#the airport that manages to be both boring and highly annoying

[batnbreakfast]

So far…

… my boarding was moved forward by almost 40 minutes

… my cabbie took this as the chance to do about 50 mph - in the city. I held on to the seat for dear life.

… BA discovered that you can have more than one employee checking in luggage.

… the guy at security did the old “Do you have drugs? No? Do you want some?” routine while checking my bag for explosives. A first at airport security.

… given that everyone pulled together, I now have 1h20 to spend at the world’s second most boring airport.

[gggbtswillbethedeathomeggg]

41. Go back to sleep + 106. Even when you´re annoying the fuck out of me, I still love you

Pairing: Min Yoongi x reader

Word count: 1776

A/N: Thank you once again for your request @theogbadboi, I hope you will enjoy reading this and that this it similar to what you had in mind for it. It was really fun to write this sooo enkoy!! <3

Masterlist

180 Ways to say ´I love you´ masterlist

How someone can look this peaceful is a complete shock to you. Yoongi looked so soft and precious right now as he was currently sitting next to you in his seat on the airplane that was taking you two to Hawaii for your 4-year anniversary. How you two have managed to stick together for that long without murdering the other for annoying the crap out of each other, was a complete mystery to you.

You and Yoongi had met in your junior year of high school and you had both instantly clicked together. I guess you could say it was annoyed at first sight. You had helped each other out whenever the other was feeling down. For Yoongi you had helped him when he was doubting himself as a producer and if he could actually break through as an idol. For you, Yoongi had been right beside you when you doubted your own capabilities and if you would actually be able to get into college and get an education that would make people proud to say that they know you.

You had stuck together even when Yoongi´s grumpiness sometimes could get the better of him, making him snap at you and others and when you had been too stubborn to see that you were actually the one who was wrong about something, also making you snap at other people too.

Yoongi had bought you an extended weekend trip to Hawaii for your anniversary, but also to celebrate that you had finished, and survived, your finals and exams. You had mostly gotten B´s, but you had managed to pull in two A´s too. The trip had also been a way to get you away from your family and friends for a little while too. Although your parent´s were very proud of you for finishing your second year of college with good grades, they had been disappointed that you hadn´t managed to get straight A´s.

Before, their reaction would have made you ashamed of yourself, making you end up cursing yourself for not being good enough to live up to their standard, but now, with the help from Yoongi, you didn’t care about what they thought. Yoongi was proud of you for finishing your exams so well and, most importantly, you were proud of yourself too.

Your eyes roamed down over Yoongi´s beautiful facial features as he was peacefully sleeping, his breath slow and steady. He looked relaxed and peaceful, looking like he didn´t have a care in the world, and that had to stop right now.

You were bored out of your mind as you couldn´t sleep and you were sitting by the window so you couldn’t strike up a conversation with one of the many strangers on the plane. You had finished reading your book, the movies they were playing on the televisions were old and boring and there was absolutely nothing interesting on Netflix right now, besides Riverdale, but you couldn´t watch that because you and Yoongi were watching it together.

You were bored as hell and you wanted Yoongi to either be bored with you or wake up so you could entertain each other. You turned in your seat so you were facing Yoongi as you raised your hands up to his face. Your hands were always naturally cold and it was absolutely freezing on the plane right now, making your hands even colder.

Your hands reached Yoongi´s adorable cheeks now and you gently laid one on each of them. Yoongi grunted out in disapproval of your cold fingers on his face as he tried to move out of your grip, but he didn´t wake up though. You sighed an annoyed huff of air out as this usually worked when you wanted to wake Yoongi up, but not this time.

You tried gently shaking his head a little from side to side, but Yoongi continued to be asleep and only grunt a little bit again. You whined a little this time as you pouted at Yoongi´s sleeping figure. It was also pretty ironic that he always talked about how he wants to be a rock in his next life when he was basically a rock right now.

You took a deep breath, holding it for a second before you let it back out again. Whelp here goes nothing you thought to yourself as you moved your hands from Yoongi´s face and down to the side of his body.

You moved your fingers gently over Yoongi, making him move around a little, but surprise, he was still asleep. You pushed a little harder into his side as you started tickling him and this made Yoongi slowly, but surely, wake up from his slumber.

“(Y/N),” he sighed out a little frustrated as he tried moving away from you again, but you continued tickling him as you could hear that he still wasn’t fully awake yet. You only suppressed a small giggle at him as you began tickling him across his stomach while poking your fingers around his body too.

This made Yoongi´s eyes fly open as he grabbed both of your hands in a tight hold. He turned his head so he was looking directly at you as you just gave him a sheepish smile in return.

Now that his face was turned towards you, you could see how tired he actually looked and it made you feel a little bad for him, but only a little.

“Wow, you look like crap,” you chuckled out, making Yoongi huff annoyed at you as you continued to laugh at him in hopes that maybe, just maybe, it would lighten up his mood a little. You wanted Yoongi to rest more than anything, but you weren´t tired yet and you were only an hour into your nine hour flight so he had plenty of time to sleep after he kept you company.

“Thanks jagi, I really appreciate your compliments for me,” Yoongi growled at you as he turned his head to look straight forward again before closing his eyes.

“Oh no, no, no I didn´t wake you up just for you to go back to sleep once again,” you retorted back at Yoongi as you started poking your fingers gently around on his face. Yoongi groaned out in annoyance as he opened his eyes again and gave you a hardcore side eye look.

“Fine, what is it that you want?” he asked you through a sigh as he turned his head to look at you again.

“I´m bored,” you told him, slightly doing aegyo as you knew he wouldn´t be happy about being woken up just because you couldn´t entertain yourself for a few hours.

“Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn´t kick you off this plane right now and go to Hawaii myself?” he asked you as he raised one eyebrow at you.

“Because you love me,” you giggled out.

“That´s highly debatable right now,” Yoongi huffed at you, making you pout at him.

“Okay, if you kick me off this plane you´re gonna go to jail for murder and then Taehyung will take over all your parts in all of the Cypher´s,” you told him with a smug smile as you knew Yoongi would only let Taehyung be a part of Cypher the day hell freezes over.

“Good point,” Yoongi said to you, making you smile even more, but it soon faltered when he continued; “I guess I´m just gonna have to leave you in the airport and go to the hotel myself then.”

“Hey be nice to me,” you whined out as you gave him a gentle whack over his shoulder with your hand.

“Why should I, you won´t let me sleep,” Yoongi retorted back at you as he tried giving you an annoyed look, but he couldn´t stop a small smile from creeping up on his face. As you were giving Yoongi a fond smile back, you noticed just how tired he actually looked. The bags under his eyes were big and dark, making his skin look even paler than normal while his speech was starting to slur a little.

You were starting to feel a bit ashamed with yourself since you kept Yoongi from getting some well-deserved rest just because you were bored. You had a few different options to keep yourself company on the rest of your flight, but you still chose to be stubborn and selfish.

“You should go back to sleep Yoongi,” you said quietly as you gently stroked his cheek with the back of your hand.

“Well I would if someone didn´t keep me awake with all of their annoying poking,” Yoongi grinned at you as he started poking and tickling you in the side, the same way you had done to him. You started squirming around in your seat, trying to suppress your laughter since there were some people sleeping around you.

“Stop, stop please, have mercy on my poor soul,” you gasped out in between giggles as Yoongi finally stopped tickling you and murdering you from lack of oxygen. “And besides, I can´t be that annoying since you know you love me,” you sighed out as you were still catching your breath. You leaned your head against Yoongi´s shoulder and he quickly lifted his arm to wrap it around your shoulders, pulling you a little closer towards him.

“Yeah I do,” he spoke in a low and husky voice as he gently ran his hand up and down your upper arm. “Even when you´re annoying the fuck out of me, I still love you, now will you please let me go back to sleep and you can continue watching Riverdale on Netflix,” he continued saying, making you quickly turn your head to look up at him.

“Wait really, I can?” you asked hopefully as your eyes turned big and round, surprised that he would let you watch it without him.

“Yeah really,” Yoongi said to you as he gave you a quick kiss on your forehead. “Because when we arrive at our hotel you´re gonna be so jetlagged that you´ll fall asleep instantly and I will have something to do,” he added as you gave him a sheepish smile because you knew that´s exactly what was gonna happen tonight.

“Sleep tight Yoongi,” you quickly said as a blush started coloring your cheeks while you pulled your iPad out of your bag in front of you. Yoongi only chuckled at you and as you started up the next episode of Riverdale Yoongi were already sleeping again.    

[rubela-m-posts-blog]

A PAINFUL VISIT TO GERMANY

I have an Indian friend who is a well known Ayurvedic doctor. Once his senior colleague told him about an Ayurved centre in Germany and suggested him to go there for work. The colleague insisted that the centre would give good scope to my friend’s skills and an opportunity to use his past experience. So my friend mailed his resume to the centre. Few days later his telephone rang late in the evening when my friend was about to go to bed. An Indian man was on line who introduced himself as a chief physician of the centre. He had read my friend’s resume and therefore started asking questions about his career. The man was talking so rudely that my friend had no real wish to go ahead with the conversation. During the interaction the man often passed very insulting remarks about the doctors who had visited him in past. My friend found it quite inappropriate but still managed to answer his questions. The man ended the phone call by saying that he would mail my friend more information about his centre and call him again for further discussion. My friend breathed a sigh of relief when the unpleasant conversation finally ended.

Next day was Sunday. My friend went out the whole day and therefore could not check his emails. Late in the evening when he was relaxing in his bedroom, his telephone rang. The chief physician was again on line and was asking my friend about his email. Since it was a Sunday, my friend had not expected his call and had therefore not made hurry of reading his email. When my friend told him he didn’t get time to read his email, the man shouted at him arrogantly and asked if my friend was busier than a prime minister or whether he lived in a forest where there was no electricity supply. His remarks angered my friend who however managed to keep his temper under control. The man scolded my friend for not reading his email, asked him to read it next day and put the phone down. The incident annoyed my friend. For long time, he was very upset and felt no wish to interact with the man ever again.  He simply couldn’t understand, with what authority the man had scolded and insulted him. He had not yet become man’s employee so that the man could have fired him for not doing a particular job. My friend had never promised the man that he would read his email next day and would be ready for further discussion. Neither did the man tell him that he would call him the next day and my friend should keep himself ready for further discussion. Since it was a Sunday, my friend had every right to do whatever he wanted and the man had no authority to reprimand him like that. The man had really crossed the limit and behaved in totally unacceptable, unfair and uncultured manner.      

Yet next day my friend read the man’s email and interacted with him when he called my friend next time. The man displayed willingness to give my friend an opportunity to work in the centre and acquainted him with terms & conditions. He wanted quick response from my friend but my friend requested for some time to think about the offer and avoided giving any immediate response. My friend could easily make out the fact that the man and his company just wanted to exploit my friend for peanuts and the offer was not at all worthy of accepting. Moreover, the man appeared to be a disgusting individual and so working with him was not going to be a wise thing to do. My friend had almost made up his mind when his senior colleague tried to persuade him. The colleague urged him to visit the centre for few weeks, take a firsthand experience and then make a final call. Since my friend didn’t want to disrespect his senior colleague, he accepted his suggestion.

The chief physician already had a plan to visit my friend’s city in India in the coming week. This gave both of them a chance to meet each other. My friend showed the man his already published books and gifted him a copy of his English book so that the man could read it and get an idea about my friend’s work, knowledge and depth. My friend had numerous letters written by his patients from various countries. His patients had appreciated his work and thanked him for his help through those letters. My friend showed the man those letters but man didn’t even bother to touch them. It was obvious that the man didn’t believe that those letters were authentic and probably thought that they were bogus and hence refused to read them. My friend felt insulted and got annoyed by his negative mindset. After all, those letters were genuine and were reflecting my friend’s honest, sincere work. The man had no right to question their authenticity and insult my friend’s achievements. But as time progressed, my friend noticed that man’s behavioural and cultural levels were quite low and it was his routine habit to insult others.  

As my friend began preparing for his abroad trip, his interactions with the man became much more frequent. The man would call him even at odd times, sometimes even after mid-night and speak in his usual rude tone for long time. He would ask my friend to do something and call soon after to check if my friend had done it or not. On some occasions my friend had to go out after 9 pm to obey his orders and got fed up of the man’s bossing. The real shock came when my friend went to pick the medicines which the man wanted my friend to carry in his luggage. The box of medicines was so big that would not fit in any baggage and leave hardly any space for my friend’s own clothes and other necessary belongings. My friend got disgusted with man’s growing demands and started repenting for accepting his invitation. But now it was too late to do anything and my friend had no other choice but to do whatever the man wanted. The man was obviously taking disadvantage of my friend and had almost converted him into a coolie who was obliged to carry a big burden of medicines in his baggage.  

Finally came the day of departure. My friend somehow carried his excessively heavy baggage to the airport. He constantly had fear if his bag would tear apart due to massive weight. Thank God he managed to reach airport safely. The flight timings were quite uncomfortable as the stopovers were excessively long. It was only after more than 24 hours that my friend ultimately reached his destination. It was a pleasant evening in Germany and the man had come to the airport with his wife to receive my friend. The two escorted him to his accommodation in the car. The man’s wife took my friend to the kitchen where all necessary food items were already present. ‘You can cook whatever you want for your dinner’ the wife said to my friend. My friend didn’t know cooking and was totally fatigued after a long, tiresome journey. Yet the couple was asking him to cook his own dinner. My friend got irritated to hear that and quickly expressed his inability to cook food. The couple frowned but had no other choice but to take my friend out for dinner. Fortunately there was an Indian restaurant just on the opposite side of the road which brought my friend a tremendous mental relief. At least sometimes he would be able to get his native food, he thought. After dinner the couple hurriedly showed my friend the Ayurveda centre and gave numerous instructions about his responsibilities. My friend was too tired to grasp them and so just nodded his head for everything. A weekend seminar was supposed to start next day. So the man asked my friend to keep ready at 8.30 am before leaving for home. Though my friend needed some extra rest to recover from his travel fatigue, he agreed to remain present on time.

Next morning my friend got ready on time and stood in front of Ayurveda centre ten minutes before scheduled time. The man and a German woman arrived just after 8.30 am and greeted him. The seminar stared soon after and the man introduced my friend to the handful participants. As my friend had good experience of giving seminars and lectures, he soon started lecturing fluently though he know hardly anything about the seminar’s topic, its extent and duration. The man’s centre was offering a weekend Ayurveda course in collaboration with two renowned Indian universities. This seminar was a part of that course.  Seeing the names of two prominent universities, my friend thought the course would have an exceptionally high quality and well planned structure. However he got shocked when the man showed him the course material. It was extremely boring, poorly designed and excessively long. Lot of irrelevant information was there which was of no use for any participant. Many things were written is such a way that a European person would simply not understand. My friend had always prepared highly sophisticated and user-friendly course materials and hence got shocked by the awful standard of that course material. The man however looked extremely proud about his course and was talking with great pride and confidence. He was simply not taking cognizance of the fact that participants were looking unhappy with the course. Some had already left it half way and those who were still attending it were visibly unsatisfied. My friend kept that course material aside and instead started interacting with the participants who began to enjoy the lecture. The man however suddenly interrupted him and started talking himself. My friend got amazed as well as annoyed but had no choice but to stand idly. After talking for few minutes, the man stopped abruptly and asked my friend to speak ahead. In those few minutes the man had taken the discussion in totally different direction and so my friend failed to understand, how should go ahead with the lecture. Yet he managed to pull on the conversation and keep students engrossed. Almost the whole day this circus went on and the man kept interrupting my friend repeatedly and unnecessarily. His interruptions frustrated my friend who couldn’t deliver a lecture as he would have really liked to. In the afternoon my friend was answering queries of participants. So he asked the German lady who was working there if she could just bring the next topic’s notes from the other room. The lady readily agreed and went into the neighbouring room to fetch the notes. The man noticed it, came in the lecture hall and shouted on my friend, ‘Why you sent her to bring the notes? It’s your responsibility.’ His sudden outburst angered my friend who nonetheless managed to keep cool. He just said ‘okay’ to the man and continued interacting with the participants. My friend was engaged in the conversation with participants and didn’t want to interrupt it. Hence he had requested the lady to fetch the notes. What was so wrong in it? Even then if the man wanted it to be done in other way, he could have talked to my friend about it later. What was the need to shout in front of participants? But man really didn’t have even basic etiquetes though he had lived in Europe for years. In the evening the man noticed that my friend had not shut a window of centre. He immediately shouted on my friend and reminded him the instructions the man and his wife had given him on previous evening. My friend got disgusted. After all it was his first day there. Everything was new to him. So there was every possibility that he might miss out something. He was dam tired on previous evening due to long journey. How the man expected him to remember each & everything precisely? My friend was already getting fed up of the man and wondered how he would spend further weeks with him.            

As the day ended my friend could still feel his travel fatigue and didn’t know what he would eat for his dinner. Luckily the man took him to his residence where he had a warm Indian meal. Just when my friend was about to leave man’s residence, the man said, ‘Be ready at 9.30 tomorrow’. My friend nodded his neck as he also thanked man’s wife for the dinner. That day the seminar had begun at 8.30 am but the man had asked my friend to keep ready at 9.30 next morning. Is seminar going to start late tomorrow? My friend started thinking. Or maybe the man himself would be taking first lecture for one hour and therefore asked me to keep ready at 9.30, my friend thought to himself. Next morning my friend however got up as usual and kept ready even before 8.30 though his reporting time was 9.30. He was just relaxing in his residential quarter when his mobile rang. It was almost 8.40 am and the man was on line. As soon as my friend said hello, the man shouted on him, ‘Do you need special invitation or what? It’s 8.40 now and you still haven’t come down. Don’t you know the seminar would start at 8.30?’ My friend got stunned. The man was shouting as if my friend was his chauffeur or peon and had failed to keep schedule time. Nowhere did the man have a slightest realization that he himself had instructed my friend to keep ready at 9.30. Though my friend was not at fault, the man’s sudden outburst puzzled him for a minute. Never before anyone had shouted at him like that and imparted such an insulting treatment. Yet he mustered courage to say that man himself had asked him to report at 9.30. His clear and indisputable reply pushed the man on back foot and forced him to cool down his tone. The phone call ended soon and my friend went down to the seminar room. The whole day he felt extremely disturbed by the morning’s incident and the humiliation he unnecessarily had to face. Yet he managed to give an effective lecture. The participants could immediately notice the quality difference between man and my friend. They could easily make out that my friend was much more knowledgeable and had far better lecturing skills than the man. Though my friend interacted with the participants, he hardly spoke with the man and allowed his body language and facial expressions to reflect his anger and unhappiness. The man probably felt ashamed about his behaviour and took my friend for dinner to a nearby Turkish restaurant.                      

Next three days the man went out of station for some work and left my friend clueless about the work. Earlier two days had kept them busy with the weekend seminar while the centre remained closed. This Monday was the first working day for my friend who sat in the centre with the lady clerk. Few patients came for follow up consultations, so my friend spoke to them. The lady clerk was working half day there. So she left in the afternoon leaving my friend all alone in the centre. A new patient had an appointment for consultation. My friend examined him and prescribed medicines. Suddenly he realized that he had no idea about prices of medicines, consultation fees and mode of payment and didn’t know, how much he was supposed to charge the patient. In the morning, the clerk was there when he had done consultations. He hadn’t seen, how much she had charged those patients. In India patients generally pay immediately after consultation. The man had not informed him about, what process his centre was following. So he called the man on his mobile and enquired about those things. Instead of appreciating my friend’s alertness the man got irritated and shouted, ‘Why you need to know all these things? You just do the consultation.’ My friend felt sad and annoyed by his response. He put the phone down and wound up the consultation. The man had insulted my friend’s honesty and dutifulness. My friend could have easily given away the medicines to the patient and said good bye. But he didn’t want the man to suffer any loss. What if patient had vanished after taking medicines? What if his address & phone number would have proved to be fake? After all, my friend had met the patient for the first time and was not in position to check if the information given by patient was genuine or fake. But instead of applauding my friend’s alertness, the man had simply laughed at him and hurt his feeling. It was unacceptable.

Next morning a young German girl and a young German man joined the centre. The clerk, my friend and both of them started packing medicines as there were no consultations. Soon they got bored but had no other choice as the man wanted them to pack certain amount of medicines in a day. Sometime later the young man went out and brought some ginger for tea. Next day the man returned from his outstation visit and saw the bill submitted by the young man. ‘How you allowed this man to buy ginger for tea? And why you gave this medicine to that new girl for packing? You should have paid attention to what they are doing’ he growled on my friend. My friend was totally bewildered. Neither the young girl nor the young man had asked him before doing anything. He neither knew that they were supposed to work under his supervision. The man had told my friend nothing about them, their designations, responsibilities or work timings. How my friend could have handled them? He himself was new at the centre. When the young man had brought ginger, my friend had assumed that he had brought it with his own money. He had never imagined that the man would claim that money from office. It is a common sense to take superior’s permission before doing anything in office. How that young man had bought ginger without seeking anyone’s permission? After all, he was not a small child. But instead of taking him head on, the man was shouting on my friend who was still a novice in foreign country. But such things kept happening repeatedly. The man often didn’t give proper instructions to my friend and yet expected him to do the things perfectly. Nowhere did the man have a realization that my friend was new, was in a foreign culture and therefore needed some time to get hold of the things. The German lady clerk and the young man often didn’t show him adequate respect. It was their responsibility to make tea for patients every morning. But they usually arrived late as a result of which my friend had to make tea almost daily though my friend was much more qualified than them and was working on higher designation. But instead of taking note of such things and reprimanding those German persons, the man many times insulted my friend without any reason in front of them. At times he would grill my friend in front of patients as if he was a professor and was taking my friend’s oral examination. He would ask inappropriate and funny questions and reject even correct answers given by my friend. Several times he would pass insulting remarks about my friend’s work, opinions, suggestions and prescriptions. He would make unnecessary haste and behave as if my friend was working just too slowly. He would keep his keys or other belongings somewhere and would forget about them. When he would start searching, he would expect my friend to leave his work half way and help him search his belongings. My friend found it quite irritating as it often broke his link and distracted him from work. And after all, his job was to do office work and not to find man’s lost belongings. Once while my friend was doing some work in the office, the man suddenly said to him, ‘You come to my home tomorrow for dinner’. My friend said ‘okay’ and continued with his work. Next evening when office was about to close, my friend kept ready to travel with the man to his residence. But the man locked the office and went home as usual. He probably didn’t have even a faint memory of what he had said on previous day. My friend got puzzled by that, went to his quarter and cooked his own food for dinner. Though it didn’t cause any major inconvenience to my friend, due to such behaviour the man created a bad impression of himself. As a result of all such things my friend disliked working with the man and soon got bored at his centre. The German lady clerk and the new young man too disliked the man totally and were quite dissatisfied with their payments. But since they needed a job, they had continued to work there. The young girl who had joined on the same day as the young man got fed up of the man and left the job in few days.        

My friend’s popularity kept growing among patients and course students. They all could notice my friend’s talent and were quick to appreciate it. My friend found some solace in their encouraging feedbacks and loving gestures. The man however continued to be callous and indifferent about my friend’s talent. In his eyes he himself was a genius and great achiever while all others were ordinary. In his mind however my friend often laughed at his indiscipline, forgetfulness and stupidity. My friend had got convinced by then that the man had superficial knowledge of Ayurveda and medicine. His personality neither had any other noteworthy dimensions nor did he possess any knowledge from other fields like sports, politics, economics or arts. He was a disorganized, mediocre chap who was unnecessarily boasting for running Europe’s so called best Ayurveda centre! He often didn’t understand patients’ problems properly and would telephone experienced doctors in India and discuss the cases with them for hours. He often claimed to have cured tough cases of thyroid problems, Parkinson’s disease and so on though my friend could easily make out that his claims were not at all true. The Ayurveda course offered by him also didn’t have adequate quality and depth and the response of participants was also quite lukewarm. Quite a few participants had left the course half way while those who were still attending it were not so satisfied. My friend many times tried to bring these realities to man’s notice but self-appreciation had blinded the man so much that he simply failed to see the realities. The so called Panchkarma treatments given at his centre were also not as per Ayurvedic principles. The German lady clerk and the new young man used to massage the patients though they were not at all skilled and trained in therapy work. They both were totally dissatisfied with their payments and therefore often tent to be insincere, unpunctual, arrogant and dishonest. Many things routinely got stolen from the centre and my friend doubted that those Germans were stealing those things. He brought all such things to man’s notice who however did nothing about them. On the contrary he continued to be harsh with my friend and never had any words of appreciation for him. Even for minor reasons he would shout loudly at my friend and would not hesitate to insult him in front of others. Once the man got severe sciatica. My friend suggested him certain medicines which cured him completely. But instead of thanking my friend, the man simply said that medicines would not show such a fast effect and something else must have helped him. My friend felt like killing himself after hearing man’s nonsense. A cleaning woman used to come every week to clean my friend’s quarter. Once she said to the man that my friend was extremely disciplined and clean and she didn’t need any efforts to clean his quarter. The man just said yes and looked in the other direction. My friend always wondered why the man was so dingy in appreciating his virtues.  

The German lady clerk too was quite disrespectful towards my friend. A married woman with three children, she was thoroughly dissatisfied with her meagre salary. Every day she would express her dissatisfaction in front of my friend at least once. Her husband was unemployed and the family was having several conflicts as well as crises. Such things had made the woman even more unstable, rude and jealous. My friend had noticed that her cultural and behavioural levels were quite ordinary and she even lacked proper mannerism, food habits and philosophical depth. So he maintained distance from her but had to seek her cooperation many times to avoid approaching the man who was even more disgusting. On some occasions the man asked my friend to convey her some work related instructions. When my friend approached her, she spoke arrogantly and insulted my friend. She was totally frustrated with the man’s behaviour and her poor salary but had no daring to say anything in front of the man. She would behave very politely with the man but vent her anger at my friend who was in no way responsible for her plight, problems and frustration but had remained sympathetic towards her. My friend often noticed that she often cunningly avoided doing her tasks and pushed them onto my friend though my friend was much more qualified than her and worked on much higher position. Once the man went to India for some work and left the centre in my friend’s hands. On a day when there were more appointments, this German woman didn’t arrive on time though she knew about the appointments. It disturbed the entire appointment schedule and kept patients stranded for long time. Next day therapies were supposed to start at 9 am. But again the lady arrived late and instead of starting with therapies she kept writing some personal emails for next one hour. The entire therapy schedule collapsed and put tremendous strain on my friend. Yet she didn’t even bother to express any regret. Fed up of her tantrums my friend finally telephoned the man in India and informed him about the happenings. The other German man working there was also strange and often didn’t follow the timings properly. He often came late, frequently remained absent and didn’t even bother to take prior permission before skipping the duty. The man who missed no opportunity to shout at my friend never seemed to take tough stand against those two staffers though he was watching their inappropriate behaviour every day. On the contrary even his 20 years old daughter would speak with my friend as if she was his boss. My friend found this discrimination quite strange, inexplicable and unjustified.  

These miserable working conditions made my friend’s stay in Germany quite pathetic and he was just counting the days waiting eagerly for his departure date. In the last week of his stay the man took my friend to an Indian restaurant and offered him a long time job in his centre. There was not a remote possibility that my friend would have even considered coming there again. Yet he didn’t show any reaction after hearing man’s offer. He asked for a month’s time to take a decision though he had already made up his mind. A month later the man telephoned my friend probably to know his decision. They spoke about weather, health and many other topics but my friend made no mention of man’s offer and his decision. Few months later the man again telephoned my friend and tried to persuade him to join his organization. He extended many olive branches to my friend and tried to woo him. But my friend politely declined his offer. In course of time my friend had learnt from other sources that it was man’s usual strategy to torment and exploit the visiting doctors. My friend had suffered a lot at the hands of man and his two ever dissatisfied staffers though my friend was much more qualified, virtuous and knowledgeable than all of them. He had authored several articles and books, delivered numerous lectures, visited many countries and treated handful patients. Yet all of them had routinely insulted and ill-treated my friend without any fear and hesitation. The man himself was the most undeserving boss with no leadership qualities. Instead of hunting talent, supporting sincerity and appreciating virtues he took pride in insulting the newcomer, hurting sentiments and depressing the mood. Rarely one would find such an idiot boss in Germany! What wondered my friend was the fact that the company which employed the man had given him unlimited powers though the man hardly had any required skills. My friend had some rare talent and qualities. Adding him in his team would have benefited the man, his centre and the company in many ways. The repeated phone calls made by the man to my friend in subsequent months also indicated man’s failure to find another candidate like my friend. But the man had handled my friend so poorly that there was not even a slender chance that my friend would have thought of reversing his decision. He stuck to his decision and even today has no repentance for it. In fact, whenever he thinks of that visit, he feels sad about the sufferings he had to face there despite being honest, sincere, qualified and virtuous.              

[kyluxtrashpit]

For the writing game, I couldn't decide which, all the colors please? They're so interesting!

Omg I was so excited when I saw this! You’re so sweet to enable my rambling

Red: What type of writer’s block do you experience the most?

I guess the most common one is I get stuck in transitions. Like I know how this scene goes and I know how the next scene goes, but I don’t know exactly how to get from A to B and it’s one of those cases where I can’t just put a line and jump to it. Scene transitions are one of the hardest things for me for some reason. The second most common for me is probably when my brain is being a shit and won’t let me be productive due to some sort of emotional crisis lmao

White: Are you a supporter/lover of fanfiction?

I mean, kind of obvious lmao, but absolutely. I think it’s great that there are people who are creating things solely out of love for something, and that’s really what fanfiction is, at it’s deepest core. It’s a community of people being so enthusiastic about and loving something so hard that they work their asses of and dedicate time to just… making more of it. For no real external benefit other than some social validation, if they’re lucky. Love and passion are the true motivators and idk that’s just really beautiful to me

Black: Would you want to live in one of the fictional worlds you’vecreated?

I don’t really do a lot of worldbuilding because I find it incredibly boring and I’m terrible at it lmao, but since I always write either canon-verse or modern au, I’m going to treat this as ‘do I want to live in the Star Wars universe?’. And the answer to that would honestly be no. As much as there’s cool stuff, like advanced technology and aliens and maybe I’d be lucky enough to be able to move shit with my mind, there’s also a lot of bad things. A lot of fascism, a lot of wars, and every once in a while some asshole builds a planet-destroying superweapon and blows up a planet (or 5) and like… I could live on one of those, you know

That said, if I didn’t die because the planet I was living on exploded, I would probably survive alright. I mean, my background is in science, so tbh I might have better opportunities there than I do here. While that could mean making chemical weapons or something if the Empire was in power, that’s at least more interesting than customer service at a chemical company lmao. I still wouldn’t choose to live there, but I think I’d manage okay if I had to

[More beneath the cut - my sincerest apologies to those on mobile]

Blue: What’s more important to you: characters or plot?

I mean, they both definitely matter, but if I have to choose? Interesting characters can save a dry plot, but the best plot ever written will still be mediocre at best if the characters aren’t compelling. Personally, I love character-driven stories more than anything. Event-driven plots can still be fun, but I prefer the focus to be on how the characters are dealing with said events, as opposed to them just being passively driven along by them. The best is when it’s the characters themselves driving the events of the plot, but that’s more difficult to execute than it sounds. Regardless, it’s the characters that usually draw me into a story in the first place and that keep me interested. And from the perspective of my own writing, I go character-driven, all the way. Sure, some event might happen that drives the plot sometimes, but I’m far more interested in how the characters react to that event than anything else

Yellow: What’s a common writing tip that you mostly ignore?

In terms of writing advice, nothing makes my blood boil more than those posts that say ‘get rid of this entire class of words’ or ‘if it’s not absolutely strictly necessary to the plot, cut it’. Fuck that shit. If you want your writing to look like Hemingway, sure, go for it, but a) Hemingway is overrated, and b) that’s not the only way to write well. Especially as someone who tends to focus on characters, passages that aren’t necessary to the plot may be necessary to establish characterization. Or they may add some emotion to the story that gets the reader invested. Same with wording choices; more or less words can drastically change the tone or mood of the scene. Are there times when you need to cut words and keep things concise? Absolutely, but any writing tip that says ‘remove every instance of [word] in your document’ is fucking bullshit and you should never listen to it

Grey: What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

Tbh I think every writing tip you see should always be taken with a grain of salt, especially if it’s a ‘never do x’ because there is almost always a situation where doing x is the right thing to do, it’s just a matter of knowing how to do it correctly (looking at you, ‘never use the passive voice’). So really, there are very few I always follow, but I’ll give one that was foundationally helpful for me

Edit in a different format than you write. That can be changing the text size, or the font, or printing it out physically, or whatever. For me, I usually pop it into AO3′s preview function and take notes of things that need changing as I go. It forces your brain to notice things it’s been overlooking for the entire writing period. I only do my final edit this way, generally speaking, but I’ve found it to be incredibly helpful for catching typos and general weirdness in the writing

Orange: How many projects do you usually have going at once?

Because my fics are usually short, I tend to only have 1, but I think I’ve had up to 3-4 before. That’s basically me just popping between documents everytime I get stuck on one until one is finished lmao. But more than 2 gets to be a lot to handle

Currently, I’m really only working on my Big Bang fic, though I do have at least one one-shot I’m planning to write when I need a short break from it

Pink: Which of your characters would become your best friend?

This is so hard because like, I don’t get along with a lot of people generally speaking. I’m also going to treat this as the entire SW cast even though I only write Kylo and Hux, for the most part. And I’m not sure I’d be good friends with either of them. While Kylo would make an excellent self-destruction buddy, I think we’re too similar for the most part to get along. And while I also have an element of Hux in me that’s my anal retentiveness when it comes to organization (not to be confused with cleanliness; I’m talking more about my colour-coded work email and my nested folder system on my computer), I’m also very emotional, messy, and I’m not really equipped to verbally spar with him. I think I would actually do okay with Hux as a boss, not a friend, but with Kylo, I think we’d get along really well until we really didn’t. And then I would be dead lmao

Aaaand none of that was an actual answer. But like, I honestly don’t know? Most of the other characters I really like (e.g. Rey, Rae Sloane, Ventress), it’s because I would have a big huge crush on them which would manifest as my hovering in their vicinity a lot but never actually starting a conversation and then waxing poetic while crying about my unrequited love when I continue to go unnoticed lmao. Which is, well, still not friendship

Maybe Finn… I might get along really well with Finn. He’s one of my favourites as well and I think he’d be really interesting to talk to. Has a lot of interesting views on things, likely a good listener. Hm. I’m still not 100% solid on it, but after far too many words, that’s my answer lmao

Purple: Which of your characters would become your sworn enemy?

Okay, hear me out on this one because the reason isn’t what you think lmao. I’m also treating this less as ‘sworn enemy’ and more ‘person I’d least get along with’ and that’s actually Poe. And the reason is that highly extroverted, extremely friendly people who others call charismatic tend to rub me the wrong way. Like there’s nothing wrong with them, they’re perfectly nice, but they’re just too friendly and my socially-inept, introverted brain always responds to that with DANGER DANGER. And I think he would definitely fall into that category for me haha

Green: Pencil, typewriter, or computer?

Computer. I have written fic by hand before (I also sometimes do planning by hand, just because it can be a bit more visual; Fractured was planned largely by hand when I used to work evenings at a gym and had access to unlimited spare paper), but that’s usually only when I have nothing else to work with. I wrote most of a fic in the Halifax airport on a layover, once. I’ve also done it on my phone, but that’s too fucking annoying lmao. Typerwriters are super fun to use but also very impractical for me; my typing accuracy isn’t good enough

Brown: Do you have a set writing space? Or do you write everywhere?

Mostly I’m at home on my couch, but that’s really cause I have nowhere else to write. I do write at work sometimes (not smut though lmao), but only when it’s slow enough that I can get away with it. And there’s nowhere else I really go where I’m sitting with a computer for long periods of time

Silver: Are you comfortable writing in public places?

I am, yeah. I don’t know why I wouldn’t be tbh. Work is a public place and the only reason I don’t write smut there is because I don’t want to get fired lmao (slacking off is one thing, porn is another). I don’t really ever write in public, but that’s more because I don’t spend a lot of time sitting in public places by myself

Gold: Do your stories usually contain lessons or morals?

Not really… I can’t think of any at least. They always have some sort of closure, though, because I fucking hate open-ended stuff where everything isn’t worked out in the end lmao (or is at least on it’s way there). I’m too fragile for that shit haha

Clear: Do your characters control where the story goes or do youmaintain control?

I tend to write more like an rper than an actual author, based on conversations I’ve had with others, so my characters have a lot of control. That said, if you’ve got your plot and all the major points of it planned out and then you get halfway through and find it doesn’t work because of the characters, then that’s a failure in planning, not the characters taking control. Sometimes things do change and are reworked as you go, that’s the nature of writing, but that still means your plan needed some adjusting, you just didn’t know it at the time. I intentionally leave a lot of room in my plans for the characters (e.g. ‘and then they talk about [blank]. Hux says something mean and Kylo gets angry’ might be my only note for an entire scene), but if you’ve planned enough to actually start writing, your characters and plot should already work together. Characters control the minor details of the story, not the major plot

Tan: Are you open to co-writing a story?

I might be. I’ve never done it before and the Big Bang I’m doing now is the most collaborative thing I’ve ever done writing-wise. If someone approached me and was really interested in it, I might be willing to give it a shot. I’m not really sure how it works, though. I tend to envision it as basically an rp except it’s planned out beforehand and then edited afterwards, but in all honesty, I have no idea how it actually goes

[cosmosogler]

oh my god, yesterday was the wooooorst.

i left for the airport on time. the bus app said that the bus would arrive at the stop in 10 minutes (and it was a 2 minute walk away). so i had 2 hours to make a ~30 minute ride.

i missed the bus by so much that i didn’t even see it drive away from the stop before i arrived. the app had just, completely lied i guess? the rest of the day was also like that.

so i walked to the downtown station to try to catch the other bus. i also just missed that one according to the lady at the counter. she said the next downtown bus was coming in 40 minutes. so i called a taxi after fretting about it for a few minutes. the taxi driver said they’d be there in 15-20 minutes so i was like “ok.” the other route would go by in a half hour so a taxi would be faster.

the taxi took over 40 minutes to arrive. i told them never mind and got on the second bus. they said they had just pulled into the station and seemed pretty salty about it. but like... that was more than twice as long as they said they’d take.

the bus didn’t leave the station for another ten minutes. i made the wroooong choice. the bus also stopped at every single stop along the route and got stuck at some long red lights. i called my mother. i complained about it to harrison. but nothin was gonna make that bus go faster.

i missed my flight by 10 minutes.

i got put on the next flight... which was in six hours. instead of 9 or 10 pm, i’d be getting home at 3 am (my time). so i spent 6 hours bumming around the airport. i couldn’t get food when i was hungry because the person behind the counter at the snack bar didn’t show up for a very long time. i started drawing a picture on my ipad that i’d planned on working on during the flight.

the flight took off late. i had had a 20 minute layover in charlotte, so every single minute was making me more and more antsy. then when we arrived in charlotte we got put at the wrong gate so the plane sat there for more than 5 minutes before trundling away to the new gate.

the gate was at the end of one terminal. the plane i had to catch was on the other end of the airport at the end of another terminal. i sprinted!!! i had ten minutes to get there!!!

i was really bummed because you’d think since i can bike 12 miles that i could run for more than one minute before completely losing my breath and stamina. though to be fair i had not eaten and was wearing a heavy backpack and a bra that’s a little too tight. i was wheezing after a few seconds.

i actually made it? and i got my boarding pass printed at the counter with 4 minutes to spare before boarding started. i ran back to the bathroom but the line was so long i’d never make it back to the gate (the area was under construction and the nearest bathroom was more than 2 minutes away from the gate). 

it had been a few hours since i’d gotten to use the restroom, and with my gallbladder out i’ve had less... like, tolerance for waiting. that might be a “stress has destroyed my body” thing more than a gallbladder thing though.

anyway i had to fidget in my plane seat for 45 minutes while waiting for boarding to end and the takeoff and then we had to reach cruising altitude.

on the flight my ipad pencil wouldn’t connect to the ipad (airplane mode i guess?) so i couldn’t draw for the 5 hours i was sitting there. i got out smash instead since i got my 3ds fixed the other day... i got really REALLY good at hitting rest on a moving target as jigglypuff. i spent like 40 minutes doing nothing but that. the other hour was just working on general combos and taking on the computer as dedede. because i had nothing else to do and wanted to get good at it again. i made a gunner mii based off blue but the mii characters don’t really seem to have any natural combos? it’s just really hard to rack up damage with them. jumbi’s way easier to play as, at least. she’s got a sword.

my thumb started hurting from the new thumb stick (it wasn’t broken in yet i guess) so i put the game away and dozed for the rest of the flight. i made some notes for the story... just thinkin about how i wanted to work out some conversations. i mostly wanted to rest because i’d be getting home at 4 am in the morning my time, the airport is an hour away from my parents’ house. i didn’t get any sleep at all.

when i got to the airport my mom and dad were actually there? i thought they’d be picking me up at the curb. but they snuck up behind me while i was trying to get to baggage claim and mom almost pushed me down the escalator.

dad acted like everything’s normal. and i guess things are “normal” now. as in, this is the new normal, because dad has either completely ignored what he did or forgotten about it. 

he probably forgot about it. grabbing and threatening me and using real personal insults wasn’t a big deal ~to him~. grabbing me while i was laying in bed trying to sleep wasn’t a big deal ~to him~.

i pretended to sleep on the car ride home but again couldn’t manage to doze off. i wrote a few more story notes in my memo after a while because i gave up.

when i got home i went basically right to bed without even putting on pajamas and then i couldn’t sleep. wiley came to cuddle with me for a little bit. once he was satisfied that he had stepped on me enough times he left. i still couldn’t sleep.

when i finally did doze off, i woke up like two hours before my alarm was set to go off. so i guess i got like five hours of sleep maybe?

today was a blur. i spent a large fraction of it scanning in my old comic pages. i couldn’t get my sketchbook to fit in the scanner though no matter what i tried (i tried a lot of arrangements). so i’ll either figure that out later or not bother. there was a big dark line down the left side of the images. i was also a little upset that my loose pages didn’t fit in the scanner, so there’s a bit of the side clipped off every page image now. i was so broken up about how much i was losing that i didn’t even change the deviantart images. i know i shouldn’t put stuff on the edges of the page, but i didn’t really register it when i started the comic. i had started to use the whole page, and i put dialogue at the top and off to the sides to give myself more room to draw. i had to erase and redraw a lot of speech bubbles.

then i think i dicked around online for a while, uploading the images and stuff, and then i went downstairs to try to draw on the ipad and maybe finish that picture i’d started. i don’t think it’s going to be a fast picture... i don’t have the energy for shading though.

my brother came home so i said “hi” and “nice anime hair.” his hair is more than twice as long as mine, at least in the front. in the back it’s not quite that much longer. we drove out to freddy’s for dinner and both got real sick from the greasy burgers. he got it worse though because i had a veggie burger. then we got ice cream because we’re geniuses.

then we got groceries but i couldn’t find any tempeh. so tacos are gonna have to wait.

mom came home at 8 pm. she’d been out of the house working or driving to/from work for 13 hours today. she’s going to work for 6 hours tomorrow too. she told me about our my financial situation. but then she gave me a bunch of excuses to not teach me how to do taxes yet again this year.

i gotta start paying off my student loans though. can’t let that interest build up.

villanova apparently blew all my parents’ retirement funds. i didn’t realize they didn’t actually provide us with any financial aid. we couldn’t get loans because of the retirement money... all i managed to do at villanova was almost die!

while i was hanging out with my brother he made a few “jew” jokes. i pretended to be extremely confused. he asked if i’d never heard of jew jokes before and i shrugged and said not really. at least it got him off track. he didn’t tell any more.

i need to read up on how to deal with family members who get... weird about race. my brother’s already made holocaust jokes though. he’s been doing that. i get the feeling he fell in with the wrong crowd. i don’t remember what to do about it.

genevieve seems bored to tears. from the way my family describes her behavior she seems... depressed. she won’t go for walks. she doesn’t leave her bed and doesn’t come when called. she still won’t touch the stairs and she doesn’t spend much time in the backyard. 

i got her to come twice when i called today at least. i had to be really insistent and annoying but she did come over eventually and i highly praised her generosity. that seemed to cheer her up. she wagged her tail and everything. it’s so hot out... maybe tomorrow i can get her to go to the park for a few minutes. we’ll see. 

whenever i try to interact with eve my family, like, tells me how it is with her. like she’s just Like That now and there’s nothing they can do about it. “she won’t go up the stairs. she just won’t.” “she won’t come when we call her. she just looks at us. that’s all she does.” when i called eve my brother actually interrupted me to tell me yet again that she doesn’t come when called.

i got her to come.

when i try to encourage eve to check out the stairs my mother has interrupted me three times to tell me eve won’t go up the stairs. like she doesn’t want me to even try. eve is so lonely. i can tell. she’s bored and lonely. that’s why she’s started chewing up cardboard and stuff left on the floor.

i’m gonna take my work downstairs tomorrow and work in the kitchen i think. 

this evening i tried to start drawing for the comic again. i got one panel done, but IT’S SO HOT HERE. MY HANDS WERE SWEATING BEFORE I COULD EVEN PICK UP THE PENCIL. EVERYTHING GOT SO SMUDGED!!! it’s going to be a real struggle to finish two scenes this week. ten pages... i’ve got three finished already and in my drafts on the comic. so, i need to draw seven pages. i’ll work on it tomorrow if i can. these pages might suffer because of the heat though. i smudged one of the older pages before i could even get it in the scanner. i somehow got graphite on my LEFT hand, which never gets smudgy when i work... it’s always the side of my right hand since i rest it on the paper so it doesn’t shake.

my back really, really hurts. my shoulders and neck also really hurt. i tried stretching, but i didn’t really put a lot of effort into it... i always feel so, like, unable to do things here. unwilling to do things, maybe. lethargic. i didn’t get to meditate yesterday and i’m skipping it tonight because i don’t want to make noise with the guided thing. i’ve been lax about it anyway. i feel so on edge.

when i tried to have lunch at like 10:30 (? i lost track of time) this morning i was immediately very ill. so i ended up not having any food for about 27 hours, if we decide to cut out the leftovers adventure there. i didn’t try to eat again until i went out with my brother. to fast food... only good decisions, folks!!

still feeling super lethargic even though i finished a panel. i’ve got a lot of drawing to do. i hope tomorrow i feel better. on sunday i’m going to the movies with asher, i think. 

you know what i’m probably feeling so low energy because i didn’t eat for so long and also i haven’t slept well in two days. or, really, in a very long time, but especially the last two nights. i still need to talk to mom about finances for, like, hiring a study specialist... i don’t think we’re going to have the money to afford the psychiatrist my therapist recommended. she REALLY wants me to get a second opinion on my meds but i just don’t think it’s a big enough deal to warrant shelling out for full price psychiatrist appointments. that doctor doesn’t take insurance and it’s just... i know how expensive this gets. it’s already expensive enough getting even regular check ups for snoopy.

i hate living here... it’s so dirty and dusty and dilapidated. in my apartment i keep everything pretty orderly and don’t hold on to things i’m not using. or at least, i try not to. i don’t have enough space to hoard random stuff and i don’t get that attached to those things anyway. my mom won’t even throw out old food that nobody ate for the 3 years before it went bad (2 years ago). they’ve been using my room as a storage space while they paint the game room, but that project’s going super slow because they’ve been at it for months now. so now there’s just tons of crap stacked in front of my dresser (so i can’t actually get to the clothes i left here) and you can’t even get to my sister’s door. she’s in korea anyway i guess so that doesn’t matter as much.

ok anyway i’ve been writing for a while now. thanks for listening. i’ve got a lot more sore muscles than just my back and neck and shoulders. maybe i pulled something while sprinting around the airport yesterday, because breathing is a chore and my legs are just... not feelin it. i’m just trying really hard not to get sick. my mom came in my room and coughed all over me without even covering her mouth so it’s like, well, guess i don’t have any control over that either! 

high stakes, no control!!!!!!!!! just how i’m used to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it’s 11:40 arizona time but i know my body thinks it’s way later. i’m so tired. i don’t think i’ll be able to sleep though. guess i should try anyway.

[lordnochybaty]

14. for silverthomas :D

First of all: thank you for asking for silverthomas, I really wanted to play with those two.

Second of all: sorry for the delay, it was written for a week now but I needed more brainpower than sleep-deprived!me possessed to make it at least somewhat readable.

Third of all: I only write drabbles, when I try to write something long. This got a bit out of hand. ;)

14. starting with a kiss meant to be gentle, ending up in passion

John regretted not turning on the radio while he was in the kitchen. He did that yesterday, casually put on some music while he was cooking and then just “forgot” to turn it off so it stayed on as they moved to the living room. The music quietly echoing from the kitchen as Thomas read his book and John tried to work on his laptop. It made the silence slightly less awkward. Even gave them something to talk about once they caught some random bits from the news or the weather forecast.

The situation was incredibly dire if John now considered talking about the weather a huge improvement.

And now he was stuck in the awkward silence even without the inefficient help of the radio. He did plan to do the same trick as yesterday. Pretend it was just him being forgetful. He could live with that. It could become his thing. James would wonder about it when he came back - he knew how John was, acting like he didn’t pay attention, but actually checking everything twice before leaving the room so he didn’t have to hop back into it in a few minutes. But James knew that from back when John was getting used to his prosthesis and hated walking more than necessary. Now it was not a pain at all, he could develop new annoying habits if he wanted to. He could be forgetful if it was useful!

James would see right through it, but maybe he wouldn’t mention it. Maybe, with enough distraction, he would buy the sudden change. John was already vaguely scheming how he would say something about how of course James might be misremembering things after leaving them for so long and James would be distracted by his guilt and John’s advances and John will be able to sneak under the radar. It could work.

Or he could just stop being forgetful once James came back and the horrible silences weren’t there anymore but that risked Thomas noticing and he would not be as easily distracted once he caught up. He was like a bloody hound with a bone once he finally caught a sniff of something going on.

John tried to focus on his laptop instead of working on more evasion schemes, but his thoughts wandered. To be honest, there was little for him to do until he got an e-mail back from Madi, but Thomas was marking the essays and John refused to be trapped in just staring at him as he worked. He really should have put on the bloody music, but Thomas was already back home when John returned and that threw him off so much he forgot. Maybe he really was getting forgetful, that was highly inconvenient.

“Considering how little James talks it’s ridiculous how quiet this house is without him,” Thomas said suddenly with a sigh and John couldn’t help but laugh.

Between the two of them, James always complained he hardly ever got a word edgewise, but it was different when he wasn’t there. They’ve never truly been alone yet, not for so long certainly, not ever since John started dating James and eventually moved in.

“Well, we do usually talk to him… Or at him, really.”

Thomas smirked. “Fair enough. Though I wouldn’t phrase it like that.”

John raised his eyebrow.

“Well, not to his face, obviously.”

Thomas chuckled and raised from the desk, stretching so his white shirt pinned his chest tighter and John cursed himself as his eyes wandered. He wondered if it was late enough for them to stop whatever they were doing while they were waiting for the night to come. Nights were… less awkward.  

Both of them hated sleeping alone and though there were two rooms vaguely considered “John’s” and “Thomas’” - with James moving to whichever he felt like at the time - when they were left alone to their own devices they ended up sharing. John was no longer sure who’s brilliant idea that was, but they were still playing it off as the most rational thing to do. They slept better, they were both there if James randomly called in the middle of the night, pretending he just forgot that time zones were a thing so he wouldn’t have to admit on an insecure line that something went wrong on a mission and he needed to hear them… All beneficial things, far more important than the fact that John was quite possibly going to drive himself insane sneaking looks at Thomas’ body and waking up wrapped around him like a clingy octopus.

“I think I will go for a quick run before sleep, it might help me relax after all the monstrosities I’ve just read,” Thomas gave Silver a small smile and went to the bedroom to change.

Because Thomas in his tight-ass running clothes was exactly what Silver needed to see before turning in.

He focused on responding to an avalanche of messages in his inbox instead and pretended he barely noticed Thomas’ leaving, turning his head only in the last moment to catch the sight of his ass covered in a tight material. It was too good of an opportunity not to take, really.

It was far harder to ignore him when the man came back. Sweating, panting and apparently talking to James on the phone with a bright smile.

“I assure you, you interrupt nothing but my running. If you were interrupting anything more vigorous I would not hesitate to share the details.”

Thomas laughed and walked towards Silver.

“I’ll give you John, I need to shower. Goodnight, love. Come home soon.”

He listened to the short reply with a small smile and passed the phone to John before walking out of the room.

“Did you accidentally remember the right timezone?”

“Did you accidentally remember to charge your phone? No, you fucking didn’t.”

“Awww, did you try calling me first? I’m touched.”

“‘Little Shit’ is above 'Thomas’ on the list.”

“Wow. That hurts. Are you that much of a dick to him as well? 'Cause he was grinning like a loon while talking to you, if you’re that much of an ass to him he might have some serious issues,” John said mock-seriously as if he was not the one grinning madly right now.

“Nah, you’re just special.”

“Awww, are you drunk? Or just sleep deprived?”

“Probably both. I’ve had a minute to call you with a bit of news but then nothing got confirmed, of fucking course,” he sighed. “Still, I thought I would call anyway.”

“You must be really bored. The Navy not a challenge enough for you anymore?”

James chuckled and allowed him to talk nonsense back and forth for a while before he needed to hang up. John slowly got ready for bed, passing the phone to Thomas who was reading in bed by a small light.

He put the book away when John slid next to him.

“Sometimes I think I miss him more after he calls.”

“Yeah,” John agreed with a groan, watching Thomas as he turned towards him.

They looked at each other carefully. Almost as if waiting for another to say or do something. John vaguely thought how Thomas in bed, ready to go to sleep was perhaps the best look for him. Soft and relaxed, smiling slightly… It suited him.

“Goodnight, John,” Thomas finally said, but then paused again for a second, watching John carefully before leaning in to kiss him lightly on the mouth. Gentle, small touch, hardly much more intimate than what they’ve shared snuggling in bed.

Thomas didn’t move away far, gauging John’s reaction.

John pulled him back in, hand fisted in the front of his ridiculous oldfashioned pajamas.

He just needed to let Thomas know that this was okay. He planted another small kiss on the man’s lips, just a response to his action, perfectly measured qui pro quo… but his lips lingered and Thomas pressed on, the hunger sipping into their kiss. Thomas’ tongue pressed for entrance John’s mouth gladly gave, parting on a small moan as Thomas’ body pressed John into the mattress.

John spread his legs to make more space for Thomas and they melted together, hands wandering and grabbing the fabric of their clothes without coherent purpose. John arched his body to press closer and they both groaned at the contact.

Fuck, it was way too fucking long since James left.

Almost as if summoned by his thought the phone rang. They both froze. Thomas’ hand tangled in John’s hair, both of John’s hands somehow already managed to sneak under Thomas’ ridiculous pajama top.

Thomas reached for the phone, answering quickly, his voice slightly breathless.

“Hello?”

“… did you go on another run then?”

Thomas chuckled.

“No, not so much this time.”

John grinned and arched his hips up, causing Thomas to let out a short moan before glaring down at him.

“… Maybe I should call later?” James asked and John could hear his mocking tone even though he was further from the phone.

“Or you could listen in,” Thomas suggested, pressing against John, the hand in his hair tightening and John obediently groaned shamelessly loud.

He grinned as he could hear Flint’s swearing.

“For fuck’s sake, I’m in the middle of the airport.”

Thomas moves stopped immediately.

“Airport? What are you doing at the airport?”

“Well, I was planning to go back home early, if you don’t mind.”

“When? How soon?”

“Not soon enough to join the fun clearly,” grumbled Flint.

“Oh well,” Thomas said, faking lack of care, gasping as he started grinding against John again. “There will always be more fun.”

“I hate the both of you.”

John laughed loud enough to be well heard over the phone along with Thomas.

“I will see you both in the morning.”

“We can’t wait,” singsonged John.

“Yeah, I can hear that,” James grumbled again and ended the connection.

Thomas put the phone away, chuckling and leaning over John to reach the nightstand. He didn’t move back though.

“Shall we wait then?” John asked with a small smirk.

“I think we’ve waited long enough,” Thomas replied bowing his head further to kiss John thoroughly.

Now John didn’t even have an excuse for the shameless moaning, but he hardly needed one. The smug look was quite fetching on Thomas as well.

[bffhreprise]

Entry 323

 As the plane landed, I again found myself considering if there were any possible benefits of making a scene, but my captor’s one-track mind made the hope of rescue implausible.  Despite our similarities in healing, she could easily overpower me, and I suspected that she’d be able to wrestle me out of the airport while avoiding security, assuming there was any.  I was already missing the ability to see.

 Before takeoff, I surmised we were at some sort of private wing of an airport, since the sounds and smells of crowds had diminished significantly.  The plane itself was very comfortable and quite obviously private with an English stewardess and pilot doting on us, likely Lady Pendreigh’s.

 “I’m going to put your disguise back on, so don’t fidget.” stated Portentia, who had an uncanny knack for knowing what I said despite being deaf.  She had told the stewardess not to answer any questions when I merely attempted to find out where we were going.  The pilot had obviously been told not to announce our destination either, merely announcing the descent.  He hadn’t even told us of the weather, though that could be a preference of Lady Pendreigh’s.  Temperature wouldn’t bother her.

 After the “disguise”—a hoodie and sunglasses—was in place to her satisfaction, she ungraciously lifted me to my feet, barely giving me a moment to find the floor before placing my hand on her arm.  I could have easily left the disguise on during our flight, but I felt like a clown in her clothes.  She was taller than me, and that was the cheapest fabric I had ever touched.  Letting her dress me was annoying, but appearing mentally beaten could prove useful in time.

 Once we were in the main part of the airport, I could hear departures being announced, but that didn’t last long enough to make sense of our location.  Portentia already had our luggage on a cart she had wheeled along with us, and she swept me outside in a rush.

 “James!” exclaimed Portentia excitedly, releasing me to run ahead.

 Ah.  So that’s where we landed.  “Hello again, James.” I greeted, guessing his direction from where she ran.

 He didn’t reply, but he didn’t need to.  I wasn’t here because he missed me, but he hadn’t expected me either.

 “Can I keep her?” questioned Portentia in an excited whisper.  Was I a pet to her now?

 “What!?” exclaimed James in surprise.

 “James, let’s discuss this in the car.” called Lady Pendreigh.

 “Lady Pendreigh, I should have known you’d be here as well.” I commented, suspecting she was the one behind my capture.  Having her not bother to collect me herself was irritating.  Even her company was a step up from Portentia’s.

 My hand was placed back on Portentia’s slender arm, and I followed obediently.  Making a scene at this point would cause trouble for James, and Lady Pendreigh might well get violent then.  As meaningless as pain was, I didn’t enjoy it.  Portentia helped me into a vehicle, likely a limousine from my company.

 “What’s this about?” questioned James.

 “I don’t believe I can age, so prison would raise numerous questions.” I explained.  There was a small chance of eventually convincing him to intervene on my behalf.

 “You’re colder than normal.” pointed out Lady Pendreigh.

 “Portentia confiscated all of my tech.  I assured her that some of it was perfectly harmless, but she doesn’t trust me.” I politely replied.

 “No one trusts you.” jabbed Portentia.

 Wishing I could ignore her, I said, “Camila does.  You know they don’t really have enough evidence against her to keep her long.  My lawyers will see to it.”

 “Even a year apart will do you two some good.  Besides, you only have one lawyer left practicing in that area.  We did our research.” insisted Portentia, smiling by her tone.

 “Oh, yes.  The mysterious ‘we’ again.  I can’t imagine that James supplies your intel.” I told her, expecting Lady Pendreigh to gloat over her role.

 “No, he’s my sidekick at times.” stated Portentia giddily.  She certainly was smiling now.

 Sadly, James and Lady Pendreigh both remained silent as Portentia continued to make jabs, which I argued.  Being beaten by a girl of her obviously average intellect was irksome.  I wasn’t going to take her continuous jabs at my character silently.

 “You could seal her away in your vault, James.” suggested Lady Pendreigh after a while.  “Even I couldn’t escape it for a very long time if I ever did manage to figure out those bloody enchantments.”

 “Coarse as ever.” I teased to cover my concern.  If Lady Pendreigh couldn’t escape from his vault, I couldn’t.  I had no doubt.  Yes, I could attack the walls for a thousand years, but a single punch from her was worth a year of mine easily.  The difference in force was incredible according to my intel on her.

 “I wouldn’t want any of my collection damaged when Maxine grew bored.” commented James as if he actually considered the idea.

 “Maybe I should keep her under my personal supervision.” suggested Lady Pendreigh jokingly, though I doubted she actually joked at all.

 “Oh, yes.  That would be marvelous.  I’m sure neither of us would grow bored, even when you’re old and gray.” I told her, honestly thinking the idea might be preferable than remaining near Portentia.

 “Funny, but I don’t seem to age either.  We’ll have a very long relationship.” replied Lady Pendreigh with a hint of mirth still in her voice.

 I couldn’t hide my dismay as I said, “This is the most insufferable run of bad luck in history.”

 “Maxine’s used to being lucky.  Very lucky.  I think… we may be opposites in that regard.” suggested Portentia.

“Do things really go wrong for Portentia all the time?” I questioned.  “Some of the stories she told me seem highly improbable.”

 “No.  Portentia’s learned to be meticulous in many areas to avoid problems in advance.” insisted James, verifying Portentia’s terrible luck.

 Some of the incidents involving my drones had made me scream in frustration, such as when an umbrella had been caught by the wind at the precise moment needed to send it flying into one drone that ended up shooting another as it tilted

 “I help too, Master.” came a familiar voice.

 “That voice… you’re the mysterious informant.” I commented, hoping to find out the mastermind behind Portentia’s “heroics”.

 “I’m the one who crippled your communication throughout the city and performed the DDoS attacks against you.” happily replied the voice.  “You are a skilled techie for a near-human.  Mother found your attempts to fight me adorable.”

 “And who’s your mother?” I questioned, curiosity peaked.  Without my servers being crippled, Portentia would have had a much greater arsenal to face.

 “Aaliyah T. Sypher.” came the reply.

 “What?  That child!?” I exclaimed in complete disbelief.

 “I’m an artificial intelligence designed by Aaliyah to assist James in all his needs.  The Master allows me enough free time to aid in other endeavors as well.” explained the voice.

 “What?  You’re a machine?” I inquired, disbelief giving way to wonder.  Ancient Tribes of Earth was a completely uncrackable game generations beyond anything else in terms of immersion, graphics, complete lack of lag, and unhackable systems.  The child genius who created it might actually be capable of creating a sentient program.  That could explain the lifelike nature of the NPCs in the game.

 “You’re hearing my voice from an android body that was a joint project between mother, Jarod, and me.  The upgraded versions will be deployed in the near future.  When we arrive, you should thank Jarod for his part in your machines.” playfully suggested the A.I.

 “I suspected he was the one after I saw some of his car designs.  He’s very gifted.” I freely admitted.  Without his help, my suit would have taken far longer to create.

 “He also designed the physical part of Calamity’s enhancement suit.  The Master handled the magical end.” she continued, sounding flirtatious when she spoke of James.

 Forcing a smile, I said, “Camila would love to learn from you, James.  She was quite confused by how Portentia seemed to ignore her spells.”  Both of us were.  Camila was completely incapable of helping in our fights, despite her best efforts.

 “I’ve seen Camila’s attempt at spells.  She lacks the capacity to even understand James’ enchantment, much less cast it.” insisted Lady Pendreigh snidely.

 “Disappointing, but understandable.  The little escape trick James pulled on me was extraordinary by itself.” I admitted, remembering how shocked Camila had been when I told her of it.

 As the drive continued, I had plenty of time to consider ways of tricking Aaliyah into telling me more about her designs.  Speaking plainly, I was a genius of considerable prowess at code and engineering, but I hadn’t even bothered attempting to create a sentient machine, especially not one with such obvious personality.  Listening to this Mila talk, I’d have never guessed she wasn’t human.

[movby-blog]

New Post has been published on http://travel.movby.org/latest-travel-blogs/goa-india-summer-sun-palm-trees-endless-beaches/

Goa India - summer, sun, palm trees & endless beaches

Goa India is the perfect entry point for an India premiere.

Because Goa is different from all the other places I visited during my Rajasthan tour. Where in the 60s hippies and dropouts romped, lure beautiful beaches, cozy bungalows with sea views and chilled cafes and restaurants. Poverty, dirt and chaos like in Delhi I have not experienced in this smallest Indian state. And also the people are different here, not so unpleasantly curious or even intrusive, because they are used to tourists. Indian and Western influences merge here into a diverse, exciting mix. The south of Goa India – the right choice for those seeking peace Dreamy, wide and very clean beaches paired with homely wooden huts, from which you can look directly at the seemingly endless sea, characterize the image of South Goa. Early in the morning, when the first sunlight reaches the west side of India, the mood is especially beautiful and peaceful. Then even the water is warmer than the air. Again and again my eyes are on yoga classes or individual yogis, who greet the morning with the sound of the sea. Or the patient fishermen hoping for a great catch. It is striking that the people here including the hotel employees are more restrained than, for example, in Rajasthan. This is very accommodating to me because the constant answer to the classic questions about “Where are you from?”, “What are you working on?”, “Are you married?” Was getting a bit annoying.

Agonda – the quietest and most animal beach of Goa

One of the few places in Goa that does not allow music at night is Agonda. For me, as a peace seeker without knowing it before, a direct hit. The small, manageable place consists of a single street, lined up with many ramschige, but also some nice shops, restaurants, cafes and small Ayurveda centers. For a taxi from Goa airport here you pay 1,900 rupees. Inform yourself first in your accommodation. It may offer you a cheaper price than the fixed fares at the airport. The beach is never really busy. Until the evening, when the surrounding hotels provide their food leftovers to the hungry cows of the area. Then it is sometimes fought with the use of sharp horns. A crazy spectacle, cows on the beach and in the sand to see! The only negative side effect is the smell of waste, which is then in the air. But I have to admit, I have a very sensitive nose. Others do not seem to have disturbed that. My days here in southern Goa I spend in Jardim a Mar in a simple, but clean bungalow with partial sea view. The relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant with its comfortable lounge furniture I find very relaxing. After the sometimes hectic and loud Udaipur a real treat. The bell-shaped parasols make it easy to laze around. And what could be better than to start the day with this view and a delicious breakfast ?! Incidentally, you can also visit the restaurant as a non-logging guest. The Indian dishes and juices are really highly recommended. My favorite café for any time of the day is Zest. “Powered by plants” can be read on the employees’ T-shirts. Vegetarian and Vegan are therefore also on the menu. For just 70 cents you get a fresh coconut, for 1.50 euros a Capucchino. I especially liked the Coconut Chai Latte, the colorful Pink Smoothie Bowl for breakfast and the Nourish Bowl for dinner. In any case you will be well fed, even with pizza, pasta and healthy smoothies.

More pretty beaches in the south of Goa India

To explore the area, I recommend renting a scooter. But you actually need a driver’s license. I own one, but nobody has checked it yet. A scooter costs around 350 rupees per day without gasoline. Cola Beach A fantastically idyllic beach is the Cola Beach north of Agonda. With the scooter you need about 15 minutes. There is no signage, so check out the route on Google Maps, so as not to miss the turn to the left or ask for directions. A bumpy path then leads you to a small parking lot. From here it goes down to the beach. Again and again gaps in the bushes clear the view of this hidden oasis. The pretty wooden bungalows on the palm-fringed lagoon immediately make me want to move in here. Wonderful peace prevails in this remote little paradise. Only a few restaurants, which are part of the accommodations, provide some life. Picturesque are also the huts, which promise a direct sea view on a small hill above the beach. Walk along the beach, and you will reach a secluded bay, which I personally find much more beautiful than the wide beaches of Goa. Here you can really stand it. So if you’re looking for seclusion and tranquility for a few days, Cola Beach is the place to be.

Galgibaga Beach

Another panorama, which does not correspond to the classical picture of Goa, is the Galgibaga Beach in the south of Agonda. You are looking for palms here in vain. For a dense pine forest borders directly on the fine-grained, kilometer-long sandy beach. Due to its immense width, the people in front of the sea seem tiny like ants. The bored-looking lifeguard has laid his feet up relaxed in his cobbled, shady hut. He will probably not have many wagers with the few visitors. Here you can spend a few days in one of the nice guesthouses. After the somewhat tiring scooter ride here (is always tedious when you’re alone and always has to ask for the way or search) I would really like to awaken my spirits with a fresh coconut or a freshly squeezed watermelon juice, but currently has the power out , So unfortunately no vitamin-rich refreshment for me. Well, then it goes on or back with a stop in the most famous place South Goa.

Palolem Beach

At Palolem Beach I try my luck again. But here in vain. The electricity was also canceled here. I wonder why fan and TV are running well. Compared to Agonda here is much more going on. There are no free spaces in the row of colorful beach huts and restaurants. Many fishing boats are waiting for their deployment. In between, cows keep their siesta, dogs are looking for something to eat. Although this beach, located between wooded headlands, is also very wide and the visitors spread very well, I’m in this place clearly too much going on, and I prefer to flee into my manageable Agonda. But if you’re more into nightlife and more action, then you’re in the right place.

The north of Goa India – animated hippie lifestyle

From the south to the north, a taxi takes me past cashew plantations, colorful Portuguese colonial houses, and houseboats in the lagoons. I feel a bit relocated to Sri Lanka, especially because of the incredible number of beautiful palm trees. Unconsciously, I also chose a place to stay on a quieter beach in the north: the Anahata Retreat on Palolem Beach. The restaurant in the sand with its shady sails, white ball lamps and wooden seating gives a cool, relaxed beach feeling. My frontline bungalow leaves nothing to be desired: Here you can dodge in the evening in the sound of the waves in deep dreams and in the morning to greet the day with the sea view.

The 16 bungalows are built of natural woods of the environment (mango, coconut, bamboo), nestled in the beautiful lush nature. Yoga retreats with or without Ayurveda are offered, but even if you are not a yogi, you will feel very comfortable here. Starting next year, activities such as surfing, stand-up paddling or kayaking will also be offered. Incidentally, Anahata means chaka of the heart and consciousness. Ashwem Beach has both: quiet and party. But here in the northern part it is quieter. The crowd is mixed, but especially Russians seem to like it here. In contrast, some hippies keep Goa’s past alive. Rasta hair, unabashed, sunbathing “topless” and supposedly particularly stylishly dressed men leave me a little smile.

Indian and international delicacies

In the restaurant are above all healthy and excerpts from the western kitchen on the menu. Smoothies, crunchy salads, pasta, vegetables, pizza or fresh fish, the choice is yours. I especially enjoyed the vegan plate with falafel and beetroot humus very much. Also at breakfast you can expect a variety of delicacies. At the buffet you can enjoy a super healthy cereal made from fresh fruit, coconut and roasted seeds, including watermelon seeds. On order eggs, pancakes or Indian breakfast are prepared. All this is also available in vegan form. For lunch and dinner you can choose between fresh fish, pizza, salads or even Indian snacks. My vegan plate of falafel, beetroot humus, vegetable cookies and quinoa is a tasty, mild change from the usually spicy, Indian cuisine. However, if you are in the mood for Indian dishes, I can recommend L’Amore to you a few more hotels. It sounds Italian, and there are some pasta dishes, but the main part of the menu is Indian. Here I have eaten my beloved Palak Paneer (cheese in spinach sauce) and Garlic Naan (garlic bread) with pleasure. With the scooter to the (almost) paradisiacal beach To explore the area on my own, I rent a scooter for a day. Here, however, he costs 500 rupees. Everything seems a bit more expensive than in the south. My destination: Paradise Beach in Maharashtra, the state north of Goa. If you enter it on Google, but two appear. The upper one is also nice, but not really exceptional. The right one is at Redi Beach. The first impression is already fantastic: turquoise waters in all shades, sandbars rising out of the sea as islands and sun full. Really Wow! On closer inspection, however, you can see a lot of garbage. Since it is a public beach, it is of course not cleaned. The water, however, is wonderfully clear and wonderfully refreshing. I can not resist the temptation to climb the already rusty Baywatch stand. The view from up here, while a fresh sea breeze blows around my nose, is fantastic! Below, a cow walks leisurely, accompanied by a horde of great dogs.

Arambol & Mandrem – recommended for a short stop On the way back, I make a short stop in Arambol and Mandrem. Small places that offer opportunities for shopping and eating. In Arambol I can recommend the Body & Soul Health Kitchen next to the Surf Club. Arambol has become a haven for backpackers and creatives, often spending a few weeks or months here. The locals like to move out of their houses out of the city and earn good money by renting. A super massage, which does not reach the Ayurveda Sri Lanka cure or our Maldivian holiday, but is still very good, you get in the Shanti Spa. An hour costs Rs. 1,300, and in the adjoining shop you can find pretty colorful clothes not just for the beach. Shanti is very dedicated and deals with individual problem areas. For example, I got the hot stamp for my back pain. The beach of Arambol is similar to that of Ashwem as well as the one in Mandrem. So here you will not miss anything if you do not leave your cozy lounger in Anahata. By the way, there is a clear difference to the south, that there are several beach vendors, who first send you into a conversation and then sell you something. Chains, henna tattoos, shawls, coconuts … I just lay on my couch for two minutes when I was already besieged by them. A bit exhausting. Goa India – a healty, relaxed world in India Goa is definitely a great place in India for a few wonderful days on the beach. So many bungalows in all variations right on the sea, you probably hardly anywhere else. Whether on a quiet beach or with a bit more action and excitement, on the seemingly endless kilometers of beach Goa you will find your perfect place.

Have you been to Goa before? Then leave us a comment and share your favorite places with us!

  The post Goa India – Summer, Sun, Palm Trees & Endless Beaches first appeared on Good Morning World.

[itviconsultants]

5 reasons the Galaxy S8 will make you ditch your iPhone

The Samsung Galaxy S8 has taken the tech industry by storm as the best Android smartphone you can buy. The display is gorgeous, the design is unmatched and the performance is top notch. The Galaxy S8 finally delivered everything I needed to cut the Apple cord and jump ship to an Android smartphone. I do miss iMessage, but there's enough about the Galaxy S8 to soothe the loss of Apple's simple and seamless messaging app. Here are five reasons why I made the switch from iOS to Android and I'm not looking back. Subtle notifications Coming from iOS, notifications included floating pop-ups and angry red badges that judgmentally showcased my growing pile of unread emails. These notifications overwhelmed and annoyed. I'd turn the badges off, or shuffle the app to another page so I wouldn't have to stare at it anymore. My lock screen became a jumbled mix of stacked notifications -- something to ignore as I unlocked the display. It's safe to say my iPhone never became a cornerstone of productivity. But the Galaxy S8 finally makes my smartphone a productive device -- one that I can customize to my preference. And I've finally stopped ignoring notifications. The traditional notifications are clean and minimal, but the Edge notifications are the real treat. With Edge notifications, you'll see a thin, unobtrusive bubble at the top of the display while a blue light that gracefully dances around the edges of the display. It's enough to notice you have a new alert, but not so much that I'm forced to turn on "Do Not Disturb" just to get through a YouTube video. Meanwhile, I can avoid clutter on my lock screen and "always on display" by relying on simple icons that expand with a tap to show all notifications for that one app. On the home screen, I can include widgets and sticky notes that make it impossible for me to avoid my to-do list or reminders. I spent years carrying around two-inch Sticky Notes that I'd tack on to my iPhone display if I needed to remember something important. At least on my S8, the sticky notes won't fall off. In the past, Apple offered enough in hardware and software to let me overlook the absurdity of applying physical sticky notes to a digital device, but not anymore. [ Related story: How to switch from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy S8 ] Touchwiz TouchWiz, the notorious Samsung Android skin, died in late 2016, and emerged from the ashes as Samsung Experience. That might sound dramatic, but it's fitting for the dramatic change to Samsung's UI. In the past, TouchWiz was consistently one of the worst features on any Samsung Galaxy device -- each passing year saw incremental gains to the UI, but most users turned to launchers. The Galaxy S8 is the first Samsung device that won't have you running to the Google Play store to download Nova Launcher right out of the box. Gone are the complex menus, cartoon-like app icons, obnoxious notifications and a confusing mess of duplicate Samsung apps you couldn't delete. You can uninstall most of Samsung's apps, and for certain apps -- like reminders and weather -- you won't even find an icon in your app drawer unless you enable it within the app. And don't be surprised if you find yourself turning to Samsung's native apps, which now have simple, minimalist designs. They're all aesthetically pleasing and I prefer the Samsung email and calendar apps over the Google counterparts. In fact, I like a lot about Samsung Experience over stock Android -- something I never thought I'd say. [ Related story: Enterprise showdown: 5 ways the iPhone beats the Galaxy S8 ] Wireless and fast charging The battery on the S8 isn't anything spectacular. It's about the same as the Galaxy S7, but software improvements and a more efficient processor make it slightly more resilient. I've used the S8 as my main device for a few weeks and I've made peace with the battery. I can get through most of the day on a full charge, but need to top it off if I plan to go out at night. I use typical battery draining apps like Facebook Messenger and Snapchat and I keep my Bluetooth on for most of the day so I can easily connect to a Bluetooth speaker to stream Spotify. The battery manager on my device averages about 10 hours of use every day, and that feels about right. What's most surprising about the battery is how fast it charges. You can get a full charge on a nearly drained battery in under two hours. I try to remember to always charge my phone about 30 minutes before I need to leave the house. With the Galaxy S8, that's more than enough to get a solid charge. Not only is the fast charge incredibly convenient, but with wireless charging, it's easier than ever to find a spot to juice up out in the wild -- whether at a Starbucks or an Airport. The battery doesn't need to do more than it does, because it's easier to gas up on the go. The iPhone still doesn't have either of these features, which made my decision to switch even easier. [ Related story: A deeper look at Samsung's Galaxy S8 ] Headphone jack Jason Cross/IDG I'll never understand how Apple got away with removing the headphone jack on the iPhone 7, but it was the final nail in the coffin for me. I use headphones when I travel and I like to keep my phone charged while I kill time in airports, train stations and bus stops. Bluetooth and audio streaming are notorious battery drainers, and when you're on the road, every percent counts when you're not sure when you'll get your next charge. I'm not a fan of adapters because I always forget them, which is probably easy to imagine for someone who needs physical sticky notes on a mobile device. Also, quality Bluetooth headphones are expensive, and Apple's Air Pods are comically easy to lose -- they look like a case of dental floss. I'd give myself two weeks before accidentally tossing them into the trash. Even in a world where I am organized enough to hang on to $150 ear buds, I'd still be faced with Bluetooth. I don't think Bluetooth is where it needs to be to completely replace wired headphones. I'm sure as Bluetooth 5.0 becomes the standard it will become a non-issue and compatible ear buds will be more affordable and replaceable. But for now, I prefer to plug in via the 3.5mm stereo jack. Refreshing design I like iOS, but it's getting boring, Every year it's the same icons, layout and general functionality. Add that to tired, repetitive designs and Android looks better and better. I looked at the iPhone 7 Plus and the Galaxy S8 side by side, and knew I wouldn't be able to stand not having something close to the S8's OLED Infinity Display for two years. Some people might not care about this, which I understand. Not everyone cares about technology the same way not everyone cares about sports or fashion. You might watch the playoffs or buy a few trendy pieces for your closet, but that's where the fascination ends. There's nothing wrong with buying a reliable, well-known and highly regarded device like the iPhone, especially if you want to turn it on and never worry about it again. But that's not me. I remember every cellphone I've had since my first Nokia in 2003. I've always been fascinated by cellphone and smartphone design. Every new release brought improvements in hardware, software and new features like color displays and physical keyboards. And then I got my iPhone 4. Since then, each year has brought incremental changes in hardware and software, always dependable and reliable updates, but never anything as exciting as the Galaxy S8. My smartphone feels fun again. Samsung set a new standard and I'm excited to see how other manufacturers -- especially Apple -- respond. Technology is always at its best when there's healthy competition pushing both sides, and Samsung has finally upped the ante. Related Video To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here http://dlvr.it/P3cPW1 #CIO #ITStrategy

[brianlichtig]

5 reasons the Galaxy S8 will make you ditch your iPhone

The Samsung Galaxy S8 has taken the tech industry by storm as the best Android smartphone you can buy. The display is gorgeous, the design is unmatched and the performance is top notch. The Galaxy S8 finally delivered everything I needed to cut the Apple cord and jump ship to an Android smartphone.

I do miss iMessage, but there's enough about the Galaxy S8 to soothe the loss of Apple's simple and seamless messaging app. Here are five reasons why I made the switch from iOS to Android and I'm not looking back.

Subtle notifications

Coming from iOS, notifications included floating pop-ups and angry red badges that judgmentally showcased my growing pile of unread emails. These notifications overwhelmed and annoyed. I'd turn the badges off, or shuffle the app to another page so I wouldn't have to stare at it anymore. My lock screen became a jumbled mix of stacked notifications -- something to ignore as I unlocked the display. It's safe to say my iPhone never became a cornerstone of productivity.

But the Galaxy S8 finally makes my smartphone a productive device -- one that I can customize to my preference. And I've finally stopped ignoring notifications. The traditional notifications are clean and minimal, but the Edge notifications are the real treat. With Edge notifications, you'll see a thin, unobtrusive bubble at the top of the display while a blue light that gracefully dances around the edges of the display. It's enough to notice you have a new alert, but not so much that I'm forced to turn on "Do Not Disturb" just to get through a YouTube video.

Meanwhile, I can avoid clutter on my lock screen and "always on display" by relying on simple icons that expand with a tap to show all notifications for that one app. On the home screen, I can include widgets and sticky notes that make it impossible for me to avoid my to-do list or reminders.

I spent years carrying around two-inch Sticky Notes that I'd tack on to my iPhone display if I needed to remember something important. At least on my S8, the sticky notes won't fall off. In the past, Apple offered enough in hardware and software to let me overlook the absurdity of applying physical sticky notes to a digital device, but not anymore.

[ Related story: How to switch from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy S8 ]

Touchwiz

TouchWiz, the notorious Samsung Android skin, died in late 2016, and emerged from the ashes as Samsung Experience. That might sound dramatic, but it's fitting for the dramatic change to Samsung's UI. In the past, TouchWiz was consistently one of the worst features on any Samsung Galaxy device -- each passing year saw incremental gains to the UI, but most users turned to launchers.

The Galaxy S8 is the first Samsung device that won't have you running to the Google Play store to download Nova Launcher right out of the box. Gone are the complex menus, cartoon-like app icons, obnoxious notifications and a confusing mess of duplicate Samsung apps you couldn't delete.

You can uninstall most of Samsung's apps, and for certain apps -- like reminders and weather -- you won't even find an icon in your app drawer unless you enable it within the app. And don't be surprised if you find yourself turning to Samsung's native apps, which now have simple, minimalist designs. They're all aesthetically pleasing and I prefer the Samsung email and calendar apps over the Google counterparts. In fact, I like a lot about Samsung Experience over stock Android -- something I never thought I'd say.

[ Related story: Enterprise showdown: 5 ways the iPhone beats the Galaxy S8 ]

Wireless and fast charging

The battery on the S8 isn't anything spectacular. It's about the same as the Galaxy S7, but software improvements and a more efficient processor make it slightly more resilient. I've used the S8 as my main device for a few weeks and I've made peace with the battery. I can get through most of the day on a full charge, but need to top it off if I plan to go out at night.

I use typical battery draining apps like Facebook Messenger and Snapchat and I keep my Bluetooth on for most of the day so I can easily connect to a Bluetooth speaker to stream Spotify. The battery manager on my device averages about 10 hours of use every day, and that feels about right.

What's most surprising about the battery is how fast it charges. You can get a full charge on a nearly drained battery in under two hours. I try to remember to always charge my phone about 30 minutes before I need to leave the house. With the Galaxy S8, that's more than enough to get a solid charge.

Not only is the fast charge incredibly convenient, but with wireless charging, it's easier than ever to find a spot to juice up out in the wild -- whether at a Starbucks or an Airport. The battery doesn't need to do more than it does, because it's easier to gas up on the go. The iPhone still doesn't have either of these features, which made my decision to switch even easier.

[ Related story: A deeper look at Samsung's Galaxy S8 ]

Headphone jack

Jason Cross/IDG

I'll never understand how Apple got away with removing the headphone jack on the iPhone 7, but it was the final nail in the coffin for me. I use headphones when I travel and I like to keep my phone charged while I kill time in airports, train stations and bus stops. Bluetooth and audio streaming are notorious battery drainers, and when you're on the road, every percent counts when you're not sure when you'll get your next charge.

I'm not a fan of adapters because I always forget them, which is probably easy to imagine for someone who needs physical sticky notes on a mobile device. Also, quality Bluetooth headphones are expensive, and Apple's Air Pods are comically easy to lose -- they look like a case of dental floss. I'd give myself two weeks before accidentally tossing them into the trash.

Even in a world where I am organized enough to hang on to $150 ear buds, I'd still be faced with Bluetooth. I don't think Bluetooth is where it needs to be to completely replace wired headphones. I'm sure as Bluetooth 5.0 becomes the standard it will become a non-issue and compatible ear buds will be more affordable and replaceable. But for now, I prefer to plug in via the 3.5mm stereo jack.

Refreshing design

I like iOS, but it's getting boring, Every year it's the same icons, layout and general functionality. Add that to tired, repetitive designs and Android looks better and better. I looked at the iPhone 7 Plus and the Galaxy S8 side by side, and knew I wouldn't be able to stand not having something close to the S8's OLED Infinity Display for two years.

Some people might not care about this, which I understand. Not everyone cares about technology the same way not everyone cares about sports or fashion. You might watch the playoffs or buy a few trendy pieces for your closet, but that's where the fascination ends. There's nothing wrong with buying a reliable, well-known and highly regarded device like the iPhone, especially if you want to turn it on and never worry about it again. But that's not me.

I remember every cellphone I've had since my first Nokia in 2003. I've always been fascinated by cellphone and smartphone design. Every new release brought improvements in hardware, software and new features like color displays and physical keyboards. And then I got my iPhone 4. Since then, each year has brought incremental changes in hardware and software, always dependable and reliable updates, but never anything as exciting as the Galaxy S8.

My smartphone feels fun again. Samsung set a new standard and I'm excited to see how other manufacturers -- especially Apple -- respond. Technology is always at its best when there's healthy competition pushing both sides, and Samsung has finally upped the ante.

Related Video

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

from CIO http://www.cio.com/article/3194410/smartphones/5-reasons-the-galaxy-s8-will-make-you-ditch-your-iphone.html#tk.rss_all Baltimore IT Support