#unless we're talking from the 2017 movie?

[gemini-queen42]

Boutta get on a 16 hr flight and afterwords I will HOPEFULLY (if all goes according to plan) have many lil art things to feed y'all. For now though, have this old-ish sketch ik im not finishing super soon.

[acuteobserv4tion]

One of the reasons I love Elemental.

They literally never once in this entire movie ever said that "We're all the same." Never even hinted at it. The point was that the two main characters wanted to be together despite their fundamental differences.

There's literally 3 whole dedicated scenes about it. Where they touch for the first time. Where they talk about Ember's future. Where Wade tries one last time to reach out. I'm so confused why people just ignore this.

Everyone keeps saying it's "Zootopia dressed like Avatar" even though that's not true. It's that same type of thinking that left Dreamworks' Megamind in the dust after Illumination's Despicable Me came out. Just cause they both have a "bad guy" as the protagonist who "talks funny."

It's that same mindset that would have left Coco (2017) out to dry simply because Pixar's "Coco" and 20th Century Fox's "The Book of Life" (2014) both revolve around The Day of The Dead and the main characters like music. Yes, that was a thing.

Remember when people accused Coco of being a Book of Life Rip-off? It's like nobody cares about storytelling, development, execution, or any of that stuff.

This movie isn't black and white rascism like Zootopia. Elemental focuses on immigration. It focuses on sacrifice. It focuses on family. It focuses on preserving culture. And it focuses on love.

It's not a girl trying "to make the world a better place" or a cop case. There's no main villain. Prejudice is just a part of their life. It's just something they have to deal with. And they also appreciate each other's differences.

Another thing that I see pop up again and again and again is, "How are they touching?" "That ruins the rascism allegory." "It's a bad allegory cause the elements will literally destroy each other if they touch."

I just sit there thinking, "Did they even watch the movie? Did they not see that beautiful scene under the bridge where they addressed that issue?"

If you notice throughout the movie, each element has to consciously keep themselves together. The only exception being Earth. (Unless I forgot some earth person in the background who was falling apart)

Air, Water, and Fire will also all change with their emotions. Yet people, both within and out of the movie, only care about what Fire could do. "How come Fire isn't burning this right now? The thing with the flower flashback doesn't work."

Fire isn't the only one capable of being dangerous. Water can cause accidents when they cry and even floods if they lose control. Gale was literally a lightning storm when she was upset.

The Vivisteria was said to be capable of surviving in any environment, even Fireland. Yet the water security guy was still afraid of what Fire could do. The only ones who don't have to work to control themselves are Earth. (Which I guess is why they're kind of just there in the movie living their lives)

That's why it's so amazing what happens under the bridge. Wade and Ember both make a conscious effort to be gentle with each other. They make the effort to find an in-between. It was a whole thing. Why do people just ignore that whole scene?

This rant really got away from me.

[dweemeister]

Eric's rankings (and comments) for the 2024 MOABOS Prelim groups

Good evening (technically early morning) everybody,

The deadline for the 2024 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song preliminary round has closed, and I actually await only a small number of folks left who had extenuating circumstances (that they informed me in advance about) that resulted in a delay in their rankings. For all those who have completed your rankings, I thank you for your input; your ballots have been accepted, recorded, and mostly tabulated.

I have done almost all of the final tabulations, and at this moment a few things remain in the balance. But those results will come on Tuesday night at the earliest or, most likely Wednesday. The final round begins shortly after the preliminary results are sent.

In an effort to be a little more transparent and to encourage comment-writing, I will now be sharing my ballots to both Groups A and B of this year's Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song prelim. If it wasn't already apparent, yes, I am one of the very few people who are able to vote on both groups, but my vote counts for as much as anybody else's (unless we're talking about the very last tiebreaker, which is shared between my sister and myself).

First off, some of my biases and reasonings for them:

The criteria that I outline in the "Instructions" section of my email? That is my own personal criteria - which you should have felt free to follow (or not). However, as you might have figured, some of those criteria I weigh heavier than others...

For example, I value musical interest slightly more than lyrics. It's a bonus if a song is well-integrated into the film's score or is the backbone to that score. If I had some sort of rubric that I gave you, "musical interest" and "context" would weigh heaviest.

When it comes to lyrics, I usually prefer poeticism and simplicity over something busier and complex. Usually (here's an exception). When a complex lyric or lyrical rhythm flows badly with the melody, it just gets overly busy. At certain points of the year, I start cutting songs from MOABOS largely by looking at which ones are musically uninteresting and which ones have uninteresting phrasing.

My biggest lyrical pet peeve: repeating a word or short phrase in order to fill out the meter (e.g. the fake "opera" song "Never Enough" from 2017's The Greatest Showman - a movie I was very mixed about). To me, it's artistic bankruptcy that cheapens the rest of the lyrics and especially the melody. Modern pop music is extremely (and increasingly) guilty of this. One of the few exceptions I allow to this bias? Classic Bollywood, as this was common practice. In pop music? Entirely unnecessary.

My sister is one of the harshest penalizers of songs that appear in the opening or end credits, but are referenced nowhere else. She isn't alone (nor is she the harshest) among MOABOS participants. I am not as harsh as her, as I give a reprieve to songs whose melodies form an important part of a film's score. But I, too, penalize opening or closing credit songs with no presence anywhere else.

Fascinatingly, I've noticed that many of you do not care if I write down the fact that a song is played muted underneath dialogue or the sound effects. In my opinion, good film music is music you can hear. I penalize heavily for not allowing the song itself to shine.

Despite having two left feet, I might be among the most generous when it comes to a choreography/dance direction bonus for a song. Despite my repeated insistence for MOABOS participants to keep choreography and dance direction in mind while judging MOABOS entries, I also sense many of you choose to ignore that entirely. Where music accompanied cinema at its birth, dance - despite having declined in importance over many decades - accompanied the movie musical at its birth. A mass dance number is not a cheesy imposition to me and they usually never take me out of a movie. Instead, it's an extremely important part of a song.

I have no patience for pitch correction/AutoTune (this might explain why there have been so few MOABOS entrants from the 2020s, despite the fact we're now halfway through the decade).

I don't penalize a song for having dubbed a singer or a few.

I sometimes have problems with songs that are too context-dependent and don't have much of a listenability factor when separated from their original film.

Keep in mind I have a running list of potential MOABOS songs that I start at the beginning of every calendar year. There are some songs that were deleted from that list many weeks or months ago and did not make it to the prelim. Even though I might rank something near the bottom of my lists, I had more than enough respect or love for it to put it into MOABOS in the first place.

Without further ado (again, these are NOT the final preliminary standings, nor should they be interpreted at all as "the most likely" to advance to the final; these are simply my personal rankings for each group)...GROUP A (playlist)

"Something's Gotta Give", Daddy Long Legs (1955) Daddy Long Legs is a musical curiously devoid of "big" musical numbers. "Something's Gotta Give" benefits from that void (and was composed deep into production because Astaire thought the musical needed a more memorable number - somewhere, anywhere). Thus, the song hoists almost all of the attention for itself within the context of the film. My only regret here? I wish Caron sung a little more (some of you may disagree, given her heavy accent), but you don't normally have the female lead sing too much in a Fred Astaire number. Still, she does her own dancing alongside Astaire. All of that singing on the offbeats is not frigging easy, folks! It trips up even the best singers. Many, many singers of American Songbook standards covered this one for good reasons.

"You Are My Lucky Star", The Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) Frances Langford wasn't someone I paid too much attention to going into this movie. And given the fact she was a radio star, I probably won't be doing so afterward. But my goodness, she can sing. As one of my friends pointed out, the fact that the title phrase requires the singer to go up and down an octave is difficult as hell. Essentially, when a singer has to sing at such a large range in a short amount of time, it gets a lot more difficult to control one's vocals and breathing. And though we may not think Eleanor Powell as a singer first, props to her for doing her best there. I also really appreciate the ballet here. MGM liked to recycle some of their musical hits for other musicals (like Singin' in the Rain), and "You Are My Lucky Star" would appear multiple times in the decades to come.

"Belleville Rendez-vous", The Triplets of Belleville (2003, France / Belgium / Canada / United Kingdom) I saw Triplets of Belleville in February. Thus, this song has stayed on my 2024 MOABOS master list the second-longest of any other this year. Oh it fits the tone of the film perfectly. Don't say I didn't warn you if any of you ever find this film! I get a kick at what the guitar is doing, the propulsive harmonies, the use of one's cheeks as percussion, everything. This movie was never beating Finding Nemo for Best Animated Feature (this will get me raked over the coals by many of you but... maybe it should've beaten Nemo), and it was never beating the buzzsaw that was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for Original Song (hot take: RotK is annoyingly structured and shouldn't have had its perfect sweep). But those two nominations are as cool as it gets! I wish Sylvain Chomet made more animated movies (I think his next one comes out... soon-ish), and I wish he composed more music for movies.

"El Dorado", El Dorado (1966) I truly wonder how many of you saw "Western" and immediately decided to put it near the bottom, reflexively. For those of you who didn't already know, my two favorite genres are the musical and the American Western - my reasons for both are extremely different, and are too long to get into here. I simply think this is a great, unvarnished Western ballad and George Mellomen's basso profundo is just a joy to listen to. Nelson Riddle? I have one criticism of this composition. I don't think the string should just simply double the lyrics here, they should branch out and get a more complex harmony in there or something!

"Amor de Gitano (The Love of a Gypsy)", The Loves of Carmen (1948) Rita Hayworth's first real appearance at MOABOS took a long time to get to. And I think of her two entries in this prelim round, this is the better song, the harder song to sing. But I like it a lot less than the other. I don't know how much of a tongue-twister this was for her, but this was a tongue-twister for my poor Spanish skills. And this is in addition to the fact that she is giving a performance to enchant her audience. To act while delivering lyrics that are just flying by has got my respect for sure.

"Broadway Rhythm", The Broadway Melody of 1936 I am admittedly forgiving a lot here lyrically because of a) Frances Langford's performance and her looks here, b) the filmmaking involved, c) and the Buddy and Vilma Ebsen dance that is just not available online at all. Unfortunately, all of you have been deprived of that Ebsen sibling dance and it annoys me to no end.

"Dam Bhar Jo Udhar Munh Phere", Awaara (1951, India) I simply think there's a big gap, musically, between this and the next-best song in Awaara. The performances are stupendous, and the context is great. But I didn't 100% buy how Nargis' Rita could be so dense and not understand what Raj Kapoor's Raj is trying to tell her!

"Puppet on a String", Girl Happy (1965) That tinkly piano screams to me music reflective of a Deep South or Southwestern environment. I do not consider Fort Lauderdale culturally part of the Deep South, so this feels really, really off to me. I'm about a dozen or so movies into Elvis' filmography, and the knowledge of how much I've got to get through and how I know there's better to come (although, I've already seen Jailhouse Rock, Viva Las Vegas, and Blue Hawaii, so I sense there's not much of a "peak" left) also is affecting this judgment.

"A Million Miles Away", Mars Express (2023, France) Oh my gosh, I like the vibes to this one and yours truly is decidedly not a synth guy. And yet, I think the lyrics could do more here. The lyrics could've made more direct reference to the events that conclude Mars Express. I think it could be even more bitter than it already is.

"Goodbye Girl", The Goodbye Girl (1977) Everything in my musical DNA and my lifelong listening history says I should like the soft rock of the late '70s. And this is really soft rock (it's the lead singer of BREAD for crying out loud - and of my dad's copious amount of albums from the '70s, that Bread anthology album is one of his albums that I have the most difficulty getting through). But good lord "Goodbye doesn't mean forever" is as clichéd as it gets as a lyric. Honestly? This is the one song near the bottom that, in my heart, I know could rebound dramatically given time. How much time? I have no idea, but it might not be in time for the MOABOS Final. Not appearing in the body of the film does not help. And being in a film that I was mostly exasperated by (Richard Dreyfuss' character reminds me too much of my first-year undergrad roommate) also does not help.

"Camp Isn't Home", Theater Camp (2023) No, this is not Eric's "eff them kids" moment. Or maybe it is. Please don't put that on a meme. I really enjoy "Camp Isn't Home" in context, and it's a great capper to a hilarious movie I partly connect to as someone who was one degree removed from many theater kids. In the end, those kids still composed a song that has some of the hallmarks of certain things that I dislike about some modern Broadway musicals. What the hell is going on here: "Camp isn't home / But is it, kind of? / Kind of is / I think it kind of is". You know what, as the MOABOS Sheriff, I'll let the kids off with a warning. It was a fun plane movie.

"Game of Death" (Mandarin version), Game of Death (1978, Hong Kong) The Cantonese version is superior, in terms of how much better the Cantonese lyrics contour with the melody. The composer, lyricist, and singer Roman Tam all spoke Cantonese primarily, not Mandarin. And I can hear the difference. The Mandarin sounds a bit jumbled, for lack of a better word.

GROUP B (playlist)

"I've Been Kissed Before", Affair in Trinidad (1952; technically a tie for 1st) The context is doing a lot of carrying for me for "I've Been Kissed Before", as is Rita Hayworth's performance. There's a lot going on this number - as well as just before and just after this performance - that I could not spoil for you, potential viewers. Combine all that together, and you've got a spectacular number in a spectacular comeback performance.

"I've Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'", Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935; technically a tie for 1st) This is just playful flirtation from a song all the way down. Sly, winking, and deliciously filthy if you think about it. It almost belongs to the pre-Code era (this refers to the Hays Code, a self-censorship code used by the major American studios from 1934-1968, replaced by the current MPA ratings system) with its sexual openness. The costumes are wonderful, as is the choreography. And man, I can't get enough of that furniture either.

"Tere Bina Aag Ye Chandni", Awaara (1951, India) The better of the two songs, in my opinion, from Awaara in this preliminary round. This is going to sound kind of strange, considering that this is essentially a dream sequence where reality dissolves all around the characters, but I admire the restraint of this number. On both his and her sides of this thing. Her side could easily have been a more Busby Berkeley-esque affair with dancers galore, but it keeps it on her personality and her being a figure of singular romantic affection for him. On the hellish side, Raj Kapoor could've easily plunged too far into the demonic side of things (I've seen multiple examples of how this could've been done from other countries), but he doesn't. And the juxtaposition of romantic bliss and torment is complete. Just incredible imagery and Bollywood mythos-making here.

"Aren't You Glad You're You?", The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) I'm actually stunned by the level of support of this one among Group B participants. "Aren't You Glad You're You?" is not among Bing Crosby's better-known songs, and Bing Crosby songs have historically landed flat with a thud in a MOABOS prelim. I was expecting this to get something very close to the bottom and it has defied expectations. So why the hell this one? Sincerity of performance, sincerity of lyrics, and sincerity of context. For those who wish to seek this movie out, you actually need to start with the first film first, Going My Way (1944) - even though there's little narrative overlap between the two. These are quintessential Sunday School movies, although I must admit I do appreciate them myself.

"Wave-a-Stick Blues", Ozzie Nelson & His Orchestra (1940 short) Okay, most things on MOABOS are thanks to still having cable and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). In between feature films on TCM sometimes are random short films that may or may not tie with the movie you have just watched. This was one of those times where I hung around after the movie has finished and *voila* extra entertainment and an extra MOABOS entry in there. Hilarious stuff!... also, when I was in HS orchestra, I swear that one of our orchestra teachers (they also both did band) once told us a story about how some jazz world hot-shot (I forget the name) once gathered all of his musicians on the bus after the performance and fire them all immediately, on the spot. Ozzie Nelson, if this on-screen persona is to be believed, is too nice for that. But him being too nice makes this number hilarious, so never mind.

"Même plus l'amour", Mars Express (2023, France) I really like this song, and I thank VAALA Executive Director Ysa Le and her tennis partner, Emelie Tran, for the translation and the lyrics (which are printed nowhere online). However, I penalized this number heavily for committing a cardinal sin in my books: not being able to hear it during the movie itself. The song is played muted, underneath dialogue and other sound effects during the scene it appears. However, it appears that very few of you either cared or read the contextual blurb.

"Sing Before Breakfast", Broadway Melody of 1936 No, no one is saying that Buddy Ebsen has the best singing (and speaking) voice in the world. But it's a distinctive one. The future Davy Crockett and Green Acres star has a really fun turn here with his sister and, combined with the ever-great Eleanor Powell, boy is this a fun dance number. It's a great interlude between more dramatically compelling moments, and a neat introduction to the friends of Eleanor Powell's character in this movie.

"Game of Death" (Cantonese original), Game of Death (1978, Hong Kong) Simply better than the Mandarin version across the way in Group A in almost every way. Again, the composer, lyricist, and performer were all primarily Cantonese speaking, and shaped this song specifically for Cantonese. It flows better, it sounds better, and it'll get you pumped up for Bruce Lee sending a flying kick to the face of someone who deserves it.

"Farewell Amanda", Adam's Rib (1949) You're welcome, Amanda! Still needs a verse! A song that I think fell victim to the fact that I cannot at all spoil the hilarious contexts in which the song is reprised repeatedly. Movies like Adam's Rib usually do not appear at MOABOS - this is a highly-rated romcom that will make appearances in many other categories during the Movie Odyssey Awards, so it will have the last laugh. Pun intended.

"River Song", Tom Sawyer (1973) It's early in John Williams' career, and I can hear it. I actually think the Sherman Brothers do better on the lyrics here (albeit I've heard more inspired lyrics from them before). And it makes me wonder if these three wanted to collaborate again, what would that have looked like? I appreciate that this is a summation of all the film is trying to say. Running in that Missouri heat and humidity makes my feet hurt. There's a large difference between this song and the rest of the songs in TOM SAWWWW-YERRRR! and this is a musical in desperate need of a heartfelt showstopper somewhere.

"Giấc Mơ", Before Sex (2023, Vietnam) I bet this placement is going to shock most of you, me being the Artistic Director of Viet Film Fest and all. But in my personal capacity, I generally do not see how this is much different from all of the other Vietnamese indie pop music that I listen to when I watch VFF submissions. It also receives major deductions in my head for being played only in a fragment (not even a part - a fragment) during the scene it shows up in. One could also argue that the comedic context also undermines it. Is this a case of reacting against something I've been overexposed to very quickly? Probably.

"Girl Happy", Girl Happy (1965) In a sense, it's a great encapsulation of this movie. I'm a little embarrassed that I outed myself as a fan of beach party movies (they're a very guilty pleasure and the terrible plots and the stupid teenage drama are all part of the fun, really) to Group B participants. But there's much better Elvis elsewhere.

Well now, many of you have had your commenting fun over the years. I wanted to actually join in on the fun of comment-making alongside my MOABOS ballot, too.

More to come on results very, very soon. Stay warm, and keep your eyes peeled

[watermelonlovershigh]

Bisexual Harry (MILD SMUT w/ MOSTLY FLUFF)

ATTENTION- THIS IS STRICKLY FICTIONAL (NOT REAL). I'M FULLY AWARE THAT HARRY HAS NOT CAME OUT AS BISEXUAL AND WANTS TO BE UNLABLED. I ENJOY BI HARRY FANFICS BUT THERE ARE NOT MANY OUT THERE SO I DECIDED TO WRITE ONE. ALSO THE TRAITS I WILL BE CONCIDERING AS BISEXUAL TRAITS ARE FULLY DEPENDENT ON THE INDIVIDUAL. I HATE STEREOTYPING. JUST KEEP IN MIND THAT JUST BECAUSE HARRY DOES THESE THINGS IN THIS STORY THAT IT DOESN'T MAKE SOMEONE BISEXUAL OR EVEN GAY. LASTLY I'D LIKE TO SAY THAT I'M NOT BISEXUAL MYSELF BUT THE IDEA OF BEING WITH A MAN WHO IS, IS A TURN ON. NOT IN A FETISH TYPE WAY. JUST THE VULNERABILITY AND OPENNESS OF ENJOYING EITHER WOMEN OR MEN IS INCREADIBE TO ME. THANK YOU AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY.

Harry told me early on into our relationship that he was bisexual. He was so nervous that I would leave him, but it just made me fall more in love with him. He told me late one night about 6 months into dating, on his couch. The second he told me, Harry broke down into real raw tears. The first time I'd seen Harry actually cry. Yeah I'd seen him cry during sappy movies but this was so much more than that. These tears had fear in them. Fear that I would leave him. They had vulnerability in them for being so open. But also a weight was lifted off his chest, just happy to tell me. I held Harry in my arms and cried with him, telling him how much I loved him and that this doesn't change anything. That I loved him just as much.

Only a few people in Harrys life knew he was bisexual. His close family. His close friends. That was it. If it got out in the media, the internet would have gone wild. Of course there were many rumors about his sexuality. Most of them being that he's gay. For the longest time he actually thought he might be gay. He had a lot of 'gay tendencies': painted nails, feminine clothes, pearl necklaces. But he also had very 'mainly tendencies' like watching football and drinking beer with the lads. Harry was just so conflicted all his life. Not knowing what he was. That's until the age of 18. One of his school friends came out as bisexual and that's when it clicked for him. He liked both male and females and he was okay with that. He excepted that part of him. He was more worried about what others would say or think. His family was very supportive. His friends were too. They never treated Harry differently knowing that they were straight and he was sexually attracted to them. Well not so much them specifically because they were more like brothers, but the male species as a whole.

Being in sexual relationships were on a new level of fear for Harry. Fear that when he was having sex with a guy, that the guy would try and convince him he's actually just gay. Or the fear that any women he had sex with would say he wasn't manly enough for them. Needless to say, Harry kept his sexuality a secret from most of his one night stands or short term relationships. He just didn't feel the need to tell them unless they asked specifically if he was bi or not.

Me and Harry meet at a local club in London a few years back. He was with his bandmates at the time. I was by myself because my boyfriend of 2 years just broke up with me. I was devastated and needed to escape reality. That meant drink until my body went numb. Unfortunately for me though, I wasn't that much of a drinker so my body rejected the alcohol pretty fast. I stumbled onto the London streets trying to get fresh air but ended up puking my guts out in a near by bin. Harry just so happened to be outside at that moment and saw the whole thing before his eyes. He rushed over to me and pulled my hair back to prevent more vomit from getting in it. Then he asked if I was alright and who I was with. I told him I came there alone so he insisted I come back to his place. Because my brain was fuzzy from the alcohol, I didn't hesitate one bit. Harry set up his guest room for me and helped me to bed that night. Something I'm forever grateful for. If it wasn't for him, I could've been kidnapped and raped by a stranger on the streets. When I woke up the next day, I realized who's house I was in. All of the music awards on the shelf in the room I stayed in gave it away. I was never a big fan of One Direction, no reason in particular, so I didn't act like a fangirl would have. Before I left his house, he gave me his number to call if I ever needed someone to talk to. Considering he was an international popstar and all, he sure was the most genuine person I'd ever meet. Taking care of a complete stranger and even giving them his phone number. I never thought I'd actually call him though. Or even see him again, but about a week later, I ran into him at a local coffee shop and we started talking form there. The rest was history.

We hung out all the time. He invited me to a few One Direction concerts. Even had sex a few times. Amazing sex I might add. It truly was great. Even though at the time, I had to remain secret from the public. More so said by Harry then his management. Mainly to keep me safe and out of the media knowing how private I liked to be. Three months of seeing each other and he asked me to be his girlfriend. I was thrilled. Then six months into our relationship, Harry realized how serious our relationship was becoming. That we both had strong feeling for each other. So that's when Harry decided to tell me he was bisexual. On his couch. Late one night. He wanted to get it out of the way so he didn't have to hide that part of himself with me. So he could be himself around me. If I excepted him that was and of course I did.

Approximately two years after dating, Harry purposed. He was basically shitting bricks the whole time, but he did it. I didn't hesitate one second before I said yes. We were in love. At this point, the media had found me and Harry out. Most of his fans adored me. Some said our relationship was fake. And others just flat out said I was keeping Harry closeted, not allowing him to be gay. But I knew the truth. I knew he was bisexual, not gay. I never doubted his sexuality one bit. Especially how he devoured my body when we made love. Any gay person would probably gag at the sight of a women's pussy. Not Harry. It was his favorite part of my body. A year after Harry filmed the movie Dunkirk (2017), we got married. It was a small wedding. Just close family and friends invited. It was perfect.

Now here we are in the current year of 2021 and we're still going strong. A few fights here and there, but because both Harry and I have too big of hearts, we always feel bad after fighting and immediately apologize to one another. The media had tried to split us up multiple times but it's never been successful. Our love for each other is too strong and everlasting.

Just because Harry is in a happy, loving heterosexual relationship, doesn't mean he feels completely secure about his sexuality all the time. In the beginning of our relationship, Harry tried to completely throw away any 'bisexual' tendencies he had even though he knew I supported him. For instance, there was many times Harry wanted to paint his nails but didn't. Or would refrain from gushing over sexy guys in movies we watched together. That's when I noticed he was becoming depressed. He stopped writing music. He would disengage in activities we tried to do together. Even pushed me away when I tried to have sex with him. I felt hopeless. Until one morning I asked him what was wrong, and he spilled everything. How he tries so hard to suppress the bisexual side of his character for me. For our relationship. Harry explained that he had the desire to paint his nails vibrant colors and wanted to wear feminine clothes sometimes. Something that was particularly hard for Harry to confess to me was how he even wanted to try anal. On me or me with a strap on fucking him. Right away I made us an appointment to get our nails done at a salon. Then I told him he could wear a trash bag and he'd still be the most beautiful mainly man I'd ever seen. Lastly, I grabbed my laptop and went online shopping for female strap ons, letting Harry pick the girth and size he wanted. Yes I was a little nervous to actually fuck him, but he assured me he would help me out every step of the way. As for anal on me, I mentioned how I would be nervous but how I also trusted him. Trusted him enough to penetrate me anally. That I knew he would be extra careful with me.

Needless to say, I made Harry more confident. Confident in his sexuality. I got him to come out as bisexual to the public. I let him explore his bisexuality in the bedroom. Though of course he still worshiped my pussy. We had weekly appointments to get our nails painted. Harry even wore a dress out to a date night one night. He was super scared and on edge the whole night but I kept whispering in his ear how I couldn't wait to rip that dress off of him and fuck him in the ass until he cried out of pleasure.

I honestly loved that Harry was bisexual. It was almost like a turn on for me. He was both a gym buff and my little princess. He had thick arm muscles and toned abs, as well as pink nails and pearl necklaces. Anytime he mentioned how hot a guy on tv was, we could gush over him together. Or how sensitive and vulnerable he was at times. A lot of guys hold in their emotions, thinking men can't express their feelings, but not Harry. If he felt the need to cry, he would. Right in front of me. It could be triggered by a sad movie or a animal abuse commercial. Also, on the rare occasions he asks for it, I would fuck him with the strap on in his mouth. Though a rubber penis didn't quite taste like the real thing, salty mixed with sweat, he loved to deepthroat it anyways. Watching him choke and gag around the fake penis made my pussy drip. We even bought a strap on dildo that had a vibrator on the back side of it. That way every time the fake cock would enter his mouth, the vibrator would stimulate me clit, giving me pleasure as well.

No matter how much the media tried to convince Harry he was in fact gay and didn't actually like women, he would ignore the rude comments and prove to me everyday that he in fact loved me. Me as a women. Loved my smile. Loved me eyes. Loved the way my boobs bounced while having sex. Often grabbing them in his hands and stimulating my nipples. Loved the way my tight pussy felt around his dick. Or the way my sweet juices tasted on his tongue when he ate me out. Yes he loved dick. Yes he loved balls. Yes he loved being railed to death from behind. But he also liked vagina and he loved boobs. Harry wanted to make love to me and get me pregnant. Watch my stomach grow. Be there to hold my hand when I deliver the baby. Help change diapers at 3 am when I'm to tired to do so. Teach our kids to love and respect everyone and be themselves. Be open to our kids about his sexuality. Give them knowledge on bisexuality and educate them on the matter. Instead of assuming they are straight by asking his future son if he has a girlfriend yet or asking his daughter if she has a boyfriend, Harry will ask if the have a partner or fancy anyone in particular. Love his children for who they are or who they want to become. Be a role model for them. And live happily ever after with me, his supportive wife, by his side.

MASTERLIST

[destinyc1020]

do you think that tom would be living out in LA if he had moved out there in 2017 like he originally planned to? i love nikki but that fact that she just bought him an apartment without asking always seemed weird. anyways now he’s been living in london forever and doesn’t seem to want to move to LA. i found this weird especially when he was dating Z because he was a grown man movie star that seemed to want to live near his parents more than his girlfriend. i don’t know any 20 somethings with that mindset. i understand he has friend but he can also make new friends and only having your main group of friends in your 20s be your same group from school is a but strange to me. i feel like your 20s are about adventure and meeting new people and it doesn’t seem like tom is doing that too much. i’m not mad at him and i know it’s his life but not moving to LA and making new friends as a movie star in his 20s never made sense to me and i wonder if he ever will especially since it’s where so much work happens.

I'm sorry Anon, but your ask just seems to have a lot of questions and random assumptions being made in it, that I'm not sure we can really be the judge of some of these things.

I'll try to answer your questions as best I can....

Firstly, maybe Tom at one time was thinking about moving to LA, but over time perhaps he realized (or was encouraged to see 👀) that LA and the whole fame lifestyle is not really for him? 🤷🏾‍♀️ He actually kind of alluded to that in one of his Cherry interviews.

Re: Nikki....

Regardless of how you feel about what Nikki did, I honestly can't say that I blame her. I don't have kids myself (ha! And don't want any anytime soon lol 😅😂), but looking at things from a "mother's perspective", I can def see why she may have stepped in. For one, Tom was a little young (20?) at the time when he was thinking about moving across the world to another country. We're not just talking moving states, we're talking countries. 👀 We already know (now) that Tom is pretty impulsive, and he may have had stars in his eyes and dreams of Hollywood living, and he was def prob in love and wanted to live closer to his gf (who was Zendaya at the time), and his mom prob saw potential red flags with that.

For one thing, I personally don't advocate ANYONE totally uprooting their life and moving JUST for love unless you have a ring on the finger, or are close to engagement. 👀 Maybe it's just me, but I've just heard of waaaay too many horror stories. 🥴 I think it would be DIFFERENT if that country or city was a place that you've always wanted to move to regardless...... but if not..... then I would advise against it unless there's a big step towards marriage or solid commitment. My BIGGEST issue is, what happens if you two break up? 🥴 Now you're stuck in a foreign country and don't really have a stable foundation of friends (most of your friends may have partly been friends of your SO, and that would be awkward lol).

So I can def see where Nikki was coming from.

Now that Tom's older however, I don't see anything wrong with him having a SECOND residence in LA if he wanted to. Plenty of actors who are from overseas have two residences.... one in the UK and another in the US. Actor Henry Cavill for example owns a house in Florida if I'm not mistaken. 🤔

But Tom hasn't done that, so I assume that's just not smthg that he wants to do? 🤷🏾‍♀️ And based on his "travel habits" after he and Z split up, it seems his "work" doesn't really take him to LA as often as we thought.... so it seems a LOT of those times he was just in town to visit her. But if he doesn't have a gf in the US anymore, then I don't really see anything pulling him to move to the US. I could only see Tom moving to the US if his work forces him to live in the US over 70% of the time, OR, if he's getting super serious with someone (ie. close to engagement), and his SO lives in the US.

Otherwise..... Tom seems like a London guy at heart, and I honestly don't ever see him totally uprooting from London. (Sorry if this is an unpopular opinion, but this is just what my GUT is telling me 🤷🏾‍♀️🙈)

I don't think that Tom living in London however makes him some type of "adventure-less" dude in his 20s who's not doing anything "exciting" with his life. Are you kidding me lol? 😅 Tom has PLENTY of adventures and has made more friends and has had more experiences than most guys his age! Perhaps even more than guys TWICE his age! 😂 So just cuz he's not uprooting from London doesn't make him some type of sorry sap. LA isn't for everyone tbh. And tbh, if I lived in Europe, I prob wouldn't want to live in the US either lol 😅 Last I hear, their services are way better than ours. Don't they also get free Healthcare? I don't exactly see a ton of ppl from the UK just itching to move to the US tbh lol 😹 😂

With that said........

What I never understood is why Tom didn't just live with Z for a few months throughout the year? It would have been way less costly than flying back and forth. Not that they have to worry about money lol 😆, but it just seemed like constant back and forth. I know obviously Z is super busy as well, and pre-pandemic she had to travel for work ALL the time, so she's not just sedentary either. So I def understand that they made it work the best that they could.... But it just always seemed like more work than need be imo. 🤷🏾‍♀️ At one point, Tom was spending more time in the US than he was in London! 😂

Tom didn't even have to buy or rent a place in LA, he could have just stayed with Z in her house.... for longer than 2 weeks lol 😆 😅 I know their work usually was making it easy for them to see each other since even without filming they still had promo and stuff, but it just seemed like a lot of effort for both of them.

Oh well...... they tried to make it work the best they could for almost 3 years, I gotta give them that! 🥰

[otcbreakingnews]

Credit, Debt, and You

This podcast was recorded on Jan. 30, 2016.  Gaby Lapera: Hello everyone! Welcome to Industry Focus, the podcast that dives into a different sector of the stock market every day. You're listening to the financials edition, recorded today on Monday, January 30th, 2017. My name is Gaby Lapera, and joining me on Skype is Dan Caplinger, personal finance guru extraordinaire at The Motley Fool. Hey Dan, how's it going?Dan Caplinger: I'm good, Gaby, how are you doing today?Lapera: I am good. I'm trying to keep upbeat because today's topic is very depressing. (laughs) Today, we're going to talk about debt and credit. Just so you know, debt plagues Americans. We were talking about this earlier, Dan, so I know you know, but our listeners might not, so I'm going to throw out a few statistics here. About 15% of Americans think they're going to die in debt. About 60% of Americans could not cover an unexpected expense of $500. 34% have $0 in savings, and another 35% have $1,000 or less but more than $0. The average amount of student loan debt is somewhere between $31,000 and $37,000 depending on your source. The average amount of mortgage debt is about $170,000, which I guess isn't that much of you think about houses. But today, we're going to talk about credit card debt. The average American household has about $5,700 in credit card debt. However, if you are a household that carries a balance -- which means that you don't pay off everything you owe on the credit card every month -- the average amount of debt that you have is about $16,000. That's a lot of money! Caplinger: It's a lot.Lapera: Yeah, those are a lot of facts and figures I just threw out. It's crazy, that's a lot of money.Caplinger: $16,000, yeah. When you think about what the median income for a typical household is -- something like $50,000 -- you're talking about, even if you took every penny that you brought in and did nothing: didn't eat, didn't pay for your house, didn't drive anywhere, you would still be spending months just getting that debt paid off.Lapera: Yeah. And what's even crazier is that the average interest rate on a credit card is 15.2%. So, a lot of that payment would be going to interest, it wouldn't even be paying down the principal.Caplinger: Absolutely right.Lapera: So, let's talk a little about how we get there. How do you get to $16,000 in debt? Apparently about 38% of All American households have some sort of credit card debt, maybe not $16,000 but some sort of debt. I think, let's start with one that's common way, it's a little controversial, which is living paycheck to paycheck, so, spending all of your money every paycheck, as opposed to putting some away for unexpected expenses. The reason I say this is controversial is because I know that not everyone can afford to live their life differently, other than paycheck to paycheck. Some people just don't make enough money to live any other way. But there are plenty of people in America who do make more than enough money for their needs, and they're still spending frivolously.Caplinger: Yeah. And that's a lot of how you end up in that paycheck to paycheck situation. And credit cards actually make it easier, in some ways. When you're really stretching to make that paycheck last as long as you can, if you still have that credit card and those last couple of days are coming up and you spent big early on, right after you got your check, then it's tempting to cover the difference with that credit card. That's how a lot of people start the ball rolling in terms of getting those big credit card balances you're talking about.Lapera: Yeah. One of the things you could do to prevent this is make a budget and stick to it. Make a reasonable budget, I should say, and stick to that. (laughs) I don't think anyone needs to spend $500 a month on pizza unless you have a family of 24 and you're making $1 million a month. (laughs) But, you know what I mean? Some people make budgets, like, I have seen line items on some of my friends' budgets where it's like, "What? How do you think you're going to spend so much money every month on going to the movies? And you also have three movie streaming services, and you pay for cable. Do you really need all of those methods to consume media? Probably not."Caplinger: Yeah, interestingly, a lot of credit cards will actually help you come up with a budget that will give you a spending history and break it down by category, so you can actually see how much you're spending at restaurants, how much you're spending on movies, utilities, any category that you're using that card for, you can actually use it to your advantage to figure out, "Do I really need to be spending this much on this? Maybe not," and that could free up money to pay down that balance and get rid of some of that interest and get yourself out of debt that much faster.Lapera: Yeah, it's really cool, I just got my year-end credit card reports from my banks, and I just spent 20 minutes going over them, looking at all the miscellaneous things that I had spent money on. I spent a lot of money on Lyft rides this year. (laughs) Or, I guess, last year now. That's the peril of living in a city with questionable public transportation. So, another thing: maybe you're already living paycheck to paycheck and you have money on your credit card, and some people just don't pay their credit cards off at all, which is a really bad move. Not paying your credit card is never going to get you out of debt.Caplinger: Yeah, it's a triple hit. Not only do you not get out of debt, but you pay the interest on what you didn't pay, you'll pay a late fee or non-payment fee to the credit card, and, as we'll talk about later on, you rip your credit score to shreds, too. So, it's a whole bunch of bad things that come up. It always makes sense, at the very least, to get that minimum payment in to avoid all those excess charges.Lapera: Yeah, absolutely. You would be surprised by how common this is. Every year, people write stories about credit card debt, and there's always at least one person who is interviewed in these stories who is like, "I didn't realize I needed to pay the money back. I thought it was just money they were giving me." Which is mind-blowing. I don't know how they got to that point, but I have a feeling it has something to do with some bankers who were not very honest with the terms of the agreement. But, it happens, for sure. But, you mentioned something else, which is only making the minimum payment. It's better than doing nothing, but it's not great, either.Caplinger: No. Even when you just make the minimum payment -- the way those minimum payments are set up, it doesn't really pay that much more than what your interest charge is. If you're making a $25 minimum payment, you might have $20 of that going just to pay that 15.9% you were talking about earlier. That only lets you cut that balance by $5 a month. The way the math works out, it can take years, like 10 years or more, to get to the point where your minimum balance has actually paid off that amount. And that's assuming you don't go out and run up more charges in the interim.Lapera: Yeah, absolutely. Just to back up a little bit, credit card companies or your bank or whoever it is that owns you debt tells you how much you have to pay at a minimum every month in order not to get a late fee. If you pay less than that, they'll smack you with some sort of fee. And that's what your minimum payment is. So, you're making your minimum payments, and here's another mistake that people make, they add on a lot of unnecessary debt. Dan, you were telling me before the show started that households before the holidays, their credit card was around $16,000, which is that national figure we were talking about. After holidays, the credit card debt increased by $1,073. That's a lot of money.Caplinger: On average. When you have these holiday expenses that come up, whether it's traveling to family or buying presents or doing shopping, whatever it is, it's tempting. You have those expenses and you have to cover them. A lot of people don't have the income to cover that at that point. So it's tempting to just add that to the total and figure, "OK, after the holidays are done, I'll resolve to get that paid down." But, yeah, a lot of people get a holiday bump in terms of how much debt they have on their credit card.Lapera: Yeah. And as terrible as it is to not really celebrate whatever holiday you have going on, it's not really 100% a necessary expense for you to buy presents for people or to travel that year. It's a not-safe-for-work word, it's terrible, it's no fun, but it's a place where you can cut expenses.Caplinger: It is. The other thing is that you can also pre-plan for it. You know what your holiday plans are going to be. If you set aside a certain amount of money from your check every two weeks, or every month, starting in January or February, and you accumulate that over the course of the year, then you'll have a nest egg at the end of the year and you don't have to dip into your credit card, you don't have to add to your credit card debt in order to do it. With an anticipated expense like holiday stuff, that's more than a reasonable thing to do, because you can get a sense of it. It's not like there's going to be an emergency where you didn't know the holidays were going to be coming up. You know exactly what your expectations are, and you can plan for them.Lapera: That's a really good point. Also, if you're like me, I really hate buying presents for people, so whenever I see a present that will work for someone for the holidays, I buy it even if it's the middle of June and I stash away. That way, I don't have to worry about it in December. That will also help you pre-plan expenses, hopefully. Plus, it might make your life easier come December. Holiday tips with the Industry Focus gang! So, another way that people can get in trouble with their debt is not understanding the terms of their debt. This is something I've seen that's common among people my age, weirdly enough -- they don't understand what the interest payment is on their credit cards.Caplinger: Yeah. It's sometimes labeled the finance charge, sometimes it's labeled something else. It's not always really clear. Plus, the rates tend to change a lot. Different credit card companies are better or worse in showing you, "This was your average balance, this is the current interest rate, do the math, this is how much interest your account accumulated during this particular month, this is your minimum payment, so this, after you make your minimum payment, if that's what you do, here's what the balance is going to be left." Some card companies have actually gotten better about doing this in response to calls from consumer advocates to do something to help solve this problem. But not all of the banks are on board with it yet. So sometimes you have to do your own homework to know what those terms are. In addition, you have a whole span of fees, whether it's late fees, over account limit fees, and a whole host of other things that you can end up having to pay for just by making simple mistakes, avoidable mistakes, if you just knew those traps were out there, you could easily avoid them. But a lot of people don't even know that they're out there.Lapera: Yeah, it's all about reading the fine print, especially if you get your credit card from a bank, which I think most people do. A lot of them have all sorts of fees, and they're not technically hidden, they're in the fine print, or maybe the agent told you while you were applying for the credit card. For example, you have to keep a certain balance in your savings account, and you have to keep a debit card open as well so that they don't charge you for any of the accounts, or something like that. It's about reading the fine print.Caplinger: It's all there, somewhere. It's just that most people don't go to the trouble of reading that big long book, or the piece of paper that you need a magnifying glass to read to see all the things you might end up having to pay for.Lapera: I read that, on average, the length of the average credit card agreement is about 44 pages. (laughs) That's a lot of pages!Caplinger: A little lite reading for you.Lapera: "Lite" in the fact that they make the print so tiny that it doesn't seem very long. So, we talked a little bit about credit card debt, how you might get there. Let's talk about something that's related to that, which is credit scores. Dan, why are credit scores important?Caplinger: Credit scores have become increasingly important because, basically, if you ever need to get financing for something, whether at the house, a car, or even basic consumer loans, it's important to have a good credit score so that you can have any chance of getting that loan in the first place. In addition, even once you climb above the barrier for getting the loan at all -- the higher your credit score is, the better your terms are likely to be. If you have a really good credit score, not only would you maybe be able to get offers and take advantage of offers that other people wouldn't even receive, but your interest rate might be lower, you might be eligible for bigger credit card rewards, the terms of the repayment might be easier for you. You get some rewards, you get some benefits, from doing the work to get your credit score as strong as it can be.Lapera: Right. You might be wondering who comes up with the credit scores and how are they calculated? There's three credit bureaus, which is Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. They all use the same basic factors to get your credit score. Some of them weight some more or less. But, by working on those credit factors you can improve your credit score. The one that, in general, holds the most weight is how on time you are with your payments. Editor's note: Credit scores range from 300 to 850. Higher credit scores are better. Caplinger: Yeah. Having a good payment history is really important. That's where you get back into those terms. You need to understand when those payments are due. You have to make sure that you give enough lead time so that when you make that payment it's going to credit on time, so you're not charged with a late payment. That way, you won't have to pay that fee, but you also won't get that ding on the credit report that hurts this amount, because your payment history makes up about 35% of what your credit score is. So, getting in the habit of being on time with those payments, it can be a really big boost if you've had bad payment history in the past. Getting that fixed will see that score bump up a really large amount.Lapera: Yeah, even if it's just a minimum payment, it's a really important thing to be on time. The next most important thing, probably -- because they don't actually release exactly how they figure out the formula, but in general, people have figured this is about what it is -- is the percentage of the utilized credit limit. This is the combination of every line of credit that you have, how much you're using it. Say you have two credit cards and one has a limit of $1,000 and one has a limit of $2,500, so the total is $3,500. It's how much you use out of that entire amount.Caplinger: Yeah. You hear people talking about, "I'm almost maxed out on my credit cards," and usually that's a bad sign in terms of this part of the scoring. If you have most of the credit that you have been extended, if you're using all of that up, and you already have debt of that amount, it means you really don't have that much left to borrow, and the credit scoring bureaus are going to say, "Boy, that seems risky. That means you don't have that much more capacity to borrow, and you owe a lot compared to what credit card companies and other lenders are willing to give you in the first place." That adds up to a more troubling situation than somebody who has a couple hundred dollars on their credit cards, but they have thousands of dollars of credit limit. For them, they're not very concerned, because they haven't really used up much of their credit at all.Lapera: Yeah. So, there's two ways to attack this. One is to spend less. The other is to get your lines of credit increased, which can be tempting fruit for some people, because they're like, "Oh, I have a bigger credit limit, that means I can spend more money." But, the idea is, if you increase your credit limit, then the amount that you spend regularly will be a smaller percentage of that. So, one of the ways you can do this is, if you do have a good record with your credit card company -- so, again, if you already have a good credit score, sometimes it gets in a self-perpetuating loop -- you can ask your bank to bump up your limit. I know, some banks, you can ask for that online, you don't even have to go into a branch anymore.Caplinger: Yeah. Or, the customer service lines, you can call in on the phone and they can sometimes be helpful as well.Lapera: Yeah. And sometimes they just raise your credit limit just because you have been a good customer for a long time. That happens on occasion. They'll just send you a letter saying, "Hey, it's more."Caplinger: But be careful. A lot of times, when a bank makes that decision, it's based on the expectation that you're the sort of person who is going to take advantage of that by spending up toward that higher credit limit. So, really, the most important thing about managing your credit cards is knowing yourself, and knowing what your predilections are. If you're going to be tempted, if that temptation is going to be too much to resist, then you have to think about that, and you have to manage things accordingly.Lapera: Yeah, definitely. I've heard multiple people, also my age, say that they don't trust themselves with a credit card, so they don't have one. It's one of those things that, when I hear that, I'm like, "Ugh, you're shooting yourself in the foot for if you ever want a loan!" But, I mean, that is a deep knowledge of oneself that a lot of people don't have. So, I don't know how to feel about it.Caplinger: It's hard. You're better off having a credit card than not having it in terms of building up a healthy credit history. But like you say, if it's a potential addiction, you might be better off staying totally clear, rather than having it and misusing it.Lapera: Yeah. I want to make a little side note here. The easiest way to build credit is via a credit card, because it's easier to get them something like a home loan or an auto loan. You can build credit on those things, but generally you're going to have to have someone co-sign on a loan with you. So, it'll go on your credit score, it'll also go on the other person's credit score. So, keep that in mind, if you were thinking about co-signing a loan with someone to help them out, to help them start building credit, that debt also goes in your name. So, it can impact your credit score as well. So, in general, credit cards are the easiest way to build up. But I think, Dan, you were saying that student loans also go toward credit scores, right?Caplinger: Yeah. A lot of people, their first exposure to debt is when they go to college and they need to borrow money in order to pay their tuition and their room and board and that kind of thing. With most student loans, they're in the student's name, versus the ones that are in the parent's names. Student loans for the student use that student's social security number, goes on the student's credit history. Some of those loans, like you said, even if they're co-signed by parents, if it's in a student's name, it's the student that's on the hook for it. If you're in that situation, take those student loan payments seriously, because they might be the foundation on which you're building up a healthy credit score, if you manage your debt well. Lapera: Yeah, which brings us back to our next metric, which is how many lines of credit you have. That includes auto loans, mortgages, student loans, and credit cards. The more different types you have, and the greater in number they are, the better your credit score.Caplinger: That's right. That's generally right. What lenders want to see it's like you're able to handle different kinds of debt. Whether that's a fixed-payment kind of debt like a car loan, where you have a set amount that you pay every month, or a home mortgage, a fixed mortgage where you pay that set amount every month, as well as the variable amounts you would pay on credit cards, that gives a more complete picture of how credit-worthy you are.Lapera: Yeah. Again, this is kind of the double edged sword. Because you could take out a bunch of different kinds of credit. But of course, that means you'll have a bunch of different ways to get into debt. And that's part of the thing they're measuring -- your capacity to be in debt, because that makes you a good customer, because they know you will be paying at least the principal and probably interest payments, if you're the average American, as well, and that's how banks and credit card companies make money. Number four is the length of your credit history. There is no way to game the system on this one. You just have to have a line of credit for as long as possible. The longer you have credit, the better your credit score. The only way, if you really want to try and to help someone else, if you have kids, you can open a credit card in their name and your name and pay money to pay off the bill every month, and that will help them. That's actually what my parents did for me. Thanks Mom and Dad!Caplinger: Yeah, the one strategy you can use here, it comes up when people are thinking about closing out a credit card. A lot of time, you might have a credit card and you don't really use it that much anymore, and you think, "I have a better card," maybe the old card is just a plain old vanilla credit card where is the new credit card you have gives you mileage, air miles, or points or cash back or something like that. Before you cancel that old card, consider what effect it's going to have on the length of your credit history. If it's your oldest card, if you've had it forever, then sometimes it makes sense to hang on to it and to use it every once in a while in order to make sure that you maintain that length of credit history and boost up your score a little bit.Lapera: Yeah. You can do that. Other than that, like I said, it's pretty much parents putting the kid's name on their debt, which is a double-edged sword, because if the parents don't pay off the debt, then the kid's credit score gets trashed before they even have a chance to start. Then, the last metric that the credit unions check is hard checks. It's a hard pull on your credit score. This is, for example, if you go to a car dealership and you're going to buy a car, they always check your credit before they offer you the loans, so they know what terms to give you. If you have a lot of those hard pulls on your credit, you're going to be dinged at least a few points, because that means, for whatever reason, you're opening up a lot of debt at the same time.Caplinger: That's really what they're looking for. If you're going out and trying to open three or four new credit card accounts all at the same time, most of the credit card bureaus are going to assume that the reason you're doing that is, you got yourself in trouble and you need a big inflow of credit right now. That's the kind of risk that those bureau want to take a look at closely and flag their customers on so that whoever the last person is to give that new credit card understands, when they're doing it, that this person already just opened up a whole bunch of other things, and to take that into account in making the decision about whether or not to give you that card.Lapera: Yes. So, now you might be asking yourself, how do I get this information? Do I have to pay for it? The answer is no, it's free. There's a couple of different ways to go about getting your credit history, which is also a very vital thing -- you should check it periodically to make sure there's no one expected loans or charges that are under your name that shouldn't be there. But, the other thing is to check your credit score. Dan, I think you do the free report every year with the three bureaus, right?Caplinger: I do. You can go to annualcreditreport.com. It is a government-sponsored site, and it let's you pick, you get your credit report from each of the three reporting bureaus once every year. You can get all three reports at the same time, you can get one now and wait a few months and get the second then wait a few months and get the third, however you want to do it. It will not give you credit scores, it only gives you the credit report. But that will tell you all the sources of credit that you have. It will, like you said, flag up if you see something that you didn't borrow, it will tell you that. It's federally mandated that you have access to that website on an annual basis.Lapera: Yeah. And then there's some other credit reporting sites that, you have to put in your credit card number, and they offered to send you your credit report every month. But since you're entitled to that one free credit report, if you put in your credit card number and cancel it after you get your free credit report -- they're federally mandated to give you at least one free one -- you can also do that. I am going to sound like a corporate shill here for a second, but I promise I'm not getting paid, creditkarma.com. They show you your credit score for TransUnion and Equifax, and you can check it whenever you want. They also give you your credit reports. That's free. You can check it multiple times a month, however many times you want. The way that they make money is through ads. They're like, "We see you have this credit score, have you thought about this credit card, or this type of loan for yourself?" But it's great, because you can monitor your credit score pretty constantly. That's really important for me, because all of my data has been stolen multiple times through the OPM hack. If you're from DC, I'm sure you've heard of it. Even my fingerprints are gone. Someone in China probably has them. I don't know what they're doing with them. It's pretty sad that they have them. (laughs) But, that's why I monitor my credit reports so hawkishly, because I know that it's out there. Most people's are, but I definitely know that mine is. (laughs) So, yeah, do you have anything else you want to say, Dan?Caplinger: It's easy to think that credit is something you take advantage of when you need it, and you're not really thinking about it most of the time. But in order to have that credit available to you when you need it, it actually makes sense to think about these things beforehand, and to think, "If I'm thinking about buying a house a year or two from now, what's my credit score now?" And once I know that, how can I get it higher, so that when the time comes and I actually need the loan, I'm going to be in the best position to get it? Doing that homework can put you in a better position than trying to scramble at the last minute right when you need to get that loan, and you need it right now.Lapera: Definitely. And also, please be careful about getting into debt. Dan, I really love the way that you summarize our episodes at the end. There's a little perfect send-off every time. I also want our listeners to remember that this is not personalized advice, this is general advice. Please don't write to us and ask for personalized advice, because I'm going to send you an email back telling you that I cannot give you personalized advice, the SEC will not let me and I'll get into a lot of trouble. If you do have any questions that are general, please contact us at industryfocus@fool.com, or by tweeting us @MFIndustryFocus. Also, our internship applications close some time today or tomorrow. If you're really interested in working at The Motley Fool in the summer, the internships are awesome, that's how I got my job, you should scurry to our site, careers.fool.com or jobs.fool.com, both of them redirect to the same site, and apply right away, because I'm pretty sure those close tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining, us, Dan. You're always wise.Caplinger: Thanks for having me, Gaby. Lapera: And Austin, have you ever check your credit score?Austin Morgan: I have checked my credit score.Lapera: Excellent! I am really glad to hear that. Way to be responsible. Thank you to Austin, today's totally awesome producer, and thank you to you all for joining us. Everyone, have a great week, and go out there and check your credit score! Click to Post