#this is only being posted because imgur fucking hates me

[pontikonisi]

art from the 2024 arkane secret santa

[baejax-the-great]

ao3 exists, plus it doesnt even matter what terms i search for on tumblr 100% of the time theres fanfiction. literally you can search any words on this website and some kpop guy/ reader fanfics flood the results every single fucking time. plus some of us are not here for fandoms??? your circus/clown analogy is stupid

So I'm incredibly allergic to shrimp-- to the point where if I ate a single shrimp I would die, to the point where I don't really consider shrimp food anymore--and it's the weirdest thing, yesterday i went to Target to buy hair conditioner, and they were selling shrimp. Don't they know it wasn't what I was looking for and I can't eat it anyway? Why would they do this? Totally fucked up of those shrimp catchers to try to poison me like that.

But analogies clearly aren't your thing, so let me break this down for you.

AO3 does indeed exist, but your suggestion that fanfic live there and ONLY there is akin to saying that imgur exists, so nobody should be posting images, whether they be photos or art, on any other website. Twitter exists (sort of), so really nobody should be posting shit posts or hot takes that are fewer than 140 characters or whatever.

Not everyone uses AO3. There is no law saying that if you write fanfic, you must post it on AO3 and nowhere else. There will never be a law that says that, because that's not how the internet works. Tumblr, one of the few social media sites that allows longform blogging, is in fact a great alternative to AO3 for one-shots. It's a little trickier for multi-chapter posts, but I've seen people make it work.

AO3 is not social media. People can't DM there, send asks, make friends, bump their post to the top of the feed (unless they are an asshole who is about to get blocked by half of fandom for pulling that move). Do you like social media? I mean you're here, on tumblr, bothering a total stranger, so you must see some value to it. Guess what--fanfic authors also enjoy being on social media and sharing what they've been up to, including their WIPs.

Things you aren't looking for being part of your searches is literally just life on the internet at all times forever. Earlier this month I was looking for a reference of draped fabric for drawing purposes. I googled 'chiton drawing' (chitons like the ancient Greeks used to wear), and all I got were drawings of molluscs of the genus 'chiton.' Alright, I did a google search for "toga drawing" and learned that there is an anime girl named Toga and people very much enjoy drawing her. Were the artists of the molluscs or the anime girl to blame for me having to slog through a bunch of irrelevant pictures to find one that could help me with my drawing? No. They correctly labeled what they were doing. That's just life.

Seeing fanfic in the tag doesn't harm you. At all. It doesn't matter if you find it cringe, or it's a ship you don't like, or it's xReader. For like ten seconds you looked at words you didn't particularly like, and then you moved on. How is that different from literally any other post on tumblr? I see bad takes and essays I don't care about on this site all the time. It's called scrolling. Again, this will be the case for every website on the internet forever. Are you telling me you read every tweet in your feed? Every reddit post? Sometimes you see irrelevant stuff. I guarantee some of my mutuals have already deemed this long ass post irrelevant and are scrolling on by. What makes fiction that much more abhorrent to you than the rest of the nonsense?

If you really hate seeing fanfic, tumblr has content blocking and tag blocking. You can block the phrase "x Reader." You can block the tag "fanfic." You can block all sorts of things, and if that doesn't work, you can just block the writers whose existence annoys you.

Sorry man, you personally not liking fandom and not using tumblr for it has really no bearing on what everyone else is doing. Like it or not, tumblr is a hub of fandom, and fanfic authors are going to be a part of every fandom on this green earth. Just because you came to the circus in order to admire the pretty fabric used on the tents doesn't mean the performers are in the wrong for doing their thing.

[inexorablebloodmoon]

I don’t know why Cass is throwing shade out right now? But apparently someone accused her of copying your oc. And it seriously looks 100% copied. It’s on her main blog. I hate seeing those shit drama loving people stealing your guys stuff.

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Oh chile. Go ahead and get comfy, get your teapots and teacups out, because this is going to be a wild story and some really hot tea ☕️

I knew about the OC long before people told me, since I was the one who caught onto it since I still somehow had been following her on my main blog titanialynida. She posted a collage of pictures of her commissions on her main blog and I believe shared it on her Diabolik OC blog as well. Looks similar to my D&D version of Titania and she knew she’s basically a sorceress and archer. But aside copied work and an unoriginal OC, Cass has always been trouble since she sold the fake Azusa plush to a friend of mine and to someone named bitter-doll.

If people really don’t believe me on this, her own friend Summer sent her a screenshot of her “accidentally” talking shit on her which I have proof of. Cass seemed so stupid as to believe in her that she was still a friend and didn’t “mean to say or send that” and Summer is a known two faced liar and user. I also want to mention their friend Rylin was the one who gave our friend her refund which she should’ve never done, but Cass is irresponsible and lives with a man who hardly takes care of her which I’ll get to in just a moment. My second problem with Cass, is she’s a liar. A big liar in fact. She claimed her father was actually native, but when I and others went to see for myself, he doesn’t live on a reservation and in one photo of Cass, he has a Confederate flag in the background so she can fuck RIGHT OFF trying to claim being POC and putting herself in topics she had no space in. Even claiming her fiancé Joe is because he isn’t fully White because he’s a “dark skinned” Italian man. Which by the way, Italians are White People, just the rest of Europeans. My mother’s parents were born in Portugal and lived in Europe till they decided to move to Canada. Both of my parents are immigrant and come from immigrant families. My father being Chicano so that is disrespectful for me that she has no place in our conversations about problems that minorities face. And White people don’t get to define what is and isn’t racist. Because that isn’t how racism works within a society built off the backs of Black and Brown people world wide.

Another thing to know about Cass, is she’s extremely two faced. She lies about being supportive and is always trying to find an excuse. She lied to my best friend Mika about traiding her Dazai merch for Azusa merch Mika already had. Mika also, never received a tracking number for her stuff and was lied and cheated to similar to the Azusa Plush. She excuse was she had problems with her bank and PayPal as she usually does with people she has interacted with. Which I also have proof of since my best friend Mika has sent merch to quiet a few Diabolik fans within the fandom.

Lastly, her “fiancé”, or as I like to call him, a predator and abuser. His name is Joe and he’s a fucked up person. Think of misogyny on cocaine. Not only does he throw things in their trailer home and apparently she takes after this, but she herself said he would get extremely drunk and violent in front of her who was 19 and basically relying on him as a place to stay. I have no doubts he’s done this after their daughter was born. I know this all too well and what this man was after, since I lived with a man similar and no healthy man in his mid 30’s is going to take care of a 19 year old girl and think that’s a healthy relationship. That’s abuse waiting to happen and she was young and vulnerable. Their whole relationship is gross and many of Destinee’s friends advised her to leave and get away from him for a long time. He even called me racial slurs like “wetback” and “beaner” when talking about immigration and that he’s beat me up and got to the point of sexually assaulting me in his comments. Called me a cunt and was extremely abusive saying he would hit me. When that happened, I told Cass she needs to leave him and that was completely uncalled for. She doesn’t care about my rights or my safety, and he’s also a known Islamaphobic White man. So she’s just as guilty by proxy and has never once formally apologized.

Go ahead and talk shit on me, Cass. Try. At the very least, when I was in an abusive relationship I reached out to the friends I had and contacted the police when I was able to. I went to get help so I can throw a predator in jail and before he was gonna get arrested, he killed himself. You let that innocent little girl be around somebody who is physically and verbally abusive. All you care about is a fantasy of Joe and what he “was”, not actually caring about the well being and safety of your daughter. Having an abusive father around is no benefit to her life. And Summer, I’m not a pos mom thank you. I work 40 hours a week while my daughter goes to public kindergarten full-time and I buy her what she wants and needs. She’s in Girl Scouts and Soccer. What’s Cass doin for her baby and what’s Misa even doing for her disabled son? No sports, no after-school program or time with peers. Both are lazy and selfish parents who don’t care about their children’s welfare.

If people do not believe my words, they may feel free to that and I can’t change people’s opinions, but feel free to DM me for proof because I have it, and eventually today I’ll post it in imgur files.

Try me bitch

«──────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────»

[theprivilegedshatlord-blog]

I am the friend known as “H” from CancerChaser blog in Chapter 6

I am here to corroborate what my friend said and provide my side of the story of this situation. Walhartonsclub (WC) told me about CancerChaser (CC) back in 2016 after the first incident where CC was wiling out on WC because of what seemed to a misunderstanding of affording a phone. I initially told WC to ignore him because he was not worth shit or at least is what I initially thought. From there he kept me informed about what CC did throughout.Now to go into when i was first referenced in the chronicles about CancerChaser. From what I knew at the time, CC asked WC to send emails over and over from phone to his email. Have no idea why would he need WC to do that. He could have used something like Imgur. Given that CC had a phone that was not a smartphone based on what I was told, it would probably be impossible. Of course trying to make simple suggestions to him like this is enough to make CC go into a hair-triggering temper tantrum, so there is no use to try to convince him to upgrade. It was 2016, being up to date shouldn’t be too hard, you can even get refurbished smartphones for a fraction of full retail price. My parents have the latest phones and they are older than CC by decades. Why did CC chose WC instead of other friends for these favors is beyond me. So he asked and asked and asked WC to send him these pics over and over. WC complied with generosity. WC likes to please his friends. He has pleased me multiple times. He also tries to be the best person he can be. Needless to say CC took advantage of him.So when it came time for CC return the favor, he was resistant initially. When he finally did start playing, he did until after half of the game was over. The game was Spring Breeze from Kirby’s Super Star on Super NIntendo. Did you know that Spring Breeze is a remake of the original Kirby’s Dream Land on Game Boy with a missing level and boss? So CC did not even bother finishing such a short abridged game. That betrayal was just foul play on CC’s end.

Then CC would later use WC’s insecurities to gain him back and asked for more favors. WC then approached me on rethinking the situation. I initially thought that he probably did not like the game and was bored. I made the suggestion to pick a game that has much less interaction. Like some touch screen DS or 3DS game. WC brought up Warioware Twisted Touched!, so I thought would be a good choice there. My reasoning is that CC probably has no real interest in video games. I have heard that he has play Super Mario Bros. 3 growing up. Which makes me realize that CC is a very casual non-gamer person.

Reading the situation in question at Chapter 5 reveals that CC had been simply holding the controller where the direction pad in the upper right corner and seemingly pressed no buttons which means he was faking interest and had no intention at all to return the favor. He really should have said that he had no interest in playing video games. He was lying to manipulate WC. Which comes to no surprise that CC refused to play Warioware Twisted Touched! when asked. He cannot play easy games. He cannot play very simple games. But he would lie about having an interest only for him to evade that with excuses. With friends like these who needs bullies?

The next time I was involved was when WC was having his panic attack resulting from personal issues that are stated in Chapter 6. I have received certain pictures that hinted that he was contemplating suicide. Being under vacation time from my job, I decided to actually come see WC to check up on him myself. When I saw him, he was sitting on a couch. When he saw me he was excited to see me I asked if he took any of the pills or hurt himself, he told me that he gave himself more time to think about it. Perhaps to think about the people that love him.

He told me about the situation that led up to the panic attack. Best way to describe what was happening without revealing confidential information is that someone was very sick and emotions erupted. I had told him that he needs more time to hang out with friends. We not only did Spring Breeze in full, but also Meta Knight’s Revenge, Dyna Blade, and Great Cave Offensive as well. Games in that collection that are larger than Spring Breeze. We did not get to do Milky Way Wishes that day, but we did eventually got to do it at another time. We also played Brawl Brothers, all I remember is that there was a code to play the Japanese version and we did that and completed the game. It was short at 5 levels long. We also played Events in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. We did not clear all of the event, only some but we did have fun.

At Applebees we discussed the situation further. There I learned that he had sent the same pics to other friends as well which made me concerned. I thought that WC was going to get a wellness check on him or worse be committed to a mental ward for days. I only knew one recipient among the 7 besides myself (I never met CC in person). The person I knew is a mutual friend. The mutual friend never really got to see the messages, so he was unaware (it reached an old phone and when he got a new one, the messages were deleted). The mutual was relieved to know that WC was okay and felt better. And yes the mutual is informed of CC and his bullshit antics; I can confirm that he heavily resents CC, as I do.

So I had to get WC to do damage control to avoid being institutionalized. As information like this can scare people and be irrational. We needed for cooler heads to prevail. So WC told everyone that it was for attention. So WC can still run his panel at a upcoming convention and not be stuck that weekend in a mental hospital. He really needed to avoid the ruining of plans like that.

After all, my cousin once told me about the one time she told exactly one person that she felt suicidal because an aunt of hers  being diagnosed of cancer (from her dad’ side, I’m related through our moms being sisters). Telling her best friend was enough for the BF to call the ambulance and my cousin had to stay in a mental ward for 16 days!

CC’s response was very callous. As far as I know, he never asked what was going on around that time. He just stayed silent and only responded with that shitty “I knew it” bullshit when he received a fucking coverup. WC was crying for help and I answered the call. I live 2 hours away and this asshat lives minutes away in walking speed, yet gives radio silence to someone he calls himself a friend to, is mere blocks away, while I invest in gas and mileage to make sure WC is okay. Some friend CC is. For someone who claims to be “a good friend” in his hate mail; he sure shows no effort in even trying to check up on him. Real piece of scum CC is.

I later go to see the panel and I liked it. Which comes to no surprise in my perspective. The next day I played Streets of Rage 1 with WC. The only other thing I remember is that there was some dude I met who was in a wheelchair because he broke his foot days before.

Now for my thoughts about CancerChaser and his narcissism.

Walhartonsclub would later work for New York Comic-Con and buy the Super NES Classic. Which meant for the later part of September and early October he would be very busy. He also was seeking for connections, so there would not be any room for free time. CancerChaser did not give a shit about the adult responsibilities WC had to do. And despite CC being older than WC, CC would not take no for an answer and start guilt tripping WC. Having enough of CC’s scummy actions, WC finally cut ties. This was met with harassment and hatemail. Which truly shows CC’s irredeemable character in full form.

CC is a fucking disgrace to everything it means to being gay. If I was gay, I would rather live in a fucking fraternity of homophobic bullies that to ever have anything to do with CC. This old man never seemed to learn a single thing about accountability or responsibility. How dare does he interfere with a job? What gives him the right to call his target for the simple reason to give expletives to him? And his emails? Disgusting does not come close. Making empty threats to for law enforcement for intimidation and truly showing his true colors on how he uses people only to claim they are useless after the fact. And his latest unprovoked email where he makes more empty threats and more shitty insults is fucked up. I have heard that CC passed by a block away from WC’s home twice after 2017. That is obvious projection. CC’s knows WC’s location. Clearly CC is the stalker. Stalking close to his target’s home and then acts like he is the victim and being harassed is scummy behavior. I have never seen such a scummy person ever as far as stalkers and harassers go.

I honestly have no consideration for him as a human being. If he receives anything terrible short of death, it is karma. He deserves nothing but negativity and hate. This man is among the lowest of monsters. I have had to deal with people with psychosis several years ago, but this man is worse by the power of 10. There is bad people and there is EXTREME SCUM. CancerChaser is the latter. The only people worse than CancerChaser are child rapists, pedophiles, murderers, terrorists, abusive parents, and human traffickers. All those aside, CancerChaser is the worst kind of person out there. Fuck this man. Fuck him HARD!

And finally I got one thing to announce. I get the feeling that people do not really want to read long as fuck posts like this on tumblr. I am going to fix that. I am going to working on readings of the CancerChaser blog and post them on YouTube so people who don’t really care about reading essays can listen to the situation as well. Because we really to expose CancerChaser and let tons of people know who much inhumane scumbag CC truly is.

[wifflum]

Wickedness and the Order of Operations

[Imgur comment chain, talking to myself after a consistent experience with these people. I know what group they are a part of because of the subject of the post, but you can identify them by their behavior as well. 

*note: Imgur only lets you type 140 words at a time, but you can reply to yourself and extend that limit. The divisions show separate comments, but they’re all lined up on the website. Unless someone fucked with it intentionally using votes, which those people may have done by now out of spite.]

----indicates quotes from Imgur----

----Gamers are among the worst human beings alive today. Almost everyone tried to gaslight this, because they want to believe an adverse...

reaction to extreme violence isn't possible. Going so far as to put forward an outright lie, that they knew was a lie.

If you pretend that anyone who gets shaken by a flaw in something you love is mentally deficient, you can pretend it's perfectly fine.

I've seen this before too, where gamers behave more wickedly than average people. Half the reason is that you're so freely dishonorable in

multiplayer games, and fuck, even in single player games. I see you shitbags look for exploits CONSTANTLY at every step of adversity.

This is just to have a record, of how much I fucking hate you guys, even more than I hate the rest of you. This is where I would spit on you

The average gamer is more wicked than the average internet user, and they are more wicked than the average human. This is a fact of life.

If I become a dictator, that's the order of operations when I go insane and start torturing everyone.----

[Just stop being evil, what the shit. Play your shit with honor, first, and maybe you’ll stop ending up so heinously corrupted by it. And try interacting with people without being a cruel cunt like you always are.

Oh by the way, since you dirt are going to gatekeep me for not being a gamer. I’ve been playing video games since I was 5, like an overall majority of my waking hours. Here’s a thought, have the objective be HAVE FUN when you play, not beat the thing, or your opponents, any possible way you can. You guys would literally sneak up and stab the final boss in the testicle if it meant getting out of the challenge. I swear to God.

Credentials. This is super extraneous; don’t read this. -----------------

Favorite games- Story: Nier Automata...Competition: Dawn of War II before they patched all the infantry into tier 1... Gameplay: Anthem when weapon damage didn’t become a joke the rest of the way... Overall Experience: World of Warcraft... Challenge: WoW because I was a healer, but Sekiro is pretty great...

Final Fantasy 7 isn’t on here because it was just extremely memorable. I don’t think most people can legitimately argue it’s this amazing gameplay experience. I don’t think it holds up either. If you give someone a properly executed (edit: NOTE THOSE WORDS DUMBASS GAMERS. PROPERLY EXECUTED.) Anthem, then Final Fantasy 7-- unless they’re highly driven by atmosphere and art, someone who would stare at the Mona Lisa for 30 minutes, they’re gonna go straight back to Anthem after the first boss. It’s just not fun anymore. Anyway, fuck y’all. When you get to hell I’m gonna have a pulley system set up so I can dunk you in the lake just by lifting my cigarette.]

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Chris waters of Constructed Adventures, a brand that sells seemingly serendipitous perfect days.Some stats:Product: Seemingly serendipitous perfect days.Revenue/mo: $5,000Started: December 2015Location: InternationalFounders: 2Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?My name is Chris Waters, I go by “The Architect, and I started Constructed Adventures.Simply put, the goal of Constructed adventures is to create a seemingly serendipitous perfect day for someone. Often times, these days are for special occasions like milestone birthdays or marriage proposals. They usually involve challenges and puzzles (think “escape room around the city”) but they’re always custom tailored to a specific person and location.I charge a flat rate for adventures. Between the adventures I run and the consultation clients I’ve added, my profit should be around 60k in 2019. It’s easy to gauge because I’m already completely booked for the rest of the year and into early 2020!The most important thing for me is the freedom and flexibility. I don’t have a home and travel from one adventure location to the next. With all the money saved, I spend my downtime traveling to amazing locations or visiting friends and family!imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I was always that guy trying to create a fun experience for people. I hated the idea of waking up and knowing EXACTLY how the day is going to pan out (drive to work, meeting, lunch, get yelled at by clients, drive home, watch tv, go to bed. Rinse and repeat every day for the rest of your life) So I would be the one kidnapping people on their birthdays, putting googly eyes on every picture in the office, etc.“I hated the idea of waking up and knowing EXACTLY how the day is going to pan out (drive to work, meeting, lunch, get yelled at by clients, drive home, watch tv, go to bed. Rinse and repeat every day for the rest of your life)”The business kind of happened by accident. It all started with the Reddit Secret santa gift exchange. (here’s the wikipedia) In short, 100k people sign up, get matched with someone, and send them a gift for the holidays! I’d been participating for years. I’d sent and received some really incredible gifts.Then 2015 rolled around. I got matched with my giftee. I immediately looked at his location. It was literally 21 minutes away. I had this grand opportunity to do something really fucking cool for an internet stranger.So I started planning.The recommended amount for reddit secret santa is always $20. Some people send $20 gifts. Some people don’t send anything. Some people spend wayyyyyy more. I was one of those people. Frankly, I just kept coming up with cooler and cooler ideas. “What if they open an envelope here and there’s two tickets to the zoo and they need to decode messages on the plaques on animal pens! Then they’ll go to a restaurant where everything has been covered!” It continued like that.imageLuckily at the time, I was making good money as an account manager for a software company and hosting a weekly poker game. I’m not a spectacular poker player, but I’d somehow taken down the game 4-5 weeks in a row. I still joke with my buddies that they financed the start of my business.Anyway, the day of the adventure, I had a bunch of people willing to help put on a big production for an internet stranger. One of them was the boyfriend of a coworker. He was willing to hand deliver the century old suitcase at 8:00am to my giftee. Once my giftee and his girlfriend were at the zoo, I took him to breakfast as a “thank you.”He told me this was a cool thing that people would pay for. He insisted that I start a business and he was going to build me a website. He said “What’s your business name?”“uhhhh...Constructed Adventures?”“Cool, let me see if the URL is available. Yep! Just bought it. Give me a day.”The Reddit gifts adventure ended at this speakeasy bar where I met my giftee and his girlfriend. They were exhausted (In hindsight, I made the day WAY too long) but still blown away. Through our conversation I let him know I’m going to try to do this as a side business.imageA day or two later he posted it to Reddit, it hit the front page, my business page got linked, and the business blew up. The next night, it was all over the local news and I got another huge spike in publicity. Here is the Imgur AlbumI was still working full time but by mid january, Constructed Adventures was booked out through June.imageThis was everything from the first adventureTake us through the process of designing and coming up with your service.The baseline for every adventure is to create a magical experience, but I’ve learned an INSANE amount of lessons and created a pretty in depth set of rules that govern each adventure.For example: One rule is that no stop should ever be longer than 15 minutes travel distance from the previous stop unless it’s an absolute MUST. We watch movies like “National Treasure” where one scene they’re in Washington D.C. and the next scene they’re in New York, but they don’t show the hour plane ride! It’s important to make sure the adventure never stagnates!After every adventure, I tweak everything. My rules, my survey that I send to potential clients, the contract. Everything.I’m always improving.Aside from the few hundred dollars spent on the first adventure, there really wasn’t any other startup cost. The nice thing about events is the client pays a deposit that I use to purchase things. Upon completion of the adventure, I take the final payment. For the first 6 months, I just put all my profit back into the business (buying GoPros, chests, locks, trademarks, etc)About the business today. Potential clients reach out by filling out a form on my website (occasionally people call or email, but 99% of people do the form.) Right now I charge a flat rate which increases the further I book out. After that it’s just whatever the adventure costs (including my lodging and transportation, meals they have on their adventure, actors, etc)In the beginning I charged a flat rate for the entire adventure. This was a poor idea. I learned never to do that again after my first valentines day adventure. I charged $700 for everything. Including a fixed price dinner. Unfortunately they bought multiple bottles of wine and the dinner bill came out to $550. Lesson learned. Now I have an addendum in my contract: If the budget goes over because they went nuts during meals, the client needs to cover it all.My current business model is simple. I build 2-3 adventures a month. My profit on each adventure is around $2,500-3,000 but can get up to $10,000-$20,000 if it’s a massive undertaking. Add consultation packages on top and I’ve got a nice flow of income.Describe the process of launching the business.Oh man, the first website (the one that hit the front page of Reddit, was super barren. It didn’t even have a filled out “about us section”. All the text was still the stock “Lorem Ipsum” that squarespace defaults to.There was 1-2 pictures of the envelopes and boxes from the first adventure and some screenshots from the National Treasure Movie. At the bottom was the from you’d fill out if you wanted to hire me. Honestly though I think it helped. Reddit has this weird distrust of being “gamed” or marketed to. Someone made a comment that this was all an elaborate scheme. The comment below basically said “Look at the website! Does this really look like the work of a crack marketing team?!”After the launch, things just gradually grew. I slowly raised my prices and figured out how to make bigger and better moments!Then in October 2017 (almost 2 years after the start of the business) I quit my full time job to pursue Constructed Adventures. It was a calculated risk. I had money saved and I was starting to get requests from other states. I got featured at the end of a major Podcast called “How I built this” and completely blew up again.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?It was a slow grind. My goal was to stay booked and use that as leverage. As I write this (in early August 2019) I’m completely booked out through February 2020. This came from having my prices low (people still tell me they’re too low, but I don’t mind. I’ve got a great life)But now, it gives me the right to be picky about the people I take as clients! If someone is super aggressive or extremely pushy about the cost, I can just turn them away. My work is stressful enough without having to put up with a nightmare client!I also don’t pay any money for ads. The only marketing money I spend is in December! Every year, I signed up for the Reddit Secret Santa gift exchange, fly to my giftee’s location, and create a completely free adventure just for them. I do it for the publicity, but also because it’s just super fun and a spectacular tradition!Past that, every year I do an AMA on reddit. The two I’ve done have hit the front page. Regarding AMAs, I always recommend being super engaging and super transparent. If you aren’t completely honest with the online masses they’ll eat you alive. But a successful AMA can launch you. Can you guess what day I did my AMA?imagePast that, I’m lucky. My business is super unique. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I have a great origin story. I was a journalism major in college so I know exactly what news outlets want and how to give it to them. I always jump at the occasion to do interviews and talk about my business or methods. Sometimes they lead to nothing, but sometimes they get me a bunch of business. It’s like getting free lotto tickets.TL;DR I’m lucky in that I don’t need any clients and I’m booked very far in advance. Combine that with an openness to talk and a savviness with journalists/reddit and I keep staying relevant.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Right now, I’m pretty profitable. Still a little room for more but I never want money to dictate me (I’ve seen so many companies that are doing great but they try to grow outside their lane and it eventually dooms them)“The most important thing for me is the freedom and flexibility. I don’t have a home and travel from one adventure location to the next. With all the money saved, I spend my downtime traveling to amazing locations or visiting friends and family!”My profit per adventure is anywhere from $2,000-$10,000 (if it’s an individual adventure like a proposal, I’ll charge way less than if a giant company hires me). My customer acquisition cost is very minimal. I spend $1,000-$3,000 every holiday season on my secret santa but that’s about it. Everything else is just time to talk about my business. I keep up on social media a bit but it’s not a huge focus. I’ve gotten enough SEO juice from reddit and news outlets to always rank pretty high. Plus there really isn’t anyone who does what I do. Probably because the start was such a grind.Last fall I started consulting. That’s been a fun arm of the business that I’m putting more focus into. As much as I love the world travel, I know in the future I’ll want to do less. Consulting allows me to eventually have a home again and spend time helping others create magical moment for the people around them.I also have a TV production company trying to sell a show about what I do. It’s a long shot but maybe HGTV will buy a pilot and a few episodes! That’ll probably help business!Past that, I love what I do. I just traveled to barcelona and ran an adventure that culminated with a gentleman proposing to his boyfriend! I get to travel the world creating fun moments for people, why would I change that?Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Oh man, the biggest thing I learned is valuing your product. Learned a lot about pricing structure for events early on. It took a year before I was charging a flat rate. I’m sure I just straight up lost money in the first few adventures.One of my best decisions was to always be open and transparent about everything. Cost, ideas, methods. I don’t think it benefits me to have “trade secrets.” I have 4 protegès who i just help to build competing businesses. The world needs more fun. I had a ton of help to get where I am, who would I be to not help other creatives?Past that, I work very hard but also take plenty of time off. I’ll do 3-4 back to back adventures and then take 3-4 weeks off (not completely off, just deadline free). I think it’s important to have a balance.What platform/tools do you use for your business?.Google Drive is an absolute godsend for me. Each past, present, and future adventure has its own folder with a budget sheet, master schedule sheet, receipts folder, notes about conversations, surveys, everything. Love it or hate it, google works.I also love the snooze feature in gmail. At the end of every day, my inbox is at zero, even if it’s just emails snoozed until tomorrow morning. The Snooze feature helps me prioritize things so they pop up when they need to and I don’t have to spend brainpower on a future task.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?How to Win Friends and Influence People is the single greatest book known to man.Podcast wise, I listen to everything. How I Built This, Without Fail, The first season of Startup might be the most inspiring one for me. I’ve gone through it a few times.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Just start. Good God, so many people just. won’t. start. They spend 5 weeks asking people about what they should name their business or what their logo should be. They don’t launch a site because it’s not perfect. In the beginning of a business, the downside is you’re insignificant and no one knows about you. But it’s also a wonderful upside. Don’t worry about these little hiccups and just start doing. Don’t worry about figuring out taxes when you’re not even making money yet! JUST STARTAre you looking to hire for certain positions right now?Nope! It’s just me. I might get an assistant but for now I like being a one man show. That being said, If you want me to pay you to assist in an adventure, I have this form you can fill out! If I’m running an adventure in your area and I like what you wrote, I’ll reach out!Where can we go to learn more?Website: www.constructedadventures.comFacebook: Constructed AdventuresHere are some photos to give a little bit of flavor:imageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageLiked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

[in-paradox-space]

I scheduled a post for every day for 21 days.

I made them as a reminder for myself everything would get better, but I’m feeling better sooner than anticipated. I regret making the posts because they’re cringy but I’m sure nobody at all sees them. 

You’ll feel better too, whatever you’re going through. 

After some research I decided that’s how long it’d take for me feel alright again after a pretty heavy MDMA and other substance comedown.

I feel like the other substance might be cocaine or ketamine, i dont know. It hit me really quickly and my left arm was being controlled by my leg, when I tried to move my limbs a different part of my body would move.

It was extremely euphoric and terrifying but I just didn’t move for a while until I felt I could carefully attempt to move again.

So yeah the posts are like really emotional and dramatic but I felt fucking awful the week of the comedown.

You heard of brain zaps? They’re fucking awful.

I kept researching online in how the fuck to feel better and stop the brain zaps. Everywhere pointed to a thing called 5htp. It’s tryptophan. From my memory, I believe it’s a chemical which aids to production of serotonin. We get it naturally from food, and it helps our body to create and/or properly absorb serotonin. Something like that... it helps us feel serotonin anyway.

and the internet suggested the brain zaps were likely my brain trying to return back to it’s balance

and at that time i was really lovestruck by a girl. I feel okay knowing i likely wont ever be with her now. 

i dont mind if i see her again or not. I’d like to see her again but i think it’d just be cool to be friends. I think the chemical imbalance made me feel the need to be around someone. It’s all down to the chemicals in your mind at the end of the day. They control your perception of everything, your attitude to the world. 

well yeah, everywhere told me to buy 5htp. i knew it wouldnt arrive in time for me to use them but i ordered anyway, in case this shit happens again. they also sounded good

I tried my first one today, a 100mg pill. 

I felt kind of sick afterwards but I ate a sandwich and I was fine. 

Whether or not it’s a placebo, I felt great today.

Not a euphoric feeling, but I just feel good. 

I smile, type smiley faces and can say I’m good.

I’ve been really confident today. I arrived at college a little late, cracked jokes very naturally. Like it just happened, I just made jokes without thinking and everybody let off genuine, unstoppable laughter. 

I’m not extremely acquainted with my class. I know the names of my tutor and 5 students. We joked like we’d already spent the year together and I smiled. It was a sunny day and I got hella work done.

Work in illustrator. Photoshop is pretty simple but illustrator is just frustrating.

I did a whole art piece in illustrator and I’ve almost half-finished the annotation; I’ll have to type that up tomorrow. I wrote notes and keywords for when I type it up. 

I also have to design like 10 logos.The minimum is six, but I put a lot of planning and basically create multiple logo designs for every one logo.

So if I create six logos as meticulously as I do I should get a merit at least. I’ll have to annotate it well.

I have some work experience lined up. I don’t know where yet, we’re sort of trying the first choice, somewhere pretty prestigious but I don’t want to name it here.

Then if not, it’s some other places which will be pretty useful for my future.

but outside of college

I have some other work experience lined up 

like legit

you see an opportunity, you take it. You say yes. 

Tell yourself yes enough times every morning. 

you will say yes to others 

they say yes to you

Just bring the word into your vocabulary. 

So yeah, 5HTP. I don’t think it’s a placebo. I recommend it to anyone who even knows about this blog. Not suitable if you’re on SSRIs though, of course, because of the connections with serotonin.

I felt pretty good today.

I put out a lot of positive vibrations and recieved them. 

I shouldn’t let my guard down though. 

so yeah

someone posted an opportunity online

somebody sent it to me 

I decided I’d go for it, a lot of other people went for it

but what I had to offer was closest to what the client wanted and/or believed they wanted

and I think I got the place

they wont be disappointed.  

It was on facebook though, they was middle-aged and not exactly an internet dweller

my facebook is fucking FILLED with underground memes

very obscure and ironic to the point of not at all being understood by anyone just a little outside of it

and some accessible, wholesome shit 

but idk

if this person sees them they wont understand

im really surprised they even got to me about it

i think its because i was the only one who offered what they wanted.

My services for free. They won’t be disappointed but I’m sure they have doubts.

I won’t be surprised if they change their mind.

I don’t wanna change my whole facebook to look presentable though, the memers on that friends list were there throughout the whole shabang

the good, the bad and the ugly

they’re brothers and I’m not going to sell them out.

so i need to make a page, then eventually a website, to showcase my work and offer people my services.

tomorrow, I also need to filter through around 2000 HD photos and put the best ones into a folder

then filter those to the very best in another folder

and upload them all on imgur, in the meantime, I suppose

then create a quick Facebook page

haha fuck

creating pages is the hard part

maintaining them can be tricky

they either run themselves, or become a chore you eventually abandon 

If the thought of keeping your page up to date tires you, I recommend scheduling weeks and weeks ahead

and working your ass off for a few days every few weeks.

then u literally just have to read comments and check interactions every now and then.

hnnng

I hate having to filter through hundreds of photos, every time I go somewhere with my camera, to put them into the ‘good’ folders.

mainly because my pc is slow at loading them. 

 I wanted to get a new cpu but the one I wanted was out of stock. 

i think everything else is decent in there. i could use more, faster ram and i need to fix the codecs. 

but the hardware is fine, its just a shitty cpu i got from ebay.

also the tiny motherboard and ram came in a cheap bundle lmao

i dont want to change the motherboard though.

where am i going with this?

Yes! Tomorrow will be a big day.

Gonna take some 5htp in the morning to get through it. I wake up in 4 hours and go to the gym in 5. 

I have to finish my college annotation and spend a few hours doing logos.

Then pilfer through hundreds and hundreds of photos

choose the best ones

upload hundreds and hundreds of high res photos

smooth talk with some potential first clients

and i have to create a facebook page

aaaaa

and I have  to write all the details in there

do I have to watermark all the photos too?  

well

i just wanted to say the 5htp is good. 

im getting good opportunities

things are really starting to look good. 

i write this sentence to you with love!

I have hella work to do tomorrow

and the MDMA comedown isn’t a problem now.