#thankful this was an option for the membership tbh

[jaeyxns]

Jake ♡ FATE in Seoul Ending Mention 230730

[taee]

90k?? yo thats crazy. i wonder are your tickets dynamic pricing too or is it actually fair? (like how it used to be i suppose) cause over here, the seats i got for 300+ turned into 1k+ and yeah :/ idk if its bighit giving them permission to do that or its all on ticketmaster tbh like why is that an option when it wasnt the last tour :/ anyways good luck!

IKR I couldn't believe my eyes either?? That was when I knew...

(sorry just had to throw in this meme to lighten the mood afdsfsf I'm trying to stay positive for tmr!!!) ANW I think other than the fact that people were using multiple devices, another reason for that might be because we're only required to enter our presale code when we get to the selection page so even though its ARMY Membership Presale, it seems like anyone could queue for it ://

Thankfully the ticket prices for us remained fair! But I've heard about the dynamic pricing thing happening for some of you, that's so infuriating they can't just do that wtf, I'm sorry you ended up paying so much ;; Regardless, its unfair and Bighit should be doing something about it!!

Thank you so much for dropping by to wish me good luck!! If I do get tickets I owe it to all of you, really 💜

[seralica]

In case anyone would like something to submit to the form, below is what I (as a long time supporter of creators on Patreon) have submitted. Feel free to use as a template and change as necessary. (This is mostly about how I hate the subscription billing model as a supporter tbh)

subject: Patrons dislike this change and will leave the platform

FORM SUBMISSION:

As a longtime Patron with your platform, I am extremely unhappy about the site-wide forced switch to subscription billing. If this goes forward, I will be looking for alternative ways to support the creators that I currently support on Patreon.

An initial draw to Patreon for me was the ability to get one bill on a predictable day (ie the 1st) of every month. It is convenient to have expenses collated, and was a benefit over existing services at the time that did not collate billing.

Recently, when I have subscribed to creators that use subscription billing, it has been ACTIVELY FRUSTRATING to me. I do not want to be billed multiple times a month by Patreon. At the very least, I want the ability to set the date on which I am billed, so that I as a consumer can opt to do what is convenient. I had already decided to only subscribe to new creators on the first of every month in response to finding out that I could not change the date.

Hearing that everyone will be migrated to this explicitly inconvenient model is frustrating as a Patron. Additionally, I am hearing from creators that this change will significantly impact their revenue through the platform.

I comprehend that Apple’s requirements may make other models difficult without the app. HOWEVER, responding by changing everyone site-wide, including those who do not, will not, and will never interact with Patreon by way of the app, is frankly nonsensical.

I would propose the alternative of simply proceeding with what you have stated is your plan for non-subscription billing users if they opt to keep their model for as long as possible:

“ If you remain on a billing model other than subscription billing after November 2024, your existing members will not experience any changes, but new fans will lose the ability to purchase a membership in the iOS app (until you switch or are migrated to subscription billing).”

Give creators options. Let them choose if they want the option to accept subscriptions through iOS. Let them choose if they want to keep another model. They are adults capable of making these decisions for themselves.

If you force creators and Patrons to use a rolling billing model, huge numbers of us WILL be searching for alternatives, because Patreon will have removed its competitive advantage.

Please think about whether this would be good for your business.

Thank you for considering.

Hey, so, Patreon is lying to you about Apple forcing their hand.

Patreon is getting rid of 1st-of-the-month/per-creation billing, claiming a new decision by Apple has forced their hand. This will hurt a lot of creatives, and their excuse is bullshit. Allow me to explain.

In 2018, Patreon tried to impose a new ill-considered fee structure on everyone that would have cost creators a lot of smaller pledges. They ended up apologizing for this profusely; they have now deleted this apology from their website and unfortunately I was unable to find it on the Internet Archive. This was shameful, but to their credit they backed off quickly when things got ugly.

Back in 2021, Patreon discussed plans to force all creators into a rolling bill structure and get rid of first-of-the-month/pay-up-front billing. The community once again very decisively shouted them down, and they had to walk it back again. This whole fiasco damaged the already shaky trust between Patreon creators and staff.

This week, Patreon announced that, along with extra fees, Apple's policies were supposedly forcing them to move everyone over to the rolling fee structure that they first tried to get us to agree to in 2021. Patreon will tell you they are not happy about this. As a person who spent a long time watching Patreon make terrible decisions, I can tell you-- they are probably very happy about this, because it's exactly the smokescreen they needed to do what they've been trying to do for years, which is pull ALL Patreon creators away from 1st-of-the-month and per-creation billing.

The spin in the news I've seen so far is "Apple bullies Patreon, boo hoo hoo poor Patreon". This is very obviously not what's happening. Mind you: Apple does suck, and they are doing something bad here. Fuck apple. But Patreon and Apple are BOTH the asshole in this situation; Everyone Sucks Here. Patreon has options: they can make the iOS app a reader app and do billing through the browser to avoid the restrictions and the extra fees (Netflix and Amazon, notably, both do this), or they can allow creators to opt-out of iOS billing if they want to use billing models that don't work with it.

It seems most likely to me that the Apple situation is a real fire that Patreon has chosen to use as a convenient smokescreen to do what they've been wanting to do since at least 2021, and maybe since 2018.

What do we do?:

They have a feedback form specifically about this.

They also have a creator discord.

And they have lots of social media pages where they probably really, really hope that this doesn't blow up again, because they never learn. The incidents I've described here aren't the only two other times Patreon has pissed off their creators. They know if they don't contain the noise it'll be harder to get away with it, so make some noise. They've done a lot of work to spin this cleverly so you'll have sympathy for them and they won't get the kind of backlash they know they deserve.

Please don't misuse these links and make threats or spam or something. All you have to do is give well-reasoned feedback. Patreon hates feedback. Make sure they get a nice heaping helping of their least favorite vegetable.

[bycharisse]

Looking for love in the wrong faces

20241030 18:00

Hey everyone! It's so nice, to be here ♡.

Talking on faith, life, partnership, in all kindness and care...

I desire marriage, this is true.

And yet, I don't want to be made to feel that I am missing something if I am single.

It's a good thing to think of marriage kindly, it should not be twisted to mean that having that love for it means unhappiness when being without it.

One can be secure in their singleness and God's timing, surprise. It is possible, and I'd rather live in that reality tbh.

Be a good friend and be secure in your friends singleness too, btw. Know God has them covered so there's nothing to feel sad for. They're life is full and complete with God and when God puts it in the man's heart to ask and in the women's to accept, it'll be done in that security too, in Jesus' name. Love happens naturally.

May men be close to the Lord, and may women be as well, and may men find a wife like in prov. 18:22, and may women be found by a husband. And may everyone feel security in God's presence whether single or married and may they know it's possible for others. Amen.

Your teammate,

-Charisse from bycharisse

Like my blog? Consider supporting me on BMC ☕️♡ !

And if you would like to unlock exclusive content and receive a shout out, I now have a membership option for exactly that🤗

Thanks for your support!

[cestcirque]

What methods do you use to learn Japanese? I am trying to learn Japanese, but I don’t know how or where to start off. Thank you! :D

!!!!!! Are you ready bc this is my crash course on how to language on your own! 😝 (or at least a crash course on what works for me!)

I’ll preface this by saying the first step is finding the right motivation. Someone once told me “language is the loneliest pursuit” and it’s true! Even if you take a class, even if you talk to tons of people, you need a reason to want to keep sitting down and committing your own brain for a very long time

That said, LET’S GO!! 😤⤵️

Tbh I started on a lil language-learning app! 🫠 Mango, Duolingo, etc. aren’t bad for the introductory stuff! It’s how I learned the alphabet and simple sentence structure! But it’s obviously not very extensive

Once I got serious, I got on JapanesePod101 and I cannot recommend them enough (there are free account options but I do have a membership plan)

I haven’t tried any other websites to compare, but JPod has customized lesson paths based on your level, supplemental workbooks, and flash card features. They also offer things like live online classes or tutors, and you can get some basic lessons on their YouTube channel

JPod doesn’t really go in-depth on writing and stroke order, so I also use an app called Kanji!

It won’t teach you every character in existence, but my base knowledge of reading and writing comes from this app!

For language exchange, I use HelloTalk. You’ll hear this name from pretty much anyone who’s serious about learning

I’m not often on bc I’m always Terrified™ (like online dating except you have to be marketable in TWO languages) but it’s a super good resource to find native speakers who can help with your target language and vice versa! I encourage speaking to natives as soon as possible—that’s really how I got hooked

The rest is immersion. Or as close as I can get. I always try to listen to radio shows, livestreams, interviews, any type of dialogue even if I can’t understand it. Anyone on my blog knows I enjoy the HQ voice actors and stage actors—following personalities like them has really helped me with cultural knowledge that you don’t get in formal lessons

And that’s pretty much it! Might seem like a lot, but so is learning a whole dang language. I wish you (and anyone else trying to learn) all the luck! 🍀

[fiercynn]

i appreciate the update on the paid staff transition officer, thank you. two years between brainstorming the role and appointing it is still pretty long – they did manage to appoint the diversity research officer, brainstormed at the same meaning, a year earlier. (even that was pretty long to, again, appoint a volunteer to start working on researching something.) without any urgency around appointing even the volunteer, it's not a terribly compelling argument for why anyone should be giving them money right now, when they have this surplus to get started on that with

i've replied to so many different versions of this post that i don't know what masterpost you're talking about that i linked to, and tbh, i'm going to stop responding to reblogs of this post soon because i've spent far too much of my limited energy on this topic, but i'll at least give you my reactions to the reddit post: essentially, this post is also two years old and basically just says what i shared from the otw finance q&a, which was later that same year? but okay, let's break down what it says:

Most NPOs have a goal of having at least one year's reserve in accessible funds, either cash-on-hand or short-term access. In fact, if you go to charity evaluation websites, that's usually the basis of any sort of "fiscal health" attribute.

yes, i said that nonprofits typically have between 6 months and 2 years of operating expenses on hand. otw's 2023 operating expenses were $577,774 and their surplus (again, i'm only counting their actual reserves, not what they transferred out of reserves to use in 2024) at the beginning of this year were $2,798,530.

that's 4.84 years worth of operating expenses. (and because their operating expenses have been rising gradually along with their surplus, there's actually been a pretty similar ratio for years)

Since the Spring 2020 Drive, we have been artificially deflating the hell out of our goals, because everyone's mentally, socially, and fiscally stressed. We keep having the drives to keep the pattern up, but we have the aforementioned reserves, so we don't have to push.

true, but lowering their goals has not resulted in a meaningful reduction of the amount they raise in their biannual drives. here are their goals for their spring and fall fundraisers vs the actual totals since 2017 (yes i did go look at all their budget spreadsheets to put this together lol):

them raising under $100k in fall 2020 is an outlier, because it was 2020, but it’s worth noting that their spring fundraiser that year was massive so fall would not have put them into any dire straits, especially since they still out-raised their goal

also, it's not "artificially deflating" their goals if they don't need the money??? i'm very curious as to what goes into setting their goals, because typically you set your goals based on looking at what you have currently, and what you expect to have to spend in the future (including, yes, some prudent amount for reserves and emergencies and some amount for concrete long-term projects, but generally not five years of operating expenses' worth), and your fundraising goal should be the difference between them. given how much money they have, their goals should be low because they don't need to raise much more for their budgeted expenses. that's not artificial, that's just how budgeting works?

anyway, it's pretty clear that the little ao3 fundraiser banner itself does enough to galvanize people into donating at these levels regardless of the stated goal. if they truly wanted to keep people from donating money that they won't use, they have lots of options: they could lower membership dues (actually, early on in the organization there was discussion about not having a membership fee at all, they were just so worried about financial health at that point that they instituted it, but they are far past the point where that's necessary), or stop doing the drives and just rely on the donations they get the rest of the year (which are pretty high themselves, i think usually around $200k), or, you know, be transparent about their surplus

As someone mentioned, while the AO3 is one of the recipients, the other functions within the OTW do get some of the donation.

that’s relevant to the reddit question but in all my posts i have been discussing otw’s full expenses, not just ao3’s, so skipping this one

New servers are not cheap. I have fingers crossed on both hands and am knocking on wood as I say this, but gods forbid if we have enough infrastructure go down that we need to rush order a server? During the current semiconductor shortage? Even without speaking the evil into existence, site growth means that we'll consistently need more servers, not just replacements. And that's before considering space- and bandwidth-heavy cases like a/v hosting, which will require massively more front- and back-end server capacity.

yes, i did mention that they wanted to keep 25% of their reserves on hand for emergencies including potential server failure. as for future servers, they budget for server replacements by line item in the budgets they publish on their site, so why wouldn’t they be transparent about money that they're saving for future servers in their actual budgets? they can have line items for long-term projects…but they don’t. they hide this away in the surplus that they don't list on their budgets

In theory, we'd like to have more cash-on-hand for some various tasks where volunteering is nice, but it helps to pay people - whether that's throwing one or two or ten design spec sheets at a coding contractor to do heavy lifting, or being able to continue to pay for semi-regular audits (see also fiscal responsibility), an actual HR consultant of some sort, or getting a diversity consultant in who can work with the wacky Org structure.

yes, i mentioned the 50% for paid staff. again, not having meaningful change on this in multiple years while they still have this huge surplus means there’s no reason to donate until they have at least started hiring those staff

Long term, Fincom wants to roll some of the reserves into something that will happily generate interest - again, fiscal stability in case 2020 rolls around again.

but i thought nonprofits didn’t invest? lol. anyway, given that in 2022 they only had a net transfer of $10 into their one existing interest-bearing account, i'm pretty sure this isn’t normal accounting for when you plan to try and generate interest for your long-term fiscal stability

my biggest question honestly, because i don't really expect competence from them, is why they aren't at least more transparent about all of this. it shouldn't take having to dig through reddit posts, twitter threads, and their financial documents to find this information. now that they publish a comprehensive budget spreadsheet every year and biannual updates, why aren't they including their surplus in those spreadsheets and naming what it's for? that way people can track whether they've made any progress on those items or not and hold them accountable to it. of course, that would also involve them actually responding to the emails that they told people to send the fincom if we had questions, or holding their finance q&a meeting in a year like 2023 when they knew they were under increased scrutiny... 🤷🏾��♀️

on ao3's current fundraiser

apparently it’s time for ao3’s biannual donation drive, which means it’s time for me to remind you all, that regardless of how much you love ao3, you shouldn’t donate to them because they HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY AND NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

we’ve known for years that ao3 – or, more specifically, the organization for transformative works (@transformativeworks on tumblr), or otw, who runs ao3 and other fandom projects – has a lot of money in their “reserves” that they had no plans for. but in 2023, @manogirl and i did some research on this, and now, after looking at their more recent financial statements, i’ve determined that at the beginning of 2024, they had almost $2.8 MILLION US DOLLARS IN SURPLUS.

our full post last year goes over the principles of how we determined this, even though the numbers are for 2023, but the key points still stand (with the updated numbers):

when we say “surplus”, we are not including money that they estimate they need to spend in 2024 for their regular expenses. just the extra that they have no plan for

yes, nonprofits do need to keep some money in reserves for emergencies; typically, nonprofits registered in the u.s. tend to keep enough to cover between six months and two years of their regular operating expenses (meaning, the rough amount they need each month to keep their services going). $2.8 million USD is enough to keep otw running for almost FIVE YEARS WITHOUT NEW DONATIONS

they always overshoot their fundraisers: as i’m posting this, they’ve already raised $104,751.62 USD from their current donation drive, which is over double what they’ve asked for! on day two of the fundraiser!!

no, we are not trying to claim they are embezzling this money or that it is a scam. we believe they are just super incompetent with their money. case in point: that surplus that they have? only earned them $146 USD in interest in 2022, because only about $10,000 USD of their money invested in an interest-bearing account. that’s the interest they earn off of MILLIONS. at the very least they should be using this extra money to generate new revenue – which would also help with their long-term financial security – but they can’t even do that

no, they do not need this money to use if they are sued. you can read more about this in the full post, but essentially, they get most of their legal services donated, and they have not, themselves, said this money is for that purpose

i'm not going to go through my process for determining the updated 2024 numbers because i want to get this post out quickly, and otw actually had not updated the sources i needed to get these numbers until the last couple days (seriously, i've been checking), but you can easily recreate the process that @manogirl and i outlined last year with these documents:

otw’s 2022 audited financial statement, to determine how much money they had at the end of 2022

otw’s 2024 budget spreadsheet, to determine their net income in 2023 and how much they transferred to and from reserves at the beginning of 2024

otw’s 2022 form 990 (also available on propublica), which is a tax document, and shows how much interest they earned in 2022 (search “interest” and you’ll find it in several places)  

also, otw has not been accountable to answering questions about their surplus. typically, they hold a public meeting with their finance committee every year in september or october so people can ask questions directly to their treasurer and other committee members; as you can imagine, after doing this deep dive last summer, i was looking forward to getting some answers at that meeting!

but they cancelled that meeting in 2023, and instead asked people to write to the finance committee through their contact us form online. fun fact: i wrote a one-line message to the finance committee on may 11, 2023 through that form, when @manogirl and i were doing this research, asking them for clarification on how much they have in their reserves. i have still not received a response.

so yeah. please spend your money on people who actually need it, like on mutual aid requests! anyone who wants to share their mutual aid requests, please do so in the replies and i’ll share them out – i didn’t want to link directly to individual requests without permission in case this leads to anyone getting harassed, but i would love to share your requests. to start with, here's operation olive branch and their ongoing spreadsheet sharing palestinian folks who need money to escape genocide.

oh, and if you want to write to otw and tell them why you are not donating, i'm not sure it’ll get any results, but it can’t hurt lol. here's their contact us form – just don’t expect a response! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[lotsofthinkythoughts]

Bookworm Asks!

So @gingerteaonthetardis tagged me to answer these questions, so here we go!

how many books are too many books in a series?

Generally speaking I’m a proponent of trilogies over any other series length but tbh, my answer is ‘it depends on the story and scope of the series’ because Every story and universe is different and I don’t think saying ‘X number of books is the ideal length for a series’ because if there’s no more story to tell should there be more books to reach an arbitrary number? No! If there’s more story than will fit in that number should the author compress everything to make it fit? ALSO NO. It’s so subjective.

how do you feel about cliffhangers?

... is the continuation something I can get my eyes on immediately? If so, I’m cool; if not, I’m not a fan XD. Basically, I believe they work best inside a novel, not as the ending of one. I don’t feel a great draw to get the next book in a series based on a cliffhanger. I need fulfilling conclusions before moving on to the next book.

hardback or paperback?

Paperback! I used to be hardback all day, but paperbacks feel better in my hands nowadays. Also they fit easier on shelves lol. -looks irritably at my stack of the Jerle Shannara series that is like a centimeter too tall for my shelves-

least favorite book?

The Great Gatsby. I feel like it’s a cop out to name a novel that I first read for school here, but I have always deeply despised it. (Special mention to Heart of Darkness, for similar reasons.)

love triangles, yes or no?

It depends, honestly. like it’s definitely not a trope I love, in fact it’s close to a trope I despise, BUT I have seen it used to spur independent character growth, and I wouldn’t give up those instances. However by and large I am not a fan and am suspicious when I encounter it.

the most recent book you just couldn’t finish?

I ... honestly do not recall. At least not in terms of actual published novels. I know the last fanfic I dropped, but that is not in question here XD. Tbh I tend to power through anything I start, even if it must be achieved by skimming to catch the high points. (YES THAT COUNTS AS FINISHING THE BOOK Lol. Your personal feelings might differ)

a book you’re currently reading?

I’m rereading Pride and Prejudice... AGAIN. Please don’t judge me.

oldest book you’ve read?

I mean... Beowulf probably?

newest book you’ve read?

... okay so, here’s the thing, I’ve lately been using my Kindle Unlimited membership to read published Pride and Prejudice fanfic, so it’s PROBABLY one of those, but I legitimately could not tell you which; aside from that if you want a more traditionally published answer, I am at a loss because I a) do not keep track of publication dates and b) have struggled with taking in WHOLLY NEW content to me for the past few years. So probably something published in 2018 or 2019, but my brain is full of Swiss Cheese and I do not know.

favourite author?

My go to answer here is always Tolkien. It’s the worldbuilding for me, thanks.

buying books or borrowing books?

It depends. I like borrowing with the option to buy it later if I really love it and see myself re-reading the story.

a book you dislike that everyone else seems to love?

... ummmm. I have no idea. I’m BAD at questions where I have to assume what the general public enjoys. OH I know. American Gods! It isn’t badly written, but I just don’t enjoy it.

bookmarks or dog ears?

Both. I have so many cross-stitched bookmarks, but I admittedly to dog ear pages because I’m forever starting reading in one place and carrying my book along in one hand as I go elsewhere so when I stop, I have no bookmark on hand.

a book you can always reread?

Basically any of the Lord of the Rings, Sabriel by Garth Nix, basically any Austen but specifically P&P and Persuasion.

can you read while listening to music?

yes. I often do in fact. Though I also tend to listen to soundtracks and orchestral stuff when I read so, perhaps the spirit of the question is about reading with songs with vocals in which case it depends on what the music is lol

one pov or multiple povs?

I prefer single POVs, but I don’t mind multiple, though I prefer to stick to only two or three POVs if there are multiple. Reading A Song of Ice and Fire was a struggle because there were SO MANY POVs and I do understand why, but I was forever skipping around trying to find out how many other characters I had to go through to get back to my faves.

do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?

It depends on the length of the book and how engaged I am! Also it depends on what other things I have to do in said day. It’s USUALLY multiple days now, but if it’s under 200 pages and I’m engaged in the story, I can read a whole book in a single sitting.

I’m not gonna tag anyone because I’m on mobile and getting the formatting to work has done my brain in to the point I remember no usernames, but please if you’re interested and Wanna talk about what you’re currently reading or rant about that one book you can’t stand, please do!! Feel free to say I tagged you! Just because my brain is unable to remember names doesn’t mean I don’t wanna see what you think!!

[sunflower-petals]

Quick question!

What do you guys think of that Ko-fi website? Is it legit? Hard to use? I loathe asking for money or accepting donations (I cringed the entire time I was making the optional $1 tier on Patreon lol) but tbh it would help my family. I don’t want to get into anything because I don’t want to beg or ask you guys for money. I know y’all are struggling too, and this is just the sims.

But! If kofi is what it seems, then it’s just a one time thing right? You don’t have to cancel a membership like Patreon? Thanks guys!

[jackalbones]

It wasn’t meant as an insult, and I apologize for that. That was a rude way to phrase it. You mention priesthood a lot and from an outside view, it does seem to be your focus. Paired with very little positivity for the organization.. easy assumption to make. I am genuinely curious if you do enjoy being part of KO though. It does seem you don’t want to be part of it, so why you stay on is a mystery to me. Is it even worth being part of? Or is it a waste of my time to look into?

I’m sorry that this is how I seem to be coming across, and thank you for the apology. Incoming wall of text, hah.

I feel like I do mention priesthood periodically, and there are times when it comes up more than others. Recently I’ve felt more of a nudging to refocus myself on becoming worthy of priesthood, and that was rapidly followed by it being announced in KO that it’s Wepwawet’s year. So priesthood came up recently. And in terms of text posts, it is one of the things that tends to prompt me to actually write, because it is one of the things that often grabs me by the scruff and settles me back on my path when I start to drift. If this means it seems to dominate my text posts, that’s unfortunate. It’s not reflective of my actual spiritual life, although obviously it is a focus that I have. Goals are a good way of keeping people on target.

As for positivity towards KO, I feel like this may be a misreading of my posts. My recent two posts for example I felt were more measured than negative. “Hey, there’s this thing you may want to be aware of” is not a negative comment. It’s informational and a net neutral. I try to make sure my posts are clear that there’s balance to these things. Like that there are positive and negative personalities within the temple, or that even the would be “cult markers” are not handed down from on high nor done deliberately or with malice. The reading I hope that people take from that is that the temple is full of lovely people who are ultimately trying their best, and yes there will always be bad apples, and yes there are a few interesting mechanics at work to be aware of, but the people are generally good souls.

If I didn’t want to be part of KO, I would leave. I have left before (at Wepwawet’s orders), and it taught me that I don’t need KO to have a fulfilling religious experience. I also don’t need KO to be a priest, or to have the title of priest as you put it in your last message. A priest is a person who performs priestly duties. If you do that, you are a priest, your title is priest. You may not be a W’ab Priest of Kemetic Orthodoxy, but you are a priest, a W’ab even by virtue of coming to shrine pure. To be technical, I have been a priest of Wepwawet already, although I have chosen to cease to be for the time being.

If you read my blog completely, without the colouring of negativity, you would see that I enjoy and actively participate in Kemetic Orthodoxy. From the simple but subtle things (my worship of Wepwawet, who is only my patron because Kemetic Orthodoxy told me he was), to the more obvious.

There’s my rash of posts about Wep Ronpet, which were done according to the KO calendar.

There’s my joyous and unrestrained practice of the Kemetic Orthodox rite of Senut.

My recommendation of Rev. Siuda’s Heka apprenticeship, which I surely wouldn’t do if I thought she was unsuitable as a teacher.

I’ve reassured people about the RPD.

Despite my caveats about the membership at times being varied (as you’d expect from its size), I’ve praised the temple and the religion itself.

These are just recent examples from scanning back very briefly.

It is worth noting, that I do consider my “measured” responses to be an act of service as a Shemsu-Ankh. Positive posts about KO can be found from almost any member, and they’re pretty much expected from anyone who’s Shemsu. What I feel provides value to people is for someone who’s been in the temple a while, and seen some of its mysteries, to provide information about what works for them, what doesn’t, and impartial advice as to what may not work for other people. That last part can come across as negative, I think. But when I’m saying “this may not work for you” or “you may wish to be aware of this”, I am not criticising or being negative. It’s just about awareness and information. I believe in assisting all parts of the temple community, and that includes newcomers, beginners, and those skirting the fringes. Sometimes that means providing information like I do. Gushing about the temple is minimally useful at times, tbh.

As to whether it’s a waste of your time to look into, I can’t answer that for you. I rejoined after about 8 years away, because it provided something I needed spiritually, and because I never un-swore my oaths of Shemsu-Ankhhood and so the community still felt like my own. I feel the temple has a lot going for it. It provides structure, ritual, community, rites of passage, offline and online events, pastoral guidance, and so on. But it’s not for everyone, so everyone has to come to their own conclusions.

If nothing else, the beginners class is free and no obligation. So you always have that option.

[saucerfulofsins]

Firstly, honestly, congratulations on finding a job that offers you access to academic materials. My best friend works at a university but his contract ends soon and my student access is almost up too. Rip. (I'm glad for the people who insist on open access publishing tbh).

Secondly, thank you so much for your tips! I had heard of some of these before but it is SO helpful to have someone who's been in a similar situation within a similar field lay out the options they actually used. I should also note my city actually has an affordable membership for the public + academic library (6 euros/month, but no online materials). I also don't think there's anything silly about your excitement being able to access to the academic database again... I have actually considered taking some open university courses primarily for the academic access (but I have no idea if that is feasible alongside a future job)! Anyway here's to finding a well paying parttime position and being able to run a middle english reading group alongside it

I'm gonna LOSE my academic access as of January and I was wondering, do you have any tips?

OH NO, TERRIBLE. I hung onto my PhD-university credentials as long as I could, since I had a faculty email as well as a student email, but eventually yes, alas, they took them away and then I had to suffer. So the occasion of once more being able to log in to full-text databases and free PDF journal articles today was one of great rejoicing. Obviously the best option for keeping academic credentials after student access expires is "get another academic/university job and get new ones," but as believe me, I know how hard that is, here are my best tips for surviving as a Scholar in Exile:

Make use of the free tools like Google Scholar, JSTOR, etc. I think JSTOR is still letting you read 100 free articles a year, which they started during the pandemic to support scholars working remotely/virtually. Project MUSE also occasionally has free full-text articles. Google Scholar doesn't necessarily give you the full article, but it is good for finding basic cites and making bibliography lists. Google Books also has a surprisingly decent amount of scholarly monographs with some texts/chapters available to read for free.

Likewise: Academia.edu can be somewhat hit or miss (and I'm sure you know that they will send you eighty billion emails every time someone so much as breathes in the direction of your profile) but there is some genuinely good stuff that can also be accessed there for free, and it's always worth looking.

Maintain your academic connections! I have occasionally hit up university friends to ask if they could get something for me, and I'm willing to do the same for you (and any of my other followers in a similar position). Especially since I know that we work on similar (medieval) stuff, if there's something you really need to have, DM me and I will send you a copy by email.

Likewise, you can also try the method of directly emailing a scholar and asking for a copy of their paper, if you can't find it for free. This has worked for me before, and as you know, academics are vain creatures who are almost always THRILLED to hear that someone actually wants to voluntarily read their stuff.

Join alumni/networking groups for your university, degree program, field of study, etc, on Facebook, LinkedIn, or wherever. People often keep in touch and post requests for documents or books, so it's always worth shooting a request out into the ether, as someone will usually be willing to help.

Anyway: obviously this can't replace everything, and it really sucks not to have access to whatever you want, but it is possible to keep working at a high level; I've had something like three or four publications accepted after I left my PhD university, and was mostly able to write and research them with the more limited tools I had available. So yes, with a little creativity, you can definitely do it.

[tonysaintborgi]

20, 22, and 86!

20: how tall are you?

A gnat’s wing shy of 6 feet. 5′11″ and some change. TBH I wish I was smaller, then maybe I’d actually be cute lmao.

22:  do you go to the gym?

Proud member of the “pays for a gym membership but never goes” club... RIP

86: what is your phone background?

Both my background and lock screens are Ursaring. Not the same picture either. lmao. It’s actually weird being able to pick a lockscreen photo since all my previous smartphones never had that option.

Anonymous said: 19 49

19: shoe size?

13 wide. And that wide part is important... ended up giving myself a case of squished toes last year due to a plain 13. It ... didn’t hurt, but it was the oddest feeling ever. It felt like my toes weren’t far enough apart. Even when I wasn’t wearing anything it felt like they were being forced together. Even putting one of those toenail cushions between them didn’t help. It was so weird.

49:  what was the last compliment you received?

actually, a few hours ago someone sent me an ask on ttu telling me that thing i drew was really cute, and it was really nice of them.

thanks both of you!

[coopdigitalnewsletter]

27 Nov 2017: Just send back what you don’t want

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter. Send us feedback at CoopDigitalNewsletter@co-operative.coop or @rod on Twitter. This newsletter has an “email newsletter” flavour - you can sign up here. If you already have: Hello emailpals.

[Image: Amazon]

Amazon: Just send back what you don’t want

The try-before-you-buy Prime Wardrobe service is tweaking its formula: you can order 10 clothing items to try out and get a $20 discount if you pay for $200 worth of product. The end game with Prime must surely be that shopping baskets and even “shopping” disappear - Amazon will know your purchasing habits well enough that it can just send you things it’s pretty confident you’ll want, together with a spare box to send the unwanted items back. You open the box and it’s full of daily staples and a few surprises that the algorithm picked out for you. You make a mental note to return a couple of items, but more often than not you don’t get round to that. Clothes today, everything tomorrow. Ultimate convenience.

A quick reminder of why we talk about Amazon a lot. They do a lot of experiments, so there are many announcements and many of them come at traditional markets with interesting new angles. Not all of the experiments succeed, but Amazon has the pockets and experimental/entrepreneurial mindset to shrug off failure. Secondly, Wall Street loves this building-the-future story, and for a decade plus has given Amazon a free pass to plough cash into scaling the business and inventing new ones rather than doing anything traditional like returning net profit to shareholders. There’s little pressure for short-term wins or profit, so Amazon is free to see if their new angles work. And finally, Amazon would like to own a piece of every retail transaction, and are making 11-figure bets since the Whole Foods deal.

What else is happening with Amazon at the moment?

Web Services launches Secret Region, a classified hosting setup for US gov agencies.

Rumours that Amazon is developing a freemium (ad-supported) version of Prime Video for non-Prime customers - Amazon denies it, and tbh it sounds like something they’ve been moving away from in recent years.

New service Relay will make it easier for truck drivers to pick up and drop off packages at Amazon warehouses.

Amazon will automatically collect state sales tax on behalf of third-party sellers, which could help US states collect billions in lost revenue.

Grocers

Deliveryco Just Eat is now more valuable than Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and M&S and will enter the FTSE100 soon.

How Ocado does pick and pack of groceries goods for delivery. In short: bring the inventory to the person picking.

UK online grocery market heats up - fulfilment and delivery options are seeing a lot of competitive pressure currently.

Online-to-offline trend continues: Alibaba buys a stake in China’s largest grocer.

More on cryptocurrencies and bitcoin

Last week we talked about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. A couple of follow ups:

When you email someone, they receive it and it’s also sitting in your sent items - you both have a copy of it. When Co-op Digital publishes some words to its blog, anyone that goes to that address can see it - many copies. Copying things is what the internet does naturally. What Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies do is try make digital assets behave in a less internetty way and more like a physical object like a nugget of gold: Alice can give the gold to Bob but doesn’t get to keep a copy, and even though she could hack it in half so they both get a bit of it, Bob can’t have the same half as Alice. Cryptocurrencies don’t make sense if they let you s(p)end the same asset twice. More: Explain Bitcoin Like I’m Five and An Overview of Cryptocurrencies for the Savvy Investor, both via Jameson Lopp’s Bitcoin resources, which looks informative.

4% of wallets own 96% of btc. A surprising figure that doesn’t really sound like the decentralised utopia that bitcoin is often imagined to be. That said, the distribution of “global wealth” (ie everything) isn’t much fairer: in 2013, the top 30% of adults held 97%.

A report from a big cryptocurrency meetup - sounds like a special event.

Ethereum startup Confido vanished after people invested $374K - the risks of sending money to anonymous people for a promise to receive a new currency that can only be used on that not-yet-existing platform… should be evident.

What If I Want to Sell Shares of My House? and a plaintive "what if I could sell shares of myself?" in the comments (if newsletterbot owned a fraction of your house, could it choose your curtains?)

Security

Uber was breached in 2016 - exposing the details of 50+m users. People are understandably upset that they did a deal with the hackers to keep it quiet. Tip: don’t try this if you have EU or UK users - GDPR (in force in May 2018) would make this a very risky move.

Intel chip flaws leave millions of devices exposed - horrible and not entirely clear whether you could know that you were safe having applied a security patch.

Equifax faces hundreds of class-action lawsuits and an SEC subpoena over the way it handled its data breach.

Everything else

Free money: the surprising effects of a basic income supplied by government.

How to design streets for humans - and self-driving cars - but how to design streets for the 30-year period when self- and human-driven vehicle cohabit?

Fake-but-good-enough-for-robots satellite imagery, drawn by artificial intelligences - AIs deriving plausible “satellite imagery” from demographic data and a lot of iteration.

Autumn Budget: the ODI welcomes measures to open up land data – citizens, companies and services to benefit.

Uber expands driverless-car push with deal for 24,000 Volvos - if Uber isn’t near the front of the pack when self-driving cars happen, its business is at risk.

YouTube to crack down on inappropriate content masked as kids’ cartoons - see previous story.

Four questions every marketplace startup should be able to answer.

“Maybe millennials are, in their lifestyle choices, providing a devastating critical response to the world we're leaving them.”

Co-op Digital news

The ‘How do I’ website is now live for Food colleagues.

The Federation is officially open.

Co-op values in a digital age.

Events

Businesses Tackling Homelessness - Mon 27 Nov at 1pm at 2 Federation Street Manchester, M4 4BF - postponed! new date TBC.

Membership - Wed 29 Nov 2pm at Federation House 6th floor.

Publishing discovery - Thu 30 Nov 1pm at Federation House 5th floor.

Later Life Planning - Tue 5 Dec 11am at Angel Square 13th floor.

Funeral Care - Tue 5 Dec 2pm at Angel Square 12th floor.

Location Services - Wed 6 Dec 3pm at Federation House 6th floor.

Participatory Membership Bootcamp - Mon 11 Dec 10am at TBC in Central London.

TechNW has a useful calendar of events happening in the North West.

.

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

[goodvibesglobal-blog]

Happy New Year!

2017 is here and we kicked off our New Year in Chiang Mai Thailand!

Let me rewind a little – 6 months ago my curiosity peaked about the expat lifestyle. I have always desired to work & live outside the U.S., but felt limited to staying in Texas to provide a stable life for my 7th grade son Cameron. The “stable” life consist of me living in the suburbs and working the 9 to 5 corporate career.

I was born and raised in Texas. My family and friends all live there, but as much as I loved them, I didn’t like the increasing cost of living and working 60 hours a week at my corporate job. The conventional life just didn’t seem very fulfilling. Overtime, I longed for more freedom and adventure, but still needed a steady stream of income. I decided I would start an online business that allowed me the time and space to be a perpetual traveler.

Discovering the digital nomad lifestyle changed my entire mindset. Once I decided to take the leap, there was no turning back. I resigned from my corporate IT job, sold my belongings, and arrived in Thailand on New Year’s Eve.

Most of my friends and coworkers are interested to know why I decided on Thailand and specifically Chiang Mai.

My reasons are simple.  Here’s why!

Why Chiang Mai?

Chiang Mai Thailand ranked in at number 2 in Travel + Leisure’s The World’s Best Cities of 2016.

Compared to Bangkok, the city of Chiang Mai is a small and relatively peaceful city. Safety in Chiang Mai is good; it’s a calm provincial town with few incidents of violence, theft or harassment.  My biggest priority is finding a safe area to travel and live with my son.

Chiang Mai is home to many historically and culturally interesting sites and temples. The city, also referred to as the “Rose of the North”, has a reputation for it’s cool weather, friendly locals, historic temples and mountainous jungle surroundings.

Travel + Leisure ranked Chiang Mai as the #2 World’s Best Cities

Cost of Living

Low cost of the living is the MAIN factor for my decision to relocate to Chiang Mai.  The struggle is real for a single parent living in the US. It’s tough for a majority of Americans to make ends meet. We wanted a high standard of living for a fraction of the cost we were paying in Houston.

According to Numbeo , you would need around $1,977.64 in Chiang Mai to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with $4,400.00 in Houston, TX (assuming you rent in both cities).

Rent:

While living in Houston, I rented a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath townhouse outside of the city center for $1300 a month.  My goal is to find a rental in Chiang Mai for under $400 a month.

Rent is one of the main bargains in Chiang Mai, because the city is filled with many apartments and houses to chose from.  For as low as $80 – $100 a month you can get a very basic studio apartment within a 10-minute ride of the city, but you’ll probably want to pay double that for the comfort of air-condition, hot water, wi-fi and decent furniture.

For $200-$400 you can have a stylish one-bedroom apartment with cable, wi-fi and furnishings. The main advantage of renting an apartment is that many of them offer a month-to-month lease, allowing you to move in or out at short notice with little hassle. There are plenty in the old city center, and they are ideal for getting your bearings when you first arrive in Chiang Mai. The newer luxury apartments, farther outside the city center, with two rooms and all modern amentities , are available for $400 or less.

The city offers equally good value for house rentals, and for as low as $150 a month can get you a one bedroom house in a traditional Thai suburb near the city (15-20 minutes). For something closer to the city, two to three bedrooms and furniture, the price goes up to $400 – $600.  A plush suburban house in a housing community can cost $600 and up but comes fully furnished.

It’s quite easy to simply arrive in the city and rent an apartment the very same day.  I booked a hotel for 4 days just to be on the safe side since we would be arriving during high season and wanted to take our time exploring our living options. We found our apartment on the 2nd day in Chiang Mai after walking into the condo leasing office and asked for a viewing of the place.  We signed a 3 month contract and our rent came out to $392 ($14000 Thai Baht) along with a deposit of $560 ($20000 TBH).  This was the biggest expense we had to pay so far and luckily, we get the security deposit back once our contract ends in March.

We looked around at several different apartments for 2 bedrooms, but we quickly discovered that most of them were already booked or not worth the price (old and run down).  The apartment we leased is a one bedroom with living area, full stocked kitchen, fast wifi (FREE), bathroom (western shower stall) and a washer on the patio. It’s located on a quite side street next to other hotels and apartments. We are a 10 minute walk to the Maya shopping center and the busy Nimman road where all the restaurants and cafes are located.

It’s just Cameron and I, so we manage to share the space without driving each other crazy.  The condo is modern, clean and extremely comfortable. We spend most of our time outside so it’s not a big deal to sacrifice space for the opportunity to save money to invest in my online business and put towards our other travel plans.  Our goal is to create memories and live a simple life here in Thailand without breaking the bank.

Check out the video below for a better view of what Chiang Mai has to offer.

Food:

My grocery bill in the US cost me on average $200 a week.  My son is 12 years old with a bottomless pit of a stomach.   I’m sure I could have saved loads on food cost simply by clipping coupons and cooking all my meals at home, but that’s usually never the case for a full time employee and single parent.  There are days when there just isn’t a lot of extra time for food prep and grocery shopping.

Food and drinks are available in all price ranges, with plenty of great street food and local restaurants offering fantastic bargains. You can get fresh organic Thai meals for as low as a $1.  Most people don’t even cook at home and simply dine out for every meal because it’s so cheap to eat here.

One of the best places to eat is the nearby Kad Saun Kaew shopping center.  There are popular chain restaurants (Pizza Hut, KFC, Dairy Queen), a Tops grocery market and Thai food stalls located throughout the mall.  We have our pick of the freshest local dishes and it’s under $5 to feed the 2 of us.

Khao Soi

Bun Bo Hue

Boat Noodles

Transportation:

One of the things I’m most excited to give up is driving.  I do not miss sitting in traffic in Houston, constantly refueling and the hefty repair & maintenance fees associated with owning a vehicle.  Thankfully, I didn’t have a car payment after owning the same vehicle for the last 7 years.  My car was great on gas mileage and hardly gave me any repair troubles.  I was able to sell it to a friend on our last week in Houston.

Getting around in Chiang Mai is fairly easy with several modes of transportation to choose from.  The cost are extremely low, you can get around for as low as $5 depending your preferred mode of transportation. We learned that the cheapest and best way to get around is walking.  Our neighborhood is pedestrian friendly and everything is just a 10-15 minute walk in either direction from our condo.  The weather is mild so we don’t mind the nice walk.

If we need to go further, we call Uber or take a tuk tuk or songtaow.

Scooters

Song Toaw

Tuk Tuk

Taxi Cab

Uber

Chiang Mai International Airport is a major gateway to Northern Thailand, and currently the fourth busiest airport in the country offering low cost airfare all throughout Southeast Asia.  Our one way flight into Chiang Mai from Bangkok cost $20 (each) with Thai Airways.

View of Doi Suthep from Chiang Mai Airport

Another travel option is the Chiang Mai Railway Station offering the overnight sleeper train.  The fares vary from as cheap as $9 USD for a 3rd class upright seat up to $40 USD  for a first class sleeper, with various levels in between. We definitely have plans to take an overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok before we do our visa run later in February.  It will be a great way to see the countryside of Thailand. Train tickets and information can be found here.

Digital Nomad & Expat Community:

Chiang Mai is a popular destination for Digital Nomads & Expats from all over the globe.  NomadList.com ranked Chiang Mai as the best city for Digital Nomads in the world. The cheap cost of living is a great way for entrepreneurs to start a new business on a limited budget without external help or capital.

Thailand is one of the few countries in the region that boasts satisfactory internet above 10 MBps and caters to digital nomads with quality coworking spaces. All you need is a monthly membership and your laptop to access a coworking space.  Popular options include Punspace and CAMP (Maya Mall) in central Chiang Mai.

Punspace

C.A.M.P inside Maya Mall

  There are tons of successful digital nomads living and working throughout Southeast Asia, they all visit Chiang Mai from time to time.  There are several meet ups and networking opportunities for digital nomads to exchange ideas and support each other’s business goals in the process.

I have met some great people since I’ve moved here and it’s only been a week. I look forward to meeting more like minded expats, entrepreneurs and digital nomads.

What’s Next?

We are wrapping up our very 1st week in Chiang Mai Thailand.  I am still shocked that I actually quit my day job, sold all my stuff and moved my son to a foreign country.  We don’t know anyone here, but it feels like home.  I don’t speak a lick of Thai except for “Sawasdee Ka” (Hello) and “Kob Khun Ka” (Thank You), but it seems to help make life a lot smoother for a Texas girl in Southeast Asia.

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0182.JPG

    We really like the friendly locals here in Chiang Mai.  We haven’t had any unpleasant exchanges and most people seem to just mind their own business.  It’s a great city for living a minimal, low key lifestyle without all the comforts of the western world.  We are super excited to have friends and family come visit, a few people have already booked their flights and we have plans to fly out to Kuala Lumpur at the end of the month with plans to meet up with another expat family living in Penang.

Chiang Mai is a lovely city with a solid good vibe.  I think we will enjoy the next 3 months living here in the city! Stay tuned!!!

Shops on Nimman road

Have you considered moving abroad? If so, where would you like to live?  Comment below!

                                Expat Living – Why We Moved To Chiang Mai Thailand Happy New Year! 2017 is here and we kicked off our New Year in Chiang Mai Thailand!