#posting this to my blog that has 900+ followers and expecting the world to be normal

[tenpixelsusie]

everybody wants to fuck my fictional dad

[highhhfiveee]

good morning!!

hello all (: i’m so sorry for not making my nightly “zZzZzZz” post last night, i literally passed out watching spider-man 2 (2004) [i’d never seen any of the sam raimi spider-mans so my roommate and i have been watching them and they are so interesting sksksks like they’re REALLY rom-coms above everything else 😭 and james franco 🫦 but only physically lmao he sucks]

i’m here now though! i’m at work butttt i just wanted to say that i’m so grateful for all of your support, love, and feedback on my works! it means so much to me to hear how the works are making you all feel, and that you’re loving the depth of the worlds and everything 😭 i know they’re not perfect, but…

not to get too deep and sentimental, for about 2-3 years (especially during covid), i thought i’d never write again. i was in such a deep depression, and my support system had convinced me that my passion had fizzled even though i knew it hadn’t. i couldn’t write, i couldn’t read; it felt like everything i’d loved all my life had slipped through my fingers like sand, and that i’d never be able to grasp it again.

this tumblr has been a part of me grabbing my passion again. i was in school for creative writing because words and telling stories are where i feel most comfortable with myself and my expression. dropping out was a tough decision for a lot of reasons, but seeing this blog blossom beyond anything i could’ve imagined reaffirmed me that everything works out when you choose yourself, your happiness, your dreams!

you all are apart of changing my life, and ironically, i don’t think i’ll ever be able to find the words to express my gratitude. my lore has been altered, and this is something that will impact me forever, so thank you thank you thank you to every single person who’s read, liked, reblogged, commented, sent me a message, asked to be on my taglist, everything!! thank you for everything, i am SO grateful.

i wasn’t expecting the new brothersbestfriend!mike fic to pop off as much as it did tbh 😭 so i’m starting to draft the sequel to mimosa! if i go through with my idea, it’s going to be fucking nuts sksksksk (as are most things i write/think) so please prepare…it’ll be a time, for sure.

also working on the adventures of reader and everyone’s favorite pornstar <3 this next one is gonna be so fucking cute, i’m excited <<<<<:

got some other things in the works too, but nothing i’m saying anything about. you’ll just have to wait and seeeeeee 🤭

okay, okay. very long message from me. i love talking, and i (obviously) love words, but i also love you guys 💜 maybe no post today or this weekend, but i’ll be around of course and i will be writing! next week will be exciting times 🥳

hope everyone is having the best day/night! talk with all of you beautiful seedlings soon 💜 (also, thank you for 900 followers wtf 😭 i have to do something special for 1000 so please send me any suggestions!)

[thecreaturecodex]

Infernal Duke, Saurafer

Dinosaurs Attack! © The Topps Company Inc. Image accessed on Flickr here

[Monster 1000, everyone! I think! In updating my indices, I found that that’s harder to pin down than I had thought, what with templates, multiple monsters in one entry, and non-monster but game mechanics posts. But I’ll be treating this as Monster 1000 because even if it isn’t officially, it’s darn close.

I figured I would commemorate the milestone with a monster that embodies the Codex somewhat. I’ve been thinking about how to do it for a while (since around monster 900 or so). I was eventually inspired by some of the major themes of the blog. There’s a lot of dinosaurs and a lot of fiends around here. So here’s a patron for them both. The Supreme Monstrosity originally appeared in the Dinosaurs Attack! series of super-violent trading cards (seriously, be aware if you’re going to click through the source link) as the leader of an army of time-displaced, ferociously murderous prehistoric beasts.]

Infernal Duke, Saurafer CR 26 LE Outsider This orange scaled horror is a bipedal reptilian humanoid taller than a giant. Its skull is swollen and features a crown of horns and six eyes. Its arms end in muscular paws, leathery wings grow from its back, and its tail ends in an immense spiked club.

Saurafer Devil Dinosaur, the Supreme Monstrosity Concerns dinosaurs, competitions of strength, savagery Domains Evil, Law, Scalykind, Strength Subdomains Devil, Ferocity, Judgment, Saurian Worshipers evil druids, reptilian humanoids, gladiators Minions fiendish and half-fiend dinosaurs, horned devils, stygionyx Unholy Symbol a fanged maw biting a globe Favored Weapon heavy flail (or natural weapons) Obedience win a competition of strength. If you are alone, spend 1 hour writing an argument about why one individual or creature would win in a fight with another one. Gain a +4 profane bonus on Intimidate checks, and add 4 to the DC needed to successfully intimidate you. Boons 1: rage 1/day; 2: mass bull’s strength 1/day; 3: extended frightful aspect 1/day

Saurafer, the Supreme Monstrosity, is an infernal duke who rules over violent competitions of strength. He is perhaps the physical embodiment of the doctrine of “might makes right”, and seeks forever to test his power against other creatures. His chosen species are dinosaurs, which he sees as emblems of ferocity and power. Saurafer delights in pitting creatures against each other, especially dinosaurs against creatures of other eras and worlds, in order to see who is the superior. He is a sore winner, but an even sorer loser. He despises birds, as they are a reminder that in many worlds, dinosaurs succeeded not by becoming larger and stronger, but smaller and more intelligent.

As to be expected of the patron of savage combat, Saurafer is an absolute terror on the battlefield. He toys with weaker foes, using his fear abilities to send them scattering and then picking them off one by one. Those that resist are blasted with spells and breath weapons. If all else fails, Saurafer flies into a savage rage, which rarely ends until either he or his enemies are slain. Although he delights in one-on-one battles, if he fights multiple foes at once, he evens the odds by summoning devils and dinosaurs to aid him, or even uses animal shapes to turn devils into dinosaurs and improve their melee abilities.

Saurafer stalks the blighted realm of Avernus, single-handedly destroying armies that attempt to make a foothold in Hell and testing the forces of other infernal dukes. He is an example of a malabranche promoted, as he was successful in dragging an entire planet into the clutches of Hell. He hopes to someday repeat this performance, and is looking for ways of summoning and controlling enough dinosaurs at once to invade a whole world. Although he is not terribly intelligent by the standards of the hosts of Hell, he does not tolerate condescension, and is a shrewd judge of character. He has eaten at least one malebranche who did not show him proper respect.

Saurafer               CR 26 XP 2,457, 600 LE Gargantuan outsider (devil, evil, extraplanar, law) Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +37, scent, see in darkness, true seeing Aura frightful presence (150 ft., 5d6 rounds, Will DC 34), unholy aura (DC 27) Defense AC 45, touch 15, flat-footed 40 (-4 size, +5 Dex, +4 deflection, +30 natural) hp 555 (30d10+390); regeneration 10 (good and epic or silver and epic) Fort +27, Ref +26, Will +31 DR 20/good and silver; Immune charm and compulsion effects, death effects, fire, poison; Resist acid 30, cold 30; SR 37 Defensive Abilities fire shield, freedom of movement Offense Speed 50 ft., fly 100 ft. (average) Melee bite +42 (2d8+15 plus 2d6 fire and 2d6 acid), 2 claws +41 (2d6+15), gore +41 (2d8+15), tail slap +39 (3d8+22 plus reeling blow) Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft. Special Attacks breath weapon (100 ft. cone, 15d6 acid and 15d6 fire, Ref DC 38, 1d4 rounds), frenzy (75 rounds/day), powerful blows (tail slap), trample (2d6+22 plus 4d6 fire, Ref DC 40) Spell-like Abilities CL 26th, concentration +35 Constant—detect chaos, detect good, fire shield (warm), freedom of movement, speak with animals, true seeing, unholy aura (self only) At will—blasphemy (DC 26), fear (DC 23), flame strike (DC 24), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. only), mass charm monster (animals only, DC 25), telekinesis (DC 24) 3/day—greater shout (DC 27), quickened mass inflict pain (DC 25), primal regression (DC 26) 1/day—animal shapes, gate (DC 28), meteor swarm (DC 28), summon fiendish dinosaurs, summon (1 devil of CR 20 or lower, 100%, 9th level) Statistics Str 40, Dex 21, Con 36, Int 23, Wis 31, Cha 28 Base Atk +30; CMB +49 (+51 bull rush); CMD 68 (70 vs. bull rush) Feats Blind-fight, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display, Flyby Attack, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Intimidating Prowess, Multiattack, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (mass inflict pain), Shatter Defenses, Snatch, Weapon Focus (bite) Skills Acrobatics +29 (+37 when jumping), Climb +39, Fly +26, Handle Animal +36, Intimidate +51, Knowledge (arcana) +30, Knowledge (nature, planes) +33, Perception +37, Sense Motive +37, Spellcraft +30, Stealth +20, Survival +34, Swim +39, Use Magic Device +33 Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, speak with animals, telepathy 300 ft. SQ infernal duke traits Ecology Environment any land or underground (Hell) Organization solitary (unique) Treasure double standard Special Abilities Frenzy (Ex) Saurafer can enter a frenzy, granting him a +4 morale bonus on attack rolls, melee damage rolls and Will saves, as well as 120 temporary hit points.  These temporary hit points are lost first when Saurafer takes damage, and disappear when the frenzy ends. While in a frenzy, Saurafer suffers a -2 penalty to Armor Class and cannot use any Dexterity-, Intelligence- or Charisma-based skills, except for Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate and Ride, or any ability that requires patience or concentration (such as using spell-like abilities). Saurafer can end his frenzy as a free action. If he frenzies again within 1 minute, he does not gain temporary hit points again. Treat this as the mighty rage and tireless rage ability of an unchained barbarian. Infernal Duke Traits (Ex/Su) Saurafer is an infernal duke, a powerful unique fiend. He possesses the following traits:

Immunity to charm and compulsion effects, death effects, fire, and poison.

Resistance to acid 30 and cold 30.

Telepathy 300 feet.

Saurafer’s natural weapons, as well as any weapon he wields, are treated as epic, evil and lawful for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Reeling Blow (Ex) A creature struck by Saurafer’s tail slap must succeed a DC 40 Fortitude save or be dazed for 1 round. On a critical hit, creatures that fail this save are instead stunned for 1d4+1 rounds. The save DC is Strength based. Summon Fiendish Dinosaurs (Sp) Once per day as a swift action, Saurafer can summon one or more fiendish dinosaurs with a combined CR of 20 or less. These dinosaurs obey his commands without question and remain for 1 hour or until slain. This is the equivalent of a 9th level spell.

[tsarisfanfiction]

2020: A [Fandom] Summary

2020 was a pretty rotten year, let’s face it, so now I’m safely away from it for good I’m stealing something @gumnut-logic​ mentioned to me and summarising all the things I managed to make this year!  Let’s start 2021 on a nice positive note... look at all the things I managed to do in the world of fandom!

FANFICTION:

In 2020...

I published 69 works, 66 of which are complete - all for Thunderbirds Are Go

Which came to a total of 268,863 words (Tumblr-only scenes and short stories came to a further 29,764 words which put my grand total up to 298,627!)

My most popular fic on tumblr was Out Patience with 60 notes (wow!!)

My most kudos’d fic on AO3 was Bedtme (Should Not Be 4am) with 62 kudos!

My most favourited fic on FFN was Grounded with 13 favourites!

My longest fic was Long Way From Home, which is incomplete but on 30,902 words published so far (longest complete fic was Grounded on 21,100 words)

(I have not included Tales From The Heart as everything that was posted this year on my blog was written and archived on AO3/FFN in 2017-2019)

FANART:

In 2020...

I posted 12 completed drawings, across 6 fandoms (and across 3 blogs...) - Bleach, D.Gray-Man, Marchen Awakens Romance, Naruto, One Piece and Thunderbirds Are Go

My most popular was “Return of the Dragon” with 114 notes (over a hundred!!! How???)

In conclusion, Tsari has been one very busy bee this year!  Links to everything are below the cut if anyone’s looking for a refresher, or thinks they missed something!

And because I am only human and love validation - if you have a favourite thing I’ve written (or drawn) this year, tell me what it is!  Can just be the  name (although if you want to tell me why that would make my night, I can’t lie), I’d just love to know what people particularly loved :D

COMPLETED WORKS:

Phobos John looks at his brothers, and worries. Rated: Gen/K+.  Family.  John, Scott Words: 1k; published January 2020

Treasured Family Scott’s day hadn’t gone well, and was about to get worse. John doesn’t care for that, and Alan makes a good accomplice.  Episode tag: 3.22 Rated: Gen/K+.  Family.  John, Scott, Alan, Gordon Words: 2k; multichap - completed January 2020

Wax and Feathers Sometimes limits need to be broken. But a limit is there for a reason, and breaking them has consequences.  Episode tag: 3.20 Rated: Gen/K+.  Family.  Scott, Gordon, Virgil Words: 4k; published February 2020

Hero They say you should never meet your heroes. Failure to comply may result in getting tongue-tied, or a failure of the brain to mouth filter.  Episode tag: 3.24 Rated: Gen/K.  Friendship.  Outsider PoV, Scott Words: 1k; published February 2020

Fall He’s not there, until he is.  Episode tag: 3.25 Rated: Teen.  Angst/Hurt/Comfort.  Scott, Jeff Words: 900; published February 2020

Bedtime (Should Not Be 4am) The first night home should be relaxing, but for Jeff it’s anything but as he readjusts to being back on Earth, and five sons who’ve grown up without him. Episode tag: 3.25/26 Rated: Gen/K+.  Family.  Jeff, Gordon, Scott, John Words: 3k; published February 2020

Blank Slate Jeff finds that there’s one relationship he can build from scratch.  Episode tag: 3.25/26 Rated: Gen/K.  Friendship.  Jeff, The Mechanic Words: 1k; published February 2020

Apple Juice How hard is it to get a drink?  Harder when younger brothers insist on interfering. Rated: Gen/K+.  Family.  Scott, Virgil, Tracy brothers Words: 1k; published February 2020

Firelight For Buddy and Ellie, camping is a beautiful way to live. Rated: Gen/K.  Romance.  Buddy, Ellie Words: 500; published March 2020

An Important Part John’s care packages sometimes contain a very special box. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  John, Tracy brothers Words: 1k; published March 2020 

Grape Juice or Wine A function that serves alcohol and a teenage brother. Just what Scott needed. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott, Alan Words: 700; published April 2020

Chess Master Gordon has a prized possession. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Gordon, John, Tracy brothers Words: 700; published April 2020

Heroes Made of Gas A spaceman and his stars. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  John, Jeff Words: 700; published April 2020

Caretaker Scott’s week from hell couldn’t just finish without throwing him a final twist. Rated: Gen/K+.  Hurt/Comfort/Family.  Scott, Tracy brothers Words: 1k; published April 2020

Riding the Dragon | Return of the Dragon Part 1: Scott was excited, and John was not, but who really got the last laugh? Part 2: Ten years later they’re back, and this time Alan’s up for the challenge. John isn’t about to let Scott forget about their last adventure, though. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott, John, Alan, Tracy brothers Words: 4k; multichap - completed April 2020

Fresh Air When the standard methods of dealing with Scott don’t work, Virgil has to resort to something a little more creative. Rated: Gen/K.  Hurt/Comfort/Family.  Virgil, Scott Words: 2k; published April 2020

Unexpected When it came to the next generation, Scott didn’t think it would happen quite like this. Rated: Gen/K+.  Family.  Scott, John, Gordon, EOS Words: 1k; published April 2020

Awe The Shelbys were probably expecting a certain beautiful Lady when Gordon asked to bring a plus one, not an older brother. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Virgil, Gordon Words: 1k; published April 2020

Thrill Seeker “Launching a rocket into space most days not enough of an adrenaline kick for you, kid?” Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Alan, Grandma, John Words: 1k; published April 2020

The Tale of Scotty-Bear When Lee Taylor bought a bog-standard teddy bear for his best friend’s baby, he probably didn’t expect it to be quite so popular. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott, Tracy brothers Words: 1k; published April 2020

I Just Can’t Wait To Be Free When Scott gets stuck, Gordon’s the only one around - too bad he can’t stop laughing. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Gordon, Scott Words: 1k; published April 2020

Splatter Scott was going to regret leaving him to handle Gordon alone, especially when paint got involved. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Virgil, Gordon, Scott Words: 2k; published April 2020

Revenge (Should Be Piping Hot) The only aspect of his appearance Virgil cared about was his hair. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Virgil, Scott, Tracy brothers Words: 1k; published May 2020 

The Rules of Engagement Even acts of immaturity between brothers have to follow rules. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon, Alan Words: 1k; published May 2020

Night At The Opera Surely an invitation to the opera was better suited for Virgil? Or one of his other brothers? No? Okay, then. Wait, what do you mean he had to wear a suit? Rated: Gen/K+.  Friendship/Family.  Scott, Lady Penelope, Parker, Tracy family Words: 10k; published May 2020

Nothing See: Was space supposed to be this dark? A mission to rescue the crew of a freighter goes horribly wrong. Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Angst.  Scott, Tracy Family Words: 8k; multichap - completed June 2020

Strays Her Ladyship collects strays. Rated: Gen/K.  Friendship.  Parker, Penelope, John, Gordon Words: 1k; published June 2020

Pulse Touch: Earthquakes suck. Badly. Especially when you’re still in an unstable building when the world crashes down. Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Angst.  Scott, Gordon, Tracy Family Words: 11k; multichap - completed June 2020

Melt Smell: Snowy rescues are always the worst. Always. Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Angst.  Scott, Virgil, Gordon, Tracy Family Words: 11k; multichap - completed June 2020

Silent Taste: They say you should ask for help when you need it, but what can you do except suffer in silence when asking for help will destroy your family? Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Angst.  Scott, Tracy Family Words: 12k; multichap - completed June 2020

Tremor Hear: Not everyone worships the ground International Rescue walk on. Rated: Mature.  Hurt/Comfort/Angst.  Scott, Hood, Tracy Family Words: 14k; multichap - completed July 2020

Hollow Sixth Sense: Two teenagers and a night hike in the middle of nowhere is a recipe for disaster. When trouble strikes the clock starts ticking, but there’s no International Rescue around to pull off a miracle. Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Angst.  Scott, John, Jeff, Tracy Family Words: 11k; multichap - completed July 2020 

The Six Foot Club Outgrowing Gordon was an inevitability, but Alan hadn’t given much thought about the respective heights of his other brothers. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Alan, Virgil, Gordon Words: 800; published July 2020  

Out Patience There are three Tracys in the hospital and only one of them should be out of bed. Rated: Gen.  Family.  Alan, Scott, Virgil Words: 4k; published July 2020

Grounded Scott didn’t enjoy the trash mine rescue at all, but he enjoyed the consequences of it even less.  Episode tag: 3.22/23 Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Family.  Scott, Tracy Family Words: 21k; multichap - completed July 2020

Human Scott needs to stop taking his helmet off first chance he gets - one day, his luck will run out. Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Family.  Gordon, Scott, Grandma Words: 4k; published August 2020

Not Alone John makes a miscalculation with unexpected consequences. Rated: Gen.  Family/Friendship.  John, Scott, EOS Words: 4k; published August 2020

Cracks Under The Surface History likes to repeat itself and the human brain likes to find patterns. Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Family.  Scott, Jeff, Virgil Words: 4k; published August 2020

Divided, United Waking up bound in a dark room is never good news, but the absence of the brother he saw shot in front of him just makes it worse. Rated: Teen.  Angst/Hurt/Comfort.  Scott, Virgil, John Words: 6k; published August 2020

For A Brother When it came to protecting family, there were no limits. Rated: Teen.  Angst/Hurt/Comfort.  Virgil, Scott, Kayo, John Words: 7k; published August 2020

The Only Course of Action John’s job is to watch and listen, but sometimes he’s also the last resort. Rated: Teen.  Angst/Hurt/Comfort.  John, Scott Words: 4k; published August 2020

Noise Was that racket supposed to be blaring from their comms?  Alan hoped not. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Alan, Virgil, Tracy brothers, Kayo Words: 1k; published August 2020

His Collection The Hood knows what he wants, and will stop at nothing to get it.  International Rescue have other ideas. Rated: Teen.  Humour.  Hood, Scott, Virgil Words: 1k; published August 2020

3am A desire for water in the early hours of the morning leads Sally Tracy to a revelation. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Grandma, Scott, John Words: 600; published November 2020

Liminal After the rain comes the sun, but there’s a special moment in between. Rated: Gen/K.  Friendship.  Parker, Scott Words: 1k; published November 2020

One More Stuffed Toy The arcade is loud and chaotic, but John doesn’t care, because his brothers are with him. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  John, Tracy Brothers Words: 1k; published November 2020

After Sundown Scott didn’t let Alan help with the big things, but he didn’t say no to the small things. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Alan, Grandma, Scott Words: 1k; published November 2020

Same Old Song and Dance Dealing with a sick Scott was a challenge that Virgil had honed into an art. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Virgil, Scott Words: 1k; published November 2020

First Time It should be Dad, but it’s John instead and he wouldn’t change it for anything. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  John, Alan Words: 800; published November 2020

At The End of The Day After a long, tiring rescue, Virgil just wanted coffee, a shower, and his bed. Gordon had a better idea. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Virgil, Gordon, Scott Words: 1k; published November 2020

Deserving Who looked at the world and said “this deserves to be saved?”  A family of youngsters who’d lost too much already. Rated: Gen/K.  Family/Friendship.  Colonel Casey, Tracy Family Words: 800; published November 2020

His Sons Jeff had been gone eight years.  He’d missed his sons growing up into young men, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still the same boys he’d left behind. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Jeff, Tracy Brothers Words: 900; published November 2020

Faulty It was supposed to be a pleasant, quiet evening.  Then the multilingual tirade started in the kitchen. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Virgil, John, Tracy Brothers Words: 1k; published November 2020

Indescribable The sky is blue, the grass is green, Scott Tracy is a big brother. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott Words: 700; published November 2020

Simple Success Any success is worth celebrating, even if it isn’t one of the biggest, most impressive feats in IR history. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott, Tracy Family Words: 1k; published November 2020

It Calls Me Scott was born to fly. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott Words: 700; published November 2020

Words Not Said (But Still Heard) Gordon didn’t remember much about his time in the hospital, but he remembered the song. Rated: Gen/K.  Family/Hurt/Comfort.  Gordon, Scott Words: 1k; published November 2020

Unexpected, Not Unwanted It might not have been her intention to end up with five sons, but that didn’t mean she loved them any less. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Lucille, Tracy Family Words; 1k; published November 2020

Snap There was a whole mountain of paperwork, but a certain annoying younger brother refused to leave him in peace long enough for him to get it done. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Scott, Gordon Words: 1k; published November 2020

The Box In The Locker Reuniting families is one of the best feelings in the world, especially when one of the ‘family members’ is the child’s best friend. Rated: Gen/K.  Friendship.  Virgil Words: 800; published November 2020

Night Out Gordon learnt two things that night: Scott was an affectionate drunk, and sometimes people throw bar stools for no good reason. Rated: Teen.  Family.  Gordon, Scott Words: 2k; published November 2020

In Your Shadow “Tomorrow, they’re not gonna say ‘that’s Gordon Tracy, the Olympic Champion!’ Tomorrow, they’re gonna say ‘that’s Scott Tracy’s little brother!’, and I’m gonna say ‘damn straight I am.’” Rated: Gen/K+.  Family.  Gordon, Scott Words: 2k; published December 2020

The Sound of Thunder(birds) The sound of a Thunderbird should be a sound of hope and reassurance, but not everyone hears it that way. Rated: Gen/K.  Friendship.  Scott Words: 1k; published December 2020

Too Far It’s not normally Virgil that Scott has to pull up for misconduct.  Episode Tag: 3.06 Rated: Teen/K+.  Hurt/Comfort/Family.  Virgil, Scott Words: 2k; published December 2020

Steady Hands One boat. Two brothers. A life-or-death game of Jenga. Rated: Teen.  Family/Friendship.  Virgil, Gordon, Scott, Chaos Crew Words: 8k; published December 2020

Get Some Sleep, Scott There was no cure for self-destructive idiocy, but Virgil still had a trick - or rather, a last resort - up his sleeve when Scott went too far. It hadn’t failed him yet. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Virgil, Scott, Gordon Words: 1k; published December 2020

ONGOING WORKS:

Desert Sands On the way home from a rescue Thunderbird One and Scott disappear from Thunderbird Five’s sensors, leaving International Rescue scrambling to both discover what happened and find them. Rated: Teen.  Hurt/Comfort/Family.  Scott, John, Tracy Family Words: 13k; Chapters: 7/?; updated September 2020

Long Way From Home His brothers are missing. In their place is a family of strangers, the only explanation that makes any sense is beyond comprehension, and the only solution is impossible. Scott Tracy’s never been so far from home. Rated: Teen.  Family/Friendship.  Scott, Tracy Family Words: 30k; Chapters: 7/?; updated November 2020

Toffee Gordon is a lover of many things.  Toffee is not one of them. Rated: Gen/K.  Family.  Gordon, John, Grandma, Scott Words: 8k; Chapters: 4; updated November 2020

TUMBLR-EXCLUSIVE WORKS:

Dream A FabFiveFeb2020 ficlet using the prompts Scott+Dream Characters: Scott - February 2020

Short Snippet An abandoned wip with implied character death Characters: Gordon, Scott - April 2020

Heavy Metal  A short ficlet inspired by the episode of the same name. Characters: Alan, Scott - April 2020

Random Scene   A short scene with dark!John and EOS Characters: Jeff, John, EOS - May 2020

Random Scene   A Thunderbirds/Detective Conan potential idea Characters: Gordon, John, Scott - May 2020

Random Scene   A Thunderbirds/Percy Jackson potential AU Characters: Percy, Gordon - May 2020

Random Prologue  Where Scott ends up in jail for murder Characters: Col. Casey, Scott - July 2020

WIP #46 Scott gets caught in an avalanche. Characters: Virgil, Scott, John, Grandma - November 2020

WIP #47 Scott gets caught in a serious plane crash. Characters: Gordon, Scott, Virgil, Alan, John, Col. Casey - November 2020

WIP #48  The original, and terrible, version of my published work Grape Juice or Wine. Characters: Alan, Tracy Brothers - November 2020

WIP #55   A post-series fic focusing on the aftermath of Jeff’s return home Characters: Jeff, Gordon, Grandma - November 2020

WIP #56  A sequel to my published work Hero. Characters: Neil (OC), Henry, Bee, Scott - November 2020

WIP #59a |  WIP #59b |  WIP #59c  A squabble between brothers results in a whole pile of angst. Characters: Scott, Alan, John, Gordon, Virgil - November 2020

That One Scene | That One Scene #2  Two scenes from a movie rewrite Characters: Jeff, Hood, Scott, Gordon, Virgil, Alan, John - November 2020

Is- Is That My Blood? Scott’s trapped in a cave-in, and there’s too much blood Characters: Scott - November 2020

Random Scene  AU Crime drama-esque scene with canonical character death Characters: Grandma, Scott - December 2020

Random Prologue Where Scott is Not Okay and just wants to go home Characters: Virgil, Scott - December 2020

Crack When a storm gets too intense for Thunderbird One to fly, Scott has to hunker down and wait it out. Characters: Scott - December 2020

Holey Scott There is a hole in Scott where there shouldn’t be Characters: Virgil, Scott - December 2020

FANART:

Dragon!TB1 A dragonified drawing of Thunderbird One, based on a Flight Rising fandragon - January 2020

Return of the Dragon A snapshot moment from my fic of the same name - July 2020

Night Out A snapshot moment from my fic of the same name - November 2020

The Missing Hair Gel An imagining of Scott without any hair gel - December 2020

Six Boys, Six Fandoms A collection of six drawings of six favourite boys from six favourite series! - December 2020

Dragon!TB2 A dragonified drawing of Thunderbird Two, based on a Flight Rising fandragon - December 2020

[mazecode]

i was tagged by @bellamyblakez thank you very much for the tag :D

rules: answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you are contractually obligated to know better :)

name/nickname: keira

gender: my pronouns are she/her 

star sign: virgo

height: 5′4 or 162 cm (on a good day)

time: 11:41 am

birthday: september 23

favorite bands: the smiths, mother mother, the cure, arcade fire, cocteau twins, arctic monkeys, mazzy star, gang of youths

favorite solo artists: mitski, taylor swift, nina simone, ricky montgomery, phoebe bridgers, hozier, lord huron, bruno major

song stuck in my head: our last summer from mamma mia!

last movie: love, actually (i think?)

last show: peaky blinders

when did i create this blog? july 2017, but i didn’t become active until around march 2020 (quarantine made me regress)

what do i post? pretty much anything!! mostly gifsets, quotes, and edits from movies, films, and literature that i like. right now my blog has a lot of neutral tones/b&w, but if you scroll into my archive you can see how gross and messy it was before (not like it’s super organized now though)

last thing i googled: “do you use the oxford comma in spanish” ... yeah

other blogs: @princedollophead (bbc merlin blog) & another that is so completely scattered and messy i hope nobody finds it 

do i get asks: no but they would be much appreciated because i crave attention

why i chose my url: middle school me really liked the maze runner series & i think that it still looks kind of nice :) 

following: about 900

followers: about 1000?

average hours of sleep: during school? 5-6 during break? 8-9

lucky number: 24

instruments: piano, ukulele, violin 

what i am wearing: yoga pants & two jackets (because our heater is stinky)

dream job: something with writing? i’ll probably go into medicine though bc expectations

dream trip: nice, the french countryside, tokyo... anywhere but here really. i’ve already ticked san fran & vancouver off my travel list though, so i can die in peace

nationality: american :/

favorite song: good looking by suki waterhouse but that will probably change in about 4 hours

last book i read: song of achilles by madeline miller (highly recommend, but tread carefully) 

top three fictional universes i’d like to live in: narnia, the wizarding world, and idk the muppets because they seem happy there 

tagging @verafarmiga, @generalpoes, @skywaelker, @hermnione, @lexigreys, @chlamets, @sleepsongs, @howicantsing, @missbennet, @achillese, @qquicksllver, @jamesteve, @fleurdlacour, @lucrrezia, @weirwolves, @bettybrants, @kenocbi, @athenodoras, @iicarusis, @stone-alayne (as always, feel free to ignore!)

[lordsister]

New Otome Sideblog and A Couple Other Announcements

Heya lovelies! Hope you’re all doing well during this crazy, stressful time and loving yourselves! I know I haven’t been around much what with exams and all, but here are a couple of announcements I wanted to make concerning my writing.

1. New Otome Sideblog

If you’ve been following my work, you’ll have found that the majority of my writing has been for otome lately. This blog was originally started as an anime fanfic blog so to keep my old and new followers from getting confused and make sure everyone gets the specific content they want, I’ve created an otome sideblog. From now on, I will be posting my otome writing on my new blog @lordsisterxotome. And apparently it’s still so new the tag isn’t working. Super...

In subsequent days, I will be removing the otome masterlist from this blog and placing it there. A link to my sideblog is already in my description. There may be some crossover between the two with reblogs, etc., but for the most part I’m going to try to keep this blog anime-focused and the other blog otome-focused.

2. Nearing 900 followers

Thank you all so so much for almost 900 followers!! This really means a lot to me and while I’m a little too swamped with university studies to do anything super special for it, I do want to do something to thank you all for the support. 

I’m thinking something along the lines of a raffle, match-ups, or something else along those lines. If you have an idea, please send me an ask! I would love to hear what you all have to say!

3. The Future of this Blog

Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious. I just want to explain a general outlook for what I have planned to write for in the future. I recently got into Demon Slayer and re-discovered Black Butler so you can definitely expect some fics for those and a couple of other fandoms in the future. Furthermore, I have a couple of multi-chapter fics such as Whole New World that I am planning on continuing. Several chapters have already been completed and are just waiting for me to post them here. 

So yeah, more anime fics are coming.

Another thing...what would you think if I started writing BTS fics? Just a thought...

Well! I think that’s about all I wanted to say! Hope you all are looking forward to it and feel free to reach out with questions or just let me know how you’re doing! Have a lovely day!!<3

[the-black-birb]

thank you for 900 followers!!

Long ranting oversharing post under cut, tldr: thank you for 900 i want to do something for 1k but i need to see where I am with my schoolwork before I can devote time to anything!! Love you guys 💞

Going to start with the tags so you guys dont have to read, here are some especially important people who I want to thank for all of your support and lovely comments and for inspiring me to write: @hqkeiji (my first tumblr friend 😘) @babiekeiji (lit-rully my ride or die) @heccingdead @caxsthetic @nanashinanashi @fait-de-fleurs @akaashichigo @blkjackals @strawberrytadashi @miyulovestowrite @hqmakki @hqmakkitrash @bambisfuneral @hq-luv @zoppzoop @pinkie-ghuleh @whitedragon127 @dateko @letmeshouyou @fantasymirror nd probably like a million other people as well!! Thank you <3

I think tumblr glitched out and I lost it but when I first hit 50 followers I wrote an essay about how surprised I was and...look at me now ehehe 😤😤 but fr for everyone 1 person who followed me the, 17 more do now and that's WILD to me

I've always loved writing and written for fun and in the past usually I'd make accounts to write, post 2 or 3 things and then disappear. I've tried before to make tumblrs once or twice and i was always too scared to interact with the community to ever really do anything and they ended up being vacant blogs, or I'd abandon them after a little bit of time. That actually happened with this blog, I originally created it to write about v*ltron nd then abandoned it for a year (i deleted all the posts from then but the writing is still on my ao3) 🤧✌

When I restarted my blog for haikyuu, it felt like shouting into the void (this is where the oversharing starts). I was putting pieces of myself back together after a relationship with a rough ending and my writing was very much like a journal and an escape for me. Still sometimes I write about my feelings through the characters and I'm incredibly grateful people here read them. I think it's amazing how writers are able to convey emotions so clearly and the fact that I'm able to interact with people who are so skilled at doing just that astounds me!!

I don't know why a shitty relationship had me trying to write romance. It doesn't really make sense, but it was the easiest way for me to let vulnerability back into my life. I didn't expect people to pick up what I read or enjoy it, but I'm so glad they do. 900 people do, holy shit!!

A lot of my writing, especially my longer pieces, is geared towards the intricacies of healing and hurting because that was how this blog started. I'm still off-kilter and the rush of writing and writing and writing until I'm sick of it comes and goes like waves on a beach, but I can't begin to say how thankful I am to have this space to share stories.

I don't have a special writing piece for this, and I don't know if I will for 1k either because I'm still learning how to balance responsibilities and interests. But I just want to say that I'm so amazed with how this blog has grown, because it really gives me something to look forward to everyday. I truly hope my writing has put just a tiny bit more good into the world and helped at least one person on a bad day. If you read all the way to the bottom, thank you for putting up with all this fjwjfjjejfjejjrne love you guys the mostest <3

[heyadam-blog2]

Is influencer marketing for every brand?

First of all, what is influencer marketing?

For the last few years, social media has become an integral part of people’s everyday lives. As more users were joining portals like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube or Snapchat, looking for lifestyle inspirations, many of them became content creators themselves, sharing their own impressions, ideas, and experiences by uploading photos, videos and stories for others to follow. This is the point where influencer marketing was born and quickly drew the attention of marketers who saw an opportunity to reach their potential costumers via particular influencers whose image fit the character of the brand or specific product much better than traditional channels. In result the average monthly search for “influencer marketing” in Google rises constantly:

Graphic 1. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F026bgmq

However one question still remains: does influencer marketing really work for brands? The general answer is simple: yes, it most certainly does. Statistics speak for themselves.

According to Influencer Marketing Hub studies 84% of marketers evaluate their cooperation with influencers as „effective“. Nielsen’s report finds out that marketing campaigns which engage influencers generate $6.5 of return for every $1 invested.

[source: https://www.whitepress.pl/baza-wiedzy/590/czy-influencer-marketing-sie-oplaca]. In accordance with Mediakix 65% of brands’ influencer marketing budgets increased in 2019, while only 2% decreased. 17% of companies spend over half of their whole marketing budget on influencers. 89% of marketers say that ROI (return from investment) from influencer marketing is the same or better than traditional channels. The whole influencer marketing global spend is estimated to reach 5 – 10 billion $ market in 2020. [source: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/influencer-marketing-statistics/#10-most-important-influencer-marketing-statistics-for-2019]

Graphic 2. https://mediakix.com/blog/influencer-marketing-industry-ad-spend-chart/

Does it mean that influencer marketing is a silver bullet strategy? Unfortunately life is never that easy and the fact that your brand simply invests in influencer marketing campaign doesn’t necessarily imply that your product will start to sells itself.

Therefore – is influencer marketing for your brand? To find the answer for this question you definitely should ask yourself few others first.

Know what you want, know what to expect

Influencer marketing is only a tool. If you want to succeed, you have to know how to use it right. Performance of your action depends on many factors such as magnitude of your brand, specific objective of the campaign, characteristics of the product, to whom you want to sell it, how to match your product with particular influencer and their image. Dealing with these topics will help you create an adequate strategy, estimate the budget needed and eventually verify results of the campaign to answer the key question: “is influencer marketing for my brand?”

How big is your brand? Depending on actual magnitude of your company, it’s presence, recognition and impact range on social media channels will vary, probably the same as your budget. However it doesn’t mean it’s a game only for the big ones. Large brands often compete against each other, trying to outspend the rivals – that consumes a lot of resources. Being small may be advantageous as long as you introduce something new, therefore fresh, interesting and exciting for SM users. What is important here, is the fact that you should create right concept and impression around your brand, and find right influencers matching your niche. As you probably can’t afford extensive campaign, try to cooperate with micro influencers, who will often be satisfied with barter exchange for their work.  

What is the main objective of your campaign? Before embarking on a campaign, it’s crucial to be clear of your goals. In general, KPIs (target key performance indicators) for brands include two categories:

Brand awareness: metrics associated with increasing audience awareness of your product, such as content responses - likes, comments, mentions. The most common objective for influencer marketing campaigns is establishing awareness around the brand and to reach new audiences. As mentioned before, it should be the right tactic for small, new brands.

Direct response: metrics associated with particular actions, such as clicks, conversions and finally sales of your product. However you should avoid using too many CTAs (calls-to-action) buttons in a single post — this may cause confusion among users and can negatively affect performance.

What actually is your product? This may sound obvious, but you really need to have a good product to sell. A product that consumers will genuinely need, want or love is a basis of your campaign. It’s no use having whatever number of influencers giving ‘rave reviews’ if the real customers are disappointed. If you don’t have a product that people would be satisfied with, influencer (or any other) marketing is probably not for your brand.Even if your product is great, you have to distinguish it among the others. It won’t be possible if you are not the only one who sells it. There are many businesses that just resell other brand’s products. If this is your case, you need to give consumers very good reason to buy product from you instead of elsewhere.You have to remember that social media, especially Instagram that is the major platform for influencers, impose hyper-realistic aesthetic forms where visual aspect of advertised products play the key role. Attractive design of your product is an important quality. According to Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan from the Harvard Business Review: “social media makes it more urgent than ever that companies get the basics right, developing and reliably delivering on a compelling brand promise.” [source: https://www.apptamin.com/blog/influencer-marketing-considerations/]

Who is a target group of your campaign? Does your product have wide appeal? Who do you sell your product to? Is it an individual consumer or another company, institution or even a state? This might seem odd, but if your brand produces very niche, technical products like spaceship components for example (bought by NASA), successful execution of influencer marketing campaign for your brand will most probably be very difficult. Even if your potential client is individual before you get into influencer marketing, you should first determine whether your product will interest enough people. Products that are addressed to wide spectrum of consumers tend to perform best with influencer marketing. Shampoo > technical ski equipment.

Are there influencers whose audience matches your target market?Influencer marketing is about engagement. Yes, you definitely should engage only the influencers who have a close match to your perfect target audience. Semi-close matches usually don’t work good unless influencer has a lot of well-engaged followers. There should be a flawless overlap between your target audience and that of your influencer’s. For example, if you sell an innovative backpack aimed specifically at women, a generic travel gear blogger will be nowhere near as effective as a travel gear AND women orientated niche. Likewise, a girl blogger writing for girls who is not interested in travel gear will have only a small impact.

You’ll never try, you’ll never know

To sum up: Is influencer marketing for every brand? Theoretically, YES. However, as it was elaborated before: the success of your campaign depends on many factors managing which can be difficult, expensive and not always effective. Often it may turn out that the best solution would be hiring someone who is willing to do that for you.

There are few companies, which can help you create right campaign for your brand or your products considering characteristic of brand’s conditions and provide influencers corresponding with your niche. One of them is Indahash – one of the major, and most widely recognized platform that organize cooperation between brands and influencers. It also provides support at every stage, from budgeting and assistance in choosing creators to analysis of the final reports. Indahash is:

„END-TO-END INFLUENCER MARKETING SOLUTION

We have a very rigorous process in place before and after creators are approved on the indaHash platform, so you can be sure you are reaching real people. With over 900 000 creators from 83 markets registered in the indaHash app, we can run any multi-country, scalable campaign you may need.

TRUSTED BY GLOBAL BRANDS

Our technology platform is used by the world's largest brands and has been put to the test to guaranteee the highest quality and value is delivered. You too can benefit from our platform just as these global brands do on a daily basis.”

The best way to know if influencer marketing is for you is to try!

Sources:

1.     https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F026bgmq

2.     https://www.whitepress.pl/baza-wiedzy/590/czy-influencer-marketing-sie-oplaca

3.     https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/influencer-marketing-statistics/#10-most-important-influencer-marketing-statistics-for-2019

4.     https://mediakix.com/blog/influencer-marketing-industry-ad-spend-chart/

5.     https://www.apptamin.com/blog/influencer-marketing-considerations/

6.     https://www.whitepress.pl/baza-wiedzy/442/jak-kreowac-marke-w-blogosferze

7.     https://www.whitepress.pl/baza-wiedzy/550/influencer-marketing-dla-malych-firm-–-podstawowa-wiedza-w-pigulce

8.     https://www.jcsocialmedia.com/how-to-not-waste-money-on-influencer-marketing/

[angelazinnmartinez-blog]

NEGOTIATING IN DIVORCE (OR EVEN OUTSIDE OF DIVORCE)- WOMEN AND MEN NEGOTIATING.

Okay, before I dig into this, lets confront the fact that any time we’re grouping men and women into two big groups, we risk sounding like sexist jerks.  So, I’m kinda going out on a limb starting my blog with an article which could rub people the wrong way, BUT I’m doing it anyway!  Why? Because I think the info we can glean from this discussion is worth the risk.   Second big disclaimer here,  I totally acknowledge that I’m only human, and of course any observations which I make are filtered by my biases, experiences, and world view. So, I would greatly appreciate any feedback.  I’m also super into the impact of intersectionality, and I’m wondering how people have experienced this dynamic in that context.  I’m wondering if other people can relate, does this vary from region to region, age group to age group, culture to culture?  Could you relate to this post?  Let me know your experiences and what you think.     When I started to write this, and I was worrying about the risk of being offensive, I did a little research, and I discovered that there is actually a scientific theory which explains why it makes sense to lump men and women and compare them, it’s called Difference Theory. Difference theory is a sociolinguistic theory, which views communication between women and men as cross cultural communication (a-ha moment, that would explain a lot!)   When women view men as members of a different culture (and vice-versa), things actually start making a lot of sense, and I think that this viewpoint has the potential to make us a lot more understanding.  We understand that when someone is from another culture, you can excuse things that you would normally find rude or offensive.  Maybe reminding yourself of Difference Theory the next time your spouse or coworker does something that really pisses you off could make all the difference.   Now, lets dive into it.   First off, let’s start with what it means to win at negotiations. Most women report that they do not like to negotiate, and I think part of this comes from the perception that “winning” in negotiations means taking advantage of another and getting more than your fair share in a situation.  Women are generally socialized to perceive taking advantage of others as bad, and thus be turned off by the thought of negotiations.   The good news is that winning at negotiations does not mean taking advantage of another or getting more than your fair share.  Winning at negotiations means coming to a solution to a problem which each person involved believes is “fair enough.”  Ideally, both people involved would feel that the solution is optimal for each of them, and yes, this is possible. As a divorce attorney and divorce mediator, I spend most of my life observing or interacting with men and women in the midst of major negotiations.  Over the years, I have witnessed hundreds and hundreds of couples in the midst of negotiations between each other.  I often see these well meaning and intelligent people completely frustrated thinking that the other is being unfair and getting offended.   One day it hit me, the hurdle to successful negotiations between women and men is their approach and the assumptions they make.  The two groups approach negotiations from completely different angles, and in doing so, they often kill any chance of coming to an agreement.  It is not that either is negotiating in a superior manner, it is just that the two styles don’t mix well.   The great news is that when we become aware of this dynamic, we can compensate for it, and slightly tweek our approach and adjust how we respond to the other’s approach.  When we do so, we actually drastically improve our chances of coming to an agreement which everyone believes is fair. From what I’ve seen, because women generally do not like to negotiate, they subconsciously try to convert the negotiation into a meeting wherein no negotiating happens.  There are two common approaches which they use in an attempt to avoid negotiating.   The first approach is coming into a negotiation with an offer which is their bottom line.  The other approach I see women use is to come in without a starting offer, expecting the husband to offer something that sounds fair to Wife from the outset, which is unlikely to happen (see why below). Men usually assume that a negotiation will be a process in which they start out by making an offer which is more than they could hope for, with the understanding that they will probably have to compromise, and although the final deal won’t be what they initially offered, it will be a resolution that they feel happy with.  The men’s most common approach is a pretty stereotypical negotiation tactic. One issue which is often addressed in divorce negotiations is spousal support.  Let’s use a spousal support negotiation as an example.  (Again, this scenario could sound sexist because I’m assuming that Wife will be the one receiving spousal support, but in reality, this scenario is much more common than the reverse, and it’s easier to address if the example is more common.) Wife will normally come into the negotiation having figured out both what she needs to get by and how much she can contribute.  She will come in and propose that the spousal support be the amount needed to close the gap.  Let’s assume for purposes of this example that wife needs at least $1,000 to make it.  She has been informed that there is a statewide formula, and that based on the formula, she could expect to get $1,200 in spousal support, which would be awesome, but she will settle for $1,000. Usually, Wife will come in and state that she needs support of $1,000, and that is her request.  Now husband probably came in expecting that he will have to pay $1,000 to $1,200 in support, but when he hears Wife start the negotiations at $1,000, he assumes that wife is actually willing to take less.   It makes no sense to Husband that Wife would start a negotiation proposing her bottom line.  Thus, although Husband was willing to pay $1,000, he will likely offer $800 per month.  Wife responds by getting offended.  From her perspective, she asked for as little as possible, and it still wasn’t good enough for him, he wants to pay her less than she needs to get by.  She refuses to budge from her $1,000, attempting to explain why $1,000 makes sense.   Husband then gets offended that everything has to be all Wife’s way.  He will perceive her being stuck on the $1,000 as an example of her being inflexible and wanting to have control.  Husband then becomes stuck on wanting to feel as though he had some influence in the decision, and will not agree to the $1,000.   Wife, then getting offended explains that actually she really wanted more.  Now out of anger, she decides she was too nice initially, and actually wants the $1,200 that the statewide formula came up with.  Husband then sees her moving away from an agreement as proof that she has no interest in actually resolving this issue, and decides that he would be better off letting a Judge decide this issue. The negotiation dies. Using the second common woman approach in the negotiation would go as follows.  She comes into the negotiation saying that she doesn’t know how much she needs, and asks the Husband what he thinks is fair.  Husband is not coming in with his bottom line, so he suggests $800.  Wife gets offended, she gave him the privilege of coming up with a solution, and he has offered less than she can survive on.  She then decides that there is no reason to try to negotiate, Husband has already decided that he doesn’t want to pay her enough for her to be able to come to an agreement,and she doesn’t want to have to beg. So, how can Wife can alter her style to be more productive keeping in the mind how the Husband has been socialized? I usually ask Wife ahead of a negotiation, “if you got your dream scenario, if Husband said, you ‘tell me how much you need to be comfortable,’ how much would you need.”  Despite the question being phrased this way, Wife usually comes up with a conservative number.  I have to remind her this is a dream (based in reality) situation.  What would you feel super happy with.  Then they usually adjust their number up.  Then, I ask what is the least that she would feel is fair enough.  I suggest that we keep that “fair enough” number in mind as a goal, but propose the dream number.   If in our discussion, Wife said that she believed that $1,500 would be awesome, but she could live with $1,000.  I would suggest coming in with a proposal of $1,500.  That gives us some room to negotiate down.  Maybe we’ll end up at $1,000, but maybe she’ll end up with Husband agreeing to $1,200 because it sounds a lot better than the $1,500 she initially offered, and he knows that the Judge would likely order $1,200. Does this actually work, YES!  I work with women all of the time, wherein I have to explain this. They get on board, and guess what, it works.  I have geared this post toward women, but in case you are a man or you are a woman who has some influence with a man who will be negotiating with a woman, a man can also make some changes which will make a positive difference in negotiation success.  Want to find out how? In the above referenced scenario, Husband can also make an effort to understand Wife’s style, and not change his expectation based on Wife’s offers.  In the above scenario, I would talk to Husband ahead of time, and explain to him to maybe expect Wife to come into negotiations with an acceptable offer.  We can go through the same discussion of best case scenario and bottom line.  Let’s say that in this scenario, Husband’s bottom line was $1,200 (the statewide formula) but his best case scenario was $800.  When he hears Wife offer $1,000, he could acknowledge that he may be able to do the $1,000, but he was really hoping for $800 and explain why that would work.  Wife may get offended and explain why she needs the $1,000.  On the other hand, Wife may even agree to take $900 or some number less than $1,000 because it will end negotiations faster, and she feels heard.  If she appears to be stuck on that $1,000, maybe better for Husband to go with it, than risk a potential $1,200 order by a judge. To sum it up, of course this example is very simplified, and of course I am generalizing.  Not every woman and every man fits into this dynamic.  The point is to help you to understand the gist of it in a brief post.  I’ve chosen this topic to share because I see it as the easiest to address, but common problem in divorce mediation and negotiation. Coaching clients on this topic has been one of the easiest ways to tackle this common hurdle, and makes a huge difference in coming to successful negotiations and resolutions. The important thing to remember is that you can only change your own behavior, not someone else’s.  Thus, if you are a woman, change your approach when negotiating with men.  If you’re a man, change your approach.  Either way, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the difference it makes.   If you would like to set up a consultation for representation in Imperial County or divorce coaching anywhere in the U.S.  Contact me via email or telephone.

[lovemesomesurveys]

[found at: dietgrrrl]

1. How many pairs of converse shoes do you own? Just one now, but I used to have a few.

2. Any other names your parents planned to give you? My mom has said before she thought of Jesse for a boy.

3. Are you hot? No.

4. Which is the most beautiful place you know? One of my favorite beach areas.

5. What do you work with? Work with what?

6. Five everyday essentials you never leave the house without? My phone, wallet, hand sanitizer, mask, and my medicine (if I’m going to be gone awhile).

7. Have you ever hit an animal with your car? I don’t drive.

8. Favorite ride at the amusement park? A great majority of the rides at Disneyland. 

9. Favorite beauty essential in your bathroom cabinet? I don’t have one, it’s been a few years since I’ve worn any makeup.

10. Do you have many followers on your tumblr? This blog has 900.

11. Do you tan easily? I did as a kid, but that could be because I actually used to spend a significant amount of time outside back then. Now, the only time I spend a lot of time outside is if I go to the beach, but it’s not a guarantee I’ll get a tan. Sometimes I’ll get a little tan.

12. Are you expecting something in the mail? No.

13. Do you inspire others? I’m not inspirational. 

14. Favorite dessert: Cheesecake, brownies, shortbread or sugar cookies, donuts, cupcakes, muffins.

15. What do you collect? Giraffe stuffed animals and knickknacks, Baby Yoda/Grogu stuff, and it also seems I have a throw pillow collection going on (I have like 8 right now).

16. Do you like cats? Sure.

17. Are you healthy? No.

18. Have you ever been out of state? I’ve only been to 3 other states outside my own.

19. Can you always blame your acts on that you were just too drunk? No, considering I haven’t drank alcohol in 8 years. I’m a sober mess.

20. Three things you try to avoid as much as possible: Talking about politics, being hot, and confrontation. 

21. How many times have you been overseas? Zero.

22. Do you use to have someone in mind when shopping for underwear? Yeah, myself and what I find comfortable. 

23. Number of jeans in your closet: I keep them in my dresser, but I think 4. I got rid of some to make room in my dresser. I haven’t worn jeans in over 3 years, so.

24. What accent do you have? A California one. It’s weird to me to say I have an accent cause I don’t feel like I do, like it’s not something identifiable or sounds like anything lol I don’t know. It’s not like someone from Boston, New York or from the south.

25. Where would you like to live? Somewhere with cooler weather, actual falls and winters, and bearable summers (not long and miserable like ours).

26. Do you follow fashion? Nah.

27. Do you have a big butt? I have no butt. ha. No cush in the tush.

28. Your worst job nightmare is: I haven’t had a job.

29. Who's the coolest rapper in the world? Some that I like are Megan thee Stallion, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Post Malone, Dababy, Roddy Ricch... to name a few.

30. Do you count how long you and your gf/bf have been together? I’m single.

31. Have you graduated? I’ve graduated a few times in my life.

32. Should you go to a dance class or a charm class? Is charm class like from Harry Potter or?

33. Rihanna or Lady GaGa? I like songs by both.

34. Do you use fake eyelashes? I have before.

35. What's your worst interior design nightmare: Hmm.

36. Which was the last book that really captivated you? The book I just finished, The Girl and the Black Christmas by AJ Rivers. It’s one in a series I’ve been really into. 

37. What are you wearing today? A long sleeve shirt with Powerline on it (from A Goofy Movie) and Adidas leggings.

38. Have you ever been so drunk that the police had to take care of you? No.

39. Are you one of those people that often feel sorry for yourself? I have pity parties for sure.

40. Do you have a MySpace? And actually use it? I’m assuming mine still exists, but I haven’t used it in over a decade. 

41. What make up brands do you use? None anymore.

42. What's the last vacation spot? Almost a year ago I went to Disneyland. I can’t believe it’s already been that long...

43. What's the worst kind of rejection you could give someone? Ghosting them.

44. Do you have a crush on someone right now? No.

45. When is a person guaranteed to NOT get laid? I don’t know?

46. Is there anyone that many people think is hot, but you don't? Yeah, there’s celebrities I’m not particularly attracted to that a lot of people seem to be.

47. How often do you wash your hair? About 3-4 times a week.

48. Who's your free pass? I’m single, sooo.

49. Do you sort and organize your clothes in some kind of way? No.

50. Three persons you would like to thank: My mom, dad, and brother.

[neoyeppuda]

Thank You - Jihoon scenario

We've reached 900 followers! (100 more to go omg) Word Count: 637 A/N: I made this to celebrate 900 followers!! Thank you guys~ Jihoon here is probably us??? But lani didn't make this blog a month ago omg, and I only joined recently (a few months ago)! But I think Jihoon here can tell you how we feel (?) Anwyays jihoon = us, yn = you guys (?) Because she's supported him from the beginning and she'll continue to do so until the end! I found this cute and I hope you guys enjoy!! Thanks again~ (Also I didn't know what idol to write about so I used our icon who's currently Jihoon)A -Clar

"Hey," your call fell on deaf ears as your boyfriend was much too preoccupied in othe rmatters. A nudge wouldn't even snap him out of it anymore. He was glued.

Eyes never strayed too far from the screen that spewed bright light onto his milky skin as he tapped his phone's keyboard ceaselessly. His phone went click, and his phone went clack. The sound effects whenever he pressed a button distracted you from anything else. "Jihoon!" you slammed the table, making his head jerk away from his phone and face you.

The surprised look on his face melted into a frown. "What did you want?" a tinge of annoyance laced his voice that could go unnoticable if it weren't for the six years you've spent with him. "Nothing. Just wanted you to know how great this date is," you gave him a fake smile, giving him a taste of his usual sarcasm. He chuckles, rolling his eyes at you as he places his phone on the table. "Thanks," he started, putting an elbow on the table to prop his head, "do you want to know why?"

The teasing tone he had riled you up, pulling your lips into a frown that matched his. You gave him no answer, making it known how upset you were. After a brief moment of silence he lightly laughs with the sweetest smile on his face. His sudden change in mood and facial expressions caught you off guard. You raised an eyebrow. "Hm?" was all you managed to blurt out in the midst of your confusion.

You just sat there, somewhat frozen with only one word on your mind: what.

Jihoon was still smiling as he reached for his phone. "Here," he slides it over to you with the Tumblr app opened. You look at it with curiosity. Your eyes darted all over the screen, searching for what he was so busy with. It was right there, the first post on his dashboard. It was there in big bolded words: "900 followers!"

The post consisted of a lengthy message from Jihoon to his followers, thanking them for their continuous love and support. He watched a smile tug your lips as you read the entire thing. "Hey," you mumbled, reading the last paragraph of his post.

"I'm planning on making my girlfriend an admin on this blog."

It was only the first sentence yet your heart was already doing flips. As you read on, you noticed that the paragraph was significantly longer than the rest. You couldn't wipe the smile off your face. The way he introduced you properly to everyone and how he told everyone that you were the best supporter he ever had made you feel like the happiest girl in the world.

You were the one who told him about Tumblr and everything. He decided to give it a try and it eventually became his stress reliever. It was a big part of his life now, and things wouldn't be the same without it. "I'm proud of you," his face when he heard you say it was priceless. The words left your lips and he was almost brought to tears. You'd say it often, but this brought back memories.

It was just like when he debuted.

"This blog has been my drive and inspiration; it's something that's fueling my passion. It's what's pushing me to my limits right now. I know this isn't much but it'll get bigger, and I want to achieve that with her. It's cheesy but I mean it. It's been a month since I've started this and I didn't expect a lot of people to enjoy this. I had little to no expectations but then all of you came and showered me in compliments and love. I don't really know what to say except thank you."

[comiccartography]

Hello! Long time no Tumbl. A faithful follower asked if I’d abandoned the blog, and the short answer is not quite. The loooooong answer is...

1) I’ve been focusing a lot on running D&D games. You can even buy my adventures! Just click here. (The above images are collages I made to serve as cover images). The adventures focus on weird happenings in a post-apocalyptic Icy City:

help a shih tzu deliver secret goods

ride in a gelatinous cube shot out of a cannon

build a patchwork governor

explore a giant heart dungeon

carouse with talking mules, drug-dealing moon elves, and the Hobfather

They’re more Final Fantasy VI meets Super Mario World than Game of Thrones. You have been warned.

2) I’m starting a comic book library! This is probably the bigger news. It’s a lending library and reading room that currently has over 900 comics (the thick ones with spines) and a ton of monthlies, minis, and so on. You can look at the catalog here. (Warning: work in progress.) And I’ve been posting process shots and new arrivals to Instagram.

3) I also lost my job, moved, helped organize the Twin Cities Zine Fest, and got a new job. BUT there’s a scanner in the library office with a stack of maps next to it, so expect more updates soon. As always, take a look through the archives and find me on Twitter.

[coopdigitalnewsletter]

24 Jan 2020: The evil list, privacy and face recognition. Microsoft and carbon: green cloud, black rain.

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter - it looks at what's happening in the internet/digital world and how it's relevant to the Co-op, to retail businesses, and most importantly to people, communities and society. Thank you for reading - send ideas and feedback to @rod on Twitter. Please tell a friend about it!

[Image: not a Co-op!]

Supermarkets and online retail

Green: Asda trials refill points and bottle recycling in sustainability store.

Supermarkets cutting management jobs: Sainsbury’s will cut hundreds of jobs - “cost synergies” after the Argos acquisition. Morrisons will cut 3,000 managers, but says it will create 7,000 hourly-paid roles as part of a major restructuring.

Logistics: Fabric’s microfulfilment offer for online groceries is interesting because its pricing model is pay as you go, allowing supermarkets to try it out easily, and it can be “multi-tenant”, meaning that multiple retailers can be served from the same location. Logistics simulating cloud services - interesting! (Previously: Microfulfilment: compact distribution centres.)

Online: Shopify merchants made more than $900 million in sales to 9.3m shoppers on Black Friday. 69% of them were on mobile.

The evil list, privacy and face recognition

The Evil List: Which tech companies are doing the most harm? - a list of companies that do bad things. Most of the evil is about companies arming themselves or law enforcement with overly-powerful tools. Or companies performing surveillance, data collection and other harms to privacy. Or companies being pretty casual with their effects on wider society. So, as you’d expect, the very big Big Tech platforms are on there. But there isn’t much anti-competitive evil or climate change evil on that list, and perhaps it’s a surprise to see the US electric grid on it.

Anyway, they missed this one: the secretive company that might end privacy as we know it. This is about ClearView, a company that hoovered images of people off the internet and used them to make a big face recognition database, now used by various US law enforcement agencies.

Despite their claims it’s unlikely that the machine learning model is the unique thing here. There are many good models freely available already. The interesting thing is the data. It sounds as if they’ve ignored social networks’ acceptable use policies to grab images and related personal data. So that might be their unique thing.

Related: the Met Police is ready to use real-time facerec on London streets. And the EU is considering temporary ban on facerec in public.

Green cloud and black rain: Microsoft carbon negative by 2030

Microsoft says:

“By 2030 Microsoft will be carbon negative, and by 2050 Microsoft will remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975.”

“We recognize that progress requires not just a bold goal but a detailed plan. As described below, we are launching today an aggressive program to cut our carbon emissions by more than half by 2030, both for our direct emissions and for our entire supply and value chain. We will fund this in part by expanding our internal carbon fee, in place since 2012 and increased last year, to start charging not only our direct emissions, but those from our supply and value chains.”

This is good news! It’s an ambitious target. They’re targeting scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions that come from a business’s other activities and (eg) the electricity customers may consume when using the product. Computing needs to become vastly lower carbon, so good, let’s get that done. It will also be a strong, positive signal to other cloud and computing services, good.

You knew there’d be a “but”. But Microsoft is lobbying and funding politicians who are climate change deniers, which seems counter-productive.

The more important but is that Microsoft are still courting business from oil companies. Loads of green machine learning running on a green cloud working energetically to help oilcos get more oil out of the ground… will increase emissions. Not so good. (The other big cloud cos Amazon and Google are also doing this - see previously: Every cloud needs a green lining.)

“Charging not only our direct emissions, but those from our supply and value chains” could start to address that problem if it is directed to MS’s customers as well as to its suppliers. (You might call that scope 4 emissions - how would it work? Maybe, refusing to supply the customer because their carbon footprint is large. Or charging them more to fund your own carbon capturing activities. Or charging customers with small carbon footprints less.) 

Yet it would still be better if we found ways to not have those emissions in the first place, by keeping the oil in the ground.

Elsewhere: Sweden flights are down 4% and 9% domestically - suggesting that flight-shaming has an effect and that purpose-driven change can be driven by people as well as by legislation and suppliers.

Other news

Amazon picks Manchester over London for new UK corporate office.

Where are our affordable houses and how do councils keep track of them?

Tik-Tok “feels like a richer description of humanity than Twitter or Instagram. It’s bored people at work or school or at home – I don’t know if the social media policies of all the large companies hasn’t caught up yet, or if they don’t care. Tesco and McDonalds seem to do pretty well out of it in the UK.”

“knowing what I know now, if I were starting my company today, I would bet less on Slack for our main mechanism of internal communication and more on email.” and “If you're a confident voice, it can feel like the public square is open to everyone equally. But having equal access to the text box does not mean that people feel equal access to use it. Slack can amplify the loudest voices + make it even harder for quieter ones to show up.”

“A young Fife resident received weekly health and social payments of £59,395 instead of £59.95 after an extra digit was accidentally added to a Fife Council spreadsheet” - spreadsheets are very “accessible” but they aren’t great systems of record. However this story could have been “...after the operational checks and balances weren’t correctly performed”.

Neat envelope thing that hobbles your mobile so you don’t use it too much - you could also pop your mobile in an envelope and post it to yourself as you leave the office on Friday night.

Co-op Digital news and events

What happens to surplus food from your local Co-op?

Colleague weeknote: Nate Langley, Principal Designer in the Digital group.

Public events, most of them at Federation House:

Northern Azure Group - Tue 28 Jan 6pm.

Doing Tech for Good: How can we build an active movement in Manchester? - Wed 29 Jan 6.30pm.

Open:Data:Surgery - Fri 31 Jan 2pm.

Free Code Camp - Mon 3 Feb 6pm.

An Introduction to Data Ethics and the Data Ethics Canvas - Fri 7 Feb 9.00am.

Mind the Product - MTP Engage - Fri 7 Feb.

Internal events:

Delivery community of practice - Mon 27 Jan 1.30pm at Fed house.

Co-operate show & tell - Wed 29 Jan 3pm at Fed 6 co-operate space.

Data management show & tell - Thu 30 Jan 2.30pm at Angel Sq 13th floor breakout.

Membership show & tell - Fri 31 Jan 3pm at Fed 6 kitchen.

More events at Federation House - and you can contact the events team at  federation.events@coopdigital.co.uk. And TechNW has a useful calendar of events happening in the North West.

Thank you for reading

Thank you, beloved readers and contributors. Please continue to send ideas, questions, corrections, improvements, etc to the newsletterbot’s typing entity @rod on Twitter. If you have enjoyed reading, please tell a friend!

If you want to find out more about Co-op Digital, follow us @CoopDigital on Twitter and read the Co-op Digital Blog. Previous newsletters.

[loryn-art]

Well well well.... Let me just say that August has been a hard month. But I’m back from the dead today to make a quick point about my work ! I hope you’re all going well and also, I wanted to thank you all again for the 900 followers !

I’m sorry if my update about it seemed a bit rushed, but as I said in my last post, I was working this month, and my job wasn’t the calmest in the world. I worked in a four star hotel, just to gain a decent salary for once, and I didn’t expected to be as hard as in a classic one. Same issue, clean all the rooms and run everywhere until your day is finally over. My respect goes to all maids and valets in the world, sincerely.

Here I should stop complaining about my fingers hurting so much every morning and my ankles for being a bit dissident lately. I should think about the amount of money I’m going to gain in the next days and keep it preciously in my cave with my fave dragons guarding it forever. (okay I invented this part but it sounded cool.)

Next point is that I’m going to work again in mid-September until mid-November and maybe after (still not sure about it) but I will still try to begin Monster chapter 4 during this period ! I recently had an ask about April and Monster Donnie, and I’m really happy people seems interested by this alternate universe ^^ Just remember that I don’t do asks anymore, I will just post some doodles I made randomly, when I feel like drawing then ;) I’m really excited to begin this new chapter as it will be very different from the third and other ones... so, be patient T-fans !

Expect to see news from my Youtube channel that is growing slowly, but surely, we already passed the 800 followers there ! I’m still not sure about what path I’m following there, but I like what I do so expect to see more speedpaint, dumb stuff, fanarts ect ect... Don’t forget to visit my Patreon page if you want, it means a lot for me already !

As my TMNT 2012 feelings are evolving into something more psychologically stable, I might post some new fanarts about others fandoms, and this blog will probably be my main page to post everything that is not Wildstar related. (Or maybe too, I don’t know, meh.) If you have any question about my blog or my work my askbox is open ! \o/

My Youtube Channel !

My Patreon !

My wordpress page !

My Instagram account !

Thanks for reading, and as always, luv on you T-fans !

[imaginaryculturepress-blog]

Placebo Postpone Perth Performance

In which Placebo cancel their Perth show, and we find out hella late. 

Hi, hello, and welcome!


 My name is Skyler and instead of choosing a simple title for this post, I decided upon the worst tongue-twister I could think of. Thank me later. 
 As you all would've heard by now, Placebo's 20th anniversary show in Perth has been cancelled. I may have had a mental breakdown and screamed at a staff member. ... Yeah, not a nice time. Not family friendly, either.


Let's backtrack a bit, back to this morning. Perth Placebo fans would've awoken with "Pure Morning" ringing in their heads, excited and potentially having a heart attack at the thought of the marvellous day that would ensue. Placebo, England's greatest band (following Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden), were in town and about to kick off their Australian tour. We were all honoured to be in their presence, even if some of us were fifty kilometres away. We were ecstatic, enthusiastic, even tipsy at the thought of it. 
 Now, at the same time, Brian Molko would've been up as well. He would've noticed that he wasn't feeling well, and probably informed his management. Everyone was aware that no matter how many meds he'd take, even if he took the ones he'd previously forgotten to (just let me reference), there was no way he could recover in time for the show. Perhaps he was determined to play their set, to avoid disappointing the fans. It sounds like such a precious thing to do, and is definitely something you'd expect of a band this dedicated to their music and audiences. So they continued on with the day. 
 Perhaps his condition worsened. I hope not. But regardless, by the time it was 5:30pm, there was a queue of eager concert-goers at the box office. There were your die-hard fans, groupies, generally nice people just out for a good time and good music, sly photographers such as myself, and friends who were dragged along for the hell of it. I'd spent the entire day freaking the hell out; this would be the largest concert I'd ever photographed, and I wasn't sure if I was ready. It's not the photography part that made me shake, but the idea that such an inspirational band would be right before my lens, and a crowd of their biggest supporters would stand behind me. It was a privilege I wasn't sure I deserved, and I was determined to make everyone (predominantly myself) proud. I was even planning the blog post, and had documented numerous moments leading up to this moment. Who knew that waiting in line would become a post of its own? 
 5:45pm rolled past. Still nothing. 
 5:53pm. We were getting nervous. The box office was still closed and we didn't know what was happening. It was just... odd. I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to find out why this was taking so long. 

Thus, I walked over to Entry A, where security guards and event staff were walking in and out of the venue. Throwing away the remains of my lunch, I headed in the direction of a dude who seemed to know what he was doing. But, as always, by the time I did this, he'd vanished into the venue. And so, also as always, I subconsciously began talking to myself... aloud. I probably wouldn't have realised if I wasn't being offered weird looks. 
 Returning to the line, I tried to regain my dignity and confessed to having no new information. But maybe the answer lies on the other side of the venue? I ran back out in search of answers, where a couple dozen fans were lined up. There was no staff around, but Sheraton's Four Points was blasting "Every You Every Me", which was greatly appreciated. By this point, others were also seeking information. Soon enough I stumbled upon a guy with "crowd control" credentials. 
 Me: Hi, uh, hello, I'm a photographer and am supposed to pick up my press pass but have no clue as to where I ought to go and the box office is closed and I'm freaking out and hELP ME. 
 Guy: Okay, yeah, please repeat like all of that. 
 Me: *Repeats all of that.* 
 Guy: Oh. Well you should go to the box office. 
 Me: *Distressed* I just came from there! It's closed! *Sighs* Look, this is my first time shooting here. I'm just really confused. 
 Guy: Haha, don't worry, it's my first time working here as well. I suppose go check with admin? They'll know more than I do. Just on the side of the building over there. *Points.* 
 Me: THANK YOU. 
 So I ran back to report to the team. And by team I mean the random people I'd never even met but was becoming indirectly acquainted with. One woman was saying that she was already at admin, and they told her to come to this place. Regardless, I took off to find these mystical admin creatures.  
 After almost getting run over by carefree cyclists, I reached my destination.


Me: Hi, hello, my name is Skyler and I'm supposed to be picking up a photo pass but the box office is closed and I don't know what to do. 
 Security guard: ...I just do bag checks. 
 Me: *Sighs, opening backpack.* 
 Security: What's all this? 
 Me: Camera gear! I told you, I'm a p h o t o g r a p h e r. 
 Security: Okay, okay, go in. 
 And so I did. There were two ladies at the desk and a few company representatives walking around. It felt too fancy for a teenage photographer who had ketchup and rosemary stains on her worn out jeans. Regardless, I proceeded to talk to one of the staff members. 
 The lady was quite friendly and helpful, calling up Ticketek and asking what the hell was going on. The other woman was on the phone to someone about Placebo tickets. 
 Woman on phone: Yes, there are still tickets available. You can purchase them at the box office here. They're open from 5:30, so they're working now. 
 Me: No, they're not... 
 I was soon told that Ticketek has been advised, by the event organisers, to delay the box office opening. Greaaat. Time to update the team. 
 Unsurprisingly, nobody was pleased. We started complaining to each other, and were all bonding over our displeasure. I even met a wonderful lady who was interested in my work, and asked for my website. Unfortunately I didn't catch her name, though if she's reading this: hello! Please comment below so we (I) know who you are, you were very nice and supportive of my photography (: also I hope everything goes well with having to fly in and out for the show and with getting your tix! Hopefully they reschedule and actually stick to their arrangements, haha. 
 6:19pm. We've been here for ages. Sure, all of us have encountered worse scenarios and waited in longer queues. But the sheer disorganisation and miscommunication - sorry, lack of communication - was becoming oddly suspicious. Finally we get an update, in the form of papers stuck to the box office windows. To paraphrase: "Box office hours have been delayed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused." (Side note: I love how they put "any" inconvenience, as if only a couple of us may have potentially been affected by this.) 
As if we needed that now, after all this freaken time! If a few of us hadn't complained in the first place, they probably wouldn't have even bothered putting that up. But regardless of what sign they put up, we still had to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. 6:27pm. Any moment now. I felt the energy and excitement rush back into me as the security guards readied at the doors. Fresh from their debriefings, they were preparing to quarantine concert goers left and right. 6:32. Slight extra delay, but that's alright; it always happens. 6:39. I tried reassuring myself that everything would be fine... but deep down, I knew this wouldn't end well. The were rumours now spreading throughout the entire crowd about the show's cancellation. We were nervous. Of course we didn't want to come back another time! Who would?! 6:42. The promotional image above the venue doors change as the conspiracies become reality: "Tonight's event has been cancelled due to illness. We apologise for any inconvenience." Again with the "any inconvenience", I see. I laughed. Most people didn't. The reality hadn't sunk in. I wasn't believing it. Surely it had to be a bad dream? This was a major event for me and everyone else around me. I'd heard so many precious stories, from people flying in for the show to a man's daughter losing $900 worth of tickets. Most appeared to be truly heartbroken. You could see it in their eyes; the dreaded realisation that they wouldn't be seeing the iconic Placebo perform. After eleven years since their last tour Down Under, we were met by disappointment. We got our tickets - some easier than others - and headed back to train stations, bus ports and car parks. Now, I do want to point something out: in no way am I blaming Bryan. I wish him a speedy recovery and a restful few days. But the fact that their management and specifically the venue were so careless in their handling of the matter, leaving everyone waiting overtime to find out, is completely unacceptable. Surely they found out earlier. The way they handled themselves, failing to have an actual person say anything to the crowds, or to even address the public about their delays in time, was unprofessional and to be frowned upon. For a place that promotes "world-class" experiences, Perth Arena truly underperform. **** **** **** Well that sucked. Hopefully they reschedule the show. If anyone comes across any new information regarding the show, please comment down below. Also, tell us your story of the event. I know that I seemed to overdramatise the occasion, though if you saw the sadness in some people's eyes, you would be making extremely similar comments. Until next time, Live long and headbang, -Skyler Slate


[rebeccahpedersen]

Random Thoughts About Square Footage

TorontoRealtyBlog

The inspiration for this blog post arrived in a really, really strange way.

You know when you hear a word for the very first time, you end up hearing it again like five times in the next three days?

Well in the past two weeks, I’ve had three very strange conversations about square footage, all to do with ways in which the square footage isn’t really square.

Does that make sense?

Yes?  No?  Probably, once I explain it, but not really?

Yeah, I get it.  So let me offer the following three scenarios…

–

What about cubic footage?

I believe I wrote a lengthy blog post about this maybe five or ten years ago, but the conversation came up again this past week, and it got me thinking.

I was called in to evaluate a unique hard loft, and I mean “hard” in the very truest sense of the term when it comes to lofts.  This was a converted industrial space, now residential units, complete with fluted concrete pillars, cinder-block and brick walls, and exposed ductwork in the soaring 14-foot ceilings.

My evaluation was looking units that have sold in this building, and this building only.

Seems like the best way to look at value, right?  It’s what I always do, and what I would expect nearly all agents to do.

The seller had other ideas, however.

After I presented my CMA and gave him an approximate value, he pulled out a presentation of his own!

He claimed that comparing his unit to others in the building had “some merit,” but then proceeded to look at comparable sales from neighbouring buildings, and make adjustments based on his soaring ceilings.

Did he have a point?  Maybe.  But his numbers were Trump-esque.

His ceilings were 14-feet high, and I valued his loft at around $930 per square foot, again, based on comparable sales in that building.

He looked at sales in three buildings in the area, none of which were as comparable as, well, you know – his building, and then made an adjustment for CUBIC FOOTAGE!

His argument was simple: other lofts have nine or ten foot ceilings, and his have fourteen-foot ceilings.

So if those other lofts were selling for $850 per square foot, with 10-foot ceilings, then his loft should be an additional 40% premium because of his 14-foot ceilings.

I know what you’re thinking, and my mind was racing like yours is right now, thinking of all the retorts I had, and which made the most sense.

I told him that high ceilings were a feature, not unlike a terrace, a walk-in closet, a BBQ gas line, an exposed brick wall, etc.

I explained that the reason we look at square footage is because it’s the easiest way to level the playing field.  We might add/subtract value from a comparable unit for a feature, ie. if a comparable unit has a 200 square foot terrace, we might subtract $40,000, and then, all other things being equal, divide by the square footage to find a comparable value.

The same would be true for high ceilings.

He continued to argue.

“You’re buying space,” he told me.  “And you get more space with fourteen-foot ceilings than you do with ten-foot ceilings.”

I didn’t know if I was going to win the argument, considering we were sitting in his condo, with his high ceilings, so I asked him a very simple question:

“What do you do up there?”

“Up where?” he asked.

I motioned above our heads, and said, “Up there.”

He was a bit stunned, not really insulted, but I would like to think perhaps the reality was dawning on him.

“We price condos based on square footage because that’s useable, functional, livable space.  You can’t really live up there in the air above your couch.”

He nodded along, and I assumed he was following, but then he said, “Well if you’re buying vacant land, you might price it based on buildable square footage, according to how many storeys you can get zoning for.”

Uh-huh.

My reaction:

I suppose I could have followed up with, “Are you building another storey above our heads?” but I wasn’t looking to be condescending, and while often that drives the point home, I wasn’t sure it would help at this point.

If a loft had 16-foot ceilings, you could, in theory, build a platform for additional square footage.  You would have to get approval from the Condominium Board, and likely submit architectural and engineer’s drawings, but it’s not impossible.

In some condos, like the Tip Top Lofts, there are platform areas above existing space, ie. storage areas overtop of the bathroom, or in some cases, a ladder leading to a desk and chair on a platform above the bedroom, but in this case, you’d have to be 4-feet tall, or never stand up.

I had a friend who lived in a bachelor unit in the Kensington Lofts and his bed was on a platform on top of the bathroom ceiling.  He had to climb a ladder up and down, and it was not a spiral staircase or anything – it was an actual ladder.

When this property went up for sale, do you think we marketed that space as square footage?

Hell no.

That’s not square footage, and to suggest as much would be false advertising (as though there were such a thing in our line of work, but I digress…).

In the case of the evaluation I described above, the owner wasn’t looking to build additional square footage; he was just looking to argue about value, as though if he could win me over, it meant he would win the market over.

To suggest a 40% premium was warranted for air rights was silly, and I told him as much.

I explained that true value exists only in the form of what a buyer would pay, and not how a seller values it, or even what a seller pays.  Think of the concept of superadequacies; if you spent $25,000 on a feature in your home that you value, but most buyers don’t, then it doesn’t add $25,000 in true value.  Commission a bronze statue of yourself to be cast, and then install it on your front lawn.  Do you think whatever you paid for the statue should be added to the value of your house?

When looking at 14-foot ceilings in a loft space and comparing to a similar unit with 10-foot ceilings, I would recommend a lump-sum adjustment.  This was a 2-bed, 2-bath unit, just under 900 square feet, so I might be inclined to suggest the ceilings add $30,000 – $40,000 in actual value as a feature.  The truth is, many buyers won’t care.  Many buyers see this as less efficiency for heating in the winter months, and an additional cost.

–

What about triangular footage?

No, really, I’m serious.

Picture a wall in a room, and think back to…….in whichever grade they taught us geometry, and identify the angle.

It’s 90-degrees, right?

All walls are 90-degrees, we know this.  This is nothing new.

So when we look at square footage, save for the 1/2-inch baseboards sticking out from the wall, we’re basically looking at the square footage as though it’s all functional, because the walls are at a 90-degree angle.

But what if the walls weren’t?

What if the walls were at a 70-degree angle?  Or a 45-degree angle?

I’m not making this up just as an experiment or anything, this is a real conversation I had with a client recently about lofts in converted spaces that have gorgeous original architecture, but often skim functional square footage as a result.

Have a look at this:

Notice the space where the flat-screen TV is?

Notice all the space, from left to right, under the first perpendicular timber column?

Notice how zero of that space is functional?

How in the world would you address price-per-square-foot in a unit like this?

I know, you’re looking at the beautiful stained-glass, and the rare, sought-after timber beams, and thinking that this is a true first-world-problem, and simply an embarrassment of riches.

I’m not denying that this loft is unique, but I am telling you that, having been in this space and many like it, the rooms often lack function.

There’s a reason why the TV is on the floor, right?  There’s a reason why it’s under the slanted-ceiling?

That’s complete dead-space, and it’s because of the angle of the wall.  The pillar doesn’t help either, but that’s a whole other topic.  As a result, the couch is pushed to one side of the room, the TV is on the floor, and there’s a ton of wasted square footage.

So how do you account for this space?

You don’t.  On paper, that is.  I can almost guarantee that this property was sold from the developer based on square footage, and the existing owner is doing the same.  If this unit is, for argument’s sake, 900 square feet, they will undoubtedly market it as such.  But where that TV is, say up to the first pillar, is not functional space.  In my opinion, the space doesn’t become functional until you’re standing halfway between the two black pillars.  So call it five feet from the wall, times twenty-five feet across the length of the condo, and suddenly you’re losing 125 square feeet of actual square footage.

Surely this has to be taken into consideration in the eyes of a buyer, no?

Would you make an offer, at the prevailing “price per square foot” in the building, for this unit?  Or would you make an adjustment?

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What about angular space?

Any fans of The Simpsons in the house?

I haven’t watched this show in at least fifteen years, maybe more.  But we all remember the “Fallout Boy” episode, where Millhouse gets chosen to play Fallout Boy in the movie.  Remember when they finally wrap the “Jiminy Jillikers” scene, and the producer pipes up and says, “We have to get it from different angles!”

Well, that’s what I always think of when I enter condos with really angular floor plans.

And on occasion, I’ll test my clients to see if they were Simpsons fans when they were younger.

Case in point, this awful layout:

Okay, where do we start?

Perhaps at the front of the condo.

So the den has no real issues here, with a perfect 45-degree right angle on the left side, except that because the kitchen is tilted on an axis, it basically flows right into the den.

So you don’t really have a den.  You have a kitchen-den, with a weird layout.

The living room offers a similar situation.  If you stand in front of the bathroom, at a slight angle, the room looks square.  Except that it’s not, and you’re going to feel it, as the angled kitchen, and square den, confuse the hell out of your eyes.  Trust me – I’ve sat on the couch in this layout before many times, and it’s like a fun house.

Most people end up placing their TV on that 120-degree angle wall in the southeast corner of the room, and then tilting their couch on an angle.

Goddam angles.  It’s all about ANGLES!

The smaller bedroom only has one corner that’s a right-angle, and the others are all out of whack.  Add in that brutal pillar, and you create a dead space in the corner, which also blocks out most of the natural light in the room.

The master bedroom has no odd angles, but does have a pillar – the third such pillar thus far in the condo.

And lastly, the “office,” which for some reason is accessed through the master bedroom, gives us one more angled wall, one more pillar, and a room that 99% of people end up using as a closet.

If I were marketing this property, I would probably play on the fact that with all the angles, you end up with multiple exposures, most notably: southeast, northwest, south-south-west, north-north-east, south-north-west-west, Kanye-north-west, south-west-airlines, north-jupiter-pluto, and fifty-four-forty.  Hey, if you got it, flaunt it!

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Any other square footage oddities that you’d like to share?

I’m all ears…

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