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yanderecandystore · 3 years ago

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Can we get some content for how the Android darling and Ms. Bright would meet?

In this [🍰🍑🤖] we get a glimpse of what their relationship is like and a lil mention of how things have worked out- But let's see how it played out from the a.is perspective.

Hi boo, I hope you're doing great, I'm very sorry for the long ass waiting- Sadly I may warn y'all that I have gone through many stages while writing this: h 0 r ny, corny, and angsty. This is actually pretty heavy, as I tried pulling some of the loose threads that I left all over Ingrid's posts (I still need to give her an bio ;-; I'm sorry y'all-)

So this is all over the place, since this is a fic I've been writing for a long time.

Also I know jackshit about robotics, and I think this fic shows how much I don't know anything XD

TW: Family issues related to: LGBTQ identity // very angsty // Ingrid is very rude, but she also struggles a lot during this- // socially distant // socially awkward // being misinterpreted/having a hard time socializing //

Tags: angy sad lady // ownership dynamic // this is basically the reader reminiscing about the past (continuing it from where Happy Lies left off) // the reader is low-key a simp at times- // master x servant dynamic, possessive behavior and a lot of yelling // just angsty really, I'm so sorry //

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Happy birthday, mistress [Yandere!CEO OC x A.I!Reader - Short Fanfiction]

3,763 words

Whenever you remember your first day of activation, or more accurately your first day of actually being able to be activated for more than five seconds (you can't remember it fully, but you're aware that because of your complex design, you had passed through a lot of prototype phases before you could properly function-), you almost feel an odd sense of nostalgia, maybe due to the fact it was indeed the most important day of your existence as an android.

It was Ms.Bright's nineteenth birthday, when she would be handed the corporation that has been passed down by generations. And not only would she inherit the company, but also a beautifully designed a.i assistant made to help Ms.Bright's every need. You were made to be an easy communication center from Ms.Bright to the employees, as Ms.Bright's had a hard time communicating with people and expressing herself.

At first, she didn't seem to enjoy the idea very much- It was clear that she considered you to be quite annoying and useless. And- Well- It did hurt at first, after all, you were built to help her and be her friend no matter what.

So hearing her be mean towards you was… Very tough at first. Your first day as her assistant wasn't easy, you ended up getting in her way most of the time- And since she also didn't know exactly what she was doing, she got overwhelmed by so many things going down in one single day.

Ingrid has always dreamed of being in power of the company- Actually, now that you know her a little more- You can positively say she was probably just stressed at having to deal with so many responsibilities so suddenly, even if it has been her lifelong wish to inherit the company.

And even if it seems impossible at times, she would still come back strong and find a way to deal with it. That's something you really admire about her.

Your first week on the job was basically just trying to get accustomed and trying to learn everything you needed to do- While also trying to understand Ms.Bright as best as you could. Now… You weren't built to say this- And- And of course you don't think like this anymore, but…. You used to think she was really mean.

Frightening, even.

Now that you're all alone waiting for her to get back from work, you can't help but feel like replaying those moments inside your head.

"{... Replaying recorded conversation n°000050: "My second day at work"...}"

" Oh, what are you doing here?"

" Morning Ms.Bright! I-I was rechecking the files from yesterday and I was trying my best to reorganize them, a-after the incident-"

" The "incident" that you caused yesterday?"

" Well, yes, of course! I wanted to fix things up before you came back, I'm really sorry for being so reckless, I promise I won't do it again, I was just-"

"It 's fine. You don't need to worry about it."

" But… But I thought-"

" The files you had messed with weren't really all that important, and besides I'm sure there are copies all around the place. Sigh, who am I kidding- In reality, I should be the one apologizing for my behavior yesterday."

"...."

" I recognize that I shouldn't have treated you the way that I did, in a sense it's my fault you lost those files in the first place."

" … Well, it's nothing really mistress, I'm the one who should-"

" No, don't even finish it. You shouldn't have to apologize and shouldn't have spent the night wasting your battery on this-"

"...."

".... You know what, do whatever- I sometimes forget that you are… Nevermind, come back to my office as soon as you can."

"{... End of recorded conversation n°000.000.050… }"

You never knew what she was going to say, but you remember not being able to ask her that- As you were afraid of her potentially getting mad at you for asking too many questions. She always seemed so ruthless at times.

You remember the time you went to a family event with her, a family party, where an incident happened and she was absolutely livid. Your relationship with her wasn't so pretty at the time, you don't know why but- Your mistress didn't seem to trust you as much as you wish she did at the time.

"{... Replaying recorded conversation n°000.001.588: "First party ever- And it was very unpleasant" ...}"

" What's the matter with you?! Why can't you follow simple instructions- I told you to stay here and not mess around."

" I'm. So. Sorry. Mistress-"

" Even your vocal module is broken- Who told you to enter that pool in the first place?? You can't tell me you did something so stupid all on your own."

" I. Slipped.-"

" Am I a joke to you? I've said tell me who gave you the order to jump in the goddamn pool while everyone else was inside- Don't you dare start lying to me."

" … One of the. Party guests. Lost something. Inside the water. I tried helping them. But I started to. Malfunction."

" … Sigh, okay. Continue."

" It wasn't. Their fault. I did it. On my own. I was just- Trying. To help."

" By throwing yourself inside a pool when you're well aware of the damage the water can cause to your inner systems?!"

" I'm sorry!"

" You could have- No, you SHOULD have called someone else to help you, I can't believe it- You could have drowned in there and I wouldn't even be aware of that since I was inside the house, [Y/n]!"

" …. But Ms.Bright. I can't drown-"

" Yeah, yeah- I know you-... I know you can't drown."

" … Listen, you could have still gotten yourself hurt okay? You could have permanently damaged your systems, and if I wasn't made aware of what happened, I wouldn't have been able to take you out of the water in time, okay?"

"... Sigh, I just realized how much I have been yelling, everyone is probably scared now that I've made such a scandal. This… Isn't really a new thing to me, I'm accustomed to ruining parties like this. I'll have to apologise later to everyone. [Y/n], please just- When I ask you to stay still, please listen to me. I was worried about you."

"...."

"{... End of recorded conversation n°000.001.588 ...}"

You can't deny it- Whenever she was truly irritated she could make any person next to her feel threatened, though the more you look at your recordings, you feel like she doesn't really want to be feared like this. Respected? Absolutely. Feared? Not ideal, but she takes it anyway.

You have a couple of different recordings here and there, your memories are separated into sections. You have recordings of events in several formats: pictures, videos, texts and audio recordings. Though the one you use the most is audio recordings, since videos take a very big space inside your mind, and pictures need context, otherwise they wouldn't be considered memories, right?

You can't have many memories at a time because most of your mind is supposed to be used to store the company's files, so you do have a couple of memories that you have deleted to make space for the Bright Vision's more secret/personal documents. Since Ingrid took you home yesterday, and said you won't be going to work for the company anymore, then maybe you can find somewhere else to store those files so you can make space for new memories with Ms.Bright.

First, you'll need to recheck some of your own memories to see if they're worth holding onto. There is probably a lot of junk in there that you won't be needing anymore, which can be a bit tedious and take some time, but you clearly have enough time on your hands to do so, considering how she is not home and- Well, you're pretty bored, you already done everything that she asked you to do.

Honestly, she gave such small tasks today, she probably didn't plan to change your work environment so suddenly.

After about an hour of research through your data you have realized that even if you have way too many files, it's kinda hard to delete them. At first you didn't mind the idea of deleting certain stuff, but now it feels a bit sad to erase parts of your memory, you just had so many good times and- And even the bad times are worth remembering, right?

It has been an hour of you just standing there, trying your best to not delete anything important while also revising each recording you have. Most files are a bit out of order, numerically speaking, but you don't mind that too much cause- Well, you can always reorganize them later.

… You never actually do that, but you like to think that one day you will, though.

After so many recordings of conversations, you found one who didn't seem to really belong in your head. You see, you always title every single thing inside your personal archives so that it doesn't get mixed with other files- All of your memories have a specific title so that you can have an idea of which is which.

The thing is- You don't remember this file, the title seems off, and it seems like it's incomplete. Oddly broken. Still, you decided to take a listen and try to remember what happened in this event.

"{... Replaying recorded conversation n°000.068.xxx: "I yell too much" ...}"

"...."

This is a very silent audio, there seems to be some background noise happening, but you can't make out what's happening. This audio sounds distorted, edited maybe. Someone tried messing with your memories but they weren't able to completely erase this file.

Maybe they were inexperienced at the time.

"...."

You think you heard something, it sounded closer to you- It sounded like someone possibly sitting down next to you. You don't know who it is, or what it is

"...."

".... I'm such a mess. Why am I doing this? Why does this feels so-"

"...."

It seems like someone is speaking, but you're not speaking back. Even in this heavily edited audio, you can still make out what sounds to be a feminine voice.

".... I'm sorry for, well, using you this way. It feels- So, so weird."

"...."

".... I just want… No, I need to vent to you for a while, even if you won't remember what I'm going to say."

This audio gives you an odd sensation. You think you're starting to recognize who this is- But then again, who else could it be, if not Ms.Bright herself?

" I never did this before, with something so- Human like- With something so human looking. I used to record my thoughts on my phone but I thought I would never need to vent with an object before- But here I am! Making a fool of myself…"

"...."

The speaker, who you assume to be Ingrid, seems to be having a lot of trouble speaking, her voice is cracking and her breathing seems uneven. She sounds out of breath, and she takes a lot of pauses to be able to speak her mind.

"...."

".... I have…. Thought about opening myself in this way because- Because I have no one else to listen to it, and I guess I can only blame myself for it. I know I'm difficult, I know I'm rude and I know I come across as a tyrant to everyone else- I- I really don't know what 's wrong with me, okay?!"

" Years, and years, and years of training, of studying, of planning to become the very next owner of this corporation as it's already not only a job but also a very painful family tradition that I felt proud of! That I gave everything that I could to be part of! I remember wanting this so bad, I remember how I used to daydream about this stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid tradition when I was a little kid who just wanted to do more, to be more!"

".… I almost lost all of this. 19 years of my life that were threatened to be thrown in the trash just because I- Because I'm not his son??! Because I- I'm not his only "son" anymore??.... Who said I ever was- Who said I ever was his son…?"

".... I- I know all about the stupid, awful and extremely unnecessary tradition of passing the leadership from father to son, and to this very day- inside the same office all of my predecessors had went through- I still think that tradition is garbage. I always thought I wouldn't make it here, I always thought something would stop me from being the next face of Bright Vision."

".... I can't tell- If I always knew about this- I can't even imagine how I knew this considering the dumb kid that I was, but…"

".... I'm his daughter. I'm Mr.Bright's only daughter, and the only possible heir to this twisted company."

" The people outside think our only focus it's on robotics and technology of all kinds. I wish I could go back to thinking that too, it would have been so much simpler that way."

" After a very long fight about my rights as the heir to this- Company. My father thought it would be wise to move to the countryside. Far away from all of this. And to be fair, I was- So, so mad at him that I thought that him moving away from here and letting me be would be better, but every now and then I- I miss him. I miss him so much…."

"He sent me a birthday present today. After three years of absolute silence he sends me flowers and- And a gift card containing his number… And I- Called him despite everything, and even so to this day he can't even say my name- IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS AFTER HE LEFT ME ALL ALONE WITH THIS CURSED BUSINESS AND HE STILL CAN'T FUCKING. SAY. MY. NAME."

You felt scared at the sudden yelling, even if her voice was progressively getting more aggressive and louder, you still got caught up by the sudden yelling.

".... I'm- A mess- I know that now."

You can't understand what's going on, but it sounds like she started laughing… Or maybe crying? Probably both.

".... I'm just terrible at this. I always was, weren't I? I'm just terrible at these types of interactions- Maybe all of them! I just don't understand how to- How to do it?? I don't know anymore…."

".... That's why I have you, in the first place, isn't it?"

" I had such an awful time expressing myself that they gave me an overpriced doll to do it for me. When I first heard about this three years ago, I- I've felt so fucking pitiful."

" Can you imagine it? The CEO of such a big corporation is so difficult to deal with that she needs an overly glorified doll that can translate her words to the other employees! An a.i created just to help me, an absolute idiot!"

".... I've felt so angry at them- I felt so angry at him for having to build a robot just to be a comfort pet to the stressful work that I would have to do for the rest of my position as owner of Bright Vision Corp, and I was mad at you! You pissed me off to no end, and I- I just couldn't help but be frustrated at you, not for being in my way, but for being an reminder that I'm awful at this-"

"...."

Her sobs stopped her from continuing that sentence.

".... I've treated you so unfairly because of this. I- I made sure that whenever you looked at me you would feel terrified of me because that's the only way I thought I could be respected, that's the only way I thought you would listen to me, and yet you never did…. You weren't built to follow my every order perfectly, you were made to be literally my only friend, after 22 years, here you are- The only person that can get me isn't even an actual person-"

"..... And I forget this…! I forget this every time I look at your eyes, I forget how robotic you are whenever I see you helping others not because you were told to, but just because you thought you could."

"...."

".... I always forget that you're supposed to be just another robot… He really did think about everything when designing you."

".... I always catch myself being awful towards you, being- Being excessively rude, not because of my way of talking but because of my own petty feelings towards you as my assistant… As my friend, as my android, as my-"

"...."

"..... I'm so sorry for being like this, you don't deserve to have someone who is constantly being mean towards you be considered your boss- Your boss, your friend- ...Sigh, even your owner…"

" I'm sorry [Y/n], I'm really, really sorry- But it doesn't matter how many times I say that- I don't know if I can ever make it up to you. Words won't heal any wounds, they never did."

"...."

".... But maybe actions will."

"...."

" I'll stop being so harsh on you, you really don't deserve this- I was feeling weird about using your recording system to vent like this, but now that I think about it I have been using you as a venting mechanism since the day we met……. I'm- I'm so goddamn awful."

"...."

" "How can someone so in love be so cruel?".... Would you be able to answer me if you were conscious?.... I don't think you would, no one has been able to tell me the right answer yet."

".... I hope I can be better- I will be better."

"...."

" I just need to remember how to delete this file before you wake up- I hope I can do that. End recording."

"{... End of recorded conversation n°000.068.xxx …}

………….

It took you about an hour or so to be able to process what you have just listened to. And even then, you weren't able to fully comprehend what happened.

Ms.Bright- No, Ingrid- Ingrid has used your recording system while you were out, she probably tried deleting the file but because she was inexperienced with your kind of technology, she decided to just edit it and try to make it unlistenable.

It was- Barely audible but you still got to understand some of it.

Did she- Did she forget to completely erase it? Did she forget entirely??? You're not sure.

You don't know why but a sudden wave of- Something- Something feels so odd about this-

You don't know how to respond really. You don't feel mad about her ranting to you, you don't even feel bad about her ranting to you while you weren't aware- You feel bad, but not because of her but because of the emotional turmoil she has been hiding from you.

Should you do something? Should you say something?? How do you even- You don't know how respond to this-

You're programmed to comfort her, yet- This file is already old, and she didn't want you to remember this so maybe it won't be the best idea to bring it up, but what can you do??!

Maybe you just need to rethink this through, maybe you should listen to audio again, and try to figure out what's the best way to help her out when she comes back.

You're honestly baffled at the idea that someone like her had so much to confess to- You probably shouldn't have seen her as an unstoppable goddess in the first place, but then again- Even after hearing her open herself, even after listening to her insecurities- Your opinion of her hasn't changed.

She was holding this for so long, no wonder she always seems on edge.

She 's only human. Yet you never really saw her as just that.

She was always so much larger than you, so much stronger than what your fabricated body was, and she always sounded so much smarter and- And she was just always so… Terrifyingly beautiful to you.

Ingrid Bright was always considered a very good looking individual, but no one ever considered her to be much else because of her way of speaking to others (which may sound rude and occasionally condescending, causing others to avoid her as much as they could), but you always thought she was so much more than that-

It's hard to even explain it really, ever since you met you have started to understand the concept of how beauty and fear can mix together, you find her to be so beautiful, yet her demeanor and stature makes you feel afraid of her for some reason- And even worse than that, the fear she may unconsciously bring you makes her seem more beautiful in your eyes.

You shouldn't think of her as scary or frightening, she is your boss, your master and your owner, there is no reason for why you should feel this way towards her- But then again, there is no reason for you to even feel in the first place, you were just built to do so.

You don't think she means harm to anyone, after getting to know her you realize why her behavior can be misinterpreted as mean and scary- Ms.Bright always had a hard time socializing with others, even her family had a hard time understanding her, so maybe that's why she grew to have such a tough exterior.

As someone that was built to make the communication between CEO and employees easier, you've had to learn to understand her to be able to help others understand her as well, and vice versa. It wasn't easy, and you wouldn't say that you know her completely well- But you feel proud of the work you have done so far, you're her loyal companion but more importantly a friend.

Funny how much you learned not only about her, the employees, or even the business of the company- But also about humans in general in these five years of working for her, it makes you feel more whole when you remember how much you have achieved.

You hope you can somehow help her right now, and to help her from here on out. You decide to wait for her and possibly talk about how she feels and how she deals with said feelings. Hopefully all ends well.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Sorry for the loose ending! I was feeling very tired ;-; but if anyone wants it I could totally make a second chapter with a better ending.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

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bluescreening · 4 years ago

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Practical GCSE Advice

Tips From A New Year 12 Who Somehow Got All 9s

Don’t worry, I’m not becoming a studyblr. I’m writing this on results day as a sort of farewell to GCSEs and to impart some “wisdom” upon the youngsters before I move on to A-levels. I’m going to keep this to specific, practical things you can do to improve, none of that vague nonsense. Subject-specific tips for maths, geography, triple science, language, literature, graphic comms and comp sci under the fold because this is too bloody long already.

General Tips:

Don’t go revision crazy. People will always emphasize revision, but so long as you’re revising effectively (see below) you’re safe to start revising about a month before mocks, and two months before your final exams. In terms of a revision schedule during those months, I worked with one or two hours per day, with a free day on Friday and Sunday.

Use apps to stay organised. Put your school timetable and exam dates in your calendar of choice with appropriate reminders and colour coding. To keep track of homework and revision, use Adapt - you can put in your GCSEs and it tracks which topics you have covered and how many times, as well as allowing you to input homework and your school timetable. During study time use Forest (free on Android) to lock yourself out of your phone for a certain amount of time.

Pay attention to lessons from the start. From the beginning of Year 10 every lesson is a GCSE lesson, and everything you learn could come up in an exam. Follow along with your teacher, make the best notes you can, do the work and understand the concepts as early as you can. You’ll thank yourself in a year as you watch the rest of your class wonder what a ribosome is when revision time comes.

Revise effectively. Use Adapt or a textbook to keep track of your confidence level on every topic, so when you’re revising you can focus on the ones you don’t understand whatsoever. Also, don’t just read stuff when revising. You have to train your brain to retrieve the information. Memorise vocabulary and basic facts using flashcards, then answer exam questions. Lots and lots of exam questions.

Use your teachers. They want you to succeed because it reflects well on them! If you don’t understand something after a lesson, pop back at break or lunch, or shoot them an email and they will help. Don’t just bank on it not showing up in the test because Sod’s Law dictates that it will. After Christmas in Year 11 they will often start revision sessions or intervention. Attend them for any subjects you’re even slightly shaky on. They’ll boost your grade like nothing else, even if it does take up some of your chill out time.

Buy textbooks and study materials through school. If your school offers you textbooks and workbooks it’s likely that will be the best deal for them, since they’re purchased in bulk. Grab all you can in Year 10 and talk to the school if you can’t afford many - they may be willing to help. If you know any higher-level teachers see if they have any sample study materials from CGP and the like. My English teacher gave me a lovely set of sample CGP Macbeth flashcards that would have proved really useful.

Make flashcards at the end of every topic. Stay on top of them. You want a term on one side and a definition on the other, or a quote and analysis etc. If you don’t like endless bits of card floating around use Quizlet - you might not even need to make them yourself as many people have shared GCSE flashcards there.

And finally - don’t forget you’re a human! Humans need regular sleep, healthy food including breakfasts, hydration, fun and social time. Make time in your day to take care of yourself. Your brain works better when you’re healthy so often an extra hour of sleep will do more for your grade than an extra hour of revision. Hanging out with your friends and keeping up with your hobbies reduces stress.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about any of this stuff, or if you just need advice I’m here too! I’ve done it before, I can help you out.

Subject Specific Tips:

Edexcel Maths:

Use CorbettMaths. All the time. If you haven’t done every one of his worksheets at least once you’re not grinding hard enough. Jk, but seriously this guy used to teach me in real life and he’s awesome. He makes flashcard packs, videos on every aspect of GCSE maths, daily challenges, textbook exercises, practice exam questions... literally everything you could ever need.

Practice everything until you’re sick of it, and then do ten more questions.

You’ll need to memorise some trig identities. Don’t memorise them as a table, that’s hard. Memorise them as these triangles, sketch them out in an exam and work it out on the spot. Easy.

AQA Geography:

Don’t goof off during your fieldwork. Don’t make the same mistake as me. If I ever had to do the fieldwork paper I would not have got a 9. Even though it’s a field trip, even though you’re with your friends, this will directly impact your GCSEs and you need to treat it like an exam.

Memorise vocabulary then move onto exam questions. Geography is very formulaic and exam questions repeat themselves - take advantage of that.

Memorise. Your. Case. Studies.

AQA Biology, Chemistry and Physics:

A l l h a i l f r e e s c i e n c e l e s s o n s .

Practice those reading comprehension questions where you’re presented with information and have to answer questions about them. A surprising amount of people get overwhelmed because they haven’t revised it. You can’t! You have to read and understand it within the exam.

Memorise your bloody equations for physics or you will fail. Use Quizlet, learn them all by the end of year 10 even if you don’t know what they’re about yet, practice using them.

Buy the CGP workbooks and complete them! Make sure to buy the answers too, because CGP are scammers.

AQA English Language and Literature:

Identify 10-20 brief quotes from each piece of literature so you have a few for each character and theme. They can overlap! Also, memorise the author’s intentions for each one. With poems (for those of you who have to do them... I’m not salty, I promise) ask your teacher to recommend 5 that match up with the most themes and memorise 3 quotes from each. Remember to analyse the rest of the poems too - any of them could come up so it’s good to have an understanding.

Memorise structures for every question. The examiners will tell you not to use structures. Shut up, I got all 9s. Structures are the best way for slow writers to ensure they get everything they need to in. TETAAC (topic, evidence, terminology, analysis, alternative interpretation, context) works for lit essays and can be modified for every other question. Work out how many paragraphs you can write in 40 minutes and take that into account when planning. Once the plan is done it’s just a matter of making it sound frilly. English: hacked. My normal plan for a lit essay is a one-sentence thesis statement for an intro, 3xTETAAC paragraphs and a conclusion which reiterates everything but better.

Don’t worry if your grade is terrifyingly low to begin with. That’s just how English rolls. You’ll slowly develop the skills you need and start to make 3 or 4 grades of progress throughout year 11.

OCR Art and Design - Graphic Communication:

Think long and hard about whether you want to do graphics or fine art, if your school offers both. Graphics is designing logos, fine art is whatever you want. I should have taken fine art in retrospect.

Make as much work as possible from the very start, even if you haven’t decided on your portfolio project yet. Everything, and I mean everything, can be shoehorned. If you make a lot of work you have some leeway and can leave out your early stuff so your overall portfolio looks better.

Annotate as you go and store all your thoughts digitally. Even if you have no clue what you’re supposed to write in annotations, put down your thought process. It’s easy to tidy up something you wrote a year ago, but it’s really hard to stare at a letter F made out of newspaper and remember where on earth you were going with it.

To make enough work you will need to stay after school often and give up a lot of lunch times. That’s just how it goes. At least with the right crew it can be fun - the combo of my friends and the very chaotic art teachers at my school made my Thursday graphics sessions something to look forward to.

OCR Computer Science:

Use Quizlet flashcards to memorise terms. Being able to correctly define terms is half the battle, literally. You’ll basically get an instant 9 on the first paper if you memorise every term defined in the textbook. Luckily, someone beautiful and generous by the name of sporkified (wink wink) on Quizlet has created two sets with everything you need to know for the entire qualification.

Practice programming in your chosen language before your programming project starts. Learn to do everything mentioned in the textbook and try it out on a sample project. Many will tell you to not bother about the programming project, it doesn’t matter. That’s true to some extent, but excelling in the programming project can tip you up a grade as well as making the algorithm questions on paper 2 easier for you.

Take part in Cyber Discovery. Give it a Google, sign up. It’s really hard if you have no practical computer experience but doing it gave me a real edge with paper 2 which is where you want to focus your energy as it’s weighted more. Also it’s fun.

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writing-with-olive · 4 years ago

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Traditional publishing process

As one of my recent posts says, I’ve been doing some research about the traditional publish process and how it works. While I do not yet have a solid understanding of how long these processes are, I’ve gotten a pretty good sense of what happens and in what order. This is more of a general overview, as more specific details will change between different publishing houses.

(all parts of the process listed below the cut)

1) Querying

When you’re done writing your manuscript, and you have decided it is as polished as it can be with the current resources you have, you start to query agents. This is usually done through email. It is important to make sure you do your research about the agents you want to query beforehand, and don’t query agents who don’t seem to be qualified, or who don’t seem to be the right fit for you or your manuscript. It is better to not have an agent, than to have a bad agent, and querying an agent you won’t want to represent you is a waste of everyone’s time. Make sure to follow the agent’s guidelines when you query.

Your initial query will not be your whole manuscript. That’s way too long for an agent to go through. But if an agent is interested by your submission, they may ask for a partial, which is usually somewhere around the first fifty pages, and/or they may ask for a full, which is your full manuscript. In some cases, you will get an R&R, standing for revise and resubmit, which is pretty much what it sounds like; you will revise your manuscript, and then resubmit it.

2) Choosing an agent

If an agent decides they want to represent your work, you and the agent will get on a call and hash out what the process would be moving forward, and what the relationship between you and the agent would be. Based on this, if you think that the agent is going to be a good fit for you and your book, do NOT say yes right away. Let them know that you would like two weeks to make your decision. This is pretty much industry standerd. In that time, you are going to email all of the other agents who have not gotten back to you and let them know that you have an offer. This gives these other agents a chance to make a counter-offer if they would like. If other agents do make a counter-offer, decide which offer seems like the best one for you and your book after the original two weeks, and let them know.

3) Revising your manuscript

Some, but not all, agents are editorial. This means that they will work with you to revise and polish your manuscript further. If this is the case, you and your agent will work on your book, possibly incorporating rounds of beta readers. Once you and your agent decide that it is the best it can be at this stage, you will begin to go on submission.

4) Going on submission.

When you’re on submission, your agent will begin pitching your manuscript to editors at publishing houses. This is not unlike querying, only on a slightly smaller (though just as important) scale; agents act as gatekeepers, meaning that there are a lot fewer things on submission than there are being queried.

Depending on the relationship you’ve set up with your agent, you may or may not be aware of what editor responses are. Some authors like to know everything that’s going on in the process, others just want to know when an editor picks up your work, leaving the rest to the agent. Both of these options are completely fine, and it has more to do with personal preference than anything else.

5) Acquisitions

If an editor decides that they want to work with you and your book, then you move on to acquisitions. This is when a publisher will pitch a book to the rest of the publishing house. Your book is not alone in these meetings; usually there are several books being pitched in the same time frame. The various teams will discuss whether or not publishing your book makes sense financially, and if there’s a market and readers to sell the book to. Remember: publishing is a business.

6) Getting your book deal

If your book passes Acquisitions and the publisher decides to publish your book, you will get a book deal. It is then up to your agent to negotiate the deal to get you the best possible outcome. Your agent should NEVER go with what the original deal is.

Be careful to read through the whole contract before you sign it. If you’re not careful, you can give away rights that you didn’t intend to, including audio or foreign rights. Also, your publisher may claim rights to the series, meaning that if the book doesnt’ sell well, or you don’t get a deal on future books, you will not be able to publish sequels through another publishing house. Always be wary of phrases such as “in perpetuity”

7) Your advance

In traditional publishing, you will get an advance when you publish a book. This is a sum of money that is payed to you, and is frequently split into two or three parts. The first is usually when you sign your contract, and other important milestones, such as when you complete your manuscript with your editor’s approval, and when you publish. Your advance is the publisher’s prediction of how much money the book will bring in, after the publishing house and your agent have taken their cut (in other words, it’s the publishing house’s prediction of what you will make in royalties off of your book.). So long as you uphold your end of the contract, the money is yours to keep (minus taxes, which are high); you do not have to give any of it back to the publisher. You will not yet earn royalties at this point (more on that ahead)

8) Editing

During the editing process, you will likely work with several different people. The first stage of edits is developmental edits. This is when you’re delving into the deeper structure of your book. During this stage, it is completely possible to cut or add entire scenes, or sometimes large portions of the book to make it the best it can possibly be.

Then there are line edits. This is when you and your editor will go into the sentences and paragraphs. You will be looking for things like flow, pacing within scenes, and redundant phrases or words.

Then there are line edits. This goes in even further. Your editor will look for places where there can be better wording, fix punctuation, and generally clean things up on a word by word level.

Finally there’s the proofread. There are usually several rounds of this, each one to try and catch any of the little mistakes that fell through the cracks on previous rounds of editing. Usually, several people will read through your manuscript to find these little errors.

As you may have noticed, edits start large and big picture, and then narrow down. The point of this is that there’s no use agonizing over trivial mistakes when you may need to cut or add entire chapters. And if you start with the small stuff, you’re just going to have to do it over and over and over as the overall content changes.

7) Promotion and Book Design

While your book is in the later stages of editing, the promo team will begin the promotional campaign. Depending on where you are in the publisher’s list (more advantageous books get pushed nearer to the top), the amount of promo help you will get will vary. You will likely have to help promote your book as well.

This is also the time when cover designers will be creating your book cover and others will be formatting your book. Depending on your contract, you may or may not get a say in the cover design, but the publishing house usually gets the final say.

Once the book is fully formatted, you will also get a number of ARC books (ARC standing for Advance Reader Copy). You can use these books as promotional tools. For example, having people on booktube review your book.

Members of the publishing house may also reach out to places such as libraries and brick-and-mortar bookstores (such as Barnes and Noble) to carry your book

8) Book Launch

When the big day arrives, your book goes live! Congratulations! You have successfully published your book.

9) Royalties

Depending on how well your book does, and how big your advance was, you may or may not earn royalties. The larger your advance, the harder it is to begin earning royalties. The reason is that you have to earn back all of the money from your advance. Meaning that after the publishing house takes their cut, and after your agent has taken their 15%, the cumulative amount leftover must surpass the amount of your advance before you can earn any royalties.

Note:

As I have not published yet, either through the traditional or indie route, I cannot say for sure what this is like on a first-hand account. That being said, what I have listed above is what seemed to be consistant across several sources. If you want to find more information, Alexa Donne’s youtube channel is an EXCELENT resource. If you have more to add, or corrections to make, do not be afraid to reblog with your comments.

#writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #publishing #traditional publishing #traditional publishing process #how to traditionally publish #getting traditionally published #getting published #authors #writing process #publishing process #olive's writing vibes

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yourbestpursuitofachievemen-blog · 5 years ago

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Self Help: How To Set And Achieve Goals

" Plan for the future, because that's where you're going to spend the rest of your life." - Mark Twain

Brin and Cora were two very brave little elves who lived in a land before time. They had heard about a land far beyond the waters where there were magical animals, crystal flowers and all forms of treasures to sparkle your eyes and warm your heart. They had an urge, a driving burning tickling urge that niggled inside them to find and see this wondrous land across the seas for themselves. No-one in their land had ever ventured further than the outer reefs surrounding much of the coastline and their friends and family constantly cautioned them against doing so.

There were no boats in their land designed for long distance water travel, so Brin and Cora set about designing, planning and building one for themselves. As no-one had ever walked the path they were walking before, there was no-one to give them counsel. And as no-one wished to encourage their venture for fear of the dangers they would come across, there was no-one prepared to help them build their boat. Months later after overcoming many obstacles and not a few moments of despair, Brin and Cora stood on the deck of their boat stocked with supplies and waved to their friends and family as they gradually shrank and faded from view. They were on their way!

It was 8 months later after surviving harrowing storms, wild seas, dangerous sea creatures and blistering heat that they spied the outline of land on the horizon. As they edged closer they could see the glitter of gem like leaves in the forests and birds with bold fluorescent plumage began to circle their boat. "Wow", they exclaimed together, "We did it." And without ever setting foot on land, they turned around and began the journey home.

Humans are achieving machines. We are happiest when we have challenging goals we are striving to achieve. We feel good about ourselves when we have attacked and overcome obstacles.Without a goal, we have no direction, without direction, we have no fulfillment. Having a really big dream or goal keeps us going through hardship.

This is illustrated by the story of Victor Frankl who was a psychologist imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp in WWII. Instead of giving in to the overwhelming despair of his situation, he decided to learn from it. He studied what was different about the 1 in 28 people who survived. He found that they weren't necessarily the fittest, the healthiest or the most intelligent people in the camp. He found that those who survived were the ones who had a purpose to live for, a dream of a large enough scope that it gave them a burning desire to overcome any obstacle.

Setting Goals

Setting and achieving goals is a valuable part of discovering who you are and what you are capable of. This knowledge builds your confidence, self-esteem and belief in what you can achieve. It also helps you to overcome a fear of stepping forward in the future. There are some guidelines that are helpful to follow if you wish to achieve success when setting and achieving goals.

Guideline 1: Set Appropriate Goals

A goal is something you strive towards, rather than something you can have right now by adopting a different mindset or choosing to feel a different emotion.

For example, it is possible to be happy right now by thinking about times in the past when you were happy, so 'to be happy' is not an appropriate goal to set yourself.

When you set yourself a goal make sure:

It is something it will take time to achieve.

You can tell whether or not you have achieved it.

There are steps you need to take to achieve it.

If not, then it isn't an appropriate thing to have as a goal.

Guideline 2: The CREATE Formula For Goals

There are a number of different formulae you can use to set goals, but I like to use the CREATE formula:

C Clear and concise

R Realistic

E Ecological

A Affirmative

T Timed

E End Step

Clear and concise: You should be able to state your goal as clearly and concisely as possible. Rather than having 'To make more money' as a goal, the goal should be for example, 'To earn $300 more per week'.

Realistic: It is wise to set goals you believe you can realistically achieve. Doing so strengthens your belief in your abilities to achieve your goals, boosts your self-esteem and makes it easier for you to implement steps to achieve the goal.

Ecological: You seldom operate in a vacuum independent from other people and things, so always consider the ecology of any goals you set yourself. You do this by considering the impact the goal is likely to have upon yourself, the people closest to you and the planet.

Affirmative: Goals are more easily achieved when they are phrased in the affirmative, i.e. towards what you want rather than away from what you don't want.

Timed: Set the date by which you wish to achieve the goal.

End Step: An end step is the final step that lets you know you have achieved your goal. For example, the end step for obtaining a University degree may be attending the ceremony where the degree is awarded. The end step for an overseas trip may be collecting the ticket from the travel agent or stepping off the plane in the other country. The end step is the part of the goal you visualize when using creative visualization techniques.

Guideline 3: There Is Magic In The Written Word

A number of researchers have concluded that people who write their goals down are more successful than people who don't. To keep with the CREATE formula, it is recommended that you write your goals using the following format.

It is now ___________________________ (Future date on which the goal will be achieved) and I am/I have ______________________________________________ (state the end step of the goal succinctly).

For example, assume your goal is to get a new job. You would write the goal as follows:

"It is now March 2014 and I am standing in front of the desk at my new position filled with a feeling of gratitude. I can see my name plaque on the desk."

Making It Happen

"If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney

Now that you have worked out what you want to achieve, all that is left is making it happen. The five step process to achieve your goals is outlined below. The five steps won't, however, help you achieve your goals unless you can honestly say:

I truly desire this goal from my heart.

I believe I can achieve this goal.

I understand and accept what I must do and what I must give up to achieve this goal. (You already have a full life. If you wish to include something new, then you must let go or give up something you already have or do.

For example:

If you wish to obtain further qualifications, the time you spend studying will replace time you previously spent doing other things.

If you wish to lose weight and get fit, you will have to give up some of the foods you love.

If you want to write a book, you may have to forgo watching television.

If you want to become fit and healthy, you may have to spend less time sitting down.

If you wish to overcome alcoholism, you may not be able to meet with your friends at the local hotel on a Friday night.

The five step process to achieve your goals is:

Write it

Plan it

See it

Do it

Reward or revise

Let's examine each of these steps in detail.

1. Write It

I cannot stress enough the importance of writing down your goals. You could even go all the way and get yourself a goal journal.

If you cannot find the time to complete a goal journal you can put a visual reminder of your goal somewhere special so that you will frequently see it and be reminded of it. For example, a picture of the house you are hoping to buy on the fridge, a picture of the job you want above your computer, a picture of the wedding dress you want on your wardrobe.

2. Plan It

Planning for your goals helps you determine the steps you will need to take, the order in which to take those steps, the timeline for implementing the steps and the resources you already have and the resources you will need to obtain to help you achieve the goal.

Sometimes the planning process can be done quickly in your head. At other times, it will be best to write a detailed list. In rare circumstances it is simply not possible to plan for your goal. When this happens bypass this step and be prepared to take action when opportunities associated with the goal present themselves.

3. See It

Creative visualization is a technique for harnessing the power of your unconscious to help you achieve your goals. The process does not require you to believe in any metaphysical or spiritual ideas and is used by a wide range of people from athletes to business leaders. It is as simple as using your imagination to create pictures, sounds, feelings and thoughts relating to achieving your goal. When you visualize your goal and experience the feelings of having achieve it, your unconscious mind is motivated to help you achieve the goal.

Professor Smith from the University of Manchester conducted research to show that the use of creative visualization techniques could even result in increased strength. He conducted an experiment with 3 groups of people:

Group 1 practiced a particular exercise twice a week for a month;

Group 2 imagined doing the exercise twice a week for a month; and

Group 3 (the control group) neither did the exercise nor imagined doing it.

At the end of the month, Professor Smith tested for increased strength (in relation to the particular exercise) and found that:

Group 1 had increased in strength by 33%;

Group 2 had increased in strength by 16%; and

Group 3 showed no increase in strength.

His research showed that merely imagining what we wish to achieve, can assist us to achieve it.

When you use creative visualization techniques, you don't need to visualize the process you will go through to achieve the goal, just the end result. Sometimes the goal will be achieved from following the steps you planned and at other times, the goal will be achieved in ways you cannot begin to imagine.

An example from my own life...

I had just purchased a home and to save money I had done my own legal searches. Unfortunately, I had missed a problem with the council sewerage lines. As with most new home owners, funds in the bank were very limited when the local council rang to tell me that I would shortly have to pay $8,000 to fix the problem. I did not have $8,000 and I had no idea how I was going to get it. I visualized having it in time anyhow. Amazingly, within the week the University where I was working offered me some additional consulting work worth $2,000. I was part way there. A few days after that a Government Department rang me to offer me another $6,000 worth of work with some strange conditions attached. They would have to pay me in advance because it was getting close to the end of their financial year and if they didn't spend the money they had been allocated in their budget, they wouldn't be allocated that amount next year. In the space of 2 weeks and with a few days to spare, the money that I needed had arrived in ways I could not have begun to imagine.

4. Do It

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

It would be extraordinary if:

Ms Right tapped on your shoulder while you were visualizing her;

Prince Charming magically appeared in your lounge room and asked you to spend your life with him;

You won the lottery without first buying a ticket;

A bag of money fell on your head while you were meditating; or

You were offered a job you had not applied for.

In addition to writing goals, preparing plans and visualizing, the achievement of your goals requires you to...

TAKE ACTION and TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OPPORTUNITIES

Try to scratch your nose. Interesting isn't it? You either do scratch your nose or you do not. It is not possible to "try" to scratch it. It is helpful to remove the word "try", from your vocabulary. You will no longer "try" to do something. Instead you will choose to either do it or not to do it.

If you do something every day towards achieving your goals and you find creative ways to make your actions count towards more than one goal, you will be amazed at how quickly your goals become reality.

5. Reward Or Review

Ensure you reward yourself when you achieve your goal. This will increase your motivation towards the achievement of future goals. If you do not achieve the goal it is time to review why the goal was not achieved and either implement new ways to achieve the goal or choose a goal that is more appropriate for you.

Tips For Achieving Your Goals

"I never run 1,000 miles. I could never have done that. I ran one mile 1,000 times." - Stu Mittleman, World Record Holder for Ultra-Distance Running

One of the best tips I ever received in relation to achieving goals was to make my actions count towards more than one goal. When I became a University Lecturer I worked for a wonderful Head of Department who shared some precious wisdom with me on my first day. He said, "Petris, while you are here you are expected to research, study, teach, publish and present seminar papers. If you aren't smart about how you do it, you will be here 90 hours a week to achieve all that is required of you. I don't want you to work hard; I want you to work smart. The trick is to make everything you do count towards more than one goal!" So, if there was a new area of the law, I studied it, researched it, published an article, presented a paper and incorporated it into my classes. By faithfully following his advice I drastically reduced the number of hours I could otherwise have spent achieving my work goals.

It is also helpful to realize that you don't always have to remain directly on target to ensure you ultimately achieve your goal. When you drive from one town to the next, you will make it to your ultimate destination even though your car is seldom pointing directly in the direction of the next town. You will follow the road as it seeks the easier path through valleys and around mountains. Sometimes you will even point in the opposite direction from where you are heading, but if you keep moving you will still make it there.

You will have a higher rate of success achieving goals you desire from the heart as opposed to those you desire on a more intellectual basis. You will know the goals I mean. They are the ones that make your heart sing and it is a joy to pursue. It will give your goals more fuel if you focus upon them from the heart area of your chest. You can do this by being still and allowing yourself to really 'feel' your goals in your heart as you think about them.

Commitment

'Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or paltry - never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Sir Winston Churchill.

To achieve change in your life and to reach your goals requires commitment. People assure me in seminars that they are committed to making change and achieving goals. After you read the examples of committed people from history below ask yourself how committed you are to the achievement of your goals.

Examples of true commitment:

It took 23 submissions before James Joyce's Dubliners was accepted by a publisher.

Walt Disney was turned down 302 times before he got financing for his dream of the "happiest place on earth."

Thomas Edison tried 1,000 substances before he found one that conducted electricity.

Before it sold seven million copies in the USA, Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull was returned by 18 publishers.

Twenty-one publishers turned down MASH by Richard Hooker before it was finally published and became a massive bestseller.

Colonel Sanders received 1,009 refusals before he sold his first chicken recipe.

Richard Adams' Watership Down was rejected 72 times before being accepted.

If you continually quit on your way to achieving goals, you are not practicing commitment. You are, however, practicing a habit of defeat that can be difficult to break as it is largely unconscious. If you know that you usually quit and don't follow through, you are expecting to fail before you even start. Stop this pattern in its path and keep going until you achieve your next goal. It is far better to commence expecting the best from yourself and committing to completing the process no matter what. You are so worth it.

Other goal achieving tips:

Motivate yourself by only choosing goals that align with your values.

Build your confidence by working towards easier and shorter term goals first.

Break goals into smaller more achievable steps. The only way to eat an elephant is one mouthful at a time.

Make the most of opportunities.

Don't take on too much at once.

Have the courage to ask others for help if you need it.

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cindylouwho-2 · 5 years ago

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RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, late February 2020

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles I came across since the early February report, although some may be older than that. I am a bit behind due to my trip last week and other events, but some things here are a bit time-sensitive so I wanted to release this now.

I am still looking into setting up a new ecommerce business forum where we can discuss this sort of news, as well as any day-to-day issues we face. I need some good suggestions for a cheap or free forum space that has some editing tools, is fairly intuitive for inexperienced members, and is accessible. If you have any suggestions, please reply to this post, email me on my website, or send me a tweet. (I will put out a survey once we narrow this down to some good candidates, but if you have any other comments on what you want from such a forum, please include those too!)

As always, if you see any stories I might be interested in, please let me know!

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Since we are seeing more shops closed due to Etsy’s customer service level standards, my blog post on ODR now has major revisions explaining what we have learned, and includes some tips for staying out of trouble and if necessary, appealing a suspension. Please circulate the info widely, as many sellers still haven’t heard about this, and some were closed without having any clue this was possible.

Mobile continues to grow while desktop use is slowly shrinking. It should affect how we design web pages. “Mobile visitors also behave differently from their desktop web counterparts, staying on pages for shorter periods of time, for example.” Other interesting takeaways from this SimilarWeb report: “[Facebook] lost 8.6% of [web] traffic over the past year alone” but increased in app sessions.

The price of domains ending in “.com” will almost certainly be going up soon, and will go up most years after that, unless something changes at the last minute. If you are absolutely certain that you will continue to use the same domain name for your website, blog, ecommerce forwarding etc., then you might consider paying a few years in advance to save a few bucks.

Another article explaining how people are selling thrift store and vintage clothing on Instagram, without setting up a checkout/cart anywhere. (The article focusses on teenagers, but does reference other examples.)

ETSY NEWS

Two weeks ago, Etsy Support posted on Twitter that they were no longer monitoring the account, and asked everyone to use the help page maze instead when they need support. Forum thread here.

Another trend report for 2020 from Dayna Isom Johnson [podcast links & transcript] She leads off with tips on how to get featured: “ so it's incredibly important to see a bright representation that really clearly shows your product...Do be original. I'm always trying to find the latest and the greatest that isn’t already on the shelves...Do be inclusive. ... I'm talking about models of all ethnicities, all genders, all body types, all ages.” Etsy chose chartreuse as their colour of the year: “in the last three months, there's been a 12% increase in searches for green already, and a 55% increase in neon green.” The wedding trends part was mostly already covered in a blog post, but she does also answer a few seller questions.

Website user experience (UX) is a big part of getting people to convert, and an outside group ranks Etsy’s as “acceptable”. Many will be unsurprised that search gets a score of “mediocre” and Accounts & Self-Service get a “poor” grade.

The migration to Google Cloud services is complete, so now Etsy can run more experiments more often, including those involving AI. (Although the forum thread was laughing at the idea of bad reviews helping shops, there is actually some research supporting that, so it is a logical thing to test.)

Etsy sellers in the US, UK & Canada who use Instagram can apply to win a trip to Etsy HQ here, until March 1.

Etsy is launching an Etsy U program which just seems a bit sketchy. Forum thread here.

Reverb (owned by Etsy) named a new Chief Technology Officer on Feb. 18.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google does not confirm every large search update, so this one remains a mystery at the moment, since Google refused to give an answer. That means it’s not a core update.

Another video (with subtitles in several languages) from the SEO for Beginners series from Google, on the basics you need for good website SEO.

If you are interested in “searcher intent”, this 500 person survey asks about what people are really looking for, and what they think of the search results the end up with. Overwhelmingly, they say they prefer organic results to ads, and the majority see targeted ads that they can’t figure out the reason/s behind. “Sixty-eight percent responded that Google adding more ads to the search results would make them want to use the search engine less.” Also, a slight majority preferred text results to images, video, & audio. “When asked which factor had the most significant impact on their decision to click a result, 62.9% responded it was the description, followed by 24.2% who said the brand name, and 13% who said title.” That means that the first part of your Etsy listing description, or the coded meta description on a page on your website, has the most influence on people clicking on your link once they see it.

I usually strongly suggest that people setting up their own websites make sure they do some SEO work & keyword research for their category/shop section pages, and it turns out that there is new research showing I am correct. “Specifically, e-commerce category pages – which include parent category, subcategory and product grid pages with faceted navigation – ranked for 19% more keywords on average than product detail pages ranked for. The additional keywords they ranked for drove an estimated 413% more traffic, based on the keywords’ search demand and the pages’ ranking position. With optimization, those ranking category pages also showed the potential to drive 32% more traffic.”

Semi-advanced: explaining the (seemingly endless) debate on whether subdomains or subdirectories are better for SEO.

SEO study - do you really need to use H1 tags on a page? Maybe not, although some screen readers recognize them as the page title so they help with accessibility. (Etsy & many other marketplaces don’t let you make this coding choice, so don’t worry about it there.)

Confused about how to apply all of these SEO tips I post here to your Shopify site? Good news! Here’s a list of what is most important for Shopify SEO. Note the attention to setting up your category pages, which is something I completely agree with. (it’s by Ahrefs so of course it pushes their tools; you don’t need to pay for that.)

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Some businesses say social media doesn’t work, but maybe they aren’t doing it right. See if you are making one or more of these three mistakes. “Understanding who your target audience is - what they want, what they need, where you fit in, etc. - is critical to maximizing your social media marketing performance.”

Email marketing also works better if you do it right, so here are 5 things you might be doing wrong. And if you like a quick read, here’s an infographic on the psychology of email marketing.

8 ideas for getting more interactions on Facebook (detailed infographic).

More fourth quarter reports continue: Pinterest’s 4th quarter revenue was up 46% but they lost $1.36 billion, and they are introducing a verified merchant program. “Almost all (97%) of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded, according to the company, giving merchants a chance to stand out.”

Want to tap into that Pinterest traffic? You should because “90% of weekly Pinterest users log in to make buying decisions.” Here are 10 ways to get more attention, followers, and pins.

Like almost all social media, Twitter has an algorithm that mediates what users see (although you can turn it off, or use apps such as Tweetdeck to get around it as a reader). Ranking factors include recency, engagement, media and activity. The article includes a few tips on how to make it work for you, but then slides into promoting its app as the solution - you can just skip that part.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Google search ads get more results than Facebook and Instagram, simply because more people who see them want to buy something. “Less expensive products tend to sell better than more expensive ones on Facebook and Instagram, per the study.”

If you are running ads where you can choose your keywords, don’t forget to examine your organic search results and impressions for new words to advertise. Google Search Console is a great source.

If you found Instagram ads too expensive, check out this post on how the ads are priced, which can help you make decisions on your spend.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Amazon has nearly 40% of the US ecommerce market, according to a report by eMarketer. Etsy is not in the top 10; eBay is 3rd behind Walmart.

Sales on Shopify sites during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday long weekend went up 61% to $3 billion in 2019. They claim that the “direct -to-consumer” approach can be successful for both big & small brands.

Japanese authorities are going after Rakuten for the ecommerce company’s push to make its sellers offer free shipping.

eCommerceBytes’ annual Sellers Choice survey placed eBay first out of the online marketplaces that were rate. Note that this is not a scientific survey and largely covers the site’s readership only. Bonanza was the most improved & Etsy showed the worst drop (from 1st to 5th place).

A review of that article last month that says ecommerce sites should have info pages as well as product pages, if only for SEO reasons. The author approves.

The CBC show Marketplace did a large test buying branded items on AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Wish. It turns out that most were fake.

Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans (Libra) finally have a partner: Shopify. The potential benefits include no credit card processing fees.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Younger people (think Gen Z) expect to see gender treated expansively and beyond traditional stereotypes, and they expect this from companies and advertising. “Half of women and four in 10 men in the U.S. now believe that there is a spectrum of gender identities, according to a recent Ipsos poll titled "The Future of Gender is Increasingly Nonbinary." An additional 16% of those surveyed said they know a person who identifies as transgender”

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour)

Google employees are pushing back against the sea change in the company’s culture and values - and some are being fired.

Turns out that the “Peleton Wife” ad might not have hurt them as much as you might think. However, their stock dropped 12% after the fourth quarter report showed a 77% increase in revenue that still managed to be below market predictions. Interesting discussion around going viral in a negative fashion.

#Cindylouwho2newsupdates #seo #search engine optimization #search engine marketing #Etsynews #etsy #social media #Contentmarketing #Content marketing #ecommerce #Smallbiz #Seotips #Customer service #Ppc advertising #onlinemarketing #ecommercetips #EmailMarketing #socialmedianews

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alyssabct · 6 years ago

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Reflective Journaling The Kolb Cycle

A Creative Technology Experience: Cards for Play

The Bachelor of Creative Technologies has deconstructed the pre-established methodology and learning process that was ingrained in me since kindergarten. Our first studio project, Cards for Play, was a deeply meaningful experience, significant to my creative process.

From the beginning, I was stuck in my own paradigmatic thinking. When told to ‘design’ you try to become the ‘designer’: How does one think like a designer? What is their creative process? Unsurprisingly none of us knew what that meant. We had been so overconfident in our abilities and concept but didn’t know how to conceptualise a successful idea that followed an intent. Instead of trying to create the final project, we turned to Who would it be for? And Why? We decided on three main aesthetics of play and formed a statement of intent. Doing so, established guidelines for our concepts.

We then began working on our concept: Teamwork Trivia. In hours, we created a working prototype ready to test. Teamwork Trivia went under many modifications and had gone through several play-tests; from this, we were able to iterate and improve our cards until we were happy with its conclusion. I was given, without accord, the cumbersome role of the designer. I had to create the design for the cards, design the rule sheet, film, voice and edit the video explaining how to play Teamwork Trivia. What I found was that the design process for the cards themselves was quite an iterative process:

In my first design, the colours didn’t make sense, as Humans tend to associate and connote meaning behind certain colours. This led me to research more thoroughly into different ideas around colour theory. After revising my old design two more modifications were made before the final design was settled.

Observation and Analysis

The first observation to be made is how our group managed to become organised and focused. I credit the lecturers who took their time to explain design thinking. The activities that revisited the importance of intent and purpose, reinforced and established our direction and foundation for our project. I also have to credit my self directed study. I put emphasis on rereading and taking notes from the lecture slides, readings and videos we were directed to bring out more of my understanding of the brief. Communication in our group was essential. I found that everyone was keen to hear ideas and there was never a lack of them. Constant communication through all modes was extremely effective, we communicated through post-it notes and messages and could also spend long discussions to pave a direction we all were confident in.

Communication leads me into my next observation: working in a male-dominated group. I had gone to a single-sex school for 7 years and I had only just begun to make male friends. Joining this group meant I was the only female in a group of 5 males. I felt that at first this brought discomfort, I was too girly, too giggly and too flamboyant. Shortly after, I felt welcome and less alone, some of them even joining in on some of my strange vernacular, a small victory for me. Critically, I wish I had spoken up on comments, behaviour and quick remarks that had made me feel uncomfortable. Going into technology I knew that it would be male-dominated and that I would and may always have to work my up from what I am perceived to be worth. I believe that’s why from the first day I tried so hard. I worked so hard to be more than a girl, more than a team member. I knew I wanted to be invaluable. It’s not an ambition I abhor but one that I should be wary of, sometimes making an impact just requires you do the best you can.It has always been evident that the STEM world is male-dominated and has been for centuries. It is also evidenced that women exhibit strong passive and submissive behaviour when they find themselves the minority of a workplace. A study conducted about how women behave, work, and communicate in the office, found that women, by far, use passive language over their male counterparts. And secondly, that women complete 10% more tasks than men. Even when 54.9% of tasks are assigned to women, compared to 45.1% assigned to men. (Hoffman, P, (2018) I believe that this evidence does ring true to my assumptions beforehand that there is pressure to work harder than men, that women feel obligated to show their worth whilst also being passive to the behaviours around them.

Reflect and Learn

Breaking Paradigms Paradigms are our common knowledge, a methodology that we can apply to the present. But paradigms can be restrictive, a notion we explored in ICT and further in my own research. At the beginning I displayed paradigmatic thinking, for example, my approach to the brief was to start with the finalised concept instead of beginning where my goals, values and intentions for the project were. By having this approach our group was consistently finding dead ends. Our project benefited greatly by experimenting and making mistakes. By making mistakes I was developing my learning process but I had viewed it as costly to my progress: another paradigm. To experiment and make mistakes you need to plan your creative process, making room for failures and improvements. “We need to learn the ability to work with the existing paradigms whilst also striving to look beyond them for creative alternatives.” (Chan, J, et al, 2015) This is what Creative Technologies is, it is a paradigm creating itself, but in combination, a hunger for other creative alternatives.

Iteration, User Testing and Reflection From the beginning, we were told that iteration and reflection were key to this project. Without iterating, testing and our blogs I don’t think our project would have turned out as well as it had. Iteration, in the design world, refers to improving something through the act of repeating. Iteration requires that you change your product in order to achieve the goals of your project more effectively. Our iteration came from play-tests. After every play-test, we made feedback and pointed out subtle changes that would improve the cards, ones that suited our goal for them. Play-tests also gave us a sense of the kind of experience the user will have and if the cards were enjoyable to play with or not. The notion that one is never finished is quite true, as there can always be modifications and changes made to improve whatever you're working on. What I learnt and better yet phrased as “good ideas rarely come in singular creative leaps, fully formed like Athena from the brow of Zeus; instead, they more often come from the sweat of his brow building on the labours of others.” (Turaga, R, 2018) Good ideas come from iteration, from constant repetition for the sake of good ideas.

Plan and Experiment

What did I learn from my Creative Technologies Experience? I learnt that being realistic with yourself is harsh but vital to keep yourself on track. For example, instead of putting pressure on myself to design cards in a day, try giving myself more time to approach the task. The next lesson I learnt was failure. I learnt that it was okay when a prototype, concept or idea gets shut down, isn’t completed or is abandoned. It’s okay to change direction or disagree as. Is there any other way I could have approached this assessment?. Most definitely. However, hindsight’s 20/20, not being able to know what to do at the time is frustrating but ask yourself next time; Am I fully equipped with the knowledge, skills and ability to overcome this task or do I need more advice, time and resources? Being able to know your limits and when you need to ask for help is essential. Asking yourself if you’re comfortable is another important question, if you aren't comfortable with how you are treated, your group or the material you're working with it's important to address it, find the root cause and find solutions. The last question that I would ask myself is have I done enough? Have I done the work I wanted? Have I contributed what I expected and how can I do more? What motivates and encourages iteration and improvement is constant reflection.

References:

Turaga, R. (2018). Breaking Paradigms for Creativity and Success. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=130776570&site=eds-live

Chan, J., & Schunn, C. D. (2015). The importance of iteration in creative conceptual combination. Cognition, 145, 104-115. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.08.008

Hoffman, P. (2018). State of the Workplace | Part 1: Gender. Retrieved from https://hive.com/state-of-the-workplace/gender-2018/

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capiturecs · 7 years ago

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Angst Recs (part 1)

Broken links have been replaced and as many as I've found link to AO3. As I've been saying, these fics are in the order I first recced them, updating all the lists will take a while, but I'm getting there. :) Please mind the warnings in each fic, either in the header or the tags. <3 A Secret History or here at AO3 by warholhp (NC-17, 20K) Summary: A secret history is a version of history at odds with commonly accepted historical narrative, a history claimed to have been deliberately suppressed or forgotten. Harry Potter, struggling to make a life for himself after the war, is about to discover his. Content/Warning(s): Memory loss, contains descriptions of past child abuse. Says The Magpie To The Morning (Sorrow, Take Your Own Advice) by femmequixotic (NC-17, 34K) Summary: It's terribly bad form, sleeping with your ex when you're still half in love with the bastard. Content/Warning(s): infidelity The Uninvited Guest by winnett (NC-17, 20K) Summary: Harry is cursed with an undeniable need by a spell gone sour by age and disuse, and only Draco can calm his uninvited guest. Content/Warning(s): dubious consent (sex pollen of sorts) Bad Company or here at Skyehawke by furiosity (NC-17, 9,7K) Summary: Throughout the war's duration, Harry had imagined a lot of things about its end. Just not this. The Third by samaelthekind (NC-17, 17K) Summary: The war is over, and Draco finds himself drawn to Harry, even though he hates himself for what he's become. Something has to change, or break, and soon, and Draco's pride touches off more than he could have expected. Content/Warning(s): dubious consent For Whatever Ails You by frayach (NC-17, 17,9K) Summary: It’s Christmas Eve and everyone has to write a poem telling the deepest truths of their hearts. With Amortentia no longer coursing through their veins, what will Harry and Draco have to say to each other? The Promise by frayach (NC-17, 4,5k) Summary: Draco made two promises that pulled him in opposite directions. He can only fulfil one. Stone of Hope by dm_p (R, 5,5K) Summary: Draco Malfoy, a prisoner in Azkaban, has been accused of kidnapping and murdering Pansy Parkinson. Auror Harry Potter fights to prove his innocence. As Souls From Bodies Steal By femmequixotic (NC-17, 41K) Summary: Hope may be found in the oddest of places, even in the bleakness of winter. Warning(s): suicide of minor character, past non-con/rape Coins by inell (NC-17, 2,6K) Summary: Coins make a certain jingling sound whenever they are tossed onto the top of a wooden bureau. Warning(s): Prostitution That Which Divide Us or here at LJ (tag) by oldenuf2nb (NC-17, 130K) Summary: Three years after what would have been their seventh year at Hogwarts, the war between the forces of light and Voldemort's minions grinds on. But even within the ranks of the Order of the Phoenix there are vast disagreements over what is good for 'the Chosen One' and his volatile relationship with Draco Malfoy has many on edge. Sometimes even the best intentions can reap disaster. A Good Man by rickey_a (NC-17, 27,5K) Summary: Harry’s not sure what he wants to do with himself after the war. Making Draco Malfoy into a good man sounds like a promising idea, but the truth is that it’s a journey for two. Warning(s): a bit dark but it evolves, non-con/dub-con w/remorse, slavery and lemon bars Every You, Every Me by daftfear (NC-17, 49,8K) Summary: I thought I had already hit the lowest point in my life, but as the universe seems intent on proving, I was wrong. The only thing that could possibly make this worse is Potter. And more Muggles. Warning(s): Drug use, attempted rape, violence, angst Rising From The Ashes by oldenuf2nb (R, 31K) Summary: Draco Malfoy never knew that he was, for a short time, Master of the Elder Wand. He also never expected to be saved from a fate worse than death by Harry Potter, of all people. But when "The Chosen One" chooses not to save his father, Draco sets out on a course to either reclaim the wand or make Potter pay, or both. Better Off This Way by silentauror (R, 6K) Summary: It's a week before Harry and Draco's 2-year anniversary, and the fights have gotten worse than ever before. This Day by umbralin (NC-17, 11,4K) Summary: There are days that just pass you by, and there are days that could change everything. And sometimes you can’t tell the difference. Unintended by furiosity (NC-17, 21K) Summary: Every little thing between them had been unintended, accidental, fortuitous. Warning(s): Voyeurism, wanking, orgasm denial, Parseltongue, seduction, cock worship, bondage, some dirty talk, slight ambiguous consent, mild D/s. Powerful Men by frayach(R, 8,9K) Summary: The Battle of Hogwarts was lost, but after ten years of tyranny and terror, Harry Potter has finally defeated Voldemort. Slowly, those who suffered the most under Voldemort’s reign – the half-bloods, the Muggleborns and the blood traitors – emerge from their enslavement, literally and figuratively, seeking refuge and comfort and healing from a group of volunteers, organized by Harry’s friend Hermione Granger, working out of the half-ruined St. Giles-Without-Cripplegate Church. New friendships are kindled, laughter shared, and secrets spoken, and all the while a bell tolls. The final message from one man to another, whose deepest secret only now does he understand. Warning(s): Rentboy; off-stage mayor character death; and frank discussions of bodily functions, torture, grief, death and love. Getting There by rickey_a (NC-17, 20,7K) Summary: An attack on Malfoy Manor ends up being not what it first seemed, as Auror Harry Potter finds out. Hermione Granger-Weasley finds herself appointed as Draco's Healer, designated to work with him, the survivor of a suicide attempt. Taking his first steps down the road of self-healing, Draco discovers that life is worth living, and there's probably room for someone else to share his path. Warning(s): attempted suicide A Hundred Visions and Revisions by oflights (R, 11K) Summary: Harry doesn’t really like remembering. As he’s grown older, he’s found that discovering or creating or even making things up are all much less painful than remembering.

#drarry #drarry recs #drarry squad #drarry rec list #genre: angst

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howdoyouwriteanapplication9-blog · 4 years ago

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Writemypaper4me Org Review

Writemypaper4me Org Review Perhaps because they imagine the last word goal is righteous. Perhaps as a result of there are tens of millions of unemployed people on this nation and they feel fortunate to have a job in a contracting industry. Booker Prize Finalist Chigozie Obioma shares a playlist of songs that he writes to, is inspired by his travels, and presents moments of reflection. Poet Mark Nowak shares a haiku train he developed for reckoning with the pandemic on the Worker Writers School, PEN America’s writing program for low-wage staff. Álvaro Enrigue, the founding father of PEN’s DREAMing Out Loud Program, introduces us to the writing workshop he created to amplify the voices of DREAMers. Even now, I am assured that most individuals at The Times do not hold these views. In the current setting, competitors is fierce and even the smallest error in your CV could be pricey. Hire our experts to create a CV that may showcase you in the best possible gentle. We clarify every inquiry and offer you rapid suggestions as a result of we care about your time and satisfaction. When you set your deadline, we make the maximum efforts to investigate, arrange and ship your paper punctually. In the wake of the international media consideration, WMSCI withdrew the staff’s invitation to attend. A decade later, CSAIL alumni replicate on their paper generator and reveal a new faux-convention project. YA author Emily X. R. Pan takes us on a deep dive into her favourite part of writing, the revision course of, which she proves is extra enjoyable than you would possibly think. Our last PEN to Paper episode features multidisciplinary artist and PEN/Faulkner Award-profitable novelist James Hannaham on the way to write authentic characters. My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the topic of fixed bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. My work and my character are overtly demeaned on company-extensive Slack channels where masthead editors often weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this firm is to be a really “inclusive” one, whereas others submit ax emojis subsequent to my name. Keep your reMarkable in its cover whereas working. Designed in conjuction with reMarkable 2, Book Folio is wise and useful protection on your paper pill. The paper of record is, increasingly, the document of these dwelling in a distant galaxy, one whose considerations are profoundly faraway from the lives of most people. Part of me needs I could say that my expertise was unique. But the truth is that mental curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a legal responsibility at The Times. Marker Plus is an unrivalled digital writing instrument. A second sensor on the Marker Plus’ top end, permits you to erase by simply flipping it the other way up like a traditional pencil. Designed to ship simply the best friction and draw digital ink on reMarkable with incredibly low lag, Marker and Marker Plus are inseparable from the paper-like expertise. Exceptionally exact instruments, all the way down to the smallest particulars. This will come within the type of a tutor, a research assistant, or only a e-book to lead you throughout your research process. “We will find great which means and satisfaction in having endured this historic check collectively,” President Reif advised new and returning students. Still other New York Times workers publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no worry that harassing me might be met with acceptable action. A CV is your chance to shine and to current your finest face to a potential employer, a tutorial establishment, or another group or entity seeking to study you. It might be helpful should you’re writing for a class project or to get a mission, to find some assistance together with your study abilities. You may not realize it, however you will profit tremendously by having someone who can assist you together with your research.

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vcg73 · 7 years ago

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Witch!Kurt #28: Kurt’s Turn

I second guessed the song choice a lot, but it was meant to be something Kurt would never choose for himself so I went ahead with it.

Friday afternoon tech was a study in organized chaos. Actors old and young had arrived in the large auditorium, only to find themselves pushed and pulled all over the stage as prop masters, set designers, costumers, and lighting techs from across the student body of NYADA swarmed over them, measuring and marking. Kurt himself was everywhere at once, guiding the action, issuing direction and answering questions with a level of ease and self-assurance that would have shocked most of his high school teachers, but virtually none of his peers. He was in his element and this project was his baby. Kurt had mapped everything out inside his mind so many times that he knew exactly what he needed from every single person.

Far from being hesitant to follow these directions, the other students were pleased to have such a steady hand on the wheel. Kurt asked nothing of his crew that he was not willing to do himself and it was clear as the day progressed that unlike with many other student projects, Kurt knew when to take control and when to back off and let an expert handle things. What’s more, he gave credit and praise where it was due as he wove and danced among the crowd. He had also made up a mock Playbill for the production that included the name and department of every single individual who had helped him bring his vision to life, much to the crew’s appreciation.

Everyone worked like a colony of busy bees to transform Kurt’s white-boarded directions into a working production, nodding and muttering among themselves as they jotted down notes and checked things off the master task list. The world of ‘The Real Housewives of Albany’ began to materialize around them, spreading to fill the large staging area more smoothly than anyone had rightfully expected.

Out of deference to his cast of senior citizens, Kurt had tried to keep the staging modifications to a minimum, taking up some of the extra space with a collection of vintage furniture from the prop building, but the veterans proved to be troopers who loved every minute of the preparation, happily offering suggestions and encouragement wherever they could. Andy Collins was in his element, full of smiles and compliments, flirting with anyone who stood still long enough. Maggie Banks was like a tiny drill sergeant, barking orders to her fellow Lexington residents and passing along Kurt’s instructions to the rest with brisk efficiency. Mary Ellen Kaufman and Kate Woodrow, playing Maggie’s two sisters, both had limited mobility but excellent memories and they cheerfully pitched in wherever they could help.

As Kurt had feared, a high speed storm out was beyond Mary Ellen’s physical capabilities, but then he had an idea, suggesting that after the big argument in Act 1, she and her son – played by one of the Apples – should dramatically exit to the left as he pushed her wheelchair off the stage, while Mary Ellen went to the right using a walker. As soon as they had tested this idea, Kurt knew it was a keeper. The ‘dramatic’ exit took almost a full minute as the eighty-five year old shuffled her way across the large stage with an attitude that could have put Rachel Berry’s best diva antics to shame and every crawling second just made the scene funnier. By the time she made it all the way past the curtain, the student actors and techs were almost in tears trying to stifle their laughter.

By the end of the day, everyone was tired but elated. They had only the full dress rehearsal to get through on Monday and then another day to make any necessary last-minute adjustments and it would be show time. It was nerve-wracking, but at the same time deeply satisfying. Even if the dress rehearsal fell apart in chaos, he could feel it in his bones that the final production would be a huge success. Everything had come together like magic today and he hadn’t even used any of the real stuff!

NYADA projects were fully expected to take months to develop. It was more usual than not for a student to keep adding, changing and revising their work right up to the deadline of the last two weeks of the school year. This inevitably led to a certain amount of procrastination, a few emotional breakdowns, more than one outright failure, and a lot of competition for venues and attendance.

As a junior, Kurt had been required to complete a work-study, spending a minimum of 80 hours with one or more willing theater veterans, learning from their experience. The next step had been to show what that internship had taught him, using what he had learned from his mentor(s) to complement the skills he was learning at NYADA and then parlay that valuable combination into a presentable work of his own. That Kurt had managed to get a fully fledged original musical ready to stage by the first of February was practically unheard of and knowing that gave him some doubts. Would he be one of the over-ambitious failures? Was he rushing things? But another part of him, the side of Kurt that had always been secure in his own style and confident in his own talent no matter how many nay-sayers he encountered, knew that he was ready.

He had first conceived the idea last year, after meeting Maggie and co-starring in her production of “Peter Pan” at the retirement home and he had been working on the project in his own time long before it came time to turn in his proposal to the faculty. The “Old Housewives” story was already sketched out and the songs half-written by the time he approached Dean Tibideaux for permission to do his junior work-study with the actors at the Lexington Home for Retired Performers, knowing that his particular idea would require some licensing permissions from the owners of the various Housewives television programs. Fortunately, a request from the prestigious New York Academy of Dramatic Art was not unusual, even in Hollywood circles and the permissions had been granted in plenty of time for Kurt to proceed.

Too much revising and second-guessing at this stage would only be a detriment. Kurt’s fellow actors and stage-crew knew the show as well as he did by now and it would not be fair to start tweaking everything just because he was starting to get a little nervous about the approaching performance.

Adam, having been through his own first staging at NYADA nearly four years ago, agreed with this and advised Kurt to put the show away for the weekend and concentrate on other things.

“I didn’t follow my own good advice at all,” he admitted when Kurt questioned the self-deprecating shake of the head that had accompanied this suggestion. “In fact, I was a right fool. I had done my junior work-study with Michael Foster Pellam and I was so sure that I was meant to follow in his hallowed footsteps that I conceived the brilliant plan of performing a one-man medley of the Bard’s greatest soliloquies.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Kurt said. “I’ve heard you recite Shakespeare a few times and you’re amazing at it.”

Adam smiled warmly. “Well, you may be a bit biased on my behalf. I will concede that I’m a decent actor, though composing and stage-craft are my real loves, but while I may not have been as full of myself as most of the young divas who grow like weeds in the NYADA fertilizer, I was absolutely certain that I could handle this task with no difficulty. After all, was I not an Englishman born and bred? Was I not the grandson of the great June Dolloway?” He struck a dramatic pose with one hand clutched to his chest, making the other two laugh. Adam grinned and shook his head. “Gran was a lauded actress in her day, before she retired from performing to built up her talent agency with my grandfather and I was convinced in all my not-quite-21-year-old arrogance that I had inherited the entire crop of apples from that particular tree.”

Kurt laughed at his rueful sarcasm. “Something tells me that the one-man Shakespearen extravaganza didn’t go too well.”

“And you would be correct. I had declined all help and suggestions from my friends and had worked myself down to a frazzled nub the week before I was to go on. I rarely ate, hardly slept and must have changed my mind about the speeches I wanted to perform at least a dozen times. I kept deciding it was perfect, then recalling a different one that I was sure would impress Professors Utley, Cameron, and Kurtz far more than what I had already chosen. Finally, on the day of my performance, I went out thinking I had everything in order.”

Already cringing in sympathy with the younger version of his beloved, Kurt asked, “What happened?”

“To begin, I had been so neglectful with my eating habits during the last month of the school year that I had managed to lose nearly a stone, but hadn’t considered that my costume would need to be taken in accordingly, so I looked rather like I’d been raiding my dad’s closet. Assuming that he owned a doublet.”

“Doesn’t everyone?” Kurt said, batting his eyes and drawing a chuckle.

“Plus I was so frazzled from forty-eight hours with no sleep that I had entered something of a fugue state. I started off reciting a passage from “As You Like It” and without quite realizing it, I segued into an unrelated piece from “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. Then suddenly I realized that I was giving the wrong soliloquy and forgot my lines. I just stood there like an absolute git for a good thirty seconds before Professor Utley gave me a cue so I could begin the next piece. It was the classic ‘to be, or not to be’ soliloquy from “Hamlet” and that went reasonably well. I’d even venture to say that my haggard state helped me to do an unusually convincing job of it, until I reached the line ‘to sleep – perchance to dream: aye there’s the rub’ and fell prey to the power of suggestion, whereupon I yawned like a great gaping beast and set off the entire judging panel, which got me started laughing. And as you may recall, that piece isn’t exactly meant to be giggled through.”

By now, Kurt was doing some giggling himself, though he tried to hide it. “Oh, poor baby Adam. You must have been so embarrassed.”

“I was, but fortunately I was able to pick it up and finish before I could forget the rest of my performance. And as I had got all the way through it, however butchered it may have been, I at least had no worries about receiving an incomplete. Not surprisingly, I did not receive the best marks in my class that year, but to my good fortune one of the ballet dancers tripped over her toe shoes and fell off the stage into the orchestra pit that same grading period. Her broken leg saved my sorry arse and I did not receive the lowest marks either. Combined with my mostly excellent work over the rest of the year, I managed to successfully pass into senior year, but I did so with a slightly tarnished reputation and a sadder and wiser heart.”

Kurt smiled, half suspecting the story to be fiction but appreciating it nonetheless. “So, what you’re getting at is that I shouldn’t over-think my show next week? That I should get some rest this weekend and start fresh next week?”

Adam beamed at him. “Precisely! It’s brilliant just the way it is and your entire team is ready to go. You’ll relax and concentrate on other matters this weekend then have your final rehearsal on Monday and sail through in Bristol fashion on Wednesday.”

The perfectionist side of Kurt was tempted to argue, but he knew that Adam was right. The show was something to be proud of and he had worked hard to make it so. “Okay, you win. What do you say we work on our wedding plans instead?”

“Love to,” he agreed, “but first, how about I get you off to a good start with some of that helpful distraction, eh?” He hitched his blond brows playfully and ‘attacked’ Kurt with a tight hug and a kiss that made his toes curl.

~*~*~*~*~

With his fiancé’s advice in mind, Kurt spent the weekend finishing up his contribution to Isabelle’s upcoming Spring Showcase, working on the Mid-Winter Critique that was scheduled to be performed just two days after his show, and writing his wedding vows. That last ‘chore’ was the most rewarding and most difficult. The ceremony at the courthouse would be a simple civil service, exchanging rings and pledging “I Do’s” before a judge and their small party of witnesses, then going on to the reception. But from what Elliott had been telling him, the earlier rite with his coven would be a spiritual ceremony that would require a more formal and heartfelt exchange. For that, he wanted his words to be perfect.

Speaking of words, Kurt could not help but smile as he looked over the song that Adam had told him had been a gift from Lord Tubbington. Adam was to be starting his new job at the tea shop tomorrow and had decided that the occasion warranted a new shirt. Since he was feeling good today, he’d asked Elliott to give him both a lift and a second opinion on whatever he ended up choosing. Afterward, he had got them both an invitation to jam with the Apples. Elliott did not attend their school, but any friend of Adam and Kurt’s was a friend of theirs, to the group’s eyes. Not coincidentally, this day out would give Kurt a few hours of privacy. He was far from shy when it came to performing, but he hated being listened to when he was picking his way through an unfamiliar song and Adam knew that. It still caused Kurt to marvel sometimes that his fiancé could be so casually accepting of such simple concepts as the need for a little personal space, after Blaine had always made him feel like he was committing a felony if he wanted time alone.

Flipping the sheet music, Kurt idly wondered what had made Tubbington buy this piece. The cat was correct in his belief that Kurt was not a fan of country music. Living in a small Ohio town with more than its share of rednecks, it had been tough to escape from country and southern rock. To a young Kurt, constantly ribbed if not outright mocked for the Broadway tunes and power pop ballads that he personally preferred, that music had felt like an anthem to the intolerance that people like him were forced to endure on a daily basis.

However, as he softly hummed the tune while sight-reading the notes, this song began to appeal to him. It had come out before he was born, but the song had enjoyed a long shelf life and still popped up frequently at weddings and dances. Often enough, in fact, to make it feel a bit too cliché to include in his and Adam’s own wedding reception. But as a stand-alone piece for the Mid-Winter Critique, it might do very nicely. A bit simplistic by NYADA standards and there was a chance he would be docked a few points for that, but it was still a solid song that had good potential.

All he would need to do was slow the arrangement, perhaps drop most of the instrumentation and play it as a piano solo while he sang. He was no maestro, but Kurt wasn’t half bad on piano and he had never demonstrated that particular skill at school. He knew that Carmen didn’t always like the ‘distracting’ dancing and props that he enjoyed, he’d had past notes telling him so, so she would probably appreciate a simple performance as long as he put heart and a decent amount of technique into this.

Turning back to the first page, he began to sing out loud.

“Our love is unconditional. We knew it from the start. I can see it in your eyes. You can feel it from my heart. From here on after, let’s stay the way we are right now. And share the love and laughter, that a lifetime will allow.”

A lifetime with someone you loved could be as short as a few years, or even a few months. Kurt hoped and even prayed though he could not have said to whom, that this time his life with Adam would last a lot longer.

“I cross my heart, and promise to, give all I’ve got to give, to make all your dreams come true. In all the world, you’ll never find, a love as true as mine.”

He would have to remember to thank LT for bringing him this music the next time he saw him. Country song or not, the lyrics spoke to him.

“You will always be the miracle, that makes my life complete. As long as there’s a breath in me, I’ll make yours just as sweet. As we look into the future, it’s as far as we can see. So let’s make each tomorrow, be the best that it can be.”

Finding himself unexpectedly tearing up, he let the music trail away. Adam’s unwavering love and trust were a kind of miracle. As was his endless patience, particularly back when they first dated and Kurt was struggling to let go of a love that had pierced and twisted itself around his heart like barbed wire, holding him in a painful, still-bleeding grip that he had been too afraid of causing deeper pain to let go of once and for all.

Adam had given Kurt a new dream, a new reason to trust and the courage to start over again. Even after Blaine’s self-serving menace had cost Adam everything, somehow that beautiful soul had survived and kept faith. Today he continued to love Kurt as truly and deeply as any human being could. He had held on to the promise of a better happier future together and now that future was within their grasp.

Wiping his eyes, Kurt closed the music sheets before picking the booklet up and moving to the center of the room. Looking around the empty loft, Kurt’s eyes traveled the large space, pausing at the spot that had been the center of his coven’s warding circle on the day he had first learned of his newly realized Potential. His perusal continued slowly across furniture, pictures, little pieces of a happy life that had transformed the loft into a true home.

The deep armchair that Adam’s dad had Transported all the way from the Crawford family home in Essex, to help his recovering son be comfortable during his recovery. Dani’s red bean-bag chair in the corner; a place to flop down with her guitar and strum while the gang hung out and talked. That odd mosaic-tiled floor lamp that Brittany had made and been so very proud to give them in place of a crappy IKEA lamp that Blaine had left behind. The sectional sofa that Tubbington had nicknamed “The Accordion” after Johnny, Kurt and Elliott had manhandled it into the apartment to replace the old one that had held too many bad memories of the past.

So many changes. So many things that somehow belonged together, no matter how odd or different they might look from the outside. Kurt and Rachel had cohabitated this space, with Santana, Brody, Blaine and Sam coming and going as they pleased; and Kurt had lived more or less harmoniously with all of them, but there had always been a sense of ‘Mine’ and ‘Yours’ about everything here. Kurt had felt the need to fiercely protect his individuality, as represented by his furniture and decorations. As if letting go of even one of those visual representations of his presence would be to erase him.

It had not been a conscious act but looking back, Kurt knew that had felt defensive and on edge most of that time. He had never felt appreciated, or even particularly welcome in his own home. The more the others seemed to be pushing him out, or treating him like a servant who had no real place of his own, the more stubbornly he clung to this apartment’s visual identity; to the proof that Kurt Hummel was here and he would not be erased.

He smiled, shaking his head. How strange it seemed now. Everything in this loft, from the furniture, to the mismatched assembly of coats and hats constantly decorating the rack by the door, was now a study in willing compromise. And somehow, everything fit together and worked together just as the coven did. Just as he and Adam did.

Drawing a deep breath, Kurt let it out slowly, finding his center and drawing the magic to him. He remembered the first time he had done this, when he had held on to the magic, afraid to let to go even when it started to feel painfully overwhelming because he feared he would never be able to feel that way again. Dani had advised him to let go, assuring him that the power would always be inside him. And Kurt had not questioned her, or Brittany, or any of the others. For the first few weeks of training as a witch, he had somehow given them his trust with little hesitation, allowing them to guide and protect and occasionally correct him when he needed it.

But when Adam had returned from the Void and Kurt had learned just how badly Blaine had mistreated them both, he had withdrawn into the safety of his own space. Without even realizing it, he had starting shutting everyone else out. Even Adam and Elliott had been shut out to a degree. Kurt had used the need to protect Adam in his painfully vulnerable state to push them all away. The reminder of Blaine and how easily trust could be turned against him had brought Kurt’s protective walls slamming shut around him. The rigid control of his emotions and distractions of his all too busy life had given him a reason to avoid using all but the most rudimentary magic. Because if he used the magic, if he let the power inside him grow and develop, then he would have to reopen that channel that had formed between himself and his coven.

It was a chasm that Kurt had not been able to bridge, or even to see, for a few weeks. He had been frustrated that the coven seemed to expect so much from him, annoyed that they weren’t being open with him, hurt that they seemed to be excluding him from discussions; but he had been doing the exact same thing to them. He had seen how thrilled they all were to revive the bonds of friendship and togetherness. Had felt the rightness, of putting the puzzle pieces together into a coherent picture, that had filled him repeatedly during the recent blizzard weekend that they had all spent together.

Friday at school, working with so many different people from different departments, majors, and even generations, trusting each person to contribute to the production as a whole, Kurt had finally seen what should have been obvious the entire time. He had had faith in all of those people to do right by him. He had given his trust that they would be up to the challenge and bring all the individual pieces together into a satisfying whole, and they had responded with enthusiasm and enjoyment, giving their best in return.

Working on his Finals project had been such a fitting analogy for his life as a coven leader that he felt stupid for not making the connection earlier.

Trust was hard. It always had been, ever since Kurt was a little boy who had trusted doctors and nurses to perform a miracle that could not be delivered. He had trusted his dad to always be there for him and that had been let down painfully, though that relationship was finally being rebuilt. He had trusted his friends to be as much in his corner as he was in theirs and they let him down repeatedly; something that could not be entirely attributed to Blaine’s interference. He had trusted adults in authority, only to be disappointed by their narrow minds and uncaring attitudes. He had trusted his loving heart to someone who had treated it like an emotional raquet-ball.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, he had stopped trusting himself.

It was time for that to change. Kurt had put his faith in Adam and allowed that healing love to mend his broken heart. He had put down tenuous roots with his band and they had bloomed into something bigger and better than he had ever dreamed of. He had taken a chance on Brittany Pierce and Lord Tubbington the day they had proven to be anything but “fair weather” friends and received a gift beyond his wildest imagining. And now he was starting to exercise confidence again, taking charge of his working life, his school life and the training of his powers that would help him thrive in his magical life.

But before he could truly be a leader, before he could move forward and conquer his fears and his past in the person of his ex, Kurt had to believe in himself. The coven was constantly reinforcing the need to be comfortable with his magic and to practice his fine control. Kurt knew he needed to do that without anyone else around to catch him if he stumbled.

Taking another deep breath, he found the magic and willed it to grow. He turned toward the mirror and blinked his Sight to life. Seeing the aura flash bright and blinding, he smiled, realizing it had been a long time since he actually looked at himself this way and appreciated what it meant. Magical auras did not reflect the way regular light did, but Brittany had very seriously explained to him one day about how fairy tales with magic mirrors in them were about witches who had infused their regular looking glasses with magic, and that real witches could do the same thing.

Kurt had spent a lot of time in front of this mirror when he was making new outfits, primping over his hair, and perhaps most importantly, while practicing his singing and doing good-luck rituals during his father’s cancer battle. All of those things had infused the glass with his personal magical signature, long before he was consciously aware that he could do such a thing. It was the reason he could See his own magical Potential/Power in this glass and not in others, which had confused him when he first started looking at the world through the eyes of witchcraft.

Leaving the Sight on, he turned it inward and found the connection to his coven, allowing that feeling to drift outward along the strings of power he shared with Adam, Elliott, Dani, Monica, Johnny, Tubbington, Brittany and Santana, and giving the strings a soft ‘pluck’ that immediately resonated back with a startled alertness as they each recognized his call. Kurt willed a sensation of calm back, reassuring everyone that he was just practicing and not calling for help. A less defined sensation of approval and warmth came to Kurt as he lightly withdrew the connections. It had not been quite like the emotional bond he shared with Adam, or the Witch-Familiar bond he felt with Elliott. More like the tap of a shoulder or wave of the hand. Just a way to say hello. It was heartening to realize that the others had recognized it as such.

Next, Kurt opened his eyes and willed away the Sight, but kept his inner focus and picked out the voices of his personal ‘choir’. Watching in the mirror, he rapidly changed outfits a half dozen times. For some reason, doing it all at once was still much easier than willing a particular piece off or on, but he resolved to find a few minutes to practice each day until he became equally adept at both. His lips twitched as he recalled just how much Adam liked his magical strip-teasing. Perhaps it would not be difficult to get in some practice at that.

With that happy thought in mind, Kurt deliberately levitated himself a few inches off the floor, holding himself there until his uncertain balance became rock-steady. He tried swinging his arms, high-kicking, dancing on air, just to see if he could maintain his position. This had varying results. The arms did not seem to have a detrimental effect on his concentration. He was even able to telekinetically fetch the matched pair of sai from his trunk in the bedroom and twirl them without setting foot on the ground, but for some reason if he moved his feet too much, he flailed and stumbled like a drunk. The high kick failed his levitation entirely and landed him flat on his back in the middle of the hardwood floor. Repeatedly.

Finally deciding that he needed to put that particular trick off until he had a nice thick practice mat handy, Kurt rubbed his sore behind and re-centered himself back into a steady float. This time he levitated the sheet music up with him, using a flick of his finger to turn the pages as he studied the notes and memorized the words. It was difficult but not impossible to manage both at the same time, so he kept going as he began to sing. Elliott and Dani had taught him months ago to separate singing for fun from singing a spell and in fact he had avoided using incantations for all but the most rudimentary magic, but Kurt knew that it was vital to become at ease with magical multi-tasking. He had to believe that he could blend his magical talents as harmoniously as he did his musical ones.

This was no different than managing a stage full of costumers, actors and lighting techs. The moving parts were different, but the skill needed to make every element mesh and work together should be the same. Like singing, dancing and acting all at the same time. He had been able to do that since he first played a tiny Oompa Loompa in a Lima Community Theater version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” when he was five. It was just a matter of making it all flow. He knew how each individual skill worked. He just needed to figure out how to blend everything into a workable performance.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Adam and Elliott came home at five o’clock, bearing take-out from the best Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn, they were both shocked at what they saw. Kurt was stretched out on the sofa, limbs sprawled, mouth wide open in a none-too-gentle snore, his hair and t-shirt both crusted with dried perspiration. The floor of the living room was littered with sheet-music, swords, discarded clothing and a half-scorched end table.

“Why do I have a feeling we missed a great party?” Elliott asked, pointed eyebrows twitching with amusement as he lifted an abandoned pair of boxer-briefs by the waistband with one outstretched finger.

Adam was more concerned with the fact that their less than quiet entrance had not disturbed Kurt’s nap. He gently shook his shoulder. “Kurt? Darling? Are you all right?”

The bag of Chinese food in his other hand was only a few inches from Kurt’s face and his eyes blinked open as he ended one snoring breath on a sharp snort. “Huh? Oh, food,” he moaned, licking his lips as he sat up and wiped a trace of drool off his cheek. He captured the bag and scooped out a box of steaming pork fried rice and a pair of chopsticks, sailing in with enough enthusiasm to do Lord Tubbington proud.

Adam and Elliott looked at one another in surprise. It wasn’t like Kurt to begin scarfing down his dinner without so much as a proper hello.

Apparently Kurt realized this too after the initial rush of starvation was satisfied. He looked up at the puzzled duo and blushed, reluctantly setting down the box and utensils as he stood up and gave Adam a kiss on the cheek. “Uh, hi. Sorry. Guess I overdid the magic practice today. I forgot how much it can take out of a person. Did you guys have a nice day out?”

Realizing that Kurt had simply gotten overenthusiastic and worn himself out, not to mention seriously revved up his appetite, the others relaxed. “Yeah, it was good. I felt mostly calm today,” Adam agreed. “Got a couple of new shirts you’ll probably like. I have my doubts about one of them, but Elliott thinks it’s posh so I took his word. We had a good session with the Adam’s Apples too.”

“They’re a really cool group,” Elliott said, helpfully picking up the abandoned sai and scattered papers. “I liked ‘em a lot. Talented too. So, uh . . . I felt you reach out this morning. Seemed like you were okay, but now I’m wondering if we should have come back earlier.”

Kurt looked at the floor and his face flushed for a second time. “Aw, crap, I meant to clean all of that up before you got home. I was just practicing. I wanted to see if I could still access that spider web of power that I touched the first day, when you all warded my apartment. Remember?”

He smiled fondly. “Yeah. That was a great day.”

“I thought so too, and it occurred to me that it’s been a long time since I let myself enjoy the magic and trust the connection I have with you guys to keep my power steady. When I reached out to you, I just wanted to see if the web was still there. It didn’t occur to me until l started to feel really fried that I could probably pull a tiny bit of backup power from you guys that way. Didn’t want to do it until I made sure it was okay, though.”

Waving away his hasty reassurance, Elliott said, “Of course it is. You’re the coven leader, it’s your right to use the connection when you need it. We all agreed to that the day we set it up.”

“Oh, well that’s good,” he said a trifle awkwardly, “but I didn’t want to just take without asking. Especially since I didn’t exactly need it. I was just playing. Holding myself in mid-air while using my other powers to move stuff, change clothes, control a fireball, practice singing and . . . singing.”

From the emphasis, the other two men understood just what he meant. “So you did a bit of mixing and matching of power,” Adam said, moving to the remains of the table and giving the pieces a little nudge with the toe of his shoe. “Looks like this one got away from you.”

Kurt’s nose wrinkled. “I got overconfident. I was already tired and having trouble holding my balance when I tried making a fireball. I dropped down suddenly and I automatically put out a hand to catch myself and I, well . . .”

“Murdered a poor defenseless table,” Elliott concluded with a laugh. “At least you picked the ugly one.”

“I snuffed it out just as fast,” Kurt said a bit defensively. “It didn’t even set off the smoke alarm. I was going to clean it all up, but then I sat down to take a breather.”

Adam chuckled and kissed his pouting lips. “And thus the spectacular nasal symphony we walked in on.”

Horrified, Kurt said, “I was snoring?”

“Your dad would’ve been proud,” Elliott told him cheerfully. “Good work on the magic, though. Seriously.”

Side-eyeing him, Kurt began to help clean up the mess. There was no crack in Elliott’s proud smile and Adam looked equally pleased as he moved to the kitchen to get out a few plates and start dishing up the food. “I agree, that’s really quite remarkable considering how uncomfortable you felt combining your magic only a short while ago.”

Kurt’s tense posture relaxed as Elliott helpfully winked out with the damaged table and then back in a moment later, dusting off his hands. Clearly he had removed the evidence to some handy trash bin. Carrying his scattered possessions back to the bedroom and putting them away, Kurt smiled. He had been afraid the others might think it silly if they found out what he had been doing, but apparently they were more than fine with it, since he hadn’t done any real damage.

As he came back into the room, keeping one new outfit of clean underwear, lounge pants and sweater, to put on after he grabbed a quick shower, he said, “Thanks for not getting mad about the fire. I really thought I’d be able to control it. Most everything else went great.”

“You didn’t do any lasting harm and I have to trust you to discover and understand your own limits, just as only you can decide when you’re comfortable with your powers,” Adam said simply. “Of course, I’d have felt differently if you’d burned the building down, but you didn’t. You kept enough awareness of your surroundings to immediately douse the fire once it started, even in a moment of panic.”

His nose wrinkled. “You felt that, huh?”

“I did, but it was only a few seconds,” he admitted. “You’ve trusted me enough to not come charging in like the cavalry every time you felt a surge of panic on my part, and Lord knows there’ve been enough of those, so I had to give you the same courtesy. Believe me when I say I would have been here in a heartbeat if you hadn’t calmed so quickly, though.”

“That’s good to know,” Kurt told him with a fond smile. “I suppose that’s part of the reason I was confident enough to try it, though, knowing that it was just a matter of reaching out for help and you guys would be here.”

Elliott patted him on the back. “I’m glad you know that. Glad you’ve been practicing on your own too. It’s good for you and good for us.”

“I trust you,” he said, knowing how much more complicated that admission was than it sounded and feeling happy as he realized once again that it was completely true.

Elliott seemed to know exactly what he was not saying, though, for he winked and said, “Good. Now, go take a shower before you drive us back out of the apartment.”

“I’m not that bad!”

He smiled and popped an egg roll into his mouth. “You’re the one who was so overpowered he passed out on the sofa.”

“I was tired!”

“Go, love. We’ll keep it all warm for you. I’ll make sure Elliott doesn’t take all the sweet and sour,” Adam said, refocusing Kurt’s attention back to his empty stomach, which immediately growled in agreement with this.

Pointing a finger at his grinning Familiar, Kurt said, “You’d better not.”

He waved a dismissive hand. “Go on. Hurry, though, or I won’t side with you in making Adam put on a fashion show for us after dinner.”

Kurt perked up at once. He did love a good fashion show. “Be right back!”

As he strode toward the bathroom, Kurt could not stop smiling. The ongoing cheerful banter between his fiancé and best friend sent a warm feeling through him. The two had become good friends in their own right in the months since Adam’s return. Practically like brothers. Hearing them reinforced the certainty Kurt had felt earlier today. They were so sure, so confident in each other and in him. Even Adam, who had been through so much in the past couple of years, trusted whole-heartedly in Kurt and in the coven he had built around them.

For the first time in far too long, Kurt had a great feeling of confidence about the future. There would be failures and upsets, and not everything would go his way. He would experience disappointment and there would be some losses. That was just life, unfortunately. But there would be many good things too and good people to share them with. It was important to appreciate the positives and not let fear of what might be overcome his ability to trust.

As he paused in the doorway, watching them playfully fight over possession of a dish of spicy beef, Kurt smiled. A half-forgotten daydream of bright blazing lights flickered through his memory, and with it the recollection of a fabulously fuck-you outfit and a soul cleansing song and dance performed by a teenager who had feared he would never find anyone to appreciate his true self. It had taken a few years longer than he had initially hoped, but it looked as if the wish of that sadly hopeful boy had finally come true.

“Everything’s coming up Hummel,” he sang, so softly that the notes went unnoticed by the other men. Watching them a moment longer, Kurt deliberately sent a quick pulse of affection down the web of his connection to the coven, then smiled and continued on his way.

THE END

A/N: Kurt’s song was “I Cross My Heart”.

#Witch!Kurt #Kurt Hummel #Kadam #Kelliott friendship #One Three Hill Coven #magic practice #Kurt + self-assurance is my great love

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tak4hir0 · 5 years ago

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karingottschalk · 6 years ago

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Thanks to Fujifilm Australia, I have been lucky enough to try out the Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR ultra-wide zoom in combo with the amazing Fujifilm X-T3 DSLR-style camera and its VG-XT3 Vertical Battery Grip.

My primary motivation in requesting the loan was so cinematographer/director Paul Leeming could use the X-T3 to shoot video footage in order to create a custom Leeming LUT Pro for it.

He did the same for my X-Pro 2 camera, and I am looking forward to eventually relying on Paul’s various Leeming LUT Pro 3D look-up tables to quickly and easily combine footage from those two cameras with video shot with my Panasonic cameras and, hopefully, Blackmagic Design’s Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K aka BMPCC 4K.

Fujifilm X-T3 with VG-XT3 Vertical Battery Grip and Fujifilm XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR lens.

At the moment I am using the Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR for stills photography and for a self-funded independent documentary photographer and moviemaker I believe it is stills to which this lens is best suited.

Reason number one?

The Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR does not permit attaching circular filters.

Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR

Fujifilm Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR wideangle zoom lens

Large and costly adapters are required in order to attach square or rectangular filters in front of the lenses convex front element, though someone may come up with a similar adapter for attaching wide diameter circular filters to it.

Another large and costly solution is to invest in a matter box, though which one may be best is beyond my current knowledge and experience.

As a budget-driven documentary video solo operator I have to keep my equipment load and expenses down so I rely on circular variable ND filters.

My current VNDs are built with ageing technology, and more recent ones are reportedly sharper, more colour-colour-neutral and offer a greater range of filtration density stops for today’s sensors.

I need to find the best contemporary VND and I want a great set of fixed density NDs for less run-and-gun style projects, and I want to upgrade from 77mm to 82mm to future-proof for coming bigger lenses.

All that aside, I absolutely love the results I have been getting with the Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR.

It balances well on a battery grip-equipped X-T3 whereas it is far too large and heavy for an ungripped camera.

I cannot comment on how it works with a gripped or ungripped Fujifilm X-H1 as I have yet to experience that particular camera.

I wish the X-T3 had the X-H1’s in-body image stabilization aka IBIS and optical image stabilization on the 8-16mm lens would have been terrific.

The X-T3’s ungripped body makes for a great companion camera to my X-Pro2 as I discovered during my first X-T3 tryout late last year, equipping the latter with a Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4.0 alongside the former with my Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R attached.

Adding a Fujifilm VG-XT3 Vertical Battery Grip to the X-T3 turns it into a great handheld portrait camera with the addition of my Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R.

But I digress.

The Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR is the first Fujifilm Red Badge zoom lens I have tried, and so far it looks like it adheres to the common praise heaped upon the Fujinon XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R WR, that it is like having a set of top quality primes at your disposal but all in the one lens.

The widest lens I have ever used until now was the Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R, equivalent in 35mm sensor terms to one of my favourite focal lengths for immersive documentary photography and video, 21mm.

The Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR goes well beyond that excellent and affordable little lens with a focal length range from 12mm through to 24mm in 35mm sensor terms, the latter not one of my preferred focal lengths by any means.

The Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR’s focal range is particularly well-suited to cityscapes and ‘burbscapes, though it can handle documentary shots in a pinch provided you set it at 16mm and watch out for weird volume distortion of people and objects too near the corners of the frame.

Some of that corner volume distortion can be corrected in post-processing with DxO ViewPoint but that can also introduce other distortions in the centre of the photograph.

I would rather have a pro-quality 18mm lens for immersive documentary work, but Fujifilm has yet to update its current quirky 18mm offering or release the coming Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens.

In my analog days I often made architectural photographs with 4”x5” sheet film cameras as part of corporate photography assignments, and as it was a sideline rather than a speciality did not have the set of wide-angle large format view camera lenses I would have liked.

The Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR gives me all of those focal lengths and more.

Shooting architecture with a small handheld camera is a very different dynamic than doing it with a tripod-mounted field camera.

The small camera’s fast and easy mobility means one feels free to dart all around the subject and the zoom lens makes it so fast and easy to try out plenty of alternative camera positions.

I often found myself using the lens at its widest focal length when street furniture, signage and random objects and people got in the way.

So long as you keep a keen eye on potentially detrimental volume and perspective distortions due to distance from and angle of view to the subject, you will do fine.

On the other hand, if you want radical perspective and even more radical near/far object size comparisons, select one of the lens’ wider focal lengths and distort to your heart’s content.

The Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR is possibly the sharpest lens I have ever used, with excellent resolution and micro-contrast.

Whether using Adobe’s Enhance-equipped Camera Raw 11.2, previous versions of Camera Raw or another raw processor or image editing application, its unsharpened raw files are impressive onscreen.

If adding sharpening in post-processing, go easy with it and you may also wish dial down your in-camera sharpening for certain subjects if you are a JPEG user.

The Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR zoom lens makes for a superb addition to your Fujifilm lens collection if your work demands ultra-wide focal lengths, though its current high pricing will give some pause to stop, think and postpone purchase.

Many video-oriented users of Fujifilm APS-C/Super 35 cameras may be better off considering the Fujinon XF 10-24mm f/4.0 R OIS zoom lens for one or more of its most prominent differences – price, size, weight, optical image stabilization and not least the ability to easily mount circular filters of 72mm diameter or larger.

In terms of focal length, one loses 2mm at the wide and gains 8mm at the long end with the 35mm sensor equivalent of 15mm to 36mm, thus providing my preferred documentary photo and video focal lengths of 14mm, 18mm and 23mm or in 35mm sensor terms 21mm, 28mm and 35mm.

Add a medium-to-long zoom lens or some longer primes and you have most bases covered.

The Fujinon XF 10-24mm f/4.0 R OIS zoom lens is reportedly not as sharp or as high-resolving as the Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR and I have read complaints about its lack of corner sharpness at certain wider apertures, so I hope it will be one of the lenses Fujifilm considers for revision in the very near future.

If the Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR meets your needs despite its inability to take a screw-on filter and lack of OIS, and its price is beyond your budget, wait for the discounts and sales seasons or for Fujifilm to substantially drop its price.

If price is no object and if I were a full-time architectural photographer, this would be my number one and possibly only lens for the job.

Gallery, Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR on Fujifilm X-T3

Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR at 16mm and 8mm

Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR at 16mm.

Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR at 8mm.

Links

Fujifilm Global – Fujinon Lens XF8-16mmF2.8 R LM WR

Fujifilm X – XF6-18mmF2.8 R LM WR

Help support ‘Untitled’

Clicking on the links below and purchasing through them or our affiliate accounts at B&H Photo Video, SmallRig or Think Tank Photo helps us continue our work for ‘Untitled’.

FUJIFILM VG-XT3 Vertical Battery Grip – B&H

FUJIFILM X-T3 Mirrorless Digital Camera – B&H

FUJIFILM XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR Lens – B&H

FUJIFILM XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS Lens – B&H

FUJIFILM XF 14mm f/2.8 R Lens – B&H

Trying Out Fujifilm’s Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R WR Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens on the X-T3 Thanks to Fujifilm Australia, I have been lucky enough to try out the Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR ultra-wide zoom in combo with the amazing Fujifilm X-T3 DSLR-style camera and its VG-XT3 Vertical Battery Grip.

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blackkudos · 8 years ago

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Billy Ocean

Billy Ocean (born Leslie Sebastian Charles; 21 January 1950) is a Trinidadian-born English recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British R&B singer-songwriter of the early to mid-1980s. After scoring his first four UK Top 20 successes, seven years passed before he accumulated a series of transatlantic successes, including three U.S. number ones. In 1985, Ocean won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his worldwide hit, "Caribbean Queen", and in 1987 was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist.

In 2002, the University of Westminster, London, awarded Ocean an honorary doctorate of music. In 2010, Ocean was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MOBO Awards. On 29 July 2011, Ocean became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, presented to him by Paul McCartney. He is a member of the Rastafari movement.

Biography

Early life and stardom

Ocean was born as Leslie Sebastian Charles in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago, to Hainsley Charles, a Grenadian musician and his wife Violet. He moved to Romford, Essex, England, with his family at the age of ten. He was exposed to music at an early age from his musician father, and, growing up, Ocean realized he was in line to follow his father's ambitions. During his teenage years, he sang regularly in London clubs while also working as a tailor in London's Savile Row. He was discovered by his first manager, John Morphew, who recorded a double A side single at Pye Studios in London with a full orchestra, However, the ballad singing style of Les was going out of fashion and Morphew was unable to get any major label to release it. It remains unreleased. Les's father, who countersigned the management contract as Les was younger than 18 asked Morphew to release him from contract, which he did without penalty. In 1969 he joined a local band "The Shades of Midnight" playing in the Shoreditch area of London. He recorded his first single, "Nashville Rain" backed with "Sun In The Morning", in 1971 for Spark Records as Les Charles and for two years fronted a studio band called Scorched Earth, with whom he released "On The Run" backed with "Let's Put Our Emotions in Motion" in 1974.

Following his time with Scorched Earth, a routine doctor's appointment discovered an extra pulmonary node central to his (Billy's) albeit medically normal lungs. The examination carried out by Dr Clare Greenwood (The O'Malley Clinic, Beverly Hills). This extra lung has been attributed with the longevity of Billy's singing career.

Ocean took his stage name from the Ocean Estate, Stepney in London's East End, where he was living at the time. In 1976, he recorded his first album, Billy Ocean, with its first single release, "Love Really Hurts Without You", charting at No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 22 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. He enjoyed club success from the songs "Are You Ready" and "Stay The Night" from the album City Limit – both of which were later covered by La Toya Jackson. More successes ensued, including "L.O.D. (Love on Delivery)". He also wrote and composed songs for other artists. In 1981, he scored the US R&B chart with "Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)."

The prime of his international success

Ocean's period of greatest success began with the releases, during 1984, of the album Suddenly and its main single, "Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)". The song's title and lyrics were changed for different regions, such that the song is also known as "African Queen" or "European Queen". The song won Ocean the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1985 Grammy Awards. The album's title track also became a success, peaking at No. 4 in both the U.S. and the UK and the song "Loverboy", while also being a No. 2 U.S. success in 1985 was also featured in the first scene of the popular UK BBC One TV series Casualty, in 1986.

Ocean appeared at Live Aid in 1985, singing "Caribbean Queen" and "Loverboy", from JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.

His 1986 album Love Zone also sold well. It included the successful singles "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going", the theme from the film The Jewel of the Nile; this was a No. 1 success in the UK and a No. 2 in the United States; and "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)" (a U.S. No. 1, and also a major UK success). Also included were the title track and "Love Is Forever", which were No. 10 and No. 16 U.S. successes for Ocean, respectively.

In February 1986, Ocean's video of "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" was banned by the BBC, owing to such non-union members as the American actors Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito, all three of whom were cast members of Romancing The Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, miming to the backing vocals. At the 1987 BRIT Awards, Ocean was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male.

Ocean's next album, Tear Down These Walls (1988), featured another No. 1 single, "Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car", while the album was certified platinum.

Later career

His 1993 album Time to Move On failed to produce any major successes, but his 1989 Greatest Hits collection has been a steady seller over the years, and his 1997 compilation Love Is For Ever made No. 7 on the UK album chart. Ocean's last studio album for Jive Records was Time to Move On, which he recorded in Chicago with R&B star R. Kelly. R. Kelly had been a longtime admirer of the way Ocean was able to mix the more emotive soul style with a crossover popular style.

In 2002, the University of Westminster in London awarded Ocean an honorary doctorate of music. The awards ceremony took place in the Barbican Centre, in London. He continues to tour and record in Europe. Ocean is now a patron for Tech Music Schools in London, made up of Drumtech, Vocaltech, Guitar-X and Keyboardtech. He regularly visits to hold clinics and seminars for the students.

In 2004, "Caribbean Queen" was re-released as a digital single for its 20th anniversary, shooting up to No. 25 on the Billboard digital singles chart and garnering radio play across the United States and UK. A remix of the single by will.i.am was released in 2005.

In October 2007, Ocean commenced his first UK tour in more than 15 years. In February and March 2008 he toured Australia and the Far East. His album Because I Love You was released on 2 February 2009. To coincide with this tour and album launch, Ocean worked with Adoseof Design on a revision of Ocean's website.

In April 2010, an 18-track compilation album was released in the UK by Sony Music titled The Very Best of Billy Ocean to tie in with a 30-date tour of the UK and Ireland. Featuring Ocean's biggest hits, the album debuted in the UK Albums Chart at No. 17.

On 20 October 2010, Ocean was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MOBO Awards.

On 29 July 2011, Ocean became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. His title was presented by former Beatle Paul McCartney.

In 2012, Ocean made a cameo appearance in the British comedy movie Keith Lemon: The Film as Lemon's father.

In January 2016, Ocean appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform some of his classic hits as part of a promo tour for his new album.

Ocean has announced a Spring Tour 2017 in the UK during March and April 2017.

Discography

Personal life

Ocean lives in Sunningdale, Berkshire with his wife Judy, which he has done so since 1978. They have three children: Cherie, Anthony and Rachel. Anthony played rugby sevens at the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Barbados.

Ocean-penned songs recorded by other artists

"Are You Ready?" – La Toya Jackson

"Stay the Night" – La Toya Jackson

"Love Is a Dangerous Game" – Millie Jackson

"Love Is" – Randy Crawford

"Love Really Hurts Without You" – Bad Boys Blue

"Taking Chances" – Ray, Goodman & Brown

"Waiting For You" – Boyzone

"Whatever Turns You On" – The Dells

"Who's Gonna Rock You" – The Nolans

"Red Light Spells Danger" – Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May as the "Top Gear Band" on Top Gear of the Pops

"Suddenly" – Marti Pellow

"Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car" – GWAR

"When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" – Boyzone

Wikipedia

#Billy Ocean

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