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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

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A fifth of the way through! Who’s proud of me? :D

Noisy - After a certain seance Aziraphale is feeling insecure about how much he talks.

Aziraphale was speaking.

Had been for the majority of their meal, pausing only to take bites of the Norfolk crab with ossetra caviar, veal fillet with asparagus in a wild garlic sauce, chocolate and hazelnut mousse for dessert with a second order of the fruit sorbet because he hadn’t been able to decide and really, why not both?

Why not both?, Crowley agreed. He adored watching Aziraphale eat. All those quirky mannerisms that positively screamed his personality for all to see. The way he would slide each fork-full from his mouth with agonizing slowness, ensuring that he’d picked up every morsel from between the tongs. Raising his napkin after every fourth or fifth bite, whether there was a mess to clean up or not. Aziraphale went deathly still when he ate, as if he couldn’t bear to distract from the taste with any unnecessary movement. Except when he’d taste something new or unexpected and then it was all wide-eyed surprise; that absurd little wiggle. Aziraphale flipped his spoon before taking a bite because, “The mousse should hit my tongue, dear, not the roof of my mouth. Obviously.”

Obviously. On nights like this Crowley was grateful they hadn’t had to keep up their ruse any longer. One look at Aziraphale-as-him digging into that popsicle and the whole jig would have been up.

And Crowley could never hope to re-create this.

So yes, he loved watching Aziraphale eat. He loved hearing him speak more though.

Why not have both?

“So I told the dear girl—quite firmly, I should say—that we would have to undergo a true apocalypse before I gave her those sigils. Hell would need to freeze over and such. Though I suppose you could manage that if you put your mind to it.” Aziraphale took another bite of his sorbet and dropped a wink that sent a flush rising up Crowley’s neck. “Anathema is a brilliant young woman but really? Giving her access to Enochian symbols? I can only imagine the horrors that would produce! And trust me, dear boy, I have quite the active imagination.” Another bite; another flipped spoon. “She swore she only wanted to study them, but if any mortal is capable of sketching out a true celestial circle it would be that witch. Then where would she be? Accidentally killed, that’s what. Or worse, getting through to them! Can you imagine Anathema summoning Metatron into that little cottage? No, no, no. We’ve had quite enough upheaval for one millennium, thank you.”

Crowley had long ceased trying to get a word in edgewise. In truth he didn’t want to. Six-thousand years together, but so little of it spent together. They’d meet randomly or clandestinely and it would never matter which because they knew it could only be for a brief moment or two. One side could always be watching them. Both, even. And it took Crowley decades to realize how much of that precious time was just spent posturing. Aziraphale feigning shock at their latest arrangement. Crowley pretending like that actually annoyed him. They had their routines down, a script they read from, and though Crowley had learned to love that for its familiarity, he hadn’t realized just how much he’d been missing. Hearing Aziraphale wax on about oysters or give summary accounts of Hamlet couldn’t compare to this: hours upon hours of meandering, casual thoughts.

Crowley settled his chin further into his hand. Beneath the table his free fingers circled in a clockwise motion, a bit of extra energy spent on slowing down time. Nothing terribly noticeable. It wouldn’t even affect the humans. Much. Just a devilish little miracle that would give Aziraphale more time than what the real world had to offer.

Because they’d been sitting here four hours now and Crowley was fully prepared to sit another four.

“What do you think?” Aziraphale asked. He downed the rest of his La Grande Année and smiled over the rim of the glass. Like he somehow knew that, whatever Crowley’s answer, it would be well worth knowing.

Problem was, Crowley hadn’t the faintest idea what Aziraphale had just said.

Hmm. Distraction via flipped spoon. It happened. Not that there was much danger here. Aziraphale had the distinct talent of being able to talk about a single topic for hours—if not days—on end. Always easy to slide into.

“Really, angel? Giving me a say?” Crowley pushed his own, untouched tart across the table. “I thought you’d already made up your mind about the witch?”

He’d meant it as a bit of light teasing. Poking fun, making jokes, being a nuisance and all that. So watching Aziraphale’s expression fall took the breath right out of Crowley’s lungs.

“Oh,” he said, voice suddenly soft. “Yes. I have been prattling on, haven’t I?”

And Crowley, in a moment of incredible insight and sensitivity said,

“What?”

Aziraphale had been reaching for the tart but now drew his hand back, beginning to fiddle with the edge of his vest instead. “I’m terribly sorry. Rather rude, isn’t it? All things considered. I promise to make more of an effort in the future and you must stop me if I suddenly start rambling once again. You deserve to—” Aziraphale’s mouth suddenly clicked shut, eyes popping wide as he realized what was happening. Crowley could see his jaw working for a long moment. “I want to hear what you have to say too,” he said. Simply.

Meanwhile, Crowley’s elbow had slipped off the table and he nearly took the rest of the food with him. When he came back up there were splashes of champagne on his sleeve.

“I—why—?” Crowley tugged his glasses just low enough to take a good, long look. “I haven’t got anything to say.” Which wasn’t true exactly. Plenty of ribbing to indulge in when it actually managed to land, but right now Crowley had bigger fish to fry. Flay ‘em, cook ‘em, and serve 'em up with lemon butter so his angel would actually smile again. “What precisely are you on about?”

Aziraphale shrugged. He never shrugged. “Just thought I might be...”

“Be?”

“...talking too much.”

Crowley slipped off the table a second time.

“It’s just—”Aziraphale said, clearly trying to explain without continuing to talk. Which most people will realize is rather the lost cause. “Madame Tracy. Or rather, her friend. Or perhaps not a friend exactly. A client? Follower?” Aziraphale scowled when Crowley just went on blinking at him from halfway out of his seat. “A woman asked to speak to her dead husband and being an angel currently existing between planes I accommodated her and he told her to shut up.” He exhaled after all that, lips trembling. “Separated for who knows how long and the only words he had for her were ‘shut up.’ Because she’d never let him have his say. I... I would never want you to feel the same way, dear boy. I couldn't stand it. ”

Jesus-H-Bloody-Fucking-Are-You-Kidding-Me-Christ.

If Aziraphale wanted him to talk more he was shit out of luck because Crowley’s voice had died a mangled, embarrassing death. Giving up the ghost via shock was like that. And oh sure, sure, plenty of things he could say if his vocal cords kicked back in. Like how Aziraphale was stupid for thinking he could compare them to some random human couple who clearly needed therapy. Or ask if Aziraphale had ever paid one ounce of attention these last six thousand years because if Crowley wanted to say something? He’d damn well say it. No fussy angel was going to stand in his way.

(Not unless he asked really nicely. Or looked at Crowley in that particular way of his. Or so much as thought about wanting him to shut up. Because those were all entirely different situations.)

Speech seemed to be the enemy now. Which was all kinds of horrible since Crowley liked Aziraphale speaking and had hoped to soak up another couple hours of it before the night was over. Who could put something like that into words though? Even when words were an option? Not Crowley.

So instead he summoned up a small black book and slid it across the table.

Aziraphale blinked. "What's this?"

"Read it."

Just a small, ironically innocent notebook. Every demon had one. Standard issue for the bastards lucky enough to go topside. Recounting your deeds was all well and good provided you actually remembered what evil deeds you’d been up to each day. Too often demons melted back into hell having forgotten half of what they’d done. They might not be good at record keeping down there, but there was something like an effort. So, yeah. Write it all down like a good little worker bee.

“Go on,” Crowley said, keeping his voice at a whisper. Aziraphale hesitantly took the book in hand. “Out loud.”

Crowley hadn’t written a deed down for thousands of years.

“June—” Aziraphale paused, having opened to a recent date. He swallowed hard. “June 3rd. Angel went on about gilding again all through lunch. Improper heating techniques and wet vs. depletion. I currently know more about pretty books than any decent demon ever should. Good thing I’ve never been decent.

“June 4th. Got reamed out for going over 90mph again today. Wonder how many times I can get Zira to squeak like that? Half-hour lecture to follow. Gonna start just as soon as he gets back with the shawarma. In three... two... one...

“June 5th. Talked a lot about knitting today. Thinking of picking it back up before winter. Zira had a whole pro/con list for crocheted vs. knitwear but honestly? If it’s warm?? Who cares??? Angel, apparently. There were many thoughts on socks.

“June 6th. Some bugger on the bus had his music blasting while I was trying to hear Zira’s latest Gabriel impression. The kid is gonna end up with wet jeans one way or another for the next week.

“June 7th. Right. Zira might have been onto something with the whole crocheted socks rant. Pretty sure this is one of Beelzebub’s inventions—Crowley.”

Aziraphale finally looked up, his eyes wet in a way that made Crowley shift uncomfortably in his seat. “You keep a diary.”

He winced. “It’s not a diary!”

“It most certainly is,” Aziraphale crowed, flipping through some of the older entries. “I'm astounded at what a faithful record this is—especially since Armageddon—and so many of them are about me. They're...” The impact of that last bit seemed to hit Aziraphale all at once, stilling his hands. “Oh. They’re all about me.”

Talking.

Crowley shrugged. Because he was the one who shrugged in this relationship. He pressed the little book back into Aziraphale’s hand when he tried to pass it back. Crowley’s fingers ran over his knuckles then, soft and slow.

“Keep it awhile,” he said. “For the next time you get some ridiculous idea stuck in your head. Now, what were you saying about the witch girl? My memory’s worse than a goldfish’s, angel. You know that. Best you start from the beginning."

Aziraphale wasn’t much for public displays of affection, but he did bring their still-intwined hands up to his lips, resting them there for a moment.

When he started speaking again Crowley’s skin was gifted with the very first words.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #air conditioning #good omens fic

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un-jaseur · 6 years ago

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oyster’s backstory is out! i love how much of an impact beer ended up having in it, and i’ve actually noticed the writers drawing a few parallels and contrasts between him and spaghetti, and the way each one of them treats oyster.

when oyster is summoned, he is disliked by the villagers who are suspicious and hateful of anyone or anything from the outside coming in. even oyster’s master attendant, who is barely mentioned in the backstory at all, does not protect him. so when spaghetti appears to offer oyster the chance to leave that place, it ends up being the first act of kindness that oyster experiences from anyone. therefore, it is not surprising that oyster becomes attached to spaghetti immediately, as the only person so far to reach out to him and care, even a little bit.

oyster appears to be employed by spaghetti to do the minor tasks, seems to have a fairly neutral/amicable relationship with borscht, and also sees b-52 around without actually speaking to him (but he does notice scars appearing on his body). even though oyster also wants to join in and help with the more important missions, spaghetti deems him to be too soft-hearted, and unable to carry out whatever (most likely cruel) tasks spaghetti is up to. this leads to oyster being desperate to prove himself, assert that he is strong enough to be taken seriously by spaghetti and borscht.

at one point, oyster refers to the three of them as “family”, with quotation marks around it; however, it is after he describes spaghetti as being fairly distant and aloof, how he gives him small tasks and refuses to let him in on the missions he does (or, did) with b-52. while borscht appears to be nice to him, they do not seem to be particularly close; therefore, it’s likely that oyster is using “family” here not in a serious way, but more like a mockery? he appears to want a family and affection, and was hoping for it after seeing the initial kindness from spaghetti, but at this point he seems to be somewhat disillusioned.

and then beer comes in.

when borscht finally allows oyster to go to sakurajima, oyster is beaten down by fallen angels and is saved by beer. once again, an older food soul that comes in while oyster is in peril and reaches out, gives a helping hand. oyster very likely draws the parallel between spaghetti the first time, and now beer the second time, giving him aid; however, beer ends up confusing and surprising him by taking him to sanma’s school to help with his injuries, and then continuing to stay by his side. oyster even mentions that beer intended to go somewhere completely different from nevras (which is oyster’s destination); probably light kingdom since that’s where he ends up later. nevertheless, beer immediately volunteers to go with oyster and keep him company. no aloofness, no distant attitude - only warmth and genuine support.

another quite important scene is the one where beer literally just sits down to talk with oyster and ask him to talk about himself. the only one on one conversations that oysters had with spaghetti (that were actually mentioned) were

- the one where he offers to take him away from the village.

- the one where oyster takes him up on the offer (and spaghetti says the “you are not alone” line).

while here, oyster is remembering beer actually taking the time to really get to know him, find out who he is and what his goals and interests are. there is so much care and warmth to beer during this moment, and in his overall interactions with oyster in general - such a contrast from how distant spaghetti is. beer really is becoming quite a bit of a parental figure for oyster at this point. (and when oyster tells beer about spaghetti? beer, the gentlest and kindest food soul, immediately becomes serious and says that he should leave spaghetti, travel with him instead because the world has so many beautiful things, it won’t do well for oyster to remain with that man).

and the most impactful line (in my opinion!) that is mentioned twice, is “you are not alone in facing the world”; same exact wording from both spaghetti and beer.

when spaghetti says “you are not alone in facing the world” to oyster, it is during their second meeting when oyster does decide to leave the village and follow him to wherever he is going. it is also right after spaghetti says that he is surprised that oyster did not kill off everyone in the village because of the way they treated him; therefore, in this case “you are not alone in facing the world” feels like an us vs. them type of statement. the world is your enemy, but you are not on your own fighting it anymore, spaghetti is also here to fight this world next to you.

when beer says this line, it is at the very end of the backstory after he meets oyster again after a long while of being apart. they are not alone; peking duck and boston lobster are also there, and just like beer earlier in the story, tell oyster that spaghetti is bad news and it would be for the best for him to break away. and yet even when oyster is reluctant, beer still remains kind, warm; assures oyster that if he stays away from spaghetti, there are others who care about him and will support him (including himself). in this context, “you are not alone in facing the world” is hopeful, assuring that the world is not actually against oyster, that there are good things to hope for and good people that will be by his side.

(thank you to @cakerollkarol for help with the backstory translation!)

#food fantasy #ff oyster #ff beer #ff spaghetti #text #this got really long ahah oops

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naturecoaster · 6 years ago

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Shop Small for the Holidays all around the Nature Coast

Halloween is past. November is upon us and Thanksgiving is less than a month away. What a blessing it is to live in the paradise of Florida’s Nature Coast during the fall season. While we do not have extravagant color shows from the changing of the leaves, we do have beautiful wildflowers that change with the seasons, and more subtle things make this an ideal time of year. My favorite change is in the temperature moving into comfortable. With the temperatures averaging the mid-seventies during the day, the ideal time to get out and shop the friendly merchants of our downtowns is now. One of the unique features of our area is the number of historic downtown districts with friendly shopkeepers to visit.

At Quilts on Plum Lane in Dade City, owner Donna Lillibridge is on-site daily and employees, friends and community members gather for classes throughout the seasons. Downtowns with a courthouse include Dade City, Inverness and Brooksville. Each of these historic districts offers you the ability to shop for antiques, cards, gifts, apparel, home décor, outdoor recreation items, furniture, art, food, coffee and more. I much prefer the selection of items available at these smaller retailers to the common items of the big box stores.

Mary Garcia, owner of Stay and Play Pet Getaway in Hernando loves dogs and cats. Her family runs the top-shelf boarding facility.

The Shop Small Movement

In 2010, American Express began the “Shop Small” program to help us discover the value of purchasing from a local merchant. In 2011, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution to officially support Small Business Saturday. In 2015, 95 million Americans went out for Shop Small Saturday. While Small Business Saturday is highlighted as a special day when we can show our support as a nation for small business owners and our communities, the Shop Small Movement is a year-round campaign to celebrate and support small businesses every day.

Where to Find the Shops

Our NatureCoaster.com directory contains listings of local small businesses who will give you superior service, as well as in-depth knowledge of their product lines. For example, I recently needed a lot of lumber. I went to my local big box store and found out that it’s a “small” big store and they do not carry the size of lumber that I want for my project. I was told that I could go to another of their larger stores and get what I wanted and the price.

The Royal Dalton House is a locally owned and managed Assisted Living Facility and Memory Care residence in Homosassa. The owners have made a huge commitment to the community. I was tired and decided to go home and do some research. I’ve been driving by a lumber and building supply store for several years but decided to call them and ask. They have what I need at 35% less! When I visited the store, they were very conscientious to pick out the straightest boards on their lot and had to check their warehouse to complete the order. After taking my number, they called the next day to tell me that they have what I need but it will take a couple days to “dig it out of the warehouse.” The same person called me who had helped me in the store and will call me back in a couple of days when the product is in stock. They know my name and I know theirs. This will now be my first stop when I need building supplies.

This little angel has just helped her mom, brother and grandma pick a bucket of strawberries at JG Ranch, a u-pick farm in Brooksville that offers strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, corn and assorted produce, as well as fresh eggs and locally-made items at their produce stand on the farm. Joan and George Casey, as well as Jeff and Debbie Casey and their children run this family farm.

Communities are Strengthened by Small Businesses

Which brings me to my next point – community relationships. You know, the more we talk to each other, the better our world is. The person who runs a shop is an expert on their merchandise. They go to trade shows where the newest products are shown and choose what they best think will sell, as well as the best quality products to sell within the price points of their market. They invest in the merchandise, pay rent or a mortgage for their storefront, taxes to the municipality they operate in, and provide jobs to residents of the area.

William Bunch and his grandson, Xavier, at William's restaurant, Oysters in Crystal River. Family owned and operated, William greets nearly every guest in the restaurant and is a consistent community supporter. And what is the price for this? Is it really more expensive to “shop small?” There are high end retailers in both large and small shops. Still, the fabric in a specialty fabric store is unlikely to cost more than a comparable quality fabric in a big box craft store. Years ago, most small retailers only wanted to carry the higher priced items but today I have noticed that most small shops carry a variety of price points to meet the needs of their patrons for inexpensive, mid-range and expensive items.

James Cook met his wife, Heather, while at Johnson and Wales University. They began roasting coffee in a popcorn popper. Today they have four Cattle Dog Coffee Roaster stores with fresh-roasted coffee, amazing breakfast, lunch and pastry items and are going to the World Food Championships for the second year in a row. Their stores are in Hernando, Lecanto and Inverness. In fact, one Chicago study found that for every $100 spent at a local business, $68 remained in the city while only $43 of each $100 spent at a chain retailer.

The Service keeps me Coming Back

Laura Starkey wanted to combine her love of nature and caring for people with an innovative Nature Preserve and natural burial cemetery called Heartwood Preserve in Trinity. Some retailers offer free gift wrap with your purchase. In fact, I have become a loyal patron for just this service. A last-minute gift that is wrapped for me while I chat with the shopkeeper is so much more relaxing than running into a big box or discount store and gathering gift, paper, ribbon and card and haphazardly assembling things in the car. And the retailers make a much nicer package!

In Floral City, Aunt Martha's Produce is also known as the Floral City Visitors Center. Martha has lived in Floral City for most of her life, raising her daughters here. Now her granddaughters help in the fresh produce market that carries Amish goods and grass-fed beef. So, while big box retailers barrage you with Black Friday deals and online catalog ordering, let’s forego the hurry up and spend mentality this holiday season. Instead, enjoy your family on Friday. Go out to a small retailer and enjoy the process of holiday shopping within our community starting now.

Susan Gagliolo, co-owner of DogMania and Cats Too in Dade City, will help you find the perfect food to help your best friend with any ailments or the perfect outfit to dress them up. Her husband Bruce makes one-of-a kind gifts featuring your pet - and they have a huge assortment of pet-centric gifts and supplies. And a meal out! Locally owned restaurants provide a welcome pick-me-up between purchases. There are choices for every type of food throughout the Nature Coast’s shopping areas. Did you know that locally owned restaurants return 65% of each dollar you spend to the community vs. chain restaurants returning just under 35%?

Mrs. and Mr. Ebbecke began a winery in 2016 on their u-pick farm in Masaryktown, Upicktopia. They craft wines from several berries available at the farm and provide free tastings and regular weekend entertainment for guests. What a bargain it is to enjoy time with neighbors and make new friends while discovering your new favorite destination in Florida’s Nature Coast. Be sure to get out and shop small for big returns – and please, tell them NatureCoaster sent you. Post photos of your favorite finds on our Facebook page, or comment below with your favorites and we’ll have a great holiday season together.

David and Melissa Perry own Hunter Spring Kayaks in Crystal River. Local residents, who want to share their love of nature and watersports, they offer guided tours and rentals of all types of paddle craft. Read the full article

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xthexrevenantx · 7 years ago

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😊 💙 ❤️ 📚 🍳 🐯

8O… That was super fast. HOW DARE YOU BE SO KIND TO ME? CALLING YOU OUT RIGHT NOW!!! I’m gonna come through the screen and fffff…. Roll on your floor!

Mun vs Muse Meme || Send A Symbol.

😊 ~ What makes the mun and muse happiest?

Mun casually glances over at the muse.

“Huh?”

Mun:Yes, you! That fucked up being spawn from Kazuki Takahashi’s brain 8D Do I need to say more? Also buns, roleplaying, socializing… I think that covers most of it. Biking around the country….. Buns… All things concerned BUNS.

Also, psychopaths.. That might sound messed up, but I’m endlessly fascinated about everything to do with psychopaths.————————————————————————————————— Muse:“Destruction is what makes me happy.” As always the answer coming from him seemed to be very much the same.

“I don’t have a need for anything or anyone else.” The answer resounding so assured.

He’s lying and he needs to shut the fuck up because he doesn’t know what’s good for him! D8 Lying bastard pants on fire. >.>’

💙 ~What is one thing that can calm down the mun and muse? Is it a person, thing, or place?

Mun casually glances over at the muse again.

“You gotta stop doing that.”

Never! :D… But… Ummm…

Mun:If I’m really, REALLY and thoroughly upset or scared about/of something, there isn’t really anything that can calm me down. I’m a pretty angst-y person so it doesn’t take all that much. Or it is either that shit doesn’t get to me at all and I don’t care..

So it’s pretty black-and-white on that part. I’m really worrisome and once I’m convinced I have something to worry about it’s next to near impossible to change my mind about it. For anything that I /can/ be calmed about… Go back to step one *Casually just continues glancing at the favorite psychopath again*————————————————————————————————— Muse:“As for me, I don’t get worked up easily, I am detached from emotion and I have a natural lack of fear, as all psychopaths do..” Marik said.

“But when I do get angry about something, I get infuriated and there is nothing to stop the flame from going into a fire. I guess what it comes down to is that I don’t have a something, or a someone to calm me down.”

❤️ ~ How does the mun and muse approach romantic relationships? Is either currently in a relationship or do they have a crush?

Mun:I think we have this answered somewhere, the other ask [from you also] that elaborated on a few romantic questions about the muse… I am actually very much the same as him on that aspect. I would invite a romantic interest over on a much more occasion than I would a friend and try to become as close as possible to them. Without interfering in other friendships they have, but I would like to be in their inner circle and then take it from there.

I think time is really a key-aspect as it /enforces/ (maybe wrong word?) bonding between two people. I think you, subconsciously or not, open up hidden pathways of letting someone into your inner sanctuary when they are the one friend you spend the most time with. And I think that a lot of times it eventually evolves into romantic feelings. So that is how I would approach someone if I’d like to get romantically involved with them, with patience and time and generally being around I guess.

Now if we’re talking from the aspect of already being in a romantic relationship, you are my world. And I will do anything for you. You know, that guy in the movies who is bringing chocolates to your door? And flowers? That is me.

I will give you the time of day and I will show up consistently and call you and/or text you if we haven’t seen each other in a while. I like to do all those extra little things that a significant other wouldn’t expect coming and show them how special and loved they are. Guess I’m very romantic on the giving aspect. I am currently not in a relationship because Marik won’t accept my marriage proposal.————————————————————————————————— Muse:Muse grumbles and tilted his head, looking away. As if not wanting to answer the question. “To be honest, I don’t really quite know what potentially could be added to what is already stated.” He said,

“As stated before, we don’t believe in crushes or at least they haven’t happened to either of us.. In a relationship I suppose I would enjoy the others presence around me and therefore 9 out of 10 times when I’m spending time with a person I will naturally stand closer to my significant other.” He revealed.

Subconsciously or not, he would also be paying closer attention to the person he’d consider his other half. “I’m not as overly affectionate as the Mun, but I do like to leave around little hints of acts that although I may not show it 24/7, at the end of the day they will be the person I return to.” One could say he’s a bit more reserved when you compare it to your general romantic relationship.

📚 ~ What sorts of books do the mun and muse like to read? Do you they have a favorite author or book?Mun:Your. Writing..I don’t read unfortunately, outside of what I receive on my threads that is. My attention span is fucked and when I try to read I jump all over the page randomly and I can’t follow what the story is about. Kinda like when you wanted to watch a movie, but you’ve missed the intro and can’t catch on what it’s about.

I like to read about things that really happened, or fictional drama. Things that generally could, and do happen to people in real life. The last story I read was really devastating, about someone who did not know they had BPD and spent a decent amount of their life looking for what was wrong with them and it took so long to figure it out and all the while I read my heart bled for her. She went from place to place, and the same destructive pattern kept repeating until it was finally pinpointed what had been faulty. I am in pain. Help me.

Despite that I do not have BPD, I did lose all of my teenage years to mental illness so I definitely understand just what she had lost. I digress, guess the short answer could have been I like reading about real life events/Autobiographies.. Cuz I want to know what’s happening in other peoples lives.

But since I don’t currently read, I don’t have a favorite author. I don’t really have a favorite story either as each one of them are so personal I can’t pick and I feel it wouldn’t be fair even if I could. But I do have a favorite fictional childhood story that I still obsess over secretly to this day because I love it so much.————————————————————————————————— Muse:“I generally like reading about supernatural, a slight favoritism towards Vampires.” Marik answered. “But I would attempt anything surrounding the dark aesthetic natured kind of stuff.”

“I kind of like reading about murder cases also - Fictional. For as far as I know they do not have anything on the real ones. It’s always interesting to read and see if the antagonist is getting away with it or if they find themselves captured.”

🍳 ~ What are the mun’s and muse’s favorite foods?

Mun:Sushi..! But it does generally change, more that it depends on what I feel like seasonally, (but not bound to any actual season) tho, that being said.. I do have a few dishes that I’ll always come back to and Sushi is one of them.

Oysters are quite delicious as well, I find them to be. But don’t eat 10 of them altogether… They are not meant to be consumed that way. Potato variation is also a dish I really love. And sometimes I just randomly have a need for Macaroni or spaghetti and I will eat that for a week or two xP

I also love the same white rice used for sushi, mixed together with yellow mayonnaise… But I can’t eat it because of digestive stomach problems that my bowel will react awfully to the rice that I would feel terrible bodily-wise and I’d have to fast for 3 days to get it out of my system. So… It’s a no-no.————————————————————————————————— Muse:“I like the traditional dish of Egypt, Koshary. And I like to poke fun at the fact I can eat it and Mun can’t because it’s basically rice.”

🐯 ~What animals would best be associated with the mun and muse?

Mun:Elephant. I really connect on the level of care that they have for their surroundings and their family. For me my family, pets and friends come first before anything else. ᴮᵉᶠᵒʳᵉ ᴵ ʳᵉᵃᶫᶦᶻᵉᵈ ʰᵒʷ ˢʰᶦᵗᵗʸ ᵐʸ ᶠᵃᵐᶦᶫʸ ᶦˢ ʰᵒʷᵉᵛᵉʳ ˢᵒ ᵗʰᵉʸ ᶰᵒ ᶫᵒᶰᵍᵉʳ ᶜᵒᵘᶰᵗ⋅They really click with me with their mentality of ‘Live & let live.’ and don’t do shit to others that you wouldn’t like having brought upon yourself. They look out for each other in many ways.————————————————————————————————— Muse:“A snake. Because they seem so harmless but are one of the most resilient creatures of this planet, I believe.” He elaborated on the given choice of answer. “They are also silent, and very sneaky and are equipped rather richly, I find, despite that they do not have arms, they can turn so lethal in a split second.”

#morexthanxhuman #Munday #Muse Answered #Meme Answered #About Mun #About Muse #Headcanon

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nekodracones · 4 years ago

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How to Run a Team, as Instructed by A Shitty Leader

So you have a team. You know that you need to recruit to replace the slackers. You know that you need to enforce rules and keep your remaining cats in line. You know that you need to Exhibit Leadership Qualities.

But how?

At this point I should remind you that when I say ‘leader’, I mean that I have some really terrible innate leadership instincts, not that I actually ran teams into the ground by leading them. If you read this post-

- I wasn’t exaggerating. I had been leader of my team then for minutes at a time, when my leader forgot himself and accidentally promoted me on occasion. Maybe that qualifies me for both definitions of the word!

However, in the two years I helped to run my team, said team has had fewer than 5 teammates leave for a different team because they were dissatisfied with how things were in our team.

I should clarify that not all these points describe how we ran our team, but rather how I wish we could have. It’s often not possible to stick to all these pointers; but we must all do the best we can. I don’t help to run that team, now; I’m not even on that team. Even so, I feel like the points below are mostly universally applicable and honestly pretty common-sense.

Sometimes, we all just need a reminder. Who better than this shitty leader who needed constant conscious introspection and reasoning to lead a team?

...---...

BASICS

1. Know your team. Take the time to get to know your most active members, and then take the time to reach out to and speak to your less active members. This helps to build a bond between you and your individual members. It’s helpful to make your teammates feel like they can come to you when they have concerns.

2. Know your leadership. Your officers, your leader- these are the people who will be supporting you in the weeks and months to come. It is important to ensure that all of you can trust each other to come forward with opinions you may have. Keep your lines of communication open so all of you are aware of what’s happening within the team at any one given time.

3. Help your team know each other. It’s good to have at least one common chat open for game discussion and socialisation. This helps your team get to know each other better and build stronger bonds of community that make this social game a much more fun one to play. - You can opt to separate the two, to cater to people who may want a pure game-related chat. Ensure that you police the division between game-related and social chatter. The upside of this is that you can add random people and alumni to your social chat and not have to worry about them SPYING on your team. My old team’s social still manages to be one of my favourite chats in LINE. - Speaking of LINE, some teams choose to use Discord, WhatsApp, or Slack as messaging alternatives. I’m fond of LINE, as it’s the most popular messaging app and is hence more convenient for getting in touch with people who aren’t on your team. It’s also anonymous, which is important for some people to feel comfortable. - Starting weekly team calls is something that many teams choose to do. It, however, often falls to leadership to initiate and begin such a team tradition, so it’s less socially pressuring for teammates to join and establish such a habit. Feel free to inform your team beforehand so they can set aside time, if they’re interested.

4. Know your partners. Particularly relevant for Atlas teams, know your 5ta leadership well and get to know your extended alliance’s leaders well, when you get the chance. Atlas is a political game, except it’s politics are based on who you’re friends with, and who will vouch for you. It may sound scary, but really it’s just about making friends with the people you want to be friends with.

...---...

MINIMUMS AND EXPECTATIONS

5. Set your rules and guidelines. And then make them clear and accessible in the team wiki, LINE notes, or otherwise. Ensure your team is aware of them. A good team is one that expects all it’s members to adhere to the same standards, and a clearly visible set of guidelines is key in enforcing that. 6. Ensure that your new recruits are aware of these expectations. Again, no matter their size, it’s important to hold everyone to the same standards. Make sure that you’ve impressed this upon your new recruits so they aren’t surprised when they join.

7. Be flexible. This may seem to stand at a counterpoint to the last two points, but it’s important to recognise that at the end of the day, War Dragons is only a game, and real life can often get in the way of us fulfilling in game obligations. I personally emphasised that if anyone was aware they wouldn’t be able to meet minimums for any particular week, it would be fine to seek clemency in advance. If they don’t meet minimums without letting you know, consider asking what’s up before booting them. For longer periods of time, though, consider discussing moving them off the team, to keep it fair to the rest of the team.

8. Think about why you’re setting certain minimums and policies. Sometimes, leaders may choose to set minimums arbitrarily without considering why exactly they’re doing so. - Personally, I never set minimums for Fort and Breed- I wanted my members to be able to progress the way they wish instead of arbitrarily spending resources to get points. - Troop minimums made very little sense for our team- we had recruited a team of responsible people who knew how to manage their troops, and we didn’t want to stop people from sniping their little hearts out. This team I speak of is currently ranked amongst and above a majority of diamond teams for troops killed, now. - Bank policies are good to think about- how can you make them fair for your team? Do you want people to pay taxes, or submit donations, or otherwise? Does it make sense to restrict food and wood withdrawals outside of fort and breed? How can you make the distribution system fair? - I made a post about PvP minimums here, too, if you want to look into this topic further.

9. Give your teammates a voice. Make sure that they’re aware that they can speak up if they agree or disagree with certain policies, minimums, and expectations. This helps your teammates feel included and cared about.

...---...

RECRUITMENT AND REPLACEMENT

10. Recruitment: Long Term vs Short Term. This is an important consideration for any team, and you should consider your team’s specific situation to make a decision on this. Anything I say in this section holds true for merges, as well, btw. - Long term recruitment: You hold off on many meh recruits for those recruits you want to keep and grow, in the long term. The downside of this is that you’ll probably be waiting a long time. - Short term recruitment: You go through new recruits by constantly upgrading to newer, better models. The downside of this is that you’ll probably destabilise your team’s social fabric in the long term by making so many changes to your roster in short order. 11. What makes your team attractive? This may be quite duh, but, what sets your team apart from everyone else’s standard egg tokens, castles, etc.? Every team has those. What makes you different? Capitalize on these to stand out to new recruits. Also please stop with the one-note recruitment posters, unless you have fun making them. Then carry on.

12. Give the people you’re replacing time to find new teams. With few exceptions, these are players who have contributed to making your team what it is today. As much as possible, give them a few days to find a new team. 13. Vet your recruits well. Remember, these are people you’re letting onto your team. What they do and how they behave will directly affect your team’s performance. You can spare an hour to just chat with them and get a better feel of their personality and how they will fit on your team, beyond their game performance. 14. Make your recruits feel welcome. Take the time to go through team conventions and rules with them when they first join. They may be from a very different team environment. Check in with them often in the first week to see how they’re settling in. It’s good to send out a weekly mail to introduce everyone to each other, to ease transitions into the team.

...---... EVENTS AND ATLAS 15. Be gracious. Don’t take losses personally, and don’t gloat (too much or publicly! Have some fun!) over your wins. Leadership’s attitude towards any occurrence in the game will affect team morale. Other people’s opinions are secondary, but they’re entitled to what they think, too. Accept this as well.

16. Your team comes first. Ahead of your personal interests. Ahead of the interests of your friends on other teams. You’re responsible for the gameplay and enjoyment of 49 other people. Please don’t be that team that does officer only guard swaps, or sets up farm bases to swap with another team without informing your members. This also means that you can and should feel free to ignore opinions by other teams, on your team. They matter far less, so long as your team is happy. You know your team best, and haters gonna hate.

17. Be certain of how you want to play your game. There’s no shame in sandbagging. There’s no shame in choosing to target only certain teams in PvP. There’s no shame in sniping. Are you certain you want to take a gifted castle? Are you certain you want to swap guards? Are you certain you want to help in this failed raid? There’s no shame in playing the game as you are allowed to play it. All that matters is that your team is in agreement, and you can reconcile how you play with your conscience.

18. Do what makes you and your team happy. You don’t need to be efficient to enjoy your game. As long as your team is fine with it, go pirate your little hearts out! Sandbag away! The world is your oyster!

19. Form your own opinions. In this age of some pretty propagandised Atlas movements, consider what you’ve personally observed of the subjects at hand and form your own opinions based on that instead of listening in to gossip. You’ll be much happier distancing yourself and your team from drama, too. 20. Think long term. If you agree to gate this T4, you’ll get a T4, but in the long term, will your team’s troop loss be worth it? If you don’t participate in Atlas battles with your alliance, what happens when you’re forced on defence?

21. Stay humble. No team is the best in every single category. There’s always something new to learn from everyone else. Some pride in your team is good, but too much is hubris. It results in things like teams threatening to destroy other teams and getting destroyed instead. Conversely...

22. Keep your own counsel. If you play your cards close to your chest, this is how you become that team that destroys all bragging comers. Crouching tiger, hidden dragon!

23. Be proud of your team. This may seem contradictory, but you know your own team’s strength best. Confidence boosts your team’s morale, and increases activity.

24. Communicate early. If you have a guard swap coming up, give a few days’ of notice. If you need people online for a mega wave at the end of a fight pits round, tag in advance. If you’re going to change minimums for the week for any given reason, give notice. This gives time for people to discuss any concerns they may have about changes with you.

25. Lead by Example. Leading a team is a thankless job, but in return you get the respect and recognition of all your teammates. This means they will look to you to embody a platonic ideal of the team they love. Make sure that you’re helping them open paths in TR, that you’re supporting them for XP runs, and that you’re right there with them hitting low glory teams to open paths. That’s all I can think of for now. If you have other topics/points to add on, feel free to PM/submit an ask to me so I can add it.

#opinion #catpost #maingame #atlas #minimums #guide

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bloojayoolie · 6 years ago

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Being Alone, Beautiful, and Benadryl: brave sweet Blazer ID 59280, @8 YRS 58 LBS. OF CUDDLES WAITING FOR CARE LOVE & COMFORT. AT BROOKLYN ACC TO BE KILLED - 5/16/2019 * Super Sweet Senior Blazer Needs Surgery Consult for Oral Mass * <3 A jaunty bowtie, a sweet and hopeful spirit, a senior gentleman in need of medical care waits for a family to love him… There is something sad and sweet about Blazer’s jaunty green bowtie, as if it were meant for another dog, another face, another place. And yet it exemplifies the sweet, hopeful spirit of this senior boy whose life has taken him down a path he never expected when he was a young, sparkling puppy. The world was his oyster then. Blazer didn’t expect that after so many autumns, and numerous springs, he would end up at a kill shelter and possibly facing an early death. To make matters worse, he has what appears to be a growth in his mouth that critically needs attention. His third eyelid is up in both of his eyes, too. No one knows better than Blazer how tough it can be to grow old. But Blazer has a gentle, affectionate, shyly sweet personality and he has not given up hope that someone will see him waiting patiently in his kennel, and realize what a gem he is. Please pick Blazer. We’d love to see this sweet senior resting comfortably in a soft bed in a loving home, surrounded by a family committed to his care and happiness. If you can make Blazer’s dream of a family come true, hurry and Message our page or email us at [email protected] for assistance saving his life. A volunteer writes: With his soft velvet ears and a full frosted snout, Blazer clearly deserves to be petted and adored. He's a family dog and it shows. He grew up with a ten year-old child, and his former humans describe him as friendly and gentle with kids and adults, strange or familiar. What's more, he's fully house-trained, and will gladly take a bath or let you brush his beautiful silver coat. He loves to just be in the same room as his favorite humans, and will behave perfectly when left at home. He comes when you call him and knows lots of important dog skills, like "sit," "down," and "stay"; he'll eat treats out of your hand and take you on nice walks. Blazer is looking for a forever family with humans over the age of five, who would love a loyal gentleman friend. A volunteer writes: Blazer may be a middle-aged boy, but he's got the energy and spirit of a happy-go-lucky puppy! He's super-friendly and affectionate and just LOVES attention. Call him over and in the blink of an eye he's wiggling into your arms with his tail going like a mini helicopter. He sometimes gets so excited that he jumps up to give kisses. And when he looks up at me with that slight tilt of his head...oh boy, I just want to pinch his little cheeks! Blazer is a high-energy boy and would be great for an active lifestyle. He LOVES treats, but just needs to learn to take them in a more gentlemanly manner; but he should be easy to teach....he already knows the commands sit, come, down, and stay; is housebroken; and is very treat and attention-motivated. Blazer grew up with a child and was respectful, affectionate, and gentle with the youngster. This happy little ball of energy is excitedly awaiting his fur-ever home at the Brooklyn ACC shelter, so come on down and meet him! MY MOVIES: Beautiful Boy Blazer https://youtu.be/Yvw7zibONQ4 Blazer https://youtu.be/18AI9Aspp8Q Frosted Face Wiggler https://youtu.be/vLukcgVYoDQ BLAZER, ID# 59280, 8 Yrs old, 58 lbs, Unaltered Male Brooklyn ACC, Large Mixed Breed, Gray / White Owner Surrender Reason: surrendered to BACC due to owner being homeless Shelter Assessment Rating: LEVEL 1 No young children (under 5) Medical Behavior Rating: Blue OWNER SURRENDER NOTES - BASIC INFORMATION: Blazer is an approx 11 year old grey and white large male dog that was surrendered to BACC due to owner being homeless. He previously lived with 2 adults and 1 child. Blazer is friendly and outgoing around strangers. He has grown up along with a 10 year old child and was described as respectful, friendly, and affectionate. Blazer would play gentle with the child. Blazer has not been around other dogs it is unknown how he would behave. He has also not been around cats, it is unknown how he would behave. Blazer has no reported resource guarding and no bite history. He is housetrained and his owner described his energy level as very high. Other Notes: Blazer is not bothered when being given a bath, when his coat is brushed but will struggle when having his nails trimmed. Blazer is not bothered when someone unfamiliar approaches the family or home. For a New Family to Know Blazer is described as friendly, affectionate, playful, and excitable. Blazer will follow someone around or be in the same room when someone is home. Blazer does not play with any toys or play games. Blazer has been kept mostly indoors and will sleep in his crate. Blazer will eat mostly wet food and be fed 2 times a day. Blazer is house trained and will use the potty on any surface outdoors. Blazer is well behaved when left alone in the home. Blazer is crate trained and does well for 6 hours. Blazer understands how to sit, come, down, and stay. Blazer will go on brisk walks on the leash and pulls very hard. SHELTER ASSESSMENT SUMMARIES: Leash Walking Strength and pulling: Mild pulling Reactivity to humans: None Reactivity to dogs: None Leash walking comments: Sociability Loose in room (15-20 seconds): Explores, but checks in with handlers, fixates on smells in the room, tail wagging, coughing, solicits attention, accepts contact, jumps up onto handler's lap, licks handler Call over: Approaches readily, jumps up onto handler Sociability comments: Handling Soft handling: Avoids handler when pressure applied to leash, wiggly body, panting, coughing, accepts some contact Exuberant handling: Did not conduct, moves away from handler Handling comments: Arousal Jog: Engages in play with handler, soft and loose, jumps up onto handler on third pass, but recovers within a few seconds on his own Arousal comments: Knock Knock Comments: No response to knock; Approaches assistant, soft and loose Toy Toy comments: Minimal interest PLAYGROUP NOTES - DOG TO DOG SUMMARIES: According to Blazer's previous owner, Blazer did not socialize with other dogs while in their care. 4/6: When off leash at the Care Centers, Balzer greets the novel female dog on his tiptoes. He is sexually motivated and but does not mount. When the greeter corrects him he explores the yard. 4/9: Blazer was introduced to a novel female today. He continues to be sexually motivated and fixates on the female's genitals. He ignored handler interruptions and was difficult to interrupt. Summary (1): Blazer understands the command for "sit". INTAKE BEHAVIOR - Date of intake: 5-Apr-2019 Summary: Readily approaches, loose and wiggly body, licks staff, allows all handling, readily accepts treats MEDICAL BEHAVIOR - Date of initial: 6-Apr-2019 Summary: Allows all handling, quick head whip with contact on abdomen ENERGY LEVEL: Blazer has been observed to exhibit a high level of energy during his interactions in the care center. We cannot be certain of his behavior in a home environment, but we recommend that he be provided daily mental and physical stimulation as an outlet for his energy. BEHAVIOR DETERMINATION: Level 1 Behavior Asilomar TM - Treatable-Manageable Recommendations: No young children (under 5) Recommendations comments: No young children (under 5): Although Blazer displays social behavior, readily seeks contact and solicits attention, he has also exhibited anxiety and handling sensitivity. During his assessment, Blazer was observed to move away when being handled, as well as became highly fixated on smells in the room, disallowing the handling portion to be completed. As a result, we recommend that Blazer be placed in a stable home environment with no young children to ensure his success. We advise safe and appropriate management when handling Blazer, as well as utilizing guidance from a qualified, professional trainer/behaviorist. Potential challenges: Handling/touch sensitivity Anxiety Potential challenges comments: Handling/touch sensitivity: Although Blazer displays social behavior, he was observed to exhibit some handling sensitivity during his interactions in the care center. When pressure was applied to his collar, Blazer would move away from the handler and avoid contact. Please refer to the handout on Handling/touch sensitivity. Anxiety: Although Blazer displays social behavior, solicits attention and seeks contact, she has also been observed to display anxiety by panting, coughing and whining during her interactions in the care center. Should this behavior arise in a home environment, please refer to the handout on Anxiety/anxious behavior. Fixates on smells, coughing, panting MEDICAL EXAM NOTES 26-Apr-2019 Progress Exam. History: 4/6/19: Owner surrender, noted oral mass, conjunctivitis. Started benadryl. 4/10: Performed CBC/Chemistry, thoracic radiographs, sedated oral exam. Sedated oral exam: There is a ~3-4 cm pink irregular mass on the maxilla that is invasive to the incisors and canines. Teeth are either missing or in mass. There is another small 0.5cm irregular mass on the buccal aspect of the gums on the left maxilla at the premolars. There is moderate dental tartar. 3 view thoracic radiographs: WNL CBC/Chemistry: WNL 4/14: CIRDC, started enrofloxacin. Today, 4/26: Recheck CIRDC. Subjective: BAR, no coughing/sneezing/vomiting/diarrhea. Good appetite. Objective: Cageside exam performed. Eyes: Clear bilaterally, no discharge, Nasal Cavity: No nasal discharge noted on exam. Lungs: Eupneic. Musculoskeletal: Ambulatory x 4 with no appreciable lameness. Integument: Unremarkable haircoat. Neuro: Appropriate mentation. Assessment: -Oral mass (r/o epulid vs SCC vs other neoplasia) -CIRDC (resolved). Prognosis: Fair. Plan: -Continue enrofloxacin 10 mg/kg PO q24h until 4/27 -Move out of isolation. -Recommend oral surgery/oncology consult with placement +/- excision of mass, dental cleaning. 24-Apr-2019 Progress Exam. Hx: 4/6/19: Owner surrender, noted oral mass, conjunctivitis. Started benadryl. 4/10: Performed CBC/Chemistry, thoracic radiographs, sedated oral exam. Sedated oral exam: There is a ~3-4 cm pink irregular mass on the maxilla that is invasive to the incisors and canines. Teeth are either missing or in mass. There is another small 0.5cm irregular mass on the buccal aspect of the gums on the left maxilla at the premolars. There is moderate dental tartar. 3 view thoracic radiographs: WNL CBC/Chemistry: WNL. 4/14 CIRDC started on enro 10mg/kg po sid until 4/22. S: BAR, mild coughing, no svd. Eyes: Unremarkable OU. Ears: Unremarkable AU. Nasal Cavity: Mild serous nasal discharge. Lungs:Eupneic Musculoskeletal: Ambulatory x 4 with no appreciable lameness. Neuro: Appropriate mentation. Rectal: Not performed. Externally normal. A: CIRDC - improving oral mass. P: recheck day 14, continue enro 10mg/kg PO SID until 4/27, recommend oral surgery consult for mass 20-Apr-2019 Progress Exam. Hx: 4/6/19: Owner surrender, noted oral mass, conjunctivitis. Started benadryl. 4/10: Performed CBC/Chemistry, thoracic radiographs, sedated oral exam. Sedated oral exam: There is a ~3-4 cm pink irregular mass on the maxilla that is invasive to the incisors and canines. Teeth are either missing or in mass. There is another small 0.5cm irregular mass on the buccal aspect of the gums on the left maxilla at the premolars. There is moderate dental tartar. 3 view thoracic radiographs: WNL CBC/Chemistry: WNL. 4/14 CIRDC started on enro 10mg/kg po sid until 4/22. SO: BAR, good appetite, unremarkable elimination. multiple sneezes heard EENT: eyes clear OU. Mild serous nasal discharge Lungs: Eupneic. MSI: Ambulatory x 4 with no appreciable lameness. Neuro: Appropriate mentation. A: CIRDC - improving, oral mass. P: Will continue to monitor and reassess daily. CWCT while in ISO. continue enro 10mg/kg PO SID until 4/27. recommend oral surgery consult for mass 14-Apr-2019 Progress Exam. History: 4/6/19: Owner surrender, noted oral mass, conjunctivitis. Started benadryl. 4/10: Performed CBC/Chemistry, thoracic radiographs, sedated oral exam. Sedated oral exam: There is a ~3-4 cm pink irregular mass on the maxilla that is invasive to the incisors and canines. Teeth are either missing or in mass. There is another small 0.5cm irregular mass on the buccal aspect of the gums on the left maxilla at the premolars. There is moderate dental tartar. 3 view thoracic radiographs: WNL. CBC/Chemistry: WNL. Today, 4/14: ACS noted sneezing. Subjective: BAR, no coughing/vomiting/diarrhea. Sneezing during exam, mild serous nasal discharge bilaterally. Objective: Cageside exam performed. Eyes: Clear bilaterally, no discharge Nasal Cavity: Mild serous nasal discharge, sneezing. Lungs: Eupneic. Musculoskeletal: Ambulatory x 4 with no appreciable lameness. BCS = 5/9. Integument: nremarkable haircoat. Neuro: Appropriate mentation. Assessment: -Oral mass (r/o epulid vs SCC vs other neoplasia). -CIRDC. Prognosis: Fair. Plan: -Start enrofloxacin 10 mg/kg PO q24h x 14d, -Move to isolation -Recommend oral surgery/oncology consult with placement +/- excision of mass, dental cleaning. 10-Apr-2019 Other Lab Interpretation PCV =40% TS - 7.8 10-Apr-2019 Blood Work Interpretation Radiograph Review CXR (3 view)-nsf, no signs of metastasis CBC-nsf Chem-nsf T4-wnl (1.5) Sedated with dexdomitor 10mcg/kg + butorphanol 0.2mg/kg IM, reversed with antisedan full dose. Once sedated a full oral exam was completed. There is a ~3-4 cm pink irregular mass on the maxilla that is invasive to the incisors and canines. Teeth are either missing or in mass. There is another small 0.5cm irregular mass on the buccal aspect of the gums on the left maxilla at the premolars. There is moderate dental tartar. Recommend histopath of mass with excision if possible (may need hemilaminectomy depending on mass). Rec AUS. 9-Apr-2019 Progress Exam History : owner surrender 4/6-epulid noted, conjunctivitis. Started on benadryl. Subjective: Swelling on right side of anus noted on rounds board. BARH. No csvd except when pulling hard against the leash. Objective P = wnl R = wnl BCS 5/9 EENT: Eyes have nuclear sclerosis ou with injected sclera, no ocular d/c, no nasal discharge noted Oral Exam: adult dentition, with large irregular mass across maxillary incisors and canines PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupneic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G: MI, 2 testicles descended MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, healthy hair coat CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Rectal: normal, no abnormalities noted on external or digital exam Assessment Large oral mass r/o epulid vs malignancy Prognosis: fair Plan: Recommend oral surgery consult +/- excision of mass Ok to d/c benadryl Scheduled for BW and CXR 6-Apr-2019 DVM Intake Exam Estimated age: 8y Microchip noted on Intake? no Microchip Number (If Applicable): History : owner surrender Subjective: QARH, normal appetite, no elimination concerns Observed Behavior - allowed all handling, sat and quickly turned back when palpating abd Evidence of Cruelty seen - no Evidence of Trauma seen - no Objective P = wnl R = wnl BCS 5/9 EENT: Eyes clear, OU conjunctivitis, ears clean, no nasal or ocular discharge noted Oral Exam: adult dentition, moderate dental tartar. Max incisors has acanthomatous epulis PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupnic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G: male intact 2 testicles palpated, no leakage or discharge MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, healthy hair coat CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Rectal: visually normal Assessment acanthomatous epulis Conjunctivitis - suspect allergic Prognosis: fair Plan: recommend oral surgery consult +/- excision benadryl 25mg PO BID until 4/10 - recheck SURGERY: perm waiver age *** TO FOSTER OR ADOPT *** If you would like to adopt a NYC ACC dog, and can get to the shelter in person to complete the adoption process, you can contact the shelter directly. We have provided the Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan information below. Adoption hours at these facilities is Noon – 8:00 p.m. (6:30 on weekends) If you CANNOT get to the shelter in person and you want to FOSTER OR ADOPT a NYC ACC Dog, you can PRIVATE MESSAGE our Must Love Dogs page for assistance. PLEASE NOTE: You MUST live in NY, NJ, PA, CT, RI, DE, MD, MA, NH, VT, ME or Northern VA. You will need to fill out applications with a New Hope Rescue Partner to foster or adopt a NYC ACC dog. Transport is available if you live within the prescribed range of states. Shelter contact information: Phone number (212) 788-4000 Email [email protected] Shelter Addresses: Brooklyn Shelter: 2336 Linden Boulevard Brooklyn, NY 11208 Manhattan Shelter: 326 East 110 St. New York, NY 10029 Staten Island Shelter: 3139 Veterans Road West Staten Island, NY 10309 *** NEW NYC ACC RATING SYSTEM *** Level 1 Dogs with Level 1 determinations are suitable for the majority of homes. These dogs are not displaying concerning behaviors in shelter, and the owner surrender profile (where available) is positive. Some dogs with Level 1 determinations may still have potential challenges, but these are challenges that the behavior team believe can be handled by the majority of adopters. The potential challenges could include no young children, prefers to be the only dog, no dog parks, no cats, kennel presence, basic manners, low level fear and mild anxiety. Level 2 Dogs with Level 2 determinations will be suitable for adopters with some previous dog experience. They will have displayed behavior in the shelter (or have owner reported behavior) that requires some training, or is simply not suitable for an adopter with minimal experience. Dogs with a Level 2 determination may have multiple potential challenges and these may be presenting at differing levels of intensity, so careful consideration of the behavior notes will be required for counselling. Potential challenges at Level 2 include no young children, single pet home, resource guarding, on-leash reactivity, mouthiness, fear with potential for escalation, impulse control/arousal, anxiety and separation anxiety. Level 3 Dogs with Level 3 determinations will need to go to homes with experienced adopters, and the ACC strongly suggest that the adopter have prior experience with the challenges described and/or an understanding of the challenge and how to manage it safely in a home environment. In many cases, a trainer will be needed to manage and work on the behaviors safely in a home environment. It is likely that every dog with a Level 3 determination will have a behavior modification or training plan available to them from the behavior department that will go home with the adopters and be made available to the New Hope Partners for their fosters and adopters. Some of the challenges seen at Level 3 are also seen at Level 1 and Level 2, but when seen alongside a Level 3 determination can be assumed to be more severe. The potential challenges for Level 3 determinations include adult only home (no children under the age of 13), single pet home, resource guarding, on-leash reactivity with potential for redirection, mouthiness with pressure, potential escalation to threatening behavior, impulse control, arousal, anxiety, separation anxiety, bite history (human), bite history (dog) and bite history (other).

#funny #lol #humor #memes #meme #memehumor #dank memes #funny pics #rolf #lmao #Being Alone #Beautifu

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ghostmartyr · 8 years ago

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SnK 91 Thoughts

Kid wakes up.

Kid spies with his little eye a bird.

Kid immediately comprehends the freedom of having wings.

Kid is stuck with the Marleyans, so instead of being passionately inspired to rise up and reclaim humanity’s freedom, is being raised into a warrior that will march off to the lands championed by soldiers who fly through the air bearing wings, and murder them all for the good of his people.

Kid’s fucked.

Guys guys guys I am so psyched!

Which is really not the expected mood from another time skip!

But you see, finally, after months of waiting...

I GET TO WRITE A SHORT POST FOR A CHAPTER!

In all seriousness, this chapter is way more fun than I expected, even though I was heartbroken to find that this is a present day war, not the origin of the First King. I have been dying for that story to the point of accepting any character development delays, and for a very brief moment, I thought there was a real chance that was what was going on.

Instead, what we get is front row seat to how Warriors are raised, and... calling it an abomination fused with a tragic mess really lacks lingual punch, but it’s also accurate.

Our heroes in this portrait of the world are young children who are willing to put their lives on the line to assist in the genocide of the people they share a lineage with. They’re nervous, judgmental, ignorant, and willing. Their people are preparing for the peaceful transfer of their most impressive power. The time to name the brave Warriors who will lead the next charge on Paradis and change the world is approaching.

Every kid wants to be a superhero, right? Eldian children brought up in Marley actually get that chance. All it takes is proving yourself.

Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie are a bunch of stupid kids when they show up on Paradis. Reiner and Bertolt can’t even make it to the walls without watching their friend die. They’re flung from a world of cruelty into a world where a horrifying death stands in every corner, and all they have to do to get out is knock down a walls.

They don’t know they’re going to knock down those walls and find friends. They don’t know that causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people will tear them apart. They don’t know what living with their victims will do to them.

They know they’re the best. Their people might be suffering, but they’re Warriors, chosen to bear Titans. Whatever the trial, they’ll see it through, and in the end, that’s worth anything.

The new kids we see here have been taught to thrive in war. Considering that the latest Marleyan conflict comes from RAB thoroughly failing their initial strike, they’re probably far better equipped to handle the various atrocities that their predecessors commit.

They’re still a bunch of children who think that playing the game of their oppressors is the ticket out.

The Eldians on Paradis have nothing to do with the Marleyans scooping up vulnerable kids and turning them into weapons. They have nothing to do with the internment zone. They don’t feed disobedient children to dogs.

For over a century, all the people of Paradis have known is that they will die horribly if they step outside.

All little Eldian Warrior children know is that they’re devils, and deserve to be massacred for the pain they’ve inflicted on the mainland Eldians. It’s a hatred that’s taught so deeply that it’s what Bertolt’s emotionally broken mind seizes when Armin taunts him with Annie’s fate.

Essentially, this is a horrific system that makes the last century of life on Paradis feel like it might actually deserve the name.

That’s not true, of course. The First King committed atrocities in the name of his precious paradise, and left a largely ignorant, power-hungry population drive the people who should have been their neighbors to ruin. Life on Paradis has always been a mess of human rights violations, and it doesn’t get a medal for managing to hold fast to the occasional standard.

Heck, the Paradis Eldians have spent their whole lives hating or fearing other Eldians, they’ve just only recently known that’s the proper name for titans.

The world has not been kind to these people in any regard.

However, the Paradis Eldians have the Survey Corps. Throughout the cullings, and the assassinations, and the power plays, a group with a 90% mortality rate has continued to survive. The Paradis Eldians manage to hold on to their willingness to fight their jailers through a tiny, tiny fraction of their number remembering to want freedom.

And over a hundred years later, they can make it all the way to the ocean without someone dying.

As a people, the caged desperation and hatred follows both strains of Eldians, but Paradis eventually wins out because their superheroes keep fighting for them.

The mainland superheroes are fighting for Marley. They might not think much of it, and know that their end goal is getting their people a better life, but the fact of the matter is that Marley abuses Eldians through the Warrior system to grant their nation a better military standing.

The Warriors are pawns. No matter what their trappings, they're being taken advantage of over a genetic quirk that the entire world is willing to shoot them over.

Marley just goes with getting some work out of them first.

But the important thing to remember is that the worst enemy Eldians have is other Eldians. Get rid of those Paradis bastards, and the world’s your oyster.

Look, the First King might have gathered up all his people he cared about, ditched the others, wiped their memories, locked them up inside a bunch of walls, let Marley populate the island with titans, gone out of his way to exterminate inconvenient bloodlines that remembered all this about him, but as warped as his system is, it left enough holes for Eldians to become their own champions instead of tools of their worst enemy.

(Even while actively trying to keep the Founding Titan holder as a tool.

First King’s kind of a dick.)

For the best comparison of Marley vs. Paradis, I give you Commander Magath.

“The power of the Titans is an absolute. That is how it must be...”

That one statement is everything the Survey Corps exists to dethrone.

Marley’s currently trying to end a four-year war that starts over them losing two (more) Titans in their quest to get the mega Titan. They’re committed to the idea of Titans being the greatest military power in existence, and exploiting the heck out of it.

The Survey Corps only comes as far as it does because they have Eren. Without his abilities, they’d still have titans to worry about, and it would still be a massive pain.

They’ve been careful with that resource, and repeatedly sacrificed people so that the glimmer of hope Eren represents can maybe go somewhere.

But they have been fighting titans for over a hundred years. “The power of the Titans is an absolute”?

They don’t start out with Eren, and they don’t start out with 3DMG or super horses. They start out because the only logical answer to the titans’ power over their lives is a flat denial and fighting to the last breath for just one more step in humanity’s trek for freedom.

Marley is run by obscene cruelty and the fear of losing a power that belongs to people they think of as inferior. They can’t even use Titans without the Eldians, yet this is the hill they think it’s a good idea to die on. This is the power they want running the world.

On every level, these people go against what our protagonists have fought to up until now.

The rest of the world might hate Eldians, but they don’t use them as puppets against their own kin. They don’t use them at all, what with Marley having the monopoly on that.

And this is the environment that grooms RAB.

Those three characters have always been the shadowy foils to our protagonists. They grow, and they see their mistakes for what they are, owning them or not, and have so much greatness in them--but they either see their role in this as inevitable, or something that they’re not strong enough to fight.

That compliance is what keeps Marley’s Warrior system functioning.

Paradis Eldians scrape through on fighting against every single thing they take issue with, while Marley has done its level best to make sure any of that energy from the interned Eldians is either eradicated or put to work.

It’s... really a very sad story.

The character designs we see here for the children are highly reminiscent of other cast members. Gabi could easily pass for a young Freida, Udo is Hange in miniature, Colt calls Erwin to mind, and Falco’s eyes look so much like Connie’s in some panels that it takes a few blinks to get past.

They’re all Eldians.

This war isn’t supposed to belong to them, but by sick cosmic joke, they’ve inherited the wrong side of it.

It isn’t Annie waking up, we only get a flash of Reiner, and Bertolt’s gone, but so much of this chapter explains the horror of their lives. Worse, this chapter is the legacy their mission creates. All of the suffering they endure has just given rise to a new generation willing to do the job.

In other fun things, it looks like the Beast Titan's place of command goes to the Titan, not just Zeke. ...I don’t really have anything to add to that, it’s just cool that the kidlets are fighting for the Armored Titan while Colt is being groomed for Zeke’s role.

No, wait, there is one thing to add to that:

However screwed up things are, the Titans can make the little Warriors light up. The sight of the Beast Titan brings out stars in Reiner and Bertolt’s eyes, and Galliard is probably another figure that all little Warrior children look up to.

...Also, the Jaws Titan moves in dives.

Little things amuse me.

I think the only other thing I can really mention is... hey, look, a time skip.

After the last time skip.

Okay, sure.

My acceptance of that is legitimate. With how complicated the Marleyans have made their politics, I’m fine that things besides Paradis have kept them busy (it’s not like the prisoner island is going anywhere or doing anything, right?), and if I’m perfectly honest, I wouldn’t trust Isayama to handle Paradis’ next step into the world without a major time lapse.

What’s particularly cool about this one is that it lands us right up against the end of Reiner’s, and maybe Zeke’s, tenure. The old guard is changing, and there are old grudges and promises there. Zeke isn’t going to forget his little brother in any hurry, and he already has at least one solid candidate for a successor in place.

Both Titans on the outside that we’re familiar with have serious scores to settle, and that makes the time limit on Titans way more relevant than when we just had Eren and Armin’s distant futures to worry about. Using it to provoke plot lines for Zeke and Reiner is potentially very awesome, and meanwhile, the non-expiring Titans have been given names.

I like where the world is currently set up.

I’d also really like to know what’s happening with Our Heroes, but such is the pain of a monthly series.

#Shingeki no Kyojin #SnK 91 #RAB #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #spoilers #tl;dr #chapter post

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vkacerus · 5 years ago

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If you are confused about which one you should use, then let me explain how they are different: What’s the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? WordPress.com – This is the fully-hosted version that manages your hosting for you. Hosting is a service where the service provider stores your website content online so people can access your website by typing in a website URL address. It’s like renting an apartment so people know exactly where to visit you and the URL is your street name and house number. WordPress.com takes care of your hosting needs for a monthly fee (sort of like how a website builder such as Wix or Weebly might do). This saves you the job of finding a separate hosting provider and going through all the technical jargon needed to start a website. WordPress.org – This is the self-hosted version that we are reviewing in this post. WordPress.org gives you ultimate control and flexibility over your website with none of WordPress.com’s restrictions. 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WordPress is one of THE most flexible website builders. If you’re coming from a drag-and-drop website builder background then you may be wondering what it is that makes WordPress so powerful and flexible? Well, it’s because of its: Open Code Access – With WordPress you have access to all of the codes that power it. This lets you customize it or build new features however you like. So it’s really handy if you have a complex website that needs custom tools or extra functionality because having access to WordPress’s code lets you do this. You can make it work the way you want! Large Professional Community – Because WordPress is so popular, it is very easy to find a good WordPress developer anywhere in the world. Not to mention there are lots of online classes and tutorials that you can access to learn how to use WordPress. The huge community makes WordPress much more approachable as long as you have the time and cash to invest in the initial learning process. The almost infinite number of plugins – As WordPress is open source, anyone with coding skills can create tools, themes, plugins and features for it. So WordPress now has one of the largest plugin libraries of any website builder in the world – and it’s still growing! This huge library of plugins is what gives WordPress its flexibility and is one of its biggest draws. Need a product management tool? A payment tool? Maybe a membership access tool? More? There’s a plugin for almost function or feature you want to add to your website – how amazing is that? Using WordPress plugins means you can really push the limits of what sort of website you want to create. However, the freedom and versatility that makes WordPress so awesome is also the main cause of headaches for newbies trying to use it. We’ll discuss this in more detail in the Pros & Cons section below. Because WordPress can do so much, you’ll find that it has a much higher learning curve and is harder to get to grips with. It’s just not as easy to customize and design if you don’t have any coding skills, especially compared to drag-and-drop website builders like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly or Shopify. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering how versatile WordPress is. With so many options and capabilities, inevitably it will be harder to use – just like learning to drive your first car is more complicated than learning to ride your first bicycle. WordPress is at its best when you can truly take advantage of all its power. It’s definitely not the best choice of website builder if you want to make a simple website without learning at least basic coding skills. If you want to make an attractive website quickly and easily, then a drag-and-drop website builder is more than enough for the job. Think WordPress might be too technical for you? Website Comparison Chart – If you’re looking for an easier to use website building tool, we’ve compared some of the best around for you. Using our comparison chart will help save you a lot of time testing out builders trying to find the right one for your needs! How Does WordPress Work? “Simply put, WordPress can work any way you want it to. It all comes down to your own coding skills, the theme you choose and the plugins you install. You can add as much or as little functionality as you choose. With WordPress, the world wide web is your oyster!” If you’re unfamiliar with how WordPress works, then it may help to imagine it as an empty iPad. Depending on the apps you install, you can use your iPad like a book, a gaming device, a movie player, or a notepad. Just like an iPad, WordPress is a platform to house your content, website theme design, and plugins. Depending on the theme and plugins you are using, your WordPress website can be an ecommerce website, a business website, a forum, a membership portal and much more. WordPress isn’t held back by any platform-specific limitations and this flexibility is one of its key selling points. Instead, with WordPress, it’s the themes and the plugins you choose that determines which features will be available on your website. For example, Shopify is one of the leading e-commerce platforms and so provides you with a cart abandonment tool (e.g. if a user leaves your site without buying and comes back later, then their goods will still be in the basket waiting for them). Makes sense, right? Well, this feature is only available because you’re using Shopify. If you were to switch to another leading all-purpose drag-and-drop website builder like Wix, then you’d no longer be able to use the cart abandonment feature since Wix does not offer it on its platform. But with WordPress, you can add any and all features that you need. You can turn your site into a blog, an e-commerce store or something else entirely. WordPress gives website owners like you a lot of control and flexibility because you can use themes and plugins to control the features on your website. You’re not limited by the platform as you are in the example above. Now that you have an idea of how WordPress works, I better show you how to add content in WordPress’s editing mode, yes? How do you manage your content on WordPress? If you’ve ever used a drag-and-drop website builder, you’ll be familiar with a content control panel (or editor) that looks something like this: This is what we call a ‘What You See Is What You Get’ website builder (or WYSIWYG) and it’s a really user-friendly system that means that your website will look exactly the same in the editor as it will when published online. It’s quick and easy to move content around with a click and a drag, and this makes it very simple to imagine how your website will look once it’s live. 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You may also find that after clicking ‘preview’ or ‘publish’ that your webpage looks weird or not quite as expected. If so, then you better be prepared to reread every line of text in order to find and fix the broken code! If you’re a WordPress newbie and haven’t had to use HTML code to define how your website looks before, then this can be a real source of frustration. Thankfully, WordPress does try to make it a little easier for you with ‘shortcodes’, which are like HTML code shortcuts created specifically for WordPress. But even with shortcodes, it took me a fair few sleepless nights fixing on-page errors before I finally felt comfortable saying that I knew exactly what I was doing. You may also notice that you can’t move your content around on your page as easily as you can with a drag-and-drop website builder, such as Wix. This is true even in ‘visual mode’ because it’s your WordPress theme that controls where specific types of content go. You can only use the WordPress content control panel to insert content but you have no access to the page layout design. Changing the design can only be done by changing the theme code. For example, if you want to add an image slideshow to your content but the template you’re using doesn’t have an image slideshow shortcode, then you need to code in the option of adding one to your page in the theme code. You could also browse around to find a plugin that adds the code for you. Either way – it’s additional time and effort on your part. Now, compare this to a drag-and-drop website builder where you can simply click, drag, and drop an image slideshow wherever you want on the page directly from your elements toolbox. Content management and layout design management are two areas where I feel WordPress is not the easiest to use – especially if you aren’t familiar with coding. However, where WordPress shines is if you have a very large amount of information on your website. This is because WordPress is the king of data management. It’s much easier to manage hundreds of posts or product pages using WordPress’s data entry style of content management system than a drag-and-drop website builder. Not sold? Let’s look at an example: Say you have a website that talks about the latest tech products. On your site, you have lots of news articles and hundreds of product reviews. Making and managing all those pages would be unthinkable in a drag-and-drop website builder. However, WordPress can make it easy for you to manage a content-heavy website in three key ways: (1) You get automatic content consistency WordPress theme templates come with pre-set layout designs for post and pages, so everything you publish will automatically display in the same way. This allows you to quickly create new posts with consistent layout design. So for your product reviews, you’d simply insert the content, click publish and each one will automatically have the same design and layout every time! It’s a huge time-saver. Whereas, if you were using a drag-and-drop website creator, you would need to re-make your layout design every time you started a new page. This would mean either duplicating and editing existing pages, or recreating the layout from scratch using drag-and-drop tools! I bet you can already imagine how quickly that would become annoying – especially if you have hundreds or thousands of product reviews to add to your website. (2) You can quickly make site-wide content changes Since the content layout of your product reviews is controlled by a central, pre-set theme design, it’s very simple for you to quickly make design changes across your whole site – but only as long as you know how to code. Say you want to move your featured image (most likely a product photo) below the post summary box in your product reviews. In WordPress, you can make this layout change by editing the theme design code and it will be automatically applied to all of your posts at the same time. This means that all your review posts will automatically move the featured image below the post summary box once you activate the new design change. It doesn’t matter if you have one post or a thousand posts, you just make one change to the theme design code and your new layout will be used by all of them – it’s like using a cutter to create the same shape biscuit. If you were using a drag-and-drop website builder, you would need to go into every single review post and manually move the featured image below the post summary. This means if you have a hundred review posts, you need to make this change a hundred times! You’ve got better ways to spend your time than that, right? (3)You can easily manage individual pieces of content WordPress started life as a content management system, so it should come as no surprise that it makes it easy for you to…well…manage your content! The posts management page in your user dashboard gives you a top-level overview of everything you’ve posted on your website. For each post, you can see the title, author, category, tags, last modified date, and more, all in one screen. You can also filter posts and search them for keywords or phrases. It’s like having your own private library, which you can sort and search any way you like. Say you wanted to update the price of a product from $10.99 to $12.99 across a number of reviews. With WordPress, this is easily done. You simply type $10.99 into the search bar and press ‘search posts’. This will bring up every post in which $10.99 occurs and you can quickly make the amends you need to. You’ll find this a real time-saver if you need to update a few individual reviews, rather than make wholesale layout changes. On the other hand, with a drag-and-drop website builder, you just don’t have the ability to drill down into your individual content pieces. You’d need to either keep your own off-site record to search through or comb over each and every page in order to update the prices across your whole site. When it comes to content-heavy websites, WordPress makes it much easier for you stay on top of things than a drag-and-drop website builder does. Exceptions to the rule (that you need to know about): Wix Code Overview – Released in late 2017, Wix Code is an awesome new tool that enables you to easily create, edit, and manage site-wide page layout designs just like WordPress does. Best of all? It doesn’t require any coding knowledge on your end. Check it out now! E-commerce Platforms – E-commerce drag-and-drop platforms, like Shopify and BigCommerce, are very good at managing massive amounts of content. This is because these platforms are created for the sole purpose of helping you build, grow and manage an online store as easily as possible (and this potentially means stocking lots of products that each need their own page). How do you add, use and manage features on WordPress? “Your WordPress website’s features and tools are only restricted by the themes and plugins you’re using. This is what makes WordPress pretty awesome. And thankfully, once you’ve found the plugin you want, it’s pretty straightforward to add to your site.” Since WordPress has such a huge community of users and professionals, more often than not you can find what you need from pre-made themes and plugins. If you can’t find what you need through pre-made themes and plugins, you can always hire one from a huge pool of WordPress developers to build you a custom theme or plugin. Installing plugins and themes on WordPress is pretty simple. For plugins, you can actually find and select the plugin you want to use directly from your WordPress control panel, which you can see below: For free themes, you can find and select the free theme you want to use directly in your WordPress as well. For paid pre-made themes, you will need to install your theme through FTP (which I’ll explain shortly), or through WordPress’s theme upload function. You may find that after WordPress issues an update, your theme doesn’t work like it used to. This is a common issue and means you simply need to update your theme too. To keep issues to a minimum, we recommend following these best practices: Always choose plugins or themes that are created by reputable developers. You can identify these developers as they will usually have a very large user base. Limit the number of plugins you are using to keep code incompatibility to a minimum. Don’t use plugins that are “good to have”. Only focus on the core features that you can’t live without (I can’t stress this enough!). Who Should Use WordPress? “The best website builder for you is the one that gives you the features you need, without being too hard or expensive to use.” It doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles a website builder has. If you’re never going to use every single feature – why do you even need them? Don’t forget, extra features mean extra costs, so you’re just throwing your money away if you’re not using everything on offer. It is really important to be brutally honest with yourself and think about what features you actually use and need. You’ll find that WordPress is the best choice in the following situations: You’ve had a website before: If this isn’t your first website and you have some knowledge about web hosting and basic coding skills, this will help you to manage a WordPress website on your own. You need unlimited design freedom: If you need a website design that can’t be created using a drag-and-drop website builder, then you may need WordPress’s customization capabilities. You need specialized website features: If you need a very customized tool/feature that drag-and-drop website builders can’t cater for (e.g. you want to integrate your website with a CMS software like InfusionSoft), then this can only be done using WordPress. You’ve got lots of content: If you have a content-heavy website then you’ll need a website builder with an excellent content management system. Like WordPress. You’ve got time + money: If you have time to learn how to use and manage a WordPress website or have sufficient budget to hire a professional to help you get started, then it’s worth taking advantage of this! The bottom line In my opinion, WordPress is not something I would suggest for people with limited technology skills, or for those who have never owned a website before. Why? Well, it’s because WordPress has a much steeper learning curve, higher setup costs, and requires more technical knowledge to run than fully managed, drag-and-drop website builders like Wix, Squarespace or Weebly. WordPress also doesn’t offer you a dedicated support team so you’ll need to troubleshoot issues yourself (or hire someone to do it for you). Go to the top How Much Does WordPress Cost? “WordPress might be free for you to use, but the cost of your WordPress website largely depends on which hosting, theme, plugins, third-party software, online courses, and developers you use!” So, it’s quite hard to pinpoint exactly how much WordPress website costs. If you’re not careful, your costs can rack up quickly, so it’s worth shopping around for the best deals. To give you an idea of some potential costs, below we’ve broken down some of the most common costs associated with setting up and running a WordPress website. WordPress Website Hosting Costs Monthly Costs: anywhere between $5 – $100 Self-hosted shared hosting: $5 – $20 Fully managed hosting: $30 – $100 WordPress Tutorials & Courses Costs Monthly Costs: free to $50+ Time to Learn Basics: A few hours Time to Learn WordPress: Weeks WordPress Theme Costs One-time Cost: free to $5,000+ Basic Templates: $35 – $50 Premium Templates: $80 – $200 Template Alterations: $300 – $1,000 Custom Design: $5,000 – $10,000+ WordPress Plugin CostsOne-Time Cost: $50 – $500 and/or Monthly Costs: $5 – $150 Payment Software: $100 – $500 (one-time cost) $30 – $80 (monthly cost) Membership Gateway Software: $100 – $300 (one-time cost) $50-$150 (monthly cost) Email Marketing Software: $5 – $99 (monthly cost) WordPress Technical Support Costs Estimated Annual Cost: $500 – $1,000 Developer Cost: $100 – $180 per hour (only as required though!) Is It Easy to Setup WordPress? “No, it’s not the most user-friendly website builder – WordPress is harder to set up compared to any drag-and-drop website builder.” If you’ve got the time and put in the effort then, yes, you could set up a WordPress website on your own. But if you’re not a techie, be prepared for a fair share of hair-pulling and computer-bashing moments if you attempt to do so. On the other hand, a drag-and-drop website builder literally takes less than one minute to set up – you simply sign up and choose a plan, then you’re ready to build your website! You’ll need to bear in mind that a typical WordPress website will also take between half an hour to a few days to set up. The time you need depends on the amount of research you have done and how technologically savvy you are. Here’s what you need to do to set up a WordPress website: Find and choose a hosting provider (we’ve got a few suggestions for you coming up in a moment, so hold tight!) Set up WordPress in your hosting client console (this varies by hosting provider) Download and learn how to use FTP (the tech publication Wired have a super in-depth guide for FTP beginners that may prove handy) Choose, purchase and point your domain name to your hosting provider (you can often do this through your hosting provider!) Once you get all of this done, you can begin to learn how to use WordPress before starting to create your website. Go to the top WordPress Hosting Options “WordPress is a self-hosted website builder, so you will need to research and find the right hosting for your needs.” Learning how to manage your own hosting will take some time since it is an essential technical skill that any WordPress website owner needs to have. Hosting is a very well-established (and essential!) industry so all the major providers are generally very good. Techies may not agree with me and I’m sure there are reasons why one provider may be slightly better than the other – but for average users like me and you, I wouldn’t recommend sweating the little differences – we probably wouldn’t notice them anyway! For me, what sets each hosting provider apart is the level of support they provide on top of hosting services. You’ll want to find out if they offer: Round-the-clock customer service Technical support for non-developers Onboarding support such as installing everything for you and helping you get set up Website security support included in your package Automated Website backups I generally categorize WordPress hosting into two types: self-managed hosting and fully-managed hosting. Self-managed hosting This is the most popular choice for WordPress users since it’s pretty cheap, starting at $3 to $5 a month – essentially the price of a takeaway latte. With self-managed hosting, you will be responsible for: Setting up WordPress on your hosting dashboard Troubleshooting any issues with your website (if you need support, you can contact customer support, but they expect you to have a minimum understanding of hosting and the technicalities that comes with it!) The security of your website to ward off hackers Finding a different service to back up your website as it’s not provided with self-managed hosting. This is essential because if there are any issues, you want to have a backup you can restore your website from. You’ll also need to choose the type of self-managed hosting you need. You can pick from: Shared hosting – easy-to-use, low-cost option if you’re just starting out in which your site is hosted on a physical server alongside lots of other websites. You can think of a server as like an apartment block where your website and other websites live or are ‘hosted’) Cloud hosting – reliable shared hosting on a ‘virtual server’ rather than a physical one. You only pay for what you use, so it can save you money when just starting out. Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting – A more expensive option that can be technical to set up, but you’ll have more privacy, more control over the features you get, and more space for your website to grow. Dedicated hosting – Paying to have your own private server not only gives you ultra-fast speeds and lots of resource for your growing website, but you can even charge other users to lease space from you. This is the most technical and costly option. Self-managed hosting recommended providers: BlueHost – A very popular hosting company, BlueHost is reliable and cost-effective. They are a preferred WordPress partner and offer a 1-click install option to make your life as easy as possible. The basic BlueHost plan is on a shared server though, so if your WordPress website grows too quickly you may experience a slight slowdown in loading speeds. This aside, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use and easy-to-set-up hosting plan that requires no special technical know-how, then Bluehost is worth considering. HostGator – HostGator are another popular choice of host for beginners. They give you space on a shared server so resources are split across numerous users. Prices are very affordable and you get a lot of bandwidth and storage space for your money. This should help to keep load speeds relatively high and your WordPress site online. One.com – One.com offer basic hosting that is affordable no matter what budget you’re working with. It is a no-nonsense, no-frills option that provides you with the essentials you need to host your website and set up email hosting if needed.... Fully-managed hosting Fully-managed hosting is a service that was created specifically for WordPress users, so it’s sometimes called WordPress hosting. It has a higher monthly cost, but it takes care of the technical and security sides of things for you. These hosting plans generally have better customer service and are often willing to help find the source of the problem even though it may not be a hosting issue. You’ll also find fully-managed hosting providers tend to be more accommodating of your needs. Say your website gets a sudden surge of traffic one day that overwhelms it, then the hosting provider can adjust your traffic allowance to ensure your site doesn’t crash. They’ll also make recommendations about whether you ought to upgrade plan or not if once your traffic does start to grow. This proactive support is not only helpful but extremely time-saving too! I’ve tried both self-managed and fully-managed hosting, and I made the switch to fully-managed hosting pretty early! The extra support, security and flexibility of fully-managed hosting plans will save you a lot of time that you’ll be able to invest into building your site instead. If you’re now wondering whether fully-managed hosting is right for you, I’d suggest it for anyone who… Is starting a new website and doesn’t know what kind of traffic they will get Anticipates that their website will gain traffic very quickly and needs a hosting provider that can grow with them Wants better security and support and who don’t mind paying a little more per month to save on time and headaches Fully-managed hosting recommended providers: BlueHost WordPress Hosting – BlueHost’s dedicated WordPress hosting plans offer a 1-click install of WordPress, which saves a lot of time on your part. They also offer excellent first-year discounts that keep your costs very low (from around $3/mo!). You can upgrade to a more private and dedicated server quickly and easily, while the 24/7 support is very handy. Bluehost is an official WordPress partner so they are very highly regarded and one of the best choices you can pick when it comes to fully-managed hosting plans. Siteground WordPress Hosting – Siteground’s dedicated WordPress hosting plans are a great choice for businesses. There’s no limit on the number of visitors your site can have each month (almost unique!) and their sophisticated servers ensure your website rarely goes down. They offer great discounts on your first-year subscription, but you’ll need some serious cash if you want to pay for all the features. WPEngine – Specialist WordPress host that offers unrivaled technical performance and user support. It costs a premium price though and starts at $29/mo for personal plans. This is pretty costly if you’re starting a new WordPress site and so we recommend it for businesses or those of you who have the budget available. WordPress Themes “You have hundreds of thousands of WordPress themes to choose from – Your challenge is to only pick one!” Thousands of designers around the world create WordPress themes, so you are in no shortage of choices – the world is your oyster! As mentioned above, the features on your website are largely controlled by the theme and plugins you install on your website. So when choosing a WordPress theme design make sure you don’t favor looks over functionality. Both are equally important to create the website you need. There are two types of WordPress themes: Free Paid Free WordPress themes You can easily find Free WordPress themes directly on your WordPress dashboard. Simply go to “Appearance” and select “Themes”. Here you can search for all free WordPress themes. There are both pros and cons with free themes. Pros: Free Loads of choices Great for a simple website with very few plugins or customization needs Cons: May not be created by reputable developers and so have lots of coding errors, which can cause your website to break whenever there’s a WordPress or plugin update. To avoid this, find free themes offered by reputable developers. Many developers offer free versions of their themes as a promotional item. If you have a very simple website, the free version may be enough to cover your needs. Since it’s free, you have no access to any customer service. If you have any trouble using the theme, you are on your own. Some free theme providers allow you to use the theme for free and you can pay for technical support on an hourly basis when you need any help. Paid WordPress Themes Paid themes make up the majority of WordPress themes. You’re virtually spoiled for choice as there are tons of developers who have been creating WordPress designs for years. You’ll find that there are mainly two types of paid themes: One-time payment or Yearly membership. One-Time Payment You only pay once for this type of theme and it usually comes with a fixed support time of between 6-12 months. After that, you’re on your own! Some theme providers allow you to purchase extended support that lasts for up to three years, sort of like an extended warranty. These themes are the most common type found on WordPress and are the most popular option with users. The good thing about this is your initial money investment is low. If the theme doesn’t work out, it’s no harm done. The bad thing about this is if you end up keeping the theme for a long time, you need to pay for the extra support. In my experience of running a WordPress website, you’ll want to invest in this extra support because good help is hard to find. You’ll most likely need this support when installing the theme as you may experience problems with plugin compatibility or theme customization. Updates to WordPress, plugins, or the theme itself can also cause issues and your website to not work properly. So it’s definitely handy to have access to support from your theme provider if you do need it. Yearly Membership The yearly membership option is most popular with designers who create websites for clients. However, it’s also a good choice if you: Like to change up your website design regularly Want the peace of mind of knowing you can contact customer support whenever you need help Don’t want to have to hire a new developer or designer whenever you run into trouble making customizations (Most of the time, membership-based theme providers can help you solve the most basic issues) If you’ve already budgeted for a developer or designer, or you have some coding experience, then the benefits of yearly membership may not work out as cost-effective for you. A bonus to bear in mind though is that with a yearly membership, you also get access to all of the developer’s theme collection, so you don’t have to only choose one! As long as you pay the annual fee, you are 100% supported by their team of technicians. Tips for Choosing the right WordPress theme Choose themes that give you the functionality you need rather than just based on looks. Use themes created and supported by credible developers with a long history in creating good WordPress themes (I’ll explain how to find good themes for your website in a moment). Choose a theme that is frequently updated by the developer because this will keep it bug-free and up to date with all WordPress updates. You can see how often the theme is updated by checking its Changelog. It’s worth paying for extra or extended support if you have zero knowledge of coding or have never dealt with WordPress before. When you’re up at 2am trying to figure out what went wrong, you’ll be happy to have that support available to you! Where can you find good WordPress themes? We’ve found the following theme providers offer great selections of designs for WordPress websites: Elegant Themes – free, one-time payment or yearly membership WooThemes – free and one-time payment StudioPress – free and one-time payment ThemeForest – one-time payment MojoThemes – one-time payment WordPress Plugins “There are literally hundreds of thousands of WordPress plugins you can use to add functions and tools to your website. Only pick plugins for features you NEED rather than installing lots of functions you’ll never use. This saves space and also reduces the risk of errors after WordPress updates too!” You can look for plugins in your WordPress dashboard by going to “Plugins”. Here you can manage your plugins and search for new ones. The WordPress.org website also has a theme library, where you can sort plugins by featured, popular, and favorites. There are two types of plugins, free and paid. As with everything WordPress, free stuff doesn’t really come with support. There are tons of really well made and well-managed free plugins, and we’ll show you some of them in second. Be aware though that free plugins are less likely to be updated on an ongoing basis. Paid plugins are a good choice when you need more features or simply don’t want the plugin to be abandoned in the future. A lot of plugin developers offer a free version of their paid plugins, which lets you try before you buy. This is a great way of figuring out how much value a paid plugin could add to your WordPress site or not. Tips for choosing a WordPress plugin Use plugins created by a credible developer. Use popular plugins with a large user base as you can be sure that the plugin will be tweaked to accommodate for WordPress updates and coding problems. Use plugins that are updated regularly. You don’t want to use a plugin that hasn’t been updated for the past 2 years and most likely will never be updated again. If you need support, opt to use a paid version rather than the free version. Essential WordPress plugins Here are some popular tools and software that you can add to your WordPress website that is not possible with any drag-and-drop website builders: There are tons of WordPress plugins to choose from. But no matter what website we create, these are the core plugins we use and recommend to all WordPress websites. CrazyEgg – Visual website analytics tool Yoast – Essential WordPress SEO plugin that helps you refine your content to improve your search engine rankings TinyPNG – Tool that compresses your images without reducing quality in order to save space on your website (and improve page load speed) Disqus – Popular engagement plugin that lets you accept and manage comments on your website CloudFlare – Website performance and security improvement software InfusionSoft – Advanced email marketing and client management tool Akismet – An anti-spam plugin that filters out spam comments so you don’t have to (worth teaming with Disqus, above) Specific WordPress plugins If you’re looking to build a specific type of WordPress websites such as an online store or a site available in different languages, then the following plugins will help you out: aMember – WordPress membership plugin and user management tool WooCommerce – Online shopping cart and product management tool that turns your website into an e-commerce store Envira Gallery – Responsive gallery plugin that is ideal for creating a WordPress portfolio Booking Calendar – Free plugin that lets you accept bookings from visitors through your website (ideal for restaurants or service providers like dentists, plumbers, etc) Multilingual Press – Enables you to create and manage a WordPress website in multiple languages WordPress SEO “WordPress gives you far more control over your website’s SEO than a drag-and-drop website builder does. You can even use plugins to improve your website and boost its rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).” SEO stands for ‘search engine optimization’ and it’s important for your website because, without it, your WordPress site will struggle to rank highly in Google SERPs. SEO is more of an art than an exact science and though that may sound scary right now, it doesn’t have to be! Thankfully, you can use WordPress to help boost your site visibility without needing to be tech genius. Here are some of the useful things you can do: Make sure your site is visible – WordPress gives you the option to make your site visible to Google and other search engines. It’s useful to turn this on while making large changes, but don’t forget to uncheck after saving! Set up categories and tags – Creating custom categories and tags on WordPress is really easy and helps you to sort your content neatly. This makes it easier for search engines to understand what is on your website and bring it up in results pages. Use SEO-friendly URLs – WordPress lets you define the structure of your website’s URLs (aka your pages’ unique web addresses). This means you can set up SEO-friendly URLs that are descriptive and help Google identify the relevance of your pages to a particular search. Get maximum value from keywords – WordPress lets you use HTML tags when writing content in the text editor. This lets you give weight to keywords by including them in page titles and subtitles. This flags them as more important in the eyes of search engines and helps explain what your pages are about. This is just scratching the surface, but as you can see – you can really refine your SEO with WordPress. You can also use plugins to boost your website’s SEO too. I mentioned ‘Yoast’ above and this is by far and away from the most popular SEO plugin around. I honestly don’t know what I would do without it! Yoast lets you add meta titles and meta descriptions to your pages. These are the titles and descriptions displayed by Google in search results. Yoast also lets you preview them so you know what they look like before you publish. It can also give you great insights into how you are using keywords and whether you’re under-using them or over-using (both big no-nos in SEO!). Here you can see the Yoast preview of this article’s meta title and meta description. It also tells me whether the title and description are too short, too long, or just right – how handy is that! Want to know more about SEO? SEO + Backlinks Guide – Find out how other websites can impact your search engine rankings SEO + Anchor Text Guide – Read our best practice advice for getting the maximum benefit when linking between pages on your website SEO + Website Architecture guide – A quick overview of how the structure of your website can make your website more appealing to Google WordPress Support, Tutorials, and Community Resources “WordPress is free software so there’s no customer support. But this doesn’t mean you’re completely on your own.” WordPress has a huge support community you can turn to for help. Since WordPress is so widely used, there are loads of guides and free tutorials you can use to learn the basic of running a WordPress website. Got a problem? All it takes is a quick Google search to find your answer – which is much better than spending hours on the phone waiting for a customer support rep to pick-up, eh?! If you have exhausted all free resources and still can’t solve your problem, you can always pay for a developer or designer for help. We’ve used freelancer marketplaces like Upwork in the past when we’ve needed custom coding work or support. WordPress community & resources WordPress Forum – Here you can search for problems other WordPress users have that you may be dealing with as well. If you don’t find anything, you can always post your own question and wait for the community to help. WordPress Documentation – This is also called the WordPress Codex. You can find everything about WordPress here. It’s especially useful if you want to make code changes to your WordPress website. However, bear in mind that it’s not the most user-friendly resource. There are better beginner guides available that I’ll list for you in a second. WordPress tutorials If you’re serious about WordPress, you should take the time to go through some kind of WordPress tutorial. I’ve mentioned already that WordPress has a higher learning curve than a drag-and-drop website builder, so I really recommend that you read through a beginner’s guide before you get stuck in and buy a theme or install any plugins. WordPress Review: Summary WordPress is not for everyone. But when you can fully take advantage of what WordPress has to offer, it can be an exceptionally powerful tool. It is by far the most flexible website builder out there and can create almost any type of website you can imagine – whether that is a blog, a site to promote your business or an online store that sells goods. WordPress is great for anyone who needs a complex website or has a content heavy website. But only as long as you’re not afraid of putting in the time and money to get it up and running the way you want it to. A drawback to using WordPress is the upfront investment in money and time that other drag-and-drop website builders, like Wix, don’t have. So if you’re not sure about these investments, it is best to find a drag-and-drop website builder that fits most of your needs. Once you know your website has growth potential, you can always consider switching to WordPress later. Found This Guide Helpful?......Please comment. Vglink Referral:- Click & Earn Threw Offers. https://ift.tt/2LOQwqU

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ethelbertpaul444-blog · 6 years ago

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Taste test: Burger robot startup Creator opens first restaurant

Creator’s translucent burger robot doesn’t grind your brisket and chow steak into a gourmet patty until you degree it. That’s just one room this startup, previously known as Momentum Machines, wants to serve the world’s freshest cheeseburger for only $6. On June 27 th, after eight years in development, Creator unveils its first robot eatery before opening to the public in September. We got a sneak peek…err…taste. When I question how a startup launching one eatery at a time could become a $10 billion companionship, Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas looks me dead in the eye and announces,” the market is much bigger than that .” Here’s how Creator’s burger-cooking bot works at its 680 Folsom Street location in San Francisco. Formerly you line-up your burger vogue through a human concierge on a tablet, a compressed air tube pushes a baked-that-day bun into an elevator on the right. It’s sighted in half by a vibrating bayonet before being toasted and buttered as it’s lowered to conveyor belt. Sauces measured by the milliliter and spices by the gram are automatically squirted onto the bun. Entire soups, tomatoes, onions and blockages of neat cheese get wedges scraped off a few seconds before they’re quitted on top. Meanwhile, the robot grinds hormone-free, pasture-raised brisket and chow steak to guild. But rather than mince them all up, the ropes of meat hang vertically and are thinly pulped together. They words a loose but auto-griddleable patty that’s then plopped onto the bun before the whole pack slithers out of the machine after a total time of about five minutes. The mind is that when you bite into the burger, your teeth align with the vertical strands so instead of necessary harsh chewing it roughly defrosts in your mouth. If you want to be the first to try it, Creator is selling early access tickets at 10 am Pacific today. Otherwise it will be open for lunch Wednesdays and Thursdays until the public launch. Eventually, an app will let beings customize the exact fractions of all the ingredients, opening near infinite permutations. For now, the startup’s initial pre-set burger options include the classic-style Creator vs. The World with a mole Thousand Island special sauce, the oyster aioli Tumami Burger designed by Chef Tu of Top Chef, The Smoky with charred onion jam and the sunflower seed tahini Dad Burger from Chef Nick Balla of Bar Tartine. The taste of each is pretty remarkable. The spice pops out of all the fresh-cut and ground parts that shortcoming the preservatives of pre-sliced substance. The patties hold together as you munch despite being unusually tender. And subsequentlies I appeared less of the greasy, gut-bomb, food coma vibe that typically accompanies scarfing down a cheeseburger. ” This is the kind of burger you would get for $12 to $18[ at an upscale restaurant ], and it’s$ 6 ,” says Vardakostas. It might not be best available burger I’ve had in my life, but it’s certainly the best at that premium. A mint of that comes from the savings on labour and kitchen seat is guaranteed by a robot cook.” We expend more on our parts than any other burger restaurant .” The CEO wouldn’t uncover how much Creator has raised, but says it’s backed by Google’s GV, frequent food startup investor Khosla Ventures and hardware-focused Root Ventures. However, SEC filings attained by TechCrunch register the startup raised at least $18.3 million in 2017, and sought $ 6 million more back in 2013. It’s understandable why.” McDonald’s is a $ 140 billion busines. It’s bigger than GM and Tesla compounded. McDonald’s has 40,000 restaurants. Food is one to the top three biggest sells ,” Vardakostas clangs off.” But we “ve got a lot” of advantages. The average diner is 50 percentage large in terms of square footage .” Then he motions to his big robot that’s a lot smaller than the backside of most fast-food restaurants, and with a smile replies,” That’s our kitchen. You wheel it in and push it in .” From snapping patties to investigating physics Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas What you miss in a benefactor is a superhero origin narrative. Some formative moment in “peoples lives” that impels them hellbent on solving a problem. Vardakostas has a somewhat convincing anecdote.” My mothers have a burger joint ,” he reveals.” My job was to originate several hundred of the same burger every day. You recognise there’s so much opening not taken because you don’t have the right tools, and it’s hard work .” Robots and engineering weren’t even on his radar grown up in the restaurant in southern California. Then,” when I was 15 my pa took me to a journal storage for the first time. I started reading about physics and realizing that this could be a alternative .” He went on to study physics at UC Santa Barbara, got to work in the garage, and finally drove up to Silicon Valley to machine the first robot prototype’s parts at the famous Silicon Valley TechShop. That’s when he met his co-founder and COO Steve Frehn.” Steve told me he was from Stanford and I was super terrified ,” Vardakostas remembers. But the two had a great working rapport, and a forte for recruiting budding mechanical designers from the college. Momentum Machine started in 2009, was a full-time garage campaign by 2010, incorporated and attached Lemnos Labs in 2012 and the startup began to reach serious advancement by 2014. In the meantime, other inventors have tried to find a business in nutrient robots. There was the now-defunct Y Combinator startup Bistrobot that arbitrarily spurted liquid peanut butter and Nutella on white bread and called it a sandwich. More lately, Miso Robotics’ burger-flipping weapon named Flippy realized headlines, even though all it does is thrown and cook patties on a traditional griddle.” We have an arm that plucks out the burgers, but that’s probably five per cent of the intricacy” of the full Creator robot run by 350 sensors, 50 actuators and 20 computers, Vardakostas scoffs. Breaking burger behavior The CEO’s past in the kitchen restrains Creator into contact with the human element. He tells me he pictures the relevant recommendations of a staff-less restaurant whatever it is you fiat on a computer sounds “dystopian.” In point, he wants to give his food service employees access to new vocations. Vardakostas reads with a rustle that” parties look at restaurant use as a kindnes occasion, but mortal, we just need a chance .” Citing to the old-fashioned Google policy of giving hires try out side projects, he explains how” Tech business get 10 percentage age but no one does that for restaurant craftsmen .” ” Something we got really excited about in 2012 and we’re just starting to execute on is reinventing the job of working in a store like this, where the machine it taking care of the unclean and dangerous work ,” his co-founder Frehn clarifies.” We’re playing around with education programs for the staff. Five percent of the cases they’re paid just to read. We’re already doing that. There’s a diary plan. We’re $16 an hour. As opportunities come up to fix the machine, there’s a course we’re going to offer people as amend or upkeep parties to get paid even more .” One tradition Creator couldn’t escape was French fries. Vardakostas says they’re basically the least health happen you can eat , noting they’re” worse than donuts because there’s more surface area exposed to the frier .” But cooks told him some people plainly wouldn’t devour a burger without them. Creator’s compromise is that burgers are paired with hearty miniature farro or seasonal veggie salads by default, but you are able to opt for a line-up of frites. Creator’s fate won’t really be determined by the burger robot and the people who work alongside it. The startup will have to prove to fast food diners that it can be just as quick and cheap but a lot tastier, and that they’re welcome amongst the restaurant’s bougie Pottery Barn decor. At the same period, it was necessary to convince most affluent eaters that a cafeteria-style ordering counter and low price don’t mean low quality. Oh, and the figure is a bit rich for a burger spot. For now, Creator won’t be licensing out its bot or franchising its eatery, though those could be advantageous.” I don’t want person putting frozen beef in there or blaming acces more ,” remarks Vardakostas. Instead, the goal is to methodically expand, and maybe take advantage of its petite footprint to be involved in airport terminals or bus depots.” We want to get out of San Francisco ,” Frehn confidently settles.” Our business pose is pretty simple. We take a really good burger that people like and sell it for half the expenditure .” Read more: https :// techcrunch.com/ 2018/06/ 21/ creator-hamburger-robot / http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/07/19/taste-test-burger-robot-startup-creator-opens-first-restaurant/

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gta-5-cheats · 6 years ago

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Taste test: Burger robot startup Creator opens first restaurant

New Post has been published on http://secondcovers.com/taste-test-burger-robot-startup-creator-opens-first-restaurant/

Taste test: Burger robot startup Creator opens first restaurant

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Creator’s transparent burger robot doesn’t grind your brisket and chuck steak into a gourmet patty until you order it. That’s just one way this startup, formerly known as Momentum Machines, wants to serve the world’s freshest cheeseburger for just $6. On June 27th, after eight years in development, Creator unveils its first robot restaurant before opening to the public in September. We got a sneak peek…err…taste.

When I ask how a startup launching one eatery at a time could become a $10 billion company, Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas looks me dead in the eye and says, “the market is much bigger than that.”

youtube

Here’s how Creator’s burger-cooking bot works at its 680 Folsom Street location in San Francisco. Once you order your burger style through a human concierge on a tablet, a compressed air tube pushes a baked-that-day bun into an elevator on the right. It’s sawed in half by a vibrating knife before being toasted and buttered as it’s lowered to conveyor belt. Sauces measured by the milliliter and spices by the gram are automatically squirted onto the bun. Whole pickles, tomatoes, onions and blocks of nice cheese get slices shaved off just a second before they’re dropped on top.

Meanwhile, the robot grinds hormone-free, pasture-raised brisket and chuck steak to order. But rather than mash them all up, the strands of meat hang vertically and are lightly pressed together. They form a loose but auto-griddleable patty that’s then plopped onto the bun before the whole package slides out of the machine after a total time of about five minutes. The idea is that when you bite into the burger, your teeth align with the vertical strands so instead of requiring harsh chewing it almost melts in your mouth.

If you want to be the first to try it, Creator is selling early access tickets at 10am Pacific today. Otherwise it will be open for lunch Wednesdays and Thursdays until the public launch. Eventually, an app will let people customize the exact ratios of all the ingredients, unlocking near infinite permutations.

For now, the startup’s initial pre-set burger options include the classic-style Creator vs. The World with a mole Thousand Island special sauce, the oyster aioli Tumami Burger designed by Chef Tu of Top Chef, The Smoky with charred onion jam and the sunflower seed tahini Dad Burger from Chef Nick Balla of Bar Tartine.

The taste of each is pretty remarkable. The flavor pops out of all the fresh-cut and ground ingredients that lack the preservatives of pre-sliced stuff. The patties hold together as you munch despite being exceedingly tender. And afterwards I felt less of the greasy, gut-bomb, food coma vibe that typically accompanies scarfing down a cheeseburger.

“This is the kind of burger you would get for $12 to $18 [at an upscale restaurant], and it’s $6,” says Vardakostas. It might not be the best burger I’ve had in my life, but it’s certainly the best at that price. A lot of that comes from the savings on labor and kitchen space afforded by a robot cook. “We spend more on our ingredients than any other burger restaurant.”

The CEO wouldn’t reveal how much Creator has raised, but says it’s backed by Google’s GV, frequent food startup investor Khosla Ventures and hardware-focused Root Ventures. However, SEC filings attained by TechCrunch show the startup raised at least $18.3 million in 2017, and sought $6 million more back in 2013.

It’s understandable why. “McDonald’s is a $140 billion company. It’s bigger than GM and Tesla combined. McDonald’s has 40,000 restaurants. Food is one to the top three biggest markets,” Vardakostas rattles off. “But we have a lot of advantages. The average restaurant is 50 percent bigger in terms of square footage.” Then he motions to his big robot that’s a lot smaller than the backside of most fast-food restaurants, and with a smile says, “That’s our kitchen. You roll it in and plug it in.”

From flipping patties to studying physics

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Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas

What you want in a founder is a superhero origin story. Some formative moment in their life that makes them hellbent on solving a problem. Vardakostas has a pretty convincing tale. “My parents have a burger joint,” he reveals. “My job was to make several hundred of the same burger every day. You realize there’s so much opportunity not taken because you don’t have the right tools, and it’s hard work.”

Robots and engineering weren’t even on his radar growing up in the restaurant in southern California. Then, “when I was 15 my dad took me to a book store for the first time. I started reading about physics and realizing that this could be a possibility.” He went on to study physics at UC Santa Barbara, got to work in the garage, and finally drove up to Silicon Valley to machine the first robot prototype’s parts at the famous Silicon Valley TechShop.

That’s when he met his co-founder and COO Steve Frehn. “Steve told me he was from Stanford and I was super intimidated,” Vardakostas recalls. But the two had a great working rapport, and a knack for recruiting budding mechanical engineers from the college. Momentum Machines started in 2009, was a full-time garage project by 2010, incorporated and joined Lemnos Labs in 2012 and the startup began to make serious progress by 2014.

In the meantime, other entrepreneurs have tried to find a business in food robots. There was the now-defunct Y Combinator startup Bistrobot that haphazardly spurted liquid peanut butter and Nutella on white bread and called it a sandwich. More recently, Miso Robotics’ burger-flipping arm named Flippy made headlines, even though all it does is flip and cook patties on a traditional griddle. “We have an arm that pulls out the burgers, but that’s probably 5 percent of the complexity” of the full Creator robot run by 350 sensors, 50 actuators and 20 computers, Vardakostas scoffs.

Breaking burger behavior

The CEO’s past in the kitchen keeps Creator in touch with the human element. He tells me he thinks the idea of a staff-less restaurant where you order on a computer sounds “dystopian.” In fact, he wants to give his food service employees access to new careers. Vardakostas says with a sigh that “people look at restaurant work as a charity case, but man, we just need a chance.” Referring to the old Google policy of letting employees try out side projects, he explains how “Tech companies get 10 percent time but no one does that for restaurant workers.”

“Something we got really excited about in 2012 and we’re just starting to execute on is reinventing the job of working in a store like this, where the machine it taking care of the dirty and dangerous work,” his co-founder Frehn explains. “We’re playing around with education programs for the staff. Five percent of the time they’re paid just to read. We’re already doing that. There’s a book budget. We’re paying $16 an hour. As opportunities come up to fix the machine, there’s a path we’re going to offer people as repair or maintenance people to get paid even more.”

One tradition Creator couldn’t escape was French fries. Vardakostas says they’re basically the least healthy thing you can eat, noting they’re “worse than donuts because there’s more surface area exposed to the frier.” But chefs told him some people simply wouldn’t eat a burger without them. Creator’s compromise is that burgers are paired with hearty miniature farro or seasonal veggie salads by default, but you can still opt for a side of frites.

Creator’s fate won’t just be determined by the burger robot and the people who work alongside it. The startup will have to prove to fast food diners that it can be just as quick and cheap but a lot tastier, and that they’re welcome amongst the restaurant’s bougie Pottery Barn decor. At the same time, it must convince more affluent eaters that a cafeteria-style ordering counter and low price don’t mean low quality. Oh, and the name is a bit rich for a burger spot.

For now, Creator won’t be licensing out its bot or franchising its restaurant, though those could be lucrative. “I don’t want someone putting frozen beef in there or charging way more,” says Vardakostas. Instead, the goal is to methodically expand, and maybe take advantage of its petite footprint to move into airport terminals or bus stations. “We want to get out of San Francisco,” Frehn confidently concludes. “Our business model is pretty simple. We take a really good burger that people like and sell it for half the price.”

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theinvinciblenoob · 6 years ago

Link

Creator’s transparent burger robot doesn’t grind your brisket and chuck steak into a gourmet patty until you order it. That’s just one way this startup, formerly known as Momentum Machines, wants to serve the world’s freshest cheesebuger for just $6. On June 27th, after 8 years in development, Creator unveils its first robot restaurant before opening to the public in September. We got a sneak peek…err…taste.

When I ask how a startup launching one eatery at a time could become a $10 billion company, Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas looks me dead in the eye and says “the market is much bigger than that.”

Here’s how Creator’s burger-cooking bot works at its 680 Folsom St location in San Francisco. Once you order your burger style through a human concierge on a tablet, a compressed air tube pushes a baked-that-day bun into an elevator on the right. It’s sawwed in half by a vibrating knife before being toasted and buttered as its lowered to conveyor belt. Sauces measured by the milliliter and spices by the gram are automatically squirted onto the bun. Whole pickles, tomatoes, onions, and blocks of nice cheese get slices shaved off just a second before they’re dropped on top.

If you want to be the first to try it, Creator is selling early access tickets at 10am Pacific today. Eventually, an app will let people customize the exact ratios of all the ingredients, unlocking near infinite permutations. But for now, the startup’s initial pre-set burger options include the classic-style Creator vs. The World with a mole Thousand Island special sauce, the oyster aioli Tumami Burger designed by Chef Tu of Top Chef, The Smoky with charred onion jam, and the sunflower seed tahini Dad Burger from Chef Nick Balla of Bar Tartine.

The taste of each is pretty remarkable. The flavor pops out of all the fresh cut and ground ingredients that lack the preservatives of pre-sliced stuff. The patties hold together as you munch despite being exceedingly tender. And afterwards I felt less of the greasy, gut-bomb, food coma vibe that typically accompanies scarfing down a cheeseburger.

“This is the kind of burger you would get for $12 to $18 [at an upscale restaurant], and it’s $6” says Vardakostas. It might not be the best burger I’ve had in my life, but it’s certainly the best at that price. A lot of that comes from the savings on labor and kitchen space afforded by a robot cook. “We spend more on our ingredients than any other burger restaurant.”

The CEO wouldn’t reveal how much Creator has raised, but says it’s backed by Google’s GV, frequent food startup investor Khosla Ventures, and hardware-focused Root Ventures. However, SEC filings attained by TechCrunch show the startup raised at least $18.3 million in 2017, and sought $6 million more back in 2013.

It’s understandable why. “McDonalds is a $140 billion company. It’s bigger than GM and Tesla combined. McDonalds has 40,000 restaurants. Food is one to the top three biggest markets” Vardakostas rattles off. “But we have a lot of advantages. The average reastaurant is 50 percent bigger in terms of square footage.” Then he motions to his big robot that’s a lot smaller than the backside of most fast-food restauants, and with a smile says “That’s our kitchen. You roll it in and plug it in.”

From Flipping Patties To Studying Physics

Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas

What you want in a founder is a superhero origin story. Some formative moment in their life that makes them hellbent on solving a problem. Vardakostas has a pretty convincing tale. “My parents have a burger joint” he reveals. “My job was to make several hundred of the same burger every day. You realize there’s so much opportunity not taken because you don’t have the right tools, and it’s hard work.”

That’s when he met his co-founder and COO Steve Frehn. “Steve told me he was from Stanford and I was super intimidated” Vardakostas recalls. But the two had a great working rapport, and a knack for recruiting budding mechanical engineers from the college. Momentum Machines started in 2009, was a full-time garage project by 2010, incorporated and joined Lemnos Labs in 2012, and the startup began to make serious progress by 2014.

Breaking Burger Behavior

The CEO’s past in the kitchen keeps Creator in touch with the human element. He tells me he thinks the idea of a staff-less restaurant where you order on a computer sounds “dystopian”. In fact, he wants to give his food service employees access to new careers. Vardakostas says with a sigh that “people look at restaurant work as a charity case, but man, we just need a chance.” Referring to the old Google policy of letting employees try out side projects, he explains how “Tech companies get 10 percent time but no one does that for restaurant workers.”

“Something we got really excited about in 2012 and we’re just starting to excute on is reinventing the job of working in a store like this, where the machine it taking care of the dirty and dangerous work” his co-founder Frehn explains. “We’re playing around with education programs for the staff. 5 percent of the time they’re paid just to read. We’re already doing that. There’s a book budget. We’re paying $16 an hour. As opportunities come up to fix the machine, there’s a path we’re going to offer people as repair or maintenance people to get paid even more.”

One tradition Creator couldn’t escape was french fries. Vardakostas says they’re basically the least healthy thing you can eat, noting they’re “worse than donuts because there’s more surface area exposed to the frier.” But chefs told him some people simply wouldn’t eat a burger without them. Creator’s compromise is that burgers are paired with hearty miniature farro or seasonal veggie salads by default, but you can still opt for a side of frites.

Creator’s fate won’t just be determined by the burger robot and the people that work alongside it. The startup will have to prove to fast food diners that it can be just as quick and cheap but a lot tastier, and that they’re welcome amongst the restaurant’s bougie Pottery Barn decor. At the same time, it must convince more affluent eaters that a cafeteria-style ordering counter and low price don’t mean low quality. Oh, and the name is a bit rich for a burger spot.

For now, Creator won’t be licensing out its bot or franchising its restaurant, though those could be lucrative. “I don’t want someone putting frozen beef in there or charging way more” says Vardakostas. Instead, the goal is to methodically expand, and maybe take advantage of its petite footprint to move into airport terminals or bus stations. “We want to get out of San Francisco” Frehn confidently concludes. “Our business model is pretty simple. We take a really good burger that people like and sell it for half the price.”

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

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fadingfartconnoisseur · 8 years ago

Text

23 Reader Questions. 23 Attempted Answers.

Not every issue needs a long, drawn-out blog post to answer, so I like taking your questions now and then and helping solve some travel problems. So let’s take a break from our regularly scheduled articles for another round of Q&A!

A few weeks ago, I put a call out on social media for reader questions on travel, life, and anything in between. There are usually a few questions I’ve never answered before, weird ones about life, and just funny pop culture ones! Today’s blog post is my attempt to answer these questions. Some of them overlapped, so I trimmed the duplicates down, got rid of the really inappropriate ones (haha), and put the rest here. Hopefully, in answering someone else’s question, I’ll also be able to help you too.

What are your thoughts on train travel vs. flying between cities in Europe? – John

I love train travel in Europe. It’s scenic and relaxing, and the trains are way more comfortable than economy class on planes. It’s a lot less stressful than flying too. That said, it takes a lot longer, and tickets are often more expensive than some of the budget airlines in Europe.

I think it basically comes down to time and money (doesn’t everything?). For me, it depends if I’m in a rush. If I need to get someplace quick, I’ll fly. But, if I have time, a rail pass, or just find the ticket prices to be similar to flights, I’ll take the train over flying.

How do you feel about staying in hotels vs. Airbnbs? – Eric

I rarely ever stay in a hotel unless I am using hotel points, as I find them to be very expensive. I’d much rather be in an Airbnb, even if it is just for one night. I like the homey feel, the cheaper prices, and being able to ask questions of a local who knows the area. You make more friends staying with a local from a site like Couchsurfing than at a hotel. Here is a guide to Airbnb if you want more info on that service!

What are your thoughts on traveling to the European countries that have been hit by terrorist attacks? – Alexander

There’s nothing you can do to predict the future. Whether you go to a movie theater or club in the US or somewhere in Europe, you never know when violence will strike. Terror attacks occur randomly, so while I would be more vigilant, I wouldn’t let this change your travel plans. That’s what they want: they want us to cower in fear and be suspicious. I’d never let them control my life. (That said, I do avoid war zones.)

Do you have any advice on traveling solo? – Rod

That’s my whole website! Just click here to learn my best tips. This is the best starting point to learn the A-to-Z of planning your trip!

What was the transformative moment when you knew you wanted to make travel (and travel blogging) a career? – Dora

I’ve always described myself as an accidental travel writer. There was never a magic moment where I said, “I am going to do this.” But there were inflection points when I realized, “Wow, this business is growing. That’s cool. I guess I’ll keep riding this wave.”

How and when did you find that travel is your passion? – Jegan

I feel in love with travel on a tour to Costa Rica; it was the first time I was traveling as an adult. I loved the freedom and the sense of endless possibility. I just knew I wanted to keep doing it. Over time and a few more trips, it just became the only thing I wanted to do. I loved traveling and wanted to share that love with others.

When people say, “Go find your passion,” I always cringe a bit. It’s not like you can go out and just stumble upon it, like finding a lost set of keys. I think finding your passion is what happens when you end up doing something you love. If you talk to people who are passionate about their job, often it’s because they have been doing it so long that they are just good at it!

I love cooking. LOVE IT! But I’ve done it long enough to know it’s not my passion. It doesn’t make me feel the way travel does. I think you just have to explore your interests, and one day, one will have become your passion without your even noticing.

What are your thoughts on the Peace Corps? Have you met people abroad who are or were in the Peace Corps? What are or were their experiences like? – Jillian

I’ve never done the Peace Corps, but I think it is an amazing initiative. I was going to apply a few years ago after my first trip around the world. After I came home, I knew I needed to go travel again, so this was one of the things I looked into.

I’ve met many people over the years who have done it, and most of them have said it was one of the best experiences in their lives. Maybe someone can leave a comment here and share their first-hand experience.

Can we also use your blog’s Intrepid discount code with Geckos? – Geneviève

Sadly, it only works with Intrepid. You can get the 10% discount by clicking here.

What would be the best step to take for a 21-year-old who really wants to travel but doesn’t have enough money? – Alyiah

I’d go work overseas. You’re 21 and probably fresh out school. You have your whole life ahead of you! Get yourself a working holiday visa for New Zealand or Australia and get a job over there. Or go teach English overseas! There’s no reason why you have to have a certain amount of money. Just go with the money you have. There’s nothing holding you back at the moment. The world is your oyster.

Here’s an article on how to find work overseas and why being broke is the best time for you to travel.

I have three questions: What do you do for health insurance? Do you have a favorite credit card? What phone service do you use? – Susan

When I travel, I use World Nomads as my insurance provider. They are my favorite insurance company (and in my opinion, the best out there). I’ve been using them since I started traveling and highly recommend them. (When I’m home, I have coverage here in Texas).

For credit cards, I love the new Chase Sapphire Reserved. There’s a high annual fee but the rewards and travel credit make the fee worth it. For phone service, I use T-Mobile — but if you are going to be out of the country for a while, it’s better to get unlocked SIM cards as you go. It will work out cheaper than T-Mobile, and you can just top off as needed.

Do you have any advice for those who want to start a travel blog? – Ali

Sure, I have a ton! I would simply start with these two blog posts because they are more robust than any quick reply I write here. Here are the links:

How to Start a Travel Blog

9 Ways to Become a Successful Blogger

How do you keep costs down when traveling to expensive countries? – Liza

It’s easy to save money in Thailand but a lot harder to save money in Switzerland or Norway or Japan. Traveling to those countries on a budget takes a lot of work. Sometimes, you just can’t do it (I’m looking at you, Bermuda!). On the other hand, I think expensive countries are sometimes easier to travel to because locals, who face high costs, have invented smart ways to stay on a budget. It varies from country to country ,but for the most part, when I’m in an expensive country, I drink less, cook more, eat cheaper (not so healthy) food, take local transportation, and look into the sharing economy more: Couchsurfing, ride-sharing, meal-sharing, and everything in between. You have to get more creative, but I believe 99% of the world can be visited on a budget. It all depends on how much you’re will to do what you need to do.

I traveled Europe for a month and got pretty homesick toward the end. Do you ever get homesick? What would you recommend for those who do? – Jacob

I get homesick all the time. I’ve met many people who have too. In fact, I’ve met many people that have gotten so homesick, they’ve gone home. There’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s a certain flow to travel. A lot of people get homesick right away, but for most people, it’s around the 3-4-month mark and then again closer to the year mark. These milestones are when you seem to become more untethered your past, and for many people, that feeling makes them want to retreat back into their familiar bubble. They feel themselves changing.

But I say you should just power through it. It’s natural and will pass. Embrace the change! Since this feeling so often relates to travel fatigue, I say sit down, relax, enjoy the city you are in, take a deep breath, and then move on when you’re ready.

Are visas a big issue for you, if you’re in the middle of a trip outside of the US and you decide to go to a country that requires a visa? – Carl

You can get visas as you go. While some nationalities are required to get tourist visas in their home countries, for the most part, all you need to do is get the visa from the local embassy or consulate in the country you are in. There’s no magic to it. Need a Vietnam visa while in Germany? Head to the local Vietnamese embassy or consulate and apply (making sure you have all the appropriate documents). That’s about all there is to it.

Is it safe to travel to the US at this juncture? I have a long-term tourist visa but now I’m scared with the hate crime reported by the media. – Kanian

This question makes me sad, and I feel I could go on forever about it. For starters, the media always reports the stories that are negative. “If it bleeds, it leads” is why you think hate crimes are rampant and American conservatives think Muslim terrorists are everywhere and Paris is burning. Everything is always so negative all the time.

But the US is a country of 350 million people with great diversity. While there was a slight uptick in hate crimes after the election, the America that existed before Trump is still essentially there and is filled with good people who care about other people. That has not changed. Look at all the marches that happened against the travel ban. Just like I would say you have nothing to fear by going to Europe, you have nothing to fear by coming to the US.

I am planning my trip to Europe currently and would like to know how you handled the proof of future travel that countries require for visas. – Kim

Assuming you’re from a developed country, they will never check. They’ll never say, “Let me see that flight/bus/train ticket.” Well, the UK and Ireland might because those countries are strict, but no one else does. Outside of those two places, I rarely ever have proof of onward travel (and it’s usually the airline that asks), especially if I’m traveling long-term. It’s a risk I’m comfortable taking.

But if you’re not comfortable with that risk, you can simply buy a refundable plane, bus, or train ticket to get you past border control. When you get into your destination, just cancel the ticket.

For other non-Western nationalities, you usually need a visa ahead of time and to get it, you’re required to have proof of onward travel anyways.

I would appreciate advice about hot springs and thermal baths in the USA. Thank you. – Helena

I’ve never been to one in the US and don’t know of any. For questions like this in general, Google is usually the best resource. When I ever I am looking for the “best in….”, I usually turn to Google.

Which of your destinations, if any, have most challenged your values as an American? – Nomadic Planet

I don’t think anything challenges my values as an American. Many places challenge my values as a human, but nothing ever made me question my American values. I don’t think a country has much to do with values. If anything, traveling has made me appreciate the greatness of America — but also that there are many things we have to work on.

What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? – Jason

42.

Why don’t you organize trips with your followers? – Jorge

Actually, this year I am going to start doing group tours again! Check this post out to see all my 2017 tours!

Is Costa Rica safe? What is the best way to find a good travel buddy? – Wendy

Yes, it’s very, very safe. I have no safety concerns about that country.

To find a friend, there are a lot of places to do so. Check out this article where I list a ton of ways to meet people when you travel.

Any tips on how to travel with a dog? – Sally

I’ve never traveled with a pet, but these resources are really good and can help you plan your trip:

Dog Jaunt

How to Travel With Your Dog

The Lonely Planet forums as well as our forum too.

Where do you get your hair done? – Raimee

I’m glad you asked. I love my hair. It’s completely on fleek. I’m glad you like it too. I get it done when I visit NYC at this cheap barber on the west side of town. I think he does a good job for the price. Then again, I have a simple haircut, so I’m not sure how he could screw it up. Not like this one time in Taiwan, where they accidentally shaved my entire head so quickly I couldn’t protest in time. I was bald for a solid month. (No, I won’t be putting a picture of that online though!)

Photo credit: 1

P.S. BIG NEWS! This year I’m relaunching the Nomadic Matt group tours. You can come travel around with me and other community members! I’ll be doing four over the course of the summer. You can find out more about them and sign up by clicking here.

The post 23 Reader Questions. 23 Attempted Answers. appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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