#vs me I will add an attending to any chat

[micamicster]

When you’re messaging with another resident and you can feel their attending standing over their shoulder breathing down their neck like if you cave and add me to this chat you’re the most fired anyone hs ever been

[thiswasinevitableid]

Have you seen the post going around about the zoom class with one guy and his full streamer setup vs the guy whose just in the middle of the woods? I know you have a prompt list rn but I’m just saying there’s a sternclay fic in there somewhere...

It is! Here you go!

Life is better with order. Or, at the very least, with some attempt at patterns, organization, or consistency. 

Which is why Stern has carefully arranged his desk, his chair, and his equipment in the background. Streaming as a hobby and a side hustle means he has some (okay, a lot) of practice making his digital self look just right. He needs to make a good impression on the first day of the semester.

Unlike some people. 

“Holy shit man, are you in the woods?” Duck, the guy in a “Monongahela National Forest” shirt, grins as he asks this of another student whose screen consists of a forest clearing, a log, and the name “Barclay.”

“Yeah. Hang on, lemme finish getting the phone balanced.”

“Dude, that’s like, way better than my background” this comes from Jake, in front of a poorly rendered half-pipe. 

“Can’t really take credit for it, just where I ended up.” Barclay sits down, and Stern gets his first look at a man so tall he barely fits in the frame, with a short, coppery beard and an honest-to-god man-bun.

Damn west coast schools. 

“How is your battery going to last long enough for class?” Stern leans back in his chair, certain Barclay will have “battery trouble” halfway through as an excuse to cut out early.

Barclay smiles, lifting up a small green and black rectangle, “solar battery. Not everyone needs fancy gadgets for school.” He aims a pointed stare at Sterns set-up. 

“It’s important to have the right equipment.”

“Whatever you say, man.” He lifts a cup of iced coffee into the frame, sipping it through a straw. It’s the picture of relaxation, as if nothing is wrong in the world. As if this is all totally normal. 

Stern wants to reach through the  screen and slap some sense into him. Preferably while he’s shirtless.

He chalks that thought up to not having gotten laid since last December and pulls up his note taking software as Professor Chicane enters the room.

------------------------------------

Private Chat 9/20/20

Duck (he/him): I timed it, we’re already at ten minutes of arguing.

Indrid (he/him): I know Ned enjoys their demonstrating the different modes of rhetoric, but this is a bit extreme.

Duck: To be fair, Joe does seem kinda uptight.

Indrid: Yes, but Barclay should know by now that zeroing in on him during our practice debates only results in this.

Duck: Yeah. Oh shit, are they for real wrapping up you think?

Indrid: We can only hope. Skype me tonight?

Duck: Of course, sugar.

--------------------------------------

What is Joseph’s problem? He’s got a set-up that would make a pro-vlogger jealous, what looks to be a well-lit apartment with some houseplants and the kind of coffee-cups that are weirdly lacking in personality. His clothes are immaculate, his hair slicked back as if he;s in a business meeting rather than an online class in the midst of a chaotic world. So why is he acting like everything is terrible? And why is he always arguing with Barclay, when there are plenty of other people in the class to disagree with?

“Now” Mr. Chicane’s voice booms through the tiny speaker on his phone, “if you all had a chance to read over the instructions, we will begin the first mock debate. Do we have any volunteers?”

He and Joe raise their hands at the same time. Mr. Chicane raises an eyebrow.

“While I appreciate your eagerness, gentlemen, I would like two other volunteers this time.”

That’s fine by him. It’s not like he likes listening to Joseph get all wound up and passionate, making everyone on the call sit up and take notice of him. It’s not as if he enjoys being the center of his focus. 

Nope, not at all.

-----------------------------

Private chat 10/11/20

Jake (he/him): Dudes, did you see who got paired up on the final project?

Aubrey (she/her): Chicane must be getting them back for all the times they’ve hijacked discussions. 

Duck (he/him): Man, for their sake I hope it works out.

Indrid (he/him): This is going to be a disaster.

--------------------------------------

“Are you out of your mind!” Stern is talking before Barclay’s video is fully on. 

“Nope. And you don’t have to yell, my speaker works just fine.”

“You’re outside, for all I know there’s a ton of ambient noise.”

Barclay, phone obviously in his hand as he walks through the trees, groans.

“And don’t try to derail this; how can you possibly suggest I come out there so we can do the project in person? We’re supposed to be limiting travel and gatherings.”

“Look, Joseph, we both agree that trying to generate our own cryptid hoax is the best way to demonstrate all the techniques Ned wants us too, right?”

“Yes” he hides his answer behind the rim of his coffee mug. 

“We’ll do a way better job if we work in the same space. And if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t had any human contact in three weeks; all quarantined up, unlike whatever you’ve been doing in the city.”

He sets the mug down with a thunk, “I haven’t been out in a month. And before that was only for one grocery run and a hospital visit.”

“Uhhh-”

“I cut my hand cooking. So. Yeah.”

Literal crickets chirp, courtesy of Barclay’s end of the line, as the silence stretches on.

“If it helps, it’s real easy to stay isolated here, and I’ve still got utilities and everything.”

“And you’re not subsisting only on MREs or granola or something?”

A deep chuckle, the kind that makes his skin prickle, “Nope. That much I can promise.”

Stern glances around the studio apartment, clean and empty. 

“What’s your address?”

------------------------------------

Look, all Stern is going to say is that he’s seen and read plenty of stories that start with a cabin in the woods and none of them end well. Which is why he’s still sitting in his car, parked beside a beat-up Subaru, rather than knocking on the door. 

Breathe in, five counts. Out for four. Repeat four times. 

Waiting for him on the door is a note.

Joseph,

Key under mat, make yourself at home. 

Barclay. 

He brings in his bags (a matching set of three, a gift from his aunt last year), placing them in the tiny guest room. It’s not much more than a bed, a dresser, and a tiny table. But there’s a heating unit below the window looking out into the woods, which is pretty pleasant. He’ll be keeping the blinds closed at night, though; he hates the thought of something being able to look in. 

Stern’s busy evaluating the laundry closet when the front door opens. 

“Hey, glad you found the place okay.”

Barclay stands in the doorway, a basket full of fruit in one hand. He’s remarkably kempt for a man living in the woods and that, combined with the deep voice being even richer in person and the fact Stern has to actually look up to meet his eyes, has him stumbling for words. 

“Your directions were very thorough. Thank you. Um. I put my things in there, should I, um-”

“I can give you the grand tour.” The taller man sets the basket on the dining table, notices Sterns puzzled expression “there’s a piece of property about a mile thataway that has orchards they don’t really use. They let me come and pick whenever i want, less for them to clean up.”

Barclay keeps up a steady monologue as he shows him the cabin. The lower level is the living room and dining area, a kitchen which leads onto the back deck, Sterns room, and a bathroom. As the cabin is A-frame, the upstairs is Barclay’s room, all dark wood and pine colored plaid. It’s as Barclay is telling him about the woodpecker that sometimes nests in the eaves that he realizes why he’s talking so much.

He’s nervous. 

Neither of their nerves improve when he gets to his last point of order. 

“Uh, so, the bathroom downstairs is only a half-bath.”

“So...if I want to shower, which I do, I have to come up here.”

“Yeah.” Barclay scratches the back of his neck, “sorry. I don’t, like, sleep naked or anything so we should be fine.”

“Disappointing.” Stern sighs, only to sail past sarcastic and land face first in sincere. 

Barclay blushes, then shrugs, “Trust me, after the first night, you’ll see why.”

Stern does. He’s warm as long as he’s in bed, but the moment he ventures into the bathroom in the middle of the night he’s cocooned in cold. 

The morning brings cinnamon and coffee on the draft coming under the door. He plods into the kitchen in search of caffeine, finds Barclay in an pron, the counter covered in trays of dough. 

“Morning!”

“Morning. Coffee-”

“Right there, sugar and stuff’s in the cabinet above it, cream and such is in the fridge.”

Blessedly, there’s heavy cream to be found, and soon he’s sipping from an enamel mug emblazoned with a UFO made of veggies. 

“Is this all for your job?” Barclay mentioned he was a cook during an icebreaker. 

“Yep. Way it works is I bust my ass baking once or twice a day, and Thacker, who works with Mama at the Lodge in town, comes and takes them over there. Normally I’d just be there but, well, y’know.”

“Everything is on fire? Figuratively, I mean.”

“Sometimes literally too, but yeah.”

As he’s turning to grab his clothes and head showerward, Barclay adds, “You a scone man, coffecake man, or a cinnamon roll man?”

“Coffeecake?” It comes out hesitant. 

“There’s no right answer, man.” Barclay sounds amused, “what do you want?”

“Cake, definitely.”

“Cool. I’ll save you a slice.”

Once he’s showered and on the wi-fi, his day runs like normal; one lecture, reading, a research paper, his initial half of their project, and working either his copy-editing or transcription job in between, and planning his next stream. Barclay comes and goes, stops now and then to see if he needs anything, leaves a sandwich in front of him around dinner time. Then it’s time to crawl under the covers and dream of a less-stressful world. 

The next day, just before one, Barclay taps him on the shoulder. 

“Ready for class?”

“Yes…” He gestures to his laptop and notebook. 

“C’mon, join me out here, it’s way nicer, and we can share the phone.”

“Barclay, it’s  a nonsensical way to attend class, just stay in here with me! Even this set-up has to be better than the woods.”

“This set up. You mean my house?” All the friendliness leaves hi voice. 

“Yes. Look, I agreed to come out because you’re right, if we want to ace this thing that’s worth sixty percent of our grade, this is the place to do it; I don’t have to go along with the whole self-sufficient woodsman aesthetic while I’m here. “

“Yeah, I’d say you’re pretty far from self-sufficient. See you in class.” 

Stern stews through the entire session, but where he’d usually find something Barclay says to latch onto, he instead gnaws on himself. Why didn’t he just go with him? Why snap at someone who’s been nothing but nice since he got here?

Whatever the answer, how can he fix it?

---------------------------------------

Barclay tromps back through the twilight, done with his second class of the day. If Joseph is in the main house, he plans to ignore him until tomorrow morning. That all goes out the window with the clank of dishes from the kitchen. 

Peering in reveals the other man bent over, pulling a casserole from the oven. He waits to announce his presence until Joseph is out of the danger zone, enjoying the view as he does. 

“Smells good.”

Blue eyes flick over to him as Joseph opens drawers, “it’s mostly cheese and chips, so I’m not surprised.”

“Servers are in that one.”

“Thank you. Nacho pie?” He scoops some into a bowl, holding it out. 

“Sure. Uh, look, Joseph I-”

Joseph holds up the server, “Wait. Before you apologize I, um, I wanted to say I’m sorry for my comments. And for being so...me-ish.” He sighs, staring at the utensil in his grip, “I’ve always been a little bit tense, tried to be polite and effective and friendly in spite of it. The last six months made that harder to do. I don’t love it when I can’t be organized, when normal systems go out of place. But that’s no excuse for being rude to you, even before you invited me here. You’re just so...you’re always so calm and relaxed, like nothing was wrong and I just honed in on that way more than made sense. I’m sorry.”

“If it makes you feel better, I kinda did the same thing. You’re always so put together, it looked like you had this organized life in the midst of this whole shitstorm. I feel lik everything is slipping away, like my world is just this cabin. I mean, I assumed you were seeing friends in the city, while I haven’t seen Mama in person since April. So” he sets the bowl down, rests his hand on Joseph’s shoulder, “I’m sorry too.”

Joseph laughs, softly, “turns out we both had failures of imagination, huh?”

“Yeah” he runs a hand over Joseph's back, “now come on, this dinner’s not gonna eat itself.”

-----------------------------------

“You sure you don’t wanna wear the bigfoot costume?”

“Positive. Besides, it suits you.” Joseph finishes styling the fur on the head of the costume to look more realistic, “I just hope we get this done before that storm comes in; as mush as the rain would add to the mood of the scene, that’ll be hell to dry and you’ll be miserable. So, go lurk over there while I finish up getting the camera settings where they need to be.”

“Yes sir” Barclay pops the head on, leaves crunching as moves to his appointed tree. He smiles as he watches Joseph fiddle with the camera; things have been so much better between them these last two weeks. They trade off cooking dinner, study side by side, and watch movies or play games in the warmth of the heater. They have a similar sense of humor and taste in books, and are tidy to boot.   Joseph’s even come with him to listen to lectures in the woods, the pair sharing a thermos of coffee under the astonished gaze of their classmates. There’s just one problem. 

Barclay’s buried crush is now blooming in every direction. Animated, argumentative Joseph was attractive. Joseph, in all his moods and mannerisms, is devastatingly enchanting. He’s come close to telling him this, but the other man is his guest and also only here for another two and a half weeks, so a confession is setting himself up for heartbreak at worst and awkwardness at best. 

He almost blew it last night when they were washing dishes (Joseph scrubs, Barclay dries and puts away). 

“Last one.”

“Thanks, blue eyes.”

“What was that?”

“Uh, blue eyes? Like a, uh, a nickname?”

Joseph laughs, “Sounds like something from a Raymond Chandler book. I like it.”

On the plus side, if Joseph thinks it’s just a nickname and not a pet name, maybe Barclay can keep using it.

“Are you ready?’

He sticks up a hairy thumb and calls, “you know it, blue eyes.”

That same laugh as Joseph takes up his position. Maybe it’s the weird film over the costume’s eyes, but Barclay swears he sees a blush.

-------------------------

Stern trawls through the search results. Their video is getting some traction, with two cryptid hunter sites claiming it’s credible footage. He’s making note of how the information spread, which threads lead to belief and which to doubt, when Barclay calls from upstairs. 

“Joseph? Little help?”

The other man is in the bathroom, and when Stern knocks he says, “Think the pilot light on the water heater went out again, all I’m getting is cold water. Can you go relight it?”

“Sure.” He gets to the stairs then, stops, “where’s the key to that closet?”

“Huh? Oh, shit, right, hang on” Barclay says at the same time as Stern’s “don’t worry, I can find it.” 

Which is why the instant he turns back into the bedroom is the same instant Barclay steps out of the bathroom, blue towel around his waist. 

Any blood that doesn’t head south goes instantly to Stern’s cheeks. 

“You okay there, blue-eyes?”

“It’s completely unfair how good you look without a shirt.”

He clamps a hand over his mouth.

“Idn’t ean to ay at out oud” The mumbled explanation makes Barclay smirk. 

“You like this, should see what’s under the towel.”

The unusually bold statement from Barclay kindles his own confidence.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, big guy.”

“Who says I won’t.” Barclay sits down on the edge of the bed, nonchalant and leaning back on his hands, “got plenty of time to make good on them.”

“We literally don’t. I go back in a week and two days.”

Barclay toys with the lint on the towel, “you could stay. Through break, through next semester, for however long you wanted.”

“Do you mean that?”

A shy nod, “I like having you around, Joseph. Even beyond the huge fucking crush I have on you I...everything is a little better when you’re around.”

“I, um, I guess it could work. We know next semester is online too, and so is work, so…” there must be variables missing, something he’s not seeing, some reason this is too good to be true.

“You want some space away from shirtless me to think about it?”

“That’d be great.”

Barclay stands, hesitates, then plants a quick kiss on his forehead, “take all the time you need, blue eyes.”

------------------------------

Private Chat log 1/11/2021

Barclay (he/him): Did you see the look on Duck’s face when we turned up in frame together. 

Joseph (he/him): Yes. Pretty sure Aubrey yelled something about him needing to pay up. I wonder what the bet was. 

Barclay (he/him): Whatever it was, pretty sure I came out the biggest winner. 

Stern snorts, trying not to blush on camera, and leans over to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek. 

[hopesbarnes]

Not So Sneaky

Summary: 4 times your brother Bucky almost caught your relationship with Peter. And the 1 time he did. Based on the request: “If requests are open, can you write a peter x reader fic, where reader is either bucky’s daughter, sister, or daughter like figure?” and written for @stuckonjbbarnes​ Angst VS Fluff Challenge. I had the prompt “Shut up! Just…Shut! Up!”

Warnings: Fluff, mentions of sex, and a little bit of a steamy makeout.

The One With the Weights 

“Who do you think can lift more?” you hear Peter, your boyfriend, say.

“Huh?” you ask pulling the earbud from your ear as you walk on the elliptical machine.

“Who do you think is stronger? I mean I know I’m like spiderman, but you have super-soldier serum. I think I can lift more!” He says smiling knowing your competitive side has to react to any challenge.

You slow down the machine to a stop and hop off giving him your best ‘mean mug’ face and walk to the weights. You move to add what you know you can bench and hope it’s more than Peter. He moves to spot you and you lift the weight effortlessly above your head and smile widely. He looks a little panicked but switches with you to lift the weight.

He lifts the weight above him with little struggle and you just huff and add more weights. It goes a few more rounds until you finally best him and lift more than he can.

“YES! YES! Who’s stronger now huh?” you shout and jump into his arms kissing him. Competitiveness makes you just the slightest bit eager.

“Shut up! Just...Shut! Up! You’re a show-off anyway” he mumbles against your lips, but you can tell he loves having a strong girlfriend. 

“Sure, baby,” you say and push him against the mirror kissing him more. It’s then your super hearing picks up chatter outside the gym and you jump off him and beeline to the elliptical, leaving him next to a weight you know he can’t lift. 

It would probably be easier to explain to your brother, Bucky, that you’re dating Peter. But then he would yell at you, “Y/N you’re 18 you shouldn’t have a boyfriend it’s not proper!” and you just did not want to deal with that. So the two of you hid it instead. 

“Oh Peter, I think that’s too much,” Bucky says entering the gym and they all laugh at Peter and you shrug to him, mouthing a ‘sorry’. 

The One With the Movie Night

In a tower with a solid mix of pop culture nerds and people who missed most of history, there’s a strong need for movie nights. They always went the same, Peter and Tony argued over what movie to watch while Steve, Bucky and you just went along with it. Your brother loved watching movies, and you loved watching movies with Peter. 

The tower still had no clue you were dating the boy, they just all thought you were best friends. Tony knew Peter had a crush on you but, and you quote, “Y/N is way out of your league, she’ll never date you.” Peter just silently laughed at that and went along with it. 

Jurassic Park is starting and you move the blanket over where your legs touch Peter’s to hide the fact you’re holding your boyfriend’s hand. He had soft hands and you loved touching in any aspect. 

Halfway through the movie though your brother tried to steal the blanket.

“C’mon Y/N, I’m cold,” he said and you tugged it back.

“You’re a super soldier you’re not cold. Leave my blanket alone!” you huffed. 

But he pulled it again, and it left you just enough time to let your hand move from Pete’s to your thigh. So much for hand-holding. 

The One With the Ice Cream Shop 

On Peter’s last patrol, he found a 40’s themed ice cream shoppe, where people dressed in period clothes to attend. You had been talking about how much you missed before. You were 14 years old when your brother was taken, and they kidnapped you as well. They injected you with the serum but froze you as the experiment didn’t make you compliant. It wasn’t until Natasha leaked all the hydra documents they found you, still in a cryogenic chamber. One day you were getting ready for junior high, the next people had phones and wore skinny jeans. But that was four years ago, now you were a little more adjusted to the world.

After he told you about the shoppe, you found a dress Bucky had gifted you a year ago in the nostalgic style you grew up in. You dressed as you did when you were younger and met Peter, who dressed in 40’s clothes as well for a cute date at the ice cream parlor. 

“I’m so happy you found this place,” you said taking a final scoop from the ice cream you split with the curly hair boy.

“Is this really what things looked like for you?” he asked marveling at the decor and outfits people wore.

“Yeah! Things sure were a lot cheaper though. And girls were not allowed on unchaperoned dates,” you said resting your head on your hand.

“I like it, lot simpler,” he said and you reached over the table to give him a quick peck. 

You were about to tell him more, but your brother walked in with Steve being tugged behind him.

“Y/N! Peter!” he said and smiled wide. Guess your date was over.

“Hello, Mr. Barnes!” Peter beamed and you wanted to die. 

“I told you a thousand times, just call me Bucky,” Bucky said and Peter shyly nodded. “What are you guys doing here anyway?” 

“Probably the same thing you and Steve are. Well minus the date part. Peter found this place and knew I was a little nostalgic so he took me here,” you explained hoping he would buy it.

“Never did get to take Stevie on a proper date back then, gotta make up for time lost,” he said smiling over to the blonde man in line. 

“Well we were just about done, so see you back at the tower!” you said and tugged Peter out of the shop. 

Guess even ice cream shops weren’t safe for a hidden relationship anymore. 

The One With the Picture  

Peter had a ton of schoolwork and couldn’t make it to the tower for two days, and you were dying. You missed his kisses, and cuddles and were being overly needy today. So you figured you would flush him out, so to speak. 

You decided to tease him and put on your cutest lingerie and take a scandalous picture captioned ‘I miss you:(‘. Even a guy as patient and shy as Peter couldn’t turn that down. You saw the picture change to read but no response. You were upset but pushed it off.

A few hours later Peter came through your window in his suit and looked startled.

“Y/N, I uh well. I got called on a mission last minute and well,” he said looking flustered. 

“Spit it out!” you said getting nervous.

“That was the closest we’ve come to getting caught. But we didn’t!” he said and collapsed on your bed.

“Start from the beginning,” you said and laid next to him. 

“I was out on this last-minute mission with your brother and Nat and then on the quinjet, I got a notification on my phone of your picture. I didn’t know it was that so I opened it and Nat almost saw my phone so I had to close it really fast and switch to a chat with Ned. It was really nerve-wracking and Natasha kept looking at me. So maybe she saw the pic but it didn’t show your face.” 

You sat up immediately. Natasha bought the set with you, there was no doubt she saw. 

“Nat bought the set with me! Crap Pete stay here,” you said and threw on a sleep shirt and shorts and ran to her room. You banged on the door and she opened it and tugged you in. 

“Got something to share,” she said smugly.

“Please don’t tell my brother!” you begged and she looked at you smiling.

“Of course not. You’re an adult, your brother doesn’t need to know what you’re up to. Or I guess who you’re up to.” You practically jumped her to hug her. 

“Thank you, thank you!” you cried.

“I do expect details tomorrow!” she said as you left the room and you shot her a thumbs up.

+ The One With the Burger 

Living with a bunch of other people meant little to no time to yourself. Or more importantly to be with your boyfriend. So times when the two of you were free and everybody was busy, meant you were in your room with him beneath your thighs.

His lips were against yours and there was nothing sweet about the kiss. The two of you were both strong, and your time together reflected that. Rough kisses with grabbing hands, bruises that healed quickly, and multiple rounds. 

You were just getting into it though. Your shirt was still on (his wasn’t) and you were barely grinding against him. All that went away though when your brother opened your door, without knocking.

“Hey Y/N want to get some burger- oh my god. MY EYES!,” he said and you scrambled off your boyfriend and wiped your lips subconsciously. 

“Bucky! Hi, my loving and calm big brother!” you say throwing Peter’s shirt at him. 

“I did not need to see that!” he exclaims.

“Then knock!” you shout back. 

“So are you guys a thing?” he asks sitting on a chair holding his head in his hands’ processing.

“Yeah,” you admit quietly.

“Ok. Cool. Cool. How long?” he asks.

“A year,” you say in an equally quiet voice. 

“Mhmm okay. That’s fine. Just please don’t let me see that ever again.”

“Can Pete join us for the burger?” you ask smiling.

“Sure fine whatever, c’mon,” he says.

Well if you knew he’d be this cool with it, you never would’ve hidden your relationship. But you know what they say. Hindsight’s 20/20.

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[cancerbiophd]

Hi there! I just submitted my applications to Cancer Bio PhDs but I am not sure if I want to do academia or industry. What helped you decide and what resources do you recommend looking at to make that decision?

Hi anon! Congratulations on submitting your applications! I have my fingers crossed for you!

I was in the same exact boat when I started grad school as well, and it really just took experiencing and learning about all my career options (which includes more than just the dichotomy of academia vs industry--scroll to the bottom of  this post for more career options) for me to slowly formulate a decision throughout my years in grad school. It definitely wasn’t something concluded overnight. 

I think that beyond having a basic interest in the career, it comes down to being able to make a pros vs cons list for those options, and then deciding which path appeals to you the most. It may also come down to not necessarily finding a clear winner, but a ranking of sorts, and that ranking may itself still be organic and free-flowing depending on a variety of factors (like the economy, or your geographical location). 

Some resources that helped me gather as much information as I can:

Attending career development talks and seminars--whether hosted by my own university or at conferences or online. Definitely check out all the resources your Graduate College or program and any conferences (virtual or in-person) has to offer in this area. 

NIH’s Office of Training and Education is an example of an online resource which has super helpful free public webinars regarding career development in the life sciences, and they often invite professionals from different sectors to talk about their experience and to give advice.

Talking 1:1 to people in sectors I was interested in, which is what you’re doing now with this ask :) Other ideas include informational interviews (especially with program alumni, who were sometimes my #1 resource), job fairs, and chatting with post-docs during poster sessions (which will hopefully come back as in-person). 

And related to the previous point, growing a network and keeping in contact with them. I highly recommend creating a LinkedIn account (if you haven’t already), and add people you meet, especially program alumni, older graduate students, and post-docs, so you can see where they move onto in order to expand your own list of career options. Your network will also be very important when it does come time to find your next position, as an introduction from within an institution can go a long way in getting that offer letter. If you’re interested, here’s my personal story of how networking landed my current job out of grad school. 

The reality of the job market. Keep an eye out for employment trends (that can be one pro vs con on your list). Currently, landing a faculty position is a long and difficult road, and there are less and less openings but more and more applicants vying for those positions. That’s not to say it’s not impossible of course, but it’s not as easy as it once was. On the other hand, the biotech and pharma industries are currently booming, though landing a job in industry is still no walk in the park (and could definitely become a drag depending on the economy). 

Introspective thinking that ultimately helped me decide:

Matching my wants and needs with the characteristics of the job environment. This is probably really what it all came down to--what environment do I want to spend the rest of my working life in? It’s easier said than done in some cases, because as a grad student you’ll be able to experience academia to the fullest, but it’s harder to get a feel for everything else (eg. industry), which is why attending career seminars and talking to others will be so helpful. After doing those things, I realized that the lifestyle I personally wanted did not match with the lifestyle of staying in academia, so that got crossed off my list pretty early.

Related, matching what I can offer to the world and where I’m best suited in order to do that. It takes a specific type of person to be successful in academia and to change the world that way. And as I went through grad school I realized that is not the kind of person I am, which is totally ok. And there were other ways I could change the world, and my current position in industry is allowing me to do that to the fullest of my ability. 

That’s all I have from the top of my head right now! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I’m also always available for an informational interview to talk about my (limited, it’s only been 3 months) experience in industry and whatnot (my private chat is always open!). I know just how difficult it can be sometimes to figure one’s future out, and I would love to help in any way I can. 

Best of luck on your applications! I hope you snag some interviews very soon :)

[aliynavenus]

DamiRae Fanfic: Vulnerable

Authors note/Summary: Takes place during the new timeline everything that happened in JT VS TT happened even Raven gifting Titus to Damien. Terra didn't die or betray the titans; she's part of the team happily. Also along the way Raven became very fond of Superman thinking of him as a father figure and a mentor. Trigon has now weakened due the help of Constantine's dark magic powers yet Raven still has him but now on a necklace since he isn’t much of a threat to her. Just wanted to clarify so there's no confusion i don't really want to focus on how trigon isn't much of a problem anymore, he just isn’t. keep in mind this is my first time ever writing a fan fiction story and writing in general anyway thank u 

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chapter 1: comfort

Damian walked into the titans conference room only to reveal the massive wreck that the previous day caused. Beast Boy would throw random little surprise parties after missions and this was like every other one. Red plastic cups scattered on the ground along with confetti after beast boy would pop them when the titans walked into the tower last night, loads of pizza boxes surrounded by random fluid that knows what it could be. As of Beast Boy and Conner, their bodies were being tangled up in the couch drool falling dramatically down their mouth. Donna and Terra passed out on the kitchen table literally on the table with red cups in their hand. Jaime has took a departure for a week to be with his family the day before, not attending this little surprise party which was a blessing for him. 

Tsk How could they be so foolish after a few drinks down their system. Damian shook his head heading towards the kitchen to get a water bottle for his morning training, not caring if he made any sound that would wake them up. 

“They’re on the kitchen table this time?” Damian looks up from the fridge door seeing a restless Raven rubbing her violet eyes with her palms. It was only 7 in the morning and considering today they didn't have training but had a conference til 2 o'clock it was rare to see her this early, usually she’ll be meditating in her room a little bit longer. Not like Damian knew her whole morning schedule or anything. 

“Yea, I guess whatever they drank last night hit them harder than usual.” Damian says, raising the bottle of water to drink, “Why are you up early?” 

She shrugs her shoulders, “I felt like making my tea first before meditating today,” Damian nodded looking at her, her hair has gotten longer a little bit passing her shoulders since the last encounter with Slade. The red crystal her father was trapped in now became part of a necklace that laid on her collarbone. His eyes traced down her body taking notice in her pajamas she wore. Her legs bare wearing a pair of navy blue shorts hugging her small curves that he would always notice paired with a rather large dark red shirt that hid all the perfections of her body. He never cared about the female body as to just comparing it to a distraction to please men yet Raven never used it for attention. She was pure whether or not she was the daughter of a demon. That's what she was to him, a considerate flawless untouched being that was real. 

“I’ll feed Titus right now you can go train to get a head start on everyone today, something tells me this hangover is going to kill them today.” Raven eyes their teammates feeling utter failure that the crime fighting superheroes at night are drunkenly passed out experiencing a hangover in broad daylight and might add underage too.

He looks down in her violet eyes, always being fascinated by them looking like a portal to infinite dimensions that could pull him in. “I appreciate it, I’ll take him out for a walk later today” Damian responds to her. She gives a small smile before turning her back to him. He had become less of a brat in his time with the titans but yet still kept his arrogant remarks here and there but it was nice seeing a change in him even if it was ever so slightly. 

He exits to the training room, activating the training system to a level higher from the day before's training. The system activates with holograms of criminals and little silver machines coming out of the ceiling to shoot red lasers at him to make it more realistic, and so he begins battling. 

It’s been quite some time that he and Raven have felt comfortable with each other, ever since Titus especially. Despite the bond that has been connected to them ever since Raven healing him with his fight with Jaime. He and Raven both knew they understood each other the best out of the team, they felt at ease with their presence. He never knew exactly when he started feeling attached to her, nor did it matter because that feeling of wanting to be closer to someone was never negotiated in his life. 

Damian grunts his thoughts cutting when the red laser slices the skin on his shoulder. The effect soon left him with a deep bloody long injury, yet Damian just went harder annihilating his acrobatics when running towards the opposite wall lifting himself to abolish the battling exercise into pieces falling to the ground becoming nothing more than a useless piece of metal. 

An hour later in the other room Raven was picking up the trash her teammates had caused last night with her magic. She knew Kori and Dick would lecture them if they came here with revolting pieces of trash everywhere. 

“Sorry to make you do this i could’ve helped you--ow” The girl with blue eyes remarked only to hit with a sudden headache when she turned her head too fast to stop Raven from picking up all the trash with her abilities.

“It’s okay besides magic, remember.” Raven lifted up her hand as dark purple magic appeared. In a quiet second all the trash was lifted from the floor and gone into the trash. 

“thank you again, so boy wonder is already up and at it.” Donna sips from her cup of tea Raven whipped up for her. 

“Yea he should be done soon.” 

“You should join him ya know training together, a touching moment to share, i mean hellooo sparks flying hmmm..” donna raises her eyebrow with her mouth being covered by the mug she lifted, “I mean come on Raven it doesn't take a genius to see you guys have a connection.” 

Raven let out a small laugh, “Yes a connection we do have,” she lifted her finger pointing to her head reminding her of the mind link. 

Donna rolls her eyes sighing as if she expected her to say that anyway, “A different one i mean,” 

Raven has never thought about Damian and her in that position before although she had to admit he was a sight for sore eyes. Puberty hit him more than the team expected, not to mention his shoulders becoming much broader along with his chest, his height now becoming a head taller than her, his voice became deeper, everything changed in appearance as for her, it was like she became small to him. 

Donna knew something was always between them; it felt like they had their own inside language in their own little way. Whenever they were with the team or on a mission they would exchanged glances and small nods as if it were a secret code.The team noticed but never once mentioned it to both of them in the room knowing damn well that damian would just oppose with an arrogant remark that would just lead to whole argument of back and forth protest. 

 “It’s not like that, we just feel secure with each other that is all.” she dipped her mouth to take a sip from the mug, “Just like you and jon” she quietly said with a hidden smirk. 

Donna’s cheek redden whipping her head towards Raven pouting, “Shhh he’s right there he has super hearing remember.” she whispers pointing at the boy who is still tangled up on the couch sleeping. 

Raven rolls her eyes, “Please he looks dead.” she scoffs tilting her head to view the boy “He might actually be dead considering whatever fluid Beast Boy made to get him like this.” 

Donna sighs lowering her tone “Still, it’s not the same thing either. Just because I like him doesn't mean he sees me that way.He just sees me as the sister of the girl his dad had a fling with. He’s already grossed out at the fact that his dad basically hooked up with my ‘sister’ at one point.” she lowers her head into her arms in defeat. 

“I’m sure he’s not grossed out. It just makes him uncomfortable knowing his dad has been with other women before marrying his mom and that women happen to be wonder women. I think you should keep trying, never know.” Raven smilies at the girl patting her head as a sign of support. 

Damian sees the two females chatting at the table or more like a miserable ball of Donna being pet by Raven. “What’s with you?.” he questions donna walking towards them with a small towel thrown over his shoulder to stop the bleeding from the wound he has just gotten. 

She sniffs, “Just some girl time. Hey did you hear about that new mission Kori has assigned for us?” 

Raven looks at her puzzled, “No. I thought she would come later today to tell us. How’d you hear about it already?” 

“She told me when we were on our way home yesterday. She thought I would take an interest in it especially, so she gave me a heads up.” 

“What is it?” Damian glared at her thinking what it could possibly be. There could be endless possibilities such as tracking down Prometheus once again or perhaps there could be a crisis in Themyscira. Either way he did not care what the mission could be as long as it benefited his combat skills. 

“It’s an undercover mission!” she lifts herself off the chair raising her fits, “Kori said that we're going to be going undercover to night clubs because of some new insights about something dealing with a new serum of something….?” she dies down her words acknowledging she doesn’t actually know what the reason of the mission is. “But! We get to go to nightclubs guys even when we're only 17 i mean come on how cool is that . Being able to dress up in cute little tight dresses, wouldn't that be fun Raven.” her eyes light up as if her dream mission was finally coming true.

Raven blinked, obviously trying to process what she said, “Uh it's not really my taste in missions.” Tight dresses? Getting all dolled up? It’s not like they never done undercover missions before but this was like stepping into a new realm into Donna’s world. It also meant she would have to wear something rather revealing to blend in but her more concern was that Damian was going to see her in scandalous clothing. He was going to see her out of her comfort zone, would he like it? Would her body even look good in it that he would take notice? What is she thinking of course not, he's used to seeing beautiful girls with voluptuous bodies at the academy. How could she compare.

 She sneaks a glance towards Damian in the corner of her eye. He looks pestered as if he was expecting a grand mission that would save human lives but instead got nightclubs? 

“Perfect. We’re going to a destination where people roofy others, drunks everywhere, with horrible music. That was your idea of an interesting mission, Donna?” Damian’s hand fell to rub his temples and bit back a curse before he caught the curious expressions of them. 

Raven shifted over to him “What’s wrong? Did you get injured while training?” immediately telling that something was wrong no matter how many layers he would secrete. 

Damian grunted rolling his shoulder to help ease the pain only making it worse when he grunted, “It’s nothing I got hit with a blast today sliced the skin above my shoulder,” he pulls away the towel exposing his hidden bloody ruptured combat injury, clearly needing healing. 

He saw Raven’s angelic eyes widen quickly putting the towel back on his shoulder holding pressure on the wound, “Come on let’s go to the infirmary so i can heal you.” Pulling his hand on top of hers when adding pressure to his wound, he nodded. Raven opened a portal, walking side by side, vanishing leaving Donna alone in the kitchen feeling like an utter third wheel in that moment. 

They sat down on the little nurse bed that stood in the middle of the room. Raven pulled herself close to him causing his knee to gently knock against hers as her body became close enough within reach to heal him . His body towered over, was he always this much bigger than her? Heat started to rise up her body flushing her cheeks with a small blush seeing his muscular arms close the sides of her hips. He looked down at her, seeing her long lashes flutter as she blinked. Oh how he wants her to look up at him to admire every perfection on her face. She turned her body fully towards him; it took everything in his power to not lean forward and just bring her so much closer to him. Her hands crept over his wound; he felt the fondness of her magic overrun his skin. Feeling it takeover the wound unleashing small sharp stings that he loved to feel. He closed his eyes, how he loved the insignificant bitterness causing a sense of pleasure run through his veins, he enjoyed it even more knowing this came from Raven. He let out a soft valuable breath from his lips as he felt the sensation disappear, damn. 

He clears his throat wanting to break the silence after his little incapable moment, “Thank you seems like you're doing that a lot to me lately.” he chuckles considering since he’s the only one who doesn’t have rapid healing abilities in the team. He rolls his shoulder again not feeling the sharp pain he once had. “Once you get healing abilities you’ll be my new sorcerer.” She gives him a soft smile. He lets out a laugh at her shaking his head playfully. She loved his smile. It was rare to see it genuine in front of the teammates, it might've been selfish but she loved that he shared this side of himself with just her. 

They sat still on the bed not moving, it wasn't awkward it was actually kind of peaceful. They both knew they didn't need words to enjoy each other's company. “This mission is going to be a pain don’t you think. It's already got Donna riled up.” Damian groans 

“Yea, males feasting on women. Gross.” 

“Especially females roofing people’s drinks.” They both look at each other snorting knowing they are referring to their own parents from their horrific ways. 

Raven sighed in defeat shaking her head “We’re going to hate this mission so much.”

“Yea we are.” their eyes met each other. The room fell silent and you could almost feel their heartbeat pacing at the same time within each other. Her heart wouldn't stop pounding as she admired his vibrant emerald eyes. She hated the effect he had on her not even realizing it himself. Their fingertips were practically brushing against each other, all he wanted was to keep her close, so fucking close. It pained him how innocent she appeared, how she could do the littlest touches, the littlest words she could say can concede him to make him do anything for her, and he will. Without breaking contact she felt his hand lift from the bed and slowly move towards her collarbone. Shivers were sent down her spine when she felt his finger tips delicately land on her necklace.

 “He doesn’t give you nightmares anymore?” his voice barely a whisper yet loud enough to break the silence in the room. She gulps hoping her didn't hear her seeing how flustered she already was, “N-no, he hasn't since Constantie ya know,” 

He nodded in response, his hand still on her now looking down at her chest, “I remember,” his voice and face expression changed stern looking down at her chest, “when I would feel your energy from the mind link. When I felt the negative emotions stirring at night all because of your father. Those violent destructive dreams yet all i was able to offer was staying with you the nights of your nightmares.”

Raven was terrified that he could feel her heart beating beating out of her chest. Why was he to bring this up now? It's been 2 months since those nights. She'd be lying if she said she didn't think about them but she did if anything she missed them so much. Those nights where he would come into her room cautiously questioning what was wrong, shaking her to wake her up only to be woken up by him hugging her. He stayed with her, made her feel safe. They were valuable memories she cared for. Even though all she ever wanted was for those nightmares to be gone she didn't realize those moments would have to become memories. Another selfish thing she had yet to add, missing him comforting her. He thinks he didn't do enough for her? He did more than enough he stayed with her, that was more than she could ask for. 

Raven carefully thought of her words, placing her hand on top of his that still layed on her collarbone, “Damian I’m more than grateful you stayed with me during those times. You offering to continue to be by my side is more than enough for me especially during those times. I’m happy you were there.” she genuinely smiled at him giving him a sense of comfort. 

Her smile. The most treasured thing he could ever lay sight on. The one thing from the very start that made him change perspective on his new lifestyle when he first came to the team. He felt like his heart just got pinched and stopped with her words, he felt a blush crept up but tried to keep it under control. He just wanted to bring his lips towards her, to let her know how much she means to him. His other hand lifting from the bed slowly crossing over him wanting to reach her soft cheek, he wanted her no, needed her. 

“TITANS! I have news on your new mission to come to the conference room to discuss please and thank you.” 

Damian’s and Raven’s bodies jumped in shock snapping their heads towards the announcing speakers to what they just heard their leader's voice come out of. Raven stands up first walking towards the exit, Damian already in the miss of her touch, “We should probably go.” 

“Right.” he follows her out the door. 

He could’ve had her right then and there. He would have made her his. Then again he was just a boy who has no idea of the concept of sentiment or romance if anything. He wanted her so bad it pained him not being able to hold her. Then again she wasn’t his, possibly never will be. 

Just teammate Just Teammates 

[timbertumbr]

Boneafide Gamer (A Reverse Harem Fic)

Chapter 2, Reality VS Fantasy

Previous Chapter

Quotev Link

Big thanks to my friend for making a caption for the picture and big thanks to another friend who took that meme worthy photo!

List of Usernames with Nicknames-

Blue (Underswap Sans): Magnificent Blueberry

Stretch (Underswap Papyrus): Carrot

Edge (Underfell Papyrus): Captain

Red (Underfell Sans): Red

Mal (Swapfell Sans): Maleficent 

Rus (Swapfell Papyrus): Rus

The next day arrives and you’re rudely awakened by your alarm clock, basically yelling at you to get up and get your butt moving. Groaning, you shut off the alarm and quite literally roll off your bed with a thud. 

You get up from the floor, abandoning your pile of blankets as you shuffle around your home doing your morning routine. Once done, you throw your blankets back onto your bed and grab your phone as you head out the door, lock it, and begin walking to work. To entertain yourself, you unlock your phone fully intent to play a phone game when you see messages from discord so you open that instead.

Cheesepuff: Good morning Fart. Or (Username) whichever you prefer. Whenever you have time, could we set up a time to introduce a few of my cousins to you and possibly the game itself. 

Cheesepuff: Also, I may have given Blue your discord. So expect lots of messages.

Raising a brow, you check your friend requests and see that a “Magnificent Blueberry” asked to be friends. Huffing in amusement, you add him as friends and type out your reply to Carrot.

(Username): I get off work at 5:00. So we could get online at around 5:30. Can’t wait to meet your cousins! 

You go to check other messages to see Totally not the writer left a message at 3 A.M. Not again…

Totally not the writer: So… I may have stayed up all night to think of how to use this meme so… you are my first test subject.

You snort at it and shake your head amused.

(Username): Get some sleep you ADHD nutshell.

Totally not the writer: Will do.

Shaking your head again, you pocket your phone and enter your workplace. A GAME STORE! :D You quickly make your way to the counter and greet your co-worker Chris. 

“Sup dude,” They respond while you grab your employee clip on name and head to the back to restock shelves.

“You’re pretty peppy today,” They comment as you leave the back with a box of games, figurines, plushies, and other stuff. 

“I’ve had a good morning so far!” You respond as you start stocking shelves, they hum and fiddle with their phone.

“Didja get the game you’ve been waiting all year for?” They ask.

“Yup! I even met some new people there!” They raise a brow as you move to another shelf.

“Really? From what I’ve heard they had a bit of a server problem so not that many people were able to get on,” So THAT’S what happened.

“Then I’m one of the lucky ones!” They were very amused.

“Seems like it. Care to tell me about these new friends you met?” You raise a brow and turn to Chris.

“But I didn’t-”

“Totally told me,” They cut you off, showing the screen of their phone in your direction. You lean forward to see that Totally did indeed contact Chris through discord.

“Of course they did,” You comment before going back to stocking the new PS4 games. The electronic bell sounds when some customers enter the store. You peek from the shelf to see four skeletons. 2 tall skeletons, one of them slightly taller than the other and two short skeletons, one with a large crack in his skull.

Hey, they look familiar-

“Welcome to the Game Store, if you need any help let me or the one stocking shelves over there know,” Chris says in the ‘customer is here, act like you’ve been happy all your life!’ voice. One of the taller skeletons smiled.

“THANK YOU KIND HUMAN! I WILL COME TO YOU FOR ASSISTANCE IF NEED BE!” He says enthusiastically and quite thankful. Both you and Chris' smiles softened into a bit more genuine smiles as the similar looking skeletons split up and began looking around the small store. You sigh softly as you go back to stocking shelves. 

You soon finish the box and stand up to return the box and grab another one when someone taps your shoulder. You put on a smile and face a short skeleton in a blue hoodie.

“Oh hey! Need help looking for something?” You ask, the skeleton nods.

“Yeah, need help looking for a game called ‘Basic MMORPG VR edition,’” He says so casually you can’t help but relax around him.

“Oh yeah! I know where that is. Follow me please,” You say before walking toward the beloved game with the small skeleton in tow. 

“Here it is!” You exclaim, making little jazz hands at the case making the skeleton snicker.

“Thanks bud. I guess you could say you were... playing your role?” 

Processing…

Processing…

“PFT-” You burst out laughing. You could even hear Chris and a very deep voice snicker in the background.

“Oh my GOD that was terrible,” You say collecting yourself, the short skeleton shrugged.

“But I guess I don’t have enough EXP(erience) with good jokes!” You fire back and his eyelights twinkled. 

“Guess you’ll have to farm for some,” The same deep voice from earlier said, earning a snicker from you and the short skeleton by you.

“SANS PLEASE!” You hear an exasperated voice yell.

“Brother No…” Another voice chimes, somewhat similar to the first but somewhat softer. The short skeleton used blue magic to get the game and walked over to the counter still snickering. You smile as you begin walking to the back to replace your empty box. When you return to the store, all the skeletons are at the counter with one of the tall ones yelling.

“PLEASE FORGIVE MY BROTHER AND MY COUSIN FOR THEIR TERRIBLE PUNS!” The other tall one nods. 

“It’s alright, did you find everything you needed?” Chris says as you go to stock the shelves once again. Just as you were finishing up with this box, the skeletons had paid for their games and left. 

“That was… interesting,” Chris comments as you go to the back to get ANOTHER box.

“You’re telling me! They look like the avatars Carrot and Blue use!” Chris furrows their brows as you leave with another box and go to the shelves again.

“Isn’t… there custom avatars in Basic?” Chris asks as they type away on their phone.

“Um… Not that I can recall… considering the list is SUUUUPER long,” You respond as Chris nods their head.

“There is, just looked it up. Isn’t it strange that they looked practically identical except for some slight changes?” Chris asks, looking up from their phone. Now that you think about it…

“Yeah, that’s kinda odd…” You comment aloud as you toss the last box into the back.

“Maybe they were all born as twins or something?” You suggest, Chris shakes their head.

“I dunno… oh hey, it’s break time. Want a rematch in SMASH?” 

“OH HELL YEAH, I’M GONNA WIN THIS TIME!” Chris laughs at your enthusiasm as you both make your way to the employee break room, passing by Max and Alex, your other co-workers who you say ‘hi’ to. You and Chris began to duke it out in Smash.

The rest of the day went by quickly, only a few customers stopped by the Game Store, you lost to Chris is Smash… again. At the end of your shift you say goodbye to Chris and leave the store. While walking home, you check your messages and see that Blue and Carrot messaged.

Magnificent Blueberry: HELLO HUMAN FART! I HOPE YOU ARE DOING WELL! UNFORTUNATELY, I AM UNABLE TO JOIN YOU AND MY BROTHER’S GAMING SESSION SINCE I HAVE IMPORTANT THINGS TO ATTEND TO! I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE FUN! - SINCERELY, BLUE!

You smiled at how professional yet caring Blue’s message was and began typing your response.

(Username): Aw man! I hope you can join us next time! Good luck with your important things!

You go to Carrot’s message next.

Cheesepuff: Okay, so the server’s are REALLY crowded today. I think we should set up a place to meet up as well.

(Username): That’s alright! How about the Creature Care Center? 

Cheesepuff: That works. See ya in 15.

You leave the personal conversations to see you were added to a group chat with Totally and Crispy Chris (You may have laughed at Chris’s username as soon as you saw it.)

Totally not the writer: Right, so I made this group chat so we could play games and just chat with one another.

Crispy Chris: Cool. 

(Username): Awesome! But I’m busy tonight, I’m going to be meeting Carrot’s cousins in game.

Totally not the writer: There’s more of them? Didn’t you and Chris just deal with two sets of doppelgangers that YOU said looked like Carrot’s and Blue’s avatars?

Ah, Chris must’ve told them about that.

(Username): Maybe, maybe not. I may be meeting those doppelgangers. Who knows?

Crispy Chris: Just don’t reveal your address or your full name. Or, like, any personal information that’ll hurt you.

(Username): I know, I know. This isn’t my first rodeo. Gtg tho. 

You shut off your phone and stuff in your pocket as you enter the home. Locking the door behind you, you check the clock. 5:15. Nodding to yourself, you begin setting up the game and once done with that, you put on the VR goggles and enter the Basic world.

When Carrot said it was crowded today, he was not kidding. There were a LOT of players in just the town square alone! Wincing to yourself, you pull up a map (Blue was kind enough to give you pointers with your exploration) and begin weaving your way through avatars and houses.

You eventually arrive on the street where the Creature Care Center, Merchant Stalls and many other interactive buildings lie. You look up from the map to see Carrot pacing back and forth in front of two sets of, you guessed, more doppelgangers. And they sure as hell didn’t look like the ones that visited the store, but they were similar. They looked terrifying, wearing red, black, or purple armor/robes/clothing.

You gulp and make the map disappear before approaching the group of skeletons. Carrot notices your approach and waves with a small smile.

“Hey, glad you could make it,” He says, earning an annoyed huff from a tall skeleton in red armor.

“FINALLY, I COULDN’T STAND WAITING ANY LONGER,” The short skeleton wearing purple armor nodded. Carrot sighed.

“Edge, Mal, please…” He muttered tiredly, you raised a brow and looked at the usernames above their avatars. The tall angry one in red was “Captain,” the short one in purple was “Maleficent,” the short one in red clothes with a hood was “Red,” and finally the tallone in dark purple robes was “Rus.”

“Interesting names,” You comment, Captain puffing out his chest and smiling proudly.

“OF COURSE IT IS! YOU’VE WITNESSED THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE EDGE AND HIS MAGNIFICENT NAMING SKILLS!” He states proudly, so he’s a narcissist. Good to know. Maleficent shakes his head with his arms crossed.

“BY ‘MAGNIFICENT’ YOU MEAN BASIC, CONSIDERING YOU WERE THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD,” Maleficent counters bluntly, Captain whips his head to face the short.

“WH- HOW DARE YOU?!” He screeched before the two got into an argument, the other two were snickering about something and Carrot looked dead inside. You place a virtual hand onto his shoulder.

“I am sorry you have to deal with this,” You say half serious half joking, earning a tired amused grin from Carrot.

“Trust me, it was harder to convince them to actually PLAY the game,” Carrot admits looking even more dead inside. Red approaches the two of you.

“He’ll get used to it, eventually,” Red comments before holding out his hand.

“Nice to officially meet you Fart, my name is Red,” He says with an amused smile. You shake his hand which opens a menu with his stats.

“Woah, a rouge! Nice,” You complement, Red smirks more.

“Thanks,” He says simply before you break apart the virtual handshake. Rus approaches the small gathering.

“Can I join the party?” He asks, holy shit his voice- Red starts snickering like a mad man while Carrot stares at you in disbelief. Rus blinks and looks away.

“Um… thank you?” He says with uncertainty and a tinge of amusement, CRAP YOU SAID THAT OUT LOUD! Red starts laughing harder and Rus chuckles. 

“You’re something else aren’t ya?” He asks with a smirk.

“Uh…” You intelligently reply, Carrot steps in.

“Okay, I think they need a bit to process everything,” You nod trying to unclog your brain to find words. Red finally calmed down and wrapped a virtual arm around your avatar’s neck.

“You’re a riot, Fart!” He exclaims, you smile.

“Th-Thank you,” You manage to respond before Captain's booming voice breaks the chill environment.

“CAN WE GET A MOVE ON?! I WANT TO BE DONE WITH THIS AND DO SOMETHING MORE PRODUCTIVE!” Confused, you give Carrot a raised brow. 

“He wanted to know what there is to this game so… another exploration adventure. Whooooo,” He says tiredly, jeez, he needs to sleep.

“INDEED. NOW QUIT YOUR LOLLYGAGGING AND LET’S GO,” Maleficent follows up, you swear, whenever those two talk, you feel like you’re losing brain cells. And off your party went to look around the areas Captain and Maleficent were interested in. And once they found a weapon stand, they were VERY dedicated to look for their perfect weapon so the rest of you went to the fields. 

Carrot collected herbs while Ruse tried to get a fox as his familiar which was pretty cute. You were slaying slimes and Red was practicing his aim with the bow. After slaying some slimes, you decided to join Red with practicing your aim. You stand by him and use your multiweapon to practice.

“Hey Fart,” He greets as he shoots an arrow into a tree.

“Hey,” You respond, shooting and missing the tree.

“How are you liking Basic so far?” You ask as Red shoots and hits the tree again.

“It’s alright,” He answers vaguely as he glances at you and does a double take.

“Woah, what the HELL are you holding?” Red asks genuinely curious, you show Red your multiweapon.

“Multiweapon, I… couldn’t decide on just one,” You admit, Red snorts.

“Yeah, I can tell. But it’s still impressive. Think there are anymore like this in Basic?” He asks, now that you think about it, there is weapon customization in this…

“Most likely but they’d probably use different weapons,” Red hums and you both fall into comfortable silence while continuing to practice your aims.

“How did you get into gaming?” Red asks suddenly, oh boy. He just set off a tidal wave. You tell him how and why you got into gaming and he listened intently, even telling YOU how he got into gaming. Then it moved to conversing about video games which you both were REALLY into.

“I shall name you… Butters,” Rus declares as he holds the golden fox in his hands. The fox yips and Rus aww’s from the fox.

“Butters huh? Neat name,” Stretch comments as he walks by Rus to pick some herbs.

“Thanks,” They fall into silence before Rus breaks it again.

“Hey, I know you introduced us to this game to socialize but… don’t you find the human a bit TO accepting?” Stretch mulls over the question and faces Rus.

“Well, to them they think we’re using avatars so there’s that,” Rus hums and pets Butters.

“True, should we go get Edge and Mal?” Rus asks.

“Nah, they’ll be fine. Besides, they can find us with the friend tracking system, remember?” Rus shakes his head.

“There’s so many features to keep track of…” Rus mutters, earning an amused smirk from Stretch.

“Eh, you get used to it. Eventually,” 

Hours went by and before you knew it, you had to log off. You got Red’s discord and planned to have a Smash match one day. While the others were interesting, they didn’t seem too keen to give you their discord just yet. Understandable, after all they just met. 

As you wind down for the night, you check your messages to see Red, Blue, Carrot and Chris messaged you.

Red: Can’t wait to kick your ass in Smash, when you have time that is.

(Username): Oh, you’re on hot topic! Saturday, noon.

Red: Deal. See ya then sweetheart. ;)

Your face totally didn’t erupt into a tomato, nooooo.

Magnificent Blueberry: I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL DAY FART! AND THANK YOU For YOUR LUCK EARLIER, IT REALLY HELPED! HAVE A GOOD NIGHT FART! -ALL THE BEST, BLUE!

You couldn’t help but chuckle that Blue still used Fart. You send a quick “I did, thank you and goodnight!” Now onto Carrot.

Cheesepuff: Hey, thanks for being patient enough to meet them. I know they can be a bit of a… nuisance.  

(Username): It was no trouble! Plus, I got a new gaming buddy so it works out!

Cheesepuff: Huh, well I’m glad at least ONE of them made a friend. Or acquaintance. Whichever it is. I wish thee farewell, as I have to attend an important matter called Sleep. Till we meet again Fart!

You laughed at his goofiness and moved onto Crispy Chris. (God it’s so stupid yet so funny!)

Crispy Chris: Hey, we don’t have to go to work tomorrow. Boss found an announcement that anti monster protestors are targeting our store. 

(Username): Really? Why are they still at this? It’s been 3 YEARS since monsters came and STILL can’t see reason?

Crispy Chris: I’ll say it once, I’ll say it again. Humans are stupid.

(Username): Agreed. Thanks for telling me.

Crispy Chris: Np. Good night and sweet dreams.

With your socializing done for the day, you place your phone on your night stand and go to sleep.

I- don’t know why I keep writing long chapters but HERE WE ARE! That’s 3 sets of boys that got a “proper” introduction. Only 2 more too go and onto the plot! (Which I’m totally making up as I go along.)

Next Chapter

[iohourtime]

Hey!Say!JUMP 2019 in Taipei - Reports from various newspapers

Notes:

I was going to do this back in October when it was more timely but I was going nuts trying to organize all the articles in some semblance of order. Why now then? The concert DVD’s will be released on August 5! A digest version of the Taipei concert will be included in LE 1. According to the fans, they only cut 3 songs (and probably a lot if not all of the MC). 

This article was translated mainly from the Apple Daily article, but I filled in the details from other articles, con reports, and news clips.

Johnny's group Hey!Say!JUMP held their first concert in Taiwan in 7 years. The 9 members of Hey!Say!JUMP are Yabu Kota, Takaki Yuya, Inoo Kei, Yaotome Hikaru, Arioka Daiki, Okamoto Keito (studying abroad), Yamada Ryosuke, Nakajima Yuto, and Chinen Yuri. For two days, they took over the Taipei Arena and were greeted with great enthusiasm: the 22,000 tickets sold out immediately, with the 2 performances grossing 58M TWD in ticket sales.

The concert was not just attended by local Taiwanese fans, the Japanese fans also formed their own tour groups to go to the concert, and you could find fans from many countries like China, Thailand, etc… Wu Chun, who co-starred with Yamada Ryosuke and Arioka Daiki, sent flowers to congratulate them on opening night. They also arranged a lot of "Taiwan limited events" for the local fans, such as opening a pop up shop, releasing 2 songs on streaming services, as well as a collaboration with Line Poko Poko.

2 minute digest video here.

Opening Introduction

As the LED sign of Hey!Say!JUMP's name rose to the top, the 8 members appeared on stage donned in sparkling suits in their own members' colour. The 11,000 fans switched on their penlights to their biases’ colour and turned the arena into a spectacle of lights.

Yamada shouted "Are you ready!!!!" Takaki* (or Arioka & Chinen) said in Mandarin, "Are you having fun? OK, we are having fun too. Taiwan! Welcome to our concert!" The other members didn't want to lose to each other and they all chimed in with their newly learned Chinese phrases like "you guys are super cute", "sing along with us" , "please sit" or “let me hear you scream”. They started with a performance of “Arigatou~ Sekai no doko ni itemo”, a song that included lyrics in many languages, such as “Thank you” in Manadarin.

* The Taiwanese media could not tell some of the members apart, so certain quotes were attributed to multiple members. I used 1 and put the other possibilities in brackets. I suppose we will find out when we watch the DVD.

When it was time to introduce themselves, they did not forget to flirt with and charm their fans in Mandarin. Yabu Kota started by saying “We’ve learned a bit* of Chinese. Please bear with us as we are not very good. How are you, I am Yabu Kota. We’ve let you wait for too long. Friends in the back, I can see you clearly!”

* Another article said we’ve spent a year learning Chinese. That’s what I heard from the news clips too, but either is possible because of his pronunciation. 😅 我們學了一點 (yī diǎn)中文 vs. 我們學了一年 (yī nián) 中文.

Hikaru Yaotome continued, “I remember the last time we came here. Let us melt your hearts.” 

Takaki Yuya also shouted, “I really really missed you guys.” 

Inoo Kei, who wasted no time telling the fans they were cute made a “shocking” declaration. “You are all our girlfriends. Can my girlfriends on the left hear me? How about my girlfriends on the right? ” Then he put his arms around Chinen Yuri and said, “But my real girlfriend is…” and trailed off, leaving the fans to draw their own conclusions.

Chinen Yuri was worried that the fans did not recognize him, so he kept asking “Do you know me? Do you know me? Really?” When he heard the affirmative responses, he said, “I like you very much! Thank you.”

Meanwhile Yamada Ryosuke tried a different strategy and used Taiwanese to tell everyone in the audience that they were cute*. However, his pronunciation was quite off so nobody understood what he said and the response was very tentative. He panicked and kept repeating the phrase*, when Chinen finally asked him to clarify. Yamada said “You’re cute” in Japanese and that was met with kyaa’s. Nevertheless, his failed attempt brought a lot of joy to the audience.

* Cute in Taiwanese is 古錐 (Actual pronunciation). 😅

Finally, Nakajima Yuto used both Mandarin and English to address the audience. “It’s been a long time. We are so happy to see you again. We’ve been waiting to see you again for 7 years since we came here last time. For 7 years. Our dream to come back here has finally come true. We are so glad.” (Source: a clip from a Taiwan TV entertainment show.)

You can watch some of the exchanges here.

There were many familiar songs on the set list but with a Taiwanese twist. For example, in Kimi Attraction, the members mugged the camera and acted cool as usual. At the end, Chinen said “As expected, Taiwan is No. 1.” Inoo added in Mandarin, “So cute!” 

They also brought back the "flying circle" from the stage show “SUMMARY”, which was something they had not performed for years. Dressed in white, they quickly hooked each other up to the harnesses and held each others’ hands as they flew, their capes flowing gracefully as they twirled to the music while they sang “Born in the EARTH”, the audience went wild. The rest of the concert was filled with effects like confetti, smoke, dry ice, and gin tape. It was a spectacle.

MC

Just before the end of the first half, the 8 members were chatting with fans and each other on stage. When they found out a lot of them attended their concert at Nangang 101* 7 years ago, they immediately said “Thank you” in Chinese. They then asked each other (in Mandarin), “Do you have a smartphone?” Nakajima also asked the audience, “What kind of group is Hey!Say!JUMP?” 

* Nangang 101 was a small concert hall that has since been demolished. From what I heard, it was actually a pretty bad location. Supposedly, Taipei Arena is a much nicer space.

At this time, it looked like Yamada was going to introduce each member, but all he did was point at each one and said “他很帥! (He is handsome)”. When it was Arioka’s turn, Yamada pointed at him and said, “他是笨蛋! (He is an idiot)”. Arioka, who didn’t know the Mandarin for “idiot”, immediately asked, “Hey, the word you used to describe me is different from the others!” The audience roared.

After Yamada introduced everybody, Chinen introduced Yamada* with “他是...我的錢包. (He is my... wallet.)” Yamada clarified, “不是,我是...��行! (No, I am... the bank!)”

*This is not in any of the news articles, but the Taiwanese fans won’t shut up about it, so I’ll add it here. Either the whole thing was in Mandarin or it’s a mix of Japanese and Mandarin. I have no clue but at least “wallet” and “bank” were in Manadrin.

Meanwhile, out of nowhere, Chinen showed off the line he learned and said, “I will not make the same mistake next time”*. The members were completely baffled by that. 

* When Yabu, Yuto, and Chi went to Taipei for the press conference, they appeared on a number of TW entertainment shows and were taught a bunch of “useful” Mandarin phrases. I think this was one of the lines.

They also remembered to advertise the pop-up shop. Since the members arrived a day earlier in Taipei, they secretly visited the pop up shop to check it out and signed the poster. The members teased Yamada, the spokesperson for Lachesca cleansing product, and said “The shop is filled with Yamada.” At this time, Yamada brought out all the products and promoted them to the audience. Nakajima added, “If you use this, you will have the same soft skin as Yamada!” Yabu said, “I heard a lot of items that were sold out will be restocked tomorrow. Please go check them out.” 

They also promoted the Line Poko Poko game they were repping. Takaki jokingly said, “Yesterday, I went to the sauna. Just when I was very relaxed, I suddenly saw our ad on TV. It was a bit embarrassing.” They also revealed that the stickers were designed by Yaotome Hikaru and even used Mandarin to say “Go download it.” Indeed, they were good spokespersons.

Second Half

After a short intermission, the second half of the concert began. The members changed into purple Japanese outfits for the “Wa” corner, with Nakajima on taiko and Yaotome playing shamisen. The “Wa” corner was reminiscent of senpai Domoto Koichi’s musical, “SHOCK”. Each member performed a series of fan dance and ribbon dance, set to a rearranged version of “Over” and “Give Me Love”, etc. The background also changed throughout the set into various Japanese motifs. During “Give Me Love”, Yamada and Chinen grabbed the white ribbons and started flying on stage with no safety harnesses. The audience was shocked and awed.

As the main part of the concert came to an end, the audience was treated to a highlight video of HSJ’s last Taipei concert 7 years ago, giving them a chance to reminisce. They changed into sparkly gold outfits and sang a 12-song medley of their hit singles, including their debut song “Ultra Music Power”, “Mayonaka no Shadow Boy”, “Mae wo muke”, etc., while… you guessed it… flying through the air again! They finished with “White Love”, their single from the previous year, but to the audience’s surprise, they sang the last half of the song in Taiwanese (correctly pronounced apparently)! The audience completely lost it with excitement at this point.

「White Love」（台語版）：

若有一天會實現

咱兩人永遠做伙的彼個夢

妳就是唯一願望

妳是我的從今以後的未來

最後一擺的戀愛

我的愛乎妳一個

獻予妳全心全意的一個人

我的心愛妳到底

我愛妳　遮愛妳

全世界只有妳一人

我愛妳 遮愛你

妳是我永遠註定的命運

上愛的故事

“White Love” (Taiwanese version)

If it comes true one day,

That dream where we are together forever,

Then I only wish for you,

You are my future from now on.

My last love story,

I give my love only to you,

To you, who love me wholeheartedly.

In my heart, I will love you till the end.

I love you, I love you very much,

There’s only you in the whole world.

I love you, I love you very much,

You are my destiny,

The best love story.

You can watch the video here

Encore

After the thunderous shouts of encore from the audience, the members appeared on stage again and sang “Fanfare!”” and “You & I”. They promised their Taiwanese fans to “not let them wait this long for the next time”. However, since this was the last night, the 11K fans shouted for a second encore and the members appeared on stage again.  Chinen said with a smile, “We see each other again so soon!” Yabu used Mandarin to ask the fans, “What do you want to hear? What do you want us to sing?” They then performed “Ultra Music Power again, and rang around the stage. Nakajima Yuto said in pretty fluent English, “Thank you everyone for coming. We are so happy. We will not forget tonight when you are here with us in Taiwan together!” Chinen also said in Mandarin that “We will come again!”. The members wistfully said goodbye to their fans.

Fan stories and fan service

Hey!Say!JUMP’s concert was like a grand entertainment show. In addition to the members’ hard work, the fans also brought a lot of enthusiasm. In Johnny’s tradition, fans communicate to their idols through homemade uchiwa, which was a sight to behold for [those unfamiliar with Johnny’s concerts]. Fan messages included “Wink at me”, “Blow me a kiss”, “Point at me” etc., and the fans could quickly switch to different uchiwas depending on the member who appeared in their sights.

A 30 year old OL fan, Sen, brought a Yamada Ryosuke and Nakajima Yuto uchiwa as well as 2 message ones that said “Give me a kiss” and “Did you drink bubble tea?” She said the handmade ones were actually borrowed from a fan, who successfully got a kiss from Yaotome Hikaru the day before, so she hoped the luck would rub off on her.

Apple Daily’s reporter even saw a Japanese fan who brought 8 uchiwa, and she even joined forces with her seat mates, all holding up that members’ uchiwa together to catch the attention of their idols who appeared in front of them.  During the encore, Nakajima Yuto immediately started running around the stage to look for fans. When he found a fan from Singapore and he asked this fan directly, “Did you fly here from Singapore?” He also compiled with all the fan service: blowing kisses, giving them thumbs up, heart signs, the fans were super excited. [I guess you can say his service is excellent.]

Sources (in addition to news clips and twitter / weibo):

Apple Daily

https://tw.appledaily.com/new/realtime/20191006/1644575/

China Daily

https://www.chinatimes.com/amp/realtimenews/20191006002555-260404

Liberty Time News

https://ent.ltn.com.tw/news/breakingnews/2938402

https://stars.udn.com/star/story/10092/4089578

Now News

https://www.nownews.com/news/20191006/3674832/

https://www.nownews.com/news/20191006/3674976/   (White Love lyrics)

Star UDN

https://stars.udn.com/star/story/10092/4089727?from=udnamp-referralnews_ch1022artbottom

[justcryingxx]

Bryce’s stepsister pt 1 (2.0)

summary: you’re Bryce Walker his new stepsister and you get welcomed to the world on liberty high as a junior. 

Names:            Amy Everly, your mother

                       Luke Everly, your brother

                       Megan Everly, yourself

Words: 2,2 K

(gif is not mine)

Bryce already knew the drill; his father got a new girlfriend, it lasted for 2 months tops and again. It was like that since around 3 years ago, his mother died 4 years ago in a car accident, first his father didn’t come out of the house more than once a week but then that happened, he got out there again. But this time it didn’t went like this. He didn’t know his father was seeing someone again since a week ago and now they were moving, new house, new mother figure, new sister, new brother. 

 Bryce’s POV –

 I was bringing my boxes upstairs to my room, I started with putting up my closet and put my clothes away when my father shouted. “Bryce, can you come downstairs for a second?” I sighed not wanting to quit halfway trough something but still went downstairs.

“Bryce this is Luke, Amy’s son. He’s already attending college, so I don’t think you’ll see him around much. But I think you’ll get along great!” I greeted him and we had a little chat, we got along pretty great (like my dad already thought)

So, when we went for dinner that night we just kept talking, no awkward silences or something. My dad and Amy really liked we got along great. “I hope you get along with Meg, just as good.” Amy exclaimed, I assumed meg was short for Megan, her 17-year-old daughter who will attend Liberty when school starts again.

Which was only just 2 weeks left. “Oh, while we’re talking about Megan, her flight lands tomorrow so can you maybe pick her up or something? Amy and I still need to do some shopping for the new house, maybe Luke wants to come with? “my father asked. I wasn’t planning on doing much tomorrow, so I agreed. “oh, I can’t come with, I’m sorry. My girlfriend and I are going to the city tomorrow.” Luke apologized. I shook it off saying he didn’t need to feel sorry.

Instead I asked my friends to come with, since it was a pretty long ride to the airport so I could talk to someone, and then she could already meet some more people.

Brothaas 💪

I:                    are you guys doing something tomorrow? Cuz I need to pick up                            Amy’s daughter from the airport tmrw, but I need some company                          ya know.

Monty:         depends on if she’s hot 😉

I:                   mkay Monty’s not coming with, anyone else?

Scott:           sorry bro, I can’t. I promised my little sister to help her with                                   something.

Monty:         why don’t I know your sister Scottie?

Scott           probably because she’s 9 but sure

I:                 Monty you coming with then? Because the rest takes too long to

                    respond

Monty:         yea sure, how late are you picking me up?

I:                   Idk when her plain lands so I’ll let you know when I know

 “Amy, why is Megan alone on vacation anyway?” I asked looking up from my phone

before I responded I glanced at my father showing him the texts, well not really just the ones confirming Monty’s coming with. He gave a thumbs up. “she was visiting her father, but Luke came back earlier because of preparing for college but since they can’t see their father that much Megan decided to stay longer.” Amy answered after taking a sip of her water.

Later that night I searched her flight and texted Monty, he then responded he sadly couldn’t come with since he needed to help his mother with something. So, I went alone the next morning.

I put on some music and started driving, it was about a 40-minute ride, but it wasn’t as boring as I thought it would be. When I arrived at the airport, I parked my car and went inside to wait where she would go after checking out and grabbing her luggage and stuff. I took a seat and went on my phone. After a few minutes I wasn’t really paying attention to my surroundings anymore, so I didn’t notice when a girl came up to me.

 “hey, I’m Megan you must be Bryce.” She smiled but looked a little bit tired from traveling or something. “yea that’s me, nice to meet you. Can I help you with your luggage?” I asked knowing my father wanted me to be polite which is pretty normal. “yes, thank you.” She smiled while pointing to one of her bags “you can take that one, it’s pretty light.”

We walked to the car getting to know each other a little better, I got to know that she wanted to try out for cheerleading, that she was kind of clumsy, that she had humor and that she was drop dread gorgeous and I already knew what the topic in the locker room was going to be around the next coming weeks.

When we came home everything with moving was already done, well everything unless Megan’s room. Which she went and did right away. I was bored so decided to throw a party tonight since why not.

I asked my father and Amy if they couldn’t go to a hotel or something and they were like why not it’s like a date so that was fixed. I then texted Chloe and Mont to tell everyone and I then went to Megan’s room. “hey Megan, I’m throwing a party tonight, maybe I can introduce you to some people for the school starts again?” I said standing in her doorway “oh yea that would be nice thanks” she said turning around flashing a smile. 

“I can ask Chloe if she wants to get ready with you and maybe some other friends of her?” I proposed thinking she would maybe appreciate that. “depends on if she’s nice but if she is, I would really like that.” I laughed “yea she’s a good person, I wouldn’t date her otherwise” I smirked “oh I’m sorry I didn’t know” I snorted “it’s okay really, I’ll text her if she would want to come around 8.” I said before I walked out of her room. “oh, and I’ll add you to the group app if you want” she nodded.

Breakfast at Bryce’s

Bryce Walker added Megan Everly

Bryce: this is Megan, Amy’s daughter. She’s joining Liberty as well and if u don’t like her suck it up

Jessica: hey Megan, welcome to this I wish you good luck and I would escape now you still can x

Bryce: fuck u Jessica

Jessica: no thanks :)

Megan: hahaha

Bryce: oh, guys party at mine’s tonight 9 ish you probably already knew but idc

Bryce: ^ Megan’s and I’s

Jessica: Megan I heard from Chloe, me Chloe and Sheri will be there around 8 xx

Megan: thanks x

 Megan’s POV (it’ll probably be like that most of the time but yea)

 It was almost 8 and the girls could be here any second and to be honest I was pretty nervous, especially since I knew no one but Bryce. I was sitting on the couch with Bryce trying to get our parents away. When they were finally gone, almost immediately the doorbell rang. I went to open it because Bryce was already heading to the store to get some plastic cups and some more ping pong balls.

When I opened the door, I saw 3 girls, as expected. One girl with blonde hair, and two with brown curls. They were all so pretty so I understood why Bryce would date one of them. “omg you’re so pretty! Oh, I’m sorry I’m Jessica, this is Sheri and that’ll be Chloe” I smiled because I could already tell they were really nice, we got to know each other and then went to my room to get ready.

I was curling my hair while we were talking about boys. “so, I’m dating Justin, so you know, Chloe is with Bryce and Sheri is on and off with Scott, so I don’t really know about that. But you definitely need a boyfriend.” Jessica said while looking trough my closet for a cute outfit. She then turned around and looked at Chloe and Sheri with a certain look. “what does that look mean?” I asked confused. “okay so, we’re going to introduce you to some boys, Jeff, Zach, and Montgomery.” Chloe explained. “you’ll then pick the cutest and we’ll set you two up” Sheri said excited.

“wow, you got that from one look?!” I laughed but still agreed with their little plan expecting them to introduce all of the friends anyway. When I was done doing my hair and Jessica picked a cute outfit, we were all ready. I just did on some mascara and lip gloss and was ready.

I was wearing a black toned see trough turtleneck shirt with a black bra underneath, (not a slutty one tho) black jeans, some white converse and some jewelry, my hair was curled and hung loose over my shoulders. We took some selfies before and then went downstairs.  It was a quarter past nine at this moment. There weren’t many people yet, Sheri explained that around the time it started only the non-friends were there, most of the times their friends started to show up a half hour later.

They introduced me to one or two people who they thought were important enough. I was talking to someone whom I already forget the name of when I decided to get a drink, I couldn’t find the girls anymore, but I figured I would run into them now or then. I poured myself a drink making sure there was alcohol in it. I took a sip and looked around me for a second. I was taking in my surrounding when someone came up to me, “hey, you’re Megan right? Bryce is looking for you, he’s in the living room.” The boy told me. “oh yeah that’s me, I’ll go look for him. Thanks”

I walked towards the living room looking for Bryce. I bumped into someone. “hey watch were you’re going.” He said before he walked off. I apologized but he probably didn’t hear it. I took a sip of my drink and spotted Bryce. “Bryce!” I yelled trying to come above the music. “Bryce!” I tried again coming closer to him. He heard me. “hey Megan, here you are, I wanted to introduce you to some people.” I nodded taking another sip of my drink, feeling the alcohol kick in a little. He introduced me to some off his friends, I met jess’s boyfriend, Jeff Atkins, Scott Reed and I was now talking with Zach.

“Megan, Zach come here, Bryce vs Monty with beerpong” Jeff yelled. “who’s Monty?” I asked while Zach guided me to the beerpong table. “Bryce hasn’t introduced you yet? He’s Bryce’s best friend” I nodded slowly not really understanding why he wouldn’t introduce his best friend, but I didn’t think to much about it.

“heyyy Megan there you areeee” Jessica slurred hanging over Justin’s shoulders. “I’m going to lay her in a bed or something” Justin snorted escorting her inside. I grinned taking another sip of my drink. When we came there, I wanted to lose up a little since I wasn’t doing much for most of the night. So, I decided to join beerpong, I was with Bryce’s friend (forgot his name) since Chloe was with Bryce.

I sucked at it, so badly. There was one cup left by us and 4 by Bryce and Chloe. I was so drunk at this moment since it was like the third round we played because let’s be honest, it’s a fun game. At this point I was about to throw the ball when I leaned forward and fell on the table, but since it was just a plastic table it fell down just like me.      

I laid on the ground giggling when Bryce decided it was enough, so he made sure I was going to sleep. He brought me to my room and laid me in bed he grabbed a glass water and an aspirin for me thinking I would need it in the morning the next day, well actually still the same day. “night night Brycie” I slurred “goodnight Meg” he grinned before he closed my door and walked back to the party. It didn’t take long before I fell asleep.  

When I woke up my head hurt so bad, and to make it better my mother was back home already and she didn’t like it that much that just woke up at 2 pm with the biggest hangover I’ve ever had. When I showered and came downstairs she was cleaning the kitchen. “morning mom” I said while grabbing a plate. “it’s not morning anymore” she answered coldly.

I grabbed a towel and threw it at her back since she wasn’t facing me. “mooom don’t be mad, it’s my fault, I know that so you don’t have to be mad” she turned around and laughed while throwing the towel back at me. “young lady we’re not throwing towels without permission here.” I stuck out my tongue while grabbing my plate and some food sitting at the kitchen island. She laughed, “well then, how was the party, you met some new people?” my mother asked pouring in some orange juice for me. “thanks mom, yeah I did. I met most of Bryce’s friends, they’re nice” she smiled and then continued cleaning the kitchen while I was scrolling through my phone seeing al the pictures and videos from last night.

 I think I can get used to Liberty High if it’s with these people.                                                                                    

[over-a-new-leaf]

self-care 101 (covid-19 period)

Since we’ve rolled round to another May bank holiday, I thought it’d be nice to share some tips with you. As a homebody, and someone who will do absolutely ANYTHING to avoid one specific boring activity, I’ve racked up quite a long list over the past few years. Obviously, I’m no professional - but I find these help. There’s no specific chronological order to these - just pick and choose as you like!

Get out of bed!

Or lie in if you need to. Whatever makes you feel good

Start off the day with some yoga or meditation, or basic stretches

Or pray for a bit if you’re religious

Make your bed: tuck your sheets in, rearrange your pillows, etc.

Brush your hair and tie it up nicely

Pick out a cute outfit - could even be your favourite PJs - and lay it out

Go take a soothing shower, or a bubble bath

Use a bath bomb, get some nice candles if you feel like it

Put on some nice music to relax to

Try out a new hairstyle or style your hair the way you would if you had somewhere to be!

Slap on some makeup, why not? :) 

Floss your teeth, or maybe use that teeth whitening formula you never picked up again after using it for the first time

Pick out a recipe for a hair mask or face mask and put it on

Before doing any of these, make sure they suit your hair & skin type

E.g. if you have frizzy and dry hair, use a moisturising and rejuvenating mask vs if you have sleek, straight hair - use a volume-enhancing mask. Same goes for your skin - evaluate whether you have dry skin, oily skin or combination 

Stick to the recommended leave in time! It can be extremely difficult to get out later otherwise

Or make your own mask! There’s tons of recipes on YouTube and Google :)

Make yourself a nice breakfast

Breakfast smoothies are amazing! A really simple recipe I use contains a few spoonfuls of oats, handful of fruits (e.g. blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes), honey / sugar by taste and yogurt.

Or a nice bowl of your favourite cereal

Avocado toast - there are so many different varieties of this online, and I bet you’ll find that you like.

A fruit salad!

Eggs done the way you like

A full English if you’re feeling ambitious

Workout for an hour or so

This doesn’t have to be really equipment intense or challenging if you don’t want it to be

Some YouTubers I recommend: Chloe Ting, Emi Wong, Fitness Blender, MadFit, Blogilates, Yoga with Adrienne, etc. 

Don’t over exert yourself. Take longer than the recommended break time between exercises if you need to

Grab a new book, or a book you just enjoy reading

You can browse through Spotify for any playlists to listen to while reading - or use a playlist of songs you like

Listen to some music you like

Or discover some new music using Spotify’s ‘Discover’ feature

Preferably something that lifts your mood!

Pick out a recipe you’ve been meaning to try and just make it!

Dance around the house to some music

This can also be a sort-of-workout!

You can try learning a routine

TikTok dances are so stupidly fun

Maybe get a friend on vid-call and learn a dance with them

Make some TikToks

Or duet some on the app!

Get out a new bottle of wine - it’ll make you feel boujie ;)

Or your drink of choice - I’m not big into alc so I usually love a cool mint lemonade or iced coffee

Sit outside if the weather is nice

Or even if it’s rainy! I particularly love rainy days

Go for a walk around your neighbourhood

Do some grocery shopping! It can be surprisingly fun when you’re in no rush - plus, that’s a task off your future to-do list

Go meet a friend - stand at least 2m away and have a chat

Or text/ call your family / friends

Houseparty is great to use because it’s got games that you can play together if you’re not big on talking

Watch that TV series / movie you’ve been trying to get round to

Play with your pet, if you have one!

Do a cute lil photoshoot

Put on a nice outfit and take some nice pictures using the timer

Pictures with your pet

Or take pictures of your surroundings when outside

Or of the new dish you’ve impulsively made

Grab a pretty notebook

Start a bullet journal

Or a diary!

Do some journalling using journal prompts online

One really simple activity I really like is writing out 3 things that made my day :)

If you’re a poet or writer - write write write!

Maybe take the first step towards starting a blog (like I did last week, aha)

Play a musical instrument 

Or pick up something you haven’t played in a while

Try learning some basic chords online

Or just play your favourite music if you’re a professional

Sing along to your music!

Search up some online webinars and virtual events to attend

Lots of professional webinars on LinkedIn, even Facebook at times

Live museum and art gallery tours on Google!

Try some meditation

Headspace is a great freemium app, among others

Use a guided meditation from YouTube

Create a Pinterest account and start making boards

These can be pretty pictures

Or things you’ll have in your future house

Workout routines

Even more self-care recommendations

Sketching

There’s this activity where you put your playlist on shuffle and draw what comes to your mind when you hear each song

Or just search up an image online and draw it

Doodle in your bullet journal / book if you have one

Embroider/ stitch some of your old clothes

Plenty of tutorials online!

You can stitch in some cute images :)

Try a new podcast 

There are so many to explore on Spotify under the Podcasts section

Or watch something on YouTube

Learn something new if you feel like it

Pick up a subject area of interest and search it up on YouTube

You’ll get so many results!

Reorganise your house / room

Put on some music to jam along to while doing this!

Vacuum

Or just tidy all those papers off the desk

Reorganise your drawers

Fold your clothes

Dust any surfaces - super satisfying!

Maybe spice up your furniture placement

Try moving things around - be careful not to strain yourself

Do some laundry maybe

Yawn, but can be satisfying once you’ve done it!

Purge your wardrobe of any old clothes

You can donate them to charities

Or sell them on apps like Depop

Do some online shopping

Be careful not to spend too much though! :)

Download a photoprint app and get some pictures printed

There’s a lot of apps that offer you __ amount of free prints with delivery costs - not a bad deal!

You can finally make a photowall / collage

Try some scrapbooking 

Get out some old newspapers and magazines and cut out any pictures of words that particularly catch your eye

Make pretty lil collages or spreads with them

Reorganise your digital folders

E.g. bookmarks on Chrome

Saved folders on Insta

Email folders

To Do lists

Give them pretty names so you’re more likely to use them in future

Catch up on some much needed sleep 

Afternoon cat naps are actually lovely!

Make yourself some tea or coffee and just sit by the window with some music

Cliché and niche, but makes you feel calmer!

Try some chai recipes online if you’re into relatively milky tea or trying out new recipes

I’m not a big fan of chai ^ which is surprising as an Indian, but my family and friends love it soo

Do something with your family / roommates

Movie night!

Group dinners (even better - themed dinners!)

Or a fine dining wine night (bonus points if you dress up!)

Board games night

Or just games night e.g. charades, Headbandz, Psych (app)

DnD - never tried it but sm people have recommended it!

Make some TikToks

Sit around and chat

This is random but you can make PPTs about things you like and present them to each other - good for shit n giggles :) 

Play an old online game e.g. Fireboy and Watergirl!

Create each other in the Sims 

Organise some friendly competitions :)

Truth or Dare? 

Look at star sign stuff with them - whether you believe or not, it’s an interesting thing to do nonetheless

Do Enneagram tests - extremely interesting and scarily accurate from my personal experience

Experimental cocktails maybe!

Some DIY arts and crafts!

Pitch a tent outside

Or make a pillow fort inside

Speaking of which - pillow fights!

Karaoke night

Or set up your own club - make a playlist, get some strobe lights or turn off the lights and get everyone to switch on their phone flash and just dance around. Get some drinks if you want as well!

Have a BBQ - great to do especially in the afternoons or early evenings!

Have a date night if it’s just the two of you :)

Have a picnic outside

Text someone something nice!

Win-win for the sender and the recipient :)

Great chance to reconnect with someone

Cleanse your devices & social media profiles

Change your profile pictures, bios

Archive / delete some pictures (we’re all guilty of this)

Maybe restart your account if you haven’t used it in too long, have too many random followers or just want to start afresh

Check your phone storage and delete stuff accordingly

Change your wallpaper / theme

Back up old pictures and delete them off your device 

And that’s my list for now! I might add to it later if something comes to me but I hope you guys enjoy this! :) 

Image credits:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/151574343695926876/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/579627414531062674/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/AQzIfTN5EwSc9JESrIo1l8AQw6cznXq2HLFq_SQk6La00-yL2As1QnY/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/499055202462999051/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/328481366576228467/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/6262886962801682/

[arlenjwm84110-blog]

In style Genres

But, as our chat reveals, the discordant story does not finish there: the naturally gifted Neelix attended his first doof little more than a decade ago, confesses to be unwell comfy in the studio, and plans to produce pop music within the close to future. Though he died tragically on the age of 33, Sam Cooke left a tremendous legacy from his few years as a high pop and soul performer. Many give credit score to Cooke for being a pioneer and founding father of what became often known as soul music when he moved from the gospel world to concentrate on in style music. Sam Cooke was also a pioneer among black performers on the business finish of music. He shaped his personal record label and music publishing company. He also turned a music chief within the American civil rights motion, lending it one of his most stirring songs, "A Change Is Gonna Come," as an anthem. A lot is manufactured from the Blur vs Oasis rivalry that ran all through the peak of Britpop and it's actually true that they were two of crucial bands of the decade. Blur's impressive again catalogue boasts a wealth of indelibly British songwriting with some of the wittiest lyrics of the Nineteen Nineties, and in addition a number of the simplest (see Tender). Damon Albarn would go on to create music with Gorillaz and pursue quite a lot of different intriguing initiatives, however the actual star of the present was Graham Coxon, who remains probably the most criminally underrated British guitarists of the 20th century. Banda is a blend of virtually all of the genres of the Mexican music, like the corridos, boleros, baladas, cumbias, rancheras, and also rock and pop. Banda is principally an enormous brass-primarily based form of music that primarily relies on percussion. It originated in the Sinaloa state of Mexico. Around 10 to twenty people are present in a band. The American band was banned for a long time in Australia, in 1996 the country stopped the sale of any Cannibal Corpse recordings and all copies needed to be stripped from music shops. The ban lasted ten years till it was lifted in 2006. Different H-topics have been far more dynamic. Between 1960 and 2009, the mean frequency of H1 declined by about 75%. H1 captures the use of dominant-seventh chords. Inherently dissonant (due to the tritone interval between the third and the minor-seventh), these chords are generally used in Jazz to create tensions that are finally resolved to consonant chords; in Blues music, the dissonances are typically not resolved and thus add to the attribute ‘dirty' color. Accordingly, we discover that songs tagged blues or jazz have a high frequency of H1; it is especially widespread in the songs of Blues artists equivalent to B.B. King and Jazz artists such as Nat ‘King' Cole. The decline of this topic, then, represents the lingering death of Jazz and Blues within the Scorching one hundred. Aurora One of the fastest rising stars in Norwegian music, this pop star from Os has toured the country extensively, and begun to make waves in international waters. Aurora has already won numerous awards since beginning out in 2015. Negus, Keith (1999) Music Genres and Company Cultures. London and New York: Routledge. Electro group Cybotron births early techno music with "Clear". Different early techno acts embrace Model 500 and Channel One. Later, artists comparable to Rhythm is Rhythm, Eddie "Flashin'" Fowlkes, Inside City, Jeff Mills, Frankie Bones, Plastikman, Underground Resistance, Moby, The Chemical Brothers, Joey Beltram, Ken Ishii, Underworld, The Orb, Adam Beyer, and Aphex Twin additionally define the sound. Electronic gets a nasty rap because most people don't yet perceive it. Its one of the latest forms of music with so many various subgenres with so many variations of its utilization that its completely thoughts boggling. My personal belief is that there's a subgenre of Digital music for everybody even those who claim to hate it. I hope someday that Digital music joins the annals of the very best music sorts of all time as I personally believe it's the future. In the event you really need to know the difference between minor music genres, you may need to get some listening training in drum grooves, as the majority of the time the drums gives you the largest and most obvious hint as to what the genre is. It additionally helps to get a way of popular music historical past, as most style distinctions only make sense within the context of their previous genres and the genres with which they are interacting contemporaneously. Music style — or http://www.audio-transcoder.com just style — refers to types of music. "Rock" is a music style, as our nation, reggae, classical, jazz amongst others. When speaking about genre within the music trade, it's helpful to think by way of top-level genres and sub-genres. This stuff is a shame to Country music. Old style country is my favourite genre of music. Quite a lot of that music was authentic musically and undoubtedly had loads of good songwriting. The Pet Shop Boys wrap erudite irony and romance in lush electronic keyboard textures topped by typically deadpan vocals to create their nook of the pop music world. They are one of the top five dance-pop artists of all time and are electro-pop pioneers. Vocalist and songwriter Neil Tennant has come out publicly, and the Pet Shop Boys' music frequently addresses and celebrates gay tradition.

"Few bands in rock historical past have had a extra fast and tangible affect on their contemporary pop musical panorama than Nirvana did in the early Nineties. When the Seattle trio hit the scene in 1991, mainstream radio was awash in the hair steel of Poison and Def Leppard. However seemingly inside hours of the release of Nirvana's anarchic, angry single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - and its twisted anti-pep-rally video-the foundations had changed. Artifice was devalued; pure, uncooked emotion was king," Rolling Stone writes of the band. There aren't many films in which you can see a musical legend pondering the correct strategy to punch a joint of pork - however then Scott Walker is hardly your typical artist, and 30 Century Man demonstrates exactly why such flights of fancy make the pop idol-turned arty recluse so revered. Admire the word. It's unlikely we are going to ever grow to be mates. The Rolling Stones absolutely belong on this checklist and I believe among the legendary bluesman would agree. They're solely chargeable for leading me to the style and my love of the music. They may stay here. My favourite style of music is classic rock and different rock. I like this genre as a result of among the songs and bands encourage me and I can relate to some songs. My favourite bands are the Beatles and Breaking Benjamin. Every time I really feel down I get my iPod and start listening to their music to get right back up. You possibly can stereotype some people by music. In case you see an individual with a cowboy hat, cowboy shirt, and cowboy boots you'll be able to inform that he listens to country music. Music is the most effective factor in America.

[hommart]

14-Day Fast Fat Loss Guide

I recently stopped by the new house of an ol' college buddy to meet his fiance and new baby boy. He's getting married in 5 months time and we had to have a serious chat.

You see, he's gained 25 pounds since birth of his son. He really fell off the wagon. But he's taken the first and most important step by admitting things have to change and so we sat around for over 2 hours in his backyard on a beautiful day and hammered out this plan.

I could have wrote a 5-month plan, but I wanted to fast-track his results - and YOUR results - because research shows people who start losing fat quickly get better long-term fat loss results as well.

So here's your complete 14-day FAST-TRACK guide to fat loss (if you like it, please forward it to a friend or print them off a copy too):

Day 1 - Stop Everything to Plan, Shop, & Prepare This Meal Plan

I hope you're reading this on Sunday, because I want you to plan, shop, and prepare today. If it's Monday, skip your workout and do this instead - its THAT important.

And I don't just mean planning what you are going to eat for dinner. I mean planning what you are going to eat for every meal for the next 2 weeks.

Don't tell me that's too hard. After all, most people with lean physiques stick to a relatively similar diet for 90% of their meals and then enjoy a random cheat/reward meal 10% of the time.

So your schedule might go like this:

Breakfast - 2 eggs, 1 slice rye toast, 1 apple, Green Tea, fish oil

Snack - 1oz raw almonds, 1 pear, Green Tea

Lunch - Grilled chicken/salmon or black bean salad with spinach, onion, peppers, mushrooms, etc., 1 banana or bowl of cherries, 2 cups unsweetened iced tea with lime or lemon

Snack - Unlimited raw vegetables and hummus

Dinner - Protein and vegetables and fruit...so this could be a small piece of steak, chicken, or fish, along with your favorite vegetables, and a bowl of your favorite fruit.

Or it could be the veggie dinner I had last Monday of quinoa with red pepper-cashew sauce and avocado wrapped in kale leaves.

Or it could be wild rice with beans and avocado and salsa.

That schedule won't change much, with the exception of a slight variation in your main course at dinner, right? And then once per week schedule a meal of your favorite food.

Everyone can stick to this plan for 14 days, and this tip alone will help you lose 5-12 pounds of fat in just 2 weeks. And this is also how you'll need to eat for the rest of your life. It's not hard, it just requires a little practice. Keep at it and never, EVER give up.

Alright, so to review, here's your 3-step guide to Day 1.

i) Plan your meals. ii) Shop for the food. iii) Prepare the food (cut everything up, put in the proper trays, cook food if necessary, and get it all packed up for work)

In addition to planning out all of your meals, you must also start keeping a food journal (you could do it online too), because studies show that keeping a food journal will help you lose fat faster.

Next, make sure you do 60 minutes of activity today AND take a "before" photo along with your weight, body fat (if possible), and measurements of your waist, hips, arms, and thighs. Continue to weigh yourself every other day, as research shows that frequent check-ins lead to greater weight loss.

Day 2 - Attend An "Online Fat Loss & Fitness Seminar"

You must set EVERY workout and activity session as an appointment with yourself that you must keep - just like a doctor's visit. Let nothing, except real emergencies, come between you and your workouts.

Today you're going to do a short, burst exercise workout.

Now if you are currently using long, slow, boring cardio to lose f at, stop that bad habit immediately and switch to short, burst workouts.

If you need to learn more about short, burst workouts, go to YouTube and search for interval workouts. While you are there, look up my "Diet vs. Exercise" video series to see why diet is much more effective for fat loss than cardio.

If you are a beginner, please start conservatively. But if you have been working out for a while, the next 3 weeks are your time to step your workouts up a notch.

Day 3 - Write Your Way to Fat Loss

First, you must schedule 60 minutes of easy to moderate activity. I'll talk about that in a second, but you can do anything from a 60 minute walk, a yoga session, a light bodyweight and stretching session, an hour of playing with your kids, or playing an easy game of your favorite sport. Don't go too hard, but stay active.

You must also carve out 30 minutes to sit down and write out 3 short term goals and 3 long term goals. Write down EXACTLY what you want to accomplish in these 14 days. After that, write down what you want to accomplish in the following 90 days.

Once you've done that, you're going to prepare a contract with yourself promising to take the steps necessary to achieve these goals. Sign the contract and review it everyday to keep you on track.

Day 4 - Recruiting Day

Today's another short burst workout. Make sure you are using a professionally designed structured and proven fat loss workout, rather than just "winging it" or using long slow cardio for fat loss.

You'll also spend time today recruiting for these 3 components of your fat loss social support team:

- Nutrition buddy - Workout partner - Fat loss forum accountability buddies

Research shows that recording your nutrition in a food journal and having someone review your meals increases your chance of losing fat.

Another study found that if you workout with a partner who is losing fat, then you'll have a greater chance of losing fat as well.

And finally, a third study found that the more often subjects checked in to an online fat loss forum, the more likely they were to lose a lot of fat.

Get your team together and you'll get more results - faster.

Day 5 - The 60 Minute Solution

Why am I telling you to get 60-minutes of activity on your off days?

Well, to be honest, I do NOT expect you to burn massive amounts of fat with easy, off-day activity.

However, every minute you spend moving, you are NOT snacking! I know the biggest problem you will have is your diet. So instead of snacking in front of the computer or TV, spend your free time away from food. That's the simple secret to the 60 minute solution.

So get 60 minutes of activity on Day 5.

Day 6 - The Challenge

Your 3rd workout needs to be a challenge workout so that you can improve your performance each week. In fact, you should set at least one personal best in each workout. If you improve your performance, your physique will improve as well.

Day 7 - Diet Check-In and Reward Meal

Congratulations, you've made it through 7 amazing days of fat burning. Today you're going to double check your nutrition plan by reviewing your food journal.

If you haven't already done so, eliminate all liquid calories and replace with water and Green Tea.

If you need to learn more about nutrition, start using the free service called Fitday.com. It will help you track your calories.

And if you're really struggling to avoid night eating, try this tip. Place a small mirror on your fridge door. Research shows that subjects consumed fewer calories when they did this because it will remind you to make smarter choices.

Finally, as a reward for all of your hard work, you can treat yourself to your favorite meal. But that doesn't mean gorging. It simply means having a normal meal of your favorite foods to give you a mental break from your plan. When the meal is over, don't go back for seconds. Get right back on the 14-day plan instead.

Days 7 & 8 are also 60 minute off-day activity days.

Day 8 - Review your goals.

It's no good to write your goals down and then forget them. Review them at least weekly, if not daily. Heck, carry them around in your pocket and look at them at every meal.

As you workout, visualize yourself reaching your goals. Believe in yourself, keep a positive attitude, stay motivated and you'll continue to make fast fat loss progress every day.

This will also be another great day to plan, shop, and prepare.

Day 9 - Take It to Another Level

Week one was great, but with only 5 days left it is time for you to step it up again. This time I want you to hire a trainer for just one session to make sure you are doing all the exercises correctly and training as hard as you can (safely, of course).

Add this trainer to your support team. And by the way, a good trainer should be able to estimate your body fat better than any of those "fat scales" you can buy at a store...so get them to check that too.

Day 10 - Plan Your Next Shopping Trip

Today is another 60 minutes of off-day activity, and you'll also work on improving your nutrition even more. What I want you to do is focus on eating more from the Fat Loss Foundation.

The 3 components of my Simple Nutrition Fat Loss Foundation are raw fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Research shows that eating more of these 3 foods will help you lose weight better than a diet that is low in fruits, vegetables and nuts.

Make an effort to eat one new fruit, vegetable, and nut each week during your between meal snacks.

If you aren't already eating grapefruit, try one today and see how it helps fill you up (because it contains a lot of soluble fiber called pectin). Add a new vegetable - such as broccoli, cauliflower, or asparagus - to your dinner. And try walnuts or pecans instead of almonds at your morning break.

Slowly but surely increase the fiber in your diet until you hit the recommended amount of 35 grams per day.

And I hope this goes without saying, but you should have eliminated all foods that contain added sugar. That is one the simplest yet most effective nutrition changes you can make.

Day 11 - Recruit Again

Add a new member into your social support team, such as a new workout partner or healthy-eating partner. This will add strength to your commitment. If possible, join a transformation contest online, or start one among your friends or co-workers.

But when you do that, keep in mind that you want to help other people succeed. The more you can help others lose fat, the more you will help yourself as you share what's working with your friends and they show you their fat loss secrets too. Stay positive, and you'll build a powerful fat loss team.

Today is also another fat loss workout day, so give it your best.

Day 12 - Check-In Time

Today you'll re-measure your weight, body fat, and measurements. Take a look in the mirror to compare yourself against your before photo to see big changes that will motivate you to stay strong.

I also want you to start thinking about getting a tan. Yes, I said getting a tan. Why? Because simply adding a little bit of color to your body can make you look leaner. There's a reason all those models in supplement ads are tanned, you know.

Finally, if there is a "big day" at the end of the 14-days, make sure you try on the outfit you are going to wear to double-check that it is going to look great on you.

Make sure you do this check-in either before your 60 minutes of activity or a few hours after so that exercise does not mess-up the numbers.

Day 13 - Mental Performance Review

Write down all obstacles that are still in your way of success, and then brainstorm 2 solutions to overcome each. Get some help from your social support team on this. The more you and your team share solutions, the more fat you - and everyone else - will lose.

For example, you might come up with rules like, "No eating in the car" to help cut down on bad food choices. Someone else might suggest "brush your teeth after dinner to avoid night-time snacking". Those are simple yet powerful tips to keep you on the fast-track to fat loss.

Follow up this positive session with your best TT workout yet!

Day 14 - Review, Plan, & Prepare

Congrats on making so many powerful changes in just 2 short weeks.

By now, you'll probably have lost 5-12 pounds of fat and just as importantly, you'll have developed proven, life-long fat burning habits that will be easy for you to stick to forever.

Keep this weight loss train moving by reviewing your original goals. Next, do your planning, shopping, and preparing for another week, and get ready for even more fat loss.

Enjoy your 14-day results and celebrate with a reward meal (and show off your firmer, leaner body at the big event too!).

Wishing you success!

Please email me with your success story in 14 days (or sooner!).

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training for Fat Loss have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Turbulence Training for Fat Loss workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info.

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[4pondsinabox]

The GalaxyCon Dilemma

At this point I’m just thinking out loud/in writing because my brain is not coping with all these decisions so feel free to ignore this post.

It’s been literal months since GalaxyCon held any virtual panel I was remotely interested in that didn’t conflict with my work schedule. I probably attended a free panel for something over the summer, but I think my Easter chat with Alex was the last time I paid for anything. Then this happens. It’s just my luck that GalaxyCon decided to have the Doctor Who and Legends of Tomorrow panels in back to back weekends. Normally only one of these chats would be within my budget, but my sister is offering to pitch in some funds as an early Christmas present, so that means I can probably choose two people. It’s such a trivial problem in reality but sometimes my inner obsessed fangirl gets fixated on something and can’t think about anything else. Onto my rambling thought processes…

Alex Kingston

I’ve spoken with Alex twice on video chat and once in person at a convention, so one could say I should go with someone new this time. She’s so fun though and still one of my favorite humans; plus I have at least one more probing question to ask her. Alex does seem to do these video chats frequently but they so often fall on Saturdays, when I work, so it’s been too long imo since this was even an option for me. It would mean a lot to add another video chat with her to my collection, especially since the original date for this one changed from a time that didn’t work for me.

Shayan Sihoban

I would so love to tell Shayan how much his portrayal of Behrad has meant to me and that he and Zari 2.0 have become my favorite characters on Legends of Tomorrow. He’s not the newest addition to the show anymore nor the most talked about character, but I really want him to know that his presence means a lot. I also wonder if he’s ever thought about how Behrad originally joined the team, since we never saw it. Also, at what point did the writers realize what a talented musician he is and decide to incorporate that into the show? Behrad deserves some focus for once and this chat would allow me to do that.

Maisie Richardson-Sellers

Ever since I fan-casted Maisie as the next Doctor, I’ve been wanting to show her my artist rendition of it and this would be my chance. I don’t consider myself an artist but I’m actually really proud of my Maisie Doctor design and I think she’d get a kick out of it. It would also be interesting to learn about her directing vs acting experience and if it was weird to be on Legends again but behind the camera. She’s just one of those people who seems so cool and I’d love to have a conversation with her.

Tala Ashe

I’ve spoken with Tala once while cosplaying Z1 and she loved it! I did tell her at the time how much I was loving Z2 and how refreshing it is to see a feminine woman in television be portrayed as a smart business woman, but I would also love to expand on that now that we’ve seen more of her story. Tala has become one of my favorite actors period and I just can’t imagine missing another opportunity to speak with her.

As a dedicated cosplayer myself, the reality is I’ll likely have a chance to meet all of them at a convention sometime, but it’s so hard to know for sure. Now that I’ve written my thoughts down I think I have a better idea of which two I will choose but gosh it’s going to be hard saying no to the other two.

[cliftonsteen]

Service vs hospitality: Breaking down coffee’s customer experience

Why do customers keep going back to one particular coffee shop when they have dozens to choose from? For some, it might be the quality of the coffee they drink; for others, it might be a case of affordability. However, for many coffee consumers, the decision is grounded in the service that they receive.

Experience is a key part of specialty coffee. It has a huge impact on whether or not a customer will want to keep coming back.

But across the hospitality sector, in coffee shops and beyond, there is a growing and recognisable difference between being provided a service and having a truly “hospitable” experience.

To learn more about how the two are different, I spoke to two coffee professionals in London. Read on to find out what they said, and to learn more about how cafés can deliver both.

You may also like our article on managing customer expectations in your coffee shop.

How are service and hospitality different?

Offering a service means providing people with something they need. In contrast, hospitality derives from the Latin word hospitalitat: the act of entertaining guests. 

While the former involves offering the minimum, the latter means going above and beyond to give the customer you’re serving a reason to keep coming back.

And while it’s well-known across the hospitality sector that you can’t please everyone all the time, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

To learn more, I spoke with Peter Dore-Smith, the founder and Director of Kaffeine. Kaffeine is a two-store specialty coffee shop chain based on and around Oxford Street in London – one of the busiest roads in the UK in terms of consumer footfall.

Peter tells me that his philosophy is simple: a customer should feel better leaving his café than they did entering it. 

He’s adds that he has trained his staff to recognise the “human element” of serving customers. For example, when a person enters their front door, baristas should realise that they’re bringing their whole day with them. 

“You go to the bank and it’s miserable. You go to the supermarket and it’s miserable,” he says. “When we opened, I told staff that people must feel welcomed when they enter our café.”

For customers, visiting a specialty coffee shop is more than just stopping for a drink; it’s an experience. After all, you could enjoy a cup of quality coffee at home. A morning visit to a coffee shop can set you up for the day to come, or help you prepare for a challenging meeting.

“It’s hard out there for people,” Peter says. “They need a space where they can refresh themselves before returning to their worlds. We can help them do this by being hospitable.”

The right service

Part of understanding the difference between hospitality and service is realising where each is needed. 

Customers looking to linger, read a book, and drink a latte might appreciate a conversation and a little more attention, but those after a quick coffee on their morning commute might not.

This raises an important question: should customers expect a high level of hospitality every time they visit a coffee shop? 

Damiano Archetti is the head barista of Omotesando Koffee’s London location. He says that it can be challenging to balance quick service and hospitality in small locations, especially those that experience high volumes of foot traffic. 

“When a place gets really busy, sometimes service and speed have to be prioritised,” he explains. “[Most] customers will understand that this means slightly less hospitality.”

Damiano adds that it’s important to differentiate between the needs of weekday and weekend customers.

Weekday sales, he says, are dominated by office workers who value speed and efficiency, as Omotesando’s London location is near a large number of office buildings.

In contrast, at weekends, he says he sees more tourists. In this case, customers are more likely to appreciate being able to take their time and ask questions. 

The key to getting your approach right, Damiano says, is finding out what people are looking for. “I try to understand what each customer wants as quickly as possible,” he says.

Hospitality: The same in any language?

Visit coffee shops around the world and you’ll find that the definition of “good service” varies from country to country.

However, coffee shop owners should interpret this in another way. If you want to appeal to as many people as possible, then design your customer experience to transcend language barriers and cultural norms.

Lauren Smith is a badminton player who represented the United Kingdom at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. As a specialty coffee fan who attends tournaments around the world, she believes there are a few key touches that always make for a hospitable experience. 

She says: “We were in Mexico City and visited a little café near our hotel. I got to know the staff in a few days. 

“When I walked in they would greet me by name and I developed a rapport with them. It was comforting.”

Peter provides another example. He says that he started his career in Australia before moving to the UK. He notes that people have a fundamentally different relationship with specialty coffee in the two countries.

“[What I define as] hospitality has been going a lot longer in Australia than it has in the UK,” he explains.

“In Australia, going out for a coffee is a common activity that you enjoy with family and friends. It’s a more relaxed lifestyle.”

In contrast, Damiano says he started his career in Italy. He tells me that he found his “professional” approach was actually viewed as rude by a lot of his customers.

By focusing on getting orders out quickly and turning tables over to make sure they were ready for arriving guests, he says didn’t have time to joke and chat with customers. 

However, he says his attitude changed again when he moved to London. After serving people from all around the world, he realised that there wasn’t a single “perfect” approach.

“Finding [out] how to be yourself in the place where you are is key,” he says.

For Omotesando, he said adapting to the definition of “good service” didn’t just trickle down to each barista, but how the business operated.

He explains that when the chain opened its London branch (the first location outside of Japan), customers expected loyalty schemes, which are commonplace among coffee shops in the UK. However, Damiano tells me that Omotesando’s Japanese owners felt a loyalty scheme would cheapen their approach.

“I had to explain to [customers] that we want to sell a prime product and that service is part of it,” he adds.

“The one percents”

Some coffee shops will have a “signature” act of hospitality. This can become a trademark of sorts; a customer service touch that coffee drinkers won’t often find elsewhere.

This might be subtle, like serving customers water with their coffee by default, or playing a particular genre of music that is audible without drowning out the conversation.

As an example, at Omotesando, Damiano says a host always greets customers upon entry. While this is a common custom in the Japanese hospitality sector, it is rare in the UK.

Peter refers to these small but significant touches as the “one percents”.

He gives me an example. In a Kaffeine store, he says that one day, a barista started making left-handed flat whites for left-handed customers. 

He says that it wasn’t something that was taught to the baristas by default. Instead, it came about organically, and came to be a unique way of enhancing the customer’s experience.

“That’s hospitality,” he tells me. “That’s looking after people and making them feel special.”

Plan for positive customer experiences

These “one percents” and your full hospitality strategy might take a while to develop. However, even in the early stages, there’s a lot you can do to improve how hospitable your coffee shop is. Some of this, Peter adds, you can even achieve before opening a new location.

For example, Peter says that he planned his second café around the customer experience he wanted to provide. He chose a location on a quiet one-way street to minimise traffic and noise.

He also made sure that his coffee shop had south-facing front windows to ensure there was always a lot of natural light – as well as a good view. 

However, for any well-rounded hospitality experience, one thing you can’t underestimate is the importance of good, well-trained staff. For Damiano, the key is finding people who are the right fit for your business.

“Staff are your biggest asset,” he says. “Taking time to recruit, train, and support them will improve the customer experience.”

Peter agrees, noting that your staff members are “front-facing” all the time. He says that this means they’re always representing you and your business.

Understanding the difference between hospitality and service can be a great first step towards attracting and retaining more customers. Peter even says that it’s more important than the coffee you serve. 

Damiano agrees, but notes that there should be a balance. “If you have a good product, you should have a high level of service,” he says. “Hospitality and speciality coffee go hand in hand.”

As a customer, Lauren says that she appreciates great service. However, she notes that she needs more than that to become a regular. “Service is putting the effort in to make it somewhere you want to spend your afternoon,” she tells me. “If I was going to be a regular, I would have to have both.”

The key to success, according to these interviewees, is finding a balance between the two: serve great coffee while also making your customers feel at home. And in good time, you’ll be able to tell just how successful your approach has been.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on meeting the needs of today’s coffee shop customer.

Photo credits: Nicole Motteux

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There was a workshop on “dismantling ableism” this morning at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, and it was bad. I keep wanting to soften that -- it’s not that it wasn’t anything good about it, and I know that workshops are put on by fallible human beings etc and so on, but...I think it was actually really bad. It could have been (and granted I missed the first fifteen minutes so i might be missing some really important context!) but it could have been: here’s what disability is, different types of disability, the social model of disability (ie why not all disabled people’s problems are intrinsic to the physical limitations etc themselves), different ways disabled people are harmed or excluded either by our congregations or by the world at large, from stigma and discrimination to lack of appropriate accommodations to capitalism itself and the work = worth mentality (actually, that was touched on a bit, just not in a clear way: the main presenter referenced the seventh principle which I think was supposed to be pushback against the idea that disabled people are dependent on other people and therefor worth less, because hey guess what we’re ALL dependent on each other ...but she didn’t spell it out, so if you didn’t already think that way you wouldn’t catch it) Here’s some major problems we see going on in our congregations and elsewhere in Unitarian Universalism that we want to see changed, OK have some time for breakout rooms to see if you all want to talk about that or add your own problems and priorities, OK back to the main group, here’s what we see as major problems out in the world that Unitarian Universalists can organize around, here’s some ideas to keep in mind about effective organization specifically around ableism, alright more breakout groups to talk about what you are doing or might start doing, go. Bouncing ideas around. Getting inspired by each other. Commiserating. Seeing patterns between the mom of a special needs kid whose RE program said “sorry, we can’t have your kid there unless you’re there too” and wheelchair users having yet another meeting they have no way of getting to and me with my accessibility issues (as in, I can’t attend worship on Sunday mornings in person period, and I’m not willing to attend worship somewhere that I know is going to drop me like a hot potato once everyone else can) (plus: I’ve been “attending GA” by going to a 90 minute workshop per day and that’s about it because that’s what I have spoons for, which I think is pretty different from most other people’s experiences, you can be doing stuff from 9 am to late in the evening if you want to -- what would it even look like if things like General Assembly were put together with spoonies in mind?) and and and. The chat was good -- people brought up the sorts of things that I’d assumed the presenters would have brought up in chat -- but the presenters, ayy, it wasn’t cohesive and it wasn’t relevant. It wasn’t anything like what I just described. It was this semi-relevant thing, this other semi-relevant thing, all with poor audio quality and possibly some other accessibility issues which ffs, just sort of scrunched together with no rhyme or reason or inspiration to get out there and make the world better. It wasn’t paradigm-shifting and it wasn’t action-inspiring it was just a sort of really bad lecture with the occasional redeeming feature here and there. (And a few links to organizations and so on that are probably worth following up on, but...a few good links do not a good workshop make.) I’m going to be able to go back and watch the first 15 minutes at some point, and i probably will just because I feel like if I’m going to bitch about something I should be sure my complaints are founded, but I figure if the first 15 minutes were good, the last 75 minutes would have been pretty good too, and they just weren’t. I don’t think this is a problem unique to this workshop. I got in on a classism workshop on Thursday (there’s a lot of social justice themed workshops) and while I think it was a lot better, it also seemed like it was missing something, and in retrospect it’s the same big thing: the whole “these are some of the main problems we’re facing, here’s how actual people are actually hurt, here’s some thoughts on what to do about it.” The classism workshop was good on theory and ideas, but we didn’t actually talk that much about how working class people are harmed by classism -- I mean, there was a little bit? But not in a like this is how your congregation is probably harming or excluding working class people unless you are actively working to counter it. Or, here are some of the main class related problems that working class people experience in the world/in the US and what we’re doing about it. There was a wealth distribution graph. Cool. How is wealth inequality harming people, and how do we distinguish between things that inevitably suck about working retain or being a garbage collector or being a seasonal farm worker vs things that don’t have to suck but do because we live in a society that loves to punish poor people for being poor. You know? Likewise. OK, the ADA got passed through a lot of badass direct action 30 years ago. Awesome. What’s been happening since 1990? What problems was the ADA meant to solve and which ones did and didn’t actually get solved? What problems do we have left? What’s our vision of a post-ableism utopia? Where’s the handout about ways to check whether your congregation or worship service or GA workshop is accessible and what words to avoid and that stuff? Where’s the “how do we get more disabled people in ministry” and “how do we get more disabled lay leaders” and “how do we get more education around disability to our kids and adults”? Like, where was any of that? I would have been ok if it wasn’t all of those things, there’s only so much you can do in 90 minutes. But it needed to have some of those things. As it was, the presenters kept saying things that didn’t seem all that relevant, and all of the stuff that I was expecting (””there’s no money” just means not being willing to prioritize this, budgets are a values statement” and “I want to start up a mental health awareness group at my congregation” and phrases like internalized ableism and all)...that was something participants were volunteering in the chat, that wasn’t coming from the presenters. I feel like I would have had a better time if we’d just been broken out into small groups and left to our own devices to talk about disability and ableism for 90 minutes. And that is...not good. I ...thought it was really great that GA had so many workshops on countering oppression. But, if they can’t directly name what the problems are -- not even, what action looks like, but the bare minimum of naming specific problems -- maybe it’s not so good actually.