#then I would focus on Tidal Light which is a concept I really like but I think needed to be fleshed out better

[pagesofkenna]

I think I may have already posted about this, but I went through all my digital files a while back to see what I could find of my old NaNoWriMo projects, and theres two books completely missing and one I can only find half of

and I know that this isn't how the human brain works but it feels like all of the projects I have full files of, I can remember. If not all the details then at least the main gist of how those stories went. but the files that are missing digitally feel like they're also missing from my brain. I remember writing them but I do not remember what happens in them

[5sosfanfictioncatalogue]

Sexual Tension Masterlist

3 A.M. - @daydadahlias​ (cornflowerblue (daydadahlias)) Michael/Luke M, 4k

Summary: Five times Michael accidentally meets Luke in the bathroom and the one time he meets him there on purpose.

And Action - @daydadahlias (cornflowerblue (daydadahlias)) Luke/Calum E, 24k

Summary: Calum won’t lie about it. His Best Friend’s Boyfriend’s Ex-Boyfriend is super cute.

astral collisions (ao3) - kaleidoscopeminds Luke/Calum E, 42k

Summary: But then maybe it doesn’t really matter what the outcome is, because it’s not like someone like Calum can fall for Luke in twenty-four hours, or anything as fucking stupid as that.

Calum bumps into Luke in the strangest of circumstances in an airport thousands of miles from home, almost fifteen years since he last saw him. A completely innocuous encounter, until an overbooked flight means Calum makes a decision that surprises even himself. Twenty-four hours with a really hot almost-stranger is not really how he saw his work trip ending, but what’s the worse that could happen?

Court Five (ao3) - takemymoneycth Luke/Ashton, Michael/Calum E, 21k

Summary: A story in which a young college tennis player maybe likes his new coach a little too much.

feeling the weight of the world (ao3) - cashtonkink Calum/Ashton M, 22k

Summary: duke university and the university of north carolina, ten miles apart, home to the most intense rivalry in all of college basketball. and now, they have the top two high school basketball recruits in the nation: ashton irwin and calum hood.

For Him - @daydadahlias​ (cornflowerblue (daydadahlias)) Michael/Calum/Ashton E, 25k

Summary: Ashton Irwin is a geography teacher with a massive crush on the band teacher, Michael Clifford. When cutbacks threaten the school's music program and Michael, Ashton springs into action. He dusts off his long-unused wrestling skills from college and earns money for the program by moonlighting as a mixed martial arts fighter, trained by ex-fighter Calum Hood. Though the school nurse, Luke Hemmings, thinks he's crazy, Ashton gains something he never expected (*cough* two boyfriends *cough*), and finds a semblance of safety in the chaos.

or, the slutty Here Comes the Boom AU that none of you knew you needed.

fueling the fire until we combust (ao3) - nothingliketherain (39_killer_queen) Calum/Ashton E, 7k

Summary: “What, is it good?” Cal asks, eyes sparkling. Ashton clears his throat which suddenly feels a little dry, and shoves the camera at Calum, incapable of giving him a real answer. “Damn, that’s hot,” Cal says appreciatively when he sees it.

“Yeah,” Ashton quickly agrees, too quickly, red climbing up his cheeks when he realizes how much he’s letting himself show. He clears his throat. “I mean, the lighting’s pretty good.”

Calum gives Ashton a look that makes him squirm. “Yeah, I agree,” he says casually, but there’s something about his voice, something about the way he’s slowly moving closer to Ashton, so slow Ashton wouldn’t notice if he wasn’t so attuned to Calum by now that every small movement feels like a tidal wave. Ashton can’t help feeling like something is about to happen, but he doesn’t know what.

He definitely doesn’t expect it to be Calum humming and saying, “I do think my lips would look better wrapped around something.”

Or things escalate one day when Ashton takes some pictures of Calum, unable to focus on anything but his lips.

Gay Doesn't Mean Rainbows (ao3) - walking_crisis69 Michael/Luke T, 3k

Summary: "Your breath tastes like smoke." Luke said as he pulled away, running his fingers through his enemy's hair. "And your breath tastes like rainbows."

Green Light (ao3) - SpencerKnight OT4 E, 181k

Summary: Class is an age old concept--almost as old as the concept of human slavery, and in a world where buying humans is a standard behavior by those who can afford it, Luke's only hope as a member of the lower class is that he falls into the hands of a decent buyer--the hands of Ashton Irwin and his partners. Luke knows he has one chance to please his buyers or he risks getting put back on the market, but he's thrown for a loop when Ashton admits that Luke is the one that gets to call the shots. In an attempt to find security with the trio, Luke braces himself and gives them the green light to do whatever they want with him.

He had no idea they would refuse.

In the Next Room (ao3) - valiantnerd (arareads) Luke/Ashton E, 28k

Summary: Ashton moves into an apartment with walls made of little more than cardboard and foreign playlists, develops a gigantic crush on Luke, and takes a hot second realizing what's right in front of him.

Loose Tongue (ao3) - jbhmalum Calum/Ashton M, 10k

Summary: 5 times calum wears skirts that keep getting shorter on tour and 1 time ashton does something about it

of lovers and friends (ao3) - Calumthoodshands (tndart) Luke/Calum M, 28k

Summary: And at the end of the day, it’s always Calum he goes to, whether to rant or laugh or, in rare cases, to cry. Most of the time to laugh.

The first week of uni, it almost feels like a honeymoon — well, only for friends.

Moving in with your best friend can have all kinds of consequences. Falling for them while they seem to get further and further away from you though, that's something Luke never saw coming, and it completely throws him off his rhythm.

over and under (ao3) - kaleidoscopeminds Luke/Calum E, 10k

Summary: “We really need to stop doing this.”

“I know.”

Luke says he won’t do this again.

They both agree they won’t do this again when they’re dressed, in Luke’s living room and not his bedroom, when Calum’s about to leave to see his other friends and Luke’s going to the studio to write.

It’s easy to agree not to do it again when Calum’s not touching him.

rightfully (ao3) - Calumthoodshands (tndart) Luke/Calum T, 1k

Summary: Luke stared back. “You’re wearing my suit.”

“What, like I don’t good in it?”

something real (ao3) - jbhmalum Calum/Ashton M, 22k

Summary: The first time Calum Hood shows up on his doorstep, it’s the last thing Ashton expects. He’s as unprepared for it as he would be for a snowstorm in the middle of the summer. That’s what Calum is to him that night. A storm coming to disturb his peaceful life, filling him with adrenaline and a bit of fear at the uncertainty of what could happen.

Stage Lights - @ashtcnirwin (elivigar) Luke/Ashton E, 14k

Summary: No, beyond the initial surprise the sting of arousal brought him, Ashton doesn’t worry about his apparent interest in penises and what said interest might mean. Maybe it means nothing at all, maybe it means he’s not as straight as he’s been led to believe up until this point in time. Whether it’s option one, option two or something in between, Ashton doesn’t really care.

But why did the penis that made him question everything have to be Luke’s?

thirsty (ao3) - galacticsugar Luke/Calum E, 7k

Summary: Is he putting on a show for Calum? Rolling his head side to side, stretching his neck. Letting his thumb graze the side of his glass gently while it dangles from his ringed fingers. Gleaming eyes flicking to Calum for long, loaded moments. Biting his bottom lip between his teeth while he gives his full attention to the person he’s talking to. Except it’s not quite his full attention, because a little slice is reserved for toying with Calum.

you say you didn't know, i wonder why you didn't ask? (ao3) - hideforalifetime Michael/Luke T, 14k

Summary: Luke and Michael have been best friends since elementary school, moving out of the country all alone, but together for college, getting through all the highs and lows of adulting together. There’s never been a person who knows them that doesn’t refer to them as “Luke and Michael”. Always paired, and if one’s without the other, questions are immediately asked. Hell, some people automatically assume they’re dating, and he hurriedly corrects them. But deep down, Luke doesn’t want to. He doesn’t know when his brain made the transition of looking at Michael as a friend to someone he’d want as more than a friend, but it’s true. Sometimes, when he stares at Michael’s choppy, often dishevelled blue hair, he feels like-

[lovecorepatton]

float away

AU: Astronaut AU Word count: 1486 Pairings: None Logan centric angst with a happy ending

WARNINGS: Unreality discussed in great depth Implied past child abuse Discussion of the vastness of the universe Possible description of a panic attack, I’m not exactly sure how to define it

Beta readers: @theintelligentfool, @remus-kinnie-on-the-loose

AO3 Link

--------------------

The observable universe is assumed to be 93 billion light years wide. A light year is about 9 trillion kilometers. The average human person is about 160 centimeters tall.

Logan Xīng was an astronaut. He’d signed up for it. Large sums of space had never really bothered him. Never registered. He was usually too busy surviving day-to-day when he was living with his parents, and once he was old enough to move, he did. Cut connections with them. Started living on his own, barely scraping by with a day job in construction and going to night school. He’d somehow scored an internship with NASA, and quickly escalated to a position where he would work on the International Space Station for a two year shift.

These were the events that led him here, approximately 254 miles away from Earth. It looked… small. Insignificant. Maybe it was. No, it definitely was. Humanity was simply a blip in the existence of the universe- one singular spark. And gosh, was the universe vast. It was almost comforting in a way- Logan was barely a quark on a cosmic scale. Not important enough to change the world. The grandness of it was safe, homey, to him. He wasn’t big enough to destroy anything cosmically.

But a part of Logan didn’t register anything as real. His surroundings, the people aboard that he’d known for 7 months or more now, the stars, the station. His past, his life: none of it was actually happening to him. He wasn’t the person interacting. He was an observer. Like a camera. People can interact with it, and sometimes it’s even programmed to respond in a way that mimics a sentient entity, but did it really happen? The camera didn't do that on its own volition. It learned to.

And it ran deeper than that- it felt like Logan was encased in glass, unable to break out without being hit with a tidal wave of repressed emotions. It affected his interactions- he didn’t really talk to that person. Was he sure that this was his body? How could he know what was happening was real?

The short answer? He couldn’t.

It wasn’t a new feeling, to say the least. Half of Logan’s life was buried away, no memory of it to be found. He walked around in a dreamscape. He’d read something about trauma affecting how people perceive reality, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember any trauma. When he was a child he’d constantly doubted what aspects of his life were real- Were the people around him really thinking, being? Did his room look like that yesterday? Did he remember that correctly, or did his brain make that memory up?

...He was trailing off. The stars. He was supposed to be thinking about the stars. He had to focus on this- the radiation was much clearer from here than on Earth and it could provide a valuable perspective on stars that were farther off. Farther than any human would ever realistically get. How could they ever know it wasn’t just an elaborate illusion? Space was incredulous, and there were a fair amount of conspiracy theories, were there not? Reality is entirely based on perception-- Schrodinger’s Cat, and all, or was Logan getting that wrong?

People like to imagine that they’re right in between the size of the universe and the size of an atom. They have an almost instinctual need to put ourselves in the center of things. But they aren’t. Honestly, they may be about the size of an atom in the universe’s consideration. It was ridiculo-

Okay. This- this wasn’t working. Logan needed a change of scenery. A break. Maybe he’d take a spacewalk.

Logan moved away from the computer he’d been working at, pulling himself through the halls and greeting his crewmates. Roman smiled at him, patting him on the shoulder as he passed, and Patton reminded him to get a bite to eat. He promised vaem that he would. He reached the airlock and donned one of the suits, fifteen minutes passing surprisingly fast. He wasn’t technically supposed to do a spacewalk unprompted, but a small breach of protocol wouldn’t hurt anyone, would it? It was really only a matter of personal safety. And no one cared enough about Logan for him to worry about that.

Logan opened the first door and shut it tight behind him, ensuring the safety of the rest of the crew, before proceeding to unlock the second door and float out into the vast, endless expanse of nothing.

It was fine at first- Logan just floated about a bit, even shutting his eyes and allowing himself to drift for a moment or two. Then the black in between the stars started getting to him. He felt his chest tighten, feeling behind him to make sure he was still attached to the station. He was. Right?

Logan turned around and almost didn’t register the station when he saw it. It didn’t really calm him down. He could fly towards it and it could vanish, like a mirage. He was alone- god, why did he come out here alone? Why did he come out here at all? He was on the verge of- well, something, for god’s sake!

He started trying to get back to the station, but his grip was failing on him and his hands slipped and he spiraled even further away from it, making desperate grabs for some sort of bar or grip or really anything that would stop him from flying away, but there was nothing. His vision started blurring and he realized a little bit too late that he was crying. God. He needed to cut it out or he’d drown from the water clumping around his face from the lack of gravity, which itself was such a strange concept, was it not?

Or, maybe he wouldn’t be able to navigate back, and- and he would end up stuck out here, until someone saw him, and… who knows how long that would take? Logan could run out of oxygen, or die of fright, or really anything horrible could happen. Oxygen- oh, god, he had his oxygen tank on, right? It was still there, as far as he could tell, but he wasn’t exactly inclined to trust his senses right now. And was it full? Maybe it wasn’t- had he checked? He did feel rather short of breath, after all.

Now that he thought about it, Logan was rather sure that the tank he had grabbed was near empty. If he recalled properly? He only had thirty minutes at most. He’d suffocate before he could even get back, he thought. Was it getting darker? Was he getting further away? He could’ve sworn there were more stars, and- and they were definitely brighter, right? Right?

Logan choked out a bitter laugh, rather convinced he was to die alone in space, of all places. Space. Was there a better place to die? Oh, probably… Though nothing came to mind. Maybe he’d be the first human to die in space, that’d be an achievement. Maybe someone would be proud of it for him. Maybe it’d be an embarrassment to the people who’d supported him. Maybe-

And everything went black.

“Logan? Logan! Shoot, you- you don’t think he’s hurt, do you? God, I don’t think mission control’s going to be happy with us if he is-”

“Virgil, calm down, he had a panic attack. He’s not hurt. Just rattled.” Janus’s voice came out clearly. He’d always been rather good at enunciation. Maybe he didn’t care- was that why he sounded so unconcerned?

“Well I hope he isn’t hurt, I need his help with an idea I had!”

“Remus, is this a realistic idea, or is it another laser eyes situation?”

“Jeez, Jan, you don’t need to be so meaaaan!” “Shut up,” Logan grumbled, covering his eyes with his hand and sitting up.

“Logan!!” Patton lunged at him, knocking him over and hugging him tightly.

“Patton- I can’t- breathe-” “Oh!! Whoops,” Patton giggled. “I’m glad you’re ok.” “You really had us scared there, star-spangled Bruce Banner,” Roman sighed.

“That was awful,” Virgil snickered.

“I’d like to see you come up with better, then!”

“Nah.” “What happened? Is everyone ok- what time is it?”

“You- you had a panic attack, we think. I only noticed you floating out there looking dead as a corpse when I was trying to gauge where the moon was. Roman did the rescuing- he went out there and plucked you out of the sky. You were outside for about 30 minutes. And it’s been an hour or so since we got you inside.” Janus looked at him pointedly. “And before you say you have work to get to, you have to take some time to recuperate. You wanna talk about what happened out there?”

Logan hesitated before answering. “Yes. That sounds… good. Thank you.”

[aire101]

Ferrum Chapter 1

His first moment of awareness struck him like a tidal wave of sensory input—the sound of thousands of voices chattering; an alien smell of dust and ozone, as if someone wasn’t quite sure what air should smell like; the feel of a breeze caught in a wind tunnel, and the warmth of hundreds of bodies standing together.  

And then Tony opened his eyes.

All around him were thousands of people in various fantasy garb, some with swords hanging from their waist, others eyeing daggers, rapiers and axes at stalls along the side streets. People shouted to one another, smiled and fist pumped in fits of elation.  The whole city plaza was filled with an energy of excitement and anticipation.  

Tony had no idea where the hell he was, or what was going on.

The last thing he remembered was… a meeting.  With that Argus Head Developer, Kayaba.  But the harder he tried to focus on the details, the more he felt them slip away…

“Holy Shit!  Your avatar looks just like Iron Man!” said a man who Tony was pretty sure had not been standing next to him a couple seconds ago.  “How did you manage that?  I know the character creation module is super detailed but that would have taken forever to work out.  Does that mean you were you in the beta test?”

“Uhh…” Tony said, scrambling to make sense of the jargon he had just heard.

Avatar… character creation… beta test…

“Anyway, excellent work on it!  I’m an Iron Man fan too, though I guess most people are these days.  See ya ‘round, mate!” And with that the man left, leaving Tony still scrambling to comprehend.

As he stood there, he listened in on nearby conversations for more context clues.

“Oh my god this is amazing!  The visuals are so gorgeous!”

“You can feel the breeze!  The amount of sensory input just to achieve that—”

“Do you smell that?  It smells like fresh baked bread.  I heard that the taste and smell sensory was the hardest part in the coding development.”

Visuals… sensory input… coding development…

“That’s it, Full Dive has won me over completely.  I’m going to sell all my other games starting tomorrow.”

Holy.  Fucking.  Shit.

The meeting with Argus and Kayaba.  It was over his consultation on their new Full Dive gaming technology and their AI systems.  But it was still years away from completion.  And besides, there was no way in hell he would ever consent to having his brain plugged in to someone else’s technology.  That was in fact exactly what he had told them in that meeting, and the primary hold up on developments on his end.  

But this was way past pre-alpha or even the alpha phase… if he understood this right, this was a stable release event.

Which meant he was currently plugged into the Sword Art Online servers, and had lost years off his memory.

His chest tightened as his breaths started to come in shallow gasps.  His vision began to gray around the edges.  

In spite of his situation, he had to give Argus an applause for their work— this panic attack felt exactly like one in the real world, only less physically painful.  

Just as he felt his knees hit the ground, someone came up beside him.

“Hey, I don’t know what’s wrong, but its going to be ok,” said a voice.  They sounded young.  “Take deep breaths with me.  After every number I count, we’ll breath together, ok?  So… one,” the kid took a deep breath and slowly released.  Tony tried to breath along with them, but didn’t quite manage it.  “That’s ok, we have plenty more you can do.  So here we go.  Two…”

Breath in, breath out…

“Three…”

This reminded him of that time he’d missed a week of meds during a mission.  Peter had been over to do some necessary maintenance after he had gotten back, and next thing he knew the kid was walking him through the storm.  Apparently his aunt had some problems after his uncle had died.

“Ok, you backslid a bit there on four, lets try again.  Five…”

Peter… the kid had been so excited about this game concept.

“That’s great, you’re doing great.  Six…”

Was he out there in the crowd somewhere?

“Seven…”

He needed to find out what was going on.  He needed to get in touch with game support.  He needed to log out.

“Eight…”

His breaths were coming deeper and the tightness was releasing.  Now with a plan of action, he felt marginally more in control.

“Nine…”

He could do this.  Memories or no memories, his mind was still his own.

“Ten… You look like you’re doing good there.  How are you feeling?”

Tony finally took a moment to look at the one who had helped him.  Given that what he was seeing was an avatar, there was no telling the real age or gender of the person.  But the character depicted was a young man with long blond hair, blue eyes and built like a wall.  He looked strangely like what Tony imagined a young Thor would have looked like.

“I’m alright.  Thanks for hanging around through that.  You didn’t have to, so I appreciate it,” said Tony, slowly getting to his feet.  He couldn’t help but notice (and appreciate) the lack of pain in his knees from either the fall or the standing.  

Yay for silver linings.

“It’s no problem.  I had… have… family that needed that kind of support,” the boy said, with a glance at his face before he looked away.

“I’m sorry, that sucks.  Not that you have them, but that they have it too.  It sucks,” said Tony, fumbling through his words awkwardly.

The guy smiled and nodded, “I get what you mean.  And yeah, it does.  You doing alright now though?  Do you need me to call a GM or something?”

“Maybe.  I’m probably just going to try and log out though.  You wouldn���t happen to know how to do that would you?” asked Tony.

“I think so.  I read about the mechanics of it at least,” said the boy. “What you need to do is open up your User Interface.  Just swipe down with your hand in front of yourself.”

The boy swiped his hand down and an interface screen popped up like a hologram.

Tony followed his example, bringing up his own interface.

“Thanks kid… Have a name I can call you?”

“I’m going by Tor in the game.”

Tony looked over his interface with a raised eyebrow, “A Thor fan I take it.”

“Like you’re in any position to criticize,” the kid grumbled, with a look up and down.  “Even your robes are his colors.  How did you get robes, anyway?  The default is trousers, tunic and vest.  I haven’t seen anyone run around in a set of robes.  Was it a beta thing?”

Tony looked down at himself.  Sure enough, he was in a set of red robes with gold trim.  That also made him realize… this body was only an avatar, but apparently it looked like himself.

Whatever, him making his avatar look exactly like himself sounded pretty on brand, honestly.

“Would you believe me if I said I honestly have no idea,” said Tony, scrolling through his interface.

“I mean, it’d be weird but considering how confused you look I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt,” Tor said with a shrug.

Meanwhile Tony found two separate settings menus.  One opened up an entire other menu system, and the other at the bottom of the main menu opened a box with three buttons— Options, Help, and a grayed out logout symbol.

“Huh, that’s weird,” mumbled Tor, looking through his own settings menu.  “Talk about a terrible bug to have on opening day.  You’d think that would be the one thing they had working before opening to the public.  As far as I know there weren’t any logout problems during the beta.”

“I guess we’re calling a GM then,” said Tony.

Peter pressed the Help button, prompting a ‘Calling GM’ box to pop up with a picture of an old man in red and gold robes.

“Hey, those robes look like—” Tor was saying.

“Oh shit,” said Tony, wide eyed.  A communication bubble had come up on his menu as soon as Tor had pressed his button, it read ‘Incoming GM Help call from Tor (Player 8476).’

“Uhhh…” said Tor, staring at the window with wide eyes as well.  “Well then, that’s a problem.”

Tony continued to stare at the screen dumbfounded, mouth open and closing like a fish.

As he did, another call request window opened up.  Then another.  Then another…

Tony’s confusion quickly morphed into horror.  

“Dude, how in the world did you accidentally end up with a GM account?” asked Tor.

“I don’t know, but I can’t help these people.  How do I shut it off?!”

“See if there’s a ghost mode or something,” said Tor.

Quickly Tony tapped into the other options menu he had only briefly glanced at before.  Sure enough, the menu was titled ‘Game Master Settings.’

“This is ridiculous,” muttered Tony as he scrolled and tapped through various options.

“About as ridiculous as your facial hair,” said Tor, with a grin.

“Excuse you, everything about my face is a work of art,” said Tony.

“Abstract art, maybe.”

“You know what, kid—”

“Could you maybe not call me that?  Please?” Tor asked, his face suddenly tight.

“Uh, sure… sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry.  It just makes me a bit uncomfortable,” said Tor, looking like he regretted even saying anything.

“No problem.”

Finally, Tony found the GM communication settings.  Currently the mode was set to ‘Available,’ but after clicking on it he found an ‘Unavailable’ setting, with the option to send calls to a voice mail for later listening.

Quickly he switched the modes, and the flurry of call boxes ceased.

“Well, that’s one problem down,” said Tony, scrolling through the rest of the GM settings.  While he heartily approved of the colors, the robes made him stand out like a sore thumb amongst the masses of beige and brown.

But if he really was a GM, he should be able to generate something different…

With a flash of blue static light, Tony generated a red tunic under an average looking breast plate, paired with the usual leather trousers.  

“You just had to make the tunic red, huh?” said Tor with a thin laugh.

“Eh, it’s my thing,” Tony said with a shrug.  

Tor pursed his lips but didn’t comment further.

“Anyway, thanks for your help.  I’m sure whatever bug this is will be figured out pretty quick.  I don’t want to hog your game time though,” said Tony, trying to disengage as kindly as possible and without hinting at just how concerning the current situation really was.  Tor had been helpful, but the person on the other side of that avatar could be fourteen or forty.  Either way, they didn’t need to be saddled with Tony’s issues.

“I don’t mind.  I don’t usually play MMO’s anyway, so I’m not really sure what to do now,” said Tor.  “I have a few hours before I’m supposed to trade off with my friend, but I had only really planned to hang around for a couple of them to check things out.  With the logout bugged though, I might be here for a while.”

“I’ve never played RPG’s at all, so I’m probably even more clueless than you are,” said Tony.  “That being said, the first thing you do is probably to stock up on equipment and supplies.  Do you have any currency right off the bat?”

“We start with 50 Cor, but I’m not really sure what that translates to within the economy.”

“I would say as a GM I could generate more, but if I’m remembering correctly the system was specifically designed to control inflation and it may not like that,” said Tony, flicking through his interface.

“I mean, I guess that would be one way to get someone’s attention,” shrugged Tor.

“Considering I apparently have my brain plugged into someone else’s tech, I would really rather avoid that particular flavor of attention,” said Tony.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way… They wouldn’t do something too awful to a player though would they?  That wouldn’t really be good press for them.  I would think that the worst they would do is boot you out of the game,” said Tor, looking concerned.

“I wish I had the kind of faith in people you do.  As it is, I’d rather not chance it.  That being said, it looks like one of the things I can freely generate are base level swords and armor.  Its not much, but it’ll get you started.”

“Since we’re both stuck here, how about we party up for a while?  Not much else to do to spend the time.  My friend downloaded a text file with some starter tips from the Beta players, so we could go give it a shot,” said Tor.

Tony let out a breath, running his hand through his hair.  He really should be trying to figure out a solution to his predicament, but if the GM call failure was any indicator, the situation may be a lot worse than he wanted this kid to realize.  And at this point he was pretty sure the person on the other side of Tor’s avatar was in fact a kid, perhaps a relatively mature teenager, but not an adult.

And apparently they were attaching themselves to Tony, for whatever reason.  And Tony couldn’t bring himself to kick an obviously anxious kid to the curb.

“Sure, that sounds like a good plan. Send me a copy of the text file and we’ll discuss it while we head out of town.”

. . .

“Ferrum Vir… did you seriously name yourself ‘Iron Man’ in Latin?”

“Pot meet kettle there, Tor.”

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form: I’m not sure if I should ask this question here, but is there any possible way that a planet could be completely or mostly in darkness, but still warm enough to support life? I don’t know much about all this so I’m stuck. I’m trying to write a story about a highly advanced, ancient (now extinct/gone) civilization that evolved on a dark planet where almost the entirety of the flora and fauna are bio-luminescent, or evolutionarily adapted for a dark environment. The only way I could maybe rationalize it would be if the core of the planet is abnormally warm or large so the entire greenhouse effect keeps the entire planet warm from the inside out? I’m not sure if a tidally locked planet would work here? I found the planet WASP-104b, but something like that doesn’t seem habitable either? If there’s a way to tie in the involvement of a black hole some way that’s even better, but I can’t really make sense of it all together.

Tex: This blog is as good a place as any to ask such a question, and luckily we did have a similar question that was answered here. As that particular ask discussed, the temperature range of 273–373 K is what most life is found at, but is not what most of the universe lies in, and the amount of potential covalently- and non-covalently-bonded molecules shoots up exponentially. So “warm” is an entirely relative concept and depends on what type of environment you’re wanting to build.

In that respect, I’m not certain what the function of bioluminescence would be here. The linked wiki seems to indicate that this is an energy-consumptive adaptation, and sometimes relies upon oxygen - something of which may be resource expensive and better utilized for other cell functions. The wiki also gives this:

The uses of bioluminescence by animals include counter-illumination camouflage, mimicry of other animals, for example to lure prey, and signalling to other individuals of the same species, such as to attract mates.

So possibly there’s some reason for any given organism in your world to interact with either its environment or other organisms in its niche environment in such a manner.

Dark is, also, a relative notion - the physiology of colour perception dictates that an organism may adapt to different wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum as is beneficial to its survival and the continuation of its species. What is “light” on your planet may be “dark” to an outside, observing species.

WASP-104b, because of all this, is a good choice but definitely not your only option. I’m not sure what your priorities are for this world, because it would change the parameters of IRL planets you could base your fictional planet on. You’ve given us an interesting but complex situation, and while we’re certainly happy to help you, we would be able to go into greater detail if you come back with some priorities in parameters along with your goals.

Synth: I’m going to focus only on the “making a dark planet warm” part. Consider tidal heating and radiogenic heating.

Have you ever bent a small piece of metal, such as a paperclip, back and forth until it (almost) broke? Notice how it warmed up where it was being bent? Tidal heating is a similar idea, just on a much more vast scale. It occurs when an astronomical body is subject to large variations in gravity over the course of its orbit. The constant deformation does the same thing to the planet or moon as being flexed back and forth does to the paperclip: the internal friction generated by all this motion makes it heat up. This is why Jupiter’s moon Io has active volcanoes, and Saturn’s moon Enceladus constantly barfs out plumes of water vapour and probably has a subsurface ocean at least at its southern pole, if not globally, despite also being a literal frozen wasteland. Plonking your planet in the vicinity of a black hole is definitely one way to induce tidal heating by way of extreme gravitic fluctuations.

Radiogenic heating is heat generated from radioactivity. Atoms undergoing radioactive decay give off heat energy. Radioactive isotopes in the crust or core or a planet or moon will heat up said planet or moon. Earth gets a good chunk of its internal heat from radiogenic sources.

[kindabraveandlittlestupid]

A love/hate review of the Star Wars The Last Jedi and also the disappointment in corporate Disney trimming the extended universe away from the Star Wars. Just to be clear, I don’t stand with those toxic males of the web who attacked Daisy Ridley, Kelly Marie Tran and the rest of the cast/crew. The movie is a work of fiction and I above all other emotions value decency as the foundation of my views and beliefs (or at least I try to make that my foundation). I am gonna share my opinions/views as always, I am just a guy on the web with little power what Hollywood makes. If you agree with me, that's great! And if you don't, that's fine too.

Goodbye J. J. (Hate) My first complaint is the change of direction from the first movie. J.J. Abrams had managed to establish some worthwhile intrigue with the characters/plot like Rey's background, the hunt for Luke, and Finn's moral crisis. Seemingly the new director/writer decided to take a step away from these established storylines/characters to explore his own take on these things. Luke is no longer interested in the good fight and embraces apathy, Rey comes from nowhere/no one, and Finns short coma results in him having the same cowardly acts from the first movie instead of giving him personal growth after his heroics at Starkiller Base. It's like whiplash where you have had expectations of these story/plot threads being followed only to have them be ignored or to become completely unremarkable in the next film.

Rose & Paige Tico (Love) I admit there is a lot of things about this movie that rubbed me the wrong way but the addition of Rose was not one of them. The Star Wars has always suffered from a lack of female characters in the movies and they seem to be making some strides to balance out the gender scales. She provided a new character to focus on away from the Roguish Pilot and the Ex-Stormtrooper giving us the optimistic/loveable Mechanic that we could invest out feelings in (which reminded me of another sci-fi female mechanic who I wish I saw more on screen).

What upset me about Rose was the fact I wanted to know MORE about her backstory and her relationship with her sister, Paige. The geek in me would love to have some webisodes dedicated to their relationship (as well as other characters) and how they got into the rebellion in the first place but alas the story relegated her to a secondary plot line on a gambling planet that showed off rich people being assholes which was ultimately pointless to the storyline and failed to further the plot.

I look forward to seeing how they develop her in the next movie, considering so few people are left in the Rebellion... I mean Resistance. On a parting thought, I am still not sure about the Fin/Rose kiss they tried to apply to the movie... felt a little forced if you ask me.

Marvel Humor (Hate) There is a noticeable change to the formula of the Star Wars movies and we know this new formula very well. Disney has been enjoying the tidal wave of cash coming in from the MCU with movies like the Avengers, Ironman, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy and so on which brings in billions (with a B) into the Magical Kingdom. Naturally, they think they struck gold (which they have) but now they are taking that Marvel Universe humor and projecting it into other franchises they own to try and milk money out of them.

This was on full display in Star Wars with the ‘prank call’ Poe used while talking to Hux. This universe enjoyed some banter in its previous movies but this very scene seemed foreign in the Star Wars Universe. As if Hux wouldn't have a laser cannon blow Poe right up. The movie continued to layer more and more MCU humor into the movie with Chewie eating the Porg in front of other horrified Porgs, Luke throwing a lightsaber nonchalantly over his shoulder, and tickling Rey with a piece of grass.

Granted there wasn't AS MUCH humor as you might see in Guardians or Ironman but they are starting to inject it into the films and in my opinion, it undermines the quality of the movie and the universe quite a bit by trying to make it something its not. This is why I enjoyed the grittier Rogue One so much that applied some humor with the android K-2SO but didn't allow shtick with other characters (which was good).

The point is their Gold Equation of humor connecting to the audience shouldn't be transplanted so easily from one franchise to the next, it robs the authenticity of Star Wars and what we know and love.

Vice Admiral Holdo (Love/Hate) Such a disappointing end to what could have been a good transfer of authority to a new female lead. I know we all mourn the death of Carrie Fisher and I appreciate the Luke and Lei scene at the end but the introduction of Holdo only to have her kamikaze the cruiser left me wondering why even make her a part of the movie? I mean really... her fight with Poe and his tactics could have carried into the next film, having her fill in as the new leader of the rebellion would have created a new strong female character and the very ‘heroic’ death she was given could have been done by Leia or Admiral Fucking Ackbar which would have been 10 times better then a random character added only to be killed off.

I blame this (like most things) on Director Rian Johnson who thought he was being clever but making the audience think "Oh she must be taking over for Leia!" only to kill her off as a sort of low-level plot twist. Frankly, it came off as less of a twist and instead of a pointless removal for an otherwise interesting character who could have moved onto the next movie.

Rey and Kylo Tag Team (Love) This might be hands down one of the best lightsaber fight scenes in the Star Wars Universe. If I am going to give the director any credit, it will be for giving us this gem of a scene where Kylo turns on his Master Snoke. This is the sort of action I crave to see in the Star Wars movies and making me wish (badly) that there was a Knight of the Old Republic film in the making. Hell, I just watched it again on Youtube just to remind myself how awesome it was.

Rey and Kylo Shipping (Hate) On the other hand with the whole force connection thing between Kylo and Rey, the idea of them being attracted to each other felt like a betrayal to well... Rey’s logic and mortality. Let us assume she has some attraction to Kylo would she have forgotten everything he did in the previous movie? Destruction of two villages on Jaku, slashing her new best friend in the back (Finn), stabbing her new father figure (Han) thru the chest, killing Lukes students, attempting to torture her for information and lastly being part of the First Order after shooting off Starkiller Base that destroyed 4 inhabited planets with billions (with a B) of lives on said planets? I know Rey might have temptations to the dark side but for fuck sake is she turned on by a literal genocidal maniac?

Rian Johnson & Disney Scaling Back the SWU (Hate) I realized this review is leaning more towards the Dark Side then the Light but I agree with some of the fanboys sentiment on the destruction of the Star Wars Universe. I am not sure if Rian is to blame 100%, I know Disney decided to cut all books, comics, and video games as NOT canon in the SWU but he seemed to have his hand in it with each rebel ship blown to pieces while escaping the Imperial... I mean First Order fleet.

This was hard for me to some degree, I played games like Knight of the Old Republic, The Force Unleashed, Jedi Academy, Shadows of the Empire, Republic Commando and read dozens of comics and books over the years. An yet because the franchise switched hands from Lucas to Disney and Disney had no hand in building all the extended universe they simply cut it away and said: “Nope! None of that counts”. I can understand why some people might get upset having invested time into exploring the Star Wars Universe only to have to evaporate before them like Thanos’s Infinity snap.

Rian drove this point home in the movie burning the Jedi texts (which contents weren't really important but symbolic of the Jedi Philosophy no longer being part of Star Wars), decimating the Rebels (Resistance) to the point the remainder all fit onto the Millennium Falcon, and even killed off or sent away new additions that could have helped expand the new trilogy into something great. Porg Plushies (Hate) *Sigh* I don’t like adding another hate to the list but few things in this movie made me personally feel good about it. We killed off interesting characters (Phasma and Holdo), had pointless side plots on Canto Bight (the Gambling Planet) and the scaling back of a great extended universe. An then we had the addition of Porgs...

I don’t dislike the concept of the Porgs, in fact, these puffin/otter hybrids are kinda cute. I dislike them as they seemed to have the pretty clear purpose of moving merchandise. Now, this isn't new for Star Wars if you know cinema you know that Lucas was highly protective of his own toy sales which is how Spaceballs was able to parody Star Wars so much as long as they didn't sell their own toys. They use the word Toyetic for this very thing of making a character or thing so they can move product off the shelves. Its why the Batmobile had so many changes with each passing movie in the 90′s.

The Porgs are no different, they maxed out the BB8 toy sales from the last movie and introduced an animal to sell plushies, slippers, bobbleheads and backpacks for kids and geeky adults. I am honestly not a fan of this sort of capitalism being pushed off thru movies but there it is and I am sure when episode 9 comes out there will be something new for them to sell us.

DJ (Love) Despite there being literally no good reason for DJ (Benicio del Toro) being in this movie with the pointless side quest on Canto Bight. This character might have some potential for future movies. We certainly explored the good smuggler scoundrel with Han Solo and Lando Calrissian but never explored the bad smuggler element quite yet (save some in the Solo movie).

I particularly liked the whole part with him explaining the manufacturing of weapons for both the First Order and the Resistance. It was perhaps one of the most insightful moments in the movie that could have easily reflected back on our own failings in regards to war. Just like how Canto Bight reminds us that the scum of the Galaxy don't just reside at the bottom but also the top. I hope to see him again but I am not sure how they will explore him in the next plot.

Super Leia (Hate) Lord knows when Leia became adept in the force that she could survive in outer space let alone fly around like Superman! This scene seemed crafted for the trailers making everyone believe this would be the way to double down on the ‘Evil Kylo’ angle and writing Carrie Fisher out of the Star Wars Universe but instead she survives as another pointless twist just like Holdo being the one to ram the ship into The Supremecy or DJ betraying Finn and Rose for money.

Just reminder if you're in space; your air escapes your body (including your butt), the saliva in your mouth begins to boil, air is cut off to your brain, and all the blood vessels on the surface of your body would break. I am glad she didn't die and had another scene with Luke but due to poor writing and trailer bait, they decided to keep this horrible scene in the movie.

Shallowing (Hate) Beyond the new additions (Holdo, DJ, Rose), the reoccurring characters become shallow in their roles. As I said, Luke now doesn't give a shit despite having 30+ years to mature, Hux is reduced to a punching bag for Kylo, Kylo is still emo as ever, Rey is becoming a Mary Sue (or perhaps not with her floundering romance with a mass murder), Finn had the same "coward, not coward" story arc from the first film, Phasma disappointingly is defeated by FN 2178 a second time, Poe is now a one dimensional reckless flyboy, and Leia is secretly Kryptonian. Point is there is no meaningful personal conflict with the characters, not enough time spent with the new ones, and a few of their portrayal betray canon for either a laugh or just because they simply didn't care.

Conclusion The point is, I liked the Kylo/Rey lightsaber battle against the Bodyguards, I enjoyed the battles in space, the silent ramming of the Raddus at light speed into The Supremacy and I still loved the new character (Rose). Most of the problems in this film start not from the characters but from Disney scaling back the universe and the new Director who changed the narrative. It bothers me just a little that everyone is celebrating the film despite these major flaws and aren't more pissed off those decades of content has just been expelled from the Star Wars Universe in exchange for the new “Disney Star Wars Universe" we will be forced to live with. About the only thing that is safe is Chewie and thats because the Wookie doesnt age like actors do. Thanks for the read.

Regards Michael California

[gem-of-sephira]

HDS Ep 11 Preview

The Jaeger kicked himself off the ground and ran straight towards him, closing the seven meter gap within seconds. The man was simply too fast to accurately prepare for an attack, so Tsukamoto Shizuki lowered his stance and fixed his eyes on his chest area.

His enemy wore a metal mask that protected his face. Striking him there wouldn't do much and if anything, he may hurt his fist in the process.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

Shizuki swung his fist in full force at a speed that can't possibly be avoided, however...

The fist swings through nothing but the air in front of him and a powerful impact slams into his body like a tidal wave.

"Guh..?!"

The Jaeger was nowhere to be seen. The enemy that had charged directly at him had vanished from Shizuki's line of sight in an instant. He soon discovered that he was crouched down at his left side and slammed his palm into his stomach. Following that, the masked man sent a powerful kick with his lightning fast legs to send his body flying into the air.

"Bggh?!"

The strike was so powerful, Tsukamoto almost lost consciousness when he flew up, only coming back to reality when his back landed on the stone cold floor of the dark room they were in.

"Shizu-kun..!"

"Ah...Ah..."

He could hear someone call out to  him, but he was still somewhat dazed from that hit to direct his attention to. He had no idea how many meters he was kicked up. The impact was so powerful, it could have torn off his head if it had struck him there.

But if he had to talk about impacts, the second blow to his stomach was enough to completely destroy his organs.

"A....Are you serious? Chinese martial arts?"

And it seemed as though he was quite good at it. If he had to be called the most dangerous man alive, he was certainly deserving of that title if he was capable of this much.

"How astute you are. But I am afraid this is nothing more than a mimicry of taolu without much behind it. I really only use it when I've either exhausted all of my arsenal, or if my enemy is someone not worth using a weapon against. Thankfully, this seems to be good enough against an amateur like you."

The Jaeger explained as though he were giving a lecture on a subject he had little interest in.

"...!"

He proceeded to continue his assault. Using all the power he had in his body, Tsukamoto forced his joints to bend and stood up.

"I think I will enjoy this. I will teach you a lesson in which cowardice always has a price. You think you can just abandon your people without paying for the consequences? Allow me to correct that notion."

"......!"

Despite the man's thorny words, Shizuki continued to face his enemy head on. Despite the man's tremendous skill and strength, he refused to turn away.

("There's only one thing I have to do. I have to be faster than before. I have to punch faster even if he dodges it. Reject his words, and strike with all the power you can muster...!")

The one he had to defeat was right in front of him. He did not care about some decades old war between two factions and divided world he came from. For Tsukamoto Shizuki, tearing down the wall called the Jaeger was his only path to ensuring that his every day life with the others can continue.

The Jaeger rushes forward and slams his palm against him.

These attacks were not meant to destroy his outer body. It was instead designed to damage the inside of his body rather than the outside, so the attacks pierces straight through him without mercy.

"Tch...!!"

Shizuki rushed forward again throwing punches as fast as his human body would allow him, but every time, they were parried, blocked, deflected and dodged, and in response, he would receive another blow to his body that sends him sliding back again.

Every time he was hit, his vision would flicker for just a second. His body could heal itself, so his power would take care of the damage he received from his enemy's blows.

A fist lunges straight for his head at lightning speed. Thankfully, Tsukamoto was quick enough to raise his right arm and block the coming attack, though he felt a sharp pain in his wrist when  it received the blow instead.

But he could not allow any attack to strike his head. if he was hit there, it was all over. With this in mine, Shizuki had to prioritize protecting his head more than delivering a a clean strike on him.

"Damn..!"

A powerful kick strikes his abdomen, sending him up in the air and back onto the ground. He stood up once more, letting the Gem of Sephira repair the damage to his body.

A fist of flesh strikes his side, sending an intense wave of pain to his brain.

A fist of metal strikes his other side, causing more pain to be felt.

Tsukamoto did his best to block these attacks, but his strength was too much. each fist would some how make it past some of his defenses through a blind spot and mercilessly slam into his person.

"K...Kuh..?!"

More fists hit his body. His vision starts to turn white. He was unsure how long he could keep this up. 

If he had to compare all the times he had been punched, the beating he received from those delinquents that night felt tame compared to this. The Jaeger's fists felt more like someone repeatedly hitting his body with a sledge hammer.

As his body is repeatedly destroyed, the energy of the Gem rewrites the damage in order to heal it and keep it functioning. In exchange, his mind continues to be torn away.

("I... can't fall here. There's someone here I have to save, and there's still a lot we haven't done yet!")

He tried to focus on that fact as his mind was in chaos from the blows he received.

The Jaeger continued his assault with an attack to his face, however, Shizuki was quick enough and managed to dodge that fatal attack and swung his right fist in retaliation.

The attack was repelled, just like all the others, and a powerful jolt runs through his left rib, sending another painful sensation to wash over him.

("I can still move... as long as I can move my body, I can still keep u─")

The fist of the bionic arm collided with his abdomen. His vision had turned completely white after that last hit.

"A...Ah."

That strike hurt him a bit more than the others did. His body should have had its pain receptors numbed out at this point, but it was about to cry out from it.

As though he were a rag-doll, Tsukamoto's body flung back, hitting the ground as he rolled about.

"Ah...gah."

Shizuki could not move. He tried his best to pour strength into his body, but the best he could move was a finger.

It was over.

In the end, his body would repair itself, but he himself would burn out, unable to bear the pain. But he could not fall asleep just yet.

If he clocked out here, it would not end well....

And what the Jaeger said next was enough to reinforce that.

"So this is all you have, is it? Then I will proceed to eliminate the unnecessary elements here after claiming my prize. Once I am finished with you, this woman here will perish."

"...?!"

Compa, who was sitting on the ground just twelve meters away, gave a slight jump when she heard those words. The enemy had now turned his red eyes back over to her before focusing on the youth before him.

"........."

Time seemed to stop for Shizuki.

He couldn't find the words to describe it, but something inside him was shaken. The foundation of his inner world was rocked when he had heard those words.

She was going to die.

If he fell here, she would die and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He didn't want to lose her. Preventing that awful ending from occurring was the entire basis for his coming there to face that man. And now he was going to fail.

("Damn it...!")

The enemy drew closer in his slow yet strong footsteps.

He thought back to the first time he met her. Back then, he was battered and bruised from a group of guys from his former life, and had fallen from a light in the sky into their world. She could have ignored it and continue on about her life, but she didn't.  she instead recovered him from the landing site, brought him to her home and cared for him until he woke up, despite being a complete stranger.

Since then, he was absolutely sure that he could call her his friend. He had known her for at best two weeks, but to him that connection felt as though it was formed years ago.

And now that connection was in danger of being destroyed.

Originally, he found the idea of people saying they could not live without someone else, was only exaggeration, but now he was starting to understand what it was like. Right now, he couldn't even bear the thought of her disappearing from his life.

("Get up...")

He could not let that happen.

("Get up!!!!")

It was simply unacceptable to him.

He did not know what this man's personal goal in life was, but if it involved killing people left and right and causing wanton destruction everywhere, then it wasn't a real goal he could support.

But he has one.

Tsukamoto Shizuki has a goal that was worth beating that monster over, a reason why he had to assure his victory.

How much did he make that person worry?

How much did he make that person cry when he did something stupid or got hurt?

He could not find the answer to that, and to be honest, he did not want to. All that mattered to him was making things right. Right now, beating this man, bowing his head and apology to that person, and returning home with her was his only purpose in life.

And so...

"Ah.... Ahhhhhh!"

Power returned to his limbs. Grasping onto the very Concept of his wish, Tsukamoto Shizuki rose to his feet once more and bellowed out with every fiber of his soul.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

And with his right fist clenched, he drove it straight into the man's abdomen with the force of a meteor.

"Guh...nu?!"

"AH, AHHHHH!!!!"

With everything he had, he began to punch his foe in the face despite it being protected by a mask.

"Tch... so you still have enough in you!"

"YOU GODDAMN MONSTERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

One strike.

Two strikes.

Three strikes.

Four strikes.

Five strikes.

Six strikes.

Seven strikes!

A relentless assault struck the Jaeger with all his power put into them.

He could do it.

He could win.

If he could get a little bit more in to knock him out, the battle will end, and he and Compa can return to their lives.

But that illusion was quickly shattered.

"Nhgh...ahh!!"

With a blow to his stomach he was blown away once again. The jaeger had deflected Shizuki's attack and retaliated with a hard shot.

"Ah...gah...guh!"

("Shit! I know! I know he wouldn't let me punch him that easily! No matter how you look at it, he's many times stronger than me, so he can just fend off my attacks and come finish me off like it's no problem at all...!")

He tried to take in as much oxygen as he could, since it was getting difficult for him to breath from all those hits.

[containerhomeideas]

Laminate Flooring History and Timeline in the US Market

Laminate Flooring has made the most significant change to the flooring industry in the last 25 years and continues to make tremendous changes and improvements over is hard surface counter parts.

In Europe they have been enjoying its features and benefits for several decades but not as laminate flooring as we know today. Decorative laminate was really the origins and the beginning of what now is known as laminate flooring. The decorative laminate was widely used in kitchen counter tops and furniture. As the technology evolved in the counter top laminate industry it clearly became apparent that with the endless number of decors that could be created, could also be created and used on the floor.

The idea of laminate flooring was born. There have been many technical challenges the first of which was how can you take a simple counter top laminate and create a flooring product, the flooring product will take far more abuse by being walked on and a wear layer was created.

There has really been no stopping the technical tidal wave of improvements and ideas that followed. Led mainly by the European countries laminate flooring gained more market share year after year, no market experienced such rapid growth as North America. Massive marketing campaigns led by such brands as Pergo who are now synonymous with laminate flooring introduced laminate flooring to the American Public in the early 1990s.

The actual history of laminate flooring is quite short in North America, because Pergo had achieved household recognition with the new flooring products Laminate flooring in North America was widely referred to as “Pergo” floors again the synonymous status and the ‘holy grail’ of all brands.

In 2000 laminate flooring was a glue product; even so the market share within the flooring industry in North America continued to grow at a double digit pace. Many of the other US traditional floor covering manufacturers of carpet and vinyl added laminate flooring to their portfolio of products.

Then so was born the private label laminate. Laminate flooring was easy to private label you simply changed the insert or the packaging and then that created another brand or line of flooring. This was especially useful for the hardwood and carpet manufacturer’s to get on board with this new product. The traditional manufacturers of carpet and hardwood have huge distribution networks and with their own branded line of flooring were able to place thousands of new flooring displays in a matter of months and new brands started appearing everywhere. This continued to drive the growth in the USA.

As traditional US manufacturers of carpet and vinyl presented themselves as laminate flooring manufacturers, advertised the products, placed laminate flooring displays and drove sales.

Time Line in the US Market The next stages of growth were equally fast and I will break them down chronologically:

2000 was particularly painful for the Carpet Manufactures in Dalton, Georgia they were completely blindsided by the aggressive marketing of laminate flooring against their carpet and that is where the laminate took most of their market share from touting the Laminate Flooring product as hypo allergenic and showing close ups of carpet mites and bugs did nothing to help the domestic carpet manufacturers.

All hard surface flooring companies benefited. It was an exciting year for laminate flooring salesmen, even with terrible installation demonstrations and glue together flooring.

2001 Every year that preceded 2000 involved new, exciting and innovative changes to the laminate flooring market. The first change really started in 2001 glue free laminate. This was first introduced with metal clips on the back and during sales presentations as you tried to put it together you almost needed a sledge hammer, it was more difficult than the glue together method. Not very popular but the concept was created all we needed was the design and solution.

2002 A year later the technology of glue-less laminate flooring arrived, introductions of glue-less laminates began again revolutionizing the floor covering industry. Unilin Industries of Belgium introduced Quick-Step into the US market. Quick-Step utilizes the patented Uniclic joint system. Several other manufacturers bought licenses to use the Uniclic joint technology thereby acknowledging Uniclic as the industry standard for Glue-less technology.

Still 95% of the USA market was using glue together laminate, it took yet more aggressive marketing and this time mainly led by the home centers with names like ‘Easy-Lock’, ‘Quick-Lock’, ‘Speedy-Lock’, etc, to drive the consumer towards the exceptionally friendly D.I.Y. glue-less laminate flooring ranges.

It was predicted in 2002 that buy 2004 100% of the laminate flooring industry will be glue-less.

2003 This again proved to be a dynamic year within the laminate flooring industry, sales of the product per square foot continued to climb, but lawsuits with regards to patents over the locking system and who created and who could use it surfaced and would continue on for many years. Aside from the lawsuits the technology now happy with the glue-less free install and now a particularly D.I.Y. friendly product focused on creating the product to be as realistic as hardwood as possible.

2004 This saw some dramatic changes in the quality of the laminate product itself. The standard glue-free laminate flooring product was 7″ wide by 54″ long and it had a light ‘ticking’ effect, the panels went together with glue-less free locking system. Mostly all of the products were imports and mainly from Europe.

Towards the end of 2004 laminate flooring factories (though not fully integrated and small in comparison to the European counterparts) started appearing across the USA. The larger US manufacturers of carpets invested in laminate flooring facilities though they were not fully integrated (we can explore the importance of vertical integration later). But this showed the US retailer and distributor that the product was here to and it was time to start backing a horse.

This led to more innovation from overseas, the first was a wood grain texture – the laminate itself had heavier wood texture but it was random and not too realistic in effect a modest upgrade, at first all manufacturers tried to sell this improvement for $0.20SF to distribution but the reality was their was no manufacturer cost increase to produce this texture – it was just a different pressure plate.

2005 The lawsuits over the locking system continued, incidentally the locking system lawsuit is not about the easy angle long joint of the laminate flooring, all the law suits focus on the end locking joint.

The chase to create an exact wood replicate of hardwood flooring continued and this led to a technology called ‘Register and Emboss’ or ‘Embossed and Registered’. The idea of this was for the pattern of the oak for example to be perfectly indented into the wood panel, so the grain of the Oak or Cherry was realistic to the touch.

All the manufacturers soon chased this technology, it required a relatively simple process, create the correct paper (décor pattern) and then have a press plate and the end of the manufacturing process to match that paper décor and then you have the grain embossed.

Legal arguments over who came up with that technology all ensued.

2006 The year of branding, distributors with ‘own brand’ tried to position themselves as manufacturers – one of the biggest being a vinyl manufacturer tried to position themselves as market leaders. Acquisitions also followed, Mohawk Industries bought Unilin ‘Quick-Step’ in 2006. This also became the year of the home center business, where having your labeled product in one of the three main US home centers was the ultimate goal.

One of the major carpet manufacturers and distributors with there factory in Dalton gained the business with Home Depot. Pergo was well positioned with a vinyl manufacturer you had private labeled their laminate line into Lowes Home Improvement Stores. Being a vinyl manufacturer and not a laminate manufacturer create a major problem and a crucial weakness as Lowes Home Improvement shifted their purchasing policy to ‘only’ buy factory direct.

A major Swiss group and manufacturer of laminate flooring also with the world’s largest factory in Heiligengrabe, Germany had been quietly building a factory in Barnwell, SC and at the right time were able to replace the vinyl manufacturer as supplier to Lowes Home Improvement.

2007 This really saw the legal issue on the locking system end as two legal systems emerged, one under Valinge Innovation and Uniclic Licensees each with approximately 100 partners paying royalties of roughly $0.04SF to $0.07SF. Licensees were granted all over the world and this led way to the re-emergence of Chinese laminate flooring.

In the mid 1990 China was one of the fastest growing laminate flooring markets in the world and most of this was supplied by shipping in container from Europe, there were huge distributors in China 100 containers a month in size – or 2,400 pallets a month. It did not take long for Chinese ingenuity to copy the process and buy 2001, China had a slew of factories (with large Government subsidies), some of this product came back as imports in to the USA, but the legal issues with locking systems and potential freezes of stock, cease and desist letter flying about scared off most distributors.

2008 China was back, this time the large factories had license agreements and were legal, the machines that made the laminate flooring were from Europe and the product quality was excellent.

There market tactics were equally excellent, instead off going after the low end dog fighting market of the 7mm and 8mm, they created a new look. A narrow plank and beveled the edges, this new narrow plank was approximately 5″ wide compared to the standard 8″ from Europe, the 5″ wide was a one plank look and combined with the bevel, register and embossing they had created the ultimate flooring.

This was it, everything over the last 25 years culminated to this point a flooring that had a narrow board look 5 inches wide, beveled or micro beveled on all four side, realistic textured surface and a lifetime warranty.

The European’s adjusted, but they were for once on the back foot, China instead of going after the low end market aimed high with a high quality, the highest quality laminate you could buy and they could make it and make it affordable to the US market.

2009 It is not clear where we can go from here, but the same was probably said in 2005, laminate flooring is now so good in appearance that you cannot tell it apart from real hardwood, the only clue is the price laminate flooring is far less expensive than real wood with more color choices. 2009 will be a difficult economic year and so will 2010. Consumers will focus on quality and price. Brand will become less important as the consumer becomes more educated. The huge price fluctuations four sided beveled and narrow plank from one distributor priced at $5SF and from another $0.89SF and yet absolutely no technical difference in the product. Consumer will research and the gap will close.

Laminate flooring in the US market is a remarkable story of growth and ingenuity. I do not think that a couple of tough economic years will have much impact on its future survival. It is an excellent product and with some effort and research by the consumer you can get incredible value.

Source by James Adverto Laminate Flooring History and Timeline in the US Market

[avaliveradio]

March New Music Monday Dance Pop | Electronic Mix | Hip Hop | Americana Rock

TODAY'S LIST OF WHAT'S FRESH COMING INTO A.V.A LIVE RADIO. THIS IS A MIX OF INDIE POP, HIP HOP AND ROCK SONGWRITERS THAT WILL INSPIRE YOU AND SEND YOU SEARCHING THE ARTISTS PAGES FOR MORE. EPISODE HOSTED BY JACQUELINE JAX.

Listen to the show : starts Monday at 4 pm et on all broadcasting outlets including:

The Anchor Fm page: https://anchor.fm/ava-live-radio

iHeartRadio station page : https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-AVA-Live-Radio-Musi-29336730/

The Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2toX0f3dPmI8gmUSOKZicx

Artist: Dante Palminteri

New Release: Miles Apart

Genre: Pop Rock / Singer-Songwriter

Located in: New York City

This song is... As a singer-songwriter, I try to peel back the layers of every day life and focus on the little nuances of falling in love or going through heartbreak. It's really important to me to recount my own experiences and be as vulnerable as possible in my writing. I wrote "Miles Apart" about still loving someone who wants nothing to do with you at the end of a relationship - abandoning the motions of being with someone, and fighting through the pain and sadness on your own.

Right now we are... Headline show at The Cutting Room in NYC, on March 16th at 9:30PM. Filming the official video for "Miles Apart." The director and I have taken the stereotypical story on a failing relationship and twisted it into a more immersive, artistic concept with POV shots that drop fans into the narrative.

LINKS:  Website: https://www.dantepalminteri.com Spotify: spotify:album:1niK1sxdAU3XqGIH4US9np Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/palminterid Twitter: @dantepalminteri  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dantepalminteri

Artist: Liah Alonso & DJ Taz Rashid

New Release: LIGHT TO THE UNIVERSE

Genre: Dance/POP

Located in: : New York, NY

This song is... Excited to announce my new song, LIGHT TO THE UNIVERSE - remixed by DJ TAZ RASHID will hit the global airwaves and a hot dance floor or yoga studio near you March 1st! Light To The Universe is a musical prayer for love, light and peace that was inspired by an ancient prayer whose origin is unknown. This Remix Is the first of a 7 song collaboration with the world famous Producer/DJ Taz Rashid. LIGHT TO THE UNIVERSE is the first single from the album collaboration between international troubadour and Gypsy Cowgirl, Liah Alonso and DJ/Producer Taz Rashid. The two artists have joined together to bring positivity and mindfulness to dance floors and yoga studios around the world.

Right now we are... Stay tuned for the LIGHT TO THE UNIVERSE music video! The video features dancer and tv host, Vandana Hart (We Speak Dance) and Liah dancing with majestic horses! Liah and Taz are currently getting ready to launch a single every month along with a video:) The two will be touring both solo and together in 2019 and 2020.

LINKS:  http://smarturl.it/jff8hi www.liahalonso.com www.instagram.com/officialgypsycowgirl www.facebook.com/liahalonso https://twitter.com/liahalonso www.youtube.com/user/liahalonso https://soundcloud.com/liahalonso

Artist: Den of Ashes

New Release: California

Genre: American Western Rock

Located in: Hermosa Beach, CA

The journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step. I'm continuing mine and have a lot to look forward to on the road ahead, touring, performing, interviews and living new experiences through my fans and friends. I’ve always known that Life is a journey. Mine was to California where I came to focus on my dreams. When I came to Los Angeles, I was fortunate enough to meet many stars from the Golden Era of Hollywood. I was the youth they once were as they shared their stories with me. I found the romance of the West and indulged in the intoxicating past of the West Coast left there to be discovered. These are my stories in the Den of Ashes.

The music we are creating is... I am committed to bringing back the genre of Western music as Western Rock and Folk, skipping the needle forward 50 years, where it left off.

LINKS:  Spotify: Den of Ashes https://open.spotify.com/artist/3r5Cp3p7h46CZJV7FiEZXU @denofashes https://www.facebook.com/denofashes https://www.facebook.com/ash.beck.75 https://www.instagram.com/denofashes

Artist: Wolf

New Release: Go Crazy!

Genre: EDM, Electronic

Located in: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This song is... Catchy and has a more rockier feel than the previous singles that was produced.

The music we are creating is... A big step up from the previous releases (Rave into the Night singles & lead single 'Bass Heavy') as the track has a rockier edge and 'Go Crazy!' is a catchy song overall. Also, don't sleep on the new EP, 'Spectrum' which you can download/stream/purchase it on: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2SQdA8v iTunes: https://apple.co/2EVmFt4  Tidal: https://bit.ly/2Cb8jD7 Deezer: https://bit.ly/2NOyNPn

Right now we are... In the studio working on new material and hopefully a new EP before the end of the year.

LINKS:  Spotify link (song): https://spoti.fi/2TsA0BQ Twitter: https://twitter.com/amirwolfwithin Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/thewolfwithinwolfMY Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/thewolfwithinofficial

Artist: La Roboká

New Release: Bipolar

Genre: Electro Pop

Located in: : Berlin, Germany

This song is about a person trying to dance away her bipolar disorder.

The music we are creating is our own version of electro-pop-rock. La Roboká started four month ago and consists of a classic soprano singer and a film-composer, Lady K & Robulus, two artists from completely different musical worlds. A classical voice hooked to electronic dance beats? Why one earth should we do this?! Because it´s so much fun! Lady K has an ongoing history on opera stages. Robulus not only composes film music but is also working as a director. We know each other for a long time until we saw our potential during a film production we’ve both worked on. With La Roboká we share our common interest in exciting, sometimes dancable, sometimes captivating music and putting on an extra layer of theatrics.

Right now we are... working heavily on our debut EP ‘MASKALICIOUS’ which will come out in April this year. With this record we will jump between genres, give you an emotional anthem to sing along and then surprise you with an ecstatic danceable electropop tune.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/track/15FFbJK3NselCyUfeQiIl3?si=I2_6tqAvQlysPgYLptEsdw https://www.instagram.com/la_roboka https://www.facebook.com/laroboka

Artist: Popichil`O 

New Release: Melody

Genre: Hiphop

The music I am creating is... This is real life music. Real thoughts, real emotions, real life moments. Reality not fantasy. Music that can inspire or help someone. Teach and reach. It’s ok to have a balance. We are human and sometimes I do feel like partying and sometimes I do feel like thinking. Don't take my choice away. I'm in a great place musically in my life and you can hear it and feel it threw the music.

"I'm really excited because I just finished my first EP titled "Don't Stop Me now". I am currently working on my first studio album which I'm almost halfway done with so stay in tune. This has been an exciting year for me and there's more to come. I feel truly blessed🙏🏼 Thank you for the love and support....1~Luv"

https://twitter.com/popichi https://www.instagram.com/popichilo https://www.facebook.com/popichilo https://soundcloud.com/reallyfe-muzic

Artist: Kristin Moura

New Release: Turn On The Gravity

Genre: Pop

Located in: Boston, Ma Turn On The Gravity is about just having the force of gravity to keep us grounded to life. "Can't keep my feet off the ground, everything's spinning around". There is a lot that goes on and sometimes it’s hard to stay focused. My music is inspired by all the drama around me and others.

It’s relatable for everyone because it gets to the root of the problem. Everyone constantly has things spinning around themselves (So much going on)and we need to find a way to keep our feet on the ground. So if we turn on gravity, this will help ground us to our routine for days to come. 

There is always drama between people that create these obscure stories that sometimes bend the truth. It doesn't make it difficult to focus; I take it as an experience and roll with it. It’s just something you can create another story about or song.

https://open.spotify.com/track/0u6kOwWwiNnt8M4lV4OIB8?si=5lejnoHgR3SvgNr6UMUYvw

Right now I am... always writing and creating material. I am planning on releasing these last few originals as an EP.

LINKS:  www.kristinmouraofficial.com www.facebook.com/thekristinmoura www.instagram.com/thekristinmoura www.twitter.com/thekristinmoura www.youtube.com/kristinmouraofficial

Artist: Sound Machine (Band)/Sunil Bhatia (Artist)

New Release: Anthem

Genre: Electronic Rock

Located in: : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

This song is... This an instrumental Electronica track with rock and symphonic elements in it.

The music we are creating is... This is a blend of the rock and pop sounds along with electronica and techno sounds of these days. Its important as it would be able to reach across a wider audience, hopefully making them want to dance also. Being the thirrt track from the 2nd Album by the Sound Machine(Band)/Sunil Bhatiia(Artist), its in continuity of the earlier track submitted to and played by AVA Life Radio.

Right now we are... Am a Singer, Songwriter and Composer based out of Mumbai. Have also authored a storybook with a poems section too called "My Feathered Friends & the Book of Poems-Part 1" available across online platforms.

LINKS: https://www.reverbnation.com/sunilbhatia/song/30574284-anthem-electronic-rock https://twitter.com/sunilbhatia https://www.facebook.com/YoursMusically https://www.instagram.com/sonu.sunil.bhatia

Artist: Cabela and Schmitt

New Release: I Admit

Genre: Alternative Rock

Located in: Colorado and Nebraska USA   I Admit is about discovering ones self and admitting how they are without any inhibition. These are all forged by Life experiences. We will be releasing a new album on April 15th.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/track/5tnMmyTwJFGT1x7ujounYR?si=z79VkMlAQYybrgfx55BkMA https://twitter.com/CabelaSchmitt https://www.facebook.com/cabelaschmittmusic https://www.instagram.com/cabelaandschmitt

Artist: Cabela and Schmitt

New Release: Lonesome Railroad

Genre: Instrumental

Located in: Colorado and Nebraska USA

This song is... Soothing and relaxing

The music we are creating is... We are songwriters/composers.  This world of ours has always been filled with good and bad, and we all have the God-given ability to choose how we want to view this world. We hope always that more people will choose to see the world as good. We are all given a voice, in some way or another, to communicate how we see and experience our world. It is our choice how and when to use that voice, and we have chosen to use this venue as our voice to expose our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings in the best way we can…through a song.

We have always wanted to share our music, without giving up the wonderful life we’ve been given. With the new technologies now at our fingertips, and with never-ending inspirations for making music, the internet has become the perfect place to land our music, to share with anyone and everyone.  We are so very happy and excited to be able to share with you!

Right now we are... In the process of completing and releasing a couple new single and an album by April 15

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/track/6Z8erh5vJkIDy25EeDXWDu?si=VUonT3n2TNenfud-lQ_aQQ @CabelaSchmitt https://www.facebook.com/cabelaschmittmusic https://www.instagram.com/cabelaandschmitt

[joshuazev]

On the state: part 2

In a continuation of yesterday’s segment, I will push forward with my review of the current state of things in various areas of life.

The state of music:  Technology has certainly changed the landscape of everything it has touched.  Music is no different.  Nowadays, it seems like everyone is making music and with the success of streaming subscription services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal there is more access than ever before.  Access has transcended more than just the ability to listen to music, but the ability to make music too.  I don’t know if the term was coined in 2017, but titles such as “soundcloud rappers” started to get pushed to the forefront.  A “soundcloud rapper” is obviously more than just a name.  To me, it refers to the facility at which anyone can record music, upload it, and get millions of plays almost overnight.  Some would say this is great.  The more the merrier.  Competition is good.  I guess I have an old soul perspective on the matter.  Something out anyone and everyone putting out music doesn’t go over well with me.  It removes some of the sanctity that I associate with a real artist, who has to go through a struggle to put out a record.  This could be just my problem—a bitter one at that, but I don’t think I’m alone.  In addition, it seems like people’s real voices have gone to the dumpsters—and again, I’m speaking mainly of the rap, rap/singer genre.  Autotune and voice alteration is at a all time high.  I’m a purist when it comes to listening to a singer’s voice, however raw, unpracticed, or divine it might be.  I think the flaws of the newer generation (even as narrowed down to people in the past couple years) are very much exposed when they try to do live performances.  Their voices don’t hold up.  Now, all the hate, bitterness, and negative feeling aside from seeing everybody on stage and everyone on the internet getting millions of views…the presence of Spotify, Apple Music, and yes, Soundcloud, has provided access to a sickening amount of really really tremendous artists, too.  I suppose you would expect that, the good and the bad.  In literally every genre there are thousands upon thousands of new artists and a lot of them are really good.  And more exposure to international artists!  (Yes, on the whole, some are bad but lets focus on the good).  Lets say, for example, that you wanted to listen to people like Erykah Badu or some other neo soul artist.  A platform like Spotify will give you countless other artists that sound like her.  Now, again, that does lead to some issues.  While there might be a bunch of artists similar to her, that becomes the problem; an overabundance and over saturation of similar sounding artists, which, in turn, can take away from the original artist and the original sound.  I liken the new emergence of artists to the numbers game.  The “10s” are few and far between.  Currently, we are getting flooded with “6s” and “7s.”  The record stores of the world are all but extinct, which is truly a drag.  Strands bookstore’s equivalent from a record store standpoint is something like Amoeba.  I think this year or in the upcoming year the Amoeba in Los Angeles will be gone.  Seems sacrilegious that such a place can be gone, although I do think that a few remain in the Bay Area.  Music, music, music.  

I think a lot of people would say music is thriving.  The attitude in New York would definitely make me think so.  We are seeing more and more cities follow New York’s lead, especially with respect to the younger generations, because now up and coming artists are playing to sold out shows all over the country, and the really big ones are doing international tours.  Could the new access be the one to thank?  Festivals are experiencing the same popularity.  Does anyone know how “Desert Trip” (dubbed the Coachella for the older generation) did?  I wouldn’t be surprised if it was met with tremendous success.  When I was growing up people paid more attention to release dates for albums because you would go to the store to get them?  Now we can afford to be more lazy.  We can download it legally or illegally.  In all seriousness, I think 2017 was more of the same on the music front.  Some good.  Some bad.  Award shows still suck.  What could possibly be different in 2018?  To be honest, I really don’t know.  I have zero expectations for music anymore.  I don’t anticipate it or get excited in the way I used to.  That kind of makes me sound like an old head wishing we were all still back in the good old days, but fuck it.  Personally, I’ll try to go to more concerts in 2018.  Broaden my horizons.  I started a music of the world document that I want to build on because that might be the best thing about all the new access and exposure of these streaming services.  It’s affected the artists, too!  Take someone like Drake who, on each of his last few albums, has had a different international inspiration of sound.  That could be directly attributed to knowing about more music and I think several artists did the same.  Let’s see what you got for us 2018.

The state of books, articles, and literature:  Sadly, I would know more about this subject if I was reading more.  This year there were various stages of reading a lot and many months where I read nothing at all.  Articles are leaps and bounds the easiest thing to get your hands on in this day and age.  When I wake up in the morning, if my phone is right next to me, I’m going on the internet first thing (this is actually a habit I’m working to change).  I’m reading the newest, latest on what happened in the sporting world.  There are several journalists I follow or, at the very least, enjoy reading.  When I lived in Washington Heights I was reading a free subscription of the New Yorker.  In my eyes, that’s still high quality work.  Book wise, I might be naive in wanting there to be another Harry Potter on the horizon.  Luckily, we all still have Harry Potter.  Blogs are still thriving.  I don’t follow that many others, but there are blogs about literally everything.  I finished a book today “the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck” and that basically spawned from the popularity the author received from doing a blog.  Kindles and iPads are still doing their part to eliminate physical books from being in our hands, but its easy to forget that that’s going on when you live in New York and you see the city known as Strands.  I’m coming from Seattle where my memory of pubic transportation is a Kindle in the hands of every other person, but in New York…you got books in hand.  Biographies.  Novels.  Non-fiction.  Anthologies.  Plays.  Those forms of literature are still alive and well.  Yet, 2017 was also a piggy back year with regards to books on tape.  Very trendy.  Podcasts (not exactly related to the topic), but also very popular.  In the way that kindles and iPads took away from books in Seattle, the forms of media available in earplug mode continued to surge.  Facebook also continues to be a contributing factor in sharing articles.  People live two places in this day and age.  They live at home and they live on Facebook, but if there is one thing that keeps Facebook solid it’s that you’re bound to see articles, op-eds, editorials, and publications that match your circle of friends.  The access is real.  Personally, I know I didn’t read enough in 2017.  Like just now, I had a sentence that I was going to write that centered around a concept, but in the seconds of thinking how I was going to frame the sentence on paper, I forgot the central word.  I’m telling you that that only happens when you go from reading to not reading or not reading enough, plain and simple.  

Reading remains one of the only activities that I believe slows down time, and for the better.  I have anxiety about reading because there will be times when I think, “what is happening right now in the world!?”  I’ve needed to confront this idea head on because I worry about time and especially time running out.  Reading, in damn near every situation, is peace.  Granted, sometimes what you’re reading isn’t very peaceful, but the action itself is.  I can’t tell you how many people I know that don’t read at all.  Some that don’t touch a book or some like me that take the step of getting the book or checking it out from the library and then let it gather dust.  The book takes on the role of a show piece.  I digress, but maybe not so much.  Bookstores are in the same boat as record stores.  Who buys CDs?  The same people that probably buy books.  And nowadays there are too many streaming services and devices that make it “easier” to do both of those things.  One day, in the era of Trump, maybe all of the servers will crash and burn and the Internet will be gone and so will all the information we thought we could get at the drop of a hat.  And maybe, just maybe, there will be this crazy exodus of people going to record stores and bookstores all across the world, trying to get their hands on the things they once valued so much before everything was so easy.  I digress again.  Is it just as easy for one to make music and have thousands of people listen as it is for someone to write a book or a novel or start a blog?  A soundcloud rapper and a blogger are damn near the same thing, but that brings back the question of purity and whether or not a “real artist” can be either of those two things (in the same way that someone who is YouTube famous or Instagram famous might not be considered in the same light as a movie star.  Just like the preceding years before, the definition of an author is being stretched and RE-defined.  I wouldn’t be surprised and, to be honest, I’d probably expect that line of what an author is to be stretched even further.  Maybe it’s because I didn’t read as much this year, but the pool of legitimate authors didn’t seem as big.  I still found there to be a lot of quality pieces being written.  Maybe next year, when I expose myself to as much literature as I do to music, I’ll find the same results as I did this year with artists.  Who knows.  With respect to the two above mediums it’s easy to get lost in space.

I’m tired.  Three more days.  And resolutions to come.  

[vernicle]

<p>Some school counselors are using code to let their LGBTQ students know they're safe.</p>

[ad_1]

Image by Mark Ralston/Getty Photographs.

William isn't really authorized to inform his LGBTQ learners he's on their facet, so he has to do it in code. When he overhears them chatting with buddies, he strains to absorb the language they use with just one a further and repeat it just one-on-just one. In counseling classes, he refers to the considerable many others of learners and university team as their "associates" as an alternative of "boyfriends" or "girlfriends."

He experienced next views about hanging a signal in his place of work that reads: "Your identification is not an situation."

"I truly checked with my bosses ahead of time," he states. "They were being like, 'Nope, you are excellent!'"

As a middle-university psychologist in Virginia, William (who asked for his serious title not be made use of, for anxiety of retaliation) has often experienced to skirt close to university board policies limiting his means to address the fears and difficulties of his lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, trans, and queer learners out loud. But matters have transformed.

Ahead of January, William states he would hear a homophobic or transphobic slur from a colleague (not all bullies are learners, it turns out) it's possible after a month. Now, he states, individuals voices have gotten substantially louder — and additional persistent.

"The unhappy section is I are unable to be as loud as they can be with no receiving in problems," he states.

For lots of university psychologists, sticking up for their LGBTQ learners in the Trump era feels a great deal like paddling more than a cultural tidal wave.

Their attempts are regularly challenging by getting to navigate a patchwork of guidelines and legislation governing what they can and are unable to say, and what they have to expose to mom and dad if questioned. 8 states limit how academics focus on some LGBTQ subject areas in educational institutions.

That leaves some educators nervous they are not undertaking enough.

"I’m seeing university counselors who were being it's possible feeling like they were being sitting quite with their packages and what they experienced been featuring their LGBTQ youth at their web pages now ramping it up," states Catherine Griffith, assistant professor of student enhancement at the College of Massachusetts-Amherst Faculty of Schooling. That implies inquiring for additional trainings and workshops, significantly on how to speak about trans-particular difficulties, like pronoun usage and toilet conflicts.

A student in Massachusetts will work on homework. Image by Jewel Samad/Getty Photographs.

Griffith suggests approaching conversations with having difficulties learners by listening very first and recognizing their know-how on their own life. She also endorses ways like William's, in which counselors use visible cues (like a signal hanging in an place of work) and particular language to sign help. Her exploration into interventions for LGBTQ youth led to the enhancement of a curriculum — which she distributes absolutely free to educators — that emphasizes the helpfulness of arranged teams to battle social isolation.

For learners, Griffith clarifies, the means to manage can help them understand from friends, develop a sense of altruism, and bear witness to others' difficulties, specially when it feels like voices in positions of authority are aligned against them.

While William struggles to sneak a kind phrase to a having difficulties eighth-grader, 3,000 miles absent, the little ones in Cynthia Olaya's Campus Pride Club are lighting bonfires on the seaside.

A 14-yr veteran psychologist from Extensive Beach front, California, Olaya appears to be youthful than her 40 yrs, a stroke of genetic excellent fortune that she believes would make it less complicated for learners to open up up to her.

"I don’t know how substantially extended I’m going to be ready to use that," she jokes.

Right here in Fountain Valley, in which she can help oversee the two-10 years-aged team, the Trump administration feels significantly away — practically and figuratively. Previously this yr, when rumors began swirling that the president was geared up to signal an government buy making it possible for enterprise owners who cite religious convictions to discriminate against LGBTQ consumers, her principal tackled the controversy, bluntly, more than the university loudspeaker.

"He explained, 'Don’t fear learners. We have nevertheless acquired your back,'" Olaya remembers.

The club, previously a Homosexual-Straight Alliance, recently rebranded to be "additional trans-inclusive." Her LGBTQ learners gain, she clarifies, not only from the team, but from sturdy institutional help and, most likely most critically, help from their elected associates. Final yr, the condition board of schooling authorised a evaluate demanding that educational institutions insert the contributions of LGBTQ Us residents to record lessons as early as next quality. A 2017 regulation bans condition-funded vacation to states that have anti-LGBTQ legal guidelines on the publications. In California, there are no policies avoiding her from freely discussing her students' gender and sexual orientation.

Her learners are nervous about what the Trump administration could do to rollback their rights, but most are not panicking — still.

"I think they experience like, 'We’re protected here,'" she states.

The Trump administration has alternated concerning enjoying coy with LGBTQ rights and launching an all-out assault on the insurance policies of the Obama administration.

Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs.

At occasions, both of those ways appear to be on the table concurrently. The draconian religious freedom buy Olaya's learners feared in February turned out to be tiny additional than a symbolic assertion when it was signed in May perhaps. The president declared a similarly harsh evaluate to ban transgender Us residents from serving in the military services — but has still to consider ways to employ it. The military services, it seems, is ignoring it for the time becoming.

How LGBTQ little ones fare in this whipsaw atmosphere can have a lot less to do with how substantially their counselors want to help and additional with the institutional and legal frameworks that govern how substantially they can help.

Some communities have adopted the president's direct in loosening, or refusing to implement, current protections. Some others are resisting the cost.

In some places — the jury is nevertheless out.

Holiday, Florida, is an region in regular changeover. In the middle university in which psychologist Jacalyn Kay Jackson will work, immigrants and learners of coloration combine with white learners from "additional conservative" people. Several arrive in the district for a yr or two ahead of moving on. eighty% are on minimized or absolutely free lunch. Several are LGBTQ.

Considering that the inauguration, Jackson states her learners have been exhibiting "additional stress and anxiety" than regular. While Muslim and immigrant learners have received the bulk of harassment from their correct-wing friends, the backlash has been stinging her LGBTQ little ones as well.

"We did have some transgender learners and gender-nonconforming learners who were being nervous that some of the rights that they felt that they experienced fought challenging for were being becoming taken absent," she states.

Jackson has held the part of LGBTQ liaison for her district due to the fact very last university yr — and she's thrilled about it. She spends fifty percent a working day a week training other educators in the district how to greatest help homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans youth, how to navigate locker and restroom difficulties, and how to develop protected spaces for dialogue and restoration from trauma. She's doing the job on a sixty-webpage greatest procedures guide, which she plans to distribute to academics in her district this coming university yr. Irrespective of the occasional complaint, her district is thoroughly behind her work — which provides her substantially-necessary deal with.

In her region of Florida, the 2016 capturing at Orlando's Pulse nightclub opened a great deal of eyes to the hazards LGBTQ youth experience. She hesitates to simply call it a "silver lining," but that is the phrase that will come to head. Additional mom and dad have been going to Pride parades. Several who were being formally opposed to, or equivocating on, increasing LGBTQ rights in the district have appear close to a little bit.

"Not that they’re actively supportive, but it's possible they’re additional perhaps supportive, most likely mainly because it strike nearer to home than it at any time has been," Jackson states.

A man or woman builds a balloon rainbow close to the web site of the Pulse capturing in Orlando. Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Photographs.

It is not a cakewalk. Some learners in Jackson's university nevertheless experience rejection from their people. As the Trump administration attempts to dismantle Title IX guidelines and rollback trans-inclusive insurance policies in the military services, LGBTQ little ones, she clarifies, require a "buffer to what [they are] listening to on the information," which for lots of, isn't really at home.

Continue to, with help potent and growing, at university, that "buffer" seems to be keeping — for now.

The only reason her work is feasible in this social and political climate, she clarifies, is the very last 5 yrs of speedy-hearth development toward LGBTQ inclusion and equality.

"Children genuinely heard a concept when marriage equality came via, and prior to that as some of the individual states begun recognizing marriage equality," she states. In the meantime, mom and dad and colleagues who were being beforehand supportive are hunting for methods to be additional supportive — significantly of trans learners.

Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Photographs.

"A great deal of them were being asking yourself, 'What pronoun do I use?' and 'How do I help them?' and 'How do I have this conversation?'" Olaya states.

Even in parts in which it's challenging to hold the door open up, there are indications that a metaphorical lock has been smashed off. William remembers counseling just one student whose family members were being debating sending her cousin to a conversion remedy camp, and she was nervous she would be following. College students, specially youthful types, who expose far too substantially about their sexuality to academics typically run the hazard of becoming outed to their mom and dad, even if the crisis originates at home. This student, like lots of many others, realized she could appear to William for help and that he would hold her self-confidence.

"The little ones know how to talk to the correct varieties of thoughts," he states.

Significantly, their university psychologists are trying to obtain the place to send out the correct concept back.

"The concept is: We’re listening, we’re here for you."

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