#remember when i used to hit the daily photo post limit every single day

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

imagine me learning how to organize my posts slightly better

[katwriting]

Fic: Sound of your Heart

celebrity AU // chapter 3

In which Alec suffers, and Magnus has a ball about it. Oh, and there’s a first date too. 

word count: 5.4k (13.1k total) // Read on AO3 (or continue reading below)

Magnus was woken by the persistent beeping of his alarm, and the sound of raindrops splattering against his window. Groaning, he rolled over onto his back and threw an arm across his eyes. It was far too early for the world to require him being a functioning member of society.  

He was just about to drift off to sleep, when there was the familiar sound of rustling blankets. Magnus felt the mattress dip and a warm body settle next to his own – followed by the sharp sting of claws digging into his stomach.

Magnus' eyes shot open as he yelped in pain. "Chairman! I told you to stop doing that!"

He grabbed Chairman and carefully set him down next to him on the duvet, trying to send him his strictest glare. When Chairman just huffed and curled up next to him, Magnus shrugged and snuggled into his cat's silky gray fur. He would be a strict cat dad some other time.  

Instead of scolding his cat, Magnus dared to throw another glance out the bedroom window. The clouds were a depressing gray and didn't seem like clearing up anytime soon.

Magnus ran his fingers through Chairman's fur. "You don't feel like getting out of the house, do you?"

The cat's purrs only grew louder.

Magnus sighed again and pulled the Chairman closer to his chest. "Me neither, dear."

They stayed like that for a little while, Magnus burrowed in his pillows and duvet, the Chairman snuggled up against his chest. Awful weather aside, Magnus felt at peace. It had been a few weeks since the end of his tour and aside from writing songs and meeting with his team here and there, life had been surprisingly quiet. Magnus had adored being on tour – playing at a different city every night, soaking up the excitement from the audience, listening to them his songs – but he never felt as much at peace as in his own Brooklyn apartment on a rainy day. He didn't like rain, actually he resented it, but there was just something about enjoying a day in while the rest of New York had to face the floods that put Magnus at ease.

He was just about to doze off again when the comfortable silence in his bedroom was interrupted by his phone beeping. Grumbling something unrecognizable, he reached over and grabbed it, hissing when the bright screen hurt his eyes. It was just far too early for people to expect him to be a functioning member of society yet.

However, when he checked the name and message that had come in, his mood brightened and he quickly opened the message.

Got almost run over by a bike this morning and by the time I was at work my clothes were drenched. I hate rainy days.

Magnus chuckled, starting to type out a reply. He was pretty sure it would earn him a very snarky reply, but it was worth the trouble.

About ten days had passed since Magnus had run into Alec at the coffee shop again and they had exchanged numbers. For his initial text to Alec, Magnus had gone all out – and regretted it the second he had hit sent. But thankfully Alec's humor wasn't limited to conversations happening in person and he had replied with just the same amount of wit, and the same sarcasm that had intrigued Magnus about him in the first place. They had been texting back and forth since then, and talking to Alec had become an unexpected, but not at all unpleasant, new part of Magnus' daily life.

They didn't talk every day, but sent each other messages here and there. In doing so, Magnus had learned a lot about Alec. Not just that his sister's wedding drove him crazy or that he was dangerously close to killing Aldertree from finance on sight the next time he saw him. But also what kind of music he was currently listening to or that he'd had an aversion to peanut butter for as long as he could remember. Magnus now knew that Alec didn't quite get the hype around Marvel movies or superheroes in general. He'd practiced archery as a kid, had even won a few competitions. But thanks to his job and just life in general getting the best of him, he had not been to an archery range in quite some time.

And most importantly,  he absolutely, entirely, with every fibre of his being despised rainy days.

It's like the universe is planning for me to have a shitty day and wants me to KNOW it does.

Magnus could almost hear Alec grumble the words while he was probably sitting in his office, clad in a semi-dry suit and loaded with misery.

Don't be dramatic. It's not that bad.

No. It's worse.

Magnus chuckled, then dropped his phone onto the mattress to look at his cat, who had left his position curled up next to Magnus to pad over to the other side of the bed where he could look out of the window. Chairman didn't look like he approved of the rain either – he almost looked like he was frowning.

Still grinning, Magnus grabbed his phone, snapped a picture and sent it to Alec.

I think you have an ally in your aversion against rainy days, Alexander.

Alec's reply took mere seconds.

FINALLY someone who understands me. Also, nobody calls me Alexander.                                                                                                                                    

You better get used to it, then.

With a soft laugh, he put his phone onto his nightstand, then stretched one more time before pushing the covers off his body and getting out of bed.

+++

"All I'm saying is that this could be a really nice opportunity for you to get back into the game after your break."

"And all I'm saying is that I'll think about it. That's all I can promise at the moment."

Sighing, Magnus grabbed his coffee and took a sip. He peered over the rim of his mug at Ragnor, who was sitting on a chair next to him and going through a folder that seemed to be about to burst.

"You know you could just use a computer, right? It would make the whole searching for that thing you scribbled onto a post it note you borrowed from an assistant and left somewhere in a conference room three floors upstairs a week ago thing a little easier," Magnus quipped, his lips already pulling into a smile. Ragnor was very much responsible for Magnus' success, but he was also a dear friend and just so easy to tease.

But before Ragnor could come up with an undoubtedly sarcastic reply, the glass door to his office opened and Catarina walked in, carrying a large cardboard box.

Taking in Magnus' smirk and her husband's exasperated features, she frowned. "What did I miss?"

"We're sending Magnus back to that lousy coffee shop he used to work at if he keeps getting on my nerves any longer," Ragnor grumbled, barely looking up from his notes.

Anybody else would have been intimidated by his behavior, but Magnus wasn't fooled. He had long accepted that Ragnor was just a natural grump and comments like that weren't to be taken seriously. Except if he was really pissed, but since Magnus' career had taken off, the number of times that Ragnor was genuinely angry at Magnus had declined significantly. Mostly because Magnus had actually started to listen to him. From time to time. When the mood struck.

Luckily Magnus knew that Ragnor would never take his antics personally. He had been an important mentor for Magnus since day one (and would not miss a single chance to tease him about that), but they both knew that underneath all their bickering lay a deep mutual respect and understanding for each other. It was part of what had made their both their working relationship and their friendship so strong since the beginning. The same applied to Catarina, even though Magnus and Ragnor's tendency to roast each other had tested her nerves in the past more often than not.

Almost as if she had heard Magnus' thoughts, Catarina took another stern look at them and let out a sigh. She took a seat next to Magnus on the couch and reached for his hand, her thumb mindlessly grazing over his skin as she took in Ragnor's discontent and Magnus' cheeky smirk.

"Magnus", she said, her voice infinitely kind and just a tiny bit scolding, "what did you do now?"

Magnus huffed out a laugh. "I didn't do anything. I just told your dear husband that I'm not really in the mood for a TV show appearance right now."

"More like that you're not in the mood for any TV shows anytime soon."

"It's not like I'm supposed to do any TV shows anytime soon," Magnus shot back. "A three months break from the public eye. That's what we agreed on."

Ragnor just opened his mouth to reply when Catarina cut in. "It is. And you're getting that time off, don't worry. But three months away from the public eye doesn't mean three months off work." She nodded towards the cardboard box she had brought with her. "Your new autograph photos came in and there's a lot of new fan mail too. Time to get to work, love."

Magnus flashed a smile at Ragnor. "I'm so sorry, dear friend, I believe we'll have to postpone this conversation. Not that I mind."

He then turned back towards Catarina. "Do you need me to start signing now?"

She shook her head. "Just make sure they are ready by the end of the week."

Magnus nodded. "Consider it done."

Signing some of the new autograph cards took a few hours that Magnus spent tucked away in a quiet meeting room in the Downworld Records headquarters. He managed to get a few hundred done and would have been faster if his friends weren't so terribly chatty. Catarina stopped by with coffee sometime in the afternoon, Elias from the reception desk paid him a visit and even Ragnor came to say hi at some point. Even Alec kept Magnus company, only through texts, but still.

Magnus kept signing until well into the afternoon, when his eyes were sore and his writs hurt. When he'd reached the point where he couldn't stand to look at his own face anymore, he decided to call it a day. He put the signed autograph cards back into the cardboard box, took the fan letters with him and made his way to the ground floor.

+++

Back at his apartment, Magnus fixed himself a glass of wine before sitting down on his living room carpet and taking out the letters Catarina had given to him. Reading fanmail was something he had always preferred to do in the privacy of his apartment. There was just something about these letters people sent him, something so personal that Magnus felt like taking his time was the only way to treat them right. He didn't read everything, of course. There was just too much coming in. But he tried. Lots of them were about how people felt inspired by Magnus, how he had inspired them to go after their dreams. Those always hit close to home, especially since it hadn't been so long ago that Magnus had been a struggling singer with a big dream himself. The least he could do, he felt, was give those people's words at least a fraction of the time and attention they had put into writing them.

A little while into reading the letters, Chairman joined Magnus in the living room and with his cat resting in his lap and his fans' moving stories to go through, the rest of the afternoon flew by. Magnus didn't even notice how much time had passed until, once again, the persistent ringtone of his phone drew him out of a particularly inspiring letter.

Without looking, he picked up, too busy with swallowing past the lump in his throat that the fans' story had left behind to check the caller ID. "Hello?", he said, voice slightly pressed. Emotional letters always got him.

"I swear to everything that is holy, I will kill Aldertree and not even try to make it look like an accident."

Magnus chuckled. "Hello to you too, Alexander."

"Oh, sorry. Yeah. Hi." Magnus heard some traffic noise in the background, and Alec cursing under his breath. "Anyway, I'm going to kill him."

Putting the letter aside, Magnus shooed the Chairman of his lap so he could sit up a little. "And why is that?"

"As if I would need a specific reason at this point," Alec scoffed before there was loud honking in the background and Magnus could hear him curse again, louder this time. "Great, now I stepped into a puddle too. I just got this suit dry cleaned, dammit! "

"Today is really not your day, huh?" Magnus said sympathetically, then took another sip of his wine.

Alec let out a sigh. "Yeah. You could say that."

"So. Aldertree?"

"I don't even know why I get angry about him at this point anymore. He's been sabotaging my work ever since I got promoted. I just try to ignore him most of the time, but he manages to get on my nerves every damn time. I just can't stand him, yet I can't do anything about it since I'm not running the company yet and he knows it. It's just so…frustrating."

A wave of sympathy rolled through Magnus. Before his career had taken off, and even now that he was where he always wanted to be, he'd had to deal with plenty of people who fit to that description. At least until he had learned which people were here to stay and which ones were only around as long as his fame was.

"Look, Alexander-"

Alec didn't let him finish. Or even properly start, for that matter. "You know what's fun?"

"I assume you're going to tell me in a second."

"Ha. Well, yeah.  Uh…what's fun is that I didn't even call you because of Aldertree, yet ended up ranting to you about him anyways."

Magnus huffed out a laugh. "I don't blame you. Awful people do tend to have that effect on us. Besides, I enjoy talking to you."

"Yeah, me too. The talking, I mean. I uh…I like that, too. That was kind of the point why I called in the first place."

"To talk to me?"

"No. Well, yeah, but also because I wanted to ask something."

Magnus chuckled. "I'm all ears."

"Look…I really enjoyed texting with you these past two weeks or so and I was kind of wondering if we uh…could hang out for real at some point?"

"Hang out? May I remind you, Alexander, that I don't just hang out with people." He swirled the wine in his glass. "But if this is your adorably dorky way of asking me out, please, go ahead."

Alec let out a slightly nervous laugh. "Yeah. That's kind of it. So, will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Stop being a tease, mostly. Also, go out on date with me?"

Magnus smiled and nodded, then remembered that Alec wouldn't exactly be able to hear that reaction. "I'd love to."

"Yeah?" Alec sounded genuinely surprised, like he hadn't expected Magnus' answer. "I mean, great! How does this Friday sound?"

Magnus smiled. "Friday sounds great. See you then?"

The relief in Alec's tone was impossible to miss. Magnus felt his heartbeat quicken at the realization. "Yeah. I'll see you then."

"Great! And Alexander?"

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favor and try not to kill Aldertree until then. I'm all for handcuffs, but I'd hate for our first date to be in prison."

Alec's gleeful laugh rung in Magnus' ears long after they had ended their call.

+++

"Magnus, hey!"

Looking up from his phone, Magnus turned around just to see Alec rushing towards him. "I'm sorry I'm late," Alec huffed, slightly out of breath and cheeks a little flushed. "I got held up at work by you know who and then came here as fast as I could."

Magnus smiled reassuringly, noting with a pleased feeling that Alec's gaze was raking up and down his attire. So the necklaces and open buttons had been a good idea after all.

"No problem, I just got here myself," he said, turning around towards the building that had definitely seen better days, but otherwise didn't give anything away about what awaited them behind the door. "So, Alexander. What exactly are we doing here?"

Alec grinned. "Let me guess – you googled the place, came up with nothing and it's been bugging you all week. Am I right?"

Magnus pursed his lips and raised a hand to scratch at the back of his neck. "I may or may not have been a little curious. Now, are you just going to keep making fun of me or are you actually going to tell me what we're doing tonight?"

Alec chuckled. "Impatient as always, I see." The chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh when Magnus just raised his eyebrows at him.

"Fine, let's stop keeping you in the dark. I actually didn't know this place existed until my sister told me about it about a week ago, and it's a bit of a long story, so why don't you just see for yourself?"

To Magnus' (not at all unpleasant) surprise, Alec underlined those words by gently putting a hand on Magnus' back and nudging him towards the entrance. And if Alec's hand rested there for just a little longer than strictly necessary, Magnus wasn't one to complain.

Magnus had gotten to know Alec a little better through their continuous texting over the past couple of days, and it didn't take even half an hour into their date for him to learn another three new things about him: He had a mediocre taste in style, a great taste in music and an excellent taste when it came to picking locations for a first date.

The initially dull looking building had turned out to be a cozy little art gallery that focused on all kinds of weird exhibits. Currently, they were showing an exhibit about the absolute worst the 80s and 90s had to offer in terms of music – also known as Magnus' secret guilty pleasure kind of era.

"I have to admit, Alexander, you do know how to pick an unexpected first date location," Magnus mused as he slowly walked through the exhibits' Pop and Rock of the 90s section after strolling through other sections for a while.

Alec, who had been doing a very poor job at hiding the fact that he'd been a little nervous about what Magnus might say about his first date idea, visibly relaxed. "You like it, then?"

Magnus beamed. "An exhibit about all the awful 90s music you will never hear me admit out loud I still love? I love this.

"Good, that makes one of us. Because I'm starting to wonder what on earth you find so fascinating about the 80s."

They had made it into a part of the exhibit where visitors got to witness some of the best of the 80s and 90s on their own. All they had to do was put on a pair of headphones and choose a song on one of the tablets that were mounted to the wall.

Magnus, who had already been busy picking up a pair of headphones, halted. He raised an eyebrow  at Alec. "I'll have you know that the 80s included musical legends such as Queen, Bon Jovi or Whitney Houston, Alexander."

"Yeah, I know that," Alec deadpanned, his tone being nowhere near serious. "I'm talking about the Cyndi Lauper and Wham! songs in here." He sounded like mentioning those artists alone personally offended him.

Magnus shrugged. "Collateral damage. There are so many better pieces to pick from. May I?", he asked, holding up the pair of headphones to Alec.

When Alec nodded, he slipped them over his ears and grabbed another pair for himself. Once they were both all set, Magnus turned towards the vast music selection and picked a song for the both of them.

As soon as the song started playing, Magnus couldn't help himself. He closed his eyes just as his body almost automatically started moving in tune with the music. Magnus had always had a hard time just sitting still when listening to a good song, especially when it was one of his personal favorites.

He kept going until a gentle tap on his shoulder dragged him out of the last bit of the song, just as the singer's voice started to fade off. When he opened his eyes, he realized that Alec had been watching him, leaning against the wall, headphones long forgotten and a gentle smirk on his lips.

"Don't You Forget About Me? Really, Magnus?"

Magnus shrugged. "That is 80s music as well, Alec. Not so bad after all, is it?"

Alec chuckled. "You sure know how to sell it."

Alec reached out and pulled the headphones off Magnus' head, setting them back onto the hook where they'd taken them from. "So what other not-so guilty musical pleasures are you hiding?"

Magnus laughed. "My dear Alexander, that is a story for a second date."

It took them another while to finish their stroll through the gallery. Most of it was due to Magnus, who could talk about music for hours and sure made use of that trait during their date. But Alec didn't seem to mind, he patiently listened to Magnus' stories and threw in an anecdote of his own here and there, proving that it hadn't been just talk when he'd said he had a bit of an interest in music as well.

After they had made it to the end, Alec went to retrieve their coats and met Magnus in the entrance hall. "So? Did you like the exhibit?

Magnus beamed at him as he reached for his jacket, his fingers brushing against Alec's as he took it. "I told you already, I loved this. Your lack of appreciation for guilty pleasure music isn't going to change that."

Alec smiled back at him, and this time it reached his eyes, too. He looked…hopeful, Magnus thought. "Great. I was actually kind of nervous since you know, first date usually means drinks or a movie or whatever. But I figured since you mentioned you're into 80s and 90s music, this might be up your alley."

"Definitely. Thanks for bringing me here. However, now that you mention it," Magnus said, glancing at his watch, "drinks don't sound so bad right now."

Alec grinned. "I was hoping you would say that. Come on, I know a place."

Alec led them to a bar not far from the gallery. Thanks to it being a Friday night, The Hunter's Moon was packed, but they managed to secure themselves a small table tucked away in the corner. The place wasn't big, yet buzzing with energy and excitement, the latter being due to the stage about 30 feet away from Alec and Magnus' table. For now, it was empty, but a microphone and guitar seemed just to be waiting for someone to start playing.

When Magnus asked Alec about the empty stage, Alec just smirked and muttered something about patience. "But you'll like it, promise."

He ended up being right. Alec had just taken off towards the bar to get their first round of drinks when a young woman walked on stage, waved to the audience and started tuning the guitar. There was a moment of excited silence before she started playing a rendition of James Bay's "Hold Back The River", singing along in a soft voice that slowly grew more powerful as the song went on. Magnus was fascinated immediately, so much that he almost didn't notice Alec had gotten back from the bar, drinks in hand.

Alec chuckled as he pushed Magnus' drink into his direction, their fingers brushing together briefly. "I assume you like this place?"

The woman had reached the first chorus and while her voice had been soft and melodic, she switched gears to a much more powerful tone as the song went on.

"Are you kidding? I could listen to her all day", Magnus said and laughed. "I haven't been to an open mic night in forever, but I'm just realizing what I've been missing out on."

Alec nodded and smiled. "This is one of my favorite places. It's a bit of a commute from my apartment, but the music makes it all worth it. I admire these people, actually. It takes courage to just walk up onto that stage and sing your heart out, not knowing if people are going to like it or not."

"That it does", Magnus mused, before realizing the words had actually slipped out. "I mean, I can imagine that it does. These people must put their heart and soul into these performances," he added quickly, just as the woman on stage put all her energy into the final few lines of the song.

Surveying Alec's expression carefully, Magnus kept an eye out for any signs that he had managed to blow his own cover. When Alec didn't show any signs of suspicion, Magnus breathed out and turned back towards the stage and grabbed his drink. Relieved, he raised his glass towards Alec. "Anyway. To us. Thanks for bringing me here, Alec."

Alec's gaze was warm when he looked at Magnus. "It's my absolute pleasure."

Magnus' martini clinked against Alec's beer bottle, and the sound made Magnus oddly hopeful. Things had been going well so far. Alec had been attentive and funny all night and there hadn't been a single moment of awkward silence. Even better – Magnus was having a genuinely good time.  He didn't quite trust the warm, comfortable feeling in his stomach just yet, but it seemed like they were ringing in a rather special kind of night.

And judging from Alec's soft smile and the warm expression in his eyes whenever he caught Magnus looking at him, Magnus wasn't the only one feeling that way.

+++

"…and that's why I am pretty sure that next time I go to Peru, the people at airport security won't be as tolerant as they were last time."

Magnus finished his little story with a smirk and a flourish and his free hand. The other one had been tucked into Alec's for the past couple of minutes. Alec had grabbed it to pull Magnus aside and out of the way of an approaching group of pedestrians. He hadn't made any attempts at letting go since, and Magnus was going to be damned if he was going to make him do so.

Magnus almost found it odd how well Alec and him got along even though it was only their first date. But then again, he couldn't bring himself to care.  Their evening had gone way too well for that. Throughout the night, Magnus had realized that all the funny texts and spontaneous phone calls in the world didn't even come close to spending time with Alec in person. Magnus had had a good feeling with Alec since they had first run into each other at the coffee shop, but the longer the evening went on, the more Magnus realized that his gut feeling about Alec had been right.

Talking to Alec, laughing with him, was easy, effortless. Alec's gaze was warm, his laugh contagious. He was still a lot more on the quiet side than Magnus, but the longer their date had gone on the more Alec had opened up. He'd stood a little closer, let his gaze rest on Magnus a little longer, nudged him here and there to underline his point while telling a story, or gently brushed his fingers against Magnus' as he reached for his drink. They had been small gestures, easy to miss, but Magnus had noticed anyway.

His own skeptical mind had blamed it on the cozy bar and the music in the background at first, but even now as they were strolling through the streets, Magnus felt as comfortable with Alec as he had been the entire night. That feeling had only grown stronger when Magnus' weird story from Peru, sometimes a bit of a dealbreaker on any first date, had made Alec only laugh with no signs of him being weirded out.

"You got yourself banned from an entire country. Why am I not surprised."

"What can I say, Alexander – I am a man of many talents."

He took another few steps on the sidewalk, then almost tripped over his own feet while trying to dodge a lamppost. It was only thanks to Alec's quick thinking and even quicker reflexes that Magnus didn't end up falling flat on his butt in the middle of the street.

Alec chuckled. "I suppose almost breaking your nose because you walked into a lamppost is one of those?"

"Fine, it wasn't one of my best moments."

"It's okay. It was actually pretty adorable."

"Adorable, huh?"

"Yeah," Alec mumbled, his hand brushing against Magnus' once again.

This time, Magnus didn’t think twice. In one swift move, he closed his own hand around Alec's, holding it in a light grasp, just tight enough to feel connected but still light enough for Alec to pull away if he so desired.

There was a pause, a beat of silence. Magnus breathed in, was about to pull his hand back, when the grip of Alec's hand suddenly tightened and he interlaced their fingers.

Magnus breathed out, his shoulders relaxing. He looked over to Alec, and caught him looking right back.

As their eyes caught, Alec's gaze drifted to their interlaced fingers and Magnus saw a smirk pulling at his lips. Alec bit his lip, then looked back up at Magnus. "Okay?"

Magnus let out a soft laugh, just barely audible, barely more than a breath. He returned Alec's smirk, his gaze reassuring. "Absolutely."

They kept walking for another while, for longer than it would have been strictly necessary to get to the next subway stop. Some of the time they spent talking, but most of it in comfortable silence. Magnus didn't mind either – he was more than okay with their little detours, as they meant he didn't have to say goodbye to Alec just yet.

Eventually though, they made it to the subway stop and came to a halt, turning towards each other. Magnus felt an odd sense of déjà-vu, similar to the last time they had seen each other and had been forced to say goodbye too early.

Judging from Alec's smirk, he'd had the same thought. "I guess this is where we part ways, again?"

Magnus chuckled. "I guess so."

Alec reached out for his other hand, his fingers softly grazing over Magnus' skin. "I had a really good time tonight."

Magnus squeezed Alec's hand gently. "So did I. Care for a second date sometime soon?"

Alec's gaze was as warm as the smiles he'd sent Magnus throughout the evening. "I'd love that."

Magnus beamed at Alec. He had just a couple of minutes left until he needed to catch his train, but he just couldn't bring himself to head off just now. The night had been too special. Instead, he stepped closer to Alec, closing almost all of the distance between them.

"Alright, Alexander," he muttered, voice barely above a whisper. "I'll see you soon then."

He took another half step closer and felt Alec's breath brush against his face. Pausing one more second, he waited if Alec would pull away. But just like earlier, when he had reached out for his hand, Alec didn't. So Magnus took one more half step to close the distance between them and dropped a kiss on the corner of Alec's mouth – just shy of his lips.

Squeezing his hands one more time, Magnus slowly backed away. He was just about to turn towards the subway station and head home when Alec's voice made him turn around once again.

"Magnus?"

"Yeah?"

"You call that a goodbye kiss?"

A sly smirk pulled on Magnus' lips, matching the one on Alec's face. "My, my Alexander. How brazen you are," Magnus mumbled. He stepped closer to Alec again and rested one hand on Alec's waist, the other on his face before leaning in again – for a proper kiss this time.

[fullformworld]

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Looking for Best Instagram captions - Cute,Couples,Workout,Friendship,Cool,Sassy,One word,Short,Selfies,Adventure,Happy,Aesthetic,funny,Sunset,Fall,Fire,Beach,Dog,Savage. Now a days , everyone is using the Instagram app on their mobile. Instagram is one of the most popular and widely used Photo sharing application which is owned by Facebook allow users to share their Photos and Videos. WHAT ARE INSTAGRAM CAPTIONS ? An Instagram caption is a written description or explanation about the Instagram photo to provide more context. Instagram captions can include emojis, hashtags, and tags. Instagram captions are very useful for making your post (photos/videos) look attractive.Without a caption a post doesn't look good at all. Having an excellent and attractive Instagram Caption is very important! It can be very useful to you for receiving a lot of likes of the articles and finding none. But thinking about great Instagram Captions might be challenging, so we made it easy to run out of unique Instagram caption ideas in 20+ different categories when you’re publishing a lot of photo. HOW TO WRITE INSTAGRAM CAPTIONS ? As you upload a selective picture of yours after clicking 100+ of them just because its perfect. So, you need to check out these points : i) Use Smileys with your Instagram captions Using Smileys or Emojis with your captions make the post really attractive and cool. An emoji describes your posts very clearly if you use it in a right way. An emoji only can be placed as a caption on your post. So, keep in mind that a caption with a perfect emoji will make your post look better than others. ii) Do use Hashtags (#) Using appropriate Hashtags with your Instagram captions can help you to grow your profile reach. There are millions of hashtags used by peoples. A a particular hashtag determines your category, so that anyone searching for your type, will easily find you. Best Instagram captions 2021        Instagram is a social media platform where thousands of pictures and videos are uploaded daily with Instagram captions. As the audience on Instagram is increasing day by day.There are approx 400 million+ users on this social media platform.     Here is my collection of 30+ Instagram captions categories which you will definitely love to use as your "Instagram captions" and bookmark this Homepage for regular uses.Here in this article, we are going to share Instagram captions for Instagram 2018.

 Cute Instagram captions

cute instagram captions Being in a relationship is a full-time job. So don’t apply if you’re not ready. Your speed doesn’t matter, forward is forward The secret of getting ahead is getting started. Lift up your head princess, if not the crown falls. Always wear your invisible crown. Never look down on anybody UNLESS you’re helping him up. Always hold your head up. You have to be ODD, to be number ONE. Time is precious, waste it wisely. Don’t tell people your dreams, SHOW THEM! Do not worry, be happy The road to success is always under construction. If sky is the limit, then go there There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. Love is when you accept a person the way he or she is. You’ll never understand love until you You can love the person you trust but you can not always trust the person you love. Love is the greatest feeling in the word but it can also be the worse. Being in a relationship is a full-time job. So don’t apply if you’re not ready. Your speed doesn’t matter, forward is forward The secret of getting ahead is getting started. Lift up your head princess, if not the crown falls. Always wear your invisible crown. Never look down on anybody UNLESS you’re helping him up. Always hold your head up. You have to be ODD, to be number ONE. Time is precious, waste it wisely. Don’t tell people your dreams, SHOW THEM! Do not worry, be happy.  

Couple Goals Instagram captions

Couple Goals Instagram captions   You are mine, I am damn yours. You are my today and all of my tomorrows. You know! I want to be the reason of smile😀 on your face. I might be too late to be your first, but I can certainly be your last. Borrow me a Kiss💋💋, please? I wanna give it back, with full interest. They say it’s rude to stare, but I don’t care. You are too cute 😊not to stare at. If you’re alone, I’ll be your shadow.👥 I thought I was normal until I met you. Then, I realized we’re both pretty weird and I like that about us. What I have with you is something I never want with anyone else. You are the lovely distraction. I can resist any more, not to love you. What made you fall for him? He never asked me to justify my past. Cold nights, warm blankets, cozy days. I still fall for you every day of my life. Life starts again when fall hits, but I’m so glad it’s with you. Friends say you are a distraction to me. Believe me, I want to be distracted forever. She knew she loved him when “home” 🏠went from being a place to being a person. Love is a two-way street constantly under construction. Love: Two minds without a single thought. You’re my reflection, all I see is you. If I lost you I would cry, oh how I love you baby. Without you I would be so lost. You are the compass that guides me in life. We balance each other out so perfectly. You have made me the man / woman that I am today. You are my rock, my home, and my everything.  I can’t wait to tell our love story to our children and our grandchildren one day. all I used to see you make me see the world in brighter colours when before was dull shades of grey. My life has been such a wonderful adventure since you came along. Our life together is one for the history books. Forget the fairy tales, I think our love story is the best one ever told. Even after all this time you still make me weak in the knees I barely remember what I was doing with my life before you came along.  

Workout instagram captions

workout instagram captions The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination. Suck it up and one day you won't have to suck it in. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. Go the extra mile. it's never crowded. I'm so unfamiliar with the gym, I call it James! I exercise every day. I swim, I bike, I run and I go to the gym. Fall in love with process and results will come.. Every beauty needs a beast That is why don't skip Leg's day. Let the gains begin Strong peoples don't pull others down, them pull them up. Your fitness is 100% mental. Think of your workouts as important meetings A lot of women like to be super tiny When you want to give up, remember why you started. It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.  

Friendship goals Instagram captions

workout instagram captions Nothing last forever, except these memories. I and My group of friends are the funniest👭😃 humans I know. A friend👬 knows the song in my heart 💙and sings it to me when my memory fails. Best friends👬 stick together till the end. They are like a straight➖ line that will not bend. Strangers think I’m quiet, my friends👬🤔 think I’m out-going, only my best friends know that I’m completely insane! A real friend 👬is one with whom you can be silent. Good friends are like stars 🌟. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there… True friendship 👭is seen through the heart, 💛not through the eyes.👁 Best Friends make good times better and hard times easier! Friends take the word WORRY😔 out of my vocabulary and just replace it with HAPPINESS.😊 Friendship is the candle🕯 that lights up your heart❤ whenever it is dark outside. It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for. If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever. I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light. Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend. What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies. It's hard to tell who h There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.as your back, from who has it long enough just to stab you in it. “Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant. Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary. We should meet in another life, we should meet in air, me and you. The best mirror is an old friend. Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit. Storm Sister--a friend who sticks close when storms hit her friend's life. On our own, we’d look totally normal. Together, we’re something else. Together, we’re special. Being first to ask for help in a friendship takes courage and humility. Stick by your friends, and they'll help resolve your issues. Or, at the very least, help you forget they exist for a while. Conversations between friends are the craziest and funniest of all.  

Cool captions for instagram

Cool captions for instagram   When money talks nobody notices what grammar it uses. The only disability in life is a bad attitude. It's not about ideas. It's about ideas making happen. I am back with my same attitude.👓 Attitude is my middle name. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. It’s the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time. Someday I want to be perfect; until then, I’ll be happy being incredible. Old age is no place for sissies. If you rest, you rust. Life is hard. After all, it kills you. When someone makes you an option, make them a memory. Make today so awesome, Yesterday gets jealous. Sell the problem you solve, not product. Not everyone likes me, But not everyone matters. Being in a good frame of mind helps keep one in the picture of health. I’m gonna make the rest of my life, the best of my life. They laugh at me because I’m different, I laugh at them because they’re all the same. When I’m good, I’m God’s son 😊. But when I’m bad, I’m devil’s dad. 😈 !! Criticize me when you are at my level. Until then you may just admire. You can have RESULTS or EXCUSES not both. I’m not cranky. I just have a violent reaction to stupid people. Self-love isn’t selfish, it is important. I am not for everyone. When I was born...The devil said..👓”Oh, Shit..!! Competition” Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache. Let a smile be your umbrella if you want to stand out in the rain like a grinning idiot. A woman is like a tea bag you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off. I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me that trouble of liking them.  

Sassy instagram captions

Sassy instagram captions “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man” “We gonna party like it’s your birthday” “I got 99 problems, but ain’t one” “The more money we come across, the more problems we see” Big poppa. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” “Drop it like it’s hot” Only God Can Judge Me “I’m feeling’ myself” “To live doesn’t mean you’re alive”  

One Word instagram captions

One Word instagram captions Live. Breathe. Forgive. Ambition. Love. Processing. Inspire Succeed Fly Shine Appreciate grow Dream Positivity Enthusiastic Kind Troublemaker Cute Passionate Instagramer  

Short Instagram captions

Short Instagram captions Do it now . Appreciate the moment. Change is good. Remember to live. Learn from yesterday. Nothing is fair in love. Do or die. Make it happen Feed your soul Now or never Smile. Sparkle. Shine You are enough. Every moment matters. Take the risk. Hit the goals Never look back. Hit the success. It's my journey. You're mine. Never look back Success breads success Winners never quit.  

Instagram captions for selfies

Instagram captions for selfies - In a world full of trends, I want to remain a classic. - Today, I will be as useless as the 'g' in lasagna. - Stress doesn't really go with my outfit. - Reality called, so I hung up. - Dare to be a donut in a world of plain bagels. - I love looking in the mirror and feeling good about what I see. - Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in the mirror. - I walk around like everything is fine, but deep down, inside my shoe, my sock is sliding off." - Less perfection, more authenticity. - To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid. - This reality is a beautiful illusion. - The mirror reflects my light. - Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror. - What does a mirror look at? - What you seek is seeking you. - Eyes are never quiet. - Sometimes you gotta fall before you fly. - Mirrors tell you the truth. - And I usually use myself as a model, posing in front of a mirror. - Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.  

Adventure Instagram captions

Adventure Instagram captions Work hard, travel harder. Travel expands the mind and fills the gap. Have a safe flight back home✈🛫 Happiness is looking down for the next destination from your plane 🛬 window. The best part about solo travel is rediscovering that I enjoy my own company. Travel has a way of stretching the mind. Travel is not really about leaving our homes but leaving out habits. To take travel is to take a journey into yourself. Adventure is worthwhile. Where ever I go, it became part of me. Life is short and the world 🌏is wide. Forget champagne and caviar – Taste the world instead! The world is a book 📕, who do not travel read only a page. Travel✈ brings power and loves ❤back to your life Some beautiful paths 🛣 can't be discovered without getting lost. Travel is never a matter of money, but of courage. Let's pack our bags 👜 and travel the world. Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. Someday I'm going to be free and I'm going to travel the world. Let's go on a road trip together.

Happy instagram captions

Happy instagram captions - Put some color in your life 🌈 - Happiness is a little corner of paradise in my life. - Happiness is not a goal… it’s a by-product of a life well-lived. - If you want to be happy, be. - We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. - Be Wild. Be True. Be Happy 💕 - Being happy never goes out of style. - Look for the magic in every moment💙 - Don’t stop to dream. - Be a flower in a world made of stones🌺 - Life is a gift, live it now - You decide to be happy or not - No matter how hard I try, I can never be unhappy. - Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation. Read the full article

[priyasarmasblog]

What gifts are you able to send online and how?

There are many websites particularly dedicated to sending personalised gifts online. From well-known names like Archies, Ferns & Petals, to IGP, you'll choose anything from an easy card to a star wishing that special someone for his or her birthday.

Small plants, flower bouquets, cakes, candles, photo blankets and even vacations, some websites can turn any gifting idea into reality. Most of those websites allow online payments and every one you would like to try to to is share the delivery address of the recipient and thou shall be delivered the gift to the doorstep, across the world .

Apart from the aforementioned mainstream gifting, personalised gifting is that the new rage across India and sending these online may be a wonderful experience.

It is a bit of cake to make & send personalised gifts at RightGifting.com and you'll have immense fun within the process. we provide thousands of gift ideas, provide state-of-the-art tools to make them, and deliver the gifts PAN India. Spread across numerous categories, RightGifting has something for everybody and every one age groups & genders.

Why personalised presents are the best?

At RightGifting, personalisation is given utmost importance and almost every single item sold on the web site are often customised. Unique items like Kindle sleeves, capes, aprons, et al. are often customised on the web site and not many other sites allow you to try to to this in India or have the proper tools for it.

Personalised gifts are the simplest of all, just because it instils a permanent happy memory in any receiver's mind & heart, and it's a gorgeous medium to precise your true feeling to a beloved .

Perfumes, wallets, and gifting gadgets are arising to be cliche in 2021 because any acquaintance or a life partner can choose these without distinction in closeness. So customised gifting is that the perfect thanks to stand aside from regular friends and show that they mean more to you than others.

Fiancee, best friends, siblings, partners, parents, and youngsters deserve nothing but the heat & forethought a personalised gift carries so to face apart, choose RightGifting.

What am i able to give for a birthday gift?

Birthdays are occasions when everyone deserves to feel special and once you receive a gift nobody else has, it makes the day far more exceptional. Gifting someone a photograph blanket for his or her birthday hits different from gifting them AirPods, which can be another gadget among the various others and once you can literally print anything from an Avengers photo to a family picture on the blanket, it stands out forever.

A personalised scroll with a message, a heart-shaped pillow, epic Game of Thrones style personalised wall hanger, are a number of the stupendous options offered on RightGifting and be happy to let your imagination run free customising these.

What is the simplest gift for Kids?

Kids deserve personalised gifts regardless if it’s their birthday or not because it’s not just limited to aesthetic reasons. Personalised gifts like backpacks, pencil pouches, t-shirts, meal mats, blankets, key chains et al. are the simplest quite gifts for teenagers because they imbibe children with a way of pride, ownership, and happiness no normal present can.

Customised gifts also are the simplest for teenagers when there are many products & designs to settle on from, and fogeys love the experience of printing their kid’s name, face, or a cartoon on their belongings. Furthermore, the security reasons for etching the name or the initials of your child on their belongings goes without saying.

5 top useful Personalised Gifts you'll love

If the already mentioned products weren’t for your satisfaction, here are some distinctive gifting options that are as useful as they're charming:

Kindle Sleeve: they assert ‘get your child hooked to reading books and education is taken care of’ and what better thanks to do that than with a Kindle! When your Kindle cover or sleeve has your name, face of your favourite artist thereon , you'll most certainly be ‘neighbours envy’ in no time.

Shoe Sack: travellers and sports fans will love these shoe sacks. When travelling or playing football happens frequently, why not roll in the hay in style? Printing a vacation photo or Lionel Messi’s jersey on your shoe sack will surely spark a conversation wherever you go.

Duffle or Gym Bag: gym and fitness centres are often places where you create lifelong friends. an area where most are motivated to be a far better person, a gym bag with an inspirational quote or a specific quite customisation can go an extended thanks to make a strong statement.

Photo Blanket: Instagram is flooded with posts of couples gifting one another blankets with their portraits on them and if you didn’t know who does it in India, the solution if RightGifting.com

Lounger Bean Bag Cover: What’s better than a daily bean bag? A lounger bean bag which will be customised. Create your own design and lay down completely on our large lounger bean bags which are ideal for balconies or relaxation spaces.

These were a number of the bubbling questions that were begging to be answered along side the small print of some wonderful gifting products. plow ahead and buy the products you're keen on and remember, your imagination is that the only limitation to owning or gifting a 1 of a sort present to your beloved

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: February 2021

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of February 2021 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

Let it not be said that Republican senators know what is best for their country.  And what is best for their country?  Putting their party ahead of the country, because it’s far more important to show the country that Republicans stick with one of their own even when “one of their own” isn’t one of their own but stood on a Republican ticket, even though they just so happened to incite a riot at the Capitol having lost on said Republican ticket

The High Court ruled that Matt Hancock acted unlawfully when doling out contract after contract to his mates no matter how unqualified they are, and not only did he not resign, but we had the BBC burying the story with as little a mention as they could get away with when it broke while Keir Starmer said he did not believe the public wanted to see Hancock resign.  Gee, I wonder why the UK is so fucked up?

...and then Matt Hancock went one further by saying that the British public should be thanking him, because apparently we should be grateful for 130,000 dead, his mates making off like bandits on lucrative contracts, multiple spikes in death rates due to gross incompetence by him and his bosses, and him gaslighting the public by saying there was never a PPE shortage while telling the public they should be thanking the greedy, useless, sociopathic cunt

It appears that Dido Harding is the only person on earth who is unaware that viruses mutate.  That sound you just heard was the collective screaming of every biologist, virologist and epidemiologist on earth screaming in unison at the combination of her making such a profoundly moronic statement as if it was an adequate defence, and the fact she was not only given £10bn to be in charge of Serco’s test & trace but is spending £1000 a day on consultants fees in spite having less knowledge of how viruses work than a peanut

Remember how Keir Starmer said he’d unite the Labour party?  I have to ask, as it appears that Starmer has forgotten about that considering all three candidates for the Liverpool mayoral election were dropped from the ballot without any reasoning given short of some vague and meaningless wording of a vague and meaningless statement, something which Starmer has been issuing a lot of lately

Smirking bully Priti Patel seems to have finally cottoned onto the fact her role is to allow boneheads to point to the one non-white person who agrees with them and claim that means everyone agrees with their boneheaded views, which she demonstrated by making some patently absurd comments about the Blame Lives Matter movement while moaning about footballers taking the knee before every match - which no doubt had at least sixteen people named Gary tweeting in support of her within the hour

The fact that several LAPD officers decided that the discussion about both police brutality and endemic racism in policing wouldn’t get in the way of their being a bunch of edgelords and send valentine’s cards mocking the murder of George Floyd in the most twattish way imaginable sums up exactly why the “orL lYfeS mAttUH” knobheads are so far wide of the mark that they don’t even know what the fucking mark is

So the defence which Anne Sacoolas gave in the inquest into the death of Harry Dunn was that she worked for US intelligence, which somehow justifies driving over the speed limit on the wrong side of the road, before legging it out of the country at the earliest opportunity - with the full support of the UK government to make sure she got out of the country

Similarly, apparently it did not occur to Gina Carano that tweeting out all manner of batshittery, culminating with her saying that being a Republican in 2021 America is like being a Jew in Nazi Germany, is the sort of thing that has repercussions for your career.  Such as getting fired from your high profile acting gig while also having your agency drop you like an ice cold turd

Something which escaped the Tory government during their joyous pronouncement that the R number for Covid has dropped below 1 for the first time since July 2020: in doing so, they not only revealed that they pushed ahead with numerous plans, such as getting children back into school, removing employment protections for people who didn’t feel safe trudging into the office, and bribing people into restaurants with a £10 voucher when they were fully aware that the R number was above 1 - which, of course, was also missed by the supposed journalists at the BBC when joyously pronouncing the R number was below 1 for the first time since July 2020

It’s reasonably clear that Ted Cruz isn’t a champion of self-awareness, what with his response to Texas being hit with heavy snowfall and widespread power outages at the exact same time by legging it to Cancun (during a pandemic...) without realising how that made him look and sound remarkably like Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons - and he abandoned his poodle at home to do so

...and sticking with Texas, the image of Fred Meyer posting armed guards outside of their stores to prevent people from taking the produce that the store had dumped outside was one for the Capitalism family photo album

...just as Texas’ power outages led to Tucker Carson trying to blame wind turbines for the outages in spite of the fact wind turbines provide less than 15% of Texas’ power, meaning that Carlson found an entirely new way to blame minorities for problems

While it was incredible to see the ERG doing something that could be classified as research for the first time since their formation in 1992, their “research” involved them demanding that Westminster scrap Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol - the same Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol which every single member of the ERG voted for last year

Professional victim Rachel Riley came under such a vile and sustained attack when she gleefully claimed that Aaron Bastani has finally been booted out of Labour - a claim that would have a crumb of credibility if it wasn't for the fact that Bastani willingly cancelled his Labour membership a year or so ago��

How nice of Oliver Dowden to put forward the idea of all British universities installing a Free Speech Champion, whose role is to shout down criticism of Britain’s less than savoury past because statues of slave traders need to stay up because statues have more rights than people these days

It was remarkable how Andrew Neil managed to spell out exactly how the media have aided and abetted the right‘s bastardisation of the word “woke” into an insult of its original meaning - and somehow failed to notice that is exactly what he was doing as he was tweeting it

The journalistic integrity of Sarah Smith took an absolute battering when she claimed in a report on the story of Nicola Sturgeon and ministerial code - a story which the BBC are giving so much more coverage to compared to the seconds they gave to Matt Hancock being found to have acted unlawfully, by the way -  when she stated that Alec Salmond asked for Sturgeon’s resignation.  Except that simply is not true, as Salmond never asked for that, which makes it look uncannily like the BBC have the knives out for Sturgeon because Scottish lady made BoJo look bad

Man of the British people Richard Littlejohn chimed in from his gated community in Florida claiming that a statue of Captain Tom Moore that currently does not exist would soon be pulled down by BLM protesters that he has made up, which definitely doesn’t read like sixteen different kinds of bollocks to preach to the pig ignorant converted among the Daily Mail’s readership who lack the common sense to ask questions such as “Hang on, are you comparing Captain Tom to a slave trader?”

There was little surprise that The Sun responded to Harry & Megan announcing their pregnancy by trying to say that they’re hiPpPKritZ for wanting privacy yet telling the world that they’re expecting a child, almost as if they cannot understand that the couple being bullied out of the country by both press intrusion and a particularly nasty whispering campaign led by The Sun among others is what they meant when they said they wanted privacy - which seems to be the case given how many articles thundering the same line were vomited forth in the days immediately afterwards

Convicted criminal Darren Grimes didn’t seem to notice how sinister his statement (if a passive aggressive shittweet counts as a statement, which in Grimes’ world it certainly does) about BAME voters being able to vote in “our elections” actually sounded, did he?

Amidst the accolades Andrew Butler and James Wilson have been getting for their short film Keratin, there was one dissenting voice: artist Adam Ellis, who wrote the short comic Super Chill, which Butler and Wilson plagiarised and only informed Ellis when the film was already doing the festival circuit where they asked him to promote a work that ripped off his book in spite neither asking permission nor informing him beforehand, nor did they give Ellis a single credit

There was absolutely nothing normal about how Eddie Marsan lead a particularly vicious pile-on which Ian Austin and Steven Pollard were among those who joined in, all because somebody said that It’s A Sin was let down by Tracy Ann Oberman being in the cast, which naturally must mean this one person is an antisemite who must have dozens of people dogpile onto them in a short space of time while also revealing just how insane Gnasher’s pack have gotten if they now consider a person being a Liverpool fan as one of their red flags for rampant antisemitism

Apparently nobody had the conversation with TJ Ducklo that consists of saying that threatening to “destroy” journalists is not a good look, judging by TJ Ducklo threatening to destroy Politico reporter Tara Palmeri

Waffling gargoyle Nigel Farage demanded that the EU Human Rights Act be scrapped.  Luckily for Nige, there is no longer an EU Human Rights Act so he can claim “victory” - although the fact there wasn’t an EU Human Rights Act during the video he posted demanding it be scrapped, or at any point in history before he posted the video demanding it be scrapped, he’s either lacking in any form of knowledge about the EU whatsoever or is banking on clueless boneheads who have no knowledge of the EU so believe that Acts which don’t exist should be scrapped because waffling gargoyle Nigel Farage said so

Has it occurred to Piers Corbyn that doing things such as comparing lockdown to Auschwitz, and distributing leaflets saying exactly that, is monumentally knobheaded?  Hang on, let me check...no, he hasn’t realised that doing so is monumentally knobheaded, what with him doing precisely that

Something possessed Lauren Boebert to sit in on a Zoom meeting with three assault rifles and a GLOCK precariously balanced on the shelves behind her, somehow failing to notice that not only did it look completely deranged - especially if a spot of light dusting could lead to her unintentionally shooting the neighbours on both sides of her house - but the assault rifle on the bookshelf aesthetic has already been done by Osama bin-Laden

The oppressed underclass that are Manchester United fans once again responded to their team dropping points by racially abusing one of their own players on social media, with Axel Tuanzebe once again bearing the brunt of it after their 3-3 draw with Everton

Good to see that Gab are on the grift again with their free speech device, a device which guaranteed free speech by blocking cable channels that people who still use Gab (or rushed back there after Parler got iced) don’t agree with, because nothing says “free speech” like blocking differing viewpoints

There comes a point where you hope Julia Halfwit Hartley Brewer puts her foot down and tells her paymasters she’s had enough of making moronic statements posed as a question for people dumb enough to agree with the moronic statement, but clearly it wasn’t when she was told that her response to the Perseverance rover landing on Mars should be asking why we can send a probe to Mars yet not visit our neighbours, which is moronic even by the usual bilge she's told to throw out into the world by her paymasters

Hearing PS5 scalpers whine and complain that they are disrespected, and using some patently absurd arguments to defend themselves such as saying they’re simply supermarkets - as if they haven’t emptied said supermarkets of their stocks of PS5s before they even made it to shelves - really sums up how human garbage may have gained sentience, but it hasn’t gained self-awareness

Did it really not occur to DJ Tiiny that his telling record producers that their artists would get on his radio show as long as they bunged him £200 might come out at some point?  Because guess what?  It came out that DJ Tiiny was telling record producers that he could guarantee airtime for their artists if they bunged him £200

Occasional wrestler Austin Aries reminded us why the “occasional” part is relevant, as he decided to do a signing without masks where he signed tinfoil hats for the Covid Truthers who came to reward him for finding a career where he doesn’t have a track record of burning bridges with the entire industry 

And finally, screaming and screaming until he is sick, is Donald Trump throwing a tantrum and quitting the Screen Actors Guild approximately ten minutes before he was expelled for that whole encouraging-white-terrorism-to-storm-the-Capitol thing back in January

[functioningcog]

Hitting the bail button

  "Commercial television delivers 20 million people a minute. In commercial broadcasting the viewer pays for the privilege of having himself sold. It is the consumer who is consumed. You are the product of TV. You are delivered to the advertiser who is the customer. He consumes you. The viewer is not responsible for programming - You are the end product."(Serra and Fay, 1973)

  If it was true of television, it's even more true in the interactive and widespread media platforms of today. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Their brands are omnipresent. You are not their consumer. You are their product, and your data is offered and sold to the highest bidder. I have known this for sometime, but the mountain of reasons not to participate has finally tipped me over the edge. I am deleting Facebook. This doesn't make me better than anyone else, nor am I hear to preach. I just thought I'd share with you my reasons. Do with it what you will. First, a look into the past. Both mine, and ours.

  In the fast food documentary "Super Size Me", one of the participants tells an anecdotal tale about cigarette companies of the past. Long before it became socially taboo to smoke, advertising for cigarettes was as commonplace, though maybe not as entertaining, as many ads we see today. Big Tobacco went further though; they advertised directly to children. Children far below legal smoking age were given toy cigarettes. It's hard today to see this as innocuous, but I imagine at the time most people had far bigger things to worry about. Well, those little innocuous toy cigarettes often had name brands on them. The tobacco companies were practicing "brand imprinting" on children as young as toddlers. They would pretend to smoke with their parents, and later on when they were old enough to smoke, they would unconsciously reach for the name brand they were familiar with. The sinister side of marketing, hard at work. It has not changed or improved in the years since.

  Once when I was a kid, my father sat me down to have a talk. I wasn't in trouble; just being educated. The topic was Pokémon. The adorable, ubiquitous, trademarked pocket monsters that have dominated their corner of popular media for just about the same amount of time as I have been alive. They exist in many forms, and have evolved with the times. Videogames, toys both stuffed and model-like, card games, TV shows and films, all ad infinitum. My dad told me about the addictive nature of the games; how it's designed to grab hold of your attention, and your pocket book, and never let go. I don't remember his exact words, but the message has never left me. "Pokémon is addictive. I'm not going to buy you addictive things". 

  Not only is Pokémon addictive, but my father also stressed the fact that it creates a never-ending cycle for itself. There will always be new games, new cards, etc. Many medias that we enjoy have a planned ending to them. Movies, books, most TV shows, etc. They conclude and we move on to something else. We now live in an age where some of the most pervasive means of entertainment do not end. There is no logical stopping point. You can look at memes and posts and photos as long as your heart desires. 

  Note on Pokémon: I don't think the brand itself is evil. I have played the games in recent years and enjoy them. The lesson my dad taught me about addictions and marketing just happened to feature them. I wish I could say I have continued to avoid addictive habits and tech as an adult, but the battle is a lifelong one. Other addictions, mostly minor, have come and gone. It is the most pervasive and major one that brings me here; "Facebook"

  Before I dive more into my own experience with Facebook, I'd like to share with you several of the most important influences that led me here today. The first is a fictional short story told via the anthology series "Black Mirror"; a favorite show of mine. The other two are documentaries, one from last summer and one newly released.

   If you are unfamiliar with the show Black Mirror, it is an anthology series that explores the ethics and future of technology in our world through short self-contained stories. I highly recommend it. The Season 3 episode "Nosedive" follows a young woman in a world in which social standing is determined by internet interactions. People like and rate each other based on every interaction throughout their day. On your best behavior? You get some points. Accidentally snap at someone or make an off-color joke? You lose some points. Those points determine what events you attend, what cars you drive in, what jobs you can do, etc. It's not hard to extrapolate from there how our society is already well on its way to this kind of a system. The more addicted to social media we are, the more our lives revolve around the attention we get there. Likes and comments dominate our daily mood; they certainly have mine for years. It made me uncomfortable to realize how much my emotions could be controlled by digital reactions, or lack thereof. As "Nosedive" faded to black, I immediately pulled up my Facebook feed and then froze in place for a minute. "This is it. I'm looking at it". A sobering realization, yet I didn't stop my usage. The addiction continued, but no longer felt wholly innocent.  By the by, this technology now exists in China. Look it up.

   "The Great Hack" tells the story of a British Company called Cambridge Analytica, and how it developed it's technology to a point which the British government labeled "weapons grade communication". Analytica had contracts with a number of internet companies and groups to collect data on their users and used this data to develop tools, ads and propaganda designed to affect their target audience in highly specific ways. With the knowledge freely and unwittingly offered up by social media users, the degree to which you can predict and direct the users behavior and actions is truly disturbing. It's just human psychology and sociology combined with the newest tech. Cambridge Analytica used this data to influence elections in a number of countries around the globe, most notably the U.S. 2016 and the Brexit campaign in the U.K. They were hired first by Ted Cruz, then by Donald Trump's campaign. At the peak of the election season their American home base was being funded to the tune of over a million dollars a day and by it's end they had created and shared literally millions of targeted ads on social media. Were the ads truthful or reliable? Didn't matter. They were targeted at people most likely to shift their opinion based on the right information. And it worked. I wouldn't say that they single-handedly won the election for Trump, but they played a major part. 

  Cambridge Analytica was later shut down, but the cat’s out of the bag. I would expect to see both sides playing by these new rules throughout 2020. And that's all without even mentioning Russian hackers and bots, which Cambridge Analytica had nothing to do with. This documentary disturbed me. My own internal arguments and justifications in favor of Facebook were wearing thin. I began attempting to limit my usage, and calling out unreliable news posts when I saw them. But I also kept logging on daily. Repeatedly. My awareness of my addiction was growing more acute. I noticed my own behavior and reactions to the site more than before. The camels back was just a couple straws away from breaking point.

  “Screened Out” focuses primarily on the how and why of social medias effects on us as people. The aforementioned psychology of what's happening. Turns out, it was always intended to addict us and keep us coming back for more. It's inherent in the design. Like gambling, like cocaine, our seemingly innocent social media is triggering dopamine reactions in our brain. Every like, every reaction, every notification is designed to draw your attention and satisfy the itch the system itself gave you. It was crafted this way knowingly and intentionally. The most widespread addiction in our modern world is available for all ages and free to top it off. Just like those toy cigarettes I mentioned earlier, the tech companies and marketing developers know quite well that children are more unsuspecting and susceptible to addictive behaviors and media. My childhood was predominantly internet free, and for that I am thankful; my addiction developed as an adult. But many children of today have all the access they want to social media and it's hard to argue it’s a good thing. They are becoming reliant on and obsessed with their image and perception before they even know who they are. Their addiction has drawn many of them into depression, or even suicide. Is being "connected" really worth it at this price?

  One of the most common and persistent things I've told myself: "It's a way to stay in touch with family and friends".  Yes, it certainly is. When the site was created, that goal was much more front and center and easier to enjoy. It's an admirable goal too, and if it works for you I'm happy for you. From where I'm sitting, Facebook's use for that well-meaning purpose has taken a backseat to what dominates its feed. As I scroll through multiple times a day, 80-90% of what I see is ads for things I don't need, news that I usually could do without or that is outright false, memes I could find elsewhere and people arguing and debating topics that are better discussed in person or not at all. This is what Facebook is for me now. That once enticing prospect of glimpsing the lives of my friends and family surfaces from time to time, and it's still enjoyable. Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good these days. Again, if your experience is better than mine, please enjoy it and I'm happy for you.    Aside from "Screened Out", the last piece of this decision was caused by nature; not human, but microscopic. I already knew about how fake news is created and spread via Facebook and Twitter. Donald Trump showed us just how incredibly effective it is and more evidence is not really necessary. Enter COVID-19. A global pandemic that should unite people of all beliefs in a common goal of defending ourselves from an enemy that has no morals or code. An enemy that has no mind or plan of its own. It simply spreads. 

  What did social media do in the face of this crises? Everything negative and nefarious about it kicked into high gear and was on full display. False narratives and conspiracies that actually endanger lives in the immediate future spread like wildfire. People arguing about data and statistics that effect us all and are utterly bipartisan. Guys, this is not ok. I do not think it an exaggeration to say that social media is precipitating a partial or total collapse of society. Something must be done to fix it, and I don't know what that something is. But I'm bowing out. This is not a system that can be fixed from the inside. Picture a casino sponsoring a gambling addicts rehab right next to the slot machines. You'd be better served just not going.   As I said at the beginning, I don't want to sound preachy. My goal here was to share my decision making process and some information sources that you might appreciate. Maybe you're better at tuning out the bad side of social media than I am. Maybe you have ways by which you limit your exposure to it. I personally have addictive tendencies, and this is my way of addressing one of my longest and most insidious habits. And yes, I know that tumblr is technically another social media platform. My current intention is to use it as an outlet for my writing.

  If you read all that, hi-five. Maybe being off Facebook will lead me to write more on my blog. I wish you all well and look forward to talking to you on other platforms or in person. Peace  - JCP

[alyeska-j-blog]

You could possibly have presently questioned as just one in the largest segments of the latest leisure sector: Video game titles have already been created and advanced to the present day exactly where they may have consolidated from the everyday lives of individuals and their people.

Chances are you'll have currently questioned as a person with the most significant segments with the latest amusement marketplace: Online video video games are already established and evolved to the current day the place they have consolidated inside the day by day life of individuals as well as their families.

From the previous year, this market place has moved all-around ninety billion pounds around the entire world, based on data in the consulting company PwC. In Brazil, data in the Brazilian Association of Electronic Sport Developers (Abragames) show that this is often a sector with much more than sixty one million customers and moves all-around 900 million reais for each year.

But, how was the start and expansion of the extraordinary field? This is what we've been going to respond to on this small journey via time, demonstrating how the whole world, culture, and online video games have evolved with each other over the years.

1958: The war marketplace also requirements a happy Hour: After Earth War II, the whole world was divided into two opposing sides. US liberal capitalism as well as iron curtain from the Soviet Union. This kind of a division has set the globe over a war footing and technological enhancement has proved a strong weapon to generally be constantly a single phase ahead of your enemy.

The Desktops, which with the time had been superpowered equipment, meant to unlock the army secrets of each sides. They finished (even though involuntarily), delivering a big evolution, thanks on the huge sums invested inside the progress of recent technologies from the globe like a total.

Picture_Ociloscópio_tennis for tho_1958_EUA Inside one of the military services labs a fantastic revolution occurred, but it surely was no new weapon or some fantastic secret exposed. An American physicist named William Higinbotham made a decision that he wished to engage in a activity of tennis, but because he didn't have balls, rackets and much considerably less an out there tennis court docket, he chose to do it on one of your oscilloscopes in his laboratory.

The 1st digital activity in the earth, Tennis for 2, was born. On an oscilloscope, variations in ripples designed the simulation of the activity of tennis within the monitor of the equipment and controlling as a result of compact oscillators, which resembled the joysticks, the versions developed a activity of tennis.

1961: A "curse" is thrown on the Earth: Steve Russel, an MIT scientist, one particular in the world's primary technologies study facilities during the sixties, experienced one particular on the largest (full-size and technologies) desktops of the time, the PDP-1.

The large laptop or computer was equipped to write down a number of words and perform some elaborate mathematical calculations, but it is certainly remembered as possessing been the birthplace on the initially shooter inside the heritage of video clip online games.

In the midst in the Chilly War plus the Americans' panic that at any issue the Soviets would start some nuclear weapon from space, it manufactured the sport Spacewar! get floor.

It absolutely was the 1st video game to get distributed, as all PDP-1s experienced a duplicate on the recreation, which unfold the place fight for US universities and certainly motivated a lot of young researchers with the sixties.

The good results was so fantastic, the creator himself states that: "From that moment I released the online video video game curse on humanity."

THE POPULARIZATION: BARS, Homes Plus more Creativeness ...

1972 to 1975: Online video games arrive at properties and pubs: From the late 1960s, televisions were being previously the nice item of any American citizen's home. And along with the US entry into your Vietnam War, the strongest photographs with the war came to the general public screen, the initial to generally be totally recorded by illustrations or photos and information stories.

This built the Television "lifeless and entire and unhappy," but a man named Ralph Baer, ??a German engineer, a naturalized American, wanted to stop it. He produced the first console that was distributed from the environment, the Magnavox Odissey.

Image_Pong_Atari_1972-75_EUA The Magnavox was the primary to connect to televisions and promised a fresh means of exciting for people. The console introduced some video games that afterwards would encourage other makes, between them Atari, with all the famed sport Pong, that even generated a judicial dispute by the patent on the match.

The sport was the initial to generally be marketed in pub-ready devices for bars and pubs, so inaugurating the period of arcades.

In 1975, Sears, a US firm that marketed sporting products, commenced to make Pong equipment offered, providing the starting point of the business enterprise that may make a lot of cash from there.

1978: Area invaders have found style: The 1st film inside the Star Wars saga was unveiled in 1977 and George Lucas' huge output strike rocked the box office environment and hearts of the general public.

Embarking on this wave and driven by Japan's post-World War II technological growth, Japanese inventor Tomohiro Nishikado released a person of your greatest hits of each of the times, Space Invaders. The sport was highlighted by compact alien ships descending in the direction of the Earth and the participant had to wipe out them, to guard our world. House Invaders was a big results the two in Japan and in the US and Western Europe, currently being the very first video game to open up the worldwide video clip game sector, generating tens of millions of bucks for its producers and distributors. 1980: The Atari gross sales achievements along with the well known "little face": Atari released in 1980 a product with the homes that may be the primary the 1st well-liked console, the Atari 2600. The console sold about thirty million units and collected much more than one hundred million bucks, only with all the sale of cartridges. The Atari 2600 arrived in Brazil at the conclude of 1983, remaining a success of profits until eventually 1986. The Atari 2600 marked period, becoming these days a relic for the admirers of your videogames and put the American mark within the common domain. The best-selling Atari game was Pacman (Come-come), the primary to impersonate a character since the protagonist of the recreation. The yellow circle that has a mouth didn't need to get rid of any individual, just take in, consume, eat ... It was created for that Japanese feminine viewers by its creator and "father" Toru Iwatani, but before long turned a phenomenon for all genders. 1981: Nintendo Comes to the planet Market: Nintendo, which entered the online video recreation industry in Japan following almost crashing within the sixties, created arcades with relative achievement within the Asian place but didn't promote outside of the island. Then, looking at the gigantic American sector, the company launched its subsidiary, Nintendo America. After a number of initial failures, the business kicked off using the development of Japanese designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Donkey Kong. The sport released two with the game's most iconic people of all time, the gorilla Donkey Kong as well as the plumber Mario. Revenue skyrocketed as well as the video game was 1 in the most significant business successes of all time. 1985 to 1987: A Soviet merchandise invades the globe plus the consoles obtain new daily life: Betting within the survival with the specific consoles in opposition to your arcades, Nintendo went from Atari, who started to eliminate its consoles from your market, and launched a different product or service while in the perception that this could well be the longer term of the industry. The Nintendo Leisure Procedure, or commonly NES, was released by Nintendo in 1985, and all consoles already arrived having a model with the activity Mario Bros., which brought sport stories into a new amount, extra elaborate, prolonged and with differentiated eventualities for every section. An additional terrific good results in the console arrived in 1987 while using the sport of your exact creator of Mario and Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto, Legend of Zelda, the 1st activity on the segment RPG to achieve success inside the market place. Nevertheless in 1985, a Soviet product or service invaded the worldwide industry, but it wasn't a great weapon or industrial product or service, even so the sport Tetris, made from the Russian Alexey Pajitnov. The game was the main main Soviet export item in Western Europe along with the United states of america. A curiosity about Tetris is that because in the USSR the intellectual house of all creations belonged towards the govt, all earnings from the sale of your product went into the Soviet Point out right up until its dissolution in 1991 and then towards the Russian governing administration right up until 1996 , when ultimately its creator bought financial recognition for the video game. ...  THE CONSOLIDATION: Computer systems, SONY, MICROSOFT. Creativity AND CIVIL WAR ... nineteen nineties: Pc Online games as well as Playstation Revolution: The 1990s ended up marked because of the prevalent sale of desktops to standard individuals. After limited for the fantastic scientists or the substantial firms, computer systems now arrived to people's households, and with each other they carried the video games. 1 in the initial huge hits of the new platform was Doom, introduced in 1993, kicking from the period of first-person shooter online games. One more key market revolution transpired in 1995 with the start of Sony's PlayStation, a corporation which was Nintendo's companion in the video clip video game industry. PlayStation revolutionizes the marketplace by introducing video games with gorgeous graphics with the time, with elaborate soundtracks and three-dimensional eyesight. The console marketed a lot more than a hundred million units and replaced Sony, once the achievement from the Walkman, during the entire world electronics marketplace. After the September 11, 2001 assaults, the online video recreation industry has followed the entertainment market through wars and conflicts, especially inside the Middle East. Just one with the biggest names within this phase may be the Get in touch with of Duty collection, which was launched in 2003 and has offered all-around 250 million copies over the past 13 many years. The tales with the online games began being far more elaborate, remembering movies, only this time the spectator was also protagonist from the tale, which set in convergence the industries of cinema and video clip online games. Big types solutions like GTA and Resident Evil attracted an older audience and grew up playing movie online games back again. In 2005, big Microsoft launched the Xbox to contend along with the Sony PlayStation and considering that then the two manufacturers happen to be competing to the general public, in what exactly is identified as "Video War". The volume of gamers grows each and every year, along with the graphic innovations of game titles and consoles. Video game titles are undoubtedly a part of people's everyday lives and so are a significant a part of comprehension the social and technological progress on the environment over the past six a long time.

Possess a very good time  Call of duty ww2

[novellacoronavirus]

Saturday, 18.4.2020

Total: 2,263,056 cases, 154,827 deaths.

Australia: 6,565 cases, 69 deaths.

Western Australia: 544 cases, 7 deaths.

Oh, indeed it’s been quiet. The street upon which I live -- two lanes, urban -- is suddenly without the grind and gears of cars, white noise, hiss and sputter. Sirens have reduced. Even foot traffic and the sound of other humans: reduced. Instead I can hear -- actually hear -- the whisper of tree-branches quivering in the wind. And the chitter of birds, who now feel safe to roam and preen along this usually noxious street.

Work is also quiet. I am thankfully now on holidays. Without kids, the character of school has been unrecognisable: calm and still, but for the faint and soothing hum of air-conditioning -- of the building itself! -- which I heard as I tapped away on my keyboard, or drew an instructional image, or recorded a video on my own time, at my own pace, without interruption.

“Sir sir sir sir sir” -- all I usually hear, all day long. You cannot understand the relief I have with it suddenly gone. Do you -- or do you now have to work from home, with children squirming and squawking at your feet all day long? The arbitrariness of this whole thing is flabbergasting.

I thought we’d have six months of coronavirus quiet. But here in Australia the tone is becoming cautiously triumphant. People are out in the streets -- albeit quietly, in small groups, ‘exercising’. The gloom seems to have lifted. Although I’m sure we all secretly check the ‘corona count’ each morning and notice, with weird emotions, NYC’s numbers continuing to remain sky-high, literally orders of magnitude beyond Australia’s aggregate. Again we are saved by our geography, our interstitial luck down under.

Does anyone else feel disappointed? My friend E does: she said part of her was keen to witness “all the bloody carnage”. Part of this must be the impulse toward living through drama, witnessing history etc. Maybe it is just a polite way of saying “I want to go back and see the accident”. But this one has some political strings, doesn't it? Eventually it will be written about, remembered. They say to keep a diary -- anecdotal evidence. Which is what you’re reading.

During the pandemic, certain things have been delightfully and noticeably different: Advertisements have pivoted towards the sanguine -- “We’re all in this together”. We can of course see through the motives of these commercially-sponsored PSAs. But the tone, the modus operandi -- it’s a number of degrees different. There’s literally less for many -- most? -- people to do, so there’s less to navigate, negotiate, or with which to deal. There is less clutter. (I’ve been listening to album after album at home, all in their entireties, whilst painting, whilst writing, whilst reading.) I feel good.

Politics have changed. I’m not sure anyone expects this to last. But in Australia -- ‘coup capital of the democratic world’ for the past decade -- petty politicking has virtually stopped. Instead we have bipartisan agreements, quick legislation, the Opposition Leader stating “This is good legislation” of the Liberal Party’s stimulus packages. The bipartisanship has been astounding -- and for me, a 35-year-old politically-engaged Australian -- it’s been a first. I can’t believe it -- to think it took a pandemic. But will anything permanently change after the hibernation, or will business-as-usual prevail?

Trump is President of the free world. Authoritarian China is rising and indeed risen. Australia has a Prime Minister -- currently successfully leading us through a historical crisis -- who at some point in the past half-decade managed to take a lump of coal -- yes, a physical lump of coal -- into Australian Federal Parliament, to laugh and pantomime at those on the left or in the centre, as though to say ‘Oh, look at this scary piece of coal -- what threat is poses to us all!’ Imagine if Scotty-from-Marketing took the advice of climate scientists as seriously as he seems to have that of public-health experts. Is there not a howling incongruence to all of this?

This is the kind of status quo whence I was hoping for a change. The pandemic has personally galvanised me -- more energy, more purpose. It has helped me cut through years and years of chronic pain and significant pain-induced limits. My housemate says “remembering is the hardest part”. To her great disappointment, she claims her Spanish countryfolk -- big victims of the the GFC, unemployment and the government's corrupt austerity measures -- forgot very quickly. Straight back to the old normal of TV soap operas with wine at night. But am I alone in feeling the raw and real struggle of being alive through this? Do you not feel there is more thinking and less action -- or at least more bloviating, non-essential, circular thinking -- in normal life? Your schedule, your commitments, your finances. How do you go about forging a single fucking minute for yourself, on any given day?

What will a post-virus world look like? Already interesting discussions around surveillance have emerged: contract-tracing through a governmental phone app. This actually is a circuitbreaker: how will you react? Will you give it thought, engage, research? Will you be honest with yourself and all the data you already willingly hand over to the big, mono- or duopolistic tech companies? How is this different from a democratic government asking you to provide your whereabouts for a clear public-health measure, for the safety of all and health of the economy? Will recovered citizens be enlisted to work essential services, as the super-immune? Will Newstart remain Jobseeker forever, with its new level of payment? Will Biden beat Trump, and will it be in part due to the latter’s handling of the pandemic?

I guess things really are destined to change, or already have. My great disappointment at things returning to normal might itself be reactive. Maybe the changes will be discreet, tangible, slow-burning --  unlike the onset of all this. Maybe change isn’t always revolutionary, at least not in appearance.

This has not been a war -- years have not passed, the young and middling have been spared, we have all had water, heat and electricity and, if we are so lucky, the creature comforts of home. There has been no random nor political violence, along with its attendant fear. But I do hope the world doesn't just wake up to business as usual.

Perhaps I am most disappointed with the fact I won’t be continuing my own ‘coronavirus quiet’. As a teacher at a private school, it was possible students would withdraw their enrolment if the shutdown and its economy continued. This might eventually have meant the relinquishment or teachers. I thought this could have been a real possibility. Initially it was scary -- no one wants to lose their job. But then I considered it a bit longer: I have savings, the job might be waiting for me on the other side of the shutdown, I’d have a whole lot of time to do what I want. And what would I do?

The plan was to volunteer to step down from work under two provisions: 1) I be offered my job back the moment an opportunity opened up, 2) my manager provide me with a glowing reference should I end up needing a job someplace else. I think each of these were feasible. And what would I do at home?

I would take the JobSeeker payment of $1100/fortnight. I would live even more frugally than I currently do -- possible. I would pay off my mortgage for a while, see how it goes. If not well: I’d renegotiate my mortgage to interest-only payments for a while. I would cook, I would write, I would paint, I would arrange and make. I would talk to friends and family over the phone. And then cook more. I would actually get to sleep on time, without the need to check my phone. And I would awake fresh as a morning daisy, hopefully every day.

But if they’d have me, for three days a week I’d also volunteer. I would volunteer in the office of my local member of parliament: John Carey. A state MP, during this he has been posting daily photos of himself at various small businesses -- offering them support, drumming up business. When the pandemic first hit, he arranged for volunteers to support the elderly throughout his electorate: proxy shopping, welfare phone-calls etc. (Turns out everyone was already covered by neighbours and family -- a good sign.)

I don’t care what they may have put me to -- stapling things? Alphabetising items? It didn't matter. I just want a change. For a while I have thought the way might be to volunteer during my six-week annual summer holiday in the central office for the Greens. But my health, my hang-ups have stopped me. All it takes is for a measly pandemic to throw things around a bit.

Yet schools go back next term. Enrolments at my school probably won’t dip. Likely -- and thankfully for many, including a part of me -- it will be the great relief of Business as Usual. Will I have the chutzpah to forget my pain -- this really is all that’s stopping me -- and follow through on this strong desire to work in a different industry, in politics or social service of some sort?

And will anyone ever remember the pandemic, the quiet, the change. Will they remember The Hibernation -- the time and space to stop, and look, and think and feel. This is and has been such a unique opportunity to take stock. I can’t help but feel that here in Australia, we are so lucky and managed the whole thing so well that nothing much will change. Already PM Morrison has announced the way forward involves IR-reform and tax cuts. We’ve heard all this before. It’s the same old shit as the pre-virus world.

You might even call it an anticlimax.

[northshorehealthandfitness]

The Unspoken Tenets of Strength Training

Full Disclosure: The title of today’s post implies I’m going to be discussing strength training. Jokes on you….I’m actually going to share my top 10 Instagram pics of my cat.

KIDDING…the topic du jour is strength training.

I’m just not going too deep down the rabbit hole.

For that and if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty particulars of strength training and the mechanisms at play go check out Vladmir Zatsiorsky’s Science and Practice of Strength Training.

It’s a light read.1

There you can learn everything as it relates to the scientific facts, including but not limited to motor unit recruitment, rate coding, delated transmutation, and a multitude of other words and phrases that’ll undoubtedly get people strong and make you sound smart.

Admittedly, what follows isn’t all that scientific. However it is rooted in 15+ years of coaching experience working alongside thousands of athletes/clients. I believe these “tenets” work.

Besides, I have big biceps so I obviously know what I’m talking about.

Copyright: maximkostenko / 123RF Stock Photo

The Unspoken Tenets of Strength Training

When it comes to the topic of strength training the internet likes to argue about optimal sets, reps, loading, periodization, low vs. high bar position, exercises to use, in what order, and anything and everything that may fall between the lines.

Pantless preacher curls for the win?

And, to be honest, many people can make a case for why they do this (compound lifts only) and why do that (one AMRAP set per muscle group with machines) and it’s likely they’re seeing results and increases in strength.

Who am I to judge?

That being said here are some additional, dare I say what should be commonsense thoughts for your consideration.

1) Make It a Priority

You’re busy, I’m busy, everyone’s busy.

Those people who get stronger are those who show up.

They make training a priority, not Netflix.2

Nothing so succinctly gets this point across than a quote I came across from Greg Robins:

“Every time someone asks me about a client, or friend, etc. who has made a lot of progress…”How did they get that strong?”…..”What did they do to get there?”…Consistency, is always the first thing out of my mouth. They were consistent.“

I find far too many trainees become paralyzed by too much analysis; too much pontificating and too little action.

Shut up, show up.

Do that, consistently…worry less about the particulars, and good things are bound to happen.

2) Boring Is What Works

I Tweeted this the other day and it seemed to resonate with people:

The training programs that tend to work best are often relentlessly monotonous. People rarely need as much “variety” as they think.

— Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore1) November 3, 2017

I’m a bit biased and old-school and feel the best strength programs have their base in compound, barbell exercises.

Or the “Big 3” in bro-speak.

Squat

Bench Press

Deadlift

We could also toss in barbell rows, chin-ups/pull-ups, RDLs, GoodMornings, overhead presses, etc.

However, prioritize the Big 3 and focus on doing more work over time with those and you won’t be weak.3

People rarely need variety, they need to not have a 185 lb deadlift.

3) Technique/Positions Matter

I recently hit my first 600 lb deadlift. A month away from my 41st birthday, thank you very much.

  I had someone ask me what is the difference between someone trying to improve from 500-600 lbs compared to 400-500 (or even 200-300 lbs)?

Easy…technique.

When someone is strong enough to pull 3x+ bodyweight it’s a safe bet their technique is on point.

When someone reaches the echelon of 700, 800, 900+ lbs…their technique has to be meticulous and razor sharp. By that point, however, more often that not, technique is pretty much on auto-pilot.

It’s like second nature and just happens.

I think why some people have a hard time, especially intermediate lifters who do have experience (and are kinda-sorta strong, but are trapped in “I’ve had the same PR for three years and I can’t seem to get over the hump purgatory”), is that they’re in poor positions.

More specifically they’re in poor positions and are unable to express their true strength.

A lot of people can “muscle” up a 300 lb, maybe even a 400 lb deadlift. They may shit out every single one of their vertebrae, but hey…they lock it out.

500 lbs? Meh, rarely.

600+ lbs? Hells to the no.

I’m a huge fan of using sub-maximal work (65-85% of 1-rep max) and keeping people accountable with their technique. Building volume with sub-maximal work ensures good positions (I.e., canister/pillar position, stacked joints) and also ensures technique will be solid.

The more “good” reps I can nudge out of people, the more likely is is they’ll start blasting through PR plateaus soon enough.

4) Utilize EDM Sets

Pigging back on the point above, another tactic I like to use is the concept of EDM (Estimated Daily Max) sets.

This takes into account how someone feels on any given day.

Some days weights fly up.

Other days, not so much.

Nothing is worse than showing up at the gym, having an epic workout planned, only to feel like a bag of dicks and everything feels heavy.

Well, explosive diarrhea sucks. But feeling like a bag of dicks is not to far behind.

As much of a fan as I am of percentage based training, something I’ve been utilizing more and more (especially with my older lifters) are EDM sets.4

Here’s an example:

Lets use the bench press.

I’ll have someone ramp up to his or her’s 3 EDM (3-rep Estimated Daily Max).

This won’t be a true rep-max remember, but a weight that’s challenging that day for 3-reps.

Ramp up sets are as follows:

95×8

135×5

185×3

205×3

225×3

250×3 <— 3 RM for the day.

I’ll then have them take the same weight (250 lbs) for some additional singles (3-5×1) to get a little more volume in.

Alternatively you can have someone work up to a 5-EDM and follow that with 2-3 additional sets of triples.

In both scenarios you ensure all reps are fast and that technique will be spotless. What’s more, you’re less likely to run someone into the ground and they’re more likely to recover and bounce back faster.

They still get some heavy(ish) work done, but with quality staying paramount.

5) Go To Bed

Go the fuck to bed, people.

You’ll only get as strong as how well you allow yourself to recover.

The post The Unspoken Tenets of Strength Training appeared first on Tony Gentilcore.

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[topicprinter]

Let me guess:You have followed all the best tips found on the Interwebz.You create fresh content daily. You use the right hashtags. You post 3 times a day. You reply to everyone who comments on your posts.Yet.The number of followers on your Instagram account remains pitiful. You don’t even remember the last time your follower count went up.At this rate that this is going on, you are going to give up.How can Instagram be a profitable channel for your restaurant, if your number of followers don’t grow?Fret not.I am here to help.I reached out to several Instagram marketing experts, and got them to answer this one question:“If you were to grow a brand new Instagram account from zero followers to 10,000 followers in under 30 days, how would you do it?”Below are their answers.And I am 100% sure you will find something new to try… and skyrocket your Instagram following.1. Zach Benson (Assistagram)Powerliking methodCost $1200-$1700 a month, depends on how many likes per day 1-3x.What are powerlikes and why does it work?Powerlikes are likes/comments from a network of large accounts (100k+ accounts are considered large) as soon as your post goes live. The intent is to play into Instagram’s algorithm where a post’s first ten minutes are most crucial for gaining traction and determining how it’ll do in reaching beyond your current following.It works two-fold: By flooding traffic from the large accounts over to yours from the ‘Following’ tab, as well as triggering the algorithm to recognise that large accounts are enjoying that piece of content.This will not only increase the post’s reach to more of your current followers but increases its chances significantly in hitting the Explore page, where you’re reaching beyond your current audience and grow organically and quickly.Telegram groups/roundsTelegram is a messenger app that has become solely used for Instagram engagement groups. It’s hugely popular as you can code bots that take over the entire process for you, making everything automatic.Below are screenshots of arguably the best and most exclusive engagement group, XPLOR Rounds.Prerequisites: 80k+ followers, 2k+ likes per post avgNiche: General/allDirect message groups (free method)Create a DM engagement group of 15 people with similar accounts, niche and a high quality audience— in this strategy, multiple Instagram accounts help each other grow organically by mutually liking & commenting on their content. The larger the accounts participating, the more effective it is. You will need to be in 50-100 groups and participate constantly throughout the day, each and everyday.Better to hire a VA to do this.Shoutouts/giveaways/contestsNetwork with other big Instagram accounts in your niche and try and set up a giveaway contest with them. This is a great way to grow your following fast. By collaborating with a 3 million follower account and 300k + account, you could grow up to 2,500 -3,000 + in less than a week. For example, maybe you have a hotel page and want more travel followers, you could create a 2 night all inclusive stay in your best suite for 2, full-board. To be entered into the contest, you have to follow these accounts (the two large travel accounts and yours) and the more friends you tag, the higher chances of you winning. The set up price of these contests vary in price and could cost you anywhere from $500 to a couple thousand dollars. It just depends on who you know, like how big your network is and what you can offer these huge accounts in return to create a mutually beneficial business relationship.Post viral contentOpen up your Instagram app, look at whats on your Explore page tab. All viral videos and pictures with thousands and thousands of views and likes. Most of this content is what we call viral content, unique and original and “way out there”. The more open you are to posting viral content the higher chances you will have of going viral on instagram while using the above methods.Be consistentTo be good at anything, you must do it every single day. For example, you aren’t going to be an awesome sports player if you only play 1-2x a week. You have to practice each and every day. Same with social media, you have to be consistent and posting each and every day, respond to comments, direct messages, like and comment on your target market, do market research, research and rotate hashtags daily, participate in engagement groups, use Instagram lives, stories, etc and create original epic content. Easily 3-4 hours a day. If you don’t have time to do this, outsource it. Build your brand. Your name is your most important asset. Reputation is what other’s think you are. Character is what you are. Grow your following, provide great value for your fans, teach, inspire, give, give, GIVE and watch your circle of influence grow, network expand, and more opportunities will come your way. You will find that it’s a lot easier to negotiate anything, seal deals, pretty much do anything when you grow your following and brand. You are the brand. You are the commodity. Think of Instagram as your new name card, so when you are out and about and you meet someone, exchange biz cards but then say hey let’s stay in touch via Instagram, pull up your account on their phone and then they are like WOW you have 100k followers. You are legit! Definitely peaks their interest more and helps you stand out from everyone else they met that night.2. Nathan Chan (Foundr Magazine)I would research the market I’m looking to serve, then create great looking content and post 3x a day.Then I would find other Instagram pages that serve this target market and get them to share my content as much as possible from either paying, or working out reciprocal deals using my own accounts as leverage.Then I would find other big accounts that serve this niche and convince them to like and comment on my posts.Then I would run at least 2 competitions/giveways to get people to like and follow us – I would give away something that of super high value that would attract my target audience / niche – (that way we’re building a following of buyers too around this market).3. Alex ToobyMy answer will help you reach 10,000 REAL and TARGETED followers.. Not just any follower because what’s 10k followers worth if they’re not going to engage with your content or purchase your products or services?So having said that.. here’s my approach: if you want your account to take off quickly you need to create a feeling of authority – like you’ve been doing this for ages and have perfected every inch of your Instagram strategy. To do that you need to laser focus on what your account is all about. It shouldn’t be “food, fitness, healthy lifestyle, travel, etc” it should be just ONE of those thing.Niche down as far as you can then curate images that fall into a very specific theme.Aesthetics are everything.. are your images white and bright? dark and moody? are they all desaturated except for the pinks and greens? Figure out what your aesthetic “style” is and stick to it like glue.Upload a variety of photos to populate your feed, then post at least once per day moving forward. Select hashtags that aren’t too large (limit yourself to 5 tags that have over 1million posts associated with them) and write engaging captions that evoke a feeling, educate, or provide some sort of value to your audience.Then.. the most time consuming part. Put yourself out there and start engaging with your target market. Like, comment and follow as much as you can (without getting blocked by IG) in the most authentic way possible. Make real comments, start true conversations, show your audience that you’re a real person who cares and is present behind the account. You could easily spend upwards of 1 hour a day doing this.On top of this you can add SFS with complimentary accounts, run a giveaway, add relative content to your Instagram stories daily and go on IG live often to answer your audiences questions.Bottom line is – Be present! Show up, be authentic and provide value.Good luck!4. Ali Mirza (ISocialYou)I would piggyback on the giant. Let me explain…You are just starting out and have no audience. Right?But there are so many other people in your niche who are 10 steps ahead of you (with huge audiences).So reach out to them and ask them to feature you.Yes, you may have to pay a little bit but it’s totally worth it.If you pick the right influencers, their followers is your target audience also.So don’t hesitate to spend some money.Let’s create a step by step process so we can easily follow1 — Find 10–20 Instagram influencers in your niche2 — You can search on Instagram or use 3rd party tools (e.g. RightRelevant, Kear, Ninja Outreach)3 — Find the contact info of the owners. Note: If their contact info is public on their account, this means they open for business)4 — Reach out and find out how much their charge for a “shout out” or “feature post”5 — I would pick 10 and have them feature my brand new account. Then pick the best 3 to 4 best performing influencers and do it again.“You either build the audience from scratch or go to someone who already has the audience you need.”5. Leon Benjamin (TripleYourTribe)Here’s my answer.The main steps are 1. Who I’m looking to attract 2. My content + hashtags 3. Get easy quick followers 4. Shout campaign 5. Giveaway campaign 6. Engage with existing fans dailyFirst determine who’s my account for. And think about who else is serving them right now. What other instagram accounts are currently BIG that have them. I’d make a list of at least 30 of them who have over 40k followers and a fairly active comment section where discussions arise.Next, I’d find out what type of content those accounts put out thats interesting for them to engage with. Make at least 30 posts that are similar to those kinds of post and add a twist to them with my brand. The rest can be posts with quotes related to the market.Also from the previous listed accounts, scrape some of the hashtags that are in the medium range 20k-200k posts. And some in the more popular range +500k. From there I’d look a bit deeper to find more related tags through suggestions. From there, I schedule the posts with later.com to go out once per day. And another post uploaded manually. While rotating 60 hashtags across 2 posts per day. (that’s 30 tags per post. NOT 60 tags per post – which can get you into trouble!)Next, I’d ask my current network of friends, or fam to follow my new account. Just for the sake of growing momentum and some social proof.Now for the giveaway campaign. I’d create a document of value either from my knowledge or from interviewing influencers in the market or get an existing product of value (maybe around +100$) that that audience will want. Something thats related to the market. And offer it for free. In a giveaway. They would have to follow and tag in someone to enter for a chance to win. The winner would be announced on the last day of the 30 days. All participants receive part of the document or online product as well as a bonus.Then, while that’s being promoted in the account, I’d get others to share it as well. I’d reach out to that list found in step 1 and ask them to give us a shout on their page. In exchange, shout them out on my page, or give them something of value in return.While they promote the contest, I’d manually get traffic. The way I’d do that is by engaging (by liking or commenting or replying to stories) to the people who are active on the posts from accounts of list one.In summary, 1. find my audience, 2. the content they’d like, 3. the tags that attract them,4. Ask existing network for some social proof followers 5. Create a contest 6. Get shouts from relevant accounts 7. Manually engage with the marketThat could make me hit 10,000 followers easy. But in reality, hitting the 10k mark can be done by purchasing them.. however, would not make your account valuable to you or your market..What would be the most bang per buck (your buck being in terms of your energy and time), would be to have an engaged and interested following instead.So growing through the steps above, ensures you get interested followers. And less of the ones that unfollow you later.If you like more strategies recommended by 14 other top Instagram marketing influencers, you can read them here.

[koikoikite]

火曜日：最も大切な思い出

~Tuesday: a precious memory~

I’m not sure if I can even begin to describe how amazing this day was. The reason? I saw a Kalafina concert LIVE. It was the first concert I’ve ever been to besides classical ones at the symphony, so now I don’t think I can go to the Hello!Project concert I had planned; my standards are just too high! I’m SO GLAD I scrapped my Tokyo plans and came to Osaka instead; it truly was a wonderful experience. 

In the morning, I asked my AirBNB host about where to buy some eggs for breakfast. She seemed really surprised that I intended to eat a whole carton of eggs in two days (I guess I’ve become a protein bro), but showed me a nearby supermarket that I wouldn’t have thought to go to. And I’m glad I did; it was only 150 yen for a carton! Most places sell a carton for around 250, so it was really a deal. I made a protein-packed breakfast (but forgot to buy some daikon for the ebi-furai, so my stomach was a bit upset later) pictured below. 

I wasn’t sure if I would be eating lunch (or dinner for that matter), so a power breakfast was important. I did homework for an hour or so, and then walked the 30 minutes to the Festival Hall to scope out the venue and see when the merchandise was going on sale. 

I actually took this picture when I passed the Festival Hall the next day, since I forgot to the first day... 

When I arrived at noon, only around 5 other hardcore fans were there, but as I passed two hours texting my parents and doing homework, the waiting area gradually filled up. I only saw one other white foreigner. The staff had us queue up at 2:30, since the merchandise was going on sale at 3:30. I wish I had known this; I could have been sightseeing! However, I was around 20th in line to buy merchandise, so I was glad I could buy whatever I wanted (although I hadn’t thought to check the merchandise beforehand… I guess I like surprises). 

People really started pouring in the 15 minutes before merchandise went on sale. The staff let us in to the room, and when I saw all the merchandise, I just couldn’t decide. I wanted to buy it all! Unfortunately, the insane prices meant I had to limit myself, although I saw plenty of people in line ahead of me dropping over 10,000 yen on these goods.

I decided to buy functional items, and settled on a t-shirt, necklace, and folders for schoolwork. After seeing the total price, I decided to buy a keychain as well – this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience after all, right? 

Each of Kalafina’s three singers designs an item to be sold, and it was interesting reading their reasons, which are posted (and pictured above). I thought Hikaru’s bath salts were really cute, but that’s something that gets used up, and I also never take baths, so I didn’t buy it. Likewise, Keiko’s item was a single 500 gram weight… as someone who casually weightlifts, I’d think that Keiko has to be lifting a similar amount to what I do (10kg for arms) to maintain her muscles, so I was a little disappointed in her 1800 yen paperweight. If it was at least 5 kg, maybe I would have bought it… 

I did end up buying Wakana’s necklace, because not only was it pretty, but it was a pun! If you can’t read the Japanese in the grainy photo above, she talks about how her favorite note is F# (f-sharp), and since she also loves sharks, made an “F-shark”necklace. I love music puns; it’s a holdover from my orchestra days. So buying this necklace was not an option. I’ve worn it every day since then; it’s becoming a treasured possession. 

I hurried out after purchasing, and met up with my friend Sayaka in Shinsaibashi to get a quick... lunch? dinner? I’m not sure what to call this meal. We went to a matcha dessert restaurant and I had a delicious ice cream and anko bowl, and Sayaka had a parfait. 

I really like meeting up with her; we met several months ago and have kept in touch since then, so we both know each other’s respective skill level in Japanese and English, and so can communicate well in a mix of the two. I don’t even remember the various things we talked about… maybe Golden Week plans, and then about various places I should go on weekend trips, and comparing California and Japan. Somehow we got on the topic of amusement parks, and I learned a ton of new vocabulary for all the rides. 

We passed two hours before I knew it, and I didn’t have enough time to walk back to the Festival Hall so I coughed up 180 yen for the subway. I picked up some butaman from 551 Horai on the way back, too, since I love pork buns and matcha ice cream is not a meal, no matter how much I wish it was.  

And then… the concert. I was in the back of the hall, which makes sense because I had to wait until I was in Japan to buy tickets. I was initially really disappointed about this, since I couldn’t see facial expressions at all, but the concert was pretty loud from where I sat, so I don't think I could have handled being in the front. For the Hello!Project concert I plan to go to, I’m definitely buying some earplugs and binoculars. 

Plus… I secretly recorded parts of it. Pretty sure I couldn’t have done that if I were in the front. I’m not sure if the guy sitting next to me realized, but if he did, I hope he just thought 「しょうがない」and let me be. 

I’ll admit that I teared up a few times during the concert; these were songs that I had listened to over and over again on youtube and my phone, and now I was finally hearing them and seeing them sung in person. During Hikari no Senritsu (link), which is one of my favorites, I definitely cried a bit, and my excitement just kept building the entire concert, since there really wasn’t an intermission. 

pardon the photo quality... that’s what you end up with when you have an iPhone 5 in the back row. The top left and bottom right were taken during the encore, top right during the song 「kyrie」, and bottom left during an MC in the first half.

I was also pretty happy that my Japanese was to the level that I could understand most of their talks in between songs. One of the singers, Hikaru, has said that she gets very very nervous for live performances, and while I did notice this, she was also so energetic on stage, leading the audience and really being a presence. The choreography was also very well done, since there wasn’t any awkward dancing that they did and they rotated their positions on stage (not that it mattered to be in the boonie seats). 

Here’s a link to a six-minute video compilation I made of all the songs I recorded. I did a pretty bad job, but I was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. (In between songs, I was also deleting apps off my phone since it was filling up with videos. Fun times.)

If you’ve never heard Kalafina before, here are the recordings of the songs in that video that are much easier to listen to: 

consolation | lyrics 

to the beginning | lyrics

kimi ga hikari ni kaete iku | lyrics

magia | lyrics

kyrie | lyrics | (my favorite 💖 )

heavenly blue | lyrics

ongaku | lyrics

After the concert, I walked back to the AirBNB and texted my friend, who fangirled with me the whole way back. I was so full of energy, I couldn’t sleep until 2AM, but I eventually slept, probably happier than any other night I’ve spent in Japan so far. It was this day that it finally hit me, that I’m IN JAPAN. My Golden Week travels are off to a great start! I mean, damn, it’s Friday night, I'm writing this from the base of Mt. Fuji (which is awesome), and I’m STILL pumped about how great that night was. Kalafina better still exist next time I come to Japan (which I plan to be after college graduation), because I NEED to attend another concert!

And now... for my daily expenditure. Again, the purpose of this is to show how vacationing in Japan doesn’t have to be extremely pricey, taking the shinkansen all the time and eating kobe beef for dinners! However, today’s hurts to type. 

breakfast: ￥361

merchandise: ￥8300

matcha dessert: ￥700

butaman: ￥340

concert ticket: ￥7400

subway tickets: ￥360

Total: ￥17461

[shirlleycoyle]

The Robots Microsoft Assigned to Do My Job Can’t Do It

The most important skill in journalism is not fucking up, and in early June, MSN’s new programming algorithm fucked up. MSN UK published a story about the British pop duo Little Mix, mistaking one of the duo’s mixed-race singers for the other. It was an error that would have gone unnoticed 99 times out of 100 prior to the installation of AI programming, but trended vigorously because it came just days after the Guardian reported that 50 editors had lost their jobs to make way for this algorithm, which would handle the bulk of MSN’s programming going forward.

I was one of the editors who was let go, and it was bittersweet to see reporters at outlets like this one finally acknowledge the existence of MSN, a behemoth news-redistribution shop that trails only Google sites for total traffic, and is ahead of Facebook—though I never thought there was any mystery about why it was ignored. MSN had long since abandoned creating its own content in favor of licensing news from premium partners at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, et. al. when not receiving it free from smaller operations that act as remoras via affiliate links in articles—a category that includes hundreds, if not thousands, of partners around the globe. If you use MSN at all, it’s likely indirectly, posting articles you found via a search or your default browser homepage:

My job was to create the MSN Money section every morning from these stories and monitor it, a job I called “fantasy newspaper” because of its relation to the pick-and-choose games of fantasy sports. I was good at it. I fucked up the same way the algorithm did when it misidentified the Little Mix member more times than I can count, but I either never got caught or, more likely, caught it myself. One thing about creating a morning news section by yourself for a site that gets more than six billion hits per year (and that’s just MSN Money, in America), is that you tend to be a bit peripatetic; I checked and rechecked my work repeatedly like a news junkie and full-blown digital addict. Imagine a lone old-time phone operator in a room where the ringing never stopped, and that’s pretty much what it felt like. It was a volume business with a skeleton staff, but it kept people—a lot of them—connected to the world, even though I had never really met these people. It was way more of a job than a career; just as smaller news operations feed off Microsoft, so do hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of individuals like myself, all happy enough to cash a check to push news around.

Here is where I’d like to get into salacious details about the politics of our programming, but they’re disappointingly bland. Like any operation of a certain size, MSN professes to be non-partisan but is in fact aggressively non-confrontational, to the point where a single user comment on any of our stories that raised a red flag would be brought to us at once. This is theoretically absurd, given the scale of things, but it happened rarely enough not to be too much of a bother. (By far the best one of these was a multimillionaire yacht owner whose boat had ended up in our photo system saying his ship was a nation unto itself that he did not allow to be photographed, so we needed to remove it.) Occasionally articles deemed too left- or right-wing would come down at the request of an editor, but there was such a deluge of content that you never needed to worry about finding a softer-edged replacement for them. It will not surprise you that virtually everyone I worked with was vaguely center-left, politically, and it will shock you even less that some of the smarmier full-time employees were sure to remind us not to let it affect our coverage. For my part, at least, being in the Money vertical allowed me to run as much left-leaning content as I wanted, given that the entirety of the rest of the section skewed right. I never had to elucidate it like this, though it came up once or twice; I just showed up and worked and that was it as long as no one was embarrassed.

About the only other time I can remember someone citing MSN was when certain outlets objected to the editorial disclaimer we were asked to put on articles that bent toward Scary Opinion, on the grounds that said articles (I believe they were from the Real Gawker family) were not, in fact, opinions, but facts. They were right, of course, but the language and tone of most of their stories precluded us beaming them to virtual Middle America in the first place.

This record of successful blandness, combined with the internal head-slapping after the Little Mix-up, does not bode well for the future—or the present—of news. MSN never got into real hot water for messing up a headline or story, which was a minor miracle but was at least the goal. Now, at a time where context is needed most, MSN is handing the reins from editors to engineers. A Microsoft spokesperson said the contract lapses had nothing to do with the pandemic, and I believe them; Microsoft has haltingly moved toward automation for years, usually in a cycle of job cuts followed by partial rehirings when they realized (as the editors did immediately) that they had bitten off more than they could chew.

This time feels different, though. Based on how far they’ve come down this road, the algorithm will sink or swim on its own, which is to say it’ll probably sink and take down the whole of MSN with it. Maybe that’s overstating things, but MSN is low enough in the Microsoft hierarchy that its existence has felt like it was on the chopping block for years. (This is all ultimately speculation, because I had no idea, after nearly a decade, who makes the decisions there, nor did my boss or talent agency.)

A lot of the friction in the changeover from human to robot involves negotiating the change from the contractor model, which Microsoft and others use to save themselves from paying benefits or severance or providing long-term work assurance, back to the full-time employee model, which takes a bunch of people who are harder to fire and forces them into jobs to which they may or not be suited. The tension in the old model was between the contractors like myself with news backgrounds, who produced the lion’s share of news, and the full-timers with Microsoft backgrounds, who “oversaw” it and did a lot of thinking about whether we should be pivoting to video to slideshows or vice versa that week. There were exceptions on both sides, but this is how it went until July 1, when what the Guardian cheekily called our “algorithmic robot” replacements stepped in, kicking the full-timers down to grunt duty and the contractors out the door, context —in and outside the newsroom—be damned.

That is to say that there are still human eyes on the site, just fewer, and that the people behind those eyes know the writing is on the wall. Even the process of losing my job was impenetrable; my boss couldn’t tell me who made the decision because he simply didn’t know. This is how announcements come at Microsoft: from on high. In that way, the algorithm’s ascent is just part of the natural order of things. If the decision-makers aren’t even identifiably human, why wouldn’t they rather wipe us all out?

The nice part of the job was having access to all the world’s news, though it gave me scant time to read it all, given the constant maintenance MSN Money—just one vertical!—required. Each section—News, Money, Sports, Entertainment, Travel, etc.—was its own fiefdom, as was the Home Page, which was and is the ultimate traffic driver for MSN. Much like the CD business thrived long after you and I stopped buying them, the MSN home page is still big money for legacy media of all shapes and sizes. It is common for popular stories there to get 15 million pageviews and have 15,000 concurrent users, and for super-popular stories to bury those numbers. I produced all these stories, and I still don’t know a person who actively tries to consume them. But someone does.

Who? From what I can tell, old people. The most consistently popular topic we ran in Money, and we did more or less daily, was “At what age you should take Social Security?” I could spend my whole morning agonizing over which Times story to feature (the Big Three old newspapers had strict limits on what we could take), follow it up with a Social Security story from another partner, and bang—the latter would do better numbers, invariably. I largely avoided learning about popular topics in the other verticals, but as Money and Lifestyle were next to each other on the home page, I can tell you the only true rivals to Social Security’s popularity as a topic were Duchesses Catherine and Meghan, about whom it was not possible to program too much.

The Social Security stories are a good example of how some partners gamed the system for the better. Most of them came from the Motley Fool, a financial publication that effectively parcels out stories on the same seven subjects a day, incredibly effectively— think Chipotle for popular retirement and savings topics. On the flip side, the same Motley Fool, along with several similar smaller operations from which we licensed content, was found several years ago to be publishing articles from writers who had been paid to write articles specifically to move stocks in a certain direction. All of the organizations settled, likely because they were all caught dead to rights. Given that these are the exact type of articles we—humans, with knowledge of what makes a piece plausible or not—chose or did not choose to program at MSN Money, I think the problems are about to get much worse.

There are two problems, as I see it. First, I don’t think the algorithm will be able to keep things orderly. So much of the job was about maintenance that, against my better judgment, it reminds me of Hamlet: “Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.” My job was often that of a gardener, and as someone who is now doing quite a bit of actual gardening in unemployment, the difficulty and necessity of it—the effort it takes to produce something worthwhile—is top of mind. The only difference is that I fear things “rank and gross in nature” will not merely possess MSN, but subsume it to the point Microsoft wants its name completely disassociated from it. I hope I’m wrong.

Second, the algorithm won’t really know the game, the way even I didn’t when I started. I can see it now, and if you’ll allow me another analogy I’d compare it to antichess, which is exactly what it sounds like: A game you’re trying to lose. The quirk that makes the game go is that you must take a piece if you are allowed, and as a novice, I quickly learned that this can lead to easy cascades from which there is no escape, far more so than regular chess in that, at least in a proper chess death spiral, you think you have agency over the moves. In antichess there’s none of that: It’s usually a cascade to certain finishes, with the fatal mistake so obvious to be easily perceptible. This feels like that mistake. MSN is up against forces it hasn’t reckoned with, and whoever’s left can only hope they get one more move to fight back, even if it can only all still end one way.

Follow Bryan Joiner on Twitter.

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[lauramalchowblog]

The Easiest Weight Loss I Have Experienced

It’s Monday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Monday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Yup, success stories are back! And I’m looking for more. Follow-ups, mid-progress reflections—every story at every stage has the potential to inspire folks out there who are getting started or contemplating a new beginning. Contact me here to share your story—long or not so long. You never know who you’ll impact by doing it. Enjoy, everyone!

I have been doing Obstacle Course races since 2013 and tried to keep myself active in training, but my diet was never really in alignment. I was the poster child to demonstrate that physical fitness is not the driving component in body composition in health—diet is. My heaviest was 188 lbs (5’9”), and I was always disappointed to see my race photos showing a fat belly and zero muscle definition.

In the summer of 2018, I ordered 21-Day Total Body Transformation, The Primal Blueprint, and Primal Endurance. I read all of them on my summer vacation and decided to really focus on my diet. I started by dropping bread, pasta, potatoes, rice and other standard “carbs.” I increased my protein, changed up my vegetables and added significant Keto recipes to my diet. I also eliminated alcohol. In terms of meals, I moved to IF, only eating between 12 and 8:30 PM.

AMAZING! Hunger went away! No “blood-sugar” drop, dull mind, “starving”…. There are many days I have to actually remember to eat. It has been the easiest weight loss I have ever experienced. In terms of fitness, I used the Maffetone method all fall and winter in my training, then kicked in to a twice weekly training group for trail running with a mid-July Ultra Marathon (North Vancouver’s North Shore Knee Knackering Trail Run) as my goal. The only time I didn’t use IF was when I had early morning training runs of over 2 hours. I ran the race with the goal of coming in “around” 7.5 hours. I came around the corner to the finish with the clock just ticking over 7 hours and 1 minute—talk about a re-alignment of goals! I laughed at myself as I was suddenly frustrated that I didn’t break 7 hours. The mind is a funny thing.

I absolutely love the Primal lifestyle and diet. It is EASY and the results are beyond anything I could have imagined. I am currently at 155 lbs with single digit body fat. My wife was so impressed with the results that she started as well and not only discovered a wheat allergy was the source of much of her inflammation, she also started dropping dress sizes in the most effortless way possible. She had previously lost weight, hit a plateau and watched it raise back up again. This time, it has not stopped. Her skin cleared-up, and she dropped multiple medications. Absolutely amazing.

Our biggest complaint with the program is that we have both had to completely redo our wardrobes as none of our clothes fit!

Brian Erb

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[jesseneufeld]

The Easiest Weight Loss I Have Experienced

It’s Monday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Monday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Yup, success stories are back! And I’m looking for more. Follow-ups, mid-progress reflections—every story at every stage has the potential to inspire folks out there who are getting started or contemplating a new beginning. Contact me here to share your story—long or not so long. You never know who you’ll impact by doing it. Enjoy, everyone!

I have been doing Obstacle Course races since 2013 and tried to keep myself active in training, but my diet was never really in alignment. I was the poster child to demonstrate that physical fitness is not the driving component in body composition in health—diet is. My heaviest was 188 lbs (5’9”), and I was always disappointed to see my race photos showing a fat belly and zero muscle definition.

In the summer of 2018, I ordered 21-Day Total Body Transformation, The Primal Blueprint, and Primal Endurance. I read all of them on my summer vacation and decided to really focus on my diet. I started by dropping bread, pasta, potatoes, rice and other standard “carbs.” I increased my protein, changed up my vegetables and added significant Keto recipes to my diet. I also eliminated alcohol. In terms of meals, I moved to IF, only eating between 12 and 8:30 PM.

AMAZING! Hunger went away! No “blood-sugar” drop, dull mind, “starving”…. There are many days I have to actually remember to eat. It has been the easiest weight loss I have ever experienced. In terms of fitness, I used the Maffetone method all fall and winter in my training, then kicked in to a twice weekly training group for trail running with a mid-July Ultra Marathon (North Vancouver’s North Shore Knee Knackering Trail Run) as my goal. The only time I didn’t use IF was when I had early morning training runs of over 2 hours. I ran the race with the goal of coming in “around” 7.5 hours. I came around the corner to the finish with the clock just ticking over 7 hours and 1 minute—talk about a re-alignment of goals! I laughed at myself as I was suddenly frustrated that I didn’t break 7 hours. The mind is a funny thing.

I absolutely love the Primal lifestyle and diet. It is EASY and the results are beyond anything I could have imagined. I am currently at 155 lbs with single digit body fat. My wife was so impressed with the results that she started as well and not only discovered a wheat allergy was the source of much of her inflammation, she also started dropping dress sizes in the most effortless way possible. She had previously lost weight, hit a plateau and watched it raise back up again. This time, it has not stopped. Her skin cleared-up, and she dropped multiple medications. Absolutely amazing.

Our biggest complaint with the program is that we have both had to completely redo our wardrobes as none of our clothes fit!

Brian Erb

(function($) { $("#dfP77La").load("https://www.marksdailyapple.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=dfads_ajax_load_ads&groups=674&limit=1&orderby=random&order=ASC&container_id=&container_html=none&container_class=&ad_html=div&ad_class=&callback_function=&return_javascript=0&_block_id=dfP77La" ); })( jQuery );

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[goadapter-blog]

HP Omen 15 2018 Review

HP is prominent for its collection of enterprise computers. HP tends to make almost everything from portable notebooks like the Envy thirteen to effective cellular workstations just like the ZBook collection, nonetheless, a further kind of notebooks have gained reputation lately. We're speaking concerning the Omen gaming sequence which has been established over the final few many years like a reliable gaming resolution.Right now we are going to check out the latest iteration of your collection - the HP Omen 15 2018. Equipped with all the new eighth gen Intel processors and up to a GTX 1070 Max-Q, the Omen fifteen Batteria HP fifteen G208AX pumps some serious horsepower. Perhaps the 144Hz show can established it aside from the competitors or possibly it will win our hearts with its performance. Let's find out.

Design

Although meaner and leaner, this year's HP Omen fifteen doesn't actually buck the development nor break away from the blueprint of last year's model. Positive, the bezels are thinner. And the new HP Omen fifteen does utilises Nvidia's Max Q graphics caricabatterie hp 72109 001 configuration to some impact.Straight held against its predecessor, it offers greater thermal-dynamics along with a smaller sized physical footprint. Nonetheless, when compared with the remainder of your Max-Q group, it does nevertheless arrive off just a little cumbersome and heavy. The entire thing can be a small much more restrained relative to the other neon-lit-death-machines competing for focus inside the space. Nonetheless, both beneath and outside the hood, the Omen 15 feels drearily iterative. It really is greater, but this superiority doesn't feel borne of particular ambition. It really is just by-the-numbers.And it is telling that even the pain-points within this year's HP Omen 15 feel slightly recycled. The trackpad is iffy in its responsiveness and also the mushy keyboard isn't a lot greater. The HP Omen comes with 26-key rollover caricabatterie asus f554la and lights customizability, but it really is subject to a bunch of limits that most of its competition has transcended in recent years. Certain - if you're not an RGB lights particular person, that's definitely not likely to be as a lot of a large offer. All the exact same, it's possibly improved to possess a gaming laptop computer with these abilities than one particular with out them.

The keyboard turned out to be extremely respectable. Additionally to the single-stage multi-color backlight we had been particularly fond with the new color for that labels, which experienced a enormous effect on legibility. Typing was respectable and can likely satisfy most customers. Never expect top-class overall performance regarding accentuation point or suggestions, although.Regardless of the general fairly narrow situation HP has managed to fit a numpad next towards the regular-sized chiclet-style keyboard. Having said that, the layout was a little of a problem because it deviated significantly in the default German keyboard layout. Have a look at for example the single-row Return important, the relocated crucial, or the lacking right CTRL essential. Basically, HP took the frequent US QWERTY layout and just remapped some keys in place of adjusting the layout accordingly. US shoppers caricabatterie hp dv6 will come across a frequent QWERTY keyboard layout with teeny-tiny cursor keys which might be practically impossible to make use of for gaming.The silver-framed and slightly recessed touchpad was inconspicuous by and substantial. To put it differently: It was neither especially superior nor especially undesirable. That not only utilized to precision but also to smoothness. Gestures usually worked very well, despite the fact that we noticed a minor enter lag when executing them.At 10.two x five.7 cm (four x two.two inches) the touchpad was sufficiently sized for a 15-inch notebook. As opposed to a lot of other producers HP has opted towards a ClickPad and for 2 dedicated mouse buttons beneath the touch area, which improved overall precision noticeably.The Omen 15 employs a fifteen.6" diagonal higher definition display caricabatterie acer e5 with 1080p resolution and WLED backlighting. In addition, it has a higher 144Hz refresh price which makes it an ideal selection for gaming.Overall I identified the display on this laptop computer to become very exceptional. It includes a extremely slender bezel which provides towards the aesthetic charm when gaming or viewing online video. Additionally, it has a broad viewing angle as well as small reflective glare. In most environments I had been able to take pleasure in the fantastic visual quality of the show with no worrying about interference from external lights.

Performance

This Omen deploys Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics. It is a tweaked version from the mobile model of the chip using a greater clock speed, and it really is got 6GB of memory. The GTX 1060 returned framerates of 85fps and 67fps in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Increase of the Tomb Raider, with each video games running at 1080p and their greatest high-quality ranges.That's speedy adequate to play any of today's top titles devoid of dialling down the graphics. It is also adequate speed to handle every single esports video game, but remember that the 144Hz G-Sync tech Caricabatterie Dell 1536 is not working using an unstoppable chip. If you want to get full advantage you'll occasionally must tone down the high quality, and this really is an issue that will only be exacerbated as future releases turn into a lot more demanding.The graphics core is paired with the Intel Core i7-8750H processor. It's a monster cellular chip, with Intel's most up-to-date Espresso Lake architecture and 6 cores. It runs at two.2GHz with a enormous Turbo peak of four.1GHz. Its single-core Geekbench outcome of four,668 is not noticeably various from top desktop chips, and its multi-core outcome of seventeen,011 isn't much behind eight-core desktop behemoths. Inside the actual globe, the CPU Caricabatterie Lenovo X240 will under no circumstances lead to gaming bottlenecks. It'll deal with every single day-to-day process, general-purpose multi-tasking, as well as the vast majority of hard-nosed productiveness applications.The Samsung SSD is solid, having a good read speed of 3,079MB/s and also a middling write pace of 1,217MB/s. My only component qualm may be the memory: whilst 8GB of DDR4 is enough, the Omen has it in single-channel mode - an odd selection that may hinder performance. The HP's thermal functionality isn't the most effective, both. In the course of a gaming check it produced obvious admirer sound Caricabatterie np350v5c and its CPU and GPU temperatures pretty much hit 80°and this barrier was smashed in a full-system stress-test. The sounds was louder right here, as well, plus the keyboard was as well scorching in both tests.

The HP isn't the loudest or hottest laptop, but you are going to certainly notice those followers except if you're sporting a headset. If you are concerned about warmth or sound, other machines are quieter. Battery life isn't specifically superior, either. Within an application check the HP lasted for 2 and a fifty percent hours, nevertheless it could only handle 90 minutes when pushed in hard video games. If you're itching for any lengthy gaming session, make sure you happen to be plugged in.Quite a few other specs are out there if this specific Omen model doesn't consider your extravagant. A system with GTX 1070 graphics Caricabatterie VPCEB1J1E costs €1,499 and will do a greater task of maxing out the G-Sync screen. If you would like to go the other way, then the €1,099 model drops G-Sync, halves the SSD and deploys a weaker GTX 1060. A €999 product keeps the Core i7 chip and 144Hz display but uses a GTX 1050 Ti graphics main, although the entry-level €799 notebook has the GTX 1050 GPU and also a Core i5 CPU together with the 144Hz display. TThey're undeniably odd specifications. These equipment would still be great with a Core i5 processor, and deploying those less costly chips would free up a lot more budget for beefier graphics chips that will make improved use of the 144Hz panel.One of the most significant tests for any gaming laptop computer is its cooling system. The needs for high resolution Pc gaming Caricabatterie Toshiba L500D normally tax the GPU drastically, causing extra heat. Persistent overheating can have an effect on overall performance and wear down elements more than time.The HP Omen 15 has two cooling supporters that vent primarily through the underside, but additionally through the back of the notebook. They typically do a very good career of keeping the machine amazing, especially when permitting the underside openings space to breathe.My longest constant play session together with the Omen fifteen was around three hours. In the course of this time I played the team-based shooter Overwatch Batteria Yoga 500 on high options. Inside the course of the session the notebook managed to stay within affordable temperatures (about 60-65 levels F), but a rise in heat emanating in the area on the GPU was nonetheless obvious.Overall I'd state that the Omen 15 does a good career of keeping neat. However I would nonetheless advise further actions for example a cooling pad if probable for extended marathon gaming periods.

Battery

In phrases of battery, the HP Omen fifteen comes with a 4-cell 70Whr battery that lasts decently extended sufficient. In ideal battery daily life manner together with the brightness established to 50%, the Omen fifteen lasted me an easy 3 hrs which is pretty respectable by gaming notebook standards. In the course of that time I applied the notebook as my typical operate notebook which indicates writing some posts, obtaining around 15-20 tabs open up of Firefox Quantum at any provided time, and Adobe Photoshop CC running alongside for that showcased photos and stuff... as well as a YouTube tab Batteria GE62 6QD161 playing songs within the background.In greatest efficiency mode the battery lasts to get a considerably less quantity of time, that is anticipated, but nonetheless beneath the same workload I used to be able to thrust the laptop to about two hours of utilization ahead of plugging it.I consider it's a quite decent battery. Certainly, it doesn't final even near to what you would get from ultrabooks, but that's because this isn't an ultrabook. This is a gaming laptop having a GTX 1070 within it, and three hours of battery is really a quite decent quantity to have with that. Also, as a gamer, you would not be utilizing it with no plugging it in so it truly won't make a lot of the distinction.Charging up the laptop computer requires considerable time, with it taking about 2 hrs (give or consider) to acquire from 10% to a 100% cost when plugged in and not in use. That is really a great deal, but taking into consideration that it has a significantly bigger 70Whr battery, I'd say it really is all right.General, the battery efficiency from the Omen fifteen is fairly satisfactory, and a lot like practically every little thing else about the laptop computer, I do not have something bad to state about it.Regrettably gaming laptops Batteria NP350E4C A02 often endure from their heightened power needs in the form of lesser battery existence. The HP Omen fifteen is no exception.Outside of gaming, I had been capable to get about 3.5 hours of battery daily life. This integrated just casual actions for instance searching the world wide web and streaming some movie content material. I will also note this was having a factory default environment of about 2/3 complete brightness around the display.

While gaming, this statistic went down considerably. I was only capable to squeeze about 90 minutes of constant video game outing from the battery prior to I ran from juice.The Omen 15 can manage intermittent bursts of gaming action around the go. For a lot of, a single hour to an hour or so and also a 50 % is really a decent quantity of time to sneak within a few rounds in their favourite game. Having said that, in most situations players will choose to ensure that they've a energy supply available to help keep the notebook charged up throughout play.If you're a gamer, then you probably count on - and possibly even favor - your transportable gaming rig to come back outfitted using a Complete Hd (one,920 x one,080) show. HP will accommodate you just good, but if you'd like a 4K UHD show for watching the occasional Netflix movie on your Omen fifteen, then the company is pleased to oblige. Our critique device arrived with 4K, and we experienced higher hopes of some real show qualityAs it turns out, our anticipations were mostly fulfilled. The 4K panel Batteria SVF15A1S2RS that HP chosen for that Omen 15 is about par for your course, with typical contrast at 740:one, a somewhat below-average but perfectly acceptable AdobeRGB color gamut, and typical color accuracy for your course. Brightness can also be completely wonderful at 315 nits.They are excellent scores in comparison to notebook displays just some many years in the past, and they are certainly terrific final results to get a gaming notebook, particularly 1 that is offered under $2,000.Toss in the truth that our review Omen fifteen comes using a 4K UHD show, and also you possess a device that not only appears fantastic when enjoying games, but is also fairly pleasurable for productivity work and for viewing video. Benchmark benefits apart, the visible experience remaining us with nothing at all to complain about.

Sensibly, most of the HP Omen 15's ports have also been relocated towards the again on the chassis, assisting to maintain your cables good and tidy on your desk should you find yourself connecting it to an exterior show or Ethernet cable. You will nevertheless find two USB3 Batteria Toshiba L850-1DQ ports on the aspect, along with individual headphone and microphone jacks, however the relaxation are all squeezed in in between its rear vents. These include a full-sized HDMI port, mini DisplayPort, a third USB3 port along with a USB Type-C port, in addition your Gigabit Ethernet.All in all, I'm very substantially seeking ahead to putting the Omen 15 through its paces when it at some point rocks up in the subsequent couple of months. Let's just hope its screen isn't as diabolical as almost each and every other gaming notebook I have examined not too long ago, and that its tempting Activity Stream tech is as superior because it sounds.

[themodethecitythegirl]

Free Ads Posting online

The Web made the globe so close that occasionally we even fail to remember to check out ourselves as opposed to our blog or account over Twitter, Facebook or Orkut neighborhood sites. We like our good friends to come over online and spend time social networking sites and also send us some kudos as well as send us some greetings, and also we want to do the exact same in reply. Nevertheless, is this about the Web? Think twice, what all can be done over the internet? What all can we do to produce earnings? On every month end, I accumulate all my scrap publications as well as old Papers and require to the nearest book vendor or scrap newspaper/book buyer and take some fair quantity in return. Till today, I offered old newspapers and cleared boxes. In return, I obtained some loan which I put in my cat bag. In 2014 I wished to market my old two wheeler, which has actually become a dead resources as I got a new Automobile. In order to offer my old 2 wheeler I called the Paper agents to put my 4 lines advertisement in their daily newspaper. I was billed Rs.200/- for such a small ad. Which counted on be a waste, as none had read wanted an outdated paper, nevertheless, my ad is not out-of-date right ... Exactly what needs to be done? At is at this juncture that I investigated online absolutely free online ads posting. Remarkably I see a lot of web sites supplying free ad posting online, and also they are additionally called classified posting. This is actually a good alternative for us to obtain rid of our old stuff, which is occupying a lot of area in our shop for many years. It is not almost marketing items, but also for numerous other demands such as roomies and so on. I was seeking a flatmate when I lately transferred to a Hyderabad. I published an advertisement "Seeking a roommate!" I got lots of replies by email and by phone. For each necessity like marketing my old mobile, buying an mp3 player, getting a financial service representative, I go on the internet and put an ad and within a few days as well as sometimes within few hrs, I obtain replies. Furthermore, I could also prefer to see the real photos of the item as well as evaluations of the seller, this was something like a Desire Come To Life. In addition to it, these advertisement posting websites will certainly offer this solution for FREE. - Its not the case simply with me. A buddy of mine that is a real estate agent was desperate to market apartment or condos, as well as on my tip she posted a free classified advertisement over the internet, and also might achieve her demand of sales. From then, she never ever required any other resource of promotion as all leads were coming to her with online. This is really a wonderful system for Small, Macro & Micro organisation individuals or ventures to market their products and services online. Nowadays each person recognizes the power of numerous Internet search engine and their Optimization. - If you type "free ads posting", "post free classifieds" or "free ads to publish" on any type of prominent search engine, you will find a great deal of free ads hosting websites where you can publish your advertisement absolutely free. Nonetheless, ensure that site must be user friendly such that even a youngster can post an advertisement for marketing his diaper. All your online ads will certainly read by a customer's that are not a technology savvy and possess no net expertise. If the posted promotion is not noticeable or does not appear when users are searching, then it's unusable placing an ad, so right here are some tips to put an advertisement online totally free. - By one click your advertisement must be released: It means when you click on "Article Classified" a single form or web page should permit you to put all your advertisement information, if it's dragging for pages and pages it suggests the ad hosting site is not User friendly. - Titles must be easy to use: Ad organizing site should offer you a user friendly as well as search engine friendly url or link to your article. It means when you publish an advertisement claim" searching for a roomie" After that the advertisement holding provider must provide you the link which has your title" looking-for-a-roommate". Not pageid=123 and so on, which are actually useless when some intend to browse your advertisement on preferred search engine. - Protect your Email: When you are posting your ad online, ad organizing suppliers must not disclose your e-mail to seller or buyer, unless you grant them authorization. Great deal of advertisement hosting carriers sells your profile details to some 3rd party marketing experts. So review Personal Plan before you subscribe. - Take pictures: When you are marketing something, you ought to be sincere. Upload photos of your products to make sure that buyer will certainly trust you as well as contact you, a great deal lots of people publish pictures by searching the net, which is not the right way. - Tags Friendly: tag is only a telling online search engine to reveal my short article when somebody searches with a certain word. Instance if I wish to browse" apple iphone" on promotion holding internet site, then I kind iphone as well as hit to browse things, For that function you need to put some search phrases or tags so that your write-up must appear when a person look for that service or product. - No Time Limit: Most of the Ads organizing sites give free ads posting for a specific time limit. I suggest to seek a promotion hosting site where they could place your advertisement as long as you want to. So, hope I have covered a bit more information on Free Ads Posting on Internet.