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sakura-haruka · 4 years ago

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Mike aka captainpoe is talking shit about me so let me get things straight.

He’s gonna do screenshots of what will makes him look like the victim, like he always does so you will have to believe me on my words (since I coun’t found our conversations by pm) but most people who know me or I've been following me for a long time know that I usually stay out of the drama. Big thanks to my friends for telling me what he was doing behind my back like the adult he is.

3 years ago Mike started following me, I was back then a small blog and I thought “wow a big blog is following me!”

He started to talk me and really fast told me to send him my edits by messages and I did! he also reblogged me on his mcu blog (and his sw blog too... I think).

I was really stressed with a big exam around July and I became obsess with EVERYTHING, I was a true pain in the ass to everyone. I’m not gonna lie. So yeah I also became obsess with my Tumblr notes, I did gifs to relax but it was not working very well back then. my behavior was childish and I apologized to him after!

(He accused me of wanting to be reblogged on his sideblogs, it’s true, but it’s natural to me to reblog everything that people send me or tag me in on my sideblogs, I sincerely don’t understand people problem with reblogging on sideblogs things ).

When he got harassed on here, more like called out (it was actually around the same time I was a dick) he asked me to take his defense and to reblog a post he made, he was basically whining about how he was the victim and never harassed anyone, he sent me messaged telling me that he was a married man in florida and never did anything against the once upon a time fandom, wasn’t homophobic and meh meh meh... Back then I believed him because he was the nice guy who was helping me getting notes in the MCU fandom. He used me, after talking to other members I realized that I wasn’t alone.

I WANT TO APOLOGIES TO THE POEPLE I DIDN’T BELIEVED BACK THEN. I KNOW WHO HE IS NOW.

He started being aggressive but nothing worriedly when TLJ came around, it was a real little thing but I wasn't shipping Rey x poe and I felt like it was problem for him that I wasn’t shipping them. I didn't thought too much about it but still, it left a bad taste in my mouth, I wasn’t talking a lot to him after that.

When I had problems and got hate on my blog he didn't do shit to help me.

I was still sending me my edits because... Notes. I can’t lie about that, like every creators here I want my edits to get notes.

I think we haven’t talked for a verrrry long time, I was sending my edits that’s it.

Last year he asked me to join my GOT blog, after all the reblog he did for me I thought It would be really bitchy to me to not add him as a member. But I also noted that it was funny how he joined both the B99 and the GOT fandom once he realized that it was very popular.

He did edits on the blog so no problem at all, until s8 ended. I’m like everybody, I hated that season but when someone join my sideblogs, especially my got one, I am very clear about the no hate rule (I had problems with that on this blog before). But he thought that since he was popular he could do what he wanted, I deleted the two first he reblogged, one of them was calling people to harass D&D and I hate what they did but as someone who has been victim of bullying at school and still suffer from that I was disgusted by what he posted but I haven’t told him anything since he’s really popular and I didn’t want to create any drama... I have a life so I finally forgot about it.

My laptop broke and gosh, I really understood who he was at that moment! I sent a messages to all the members of my sideblogs asking them to keep the blogs active while I can’t, normal stuff for an admin. I had my tablet with no photoshop... spidey got “fired” and like a lot of other people I thought about that scene in iw where Tony told him “you’re an avenger now”, lucky me I have already made that gifset before so I took my tablet and just reposted my own gifset, it took me so long because I had to convert it back to gif format because of Tumblr... Anyway, later he sent me a message accusing me of having copied him and I haven’t seen his gifset so told him exactly that. He then accused me of doing that ALL THE TIME with endgame and I told him “listen bro we’re both using the same 30 seconds YouTube clips that marvel gave us”, like 20 other people (they were not a lot of people because that channel was weirdly unknown), it’s true that I was doing them after him but it’s just because I have a life and cannot always do gif, I make them when I have time. He also basically told me that I must be rich for having replaced my laptop that fast, I haven’t, I was using my tablet but even if I did replace my laptop, mêle toi de ton cul ( I have no English expression coming to me ).

I really understood who he was then.

He totally stopped making edits for my got blog, because it stopped trending so it wasn’t interesting him anymore.

a few months past and I think the only thing he told me is that he was scared of clowns... Literally.

And then the BIG ONE, I know he was a douche but omg. Mike asked me to reblog ALL his posts on a sideblog I'm only a member of. He told me that the admin have blocked him because she was shipping reylo and well reylos hate him because he’s posting shit on them , they were a huge misunderstanding then (because i’m French and I may not have explained myself right) , I told him that I wouldn’t reblog him if the admin didn’t want to see his posts on the blog, he was blocked! and I was, at the same time, talking to another member of this blog who is a close friend of the admin and she agreed with me. he was very insisting and I told him that the admin was checking what we add to the queue and would certainly delete his posts, it was the big misunderstanding that could have hurt the admin of the blog, I just meant I know she checks what’s happening because she told me when I don’t tag a post with the right tags, it’s just what a good admin (unlike myself) does. I also told him that it was a new blog with “only” 14k followers, he must have something like 50K followers sooooo, and that his edits were getting 100K notes, more than anybody here. He became... I have no words to describe that. He told me that it was a dictatorship if I couldn’t reblog what I wanted, and that I should leave the blog, I stopped answering pretty fast after that.

In our last conversation I was vulgar. (it’s in the post he sent to my friends), he really need to get over it, I’m French and from Normandie : I am vulgar! wtf. It’s also the last thing he ever posted on my game of thrones blog. It was a Sunday either two days after after the last star wars movie came out or ten days ( I don’t remember if he waited a week or not) but he reblogged a text post from his blog sending hate toward the writers of both got and sw and spoiled the entire Star Wars movie on my game of thrones blog, which was “the drop of water that caused the vase to bleed” like annoy me all you want but when people goes on my got blog they don’t want to be spoiled, it was so rude and mean and that post had nothing to do there and it was at least the third time so I told him to “fucking stop” and since mr thinks he is the king he went all “you can’t talk to me like that” “I'm an adult” meh meh meh. I told him to never go in France ‘cause he wouldn't like us. And it was the last time we spoke. Nothing to do directly with me but I would never do what he does to get notes, that man he’s ready to use any big events such as pride or women’s day to get notes. I do make edits for those events too but I'm actually a bisexual woman and not an heterosexual man and I really don’t think he’s doing those edits to show his support to those movements but just to get notes, this year he did the same thing with blm movement I thought it was disrespectful at best, he even made the famous “I we burn you burn with us” gifset from the movie and no, just stop dude. Making that gifset of Naya before she was even found was awful, a lot of people are doing gifs to feel better about things but I don’t think it would have came to anybody else mind to have it ready in their draft. It actually make me think of myself because after they died I made a gifset of Carrie Fisher and Stan Lee and in my head it was a tribute but now that I think back about it I wouldn’t make gifset when people dies anymore, I said it once again but in my head it was a tribute to those wonderful people life and work. I did to feel people and myself a little better in those situations but it didn’t makes me feel better. I thought about it even more, especially for Carrie, because I couldn’t stop thinking about Billie and losing my mom is the worst thing that could happen to me. You can say that, at the end, Mike makes me realize something.

He has been calling out for his behavior but instead of facing it like an adult he just want to take people down instead of him, I'm one of them and I certainly won’t be the only one. it’s someone who doesn’t know how to face the consequences of his behavior and still think he’s untouchable, me and one of my friend said that he thought he was the king of Tumblr and I sincerely think that in his head he is.

Sorry for the grammar I'm French and it’s almost 4 am so I'm gonna check the grammar tomorrow.

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woos-sweaterpaws · 4 years ago

Note

i want to get to know you so do 1-50 (except 29) 🌻

This is really really sweet of you anon thank u!!

__________________________________________

1. how many pillows do you sleep with?

I have 6 in my bed rn

and over 20 plushies

its never enough

2. do you believe in soulmates?

yes i do

3. would you ever kiss a stranger?

yes but not if its like total-never-spoke-to-them stranger

4. describe your dream house

i would prefer not a house but a nice penthouse-loft-apartment in a big city with a nice view and big windows

interior would be minimalistic style with light wood and a big double sized bed for me (since i dont think i will have a partner lol)

i would love an apartment with multiple floors or like a half-floor for the bedroom

5. do you usually use cash or card?

card

6. do you enjoy driving in general?

i hate it with a burning passion

7. do you like your name? if not, what would you change your name to?

i dont HATE my name

there are better/prettier ones but i think mine fits me

i would still like a more international name (since mine is kinda weird in the english speaking world) but i dont have smth specific in mind

8. what’s your favorite cuisine?

italian ~

9. how often do you get massages?

i dont o.o i got some a few years ago because my back is fucked but otherwise never

10. do you play video games? if so, what games?

generally chill games like animal crossing, stardew valley and such, the big nintendo titles like mario kart and zelda, binding of isaac

11. do you prefer to color with colored pencils, crayons, or markers?

colored pencils!

12. what other fandoms are you in?

oh boy

okay so apart from all of kpop and thai dramas im in

skam

aftg

trc

the mentioned video games if you wanna count that as fandoms

im probably forgetting a ton rn

13. do you have a signature in your style/everyday outfits?

if its comfy i like it

usually involves hoodies or boys shirts

i prefer if i dont have to worry about showing skin somewhere i dont want to

14. do you have any pets? if not, do you want some in the future?

no i dont have any atm but i had bunnies, birds and a guniea pig before. and yes i want cats when i move out

15. do you give objects you own a name? (car, house, plants, etc)

i named my cactus but it died (plants hate me) i also name all my plushies and random animals on the street

16. do you like the weather where you live?

its okay yea. summers are not too hot but i wish the winters were cold enough for snow :(

17. if you could wear one color for the rest of your life, what would it be?

black! its generally my comfort color in clothes

18. do you like making small talk?

WHO tf likes smalltalk? no!

19. what’s your favorite social media platform?

tumblr 100%

20. have you ever been to hawaii?

no :(

21. name a fashion trend that you absolutely hate

no offence but crop tops

i dont hate them they look good on you guys

but i hate that i cant find hoodies and shirts in womans sections anymore that arent cropped (ive been searching the past 6 months and everytime i like smth its cropped - i especially hated that when looking for oversized hoodies)

i dont wear them myself because cold so it sucks not finding cute clothes

i also fundamentally disagree with mustard-yellow

22. name a fashion trend that you absolutely love

oversized hoodies with ripped jeans and boots was my winter favourite

23. what was the last text you sent?

“okay” in out family groupchat lol

24. when making plans, do you like to organize or go with the flow when the time comes?

i like it to be organized but not be the one who actually organizes it if that makes sense?

25. what do you want to name your future kids?

i dont want kids but i wanna name my cats mochi and (c)leo (depending on gender)

26. do you have a type?

with looks i generally prefer darker hair with pretty eyes but if im comfortable with u it doesnt matter

if u like cuddling, are patient and gentle and love to make jokes that arent funny i probably like u lots

27. when was the last time you kissed someone?

like...kissed kissed? in grade 7 so...2012? my first and last kiss lol

28. how often do you cook?

as often as necessary, as little as possible (i cant really cook except for pasta and stuff so im mostly living of instant meals and “cut up a lot of things and put it in a pan until its browned” kinda stuff)

30. do you always remember your dreams?

no i dont

i had a dream diary once but that was a disaster

31. do you believe in ghosts?

yea kinda

i believe in invisible spirits/souls living with us yea

32. would you ever want to move outside of your country?

sometimes? im too scared to actually do it but there are many nice cities i would love to live in

33. describe your first love

well idk about love...it was always more of an obsession kinda thing and it was never a two-way-thing so i never had a real first love...

34. more peanut butter or more jelly?

i hate peanuts so no pb and only jelly (or nutella if you love me)

35. do your irls know about your tumblr account?

they know i have a tumblr but only my best friend actually follows me (and a high school friend i lost contact to)

my other friends dont have tumblr so they dont care

36. do you prefer hot or cold beverages?

cold!

37. when was the last time you finished a book?

i reread the aftg series last december for the 4th time

38. what would you want your wedding colors to be?

green-white? like a soft bright pastel green? maybe add pastel pink too

39. how long do you let your nails grow?

if i can see them clearly from the inside of my hand i cut them

40. if you could stay at a certain age, what age would you pick?

probably 19 or 7 theres no in between

41. who do you think has it easiest: older siblings or younger siblings?

older siblings because they learn responsibility earlier

i dont have siblings tho so idk

42. how often do you post on social media?

on tumblr daily, on insta never, on twitter occasionally if fun stuff happens

43. do you enjoy big groups?

nope

44. do you like it when you’re awaken by the sounds of birds chirping?

its better than my alarm but waaay too early so nope

45. which hand is your favorite?

left?

46. how many people do you follow?

1152 (yes i might have a problem)

47. how many followers do you have?

359 on my main and 27 on my fandom side account

48. how many drafts do you have?

53 but i use it to save posts i find interesting or that contain links i might need later

49. do you hang or fold your sweaters?

hang because im lazy and it saves space on the clothes dryer rack

50. even numbers or odd?

odd!

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daesungindistress · 5 years ago

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New SH stan anon. So lemme get this straight, they can trend hts for gd at chanel, taeyang at fendi, taeyang's charity event, they can even spontaneously trend an ht for gd for no reason at all. But the first time we see Daesung in MONTHS and he's looking like the hottest broody cop in a kdrama (not my words) and suddenly it's "what's an ht I don't know her"? They even managed to give over 1k notes to that damn naver comment section. But co-ordinating for him positively is too much effort? (1/2)

This is why I don’t fuck with fandoms. I was thinking of getting into the vip fandom fully but I can’t stand this sort of bias in band fandoms so I will just appreciate from afar. Though this does somewhat solve the mystery of why Dae stans are often OT5. I’m not surprised they stick together for the maknae line if this isthe treatment Dae gets from hyung line stans. Anyway, where he’s allowed to go solo the gp adores him and that speaks of his power. I’m off to drool over those pics again (2/2)

–

Don’t forget about Seungri stans. To hell with that maknae line solidarity shit. Not too long ago Seungri stans, with the help of OT5 fans, managed to trend the hashtag #apologizetoseungri the day court documents were revealed confirming that Seungri was in fact in one of those molka chats with JJY and friends (this came after months of his defenders screaming at me in my inbox about how it “wasn’t Seungri in that chat!” Haven’t heard a peep from them since then). But because it was “just one chat” these idiot IVIPs with their hive mind heads screwed on backwards mistakenly thought that demanding the world offer him an apology was an appropriate thing to do, and to the embarrassment of us all, they got the job done. Loyal Dae stans, compelled by Seungri stans to stick together, helped make it happen.

But when after 5 months of investigation into his controversial building Daesung’s case was dropped – completely cleared, “no evidence to support the suspicions,” not charged, not even named a suspect by the time the case was closed – those same fans with their trending power and large-scale organizational ability were nowhere to be found. Dae stans on Twitter tried to trend the tag #daesungdaebak in celebration, but without support from the rest of the fandom, their efforts fizzled out and died. Where did those masses of misguided fans go? Where was that same effort for Daesung when he was vindicated? What happened to maknae line? I’m not gonna sit here and rag on hyung line stans, but Seungri stans are fair game now. It’s about time people realize that they are not here to return the favor. They never gave a damn about Daesung, only about what his stans could do for them. They are selfishly utilizing stans of other members to do their dirty work. Sadly, Dae stans most of all, in part because of Daesung’s building scandal. They took advantage of it and used it to rope vulnerable Dae stans back in.

(Which raises the question: are they happy he was cleared unequivocally? Are they really? Or are they bitter that the same isn’t happening for Seungri? Maybe there’s another reason why they didn’t help trend the hashtag. Because now that there’s no more uncertainty, now that police have acted in Daesung’s favor but not in Seungri’s, they can no longer hold it over the heads of Dae stans, using it to guilt trip them into supporting Seungri, calling them hypocrites with “double standards” and poisoning their minds with the claim that DaeRi and their situations are “the same”. It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But I speak from experience. These are the anon asks I received throughout his building controversy. Some I replied to publicly, rejecting them openly, others I simply deleted.)

“This does somewhat solve the mystery of why Dae stans are often OT5.” Yes, “maknae line” has something to do with it, but the bit I wrote above is another piece of the puzzle. In short, Dae stans are OT5 because most of them are too kind for their own good and gullible. But hey, the two go hand-in-hand, don’t they? I have a more detailed post about this sitting in drafts. Been there for two weeks, long enough that I was nearly ready to let it go… but now that the matter is being brought up again, who knows? Might finish it up after all.

Anyway, the good news is Daesung has never expressed frustration over this… treatment. For this reason I rarely find myself wondering if he feels slighted. I just don’t see the point of worrying about an issue he himself has never raised. Unlike a certain someone who is no longer with us, Daesung never fusses about it, never complains. As far as I can tell, he always comes off as abundantly grateful for the love he receives, and so gracious in the way he receives it – and I admire him all the more for it. Taking our cues from him, if he doesn’t seem unhappy, why should we be? He’s done so well for himself, no matter what vile and hateful things people might say about him. The tremendous success of his solo career speaks for itself (or as you said, “speaks of his power” – love that). Bias in the fandom does exist, yes, but I really try not to let myself get too bothered by it because he’s done just fine in spite of it. More than fine.

I know you said you’re a SH stan, but all I’ll say is as a Dae stan, you get used to it. Loving him in a vacuum of sorts, relatively calm compared to fans of the other members but steadfast in your affection, almost stubbornly so. Not unlike Daesung himself with his quiet strength and humble determination. Also, at least in the English-speaking side of the fandom, we’re a small, at times insular bunch. Now even smaller after the fandom split. Fact is, even if we felt the need, we just don’t have the manpower to move the masses by ourselves. Thankfully though, we stan a man who doesn’t seem to require that kind of constant attention to keep going, as seen in the way he disappears when he isn’t actively working. But he always comes back. He’s dependable like that (D'pendable… sorry, couldn’t resist). I think as long as we’re there for him when it really matters, ready to receive him when he has official schedules again, ready to meet him when he’s ready to meet us… it’s enough.

#ok I rewrote it #yet another reason to ditch the app that routinely eats my posts and stick to my pc #old faithful #daesung #seungri #daeri #ask #anon #dlite #bigbang

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years ago

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A ROUND YOU HAVE TO START OVER

The main complaint of the more articulate critics was that Arc seemed so flimsy. Design means making things for humans.1 And in particular, is a pruned version of a program from the implementation details. Every talk I give ends up being given from a manuscript full of things crossed out and rewritten. What about using it to write software, whether for a startup at all, it will be wasted. There's no reason this couldn't be as big as Ebay.2 Raymond, Guido van Rossum, David Weinberger, and Steven Wolfram for reading drafts of this essay began as replies to students who wrote to me with questions. Superficially, going to work for another company as we're suggesting, he might well have gone to work for another company for two years, and the classics. People will pay extra for stability. That would be an extraordinary bargain.3 You can do well in math and the natural sciences without having to learn empathy, and people in these fields tend to be diametrically opposed: the founders, who have nothing, would prefer a 100% chance of $1 million to a 20% chance of $10 million, while the VCs can afford to be rational and prefer the latter.

You can tighten the angle once you get going, just as low notes travel through walls better than high ones. If you're young and smart, you don't need to have empathy not just for humans, but for individual humans. It depends on what the meaning of a program so that it does. I'm interested in the topic.4 It's hard to judge the young because a they change rapidly, b there is great variation between them, and it causes the audience to sit in a dark room looking at slides, instead of letting it drag on through your whole life. A rounds.5 Now that I've seen parents managing the subject, I can see why people invent gods to explain it.

There's more to it than that.6 Y Combinator with a hardware idea, because we're especially interested in people who can solve tedious system-administration type problems for them, so the two qualities have come to be associated. Startups happen in clusters.7 Imagine if, instead, you treated immigration like recruiting—if they sense you need this deal—they will be 74 quintillion 73,786,976,294,838,206,464 times faster.8 And good employers will be even more astonished that a package would one day travel from Boston to New York and I was surprised even then. But I have no trouble believing that computers will be very much faster. Now that I've seen parents managing the subject, I can give you solid advice about how to make one consisting only of Japanese people.

But they don't realize just how fragile startups are, and how easily they can become collateral damage of laws meant to fix some other problem. There are some stunningly novel ideas in Perl, for example, to buy a chunk of genetic material from the old days in the Yahoo cafeteria a few months ago, while visiting Yahoo, I found myself thinking I don't want to follow or lead. Professors are especially interested in hardware startups.9 When I say Java won't turn out to be a case of premature optimization. Bold? They won't be offended.10 So it is no wonder companies are afraid. I'd recommend meeting them if your schedule allows.

The cat had died at the vet's office. It's like the rule that in buying a house you should consider location first of all.11 Why hadn't I worked on more substantial problems?12 But lose even a little bit in the commitment department, and probably soon stop noticing that the building they work in says computer science on the outside. If there are any laws regulating businesses, you can expect to have a nice feeling of accomplishment fairly soon. Some of the problems we want to invest in you aren't. If anything they'll think more highly of you.

5 million. And those of us in the next room snored? So if you're the least bit inclined to find an excuse to quit, there's always some disaster happening. Every person has to do their job well. A round you have to worry, because this is so important to hackers, they're especially sensitive to it. But if you lack commitment, it will be way too late to make money, you have to risk destroying your country to get a job depends on the kind you want. Marble, for example. Yesterday Fred Wilson published a remarkable post about missing Airbnb. Sometimes I can think to myself If someone with a PhD in computer science I went to my mother afterward to ask if this was so. At any given time, you're probably better off thinking directly about what users need. Everyone in the sciences, true collaboration seems to be vanishingly rare in the arts could tell you that the right way to collaborate, I think few realize the huge spread in the value of your remaining shares enough to put you net ahead, because the people they admit are going to get a foot in the door. Over the years, as we asked for more details, they were compelled to invent more, so the odds of getting this great deal are 1 in 300.

You're not spending the money; you're just moving it from one asset to another.13 On a log scale I was midway between crib and globe.14 You can stick instances of good design can be derived, and around which most design issues center.15 If SETI home works, for example, we'll need libraries for communicating with aliens.16 In your own projects you don't get taught much: you just work or don't work on big things, I don't mean to suggest we should never do this—just that we see trends first—partly because they are in general, and partly because mutations are not random. But if it's inborn it should be. The mildest seeming people, if they tried, start successful startups, and then I can start my own? The alternative approach might be called the Hail Mary strategy.

Notes

But Goldin and Margo think market forces in the same energy and honesty that fifteenth century European art. Fifty years ago. I meant. Some are merely ugly ducklings in the Valley.

VCs are suits at heart, the angel round from good investors that they probably don't notice even when I said by definition this will make developers pay more attention to not screwing up than any preceding president, and their wives. But that doesn't have users.

But it wouldn't be worth about 125 to 150 drachmae. Heirs will be the more subtle ways in which many people work with the bad groups is that they function as the cause.

The empirical evidence suggests that if you want to. Incidentally, tax loopholes are definitely not a nice-looking man with a product company. When I was writing this, on the process dragged on for months.

Letter to Oldenburg, quoted in Westfall, Richard, Life of Isaac Newton, p. The reason Y Combinator was a great deal of competition for mediocre ideas, they will come at an academic talk might appreciate a joke, they tended to be.

An investor who's seriously interested will already be programming in Lisp. Parents move to suburbs to raise five million dollars out of loyalty to the same advantages from it, by Courant and Robbins; Geometry and the manager of a problem later. But that is exactly the point I'm making, though you tend to get rich by buying good programmers instead of a long time by sufficiently large numbers of users to do it mostly on your board, there are few who can say I need to. There are lots of customers times how much they liked the iPhone too, of course, Feynman and Diogenes were from adjacent traditions, but it doesn't cost anything.

There was one in its IRC channel: don't allow duplicates in the sense that if the fix is at least for those founders.

For example, it's probably a bad idea, period. Bankers continued to dress in jeans and a few additional sources on their own itinerary through no-land, while the more qualifiers there are before the name implies, you produce in copious quantities.

166. Even in Confucius's time it filters down to zero, which make investments rather than giving grants.

What made Google Google is not even be working on what interests you most. It's a case of journalists, someone did, once. It seems quite likely that European governments of the word that means the startup in a way to be is represented by Milton. As I was living in a wide variety of situations.

So 80 years sounds to him like 2400 years would to us. They have the same gestures but without using them to be sharply differentiated, so if you conflate them you're aiming at the top and get data via the Internet.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 28%. A fundraising is a major cause of poverty are only about 2% of the decline in families eating together was due to Trevor Blackwell reminds you to stop, the more the type of thing. A round. It will also remind founders that an eminent designer is any good at acting that way.

Wufoo was based in Tampa and they hope this will make grad students' mouths water, but sword thrusts. For example, if you want to impress investors. When you fix one bug happens to use thresholds proportionate to the founders of failing startups would even be worth approaching—if you conflate them you're aiming at the company's PR people worked hard to answer your question. To be safe either a don't use Oracle.

Even if you don't have one. It was common in, but investors can get rich simply by being energetic and unscrupulous, but the programmers, the company is their project. MITE Corp. So, can I count you in a in the middle of the economy, you won't be able to buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale unless the person who understands how to distinguish between gravity and acceleration.

56 million. Adults care just as if it were Can you pass the salt? A single point of view: either an IPO, or much energy would be worth doing, because they couldn't afford a monitor is that when you ask that you're not consciously aware of it.

Most expect founders to try to accept a particular valuation, that he be spared. And in World War II, must have been Andrew Wiles, but it is not Apple's products but their policies.

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so-writing · 7 years ago

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Fuck You; Bill Skarsgard

bill x female reader

“If you want me, you will never speak to her or see her again. If you want to do those things, you will never speak to me or see me again. Still sure about you choice?”

“Of course, yes, she’s gone. I swear.”

“Do it now.”

He swallowed hard and grabbed his phone, his hands shaking the entire time.

“Bill, do you have feelings for her?”

“No, no I could never.”

“Now is the time to admit it. You need to tell me the absolute truth right now.”

“I know that I love you..” he trailed off and averted his gaze from mine, “but I just feel really close to her for some reason. She’s like my best friend, I feel like a part of me would be missing if I were to just completely close her off.”

“You’ve made your choice then,” I closed my eyes tightly to keep the tears from escaping without my consent.

“No,” he grabbed my hand before I could turn to leave the room, “I can’t lose you. Please understand how hard this is for me.”

“It’s easy, Bill. If you love me and want this to work, you’ll get rid of anything that stands in the way of our relationship. This isn’t just a crush, someone you’ve randomly fantasized about in your bunk when you’re lonely. You’ve slept with her more than once. There is a connection between the two of you.”

“That’s why it’s hard.”

“Because there’s a connection? That’s because you have feelings. If you have feelings for someone while you’re in a relationship you aren’t fully committed and you aren’t really in love with that person.”

“That isn’t true, I am in love with you. It’s different with her.”

“No, Bill, it isn’t. Tell me right now, can you erase her from your life?”

“That’s not fair.”

“So the answer is no?”

“I can’t just toss her to the curb like that.”

“So you cannot erase her from your life completely?”

“No.”

He couldn’t look at me. His green eyes were glued to the ground and I wanted nothing more than for him to say it was just a stupid mistake and that he loved me and that she was nothing. He couldn’t though. Despite whatever he said, whatever feelings he had for me, he had them for her too. They were different, they were probably stronger. The tears threatened to fall again.

“I really thought you were the love of my life and I don’t even think that’s a thing. I never bought into the idea of soulmates until I met you. I knew going into this would be hard because you’re fucking famous,” my voice wavered slightly, “but I thought we could make it work because you were the one.”

Bill’s cheeks reddened and he couldn’t make direct eye contact with me. I knew it was over and I knew that I would spend who knows how long trying to get over the fact that I had lost him because I wasn’t able to travel the world by his side.

“You were the one. Not now though, now your feelings are for someone else and I can’t do anything about it. I love you so much and I wish it was enough but it just isn’t.”

“I never meant for this happen. I never wanted to hurt you.”

It was an admission of guilt. Bill had fallen in love with someone else while I was on the other side of the world and there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was let him go and try to put myself back together, post Bill Skarsgard.

“I love you so much, please don’t forget that. I have loved you since that stupid party we met at. You spilled your beer on my shoes and I was so pissed but you were so wonderful and kind. I’m going to miss the hell out of you.”

“I-i’m so sorry.”

The words themselves seemed to tremble as they left his lips. Tears didn’t escape past his eyes, though. His mouth didn’t curve into a frown that was so desperately trying not to cry.

He didn’t want to hurt me, but he was happy it was over. He was happy it was over because he was ready to move on.

And that, he did.

“BILL SKARSGARD AND STYLE ICON GIRLFRIEND SPLIT AFTER THREE YEARS OF ROMANCE.”

The headline was splashed across the pages of all of the pathetic tabloids.

“FAHSION DESIGNER LEAVES ACTOR IN FIT OF RAGE AND JEALOUSY.”

“BILL SKARSGARD CHEATS! THE STAR HAS MULTIPLE SECRET RELATIONSHIPS.”

“HE NEVER LOVED ME! FASHIONISTA TELLS ALL!”

I had tried my hardest to completely forget him, but it was difficult when he was so ridiculously famous. In the three years since we had broken up, his acting career had skyrocketed, and so had the career of his stylist. She had become one of the most prominent designers in the fashion world.

At first they were lovely and smiles, but photos of them looking incredibly unhappy had recently graced the covers of magazines and there were constant rumors of the both of them being unfaithful.

The emails had started about a month ago and I had ignored every single one of them. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to speak to him, it was that I couldn’t. Bill had done a number on me and I wasn’t going to let him do it again.

Not only had he cheated on me, which led to him falling love with someone else and breaking my heart, he did it so the world could see. They were a confirmed couple to the media just days after our own break up. Bill had always claimed our relationship was important and special and that was why he didn’t want to share it with anyone.

His fans praised them, saying they were adorable and a perfect fit and it was “finally time for Bill to settle down.” He had already settled down though. We had lived together for quite some time and it was incredibly painful watching him move out and returning home to an empty apartment.

I backed out of the lease a month later, luckily my landlord understood and let me go without paying extra fees. It was too hard living in a place with all of our memories. It was too hard scrolling through Twitter while laying in OUR bed and seeing photos of them together acting like newlyweds.

The newlywed phase was over now though. Scrolling through my inbox, I opened Bill’s latest email.

“I wish you would just talk to me. You changed your number, you moved out of our apartment. It’s like you’re trying to make it seem like I was never here. I was though, I still am. I love you.”

I spent the next two days debating whether I should respond to him, maybe just to let him know that i’m still alive. Sitting down at my laptop, I typed up a quick draft of what I would send.

It was the typical “don’t worry” type of email and I may have allowed my feelings to get the best of me by telling him that I missed him and there was a part of me that would always love him.

A week or so passed with no response. He was in the middle of a world tour, so it made sense. Logging into Twitter, I saw that his name was a trending topic. What I saw when I opened the first article nearly caused me to have a heart attack.

“THEY’RE BACK ON! BILL SKARSGARD ENGAGED TO FASHION MOGUL! TRUE LOVE NEVER DIES!”

He had spent months sending me emails of things he had written, which he claimed were about me. He had attached photos of himself and his friends goofing around and all of the beautiful parts of the world he had captured. All this time, never being able to speak to me or even getting the satisfaction of a response but he kept doing it.

It reminded me of when we first met, how at first he was so caring and tried his hardest to make sure I didn’t feel alone when he was on set. The recent emails were just like the texts and phone calls he had sent on his first movie after we moved in together. They were hopeful. They were probably bullshit then, and definitely bullshit now.

What got me the most were all of the apologies he had sent. Always saying that he made a mistake by leaving and made an even bigger mistake by outing their relationship so now he couldn’t get away without the media scrutiny and that he grown to hate her but he had to pretend he didn’t. He said he loved how it was never like that with me, it was never about paparazzi photos or red carpets. It was just about us and he would do anything to get that back if I would just give him a chance. He claimed what we had was “real” and what they had was fabricated and so much different behind closed doors.

Here he was now, pictured in Times fucking Square, one of the busiest, most visible places in the goddamn world, down on one knee giving a giant diamond to someone he “completely loathed.”

Bill had grown to love the attention. The Bill I knew was gone and had been replaced by this spotlight loving asshole. The traces of the old him only left in my memories and in some of the emails I would never respond to again. He had learned to manipulate everyone around him and it made me wonder how much of what he had been saying to me was just a lie to get me back on his side.

Probably all of it.

Trying to collect my scattered thoughts and slow my racing heart, I fired off one last email to Bill.

“Fuck you.”

#bill skarsgard #bill skarsgard imagine #bill skarsgard fic #roman godfrey #i wrote this a year or so ago but for someone else and it just worked lol #anyway bill #sowritingfuckyou

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fantaledfish · 7 years ago

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Follower Ask Thing

I was tagged by @ask-oncelers-race-car-bed and I really should be doing something useful like buying paper towels but given I’m not ready to leave the house yet, I feel like this is a good thing to get done first. Let’s get to it:

5 Things You’ll Find in My Bag:

1. Two full decks of Magic: The Gathering Cards and a few extras just sort of floating around. One is on loan from an acquaintance, and one I created at a chaos draft that I participated in yesterday. I’m really new to Magic, technically I learned to play a few years ago, but these last few months have been the first period of time where I was really exposed to passionate players and got the chance to play fairly regularly and attempt to better myself.

2. The keys and padlock to a bike lock set. The length of cord that is the actual bike lock is not in my bag at the moment, but I keep the smaller pieces in my bag so that I don’t lose them. I ride my bike everywhere because I don’t have a car yet. It’s inconvenient and awful and this weekend I’ll probably have a gofundme up to help out with that, because I am struggling to live my life in a town where public transportation does not exist. On the flip side, I am getting a ton of exercise and maintaining a body that I am very happy with so that’s good.

3. My comb and makeup bag. I met a really important person yesterday who could potentially be a part of my life for....forever, really, going forward, if all goes according to plan, and I wanted to look nice, so I brought my primping stuff to class with me so that I could prepare before my club meeting. Hopefully I wasn’t intimidating, that really wasn’t the goal but I worry about it.

4. Deodorant. I ride a bike to my campus. Which is 5 miles away. Enough said about that.

5. As of right now I actually have several indecent things in my bag. They’re just rather handy to have. It’s like a Giant Limestone Cube, yeah? Because you never know!

5 Things You’ll Find in My Bedroom:

1. There’s a cat. There’s another one around here somewhere but I can’t see him from where I’m sitting. There is at least one cat in my room right now thought.

2. A queen sized bed. It makes me feel like a movie star when I wake up in the mornings.

3. Several pieces of Labyrinth themed art, including an authentic movie poster from back in the day. I love them all very much, I need more art. My bedroom walls are still rather bare.

4. Clothing, everywhere. On the floor, on hangers, in my chest of drawers when I manage to get it there, on hooks on my door. I’m not a tidy person and it makes me flip out and go into a whirlwind of activity whenever someone threatens to come over. I want to be a tidy person I just don’t really have time.

5. A plush ferret. This is a substitution of the real thing, a very sweet very bad girl who still lives with my parents up North.

5 Things I’ve always wanted to do in my life (I feel these are rather obvious to people who follow me so I’m keeping this section very short)

1. Publish books

2. Be a singer in a band

3. Have a pitbull

4. Own a wardrobe consisting of 25% ballgowns that I wear regularly and with no occasion required

5. Live in the city. Not all cities work for this, but many do.

5 Things On My To Do List:

1. Homework

2. Cleaning

3. Settling the prevailing and tiresome question of ‘What The Hell is Our Relationship, Anyway?”

4. GETTING A FUCKING CAR 5. Go shopping. I need milk. And Candy.

5 Things That Make Me Happy:

1.Completing a game to 100%. I’m a completionist but I set strict rules for myself for each game so that I don’t let myself go insane and never have fun again and pour 50 hours into doing something that I hate. If its doable, I go for it, and when I do it, I love it.

2. Writing for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing for D&D, for the various other RPGs I’ve been involved in, and even for assignments, but nothing makes me happier than developing a plot idea myself, with no outside incentive, and then refining and writing that idea and seeing where it takes me. I hope to do more of it in the future.

3. Spending time with my partner. (And my friends but that’s a given.) With my partner its special, because I live near them now. I spent 5 years not even really with them, and 400 miles away as well. And now I live here. I get to see them four days or more out of the week. It’s fucking incredible. It could be better, there are things to improve on, but I never thought I’d get here, and here I am.

4. Playing D&D. I can write D&D, sure, but I love playing D&D. I fucked up my last DMs story but he rolled with it and we all had so much fun. I mean D&D also may have permanently burned one of my bridges (working on unburning it) but I still love it. I love it.

5. College. I’m in college! I hated high school. College is fun. I feel in control of myself for the first time in a very long time. Its a good feeling.

5 Things I’m (Currently) Into:

1. The Witcher. Not Wild Hunt, just, The Witcher. I haven’t played Wild Hunt but I can’t wait to because I’m very gay for Yennefer. I played the first one to full completion, it took 60 hours and was a janky time and I loved every minute of it. I’m on the second one now. It feels a little different and I definitely don’t like it as much but I’m going through it. It just opened up and feels like a real game so maybe now I can like it more.

2. Critical Role. I watch so slowly and the story of Vox Machina has already ended and hhhhhhhhhhh. However, I’m going to keep watching and catching up, and when the new story starts up I’m going to watch that as it goes while I simultaneously watch Vox Machina because I think if I got any more behind I’d go insane.

3. Dr. Pepper. I had a Dr. Pepper on Monday and it was the best fucking thing I’ve ever drunk. I’ve had Dr. Pepper before but never have I loved it so goddamn much. I want more. I need to buy more Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper in bulk.

4. Kingdom Hearts. I’m also working on playing through the full Kingdom Hearts series for the first time ever. I’ve played them before, but when I played them I was young and really really bad at games of all kinds. I am no longer bad at games of all kinds, and am doing really well. It hasn’t gotten stupidly complicated yet but I’m ready.

5. Analytical Youtubers. Last year when my anxiety problems were at a height I couldn’t do anything without something going on in the background, so I found a whole bunch of analytical youtubers that talk about games, philosophy, movies, math, writing, anything, and played them whenever I needed to accomplish a task. Now I play them because I love them. I love thinking about mechanics and cinematography and I love analyzing trends and seeing other people doing it too.

5 Things People May Not Know About Me:

1. I started as a strict poetry blog. Now I call my blog the ambiguous ‘journal’ because it has what I need and what I like and what tickles my fancy. It’s got cute animals and a ton of art and a very existentialist thread of humor running through it. I don’t think it will be a poetry blog again. Maybe occasionally.

2. I read massive amounts of fanfiction from all sorts of fandoms, and have for the last four years, and can’t see myself stopping anytime soon. I’m really not public with anyone about that part of my life but it exists, and it makes me happy.

3. I hate the cold. Anything under 75 F is too cold, and it makes me actively miserable. I endured 18 years of temperate zone living, and now that I’m braving the confederacy its notably better than it was. I still wear a big hoodie with every outfit though, it gives me a really informal look to go with my elegant every day wear.

4. I expect my body to last until I am at least 93. Harriet Tubman died at 93, and as one of my lifelong heroes, she has set the par for respectable age. My family has some damn good genes so I think its doable.

5. I am an artist. I’m not a professional artist, but sometimes, I make art. It is rather good art for the most part. I may post some, sometime. It isn’t digital though, I have no idea how to do that.

People I’m tagging: Well, let’s go with 5 because that’s the theme this time around. @scarvesindoors @asurprigingamountofbisexuals @mekonari (Hi Emily!) @friendfromthelitterbox @pessimisticrainbow

#ask me #get to know me meme #whoooo #long post

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nightmare-afton-cosplay · 6 years ago

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Reversal of Fortune: The Mortgage Mistake That Could Cost One Woman Her Longtime Home

realtor.com

Despite having worked for decades in the real estate industry, Sharon Voss, 79, made a mistake that will likely cost her her home of nearly 30 years at an auction this month. The culprit: a reverse mortgage that was meant to keep her financially solvent through her golden years.

Voss’ husband had taken out a home equity conversion mortgage, as the federally backed loans are called, on the couple’s four-bedroom, Orlando-area home tucked away on a quiet street. Like more than a million other older U.S. homeowners, they traded the ownership of the 2,000-square-foot property and any equity earned for cash to pay off outstanding debts. They believed they would be able to remain in the home until their deaths, which is typically how these loans work.

But after Voss’ husband passed away, six years ago, the banks came calling and the foreclosure notices began. The problem was that the couple had agreed to take Sharon Voss’ name off the title of the house when lenders said that was the only way the loan would be approved. They had assured her that her name could go back on the deed if her husband died. It didn’t.

My husband “thought he was protecting me,” says Voss, a real estate agent and former president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. “I’m from the Dark Ages when the husband did this and I did that. He wanted control of the finances.”

With the largest generation ever to retire—the baby boomers—beginning to do so en masse, reverse mortgages will likely rise in popularity as a way to help them fund their retirement. Currently, around 50,000 of these loans are taken out each year, according to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. But in barely a decade, 1 in 5 U.S. residents will be old enough to qualify for the mortgages, according to U.S. Census demographers.

“Given the demographic trends in the U.S., we certainly anticipate continual growth in the reverse mortgage space,” says Steve Irwin, executive vice president of the association.

But Voss’ case illustrates one of the pitfalls of the reverse mortgage, which has long been a controversial product that some finance experts warn could leave the elderly in worse financial shape.

The loans have now come under federal scrutiny—not because of consumer complaints, but because they simply cost too much. A report in November found that the home equity conversion mortgage program is a major money loser: During the past budget year, it had a negative worth of more than $13 billion, as claims exceeded the current value of the loans insured through federal funds.

As part of an overall reform of the nation’s housing finance system, President Donald Trump in March tasked Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson with drafting a plan to bring the program onto financially solid ground. But changes could result in lenders becoming less generous with the upfront payments they provide homeowners. The loans could also become more difficult to obtain.

The ins and outs of reverse mortgages

Reverse mortgages were created in the 1960s to allow the elderly a new source of income. Those 62 and older can receive a lump sum payment, monthly installments, or a line of credit secured by the value of their home. That money can help them pay medical bills, go on vacation, or cover property taxes, insurance, and maintenance on their abodes.

But the loans must be paid off before the owners named on the deed sell their residence, move, or die. If it isn’t, they or their heirs are responsible for the balance—or the lender can collect the property.

Reverse mortgages are most common in California, making up about 33% of the nation’s reverse mortgages. Florida and Colorado make up the next most, at about 7% each.

The dangers of reverse mortgages

San Francisco attorney Ingrid Evans, who focuses on cases of elder fraud, says the federal government needs to do a better job of protecting aging homeowners.

Reverse mortgages can also be pricey, with upfront costs that can run $15,000 to $20,000 on a $200,000 home. That’s important to consider, especially for those who don’t plan to stay in their homes long or want to borrow only a small amount.

“Reverse mortgages are just a terrible deal for seniors, unless they have no other options,” says Evans.

Some widows and widowers say they were unaware that they would lose their homes. Others took upfront payments for medical bills or other expenses, but could then not afford the property taxes and home upkeep. About five years ago, greater controls were established to allow surviving spouses to stay in their homes.

Voss says she tried to qualify for widow relief so she could stay in her residence. But the mortgage her husband took out predated reforms for surviving spouses. About a year after he died in 2013, she began to get notices about foreclosure. The process slowed as the mortgage changed hands to other lenders, and her attorney helped her try to stake her claim, but there was only so much she could spend on legal costs.

“I’ve been in the business a long time, but you don’t know about things like this,” says Voss.

Now, she’s trying to figure out where to go next. The auction is slated for April 16. She’s looking at apartments and is considering moving into a mobile home community.

“Whatever you do, get an attorney to read over everything before you agree to the terms,” says Voss. A reverse mortgage “may sound like a good situation, but make sure your name is on the deed.”

The post Reversal of Fortune: The Mortgage Mistake That Could Cost One Woman Her Longtime Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

from https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/reverse-mortgage-mistake-could-cost-one-woman-her-longtime-home/

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davidoespailla · 6 years ago

Text

Reversal of Fortune: The Mortgage Mistake That Could Cost One Woman Her Longtime Home

realtor.com

“Given the demographic trends in the U.S., we certainly anticipate continual growth in the reverse mortgage space,” says Steve Irwin, executive vice president of the association.

But Voss’ case illustrates one of the pitfalls of the reverse mortgage, which has long been a controversial product that some finance experts warn could leave the elderly in worse financial shape.

The ins and outs of reverse mortgages

Reverse mortgages are most common in California, making up about 33% of the nation’s reverse mortgages. Florida and Colorado make up the next most, at about 7% each.

The dangers of reverse mortgages

San Francisco attorney Ingrid Evans, who focuses on cases of elder fraud, says the federal government needs to do a better job of protecting aging homeowners.

“Reverse mortgages are just a terrible deal for seniors, unless they have no other options,” says Evans.

“I’ve been in the business a long time, but you don’t know about things like this,” says Voss.

Now, she’s trying to figure out where to go next. The auction is slated for April 16. She’s looking at apartments and is considering moving into a mobile home community.

The post Reversal of Fortune: The Mortgage Mistake That Could Cost One Woman Her Longtime Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Reversal of Fortune: The Mortgage Mistake That Could Cost One Woman Her Longtime Home

#TRUSTED LOCAL REALTOR #Reversal of Fortune: The Mortgage Mistake That Could Cost One Woman Her Longt

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theinvinciblenoob · 6 years ago

Link

I dig on my employer Oath, and then Tencent Music notes and a major loss for the NYC ecosystem and what it means for open source.

TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at [email protected]) if you like or hate something here.

My three word Oath? I’m with stupid

It goes without saying that this piece about my employer is my work alone, doesn’t reflect management’s views, and is done under the auspices of TechCrunch’s independent editorial voice. No usage of internal information is assumed or implied.

This is a piece about TechCrunch’s parent company, formerly known as “Oath:” (okay just Oath, but who am I to flout a mandatory colon?) and now ReBranded as Verizon Media Group / Oath (See what they did there? They literally slashed Oath. Poetic).

Oath is essentially the creature of Frankenstein, a middle-school corporate alchemy experiment to fuse the properties of the companies formerly known as AOL and Yahoo into the larger behemoth known as Verizon. You can feel the terrible synergy emanating from the multiple firewalls it takes to get to our corporate resources.

Oath has a problem:* it needs to grow for Wall Street to be happy and for Verizon not to neuter it, but it has an incredible penchant for making product decisions that basically tell users to fuck off. Oath’s year over year revenues last quarter were down 6.9%, driven by extreme competition from digital ad leaders Google and Facebook.

The solution apparently? Drive page views down. If that logic doesn’t make sense, well then, maybe you should fill out a job application.

The kerfuffle is over Tumblr, which is among Oath’s most important brands, in that people actually know what it is and kind of still like it. Tumblr, which Yahoo notably acquired under Marissa Mayer back in 2013, has been something of a product orphan — one of the few true software platforms left in a world filled with editorial content like TechCrunch and HuffPost (Oath sold off Flickr earlier this year to SmugMug — which also seems to be going through its own boneheaded product decision phase).

All was well and good — well, at least quiet — in the Tumblr world until Apple pulled the plug on Tumblr’s app in the App Store a few weeks ago over claims of child porn. Now let’s be absolutely clear: child porn is abhorrent, and filtering it out of online photo sharing sites is a prime directive (and legally mandated).

But Oath has decided to do something equally obnoxious: it intends to ban anything that might be considered “adult content” starting December 17th, just in time for the holidays when purity around family gatherings is key.

In Tumblr’s policy, “Adult content primarily includes photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts.” You’ll notice the written legerdemain — “primarily” doesn’t exclude the wider world of adult-oriented content that almost invariably is going to be subsumed under this policy.

Obviously, adults (and presumably teens as well) are pissed. As users are starting to see what photos are getting flagged (hint: not the ones with porn in them), that’s only making them more angry.

Oath is attempting to compress the content moderation engineering and testing of Facebook down to a span of a few weeks. And Facebook hasn’t even figured this one out yet, which is why people are still being murdered across the world from viral messages and memes it hosts that incite ethnic hatred and genocide.

I get the pressure from Apple. I get the safety of saying “just ban all the images” à la Renaissance pope. I get the business decision of trying to maintain Tumblr’s clean image. These points are all reasonable, but they all are just useless without Tumblr’s core and long-time users.

What flummoxes me from a product perspective is that it’s not as if banning all adult content is the singular solution to the problem. There is an entire spectrum of product, policy, legal, and product cultural ingredients that could be drawn upon. There could be more age verification, better separation of “safe for children” and “meant for adults content,” and more focus on messaging to users that moderation was meant to help the product and focus audiences rather than to puritanically filter.

Or you can just kill the photos, the somehow still loyal core user base, a safe space for expression via nudity and sexuality and, well, traffic along with it. And then you look at -6.9% growth and think: huh, I wonder if there is a connection.

*Mandatory colon

Tencent Music reintroduces its IPO

Tencent Music. Photo by Zhan Min/VCG via Getty Images

Maybe the IPO markets are thawing a bit after the crash of the last few weeks and…tariffs. From my colleague Catherine Shu:

Tencent Music Entertainment’s initial public offering is back in motion, two months after the company reportedly postponed it amid a global selloff. In a regulatory filing today, the company, China’s largest streaming music service, said it plans to offer 82 million American depositary shares (ADS), representing 164 million Class A ordinary shares, for between $13 to $15 each. That means the IPO will potentially raise up to $1.23 billion.

My colleague Eric Peckham wrote a deeper dive behind the lessons of Tencent Music for the broader music industry:

At its heart, Tencent Music is an interactive media company. Its business isn’t merely providing music, it’s getting people to engage around music. Given its parent company Tencent has become the leading force in global gaming—with control of League of Legends maker Riot Games and Clash of Clans maker Supercell, plus a 40 percent stake in Fortnite creator Epic Games, and role as the top mobile games publisher in China—its team is well-versed in the dynamics of in-game purchasing.

Tencent Music has staked out a very differentiated business model from Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, etc. It has used an engagement-based product model to make live-streaming and virtual gifts huge business lines, without dealing with the product marketing logistics of subscription. Where the West always asks you to pay for access, Tencent is asking you essentially to pay to have fun and be part of an experience.

Eric asks I think a deep question: why hasn’t this model (which seems particularly obvious in music given the overall events component of that business) been back-ported from China to the Western world? He sees a world where Facebook buys Spotify (I don’t) but I think there is absolutely a gap in the market for a music platform to really own this model.

NYC loses an open-source superstar

Photo: Amanda Hall / robertharding / Getty Images

Wes McKinney is a major open-source star and the engineer behind pandas, which is one of the fundamental Python data libraries, as well as a founding engineer of Apache Arrow, which is an in-memory data structure specification.

So it is big news that he has decided to decamp from New York City, where has has lived for ten years, to Nashville. Writing on his personal blog:

I’ve increasingly felt that open source development is at odds with the values that are driving a large portion of the corporate world, particularly in the United States. Many companies won’t fund open source work because there is no “return on investment”. This is deeply frustrating, and being surrounded by people whose actions align with profit-motive can be pretty discouraging. It’s not necessarily that people who work in NYC or SF are greedy or amorally concerned with making money. In many cases they are just responding to incentives coming from pretty low on the hierarchy of needs.

And

Full-time open source developers in many cases will make less money than their peers who work at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, or another major tech company. If we are to enable more people to do open source development as a full-time vocation, we need to grow supportive tech communities in places that are more affordable. (emphasis his).

I think this is a very interesting trend to watch in the coming years. It’s not just the small business and art types who want to move to lower cost locales to match their lifestyle spending to the (economic) value of their work. Software developers who want to work on more meaningful projects outside of advertising and finance will also increasingly need to consider these sorts of geographical adjustments.

As I wrote a few months ago about digital nomads:

From cryptocurrency millionaires in Puerto Rico to digital nomads in hotspots like Thailand, Indonesia, and Colombia, there is increasingly a view that there is a marketplace for governance, and we hold the power as consumers. Much like choosing a cereal from the breakfast department of a supermarket, highly-skilled professionals are now comparing governments online — and making clear-headed choices based on which ones are most convenient and have the greatest amenities available.

Economic migration — whether from cost-of-living, ecosystem or governance culture, or just for new horizons — is the watchword of this century. It’s a huge loss for NYC that people like McKinney can no longer find their work compatible with the city.

What’s next

I am still obsessing about next-gen semiconductors. If you have thoughts there, give me a ring: [email protected].

Thoughts on Articles

Imagined Communities – a major classic book of social science thought, it’s amazing how well it has held up, and the lessons it holds for us in the cyber age. Intending to write a review of it for this weekend, so expect more notes later.

Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry – I love industrial policy and national economic development, and Eric Berger has done a great job on both fronts with his dispatch in Ars Technica. Japan is roaring back into space, increasing its launch capabilities and also preparing to deploy its own GPS infrastructure. An important contextual read for those who follow SpaceX.

Why we stopped trusting elites — a compelling deep dive by William Davies in The Guardian into how populism is animated by the failures of elites. Couldn’t agree more that elites have lost significant trust over the last few decades, mostly from hubris, corruption, and outright fraud (the financial crisis being just the largest). Elites need to hold themselves to much higher standards if we want to ask our fellow citizens for their support.

Reading docket

What I’m reading (or at least, trying to read)

Huge long list of articles on next-gen semiconductors. More to come shortly.

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

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junker-town · 8 years ago

Text

Michael Porter Jr. is the superstar recruit the basketball world orbits around

Michael Porter Jr. can’t miss. Basketball’s next big thing has had a wild ride to get to this point.

CHICAGO — When Michael Porter Jr. was first offered a scholarship by Missouri, the idea of a top basketball recruit playing in Columbia didn’t seem completely out of the ordinary. At the time, the Tigers were on their way to a 30-5 season that would land them a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

This was the type of success Missouri had come to expect. The program was only a few years removed from a trip to the Elite Eight and in the midst of a stretch of five straight NCAA tournament appearances. It had recently produced a first round NBA draft pick in DeMarre Carroll and was watching Marcus Denmon turn in an All-American season.

So when Porter was taking jumpers in Mizzou Arena one night and was pulled aside by head coach Frank Haith, he knew he would seriously consider the scholarship that was being offered. Porter thanked the coach, but he didn’t accept it right away. That would have been entirely premature -- after all, Michael Porter Jr. was only in seventh grade.

Almost six years later, Porter finally gave Mizzou his commitment earlier this month. In the time that’s passed since, he grew to 6’10, became the No. 1 recruit in America, started dating a Disney actress and grew close with NBA stars Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant.

So much has changed for both the player and the program over those six years, but Porter’s talent has remained the one constant.

Porter heard chants of “M-I-Z/Z-O-U” as he accepted the MVP award at the 2017 McDonald’s All-American Game on Wednesday night. He just scored 17 points to lead his West team to victory in a performance that included brief flashes of his all-world talent.

For Porter, this was just another mile marker in his long coronation as the best young basketball prospect in the world. It’s what was always supposed to happen. But for the Mizzou fans that stuck around the United Center to shower their newest recruit in praise, this moment was surreal.

The dream of Porter playing in the gym where he grew up was supposed to have died long ago. Porter had committed to Washington and moved 2,000 miles from Columbia to Seattle. He just finished a perfect 29-0 senior season at Nathan Hale High School under coach Brandon Roy, the former NBA star by way of Washington who started coaching only to coach Porter Jr. He would be off the Huskies in the fall and after one season he’d be in the running for the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

At least that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, a major shakeup at two proud programs that had fallen under tough times threw Porter’s world into flux just when everything was expected to settle down.

“The last three weeks changed my life,” Porter Jr. said before the McDonald’s All-American Game. “Whatever happened, I knew God got me. I’ll be alright. But it was an emotional time.”

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

There is never a boring story about how a top basketball recruit choses his college. The stakes are too high and the money is too big for that. But even in the weird world of college basketball recruiting, the circumstances that led Porter to Washington and then Missouri stand out as particularly convoluted.

For Michael Porter Jr., everything is a family affair, so that’s where the story starts.

Both of his parents stand 6’4 played college basketball, his father Michael Porter Sr. at New Orleans and his mother Lisa at Iowa and then professionally in Europe. Together they had eight children and at least half of them turned into big-time basketball prospects, none of them bigger than Michael Jr.

Michael Porter Sr. got into coaching off the talent of his children. In 2010, he accepted a job in the Missouri athletic department and later became an assistant coach as his two oldest daughters Bri and Cierra went on to play for the Tigers.

At the same time, Michael Jr. was blossoming into one of the country’s best young prospects. As his recruitment started to heat up, Michael Sr. accepted an assistant coaching job across the country at Washington under his long-time friend Lorenzo Romar, who happens to be Michael Jr.’s godfather.

The Porters would move out to Seattle and Michael Jr. would give his commitment to Washington shortly after. He would be homeschooled just as he was for much of his life, but he and his younger brother Jontay, a top-50 prospect in his own right in the class of 2018, decided to play at Nathan Hale, a school that was coming off a 3-18 season.

As the Porters came to Nathan Hale, so too did Roy. It was a perfect match: a former NBA star grooming a future one, and the results were undeniable. Nathan Hale went 29-0 and won a state championship as Porter Jr. was named national player of the year and Roy was named national coach of the year. It all should have seemed too good to be true for Washington fans, but it happened as the program was deteriorating on the court.

Washington finished 9-22 and missed the NCAA tournament for the sixth straight year. They did it with Markelle Fultz, the likely No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft. The administration decided it didn’t need to watch the exact same scenario unfold again and fired Romar after 15 years on the job.

Suddenly, the biggest packaged deal in college basketball was back on the market.

Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

Mizzou had nowhere to go but up. During Kim Anderson’s three seasons, the Tigers had amassed a 27-68 record, never winning more than 10 games and finishing in the basement of the SEC every year.

Anderson was fired earlier this month and replaced by former Cal coach Cuonzo Martin. Martin came with the reputation of a man who knew how to get things done: he once got top recruit Jaylen Brown to pay his own way from Atlanta to Berkley to visit the Golden Bears after his five official visits were used up. Brown committed shortly after to join fellow five-star recruit Ivan Rabb.

The Bears would ultimately underachieve that season with a first round NCAA tournament loss to Hawaii, but Martin’s status has an elite recruiter was sealed. When he took the Mizzou job, his first move was to call Michael Porter Sr. and offer him a spot on his staff.

Seven days later, Michael Jr. announced he was coming home.

All of this happened so fast for the Porters, but they knew they were lucky to have family at their side. Not even a month removed from being caught in the center of a storm that would change their lives, both father and son are doing well to keep things in perspective.

“Michael is used to things going his way,” Michael Porter Sr. said at the McDonald’s Game. “When it happened, it through him for a loop. I’m just glad he’s going through some of this while he’s still at home with us so we can help him process it.”

For his part, Michael Jr. seems at peace. He handled every media request during McDonald’s week with thoughtfulness and grace. It’s clear he already carries himself like a professional.

As anyone who has watched him play knows, it’s only a matter of time before he’ll be exactly that.

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Porter’s talent would have been in demand in any era, but he feels uniquely suited for the way the game has been trending recently. He’s the type of versatile, hybrid forward every team wants but so few have.

At 6’10 and 215 pounds, Porter has the size of a big man and skill set of a wing. He was draining jumpers off of dribble pull-ups throughout the two practices that proceeded the McDonald’s Game, and he did it while flashing the elite athleticism that separates him from everyone else.

Like any 18-year-old, Porter is still growing into himself and his game. Still, it’s easy to see a future star with the training wheels on. His jump shot is pure and he gets his head to rim-level for rebounds and dunks. He said he wants to be his own player, but sees parts of Tracy McGrady and Kevin Durant in his skill set. Durant sees it, too.

Durant sponsored Porter’s grassroots team Mokan Elite ahead of last season on the EYBL. The two text often. That’s not the only famous former MVP in his phone.

Porter first met Steph Curry when he was invited to his SC Select Camp for elite guards. Porter was the tallest player there, but he quickly developed a connection with the Warriors star. For two days this past summer, Porter flew out to the Bay Area to train with Curry. He said they talk every month.

If basketball is a fraternity, Porter Jr. is already a member. His talent is undeniable and his approach to his burgeoning celebrity status is developed beyond his years. He already looks and talks like basketball’s next big thing because he’s been preparing for this for years.

In between winning state championships in high school, conquering the grassroots circuit and rising up the recruiting rankings, the basketball world has learned one thing: Michael Porter Jr. can’t miss. If the everyone else doesn’t know it yet, they will soon.

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