#other than pretty dead social media accounts from 8 years ago

[powderedwhiteviolets]

something in me has possessed me to start stalking people i went to high school with and have had no contact with across social media and am finding some gold. like one of them plays rugby professionally? this other dude works for amazon as a business development exec...whatever that means...the dude i had a massive crush on who looked like a teenage dipper pines ended up aging into a this stereotypical gigachad who does triathlon so dodged a bullet there...

none of this is crucial to my life and i am in fact ignoring several important tasks to do this instead but idc

[mineofilms]

2020… My Life… Everything Else Is Just Blurry…

Where to begin… I have been a type 2 diabetic since 2013. I got diabetes from excessive partying/drinking, originally. I continued to behave like this till June 2020. Granted, I wasn’t going as hard, in general, over the years, but each year and hardship I found myself going back to those old vices more frequently.

When the pandemic struck SWFL my drinking went up about 400%. No joke. I trained 4 days on and drank the other 3 days, hard. I did that from March to late June.

I caught Covid-19 around June 26th. By July 11th I needed to be hospitalized for Diabetic Ketoacidosis (where the body produces excess blood acids; ketones. This occurs when there isn't enough insulin in the body. It can be triggered by infection or other illness.) & Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas. It happens when digestive enzymes start digesting the pancreas itself.) I was in ICU for 36 hours and in the hospital for 5 days. I lost 21 lbs over that time.

3 days after I got home from the hospital, Macular Edema (blood vessels in the retina burst and bleed into the eyes), set in. That took about a month to heal only for Diabetic Retinopathy (those same blood vessels that burst heal and are inflamed).

Usually requires anti-inflammatory shots into the eye ball and laser surgery to burn away some of the excess scar tissue. These cost thousands of dollars without insurance, which I do not have. I have read that they can heal on their own, but it takes about 8-12 months. I am in month 4.

However, I actually cannot confirm if that statement about them healing on their own is actually true or not. Some notes in journals say yes while other, more creditable sites, say no. One must get treatment.

Now let me be clear that Covid-19 did not cause my Diabetic Ketoacidosis & Pancreatitis. My lack of proper care for my diabetes caused these. I was already in the yellow and when I got Covid-19 it just put me in the RED. I now, at this point, required medical care or I would die. Those are the facts about me getting Covid-19, my Diabetic Ketoacidosis & Pancreatitis…

Flash-Forward to now… I got my blood sugars down to near normal (high) levels. This means my blood sugar is still high, but for me, I used to walk around at 400. 500-600 is diabetic coma. 80-120 is considered normal. I walk around between 130-230, currently, fasted.

I have not had a drink since June 26th. I will never drink again. I can’t.

1) Alcohol has thoroughly ruined my adult life in all sorts of areas besides this. It got me sick to begin with among, other, things.

2) If I drink I could be back in the hospital with Diabetic Ketoacidosis & Pancreatitis, again.

3) I made a deal with GOD. If I have to live through this (I prayed to die that night) that I would never drink again.

What kind of dick lies to GOD lol? A decade ago I would have… I hated everything about the concept of GOD. Now, I have come to terms that if there is or there isn’t; it doesn’t matter. I value me, my beliefs. Why not carry myself with that respect. I do not need to tell or share my beliefs with others. I care not for such things.

I am solely worried about my mental, physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual health.

I did not quit drinking because of addiction issues or any of that business. I made the choice because if I didn’t my pancreas would fail and I would be dead in a few months. That is how bad my pancreas was… I do not see myself as someone that is doing all this for attention. I have barely even made mention of this whole story on my social media. I have told people in direct messages, but I do not post everything that is happening in my life on social media.

Granted this Tumblr account is considered social media, but I do not use it for that purpose. It is strictly for my BLOG entries. I do not follow people on Tumblr. I post, get my URL and share it that way. Its not in your face on Facebook or anything, but one can click the link and go read about the crazy things in my head.

Taking care of my mental, physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual health is a full time job in and of itself. Now, currently I cannot work. I can only drive during the day. I cannot see well enough to drive at night.

I have other medical issues stemming from this and it is quite the laundry list. However, I think I gave you all enough to think about.

I am back in great shape now. Since I quit drinking and got back from the hospital I went from 119 to 163 lbs. I have not been this big since 2012. Right before I believe my Diabetic State started. My strength is coming back with a vengeance too. I am putting up more weight than I have in nearly a decade.

I have had to make serious and big changes to EVERYTHING in my life.

My computer is now changed from dual 22 inch monitors to one 46 inch monitor. I have to make changes like this just to see well enough to do some things on the computer.

I am still very blind. My vision has decent days and some days I cannot see much of anything. I cannot see my phone without a magnifying glass. I just got my eyes looked at several times cause my power keeps shifting and now my current glasses setup does not exactly help much. My computer glasses are ok for this, but my normal bifocals are pretty useless.

However; I do feel like I can write a little bit more now. I have a few blogs I want to write and then go right back into the novel. This might be the only realistic possibility of me being able to work to earn my keep. Normal 9-5, Monday-Friday are out of the question, indefinitely.

Not only am I not well enough for the grind, physically. My mental health is very questionable. I have had issues for years now. I have had about 20 jobs in 15 years. I have done a real number on my mental health over the years. Always trying to do more, work harder than the next person so I can make that “good money” that some always throw in my face. I did the work. I put in the time, but only to be messed with. Yes, I have that sort of mental issue.

One tries to mess with me. Mess with the positive shit I am doing. I lose my head pretty quick. I have repeatedly demonstrated over the course of my life that I have no restraint at all when it comes to that feeling of being seriously fucked with and have them look at you like; “What are you gonna do about it?”

Well that is it… I always do something about it. Even when I know I shouldn’t. It is my worst impulsive trait that I cannot get a handle on. Ever since I was a kid. I wanna say. It started when I was 11 or so.

I have made huge strides in changing my life, my thinking and how I fit into the scheme of things. I have become more an introvert than an extrovert. Even before the pandemic I was going out less and less. Doing things less and less. It got to a point to where I only went out when I could drink and/or the band was playing. I was already becoming less social. So this is nothing overly drastic about that UNLESS you count Facebook activity.

I have not advertised much on my Facebook and for good reasons… I posted about my 6 months of sobriety and the responses I got were all about, pressing on and “the struggle.”

I pulled it down. There was no struggle here. I am not a keep on keepin’ on mannnnnn… Type of Personality… No… I quit drinking so I can live another 10-15, hopefully more, years.  I just went through a friend dying from literally drinking himself to death. I know what people go through with their addiction struggles. I have my own reservations about how I feel about said subject matter.

Needless to say I did not appreciate how people view me on Facebook. I no longer post blogs their either. I post here on tumblr and put a link on my Facebook if anyone wants to read. That is about it.

I know people do not read more than a handful of sentences that ends with a weird hashtag or snapchat handle. I get it. It is also my fault because I have not told the Facebook wall/timeline of my mental and medical conditions and struggles. I reserve those conversations to be personal.

So if you want to know stuff, then let us get personal. Pretty much that simple. I do not do FAKE FRIENDS…

I try to be transparent. In the past it was easy, but now everyone has an opinion that they call facts. I do not know how many people I blocked on Facebook for being so damn ignorant or attention seeking.

I know I do not do attention seeking things. When I write it is with intention to say something. I would say 1600+ words on these subjects merits a little more than “attention seeking” behavior…

Things are looking up. I have done soooooooooo much. With so very little and make it look like I have a lot and that everything is fine. No. God Damnit… Everything is not fine. I am kicking ass trying to make something fine but not everything. Everything will never be FINE… Not ever. However, I can strive for it. I can continue to put in that work and just ignore the dumb shit. Which I am becoming pretty good at. I am still me. I am still blunt. If I rough feathers that is just my way of getting those people away from me.

Goodbye 2020… You will never be forgotten and your mark has definitely been left…

2020… My Life… Everything Else Is Just Blurry… By David-Angelo Mineo Words 1,738  12/30/2020

[purplesurveys]

1029

[found at: zelthie]

What were you doing before you got on the computer? I took a long-ass shower after the humid nightmare that was today.

Is there anything you really want right now? I wish I had some pastry to go with my iced coffee. I miss my studying sessions at coffee shops :( and it’s not like I’ll get to have them again once Covid is over, because I’m not even in school anymore. Sigh. Also, a longer weekend. I can hardly believe it’s Sunday again tomorrow, and that after that will be Monday again. I love my work, but I also want to reeeeeeeeest.

What's the best gift you've ever gotten? Probably the front-row concert tickets my dad got me for Paramore. Outside of my parents, I really appreciated the scrapbook Gabie made for me three years ago. It turned out to be the first and only handmade gift she’d ever make for me, so I think of it fondly.

What's a song you think the world needs to listen to? Idk, people have different tastes and so it may not be possible to name a song that would successfully appeal to everybody.

Has there ever been a person you regret ever being friends with? As much as I like to firmly believe that regretting friendships should be avoided as much as possible because those people made me happy at one point, I’ve got nothing nice to say about Marielle.

Do you think you have a good understanding on love? I don’t know anything anymore.

You just discovered a new color! What would you name it? No thanks, please don’t ask me to be creative any time of the day.

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Cookies and cream, and recently, chocolate chip cookie dough.

What do you want to do on your honeymoon? I have not had one but should I do, I’d love to go somewhere non-beachy for a change.

What's one thing you remember learning in school? Spelling difficult words. English (the language, not literature) was my favorite subject in middle school and I always liked the pop spelling quizzes we had. There are some words I could still remember getting wrong, like ‘rendezvous’ and ‘coup d’etat’ but I was always excited about learning their correct spellings so that I could start using them on my own time as well.

Are you more of a cat or dog person? Dog for sure.

How do you want to be remembered by people? [trigger warning] Idk. Whenever I think about...leaving, I always also think about leaving some kind of note instructing whoever’s in charge of stuff to keep things hushed, because I don’t want the whole thing to be a big deal and for it to spread. I don’t really want to be remembered for anything.

Do you like road trips? Yaaaaaaaaas. As long as I’ve got the right playlist that’s also long enough as well as several seasons of Friends, I’d be good to go.

Do you think Medical Marijuana should be legalized? I haven’t read much about it and that topic in general is still widely taboo over here, but I personally have nothing against it.

If you were forced to dye your hair another color, what color would you get? Brown.

Excited for anything? My first paycheck :D :D

What do you think of your parent(s)? They’re doing their best.

Are your grandparents dead? Just one.

What celebrity do you think should have never become famous? Amber Heard and the Paul brothers.

What's your favorite thing to do online? Watch stuff on YouTube. These days I’ve been revisiting wrestling again so I’ve been watching loads of matches and promos I enjoyed throughout my teenage years. I’m scared to dip my toes into today’s content though, because I barely know anyone anymore and there would be a lot of storylines I’d have to get acquainted with; but idk, I might get there someday.

Are you glad George W. Bush is out of office? I didn’t know his presidency all that well because I was way too young when he was still in office. Apparently he’s not very popular.

If you could appear on any TV show, what show would you choose? I’ve always wanted to try out The Amazing Race. I was definitely hooked to that show as a kid.

What does your full name look like without the letters t,a,i,o,e,l,n or s? Rby.

Your mood summed up into one word? Emotionless. I’m literally not feeling anything at the moment, but this is still a lot better than being miserable so I’ll take it.

How often do you talk to other people about the weather? Only when we’re experience extremes, like if it’s painfully, annoyingly hot out or if there’s a bad typhoon. Otherwise I try to find something else to talk about.

Are you doing anything else besides taking this survey right now? Nope, my full attention is on here.

What's a name you wouldn't mind having? At this point, I’ve learned to be okay with my name and don’t feel the need to whine about it anymore.

What's your favorite thing to wear that you own? My mom jeans or denim jacket.

What do you think of Barbie dolls? Boring, mostly. I grew up with boys, so we had more toys marketed for boys and those are what I ended up liking more.

When you were little, did you ever want to go to Disneyland? Not really.

Do you currently have a job? What kind of job do you *want* to have? I do. I’m already in the job/career I had wanted and aimed to be in.

What do you like to do on your free time? Being on YouTube, playing with my dogs, surveys, eating.

What's your relationship with your parents like? With my mom, it’s permanently strained after years of verbal and emotional abuse, but at some point I just learned to live with the trauma – it’s like, we get along these days and we barely get into screaming matches anymore, but at the back of my head I’m still constantly reeling from the hurt she had put me through when I was younger.

My dad and I act like each other’s buddies, but we silently look out for one another. For example he’ll sometimes make a plate of corndogs just for me while I’m at work, and that’s his way of saying “Are you ok? Here, have this. I’m worried about you” without ever having to say it to my face.

Do you own any pets? Yes, I’ve got two dogs.

How many places have you traveled to? Six countries and all over my own country, except Mindanao.

Do you own a cell phone? If so, what kind? iPhone 8.

What are your goals for the future? For things to fall into place, whatever that would bring me.

What's your favorite kind of drink? Just plain old cold water, or coffee.

Did you ever get into the Twilight saga craze? What about the Harry Potter craze? I was (and am, heheh) into Twilight; I wasn’t into Harry Potter.

Where is your mind at: The Past, the Present, the Future, or all around? My mind tends to make space for all three of these.

What's a really good movie you've seen recently? I haven’t seen any films recently but I am planning to watch Ammonite, which I have high hopes and expectations for.

Are you happy where you are right now? Career-wise, yes. As for everything else...could be a little better.

What's the first thing you thought in your head when you woke up today? AHHHHHHH SATURDAY.

If your best friend confessed that they can see the future, you would...? Ask how they were able to get such an ability.

Write a random quote that comes to your head: I’ve been watching Friends all day so the first set of quotes I thought of upon reading this question was, “I just don’t want to face three failed marriages.” “At what point did you think this was a successful marriage?” hahahahaha.

What's your opinion on milk chocolate? Like it, but sometimes can be too sweet.

What about Dark Chocolate? I don’t like dark chocolate bars themselves – too bitter; but I don’t mind it being incorporated in other sweets, like cookies that have dark chocolate bits.

You do know that white chocolate isn't even really chocolate, right? Yes. But it’s my favorite kind.

Do you get annoyed when surveys mention a band you've never heard of? If they mention it excessively or if they name too many unfamiliar bands, then I’m likely to get annoyed, yeah. But I skim through potential surveys anyway, so if I observe that a survey has too many music references I can’t relate to then I just don’t take it.

What's your opinion about Katy Perry's song "I kissed a girl"? Cool song and ahead of its time tbh, but she has so many other better singles.

What's your least favorite pizza topping? Pepperoni, beef, and pineapples.

What would you do if you discovered the US was now drafting for the war? Don’t care.

Are you even living in America, or are you from another country? Bingo for the latter.

What's your favorite social website? Twitter.

Do you believe in heaven? If so, what's it like? If not, why? No. I associate heaven with gods or higher beings, so believing in it would just kill the point of being atheist. I do like to find comfort in some sort of afterlife where I’m not in pain and am reunited with all my loved ones, though. I don’t necessarily believe in it, but it’s just comforting to think about and makes death a lot less scary.

What's your favorite video game? Super Smash Bros. Brawl would probably be my all time favorite. I do plan to get Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Switch, so that might get dethroned soon.

In your opinion, is Bzoink the best place to find fun surveys? Yes.

What's your opinion of high school? It only got fun once I found the right friends. Without them, I’m sure my experience would have been miserable.

Do you prefer the country or city? City.

Texting: Is it fun, evil, boring, or none of the above? It can be all of these things depending on the context of the conversation.

What email service do you use for your main (or only) email account? I’m mainly on Gmail. I have an Outlook account that’s still active, but I’ve been listing it less and less for social media sites.

What's your favorite dumb pick-up line? I don’t do pick-up lines, really. I find the entire concept pretty lame.

What are your plans for the next 48 hours? I got hooked to Friends again, so I’ll probably continue watching for the whole of tomorrow. For Monday, I’ll be at work again.

Did you ever read "Captain Underpants" when you were little? Yes. I lovedddd those books, but I always had to read them in secret (my cousin owned the books and I just asked to borrow) because my mom disapproved of them. My favorites were the Flip-O-Rama sections.

What's better: The old Cartoon Network, or the new one? Or do you not care? I’m not aware of the new version, so that leaves me with one choice. Generally, though, Cartoon Network was my least favorite channel out of the big 3 of kids’ channels.

Disney Channel shows are all pretty cheesy, aren't they? The ones they air today are, but maybe I’m just saying that because I’m already outside of their target demographic.

What's your opinion on the Jonas Brothers? I can’t think of a reason to dislike them. They’ve always been likeable, whether as individuals or as a band.

What are some of your favorite singers/bands? Beyoncé, Paramore, Hozier, alt-J, Coldplay, Against Me!, The Japanese House are the main favorites I like mentioning.

Why do the lead singers in bands always get the most recognition?! Probably because they’re the ones mainly heard. I always recognize all the members in my favorite bands, though.

Did you ever believe in the Tooth Fairy? I did, but when I didn’t receive any money  after placing my tooth under my pillow, my hopes and belief got shattered pretty quickly.

What's your favorite type of weather? Cold, cloudy, and rainy.

What's your opinion on reading books? I think it’s great when people are able to find the time to read books, and lots of them. I wish I didn’t grow out of it.

You're given a chance to act in a Hollywood Blockbuster! Would you accept? Nope.

What it if it was a movie directed by Tim Burton?(He directed Sweeney Todd) He ranks pretty low for me. He’s a great director and I respect his craft, but his filmography is not a personal favorite of mine.

How do you feel about Taco Bell? I wish I can have it more often, but we only have two branches in the Philippines and they are both far away.

Are you hungry right now? I can honestly go for a snack right now :/ Like chicken tenders or pad thai. I’m super tempted to order from Grab since I have more than enough cash on me, but I don’t want to be irresponsible with my money so very early on lol

How often do you go on to Youtube? Everyday, and most of everyday.

It's possible to be addicted to anything... What are you addicted to? Curry.

What's your opinion of Wallgreens? Unfamiliar.

Back when Spongebob Squarepants was famous, were you interested in it? Yes, it was my favorite cartoon.

What's your dream pet? Dogs.

You see a mermaid while relaxing on the beach with friends. What now? Think that it’s probably a social experiment and let them be.

Who's been your favorite teacher growing up, and why? My music teacher always gave amazing life advice alongside her lessons, and she was so graceful and so classy and she simply invited respect everywhere she went. I’ve always wanted to be like her.

When you were little, did you ever like Pokemon? Yes. I watched the anime and collected Pokemon pogs and cards. My cousin had a lot of the video games and I’d watch him play those, while my sister had a couple of Pokemon books that explained each Pokemon.

How often do you get headaches? These days, everyday. Hahaha work is super hectic.

Do you have any songs stuck in your head right now? If so, what? Saw You In A Dream by The Japanese House.

[noona-clock]

DaySense: Summer ☀️ - Part 2, Final Chapter

A Day6 collab series with the lovely @cramelot 💋

Genre: College & Soulmate!AU

Pairing: Jae x You

By Admin B

Part 1, 2

You had been an avid fan of Day6 for almost two years now, though it honestly felt like it was just yesterday when you’d seen them play at your favorite coffee shop on campus.

It had been during your second year of college, and... frankly, it hadn’t been a good time for you. Your younger sister had been going through some scary health issues, your dad had lost his job, your Chemistry professor was a huge asshole and wouldn’t let you try to bring your grade up with some extra assignments, and... your boyfriend had just dumped you.

So when you’d been moping over a hazelnut latte and heard these sweet angel voices singing a song called “Colors,” you’d fallen in love instantly.

You had recognized one of the musicians, the bass player, from your literature class, but the others you hadn’t seen before. And one of the guitarists, the blonde with the glasses, had caught your eye. By the end of their set, you hadn’t been able to take your eyes off him and had become determined to find out more about him.

Ever since then, you’d followed them around. You’d been to as many gigs and shows and competitions as you could, always sitting far enough away so they wouldn’t notice you.

You were a fangirl, yes, but you weren’t that type of fangirl.

They were fellow students, after all. It’s not like they were some elevated beings who deserved to be worshipped and treated like Gods. You absolutely adored their music, and you eventually developed a major crush on Jae, but you didn’t want to make a big show of meeting them or getting their autograph or asking to take pictures or anything.

Although... you did definitely daydream about Jae. A lot.

He was just so cute! And funny! You had his tweet notifications turned on, and it took everything in you not to like and retweet every single one just seconds after he posted it.

But you kept all this to yourself because what if you ended up in the same class together?! Or what if you ran into him on campus?! If you told one of your friends about your crush, they would tell someone else who was a friend of a friend of one of the other Day6 members, and Jae would end up hearing about this random girl who was in love with him without ever having met him and you would never stand a chance at actually dating him.

So yeah.

You were a fangirl, but you weren’t that type of fangirl.

Although last night had hit you pretty hard.

Watching Day6′s amazing performance of one of your favorite songs, “Congratulations” and then hearing their name announced for third runner up?

Yikes.

You couldn’t even imagine how they felt.

You tried not to think too much about it, how unfair it all was, but now that spring classes were over and summer classes had yet to begin... you didn’t really have much else to think about.

So when you woke up around 8 this morning, around the usual time you woke up for classes all semester, you decided to head to the closest coffee shop for an iced hazelnut latte.

When you didn’t have anything on your schedule, you tended to stay in bed (or at least in your pajamas) all day, so it was best if you made yourself get up and actually do something.

After throwing on some shorts, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap, you headed out to procure your cold, caffeinated beverage.

Not even twenty minutes after leaving your apartment, you were already exiting the cafe, iced latte in hand.

When classes weren’t in session, apparently, things around campus were pretty dead. There was no extremely long line at the cafe, and the baristas hadn’t been backlogged with orders like they usually were.

You slid your phone out of your pocket as you strode down the sidewalk, deciding to catch up on everything you’d missed on social media since before Battle of the Bands last night. (...Meaning, you wanted to see if Jae had tweeted anything or posted on Instagram.)

Before pulling up Twitter, though, you plugged in your headphones and shuffled your Day6 playlist on YouTube.

Since they hadn’t released any recorded music yet, you had to make do with the videos they posted on their YouTube channel. It was much better than nothing, and by now, you were pretty sure you accounted for more than half of their views!

Once the smooth guitar of “Out of My Mind” began to play, you let out a soft sigh of contentment and took a sip of your latte.

Could summer be off to any more of a perfect start?

Well... yes. 

If Day6 had won last night, that would’ve made things truly perfect.

But that hadn’t happened, so what else can you do?

You bobbed your head along to the music as you scrolled through Twitter, holding yourself back from singing along out loud since you were in public and all. 

A couple of tweets from Jae showed up on your timeline, so you obviously liked them.

And... you were really tempted to reply back to the one about Battle of the Bands.

...Would today be the day you plucked up the courage to actually say something to him?

I mean, say something online.

You took a deep breath, clicking on his tweet... letting your thumb hover over the ‘Reply’ button...

Oh, god.

Should you?

I mean... why not? He would appreciate the support, right?!

Definitely!

So you clicked ‘Reply’ and your phone’s keyboard popped up and you started typing and then you noticed a shadow on the sidewalk in front of you and you quickly looked up but you weren’t quick enough and you knocked right into whoever it was.

“Ooph!” you groaned as your cheek hit the person’s shoulder. You immediately stopped walking, holding your latte out to the side so you wouldn’t spill any of it. 

And then you looked up.

It took a second to realize who it was, but your eyes widened slightly when you did.

...It was him.

Oh... oh my god.

OH MY GOD.

It was Jae in all his glory. Red hat, pink shirt, glasses, plush lips, blonde hair - all of it.

(Red hat and pink shirt, though? Interesting color combination seeing as it was summer, not Valentine’s Day.)

You quickly stopped your music and reached up to yank one of your earbuds out.

“I am so sorry!” you breathed, sounding just as shy as you felt right now.

“Oh, no, it’s --” Jae had been holding out a camera, and he shifted his gaze from his lens to your face.

And, just like yours had, his eyes widened slightly. But they also looked... unfocused somehow?

“No, it’s my -- my fault --” he stammered, his eyes frantically searching you.

...Why was he frantically searching you?

And... why was his hat changing colors?

It had just been red a second ago, but now it was... you honestly weren’t sure what color that was, you’d never seen it before in your life.

Maybe a huge cloud was up in the sky, casting a shadow or something.

“Are you all right?” you asked a bit timidly since Jae wasn’t really saying anything else.

Jae shook his head slightly, blinking furiously and taking a step back. “Ye -- yeah, I just... something’s... I don’t know what’s happening.”

You also took a step back because, as Jae was talking and looking at you...

Okay, you weren’t going to believe this.

His... eyes? And teeth? Were... changing color? Just like his hat?

What?!

They were now bright and shining and sharply contrasted against the rest of his face and you had no idea what was going on.

Hold on, though. Hadn’t Jae just said ‘I don’t know what’s happening’? So he was experiencing something weird, too?

“Wait, what’s happening to you?” you asked, your heart racing with panic.

“I --”

You noticed his hat again, and now you were sure it was definitely a different color. And your mind was too overwhelmed to comprehend what was going on, so you interrupted him and blurted out the first thing which came to your mind: “I’m sorry, what color is your hat?”

Jae’s hand immediately flew up to his head, resting on top of his hat.

“Black,” he answered. His eyes flitted upward, and he exhaled sharply. “I mean, they all told me it was black, and that’s what I saw, and yes. It’s definitely black.”

“...Black? But... it was just -- I thought it was red, and your -- your eyes and teeth and -- it was red. Black? What do you mean?”

To your surprise, Jae responded to your question by letting out a huge sigh of relief.

“Okay, so, something’s happening to you, too?” he asked, eyebrows raised.

You glanced around, trying to see if anything else had changed color, but nothing caught your eye.

“I have no idea,” you answered with a shake of your head. “All I know is your hat was definitely red but now it’s not.”

Jae stood there for a second, obviously thinking about something... and then he grabbed hold of your arm, leading you over to a nearby bench. Once you sat down, he slid in next to you, angling to face you.

“My hat was never red,” he began. “But listen -- just hear me out, okay?”

You nodded.

Because what else were you going to do?! Something really, really weird was happening, and Jae was sitting next to you actually talking to you and oh my god.

So, yes. You would listen.

Jae took a deep breath, biting his lower lip momentarily.

God, his lips were even more luscious up close.

“Okay, so, my whole life -- my whole life -- everything has been basically the same three colors. I guess it’s always been black and white and gray. I don’t know, it’s been really hard to figure things out because no one else can see what I see. I would always hear about all these colors and how beautiful things were, but I never understood. The doctors said I was just colorblind. I’ve never been able to drive anywhere alone because I can’t tell what color the stoplight is, and I have to ask someone if my outfit is color-coordinated because everything looks the same, and I can’t just leave the house looking like a fool, you know?”

You nodded even though you were fairly sure it was a rhetorical question.

“I mean, I know I look good in every color no matter what, but I don’t want to go out wearing neon yellow and brown! But when I bumped into you just now...” He looked down at his shirt and pinched the fabric in-between his thumb and index finger, pulling it out slightly. “What color is this?”

“Pink,” you told him.

“Pink! This morning, it was not this color. I mean, Brian told me it was pink, but this is not the color I saw. ...But now I see pink.”

You furrowed your brow, trying to make sense of all this. “So... your shirt changed color for you, and your hat changed color for me...” you murmured with extreme confusion. “...What is going on?”

“I have no idea!” he laughed. “All I know is, just a minute ago, I still saw everything in the same three colors. And now... I don’t know, man.”

He gazed around, his eyes shining as he took in the scenery around you.

And then, suddenly, he let out a little gasp.

“Wait -- wait a minute.” He turned toward you even more, and your heart began to race even more. “You said -- could you not see black before?”

You shook your head quickly. “I kept getting confused in school when they were teaching us colors because black always looked different. It looked like another color -- purple or green or blue or red. The same goes for white and gray. I never knew -- the ophthalmologist said I must just have some unknown eye disease where I couldn’t process those colors...” You pointed at his hat. “You’re saying that’s black?”

Jae nodded.

“And what about your teeth?”

“White. Pearly white, to be exact,” he answered with a little smirk.

Your eyes searched around some more, landing on the camera he was holding in his lap. It was the same color as his hat, so you nodded toward it and said, “That’s black, too?”

“Yep.”

Okay. None of this made sense.

“Why... why am I suddenly seeing black and pearly white, and you’re suddenly seeing colors?” you asked, still staring at his camera. Because if you stared at him, you probably wouldn’t be able to breathe.

“I don’t kn --” 

Jae cut himself off, and the sudden, unexpected silence forced you to look up at him.

...Yep. You were right. You kind of weren’t able to breathe.

But it’s cool. It’s all good. No big. Who needs to breathe, anyway?

“What?” you asked softly, wondering why he had stopped talking.

Jae’s lips parted, his eyes widened. He obviously thought he had figured something out, and his head jerked to stare right into your eyes.

“Wait a second,” he breathed. “I think -- what... what if this is our soulmate thing?”

A strangled laugh escaped from your throat because what in the world?!

“Soulmate?” you repeated, somewhat dumbfounded.

“Yeah! With my parents, their names showed up as tattoos on each other’s arm the year they met, so I figured that’s what would happen to me,” Jae explained. “I was just waiting for the right time. But... but what if that’s not my thing? What if my whole colorblind thing had to do with -- with meeting you?”

Okay, you thought you couldn’t breathe before when you were looking at him. But now he was talking about soulmates. Insinuating that you were his soulmate.

How were you still alive?!

“What about your parents? What was their thing?” he asked, his brow furrowed in curiosity as he gazed at you intently.

“They could hear each other’s voice in their thoughts,” you told him. “I could only hear my own voice, so I just figured... I didn’t have a soulmate.”

“So, I couldn’t see colors. You could only see colors,” Jae said quickly. “But after bumping into each other, we can both see everything. Isn’t that -- I mean, don’t you think that’s weird?!”

Well, now that he put it like that, it did seem like it was more than a coincidence.

There was just one problem.

“But I’ve seen you plenty of times,” you admitted, feeling your cheeks begin to flush. “I -- I mean, I know your band. I’ve been to a ton of your shows. I just saw you last night!”

Jae froze for a second but then a smirk slowly began to form on his lips. “You know who I am?”

You nodded bashfully.

“Wow,” he said, sounding very smug -- and yet still humble. “Thank you for supporting us, I really appreciate it. And don’t worry about last night. We’re already preparing for next year. That’s why I was filming. I want to document our year-long process of turning over a new leaf and actually winning next year. Post them on YouTube and stuff --”

Ahhh! What?! He was vlogging?! For a whole year?! Oh, god, you would have so much to look forward to!

“But that’s not the point,” he said, breaking into your thoughts. “The point is, maybe you’ve seen me, but we never actually met until just now. And that’s the point of this soulmate thing. You have to meet them.”

...Okay, well, he did have a point.

So... was Jae your soulmate?

Was actual Jae, the guy you’d had a crush on from the band you’d fallen in love with, your actual soulmate?

Were you about to live out a fangirl’s fantasy right now?

“I’m Jae,” he said, holding his hand out toward you.

You timidly took hold of it, shaking it and pulling your lips into a little grin. “I’m Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you, Y/N. I see you already have your coffee this morning, but if you’re not busy, would you mind accompanying me to the cafe?”

Okay.

So.

Actual Jae, the guy you’d had a crush on from the band you’d fallen in love with, was asking you to go with him to the cafe. A coffee date.

Jae was asking you on a date.

“Sure,” you nodded.

He stood from the bench, smiling at you and gesturing for you to begin walking first.

And then he got out his camera and began filming again.

“Sorry about that,” he said before shifting the camera to get you in the frame. “I just literally bumped into someone, and something really weird happened... but we’ll talk about that later. Anyway, the fact is, I found a new friend, and we’re going to get coffee. Let’s get it!”

You let out a soft chuckle, glancing over at Jae and trying to keep from smirking or smiling or something which would give away the fact you were over the moon about being in his presence. 

You still didn’t know for sure if he was your true soulmate (though it seemed possible, and you were honestly crossing your fingers he was because oh my god how amazing and squeal-worthy would that be?!), but... you were more than willing to spend your summer figuring it out.

Sungjin (Fall), Young K (Winter), Wonpil (Spring), Dowoon (Summer Finale)

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup.

Poll(s) of the week

This week, we have some of the first polls on how Americans feel about the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, and the protests that have cropped up across the U.S. in response.

On the one hand, an overwhelming majority of Americans say Floyd’s death was wrong and the police officers involved should be held accountable. There is also some support for the frustration and anger that sparked the protests, and a majority of Americans now agree that there are vast racial inequities in policing. But public opinion on the protests themselves is more muddled and suggests that Americans have mixed views of the protesters and their right to demonstrate, much of which falls along familiar partisan lines.

First, the public pretty clearly thinks the police were in the wrong. A Yahoo News/YouGov survey, for instance, found that 84 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat approved of the firing of the officers involved in Floyd’s death, and 68 percent said they approved of charging former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes, with murder. Similarly, 65 percent of respondents in a Data for Progress poll said that Chauvin murdered Floyd; 25 percent of respondents said his death was partly a product of excessive force “but not murder,” and just 10 percent said it was a “tragic accident.”

Additionally, most Americans said that policing is biased against African Americans. In a new survey from Monmouth University, 57 percent said police were more likely to use excessive force in difficult situations if the suspect is black, while just 33 percent said police were equally likely to use excessive force against white people and black people. Similarly, 57 percent of respondents in a new CBS News/YouGov survey said police in most communities treat white people better than black people. Thirty-nine percent said police treat both races equally. On top of this, 61 percent of Americans said race was a “major factor” in Floyd’s death, according to the Yahoo News/YouGov survey. There was a big partisan gap in how respondents answered this question though: 87 percent of Democrats said race was a major factor compared with just 39 percent of Republicans.

More broadly, the public appears receptive to why people are protesting. Fifty-seven percent of respondents in the Monmouth poll felt that, regardless of their actions, protesters’ anger was “fully justified,” while 21 percent said it was “partially justified” and 18 percent said it was “not at all justified.” And 64 percent told Reuters/Ipsos that they were sympathetic to those participating in the protests, while a Morning Consult poll found that 54 percent of adults supported “the protest in general” while 22 percent opposed it.

However, Americans had mixed views on what has happened during the protests, and many have expressed disapproval of protests that have been violent or destructive. Forty-five percent of respondents told Morning Consult that, on the whole, most of the protesters are peaceful and desire meaningful social reform, while 42 percent said most protesters are trying to incite violence or destroy property. In Monmouth’s poll, only 17 percent felt the actions of the protesters were fully justified, 37 percent said they were partially justified and 38 percent said they weren’t justified at all. And the Reuters/Ipsos survey found that most Americans (72 percent) didn’t think violent protests were an appropriate response to Floyd’s killing, and that property damage caused by protesters undermined their goals (79 percent). Morning Consult’s survey also found that Americans were less supportive of the protests when they were specifically asked about black people protesting.

Americans across the political spectrum said they approved of some of the more forceful responses from local and state authorities. In Morning Consult’s poll, 70 percent said they supported curfews and 66 percent backed calling in the national guard to aid city police, with large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans approving these measures. Fifty-five percent of respondents even supported calling in the U.S. military, although there was a substantial partisan split on this question, with 74 percent of Republicans approving compared with 48 percent of Democrats.

As for President Trump’s handling of the protests, Americans largely gave him a thumbs down. The CBS News/YouGov poll found that 32 percent approved of Trump’s response while 49 percent disapproved, and Reuters/Ipsos found that 33 percent approved while 56 percent disapproved. Although Trump usually has overwhelming backing from Republicans on most job approval questions, there were some signs that at least a few GOP voters were breaking with him on this issue. The CBS News/YouGov survey found that 65 percent approved of how he’s handling the situation — far lower than the 84 percent who approve of how he’s handling the coronavirus pandemic, for example — while 14 percent disapproved. Similarly, in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 20 percent disapproved while 67 percent approved.

There could be electoral repercussions to the protests and the president’s response to them. Monmouth’s survey found that 74 percent of Americans felt the country was on the wrong track, the largest share since Monmouth first asked the question nationally in 2013. And as a result of Floyd’s death and the protests, 45 percent of registered voters told Morning Consult they were more likely to now vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. However, another 31 percent said they’d be more likely to vote for Trump. And at this point, it’s hard to imagine that George Floyd’s death won’t be an important factor in the election.

Other polling bites

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that made same-sex marriage legal across the country, and Gallup’s latest data finds that 67 percent of Americans believe gay marriage should be legal, tying record-high support in 2018. Overall, this reflects a remarkable shift in public opinion. In 1996, 68 percent of Americans opposed same-sex marriage, while just 27 percent supported it.

A new report from the Pew Research Center says that religion is increasingly becoming a dividing line between Democrats and Republicans. Only 52 percent of Democrats identified as Christian in 2019, down from 73 percent in 2008, while 79 percent of Republicans identified as Christian last year, down 8 percentage points from 87 percent more than a decade ago.

As many states and municipalities start to reopen after closing up shop to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a new ABC News/Washington Post survey reveals that many Americans are still hesitant to resume their pre-pandemic activities. Fifty-eight percent said it was still “too early” to visit stores, restaurants and other public places, and 57 percent said it was more important to control the spread of the coronavirus than to restart the economy, compared with 37 percent who said that restarting the economy was more important.

However, Gallup finds that Americans aren’t quite as worried about being exposed to the coronavirus when they visit medical providers now compared with how they felt in late March and early April. Back then, 84 percent said they were “very” or “moderately” concerned about exposure at a doctor’s office or hospital, whereas now just 64 percent said they were concerned.

In the wake of Trump’s executive order targeting social media fact-checking policies, fewer Americans said they wanted Trump banned from a social media platform if he spread offensive content compared with last year, according to a new poll from Morning Consult. Just 24 percent said they wanted him banned, which is down from 38 percent in August 2019. (But the share who approved of a temporary suspension of his account remained relatively the same, 35 percent versus 36 percent.) The weaker support for a ban was driven primarily by Americans who voted for Trump in 2016. In 2019, 26 percent of Trump voters supported a ban compared with just 13 percent in 2020.

The U.S. Senate race in Kansas is heating up, and a new survey from Democratic pollster Civiqs suggests it could be competitive in November despite the state’s Republican lean. Presumptive Democratic nominee Barbara Bollier was in a dead heat against three Republican contenders, holding just a 1-point lead over two of them — former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and businessman Bob Hamilton — while trailing Rep. Roger Marshall by 1 point. In the GOP primary, the poll gave Kobach an edge over Marshall (35 percent to 26 percent), with Hamilton in third at 15 percent.

A new survey from Republican pollster Cygnal suggests that there may not be a runoff for the Democratic nomination in Georgia’s regularly scheduled U.S. Senate election. The poll found journalist and former congressional candidate Jon Ossoff at nearly 49 percent in the June 9 primary race, just shy of the majority he needs to avoid an Aug. 11 runoff. Meanwhile, former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson had about 16 percent, and 2018 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor Sarah Riggs Amico had around 8 percent.

Trump approval

According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker, 41.9 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 53.1 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -11.2 points). At this time last week, 42.6 percent approved and 53.6 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -11.0 points). One month ago, Trump had an approval rating of 43.3 percent and a disapproval rating of 51.1 percent, for a net approval rating of -7.8 points.

Generic ballot

In our average of polls of the generic congressional ballot, Democrats currently lead by 7.8 percentage points (48.7 percent to 40.9 percent). A week ago, Democrats led Republicans by 7.7 points (48.2 percent to 40.5 percent). At this time last month, voters preferred Democrats by 7.7 points (48.0 percent to 40.3 percent).

[salamandrinanana]

Two weeks into quarantine

Well, plus 3 days now. Took me a bit of time to get on my laptop without anyone looking over my shoulder constantly. 

Quarantine started for me with not physically being able to leave the house for a few days. I never expected those planned “few days” to turn into two weeks, but then on day 2 it was announced that all universities were going to close the next day, which was quite a shock to me. I didn’t expext for things to change that quickly and I don’t know how long things will stay this way. Here’s a bit about how those two weeks have been, who knows how many will follow:

- I’ve been outside for 2 hours max. in these two weeks. Felt oddly reassuring to see that my town hasn’t changed at all. First time out was on day 8 or 9.

- Stayed awake for 39 hours at the beginning of it all. Not fun. And not by choice. I was in too much pain to relax. Got myself dosed up on ibuprofen and slept for 12 hours straight.

- I had exactly one online class. I hated it. Felt really weird and I kept losing focus. Also: group discussions don’t work when you’re thrown in a seperate chatroom thing and your random group members are all afraid of turning on their mic so nothing ends up happening.

- Apart from that online class I haven’t done shit for uni. Can’t focus at home with my brother working in his bedroom a.k.a. constantly calling people and my mother watching TV downstairs when she isn’t at work.

- I’m now in week 1 of 3 of what was supposed to be my official exam period with midterms and shit. I’ve got 3 exams that are going on as normal, because I had to do those at home anyway and there’s one that’s going to be changed a bit so you can do it at home. We’re only going to get 2 hours for that though, normal time for the exam, which absolutely sucks. For the others I have 2 weeks.

- I actually started writing a story. Me. Writing. Never thought I’d get to that point. Progress is really slow, I’m only 2.5k words in and there are lots of details I’m still unsure about and I have no idea wtf is supposed to happen in it yet, but hey I’m writing. It’s about a girl discovering she has superpowers. It’s terrible. She finds out when she tries to kill herself about 500 words in. Yikes why is my brain like this. Oh right because I’m an idiot and my childhood wish of being able to fly has come back to haunt me and I’m telling myself to never try to commit suicide. Writing this is a bit of a weird way of doing it though.

- I also tried digital drawing on this Autodesk SketchBook app. I sort of finished my drawing and it kind of looks how I wanted it to, but I am never going to try that again. Three days of endless fucking pain and getting cramps in my fingers.

- My random obsession with the Chernobyl disaster is back. I’ve spent a lot of time on YouTube watching “stalkers” illegally entering the exclusion zone and staying there for a few days. Fascinating stuff. Would never dare to go there myself.

- I went back to one of those game sites for children that I used to spend hours on as a kid. Because fuck it. (Logical combo of course: Chernobyl and dress-up games; that shit happened on the same day.)

- Looks like I haven’t lost my ability to recognise a Depeche Mode song in 0.4s in the SongPop app.

I’m also pretty good at recognising Neubauten, though they’re kinda hard to find in the game.

- Witnessed Blixa Bargeld making broccoli soup. Possibly the best hour in the whole of these two weeks. He danced!!! 

- Got a phone call from my university's study abroad coordinator. Was told that none of the universities I wanted to go to (Glasgow, Brighton and Manchester) were possible for me. Which is a rare thing, that none of your choices work out; of course that shit happens to me, I seem to be a magnet for bad luck! I somehow managed to keep it together while on the phone, but I was ready to scream or cry. Not sure which. Both have not happened yet but still possible. Now I'm looking into the other options she gave me. Will probably end up going to Leeds. If it's even possible to go anywhere by that time with this whole corona bullshit situation. Well, at least I haven't been rejected...

- Ready to kill my mother and brother because they will never understand how goddamn terrified I am of phone calls. They always think I'm stupid and exaggerating, while they haven't felt my heart pounding in my chest whenever my phone rings. I'm always scared of not knowing what to say. When it's an unknown number it's even worse, having absolutely no idea of what to expect.

- Finally watching series 7 of Endeavour on a Belgian TV channel. 

And, last but not least:

- The VHS Tapes Adventure

I found a big shopping bag full of VHS tapes and dragged out the old VCR. Six of the tapes contained footage of tiny ass kid me and my brother, who’s two years older than me.

I had never seen these tapes before, so it was a bit overwhelming. I had no idea we had footage that actually included sound! All the stuff I had seen before was made with a crappy camera with no sound.

I saw myself when I was less than a day old. I saw myself walk at 10 months. I heard myself slowly learning how to talk. I saw myself in one of those typical “child tries something new to drink and is totally amazed by it” moments, drinking coca cola and immediately demanding more. I saw my now dead grandmother, holding me, playing with me, and I heard her voice again. I cried.

God, it was so overwhelming; and it was weird to actually use a VCR again, last time I did that was over 10 years ago. I had one fuck-up though followed by a bit of a panic attack. I think the VHS went in at a slightly wrong angle, there was lots of noise and then it came out with some tape sticking out of it. God I was terrified, I had never experienced that before and we don’t have backups of any of that childhood footage. I ran to my mum and cried like a baby. She fixed it and was not really worried.

Also, I was left slightly pissed off. I witnessed all of my brother’s birthday parties, starting with his first, but the only birthday party I saw that was for me was when I turned four. Also, there’s a lot more footage of my brother in general. And I know it’s completely stupid, and I get that it was different with my brother because he was the first child, but it still makes me feel bad. 

.

.

.

I know there probably won’t be anyone reading this, or getting this far, and I know all of this is not relevant to you even in the slightest, but it feels good to write stuff and share it somewhere at least in the knowledge that someone out there might read this and possibly care? We're in a weird situation right now and I don't really have anyone to talk to. I only speak to other students (I don't really dare to call them friends - we just sort of talk when we see each other but not really outside of that) when I see them in person, so I have not been in contact with them at all these past weeks. This is the only place where I can share stuff now, also because this is the only social media account none of my family are aware of. And it’s really good to have something away from them so that I don’t have to feel embarrassed.

[furbyfubar]

How's Sweden? 🇪🇺🇸🇪❤️

In what context? Do you mean for the country as a whole or what? Big question...

Never mind, I get few enough asks here that I can give you a more comprehensive answer. I'll use it as an excuse to take stock of my personal trends against those of my country? Sorry not sorry for the incoming wall of text. Note, this is why you shouldn't say "How do you do?" to anyone from Sweden; we're tragically likely to give you an honest answer!

Weather for Sweden: You're UK based, so lets go by stereotypes and start with talking about the weather I suppose? It's winter, so the weather here is *usually* quickly summed up as "dark". Right now Sweden has between ~7 hours 15 minutes of time between sun up and sun down in the far south of Sweden, and "fuck you" minutes of sun on the far north, where it's currently polar night until about two weeks into January. On top the normal lack of sun, Sweden got an early Autumn this year and had less actually sunny days than usual in October and November due to clouds. So yeah, vitamin D deficiency for about 25% of the population according to my doctor. And many of the ones avoiding a deficiency are doing it by eating supplements. On a longer time scale, ”climate” not “weather”... Yeah, we’ve been having heat records broken and all that shit here the past few years as as well while having some winters be worse due to the Gulf stream being messed up..

Rating: 3.5/10  – It sucks, but it's not much worse than the expected level of suckiness?Weather for me personally: I'm based in Stockholm and we're currently at 6½h of sun up time per day, but like I said, it’s been cloudy. Not so cold so far though. The problem for me personally is that when the sun goes down at 14:52 I often miss out on the sun completely due to my fucked up sleeping patterns. Or the sun is up but covered while I’m going to work and that's it for sunlight that day. I'd likely suffer from winter depression if only I could separate it from my normal depression. We’ve had some snow that stays on the ground, but we’re somewhat surprisingly not in the hell that is streets filled with snow-water slosh yet.

Rating: 3.5/10 – I don’t think the weather sucks more or less for me than it does for the country on average. (Places north of the polar circle excluded; I would really no be able to stand months of polar night.)

Health for Sweden: Sweden made #6 on the Bloomberg 2019 Healthiest Country Index, up two positions from 2017. Up from a score of 88.92 to 90.24 out of 100, so apparently it's not just other countries having worse health, things have gotten a bit better here.Rating: 9.24/10 – Well, Bloomberg hopefully put a lot more effort into their score than I’ll ever do, so I’ll just re-scale and steal it. 

Health for me personally: I had to basically skip a year due depression and exhaustion. Not being able to work due to a non-functioning brain obviously sucks, but to bring this back to how Sweden is: Being able to be on sick leave for almost a year and thus being able to focus on getting medication that works for me and not being worried about getting evicted for not making rent is a blessing. I'm back to working part time since October while still on sick leave for 50%, trying to ease me back in to the productive work force. So far going well. If I’d been forced to somehow work or starve, or live off my parents or something instead, I’m pretty sure I’d either be much deeper in depression right now, or be dead. I’ve still not really found meds that work great for me, but I'm feeling much better than I was a year ago.

Rating: 3/10 – I'm as optimistic as a clinically depressed person gets to be.

Status politically for Sweden (as I see it personally): It's getting more fucked by the day. The Moderate party just broke their campaign promise to not cooperate with the Sweden Democrats, a party born from neo-Nazi and white power movements. For UK context, think of the British National Party. Now imagine them going from a fringe group in the '90s to getting 20% of the votes in recent polls. They've been doing this all while having a whole bunch of scandals that would've hurt or killed the credibility of any non-fascist party. They're racist, homo- and transphobic, and operate their own alternative media that have ties to Russian disinformation efforts. So yeah, as a gay guy who's seen the inside of a few history books: Outlook not great.

Rating: 2/10 – If only because it can still get worse. Think first act of Cabaret.

Love life for Sweden: Hmm, check in on satwcomic.com I suppose?

Love life for me personally: Yes please? I've been single for longer than I'm willing to admit. I've barely dated anyone for ages due to my aforementioned depression making me not feel like someone worth dating. Also, there's some types of vitamin D deficiencies that eating supplements won't cure...

Rating: I really don't want to put a number on this so I won’t. Honestly, graphing out my love life numerically doesn't sound all that productive. But somewhere at the edge of the Bell curve is the guy for me?

Economically for Sweden: Sweden's been in a upward business cycle since 2016, but it's ebbing out and is expected to be balanced sometime next real. Ie, things have been good, but things aren't quite yet bad. Rating: 5.5/10 – I suppose? Not really my area of expertise.

Economically for me personally: Not complaining at all on this front. I got an IT job four years ago after having worked part time in retail for a bunch of years and having been a student before that. I've managed to not raise my monthly expenses even nearly as much as my pay went up. So while I’m not wealthy, I'm still surprised by being able to have a savings account that grows steadily and still having more spending money over each month.

My rating: 8/10 – This quote by Charles Dickens comes to mind: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” 

Social life in Sweden: According to this article I just Googled up from half remembering reading in 2015, “The expat quality of life survey" published by HSBC, Sweden was the worst country for the category "Making friends". Looking at the data on HSBC's website we're apparently no longer dead last as a place to be making friends, we're now 31st out of the 33 countries listed, with Japan at 32nd place and Saudi Arabia last at 33rd. The United Kingdom is at 29th.

It is close to impossible to make friends here by talking to random strangers in most situations, as only weird people talk to strangers. Of course that mentality is self-fulfilling since if you assume any stranger talking to you is weird, drunk, or high, you will not want to make friends with strangers that talk to you, and you won't want to talk to strangers more than you have to or risk being branded weird. Even striking up random conversations at a pub will be more difficult here. 

But don’t despair, there’s a trick! Find the few social situations where Swedes want to talk to people they don't know: This is done by joining some organization or club of some sort. It doesn't really matter if it's a board gaming group, a student group, doing volunteer work for the local Pride or some other NPO or if it's a club for people who really like a certain breed of dogs. Once we've decided that we're among our own kind of people (and I don't mean "other Swedes") we'll happily talk to strangers, and not only about subjects related to that specific organization. Step two is converting them to be your friends and not just some randos you can talk to at some club meeting. I’m sad to say that traditionally this is done with alcohol, either by dragging people along to a pub/bar, or by inviting them or being invited by them to some sort of party. Without alcohol the fallback is fika. If the organization you’ve joined is something that you will naturally be spending time doing outside of the organization or club meetings that’s also ideal. Once you’ve invited or been invited to a few things outside of the organization it’s not strange to invite them to other social things than what the organization cares about.

For fairness to anyone reading this that didn’t read the article: I should probably also mention that the same HSBC study had Sweden as the top country in Europe for “overall quality of life” for expats here. And third best in the world, just behind Singapore and New Zealand in the same category. "Swedes make great friends but terrible strangers”.

My rating for making friends in Sweden is : 3/10 - Join a club, any club.

Social life for me personally: I have a few great close friends and a bunch more not quite as close friends who are also great. Come to think of it, many of them I've met through one of the three different organizations I've been most active in, and most of the rest I met through those friends. I'm really thankful for having friends who are still around even after I've spent way too much time feeling too bad to be very social or friendly at all.

My rating of my friends: 10/10 - No, I'm not biased.OK, so let’s average those numbers up and pretend the averages mean something!

Sweden: 5.81Me:  6.63Wait what? I’m winning?

[externally-upset]

1-100

Alright going all in I see. Let's do this

1. I mainly use Spotify

2. I try and keep it clean but somehow always winds up messy

3. I've got brown eyes

4. y'know I've got a really generic name but I do like it. Why, I have no idea

5. I'm currently single

6. Scatterbrained, happy, adventurous

7. I've got natural black hair

8. So I don't drive because it actually hurts my leg to drive. Also I can't sit still for longer than 5 minutes

9. I shop everywhere that has toys lmao. I'm a toy collector so I'll go anywhere that has em

10. I don't really have a style. I try and live my life as cozy as possible

11. I don't really have a favorite social media account

12. I have a full/queen size bed

13. I've got lots of siblings. In all, I've got 6 sisters and 2 brothers, but some are step family. I've got 1 bio sister and 1 bio brother, both younger than me.

14. I've been looking into moving to Washington recently, but I think I'd rather travel the world than settle down somewhere, for now at least

15. I don't use the filters myself so I can't speak on that

16. I don't use makeup so I don't have a fave brand to talk about

17. I shower everyday, I get really sweaty so I gotta

18. I don't have like a definite fave TV show. It varies from month to month. Although this summer it was Nisekoi, which is an excellent anime

19. I wear a size 11.5/12 shoe

20. I'm 5'11

21. I wear almost strictly sneakers

22. I don't go to the gym, I should though. I really should

23. Dream date would be to have one lol, um I guess to go up to the mountains together and star gaze or something to do with the mountains. I just enjoy being outside

24. Too much to count 💸💸 lmao jk I've got $60

25. Ain't wearing any but if someone came through right now, I'd put some black ones on

26. I had four, but my mom stole 2 of them

27. I was working in drywall for awhile but I hopped out of that and am currently applying to places. I specifically was a taper, so like when drywall is put up in the house, there are gaps between the pieces put up. I covered those gaps up, all over the house. It doesn't seem like a lot but when you've got 15-20 feet ceilings, it gets hard

28. I've got quite a lot of friends and I love them all

29. I've know I've done bad stuff that others remember me for but I can't think of anything

30. Oh man I loooooove lavender scented candles. Lavender scented anything is the best

31. I honestly can't think of any boy names that I like

32. 3 girl names: Sochi, Lavender, and Laurie, which is actually the name of one of my best friends

33. Anthony Hopkins is my favorite actor by far

34. Fave actress is definitely Meryl Streep, I fell in love with her when I first saw the Devil Wears Prada years ago and it just snowballed from there

35. My celeb crush is either Bonnie Wright or Jessica Keenan Wynn

36. Fave movie has gotta be The Great Mouse Detective

37. I used to read a lot, not so much anymore. Of everything I've read though, Christine by Stephen King has been my favorite read

38. Everyone wants to say brains are more important and they are, but unfortunately in the world we live in money rules over all

39. I used to be called Chancho but not any more

40. I've been to the hospital more times than I'd like to think. I had a heart condition that flared up in high school so I spent a lot of time at the hospital. I'm still not even sure what it was and am sure the doctors made it up to take my money

41. TOP TEN SONGS:

Beauty and the Beast - Angela Lansbury

Beauty and the Beast - Celine Dion, Peabo Bryson

Higher - Creed

Eres Mi Droga - Intocable

Crossing Field - LiSA

Don't Blink - Kenny Chesney

Junkhead - Alice In Chains

Your Decision - Alice In Chains

Losing A Whole Year - Third Eye Blind

Forever Halloween - The Maine

42. Nah, no meds for me

43. I think I have an oily skin type

44. Biggest fear is leaving those I love behind when I pass along to the next life

45. I don't know how many kids I want

46. I always have my hair either in a bun or braided

47. I live in a medium sized family home

48. My grandma has been and always will be my role model

49. It was being told how wise I am

50. Last text I sent was to my homeboy, telling him "this school shit is wack"

51. I was 6 years old when I found out Santa wasn't real

52. A nice Truck is my dream car or maybe a souped up Subaru, with an anime wrap for shits and gigs

53. I'm cool with smoking weed, but no cigarettes and only smoke outside, don't need my stuff to smell

54. Yeah, I'm here in college, but I don't like it

55. Rural areas by far. I've always wanted my own farm

56. I wanna be a high school history teacher and that requires a degree, so that's why I'm in college

57. I don't like the shampoo and conditioner from hotels, don't like the way they feel. That being said, yes I'll take them

58. I've got freckles but you can barely see them unless were face to face

59. Yes and no. It really depends on my mood. I try to take more smiling pictures now

60. I've got quite a few, mostly memes though

61. Of course I've peed in the woods, with the amount of times I've been hiking and camping with no bathroom in site, you gotta

62. I watch almost strictly cartoons, if we're being completely honest

63. Chicken nuggets smack, no matter where they're from

64. If it calls for it, honey. If not, then sweet and sour sauce

65. Alright, so it depends where I'm at. If I'm home alone, just my underwear. If there are people here, shorts. If I'm at someone else's house, I wear whatever I have on

66. Never participated in a spelling bee in my life

67. My hobby is collecting. I've been collecting things since I was a kid. I've switched between many things in my life. I've gone from Wrestling figures, to sports cards, to vinyl records, to Funko Pops. I actually collect a little of everything I've mentioned now

68. I can't draw for shit

69. I don't play any instruments, although I've tried learning how to play the Ukulele

70. Last concert was seeing Four Year Strong and Seaway like 2 years ago

71. I prefer tea over coffee

72. I guess Starbucks as I've never had Dunkin before

73. Marriage sounds nice, but I don't need to. Like if I'm dating someone and they said they don't wanna get married, I wouldn't have a problem with it. As long as we're in love, that's all that matters

74. Aha, I'm not answering this one

75. If ever I get married, I don't know what the last name situation is gonna be

76. Burgundy and blue look absolutely fantastic on me

77. Yeah there are a few people I miss

78. I always sleep with my door closed and my closets too

79. I belive in ghosts, although I prefer to call them spirits. Used to see them frequently as a child, still do sometimes

80. Biggest pet peeve is when people try to tell me what to do. Not like suggestions but actually tell me what to do. Irritates me to no end

81. Last person I called I think was my Dad, but that's because I couldn't find him in the store

82. Black Cherry Vanilla is the best but no one sells it anywhere

83. Golden Oreos are pretty damn good so I'll go with those

84. If I have to choose, probably rainbow sprinkles

85. Just a plain white tank top

86. My phone background is a picture of Ricky from Trailer Park Boys saying "Man, maybe I am gay."

87. I can be outgoing, it kinda takes a bit for me to open up though

88. I fucking love when people play with my hair

89. My neighbors across the street are very nice, but next door neighbor is a dick, always judging shit

90. I usually wash my face in the mornings

91. I used to get high a lot, not so much anymore, although I'd really like for that to change

92. I spent a good portion of this year drunk, so that's a problem. I actually only started drinking when I turned 21 last September. Never been hungover either, so I've been blessed

93. Last thing I ate was some chips

94. "Thank you to the miracle that we are able to meet in a dirty and ugly world, even like this" My Song - Girl Dead Monster. This is from Angel Beats and these are rough English translations

95. I prefer winter over summer, but spring is my fave season

96. I love night time, always will

97. I will always pick dark chocolate over all other chocolates

98. September is my favorite month, not because it's my birth month, but it's the one month where everything feels right

99. I'm a Virgo

100. Last person I cried in front of was my homeboy Mason, albeit I was drunk as fuck and don't remember it but he does. Says I scared him

Goddamn that took forever, but I did get over being bored, so bless you Anon

[pentakillmaven]

The Nose Knows, Chapter 6 (NaNoWriMo 2018)

Hello again! I’m actually posting at a decent hour this time! I’d call this the halfway point of the story, and we’re finally starting to get into some of the juicier parts. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Rating: T

Chapter Warnings: Language and soft innuendo. Also a bit of angst this chapter, but nothing huge. Lots of embarrassment from Marinette and Adrien.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 6

When her Monday morning alarm went off, Marinette had to forcibly clench her hands into fists to keep from throwing the clock over the edge of the loft to the floor below just to stop the noise. Groaning, she slowly forced herself into an upright position, feeling her way down the stairs to the main floor of her bedroom. Eyes still heavy and half-closed, she fumbled her way into the bathroom to shower, hoping the hot water would help her to wake up. As she sat under the steaming spray, she thought back to the night before.

Close to midnight, she had been ready to stop studying for the night and turn in when Tikki flew down from the loft in a tizzy. "Chat's contacting you!"

"He's back?" At Tikki's nod, Marinette quickly transformed and made her way up to her rooftop, opening her yo-yo in communicator mode. "Chat! Welcome back!"

"Thank you, My Lady! I'm so glad to be home! Sorry to call you out so late, but I really needed to stretch my claws and wondered if you'd be up for a late-night stroll with me?"

"Of course, Chaton. I've missed you! Paris hasn't been the same without you."

"Awww, Bugaboo, I'm touched. Meet me at the Trocadéro?"

"On my way!" With a grin, Ladybug swung and leapt her way across the city, landing at the entrance to the Jardins du Trocadéro near the statue of Ferdinand Foch. A figure darker than the shadows themselves stepped toward her, blond hair catching the light from a nearby street lamp and the familiar, lingering scent of Camembert she'd come to associate with Chat reaching her nose. Ladybug couldn't help but grin at the sight of her partner. "Just like a stray cat, aren't you, Chaton? I'm surprised you aren't begging for treats."

"If you have something, I wouldn't say no, My Lady. I haven't eaten in hours and I'm staaaarving." He covered his toned stomach with his hands, giving Ladybug the most pitiful pout and wide, innocent eyes he could possibly muster.

"Sorry, Chaton, I don't have anything with me. But I promise to bring you something good next time, all right?"

"Something flaky and warm and filled with jam?"

Ladybug chuckled. "I'll see what I can do."

Grinning, Chat stepped closer to Ladybug, ducking down to nuzzle his nose affectionately under her chin as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Three years ago, she would have held him at arm's length, but somehow over the years, she'd become accustomed to-- even accepting of-- his physical shows of affection, so like his namesake. It was a bit awkward now that he was several inches taller than her, but that just made it even more delightful sometimes, seeing how Chat would contort himself to get her hand to start scratching through his hair. As if on cue, Ladybug's hand started to card through the blond strands between his ears, eliciting an almost purr-like sound of enjoyment. His hair felt silky-soft where it brushed against her cheek. She wondered how it would feel to touch it with her bare fingers...

The two had stayed out for hours, catching up and just lazily patrolling through the city. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that Ladybug resolutely denied any sort of romantic entanglements between them, it could have by all accounts been a date.

By the time Marinette had collapsed into bed, it was nearly three in the morning. Her alarm went off promptly at seven. With only four hours of sleep, she'd barely survive on a normal day-- how was she supposed to deal with a whole day of practice tests for the most important event of her school career?

It wasn't until she yelped as the water started to run cold that Marinette realized she'd dozed off standing up in the shower. Hastily jumping out of the tub and cutting off the water, she toweled off and blow-dried her hair, opting for a high ponytail to save time instead of her usual pigtails. She got dressed in a flash and grabbed her school supplies, Tikki already waiting for her in her purse. "You sure were in the bathroom a long time, Marinette. Are you feeling alright?"

"Just tired, Tikki--that's all," Marinette replied, yawning midway through the sentence. "Today's gonna be tough. I need coffee." Heading downstairs, Marinette stopped by the kitchen to get just that, drinking the last of the pot her parents made earlier that morning while she brewed more to put in a travel mug for school.

As she was putting on her shoes and jacket, her phone rang, the ringtone telling her that it was Alya calling. "Hey Alya, what's up?" she asked into the phone.

"Hey Marinette! Nino and I are outside, we thought it would be nice to all walk together to school today!"

"Sounds great! Oh, I just made some coffee, do you guys want some? I'll bring you mugs."

Marinette could hear Alya in the background conferring with Nino briefly before she returned to the line. "Sure, that sounds awesome. We were up pretty late last night, so the caffeine would definitely be welcome."

"All right, let me grab a couple of travel mugs and I'll be right down."

"Do you think you could make it three? We have a tagalong."

"Sure, who is it?"

"Sorry, Marinette, gotta go! We'll be waiting!" The line went dead before Marinette could protest. Furrowing her brow in confusion at Alya's antics, she pulled down a third travel mug and filled each one with black coffee before making sure all the lids were securely tightened and locked. She carefully juggled all four of the mugs into her arms, holding them close to her chest as she made her way out the door and down the stairs one at a time.

Alya was standing at the door, ready to open it as soon as Marinette unlocked it. She scooped two of the mugs into her hands before Marinette could even take one step outside. "Thanks!" she said with a grin, handing the green mug to Nino. She kept the brown mug for herself, while Marinette held the black and red ones.

"You're welcome! Thanks for stopping to pick"-- Marinette stopped dead in her tracks, her words dying as she saw the mysterious fourth member of the group. "Adrien… Hi…"

"Hey Marinette! It's great to see you." Adrien's green eyes were heart-meltingly warm as he looked at her. "Are you ready for the tests today?"

"Yeah, gonna take me--TAKE THE. TESTS. TAKE TESTS YES okay let's go!!" Marinette's whole face flushed with embarrassment. She shoved one of the travel mugs in Adrien's direction, turning resolutely away from him and starting to walk at a quick pace as she buried her face in the collar of her jacket.

However, in her haste to cover her own embarrassment, she didn't notice the way Adrien's face flushed as well, his breath catching in his throat from the unbidden mental image of Marinette laid out under him, hair loose and spread across his pillows as they--

"Adrien! You coming?" Nino asked, snapping him out of his dirty thoughts.

"Yeah!" He followed after Nino, shoving his hand deep into his coat pocket to make sure it was covering the front of his pants. With his other hand, he popped the lid of the candy-apple red travel mug so that he could take a sip of the blessed elixir contained inside.

Alya caught up to Marinette easily enough, leaving the two boys to trail behind them. "Wow, you haven't been that tongue-tied around Adrien in ages. What happened?"

"I couldn't sleep last night," Marinette confessed; it wasn't an outright lie, but she didn't go into detail about the very specific black-leather-clad hero keeping her awake to an ungodly hour of the night. "I don't think I actually got to sleep until close to three in the morning."

"Ouch, that sucks," Alya said, patting Marinette on the shoulder. "Sorry to hear that. Maybe you can get a quick lunch and try to squeeze a nap in?"

"That's probably what I'll do. I may even stay at school and just try to find a quiet place to curl up in the library."

Alya nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea--save yourself the time and energy of leaving school."

"Are you going to stay at school for lunch?" Adrien asked. He and Nino had caught up and overheard the tail end of the girls' conversation. "I was thinking about doing the same thing, trying to find a quiet place to rest for a bit. I barely got any sleep last night."

"Too busy talking with the hot Italian models?" Nino teased. Adrien flushed at the suggestion, shaking his head vehemently.

"No, I actually didn't get any of their numbers or social media handles. I'm really not interested in a long-distance relationship, or honestly any kind of relationship with another model. I've seen how a lot of models act, and that's not the kind of attitude I want in my girlfriend." Adrien looked at Marinette steadily as he spoke. "I want a girl who's genuine, and kind, and real. Someone who doesn't hide behind a hollow façade. You know?"

Marinette wasn't oblivious enough to miss that he was talking about her. But even knowing that he might return her crush didn't change the fact that his words were making her feel about two inches tall. She looked down at the mug in her hands, biting her lower lip. If Adrien wanted a "genuine, real" girlfriend, someone who didn't hide behind a façade, Marinette was never going to be able to be that girl, not as long as she was also Ladybug.

"I think that's what everyone wants, honestly," Nino replied, breaking the rather awkward silence that had developed around the group. "That's why I'm so glad that I was able to convince Alya to start dating me when I did!"

Alya spluttered into a laugh at that remark. "Convince me? More like beg me."

"Hey now, as I remember it, you two started dating because Ladybug locked you in a zoo exhibit," Adrien pointed out.

"Okay, yes, that's fair. Really, we ought to be thanking her for bringing us together." Nino smiled at Alya, linking their hands together as they walked, leaving Marinette and Adrien to follow.

Marinette brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, not looking up at Adrien. "So, um… how was Milan?"

"It was… nice, I guess" Adrien said quietly. "Really, it was a boring trip. I didn't get to do any of the fun touristy stuff. Mostly my week was filled with photo shoot after photo shoot and meeting after meeting."

"Oh, wow. So you didn't get to see anything? That's… kind of sad. I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. Father says it's part of the business, you know?" Adrien's voice was somewhat wistful as he spoke, looking up at the Eiffel Tower with a longing expression on his face.

"...Adrien?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't want to do this, do you?" Adrien's face whipped around to meet Marinette's, his eyes wide and concerned. "The modeling thing, the fashion business, I mean!"

"Oh. Okay, I thought--sorry, never mind. You're right, though; it's really not what I want to do with my life. Father acts like it's a foregone conclusion that I'm going to take over the Agreste brand someday, but it's just not where my passion is, you know?"

Marinette nodded. "I think I understand. I know my parents support my aspirations to become a fashion designer, but I think… I think they expect that I'm not going to be able to make a living out of it, and that eventually I'll come back and take over the bakery when they're ready to retire. Not that I mind, you know, helping them out sometimes, but…"

"But it still hurts knowing that your parents think they know what your future holds better than you do," Adrien finished for her. "That's exactly how I feel, too."

"I'm so sorry to hear that. So what do you want to do?"

"Well… I really enjoy my science classes. Especially Physics. I think it might be cool to go into teaching, you know? I could teach Physics at the collège or lycée level."

"I think you'd be great as a teacher, Adrien! Your students would probably develop major crushes on you, though--you'd have to be careful to avoid a lawsuit." Marinette chuckled, hoping that Adrien would take the comment as the joke she meant it to be.

Thankfully, Adrien laughed as well. "That's true, but I would hope that by the time I get an actual teaching job, I'm already happily married. Then I can just gush about my wife and hopefully none of my students would get any funny ideas."

"For the sake of your reputation, I hope that works." Marinette looked ahead, only to see that they were already at Lycée Jean-Baptiste Magnier. "Wow, that walk went by fast!"

"Yeah, I guess I didn't realize how close you lived to the school, Marinette. That must be really convenient."

Marinette nodded in agreement. "When you're as chronically late as I am, every second counts!"

"That's fair. Anyway, I'll see you around. Good luck with your tests today!"

"You too!" Marinette walked up to where Alya and Nino were saying their goodbyes at the front of the school. "Are you ready to get this over with, Nino?" Marinette asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be. Let's get this show on the road."

Hour after hour, test after test, finally led to the end of the school day. This close to winter, the sun had fully set by the time the Terminale students were leaving the building. Though the official test is taken over a period of ten days, the practice tests were all crammed into a single day, leaving most of the graduating class feeling like their brains had been run through a blender.

Alya and Nino were standing just outside the school doors, waiting on Adrien and Marinette to come out. "How did Marinette look when you left the room?" Alya asked her boyfriend.

"Honestly, I couldn't tell if she was even still awake," Nino confessed. "She had her head resting on her arm and her other hand wasn't moving. I'm not sure if she was just deep in thought on one of the questions, or if she'd dozed off."

"Oh boy. That's not good."

"What about Adrien?"

"Well, he was awake, at least, but definitely stressed out. He was running his hands through his hair so much I was afraid he was going to start ripping chunks out."

"That is also not good." Nino frowned and turned back toward the doors of the building, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets in an effort to keep them warm. A moment later, he glanced back over at his girlfriend as he felt her slip her own hand in to join his. Intertwining their fingers, he brought her hand up and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, earning himself a small smile. "You know, you're a stone-cold fox," he teased softly.

"Oh, can it, turtle-boy," Alya countered lovingly, also keeping her voice quiet despite their relative solitude.

Both of the teens' eyes were drawn back to the school by the sound of doors opening, revealing Adrien and his much-abused hair. He wrapped his scarf around his neck as he descended the stairs, his expression shifting from worry to relief as he spotted his friends. "Hey guys! How long were you waiting?"

"Oh, not long, maybe ten-fifteen minutes," Nino said.

"Sorry about that. I just couldn't focus there at the end. I'm completely wiped out." Adrien stepped over to Nino's other side, turning back toward the school. "Any sign of Marinette?"

"Nino was just telling me that he thinks she might have fallen asleep," Alya replied. "Hopefully that isn't the case, but we'll have to wait and see."

Adrien frowned a little at that response. "Did she say why she was so tired?"

"Something about being up until nearly three in the morning. She didn't go into specifics, though."

"Three in the morning? Sounds rough." Adrien had to fight to keep his voice from betraying his suddenly racing thoughts. He was sure that it had to be a coincidence--she must have been up late studying, or unable to sleep due to test anxiety. There was no way that Marinette of all people could be… but then again, there was the issue with her lie regarding the Akuma attack on the school last week… But that didn't have anything to do with Ladybug, did it? Maybe he was just reading too much into it. Yeah, that was it.

Adrien was startled out of his thoughts when Alya called out, "Hey, Marinette! Took you long enough!" When he looked up, the midnight-haired girl was just stepping out of the building, a weary smile on her face as she waved weakly at her friends.

"I'm so sorry guys, that last test was killer," Marinette said, zipping up her coat. Her scarf hung low, not yet wrapped around her neck. She picked up her school bag and purse from where she'd set them down on the ground, opting to carry them rather than trying to adjust the straps over her coat before starting down the stairs toward the group.

Adrien stepped forward, calling out, "Marinette, your scarf"--

Marinette looked up to see Adrien coming toward her, not noticing as her scarf hit the ground in front of her. Between the smooth stone steps, the soft cashmere, and her natural clumsiness, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Marinette's foot slid out from under her as she stepped on the offending strip of fabric, sending her pitching forward. She screwed her eyes shut, throwing out her arms to try to break her fall, her bags flying…

Only to feel a different pair of strong arms wrap around her midsection, hair tickling her cheek as she was braced from below by Adrien's firm body. The insistent smell of Camembert that had been hanging around Adrien the last week or so assaulted her nose. Instantly, her mind was transported to the night before, and almost by instinct her hand came up to card through Adrien's blond locks. So soft…

Marinette yelped when a soft sound escaped Adrien's mouth where it was pressed into her shoulder. An eerily familiar sound.

Shoving herself away, Marinette somehow managed to keep her feet beneath her as she leaned down to pick up her scarf, quickly wrapping it around her neck several times to cover her face. Adrien's own cheeks burned scarlet red as he gaped at Marinette for a moment. He tore his eyes away from her, mumbling an apology, before he turned to pick up her bags.

Marinette got to her backpack first, shouldering the bag while Adrien picked up her purse. Almost instantly, his mouth started to water as he detected a strong smell of warm cookies; the scents of sugar and vanilla and chocolate filled his nostrils. His hand was on the clasp of the purse, halfway to flicking it open, before he came to his senses and shoved it into Marinette's hands. "I've gotta go. Bye guys!" Waving awkwardly at Alya and Nino, Adrien turned tail and practically ran around the corner of the building.

Marinette stared after Adrien, her heart racing. He couldn't be--could he?

[kerishaharris]

Going, going, (not quite but almost) gone: the sad state of local newspapers

True story: As a young, would-be journalist, I applied at the behest of my high school journalism teacher to the Hugh N. Boyd Minorities in Journalism Workshop. The program was a two-week intensive workshop open to high school students across New Jersey with an interest in journalism. It promised to provide the 15 or so selected participants with real-world experience in the field absolutely free of charge, as local newspapers across the state sponsored the event, covering all expenses for selected students. Having always been rather introverted and somewhat shy, I didn’t think my writing was good enough to make the cut. But to my surprise, I ended up being selected and was sponsored by my hometown newspaper, The Record of Bergen County, aka The Record (or, so it was called at the time). The experience was transformative for me, and gave me my first insight into life as a journalist. I’d go on to study journalism as an undergraduate student at the University of Florida, starting off in print but switching to broadcast, and working professionally in the field for more than a decade for CNN, NBC, ABC, Univision, and more. And for a time, I briefly took a job as the lead social media editor for none other than the local newspaper that helped give me my start in the business: The Record of Bergen County.

(fun fact: The Record broke the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal which made national and global headlines) This week, I chose to take a closer look at local newspapers, and in doing so, briefly examine why they’ve struggled to remain relevant in a changing industry (I’ll only scratch the surface, because I could probably write an entire dissertation on this topic). It’s actually quite sad, as I firmly believe that local newspapers and beat reporters are critical to freedom of the press and unbiased, balanced, and fair reporting. Sadly, the digital age has done irrevocable damage to this industry. And I hate to say it, but digital and social media are almost solely responsible for the demise of newspapers, and sadly, I’m a part of that problem too. As a tail-end millennial who came of age with the internet, if the news isn’t on my smartphone or easily accessible via an app or a free website, I quickly lose interest and seek my information elsewhere. I can’t remember the last time I had a newspaper subscription, or even purchased a newspaper. I recognize how important they are, I just have so many other options for news consumption now that I just don’t turn to newspapers anymore. Freedom of the press

Local newspapers have been part of the fabric of this country since as early as the 1600’s. Every journalism student remembers studying the great circulation wars of the 1800’s between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. If not, everybody remembers how fun it was when instead of class, our teachers took a day off from teaching and instead showed “Newsies” on VHS in history class. It never gets old. 

(truer words have never been said, Jack Kelly) But the rise of television news, and eventually digital and social media, pushed local newspapers aside, as audiences had a quicker, easier way to access news on-demand instead of waiting for the morning paper. According to a recent report by researchers at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 300 more newspapers failed since the fall of 2018 bringing the death toll to 2,100. That’s 25 percent of the 9,000 newspapers that were being published just 15 years ago. It also noted that there are about 200 “news deserts,” or communities without any local newspapers. Most of those news deserts are in economically challenged rural areas, but more and more, even the economically advantaged suburbs are feeling the pinch too. 

(via UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media) The danger here? Local papers highlight and elevate local stories we might not otherwise know about, but we absolutely need to care about. What’s going on in our schools, with our local elected officials, within our communities, local zoning and budget decisions that impact our daily lives. They provide a micro-level guide to the things that impact us every single day. So if nearly all of your news is coming from social and digital media and their sometimes questionable algorithms, or television news that’s almost undoubtedly biased (at least in the U.S.), you really have to question whether you’re receiving fair, unbiased coverage. Dying, but not (quite) dead It was encouraging to see that while the industry is undoubtedly suffering, there are still some people who often consume their news via local newspapers. According to the Pew Research Center, people aged 65 and older account for most of the existing newspaper audience, roughly four in 10 of whom say they still often get their information from newspapers. This is about what I would expect from the older generation, but this sadly doesn’t say much for younger generations and their newspaper consumption. Only 18 percent of people age 50-64, 8 percent of people age 30 to 49, and a mere 2 percent of people age 18-29 say that they often get their news from newspapers. 

And even among those 65 and older, newspapers are a pretty distant second in terms of the source they visit most often for news, as 81 percent of people in this age group cite television as the source they often use for news.

If you can’t beat them, join them In my brief time as social media editor for The Record, it was obvious to me that the paper was trying hard to adapt to a changing world, opening themselves up to methods they’d never had to use before. The same was true of most newspapers, even national newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. It has been interesting to see the ways in which these newspapers have branched out into new forms of media to adapt to the way people consume news today. I highlighted this in a previous post, but I’ve been impressed by the NYT’s foray into LinkedIn Live, creating immersive, engaging conversations on key stories, and giving the audience the chance to actively participate with the media. At its core, I’ve always said that the best thing about social/digital media was that it took what were always one-way conversations, and made them into two-way experiences for the audience and the content creator. And speaking of the Times, their efforts on Instagram are among my favorite. Beautiful portraits that would once only live on paper are now shared in a beautifully curated feed that is always so pleasing to the eye. Often, these are stories that wouldn’t typically make the front page of the paper, but the visuals are so stunning that they tell a story in and of themselves.

(via the New York Times on Instagram) Using local newspapers as a communications professional

Part of my renewed interest in newspapers came about when I was a communications manager for a small nonprofit organization. Our primary goal was to engage in state level advocacy on behalf of the state’s charter schools. Effectively that means, catch the eyes and ears of lawmakers and state your case so that when budget time comes around, they’ll make sure to enact a budget that ensures the survival of these schools. I learned that these lawmakers and influencers pay close attention to newspapers, perhaps even more than other forms of media, and so getting our agenda into the local newspaper was a large part of the work that I did. I would write (well, ghostwrite) opinion pieces for senior leadership, students and parents, and pitch them for placements in the local papers in the districts of the lawmakers we needed to reach, I would develop relationships with local education reporters, invite them to press events, give them quotes for their stories, organize editorial board meetings and more. Newspapers became a critical part of the work that I did, as were the relationships I built with members of the newspaper industry, and I’d imagine the same is true for other communications professionals. Much to my (pleasant) surprise, there are still some brands doing important work with traditional print newspapers. According to FORBES, “MasterCard placed a two-page spread in The New York Times, almost unheard of these days, to articulate its support for the LGBTQIA+ community and MasterCard’s support for GLAAD’s NEON Legacy Series, a photo and video collection produced by Black LGBTQIA+ creators. The ad states MasterCard’s commitment to equal treatment, equal opportunity and equal rights. The ad features both the MasterCard logo and the GLAAD logo.” I can’t find a photo of the ad anywhere, but I’m sure it was great! Of course, this is very different from the way the general public engages with newspapers, as they’re looking for unbiased updates on what’s going on in their communities. But it’s still nice to know there are still some communicators out here tapping into the power of local newspapers to promote their brands, and I was one of them.

(sigh. a beautiful sight)

A sad future for local newspapers Sadly, none of the statistics point to a revival of newspapers anytime soon, although I’m holding out hope. With fewer local papers, and increased reliance on (often biased) television and (often wrong) social media for news, I worry that this is just one of the unfortunate ills of the digital age we’re living in. Sadly, many local papers are unable to stay afloat despite employing every possible adaptation in the book, often succumbing to major buyouts by huge conglomerates, resulting in newspapers that are controlled by corporate interests and offer no true local, unbiased reporting. 

And as for The Record? It suffered a similar fate in 2016 after it was ultimately bought out by Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain. For folks like me from northern New Jersey, it was the end of an era. I still remember being saddened when I learned the news, even feeling a tad guilty that I didn’t stick around long enough to perhaps contribute to a more favorable outcome. While my time there was brief, I worked alongside some of the smartest, most passionate and hard-working people I’d ever met. They lived and breathed northern New Jersey, and they put their heart and soul into every letter of every story that went to print. But what happened with The Record has sadly happened to so many local newspapers with no signs of slowing down. As communications and marketing professionals, we certainly can play a role in trying to help revive the industry, but my fear is that any efforts we make would be too little too late.

[wsmith215]

George Floyd protests continue across the nation, but stay mostly peaceful

  3m ago From Miami to Coral Springs, peaceful protests call for change

From Miami to Coral Springs, hundreds of protesters marched through the streets on Tuesday calling for change. They want more police accountability and an end to racism.

CBS Miami reports that during the marches, the protesters pretty much policed themselves. People on bicycles blocked traffic and if there was a rowdy protester, that person was told to calm down.

In Miami, protesters marched from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to Wynwood and back. Organizers said they want prosecutors to not fear charging officers for breaking laws. 

Another protest was held near Coral Springs Charter High School. It was planned by two teenage Pakistani Americans who said they are familiar with oppression.

Organizers of protests said they don’t plan on slowing down. 

Miami-Dade and Broward County officials are considering keeping night-time curfews in place through the weekend.

  15m ago At least 9,300 people arrested since George Floyd’s death, according to AP tally

At least 9,300 people have been arrested in protests across the country since the killing of George Floyd, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Los Angeles has recorded 2,700 arrests since the protests, followed by New York with about 1,500. Police in Dallas, Houston and Philadelphia have also arrested several hundred people.

The count reflects how much police activity has surrounded the protests that have engulfed cities from coast to coast.

  40m ago Fewer arrests on second night of New York City’s curfew

New York City’s second night of curfew still had people on the streets, but judging by the number of arrests things were much quieter than the night before. The NYPD said approximately 200 people were arrested – compared to about 700 the night before, CBS New York reports. 

Some looting was reported, and protesters defied the curfew.

As the sun went down Tuesday evening, police blocked traffic below 96th Street in Manhattan for the 8 p.m. curfew – an effort to curb looting and violence that has broken out at nightfall. 

The curfew will be in effect from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. every night for the rest of the week. Patrols are doubled and officers are working 12-hour shifts.

“If people are going about their business or people are on their way home, we understand that,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “The curfew is there to allow the police to be able to address any situation where someone is trying to do violence to a person or property.”  

Police tried and failed to stop a large group from crossing the Manhattan Bridge, which connects Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. 

Protesters denouncing police brutality and systemic racism are kept in place on the Manhattan Bridge by police for hours during a citywide curfew in New York City. 

Scott Heins/Getty Images

  7:50 AM Statue of ex-Philadelphia mayor many saw as racist removed

The Frank Rizzo statue in Philadelphia’s Center City was removed overnight, CBS Philly reported on Wednesday morning. It was vandalized during protests over George Floyd’s death. There were also attempts to tear it down. 

The statue of the former mayor, which has stood on the steps of Philadelphia’s Municipal Services Building for over a decade, was removed around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Crews used a crane to lift the 2,000-pound, 10-foot tall bronze statue and take it away. It happened under the watchful eyes of the National Guard and very few other onlookers.

The former police commissioner and two-term mayor was a controversial figure in Philadelphia. The South Philly native is remembered by supporters as a devoted, outspoken public servant. But Rizzo’s critics, many of them people of color, say his approach to policing and governing was corrupt and racist.

  7:44 AM Denver police officer fired for “Let’s start a riot” post during George Floyd protest

A Denver police officer was fired Tuesday for posting a photo this weekend of himself and two other officers in tactical gear with the caption “Let’s start a riot” in the middle of demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd. Officer Thomas McClay was fired for violating the department’s social media policy.

McClay was terminated just a day after an internal affairs investigation was launched. The department’s social media policy which bars officers from making posts that could impair the department’s “working relationships” or the performance of their duties.

An image purportedly posted by a Denver police officer shows three officers dressed in riot gear with a caption that states “Let’s start a riot.” 

CBS Denver

McClay, who joined the department in October after graduating from the department’s academy, could not be immediately reached for comment. 

–CBS/AP

  6:59 AM Retired St. Louis police captain killed during unrest sparked by George Floyd death

A retired St. Louis police captain who became a small-town police chief was killed by people who broke into a pawn shop after protests turned violent, authorities said. David Dorn, 77, was found dead on the sidewalk in front of Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry about 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

No arrests have been made.

The shooting and theft apparently was posted on Facebook Live, but the video has since been taken down. It came on a violent night in St. Louis, where four officers were shot, officers were pelted with rocks and fireworks, and 55 businesses were burglarized or damaged, including a convenience store that burned. 

Police also shot and gravely injured a burglary suspect who they say shot at officers.

–CBS/AP

  Updated 6:51 AM Protests in top virus hot spots spur fears of new COVID spikes

As people flood streets across America to protest the killing of George Floyd, public health experts fear the crowds, tear gas and arrests will lead to new transmissions of coronavirus.

An Associated Press review found that in the last week, there have been demonstrations in every one of the 25 American communities with the highest concentrations of new virus cases. Some have seen major protests over multiple days.

The protests come as communities across the nation loosen restrictions on businesses and public life that have helped slow the virus’ spread, deepening concern that the two taken together could create a resurgence in cases nationally.

  6:10 AM Oklahoma State linebacker has coronavirus after attending Floyd rally

Oklahoma State linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga says he tested positive for COVID-19 after he attended a protest in Tulsa. Ogbongbemiga made the announcement in a Twitter post.

The 21-year-old Ogbongbemiga says he protected himself during the protest. “Please, if you are going to protest, take care of yourself and stay safe,” he wrote.

After attending a protest in Tulsa AND being well protective of myself, I have tested positive for COVID-19. Please, if you are going to protest, take care of yourself and stay safe.

— Amen Ogbongbemiga (@closedprayer) June 3, 2020

One commenter to the post observed: “I dont think you got it at the protest.. if you weren’t wearing a mask you may have spread it but covid has a long intubation period and symptoms don’t just appear that fast… praying you recover quickly.. we honestly won’t know the impact of covid from this for 2 weeks.”  

–CBS/AP

  6:07 AM Buffalo woman charged for driving car into police officers

A Buffalo woman is facing felony charges after she drove a car through a group of police officers, injuring three of them.

Deyanna Davis, 31, was arrested Tuesday by New York State Police after she was released from the hospital, NYSP said in a statement. 

Davis faces five felony charges, including aggravated assault upon a police officer and 2nd degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Of the three officers injured, two are NYSP officers and one is with the Buffalo Police Department.

Buffalo Mayor Bryan Brown announced Tuesday that the Buffalo police officer who was struck by the car is in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery, according to CBS News affiliate WIVB’s Marlee Tuskes.

  6:06 AM Jim Clyburn says Trump has contributed to more “American carnage” than any president in his lifetime

South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn on Tuesday criticized President Trump over a Monday photo op. Police cleared protesters before Washington D.C.’s curfew went into effect so that Mr. Trump could walk unimpeded to a nearby church to pose for photos with a bible.

Rep. Jim Clyburn: Trump has contributed to American carnage

“It seems as if the president considers the exercise of one’s First Amendment rights to be carnage,” Clyburn said Tuesday on CBSN’s “Red & Blue” program. “How we define it, generally, he has contributed to it more than any president in my lifetime. I don’t think any president since maybe Woodrow Wilson.”

Speaking about the death of Geroge Floyd and Minnesota’s decision to open a civil rights investigation into the Minnesota Police Department, Clyburn said, “We have to begin to take action here. We can’t allow these things to continue to happen.”

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19 SEO Tips To Increase 📈 Your Search Rank🔍👍 [With Proof!]

Last Updated - 2019-03-11

One of my 2018 New Year's resolutions was to make organic search traffic a top priority.

And you know what it worked!

For transparency sake in March 2018 this site appeared almost 180,000 in Google search results. This translated to 61,000 page views. For any given month in 2017 I was lucky to earn 5000 impressions.

By November 2018, 8 months later, I had improved my organic search traffic to over 160,000, which continued to climb in December, despite the holiday lull.

The good news is you can follow my lead and improve your organic traffic and Google results. You may not see the large numbers I had, but you will see improved traffic.

The actual traffic volume will vary by niche and target market. My numbers increased because there is a lot of search volume for web development. But if you have basically 0 visitors from Google each month, which most sites experience, 100 or 500 new visitors could make a positive impact on your business.

After making many deliberate technical changes to this site and changing my content strategy things improved. My next goal is to reach 1 million monthly search impressions.

These tips are not related to building backlinks, at least not directly, they are mostly related to on-page and technical SEO. This means how you can clean up your site's code to make it faster and easier to use. These tips

After reading these tips you will want to audit your site to see how many of these tips can be applied to your site to make it rank better.

How did I do it? How can you replicate my success?

In this article you will learn 20 actionable tips you can implement today, for free, to start reaping the rewards of increased traffic to your web site.

Full disclosure, my results are mine. Your results can and will vary. I do use some paid tools, but you can implement these tips for free. The services and tools I use help me scale and complete tasks faster.

Intentional Effort and Motivation

I wont lie, I invested 10-20 hours a week for the first two months of 2018 making changes, one by one. I have not stopped making changes and will continue to make upgrades.

Good SEO is hard and takes a lot of intentional effort. But anything worth doing does.

The good news is there are many FREE things you can start doing today that will have an immediate impact.

Last week I got involved in a conversation with fellow Microsoft MVPs about our annual contributions. You see we were in the last week of our award renewal period, which means everyone is evaluating what we have done the past year.

A key area for MVPs is their blogs. How many, how much reach, how to get more reach etc.

Of course great content is the goal, but reaching the developer and IT community is more important for our MVP award status.

If no one reads the content we pour our soul into then does it really matter?

The good news is you can get the eyeballs you are after. And you don't have to be a Microsoft MVP to win big.

As MVPs we are motivated to reach others and provide good advice so everyone can succeed. Hopefully that is your first goal.

The second goal of course is to use our platforms to confirm our expertise and work ethics to earn great paying gigs and sell our products. Right now my main revenue goal is to enroll students in my Progressive Web App Course.

So between the MVP program, developer projects and my course I have lots of motivation to make this blog popular.

Organic Search Engine Optimization

Over 93% of web traffic originates with search.

The best news is that traffic is FREE! But it is not easy to earn.

That means a solid SEO strategy is important for anyone wanting to reach folks with their message. Compared to all the paid traffic channels, organic SEO is by far the best source of traffic.

Search engine optimization or SEO is the art of creating content and earning good placement on tarageted search or keyword phrases in search engines.

I emphasize earning because you can't buy your way to the top. At least not for a reasonable return.

The algorithms used by Google, Bing and other search engines are highly gaurded trade secrets. But they boil down to these requirements:

That's it!

Simple, right?

Win these two categories and you will earn things like backlinks, etc.

The tips I share in this article are designed help you meet these two requirements. Plus this is not limited to just Microsoft MVPs. These tips will work for any web site.

Here is the Proof

I had neglected my SEO for a few years. I neglected checking my analytics and just assumed things were still humming along like they were several years ago.

After an MVP meeting in Boston I went and checked my analytics. I was sad, because there was almost no traffic.

Last year I made an intentional effort to grow my reach, but honestly I went down the wrong path. I listened to successful marketers talk about their channels, mostly paid.

So like them I spent a lot of time and money trying to grow an audience through things like Facebook ads. And to be honest I grew an audience. I have over 6000 Facebook fans and an email list I grew from 0 to 1400+ in the past year.

What was I doing wrong? I mean I try to author content I think other developers need to know. My site is fast, That is something I preach about, so I have to load fast!

Turns out despite writing good content (yes that is arbitrary 😃) no one was reading the content.

Bad search rankings were the big reason why. So over Christmas I decided to focus 100% of my effort to grow my organic search.

It was not an overnight success, but so far it was close.

I really started to see results in mid February. That is roughly when the items I am sharing in this post were fully implemented.

Over the course of the year my traffic gradually improved as articles accrued better rankings. I also added more articles over time.

Note: There were a couple of short periods where I made changes and the analytics code was omitted. Also, note a seasonal drop off over the Christmas holidays. Tech traffic drops when developers go on vacation, who knew!

Not every article is a success by my standards, most are. A few seem to be stuck on page 2-4. But over time I tweak the content and they gradually improve.

So what did I do?

Author Greenfield Content

Back in the 2010 time frame I was challenged by my manager to author more 'thought leadership' content.

What does that mean?

I wrote what I will call vanity content. These are articles I felt others needed to hear or that I felt were important.

Often they are more op-ed than substantive or actionable.

In short, developers really want to know how to get their job done, not theories.

Anyway, I wrote a lot of articles that were more editorials than practical. An example of these areticles is one I wrote about Mark Zuckerberg comments at TechCrunch Disrupt.

Lots of pontifications and yeah it tells you what I think.

But who the heck cares?

That page ranks for absolutely 0 keywords!!!!

Turns out I had hundreds of URLs ranking for 0 keywords, which means they were just dead weight.

Unless I share those articles on social media no one will ever read the article. And even then it is questionable. Most tweets and Facebook posts have little to no engagement to speak of.

Heck I am looking over that article and just see words, lots and lots of words.

I don't even want to read it!

I may apply one of my later tips to this article, I will let you guess which one!

Up to that point (2010) I typically wrote about things I thought were helpful. Typically it was how to write code, which should be what I write about! I want to help developers write better code.

At the same time I want business decision makers to know what they need to use for their business. So explaining technology is the other key content area.

But I can't just write things I get a fancy for. I need to write for what others are searching for.

So, in mid February I switched back to focusing on that strategy. I started writing on topics I would have never dreamed of 4 months ago. And you know what, people are reading those articles!

These articles fall in the category of Greenfield content. The difference between these articles and the vainity posts are they have a long traffic life. Sometimes vanity articles get a great initial bump, but quickly fade into obscurity.

Greenfield content targets common search phrases with decent or large volumes. Those searches are pretty steady over time.

The HTML Input Placeholder Color article is just an example. That page basks in 5-20 victors a day.

Did you know most web sites can't even get 25 real visitors a day!

Aggregate those view over 365 days and I should have 1,825-7,300 readers over the course of the year.

And you know what, I should get even more. I am not fully ranking as high as I can for that page's keywords yet. I am almost there! I am betting I can get to 30-50 readers a day by the end of April! #BOOM

To target these topics I needed to discover what people were searching for. This means keyword mining.

The best place to start is the Google Adwords keyword planner. You will need an Adwords account and I think it needs to be active for a while before you have full access. I also think they recently changed the rules to require some paid activity.

Bing has a similar tool, but it not near as good.

There are great paid services like AHrefs, which I now subscribe and SEMRush.

These tools should give you a good idea what phrases people are entering in search engines to find answers to their questions. They will also tell you estimated volumes, etc. The paid services will also help you understand how stiff the competition is, so you can target simple topics first.

There are other free keyword tools available online. Even with the paid services you will need to take time to identify target keywords to create content.

Key takeaway: Write What People Are Searching For

Write Differently Than Your English Teacher Taught, Write for the Web

I have mixed feelings about my experiences in English classes. I enjoyed the reading, but not the subsequent book reports. To this day I still get 'critiques' about my grammar and writing style. Somehow it never seemed like it followed a formula like math and chemistry.

Writing has changed in the past 30 years, thanks to the Internet.

In school we were and still are taught to write for print, not for digital.

There is a difference and knowing how to write for online makes a difference.

Most of us were taught a 'Chicago Style' of writing. 5 paragraphs, intro and conclusion. Each paragraph at least 3 sentences.

I still fight to avoid this style today.

But as you may have noticed this article avoids that style.

And for good reason.

Research says it does not work online. I call it 'Internet Style'.

Even if you still read the morning paper or physical books, you no longer need to write for print.

Internet readers don't want long paragraphs, instead use short paragraphs.

Make sure there is margin or spacing between the paragraphs.

You should also 'bridge' paragraphs. Brian Dean has the best advice, I love Bucket Brigades.

Make your content skimmable. This way your readers can scroll down the page before committing to a full article. I often look for lists and main headers to get the general idea before committing.

79% of your audience is only going to skim your content. That’s not likely to change.

Don't be hurt knowing everyone will not read your content.

Instead, create content that is easily skimmable and still provides value. Your goal is to help them, not consume their time.

You should also try your best to tell a story. A problem in my primary niche here on Love2Dev is being too technical. Most the content in the development space reads like documentation.

Over the past year I have authored a new Progressive Web Application book and articles for other publications. At least on two occasions my editors pushed me to tell a story with my content. As a developer my mind struggles with the concept of making technical content read more like a novel.

Don't worry you won't have to write the next Harry Potter, just something that engages your audience. Over the past year I have been working more and more with C# Corner to improve the site's SEO. The idea of producing and updating content from documentation and example style articles into something more engaging has been a struggle.

Since the authors are developers and general learn development concepts from documentation the creative side is often overlooked. But not only will incorporating a story based approach engage more readers, it will help your search profile.

Why?

Because your content will be better quality and over time you will be rewarded.

Appeal to the reader's person, and don't just produce dry content that bores them. Make them engage deeper than just scanning your articles by telling a story they can relate.

Telling a story is also a great way to acheive my next tip, writing long!

Write Long

Research shows longer content ranks better. But this is not the whole story.

Just because this research shows longer articles rank better does not mean this rule applies 100% of the time.

Sometimes short content is the right content. I still try to hit at least 500 words an article.

My workflow is to identify a primary keyword phrase and look at the top 10-20 results. How long are there articles? Especially the top 3 results, they matter the most.

More may not be better.

Sometimes the question (keyword) can be answered in a sentance or two.

This does not mean to write 2 sentance articles! Answer the provide an answer as quickly and succinctly as you can, but always provide more depth to the topic.

Recently I have been producing a series of 'how to' on topics I consider very beginner. For example JavaScript for loops. The funny thing is everytime I start on these 'simple' topics I find some intermediate or advanced topic to cover in the article.

I do find authoring longer articles gives me an opportunity to prove my skill level, show off a little and cover a broad range of keyword opportunities.

If I can produce an article that ranks in the top 30 for 500 or more keyword phrases means I have a winner that will generate traffic for years to come. The CSS Placeholder Color article ranks for over 400 keywords I know about.

Think about that reach?

Bonus : Make sure you mention your primary keywords or keywords in the first two paragraphs. You don't want your primary keyword to show up around word 1500!

Backlinks Matter

There are two types of backlinks, external and internal. Google and other search engines use them to find pages as well as apply value to the page. Basically, they are the most important ranking factor.

An Authority Hacker research study confirms backlinks “are still the most strongly correlated factor for SEO success.” They are not alone, other studies back up their findings.

While the correlation between links and search position is weakening, it does not seem to be completely fading. Until search engines can find a more reliable mechanism to rank content they will continue to be important.

This means you should focus on acquiring links to your content. You should also plan your internal linking strategy. The goal is not just earn a large quantity of links, but earn links from topically relevant pages that also have authority or equity to pass to your page.

Use Media (Images & Videos)

I know we tend to write toward developers, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Research has shown content with pictures and videos rank better.

Way back in 2009 Moz did a study that found posts with images, lists and videos attracted the most domain backlinks.

But who has time to find and sometimes pay for photos?

I don't.

These are just some of the free sites I use for artwork. Sometimes I pay for photos and design work. It depends on the content and potential pay back.

I was spending time creating illustrations. But honestly there is little return in the time it takes to create a decent illustration. Sometimes it took longer to make the feature illustration than it took to write the content.

Today I have changed to a good photo. I may overlay some text, but that is rare. I limit my effort to uploading the original and then letting a set of AWS Lambdas optimize the image and create a responsive array to include in my pages. The Lambdas even create the HTML, CSS and JSON I need to render any page I might create.

For technical content, which most MVPs produce, you should also include screen shots. Phones have made that super easy. On Android just hold the power and down volume button down.

iPhones are similar, push the power button and home button at the same time and quickly release.

On Windows you can hit the Windows + PrtScn button on most keyboards. Windows also has the Snipping tool. Just hit the start button and start typing snipping and it will show up.

The snipping tool allows you to isolate an area of the screen for a screen capture. You can then annotate the image. There are a few of these in this article.

I have also started making screen captures of source code because I have been having markdown to HTML rendering issues with HTML. I hope to fix that soon.

There are many opportunities for you to add artwork in your content. Images are an easy improvement.

But there are more opportunities...

Start a YouTube Channel

Last year one of the first things I did was get serious about video. I had grand visions of becoming a YouTube star.

I got a green screen, tripod, lavaliere microphones and of course editing software.

Video production is way more complicated than I anticipated. Not to mention getting people to watch developer videos on YouTube is not easy.

In fact, I will warn to not expect much traffic from YouTube in terms of traffic to your channel. Developer topics are not highly sought after.

Which is a shame because there is some great content on how to develop great software.

I got a little depressed about my results. But then I looked at the subscription and view numbers of what I consider to be my YouTube competition. You know what, their numbers sucked too!

I was making my expectations against different niches. So basically here is the honest truth, developers are missing out on great YouTube content.

But the rest of the world loves YouTube. I have learned so much about everything, including development the past year watching YouTube each morning when I get up.

So why I am telling you to start a YouTube channel?

That last point is important, but first what is OBS?

Open Broadcast Studio is a free, open source video recording tool. Thanks to Kevin Griffen for turning me on this great piece of software.

It can record your screen and create the videos you need for YouTube. But that is not where it shines.

You can use it for YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Twitch and other live media platforms!

Live is where the action is.

I still use Camtasia to record my screen for code walk throughs and slide decks. I should probably switch. But when I stream live from my desktop I use OBS.

While I was at the summit I forgot my phone tripod and needed to get creative. So I used OBS from my Surface to interview Greg Whitworth about CSS. I live streamed the interview and now it is a permanent video on my YouTube channel.

The cool thing is when you stream a live video on YouTube you can then post it as a regular video!

Did I say no editing and production involved?

Plus it was all FREE! Heck Yeah!!!!!

But wait there is more! I have not forgotten the SEO part.

Now the hard part starts. You need to write a blog post on the topic. When you are done writing, embed the YouTube video in the article. Google loves this!

YouTube is one of their properties. So they love anyone that promotes their properties. When you embed a video in your blog post you are killing two birds at once.

You are promoting your video on YouTube, but you are also adding multi-media to your article.

Images, videos and anything that adds non-text value to your content makes it rank better.

Users are four times more likely to consume video content than written copy.

In fact anywhere you can, embed the video. Add it to LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook, etc. There are literally thousands of sites you can embed your YouTube video.

Make sure you put a link to the blog post in the video's description. Even though it is a nofollow link, it still has some juice. I get site traffic from these links.

Today, I don't worry about my YouTube traffic. Its great if it happens. But I know the real value is embedding the video in the article.

For the record I will record a video for this article and embed it....right here looks good!

I don't always record the video first, sometimes it takes a few days to get around to it. But I try. I can testify when I add that video I typically see a rankings boost within 24 hours. Sometimes that is the difference between a position 25 and a place in the top 10!

Publish to a YouTube channel and embed the videos in your articles, Google loves to promote its own properties!

Sign up for a FREE Lumen 5 Account

Video is hot, duh I just wrote about it.

Attaching short videos with your social media posts is a great way to increase your engagement numbers.

But who has time to make all those 15 second videos? I don't.

Initially I signed up for Shakr, which costs $100/month. I made lots of videos using this service. They provide templates for 10-120 second videos. The best part is they render in the cloud, so your computer is not tied up with an intense video rendering process.

Most videos take 5-10 minutes to produce.

But $100, too much for my needs.

Then one day I found Lumen 5. I honestly have no idea how I found it.

They have paid plans, but I don't pay at all. I use the free service.

You can add your RSS feed and they will periodically grab your latest post, extract text and add background images. All that left is you hitting a button to render the video.

You can customize the video, but honestly I don't.

If you have followed my social media the past year you have seen these videos. Maybe you are following me thanks to the attention those videos gave my social channels!

You can also add these videos to your posts for that media bump.

Once you create a Lumen5 account add your RSS feed and it will make promo videos you can add to social media to promote your posts.

Attaching these videos to Tweets, Facebook and other social media posts will increase your aggregate engagement rates!

Emojis Increase Engagement Rates

Add emojis to your post titles and make sure you share the emojis in your social media shares.

Thanks to Kirupa for sharing how to use emojis in HTML. He explains how to get code points and add them to your text.

Go to Emojipedia.com to get the code points, it has a built in feature to copy them to your clipboard. You can then paste the emoji in your text.

The emojis show in the search results, which makes more people click your result, and that will move you up the ranks.

That's right, the number of times searchers click or chose your link in the search results affects how well it ranks. If you are in the top 10 for a week and have zero clicks then most likely you will be dropped down.

Having the visual pop provided by an emoji can grab the attention that earns a few extra clicks. Those clicks translate into better rankings.

The emojis also get better social response rates.

Its all about the visual attraction. Remember we like to look at pictures more than we like to read and emojis are just fun!

Ask Brian Terlson!

Embed Slide Decks

Even if you don't speak at conferences and user groups like I do slide decks can be your SEO friend.

I use PowerPoint to help me outline content. Plus I can create diagrams and currate images.

You can export your slides as images and PDFs. The images can then be repurposed in your written articles or videos.

You may also want to use the slide deck to record a video or do a YouTube live stream. Of course then you can embed the recording!

You should also create accounts on SlideShare and SpeakerDeck and upload your slide decks. Make sure you include a good description with a link back to your article.

You should also include links to your content in the slides. Google can read those links and give you backlink credit.

Exporting to a PDF can be valuable as well. There are thousands of document sharing sites you can upload to, like Scribd. Google can also parse the PDF for those links and give you a backlink.

I also use some of my slide decks as free lead magnets to grow my e-mail list. I typically reformat the slides to make them more 'book' appropriate and keep the content a little different since it is a lead magent.

Slide decks are an often overlooked tool to increase your search engine visibility.

Make Infographics

Just like slide decks infographics can be powerful SEO tools.

People like pictures and infographics are informative graphics (see how they are combined to a cool word?)

You can also share those on image sharing sites and of course earn links back to your site.

Pro Tip: Turn your slide decks into InfoGraphics!

I have created a few infographics and they seem to be well liked. I do pay graphic design specialist to create them for me. I spend about $40-50 for each one, but it is well worth the inevestment.

FYI: I have ordered an infographic for this article 😁

Use HTTPS

As of this summer I doubt any site using HTTP will be listed in any search results.

Google has made it clear in recent years HTTPS is a ranking signal. Chrome and other browsers are getting more aggressive with visual messages when a page does not use HTTPS.

This means consumers will not visit insecure sites.

The evidence is clear, if you are not using HTTPS you probably are not listed in the first page for any search today. There are some exceptions to this rule.

My anecdotal survey says less than 10% of the searches I perform or research include pages using HTTP.

Another observation about sites using HTTTP, they tend to be abandoned. By that I mean the content has not been updated in a year or more, in most cases. Which is probably why they have not been upgraded to use HTTPS.

When I find sites using HTTP I tend to review them and find what they rank for and put that content on my to do list because I know I should be able to out rank that page within a month or so.

Certificates are free today, so there is not real excuse to use HTTP anymore. Upgrade, today if you have not.

Be Fast - Real Fast

I have been saying this for over a decade. I still encounter developers that argue web performance does not matter.

The reality is consumers, real people, want pages to load fast. Like before they click a link fast. On mobile cellular connections no less.

Google has been clear, speed matters for search engine ranking. Marketers know this.

In fact they write more about web performance optimization than developers do. And those are the people that hire developers, think about that...

The first rule is you need to have meaningful content painted on the screen within a second. You should also be usable between 3-5 seconds after the user perceives they requested the page.

At 3 seconds you have lost 50% of the customers that wanted to read or interact with your page.

Mobile makes this harder.

Always test your site and pages on real mobile hardward and by that I mean average mobile phones, not an iPhone X or Pixel 2.

You can use the Chrome developer tools to perform simulated tests. WebPageTest is another great way to audit your pages. Your goal is to achieve a speed index of 1000 or less.

I wont hijack this article with web performance optimization advice. I have enough of that on the site already!

Do Not Use Fast Food Frameworks

I know I get lots of grief about this topic. But I am 100% right.

Sites that use Angular, React, Vue, Ember and other fast food frameworks don't rank well.

The #1 reason is they load too damn slow!

JavaScript is the #1 reason your pages don't render fast.

Plus Google deprecated their AJAX cralwing policy a couple of years ago, which means single page apps and AJAX heavy sites won't index well in the first place.

If you want to rank well, ditch the framework and focus on pre-rendered static web sites using thin JavaScript.

Remember the average web page takes 22 seconds to render on mobile phones. JavaScript is the reason. My pages average 3-4 seconds, just sayin.

Fix Your Broken Backlinks

The first thing I did over Christmas was repairing my backlink profile. These are links to your site. They account for about 33% of your ability to rank, or so the experts say.

I did the research and found about 2000 broken backlinks to my site! That was more than were active. No wonder my organic SEO had fallen so much.

Most were pointing to my original blog engine's routes. I spent about 30 minutes each night going through the list and identifying the URLs they pointed to and setup a 301 redirect to a new page.

Sometimes this was redirecting the link to the new route. Other times I had removed the content all together. I either pointed them to my blog's home page, my home page or a related page.

If you are not familiar with a 301 redirect it refers to the HTTP status code returned from the server when a resource is requested but has been moved to a new address. It tells the client (browser) the resource has permanently moved and what the new URL is. The user agent should then load the new location.

By configuring 301 redirects you are reclaiming these links. For Love2Dev this had a big impact on the domain rating. This is a common KPI different search engine optimization tools have created to indicate the domain's health in terms of SEO. Each service has their own algorithm so I won't try to provide details.

The irony to this story is one of the first blog posts I wrote was how to setup a 301 redirect in ASP.NET.

Claim Your Site in the Google & Bing Web Master Tools

The first place to identify your broken links is in the Google & Bing web master tools.

This is your 'official' window into how the search engines view your site. You can see what backlinks you have been credited, what search phrases you rank for and how much traffic they send.

Just as important you can also see if there are crawl errors. The main thing I look for are 404 or not found URLs on my site.

Google reports these URLs and what source pointed to the missing URL. You can then configure a 301 to direct that traffic to a new URL.

If you have not configured your site in these web master tools you should read the instructions. You will need to either add a special HTML page or a DNS record to verify ownership.

In Google you should also claim up to a combination of 4 variations: http://domain.com, http://www.domain.com, https://domain.com and https://www.domain.com. I can't remember why this is important, but do it. The stats and information will be available for your cononical protocol and domain.

Canonical Tag

Speaking of cononical, you should add a rel="cononical" META tag to every page. Its value should be the final or single source of truth for the page.

You should setup 301 redirects for anyone entering your site using HTTP and the domain configuration you are not using.

For example I route everyone to https://love2dev.com/{slug}. You may route to your www version, it is up to you. Just route them to a single source.

Search engines use the cononical tag to give the authoritative URL all the credit. This keeps your link juice from being distributed to other versions, which reduces your ability to rank.

Open Graph & Structured Data

There is no proven correlation between structured data and your ability to rank, yet. But it can be helpful for social media marketing and the potential to be listed in a position 0 resource.

Position 0 are the useful content boxes above the first listing. The content can be in a variety of forms, like lists, image packs or paragraphs. The content is 'scraped' from one of the top 10 listings, not nessecarily the #1 listing.

I have a few pages benefiting from position 0 right now. I can attest they drive a higher volume of traffic than normal search listings.

Sometimes structure data is used for these resources.

Structured data is also used for local SEO, but that is an entirely different subject.

Re-Purpose Old Content

If you are like me and started blogging over a decade ago you have old, crusty articles. Some of then have some value, they just need to be refurbished.

Before you throw out those old articles, evaluate if their core value or points are still valid today. If so refresh the content.

Not only do you get a new article, but you don't have to start fresh.

Remember to 301 the old URL before publishing to a new URL.

One thing I am doing as I refresh old articles is use shorter URLs, you may want to do this as well.

Delete Dead Weight Pages

Remember that Zuckerberg article I mentioned earlier? Dead weight. I need to delete it.

I wont now, because it is an example for this post.

But I have deleted around 400 dead posts on this blog since the first of the year. I am removing 40 this week alone.

Removing dead pages helps your site rank better because Google has a clearer picture of what your site is about. Plus those old post that no longer have backlinks or talk about technology that no longer exists dont offer value to anyone.

Google Gary Illyes unpacked this topic in a Q&A with Stone Temple Consulting a few years ago. Its about having high quality content. If you think about those pages are not bringing you traffic but they consume spidering time from the Googlebot and create 'noise' that keeps potential visitors from reading your core message.

I think removing those posts was a big reason why my newer posts started doing better.

Make sure you setup a 301 redirect from these posts to something live on your site. For me, most of those URLs now point to my main blog page.

Use Mobile First Responsive Design

This should not even need to be mentioned, but I will anyway. Google is aggresively swapping their mobile index to be their primary index right now. That's because the majority of searches originate on mobile devices.

By June mobile will be the primary index. This means Google will spider or evaluate your site as it renders on a phone more than it will as a desktop. Perform poorly on small view ports and you risk not ranking in search results.

This should emphasize the need to have a mobile first responsive layout on your site. You need to be able to render nicely on any device and any viewport.

Shoot For Big Targets - Hit Long Tails

Its easy to start digging into keyword data. I know I am fascinated by the terms and volumes I am finding in my research. Its important you understand how to read the data to form a realistic strategy.

Remember how I said the placeholder color article ranked for hundreds of phrases? The vast majority of those terms are lucky to see 10-20 searches a month.

Sure there are about 10-12 with over 500 searches a month globally. And yes those are the primary terms I am targeting. But I am careful to identify different 'long tail' phrases.

About 20% of the billions of searches Google handles each day are entered for the first time! This means there was no way for you to know to target those phrases.

For what it's worth this is where their RankBrain AI engine kicks in. But that's another complex topic....

Think about 20% of a billion. That is a lot of potential traffic to your site. And it does not stop with new searches. The vast majority of search keyword phrases are entered less than 20-30 times a month.

Search engines do their best to interpret the user's intention and deliver the best result set. It helps when you know how to pepper your content with latent semantic phrases.

These are words and phrases that relate to the target keyword. For example, writing about Toyota automobiles should be surrounded by phrases related to driving or repairing a car.

Knowing what semantic or contextual phrases helps, a lot.

You can manually try to harvest search suggestions by entering primary phrases in the search to see what the auto suggest tool returns.

But free tools are always better!

Nile Patel's free uber suggest tool is very helpful.

There are also many services you can pay for, and full disclosure, I recommend this if you are serious. I subscribe to aHrefs and it is worth every penny.

I have refreshed and updated dozens of articles with additional phrases over the past few months and seen immediate impacts. But I need to know what to add and these tools help guide me to the right phrases.

I have to say this may be one of the biggest improvements I made. In the past most of my articles would have some rank on 5-10 phrases. Today it is rare I have an article with less than 100 phrases with some SEO ranking.

Wrapping it Up

These tips have focused on how you can modify a combination of on page/technical SEO and your content/editorial strategy.

Some should be obvious, but if you are like most you neglect the easy things more than you should. Others you probably never considered.

I know there are items in this list I never applied till I took a leap of faith. Letting go of hundreds of old posts is a good example.

Organic search should be a primary goal of any content strategy. It is where the majority of web journeys begin. The traffic is free, but not easy to earn.

Writing content people need is important, but making sure you provide the best experience means your great content is sure to rank high and earns lots of free, reoccuring traffic.

This content was originally published here.

[peanutdream]

Hey.............. Do all those ask things please I am Curious enjoy

1.      Spotify, SoundCloud, or Pandora? 

Spotify. I don’t think I can even use Pandora since I’m from theNetherlands?? Last time I checked I couldn’t.

2.      is your room messy or clean?

A combination ofboth.

3.      what color are your eyes?

I think it’sgreenish??

4.      do you like your name? why?

 I used to really dislike it, but that was mainly because there was a Dutch song about my name (this one) that some boys from my class sang EVERY fucking school day, and sometimes even multiple times a day. It really ruined my name for me. Recently, though, my mom told me that?? The song came out somewhere around the time before my grandpa died when he was still hospitalized?? and?? he heard the song and liked it??? So i don’t really hate the song anymore, and I’ve kinda grown to like my name again. A lot of people still refer to me as ‘Rose’, though, since that’s just a lot shorter.

5.      what is your relationship status? 

Single and ready to eat an entire baguette.

6.      describe your personality in 3 words or less

funny jumpluff eat

7.      what color hair do you have?

Dark blone

8.      what kind of car do you drive? color?

I haven’t really driven in my mom’s car yet but it’s silver colored.

9.      where do you shop?

stores, usually. I mostly buy stuff at the mall that’s in my town, but sometimes I feel Fancy and I take the bus to a nearby city.

10.  how would you describe your style?

“i wish I was as cute as some of my clothes”

11.  favorite social media account

??????????????? of the ones I own?? someone else’s??? U gotta be more specific.

12.  what size bed do you have? 

a normal one. for a single person. because i’m single.

13.  any siblings?

Nope!

14.  if you can live anywhere in the world wherewould it be? why?

Mmm, somewhere near a forest is Great.

15.  favorite snapchat filter? 

I Don’t Use SnapChat Enough For This But I Remember One With A Princess In A Car And I Think That One Is Pretty Rad

16.  favorite makeup brand(s)

I never......... buy make-up............. I wish i did, though. Sometimes I want to buy some, but then it’s like?? it’s expensive, and I don’t really know what I would need to buy anyway.

17.  how many times a week do you shower?

Depends on how many times I need to go out. I do shower atleast once every two days, though.

18.  favorite tv show?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Do series count? or just?? random shows?? Or can I just put in a random show that I’ve recently watched?? because then I’m just going to say Grace & Frankie because that one is Very Good.

19.  shoe size?

smol. 38 I think.

20.  how tall are you?

also very smol. 1.57 meters.

21.  sandals or sneakers? 

Sneakers when I have to walk A Lot, sandals when I’m at the beach or just?? at home I guess.

22.  do you go to the gym? 

lol no.

23.  describe your dream date

That’s a tough one. I’d have to say April 25th, because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket!

idk dude I think just?? hanging out with the person I really like would be very chill already?? Maybe some looking at the stars and?? laying outside in a grassfield?? that sounds pretty chill I think.

24.  how much money do you have in your wallet atthe moment?

About 7 euros I think

25.  what color socks are you wearing? 

Black + pink.

26.  how many pillows do you sleep with?

One normal head pillow + 2 neck pillow things.

27.  do you have a job? what do you do? 

haha no.

28.  how many friends do you have? 

6 close friends and?? a Whole Bunch of people that I consider friends but that I don’t talk as much with.

29.  whats the worst thing you have ever done? 

I’m not sure honestly, although I probably have done or said some bad things?? 

30.  whats your favorite candle scent? 

Roses and other flowers.

31.  3 favorite boy names

shrek, donkey, farquaad.

32.  3 favorite girl names

fiona, dragon, uhhhh fiona’s mom.

33.  favorite actor? 

Ryan Reynolds or Tom Hanks.

34.  favorite actress? 

Merryl Streep or Viola Davis

35.  who is your celebrity crush?

shit I don’t know dude. 

36.  favorite movie? 

shit there are so many movies that I love??? The Swan Princess, Matilda, Forrest Gump, A Lot Of Disney Movies, La Vita e Bella, Miss Congeniality and?? a lot more I think??

37.  do you read a lot? whats your favoritebook? 

Dead Withc Walking by Kim Harrison, although I really love the HP books too. I love reading and wish I did it more tbh.

38.  money or brains? 

money seems to be working pretty well for trump but honestly i think i prefer brains.

39.  do you have a nickname? what is it? 

Rose. There was this one week where my nickname was Cheese though.

40.  how many times have you been to the hospital?

I went to the hospital pretty often as a child because I was?? Not Very Tall?? and the docters were Concerned or something. they basically took some blood and checked how much I had grown since the last time I visited. 

When that was done I didn’t visit the hospital until I got hit by a car on my way to school and broke my clavicle. It hurt. A Lot.

The last time I went was like, 2 years ago?? To get my thyroid tested?? I was basically Really Fucking Anxious back then and constantly felt like?? Like shit I guess?? And as if I was going to die?? Sort of?? but not really?? Let’s just keep it at “I was really anxious about having a fast heartbeat” to keep it simple. I’m over it now, though. God, even just walking made me anxious back then. 

41.  top 10 favorite songs

NICE that’s more than ONE song. They’re not going to be in any particular order though. And also probably more than 10.

Day6: I Wait - Congratulations - I’m Serious.

Fall Out Boy: Sugar, We’re Going Down - Miss Missing You - Young Volcanoes - Rat a Tat

BTS: RUN - INTRO: What Am I To You - Crowtit - Ma City

Shortstraw: Thailand

Walk the Moon: Tightrope - Anna Sun - Shut Up and Dance 

Man Man: Loot My Body

Raleigh Ritchie: The Greatest - You’re A Man Now Boy

42.  do you take any medications daily? 

hell yeah. The Good Shit That Helps Me Against Hayfever.

43.  what is your skin type? (oily, dry, etc)

Dry hands, oily face

44.  what is your biggest fear? 

Losing my friends.

45.  how many kids do you want? 

Not sure. No kids?? One kid??? I think it eventually also depends on my partner I guess??

46.  whats your go to hair style?

“Listen I combed my hair but the moment I stepped outside the wind acted like an asshole.”

47.  what type of house do you live in? (big, small,etc) 

medium house.

48.  who is your role model? 

ONE, as in, the one who came up with One Punch Man. 

49.  what was the last compliment you received?

“I like your sweater.” 

50.  what was the last text you sent?

“I’m home around 2:30, want to drink some coffee together?” = me @ my mom.

51.  how old were you when you found out santawasn’t real?

I never believed in Santa. as in, the american one. I think I was like, 10 or something when my mom told me Sinterklaas doesn’t exist??

52.  what is your dream car? 

one i can drive in without crying.

53.  opinion on smoking?

please don’t blow your smoke in my face. I personally dislike it but?? it’s your choice if you want to smoke.

54.  do you go to college? 

hell yeah.

55.  what is your dream job? 

Something I genuinely enjoy, that happens to pay decently.

56.  would you rather live in rural areas or thesuburbs? 

Suburbs I think??

57.  do you take shampoo and conditioner bottlesfrom hotels? 

I don;t visit hotels often enough to steal enything from them.

58.  do you have freckles? 

Don’t think so.

59.  do you smile for pictures?

I do. That is, when I’m not avoiding the person who is taking the pictures. 

60.  how many pictures do you have on yourphone? 

117

61.  have you ever peed in the woods? 

Yes. It is necessary if you want to play in the woods without peeing your pants, really.

62.  do you still watch cartoons? 

hell yeah!!

63.  do you prefer chicken nuggets from Wendy’s orMcDonalds?

I didn’t visit a Wendy’s during their one year stay in the Netherlands, so I can’t really compare them. 

64.  Favorite dipping sauce? 

Sour Cream.

65.  what do you wear to bed? 

Pyjama’s. As long as it’s something that I can wear pj pants with, it’s fine for me. I really hate not wearing pants during summer. the sticky sweat feeling between my legs is the worst.

66.  have you ever won a spelling bee?

We don’t really have those in the Netherlands lol.

67.  what are your hobbies?

Reading, writing, gaming? ? I think?? can talking with friends count as a hobby?

68.  can you draw? 

Depends on what it is that I need to draw.

69.  do you play an instrument?

I can play the (acoustic) guitar and the glockenspiel!! Also a little bit of recorder!! 

70.  what was the last concert you saw? 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I think it was a Fall Out Boy concert?? From their American Beauty/America Psycho tour??

71.  tea or coffee?

Coffee. Tea is alright but it’s?? ?? ? yeah.

72.  Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts?

it’s been, what, a month since a Dunkin Donuts first opened in the Netherlands??? Somewhere in Amsterdam even I think?? So uhhh. no. I don’t really have any reference material.

73.  do you want to get married?

I think so.

74.  what is your crush’s first and last initial?

l i sten  n o.

75.  are you going to change your last name when youget married? 

Maybe?? If it’s not something like Naaktgeboren?? because there was an episode on Zoop where someone’s name was Ben Naaktgeboren which may sound ok if you’re not Dutch but it’s not a name I’d like to have.

76.  what color looks best on you? 

Green/red??

77.  do you miss anyone right now? 

I sometimes wish I lived closer to my online friends so I could hang out with them more but?? I can still talk to them whenever. I do sometimes miss my grandparents though.

78.  do you sleep with your door open or closed?

It’s usually not entirely closed.

79.  do you believe in ghosts?

Not really.

80.  what is your biggest pet peeve? 

when an inanimate object still falls over even though i’ve called it “dude!” and “bro!” many, many times.

81.  last person you called`

My phone says it’s my mom.

82.  favorite ice cream flavor? Lemon

83.  regular oreos or golden oreos? 

what the hell are golden oreos????? Why would you eat gold????

84.  chocolate or rainbow sprinkles? 

Chocolate

85.  what shirt are you wearing? 

One with Dory on it with the text “I have 99 problems but can’t remember ONE

86.  what is your phone background?

(This picture)

87.  are you outgoing or shy?

I used to be Super Shy, but now it’s getting a little bit less I think?? I’m pretty outgoing when I’m with friends, though.

88.  do you like it when people play with your hair?

hell yeah.

89.  do you like your neighbors? 

I don’t really know them but I think they’re alright??? 

90.  do you wash your face? at night? in themorning?

Before + after sleeping.

91.  have you ever been high? 

nah

92.  have you ever been drunk? 

nope

93.  last thing you ate? 

un petitfour

94.  favorite lyrics right now

Basically just?? the lyrics of If I Could Tell Her from Dear Evan Hansen. god I love that song.

95.  summer or winter? 

summer.

96.  day or night? 

both?? 

97.  dark, milk, or white chocolate? 

All of them. 

98.  favorite month? 

June bc it’s my birthday month B)

99.  what is your zodiac sign

Cancer

100.   who was the last person you cried in frontof? 

My mom, probably?? 

Thanks for letting me answer all these questions!! 

[lx-5point0-blog]

Bullies on the Block

God of Combat: part 1 June 8, 16 by John T. Lober (The story you are about to read is factual, currently unfolding, and is my account of what is happening and what, now, may indicate what happened to Phil, and how he died, over ten years ago.) This document is for your eyes only... Whomever you decide to tell of this, I trust you will make the right choice, and I am giving you full clearance to sing away. part one of ultra the unlimitedness Locker room and the team is gathered around like a military debriefing, all eager, energetic, and, ready to hit, hard.... "Remember, team, we are only as strong as our weakest Link. So, let's build each other up, and let's win this season, and be the champions we are." -MM, my football coach '86 intro: 09-01-16 3pm "This is just weird,,, I don't know what to say",,, this is the proper response,, By an innocent bystander,,, If questioned about accusations,,, If an officer pulls you over,,, late on a Saturday night,,, And asks you if you have been drinking,,, The proper response is,,, Not a drop since eighty six officer,,, Any hesitation,,, and you,,, will be,,, going ,,, to jail,,,, I have seen the heavyweight champions of complete,,, and utter fucks,,, of lying,,, all types,,, but this one,,, It's been ten years since I have seen him,,, Keep your friends close,,, Right,,, Social media is closer,,, He knows it,,, And so do I,,,, Well,,, the match was lit on June 8th, 2016,,, around 5:30 in the late afternoon,,, in the eclectic neighborhood of lower-class riverside rejects,,, in Men,,, if,,, e,,, Menifee,,, Menifee? Where the fuck is that,,, You ask yourself,,,, It's in between Hemet,,, Temecula,,, And Egypt,,,, It's where the middle class move to now,,, Because if they have a job,,, They can buy at a lower price than the habitable parts of California,,, I've met a few and thought of them as scoundrels,,, and most of them ruthless,,, outlaw villains even,,, But now have upgraded them to lawless criminals,,, And,,, just outright evil doers,,, I was sitting in my car with a friend,,,, In her driveway,,, watching the sun go down,,, but it was taking forever,,, and my body had been getting a cattle prod in the ass from my subconscious,,, my sub conscious caveman mind,,, the entire day,,, my caveman mind tells me some very important stuff like,,, The ever important breeding and father question,,, Can I,,, Well,, Can I,,, can I fuck it,,, And,,, Can I eat it,,, can I eat it,,, Is very important,,,, And then,,, Then there is a most important question every man needs to ask himself,,, Can IT hurt me,,,, Can it,,, Hurt,,,, Me,,, Hurt,,, Not fight,,, Not reach out a little and touch me,,, No,,, It asks me if IT,,, Can hurt,,, Me,,, It senses the craziest shit ever,,, To the point of unbelievable,,, One night,,, Me and two friends were about to enter a Wendy's restraint,,, And I held out my are and said,,, STOP!!,,,, They paused,,, Looked at each other,,, It was quiet,,,, Boom!,,, The two guys busted out the door,,, Tangled up and scrapping all the way down the parking lot,,, They locked eyes with me,,,, I just smell violence,,, I would respond in a little non shelant and innocent manner,,, Adopt a little Laurel and Hardy dumbness,,, And just proceed,,, Fearlessly,,, Because I was,,, Fearless,,, I have endless scenarios to make my point,,, As a young man,,, That grew up from a kid,,, I enjoyed accomplishing things that no matter what thee guy could,,, I enjoyed destroying a large group of angry men,,, That we're trying to violently strike my skull,,,, And hurt and kill me,,, All of them,,, And I mean All,,,, Of,,, Them,,, Would lose,,, I was a sure thing,,, I was,,, You knew one thing about Lober,,, If you want to fight,,, If you are a Bully,,, He was gonna kick your ass,,, A woman said to me in 2012,,, Ha,,, Lober,,, Your a pretty much a for sure thing,,, She said in her spoiled boozer slut voice,,,, But,,, She was right,,, Still a fat ass sweaty Tijuana whore,,, And gold digger know it all,,, Manipulating alcoholic,,, head hunter information farming,,,, Aderol abusing,,, Materialistic wanna be Orange County image,,,, Ex girlfriend,,, Fuck,,, I thought to myself,,, I know life is a long long road,,, And it appears,,, People in general are becoming more and more scandalous and just disrespectful,,, Towards me,,, And each other,,, I am just like over here in my seat,,, Getting kinder and gentler and less abrasive,,, More loving and caring,,, Able to communicate and make people laugh,,, I was digging this,,, Until she lied to the judge and got a restraining order against me for five years,,, I do not ever mention her name aloud,,, That monster is dead to me,,, I only refer to her by her two initials,,, M,,, G,,, MG,,, MG did something for me,,, She changed my entire look on the reality of what is happening to people today,,, I am an adaptable guy,,, I can change also,,, But I am not going to associate with anyone or thing that is negative,,, You know ,,, Talks about others,,, Dwells on the past,,, Watches fucking sports like they caught the fucking pass themselves,,, I stopped watching the news,,, I just had no urge to smoke a jay,,, I became high frequency again,, and it felt great,,, I sold my car,,, so I had to hike everywhere or ride my bike,, it got stolen and I did not care about it,,, I continued to search for like minded individuals,,, I began to crush my goals,,, This inspired me to set the bar higher,,, I am on a quest to find a synergistic relationship,,, One plus one equals,,, One hundred,,,, I am finished watching douschbags work out and stay fat and ugly,,, I am through with slack-Jawed mother fuckers,,, That never do what they say,,, I am a man of good character and I have integrity,,, Others can have bad character and possess integrity as well,,, That means they are going to let you down every time,,, I am not a for sure thing,,, I am more than just a warrior,,, I have grown and became more,,, I am going until my body drops,,, Until it cannot feed my mind any longer,,, I am limitless,,, Just energy now,,, June 8th,2016 5:20pm it's just totally,,, The strangest shit I have ever heard in a while,,, But yet,,,, I have survived,,, yet,,, another attack on myself,,, by a deceptive ambush,,, disguised as something, so very small and petty,,, with the expectations of a a much bigger result. I'm still alive.... And, free to roam... Every adversity,,, opens,,, another opportunity,,, for me,,, to see ,,, the re-ality ,,, and to expand,,, the Chee,,, in me,,, I use,,, my lateral,,, imaginative,,, cognitive super power,,, to construct,,,, depict and expose,,, an unbelievable,,, and abhorrent nodus. It shall incite you,,, and make you aware,,, of the cultural shift, of a collective belief,,, that our society has adopted,,, adapting to the use of technology, and the removal of Love from the circle of life. The dark, sinister, prowling villains of the invisibility,,,, are full to the brim,,, with the ultimate hate, but, starve,,, for destruction of another mans soul. Gnashing of teeth,,, ripping of flesh,,, Snapping of bones,,, Feeding on the energy,,, gives the negative darkness,,,mass. The thrill excites, and then, it satisfies the darkness. The darkness has no borders,,, it is only infiltrated by Light. Invested in this diabolical plan, it hides in the shadows of the ultra bright sunset. Shielded,,, from the light,,, that acts like daggers,,, The perpetrators have unlimited vision. For the fleeting moment in time,,, the cognitive connection,,, and precise deliberateness,,, is no match,,, for the unsuspecting target. Ten years is a lifetime to a child,,, and it really is,,, a decade. A grudge that has been marinating in humiliation,,, and simmering to a boil, in self hate. This inside of the false shell,,, of a man,,, may be so twisted and ugly,,, putrid and rotten, and,,, so sinister,, he is just,,, EVIL as fuck. To overtly devise,,, conspire and pre meditate,,, Such omnipotent tactics,,, in order to battle this target... Must have been such a climactic peaking,,, like a surging tidal wave,,, Ready to crash the beach and orgasm in the face of the a-low-ha,,, the darkness has entangled its target,,, in a sticky web of evil,,, and like a Lion.... Sprang on to the Target,,, and went in for the bloodlust kill,,, but employed a deceptive,,, indirect attack,,, a very creative move,,, and with such decisiveness,,, as only the highest ranking officials do. The great white face of complete and utter terror is what they expected,,, Meant to inspire action,,, in the ultimate prey. But,,, he is the most lethal God of Combat in this world,,, the G-O-C,,, has so much to offer in these situations. An endless quiver of tools,,, to strike with,,, constriction and asphyxia,,, using strangulation,,, completely cut off the blood supply to the brain,,, It leaves no marks,,, no evidence of self defense,,,or,,, of a crime. The serpents tongue flickers with intensity of a butane flame torch,,, shearing the flesh from bone,,, ripping and tearing,,, creating a river of Crimson,,, and,, discombobulation,,, and then,,, unconsciousness. So many targets to choose from,,, with out any hesitation,,, or thought,,, giving the green light to swinging a Louisville slugger,,, with the most violent and rapid twist,,, of the entire body,,, without the slightest wrinkle in the core,,, creating the chilling sound of snapping bone,,, All eyes snap to focus on the screaming attacker,,, as he Schills out a morbid,,, and frightening cry of the dying. Heartbeats skip,,, and a flub is felt in their chest,,, to be witness to an uncanny skill,,, from the slow moving,,, Bad joke telling,,, and slightly dumb,,, target,,, slothing around ,,, deceptively,,, knowing that survival tactics are a lifestyle,,, the story of capture and defeat are written,,, day by day in the eyes of the enemy,,, they count on predictability, and sometimes over confidence, then, the Lethal Gid of Combat snaps out of the ruse, and an energetically active, spirited, whip cracks. The target, now the Lethal God of Combat, swiftly detaches and strikes with surgical precision, efficiently and with a character of good, only dishes out the reasonable level of brutality, regulates the collateral damage and assesses the level of protection of his castle, where the darkness brought the battle to his soil, so ever, arrogantly and god damn foolishly brazenly disrespectful, yet, the God ceases to terminate to finality. He only has instinct and feeling to gauge in ambush chaos, he is warranted to continue, he is wise and great. He knows there is something to the ruse, ambush, a set up. Covert act of street terrorism of a gang stalk hunting crew, of red shirts, a squad without mercy for killing and hurting, creating mayhem and chaos, with lies and cowardice, this death squad has a black heart that pumps cat piss and a soul of putrid rot and bloody ass laying limply on wet concrete.... SLAP! In Mad-dogs face,,, He picks up the phone,,, and says,,, "You,,, assaulted me.",,, You,,, will be going to jail.,,, Hello,,, Larry,,, I mean police...",,, Words are weapons ,,, and,,, the mind is a battlefield,,, I stand tall on this theater like Patton in Guam. The evil is entirely way too deliberate. Aggressively belligerently moving into loiter in another mans castle. Forcing his way into the bubble, there is only one king here in this castle, so he gets popped. The gang slithers out of hiding now, with that look in their eyes . The G-O-C has a detection as he soaked in the frequency,,, and the energy,,, from the pair, or more? An assault squad,,, More. There are more perps,,, Like a Power bar,,, G-O-C,,, becomes electrified by the collectives energy,,, Absorbing it all up like he was a dry sponge,,, It is surreal to him again. The ides of March,,, betrayal is sorrow,,, Loyalty remains,,, only,,, until you must borrow,,, If History repeats,,, there is No tomorrow,,, Lies and Deciet,,, They will creep into your marrow,,, Sinister deeds,,, forgiveness and regrets,,, My re gained soul fucking bleeds,,, my display of weakness,,, a greater deception,,, Inspired your inception,,, I am energy,,, I have grown beyond,,,the imagination of the human mind,,, You will regret this,,, you feel it now,,, It's my creeping penis,,, It is coming and it will not be painless,,, When it s figuratively buried to the hub,,, in your tight little anus,,, No sweat,,, I give what I get,,, In return ten fold,,, So if you are a threat,,, You cannot bribe me,,, Not with all of your gold.,,,, My Legacy is ongoing,,, until that day,,, it is complete ,,, Being kind and neat,,, occasionally I must feed,,, on my perpetrators meat,,, See,,, I envision tasks,,, before they have been complete,,, and the past,,, I can reconstruct,,, It's simple for me,,, like,,, knowing how to eat,,, GG and Chopper were fools,,, and the book of fiction,,, are just tools, to create a lonely sociopathic kid into a mastermind driven and fueled by HATE. All the money and heartbreak, hit infuriates me, driven to only one thing, the God of Consciousness and everlasting space, we are not ever gonna be friends, in life or after we leave this silly little rat race. Pray for my me as I will for you, manifesting the inevitable, that is all it will do. 5:45 pm June 8th, 2016 (Back to reality) At 5:45pm that same day, I sat in my driveway with Lisa Traudt. I met Lisa on cyber dating and was reluctantly had been co habits ting with her at her home on Kepler st.. We were verbally assaulted by a belligerent and very deliberate neighbor three doors down, as we sat in our driveway, after this aggressive neighbor, Mario D Garcia, whom we had never seen before this moment, was asked by me 5 times to leave, he decided to tell me that,"he will do whatever he wants," then told me he was gonna "talk" the her, stepping towards Lisa who has a mobility handicap and was locked is fear of him, so I used a reasonable amount of force to stop him. He immediately labeled it assault and phones the police. And as the "trash" ruse he used to "approach" us before he went to dinner evaporated, his father in law creeped out from behind the hedges in his Ford Edge, window rolled down, and I believe he said "I saw him hit you." It was very weird and I have seen a lot of fights in my time, but this was really weird. I walked down my driveway to Willies and said to him, " you didn't see anything," and got within view of the pistol he was holding below the window line of the car, and as Mario attempted to get in between us so I wouldn't see it and blow their plan to antagonize me into attacking him so they would have a reason to use it on me, with the intention to kill me because that is the only thing I can think of a gun is for. I slapped Marios phone out of his hand and he returned a punch that he missed. I smashed his sunglasses as I saw that his phone was not on 911 but couldn't make it out as to what it said for sure because he grabbed it quicker than a 17 year old girl. He was calm cool and collected now. Not in any fear at all. Infact, they both blocked me in so I could not flee. I brought Lisa inside, not revealing I had seen a gun so she wouldn't scream or cause them to get excited and make a bad choice. I shut the front door, she sat down, I then opened the door and got up to the front just before they could see me, and those two were communicating, as now Ana and miquel cam out and grouped up at the foot of my driveway. No fear they had. I asked Willie to please back up. The second time, he did slowly. I went back and got lose and we got in my car and drove away in fear of our lives. I was laffing when I said it so Lisa would not get too scared to walk to the car. Marion and Ana both walked towards us as we pulled away filming us with cell phones and reciting that we hit them almost in unison like Ana knew what the plan was. Deputy Moore left a card. I left three messages and to this day have not been a led to give my side of the story. This situation has escalated into a great big loss of time, money and happiness for me, and created a great white fear of impending doom and shear terror of being killed in my sleep for me and Lisa. I have slept in my car for a or two months now because Mario lied to the face of the commissioner and was awarded a TRO. I was completely unprepared for him to lie like he did and the commissioner dismissed hearing my witness, Lisa, the owner of the Kepler property, and my video of Mario, and then, Ana threatening us two weeks later. This whole situation has taken me over two months to put some type of reasoning to it. I am still completely sure that there is a lot more to it that I am unaware of, but I am sure of the fact that Willie had a gun, Mario had knowledge of that fact, and Heather threatened me 7-8 hours prior to that. I did a little research and I found this out, Heather and Mike were living two streets over from Lisa's house on Kepler, but I am unsure if they are currently. And when I looked up Marios Facebook the next day after searching white pages, well, he had me blocked and he claims he had no idea who is was until his wife snapped a pic of me on July 28th. He filed the TRO on the 22nd and had the entire John Lober expose' and I believe he purchased a few of my books as well. Epilogue: We are ALL sinners, and none of us are perfect. There are more losers than winners, an army they can erect. Consciousness has no borders, and just like this story, it is incomplete.... Part one John Driver, Author ©LUBRXOLOGY NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION ™John Driver

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Earnings Alert: The Astonishing Truth Behind Apple

Apple Inc Earnings and Services

Date Published: 2017-01-29 Written by Ophir Gottlieb This dossier first appeared in CML Pro -- the institutional research built to break the information asymmetry that the top 0.1% hold. PREFACE Today we will discuss Top Pick Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) with regard not just to the upcoming earnings report, but the future at large. APPLE INC (NASDAQ:AAPL) Before we look forward with Apple, we must look back. So, here are the facts, first. HISTORY Apple released its iPhone 6 series back on September 19, 2014. This was a gigantic shift for the company because it was the first large screen phones it had produced -- a sort of catching up with Samsung's Galaxy and Note franchises. The results were astoundingly good. Here is a chart of Apple's calendar Q4 revenue (aka the holiday season quarter).

We can see that huge spike at the end of 2014. While that is a revenue chart, that quarter was also the single largest quarterly earnings ever reported by a public company. But, many analysts opined that the pop was based on pent up demand for a larger screen phone, and less about Apple's newly found additional market appeal. That was a reasonable guess -- nobody knew the future. But, as it looked like demand might be falling, the mainstream media found a new click worthy idea -- that Apple was going to shrink. Much to many people's surprise, here's what happened in the holiday quarter ending Dec 26th, 2015 (the next year).

Even in the face of an absurd up tick, Apple actually grew revenue again, and it broke the all-time record for largest earnings ever by a public company yet again. As that chart reads, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has never seen a year-over-year drop in revenue in its holiday quarter in the relevant time (over a decade). I know that sounds like a total reversal of what you may have read in the news -- but we are sharing the financial statement data here -- no opinion in these charts. Now, non-holiday quarter revenue has definitely dropped in 2016 from 2015, that's not misleading, that is also fact. For the record, while we don't know yet, Apple has guided, generally, that they will break their own all-time revenue highs again in this upcoming earnings release (2016's holiday season, but they may not break an all-time high in earnings). Very few analysts have Apple not growing that bar yet again -- even in the face of the "disastrous iPhone 7," which wasn't a disaster at all (at least not yet). SOMETHING HAPPENED While stories about Apple's demise grew to be the norm, the story really caught hold in 2016. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock sunk to $89 and all of a sudden there were calls for a $60 stock price from some super bears. While that was happening though, something else was building at Apple and it needs context, so if you will, let's turn to Facebook for a second. Facebook had a huge number of people on its various properties but what it needed to do was turn that group of people into revenue. Advertising is Facebook's answer, and my goodness, they have done an absurdly good job -- so much so that Facebook now is 60% the market value of Apple. That 60% valuation is put in to better context with this table, comparing the company's revenue and earnings (after tax) to Apple.

Company Revenue Net Income Apple $216 B $45.7 B Facebook $22.2 B $6.0 B

Yep, Facebook's revenue in the trailing-twelve-months is about 10% as large as Apple and its net income is about 15% as large, yet its market cap is 60% as large. Now, a big part of that disparity is growth expectations -- Facebook has growth pegged at high double digit percent and Apple is trying to squeak by with low single digit percent growth. But that's not all of it. The real reason we see this is the different sources of revenue. Apple sells hardware, mostly iPhones, and those are one-time events. In other words, after an iPhone is sold, that's it, the revenue is collected and it doesn't recur unless the owner comes back to purchase another one later on. Facebook's advertising revenue is recurring. Advertising is just a service, let's call it that. A business purchases this service, and it will continue to purchase the service as long as it provides the needed return on investment. The great part of Facebook's business is that even if user growth stagnates, the service it provides generates more and more value as time goes on. As anyone who has advertised knows, as time passes, the advertising becomes more refined, more accurate, and more profitable for the buyers. Or, we can just say, the service becomes more valuable. When we add user growth on top of that, well, we get a company that really is pretty small in terms of revenue and earnings but is now the fifth largest company in the world by market cap. SO WHAT? That reality -- that service revenue is worth more to valuation because it is recurring and predictable -- hasn't gone unnoticed by Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and this where the bullish thesis for the company builds. First, unlike Facebook, Apple Inc gets paid to grow its user base -- people buy iPhones, Macs, iPods, iPads, whatever. While a Facebook user joins for free, an Apple user joins for hundreds of dollars. Now, as we read the news carefully, which is to say we avoided the click bait, we noted that the press releases from Apple started sounding a lot like a services company. We broke the story when Eddie Cue, the head of Apple Services, noted that iMessage rates hit 200,000 messages a second. This makes Apple one of the largest social media networks in the world as a side effect of its other businesses. It's on the periphery of what we're talking about here, but CML Pro also broke the story that Apple filed a patent for a Social Network centered on its iPhone (The Secret’s Out: Apple is Creating a Social Network). As time passed, CML Pro has hyper focused on Apple Services as a whole. Here are snippets from our dossiers: Apple Services is turning into a legitimate revenue and earnings driver for the company. In fact, while services accounted for just 14% of revenue, the segment accounted for nearly 25% of operating income. Here's a revenue chart for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Services.

For context, Apple's revenue in the last year from Services alone is about the same size of all of Facebook's revenue in totality. Apple Services comprises of iTunes, iCloud, the app store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and other Apple software and services. This segment is Apple's "diversification" play away from the iPhone. Tim Cook noted on the last earnings call that Apple Services would be showing growth even if iPhone sales stagnate, implying that the current install base of users is spending more and more money with their iPhone on services. He also noted that within a year, Apple Services would be large enough on its own to be a Fortune 100 company. Embedded in Apple Services is the potential giant that is Apple Pay. As of right now, Apple Pay has yet to make a material impact on revenue, but its potential is gigantic. In fact, it’s so large and so complex, we have dedicated several CML Pro dossiers to the subject with great specificity. Here is one of the better ones: Update: Apple Pay is Turning into a Big Win. I rarely recommended leaving a dossier to look at another, but in this case, I really do encourage a read of that piece. It’s too long to include in this dossier, but it is the very guts of Apple’s future. Even further, given what we are going to discuss below about Apple Inc recent failures, this is a huge part of the long thesis for the company. I just can’t say it anymore plainly, if you own Apple stock, you should read that dossier on Apple Pay. In any case, Apple Pay saw 500% year-over-year growth per the last earnings call, with more transaction volume in September of 2016 alone than all of 2015. THE PRESENT Now, these are the realities at Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). The company will probably break its own all-time high in revenue and could break another all-time high for all pubic companies ever in earnings with the quarterly report this week -- but even if it slips a little -- it doesn't really matter. The future is Services and, as an aside, its hardware business keeps growing as the iPhone 8 (possibly called the iPhone 10) will be released later this year. But all the while, Apple Services is turning into the driver behind the company. Apple is doing the one thing no other company in the world can do -- it has combined the largest hardware business on planet Earth, which is now the most profitable business of any type on planet earth, while also building a huge services company. WHAT TO WATCH First, we must remember that whether or not Apple Inc sells more iPhones than it did in the year ago quarter, the total number of iPhone owners is growing. To use our Facebook corollary, the number of MAUs is growing. So then we need to watch... * Apple Services growth * Any specificity behind Apple Pay * Then we need to try to do some math -- the average Apple Services revenue per new iPhone sold. * We can 'hope' to hear news about video as a service * We can 'hope' to hear about augmented reality As long as Services revenue is growing (we already know that the number of total iPhones is growing), then we have our bullish thesis. APPLE INC'S FUTURE While the hardware to Services business is huge, Apple actually has a lot more going on. Rather than try to fit everything into one dossier we direct you to our prior discussions: * Apple’s Surprise About a Self-driving Car * Apple is Getting Dead Serious About Health Care * Apple Files a Patent for Augmented Reality * Apple Goes After Video — Yeah It Really Matters And the risks: * Risk Alert: Apple Faces China’s Wrath * It’s Time to Have a Serious Talk About Apple We remain bullish on Apple Inc for the reasons posted above and in the various dossiers we have authored. The writer is long shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). Thanks for reading, friends. WHY THIS MATTERS If you enjoyed learning about Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) but actually being ahead of the curve, this may be up your alley: Our research sits side-by-side with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the rest on professional terminals. Of our Top Picks, Nvidia is up 250% since we added it. Ambarella is up 60% since we added it. Relypsa was taken over for a 60% gain and we are already up nearly 50% on Skyworks. To become a CML Pro member it's just $19 a month with no contract. It's that easy -- you cancel at any time, instantly. Each company in our 'Top Picks' portfolio is the single winner in an exploding thematic shift like self-driving cars, health care tech, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, drones, biotech and more. For a limited time we are offering CML Pro for $19/mo. with a lifetime guaranteed rate. Get the most advanced premium research along with access to visual tools and data that until now has only been made available to the top 1%.

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Social Media Trend 2020

Take a look at what we believe are the key social media marketing trends for 2020 that marketers need to be aware of in order to ensure their marketing strategy is up-to-date and as effective as possible.

Social media has now become synonymous with digital marketing, going hand-in-hand with most – if not all – digital campaigns. However, social media is far from static and what worked a few months ago may not get you the same good results now.

Habits change, platforms evolve, and new platforms come into existence. All of this influences how people use and react to social media marketing, as well as how marketers are able to reach their audience.

It is more important than ever before for marketers to understand and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social media. Doing so ensures you have the right tools at your disposal, an up-to-date strategy, and the required skills to make the most of social media.

With this in mind, we’ve taken a look at some of the trends that we believe are going to be important when it comes to social media marketing in 2020. Here are the trends that we, and other experts, think you need to be aware of ahead of the new year:

The digital detox

There are now 3.484 billion social media users across the globe, which is a 9% increase compared to last year. This equates to 45% of the world’s population being on social media. It also means that social media adoption has actually beaten previous estimates, which suggested that an estimated 2.82 billion would be using social media in 2019. While this suggests that brands have the opportunity to reach larger audiences than ever before, a new trend is affecting that audience base.

Digital around the world 2019

More people are now choosing to “detox” from social media, deleting apps and profiles in order to step away from it. This is more than just the usual changes we see in terms of people choosing to use one platform less in favour of another – such as Facebook seeing users decline but Instagram attracting more – this trend is seeing people take a temporary or permanent break from all social media.

One in three adults in the UK are now reducing their social media use. Some 6% of users have removed an app from their phone, 6% have permanently deleted their accounts and 8% have both deleted their accounts and removed social media mobile apps.

Digital detox stats

A big reason for this is that people now feel overloaded by social media, with the permeation of social media affecting their mental health and wellbeing. Others choose to detox because they don’t trust social media platforms, either due to issues like Fake News or because of privacy and data concerns.

“I think that this year, we’ll be seeing more of a change in the way social media users act online; I think that digital detox will become more prevalent this year, with many people trying to limit the amount of time they spend on social media.

“I also think that there will continue to be a big push towards making social media more private and secure for its users – this has been a big problem recently and many people are just realizing how truly dangerous a lack of online privacy can be. And these things, of course, will have a big impact on marketing too – brands and marketers need to be on top of these trends and act accordingly.”

Lilach Bullock – Content marketing and social media specialist.

This isn’t to say that social media will become void in terms of digital marketing, but marketers do need to understand the impacts it could have. When added to the issues that pay-to-play social media brings, more people taking on a digital detox (whether temporary or permanent) will impact reach and engagement of your posts. This can affect the results of any customer acquisition or brand awareness campaigns you launch across social media platforms.

Ultimately, it’s vital that you don’t start putting all your marketing eggs in the social media bucket. You need to ensure that enough budget and resource is still being given to other channels, including email marketing and search engine marketing. However, it’s also vital that you ensure that any social media presence you do have is as meaningful as possible. Your brand needs to offer more than memes – you need to deliver content that has a positive and memorable impact on your audience and that provides as much value as possible.

Building social media communities

A big part of meaningful and valuable experiences on social media is the way that brands engage with their audience. While sharing posts that you believe your target audience will enjoy is part of maintaining your social media presence, you also need to encourage and cultivate interactions that are more than a simple like or share.

There are a lot of brands out there who seemingly have large social media followings and yet, when you look more closely at individual posts, their engagement levels are almost non-existent. Those brands that are seeing more engagement from their followers are doing so by building communities around their content.

Smart Insights Facebook Members’ Community

This isn’t to say that communities are a new concept, but they are being built by brands in different ways, which is paying off and will likely continue to do so as we head into 2020.

“While social communities aren’t a new concept, how brands build them is changing the way we interact with them. There are many brands, both B2C and B2B, that have massive followings with no real engagement. The bottom line is your online presence should expand your reach, to ultimately drive more conversions.

“For starters, it’s crucial to measure your efforts and stay in touch with your audience. Social media suites are a great way to see everything in one place, from post creation and distribution to monitoring and analytics. Figure out what’s working and what’s not – don’t be afraid to pivot and try something new!

Encourage your team to create their own social presence to promote content and increase overall brand trust. This tactic leads to an authentic voice for your company,

Twitter chats help create a strong sense of community through content, bringing thought leaders from all areas together in a real-time conversation. It gives your brand the perfect opportunity to engage directly with current and potential customers.

“More than ever before, potential buyers want to hear from current customers – so give them a place to do just that.”

Bridget Poetker – Senior Content Marketing Specialist at G2

Building social media communities away from your profiles is just the start, after all, creating a group and having people join is no guarantee that they will engage. You also need to create content that gets them talking, encourages conversations and cultivates that feeling of community. Doing so can keep people engaged with your brand but also bring in new leads and customers while also adding a human, personalized element to your brand.

“I believe that the days of merely posting content and people showing up to engage are slowly coming to an end as pay-to-play social media becomes more and more prevalent with every social network over time. As a company, you’re already at a disadvantage, which is why it will become more important than ever to actually engage with your community.

“I’m not talking about engagement so that your content shows up better in the algorithm, but actually thanking those people in your community not only when they comment or engage with your content but actually proactively reaching out to them like a social media user would reach out to a friend. If your business wants to survive in organic social media in 2020, I believe that this sort of humanization of your brand will be necessary.”

Neal Schaffer – Leading Global Educator and effective implementer of social media strategy for business.

Social media influencers and word-of-mouth marketing

One benefit of building social media communities is the fact that they help with word-of-mouth marketing, which is another big social media marketing trend for 2020. Communities allow you to engage with nano or micro-influencers who are already advocates of your brand in order to get them to share honest views and experiences of your products or services.

We all know that influencers have been around for a while and they have now become an expected part of the social media experience. They can offer great benefits for brands, including a relatively high earned media value, especially now that Instagram usage is continuing to grow at an elevated rate.

Influencer marketing average earned media spend

However, many types of influencers are no longer trusted by consumers. Big influencers are not only expensive for brands, they no longer have the impact that they used to because they are seen as disingenuous. In fact, 61% of consumers will trust the recommendations of friends and family over celebrity endorsements because they are more likely to be honest.

In comparison, smaller influencers, such as those who are likely to be part of your communities, tend to have better relationships with their followers, which means they benefit from a higher level of trust. This can lead to more engagement at a lower cost, as well as increased trust in a brand that is more likely to culminate in conversion.

Instagram and Twitter engagement rate

“A good reason to follow my advice on social media communities is that this will also make it much easier for your brand to engage with influencers in 2020. This obviously is the other way to incite Word of Mouth marketing on social media when organic social media for businesses is pretty much dead.

“Now I’m not talking about spending thousands of dollars and reaching out to celebrities who are promoting one brand today and another brand tomorrow. I’m talking about authentically engaging with those in your community who are already following you and are already nano if not micro-influencers and finding a way to collaborate with them.

“I am so passionate about this subject that it is going to be the focal point of my next book, Age of Influence, which publishes in March of 2020, but needless to say I hope that marketers in 2020 will realize that social media is not just a place to market to people, but really is the ultimate forum for you to find and collaborate with a variety of social media users of varying influence that can help push your marketing objectives forward.”

Neal Schaffer – Leading Global Educator and effective implementer of social media strategy for business.

Taking on nano or micro-influencers as brand ambassadors means that they can share posts about your brand but also engage in conversions with their highly engaged following or others within communities. It is these conversations that are more likely to influence buying decisions and help build trust in your company.

This type of marketing creates positive brand sentiment, gets people talking about your brand and provides more insights into consumers’ buying behaviour and pain points. All of this better enables you to create a genuine experience for your audience.

The rise of alternative platforms

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram tend to be the core platforms used by B2C brands, with LinkedIn also being vital for B2B companies. However, many users are growing fatigued with these core platforms while brands have to fight harder than ever before to achieve good levels of organic reach and engagement.

While Twitter has seen growth so far this year, its active user numbers have declined from it’s all-time 2017 high. Similarly, Facebook has seen a huge drop in users – especially younger users – over the last two years, with younger audiences opting to spend time on other platforms. Combined with the increasing pay-to-play format of social media channels, this means that brands aren’t seeing the results on these platforms that they previously did.

Twitter monthly average users

[Average monthly Twitter users by year]

One social media platform that is becoming a go-to, especially for younger generations, is TikTok. While the app was launched in 2016, its popularity has grown fairly recently, with 2019 seeing a huge number of users flock to the platform. It now has around 500 million monthly active users worldwide and registered more than 1.1 billion installs as of March 2019.

Active monthly TikTok users

While TikTok is unlikely to be the best option for B2B brands, B2C companies with a younger target audience (41% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24) could find it to be a great platform to encourage engagement with users who are stepping away from more traditional social media platforms.

As well as TikTok, a good platform to invest in for those looking to encourage e-commerce sales through social media could be Pinterest. Although Pinterest is far from new on the scene, it has experienced a recent resurgence, meaning it is now used for more than just saving recipes or getting decorating inspiration.

Pinterest has found that it fits well into the e-commerce space and has an audience that is engaged with the idea of buying products they see on the platform. In fact, 75% of Pinterest users say they are “very interested” in new products compared to just 55% of people on other social media platforms.

This is likely why retail brands are finding success on the platform, with them reporting 2x higher returns on ad spend from the platform than other forms of social media and a 1.3x higher return than traditional search.

“Since Instagram as an e-commerce platform is getting harder to gain customers from, marketers will highly likely move to Pinterest. Pinterest now resembles Instagram when the latter emerged. No obtrusive ads, user-friendly search engine, and no fake influencers. More than 250 million people use Pinterest every month, and this number will increase.

“Speaking of TikTok, this platform keeps growing very rapidly. Marketers and business owners whose target audience are teenagers and young people should definitely consider TikTok as a winning marketing platform. TikTok is already an attractive platform for YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch bloggers since it’s effortless and fun to make videos and gain fame there.”