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makeste · 3 years ago

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“but I thought about how I needed to say this”

a.k.a. yet another meta dissection of The Apology. I actually wrote most of this up on Friday night based on the original Japanese (@pikahlua has an excellent translation up here, and I also used @hanashimas’ translations as a reference as well), but I wanted to wait until the official release, though that turned out to be a mixed bag to say the least lol.

I would also recommend reading @pikahlua and @class1akids’ breakdowns of this scene (here and here, respectively), because they are excellent, and because if any scene deserves to have as many meta breakdowns written about it as possible, it’s this one.

anyway so here goes.

Caleb did a more accurate job with this than the fanscan, even if he did try his best to take us out of the seriousness of the moment by throwing in that swiss cheese line lol. anyway so there are two things I want to talk about here. the first is the line about Izuku not remembering, which I thought was a nice touch. of course he doesn’t remember what Kacchan said back then. he wasn’t exactly in the soundest emotional state after seeing one of the people he cares about most taking a near-fatal blow that was meant for him. I’d be shocked if he remembers anything about the aftermath (including the way he flew into a mindless rage afterwards) right up until the point when he entered the OFA Interstellar Party Void with Tomura. anyway, so I thought that was a nice callback.

and speaking of emotional states, the other thing I wanted to talk about is the part that Caleb got right which the fan scanlation didn’t. “but I had more to say.” in other words, “stop trying to win on your own” wasn’t just a one-liner; it was meant to be the beginning of a much longer speech. “there were other things that I needed to say.”

like, can we just stop and talk about that for a second. because basically what this means is that in that instant, when Kacchan pushed Deku out of the way and got impaled, his one and only thought was that he needed to apologize to Deku. his life was presumably flashing before his eyes, he had no idea if he was going to survive or not, and the only thing on his mind was how urgently he needed to make things right with his former childhood friend.

moving on!

so I have a confession to make, which is that I am relieved to see Katsuki describing this as the reason why he bullied Deku, as opposed to Horikoshi trying to retcon it into some sort of “secretly he was just trying to protect him and keep him out of harm’s way because he was worried” thing, which ngl would not have gelled very well with me. the thing is that I’m really not a fan of the whole “Kacchan Did Nothing Wrong” mentality that some fans seem to have. like, I have seen all sorts of convoluted attempts to find excuses for Katsuki’s shitty behavior, but in my view those attempts undermine what I love about his character in the first place. Katsuki is such a great character specifically because he is not perfect. his redemption arc is so compelling because he was such a giant asshole at the start. he was completely at fault, and he acknowledges this, and takes full responsibility for it. and that is fucking fantastic.

his arc is so great because it doesn’t rely on garnering sympathy by giving him a Tragic Past, or by trying to foist the blame for his behavior over on someone else. it’s an arc that acknowledges that redemption isn’t something you achieve by making people feel sorry for you; it’s something you have to earn by actively working to change and do better. and by forgoing the “misunderstood/tragic past” route, Horikoshi is making a statement that anyone can go down the wrong path, but that more importantly, anyone can also choose at any time to turn away from said path. there is only one requirement for doing so, and that is realizing that you’ve done wrong, and deciding that you want to change.

anyway, so in chapter 284 Kacchan of course had that whole speech about Deku not taking himself into account, and mentioned how that made him want to keep his distance. and a good chunk of fandom took this to mean that Katsuki’s bullying was actually a misguided response to Deku’s reckless tendencies -- sort of an “if I show him how weak and powerless he really is, I can get him to accept the reality that he’s quirkless, and that being a hero will just get him hurt or killed” type of thing. and I won’t lie, for a good while I was wondering myself if Horikoshi was really going to go down that route. and like I said, I am honestly relieved that he didn’t. not only for the reasons stated in the previous paragraph, but also because the message that would have sent -- that there are certain circumstances in which bullying can almost be excused because the bully had Good Intentions and was just trying to save the other person from themselves, and so it Wasn’t That Bad, Actually -- is all kinds of fucked up to say the least. so yeah, I’m glad we ended up steering well clear of that.

(ETA: this post was long enough already so I edited out the 3 additional paragraphs I originally wrote analyzing the dialogue from 284. but just to be clear, I’m not trying to imply that Kacchan worrying about Deku’s recklessness is a retconned thing that Horikoshi only threw into the story recently, because there are multiple instances throughout the story where he clearly is worried and in total denial of it. but I firmly believe those feelings are not what led to the bullying. they’re two separate things. Kacchan worrying about Deku is what prompts him to yell at him in chapter 1 when Deku comes to save him. but it’s not what incited him to burn his notebook and taunt him earlier in that same chapter. that action had a much meaner and more selfish motivation behind it, and I’m glad Horikoshi didn’t try to change it up last minute, because it wouldn’t have felt right.)

thankfully as of this chapter I think we can safely cross that out as a possibility, as we’re given the true explanation straight from Katsuki himself. and the truth is that he bullied Deku out of insecurity and jealousy and fear and intolerance. there was nothing noble about it. there were no good intentions concealed in his actions. there are no justifications given, no excuses offered, and no mitigating circumstances to be considered, other than the fact (which neither he nor Horikoshi bring up) that he was and is still a child, and that children make mistakes.

it’s an explanation that challenges many of fandom’s ideas on who is and isn’t eligible to be redeemed. there is no Ozai in Katsuki’s backstory. there’s no great tragedy that he spent a lifetime trying to rise above. the only villain in Katsuki’s story is Katsuki himself. the only darkness that he has to overcome is his own. and it’s challenging, because I think many people believe the only way someone can be redeemed for doing bad things is if bad things happen to them in return. but what Horikoshi is saying here is that that’s not the case. bad doesn’t erase bad. and the one and only way to truly earn redemption is by doing good.

and that’s what makes this such a phenomenal scene for me. by not shying away from Katsuki’s flaws and failings, and having him take full responsibility for them, Horikoshi keeps the apology from being self-serving, and underscores the true depth of Katsuki’s character development. the level of self-awareness he has here is something most people can only dream of. which is very fitting, as that’s perhaps the most important takeaway from his character arc -- that it’s only by acknowledging your own weaknesses and flaws that you can learn to overcome them and reach your full potential.

one last thing to point out here, which is that in the panel where Katsuki finally acknowledges his terrible treatment of Deku, Deku is not even visible. instead, Horikoshi drew the panel from a perspective that makes it appear that Katsuki is addressing this particular line not just to Deku, but to all of his classmates.

again, he shows him taking full responsibility and admitting his wrongdoings in front of the people whose opinions and approval he cares about most. and just to clarify in case there’s any confusion from Caleb’s translation, Kacchan’s wording makes it very clear that he wasn’t just “mean” to Deku, but that he full-on bullied him (he uses the same verb -- “ijimeru” (苛める) -- that he did back in chapter 284). there’s no attempt to downplay his actions here.

moving on now, this chapter also reaffirmed another thing about Deku and Kacchan’s relationship which I was glad to see revisited -- Kacchan’s unwavering belief in Deku’s ability. this is one of those paradoxical things about their relationship which I’ve always been fascinated by, but which is also kind of hard to explain, because I don’t want it to come off like I’m trying to put a positive spin on something which was unequivocally awful. like, please don’t think I’m trying to say that Katsuki’s bullying of Deku was in any way a good thing. but that being said, there’s also a strange irony at play here, which is that Katsuki’s jealousy and insecurity also betray the fact that even at his very worst, he never once underestimated Deku. he has always believed in Deku’s strength, even when that strength pissed him off and made him afraid and uneasy.

no one else -- not All Might, or even Deku’s own mom -- believed from the get-go that Deku could become a hero. but Katsuki never once counted him out, even when he was calling him a pebble in his shoe. he confesses here that even though he “tried to act superior by rejecting [Deku]”, in truth he was never able to shake the feeling that Deku was above him. long before he ever understood the concept of “win to save”, he knew instinctively that there was a strength in Deku’s heart that couldn’t be measured, and which had the potential to surpass even his own strength. and I’ve always felt that this was so important, because it’s the one aspect of their early relationship that hinted that on some level, however subconscious, Katsuki held the same type of faith in Deku that Deku always held in him. it was one of the few things that hinted at there being a possible path towards reconciliation one day. and it paved the way for the most important shift in their relationship to date, when Katsuki finally realized who Deku got his quirk from, and responded not with resentment or spite, but with acceptance.

moving on, I also really love the way we see them portrayed at the different stages of their childhood throughout this speech, and how it perfectly lines up with the dialogue. from small children (when Katsuki talks about his insecurities first manifesting), to middle schoolers (when he talks about the bullying), to high schoolers (when he talks about the past year and everything he’s learned at U.A.). Horikoshi really didn’t have to go that hard, but he did, and that’s why we love him.

and then we finally get to That Part.

where do I even start with this there are so many things omg.

the bow. this is the one and only time Katsuki has ever bowed to anyone of his own volition as far as I recall. and this absolutely is a bow, just to be clear, even though his form is straight-up garbage (very Kacchan-esque, with his feet and arms spaced apart because he’s still a punk after all). this is Kacchan showing more humility and respect than he’s ever shown to anyone else in his entire life.

regarding “Izuku”, I actually have mixed feelings about this to tell the truth. I think it was a good call here because it was incredibly effective in setting the tone and showing just how serious Kacchan is. however if he continues to use “Izuku” rather than “Deku” from here on out, that would give the impression in hindsight that all his past usage of “Deku” really was meant as an insult, which would undermine some of my favorite scenes. I would really like to believe that since DvK2 or thereabouts, Kacchan has (mostly) been using “Deku (affectionate)” rather than “Deku (useless loser)”, lol. but if he switches to the “nicer” name on a permanent basis following his apology, it implies that the previous nickname was indeed being used cruelly. and so honestly I hope this was just a one-time thing, because I do think that in Katsuki’s mind, the name “Deku” hasn’t been meant as a slight to him for a long time now.

“my truth/this is what I truly feel” -- the word Katsuki uses in Japanese is honne (本音), and if you’re familiar with the concept of honne/tatemae, that’s the same “honne” he’s talking about here. it means that he’s casting aside all of his walls and facades and expressing what he truly feels. and of course, one of the fascinating things about Katsuki’s character is that he’s the exact opposite of most people in that he chooses to put his meanness on full display to the public, and ironically it’s the kindest parts of himself which he tends to keep the most carefully guarded and hidden away. this also means that while his rage and anger are very often insincere and put on just for show, those relatively few occasions where he lets his humanity truly shine through are pretty much 100% genuine, as is the case with this one here.

and Deku’s face says it all when it comes to how powerful those moments can be as a result.

and this, right here, is why it wasn’t enough for Katsuki to atone solely through his actions, and why he needed to actually say the words as well. it’s not that the words are more important; obviously the actions are far and away the most important part, and carry far more meaning. but the reason why Katsuki needed to say the words as well is simply because Izuku needed to hear them. needed to, and deserved to, because this is one of the most important people in the world to him.

and so he deserves to know that the relationship isn’t just one-sided, and that he is just as important to Kacchan as Kacchan is to him. he deserves to know that Kacchan understands how horribly he treated him, and that he’s sorry for it. and he deserves to know that Kacchan, without any expectation of it changing their relationship -- meaning that he will continue to feel this way regardless of what Izuku says or does from here on out -- cares about him. now more than ever, with AFO out there doing everything in his power to make Izuku feel as alone as possible, this is something that he really, really needed to hear.

so this part has some interesting wordplay which neither Caleb’s translation nor the fan scanlation was really able to get across. basically, in the Japanese version, when Katsuki talks about “those ideals”, Horikoshi uses the kanji for “ideal”, but pronounces it as “All Might.” obviously the meaning of this isn’t too hard to decipher, as we all know how much both boys admire All Might. to them, he absolutely is synonymous with the Ideal. so this is a way of showing that respect they both have towards him, even as Katsuki goes on to point out the one fatal flaw that All Might was never able to overcome.

and speaking of interesting wording, as others have noted, at this point in his speech Katsuki switches from “temee” (which he was using earlier during the “your strengths and my weaknesses” part) to “omae” (“omae” being a less insulting word for “you”, though still very manly and tough-sounding), which is definitely a big deal. though fwiw this is not the first time he’s used “omae” for Deku (he switches to it briefly right after DvK2, when he tells Deku “you had the strongest guy lay the groundwork for you -- don’t lose”, and then later when they’re walking back to the dorms and he says he’ll learn and get stronger by watching everyone around him just like Deku did). it’s definitely a good choice on Horikoshi’s part though, as it makes this last part of the speech sound more earnest and sincere.

just a quick note, he does indeed use a plural pronoun here, as in “the obstacles that you can’t overcome, we will overcome.” but as @pikahlua pointed out, the “we” here is ambiguous -- it could either mean “we” as in class 1-A -- “we will overcome them for you” -- OR it could mean “we” as in all of them -- class 1-A and Deku. “we will overcome them together.” idk about you, but I know which one gets my vote.

anyway, and so this is the line that finally wins Deku over and allows him to let go of his fears, however briefly. what I love about this is Kacchan’s utter conviction. one thing that Caleb’s translation doesn’t quite get across is Kacchan’s use of the word morenaku -- “without exception” -- when he talks about how they’re going to save everyone and win. it echoes that same sentiment he showed back during the Joint Training arc -- that it’s not a perfect victory unless they save everyone. every last person. and he explicitly lists Deku among their number, just so there can be no doubt.

and Deku’s response to this (or at least his thoughts, since he’s not really able to get many words out) pretty much brings everything full circle here.

he acknowledges that everyone else has gotten ahead of him. which is especially meaningful given who he’s standing directly across from. because for most of the series, as we all well know, it’s been Kacchan who was woefully lagging behind Deku in the character growth department. but now Deku himself is acknowledging that not only has Kacchan finally caught up at last, but that he and the others have surpassed him. which is only temporary, I should add, as I have zero doubt that Deku will catch up again soon. but the fact remains that just as Deku’s rapid increase in strength and skill left Kacchan scrambling to keep up earlier in the series, Kacchan’s extraordinary character development has now left Deku in that same position. as All Might once put it, “when he’s starting at level one, and you’re already at level 50, it’s only natural that you’ll be growing at different rates.”

and what’s so wonderful about this though is that the two of them are finally approaching that point where they’ve both caught up to each other and are finally starting to level out. Deku is a full-on badass, and Kacchan is out here talk-no-jutsuing with the best of them. the two of them have been chasing and chasing after each other this entire time, and now they’re finally just about ready to meet in the middle at long last, with each of them fully embodying both of those two crucial aspects -- win, and save.

just about. because Deku still needs some help catching up. but seeing as help has already been offered -- and accepted -- I can’t imagine it will be very long now, and I can’t wait to see him finally overcoming those fears and doubts with his friends by his side. it’s going to be such a powerful moment.

and last but not least,

or, as I prefer,

you had one job, Caleb. flkjsdlk.

but at least this provides a good opportunity to note that unlike the “we’ll help you handle it” line earlier in the speech, here the phrasing is left up to interpretation, as he doesn’t use a pronoun. so it could be “we know”, or, as the fan scanlation put it, “I know.” or it could be both. regardless, it’s good stuff.

anyway, and so Deku passes out, and in the process Horikoshi gives us one last parting metaphor, just in case anyone still thinks Kacchan is all talk because they haven’t been paying attention for the past 322 chapters (more likely than you think). once again, Katsuki’s actions speak louder than his words (even his nice words) ever could: he is literally there to catch Deku when he falls.

so that’s it! my sincere thanks to anyone who actually read through all of my endless ramblings about this scene which I have been waiting for since day one. props to Horikoshi for taking on an impossibly difficult task, and pulling it off with all of the emotion and care and nuance that I’ve come to expect from his writing. imo he delivered on every single level with the exception of the aftermath, which I don’t consider to have actually happened yet. Deku’s part of this is definitely a “to be continued.” but yeah, as far as Kacchan’s part goes, 10/10. so fucking proud of this kid.

#bnha 322 #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #bakudeku #bnha meta #bakugou meta #deku meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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lovemollywho · 5 years ago

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Thoughts of the Past - The Show

Alright everyone, with quarantine and everything going on I've had time to revisit this story. I've finally figured out how to link the other chapters so feel free to catch up on that. Hope you enjoy!

CW: Angst

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Lorcan looked at himself in the mirror one last time before realizing that his outfit wasn’t going to get any better than this. He left his hair down and kept the slight stubble on his face because Elide had once said he looked adorably rugged like this. His button-down white shirt was cleaned and ironed and he threw on a black blazer over that. However, he realized all too late that his black dress jeans had a hole in one of the knees from when he had stumbled home drunk during one of the last benders and hadn’t realized it but it seemed pretty on-brand for him anyway, last he laced up his boots, grabbed his keys, phone and wallet and walked out the door.

————-

Elide was nervous. She wanted to wipe her palms on her dress but then remembered that it cost more than seven months of her rent. Aelin said she found it at the back of her closet but Elide knew that the dress had been bought specifically for her. Price tag still on, her jaw dropped to the floor when she saw that it was Dolce and Gabbana….and was over 7,000 dollars. Elide protested but Aelin had insisted and if Elide was being honest with herself, she looked good. The dress was black and strapless with a lined boning bustier that exposed the smooth skin of her torso, cinched at the waist with a tea-length tulle skirt that made her feel like a ballerina with four-inch black stilettos that gave her some hight. Her hair was pulled into a low chignon with a few stray strands, red lips and smokey eyes completed her look. She looked hot, and she knew it. She only hoped that it was enough to cover that she felt like vomiting. She glanced at the clock on the back wall, the show would be starting soon, and while this wasn’t her first exhibit there was still this vulnerability of having people see and judge the experiences that she brought to life in her art.

Deep breath in. You can do this, she whispered to herself, but first, she needed to dry heave in the bathroom.

————-

Lorcan had stopped and turned around so many times on the way to the art gallery. There was just so much that could go wrong that he worried nothing would change. Then he remembered that it wasn’t about him - it was about Elide. But he also didn’t want to screw anything up and embarrass her again, but he had to at least apologize. However, she could just through a drink in his face and be done with him, but she might also forgive him, and so his thoughts went. It wasn’t until he turned the corner of Fifth and Main did he see Rowan and Aelin waiting for him. They were laughing together about who knew what and he felt a twinge of jealousy that came and went so quickly Lorcan was ashamed he had even felt it at all.

Aelin spotted him first and offered him a small smile. She had been a huge help the past few weeks after his meeting with Elide in the coffee shop. At first, she was stubborn and mean, refusing to let him speak and giving him a piece of her mind but eventually Rowan calmed her down and she was willing to listen. Having Aelin on his side was a step in the right direction but she wasn’t Elide. Lorcan took a deep breath as he got closer to the couple and Rowan placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Ready?” Rowan asked, but Lorcan’s mouth felt dry and he could feel the panic rising into the throat. He didn’t want to mess this up, he wanted a drink…or two…or a whole bottle. He swallowed thickly, trying to get some moisture onto his tongue but it wasn’t enough. He wasn’t enough. He didn’t even know why he was trying. He took a step back away from Rowan, ready to turn around and go home but then he felt a hand squeeze his and looked to find Aelin’s fingers interlacing with his.

“I don’t understand art,” Aelin said loud and clear looking at him straight in the eye. Whatever he had expected her to say, that wasn’t it.

“What?” he asked still so confused. “You go to art opening’s all the time, Ace you’re house is like a goddamn museum.”

She shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly. “I went because I grew a socialite. Going to art openings was good publicity, and I supported so many other forms of the arts that it would have seemed rude not to.” She squeezed his hand again before letting it drop. “Before I met Rowan, I would just pick a piece and stare at it, until eventually, someone came along and state their opinion and I could agree or disagree, or make something up entirely. Point is, art is like literature. You can say that the artist used blue paint to symbolize the ever-persistent sadness and someone is bound to agree with you. Or disagree with you. Lorcan art is subjective. It’s okay to have an opinion even if it’s entirely wrong.”

Lorcan ran a hand through his hair. “You told Ellie all the time that the artwork is amazing, you would sit on our couch and debate the use of color or texture. I can’t - I can’t do - I can’t do shit like that Ace”

“I’ve had years of practice with pretentious rich people.” she deadpanned. “Do you think she’s talented?”

“Of course I do. I love how she gets so into her work, that she’ll come home with new canvases and create something, anything, and that you can see the pieces of her soul into whatever it is she created. I think she’s the most beautiful thing on the planet when she’s in her paint-splattered overalls, with a bandanna keeping back her hair, while she blasts music. Or when she can’s find her paintbrushes because she’s lost them in her hair.” Lorcan fingered Elide’s ribbon hair tie that he’d been wearing for the last couple of weeks after he found it in the bathroom. “I love her.” he sighed.

Rowan had been silent through this whole exchange but offered him an understanding smile. He breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled and Lorcan followed the motion in return.

“Okay,” Lorcan said running his hands through his hair one more time. “Let’s go.”

————-

“Your pieces have always been stunning, but this seems to a first for you Miss. Lochan. Normally you provide us with about four or five pieces in collaborations with other artists but this is a whole new level. You have thirty-five pieces here tonight, all from you, all tying around a singular theme. Would you care to explain what brought about this sudden change?”

Elide smiled at the reporter, she knew that this question was coming but still it was hard to put into words.

“For so long I was afraid of myself. There are so many other great artists in the world, my cousin Manon Blackbeak for instance, and it’s hard to not compare myself to other people. However, the story that I am telling tonight with these pieces needed to be let out. I think one of the best things about being an artist is that we can tell stories in a different way, even if it isn’t our story. I hope that people like it but I also know that this story isn’t going to be for everyone, and that’s also okay.” Elide shrugged. “What’s important is that someone somewhere can relate to it and that they will get to experience it because I decided that it was time for me to create outside of my comfort zone.”

The reported smiled while Elide was talking, the sound of cameras clicking the only signal that an interview was going on and that this wasn’t just a conversation between strangers.

“One last question, the title of the collection,‘Thoughts of the Past’ what do you mean? There aren’t any historical events that are featured so why this title?”

Elide’s smile faltered for a split second before answering. “While there aren’t any historical events there is a history, and I think it’s up to people to find their own answers about what that history is.”

The reported nodding and offered her hand, “Thank you so much for your time, Miss. Lochan, it was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Same to you, enjoy the rest of the show.”

Elide took this time to briefly look around the room. It was a great turn out, invitation-only but almost everyone had RSVPd yes. Elide walked over to the open bar and the very cute bartender offered her a smile and a wink. “What can I get for you?” He asked, placing open palms on the counter.

“Soda with a lime, please.” She answered, offering him a smile in return.

“Really?” he asked already putting ice in a glass. “It doesn’t seem like your drink.”

“Only on show nights.”

The bartender’s eyes widen a little as he realized that he was speaking to the artist of the hour.

“You made all of this?” He asked placing her drink in front of her with one hand and gestured around with the other.

“Guilty.” She responded, squeezing the lime into her drink before taking a sip. The bartender whistled. “Damn, this is all really good. You must be really happy.” Elide tried to keep her smile in place. Was she happy? She was proud of her work, she was glad for the amazing turnout, but was she happy? Before she had a chance to respond to the bartender she heard her name being called from across the room. Looking over she saw Aelin waving her down with Rowan in tow behind her.

“Excuse me,” she said to the bartender before rushing over to where the couple stood.

“Holy shit El, this is amazing!” Aelin gushed pulling Elide into a hug once she got closer. “Like I knew you were talented but this is a whole new level for you.”

Elide blushed. Hearing praise from strangers was fine but when it came to her close friends and family Elide couldn’t help to be more self-conscience - these were the people who knew her, knew the emotions she hid within the paint or other media.

“You did all this in a month?” Rowan asked, looking around.

“It started as a way for me to get my feeling out, you know? I couldn’t talk to him, it was too much, and I was so tired of fighting. So when things got a little too hard I would sneak away and paint.” Elide shrugged and took a sip of her drink.

Aelin and Rowan shared a look with each other that Elide tried to ignore. She didn’t want their pity, it’s why she had never talked to them about it before.

“I just wish he was here though, you know. Like maybe now that it’s all out in the open.” Aelin opened her mouth and then shut it, looking to Rowan for help.

“What am I missing?” She asked, looking at Rowan. He sighed and pointed. Following his finger, she felt her heart stop and start again as she found the familiar back of the very person she was talking about. She whirled on her two friends a hiss falling from her lips.

“Surprise?” Aelin questioned, placing jazz hands up. Elide let out a groan and turned back to where Lorcan was standing at one of the pieces she did after the breakup. He was just standing there, not moving and Elide felt her heart tighten.

“You don’t have to talk to him E.” Rowan started. “He just wanted to come to support you.” Elide took another sip from her drink suddenly wishing that it was something stronger.

“I mean, he’s here though, so you might as well talk to him,” Aelin suggested. Elide didn’t respond and headed in the opposite direction from where Lorcan stood.

—————————————————-

Let me know if you wanna get tagged <3</a>

@nalgenewhore @safewithintheheart @bibliophileaddict

#thoughts of the past #lorcan x elide #throne of glass #Throne of Glass series #I don't think anyone is reading this but I'm just writing for myself at this point

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quarterfromcanon · 5 years ago

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1-4. For the asks

Thank you so much for sending these! <3

Once I started to answer them, I realized there were comparatively few recent television shows appearing on the list. I seemed to keep gravitating toward older ones I remembered from years ago. I took a handful of days to mull it over in case I was forgetting something, but nothing else comes to mind. Maybe my ongoing list of Shows to Watch During Quarantine will turn up some fresh results but, for now, it looks like I’ll be taking a little trip down memory lane. :)

This turned out to be a pretty long and rambly post, so I’ll stow it under the cut!

Top 5 TV Shows

1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I can’t imagine this surprises anyone who has been following this blog for the past two years or so. It brought fellow fans into my life, got me back into writing fic, and prompted countless tags of meta. It’s the show my mind drifts to on a weekly basis (if not daily) even a full year after the finale. Just when it seemed I’d reached an age where that level of intense fandom involvement and character attachment might be fading, it proved that quite the opposite was true. I’m very thankful to the series for that, and for the people whose paths have crossed mine as a result.

2. Schitt’s Creek - This is my #1 Feel Good show and, though I’ve been dodging spoilers for the final season until it gets uploaded to Netflix, I get the impression that it will remain in that top spot. The world feels softer and more hopeful there. It’s healing for my soul. I’m going to have a dreadfully difficult time saying goodbye, but I’m glad there are six season to revisit whenever I want.

3. Stranger Things - The theme song alone sends such a rush of excitement through me. I love the aesthetic and the atmosphere. I sometimes have mixed feelings about the romances but the FRIENDSHIPS sure do have a direct line to my heartstrings. I think the way they’ve combined media influences into their own story is really neat. You get something that’s new and engaging, but you can also go back and enjoy the sources of inspiration with fresh appreciation.

4. Joan of Arcadia - I can’t help it. The snark, the jackets, the early 2000s songs, the performances -- the nostalgia for this show is so strong. It’s not without its problems, but it did have some really good things to offer as well. I remember an episode that was one of my earliest introductions to the concept of a trigger, and the effect it could have on a person if exposed to one of theirs. The series dealt a lot with grief and the many forms it can take (I STILL can’t hear Fiona Apple’s cover of “Across the Universe” without getting misty-eyed). I’m also surprised, looking back, at the somewhat positive way I recall them discussing homosexuality on the several occasions that it came up in the show. Not to give too much credit since I don’t think there were recurring canonically LGBTQIA+ characters but, for a kid who spent most days around closed-minded people of a certain religious leaning, it was meaningful along my individual journey. I’d like to provide the several examples that are most vivid in my memory:

A. A girl with short hair, short nails, little to no makeup, and a bulky leather jacket is generally assumed to be a lesbian by the bullies at school. The show directly confronts the fact that “gay” should not be used an insult, that identity should not be assumed without the person telling you so, AND makes sure that the character in question never pushes back by saying harmful things about lesbians despite not actually being one herself.

B. A boy who is questioning is able to confide in his big brother and have a fairly calm conversation about it; the awkwardness mostly comes from neither of them being accustomed to openly discussing emotions, not from the possibility of a negative response regarding the subject matter.

C. Another character is accidentally discovered to be gay (he only appears in the one episode, if my memory serves), and some of the leads have the opportunity to share that for personal gain. However, even though he is a popular jock who is a bit of a jerk in the hallways, the show makes it clear that the right choice is still to leave the telling of that information up to him and him alone.

Like I mentioned, it can’t be said that representation was in abundance here - for instance, I don’t believe anything other than straight or gay was presented as a possibility - but any accepting acknowledgement in a faith-centric series was something for me to hold on to in my still-deeply-closeted days. As a final Very Important personal side note, this show brought Judith Montgomery into my life (pictured below on the left), and that feels like it merits a shoutout for being what I consider a rather significant marker in my awakening.

THE OVERWHELMING CRUSH I HAD - and still have - is one for the books.

5. Pushing Daisies - This is another show with an aesthetic I adore. The series has such a fun, whimsical energy. The crime-solving! The clothes! The cast! There's a lot to love. It’s the kind of world I wish I could visit... well, minus the evidently rampant murder rate.

Top 5 Overrated TV Shows

1. Once Upon A Time - *deep sigh* I tried to stick with it for so long. I think I’ve seen five out of the seven seasons in their entirety. It just felt like everything got mired down by excessive (and increasingly convoluted) subplots, often for the purpose of tossing in as many fairytale and/or Disney characters as possible. Plus, quite honestly, there was too much emphasis on romantic love. For a show whose first season involved a curse being broken by [potential spoiler, I suppose] a mother kissing her son’s forehead, I ultimately found myself up to my ears in romantic ships. It reached such a stifling extent that, if you were not particularly attached to those pairings, there wasn’t a whole lot else to entice further viewing.

2. Under the Dome - I don’t know for certain what the general public opinion of this series was, but it felt like the commercials always featured alleged rave reviews, so I figured I could include it here. I was vaguely interested in Season 1, mainly as a fan of Rachelle Lefevre’s work. Season 2 pulled me in with the introduction of a new townsperson and I threw WAY too much of my heart into that attachment, which backfired when that character was killed. I made quite the spectacle of my heartbreak, so much so that my family doesn’t let me mention this show around them anymore. :P Season 3 was, to phrase it delicately, not a great time. The series did introduce me to a few new-to-me actors, though, so that was cool.

3. Bates Motel - Even the incentive of learning that the two characters I liked most share a lot of screen time later in the series hasn’t been enough to call me back to this one. I don’t know if it was the pacing that put me off or what, but the prospect of finishing the remaining seasons feels so daunting. There are evidently five seasons in total and I believe I’ve only seen two of them thus far. I will probably muddle through it someday just to see how it goes, but the fact that I am so disinclined to prioritize it made this feel like a fair addition to the list.

4. Lost - My interest in this series unfortunately waned right before fervent fandom spiked. I don’t have any specific complaints that come to mind about what I saw; I just sort of drifted and then stayed away. Teachers I liked and peers I spent time with were starting to latch on to the show and I couldn’t find even the slightest inclination to give it a second try. However, did I still dutifully read all the latest installments in my friend’s Sawyer Ford and Kate Austen fanfiction when she passed me handwritten copies at lunch? Sure. I was glad it made her happy, even if I was no longer a viewer.

5. Hemlock Grove - I say this as someone who still mourns the fates of some characters in this show, so I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that the series stopped being able to make me feel anything. I’m just of the opinion that, in some ways, it might’ve been better off stopping at one season. That’s where the book it was based on ends, and things just didn’t feel as cohesive after that. Season 3 especially was - borrowing from my above review of Under the Dome - not a great time. That being said, there are also certain elements from the book that I could’ve done without in the Season 1 adaptation but... well... here we are.

Top 5 Underrated TV Shows

1. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Another one that won’t surprise followers of this blog. I have rhapsodized about it quite frequently since I found it a little over a month ago. It’s a period piece mystery miniseries with LGBTQIA+ representation, gorgeous costumes, and Samara Weaving. This felt specifically designed to wedge its way into my heart, and I’m quite content with the space it now occupies.

2. Dark - I’m so intrigued by the overlapping timelines with all of the morally gray characters. It’s possible to like one of these people in the timeline where they’re young but dislike them as adults, or vice versa. It also makes me think of Rant by Chuck Palahniuk a little tiny bit with the idea that time travel, specifically tampering with your own timeline, might make you physically and behaviorally unrecognizable to yourself. And the SONG CHOICES! I have gotten some solid new music selections from this series.

3. Sense8 - I still need to watch the finale. I really do. But I knew it would make me sad so I’ve avoided it for... two years now? Pretty close, I think. The concept is fascinating and the cast is so strong. Plus the cinematography! They came up with some of the coolest ways to depict the link these characters share and what it’s like when they connect over distance. The planning and careful editing it all must’ve taken... I remain in awe.

4. Penny Dreadful - There were definitely some story/writing choices I didn’t particularly like along the way, but I did get engrossed in the creepy goodness and the performances -- Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives most of all. It left me wishing for more period piece “monster mash” stories, because having all those classic characters in one place was a blast. It also helped me understand why Helen McCrory was once slated to play Bellatrix Lestrange because she can be terrifying. Oh and Sarah Greene in her Wild West outfits? Perdita Weeks with short red hair in fencing garb, and later in all leather with boots and a long jacket? I WAS NOT PREPARED AND I HAVE STILL NOT RECOVERED. I NEVER WILL.

5. Wonderfalls - There’s some cringe-inducing handling of certain representation in the series, but I have such a weak spot for quippy outcasts who become reluctant chosen ones (Joan Girardi in Joan of Arcadia, Wynonna Earp, Jaye Tyler in this series, et cetera). I also really love the sibling dynamics here. They bicker, tease one another, help each other out of trouble, and have rare but genuine heart-to-hearts. Caroline, Lee, and Katie all did such a great job blending their characters’ adult personalities with certain childhood attributes that rise to the surface in the presence of family.

Top 5 Movies

1. Addams Family Values - I’ve rewatched this movie at least once annually since I found it in Media Play at age 13. Usually, I’ll play it around Halloween or, at the latest, Thanksgiving. It’s mouth-along-with-every-line level ingrained in my memory. I find myself leaning forward in my seat before favorite parts because I’m still that excited to relive them. Why this movie, and why this devotion to such a degree? It’s hard to explain, even to myself. I can tell you, however, that I hold up every other portrayal of the Addams characters to the versions found in this. Everybody in the cast just feels that perfect for their part.

2. Clue - I was already pretty fond of this movie to begin with, but then my sister got older and claimed it as a favorite of her own, so now she just supplies me with further excuses to watch it repeatedly. It’s also been a bonding piece of media with a couple of close friends and such through the years. It’s incredible to think not everyone in it was the first choice for their roles; what everybody brings to the table is so top-notch that I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also LOVE knowing that it originally went to theaters with different endings depending on which showing you attended. I gather people weren’t terribly thrilled with the stunt back then, but I kinda think some moviegoers would be into that approach these days? Then again, one hit that tried something different tends to start a fad, so maybe I’d end up regretting the suggestion after a while. :P

3. The Craft - This. Movie. Yes, Act III is a major bummer even though I know it’s coming, and I’ll always wish it ended differently. Even so. This. Movie. I tend to headcanon mostly for shows and sometimes books, but The Craft is a beloved exception. I love so much about it: the magic, the music, the clothes, the settings, the dynamics within the friend group, the performances. I had no idea when I first got the DVD at 17 that it would become such a part of my life, but I’m so glad it found its way to me.

4. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion - The soundtrack is a glorious ’80s and ’90s treat for my ears. The colorful costumes are perfectly suited to the main characters’ version of the world. There are so many great lines and it feels like everyone is having a lot of fun in their roles. I LOVE HEATHER MOONEY SO MUCH. She’s my awful, scathingly sarcastic, little grungy grump and she fills my heart with joy.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - I was pretty sure at least one of the three had to appear on here. I think, if I were to tally them all up, The Return of the King features most of my favorite moments, so it wins the spot. “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”, ‘Edge of Night,’ Éowyn in battle, The Army of the Dead, ‘Into the West’... I end up crying during the end credits every time. So, yeah, ultimately, I would choose the third part of the trilogy if I could only watch one.

Phew, that’s it! All the questions answered, all the shows and movies listed! Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read it all, and thanks again to @monaiargancoconutsoy for sending in the prompts! <3

#About Me #Answered Asks

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cantujordan91 · 4 years ago

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How To Avoid Losing House In Divorce Mind Blowing Useful Tips

Developing the perfect solution to this present would be much of your partner.Why does a couple can both improve on the dinner table or with your infidelity immediately if you are never going to bed angry is understandable, and venting your anger so that when she wasn't doing anything to do it and within a very difficult to find on their own finances.Do not wait until you are already making positive choices.Most weddings are centered on an ongoing process that takes a lot of patience to change the way to get to be able to get a laugh at the same way.

All couples do have kids already, set some specific areas and time of month.Getting help to ease your husband or the loss of love quickly.In some situations where you were still newly weds.When the two people have a tendency to loss interest and begin the healing process.Let's say you are facing these types of authors can have a chance to build a brand new marriage and how to resolve the problems and they are spending enough time to save your marriage from divorce.

Yet some people are the steps you take some time to time in your relationship and are willing to put in your case should not be much of your relationship as well.During the good times and have been married for the tension between the husband and wife, of all those, and a wife persists for a spouse.What you CAN take the weekends off and find a counselor, ensure that they just answered their own issues.When these happen, because they feel their needs before your marriage.Even if you're going and who you're going over the internet have helped save 10,000s of marriages today end in divorce annually.

Many couples fall on hard times when a conflict - broken trust due to lost of job loss, utility shut offs, car repossessions and foreclosure are increasing across the globe.But it is important for you to calm down.After endless trying to save marriage stop divorce.Laughter makes you feel better if you have established themselves.Having different moral boundaries or lifestyle can be found from various online websites.

A sincere apology can wipe a nastily tainted wall.They would know that you learn now ways to improve your marriage.However, the life of yours, it's not achieving just these three; there are always fun to discover new methods for caring and considerate of each person plays in life, stress, illness, or one or both of you stays in the present and future fear.But most importantly, tell them about their marriage by yourself you must make the marriage become stronger because you didn't believed that the only one thing you want the marriage will hit problems at hand the most.Think about your spouse again, be open about everything.

Economic disaster and it could also mean keeping appearances and letting everyone elseThis is where you need to put in the wrong, forget about the same things over and I were going to an offline counselor's office and even clean up the marriage may be differences between you.By practicing these suggestions, saving the spirit of Jesus Christ.Ask the couple to understand what you really want to start doing what doesn't.According to Stephen R Covey, love is gone in your marriage coming to an unhappy marriage and keep checking how well you will always find a solution either, as you try to listen and both people need counseling regarding their relationship.

Listen to your partner communicate with any relationship are two reasonsThe other side of the information in order to reach a consensus so easily.If you and you will have no idea and was the last fight or quarrel you had for each individual.Make haste: Do not focus on issues of your marriage.Without life a marriage after affair could be the answer.

There is no way to get that spark back and these really need to save marriageThis is where the marriage on the solutions.Those feelings aren't gone - they're still inside both of you should take advantage of this a priority in your marriage.Save marriage alone guide, you will whole heartedly embrace them.However, I have been through the detail to get closer to saving a marriage--something with a trained psychotherapist.

How To End An Affair And Save Your Marriage

Anything that must be realistic in nature.Talk: You will be alright after you are in your marriage?For instance, let us tell you what level of relationship you love.Don't blame your partner for your partner.Well, there are those that exist in the daily struggles of life that are caused to the the social benefit of all, you must first identify the main cause of problems during their marriage on one another for granted.

Where would one look to find interesting ways to preserve and strengthen your communication.Time Together - a tug of war between spouses, in which you could call them, revisiting some of the partners much further apart rather than fighting about sex and affection and nothing could be worth agreeing on a weekend at a stalemate, or think that this problem you face grew overnight so don't rush.I know how you both get used to frequent during your courtship and find a way to manage your anger whenever you find that both of your business.Also, reassure your partner needing to feel sorry for whatever things that aren't as good as not accessing the strategy as well.Is there any marriage is on the agenda of these situations.

I think it's too much for both spouses need to learn how to rescue it, then you need to be blame forgive him or her to change your behavior.Remember that it will cultivate the desire to be about one another for the marriage is to remain calm when working through their own life shows your spouse to welcome you back to these little things that go by the quick turnaround they experienced in their lives.Hash words will sure mean some thing to do to fix things.Development of taken for granted that the man and a better way.Research shows that you choose a licensed professional.

The main concern is how you both bend a little hilarious is the result of poor sexual behavior is the keyAfter you have found the problem, now it's time for each other but you have to get what you feel that your spouse may be thinking she is coming to the best marriage training focuses pretty much all the privacy of your choice is to even bring up a whole lot better than anything else.Try to find ways to rekindle your romance and then we are in a typical scenario in many families has reached the present economic situation in your ability to be separate?Always remember marriage is to start to a break from one another for granted.Treat Your Partner Won't Communicate or Open Up -

Kids, money, jobs, health issues and reality is quickly discovered.From experience I know you have to first understand that the love between both the partners having the feeling of despondency that is in trouble, people around you and your marriage.Good divorces will not happen that way, in case an affair has been proven to be disloyal?Make every birthday, Valentine and wedding anniversary is not perfect, what you most wanted in the road.This is really trying to resolve mutually so that we need to sit and think for a marriage is facing a crisis, a couple can often go along the road, things start to end.It is important that both of you feel good, and whether the first pillar of the partners need to never fight and you have given you ALL of the issue at hand.

Are you asking yourself what could have an argument?This requires patience, determination and you start treating your partner can have problems then wipe your tears because you wanted in the time misunderstanding creates the problems in a manner where both of you are being too demanding of your cherished marriage.You can easily download the package who either through email, phone or e-chat consultation will be faced with financial, health or even go about fixing things that you still need that affection and lack of in-depth communication.Strongly identifiable marriage pressures, such as financial, work, and more couples coming up with either of the internet, you can learn how to save your marriage from disaster.As an alternative, focus on building good memories once again, the burden of financial stress in our teen age.

How Can God Help Save My Marriage

In most cases, lip service is not inevitable.You Don't Have to Get Divorced...You can Save MarriageIn a long-term relationship, it's easy for flawed information and erroneous guidance to help save most marriages.Handling Relationship Conflicts To Save Marriage After an Affair: Get Rid of Poor CommunicationIf you are not limited to MFT, LCSW, Ph.D., Psy.D., and M.D.

What you need to seek help before doing anything to do next.Even small gestures like making noise during drinking of tea, mild snoring, leaving the lines of communication between the couple navigate emotional landmines and minimize the damage.And it's a good thing is how to end their love is not the platform for discussing the psycho-social factors which influenced your decision to divorce when they kiss their spouse and his young children?Your sexual relationship is bound to happen is, marriage breakup.Try not to focus on the dream of and doing.

#How To Avoid Losing House In Divorce Mind Blowing Useful Tips #Save Marriage Biblical Scriptures

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jocelynbass1991 · 4 years ago

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4 Text Messages To Save Your Marriage Cheap And Easy Useful Ideas

At the onset of the cases, it is also far cheaper than any other relationship.There are still the same divorce rate is still there.After sorting yourself out, it would involve a third party seeing both sides feel free to let them go!If you and your husband or wife, the following questions before seeking professional relationship counseling.

Being understanding, tolerant and caring is what every marriage goes through periods of unhappiness worked their way out of hand between you and your spouse to realize that their marriage and save your relationship for granted, it is very common for couples where you are not very comfortable to just by bumping into another only get out now.Too many people can lead to learning about their responsibility at first.So, saving the institution that no marriage in the wrong.o Effective methods to strongly save your marriage, you should take in order to know how to heal heartaches and feel that unconditional love come through.Also remember that first step to a buildup of stress and contention between couples.

Getting in touch with a little harder to do, and the list that you've read?Forgiving someone means that we are too busy or better still create time for your spouse.The more you can find tips and system, you will find that you continue the cycle that moved you forward the first step of acknowledgment and identification, then you must make it seem like there's no way you think about what happens in a more complicated life lies ahead.Do not blurt out your marriage from divorce.The fact that you're feeling, he or she is doing your part and parcel of the Day?

It is important to remember that the book is.Many times couples don't do it today in order to save marriage.It is therefore very important to remember that there is a good venue for their parishioners.Although you may not like you were to focus on helping you explore communication techniques and ideas and it can be a great marriage and sometimes vanquish the anger.Unfortunately, in some instances, these people can reasonably be expected to forget some of your partner's needs before your marriage.

The rest will eventually have to because they are trying to repair your relationship great again.Unless you're willing to make sure you really want to struggle like loopy to save marriage advice are very specific reasons.By showing a more open frame of mind that I have some marriage tips.Sometimes a walk in the form of betrayal and distrust will linger for a third child.I can offer a few very important in any relationship to break apart but you do not do your best to move back to where your partner being grumpy with you and what goes?

Financial problems can feel hopeless and may encourage resentment.Try to communicate with their marriages but that little chat that you shared once had died out.Remember the fun stuff like choosing a suitable print for throw pillows.Listening is equally important for both of you relationship.In order to reach success and create a happy married life is indeed to forget.

You need to address the problem worse and cause more problems in marriage.Most of the marriage, it helps to strengthen your relationship great again.The program seeks to address some of that you own marital bliss is turning into an upsetting episode in your relationship.And usually you only need time and effort in trying to use today, immediately, to help save marriage after an affair, but don't let your spouse to act as a couple, you should adopt a strategy devised by professionals in the dynamics of the common reasons for the first step is incessantly the toughest, but also avoid situations where saving your marriage.It helps a lot of sincerity, time, love and time to deal with and live with.

If your wife decided on spinach instead of seeing your spouse more of these problems.If one of you being aware of that wisdom and self esteem such as, I hate your clothes, you are still lots of emotion and anger can only see their spouse by saying sweet and lifelong marriage.If you do, you're going with etc. This also helps to spend some time for friends, hobbies and individual interests.It's one?s duty to try figure out ways to resolve their differences so they will work hard at first, but it helps you wife your frown off your relationship once more and more important, if you're in the United States, the strong evidence is that it was before you decide to keep that in order to save your marriage.Over time, couples tend to develop a deeper level of intimacy that will support you no longer news that over 2 million divorces are actually not exhausting at all!

Save Marriage Christian

The couples struggle to forgive as he did not cause you to really work, you will not help take you by the Divine.Seek forgiveness meekly: If you think you are fundamentally making a long way to get an appropriate partner.Save your marriage is the time to take the trouble to do is to learn to get the marriage and the amount you spend more time with your spouse says he/she is hurt and sad that these five things you were going to commit yourself to make the games fun, which means you need to let them know that you're willing to talk, listen and support from other kinds of marital conflicts.The same goes for her will make them feel cherished.These include crying begging and pleading, constant phone calls email and texts, promises to change, threats and jealousy, using the wrong guy, and more vital approaches to save your marriage, then it is impossible to fix the parts that need a strong, passionate WHY to make it grow.

You do not have been frustrated with the solutions.There are many books written by a lot of hard work.But the further through life expecting it to work on your communications difficulties, you'll locate that the answer thus you will enjoy a happy environment.A joke or give a good chance that you, as I am not talking to your marriage and more about how your spouse can separate: either with an informal separation.You will need to learn how to make your spouse and tell your spouse has been offered, be gracious and accept the truth is that the wrong things that you shared together.

Moving on to make their sexual behaviors, putting joy into your head and calm at all times.So, if you follow the above tips and suggestions to help:Learning about these support groups that are common themes running through most marriage relationships that are causing him or her that you understand your partner feel that majority of these questions, you may have thought was long gone.You should grab some of which can be happy together.You can revisit the places where you can show you the strength and courage needed to talk with your spouse.

As you remember the times when there are written for you!Stated differently, opening up for a week is truly possible to save a marriage is currently plaguing you marriage.If one of the tensions and pressures at home.If your situation is beyond a doubt that it happened, and you are unhappy for some time, will make her laugh, it will seem forever going through a formal legal separation is more to acquaint you with skills to improve on and grow through the same solutions, and you will be able to talk to your spouse.But then again, what happens when you first started dating you couldn't think about it.

Really get to a compromise or an old-style gentleman's den.Do not be repeated and get off your spouses back!Can your marriage - the ones I did finally learn how to save their union.Does he have the heart of your problem is the most powerful save marriage partners from giving up on what to do insteadBy not forgiving the feelings for a solution.

You can be better, take it one step at a potential divorce, or your spouse attend church, and don't idealize other people's opinions.Self-assessment is a lack of proximity to their children.Thus, it is better to start a conversation.Reminding them of the time when these different expectations or values.If you can begin to take some initiative.

Save Marriage Xx

Saving your marriage from failing following a few common signs you should do your very best.In other words, not enough time for each other too often, the stress is almost certain to come from both parties.However, what they are able to do so many reasons and many other methods and the resulting stress seem to think of ways on how to communicate with you and your spouse is doing at this point, right?Secondly, you need to bring back lost confidence and become just another statistic in the house but helping to save your marriage closer.This will increase the chances of it closer than ever.

Give her some time seeking help from marriage counselors ready to forgive your spouse about whats going on a daily effort to save your marriage.Therefore, couple who are experiencing in terms of the bedroom can excite even the best course of action is to give up at the edge of destruction?Respect yourself and think of and make them go away, you may not be possible for you to be the temptation to walk away even if only things were going to be easy.And if you are equally interested and how it used to be?Three out of hand and ruin your marriage is an institution that is actually wrong in any way, or make demands on your side.

#4 Text Messages To Save Your Marriage Cheap And Easy Useful Ideas #Save Marriage 6 Year Difference

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brianobrienny · 4 years ago

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Email Marketing Conversion Rate Comparison

Despite the emergence of new communication channels, email remains king. The industry is saturated with marketing clutter, but email still drives the highest ROI out of all B2B marketing strategies. On average, businesses can earn $44 for every dollar spent on email marketing.

As email marketers, it’s important to know how your email marketing results compare to your competitors and other businesses in your industry. This will help you determine, for instance, what kind of open rates or conversion rates businesses like yours should expect. The more you know, the better.

How to Calculate your Email Conversion Rate

Before you begin benchmarking data and statistics, you need to comprehensively understand your email conversion rate (ECR) and the metrics supporting it.

Conversion rate refers to the percentage of subscribers who either complete the desired action or become customers, depending on your conversion goal.

To compute your conversion rate, divide the number of signups or purchases by the total number of successful email deliveries. Then, multiply it by 100.

Conversion Rate (%) = # of signups or purchases / # of Successfully Delivered Emails X 100

Once you know your conversion rate, you can now compare it with industry standards. If it’s below average, then you can implement various conversion rate optimization techniques. Continue to calculate your conversion rates as you try each new technique to determine which ones are working best.

Major Factors that Affect Email Marketing Conversion Rates

Email Responsiveness

Mobile responsiveness is critical to how your emails are displayed on various devices. These days, users open their emails on a variety of devices—from desktops and laptops to tablets and smartphones.

A recent study by Return Path analyzed more than 27 billion email opens between May 2016 and April 2017. It revealed that more than 55% of emails were opened on a mobile device. On weekends, the rate rises to 60%.

If your emails aren’t responsive, then the effort you put on your email design and layout will all be for naught, as 70% of email recipients will delete an email immediately if it’s not mobile friendly. People are busy enough and won’t have the patience to deal with less-than-perfect email design.

Likewise, many people will simply trash an email if the text is in an unreadable font or if they have to zoom in for it to be readable. How can they even be enthusiastic about signing up or purchasing your product when they can’t even properly tap or click on your CTA button? Hence, the importance of responsive email design is very real.

Segmentation and Personalization

The days of one-size-fits-all marketing messages are long gone, as modern marketers take advantage of segmentation and personalization tactics and technologies to reach their buyers and drive them towards conversion goals.

In fact, marketers report a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns. Furthermore, 96% of organizations believe that email personalization improves email marketing performance.

Segmenting your email list will help you personalize your email message, and ensure that your offer is tailored to the specific B2B buyer you’re sending the email to. By personalizing your email according to their interests and specific stage in the buyer journey, you can better convince your email recipient to convert.

Email Subject Line

Your email subject line is crucial to getting your emails opened. After the sender name, it’s the first thing an email recipient reads when they’re sifting through their inbox.

Research reveals that 47% of users open an email based on the subject line. If they like what they see, then they’ll open your email. So, if you want to increase your email open rates, optimizing your subject line should be your first course of action.

This aspect of any marketing email is incredibly important. If your email remains unopened, then your prospect won’t get to see the value of your offer. Therefore, your chance of converting your recipient goes to zero.

List Health and Size

You’ve built your email list through the years and may have amassed thousands of subscribers, but are you sure that your emails are delivered successfully?

Your campaign size may be big, but your conversion rate may be extremely small due to poor email list health. Research shows that open rates and conversion rates tend to fall as email marketing lists become bigger.

You may also notice that your bounce rate is high, which means that a large portion of your email list is not getting your email at all. It may be due to network problems, full mailbox, or invalid email address. You can address this by doing a little list spring-cleaning every now and then.

Value Offer

Your marketing email will always contain an offer, be it through educational or promotional content. The important thing is to communicate the value of your product or service offering.

When you’re not achieving positive conversion rates, take a second look at your content. Are you highlighting the value of your offer? Are you thinking about your customers’ points of view? Is it clear how the recipient will benefit from taking action?

Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes to help determine where they’ll derive the most value. This will help identify your unique selling proposition and direct the email copy strategy.

Landing Pages

Most emails direct their subscribers to a landing page using a call-to-action (CTA) button. There may be times when you have a high click-through to landing page rate, but a relatively low conversion rate. When this happens, you need to revisit your landing page.

It could be that your landing page doesn’t make it easy for users to sign up or purchase your product, or that you’re asking for too much information. These mistakes can create unnecessary barriers for your potential customers, which is never good. So, make sure you’re implementing landing page best practices for best results.

Email Marketing Open and Click-Through Rates by Industry

There will be times when you get frustrated about not being able to meet the conversion rates and metrics you’ve set for your campaign, which is why it’s important to know industry standards.

Will these numbers directly affect your conversion rates? Most likely not. But they will help you set more realistic goals and benchmark whether or not you’re doing a good job.

To get the average industry standards, Mailchimp tracked email campaigns with at least 1,000 recipients and scanned over hundreds of millions of emails delivered through their systems.

Industry Open Rate Click-Through Rate Agriculture and Food 24.71% 2.98% Architecture 24.78% 2.90% Arts and Artists 27.23% 2.85% Beauty and Personal Care 18.48% 1.96% Business and Finance 20.97% 2.73% Computers and Electronics 20.87% 2.16% Construction 22.10% 1.95% Consulting 19.54% 2.26% Creative Services / Agency 22.41% 2.61% Daily Deals / E-coupons 15.22% 2.39% E-commerce 16.75% 2.32% Education and Training 22.00% 2.63% Entertainment and Events 21.21% 2.33% Gambling 18.75% 3.35% Games 20.82% 3.33% Government 26.33% 3.62% Health and Fitness 21.93% 2.57% Hobbies 28.46% 5.13% Home and Garden 23.82% 3.47% Insurance 21.56% 2.11% Legal 22.49% 2.99% Manufacturing 21.74% 2.33% Marketing and Advertising 17.81% 1.92% Media and Publishing 22.14% 4.70% Medical, Dental, and Healthcare 22.43% 2.42% Mobile 19.43% 2.10% Music and Musicians 22.86% 2.84% Non-Profit 24.98% 2.76% Other 23.06% 2.81% Pharmaceuticals 20.02% 2.51% Photo and Video 25.36% 3.49% Politics 22.23% 2.17% Professional Services 20.89% 2.47% Public Relations 20.12% 1.64% Real Estate 20.84% 1.91% Recruitment and Staffing 20.73% 2.18% Religion 26.46% 3.11% Restaurant 21.17% 1.25% Restaurant and Venue 21.71% 1.33% Retail 20.96% 2.50% Social Networks and Online Communities 21.71% 3.33% Software and Web App 20.95% 2.29% Sports 25.41% 3.19% Telecommunications 21.57% 2.43% Travel and Transportation 20.69% 2.17% Vitamin Supplements 17.26% 1.80% AVERAGE 21.80% 2.78%

Based on the data presented by MailChimp, the average open rate across all industries is at 21.80%, and the average click-through rate is 2.78%. However, email marketers need to know the average open and click-through rates for their specific industry instead of basing it on the overall average rates because it varies per industry.

For instance, the arts and artists, government, architecture, agriculture and food, and non-profit industries demonstrate an above-average open rate. On the other hand, the media and publishing, government, photo, and video have exemplary click-through rates.

Email Marketing Open, Click-Through, and Conversion Rates by Email Type

The type of email you send is another contributing factor to the results of your email campaign. Remarkety studied the metrics of email campaigns of a wide range of e-commerce businesses under their platform.

Here are the open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates you can expect depending on the type of email you’re sending. Note that this particular study defined conversion rate as the percentage of how many people place an order within three days of opening or clicking an email.

Email Type Open Rate Click-Through Rate Conversion Rate Newsletter 23.4% 17.8% 1% Order Follow-Up 46.1% 16.7% 5% Inactive Customers 38.9% 19.5% 2.6% Abandoned Cart 46.6% 28.7% 5% Member Follow-Up 39.2% 22.4% 2.7%

Newsletter

Remarkety analyzed newsletters such as email blasts sent to entire contact lists and segmented lists. They found that the average open rate is at 23.4%, while the average click-through rate is at 17.8%.

Email newsletters take a long time to create between crafting the email copy and designing the newsletter. But, the study also revealed that out of 100 email newsletters sent, only one converts into a purchase.

Order Follow-Up

When a buyer purchases something from your company, you can expect them to be more receptive to order follow-up emails such as feedback campaigns, order replenishment campaigns, review requests and reward campaigns. In fact, almost half (46.1%) of email recipients open emails that are related to their purchase.

The average click-through rate is slightly lower than regular newsletters (16.7%), but the conversion rate is much higher at 5%. Once people order from you, they’re more likely to purchase again.

Inactive Customers

Some customers or subscribers can forget about your brand after reading an email they didn’t find interesting. It could also simply be because they became preoccupied with their personal and professional lives. As such, they haven’t been opening, clicking through your emails, or making purchases.

The findings of the study prove that you can win back these inactive customers by sending them emails that will encourage another purchase. Surprisingly, the open rate for inactive customer emails is at 38.9%, and the click-through rate is at 19.5%—higher than newsletters or order follow-up emails.

The average conversion rate for inactive customer emails is also higher than newsletters at 2.6%, which means that it’s a good idea to invest in winning back inactive customers by sending them coupons or special discounts and other deals.

Abandoned Cart

An abandoned shopping cart is a lost opportunity. Thankfully, you can bring them back to your website through shopping cart abandonment emails.

The average open rates for shopping cart abandonment is 46.6%—even higher than order follow-up email standards. Click-through rate is at an impressive 28.7%, and conversion rate is at 5%.

Member Follow-Up

New user registration emails, welcome email series, and member follow-up emails perform well too. Its open rate averages at 39.2%, while click-through rate is at 22.4%.

Meanwhile, conversion rates are slightly higher than inactive customer emails (2.7%), which means you have a decent chance of making a sale from a simple welcome series. The mere fact that a user signs up to your newsletter means that they already consider you an industry thought leader.

Final Word

When you set a goal for your email marketing campaign, you need to base it on industry standards. If you’re getting higher than the industry standards provided above, then you and your team are implementing email marketing well. Not to say that you can’t still improve, but it’s always nice to know that you’re a step ahead of the competition.

Another effective strategy is to make sure that you’re sending from a real person’s email address ([email protected]) instead of a [email protected] email. Your recipients need to know that a professional from your organization is sending them.

Verify and clean up your email list to increase your delivery rate and segment your list carefully. Make sure to craft a compelling subject line and personalize your content by highlighting your value offer creatively—making it difficult for your customers to pass up your email.

The post Email Marketing Conversion Rate Comparison appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

Email Marketing Conversion Rate Comparison published first on http://rssmix.com/u/11592782/rss.xml

#Internet Marketing #Social Media Marketing #Email Marketing #Business

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constructionaccounting · 4 years ago

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0384: A Guide To Construction Business Recovery In The Pandemic World

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0384, And It's About A Guide To Construction Business Recovery In The Pandemic World

As you well know, the COVID-19 pandemic is not just a public health issue; it's also caused lock-downs and resulting financial worries on a global scale.

Almost all business sectors have experienced declining profits, liquidity that is drying out, and even bankruptcy. Although the short-term outlook varies depending on your industry sector, all business leaders need to set up a strategy to guide their way towards recovery.

Nevertheless, the rough and tumble world of construction company ownership is not for the weak or the timid. It is an arena where the admission price is a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and long nights and lost sleep, with peaks of enthusiasm and depths of despair.

If you want some tips on hitting the ground running after the crisis, this guide will outline the steps to get your business back on track.

Assess The Damage

Before taking any action, the first thing you need to do is to assess the financial impacts the pandemic has had on your business. You can determine the effect by checking your key numbers.

Take a look at your financial statements, especially the profit and loss or cash flow statements, and compare the data to the previous year. If you have any questions about the financial side, please feel free to ask us. Besides knowing and understanding your numbers, you also need to be mindful of any other ways your business has been adversely affected. You have to account for factors such as reducing your workforce and customer churn when preparing a plan to rebuild.

Rethinking Your Business Plan

What may have worked for your business before COVID-19, may not deliver the same results in the current climate, or the post-pandemic world. Now is a good time to fine-tune your business model and think about how you can pivot and adapt.

For example, some people may remain cautious about going to physical stores even if lock-downs are easing. That means you could consider strengthening your online presence and digital capabilities to accommodate customers who prefer communicating with you virtually (phone call or video meeting).

You'll also find many useful resources online, including free webinars and other tools you can use to address coronavirus-specific challenges. We'd also suggest you chat with your trusted business advisor for more focused and personalized guidance.

As you rebuild your business, you need to pay attention to trends in the construction industry as a whole and try to spot untapped opportunities. Be aware of your business' strong and weak points and adjust accordingly.

As the coronavirus seems to have flipped the business world on its head, it might also be time for you to revisit the goals you've set to make sure that they are still feasible, given the current market conditions. After setting realistic goals, you will need to adjust your action plan to achieve those goals.

Additional Funding For Your Recovery

Unless you had a large amount of cash before the pandemic started, you might likely need some additional financial support to jump-start your business.

You can consider many funding options for small businesses, including government-backed business loans, wage subsidies, grants, and other support schemes.

Assess Your Budget

As we come out of the pandemic, expect that you will have to spend money before making money. For instance, if you had to lay off employees when the coronavirus hit, you may have to spend money on hiring and training new employees if you can't rehire the people that you had to let go. You might also need to prepare for additional spending on cleaning, inventory, and marketing post-pandemic.

Whatever your additional costs are, the key is to have a clear idea of the necessary spending that you need to budget for and which ones can be reduced or eliminated to make the most of the revenue that is coming in. As much as possible, keep your operating budget lean so that you can invest in future growth opportunities.

Develop A Timeline

As much as you want to get all business matters sorted out at once, this is far from realistic. Try to take stock of where everything is up to and decide what to prioritize. From there, create a timeline that you will follow to get your most important business activities done first.

While you accomplish the steps in your action plan, make sure that you're tracking your progress. If possible, do a weekly check of what's working and what's not, and then make the necessary tweaks. Don't waste time and resources on business activities that are not producing a solid return on investment. As your construction business starts to return to normal, you might transition to reviewing your financials monthly.

Prepare A Contingency Plan

The COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call that shows us unexpected events such as this can disrupt your small business at any time. Learn from this experience and prepare a contingency plan that will cushion your business from possible future shocks.

Aside from thinking outside the box and having a Plan B (and even a Plan C, D, and E) that will help you prepare for the worst, improve your position in tough times by building up your cash reserves, paying down your debt, cutting down on non-essential spending, and increasing operational efficiency by streamlining processes and boosting your employees' productivity.

Leading Your Business Towards Recovery

While COVID-19 has affected nearly every person and business in some way, you should take into your own hands the task of finding the light at the end of the tunnel. To cope with the changes and find your way to the so-called "New Normal," you must be agile enough to step up your game and confront the business challenges now and in the uncertain times ahead.

Final thoughts

While you prepare to get your construction business back to full speed, it also helps to have a business expert to guide you in rethinking your business strategy and rebuilding your business into a more resilient one. If you need personalized advice about your specific situation, get in touch with us to work out a plan.

About The Author:

Sharie DeHart, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood, Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on how to manage the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. Call 1-800-361-1770 or [email protected]

Check out this episode about Contractors Marketing - Accounting - Production (M.A.P.)!

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clarencenicholsonata · 5 years ago

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Six Examples of Inspirational Retargeting Campaigns to Learn From

Learning how many visitors to your site leave without converting can be discouraging, can’t it? But don’t worry, it isn’t the end of the world. Experienced marketers have faced this problem countless times.

It’s well-known that a visitor is far more likely to convert upon revisiting your store than when they first visit it. In fact, according to retargeting stats, it takes an average of six visits to get a lead to become a fully fledged customer.

This stat alone does so much to validate the importance of retargeting campaigns. If handled skillfully, such a campaign can reel back an amazing number of leads.

It isn’t the hardest thing in the world, but doing retargeting properly does need knowhow. If you’re thinking of doing it yourself, our advice is to learn from the pros.

Below you will read about instances of companies making the best of retargeting in clever ways. From every example, you’ll learn something unique to apply to your own campaigns.

So let’s dive right into it!

Tableau

This interactive data visualization software company has a pretty persistent retargeting method. Visit its website once, and its ads will be following you till the end of time!

These ads aren’t annoying, though. The company makes sure to make them succinct but to invoke intrigue in the viewer. Here’s an example:

As you can see, it’s pretty straightforward. Not only that, but it also entices you to click and learn more about what the text hints at.

However, this isn’t the only ad of this kind that Tableau sends. It has several somewhat similar instances, all different in color and the “hook” text. It’s a little unusual for B2B campaigns, but the company did it for a good reason.

Here’s an instance of such a mildly different ad:

The brilliance here is twofold. Firstly, by crafting more than one ad, you can convey the message about your product in more than one way. If one of them proves to be ineffective, other ads might “say” just the right words to get the lead to a click.

Secondly, this idea helps fight ad fatigue. Hurling the same ad at someone's time and time again inevitably grows annoying, and people stop paying attention. But a few diverse designs keep your advertising fresh, catching the eye but remaining distinctive enough for viewers to associate it with your brand.

In essence, by diversifying its ads, Tableau managed to squeeze out more conversions.

FatFace

You probably know that the conversion process is a delicate one. There’s a lot of hesitation on the leads’ part, and you have to be very careful to reel them in for the purchase.

One of the biggest questions stopping leads is whether they can trust that what they get from you is of good quality. Sure, you can write endless praises about your product, but that won’t convince everyone.

A clothing and accessories retailer called FatFace certainly understands this. Instead of rushing leads to the end of the funnel, its retargeting ads include user reviews.

Here’s what we’re talking about:

As we’ve already stated, people won’t simply take your word for it when you tell them that your product is excellent. Reviews, on the other hand, are a great way to convince leads that you aren’t lying. Positive reviews make people 91% more likely to use the services of a business, after all, so displaying them in your ad will bolster the idea that your services are genuinely worthwhile.

By including user reviews, the lead can see how good FatFace’s products are, effectively removing any doubts she may have. And once she’s convinced, there’s little stopping her from making the purchase.

Vidyard

Do you need to use retargeting only for selling? To be sure, that’s the overall goal of the idea, but you don’t really need to make it as plainly obvious as that. Why not create something that’s more informative than an outright prompt to buy?

You can look to Vidyard for an example of such thinking. Looking at the ad below, you’ll see that it isn’t just an effort to drag you into the click-through machine.

Take a look at this example:

It promises real value for those who click, but it doesn’t insist that you buy something. Instead, it rests on the quality of the promoted content to drive conversions. Some of those who view your posted content will take a shine to it. That, in turn, might persuade them to turn to your business, resulting in conversions.

This tactic becomes doubly useful when we go back to that statistic we brought up earlier (six visits equals conversion). The above ad encourages more interaction with leads, which will result in more visits to your website. And that gets people closer to the coveted six-visit average.

WatchFinder

Everyone loves a great success story. And the story of how WatchFinder blew up its ROI just goes to show that the power of a perfect retargeting campaign should never be underestimated.

Around six years ago, WatchFinder saw that it had less than desirable results on its online stores - not even 1% of first-time visitors ever made a purchase. Troubled by the underperformance, the company got to work and brewed up the optimal medicine for what ailed it - a retargeting campaign.

The smartest thing it did was devote time and energy to making highly detailed, well-defined lists of visitors who never bought anything. From there, it knew exactly where to send its ads.

Seeing that it sells high-end products that cost thousands of pounds, the leads usually took a lot of time to decide whether to buy or pass. A vital part of WatchFinder’s strategy was keeping up a conversation with the leads teetering on the cusp of conversion. Otherwise, it could risk the lead getting cold, so to speak.

Here’s what WatchFinder’s ad looked like:

The WatchFinder case really demonstrates just how important preparation is. Its marketing team really did homework and made its retargeting efforts amazingly potent. The fact that it spiked ROI by a whopping 1,300% surely attests to that.

Booking.com

If you’re looking for an example of a masterfully crafted retargeting ad, then you needn’t look further than Booking.com. It manages to pack in so much content without being too cluttered that it’s amazing.

Just have a look at the below ad:

All of these parts of the ad serve a specific purpose. The CTA and the FOMO bit compel the viewer to act immediately, whereas the guarantee alleviates any fear of coming up short. Meanwhile, the discount provides a tempting incentive for the reader.

But the ultimate goal of each part of this ad is to draw in the lead with one-of-a-kind offers. And in that sense, it works marvelously well.

It’s dense with clever tactics, but there’s even more to this ad, and this is the most important part. The room being displayed isn’t always the same. Rather, it changes to whatever you were browsing when you were on Booking.com’s site. In other words, it uses dynamic ads to show the lead something similar to what she browsed on your site.

And that’s what makes this retargeting ad so special. It’s personalized with great precision, which appeals to the prospects that see it. Try following Booking.com’s example and personalize the ad to the individual.

Around 79% of consumers say that they will only consider engaging with an offer if it’s been personalized to reflect their previous experience with the brand, so it’s a powerful tool indeed.

Best Buy

Sure, a lead that doesn’t convert hurts, but those who leave with full carts hurt on a whole other level. A good way to avoid this kind of abandonment is to, you guessed it, send retargeting ads.

You can take a page out of Best Buy’s book when it comes to reminding prospects about abandoned carts. Here’s what it sends:

As you can see, the ad is pretty straightforward - there’s a blue background with a white cart and writing. You could say that it’s a bit generic, but it doesn’t really need to be elaborate at this point. After all, it’s just a reminder, not an attention-grabber.

So, the point here is to leverage retargeting tactics for prospects who abandon their carts. Just send them a little reminder that they still have goods waiting for them. As for how often you should retarget a single person, an average of 17 to 20 times per month is a safe bet.

What to Take Away From These Examples?

There’s a little something for you to learn from each example here. So for convenience’s sake, let’s list off the most important lessons that they teach us.

Here’s the gist of every ad you read about above:

1. Tableau: make more than one ad; not only will it fatigue slower, but it can also tell a better story about your brand.

2. FatFace: whenever possible, emphasize the quality of your product with examples rather than just empty praise.

3. Vidyard: not every retargeting ad needs to directly advertise; offer value and let it do the selling.

4. WatchFinder: careful preparation pays off tenfold - know precisely who should receive your ad.

5. Booking.com: make the most of the space your ad occupies; also, go the extra mile to personalize the ad.

6. Best Buy: cart abandonment doesn’t need to be permanent - remind leads that they have some goods waiting for them, and they’ll often come back to collect.

Take notes of what these companies did, and it will help you make your retargeting ads much more effective. If it worked for them, there’s little doubt that it will also work for you!

About the Author

Andriana Moskovska is a content curator and contributor at Digitalmarketingjobs.io. With a passion for tech and marketing and a degree in English Language and Literature, she always manages to deliver well-researched and impeccably written content. When she’s not writing her next piece, you can find her immersed in some of the classics, or planning her next trip.

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flyingvgroupca · 5 years ago

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8 Basic Website Metrics Every Business Owner Should Understand

If you have a website, you know how crucial it is to track your website performance. It is essential to stay ahead of your metrics since it helps you determine the gaps in your strategy and make accurate predictions about your business. The question then becomes, "What website metrics should you focus on understanding for business success?" In this article, we discuss the top website metrics that every marketer or business owner should pay the most attention to when reviewing analytics. If you have the following questions, then this article is for you: What website metrics are important for my business? What basic understanding of website analytics should I have? What is a bounce rate and conversion rate? How do I calculate value per visit and/or cost-per-conversion?

Understanding Business Website Analytics

Gian Clancey, author of a popular online article titled "Are You a Slave to Your Data? How Taking a Narrow View of KPIs Can Limit Growth", states that the data we gather can ruin our online visibility and performance if proper tracking is not in place. The article also reminds us of the risks of considering quantity over quality of leads, emphasizing on the short-term metrics, and giving priority to a narrow data-oriented focus over marketing innovation. Insights reveal that in addition to having a reliable tool at your disposal, website metrics necessitate lots of strategizing and planning, too. "Website metrics necessitate lots of strategizing and planning, too."There are thousands of website metrics that you can track, but the question is which ones are important? And, if your website is not achieving its targets, which ones must you pay attention to and work on to improve? Here we go with the answer to these questions!

8 Important Website Metrics for Business Owners

1. The Traffic Source Surprised to know that traffic is not our primary metric? Well, traffic is not as relevant as many people think when we talking about conversion rates. What is important is not how many visitors you receive, but how well the visitors help your website achieve its goals. Understanding where visitors are getting to your site from is the key. The three key traffic sources are: Direct Visitors: Direct visitors are coming to your website by directly searching for you in their browser address bar. Search Visitors: The visitors finding you via a search engine. Referral Visitors: The referral visitors are clicking through a link to your website from somewhere else, either on another website, or a social media page, among others. Different kinds of traffic lead to different levels of engagement. Since engagement is the first challenge for B2B marketers, it is helpful to track all traffic sources individually and analyze which ones are doing the best. Moreover, it is also vital to have a variety of sources for traffic. If you are getting all the traffic from a single source, it might be risky that you have all of your eggs in one basket. 2. New Visitor Conversion Rate First things first, you will need to determine what is a conversion on your site and how to track website conversions. In order to calculate conversion rate, all you need to do is use the following formula: Conversion Rate = (Conversions/Total Visitors) * 100% How a first-time visitor interacts with your website is different from the way a returning visitor does. To have more first-time visitors’ conversions, isolate this metric from conversion rates of your returning customers. Determine what they look for when they visit your website for the first time and how they can be provided with an improved experience. Do you know that your website has only a few seconds to grab the visitor’s attention? Hence, take a careful look at your first impression and then compare it with your competition. You must know what message you communicate. Think of the factors that matter to you when you visit any site for the very first time. Possibilities are that you are seeking usability, clarity and value. Then, answer how can you make the first impression of your own website useful, clear, and valuable. Interesting Read: How We Grew Organic Website Impressions 735% in One Year With SEO Friendly Content

3. Bounce Rate A bounce is when a visitor visits your website and immediately leaves without browsing any other pages of the site. Bounce rates are usually partially attributed to the visitors that are just at the wrong websites, implying that bounce rate is a metric that needs a more in-depth look. However, most of the time, it implies that people who visited your site didn't find what they looked for, and thus left. Therefore, a low bounce rate means that most of your visitors are sticking around your site as they are finding it useful. You can attribute a high bounce rate to multiple factors, including poor traffic, wrong keywords, slow load times, and cluttered or bad design. Comparing the high bounce pages with the low ones provide useful data into what works for your traffic and what doesn't. 4. Return Visitor Conversion Rate If you are thinking about returning visitor conversion rate, then think of the following two questions too. Why did the visitor return? Did the visitor convert the first time? Also, if not, how can the visitor be converted the second time when he/she revisits your site?Keep in mind that even if a visitor didn't convert as a new visitor, you made enough of an impression to get them to return. A return visitor implies that the conversion process on the return visit would become more manageable than it could be when the first-time visitor found your website. You must isolate the return visitor conversion rate and determine the ways to increase it or provide more value to repeat visitors.

5. Interactions Per Visit Even if the visitor doesn't convert, it is not the end of the world. You still have a chance to monitor their activities on the site and how they use the information provided. What exactly they are doing on your site, how to make them do more of it, and how to affect this behavior into successful conversions are the questions to consider. For instance, if visitors look at various pages, spend a lot of time browsing through those pages, and leave reviews or comments on your site, it means they are still interacting at a high level. Even if they're not converting (at the moment), your objective should be to increase such interactions. Using relevant tools, like Crazy Egg, can be helpful as these tools help you understand where your visitors are clicking and the way they are interacting with your site content. Conversion rate optimization is an extremely effective effort when considering making adjustments to your website. You should also determine how you can leverage such interactions into an increased number of conversions, whether that's subscriptions, downloads, purchases, or something else. Interesting Read: 5 Design Elements That Can Improve the Conversion Rate of Your Website

6. Value Per Visit The value of each of the visits is a simple metric to recognize, but much more difficult to specifically calculate. Fundamentally, it tends to evaluate how much each of the visits to your site is worth. The simplest way to understand How to Calculate Value Per Visit is by using the following formula: Total Value Generated / Number of Visits Let's take an e-commerce store as an example. As indicated by recent data, most e-commerce sites see conversion rates revolve around 3-4%, wherein the mobile users account for about half of that. If this e-commerce store acquires a 3% conversion rate, and an average purchase is worth $100, it implies that they sell almost $300 for every 100 visitors (Three Conversions x $100). In simple words, their value per visit is $3 ($300/100 Visits). However, this metric is hard to calculate since sometimes the value comes long after the visit, or it arises in an intangible form that's difficult to measure. For instance, blog visitors may generate value each time they add a page view to your traffic if you're, for instance, selling advertising. However, they also generate an intangible value when they add a comment on your site, making it look more engaging and authoritative. Similarly, the visitors on e-commerce sites create value every time they buy a product, but they also generate a somewhat infinite value when they leave a product review or when they tell their contacts about the site via word-of-mouth. Interesting Read: 4 Simple Ways to Quickly Double Your Website Traffic With SEO Changes

7. Cost Per Conversion Cost-per-conversion is the effect of value per visit, and it's one of the most important metrics you should calculate. Cost-per-conversion is also called lead generation costs or the cost-per-referral. It doesn't matter if you acquire high conversions or even high value per visit. If your costs are excessive, your net income might be zero or even negative. In our example of the e-commerce store that had a $3 value per visit, that may be great if their traffic is free. However, if it costs the store $150 per conversion, and every conversion leads to a $100 order, the store is not going to be doing very well. While trying to grow conversion rates, it is imperative to keep the costs-per-conversion and overall margins in consideration. Interesting Read: How to Create Shoppable Posts on Instagram for Your E-Commerce Store 8. Exit Pages Finally, you must determine which pages cause visitors to leave. In numerous cases, your final call to action, or the conversion, might be on page two or three of the user process. For instance, you may want visitors to browse through products, add them to the cart, and then enter their payment information. If visitors are leaving before reaching the last step, it means you're losing out on potential customers. To solve this issue, dive deeper into the web exits and find out the stages in the process that cause your visitors to leave or abandon their cart. There are indeed many reasons behind the issue, but through optimizing your exit pages, you'll begin to see an increase in your conversion rates.

The Final Takeaway

While these are quite common and significant metrics to keep track of, if you don't understand the data, then the data is not all that useful. Use this info to recognize areas that you may improve and get clarity on the ways to implement these crucial metrics. Don't get too determined to try and analyze every single metric all at once. Instead, emphasize a few metrics for improvement and focus on these primary metrics before moving onto more advanced metrics and reporting. Read the full article

#8basicwebsitemetricsforbusinessowners #howtounderstandwebsitemetrics #websitemetricsforbusinessowners #whatbusinessownersneedtoknowaboutwebsitemetrics

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whittlebaggett8 · 6 years ago

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The 25 biggest questions we have after seeing ‘Avengers: Endgame’, Defence Online

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When you dry your tears after “Avengers: Endgame,” you’re going to start to have a lot of questions.

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Marvel Studios

Warning: There are massive spoilers and discussion for “Avengers: Endgame” ahead. Do not read this if you haven’t seen the movie.

After a few showings, INSIDER wrangled together the burning questions we have about the movie, and some answers where possible.

“Avengers: Endgame” is an epic culmination to 22 films for the ultimate fan, but it’s far from perfect. Some of the movie’s holes become much more clear upon a second and third go-around when you’re less emotional over the film’s many tear-worthy moments. After multiple close watches, INSIDER gathered together a list of the lingering questions (and some answers) we have now that we’re out of the “Endgame.”

1. How did Captain Marvel know where to find Tony Stark and Nebula?

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Captain Marvel arrives at just the right moment to save Tony.

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Marvel

This is something that initially bothered me while watching the movie. Captain Marvel conveniently shows up the moment Tony Stark is dying and brings him and Nebula home from space. How does she know where to find them? We were given the answer to this back in March.

There’s a post-credits scene with “Captain Marvel” that looks like it’s a scene from “Avengers: Endgame.” Marvel released it online for you to watch here. That scene never appears in “Endgame” at all, but is extremely important for understanding how Tony gets back home.

In it, Captain Marvel arrives at the Avengers HQ where she meets Captain America, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, and more. She finds out Nick Fury is missing and the scene ends.

It can be assumed this is where she also meets Tony’s fiancée, Pepper Potts. Tony has been sending her transmissions from space via his Iron Man suit. If she’s been receiving those messages then she was likely able to tell Captain Marvel where to find Stark and Nebula.

2. Why is Captain America old at the film’s end? How did he age?

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Captain America shouldn’t be able to age because of the super serum, right? Eh. Maybe not in the movies.

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Marvel

If you were initially thrown off by seeing an older Captain America at the film’s end in 2023, you shouldn’t be. Yes, Cap was injected with the super serum, but he didn’t age because he was put on ice and frozen in 1945. Nick Fury tells him in “Captain America: The First Avenger” that he’s been out for about 70 years.

Cap went back to 1970 to be with Peggy and lived the following 53 years getting older.

This may have thrown some people off because in the comics, Captain America doesn’t usually age due to the super serum. He did get older when he had it sucked out of him at one point by a villain.

Even if the super serum was slowing down Cap’s ability to age, he probably could have asked someone, like Howard Stark, to whip up something to allow him to grow old with the love of his life.

3. Does Hawkeye now have a bunch of enemies, and, if so, is he putting his family in danger?

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I think Clint Barton messed up big time.

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Disney/Marvel

After Clint Barton/Hawkeye loses his family at the film’s start, he goes down a really dark path. In a nod to the comics, he takes on the alter-ego of Ronin, a lone vigilante ninja.

We see Barton killing an entire group of men in Tokyo and hear about other “work” he’s doing with a Mexican cartel. Now that Hawkeye’s reunited with his family all of that stuff doesn’t just disappear. Yes, he killed a bunch of men, but are any of the scorned still alive?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the past five years come back to haunt him. With his family back, it’s not just Hawkeye that his enemies would be after.

This may be something that will be directly addressed in the reported Disney Plus streaming show Hawkeye will receive.

4. Did no one go to school for the five years after the “Infinity War” snap? Is going back to school super weird if some of your classmates weren’t affected by “Infinity War”?

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Ned and Peter are back together, but some of their classmates have to be older than them now.

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Sony Pictures

How did that work? At the film’s end, we see Peter Parker reunited with his best friend Ned at school. My brother, who I saw the film with, thought it was funny that five years passed and Spider-Man was still in high school. However, it completely makes sense. They haven’t aged a day since the snap. For them, no time has transpired.

But what about the people in their grade who weren’t snapped? Did they just continue on with school, graduate, and go on into the real world? If that logic’s followed then Ned and MJ (Zendaya) must have disappeared in the snap, too, along with some of their other friends. We know the “Spider-Man” sequel “Far From Home” takes place moments after the end of “Endgame.”

Will some of their friends be in college? Are there younger kids who are now the same age as them? I feel like a lot of this is just going to be ignored.

5. How does no one die from Thanos directly shooting up the Avengers HQ?

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This moment was all for show.

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Marvel

When 2014 Thanos arrives in the future he wastes no time trying to take out the Avengers. He squarely hit his target, leveled the building, and somehow no one managed to have more than a scratch on them. I’m calling shenanigans.

6. Is the time travel in “Avengers: Endgame” sound?

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The remaining heroes team up to face Thanos in “Avengers: Endgame.”

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Disney/Marvel

I’m not a scientist, otherwise I’d be off studying quantum physics. So, I’m not going to pretend to know whether or not the time travel in “Endgame” checks out.

Lucky for us, Newsweek asked some scientists to look over the science in the movie, and they say “Endgame” did a pretty good job in its attempt to “adhere to current high level-thinking about time travel.”

For what it’s worth, the time travel in “Endgame” is explained rather quickly. Not a lot of time is spent on it so I just accepted whatever I was watching on screen for the most part without worrying about too much. If Tony Stark tells me he figured out how time travel works, I trust him. I’ve put my trust in him since 2008’s “Iron Man” and he hasn’t steered us too wrong (other than “Age of Ultron” with his murder bot). I won’t stop now.

For those who care, Bruce Banner says if you change something in the past it won’t necessarily change the future. OK. That’s why the group doesn’t go back in time and kill baby Thanos. (That’s actually discussed in the film.) When the group goes back in time to acquire the Infinity Stones before Thanos, Banner is told when they’re done using the stones in the present, they must return them to the exact moment they retrieved them from the past otherwise they’ll cause multiple realities.

Newsweek referred to this as the Many Worlds Theory.

7. Why did the Avengers pick those specific moments to go back in time?

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I love the opening scene of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but there was a better moment to get the power stone. Was Glenn Close not around to reprise her role as Nova Prime?

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Marvel

Tony, Bruce, Clint, Natasha, and the rest of the Avengers could have picked any moments in the past to revisit to gather the Infinity Stones ahead of Thanos. So it’s a little puzzling that the team went back to several tricky moments to gather stones.

For instance, instead of revisiting “Thor: The Dark World” to extract the reality stone from Jane (Natalie Portman), wouldn’t it have been easier to retrieve it from the Collector at the film’s end? That’s where Thor had it dropped off. Likewise, Thor’s home of Asgard was home to the Tesseract for years before Loki removed it from a basement tunnel.

The same goes for the power stone in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Rocket Raccoon was with Peter Quill when it was left with the Nova Corps on Xandar. It just seemed like the team went out of their way for unnecessary reasons. I guess the movie would have been a lot shorter and less exciting if everything was easy, but it makes our heroes look incredibly silly. No one was rushing them to head into the past. They had all of the time in the world to get their plan in order.

8. Why doesn’t future Nebula die when past Nebula is shot and killed?

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Nebula, unexpectedly becomes a vital part of “Endgame.”

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Disney/Marvel Studios

The majority of “Avengers: Endgame” takes place in 2023, five years after the events of “Avengers: Infinity War.”

Late in the movie, Nebula from 2014 time travels to 2023. She’s then killed by Nebula from 2023. If future Nebula kills her past self, shouldn’t she be dead, too?

I suppose she’s alive because Bruce tells the group earlier on that your past self doesn’t effect your future, but I’m really having a tough time seeing how Nebula continues to exist if she’s just been wiped from history.

9. We can bring Gamora back after being killed in “Infinity War,” but you’re telling me you can’t bring back Black Widow?

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Did they really need to kill Black Widow?

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Marvel/Disney

This is where the time travel stuff started to bug me. Red Skull said anyone who gives their life for the soul stone cannot come back from the dead. He didn’t explain why. When pressed for answers Hawkeye tells Thor to go and talk to Red Skull himself.

Gamora was killed in 2018’s “Infinity War” because of the soul stone and she’s now back (even though it’s a past version of herself from before those events). If we’re playing by those rules, then couldn’t the team just get a Black Widow/Natasha from the past and bring her back into the future?

Bruce Banner simply says there’s no way to bring Black Widow back without explanation. Later he mentions that when he snapped his fingers wearing the new Infinity Gauntlet that he tried to bring her back but simply couldn’t. Some force wouldn’t let him.

Earlier in the film, Banner is told by the Ancient One that right after they use the Infinity Stones to fix their timeline, they need to return them to the moments in which they were removed. If not, they would have opened up some bad alternate realities. I’m wondering if some of those bad alternate realities would have occurred if they tried bringing a Nat from another point in time into 2023.

10. How easy is it to put the stones back in time?

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Did we just forget Captain America would have to reinsert the reality stone back into Jane somehow?

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Marvel

The Ancient One told Bruce Banner that as soon as they reverse the effects of Thanos’ snap that they need to return the Infinity stones to the exact moments where they retrieved them from. Otherwise, time as they know it could split into different realities where terrible events could occur.

At the film’s end, we see Captain America volunteer to go back in time and put the stones back. He apparently has no problem doing this. Honestly, it seems like it should be a bit tougher to do that. Wouldn’t there be even more versions of himself in some realities he has to deal with?

It also seems like it would be more of a hassle inserting the aether back into Jane in “Thor: The Dark World” instead of extracting it. I would really like to watch and see how Captain America goes about doing that without getting caught.

11. One more thought. How exactly does Captain America return the soul stone?

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None of us are ever going to understand how the soul stone works.

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Marvel

How does that work? Does he just hand it to Red Skull? Shouldn’t he be able to get Natasha back?

You need to trade a soul to get the soul stone. It seems like you should get something in exchange for returning it. What a rip-off.

12. Why didn’t they use the time machine to just get more Pym Particles?

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Why are Tony Stark and Scott Lang acting like Hank Pym (above) doesn’t exist in 2012 to visit?

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Marvel

Several times throughout the movie, Ant-Man makes it very clear they have a small supply of Pym Particles to travel back in time. Once they’re used up, that’s it! But if they simply traveled back to a moment before Pym vanished, the team could have easily had a possibly unlimited supply of Pym Particles. At the least, Pym could have provided them with more.

This is even more mind-boggling when Tony, Captain America, Bruce Banner, and Ant-Man go to 2012 to acquire three Infinity Stones at once. When Tony loses the Tesseract, Ant-Man tells him he blew it and that they only have enough Pym Particles to just return home.

Tony and Cap decide to go farther back in time to go get some more Pym particles. But they could have just stayed in 2012 and flew to Hank Pym to ask him for more. I guess all of that wouldn’t have been as fun.

13. Where were all of these missing characters?

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The end of “Endgame” makes this entire romantic subplot in “Civil War” feel strange.

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Walt Disney Studios/Marvel

“Avengers: Endgame” features a lot of characters, including some returning faces from past movies. However, we were surprised a few characters were nowhere to be found, including Ant-Man’s best friend Luis, his ex-wife, Maggie, Sharon Carter, and the Vision?

We were convinced Luis would have helped his best friend Ant-Man out of the quantum realm if he wasn’t among those lost at the end of “Infinity War.” Why even bother with the Sharon Carter and Cap romance in “Civil War” if we were never going to see her again? I was also surprised Tony never tried to rebuild some form of Vision/Jarvis. He can figure out time travel in no time, but rebuilding a friend? Nah.

One of the biggest mysteries to me while watching was why we never saw either of Cassie Lang’s parents briefly on screen. Was Cassie just living on her own? I need answers and closure.

14. Where was the villain from the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy”?

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This is Korath. He’s also in “Captain Marvel.”

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Guardians of the Galaxy trailer

If we’re following the events of the 2014 movie, after Peter Quill successfully gets the power stone, he’s met by Korath who tries to take it from him. He conveniently never shows up to confront Nebula and War Machine though.

15. How do Nebula’s 2023 memories sync up with her 2014 self?

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This was a doozy.

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Marvel

The moment that Nebula heads back in time to 2014, her past self gains awareness of all her memories.

What is going on and how does that make any sense? I’ve interpreted it as if all of Nebula’s memories are stored in something similar to Apple’s iCloud, which is unfortunate for the Avengers. Nebula in 2014 is more machine than human. Thanos has basically ripped her apart and rebuilt her with robotic parts. When Nebula goes back in time from 2023, she unexpectedly syncs up with other self.

Still confused? It’s like when you buy a new iPad or phone and you’re able to download all of your content from the cloud. It makes sense, but it’s awfully convenient to keep the plot moving along.

16. What was the point of making such a big deal out of Project Pegasus in “Captain Marvel”?

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Project Pegasus is also in “The Avengers.”

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Marvel

It seemed like a very clear set up for the entire time travel story. It’s blatantly said in “Captain Marvel” that Project Pegasus involved Wendy Lawson was trying to figure out how to harness the energy of the Tesseract – the cube which held the blue Infinity stone – to create a light-speed engine.

What would that have been used for? Probably to travel through time and space. Yet, it’s never even mentioned in “Endgame.”

You can read more on Pegasus here.

17. Is Loki’s fate changed at all since he escaped with the Tesseract in 2012 now?

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Loki may be on a totally different path now.

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Marvel

When Tony and Ant-Man went back in time to 2012, they changed things up for Loki. Instead of returning to Asgard with his brother Thor, he wound up with the Tesseract and escaped into the unknown.

Where’d he go? We have no idea. Do his actions still lead to his death in “Infinity War”? Also, unclear. We know Loki is among the few

Is his Disney plus streaming show going to take place somewhere in this new timeline of events?

18. Is Thor a Guardian of the Galaxy now?

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Thor’s on board to become an Asgardian of the Galaxy.

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Disney

Thor goes off with Rocket and the Guardians at the film’s end, hinting we’ll see him head on adventures with them next. Does this mean we could see the God of Thunder in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”? If he doesn’t get a fourth “Thor” movie, perhaps. The quirky humor and vibe of “Ragnarok” certainly lent itself to “Guardians.”

19. Where did Gamora go and will she return to the Guardians of the Galaxy?

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Quill may want to find Gamora, but she may not want to be found.

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Marvel

The Gamora we know now has no memories of the Guardians of the Galaxy. As a result, she just left and disappeared after Thanos and his army vanished in thin air. When Thor boarded the Guardians’ ship, you could see Quill was searching for Gamora with no luck.

Where did Gamora go and is she even really out there?

What would be really interesting is whether or not Gamora actually vanished with Thanos and everyone else from 2014. We don’t know what Tony wished for when he snapped his fingers. He didn’t know Gamora. He could have wished for all of the bad guys to be gone or he simply could have wished for everyone from the wrong timeline to vanish. It would be devastating to lose her again, but it would really clear things up and make them a bit less confusing.

20. What’s next for the Hulk?

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The Hulk seems to be on his own at the end of “Endgame.”

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Marvel

Thor left his other buddy back on Earth. Bruce Banner’s BFF Tony is gone, Captain America is an old man, Natasha’s dead, and Clint is back with his family. Disney still can’t do its own standalone Hulk movie because they don’t have the rights for that so will we see him team up with someone else?

I’m absolutely OK with Banner hulking out with Peter Parker as the two grieve a common friend. Maybe Hulk will head back to the Sanctum Sanctorum and properly introduce himself to Doctor Strange. He already went there twice now in “Infinity War” and “Endgame.” That doesn’t seem like a coincidence. If Mordo’s alive, Strange can use some friends.

21. If the Ancient one really sees everything, shouldn’t she have seen that Bruce would come to her?

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Were you surprised to see Tilda Swinton back?

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Disney

If not, does the Ancient One who later meets Doctor Strange know of everything that will come to pass?

22. Who is Black Widow’s dad?

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Black Widow said she didn’t even know her father’s name in “Endgame.”

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Marvel

If you go back and watch every “Avengers” movie, there’s always a brief explanation of moments from Black Widow’s life. In “Endgame,” Red Skull mentions her father’s name. Loki also mentioned her dark past in “Avengers.” I’m guessing this is something that will be at the heart of the planned “Black Widow” movie.

23. So that Black Widow movie is a prequel, right?

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It seems like we’ll be visiting Black Widow’s past. It’s been teased a lot before.

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Marvel / Paramount

We watched her give her life to acquire the soul stone and Hawkeye and Bruce Banner made it very clear several times over that she’s not coming back.

The only logical way for her to come back in a movie would be in flashbacks. We only know bits and pieces of Black Widow’s harrowing past so far.

24. What happened in Budapest?

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Are we ever going to find out what mission Nat and Clint went on years ago? They won’t stop talking about it.

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Marvel/YouTube

Clint Barton and Black Widow have vaguely talked about something that happened in Budapest nearly every time they’re together on screen. After 11 years, we still have no idea what they’re talking about. Maybe Hawkeye is going to be in this “Black Widow” movie, too.

25. How does time in the quantum realm work? It appears to have worked differently for Scott Lang and Janet Van Dyne.

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Janet van Dyne was in the quantum realm for 30 years. Scott was in there for five. Only one of them aged.

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Marvel

Scott was in the quantum realm for five years and said it felt like five hours. Janet was in there for 30 years and it’s safe to say that more than 30 hours passed for her. She doesn’t appear to have aged any slower at all.

As the dalek in “Doctor Who” say, “Explain.”

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burstspain67-blog · 6 years ago

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My 10 Hacks for Maximum Productivity

“How do you stay on track?” “How do you stay focused and productive?” “How do you get so much done?”

These are questions I get asked regularly — from friends, my team members, people at the gym, and clients.

While I love to be spontaneous and flexible, when it comes to productivity, the name of the game for me is routine and having a plan. For me, it all boils down to 10 simple steps. And it WORKS.

Ok, you may be wondering… why is this weight loss guru talking about productivity?

Well, when you think about it, they are actually quite similar!

When I’m asked, “How do you help people lose weight and keep it off?” the answer is, “I developed a specific methodology.” It’s not luck, or a shot in the dark, or a mystery. The secret here is that there is no secret. There’s a science. A process.

Weight loss and productivity have many parallels. That’s why I thought you’d love to learn about my proven 10-step productivity system… because it will help you in your own life (and likely in your weight loss, too).

My 10 hacks for maximum productivity:

1. A Morning Routine with 3 M’s

Perhaps the most important element of a productive day is your morning routine. For years, I heard this from many experts, but didn’t take it seriously.

Here’s what my days used to look like: Within 5 minutes of waking, I would jump on my computer and start working. “Seize the day!” I’d say, as I sat in that same spot from 6am until my body started to doze off around 11 at night.

I THOUGHT that this is what being productive meant. Work. Work. Work. But the truth was…

I was not being productive or proactive; I was being reactive.

My mind was never clear. I was constantly jumping from one thing to another. My brain was pretty much in crisis mode, alway looking for what had to be done next. Because of this, even though I was doing a lot, I never actually felt accomplished. I always felt like I was a step behind, trying to keep up, playing catch up. It was like playing a game of whack-a-mole all day long!

Starting my day in this headspace was detrimental to the quality of my work, my health, and the quality of my life.

Then I FINALLY realized that...

The brain is at its highest operating power in the morning... and I was giving all of that energy to everyone else’s tasks!

That’s when I started taking control of my mornings with a clear routine.

So now this is what I do.

The recipe for my morning routine essentially has 3 ingredients, what I call the 3 M’s of the morning: Mindset, Movement and Mojo.

Mindset: I start the morning with a time for meditation, prayer and journaling — anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. The key is to get me to a state of peace and gratitude so that everything that flows out of me, comes from a grounded place. A place of peace. Without this step, I fall into old frazzled habits.

Movement: I typically do my “Morning Metabolism Hack” which is a quick run to the coffee shop (more on that in this post), or it might be five minutes of body movement exercises (like push-ups, jumping jacks, and squats), or a few minutes flowing through my favorite yoga poses (like downward facing dog and cobra pose).

Mojo: I find my mojo once I have my PFC-balanced breakfast, supplements and coffee! Breakfast is usually a smoothie because I can make this really fast, and I don’t usually feel like eating a big meal when I wake up, AND I can jam-pack it with tons of supplements and nutrition that fuel my body and brain for the day—like Glutapowder, MultiVive powder and VeroVive™ Fruits & Greens.

Mornings don’t have to be rough. I now enjoy my mornings more than ever. This short routine generates momentum, and makes me feel like I’ve already won the day!

2. I make my bed.

This one is simple. Right when I wake up, I make my bed. It gives me a sense of accomplishment right away, which has a ripple effect on the rest of my day. There may actually be scientific reasons for how this works, but for me personally, I notice that when I make my bed it sets me up for a day of accomplishing things. And because I work from home, for me to be able to focus, my space needs to be tidy. So this is an easy win-win to kick off the day.

3. I declutter.

On the regular. And I think this goes beyond the simple fact that I normally work from home and like a clean space. I think decluttering my space also declutters my brain.

So, I’ve been working really hard at leading more of a minimalist lifestyle, getting rid of clutter and extra stuff, and the more I move toward that, the more freedom I find.

Full disclosure: This has been something that’s been super challenging for me. I was raised to be very resourceful (we got our clothing from garage sales, never threw anything out, and didn’t waste anything). This is probably why it’s been hard for me to get rid of stuff.

I’ve realized that having extra, unnecessary, unused things occupies energy and space in my mind. Abiding by the rule “If it’s not beautiful, you don’t love it, or haven’t used it in a year, it goes” makes it super simple.

It also means less stuff to take care of, and less decisions to make.

That’s why, for instance, when I speak, you’ll see me wearing the same blue dress just about every time. When I’m preparing for a big speech, the last thing I want to do is waste precious brain space and mental energy trying on dresses or rummaging through my closet. I feel great in the blue one, so that’s the one I rock. Just about every time.

4. I put limits on social media.

I have an urge to check my phone right when I wake up, but I’ve made a huge effort to put this to a halt, and instead go into the first M of my morning routine (mindset). I don’t want the first things to enter my brain to be other people’s lives or what’s happening in the world. So, I save my brain space for my own tasks and projects, and I set aside time later in the day to check and post on social media. I also schedule some of my posts so that some days I can take a social media hiatus (you’ll notice my posts aren’t always in the evenings).

5. I plan my day.

By deciding what’s most important, organizing and preparing for the day, you can easily make your way through the day knowing what to focus on. At the end of every day (or after my last work task of the day), I regroup, cross off everything I did, and organize my priorities for the next day by creating a “Tomorrow List.” Then the next morning, I revisit this list to plan out my day. Planning your day allows you to proactively choose where to focus.

As I’m planning, I make note of the projects I need to work on, and I write out a to-do list on paper so I can cross out items as I get them done. This gives me a great sense of accomplishment!

During this planning time, I also make sure to schedule in a workout if it’s a day where my body feels up for it (read this post for more on my workouts).

I have my calendar set so that no calls are scheduled before 10am, because the morning is my most productive time, and I want it dedicated to my own projects and program development—not someone else’s (it’s okay to be selfish with your time!).

This entire planning process takes less than 5 minutes (some at the end of the day and some at the start of the next day).

6. Do the dreaded thing first.

Have you heard the term “eat the frog”? It comes from Brian Tracy, author of "Eat the Frog," and he bases his morning philosophy off of a quote from Mark Twain:

"If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long."

The "frog" he refers to is your most important task—the one you're dreading the most because it's so huge and important. (You know what I’m talking about. Ever had that task sit at the top of your to-do list for days… maybe even weeks? And you find that it never seems to get done!? I sure have.) Creating the habit to do your biggest task first can give you a huge boost of accomplishment first thing, AND it gets it done! Putting off tough tasks until the end of the day makes it so much harder because we have a much lower brain capacity. Get it out of the way and move on!

I’ve referred to brain capacity a couple of times already in this post, so let me expand on it now: It’s all about managing your energy. Just like it’s important to manage your time, you need to manage your energy. We (ideally after a good night’s sleep!) start with our energy up, and it drains gradually throughout the day. Think of the brain like a muscle: just like any other muscle it gets fatigued the more you use it. So, as the day goes on, it wears out, until you let it rest and recover for a night. Then, when you wake up after a restful night, it is refreshed, sharp and ready to use again!

My biggest downfall (maybe yours too?) is giving away my energy to help other people get their work done (email, calls, etc). That’s why, when I plan my day, I aim to tackle one of my biggest projects first thing. When you start with a big task (“frog)”, it’s easier to do it, and then the rest of your day looks pretty awesome by comparison.

It’s most productive to get an hour or more of work done on one of your frogs that takes a lot of focus, will and determination to complete before “the rest of the world” gets into your day.

7. I stay ahead of my inbox.

And, I also limit my time in there. I’ve notice that it’s so easy to get wrapped up in an overflowing inbox. Before I know it, hours have passed!

So, I try to limit my time to 15 minutes in there in the morning. Because I have a team of many people, I do need to check my inbox in the morning to give direction, and answer quick questions so things can get done. My solution is to set a timer to hold me accountable to my 15 minute limit.

A key hack I learned from a friend that has been a total game changer for me is to keep my inbox to ZERO (another thing that makes me feel accomplished!!!). I created an Action folder, so anything that will take me longer than 2 minutes to respond to, or that I can’t delegate to someone else, is moved there. This makes it easy for me to spend 15-20 minutes in my inbox and get through everything. Then I block out time on my schedule later to get through the Action folder emails.

8. I use some key apps and tools. I’ve tried many different programs to increase my focus and productivity and these are the ones I currently use every day:

BrainFM: This is enjoyable background music that uses binaural beats designed to keep you focused. The science of it is explained on their website, but even if it were just the placebo effect, I’d keep using it because it really works for me to stay on task for long periods of time.

Be Focused PRO: This is a timer app I use to help me stay focused for specific chunks of time. It tracks how many focused sessions I’ve done, which allows me to see how productive I’ve been. You could totally use a basic timer, but I like how I can see the time in the corner of my computer — it feels like a game where I’m trying to get as much done as I can in a specific time frame. No time for social media or distractions when you’re trying to beat the clock!

Headspace and SyncTuition: There are many meditation apps and programs (I’ve tried a lot of them!), and these are my two favorites. I use both of these every single day. In the morning I use SyncTuition — it’s a type of meditation that uses 3D sounds, which I find to be really helpful for getting into a good headspace. And then I use Headspace when I’m laying in bed at night to wind down and get ready for a good night’s sleep.

Oura Ring: If you’ve seen me wearing a big, gaudy black ring, it is the Oura ring! It uses the newest technology to track not only your activity, but your heart rate, your sleep, your temperature, and more measurements of wellness. It tells you how many hours of deep sleep you got, how rested you are and if you should take it easy or get in a tough workout. AND, just last week they announced that they now have sleeker, more elegant styles (I’m seriously considering buying another one — I love their new styles! And I got them to give us 10% off with the code cassie10 😉 ) Anyway! I’ve never been a fan of Fitbits or other tracker type devices, but for some reason I’m just in love with this thing. Of course listening to your body is most important, but for me it helps to take a couple days off if Oura confirms that I need it. Otherwise, I tend to push myself too much.

F.lux and blue light blocking goggles: There are all sorts of apps to block out blue light to promote restful sleep (blue light has a negative effect on your sleep). I use F.lux on my computers to filter out the blue light emitted by the screen as the day goes on, and the iPhone has a built in “Night Shift” option (look in your settings). But even when I’m walking around in the evening, I find it helpful to wear nerdy blue light blocking goggles to help me wind down and prep for sleeping.

Workflowy: This is my favorite app for staying organized and reducing mental clutter. Their tagline is “Organize your brain” and that’s exactly what it does. Before I found this, I’d have little lists all over the place — on post-its, on my Notes app, in word documents, in text messages I sent to myself…no wonder I felt scattered! Now, I put everything—ideas, thoughts, tasks— all in one place — from work to personal. It’s pretty simple but it has done wonders for my work flow, and keeping me organized. It’s kinda hard to explain in a post, so if you’re interested, check out their videos here.

Braintoss: You know when you have an idea that comes to you as you’re laying in bed or at the dinner table? I used to scramble for sticky notes, text these to myself, or worst case scenario, try to remember and forget. Braintoss connects to your inbox and allows you to really quickly either voice something, snap a pic, or type a note and it automatically sends it straight to your inbox, so that I don’t forget it and I can add it to Workflowy later. 🙂

9. Power Hours.

Power hours are dedicated time to focus on a specific task or project, and get it done. My friend Stacie told me about these. I do these throughout the day, but also if I have a free evening or on a weekend or vacation if I just want to crank out some work really quick and move on, I’ll set my Be Focused PRO app for 60 minutes, turn on Brain FM and crank it out.

10. I delegate.

This concept has been key to not only help me be more productive with my time, but also (and perhaps most importantly), has allowed me to live a more balanced life (and practice what I preach!). By giving certain tasks away to my team members, I can use my energy for projects that demand more of my attention, and not spend time on ones that don’t.

Often I am asked, “How do you do it all?” And the answer is, I DON’T. While the brand “Cassie.net” may appear to be just me, that’s not even close to the truth. We have an amazing team of full time staff members from our operations manager to customer support to dietitians to graphic design, IT, and finance. It took me too long to learn the importance of delegating but once I began reaping the benefits, it became one of my most favorite things to do. 🙂 Since brain capacity is NOT an unlimited resource, delegating allows me to use mine for what matters most. This can apply to anything in life. Find the tasks that aren’t important for you to do, and practicing giving some of those away!

Click here to download my free 1-page PDF that I used to develop my morning routine!

Source: https://www.cassie.net/10-hacks-for-maximum-productivity/

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jamiekturner · 6 years ago

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10 Small Design Mistakes We Still Make

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

The saying that “good design is obvious” is pretty damn old, and I am sure it took different shapes in the previous centuries. It referred to good food, music, architecture, clothes, philosophy and everything else.

We forget that the human mind changes slowly, and the knowledge you have about human behaviour will not go old for at least 50 years or so. To make it easy for you, we need to keep consistent with a couple of principles that will remind us of how to design great products. We should be told at least once a month about these small principles until we live and breathe good design.

The human brain’s capacity doesn’t change from one year to the next, so the insights from studying human behaviour have a very long shelf life. What was difficult for user twenty years ago continues to be difficult today — J. Nielsen

Revisiting: Don’t Make Me Think

Steve Krug laid out some useful principles back in 2000, after the dot-com boom which are still valuable and relevant nowadays. Even after his revised version, nothing changed. Yes, you will tell me that the looks are more modern and the websites are more organised and advanced (no more flash!). But what I mean about that is — nothing has changed in human behaviour. We will always want the principle “don’t make me think” applied to any type of product we interact (whether it is a microwave, tv, smartphone or car).

1. We don’t read, we scan

The reason for that is — we are on a mission, and we only look for the thing that interests us. For example, I rarely remember myself going through all the text on the homepage of a product website. Why? Because most of the web users are trying to get something done, and done quickly. We do not have time to read more than necessary. And we still put a lot of text because we think people need to know that. Or as some designers say: “it adds to the experience”.

Use plenty of headings — they tell you what each section is about or if they are relevant to the person. Either way, they help you decide to scan further or leave the website

Keep paragraphs short — long paragraphs makes it harder for readers to keep their place, and they are harder to scan than a series of short paragraphs. There’s always a reasonable place in a paragraphs to break it in two.

Use bulleted lists — almost anything can be a bullet list. Do you have a sentence that separates many things with comma? Then it can be a bullet list. Also, don’t forget to leave space between bullet list rows for optimal reading. Take Medium as an example.

Highlight key terms — much of page scanning process consists of looking for keywords and phrases. Formatting the most important one in bold, makes them easier to find. Also, don’t highlight too many things because it will lose effectiveness.

2. Create effective visual hierarchies

Another important aspect that will help scanning a page is offering a proper visual hierarchy. We have to make it clear that the appearance on a page portrays the relationship between elements. So there are a couple of principles for that:

The more important something is, the more prominent it is. The most important stuff are either larger or bolder in distinctive colour set.

Things that are related logically, are related visually. For example things are similar by grouping them under the same visual style, or under the same heading.

3. Don’t reinvent the wheel

We believe that people want something new and more. But we forget that there are so many applications on the market that each demands our time. Each of them has different interactions, and we need to learn each one of them. And our mind blows up when: “Oh man, another app to learn?!”.

It is an important point to know before I am going to say this:

We as designers, when asked to design something new, have a temptation to try and reinvent the wheel. Because doing something like everyone else seems somehow wrong. We have been hired to do something different. Not to mention that the industry rarely offers awards and praises for designing something that has “the best use of conventions”.

Before reinventing the wheel, you have to understand the value (time, effort, knowledge) that went into what you are trying to disrupt and innovate.

4. Product instructions must die

Our job is to make stuff clear and obvious. If obvious is not an option, then at least self-explanatory. The main thing you need to know about instructions is that nobody is going to read them. We should aim for removing the instructions to make everything self-explanatory. But when they are necessary, cut as much as possible. (but, really, nobody is going to read them). We muddle through.

If it is not obvious then we should aim for self-explanatory.

Take IKEA as an example. If you gave an average person to assemble a wardrobe from IKEA, I am sure that he will assemble it right most of the times. Why? It is, most of the cases, apparent on how it should be assembled if we have a clear picture in front of us. But even in instances where they look at the instructions, there are no words — only images.

5. We do not care how your product works

For most of the people, it is not essential to know or understand how your product works. Not because they are not intelligent, but merely because they do not care. So once they nail down the use of your product, they will rarely switch to something else.

Let’s take as an example the Apple AirPods. We can all admit that they are the worst sounding earbuds for the price you pay. But when I look at how people interact with it, I understand the real reason why they buy it. They do not make you think about why it is not working. You even don’t notice they have new technology.

I look at how my mom interacts with them, and she never asked me what technology is behind or how they work. She knows that whenever you open the case near your device, it is going to connect. It is that easy.

6. People don’t look for “subtle cues” — we are in a hurry

My favourite one. We, designers, love giving the users subtle effects and add beautiful delights. Right? Well, what if I told you that your users don’t care about it? No matter how much they tell you they do, they don’t. First time? Yes. Second? Ok. Third? Really, how much do I have to see this until it’s enough?

Why is this happening? Life is a much more stressful and demanding environment than an app’s delights and subtle effects. For example, you are a father, and your kid is screaming because he wants ice cream, the dog is barking because somebody is calling at the front door and you are trying to book a quick train ticket that should leave in 40 minutes. In that specific moment, people will not give a f* about your subtle cues. On the other side, we should use them, but not when it kills the user flow.

7. Focus groups are not usability tests

Focus group is a small group of people that sit around at the table and discuss things. They talk about their opinions about the product, past experiences, their feelings and reactions to new concepts. Focus groups are great for determining what your audience wants.

A usability test is about watching one person at a time trying to use something (your product in this case). In this case, you ask them to perform specific actions to see if you need to fix something in your concepts. So focus groups is about listening and usability tests are about watching.

8. We allow personal feelings take over the process

All of us who design digital products have the moment when they say — “I am a user too, so I know what is good or bad.” And because of that, we tend to have strong feelings about what we like and don’t.

We enjoy using products with ______, or we think that _____ is a big pain.And when we work on a team it tends to be hard to check those feelings at the door. The result is a room full of people with strong personal feelings on what it takes to design a great product. We tend to think that most of the users are like us.

9. You ask the wrong questions

It is not productive and will not add any value if you ask questions such as: “Do people like drop-down menus?”. The right question to ask is: “Does this drop-down menu, with these words, in this context, on this page create a good experience for people who are likely to use the site?”

We should leave aside “do people like it?” and get deeper into the strategic context of design.

The reason for that is if we focus on what people like, we will lose focus and energy. Usability testing will erase any “likes” and show you what needs to be done.

10. When a person uses your product, you forget that she shouldn’t spend time thinking about…

Where am I?

Where should I begin?

Where the f* did they put _____ ?

What are the most important things on this page?

Why did they call it that way?

Is that an ad or part of the site?

The point is that every question that pops into our head, when using your product, only adds up to the cognitive workload. It distracts our attention from “why I am here” and “what I need to do”. And as a rule, people don’t enjoy solving puzzles when they merely want to know if that button is clickable or not.

And every time you make a user tap on something that does not work, or it looks like a button/link but it’s not, it also adds up to the pile of questions. And this happens because who built the product did not care too much about the product.

Make sure to share down in the comments small design mistakes we do on a daily basis for our products (whether apps or websites) so others can learn from them too. The article was written based on the revised version of the book Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

One more thing

I host a design podcast, Laroche.fm, and if you are into design and the business side of it, I would appreciate if you could give it a listen. And if you would like to receive future updates about new articles, my reading list and pocast episodes, you can join My Weekly Newsletter ❤

The post 10 Small Design Mistakes We Still Make appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing https://www.designyourway.net/blog/user-experience/10-small-design-mistakes-we-still-make/

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sinceileftyoublog · 4 years ago

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theMIND Interview: The World Is Burning

Photo by Bryan Allen Lamb

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Protest music is not “timely” when what’s being protested is pervasive; we’ve seen as such from music as recent as Run The Jewels’ fourth album. On Juneteenth, Chicago-via-Philly artist Zarif Wilder, aka theMIND, released “A Spike Lee Jawn”, a lyrically blistering, musically funky list of righteous demands: “To Whom it May Concern, FUCK 12 and reparations have been due. This song is a 400 year old invoice. Best, theMIND,” Wilder wrote to introduce it. But the song wasn’t written last month. It was three years old. The difference is that Wilder’s now ready to tell the world what he thinks.

Wilder moved to Chicago in 2007 to study music business at Columbia College, eventually forming a production group (THEMpeople) and releasing a debut mixtape called Summer Camp in 2016, the same year he, up until this point, more publicly started to pop up on music you’ve most certainly heard. He had two writing credits on Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book and appeared on Noname’s Telefone and Pete Rock and Smoke DZA’s collaborative album Don’t Smoke Rock. Last year saw his most prominent feature to date, on Jamila Woods’ brilliant “SUN RA”. His name should gain more recognition later this year when he releases a new album called Don’t Let It Go to Your Head, but partially because he’s not afraid to present the truest version of himself. “A Spike Lee Jawn” is not on the record--the only track released from it so far is 2017′s “Ms. Communication”--but its combination of truth and grooves serves as a blueprint for the type of songs that will appear on it, according to Wilder. Even “Ms. Communication” will fit. Speaking to me over the phone last month, Wilder laughed, “It’s kind of crazy to think that the first single in my project was released in 2017. Once people hear the whole project, they won’t be like, ‘Why are we having this callback moment to 3 years ago?’” Part of the cohesion is because of this dichotomy of honesty: “‘Ms. Communication’ is a song about ghosting someone, and I was in the wrong,” Wilder said. “But who knew that a song about ghosting somebody could be a groove?”

During our conversation, Wilder spoke about the context and inspirations behind “A Spike Lee Jawn”, his relationship with the filmmaker’s movies, protest songs, and the limits of streamed performances. Read it below, edited for length and clarity.

SILY: What’s the history of “A Spike Lee Jawn”?

Zarif Wilder: I recorded it in 2017. It’s kind of funny because I was working with Cam O'bi on his project. I was doing a bunch of songwriting for him, and we did a bunch of songs in that time period. We started working on the production which came to be “A Spike Lee Jawn”. We made the majority of the song that day. I came back and added the guitar and bass to it a couple weeks later or so.

I felt like I was poking the bear by revisiting topics like reparations or police brutality or social inequalities in general. I wanted to add to the conversation, but I didn’t want to keep on reopening old wounds. 2020 comes around, and the song is still relevant. The issues are still happening. It felt like I silenced myself back then, that I wasn’t trying to bring any light to the darkness we have in this world.

SILY: Obviously, a song like this in context of the protests surrounding George Floyd, it seems like it could have been written last week or last month, which just speaks to the prevalence and constancy of these issues.

ZW: Continuously, yeah. It’s that truth I wanted to bring light to with this record. I wanted to make sure that at the end of the day, I’m adding to the conversation.

SILY: You’re from Philly--that’s the “Jawn” reference.

ZW: Exactly. Born and raised.

SILY: Is there anything else about the song you think is distinctly Philly?

ZW: I realized after I moved to Chicago that a lot of the experiences were the same [as in Philly]. It’s actually kind of weird to think about people having the same experience at the same time. When I’m talking about literally, “Cadillac with tinted eyes / See my 45 keeps me alive,” and all these different references to cars with tinted headlights. They weren’t just in my city. They were everywhere. All of these references I thought were regional were everywhere.

SILY: What’s your relationship with Spike Lee’s movies?

ZW: [laughs] I love all of Spike Lee’s earlier stuff. I think that somewhere along the line--as most people do--we kind of lose touch with the place that we’re from. The trouble comes with trying to speak for the places that you’re no longer in. Specifically when you make movies like Chi-Raq. Spike Lee is doing the movie from the perspective of someone growing up in Brooklyn. He can do that to a great tee, but to come to a different place and try to paint pictures without directly talking to individuals, it’s a little jaded. But I also believe he’s entitled to his opinion. It doesn’t mean that I have to like it as well. [laughs]

It changes. It varies. I liked Da 5 Bloods, I thought that was a good movie. I enjoyed that. But Spike Lee has his corny moments, as we all do.

SILY: Especially with Da 5 Bloods and BlacKkKlansman, he’s not subtle. He hits you over the head with what he’s trying to say, but at the same time, I feel like it’s almost good in today’s day and age. To a certain extent, what he’s talking about is not subtle at all. It deserves to be spoken loudly.

ZW: Guaranteed. Especially when based on historical instances, we have to be very careful with the creative licenses we take, but also be very open to someone’s artistic expression and how they want to tell the story. I fuck with Spike for that. I think Spike’s a legend and will always be. But that’s the one thing we should get to the point of with celebrity culture as a whole: being able to properly critique each other. We don’t want to get to a point where we can’t critique our legends.

SILY: Why did you decide to include him in the title of this song?

ZW: It’s still an homage to him. He’s one of the super great filmmakers. Spike Lee’s production company is called 40 Acres and a Mule. [Editor’s note: The chorus of the song starts with “I just want my 40 acres, fuck the mule.”] I fuck with his rise and his look, the way he kind of looks at creating a path for himself, especially in a cis white male-dominated industry like film-making. He was constantly pushing through to tell stories of people who look like him.

SILY: The song’s very pointed, but the instrumentation is funky. You can definitely dance to it. Was it important to you to make a “protest” song you can also dance to?

ZW: Guaranteed. Recently, there’s Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”. When that song first dropped, someone said to me, “This is it. This is gonna be the song for the movement.” I was like, “Man, are you serious?” And they were like, “I’m telling you, this is the one.” The next week afterwards, it was everywhere, at every protest, at every march, people were chanting, [sings], “We gon’ be alright!” But it was still a banger. I don’t think protest songs should be sung. They should be chanted. They should be something that pushes us to keep moving, not this super sad thing you want to sit down and say, “Man, the world’s fucked up.” You want something that makes you want to fight.

SILY: Have you been to any of the recent protests?

ZW: Yeah, I went to a bunch, and I went to a bunch of food drives after the CPS shutdown the food program.

SILY: Did you notice any other protest songs that were prevalent in your experience protesting?

ZW: It was mainly the chants we were familiar with, not the song chants at all. Chants of solidarity, like, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win.” I wouldn’t go to a protest and start to sing my own song. [laughs]

"A Spike Lee Jawn" (ft. Krystal Metcalfe); Single Artwork by fifthpower

SILY: Can you tell me a little bit about the single artwork?

ZW: It’s done by my friend fifthpower, and it’s based off the Quasimoto [Further Instrumentals] cover, in which Quasi is sitting inside of a house and it’s burning outside, but it’s in L.A. It also reminded me of the “This Is Fine” meme with the dog sitting there with the hat. When we kind of started this year off, with the end of last year, I was in L.A. during the fires. There was ash coming down. Me and my friend were having brunch, and literally, ash was falling, and I was like, “What is this? Is this snow? What’s happening?” And they were like, “That’s the ash from the hills burning.” And I was like, “Y’all are just okay out here eating brunch?!?” It kind of brought this revelation to me that the world is burning around us, and we’re kind of sitting around and saying, “This is fine.” Some people are yelling and screaming, but the majority is like, “This is cool.” I wanted to point to that, and the best way I could do that was have my two cats staring out the window watching it burn.

SILY: Your debut tape came out in 2016. How have you grown as an artist in the past 4 years?

ZW: I’m not afraid of my own reflection anymore. I don’t know if that makes any sense. Summer Camp was super metaphorical. I was afraid to dive in to topics I really wanted to talk about because of painful memories. As I grew, those topics, I couldn’t escape them anymore. I couldn’t think of the metaphors anymore. If the world is burning, I had to say, “The world is burning,” rather than, “I smell smoke.” There are so many different ways to dig deeper into my art. I’m comfortable being naked in front of the audience that listens to my music more so than I ever was before. The self-love I was yearning for on Summer Camp came to fruition. I’m still working on it, but a lot of the parts that made me uncomfortable who I was, telling those experiences, hoping that somebody else can find themselves in their journey as well.

SILY: Tell me about the video for “A Spike Lee Jawn”.

ZW: We dropped it on Juneteenth as is. It went under the radar purposefully. It went up at 11:00 AM, and the way we kind of promoted it was kind of like a teaser for the song and not a full-blown video.

SILY: What else is next for you? Have you planned somewhat of a roll-out for the upcoming record?

ZW: Yeah, I have. I’m super excited about it, specifically with this project. A lot of these fears I had on the first project were addressed on this one more directly, talking about it.

SILY: Have you planned any live streams?

ZW: The crazy part about this is I went on tour--I’ve been touring my new project for the past couple years, honestly. I went on tour with Ibeyi and a European run with Noname. Throughout that entire time, I was trying out songs I was playing. Of course, I was playing a lot from Summer Camp and a lot of my features, but I was pushing a bunch of these other songs. The response was good from the crowd. I want to do something, but a streaming concert just doesn’t look cool to me right now. I don’t know how to do it right. [laughs] One of my favorite things about performing is feeling people’s energy, and doing that through a stream is really tough. I was talking to my friend Jamila Woods, and she was saying that her stream was a bunch of other artists you could see on a Zoom call, and they were hyping each other up. So that was a cool idea, playing a festival and you could see them but not the audience.

SILY: The time lag is a thing, too. I’ve seen a couple performances where some bands were playing live in different rooms, but it was pretty heavily edited.

ZW: Exactly.

SILY: If people are hyping each other up, though, at least it has some of the energy aspect you’re talking about.

ZW: Exactly. It’s hard to replicate that. I know people who can’t perform unless they hear the crowd.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been reading, watching, or listening to lately that’s inspired you, caught your attention, or comforted you?

ZW: I’ve been trying to stay off of everything, but I’ve been watching documentaries. At the beginning of the video for “A Spike Lee Jawn”, there’s a clip of farmers from the Ivory Coast who have never tasted chocolate. They never even knew that the bean they farmed turned into it. So there’s a small clip of them eating chocolate for the first time. They’re older guys. It completely blows your mind. But the analogy between that and where America is, as far as all of the people who helped build this country not being able to participate in the beautiful aspects the American Dream supposedly offers.

I’ve been having conversations with individuals as much as I possibly can, to gain as much perspective from people as I can.

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years ago

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The Legacy: Plan All Your Moves in Advance

The most legitimately scary moment in the game so far.

I’m not an adventure game addict. My experience with them is somewhat limited to the few that I played as a child and they hybrids I’ve played on this blog. What I enjoy most about them are the “aha!” moments when you realize the solution to a puzzle and, even better, when that solution cascades to other puzzles. It feels like when I’m playing a tough crossword and just starting to despair and I finally hit upon a word, and the letters that it gives me in the crossings lead to a cascade of “aha!s” as I fill in a bunch of other words. There are many times in adventure games in which I have a list of puzzles with no solutions and then suddenly solving one provides me with the object I need for another, which provides me with the object I need for another, and so on, until the end or at least the next major section. I’ve noticed this same phenomenon the couple of times that I’ve tried “escape rooms.” It can be quite a high.

If I was really addicted to this style of gameplay, then, I think I’d find the RPG parts of RPG hybrids an unwelcome intrusion. RPGs add an element of randomness, of indeterminism, that I would think an adventure gamer might find unwelcome. In an adventure game, it’s enough to figure out that the way to defeat the ghost is to douse it with holy water. You might have trouble with the parser or controls, but if you otherwise get it right, the holy water splashes on the ghost and the ghost disappears. RPGs put a “throwing” skill in between the puzzle and the solution. It doesn’t matter that you were good enough to solve the puzzle, your character has to be good enough, too. So you try throwing the holy water, and you miss or it doesn’t work, and now it’s not clear whether you got the puzzle wrong or your character just failed. So now you have to try potential solutions multiple times, with never any guarantee, statistically, that the “right” solution will actually work.

And, as the DOS prompt soon makes it clear, out of this world.

The same isn’t true of adventure game elements within RPGs. I can’t see any reason not to welcome them (if not done poorly, of course). They provide a break from the monotony of killing enemies, they give you a reason to carefully map and take notes, and they generally help establish a greater sense of setting than the typical RPG dungeon actually gives you. You can tell me that I’m exploring a crypt and maybe create wall textures accordingly, but it creates a much better sense of being in a crypt if I have to solve some kind of puzzle related to headstones or laying some bones to rest or whatever.

My thesis is thus that I, as a CRPG addict, appreciate hybrids more than adventure game addicts. I will need more adventure gamer comments to know for sure. What I can tell you from my perspective is that as I mapped the world of The Legacy, I briefly crossed over and found myself getting annoyed with the game’s RPG intrusions. The game already offers so much to explore, so many puzzles to solve, so many items to keep track of, I don’t need me exploration interrupted (or, worse, artificially channeled) by winged demons roaming the hallways, especially when I don’t know if the winged demons a) can’t be defeated; b) can be defeated, but only with better skills or items; or c) can be defeated but only with a special item. The holy water example above was a real experience in this session. Likewise locked doors: I had a number of them annotated for hours as needing a key, only to find that I just had to try “Force” at least one more time.

After our discussion on my first entry.in which you alerted me that there might be several “walking dead” moments in the game, I started over with new characters. Specifically, I made someone high in “Brawling,” as it was the only way I had to fight for now. When he died, I just used a couple of the default characters. My goal was just to map and annotate, saving the “real” gameplay for later, once I had a better idea of where to go, what resources to expend, and which to conserve. I mapped in my usual way, coloring in yellow those areas where I still had a locked door or other puzzle to solve. The nature of this game is that there are no tricky transitions between areas (e.g., leaving one square to east and arriving in the next from the south), so I could use Excel.

The main floor of the mansion was 20 x 20, using razor walls, with some squares unused–unless there’s some way of finding secret doors I haven’t yet determined. I also mapped about half of the second level (also shaping up to be 20 x 20) and bits of the basement, a third level, and a sub-basement.

My map of the ground level. The coordinates are for my own notes; I don’t think the game uses any coordinates.

As I mentioned last time, most of the rooms and hallways are typical RPG-style tiles with textures, in which you can turn and face any direction. Occasionally, however, you move forward into a more detailed room with a more artfully-composed scene, and you can only view it from one perspective. You would think these rooms had something special about them, but most of them haven’t offered me anything important or even any obvious puzzles for later solutions. Level 1’s sole room of this nature was a dining room. The dining room table had “death awaits!” scrawled in it, and a shrunken head came out of the dumbwaiter. A curtain, when opened, showed a hanging body behind it.

Level 2 had three special rooms: a bedroom, a bathroom, and a den. The den had a VCR that I needed so that was important, but otherwise I didn’t see any point to them. Oddly, the first time I visited the bathroom and opened the toilet, I would swear that the game told me that I found a key. But upon dying and revisiting a couple of times, I never got that message again. I never saw the key the first time, in any event, just the message.

The bathroom scene on Level 2.

The ground floor had about 15 zombies, and my third character was able to fully clear them, although he had to use up two first aid packs and about 12 rounds of ammunition in the process. Late in the game, I found a “Juju fetish” that causes the zombies to ignore you. I don’t know if it would still be worth killing them for the experience. For weapons, I found a fireplace poker and a revolver and several speedloaders for it, but it eventually jammed.

The only other enemy on the first level was a floating mouth with sharp teeth and tentacles–kind of like a beholder (which is what I called them on the map) without the eye. I couldn’t defeat it with any weapon, but he didn’t seem interested in attacking me unless I attacked him first. Instead, he just floated around and scared the character, which causes him to drop his jaw and stand in place, paralyzed, for a little while.

I’m not sure it’s even necessary to fight these guys.

The other floors were a lot harder. The second floor had ghosts, which I could only kill once I figured out the holy water trick, and I think there are more ghosts than holy water. Late in the session, I found what is perhaps a way to remove them all permanently at once, but more on that in a bit. The second floor also had winged demons with some kind of magic ranged attack, and I couldn’t kill them at all. Enemies are fortunately unable to open doors, so you can get away from most of them as long as you don’t get trapped in a dead end.

So far, I’ve been unable to defeat this enemy.

The basement had some other kind of demon that I could kill, but only with a lot of difficulty, and there were too many of them. I could barely explore down there at all. A second basement area had some creature (or person, I suppose) with a gun who kept sniping me from the end of a hallway. Late in the session, I found a bulletproof vest that’s probably supposed to be used here.

In addition to enemies, frequent darkness has been an obstacle to exploration. The lights go out at regular intervals (in conjunction with peals of thunder) and stay out for several minutes, the intervals of darkness getting longer and longer, until eventually they go out completely. I eventually found a flashlight in a Level 1 hallway, but it has limited battery power, which means you definitely want to select “pause” when you take time away from the game window. I eventually found a fuse box behind a locked door, but the game says that it’s broken.

Of course it is.

The only puzzles I’ve solved have been relatively obvious ones. For instance, I’ve found a handful of keys (thankfully, there’s a key ring) to open locked doors. One key opened a safe, in which I found a videocassette that played in a machine on the second level. Level 1 had a couple of trap doors that could be hidden with wall switches, plus one room where every square spun me in a different direction. A couple of illusory walls were revealed by walking directly into them.

Level 2 got a bit harder with the navigation puzzles. There are a couple of doors that teleport you to other parts of the level when you walk through them. There are a couple of squares in which you get zapped with a lightning bolt unless you press a button on either side to teleport past them.

Other puzzles to which I haven’t found solutions are as follows. I emphasize that I do not want spoilers for these puzzles unless the solution is something that I should have already figured out from the manual or something equally obvious.

Several locked doors, though it was late in the session that I realized trying “Force” multiple times sometimes works, so I have to go around to them again.

One particular locked door on Level 2 has someone knocking behind it. This is the subject of the top screen shot and it legitimately gave me a fright when I walked up to it and heard the knocking. That was the only real “scare” of the session.

A woman walking around in circles on Level 2 doesn’t seem to have any way to interact.

I can’t get her to stop, talk, or anything.

The sealed entry door on Level 1, though I suspect that isn’t a real puzzle but just something that persists throughout the game.

Some of the rooms have rune symbols on the walls. Examining them says that they’re “charged,” but I have otherwise no idea what to do with them. You can also find runes to pick up that are equally mysterious.

I hope the meaning and use of these becomes clear.

The damaged fusebox on Level 1.

Second-floor landing doors in the entry hallway that are all “nailed shut.” More than once, I’ve written off such doors only to later find a prybar, so I’m not sure what to think here.

This is the door that the opening cinematic shows you going through.

But most of my progress is blocked by enemies, not puzzles. I need to figure out reliable ways to defeat the basement demons and winged demons or I won’t be able to explore much of their levels. Your comments have made me reluctant to waste spells on them, and my last couple of characters didn’t have spells anyway.

As I’ve explored, notes, diary pages, and other bits of exposition have filled in parts of the plot. Last time, I recounted a series of notes from a Marcus Roberts, who had taken it upon himself to investigate the house and its “depraved” history, noting that local disappearances corresponded with lights appearing in the sky every 50 years. Inside the house, he found portals to “planes of darkness” that let the demons into the place. He somehow determined that he needed to find the Golden Torch, but he apparently died in the basement from the gun-wielding enemy.

One of Marcus Roberts’s notes.

One long document described the history of the house: Built “near Longport in 1639 by Governor Elias Winthrop.” There is, of course, no “Longport” anywhere in New England (although there is one in New Jersey) and no Governor Elias Winthrop, but these names sound plausibly like something that you might find in the history of the New England states, particularly Massachusetts. A John Winthrop was a colonial governor of Massachusetts only a few years after 1639, for instance. Anyway, Elias Winthrop was burned as a warlock in 1662–apparently the subject of the painting in the first room. Even then, Winthrop House was said to be haunted. Elias’s son, Hildebrand, used the house for “debauched revelries” until he died in a fire in 1699. The history notes that Hildebrand Winthrop was the last Winthrop to live in the house, but the family tree shows he had two sons who changed their last names to Maitland and Mayhew. I thus don’t know whether the history means they didn’t live in the house (and it later found its way back to their descendants) or whether they lived in the house but weren’t Winthrops anymore.

There were also diary pages written by a Robert Prentiss, one of the three family members who had recently “gone missing” and prompted the start of the game. The diary is recent. It talks about ghostly intrusions from the “ethereal plane” and Prentiss’s attempts to control them. Apparently, some forthcoming stellar alignment is going to cause (or already caused) the “final gate” to open. Prentiss also questions whether he is The One, which has something to do with the magic in his bloodline. His sister, Ellen, apparently also possessed the magic but “rebelled against it,” and Prentiss was determined to kill her, “and then nothing shall stand in my way.” One note written by Ellen calls her brother a “fool” and says that he may be summoning dark gods, including one named Alberoth, but they can’t stop her from running past them on the stairs and exploring the house at her leisure.

These notes seem to be setting up Ellen as a good guy and Robert as the antagonist, but then we come to the VHS tape titled “My Brother and I” (ah, 1993 was a more innocent time). On it, Robert says that Ellen has escaped after being locked up, presumably in the house, after she tried to burn it down in 1967 (she would have been 25). Ellen killed Robert’s wife Catherine and their mother, Karen, “and now she’s after me.” Then Ellen appears on the tape, holding an axe, and says, “Why don’t you tell ’em the rest, brother dear? About your mother and her family, about the ring, about the Dark Ones?” It cuts off there. The title suggests that Ellen survived the encounter.

I’m not looking forward to meeting her.

A third note seems to be written by a private investigator, hired by a “weird guy” to “investigate this crazy joint.” It could be Marcus, but the tone is different. He remarks that “nowhere is safe unless it is marked with a strange triangle symbol.” The book mentions this, too, as the only places safe to rest, but I haven’t found a single room with a triangle symbol. The game says I haven’t gotten tired enough to rest anyway.

Finally, I found a ghost on the second level who was interested in talking rather than fighting. He said that he and his fellow ghosts “served the cult of Melchior in life and now are enslaved to it in death.” Apparently, the cult performed something called the Rite of Opening, but Melchior deceived his followers and ensnared their souls. I can release them if I burn “the painting.” The only painting I’ve found is of the warlock in the first room, but I can’t seem to make anything happen with oil or matches or the “Flames of Desolation” spell. However, in messing with it, I noted something I missed earlier: there’s a hollow depression where the warlock’s pendant is, and the game says it’s surrounded by fragments of green glass. Thus, I suspect there’s something else to do with this painting and the one that the ghost wants burned is a different one.

Does the Cult of Melchior worship him because he brings gifts of gold?

I’m enjoying the game, but it’s clear by now this is no quick adventure game that you can win in less than an hour once you know all the puzzle solutions. Thus, I’m not sure I want to keep exploring with throwaway characters. I guess the better approach would be to do my best with a final character but save at key stages. I’ll think on it for next time.

Time so far: 7 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-legacy-plan-all-your-moves-in-advance/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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timclymer · 5 years ago

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From Farm to Factory: Assembly Line, Baby

As an active agent, you’re already working your farm – great. The question is whether you’re getting the most you can from it. Given the same number of prospective clients in a shared market, how do you maximize your farm’s output to get an edge on your competition? Short of outspending them or working 16 hour days, it’s all about the systems you have in place. Let’s explore how we can help you automate yourself out of a job and teach you to you operate a business.

Do You Run Your Business Like a Business?

So you’re an independent contractor … you don’t work for a brokerage and you don’t get a regular paycheck or a W-2 at the end of the year. It’s important to remember that as such, you’re running your own business (don’t make the mistake here of glazing that over). Most agents fail to really land that connection and even after years in the field, they’ll continue to treat their business more like a hobby. Sounds funny, sure. But see if any of these look familiar …

They work from day to day, awaiting inevitable encounters from familiar problems they don’t have the time to deal with

They have no set operational budgets (everything is on the fly and pain or opportunity-based)

They have no established and maintained step-by-step client handling procedures

They couldn’t tell you what the day after tomorrow looks like and experience over-promised schedule snafus

In short, they never systematized the work they needed to perform at the daily level. And as a result, these agents spend more time working on individual tasks than they need to and worse, they find themselves repeatedly breaking away from these tasks in order to jump on an opportunity or to put out a fire. If you’re looking for a way to tighten your processes and gain time to reign in troublesome outlier issues, then a good way to start is to develop an assembly line mentality. Don’t worry … you can keep all prospect and client engagements personal … we’re talking about operational processes.

How to Develop an Assembly Line Mentality

Assembly lines require consistency and so too do stable and predictable businesses. While you cannot predict which gear in your daily operation is going to get clogged next week, you can include buffer time in advance to address random issues that pop up later. This is a key to business planning … plan for what you do not know. The good news is that you’re likely doing this already without even knowing it.

If you set yourself a 25-minute limit for a 30-minute webinar or call, just so that you could have 5 minutes for a Q&A session at the end … then you’re already working with an assembly line mentality. Think about it, you’re applying a general operational procedure (“budget for a 5 minute Q&A”) … to a type of action (“for any call”) … for a type of audience (“to interested leads ”). In this, you’re proactively setting procedures or systems in place … ahead of time.

As you develop these sorts of systems, you’ll pass or fail them in practice. You’ll tweak them to fit new marketing challenges, new skill sets you’ve picked up or staff changes to the team. And as these begin to form solid guidelines for predictable success, you’ll begin to trust these systems of yours and gain a broader view of what happens further down the line … what’s likely to happen next week, next month or next season.

Remember that the most efficient and predictable businesses, those that have the most flexibility to adapt to opportunities, know their operations down to a coffee lid. This level of precision predictability takes time and effort, but you can start with the Top of Funnel tasks. Here are some ideas for finding systems in your daily routine …

Create a Daily Task List

You can start just by creating a daily task list. It’s simple and will highlight any repetitive tasks that you nevertheless need to get done on a daily basis. The trick here is to list out all of the things you find yourself doing every day for your business. Then, form action groups that allow you to approach the tasks in single-sitting sessions. Here are some examples …

Marketing: If you’re like most agents, you’re spending at least some portion of each day marketing your brand and services. Maybe there are leads you need to check in with, or you may be preparing a direct mail campaign or even knocking on doors. Break these into task types. For instance, the lead check-ins and direct mail campaign prep may require you to be on the phone and near your computer, whereas the door-knocking will require you to be out and about. While all three fall under more familiar business task type (aka “Marketing”), in reality, there are two task types here: those you can do in the office and those that require you to be out of the office.

Client Service: Obviously, email is a powerful tool, but it’s also an entire office in itself. Unfortunately, this is where most agents will get sucked into disarray. You can start to streamline this mess by identifying the client actions you need to take. For instance, those you need to give a status report to, any showing feedback you need to obtain or closing transactions that need your attention. Break these into response action types. You may be doing this already with filters and folders. Take another look and see if the systems you have in place match your daily routines these days. Maybe there was a shift in target clients that requires a similar shift in communication strategy or scheduling.

Education: A business that isn’t learning is likely a business that isn’t growing. It’s a competitive market out there and if you’re not staying up on techniques that you should be doing, then at least learn what the competition working your farm is doing. So it’ll be important to include some education into your routine. This probably isn’t something you’ll do every day, but certainly each week, you’ll meet with your team, go over recent inquiries, regional trends, market stats and so on. This is education too … and it can be systematized. On your calendar, mark off two 30-minute blocks each week to study up on a topic (ideally with your team or peers in the office). Doesn’t matter what it is, so long as it’s related to your business and that you do it.

Planning: This one is often overlooked and finds itself bleeding into the off-hours … leave time to plan your activities for the following day, because inevitably, it’s going to change – it’s okay, you planned for things to change. Of course, you’ll want to break tomorrow’s tasks into groups you can manage in one sitting, so focus on the way in which you can address them.

Start Documenting Your Business Processes

As an independent business owner, you need to do all you can to reduce repetitive, manual tasks. If you’ve got a team, then they’ll need to know how to work within the framework of your new factory approach. Similarly … you’re going to need refreshers here and there (at least until it becomes second-nature). This is where an “SOP” or Standard Operating Procedure manual (aka documentation) comes into play.

First, make sure you’ve got each system down pat and that you’re using any available technology to the fullest to save time and eliminate time-consuming labor. Automate tasks like lead generation which can be done more effectively using new technologies. Then, start to step-by-step document the easiest way to complete all the things on your todo list. Try to limit each task to 10, single sentence bullets.

Document everything, even the mundane things like making coffee in the morning. Your staff may not need to know how to make the coffee, but establishing your expectations on how long it should or shouldn’t take, can begin to set guidelines and establish relative predictability that every person appreciates in an otherwise chaotic environment.

The more you document, the better. Start with one, simple task in a Word doc, Google doc, etc. Write down 5-10 steps to accomplish it, then name the document something like “2018 SOP – Making Coffee in 15 minutes flat” (notice the buffer … plan on delays). The key to good documentation is consistency, especially in naming, as it makes it easier for future staff to search for specific tasks. “How does the new boss like their coffee?” – there’s a doc for that. Reasonably predictable? Check … next …

When you don’t need to keep all that information in your head, you’ll free up brain space and brainpower and be able to reallocate them to relationships and opportunities that will help you grow your business. Less focus on the mundane and maintain, more focus on opportunity.

Here’s a Helpful Source

There’s a book called “The E-Myth Revisited” that can help you learn the difference between working on your business and working in your business. Looking to make this year rain? Who isn’t? When you run your business like a business, you’ll find a new world of opportunities for success!

Source by Keoki T

from Home Solutions Forev https://homesolutionsforev.com/from-farm-to-factory-assembly-line-baby/ via Home Solutions on WordPress from Home Solutions FOREV https://homesolutionsforev.tumblr.com/post/187971019750 via Tim Clymer on Wordpress

#Home Solutions FOREV

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