#rather than literal hours of serious discussion about who would say what in the 'everybody gets a little kissie from porsche au'

[laesas]

Fic Trope Tier List!

Tagged by @tumsa 💜

I'm so late to the party that I feel like almost everyone on my dash has been tagged! BUT if you're reading this: Tag! You're it! I want to hear everyones thoughts on fic tropes!

I also defintely did this based on how much I love the tropes themselves rather than how likley I am to read a fic with them.

Honestly, I'll read anything for good characterisation, so if an author I already loved came out with literally *anything* on the list I'd probably give it a whirl!

If you're reading this: Tag! You're it! I want to hear everyones thoughts on fic tropes!

[malloryslourd]

Madison Dating Goodeday’s Daughter

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Warnings: Some Strong Language, Mentions Of Alcohol Use, Suggestive Themes

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A/N: yea yea i did it😼 these are crazy long tho so... oops maybe

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before you two even get together there’s always a weird aura around the way you two act with each other

Madison still made her snarky comments but they were better categorized as backhanded compliments instead of her standard bitchy remarks

being raised by a Cordelia and Misty you were always taught to be as nice as possible, but the other girls notice you’re a lot nicer to Madison than anyone else

if you ever need to run an errand Madison volunteers to go with you

only to “get out of the house” tho

if you volunteer to do the dishes after dinner she conveniently will stay behind to help

if she needs help with a spell or class you’re always free to give help

it’s all just really convenient

one of those convenient nights when everyone’s already went to their own rooms and settled, you two were downstairs cleaning up the kitchen

Madison was making jokes about the other girls that you laughed at even tho they were a little rude

after a while the laughter and struggling to breathe at moments turns into a tense silence, the two of you sharing quick glances as you moved around the room

you’d finally stop to take a breath and look at her out of the corner of your eye

“You’ve been a lot nicer to me than usual, you know?”

Madison stopped cold, trying to think if it was that obvious that she had been

“I don’t... You...”

“It’s not a problem. Like, not to say you’ve been outstandingly mean to me. You’ve always been... nice”

you’d both fall quiet again, waiting for the other to continue on

“You’re easier to be nice to. You’re not like everybody else”

the conversation would end again, actually allowing for some cleaning to get done

after that you both hurried to finish and go your own way to your rooms

the convo had been awkward enough, there was no reason to continue it

the next day you talked to Mallory and Zoe about it

“I don’t know... it was just, like, weird to be honest”

Zoe would most def be like “Yeah it was weird because you’re in love with her”

#ZoeIsNoHelp

you kinda both distanced yourself from each other for a bit, neither of you wanting to be alone in a room with the other

it didn’t take long for another confrontation to take place

it would happen at a party thrown at the coven when Misty and Cordelia were away

after a few hours of music too loud to handle and few sips of whatever the hell Coco created in the kitchen, thoughts became words a lot easier

you and Madi ended up sitting next to each other on a couch, not saying anything at first

then you would turn to her, grabbing her arm and tilting your head while you waited for her to acknowledge you

“Why don’t you hate me?” “What?” “Why don’t you hate me like everyone else? What did I do?” “I... I don’t fucking know!”

you’d blink at each other

you weren’t satisfied with that answer and she knew that

“Not cool Madi” “You’re not cool” “Bullshit, you think I’m cool” “Yea, sure I do. I think you’re the goddamn coolest” “Because I am!” “Whatever” “If I wasn’t cool you wouldn’t like me as much as you do. Admit it!” “I don’t like you!”

it was definitely the drinks that had made that hurt a lot more than it should’ve

“But do you really? Like do you like me or what?” “I was joking. Of course I like you” “Not like that... Do you like me?”

she would go extremely quiet, thinking about that fact that maybe she DID like you

“I... I think” “The fuck is that supposed to mean?!” “I don’t fucking no!” “It’s a yes or no question Madi!” “Well then yeah, I like you! A lot!”

you’d let go of her arm slowly, both of you slightly leaning away from the other

“What the fuck am I doing?”

Madi would get up and hurry to the kitchen, you following her through the crowd of ppl

she leaned against the counter watching as you followed her in

you were pissed, what did that even mean

you’d start asking her what was wrong, saying that something was obviously keeping her from telling you the truth

after continuous “I don’t knows” and another cup of God knows what she would finally turn to you

“We can’t be together! Are you crazy?” “Why the fuck not?” “Are you serious? I literally have tried to kill your mother, very unsuccessfully! Everyone here hates me and everyone loves you! It just doesn’t make sense!”

you’d tell her it wasn’t true and shake your head

not everyone hated her, or at least in your mind, and if they did who really cared

“Well fuck them, I don’t care. If we like each other than so what? It doesn’t matter”

her face had somehow ended up in your hands and you both just stared at each other

after a very long discussion, interrupted by way too many drunk ppl, you both would somehow end up in your room, sitting on your bed, facing each other while holding hands and trying to figure out what the hell happened downstairs

you’d fall asleep taking about it, offering absolutely no help to clean after the party- very in character for Madison, very out of character for you

the relationship would be mostly secret from there

Queenie knows everything tho, she knows everything

it would be small changes around the house

the two of you sitting together for every meal, instead of Madi joining just a few errands it was almost all of them, you would go upstairs to go to bed at just around the same time

the girls put two and two together before Cordelia and Misty did

Zoe was $100 richer

Coco? not so much let’s just say that

they didn’t say anything, they knew it wasn’t their place

it was pretty easy for a while until there was a stupid slip up: Madi forgetting to lock your door after coming in to hang out with you

Misty would just walk in to the two of you laying on each other, one of your faces buried in the other’s neck

there was no getting out of it, she knew immediately- everything made sense at that moment

Misty and Cordelia are not the happiest about this relationship

you two were able to keep it secret for two months at the absolute most, but these women aren’t stupid

Cordelia is incredibly disappointed

Misty on the other hand is trying to figure out how long her prison sentence would be if she just so happened to kill someone

it would lead to a giant argument between the three of you, Madison secretly spectating from a bit of a distance to ensure her own safety

Cordelia would say something like “I’m over it, you two can’t be together”

the conversation wouldn’t end well

you’d end up walking out of the room to go rant to Madison or some of the other girls while absolutely fuming

you, Cordelia, and Misty would exchange very few words over the next two or three weeks, at least

Madi would be there to help with it tho

reassuring you that you did nothing wrong or everything would be okay

she would feel guilty, thinking about how she HAD done some pretty horrible things to them both in the past

but she was willing to fix that

your best interest was always Madison’s top priority

she wouldn’t want to ruin anything for you

so she would help you with whatever you needed- magic, chores, literally anything

you would insist it wasn’t necessary but that’s all she wanted to do

and plus it gave you both an excuse to be with each other more

the more time you two spent together the more considerate Madi became to everyone else

granted, everyone thought this was some type of prank or worse some type of sick trap, but it was nice (?)

Cordelia would notice it

the bitchy comments at dinner almost came to a stop(emphasis on the almost), she did what she had to around the house without having to be asked more than twice or so, and she stopped going out of her way to make ppl miserable

but she couldn’t help but notice you were a lot happier too

Misty on the other hand still thought this was all a coverup for some greater evil, or so she claimed

it wasn’t that she didn’t want to admit to the changes, she just didn’t want to admit to the causes of the changes

it did NOT make sense with her reality that her sweet baby was happy with someone so evil

Cordelia would be easier about it, there would be less times she would stop you going to Madi’s room or vice versa, she’d find herself smiling at the two of you getting along instead of being angry

Misty took a lot of convincing from Cordelia on the other hand

like multiple discussions before bed about how maybe they should cut Madison some slack

that girl was not having it at all

she comes around eventually

soon? no. but eventually? sure.

Madi might not be the best roommate to some of the girls but she’s genuinely a great partner

she always puts you first

no matter what

she likes to know that if there’s anything she can do to make you feel safe or loved, she’s doing it

if she’s not with you in person she texts you as often as she can without being annoying

study dates where you’re actually trying to help her but she’s on her phone the whole time or trying to convince you to give up

she’ll “accidentally” knock the book you’re reading off of the bed or out your hands

“Ugh, looks like we can’t do that anymore... Bummer”

you learn to just give up when she starts retaliating

she’ll sneak into your room after everyone goes to bed, greeting you with a quick kiss you both smile through

you only got caught once but Cordelia didn’t even care enough to say anything at the time, just a “don’t let it happen again” in the morning

it happened again

it’s literally most of the time just the two of you talking about whatever happened throughout the day or watching a movie and laughing at Madison making jokes about on of the actors

Madi is very physically affectionate, no matter where either of you are

she won’t admit it but she’s loves sweet soft kisses rather than a rough make out session- but only in private i feel??? she has a character to uphold outside of closed doors

you’ll be laying in bed and she’ll kiss your forehead and you cheek, smiling at you if you even try to act annoyed with her

the other girls are over the PDA... OVER IT

sometimes they can’t even go into the kitchen to get something to drink, it’s ridiculous

Misty is always disapproving of it, without fail

she’s so childish she would literally make gagging noises just seeing you two sit next to each other

she did that when Madison walked into a room before you two started dating but that’s not important

Madi is very much a Look-What-I-Have-And-You-Don’t type of person (always has been, always will be)

she loves to show you off

“So my girlfriend...” “Yeah my girlfriend...” “Did you see that my girlfriend...”

you would get embarrassed after so much of it, getting flustered everytime she would say “my” or “mine”

Madison lives a very expensive lifestyle, no surprise there, so she’s always buying you some type of gift

you come home and there would be a gift bag on your bed or she’ll text you telling you she had a surprise

she has trouble with saying what she means or being able to talk about how she feels so that’s one of her go-to’s when she can’t figure out how to say “I love you”

you try to tell her it’s not necessary but she doesn’t listen

the two of you could spend all day together and not get tired of the other

you find anything and everything to talk about

some conversations carry on for days sometimes

they’ll roll over right to the next morning without missing a beat

Madi loves to call you “Baby”, “Darling”, “Sweetheart”, and “Love”

the Madison-Calling-Her-SO-Mommy stuff started when she was drunk we don’t have time for that right now

anything that makes you feel special is okay with her

you call her “Sweetheart” and “Love” too, maybe “Babe” instead of “Baby”

with her being so possessive she would buy you a piece of jewelry with her initials on it

a ring, necklace, whatever it may be

and she would love to put it on for you

k, Madison loves a good hickey gotta admit

she has no shame in it either

she likes to both put them on someone and have them out on her

she wears hers a lot more proudly than you tho

the other girls make fun of you for it, saying it look like you got in a fight with someone

thankfully you’re able to hide them from Cordelia and Misty, and Madison is nice enough to make sure they don’t see hers

she notices that Misty is still hostile towards your relationship she would eventually take matters into her own hands

Madi would tell her that she knows her and Misty aren’t the best of friends but you made Madi happy and Madi made you happy and it still hurt you to see Misty so upset with you

Misty doesn’t know why hearing this from her made it anymore convincing than anyone else, but she would understand it now

Madison is always touching you to be honest

she’ll come up behind you and hug you from behind, kissing your shoulder and staying there without saying anything

she’d put her head in your lap and just start rambling about something that happened that day

“Are you ignoring me?” “Of course not” “What did I say?” “Something about... something” “ANYWAYS, back to what I was saying” “Great babe, yeah”

half of her twitter is dedicated to you let’s be real

Madison Montgomery Tweeted: My girlfriend is so much better than all of you :)

“Let’s go do something” “It’s 3 in the morning” “... So?”

driving around the city at night, listening to music and holding hands as you take random turns and streets neither of you had really ever been on

people telling you how much better Madison had been since you got together

going on date nights where the two of you argue over who’s gonna pay for thirty minutes

one of you ending up taking the card out of the others wallet before leaving the house

once both of you did this but you were able to come up with the cash together and a tip for the waiter after making them wait so long

Madi will walk into your room to find you studying or practicing your magic and go “Ugh, you and Zoe hang out too much”

she has the most embarrassing photo of you as he screensaver... like ma’am... this isn’t funny :|

the both of you have pictures with each other everywhere in you rooms

she doesn’t like to argue

she really does try her best to not upset you

so she learns how to be more open about her feelings instead of covering them up and acting as if nothing is bothering her

stargazing on nights neither of you can sleep

making sure to tell the other how much you love them at least once a day

[mypoisonedvine]

First Chanukah Together (Night 6) | Ari Levinson x reader

(mini-series masterlist)

summary: you and Ari honor a sixth-night tradition and take some time to help those in need.

word count: 1153

warnings: none, just fluff and adorable kiddos and the reader getting a slight baby fever, lol

Ari had told you that in his family, it was tradition to dedicate the sixth night of Chanukah to social justice and work for the less fortunate— whether that be a donation, volunteering, or advocacy of some kind.  Luckily, you didn’t need to come up with a charitable cause on your own, because his synagogue was having a volunteer event at a local children’s home.  Playing with adorable kiddos for a few hours was the perfect way to spend an evening, in your mind.

When you arrived, the woman who had helped organize the whole thing decided Ari would be the most help playing sports outside, while you offered to help with arts and crafts.  The kids were busy coloring, and you weren’t sure exactly how to initiate conversation with them until you noticed some construction paper and mini-scissors.

“Hey, do you guys know how to cut out paper snowflakes?” you questioned as you took a seat around the table with them.  When a few looked up and shook their heads, you offered to show them how: folding the paper in half and creating shapes with your scissors, you unfolded it to reveal the final product as they ‘ooh’ed and ‘ahh’ed.

“I wanna try!” a little boy piped up.  

“Sure, just be careful with the scissors, okay?” you reminded him as he picked up a pair and got to work.

“I wanna make a green snowflake!” a girl decided.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a green snowflake before,” you pondered aloud.  

“You’re about to,” she grinned, making you laugh.

Time seemed to fly after that, conversation flowing as you helped them with their snowflakes and dutifully nodded in awe of their various designs.  They’d taken to coloring them in differently and adding stickers, and you offered to stick them on the big window nearby so the people outside could see their beautiful art.  As you did it, though, you took a moment to watch Ari play in the yard with the boys, falling onto the ground as they all tackled him and climbed all over him.  

“Is that your boyfriend?” one of the girls asked you as they all giggled at the question.  You could hardly remember being that age and being so shy about boys and relationships, back when everybody had cooties and the last thing you wanted was to be accused of sitting in the proverbial tree.

“Um, yes,” you answered, causing them all to gasp and whisper.  

“Are you gonna marry him?!” one of them immediately pressed.

“Uh, maybe,” you shrugged.  

“Are you guys gonna have a baby?” another chimed in.

“Woah woah, slow down,” you chuckled nervously, hoping to change the discussion before they inevitably asked something even worse.  Thankfully, they started gossipping about who liked who within their own group rather than continuing to scrutinize you.  

That went on for a while before you were called away to help with something— and you could use the break, honestly.  You’d forgotten how scary it could be to talk to kids, always afraid you’d say the wrong thing and somehow scar them for life.  And with scissors involved, you were also afraid one of them would literally be scarred for life!

On your way back to the table, you stopped to admire the enormous Christmas tree in the foyer of the building, stacked full of presents underneath.  You were glad that donations gave these kids a chance at some really nice gifts.

“That one’s mine,” one of the boys— Charlie, if you recalled correctly— informed you suddenly as he pointed to a large box wrapped in blue sparkly paper.

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, it’s from Santa,” he explained confidently.

“That’s cool!  What do you think it is?” you asked curiously.

“I asked for a bike, so that’s what I’m hoping it is at least,” he shrugged.  “What gifts did you ask Santa for?”

“Um,” you paused, “well, I didn’t ask him for anything…”

“Why not?!” he questioned incredulously, like he was incensed that you wasted an opportunity for gifts.

“I… uhh… I don’t celebrate Christmas,” you explained.

“WHAT?!”

“Well, we’re Jewish,” Ari swooped in to wrap his arm around you, making you sigh with relief.  “So we celebrate Chanukah.  In fact, today we’re celebrating one of the nights of Chanukah.”

“There’s more than one?”

“Uh huh, in fact there’s eight.”

“Cool!” Charlie announced, his attention suddenly torn away as he ran off to go play with the other kids.

Ari laughed at your exhausted sigh, pulling you into a quick hug.  “You’re a natural,” he praised.

“Are you kidding?  Kids are terrifying,” you shuddered.  “You missed out earlier when the girls were giving me a third degree about our relationship.”

“Really?” he laughed.  “Like what?”

“Like if we’re gonna get married, and if we wanna have a dozen babies and stuff!”

“I mean, maybe not a dozen…” he trailed off, making your cheeks warm.  You and him had had a few talks about the future of your relationship, but you hadn’t realized he was so serious about you to not even question the idea of marrying you.  “The boys just wanted to know how I got a girlfriend in the first place.”

“And what’d you tell them?”

“I told them the truth: you just can’t resist my rugged, masculine charms,” he smirked, brushing his fingers through his hair dramatically as he puffed up his chest.

“Mm hmm, I’m sure they saw right through that,” you chuckled.  

“Yeah,” he agreed, deflating a little.

“Mr. Ari!” another boy appeared, tugging at the leg of your boyfriend’s jeans.  “Are you gonna play football with us?”

“Yeah, I’ll be outside in a minute,” he answered before the kid scampered off.

“You’re so good with them,” you noted.

“So are you,” he responded, “really.  The snowflakes are cute.”

“Oh wow, I can teach kids to cut paper, I’m basically Mr. Rogers,” you scoffed.

“No, hey, they love you,” he assured.  “You’re there for them.  You’re nice to them.  That goes a long way with these kids.”

You smiled a little as you realized he was right, although it broke your heart that so little would mean so much to these children.  “Yeah,” you nodded.  “Thanks.”

As you went back to the crafts table hoping they hadn’t broken into the glitter and made a huge mess, you watched Ari dash outside, scooping up a kid into his arms and carrying him for a moment.  You smiled to yourself— maybe it was just because of the conversation you’d had with the kids earlier, but you couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if that was your child with him, how incredible of a dad he would be.  And apparently he thought you had some talent in that area as well, which was comforting.  Sure, it was a little soon to be worrying about that… but maybe it wasn’t too early to secretly fantasize about it.

[wanderingchocolateeclair]

How about how the top five kinda acts like a family? I’ve kinda seen them as such and noticed one of your previous drawing was like that. What little things do they appreciate about each other? Or tiny things they do for each other.

Ahhh! Thank you for providing me with something to ramble about!

Honestly I just think that they would just get up to some really troublesome stuff together, whilst still doing an amazing job at being heroes. I’ll write some random headcanons about them in a moment but I think I’ll just give like some little points about the others from each of their own perspectives first? (None of this is in a particular order by the way)

Endeavour -

Well he’s.....himself?? Believes that the other four are just annoying “kids” that pester him for no reason, doesn’t enjoy their pranks and mischievous antics however always manages to get roped into them (most of the time by Hawks and Miruko)

To him, Miruko and Hawks are the annoying kids who always manage to challenge him into doing stupid things, Jeanist is the bothersome pest who has a really annoying way of turning whatever he says into a cheeky insult whilst still managing to have more common sense than the other two, and Edgeshot is just that really mysterious guy that he’s slightly wary of yet can tolerate more than the others because he can be kinda scary sometimes.

Despite this he does recognise that all of them are incredibly strong individuals who all really do take their jobs as heroes rather seriously.

Hawks -

Oh boy he loves pestering Endeavour. Miruko is the only one who will straight up join him in doing so, closely followed by the useless “supervision” of Edgeshot and Jeanist.

Obviously he really looks up to Endeavour and that’s kinda obvious, Miruko is the “fun one” in his own words as they make the most chaotic duo out of the whole of them, and actually he sees the other two as two kinda fatherly figures in a way, being two people that he’s probably known from a young age and he knows they’ll give him serious advice when he needs it - although most of the time he’ll just say that “they suck the fun out of everything”.

On the other side of things though, he does know that if he ever has an issue that he’s unsure of how to handle, or he’s feeling bad about something, he can go to any of them to ask for advice, talk or even just a hug. Because they understand.

Miruko -

Ah yes. She will never pass up an opportunity to pester one of the older heroes with Hawks. It’s way too much fun.

In her eyes, Endeavour is just a competitive fiery flamethrower who will sometimes actually say something that makes sense, Hawks is the one she can do anything stupid with who occasionally supplies her with new challenges, she finds Jeanist a little annoying in the way he words things but knows that he’s always willing to join her in sassing the hell out of Endeavor, and she will not hesitate to tease Edgeshot about whatever she can - probably the only one out of the lot of them that isn’t at all fazed by his death glare.

She sees them all as a group of chaotic adults that will happily provide her with whatever support she needs in return for her keeping an eye out for them whenever she can.

Jeanist -

He really enjoys making whatever cheeky remarks he can to annoy Endeavour. But does know when not to tag along with the other two in some of their more stupid ideas. And will no doubt comment about one of their choices in clothing about two times a day at least.

He sees Endeavour as a cranky old man who needs to lighten his temper and his manners quite a bit but does hold respect in the fact that he is older and still a very powerful hero, Hawks is basically “his child” and he knows that despite how childish he may be at times he still does know how to make his own fairly reasonable desicions, he acknowledges how strong Miruko is and is kinda terrified about getting on her bad side - but still knows she comes up with some stupid ideas with Hawks and joins in with them for the fun of it, and well Edgeshot is the only one who he’ll listen to when it comes to doing anything stupid because that man can be really scary when he wants to be.

But really he knows that each and every one of them will be there for him to lean on as a support on those days where he needs it, and he’ll always provide help for any of them when they need it.

Edgeshot -

He has to babysit 4 grown adults...but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t actually enjoy the chaos. Occasionally he’ll help out with the stupid ideas, but only when he knows it isn’t a dangerous idea. Most of the time he’ll just stand by watching it happen.

From his point of view, Endeavor is a strong hero that acts like stroppy child with bad manners most of the time but he never really tries to do anything to annoy the older man - that’s the others’ job, Hawks and Miruko are the troublesome kids who always manage to come up with ideas that are so stupid yet something that he actually really wants to know the outcome of, and Jeanist is a man of many talents but incredibly unable to keep any of his secretly stupid ideas hidden from him (and he is the only person out of the lot of them that somehow actually find Jeanist’s stupid puns funny - he won’t admit it though).

Aside from all this, he is very aware that these people will stand with him to protect whatever they must, he trusts these people with his life as he hopes they would do the same in return.

Some random headcanons:

They will have regular meet-ups outside of work at one of their agencies where they just chill out and chat. These are usually at rather random times of day.

These meet-ups usually consist of hours of Hawks and Miruko doing something very stupid and Edge preventing Jeanist from winding endeavour up to the point that the building burns down.

Sometimes, it’ll end up just being a whole day where they catch up on all the sleep they’ve missed and end up basically having a massive slumber party in the middle of their office. Until one of them notices the time and they have to dart off to their individual patrols.

Jeanist has somehow managed to persuade endeavour to let him do his hair...twice, and Edgeshot has it all on camera.

This led to a series of makeover sessions where Hawks and Jeanist made Endeavour wear neon yellow eyeliner, Miruko suddenly had pink hair and Edgeshot spent the whole day in pigtails (much to his dismay)

They treat Hawks as the baby - literally will do anything for him - but tease him with stuff like “oh it’s way past your bedtime Hawks” or “sorry Hawks you’re too young to do that well tell you when you’re older” and he HATES it.

They all gather gossip from their interns and sidekicks over the week and end up having competitions to see who has the most shocking news.

So far Edgeshot and Jeanist are tied with first place.

They are also completely fine with showing the other 3 their faces so they are fully aware of how they look like.

Most of the time these meet-ups will be fairly chaotic and cheerful, but on the occasion it may not be.

Being a hero comes with the knowledge that you cannot save everybody. And they all know this. And so when these moments happen and they feel as if they need a break, these are the best times for them to come to terms with what happened on maybe a patrol that evening, or a mission that didn’t end well.

Because they understand each other completely, and know what that feeling is like.

These meet-ups normally just consist of a lot of silent discussions, hugs and often tears.

Where they all get together to comfort the one who needs it the most. Putting their plans on hold for them and listening to their troubles.

Because even Endeavour would feel bad refusing to console a Jeanist who was distraught over being “too weak” to save a single person who was in a completely different location than himself.

Or a timid Edgeshot who’s past was hovering over his mind more than usual, preventing him from focusing properly on his evening patrol.

Or a gloomy Hawks who feels as if his decisions are always wrong and feels like he can’t do anything right.

Or even a stressed out Miruko who feels as though she did a bad job at saving someone just because they were disrespectful towards her “careless” methods.

And of course they all are aware of the heavy expectations of being number 1, and know that truly this unusually silent Endeavour is human just like themselves and will feel just as anyone else would.

Even top heroes need to have these moments where they can break down in front of the people they trust, in order to keep their own sanity from crumbling apart.

And really that’s what they all collectively like the most about their little “family”.

Between all the fun and chaos.

It’s the ability for them all to lean on each other at times when they need it the most, and they definitely feel that’s a good thing.

Wooh!! There you go! A nice long list of headcanons of my favourite lil group of chaotic characters.

Sorry for getting a little sad at the end there, but if you know me by now I’m pretty sure it’s obvious that a ramble written by me wouldn’t be complete without it lol

Thanks again for the ask @ohpleaseiwillendyou it really gave me some happy things to think about and really cheered me up, which is exactly what I needed right now aha.

Please feel free to send me asks or suggestions to write about! I’m currently quite motivation-less and I really need things to ramble about to make me feel better :)

~Eclair

[gelo-p]

Cycling Seasons, Fresh Skies: Memories

I knew from a long time ago that if I’d ever go for a T10, this would be it. When the event was finally getting closer, early estimates told me I was 900 flames short; I’d have to buy stars for this event.

(WARNING: A rather image-heavy post)

Perhaps the moment I honestly considered T10 instead of settling for T100.

Definitely the moment I knew there was no turning back. :)))

Believe me, this was not the only purchase I made for this event.

I needed a better Challenge Live team, so I knew getting a 4* Happy Ran is required, to complete my Happy Afterglow team. I’ve never gotten any 4* Ran before, so thank god the 4* Exchange Ticket had the perfect timing.

“WAIT. YOU WERE USING A HAPPY TEAM ALL THIS TIME???”

Yep. ^^ Well, my Multi Live team was Powerful Afterglow-based, but had only 2 4-stars, sooo I knew it wouldn’t cut it.

There she is <3

I’ve always stopped at Skill Level 4, but I really had to pull out all the stops. Ran is my first Skill Level 5 member. ^^ (everyone in my CL team also received the level 5 upgrade)

Alright, let’s do this! Hey Hey Hoh~!

The event has finally begun! I initially found it amusing seeing all sorts of titles being shown off. This one in particular stood out to me. XD

(Looking back, that Sinz person would later turn out to be a serious T10 contender. I think they changed their name to Pyokun after some time)

Here’s a screenshot of a rare T5 GeLö-P. I really wanted to share this with you guys, but I figured I’d jinx myself by revealing publicly what I was trying to do. :>

(I will doubt the existence of God Almighty, but believe in being jinxed. Life is weird sometimes.)

Well, that’s the Grand Room for ya’. Meta songs all the way~

How do you even react to that?

With this. :)))

NEXT YOU’LL SAY FUEEEEE

Home Street...

Home Street.......

HEY HEY HOH~! 

The moment I ran out of large energy drinks, and had to start spending stars. </3 Small energy drinks were still reserved for moments I can afford to wait out the 30-minute refill timer.

The 5 Horsemen of the Apocalypse

My first time doing the “recover waaaaay more than 10 flames” thing

Huhehe huhehe huhehe...

I too would like some of those Afterglow pins. T_T

Baby Shak my as-

Aaaand we have a dodger, ladies and gentlemen. XD

I think this guy needs to be banned.

Home Street? Pssh, that was so yesterday. Jumpin’ is the shit now.

Ganbatte, P5.

Himari~

My 2nd encounter with Ghostkillers (who later become T12..?). He chose Senbonzakura the first time, so when he did it again, I thought I’d save it for posterity. ^^

The “I too would like to live dangerously” gang 8-)

The first time I switched away from my dua T100 titles. I figured I’d stop trying to “scare” the competition.

First time tracking T10 scores. This would later prove to be very useful in seeing if my projection will hold (although I shifted to tracking T3 - T12).

Taking a break, so I watched ads for free flames. :)))))

Moca, Ran, GeLö-P, and a weird name. Huh. Okay.

Kyu~Mai * Flower was released! Played this one on Hard.

...this one I played on Expert...

...and thank fuck I got it first try, because oh boy I’m not playing that beat map again. >_<

“Ban me if you can” ?? Why??

Aaaaand this motherfucker right here was cheating and inflating his score. I personally reported him to the game admins over on twitter, and they’ve informed me that they were already aware of this idiot. Saw him just once more after this.

Yes. That’s 91 million, 798 thousand, 346.

I actually encountered them once before this, but didn’t notice anything off about their score (was already dazed at that time). And then a discussion started over at reddit, so when I met him again, I took screenshots.

Ganbatte :))

Had time for a quick hey hey hoh spam ^^

Which day was this..? Anyway I came up with my brilliant pun. Read the comment, see if you can figure it out. :3

MocaRan and YukiLisa. Sigh. I don’t think we can be friends, P5.

:)))

Told you, Ghostkillers only pick Senbonzakura XD

Tomoe’s Birthday! ^^

Even the game won’t let you have a GF, P5. XD

HEATHCLIFF STOP PICKING BABY SHARK

(almost sure they’re famous in the competitive scene... I don’t know them tho LOL)

I woke up one morning to find there was no internet.

FUCK ME

I knew mobile data was going to result to multiple disconnects, but thank fuck I had lots of challenge points to spare. I passed the time productively, and by the time I was done, internet was back. Whew.

Rank update: currently T8. ^^

More of Ghostkillers x Senbonzakura and JFC that name tho P2

Shitpost comment XD

First time seeing 2 other T10 contenders in the same room: Itsuki and Ghostkillers.

Probably the point where I started spamming Tokimeki Poporon instead of Home Street.

Also there’s a looot of interesting names in Bandori.

As a YukiRan / MocaLisa shipper (well more of SayoLisa nowadays), it is my job to destroy players 1, 3, and 5. >:(

Wallet: IT’S NOT POSSIBLE

Me: NO, IT’S NECESSARY

...aaaaaand I immediately threw away 10k stars hoping for Megane Ran, but got shit. (This would later force me to make 2 more purchases XD Seriously though, I could have saved a lot of money with a better star purchase plan)

I got Loli Rinko tho. <3

Which day was this...? I think this was the moment I knew Ghostkillers has given up. I was laughing my ass off reading the comments. I think everyone of us was half-dead at this point. XD

And so we’re down to the final 11.

I’ve started considering the possibility at this point that I might be the final one to bow out.

OMG I CAN’T SEE PLAYER 2

BUSHIDO~!

I was feeling the despair at this point, and thus started singing Komm Susser Tod

I do mini-sprints in the morning, so I’m T6 here. I usually fall back down to ~T9 in the afternoon.

I usually level up once per event. I started this event from Rank 193. :)))

(well it was technically 192, but I was like 2 games away from leveling up)

XD

There are no experts in this room :v

Jumpin = NO FEVER, but picks meta song anyway. Okay. :v

Hey! All Random!

Game: DID SOMEONE ASK FOR A META SONG

I have a lot of friend requests at this point (probably from people seeing me on the T10 list), but I don’t have enough space to accept them all :((

Bread-themed profile!

Poppin’ Party, Puff n’ Pastry... get it?

Itsuki started spamming BOF at this point.

Doki doki~

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME~ ♪ ♫

P1 is an IRL friend :))) I’d later tease her about how slow she is picking songs LOL

Some Initial D reference for overtaking :P Of course I was badly falling behind at this point (T9 is hella dangerous), but I had no choice but to continue to believe in the math (and that early overtaking is a bad choice).

“Early moves lets your opponents recover from mental shock.” - Ryosuke Takahashi, Initial D 3rd Stage

No seriously, that’s exactly what I was thinking of. And also “Not yet, not yet, now” from Ford v Ferrari.

P1 & P5 get married already...

FINAL NIGHT.

I’m down to T11, and everybody else already did 2.3M-sprints some hours earlier, and have considerably slowed down.

I, on the other, was about to go to sleep. Yes, I, the current T11, was about to let the others pull away. All I could do was believe in the Math at that point, because let me tell you-

I had 105k challenge points left. That’s 3.4M event points I had yet to sprint.

This was during the final morning, 9 hours before event ended. When I woke up that morning, my heart was pounding like crazy. What if everybody has pulled ahead?

When I finally checked, most of the T10′s were still in the 17M-range. Itsuki was on T10, and he was only 500k away. I knew at that point that my chances were pretty good; however, I shut up about it, set my comment to “Now Playing: Running in the 90′s”, and got to work.

There was nothing else I could to but consume all the CP I had left. No more tracking. A literal 5-hour non-stop sprint to 19.2M points. If they can still catch up even after they’ve already expended their CP yesterday, then maybe I don’t deserve this T10 after all.

All I need to do was beat one of them. It was me or them.

Holy shi-

I wasn’t out of the woods yet, had to make sure at least one of them didn’t overtake me. Of course that was more up to them, since I didn’t have any strength left (my thumb stopped working at that point, no seriously, it’s still not working properly even today). I also didn’t have any significant stars left.

I managed to sneak in a few songs, but that was it. I was done. The others managed to close the gap, but I stayed in T6.

And then the event was over.

I fucking did it.

------

I would later learn that this was the bloodiest (Challenge Live) event in the history of ENdori. In one redditor’s words, I “ ...sure picked a hell of a time to go for it.”

I had no choice. This is Megane Ran we’re talking about. <3

I had some idea tbh, because I managed to read a tweet in the middle of the event, that “this was one lit T10″. Apparently we were on track to beat the previous record-holder, which was Sayo’s Umbrella event.

I’m... really glad to have been part of this event. I feel so darn proud of myself. >:3

But I couldn’t have done it without the help of the Grand Room. Seriously, I only played in the Grand Room.

Remember this?

I don’t have (competitive) friends. :))) So thank you, all. *bow*

I’d like to thank IRL-friend otearaisu over at twitter for putting up with my excessive score projection updates. XD I have a really detailed excel sheet to check if I was on track or not, and whenever there were developments, I’d always tell him about it, even in the dead of the night. XD

------

Would I ever do this again? Probably not. This was the only event that I knew I really wanted to go for, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Maybe I’ll get a couple of T100′s in the future, but that’s it. ^^

See you in the lobby~

[unpromptedreviews]

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Rating: 3.9/5.0 stars

Okay, so i'm not usually a fan of real-life/modern romance novels (or whatever people call that specific genre). i'm more of the ya/fantasy/romance kinda gal. it's actually only recently that I've started to appreciate the romance category, and i've been on a streak of modern rom-com novels with cute tropes.

I saw the synopsis of this book, and i was intrigued enough to start reading it. I usually don't like modern stories with heavy drama (honestly, feels too much like real life when books for me are supposed to be an escape from my life. yes, I'm self-aware like that. it's an escapism i'm gladly subjecting myself to) I was totally expecting the storyline to be very angsty. I mean, what else can you expect a story about trying to fix a failing relationship. To an extent, maybe a little dash of comedy in between the angst but first impression from the synopsis is for tis book to be an angsty ride. I'm glad to say that I was kinda (?) wrong.

You Deserve Each Other is really fun and breezy. It was honestly such a fast read that I finished it in more or less 3 hours. If you want to read the synopsis of the book, here's the goodreads link. But basically, the story is about a couple, Naomi and Nicholas, who were engaged to be married in a few months. So we find out early into the story that Naomi is not anymore happy with their relationship, and she's basically just sucking it up because she's poor and she doesn't want to pay for the wedding expenses they already paid out. But then one night, she realized that Nicholas is also actually not happy anymore with their relationship. So what ensues is this series of hijinks from both Naomi and Nicholas, trying to one up each other in order to get the other to call off the wedding.

So I really liked the book, but since this book isn't really that far off from a standard but quality Rom-Com read, everybody who picks this up will more or less know the good things to expect from this (hilarious hijinks, some good amount of "should I or should I not" angst from the main character, and tooth-achingly sweet romantic revelations). 

Which is why for this review I want to focus more on discussing the things that did not sit well with me (the following paragraphs will contain spoilers, so get out of here if you don’t want that):

1. how it tackled mental health issues

i just think there's something deeper with the issues Naomi's dealing with (like how she feels very insignificant compared to Nicholas, how she always felt like his comments are meant to attack and hurt her, how for the longest time she was basically - quoting Nick - a lifeless doll, repressing all her emotions and unease). frankly, i think the whole novel would have been more meaningful if Naomi, or even Nicholas with his own issues regarding his mom, acknowledged that they're dealing with possibly serious mental health issues. I'm not a psychiatrist, and I'm certainly not saying that they should be diagnosed, but personally I think the story would have been richer if the author probed deeper and spent maybe a chapter or two focused on this. Maybe try to get a sense also of how their own personal issues led to the downfall of their relationship, and how they could get back up again. I just felt like it skirted (?) around it, instead of facing it head on - I don't know if it was a conscious decision from the author, or if it's something that she really did not mean to put in the book, but I honestly think this is the biggest element that was missing from the whole story, which would have made their conflict as a couple more impactful.

2. over the top mother-in-law trope

maybe this is just a personal preference, but i really don't like stories where the mother-in-law (or in this case future mother-in-law) is painted out to be this comically evil person who's strongly opposed to the person their child is trying to be with.  I'm not saying that Naomi should go swimmingly with Mrs. Rose, but I just kinda felt like most of the blame of their relationship falling apart was blamed on Nicholas's mother being a literal evil incarnate (spoiler: to the point that she even drives her devoted son away). To be honest, i think a part of this is because, as mentioned in the first point, the individual issues that Naomi and Nicholas on their own weren't explored well enough to acknowledge that a big part of their falling-out was due to those, and maybe was further nudged by the stinky personality of Nicholas's family. If maybe the evil mother-in-law trope was toned down a little, and Mrs. Rose was painted more to be a mother who really just wants the best for their child (which she does not ok. she's equally abusive to Nicholas, so I don't accept that reasoning) maybe MAYBE this trope would have sit better with me.

3. the conflict could have been resolved sooner if they just talked

Look. i know that normal people, especially couples, have communication problems. And I'm not invalidating the struggles of people with communication problems (and i don't mean this in the literal sense, guys let's not be assholes). But one thing I always do when I'm reading a book or watching a show and the main conflict is presented, is to ask myself this question: Can this problem be resolved by the characters talking to each other?

If the answer is yes, then I think the conflict is weak. I don't know if this is a result of my background as a largely YA/Fantasy reader, but I just think conflicts should be layered. I absolutely LOVE it if the conflict in the book/movie/series is presented and i immediately think "oh shit, this character is screwed" - because this means the conflict is not something that can be easily solved by anyone, and the struggle that the character is facing is more layered, which would mean a more interesting journey for them.

So, I asked myself THIS question a few chapters into the book, and my answer is a resounding YES. Naomi and Nicholas could have sat down and talked in the first chapter and everything would have been resolved. Their MAIN (maybe only?) problem is actually not saying what they want to say - and SPOILER that was actually how they saved their relationship (big surprise there). IF the author delved deeper in their personal issues (as mentioned in #1), then I think the problem would have been more layered. If Naomi and Nicholas acknowledged that they have personal issues outside of their relationship, which then they would need to figure out first for themselves before sitting down and talking out their relationship, THEN THAT would again make for a richer story, than a couple who just fell out of love just because they didn't communicate well. But that's exactly what happened. The characters didn't have to face and solve anything outside of their relationship for them to be able to save it. It was - to a point - very frustrating to read Naomi misunderstand Nicholas's acts as an attack to her rather than what it is, him trying to save their relationship. And it's almost (again frustratingly) magical how everything became smooth-sailing once they communicated with each other.

So despite the three points I raised above, I still think "You Deserve Each Other" by Sarah Hogle deserved 3.9 stars because even if the conflict is not as layered as I would have liked it to be, the author still presents a beautiful story about a relatable couple who managed to find their way back to each other. If Naomi and Nicholas, who are as broken as they come, can regain their love, who's to say other people can't?

Book Review by fraille

[immortal-imagines]

Feelings (Henry Cavill Series - Part 2)

Summary: After working together on a romantic movie, (Y/N) and Henry realise they have feelings for each other. The press and fans are obsessed with their ‘friendship’, rumouring that the pair are dating. (Y/N) and Henry deny this to the public, but when they’re in private, it’s a different story.

Part 1 (Panic), Part 3 (Sunny (End))

(Henry Cavill x Reader)

Warnings: Mild swearing

Word Count: 1,441

Requested by: Anon

A/N: Part 2, sort of, of this little Henry Cavill series. I’m calling it part 2 because I’m using the same storyline as in Panic, which I will link below. I’ve given a little bit of backstory in this one, so if you haven’t read Panic, it will still all make sense. Take it as a one-shot or a series, however you’d like to read it! I hope you enjoy these!

After spending everyday together on set, (Y/N) and Henry had grown close. It was a big romantic movie, so it was no surprise that feelings may develop. They had spent the best part of a year working side by side, training, acting and rehearsing together. When the film finally finished, it was almost a relief, as it had been a lot of work, but it was bittersweet. The pair were used to spending time together and now that was over. Henry had grown utterly infatuated by (Y/N) and what had started out as a small attraction had sprung into much more serious feelings. (Y/N) had always had a crush on Henry from the off-set. They had worked together on The Tudors, but not in as close quarters as this, and she’d like him ever since.

They flirted casually with each other throughout filming, but never taken it any further than that. The press was obsessed with their friendship and every interview seemed to have a question about whether they were together or not.

The press tour was fully underway, so these kinds of questions were unavoidable. Their next interview was a big one. (Y/N) and Henry were going to be on Jimmy Fallon. Both had been on his show before for other films, but never together. (Y/N) had her outfit picked out, a purple dress with silver boots, as purple was Henry’s favourite colour. Although she’d never told him how she felt, out of fear he wouldn’t say he liked her back, she still wanted to impress him. When he saw her in her dress, his mouth fell open. “Wow,” he breathed, “You look incredible.”

“Snap,” (Y/N) chuckled, looking at Henry’s outfit. He wore a dark purple suit.

“Oh, shit, I guess we should have discussed that beforehand,” he laughed, “The press is going to have a field day!”

(Y/N) smirked, “Then let’s give them something to talk about.” She took his hand in hers, just as Jimmy announced their names. They walked out, to the audience cheering and clapping. Jimmy noticed the hand holding instantly and raised his eyebrows. He held his arms out to hug them both and then they took their seats.

“(Y/N), Henry, it’s great to have you on the show!” Jimmy said, “Now, I have to ask. The matching outfits, the hand holding. Please tell us, are you two together?”

(Y/N) laughed and rolled her eyes, “Just friends, Jimmy.”

“And the matching colours are purely coincidence,” Henry added.

“Working on a film like we did with our characters being so close and spending everyday together, there are bound to be rumours. But, if anything, it’s just made our friendship stronger,” (Y/N) explained. Even as she was saying the words, she knew it wasn’t true. Working with Henry had made her feelings for him stronger, but she couldn’t announce that on live television.

“Sure,” Jimmy nodded, winking, and the audience laughed. “I just saw the film and I have to say you two are fantastic. The chemistry between you is incredible!” The audience cheered.

“Thank you,” Henry said, “It’s great working with such an incredible co-star and an incredible cast. They’re all such wonderful people and made us feel so comfortable.”

“Now, I won’t give too much away, as the film isn’t quite out yet, but there is a rather steamy scene involving a bath tub,” Jimmy raised his eyebrows, “What was it like filming that? Was it awkward at all?”

(Y/N) laughed, remembering the complete meltdown she’d had just before filming that scene for the first time. “In all honesty, Jimmy, it was terrifying. I had to sit in a bathtub with this beautiful man,” she gestured to Henry and the audience whooped, “And it was all a little intimidating! We got used to each other after a while and become comfortable around each other, so it was okay eventually.”

“You were intimidated?” Henry laughed, “Have you seen this girl?” He turned to the audience, “Not only is she stunning, but she’s an incredible actress and I feel extremely lucky to have worked with her.”

Jimmy laughed, “Well, it seems like an amazing friendship has come out of this, if not anything else.” He turned to the camera, “My Beautiful Sun is out in theatres July 20th. Make sure you check it out! (Y/N) (Y/L/N) and Henry Cavill everybody!”

You made your way back to your dressing room, relieved to be away from the cameras for a moment. It was exhausting, constantly being in the public eye, but you wouldn’t change it for anything. you loved your job, but it was nice to get a quiet moment once in a while. You removed your heels and flopped on the sofa in the dressing room. You had barely closed your eyes for a second, before you felt yourself drifting off.

You were woken by a knock at the door and then Henry tapping you on the shoulder. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty,” he teased, “It’s time to go back to the hotel.”

You squinted, looking up at him. He had changed out of his suit and was now in a baggy t-shirt and joggers. At least, the shirt would have been baggy if he hadn’t filled it out so well. No, you thought, if you didn’t have the balls to tell him how you feel, then you couldn’t think like that. Not when he was right in front of you anyway.

Henry left you to get changed, then returned a few minutes later with a couple of bodyguards to take you to the car.

Fans were screaming and shouting your name as you left the building. Cameras flashed and paparazzi told you to look their way. You waved and smiled as you walked, but didn’t stop. You felt bad for the fans who had waited to see you, but if you said hello to one of them, then you had to speak to all of them and you didn’t have time for that. Plus, there would be press there asking questions you were too tired to answer right at that moment.

Henry followed you to the car, his hand on the small of your back. You liked it when he did that. It made you feel protected, even though you had bodyguards whose literal job was to do that.

“Can I come hang out in your room for a bit?” Henry asked when you got back to the hotel.

“Sure,” you said. You both didn’t have another interview for a few hours, so it would be nice to spend some time together when no one would be watching. Even if you just sat in silence, the company was comforting.

You got into the room and almost ran to the bed, jumping onto it. “Ugh,” you sighed, face down in the pillow. Henry laughed, “I know, long day.” He sat on the corner of the bed and took off his shoes, before lying down next to you. He turned his head to face you and you moved to look at him. Your faces were so close, you were practically touching. “You handled that interview very well, (Y/N),” he complimented and your heart jumped when he said your name.

“You too,” you smiled. There was a pause, but it didn’t feel awkward. It felt natural, nice almost.

Then, Henry said, “Did you mean what you said when you told Jimmy you thought I was intimidating? I know we joke around a lot, but do you actually think I’m, in your words, a beautiful mad?” He chuckled at the phrase.

You blushed, not quite wanting to meet his eyes, when you asked, “Did you mean it when you said I was stunning?”

“Of course, I did,” he said. He reached a hand up and moved a piece of hair from her eyes. “From the day I met you, (Y/N), I thought you were the prettiest girl in the room.”

“That’s a lie because the day I met you was on The Tudors and Natalie Dormer was in that room. No one is prettier than her,” you laughed.

Henry shook his head. “You were the only one I was looking at.”

Your heart began to beat so quickly that you swore Henry would be able to hear it. He leaned in and pressed his lips to yours. You’d kissed before for the movie, but this was different. Then, you had been playing characters. Now, this was real. He pulled away and you opened your eyes, to meet his.

“Can I take you on a date, (Y/N)?” he asked.

You couldn’t help but beam, when you said, “Took you long enough to ask.”

[tegertons]

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Well gosh you may feel a bit disappointed. It's likewise the reason so numerous iDevices are sold on the very first day, because there's a minimal supply and you'll be one of the choose couple of that has it. Let's see how we might make this work. As an affiliate you have restricted result on the exclusivity of the product you're promoting. You can create your own. You can add service, reward, or value to the deal that IS in limited unique supply. No one else will get this valuable reward offer but you, my valued subscriber. Geminii Review:. Geminii has been created to provide HUGE worth on the front end and will give any rookie access to the 3 essential tools that EVERYONE needs when they begin their online service. These 3 essential tools are likewise consisted of in the ONE TIME ONLY rate that would otherwise cost you private monthly costs. The apps include:. - Simple cloud based autoresponder to permit users to get started with the hugely profitable e-mail marketing organisation model. Functions include the ability to upload their customer lists via.csv, send unrestricted email newsletters. - The Geminii email marketing tool box; Increase your click rates utilizing Timers, Shortage Bars and Purchase Buttons "Inside" your e-mails. - Capture page creator with 2 personalized templates completely hosted by us with the option to download all leads created. - Training by zeeshan will reveal you how each private app works and Jono will show you how all of the apps fit together and how to begin driving traffic to your pages using Bing ads. - Premium List Structure Profit Tools WITHOUT Monthly Expenses - Conserve $1000s per year. - Optimize Your Email Profits & Conversions - With no copywriting skills. - Your Own On-Demand Traffic Source - For unrestricted profit potential. - Easily Start & Grow Lists In Any Niche From Scratch - 100% newbie friendly. - Automate & Scale Your Earnings - The very best passive earnings method on earth. - Develop Potentially Life-Changing Income In Minutes Per Day - Simply by sending an e-mail.

[kosmopolis10]

What is an Autoresponder and do I need one for My company? The 2nd Do I need to consider Email Marketing?

Having actually a targeted email list and using efficient email marketing is like owning a individual bank device ... but only as long as you do it right. The majority of people do not. It  is very important to keep in mind, that I've run email campaigns that have created thousands in commissions, and I've sent out e-mails that failed to produce a single cent. While it's not always foreseeable, there are things I  have actually found out throughout the years that can produce more consistency between the 2. Now assuming you've done the groundwork and matched your offer to the list, there are particular methods you can do to increase your sales from each e-mail. It's of course difficult to talk to each person individually. While they get the email directly to their inbox and read it as if you sent it to a single person, you really might be speaking to 10s or perhaps numerous thousands of people at once. The technique here is that all of us have standard characteristics that you ought to be "speaking" to. Use these and watch your outcomes soar. A while back I surveyed one of my lists and the following are principles I  have actually pulled from the specific words used by genuine paying clients. Save Time: Most of us get a lot of e-mail, and it's safe to presume we have extremely busy lives. The technique here is that we all MAKE time for the things we want. (like possibly your marketing offer!). Here's how to use this sentiment. Before sending your next promo, ask yourself ... Does the deal saves your client precious time? , if so you ought to absolutely explain how it does. . " Do you squander hours, on x, y, and z? Would you rather hang around on (list more interesting things). Here's an offer that saves you time by doing this, and letting you do (the more intriguing things).". Solve a Issue:. Frustration is a huge incentive! Knowing your audiences most significant issues, and disappointments is the key to increasing your sales. If you can legitimately offer a option to help them solve a big issue, it's an easy sale. Your only job then is to clearly describe and let them understand how it does that. Integrate it with the time technique above you have serious sales firepower. " Are you wasting your time trying to fix this discouraging and huge problem? Envision just how much simpler your day would be if that problem was gone. The great feature of this (insert product) is the hours of time it conserves and how it resolves xyz issue by doing this this and this. Here's where you get can it now ...". Entertain:. How numerous individuals take a seat each night and see TV for a minimum of an hour? Think of all the numerous ways, and billions of dollars invested in home entertainment. It ought to be apparent that we like a little enjoyment and variety in life. Ensure your emails not only discuss the product, however they are entertaining and interesting at the very same time. Tell stories, and paint photos. If you can save time, fix a problem, and be amusing or funny in the procedure. Well golly gee you're going to be wealthy and popular at the exact same time! " Bahhh, Bahhh ... The animals shuffled in line, one by one. What a frustrating zoo this day has actually been. Today I was standing in line at the cafe. I felt rather silly just waiting there, and began to fantasize. When I unexpectedly pictured everyone bleating aloud like sheep. I almost lost it chuckling in the middle of Starbucks. Can you imagine me, the crazy man in line simply busting out laughing. Maybe I actually was crazy. Who wishes to stand around like sheep losing valuable time, for an overpriced cup of joe. So back in the house on the computer, and rightfully sulking I got to thinking. There's got to be a better method. After one clever Facebook post about the encounter and hours of feline videos later ... Bingo ... I stumbled onto this ... (affiliate link). This remarkable machine makes real Starbucks coffee right there on your countertop. Get this ... it does it in 10 seconds at the push of a button. What a relief. I ran to the store and bought it on the area. Think which line I WON'T remain in tomorrow. And waste time in line for a simple coffee than I extremely advise this very awesome immediate coffee maker if you do not want to pay too much. You do not even have to leave the house to buy it. You can get it right here online ... ( link). Now you've got more time for cat videos like me! Bahhh bye in the meantime!". Got it? Funny, story, amusing, save time, fix problem ... instantaneous sale! Talk to Feelings:. Okay, I snuck this one in there on the previous example. Unless you're a cyborg or something, you probably have experienced more than your share of emotions in a life time. Guess what? They work great in story informing, and sales. In the above story, I felt frustrated, silly, and laugh aloud happy, and lastly relief. Frequently time ours problems occur with extremely specific feelings. Anger, disappointment, sadness, and so on. With those problems resolved, we experience the opposite. Happy, relieved, satisfied. Bear in mind when you feel these things. Incorporate them into your marketing. Be happy when you get paid from all your email sales. Produce Exclusivity:. Someplace deep within us is a 5 year old joking sticking out their tongue and saying "na na I got this and you donnnnn' t". It's some sort of difficult coded sensation that we wish to be special distinct flowers of exclusivity. Envision you see an fantastic product of clothing at the shop, purchase it, and are delighted. Then the next day you are standing in line for coffee (see what I did there hahaha) ... and literally EVERY single person in line was wearing the same thing. Well gosh you might feel a bit dissatisfied. It's likewise the factor so many iDevices are sold on the first day, because there's a minimal supply and you'll be one of the choose couple of that has it. So let's see how we may make this work. As an affiliate you have restricted impact on the exclusivity of the product you're promoting. BUT you can create your own. You can include worth, bonus, or service to the deal that Remains In restricted unique supply. No one else will get this valuable benefit offer however you, my valued subscriber. Geminii Review:. Geminii has actually been created to offer HUGE value on the front end and will offer any newbie access to the 3 essential tools that EVERYBODY requires when they begin their online business. These 3 necessary tools are also included in the ONE TIME ONLY cost that would otherwise cost you private month-to-month fees. The apps include:. - Simple cloud based autoresponder to enable users to get started with the extremely rewarding email marketing service model. Functions include the ability to publish their consumer lists via.csv, send out unlimited e-mail newsletters. - The Geminii e-mail marketing tool box; Increase your click rates utilizing Timers, Shortage Bars and Purchase Buttons "Inside" your e-mails. - Capture page developer with 2 personalized design templates completely hosted by us with the choice to download all leads produced. - Training by zeeshan will reveal you how each individual app works and Jono will reveal you how all of the apps fit together and how to begin driving traffic to your pages using Bing ads. - Premium List Building Revenue Tools WITHOUT Monthly Expenses - Conserve $1000s per year. - Maximize Your Email Profits & Conversions - With no copywriting skills. - Your Own On-Demand Traffic Source - For endless earnings capacity. - Easily Start & Grow Lists In Any Specific Niche From Scratch - 100% beginner friendly. - Automate & Scale Your Earnings - The very best passive revenue method in the world. - Develop Potentially Life-Changing Income In Minutes Per Day - Just by sending out an e-mail.

[ireviewstuffsometimes]

A Serious Man (2009) 1/4/20

Starring Michael Stuhlbarg and written & directed by the Coen brothers, this multi-award winning “drama/comedy-drama” (according to google...), was quite odd to say the absolute least.

Now, I won’t fool you–although I doubt you would be fooled–, but I am certainly not a professional reviewer of anything. I’m certain you’d like to know more background, or at least know how much background I know, but I’ll give you everything I can. I’m just doing this because I like consuming copious amounts of media and because I also really like giving my opinions on said media. It’s just nice to write them down sometimes, even when I know the general public won’t care. So anyways, on with the show.

To be fully honest with you, I chose this movie because I am obsessed with “Call Me By Your Name”, in which Michael Stuhlbarg plays Elio’s father. He did a fantastic job in that movie and I vaguely remembered hearing about the awards he won for his part in “A Serious Man”, so after stumbling upon it on Netflix while looking for movies to download before a two hour long car drive I had to make, I decided this was the one, and off I went.

The movie starts in the past, focusing on what I can only assume to be Larry Gopnik, the main character’s ancestors. After being visited by a supposed “dybbuk”, an evil possessing spirit in Jewish beliefs, the wife stabs an ice pick into the maybe-dybbuk’s heart and life carries on? I didn’t really understand what this meant. The best I can assume is that perhaps there is a curse on the family like the wife said at the beginning and that is what is conveyed? Anyways, time flips forward to the 1960s where we are brought into the life of the Gopniks, a Midwestern Jewish family who’s son is soon to be mitzvahed, daughter is desperate to wash her hair, father’s brother is desperate to drain his cyst, mother is seeing another man and looking for a divorce, and father is at the beginning of the end. 

The entire movie is filled to the brim with absolute randomness best described as controlled chaos. Or maybe not controlled, but semi-connected. The best thing I can tell you to do to understand this review is to go watch the film yourself. So many little details happen and they all wind up overlapping each other to make poor Larry’s life a living hell. Maybe he is in hell? But that’s not the point. 

The real point of the story, which, after a couple of hours, hit me like a pile of bricks, is that some things in life are left unanswered. The universe or God or HaShem–however you refer to it–doesn’t always give us exactly what we’re looking for. The movie, however, leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether these unanswered questions are a bad thing or a good thing. While this parable is literally said almost word for word in Larry’s meeting with the second rabbi, you don’t remember it for awhile after seeing the film because your immediate thoughts at the end are “what the hell? that’s it???”. It leaves you with so many unanswered questions that, because we’re so conditioned to movies ending with a solution to the character’s problems, for awhile, you’re just stuck wondering what could’ve possibly happened. So here’s a list of all my questions that are completely unanswered:

Does Larry have cancer? What was on the x-ray that the doctor needed to discuss? Does he ever make it to the doctor considering there’s a tornado coming? Speaking of tornado, does his son die in the tornado? Does Fagle die in the tornado? Does the old Hebrew school teacher ever find the right key to get the basement door open? Why the hell did anyone think that, in the event of a tornado warning, the best thing to do is have all the kids stand outside while the helpless old teacher slowly goes through each key, trying to unlock the basement door? Back to Larry though, does he get tenure? Who was sending the defaming letters to the committee? Was it in fact Sy Ableman? Do Larry and his wife still get a divorce? Does his daughter ever stop washing her hair? Why doesn’t his daughter have enough time for Hebrew school? Does his son learn to value his dad for anything other than fixing the aerial to ensure a clear viewing of The F Troop? Does Larry ever cancel the Columbia records subscription? Does Larry actually fuck his next door neighbor? Is Larry’s property line issue ever fixed after the one man dies of a heart attack? Does Larry still have to pay for that man’s services even though the man died? Does Larry’s brother Arthur actually get jail time? Was Arthur really committing sodomy? Is Arthur’s cyst really that bad? Does Larry end up taking the bribe from Clive? Does Rabbi Nachtner ever stop telling the story of the goy’s teeth? Was “help me” really ever written on the goy’s teeth? Why are some questions in life left unanswered and why are we just expected to accept this???

While this movie does pose a big question of whether it is better to spend life constantly searching for the answer to even the smallest of questions or to give up and try to forget about all those unanswerable questions, it doesn’t pose this question in a rude way, unlike other films that often dole out insults rather than advice. Was this my favorite movie ever? No. But I certainly understand why it won so many awards. It tricks the viewer into authentically struggling with the same questions as the main character and forces us to ask “is there an answer?”, automatically making us sympathize with Larry so much more when we realize that we are in his shoes. Everybody is selfish and when they consume media, they are only doing so in order to find a character that is a reflection of themselves. When somebody with at least some brains in their head watches this movie and begins to wonder if there is an answer just like Larry does, they immediately connect with a character in a way that they might not have been able to. 

I am not Jewish. I am not a man. I was not alive in the 60s. I have never experienced divorce, nor do I have children. I’m not a college physics professor seeking tenure, and I certainly don’t live in the Midwest. On all accounts, I am nothing like this character. Except, I am. We both want answers to the unanswerable and that is what makes us fundamentally the same and makes “A Serious Man” a seriously enjoyable film for all those who can’t stop asking questions that nobody knows the answer to and that many people don’t even think to ask. Verdict: 7 out of 10 promised hot soups.

[techmassagers-blog]

9 Things You Can Do to Get the Best Massage You’ve Ever Had

Since 2001, I have worked in the back rub treatment industry. I have worked in therapeutic workplaces, chiropractic workplaces, huge spas, little spas, a private practice, and as a teacher. My time in this industry is arriving at an end and I feel a few expressions of guidance are justified. They depend on my encounters and discussions with different specialists. Also, they are imparted uniquely to the expectation that everybody merits the best back rub they can get.

1. Try not to say "You can't hurt me" or "Go as hard as you need".

I know where each nerve plexus is near the surface. I realize each connection site for your muscles. These are similar destinations that most hand to hand fighting objective. So in the event that I needed to, I could give you what might be compared to a karate hack. I additionally realize how to utilize my "instruments" (elbows, knuckles, and so forth.) to make the most advantage during a back rub stroke. On the off chance that I pick a restricted device (like an elbow) rather than an expansive instrument (like a lower arm), it makes the stroke progressively serious. At the point when you state "go as hard as you need", I commonly switch my apparatuses and start sliding into more weight.

On the off chance that I needed to show you a thing or two about giving your advisor a chance to pick the best apparatus and weight, I could utilize an elbow on your hamstring and make you need to creep off the table.

Presently mind you, I won't accomplish those things, since when you're on my table, you are my duty and I need you to leave upbeat and with less torment.

Likewise, this sort of articulation doesn't really enable me to give you the back rub you need.

Perhaps you can take a great deal of weight in your back, yet very little on your legs. Impart all through the back rub in case I'm not giving the weight you need. Have a go at saying "I could utilize somewhat more weight here". What's more, on the off chance that I inquire as to whether you need more, don't stop for a second to be straightforward. I'm asking since I truly need to know.

In conclusion, a prepared, accomplished advisor realizes how to peruse your non-verbal communication and the response of your muscles to alter weight as needs be. I seldom need to get some information about weight. Be that as it may, this doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't request further weight if that feels much improved.

Attempt to confide in your advisor to carry out their responsibility effectively, however, and not cause you pointless inconvenience. Which carries me to the following point.

2. Quit thinking back rub needs to damage to be helpful.

A few people need profound tissue work. A few people need their sensory system quieted. A few people simply need an hour of calm with another person dealing with them.

Respect yourself and your body.

In the event that you adore a "soft" Swedish back rub, at that point request that.

It is anything but a challenge for who can "handle the most agony".

3. Pick your advisor cautiously if conceivable.

I realize that occasionally you're on an extended get-away and need a back rub and you couldn't care less who does it.

In any case, on the off chance that you can, discover what your advisor has practical experience in and pick them dependent on that.

Not sexual orientation. Not how decent the spot looks. Not how kind their voice is, the thing that shape they are in, what age they are.

Ask what they feel their qualities are and choose if that is a solid match for you.

This is particularly significant in case you're attempting to get normal back rub and see some improvement on your agony and pressure levels. Talking about customary work…

4. Get normal back rubs or if nothing else accomplish things that will facilitate your a throbbing painfulness, such as extending.

On the off chance that you need the most value for your money, it helps in case I'm not dealing with 40 years of developed stuff.

It is difficult to work out that much pressure or damage in 60 minutes.

"Man in wetsuit extending arms at 54th Street" by Austin Neill on Unsplash

5. Come in effectively hydrated.

This doesn't mean chug a liter of water in the 10 minutes before your back rub or you will get forceful awkward partially through it. You ought to drink around a gallon of water a day (truly, a gallon).

Do that for the couple of days when your back rub and you will feel less pain-filled and your muscles will react better to the back rub.

6. Scrub down or if nothing else clean your feet.

Wanna satisfy your advisor? Try not to come in after an exercise or climbing or hot yoga without showering first. Despite everything i'll take a shot at you and I'll do it with a grin, however ewww. On the off chance that you've been out investigating the town in shoes on a warm summer day, pause for a minute to wipe your feet down.

That is to say, do you truly need me to rub your feet goo everywhere throughout all of you?

Most back rub spots have a washroom with paper towels. In the event that they don't, inquire. I generally keep infant wipes convenient for simply this reason.

7. Remember that I am not an advisor.

Here's the arrangement — you're in a close circumstance with someone else. Some of the time that individual is an outsider and you believe you don't have anything to lose in sharing the close subtleties of your life. Some of the time that individual is your standard specialist and you believe you can confide in them. I wouldn't fret tuning in. I truly don't. I'm happy you confide in me.

Be that as it may, I can't offer you guidance — it exceeds the limits of my calling. Also, the more profound the discussion, the more probable I am to concentrate on that as opposed to getting your muscles to discharge.

Likewise, know about how terrible the data you're sharing is. Would you be able to envision sitting at your work area or driving a truck or ringing up somebody's food supplies and having somebody proclaim that they are engaging in extramarital relations? Or on the other hand that their child is utilizing heroin? Or on the other hand that their life partner just kicked the bucket? It's a ton.

Once more, I care about you, however that is some overwhelming stuff to process while I'm additionally attempting to give your worn out, throbbing body all my consideration.

8. Try not to enable me to move your arm, head, and so on.

More often than not, this makes my activity harder. In case you're holding your head up, your neck muscles are strained and I can't take a shot at them.

On the off chance that you swing your arm or leg out from under the sheet as I go to undrape you, you hazard uncovering yourself.

What's more, neither of us needs that.

9. Quit stressing over your cellulite, scars, unshaved legs, hard back, and so forth.

No doubt. I couldn't care less about or even truly notice them. While you're on the back rub table, I am centered uniquely around your muscles and sash. I couldn't care less what's over them. So quit saying 'sorry' for those stretch imprints and furry legs. Go Here if you are looking more Information

[radioactivepeasant]

Dispatches from the Days In-Between

An “Imperial Problem Child” story

The broadcasts, surprisingly, had been Madine’s idea in the end.

The council had been small, only for those with high enough clearance, and normally Skywalker wouldn’t have been included, but recent galactic events had been...odd, to say the least. The question of the hour was how to proceed with Operation Yellow Moon when the Rebellion was under increased scrutiny. (The reporters that showed up on inhabited worlds to mob Skywalker didn’t help either. It was still manageable at this point, as not everyone in the whole galaxy knew what the poor kid looked like, but Madine had his suspicions that one day it might get to the point where the boy started contemplating wearing a mask like his infamous sire.)

And there was another issue. Having Luke along on operations where Vader was likely to be present put the entire mission in jeopardy. Not because they were afraid Luke would betray them. He’d already managed to “steal” several Imperials for the Alliance, to Vader’s great annoyance, and no one in High Command doubted his commitment anymore. (though Madine couldn’t speak for the average Rebel-on-the-street, of course). The problem was that Vader would simply “sense” his son somehow and know right where they were. Hence the discussion of what to do with Luke during the operation.

“All eyes tend to be on our young prince here,” Madine had mused, waving in a mock reverential way to Luke, who responded with a good-natured grimace, “So why not exploit that? Send the Commander in the complete opposite direction and have him make a few large distractions while we’re in the early stages.”

“Won’t that seem rather obvious as a diversion?” someone asked.

Leia nodded eagerly, already tracking with Madine. “Precisely. What better way to make the Empire think we’re up to something important than to draw their attention to the fact that we’re staging a diversion? Besides, with Vader busy trying to retrieve Luke-”

“-Who intends to do some very stupid things to get his attention, if you’ll allow him to,” Luke piped up with a glint in his eye.

Leia shot him a look, then continued, “-with Vader busy, he won’t be tracking us. Therefore he won’t be able to sense the deception on our part, and we’ll be dealing with more predictable enemies.” She sat back, a satisfied look on her face.

“Commander Skywalker,” Mon Mothma said uneasily, “Exactly what did you have in mind?”

This was where Madine had remembered that during the Clone Wars there had been a Jedi -- he couldn’t remember her name now, only that she was a Mon Cala who was rather more pacifistic than most of her comrades -- who used to make small educational broadcasts directed at the children of the Republic. Little, humorous things like “well Separatists decided my medical frigate looked like a very nice target, and now we’re on fire.  But that reminds me, do you know how fire extinguishers were invented? No? Because I’m about to tell you!”

“You’re pretty good with mechanics and improvising things on the fly, Commander,” Madine pointed out after bringing up the memory, “I daresay something like that will get attention if you’re off who-knows-where actively engaging the public.”

“That is not without its merits,” Mothma mused. “Especially considering that, if Vader’s alliance of convenience comes to its expected end, you may have more political power than you thought. This may be the best opportunity to sway the public to a different way of thinking. Engage in relief efforts, volunteer, help with education. Things of that nature.”

“Everything I had to do growing up,” Leia teased with a bittersweet smile.

And that had been the beginning of it.

The dispatches started small, “To introduce the characters,” Hobbie had insisted. The first had come from the Executor itself, and was meant for Alliance eyes, mostly, though if it “leaked out”, oh well.

It was simply Wedge Antilles bracing a door with his back, listening to muffled yelling coming from behind it. “Janson and Klivian and a couple Imp pilots have been at each other’s throats for a week now,” he said, “The rest of us were at serious risk of getting caught in the crossfire of a prank war. And since Fel tells me that Hunter and Janni are as bad about escalation as Janson, sooner or later someone is going to report it to Veers or Rieekan and literally no one wants that.”  He grinned and gestured to the door. “So we locked them in the laundry room until they resolve their issues. We’re gonna be here awhile.”

Four days later, the first “real” broadcast came from a Mid-Rim world in the midst of a devastating series of storms. Most of it was a call for awareness and aid from those available to help, then it switched over to three men standing knee deep in mud, about to haul someone’s generator up and onto a waiting anti-grav sled. Zev Senesca looked tired, and Lando Calrissian looked comically miserable. Luke looked like he was running on caffeine and bad ideas. “Hey everybody,” Luke waved, grinning. “I’m Luke Skywalker, and today we’re going to show you how simple machines work. Because the mud got into our equipment and this is the only way we’re getting this generator out. So, y’know, keep this stuff in mind in case you’re ever, I dunno, stranded in a swamp or something.” “Not that that’s ever happened to you,” Lando snorted, rolling up his sleeves. Luke ignored this and held up a cable, part of a pulley system, and a roll of space-tape. “Okay! Ready?” “As always,” Lando cut in with a charming smile for the holorecorder, “Do not attempt any of this without adult supervision. Responsible adult supervision.”

The third broadcast happened close to three weeks later, coming from coordinates near the Outer Rim, not far from the Honoghr system. This time it was footage from a handheld holorecorder of two rebels (Luke and Wes) and two Imperials (Hunter and Lt. Sunber). “Hey everybody, I’m Luke,” “I’m Janson,” “I’m Hunter,” “And I’m tired!” Tank finished with a sigh. “And we....are totally lost.” Luke shrugged and looked completely unrepentant. “Turns out, something about whatever planet we’re orbiting right now is messing up all our instruments, so we’re going to have to land this thing the old-fashioned way. And since I was never taught how to fix a Lambda shuttle that’s gone into a factory reset-” “Remember, stay in school, kids!” Hunter interrupted jokingly. “-We’re going to hack this thing,” Luke finished. “Which miiiight mean some warranties are getting voided today.” He grinned up at the holorecorder. “As always, don’t try this without adult supervision. And if any other Imperials pick this up....don’t tell my father.”

Of course, he was banking on them doing exactly that. And if some of his “leaked dispatches” ended up on shows like “Last Word from Coruscant” and “Weekly Quibbler”,  well, that was more attention on some of the social issues in the Empire. Which, of course, had been Mon Mothma’s hope in the first place. And a very reliable source -- who had to pretend he was not amused in the slightest by his son’s antics -- had insinuated that the broadcasts were becoming quite a headache for the reigning tyrant, and that just made everything better.

[woodswolf]

okay i really want to know, 5 things you'd change about ninjago

honestly the bigger question is 5 things i wouldn’t change about ninjago, but i suppose i’ll narrow down the top of my list of things that Need To Change

1. I’d fix the timeline so that it Actually Makes Sense and allows more room for exploration of other elements. Biggest thing is really to make the Serpentine War take place a long ass time ago with none of the ninjas’ parents being involved. By extension, I’d also end up changing the way the elemental powers work or carry from generation to generation (like one of my 50-some fleshed-out explanations of how the powers should work, instead of this arbitrary “and YOU get it from your parents, and YOU get it from your parents, and YOU’RE obviously adopted because your parents don’t have it, and YOU get it from your parents” etc. etc. etc. because honestly just no. No. That’s not good enough for me sorry. :P

2. More emphasis on the everyone’s relationships with other people, rather than just the core cast. I wanna see more of Kai and Nya bonding over remembering their parents. I wanna see more of Jay interacting with his parents. I want to learn who Cole’s mom is and see how that impacts Cole and Lou. I want literally anything to happen with Zane and Julien and Echo, because after S6 we are Incredibly Ripe for a discussion which I really want to see. Basically, I want to learn more about who these characters are, who they care for, and who they care about - unlike in canon Ninjago, where the team pretty much Exists as a singular entity that has no ties to any people in particular. TL;DR: I want a minor characters to exist for more than one episode sometimes.

3. No romance bullshit. Listen, back in S1 and S2, Jaya was cute. Now, though, after everything that happened in all the recent seasons? Sorry, no. It’s quite literally the opposite of a healthy relationship 90% of the time - the one example I can think of where they actually communicated with each other without all the other bullshit is TLR, but considering TLR is probably one of the best Ninjago episodes of all time, that pretty much shows the state they’ve been in. All the two of them ever do is try to kiss each other, even when they’re fighting almost constantly, which really isn’t a good way to figure out what’s wrong in your relationship to try and fix it. Basically, fuck the love triangle.

4. Fuck S3 in general. Sure, you can have a season with some of the same general ideas in its plot - I mean, if you can even find an overarching plot in S3 to imitate, which is a pretty fuckin hard task if I do say so myself - but the sudden genre switch from “mostly fantasy” to “mostly sci-fi” is a really fucking sudden transition, and it really doesn’t work well with the show’s strengths. The sad thing about S3 is that a lot of the concepts introduced in it are wonderful - Cyrus, Pixal, Hiroshi’s Labyrinth, Pythor’s return, the Serpentine underground city, etc. - but the plot is so unfocused and all over the place that it just comes off as complete bullshit. Hell, even the sudden genre switch could’ve felt more natural if the plot took a bit more time and cut out the love triangle bullshit. But it didn’t. So fuck S3.

5. General characterization cleanup. In the last few seasons, everybody’s really been coming off as pretty flat - Kai’s the impulsive one, Cole’s the sorta-serious one, Zane’s the smart one, Lloyd kinda exists, Nya doesn’t have character unless she’s arguing with someone, and Jay is a nightmare and makes me want to die. This one I’m going to split up into subcategories for each of the main characters because this is a huge problem.

Jay: He’s been so screamy and whiny all the time in recent seasons, and sure, he also was a little bit back in the earlier seasons, but the Hagemans have slowly turned him up to eleven over time. S6 was literally so bad at points that I could hardly sit through it. It’s gotten to the point where I can instantly tell that the Hagemans haven’t written the script for something if Jay doesn’t piss me off - and so far I’ve always been right, because I’ve been able to successfully predict it for Day of the Departed and S7, neither of which were/are written by them. It’s worth noting that both of them portray Jay a lot better and have a “normal” amount of focus on him, so it’s possible that S6 was only really especially bad because the camera was on him the entire time.

Cole and Lloyd: Back in the second half of S2 or so (though it only really became obvious in S3), Cole and Lloyd actually swapped a lot of their “personality” traits. Before the swap, Lloyd was more of the “foodie” character and Cole was the “default leader”, but around Child’s Play their traits actually got swapped around. Now, back in the olden days, all of the characters were more 3-dimensional, so it was really hard to tell - but as soon as S3 started it was very obvious that Cole was suddenly “goofy food-lover” and Lloyd was “default leader the team would be incompetent without”. I’d switch them back. #MakeLloydSillyAgain

Zane: Honestly, of all the Ninja, Zane’s the one that most pisses me off right now, even more so than Jay. While Jay’s just annoying and screamy, our current Zane is a completely different character than the one we had back in the early days of Ninjago. Both versions of Zane are smart, but while the old Zane was kind and understanding, the Zane we have now is very egotistical and occasionally quite mean-spirited. The easiest way to show the difference is by taking a look at the scene where new Zane asks for wishes from Nadakhan - new Zane tries to outsmart Nadakhan and gets punished for it. Old Zane probably would’ve wished for his friends to be freed. :/

Nya: I’m too tired to try to come up with reasons for this because honestly Nya’s character has always been treated like shit. One thing I’d definitely change doesn’t have anything to do with her - it’s that I’d have her independence be treated as an asset instead of a liability.

Kai: I don’t have much to say with him - of all the Ninja, his character has stayed the most consistent throughout the show. He’s impulsive and a bit rash at times, but he’s not stupid; and he’ll do anything he can to protect the people he cares about. In recent seasons, the writers have frequently ignored the “but he’s not stupid” part, but other than that he’s pretty much the same as he was at the beginning.

k so that’s 5, good job woods it only took you an hour to write all this shit

[buggingoutspencerzmjw841-blog]

Ultimate Set of the 7 Best Bug Out Bags [Backpacks of 2020]™

The Rush72 is a 55-liter backpack that offers a lot of storage space, numerous organizational pouches, well-padded band, and a wrap-around MOLLE system for adding accessories. The pack is constructed of durable, water-resistant 1000D nylon, rendering it well-equipped to endure in difficult conditions. Additionally it is hydration-ready and includes self-healing zippers (so you won't have to struggle with any mismatched zipper teeth) that produce accessing the various pockets a quick and easy affair. The back pack was specifically made to carry everything you need to complete a 72-hour timeframe, rendering it the perfect option for recreational use and catastrophe preparedness as well. We also specifically narrowed down packages that provide a variety of compartments and organizational systems.

This enables you to generate plenty of potable water both on the go even though ceased for the night. The machine is with the capacity of removing 99.9999% of bacteria and 99.9% protozoa in the water, while also filtering particulates as well. That’s enough to earn it the Path Base authorization from the U.S. On top of that, it means that you’ll have access to a continuous supply of safe normal water at fine times. You can’t have a insect out handbag if you don’t have the right bag, and 5.11 Tactical makes some of the best for use in military, wilderness, and survival situations.

Just like the man discussing ammo, when the SHTF you will see ammo on the floor, along with weapons. So pack your bags, prepare, but learn to survive without all these items which will go out if extended amount of time in the bush is required. Again KNOWLEDGE. But I agree basic survival items are good to have packed. Choosing clothing for your insect out handbag is an extremely customized selection as we all have different body types, tolerances and levels of fitness.

I am also a wheelchair user which can be somewhat of an edge because I won’t be carrying the bag the way most people have to. I used to be actually quite impressed with the marketing video. The survival was put by The developer priorities in the right order. Way too many times companies play off dread and say that food is priority.

It is simply the coolest little display light you can purchase. Staying dry, hydrated and warm are certain to get you though 5-7 times. You need to be planing a trip to a source stash you have previously positioned.

If food were ever a huge problem, I would try placing a live snare ( for legal reasons) and either take my crossbow or the air pistol and dispatch any cat the trap caught. I’m in the kill and suburbs traps are unlawful because they worry about people getting injured.

Also, the list it was included with included Evasion and Escape items. They are the only company I have seen which includes that category. See expert’s checklist of survival medical kit items, which map right to the same three-level model for your bug out handbag. The weights used in this guide derive from that list, including common containers used for each size. Packing a bug out bag can seem overwhelming as the task of remembering something important can be challenging.

That’s why every bug out bag needs a good filtering and MSR’s Trail Base Water Filtration system Package is one of the very most versatile around. Not only will the kit include the company’s lightweight and effective TrailShot microfilter, but it also includes a larger gravity filter for use at the campsite too.

I really do leave food for the kitty colony sometimes so hopefully they might trust me somewhat which would make it simpler to use this insurance coverage. The crossbow came with steel arrows so definitely enough to stop anyone who's aiming to make off with my drinking water supply unless they have firearms of course. One benefit to utilizing a wheelchair is that I think most people would assume that they might not meet level of resistance and therefore feel less of a need to bring hands to attempt to raid my stuff.

There are several checklists out there that will tell you the fundamental items you should keep in your bug out bag. You can buy an loaded Bug away Bag already, such as this one here- Urban Survival Bug Out Handbag, which contains necessities items like food, water, and a first aid kit. You can also check out our Bug Out Handbag Checklist and personalize your bag yourself. A bug out handbag isn’t just something used by crazy survivalists.

This is bug out bag and most people can’t bring 90 Pounds of shit on their back.You will be told by me if you put everything listed on this site I could not carry it. Being prepared, you could write all day in what to have and pack. Knowledge and the methods to apply it are the most crucial thing you will need. We didn’t go with tons of equipment, we discovered to live using what we're able to find.

Joining up with many people you can trust and hang with also needs to be previously planned out. As i select items for my BOB I am accumulated weight. I’m choosing somewhat high quality stuff as to not have factors break within the first calendar year of use also if I can, getting Military services Surplus gear. Anyways, this gets heavy…with of course food, water, clothing, and shelter being the majority of the weight.

Hard to know where to begin It’s, but if you cover all the fundamentals in a survival situation you will still be far better off than 99% of the individuals. the bag I got came with an enormous list and video lessons and 12 Molle modular packages. Do most bug out bags include video lessons about packaging and bugging out? That was part of how I could convince my children to obtain it for me.

A bug out bag is a handbag designed for everyone, and even the United States Federal government advises you to have at least three days-worth of water and food on hand at all times. Pak-Lite nine volt flash light is last and small a long time.

MREs are tricky because although they include all you need (including an internal ‘cooker’ rather than external boiling water), they aren't space and weight efficient for the nourishment you get. It’s telling that many military vets don’t bring MREs as their major food choice in a insect out bag. Finding clean normal water can be considered a serious challenge whilst travelling in the backcountry or immediately following a major disaster.

The items listed here are to be strategically layered to keep up a healthy body temp at all times. For someone not used to being truly a Survivalist, building your first Insect Out Handbag can appear like a large task. Everybody you find out about has been tweaking theirs for months or even years and has a pile of gear built up.

I mean I’m not half way down the list and I m already packaging more equipment than the Marines bring. I love all the POSITIVE help and ideas for my BOB. Please retain in mind folks that the basics like water, proteins, instant shelter , first aid and protection will be needed if we are pressured to get away from our homes always.

Although they were like the type of lessons could need to pack a bag anyone? I don’t have a crossbow and the list recommends a certain type of air pistol for silently hunting small game. I currently know in which a colony of crazy cats live near my home.

A survivalist will see ways to make it possible to have, carry, today find those items even if we use a tool thats used diferently inside our lives. Eventually all the things we devote our BOBs will run out and have to be changed so retain in mind our set up on these bags is to keep us alive long enough for us to figure out how to live from the land, as they say. What events would cause us to become instant survivalists? My plan is for us to bug out together and stay together which means we are carrying different things to keep each handbag weight down for long distance more info travel. Pamela there are numerous great sites out there that will answer each one of these relevant questions for you.

[newssplashy]

World: Trump refuses to sign G-7 statement and calls trudeau 'weak'

QUEBEC CITY — President Donald Trump upended two days of global economic diplomacy late Saturday, refusing to sign a joint statement with the United States’ allies, threatening to escalate his trade war on the country’s neighbors and deriding Canada’s prime minister as “very dishonest and weak.”

In a remarkable pair of acrimony-laced tweets from aboard Air Force One as he flew away from the Group of 7 summit toward a meeting with North Korea’s leader, Trump lashed out at Justin Trudeau.

He accused the prime minister, who hosted the seven-nation gathering, of making false statements.

Literally moments after Trudeau’s government proudly released the joint statement, noting it had been agreed to by all seven countries, Trump blew apart the veneer of cordiality that had prevailed throughout the two days of meetings in a resort town on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.

“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” Trump wrote.

A few hours earlier, Trudeau said the seven nations had reached broad agreements on a range of economic and foreign policy goals. But he acknowledged that deep disagreements remained between Trump and the leaders of the other nations, especially on trade.

Trudeau had sought to play down personal clashes with Trump as he wrapped up the summit, calling the meeting “very successful” and saying he was “inspired by the discussion.” But he also pledged to retaliate against the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products in defense of Canadian workers.

Trump, who apparently saw Trudeau’s news conference on television aboard Air Force One, was clearly enraged.

“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @g7 meetings,” Trump said in a second tweet, “only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”

Not long after, John Bolton, the president’s national security adviser, tweeted out a dramatic photo of Trump, arms crossed and scowling, looking defiant as the leaders of the other nations stood in a circle around him.

“Just another #G7 where other countries expect America will always be their bank,” Bolton wrote as the president’s plane stopped for refueling at Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete. “The President made it clear today. No more.”

Trudeau’s office responded to the president’s Twitter barrage with a carefully worded statement.

“We are focused on everything we accomplished here at the summit,” said Cameron Ahmad, a spokesman for Trudeau. “The prime minister said nothing he hasn’t said before — both in public, and in private conversations with the President.”

The president’s outburst had been foreshadowed for days leading up to the Canada summit, with Trump and his counterparts trading sharp-edged barbs that included threats of punches and counterpunches on tariffs. President Emmanuel Macron of France accused Trump of being willing to remain isolated from the world.

That was followed by 48 hours of tense and often confrontational closed-door discussions between Trump and the leaders of the United States’ closest allies — France, Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany — in the hopes of resolving a brewing trade war among friends.

Instead, the gathering apparently served to further inflame Trump’s belief that the United States is being treated unfairly by countries with which prior presidents had long ago negotiated trade agreements for the flow of goods and services.

The result was a slow-rolling collapse of the fragile alliances that officials at the summit — and even Tump’s own White House advisers — insisted throughout the day could be maintained in the face of fundamental disagreements.

Reporters on Air Force One had been told that the United States would sign the joint statement. And minutes after the president’s tweets, reporters were sent an email that had clearly been prepared earlier touting Trump’s participation in the summit, complete with photos.

Earlier in the day, before Trump left the summit, he brought up the dramatic prospect of completely eliminating tariffs on goods and services, even as he threatened to end all trade with them if they didn’t stop what he said were unfair trade practices.

Trump, speaking to reporters at the end of the contentious meeting, said that eliminating all trading barriers would be “the ultimate thing.” He railed about what he called “ridiculous and unacceptable” tariffs on U.S. goods and vowed to end them.

“It’s going to stop,” he said, “or we’ll stop trading with them. And that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.” He added, “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing — and that ends.”

The other six leaders were defiant in the face of Trump’s threats.

“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do,” Trudeau said. “As Canadians, we are polite, we’re reasonable, but also we will not be pushed around.”

Macron said the trade debates at the summit were “sometimes quite heated.” Asked who won the tug-of-war with Trump, Macron said: “There is no winner, there are only losers when you take that strategy.”

Theresa May, the British prime minister, blasted Trump’s tariffs. She said that she had registered “our deep disappointment at the unjustified decision” and that the loss of trade through tariffs would “ultimately make everyone poorer.”

The president’s public comments on trade Saturday echoed the complaints he made directly to the leaders from Canada, Japan and Europe in private sessions Friday. Trump confronted several of the leaders individually, giving examples of how, in his view, each of their countries had mistreated the United States, whether it be through trade barriers or security commitments, according to a European official.

The president delivered a running monologue in one of the closed-door meetings, one person familiar with the discussion said. One minute, he slammed Germany for taking advantage of the United States by selling so many cars there. The next, he talked about how his grandfather was German and how much he loved Europe.

Several of the leaders responded aggressively to Trump’s demands — as they have repeatedly done in public — listing their own complaints about U.S. tariffs and other trade measures, the official said. Several countries have said that they will retaliate against the United States’ new steel and aluminum tariffs with increased tariffs of their own.

“If they retaliate, they’re making a mistake,” Trump said Saturday.

Trump’s surprise proposal for a tariff-free G7 followed from a conversation the president had on Air Force One heading to Canada with Larry Kudlow, his national economic adviser. Kudlow, a self-described “lifelong free trader,” wrote an op-ed article in The Washington Post on Thursday saying that he did not prefer tariffs but that Trump’s actions were “a wake-up call to the dangers of a broken trading system that is increasingly unfree.”

Trump and Kudlow discussed the article on the plane, but the president surprised even his own team by raising the idea with the other leaders. While some observers took it as more of a talking point, a senior administration official said the president was serious about it and wanted it given serious study. Other leaders, the official said, expressed interest.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe closed-door discussions.

Asked late Saturday what he told Trump about the surprise proposal for a tariff-free zone, Macron said, with a smile: “Be my guest, if that’s your wish.”

Throughout his remarks Saturday, Trump repeatedly returned to his broader complaints about trade practices around the world, insisting that it was the fault of past U.S. leaders who had agreed to deals that benefited other countries more than the United States.

He complained that U.S. dairy farmers were being treated unfairly by Canada.

“The United States pays tremendous tariffs on dairy, as an example, 270 percent,” he said. “Nobody knows that.”

“We don’t want to pay anything,” he said. “Why should we pay?”

The president also said U.S. farmers had been hurt for a long time by trade barriers that made it harder for them to sell their goods to other countries.

“You look at our farmers,” he said. “For 15 years, the graph has gone just like this: down.”

“I blame our leaders,” Trump said. “In fact, I congratulate the leaders of other countries for so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for their country and so bad for the United States. But those days are over.”

Trump said some of the other leaders he met with during the summit appeared to admit that their trade arrangements with the United States were unfair.

“A lot of these countries actually smile at me when I’m talking,” he said. “And the smile is, ‘We couldn’t believe we got away with it.'”

That assessment by Trump stands in contrast to the public statements by those leaders, who have repeatedly insisted that they will not accept the kinds of tariffs that Trump has imposed on their industries.

In addition to trade, Trump also took questions about his call for Russia to be reinstated as a member of the G-7 nations, despite having been expelled four years ago in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea.

“I would rather see Russia in the G-8 as opposed to the G-7,” he said. “I would say that the G-8 is a more meaningful group than the G-7. Absolutely.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

MICHAEL D. SHEAR and CATHERINE PORTER © 2018 The New York Times

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/world-trump-refuses-to-sign-g-7_11.html

[dumbassholesopinion-blog]

Mosque #1 Review

Intro: I am interested in exploring different religious cultures. I am irreligious myself, but I grew up Catholic. I did the whole church, communion, etc. etc. When I was in high school I grew out of religious beliefs, but I never lost interest in the cultural phenomena known as religion. I am currently on a quest to visit as many different religious organizations and services as possible so I can become more intimately connected to the practices and the people that practice them. That may be a bit voyeuristic of me, and perhaps during my religious journeys some may take offense to my interest in their religion as more of an anthropological/sociological curiosity rather than trying to find any deep meaning or connection to their spiritual beliefs. However I would like to think if someone unfamiliar with my culture wanted to follow me around and ask probing and naive questions about my belief systems, I would be more than open to accommodate them. -------------------------------------

Facility Experience: -------------------------------------

In short: Great experience! Maybe I will go again!

I first stopped by in the afternoon to inquire about any services that they offer. It was empty. Someone walked in and I asked them when their services are. It seems my previous religious experiences have corrupted my view of what all other religious experiences may be, because I had no idea that the "services" at mosques are a bit different than Catholic ones. I assumed that there would be one or two hour long sessions where the Imam would talk and pray about various parts of the Quran. I was wrong, as the man I asked did not even understand what I meant by "services" at first! However, he was very open to answering all of my questions regarding potential times I could visit to learn and experience the religion.

I ended up going, unknowingly,  on Ramadan (though considering the importance of Ramadan, I feel I should have known that it was this month) - something I both regret and am very happy about. I felt more out of place than perhaps I would have due to the sheer number of people and how serious they took Ramadan compared to me, but I also felt that this was an excellent day to dive right into the culture and religion.

I arrived a little after 8. From here on out I am going to talk about what I experienced at this mosque in particular. Based on my knowledge and what I was told there, it seems as if this is typical for many other Muslim institutions as well, but I do not no for sure.

They were setting up food to break their fast for Ramadan. Immediately when I walked in I was greeted by somebody, who was more than happy to both explain what was happening and show me around the facility. This was typical of my time here. I did not feel unwelcome at all, something I was nervous about considering my lack of religious inclinations and the fact that I never experienced this religious culture before. Not everybody was coming directly up to me offering me food and showing me around as my guide did, but I was frequently greeted by friendly faces and a willingness and eagerness to discuss life and religion.

Religious Experience: ---------------------------------

At 8:30 prayer services started, which is what I found most interesting. According to the people I talked to there are five of these a day, and the last one can last a bit longer especially if one chooses to independently pray in the space provided. I was told that it was five times a day to remind the devout where they came from and who created them. As in, they take some time out of their busy life to remind themselves of their spirituality. That is incredibly impressive commitment, aside from their already month long commitment to fasting every day.

For now I only have Catholic services to compare it to, so I will do that. It is much shorter. Around 10 minutes. However I found the spiritual experience to be much more satisfying. I could not understand what the Imam was saying, but I enjoyed the chanting/song-ish way that the prayers were being led. I also liked how everyone was much closer together, and I liked the movements (standing, kneeling, face down on the floor). It was an "experience" much more than a "service." I can see how if I participated in that religion I would find the experience very cathartic. It felt more like meditation, where as Catholic services felt more like listening to a speaker.   

Cultural Analysis: --------------------------------

As for their cultural practices themselves, I have some disagreements. First and foremost, they separate the men and the women. I understand that this is not unique to the religion of Islam, and perhaps may not even happen in other Mosques. However it did happen in this one and I was perturbed.

My friend, a woman, also “joined” me at first. She stated that her prayer experience was very similar, however she had to listen to the Imam through a speaker in a separate room. Likewise, during the Ramadan fasting break, the men had a very large space outdoors to eat, and they could also choose to eat inside. Women did not have an outdoor option.  I disagree with this separation on a fundamental level. I feel as if this norm is still practiced due to tradition, and I feel the longer time goes on the more uncomfortable this practice becomes. Should women really be separate from men? I would argue that this practice is due to sexism more than any other reason.

Also, during my discussions with various patrons of this Mosque I did feel quite uncomfortable when the religious overtones of what was being said became too extreme for my tastes. I love arguing about religion and discussing religion, but at points I felt I was being preached to.

One patron frequently discussed the greatness of God and how we must all worship him due to his greatness (not in those exact words), much like how I would assume the stereotypical evangelical would discuss God. This patron would, from my point of view, force this reverential speak of God in just about everything that he said. I do not fault him for this. This was 1) Ramadan, a particularly holy Holiday so someone being overly spiritual and/or proselytizing was not surprising and 2) I was clearly an outsider looking in. This patron most likely felt it appropriate to discuss God in these terms with me because he was looking to show me how he expresses his religion. I respect that and I loved hearing his point of view, despite how uncomfortable it made me at times.

However I was told one thing by a patron that not only made me uncomfortable due to its overly religious nature, but uncomfortable because I am ideologically opposed to this way of thinking. This patron discussed how this life on Earth is temporary, and how the afterlife is “Paradise” that would last forever. This patron also discussed judgement day. I have many issues with this line of thinking. I am aware that Islam is not the only religion that views existence this way, and I am aware that this view of existence is somewhat more extreme than how many moderately religious people view existence. 

In my view it is not only a very cynical view of life on Earth, but a dangerous one. By subscribing to this viewpoint you are not only denying the potentially amazing things one can experience in life on Earth, but you are devaluing life on Earth itself. There are MANY people who view life on Earth as the one and only experience of existence they are getting, and I am one of them. I find no reason to believe in any kind of paradise afterlife or any afterlife. I feel denying oneself the pleasures of reality because the God you believe in or the afterlife you chase is misguided at best and ignorant or dangerous at worst. This way of viewing existence does not jive at all with the way I view existence, therefore hearing somebody discuss it as a literal phenomena was disturbing.

The way people discussed Ramadan was both uncomfortable and heartwarming. Based on my understanding of it after my experience here, Ramandan is about testing your willpower and becoming closer to your spirituality and God. Essentially if you can be a good person while you’re hungry as fuck, you will be able to be a good person most of the rest of the time too. Ramadan fasting instills a sense of humility in the people that practice it, and as one patron said to me it helps others understand that “we are all the same.” That no one person is better than any other person. I wholeheartedly agree with that ideology! I just feel that one does not need a religious reasoning to pursue these enlightenments.

Now for the prayer services: like I stated earlier I feel if I was a Muslim or if I cared about being spiritual, these prayer services would very beneficial. But I am not, so I found these prayer services to be very strange. For one, your head needed to be down the whole time, and we kept getting lower and lower. I understand the reasoning. If you believe that God is all powerful, all good, all knowing, all loving, and he created you and everything you love, you want to show respect to him. From my perspective this prayer service felt as they were providing deference to God by demeaning themselves. Again, this service seemed to devalue human life on Earth and human existence. I do not personally believe in any god or gods, so when people are this committed to feeling “less than” a higher power it disturbs me. I would much prefer a meditative experience that focused on reality. However, to many devout Muslims this is reality. So who am I to judge? (I’m going to anyway).

I would like to put a disclaimer here. At no point in time did I express any of these negative feelings or ideological disagreements with any of the patrons at this Mosque. As much as I fundamentally disagree with all religion, I am also not going to these institutions to cause trouble. I am there to learn and to experience, whether I agree or disagree with the way they do things or view the world. If I was asked for my feelings regarding a specific ideology or practice I would have expressed them, but I was not. If I continue to participate in this particular Mosque and get to know the regular patrons better, maybe I would feel comfortable expressing my beliefs. But I would feel it to be massively inappropriate to proselytizing my own beliefs when I am exploring a religious facility.

Some good things! Despite my disagreements with many of their traditional services, the people I talked to espoused very humanistic and agreeable ideologies. Almost everyone I talked to, including the ones who also espoused parts of their ideology that I did disagree with, discussed how Islam is an inclusive, welcoming religion whose ultimate goal is to help others. As one convert told me, he was attracted to Islam because according to the Quran “it’s not that you should help poor people, but you MUST help poor people.”

Religious experiences are very subjective, and you can pick and choose just about every possible ideological viewpoint from the Quran as well as every other holy book. I was happy with my experience at this Mosque and hope to continue to learn and experience different cultures, communities, and religious beliefs in the future.