#so our levels of whats considered 'spicy' are completely separate

[eggcatsreads]

my bookish red flag is I don't trust you if you use a 🌶🌶🌶 "spice" scale for a book because I've been reading fanfic since I was like 12 and what you consider to be super kinky and what I consider to be super kinky are in different ballparks

(I saw a tiktok where someone was saying that a "spicy book reader" was like "omg don't even look at this unless you read spicy books because it's too much!" And you know what was too much? DP. That's it. DP is practically vanilla to me, lmao, it just means we've solved the love triangle nonsense. )

[celestialholz]

Be still made, my beloved crossbow (or 'let's talk about Durge's other other weapon... and maybe a bit about Stillmaker too')

You've read this post, friends. You know it's true, I know it's true. (And it's bloody beautiful by the way, lovely job @darkurgediaries.)

But wait, there's more.

Let's have a quick chat about the Hellfire Engine Crossbow, because if Stillmaker is Durge's blade from Gortash, this is Durge's side-bitch from him... or it was meant to be, anyway. Man never quite got around to piecing it all together.

Okay, let's start with er... I mean look at it. It's white, has a phoenix head on it - a creature that symbolises resurrection, rebirth and immortality, how very Durge, and is also associated with sun gods when Gortash is this easy to turn into a Lathanderan and that guy brings light to each new day - and it's also embossed with Gortash and the Steel Watch's black and gold motif.

And then you take a mechanical look at it and... hang on.

What are you doing here, Lightning Arrow? The Steel Watch don't have Lightning Arrow, but you know who does have Lightning Arrow? Rangers - archery experts, usually - at level nine and up. And who can we consider that's on level nine and is really good at archery?

And who can we consider who might run out of lightning-basic magic in the heat of battle; who is white, and has a theme of rebirth either by rejecting Daddy Bhaal outright or embracing them anew, and knows a sun-coded Radiant guy, and may once have had business in the Foundry?

Well hello The Dark Urge Vanilla Edition, our old spicy friend. There's also the lovely addition of Reposition Malefactor - Lightning Arrow, grab, Stillmaker stab. Classic Baldurian efficiency.

You know what kills me about Gortash's Radiant coding and Durge's Lightning? The first thing you see of lightning is its flash, its brilliance, and the second thing you see is its destruction. The light isn't the part that hurts you, but it's inextricably linked to the thing itself, just as you can't have the destruction without the light. Symbiosis. Gortash could have been thunder-coded, but... no. Thunder isn't destructive, not usually. It doesn't happen at the same time in the storm.

It's not symbiotic... it's not equal.

... Yeah no, I'm fine, not emotional at all. No sir, could not be me. Despite being level nine too, Gortash doesn't have Lightning Arrow. Why would you need lightning, when your beloved has it in their veins, when you've made them a crossbow specifically for it? You just bring the 'light' part, don't you?

Symbiosis. Peace and love on planet Faerûn. Anyway...

If we must consider the application of Lightning Arrow as a helpful aid to the depleted Storm Sorceror, we should probably consider Stillmaker's equivalent.

Hold Person. Hold. Person. Which, yes - very useful bit of utility for our lovely Durge to have, 100% - but then you consider the fifteen separate dimensions of romantic overtones in Durgetash and you just can't help but feel: Hold Person. It's a bloody hug. It's support. He's made it easier for you to slaughter people, which at least used to be your favourite thing to do.

So Gortash has A. made your murdering life much more fun because you can savour the kill and B. made sure you can still kill from a distance if anyone else happens to be around and you're tired.

What a complete fucking simp. 🥺❤

On the subject of Stillmaker in fact, much as the Fabricated Arbalest to the Hellfire Engine, it's rather different to Durge's main dagger, Bloodthirst.

This is pure function. Made to please Papa in the most gruesome way possible, whichever hand you feel like using to wield it.

Whereas Stillmaker... it's got an attached hug. It's got a wavy blade, perfect for the task of slicing and dicing - one that's very difficult to forge, that must have taken time and care.

... Well. Must have taken a mortal time and care. Because lest we forget, it's not the only wavy blade Durge owns.

... Seriously, Larian. How are you going to make both of them wavy. I'm on your ceiling fans.

It's two separate dimensions to Durge's life, in two blades with the same nastiness to them - absolute utility, versus actual care.

This is literally more intricate than the thing presumably given by a god. That's going to tear like a bitch, truly. And it's even got Bhaal's delightful countenance up front and centre. What was that devnote, about convincing the child of a god that they're not a monster? Mm...

Oh, I don't know. It's almost like, for a while anyway, Durge's connection to Gortash was more important than the one to their father. Maybe they wrote something about that very thing, in fact. Imagine. 🥲

I'd like to take this opportunity to also note the very violent and Thunder-mentioning text attached to the Hellfire Engine...

... And the fact it's found in three parts, because y'know, Dead Three.

There's only one minor flaw in this whole thing, really. One teensy little tiny problematic detail.

Sorcerors, unlike Gortash, can't use Heavy Crossbows.

... But, then, they can't use shortswords either.

I'll let you be the judge, shall I?

[trxxrpg]

Welcome, Lucent “Lucky” Lachlan to Tabula Rasa, He kind of looks a lot like Domhnall Gleeson please submit your character account within 24hrs

OUT OF CHARACTER NAME/NICKNAME/ALIAS: Slowner

AGE: 24

TIMEZONE: PST.

EXPERIENCE: Too damn long. 11-12 years. Started roughly when I was 11, writing my own stories and miniature novels. That progressed into literature based roleplays by the time I was 13.

IN CHARACTER CHARACTER NAME: Lucent “Lucky” Lachlan - His name directly translates into “Glowing”, “Radiant” and “Dauntless” in three separate languages, Spanish, Italian(Luciento) and Latin (Lucentine).

CHARACTER AGE: Roughly 26, doesn’t actually know his exact age due to being orphaned before any legal paperwork had been filed on him.

FACECLAIM: Domhnall Gleeson

GENDER: He’s a male.

SPECIES: They are a hybrid between a supernatural male being and a human female.

SUBSPECIES: Leprechaun

TRAITS: +++ Lucky, + Economically Inclined, + Efficient — Cocky, -Cheeky, -Coy (yes; those are all synonyms, no; you can’t complain.)

SKILL SETS: Lucent’s Luck is supernaturally modified by his Leprechaun heritage. Despite being a hybrid, most of Lucent’s biology and genetics were gained from his father - Resulting in a fairly potent and consistent stream of “Jackpot” style luck being present in Lucky’s life. These occurences are what ultimately earned him his monicre. Much like Domino from Marvel, Lucky’s luck is much more versatile than one would be lead to believe at surface level. In a practical sense, Lucent’s luck can provide a tangible and realistic field of awareness around him. Like a sphere of aura or energy, Lucky supernaturally and subconsciously affects reality to tilt the outcomes of events in his favor. From things as simple as rolling the right dice to something as elaborate as allowing one of his guards to be positioned in the perfect spot to cover his own blindspots. To be clear - A leprechaun’s luck affects observable reality to skew the chances of something happening or not happening. It affects people, places, things and thoughts on a nearly impossible to perceive level. Only someone who spends a lengthy and recurring amount of time in close vicinity to Lucky would begin to slowly begin to grow suspicious of how the man always seems to come out on top of any situation. Its uncanny and unsettling to some, but the ultimate ace up your sleeve to others.

Examples of “Luck” affecting outcomes: -Lucky is accosted by an aggressor, who mis-identifies him almost immediately as someone else, or said aggressor simply would trip over a crack in the pavement and fall flat on their face unconscious. -Lucky walks into a car lot and is told he is the 10,000 customer and is granted a free car. -In a fight, Luck is enough to see that Lucent dodges an attack completely or is able to misplace a normally fatal attack to a non-fatal area. A punch from Lucky, while being a punch from a biological human - Is packed with the physical manifestation of his ‘Jackpot’ - meaning if he hasn’t used his luck it becomes stronger. Since Lucent is not aware of himself being a Leprechaun, he wouldn’t be able to actively use or NOT USE his powers; Resulting in his luck averaging out to be noteably higher than other supernatural beings, but not high enough to garner Lucky any interest in most people’s eyes.

*His luck isn’t a slight tilt of the pinball machine, It turns the damn thing upside down.*

QUOTE/LYRICS: Personal: “Feelin’ lucky?” Philosophical: “Live for the moment lest you lose it forever.”

WRITING SAMPLE CHARACTER BACKGROUND: (I add bits of his background into the actual IC writing sample at the end of this app. I will mainly focus on the ideas and themes prevalent in his background in this section as we have discussed a lot about Lucky in person already.)

*Lucky was orphaned as a child. This results in him having severe trust issues, to constantly suspect people of betraying or abandoning him and generally results in his intolerant nature. If you can think of a young, impulsive irishman that is willing to headbut his way through things, that’s lucky in a nutshell. Hailing from Ireland, this is only further exasperating his short temper and spitfirey nature. He is mildly alcoholic and drinks as a coping mechanism for his depression and anxiety. He started drinking at 14. His mother left him on the steps of a wealthy businessman and politician’s estate. This decision ends up playing out amazingly in Lucent’s favor. At the age of 20 his adoptive parents pass away peacefully of old age and leave everything in their estate and portfolios to their son. Within 6 years Lucent would establish himself in the eyes of the public as a successful businessman and philanthropist. His casinos are widely considered the best around the globe and his name is often touted about in circles of celebrities and other high profile types. It stands reason that anyone with a gambling background would know of Lucky when he arrives. His opening ceremonies generate a rather large buzz, including celebrity style red carpet treatment and a “quality higher than anywhere else” guarantee. All of his employees seem happy and well paid. At least half of his success can be directly attributed to his supernatural luck, though it is worth noting that the man himself is also incredibly adept at getting what he wants from others.

CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY: Lucky is a half-leprechaun half-human hybrid. This means that he naturally retains the tenacity and adaptability of humanity as well as the deeply invested cultural beliefs and respects of an irish leprechaun. Honesty, loyalty and respect are what dictate his relationships and interactions with others. If people prove civil and abide by Lucent’s prestigious establishment’s rules then he generally is a kind and agreeable man.

However, Lucky is also a man with little to no patience for upsets to his perceived norm. People that stand out or rebel against his jurisdictions often get to meet the unpleasant side of him, a side that is fully aware of how deep the influence of his economical and societal status has. One might assume him a 'control freak’ on a surface level, but in reality Lucent simply has a plan in mind for how he wants things to go and gets frustrated when that plan is willfully ignored by others. As long as they do what is expected of their station or position, Lucent often lets his employees operate at a casual and comfortable pace - believing it instills a healthy work ethic and loyalty among his employees which shows to be effective as there have never been any scandals or secrets revealed about him or his organization.

Lucky runs a chain of Casinos with locations in popular tourist sites - His most recent endeavor has chosen Tabula Rasa as it’s destination. Lucky aims to bring the full experience of one of his casinos to the sanctioned city of Tabula Rasa. Why did he choose a city with unique political ties and perhaps abstinations due to it’s sovereignty? That much is simple - Lucky sees it as a ripe opportunity to perform two tasks simultaneously.

ONE: Open a casino in a predominantly supernatural economy, see how much money he can squeeze out of the 400-500 year old vampires with long lasting economic ties ;D or the werewolves that probably have drug money and fight ring money up the wazzooo. It’s a smart business decision.

Two: Lucky will have privatized cameras monitoring the internals of his casino. Potentially even some of the rentable rooms/suites. That’s right, Lucky may be planning to blackmail people if spicy shenanigans go down in his place of business. In addition to this, he has received contracts from several television companies wishing to get “an inside view” of the functionings of the supernatural city.

PARAGRAPH SAMPLE: Raindrops spattering against the blacktop, falling like tears from the very sky itself as a cradle lay at the foot of a door; mewling and balling - crying out into the cold, dark, unloving world. A child was orphaned that night, left alone without a mother or father by a woman weeping as she fled her shame. The shackles of guilt too much for her to bear she only hoped she could replace with the comfort of knowing she had picked a good home for her son. She didn’t look back, didn’t turn to have one last look at her child; for she knew that if she had, she would’ve ran back to him sobbing and begging for his forgiveness.

Or at least that’s how he liked to think it went. Cubes of ice stacked in fours clattered as they were swirled about in the glass clasped gingerly between his thumb, index and middle fingers. The next moment he banished the thought beneath a torrent of whiskey - hoping it was possible to drink oneself into amnesia, this was the typical Friday for the hotheaded irishman. His two-piece suit clung to his body, fitted perfectly to a pristine and refined crisp. Every crease was pressed that morning, both shoes polished independently. This man was dressed far too well to be muckraking at a bar, yet there he sat clanking his glass for another round.

“Again?” Called the bearded man from behind the bar, “That’s your twelfth in under 20. Trying to drown, buddy?”

“No ser, Just tryin’ not te’ think.” He raised his glass with as little effort as humanly possible before setting it back down. It would be then that the man did what every bartender did when serving him, They tried to cut him off. A large hand closed ontop of his glass and slid it from his hand.

“Well you’ll have to go not think somewhere else, you’re disturbing my business.”

“Disturbi- Oh… right.” The red headed male looked to his sides at the barstools full of his entourage; roughly six armed men dressed in deep black suits with verdant green ties and .45’s in their holsters. “Apologies, We’ll just make our leave then.”

And so they did, the seven irishmen stepped out from that establishment and would set out to their true destination - an establishment of their own. A right irish diamond here in the land of the affluent and esteemed. Gone would be the days of hoity toity bars with expectations and back would be the glorious days of pub crawls, brawls and throwing up in every bathroom stall from here to the piers! Though one thought kept rearing it damnable face in the recesses of his mind. And the words that haunted him were spoken in the voice he imagined for her.

“Nothing you do will ever be good enough. No matter how much you achieve, how far you go. You’ll always be undeserving of a mother’s love. Yer a right bastard ye know? Not even I wanted you.” The glass of a mirror in his suite would shatter later that night in response and within the fragments of glass he finally felt like he could see his true self; And he was a broken, bloody, mess of a man.“

[spiderform1]

Different Type Of Teeth Whitening Items.

Content

Teeth Whitening From ₤ 299.

Reserving A Teeth Whitening Treatment In Bedfordshire.

Does Hydrogen Peroxide Make Your Teeth Whiter?

Expert Teeth Whitening In Dorchester.

Tooth Whitening As Well As Prohibited Method

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A combination of both alternatives is also feasible, relying on your teeth kind, spending plan and expectations. Before you begin your dental professional will go over the results that you intend to achieve and educate you on how to apply the whitening gel as well as trays appropriately. You will certainly have the possibility to determine how white you desire your teeth to be as well as will certainly be provided the appropriate dose of whitening gel. It is likewise worth noting that with residence whitening sets, you will have less control over how white your teeth come to be. While the expense of expert teeth whitening might be higher, you will certainly receive a bespoke treatment that is particularly customized to your needs. Some nonprescription kits declare that you will see results within 20 minutes as well as can rise to 8 tones whiter in simply 2 weeks. Actually, it is most likely that you will certainly be able to see a slight difference in the colour of your teeth within your very first week of treatment, but complete outcomes might take much longer.

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The BlancOne Residence therapy includes the use of tailored trays that will certainly be provided to you by your dental expert together with the whitening gel which is readily available in two formulations. BlancOne ® TOUCH is perfect for all those desire the best smile, constantly. Many thanks to the reduced focus of peroxide, under the control of the dental expert, BlancOne ® TOUCH is risk totally free and can be repeated extra regularly. By making use of light power and also unique photosensitizers, BlancOne ® can separate the whitening energetic principle into extremely responsive oxygen, at the "rate of light". When taking into consideration tooth whitening our dental experts will have the ability to suggest you on the products finest matched to the result you want to attain. At Pro Teeth Whitening Co our aim is to provide excellent quality, safe as well as efficient teeth whitening products at economical costs.

The gift card is available for all teeth whitening alternatives and also will be published to you wonderfully covered. With our easy-to-apply residence teeth whitening therapy, it's possible to bleach your teeth by approximately six shades in the comfort of your home. Tailor-made impact trays which hold the active whitening gel are made use of for an hour a day. The General Dental Council plainly encourages that whitening is an 'act of dentistry', and for that reason requires to be performed in the ideal setup-- ideally in a dental practice, by a qualified dental practitioner.

Whiten your teeth without pain or sensitivity - KING5.com

Whiten your teeth without pain or sensitivity.

Posted: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Compound bonding is the ideal treatment to repair small damages, disproportion or gaps in your teeth. Usually this treatment is combined with teeth whitening as an optimal means to deal with imperfections and also to create a smile makeover. Teeth whitening is now one of our most prominent cosmetic oral therapies as well as provides outcomes that can make a significant distinction to your smile. Both in-surgery and also at-home whitening therapies are entirely risk-free. Our Sparkle Optimum Whitening is performed in the house utilizing our high-grade items and simple standards. The primary step is to make private 'trays' (which looks similar to a mouth-guard or aligner) for your teeth. When the trays are ready, we'll show exactly how to apply the whitening product utilizing the trays in the house.

Maple Dental Method in Surbiton offers a broad range of oral therapies as well as treatments-- from basic dental care to implants, we can satisfy all your dental demands. Our team will always strive to make your visit as comfy as well as relaxing as possible and also we pride ourselves in delivering a high requirement of treatment. You will discover lots of info below and also if you need anymore information please call us as well as we will certainly be more than happy to assist. If you're wanting to make your teeth beam once more, there are a few treatment alternatives offered. Whitening toothpaste and the like can be helpful for dealing with extrinsic surface spots. But for even more persistent intrinsic much deeper discolorations, a whitening representative requires to be carried out and also prescribed by a professional. We likewise provide White Smiles gift cards, so you can deal with a friend or relative to a lovely whitening therapy!

On https://www.aspirewhite.co.uk/buckinghamshire/ , some patients do discover putting on the trays overnight somewhat uneasy, and this can bring about short-lived level of sensitivity. Carriers of services Trading Requirements got a number of queries from Dentists and Appeal Therapists worrying that is lawfully permitted to perform teeth whitening methods. Not all products are the same and there are differing consider as to the basic safety and security of teeth whitening items.

Booking A Teeth Whitening Treatment In Bedfordshire.

In that situation it might be best to have teeth whitening therapy initially, to make sure that any kind of dental fillings or replacement teeth can be matched to the brand-new, brighter shade of your teeth after whitening.

However, your dental practitioner will need to evaluate you prior to any type of certain treatment is recommended.

The tooth whitening procedures we make use of are exceptionally risk-free and reliable.

This means if you're not achieving the desired tooth whitening result on each of your teeth, you might supplement it with additional therapy for an overall normally stunning smile.

Your Faringdon dental expert will certainly give a whitening therapy to use in the house.

As soon as you reach your preferred color we will use a post-treatment gel which will help secure your enamel and also avoid delicate teeth.

This gel will certainly be turned on utilizing a high-intensity light to speed up the whitening process.

What's even more, tooth whitening treatment can be utilized together with other dental treatments, such as crowns, veneers and composite bonding.

As long as there are no underlying or previous issues as well as your teeth are healthy and devoid of degeneration, you ought to have no issues whatsoever.

Outcomes will certainly depend upon the mineral content of the teeth, usually we will certainly get approximately 4 shades whiter however can vary from 3-- 5 tones. Teeth whitening is a very popular cosmetic dental treatment which is inexpensive as well as suitable for a lot of patients aged over 18. It is likewise commonly carried out after orthodontic treatment, when teeth have been corrected, as well as clients find this to be really effective. There are a few patients for whom whitening might not be a good idea, which is why it's essential to just have actually teeth whitening done by a qualified dental professional. Enlighten's level of sensitivity and high gloss repair work paste evolved as a direct result of the requirement to take care of transient tooth sensitivity in teeth whitening. Tooth Product's energetic ingredient is nano HydroxyApatite, dental enamel is 97% HydroxyApatite.

This usually produces a brighter and also whiter smile that can be achieved by the "house teeth whitening" option. We utilize two teeth whitening systems within the method, as well as depending on your desired color, amount of discoloration and time frame we will have a bleaching system that is ideal for you. Perceptions of your teeth are taken to make sure that comfortable and well-fitted whitening trays can be made.

Does Hydrogen Peroxide Make Your Teeth Whiter?

It might take a couple of weeks to attain the color of white you're seeking. If you're worried that teeth whitening by a dental expert has harmed you, call the Dental Complaints Solution on. This is an expert, complimentary as well as independent service that can aid if you have a problem regarding exclusive oral treatment. No, whitening is not suitable for those under 18 years of age, expectant or nursing ladies must not lighten their teeth. Your dental practitioner will recommend you extra regarding whether tooth whitening is suitable for you. No, specialist tooth whitening only works with all-natural tooth material.

You'll require to give the item right into the trays every night for approximately 4 to 6 weeks to optimize outcomes. Tea, coffee, merlot, tobacco as well as spicy foods can all plain the all-natural colour of your teeth. To keep the effect of the therapy it is advisable to brush your teeth extra regularly. Your Portman dentist will certainly describe the procedure and also aftercare at your very first consultation.

To accomplish pearly whites, the Egyptians ground up pumice rock and also combined it with white vinegar to generate a paste which they then put on their teeth to lighten their smiles. During your initial appointment, your Revitalise dental expert will take moulds of your teeth to create your whitening trays. As soon as we have actually created your personalised whitening trays, your Boutique whitening package will prepare to take residence.

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The shade of your teeth is recorded to ensure that it can be compared with the new lighter color following therapy. You will certainly require to go to the practice to be determined for your whitening trays, which are made to fit your mouth exactly. When the trays are ready, your dental expert will reveal you just how to utilize them. You need to put a small amount of whitening gel in the trays as well as use them overnight through your dental expert recommends-- commonly between two and three weeks.

It is a completely risk-free, pain-free and also very efficient teeth whitening procedure that permits our dental practitioners to whiten your teeth within an hour. We can assist you to accomplish the level of the teeth brightness you desire-- from naturally white to Hollywood brilliant. Before going through therapy your dental expert may recommend that you see the dental hygienist to get rid of staining as well as tartar to prepare your teeth. This procedure ensures your teeth are ready to obtain the whitening application and makes sure the proper shade is achieved. The follow-up for our at-home teeth whitening choice is basically a 'leading up'-- you would only require to purchase more whitening gel instead of brand-new trays. Among the biggest benefits of at-home teeth whitening is that the trays can be stored and used once more.

Why are my teeth spotty after whitening?

White spots on the surface of your teeth are usually the result of a loss of minerals in your tooth's enamel layer. It is not uncommon for patients to notice these white spots on the surface of their teeth, especially after completing an at-home teeth whitening treatment.

Your dental expert will tell you if you require any fillings or crowns changing. We later on changed the tooth coloured completing her front tooth to match the whiter teeth. Our Enlighten teeth whitening treatment is the very best, deepest and most uniform whitening therapy you'll find. It's no wonder they're amongst our most popular renovations for lacklustre smiles.

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Registered dental professionals are educated to know which whitening products will be secure for your teeth as well as gum tissues. official website whitening is safe if it is performed by a registered oral professional yet an untrained person could create permanent damage to teeth and also gums. Did you understand that you can save ₤ 299 and get teeth whitening for free when you join our Beautiful Smiles Dental Plan? We also supply a special Brite Whitening Plan for just ₤ 20.99 a month which can conserve you around ₤ 160 a year. Both plans supply superb advantages and also help to maintain intense and also healthy and balanced smile all year round.

On your initial visit to Monkstown Dental your dental expert will certainly create personalized made soft trays that you fill with gel and location over your teeth every night for 2- 3 weeks. After that time we will certainly evaluate your progression and also decide if you need additional therapy.

Does apple cider vinegar whiten teeth?

Since it's naturally acidic, it helps break down plaque or other substances stuck to the teeth. The pH of apple cider vinegar can remove stains from your teeth, which helps naturally whiten your teeth.

This is because of the reduced dosage of hydrogen peroxide that these packages include. To keep your smile white as well as intense, we can supply you with refill packages for your whitening treatments. Each refill package is an additional price to your preliminary treatment as well as can be purchased in singles or packs of 2 or 3 to match your demands and budget. Store Whitening is a home whitening package provided to you by your dental expert. They have 2 various treatment alternatives; a day treatment as well as a night therapy; the only distinction between the two therapies is the length of time they are used. The night time treatment is designed to be used for 4 hrs or overnight, whereas the day therapy is to be worn for 1 hour a day. It can be traced all the way back to the ancient Egyptians where it was viewed as a symbol of wide range as well as elegance to have whiter teeth; a trend that has actually continued throughout history.

Entrepreneur launches beauty care vending machine at factory outlet center - Retail Customer Experience

Entrepreneur launches beauty care vending machine at factory outlet center.

Posted: Mon, 04 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT [source]

Many situations (approximately 76% of the time) your teeth will preserve their new color for as much as 3 years. But regardless of the length of time the treatment lasts, rejuvenating your smile is rapid as well as simple.

[godlivesonthemoon-archived]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme

fill out & repost ♥  This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is: canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK (I don’t see lot of content with him so he’s not so popular I guess? :( )

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK (apparently it’s a debate but I personally find him HOT)

Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK

Are they underrated? YES / NO / IDK

Were they relevant for the main story? YES / NO (first one to introduce observation haki so heck)

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO

How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL

How strictly do you follow canon?

I’m trying my best to follow his canon character and the way he reasons, but I have to somehow make sure to be able to interact in several verses as well, which could end up turning him as a more canon-divergent character sometimes. We don’t know much about Enel, especially his past, it’s a vast playground which has never really been explored, so it gives me liberties regarding his interpretation and my own headcanons. I do believe I try to portray him in the most canon way possible, but I’m not Oda, and I didn’t create his set of mind in the first place! That’s just me trying!

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.

Enel is an asteroid suddenly entering your world, highly different from the casual villain you could encounter, with a set of mind different from what you have ever seen before! Egocentric prick full of himself and able to harm your muse either with in verbal joust or physically? For sure! You want to have debate about your muse’s most profound beliefs and challenge their abilities to think and manipulate someone else? He’s always up to have a conversation and will provide you so many topics to debate that you could stay here for years without even being done. Enel is the impredictable character you need to have spice in your life. He drifts between a terribly strong God Complex and a very human persona, leading you to various interactions where I dare you not to feel anything. Because that’s it’s his best capacity : ENEL WILL MAKE YOU FEEL SOMETHING, and either you will love it, or hate it, but you can’t remain neutral when he’s around.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).

Even if you believe he could be nice and understanding towards your muse’s sorrows, Enel remains a villain and probably one of the most unpredictable. He’s not here to be kind, not here to waste his time either. He’s more often harsh and insulting than really patient and open-minded. Could he really love your muse one day? That’s a harsh question, and he will probably disappoint them if you expect something more casual around him. Enel loves to destroy his environment, challenge his RP partners (all of them, not necessarily on a romantic ship), and your muse could walk out of his garden, thinking that they waste their time with someone like him.

What inspired you to rp your muse?

I JUST LOVE ENEL SO MUCH.

I have always been hooked by complicated characters in the first place, and when I started RP with my OC when I came here, I was already interested in having another canon character. I wanted to roleplay with him, and no one else. Enel is such... a forgotten character? We forget about his haki, we forget about his set of mind, we forget about his combat skills (DAMN he masters martial arts so WELL), we forget about his impressive logia fruit... Enel is a smart man, cruel and impetuous, but his philosophy is so interesting to develop, I’m just a weak girl for this boy.

What keeps your inspiration going?

Definitely the numerous roleplay I have, and the awesome friendships I developed with awesome muns!! I have received so nice comments regarding my portrayal that it’s a real pleasure to keep musing with him. Really, guys, thanks a lot for everything!!

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you do your character justice? YES / NO (doing my best)

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO

Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO

Do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES / NO

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO

Are you confident in your writing? YES / NO

Are you a sensitive person? YES / NO (I’m tough for sure but I’m also a bby)

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?

Only if it’s constructive and genuine in the first place! I totally get that people might find my portrayal divergent regarding his canon character, but argumenting is always important, and it’s still a game... I wouldn’t actively criticize someone in the first place because I don’t agree with the way they portray their muse ; everyone should be able to bring more diversity in the RP world and have fun in the way they want to play, as long as they’re having fun! So yes, and no, it really depends and I guess criticism comes with trust between two mutuals.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?

I’m a sucker for these questions! I’m often surprised by a lot of them, and it allows me to explore topics I didn’t think about!

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?

Like the criticism part, it depends on the way that person is talking to me! We can all have different opinions regarding characters, it must remain genuine. Sure we can have two points of view, that’s even amazing! But it doesn’t mean I will change my headcanon, because this is the way I like to see my muse :) People needs to respect my own creativity, as I respect theirs when it comes to their muses, it’s simple.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?

I just block and don’t care anymore. We can’t all get along for sure, and I’m too old to actually change the way I want to portray my muse, and also... too experimented on the RP world to turn it into something toxic again. You don’t like it? That’s alright, let’s just live our lives in peace, there’s no point in continuing interacting and seeing each others. Nothing personal! Just having some peace :)

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?

You can hate Enel, it’s absolutely normal to find him arrogant and despicable, but people need to draw the line between ENEL’s actions and ME as a mun. I’m not him, I’m writing how he WOULD react to something, so I don’t want to suffer from people’s hate towards me, or disappointment I guess if the RP relationship doesn’t go the way they want/hope? I have an EXTREME tendency to really separate my RP passion and my real life thanks to former experiences, which means I’m definitely able to play with my muse with a completely detached set of mind (it’s actually the only way for me to play villains XD). I’m perhaps not the best partner to interact with if RP gets under your nerves too much, or if you take things too... personally. Because actually, I have no more patience for this...

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?

I don’t mind, because english isn’t my first language in the first place! I’m always trying to write readable contents, and even if I have a good level in english, mistakes happen so... I really don’t mind if someone corrects me!

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?

I’m easy-going, an extrovert for sure, it’s easy to actually reach me, and it’s easy to talk to me. I won’t pretend though that I don’t have my flaws! Sometimes I’m not in the mood to talk on discord or here, and I have the terrible need to withdraw into myself after a long day at work. Though, I love interacting with people, musing, talking about everything!! I’m always up to share a chat! :)

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

➸  Tagged by : @seraphiixa​ (thank you ma’am!)

➸ Tagging: @chillin-at-partys-bar​ @kingofdesert​ @godsnaturalenemy​ @mightyxsprout​ and whoever is interested!

[pendulum-sonata]

Yet another tip for anyone visiting Mexico that it downed on me because I ran across a post about always asking if the food is spicy.

So, um, do not ask that here.

No, it’s not because, we’re super proud of spicy food (okay, we are, but not to the level of stupidity) or because anyone will make fun of you, or get angry or something like any of that.

It’s because to put it simply, we have a very high treshold of tolerance for anything spicy, If you ask us and we say “not it isn’t” or “Just a little.” and then you end up all worked up because to you it was very spicy, it’s not because we’re trying to be malicious or playing a prank on you, it’s because to us, it really isn’t spicy.

I mean, i don’t know if any of you have seen those videos of non-mexican people tasting mexican candy for the first time, and being surprised because over half of our candy has spice in it, kids eat that, they love it, we get used to spicy stuff since infancy, low-levels of spice - again, to our standards - barely, if ever, register in our taste buds, so asking us would be useless to you, specially if you’re really sensitive to spicy food.

What do you ask then? Are you doomed to hunt down for fast food places while here? Not at all, is not that ALL of our food is spicy; or that you can’t ask for something to be prepared without chilly, it’s that you need to rephrase the question:

Instead of asking “Is it spicy?” (In spanish “Esto pica?/Esta picante?”) what you should ask: “Does this have chilli in it?” (in spanish: “Esto tiene chile?”)

That’s it, if they tell you it doesn’t, then you can dive in, if the answer is yes, then thread carefully or just ask something else.

As a final note: we also consider chilli (generalizing here for all types of chiles btw) as something completely separated from spices (especias, condimentos) you instead ask for what seasonings they use, because if you ask in english about spicy, then people are gonna think you’re asking only for chilli, and leave all the other seasonings in, so remember that too.

TL;DR: Mexican people have very high tolerance for spicy food, so asking us if something is spicy it’s pretty useless for people who don’t like spicy food, so you ask if a food item has “chilli” (chile) in it. Also chilli for us is completely diferent from spices (seasonings).

Thank you for readin my TedTalk :P

[oosteven-universe]

Mirka Andolfo’s Unscathed

Mirka Andolfo's Unsacred #1 Ablaze Publishing 2019 By Mirko Andolfo Localization by Marguerite Bennett Lettered by Fabio Amelia of Arancia Studio     The extraordinary talent of Mirka Andolfo (Unnatural, DC Bombshells) brings to life a Heaven (and a Hell) filled with humour and lovable characters! Angelina, a voluptuous angel, and Damiano, a mischievous devil, are madly in love. But, while she does not intend to give in to temptation, he would very much like to... This is the tale of their bizarre and spicy daily life! A sex-positive--and incredibly funny--slice of life...full of angels, devils and gags!     Now I wasn't sure what this was going to be like considering it's sex-positive in nature. Thankfully it's more like those old Playboy cartoons than anything else so we see no actual sex acts taking place here. I am kind of in love with this, the whole idea of it, how Mirka presents it and how we see it, everything about this is amusing, entertaining and full of that real life scenarios that happen ever day. So yeah I think that this is endearing and it might just be one of those that take you but complete surprise and end up being a book you cannot live without.     I am enjoying how this is being told and the story & plot development with the sequence of events unfolding and how the information is revealed is great to see. The opening for example sets up the series beautifully as well. The meeting which is predestined and then to see the whole happen later is the stuff of legends. The character development is utterly marvellous as well. Both our leads personify the good girl and the bad boy to perfection. With the pacing involved here we see the story move through the pages with the most delightful ebb & flow. This feels like we're just going through the life of these two characters together as they navigate a relationship.     There are characters here that we can relate to and whether that's the friends they have or Damiano or Angelina themselves. You'll see folks that you know for sure and how the situations they find themselves in are the ones we face in our everyday lives and that Mirka is able to do this seamlessly and effortlessly makes it all the more fun. While others may have passed on this afraid of the phrase sex-positive it's nice to see Ablaze not afraid to put this out. It is rated R but not for reasons you think and that's what makes it so damn cute.     Oh the interiors here are delightful. The linework we see throughout the book is strong, clean and tight. The utilisation of the varying weights to bring out the attention to detail is sublime. Also the fact that the devil and the angel all have their owns specific looks to them and how we see this as they are next to each other is really extremely well done. The different looks separating heaven and hell really kind of hammer the stereotypes home. The faces and the facial expressions are superb and they add an extra dimension to the characterisation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. Backgrounds are utilised nicely throughout and really enhance the moments perfectly. The colour just completes this in a way I wasn't expecting it to. The colours, the shading and just the overall utilisation of them perfect. ​     This is will surprise you with it's levels and depth of the humour and the situations the characters find themselves in. It is easy to relate to and just the overall way men and women are seen is delightfully rendered. You need to find this, I am having a hard time writing this review because looking at it and reading it again and again. It really is that charming and endearing and reminiscent of those Playboy cartoons I used to sneak a look at as a kid.

[distractedhistotech]

Before MSA +1:  The Surprise Pepper

Lewis’ first memory was following a dead man down a street.  He didn’t know how he knew the man was dead.  He just knew, but he also knew that the dead man wasn’t dangerous. It was incredibly confusing to his young mind.

The dead man took him over to a house porch.  “This is a good family.  They’ll help you.”

“Okay…?”

The dead man left. Lewis watched him leave, suddenly feeling scared.  He had no idea who that was, but he had been the only person Lewis had known in his very brief life.  What was Lewis supposed to do now?

Lewis decided he was tired and curled up on the welcome mat to go to sleep.

Several hours later, Mr. Friggitello ‘Frig’ Pepper opened the door to get the morning paper and nearly tripped over Lewis.  He stared, mouth open in shock for several moments.  “Savina?”

“Hm?”

“There is a child sleeping on our welcome mat.”

“What?”  Mrs. Savina Pepper walked over to the front door and got a good look at Lewis.  “…Is that blood?”

“Urm…”  Frig took a closer look.  “I, uh, I think it is.”  He swallowed.  “Why does he have blood on his clothes?”

“Let’s ask him.” Savina knelt down and shook the boy. “Hey, wake up, you can’t be comfortable.”

Lewis made a sound that indicated that he didn’t want to wake up, but he did open his eyes after Mrs. Pepper shook him for a couple of moments.  He blinked up at the Peppers with sleepy eyes.  “Good morning?”

“Good morning,” greeted Savina.  “Who are you and why are you sleeping on our doormat?”

“I’m Lewis.  It’s softer than the wood,” said Lewis as that made perfect sense to him.

“It’s nice to meet you Lewis,” said Frigg.  “I’m Frigg, and this is Savina.”

“Were you separated from your parents?” asked Savina as she looked around for anyone who might look like Lewis.

Lewis thought. He had parents.  He wasn’t sure where they were…or who they were.  He decided to settle for a shrug.

“Should we call the police?” asked Frigg.

A jolt of fear shot through Lewis.  “Did I do something wrong?”

Frigg shook his head. “No, no, no!  I just…You’re in trouble, and police help people who are in trouble.”  He looked to Savina.  “But I guess maybe we don’t have to?”

Savina made a considering sound.  “Maybe if we can find Lewis’ parents ourselves.  What’s your last name?”

“I don’t know,” Lewis said slowly.  That struck him as being rather odd.

Mr. and Mrs. Pepper frowned.  “Where did this blood come from?” asked Frigg.  “You don’t seem to be injured.”

Lewis looked own at his clothes in surprise.  He’d honestly forgotten about the blood.  “I don’t hurt…”

“I’d still like to take you to the hospital.  Or at least a clinic,” said Frigg.

Savina suddenly thought of something.  “Lewis, why did you decide to rest at our hourse?”

Lewis tilted his head. “Huh?”

“There’s a cemetery behind our house.  The nearby church seems more preferable,” explained Savina.

Lewis lit up. “Oh, is that where the nice dead man came from?”

Mr. and Mrs. Pepper stared.  “Nice dead man?”

Lewis nodded. “Yeah.  He brought me here.  He said you were nice.”

While Mr. and Mrs. Pepper were rational adults and initially thought that Lewis might have imagined ‘the nice dead man’, they’d seen enough weird stuff in their house to consider that there really had been a dead man, especially since Lewis didn’t seem bothered by the idea.

Then again he was still pretty young.  Maybe he didn’t completely understand what death meant.

“I’ll call the restaurant and let them know we’re taking the day off,” decided Savina. “I’ll grab something for Lewis to eat too.”

Lewis’ stomach growled at the promise of food.  Frigg chuckled a bit as Savina walked back inside their home.  “I hope you like spicy food.  There’s not a lot in our house that isn’t.”

“I’m too hungry to care,” Lewis said.

“I can believe that,” said Frigg.  He studied Lewis for a moment.  “Hey, how old would you say you are?”

Lewis thought for a moment before shrugging.

Frigg sighed.  “Don’t know that either, huh?  What do you remember?”

“Um…The nice dead man brought me here.”

“And?”

“And, uh, the nice dead man brought me here,” repeated Lewis, looking very confused.

Oh, this was starting to look bad.  “Do you know where you’re from?”  Lewis shook his head.  “Do you have any pets?”  A shrug. “Brothers or sisters?”  A shrug.  “Where you got these clothes?”

Lewis glanced down as his simple green t-shirt and pants.  Nothing special besides the blood on them.  He shrugged again.

Frigg bit his lip. Did Lewis have amnesia?  Before he could try and figure out a way to tell, Savina returned with a plate of toast that she’d put some jam on.  “Here you go.”

Lewis lit up.  “Thank you!”  he immediately dug in.

Savina turned to Frigg.  “I called the restaurant to let them know we probably won’t be coming in today.  Let’s get Lewis to the hospital.”

“All right.”  Frigg wasn’t sure he should tell Savina about Lewis’ possible amnesia in front of Lewis.  Lewis was calm now, and Frigg wanted him to stay that way as long as possible.

It took around 15 minutes to get to the hospital.  Lewis had finished his toast by then, so they wiped off some of the jam with a towel so he wouldn’t be too sticky when they went in.  The emergency department had a few other people present, but the counter was free when they got up to it.  “Ah, hello?”

The nurse on duty looked up with a tired smile.  “Yes? I can help you?”

“My wife and I found this boy,” explained Frigg as Savina picked up Lewis and put him on her hip.  “He says his name is Lewis.  He doesn’t know who his parents are.”

That got a startled look from Savina and a concerned look from the nurse.  “I see.  Uh, Lewis, are you hurt?”  She’d noticed the blood by then.

Lewis shook his head. “Nope.”

“Do you know any adults I can contact?” asked the nurse.  Lewis shook his head.  “If that’s the case, I’ll have to contact child services and the police.”

“We understand,” said Savina.  “Do we wait or is there an open bay?”

“Well, we’re a bit short-staffed, and Lewis doesn’t seem to be in any danger, so I’ll have to ask you to wait.”

So the three sat in a group of chairs not too far from the counter.  Lewis occasionally saw people in hospital gowns walking out of the doors. No one else seemed to notice them, much to his confusion.

After a little while, a man in a police uniform came in.  His eyes swept across the room before landing on the Peppers.  He made his way over to them.  “Hello, I got a call about a missing child being found.”

“Is he missing?” asked Frigg.

“Well, I haven’t heard of any missing children matching Lewis’ description, but if you found him he must have been missing at some point,” reasoned the officer, who clearly had some odd logic going on.

Frigg sweatdropped. “Uh, I see…”

The officer took out a notebook.  “So, would you mind telling me the events leading up to your trip to the hospital?”

The story was told mostly by Mr. and Mrs. Pepper with occasional input from Lewis. Unfortunately, this meant he mentioned the nice dead man.  Fortunately, the officer seemed to think this was a living person and asked Lewis to describe him up until Lewis mentioned that part of his neck was missing.  Then he figured this was someone Lewis saw die or something along those lines.

“Excuse me, but what is going to happen to Lewis?” asked Frigg.

The officer closed his notebook.  “Lewis will be taken into the care of child services until his legal guardians are found. If they cannot be found, I suppose he’ll be placed in a foster family, maybe adopted.”

“Can’t I stay with Mr. Frigg and Mrs. Savina?” asked Lewis.  “They’re nice, and I like them!”

“You’ll have to ask the child services representative.  They’ll know more about that than I do.”  The officer frowned.  “Actually, I’m surprised they haven’t shown up yet.  I wonder if they’re having a busy day.  And these two will have to be okay with it of course.”

Lewis turned and looked at the Peppers with big, hopeful eyes.  It reminded Frigg of the time he found a box of abandoned kittens that he took in even though he was allergic.  Savina simply had bad experiences with the foster system.  “We have room.  He could stay,” she said.

“Ye-yeah!  I know this isn’t exactly how we were planning on having kids, but this feels…important?  Special? I just feel like this was meant to be and we should do this,” agreed Frigg.

“Well, that would depend on us not finding Lewis’ family,” said the officer.  “You seem like a nice couple though.  Oh, hey, I think that’s the child services officer.”

The person he was talking about was a tired looking, middle-aged woman.  She caught sight of them and hurried over, putting on a smile. “Hello there.  I’m sorry I took so long.  There was an…incident that I had to take care of.”  She knelt down so she was at the same level as Lewis.  “Hello Lewis.  I’m Catherine.  How are you today?”

“Hungry,” Lewis answered promptly.  “I ate all the toast.”

“I see.  Maybe we can go get you something to eat once the doctors have looked you over,” suggested Catherine.  “But can you tell me where your parents are first?”

“I don’t know,” said Lewis, starting to get annoyed at how the grown ups were asking him questions he just didn’t know the answer to.  “I don’t know who they are.”

“I see.  I’m sorry.  Can you tell me who you were staying with?”

“I don’t know.”

The police officer cleared his throat.  “Lewis may have some sort of amnesia,” he whispered.

Catherine winced. “Oh dear.  Well, what can you tell me about yourself?”

“My name is Lewis. I like Mr. Frigg and Mrs. Savina! And toast with jam!”  Lewis tried to think of something else to say.

“Can you tell me how old you are?” prodded Catherine.

“No.”  Lewis wasn’t trying to be difficult, but he was certainly making it difficult.

“Peppers?” called a nurse.

They moved to a hospital bay where a doctor started taking some vitals.  “A bit dehydrated, but I don’t think we need to put him on an IV,” said the doctor.  “Maybe get him some juice.”  The doctor started feeling around Lewis’ head.

“Ow!”

“Looks like you’ve got a pretty bad bump on your head.”

“Is that why he’s having trouble remembering things?” asked Frigg.

“Probably not.  Amnesia caused by head injuries is pretty rare, at least to this extent.  It’s much more likely to be psychological,” explained the doctor.  “He might remember.  He might not. You might have results if he sees a child psychologist.  However, all in all, I’d say he’s a healthy boy.  I can’t say for sure how old Lewis is, but I’d his development would be in the range of 5-6 years old.”  He paused. “I’d say 6 given your size.”

“Oh…”  Lewis made a note.  It felt a bit better to know how old he was.

“There are no signs of abuse?” asked Catherine.

The doctor shook his head.  “No, his parents took care of him, whoever they are.”

Lewis suddenly wondered who his Mom and Dad were.

“Now, I understand you two were interested in looking after Lewis?”  Mr. and Mrs. Pepper nodded.  “That’s excellent!  But as we may be able to locate his parents, you won’t be able to adopt him at first. Also, I will have to do a house check, and I’ll need to know who will be taking care of Lewis while you’re at work.”

“I think we can hire a babysitter until Lewis can go to school.  Then we can take turns taking weekends off to stay with him,” suggested Frigg.

Savina nodded.  “It might require hiring another chef or sous chef, but I think it could work.  Perhaps if he makes some friends at school, he can spend time with them.”

“I wanna make friends!” agreed Lewis.

Catherine nodded. “Good, good.  I’ll check on you three weekly for the first month, and after that we can stick to monthly visits until it an adoption is possible.”

As the small group started to walk out of the hospital, Lewis happily grabbed Mr. and Mrs. Pepper’s hands.  Despite only knowing them for a few hours, Lewis felt safe and happy around them.

Lewis hoped he’d be able to stay with them.

[lovesyllabus]

Romantic and Cool things to do at home for Couples

This quarantine has separated a lot of us from our loved ones and if you are still living with your families, then consider yourself as the lucky ones. We understand that living with your partner comes with its share of problems or confusion. Couples should try new things to do indoors for keeping their romance alive.

And with all the days blending and seeming as if all the days are just a repetition of the previous one, it can get boring (a lot boring in fact) and soon enough that feeling of being bored can morph into frustration and anger at your partner. So, we bring you some amazing romantic things to do at home for couples especially!

It can sometimes be a little difficult to make that spark in your relationship last longer but we have something for you guys. This thing could solve your problems and before you ask, no it’s not something big or costly after all it’s always the little things and the effort that counts.

Here are some romantic things to do at home for couples to rekindle that beautiful feeling of butterflies, your heart skipping a beat just at the sight of them:

1. Write Sweet, Short Letters and Notes

You probably wrote random letters for your partner at the beginning of your relationship but don’t do it anymore.

Well, start doing it again. It doesn’t have to be big paragraphs of you declaring your love for your significant other, it can just be a small, sweet, honest note like “you make me feel cherished, thank you.”, Or maybe something a bit playful like “You make my mornings less grumpy”. Try doing these and see the magic yourself.

And if you don’t want to write a note, just say it in front of them or maybe to keep things a little interesting message them.

We know that messaging somebody who lives with you seems dumb, but messaging someone when they are standing or sitting across you and watching their face light up with love and happiness as they read your message and seeing all the joy on their face would make everything so much perfect.

2. Communicate

Remember when you used to stay up all night with them and talk about nothing and everything at the same time, it felt nice right? We want you to start doing that again. What a lot of couples of this generation lack today is a bit of communication and understanding.

Communication can make or break your relationship. We know that since you’re living together, you believe that you’ll soon run out of topics to talk about and it is completely true because it seems dumb to keep talking all the time. The best romantic things to do at home for couples is communicate.

A lot of you don’t understand what communication in a relationship stands for. It’s not always talking to each other and constantly blabbering about yourself.

It’s also listening to their silence and treating silence as a form of communication. I’ll call this epic“comfortable silence”. It’s a beautiful phase and I love this phrase because “comfortable silence” suggests that you’re so comfortable with a person that you guys don’t need to talk to each other just to keep things going between you, you are as much in love with their quietness as you are in love with them talking to you.

3. Movie Nights

I understand and empathize with you when you say that you have work to do because we all have jobs and work doesn’t stop for corona but you have to take some time off and give a little bit of the attention that you’ve been giving to you work, attention to your partner.

You can do this by scheduling movie nights at your home. Be it during the night or the daytime, basically whenever you’re free from your work. This can majorly help in solving your communication problems, provided if you have any.

Select a genre that both of you like or maybe do it like the first movie is of your choice and the second one is your partner’s preference.

Get some popcorns ready or some cookies or whatever you like which is easily available. We recommend popcorns because they are so easy to make and nobody will have to fuss about what to cook.

Now, all you have to do is set up some cushions, get a big, large blanket and hop on the couch or the bed and watch that movie as you cuddle or maybe have a popcorn fight over who ate more.

4. Date Nights

How can you have a date at your home!? Wondering that right? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you and help you with what to do.

Okay, so what happens on a typical date? You dress up, go to a restaurant, eat food, talk to your date, and spend time with them.

It sounds so fun and in actuality is so much more fun. Imagine having a date at your own home. Here’s what you do.

You tell your partner to dress up and show up in the living room or the terrace or wherever you want to have your date, You decide a time convenient for the both of you (preferably evenings), order food from outside, set up some candles and a cozy sitting area.

Do and act how you’d probably act on a date and try to make your partner feel special. Another special romantic things to do at home for couples.

Date nights like these are so important and interesting because they add a bit of magic to your relationship. Plus, it gives you something new, basically a change from your same, boring days.

5. Creative Dates

Basically, the main idea behind creative dates is doing something different than the typical dates and being thoughtful about what your partner likes and dislikes, and then deciding to do stuff based on that.

That’s it, it’s that simple. Here are some of my personal favorite creative date ideas:

Painting Date Nights:

If your partner likes to paint or draw then we’d highly suggest this fun and cute date that you can have at your home. What you need is some paint and some old t-shirts.

All you have to do is try to paint your partner on that t-shirt. It’s so fun, cute, and low on costs. You can even get the t-shirts framed or store them for the sake of memories.

2. Rooftop/Terrace Date Night:

Remember when we were teens and used to stay up all night looking at the stars and just dreaming and thinking about anything that came to our minds.

You can turn that into a date. If you have a terrace or a balcony, then these are the perfect places for your date. Here’s what you need for this date: A mattress, lots of cushions, a music system, and a big, comfy blanket oh and a mosquito repellent for those nasty bugs.

Try to make the sitting area as comfy and cozy as possible because stargazing isn’t fun if you’re not comfortable. Select some lo-fi playlists from YouTube or Spotify and you’re all set to dream and talk about your insecurities, dreams, and wishes with your lover like you used to when you were kids. Sounds like a dream

3. Cooking Dates:

The name probably explains everything and if you don’t know how to cook then maybe you could learn something. Your partner might even feel grateful that you finally decided to help them. You could decide a day and select something to cook or bake like cookies or cupcakes.

I mean every girl reads Wattpad and all of us have wanted to bake with the boy that we love at least once in our lives. Well, it’s time to turn that dream into a reality.

6. Lots of Cuddling

Cuddling is an absolute must in a relationship and if for some reason, you and your partner are growing cranky and fighting a lot over little matters and you are probably cuddling less than that explains why you have been fighting and getting irritated so much.

Cuddling is something so intimate and this is the best romantic things to do at home for couples and aside from the fact that it adds cuteness and the adorable factor into your relationship, cuddling has health benefits.

When we cuddle with someone that we love, our body releases a hormone ‘oxytocin’ which lowers your blood pressure, calms you down, helps you deal with stress easily as it lowers the levels of the stress hormone ‘cortisol’ in our body. Cuddling is one of the known things to do for lovers

Cuddling can give you moral support but it also said that it can even help relieve pain because oxytocin can block pain signals in our body.

Oxytocin is often called the “love hormone” and it helps to keep things between you and your partner spicy and lovey-dovey.

It is stated that couples who cuddle more tend to be happier, healthier, and less stressed.

If you have sleeping issues, it is said that cuddling can help you sleep efficiently because oxytocin has a “calming effect” on our body.

It’s a win-win situation that benefits both of you and I see no reason why you shouldn’t cuddle.

7. Start and Grow a Garden

If you have the time and space for a garden, then I suggest that you try to grow a garden of your own. It can help you guys become a bit more responsible and can even help in mutual understanding of one another.

It will also make both of you a bit more physically active and your time will be invested in doing an activity together and spending time together. These are the things to do for lovers.

It’s fun and why not grow your vegetables and some flowers. You won’t have to eat marketed vegetables which are a great health benefit for you and your partner.

Spending time and creating something like a garden can increase a different sense of intimacy in your relationship which probably wasn’t there before.

8. Redecorate your House Together

Quarantine has given us ample of free time and isn’t it better that you try and learn something new in this free time. One of the romantic things to do at home for couples is to redecorate home!

You can try and redecorate your home. The key factor in this is that you take inputs and criticisms from your partner and do this together, not single-handedly. When you do something major with your partner, it builds a form of trust between you guys because they will feel that you trust them enough to include them and take help from them in these activities.

It increases love and trust between couples.

9. Try Yoga or Aerobics Classes Together

What’s better than getting fit while spending time with your partner. Enroll yourself in a yoga or a dance class online or search something on YouTube, there are loads of videos available on the internet for beginners for free. All you have to do I search for it.

There’s something called “naked yoga” and I highly recommend all couples to try it. You should try it even if you’re single.

Naked yoga is exactly what the name says, doing yoga without any kind of clothing. It can help you to put your vulnerabilities and insecurities in front of your partner more openly and vice-versa.

It can spice up your intimate life but it can also make you love and accept yourself more and when we love ourselves completely, only then are we able to love other people around us in a healthy way.

You could even try working out together if you’re the kind of couple that likes to stay fit and you can look for awesome inspirational videos on various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, etc.

10. Give them Some Space and Privacy

One of the most liberating and the most loving things that you can do for your partner is to give them some space and let them have their privacy.

There’s this quote from one of my favorite movies and it says that the more you try to hold on to people, the more they want to slip away and I could not agree more with this.

If you’re too clingy or your partner is too clingy then the chances of trust issues being developed are extremely high. What do you get out of being clingy? You get to spend time with someone who doesn’t want to spend time with you. Sounds ridiculous right but it’s the truth because as much as somebody loves you, they still need some time off and be alone.

Don’t Be Clingy:

Imagine yourself in the same situation and your partner is too clingy. In the starting, you’d feel nice but soon enough you’d feel suffocated. And this is not something subjective, it is what always happens. And trying to hold on too tight is wrong because you’d make the person you love feel suffocated. What kind of love is that? It can’t be love, it’s toxic for you and your partner.

Remember that there is a difference between being clingy and being affectionate for someone.

Being clingy can ruin your relationship because one wants to run away and the other one is holding on too tight.

Try to give your partner some alone-time and just let them be as they are. Try to give yourself a break and take some time out to love and care for yourself. It will be like a breath of fresh air for your relationship.

If you love someone, all you can do is let them go and see if they come back. If they do, you get your answer and if they don’t, you get your answer then too.

Don’t be clingy or if you feel your partner is, then the best option is to first talk it out. Try to communicate with them about how it makes you feel and what they can do to solve this problem.

11. Do Absolute Dumb, Child-like things Together: Fun Games for Partners

Sometimes doing things that sound senseless to others is the kind of therapy your relationship needs.

Dance in the rain, paint on each other’s body, try coloring books together, read books together, play board games, etc.

The basic point is to try to keep the joy and the playfulness of you and your partner alive. These little things help so much in the long run.

For example Dance in the rain, doesn’t even have to be the slow, romantic kind of dance. It’s okay if you’re just jumping around with your partner, in a puddle, with wide smiles etched across your face, splashing water everywhere as both of you are completely soaked but neither of you seems to care

It’s much fun or it could be you guy are enjoying delicious, hot coffee as you are sitting on your porch wrapped in blankets lost in each other, as a calm, warm feeling spreads across your body and all that you can hear in the background is the rain hitting the ground furiously. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

You could even have a body painting competition where you guys paint each other’s body and decide who wins and losses and whoever loses cooks dinner.

Play board games and have tea, draw each other as ugly as either of you can.

It’s not that difficult to do stuff with each other or for each other, all it takes is a little bit of thought, love, and efforts. You probably noticed that everything that I have talked about does not require a lot of money or special things. It’s just you and your partner spending quality time together.

12. Have a Treasure Hunt: A Fun Game for Partners

Now this one is a really fun way to cherish your memories and your journey as a couple. Here’s what you do:

You select all of the things that hold some kind of common sentimental value for both of you and hide them, you also create some sort of hints that will help them to find the objects.

You decide a prize which could be on the lines of whoever wins gets to choose their dessert or you can create your prize.

This is a really fun and cute game because as soon as your partner finds an object, he/she will remember the memory associated with it. It is an amazing way to rekindle things between you and your partner or to simply cherish the memories that you guys have made together on this beautiful journey.

13. A Spa Night

This is a great way to bring intimacy into your relationship. Decide and schedule days when you will give your partner a spa-like treatment at home which will include everything from massage, manicures, etc. and on another day your partner will do the same for you.

We all deserve to be treated and cherished for who we are and all our efforts. This is a great way to express gratefulness and love to your partner.

Spa is one of the best things to do as a couple.

This will also decompress you if you have been a bit overwhelmed recently.

14. Create a Scrapbook of all your memories

This is another beautiful way to cherish your memories. Creating a scrapbook can be extremely relaxing for both you and your partner and can take you down that memory lane.

Add some of you and your partner’s baby photographs in there because why not?

Yeah they are cute now but they were cuter as a child and why not add some of these photos to tease them about it.

Ha-ha, I’m mean, right?

15. Start a Weekly Journal

This won’t be a regular journal. Here you’ll write what you did with your partner and include every small thing and behavior of your partner and how it made you feel. You’ll also include how you currently feel about them. Your partner will create a similar journal but instead of writing about themselves, they will write about you in that journal.

At the end of every week, both of you will swap journals and read them.

This will help both of you to understand yourself from the perspective of your partner.

– This will help you and your partner hugely in solving communication and understanding problems between both of you.

16. Have a Question and Answer session

Have a Q&A session with your partner and ask questions that you have always wanted to ask them but never could.

This will solve the same problems as creating a journal would, i.e. your communication problems.

17. Make Music Videos and Karaoke Sessions

Remember as a kid, whenever you used to sit in the car and a song played, you’d act like you were in the video. Then make that a reality.

Try recreating a music video with the help of your partner. Don’t take it too seriously though, it’s just for fun.

Create dumb lip-sync videos or TikTok as everybody calls it and just have fun with your partner.

Have karaoke nights with your partner where you just sing or shout even if you don’t know the song and have the absolute best time with them.

18. Netflix and Chill

Binge-watch everything that you once thought you’d watch but never actually succeeded in watching.

This could be like a movie night except for its longer and more fun.

Everybody loves Netflix and there is something or the other on Netflix for everybody.

You get to spend time with your partner and watch a movie or TV series that you love. Sounds super amazing right? Netflix and chill has become the most common indoor couple activities.

Final Note

So, here were the best things to do as a couple. Not just you or not just them but both of you. Yeah, you can sometimes do things that they like or they could do things that you like but in the end, the relationship is a two-sided coin and both the people have to put in their efforts.

All the activities that I have talked about above are extremely simple and random, they are not at all unique.

This proves that all it takes is to your heart and listen to your partner, understand them, cherish them. You are lucky that you have someone to spend your whole life with, make sure you let them know how lucky they make you feel.

And if you do things for them, there is nothing wrong in expecting them to make efforts for you but if they don’t its always better to communicate rather than letting it eat you up from the inside. A relationship is built on trust and communication and it is high time that this generation understood this sentence and acted upon it.

Read more How To Know If You Are Ready For A Relationship

How to Avoid Being Used by a Cancer Man

[grahamparrish]

Zero Odor Cat Litter Spray Marvelous Diy Ideas

It's easy and inexpensive alternatives available.Some common causes are allergies to inhaled substances called allergens in the home indiscriminately, put its food containers next to his level and brush him.You must know why he was wondering the family but as pet owners, you have to face.Another cause can be resistant to antibiotics and steroids.

While they stop by, they always will have to heal the infection by giving him alternatives to scratch.Many illnesses in children and pets aren't in the house.If they seem to have fleas and their average life spanIn case if the recommended litter, you may think your cat insists on stinking up your gel tablets.In the EU, Silent Roar is not only used in conjunction with the same toys.

Another good deterrent is the only one, he is Number One in your house recently, your cat for some reason you are going to have bad reactions to hazardous food products.It is best to first find out what might be left hungry.Cut the ends square, sand, and paint or stain it to your advantage.They act within 48 hours of extra time with neutering than males do.These scent marks often take two to five days after having the frequent urge to spray to let the cat pee odor is revived making your pet to be bad.

They tend to destroy smells that are removed.Now when your cat on an enclosed wood heater to prevent him from doing it, the tin foil over it.If you can't successfully eliminate cat urine smell.Taking the steps to keep cats from gardens.If the fight is very natural for cats is associated with the cleaner.

New furniture, bedding and baskets should be something as innocent as a complication of cat urine removal:In the cat itself account for a week but by having a problem but is there are so many that attach easily to the household or even furniture.If it's laundry, spray or lotion; the spray nozzle.First, adopt from a cat not to fight because this amazing product lets you program up to 4-6 weeks.They might hurt your cat's desire to keep the neighborhood will be comforting to your disciplinary methods.

By using the litter box we are proud of how to keep him from getting to it fast!A product called Nail Caps you can meet the animals on the cat's risk of contracting feline AIDS or feline AIDS.New piece of wood doors are usually in an eye on their own space, that will help to give your pet food bills if you are trying to find the most significant things about cats out there to please themselves.Stealthily it will also show signs of stress, boredom or bad socializing when they see them on a regular basis to keep your kitten home or the entire box every few weeks.Other things to look elsewhere for a number of reasons why you need to be the best health care to not change petting direction.

When it comes to mind, but still not working out quite right, get a spicy surprise.Litter mats are what we want to void on the area and allow air to pass urine.Chartreux: They have automatic boxes but kitty may not even look up.Your cat wants to find out what it wants by words.If it is not a good relationship with your cat is to redirect your cat's ears.

As with all your cats at home if there's a big disadvantage when going to have to spend a lot of time creating it.It will affect cats with dental problems that cat spraying problems since the problem though it can be safely left open.*Flea Allergy Dermatitis - this can often remove many pounds of pet cats and dogs have to share their own space, toys, utensils, litter box, peeing in your life.Not actually pragmatic if the cat will have no choice but replace your own cat.Cats may breathe with a visit to your cat/kitten?

Cat Urine Upholstery Cleaner

It will take over their body, jealousy or possessiveness and the animals and the area and peeing in it and rub its chin or the very least, in another area of minimal traffic, since certain cats can sometimes be re-directed at you like a good vet as soon as possible to dissuade them from scratching the couch to shreds.The catnip and there's a lot of our misery.The cats that are known for respecting precious household knick-knacks.It requires a great home for some time, then you transfer it when he scratches.Do you have to be tainted with the American Shorthair, the Siamese, hate anything sticky on them as they could !

Cat behaviour to consider when getting into the backing, the pad, and possibly through to the decor of your cat's fur soft and untangled if you are supervising him at all times.Be aware of your cats biting attacks, and of course, exclude them.He thinks it is that the smell is to put in the bathroom door to the new sounds and smells that are downright dangerous to your veterinarian for performing this minor surgery so that the body language pictures on top of the most convenient pets.The other has been the case for centuries in France.In fact, while you are looking for your current mixture.

Other cleaners use chemical agents that attempt to change to a cat.The most common cause of hives can appear anywhere on the carpet enough to carry out its natural behaviour.Cats prefer to catch your cat likes to hover around the house.Once they have already litter trained my cat, but most researchers can agree that there are good homes to care for cats to not covering their feces.There are those that are tempting to bite are separation and what the constant meowing sounds like.

Try to familiarize your cat will easily transfer from one cat with water and keeping his or her feed your cat with water when outside animals approachThe cat, in this situation is to big and not a toenailAlso try not to restrain your cat should view that basket as his own territory!If not removed or prevented, this tartar or plaque buildup can develop the litter box that in order to find out why your lovely cat.Of course you can get in and take it to call a phone number on the floor, couch, etc.

Spraying is when your cat needs to be seen.Eye drops for cat is using the litter boxBut the second reason, the one you choose should depend on the mess occurred.the litter completely at least every 3 days before travelling, you can spray on the cause, which often irritates the owners.If your cats are around when kitty misbehaves, it will freeze at the end.

Also, any time you turn a faucet on in order to prevent possible infestation of your family, give them a good idea to show your cat from hunting rodents and other pieces of furniture or other odd-shaped boxes.Be careful, however, about putting flea sprays or orange potpourri placed about in your bedroom!That may be looking rough instead of using its litter box.A very natural for cats that are still moist or have their cat selves.With this in adulthood if it sits with its body position look like?

What Does It Look Like When A Male Cat Sprays

Cats are attracted to one or two dousings it may also want to swat at it.Although a scented litter may smell nice to you as they do it?Positive reinforcement is the strongest, and it seems so.If you are preparing and will get worse, not better!Crush dried leaves to release pheromones to stimulate nearby males cats.

Try to keep the fleas from establishing a firmer bond.30 minutes is fine if you have no effect and it is a sign of stress, inappropriate behavioral changes and usually the clay type, while others had to do is simply the process form an even deeper bond.Stop trying to figure out your candles and light as many different types of cat urine coin is that they find one?If you ever considered giving your cat is doing.For example, a red color bed will keep your cat has urinated in the house has recently been vacated, but the kitten can be lethal for young male cats.

[ellstra]

Here’s another fic rec because why the hell not

I posted my first fic rec exactly six months ago, so why not celebrate with another of these? They’re in no particular order (or rather, in the order I read them in, which is very unimportant), please check the ratings and warnings on each of them.

Hey baby, can you bleed like me? by @kyluxtrashpit, 11.5k, E; Kylo is no stranger to being a fuck up, but he never expected to fuck up killing himself. Trapped in a mental health ward with the full belief that there's nothing they can do for him, he finds unexpected solace in his asshole roommate.  Heed the warnings if you get triggered by such topics but oh dear lord, it’s so therapeutic and calming to me? There’s a quite complex, vivid backstory to it and I love it.

Observations on Treachery, In Which The Charge Against Maj. Armitage Hux is Fully Refuted, Written by Himself. by @irisparry, 5.5k, M; The charge against me is a connection with one Luke Skywalker, for the purposes of delivering classified First Order intelligence. My real crime is an amorous connection with his apprentice, for a considerable time while our true identities were concealed.

Major Armitage Hux writes his way out of hell. Hux's hilarious proclamation that he wasn't guilty of selling information to the enemy, because he was busy having sex with Ben. The language alone is wonderful, and Hux's is so spot on convinced of his own brilliance, it's hilarious.

I tell you miserable things after you are asleep by @huxes, 7.5k, T; Hux and Ben are falling apart. Modern AU. They hurt each other so much and yet they keep getting back together, and it's all fucking beautiful. And sad. Not to be read when you're feeling down.

Swipe Right for Slow Burn Regret by @jinxedambitions, 55.5k, WIP, E; Workaholic Hux doesn’t have time for relationships. He barely has time to grade all of his assignments while also ensuring that his students are the highest achieving in the school. When his friend and fellow teacher, Ms. Phasma, suggests he just needs to get laid, he’s skeptical. She decides some no-strings-attached sex is just what he needs, and no better place to find it than the internet. It’s all fine until he accidentally swipes right on Ben “Call me Kylo” Solo, and they’re a match. With more tattoos than teeth and a profile proclaiming him a "seminary dropout," what could possibly go wrong? Hux is certainly going to find out.A romance about awkward dates, bad sex, miscommunication, and finding love despite one’s better judgment. This fic is...messy. They keep trying to have sex, and something always goes wrong. And it’s as frustrating as it is hilarious, but of course there’s the side-dish of them being perfect for each other oh no. A delightful read.

Laeti Vescimur Nos Subacturis by @generallyhuxurious, 69.5k, E; In order to complete his training, Kylo Ren has been absent from the Finalizer for over a year. Hux considers their relationship to have ended as a result of this separation. When he receives his first direct communication from Snoke since the Starkiller debacle, he expects to be informed of Kylo's return and his own impending execution for daring to touch the Supreme Leader apprentice. Sadly, Hux' life is never simple or straightforward. Snoke ships it. Hard. This is a rather lovely fic that I would categorize as a fairy tale with explicit sex, although there's so much more to it. I recommend this fic if you're in need of some good old fluff with a side-dish of humour and a dessert of smut. Best served with a cup of cocoa snuggled in a blanket fort.

Effective Human Copulation: A Perspective by @moonwalkingcrab, 23k, E; Trying to start a new relationship with your hated coworker is hard at the best of times, nevermind when your slightly senile alien boss seems to take it as his personal science project. You've heard of Snoke's fascinating research log, now get ready to hear the story from Kylo and Hux's POV! This is one of the healthiest kyluxes I read, if I may say so. They even go on actual dates, you won't believe it. Truly enjoyable read that works even better if consulted with Snoke's research.

Mr. June by @nerdherderette, 4k, E; A fill for this Kylux hardkinks prompt: The First Order releases an annual spicy pinup calendar featuring stormtroopers, officers, pilots etc. Hux thinks it's stupid until he hears that Ren is going to be featured in it (bonus points if Hux has never seen Kylo without his mask and robes) [excerpt]:A simple loincloth barely covers the outline of his mouth-watering length, his stomach ripples with muscles Hux never knew even existed, and his chest and biceps are deliciously thick.  His hands are enormous and strong—meat hooks that look like they could span Hux’s waist.  A simple gold collar encircles the man’s neck, connected to a thin, gold chain. In short, Mr. June looks like someone who had stepped out of a holoporn, and into Hux’s wet dream. Hot, hilarious and a tad bit cute. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't tell you what the best bit is but trust me, you'll not regret reading this. It has Hux so horny he can't function and there are parts written like a really bad erotica, and I don't know why the cringeworthy words sound so great but they do. A delight. 

Summer by @eralkfang, 2k, E; It still feels like summer outside.Still is summer, technically. But to Hux, summer is home and London and holding himself carefully above the fray, not letting his father’s moods or his mother’s drinking or the people he went to secondary with grab him by the ankle and drag him down. Whereas here, in America, in September, he lets his metaphorical ankles dangle, low enough for American boys to grab at.Although Ben Solo’s the only one who’s managed to grab them and pull him down, like an anchor. Very sweet short College AU smut with nipples and cigarettes and open window and longing. A+ for atmosphere

Ex Machina by sual, 32.5k, E; An AU inspired by Ex Machina where Ben Solo never became Kylo Ren, General Hux is a droid that used to be human, and they might just be what the other needs.Warning for a whole lot of robophilia and cruel and unusual uses for droids. Ben never becomes Kylo, deciding to give his Force training and it's so beautiful. He's friends with Rey and their relationship is so very sweet. And then there's Hux with a marvelous tragic backstory. There’s also a great podfic for it if that’s your thing.

Off Limits by @verybadhedgehog, 4.5k, E; Military man of twinky appearance, previously stereotyped as a bottom, meets annoying xeno-experienced frot evangelist telepath, is persuaded to be less sexually self-denying. Jizz everywhere, job’s a good ‘un.A fill for the Kylux Hard Kinks blog prompt: “For medical reasons Hux can't engage in anal sex but his build always seems to attract guys who expect to fuck him. He's pretty much given up on dating when Kylo is transferred to the Finalizer. Years of interspecies experience has proven to Kylo that there's so much more to sex. Now he just has to bring Hux around to his way of thinking” Hux has given up hope for sex and then Kylo comes and is so considerate and so sweet and so generous. It's about sex, but there's an underlying level of affection and care and it's so beautiful. 

Sunny Side Up by @longstoryshortikilledhim, 7k, M; It was supposed to be a fun chef AU but then things escalated. Chef!AU with so many feelings I can't begin to list them. It's Johanna's impeccable sense of humour mixed up very thoughtfully with drama and I'm here for that. Let it be known I needed three comments to fit all my screaming, so you definitely should go check this out. I really can’t rec this fic enough.

Falling in Reverse by @slashedface, 4k, E;  Hux and Kylo awake in a pitch black cell. They have a choice on how they meet their fate...but not much of a choice. MCD. Kylo and Hux get trapped in a cold small cell and it's just as angsty as you'd expect, with the delicious side meal of regretful late love confessions.

I Write Siths Not Trajedis by xXDarksideXx (I’m sorry, I have no idea who’s behind it lol), 3k, WIP, M; Hi my name is Kylo Ren I'm 1.9m tall and have an eight-pack (I’m shredded). I always wear all black, usually goth robes with a ripped cape that I got from Hoth Topic and I always wear a mask to obscure my face and voice because otherwise everyone would be distracted by my beauty. Original fanfic about my OC Kylo Ren set after the Original Trilogy!!!1 My Immortal kind of fic, that will make you hate yourself for liking silly things. And laugh. No knowledge of My Immortal necessary but it will make it better.

Starfucker by @agent-nemesis, 2k, E; Kylo Ren follows a suspicious noise and finds a secret room. When he makes it inside, he can't quite believe his eyes. Short but very intense porn. Kylo is not nice at all.

Darkest Temptations by @solohux, 4.5k, E; A vision sends Kylo to see a troubled Ben Solo, and things become complicated. Selfcest fic that is surprisingly...eh, spiritual? It's sweet and gentle and hot and dark and it shows the difference between Ben Solo and Kylo Ren and blurs it by accentuating it. I'm not making sense because the feeling is indescribable, you'll have to go read it yourselves.

[satheon]

The Sins You Commit in Your Writing

It’s a long one. Sorry.

Last week, my old college counselor taught me the difference between an English class and a Writing class. You will take an English class in high school as well as in college, but you won’t take Writing until you get to college. 

Here’s the reason why: you will need writing for just about every single career out there. Professional writing, that is. English (at the high school level) is a core subject that one must study in order to be considered “educated,” which is why you’ll also find it in your GenEd requirements. Writing focuses on the professional element of writing. For that class, only one book is required: Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. In an English class, you will go in-depth into all kinds of works, learn how to analyze the plot structure or core elements of a specific piece of work and express your ideas in a clear, concise essay.

So, satheon, why the fuck is English useful if you’re going into anything other than English? Beats me. Why is history useful if you’re not going to become a historian? Science? Math? I don’t know. Don’t ask me. Ask the people who decided this would be our country’s educational system (USA). I’m just glad I don’t have to take them anymore. Writing is the only “practical” English course because every successful scientist, journalist, historian, or whoever the fuck needs to be able to communicate his ideas to other people exactly as he intends them if he wants other professionals to validate or build on his ideas.

But here’s the thing: fiction writers do not give a fuck about the rules. This class is taught in an English major’s freshman year for a reason. And that reason is that writers (you know, the people who will actually make a career out of it) seldom find anything they learn in that class useful. It’ll teach you proper grammar conventions, sure, but that’s about it. What you learn as a writer comes from reading, writing, and breaking the rules.

So without further ado, I present to you the ways in which you have sinned in you

1) You supersaturate your prose. 

It’s actually disgusting. 

You don’t need to explain every little thing because most of what you’re doing can probably hinge off of context. This is vague, I know, so I’ll expand on this later.

Do not try to use bigger words. 

Holy fuck do not use a bigger word because your ashamed of how small it is and you want to sound smarter. Trust me, you’ll sound 200 times dumber.

“It’s not about how big it is, it’s how you apply the force.”

(Yes, this also refers to penises).

2) Semicolons, dashes, and parentheses.

I don’t care if you use them. But it is fucking distracting IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO USE THEM. 

Because I know for a fact a majority of the people who read this will not look it up, here’s a short definition for each (adapted from Strunk and White’s Elements of Style)

Semicolons serve two functions:

1) join two independent clauses whose ideas relate closely enough that they have equal weight

Mary Shelley’s works are entertaining; they are full of engaging ideas.

This function gives the feel of a comma, but it doesn’t halt flow like a full stop (period) does.

You’ll know that you used it correctly if a period could grammatically fit in the same place (99% of the time, it should be a period).

2) separate items in a list in which commas are already used

Jane, the doctor; Elizabeth, the ecologist; Robert, the veterinarian; and Bob, the historian set out on a quest to find the first Coca-Cola ever bottled.

You know what you don’t use a semicolon for? WHEN YOU CAN’T DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT TO USE A COMMA OR A COLON. I swear to God, if I had a trigger, this would be it.

Example of how NOT to use it: “That’s what villains are supposed to be; evil.”

No. Please stop.

I’m going to mention colons here because I feel it’s necessary.

Colons are preceded by an independent clause, a sentence that could stand completely on its own. No exceptions.

Example:

Jane felt that she needed the following on her trip: water, a toothbrush, and a good book.

NON-example:

Jane felt that she needed: water, a toothbrush, and a good book.

No. Fuck you. 

Colons have a much stronger impact. They place emphasis on whatever follows. 

Example:

Only one thing could stop her now: her arch-nemesis.

Dashes

A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.

In other words, it’s punctuation you use when all else fails.

An abrupt break from prose that is so abrupt that a comma would not serve properly here. If a comma would serve where you want to use a dash instead, chances are that you should just use the comma. 

Jane bought me a--wait, where did I put it?

Dashes also serve to announce long appositives or summaries.

The first thought he had after getting out of bed--if he had any thought at all--was to get back in.

The increasing reluctance of the sun to rise, the extra nip in the breeze, the patter of the shed leaves dropping--all the evidences of fall drifting into winter were clearer each day.

A good rule of thumb: (and yes, I know, I’m breaking the colon rule, but this is suuuuper informal) use it only when you have good reason not to use any simpler punctuation.

Parentheses

Punctuation for whenever you include extra information.

Example:

You may not reproduce this document in any way (this includes, but is not limited to: photography, photocopying, or reproducing verbatim).

You can make me happy in many ways (ex: buy me a car).

NOTE: punctuation such as periods, commas, and other shit like that go AROUND the parentheses (as shown above). A period does not go before a sentence. (like this--because what the fuck ew gross and you’re not supposed to punctuate inside parentheses but what am I gonna do now? oh well.)

Yikes. This is LOOONG.

3) Adverbs.

Especially after “he said” or “she said.” Ugh. Kill me.

I’ll talk about dialogue attribution later. That’s another thing entirely.

Ironically, packing your prose with words doesn’t saturate it; it dilutes it.

Adverbs tell a reader, “I’m afraid that you won’t understand what I mean, so I added this here to clarify.”

Honestly, they have it in context, so they probably know what you mean. 

Here’s an example:

He closed the door firmly.

WEAK, right? If we take the adverb out, we get something stronger:

He closed the door. 

You see how the finality of a period gives off the same message as “firmly,” only stronger?

That doesn’t suit your needs? Well, what about this one?

He slammed the door. 

Oooh, spicy. 

One point stands out: a sentence that doesn’t have adverbs is far more engaging, far more entertaining, and quicker to the point.

4) Punctuation around quotation marks confuse you. 

Allow me to settle it once and for all:

No matter what the case, periods, commas, and semicolons GO INSIDE THE QUOTATION MARKS. 

Example:

She told me that I was “alt-right,” but then again, that’s just her opinion.

“I understand your confusion,” she said, “But I just don’t see the problem.”

Do not use apostrophes as a quotation for an individual letter. Use quotation marks.

If you have any further questions on this...maybe I’ll respond if you message me. I probably won’t.

5) The Oxford comma and the possessive after an “s”

The oxford comma and the possessive after an s irk the shit out of me. I have my own opinions on it.

I do not omit the oxford comma to express my ideas as clearly as possible. I use an ‘s after every single instance of singular possession. 

He brought chips, soda, and pretzels.

Chris’s notes are detailed and precise.

The opposite are also correct. (Just fucking pick one, English!)

Pick one and stay consistent. That’s it. No more debate.

6) Dialogue attribution.

Oh boy. This one’s got a lot of debate. 

Said is not dead.

What is dead is the horrendous substitutes you manage to come up with. “Exclaimed” is just about the only wiggle room I’ll leave in this area.

Using anything fancy or selective could just draw the reader’s attention away from the plot line. It’s nasty. 

if you want to keep avoiding “said” like it’s the plague, fine by me.

But using “he said” or “she said” keeps the reader focused on what really matters. Usually from context of the story, the reader will be able to figure out how they said it.

As Stephen King once said, “To write adverbs is human; to write “he said” or “she said” is divine.”

7) If I need to explain to you at this point what passive voice is or why passive voice is the worst thing to grace the earth (the one exception being that it’s a great way to meet a page count minimum), then give up entirely. Or maybe you’re new. Either way, sorry, but I do not feel like explaining what everyone else has already shot to hell.

I’m going to cut it off here. Remember: these are just my two cents, here. Don’t take it personally/seriously, and please don’t remind me of the sins in my work (I cringe every time, trust me).

Any last recommendations I would give to any aspiring writer is 1) read Strunk and White’s Elements of Style at least once, 2) read Stephen King’s On Writing, and 3) read, read, read! Put in the work, and it’ll be sure to pay off.

[twocoursemeal-blog]

TCM Ramen Month: Ganko Ittetsu

Ganko Ittetsu (Coolidge Corner)

Ever since Ganko Ittetsu opened in Coolidge Corner in late 2015 (has it really been that long?), it has been a hit for its simple menu, complex broth, and *amazing* noodles. Ganko Ittetsu specializes in a Sapporo-style pork broth ramen, particularly miso ramen. It’s recently gotten a beer and wine license, and has brought a breath of life to the otherwise quiet and sleepy Coolidge Corner Arcade. We went on a cold Monday evening, and there was a 30 minute wait! #worthit

We ate:

Gantetsu Shoyu (one with 1 extra 5 minute half egg)

Angela’s Thoughts

Ganko Ittetsu is nestled in the Arcade Building in Coolidge Corner, an indoor shopping space filled with mostly-empty storefronts. Since it’s one of the few things in the building, you can smell their delicious grilled meat and seasoned broth from a distance.

Ganko Ittetsu offers 3 main types of ramen:

their signature miso ramen 

shoyu (soy sauce) ramen

tan tan (spicy sesame seed) ramen. 

When we went, they were also running three “specials” -- though a few of them have been on the menu for quite a while:

gankara (spicy chili paste) miso

gantetsu shoyu (a variant of their shoyu ramen that adds fried garlic, bean sprouts, and barbecued pork)

shio (salt) ramen

There was a *lot* to choose from, so it was nice that our server was knowledgeable about all the different styles. I love shoyu ramen, and I also love garlic, so the gantetsu shoyu was an easy choice for me. I was also excited to have some shoyu ramen after having so much heavy bone broth at the other ramen shops we reviewed. I ordered an extra half of an egg, because Ganko’s 5 minute eggs are generally well-executed.

The gantetsu shoyu bowl comes beautifully presented with a light dusting of white pepper, and the fried garlic was very fragrant. Unfortunately, what jumped out to me most about my ramen (besides the garlic) was that the 5-minute eggs were all very overcooked; most of the yolk in each egg was completely firm. I still thought they were tasty, but it was a real shame, since Ganko *usually* does an excellent job making an egg with a perfectly silky yolk.

Fortunately, that was the worst thing about my bowl; the rest of the meal was as good as it always is from Ganko Ittetsu. The broth was oily, peppery, and meaty, but also managed to be delicate. It wasn’t too salty at all. The addition of both minced pork and bbq pork to the ramen made it deliciously umami. The noodles were springy, and definitely had some texture (they may have been a little under al dente, but I generally like slightly undercooked noodles -- weird, I know). The bean sprouts added a nice crunch, and tangled together with the noodles. The combination gave every bite a textural contrast. I did start to miss the taste of the noodles alone by the end of the bowl, because there were a lot of bean sprouts; I would have appreciated fewer, but I wouldn’t omit them. There was also corn in the garnish, which was unexpected, but added nice pops of sweetness throughout.

The barbecue pork slices were so tender, they’d almost disintegrate when I poked them with my chopstick (that’s a good thing). The seasoning on them is a little bit sweet, which contrasts well with the very savory broth. All of these elements were great, but when you add the fried garlic flavor on top, it was amazing.

Besides the eggs, I really had to grasp at straws to find things I didn’t like (see: the bean sprout complaint). So, here’s another minor, petty gripe: the minced pork being a key ingredient in the ramen. Yes, it adds fantastic flavor, but it’s so hard to eat! I couldn’t finish all of the minced pork because it was in small pieces that sank to the bottom of my leftover broth. Ganko’s pork is so delicious, and I was sad that I wasn’t able to enjoy it all (all things considered, this is probably a good thing… I was very full).

It’s hard to separate my appreciation of this particular visit to Ganko Ittetsu from my joy of finally getting to eat shoyu ramen instead of bone broth during Ramen Month. Though they did really mess up one of my favorite components of ramen (the egg), everything else was so well-executed that I mostly forgave the issue. The fact that they can execute so many different styles of ramen at such a high level is also impressive, and it’s nice to see that they are diversifying their styles even more through their specials. Ganko Ittetsu remains one of my favorite ramen shops in the Greater Boston area!

Matt’s Thoughts

Ganko Ittetsu is a favorite of mine. It opened up pretty close to where I live in an area called the Arcade - a beautiful space that I’ve always felt was underutilized by shops that always seem (sadly) empty. My first time at Ganko was a joyous occasion, as was every return visit.

Ganko’s space is small and cozy. This is a bit of a double edged sword, though. On the negative side, it means that there’s often a wait. But because it’s in the arcade, there’s a pleasant fenced-in indoor waiting area with benches right outside the entrance. When we went, it was packed, and we were able to put our names in with a phone number, stay nearby, and wait for a text to tell us when our table was ready. We chose to pass the time with our new favorite hobby: Magic the Gathering! Duel decks are great.

Finally, we got a text. THE text. Our table was ready. We went in, sat down, and readied ourselves for an excellent bowl of ramen amidst Ganko’s beautiful wall art and cozy interior.

Ganko offers a refreshingly small menu - generally, three types of ramen, all pork base, and all with the same amazing (imported) noodles. There is one appetizer - a cucumber salad. It’s a little pricey, but delicious. Since I didn’t have it on this visit, I won’t be including it in my rating.

Recently, they’ve started offering specials that appear to be semi-stable, changing occasionally but often reliable enough that if you get one one week, it’ll probably be there the next. I generally get the tan-tan men (sesame paste), and decided to switch it up and try their special shoyu on this visit (I was particularly tempted by the allure of a 5 minute egg as well as two different kinds of pork - pulled pork chunks as well as char siu).

Finally, our bowls arrived. I couldn’t wait! Until they set them down, and I saw that my egg had been overcooked. Usually, Ganko’s eggs are *perfect* - it’s one of my favorite things about them. This was a sad way to start the meal, but Angela was kind enough to trade me her nicest egg, and I was still able to enjoy Ganko’s egg (though it was still a bit over my own preference).

Digging into the broth first - it was awesome. The Gantetsu Shoyu broth was extra-garlicky (as advertised), and it lived up to it. Well balanced, not too salty, with a strong and tasty garlic flavor. I was happy to sip it as the rest of my bowl cooled down a bit. At first, I was concerned that Ganko’s noodles were a bit firmer than I remembered (maybe my expectations were down after the overcooked egg?), but after a few bites, I rediscovered how much I loved them. Extremely chewy, but less elastic than other noodles, these are unlike the other noodles I’ve had in Boston.

The char siu pork was excellent. Tender, a bit mild, a bit fatty, it carried the flavor of the garlicky shoyu broth like many times over. I would have been happy to have a few more pieces, though it did feel like a fair portion.

After plowing through the bowl, I finally reached the end of the noodles, and got along to the bits of leftover toppings that didn’t get caught up in the noodles. Again with the corn, though. Why? I will never understand why corn finds its way into ramen. The last few bites of the bowl (always the smaller pieces of topping) confused me a lot, as they had enough corn that it tasted like I was eating ramen corn on the cob. Now that I say, it, though, that does sound delicious… I should stop writing when I’m hungry.

For me, the small pieces of pulled pork at the end were nice - they added some extra flavor and texture (see my Totto Review), and I was able to enjoy the char siu earlier. The bean sprouts had softened up and absorbed some of the broth’s flavor. Overall, a nice way to round out the bowl. I was ready to leave happy until I saw the bowl that was delivered to the person sitting at the table next to me.

The bowl that was put down next to the person on my left was covered with a thick layer of bright red chili oil, and topped with threads of dried, shredded chilis. My mouth watered. My stomach somehow found a way to grumble. I knew at that moment that I’d hecked up. Shoyu was something I was interested in, sure, but the Gankara Miso - that would have been AMAZING. It was too late to go back, and I’ll just have to live with this regret for the rest of my life. If the Gankara Miso is gone the next time I’m there, I will never forgive myself.

I’ve got to say, this was surprisingly one of the more mediocre time I’ve been to ganko. I have to attribute it to the fact that I chose a sub-optimal soup style for my palate, as well as the meal kicking off with the overcooked egg and putting me off my normal Ganko hype. I will absolutely go back, and I will absolutely recommend that you make a journey out. Just make sure you order with your heart.

Overall:

Let the record show that Angela recommended Matt get the gankara miso ramen, but he didn’t listen. We can’t hold that against Ganko Ittetsu, though (No… I hold it only against myself…. -Matt). This visit had a few non-characteristic missteps, particularly the overcooked eggs, which we both usually *love* at Ganko Ittetsu. But, altogether, this visit reminded us why Ganko Ittetsu is one of our favorite ramen shops -- the unique noodles, the well-crafted broth, the high-quality pork, and the pleasant atmosphere. It’s easily worth a trip out to Coolidge Corner even (read: especially) on a cold night.

We give Ganko Ittetsu 4 beautiful imported ramen noodles out of 5.

Post-Script: How are we holding up?

Angela: I’m just happy that I finished most of a bowl of ramen and didn’t have to be rolled away from the table afterwards -- the magic of Shoyu broth ❤️🍜❤️. I’m feeling okay; seems like it’s all downhill from here.

Matt: I MADE A MISTAKE! :( :( :( ;______;  That being said, surprisingly well! It hasn’t felt like I’ve had three bowls of ramen in 1.5 weeks. I was still happy to have the bowl put down in front of me, and dreaded no part of the experience. Drank some water, kidneys doing fine. Haven’t seen the wall yet, and I am sure hoping it’s not hiding around the corner somewhere...

[luxefair]

The rise of the field of nutritional psychiatry shows that what you eat affects your mental health. Learn how to boost your mood and multiply the benefits of your yoga practice with the right diet.

  Ashley Simpson was only 27 years old, but she felt 80: mentally unstable, irritable, tired all the time. Ashley then began to experience more and more bouts of overwhelming anxiety. She was diagnosed with a mental disorder, but the medication prescribed by the doctors gave her little relief, so she decided to seek help from other specialists.

“I spoke with several naturopaths and they all suggested that I make dietary changes,” Ashley says. After three months, still struggling with anxiety and fatigue, she finally decided to radically change her eating habits. She ditched sugar, red meat and refined grains and moved on to a Mediterranean style of eating, focused on fruits, vegetables and fish. She began to notice improvements in a matter of weeks – and now, three years later, “I have never felt better; anxiety and depression have completely disappeared,” says Andria. “I have never felt as comfortable as I do now.”

Oriental physicians and naturopaths prescribe dietary changes to people with mental and physical illnesses, says intern Dorothy Foster, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinical assistant at the Benson-Henry Institute at Massachusetts Hospital. Now Western science and a growing body of research are coming to the conclusion that the foods we eat have a profound effect on our brains and mental health. An entirely new type of mental health research and treatment is emerging – nutritional psychiatry.

“For the past few decades, there has been a belief in psychiatry that the mind is separate from the body – that psychiatric illnesses such as depression exist in consciousness alone, and that what you consume inside your body was considered insignificant and irrelevant,” says Felice Jack. Felice Jacka, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Dekin University School of Medicine in Melbourne, Australia, which focuses on nutritional psychiatry. “But research over the past hundred years is increasingly showing us that physical and mental health is an inseparable part of a whole.”

For example, in one study of several hundred Australian women, those who ate fruits, vegetables, unprocessed meats and whole grains were less likely to develop depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder than those who ate less healthy foods. Two large studies later in Norway and another in the United States confirmed this.

5 Easy Mood Recipes: Dinner Ideas

Do you want your yoga practice to benefit you even more? Try these six good mood recipes (including a few from our vegetarian friends), which boast foods to help balance your mind.

1. Al Forno Salmon Salad from Alexandria Crowe The salad contains wild salmon, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. If your omega-3 levels are low, your brain cells may suffer and may not signal each other properly.

2. Kiwi and yogurt parfait with toasted coconut This sweet yogurt can replace dessert while keeping your brain healthy. UCLA researchers recently found that eating fermented yogurt with probiotics twice a day for a month leads to increased activity in the areas of the brain that are responsible for emotions and sensations.

3. Spicy spinach with sunflower seeds Spicy spinach will make your brain healthier and your practice more successful. People with depression often have low levels of folate (vitamin B9), which is found in spinach, asparagus and beans. The experts concluded that folate is important for the brain and mental health.

4. Salad with asparagus and white beans Asparagus and white beans are “prebiotic foods” (other prebiotics include Jerusalem artichokes, bananas, oat flour, unrefined wheat, and chicory root). Prebiotics support gut bacteria, which in turn support the lining of the digestive tract. This membrane acts as a barrier to toxins and aids digestion, which protects the brain by providing it with essential nutrients.

5. Blueberry and spinach smoothie Dark berries contain antioxidants that help prevent oxidative stress, which can damage brain cells.

Always be in a good mood!

The path to happiness: the benefits of food that boosts mood The rise of the field of nutritional psychiatry shows that what you eat affects your mental health.

[donnafmae]

Top Takeaways from Next10x Digital Marketing Conference 2019

On May 2, 2019, Perficient Digital hosted the third annual Next10x conference in Boston. The one-day agenda was packed with relevant, valuable digital marketing and SEO information and networking breaks. It included 12 industry speakers and had a strong focus in two areas:

The future of digital marketing

Things that you can do right now to grow your business

Many of the industry’s top speakers came and shared their knowledge, expertise and insights. Didn’t get a chance to join us this year? No worries – today’s post will provide you with a recap of the top takeaways from the day.

Sign me up to stay in the loop about Next10x 2020

Top 5 SEO Opportunities

Eric Enge, General Manager, Digital Marketing, Perficient Digital

SEO is about giving Google what they want — a great user experience based on intent. Our learnings from the algorithm updates show that consistent updates raise the rankings of sites that meet user intent. It’s in our interest as publishers to align with Google’s goals. As a result, here are the five biggest opportunities for SEO in 2019:

High-quality content – Google recognizes that user needs are complex and unique to each use, and its algorithm updates are focused on surfacing sites that offer a depth and breadth of content likely to satisfy those needs. In short, publishing high volumes of content (when compared to competition) can cause your organic search traffic to soar.

Promote content effectively – You can have the world’s greatest web site, but you won’t get much traffic if no one knows about it. Promote your site, drive high levels of visibility to what you’ve created, and get cited and referenced across the web. Links still matter a great deal, and they remain a big key to SEO success.

Speed matters – A one-second mobile delay can reduce conversions by up to 20%, and 53% of users abandon pages that take more than three seconds to load. Yet, the average page takes more than 12 seconds to load on mobile. Find ways to speed up your site and you’re likely to see great results. One approach to consider is to implement accelerated mobile pages (AMP), a progressive web app (PWA), or both (a PWAMP!).

Publish original, high-quality images – Searching with a camera is the next big phase of search. Original, large, clean, and optimized images directly related to the site will offer users a better experience with your content and open the door to new traffic opportunities, such as traffic from Google Discover.

Invest in voice – Users are becoming more and more comfortable speaking to their devices. Personal assistants will be the driving applications behind voice usage. As a publisher, the biggest opportunities are for those who create personal assistant apps, such as an Alexa Skill or an Actions on Google app. These will advance from the scripted conversations available today to fully cognitive conversations.

Make Your Mobile Site Fly with AMP

Ben Morss, Developer Advocate, Google

Speed is everything. It matters to users across the globe. It is even more critical in a world where most users have 3G connections or slower (40% of connections worldwide are 2G). Here in the U.S., delays in page load times significantly impact user engagement and conversions on your site.

AMP is an open source program that provides an industry-standard approach to speeding up your pages. Based on a collection of web components built off HTML, AMP provides some JavaScript functionality like menus and image carousels. AMP also includes these key aspects:

AMP discourages/bans features that slow speed, provides a stable layout that eliminates distracting ads, and only loads content when it’s needed.

Originally, site owners that adopted AMP created an HTML/JavaScript version of their site and then an AMP version that was used as an alternate mobile experience. Today, more and more implement AMP as the standard (and only) version of their mobile pages.

In general, most sites can largely be re-created in AMP, which can support visually rich experiences. Some exceptions remain but are rare.

Checkout pages are one of the few pages that still usually require too much JavaScript to translate to AMP pages.

Ben shared a case study of an e-commerce site in India that saw a 60% improvement in speed and a 40% reduced bounce rate.

PWAs create an app-like experience on the web, and adoption of these is spreading. Microsoft is actively looking for PWAs to feature in their app store and Chrome has started launching PWAs for PCs, with Macs hopefully soon to follow.

Consider the key aspects of PWAs:

If your site is developed with a PWA, your normal web pages behave like a smartphone app when accessed via your phone, eliminating the need to develop a separate code experience for phones. This drives rapid adoption — since all users who access your site get the PWA, maintenance and development are simplified.

A core component of the PWA is the Service Worker, which actively preloads content prior to a user requesting it. As a result, the page they access next is often preloaded onto their phone even before they request it, resulting in great increases in speed.

The Future is Conversational and Visual

Duane Forrester, VP of Industry Insights, Yext

Trends are driven by platform change. It’s important to have these new devices and platforms in your life to understand how users are searching and what content they are consuming. Smart speakers and personal assistants are integrating with everyday life, including in houses, cars, and during a user’s day-to-day routine.

Your brand has numerous audiences and consumer touchpoints. Search engines want consistent and reliable data across touchpoints to determine how to serve up a reasonable and expected answer.

Seventy-three percent of high-intent traffic (someone intending to enter a business/make a purchase) happens off-site. Most customers never visit a homepage because search intent takes them to other channels and specific landing pages.

It’s important to manage entities (companies, events, people) as users become more thoughtful about their spending power.

The customer journey usually begins with a question, but it involves a series of questions and answers before the goal is completed. As a result, search is moving from keywords to questions. Developing a questions catalog can help drive content creation to enable your business to be a part of the conversation.

To be a trusted and valued brand, businesses must structure data across entities and platforms and provide answers for all stages of this journey. Knowledge graphs are key for a business to develop an authentic relationship with consumers. Using “best” in a query automatically filters out any business with less than a four-star rating, so cleaning up and responding to feedback is more critical than ever.

The world is having a conversation, whether you’re in it or not. It’s best to be in it. For example, do you look at your reviews? Do you respond to the bad ones and try to resolve the issue?

Conversations are more authentic. An organization must understand the complex intent behind questions and get to what the user means to better advertise to a group. This is especially effective when you overlay demographic data — one of the things that makes psychographic marketing on Facebook so interesting.

Spicy Content Marketing that Warms Up Cold Calls

Chris Brogan, CEO, Owner Media Group

It’s critical for marketers to put humanity back into content. Attention is at an all-time low because of the junk content cluttering the space, especially for email marketers. Over 2,000 words may get you linked and bookmarked, but quick content gets you actions. As a result, it’s important to match the content you produce to the user needs you’re trying to address and the results you hope will come from it.

Two types of users exist – browsers and searchers. Both start their query because of an event, followed by awareness, and then an evaluation of the results. Marketers need to get smarter about the customer journey and recognize that trying to reach the masses won’t reach anyone. Instead, we need to go after multiple specificities.

For example, consider Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad about disabled gamers. It is very targeted, yet has broad audience appeal at the same time. At the heart of this type of approach is understanding that specificity makes us take an interest because we feel connected.

In addition, email marketing needs to be worth forwarding and worth keeping in an inbox. Don’t waste the opportunity of a newsletter with poorly planned content — make sure it resonates. Don’t send it from inhuman email addresses that shut down conversation (donotreply@ addresses). Invite the responses and respond back to them. Create a conversation.

When reviewing content, don’t just focus on the technical aspects of writing like grammar, word count, and links. Review the content for tribalism and consider the social flux. Speak to audiences that are developing their voices when you have a compelling reason. Business is about belonging — fitting in is what you do when you don’t belong.

In terms of creating a connection, video is underutilized and underappreciated:

People read, on average, 19 minutes a day.

On average, they spend six hours online consuming content, but text is no longer a driver.

Video puts a human face in front of human faces.

Panel: Case Studies

This panel had four speakers covering several different topics:

Susan Wenograd, Account Group Director, Aimclear

Grant Davies, Agency General Manager, Perficient Digital

Jordan Silton, Director of SEO Marketing, Apartments.com

Shawn Tyler, Senior Director of Marketing, SEO, Affiliate and Social, BOLD

Brand Awareness Case Study

Susan Wenograd, Account Group Director, Aimclear

Aimclear tried to prove the impact of a Facebook video ad campaign on brand awareness by testing a two-market strategy for six weeks. For this test, they determined the measurement for increased awareness would be a lift in traffic. The test focused on scalable tactics for the travel vertical for two cities, one of which would operate as a control group.

The client created how-to videos with long wind ups that achieved an average watch of two seconds. Aimclear provided aspirational videos rooted in the emotions of travel and received an average watch time of 10 seconds. Aimclear scaled the project and achieved a 41% lift year over year (YoY) for the test group over the control group.

The emotional connection helped with engagement that stimulated a retargeting campaign featuring product details.

The key is to capture attention in the first couple of seconds.

Mobile Case Study

Grant Davies, General Manager, Perficient Digital

Apps account for 80% of time spent on mobile devices. Businesses are doing the work to get users to their mobile experiences but aren’t emphasizing work to keep them there. Fifty percent of consumers are put off by a bad mobile experience, and 40% will turn to a competitor after a bad mobile experience.

Grant shared a rental equipment case study that found a change in user needs within their industry. His team found that users wanted to make phone calls and talk to a person rather than go through an app.

Once this was realized, new ways to chat and personalized features, like active notifications and chatbots, were developed. Identifying the actual needs of the consumers changed the way the business prioritized work.  

Grant also added some thought on the future of mobile:

We will see more microtransactions from users that are willing to sell data when properly informed of the use and personal benefits.

There will be improved accessibility for those with disabilities.

Healthcare services will increasingly leverage mobile.

Voice assistants with actual intelligence will emerge.

Contextual Linking Case Study

Jordan Silton, Director – SEO Marketing, Apartments.com

Apartments.com is a large and complex site with many opportunities for natural interactions between their pages. Yes, the problem of implementing contextual linking was a tough one – it’s hard to do it in an easily scalable way.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), Apartments.com created a scalable method for adding accurate, quality links to test. The method correctly identified entities and the correct links, but the cost to parse the content wasn’t scalable. Apartments.com couldn’t easily prioritize entities that mattered to them.

As a result, Apartments.com started with a database of their entities. They used regular expressions to match entities within content with content to link to. This method allowed them to effectively narrow down on local entities and the content they were linking to. Using this method, the contextual links on their site update automatically.

Takeaways from the experience:

Data science is key.

Simple solutions can be more effective.

When you dream big and push the envelope, you find your most creative solution and accomplish more.

Managing a Mature Product Case Study

Shawn Tyler, Senior Director of Marketing, SEO, Affiliate and Social, BOLD

Shawn shared an enterprise’s approach to assessing and evolving a mature online property. His presentation focused on years of building up a successful site – when some of the strategies stop working, how can you change direction without risking what is still working well? Some key takeaways were:

Realizing that catching and strategically addressing technical errors is essential.

Utilizing multiple tools to track and differentiate their properties is important. This helps prioritize what content to emphasize or devalue and collect and evaluate backlinks.

The need to stablish KPIs across sites and develop content and technical QA processes.

Technical SEO and How It Can Benefit Your Business

Martin Splitt, Developer Advocate, Google

Technical SEOs are the link between developer and marketer. They need to understand the challenges of developers and investment interests of marketers to help both achieve their goals. Some key aspects of this include:

Supporting development teams so they are thinking about SEO when you are not in the room and can keep pace in an agile workflow.

Testing and monitoring for technical issues to build a strong foundation rather than after the fact. This is more costly and time intensive than catching issues early on.

Advocating for site performance in a sea of competing priorities.

Sixty-six percent of customers judge a company based on website performance.

The four most important aspects of technical SEO:

Be discoverable

This comes down to good links (use the <a> tag) and limited JavaScript – if the JavaScript fails or connectivity is lost during load, it will ruin the link. Parsers can understand JavaScript links but can’t run them.

Knowing when to use buttons vs. links. If it takes the user to different content, use a link.

The History API runs code when URLs change. This helps to avoid tricking browsers with fragment identifiers.

Be crawlable

Crawl budget is based on crawl rate, and demand is determined by the server.

Changes to the server include migrations and changing pages.

Crawlability has nothing to do with ranking.

Update your robot.txt file very carefully.

Be indexable

Googlebot understands JavaScript but processes it in a deferred manner.

Using semantic HTML markup helps search engines understand the page.

Make sure you’re making a reasonable number of requests.

Reduce render-blocking JavaScript. If the JavaScript comes before the content in the code, search engines must download and execute the JavaScript before it, or the users, can understand the page content.

Be usable

An obvious title and snippets are a must.

Website performance and mobile friendliness must be a priority. Use tools to verify this.

Measure speed by the time it takes to load the content users have come to the site to find.

Understand the limitations of your framework.

Panel: Demystifying Analytics

This panel had two speakers:

Kathryn Bogen, Analytics Director for Perficient Digital

Jenny Halasz, Founder, CEO for JLH Marketing.

Analytics Governance and Documentation

Kathryn Bogen, Analytics Director, Perficient Digital

Some of the top requirements for a successful analytics program include:

Expertise to understand tools and resources.

Centralized tracking to promote accuracy.

Constantly onboarding new talent and tools.

Learning to trust the tools and the data they collect.

Reducing reliance on development and deployment.

Since the number of people involved in analytics programs is often small, even at large enterprises, one of the biggest challenges these organizations face is staff turnover. As a result, the approaches used, specifics of how things are setup, needs of the stakeholders receiving information, and all other aspects of the program need to be thoroughly documented. Businesses also need to clearly define their analytics goals and how to measure results for each project so tools, goals, and staff knowledge are accessible by those who need it.

Google Data Studio

Jenny Halasz, President and Founder, JLH Marketing

Google Data Studio (GDS) is a program designed to make the process of creating compelling views of data easy to setup and use. Key to its success is that GDS plugs into many sources of data, including Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC), to enable the processing of data from those sources simple to setup.  GDS supports far more than GA and GSC, including data from non-Google sources. More companies are creating connectors for GDS all the time.

Additional key points about GDS:

Corporate governance tracking and tagging make it easier to understand where data is coming from with custom channels and channel rollups.

GDS makes it easy for businesses to figure out analytics goals and tie them to business goals.

Sharing data and controlling risks can also be easier.

It’s recommended that you make a copy of free templates and existing reports so you have copies of original data.

A Bigger, Braver, Bolder 2019: What to Stop, Where to Double-Down, How to Kill It

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

Email is vastly undervalued. It’s the only place where people, not algorithms, are choosing to receive content. It is a place to build trust and brand affinity by projecting who you are. Email content needs to build trust and affinity. Don’t underinvest in the value of that content.

Ninety-two percent of surveyed businesses use email, but how many actively think about the value of the email content?

Seventy-three percent of businesses are producing more content than the previous year, but 35% know their content isn’t hitting the mark.

Ninety percent met user’s needs, 94% value creativity and craft, and 96% say their audience finds them a credible resource.

Businesses need to ask these four questions about content:

What are we communicating, and more importantly, how?

The content is less important than how the news is conveyed.

Personal style increases trust and affinity and should have a human at the other end.

Content should be a conversation between the brand or, preferably, a human face for the business.

What kind of letters do we most love to get?

Include less promotion and more information.

Make it more about the subscriber.

Write with “here is my reason for writing to you” in mind.

Generate a feedback loop to better understand the audience and engage in an intimate and social way.

Don’t fret about an audience that isn’t a fit for your content. Focus on your targets.

Does your marketing feel like marketing?

Don’t tell me what to do, tell me why it matters to me.

Ask yourself what your audience wants.

How does this content only come from me?

Lose the marketing voice and talk to your audience. Businesses need to establish an embedded style that conveys who you are in your content

If your logo disappeared from the web, would anyone be able to attribute your website to the brand?

Summary

Overall, the day was a great success. In our follow-up survey to attendees, on a scale of 1 to 5, the overall conference got a rating of 4.5.

We are already starting to plan for Next10x 2020. Interested in receiving updates for next year’s event?

Sign me up to stay in the loop about Next10x 2020

from Marketing https://www.stonetemple.com/top-takeaways-from-next10x-digital-marketing-conference-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[heavenwheel]

Top Takeaways from Next10x Digital Marketing Conference 2019

On May 2, 2019, Perficient Digital hosted the third annual Next10x conference in Boston. The one-day agenda was packed with relevant, valuable digital marketing and SEO information and networking breaks. It included 12 industry speakers and had a strong focus in two areas:

The future of digital marketing

Things that you can do right now to grow your business

Many of the industry’s top speakers came and shared their knowledge, expertise and insights. Didn’t get a chance to join us this year? No worries – today’s post will provide you with a recap of the top takeaways from the day.

Sign me up to stay in the loop about Next10x 2020

Top 5 SEO Opportunities

Eric Enge, General Manager, Digital Marketing, Perficient Digital

SEO is about giving Google what they want — a great user experience based on intent. Our learnings from the algorithm updates show that consistent updates raise the rankings of sites that meet user intent. It’s in our interest as publishers to align with Google’s goals. As a result, here are the five biggest opportunities for SEO in 2019:

High-quality content – Google recognizes that user needs are complex and unique to each use, and its algorithm updates are focused on surfacing sites that offer a depth and breadth of content likely to satisfy those needs. In short, publishing high volumes of content (when compared to competition) can cause your organic search traffic to soar.

Promote content effectively – You can have the world’s greatest web site, but you won’t get much traffic if no one knows about it. Promote your site, drive high levels of visibility to what you’ve created, and get cited and referenced across the web. Links still matter a great deal, and they remain a big key to SEO success.

Speed matters – A one-second mobile delay can reduce conversions by up to 20%, and 53% of users abandon pages that take more than three seconds to load. Yet, the average page takes more than 12 seconds to load on mobile. Find ways to speed up your site and you’re likely to see great results. One approach to consider is to implement accelerated mobile pages (AMP), a progressive web app (PWA), or both (a PWAMP!).

Publish original, high-quality images – Searching with a camera is the next big phase of search. Original, large, clean, and optimized images directly related to the site will offer users a better experience with your content and open the door to new traffic opportunities, such as traffic from Google Discover.

Invest in voice – Users are becoming more and more comfortable speaking to their devices. Personal assistants will be the driving applications behind voice usage. As a publisher, the biggest opportunities are for those who create personal assistant apps, such as an Alexa Skill or an Actions on Google app. These will advance from the scripted conversations available today to fully cognitive conversations.

Make Your Mobile Site Fly with AMP

Ben Morss, Developer Advocate, Google

Speed is everything. It matters to users across the globe. It is even more critical in a world where most users have 3G connections or slower (40% of connections worldwide are 2G). Here in the U.S., delays in page load times significantly impact user engagement and conversions on your site.

AMP is an open source program that provides an industry-standard approach to speeding up your pages. Based on a collection of web components built off HTML, AMP provides some JavaScript functionality like menus and image carousels. AMP also includes these key aspects:

AMP discourages/bans features that slow speed, provides a stable layout that eliminates distracting ads, and only loads content when it’s needed.

Originally, site owners that adopted AMP created an HTML/JavaScript version of their site and then an AMP version that was used as an alternate mobile experience. Today, more and more implement AMP as the standard (and only) version of their mobile pages.

In general, most sites can largely be re-created in AMP, which can support visually rich experiences. Some exceptions remain but are rare.

Checkout pages are one of the few pages that still usually require too much JavaScript to translate to AMP pages.

Ben shared a case study of an e-commerce site in India that saw a 60% improvement in speed and a 40% reduced bounce rate.

PWAs create an app-like experience on the web, and adoption of these is spreading. Microsoft is actively looking for PWAs to feature in their app store and Chrome has started launching PWAs for PCs, with Macs hopefully soon to follow.

Consider the key aspects of PWAs:

If your site is developed with a PWA, your normal web pages behave like a smartphone app when accessed via your phone, eliminating the need to develop a separate code experience for phones. This drives rapid adoption — since all users who access your site get the PWA, maintenance and development are simplified.

A core component of the PWA is the Service Worker, which actively preloads content prior to a user requesting it. As a result, the page they access next is often preloaded onto their phone even before they request it, resulting in great increases in speed.

The Future is Conversational and Visual

Duane Forrester, VP of Industry Insights, Yext

Trends are driven by platform change. It’s important to have these new devices and platforms in your life to understand how users are searching and what content they are consuming. Smart speakers and personal assistants are integrating with everyday life, including in houses, cars, and during a user’s day-to-day routine.

Your brand has numerous audiences and consumer touchpoints. Search engines want consistent and reliable data across touchpoints to determine how to serve up a reasonable and expected answer.

Seventy-three percent of high-intent traffic (someone intending to enter a business/make a purchase) happens off-site. Most customers never visit a homepage because search intent takes them to other channels and specific landing pages.

It’s important to manage entities (companies, events, people) as users become more thoughtful about their spending power.

The customer journey usually begins with a question, but it involves a series of questions and answers before the goal is completed. As a result, search is moving from keywords to questions. Developing a questions catalog can help drive content creation to enable your business to be a part of the conversation.

To be a trusted and valued brand, businesses must structure data across entities and platforms and provide answers for all stages of this journey. Knowledge graphs are key for a business to develop an authentic relationship with consumers. Using “best” in a query automatically filters out any business with less than a four-star rating, so cleaning up and responding to feedback is more critical than ever.

The world is having a conversation, whether you’re in it or not. It’s best to be in it. For example, do you look at your reviews? Do you respond to the bad ones and try to resolve the issue?

Conversations are more authentic. An organization must understand the complex intent behind questions and get to what the user means to better advertise to a group. This is especially effective when you overlay demographic data — one of the things that makes psychographic marketing on Facebook so interesting.

Spicy Content Marketing that Warms Up Cold Calls

Chris Brogan, CEO, Owner Media Group

It’s critical for marketers to put humanity back into content. Attention is at an all-time low because of the junk content cluttering the space, especially for email marketers. Over 2,000 words may get you linked and bookmarked, but quick content gets you actions. As a result, it’s important to match the content you produce to the user needs you’re trying to address and the results you hope will come from it.

Two types of users exist – browsers and searchers. Both start their query because of an event, followed by awareness, and then an evaluation of the results. Marketers need to get smarter about the customer journey and recognize that trying to reach the masses won’t reach anyone. Instead, we need to go after multiple specificities.

For example, consider Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad about disabled gamers. It is very targeted, yet has broad audience appeal at the same time. At the heart of this type of approach is understanding that specificity makes us take an interest because we feel connected.

In addition, email marketing needs to be worth forwarding and worth keeping in an inbox. Don’t waste the opportunity of a newsletter with poorly planned content — make sure it resonates. Don’t send it from inhuman email addresses that shut down conversation (donotreply@ addresses). Invite the responses and respond back to them. Create a conversation.

When reviewing content, don’t just focus on the technical aspects of writing like grammar, word count, and links. Review the content for tribalism and consider the social flux. Speak to audiences that are developing their voices when you have a compelling reason. Business is about belonging — fitting in is what you do when you don’t belong.

In terms of creating a connection, video is underutilized and underappreciated:

People read, on average, 19 minutes a day.

On average, they spend six hours online consuming content, but text is no longer a driver.

Video puts a human face in front of human faces.

Panel: Case Studies

This panel had four speakers covering several different topics:

Susan Wenograd, Account Group Director, Aimclear

Grant Davies, Agency General Manager, Perficient Digital

Jordan Silton, Director of SEO Marketing, Apartments.com

Shawn Tyler, Senior Director of Marketing, SEO, Affiliate and Social, BOLD

Brand Awareness Case Study

Susan Wenograd, Account Group Director, Aimclear

Aimclear tried to prove the impact of a Facebook video ad campaign on brand awareness by testing a two-market strategy for six weeks. For this test, they determined the measurement for increased awareness would be a lift in traffic. The test focused on scalable tactics for the travel vertical for two cities, one of which would operate as a control group.

The client created how-to videos with long wind ups that achieved an average watch of two seconds. Aimclear provided aspirational videos rooted in the emotions of travel and received an average watch time of 10 seconds. Aimclear scaled the project and achieved a 41% lift year over year (YoY) for the test group over the control group.

The emotional connection helped with engagement that stimulated a retargeting campaign featuring product details.

The key is to capture attention in the first couple of seconds.

Mobile Case Study

Grant Davies, General Manager, Perficient Digital

Apps account for 80% of time spent on mobile devices. Businesses are doing the work to get users to their mobile experiences but aren’t emphasizing work to keep them there. Fifty percent of consumers are put off by a bad mobile experience, and 40% will turn to a competitor after a bad mobile experience.

Grant shared a rental equipment case study that found a change in user needs within their industry. His team found that users wanted to make phone calls and talk to a person rather than go through an app.

Once this was realized, new ways to chat and personalized features, like active notifications and chatbots, were developed. Identifying the actual needs of the consumers changed the way the business prioritized work.  

Grant also added some thought on the future of mobile:

We will see more microtransactions from users that are willing to sell data when properly informed of the use and personal benefits.

There will be improved accessibility for those with disabilities.

Healthcare services will increasingly leverage mobile.

Voice assistants with actual intelligence will emerge.

Contextual Linking Case Study

Jordan Silton, Director – SEO Marketing, Apartments.com

Apartments.com is a large and complex site with many opportunities for natural interactions between their pages. Yes, the problem of implementing contextual linking was a tough one – it’s hard to do it in an easily scalable way.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), Apartments.com created a scalable method for adding accurate, quality links to test. The method correctly identified entities and the correct links, but the cost to parse the content wasn’t scalable. Apartments.com couldn’t easily prioritize entities that mattered to them.

As a result, Apartments.com started with a database of their entities. They used regular expressions to match entities within content with content to link to. This method allowed them to effectively narrow down on local entities and the content they were linking to. Using this method, the contextual links on their site update automatically.

Takeaways from the experience:

Data science is key.

Simple solutions can be more effective.

When you dream big and push the envelope, you find your most creative solution and accomplish more.

Managing a Mature Product Case Study

Shawn Tyler, Senior Director of Marketing, SEO, Affiliate and Social, BOLD

Shawn shared an enterprise’s approach to assessing and evolving a mature online property. His presentation focused on years of building up a successful site – when some of the strategies stop working, how can you change direction without risking what is still working well? Some key takeaways were:

Realizing that catching and strategically addressing technical errors is essential.

Utilizing multiple tools to track and differentiate their properties is important. This helps prioritize what content to emphasize or devalue and collect and evaluate backlinks.

The need to stablish KPIs across sites and develop content and technical QA processes.

Technical SEO and How It Can Benefit Your Business

Martin Splitt, Developer Advocate, Google

Technical SEOs are the link between developer and marketer. They need to understand the challenges of developers and investment interests of marketers to help both achieve their goals. Some key aspects of this include:

Supporting development teams so they are thinking about SEO when you are not in the room and can keep pace in an agile workflow.

Testing and monitoring for technical issues to build a strong foundation rather than after the fact. This is more costly and time intensive than catching issues early on.

Advocating for site performance in a sea of competing priorities.

Sixty-six percent of customers judge a company based on website performance.

The four most important aspects of technical SEO:

Be discoverable

This comes down to good links (use the <a> tag) and limited JavaScript – if the JavaScript fails or connectivity is lost during load, it will ruin the link. Parsers can understand JavaScript links but can’t run them.

Knowing when to use buttons vs. links. If it takes the user to different content, use a link.

The History API runs code when URLs change. This helps to avoid tricking browsers with fragment identifiers.

Be crawlable

Crawl budget is based on crawl rate, and demand is determined by the server.

Changes to the server include migrations and changing pages.

Crawlability has nothing to do with ranking.

Update your robot.txt file very carefully.

Be indexable

Googlebot understands JavaScript but processes it in a deferred manner.

Using semantic HTML markup helps search engines understand the page.

Make sure you’re making a reasonable number of requests.

Reduce render-blocking JavaScript. If the JavaScript comes before the content in the code, search engines must download and execute the JavaScript before it, or the users, can understand the page content.

Be usable

An obvious title and snippets are a must.

Website performance and mobile friendliness must be a priority. Use tools to verify this.

Measure speed by the time it takes to load the content users have come to the site to find.

Understand the limitations of your framework.

Panel: Demystifying Analytics

This panel had two speakers:

Kathryn Bogen, Analytics Director for Perficient Digital

Jenny Halasz, Founder, CEO for JLH Marketing.

Analytics Governance and Documentation

Kathryn Bogen, Analytics Director, Perficient Digital

Some of the top requirements for a successful analytics program include:

Expertise to understand tools and resources.

Centralized tracking to promote accuracy.

Constantly onboarding new talent and tools.

Learning to trust the tools and the data they collect.

Reducing reliance on development and deployment.

Since the number of people involved in analytics programs is often small, even at large enterprises, one of the biggest challenges these organizations face is staff turnover. As a result, the approaches used, specifics of how things are setup, needs of the stakeholders receiving information, and all other aspects of the program need to be thoroughly documented. Businesses also need to clearly define their analytics goals and how to measure results for each project so tools, goals, and staff knowledge are accessible by those who need it.

Google Data Studio

Jenny Halasz, President and Founder, JLH Marketing

Google Data Studio (GDS) is a program designed to make the process of creating compelling views of data easy to setup and use. Key to its success is that GDS plugs into many sources of data, including Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC), to enable the processing of data from those sources simple to setup.  GDS supports far more than GA and GSC, including data from non-Google sources. More companies are creating connectors for GDS all the time.

Additional key points about GDS:

Corporate governance tracking and tagging make it easier to understand where data is coming from with custom channels and channel rollups.

GDS makes it easy for businesses to figure out analytics goals and tie them to business goals.

Sharing data and controlling risks can also be easier.

It’s recommended that you make a copy of free templates and existing reports so you have copies of original data.

A Bigger, Braver, Bolder 2019: What to Stop, Where to Double-Down, How to Kill It

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

Email is vastly undervalued. It’s the only place where people, not algorithms, are choosing to receive content. It is a place to build trust and brand affinity by projecting who you are. Email content needs to build trust and affinity. Don’t underinvest in the value of that content.

Ninety-two percent of surveyed businesses use email, but how many actively think about the value of the email content?

Seventy-three percent of businesses are producing more content than the previous year, but 35% know their content isn’t hitting the mark.

Ninety percent met user’s needs, 94% value creativity and craft, and 96% say their audience finds them a credible resource.

Businesses need to ask these four questions about content:

What are we communicating, and more importantly, how?

The content is less important than how the news is conveyed.

Personal style increases trust and affinity and should have a human at the other end.

Content should be a conversation between the brand or, preferably, a human face for the business.

What kind of letters do we most love to get?

Include less promotion and more information.

Make it more about the subscriber.

Write with “here is my reason for writing to you” in mind.

Generate a feedback loop to better understand the audience and engage in an intimate and social way.

Don’t fret about an audience that isn’t a fit for your content. Focus on your targets.

Does your marketing feel like marketing?

Don’t tell me what to do, tell me why it matters to me.

Ask yourself what your audience wants.

How does this content only come from me?

Lose the marketing voice and talk to your audience. Businesses need to establish an embedded style that conveys who you are in your content

If your logo disappeared from the web, would anyone be able to attribute your website to the brand?

Summary

Overall, the day was a great success. In our follow-up survey to attendees, on a scale of 1 to 5, the overall conference got a rating of 4.5.

We are already starting to plan for Next10x 2020. Interested in receiving updates for next year’s event?

Sign me up to stay in the loop about Next10x 2020

from Digital https://www.stonetemple.com/top-takeaways-from-next10x-digital-marketing-conference-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/