what kind of porn."

"What about you?"

"I don't want to know what kind of porn you watch."

He rolls her eyes at her. "I mean, how's your night going?"

"Oh, you know," she shrugs with a lot less enthusiasm than she'd expected to have by this point in the evening. "A couple of contenders, I guess."

"Oh?"

"Still early."

"Forgive me for pointing it out, but you don't seem particularly excited."

She puffs out in frustration. "Every time I tell them I'm a Med student, they ask what kind of doctor I want to be, and when I say oncologist, they start listing every member of their family who's ever died of cancer. What am I supposed to say after a guy tells me his mother died of breast cancer? I'm sorry, would you like to talk about it?" Caroline glares when he erupts into laughter. "Not funny."

"I'm sorry, it's just that sounds like an awfully interesting conversation."

"Why is dating so hard? Am I too picky? Is it wanting a meet-cute too much? To wake up one day and ta-dam, the guy is there, right in front of me."

Something about Klaus' eyes soften just then. "If only it were that easy," he says, an almost wistful tone to his voice that gives Caroline pause.

Before she can dwell on it further, however, the gong sounds and it's time to move on.

"Here I go, then," he says in his American accent.

When her next prospect sits down, she's laughing at Klaus greeting the woman on the next table with a Hey, babe.

 x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 "Here's to making the 1% 100 dollars poorer," Caroline says, raising her shot in the air before knocking it back.

"Cheers, I suppose," Klaus says dully, sipping from his bourbon.

"Oh, come on!" She bumps her shoulder against his as they sit side by side by the bar. "Don't look so gloomy. That's literally a pile of women in front of you," she says, nodding her head towards the cards sitting on the counter. "How many again?"

"Twenty nine," he grumbles.

"Twenty nine out of 40! That's more phone numbers than most guys will get in a year. Be proud."

"Of my deep cobalt eyes or my sultry lips? Yes, I heard both tonight."

Now it's Caroline's turn to explode into laughter while he just shakes his head helplessly.

"You don't have to be ashamed of your genetics, Klaus," she says. "It's not your fault some women are awkward flirters."

"Tell that to my stepfather." His tone visibly changes as he mentions Mikael, the dark clouds coming back to hover above his head.

Before it can get any worse, Caroline prods on. "So. How many of them are you going to call?"

"None."

"None?!" she gapes. "That's at least a month of guaranteed sex. A month where you won't have to watch porn, you can actually perform porn."

"Alright, you're making me sound like a deranged pervert," he objects. "I do not watch that much porn. That was one time and it is not my fault you lack proper etiquette when walking into someone else's bedroom."

Caroline chuckles. She did walk in without knocking, but, in her defense, it was 3 o'clock. What kind of person watches porn in the middle of the afternoon? She was blushing furiously for weeks before she decided to start teasing him instead as a way to diffuse the guilt. Luckily, he hadn't actually been doing... Anything. Although she did notice the suspicious volume in his pants. It was... Interesting.

"It's nice to make fun of you, though," she says. "That was the closest to a blush I've ever seen on your face."

"Whatever makes you happy, love."

"Seriously, though. Why are you not calling any of them?"

"These women think I'm one step away from being a caveman. It says more about them than it says about me that they're willing to give me their phone numbers."

She scoffs. "Don't be such a snob. They came here to get laid, too. You can't tell me you didn't like any of them."

"Well, there was one. But she didn't slip me her phone number."

Caroline' eyebrows crinkle together. "Really? That's kinda hard to believe."

"I guess your theory was flawed, after all."

"But it has been proved nonetheless. Which reminds me..." She lifts a hand, asking for another round. "I'm gonna drink all your money."

"My whole life has been a lie," Klaus says contemplatively. "I thought I had an enthralling personality, an interesting aura, that my wittiness made me charming, and now I find out I'm nothing but a pretty face."

"To be honest, you're also an endless pit of money." Klaus gives her a side eye, knocking back his drink. Caroline scrunches up her face in mock-pity. "Oh, boo-hoo. It's so hard to be handsome. Why are you so upset about that?"

"It's different when that is all you are. I've been deluding myself."

"Who said that's all you are?" Klaus turns to her with a pointed look. "No, that's not what I said. I said women would want to date you after five minutes because you're pretty, not that pretty is all you are." When he sighs, asking for another drink, still obviously unconvinced, she continues. "Look. My first real boyfriend was a total douchebag. He came across as funny and charming and thoughtful, but it was an act. He saw something he wanted and he knew he had to act a certain way to get it, because even at 17, I liked to think I had standards, even though I clearly didn't."

"Are you saying I'm also manipulative?"

"I'm saying, figuring out who people really are takes time. It takes twice as long if they're trying to impress you. You can take from this that all your relationships have been superficial and physical only, or you can believe that people came for the appeal and stayed for the content."

"Except no one has stayed. My temper seems to have a rather short expiration date, it drives people away. Just ask my brother." He punctuates his sentence with a wan smile, and Caroline understands, at last, that this is all somehow related to his family again.

She suddenly finds herself desperately at loss for what to say. Rebekah would offer something outrageous and mildly offensive that would still hit the nail on the head. Caroline just wanted him to have some fun, but instead she ended up pushing him right back to his bad place.

She considers apologizing, saying it was just teasing and she never really meant it, but what she winds up saying, however, is, "I'm still here, aren't I?"

Klaus looks up at her, a mix of surprise and something else she can't identify flickering through his eyes.

"Is that how you rationalize your relationships?" he asks.

She huffs out a little laugh. "I don't think that highly of myself. I'm a tall, long-legged blonde. That ticks some boxes, but it hardly makes me irresistible."

"I beg to differ, love. You're an exquisite beauty."

Caroline laughs a little, thinking he's obviously saying that just to be nice, but then she catches the look in his eyes, that intensity that always seems to rattle something deep inside of her. There's not a hint of condescension about him.

"I... Well..." she stammers, her cheeks burning hot. "Thank you."

"But that's not all you are. You're also strong, fierce, full of light. Anyone who fails to see what's underneath your stunning exterior is a fool." Caroline freezes under his stare, something almost reverent in the way he says it, a spark lighting up his face for maybe the first time in a month. It sends Caroline's pulse racing. She's suddenly very much aware of how close they are, the air around them simmering with energy, releasing a fresh batch of butterflies in her stomach. The room is a dozen degrees hotter than a second before, and Caroline doesn't know what to do, what not to do, thinks maybe she's had enough to drink already because her sense of reason is getting all fuzzy.

And then Klaus says, "I heard that on PornTube," and the tension eases off of her as the two of them crack up laughing together.

[junipershill17]

twelve Things You Should Consider When Acquiring Your First Condo

1) Analysis the Builder:

Not all building contractors are alike. Many create high quality condos and have some sort of track record of success, while others slice corners and build substandard condos. Aside from reviewing the general contractors webpage, one should also carry out an internet search for watchdog studies, lawsuits and discussion boards to get proposed and existing accommodations. One thing to look out with regard to is whether the builder who is project you are interested in, has a background for completing their assignments on time. I had a client who have purchased with a builder (who shall remain nameless in this particular article) that habitually forced back completion dates. Our client was promised typically the keys a little under 36 months after purchasing the unit, plus the builder delayed possession thrice from their original projected conclusion date. After many irritating delays, he final acquired the keys a whole a couple of and a half years after the authentic scheduled completion date. This specific tied his deposit funds up for an a total regarding 5. 5 years. It was almost considered like a 2 . 5 12 months interest free loan on the builder! In retrospect, as a possible investor, he would have loved to invest in another project from 15% deposit, then take other 10% and rescued another 5%, and put that money into one more project, returning him probably double the return, including 2 . 5 less yrs. This is why it pays to research often the builder!

2) Choose the form of condo that meets yourself:

Not all condos are likewise. Some have age constraints, and rules about animals. Other condos are more loved ones friendly in terms of the unit measurements and amenities. Still other folks cater to retiree's. A good way to decide this is have a look at the number of bachelor's, one, two and a few bedroom units in the complete building. You may also contact the house manager for the condominium to be able to verify whether it is a lifestyle condo catering to a certain demographic. People fewer two and several bedroom units will likely not appeal to large families. juniper hill

3) Identify financial status:

If you are a newbies buyer, getting pre-approved to get a mortgage is a must. Contact your loan company to determine your buying ability, and get a firm commitment page from them locking in the level, and approval amount. No-one wants to be left around the closing day without a mortgage loan approval after you already produced the purchase. I have acquired countless past clients that have been given what they thought has been an approval from their bank, exactly where in fact it was nothing more than a new verbal agreement. Some people have gotten credit issues in the past which could warrant a more difficult endorsement process, and possibly at a increased rate. It is always better to understand that you received a formal pre-approval before you fall in love with a home you can not afford.

4) Talk with local real estate agent:

Real estate agent's can give you statistics of which condominiums are appreciating well in Mississauga as well as the most popular unit sorts, and floor plans. This will likely help you to make a direct assessment between different condo properties in order to establish the true associated with the unit you are interested in. Don't merely settle for any real estate agent. Once more, not all real estate agents are the same. Make an effort to work with a local expert that are experts in the type of properties that curiosity you. After all, why can you work with a realtor that markets mainly full sized residences in the suburbs, when you are seeking purchase a condo in the metropolis? It is like going to the dental office for your flu!

5. Carry out your own research:

If you plan to get a home without a real estate agent, you ought to look into the sales of the adjacent area yourself. Again, these kinds of resources will be less obtainable to the general public, but you could have access to the asking rates of similar properties. That does not mean that those prices will be the market values for that certain property, or even necessarily whatever they sell for. Be careful while information gathering. I have experienced a number of past clients reward me after their hunt for educating them on location values, and explaining to these what to look for when they are searching. Why don't get the assistance of a regional expert, when they're providers are free?

6. Find out modification capability:

Although freehold qualities allow the owner to carry out restorations without anyone's consent, condo properties have restrictions on what may be altered for each unit. A standard rule of thumb should be to request composed permission from the property supervision before making any renovations. The house managers consent is always needed to various degrees depending on the residence. Usually renovation work that requires removing a wall or maybe upgrading bathtubs and baths will have limitations on what can easily, and cannot be done. Several require that a detailed reconstruction plan be submitted into the condo board for agreement prior to the renovation taking place. It will always be better to be proactive. An individual wouldn't want to reverse the actual reno back once it is completed! I had a client who all removed all the carpet inside their unit, to replace with wooden. She did this to boost the value of their unit before selling it, only to learn that management had to agree to any floor renovations. The lady tried to then sell the system thinking that hardwood wood raise the value of her unit. That did increase the value of your ex unit, but in failing to utilize and receive consent from your property manager, she was could possibly be renovation restrictions in the developing. It was later found that will she did not use the appropriate sound-proofing underpad beneath the hard wood. The condo corporation regarded that this would hinder the particular enjoyment of the unit owner immediately below hers because of sound. Consequently, she had to split out the hardwood, install fresh underpad, and then replace the wood. This ate into just about all her profit, and your girlfriend investment, and time was certainly not rewarded. The moral in the story is to always check into these renovations with the rental property manager before you begin. It could save you lots of money!

7) Ask for a disclosure statement:

The developer as well as builder of a new terme conseillé is required to have an information report giving details of the building, along with the legal terms under that this condominium will operate. The particular booklet is available immediately after typically the Agreement of Purchase along with Sale is signed. With resale units, this "Condo By Laws and Declarations" booklet is always made available through the 10 day conditional interval when you purchase a unit. It is placed on the status certificate that may be forwarded to your lawyer regarding review. Your lawyer and then has 2 business days and nights to review the certificate, in addition to consult the purchaser together with his/her findings. If almost everything checks out, the buyer may progress with the purchase. If there are usually red flags in the documents, often the purchaser always reserves it is your right walk away within the conditional time.

8. Ask for a site program:

It is important to know if the model that you want to purchase is in the 1st, second or third period of development so that you understand any future construction which could block your existing look at. Of equal significance will be knowing when, and everywhere more development may take place around this building. New improvement adjacent to the building will influence the use and enjoyment of your house due to noise, vibration, unpleasant construction, dust and nasty smells. It is also good practice to master where your unit will be inside proximity to the elevator, rubbish disposal room, and services, as units near these components usually have a stigma installed on them in the resale industry. Besides, who would want to scent the garbage room after a very long day at work.

9) Establish development plans for the associated with area:

Many condos can be purchased under the premise of a very clear view to the Lake, scenery, or green-space. To ensure that the lovely view will be maintained in the long term, an easy trip to the Planning Department will let you ask if any other innovations are planned nearby, and have a look at the architectural pictures. The planners should be able to assist you to understand the types of developments which can be proposed around you. I have got many calls from people that bought privately through the creator units with south landscapes of the lake as an investment property. These investors would hold the unit until they obtain the keys, and the building subscribes as a condominium corporation. At this time, they would try to resell it, only to be shocked which a new condominium just commenced construction in front of they're system, obstructing their perfect to the south view. The investors blunder was being too excited during the buy process, without taking a take a step back and asking the right concerns up front.

10) Review service details:

If the developer provides a swimming pool, it is important to really know what size and whether it is inside or outdoor. The same is true of party rooms, exercise locations, gyms, sports fields, doctor offices and lockers. Find out how huge, how many, and where will have them located.

Again, these 12 considerations can affect both your entertainment, and the resale value of your current condo. It is always better to research before you buy upfront, and then enjoy the returns of your hard work once you have shifted in!

References Apartment

[everlarkficexchange]

Unmasked ~ Three

Written by: M

Prompt #88

Rating: E (Explicit) This fic will contain consensual sexual content; mild language; discussions of injuries, illness, and amputations in a historical setting; references to non consensual sexual situations.

My thanks to the moderators of @everlarkficexchange for always running an entertaining event, and for playing along with a little fun and mystery. Please enjoy the third chapter of this adventure. Previous installments can be found here. Regards,

~ M ~

~~ Chapter 3 ~~

As a child, my father used to set me in front of him on his horse. Astride with my skirts flapping in the breeze like a bird’s wings as we rode across the farm. When my mother complained of his habit of treating me like a son, Papa found a pair of breeches that would fit me to wear when we rode or moved about the farm, seeing to the needs of the land and our people. One day when he felt I was old enough, he took me into the woods, teaching me to hunt. It wasn’t a skill that I necessarily needed. We were wealthy enough to hire someone else to hunt meat for us, but my father insisted that I learn where everything we relied on to survive originated. He wanted me to have an understanding and a respect for all living beings, a humility found in the knowledge that in taking a life to sustain our bodies, we owed the earth a debt to care for her soil as she has cared for us.

Perhaps he intended it, perhaps not, but the lesson he taught me that now burns in my mind is that nothing comes from nowhere. I cannot sit in my damask chair and expect the world to care for me or to see to my needs, nor to those of the people depending on me. I must take care of that myself. Food does not appear on the table simply because I feel hunger.

“Are we going to stare at it or dare we go in?” Madge asks with a soft teasing lilt and I thrust myself from the carriage and towards the gaudy city dwelling I am now faced with, ignoring the outstretched gloved hand offering assistance. I am used to hunting in the quiet of the woods, in isolation surrounded by nature. Not in this stone and smoke urban jungle. I march boldly up the stairs and prepare to knock. Uncle Haymitch reaches my side then and pulls my lifted fist away from the door.

“This is not the country, and Effie would never forgive me if you knocked on the door for your first dinner party.” I glance over my shoulder at Effie as she fusses over Madge.

“Do I stand here and sing for entrance then?”

“No,” Haymitch says with a deep chuckle. “I do the knocking. You do the hunting.”

The first step of hunting is to stalk your prey, which requires silence and observation. We are welcomed and ushered into a parlor where we are handed a small glass of something that fizzes and makes my head spin a little. We already know the hostess, having spent at least a week squandering our time in teas and salons and parlors meeting every woman of Aunt Effie’s acquaintance and many who were not until recently.

“Darlings!” Effia had greeted us when arrived at her and Haymitch’s town home, before I could even knock on the door. Clearly I was unaware of this societal rule forbidding me to knock. At the time, Effie’s embrace had been welcome if a touch effusive. After several days of travel, all Madge and I wanted was a nice bath and a good nap. It wasn’t to be. “You came to your uncle and I for assistance in finding a husband and that is precisely what we shall be doing. He can provide introductions to gentleman, I can provide a thousand other things. A foot in the door through the ladies, a fabulous wardrobe. Alicia! Send word to Cinna that we shall need an appointment post haste! And Margaret, my dear… We’ll have Cinna whip up a few dresses for you as well. I won’t hear any arguments! Mourning is no excuse for a countess to dress…” Her eyes dragged over Madge’s plain grey woolen travel habit and she shuddered. “So…so…”

“Drab?” Uncle Haymitch had suggested and then protested as Madge and I both imposed upon him for embraces. He pretended to be annoyed, but I know him better. He was happy to see us both.

That began our week of parlor visits and stiff high collared tea dresses while I waited to be unleashed on the real marriage market. A steady stream of women with their daughters or nieces and even a handful of ladies came to call, drawn by the rumors of a heretofore unheard of eligible young woman and her widowed friend. I’ve learned all about the eligible sons of these women and have yet to see a single one of them.

Father always did say that before laying a snare, one needed to know what sort of beast you planned to trap. A snare meant for a rabbit would never hold a wild boar. This is what I tell myself every time I balk at the guidance or instructions Aunt Effie doles out to me. While I attempted to follow Effie’s example and instructions that first week, I did not care for how much time I spent seated in her parlor, sipping tea and hearing the same gossip on endless loop, answering the same questions about who my parents are and how long I plan to stay in town. I have a husband to shop for and do not appreciate being restricted to the parlor. Everyone knows that one cannot hunt from inside the parlor. You might spill blood on the carpets and then Aunt Effie would die of apoplexy.

I also do not appreciate meeting the mothers, and sisters, and widowed aunts, and fourth cousins twice removed of every potential suitor on Haymitch’s list in addition to a few who are not on his list, but not the suitors themselves.

“How can I select a husband if I never meet any men?” I had asked an exasperated Aunt Effie as I stood still for her dressmaker, a lovely woman named Cinna who worked quietly and seemed to see things in my face that I didn’t know existed.

“Good bone structure. Lovely eyes and hair…you carry yourself with regal bearing and strength. If I didn’t know better, I might have mistaken you for a duchess. My dear we shall be showcasing your spirit,” she murmured as she circled me and examined my body and face.

I still have no idea what she meant by that. While Effie’s wardrobe with it’s excess of ruffles and shimmering fabrics leaves me in physical pain sometimes, the day dresses and dinner dresses Cinna has already managed to finish for me are quite lovely. Still, I see no real show of spirit in their delicate folds. I haven’t worn breeches in years – at my mother’s insistence after the vicar’s son wrote a rather explicit poem for me shortly after I turned fifteen – and dresses like these do not make me miss it, yet I still worry about the ball gowns that will expose my shoulders and back to the world. Perhaps a shawl would work to cover my scars and it might become my signature accessory. I don’t have much time to devote to such thoughts, however. There are still a few days before we have a fitting in our ball gowns. I also have a farm to protect and a husband to ensnare.

“We are spreading the word, darling,” Effie insisted about all our parlor visits and teas. “You cannot meet a suitable husband without a proper introduction.”

Unlike the woods, I cannot simply saunter into a ballroom, select a groom, and drag him to the altar. This type of hunt requires more finesse, I am told several times a day. Which is where Madge enters the picture apparently, because I lack finesse on my own, although I would argue that stalking prey in the woods requires a certain level of finesse. What good is hunting if you announce to your prey that they are your target? None.

“Euphegenia, so glad you could join us tonight. And I see you’ve brought your lovely niece and her friend. I don’t believe you’ve met my nephew. Mr. Cato Baxter. Cato, darling, this is Miss Katniss Everdeen of Southeast Panem and her dear friend, recently widowed the Countess Hargrove, Lady Margaret Charmaigne.”

The introductions and small talk continue as guests arrive and while Effie insists there will be several eligible bachelors in attendance tonight, I find myself restless and disappointed with the offerings. Mr. Baxter seems arrogant, although he supposedly fits the requirements on my list. Mr. Marvel annoys me within seconds of conversation.

“Green does not fare well with your complexion. Perhaps you should wear more of a rosy shade, Miss Everdeen,” he says with what I imagine he thinks is a helpful smile.

“How unfortunate that my favorite color does not fare well with my complexion,” I say with a tight smile in return. “At least in your esteemed opinion. I however find men wearing burgundy to be quite ostentatious.” Madge coughs quietly at that and Effie hisses to me to watch my tone. Altogether, the dinner party turns out unremarkable.

It’s the same all week. The guests vary little and I start to wonder if perhaps this task of mine will not be so simple. Everyone who seemed so kind over tea in Effie’s parlors now seems amused by the comments their relations – all supposed gentlemen. Comments on my dress, my lack of style, my brash tones, my outspoken demeanor, or even my age.

I begin to miss my home. I miss my father even more, although Prim reports no change in his health.

“A walk in the gardens,” Madge insists one day after another string of fruitless parlor visits. Mr. Thresh Jermaine appears interested in courting me, and he seems pleasant enough if a little quiet. He radiates force and intimidation, the sort of person whose will becomes law, and yet there is a gentleness about him whenever his young cousin, Miss Rue Beauchamp is about. And yet, something about him keeps me from pursuing more than a cursory acquaintance. I feel as though we might be good friends and not work as a couple.

Madge leads me outside to the gardens as I smile gratefully at her.

“I shall need to marry a prince simply to pay for the dresses.” Several more arrived earlier today and tomorrow we have an appointment for a first fitting with our ball gowns, for an upcoming masquerade party.

“They didn’t cost as much as all that,” Madge says softly. “Besides, the surest way to scare off prospective grooms is with the rumor that you’re seeking a fortune. And the best way to allay that rumor is with dresses that shout to your financial well being.”

“But I am seeking a fortune,” I remind her.

“Better he not know that.”

“Is that not dishonest?”

“Perhaps a little,” Madge concedes. “But what recourse do we have?”

I suppose in a way, she is right. We talk of Maysilee for nearly the entire time we walk. I can see the struggle in my friend’s eyes, the battle waging in her heart. She wishes more than anything to be at home with her child. While I have no claim of motherhood over my sister, I understand the fear I sometimes see in her eyes, at least a little. The fear of responsibility and the effects of absence. I worry about Prim at home with our absent minded and preoccupied mother. At least Prim has Maysilee and Sae to keep her company. I fear I am little comfort to Madge. It does her good to speak of her daughter, though, I think. Even more good when a letter arrives from Prim, detailing their adventures.

We are going to be the best of friends, Maysilee and I, when you return. Take care of Katniss for me and be sure she does not land herself into too much trouble.

Prim wrote in her last letter, making Madge smile and relax at least for half a day.

My letters from home come from Prim but mostly from our steward, Thom. He can manage most issues, but I still cautioned Prim to write me of any emergencies that might require me to return early. I did not need to say it, but she understood that I spoke of Father.

“We shall be fine,” Prim assured me with a smile as we left. “We shall see you when you succeed. You are the best huntress in Southeast Panem. Who would think that one day you would use that skill to catch a husband?”

I laughed at the time, but the hunt grows long and I grow impatient.

“You are hoping to find him, are you not?”

“Who?” I ask and Madge shakes her head.

“Your Peeta Mellark. He has piqued your interest.”

“I just wonder why Haymitch did not include him on the list of potential suitors. He was dressed in wealth, which is my top requirement. Mother indicated that his father is a marquis so his bloodline is respectable. He claimed to have been in the military which means he’s likely a second or later son, not in line for the title.”

Madge hums and bends over to sniff a sprouting bloom. “Perhaps another reason then. His father may not be generous enough to settle money on him. He was in the military after all, and you did say you would not consider gamblers, womanizers, rakes, invalids, or reprobates. Perhaps he has a reputation.”

I did say that, and I did call him a brute. The gift of the shoes confused me after his abrupt treatment of me in the mud, however, tardy or not, it was appreciated. He remembered the destruction caused in his haste and thought to correct a slight. Kindness such as that has always intrigued me. And I suppose in a way, I am hoping for a friendly familiar face at some of these social functions, even if it is a face I cannot stand to see again since it is linked to my humiliation. How can I face him in a drawing room let alone a crowded ballroom when he has seen me at my worst and his hands have ventured up my skirts before we knew one another’s full names? I am certain to blush horribly and give away my thoughts. That won’t do.

“Nor anyone who wishes to add to his land holdings through matrimony. Or perhaps Haymitch determined that I am not even suitable for a second son of a Marquis,” I add. I come with little to no dowry and none of the holdings variety. I am…disfigured in a way that would likely offend a high born gentleman, although I say that makes him a prat. Before Madge can refute me, I take a deep breath and straighten my shoulders. “It is best then that I not find him again. ‘Twould be embarrassing to relive the circumstances of our first meeting.”

************************

A month and still no luck in the husband hunt. I’ve opened my mouth one too many times and the number of potential suitors has dwindled drastically. Mr. Cato Baxter in all his glorious arrogance is the only one still visiting or bringing flowers. Awful roses grown in a hot house and stinking of an overpowering perfume. They are lovely to look at, and yet as soon as I get close to touching them, their scent makes me wish to claw out my nostrils.

Effie insists that my luck will turn with our first ball next week, but I am not so sure.

“I’ve never been away from her overnight, let alone for this long,” Madge says as we sit at the table for dinner. We are rarely placed next to one another, a tactic meant to encourage socializing with new acquaintances. However a few of the guests tonight appear to have not shown and the hostess shuffled the seating arrangement to avoid large empty spaces at her table.

“Prim and Sae are taking good care of her,” I assure my friend.

“I know,” she whispers and then faces me with sadness in her eyes. “Would you think me insane if I told you it is myself that I fear for more during this separation?”

I shake my head in confusion and Madge wrings a napkin in her hands.

“It is a fear that…she will be just fine without me. What then do I mean to her life if she barely misses me? It is selfish, I know, but for the past five years no one has loved me or needed me save for Maysilee. From the moment she opened her eyes, I knew that she loved me as I love her.”

“But that’s just it, isn’t it?” I ask. “You love her and she returns that love naturally. You’ve already taught her to love. She misses you, Madge. Perhaps it will not cripple her, but I think you don’t want that either.”

“Of course not! I suppose in a way, I am also afraid that I don’t know who I am without her anymore. Ever since she was born, every choice that I made was for Maysilee.”

“Well,” I suggest with a cheeky smile. “Now you can mother me. You are one of my chaperones, after all, Countess.” And tonight, she is acting without Haymitch and Effie. My aunt and uncle had a prior engagement and were unable to join us this evening.

Madge groans at her title but a rosy blush stains her cheeks as she smiles. We both know that her title demands a certain level of respect and affords us a kind of protection during this venture. We’ve already seen it’s effects. Doors opened and invitations issued that might not ever be extended to simply Miss Katniss Everdeen.

Not to mention several gentlemen have noticed Madge’s sunny charms over my surly demeanor. It may only be a matter of time before she is wed again, this time perhaps happily so. Once her time of mourning has passed, of course.

The dinner is more enjoyable with Madge at my side, although the seat to my left remains empty. It is the first evening in a long time that I have not had to smile for a man and feign interest in his prattle while already marking him off the list of potential suitors.

“Apologies! Lady Roth, please, accept my apologies for my tardiness,” a male voice proclaims as a man hurries into the dining room, interrupting all conversation.

“Of course! Robert, my dear I am simply glad that you could make it after all. We were a few short on gentlemen this evening.” Lady Roth stands to greet the new arrival.

“You are too kind, cousin. I heard that quail was on the menu and cancelled all other engagements! Your cook’s quail demands my attention,” he declares as he enters my field of view and I nearly choke. Madge elbows me and I turn my head to whisper to her.

“He looks just like him!”

“Who?”

“I don’t believe you know all of our guests, Robert. Please. These charming ladies here.” Lady Roth rattles off Madge’s name and mine as he smiles down at me and I’m a little stunned at how handsome he is when he’s not soaking wet or showing the fatigue of travel. I have to remind myself that this is not the same man who plucked me from the mud. The word brother rings in my head for surely there’s no other explanation and I am certain it is confirmed when Lady Roth finally reaches the point of giving us his name. “My dears this is Sir Robert Mellark. Third son of the Marquis de Vale.”

Madge now coughs at the name, although we both manage to nod at him in greeting. Sir Robert snatches my hand off the table and bows low over it with a charming smile.

“Enchanted. Miss Everdeen.”

“Robert we’ve already rearranged the seats but there is a vacancy next to Miss Everdeen if that is agreeable.”

“More than agreeable,” he says, eyes never leaving mine as my cheeks heat and my heart seems to have grown wings in my chest, beating wildly against its flesh and bone cage.

Warnings ring in my head at his smooth flattery, but I silence them within seconds of him sweeping his chair back and sitting next to me.

Sir Robert speeds through the necessary pleasantries with breathtaking speed, which I appreciate as I am tired of repeating them on end, and he soon has both Madge and I laughing at his tales of searching for the perfect plums at market that morning. It seems so strange. The son of a Marquis searching for his own plums, but the way he speaks to everyone at the table, I form the impression that he wears his nobility carelessly, as though it were merely a speck of dust and not something that defines him.

“They were an excellent fruit and I wish I had some to share with the party,” he says and Madge smiles before turning to speak to someone across the table from her. My attention, however is drawn to Sir Robert, leaning in close to me and speaking softly, so that only I can hear. “Have you had the joy of sinking your teeth into an especially tart plum recently, Miss Everdeen?”

I am not sure what sort of innuendo the man intends, but his voice caresses and teases. And then I’m not thinking of Sir Robert’s plums but of Peeta’s hands on my ankles. A thrill slithers up my thigh and I draw my ankles close together, as though someone might see beneath the table and my skirts and somehow guess at my thoughts. A sinner’s touch, a sinner’s voice. Yes I am almost certain they must be brothers.

“Not lately, although you shall be the first to learn if I do,” I say and am rewarded with a dazzling smile. I wonder if my mother felt so bewitched by my father and turn to focus on my soup after that.

After dinner, the ladies gather in the drawing room while the gentlemen abscond to the study with Lord Roth.

“That isn’t him, is it?” Madge hisses as we sit down to play cards.

“No,” I whisper back. “Brothers perhaps. Though the features are almost identical.”

“Then your Peeta is quite handsome.”

“He is not my Peeta,” I hiss. Madge nods and we continue on, although I notice a gleam in her eyes. It’s not until the men rejoin us and Sir Robert occupies a vacant seat at the card table that I discover what mischief she has planned.

“Sir Robert, I believe my dear friend has already had the pleasure of meeting your brother,” Madge says with a bright smile. I for one, do not appreciate the direction of the conversation. I told her I did not wish to relive my humiliation in the mud. I only wound up there through a series of unwise decisions, after all. And I cannot seem to stop thinking about it while I would rather forget the entire thing.

“Oh? Which brother? There are several of us, I am afraid.” He says with a slight laugh that draws attention to our conversation.

“He gave his name as Peeta,” I explain since I’ve little choice. Madge has dragged me into this fiasco and I cannot be rude. Effie reminds me almost daily that my lack of polished manners drove away Mr. Marvel and Mr. Thresh Jermaine as suitors for my hand. I argue that they were not truly interested.

“Ah so you met my twin.”

“Twin?” Madge asks with real curiosity in her voice. Our fourth at the table, a Miss Davenport, snorts indelicately at this.

“Can you really call him that, Sir Robert?”

“We share a father, were born on the same day, any number of people confuse us for one another–”

“Yes but I don’t believe this is a proper conversation for polite company.”

“Miss Davenport is scandalized. I apologize Countess. Miss Everdeen.”

I am about to ask him why his speaking of his brother would be considered improper when something in what he said seems to click into place, like a tumbler in a lock. I share a look with Madge, her eyes wide as she purses her lips and shakes her head slightly. Before I can confirm, Sir Robert deftly moves the conversation to the masquerade ball the Duchess of Cashmere will be throwing in a little over a week. It is all that anyone can speak of these days.

“Will you be in attendance, Miss Everdeen?” Sir Robert asks quietly. “At the masquerade?”

“I believe we planned on it,” I tell him and he smiles.

“I am glad to hear it.”

He moves on from the card games after that, leaving me with a hundred questions and a fluttering pulse. The fluttering thankfully only lasts a moment or two and I am able to enjoy the fresh night air on the drive home. A rain cleared the sky this afternoon and now the scents of early summer abound. I miss my home. The thought causes me to withdraw further into my own musings.

“So then. Sir Robert is a cheeky flirt and the mysterious Peeta is an illegitimate son,” Madge says as we prepare for bed that night. They share a birth date and a father, Sir Robert had said, implying that they do not share a mother. “Perhaps that is why Haymitch kept him off the list?”

I say nothing, still too lost in the quagmire of my thoughts to formulate an intelligent response.

************************

Sir Robert visits for tea. He sends flowers and asks for a dance at my first ball of the season. The Duchess of Cashmere’s masquerade. Aunt Effie is thrilled.

“I told Haymitch he should expand the list a little higher. After all, a third son–”

“Does not usually stand to inherit a thing,” Haymitch reminds her.

“Yes except everyone knows the Marquis has settled a healthy income on all his sons and lands of some sort on most of them. And why shouldn’t he? The man can afford it.” Haymitch opens his mouth to argue and Effie snaps open a fan, fluttering it madly in front of her face. Madge speaks up to avoid the fight brewing.

“What of a fourth son?” I glare at her.

“There is no fourth son,” Effie says with a click of her tongue that closes the conversation and answers the question of why Peeta was left off the list. Or perhaps I am wrong. Haymitch’s mood takes a turn for the worse and I wonder at it. He is my mother’s half brother after all. He must know of her history with the Marquis. Perhaps there are more sinister secrets lurking in that family beyond a slightly ruthless nature and a bastard son.

I avoid the parlor that afternoon in favor of walking in the garden behind the house. What I truly wish to do is ride Sagittaria, but Haymitch insists riding in the park is not something unmarried ladies do alone and he no longer rides. That is surely why I accept Mr. Baxter’s invitation to ride in the park, despite how much his pompous demeanor annoys me.

[girls-scenarios]

To Feel Human (Part 1)

Idol: Irene (Red Velvet)

Prompt:  Could you make android au with Irene and fem!reader? The reader created Irene and wanted Irene to learn about human feelings. Although, sometimes Irene feels like she’s a burden to the reader and leaves temporary. At the end, she comes back they love each other ❤️

Writer: Admin Lee

A/N: Ok this is gonna be a pretty long one, which is why I separated it! I already have most of the second part finished, I’m just working on the ending. Anyways, I took some liberties with this one, but I hope you like it! This one has been super enjoyable for me to write, and I was very inspired by one of my favorite fics: Zeitgeist by leeyoobin on AO3!

Part 2

It started as just an off-the-wall idea, in the living room of one of your friend’s house, Yeonjung’s, to be specific. Along with the rest of your closely knit group, including Yoojung, Yuha, Eunwoo, and Jihyo, you had talked of AI’s, their advancement, etcetera. This was shortly after college, when you had finally earned your Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering, and a Master’s in mechanical engineering. With an adoration for movies like Ghost in the Shell, and an affinity for problem solving, this was able to motivate you enough to begin a new project: making the first android for personal use. Unfortunately, you weren’t the first with the idea and skills needed to create true artificial life. However, so far the androids on the market have been widely restricted, kept only to be used by large-scale companies with supervision, the military, and other government operations. So, you felt the compulsion to take the risk of creating one more suited for use by the average person. And after a few days of thinking it through on your own, you ended up pitching the idea to Jihyo over lunch.

“You want to...What?”

“Well, I didn’t think it’d be a bad idea, you know? Someone to keep the average person company, help around the house, take care of pets... Stuff like that.” You explained, trying your best to sound reasonable about the idea.

“That sounds great and all, but what about the parts? And the facility we’d have to use to build it in? Half of the things we would need would most likely be illegal for regular people to get..”

You paused, thinking for a moment. “How about Eunwoo’s girlfriend, Kyulkyung? She has some corporate connection, I’m sure.. She’s not an heiress for nothing.”

“I- Ok, we could ask, but it’d probably be a stretch, even for her,” Jihyo replied, always the realistic one. “And I’m assuming you won’t be able to do this alone, so I’m texting the rest of the group, just to see if they’re interested.”

-

A week or so later, Kyulkyung was able to text you, voicing her enthusiasm for the project, as well as her ability to obtain what your group needed. She was more than happy to help, and coupled with Eunwoo’s impatience, they were able to discreetly transfer some packages of parts and tech to a borderline-abandoned company warehouse near the small town you lived in.

Everything was now sitting in boxes in the now less-empty warehouse. With the help of your friends you took the time to meticulously go through and somewhat organize the amalgamation of parts you had received. There was also a rather large one that you had yet to open. Weird, because Kyulkyung had never really said anything about a package that big. Nonetheless, your curiosity got the best of you and you opened it up.  

A discarded android was what you found. Telltale light on its temple blank, lifeless. You had never been this close to one, really, and found it fascinating that something could look so human. You turned in Jihyo’s general direction and got her attention.

“Hey, Jihyo!” You called, and she turned away from what she was doing, walking over to where you stood. “I didn’t know this would be a repair-job, did you?”

“Oh, yeah. When Kyulkyung suggested the idea of fixing up a deactivated droid, she said it’d be easier on all of us. No one would really look into it if something irreparable were to go missing, so she just took this,” She gestured at the inactive android. “and said it’d be more efficient to just fix it up. A lot more inconspicuous for the company, too. Sorry, maybe I should’ve mentioned it.”

“No, it’s fine! You’re right about it seeming easier, I was just surprised,” You explained, eyes still locked onto the body in front of you. “Since we only have to fix it up,we should finish a lot faster, don’t you think?” You could see her nod out of the corner of your eye, and she walked off to resume her work.

Taking note of it’s features, you saw it was a female model, not too hard to tell. Its skin looked soft and pale, and this surprised you, but made sense after thinking about it. Maybe the people that worked with them often wanted to feel more at ease, so the appearance was made to look lifelike. It’s hair was relatively long, and dark in color. You knelt down in front of the container, reaching out to touch the body lying in front of you, but stopped yourself mid-reach, now realizing the gashes and dents in the model (most likely one of the reasons why it was in the scrap pile). Deciding it was a better decision to take care of everything else before dealing with the android, you shut the box gently and went to ask your friends what they needed help with.

-

The week had finally ended, and you and your friends worked day and night to get the warehouse up to par. There was a platform set up with wires and tubes to hold the android while it was being worked on and programmed, a couple of shelves stocked with spare parts in the corner, some computers and generators, and the android itself - still in the dark, hard plastic container it had arrived in. Not ready to unpack it quite yet, your group took the weekend to relax and prepare for the hard work to come.

Upon meeting again Monday evening, a matter needed to be taken care of before you all could begin: would the android stay here in the warehouse, or would one of you take it home with you once it was completed? Lottery was as good a method as any, and you all put your names in a small box that Yoojung had picked up. After a bit of shuffling the names within the box, Yuha grabbed a slip of paper. She then read aloud:

“(Y/N).”

Looking up from paper, she smiled and jokingly commented, “Have fun getting the robot used to that beast of yours.”

You laughed, imagining how your dog - a Newfoundland named Walter - would act around someone new in the house.

With that now taken care of, you began work once again. This time, finally ready to start working on the android. Eunwoo opened up the box attempted to pick up the body inside.

“Damn, this thing is heavy.. Yoojung, could you bring a rolling cart or something?”

“Sure,” She replied with a chuckle, then within a minute, brought back something the android could be moved more easily on. “Here you go.”

They both managed to get the droid on the cart, and in half an hour, hooked up all the wires from the android to the computers nearby. Then came the more difficult part: repairing the android itself. Not an impossible task, however, it was quite daunting. From what was on the container it arrived in, the model seemed to be a CX100, which didn’t necessarily matter to you outside of which parts were correct. So after finding the model type, you worked on getting familiar with the software Kyulkyung sent with the rest of the tech, hoping to figure it out in enough time to get a diagnostics test run soon. It was getting later in the day though, and your friends had obligations outside of this, so they were gradually saying their goodbyes until it was just you. However, you didn’t mind this, and understood they had lives of their own. Unlike you, who had a flexible schedule working from home (you wrote articles and edited for a science-related magazine). This was one of the few exciting things happening in your life right now, and you didn’t want to waste the time you had.

4 hours had passed since you were left alone. You were still messing around with the computers and getting a handle on the general anatomy of the android in front of you and were now feeling comfortable enough to begin tinkering with the programs necessary to work on the robot. Getting the diagnostics software package up and running, you look at the data now popping up on the screen in a list based on importance of the issue. There were several biocomponents that you found were damaged, as well as a critically low amount of Thirium 310 (a type of liquid that circulates energy and electronic info throughout the android). The software showed which of the synthetic organs were damaged in a 3D model of the robot, so it was a lot easier for you to search the boxes and containers for the parts that it required. You left them out to be cleaned, along with a sticky note listing what they were and how to properly clean them, as you had read over the procedures in a document that had also accompanied the software. It would make more sense to do it tomorrow anyways (when you weren’t running on two Red Bulls). Not exactly known for being a night owl, the work was going starting to go a little slower, even with the help of energy drinks. So you decided on calling it a night for now, figuring that you had accomplished enough for one evening.

-

The next two weeks went by surprisingly fast, and there was an impressive amount of productiveness despite everyone’s schedules getting busier as the year was drawing to a close. It was nearly the end of September, and as the temperatures dropped, your spirits certainly didn’t. The android was nearly in full repair, with the parts being cleaned and replaced, Thirium replenished, gashes and dents mended. You all felt more than accomplished at your progress, considering that all was left was putting some final touches on the programming. Collectively, you had all decided that an android with a capability to be gentle, courteous, reliable, and helpful would be one of the best options for a robot with the intent of personal use. Therefore, the appropriate behavioral abilities were added into the matrix. However, with parts of the company’s system still being there, you discovered the android had already been embedded with a neural net - thus giving it a way of thinking, of being, similar to humans.

-

Now, for the moment you had all worked so hard for. With the programming complete, the android was ready to be activated. The small group that had put an insane amount time into this project was now all gathered around the small platform where the android was kept while being repaired. Kyulkyung had taken a day off to join the ensemble, just as excited to see the finished product in action.

“So, it’s really going to act like a normal person?” She spoke up, inspecting the multiple tabs still on the computer screens that surrounded the platform.

“I mean, that’s what we’re hoping for, for the most part. I think what we were working towards was an ability to act like someone you’d see every day - or a friend even.” Yuha explained, typing some things into the computer before shutting down a few tabs. “Those were just some diagrams of what needed to be fixed.” She stated, turning back to face the group in the rolling chair she was lounging in.

“Are we ready to start it up, then?” Yeonjung inquired. “I want to see how it acts when it wakes up!”

“Yeah, I think so. Eunwoo, would you do the honors?” Jihyo asked, gesturing to the button on the laptop that would start the android up.

“Sure can!” She exclaimed with a thumbs up, jumping over to the monitor. “Everyone ready?”

You all nodded your heads, eager to get the android running. The anticipation was killing you for sure because you knew it would be staying with you tonight. Eunwoo pressed the key, causing the computers to whirr with activity. The temple light on the android lit up a bright blue, and its eyes opened.

“I am model CX100, how can I help you?”

-

You spent the next hour or so going over all the basics: making sure the programming was compatible with its neural net functions, checking to see that the body was moving correctly, and testing things like vision and other sense modifications that you had improved upon. The android complied with every request you made of it without a hitch, and soon, you were finished. By this time it was already dark, but the group couldn’t help but be enamored with the artificial intelligence. They spent at least an extra hour asking it a plethora of questions, to which the robot answered all of them to the best of its ability. However, before it was time to take it home for the night, you held a quick meeting.

“(Y/N) just be careful, okay? Try to keep its presence on the down-low, we don’t need anyone getting suspicious, especially since it’d be Kyulkyung’s job - and potentially our careers as well - on the line.” Jihyo stated seriously. You understood, of course, getting caught would only end badly for you all. So you nodded, promising to keep it out of sight as much as possible.

With that out of the way though, everyone soon broke off from the ensemble to head home, leaving the android in your hands.

“Ok, CX100, we’re going to go to my house where you’ll stay for the time being. I have an extra room where you can stay, so that won’t be an issue.. And maybe tomorrow we can get you some more clothes.” You explain, now aware that the only thing it was wearing was a hospital gown. Functional for setting up, yes, but maybe not for everyday wearing. Figuring it’d fit in some spare clothes lying around at home, you didn’t think it would be much of an issue for the ride there.

“Thank you.” Short and to the point.

Maybe you’d just need to warm up to it.

-

You arrived at your house without a hitch and opened the door for CX100. The two of you then walk up the small pathway to the large wooden door of your two-story abode. Maybe you didn’t need all the space, but you got it for a deal, and though it was a little rustic, you enjoyed the tranquil atmosphere it had.

“Wait here a second, I have a dog.” You stated, not wanting the android to become too surprised at your rather large pet. “He’s a Newfoundland, so he’s kind of big, but he’s really sweet so don’t worry too much.”

You then opened the door, inviting the android in first before following soon after, closing the door behind you.

“Walter!” You called.

Within a few seconds, your Newfoundland was bounding down the stairs, and jumping right into your arms. He covered your face in kisses before looking up at the new house guest. Walter slowly stepped over to where CX100 was, sniffing and wagging his tail as he got closer. The android seemed to dislike him, a sour expression on its face as it backed up into your coat rack near the door. Sensing the robot’s discomfort, you called your dog back over to you before telling him to go lay on the couch in the living room adjacent to the entry. He understood and trotted away.

“He’s a bit much, I know.. But I’m guessing dogs aren’t your favorite now, huh?”

“I can’t say they are. He’s very large and… eccentric. Though I will become accustomed to his presence, as I assume he is your pet.” It answered monotonously.

You nodded and beckoned CX100 to follow you to its room, one of the spares you had in the house. It was the closest to yours, so you’d be able to easily check up on it overnight if needed.

“Feel free to move some things around, change it if you want. It’s your room now, so please make yourself at home,” You mentioned softly. “I’ll be downstairs for a minute to feed Walter, if you need anything, let me know.” And with that, you left the android to get settled.

-

The night carried on as usual, save for the addition of your guest. The droid acclimated quickly, and you watched it find its way around the house like it had been living there forever. Its modified features were definitely making themselves known now: the photographic memory, use of its senses, etcetera. This was promising news, and you would definitely have to keep your colleagues posted.

Once it finally came time to go to sleep, you contemplated asking CX100 to spend the night in your room, if for nothing more than to keep an eye on it for its first night outside of the makeshift lab. You came to the conclusion that, yes, it would probably be a good idea to keep an eye on it overnight just to make sure its sleep sequence went smoothly. Although it doesn’t need as much sleep as a human does, you concluded that the android would need more time tonight to process the day’s activities.

Walking to its room, you knocked once before opening the door. CX100 was sitting quietly on the bed, seemingly staring off into space. You cleared your throat to get its attention, which snapped the android out of its thoughts; this prompted it to look up at you.

“Would you mind if you stayed in my room? It’d just be tonight, I wanted to keep an eye on you to make sure everything is running normally.”

“Yes, it will not be a problem,” The android answered. “Would you like me to relocate myself now?”

“Sure, thank you.” You were completely ready for bed so, you followed the android out into the hall, turning off the few lights that were still on as you went.

Soon, you were able to watch as the android went into its dormant state with Walter cuddled up next to you as the blue light on its temple went from a constant glow to a dim flash of color about every 10 seconds.

You now felt relaxed knowing that everything had gone smoothly for the night, and that there had been no problem whatsoever with CX100, albeit its slightly reserved personality. This wasn’t really a problem per se, however, the delay in showing the emotion you hoped it was capable of would most likely take some time.

-

Upon waking up in the morning, you noticed two things; One: CX100 wasn’t in your room any longer, and two: Walter wasn’t there either. You promptly got up and went downstairs, only to find your dog lazily napping on the floor underneath the kitchen table, and CX100 cooking breakfast.

It noticed your presence, and looked at you from over its shoulder. “Walter has been fed, I assumed two cups of food was adequate for a dog of his size,” It stated, looking back down at the bacon that was sizzling away in the pan on the stove. “and I’m in the process of preparing breakfast, is that alright?”

“Y-yeah, definitely. Thank you.” You replied, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. It was still relatively early, 7:26 to be exact. Going to the fridge, you grabbed some juice, along with a cup from the cabinet nearby, and went to sit down at the kitchen table. After a few minutes, you spoke up.

“Don’t you think getting called CX100 all the time is boring?”

“I have not. It is the name of my model, should I not address myself as such?” It inquired, setting the now cooked bacon on a plate, along with some eggs and a biscuit.

“That’s true, it is. I just thought, maybe for something a little less suspicious in case we were to go out of the house, would an actual name be nice?”

“If you think it is a choice that would benefit me, then please do.”

“Do you want to decide? On both whether you want one or not, and what your name would be?” You questioned, genuinely out of curiosity, but also partly for the purpose of testing its mental abilities.

The android seemingly went into deep thought for a moment and looked down at the wooden floor. It hadn’t necessarily had to make a decision of its own before now, but now given the chance, it hesitated. It was built to be more human, had the capabilities to suggest, decide, request - the list goes on. The LED flashed yellow, just for a moment, before assuming its normal, blue glow.

“Irene.” The android stated, now making eye contact with you. “I would like to be called Irene.”

[xmanicpanicx]

What it’s REALLY like to major (and master) in Creative Writing

First of all, let me say that this was my own personal experience with a four-year-long B.A. in Creative Writing and subsequent two-year-long M.A. in Creative Writing. This is post is not reflective of everyone else’s experience in the same program or similar programs. Warning: This may sound like a ranty revenge article, but I’m not writing this because I’m bitter. I’m not all that bitter. Just a little bitter, like a splash of vinegar in salad dressing or something. Really, I’m writing this so that anyone who is considering a Creative Writing major can make an even more informed decision, and hopefully this will help them figure out if that path is the right one for them.

I started off with a Bachelor of Arts in English Language, Literature and Creative Writing, and after a semester, I decided to make it a double major with Communication, Media, and Film. I wanted to go into publishing. I held onto that aspiration for a very long time. It had been budding in me since high school.

But as far back as I can remember, I’ve made up stories and wanted to be a writer. Eventually, I got it into my head that if I always spent time working on other people’s writing, I would neglect my own, and I started to feel iffy about going into publishing.

There’s a lot of “advice” from my Creative Writing professors that I am going to challenge in this article, but I think one of the most practical suggestions they’ve ever given me and my peers was to get a job that doesn’t involve a lot of writing.

Not because you won’t be able to find a job doing so. Contrary to popular belief, English majors actually can find jobs after college. Some become technical writers, some go into marketing, some become freelance or ghost writers and editors. The problem is that if you spend your 9-5 being forced to write or edit for someone else, you lose momentum and motivation when you get home. Even if you’re one of those people who think they couldn’t possibly get tired of writing, the fact is that your eyes will be strained from staring at a screen for most of your life and your wrists will develop carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of your incessant typing.

It’s not that you’ll never make any money from the writing you love to do, but you will need a day job, at least for a while. And it is okay to pick something that has nothing to do with writing, something that will make you crave a return to your writing routine at the end of the day or the end of the week.

I understand, though, if you’re really dedicated to your craft and you think that the best way to hone it is to major, and quite possibly get a master’s degree, in Creative Writing. But if you truly are dedicated to your writing, you don’t necessarily have to major in Creative Writing in order to improve it. In my program, people from outside of the department could take the Creative Writing classes if their writing was deemed strong enough. Also, there are plenty of great online resources out there and books about writing that can help you strengthen yours. It can be intimidating to wade through them all, but make no mistake: a Creative Writing major and even a Creative Writing master’s degree won’t cover all your bases.

In my particular undergraduate program, Creative Writing courses started during the second year. We needed to apply with a portfolio showcasing what we believed was our strongest work. Around sixty people would apply, but only twenty would get accepted. Then in the third year, everyone had to apply again, and more people would be eliminated, so we would end up with about sixteen people in class. And then for the fourth year, everyone had to apply yet again, even more were eliminated, and we’d end up with twelve people in the class. By the time I got accepted into the master’s program, there were only six of us. It was kind of like an academic, artsy-fartsy version of “Survivor.”

Everyone was judged anonymously by the committee of Creative Writing profs, based solely on the strength of their portfolios. This sounds ideal, but it’s actually where things got problematic — because “strength,” unfortunately, was a subjective term in this department. We were encouraged to have diverse portfolios, meaning we should try to write in more than one genre. Profs wanted to see both fiction and poetry from everyone, even if some people didn’t want to be poets. Even if some didn’t want to be fiction writers. Creative non-fiction was okay, as well. What wasn’t okay? Genre fiction.

That probably sounds confusing because I just said that we were encouraged to write in a wide range of genres. But not genres within fiction. Literary fiction is what the profs wanted to see. Even after all this time, I’m still not sure I understand what literary fiction is. But I can tell you what it is not. It is not fantasy. It is not sci-fi. It is not romance, chick lit, horror, mystery, or most historical fiction. In other words, aside from the few literary fiction novels and short story collections that win the Pulitzer Prize, it is not popular fiction.

I’ve heard the profs refer to genre or popular fiction in many ways: trash, crap, the kind of thing that you can read while watching TV. One of my profs even said that Nora Roberts wasn’t a real writer. She’s written hundreds of books and has very high ratings from her readers, so what makes her less of a writer than, say, that particular prof I was speaking with?

But this was all stuff that I heard — and silently chafed against — after I had gotten into the very first creative writing class. Because I myself prefer to write popular fiction. I love fantasy. I love contemporary. And I would’ve submitted that stuff in my portfolio if my college boyfriend, who was a year ahead of me in the program, hadn’t warned me that I had to play to the tastes of the professors. What they didn’t like to see: genre fiction, poetry in the same style as Shakespeare’s or Wordsworth’s, and poetry that was left-aligned on the page and had a capital letter at the beginning of each line. What they did like to see: experimental poetry (think e.e. cummings) — HEAVY emphasis on that — short literary fiction, and fragments of literary novels that were strong enough to stand on their own.

Since the professors ran the program, they could ask for whatever they wanted, I guess. But here’s my problem with their preferential methods: as professors of Creative Writing, a term that encompasses almost every genre, their job should be to help students develop whatever kind of writing they’re into. No genre is better or lesser than the others. There are some marvelously-written romance novels out there, while there are some so-called literary novels that are complete disasters. The focus of Creative Writing classes should be to improve writers’ sentence structures, plot holes, character development and dialogue issues, grammatical errors, telling rather than showing, and so on. The focus of Creative Writing classes should not be to create clones of the professors.

And the thing is, I wasn’t alone in wanting to write genre fiction. About half of the people in each class I went through were right there with me. The others, though — the ones who willingly wrote the types of pieces the professors liked — were quite obviously favored. But I guess that was to be expected. What I did not expect was the way the profs, and even fellow students, would sometimes embarrass the people who wrote genre fiction. On top of that, much of their feedback wasn’t helpful.

There was one person in one of my creative writing classes who wanted to write a paranormal romance featuring a broody, mysterious guy. Sure, it’s been done before, but it was what she wanted to write. Instead of helping her improve the story for what it was, the class on the whole tried to make her steer it in a completely different direction. They latched onto a quirk that her protagonist had, something that may have hinted at OCD (I speak as someone with a partial medical diagnosis of OCD). It was just a random detail that she had included, but the rest of the class seemed to think that was the most interesting detail of her story and encouraged her to expand on it. In the subsequent chapter she gave us, the quirks were definitely more flushed out, but it got so far away from the actual point of the story that, to me, the whole thing just seemed like even more of a mess. The class told her what they liked, and she gave it to them, even though it ultimately did nothing to help her. They had their own reading preferences in mind rather than her best interests.

So, knowing that I probably wouldn’t get the type of feedback I needed for the writing I was truly passionate about, I spent years churning out pages that I didn’t care about all that much. I was a faker just to please other people, avoid embarrassment, and get good grades. Normally when you hear of someone “selling out,” it means that they’ve abandoned their style in for the sake of producing something with more mass market appeal. What I truly want to write already does have mass market appeal, but I abandoned that style, and I felt like I had sold out. I shamefully wrote in my preferred genres on the side, in secret. What a waste of time for me and everyone else in my boat, right?

It wasn’t until my M.A. when I took a course on writing children’s literature that I dared to submit a couple things I wanted to or might have wanted to expand into novels someday. My long-time Creative Writing prof gave them the thumbs-up. And one day, she gave me one of the most encouraging compliments I’ve ever received: “I think you’ve got a lot of books in you. Maybe you won’t write a hundred, but I can definitely see you writing thirty or forty.” She did not give compliments out easily, so I knew she meant it. And it was realistic. She didn’t tell me “Yes! Aim for a hundred! You can do it!” Most writers won’t even complete thirty books in their lifetime, so that alone was huge for me to hear.

But I couldn’t help wondering if she would’ve said that to me if, throughout my years in those previous creative writing courses, I had written the stuff I truly wanted to write. Was she encouraging me based on my contributions to the the children’s lit classes, which were closer to my heart? Or was she judging the entire body of my work that she knew of and therefore missing a large part of the picture? I’m afraid to know what she would’ve said about the things I wrote on the side. I have a feeling it would’ve been mean in the most unhelpful of ways.

Yet when these Creative Writing professors (and many students) are asked why they hate genre fiction, they say, “We don’t. It’s fine. It’s just that you don’t need Creative Writing classes to write that kind of thing.” It seemed like a polite way to say that writing for genre fiction doesn’t need to be good; you don’t need to learn anything; those publishers don’t care about quality writing. I thoroughly disagree. I think that the quality of the writing matters across genres. I think characters and plots need to be developed whether you’re writing a mystery novel or a literary novel. People who read genre fiction aren’t stupid. They can recognize poor writing, and to many of them, it matters a lot.

Not every creative writing program out there will have this snobbery, but I have a bad feeling that most of them do.

So here is my advice for anyone looking into a creative writing program for university:

Always do your research thoroughly. Look into the profs’ interests, dare to reach out to the department secretary so they can put you in touch with current students who would be willing to answer your questions, check out the graduates of the program and see if there is anyone you know of whose style you admire. If the professors (or at least some of them) are open to working with your preferred genre and the students don’t feel constrained by arbitrary rules, chances are it’s a decent program. Bonus points if the program has alumni you’re a fan of.

There are specific Creative Writing programs out there in universities for people who want to write genre fiction, if that is your main interest. Look into those.

If you’re considering post-grad education, an M.A. (Master of Arts) is not necessarily the way to go. An M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts) might be a better option for you. Professors will warn against this one because getting an M.F.A. means you can’t go on to pursue a Ph.D., but if you don’t plan to get a Ph.D., that’s not a problem. M.F.A. programs are usually shorter (a year as opposed to two) and have a more intense focus on the craft than on essays.

Consider pursuing your Creative Writing education independently. There is absolutely no shame in being self-taught. You can also find critique partners and writing groups of people who have the same writing interests as you and who will be able to give you solid feedback on your work because they’ll have a stronger knowledge of the genre than a literary Creative Writing professor will. You have to do the same for them, though.

That’s my spiel. Long-winded, but it needed to be said. If you truly care about your writing, remember to put it first. Don’t invest in a program that won’t invest in you. Happy searching! And while you’re here, tell me, what’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever heard?

[mishuba]

Final Mastery Journal

Executive Leadership

While reading John C. Maxwell’s book ‘Developing the Leader Within You 2.0’ and Robert Greene’s book ‘The 48 Laws of Power’ I began to reflect on my own leadership ability, skills, style and philosophy.  As I continued to indulge the information and wisdom of these two individuals, I could see the some of their qualities they were describing in myself. Ultimately, I feel like my leadership technique is more comparable to Maxwell’s than Greene’s. I understand that Greene’s 48 Powers are useful in climbing the mountain of success, but they are too focused on self and not enough care for others.  Things like law 2 (Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends, Learn How To Use Enemies), Law 7 (Get Others To Do The Work For You, But Always Take The Credit, Law 11 (Learn To Keep People Dependent On You) and Law 43 (Work On The Hearts and Minds of Others). These laws are useful and are ideas I will most likely still use but the purpose behind these laws do not fit my character. The type of seduction and manipulation Greene’s law has I feel are to negative because it focuses more on self-growth and not on the development of the team, country or the world. It more about what do I have to do to have the most power for myself. With Maxwell he has a different viewpoint that aligns with who myself and others see me as.  The philosophies he shares in Chapter 4 (The Ultimate Test of Leadership: Creating Positive Change), Chapter 5 (The Quickest Way To Gain Leadership: Problem Solving), Chapter 7 (The Heart of Leadership: Serving People), Chapter 9 (The Price Tag of Leadership: Self Discipline) are strategies that will help strengthen your team which I feel is of the upmost importance.  It is impossible to do everything completely by yourself. In Maxwell’s book it gives example on how to be a great leader while also helping those around you be great as well. That is what I strive to do in my everyday life. When I see that the people I have around me are doing good and improving it brings me an extra sense of happiness. Maxwell said it best when he said “the heart of leadership is based on serving others, not myself” (Maxwell, page 145).

Project and Team Management

The Project and Team Management course was a helpful class.  It helped me to better understand how to properly prepare & handle risk, budgets, quality and schedule out a project and build a team and design roles in an way that will be more beneficial and effective for all members of the team.  I found out that area to be of the most important detail for me personally and the goals I have for my professional career in the entertainment industry. Learning about the different methodology people use for plans was something completely new for me. I have made plans before in the past, but I did not know that there were certain methods used just to work on a project. I got my Bachelors in Sociology, so I knew of some different theories, philosophies of thought and core values that people use consciously or unconsciously. Learning these methods showed me that some of them I already use just figuring out life while the others are something I was interested and a few I just didn’t see any benefit in it for my own future. I see myself using the AgileScrum methodology the most when it comes to the projects I will have. I already use this method in my everyday life but after researching this type of method I can properly use it to a higher degree and use it to its maximum potential.  In my focus of the entertainment industry I foresee a lot of material being produced and using this method will help find what should be used as a final product leaving room for more creativity and freedom to create.  Finally the results for my personality type (ESFJ) and report (DISC) were great additions to my confidence, showing that my leadership skills and nurturing nature are more closely related than I had believe before helping me to understand why people continue to follow me and allow themselves to relax and free themselves from worry in my presence.

Business Storytelling & Brand Development

​Business Storytelling and brand developing was an interesting class I can say.  What I enjoyed most about this class is the focus on actually brand development.  The hands-on experience with getting feedback from a professional with a high level of expertise is exactly what I wanted. Learning about my archetype was somewhat helpful.  I was not surprised by the creator result I got but my second archetype was a complete surprise for me and something I cannot wait to begin learning more about.  The hardest part about the class was the video assignment. I had difficulty finding someone within my price range and ended up creating the video myself. It ultimate was not a bad decision because I believe the video turned out better than I had imagine I could do.  I know I have some more work to do when it comes to developing the right logo for my brand. I plan on spending a lot of quality time on the idea. I will probably think of different animals, ideas, activities that are similar to my philosophy of life and incorporate some of those letters and/or visuals to my final brand logo I will come up with in the future. I also learned the importance of finding the perfect target audience for your brand.  Once you have that group the research requirements on learning about how and where to advertise become easier and allows you to receive beneficial feedback that will help your brand become better for society and the world as a whole. Once I found the type of people I want to help represent and run my brand I know the products we will have will begin to create themselves since each person will be able to bring their own original creative ideas to team meeting.

Entertainment Business Finance

The Entertainment Business Finance class was helpful in teaching me all of the different costs a business must be aware of.  The information in this class taught me how to properly plan out the finances for a business for the first few years.  This class was beneficial for me because of it showed me the different types of loans and types of lenders an entrepreneur should search for when starting up their business. I was also able to learn more about the different forms of contract payment negotiations someone should be aware of when it comes to the entertainment industry. This class also taught me about depreciations values and the different interest rates.  I was able to learn how the different types of taxes a company should be aware of throughout the year and how to pay manage your employee payroll. 

Digital Marketing

My original goal for digital marketing was to find a way to help me understand the nature of online marketing, understand the most beneficial way to market in today’s digital market and become aware of what resources that I may be unaware of at my current level of evolving my company. I also wanted to learn more about marketing companies and try out different marketing techniques until I find the right one for my company/brand. 

This course in digital marketing was extremely helpful in helping me achieve my goals for this class and my future as a person and professional. I was about to find resources I was aware of that give statistical data on the traffic of a website. The class was able to teach me the important of social media marketing in today’s generation which was the most helpful of all because of my own stubbornness but with the information I now have at my access I can make better decisions.

I learn that there is more than just one type of marketing. There is Business to Business and Business to Customer marketing. I was able to take that information in to construct a plan that will utilize both Business to Business and Business to Customer marketing. In the beginning stages of my growth I plan on being around 63%-67% Business to Customer and the rest will be Business to Business. I learn about the competitors I am competing with in terms of what type of company I am developing. I was able to gain more knowledge on Affiliate Marketing and what that exactly is. I plan on testing out each different type of marketing strategy seasonally that is not within my main marketing plan to help continue to build and develop the optimum potential of my brand.

Negotiation and Deal Making Journal Post

Build negotiation skills and technique was my goal for my negotiation and deal making class. The class was able to teach me about the different communication styles between individuals. I was also able to learn about Alternative Dispute Resolution and the different forms they have in place for business especially in the state of Florida. When I took the communication, styles test I got the commander style. I understand that means I must be aware of the other around me because they are either supporters or the opposition. As I developed my awareness skill I well be able to use it to learn the different communication styles of those around me. The quiet supporter will most likely be my most loyal partnership; I must make sure to keep my eyes on them. The thinker will be able to help with creating new ideas, with the think I need to keep my stubbornness and emotions to a minimum to create the optimum opportunity to build something unique and original. The Inspirer and I will most likely have the most disputes, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is bad for our partnership if it stays within the details of our contract. The reason the Inspirer and I would have dispute would be because of vision.  The Alternative Dispute Resolution formulas are helpful for business. I believe with my business I would use the arbitration, mediation and hearing styles of ADR to help our business reach our goals. The arbitration style would be used first so that we both our on-level ground, if we are not able to conclude we would move on to a mediation style next for a more private discussion between the business. The final step would be a hearing that way we both can provide evidence and let professional  help us with our final discussion.

Product and Artist Management Mastery Journal

Product and Artist Management was a very interesting class that was able to help provide different information that will be able to help me on my mastery journey.  This class was helpful was teaching me the many different responsibilities a Product/Talent Manger has in the Entertainment Industry depending on if it is an integral type of product management or a central type of product management situation. I was able to learn about new terms like Product Mix which is the total number of product lines. This has a few different dimensions that helps make up what it is as in: Width, Length, Depth and Consistency. I was also able to learn how to. Best define a project for the Product/Talent Manger. One should first identify the target customer, the project’s purpose, the product fit & function, the desire outcome, the budget, define the market share, look at risk timescales, financials, purpose, scope and people. One should consider using different social commerce, streaming services, data collecting websites, communication platforms and social media platforms to help stay connected with their fanbases.  Using these tools in a more authentic way is most effective for most talents. We talked about the Parento Principle that explains to us when making predictions about future sales one should predict 80% of sales comes from 20 of your clients and the other 80% of sales comes from 20% of your products. One should also remember that the current customers are always your best customers and are most likely the ones that will bring you more customers.  The most important thing I believe that was discuss in this class was the pricing principles. They explained that it is important to look at your competitor’s’ prices and determine which prices were most likely of great quality and what price range they are in. 

Advanced Entertainment Law

My period of time for my Advance Entertainment Law class was fun and interesting. I was able to learn how to find legal information inside and outside of the entertainment industry. I was able to learn how to properly register and fill out the forms for copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. I was able to learn more information about what liabilities are, what kind of liabilities are there, how to protect yourself from these liabilities with insurance and what insurance I need to purchase for my company. We learned about some of the most common types of legal issues people face in the entertainment industry like clearance & permission (trademark, copyright), assault & battery, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress, misrepresentation, fraud, wrongful inference with business relationships and wrongful interference with contracts. We learned about what kind of business structure one should setup depending on if they have a Limited Liability Company or a Corporation. We learned about which one can have the CEO title and which one allows you to input a President, Vice President, Director and Manger title. We talked about what type positions (interns, employee, contractor) we could hire and why we should hire them and what information the government will need for that type of position in your company. We learned about the different policies one should consider when developing their company. When talking about the polices it is important to note that one need to be particular about the language they are using when developing their policies because depending on the environment, industry, cultures and individuals you deal with something as simple as business casual can have a different meaning for each thing involved. We discussed about how union strikes, harassment & civil right can affect our business if not tended to properly. Finally we spoke about key contract and their elements as well as Talent Minors and how to properly deal with them when they reach a certain age.

Entertainment Media Publishing

When I first started my mastery journey at Full Sail University my goals for Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution were to further my knowledge on publishing and distribution. I also wanted to see the difference between a good and bad publishing deal. My strategy was to analyze the current publishing and distribution deal I was at during that period and time and compare it to the ones I would learn about in this course. During the first two week of this class we focused on the role of agents and publishers.  It is important for new talent to find an agent because most publishing companies are not taking any unsolicited work. An agent will be able to get you a meeting with the right executives in your industry so that you can deliver your pitch and try to negotiate. During the third week we went into detail about how film/tv, book, music and video game publishing deals work, and the options individuals have when in a position to negotiate a deal. We also learn what the different performing rights organizations are and what they do for the entities that register with them. My favorite part was learning about the different types of licenses that are available in the entertainment industry. With the information learned in this class I plan on finding an administration deal in the beginning and as time progress I would like to then begin self-publishing all of my work once I have a better understand of how the entertainment industry works through work experience. I prefer not to be in any publishing deals but I believe that during the early stages of my career will require me to align myself with a publishing company so that I can have right funding and marketing for works and projects. 

Business Plan

As I continue to follow my path towards mastery on this journey at Full Sail University I have experienced a lot of new information from all of my classes so far; during my time in Business Plan I have discovered a better way to deliver and set up my business plan for future investors that will make it easier to understand. I have learned key elements to putting together a business plan that will have its own set of key points and questions/answers one has to think about when putting together a business plan. There are a few sections that all business plans will need to ensure if they want to make sure they are covering the basic of what an investors would want.  I believe there are: The company description (needs a missions statement, product or services offered, development to date and legal status), Industry analysis & trends (needs position in the industry, industry growth statistics, market opportunity, barriers to entry, long-term opportunities, summary of your positioning in the market), The competition (needs market description, market size and trends, target customers, market readiness and finally strategic opportunities), marketing plan & sales strategy (needs advertising and reach mechanisms, explanation on how you are different, how you will meet customer needs, sales mechanism sales team organization, financial controls in place), financial statement (requires information on all assets, costs, profits, liabilities salaries, wages and any other financial possibility the business requires), operations (needs location and facilities size and costs, key aspects of operations, methods for increasing profitability competitive advantages, ways to control costs), technology plan Ineeds information on how the business will apply the technology, understanding of the technology available, plan for implementation, website), management & organization (needs information on key positions, how you will populate with people description of key positions, board of directors or advisory committee, management structure flow chart). Depending on who the investor is you might end up adjusting your business plan to provided them with the proper information required to help them make a decision on whether they will invest or not.  All of these sections should begin with a pitch. A Pitch is a one minute hook or attention grabber to prepare the reader for what the section will entail. 

Final Project

The Full Sail Entertainment Business Master’s program was something I was looking forward to before being accepted into the school.  I have been making music my whole life and wanted to learn about the industry. The program was able to help me fill in the missing piece of the puzzle with the information on publishing, distribution, business registration, marketing and consumer tracking.  The program was able to teach me how to setup a business that is entertainment focused and how to do it with the least amount of limitations. The program was also helpful with getting me to understand the difficulties it takes to get into the industry and what are some of the required steps to be noticed if someone doesn’t want to be completely independent. 

In the future I plan on going through my first year of business before I start looking for investors. During this first year of business I will be getting the proper documentation finished and developing weekly content for the company’s portfolio.  My plan is to go from music to films to brand luxury items to entertainment faculties to more new developing content that hasn’t been created before.

[socmedsean]

Using SEO To Grow Traffic And Increase Enrollment In Your Massive Open Online Course Or MOOC

SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean Using SEO To Grow Traffic And Increase Enrollment In Your Massive Open Online Course Or MOOC

No doubt about it…the growth of the digital space has fueled growth in online education.

With high-speed internet (HSI) become more commonplace in homes around the world, people are leveraging HSI to enroll in online bachelor’s degrees, online courses for professional development or in a massive open online course (MOOC) to expand their knowledge.

Online learning is definitely a hot topic and those willing to spend the time and energy to put together a well-developed, informative course offering can actually generate a lot of interest…and a lot of traffic.

But what if your course just isn’t performing? You feel as though it has great content. You put the time and energy into building a curriculum that should appeal to your audience. Still, no one is finding it…therefore no one is enrolling.

It’s tough, but there can be many reasons that your online course is playing dead right now. 

No askers – Meaning no one is able to find your course at all.

No buyers – Even if they do find your course, you may not be enticing them to convert to enroll.

Not even for-free takers – In this case, your call-to-action or course description isn’t even good enough to entice enrollment for free.

In each of these situations, the issue points to one primary problem…content. Not necessarily with the content you have created for the course itself, but with the content that is designed to generate interest in the course.

You know…the marketing content.

NOTE: Before you roll your eyes and sigh that you “aren’t a marketer”, you need to understand that EVERYONE who is trying to attract and convert users needs to be a marketer. If you want your course to succeed, you need to learn about marketing, engagement, retention, and conversion. These fundamentals will help you better understand what is needed to attract, retain, and enroll your attendees.

Let’s assume that your eLearning course is as awesome as it can get and yet you are unable to reach the heart of your target audience and encourage them into choosing it. What’s the plan? How are you going to get your course in front of the right audience? How will you convince them to give it a try? That’s where your marketing skills need to kick in.

Taking Analytical Approach To Driving Traffic To Your eCourse

The first step is to take the emotion out of your plan. YOU know it’s a great course, but you need to convince others that it will be valuable to them and to do that you need to think like them. ‘

Using simple mathematics, it’s easy to break down the goals of your eCourse if you think through the student journey.

Step 1 In The Student Journey – Discovery – potential students learn about your course either through organic search or word-of-mouth positive experiences from previous students.

Step 2 In The Student Journey – Exploration – those potential students explore your course details and determine that the course would advance their understanding of the topic.

Step 3 In The Student Journey – Enrollment – the potential student enrolls and pays the enrollment fee.

Step 4 In The Student Journey – Attendance/Completion – the student downloads or participates in the online course and completes the requirements.

Step 5 In The Student Journey – Advocacy – course and tells others about the positive experience.

Sounds easy, right? It can be if you understand that good content that is optimized for the search engines can help prospective students find your course and it can also convince them to enroll.

Understanding The Essence Of SEO And How It Impacts Your ECourse

Search engine optimization is just that…optimizing your content so the Google search algorithm places your pages at the top of the search engine results (also known as SERPs). While you definitely want your content to be user-focused, if you don’t take time to also tune it for the search engines, it may not perform well in the SERPs, making your eCourse difficult to find.

SEO is an uneven blend of skills, science, and art which may seem shaky in the beginning but works its charm over time and in the best way possible. Think of SEO as the “gift that keeps on giving”. If you write well-structured content and it is listed, then the effort of writing it will be seen in a high number of prospective students.

The challenge for eCourse developers is that potential students are often overwhelmed with content coming in from all directions. They see ads for eCourses, hear about them from friends or family, see them in emails and maybe even on social media sites like Facebook or Pinterest.

What you need is to find a way to capture the student’s attention at that point when they are ready to cut through the noise and enroll. At that point, it’s highly likely that they are conducting a Google search using terms like:

What is the best eCourse for learning about marketing?

Good eCourse for building a web-based business

Best online course for using Pinterest

Review of online course to understand email marketing

At that point, they are searching for the answer and you want your content to be front and center. You want them to FIND you.

There are a couple of things you need to be aware of, however, when it comes to developing your content and optimizing it for SEO.

First, remember that you should write for your audience, first! That means the content should be written in plain language, at the appropriate reading level for visitors. Don’t try to stuff keywords into your content in order to make it more attractive to the search engines. Doing so might actually result in a search engine penalty, rather than traffic.

Do you research, write a helpful, well researched article and ensure that it includes the appropriate keywords and uses the best practices for search engine optimization.

The second thing to keep in mind is that SEO requires a high level of patience, perseverance, and keyword research. Patience and perseverance are something you are going to have to develop on your own, but keyword guidance is something that I can help with.

Making The Right Keyword Choices To Attract Potential Students

The basic process of keyword research goes like:

Brainstorming possible ecourse or elearning keywords

Filtering out low performance keywords that don’t align directly with your specific course curriculum

Researching the most relevant keywords that also might be under-served (meaning a lot of content isn’t available already)

Checking the search volume for each of the remaining terms to narrow down the final keywords. 

Carefully placing those keywords in your article in a way that you aren’t over-using (aka “stuffing”) them.

However, the heart of this entire process lies in the first step itself – Brainstorming. 

The process of keyword research always sparks the old “chicken or egg” conundrum of SEO. Do you write your article first and then research the keywords that would help the article perform well? Or do you research the keywords first and then write the article with the keywords in mind?

In reality, it’s a bit of both.

I prefer to write a rough draft of the article first, see how it evolves during the drafting process, and then research keywords that would help elevate the content. It is difficult to imagine the best possible keywords without understanding the user’s search engine behavior and trends, so it’s helpful to have the beginnings of the article drafted and then image who would be reading the content and what search terms they might have used to locate it in the SERPs. 

As you brainstorm the searches that the visitor might have used to find the content, consider that there are three fundamental categories of search engine queries that the users tend to search for:

Navigational queries: When the user wants to reach a particular web address, like social media channels.

This means typing in “Facebook” or “ESPN”. In these cases, the user knows exactly what they want and where they want to go.

Actionable queries: When the user has an actionable intent in mind, like booking a table in a restaurant.

These are queries like “what is the best Italian restaurant in Chicago” or “coffee shops near me”.

Informational queries: When the user is looking to learn about certain topics or categories, like how does the internet work?

These are the searches for content that will help the user solve a problem like “how do I report a fake Facebook friend request” or “are there eCourses that will help me learn to build a website?”

Researching keywords for eLearning

Researching the keywords related to your industry not only helps you to form a good search engine marketing strategy but also educates you about the trends among your target audience and your competitors rankings.

These keywords will help you in developing a more relevant course with the audience in mind as well as fuel potential targeting keywords for any paid media, PPC, or social media advertising campaigns. 

While finalizing your keywords, you must keep the following points in mind:

The relevance of the selected keyword to your content – Whether you deal with simple educational courses or complex workplace safety training courses, the keywords must be relevant to your content and the reader.

A potential customer or client’s likelihood of searching for the specific keyword

Would the person searching for this keyword be able to find the answer to their query on your website?

Look To Your Competitors For Keyword Guidance

One of the best ways to find the most relevant keywords is by evaluating the ones your competitors are ranking on. And if you find paid advertisements with certain keywords, then those keywords are even more valuable and capable of converting sales.

If you are able to understand what content is allowing your competitor to rank, and then create better, more informative content that helps your target audience, then you may be able to outrank them and direct their traffic to your content.

For finding the best keywords, you can follow these steps:

Create a list of topics –  Any number of categories that you believe are crucially related to your industry. It should be based on your reader’s preference or what you cater to.

Check out the “related searches” –  Google’s suggested keyword searches based on your search query will also tell you the trending keywords.

heck competitors ranking – This might require the help of professional paid tools for better results but it is one of the most important steps in keyword research. It will also give you quicker and easier results. The aim of this exercise is to find the sweet spot of keywords – between the ones which are difficult to rank on due to competition and those which are fairly easy to rank on.

Filter the list: To make your life simpler, you can use tools like Google AdWords or AHrefs and shorten the gargantuan keyword list.

Understanding The Important Of Keyword Placement

Once you have your list of perfect keywords, it is time to deploy this army at the sweetest spots that will help you MOOC to attract attention and enroll students. 

Your website’s name and address – URLs play a pretty significant role when it comes to making your eLearning website rank higher on SERPs. This is why the name of your website matters. For all the web pages that you want to rank on search engines, always keep in mind that an SEO-friendly URL will always rank better and allow the readers to know the nature of your eLearning course or MOOC in a much better way.

As custom elearning providers, for maximizing the reach of your course, you must consider including the page keywords in the URL of those pages as well. For instance, being a corporate sales training course provider, you can purchase a website URL, like http://bit.ly/33ScRdL or you can use it for landing pages, like http://bit.ly/2TWUIa9 

The page titles – Title tags are the page titles that you see in your search results which you click on to land on any page. And these titles are important for search engines to decide the relevance of your website/page for a particular search result. 

Simply put, these titles tell google about your work and then Google tells about it to other people. A good title can grab the user’s attention quickly and make them click on your page besides appearing (read-Ranking) in Search results. And the non-complicated and straightforward titles work the best. 

Meta Descriptions – The two-sentences-long descriptions below the Title tags in a search result are 160 characters long meta descriptions that play an important role in making your course rank on top. 

These descriptions offer a brief about your course and can be made stronger with keywords easily. And while Meta descriptions cannot contribute to the ranking of your pages directly, they can be crucial for your website’s CTR (click-through rate).

Within The Content – Apart from these rules, optimizing the images used in your course, their captions and the sub-headings (H1, H2, H3) of your on-page content can also play vital roles in making your MOOC reach a wider audience. The key to good SEO is not just focusing on increasing the reach radius but increasing the relevance of your reach as well. 

In the end, the people who land on your online course must have something to gain from it and you must gain something from them. 

A Few Final Thoughts

Creating online content like MOOCs is not an easy task, but for those who do it successfully, it can be an exciting, engaging activity. Creating the course curriculum and content, however, is only half the exercise.

To be successful in the world of eLearning, you need to not only play the role of an educator, but also that of a marketer. Be willing to spend the time to understand your potential audience and then develop marketing content that will not only attract potential students, but also convince them to enroll.

Best of luck with your eLearning activities, I hope these tips helped!

Christopher Pappas is the Founder of eLearning Industry’s Network, which is the largest online community of professionals involved in the eLearning field. Christopher holds an MBA and an MEd (Learning Design) from BGSU.

Share This Post With A Pin!

Using SEO To Grow Traffic And Increase Enrollment In Your Massive Open Online Course Or MOOC Sean R. Nicholson.

This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/33PLnpj

[brauliojairo]

#66Miles Annelise Vasseur : portrait of an intrapreneure

Annelise Vasseur: OPTIGAZ, an offer designed to help industrials achieve better energy performance

For 82% of industrial companies, energy is an essential or major item of expenditure. However, they don’t necessarily have the means or the know-how to carry out the optimisation work that would allow them to reduce these expenses. Inspired by her three years at GRTgaz, Annelise Vasseur, now with ENGIE Cofely, has come up with an innovative project to provide support to industrials in their energy optimisation. Interview with the very determined youngest member of the ENGIE-66 Miles year group for 2018.

 Tell us briefly about your project:

The objective of the project is to make industrial companies competitive again by offering to provide support to improve their energy performance. After interviewing potential customers with industrial profiles, I realised that they faced significant obstacles that prevented them from initiating an approach focused on industrial performance. The first is the lack of capacity for investment in more energy-efficient machines, which of course hinders progress in the energy transition. The second is related to lack of knowledge of the energy markets. To meet this need for performance and to lift the brakes on investment, I decided to develop an offer based on a model of energy analysis. Basically, this involves optimising the customer’s energy bill and re-injecting those savings back into financing improvements to the customer’s energy performance. This is a completely new approach aimed at developing real expertise in terms of the customer’s energy bill, then reinvesting the savings made to conduct work on energy optimisation and services associated with energy management.

 How did your project come about?

During a nuclear internship after my DUT university diploma in technology specialising in marketing techniques, I became really interested in technology. Having specialised in marketing, I couldn’t go to an engineering school to do a Masters, so I decided to do bachelor’s degree in a business school in Rouen, followed by a management school in Le Havre as part of a work-study contract with GRTgaz. I had access to technology because I was focusing on the development of innovative industrial projects (connecting industrial sites to the gas network, developing projects on biomethane and natural gas for vehicles…). In those three years I learned a lot about the technology of natural gas markets and how they work. I had the idea for my project about a year ago, but I couldn’t really develop it at GRTgaz, a transporter of natural gas in a state-regulated market. It was after I arrived at ENGIE Cofely in September that I was able to really test the value of the project, develop a business model, think about a model of analysis that would let me calculate how to conduct the optimisations for the customer and quickly assess the savings that could be achieved every year. This model was tested on two customers and the results proved convincing: we evaluated €30,000 per year of savings for the first and €115,000 for the second. If those savings are reinjected into conducting work on improving performance and customer support, we could come up with a really positive business model for the company, for the customer as well as for the environment. This test stage confirmed that there was a market.

 How did you hear about 66 Miles?

The communications department, the department of innovation and networks sent out a joint call for projects. With the support of my managers, I applied, providing an explanation of my project, and was selected for an initial two-day session with Willa, previously known as Paris Pionnières. After two days of accelerated training, we all pitched our projects. In the end, three people were selected to do the four-month training course 66 Miles.

 Entrepreneurship at ENGIE: a risk or a challenge?

Challenging, without any doubt! I’ve just arrived in the group, I’m 25 years old, I have to earn my credentials to develop this project and I still need to convince a lot of people about its worth. What’s more, entrepreneurship is all about stepping outside the box and reinventing models, whereas in a group like ENGIE it’s natural for everyone to be firmly rooted in their missions and activities. It takes a lot of persuading! On the other hand, I’m a project leader in charge of Lean Management, and I provide support to the teams for the ENGIE 2020 project. I accompany them as far as possible in managerial transformation. Ultimately, my work helps me to develop my project, because it constantly requires convincing people and getting them on board. I discover the same determination to convince people and to progress, to provide help and support, and this is linked to the project.

 How do you handle both of your activities at the same time?

I asked my managers to give me time to develop this new business model in addition to my current position. I also work on this project in the evenings, on weekends; I take holiday time too in order to get ahead. When you like doing something, you don’t count the hours you spend. Anyway, this project is very important to me because the issue faced by the customer is real: I want to help industrial companies to be more competitive and to take part in the energy transition.

 How did the 66 Miles programme go?

It was very intense. I had already seen some things in school, but it’s also good to have things repeated and an overview of entrepreneurship. The programme lasts for 4 months, with 3 days every month or so. Between sprints, we are challenged and have regular contact with the team to find out how we’re progressing, if we’ve managed to interview potential customers, if we’ve managed to get things validated internally… This allowed the project to progress really quickly but also allowed me to continually challenge myself.

 How did your relationships with the other programme participants go?

It was very constructive. There were women from other groups who brought us a much broader vision and a fresh perspective: they could have other ideas about how we operate, challenge our business model. Having an external perspective is very stimulating.

 Did you have a sponsor at ENGIE?

Yes, Olivier Ghienne, HR Director at ENGIE Cofely, accompanied me extensively in-house to get me to meet people, to allow me to keep moving forward. We also had the support of Valérie Gaudart who helped and motivated us. It’s important to have internal sponsors, as well as to be challenged externally. The two are complementary.

 And now? What’s your outlook?

I want to be able to continue developing my project. For this I need to convince the Executive Committee and the internal departments, who will be stakeholders in the project. Then I’ll test the entire project on four initial customers (i.e. invoice audit, energy audit, technical recommendations to work on and replace machinery, and to work on and monitor energy performance).

In the future, I would like to propose a global offer, i.e. one that brings together all the subsidiaries and the ENGIE BUs, because this is what our customers are looking for. They want a model where they don’t need to take care of anything, while also saving energy to be more competitive. The goal of this project is to take on the financial and environmental issues of our customers while also creating value for them. Today, there are lots of different stakeholders in energy. Within the group we have many areas of expertise, but there is no clearly defined link that unites us over the same subject: energy. Having interviewed customers and potential customers, I know they struggle to understand the difference between ENGIE, EDF, electricity, gas… They want to be supported, but no one gives them that opportunity. Their solution is to call on other companies that have nothing to do with the Group (ADEME, consultants…), which complicates the model.

 How can this project be developed within the group?

I really like a phrase from Isabelle Kocher saying that the company is part of the solution and not the problem. I designed Optigaz to bring solutions to the energy issues of our planet and our customers. We need to be able to bring clarity and transparency to the customer. It will also reinforce cohesion and exchange between ENGIE and its subsidiaries. This is why this project has full legitimacy within ENGIE. We’re able to have something very complete: audits of bills, energy audits with CRIGEN, recommendations with Cofely, work with Cofely and Axima, and even Blu.e which allows customers, when we install monitoring machines, to manage their own energy and thus be autonomous.

  What makes you happy about getting up to go to work for ENGIE Cofely?

I decided to work in the field of energy when I was 18 years old, because I find this universe presents a number of issues and challenges. I am very happy to get up to go to work in the morning because I know I’ll be able to help industrial companies be more energy-efficient, and for me there’s no greater satisfaction. I’m really focused on the customer and on the energy transition, something I am passionate about. I wouldn’t have been able to work in any field other than energy.

Find out more

Discover the portrait of Sophie Guignard

Discover the portrait of Virginie Verdiere

from Actualités https://www.engie.com/en/news/66miles-annelise-vasseur-portrait-of-an-intrapreneure/

[wayneschutt]

Best Practices for Including Infographics in Your Blog Posts

I didn’t know much about infographics, including why they were valuable and how to best use them in my blog posts and on social media until I started reading fellow pet blogger’s sites. The content was phenomenal, but I found myself zeroing in on the infographic they included. The image was like the cliff’s notes of the entire post, except I didn’t feel like I was cheating on an assignment! Instead, I felt compelled to act and wound up sharing the image with my followers.

So, what are the essential things you should know about how to create, integrate and share these useful tools? This post will help to walk through some key elements that are associated with optimizing infographics.

What’s an Infographic?

There are different variations of infographics, each with their own value for use.  In short, they are visual representations of the information included in the post you’re writing.  For example, if you’re writing about signs your dog may be exhibiting that he’s stressed, instead of simply using the term “whale eye,” you can include an infographic that depicts different signs of stress, including whale eye. The infographic could be an easier way for the reader to process the information, especially if they’re a visual learner.

There are tons of ways to structure your infographics; I’ve seen infographics that provide impactful statistics with corresponding images, graphs that illustrate a point, short statements partnered with a graphic and some with just images and no text. One way isn’t technically better than another and you can switch up the format depending on the content you are writing about.

When Should You Use an Infographic?

There’s no right or wrong. The question you should ask yourself when considering using an infographic is “does a visual representation of this information add to the value of this post?”  There are times when it may not.

If I’m writing a personal story about the first day I brought my dog home, sharing photos of her in her new space makes sense, an infographic does not. Conversely, if I was sharing an educational post on the top five things to plan for when bringing a dog home for their first day, a visual depiction of this information would add substance to the post.

Posts that include educational information, an attempt to persuade the reader, descriptions of information, like a DIY, are all times when an infographic may make sense.

Do You Have to Make Your Own Infographic?

Not necessarily. I’m not a graphic designer, nor am I skilled at illustration. I often find myself limited by my lack of ability in this area. That said, there are some great infographics that already exist that you may be able to integrate into your post. Type your subject into a search and see if other images come up.

WARNING: First, make sure you have permission from the person who created the image to use in your post. Second, make sure the content is accurate. I’ve seen a lot of posts on Pinterest talking about “safe human medications to give dogs,” and some incorrectly share drugs that should not be administered without, at the very least, conferring with a veterinary professional.

How Do You Make an Infographic?

I have successfully created an infographic, without any graphic design experience. In fact, I found the experience so rewarding, I kicked myself for avoiding making one sooner!

There are a variety of tools you can use to create an infographic without much strife.  The tool I find myself using most often is Canva. One of the main reasons why I’ve gravitated to this medium is that I can create images on a computer and my phone, which means I am not restricted by lack of access.  I also like this platform because they have an infographic option already created, which is sized for optimizing in social sharing, particularly Pinterest.

If you would rather use another platforms, the world is your oyster.  I typed into a search bar “tools to make Infographics,” and was greeted with tons of free and paid options to choose from. There will be a learning curve for any option you choose, so make sure you give yourself some time to navigate the options and feel comfortable with using them.

Once you’ve determined your platform, it’s time to start creating your infographic. I find it helpful to map out what I’m hoping to convey on a piece of paper first. Just like mapping an outline for a piece you’re writing, it helps you to stay on track. As mentioned earlier, it is helpful to brainstorm and determine which type of images are most useful to illustrate the point you are trying to make. Is it a series of statistics? Should you include a relevant graph? Mapping out your content can help you to make that decision.

When creating your infographic, remember the K.I.S. system—Keep It Simple! Make sure the images are easy to see, words are easy to read, and your points are easy to ascertain. Remember, this is a visual that helps to share information, but you’re hoping people are clicking through to read more on your blog. If you give it all away in your infographic, they have no reason to be visiting your site.

However, to be honest, you kind of need to get your hands dirty and play around when making an infographic. Once you do, you’ll realize it’s actually kind of fun to be sharing your information in a different way. If you are new to creating an infographic, it’s always a wise choice to send a draft along to trusted friends who may be able to provide insight on content and layout that you may not have thought of.

Optimizing Your Infographic on Social Channels

When making a post, try to make the key points visible at the top of the infographic. Depending on which social platform you’re sharing images on, the whole image may not be visible. What this means is that you want to make sure that the most compelling information to prompt a click-through to be what’s seen, in order to increase the likelihood of click-throughs and social sharing.

Many people visiting your blog are doing so on their phone or on a tablet, so it’s really important to test out your infographic on both to see how it shows up. I’ve personally clicked away from posts where the infographic was too tiny for me to read on my phone.

While it’s entirely possible for your infographic to be shared on different social channels, the most “visual” of the social channels is Pinterest. Therefore, I recommend focusing on optimizing your image for displaying well on Pinterest. If you are using templates or design resources to help you create your infographic, it will likely already be sized to work well on Pinterest. There is no length limitation on Pinterest, but there is a width restriction, so longer posts are better to create than wide posts.

The keywords you use in your Pinterest description behave like any other SEO search engine, so make sure you’re spending time on crafting it in such a way that your infographic comes up in searches. Once your image is found, make sure your blog name is on the infographic and that it links back to your post to ensure you get traffic to your site. There have been times when my image has been re-shared and is no longer connected to my original post.  I have found this out by doing a google image search of the infographic and seeing where it’s popping up. In those cases, I file a takedown request with Pinterest and they typically remove the imposter shortly after the request is made.

That’s a Wrap

This post has covered a lot of different parts associated with the creation and use of infographics. It’s kind of like the first time you show up at a buffet, and you grab a little bit of everything to see where you’re going to head when it’s time to come back and fill up your plate.

Please post your own best practices and questions so we can help to dive into any of the subjects listed in more detail. If you haven’t created an infographic yet, I hope this post has empowered you to work on making one and sharing it.  We’d love to see your work and I encourage you to post them here or on the BlogPaws social channels.

Bryn Nowell is an award winning lifestyle blogger who curates A Dog Walks into a Bar, which highlights her love for drinking and dogs.  She has been blogging for over three years and prides herself on her visual storytelling.  The focus of her posts and photos are her two Boston Terriers, Bean and Yoda.  Nowell has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations and her Masters in Business Administration with a Marketing concentration from Quinnipiac University.  She has written educational posts regarding business, public relations, and marketing best practices for the BlogPaws network multiple times. 

The post Best Practices for Including Infographics in Your Blog Posts appeared first on BlogPaws.

Best Practices for Including Infographics in Your Blog Posts syndicated from https://thehuntingdogblog.wordpress.com/

[jesicajparksuk]

Best Practices for Including Infographics in Your Blog Posts

I didn’t know much about infographics, including why they were valuable and how to best use them in my blog posts and on social media until I started reading fellow pet blogger’s sites. The content was phenomenal, but I found myself zeroing in on the infographic they included. The image was like the cliff’s notes of the entire post, except I didn’t feel like I was cheating on an assignment! Instead, I felt compelled to act and wound up sharing the image with my followers.

So, what are the essential things you should know about how to create, integrate and share these useful tools? This post will help to walk through some key elements that are associated with optimizing infographics.

What’s an Infographic?

There are different variations of infographics, each with their own value for use.  In short, they are visual representations of the information included in the post you’re writing.  For example, if you’re writing about signs your dog may be exhibiting that he’s stressed, instead of simply using the term “whale eye,” you can include an infographic that depicts different signs of stress, including whale eye. The infographic could be an easier way for the reader to process the information, especially if they’re a visual learner.

There are tons of ways to structure your infographics; I’ve seen infographics that provide impactful statistics with corresponding images, graphs that illustrate a point, short statements partnered with a graphic and some with just images and no text. One way isn’t technically better than another and you can switch up the format depending on the content you are writing about.

When Should You Use an Infographic?

There’s no right or wrong. The question you should ask yourself when considering using an infographic is “does a visual representation of this information add to the value of this post?”  There are times when it may not.

If I’m writing a personal story about the first day I brought my dog home, sharing photos of her in her new space makes sense, an infographic does not. Conversely, if I was sharing an educational post on the top five things to plan for when bringing a dog home for their first day, a visual depiction of this information would add substance to the post.

Posts that include educational information, an attempt to persuade the reader, descriptions of information, like a DIY, are all times when an infographic may make sense.

Do You Have to Make Your Own Infographic?

Not necessarily. I’m not a graphic designer, nor am I skilled at illustration. I often find myself limited by my lack of ability in this area. That said, there are some great infographics that already exist that you may be able to integrate into your post. Type your subject into a search and see if other images come up.

WARNING: First, make sure you have permission from the person who created the image to use in your post. Second, make sure the content is accurate. I’ve seen a lot of posts on Pinterest talking about “safe human medications to give dogs,” and some incorrectly share drugs that should not be administered without, at the very least, conferring with a veterinary professional.

How Do You Make an Infographic?

I have successfully created an infographic, without any graphic design experience. In fact, I found the experience so rewarding, I kicked myself for avoiding making one sooner!

There are a variety of tools you can use to create an infographic without much strife.  The tool I find myself using most often is Canva. One of the main reasons why I’ve gravitated to this medium is that I can create images on a computer and my phone, which means I am not restricted by lack of access.  I also like this platform because they have an infographic option already created, which is sized for optimizing in social sharing, particularly Pinterest.

If you would rather use another platforms, the world is your oyster.  I typed into a search bar “tools to make Infographics,” and was greeted with tons of free and paid options to choose from. There will be a learning curve for any option you choose, so make sure you give yourself some time to navigate the options and feel comfortable with using them.

Once you’ve determined your platform, it’s time to start creating your infographic. I find it helpful to map out what I’m hoping to convey on a piece of paper first. Just like mapping an outline for a piece you’re writing, it helps you to stay on track. As mentioned earlier, it is helpful to brainstorm and determine which type of images are most useful to illustrate the point you are trying to make. Is it a series of statistics? Should you include a relevant graph? Mapping out your content can help you to make that decision.

When creating your infographic, remember the K.I.S. system—Keep It Simple! Make sure the images are easy to see, words are easy to read, and your points are easy to ascertain. Remember, this is a visual that helps to share information, but you’re hoping people are clicking through to read more on your blog. If you give it all away in your infographic, they have no reason to be visiting your site.

However, to be honest, you kind of need to get your hands dirty and play around when making an infographic. Once you do, you’ll realize it’s actually kind of fun to be sharing your information in a different way. If you are new to creating an infographic, it’s always a wise choice to send a draft along to trusted friends who may be able to provide insight on content and layout that you may not have thought of.

Optimizing Your Infographic on Social Channels

When making a post, try to make the key points visible at the top of the infographic. Depending on which social platform you’re sharing images on, the whole image may not be visible. What this means is that you want to make sure that the most compelling information to prompt a click-through to be what’s seen, in order to increase the likelihood of click-throughs and social sharing.

Many people visiting your blog are doing so on their phone or on a tablet, so it’s really important to test out your infographic on both to see how it shows up. I’ve personally clicked away from posts where the infographic was too tiny for me to read on my phone.

While it’s entirely possible for your infographic to be shared on different social channels, the most “visual” of the social channels is Pinterest. Therefore, I recommend focusing on optimizing your image for displaying well on Pinterest. If you are using templates or design resources to help you create your infographic, it will likely already be sized to work well on Pinterest. There is no length limitation on Pinterest, but there is a width restriction, so longer posts are better to create than wide posts.

The keywords you use in your Pinterest description behave like any other SEO search engine, so make sure you’re spending time on crafting it in such a way that your infographic comes up in searches. Once your image is found, make sure your blog name is on the infographic and that it links back to your post to ensure you get traffic to your site. There have been times when my image has been re-shared and is no longer connected to my original post.  I have found this out by doing a google image search of the infographic and seeing where it’s popping up. In those cases, I file a takedown request with Pinterest and they typically remove the imposter shortly after the request is made.

That’s a Wrap

This post has covered a lot of different parts associated with the creation and use of infographics. It’s kind of like the first time you show up at a buffet, and you grab a little bit of everything to see where you’re going to head when it’s time to come back and fill up your plate.

Please post your own best practices and questions so we can help to dive into any of the subjects listed in more detail. If you haven’t created an infographic yet, I hope this post has empowered you to work on making one and sharing it.  We’d love to see your work and I encourage you to post them here or on the BlogPaws social channels.

Bryn Nowell is an award winning lifestyle blogger who curates A Dog Walks into a Bar, which highlights her love for drinking and dogs.  She has been blogging for over three years and prides herself on her visual storytelling.  The focus of her posts and photos are her two Boston Terriers, Bean and Yoda.  Nowell has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations and her Masters in Business Administration with a Marketing concentration from Quinnipiac University.  She has written educational posts regarding business, public relations, and marketing best practices for the BlogPaws network multiple times. 

The post Best Practices for Including Infographics in Your Blog Posts appeared first on BlogPaws.

from News And Updates About Pets http://blogpaws.com/executive-blog/best-practices-for-including-infographics-in-your-blog-posts/

[controledavida]

See Recommendations Of People who Did Or Will Do The Evaluation Of Get And Determine what The Aspiring Lawyers Feel Inside Nation

Pupils and legislation graduates are dissatisfied together with the Evaluation of Buy, evidence within the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), which grants to those permitted the mandatory registration for your practice of law. The controversial factors surrounding the choice observe.   To shut the series, carry out testimonies that kind a mosaic within the different profiles of students and bachelors in Legislation of Brazil. In most cases, they really are very important to your examination. Ambiguous concerns, insufficient transparency in the system, subjective requirements during the correction, very little time for resolution and overpriced registration payment are some within the factors elevated.   When acknowledging the significance of some sort of prior collection for future attorneys, the exaggerated degree of problems from the evidence is usually a recurring notion, even among folks that have already been approved and defended. This high volume of desire provides for the anguish to enter the labor markets and friends and family force towards the parts which make the path into the profession far more complicated.

To check out a great deal more visit curso para passar na oab   See experiences and what students and legislation college students believe that:   Norma Desireé Barbosa Fortini, 27, celebrates graduation together with her husband, but cannot get an OAB   I have a legislation diploma from PUC-RS, but I job as a guide at Natura I did the OAB exam 4 times, but I didn't endure to your next period incredibly close to. Missed two or a few hits. It happens to be difficult to obtain a work only using a degree, simply because they need the lawyer's or trainee's license. Even a legislation graduate from PUC-RS, I function like a marketing consultant for Natura, earning R$ 500. The marketplace can be quite saturated in Porto Alegre and it has workplaces that pay back less than a minimum salary. With each disapproval we use out and lessen our self-esteem. I uncover myself a dumb human being, but I'm not, considering that I did five years of good higher education, graduation get the job done and defense with banking. For a stockbroker, he had to execute perfectly. I finished the PUC-RS having to pay R$ 1,250 regular (devoid of a scholarship could possibly be R$ two,500). I've capacity, I realize the articles and other content, nevertheless the issues belonging to the test is quite great. They make an evaluation to go as couple men and women as feasible. It is really at the standard of a public contest, when it should only attest that you've the opportunity to advocate. Will not give up. I want a general public defender, public prosecutor, I need to get a judge. This can be my desire and that i can get there. But for this I would like to advocate for a minimum of two a long time. I obtained expecting with the very last year of faculty and currently I have a small daughter to boost. I would like to totally focus on my scientific studies to go this blessed test, but its difficult to concentrate on missing diapers in your daughter. " Norma Desireé Barbosa Fortini, 27 decades previous, retains a bachelor's diploma in Regulation, graduated in 2009 from PUC-RS   The OAB portfolio is no ensure which you could make funds   "I am retired, previous metalworker and now I give good results as legitimate estate broker. I decided to attempt Law as a result of I preferred to possess a greater degree. The class assists me in my current profession, in the documentation component, to clarify the civil community for the consumers. I have to do the subsequent OAB test, that is certainly open, but I never concur while using the test. They want to appraise my 5 years of college in two exams. I've improved economic issues than a large number of classmates, but I locate the level abusive. For me the examination is nickel-hunter and won't support us at all. The reduced standard of approval of Uniban would not issue me. In this particular previous subject, I mastered that 4 from the one hundred students in my class have handed. I believe plenty of people do not want to become a attorney. Everyone knows that the OAB portfolio isn't any assurance that it'll generate profits. "   Once 3 failed makes an attempt to get the Order's document, Rafael Alencastro Moll, 25, is doing class.   “I've been in the place of work for four many years and experienced some thing on the test I have under no circumstances experienced. I've labored at a regulation organization considering the fact that I started off higher education. I heard everyone say it had been tricky, but it surely was only when i started to go ahead and take exams which i recognized how problematic they honestly ended up. I've tried using three days. In all, I appear shut, but I usually do not attain the quality to maneuver on the next stage. There is an awful lot about the check that we don't see in college or university best, they are acquiring quite a lot of data that we don't truly use in apply. I have been during the business 4 ages ago and there was one thing there which i do not ever saw. I'd not undertaken school, but now I'm undertaking it. Its encouraging an awful lot. I do think the Examination of Get is significant to provide a selected 1, you will find a lot of people unprepared for there. There are actually a number of schools that are not major. The exam really should consider the applicant, but I do think they're carrying out more than that, pretty much a contest. "

To find out extra facts see simulado oab     I researched at Unip and passed initial   "I graduated past year and passed the initial try out in the OAB exam. I was fortunate and i could also count on the family. My father and mom are attorneys, I interned of their places of work, and that i had the support to get equipped to dedicate myself absolutely to my experiments. I believe other occupations relevant towards the community fascination, similar to Engineering and Medicine, ought to have an OAB examination. The test prices loads of decoreba belonging to the law and will require a small additional authorized analysis. My college or university does not have an excellent passing pace, however it has fantastic instructors, beneficial physical composition, an equipped library, and that i had obtain to all the publications I needed to craft my monograph. "   In my working day, it absolutely was not necessary to take a crack. Now, the take a look at is more tough.   "I took the OAB examination as soon as I finished university, and that i handed first of all. I took the main check of Cespe (Center for Variety and Promotion of Gatherings, chargeable for the analysis till 2009), which was organized by Vunesp, thanks to the annulment of exam 134. The examination consists precisely in everything you usually do not discover in college or university, considerably less in São Francisco (Law-USP), whose concentration is the humanistic development in the jurist. The information for the dogmatic issues, for applications of community examinations and use in the pro occupation, is fruit with the software within the college student, and often is going to be. USP kinds jurists with free, unbiased contemplating. In the other hand, the drawback of San Francisco is the not enough didactics of some academics, who will not transmit important understanding within the subjects, in spite of getting great industry experts. In my day, it was not required to have a break. Presently, I feel the exam is more very difficult, necessitating additional precise know-how. The examination have to be maintained due to the fact, within the legal viewpoint, there is no offense in opposition to the Constitution. From the useful standpoint, the examination stops semi-literates from coming into a occupation wherein creating ability and common knowledge of regulation are crucial. And thru assessment these specifications is often verified. It's not necessarily like in medicine, wherever the specialist has passed a proof of home. A bachelors degree in regulation seriously really should be tested before with the ability to exercise regulation. " Riccardo Napoli, 26, an attorney graduated through the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2007. João Paulo Gonçalvez did a two-year class and passed the 2nd endeavor in the OAB   The proof needs to exist, but it surely must be reasonable.   "I continue to do not know if I am destined to be an attorney, given that I normally needed to be a delegate." Following I graduated, I got interested in law observe, and i decided to provide the Examination due to the fact I do think it will get much more plus more tricky. but it needs to be reasonable.I believe which the correction belonging to the second stage exams, that is subjective, is ambiguous.The tests are problematic, these are no more middleman.You can get several poor schools and then the condition has to require obligation, to guage extra also to boost their amount to stop persons from expending 5 years researching and afterwards not having the ability to enter the profession.Although the evidence of the Purchase have got to exist yes, I believe even all professions ought to have a similar examination.I went for the next try.I double-takeed and i feel which was critical to direct my scientific studies with the check, however it is to paint imperative topics even because the lessons are superficial. For me, the person's way of thinking relating to the day for the check also counts m The second time I took the take a look at, I was quite serene, I was ready to imagine significantly better and did everything. "   I do the complete procedure, I just never indication   "I concluded the Law course in 2008 and have already supplied the Order Examination three moments, but I used to be not accredited. I belonged with the group defending the exam, but when i had accessibility with the terrific viewpoint within the Deputy Lawyer Common Rodrigo Janot Monteiro de Barros, who questioned for his unconstitutionality, I confess that i improved my intellect (the judgment was despatched into the Federal Supreme Court, which assessment this 12 months). In my final test, the OAB demanded with the next stage a little something that even the judiciary doesn't want with the attorneys, the legal foundation citation (the content of regulation) to instruct the answers for the expert follow test. I dropped 2.eight points on account of that inside a race price ten points. I am fully persuaded that i am fit and equipped to protect a person. I do the full operation, I just never indicator. An alternative colleague indications. The OAB has raised the diploma of trouble relatively than the time for resolution. I used 4 hours executing just the piece and nonetheless experienced the essay thoughts with letters a, b, c. In observe, the lawyer has as a minimum five times to create a piece. I recognize the more you review, the greater you issue yourself and question. And it's a ton of 'banana peel' they put you to definitely slip. Way too a whole lot ambiguity, two-way challenges. There are distinct details of see in legislation so you really do not know which inspecting lender to comply with. I am talking to our colleagues: we are not researching to work at NASA. "

For additional knowledge visit https://zachishere.com/extreme-difficulty-of-the-oab-exam-will-be-the-main-criticism-of-bachelors/

[junipershill17]

twelve Things You Should Consider When Obtaining Your First Condo

1) Exploration the Builder:

Not all building contractors are alike. Many make high quality condos and have some sort of track record of success, while others lower corners and build substandard condo rentals. Aside from reviewing the general contractors webpage, one should also complete an internet search for watchdog accounts, lawsuits and discussion boards regarding proposed and existing condo properties. One thing to look out intended for is whether the builder that is project you are interested in, has a qualifications for completing their plans on time. I had a client who have purchased with a builder (who shall remain nameless on this article) that habitually sent back completion dates. My very own client was promised typically the keys a little under some years after purchasing the unit, plus the builder delayed possession 3 x from their original projected end date. After many infuriating delays, he final gotten the keys a whole 3 and a half years after the unique scheduled completion date. That tied his deposit income up for an a total connected with 5. 5 years. Its almost semed like a 2 . 5 calendar year interest free loan on the builder! In retrospect, for investor, he would have preferred to invest in another project on 15% deposit, then do the other 10% and preserved another 5%, and put that money into a different project, returning him likely double the return, as 2 . 5 less several years. This is why it pays to research often the builder!

2) Choose the style of condo that meets your thoughts:

Not all condos are similar. Some have age prohibitions, and rules about household pets. Other condos are more friends and family friendly in terms of the unit shapes and amenities. Still other individuals cater to retiree's. A good way to establish this is have a look at the number of bachelor's, one, two and a few bedroom units in the total building. You may also contact the home or property manager for the condominium to help verify whether it is a lifestyle condo catering to a certain demographic. Individuals fewer two and several bedroom units will likely not draw in large families. juniper hill

3) Identify financial status:

If you are a newbies buyer, getting pre-approved for just a mortgage is a must. Contact your traditional bank to determine your buying capabilities, and get a firm commitment notification from them locking in the charge, and approval amount. Not a soul wants to be left for the closing day without a home finance loan approval after you already manufactured the purchase. I have got countless past clients that had been given what they thought seemed to be an approval from their bank, exactly where in fact it was nothing more than a new verbal agreement. Some people experienced credit issues in the past which might warrant a more difficult endorsement process, and possibly at a bigger rate. It is always better to are aware that you received a formal pre-approval before you fall in love with a home that one could not afford.

4) Always soeak with local real estate agent:

Real estate agent's can give you statistics of which apartments are appreciating well in Mississauga as well as the most popular unit forms, and floor plans. This would help you to make a direct comparability between different condo houses in order to establish the true associated with the unit you are interested in. Don't just simply settle for any real estate agent. All over again, not all real estate agents are the same. Aim to work with a local expert that are experts in the type of properties that desire you. After all, why will you work with a realtor that stocks mainly full sized households in the suburbs, when you are hunting purchase a condo in the urban center? It is like going to the dental practitioner for your flu!

5. Complete your own research:

If you plan to order a home without a real estate agent, it is best to look into the sales of the adjacent area yourself. Again, these kind of resources will be less acquireable to the general public, but you can have access to the asking selling prices of similar properties. That does not mean that those prices are classified as the market values for that distinct property, or even necessarily these people sell for. Be careful if information gathering. I have possessed a number of past clients cheer me after their try to find educating them on place values, and explaining to these individuals what to look for when they are searching. Obtain get the assistance of a neighborhood expert, when they're expert services are free?

6. Find out creating to order capability:

Although freehold houses allow the owner to carry out makeover without anyone's consent, accommodations have restrictions on what is usually altered for each unit. An overall rule of thumb should be to request prepared permission from the property managing before making any renovations. The home or property managers consent is always instructed to various degrees depending on the residence. Usually renovation work that needs removing a wall or maybe upgrading bathtubs and bath areas will have limitations on what can certainly, and cannot be done. Many require that a detailed remodel plan be submitted into the condo board for agreement prior to the renovation taking place. As well as better to be proactive. You actually wouldn't want to reverse the actual reno back once is probably the best completed! I had a client who all removed all the carpet of their unit, to replace with wood. She did this to raise the value of their unit previous to selling it, only to determine that management had to agree any floor renovations. The woman tried to then sell the system thinking that hardwood wood enhance the value of her unit. The item did increase the value of your ex unit, but in failing to put on and receive consent from property manager, she was could possibly be renovation restrictions in the making. It was later found this she did not use the right sound-proofing underpad beneath the real wood. The condo corporation thought that this would hinder the particular enjoyment of the unit owner specifically below hers because of disturbance. Consequently, she had to dissect out the hardwood, install completely new underpad, and then replace the wooden. This ate into all of her profit, and your girlfriend investment, and time was definitely not rewarded. The moral with the story is to always get these renovations with the rental property manager before you begin. It could save you a large amount!

7) Ask for a disclosure statement:

The developer as well as builder of a new terme conseillé is required to have an information book giving details of the building, along with the legal terms under that your condominium will operate. Often the booklet is available immediately after typically the Agreement of Purchase along with Sale is signed. Sufficient reason for resale units, this "Condo By Laws and Declarations" booklet is always made available over the 10 day conditional interval when you purchase a unit. It is placed on the status certificate that is definitely forwarded to your lawyer to get review. Your lawyer in that case has 2 business time to review the certificate, in addition to consult the purchaser having his/her findings. If anything checks out, the buyer may make progress with the purchase. If there usually are red flags in the documents, often the purchaser always reserves it is your right walk away within the conditional time.

8. Ask for a site approach:

It is important to know if the model that you want to purchase is in the initially, second or third level of development so that you know any future construction that will block your existing perspective. Of equal significance is definitely knowing when, and everywhere more development may arise around this building. New progress adjacent to the building will effects the use and enjoyment of your rental due to noise, vibration, bothersome construction, dust and strong smells. It is also good practice to know where your unit will be with proximity to the elevator, junk disposal room, and features, as units near these components usually have a stigma installed on them in the resale sector. Besides, who would want to fragrance the garbage room after a longer day at work.

9) Establish development plans for the associated with area:

Many condos are purchased under the premise of a apparent view to the Lake, scenery, or green-space. To ensure that your lovely view will be maintained in the long term, an instant trip to the Planning Department will help you ask if any other improvements are planned nearby, in order to have a look at the architectural paintings. The planners should be able to provide help to understand the types of developments that happen to be proposed around you. I have acquired many calls from folks who bought privately through the local building company units with south vistas of the lake as an investment property. These investors would store the unit until they be given the keys, and the building detects as a condominium corporation. At this moment, they would try to resell it, only to be shocked that your new condominium just begun construction in front of they're system, obstructing their perfect sth view. The investors miscalculation was being too excited during the buy process, without taking a take a step back and asking the right issues up front.

10) Review thoughtfulness details:

If the developer databases a swimming pool, it is important to determine what size and whether it is indoors or outdoor. The same is rue party rooms, exercise parts, gyms, sports fields, gyms and lockers. Find out how significant, how many, and where sun's rays located.

Again, these 12 considerations can affect both your fun, and the resale value of your personal condo. It is always better to local plumber upfront, and then enjoy the incentives of your hard work once you have changed in!

References Apartment

[cellerityweb]

Welcome to SAE – Programmers Wanted!

The profession of game programmer is not only versatile and challenging, it’s also constantly changing. The education at SAE Institute prepares you perfectly for this journey.

The German games industry has changed dramatically over the last ten years. In addition to developers of classic PC and console games, studios for browser and mobile games have radically stirred up the market. Today, they provide by far the most jobs within the German games industry.

The increasing professionalization of the studios has also led to fundamental changes in the work of the programmers. Not only must they have knowledge in programming languages; they also have to be familiar with game engines, version control and project management tools.

“Hence, the job of a programmer consists of much more than developing and implementing algorithms.”

Through the practical work at various projects, the students can familiarize themselves with the tools and techniques of game development and programming.

Apart from the classic computer science education, there are a number of colleges and universities in Germany, which prepare you very well for working in the games industry. The choice is huge – so it’s worth taking a closer look at the various facilities – but more on that later. With our »Games Programming Diploma«, here at SAE Institute we focus on an education with the most practical orientation possible and on preparing our students for a quick career take-off.

What can you expect from studying »Games Programming«?

Imagine a milking stool. It’s got three legs. The education to become a games programmer and the associated requirements have a similar structure. The first »leg« is programming languages. In this part, you get to know various programming languages and learn which one best fits your project. C++, C#, Java or a different one? C++ and C# are the most common programming languages in the games industry, but it’s hard to say which one is the better choice. It’s really secondary which language you learn; what’s more important are the concepts and approaches. How is a program structured? How can I create my code efficiently and with as little maintenance as possible? How can I bring the many different sub-systems together? The language itself is only the means to implement this and is largely dependent on the second leg: the game engine.

In the open »Edit Area« at SAE Institute Bochum, students of all departments can share their experience

30 years ago, games were mostly redesigned and programmed from scratch. Due to the constant development of the hardware and the large number of platforms like PC, consoles, smartphones, etc., this is hardly possible today. That’s why most game developers – both AAA studios and indies – use game engines, either developed by the studios themselves or internationally established versions. Working with such engines is therefore an essential part of the education. We mostly work with Unity and thus C# since that one is widespread in Germany. But since especially the big studios work mostly with their own engines, we will also provide insight into Unreal Engine and C++, not only about working with the editor, but also about its tools and how to get the assets into the engine and how to use them.

Andreas Hauber, head of the Game Art department at SAE Institute Cologne explains the VR concept using the HTC Vive.

The third leg of the »milking stool« stands for the team. No team, no game! In addition to programmers, you need artists, game and sound designers, project managers, and many more. Working in a team also holds a lot of risks though, which you have to be prepared for. The education is therefore mainly about working on a lot of projects. That way, you get familiar with version control such as SVN or Git and project management tools. Learning how to work with deadlines is important, too. Arranging yourself with your teammates as well as working together on the same code base and project structure are particularly important experiences to make since that’s what it’s all about in your later career.

But of course, the program will also cover topics like mathematics and physics or gameplay mechanics. But what you have to understand most as a game programmer is how engines work »under the hood«. It’s not about writing your own engine, but more about knowing the procedures and pipelines in order to be able to optimize your own projects. How does a game loop work? What are game states? How can I change the look of my game? All in all, there is a lot to learn, and the education to become a games programmer is not the right thing for everyone.

What do you need to consider when choosing your education?

Those who fight their way through the many different education choices in Germany are faced with all sorts of options: Game Design, Art, Programming, and much more. Not every study program includes the education to become a games programmer. Sometimes it’s rather a course in game design with a little bit of programming; sometimes the education is more technical, where you mostly learn how to write your own engine. Of course, there are also pure programming courses, but again you have the choice between various educational institutes. But which program is the right one for you? If you want to design games, you should obviously look for Game Design classes. If you’d rather create characters and animations, an Art education is your type of choice. And all those who have strong analytical capacities and are good at thinking in abstract ways, should become programmers. But please bear in mind that not all programming courses are the same. If you’re particularly interested in game engines and would like to know how they work in detail, you should look for computer science programs at universities. But if you prefer to program games and have a thing for the application and the implementation of game mechanics, you may want to look for respective colleges or private institutes like SAE Institute.

In the student lounges, students can take a break from work and free their minds.

It’s worth getting a personal impression of the college or university before deciding on a study program. Taking advantage of an »open house day« or talking to a student advisor might be helpful to get a first look. Getting in touch directly with the students is useful and usually no problem. Apart from the fees, the place of study might also play an important role for your choice, and of course also the question whether the course content suits you. How theoretical or practical do you want your education to be? Is any prior knowledge required? In our institute, for example, you don’t have to have any previous knowledge about the development of games. But it’s absolutely necessary that you like math, are ready to solve problems and don’t shy away if something isn’t working the way it should, but that you’re able to thoroughly analyze the problem and fix it. Of course, this doesn’t mean that students with prior knowledge aren’t welcome. Quite the contrary – these students can tackle more advanced topics sooner.

Can you specialize in something?

The education makes you familiar with various areas of game programming. As a future programmer, it’s important to be able to quickly familiarize yourself with new topics and to get a good overview of all relevant areas. That way, you not only gain an edge over your competitors, but you can also find out which areas suit you best.

But why specialize in a subject? Aren’t allrounders everybody’s darling? This question can be answered with yes and now. Especially smaller studios favor generalists, but there’s been some specializations there as well. Larger teams, on the other hand, look for talent in specialized work areas such as artificial intelligence. That’s why you should already find out your preferences during your education and pursue them after your graduation. A specialization doesn’t necessarily have to take place on certain mechanics or technical levels, you can also specialize on an academic level. At SAE Institute, for example, the diploma can be extended by a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree. For the Bachelor, you mainly earn expertise in business, marketing as well as time and project management. But technical specialization and programming, too, are on the agenda. As the highest academic education, you can earn the Master’s degree at SAE Institute. The Bachelor and Master are offered in cooperation with Middlesex University in London.

What comes after the education?

When one education is over, the next one begins, and just as in any other profession, the rule is: never stop learning!

Trial and Error: The developed games need to be tested, like this VR project using the HTC Vive.

You always have to stay on top of the game and learn about innovations and trends in programming languages and game engines, but also about new processes and techniques. It’s already recommendable during the education to regularly take part in conferences and events as well as visiting relevant portals and websites. They not only benefit your education, but also the networking and exchange. Again and again, people meet new business partners or their future employer that way. At SAE Institute, we offer additional support in the form of »Industry Relations & Career Coaches« (IRCCs). An IRCC supports the students already during their studies, getting an idea of the strengths and weaknesses, interests and preferences of every single student. They give advice on applications and establish industry contacts. You may also get discounts on conferences and special lectures by industry veterans. And the job prospects? Don’t be fooled if game developers cut jobs or become bankrupt. The number of jobs in the German games industry has doubled in the past ten years, and as a game programmer you’re still very sought-after – outside the games industry, too, by the way.

No matter what kind of education you will go for, no matter what institute you will choose, and no matter whether you’re a noob or a pro: The most important thing is to complete as many projects as possible. It’s not about having commercial success after their release, but about completing projects and further developing your expertise. Show the employers that that’s what you want to do and that you can’t wait to join their team. Because remember: Programmers wanted – desperately!

About the Author:

David Hackbarth is Head Lecturer at SAE Institute Berlin

David is a freelance game programmer and also a lecturer at SAE Institute. He’s been an active part of the games industry since 2009, having worked on a large number of projects from PC to mobile to consoles.

@LinkedIn

The post Welcome to SAE – Programmers Wanted! appeared first on Making Games.

Welcome to SAE – Programmers Wanted! published first on https://thetruthspypage.tumblr.com/