#this is a good way to test out the longevity of YOUR relationship also /s

[flhoarder]

This is worth noting: I was on my “I’ve lost track of how many times” play through and my partner heard the long bit that led to Lizzie yelling at Titus

He gave me a look and asked if I intentionally annoyed the characters specifically to make that happen

Never been so offended in my life

[cybernaght]

Guardian rewatch: Episode 5

I thought this would be a shorter recap. Ha!

Every now and then throughout this show we are getting CGI wide shots of the Dragon City, mostly establishing the time of day. They have three settings: nighttime, daytime, and sunset/sunrise. While quality-wise those wide shots would not feel out of place in a video game from ten years ago, with buildings looking all rubbery, I actually really like this sunset sky. I also appreciate that they firmly establish that this is city is not, in fact, a real place. I almost wish the architecture was a little bit less familiar, but making the city look truly otherworldly here would make location scouting much harder. As it happens, the buildings on the forefront have a very 60’s art deco revival inspired feeling, and there are some distinctively neoclassical buildings peppered around as well. We can also see that the roads are very wide, and generally there is a hint of Stalinist grandioseness about the downtown. Unfortunately, it looks nothing like the locations and sets the characters are running in; we also get a feeling that the Dragon City is very large, which is not entirely consistent with the very few locations that were available when shooting the series. This shot does, however, remind me the city I grew up in (Moscow).

The actual plot of the episode centres around Huang Linqi and his fiancé, Li Jiaqi, going missing - it will be important, because their disastrous wedding will produce the most Clark Kent moment that Shen Wei will ever have. We also meet the parents of the couple, who are stinking rich and extremely unpleasant. It also introduces us to Butler Wu (Wu Tian’en) and his son, who will become important in later episodes. Butler Wu is not actually the villain of the piece, despite this shot clearly telling us otherwise. 

Back at the university, Shen Wei is having a morning tea with his dean. He holding his teacup with almost god-like elegance, very close to actually covering his mouth when he drinks, which is extremely old-fashioned. This is in stark contrast with him brazenly and un-gentlemanly showing his ankles. 

Shen Wei is asked to move off campus, because, apparently, having a chief of the special task force showing up at your office is bad for the reputation. Since the professor does not look surprised, and states that he has already found a flat, I’m guessing that he was clever enough to have predicted this turn of events, and used it to secure the place a breath away from Zhao Yunlan. It is up to speculation as to when he started scouting for an apartment: it could not have been more than a few weeks since he met Zhao Yunlan, and finding a flat can take a while. 

At the SID office, we are treated to a lovely moment between the team members, crowding around Lin Jin’s new invention: a popcorn-specific microwave.

It’s very sweet to see the team indulge in some nonsense outside of their case work, made even better by Wang Zheng being there. The fact that Zhao Yunlan is on board with his department’s time and resources being spent on a popcorn maker only makes this scene better. He is crouching on the table, because chairs are for the weak.

After inspecting the crime scene, Zhao Yunlan is spending some time outside chatting to Buttler Wu, and comments on Li Jiaqi’s good looks, since Zhao Yunlan is a man who can appreciate beauty.

As Xiao Guo is awe-struck at his boss’ ability to note someone’s prettiness from a distance, Chu Shuzhi literally rolls his eyes calling those “instincts of a beast”, and Zhao Yunlan fails to reprimand him for the remark, because… fair enough. Very fair enough. It’s hard not to relate to Zhao Yunlan, a self-admitted bi disaster. 

Shen Wei is being shown his new apartment. He does not even look around it, staring instead at Zhao Yunlan’s front door across the hall from him.

Moving here is a completely senseless thing to do. How on earth is he planning to hide his Hei Pao Shi persona while being a next door neighbour to the chief of SID? My conclusion is that from a character stand-point, it’s nothing but an act of desperate devotion; from a narrative stand-point, this codifies that their relationship is about to get very intimate indeed. 

The SID members are interrogating Buttler Wu: as is often the case, instead of bringing him in, like they did with Shen Wei, they hijack a cafe nearby to have a more relaxed conversation. As they talk, Shen Wei is making his way past the cafe, which both Wu Tian'en and Shen Wei notice. 

Shen Wei proceed to follow Butler Wu, who calls him out on it. This leads to a removal of his glasses so epic it warrants a jump-cut to close-up, on top of the dutch angle used mere seconds prior to it.

Instantly recognizing Shen Wei as Hei Pao Shi, Wu Tian’en sinks to his knees in reverence. Again, fair enough. After having a brief conversation about their shared history, Shen Wei states that Butler Wu is not allowed to lay a hand on Zhao Yunlan. 

“Chief Zhao? You’re stalking him?” 

“You don’t need to know more.”

That is not a no. Mostly because that is a yes. 

Shen Wei promises to not take Wu Tian’en away before the man resolves his current problems, adding that he hopes his old acquaintance won’t have any regrets when that happens. As Shen Wei walks away, he muses “Then how much time is there left for me?” 

(And I have to fight an uncomfortable sinking feeling in my stomach, which is occurring a lot as I rewatch those series.) 

The same evening at the SID offices the team is struggling with the case so much Da Qing suggests asking Hei Pao Shi’s help. Zhao Yunlan bristles at the idea, and… calls Shen Wei instead. Of course he does.

To be fair, he does so to check whether the other man is stalking him, but he also calls him by his given name rather Professor Shen, reinforcing that he makes this enquiry as a friend, not at as the chief of the Special Investigations Department. 

During the phone call Shen Wei is absentmindedly playing with the corner of the publication he is reading. 

While Yunlan does not deny that he still thinks Shen Wei is potentially up to something dodgy, he still proceeds to ask his advice on the case. This continues the dynamic from the previous episode: it’s not that Yunlan is completely blind, it’s just that he trusts Shen Wei regardless of the secrets he might be hiding. 

Moving on, here’s what I have to say on he topic of bad CGI. There are several reasons in the world for a piece of visual media to have a poor quality computer animation. It could be laziness, or it could be absence of imagination, both of which are inexcusable. It also could be absence of funds, as is the case with the Guardian. And, honestly, I am alright with that. It’s not their fault, and I would much rather see this drama as it is - bad CGI and all - than none at all. 

And, the quality of CGI here has energy similar to Live Action Sailor Moon (PGSM), which I honestly find both nostalgic and endearing. 

That show also has a talking cat, but it’s performed by a literal plush toy on strings, so Guardian certainly wins here.

While Huang Linqi and Li Jiaqi are being kept together (possibly in an alternate dimension, seeing as how they have emerged from the lake completely dry), they talk through their relationship issues, and the audience finds itself with a sugar-sweet take on the arranged marriage/strangers to lovers trope. I feel a little bit bad about their disaster wedding now. 

At the same time, Xiao Jun and Wu Tian’en’s story is a tiny echo of Shen Wei end Je Zun: the son thinks his dad left him to fend for himself when he was young and vulnerable, and distrusts the very concept of love because of that perceived abandonment. Unlike Je Zun however, he stops to have an actual conversation, which ultimately forces him to quit his senseless act of revenge, and make the first step on the path of reconciliation and redemption. This is Guardian telling us that communication skills do, in fact, matter. 

He also drops this bombshell of a line, which hurts my heart a lot.

“In the face of death every love in the world is mere foam”

On an entirely separate note, I am very glad that the actor who plays Butler Wu is wearing nice thick knee pads. 

They are very visible, and they make a little “boing” when he hits the ground, but the actor has to fall to his knees twice in this episode, both times on hard surfaces, one of which is literal gravel, and I’m happy that the production is being considerate of their actors’ physical well-being. 

While this episode does not mark the first time Zhao Yunlan is being understanding to the Undergrounders in pain, this is the first time anti-Unvergrounder bigotry is explicitly framed in a negative light. The two evil businessmen, who cast a child aside just because he has special powers, are shown as unquestionably in the wrong. Xiao Jun is lightly scolded for his rash actions, but he is not brought back to SID in cuffs, and he is not immediately given away to Hei Pao Shi. Far from that: he is brought in softly, to spend some time at his dying father’s side. 

As Butler Wu slipping away, we once more see Guo Changcheng being recklessly heroic, as he is prepared to use the Longevity Dial to share his life force. Instead of letting him do it, Zhao Yunlan snatches the Hallow away and decides to perform this particular miracle himself. This is the same man who will later sacrifice his eyesight to bring people’s lives back. Bai Yu’s acting in that moment is utterly phenomenal, showing a whole range of emotion from horror to determination to dismay in mere seconds. 

Hei Pao Shi teleports in, and, without a preamble, scolds Zhao Yunlan (the first episode in the series-long “don’t touch the Hallows” saga), and then asks him whether it’s worth shortening his life for an Undergrounder. This is in equal parts a provocation and a test, because I’m fairly certain that Shen Wei was going to save Wu Tian’en anyway. 

As SID members beg Hei Pao Shi to save Butler Wu in perfect unison, Zhao Yunlan states that a person is a person, regardless of their origin. Shen Wei notes inwardly that SID had changed, and, as expected, heals Butler Wu, while Yunlan stares at his power with relief and awe.

Since I have talked about the wide shot of the Dragon City, let’s talk about its counterpart in the Underworld. 

I have failed to notice before that there appears to be a vast city next to the volcano river, some way away from the royal Palace, looming over it. Geographically, this makes little sense: we will see characters leave the Palace and instantly end up in a city square throughout the series, but I still really enjoy this wide shot. It is also interesting to see the architecture of the place. It is somewhere between (western) medieval abodes and futuristic shipment container blocks, with living spaces built on top of each other, crammed-in, and unpleasant. I also love the lighting here, contrasting blue and red.

Hallows random power #n: projecting their brethren. Imagine how useful it would be if they also did that for the Brush and the Lantern.

The next day, Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing are on a leisurely morning jog, while Yunlan is wearing bottoms that my partner refers to as “sheggings” (as in, shorts + leggings)

They are talking about Shen Wei, naturally. In my head-canon, Zhao Yunlan is driving his colleagues nuts because can’t help himself but bring the good professor up every goddamn minute of every goddamn day.

As they turn the corner to go home, they bump into the subject of discussion, who informs them that he moved into the building, and leaves abruptly looking more than slightly pleased with himself. 

Finally, we are treated to Guo Changcheng’s surveillance exam. I don’t know why he thought this outfit would make him look less conspicuous. 

Eventually, the SID will learn that some of their staff members don’t have to be fighters or detectives. In Xiao Guo, they have found the heart of their team, and that is enough. 

Next up, Episode 6: The Coat Zhao Yunlan Will Buy

—

PS: I have mentioned earlier, that I have a sinking feeling as I watch Guardian, and I would like to elaborate on that. You see, I am very scared of flying. It’s an irrational fear, but it is the one I nonetheless have. There is a very specific feeling I get just as the plane starts gaining speed on the runway: there is joy, because at the end of this journey they is something to look forward to (my parents’ hugs, a drink with a friend, a favourite place, a new city to explore), but there is also a painful anticipation, as I brace for the moment the aircraft will tilt upwards, knowing that I will be pushed back into my chair by gravity, battling against an onslaught of a panic attack, shaking, learning to breathe, fighting with everything I have to keep my heart rate down. Watching Guardian from the beginning, knowing where the story is going, mirrors that feeling perfectly.

PPS: The following conversation happened with my partner as I way typing this recap.

My partner: Do you think Shen Wei ever wears sheggings?

Me: Sweetie, I think he would rather die. 

[jerseydeanne]

Gossip site for both celebs/pseudo-celebs arrests, divorces, breakups and hookups, new deals and cancellations, A-D listers and everything in between.

Read the comments, presumed to be you-know-who!

I kicked a hornet's nest last night. I posted the entire thread, I’ll let you guys be the judge. Thank you anon 🌺🌺🌺🌺

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2018

Blind Item #13

Apparently when our favorite former actress was back in the States a few months ago, she slipped her drug of choice past her protection via a friend. This time around, she is going to have to find a new way to get herself supplied. Oh, I have no doubts she will. It is one of the main reasons she is visiting. She misses that kind of partying and she knows no one will dare arrest her if she is busted. It is partying without having to worry about any legal consequences at all.

POSTED BY ENT LAWYER AT 11:45 AM

1 – 74 of 74

Boldblonde

said...

Guess she didn’t lose him!

9:59 AM

Just Paige

said...

We will know this is true if she ends up dead. If it is there will be proof and the Monarchy won't allow that.

10:00 AM

Do Tell

said...

Is this saying that Meghan yachted WHILE she was dating Harry?

10:03 AM

sandybrook

said...

I'm sure she needed the additional income a yachting excursion provided her. Entern has always said she just an opportunist looking out for herself.

10:03 AM

Sd Auntie

said...

She must be a firecracker in the sack. Harry does not care and probably used escorts his whole frickin life.

10:04 AM

Sunspirit

said...

So was she with Harry when she was yachting?

10:04 AM

Sunspirit

said...

With him as in relationship wise

10:05 AM

Ash X

said...

Is yachting like prostitution? What is yachting?

10:06 AM

Damiana

said...

Sounds like it was before...then XX introduced her to Harry thinking in terms of Harry hiring Me-Again and either she spun it into a "blind date" (as reported for their meeting), or he didn't understand the setup and assumed it was a blind date. Question is, who's the fixer? Guy Pelly or Markus Anderson? And has HRH twigged yet? If not, who's going to tell him?

10:07 AM

Don Kieballs

said...

I can't see Harry marrying a yacht girl. Reformed yachter possibly, but not one who was doing it while they were dating. He may be a ginger, but he's a Power Ginger.

10:08 AM

Appalachian Mothersauce

said...

I think they're truly smitten, and that longevity will only be tested by time.... But Harry is no saint, and if he judges her on her past, he's scumA++.

10:12 AM

Shakira Eakins

said...

I agree. It seems fitting he find a party girl that understands his past and won't treat him like crap for it.

10:15 AM

Don Kieballs

said...

If you go by this blind. Megan was a yacht girl and Harry was one to use the services of yacht girls (why else would the friend make the assumption?) If they both participated in yacht activities, then neither is morally superior. Harry would have no standing to criticize her - not that he has or would.

10:17 AM

Do Tell

said...

It's not 100% up to Harry. If the Palace finds out that she was doing this, he will face a lot of pressure to dump her or renounce it all to marry her.

10:19 AM

Observant One

said...

When I hear the story about how PH and MM met, I immediately thought of Bani and the Celebrity Sex Broker blinds.

10:44 AM

Comment deleted

This comment has been removed by the author.

10:48 AM

Just Paige

said...

@Observant - when I watched the engagement video of them tellling the story I immediately thought of this blind. She is a terrible actress and it was so rehearsed: she touches his arm - reminds him to seem off the cufff...

10:50 AM

Rafael

said...

It´s a LARP. Enty is a cuckservative 4chan larper and is angry because Obama did an interview with Harry and now is visiting William. While the dumb Trump is hated by everyone. lol

10:50 AM

Mango

said...

Not a fan of the royals but I can't believe that the palace hasn't thoroughly investigated Markle, so she must have passed muster. The palace staff are more class conscious and snooty than the royals. I googled, "who introduced Harry and Meghan" and the name "designer Misha Nonoo" kept coming up. I'd never heard of her so I looked up her website and her designs are meager, repetitive and forgettable, however Nonoo is a tall attractive blonde, so I totally believe that she could be a yacht girl who does the part time work to finance her design house.

10:58 AM

John Doe

said...

Who is Harry's friend that she was yachting with? We all know she has a history but I doubt that Harry cares much because his whole life has been about hookers and weed.

10:59 AM

Cheez Whiz

said...

WTF is a LARP? Live Action Role Play? @Rafael, your comment makes absolutely no sense at all. Too much DemocraticUnderground before the morning coffee?

11:01 AM

Beth

said...

Nonoo was married to a friend of the royals. That's how she comes to Harry. The other person who may be the matchmaker is Violet von Westenholz.

11:03 AM

Observant One

said...

@Just Paige - That's exactly what I was watching. I agree with your assessment of her behavior during that video.

11:10 AM

texasrose

said...

I think this blind implies she yachted before Harry and that is when one of Harry's buddies used her. Later when he saw them together he just assumed that Harry was using her services also. Doesn't necessarily mean she was yachting when dating Harry. Ash X - just google yacht girls. The term started when beautiful girls hung out at Cannes Film festival and then just with rich guys on their yachts in the med. It has evolved into just high high priced escorts to rich guys and not necessarily on yachts and generally referring to celeb or semi celeb women doing it. It is apparently a real thing. A lot of blinds here about actresses you would never guess that have been 'yacht' girls or still do $$$$ escorting.

11:17 AM

Crazycatlady

said...

Lol at “power ginger” thank-you @Don... you’re on fire today 🤓

11:30 AM

Nutty_Flavor

said...

Unpopular opinion, but the Queen saw her sister, who was also the "spare", destroyed by being unable to marry the man she wanted. Harry is 6th in line to the throne, or will be by the time he marries, so I don't think the vetting is as extreme for Meghan as it would have been for anyone William dated.

11:30 AM

Daily Union

said...

Factor this into the equation. Meghan Markle is paid to perform. (In all kinds of situations). She has now lucked into the gig of a lifetime, playing the role of Prince Harry's loving wife. The Princess role- with the being American,divorced,multi-cultural thrown in for distraction and media-adoration bonus points. The reason for this performance is simple, Prince Harry is a closeted Gay Man, who wishes to pursue his lifestyle behind closed doors. Ignore the manufactured P.R. around his bachelor lifestyle, and examine his past "romances". Think "straight" about this, no man in his position, or a Joe on the Street would ever consider marring Meghan Markle , with the slightest knowledge of her past. This is just a "Hollywood type" arranged marriage to give the Stars cover.

11:35 AM

Gordon Scott

said...

Agree, Nutty_Flavor; it's a lot lower standard for Harry than Billy, as Harry will never inherit. And the standards for Billy are lower than they were for Chuck. Still, I'm sure that Betty and Phil Battenberg think that Uncle Eddie's spouse was enough yachting for the family. The question is: do they care enough at their ages to push back? Certainly there is no cattier bunch than the palace staff, and if there's a rumour, they either know about it or they started it. Perhaps Meggie has a unique ability to charm them. Stranger things, what? Meanwhile, Sarah and Andy grind their teeth....

11:46 AM

Gordon Scott

said...

@Daily Union: well, that would explain a lot, now, wouldn't it? Uncle Eddie is said to have been fond of playing the whistle, with Wally cheering him on. Perhaps grandma Betty should create him Duke of Windsor.

11:53 AM

Lisa

said...

Clearly Me-again (good one) got herself knocked up. It’s the only way the Windsor’s would agree to this ridiculous marriage. A black prostitute marrying a royal. Only in Hollywood. What a dumb skank.

11:55 AM

VRWC

said...

+1 That made me spit out my drink.

12:10 PM

Andi F

said...

She's the usual actress, a user and social climber, who believes her own hype. I sometimes watched Suits and didn't know her real name until she got with Harry, B grade is being generous.

12:25 PM

drerocks79

said...

SdAuntie A LOT of rich men end up marrying their favorite escort. The upper east side is filled with 'em

12:28 PM

Unknown

said...

👍

12:34 PM

Normal. Yes indeed.

said...

Really rich people own yachts. Yacht girls are hookers that charge prices only rich guys can afford. Hence the term yacht girl. Go spend a weekend in the yacht...

12:39 PM

os75

said...

She must be good

1:16 PM

Glitter

said...

Remember: Long ago, a blind here revealed that Grace Kelly was a yacht girl.

1:26 PM

Nutty_Flavor

said...

Grace Kelly had a healthy sexual appetite. I’m not sure she would have required payment for a weekend on a yacht.

1:36 PM

Lindy

said...

I assume yachting means more than yachting.

1:57 PM

Lindy

said...

But don’t you think - to use the water metaphor - that that ship has sailed. I think it’s too late to back out even if he or his family are having doubts.

2:00 PM

Mango

said...

@ Nutty_Flavor - excellent point about the queen seeing her beloved sister destroyed by not being about to marry her divorced lover. Maybe the Q has accepted that her heirs will marry who they want? Her (alleged) favorite son married and survived Fergie, so maybe Markle will be a walk in the park. (Or a flash in the pan??) @ Observant one - When H and M were doing their interview, the thing that caught my attention/bugged me was their talk about roasting a chicken. "Look! We were cooking our simple dinner! Just like you regular folk!"

2:20 PM

Andi F

said...

Grace was supposedly sexually abused by her dad growing up, and used the casting couch in HW for acting roles and yachting in Europe for the income.

2:22 PM

Randaleese

said...

OH BS!! Trust! The Queen knows everything..,and apparently, it’s either NOT TRUE or Queen realizes times, they are a-changing and DGAFF!

2:27 PM

fairylights

said...

I'm pretty sure that Harry had to ask the Queen's permission before he could get engaged to M.M., I don't think he's far enough down the list to be able to avoid that. I'm also pretty sure that the gossipy Buck palace people made sure her majesty heard about all the info about her, not to mention any information their version of secret service dug up. My guess is that it's a combo of Harry being down the list of succession and the example of all four of her children being divorced were enough for her to decide it wasn't that important....as long as she doesn't continue on like Fergie did. @ Don, 'Power Ginger': Love it!!!

2:44 PM

emeraldcity

said...

Grace wasn't abused, no sexually anyway, her father pretty much ignored her, the boys were everything to him, not to mention that stories abound that he believed she was not actually his daughter. She spent her whole life trying to win his praise and affection which resulted in a father figure complex,and affairs with much older men (Bing, Gary Cooper, Gary Grant) as a dark spin off from this. She was no angel and actually very catty to other women, Ava Gardner called her out in public on her hypocrisy, Liz Taylor and Joan Collins were in the room at the time. As for this blind, I take it with a pinch of salt , MI6 would have everything on this woman and the Queen would be told as she seems quite taken with Meg, it probably came from one of Harry's friends who isn't happy about him marrying Meg so is sticking the knife in. Enty is safe from litigation because the royals never sue about gossip , too many other things might come out in court.

2:46 PM

Do Tell

said...

She is the new Koo Stark. I guess time will tell if things play out the way they did with Andrew and Koo.

2:49 PM

346NYC

said...

I see ZERO chemistry between Harry and MM. Is this like a George Clooney/Amal Beard situation? Also, I've seen some reports that Harry is not Charles son. Some have reported he looks like one of Diana's lovers. Any truth to this? If there is any truth to the former, why should the Queen care who Harry marries if he's not related to the Queen anyway?

2:53 PM

Observant One

said...

@Mango - The roasting a chicken bit made me wonder if it was a code phrase....they said it multiple times. I know I'm cynical as hell, and maybe I have read too many of Enty's blinds over the years, but I thought it was way too contrived. I am trying to figure out why she ALWAYS has her hand on his arm, or his back. So far, my reasoning has led me to think she knows he misses his mother desperately, so she has determined that he needs constant touching and reassurance. I don't like being catty, and I am certainly not racist, but this relationship seems too contrived, like the roast chicken.

3:27 PM

Comment deleted

This comment has been removed by the author.

3:27 PM

Dallas Alice

said...

Or, maybe they were just roasting a damn chicken and he proposed. I certainly have no means of comparison, but I’d imagine cooking your own dinner is quite a lark when you have to make an appointment to see your own Grandmother. She’s definitely grabby, but Americans tend to be more like that. Perhaps they’re actually in love. I���ll choose to think they are.

3:39 PM

Donna Marie

said...

346NYC, apparently Diana did have an affair with a ginger. However, Google Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Baroness Fellowes. Those are Diana's older sisters, they are both gingers, and Harry strongly resembles them. I've also noticed that as Harry gets older, he begins to look more and more like a Windsor male in all but coloring. (though the height comes from his mother's side) All in all, I believe he's a genetic Windsor.

4:14 PM

Hortensia

said...

No one ever says what the past allegations are about Markle. Just this yacht story. Harry has definitely changed his demeanor/appearance since the engagement announcement. A couple of psychics have said it won't last more than five years. Markle was supposedly up for the next Bond movie as a Bond girl. That would have sent her career into the stratosphere. Hmmmm.

4:22 PM

Lisa

said...

She is pregnant.

4:37 PM

BCC

said...

Only Markle says she was supposed to be a Bond girl. Nobody else - certainly not the Bond film people.

4:39 PM

just sayin'

said...

What I find interesting is the theory that Diana's biological father is James Goldsmith. She looked so much more like Jemima Kahn then the Spencer sisters. If true, it would make Harry's children with Meghan 1/4 Jewish and 1/4 Black.

4:41 PM

Gordon Scott

said...

Meggie a Bond girl? Not the lead, certainly. She's not that hot. As for Harry being one of mom's lovers' sons? The timing is wrong for that. Also, there's a pic of grandpa Phil at about Harry's current age, with beard. They look like brothers. He's got the Battenberg Y chromos. The word among those who served with Harry is that he's a good chap. Passing on the family tradition of the holiday hunt because Meggie doesn't like it--plus his body language around her--well, that doesn't bode so well for the future. But his gonads are surplus to requirements now, thus he can just be gossip fodder. It's a shame, as he was thought to be the one to bring back some rascally masculinity in house Battenberg.

4:49 PM

Elamina

said...

It was interesting to me that the last (and only other) blind by Enty that 'revealed' Markle as a yacht girl disappeared from this site overnight. It said like more and more people were coming forward about it and named other women from MMs Deal or No Deal days that did the same to supplement their income. They commanded higher rates because of being on a tv show.

5:06 PM

Scandi Sanskrit

said...

I saw "Diana: In Her Own Words" on NatGeo channel. It was originally first aired during a lunar eclipse (well, that was my memory of it). She said she used to hear voices. Like Prince Charles proposed to her and said something along the lines of, "you realise that means you might become queen someday?" And the voice said, "you won't Ben queen but you'll have an important role." And it came true... 🌙

5:51 PM

Scandi Sanskrit

said...

⚡️GO GO POWER GINGER! ⚡️ (He'd be the Orange Ranger)

6:02 PM

theassangefiles

said...

Longtime reader here, first comment - Had to ask if anyone remembers that Jimmy Saville, underage rapist and sex purveyer extrodanaire was also intimately connected with Prince Charles and considered his "mentor", and was allowed to come and go in Buckingham Palace as he pleased. The Queen knows how to handle little Miss Markle, and it will be to appear to be kind and accepting but make no mistake, Markle will be lucky to last through the next five years, and the tabloid thrashing that is going to hound both her and Harry will "teach" him to fall in line next time around, no doubt about it.

7:54 PM

Scooterchick

said...

My take: Meghan is approved because with all her diversity (American, actress, biracial, divorced) and the distraction it has created, she makes Camilla look less awful, and a bit less controversial. It's pretty clear that the Queen plans on Charles taking the reins, and whatever Camilla will be (Consort? Surely not Queen, one hopes!), she will be in a position that has not occurred in the British Royal family in centuries, as a divorced publicly acknowledged adultress & cuckolder (or is it cuckoldress hahah?). Royal PR are very savvy & trying to spin Chas. & Camilla as less unsavoury than they have been viewed in the past. BTW, has anyone seen Tracy Ullman's take-off on Csmilla? Very spots on Youtubr: it's a scream.

7:58 PM

McJ 2051

said...

So PH has a Pretty Woman fetish I guess?

8:32 PM

boredatwork boredatwork

said...

I agree with the commenters saying that Harry has hit a new low. Everything about those 2 seems too fake and contrived - at least on her side. She's really a mediocre C list actress, with mediocre looks. A trip to Top Shop on Oxford Circus, and one can spot 100 Markles, much better looking than this one. He could do so much better, but prefers to settle for average, in every way.

9:43 PM

Mrs Meat

said...

I know someone who moved in Royal circles who says it's openly acknowledged within the fam that Harry is James Hewitt's son. But personally I can see Prince Charles in his looks.

12:41 AM

Media Viewer

said...

I heard it was the other way round. Awkward when a mutual acquaintance turned out to be a girl from Harry's past. At 1st, Meghan Markle repeatedly turned down Harry's invitations because she had a boyfriend. I remember reading about that back in 2015 when Harry 1st spotted her as an exercise guru on Canadian TV. Finally she agreed to go on a date with him and it was arranged through a friend. Could it be that not every human with a vagina is a whore for fame, money and power? Could it be that those at the British tabloids are just bitter? They hated Frank Sinatra too. That's why they called them rats. Could it be they buried the truth about Harry trolling for chicks on TV programs because it's unseemly?

12:43 AM

Nonya Bidness

said...

A new low? I tend to think his low was the Nazi costume. So you think he only consorted with pedigreed virgins before? Curious what bothers you most about MM, her sexual history or her race.

6:37 AM

Nutty_Flavor

said...

@Media Viewer, not sure where you got the idea that the British tabloids were "bitter" about Markle. Both the Daily Mail and the Sun have been outdoing themselves to sell her to the British public. The last 3 Markle headlines in The Sun: "Get that Markle Sparkle: Meghan Markle's Skincare guru on the perfect prep for your big day." "One is Amused: Meghan Markle's Xmas gift to the Queen caused Her Maj to burst out laughing." "Royal Knees Up: Pubs to open until 1am for 2 nights to celebrate Harry and Meghan's wedding." The tabloids are there to get clicks - and have a healthy side business being paid for placement, which is why you see so many articles about Emily Ratajkowski in them. Whether the positive Meghan articles are paid-for-placement or just a way to stay in good graces with the Firm is unknown. The fact is, though, that the British tabloids are not tearing Meghan down at this point in time.

8:39 AM

Em Lew

said...

It can't be anything worse than what Prince Andrew got up to with his friend Epstein. Then there's Charlie's friendship with serial abuser Savile. The Royals can cover up scandal no problem, as they have the security services doing it for them.

2:06 PM

Count Jerkula

said...

I hope one of Markle's tricks had his cabin wired for video and sound, and the tape finds its way to a foreign file locker or tube site.

3:58 PM

Enny

said...

He looks so much like a young Prince Philip it’s ridiculous. How can people ignore such a strong resemblance to his father and paternal grandfather? It makes no sense. Yes, Diana had affairs. No, she did not father Harry with one of them.

6:03 PM

boredatwork boredatwork

said...

None - you must be one of those ppl who judges ppl by the colour of their skin, and not the content of their character. To you, MM, who is average in every way, is special, because of her race, while I don't give a shit about her race, and I dislike her purely for what sort of person she appears to be. Reverse racism it's called.

12:48 AM

Gail Banks

said...

Fairylights - only three of Queen Elizabeth's children are divorced, not four. Prince Edward is still married to Sophie Rhys-Jones.

4:56 AM

La-Juice

said...

as much as I dislike him, remember, Charles too knows what its like to be forbidden to marry who he loved- and look at the lengths he ultimately went ot and the disaster that ensued. Maybe Harry really loves her- given his past, I have to believe he knows all about her. I bet the castle/crown staff just keeps all of Meghan's indiscretions/past secreted from the very old Queen, whose husband is failing... can't be too hard.

12:52 PM

Sharon Betz

said...

Does anyone have info on Joe Guiliano Meghan Markle first husband? Joseph J. Goldman-Guiliano, Northwestern grad, criminal defense attorney in MA?

8:01 AM

[polyputthekettleon]

More Rules for My Relationships

10 Realistic Rules for Good Non-Monogamous Relationships

by Andrea Zanin

(Please note I said good poly. Anyone can do poly badly, but I don’t advise it.)

1. Know yourself. For starters, be brutally honest with yourself and answer the following questions. I’m not kidding about the brutal part. Sugarcoating will not help you here. Also, remember that the answers to these are never final… you change every day and with every experience you have, so it’s worth revisiting these questions over and over throughout your lifetime.

What kind of person are you? 

What are your core values?

What are your life priorities?

What are your needs within relationships? 

What are your shortcomings within your relationships? 

Why have your past relationships ended? Are you able to articulate what part you played in that?

How do you deal with conflict and anger?How are your communication skills?

What kind of people are you generally attracted to? Are there any predictable patterns in your attractions? Are they positive or problematic?

What do you have to offer a partner? What sort of partner, lover, friend are you?

What does your life look like? Your schedule, your energy levels, your health, your obligations, your stresses, your joys?

What would you like to change?

2. Love yourself. Okay, so this sounds like the greatest cliché known to man, but it’s actually the basic ingredient for good non-monogamy. It’s the macaroni in the mac & cheese. You gotta take care of yourself. If you don’t have this one down, you will simply never be able to fully enjoy healthy love relationships with others. Lots of people try to ignore the basic and all-pervasive importance of self-love, and that’s why many people have messy love relationships. You wanna try that with multiple love relationships? Believe me, you will sink fast.

If the answers from the questions you just asked yourself show some areas that may pose challenges, love yourself enough to take up those challenges before you start exploring elsewhere. Go get therapy, take up a meditation practice, start writing in a journal, get more exercise to boost your mood and self-confidence, or attend to your spiritual life. Not taking care of yourself is not an option.

3. Be happy ALONE. Yes, that’s right. Alone. All alone. No partner. Married or otherwise partnered already? That’s fine, but you still need to have this one down. If you approach your relationships with the idea that they’ll make you happy when you can’t make yourself happy, you will inevitably be disappointed.

Very few relationships actually last a whole lifetime; it’s wonderful if they do, but let’s be realistic. You can’t base your entire concept of love and relationship around an ideal that a small minority of people actually achieve. Not to mention that longevity is not an indicator of happiness – some relationships should last a few months, some a few years, some a few hours. This is not an indication of failure, it’s an indication of reality.

Be happy alone first. Then add one or more partners to enhance, deepen and enjoy that happiness with you. But do not make your happiness dependent on someone else’s presence in your life or your bedroom, let alone two or three people’s presence. That’s not relationship, that’s codependence. It also gets real complicated if your honey has three partners and you don’t – unless you are (ta-daa!) happy alone.

4. Communicate. Honestly. Now comes the time where you take all that brutal honesty with yourself, and translate it into brutal honesty with your partner(s). Good poly happens when things are put on the table. Are you jealous? Say so. Are you scared, worried, angry, upset? Use your words. Are you happy, in love, admiring? Spread the joy! Is there something on your mind that you don’t want to tell your partner? MAJOR warning bell… this is almost a guarantee that you should be telling them!

I absolutely promise that if you keep shit to yourself, you will run into problems. If you have the first three rules down and drop the ball on this one, your poly is still going down the tubes. Buy self-help books. Go to joint therapy. Take an active listening workshop. Read up on jealousy and other issues to see how best to deal with them. Whatever it takes, improve your communication skills. You’ll thank yourself for it!

5. Know what you want. Here’s another list of questions for ya. (Hint: Rules 1 to 4 come in real handy before you get to this one.)

What would your ideal polyamorous relationship look like?

What joys do you think polyamory will bring to your life?

What challenges do you think you will face? Do you think you’re equipped to handle those challenges?

Do the benefits you want match up with the kind of room do you have in your world for multiple partners?

Do the benefits you want match up with what you have to give in return in terms of time, energy, availability, etc.?

What do you think an incoming partner might want from you? How might she or he feel about your situation?

If you have an existing partner, do your values, desires and abilities match up well? Are you looking for the same or compatible sorts of polyamory?

Are you open to a range of options within the range of polyamorous arrangements, or is your interest very specific? If it’s specific, why? What do you hope to gain from that particular form?

6. Go for content, not form. Once you’ve answered the questions above, you might have a form of poly in mind that you feel would be perfect for you. If so, the next step is to ask yourself what that form means to you… and do a reality check. Two girlfriends = never lonely? Think again. Two couples in a quad = excellent balance? No guarantees. “Middle-aged married couple – he’s heterosexual, she’s bi-curious – seeks hot young bisexual woman with double-D boobs who likes giving head, available every second weekend and the occasional Wednesday night.” Does this sound familiar?

Lots of people have an idealized vision in their minds. We often get caught up in the packaging without remembering that relationship is about what’s inside. You and your honey might spend years seeking out the ideal couple to form the perfect quad, while your best friend and her boyfriend have been working up the nerve to ask you out for months. You might want your wife to have fun with a cute gal for your entertainment, when in fact that guy she met at the BBQ last week would make an amazing addition to your world for years to come, loving her deeply and being a wonderful friend to you… and maybe you should try dating that woman you met at the gym.

Think of polyamory as a state of openness to love in whatever form it comes to you, and then take responsibility for managing that abundance when it arrives… rather than sticking with a particular formula you believe will be ideal. See rule #10 for more.

7. Be nice. Polyamory is not about the technicalities. It’s the spirit, not the letter of the law that counts. Polyamory is not all about you getting laid. In fact it’s not really all about you at all. It’s a philosophy of moving through the world that’s about plurality, generosity and giving, and guess what – it goes way beyond your Friday-night date. Love is not tit for tat; it’s not a pie with only so many pieces to go around; and it’s not there just to beef up your ego. So…

Don’t date someone else’s partner behind that person’s back just because it’s not “technically” your problem.Keep an eye out for the people you get involved with to make sure they’re all right, and doing poly for the right reasons, even if that’s not “technically” your call to make.Know your boundaries and respect them; watch out for other people’s boundaries too, even if that’s not “technically” your job.

As a poly person, your responsibility toward right relationship doesn’t end when you have an orgasm or when you drop your date off at the door. So don’t be creepy and go out cruising for what you can get out of love, or to see how much you can get away with. You’re missing the whole bloody point if you go at it that way.

8. Have safer sex. This doesn’t just mean use a condom. It means figure out how to talk about sex with all your partners. It means figure out what acceptable risk looks like for you. HIV is not the only risk out there, and condoms don’t protect against everything. For example: if someone has oral herpes, will you kiss them? Will you let them go down on you? This answer might be different if, say, you see them only three times a year… if you have a compromised immune system… if you are healthy as a horse.

Here are a few questions worth thinking about. Remember, this isn’t just about you. Conceivably, your sexual choices could affect dozens of other people… people you care about. Sex is awesome. Keep it that way.

Are you informed about the relative risks of the various things you like to do in bed? If not, do you know where to find the information you need?

Are you aware of how and when to use safer sex products like condoms, gloves, finger cots, Saran Wrap, dental dams, silicone toys, etc.? If not, do you know where to find the information you need?

How much are you comfortable telling your doctor about your sex life? How will those limits affect his or her ability to provide you with appropriate care?

Do you have access to STI testing? If so, how often do you think it’s appropriate for you and your partners to get tested, and for what?

How might you deal with an unexpected pregnancy – yours or someone else’s

How do you feel about alternative sexual practices, like fisting or anal sex or BDSM? Do you have limits around blood play, bondage, penetration…?

Are your limits different with different people or in different situations?

How do you feel about your partner(s)’ limits? Are they compatible with yours?Where are you willing to compromise, and why?

What are your needs and limits around your emotional safety in sexual situations?

What happens if you find out you have contracted an STI – who do you have to tell and what will you do?

9. Be strong. Make no mistake about it: choosing a polyamorous relationship style is a radical thing. It upsets people – some of those people may include your parents, your friends, your work colleagues, members of your religious or spiritual groups, your kids, and more. Just because we have an alternative philosophy about what makes us feel happy in our relationships doesn’t mean the whole world will be on board with us. That creates pressures on everyone involved.

To handle this, it’s really helpful to have strong friendships, a strong philosophy, an independent streak, a lot of self-confidence, a good sense of boundaries (other people’s, not just your own), some well-articulated knowledge and words with which to defend or explain your choices (answering questions in this list can help with that, as can reading a few good poly books), and a community that includes other poly people.

Here are a few more questions to think about:

Can you deal with the social pressures you will face because you’ve made a different choice than the mainstream? How, exactly, will you deal with this? What would your approach be for each of these situations I listed above?  

What do people need to know? How much are you comfortable telling them about your choices? Is it safe for you to come out to people about your multiple loves? Will this affect your child custody, your career, your community standing?

Is it actually unsafe for you to come out to people about your multiple loves? Or are you internalizing social pressures and censoring yourself before even giving your friends and loved ones a chance to show their support and open-mindedness? 

How will you deal with it if you’re perceived as a cheater, a slut, a greedy person, an immoral person?

What will you do if people whom you didn’t want to tell end up finding out?

10. Go with the flow. In other words, don’t go out looking for anything. The best people show up when we’re just going about our business, doing good things in life, being happy, and being generous. It’s not that personals sites or matchmaking are a bad idea… it’s simply that the joy of non-monogamy is in being open to the many things that may come our way, rather than gunning for any one thing in particular. Life is generous if we’re open to receiving it, and it pulls away when we clutch at it…a lot like people.

- Andrea Zanin, pretty much fucking killing it on her blog "Sex Geek." And also.making me want to run and hide under my little mostly-monogamous bed and not mess around with anyone besides my husband ever again, because I 100% agree with her assertion that this is the work that we need to do, if we actually want to do a good job of being polyamorous, and because it sounds hard as fuck, and because I'm just not feeling very secure today. I should probably go to sleep.

[iconaccounting]

How to Succeed as an Independent Professional – Tips and Hints directly from Contractors!

With the market currently booming and many first-time contractors making the switch from ‘permanent employment’, we asked some of our most experienced contractors for some of their tips and tricks for success whilst working as a Contractor.

Working as an independent professional can often seem like it is more complicated than it actually transcends to be.

With the market currently booming and many first-time contractors making the switch from ‘permanent employment’, we asked some of our most experienced contractors for some of their tips and tricks for success whilst working as a Contractor. We have compiled their answers to give new independent professionals some tried and tested advice, directly from the experts themselves.

For context, we have provided a brief introduction to our experts, Tuhin, Dusan and Stephen. With a combined 30 years of independent professional experience, we are extremely grateful that they took the time out to answer our questions.

Tuhin:

After stumbling into the market through a contract opportunity back home in Dublin whilst working abroad, Tuhin worked as an independent professional for over 7 years.

Despite not knowing much about contracting, Tuhin was eager to return to Dublin where his family were residing. Shortly afterwards, Tuhin became an Icon Accounting client and managed Programs and Portfolios of a cumulative value of over €350 million during his career.

Tuhin is widely recognized as a trusted adviser to multiple Bank’s senior management teams having a wealth of experience across the globe in the areas of both business process management and IT change.

Dusan:

The opportunity to work on exciting projects and multiple different opportunities is what attracted Dusan to contracting initially. 8 years’ later and Dusan has built a huge reputation in the sector and is still contracting successfully today. With experience in Linux, Open Source, Cloud (Amazon AWS, OpenStack), Agile Software Development, Devops and Automation (Puppet, Ansible, CFN, Heat), Dusan has seen it all.

Stephen:

Stephen started out working as a Programmer in the Software industry in Ireland in 2000, developing web applications across many different companies and industries. With over 14 years of Contracting experience – primarily in Java development, Stephen used contract opportunities to stay doing what he loved, despite his client’s best efforts to get him into a management role.

What are the biggest benefits to working as independent professional in your opinion?

T: Flexible hours was a huge benefit; I did not have to worry about booking time off to attend family events and instead could work around a schedule that suited me. This helped to improve my work-life balance and I would say that was another benefit, an improved work life balance. Finally, the ability to remove yourself from the office politics. When working as an independent professional, you can go in, do your work, and really leave everything behind you at the end of the day, as long as you do a good job!

D: The opportunity to work on many exciting and different projects as well as constantly learning from the new people that you meet on different projects were two huge benefits. The other huge benefit of Contracting for me was the improved work-life balance that comes with the added flexibility, which allowed me to up-skill whilst contracting.

S: The biggest benefit for me initially was the higher rate of pay, I was working alongside some independent professionals whilst working in full-time employment and they were getting paid more than I was for doing the same work, so I quickly fixed that. This accompanied with fulfilling a long-term desire to become self-employed and again, the improved work-life balance allowed me to complete projects whilst also spending as much time with my family as possible. I can also work on another project that I own called the Mindful Living Guide which was not possible, when working as an employee as I was very restricted with my time.

What advice would you give to a first-time Contractor?

T: Build relationships with recruiters and your managers, you never know when you will be looking for your next opportunity and keeping in touch with hiring managers and contract recruiters gives you a better chance than not keeping in touch. Even if you are not interested in your next contract just yet, keep in touch with the market, the rates and know what is happening out there. Another tip I would give is to make the most of the increased income, you do not have to pay it all to yourself, save for a rainy-day or month where you do not have a contract. Paying yourself less can often result in paying yourself more.

D: Prioritise relationships and liaise with colleagues as much as you can. Your network is everything as an independent professional and there is always something to learn from colleagues and managers that you are working with. It is very easy to go in, do your work and leave but establishing connections will be the difference in more contracts coming your way. Up-skilling and cross-skilling are also very important to anyone who wants to work as an independent professional.

S: Be as adaptable as you can be, you may be starting a new contract role and come across some new technology that you have not encountered before, it is all about having a willingness to learn and to be adaptable to change. It is also paramount to build a relationship with the hiring client, I have had a six-month contract extended to a period of over 3 years, solely because the management liked working with me. If longevity is the goal, make the effort. I have worked with some contractors who were not always good to work with and you simply will not get extensions if people don’t enjoy working with you.

If you were starting again now, would you do anything differently and if so, why?

T: Put your hand up early if you do not understand how something works, the team at Icon Accounting and even Rockwell Financial are there to help you and support you. If I were starting out again, I would be wiser with my increased rate of pay. Put a plan in place with your account manager or financial advisor and make the most of it from the outset.

D: Spend more time prioritising relationships. Upskilling is important but your network is as important.

S: I would have more confidence with recruiters, I have come across some great recruiters but also some not so great. You can be knocked back at times, but you have to trust them to sell you to their end term client.

Know the market and ask for your worth, hold all of the cards when you enter negotiations. Never discount relationships with fellow contractors and colleagues, they can often introduce you to new projects and recommend you to the employer directly which is priceless.

If you are an independent professional and you have any other tips and hints that you feel would be beneficial for first-time contractors, please get in touch. Likewise, if you are new to Contracting and would like any questions answered by experienced independent professionals, we would love to hear from you, please get in touch by emailing info@iconaccounting.ie

[berrynooboos]

TS2 Flower Power Rainbowcy Challenge

NOTE: I still have to test this to see if it works, and I also accidently wrote a lot, because I am so heavily inspired by @berrysweetboutique‘s pastel rainbowcy. So forgive me for how much there is too it. Also note that I made this for myself, to challenge myself. So it’s long, and a bit random. And probably only makes sense to me, and how I geneticized my game. Feel free to use it exactly as it is, or change it based on how you play. I’d love to see you use it though!

Original challenge HERE.

A 17 generation rainbowcy, based on flower meanings, colors, and inspired by the original one for the newer games. You can cut down on the number of generations if you want. But I constructed it this way to work with how my own personal genetics are set up within the game. This is meant to be played in TS2.

RULES: - You can use cheats if necessary. Especially if you need to change traits/turn ons and offs and such when a heir is chosen. - Chosen heir's MUST have the skin color of the next generation. Meaning if pink, marries red, the child must have red skin. If a child with red skin isn't produced keep trying until you get one. This helps with making sure the next generations children end up with the next gen skin color. - I do write little tidbits of how their lives are played out, based on flower meanings. But you DO NOT have to copy it word for word. This is just to help you build a story for your game. I know it's harder with TS2 games, so this is just a way to help make it more full of life. Do whatever you want with it. Play however you want! It's your game~

Generation One: Peony (Pink) Prosperity, Romance, Happiness

- Must have active and nice traits in the high levels. Other traits can vary. - Romance has to be their aspiration - Turn-ons: Charisma, Hardworker - Turn-off: Can be your choice - Doesn't have to marry, but must date a red skinned sim. Who has a good deal of money. - Number of children can vary, and they don't have to just be with the red skinned sim. But the Heir must be from them. - Heir must have red skin.

Peony enjoys an adventrous romance. They start out with what makes them happy. Dating many is what they are known for, but it's not with the intention to play around. They are just living their life the best way they know how. If a person they are with doesn't make them happy, they move on to the next, but it never ends in a bad way. Their goal is to prosper in life. And though they decide to settle down and have a family. Marriage isn't really for them.

Generation Two: Amaryllis (Red) Pride, Determination, Radiant Beauty

- Grouchy and Serious traits on the low levels, outgoing set to high. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Family aspiration. - Turn-ons: Fit, Mechanical - Turn-off: Can me your choice - Marry a peach(light red, without being too pink) skin colored sim. The peach sim works as a journalist. - Have one more child than their parents did. - Heir must have peach skin

Amaryllis is very prideful when it comes to their own passions. They didn't really agree with how their parents lived their life and is determined to have their own be much better lived. They are slightly narcissitic, which makes them a tad picky when choosing a lover. But they know what they want and are determined to find it. Love finally does come to them when they spot a journalist taking pictures during an outing or an event. The journalist spots them, and smiles. And asks to take a picture of their beauty. Their marriage is full of reaching their goals, and getting to the top.

Generation Three: Gladiolus (Peach) Strength, Integrity, Infatuation

- Active, nice, and outgoing on the high levels. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Popularity aspiration. - Turn-ons: Body, Charisma - Turn-offs: Stink - Marry an orange skin colored sim. Works in the athletic career. - Works as a journalist like their parent. - Number of children may vary, heir must have orange skin.

Gladiolus admired their parents, and grew up wanting to preserve the best traits of the both of them. They take on their parents job of journalism, and focus on only stating the facts in their articles. This makes them both hated, and loved. Hated because honest truth isn't always what others desire. But they know that if you can't be friends with those that can't understand your ambition, those aren't the people you need anyway. When they find love, it starts out a bit one sided. A playful crush on an athlete they are interviewing. Flirting is a common thing in their relationship. And through a lot of time spent, the athlete finds love in the other.

Generation Four: Daylily (Orange) Flirtatious, Morning Person, Forgetfulness

- Outgoing, and active on the high levels, neatness on the low. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Pleasure aspiration. - Turn-Ons: You can choose - Turn-Off: Logic - Marry a light/pale orange skinned sim. Works in the slacker career. - Have only one child. (If the skin doesn't come out the right color. You can use the save before giving birth trick. Right before they are giving birth, you may need a cheat to estimate that. Birth usually happens between the 72-78 hour mark I think. Save your game, and keep having them have that child until the skin color is correct.) - Heir must have light/pale orange skin.

Daylily was different than their siblings. While they all embodied their parents strength, and intergrity. Daylily took the infatuation trait to a higher level. They are a huge flirt, and start out with many lovers in their teen years, and even onward into adulthood. Overall, they are more fun loving than hardworking like their siblings. They find love with someone who shares their fun attitude, and is almost as absent-minded as they are.

Generation Five:  Begonia (Light/Pale Orange) Shyness, Innocence, Loyalty in Love

- Niceness trait is very high, shyness is very low. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Family Aspiration. - Turn-Ons: Charisma, second may be your choice - Turn-Off: Underwear - Marry a light/pale yellow skinned sim. Who was their childhood friend and experienced some ups & downs in work and life. - Can have any number of children, but must have a set of twins. - Heir must be one of the twins, with the not chossen twin following them through life. They also must have light/pale yellow skin.

Begonia was a bit sheltered as an only child. Their parents kept them close and didn't really give insight to the world outside. They really only had one friend, that friend lived a completely opposite life from them. Having so many twist and turns it was hard to keep up sometimes, but Begonia was always their when they needed them. Even if they couldn't really understand what the other was going through, they tried their best to be helpful in anyway they could. They married them in the end, when the sim was at their lowest and requested for them to be the one bright spot in their lives. Everything went up from their with the both of them.

Generation Six: Daffodil (Light/Pale Yellow) Egotism, Introvert, Vanity, Liar, Formal

- Seriousness, and Grouchy levels are low. Neatness is high. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Knowledge aspiration. - Turn-Ons: Formal Wear, Cleaning - Turn-Off: You can choose. - Marry a brighter yellow sim, later in their life. - Have four children, all of whom get into private school. - Heir must have bright yellow skin.

Daffodil and their twin did everything together when younger, and even decided to live together. As their twin was the only person Daffodil really trusted, and the only one who understood the way they acted. They help Daffodil through the trials of life, and try to get them to be slightly less of an introvert than they are. Even introducing them to people, or taking them to a speed dating event. Daffodil doesn't really enjoy it, but does it for their sibling, feeling sort of out of place at first. They don't find their soulmate until far into adulthood. A chance meeting at work with a new employee who is the exact opposite that they are.

Generation Seven: Sunflower (Bright Yellow) Happiness, Warmth, Adoration, Longevity

- Niceness, and playfullness levels are high. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Wealth Aspiration. - Turn-Ons and Offs can be your choice. - Marry a Light/Pale Green skinned sim. - Must make it to the elder stage, and live until a child from the next generation is a teen. (Can use cheats) - Number of children should be on the high side. - Heir must have light/pale green skin.

Sunflower was very different from their parent, and was more like their parents twin instead. Always very helpful, and fun loving. Daffodil acquired a great deal of money in their life, and Sunflower inherited. They are cautious with spending, because though money isn't everything, they do believe it helps them live well. They live a very long and happy life with their lover, going on to spend some time with their children and grandchildren. A big family that they dreamed off.

Generation Eight: Spider Mum (Light/Pale Green) Sympathy, Death, Remembrance, Non-romantic affection

- Seriousness is on low levels, niceness is on high. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Knowledge Aspiration. - Turn-Ons and Offs can be your choice. - Doesn't marry the person they have children with. That sim must have darker green skin. - Have only two children with their mate, before they pass away. (You can use the save before giving birth trick to get the correct skin colored heir.) - Heir must have darker green skin.

Spider Mum was always a pretty somber child. They were one of many, but usually kept to themselves. Though whenever they were around those they cared about, they were happy, and caring. They enjoyed how much time they got with their parent, and looked up to them closely. They don't really find love, and were always confused as to why they couldn't feel that way like their parents did. But they do find great trust in someone they meet later on. They start a family with the other understanding that Spider Mum doesn't really want to marry them, because of their beliefs. But Spider Mum ends up regretting not taking their partners hand. They die after the birth of the second child, which brings great sorrow to Spider Mum. They get through it with the help of their parent, who helps raise their kids.

Generation Nine: Fern (Darker Green) Magic, Fascination, Confidence, Shelter, Sincerity

- Playfulness is maxed. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Knowledge Aspiration. - Turn Ons: Witch, and another supernatural life-state of your choice. - Turn-Off: Can be your choice. - Marry a witch/warlock with light teal skin. - Have three children, one being a good witch/warlock, one being a bad witch/warlock, the other being a neutral witch/warlock - Heir must be a good witch and have light teal skin.

Fern believed from a young age that they could see their lost parents ghost, but no one else believed them. They grew more and more attached to the fantasy world around them, wanting to see what else besides ghosts there could be out there. They heard of people with magic, and developed a dream of finding one that could bring their parent back to them. And even as years went on and realized that wasn't possible, their thoughts about the fantasy world never changed. They ended up marrying a witch/warlock, one they sought to bring their dream a reality, who promised to try to discover a way to bring their parent back.

Generation Ten: Forget-Me-Not (Light Teal) Truth, Undying Love, Growing Affection, Charitable

- Niceness is maxed. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Family Aspiration - Turn-Ons: Unemployed, second can be your choice. - Turn-Off: Formal Wear. - Marry a Dark Teal/Turquoise skinned sim, who is an unemployed cook. - Only have one child. (Use save before birth trick) - Heir must have dark teal/turquoise skin.

Forget-Me-Not was a good witch/warlock and though they tried to get along with their other aligned siblings, they never really did. But they strive now, to bring about good to the world, even if their evil aligned sibling tries to thwart that plan. They are very into volunteering, and helping strangers whenever they see someone in need. They meet their soulmate serving food to a homeless shelter. The food they made themselves which ends up not being that good, but Forget-me-not tries it anyway. Together they build a life, learning to cook, and better themselves, and helping those who need it.

Generation Eleven: Flax (Dark Teal/Turquoise) Homebody, Fate, Creativity

- Shyness and Sloppiness must be low. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Grilled-Cheese Aspiration. - Unemployed, gets money through selling art. - Turn Ons and Turn-Off can be your choice. - Must get abducted and have an alien child. - Marry a light blue skinned sim who works in the education career. - Number of children may vary as long as they have that first born being an alien. - Heir must have light blue skin.

Flax didn't get out much as a child, and stuck to their parent as much as possible. Though Forget-Me-Not tried to help them experience life, Flax didn't really want that. They grew quite clingy, and dependent on them. They also did not get the magic from their parent. Later in life, while still living with Forget-Me-Not, they get abducted by an alien. The baby scares them, and makes them concerned on how they are going to raise it when they themselves are so dependent on others. Forget-Me-Not helps of course. It's not until the alien child's school years that there is a change in Flax. The child was picked on a lot at school, Aliens are uncommon, and weird to children. But the child's teacher showed such a loving and caring nature for them, that it helped Flax be less dependent, and strive to be a better parent. They fall in love, each one helping each other discover new things.

Generation Twelve: Hydrangea (Light Blue) Heartfelt, Honesty, Gratitude, Grace, Beauty

- Neatness and Niceness are maxed. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Popularity Aspiration. - Turn-Ons: Glasses, Cleaning - Turn-Offs: Stink - Marry an elder with dark blue skin. - Number of children is up to you. - Heir must have dark blue skin.

Hydrangea grew up with the understanding that not everyone would be nice. Their alien half-sibling was bullied, and it made them upset to see how cruel people could be. They couldn't understand that. Their own parents were loving, and everyone they knew were kind. Why should being a different species, change how people treat someone? With that feeling, Hydrangea was always finding friendships in older individuals. Feeling they had more compassion than people their own age. When they reach adulthood, they marry their best friend who they met when Hydrangea was a child, and they were a teen. That friend always took the time to include Hydrangea's alien sibling in everything, and never showed any animosity towards them, and that was what Hydrangea loved the most.

Generation Thirteen: Iris (Dark Blue) Faith, Hope, Valor, Wisdom

- Serious levels are low, niceness is high. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Knowledge Aspiration. - Turn-Ons: logic, second can be your choice. - Turn-Off: Your choice. - Must join the law enforcement career. - Marry a light purple skinned sim who is in the criminal career. - At least two children, heir must be the last born. - Heir must have light purple skin.

Iris had a good understanding of life at a young age. Their parents always answered questions no matter how tough, and though they were still young when their oldest parent passed on. They knew what death meant and didn't feel sorrow in their death. They believed they were in a better place and they would see one another again. They joined the law enforcement career with the dream of helping others understand life as well. Believing that not everyone who commit crimes is unforgivable and can't change their ways. The meet a paticularly stubborn individual who doesn't share the same views as life. And continues to commit small crimes despite Iris's help. But the attention Iris gives them does eventually make them strive to be better, even if they aren't completely cured of their criminal tendencies.

Generation Fourteen: Wisteria (Light Purple) New Beginnings, Youthful Vitality, Love At First Sight, Devotion

- Active level maxed, grouchy level low. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Romance Aspiration - Turn-Ons and Turn-Off are your choice. - Have a part-time job as a teenager, but loses it, and can't find work later on. - Marry a dark purple skinned sim, that changes their luck around. - Have ten children. - Heir must have dark purple skin.

Wisteria gained different things for each of their parents. They got into trouble a lot growing up, but worked hard at what they really believed in. They were the baby in the family, and often blamed anything that went wrong on their older sibling. Which made them end up being pretty spoiled during their childhood. However karma kicked in during their teenage years, bringing there luck down a great deal. Work was tough, and finding love was even harder. They still had hope that things would get better, but it didn't seem that way for a long time. Until one day, they end up bumping into a stranger, that knocked them clean of their feet. They thought this too was bad luck until their eyes met, and they knew that this encounter, wasn't just karma kicking them around.

Generation Fifteen: Heather (Dark Purple) Admiration, Solitude, Good Luck

- Shyness maxed, (Nothing in the shy/outgoing trait bar). (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Pleasure Aspiration. - Turn-Ons: Black hair, second being your choice. - Turn-Off: Your choice. - Must be a part of every career track, quitting after one day. Adventurer career must be done last. - Marry a black skinned sim, who is in the also adventurer career. - Have a child with every skin color of each of the previous generations. (Save before birth cheat is a must here. As this will be difficult.) - Heir must have black skin.

Heather has always favored solitude. Being one of ten children made that nearly impossible though. So they left home a lot just to get out of that crazy atmosphere. They explored the town they grew up in, but never really liked the places that were too crowded. Spending the most times in quiet forest areas, or libraries. During adulthood, they tried various jobs, trying to find the best one for them, but they always involved too many people for their liking. They settled on the adventurer career when it showed them what they had been doing their whole lives anyway. And even met another with the same desires as them. The married this sim, and though they both favored their solitude, they ended up having an abundance of children of every sort of color. Making the adventure that much brighter.

Generation Sixteen: Hollyhock (Black) Fertility, Fruitfulness, Resilience, Ambition

- Playful levels maxed. (You can cheat to make them this way). Other traits can vary. - Wealth Aspiration. - Turn-Ons: Hardworker, second is your choice. - Turn-Off: Unemployed. - Must reach the top of their career track. - Marry a white skinned sim who is also at the top of their career track. - 3+ children at least. - Heir must have white skin.

Hollyhock was one of many, many children. The fruitfulness carried over as well as the ambition to create a family just as big. Growing up they worked hard in school and life, and always looked for the next way to get ahead. And though sometimes it didn't work out, they kept going, and never backed down. They make it to the top of their career before they meet the person they marry. Falling for their similar ambition. They warn of their dreams to have a big family, but their partner doesn't mind, they are willing to give Hollyhock anything they desire.

Generation: Seventeen: Lily (White) Passion, Sweetness, Innocence, Purity, Nobility

- Everything this last round is up to you, as long as their nice level is maxed.

[anupriyasinghal]

An old girl in a new city

Another year has come & gone & I have to say a lot has happened in 2019 unlike 2018 where literally nothing happened and yet it seemed that life spun on its own axis leading to nothing more than a bit of frenzy & a lot of nausea.

I was on a long flight halfway across the world when I started writing this one. I have an honest question from the larger world. Does it happen that if you are flying closer to home the distance in your head seems shorter than it actually is? Everytime I would fly from India to London or anywhere in Europe I would always find it long & tiresome. But here I was flying to Thailand from London when I started writing it, which is a 12 hour journey & I have been thinking come on that’s not that far. Well, to be honest I don’t think it happens with everyone. I have this weird tendency of layering facts (scientific or otherwise) with emotions & prejudice making it well, a halfway world b/w muggles & wizards. Oh! I am still convinced that there is a magical realm existing somewhere & we have just not found the door to it yet. That was over 6 months ago & then somehow I never got to finish this. So here I am saying bye to 2019, having completed my 1 yr in London, driven far & wide (8000 miles to be precise) in a not so new country any longer, 2 speeding tickets; 1 speed awareness course, 1 failed driving test later finishing what I started & am finishing it now because I realised it would lose all meaning if I don’t finish it before the year ends. .

This post could be about a lot of things & I am still choosing as I am writing. People who know me a little will find it odd that I haven’t decided what I want to write about yet & those who know me very well will know that’s just me. Think & make up the the thinking as you talk - my biggest strength & well my worst pitfall as well. It may do me well to list down what all it could be about & then see where I take it as I move along because while I may choose to elaborate on one of them the reality is that its a story of all of these things in some form & quantity but I don’t know yet what do I feel most strongly about. The options I have are - about loving & losing (well its an exageration but for sake of creative liberty let’s call it that); wide eyed absorption of a new world; growing up (or well growing older I would say); serendipity; seeing the world to be same same but different different or finally being able to find the mirror of erised where one sees just oneself.

I will choose the last one because of two reasons. Firstly, it warranted a Harry Potter reference without having to force fit one & more importantly because that is a feeling I want to remember as I end this year and move from being an old girl in a new city to just a girl in this city.

So it started on 2nd January 2019 when I yet again uprooted my life as I knew it & packed it in boxes of different sizes & shapes & shipped it halfway across the world to London. The new year brought as many “new(s)” as it could - new job, new country, new ways of dealing with goodbyes & most importantly I think a little new me or atleast a much healed & unbroken old me which almost seems a new me now. I think for the longest time I have been a broken mug glued together with 1 or 2 pieces always missing or cracks showing through. Now atleast I am a whole mug fully glued together & slowly I think I am also becoming a piece of china put together through Kintsukuroi. For people who don’t know what it is - its a Japanese form of fixing things where the cracks are filled with gold also called golden joinery. Essentially it means you don’t hide the cracks but you embellish them. I have now chosen to do just that with my broken & sort of healed pieces.

Actually truly this story starts in December 2018 when I started saying my goodbyes in India & if any of you read my Pushkar post there is reference of how I immersed some of the things I wanted to leave behind in the holy waters. So I came to London relatively lighter (I wish I could say that about my weight as well -sadly it was at its worst with all the farewell binging!!!) & relatively equipped to handle the new.

Unlike the last time I lived on foreign soil; I am actually loving the move. It has had many dimensions to it which I have totally fallen in love with. I now know what does cold grey weather mean. It was an alien concept till I spent Jan & Feb in London despite the fact that I have lived in Kashmir for 2 years (India’s coldest region) but nothing back home prepares you for days on end of no sun & miserable sleet (i refuse to call it rain) all around you. The howling winds that threaten to enter your bones & never leave. But to be honest there is a beauty to it all as well. There is something extremely wholesome about entering a warm & toasty home after a long walk from the station or standing under a hot water shower and feeling your skin regain warmth.

Coming back to why the particular choices of what I wanted to write about & why they were all viable choices. As it happens with me & some of it very much in my own head things happened that made me go down a rabbit hole without thinking much about the end, believe in Yash uncle’s prophecy of “sabke liye kahin na kahin koi bana hai”, trying to be a better version of myself incessantly, leaning in & then at some point pulling out because that is the only to be.

It sounds like I went through lots of bad things & then came out of it a winner. Nothing like that happened. Things happened - some good, some great, some bad & some ugly. Mostly they were just things that happened - it was my reaction to them that determined what I remember & choose to keep with me from them.

Because I am an ardent Bollywood fan & I love Yash uncle & SRK & everything that comes with their genre of film making I realised that ishq (aka love) is much like autumn. You know before moving to London I had never experienced Autumn in my life & I had only heard about how the colour of fall & autumn have magic in them. In every book that remotely reeked of romance & togetherness, it all always started or fructified in Autumn/fall. And I honestly didn’t know what that meant in its true sense. But I think the last years experiences have been like the colours of fall for me. While everything stayed the same, the colours just deepened to embody the combined & common passion for the good things & experiences in life that can only be measured in their intensity & importance & never in their length or longevity. And the fact that everything comes in a different hue of amber/crimson & some stay that way while others decide to wither & drift away as dead leaves. And not just in terms of people or romantic sorta relationships - just everything in life. The moment we stop measuring significance of events/people/things in longevity of their existence in your life - you can see them for what they really are. Time is a dimension that definitely needs to be measured for quality and not quantity.

And having established this parallel in my head & for a change in my heart, I started my journey of being the lone woman in the mirror of Erised. I decided to pull back & choose to preserve myself without running to season myself & who I am with namak cheeni & masala as preservatives.

I read this in a book and it has sort of stuck with me - “Fear is good. In the right degree it prevents us from making fools of ourselves. But in the wrong measure it prevents us from fully living. Fear is our boon companion but never our master.” My fear of being judged, abandoned or left standing alone (not in a lack of companionship way but rather a beautiful strong solitary soul way) has dictated most of what course of action or discourse of reaction I take. But in truth fear can only be our companion & never our master.

So here I am, bringing in 2020 surrounded by warm fuzzy soft quilt of affection, love, laughter, joy & excitement of family, friends & friends like family. And while this is the quilt that is firmly & securely tucked under me, I also have my head firmly rested on the pillow stuffed with intellect, thoughts, ideologies, ideas, creativity & the right amount of fluidity in all of the above that I have carefully begged, borrowed & stolen from people who have these in abundance.

Here’s an old girl in a not so new city looking at herself in the mirror of Erised with a pair of outrageously fun socks or maybe a big library or a garden full of summer blooms or a round the world air ticket in my hands. I am not looking at a better or different version of myself. I am looking at myself as myself desiring small or big joys of life! Happy 2020 folks!!!!

[cutefut]

Skype Questions for 31/07/2019 wk3

Skype Interview Questions for Annie from Tearfund. This was the first communications interview where we could understand what Annie envisioned, and could answer some valid questions to go towards the project. I met up with Simone and Lauren who we are now working closely with. Below are some questions that were planned on bringing up into conversation:

What outcome would you like to see from us working with you?

Are there any aspects in particular that you would like us to focus on when designing promotional material for TearFund?

You have said that you would like to target a younger and wider audience; what do you think of creating a fun visual medium such as an app, lookbook, or subscription media page to engage the public more and better illustrate the key issues TearFund what people to know?

What do you want people to know about TearFund?

Why do you think there have been bad press regarding the fashion report?

What feedback have you received that can better the reputation of the report?

What have you found to be your most successful platform in terms of getting your message across (so far)?

In the Skype meeting Annie gave us plenty of information, and a lot of my questions were answered pretty quickly. The two other communicators prompted more information with their questions. This first meeting was helpful and gave us better insight before heading to class. 

Interview with Annie: 20 minute duration (simplified transcript from voice recording)

We wanted to know more background and information about Tearfund?

Basically, as I explained in the presentation, Tearfund is an organisation with development work in countries which is kind of like our prime target of work. Ethical fashion guide sits quite outside of it but like we still see it as an important form of work in terms of advocacy. And probably the most touchpoint of that is that we are very much into looking after the worker and thats kind of how it ties into all of other work, and its that we acknowledge that ya know workers in the fashion industry are often exploited: they don’t have many rights, they are treated pretty badly, and so it’s not so dissimilar to all the other work we do. 

And so the other side of that we are wanting to achieve in New Zealand is that creating something that gets into the consumers hands that helps them make better choices when they are purchasing and  informs them a bit better. So i guess thats like probably the most important part for us. And so the ethical fashion guide is a totally complicated one and Jennifer and I have talked about this before, lots of  people have different opinions on what or if they think its good or if they think its bad, what they think it should be doing, or if they think it does well. And yeah, lots of feedback we have gotten recently is the environmental side of the report. So historically the report was designed to look at worker empowerment which is the most heavily weighted section in the survey. The main bit of that is to check of is what the company is doing to look after the people, and how they are doing it and basically how robust are they. So up until last year it really focused on like workers but sort of this year we are introducing the environmental section and i think as kiwis, the  environment is something that we care about a lot. Obviously without an environment we wont be able to survive, so although its not directly connected to people in some ways its totally connected to us as you guys probably know. 

A lot of feedback we got this year is that companies and people, like through press or supporters coming to us saying: we like what you're doing but we think you failed to address some of the really big pieces to do with sustainability and the environment. Our environmental section at this stage addresses things like water use, chemical testing, I can send you a it of a run down of what the questionnaire asks which might be quite helpful. 

But it doesn’t really go into things like slow fashion vs fast fashion, and evaluating impact beyond like purchase, the volume of something. we often get asked “how does zara get such a good grade? How are they compared to someone like Kowtow?”  Longevity of garments, circular relationships, that sort of thing. It’s not like we don’t want to ask those kinds of questions, also, something interesting for you guys: Tear Fund New Zealand is a partner with another organisation in Australia called Baptist World Aid. They own the company, they make all of the big decisions. We try to give our two cents as much as possible to influence them. But at the end of the day, it’s their project so we hope that all of this research that are doing will be able to go towards something really cool in that space. Yeah thats just kind of a disclaimers for you guys. 

What was the name of that organisation? 

Baptist World Aid. So you will sometimes see it as BWA. I think it would be cool for you guys to help us think about ways in which we can measure that sort of environmental sustainability piece. We all know that these things should be being addressed. But we are not sure of the metrics we can use, cause theres almost nothing concrete in terms of data that you can acquire to tell us, to give us the stats on these things right. Beyond a brands power, say like when you purchase a garment, you know maybe like how many times you've washed something or how long you've had it in your wardrobe for but like there is no central data base to collect all that. So it would be really cool if you guys could have a think about that. Maybe see what else is out there in terms of metrics and research. 

I guess the other side of the thing is that the Ethical Fashion Report, as I was saying earlier, is something  that is received really well in New Zealand. but it also gets a lot of critical media attention. I think a lot of that is a lot of people not understanding how it actually works. and the purpose of it. Cause we have got the guide, and we have got the report; and hardly anyone would read the report and try to understand the bigger picture of it. So maybe, I'm sure if you guys have read the report, and i know its a really chunky document, so apologies in advance. but it might be helpful for you guys to take bit of a deep dive into that. Just to gain a really good understanding of it. Any questions so far?

No.. I think you’re covering it so well! No, you’re answering all of our questions already! It’s good.

Well yeah, so I reckon that those two main pieces and maybe to go into the positive chatter thing a bit. I mean with you guys being design students, you have such unique way of thinking, it would be cool to engage that sort of thinking to promote what we do because you know we’ve been promoting through articles and interviews sort of thing but its not necessarily promoted - other than the design field, you know in a other creative way. And possibly thats what it needs to gain bit of traction and become something really positive. Looking at it through a different lens through design. So that would be really interesting to see you guys come up with anything to do with that. 

With that, with the positiveness, did you mind if we showed people what fast fashion is actually kind of like? or do you want us to stay strictly positive? 

It’s totally up to you, but I don't see any harm with showing like a reality of it. Because i think people want to change things once they’ve seen kind of the harsh side of it. I think  if you balance it with a positive narrative, at the end  that sort of like inspires people, its yeah it balances each other out. So yeah I'm totally open to you guys revealing the harsher side behind it as well. 

What is your biggest audience? Who should we be targeting? 

Theres quite a few different audiences, so say for the purpose of the guide, essentially Tear Fund has our supporters who support our other causes, maybe they sponsor a child or are interested in the other work that we do. so thats sort of like one group and they’re, honestly about 50+. But that’s almost not the main key target of the Ethical Fashion Guide. I reckon the ethical fashion guide probably targets people maybe from 15 to - lets go with 35. That’ll be our main braces to target just because they are the groups that are like really keen to get involved in the space, they care about it. They are probably more active on social media and stuff. Is that too broad?

No that’s good.

So you said active on social media, are you looking at us to create something that is for social media? 

Well i guess, I mean we don't have a massive presence on social media, other than when we do the launch. Cause we have tear fund new zealand Instagram and Facebook page, and tear fund sees that as a strategic move to to keep sort of like all our pages in one. so probably wouldn’t be looking to create a separate account, and then put like and put the content stuff through that. but i reckon its definitkey something - its a story we should be telling on social media through our account. at all times of the year, not just through, at the peak time when we are releasing the report essentially. if that could be part of what yo guys do, great. if you wanna steer away from social media and make it more like guerrilla marketing, cool as well. whatever you wanna do. 

So what kind of promotional stuff do you do now? is it just the, like you said, the one post on social media currently?

Yeah so its kind of like, leading up to it and then at the time of the launch we will do lots of social media stuff. we will sort of try and do little bits and bob throughout the year, like through speaking at schools and churches. or just kind of getting the word out there by like seeking engagements. we do emails each month to our supporter database. which basically people who have signed up to the ethical fashion guide, we  then say like do you want to be taken on an ethical fashion journey? and so they either join or if they have been involved in the emails for a year, then they get moved to the advanced. so those are basically just emails that go out helping people to live more ethically and sustainably. so that promotes the ethical fashion guide through that channel as well. and then basically just around the time of the launch of the guide and report, we will do lots of media interviews and try and generate a lot of chatter around that time. id say thats probably the peak of our engagement. then it kind of drops off. 

With your process of working with the companies to find out what, what kind of is your process working with the companies to find out their grade? 

so, the engagement process starts off with a bunch of companies who we have worked with before. and we say “hey the survey is coming around again, just checking if you want to participate?” and usually they will say yes, cool send us the survey we will get started. So that will be older companies and then we will have new companies that we introduce, basically we see maybe if theres a gap in the market, maybe we have only got one baby wear company, and we want 4 so we will add a few more to that category or something like that. so its new people that we want to include, we will send them a letter saying “you have been included in the ethical fashion guide, there is two streams you can go down, either we can collaborate and we will go through a process of filling out the survey together - there will be two check points and then final submission” so basically we explain the engagement process and then we say  “if you choose not to participate, we will still assess you on public available information. let us know what you want to do.” we often hear back from them saying “we want to know more about it” and thats where we would have a company meeting. we basically try to be a collaborative as possible because  of so much that we do can be easily misconstrued - beavsue it seems like a scary thing right? to get a letter being like you're gonna be assessed. but we want it to be way more collaborative than that and not a freaky thing. we will sit down with people and explain exactly how it works. when someone chooses to participate, we have countless meetings with them, countless phone calls, i will sit down and explain question by question, tell them exactly what they need to submit. so the engagement process is really collaborative. 

so they fill out the survey, which has 5 sections that you will know. Policies, traceability and transparency, auditing and supplier relationships, worker empowerment and environmental management. so they are assessed on all 5 sections. the 5 sections have different weightings so both policies and the environment are weighted at 10%. auditing and supplier relationships and traceability and transparency is 20%. and then worker empowerment is the bigger section at 30%. 

what a company does, is that go through the survey, they answer either yes or no, depending on what the question asked, a lot of the time with the more heavily weighted sections, because they are worth more, we require quite a bit more evidence. so we ask them to provide things such as order reports, for example there will be a question in there that is saying “do you pay living wage?”  and we will need a payslip from one of the factories to give evidence that they actually do.

although that it is a self reporting tool that companies fill out themselves with help of us, its not something that they can just sit and that and then get an easy grade for cause they like ticked the box. they have to do a lot more work beyond just saying they are doing what they are doing. basically after all that, and once we are happy with their answers, there is final submission. they submit, we mark it, and then give it a grade. basically the grade are just a percentage of the score that they got based on the grading template. thats basically it for them.

with the non -responsive companies, we just dig around for what information we can find that publicly available - so reports on their website, maybe like a code of conduct on their website, that sort of thing. when you will see an F, thats basically someone has little or nothing, and we can’t find anything else so we just give them a grade like that. 

Annabelle

[tpquill]

PR relationship vs Private...

I've stumbled across a few fandoms in my time; real life ships vs on screen. Many who expose themselves pretty early on as being nothing but pushing a person(s) career along, networking a show, promotion of a movie or movie franchise and so on. It's usually pretty easy to point them out; getting faces out there, carefully planned shopping trips or eating out in places 'all of Hollywood' go to eat. A stroll down a street that is ear marked by paps as the street a certain someone or someone's will be walking; my PR calls your PR agency to arrange a time and a place. I could list the amount of 'PR' couples who have and still do just that, but I'm not writing this to name names and point fingers. I'm merely putting across that this did, does and still happens in the show business industry. And those who are new to following shows or movies with fandoms attached, better train your BS skills in to what is 'fact' over what is 'fiction.' A real couple (as in one who have got together privately off screen, regardless of time, work ethic or closeness) know the dangers involved in getting together; media attention, scrutiny from other cast, fan scrutiny and public appraisal or disappointment. Outside of work is very limited to where you can go without being seen, particularly if you don't want anyone to know about you. It's too easy to get trapped into that kind of pressure, actors are after all still human and stress over the same things you and I do. Except their lives are like living in a goldfish bowl, swimming around aimlessly while the outside world judges them and boy! Do we judge. So...it's not uncommon for a 'private' relationship to remain private for the time being. If you are 'like most shows/movies' a couple who are linked romantically in the storyline; your face and acting are the main base for promoting, it becomes even more stressful, when forced to understand that a movie or shows success rides heavily on your 'believable' chemistry with your lead. When it becomes 'too' believable, well that's when tongues wag and if tongues wag it can mean failure to not only the show/movie, but also the financial investment (studio, media advertisement, merchandising, futures tie ins etc) as an actor you are known as the cash cow; marketing earns money of your back. A show that may have the prospect of longevity, does not want to damage itself, bolting before it's been released from the stocks. Nor does the movie want to cripple itself financially, before it's even released to the public. So yes, a 'private' relationship between two actors can cause a huge headache for both investors, studios and networks trying to push an investment and again I will stress TV shows or movies are financial investments as are the actors, whose faces 'market' that investment. You're only as good as your last performance. Many believe that you have a choice, fans seem to think you can March right into the board of directors, demand they allow you to live your life, that they cannot tell you want to do with your private life as it belongs to you - wrong, so very wrong. Everything about an actor belongs to a studio. Your public life is a performance, your private life should never be seen. You are a piece of clothing, to be promoted, advertised, displayed and sold to the highest bidder...as long as your agent and manager get as much money as you are worth out of it, of course. This is unfortunately the black and white, you need to earn money, they need to earn money, the studio or network of studios need money and financial investors need the money they put into the project they invested heavily in, in order to create a profit and success. Romantising in a different light does not work, simply because it's not reality. Your 'private' relationship is the difference between success and failure. Off screen romances are a huge no no, your agent, manager, studio want nothing more than it to remain hidden from the public. Studio bosses will be sweating with clauses you many have broken, NDAs are scrutinised and checked to make sure no leaking to the media happens...it's a financial noose around a studios neck, particularly a very young TV show or the beginning of a movie franchise with the hope of more movies to come. So...this is why a couple, who no fault of their own, but human nature, fall in love on set, off set - in the privacy of their own private bubble...find themselves in a situation were they cannot disclose what really is going on. Instead play the dumb 'we are best friends, best buddies, supportive and deeply fond of each other' card. Except body language tells a different story. The wonderful world of a 'PR' relationship. A relationship with nothing to hide. Happy to walk arm and arm down a busy street, go shopping together, get seen at wineries or dinner in an exclusive well known restaurant. Go to public events together or are simply seen as nothing short of 'fake Ken and Barbie' it's all to do with image, with promotion and little to do with personality. A good PR agent will see the opportunity of promoting careers, help image, get work. It's all to do with networking a story, get the media chatting, all along its just a performance. Friends yes, they would need to have some kind of razor or slight chemistry to pull it off. Although there have been a few awkward ones in the passed where neither looked entirely happy to be with each other and yet were supposedly selling a sizzling romance? You also get others behind it; work colleagues, people with clout in the industry, well known faces or names to support this 'showmance' and yes it has been done in the past, to act as someone's 'beard' (ie to cover up the truth) mainly due to the actors sexual orientation or (despise the use of the word gay) relationship with another... they are easier to spot, its always promoted in such a way to get it out there, it doesn't gradually appear, it just gets put into the public eye in a way that just screams 'too much' Don't believe me? How many recent romances, indeed horribly ended marriages have happened due to PR? How many look at a recent paparazzi saturation of a couple, who just looks 'too convenient, too set up, short lived' to not want you to roll your eyes so far to the back of your head? I can name a few famous singers, whose agency promotes that kind of romance; when an album or single is about to drop, or the eye candy at the time has a movie needing a lot of promotion? As I said PR romances or showmances happen all the time. Self serving for a period of time and then it's time to move on. No self respecting actor wants their private life splashed across the media. Have fan sites dedicated to pap photos taken of them when they don't want to been seen. Get hounded by endless questions by parasites (photographers freelance) at airports, calling your name, insulting the person you are linked with by nasty comments to get a reaction from you. That unfortunately is what happens when your 'private' life is 'out there' but a PR relationship they are humorous with. They, like other keen sighted people know it's just for show, so don't really make much of a fuss over it. It's titillation, because they (media) know it won't last for long...they never do. So before you join a fandom of a movie or TV show, think long and hard of what you are about to get yourself into. There will be tears, there will be tantrums. And unless the object or objects of your desire are already married to each other or another person, then the likely interest will be purely on the cannon story arc and not off screen romances. But then again, frenzied fans see that as a challenge to ship the couple regardless and hate on their real life husband or wife, but that's going down an even more darker path of fantasy. Or as it has happened in the past, marriages are tested when working very close with your co star, and unfortunately end. Sad but true - that's just life...I suppose.

[cloakedsparrow]

With an almost 80-year publication history, Dick Grayson is a character who’s got a lot of history under his belt. His longevity is anything but a fluke. It’s been maintained by a constant evolutionary momentum; and defined by a transition between superheroic mantles, a laundry list of off-kilter civilian day jobs, a perpetually shifting familial relationship with Batman and a revolving cast of close friends and extended family.

Nightwing is one complicated, multifaceted guy with an equally complicated, multifaceted past. Also, as luck would have it, he was just recently put on the map for DC’s ever expanding live action film universe. Now ought to be a good time to brush up on your Nightwing trivia, so without further ado, here are 16 things you never knew about the masked vigilante.

16. EXTREME HOBBYIST

You might think that dressing up and risking your life fighting super villains on a nightly basis would be enough action for even the most hardcore thrill-seeker, but apparently that’s not the case with Dick Grayson. During Peter Tomasi and Rags Morales’ appropriately titled “Freefall” story arc in “Nightwing” issues #140 through #146, Dick became obsessed with skydiving. Not just jumping out of planes with a parachute skydiving, but rather high altitude, going-for-a-world-record levels of skydiving. The sort of jumping that requires accessories like oxygen masks and a protective suit.

His family was not all that impressed with Dick’s newest hobby, but nevertheless saw fit to indulge him when they could, even if that meant hauling themselves out to the middle of nowhere to provide pick up at Dick’s drop zones. They may not have been totally able to understand why Dick was so interested in risking his life — especially when the world records he broke could never be made official since no Guinness World Record authorities were present at any of his attempts — but if there’s anything the Bat-family is old-hat at, it’s indulging eccentricity.

15. PATRON OF THE ARTS

After settling down in New York City after the events of “Infinite Crisis” and “One Year Later,” Dick found himself in need of a new base of operations. The solution came in the form of a New York art museum, called The Cloisters, with a massive network of caves weaving around underneath it. All Dick had to do was step in and fill a recently vacant curator position in order to get to work cultivating the cave system and historic museum tower as his own.

That, of course, meant he had to actually get the job first — something that maybe proved a bit trickier than he had been anticipating, but luckily for him, years of training in research and detective work under Batman paid off. He was able to ace his interview and land the gig.

Dick later enlisted the help of the Green Lantern known as John Stewart as architect, and the Justice Society as construction crew to help build his new base in record time… which turned out to be just fast enough for Dick to make use of his new digs for about a year before he was made to return to Gotham after “Final Crisis.”

14. ACCIDENTAL FASHIONISTA

Nightwing’s pretty well recognized by fans as one of the sexiest male superheroes around, but did you know he once actually, canonically, worked as a male model?

Following the events of “Infinite Crisis,” Dick transplanted himself from the recently leveled Bludhaven to NYC in an effort to cultivate a fresh start. During this time, he hooks up with an up-and-coming fashion designer named Cheyenne. When he goes to visit her at her office, he wanders smack dab into the middle of a fashion photoshoot. The photographer gets one look at him and decided — much to his dismay — “Oh my god, he’s perfect!” Seriously.

Thus began Dick’s brief tenure in the world of modeling. He even walked the runway in Bruce Jones and Paco Diaz’s “Nightwing” issue #120, wearing none other than a look inspired by New York’s newest superhero sensation: Nightwing. It was, strangely enough, not as awkward as it probably could have been.

13. MENTORING DEATHSTROKE’S DAUGHTER

As the first in the Robin legacy line and the leader of teams like the Titans and the Outsiders, Dick’s had plenty of experience acting as a teacher for the next generation of heroes. However, one of his most unusual students was actually the daughter of one of his most bitter rivals.

Slade Wilson’s luck with children has never been too great. After the deaths of his sons Grant and Joey, he decides it’s time to change up his formula and tracks Nightwing down with his daughter, Rose, in tow. For all their bad blood, Deathstroke knows Dick’s moral compass won’t allow for him to turn Rose away, especially when Slade makes the argument that the vigilante lifestyle will very likely kill her, just like it did her half-brothers, without proper guidance.

Dick begrudgingly acquiesces to Slade’s logic and finds himself plus one sidekick with dubious moral standing for the duration of Devin Grayson and Phil Hester’s “Secrets & Lies” arc of “Nightwing” in 2005. Rose’s training would grow to become something she recalls with pride and Slade recalls with relative disdain during Christopher Priest’s run on “Deathstroke.”

12. COLLEGE BOY

In 1969, the “Batman” titles were undergoing some dramatic changes. The pop culture phenomena of “Batman ‘66” had rocked the comic book industry, and title was still feeling the aftershocks. The status quo needed some serious updating.

Therefore, in “Batman” #217, Frank Robbins and Dick Giordano took the first step in shaking things up by officially “allowing” (forcing?) Dick to graduate from Gotham High School and leave the nest. It was, apparently, time for Robin to head to college. He was accepted into Hudson University — the future educational and professional home of DC Universe scientists like Dr. Martin Stein (aka Firestorm) and Caitlin Snow (Killer Frost).

After a tearful goodbye, Dick departed from the manor, functionally creating a totally reader friendly, understandable exit for Robin from the “Batman” narrative for a bit while the editorial team, under the guidance of Denny O’Neil, shifted gears. Unfortunately for Dick Grayson super fans, his choice of a major was never stated.

11. SPY GAMES

Believe it or not, the boy most famously known as a person who lives and dies by the spotlight spent some time moonlighting as an international spy.

In Tom King, Tim Seeley, and Mikel Janin’s “Grayson,” Dick’s skills as a prodigy of The Bat were put to the ultimate test: going deep undercover to infiltrate an international organization called Spyral. And to make matters even worse? Joining up and gaining Spyral’s trust required him to fake his death, leaving no one but Bruce, and oddly enough, Lex Luthor, aware of the truth. Needless to say, the entire endeavour was not an easy task.

Dick’s tenure at Spyral pushed him to the limits of his moral and ethical comfort zone, but also provided the groundwork for some lasting new allies in the form of the New 52 incarnation of Helena Bertinelli, The Midnighter and a Spyral operative named Tiger, all of whom would continue on through “Rebirth: Nightwing” #1 as Dick’s (somewhat put-upon) friends and confidants.

10. A KRYPTONIAN LEGACY

Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty, and Scott McDaniel expanded upon Dick’s transition from Robin to Nightwing in 2005’s “Nightwing: Year One,” a story that retroactively explored his first outing in his new identity.

In it, a badly botched mission against Clayface prompts a fight between Dick and Bruce. Bruce, blaming the failure on Dick’s split attention between Gotham and his Teen Titans, “fires” Dick from his position as Robin. Heartbroken and furious, Dick sets out to figure out what that actually means for him and his future as a vigilante.

He does the only thing a person who is friends with Superman would ever logically do and goes to Clark for advice. By way of helping, Clark relates a legend — the story of Nightwing, a Kryptonian hero who was cast out of his family and spent the rest of his life helping the weak — as a parable for Dick’s superheroic future. It works, and Dick decides to take up the name as his own and forge a new identity for himself.

9. ADOPTED IN ADULTHOOD

The official status of Dick and Bruce’s relationship has been through several iterations across multiple reboots of continuity since 1940. The first time any attention was paid to the dubious legality of Dick’s position as Bruce’s “ward” came about in 1943 in “Batman” #20 by Don Cameron and Jack Brunley. In the story, literally titled “Bruce Wayne Loses Guardianship Of Dick Grayson,” a pair of criminals masquerading as Dick’s long lost relatives challenged Bruce’s guardianship as a ploy to get at the Wayne fortune.

Needless to say, the conflict was resolved neatly by the end of the issue with typical Golden Age flair and Bruce and Dick’s arrangement was largely left unchallenged for the decades to follow. Eventually, the Crisis-level event “Zero Hour” off-handedly canonized that Dick had, at some point, been actually adopted as a Wayne, but the addition was never directly expounded upon.

The story of the official, legal adoption didn’t get told until the early 2000s in Devin Grayson and Roger Robinson’s “Gotham Knights” issues #20 and #21, where Dick and Bruce finally meet in court as adults to make Dick’s adoption as Bruce’s son 100% official.

8. HE REPLACED BATMAN TWICE

Though Dick’s made it known several times over that he’s not totally comfortable with the idea of “replacing” Batman, he has stepped into the role on two separate, longterm occasions. His first stint under the cowl came right after Azrael’s disastrous turn as the Bat post “Knightfall” in a cross-title event by Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, and Doug Moench known as “Batman: Prodigal.” In it, Dick does his best to clean up the mess Azrael left in his wake alongside the current Robin, Tim Drake.

Eventually, Bruce was able to return and reclaim the mantle, allowing for Dick to return to being Nightwing for nearly a decade until “Final Crisis” left the world in need of a replacement Batman yet again. This time around, Dick had to fight against a gauntlet of pretenders to the throne in Tony S. Daniel’s “Battle for the Cowl” before he could reprise his role as the Dark Knight.

Dick would remain Batman, alongside Damian Wayne as Robin, even after Bruce returned, at which point Bruce became the acting Batman of teams like the Justice League while Dick remained the Batman of Gotham City. This arrangement lasted for several months until the events of “Flashpoint” reset the continuity of the DC Universe.

7. A FRIEND IN NEED

Roy Harper has been a close friend of Dick’s since the earliest days of the Teen Titans, long enough that Dick has helped see Roy through even his darkest hours. And there’s… kind of a lot of them. Seriously, Roy’s a bit of a habitual screw up.

One such not-so-great period of Roy’s life came about during Marv Wolfman and Chuck Patton’s “The Cheshire Contract” published in “Action Comics Weekly” #627 through #634. In the story, Roy enlists Dick’s help on a personal mission to track down his former girlfriend, the assassin Cheshire, in order to retrieve his infant daughter, Lian.

It, of course, ends up being a bit more complicated than just finding Cheshire and asking her to hand Lian over, and soon enough, Dick and Roy find themselves in a web of murder and assassination all across Europe before they manage to reunite father and daughter for the first time since her birth. Lian would eventually come to know Dick as “Uncle Nightwing.”

6. OFFICER GRAYSON

Never satisfied with waging a war on just one front, Dick decided his time as Bludhaven’s protector would be better spent making the city a better place 24 hours a day. Despite Bruce’s objections (and, really, just about everyone else’s), Dick put himself up to the task of becoming an official member of the Bludhaven police department.

The process wasn’t easy, but not for the reason you might expect. Training to be a cop wasn’t the challenge, it was making sure to look just bad enough during the various boot camps so as to not pique suspicions. Dick had to look good enough to be accepted to the force, but not too good.

Then, once he was actually given his badge, there was the matter of the complicated ethical conundrum of being both an officer of the law and a vigilante who regularly acted above and beyond the law simultaneously. Still, despite the challenges, Dick enjoyed his time as a cop, even when it became an especially contentious hot button issue between Batman and himself.

5. HE INSISTED JASON TODD REPLACE HIM AS ROBIN

While the post-”Crisis On Infinite Earths” landscape famously reworked Dick’s exit from the role of Robin as a pretty traumatic event for all parties involved, it was originally a happy affair. Believe it or not, in Gerry Conway, Don Newton, and Alfredo Alacala’s “Detective Comics” #526 featured Dick not only meeting young pre-Crisis Jason Todd for the first time, but directly encouraging Bruce to adopt and train him. In fact, Dick says that if Bruce can’t adopt the recently orphaned Jason, Dick would try to do it himself. Just imagine how awkward that could have been.

Every interaction between Dick and Jason for the next five or so years leading up to “Crisis on Infinite Earths” would be largely positive. Dick would go on to provide Jason with his original costume, act as a mentor and guide, and generally be the big brother Jason never had — all of which would prove to be a dramatic departure from their first post-Crisis meeting in “Batman” #416, where Dick wasn’t even aware he’d been replaced.

4. A CITY ALL HIS OWN

Dick’s relocation to Bludhaven was never intended to be a longterm situation. In fact, the whole point of his move was actually just to help Bruce out on one specific case: a string of bodies that had washed up in Gotham’s bay. Bruce surmised that their only logical point of origin was Bludhaven, but with Gotham needing his full attention, he sent Dick to investigate in his stead.

However, the more Dick worked to uncover the murderer, the deeper he fell down Bludhaven’s rabbit hole. It didn’t take too long for Dick to realize that solving one case wasn’t actually going to do much good in the long term; Bludhaven needed a much more intensive bout of rehab and now that he was in, he had to commit.

Dick ended up staying full-time in Bludhaven for a full 10 years, before the city was destroyed by Chemo in the events leading up to “Infinite Crisis.”

3. GOING RENEGADE

In early 2005, things were not going so well for Dick. Starting in Devin Grayson and Phil Hester’s “Nightwing” #107 and continuing on through to issue #116, he seemed pretty intent on hitting rock bottom. After a string of astronomically dark times and bad luck, Dick underwent a crisis of conscious. Seeking to find a new way to carry out his vigilante business (and, admittedly, looking to martyr himself just a little bit), he withdrew from the rest of the Bat-family and buried himself deep undercover as a mob enforcer nicknamed “Crutches.” It proved to be almost too deep, however, and eventually Dick began to believe that the mafia life was really all he was good for.

Embittered and isolated, he threw away his Nightwing identity and began to call his superhero persona “Renegade.” He even made himself an edgy, dark red version of his costume to commemorate the occasion. Luckily, the events of “Infinite Crisis” proved to be catastrophic enough to knock things back into perspective for him, and he was roughly back to his old self circa 2006.

2. MAKING RENT

Another surprising line in Dick’s increasingly eclectic resume of day jobs includes “apartment manager.” Immediately after his move to Bludhaven, Dick found himself struggling to hide the equipment and costumes in his new apartment from his new neighbors. Life without a Batcave or a Titans Tower was, apparently, more of a challenge than he had originally anticipated.

Luckily, Dick’s a pretty inventive guy and produced a work-around for himself: he bought the building under an assumed name and constructed a secret “second apartment” for himself to function as his own version of a cave. Once he was sure his own vigilante needs were met, Dick set about populating the rest of the building with anyone he thought might be down on their luck, from struggling families to rehabilitated supervillains like Amygdala. He kept his ownership of the building a secret to the rest of the tenants, even to the woman he paid to act as his landlady, Bridget Clancy.

1. ANNUAL BROMANCE VACATIONS

Once upon a time (in Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn’s “Flash & Nightwing” one shot), Dick and his best friend Wally West had a standing arrangement: once a year, they find time in their busy schedules to take a vacation together. They pack up their bags, pile into a car, and go on a good old-fashioned, no-heroics-allowed road trip.

In 1997, Dick made the decision that their trip should take them to New Orleans, or, more specifically, to a supposedly haunted bed and breakfast in New Orleans. Apparently, the “no heroics” rule doesn’t apply to mysteries the prodigy of the World’s Greatest Detective wants to sniff out.

It goes about as well as you might imagine, with the boys eventually being forced to suit up, team up and stop a trans-dimensional monster from ripping a hole in space-time. You know, all the essential components of a relaxing getaway with your closest pal.

[starsandboulevardsroleplay]

✖ Thirty Day Challenge ✖ IC Activity ✖

‣ DIRECTIONS ↴

Answer the questions in order and see how long it takes you to finish the whole 30! Have fun developing your character and please message main if any of the links isn’t working so the post can be updated.

Use the tag: SABRthirty

‣ CATEGORIES ↴

Why did you/your character join the roleplay/the LA social network? What did you/they expect to gain? What do you/they love most about it.

Create a Spotify or 8tracks playlist for your character.

A biography is being written on you. What is the title? Why? Write a synopsis &/or make a book cover.

Are you good or evil? Take the test HERE. Then let us know if your results and if you think it’s accurate.

We’re all a little different. Take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator HERE and verify it HERE. Then let us know your results and how that shapes your character.

Are you really in the right job? Take the career test HERE. Then let us know your results and why or why not that’s a good job for you…or for a bit more fun find our your medieval occupation HERE

The Walking Dead Character Test because we all need to know who we are and How Likely Are You To Survive. Did you get your favorite character from the show? Do you find your longevity results to be accurate?

Do you want to be a PRINCE or a PRINCESS? Who are you? Did you get someone from your favorite film?

If you were in a band what would their name be and what kind of music would they perform? Link or post a song!

We all love music so: Metal Bands or Rock Goddesses. Do you actually like their music?

7 Deadly Sins! Which one are you and how do you overcome this.

Hogwarts is our home! Get Sorted and then Find A Quote for the house you were sorted into that is relatable.

A movie is being made about the most important event in your character’s life! Give a synopsis and dreamcast…if you’re really up for it make a trailer! Is it a cartoon, anime, action, sci-fi?

We all show and want to receive love in different ways. Find your love language HERE. How does this affect your relationships?

We’re all just big kids! Find out your adult cartoon character spirit animal HERE. Is this a show you like? What do you think about the results?

If you could time travel, when and where would you go? Why? Find out which Doctor Who Villain you are HERE, Doctor Who Companion you are HERE and which Doctor Incarnation you are HERE.  What do you think about the results?

Every job has that one nut, are you that one nutty person? Find out HERE. What do you think about the results?

What are your strength and weaknesses? Could you rule a kingdom? Discover which Game of Thrones character you’re most like HERE. What do you think about the results?

If you went to prison what would it be for? Were you wrongfully found guilty? How long do you think you would survive? Find your prison bunkmate HERE. What do you think about these results?

Do you believe in the supernatural? Why or why not? If you could be any supernatural creature what would you be? Take a test HERE and see if you get the same thing. Let us know what you think.

Do you have a favorite X-Men? Tell us who and why/why not. If you were a mutant what would you want your power to be? Here are some fun X-Men tests that you can take. Let us know what your results are and what you think about them. X-Men Females Only . X-Men Villains . X-Men Male & Females

Everyone needs a theme song. What would you like yours to be? Find your 90’s Theme Song HERE and your Fantasy Theme Song HERE.

Do you like art? Who is your favorite artist? What’s your favorite piece? Whys all around! Also, find your famous painting likeness HERE.

Do you have any pets? What kinds? Do you prefer cats or dogs? Find your Disney dog likeness HERE.

What do you do to boost your energy? Why? Go HERE to find out the right Starbucks drink for you and HERE to see how addicted you are to caffeine. Are you worried about your health?

There’s an equal amount of beauty and terror in nature. What sort of natural disasters do you find most interesting or scary and why? Go HERE to see which natural disaster you’re most like and let us know what you think about your results.

Answer some questions with GIFs ONLY: - How do you usually dress? - What do they wear to sleep? - What would you look like in a different life? (this could be a different era, a cartoon, reincarnation as a plant or animal, etc. but be leery of “gender bending” as gender is fluid and some may find this offensive) - What do you look like mentally? - What do you look like in reality?

Who is the most important person in your life? Why? If you could give them anything in the world what would it be?

You can meet one person living or dead, who would it be and why? What is the first thing you would ask them?

What have you learned about yourself in these 30 days? Is there anything you didn’t know about yourself that you do now? What do you see for your future (emotionally, mentally, physically, etc.) and did these games have anything to do with your decisions?

BONUS: Make a moodboard for your character!

[thecoupleenextdoor-blog]

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[transcoxjoxnsox]

So you say you want to sub 24/7...

We're primarily looking for experienced subs/slaves willing to contribute via labor/service and/or financial support. Homesteading is labor intensive, and is not cheap. You will contribute, or you will not participate. Our time is valuable, and we do not give it away for free or without worthwhile trade or skill-sharing.

Everything is fully negotiated, and we will never force someone to do anything that they aren't legitimately prepared to consent to. However, all expectations are laid out extremely transparently. We expect them to be fulfilled properly and in a reasonable amount of time. If you don't know how to do something, look it up or ask. If we have to unnecessarily repeat ourselves or constantly double check your work, or if you press or exceed limits or boundaries, you will be dismissed.

We will expect keys if you're going to be in chastity (you will purchase your own device), though if you're online/long-distance, we will also expect you to have either an electronic device capable of being locked and unlocked online, or at least 1 local key-holder (spouse/significant other/additional dom or handler) in case of emergency/sport/dr appt/etc.

If you're a Sissy/CD/Femmeboi/or starting MTF transistion... We can help you pick out clothes, make up and wigs etc, but you will be required to purchase your own attire etc yourself. We do have Dr recommendations for those wishing to pursue HRT (FTM or MTF). If you're FTM, we can provide you with the benefit of over 15 years of transition experience. Whatever the case, our property and household is a nurturing gender expression zone.

Subs/slaves are also required to purchase any items to be used on or in your own body (toys/plugs/bdsm equipment/etc). We require that all toiletries etc be eco and septic safe, as well as toxin free . We're on a well system. Everything you put in or on your body quite literally ends up in the local ground water.

All of our subs are expected to maintain employment, remain narcotic free (responsible weed/shrooms and moderate drinking ok), live a clean lifestyle (eat real organic non gmo foods and care for physical and emotional health) so as to remain productive and extend the longevity of potential servitude. No jail-birds, junkies, or alcoholics. We will not engage in a scene with a person whom is not sober, as you can not legally consent. In the case of consensual intox, the scene would always be negotiated, pre-arranged, and begin while sober.

Any subs considering staying on site are required to have their own camper/rv in addition to the prior mentioned caveats. This acts as your room and domicile while you remain on our property, as well as ensuring that you and your belongings can be easily evacuated during Hurricane Season.

All subs that we interact with physically (in any way) are required to have a health and std screening, at their own expense. As well as maintaining a very closed circle of heavily vetted std free partners/doms/handlers. You will not be a slut for randos, or be pimped out to random people. If you're willing to risk your health, you're willing to risk our health. This is unacceptable.

Sexual activity is not a requirement at all, and it is perfectly fine if you prefer BDSM that is entirely sexual element free. At the same time, we are not willing to have sexual encounters with just anyone. That will develop, if it develops, over time as a power dynamic and relationship will need to be established first, and after health and std testing has been completed. We have high standards that have more to do with maturity and responsibility than with age or physical appearance.

If you message us saying that you want to be tied up and/or naked 24/7, you will automatically be disqualified. Your purpose is servitude. How well are you providing service if you're immobile and have to be baby-sat? How well are you providing productivity if you're doing hard labor naked and injuring yourself? How well are you representing your betters if you're getting arrested for nudity or public lewdness? What good are you to us if you're in jail, rehab, or the hospital? The answer is that anything that makes you unable to provide proper service at the best of your physical and emotional ability also makes you absolutely worthless to us.

We've generally found that most people who immediately ask for 24/7 of any particular activity are living in fantasy and not basing their wants on experience. You can have a total power exchange full time. You can not have any one activity full time. If you've never been tied before, or never for longer than a sexual/play scene, the likelihood is that you will be bored and begging for release after 15 mins because it isn't "fun or sexy". You can only be left tied while there is someone around to check on you. If you think you're going to be left tied up while folks are away at work, you're mistaken. It is a health, safety, and liability risk. If the building you were tied up in burned down, that is manslaughter. If you've never provided true service or labor before, and especially if you do not genuinely enjoy being productive and useful, doing chores and tedious tasks or hard labor every day will be extremely unpleasant for you.

Tell us about yourself both in and out of the scene, as well what skills or services you are able to bring to the table should you join us. Fair warning... We do not and will not enable or entertain unrealistic or unhealthy/unsafe fantasies or lifestyle practices... With all that being said... If you know your life purpose is to serve others, and you know that that is all you are worthy of doing; We might be a great match... We will nurture your needs in exchange for taking care of ours. If you are not ready to commit to D/s, or are on the fence about what your lifestyle is, we aren't likely to be interested. If you truly feel that your role is to serve productively and efficiently, and to be put to proper and worthwhile use... Let's talk.

[topinforma]

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Women Will Have a Different Retirement: Plan Accordingly

About two years ago I was presenting a financial plan to a couple. Long-term care expenses are particularly hard to predict, not to mention, extremely expensive, so I often add a “stress test” to get a sense of whether the couple can afford to pay that cost out of pocket. The test assumed that the wife would be in a facility for four years and the husband, two. I emphasized the importance of the wife planning for long-term care. They noticed. It was an aha moment.

SEE ALSO: Stay-At-Home Parents Can Still Qualify for Social Security Benefits

Men and women are different — and financial planning needs to reflect that reality. Yet most couples plan for the husband and wife exactly the same way. Women, on average, live two or three years longer than men, and 75% of them become widows, according to the National Resource Center on Women and Retirement Planning. They spend, on average, 13 fewer years in the workforce and often retire with half the balances in their retirement accounts as men do.

The Challenges of a Longer Life

Longevity is typically a great thing for your life — and a terrible thing for your finances. Let’s start with health care. Medicare provides coverage for eligible individuals 65 and older. However, the average couple will pay $260,000 out of pocket for health care in retirement, according to Fidelity’s 2016 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate. That’s not a typo. In major metro areas, that figure is even higher. In Washington, D.C., the average cost of a private room in a nursing home is $137,058 per year. Seventy percent of nursing home residents are women, and they tend to stay for 3.7 years, while men stick around for 2.2.

So what? Planning for long-term health care costs is more important for women than for men. Because statistically their husbands won’t be around to take care of them, a woman’s cost of care is also likely to be higher.

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To deal with these differences, we usually start by cranking inflation into the cost of care, based on a prediction of when they would likely need it. We then plug it into their plan as an expense. If their portfolio can sustain that expense, they can self-fund their care. If not, it’s time to look at insurance, which has become very expensive. A woman should seek out a longer benefit period in her plan than a man. It is also important to include cost-of-living adjustments.

Work History Makes a Difference

When I was born, my mom left the full-time workforce and started to work part time. She stayed part time pretty much all the way until retirement. The domino effect of that decision can significantly reduce future resources. Social Security looks at your highest 35 years of earning to determine your benefit amount. Working part time for 20 years essentially wipes out one-third of those years. Because women spend less time in the workforce and are likely to become widowed, over 50% percent of them are collecting either spousal or survivor benefits based on a husband’s earnings record.

Understanding Social Security rules is critical to maximizing your benefits. A general rule for couples is that the higher-earning spouse should delay benefits until age 70. When collecting survivor benefits, the surviving spouse is eligible for increased benefits if the deceased delayed benefits past full retirement age. Spousal benefits, on the other hand, do not increase past full retirement age. Therefore, there is no reason to delay spousal benefits until age 70.

A Sustainable Income Plan is a Must

Depressed yet? Remember, living longer is a good thing, but it’s not free. Let’s say you live a long, healthy life; you’ll need that money to last. Therefore, if you expect to live a long time, annuitized income sources are more valuable. Often pensions have reduced — or no — spousal benefit. Therefore, from a cash-flow perspective, you need to plan for that income to cut off at the life expectancy of the person receiving it. Do not make the assumption that you will die in the same year, and therefore, it won’t matter. Lastly, you need returns. Women tend to be more risk-averse. While retirement is not a time to take a huge risk, risk is what offers the potential of return.

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I mentioned that my mom started working part-time once I was born. Obviously that leads to a lesser paycheck; it also cuts employer-based benefits. Employers are not obligated to provide retirement plans to those working less than 1,000 hours per year. With half the income coming in and no automatic enrollment in a retirement plan, it takes considerably more work to save. In that case, it may be wise to open an IRA. Saving, like exercising, is habitual. This is a habit that has to continue, whether or not you’re receiving a full paycheck. Spousal IRAs are an option for those who don’t have earned income.

There’s no doubt that women face unique financial challenges, but the tide may be turning. At this point, more women than men graduate from college, they are starting businesses at twice the rate of men, and now control just over half of personal wealth in the United States. However, if you’re approaching retirement, walk away with this: Relationships matter — and not just the one with your spouse. Too often I see my peers meeting with the husband, but not his wife. If you do decide to use a financial professional, you should both have that relationship.

See Also: Death of a Spouse: The Under-Discussed Risk in Retirement

Disclosure: The opinions voiced this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. Investing includes risk including loss of principal.

Well-known in the industry and the capital region, Evan is a Certified Financial Planner™ professional and an Accredited Wealth Management Adviser. His knowledge is concentrated on the issues that arise in retirement and how to plan for them. Evan teaches retirement planning courses at several local universities and continuing education courses to CPAs. He has been quoted in and published by Yahoo Finance, CNBC, Credit.com, Fox Business, Bloomberg, and U.S. News and World Report, among others.

Comments are suppressed in compliance with industry guidelines. Our authors value your feedback. To share your thoughts on this column directly with the author, click here.

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

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