#really so many excellent tools and just beautiful thread of all types

[flintandpyrite]

Hmm yes I can see why people get obsessed with doing this

[lambourngb]

This Hard Choice

Fic prompt: “I don’t want you to go.” set before THIS HARD LIFE and THIS HARD JOURNEY - an AU after the shed, set sometime after the moment in 2x05. Alex doesn’t join the Air Force. I’m writing these each day- so thankfully I didn’t have to work today because this “ficlet” is 3,600 words. This is finished on Ao3 here.

****

The careful crunch of loose gravel and abrasive echo of a skateboard stopping on the rough pavement let Michael know that his attempt to avoid Alex had failed. 

Parking down by Spring River, not far from where the concrete shelter of the Atkinson Ave overpass sported some of the late Rosa Ortecho’s graffiti murals, would have been an excellent place to hide from everyone in his life but Alex. It was insane to think that in such a short time, Michael had basically shared all of his favorite spots with him, from the private desert escape on a cut back gravel road not far from the crash site to the places in town when Michael couldn’t spare the fuel to drive far, like Loveless Park or the back acres of wrecked and salvaged cars at Sander’s Auto.

He would care more about his failure in evading Alex if he wasn’t so currently high.

Old man Sanders had let him crash on the couch last night with Rusty, his dog, and then left him the next morning with scrambled eggs and a small paying job of cleaning out the machinery tools used for alignment repairs. “Gotta use that MEK shit on it, it smells awful, so it’s a perfect job for you, kid, only need the one hand to clean the threads,” Sanders had instructed nodding to his bandaged hand as he handed over a pair of twenty dollar bills with a metal canister of solvent.

The money put gas in the truck and the leftover solvent was carefully hoarded for an experiment. Even with Michael’s careful handling of his make-shift cast while he worked on the task, he still finished having jarred the break one too many times.

Blue, cloudless sky stretched above him, keeping him warm and comfortable with a rare full stomach of breakfast. It was the perfect time, with his hand pulsing in unceasing agony, to test his theories about the effects other solvents had on his body outside of pain killing effects of acetone. There wasn’t much to lose, he reasoned darkly as he drank two quick swallows of MEK and laid back on his sleeping bag waiting for the effects to kick in, for better or worse.

Acetone reduced pain to a soft buzz in the background, like a gnat circling on the edges of his periphery. This solvent made him feel like the gnat, flying wildly through the negative space. 

Negative space, he mused with his eyes closed. That fit with close-tailored accuracy to his future prospects.

“Guerin, hey, Guerin!”

Right. Alex was here. Alex had found him. He was trying to avoid Alex for some reason. He couldn’t remember why at the moment as he opened his eyes to Alex’s handsome worried face. Christ, he was beautiful. Those eyebrows were bridged together though, closing the distance. Michael wanted to be that in the moment. A bridge, not a chasm. Not the negative space.

A warm, soft hand caressed Michael’s face, bringing his fluttering attention back to Alex’s. Sometime in between his thoughts, Alex had clambered up into the truck bed to sit next to him. The hint of amusement in his dark eyes won out over concern, “Are you just really high right now?”

“Yeah, super high,” Michael breathed, smiling broadly before moving to make room for Alex next to him.

Alex pursed his lips together, taking in a deep inhale of the surrounding air, “I don’t smell pot-”

“Not pot, something better.”

The concern and alarm was back as Alex started to pull away from Michael’s clumsy hold and look around the truck bed. “Like what, like, meth or OXY?”

“‘S fine, don’t worry, ‘kay?” Michael wrinkled his nose at the movements, and patted the space on his chest with his right hand. “Come lay back down, okay?”

“No, not okay, you need to tell me what you took so if you start to O.D. I can tell the hospital how to treat you-” 

The talk of a hospital cut through the fog. Michael pushed himself up with his good hand, before reaching to still Alex’s searching through the discarded blankets around him. Thankfully the discarded canister of MEK was in the cab of the truck with the contents of his pharmacy robbery, the box of nail polish remover and clean bandages. “No hospitals ever, okay? I’m fine, I promise. It was just… um, OXY like you said.” 

Staring in Michael’s eyes, Alex paused, still concerned and wary. “How much did you take?”

“Like two pills, and um, it wasn’t even off label, okay?” Michael raised his left hand, the dirty ragged cast punctuating the need. Like it had every time before, the reminder of that night in the shed sent a wave of shame and regret over Alex’s face. An effective subject killer, but it still pained Michael to use it. “Before you ask, I got the pills from Isobel. Her mom had dental surgery so they were left over. I didn’t rob the pharmacy for drugs.”

“I know.”

“You know?” While the rock-solid belief was nice, that wasn’t a part of his experience. 

Dropping his gaze down to Michael’s sloppy cast, Alex shrugged. “I overheard Jim Valenti telling my dad about the robbery, no drugs or money were stolen. Just beauty supplies and first aid stuff. It’s getting dismissed as kid type vandalism, not evidence of a drug cartel in Roswell.”

“That’s good.” Finally, news that brought relief to Michael, instead of increasing the heavy weight of dread in his chest. He started to lay back down on his sleeping bag and this time Alex followed, removing his keys and wallet from his jean pockets. Resting his face against Michael’s chest, his warm breath cutting easily through the thin cotton t-shirt, the argument was now forgotten between them as they took comfort in the closeness.

The high from the MEK was slowly fading, tiptoeing from his veins like a thief in the night. The echoing ache of his hand started up, the footfalls of sensation, getting closer and louder as the afternoon wore on until it was time for another bottle of acetone to chase it away. At least he knew the other solvent wouldn’t kill him, whatever that was worth.

“I looked it up, Roswell has a free clinic on Main if it’s about money-”

Not this fight again. It was his least favorite one, after the scholarship to UNM. Michael kept his voice soft, even though a surge of impatience tightened his throat.  “Alex, I can’t, okay? I can’t go to the free clinic because people are going to ask questions.”

“My dad deserves to get punished for what he did-” Alex lifted his eyes up to Michael’s from where he was tucked against Michael’s side.

“Not just about what happened. First question they ask is about ID, okay? And the address on my ID is two foster dicks ago. I can’t risk it. Attention from the authorities has never brought me anythin’ good.” Michael reached to stroke his fingertip over the renewed worried line on Alex’s face, “I know you think it should just be easy, like seeing a doctor, or going to UNM even though my scholarship only covers tuition and housing, not food, or gas, or school supplies outside of books.”

Alex frowned in response, “I’m not naive, Michael, I know all of that.”

“Yeah? Do you know how expensive it is to be homeless?” Pride nearly stopped that admission to Alex, but he was tired of fighting with the one person that seemed to care about him. “It’s ironic, but it’s true. No address, no bank account, but at least I’m finally eighteen with a high school diploma, so I can have a fighting chance at taking a cheap retail job to serve the tourists. ‘Cause right now my budget covers gas for my truck, food, and paying to use the truck stop showers out by Cowboy Ruckus twice a week, so I’m not shown the door as soon as I show up somewhere.” Michael had to shut his eyes to keep from seeing pity on Alex’s face. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t understand the ins and outs of how well the system protected everyone who worked within it but no one that stood on the outside.

It reminded him why he was avoiding Alex today in the first place. 

Last night Alex had seen him at the Wild Pony. At Ranchero Night. While Alex was there to help Maria and her mother, the assistant manager of the bar and restaurant to host the outreach night, Michael had no other reason for showing except for the obvious one. He was hungry and the grudgingly offered program by Old Fred that Mimi Deluca spearheaded meant he was going to get a full belly of hot warm food with no questions asked.

The stories behind his favorite parking spots in downtown Roswell weren’t romantic discoveries to share with Alex, they all revolved around proximity to safety and soup kitchens. Even showing up too many times at a particular food bank carried risk, from other men who lived rough. The fights that happened between prime sleeping spots, between two people comparing their nothing with less than nothing, spun up quickly. It was ugly, dangerous and Michael’s telekinesis could only keep him safe up to a point.

“And sometimes I go places where there’s free food and no questions. Like Ranchero night.” There was no disguising how hard his heart was pounding under Alex’s ear, but Michael could concentrate on keeping his breathing steady as he waited fearfully for his response. Finally, unable to stay quiet, Michael ventured, “still want to be with me?”

Alex lifted his head, biting his lip briefly. Slowly, with a mindful eye on Michael’s cast, he shifted closer to kiss Michael’s mouth gently. “I didn’t realize how hard things were, um, I’m glad you told me. I wish it didn’t take me seeing you at the Wild Pony for you to tell me.”

“You’ve got your own shit with your dad at home. At least I know my truck is safe, you don’t have that luxury.” It was something that Michael couldn’t help but worry about every night since the shed when he wasn’t worrying about Isobel. The level of violence and the comfort that Jesse Manes had in using that against his own son, while it shouldn’t have shocked a veteran of Child and Family Services, it did. Every night Alex went home to that. 

“It hasn’t been bad since that night, but I’m dodging my dad as much as I can. He’s probably just waiting until I’m 18.”

“Waiting for what?”

It was Alex’s turn to evade as he laid soft, suckling kisses down Michael’s throat. Michael chased at Alex’s lips, threading his fingers through the fading evidence of the black hair dye warring with the summer bleaching. They traded long, deep kisses, the heat of arousal building layers over the question until it slipped from view unanswered.

*** 

Michael walked confidently down the halls of the Roswell Travellodge toward the back stairs. The key to trespassing was to act as naturally as possible and hope he didn’t run into someone who knew him. Using the free ice machine in the various motels around town to stock up his small cooler was just one of the many life hacks he picked up since striking out on his own at sixteen.

His face was still throbbing from the lucky hit that jackass got in earlier after Michael had picked up dinner at the Ministries of Light community event. Someone felt like Michael needed to pay the unofficial cover to partake in the meal, and Michael had flipped off the guy, because every year on this planet had taught him how to treat a bully. A bully always has friends, and walking back late at night with a full stomach meant he hadn’t noticed his crowd of ‘admirers’ until they had him surrounded just a block from his truck. 

Thankfully between rolling a dumpster with his telekinesis and his fast retreat, he made it to safety with only the slowly swelling eye as a souvenir.

It had been at least three days since he had last crashed at Sanders, long enough to impose again on the old man’s couch. Michael finished filling his cooler with ice, wrapping a cold chunk in a discarded t-shirt to press against his face, and drove toward the auto yard with a plan in mind. Maybe the old man needed Michael to fix something. His left hand had improved enough now to move from awkward plaster to a drug-store brace, leaving some of his fingers free for more dexterous work. 

His headlights picked up a vague flash of movement just outside the office of the auto yard. Mindful of Rusty the dog, Michael slowed his approach to a crawl until he realized the movement wasn’t the yard dog, but Alex.

Michael swung out of the truck quickly, dropping the wrapped ice on the seat. Alex being here, unannounced, could only be trouble related to Jesse. “Hey, what’s going on?”

Straightening up from his seat in front of the office, whatever Alex was going to say originally abruptly vanished as he caught sight of Michael’s face under the wavering beam of the security lights. “What the hell happened to your eye?” 

Belated he reached up to touch his face, and joked, “A fight, but you should see the other guy. Or guys. I think it was at least four on one. But I’m okay.”

The bruise must have been more impressive than Michael realized because Alex just paled in response. Agitated Alex crossed his arms in front, turning half away as he rubbed his hands bare of jewelry against his forearms. “What the hell am I doing?” he asked himself quietly. 

“Alex?” Michael stepped closer, fear dropping his stomach downward in nausea. It was a dark survivor’s thought, but it would be a shameful waste to get sick now after a good meal. “Are you okay? Is it your dad?”

“I’m turning 18 tomorrow,” Alex replied in a non sequitur quietly. 

It didn’t sound like a joyous thing to reach the age of legal adulthood for Alex. “Happy birthday?” 

“My dad- listen, it’s never really been a choice okay? I’ve known it for as long as I can remember. I mean, fuck, I have to sign on my own, he can’t do it for me, but he might as well hold the pen in my hand.”

Michael wasn’t stupid. He knew enough about Alex’s family, his brothers, that the expectation of military service was less of a question and more of an accepted fact. He also knew Alex, who Alex was, and that was not a soldier of any kind. All of his reasoned arguments against this action jumbled in Michael’s throat, until the only thing that burst forward was inane words, “but you’re gay though, you can’t enlist!”

Huffing a tired sigh, Alex smiled sadly, “there are gay people every branch of the services, Michael. They just have to hide. My dad… my dad expects this of me. To join, to hide, to be...to be a Manes Man finally.”

“You can’t, you just can’t-” he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, breathing through his nose as he fought the nausea again. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t want to go either.” Alex reached for Michael’s face, keeping his touch light over the hot swelling bruise. The mark on Michael’s face seemed to deepen the grief in Alex’s eyes. “It’s never been a choice for me.”

“It can be. It can be a choice, if you just tell him no.”

“He would kill me.”

“The Air Force is just as capable of killing you too.” Michael reached up to guide Alex’s hand down to press against his chest, letting the wild beat of his pulse thrum against Alex’s palm. This boy, this kind and beautiful boy, brought the spark of life to all of the lost and deliberately discarded opportunities in Michael’s life. The thought of Alex being shuffled off to that same, colorless existence that he was stuck in after lighting Rosa Ortecho’s car on fire, threatened to break something in him. “Cutting yourself off from who you are, it changes you, and it’s not a good change. Please don’t do this to yourself.” 

Instead of responding, Alex looked back at the dark office of Sanders Auto behind them. “I don’t have to be home tonight, Sarge is letting me have one last night of freedom, so is it okay if I stay with you?”

“It’s an ancient couch I share with the dog,” Michael warned, licking his dry lips in response. At Alex’s nod, he led Alex over by the hand to the customer keys drop box and mailbox. After a moment he fished the key out from the hideaway safe and unlocked the office door. 

One last night together as innocent kids before the hard choices had to be made.

***

The next day, Michael ignored his schedule, the scratched out decisions that kept him functioning and moving with one foot in front of the other. Instead of partaking the truck stop shower or heading for laundry day the Evanes, as Ann and Bob always did a late brunch at their club, he instead decided to join Max for his thrice weekly coffee stalking of Arturo Ortecho. 

The scent of Alex was still all over him after he slept soundly on top of Michael, the only way to share that narrow couch. Rusty the dog had to settle with wedging his way between their legs and the less said of the amused look on old man Sanders face when he discovered them that morning, the better. 

Alex’s probably finished signing his life away at this point, Michael reminded himself.

“Jeez, he looks like such a tool,” Max commented, breaking into the cycle of Alex-related thoughts abruptly. Michael turned to look out the window of the Crashdown to see Kyle Valenti beaming and gesticulating excitedly in front of a new red Camaro. Both his parents, in uniform already for work, were watching their son proudly, arm in arm. “I don’t know how the Valentis raised a jerk like Kyle.”

Nice parents, nice car, nice life ahead of him for school as rumor had it that Kyle was headed to Michigan, and it was clear from Michael’s eyes the guy had no appreciation of the privileged ease of his life. All of that love and support in his life, only for Kyle Valenti to use it to bully people. Bully Alex. 

Anger was never far behind these days for Michael, his ever-present cellmate as he served his time for Isobel’s crimes. It swelled inside him, as the sun sparkled off the hubcaps and dazzled the eyes of onlookers from that deep cherry red car. Red like Rosa’s lipstick. Red like Liz’s prom dress. Red like the blood after the hammer dropped.

“Yeah, Jim Valenti deserves better.” That was Alex’s voice. 

Michael jerked his head away from the window to find Alex standing next to their booth. He had to be dreaming. Alex was supposed to be at a recruiter’s office, losing his freedom and all evidence of his personality right now, probably getting the remnants of that emo black hair dye job buzzed off at the barber. 

Except he wasn’t. Alex’s hair was still long and shaggy, brown sun-lightened locks spilling over his warm dark eyes. His earring and septum plug were back in, along with his jewelry. A lot of jewelry actually. Like maybe all of the jewelry Alex owned. Resting at his feet was a heavy duffle bag, the seams straining under the force of clothing packed inside. 

“Alex.” 

Shyly, Alex looked over at Max back to him, “Michael. It’s good to see you guys hanging out together again.”

“Alex.” Stupidly Michael kept staring at Alex, as if he was going to disappear if he blinked. “You’re here. You’re- you’re actually here, you didn’t-?”

Max creased his forehead, watching Michael completely unravel before him. “I kinda feel like I’m missing something here?”

“Alex Manes,” Alex held out his hand to Max jokingly, a small smile on his lips. He took a deep, audible breath and continued more seriously, “the disowned son of Master Sergeant Manes, currently homeless, and um, also Michael’s boyfriend.”

“Disowned?” 

“I had a choice, joining the Air Force or getting kicked out of the family. And um, so I’m going to be crashing on Maria’s couch for a while, just until I can save up-” Alex’s explanation was abruptly silenced as Michael launched himself from the booth toward him. His bag hit the ground as Alex wrapped both arms around Michael tightly. 

The patrons of the café faded into the background as Michael pressed his suddenly wet eyes into Alex’s neck. “Oh, thank god, you didn’t go.”

“I never wanted to go, okay?” Slowly Alex drew away a few inches, keeping his gaze on Michael’s face. His eyes narrowed at the bruise still blackening Michael’s eye, “and the choice wasn’t hard, when I realized it was you I was choosing. You gotta pick me too, okay? No more fights or robbing drug stores, I can deal with a lot, I know this won’t be easy being together but I can’t deal with violence. You gotta try, Michael.”

“Yes, yes, deal.” Aware of Max’s growing distrustful gaze, Michael ignored it. That could be their next fight with his brother after the subject of Isobel had been worn out, whether being close to someone human constituted a threat to their safety. Right now, the hard choice between their secret and Alex, didn’t have to be made yet. 

[galadrieljones]

Telling Stories Through Patience and Implication: More Showing, Less Telling

Sometimes I get asked by other writers how to make their scenes and writing more immersive, like how to influence readers to experience that “I feel like I’m right in the scene, or the room with these characters, and I’m crying” kind of reaction to their words. I had an idea on the way home from taking my kid to preschool today and thought I’d make it into an advice post: on how to use more ACTION and DESCRIPTION of object and place in our writing, instead of relying too much on interior monologue when telling stories. I also thought it would be useful to talk about forcing patience (for yourself and for your reader), and also using implication rather than purely narration to both push the story forward and to stimulate climactic, emotional moments and/or reveals. This is a little long! But if you’re so inclined, I hope it helps!!

Why is using too much interior monologue ineffectual in telling stories?

One thing I’ve learned over many many years of reading and writing and also teaching reading and writing is that there is a HUGE distinction between the inclination to tell stories through telling and then the inclination to tell stories through showing. The “telling” way, which is often funneled through a close third or first person POV and manifests as a list and/or series of interior thoughts and abstract perception is something that we, as writers, often start off doing. This is because choosing to write is largely choosing to put a part of your inner self on the page, and the easiest, most obvious way to do that is by narrating interior monologue. It looks something like this:

She felt pain. Real pain. Pain for the first time. And hunger. Like she was falling through a glass plate and never hitting the ground, falling so fast, and she wanted to land, but there was nowhere to fall to, and so she just kept wanting. And wanting. And her heart felt forever wound into the threads of time and imagination. She was helpless to his touch, and yet she hated everything about it, because it was old. So she just kept falling, hoping maybe somewhere there would be a surface for her to land.

There is nothing wrong with this “interiority” type of writing. It can often be quite beautiful and imaginative. As long as it is not the only or super dominant type of writing in a story. This type of writing is very “telling.” It’s explaining the meaning and feelings of a character’s mind, as well as the themes of the story, to the readers in a somewhat unfiltered way. But note that it’s also very far up in the writer’s head, and because it is so abstract, this type of writing all by itself actually cancels immersion for most readers. It is like floating in a sea of feelings, which might be interesting at first, especially if the prose is beautiful, but after a while, you get tired as the reader, and you find yourself searching for a lifeboat. This type of writing is often found scattered in with dialogue in scenes as well--replacing action and description, and it’s sometimes italicized to indicate that it is an “inner thought” of the POV character.

So what is the opposite of this? Well, the opposite would be pure showing, ie: using description of action and object only to imply emotion and idea (rather than simply telling emotion and idea):

She went to the bathroom, and when she got back, she sat down at her desk. The room was warm. She stared at the picture frame he had purchased for her at a truck stop in Missoula, Montana five years before. She had never put anything in the picture frame. It was still the same smiling people from the stock photo provided by the manufacturer. A long time ago, they had used to go paddling down the Clark Fork river and then tie the canoe to a sturdy root in the bank and hold hands on the shore. Now, he had not held her hand in many months. She picked up the picture frame and then she placed it in a drawer, and then she got up to dust the curtains.

The above type of writing communicates a similar sense of sadness and unclear emotion over a relationship that seems to have changed or died, but that emotional message is communicated through a kind of literal stoicism: actions and descriptions of objects, not the character’s interior monologue. It is not as overtly emotional, but this type of writing is a very effective tool, because it puts things in the scene, creates actions for the characters to undertake, sets up choices that affect the physical world, and attends to setting as well as exposition and character code. It puts your reader in a concrete place, too, a lifeboat, so to speak, giving them actual information to process. It is a break from the effusive emotion we see in the first example, balancing said effusion with stoic and solid objects in the world.

A (Brief) Case for Why We Should All Read Hemingway

Note that most writing has a combination of both of these things--the interior and the exterior. But some writers avoid interior monologue altogether, or reserve it only for VERY important moments. Many of them are short story writers of the modern tradition of Realism, ie: Ernest Hemingway and his many acolytes of the 1970s and 80s--Ray Carver, Ann Beattie, Joy Williams, etc. Even if you hate this sort of writing, it is worth studying. Why? 

Many writers, particularly young writers, I find, eschew writing like Hemingway’s as stilted and boring, and in truth, I did not fully appreciate Hemingway till I was in my late twenties (I’m “old” lol). But I think the reason we reject Hemingway is because it is just...so different from what we’re used to. It demands a great deal of us, the reader, and it never EVER tells us what to think, what to feel, or what the characters are thinking or feeling. Instead, it communicates ALL of this through pure description of action, object, and setting. When you learn how to read Hemingway effectively, even if you still don’t love it, you will see that he is an excellent teacher when it comes to using ONLY action and description to communicate messages about emotion and theme. This is a valuable skill in terms of taking steps toward immersion in your writing and creating concrete settings and pictures for your reader to experience. His writing is very stylized but also very stoic in this way, and it is my experience that a great deal of writing these days could use a bit more stoicism and a bit less effusion, because it is robust ACTION and DESCRIPTION that immerses readers in scenes and settings the most--not soft and abstract interiority and feelings alone.

How Implication Works in Writing, ie: Make Your Readers WORK

The word implication here just literally means “implied meaning.” When I’m teaching, one of the most tell-tale qualities that I look for in a writer’s work is whether they rely too much on overt, over-explained meaning and theme via interiority and narration, or whether they use some form of implication in their writing: do they IMPLY their themes through action and description in the story, attend to both setting and process writing, and do they allow their characters to make choices and their reader to do a little work. The latter style usually indicates a writer that is somewhat more mature in their craft. They have read more and understand the importance of setting and action in fiction. They take their cues from books, not movies and TV. But even if you read a LOT, it’s really difficult and takes a long time to get out of your own head as a writer, and to acknowledge that the most important thing in terms of pushing any story forward is action, not thought or narration, and the most important trait in terms of immersing your reader in any scene or situation is through description of action, description of setting, and description of process (ie: giving your characters something to do).

A common problem I see when teaching writing is the tendency to hand readers everything on a silver platter through the narration of the story: here is what the character is feeling, and here is what the story is about. This is usually handled in the most overt, effusive way possible, and very poetically in very poetic prose. It is also a tendency related to the tradition of “voiceover,” a product of film and TV. But the thing is, much of this is really the writer making notes for themselves, often overcompensating for their failure or unwillingness to imply these ideas earlier or later through more successful means. However, as we grow as writers--by reading more, writing more, and learning over time--we slowly start to realize that readers are independent factions, and they have agency, and they are privy to MUCH more than we realize. They want to see characters doing concrete things in a concrete place, not just read their thoughts all the time. So it’s okay to allow the reader to do a little bit of work, to keep some or much of your meaning and messaging implied, and to allow your ideas to build and unfold overtime, through action and description. When writing, it is very difficult to avoid saying exactly the thing you want to say, and saying it as soon as possible. But as with everything, in writing, patience is a virtue, and it is a skill acquired over time.

An Example in a Song

The thing that drove me to make this post in the first place, while I was driving home from my kid’s preschool this morning, was actually a song. It came on Spotify, and I had not heard it in some time, but I have always thought that, in terms of stories, it is one of the best songs there is. The song is “Making Pies” by the folk singer Patty Griffin. In this song, there is very little interiority and literally zero effusiveness in terms of communicating or expressing emotion. It is tightly held, and its stoicism, in and of itself, is a part of the story it is trying to tell. Even its title is a concrete action: Making Pies. The best thing about this song is its patience in telling the story, and how it also demands patience in its listener. 

Here is the song (youtube | spotify), and here are the lyrics. If you read and listen closely, especially the second time through, you’ll see just how long it takes Griffin to get the actual crux of the story, and even then, all is done through implication. Examples: In the first verse, she asks: “Did I show you this picture of my nephew taken at his big birthday surprise, at my sister’s house last Sunday?” This question is our first major clue into the narrator’s life: she has no children of her own, and she probably lives close to the place where she grew up. This, all by itself, is not a big deal, but as the song unfolds, more and more details begin to arise, cluing us into her sadness and sense of isolation and resignation: the constant, monotone repetition of “making pies,” the walking to work, the graying hair, the fact that she types for the local pastor on Thursdays, as it is an excuse to leave the house, her somewhat cynical, but ultimately resigned relationship to her religion, via her description of Jesus on the wall. All of these things show us SO MUCH about this character. We can feel her very distinct and specific sadness, even as she never ONCE tells us how she feels.

The first REAL clue that we get about her life and the story comes at the end of the second verse: “Did I show you this picture of my sweetheart, taken of us before the war? Of the Greek and his Italian girl, one Sunday at the shore.” This is a huge reveal, done through an action (not a thought): the showing and description of a photograph. We learn so much in the ensuing four lines, which are entirely descriptions of action and place:

We tied our ribbons to the fire escape They were taken by the birds Who flew home to the country As the bombs rained on the world

Once this happens, we know. We now know everything there is to know, because we’ve been set up that way. This is the entire story, right here, and not ONCE does the narrator ACTUALLY “tell” us what happened. She does not say, “The only man I’ve ever loved died in the war, and now my life is an ongoing loop of resignation, quiet bitterness, and depression.” All of this she IMPLIES to us, through description of action (walking to work, making pies, typing for Father Mike on Thursdays, repeat) as well as description of objects (hair color, photographs, Jesus on the wall, the birds, the bombs). This song is beautifully sad and highly immersive in its storytelling. The reason for that is, it uses patience and subtle clues through action and description to tempt the audience forth, and then it uses more pointed clues through action and description to make its final reveal--but it takes a long time to get there. In this sense, the pay-off is immense, and it is an incredibly effective song. We aren’t just hearing about her feelings. We’re seeing what happened and experiencing those feelings for ourselves. 

A slight tangent, but still related: One of the hugest problems I see with lots of current writing, particularly in how it manifests in the modern Hollywood filmmaking tradition, is that there is literally no patience anymore, anywhere. The “hook and snare” is all that matters. Modern dramatic television shows explain their entire thematic purpose via voiceover in the very first scene of the very first episode of the series. Modern action movies spend no time establishing character or contextual lens, and instead dive straight into violence and speed. Nobody trusts their audience. Nobody has any patience. Quietly terrifying blockbuster movies like Alien (1979), which unfold slowly over time, relying on character code, dramatic irony, and careful suspense are now incredibly rare outside the art house. Instead, we are hit with a barrage of color and animation. All messaging is linked directly to the surface level. Characters are stock, cliche, and/or one-dimensional in scope. And too many writers, as they are highly entrenched in the visual media culture of the day, are using these same cues in their fiction: tell the reader exactly what to feel, when to feel it, and how, instead of allowing for patience, build, and reveal, which allows the readers to figure through and come to the emotional climax by themselves. It is the latter that results in immersion.

Conclusion

Why do we love the stories that we love? I will use some modern video games that I love to show that, yes, even in visual media, incredible storytelling through implication exists. Games like The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption 2 employ all facets of setting, character code, and action to tell their stories. They are often maddening, because we, the player, can often see what is coming, though by the time we realize, it’s usually far too late, and we can only watch it come to a boil, just beneath the surface, unable to do anything about it. We are controlling characters who, thrown into action, decision-making, consequences, and often fear for their lives, simply do not see what we see. We watch them make mistakes, and watch these mistakes unfold, manifesting in ways we could not have foreseen, and sometimes not for dozens of hours of gameplay. HUGE moments in these games, like Joel and Ellie’s reunion at the end of the Winter chapter of The Last of Us, or Arthur’s iconic “I’m afraid” line at the train station with Sister Calderon toward the end of Chapter 6 in Red Dead Redemption 2 are not contrived through overt telling and explanation of theme and emotion in the narration of the game. They are earned as longterm, complicated results of many, many actions and interactions that have lead up to these very poignant, very emotional and climactic moments in the story. The themes of the story are not only and overtly told by the characters, or by a narrator, or through voiceover. They are also shown (or reflected) through the setting--the way it looks, the atmosphere, how it changes over time, through the individual quests, how they look, and the types of choices they force the characters to make. 

In this sense, patience and implication are the keys to stories that infuriate us with immersion and make us cry. If you want to slow down a moment, or a scene, or you want to hit your reader over the head with an emotional reveal, focus on earning that moment, scene, or reveal over time, and through much more than simple interior monologue of characters. Use the setting, use action and process writing to communicate your characters feelings and thoughts and the themes of your writing, and to simply anchor your readers in a PLACE. You can STILL use interior monologue, but balance it--with concrete stuff in the world, concrete actions, and concrete choices for your characters to make. Remember, the key to immersion is NOT to tell the reader to be immersed by relying only on beautiful language and narration of thought, feeling, and idea. It is to actually put them in the concrete world you’ve made, and to have them experience those thoughts, feelings, and ideas organically, for themselves.

[wpw3schoolsin]

Weebly vs WordPress| Which one is better?

Is Weebly or WordPress better for you? In this post you can see the differences between them innext 10 minutes. We are sharing the truth about Weebly vs WordPress in step by step process. Read continue.. Weebly Weebly is rather easy to use. You don't require any coding know-how to use its simple drag and decrease editor, and its support group is on hand if you require some assistance. However, you won't have the ability to personalize your website to the same level as you can with WordPress You can produce a website on Weebly for free, yet if you update to one of its paid strategies from just $5/month, you can unlock lots of additional features including ecommerce and marketing devices. WordPress. WordPress is an open source system, indicating you have complete control over the design of your website. Wordpress for dummies has a much steeper understanding curve than Weebly, and you will require to be competent at coding to use it (unless you employ a designer to do it for you). If you need some support, it has a big area who can give you a helping hand. While WordPress is complimentary to utilize, you'll need to pay for points such as motifs, plugins and hosting which can swiftly build up. Versatility Although you can edit the HTML & CSS codes to your Weebly website, which permits you some freedom to tailor the design of your website to a particular extent, Weebly is not an open resource website contractor so you can not manage exactly how a few of their devices work.

  What this likewise means is that if you intend to incorporate non-Weebly tools right into your website, or you want particular features to function in different ways, you may not be able to do this as their core functions are secured off from public access. Having stated that, if you understand a little of code, you still have excellent, innovative control over the design of your website. Further, given that Weebly takes care of the entire platform for you, you do not need to bother with any kind of devices not functioning, or your website breaking. All the website structure devices are managed by Weebly and carefully monitored within its very own operating atmosphere. What this implies is that Weebly cares for all the technological facets of your website, so you can focus on building out your web content. When you have any questions or concerns, you can reach out to Weebly's support group on a 24/7 basis so they can repair them for you. WordPress WordPress is an open resource website building contractor so you have a great deal of liberty to change your website and exactly how your devices work, as you have full access to the platform codes (thinking you are knowledgeable about codes, or if you are working with a programmer). A lot of individuals like utilizing WordPress Wiki as its community offers a lot of totally free plugins so you can add more tools to your website. However, not all WordPress plugins are well developed, so using several of these "bad" plugins might possibly expose your website to safety and security issues, or might possibly trigger conflicts with various other tools that you are making use of. The programmers of the complimentary plugins are sometimes practical if you have troubleshooting concerns, but several of them are not as helpful (because the plugin is totally free). At times, some programmers might even criticize other plugins for causing any disputes, leading to a finger pointing battle and your concern doesn't obtain fixed . Investing in premium plugins will entitle you to support, but even still this does not necessarily ensure that they will certainly repair all the problems for you as the problems might be triggered by other plugins. On the other hand, there are some truly good WordPress plugins around that can truly add a lots of flexibility to your website. Yet you must most absolutely test them thoroughly with your website prior to deploying the plugin. Utilizing the right plugin can boost your website's performance, yet an improperly constructed plugin can have an unfavorable impact on your website's efficiency. Ease of Use Weebly is most likely the easiest website contractor available in the market today, and it is a much easier platform to use than WordPress. It's a drag & a decline website contractor, so you can just drag in your web content, relocate them around, all without needing to recognize exactly how to code at all. If you don't have any type of technical skills, or if you do not have any passion or time to learn coding, after that Weebly is an actually great selection for you to take into consideration using to build your website. Weebly has a pretty good help center, yet in our experience, we really did not require to use it too much as their tools are extremely user-friendly, and easy to use. However, if you need to learn even more details about just how to utilize several of its attributes, the assistance overviews are there for you. WorPress Compared to Weebly, WordPress is a whole lot much more tough to learn how to utilize (a lot higher learning contour). WordPress is not a drag and drop website home builder, and so just how you are able to put your web content (such as slideshows, videos, etc) is greatly depending on how the design layout you select is established.

  If you wish to modify the layout format, such as re-arranging the format of the web page, you'll have to customize the codes to the layout in order to do so, or employ a qualified coder to assist you achieve that. Generally, despite the fact that WordPress is a very effective & versatile platform, if you want to use it successfully, it's unavoidable that you will certainly require to customize codes. If you are able to do that, this website builder might deliver you a lot more sophisticated website than Weebly. Customer Support As talked about above, Weebly has a great collection of help overviews if you have any questions on just how to utilize their devices. However, among the beauties of Weebly is that their home builder is so easy to use, you truly don't need a great deal of advice to build your first website. Beyond the assistance overviews, if you seem like you need extra hands on support, Weebly gives you with 24/7 email support, and live conversation or phone support throughout organization hours. As discussed over, given that all the devices are built and managed by Weebly straight, they will have the ability to take possession of any type of concerns and repair them. Finally, among the advantages of Weebly having its own support team, is that all your questions will be answered, even if thousands of other individuals have already asked the very same question prior to. WordPress WordPress has an enormous community forum where you can post questions wishing various other WordPress customers or programmers will certainly answer them. While a lot of the inquiries are responded to (yet not always fixed), a lot of blog posts are not answered at all. Even more, getting some sort of solution might take many days as most mediators are volunteers, so there is no significant sense of urgency. One of the main challenges is that there are countless concerns being posted, and a lot of them have currently been discussed prior to in another post thread. So your concerns may be neglected as they have actually already been talked about in one of the many countless blog posts, and you might need to sort via every one of them to locate that discussion. At the end of the day, no one is truly bound to answer your question unless you pay for it (such as hiring a WordPress programmer to aid you out). And provided WordPress.org and a lot of its plugins are free, getting a person to figure out your technological concerns can be difficult. Ongoing Maintenance As stated, Weebly is a closed system in which they take care of all the technical issues for you. This consists of all the performance and security updates, so you don't need to worry about the technical aspects of building websites. Every one of this is keeping an eye on and handled by Weebly behind-the-scenes, so you don't have to tension regarding making certain that your site depends on date, or stress over some devices triggering problems and adversely affecting your website.

  Having all this taken care of for you frees up your time, so you can focus on other things that may be more important to you. WordPress Similar to Weebly, WordPress is continually updating & boosting its system to deal with bugs and enhance its protection. When an update is deployed, you'll get an alert message to upgrade your version of WordPress. This can be done by a basic click of the "upgrade" switch. Unfortunately, that is the least complicated part. The most difficult component is that when WordPress updates, your design template and the plugins that you are utilizing will also need to be upgraded as well to make sure that they remain to function correctly with the latest version of WordPress. This depends on the design template/ plugin developer to do so. While a lot of theme and plugin programmers will certainly likewise upgrade to stay suitable, some won't (specifically free of charge layout & plugins). This can reveal your website to prospective individual, efficiency or safety problems. So if you decide to utilize WordPress, remember that there will certainly be ongoing maintenance job, as it is not uncommon for sure functions to "break" when WordPress have updates. Pricing Weebly uses you 4 premium strategies, varying from $5 to $45 each month (pricing based upon 2 year plans. If you select their 6 months or 1 year strategy, the cost each month rises a little). The greater after that strategy, the a lot more tools and features you will be able to accessibility. Keep in mind that you can still use Weebly for free, but it will present a Weebly advertisement on your websites. This can just be eliminated when you update to among their paid strategies. Their costs prepares grant you access to more devices and website building functions, such as header slide shows, site search, even more commercial and advertising and marketing abilities, subscription login, and so on. All strategies (including the cost-free plan) offer you access to Weebly's easy to use drag & drop contractor, over 100 design templates, hosting solutions and committed support team. If you subscribe to a premium strategy, Weebly likewise gives you a free custom-made domain name for your first year. Using Weebly to build your website is just like an all-encompassing plan where all your website structure requirements are given and serviced by Weebly. You will not need to piece together bits and items like you would certainly need to with WordPress The recurring cost of using Weebly can range from $60 (Starter plan) to $540 annually (Performance plan). I believe that just the 24/7 e-mail support, and live conversation & phone support, as well as having all the modern technology took care of for you to maximize your time, is well worth the paid strategies. WordPress. To build your website with WordPress.org, you will certainly have to spend for your very own hosting solution which costs around $7 per month (note: the rate range differs relying on the quality of the hosting provider. Bluehost is a prominent WordPress hosting solution. A premium design template can cost you from $30-- $80, depending on the reputation of the design template provider. While the majority of plugins are totally free, several of them are paid/ costs too (ranging from $15-- $50 per plugin), depending on what you need and if you want support (as pointed out above). You will likewise have to purchase your own personalized domain name ($10 - $15 each year). Your first investment constructing your site with WordPress can vary from $139 to over $200, depending the number of premium plugins you end up using. If you hire a programmer to assist you build your website, make alterations or for taking care of some website concerns, your cost will certainly boost quite a bit on an ongoing basis, and can be a difficulty to allocate. Additionally, remember that the learning contour of using WordPress successfully is additionally a great deal higher than making use of drag & drop website home builders. So you should consider the cost of your very own time also. Want to more about Weebly vs WordPress, read this blog - https://wpw3schools.com/weebly-vs-wordpress/ You may also be interested in Shopify vs WordPress Drupal vs Wordpress

[entergamingxp]

Rune Factory 4 Special Review — It’s Always Been Special To Me

February 25, 2020 1:30 PM EST

Rune Factory 4 maintains its full and outstanding spark, charm, and polish for the Switch audience. The new content isn’t substantial, but the old content remains exceptional. This is absolutely worth your time.

Ahhh, Selphia. I missed you. It’s good to be home again.

I played the ever-loving hell out of Rune Factory 4 back on the 3DS, so getting the chance to revisit the Switch version was a welcome task. Even with this prior history, however, I’m amazed at how effortlessly it drew me in. The hardest part of writing this review has genuinely been dragging myself away from the game long enough to do so. Odds are that once I’m done here, I’ll be right back to it. Let that stand as a ringing endorsement of the game if nothing else.

“The hardest part of writing this review has genuinely been dragging myself away from the game long enough to do so. “

For those just tuning in, Rune Factory is a farming life sim that began as a fantasy spinoff of the Harvest Moon series (and which changed its name to Story of Seasons following disputes with Natsume over the title). It sought to spice up the more relaxed series by introducing magic, monsters, and other such elements to the mix. Rune Factory 4 was the latest in that subseries, and it added the most features, opportunities, and mechanical depth to date. 

The game opens with a brief introduction of the player character (you choose the name and gender but no other customization at first) on an airship. They’re on a mission, but we don’t learn what that is because they’re promptly attacked by stowaway soldiers. Moments later, it’s revealed that they’ve come down with a case of amnesia — a Rune Factory staple — and promptly get punted off the airship.

You crash land on top of a dragon named Ventuswill, who assumes you’re the prince that’s due to arrive in town. It’s quickly clear that that’s not the case when the actual prince Arthur shows up, but that doesn’t stop him from foisting his responsibilities on you to focus on other tasks. With your sudden royalty established, you’re set up to live in the town of Selphia until your memory returns.

Though it comes across as something of an excuse plot at first, there’s a lot more going on here. As you play more, new characters will be introduced to Selphia, and new plot threads are uncovered. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s present, and it’ll take you through several interesting arcs over the course of the game.

With that in mind, Rune Factory 4 never forces such a thing on you. Like the series it originates from, it’s a farming life sim first and foremost. Your day-to-day activities will involve you restoring and managing the farm in Selphia, growing crops, and taming monsters. Beyond that, you can wander the town and interact with the many characters. The real meat of the story is in the dialogue of this colourful cast. Even the most bizarre or bland of them quickly proves to have a lot of personality, and I found myself happy to chat with and befriend them as the days passed.

No good life sim is complete without the ability to take those friendships one step further, however. To that end, there are 12 romanceable characters among the cast: six bachelors and six bachelorettes. There aren’t any same-sex options, however, so keep that in mind if that’s something you’re looking for. And no, the dragon Ventuswill is not dateable. As you befriend your chosen waifu/husbando, you’ll get the option to profess your love, go on dates, and eventually marry and have a child. Margaret is best girl, don’t @ me.

“There are 12 romanceable characters among the cast: six bachelors and six bachelorettes. There aren’t any same-sex options, however.”

For many, this is likely the thing they’ll aspire towards in Rune Factory 4. With all that said, relationships take time to develop, so you’ll be off partaking in the rest of the game’s activities in the meantime. Beyond farming and interacting with Selphia’s denizens, you’ll be able to roam around the game’s world, fighting/taming monsters and plumbing the depths of dungeons. There’s a hell of a lot to find in these places, and lots of materials to gather from defeated enemies or resource points scattered around.

Once you’ve got your haul back to Selphia, you can choose to sell it off or stockpile it for use in the crafting system. You can make all sorts of weapons and equipment, as well as farming implements or medicines. There’s also a ton of cooking recipes as well, many of which offer consumable buffs that will be crucial in clearing some of the harder content. You can also level up your equipment by fusing various materials to them for added effects, so there’s a use for damn near everything you find.

Leveling up also extends back to your farming, too. Better farm tools make your chores quicker, which means you can expand your operations to more fields in less time. Improving the quality of soil and seeds means the crops you grow also improve, having stronger effects and higher value. You can grow crops into giant versions of themselves, have an orchard of replenishing fruit trees, or even grow a dungeon to clear out. Everything you do ties back into farming, and in return it allows you to excel at these other activities.

One of the best features of Rune Factory 4 is the skills system. Much like an Elder Scrolls game, your character will pick up a huge array of skills that can all be individually leveled up. Your various weapons, magic elements, and crafting types all fall into these, but even basic or esoteric stuff like Eating, Sleeping, and Bathing all have a skill. Increasing these will gradually increase your base stats as well, so no matter what you choose to do, you’re making progress and becoming more capable.

Because of this, the wealth of content on offer in Rune Factory 4 never becomes too overbearing. You don’t have to rush the plot, or maximize your farming early, or any other such thing. It’s up to you to determine what you want to do on each given day. There’s a lot more to do than another game of its ilk, but the leisurely sense of playing at your own pace remains.

It’d be fair to say that Rune Factory 4 is very much greater than the sum of its parts. Part of the reason it can flood the player with content is because most of the pieces are fairly simple. There’s depth to juggling all the various moving parts and maximizing your stats, sure. But taken on its own, each mechanic is fairly straightforward. 

Combat is an action-RPG affair that sees you mostly mashing your attack button with your weapon of choice. You have the ability to dash as a soft dodge, and this can combo into a different attack, but beyond this, it’s very basic. You also can equip magic abilities to supplement this, but you’ll rarely be doing anything truly complex. Dungeons are long sequences of small rooms with very light puzzles and a mix of enemies on offer. Even on the higher difficulties, it mostly comes down to moving at the right times and having higher stats or more healing than the opponent.

Again, though, this all ends up serving the package as a whole. Combat isn’t too deep, but it increases your skills and grants materials for crafting. The crafting lets you proceed further, and also helps you with the farming. The farming likewise can give you stronger materials, consumables, or produce the right items to gift townsfolk. You can even use them on some monsters to befriend them, taking them into combat to supplement your abilities or keeping them on the farm to do chores and produce materials. Simple pieces, but it makes for a very large and beautiful puzzle.

“Rune Factory 4 is very much greater than the sum of its parts.”

By now, you hopefully have a good idea of what’s in store for you in Rune Factory 4. Everything I’ve said so far has all been true of the original 3DS release, though. So what else is new about Rune Factory 4 Special?

There have been a few adjustments made to compensate for the lack of the 3DS dual screen on a Switch. The second screen was usually dedicated to a minimap or other information, but instead, this is now presented in a transparent window in the corner. You can resize the minimap with a press of ZL, though, so it doesn’t get too intrusive. There’s also been a number of tweaks that allow you to enlarge text boxes, while ZR has been mapped to the frequently used Escape spell. Enough care and concessions were put in to make sure the transition to a different screen size is smooth, which is appreciated.

With all that said, it’s still very much a 3DS game in terms of appearance. The resolution has been increased and many of the models or images have been smoothed out, so the game looks far less pixelated than the original. Unfortunately, this is something of a double-edged sword; many of the flat images now look dull and simplistic despite the clarity. It was a lot harder to tell how everything was compressed to fit a 3DS screen and cartridge, but now that illusion has been lifted. The 3D models look good enough, but it’s all still clearly born of a handheld game. Those expecting high graphical fidelity won’t find it here, though the developers have done their utmost nonetheless.

Beyond the presentation, a few little additions have made their way into the port. English and Japanese dual audio is now available, toggled from the menu. There’s a new difficulty mode that’s quite punishing, but I honestly just found it more of a nuisance than an interesting challenge. Some games better suit being challenged on high difficulty, but Rune Factory 4’s combat depth is too basic and stat-driven to really warrant it. It’s there should you desire, however!

As for the new content… there isn’t all that much to it. Both showcased additions to Special are available on the main menu, but you won’t be able to access them immediately. Another Episode is a series of short segments displayed and voiced like a visual novel, each one focusing on a romanceable character. There’s also a bonus one for Ventuswill, which is the closest fans of the dragon goddess are gonna get this time around. Ultimately, these are simple, short, sweet, but not a particularly large chunk of content. They’re also DLC, but will be free for the first month or so if you get the game early.

The Newlywed Mode adds more gameplay in the form of an epilogue with your partner after you get married. Again, there’s one for each, and these remain locked until you marry that specific character in a playthrough. Given the overall length of the game, only the absolutely dedicated or determined are ever likely to see all of these.

But here’s the rub: I didn’t get to play any of these episodes in the course of my review. This isn’t for lack of trying, either. I clocked up well over 40 hours of playtime on Switch, and I’ve beaten the 3DS version previously. I know what I’m doing to speed things along, but outside of rushing and ignoring non-essentials, it didn’t happen. Not only did I not make it to marrying a character, but I’m not even close! I only really just started dating my waifu of choice. As such, I honestly can’t tell you about the quality of this new content or what’s entailed. I intend to come back after the game has launched and cover it once I get there, but I just wasn’t able to get through enough to make it in time for this review.

Despite this conundrum, I think it loops right back around to showcasing just how much content there is in Rune Factory 4. This game is utterly enormous. It’s varied, it’s engaging, and it’s a great time. Whether doing chores at a relaxed pace or grinding hard to overcome a particular challenge, this holds true.

There is a major criticism I can offer, however. Town Events will spring up at random throughout your game. These involve a selection of the cast and some antics going on in their lives, and often lead to some great insight into their personality or history. Nonetheless, these events are random. On a day determined by the game (it’s not set), one of these events will trigger. Your save file will always have an event trigger on that day, and reloading prior to that day will let you cycle through events to access a particular one if you’re dedicated.

“This game is utterly enormous. It’s varied, it’s engaging, and it’s a great time.”

Now, this might not be an issue if these were exclusively minor little events. The problem is, these Town Events also include a number of key scenes. In order to marry your partner, you’ll have to see all their prerequisite events, and some have more than others. More egregiously? The entire third Act of the plot including the last major area is locked behind this! 

If you didn’t look online and just try playing at your own pace — as I did on the 3DS — it might take you a frustratingly long time to even realize that the plot continues and there’s more to do… only for you then needing to cycle the events until you trigger the right one. It’s utterly maddening, and the largest complaint I could level against Rune Factory 4. I was hoping this would be adjusted for Special, but alas.

As major an issue as this is, however, it’s one that you can overcome with a little patience and a touch of frustration. By the time you’re likely to reach this point, you’ll have played a tremendously large chunk of video game already, with still more ahead. It really astonished me just how much content was in a 3DS game, and this is still remarkable even now on a different system. Given that this is my only problem with the game outside of small nitpicks, it’s far from a deal breaker.

“While no individual aspect is the best of its kind, the overall package exudes charm and entertainment that is hard to match.”

So this is where we stand. Rune Factory 4 Special is an amazing game. It was my personal favourite 3DS game out of the large and varied library. It’s a game that I was more than happy to return to even if there was no new content whatsoever. I still know my way around Selphia and relish my time with it. Many love Stardew Valley, but as quality as that game is… I’ve never been able to play it without eventually going back and replaying Rune Factory 4 instead. I expect I’ll still be playing even when Animal Crossing rolls around. While no individual aspect is the best of its kind, the overall package exudes charm and entertainment that is hard to match.

If you haven’t played the original and this sounds even remotely like your kind of game, I heartily encourage you to try it. If you did play the original, you probably won’t get too much that you didn’t already experience. Should you just feel a little nostalgic for it and want to go back to one of the best farming life sims ever made, though? That was more than enough for me to adore my time with Rune Factory 4 Special, and will continue to do so long after you’re done reading this. Here’s hoping the upcoming Rune Factory 5 manages to capture that magic again.

February 25, 2020 1:30 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/02/rune-factory-4-special-review-its-always-been-special-to-me/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rune-factory-4-special-review-its-always-been-special-to-me

[ruthsulivan]

Wotofo Brand Review

There’s good reason the Wotofo Brand has gained such an impressive reputation since being founded back in 2012.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget, but modern vaping has only really been around for a little over ten years now. Especially in the last several years, vaping has become a massive industry on the cutting edge of technology. There are so many new devices and accessories, it can be overwhelming to keep track of. That’s why any veteran vaper knows you always have to do adequate research before making any big purchase.

Here at ChurnMag, we’re always looking for any way we can make vaping easier for everyone. That’s why we’re doing an in-depth breakdown of one of our favorite brands, Wotofo. We’ll quickly review two of their best new devices, the Recurve Squonk Mod and the Profile Unity RTA, as well as mention some of their other best buys. But first, let’s briefly go over what sets Wotofo apart from so many other vaping brands.

Overview Of Wotofo

Wotofo was founded back in 2012, right when the industry first started gaining real traction. They saw the mounting battle between the vaping industry and misleading research and decided to investigate for themselves. Ever since they’ve been working tirelessly to improve the lives of smokers everywhere with vaporizers. Over the years, they’ve built a strong reputation for making consistently high quality and reliable devices. Their commitment to staying at the cutting edge of technology has been noticed and appreciated by many long-time vapers. Wotofo offers a wide variety of vaping products and accessories, everything ranging from building tools to starter kits. Each of these products has been lovingly designed and crafted to ensure a consistently fantastic experience. But they’re perhaps most well known for their wide-variety of incredible rebuildable atomizers, such as the Serpent Elevate RTA, Recurve Dual RDA, Profile RDA, Faris RDTA, or many more.

Wotofo also offers a great selection of starter kits and mods, including the Chieftain Box Mod, Crush One Pen Starter Kit, Stentorian Ram Squonk Mod, and even the high-quality Flow Pro Sub Ohm Tank. Whatever device you decide on, you can be sure you’re going to love it. Wotofo has earned their reputation for incredible customer service by providing a consistently great experience, backed by well-trained customer service representatives in the off chance something does go awry. I always really appreciate that extra level of care you get from brands like Wotofo. While others get away just fine without going the extra mile, long-time vapers can see the difference. But to really get a sense for what makes Wotofo so special, let’s do a quick review of two of their best products, the Recurve Squonk Mod, and the Profile Unity RTA.

The Recurve Squonk Mod

The Recurve Squonk Mod is an incredibly beautiful and sleek device designed as a collaborative effort between Wotofo and popular Youtube Vape Reviewer, Mike Vapes. It’s powered by a single 18650, 20650, 20700, or 21700 battery, giving it surprising versatility. It has a maximum output of 80W and 4.2V while functioning with resistance as low as 0.08 ohms. Your purchase comes with one Wotofo Recurve Squonk Mod, USB charging cable, and user manual, along with the significant plus of included 18650 and 20650 battery adaptors.

The first feature that really jumps out at you about the Recurve Squonk is the combination of unregulated power output with modern safety features and protections. Being a mechanical style device, the output is directly related to the remaining battery life. Combining these vastly different styles of vaping is an incredible feat few other mods can begin to replicate. Mechanical mods have always been the go-to choice for vapers who want the most massive clouds, but until now they’ve required an intimate knowledge of Ohm’s law to use them safely. Now any aspiring cloud chaser can take things to the limit with the Wotofo Recurve Squonk Mod. It has a massive 8ml bottom-feed squonk bottle, which can be accessed via the easy access panel. Despite the large size of the Recurve, it’s amazingly ergonomic and sturdy.

There’s a lot to love about the Wotofo Recurve Mod. One of my absolute favorite features has to be the combined mechanical power output with safety protections. It’s already been touched on, but it’s so game-changing it bears repeating as far as I’m concerned. Other major advantages of the Recurve range from basic bonuses, including the large and tactile fire button, to more nuanced but appreciated touches, such as the LED light indicator hidden behind the squonk bottle. I also loved how it was able to accommodate any RDAs up to 26mm without any overhang. If there were one thing I would change about the Recurve Mod it would be the addition of some type of battery life indicator. That said, as a mechanical mod, it’s relatively easy to tell when your battery is losing power and will soon need to charge. Overall the Recurve Squonk Mod is one of the best mods offered by Wotofo, or any other brand for that matter.

The Profile Unity RTA

The Wotofo Profile Unity RTA is simply put, one of the best atomizers ever made. The collaborative effort between Wofoto, MrJustRight1, and the Vapor Chronicles has given us a truly special RTA, made for and by the people. This 25mm by 48.5mm atomizer is 510 threaded and top filled for easy access. Your purchase comes with everything you need to get started except the e-liquid and mod. This includes one Profile Unity RTA, one 3.5ml glass tube, one 5ml adapter, bending tool, screwdriver, two nexMesh Coils, one bag of 6mm Agleted cotton, an extra bag of O-rings, screws, and springs, as well as the user manual.

The included innovative nexMESH coils are made from high-quality kanthal A1 metal, functioning with between 60-70W of power and resistance as low as 0.13 ohms. It features fantastic adjustable airflow holes on either side, with a unique deck-chamber linkage system which keeps the deck and chamber together and provides a steady and focused airflow. You also don’t have to worry about it overheating, as it uses incredible German PEEK as an insulating material. This combination of high-quality materials and attention to design has resulted in one of the best RTAs of all time. In fact, I can hardly think of any other atomizers that have provided such a consistently flavorful experience.

I had a really great time using the Wotofo Profile Unity RTA. Probably my favorite feature had to be the incredible flavor provided by the nexMESH coils. These things are serious game-changers, and I have to believe many other brands will be quick to try and replicate this technology. The overall design of the RTA is great, with all six color options being vibrant, with a matching drip tip. Other than that, I found the adjustable airflow, easy to use design, and relatively massive cloud production to be other significant pros of the Profile Unity RTA. The only complaints I have a really small, and mostly involve personal preference. For example, I found the juice ports to be a bit narrow, but I know several people who prefer this over more open designs. The Wotofo Profile Unity RTA is an excellent atomizer for any vaper who enjoys a bit of versatility, but it’s even better for those mainly concerned with getting the best flavor possible.

Conclusions

I’ve always had nothing but incredible experiences with Wotofo. Despite having bought dozens of products from them over the years, I’ve never had any problems with any part of my experience. It’s really important for all vapers to have brands they know they can rely on, especially when new technology is coming out, and it’s hard to know what’s fact or fiction. If you don’t, you may end up spending a lot more for a lesser quality device with some flashy but meaningless features. That’s why we wanted to highlight the fantastic work being done over at Wotofo. They back all of their products, and no matter what type of vaper you are, they’re sure to have something perfect for you.

The post Wotofo Brand Review appeared first on ChurnMag.

[leonardoexlz088-blog]

The most common Errors in SEO Tournaments

I've. I've gone through all the phases: aspirant, Selected, finalist, winner and even member of the jury on many occasions. And, believe me, watching SEO competitions from another side removes many prejudices and fears.

However, SEO contests are rigged!

If You're among people that believe that they never win Because SEO contests are given beforehand, you're confused. Look at me, I don't have a plug everywhere and I've managed to win sometime. In addition, I will assure you that, at the juries I've participated in, the process has been transparent, driven exclusively by criteria of SEO quality.

However, you don't need to be innocent. Behind some of the However, there are still many others who are honest. Regrettably, these are also tough to win. Why? Because they're presented with professional writers. And by"professionals" I do not SEO Contest uWelcome2019 mean"celebrities. There are scores and scores of anonymous professional authors who are light years away from becoming multimillionaires, but that live off their art precisely because they win several search engine optimization prizes a year.

yourself. Even prizes that are in their first variants along with the involvement is not yet massive. Search engine optimization prizes from small cities are not usually badly compensated and are considerably more affordable. Or maybe you want to try those in which the prize is to be printed, so people will finally read to you. There are SEO competitions of all types, as Víctorio Pajuo explains in this guide, and according to your own objectives, you've got to introduce yourself to others or some. It's going be SEO competitions... there's a good deal of them each month!

Gratitude, ask yourself whether the story you present has a true prospect of winning, because I, who've been on the other side performing the sifting, have observed mistakes that you would not think. And I'm going to tell you about them so that you don't fall for them. There they go.

ERRORS OF BULGE

1. Foundations

Seriously, if you enter a Search Engine Optimization contest, bother to read Carefully the rules, which are to get some thing. best SEO contest uwelcome2019 By simply complying with them to the letter, you've got a better chance of winning than you think. It's incredible how many men and women pass them by. No expansion, no typeface, maybe not the subject! They send anything they need and, ale, let's see if we are lucky! And no, of course there isn't. If a player doesn't bother to read the principles, the jury does not bother to read his text, which straightforward. That his story was great? Too bad, he sent her into the wrong contest.

2. Not knowing the principles of Grammar and punctuation

It Appears clear, but it's not: to acquire a Search Engine Optimization competition you Have to understand how to compose. Come on, the basics: putting letters together in line with the principles of grammar and mixing words with significance. Many, many, current stories filled with flaws. Tildes? Comas? Pa' what? And since the jury is not there to decipher hieroglyphics, they're eliminated without contemplation.

When You're a jury and you've got more than fifty tales

Between the unfulfilled bases as well as the flaws, a sizable part Of those participants are left from this contest. People who pass the first sieve belong to a minority. But that's when things become complicated...

STYLISTIC ERRORS

3. Not focusing of style

A Fantastic writer is one who explains the complex with simple words. Whereas a bad author, or inexperienced writer, is one who attempts to show off using a verbiage full of grandiloquent words. They reload the sentences in such a way that it is all but impossible to know what the story is all about. I'm sorry to say that if you make that mistake and the jury should pick up a dictionary to accompany you, they won't think you're too clever, they'll think you're overly pedantic and dull.

But you don't have to go to another extreme either: Simple doesn't mean easy. A story that doesn't have these stylistic mistakes makes the difference. Therefore, among the most important steps before submitting your story to a search engine optimization contest is to devote a good deal of time correcting your style, so that the words that remain are just and necessary.

STRUCTURAL ERRORS

4. The beginning is boring

There is a great deal of focus on the fact that the Opening sentence must be especially excellent. I don't think it's vital for a narrative to be excellent, but it shouldn't be anodyne either. And this mistake is particularly bleeding in a brief story or a micro story, in which every word counts. Too many.

Setting at a short story is usually a mistake. You probably hate it if your neighbor informs you about the weather at the elevator, especially when he warns you that it's raining when you wind up in suspenders and with your own umbrella under your arm. Well, the same thing happens on your narrative: Why does it really matter that it had been cloudy or the sun was shining?

That information extends to books. Although there is more space For frills, it's recommended that everything narrated should play a role in the narrative. The external physiological descriptions, the critique of all of the protagonists' clothes, the section of the time in every chapter... sleeping the reader and, don't doubt it, the jury of this search engine optimization contest.

5. A Lousy development

Then you will find the participants who have very internalized The initial shocking term, however, they are unable to keep up the level during the rest of the text. You are able to observe that they had a good narrative, but they did not understand how to let it. Too bad.

"sometimes the best thought is how to tell the story. The most original argument in the world is useless if you do not fancy the plot well. My recommendation is that you don't try to become a breaker when you have not mastered the basic tools yet. A normal well-told narrative will be interesting to the jury in relation to a very original one which is poorly developed. The jury isn't likely to evaluate your good intentions, but the final outcome.

There are also people who think that a Brief story is to Or the participants that recreate themselves in reflections with no narrative as a frequent thread. In all these scenarios, the problem is they have not understood that short stories and micro stories have to have their own thing: they aren't the younger brothers of a novel nor a couple of beautiful and profound phrases. They must tell a whole story in a couple of words, and that is where the complication lies.

6. Failed end

The bad thing about a good beginning and a good development is That when the end isn't up to the job, it disappoints. Only those who create the 3 components attractive can win the prize.

What mistakes do novice writers often make at the end of Their tales?

Explain the narrative: Yes, more than one can. That denotes Insecurity on the part of the author, that wishes to make it crystal clear that his story had a depth that, possibly, the jury hasn't managed to see. Now, the jury can respond in two ways: when they'd known the complexity of the story, they will ask them to describe it to them, and the participant will lose several points, if not all of them; and if they had not seen it for themselves (and, nevertheless, it is possible they would have enjoyed the story)they will realise that the author didn't know how to transmit the thoughts he had been trying to convey... and they will also subtract points from it.

Conclusion: never clarify the end, make an effort to be clear throughout the text. Or leave doors open for each reader to think what they want, which is considerably more suggestive.

Recurring to the joke: You have to perform it nicely To make it amusing. The double meanings are extremely well seen. What did it seem like you were talking about your girlfriend, but you were referring to your vehicle? Well, that is not surprising , in actuality, you can see it coming from afar. A narrative that is reduced to the last joke is easily forgotten, it will never remain in the mind of the jury, following dozens and dozens of stories read.

Sentimentalism: Sometimes it works, but, from my point of View, a short story does not give time to create the essential atmosphere to Move with a final twist that touches the fiber. It is dangerous, or even Of narrative, everything has to be very quantified in order to not trigger the opposite Effect: rather than stirring, repelling.

[beautysupply101]

Get To Know Laser Facelift Fort Lauderdale Medical Spas Are Offering

By Karen Williams

Most women are bothered by the presence of wrinkles on their face. However, not all of them are willing to undergo risky and expensive surgery just to get rid of those unsightly cosmetic issues. Those who are afraid of undergoing general anesthesia and shelling out lots of their savings may choose to undergo non-surgical solutions. One of those is laser facelift Fort Lauderdale medical spas are offering these days. It's no secret that laser is a technology admired by beauty-conscious individuals. Primarily, it's due to its impressive ability to permanently reduce the number of unwanted facial and body hair. Thanks to laser hair removal, it's very much possible to eliminate for good repeated shaving, plucking, waxing and threading. Many other cosmetic problems usually encountered by a woman like you can be dealt with by laser. For instance, it's an effective treatment for acne. The said technology is also an excellent eraser of acne scars that no topically-applied solutions can get rid of. So many of today's dermatologists also recommend laser treatment for common problems such as spider veins, warts, liver spots, enlarged pores and skin tags. You may consider laser facelift if you're someone who is terrified of the thought of undergoing the knife. A lot of beauty-conscious women in fact pay for it in order to get rid of their wrinkles in a non-surgical manner. A dermatologist uses a hand-held tool that releases pulses of light. Needless to say, no scalpel is involved. The reason why laser can impress is that it encourages the synthesis of more collagen. So many of today's topical anti-aging solutions contain collagen, and that's why its name sounds really familiar. A type of structural protein, collagen is the one that makes a woman's skin stay firm. Needless to say, collagen is vital for keeping wrinkles from showing up. One of the reasons why wrinkles form is too much sun exposure. That's because UV rays given off by the sun damage collagen present. Because more collagen is being destroyed than manufactured, firmness is lost and thus wrinkling is seen. The normal process of aging decreases the body's ability to produce collagen. Clearly, excessive sun exposure and aging do not mix as it can prove to be a nightmarish duo for someone who is beauty-conscious. Although it's true that laser may cause some discomfort, undergoing it for the elimination of wrinkles does not require general anesthesia. Instead, a topical numbing cream is applied by the practitioner a few minutes before the treatment is commenced. Also, the hand-held used emits cool air in order to dissipate heat generated by every single beam of light. After the procedure, results can be noticed right away. It's perfectly normal for a little redness and puffiness to be observed, too, but nothing as terrifying as the side effects of having a surgery. Laser facelift is perfect for beauty-conscious women who do not consider undergoing surgery as an option. Compared to its traditional counterpart, it's easier on the pocket and carries with it significantly less risks. Undergoing the treatment once a year is recommended in order to maintain the effects.

About the Author:

You can get a summary of the things to keep in mind when scheduling facelift Fort Lauderdale surgery at https://ift.tt/2T3cYRW now.

https://ift.tt/2FAoV8k

[siliconwebx]

Building an Online Community from the Ground Up

Unless you’re a natural social butterfly, building your own online community may sound a little daunting. However, if you plan correctly, you can set up a little section of the internet that you and yours can call home for years to come. In this post we’ll walk you though a few stages you’ll need to navigate in order to see your idea of a community become a reality.

Planning Stages

You cannot just jump head-first into building a community. Sometimes they just kind of organically emerge, but if you’re looking to start a purposeful group, you need a plan. Otherwise, things can get out of hand quickly. Not necessarily in a bad way — you might become the place to be and grow exponentially faster than you expected to. Whatever the case, approaching building your community purposefully is your best bet for success.

1. Why Do You Want to Build a Community?

To start off with, you need to know specifically why you’re building this community. It is very easy to get in over your head and let a project go sideways without a clear vision of why you’re doing it and where it’s going. So think on it, and ask yourself the hard question: how will this community benefit its members?

That’s a hard question to answer. Especially because there are a lot of communities out there already. The internet is a big place. Just look at Reddit with the massive amount of users and categories and subreddits that people participate in. So if you’re going to build a community from the ground up, what will it bring to the table?

As an example, when I started my first podcast, I talked with my partner a lot about this. What even made us start talking about the podcast to begin with was wanting a place to talk with people. We missed the old days of blogging where conversations happened in the comments sections instead of on social media. It didn’t feel as personal or as social to us.

We wanted to talk to people and make friends. It was as simple as that. We wanted to produce content that would bring people together and have a conversation.

So that was our why.

Determine Your ROI:

Just a quick note about running a community. Sometimes you might not make a profit on it. You may be spending money or time on building this up. It can be a lot of work, so you should ask yourself what return you want out of this. This return should be entirely separate from the community goals above.

You may want an increase in emails to blast mail in return for providing a space for folks to congregate. You may be looking to create a route for customer support and brand loyalty to increase. Your company might even be looking to use it as a recruitment tool, finding new talent from people passionate about your brand or project.

Basically, you want to make sure that you aren’t expending resources without getting anything in return. If taken seriously and done right, a community can be a lot of work, so you want to make sure that even if your motives are altruistic and for the good of your audience and users, there is still a return in some way for you.

2. Find a Concept (or Stay on Brand)

Once you know why you’re going to build your community, the next step is making sure you appeal to the right people. As one of my old bosses used to tell me, “you gotta find your schtick.” Basically, what I’m saying is that you need a brand identity. I really liked how this article from Brandisty put it: “Let me be clear: a brand is the relationship between an organization and an audience.”

With that in mind, I am not saying you need a logo or a 4-color palette for your media kit. I’m saying that you need to know what your community is going to represent to its members. At Elegant Themes, for instance, we work to represent style and empowerment for our users. We want people to see or hear the words Divi or Elegant Themes and think to themselves “Oh yeah, their stuff lets me do my job so much easier than before” or “Man, the photos in that latest layout pack are perfect for [Insert Big Client’s Name]’s site.”

Sure, we have beautiful logos and pretty colors, but those are secondary to what is really important: making your life better through excellent design.

Now, if you have a brand already (and you probably do), think about who your users are and what you want to be to them. What purpose will this community serve to them? For you, it will (hopefully) lead to increased revenue, higher brand awareness and reach, and improvements in your products or service. But what good does it do your users to be members?

As an example of that, with my podcast, my partner and I wanted the relationship between our listeners and our show to be that of a matchmaker. We wanted to facilitate people meeting new friends. So if they listened to our podcast, they would have ample opportunity to talk with like-minded people through our community that we worked on building. Same for Elegant Themes — we have a very active comments section here on the blog, a Meetup network of Divi Nation groups, and so on. We strive to make sure that you participating means you get some value that doesn’t come directly from the software itself.

That’s our brand. Now find yours.

3. Craft a Mission Statement

Yes, those dreaded words. Mission Statement. The only two words that can make a committee meeting even more dreadful. But you need one. It doesn’t have to be anything complex (it’s better if it’s not), but you need to get that concept behind your brand identity into writing. That’s all. Mission statements serve the purpose of giving you a cornerstone to look back on and make sure that you’re on track. And if not, you can easily course correct.

4. Where Will Your Community Gather?

Today, there are a ton of options to choose from, and depending on your type of brand or project, some may work better than others. There are really two things you have to keep in mind about this:

Do you want a completely free forum, or do you want to own and control your own platform?

Where does your audience already hang out?

The pros of going for a free forum is that most of the leg-work is done for you. Choosing an option like a Facebook Group is great because so many people already use it (so you show up where they already are), and you can get started in just a few clicks. It takes mere minutes to get Groups up and running on Facebook.

The cons of using an externally hosted platform is that you don’t have any control over it. Not really. You and your community are subject to their ToS and business model and lifespan and so on. However,

Controlling your own platform gives you freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. But it comes at the cost of being yet another account your users have to sign up for. With forums and various membership site plugins for WordPress, you can absolutely go this route. But if you make the process too much of a chore, your community may never get off the ground.

Some Platform Options:

I want to list some of the more popular platforms to grow an online community, and in many cases, creators and brands choose multiples to reach different segments of their audience. For example, some people may spend the majority of their time online with Discord open in the background, but never log into Facebook. Or some people might be hardcore Redditors and Twitter influencers, but avoid group chat platforms altogether.

Discord – A group chat that is aimed at gamers, but robust enough to work for a variety of community types. Very handy if your user base is already using it, as your server could just be added to their list.

Slack – A group chat that many companies use for work, so people very likely already have this one installed. Setting up your own Slack server is free, and communities here thrive during the day since people can participate while looking like they’re hard at work.

Reddit – The largest community on the internet. Basically one giant forum, anyone can set up a subreddit (subforum), which anyone can subscribe to and participate in.

Facebook Groups – You’re probably already a member of a few Facebook groups. These groups can easily go viral, have lots of admin options, and take advantage of a place your people are already likely to be.

Twitter hashtags – Twitter hashtags can also be a community. Often taking the form of a chat (such as #bibchat or #codenewbies), these tend to be regular, moderated discussions that eventually grow into a tag folks use all the time to keep everyone connected.

YouTube comments – Despite their reputation, if you foster a healthy discussion in the comments of your videos, you can build a very active and thriving community there. People’s channels will follow and interact with one another, share playlists, and just generally grow together.

Live streams – If you regularly live stream, you will get a cadre of viewers who tune in. Those people then fill up the chats as you go, talking with you and each other, and then those comments continue after the stream is over. This is generally not the primary location for your community, but it’s a fantastic way to get people to interact and hang out together.

Forums and Message Boards – While on the decline in popularity, forums and message boards are the old standby for internet communities. Totally asynchronous messaging threads are incredibly useful for long, detailed discussions. However, because they are generally entirely separate from other accounts and platforms, people have to make an effort to check the boards to see new updates. If you decide to go this route, there are plenty of WordPress plugins available including bbPress.

Social Media Pages and Profiles – Simply having a Facebook page or a Twitter profile that interacts with other users in and of itself. Look at the Wendy’s Twitter account. Or Zappos. They keep their social media managers interacting with customers constantly, and their responses stay on brand. So people get involved. Again, this won’t be the primary platform, but it can be very important.

5. Lay Down The Law

You have to write down whatever rules and guidelines you want your members to follow. Communities go downhill fast if you have no rules to govern them. Even if they’re as simple as “no self-promotion, hate speech, or personal attacks will be tolerated.”

As the community manager, it’s your job to determine the bounds within which the members stay. They can be as rigid or as lenient as you want, but the important thing is that they exist and are posted for people to see. Well, and that they’re enforced, but we’ll get to that next.

Action Stages

A lot of the planning for a community is academic. You’re thinking and envisioning and trying to make sure all your ducks are in a row. After that, you get to put you feet to the pavement (or maybe fingers to the keyboard) and start dealing with people.

1. Start It Up

Okay, so take steps 1-5 under the planning stages and do them. It’s time to implement your plan. It’s time to start that Facebook Group or launch that Discord server. Take everything that you’ve been thinking about and make it real. It doesn’t matter that your users aren’t aware of it yet. That’s okay. You want to lay claim to your spot.

If you have been planning it for a while, you might have even told them that you were working on this. So long before you start inviting people, plant your flag and get it to waving. The important thing is that no one gets an Under Construction page or a broken URL. Once you start pointing people at where you want them to be, you want them to stay there. So get the forums up and running. Set the permissions and channels in Discord. Upload your emoji to Slack.

Take your idea and make it real.

2. Soft Launch

A soft launch will be your best bet for introducing people to your community. And by soft launch, I mean, not promoting it to the world at large. Just let people organically trickle in. Maybe you invite a handful of people or casually drop a note about it in your podcast or at the end of an email. Maybe even a Join our Community button on your website. But not putting effort into telling people about it.

Why?

Because of bugs and snags and all the thousands of things that could go wrong. You want to be able to work out the kinks before bringing in a boatload of people. If the first impression that people get of your community is that it’s shoddy, you probably won’t get a second one.

Especially if there’s any kind of premium price tag attached. If that’s the case, give a few free memberships or trials to some people to try out and get things rolling. They’ll feel special, it’ll be a soft launch, and you’ll hopefully get some free advertisement for when you do launch officially.

3. Recruit Staff and Assign Roles

Now this is a kind of iffy stage, to be honest. Some people don’t need this step at this point. Everyone will eventually, though. You can handle going solo, trying to build an online community all on your own (I’m thinking of Saron from CodeNewbie, who did it all by her lonesome at first). Some of you already have a staff or group of volunteers. Heck, some of you already have an audience who are clamoring to be more involved with you.

But if you don’t, it’s time to grease some palms. Figuratively, and maybe even literally.

You won’t need much. Just a few people to make sure things run smoothly. You will want people to moderate discussion, generally, and make sure the rules you set up are followed. Even if you start out doing it all by your lonesome, there will be people stepping up to enforce them for you. Even without you asking. These are perfect recruits. Additionally, you can see the people who engage the most and care about the community’s growth and health and ask them if they want to be involved in a greater capacity.

In the end, it’s the caring about the community’s growth and health that matters.

4. Really Launch and Promote Your Tail Off

This is the big moment. Once most of the outstanding bugs are taken care of, you are ready to get this show on the road. You can shout it from the rooftops and let the entire world know that your doors are open and welcoming to anyone who wants to be a part of something special.

And this is where you have to do most of the work. Because you need to get people interested and invested and actually participating in your community. All of your marketing energy will likely be spent going toward your community for a while, and that’s okay. It’ll pay off. (Remember earlier when we talked about your ROI?)

It depends entirely on your project and brand on what channels you promote through, but in general, you want to go overboard. Just to the point where you don’t annoy people.

Running Facebook ads or AdWords campaigns is a popular way to recruit. If you are a community of artists, Instagram ads would be perfect. Send out an email to all your lists. Then a few days later, segment it to those who didn’t open it. Schedule a lot of Tweets and Facebook posts using Hootsuite or Buffer. CoSchedule is another good option.

For the initial launch period, you may want to do a combination of live streams and interact with your audience or customers that way. Promote those personally. Even do giveaways if it’s a premium community. And use Facebook events, even if you’re not on Facebook. It’s hard to believe how much Virtual Launch Parties can help a project’s reach. Or really any virtual event, for that matter.

Maintenance Stage

So you’ve launched. You’re up and running. You have people visiting your community every day, and everything is going even better than you expected. So what now? Well, you maintain it. You keep on doing what works, and maybe throwing some new ideas in the mix to keep things fresh for your customers and audience.

Basically, to maintain a community, you go through most of the steps you did to launch it, just to a lesser degree.

Periodically look at the mission statement and purpose of your community to evaluate whether you are on track with your goals.

Make sure your ROI is on track. Check if you’re putting in enough effort or too much into keeping things going.

Always monitor the users and keep an eye on MVPs. You can never have too many people in your corner. Harvest the talent there for everyone’s gains.

You should also monitor your monitors. Make sure the rules you laid out are still being followed and that the community is still what you meant for it to be.

Continue marketing. You don’t want to go all-out like you did to launch it. To build an online community requires people hearing about it. Maintaining one is about retention and interactivity. But you will still need to keep it in your marketing rotation so it doesn’t become stagnant or insular.

That’s All There Is To It.

And isn’t that enough? If you are going to build an online community, it takes time, effort, and a lot of planning. But when it’s done right, there is really no better element you can add to your brand or company.  Positive interaction with your target audience is more valuable than pretty much anything else these days, and there’s not really anything more positive than inviting them to your own space that you made especially for them.

What have your experiences been with building an online community? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

Article featured image by O.darka / shutterstock.com

The post Building an Online Community from the Ground Up appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

from Elegant Themes Blog https://ift.tt/2BDVdAp via SiliconWebDesign

[ashelycarmack2-blog]

Job Profiles.

One of the most effective horticulture designs are those that include enticing and also thrilling landscapes. Designed to allow easy, accurate bends for copper or steel piping, these threading tools can be customised to an amount of unique settings depending on your needs. Increased bed gardening is actually an excellent technique for today's active garden enthusiast to maintain new food relating to the dining table coming from the very first cutting from lettuce in the springtime to the final tomato from the season. If you are actually right into functional gardening gifts or the whimsical wide array, all in all it carries out not matter. Observe, the official term for this exceptional gardening strategy is environmental micro-ecosystem horticulture. Hydroponic horticulture utilizes nutrients in water that is spread through water pipes to the origins of the numerous veggie vegetations. For example, individuals that get your companies or even products are located outdoors your company. The first which pertains to the fact that gardening helps to boost so many places from your body system, to ensure you manage to relocate as well as operate better. There are numerous advantages and disadvantages any farmer should analyze before determining to dedicate to hydroponic gardening. She has over 20 years from horticulture knowledge and enjoys relaxing in her own yards. If you opt to grow your vegetations inside for any kind of certain reason this, also, is actually very successful and very achievable with hydroponic horticulture. If your breathing problem isn't effectively dealt with, physical exercise as well as activities like horticulture are more very likely to activate breathing problem signs and symptoms. Along with the supply of the tools due to huge appeal, this soil-less type from gardening even reached the common garden enthusiast in the house. You might also select gardening vegetations that can be greater than simply adornments in your garden. Examples consist of grille, arbors, statuaries, benches, water fountains, containers, bird bathrooms and also farmers, and also landscape lighting fixtures like candlestick lights as well as oil lamps Using these products can be portion of the phrase from a landscaper's horticulture character. Having said that, in 2013, I discovered a strongly virtuous horticulture strategy that calls for extremely limited volume of upkeep work. Although I performed spare a ton of money, I lost a bunch of opportunity, considering that I needed to finish duties that might possess been more quickly as well as effortlessly done if I had possessed also the simplest from resources. I discovered greatest area for discovering details on Garden Gardening and also I thought of sharing this relevant information along with you. There are many people that perform unknown much concerning what an all natural veggie yard really is. In fact, natural veggie horticulture is only a straightforward manner of growing as well as developing veggies without the use of any kind of products constructed from man-made components like plant foods and also pesticides. Springtime and summer season horticulture vegetations are some of the most beautiful factors in the world as well as give ideas to all who develop them. Since from the produce on call at produce opportunity, eatable plants include an enthusiasm to horticulture. Right here's an additional gardening suggestion: spot a piece of glossy tinfoil behind your vegetations if you grow all of them indoors and also experiencing a home window. Kathryn Dawson creates write-ups for Bristol Garden Companies, a landscape horticulture and concept provider offering Bristol garden upkeep to clients at affordable prices. This is actually the easiest way that one can easily get information on any type of sort of horticulture equipment. To address that significant dirt question an electronic dirt tester is terrific horticulture present. Then again, there are actually exclusive conservatory horticulture sets that may be acquired online. We possess a range of resources for wall structure sanding and also prep work, whether you are actually sanding junctions in plasterboard or eliminating old finishes. Each attendee takes a vegetation (small hedges, other perennials or even ornamental yards) and a tool, or various other item from horticulture equipment, whether brand-new or even a present off the guest's personal tool shed. Along with our tools that are excellent for planning components like lumber, concrete as well as metal, the HSS resource variety is actually ideal for structure, engineering as well as wood working fields. Probably thus. But at that point too, there is actually no doubt that the type of folks pulled to gardening in the first place, could already invite all of them an additional dosage of innovation and empathy. One point that is actually vitally important in vegetable horticulture is the landscape plan. This is a method from increasing and also farming from plants as a portion of Cultivation, on a certain parcel especially indicated of horticulture. Composting is the timeworn strategy of returning back to the planet gardening components that are impassive. Gardening is actually a resource to mellow out life's stress and anxiety, enrich the setting, build individuals, as well as build neighborhoods. When it happens to vegetables, this kind from gardening enables you to expand the vegetations from your selection within a confined area and also have a terrific plant. To read more go to where you can additionally acquire an audio variation of Hydroponics Gardening. You are going to clearly need the general horticulture items no matter what you are actually planting, including a hoe, shovel, as well as maybe even a trowel. This web site functions as a guide for all vegetable horticulture parts dealing with subject matters like effective ways to create a backyard, nurture seedlings, compartment horticulture and composting. Various other options consist of a spade, a container (if you are actually pot sowing), as well as a set from gloves for convenience, some secuturs, or even a rake. Right now your lawn should be weed-free however if you leave that at that at that point they are actually only going to come back up. To earn certain this doesn't take place, try taking a ground example to your regional nursery or even delivering some to a testing center. Recognize a time during the week (after institution) to hold your Grandparent Gardening Week task. Specialised gardening magazines offered to purchase (the list of magazines is actually on call on the Thrive web site and you could also seek this in sizable printing off Thrive). Along with a stable of floor tile bench saws, hand-operated ceramic tile cutter machines as well as floor tile cement cleaners, our team will certainly ensure to supply you the resources to complete a qualified work. This kind of horticulture typically lowers water usage, maintenance, as well as fertilization prices, while enhancing native faunal rate of interest. For one point, when vegetations or even vegetation develops in a green house, then the farmer does not must think about way too much heat or even cold triggering straight harm. Veggies created off fall horticulture are occasionally sweeter and milder in comparison to those increase in the summertime as well as use an all new flavor to the customary veggies. Between April and also September the horticulture service supplies turf cutting, general tidy up, removal from clutter, weeding from boundaries and pathways and also hedge trimming. Expand chambers deliver the best environment for plant growth in a hydroponic horticulture body. I was actually thrilled by exactly how the painting and also scientific research of gardening was wonderfully teamed up and also balanced. And be sure to handle your palms by purchasing a really good collection of landscape gloves. When planting as well as carry on upkeep of your yard, your veggie gardening days will certainly be actually full from fruit and vegetables if you take the effective safety measures. If you consider to take your horticulture very seriously then having 2 bins/heaps is a reliable means to obtain the most ideal results for your yard - you can contribute to one as well as permit the various other 'cook'. Researches have actually revealed that horticulture can lessen the likelihood that you will definitely deal with depression. For those who have developed the fine art from gardening that has become something really exclusive and one-of-a-kind. Just like all Echo resources this blower utilizes the easy begin pro fire ignition system. Area gardening is actually normally performed on lands possessed by federal governments or even which has actually shared managers in the culture. Should you loved this post and you want to receive details regarding mountains in scotland beginning with g (http://posibledesdela-felicidad.info/los-gusanos-intestinales-como-deshacerse-de-ellos/) i implore you to visit the page. The garden tools should be carefully maintained and also stashed to increase their lifestyle. The HSS stable of straight duel heating units are excellent for heating system offices as well as huge open spaces like stockrooms, because of their higher volume home heating capability. Many of the movements involved along with gardening are actually specifically beneficial to the wheelchair from your joints and also the strengthening from your muscle mass. Visiting the library or even the local book store could help you discover everything you need to know about horticulture. Much of the horticulture pushcarts that happen today are made to make sure that you may rest on all of them and also wheel on your own along the bedroom from vegetables.

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Do You Even Need a House or Cottage Plan?

Beautiful Advice On Getting Your Hair Healthy NowPaying close attention to your hair really isn't a hard thing to do once you know what you should be looking out for. Everyone has different hair though, this is why you should know everything about caring for your hair, because it is important to know how hair is cared for in general. Look through this article to learn some good hair care tips.Take a daily multi-vitamin. One of the best ways to ensure healthy hair growth is to take in a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins. Taking a daily multi-vitamin will supplement your dietary intake to ensure that your body's needs are met or exceeded. Select a high-quality vitamin designed for people of your age and gender.For minimizing breakage, be sure that your hair is completely wet prior to applying shampoo. Don't use any more than about a quarter-size dollop. Then proceed to rub the shampoo in between your palms to start with. Be sure to lather up for no more than 30 seconds or so.Live a healthy lifestyle for the health of your hair. Eat a balanced diet, and make sure you get plenty of exercise. Excessive smoking, not getting enough sleep, and other unhealthy habits are detrimental to the health of your hair. Take good care of yourself, and your hair will follow suit.It is important that you only buy shampoos and conditioners that match your hair type. For example, if you have dry hair, you should purchase shampoos and conditioners made specifically for dry hair. Your hair's condition will not improve if you do not buy the relevant products to help it.Try to avoid chemicals in your hair care products, for healthier results. Many products make a lot of promises, but it's up to you to read the ingredients and determine if those promises are gimmicks or not. The more basic and natural the ingredients are, the better your results will be.Every time you use heat on your hair you are damaging it, and this goes for blow drying it. The key is to keep the dryer on its coolest setting, and keep the tool in continuous motion so that individual patches of hair are not subjected to excessive heat. While you are drying your hair, untangle any knots using your fingers.Use a soft brush made out of animal hairs instead of plastic. Do not brush your hair when it is wet and always be gentle. You should start at the end of your hair and work your way up as you gently untangle all the knots. Make sure you take your time!If you have dry hair, or just don't want to have dry hair in the future, then you want to avoid using any hair care products that contain alcohol. This is because the alcohol can make your hair even more dry. This can make your hair very brittle and easily breakable.Don't believe everything you hear. While it may be a popular belief that cutting hair will make it grow faster, that is false. However, keeping ends trimmed and free of split ends can make your hair appear longer and fuller. Split ends appear thin and are often difficult to see while healthy ends are thicker, and that volume helps to create the illusion of more length.Be careful with the use of hair extensions. While hair extensions are a quick way to get longer hair, they can also cause serious damage to your natural hair and scalp. The heavy weight of the extensions can pull out natural hair, and the bonding solution can dry it out.Have a look at outside influences if you find that your hair is looking dull or flat. Factors such as nicotine, unhealthy diet, lack of physical exercise and too much stress or anxiety can all impact on the way that your hair looks. Make changes in these areas where necessary.HairstylesTake care with brushing your hair if it is still wet. While hair is wet, it is weaker and more susceptible to tension and breakage. Allow most of the moisture to leave your hair before you begin brushing. Also, avoid creating too much tension on your locks from hairstyles that increase breakage over time, such as cornrows or high-tension braiding.HairstyleA soft, smooth pillowcase can help you keep your hairstyle, as well as, your hair. Sleeping on a pillow covered in a textured fabric or low-thread count cotton pillowcase can actually pull your hair and cause it to fall out. Use a smooth pillow-covering, wherever you lay your head and help keep your hair where it belongs.You should now have a different perspective on caring for hair. It is a wonderful thing to learn what it takes to care properly for one's hair because it is such a crucial part to who we are. Apply what you learned today and tend to your hair to make it great looking for all to see. Many developers might let you know they do not want a residence plan. They could declare that images are sufficient for them! Yes, they may be absolutely right! They do not want any plan to build your destiny Pallet Projects home due to the fact they have constructed masses of homes inside the past with out a plan. But... With a plan, you may be capable of without problems:

Control the geometric dimensions of the partitions, windows, doorways, and other components inside up to at least one/4" accuracy;

Know exactly how much bricks, lumber and building easy pallet projects materials you need and which ones (concrete, fittings, slabs, lintels, timber, and so on). All these information are protected inside the plan;

Determine the place to put external networks: sewerage, water deliver, strength and fuel;

Draft an in depth budget and select a contractor on a competitive basis through giving the home plan to numerous agencies for estimates.

Control the shape and extent of labor executed.

Alright, so why do developers need such an instrument they might use to manipulate their work?

Can I shop money on a cottage plan? Yes, of route!

Choose what you want and don't pay greater.

Quick and cost-efficient - a prepared-made fashionable residence or cottage plan. On the Internet, you can find a large number of websites featuring ready-made u . S . Residence plans in unique styles, with specific place and specific range of storeys, for large and slender sections, with and with out garage. If you are satisfied with fashionable house plans, diy pallet projects that is the exceptional manner to get a plan through spending minimum amount of cash. Choose a handy approach of fee, and, inside three-7 days, the plan might be to your hands. You can begin production straight away.

Reasonable and affordable - a fashionable plan with modifications. Most of the usual plans may be modified at your request You can add or cast off a garage, alternate the layout or average dimensions of the house, replace the structure fabric or facade ornament, and so on. A plan may be ready with a ground ground, an attic or a terrace. A house product of blocks can be product of bricks and vice versa. Do not forget to reserve for recalculation of the muse based totally on the geological situations of your website to ensure a long carrier life for your destiny u . S . House. The timeframe and fee of making changes rely on the amount of modifications and on the business enterprise executing the modifications. It commonly takes 2 to six weeks and could enable production to start as quick as feasible.

Dream is continually a dream - a customized cottage plan is the most time-eating and high-priced option, but it's well worth it. A custom-made plan can take from 1 to six months or greater, wood pallet projects depending on the assignment set by way of the purchaser. Experienced professionals will paintings at the plan. All your desires and the functions of your web site could be taken into consideration.

The choice is yours! Whichever option you pick, one component could stay unchanged - the development documentation you'll get hold of may be of high pleasant!

Caring For A Daughter With Anorexia

When an apparently satisfied teenage female, doing properly at an excellent college, is diagnosed with anorexia, it comes as a superb shock to the dad and mom. The immediately reaction is to marvel what one has achieved wrong to bring about this example however there's little time to contemplate. A team of specialists takes over the existence of the gym wynwood family and dictates the phrases and conditions under which lifestyles will pass on. The remedy has  predominant elements: dietary manipulate and psychological counselling. On those dual tracks sufferer and helpers input a darkish tunnel wherein it's miles impossible to peer any mild from the other quit.

Research on the Internet famous the data that anorexia is a severe and doubtlessly fatal sickness to which there's no validated therapy. From the remedy team, an early invitation is extended to attend meetings of dad and mom with youngsters, often daughters, within the equal circumstance. At the first meeting, one discovers that everyone else's daughter is in intensive care, on drip-feed on the local sanatorium. For someone whose very own toddler continues to be active and attending college, the experience induces the twin resolves: by no means to let the condition attain that severe, and in no way to attend any more parents' conferences, despite the fact that the invites continue to be issued.

The mental counselling proved to be useless. It promoted no change of attitude within the patient, and while it have become disrupted with the aid of personnel changes and cancelled conferences, no damage resulted. The dietary manipulate, alternatively changed into wynwood wonderful. A complete three-food-a-day chart was supplied, and when strictly carried out, steady development became made. An initial body mass index (BMI) of less than 14 started out slowly however regularly to mount toward a healthy level. At the dietary consultations, each object of every meal become negotiated with the affected person who then, a whole lot to her   wynwood miami credit score, kept faithfully to her a part of the bargain by ingesting the negotiated food to the microgram. There isn't any doubt that the empathetic and professional way of the mature and very skilled female representative became the important thing component in this fulfillment.

Although there has been development from the start, it was clean that it might be a count of years, rather than months, earlier than the desired result can be carried out. Throughout this ordeal, an vast contribution became made with the aid of faculty staff who took responsibility for supervising lunches on a one-to-one foundation and often attended conferences with the clinical specialists to make certain complete coordination of the treatment. One remarkable regret of the patient was that she was forced to surrender rowing, but over the path of the remedy her hobby in health grew to become to lengthy distance walking and this interest has persevered. At the cease of 3 years, it become agreed that a wholesome BMI have been reached and the treatment best gym wynwood become terminated. There may be no cease to anorexia as a intellectual situation, but with the right help, sufferers can find their personal manner to stay a wholesome existence.

Global English: Take the Mystery Out of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

The English language has turn out to be a commodity throughout the sector, yet there is a shroud around the way wherein it could be or need to be trained and who can teach it. What isn't always widely recognized Online Tesol Certification is that nearly all and sundry with a ardour for supporting people can educate English on some level provided she or he is aware of English functionally, and word that I did no longer say perfectly or expertly.

The Mystery is a % of myths and misunderstandings.

Several myths and misunderstandings approximately TESOL (teaching English to audio system of different languages) include that so that it will teach, someone claiming to be a trainer must be an professional in the language, have thorough know-how of grammar, and have a selected diploma that declares his or her skillability and know-how. Those matters are simply now not authentic.

Most audio system of English aren't specialists inside the language, yet they have a running adeptness that allows them to communicate efficaciously, and so they make high-quality teachers. They have what English language beginners want and need. Few native audio system of English could bypass a thorough grammar test, but they recognise whilst the grammar is getting used successfully and that they recognize sufficient about how the language works to teach it to others. They have what English language newbies need and need. English is being taught all through the sector through people who do no longer have tiers in education, language, or TESOL; despite the fact that, humans are learning English from them. Some college students are impressed through ranges, and a few coaching institutions do requires precise levels, although many do now not. Simply having a degree or searching like you may educate English (whatever they approach) does now not make someone an effective instructor. Yet there are many individuals who've a knack for coaching and in particular for supporting others to acquire language. They have what English language beginners want and want.

What else do English language learners need and need and do you have it?

Consider who the novices of English are and you may discern out want they need and want; then you could surmise when you have it. Many of them want to learn English due to the fact they have got landed in an English-talking vicinity and that they need the language to paintings and/or to be part of the network. Or they are in other international locations where they need to talk with the English-speakme global for numerous motives. They are often people with intelligence, motivation and dignity, and they want to be visible as such regardless of their obstacles with English. Without a doubt they're those who for one reason or some other need to analyze English if you want to start to use it. Then, they want to gain greater English and use it even more successfully in order that others do now not cut them off, positioned them down, embarrass them, or treat them as second elegance. They want to engage in productive work and to now not be held again due to limited communication skills, and that they need to be a part of the society wherein they stay and raise their households.

English language learners mainly need a instructor who is knowing and compassionate. Language has often end up an issue of conflict and embarrassment for them. They war to apprehend English and to make themselves understood. They are regularly embarrassed whilst humans react to their accents or when people truely can not apprehend them because of accents. They need admire for his or her humanness, their intelligence, and all in their other satisfactory attributes. They want a teacher who sees them as human and no longer as the "different."

They want a teacher who is realistic about grammar and who is aware of how the English language works most successfully. Some teachers emerge as so stuck up in their personal ostensible information of grammar policies that they cannot start to bring true language which means to college students. They surely frustrate students through seeking to give an explanation for the language. English language freshmen already have high tension about the language and that they need a trainer who does no longer boom that anxiety. They want a instructor who views human communique as being Tesol Certification Online a ways more critical than certain explanations of grammar rules, specifically the ones regulations that seem to have greater exceptions than the rules mean. English language learners need a instructor who shows them how to use language patterns in actual-lifestyles situations.

Degrees are frequently amazing and it doesn't harm to have a strong training, yet it is crucial to comprehend that it isn't approximately levels-it is extra about how the English language learner learns. We all need to constantly enhance our skills so that we can assist English language rookies extra efficiently, and we want to add professional improvement to our resumes so that we create more teaching possibilities for ourselves. But, we must admit that for language studying to take region, the substances should include someone who desires English and an expertise, compassionate, sensible character who is inclined and demanding to teach it. So, now you could solution the question: Do you have what English language novices want and want?

Confused About Which Beauty Tips To Follow? Try These!

When it comes to beauty, there are many cliches. Everyone has probably heard that beauty is skin deep. To be a truly beautiful person you must be beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside. While outer cute girls hairstyles beauty may attract someone initially, it is an individual's personality that will keep them interested. This passage will show you how to realize the beauty within you.

Slather Vaseline on both feet nightly. This can make them smooth and soft, which is similar to a fresh pedicure. Make it a habit of doing this immediately before you go to bed. After you apply the Vaseline, don some socks before you tuck yourself in for the night.

Always protect your skin with sunscreen. Be sure to look for sunscreens with healthful ingredients and not too many deadly chemicals. These particular things help nourish and protect your skin, ensuring a youthful appearance.

Regardless of your skin type, you should thoroughly wash your face with a mild, gentle cleanser anywhere from one to two times per day. Always completely remove your makeup. If you do not remove all the makeup first, your pores can clog, causing breakouts.

To brighten dull dry skin in the winter, find a highlighter or moisturizer with just a hint of pink or gold shimmer to it. A cosmetics sponge is key to applying makeup to your brows and your cheeks. If you keep adding more, your face will look like plastic.

You can adjust your hair's style and color to better accentuate the shape of your face. Your cut should be sleek and fairly long - falling just above shoulder length. Adding lowlights or highlights can help to frame your face. Asking your hair dresser to include these special touches to your next hair appointment will make you look more beautiful.

Curl your eyelashes before putting on your mascara. Curling up your eyelashes will help them appear longer and will make your eyes appear brighter and more vibrant. You want to start near your lash base by squeezing the eyelash curler. Hold it steady for just a second. Once you've done that, move along your lashes and repeat the squeezing motion. This helps make the curling angle more natural instead of abrupt.

Substitute aloe gel for expensive moisturizers, witch hazel for costly toners and pure castile soap with a clean cloth for those high priced cleansers. You'll see wonderful results with these natural products. If your skin requires additional moisture above what you can get from aloe, add a bit of vitamin E. If you require a toner that is medicated, try adding a little tea tree oil.

Make sure you're using eye drops regularly throughout your day in order to add sparkle to your eyes. Drops will also prevent the redness caused by dryness or irritation. Anyone who stares at a monitor all day should keep these eye drops handy. Keep a buttle on your person, and use them about every four hours.

Great looking eyelashes can improve your looks. Implement the use of an eyelash curler prior to using mascara. This small step draws attention to your curled eyelashes.

There are many ways to help you look beautiful including posture, fitness, clothing and skin care. Paying attention to all of these things will help you look the best that you can be.

Try a basic loofah on areas of your skin that are problematic or blemished. It will help buff problem areas, leaving your skin smoother and looking better. Utilize loofahs alongside exfoliating body washes and you are certain to achieve amazing results. Use a loofah a few times a week if you desire to get these benefits.

If have problems with ingrown hairs, make sure you use lotion daily. The benefits of using lotion are increased when it is applied right after shaving. Ingrown hairs can be caused by dry skin, so remember to apply moisturizer every day. Having proper moisture in your skin will bring your existing ingrown hairs to the surface, and prevent new ones from happening.

Dry facial skin needs to be treated with a professional grade product. This is a treatment formulated specifically for dry skin on the face and refreshes and smooths the skin's appearance by getting rid of dead skin cells. The various ingredients will balance your skin, and improve elasticity.

The first step in improving your outward appearance is to improve your mental and emotional state. Self-confidence and knowledge are an important part of your physical attractiveness. It becomes much easier when you learn the right ways to do things.

Make sure that you shave and exfoliate your skin before applying any sort of spray on tan. The right preparation will ensure that your skin is able to accept the spray tan evenly and more uniformly as opposed to skin that has not been given any advance care.

You can pour a little nail polish remover in your favorite nail polish to make it last a bit longer. Shake up the polish and then apply as usual. It might be a little lighter in color, but it will be about the same.

To make your eyes look larger, use a layered makeup effect. In order to create this layered effect, first you would apply a primer and then brush foundation or powder over the top of that layer. Follow this with highlighter applied to the eye's inner corner. Using an eyeliner pencil, draw a line and smudge it using an upward motion. This will open up the appearance of your eyes, making them look larger.

If you discover small, reddish bumps on the undersides of your arms, it may be keratosis pilaris, a common skin condition frequently associated with eczema. Drier air in the winter time can aggravate this condition. Use a body scrub to exfoliate the area, and then put a little bit of a good moisturizer on it.

As previously mentioned, beauty is only an outer skin perception. Apply yourself to be a good person and people will find you beautiful   mens long hairstyles . If you apply the information contained in this article you will begin to reveal the true beauty in you.

Jumping Rope Is A Great Way To Tighten Muscles

There are many advantages to better fitness, from reduced chances of sickness and getting hurt, but also finding greater strength and self-esteem, not to mention how much better you will look. miami personal training  But many people are not sure where to begin when it comes to embarking on a fitness program. The following techniques can start you on your road to fitness.

Find an exercise plan that you can stick to. If you are doing an activity you enjoy you will start to look forward to your work outs.

Maintaining proper posture while exercising, even while simply walking, is important to prevent injury. Try walking upright as you draw back your shoulders. Let your elbows hold a comfortable 90-degree angle. You should swing your arms in a rhythm opposite that of your front foot. You should walk heel first with the remainder of the foot rolling forward with each step.

A personal trainer is great for those that want to dedicate time to bettering their fitness levels. A personal trainer will teach you new exercises, help you develop a program that is adapted to your current level and help you stay motivated. A personal trainer will ensure you see results, although they are not for everyone.

Make sure you keep a good fitness diary in order to keep track of your daily routine. Be inclusive; you should note down not just your scheduled workouts but also any extra opportunities you had to be physically active. See how much you walk every day with a pedometer. This type of written accountability will help you understand your total progress as you move towards your end goal.

Wear comfortable clothing when working out. Do not care about what others think of you, just put on clothes that you feel comfortable in. Choose garments in which you can move freely and comfortably. Wearing comfortable clothes keeps your mind focused on fitness.

Running is a fantastic workout, that can also be exhausting. To help prevent the negative effects, you should reduce your mileage to half of the normal miles during one week, every six weeks. personal trainer brickell  Running 50% less lets your body have a period of recovery, to patch up any damage and prevent serious injury.

Test any workout bench before using it. You should press your thumb into the bench seat to test the padding that the bench is made of. If you feel the wooden or metal base beneath, look for another bench.

Pre-pay your trainer. This makes you far more likely to continue with your sessions as opposed to paying afterward. Your valuable cash is already spent. You should want to get what you paid for. This can be a motivating factor for you.

There is a way to exercise and watch tv! During each commercial break, try to squeeze in a few minutes of exercise and physical activity.

Yard work is another way to get fit without deliberately exercising. Nearly every yard needs something done to it, and you need the exercise. It is a very good combination. Try to work in the yard at least once each week to reap the most benefits from the physical activity. Not only will you have a nice, fit body, you'll have a great yard, too.

Your front and your back should be balanced. Exercising just the muscles in your lower back or the ones in your abdomen will cause back pain. You should exercise them both to prevent any back problems that may ruin your workouts.

Make sure not to wrap your thumb whenever you are doing pullups or lat pulldowns. You can focus on your back muscles by putting your thumb behind your index finger. It will feel strange at first, but it's important for getting the right muscles worked out.

If you are lifting weights to work your biceps, ensure that you use proper form. This is vital, for the simple fact that you can cause an injury in the arm. Lifting correctly requires you to extend the wrists in a backwards angle and hold. Try to let your wrist go back to normal. This builds biceps the right way.

When you are doing crunches, press your tongue against the top of your mouth. This will engage the muscles located in your neck. Simple tricks such as this can help prevent you from injuring yourself.

Switch out your office chair for an exercise ball. Your core muscles will tone as they help to maintain posture, and your overall balance will be improved as well from this simple change. personal trainer wynwood  If passively sitting isn't enough, you can use a stability ball to perform wall squats and many other exercises.

As a fit individual, you enjoy a world of benefits for both your mind and body. The tips you just read emphasized that getting fit is neither hard nor boring. You will find your fitness level increases as you follow these great suggestions.

Beautiful Advice On Getting Your Hair Healthy Now

Paying close attention to your hair really isn't a hard thing to do once you know what you should be looking out for. Short hairstyles  Everyone has different hair though, this is why you should know everything about caring for your hair, because it is important to know how hair is cared for in general. Look through this article to learn some good hair care tips.

Take a daily multi-vitamin. One of the best ways to ensure healthy hair growth is to take in a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins. Taking a daily multi-vitamin will supplement your dietary intake to ensure that your body's needs are met or exceeded. Select a high-quality vitamin designed for people of your age and gender.

For minimizing breakage, be sure that your hair is completely wet prior to applying shampoo. Don't use any more than about a quarter-size dollop. Then proceed to rub the shampoo in between your palms to start with. Be sure to lather up for no more than 30 seconds or so.

Live a healthy lifestyle for the health of your hair. Eat a balanced diet, and make sure you get plenty of exercise. Excessive smoking, not getting enough sleep, and other unhealthy habits are detrimental to the health of your hair. Take good care of yourself, and your hair will follow suit.

It is important that you only buy shampoos and conditioners that match your hair type. For example, if you have dry hair, you should purchase shampoos and conditioners made specifically for dry hair. Your hair's condition will not improve if you do not buy the relevant products to help it.

Try to avoid chemicals in your hair care products, for healthier results. Many products make a lot of promises, but it's up to you to read the ingredients and determine if those promises are gimmicks or not. The more basic and natural the ingredients are, the better your results will be.

Every time you use heat on your hair you are damaging it, and this goes for blow drying it. The key is to keep the dryer on its coolest setting, and keep the tool in continuous motion so that individual patches of hair are not subjected to excessive heat. While you are drying your hair, untangle any knots using your fingers.

Use a soft brush made out of animal hairs instead of plastic. Do not brush your hair when it is wet and always be gentle. You should start at the end of your hair and work your way up as you gently untangle all the knots. Make sure you take your time!

If you have dry hair, or just don't want to have dry hair in the future, then you want to avoid using any hair care products that contain alcohol. This is because the alcohol can make your hair even more dry. This can make your hair very brittle and easily breakable.

Don't believe everything you hear. While it may be a popular belief that cutting hair will make it grow faster, that is false. However, keeping ends trimmed and free of split ends can make your hair appear longer and fuller. Split ends appear thin and are often difficult to see while healthy ends are thicker, and that volume helps to create the illusion of more length.

Be careful with the use of hair extensions. While hair extensions are a quick way to get longer hair, they can also cause serious damage to your natural hair and scalp. The heavy weight of the extensions can pull out natural hair, and the bonding solution can dry it out.

Have a look at outside influences if you find that your hair is looking dull or flat. Factors such as nicotine, unhealthy diet, lack of physical exercise and too much stress or anxiety can all impact on the way that your hair looks. Make changes in these areas where necessary.

Hairstyles

Take care with brushing your hair if it is still wet. While hair is wet, it is weaker and more susceptible to tension and breakage. Allow most of the moisture to leave your hair before you begin brushing. Also, avoid creating too much tension on your locks from hairstyles that increase breakage over time, such as cornrows or high-tension braiding.

Hairstyle

A soft, smooth pillowcase can help you keep your hairstyle, as well as, your hair. Sleeping on a pillow covered in a textured fabric or low-thread count cotton pillowcase can actually pull your hair and cause it to fall out. Use a smooth pillow-covering, wherever you lay your head and help keep your hair where it belongs.

You should now have a different perspective on caring for hair. It is a wonderful thing to learn what it takes to care properly for one's hair because it is such a crucial part to who we are. Apply what you learned today and tend to your hair to make it great looking for all to see.

Beautiful Advice On Getting Your Hair Healthy Now

Paying close attention to your hair really isn't a hard thing to do once you know what you should be looking out for. Everyone has different hair though, this is why you should know everything about caring for your hair, because it is important to know how hair is cared for in general. Look through this article to learn some good hair care tips.

Take a daily multi-vitamin. One of the best ways to ensure healthy hair growth is to take in a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins. Taking a daily multi-vitamin will supplement your dietary intake to ensure that your body's needs are met or exceeded. Select a high-quality vitamin designed for people of your age and gender.

For minimizing breakage, be sure that your hair is completely wet prior to applying shampoo. Don't use any more than about a quarter-size dollop. Then proceed to rub the shampoo in between your palms to start with. Be sure to lather up for no more than 30 seconds or so.

Live a healthy lifestyle for the health of your hair. Eat a balanced diet, and make sure you get plenty of exercise. Excessive smoking, not getting enough sleep, and other unhealthy habits are detrimental to the health of your hair. Take good care of yourself, and your hair will follow suit.

It is important that you only buy shampoos and conditioners that match your hair type. For example, if you have dry hair, you should purchase shampoos and conditioners made specifically for dry hair. Your hair's condition will not improve if you do not buy the relevant products to help it.

Try to avoid chemicals in your hair care products, for healthier results. Many products make a lot of promises, but it's up to you to read the ingredients and determine if those promises are gimmicks or not. The more basic and natural the ingredients are, the better your results will be.

Every time you use heat on your hair you are damaging it, and this goes for blow drying it. The key is to keep the dryer on its coolest setting, and keep the tool in continuous motion so that individual patches of hair are not subjected to excessive heat. While you are drying your hair, untangle any knots using your fingers.

Use a soft brush made out of animal hairs instead of plastic. Do not brush your hair when it is wet and always be gentle. You should start at the end of your hair and work your way up as you gently untangle all the knots. Make sure you take your time!

If you have dry hair, or just don't want to have dry hair in the future, then you want to avoid using any hair care products that contain alcohol. This is because the alcohol can make your hair even more dry. This can make your hair very brittle and easily breakable.

Don't believe everything you hear. While it may be a popular belief that cutting hair will make it grow faster, that is false. However, keeping ends trimmed and free of split ends can make your hair appear longer and fuller. Split ends appear thin and are often difficult to see while healthy ends are thicker, and that volume helps to create the illusion of more length.

Be careful with the use of hair extensions. While hair extensions are a quick way to get longer hair, they can also cause serious damage to your natural hair and scalp. The heavy weight of the extensions can pull out natural hair, and the bonding solution can dry it out.

Have a look at outside influences if you find that your hair is looking dull or flat. Factors such as nicotine, unhealthy diet, lack of physical exercise and too much stress or anxiety can all impact on the way that your hair looks. Make changes in these areas where necessary.

Hairstyles

Take care with brushing your hair if it is still wet. While hair is wet, it is weaker and more susceptible to tension and breakage. Allow most of the moisture to leave your hair before you begin brushing. Also, avoid creating too much tension on your locks from hairstyles that increase breakage over time, such as cornrows or high-tension braiding.

Hairstyle

A soft, smooth pillowcase can help you keep your hairstyle, as well as, your hair. Sleeping on a pillow covered in a textured fabric or low-thread count cotton pillowcase can actually pull your hair and cause it to fall out. Use a smooth pillow-covering, wherever you lay your head and help keep your hair where it belongs.

You should now have a different perspective on caring for hair. It is a wonderful thing to learn what it takes to care properly for one's hair because it is such a crucial part to who we are. Apply what you learned today and tend to your hair to make it great looking for all to see.

Are You Looking For A Fashion Upgrade? Take These Tips To Heart

Fashion is an ever-changing part of life. The beauty of fashion is you can pretty much do what you want. Mehandi Designs  Look up lots of advice and use the tips that apply to you the most. Continue reading to learn great advice that you can tailor to your own wants and needs.

Don't be afraid to go up a size if it means achieving the perfect fit. It can be quite distressing when you try on your usual size only to find it doesn't fit. Don't fret! Sizes vary from designer to designer and brand to brand, so it is perfectly okay to go up a size from your usual size.

Instead of spending a lot on specialty items, make sure you're purchasing the fashion basics. You will lose money and time by focusing too much on trends that will look out of date within just months to a year. Pay attention to basics that will go with anything. Items like a basic black skirt will be fashionable for years to come, and can be updated with tops that are currently in the fashion eye.

How to apply your makeup depends on where you are going. For example, if you are going for an interview, keep your makeup looking natural and highlight your best feature. For instance, if you have beautiful eyes, wear a soft color that enhances the color of your eyes. If your best feature is your cheekbones, add a little color to the apple of your cheeks.

Hats are a great accessory to match any kind of outfit. For men, there are the typical fisherman hats and baseball caps, but for women, the possibilities run much deeper. For instance, you can wear a cute sun hat, floppy hat or beach hat with any casual dress you own.

Use a leave-in conditioner if you have trouble with frizz. You want to apply this product following a shower, before the hair dries. Don't be afraid to put a large amount all over your head, and make sure to target both the roots and the very tips of the hair.

If you notice your hair frizzing when it is dry, try applying just a little leave-in conditioner from the top to the bottom of your hair follicles. If your hair is very curly, use a serum instead and start around the middle of your hair rather than at the crown. These tactics will help to smooth things out and help you to look your best.

On days when you aren't feeling your best, a nice, big pair of stylish sunglasses can be your best friend. If you did not get enough sleep, the night before or are ill, a pair of sunglasses will cover your sickly-looking eyes and add mystery and added style to your ensemble.

Neutrals are big every season. This season, the creamier neutrals are especially popular. Try looking for pieces in hues like cream, caramel, chocolate, etc. These colors work well on their own, and they also work as accents to bold or subdued outfits. Whichever way you decide to flaunt them, you can find some neutrals that go with your outfits.

Dipped hem dresses are in the style right now. These dresses dip down in both the front of the dress and back, though they do not dip too dramatically. Dipped hem dresses are a great way to show off your shoulders and when worn with a pair of heels, is the perfect look!

A strong foundation is what fashion is all about. A bra that fits correctly will give your figure definition and create an appealing silhouette. You should be smoothed out and supported by your lingerie. There are a number of undergarments that are slimming and can aid you in fixing trouble spots so you look terrific.

A good fashion tip that applies to everyone is not to get lazy and wear your athletic shoes when you're not actually doing any athletic activities. Athletic shoes are obviously great for the gym, but you should hang them up afterwards and put on a pair of more casual shoes.

Nowadays, many famous celebrities aim for extremely extravagant or unique looks featuring many layers, the truth is that sometimes, simple is better. Although there is nothing wrong with aiming for a big look, you can sometimes go over the top. A simple black or red dress can sometimes do wonders for your look.

One great fashion tip is to check not only the outside but the inside of a garment for how well it is put together. Quality stitching and materials that are used on the inside of a garment is probably a good sign that it was put together with care and that the designer knew what they were doing.

You should now have a greater understanding about fashion and what your mindset should be like with the subject. Adopt a few of the best ideas, discard the rest and improve your style. Remember, you do not have to follow all of the trends out there. When you want to stand out, this is the best way to do it.

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The Journey To Becoming An Esthetician

By Ruth Hughes

Fairy tales are not the only place where fairy god mothers would exist because even in real life they do. If one have ever heard of estheticians then they are the people that would make one look prettier in a heartbeat. Often times, they are most likely referred to as beauticians which highly sounds relevant as they really are capable of making each and every one stand out. Being one of them does not necessarily mean focusing on make up and hair, they do more than that like skin care procedures where they help apply the products so clients could maintain their glow. But, they would not be able to acquire this power without them studying and striving hard for it. They even have to take state board esthetician practical exam for this. These people could also be referred to as beautician which sounds appropriate as they actually has the power to bring out the physical beauty of a person. With that, they help others be more confident of themselves. They eliminate the self doubt and self pity for hating a certain detail on ones face as they accentuate it and make it an asset. But the journey to being one of the fairy god mothers is actually not an easy path. Other people would say that it must be simple because it would not require memorizing or studying lots of terms and calculating math but that is definitely not true. They are suppose to learn many techniques that are mainly basing on how their client would look. They have to satisfy different kinds of person through the procedures they do to help them look good. And in addition, they conduct skin care treatments that may somehow be dangerous if they are not careful enough. Some of these procedures include waxing, facials, threadings and more. In addition, the products that are available in cosmetology area is more than thousands, they will have to choose the best out of it. And by saying the best, it means the most suitable for every skin type of each client that will book their service. Know that some skins are sensitive and those could get irritation, allergies and no beautician would ever want that to happen. This things are basically the main reason why they ought to have their own examination that will measure their skills and knowledge with the field they chose. The exams that they undertake has two sets which are written and the practical. The written exam would just basically be about all the terminologies they have learned and description of processes. The practical exam would be the challenging one as this is where they put all the things they have learn into action. The examination actually would differ from state to another. Which would only mean that every esthetician in a state has their own preparation so they can meet the requirements of passing the test they have at hand. During the practical test, they should be bringing their own set of materials and tools. There are no free stuff that will be distributed during the exam. To make it easier for them, they may also bring their own model where they may perform all the procedures on but there are rules. One should try to check the rules beforehand, this will avoid any confusion during the exact exam day. Make sure to study as much as possible especially for the written exams too. An excellent esthetician knows how to rock both sets of the test.

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