#the way he went from a solid 5 to a 10 after a single Google search

[synintheraven]

Remember when I joked about turning into a Finan girl with a healthy crush on Ragnar The Younger? Well uhm I found out last night that rl Ragnar aka Tobias is 1.90 cm tall which in my mind is like if you were to tell me he's a norse God reborn so yeah nvm guys I'm a Ragnar girlie now 🤪

Long story short: said I had a crush on Ragnar as a joke but I don't think it's a joke anymore *insert that tiktok audio here* - but also, Kyra (me) sold her soul for a tall man when she's no taller than an oompa loompa

[anthonycrowleymoved]

HAIR SURVEY RESULTS TWO: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

i know this was a long time coming. without further ado, i’m going to show you the final scores. then, if you so choose, you can go in and see my ~further analysis and information~ as well as other details and a comparison of lev’s earlier survey.

SO. here’s how it worked. i had a total of 561 people rank 16 of crowley’s hairstyles. i wanted people to rank the hairstyles to see if the results differed from when people were asked what their favorite overall style was. each person who gave a hairstyle a ranking of 1 contributed 16 points towards that style, 2 contributed 15 points, and so on. this means the lowest possible score a Look™ can get is 561, and the highest is 8976 (16 x 561)

OFFICIAL RANKINGS:

1. 2012 BUN - 7965

2. GOLGOTHA - 7108

3. PRESENT DAY - 7060

4. 2007 HAIR - 6988

5. MESOPOTAMIA - 6820

6. EDEN - 5547

7. 1941 (CHURCH SCENE) - 5406

8. 1967 - 4644

9. 2012 NANNY - 4146

10. BOOK!CROWLEY - 3650

11. 1970s - 3408

12. 33 AD (ROME) - 3040

13. 1601 (SHAKESPEARE) - 2770

14. 541 AD (KNIGHTS) - 2751

15. 1862 - 2708

16. 1793 (FRENCH REVOLUTION) - 2477

DISCUSSION OF OVERALL RESULTS

graphic representation of all of the results, in descending order. as you can see, bun was the runaway lead, with the next four highest scoring looks™ pretty close together. similarly, the shakespeare look, knight look, and sideburn look are all similarly hated.

fig. 2: scores sorted by in-universe order of appearance. i think it’s interesting to look at this and see that there seems to be....sort of a trend. in general people seem to like the very early looks and the very modern looks, with the lowest scoring looks all clumped together.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

now, i’d like to discuss the individual breakdown of each look™, to determine how universally it was liked or disliked, or alternately the distribution of votes 

eden

eden had an average score of 9.89. people seemed pretty middle of the road on this look, with the occasional person either loving it or hating it. it’s a lot more divisive than a lot of his hairstyles for sure. (me, i personally thought it verged a bit into ‘bad wig’ territory, and i did see a couple people thinking the same)

mesopotamia

i was kind of surprised by this one being as low as it was! obviously it was in that grouping of popular hairstyles, but i feel like the general consensus you read on here is that this is the fan favorite. apparently not so. the average score was 12.16, however, which, not bad. people in general did tend to like this look, obviously, with a few holdouts scattered about

golgotha

fun fact! this is my personal favorite because, the headscarf. my god. iconic. and apparently y’all agree! it eeked out second place with an average score of 12.67

rome

so this is the first. not great look. people don’t seem to be crazy about this one. it had an average score of 5.41

knight look

“oh maggie why is this even here we can’t see his hair” It’s My Survey And I Get To Choose The Looks. but anyway. no one liked this. seriously. this is the first one that didn’t get a single person to give it the top spot. average score was 4.903, which also isn’t great.

1601

look, i know you’re supposed to be unbiased or whatever, but this is a tumblr survey and none of this matters. i hate this look. i hate it so much i often forget it exists out of self preservation. even now as i type this i know if i scroll up i’ll see that terrible facial hair, and i saw it like a minute ago when i uploaded the picture, but i can’t for the life of me remember what it looks like because my brain has put up a protective barrier. you all seem to agree with me, as the average score of this is just 4.94. excellent taste all around

1793

LAST PLACE. i don’t completely. GET. the hatred of this one. i found it to be. very middle of the road. fine i suppose. but the people have spoken with an average score of just 4.42. so what do i know

1862

another one no one said was their favorite. i mean. fair. this one had an average of 4.83, and many people said this was his most heterosexual look, and i agree. bad. 

1941

this one seemed to be a bit middle of the road for people, which is kind of understandable. it’s a great hat, but i get that people like the more dramatique™ looks better. had an average score of 9.64, so like. not bad

1967

now this one was ALLLLL over the place. people love it, people hate it, people are indifferent. average score was 8.28, which, again, shows how split this one was. i for one welcome john lennon and joyce byers’ demon lovechild.

1970s

i’m so mad. average score was 6.07. this is my second favorite hairstyle overall. yes, seriously. anyway you all are wrong and that’s all i have to say about that have a good night

1990s

people kept asking me why i included the illustration from the modern cover of the book, and the primary reason was because i thought it would be funny, which is why i do most things. i also was kind of wondering what people would do with it, and the answer is seemingly ‘question why it was there.’ i wish there was a way i could have included ‘your own personal headcanon for what he looked like while reading the book,’ but alas this is as close as i could get. average score was 6.51. the people who gave said this was their favorite are my heroes, and one person described him as looking like an insurance salesman, which like. thank you from the bottom of my heart

2007

yeah. okay. i nicknamed this one ‘cursed’ in my master list. i don’t get it. i’m so sorry. i am like, the singular holdout who just can’t stand this hair. but i am very much in the minority, everyone else seems to love it. average score was 12.46. good for you, 2007 crowley. i will never understand you

2012 (Nanny)

this is the last....not great look. again, a bit all over the place. average score was 7.39.

2012 (Bun)

i LOVE this hairstyle, but i was blown away by how high it was on lev’s poll and i’m blown away again with how high it is here. i just feel like we collectively never talk about how much we love the bun look, and then when we’re asked we go feral. this had an average score of 14.19. how. gender, indeed.

present

ahhh, the classic tennant hair. a solid look. no one really seems to dislike it, it’s just. not everyone’s top spot. there’s nothing offensive about it, clearly, but i don’t think it sets anyone off like some of the other top contenders. and i’m slightly surprised how little we talk about this hairstyle considering how popular it is (and i get it, he looks like every lesbian i’ve ever had a crush on who was painfully out of my league), but again, that might be because it’s Tennant Classic™. average score was 12.58.

LEV DYKEIEL’S RESULTS VERSUS MAGGIE ANTHONYCROWLEY’S RESULTS: A BRIEF ANALYSIS

the main reason i wanted to do this in the first place was to see if the results changed at all from lev’s survey when i asked people to rank their choices rather than just choose their favorite. the answer is actually like, kind of! not majorly, but a bit. the comparison as it stands without the entries that did not appear on both lists:

if you want to see the changes more easily, i’ve done some color coding here:

as you can see, there were definitely some shifts, but what i’d like to focus on is the change in rank of the golgotha hair, the two that came in last place, and the sixties and seventies looks. for the golgotha hair, i suspect that because it was so close to the mesopotamia hair, the vote may have been split a bit, whereas here you could have realistically given both a good score. lev also said that in their results, after the 2012 bun look, 2007, present, and mesopotamia were kind of always in a bit of a tie with each other, whereas this was the case with mine with the addition of the golgotha hair. taking that into consideration i think it’s interesting that that one ended up getting second place. 

i also think it’s interesting that france wasn’t in last place on lev’s poll, because there’s such a huge difference in points between the sideburn look and the french revolution look according to my numbers. however, as i said before, no one actually picked sideburns as their favorite on this survey, but there were a couple of people who like, loved the revolution hair. i think that may have ended up giving lev and i slightly different results, as the revolution hair is like ‘you either really love it for some reason (rare) or despise it’ and the 1860s hair is like ‘you either hate it or you’re lukewarm about it’. 

similarly, the shift in rank in both the sixties and seventies looks is also interesting, because they both moved kind of significantly. i think the 60s look changed because, as i said, it seemed to be a pretty divisive look. people don’t seem to be agreed on how much they like it, so there are people really Into It who voted it as their favorite on lev’s, but there are also people who HATE IT. i think something sort of similar happened with the 70s look in the opposite direction. i think not many people LOVE it, but a lot of people kind it not to be like, the worst one. as a result it went up a bit because, while few people consider it their favorite (can’t relate), a few people were like ‘okay it’s fun’ and ranked it semi-high, or at least there was more of a distribution than some of the more hated looks. also it’s almost 2 am i hope this analysis makes sense because words. the english language.

ANYWAY THOSE ARE MY RESULTS I KNOW I PROMISED TABLEAU GRAPHICS BUT I FORGOT I NO LONGER HAVE A LICENSE FOR THAT BECAUSE I GRADUATED AND ALSO IT LOOKS FINE WITH THE GOOGLE GRAPHICS AND I DON’T WANT TO MAKE MY LIFE HARDER COOL BYE!

[meganharperr-blog]

COVID-19 Day 3

Why did I start on day 3 you might ask? Well day 1 was reserved for crying, self pity, deep bouts of depression, restless anxiety, and a shit ton of edibles. Day 2 was consumed by coming up with a plan. So let’s back track to what I can remember about those days and the questions I have been asked:

1.  What made you get tested? Did you have symptoms? I very honestly get routine tests. If I am exposed to larger groups of people than my norm, I get tested. If I have a bunch of makeup gigs, I get tested. I get tested for my clients and customers. It is my moral obligation and civil duty to make sure I am 100% healthy to perform justifiably in all the fields I conduct business…which is a vast amount of service based income. I am a makeup artist, and Esthetician, and a Bartender. I either have my hands physically on someone or I am serving masses of people at a given time. Now doing all of this I have become insanely hyper aware of sanitation. In my studio I have Clorox wipes at arms reach, I sanitize with Barbicide and I am Barbicide certified, all sheets and blankets get washed after every client, and if you have had your makeup done by me before you know I wont use the same brush twice and it must be sanitized in-between clients. This has all been second nature to me for years. So when I had a bunch of photoshoots and clients on the books I knew it was time to get tested for peace of mind. Only a week and 1/2 after my last COVID test. The only thing I can even consider a symptom would be the night before I had a headache. I took Advil and it went away no problem. I was also on my cycle and having cramps…or could they have been “body pains”? Shit idk. All I know is I made a joke about having COVID on my way to my rapid testing…

2. Have you heard that the rapid tests are not as accurate? When I got my results back in 15 min and it was my first ever positive I was shocked. I did not trust it right away and pretty much everyone in my circle said get a second opinion. So I got 2 more. One was another rapid test. The other would get back to me in 3 days. I mentally claimed it was a false positive. 

My brain: “shiiiit. There aint no way. No way in hell girl. You careful as shit. You got all these blessings coming your way. Business is booming. Opportunities are rising. Aint no slowing down for 2 weeks right now.” 

I of course made my partner come with me and get a rapid test as well as the test that would take 3 days to get back to us. While waiting for the results I wanted to get vitamins and snacks and what ever else I may need if this does become my reality. We get to Publix and my heart sinks into my asshole and I’m like…. SHOULD I EVEN GO IN THERE?! The anxiety started building right then and there. I thought to myself “Just keep your mask on, Social distance, you know wtf goin on just be safe” … as we get into the store I wasn’t feeling it. I saw older people around me and I just didn’t feel right and in that moment my phone started to ring. I bursted into tears and couldn’t even stay in the store. I just knew it. It was legit.. 

The lady on the phone was so nice. She asked if it was what I expected to hear and I honestly said “no”. Because I just knew I didn’t have it. I knew how careful I had been.I am not a perfect person by any means but I see y'all reckless ass Mfer’s out there and we are not the sameeeee man shit nawwww this couldn't happen to me. But it did. 

3. How did you get it? OMFG IDK! I have exhausted my brain with this question. How could this happen to me? Shit did I drop my mask at some point? Did I get too close to someone outside at ( insert bar name here ) when I went to have a drink on Saturday night? But it was outside? 

Googles : “Can you catch COVID outside? “

    “Can you catch COVID with a mask on?”

    “Can you catch COVID from  it being on your clothing?”

    “Can you catch COVID from a toilet seat?”

I mean you name it I Googled it. And the unfortunate answer was yes to all of the above. I got tested on the 4th. So I know I got it sometime after that. I of course contacted everyone I came in contact with….which was horrible! I felt freaking terrible!!! I swear it was worse than narrowing down an STD culprit. It’s like shit… you get an STD…you hit up your top 5, or top 10…look idk your life like that…and have everyone get tested. Let’s be real though you got it narrowed down and think you probably know who did you dirty….Get the results back and boom its over with. Take the meds move on with your life no-one has to know. COVID on the other hand can fucking KILL YEW, PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT, GRANDMAS THAT THEY CARE ABOUT, CHILDREN WITH PRE-EXISTING ISSUES, IT CAN KILL PEOPLE. So you gotta back track back track. Make sure all bases are covered especially when you work multiple outlets which is mad important these days. THE MORAL of all this is… idk. Idk how I got it. I am mad careful. I be judging you on social media for being out and reckless without a mask on. I get tested frequently. I have hand sanitizer in every bag I own, in my car, and all over my home. I AM A NEAT FREAK and a GERMY! I am careful. To say the least..but not perfect I am sure after working 10 hours in a mask I have let it fall for a few min! I am sure on my bike I have dropped it out of pure exhaustion. I know I have tried hard, but I am still human and this is all new.  So y’all non-maskers out there think you on to something…in reality you could have it too and not even know. Psh. Anyways. Next question…

4. Does your partner have it too? No. Somehow no. This is where we had to start coming up with a plan. We work together so this puts us both out of work. LUCKILY we have been saving incase of a shut down and we also have back up savings for a home we *hope* to purchase next year so that plan was solid…. But how to keep him healthy? Just because I do not have symptoms does not mean his body will react the same way. I need to make sure he does not get infected as well. We are going to continue to get him tested for the next several days to monitor that. He is quarantining and I am in what is called “isolation”for a minimum of 14 days. We try our best to stay in different rooms. We have a tiny apartment with one bathroom, so I am just constantly sanitizing right now. Everything I touch or may have touched gets a Clorox wipe. We both wear masks 24/7 in the house. Even if he goes outside to walk the dog, I am keeping a mask on. I have learned so much in the past 48 hours about contracting the virus that I do not even want to risk a drop of my saliva in this house. I am doing disposable masks every day. I luckily have plenty of masks and gloves from working on clients. If I cook I wash my hands, sanitize, then put on gloves. We eat in separate rooms or at the edge of the room so it feels like we are eating together. We are really trying our best and that is some shit they do not prepare you for. Your partner has to be careful around you. They cannot touch you or even come near you and sometimes have to remind you of that. Try to do chores in separate rooms. Try to not get your feelings hurt because its not that they don’t want to be around you, but it is dangerous and they cannot be. So my poor lil feelings keep getting hurt, but I’m a tough gal it’ll be alright I just want to make sure he stays healthy. 

5. Can you breathe? So this brings us to day 3. We have a plan. It has been working. I have my little cleaning things I am doing in one room, he has his in another…and I am pretty much in Go Mode. Before all of this I had a Cleaning Babe coming to help me with things so I had a list for her. I just embodied her and did the list myself plus some major decluttering. I have a ton of clothes to donate (that I am letting sit bagged up for 14 days just to be cautious before donating…some shit I read idk…might get anxious and throw it all away…tbd) so while I am going to town cleaning out my abyss I start to get really short of breath and kinda lethargic. I laid down on the bed to catch my breath for several minutes then took a little break from cleaning. This is the first time I have felt any type of crazy. I still have a lot of anxiety about the days to come. Will it get worse? Will I start to feel like actual hell on earth? Will I be able to keep my partner safe? Shit idk but I am trying really hard. They simply do not tell you about the anxiety that you will have. It is normal. You are going to be generally overwhelmed if you are a good person. Just stay good. and Stay aware.... and Stay tuned. I may not write every single day. But I will keep you updated. If you have any helpful stuff for me to read, please send it my way! If you have any questions feel free to ask. If you have been in this situation with a live in positive and negative… what’s your advice? My DM’s and PM’s are open. 

[gimmeyoon]

Tag Game

tagged by: @ddaenggtan whom I love and is one half of two spider-man’s pointing at each other

:: nickname(s): B, BayB, Sherbert (Based on my real name this is risky), Bob (Because my phone autocorrects BB to Bob and so my best friend and I call each other that).

:: bias: In BTS, Namjoon, Yoongi, and Jungkook (Because I am a whore)

:: blood type: I genuinely do not know, I think A+ .....

:: favourite food: Tofu and rice from a very specific Chinese place near my undergrad school OR from Sticky Rice, Asparagus, Pasta of any type, Tofurky sandwich

:: birthday: March 11, 1997

:: zodiac: Pisces Sun, Aries Moon, Sagittarius Rising

:: pronouns: she/her

:: hair length: OKAY right now it is SO LONG I’ve had short hair since I started senior year of High School, and now, 6 years later, my hair is an inch or 2 past my shoulders (I think I should cut it)

:: height: i am 5′3″ and one time I said “tall people should always be afraid” as I stood on a stool because BEING THAT HIGH UP IS SCARY 

:: a crush: I have a new crush every room I walk into I am hopeless also what ever happened to Alex the regular that I blushed around why did he stop coming to my Starbucks Alex I miss you

:: what do you like about yourself: I like my style and my confidence. I took me a really long time to feel good about myself, but I feel like I’m finally as confident as everyone always thought I was. I like my creativity and how empathetic I am. 

:: left or right handed: I am right handed but live in fear that I was supposed to be left handed based on my mom’s haunted memory of taking the marker out of my left hand as a child and putting it into my right and immediately regretting it.

:: list of 3 favourite colours: CURRENTLY: pastel pink, neon green, and pastel purple

:: (right now) eating: nothing, but I have a Mediterranean grain bowl from Panera in front of me  for later so I could use their wifi

:: (right now) drinking: Starbucks venti iced coffee with soy, light ice, and 3 pumps of cinnamon dolce syrup.

:: i’m about to: start planning for Spring semester which starts tomorrow! 

:: listening to: my Korean music playlist, which is named 음악, because Google translate told me that’s how you write music in Korean, if it’s wrong please tell me I don’t want to be embarrassed. It’s my most listened to playlist and more specifically I am listening to Tell Me What To Do by SHINee

:: kids: Does my cat count? I call her my baby and her name is Mochi. Or is this like do I want to have them? Yes, I have wanted to be a mom since I was very little, but that’s also maybe because of child hood trauma that we do not have time to unpack, anyways I always pictured myself as a mom but like not as a wife? So kids even if I’m a single mom. 

:: get married: LMAO according to the above I am not like that invested in it, but also I am down to get married one day. I’m genuinely happy alone and I don’t actively seek out romantic relationships BUT ALSO I WANT TO BE LOVED DAMN IT. Idk one day but no time soon.

:: recent phone call: My mom because she face timed me and I could tell it was a butt dial and I was right. 

:: (have u ever) dated someone twice: No. I am the type of person that is done when I’m done and my mind isn’t going to be changed. Also I never liked anyone I dated that much OOP.

:: been cheated on: Probably, like they swore to the end that they didn’t, but he immediately started dating the girl (my best friend) that I swore he was cheating on me with SO LIKE EMOTIONALLY YES.

:: kissed someone and regretted it: Literally one of my boyfriends, and yet even after regretting the kiss I DATED HIM WHAT THE HELL

:: lost someone special: Yes. No way to make this entertaining or funny sorry.

:: been depressed: We are thicc into the effects of seasonal affective disorder SO YES (I’m sorry that effects my work on this blog and is proof that being depressed TM does not make you a better artist I CANT DO SHIT RIGHT NOW)

:: been drunk and thrown up: OKAY so yes, the first time was my freshman year of college and I WAS WASTED, and then not again until MY SENIOR YEAR where I would be LEGALLY ALLOWED TO DRINK. I learned the hard way that when I am out and my friend says WHO WANTS TO DO SHOTS if my immediate answer is yes, it should be no, because I never want to take a shot unless I am already too drunk. 

:: had glasses or contacts: I have both! I’ve had glasses since the first grade and I got contacts in the 7th grade, which I prefer because I like seeing in my peripheral.

:: had sex on the first date: well as a Virgin TM, no

:: broken someone’s heart: Yes, and I am not sorry OOP

:: turned someone down: Yes, and it is always awkward I hate it

:: cried when someone died: Yes, every time

:: fallen for a friend: Yes, refer back to I have a new crush every room I enter 

:: (in the last year have you) made a new friend: YES, I moved to a whole new state and made friends on this here website

:: laughed until u cried: Yes and its one of my favorite emotions

:: met someone who changed u: I think everyone we truly get to know and meet changes us in some way.

:: found out who your true friends were: Yes and that shit hurted

:: found out someone was talking about you: Probably, I am pretty oblivious to things like that, so I could genuinely never realize. 

:: lips or eyes: Eyes I guess. I’ve never thought about it but I guess I think more about eyes than lips when it comes to a person. 

:: hugs or kisses: Kisses are great but HUGS hit DIFFERENT. You can kiss random people and it means nothing except hey you’re hot, but THE THOUGHT of the person I love hugging me tight EUPHORIC

:: romantic or spontaneous: Spontaneous romantic gestures

:: hookup or relationship: Relationship, even though like to think I’m a bad bitch that can’t be locked down, I also need to be comfortable with a person before I can be intimate.

:: first best friend: from birth until the beginning of high school, growing apart from her was worse than any break-up I’ve ever had and I still think about how my mom held me in the car while I cried about the end of our friendship. 

:: surgery: nope

:: sports i joined: I did Softball and basketball until high school, played JV volleyball for one year in the 8th grade, and then after that I was a Cheerleader.

:: do u believe in yourself: Sometimes. Recently when Fall semester ended I thought I did really poorly on my final papers, but when I presented in both classes people were really impressed. I had even started to wonder if trying to get my PhD was unrealistic. I think it was the reminder I needed that I am smart and strong and I can do most things if I set my mind to them, so I’m dedicated to believing in myself in 2020.

:: miracles: I don’t know. Maybe. I hate to take a strong stance and say no, but I’ve also never seen one. 

:: love at first sight: I believe in like at first sight, but not love. Love is a verb and requires work. Love is so much more than just seeing someone, it involves looking into their soul and saying I recognize the light in you and I love it. 

:: heaven: I was raised religious but idk man. It’s crazy because of how strongly I felt about this 6 years ago.

:: do u have any pets: My parents have a dog that I lived with until 6 months ago and I have a cat. I want another cat uwu.

:: do u want to change your name: No, I love my name. But my alias on here, I think about changing it all the time.

:: what did u do for your last birthday: I went out with my friends, and did really cute makeup, and was really feeling myself. 

:: what time did u wake up today: I got to sleep in since I had the day off, so 10:00 am.

:: what were u doing last night at midnight: Sleeping my dude, I passed out at like 10:00 pm

:: something i can’t wait for: my whole life I’ve been waiting to live the life I want to live, and I know this is a sad thing to say, but I still feel that way. It’s hard to change my mentality, but I’m very future focused. 

:: last time u saw your mum: AHHH recently! My parents came up last week and I got to see them for the first time since November, and my mom cried WHEN SHE WALKED INTO MY APARTMENT 

:: what is one thing u wish u could change about your life: I wish I could finally make a solid group of friends where I currently live, but I am very nervous about it and I don’t put myself out there ooof I also would like to stop procrastinating the things I want to do like my YouTube channel and I want to stop being depressed and I want to go to NYC more often

I’d like to tag…. @strawbxxymilk @honiboyyoon @helpitskpop @sketchguk 

[sexyupsidedownpineapple]

Popping Our Cherry

Hey there :) 

To maintain absolute discretion, every name and location you read on my blog has been changed. But I can assure you.. every story is 100% real.

Before I delve in to the incredibly amazing and sexy experience that my husband and I had our first time at a local sex club, I think it's important that I give a little back story, and how we got in to this lifestyle in the first place.

So hi! I am your very typical suburban Mom. Mid 30's, two kids, golden retriever, we even have a fucking white picket fence. Totally, unabashedly, suburban. But only at the surface. 

You see, I grew up in a very conservative household. Which is odd really, because my parents we're quintessential hippies. I've seen the photographic evidence! Him with this long ponytail and 70's mustache, her in a scantily clad bikini top with bell bottoms. They grew up in a time of free love and promiscuity. So why the fuck didn't they teach me anything about sex. 

Now I don't mean that in a perverted, call CPS kind of way. When I was 9, I asked my Mom where babies came from. She mumbled something imperceptible and told me "We don't talk about those types of things sweetie"  and that was the first and last time we SPOKE about sex. A few days later I found a library book on my bed entitled "The Birds and the Bee's". And that folks.. was my sex education. Fucking pitiful. Fast forward 20 some years and I was an insecure woman who had trouble talking about sex. So fucking pitiful!

So let's head back to present time. I am 36, I have been married to the most incredible guy for 14 years. We have two beautiful children, a gorgeous house, and an amazing life. We are rock. fucking. solid. And I mean it, we've been through some shit in our marriage and we are still standing here on the other side, madly in love. I consciously make the choice to spend my life with him everyday, and he chooses me too. I could not ask for a better partner! 

One night, after a few too many glasses of wine. I confessed a secret I had been holding on to for a very very VERY long time. I was attracted to other females and I wanted to have a threesome. I swear..I thought he was going to fall off the bed! But.. to my utter surprise.. he was receptive to it. Hell, he was on board! And so the hunt began..

So, being in between the millennial and Gen X generations, whenever I have a question, I turn to the one true almighty, all knowing, entity.... Google. I quickly learned that finding a "unicorn" (single female, seeking a couple to play with) truly is a mythical thing! So, I found a few swingers blogs and articles. They all had one thing in common... if you want to get in to the swingers lifestyle.. start with a local swingers club. Now, I live in the midwest, in a red state.. surely there are no clubs like that close to where I live... right? Oh so wrong! I found SO MUCH INFORMATION! It was very overwhelming! 

After a fair amount of research and reading I found a local swingers/sex club and made a profile. To my surprise we generated a good amount of "likes" and "wants to meet" in those first few days. It boosted my confidence like you would not believe. I was still rocking my post baby bod (my baby is 5 years old, by the way!) So I hadn't been feeling particularly sexy or attractive in the last few years. Though my husband is always very complimentary, I ever felt very confident in my body. My once size 2 waist was now a size 8-10. So the validation felt good. We started chatting with couples and made plans to attend our first event at the club. 

Now the juicy stuff...

So what was the club like? So fucking hot! Since it was our first time we got a guided tour of the club. There was a bar, and dance area. An area with a pool table, and an outside patio. Typical club right?  Oh, except for the 10 private play rooms, glory holes, sex swings, and the BDSM room. Holy shit. This was going to be an EPIC night!

So we spent a fair amount of time in the bar area and outside. It was a gorgeous September night. Slight chill in the air. Just enough to make my nipples stand erect under my thin slinky white dress. We spent the evening sipping on our drinks and making conversation with our new friends. Eventually we ventured inside and to the dance floor. Drinks still flowed and we were all dancing and grinding on each other. We had arrived at the club with a couple we met on the site, Jen and Adam. They were so incredibly nice, answered all of our questions, and made us feel very welcome. Jen was gorgeous, small waist, gorgeous hips, and huge tits. Her boyfriend, Adam, super sexy. Shaved head (just like my hubby!) and just the right amount of confidence. We also met Shelly and Micah, a super fun couple! She had a commanding presence and was instantly the center of attention, and he was the strong silent type with a witty sense of humor. So we were all dancing and having a good time, when we saw another couple we had been chatting with standing by the bar. James and Anna. Anna has a gorgeous body and beautiful blonde hair, and James was really attractive and confident. They joined us and we had a blast on the dance floor! Eventually we all needed a break and some fresh air, so we decided to head to the patio. Now, to get to the patio.. you have to walk through the private room area. By now, the party had been going on for several hours.. so the rooms had lots of interesting things going on. 

As we proceeded down the hallway James and Anna stopped outside a room to watch what was happening inside. As I went to pass by, Anna slipped her arm around my waist to stop me. So I paused and turned to face the doorway where the "show" was happening. There were 4 people in the room. The BDSM room. One woman was strapped to giant X, while another woman played with her body.  Her hands were everywhere, on her breasts, on her waist, on her pussy. Then, she slid the thin fabric that could barely qualify as lingerie over to the side and began to lick. Anna's hands began to move over my body. My hips, my stomach, my ass.. It was so fucking hot to watch, and be touched by another woman. Before this point, I had never done anything more than a small kiss (once) with another female (a dare in the 11th grade) So I was in completely new territory!

Eventually we moved on down the hall and came to a stop outside an empty room. We all wanted to go in, but hesitated. We stood in the hallway talking and flirting and laughing for some time, before we all eventually entered the room. This is the first time I felt some nerves kick in. So as we all stood around the room, no one really making the first move. Anna looked at me and said "I guess it's time to sacrifice the virgin." I thought my pussy was going to burst in to flames. I was very ready. Shelly then came over to me and led me over to the bed. I gently laid down. She asked me "are you ok with this" I suppressed the urge to blurt out "fuck yeah!" and instead went for a gentle head nod and seductive smile. Shelly started kissing me. Very gently, with her hands on my face and neck. She then moved her hands and mouth to my chest, to my stomach, and then eventually.. down further. She gently pushed my white lacy thong to the side and licked my pussy from bottom to top. I let out a soft moan. she continued to lick and caress my pussy, so gently. Just then, Adam slid over and gently pulled the top of my dress down. He took my right breast in his hands and and sucked on my nipple. Then, he kissed me and reached down with his hand and slipped a finger in my very wet pussy, while Shelly flicked her tongue back and forth over my clit. I looked up to see Anna standing in front of James against the wall, he was fondling her breasts and they were both watching me. I smiled at her and she made her way over to the bed to attend to my left breast. Sucking, and licking, and squeezing. She moved her face up and kissed me, massaging my tongue with hers. She was a good fucking kisser. I moved my hand though the tangle of bodies to find her breasts. I gently squeezed them and her mouth was back at my chest. She also reached down to fondle my pussy. I was on fire. Anna then moved back to James, and they started making out against the wall. My husband moved in to take over just as Shelly made me come for the second time. It was euphoric. 

Then it was Anna's turn. Shelly went down on her as she sucked James's cock. Once Shelly had made her come, James flipped her around and fucked her doggy style. Adam came over to fondle her breasts. She came again, and James finished inside her. It was the hottest thing I have ever seen. Once we were all done we got dressed said goodbye to our new friends and rode the sex high back home. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I can't wait to go back and see what happens next time. 

Until next time.

XOXO,

Mrs. Pineapple

[pkmn-fangamer]

Pokémon Gaia Review

Intro:

Hi guys! This is my first Pokemon fan game review. Hopefully there will be many to follow! Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. If you want to skip right to the review part, you can scroll past Description and How to Play. If you want any more details on the game that I don’t cover here, feel free to send me an ask! Also, if you have any games you’d like me to review, feel free to send in requests as well.

Description:

The storied Orbtus region was once populated by a prosperous civilization. They created several monuments to their gods and guardians. Their untimely demise was brought about by a series of disastrous earthquakes; all that remains of their society are their temples, idols and story, as relics of the past.

In the present day, local archaeologist and Pokémon Professor, Professor Redwood, has noticed an increase in the region’s seismic activity. Propelled by a growing concern for Orbtus’ safety, he seeks the assistance of new Pokémon Trainers with a flair for adventure in the rural Celanto Town, a seaside town near the mysterious totem poles, and your home! Will you, along with the help of the Professor and your rival, be able to prevent the earth from consuming the region once more?

How to Play:

To play Pokemon Gaia, you’ll need to download a few things. They are Visual Boy Advance, Pokemon Gaia (V3.2), Pokemon Fire Red, and NUPS. I highly recommend watching this video, which contains links to all these necessary pieces in the description and teaches you exactly how put them all together.

Story:

From my first few minutes playing, I could tell that the story in this game would be fairly put together. It seemed to have a lot of potential, being based on the Regis and having ancient roots in regional history. However, I feel as though the story didn’t live up to its full potential. It wasn’t horrible by any means; it just could have been better. For the most part, it feels a lot like a standard main series game story.

The overall story is very formulaic. You have your silent protagonist, kind of bland rival, professor named after a tree, an evil team called the New Elders, etc. None of the characters are particularly memorable to me, but none of them are particularly bad either. One particularly interesting surprise was a character from another region in a leadership role- that’s the most I’ll say about that, though.

Overall, this story isn’t the best one you’ll ever see in a Pokemon, but it gets the job done, and serves to be fairly interesting.

Score: 7/10

Pokemon:

I’ll begin with the selection of starters. To my pleasure, the available ones are the Sinnoh starters, which feels right for this game. I’ve also never seen another fan game with solely Sinnoh starters before, and I’m partial to the Sinnoh region, so this was a pleasure for me.

The range of Pokemon available in this game is amazing. There are Pokemon included up to and including Gen 6, with every mega evolution. One person playing this game will never have the same team as another- there are just so many options right from the beginning. Just from the first three routes and towns, you can seriously build a decent team of six Pokemon. Or you can wait like I did and pick up one Pokemon at a time along the way.

One thing of note that I appreciate is the availability of all types of Pokemon, and it’s clear that there are specific areas in the game dedicated to most Pokemon types. Notably, ice type Pokemon are available in a relatively early part of the game. No main series game offers ice types before the fifth badge, whereas ice types are readily available directly after your second gym battle.

Score: 10/10

Gameplay:

The overall difficulty of the game is medium-high. I’d compare it to Gens 1-5; it’s definitely harder than 6 and 7. Trainers frequently have Pokemon about the same level as you, or only a few under. I did have to do some grinding and was actually beaten by my rival a couple of times. However, grinding is easy with the speed up button since this game is played on Virtual Boy Advance. I’d also like to note that I was pleasantly surprised that the grunts of the evil team are actually a bit stronger than the average trainer you’ll battle. This really helps bring the New Elders to life as an actual threat.

Additionally, there are several nice additional touches that really help bring the Orbtus region to life. Almost every NPC you talk to actually has something meaningful to say; they’re packed with optional side quest offers, items to give out, Pokemon to trade, and offer a wealth of information about the history of the region and local towns.

Like a normal main series Pokemon game, Gaia includes a normal eight-gym circuit, and each gym has a simple, yet unique gym puzzle that is fun to solve but not overly difficult.

The biggest deficit to me was the appearance of HMs. Like Gen 6 and earlier, HMs are not only present, but required to get around the game and find hidden places and items. For older fan games I would not count this against the creator but being that this game was finished after the release of Alola, I think this game could have been better without them.

8/10

Art/Music:

The art found in Gaia is truly reminiscent of Gen 3 games Fire Red and Leaf Green, with a decent number of maps being mostly made of these tiles. As the game went on, more areas used original tiles. There was a desert area, a farm-based area, a canyon, and so many different environments. However, one thing that I really didn’t like was the lack original design when it came to the evil team. The grunt design was imported directly from BW2, and the overworld sprite for the team leader is the old lady one from FRLG that may be slightly edited.

One of my personal favorite cities is Windmist City, which is a snowy city far north similar to Snowbelle or Snowpoint. The weather there is constantly snowy, and the snow is well animated. It’s neat to see a snowy town in Gen 3 graphics. The NPCs in Windmist are also unique, dressed in coats and drawn distinct from the default NPCs from FRLG. Another interesting city is Telemurk City, which was run by a gang, and reminded me of a more put-together Po Town from Alola.

Overall, the music is passable. There are few original tracks, with most music imported directly from FRLG. My favorite original track is the Elder Nights admin theme. I would have enjoyed more original tracks, but I do prefer this if the alternative could have been badly composed music.

Score: 7.5/10

Misc:

This isn’t a rated section, but it’s nice to know what kind of community support you’ll get going into a game. Unfortunately, while there is a decent amount of people that enjoy Gaia, there isn’t a big fandom presence. There’s only a partially filled out wiki with some not-so-reliable information, which was disappointing to me. However, there are some google sheets of helpful info that you can find in the discord channel.

I’d also like to say that while the story of this game is finished, a new version is set to come out, which should give Gaia some post game content.

Overall:

After only visiting a few of the first towns, I noticed something about Gaia that’s hard to find in a lot of fan games: a polished final product that is truly similar to a main series game. I can’t find single grammatical, language, or graphical error in the whole game, which significantly contributes to the feeling that this could be a main series Pokemon game.

All in all, I did enjoy playing this game, and would recommend it- especially to someone that really wants a game that doesn’t deviate from the Pokemon Formula. In terms of where I’d rank it among Pokemon fangames, I’d put it in the upper middle of the pack. I would rank it higher among fan games, but it lacks a sort of wow factor that the very best fangames have. Everything considered, this is a solid game that’s definitely worth a play.

Final Score: 8/10

[garagetoilet89-blog]

Caramel Maple Fig Cake

Okay, so just going to warn you, this is the LONGEST blog post ever! And it’s also the best because, I’m GETTING MARRIED!!! I know! Can you believe it?! There will be a whole other blog post about that so don’t you worry your pretty little heads off. This is also the best blog post because I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in 7 months and I’m going to dish ALL the dirty deets about it. For some people this wouldn’t be such a massive feat, but for me, it’s a pretty big deal.

I’m totally one of those people who LOVES to drink. Like, loves to drink. Mimosa at breakfast? Yes please! Cocktail at lunch? Yes please! Glass of wine at dinner? Yes please! Another round? Yes please! Most of the time I would try and refrain from drinking during the workweek and then I’d end up having 16-20 drinks over any given weekend between brunch, dinner, and lounging on the couch at home. That may sound like a lot, but think about it like this, 2-3 mimosas at breakfast, 2 cocktails at lunch, then 2-3 glasses of wine at dinner multiplied by 2 days. It adds up quick! Other times I’d have a glass or two of wine at night during the workweek to unwind. So now we’re talking 25-30 drinks per week. PER WEEK. I constantly craved it. Looking back I can’t believe that was my life. I was shackled to alcohol and I was so sick and tired of it.

I also couldn’t get through a social event without alcohol. Going to the beach? Not without a bottle of chardonnay in my purse. Going to the movies? Let’s go to one of those fancy ones where we can drink cocktails while we watch. Going to a concert? Not before pre-gaming somewhere. Going to a friends house? BYO-Booze. Sound familiar? I’m definitely not an introvert by any means, in fact I’d say all signs point to extrovert. I’m very outgoing, and I love to talk, but sometimes when I find myself in certain social situations that I’m not particularly comfortable with (large groups/crowds, certain family events, work events, etc.) I would have to have a drink just to get through it. And let’s be honest, it’s pretty fun to be buzzed and talk to people. Right? Until I’ve had too many and my filter is gone, and then it’s a bit dicey to say the least!

It was a never ending cycle though. I knew I wanted to cut back on drinking because it was just starting to spiral and I really wanted to lose some weight for my Caribbean trip in August. I’m going with Juli from PaleOMG and have you SEEN her abs (Chandler from Friends voice)?! Having to be in a bathing suit at all times for a week straight will do that to you. Last December at dinner I drank 5 glasses of wine and was barely buzzed. Not cool. And let’s do the math, 5 glasses of wine multiplied by 120 calories a glass = 600 calories. 600 calories! For what?! Do you know how much food you can eat for 600 calories, that’s almost half of what I should be eating in an entire day, and that was just a normal dinner out. SMH. That’s also wine. 120 calories is pretty low for a glass of booze. Beer and cocktails have way more calories, so on a typical night out you can easily add 1000 calories to you day just in alcohol alone. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather house some gluten-free pizza or a bomb-ass flourless brownie sundae with all those calories than drink them. AMIRIGHT?!

Another thing that happened was I read this REALLY good book that a friend recommended called, This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness, & Change Your Life by Annie Grace. It has completely transformed how I think about alcohol. Like completely. I highly recommend it! But I will also give a strong warning with it, once you read this book, you can’t go back. Every time you drink you will think about what you read in this book and you’ll see alcohol in a completely different light. It’s actually really scary at first. Something that was once so comfortable, familiar, and such a close friend, like a warm fuzzy blanket, then becomes a stranger. And to just walk away from it, when you really don’t want to but know you need to, like a bad boyfriend, it leaves you feeling unsure and entirely exposed.

Alcohol is a very interesting part of our society. It’s so glamorized. It’s like the smoking of the 70’s and 80’s. Like remember when smoking was “cool”. Then we found out it causes cancer and prematurely ages you, etc. etc. What do you think alcohol is doing to your body? “But what about all those fun Facebook articles my friends share about how a glass of wine is good for your heart health and high in antioxidants?!” Who do you think pays for those studies? Can I get ‘Alcohol Companies’ for $500 Alex. There is absolutely no nutritional value in alcohol that your body benefits from ever, PERIOD. In fact alcohol is a toxin and your body doesn’t like it at all. As much as we wish wine was a fruit serving because it’s made from grapes, it’s not.

So what did I do? I learned… A LOT! I gave up alcohol for 7 months and this is what happened…

1. No hangover

You don’t realize how awesome hangovers aren’t until you stop having them. Prime example, I just went snowboarding with all my shred friends over the weekend. I listened to them plan for a good solid 20 minutes on how they were going to navigate the night of drinking so that they weren’t too hungover in the morning to be miserable snowboarding all day (been there). I’m talking serious details and planning going down! I was expecting them to pull out an Excel spreadsheet or blueprints or something. I realized with glee that I didn’t even have to spend 1/10 of a second thinking about it. I’d be up and at em’ and ready to send it!

2. You Lose weight without doing anything

I gave up drinking on December 31st. So the “Holiday 10” I gain every year like clockwork was gone within the first month. From not really changing anything except not drinking (and probably from not shoving Holiday cookies down my throat, let’s be real). Again refer to the 600 calorie minimum as stated above.

3. You Don’t lose all your stuff

Yes Pavel, I’m talking about you. After drinking all day while we were snowboarding the other weekend, my friend Pavel couldn’t remember where he left all his snowboarding gear. Did he accidentally leave his helmet, googles, gloves, and season pass back at Main Lodge where they were drinking before they left? Or was his stuff in the car somewhere? Or the room? He couldn’t find anything or even remember where he’d last seen his stuff. How many nights out drinking have you lost your phone, your credit card, your ID, your decency? Too many to count.

4. You save money

Like, SO MUCH MONEY. When I go out to eat with my friends, my portion of the bill will always be around $10-$17 and theirs will be at least $45, sometimes up to $65. When I go snowboarding with all of my friends we like to share an Airbnb so we can cook and hang out together. We all get together to go grocery shopping for meals and booze. When it comes time for everyone to Venmo, I owe $6.28 for the whole weekend and they owe $29.33. That’s a pretty big difference. My hot chocolate break on the mountain is $4 with tip. Their drinks are about $14 a pop and they end up usually having about 2-3 drinks in one sitting, so with tip, about $45. I spend $4, they spend $45. EVERY TIME we stop at the lodge. Alcohol is EXPENSIVE.

5. Better sleep quality

This one trips me out! I have the craziest most vivid dreams that I completely remember, EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! Most people think drinking makes you sleep better, but the exact opposite is true. It doesn’t allow your body and brain to get to the deeper levels of your sleep cycles. This would lead me to feel exhausted ALL OF THE TIME. I would walk around like a zombie and couldn’t figure out why I felt so drained all the time. I was eating right, exercising, going to bed at a decent hour and I even thought I had a thyroid problem or something at one point because it was so bad. I feel awesome now and it’s super far and few between that I have a day where I don’t feel rested. Another pro is when my alarm clock goes off, I’m up immediately. I don’t curse my existence and I can’t remember the last time I hit the snooze button.

6. Mental clarity

You remember stuff. I used to ALWAYS forget stuff. In fact I would have to set alarms on my phone and leave post-its everywhere to remind me to do stuff and I’d still manage to forget it. Now things just come to me. If I’m in the grocery store and forget my list, I manage to remember everything I need. At work, I can remember little things I need to and get my job done more efficiently. I can also multi-task a lot better which my life and work requires me to do constantly.

7. My skin looks so much better

Like SO much better. A nice dewy glow has replaced the dry leathery suitcase skin I used to live with all the time. I look way younger too since my wrinkles aren’t so imprinted into my dry-ass face. My color is so much more rosy and it just looks super healthy! I get compliments on my skin all the time now. It could also be my Primally Pure Skincare of course. Maybe a combo of both? (Read my blog post about skincare here.)

8. You make better choices

This comes to all areas of your life, food, people, exercising (because you’re not too hungover to skip it), not peeing or vomiting in public, not waking up in strange places, and don’t even get me started on drunk shopping! Better choices means less regrets too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up the next morning after a long night of boozing so embarrassed by something I said or did. Luckily my friends love me and know that drunk Vanessa has NO filter.

9. Alcohol is addictive

Not in the 12 steps, give me power to control that which I cannot control way, although YES that is absolutely a HUGE reality and completely stems from the fact that alcohol is addictive. But what I’m talking about here is in the way that sugar is addictive. You eat sugar, your brain pleasure centers light up with a dopamine response, your insulin levels rise, then your blood sugar falls and your body craves the sugar and the pleasure, then the cravings are too hard to control, so you give in and eat it, and the cycle continues and continues. Alcohol is the exact same way. You become addicted to it. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this, could you go to dinner, brunch, a sporting event, a wedding, a BBQ, or to the club this weekend with friends, and not drink? The thought of doing that sucks right? Trust me, I get it. Does that mean you’re an alcoholic? Not in the terms that we’re used to, but alcohol is so addictive that you can’t imagine going without it and won’t even consider giving it up. It’s even used as a treat for getting through a challenging task like putting the kids to sleep or making it through a rough day at work.

  1. You don’t need to drink to have fun

You really don’t. If you honestly enjoy the company you’re in, you’ll have fun regardless. I have a close knit group of friends, and each one of them I love to spend time with regardless of whether or not alcohol is involved. We still laugh just as hard and have just as much fun, if not more, because we can hang longer and not having to worry about passing out or how we’re going to stay sober enough to get back home. I can say with complete conviction that I have not missed out on a single experience because I wasn’t drinking. In fact I probably ended up enjoying my experiences MORE.

2. Alcohol is everywhere

The next time you watch TV, a movie, or go out in public, just take the time to notice how prevalent alcohol is in our society. The bar is strategically placed to be the first thing you see when you walk into a restaurant, so alcohol is in your subconscious before you even sit down at your table. The alcohol bottles are made to look gorgeous with their fancy under lighting and pretty reflections to get you to order one (or 5) and in turn spend more money. Alcohol is everywhere and everyone associates it as a positive experience even though puking in the toilet has never once felt positive to me.

3. People will pressure you to drink

Not because they don’t love you or support you, it’s just that they want to drink and they don’t want to drink by themselves. My friends know I’m obsessed with Moscow Mules, so they will buy my favorite Moscow Mule fixings (Ketel One, Bundaberg Ginger Beer, lime, mint and even copper cups!) to try and get me to drink with them. Honestly, I’m more impressed by this than anything. I admire their perseverance and the fact that they just get me on that level.

You will also notice that sometimes people will get uncomfortable when you say you aren’t drinking, especially at a dinner table when they are about to order a drink. It’s nothing against you, it’s just them questioning themselves and why they need to have a drink in order to enjoy the meal and why you don’t. Then they’ll wonder quickly if they should continue with their drink order despite this new information. It really has nothing to do with you so don’t worry about it.

4. You will feel incredible

I cannot stress this enough! My sleep is better, my workouts are better, my food choices are better, my quality of life is just BETTER. Not being hungover, or constantly exhausted, or always feeling like I’m on the cusp of depression is great. I feel awesome!

So you’re probably wondering how you are supposed to navigate life with no alcohol, well here are some of the tips and tricks I learned along the way that helped me the most.

1. Never Go Empty Handed

When you’re at an event where alcohol is served, carry a drink in your hand at all times. Whether it’s a soda water and lime or a huge HydroFlask full of plain water (what I carry to get all my daily water in), just carry it. No one pays attention to what you’re drinking like you think they do and just the simple act of being able to mingle and still drink something puts you at ease.

2. Don’t Tempt Yourself

The first 2 weeks will be the hardest. I recommend not to put yourself in any tempting situations. This means don’t keep any in the house and don’t go to your favorite steakhouse that serves your favorite wine or craft cocktail on Happy Hour. In fact I recommend not going out to eat at all in those first 2 weeks unless it’s a quick spot that doesn’t serve alcohol. I don’t know about you, but I have all my favorite cocktails at all my favorite spots memorized. Why put yourself in the path of temptation? After the first 2 weeks the cravings will subside and it will be easier to pass on drinks.

3. Exercise

Exercise is your body’s answer to pretty much everything. Depressed? Exercise. Tired? Exercise. Need more energy? Exercise. Want to sleep better? Exercise. Stressed? Exercise. Want to quit drinking? Exercise. Seriously. Take all the money you’ll save from not drinking booze and try out a cool new workout class in your area or grab some friends to go hike on Thursday/Friday evenings and make that your Happy Hour.

Events I survived this year without alcohol:

New Years Eve

New Years Day

Too many après snowboarding to count

Valentine’s Day

Countless brunches and dinners out at great restaurants

One Graduation Party

Two weddings, one at a winery

Three birthday parties, one at a winery

Four BBQ’s

Five work Happy Hours

Brad’s birthday

Mine and Brad’s 7-year anniversary

Our engagement

The point being – IT CAN BE DONE regardless of what events life throws at you.

So that begs the question, why do we drink so much? Is it because everyone else is drinking? Or because it’s just expected in certain situations? Or because we’ll feel left out if we don’t? Or will we miss out on the experience? What is it? Let’s get to the real question you’re probably wondering. Will I ever drink again? Absolutely. (See 9. above.) I will drink on my Caribbean vacation in August and I will probably drink during my birthday week in September, and you know what, I’m okay with that. I’m being realistic with myself. But I also realize that I’ve learned so much during this little experiment that there is a real possibility I might not actually even like alcohol anymore and I may not want to continue drinking. It might not be as fun and familiar as I remember it. It might actually be horrible. I might decide that I don’t want to continue drinking because I know exactly what it’s doing to my body. I really just don’t know at this point.

I also realize the second that I re-introduce alcohol to my body again, I will have to fight off the terrible cravings that come with the territory. I will also most likely have to endure hangovers. Neither of which I’m particularly looking forward to. Could I enjoy my vacation without alcohol? Of course I could. Could I go the rest of the year with out drinking? Absolutely. Could I go two years without drinking? I definitely think so. So why give in now? Why not just stay strong and pass on the booze? Because honestly I’m just not ready to commit to never drinking again at this point. The reality is at the end of the day drinking a great glass of wine, having a good craft beer on nitro or a well made Moscow Mule, brings me simple joy and life is just too short.

What I do know is how great I feel right now living an alcohol-free life and that might actually outweigh everything at some point. By my vacation I will have been sober for 8 months, that’s the better part of a year. I may get back from vacation and not drink for the rest of the year. Or maybe I will fall into a spiral again and have to re-read This Naked Mind, or go over the “Pro List” I’ve written above and quit all over again. I just don’t know. I’m okay with figuring it out though in my own time and in my own way. I’m definitely a little scared because I don’t want to go back to the place where I was, but I also want to be able to enjoy alcohol from time to time as I see fit. Ideally, I’d like to be one of those drinkers that only has alcohol on super special occasions or when it’s really worth it. I will definitely have an update to this post after vacation and stuff to let you know what happened!

So what’s the point of this blog post? To judge and condemn you for drinking? To try and convince you that alcohol is the devil and you should quit immediately? Nah boo, do you. I just wanted to share my experience as someone who felt shackled to alcohol and was able to free themselves from the chains. Also as someone who tries to do the best they can for their body. My experience was very eye opening and a lot different than I expected it to be. It was very challenging, but ultimately worth it in the end and I feel like I’ve grown so much because of it. I wanted to share that.

Are you trying to quit drinking? Have you already quit drinking? Share your story with me in the comments below! Oh, and here’s your recipe as a prize for making it through this incredibly lengthy, and perhaps preachy, blog post! Here’s the recipe for my favorite cake that I’ve ever made, because I’m getting married and weddings call for cake! I would love to remake this for our special day. Not only is it perfection, it’s absolutely mouth watering! This cake recipe was first featured in my cookbook, Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind, along with dozens of other cake recipes. So if you like cake, you may wanna grab yourself a copy! Just saying. I hope you enjoy!

One 2-layer, 6-inch (15-cm) cake or one 1-layer, 8-inch (20-cm) cake (to make the 4-layer cake shown in photos, see Variations below)

2 cups (184 g) sifted fine-ground blanched almond flour

¼ cup (34 g) tapioca flour

2 tablespoons coconut flour

½ cup (65 g) maple sugar

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 large egg whites, room temperature

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ cup (115 g) palm shortening, plus more for greasing

½ cup (120 ml) canned full-fat coconut milk

¼ cup (60 ml) light-colored raw honey, melted

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup (64 g) maple sugar

¼ cup (35 g) coconut sugar

½ cup (120 ml) canned full-fat coconut milk, room temperature

4 tablespoons (2 ounces/56 g) salted butter or ¼ cup (55 g) ghee

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

⅛ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

16 tablespoons (227g) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup (130 g) sifted maple sugar

⅛ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

1 tablespoon milk (regular or dairy-free type)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 figs, quartered

Handful of fresh blackberries and blueberries (optional)

Fresh flowers (optional)

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line the bottom of two 6-inch (15-cm) or one 8-inch (20-cm) springform cake pan(s) with parchment paper, then grease the paper and sides of the pan liberally with palm shortening; set aside. (If making cupcakes or the cake shown in the photo, see the Variations below.)

Prepare the Salted Caramel Sauce and place in the refrigerator to let cool while preparing the cake layer(s). The caramel sauce will be easier to spread when cold.

In the bowl of an 11-cup (2.6-L) food processor, combine the almond flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, maple sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Pulse 30 times or until combined.

In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat using a hand mixer set to high until eggs are very foamy and soft peaks are about to form; set aside.

Next add the palm shortening, coconut milk, honey, almond extract, and vanilla to the bowl of the food processor, followed by the beaten egg whites. Process until combined. Scrape down the sides as needed and process again for another 30 seconds until a smooth and creamy cake batter is formed.

Pour the batter into the prepared springform cake pan(s), and use a rubber spatula to help scrape all the cake batter in to the pan(s). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a knife along the edge between the cake and the pan to loosen from the sides. Remove and let cool completely.

Once the cake(s) is completely cooled, prepare the frosting.

To assemble: If making a single-layer 8-inch (20-cm) cake, place the cake on a cake plate or cake plate and spread a layer of caramel across the top. Then spread a layer of frosting on the top, completely covering the caramel, and the sides. If making a multilayer cake, use a serrated knife to cut away any uneven places on the top of the cake. Place the first cake layer on a cake plate and, using an offset spatula, spread a layer of caramel across the top of the cake. Then spread a layer of frosting over the caramel layer. Place the second cake layer on top, upside down, and cover the top and edges of the cake with the remaining frosting. Use plastic or wooden dowels to secure the cake and keep the layers from sliding (these are helpful because the caramel tends to spread as it comes back up to room temperature). Garnish the top with quartered figs and berries or fresh flowers, or both, if desired. If using one of the cheese-based frostings, store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. If using buttercream, store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped well in plastic for up to 2 days.

In a medium-sized heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugars, coconut milk, and butter. Over low heat, whisk gently in one direction, so the butter doesn’t separate, until the butter has melted, the sugar has dissolved, and the mixture is combined. Then turn the heat up to medium and bring to a soft boil, then add the vanilla extract and salt and whisk until combined.

Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Let boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk gently until the mixture becomes a smooth liquid again. Place back over heat and boil for an additional 2 minutes to thicken further. Remove from the heat, whisk until mixture becomes a smooth liquid again. Repeat this process for a total of four times. The caramel should be the consistency of thick soup.

Remove from heat. The caramel will continue to thicken as it cools. Refrigerate to cool and thicken completely or freeze for extra-thick caramel. As the caramel comes back up to room temperature it will begin to thin slightly and return to a pourable state. Store in the refrigerator or freezer in a covered container for up to 2 weeks.

For the Vanilla Buttercream

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, maple sugar, and salt. Beat, using the whisk attachment, on medium speed until combined. Then add the milk and vanilla and continue to beat on high until the butter has lightened and the mixture has become fluffy and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the whisk as needed. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with desired tip or use with an offset spatula. Store any remaining frosting in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 2 days. Do not place in the refrigerator; the cold temperature will cause the butter to harden. If you don’t have a stand mixer this recipe can be made with a hand mixer; follow the same process using a large mixing bowl.

To make the batter using an electric mixer: In a large mixing bowl, put the almond flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, maple sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir together using a fork until combined. Put the egg whites and cream of tartar in a separate medium-sized mixing bowl. Beat using an electric mixer set to high until eggs are very foamy and soft peaks are about to form; set aside. In separate bowl, put the palm shortening, coconut milk, honey, almond extract, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until combined. Transfer the palm shortening mixture to the dry ingredients, add the beaten egg whites, then beat together on medium-low speed until mixed and combined. Transfer to greased and parchment-lined cake pan(s) and bake as directed.

Caramel Maple Fig Cupcakes: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-well cupcake pan with paper liners. Use a spoon to transfer the batter into the lined cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to let cool completely. Pipe the frosting on top, then drizzle the caramel sauce on top of the frosting. Garnish with fig slices, berries, or flowers.

*Caramel Maple Fig Cake (as pictured, 4 layers): To make the four-layer cake shown in the photo, line the bottom of four 6-inch (15-cm) springform cake pans with parchment paper, then grease the paper and sides of the pan liberally with palm shortening; set aside. (If you only have two 6-inch (15-cm) springform cake pans, you can still make the cake; you will simply need to wait to make the second batch of batter until you’ve removed the first two cakes from the oven.)

Prepare a double batch of the Salted Caramel Sauce and place in the refrigerator to let cool while preparing the cake layer(s).

To make the layers in this cake, prepare one batch of the batter at a time following Steps 3 through 5 above. Bake the cake layers, following Step 6 above. If you have four 6-inch (15-cm) springform cake pans, you can begin the second batch of cake batter while the first two cakes are baking and pop the second set of cakes in the oven as soon as the first two are removed. If you have only two pans, begin the second batch of batter after you’ve removed the first two cakes from oven. While the second set of cake layers are cooling, make the frosting. To assemble the cake, follow the instructions assembling a multilayer cake in Step 8 above, repeating the process for the four cake layers. Serves 8 to10.

Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind http://cleaneatingwithadirtymind.com/

July 19, 2017 | 43 Comments

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Tags: Cake, Paleo Desserts

Source: http://cleaneatingwithadirtymind.com/2017/07/19/caramel-maple-fig-cake/

[hashtagsmitty]

Smitty's Thailand Adventure - Day 2

Big day. My phone is saying 27000 steps. The highlights include getting a suit tailored, having a thai woman rub my naked body down for an hour, meeting Keith Urban's green beret brother, and a friendly, spirited discussion about Islam. No spoilerinos though!

I didn't sleep well, the bed was way too hard and the springs jabbed me all night. I'd told Josh 10am but I was up at 6. I read some more of "Growth Mindset" - talking about sports stars and CEOs that had fixed mindsets vs those with growth mindsets.

Josh texted me and said that he was going to meet me at 11 because he didn't sleep well, so I went out exploring. I got turned around a few times trying to find the train station on the main road. Think a giant freeway overpass with four train lines on it, and a huge station connecting them all. This one has two mega shopping centers like the Emporium attached. It didn't open until 10, so I went for a walk in the park instead.

There were heaps of people just doing normal park stuff - walking, exercising. I saw a couple kids practicing punches. There was an old woman cutting a hedge, and most of the park was well maintained - except for a set of steps I found. They were leading to a jetty that jutted out over the lake in the middle of the park, and the steps leading down were covered in bird poo. It was weird seeing the juxtaposition. There's another one in this picture I took yesterday:

I really liked the architecture of this building, and it was odd to see the rats nest of phone cabling framed in front of it. That wasn't even the worst one. It highlighted something we saw quite a bit of - lowest possible effort to look good.

I walked around the park for a while, then grabbed some food from the White Family Mart on the corner of my street. The name jumped out at me. I grabbed some godawful dried strawberries and a rice and grilled chicken packet that was way better than I expected.

Josh texted me, so I left the hotel and went back to the Emporium and walked around a bit. There was this cool shop called Another Man Story with unique custom men's accessories. Some of the stuff was cool, but it struck me as a desperate attempt at buying individuality through conformity. "Look at these unique expressions of you that anyone with enough money can buy!"

Says the guy with too many stupid expensive leather jackets.

I was looking at my leather bracelet that I made myself for like $5, and compared it to these bracelets that cost hundreds. I like mine better because I made it and it has meaning to me.

I met up with Josh eventually and we got some pad thai in the food court. I'd never had it before, and it was pretty good. I've always been a picky eater, so eating new shit is a bit outside my comfort zone and I'm proud of the small steps I'm taking.

After brunch(?) we went to a tailor Josh knew, in the first of many trips across the city. We took the skytrain - it cost about a dollar per trip. We needed to change train then walk a bit. I was boggled at how well Josh knows the city, and again reminded how screwed I'd be if I wanted to do any of this shit without him.

The tailor was cool - spoke English, very business-oriented. I ordered a 3-piece suit in grey wool, and two white shirts. It'll be ready the day before I leave.

We left the tailor after Josh finished texting one of his friends - something about organizing a business together. Josh had many words to say about this guy, and the tailor, and anyone who walked slowly...

After the tailor Josh wanted to check out a market to get ties and cuff links. I told him I'd look at one market - we went to Cambodia together a few years back, and I got burned out walking from market to market trying to save 3 dollars on some bag. He led us on a crazy whirlwind tour of the backroads and skywalks across Bangkok, until eventually we ended up at the same market we'd gone to last time we were here!

It was a sprawling shopping centre, with as many stalls crammed in as the fire code would allow. Josh described it as "an inside market with air conditioning." We wandered around looking at shirts for a while until we found the ties and cuffs place. I hemmed and hawwed for a while until I picked out a tie and some cuffs. The tie looks awesome - it's skinny and red.

We left the market and took the winding route back to a different mall - we had some meat and rice dish. Josh told me that beef in Thai was "moo". I called bullshit. The menu had "grilled beef/pork/chicken" on it. When we ordered, Josh pointed at that item and said "moo". The waiter nodded. I grabbed Google Translate and typed in moo - it came up as "swine". Sure enough, the waiter brought out pork.

As we ate, Josh told me the plan for tonight - I needed a haircut, so we planned to walk into a place near his AirBNB. We planned on meeting up with his friends for drinks and a meal, right around the corner from his place. And, I'd expressed that I wanted a massage. So the plan was dump my bag at the hotel, find a massage, get a haircut, then meet his friends for dinner.

Another quick train ride. The thing they don't tell you about the skyrail is that you gotta climb stairs to get on and off each time.

I dumped my bag. Josh warned me about the massage girls outside my hotel, and again, they disappointed by not heckling me.

We tried a couple of massage places near my hotel - the two non-dodgy ones near my hotel, anyway, ones that didn't advertise "Vip Room", "4 Hands Massage", or God forbid "Teen Love". If you need to emphasize that your "masseuses" are teenagers, you're not an establishment I'm keen to visit.

The two non-dodgy ones near the hotel were full. We caught the skytrain again, this time to near Josh's house. We found a massage place that looked OK and went inside.

We had to take off our shoes to go inside. I was wearing blundies that slipped off, and Josh had some sneaker things. I waited awkwardly inside after telling the lady that my friend was coming and he spoke Thai. Josh came in and asked for a massage for each of us, in English. Bastard.

We got led into a cubicle each. Shower curtain walls, a very small cot. I sat down and my masseuse walked in. She was a middle-aged Thai woman. She dropped down under the cot and pulled out a basket, then said "leave your underpants on" and left. I took off everything except my underpants and sat cross legged on the cot. I was nervous. What if she touched something I didn't want touched? What if I reacted in a way I wasn't comfortable reacting? I did some deep breathing while I waited.

My masseuse came back. She said "lay down, back first." I lay down on my back. She said "no, back first!" I rolled back over onto my tummy. She covered my back with a towel, then unrolled the towel down to my underpants. She oiled her hands and started rubbing my back. It was nice - Thai massage is firm, more of a deep tissue massage than relaxation. She worked her way across my back, my legs, then my chest. There was a weird one where she raised one of my legs into a bent position, foot flat, and pressed it down into the other leg. It felt like my balls were getting squished in a sandwich press. Clearly, these techniques were designed for Asian men.

She finished with a neck and head massage. She couldn't speak English, but she communicated humour in other ways - she started rubbing my neck and flicked the weird lump on the side that I have. I wondered how to say "misformed conjoined twin" in Thai, which led to a mental rabbit hole about Siamese twins and whether it was a faux pas to talk about that in Siam. She massaged my scalp and flicked my quiff, then spent time straightening my hair when she finished.

I rate the massage a solid 5/7 - staring at a bare stone wall while an Asian woman grinds her elbow into my spine isn't necessarily my thing, but it was an experience and I'm glad I did it. I'm also glad none of the things I was worried about happened.

While we were putting our shoes back on outside, a sketchy white dude walked up to us. He commented on Josh's shoes and stretched his hand out to me to shake. I shook. He asked where we were from. I said Australia. He said his brother came from New Zealand and that we'd know his name. I said I'm sure I don't. He said his brother's name was Keith Urban and that his name was Greg. I said that I knew his brothers name. He said that he used to be a green beret and asked me to rate his handshake. He did his left hand, then without letting go did the right hand. I said his shake was firm. He said the green beret thing again and twisted my thumbs around. Then he wished us a good night and walked off.

We shrugged and walked on down the road towards the barber. We bumped into Greg Urban again - he commented, and asked where we were going. I said we were getting a haircut. He said "you need one!" I said "thank you!" He said "you need one because you look like shit." We kinda just walked off a bit faster. Both me and Josh were getting major sketchy vibes. Josh compared it to a foreign 5 year old who can speak fluent English walking up to you and talking to you - a distraction for something more sinister.

We kept walking. The barber was in Josh's area. He decided that he was going to show me all the street animals he was friends with. We had to cross another skybridge to get there. As we walked across this one, there was a dude laying down covering half the bridge. Josh said we should go single file. As we walked, the dude sat bolt upright. It felt like something out of a zombie movie and I almost sprinted off. Josh later explained that he was likely an opium addict, and likely at rock bottom because of it.

We walked to the barber. They were super full, so we booked in for tomorrow at 3. My fade needs a touch up. We left, and Josh started pointing out his dog and cat friends. He called them all cutesy names in Spanish, like gordo (fatso) or nino (little boy) or chico (little guy). It was weird to see this super intense friend of mine, fiercely competent and ruthless in business and his personal lives, acting like a kid in a candy store with these street animals. It was a weird juxtaposition, but it definitely humanised him a bit more. The animals were really cute too.

We sat down in W District, an outdoor dining and bar area. Josh ordered us some ribs and chips and we waited for his friend and business partner to arrive. Josh had been texting him all day about their planned business venture. Josh wanted his friend to pick one idea, develop it, and pay Josh to implement it. Josh's friend wanted to develop a whole bunch of ideas at once, and give Josh equity in his company and a place to stay in exchange. His friend was arriving early to negotiate.

Josh had been talking up the ribs all day - he said he should get a commission from the ribs lady for all the business he drove to her. They had a chat, and she agreed to send out 3 things of ribs ASAP.

Bill, Josh's friend, arrived. They negotiated while I listened. I wasn't following everything, but I asked Josh later and he said he got what he wanted. As we talked, more and more people showed up, and Josh introduced me to some of his other friends. His current girlfriend, his Egyptian friend who hates Islam, friends of friends. A Thai girl named Ben - that threw me a bit, let me tell you.

I spent the night mingling. I don't normally hang out in large groups, and definitely not with people I don't know, and rarely around people who are drinking. Further outside the comfort zone, I guess. I put aside my nerves and chatted to people, drawing on my inner extrovert. I played improvisation games with Josh and Bill. I talked about Islam with the Egyptian guy. I did my best to make myself, if not the life and soul of the party, at least a net gain to the gathering.

The ribs arrived after 2 hours of waiting. Bill and I joked about Josh's failed celebrity status. They gave us some plastic gloves to eat the ribs with. The group ordered tower after tower of beer - portable taps with 3 Liters of beer inside. They cost 650 baht, around $25.

I ended up staying way longer than I expected, and headed home around 11. Josh walked me to the station and we talked about expectation and visualization and the universe providing and the great magnet turning. We made plans for the haircut tomorrow, as well as lunch with his current girlfriend and dinner with the same group as tonight. Bill said that he was definitely going because I said I was.

I walked past the"massage parlor" again on the way home, still no harrassment.

[heysnowflake]

Oh boy...

I do these types of ‘questions blogs’ every once in a blue moon as they’re interesting to read back on and cringe over. Without further ado, let’s embarrass myself further 

1. What was the last thing you googled?

I googled ‘questions tumblr’ to find these questions but if that doesn’t count, I googled ‘snowfall’ in google images 

2. You have to listen to these songs:

Shadowland- The Lion King Broadway OST

and whilst we’re talking about The Lion King

The Circle Of Life- The Lion King OST

As The World Falls Down- Labyrinth OST

Within You- Labyrinth OST

In A Crowd of Thousands- Anastasia Broadway OST

I’m Still Standing- Elton John

For A Moment- The Little Mermaid 2 OST

Be Somebody- Paula Cole

The Handler- Muse

Mambo No.5- Lou Bega

I Like It Heavy- Halestorm

Thunderstruck- AC/DC

A Dream Worth Keeping- Sheena Easton

Sandy’s Song- Crimson Doves

What You Feel- Once More With Feeling OST (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

In The End- Black Veil Brides

and just to add even more to the list, I’m going to add scores as well as I listen to movie and game scores just as much as I do songs, if not more (also piano pieces)

Harry In Winter- Goblet of Fire OST

Paintings On The Wall- Layers of Fear OST

Waterfall- Undertale OST

Transformation (Piano)- Beauty and the Beast OST

One Day- Pirates of the Caribbean OST

The Nightmare’s Beginning (Piano)- Final Fantasy 7 OST

Swan Lake- Tchaikovsky

Now We Are Free- Gladiator OST

Song of the Stream (Piano)- FIrefly

Fairy Dance- Peter Pan (2003) OST

Basically every piece from the Abzu OST

Aslan’s Camp- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe OST

Okay, okay, okay, if I name any more, I’ll bore both you and myself to death. But hey, you can’t say I haven’t given you a solid list to both listen to whilst also completely judging me based on my taste of music 

3. Do you chew on your straws?

Depends on the day

4. Have you ever been awake for 48hours straight?

Pffftttt I’ve been up for 62

5. Will you get married? Do you see yourself getting married in the next 5 years?

Absolutely! As for the next five years, I highly doubt it :P 

6. If you could move somewhere else would you?

Yeah. For sure. Though I would miss being two minutes away from the beach

7. Read on a Kindle or paperback book?

A paperback every time, if I can

8. If money was no object, what would you do all day?

Yo mAM- no. Disneyland. All day. Everyday of my life. 

9. University or life experience, which do you feel best prepares you for life?

LIFE EXPERIENCE, I can’t stress that enough. However, I do find that, if you do particular courses at Uni, it can be highly beneficial also. For example, Business Management

10. What is the one thing that should be taught in school that isn’t already?

General Life Skills. It still baffles me that this isn’t a compulsory subject from day one of secondary school, let alone not being taught at all. 

11. If you could go back in time, what year would you travel to?

1743 to see if I can find Jamie Fraser 

12. When you have 30 minutes of free-time, how do you pass the time?

Writing, composing on the piano or reading 

13. What’s the best/worst gift you’ve ever given/received?

Assuming we’re talking about physical gifts, it would have to be either the personalised Harry Potter letter that my best friend made for me who also played Hedwig’s theme as I opened the envelope (quite the magical moment), or it would be the envelope my dad gave to me, inside of which was the confirmation letter to my very own dog business that I’ve been dreaming about for as long as I can remember. It was made even more special as he combined my first two dogs’ names to make the business name. 

14. What was the first thing you bought with your own money?

I imagine it was a Freddo, back when they were the reasonable price of 5p and not the ridiculous 25p that they are now

15. What would your parents be surprised to learn about you?

There really isn’t anything my parents don’t know, to be honest. I’ve always been extremely open with them.Bit of a boring answer, I know, but I literally can’t think of anything my parents don’t know.... well anything I can say on here anyway ;)

16. Apologize or ask permission?

... eh?

17. Beach vacation or European vacation?

Europe!

18. What is the ideal number of people to have over on a Friday night?

One. My best friend. Don’t need anyone else. 

19. Who is a non-politician you wish would run for office?

THE ROCK!!!

20. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Telekinesis, hands down!!!

21. What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?

My fantasy romance scenarios playing over and over in my head, the face changing on whoever I’m ‘crushing on’ at that time

22. Ever been addicted to a iOS/android game? Which one(s)?

Where the fuck do I begin? Disney Magic Kingdom, Dragon City. My Singing Monsters, Pyramid Solitaire, Candy Crush Saga, Piano Tiles 2, Angry Birds, Angry Birds Go, Hearthstone (I’m aware it’s a  Battle.net game and didn’t come onto iOS until much later, I just preferred playing it on my phone ssshhhh)

23. List 5 goals on your life’s to-do list:

1. Go to Disneyland in Florida, 2. Buy my own Newfoundland puppy, 3. Eventually grow my dog business that I have the domain name for, 4. Move in with my best friend, and 5. Publishing my own book would be pretty neat

24. If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

I have two in mind that I can’t decide on. Crysta (from FernGully, one of my all time favourite films) or Odette (from Swan Princess/Swan Lake). Fun fact: these are also the names I have picked out for a baby girl, if I were to ever have one 

25. What is one thing you will never do again?

Read Fifty Shades of Grey

26. What words of wisdom would you pass onto your childhood self?

Being ‘cool’ in secondary school literally doesn’t mean anything, the adults weren’t lying about that one. 

I know your temper is out of control now but eventually you’ll see the light and change your ways for the better as you reach your 13th birthday.

Never stop believing in magic, it makes the world more wonderful. 

That girl Ellie? Hold onto that one because she’ll become the bestest friend you could have ever dreamed of. 

Speaking of dreams, write those down. 

Those stories you’re thinking up in your mind, write those down too. 

Most importantly, have courage and be kind. Also, say ‘fuck it’ to decisions most of the time, they make for the best memories. 

27. If you could speak another language, which would it be and why?

French, easily. I can already read and write Ancient Runes though, does that count?

28. If you were head of a major TV station for one day, what would you play?

Spongebob Squarepants 24/7

29. Which one of your friends would make the best U.S. President and why?

I like how you think I have more than one friend 

30. What’s your favorite holiday and why?

Christmas because everyone turns into a little kid again

31. How would you survive a zombie apocalypse?

I wouldn’t 

32. In what ways are you the same as your childhood self?

I watch and irrevocably love Disney. I think Spongebob Squarepants is quality content. I still order my pieces of a chocolate bar by size... honestly the question is ‘in what ways am I different from my childhood self?’

33. If you could master one skill you don’t have right now, what would it be?

Painting

34. What was your dream job growing up?

Working with, caring for and training dogs. Spoiler: dreams do come true :) 

35. If you could live forever, how would you spend eternity?

Reading

36. If you could bring one musician back from the dead, who would it be and why?

Freddie Mercury because good lord, the man had talent and could everything from rock to opera. One of the best voices to have ever graced this earth

37. What was the last picture you took with your phone?

A picture of one of the dogs I look after, his name is Maxwell and I want to steal him 

38. What kind of sickness have you lied about so you wouldn’t go to work?

Not exactly a sickness but menstrual cramps. It’s a great excuse because it makes the men uncomfortable and women are completely and 100% sympathetic of you 

39. What was the last lie you told?

‘I wasn’t watching Tinker Bell, it just flicked onto that channel when you turned the TV on’

40. What is your perfect pizza?

Pepperoni with extra cheese

41. What question do you hate to answer?

Questions that are like ‘if you could one thing about yourself’ or ‘if you could change one thing in your past’ etc. because I just wouldn’t

42. What keys on a keyboard do you not use?

On a computer keyboard, the function key because who uses that? XD 

43. Who would you most like to be stuck in an elevator with?

Russell Howard so that not a single moment would be dull and plus, he’s easy on the eyes

44. Is there anything purple within 10 feet of you? What is it?

A purple candle next to ONE of my series of the Harry Potter books

45. When was the last time you ran/went for a jog?

I don’t like this question because i can’t remember and, even if I did, it probably involved food 

46. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?

No :(

47. What after school activities did you do in high school?

I did art club in primary school. Then, in secondary school, I didn’t really join any clubs but I did used to love sneaking into the music room and playing on the piano 

48. What ice-cream flavours do you love/hate?

Love Vanilla and I don’t necessarily hate it but I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate 

49. What is your secret recipe?

For scrambled eggs, I put paprika and other assorted spices in it. For pasta, I cook it with a little bit of chicken stock mixed into the water 

50. What channels do you have subscribed on YouTube?

I CAN’T NAME ALL OF THEM!!! XD to name a few favs (which probably won’t surprise anyone), jacksepticeye, Markiplier, Dan and Phil Games, Dan and Phil’s separate channels, CalikoKat, Glam&Gore, Jenna Marbles, Carrie Hope Fletcher, Matthew Hussey- they’re the main people I watch

[rtrigiy]

A Tale about Tetris

           It was the summer 2018, I was taking a summer class at my university. It was in Organic Chemistry; the course was long. Class was 4 days a week for 2 hours in the morning. In the afternoon we had lab 3 of those 4 days. Not that I disliked the course or thought it was hard, it was just the same thing from day to day. As a chem major taking a chemistry course, one thing I had on me everyday was my TI-84 plus ce graphing calculator. I had recently figured out how to install a simple version Tetris on it, and though I admit that I was not the best I would play the games in the breaks we had for the class. It was not my first experience with the game, but it was at this point that I started to understand what this game was.

           Soon I after the class ended, I downloaded the app on my phone. The app itself was different from the Tetris I was used to on the calculator. I remember one of my first thoughts was it was easier as it seemed you can rotate blocks indefinitely, but it also had the challenge of the blocks dropping much faster. One of the most notable things at the time was the leader board. I wanted to be at the top. I got better at the game, slowly lasting longer and longer. I learned the basics of how to stack blocks and how to get back-to-back Tetrises. I wasn’t addicted to the game under any terms but there would be times where I would just sit down and play Tetris for a solid hour while listening to music. It took me about 2 months to get to the top of my friend’s leaderboard, and I would constantly keep improving my score, but this was not to last.

           Sometime in the next fall semester I stopped playing Tetris, I felt that I hit a point where I couldn’t get my score to go any higher. In the end I deleted the app from my phone to free up some space. I was not motivated to continue and so I stopped. Now I did not keep track of how long I stopped playing, I was focused on other things like school and anime but looking back I don’t see it as a total lost.

           One day I was on YouTube, it just an average day. I don’t remember anything in particular about that day, but I know that one thing happened. I watched a video by Nick Robinson about Tetris Effect. Most notably was that something about this video made me want to play Tetris again. So, what I did was googled Tetris and I went to freetetris.org as I remember playing it a bit on the school computers in high school. There was no eureka moment of “omg I got to play Tetris,” no I just casually started playing Tetris again. It was a new semester and I had a few long breaks between some of my classes or work. Sometimes I would go back to my dorm, but sometimes I just didn’t feel like taking the 30 minute bike ride there and back so I just headed to the library. There I would either do homework, draw, or most often than not play Tetris. I would find myself playing the game more and more often. Soon after Tetris 99 released and though at the time I didn’t have a switch I would start watching videos about it online. I was seeing these cool tricks that could be done while playing the game. A simple t-spin was too much for my inexperience mind to handle. I would try sometimes but most often than not it would end up killing my game, so I gave up on learning how to t-spin. I thought, “eh, it’s not like it’s even important to the game, I can play without them.”

           I would continue to play, one day I went to GameStop and I bought Tetris Party Deluxe DS for the Nintendo DS for like 5 dollars, this was the first time I actually paid money for Tetris. Party Deluxe became my main method of playing Tetris for a few months. It was summertime so I didn’t really have any reason to just hang out on campus. Party Deluxe DS is not the most revolutionary Tetris games, in fact I don’t think many fans of Tetris have even heard of it, let alone play it, but this was the game the “taught” me how to play Tetris. Party Deluxe DS has many game modes. There is your average sprint and marathon, but then there are a few others. There was a computer battle, and this was my first experience into competitive Tetris. At the time I could only beat levels one and two consistently. One time I beat level three, but that was solely by luck. Beating levels four and five was impossible at the time. Field Climber and Shadow were okay modes, but they didn’t hold my interest in any notable way. Yet there was one mode, Stage Racer which I felt I needed to overcome. Stage Racer was a mode in which you rotate a single falling block though a maze which required the user to understand the SRS system of modern Tetris games. It was a great mode because with it I started to learn the mechanics of the game.

           So as summer continued, I was slowly getting better at Tetris. One of the most notable events of the summer was going on a car ride to visit family in another state. It was about a ten hour drive, and I spent a large part of it playing a single game of Tetris in Party Deluxe DS in the endless marathon mode. After getting there the game lasted 7 hours but I ended it when before we got to the destination as my 3DS was about to die and it would not save the game. In this game, I was not yet used to doing t-spins and it was too valuable of a run to give up to practice, but what I did practice during that game was how to build high and clear lines near the top of the board, a skill which I still value today.

           Another notable even of the summer was I was now living at my Dad’s house, and he owned a Nintendo Switch, along with this I had finally gotten twitch prime and with it a 6 month free online subscription. Events lined up perfectly to allow me to start playing Tetris 99, and I have to say: I WAS BAD. Anyone who has played Tetris 99 knows just how hard that game is, I was scoring mid 50s average and if I was lucky, I might have been able to see a second of the top 10. I started to grinding, as well as watching more YouTube videos on Tetris 99. A YouTuber name Tafo, had some great videos on how to improve as well as just being generally fun to watch. I started to analytically watch other people play Tetris, to see what they do and try to understand how they set up certain things. This was also the point where I discovered the HardDrop wiki and researched specific mechanics of the game. I got better, by the end of the summer I was regularly in the top 10, but never number one.

           A new semester started and this time I had even more time between classes and because I was living off campus that meant more time in the library. I started playing on jtris at this time, and like Tetris 99, I was not the best, and I accepted it. I knew that I was getting good though. I had mastered the art of setting up t-spin doubles and could incorporate it into my game reliably. I improved more and more as the weeks go by.

Over Labor Day Weekend I visited my family and had to sit in another road trip, this time I was prepared. I made sure that my 3DS was fully charged and was cautious of the battery life. My goal for this game, max out the score counter in Party Deluxe DS. By the time we arrived at my relative’s house I had beaten my school in only 3/4th of the time. I would keep the 3DS on the charger and come back to it during the vacation. Also, during this vacation, I finally got my first win in Tetris 99, a moment I still look back at with happiness. On the way back I was still playing the same game of Tetris, it was over 12 hours long when we returned home. I would continue to add to this game in short burst over the next week, but sadly the run never saved in the end as the game crashed after 15 hours.

Not much happened in the following months, I would slowly improve my game, but otherwise nothing. During what I dub the lost Labor Day run, I was updating my friend on how it was going, trying to convert her to the dark side of Tetris, which worked. She was my first pupil. I gave her advice on what I have learned about Tetris, but it was mainly us just talking about Tetris. In November, I did a speech about Tetris in one of my classes which made me start paying more attention to the Tetris subreddit, and it also gave me a new appreciation for “flexing in Tetris” as I did a psychological and philosophical analysis on the topic. In December, Tetris 99 had it’s first major update since launch and I started playing it more at that point. Around the start of the next semester, I finally bought Puyo Puyo Tetris, which was just something I wanted for a while. I would continue to improve throughout the spring semester, while classes were going on.

The final major event at the time of writing this would be the outbreak of the Coronavirus, which is still occurring right moment. Society is stuck inside, and I have decided to improve on my craft of Tetris. Now one may think, what else is there to learn, well a lot. For the pass month I have been improving my speed in building and making more complex set ups. As of last week I finally feel comfortable enough to do t-spin triples in the middle of my run. I have cut off a total of 20 seconds off my sprint 40L. Finally, I got a new pupil which means another person to play and talk about Tetris with, and they only sometimes mind that I destroy them when we compete against each other.

I wanted to write this for some reason, I don’t know what compelled me to. I guess I’ve just been playing so much Tetris lately, I just wanted to look back to where this all began. Sure, I started playing Tetris before I downloaded it to my TI-84 plus ce calculator, but I feel that was point in which Tetris was more than just something to do when you were bored. Yeah, at the time I was playing it because I was bored but there was something else, something indescribable about the game at the time. Over the years there is something that keeps me coming back to this game. I can’t think of what it is.

Tetris is just a stupid game about blocks and yet I have likely put 1000s of hours into that game. This is a mystery to me. I try to come up with a reason why I like Tetris. Lately when people ask me why I play Tetris I say because it makes me think, but maybe that isn’t the reason. Sure, I like the set ups, but the game isn’t really a puzzle, yet at the same time it is a puzzle. Maybe it’s just a sunk cost fallacy, at this point I have put so much time and effort into playing and I do feel confident enough to say that I am good at the game. But at the same times, why would I put those hours in if I didn’t like the game to begin with, so that can’t be the answer.

I don’t want to say that I like Tetris because I think it’s fun. It sounds generic and I can’t even point out why I think it’s fun. It’s just doing the same thing over and over. Slowly getting better, maybe learning a few tricks along the way. People say that Tetris is relaxing, and while in some instances that is true (how I did a 15 hour marathon of the game), I like it when I keep losing and am forced to just get gud, but winning is fun too. I don’t think that’s it’s the competition, while that is an element of Tetris I enjoy, I don’t take any active role in the Tetris community.

I think that maybe I like Tetris because it is something which I can reliably go back to and know, I am good at this. Here is a thing, I suck at video games. I am a fucking casual. The game I have the most time in other than Tetris is Animal Crossing with like 600 hours. Maybe I just want to say that I am good at something. There wasn’t a point in which I didn’t believe that I wasn’t good at Tetris. Sure, every once and a while I will be like “I suck” but at the same time it’s Tetris. I don’t know anyone personally that can beat me in a Tetris battle, and even if I did since the beginning, I knew this, “There is always someone better than me in Tetris.” I like to classify myself as a Lower-High Tier player. At this point I can beat other that also play this game regularly, but I struggle at beating the highest tier players, which I am okay with. I don’t want to be the best Tetris player in the world, that sounds awful. But like that feeling of being good something I am happy about.

Tetris is a game, and it’s a game that I like.

Special mention to Tetris Friends which I played very briefly, it was not significant enough for me acknowledge in my Tetris journey , but I respect what it was and I do have fond memories of the site.

[365footballorg-blog]

Warshaw: Winners and Losers from a Decision Day that did not disappoint

USA Today Sports Images

October 29, 20181:09PM EDT

The Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs may be ahead, but there were already plenty of winners and losers after the regular season concluded on Sunday, the 2018 edition of MLS Decision Day presented by AT&T. Here’s a look at who gained and lost the most 

The Clear Winners

RBNY Duh. The Red Bulls lifted a trophy (props to whoever decided to whip this shield out). New York’s 1-0 win over Orlando paired with Atlanta’s loss to net a third Shield in six years. RBNY also set the record for most points in a single season.

Yo @ChrisEvans, these guys got your shield. pic.twitter.com/Ec5b6lHzgF

— COPA90 US (@COPA90US) October 29, 2018

A question for the super MLS dorky: Does three Shields in six years count as a dynasty? My gut reaction says no. But if they were MLS Cups, the answer would be yes. Should it be a different answer for the Shield? Isn’t the Shield harder to win?

Big Winners

REAL SALT LAKE What a night they must have had. RSL had to watch from home as the Galaxy carve up Houston in the first half en route to a 2-0 lead. Then Houston pulled a goal back, and it was surely just a tease … no way Galaxy could cough this up, right? Then Houston get another to tie … but it’s Zlatan on the other end, and this has storybook LA ending written all over it, right? Then Houston scored a third and Mike Petke must have lost his *&^% as RSL snuck into the six spot in the West.

Lozz Angelez https://t.co/uyvUDfFNmc

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) October 28, 2018

The folks in Utah gotta send the Dynamo something, right? What’s the proper gift for such an occasion? Nobody actually wants a fruit basket. Flowers could be funny; I’d watch a GIF of Alberth Elis opening a box of roses.

We better see a ‘gram from Houston showing off an arrival from RSL this week.

Winning

SPORTING KC The good news: The 2-1 win over LAFC ensures Sporting skip the elimination game. After losing four straight first-round games, they can sleep a little easier this week. They also got the game winner after going down a man.

The bad news: Seth Sinovic got the red card and Sporting have struggled without Sinovic on the field this year. In Sinovic’s 18 starts prior to Sunday, Sporting were 11-3-4; in the remaining games, they were 6-5-4. To make matters worse, their reserve left backs — Cristian Lobato, Jimmy Medranda, and Jaylin Lindsey — are all unavailable right now. Sporting can either call Lindsey back from U-20 national team duty, or move Yohan Croizet to left back for next weekend’s playoff game (or maybe move Matt Besler there?).

SEATTLE With the win over San Jose, the Sounders finish as the No. 2 seed in the West. Yeah, crazy, huh?

Best I can tell, Raul Ruidiaz is the fastest Sounder to 10 goals. Took him 14 games. Dempsey, I think, had the record with 19. Montero took 20 games. Oba was 24.

— Jeremiah Oshan (@JeremiahOshan) October 29, 2018

I stick to my comments that the Sounders weren’t yet good through the early parts of their win streak. But they are good now. They spun the confidence into a reliable playing style revolving around sharp passing, fluid attacking movement, and dominating dangerous space near their box. The No. 2 seed is a fair finish for them. They are one of the top-two teams in the West.

CREW SC They won; they’re in; Gyasi Zardes bagged a hat trick. Once upon a time they would have been bummed to have to travel for the elimination game, but they can’t dwell on that. They get the five-seed and will travel to D.C. for the elimination game.

D.C. UNITED A draw was enough to move into fourth and earn D.C. a home game. They’re 12-2-1 at home since christening Audi Field.

NYCFC They might have gotten their mojo back in the 3-1 win over Philadelphia. Or, at least they got their starters back, who brought the mojo with them. Yangel Herrera, Maxi Moralez, Jesus Medina, and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi all returned to the starting lineup, and we saw what would probably be Dome Torrent’s first-choice group for the first time since the manager took over the team. The win means NYC get the elimination game at Yankee Stadium, where they are 12-1-14 in 2018.

The Clear Losers

LA GALAZY I still can’t believe that happened. Winning 2-0 at half in a home game against a team that’s been eliminated for a month and then … Splat.

Actually, yes I can. The Galaxy had been better recently, but they still weren’t playing like a playoff team, especially defensively. In preparation for our studio shows, our producers asked me to put together film on how the Galaxy had improved defensively. I couldn’t do it. I went back through their last four games and couldn’t find a single clip when they showed solid team shape. They weren’t making the elementary mistakes that they had been making, which elevated their level by default, but they still allowed plenty of gaps between their lines, and someone was bound to exploit them at some point.

Big Losers

ATLUTD Matt came in hard on Atlanta for their disappointing 4-1 defeat to Toronto.

They got drilled 4-1 on the final day of the season w/ a trophy on the line. That’s a collapse. #TFCvATL https://t.co/yrlf0hWzER

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) October 28, 2018

I see where he’s coming from, but I disagree; I wouldn’t call it a collapse. Atlanta won 5-of-7, and 9-of-13. The two most recent losses were at the Red Bulls and at Toronto (The Reds have had a bad year, but they still have the ability to be very good). There’s nothing embarrassing about any of that. It just so happens that Red Bulls also won 9-of-13, but happened to draw instead of lose in the other couple.  

That said, this has gotta hurt. Atlanta were the best team for most of the year, and it felt like a matter of time until they would hoist their first trophy. Now everything’s falling apart: Tata’s leaving soon; Miguel Almiron’s hurt; the midfield looks unable to control a game. Atlanta didn’t just lose a game and a trophy on Sunday – they looked far from being a team that could win three straight tough playoff series.

MONTREAL IMPACT So close yet so far. They gave themselves a chance heading into Decision Day, but the 1-0 loss to New England ended their hopes. The Impact held on longer than anyone expected. Mais c’est fini, as they say.

Losing

PHILADELPHIA The loss itself wasn’t that bad. The way they lost, though …

The Union looked like the worst version of themselves at Yankee Stadium on Sunday; the tight dimensions of the field hindered their ability to pass. The Union’s entire gameplan, both offensively and defensively, depends upon their ability to move the ball in a controlled manner. Philly have worked hard to build a playing style, but Yankee Stadium might be the toughest place to execute it. Sunday’s loss means they fall to sixth … and will play in Yankee Stadium. Again. On Wednesday.

LAFC It’s harsh to call LAFC “losers” on the night; they lost on the road to the top team in the conference. Unfortunately, though, they also fell out of the top two and must now play an elimination game.

Of note, head coach Bob Bradley reinserted Eduard Atuesta into the lineup. Benny Feilhaber and Lee Nguyen played with Atuesta in the middle and Carlos Vela started on the right. I understand why Bradley wants Atuesta on the field — Atuesta can offer more defensive stability — but LAFC look better to my eyes when Vela plays centrally. The spacing with a triangle of Feilhaber-Nguyen-Vela makes for more fluid ball movement than Atuesta-Feilhaber-Nguyen with Vela tucking central. That’s something to watch during their midweek elimination game against RSL.

Series: 

Topics: 

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Warshaw: Winners and Losers from a Decision Day that did not disappoint was originally published on 365 Football

[topicprinter]

[TL; DR: Amazon is very strict about ToS. Create a content rich site. Drive traffic. Specifics: search WHAT WORKED further down this post]So ... it's been over a year since I applied for an Amazon affiliate account. Back then,it was easy to get access to the Product Advertising API, which is a must-have if you are using any of the Amazon plug-ins to grab the latest deals and current prices off Amazon. All you had to do was ask, and they'd let you create your PAAPI keys right away.My first affiliate account was deactivated because I didn't bother getting the word out and so had zero sales after 6 months.Right. Lesson learned ... these things expire.Then I threw up a website that used the PAAPI with a plugin, so the store was FULL of products. I focused on a single sub-category (Painting, Drawing, and Art Supplies), because, being an artist myself, I decided that would be a good niche to focus on. Also put up another site in the photography supplies niche.Did some social media posts (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, IG). Got a bit of traction, but not huge. Started talking with someone who has a bunch of Im businesses, and he strongly recommended outsourcing the daily posting, multiple times a day, etc.So off I went to TaskBullet, set up an account and bought their biggest bucket as it was most bang for the buck. Requested they assign a social media manager with experience driving traffic. Watched as the lady assigned to my account fumbled through the posting over 3 months. Results: page likes, post likes, followers, but no sales.Lesson learned: don't outsource what you don't understand. Be very clear what your expectations are, from the get-go. Pull the plug early if the outsourcing isn't getting you the results you expected.I decided my best bet was to handle the Amazon account and all marketing for it myself, so that I could learn and also control my results.Then I got ridiculously stupid back in July. My affiliate account was under my corporate ID (same postal address, different credit card , corporation name on the account, but my own name as the person in charge). I decided it would be okay to purchase for my personal account using the corporation's affiliate ID. Also had a couple of friends purchase items using the same affiliate ID.Result: Amazon, in their wisdom, reviewed the account, noticed the personal purchase and totally disabled the account. No explanations offered, but the cause was pretty obvious.Lesson learned: don't ever try to double-dip. Amazon is not dumb, they'll shut you down as soon as they notice.By this time, Amazon had changed the rules of the game: PAAPI access is now granted only to those who have got those magical 3 initial sales and had their account officially approved by Amazon.That means, if you have a WP plugin throwing new exciting finds from Amazon on your website, that website now has blank pages where the products used to appear. So I now had two websites (the art supplies one and the photography one) sitting around looking really dumb.What to do? I threw up a random blog site, put some "posts" on it: basically, glorified copies of the items on Amazon. Put in a disclosure at the bottom of the page stating that I'm an affiliate. Asked my friends to buy, they did.Result: Amazon shut down the account. No explanations offered.Lesson learned: I had NO idea why they shut it down, although their comment of "not really original content" was a clue. Googled "get approved for Amazon affiliate 2018". Learned that they actually want to see a successful blog site, with actual content, not just copy-paste from the items for sale at Amazon.Also learned three other key details: 1) it's against Amazon's ToS to use their product images on your site (I'd just assumed that was fine, because those were obviously the best images ... bad mistake). 2) they want that affiliate disclaimer to be very prominent, not just in the page footer! 3) they want to see a site with steady traffic!DUH, That last one should have been obvious even to a noob! Created yet another affiliate id using the same credentials as before (Amazon lets you do this, no issues).[What worked] Okay, back to the drawing board. Revamped my blog starting on Oct 7.I added a new page titled Affiliate Disclosure to my blog, and made sure every blog post had a big, bold affiliate disclosure at the bottom and a link to that affiliate disclosure page for additional details.I went through all of my posts and changed out the Amazon images for photos I'd either taken myself of my art and photography supplies, or relevant photos from royalty-free image sites like Pixabay.comWrote new articles in an actual blog post style, telling people what I do, how I use these tools, comparing one against the other, etc. By this time, I had about 10 posts active on the blog, all with links to multiple items, not just one item per post as I'd previously done for my original spammy "blog site".Realized I still had no traffic other than my friends (one friend had clicked through on a blog post and purchased some crayons for me) ... so, on October 9th, I started doing boosted posts on FB and IG with very low ad budgets, no more than $2 to $5 per day.Continued creating new blog posts as I found new discounts on Amazon or rediscovered art supplies I use and love. The blog became a way to journal my love for art! Another friend purchased an eraser off my blog. Again, a very low-priced purchase. My friends aren't dumb, either!1 week in, I realized that my ads were working. My FB page has over a 100 followers now, and I've run enough boosted posts and ads that FB converted my pages to a business account (something I'd intended to do and never got around to doing).Just about the 10-day mark, I noticed a new sale on my Amazon Affiliate report ... and it was NOT anything on my blog! So that means someone actually bought something from Amazon within 24 hours of clicking through from my blog to Amazon (Amazon affiliate links are cookied for 24 hours if no purchase is made after a link click, or for 90 days if your buyer actually buys your advertised item after clicking your link).That was a week ago today. And that was my 3rd sale. I continued with the boosted posts so Amazon's reviewer would continue to see traffic hitting my page.This morning, Amazon sent me an email telling me my account was approved.All told, it took me almost 3 weeks on this latest attempt, including cleaning up my blog and driving traffic to the blog.Lessons learned: 1. Really follow Amazon's ToS. They'll shut you down with no warning and no explanations for any infringement. 2. Create real content, not just spammy copy-paste reviews. 3. Drive consistent traffic. This can be free traffic if you are good at the social media game, or just plain paid traffic. I've spent a total of $94.39 over the three weeks: I was doing a bunch of split tests, so, although each individual ad was only $2 to $5 per day, it adds up!Could you get this done faster? Heck, yes, if you have high quality blog posts, and you can drive more traffic quickly, it may only take a week to ten days. I'm happy enough with my slower pace, as it allowed me to understand better why some things work and some don't. I'm still no paid traffic expert, but I now have a solid understanding of how to tweak things to make my ads work.If you try following these steps, do come back and let me know what your results were!

[remembermemorablememories]

Thursday, July 5, 2018

post #178

main points:

- intern outing in SF in japan town

- aquarium

- rent a car and drive down south to fb to meet with kush, will and jwoos for dinner

- hectic returning the car 

- packing

today i:

- woke up around 8:45am. then 9:30am. i decided to just get up and get going. there was an intern outing in SF starting near japan town at 10:30am. i decided to just go at 11:30am when they would start eating lunch at yamadaya ramen (where i got lunch with hugh and jwoos just this past sunday LOL)

- i woke up and tried to catch up on yesterday’s blog post but got a little distracted on youtube and figuring out what to do for the day (renting a car vs ubering). i decided to rent a car for the day since i’d be going down to redwood. i wrote some rough draft of yesterday’s blog and then called an uber around 10:45am

- got to yamadaya ramen at 11:30am, just in time. i went inside and all the interns were already there. there were like 15 of us. i sat on one end with chip, the organizer. he’s really cool. we got karaage, gyoza, and takoyaki for appetizers. then i got the yamada ramen again for lunch. it was really heavy but yummy

then we wandered around the japantown malls (the same exact thing i did with hugh and jwoos LOL). we got taiyaki (the fried fish dough thing) and then went to the book store. i hung out with vishal, gabriel, lillia while we were exploring

after japantown, a lot of the interns dipped to go elsewhere. we called some ubers to head up north to the pier/aquarium. i hopped on chip’s car and we drove to the aquarium. we talked about some random stuff like company perks, his growth in career/plans of maybe moving and my plans of where i wanna live after i graduate, and other stuff

- we got to the aquarium around 1:30pm...? or 2pm? idk. everyone else was already there cause the ubers had dropped them off. then we went into the aquarium and looked around for about an hour and a half. there were two floors and it was kind of confusing initially, cause the elevator’s misleading. it doesn’t go anywhere and then opens on the other side to a different part of the aquarium. highlights were that we saw some sharks, jellyfish, and some sea otters. it was a chill time

- everyone went to pier 39 and i headed south to go pick up a car. got there around 4:40pm ish, then unlocked the car (prius) and drove south to redwood. it took about 30 ish minutes

i got there around 5:30pm and then met up with jwoos. i accidentally parked the farthest possible place from him LOL. i thought it was 1 hacker way so that’s what i put into my google maps. he signed me in, then kush showed up after a few minutes, so we signed him in. jwoos gave us a tour around the campus and it’s just... MASSSIIIIVE. they’re living such a nice life. the building is huge and so nice. the microkitchens are humongous. so much space and so many engineers

around 6pm, will arrived. we signed him in and then biked to classic campus to get dinner. we ate some cajun food which was pretty dope. it was fun catching up with will and kush cause i haven’t seen them in so long (like almost a year). we just talked about stuff related to tech/what we’re working on at our internships. we also bumped into norman who was showing his fam around. after we ate cajun food, we went to the sweets shop, which was awesome. it had like ice cream, cookies, froyo, toppings, all of it for free LOL. then we were shown the arcade and then that was about it

we biked back to the new building to pick up will’s bags cause he checked them in when he got signed in. then kush headed home

jwoos will and i walked back to my car that i parked so far away at LOL. we drove back to jwoos place and i hung out with him and will for a bit to charge my phone. it was at like 35% and i was getting anxious cause i needed it to navigate back up north, return the rental car, and also uber back home. i chilled there from like 9pm to 9:45pm and it got to like 60%, which was pretty solid. jwoos will and i were just hanging out for a bit. they talked about running (will ran a marathon two months ago) and it was interesting to hear about

i peaced out around 9:45pm (will is staying with jwoos for the next few days). drove for about 40 minutes back up to where i got the rental car. as i got closer, i realized i’d need to extend my rental for 15 minutes from 10:30pm to 10:45pm to fill up on gas before returning it. i tried to do this once i had parked at the gas station, but the app bugged out and did it for 1 hour and 15 minutes instead. so i filled up the car’s gas and then called support to ask to be refunded. they assured me that once the car was returned, i’d be refunded the difference.

i drove the car from the gas station to the parking spot around 10:35pm. i called an uber to take me home, and then parked the rental car. i was trying to take some pics of it for liability reasons but only got the left side cause the uber had arrived so quickly. i rushed and took a single pic and then got into the uber. i’m really paranoid i’m gonna get charged for something i didn’t do. the car was in the exact same condition i got it in (no damage at all), and i wish i had a chance to take pictures of all four sides. ugh so stressful

- ubered back home and got back around 11pm. picked up the mail for my upstairs roommate who needed access to the mailbox. now i’m catching up on today and yesterday’s blog posts

now i’m gonna go take a long shower, pack for yosemite, and then sleep

whew the last two hours were really hectic. okay good night

[mineofilms]

Medical Health Update... The Full Story Part One

I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes in July of 2014. It wasn't that much time later I lost the sight in both my eyes due to Cataract. 6 weeks it started and then took both eyes. The Doctors for Center for Sight; Dr. Kim (yes very Asian, lol) said they had never seen a Cataract this aggressive in someone that was in my age range and the shape I was in. 5'2; 140 lbs, 35 years old @ 8% Body Fat at that time. Mind you professional bodybuilders usually come in, in and around, 3-5% Body Fat. So I was in pretty good shape on the outside. A month later I got surgery on both eyes.

Since then I have lost an additional 10lbs. When I went to the ER in July 2014 to find out what was up with me. I didn't have a dollar in my name. My blood sugar was at around 500 then. I got a DUI in June of 2016 and they tested my blood then. It was High; around 455. I got cellulitis in my right finger in July of 2017, went to Sarasota Memorial, blood test came up at 475.

In the few months to come, I stabilized my blood sugar. However; I was having problems with the insulin I was on (Novolin R, and Novolin N) The N made me very sick and weak. I lose more weight. The R also made me sick an even after eating my Blood Sugar would drop way too low. I'd go to the gym and BOOM. Bottom the hell out in mid-set... I was so goddamn embarrassed.

You have to understand that I am a complete beast in the gym. I go at a hard pace and I don't mess about there. All business... The one place where I can be a complete animal with just about no regard for anything but myself. I love it...

The reason why I am saying all this is to give you some back story about why I am here and why my profile sort of makes no sense on the outside looking in. I am not a typical Type II Diabetic case. My blood sugars are a little high from normal, to the mid 200's. The only time I get spikes is in the AM, Fasted and/or If I eat a late dinner. I might see a 298-303 reading. Those bigger numbers that I talked about above where all situations where my body and my brain were under a lot of stress. Stress. I will come back to that.

So, for the most part, my blood sugars are not that out of control that I need to suffer every day being sick on a poor man's insulin. I have no insurance so I cannot get the Novolog that I need. I have to get the Canadian Version from Wal-Mart.

I was laid off in November, I wasn't feeling good at all. I also have a back issue. Back then it was at its worse. I could barely move around. It got so bad I had to take time off the gym and then another few months not doing LEGS. What real lifter skips Leg Day Yo? So; I was gonna get a shot in the spin but my PCP (Primary Care Physician) was being a real pain about it. Wanted all these tests that cost money I didn't have and I had to pay them. I got upset and just said screw it to both. My back, the shot, my PCP. I fired them both and let them know what I was gonna do. I was gonna eat carbs and squat... They both didn't like that. Get this... After 10 days of treating my back like I had no issues. My pain went from a solid 8 to about a 3. When the pressure drops here in SWFL it does affect it but I can usually fight through it.

So back to my diabetes... Your typical type II diabetic case are bigger people who cannot lose weight. In fact, they gain weight in most cases. Me? I lost 50+lbs in about 8 months and for the life of me, I cannot put weight back on. I literally cannot gain physical mass. No matter how much I eat/train/rest/repeat... I do not gain physical mass... I weighed today at 135... I look good; sure, but I am too small. I need to be 150-155. Then I would feel more me again. Me hopes...

I Googled/WebMD'd the FK out of this and couldn't find much data on "Type II Diabetics trying to gain mass." Almost all the fitness stuff on Diabetes is all big/fat people trying to lose weight. Their disease is what's increasing their weight. Yet mine subtracts and I have only had mild success at putting muscle mass on. It's actually quite maddening.

I truly believe that Stress from 2012-2013 put me into this state. I can actually remember waking up one day feeling like EVERYTHING around me that I knew was "off" or how I was seeing/interpreting it, was, OFF; mentally, physically and emotionally.

This is also why I am single. I do not gain mass because it's likely my T levels are extremely low. I am willing to bet its closer to zero. I am sure you know what low T will do to a guy both mentally and physically. It has literally re-wired how my brain operates now. Especially in the guy/girl department.

Now that I am back to work. I plan to get a GAD Test. A GAD test is a blood test which measures whether the body is producing a type of antibody which destroys its own GAD cells. Apparently, this is related to Diabetes as a whole. Apparently, it's not standard testing down here. How am I not surprised... Anyways... I am going to another Dr. I know from the GYM. He does TRT replacement. So I am going to get tested to see if that might help me be more, ah, more me; you know?

So now I have cut my workouts back to 4 days a week. My job is very physically demanding and I usually drink about a gallon to a gallon and a half of water between work and the gym. I sweat my weight in water so my job is cardio and I do a more powerlifting routine. My body responds better to this but still no mass gain. Will continue this when I see the Doctor and get those blood test results in.

Medical Health Update... The Full Story Part One by David-Angelo Mineo 6/13/2018..

[lexiebowen]

12-9-17 (Part 3)

The Décor:

Castle Hill was already decked out for Christmas, which made our job way easier! All we needed was the centerpieces and a few odds and ends. We decided to use mismatched lanterns, all 30(ish) of them were different. Jordan and I had a blast going to several Goodwills, Hobby Lobbies, and any other place we could think of that might have lanterns for sale. Goodwill is gooood. Hobby Lobby is awesome when they have 50% off lantern sales! Score. Thanks to those who found lanterns for us as well! We knew we wanted lanterns with pine boughs and pine cones scattered around them and then my sister and father decided we should put them in boxes. Once I got Jordan to agree with the box plan, my dad made 30ish boxes for us! Lets just all take a moment to appreciate how wonderful and talented he is! We went on many pine cone hunts to collect pine cones and we gathered pine boughs from a local tree farm that is also owned by family friends. For the lanterns we decided to not cause a fire hazard and went with all flame-less candles. We didn’t want anything exploding like at my sister’s wedding… 😉 For “fillers” I decided to place pictures of our loved ones who had passed away scattered on the tables, intermixed with the guests. I ordered adorable log photo holders from amazon to hold the pictures along with a special quote and a description of who they were in relation to Jordan or I. For the head tables I used adorable pine cone strings I got from my friend Ellie for my bridal shower and used décor my Aunt Ade had for my other bridal shower! Then comes the wedding donuts, we were just a few short weeks away and we still had no idea how we were going to display them. Again, my amazing and talented father swoops in and makes two incredible donut stands for our donuts to be displayed proudly on. My brother also made some really cool trivets that we scattered around the bases of the donut holders to also hold donuts. Last but not least, the huge chalkboard that greeted you as you entered castle hill. The chalkboard was found, and revamped, by once again my awesome father. My best friend/ bridesmaid, Phoebe, wrote on it for us and of course it was my father who made the tripod for it to stand on! Let’s take one more moment to just appreciate how ridiculously talented he is because he also made that the day before the wedding. Also shout out to my super talented cousin who made our guest tree! Tisk tisk to like 50% of our wedding guests that didn’t sign it 😉.

The “flowers”:

We didn’t use flowers, but I don’t know what else to call them, the pine arrangements? I dunoo. Anywhoo. Pinecones are flowers now. A dear family friend, Jeanine, made all the boutonnieres for the men, corsages for the women, decorated the inside of the lanterns for my bridesmaids to carry, made my amazing bouquet, and the pew bows, decorated the card box, and even made an adorable “fake” bouquet for me to toss. The only “flowers” we had were flowers my grandma Larson had crocheted. They were incorporated into my bouquet and all the corsages. Since my grandma Darlene had contributed to my bouquet, Jeanine went to my Grandma Alice to see if she could think of something to add to it, and of course she did not disappoint. My grandma Alice is a very talented painter/ ornament maker, so she whipped up this adorable little squirrel ornament to hide out in my bouquet. It was absolutely perfect. (Jordan and I both love squirrels and it was one of the first things we bonded over.)

Spot the squirrel?

You bet I wore boots. Can you see the grips on those babies? No falling in a wedding dress in the snow for me.

The photographer:

 My super talented cousin, Annie, didn’t hesitate at all when I asked her if she would be our wedding photographer. We couldn’t have asked for anyone better to capture our special day, and she sure did capture some sweet, sweet, moments!

 The DJ:

 The DJ was a good friend of Jordan’s from college. (He’s my friend now too, but Jordan knew him first 😉 ). He had been the DJ for another college friend awhile back and that is when we knew we’d be recruiting him for our future wedding! Another solid choice as he did not disappoint! 

Wedding Party:

I could go into detail about every wedding party member… but that would take years because we had a lot of lovely people standing by us on our special day. So, lets just lump them all together and say that we couldn’t have asked for better friends and family! Our day was perfect because of them and we couldn’t be more blessed to have the best (friends and family) in our lives! You all are amazing, and we love you dearly. Maybe I’ll make special blog posts that go into fun and embarrassing details for their Birthdays. Just maybe. 😉

 Ok ok, so I lied, I’m going to give you little snippets about them.

I was lucky enough to have the problem of not being able to choose just one MOH, so I chose two! My beautiful big sister was my “matron” of honor, as she is old and married. Hehe. I was also her maid of honor when she got married, so having her return the favor was pretty special. My amazing little cousin/best friend/”little sister” was my maid of honor. Gracie nailed her speech and Vanessa nailed crying through her speech. Love you Ness. The pictures of Vanessa’s speech progression are just pure gold.

Next were my 4 lovely bridesmaids… Jordan wouldn’t let me have 10. First is the lovely and uber talented Phoebe, my best friend since like 3rd grade, and I had the pleasure of standing up in her wedding the month before Jordan and I got engaged! Then we had the girl with one of the biggest hearts I know, Brooklyn, one of the absolute best friends I made in college. Next was my lovely and hilarious sister-in-law Ashley, whom I also had the pleasure of being a bridesmaid for when she married my brother. Last, but certainly not least, was another biggest heart I know, lovely, and kind soul, named Sarah. She was my freshman year college roommate and I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

Then there’s the “others” of the wedding party. Along with my two MOHs, I also had two personal attendants. My super sweet “twin” Maggie, a very dear friend from the good ole days of high school, was one of them. The other one was the amazing Alex, who has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. They were the perfect personal attendants and were so incredibly helpful and amazing as I knew they would be. I couldn’t love or appreciate them more.

Next up is our usher and usherette. My favorite big brother and favorite little sister-in-law nailed those roles.

Jordan’s lovely groomsmen were 3 of his dear college friends, and 3 of his high school friends (1 was there in spirit, refer to blog part 1 for why). If you want more details on them then you will have to tell Jordan to write his own blog post 😉. But I can let you know that they are all super cool dudes and we couldn’t have been happier to have them standing in our wedding. The best man also nailed his speech just so you know.

The ring “bear” was my 3-year-old nephew, and the cutest ring “bear” I ever did see. He may have needed a little help getting down the aisle, but it was adorable and certainly beats a temper tantrum! He carried a sign that my sister (his mother) had gotten me for a bridal shower gift that says “I love you to the moon and back.” (Which my dad ended up carrying, haha.) Our flower girl was Jordan’s niece and she was the perfect age for the job and nailed it! Like my bridesmaids, she carried a lantern as well.

The same Pastor that confirmed me, married me. We got married in our sister church, as we were worried the church I grew up in would be a little too small and crowded. The church was beautiful, spacious, and the blue wall matched my theme, blue. We had one heck of a time trying to find an organist, so we decided to just use CD’s and a dear family friend flawlessly ran that for us! I also had one heck of a time trying to make our wedding programs. I started with using templates, but I didn’t like any of the results. After a long struggle I managed to copy, paste, and edit my way through creating my own. Thank you google!

I may be forgetting some details here and there, but hey I tried! To every single person who helped our dream wedding turn into a reality, we thank you. We couldn’t have planned this wedding in 5 months without you all! Much love, the Truells.

[dawnajaynes32]

15 Logo Design Trends Emerging Today

We teamed up with the brilliant minds at LogoLounge to provide our readers with an extensive look into this year’s logo design trends and insights in the latest issue of HOW magazine. LogoLounge’s Bill Gardner and an esteemed panel of judges pored through 40,000 logos collectively to select the cream of the crop in logo design from around the world. This year’s judges were:

Aaron Draplin, Draplin Design Co. Von Glitschka, Glitschka Studios Su Mathews Hale, Lippincott Andreas Karl, Karl Design Chad Michael, Chad Michael Studio

Emily Oberman, Pentagram Yo Santosa, Ferroconcrete Felix Sockwell Alex Tass Alex Trochut

Garnder and the judges identified these unifying logo design trends among the winning designs.

15 Emerging Logo Design Trends

Words by: Emily Potts, with Bill Gardner

Logos have to walk the tricky walk of being simple, yet comprehensive at the same time—i.e., instantly recognizable and communicating the brand’s essence. Some logos do this very well, but many don’t. After poring through thousands and thousands of logos, we asked Gardner and the LogoLounge judges what graphic devices were trending this year and if they felt they were eff ective for their intended audiences. Here’s a glimpse at the 15 logo trends Gardner noticed in five categories, including Surface, Form, Object, Dimension and Line. Check out the full trend report at LogoLounge.com.

1. Shadow Breaks are these instances in which designers use a shadow to create a dimensional break, rather than a hard-line break. “Because they have built this device in, you get this greater sense of one line crossing over the other,” Gardner says. “It’s more realistic.”

Botanika by Almosh82

[Related: 5 Tips for Logo Development Success | Logomorphs: Watch 13 Logo Designs Transform from Past to Present]

2. Fades have become quite popular this year, where parts of the logo interlace with paper or the surface they’re on. “I think it’s this idea of freshness or the idea of something coming from nowhere,” he explains.

Simply Analytics by Brandforma

3. Rising Color is really about the intensity of color when it is placed over itself. “You’ll notice that they all start with the same basic color point that takes different shifts in gradation, where they get darker as they cross over each other.”

Minneapolis Downtown Council by CAPSULE

4. Simplicity in form is a return to basics. “The little movie camera comprised of the heart and the rectangle and the two circles on top says this is about somebody who loves movies or filmmaking,” Gardner explains. “If I were just to take those same shapes and cast them out on the table like a cup full of dice, you’d never make that connection. It’s kind of brilliant how simple it is.”

Love Cinema by Maskon Brands

5. Simple Overlay is an old trick that has come back in a big way to really communicate transparency. He notes, “I think in particular, the designers of the MasterCard and MetLife identities went into the ‘Wayback Machine’ and said, ‘We’re going to express the aesthetic of these organizations in the most simple of fashions.’ Transparent overlays are shorthand for designers to convey financial transparency.”

MetLife by Prophet

6. Multicentric logos were in abundance this year. The concentric stripes and circles seem to evoke that idea of broadcasting—where something starts at a central point and communicates outward. These marks also tend to have monoweight lines.

Eocen by Ortega Graphics

7. Ellipsis in speech bubbles are having their moment in the sun, and Gardner says there’s some psychology behind that. “It’s this whole idea that the dots represent this active communication that’s going on. It’s kind of a placeholder and it’s saying, ‘I’m still holding the floor here for a minute. Don’t say anything.’”

United States of Stevenson Forum by Stevenson University School of Design

8. Text Boxes are another way to call out words in a diff erent way. Instead of placing words in a solid form like a crest, designers are creating new meanings by incorporating a block of color or reversing the text and background to create a logo. “This is moving beyond just setting a word inside a box or circle. It harks back to graphic programs that used that language, where words would be highlighted. It’s a simulation of that.”

Mozilla by Typotheque

9. Yin and Yang have symbolic references dating back centuries. “It’s this idea of a company being able to bring things together that may be divergent, and fi nding a way for them to have synergy. It’s the company and the customer living together. It’s bringing things together from different ends of the spectrum,” Gardner says.

The Mane Intent by Hatch Creative

10. Pasta Bends are a newish category in which designers are trying to create a new, perhaps more realistic rendering by adding three-dimensional characteristics using highlights, gradients, and shadows. “Each of these are more defi ned by the actual shapes that are coming together than the fact that they have substance,” notes Gardner, “But I think the substance aspect may be indicative of, ‘We create actual products.’”

Borlyte by Ortega Graphics

11. Wrapped logos are really like hidden figures that reveal themselves underneath something else. It’s this idea of an integral component lying underneath that becomes part of the greater whole.

Klarwin by Brandient

12. Microlines work together to complete a form that almost appears as a light four-color process. “It could be a way of defining that a company is spacial. It communicates a technical quality because of the incredible precision that’s required of them,” Gardner explains, adding, “Frankly, it creates some challenges with logos because it might not be highly scalable.”

Aurora Cooperative by Arma Graphico

13. Doubles is the idea of drafting two components in a single line that are interlinked with each other. “They recreate very easily, and they’re easily crafted,” he says. “They’re kind of fun to look at because you almost want to put your fi nger on the line and trace it yourself. It’s kind of like a puzzle.”

The Bright House by Studio Ink

14. Wings give the impression of something being uplifted, giving the logo an ethereal quality. These multiline logos have an aspirational sense and create a sense of flight.

Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas by Accent Brand Consultants AG

15. Color Split is part of a new evolution, expanding on the monoline approach and using color to create a new dimension or twist. “Google may have started this trend a couple of years ago with its favicon divided into quarters using primary colors,” Gardner explains. “It’s this idea of being able to indicate that even though it’s a single line, it can take on this kind of polychrome eff ect from a color perspective.”

Podegiki by Pavel Saksin

Read more in the special LogoLounge section of HOW magazine! Featured in this section is not only a sneak peek at the top-rated logos, but also some great advice from the judges—what to aim for and what to avoid when crafting a logo—and what’s trending, according to LogoLounge founder Bill Gardner. We also dig into the process behind some of the judges’ logos. Get a copy or subscribe today.

[Online Course: Logo Design Basics]

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