#wanted to add that one because the subscript seemed aggressive but also i wanted to keep it in

[voicesinthedarkness]

H E L L O LET’S TALK ABOUT ME N NAT /ny

[plain text: H E L L O LET’S TALK ABOUT ME N NAT /ny, or “not yelling” /end plain text ID]

because I fucken want to okay /lh /nmay

[plain text: because I fucken want to okay /lh, or “light-hearted”, /nmay, or “not mad at you” /end plain text ID]

look at this woman. look at her and tell me you don’t want to give her a teddy bear and a mug of cocoa

It’s weird for me because while I am a lesbian and find her attractive, any time I see/think about her in a sexual context, it immediately kills the mood. I think it’s because I’ve known her since I was seven and have also known I love her since before I knew what sex was, much less that women could have sex with each other. (I learned about it when I was thirteen and realized I was a lesbian only a few months later. leave me alone lol) And because I’ve known her since I was seven, I feel as though I should be several years younger and at least a full head shorter.

Plus, I’m demisexual and romantic—meaning that I simply cannot form any kind of romantic or sexual love for Natasha, purely because I have no real relationship with her. While I do find her attractive, it’s more aesthetic as well as the positive connotations I have with red hair, green or blue eyes, and a calm, serious face. And fuck, I love her smile. I love seeing her ‘badass face’, but seeing her smile is always infinitely better. She has to make herself be all serious 50% of the time, she’s sad or injured 35% of the time, and then during the last 15% she gets to just be happy. Best thing ever.

Any time I see her in my dreams, I always know it’s her, and can even sometimes tell which Natasha it is (i.e. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Most Wanted, Avengers Assemble, Endgame/Black Widow), even if the face is blurry or just solid skin. Plus, we’re always friends; I’ve only had one dream where she seemed even a little annoyed. One dream I had was set in a forest. There were things on fire and alligators or maybe crocodiles. I remember getting into a bed with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Most Wanted Nat for platonic snuggles.

Another dream I had was like a comic, specifically drawn in the same design as the comics MARVEL made to set up future movies. I don’t remember a lot about it, but I remember a boat and Nat and Clint getting drunk and being silly together.

I don’t really get why I feel what I do about Nat. But I know I started learning Russian when I was twelve solely because I had just found out it was Nat’s native language, and I wanted to be closer to her, and also I had undiagnosed ADHD and autism.

Anyway. Love her ❤️🖤

[sasquapossum]

Supporting Journalism

I'm very ambivalent about online newspapers etc. constantly trying to get me to subscribe. On the one hand I do want to support the people who actually do the work to bring us news. Yes, real journalists do still exist, and care about the truth, and work hard. I do think that's worth paying for.

On the other hand, I've long felt like the major online newspapers have dropped the ball on creating a common payment platform. They've had decades to put something like that together. I don't even care if it's subscription based or per-article with micro-transactions. Just put something - anything! - together so that people like me who want to pay can do so easily, smoothly, without dozens of passwords to deal with and dozens of possibilities for credit-card details to get stolen when the all-too-frequent compromises happen.

Then on top of that they're so fucking greedy. The standard subscription amount seems to be US$10/month, "discounted" down to half that. Well, I'm sorry, but I read articles from a lot of sources. Even if I narrowed it down to a dozen at half price, that's still $60/month. Yes, I can afford it. Yes, it's still too damn much ... especially when the content I'm willing to pay for is commingled with content I very much am not. By contrast, the artists and such I support on Patreon mostly ask for just two to five dollars per month - more value (and more consistency) for less money. The newspapers and magazines are worse than the proliferation of video-streaming companies, supposedly replacing cable but in aggregate costing even more.

Between those two reasons, I've generally supported only a very few outlets that have a consistently high output of stuff that meets journalistic standards. Currently the list includes Washington Post (even though they also publish stuff that's truly execrable), New Yorker, and Atlantic. I should probably add Guardian, and maybe Vanity Fair. Who ever knew that Vanity Fair would be near the top of the heap? Rolling Stone and Cracked are also good more often than you might think, and that's flat out amazing. There are also local-news aggregators such as Patch and Wicked Local that seem worth supporting to keep that part of the business alive.

On the flip side, I have to give a special giant fuck you to two publications in particular. The first is New York Times. Why? Glad you asked. Two reasons mainly.

They have a strong and clearly self-interest-based hatred of anything tech, because tech has eaten their lunch. Part of me gets that, and might even accept it if it stayed on the opinion pages, but it constantly affects their so-called news as well.

They are the absolute worst when it comes to exaggerating anything negative about Democrats and minimizing anything negative about Republicans. They don't generally seem to hate leftist, liberal, progressives, or whatever. Just the Democrat party. Somebody once said that the only way their behavior makes sense is if you realize that they (and many other papers) just hate Democrats, and it's true. For whatever reason, they must want Democrats to lose. To that end they provide all the ammo the splitters and quitters need to fuck up the 2022 and 2024 elections. Again. We can't afford that.

Then there's the absolutely putrid Wall Street Journal. They actually do seem to hate everything to the left of Bill Koch or Sheldon Adelson, so in a way they're more honest than NYT ... but still, keep it on the opinion page. WSJ's characteristic failing is that even their "news" organization is egregiously, aggressively slanted. They're nothing but propaganda. BTW likewise for Forbes, Bloomberg, and practically anything else with a financial focus. Being too close to the finance industry simply corrupts people, which is neither an original observation nor one worth pursuing here except to say that it makes it literally impossible for a finance-focused publication to be a trustworthy news source. Like NYT (and their puppet Boston Globe), WSJ will never get any money from me. No how, no way.

So, there you have it: less than ten newspapers or magazines worth supporting, out of hundreds or perhaps thousands. The bad ones are more numerous (and more profoundly awful) than any that are at all good. Don't tell me podcasts or other online sources are any better BTW; the ratio there seems exactly the same. That's why I support only a few sites, use an array of browser extensions to strip paywalls from most others, and use archive.is for the remainder. If magazines and newspapers want my money, they need to earn it and few do.

[hearthandseyes]

Pixelmator Photo for iPad

This will take awhile to get to the point so if you’re interested, buckle in for a winding, drawn out reason about why I’m not switching to Pixelmator Photo as much as I want to.

I’m an avid Lightroom CC user. I have never used Photoshop, not because I don’t want to but because I’m too stupid.

In the past I was an Aperture user and it never clicked. The catalogue was too confusing to me. Again, stupid. When it was discontinued I switched to Lightroom and have done well with it since. Adobe later released Lightroom Mobile (now the cross-platform Lightroom CC) during the time I had adopted a heavy iPhone/iPad travel workflow and I grew up with the program. Lightroom was straightforward and essentially offers the simple tools that I used in the darkroom- dodging and burning, with digital exposure and color edits.  Plus a little more.

I have had a strange fascination with Pixelmator for years.  Many times since 2012 I’ve tried to use Pixelmator which is a layers based graphics editor. The price was right and they were an Apple only product that worked to make the most of the Apple hardware. They even released a mobile app with some of the core features.  But again it’s a layers based editor and if I couldn’t figure out Photoshop this wasn’t going to help me. I looked often for tutorials to learn the software but they weren’t available like they are for Adobe products.

When Pixelmator Pro for the Mac was being released last year I was fully ready to make an attempt at using it and abandoning Lightroom. 

Why would I leave Adobe? I don’t like that I’m boxed into one system. I pay 20 dollars a month for the photography Creative Cloud account with 2 TB of data. I have to be very careful with that catalogue as I go because 2TB isn’t a lot for a full and active catalogue over years, even with mindful archiving.  And I’m managing two different photography catalogues- Lightroom and Apple Photos.  Finally, the way you import photographs into Lightroom on the iPad or iPhone is plain silly, but that’s really on Apple and we’re not going to get into file management on iOS because that’s a dead horse for now (until some future iOS iteration).

But the big reason was: “minimalism”. 

Over 2018 I started doing a deep dive into my life again. A significant breakup, several moves, and a job change made me evaluate everything. I adopted minimalism around 2009 when I started paring down my belongings and moved into a small loft apartment. When I moved to Rhode Island in 2011 I sold almost everything I owned then put an add on Craigslist to come get the rest for free and people swooped in en masse. I kept things lightweight as possible but things creep back in. My digital files were a mess. Papers kept following me around the country. When I lived on the Rez it was like Little House On The Prairie and I bought enough supplies and things to fix anything and felt I needed a lot of comforts. “Things” piled up. Tools, paint, gardening tools, furniture, home gym equipment, entertainment. By late 2016 I was maintaining 3 addresses over 3 states with homes and ‘stuff’ in all of them, a lot of it duplicated. Then I had to pack up all of the places and put them into storage and nothing makes you realize how crazy your life is than rampant disorganization, poor sleep, and putting your hands on every single thing you own. I literally started having recurring dreams about boxes of papers.

While I was traveling I couldn’t manage my physical things but I could manage my finances and digital assets. I was shocked by how many apps and pieces of software I owned or had a subscription to. I made the spreadsheet that showed monthly recurring charges and a lot showed up and were pared down. And this drew my eye to the Adobe subscription. It has jumped up from 9.99 a month to 19.99. 240 dollars a year every year. I can afford it and I use it aggressively but did I need it at that price?

iOS has become my main platform for doing everything. The iPhone alone can do most things you need and when you need the luxury of a bigger screen go to an iPad. When I watch or read reviews of any iPad people talk about how it can’t replace a computer and it makes me nuts. What does anyone do on a computer besides browse the web, shop, message your friends, watch YouTube and Netflix, and check email, and write (in that order)? iOS is fine for 99.99 percent of people except working graphics and video professionals, engineers, architects, and  medical professionals (because medical software is the worst on earth and just can’t function on anything except a 12 year old Windows PC). I find working on an iPad is far more efficient than working on a Mac both digitally and physically. The ergonomics of touch with a Smart Keyboard are just better than keyboard and mouse (there is a reason the keyboard is so short- it’s so you can reach the screen easily). I edit photos with a pencil. I manipulate windows and screens like Minority Report. When I want to read something my ‘computer’ turns into a book/magazine/comic book/magical future tablet. I believe that my next Mac upgrade will likely be the last traditional computer I ever buy.

That aside over when I evaluated my tools, a lot of software like Word and Ulysesss, Byword, Simplenote, Evernote and OneNote, were abandoned for free, excellent software that came with my devices. Notes and Pages took over drafting, writing, and note collection. iCloud Drive replaced Dropbox, Music replaced Spotify. It kept everything neat, my data and privacy were secure and organized in one place, and I took the time to master the software. Where I had limped along on Excel for decades, I buckled down and did the full Lynda.com Numbers course and for the first time spreadsheets stopped being mysterious things nerds used to optimize their lives and instead became easily accessible tools that helped me solved real problems. A lot of this was also pushed by many of the privacy concerns arising in digital ecosystems (Facebook, Google, apps sending data out that users are unaware of, etc.).

But besides managing my day to day life and writing what do I use my tech for?

 Photography.

 Could I get rid of all of these photo editing apps? I adore shooting and editing on my iPhone and I seriously considered selling all of my cameras and becoming an iPhone only photographer. But different working opportunities continue to present themselves and so I kept using ‘real’ cameras and instead focused on addressing the software. Snapseed left. It’s a terrific app but I can do everything in Snapseed with Lightroom, but better. And I don’t trust Google anyway. All of the other silly one off apps disappeared too. They were niche cases and often all I needed was to dig into Lightroom to figure out how to replace them. But could I replace Lightroom with free Apple software?

Aperture was discontinued by Apple in 2015 (and it was definitely not free). The people who fully embraced it loved it, probably in the way people love Final Cut Pro. It was a different beast than their consumer product iPhoto which most people were familiar with and used without issue, mostly for collecting their images but also for doing basic editing.  Apple replaced iPhoto with Photos (minimalism) with the emphasis on the iCloud Photos library and cataloguing. But on MacOS they were sneaking some Aperture features in on later releases like curves. It seemed like they were beefing up the Photos app for greater things and these features seemed to be mirrored onto the iOS versions of the app. With the release of the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil it seemed like any week Apple would release some brushes but they didn’t. Instead you were stuck with very basic global edits (and of course stupid filters) and didn’t even have access to the MacOS features like HSL.

But you could open photos in other apps. Like Pixelmator for iOS. And... it didn’t work. It was a garbage dream and ultimately nothing was able to replace the features I used all the time in Lightroom CC, specifically: editing metadata, the gradient and radial filters, and dehaze. Add to that geometric perspective correction and the fact that on the Mac Lightroom CC was adding in Photoshop/Lightroom Classic features like panoramic merge and more.

When Pixelmator announced they were releasing a photography (vs graphic design) focused app, and that it was for the iPad I was thrilled. I signed up for email updates and trolled the web periodically for information. When it arrived (at the phenomenal price of 4.99) I had already preordered it. I downloaded it and got to work straight away. I love that it uses either Photos or Files for the catalogue (easier to manage and takes out a step used in Lightroom). And that’s it for the good. It uses Machine Learning. They want you to know that. They’ve pushed the hardware in the iPad. I believe it. But their big focus is on automagic edits and cropping, filter presets, and global edits. Honestly I can get that from Photos.app.

There are no brushes, no focal dodging and burning, no radial or gradient filters. It’s 2019, the iPad has this amazing Pencil, and neither Apple nor Pixelmator are taking advantage of it. If I cannot dodge or burn specific areas of a photograph, I am doing worse than I was in the chemical darkroom in 1997.

Photos.app needs to also beef up for me to use Pixelmator, specifically adding brushes and filters and one or the other needs to add the ability to batch edit photos.

In addition they need to add an iPhone app because I often edit only on my phone.  

 We’ll see what Pixelmator adds in the future.  I’m sure I’ll still be paying attention for some reason. 

Originally, about 6 months ago, this article was going to be about how I was going to switch from the yearly subscription of Adobe to Pixelmator but every time I tried to move my workflow over with serious photography I stuck with Lightroom CC because the tools are so strong.  Without those tools I’m not going to use another photo editor. And I know there are others like Affinity Photo. For some reason I’m not interested.  I just had this weird obsession with Pixelmator.

So that leaves me with what this article is about. I started deleting the original version of Pixelmator off of my iOS devices and Mac because I just don’t use it. Pixelmator became the thing to remove. It became an exercise of giving up the goat and not worrying so much about digital minimalism as using a tool that works and I that lets me be an artist.  When I’m working professionally I can’t imagine not using Lightroom. And I use Lightroom CC which is considered ‘light’ anyway (but that’s foolish and something I should address later if people want me to). They’ve also recently added the features I wanted like stitching panoramas so for me it’s feature complete. It’s just the duplication of catalogues, online space, and the monthly fee that drive me crazy.

I’ve been making attempts of various strength since 2012 to use versions of Pixelmator and I’m not sure why it has seemed so important to me. I don’t need to use an app that makes global edits to a photo when I need to brighten eyes or increase the contrast in select areas of landscapes. I just need to use Lightroom.

[tooconnoisseurexpert]

The Best Razors, According to Barbers

The Best Razors, According to Barbers

Getting the best shave comes down to having the best tools for the job. You’ll want to use a good shaving cream, of course, but the most important thing is to choose the right men's razor. A cartridge razor with disposable blades is the method most men learn first (and stick to), and replacement blades are available pretty much anywhere. An electric razor might be best for someone who wants to be as quick and efficient as possible. There are also safety razors, which have been around for more than 100 years and have recently surged in popularity because many feel they provide a better shave — plus, they’re more eco-friendly and economical. And there are straight razors, which are typically the domain of professionals, but may also appeal to passionate shavers because of the unique control they offer. The fact that countless different brands make different models of the same type of razor can make choosing the right one even more overwhelming.

To help folks find the best razors on the market, we asked 14 men’s-grooming experts — including ten barbers — about their favorites and combed through our archives to find other worthy options recommended to us before. The resulting selection of razors (below) features a style for pretty much everyone, including cartridge, electric, and safety razors, along with hybrid styles, and razors to use on sensitive skin. No matter which style of razor you choose, Tony DeAngelis, a co-owner of Blue&Black barbershop in Carroll Gardens, says there are two other important factors for getting a good shave: heat and stretching the skin. As he explains, “heat, whether from running the shower or the sink, allows hair to come off easier, which means less irritation. And stretching the skin while you shave means fewer chances of nicks and scratches, because you’re creating a tighter, smoother surface for the blade to move across.”

Even though cartridge single blade razor for men may be the most ubiquitous (and what most men learn how to shave with), 12 of the 14 experts we spoke with say that a safety razor is actually the best kind to use. The main thing it boils down to is the fact that with a safety razor, you’re shaving with only one blade — many of our experts told us that more blades do not necessarily mean a better shave, and that using multi-blade cartridges can increase the likelihood of ingrown hairs and razor burn. “The safety razor is the absolute way to go,” says Chad Beightol, the owner of New York City–based men’s-grooming store Consigliere. “You’re working with a single blade that is sharp, instead of relying on a multi-blade cartridge that is trying to trap the hair between the blades.” Paul Langevin of barbershop Mildred New York adds, “The single blade minimizes irritation.” Another plus is that safety razor blades (the best of which you can find here) are far less expensive to replace than disposable cartridges, and they don’t generate any plastic waste. The experts do admit that, at first, using a safety razor won’t be quite as effortless as shaving with a Gilette or Shick (and if you’d rather stick to those cartridge razors, there are some on this list, too). But they say most people are quick converts once they get the hang of it. We’ve written about safety razors before, and German razor manufacturer Merkur was the brand that came most recommended. The Merkur 34C remains our experts’ top pick, with many saying it’s an especially good choice for beginners because the short handle makes it easy to maneuver.

Bevel is a newer safety-razor company that both barber Julien Howard and Beightol recommend. You can purchase the twin blade razor for men and blades on their own, but they also have subscription options for scheduled blade replacement, along with a full line of shaving products. The Bevel razor also has a bit of a sleeker, more contemporary look than the others on this list, and a slightly longer and narrower handle that might be more comfortable for some.

Standard safety razors are pretty straightforward: The head of the razor closes around the flexible metal blade, which is then locked into a predetermined angle. This construction works well for most people, but some may benefit from being able to customize the angle at which the blade meets the skin. For someone with sensitive skin, a lower angle will allow for a gentler shave with less irritation. Someone with coarse facial hair, on the other hand, might prefer a more aggressive angle. It all comes down to personal preference, and that’s why Xavier Rodriguez of Fellow Barber and Peter Solomon of Tweed Barbers of Boston both recommend the adjustable Merkur Progress to anyone who thinks their safety-razor shave might benefit from some customization. It has five different blade-angle settings, and you simply twist the dial at the bottom to toggle between them. If you decide this is the razor for you, you’ll want to get some blades for it as well.

Mike Gilman, the owner of the Grooming Lounge, agrees that a safety razor is going to provide the best shave when used properly. But he also notes that using one may simply not be practical for everyone. You need to be a bit more careful with a safety razor, so it’s going to take a little longer to shave; you also need to devote some time to learning proper technique. “For most guys, the method of shaving that works best, and that they are most used to, is shaving with a cartridge razor. The blades and razors are available everywhere, and they’re super-easy to use.” If you want to go the cartridge-razor route, Gilman says it’s wise to stick with a classic. His pick, the Gillette Mach 3, uses a three-blade cartridge, which is a nice compromise between the single blade of a safety razor and the five blades of some of the newest cartridge razors. “I just think the Mach 3 is the way to go,” he says.

Langevin agrees with Gilman that a cartridge razor would be a better choice for “people who don’t want to master shaving with a safety razor.” He likes Harry’s, however, which he says makes a good “disposable-blade system.” Like Bevel’s razors, Harry’s razors and blades are available à la carte, but you can also sign up for a subscription blade-replacement plan through the brand’s website.

Editor’s note: While Amazon sells the women's razor with two blade refills, if purchased from Harry’s, you’ll only get the razor, hence the cheaper price.

Groomer and makeup artist Robert Reyes says that while “safety razors are great for sensitive skin, they can be a bit time-consuming.” So if you’ve got sensitive skin but prefer a cartridge razor, he suggests this Schick model that he personally uses. “It has lubricated skin guards that help protect the skin,” Reyes explains.

For the fastest and easiest shave, an electric triple blade razor for women will likely be the best bet, and some of our experts say that using one can also reduce the occurrence of ingrown hairs. “For those who don’t like the traditional methods, I recommend foil shavers,” says Langevin. Foil shavers have a thin perforated sheet of metal covering the blades; individual hairs are fed through the tiny holes and cut by the blade below. According to Langevin, the resulting shave is the closest you can get with an electric style, and comparable to that of an analog razor. “Foil shavers get almost as close as a traditional razor, sometimes even closer,” he adds. Langevin, barber Karac Ruleau of Mott NYC, and Heather Manto of Austin’s Independence Barber Co. all recommend the Andis Cordless Profoil Shaver — Langevin uses the Andis 17200 and Manto and Ruleau use the slightly older 17150, but they are essentially the same. (The Andis Profoil, perhaps not surprisingly, also appears on our list of the best electric razors). The shaver is designed with commercial use in mind, but Manto says she would recommend it for home use as well. “It helps to pull out ingrown hairs, doesn’t cause razor bumps, and can be used wet or dry,” she says. Adds Ruleau: “It gives you a super-close shave without any razor burn, is light, durable, and inexpensive, and doesn’t require a frequent charge.” But one note from all of our experts: Foil shavers like this aren’t designed to cut long hair and only work on short, “stubble length” facial hair. While that might seem limiting, Manto thinks it makes them a great choice for people who shave regularly.

If you’re looking for an electric option to tackle longer hair (or use on sensitive skin), four experts have told us that Wahl’s Peanut is the best because it has a powerful motor, is easy to maneuver, and comes with four guards that will help you achieve the exact facial-hair length you want. (The Peanut, according to even more experts, is also great for shaving your head and manscaping.) DeAngelis calls it a “compact, sturdy machine that is going to cut what you need it to cut, but still allow you to work safely around your mustache and lips.” If used without those guards, the trimmer will cut facial hair down to that coveted five-o’clock-shadow length, add the pros, who note that a trimmer like this is also the best style of electric razor for people with sensitive skin (because of the fact that it doesn’t cut so close results in less irritation). While Wahl also sells a cordless version of the Peanut, most of our barbers prefer the corded style because they say it offers more consistent power.

Marissa Machado, a celebrity groomer and makeup artist, and two regular guys — Strategist contributor Kurt Soller and New Scientist editor Conrad Quilty-Harper — like the OneBlade electric razor from Philips Norelco, another classic brand. The OneBlade uses cartridges that are meant to be replaced every four months and is shaped like a more maneuverable cartridge razor, but it’s battery powered and features a vibrating blade, so it also recalls electric styles. Machado says that “it gives a smooth finish” and, unlike other electric razors, it’s designed to “be used with or without shaving cream.” She also praises its customizability: “It comes with trimming attachments, so it’s really an all-in-one product.”

[tasteforrot]

Dining Alone At Plaza Azteca

You are always sending me quotes from books that I haven’t read and probably will never read.

We talk about these quotes like conversation because we don’t have anything else to say to each other.

Instead of talking about current events, pop culture, or emailing YouTube video links back and forth, we talk about the past. The unchanging events of fictional characters with lives that are more interesting than ours. Filtering our current stimuli through the lens of some dead white guy.

You like to point out quotes that seem to abstractly apply to our current situation.

I’m currently shitting. If you were still around you would probably have a quote for that.

Through you I’ve read Phillip Roth:

[“This made me laugh,” you said.]

“Just as I am about to unlock the door, imagining I have covered my tracks. My heart lurches at the sight of what is hanging like snot to the toe of my shoe. I am the Roskolnikov of jerking off- the sticky evidence is everywhere!”

[“It has a section titled ‘Cunt Crazy’. The son has a literal Oedipal fixation on his mother. It is written in stream-of-consciousness self-loathing Jewish-American continuous prose. What is with male writers and their cocks? I’ve never felt the urge to write about jacking off. But it is a perennial fixation for Updike and apparently Phillip Roth.”

I said something like, “I think writing is not dissimilar to masturbation.”]

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K. Martin:

“North Korea called Carter a ‘vicious political mountebank;” his journey, ‘a powder-reeking trip of a hypocrite agitating for aggression and war.’ But a North Korean spokesman in Tokyo said that, in the North Korean lexicon, this was a relatively moderate slur. At least the North had not called Carter an imperialist, its worst insult. “Not an imperialist! Anything but that!”

[For three days we joked in mock horror about the thought of being called an imperialist. You brought up the joke recently and I groaned in return.]

The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides:

“He held up the baggie. Leonard stuck his nose into the bag and his depression lifted another notch. It smelled like the Amazonian rain forest, like putting your head between the legs of a native girl that had never heard of Christianity.”

[You called it a ‘paltry piece of fiction’ but you said you wanted to put your head between my legs and I said ‘okay’ even though I had no intention of letting you do that. I remembered the first time you went down on me in the hotel room that you lived in at the time. It was the first time anyone had ever gone down on me. It was the first time someone had done something specifically for me for more than an hour. You kept looking up at me periodically with this apologetic look on your face. I kept looking at your bed sheets, trying to figure out the thread count with a concerned enough look on my face that could have hopefully been misconstrued as a look of pleasure. You had an asthma attack during and after.]

Once, you texted me and said, “I must fuck you.”

I didn’t reply but I took a screen shot of the text. I texted you the screenshot a few days later without context.

It is the only quote I have sent you. I think I sent it in a way that meant, ‘look at all the ridiculous things you say to me.’ But you took it as meaning I wanted to sext.

That was the conversation that you told me I would be good at writing erotica and then made sure to add that you’re too much of a book snob to read erotica. Though, while I was sending you detailed descriptions of how I masturbated (face down, sometimes with lesbian porn) you didn’t seem to mind erotic realism.

Tonight you will text me with something like,

“Intense solitude becomes unbearable only when there’s nothing one wishes to say to another.”

You’ll text me again before I answer and tell me that the quote is from ‘Americana’ by Don DeLillo.

I will look at my Iphone light up then check my Gmail.

While I’m going through my spam inbox, trying to figure out how to get off all of these subscription lists (Macy’s, PETA, Sierra Club, ModCloth, Urban Outfitters) that I thought were a good idea to sign up for at some point, you’ll text me a third time and say something like,

“I just finished a margarita. I am dining at alone at Plaza Azteca”

You have perfectly crafted a scenario within the span of three text messages of a lonely drunk writer, drinking comically tropical drinks in a Mexican restaurant, while contemplating the prose of the ‘American heartland’. In the back of your mind, behind your wire framed glasses, matted, self-conscious beard, and nervously thin lips, you think that this is a romantic vision of a struggling writer that drinks margaritas until drunk or out of cash and eats vegetarian tacos because they are cheaper.

Bukowski in paradise.

You quoted Bukowski too many times to count. It was mostly in reference to how you were so much like him. Or how you thought that drinking at 3 am on a Tuesday while writing self-loathing poetry made you so much like him. I usually waited until about the fifth text in a row to text you back when you got started on your Bukowski rants. I knew that the important part wasn’t that I had anything to say back. The important part was to make you feel like someone else thought you were like Bukowski. I didn’t think that but I also didn’t feel strongly enough against it to start any sort of debate.

I always wanted to tell you that I hate Bukowski.

I hate Bukowski. Maybe you are kind of like him.

In response to the first text in the trilogy I text back,

“I like that quote”

Even though I don’t really like that quote.

I like to sit alone and not talk about how I’m sitting alone. I like to drink to get drunk then go to sleep in my own bed. I don’t mind not having anything to say.

Immediately you respond,

“I knew you would.”

“I want you. Come to me.”

I do not want to drink margaritas with you. I do not want to talk in quotes. I do want to be the kind of person that brings novels to Mexican restaurants.

I do not want to be with the kind of person that thinks bringing a novel to a Mexican restaurant makes them an interesting person.

Some nights I just want to watch Mean Girls and talk about the weather. Some nights I really don’t care what is and isn’t post-modern. Some nights I wish that we were post-conversation.

I wish that we didn’t have to turn everything into a metaphor for itself.

You once told me I was your ‘manic pixie dream girl’ like you had never even spoken to me before. Like I was a caricature of myself or a trope to be employed in one of your short stories. You can never talk to me like I am in the present tense.

If I met you at Plaza Azteca I would order a beer, or I would get you to order a beer for me, and you would start talking about how beer makes your stomach queasy the way I make your stomach queasy. The way you are writing a novella about a girl that makes your stomach queasy. You will use that word ‘queasy’ and I will hate it but I will nod like I am interested in becoming a character. I would spend the evening trying to figure out ways to hide my water cup from the waiter who was determined not to see it empty. I would want to see the cup completely empty. No water, no ice. I would sip my beer and hide my water and you would talk to me about something you read or wanted to read. Something about Gore Vidal or Salman Rushdie. You wouldn’t notice what I was doing with my water. I would think silently about how many water related quotes you had; quotes about being empty.

“K.”

[grandnincompoop]

Fire Emblem, Design Philosophy, and My Quarrels

Let's harken back to 2001 and the release of Super Smash Brothers Melee. I had an N64 and a Gameboy, so I was familiar with most of the characters. You had Mario and Fox and Samus- I had either played their game or learned about them from the original Super Smash Brothers. I didn't really know you could just go on the internet and look up how to unlock all of the characters when the game came out, and even when I did, we would just look up how to get Mew in the original Pokemon. Nor did I have a Nintendo Power subscription. I had one issue- 2003's Issue 173, probably because it had Star Wars on the cover. So in the daunting quest of trying to discover how to unlock every character, you meet Marth and Roy. As with most of the non-Japanese world, I was left wondering who these two sword guys were. I was 9, so obviously I wasn't in the market for importing untranslated Famicon games. My curiosity wasn't satiated until 2003 with the release of Fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advanced, but I was immediately infatuated.

The Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is a highly linear game. This was an age long before sprawling open worlds were commonplace in every RPG or shooter. You merely progressed from quest to quest, accumulating an ever growing roaster with each mission. Except for the three missions that include Arenas, there's no way to deviate from the progression of game's 37 chapters. The experience points you can gain are limited, and honestly the game is stronger for that. As much fun as I had grinding Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, such as the time I trapped a high level Malboro with a cycle of sleep/attack/heal, it diminished from the thrill I experienced with Fire Emblem with its terrifying combat where every critical hit mattered. Simplicity and transparency are core to the experience. Almost like a board game, the game takes a narrow concept- in this case rock-paper-scissors, the adds some elaboration to it to make it flow into a fantasy world of mages and magical creatures. There are stats like strength and defense, and you have health and there's a grid you move on and there's a percentile to hit, all of which are visible to the player. That's about it and the game was better for it.

 The core elements could easily be fitted to a pen and paper experience which is what brought me to believe that the game had a Bottom Up development. I was introduced to this term by Mark Rosewater, the head designer of Magic: the Gathering, who describes it, along with its developmental opposite (Top Down), as "Top Down is subject matter based. I want to capture the subject matter. Bottom Up is mechanical based. There's a tool I want to make use of. How can I best make use of that tool." Not to insult the subject matter of Fire Emblem, but it, like its combat system, isn't complicated. They're collections of sometimes loosely related stories of a prince having to fight some evil in a world with dragons, drakes, wizards, EVIL wizards, undead/possessed/ etc etc. You could play them for their narrative, but most people I know and have read play it for the combat and support system (hold on, I'll get back to that in a moment). Looking at interviews with  Shouzou Kaga, the original creator of the series, his initial intent was to create a "roleplaying simulation", which he describes as

 "A strategy game. But strategy games typically are kind of “hardcore” and dry. (laughs) You only care about winning or losing the battle, and there’s no space for the player to empathize with the characters or story.

I love strategy games like that too, but I also love RPGs. By adding RPG elements, I wanted to create a game where the player could get more emotionally invested in what’s happening. Conversely, one of the drawbacks of RPGs is that there’s always just a single protagonist. Thus, to a certain extent, you can only experience the linear story that the game creator has prepared for you.

I wanted to create a game where the story and game will develop differently for each player depending on the units they use. Thus I added the strategy elements and arrived at this hybrid system."

 This idea doesn't seem to fit exactly into either of MaRo's definitions. Concept isn't exactly subject matter, usually a story or pre-established setting, nor is it strictly mechanical based, although it's definitely closer to that. If we looked at a chart from a 2007 article on Gamasutra titled "Game Design Cognition: The Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches:

 We see that beginning at a concept is part of the Top-Down process. So I guess my research proved I was wrong with my assertion when taking a developmental process from a relatively simple process, making a card with rules, and applying it to a highly complicated one, creating a video game.

 The concept is a fascinating one, however, playing with ideas that a modern genre, the grand strategy game, has to tackle with mindboggling amount of complexity. Since the plot is designed to introduce you to the menagerie of personalities they've designed, the writings is. . . charming, but not patricianly nuanced. By no means is the game the pinnacle of writing in interactive narratives. The characters personalities attached to a colorful aesthetic, almost comparable to what Blizzard's Overwatch did in making such a wide spectrum of characters that at least one should be appealing to even the most surly of fans. You'll have a female caviler who is a tom boy or a timed knight who, despite his bulking armor, commonly goes unnoticed. They're archetypes, not fully realized characters like you'll find in more traditionally RPGs with tomes of backstory and goals.  Overwatch and Fire Emblem develop their characters in the same manner- mid-combat dialog. Fire Emblem's greatest development (and what makes it stand out among the other strategy role playing games) is the Support System. Sure, it's fluff, but it evokes the feeling that there was a world before you arrived. Fire Emblems Awakenings main character, Chrom, will reminisce the past with his sister, another solider in your army. Except she can permanently die, unlike the Valhalla fantasy that is Overwatch where they we return to their friends to the next bout. Kaga always intended for your unit's looming mortality to cause shifts in how you view the narrative. "I wanted to make a strategy game that was more dramatic, something where you would really be able to feel the pain and struggle of the characters. That’s why characters can’t be revived once they’re killed, to impart a sense of gravity and seriousness. In turn, I think the result is that the more love you have for your characters, the more rewarding the game is." X-Com, a highly popular western SRPG for MS-DOS that came out four years later, attempted this with randomly generated names, nationalities, and looks for its characters. But unless you're willing to really lose yourself in the game and make your own narrative for the characters, their deaths will only have an impact in the loss of your highest level sniper, not the archer who was currently flirting with your barbarian. The game could create emersion through its characters and their deaths, but instead it becomes what I believe is the bane of  the series. There's a universe where each battle is like a chess match, where you must maliciously strategize your moves so take the least amount of causalities and each critical hit will either make or ruin your day. But we don’t live in that universe. Instead we're plagued with problems twofold: the prevalence of a dominate strategy and the existence of the reset button.  

 "A dominant strategy, in the context of game design, is something that emerges due to game imbalance. A clear example of dominant strategy would be "blocking the opponent from getting three in a row", in Tic-Tac-Toe."

 Fire Emblem is amazingly easy to get into and play, although maybe not to master. Unless you count the tactic I commonly refer to as the "death blob". It's like creating a delicious candy with a hard exterior and gooey center. Looking at another game for a second, Final Fantasy Tactics, you'll send your warriors and knights forward to pick off the prime targets while your mages and archers mop up. (Of course, there's another strategy where you carefully positioning yourself defensively into one corner, but they have means of combating this by starting you on the low ground to make you fight your way to high ground.) You can afford to have one or two units fall in combat because it'll only be moments before the healer arrives to mend any major injuries. It allows for the type of aggressive playstyle the computer utilizes against you, creating "drama". Fire Emblem is the antithesis. Dave Riley of the Fast Karate for the Gentlemen podcast and occasional game reviewer for Anime News Network says about action, "Most of the game is a creeping, careful crawl that moves the entire army in an ironclad block three spaces at a time. Movements are so fraught, and battles so carefully measured, that when the tide turns in your favor it's hard know what to do with the power." Usually your objective is to rid the map of foes that don't tend to move until you've moved past a certain threshold within their vacinity. As such, you'll surround your weaker characters, the mages, archers, the ones you're just now getting to leveling up, with those that have heavier armor or are higher in level. Then you move slowly across the map. And I mean agonizingly slow. Unless there is some sort of pressure on you, like a timed mission or some character you can interact with before the enemy overtakes them, it's three squares at the time for you. They've tried to counter this in some ways by having enemy units spawn behind you if you're taking too long, but that just leads to the second problem. Allowing the units to pair up to increase stats in Awakening was a good solution, but it showed to be highly overpowered when combined with the stats gained from the support system.

The second problem has coexisted with the game since inception. Instead of having gameplay be a carefully planned chess match (similar to the newly released Into the Breach which rewards sticking with failed "timelines" and even has a continent function to undo one turn per mission), we play the game like a speedrunner, resetting innumerous times in leu of missed attacks and unfortunate critical hits until we have such an intense knowledge of the map that we could perform it to lull us to bed. By adding Casual Mode in later games they've done some work to rectify this, and while the game might be more fun to play without having to turn off the console for the nth time, we loses Kaga's initial intent. In a joint interview with Hironobu Sakaguchi, he admits to Kaga that "when I die, I always reset". Even the creator of Final Fantasy has become victim to this pitfall! Kaga notes that "it’s not a big problem if some of your characters die in Fire Emblem; I want each player to create their own unique story. Don’t get caught up trying to get a “perfect ending.” Have fun!" But we just can’t because we have to see how the almost insignificant side dialog between the dark mage and pegasus knight will turn out. Will they become friends? We'll never know if we don't reset because an unexpected arrow saw an end to the purpled haired rider.

 The problem has exasperated even further with adding generations to the games. Awakening saw those cute support conversations to their apex by having them result in children, but not just any children- super soldiers of your own siring. Instead of being something cute you do on the side, a treat if you will, they added mechanics to the system. Depending on the abilities known by the parents and the hidden stat progressions (a thorn in the side of the wonderful transparency of the game), the child might be an unkillable machine of death that gets to move twice after reaping another soul all while regaining any  lost health. Fire Emblem has always had Uber characters. There's always the gallant knight, advisor to the lordling at the beginning of your adventure! (who is there solely to suck all the experience that should be going to anyone else) Then there's the  sweet young lad who starts as the weakest possible unit, needing to be babied for dozens of hours until they've shown their true colors as the harbinger of all lives, capable of taking down armies alone. But the child rearing aspect of the later games really irks me. It makes the game feel like it's become an anime character breeding simulator, where instead of letting love naturally develop on the battlefield as it has, you have to comb through wikias to see what the best combination for a certain child is. For a game that has forgone the grinding experience, it surely got lost in not remembering what made it so great to begin with in its transparency.

 There are aspects of Fire Emblem that reflect actual war. Every character is such: an individual with hopes, dreams, and interests. Taking a little time to get to know them leaves you with a sense of loss when they're lost in a pillar of flame from some nameless enemy mage. These games could be so much more with a little more finesse. The series has gone on for decades now, and this has caused the games to roll up increasing more systems until it has reached the point now that it is hard to see the game for what it once was. The concessions you have to make are never "there's no way I can do this without sacrificing someone for the noble cause" like the newly released Battletech RPG throws at you; the concessions are "time to waste a little more time and reset the game again." I believe the game I want to make can come- they just have to do a little more resetting.

[steamishot]

moody

i woke up with major back pains today, which never happens. i feel like an old fart. i think it’s because matt and i had an extremely lazy weekend where we stayed in and laid down the majority of the time to the point of breaking our backs lol. not necessarily my ideal weekend, but he had just gotten off a week of night shifts & needed to relax, and it’s cold outside. 

my family celebrated lunar new year with me on facetime last week. lunar new year means way more to my family than any american holiday, so it kinda sucked to not be there with them. matt and i did our usual rounds in chinatown on saturday and this time, got to try the well known dim sum spot - jing fang. although it was good, LA hands down has superior asian food (or perhaps our taste is biased). i drank my favorite crack HK milk tea from yin ji chang fen yesterday and today. although i love the taste, its also highly caffeinated (seems moreso than my latte), and sends me into a moody spiral where i feel depressed and sad for no reason. i’m in that slump right now and my back pain isn’t helping. 

i feel all sorts of weird - wanting to do everything and nothing at the same time. trying a bit of everything but not really excelling at anything. i tend to get to a point where i feel content because i’m too lazy too improve, or things get difficult. now that i recognize it, i’ll try to keep moving forward regardless and stay disciplined. all this while feeling so disconnected from the world and people in general.

coffee: my favorite bean that i’ve tried so far is stumptown’s ethiopian single source. we’ve finished that and stumptown’s hairbender (12 oz bags). i signed up for a coffee bean subscription from stumptown (roaster’s pick) and should be receiving my package soon. it’s been awesome getting to make lattes/espresso/americanos whenever i want. latte art hasn’t been easy, but i’ve learned that it’s okay not to use up all the milk that is frothed (even though it’s a waste). 

running: matt got me NB running shoes for my birthday. the fit was a bit too small, so i went and exchanged it for brooks glycerins. it’s my go to shoes for the gym now. now that i’m vaccinated (although still a bit paranoid), there’s no reason for me not to run consistently at the gym. my friend B invited me to do a 50 mile month challenge which i have gladly accepted for march. 

cooking: amex has been giving really awesome deals this year because traveling has come to a halt. one of the perks we received was $50 off $50 x3 for home chef meals. combined with the 50% off healthcare worker discount, we basically got 6 meals (12 servings) for free and will have about another 16 upcoming servings for free. i had thought about doing a subscription like this when i first moved here. the meals have been pretty good/healthy! normally when i cook, matt doesn’t know how to portion control and tends to overeat. now our meals are what one person is supposed to eat xD. although there’s a lot of plastic that goes to waste, i’m also glad that we get a variety of foods without having leftovers of ingredients. each meal was so easy to make, and took 30 min or less.

youtube: i was inspired to get a gimbal after my uncle showed me his. another amex perk is $50 off $50 from best buy. i used it to purchase the DJI OM 4 to make more videos with my phone. as of now, i have uploaded 9 videos. they’re nowhere near perfect and were edited on imovie LOL, but i’m slowly learning and uploading as i go to see my progress. the last video i made (spicy noodle challenge) was edited using adobe premiere pro. i enjoyed making it and watching it, but there’s still a long way to go. 

valentines day: valentines didn’t seem very important to me this year as we’re already living together. however, i was envious when i saw traditional gestures of romance - i.e. guys holding flowers/balloons on the subway and romantic IG posts about valentines day. matt bought a red purse for me that i really wanted a few weeks ago and said it was my vday present. i thought it was super sweet at the time, but when i received it, i realized that i didn’t need the purse lol. matt never really bought in to consumerist holidays - to him, it’s only worth buying if the product is on sale/a good deal. now he’s changing to be more consumerist. and oddly enough, i’m becoming more like him where i’m starting to think spending money because you’re obligated to on a holiday is kinda silly. 

portfolio: still a work in progress. still helping my dietitian friend out - this time increasing my prices. i’m such a procrastinator but will definitely need to add “applying to jobs” as a new habit!

relationship: sometimes it’s hard to isolate what exactly is causing moodiness or unhappiness. for example, after a week of nights shifts, matt became easily irritated AND sensitive. probably not the best tactic, but to reduce my own stress, i combat his aggression with my aggression. he hasn’t been doing the best academically and has failed several of his past exams. this shouldn’t be the case because he was on easier rotations and had no excuse not to study. however, most of the test takers “cheat” (google stuff while taking the exam); he was too tired to cheat this this past time and took an L. it’s been difficult knowing that i’m doing so much in our home life to free up time and energy for him - and he’s still not doing well sigh. my reddit friend showed me a video from SNL about “pelotaunt” where the trainer taunts you into working harder. positive reinforcement does NOT work for matt - so i’m trying to use similar taunting tactics instead hahaha

[rererourijweb7b-blog]

How to switch characters in gta 5 ps3?

But then again, there is a limit to the amount of free video games that you can download, so you can't be a leader and download more than you can use. However you may wish to do that through the main Google Play Store. People might find it hard to believe that they will still love playing the Grand Theft Auto games even after so many years have gone by. You can experience it in a variety of ways, and get access to the numerous activities that you want to do.

Some players have taken it up in an aggressive manner because of this brand-new problems that have impacted the GTA video games. These locations can offer the gamers a range of fun that can enhance the pleasure of the game. I remember a story that a news website wrote about the brand-new game that was coming out, and it consisted of misinformation about it.

How to add music to gta 5?

The mistake was when they said that there were no genuine profession options that a individual might take. So, what are the excellent chances that are supplied in the GTA 5 game? There are also a great deal of new interesting surprises that you can eagerly anticipate if you go to the online store of the game.

Apart from that, there are brand-new methods which you can earn money and you can see yourself entering a situation where you can pay for a new cars and truck and if you are lucky, you can even update your old one to an even more glamorous design. Nevertheless, the lawyers' workplace appears to think that this game has not caused any damage or any danger to the neighborhood.

Your response when you learn that your internet connection has been utilized for prohibited downloading websites? That does not imply that all sites are going to have plenty of false information, but you do require to do some examination when you're dealing with something like a computer game. You need to discover if the website is written by a expert who knows what he's discussing.

Where to find prostitutes in gta 5 online

While there are times when these updates are controversial, there are likewise times when they are praised by its critics. all you require to do is to head over to the website that you can discover at the end of this article. It is a mobile variation of the popular game and it enables you to play the game even when you are away from your home computer.

In some cases a news website will be composed by a beginner or even somebody who isn't truly a expert. Geocaching is the latest fad of the unique world of Los Santos. It is truly a excellent way to enjoy this amazing game that is such a popular one.

It holds true that the downloadable versions of these video games is offered on the internet and can be downloaded with a PC or laptop, however they are of lesser quality and cost more than the initial versions. So, they can also share the pleasure with their families or friends who can participate in the enjoyable.

It is true that there are great deals of other computer game out there, however it is still Grand Theft Automobile that individuals constantly seem to look for. However as there is still a great deal of work to be done before the last release, anticipate that the last game will still have some bugs and missing out on features. At the start, your phone runs on a non-functional version of the game.

It is easy to understand how fast the game modifications when you go to http://somatarsufbnv2w.raidersfanteamshop.com/how-to-make-the-most-money-in-gta-5-online the online store and it is exciting to understand that you can still find a great deal of things to do even after all these years. Not just they can play GTA 5 mobile phone version but they can also play it on other mobile phones and tablet PCs. Rockstar has actually likewise revealed new features that are expected to be presented in the game that you will be able to use. You can download a special "Knock Knock" app that can be downloaded into your device.

How to go underwater in gta 5

Aside from being a virtual space where you use your own, video games are likewise ending up being a medium for human interaction and communication. You will likewise have the ability to see a great deal of enhancements from the brand-new Grand Theft Auto V game in comparison to the last variation. There will likewise be a electronic camera that will enable you to see how far ahead or behind you are with your car and likewise when a automobile is coming from your direction.

Whether it's paying simply in a single payment or paying through a subscription charge, the best sites will always provide you the alternative of accessing the downloadable variation for free. If you see a news website that informs you that there are no career choices in GTA 5, then that news website is most likely going to be incorrect. GTA has actually constantly been a terrific game that has actually managed to catch the attention of millions of people. There, you need to see a link that states GTA Five Mobile.

[01sentencereviews]

[Mitch] Lowe, an early Netflix Inc. executive who now runs a startup called MoviePass, plans to drop the price of the company’s movie ticket subscriptions on Tuesday to $9.95. The fee will let customers get in to one showing every day at any theater in the U.S. that accepts debit cards. MoviePass will pay theaters the full price of each ticket used by subscribers, excluding 3D or IMAX screens.

MoviePass could lose a lot of money subsidizing people’s movie habits. So the company also raised cash on Tuesday by selling a majority stake to Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., a small, publicly traded data firm in New York. The companies declined to comment on terms of the financing but said MoviePass intends to hold an initial public offering by March.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/355601/moviepass-now-lets-go-to-the-movies-every-day-for-9-95-mont

It's unlikely many subscribers will go and watch a movie every single day, but they'll certainly visit several times a month, so how does MoviePass intend to generate a profit? As with so many services today, it's all about data. By collecting data on the viewing habits of subscribers it will be possible to target them with high quality advertising and marketing material, which in the long run should earn back the money lost subsidizing all those movie tickets. The key word there being "should."

At less than $10 a month, MoviePass is bound to have a huge influx of subscribers. The movie theater chains should have no issue with the service because they are still being paid the full price of the ticket (by MoviePass directly). However, longer term it could become the norm to subscribe rather than pay at the box office, meaning MoviePass and any competitors that appear will grow in influence and could eventually put pressure on the chains to lower their prices.

tbh this seems to scream nothing but desperation and trouble because, as we are currently seeing with the still extremely new streaming market, where studios are basically annoyed of netflix seeming to “control” the industry, this seems like it will cause way more bad than good between the “big shots” in the industry (theater owners + studio heads + heads of streaming platforms), which will inevitably harm the people more than benefit them. every studio, beginning with disney, seems like it will ultimately create their own streaming platforms now, which will eventually cause consumers to have to buy some sort of “bundle package,” which kind of used to be what netflix represented all on its own..., so basically we’re all gonna feel pressured and compelled to spend more on the same model just now in the new, more convenient “packaging.” 

i sincerely doubt this moviepass price will hold for very long (maybe a year, a few years tops). i have no idea if this will maintain the current “theater experience” (which is how the deal is being promoted) or propel the industry even further down the inevitable “luxury” path studios + theaters seem to be actively moving towards, based on the blockbuster-only films they’re producing and the theater/ticket add-ons which are greatly impacting what we “expect” when going to the movies, while more aggressively building up their streaming presence even more quickly... this is a lot to consider. 

[year-long-money-diary]

DAY 3

2 AM - I wake up super thirsty but also well rested. Grab some ice water, drink a few sips and crash.

6:15 AM - I wake up to my alarm and feel tired and grumpy. Set my alarm for 6:30 AM and go back to sleep.

6:30 AM - Mess around in bed

6:50 AM - Finally get out of bed, put water on the stove to boil, and hop in the shower

7 AM - I add ramen to the boiling water, put away the dishes from last night and wipe down the counters.

7:10 AM - I sit down with my ramen and some YouTube.

7:45 AM - I get dressed, pack my bag with some of the leftover mac and cheese my roommate made yesterday and the sliced apples I didn’t actually eat.

8:05 AM - I leave the house feeling relieved that I am going to make it to work fairly close to 8:30. I grab the WashPo on my way out - I’m debating cancelling this since my office gets subscription papers that we can take from but I might have purchased a year’s worth? I put it on my to do list of things to consider. 

8:38 AM - I arrive at work and get started on some work.

9:30 AM - My boss assigns me a task without a lot of guidelines. This kind of work is some of the most stressful work - clearly guidelines are important to me but he’s stressed so I don’t push it too much. I listen to him and a colleague complain about a client who they’re meeting with tomorrow. They passingly invite me to the meeting which is out of the office. I remember my goals of being aggressive and taking up space and showing my worth so I tell them that I would in fact, love to attend the meeting because I think it’s relevant to my ability to run future meetings like this. Boss says sure but to confirm by the end of the day.

10 AM - It feels like a pity invite so I text a former sorority sister who is everything I want to be professionally for her thoughts and advice. She tells me to take advantage of the offer because they might not invite me to things like this in the future if I’m being shy and wishy-washy. Good point.

10:30 AM - I work on what I can and run by my boss’ office because I don’t think he looked at the source material before recommending it.

12 PM - The office is hosting a meeting about 401k’s (I can’t have one until a year with the company) but they are providing Potbelly for lunch so I have a Mediterranean sandwich. 

2 PM - I feel like I’m reading the same stuff over and over again and like I’m walking around in circles. My presentation feels terrible and I feel like my boss is annoyed with me. I get really anxious and feel like my boss is disappointed.

4 PM - I colleague comes by to look at the presentation format and then sends me some slides to add.

5:10 PM - I take a deep breath, put on my tennis shoes and walk by my boss’ office to let him know that a draft of the presentation is in the folder (he seems annoyed) and that if the invitation stood, I’d like to tag along tomorrow. He says okay.

5:15 PM - I walk to Trader Joe’s and pick up two bottles of Montepulciano - it’s the cheapest red I’ve found that tastes pretty okay. ($10.95)

5:30 PM - I wait for the bus (it’s less of a walk if I take it) but it doesn’t come probably because of evening traffic. I walk to the metro instead kind of annoyed.

6:15 PM - I get home, throw some ramen on the stove, and get some water. I really need to find a feel option that is quick, flavorful, and warm - that’s why I eat so much ramen but it obviously isn’t good for me.

6:30 PM - I call a friend some college that is home for the summer and we talk about our work, families, and generally reflect. She’s awesome!

8:15 PM - We get off the phone. I think about how I’m going to have to get up early to try on the suits I own to see which fit best for the meeting today. I’m very cognizant of meetings with all men - I’d like to wear pants but since my pants aren’t hemmed right now, I’ll have to wear heels which can be loud and distracting. I also don’t know how long we’ll be walking and I don’t want to draw attention to myself. I’ll think about it tomorrow. 

8:30 PM - I pour myself a glass of wine and read Modern Romance for a bit. Honestly, I probably could have just gone to sleep I was feeling so down and tired.

9:45 PM - I decide to call it a night early and set my alarm for 6 AM.

DAY 3 TOTAL: $10.95

[jetcolor3-blog]

2019 MLB draft prep: My first no-hitter of the year

Recently, I listened to my first no-hitter of the season. Oklahoma City’s Bryce Milligan blanked Grand View (Iowa) in a seven-inning game, allowing merely a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Milligan is one of the basic types of pitchers that’s worth looking for in lower-rung college ball. He chose to play for the Stars out of high school, and has developed into a draft candidate come June.

A six-foot junior from Blanchard, Oklahoma, Milligan has a three-pitch arsenal, with a fastball that usually resides in the 88-92 range. Toss in a curve and a change-up, and Milligan has the mix needed to get hitters out in the minor leagues. Perhaps. Pitchers like this are perfectly valid draft selections from later in the second round to later in the third, if the numbers hold up as the season progresses.

You aren’t especially expected to get “excited” about these sorts of players, even if drafted. However, anybody with a uniform has a chance to improve. Second-and third-day talents can eventually be dealt in July, as many trades (as with free-agency signings) are about limiting the amount surrendered. Milligan is “on my list,” and I’ll check back with his numbers as June approaches.

His mate Tyler Williams (also a junior) hit a homer to provide insurance in the 2-0 victory, The 6-3 Williams was in right field over the weekend, going five-for-ten with two homers and six RBI. Williams is also on the list.

***

Keith Law recently pegged the Cubs as the 29th best system in baseball (ESPN Insider subscription required). You’re welcome to agree or disagree with Law, but the Cubs system is far more “depth” than “upside” currently. Regardless if you liked certain trades or not, it’s a bit of a fondue fork being ranked so low. There are two specific aspects to take into consideration.

For many, having a pipeline that doesn’t have much upside is a non-starter. After all, if pieces are used to add needed pieces, the infatuation with youth might be considered overplayed. Many prospects won’t be long-term assets. Trading those to get veteran can be useful, and has been for many decades.

The other prong is that baseball does seem far more of “cost controlled” interest than used to be the case. If the necessity of development is rising, a team has few realistic opportunities to upgrade. There are waiver-wire additions (when the player has years of control remaining), trades (when prospects are acquired), the draft, and the international scene. While it’s possible to get value from surprises, the easiest chances to add long-range talent is with seven-figure international bonuses, and early draft picks.

How to get useful players with cost control remaining seems the skill test for executives now. The easy cop is to “trust the executives”. However, if “bottom third” for a decent chunk of the future is a likelihood, is the trust still justified? I track the draft because it’s virtually ignored in advance, and essential long-term.

*****

Two Missouri State pitchers are done for the season, including their Friday night guy, Ty Buckner.

Georgia Tech will be short a reliever.

I finally got “sucked into” a game. You’re watching, and for whatever reasons, you have to see it to its conclusion. On Thursday night, the University of British Columbia was visiting Westmont University, who entered ranked 25th. Westmont led 3-1 after three, and 3-2 to the sixth, when the road dogs splashed for four runs. The best player for Westmont, third baseman Luke Coffey, was overly aggressive early. Don’t always believe what you see.

The home team trailed 6-4 to the bottom of the ninth. A leadoff double brought Coffey to the dish, and he spit on some close pitches, running the count to 3-1. He proceeded to bang an opposite field double to right, with the runner moving to third. Right fielder Isaiah Leach ripped a three-run walk-off for my best game of the year, so far. Coffey was added to the list.

My goal this year is to better account for the first round, and rounds thereafter. I understand the ennui some of you have, and the interest, but lack of time, others have. How can I better service your interests for the June Draft, such as you have any? Mine is a fringe interest, but the cost-controlled talent will come either from the Draft or the June cycle, most likely. I want to de-mystify the draft as much as possible. D-1 games start this coming Friday, February 15.

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2019/2/10/18205361/2019-mlb-draft-prep-no-hitter

[ive-made-a-mystic-mistake]

HOllo i was wondering if you could make one where mc is suicidal/cutting maybe???

oh jeez ok also to anyone who feels like this i am here for you but also please get help don’t ever leave this world. as someone going through this i understand how it can feel

TRIGGER WARNING CUTTING AND SUICIDAL THEMES

spoiler warning!!! there will be mention of things that happened in some of their routes!!!

~Zen~

●he had noticed you weren’t as enthusiastic or happy as you were in the messenger●in fact you were very different from how you were in chat, phone calls, and at the party●the only time you were close to the way you are acting now compared to before the party was when you were almost kidnapped and he rescued you●he was worried ●he just wanted you to be happy●he thought maybe he wasn’t making you happy●you noticed him trying extra hard ●you knew he was afraid he wasn’t making you happy enough●he was making you plenty happy and you wanted to tell him●but that risked worrying him about your thoughts●and you really didn’t want to worry him●you made an extra effort to act happier than you are ●he seemed to believe it ●but this boy has been through shit he knowshe gives you the space though ●one day when you thought he wasn’t home you had a break down ●you couldn’t stop sobbing ●your thoughts scared you ●you hated your self so badly you wanted to be your own executioner ●you were considering taking a blade to your skin ●but before you could succeed he was hugging you ●his face buried in your shoulder/neck●you felt tears●why was he crying?●he was so sad that you were so unhappy ●he wanted so badly to find a way to eliminate all sadness from your life●he didn’t want you to suffer●you both are sitting there crying and hugging ●not saying anything ●just crying it out●sometimes that’s all you can do ●later he talks to you about it●he says he is willing to ask jumin for financial help to get you the help you need but only if you are ok with it●you think about it for a while ●you agree ●and its really tough●you feel like you are an outsider because of it he comforts you constantly●and always greets you with the brightest smile ●and acts happy for you unless you really need to be serious●hes really worried about you ●hes there for you for all of it ●hes so happy when he sees you getting better

~Yoosung~

●he was out getting groceries or steam cards or both●you werent feeling the best ●thats an understatement●you were staying at yoosungs house because your sister got in a bad accident and your families place was near his so he offered for you to stay ●youve been missing your sister so badly●there were so many things you didnt get to say●if only she listened to you when you said you have a bad feeling and she shouldnt go driving●you didnt get to say goodbye to her either●yoosung had wanted to comfort you but didn’t wanna be too pushy or upset you●while he was away those thoughts came back●you started crying●maybe you could join her in heaven●you miss her just so much ●you pull out you sleep meds ●you are about to take them but you just cant bring yourself to do it●so you just resort to putting a blade to you flesh ●you chose to do this in the bathroom ●you go through with this●you are shaking so bad ●you wonder if this is any where near the pain your sister felt●you know that isnt true●there go all those months clean down the drain●you are crying too much and too far in your thoughts to reallize yoosung was calling for you ●when he hears you in the bathroom he panics ●hes crying begging you too open the door so he can make sure you are ok●he manages to unlock the door finding you in the bath tub blood staining your clothes and skin●you notice him start to shake panicking ●he rushes to you asking you if you are ok ●he tries to not cry ●you say nothing too ashamed that he found you like this●he is suddenly shakily taking a wet washcloth to your cuts and cleaning them out putting bandages on them ●you look at him more tears threatening to spill out of your eyes ●he is holding back tears too and he hugs you so tightly ●“please never hurt yourself it pains me to see you in so much pain”●he makes you promise to never do this again●he becomes so clingy and worried about you●he tries to hide it ●he tries to comfort you constantly●cuddles

~jaehee~

●you had messed up your schedule and planned something with jaehee the day your siblings wanted to hang out with you●you missed the time with your siblings thinking that they would understand●they really didn’t●they hassled you and got really mean with you● now this isn’t what cause you to be suicidal●but it was the last straw●jaehee noticed your change in attitude and tried to help you●but you only added more things for yourself to do ●jaehee worried for you and always did little things for you like make you coffee in the morning or clean the place up before you woke up●but she wouldn’t go to you about it she wanted you to come to her●one day it all became too much and you crashed●you literally broke down in tears one day when watching zens musical with jaehee●you were shaking●jaehee pulled you close and played with your hair humming to you to get you to calm down enough to speak●she was really good at calming you down●you confide in her saying that your siblings have never been nice to you and have always been jealous ●so when they pulled this stunt it was the last straw●she says she will be back and goes to the store●she comes back with ice cream comfy pjs and a blanket ●she says this always helps her when she is feeling really upset ●yall have matching pjs ●it’s adorable●they are zen themed●so is the blanket●hes honored that he gets to help you feel better●she also urges you to get therapy because it could seriously help her feel better as well

~jumin~

●you and him had gotten another cat about two years ago ●but this cat was yours and you named him cloud ●you named him cloud after cloud strife from ffvii but only saeyoung and yoosung know this●you and this cat were very close ●one day he escapes so you and jumin are searching for him●you get outside and witness him get hit by a car●jumin has to try his hardest to keep you from running in the street●you are completely distraught●you have curled up in a ball on the side walk shaking●jumin is very upset as well●you can see tears streaming down his face as he stops traffic to get cloud’s body ●later, as jumin is preparing the funeral because he is extra and loves cats as much as I do, you are by yourself a shaking sobbing mess ●old thoughts came back and you were scared by this●you had gotten so used to having cloud there when jumin was gone ●like Elizabeth the third was nice●but she wasn’t as cuddly or c9mforting as cloud was to you●you really wanna self mutilate●you shake more somehow as you are about do it ●you resort to just messaging the rfa chat rooms about the whole ordeal●this is the one time zen is com0letely ok with talking about cats●everyone is really sad and supporting●when jumin comes back you and him just hug really tightly for awhile sobbing●even Elizabeth seems sad●you and jumin are there for each other through the whole thing●you both decide to get therapy for dealing with this situation

~seven~

●you had always been able to talk about how you didnt really grow up with parents because they both died when you were really young●but for some reason today you couldn’t handle it●the topic came up when seven was curious about your ancestory because he got an ancestry.com subscription and was curious about you ●you started talking about what you have heard of your parents and began to start shaking ●he noticed you eyes well up●he was about to go to comfort you but you said you had to use the bathroom and hid in there for like 30 minutes●you tried your hardest to sob quietly●you wish you could of met them ●you think about how if you just died you could●when you are about to slkt your throat he walks in●in no time the tool you were gonna use is gone from your hand and he is holding you close shaking and crying●he starts apologizing for bringing your parents up●he begs you to never hurt your self●he literally puts a secret code to all the blades in the house ●he also has them all in sheaths ●he makes sure you know you are loved and ok●constant worrying and small gifts

~saeran~

●you get a call from your very abusive mother●this puts you on edge●she mainly mentally and emotionally abused you more than physical●you tell her things about saeran that are safe to release to the public ●she starts calling him psychotic so you stand up for him●she makes sure you know she still thinks you are a psychopath and that you should be removed from this world●by the end of this call you are angry but that’s just to hide your sadness and hurt●you take a knife and destroy everything she and your family members that agree with her gave to you●you start thinking about what if they were gone●they think you are so psychopathic then why don’t you let them win and show them●you realize your thoughts and then panic deciding that if you do take a life it will be your own●you try to stab yourself●you just cant do it ●in anger you aggressively cut your arms and legs●saeran walks in 30 minutes after you finish ●he is shocked ●he just looks at you eyes wide mouth slightly agape●he demands that you explain●hes just shaking ●as you explain he manages to take the knife from you●when you finish he sits in front of you and with a very serious face he cuts his arm●you panic and ask him why he is doing that●he simply asks how it makes you feel when he does this to himself ●you realize what he is doing and tell him it makes you feel terrible●he asks you why you do it then ●why would you add more hurt to him ●he will help you with your emotions of course●you both need to be happy and stable●he tells you that every time he finds a new cut on you that he will cut him self so that you realize how it’s hurting those around you●this really helps you to stop cutting●you help each other out all the time●and after a while you both get a bit better●he also gives you cuddles to make you feel better because he remembers you mentioning you love cuddles once ●now he always cuddles you ●he lowkey loves cuddling too

~v~

●he knows the signs●he dated rika remember●even if he can’t see too well●he knows●hes afraid to talk to you about it●but he forces himself to because he doesn’t want you to be like rika●hes really supportive●he begs you to go into therapy●he makes sure your days are always bright and happy●he let’s you vent when you need to●he tells you that if you hurt yourself you hurt those around you●he buys you nice markers to use to draw on yourself when you feel like hurting yourself●he loves seeing the things you draw●when he notices you getting better he is over joyed

Sorry this was so long and took forever to write!!!I’m also sorry v’s part is so short omg but I used some personal experiences in here so it would feel more real. I really hope you enjoy it!!! (I’ll have to edit this later to look nicer when I finally get to a computer lmao)

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: KiraKira Crate Oct 19

Considering I canceled this subscription recently, doing these last few reviews for it kind of makes me sad. 

This months theme: Beauty Tricks and Treats

“Exclusive Japanese beauty trends to help you get through a frightfully eventful month! October’s crate is all about having fun with Japanese beauty and taking care of yourself. Add these unique products to change up your routine.“

Kuromi Narikiri Face Mask

Our first item features the ever-popular Kuromi, with an adorable printed face mask that was made as part of a collaboration between Sanrio and Japanese pop artist Nabeyuka. It contains rose extract and collagen to smooth and hydrate the skin, and has a very strong rose scent.

♥ ♥ ♥

My skin has felt really nice since I used to, and the rose scent is still noticeable even though it’s been about 7 hours since then. The smell was wonderful too and it is really cute, but I did have a few concerns: the mask is really big on the face, so I had a part of it hanging off into my hair, and the eye holes were awkward shaped so my eyes were uncomfortably close to the mask and kept watering from that and some seasonal sensitivity. The mask is supposed to be worn from 15-20 minutes, and I noticed that around the 15 minute mark it was drying an peeling up in various spots.    

Halloween Mystery Gift: Malibu Lip Gloss

Our next item is a “mystery cosmetic“, and that is pretty much all they say about it. But usually when we have a chance to get these, it’s usually just a past item re-released, and I do believe I’ve seen this before- I’m not 100% sure though.

♥ ♥  

The color isn’t bad, but if the faint lip mark isn’t obvious, it’s actually very light on the lips and just adds some shimmer; which isn’t bad if you like subtle touches. The wand is also very soft. But the product is also goopy and sticky, and smells like an ink pen (tastes like it too), I really didn’t like it.

Lavender Bath Salts

This little packet is your best friend waiting to give you a good, peaceful nights rest. Lavender is the best source of product or scent to have when one needs to calm down and unwind, it also helps ease fatigue.

The product is a neonish purple, but after it gets mixed into the water it becomes a really pretty light blue, sort of indigo color.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The lavender scent is extremely strong, but I noticed that it died down fairly quick in comparison to the orange pumpkin pack from the previous box, so I’m not sure how long the entire packet would last in a bath. No stainage, and my hand skin feels wonderful though, very smooth and soft~ 

Duck Darling Smile Exerciser

If you read the blog then you might recognize this odd duck in the bunch; we’ve gotten this from a NMNL box some months back. I didn’t open it because I’ll probably be giving this extra one to someone else.

Basically, you just use this 3 times a day in 10 second intervals by biting down on the inner area. The purpose of this product is to help tighten the skin while curving up the corners of your lips for a natural, quirky smile.

In all honesty, I wasn’t too crazy about this item. It’s fine, and I suppose it’s a little fun to use, but at the same time I feel pretty stupid using it so I don’t enjoy it very much. I also felt like I got better results using another item I got from a past KiraKira Crate.

Rose Hair Oil

Our next item is some rose oil for the hair, made from a blend of jojoba and rose oil, and various other treatment items, along with Keratin and vitamin C; all with the intent of shiny, strong, and healthy hair.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The product is thicker than most oils I’ve ever used but it didn’t make my hair feel heavy or gross or anything. It smells very rosy, just a tiny less than the face mask did, and I can see a difference when I compare the side I put it in to the side without it.

Color Hair Chalk

Our last item this month is this really fun, colorful touch to the hair. Whether you want to use it as part of the costume, or just for a change of pace, this is a great first step. It comes in a large array of colors, and as you can see I got purple- really close to pink.

I’ve been wanting to try out hair chalk for a while now because I was actually considering getting the lower portion of my hair dyed (light pink of course ♥). I thought hair chalk would be a fun alternative in case I’m not ready for that sort of commitment though.

♥ ♥ ♥

The color is bright and really pretty, but you need to go over the hair a lot to really begin seeing it (but I assume if you have light hair its more apparent). I also noticed it applied to the hair without the oil a lot better. My only issue is that it seems to lose its brightness over time. When I put it on, it was really bright but then a few minutes later, I couldn’t even tell it was still in my hair until I aggressively rubbed the hair on my hand and purple showed up.

There was no fall out of product in comparison to some of the really pigmented chalks I’ve seen either, and it comes off of the skin pretty easily if you get it all over your hands during application, but if you take your time with it then it should be fine. I think if you’re considering hair chalk or just want a fun pop of color, this would be a pretty good choice because I feel like this would have mixed results, in that it probably works better for certain conditions than others. 

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 4 out of 5. Everything works to some extent, it was a fun and colorful box too, and we had some variation in the items and their uses (but it was still heavily face-oriented). I felt like a couple of items could have done better.

Theme - 4 out of 5. Technically, this isn’t supposed to be a Halloween box as much as it is an all-month long box (although the various descriptions sound Halloweenish). I get that, I see it... but I actually kind of wish it was more focused of Halloween. Both beauty boxes really failed to capture their previous years strong Halloween vibes, which was kind of a bummer.

Price - 2.5 out of 5. I might just be stingy or something, but I feel like these items shouldn’t equal around $30 dollars. To me, they feel closer to $15. The items are nice, but as I said, a few could have been better- but mostly everything is reusable, so maybe that adds to the value a little.

Total Rank: 7 out of 10 Cuties. I liked the box and its items pretty well, but I had some minor complaints on various aspects. I would still think this box is worth it... but maybe not as much as some other boxes.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1. Rose Hair Oil - Again, the smell is great. It feels really nice in the hair, makes it nice and shiny without looking greasy, I’m going to enjoy using it.

2. Kuromi Face Mask - I love how pretty it smells and the fact that my face still feels really nice is a great bonus. I just wish the holes were a little different, I also think it could use a little more product to keep it sealed to the skin better.

3. Hair Chalk - I wish the purple color was a little bit brighter, because I have trouble seeing it in my hair. But like I said, it’s pretty fun, I would consider buying a few more to try out at some point.

4. Lavender Bath Salts - It smells really good, like real lavender. The color was really pretty too.

5. Duck Smile Exerciser - It’s completely ridiculous and silly looking, but it does a great job in perking people up.

6. Mystery Item - I don’t hate the lip gloss, but I’ve had better.

[claracussonseo]

How to Hire a Good SEO Marketer

The following article How to Hire a Good SEO Marketer is republished from: https://chicagowebsitedesignseocompany.com/

How to Hire a Good SEO Marketer

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science of making search engines rank your site high in the natural search results when someone types in a query. That’s the intent of SEO, however. Since SEO is still an emerging field, there is no “governing body”, and the rules sometimes change. A good SEO professional understands these changing rules, and knows how to properly apply them. A bad SEO specialist generally makes mistakes, or purposely tries to decieve the system to win “fake” high rankings.

It is not true that you have no control over what appears in the search engines. The content that you put on your site determines where you appear in the search engine results page (SERP). If your site is about “widgets”, you’re probably not going to appear in search results about “bus fares”. The most important thing you can do on the web is to represent yourself honestly. If your site is about “widgets”, and the content on your site talks about “widgets” then you’ll probably appear somewhere in the SERP for “widgets”. A good SEO professional can help you rank higher for “widgets”, among other well-researched, and relevant keywords.

What is the Difference Between a “Good” SEO Service, and a “Bad” One?

A bad (“blackhat”) SEO marketer is like a vendor walking down the street selling snake oil. You may think you’re getting a deal, but you can’t be sure of the consequences. A good SEO marketer is like a pharmacist. They have studied all the tried and true techniques to solve your problem and probably have a good idea of how to safely and effectively address your issue.

The Benefits of Hiring bad SEO:

-Your site could shoot straight to the top, ranking #1 for your keywords -You could earn a few new customers quickly and make a quick buck -The cost is far less than what your friends and competitors are paying for SEO

The Costs of Hiring bad SEO:

-When the search engines catch on, your site could be penalized (drastically downgraded) in the rankings, ending up worse than before -Your site could be temporarily banned from the search engine (completely unfindable - expect 6-12 months) -Your site could be permanently banned from the search engine (completely unfindable - for good) -When any of the above occurs, there will be lost productivity from having to remove all the search engine spam from your site -It could be hard to track down all the tricks the SEO marketer used to artificially boost the rankings, and therefore it could take a long time to get back into the results pages -Once penalized or banned, you will lose all the potential customers you would have gained had it been done correctly -A professional SEO consultant will probably have to be hired at additional cost to fix it and do the job right

Don’t believe it? In February 2006, BMW was given the Google Death Penalty for employing blackhat SEO practices. They presented a slick design to anyone with JavaScript, and showed everyone else (that means the search engines) a keyword-rich page. Showing one content to visitors and another to Google is a no-no. BMW Germany was banned from Google.

The Costs of Hiring Good SEO:

-The initial cost will be higher -There will probably be an ongoing subscription fee -The implementation time will be longer (for the site to rank high) -There will be changes to the content of the actual site, and probably the structure, as well

The Benefits of Hiring Good SEO:

-Higher rankings overall -The high rankings tend to stay there -The keywords you are ranking high for are relevant to your organization and the people who are trying to find you -It is more cost-effective in the long-term -Future pages that you add the the site will be easier and faster to rank higher -No blackout periods or customer loss because of penalty

What Is “Bad” SEO, and Why is it So Undesirable?

First, let’s examine some of the techniques available to the blackhat SEO marketer. Here are just a few: -Doorway Pages: Many pages stuffed with keywords are placed on the web, and all link back to your site -Cloaking: Showing one version of the site to visitors, and another to search engines. -Dynamic Content: Not all dynamic content is bad; in fact, most is perfectly legitimate. But having the server generate large lists of keywords that change frequently is generally a bad idea. -Scraping: Some sites visit high ranking sites, copy bits of the content that has the keyword they want, and post it on their site. This is a very good way to really annoy other websites. -Hidden Text: Keywords on a page that are the same colour as the background, or that are hidden by CSS are a bad idea -Setting up links pages that use the keyword-rich link text of other sites to gain ranking. This makes the link page appear to be more relevant for the desired keywords. This annoys not only the search engines, but also the visitors. -Keyword Stuffing: Writing almost meaningless text in the site that is basically a long list of keywords. Responsible SEO will use keywords carefully in the text, but like all things, you can overdo it. Search engines appreciate good grammar. -Overdoing RSS: Go ahead and syndicate large portions of your website. But syndicating all of your website may raise a flag. There are rumors suggesting that there might possibly be changes in the way Google indexes RSS in the future. -Bait-and-Switch: Submitting the search-engine friendly page to the search engine, then after it’s indexed, uploading the “real” page. This is a very temporary boost in your rankings. -Irrelevant Keywords: WHY would you promote the keyword “sex” on your site about “widgets”? Do you honestly think someone looking for “sex” will see your site and say, “oh wait a minute, I think I wanted a widget”? If you sell “widgets”, then promote “widgets”, so people who want to buy “widgets” can find your “widgets”.

Why do Search Engines Dislike All This?

Search engines are in the information business. Specifically, search engines provide helpful answers to questions. Sites which use these techniques dilute the relevancy and usefulness of the search engines. The search engine that allows their results to become irrelevant is useless and out of business. No-one will search that engine, no-one will click on their ads, no-one will want to buy or display their ads, and eventually no-one will want to invest in them. Search engines are protecting their investments and their future by ensuring the continuing relevancy and usefulness of their results.

How to Hire a Good SEO Professional

Let’s first look at some of the signs that indicate the possibility of a blackhat SEO marketer

-If you hear anything like “we guarantee top placement”, don’t hire them. A good SEO marketer cannot guarantee you a good ranking any more than your broker can guarantee you a great return. All they can do is a good job, or not. -If the company representative talks to you about the advantages of Meta Tags, don’t hire them. Meta Tags are very obsolete in terms of search engine marketing (SEM). -Get a list of previous clients and check their current site and rankings. If their rankings are now low, or if the client sites seem to have spammy content, or little content, don’t hire them. -If first contact with the SEO company is made through an unsolicited phone call or email, be wary. Why? SEO is not an aggressive marketing technique. SEO is the art and science of providing people with what they were looking for anyway. It is fulfilling a need in response to a request about that need. In a sense, it is an entirely passive marketing technique, because it is only triggered when a person is actually seeking it. Be wary of search engine marketers that seem overly aggressive.

My personal pet peeve is the ones that call and announce that we are not at the top of the search engines but they can “help” us. Rest assured, we are listed at the top for every keyphrase we’ve ever really targeted. When they are informed that we are at the top, they start demanding to know which keywords we rank high for. Such valuable keyphrases should not be given away so cheaply. I politely hang up on these people.

These are a few signs of a good SEO marketer

-A good SEO marketer will insist on content changes to the website, and perhaps the structure of the site -A good marketer will thoroughly research the keywords they are going to be targeting, making sure that the keywords or phrases are relevant to the people trying to find you -They will generally provide you with regular reports, or at least suggest a strategy for collecting reporting data -Good SEO marketers will probably charge an ongoing subscription fee. This is because the web is a growing, organic network, and web marketing is an ongoing process. -Good SEO should be able to provide client names & sites from a few years ago that you can look up online. If you are unsure, then feel free to contact the owners of the site for a reference.

Life provides us with so few quick fixes. As in all things, hard work and dedication pay off, and those looking for the “quick buck” generally get it, and not much more. If you are serious about your online business, or the ongoing “findability” of your website, it is absolutely worth investing in long term strategies for search engine success. After all, search engines are not going away any time soon.

The review How to Hire a Good SEO Marketer read: SEO company reviews

[tipotrickz]

Doggy Dan Review : Best Online Dog Trainer

Doggy Dan Review – Does it Live Up to the Hype?

“NO!”

“DOWN!”

“BAD!”

Does this sound like you? I know it sounded like me just a short while ago when we got our new pup, Sparky. As it turns out, yelling those words as loud as possible does hardly anything to stop your dog from behaving poorly, and when it does work it’s only for a couple of seconds and then they’re back at it again. I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now and that’s why you’re here reading Doggy Dan Reviews.

Sparky is such an energetic little guy. Sometimes that energy adds to his cuteness, like when he’s running around in the back yard or on the beach without a care in the world. Other times it can be downright dangerous, like if he were to run toward a bigger dog or dash out into the middle of the street.

These dangers led me to scour the internet in the hopes I could find something to help. That’s when I started noticing several Doggy Dan Reviews so I decided to see what it’s all about. I quickly began to realize that most of those reviews didn’t really capture the full essence of what the program really has to offer so I decided to go ahead and create my own review of Doggy Dan, aka The Online Dog Trainer.

Is Doggy Dan Right for You?

The Doggy Dan program has training that can help virtually anyone who has a dog. It doesn’t really matter its age or breed or what you’re looking to accomplish; he has something for everyone. Everything from calming your dog to getting it to stop jumping on people is covered in the program.

I should point out that there are other options out there. You could send them to obedience classes or hire a personal dog trainer but those can get quite expensive. Plus, if at all possible, training your dog yourself will help strengthen the relationship between your dog. They’ll see you as being the alpha as opposed to some stranger.

You could, of course, make the argument that all the information you could possibly want is available somewhere online for free, and you’d be correct. The problem is that all of the information you don’t want is also there. Even if you filter through all of the bad and actually find some good, you’re likely only getting a small fragment of the big picture at a time. It can take ages to piece it all together and you don’t want to accidentally try something harmful and end up hurting your precious pet.

Who Exactly is Doggy Dan?

Dan is a family man from Australia and has been a dog trainer for over a decade. He is a successful book author and has many published articles. He’s even given speeches for the SPCA. Pretty cool.

The reason he created his Online Dog Trainer program originally is exactly what I mentioned previously; there just isn’t any good information out there that’s easy to find and easy to do. He then actually went ahead and developed complete a system that is easy enough for anyone to follow, with everything you need to know in a single neat package.

When you first land on his site you’re greeted with a touching video about his dog named Peanut who has unfortunately passed away recently. As sad as that is, her life and memory live on through this training program. Dan used her as his inspiration to create a system that was easy to understand for both dogs and their owners.

What is The Online Dog Trainer?

The Online Dog Trainer is the name of Doggy Dan’s training program. It’s a comprehensive guide to help you through any type of problem you might be facing when it comes to your dog’s behavior. The great thing about this program is that it is based on completely non-aggressive practices. Nothing forceful, no harmful training devices, no shocking, pricking, pinching, or yelling. That is why I chose this program specifically and why I wanted to write a Doggy Dan review for anyone out there looking for solutions.

It’s a subscription-based service paid monthly, or per 6 months if you want to save a bit of cash. If you want to be very sure the program is right for you before committing any amount of money you can have full access to all of the training videos for 3 days with a payment of just $1.

If you wish to continue with the program after the trial period it will cost $37 per month or $147 for 6 months, which reduces the monthly cost down to just $24.50. That’s a pretty small price to pay for a happy and healthy life with your dog.

While that $1 trial is a great deal, he actually gives you a mini-course for absolutely free. All you have to do is enter your email and he’ll send you the 4-part video series to help you calm your dog. The info in the free course might not be revolutionary and won’t solve all of your problems but it’s nice to get something for free.

What Types of Behavior Does Doggy Dan Help Correct?

How many behavior problems can you think of right now? 6? 7? 10? I know I’d have a tough job thinking of more than that off the top of my head. Most people probably think of the obvious ones like peeing on the floor or jumping on your visitors but not all dogs have the same problems, just like people.

Doggy Dan actually targets a whopping 34 behavioral problems. They even include things that you might not think are problems but actually can be corrected, such as being scared of objects or loud noises. You also get the usual culprits of aggression, barking, and chewing on things.

These next few sentences might be disturbing to some of you, but did you know that some dogs will actually eat poop off the ground or out of a litter box? It’s not a pretty thing to think about but it’s a real problem that many dog owners face, called coprophagia. Doggy Dan will help you save your dog some health issues and yourself some embarrassment by correcting this awful problem.

What’s Included in the Doggy Dan Program?

There are 6 main sections in the core Doggy Dan program. They are as follows:

The Dog Calming Code

You can’t train a dog that isn’t calm or can’t at least get to a calm state of mind. This is the base your dog needs to ensure the effectiveness of all future training. This is especially important for hyperactive dogs who’s minds seem to run a mile a minute, just like our little Sparky.

Everyday Tools & Techniques

These lessons will teach you techniques you can use on a daily basis to keep the most common issues at bay and keep you confident of your control at all times.

Puppy Training

There’s no real mystery as to what this is all about. If you have a puppy it’s best to get it started off on the right foot at a young age. You’ll learn how to build a solid foundation to help ensure any behavior issues will be held to a minimum as your dog gets older.

Project Moses

Having someone explain things to you can be a great way to learn, especially if they can explain it well. Doggy Dan does an excellent job of explaining everything is most of the sections but Project Moses takes it to the next level.

Project Moses takes you on a step by step journey alongside Doggy dan as he trains his very own puppy, Moses. The videos start when Moses is 8 weeks old and continue until he’s 1 full year old. There’s no easier way to learn than seeing it happen right before your eyes.

Dog Problems

I have a feeling this is the most important section for most of you. This is the part where we really get to start changing those behavioral issues we’ve been talking about. Dog pull on its leash? Covered. Bark every chance it gets? Covered. Ignoring your commands? Yup, that’s covered too.

Don’t you just hate it when you come home from work only to find your favorite pair of shoes completely chewed up? You’ll learn how to never have that problem again. Shoes actually sound not so bad after the little incident we had with Sparky and our very expensive couch. That one still hurts to think about.

Dog Training

  After you get your dog to start understanding your commands and remain calm while also eliminating their bad habits, you can take it a step further. This is where you learn to teach your dog those little extras. Many people will look to this section for tricks, such as fetching, sitting, and rolling over.

The main point here is that you can get your dog to do good things as opposed to most of the other lessons where you learn to teach your dog not to do bad things.

Extras

You don’t only get just the training videos, you also get access to the Online Dog Trainer forum where you can ask questions and get answers from other users, Doggy Dan’s team members, and even Doggy Dan himself.

If you’re more of a reader than a video watcher you can look at notes and transcripts from most of the training videos you find on the website.

All members also get to see new videos every week and have the ability to download a couple of video courses to use whenever, wherever, and however you please.

Pros and Cons of Doggy Dan

Pros

Positive reinforcement techniques

No harmful devices needed

Created by an expert in the field

Solutions to many different types of problems

Easy to learn

Community forum

$1 trial

Cancel any time

Cons

You can’t download the main training This makes perfect sense because some people might just pay $1 and download everything and never come back

A lot of the information isn’t groundbreaking but it is all still very solid and proven to work.

Final Thoughts

When we first brought sparky into our home, he seemed absolutely perfect. Oh, how naïve we were. It wasn’t long until the honeymoon period wore off and we were slapped in the face with reality. My husband and I have never raised anything on our own before; not even so much as a hamster.

It all seems so easy in the movies but real life is far from scripted. We create our own stories every single day and we want as many of those stories to have a happy ending as possible.

Doggy Dan reviews are flooding the web because he has created something that works and it works very well. He provides us with the tools we need to better connect with our dogs and get the absolute maximum fulfillment possible from the time we share together.

This program is one of the best guides you can find for DIY dog training and has helped several thousand people so far to better connect with their dogs on a basic natural level. It creates a foundation and builds trust and understanding for any future behavioral training.

I fully endorse and recommend Doggy dan to anyone with a dog, whether young, old, anxious, or aggressive. There’s something here for everyone and there’s really no reason to put it off any longer. Give Doggy Dan a try today for only $1.

from https://www.leaveyourhaton.org/doggy-dan-review/

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What to Do When You’re Living Paycheck to Paycheck (and How to Break the Cycle)

If your car were to break down tomorrow and need a couple hundred dollars’ worth of repairs (plus towing costs), would you be able to afford it? Do you have to carefully track when your bills come to ensure that they don’t overdraw your checking account when they do? Do you anxiously await your next paycheck so that you’ll be able to eat something other than ramen? If so, you might be stuck in the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle.

Evidence seems to suggest that the majority of Americans are similarly struggling. One 2017 study from Career Builder says that 78% of U.S. workers live paycheck to paycheck. When you live in this cycle, all of your money goes toward your basic costs of living, leaving you little to none leftover to put into savings and causing you to worry about whether you’ll make it to your next payday.

Not only is this an incredibly stressful way to live, but it puts you at risk for serious financial troubles if you end up needing money for something outside of your everyday budget. What can you do when you barely have enough to cover rent, let alone contribute to your 401(k)? And how do you break out of this cycle?

Why Are So Many Struggling to Save?

It’s not just people who are irresponsible with money who have trouble. While very few of us are perfect spenders, there are many factors that can lead a person to live paycheck to paycheck. Consider those living in high-cost areas who spend half their income on housing expenses and have to allocate the rest toward paying for groceries and other bills. Or, consider workers in low-wage jobs with few prospects for advancement.

There are many reasons why people struggle to break out of this cycle. Some people are simply bad at managing their money or never learned good financial habits, while others have limited means or too many financial burdens for their money to keep up.

“Some are simply ill-equipped to manage their own money, while others are affected by stagnant wages and fewer benefits,” explains David Bakke, writer for personal finance blog MoneyCrashers.com.

Figure Out Where Your Money Is Going

Todd Kunsman, founder of the personal finance and investing website InvestedWallet.com, knows firsthand what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. Luckily, he was able to get out of the cycle by paying attention to his finances. He started by creating a spreadsheet that tracked all of his income, expenses and bills.

“This gave me the big picture and helped me realize some quick wins of where I could stop spending and save a few bucks. It might not be much, but it is a start,” he says.

How does he think he ended up in this cycle to begin with? While he counts having a low salary as a contributing factor, he adds, “the majority of my situation was by not evaluating my financial decisions. I had two student loans out of college and little in a savings account. I immediately got an apartment. One year after working, I got a brand new car. Now I have two student loans, a car payment, rent, utilities and still very little saved. Quickly, I ended up only having about $20-50 each paycheck which would go to food, gas and maybe some leftover could go to savings. Oh, and I still had a few hundred on a credit card too. Financial disaster waiting to happen!” he says.

When you’re going over the numbers of what you spend your money on, try to think critically about the types of things you’re spending money on, and whether you could be more sensible in the future.

Bakke also advises people to get a budget and work on reducing expenses first, then to start aggressively tackling credit card debt, so you aren’t wasting money paying interest.

Alex Tran, a digital marketing strategist for Hollingsworth, a national e-commerce and logistics company, used to live paycheck to paycheck. She said that people who want to get out of that cycle should be obsessed with where their money is going.

To do this, she suggests downloading your bank’s app and signing up for services that allow you to see your credit score and create a budget for free.

“Check your accounts every 2-3 days, make sure your credit report hasn’t changed drastically, categorize your spending in Mint (this will help you determine your budget and if you’re going over it). Once I became less afraid to see my bank accounts, I knew what I should do with my paycheck and 10 years down the road, what I could do because I decided to save rather than spend,” Tran says.

Work on Your Situation

At the start of the budgeting process, a lot of people will focus on minimizing smaller expenses, such as a daily coffee run, which is a good start. But when you’re looking for ways to improve your financial situation, you should evaluate every aspect of your budget, including some of the bigger things that might take more effort to change, such as your income and housing costs.

Lots of people wish they were in higher paying jobs, but it can be hard to make that a reality. However, keep in mind that with your finances, you’re playing the long game. Just because you can’t get a new job tomorrow doesn’t mean you can’t start working on skills to build your resume.

Kunsman says utilizing free or low-cost resources allowed him to switch jobs from email marketing to digital marketing and start earning more.

“I started taking free courses from Google on paid advertising, SEO and analytics. I also read a bunch of marketing blogs, started a blog and looked for other ways to learn more. Doing this led me to get a job at a marketing agency, which accelerated my skills and salary to the next level,” he explains.

Use the internet to your advantage. There are countless free, reliable resources available to anyone with an internet connection that will make you more marketable and teach you how to be successful in your search for a better-paying job.

If a big portion of your budget goes toward housing costs, look into ways you could spend less. While it’s not always ideal to have to downsize your living space, the money you save moving into a smaller apartment could end up being worth it. If moving isn’t possible, consider bringing in a roommate.

Get a Side Gig

“I am the queen of side gigs,” Tran says. “I teach yoga, work a full-time job, do marketing projects/freelance on the side and write for various publications because it’s my passion. I find things that I can easily commit to and not stress over. I do things that are fun and bring value to my life.”

If a little bit of extra money each month would provide enough of a cushion for you to start saving for the future, it may be worth it to take on a side hustle.

With the abundance of gig economy apps out there, it’s easier than ever to score part-time work. If you love dogs, consider walking dogs for cash on the weekends using an app like Rover. If you have a car and some free time after work, you could spend a couple hours every weeknight driving for a ride-hailing app. Or, if you have a hobby that you’re skilled at, look for ways to monetize it through freelance work.

“This can also protect you in job loss, where you still have some income coming in and are building a buffer of funds during a job search,” Kunsman says.

Ask and You Might Receive

Not having money can be a cruel Catch-22: Sometimes, you don’t have enough to cover your bills, so they’re marked late and begin accruing fees, making it even more unlikely that you’ll be able to pay them off.

Avoid this punishing spiral by being unafraid to ask for help when you need it. It may seem unusual, but many times your creditors will be willing to work with you; after all, they’d rather have you pay your bills than have to send you to collections. If you know your payment is going to be a little late, talk to them ahead of time to let them know what’s up, explaining your circumstances. They may waive the late fee or push back your due date. The key is to be proactive and talk to them before it becomes a problem.

Likewise, figure out if you qualify for any social programs or government help. Situations like yours are what they’re there for.

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Check out government programs like unemployment, food stamps, subsidized housing, etc., if you are eligible. Look for low-cost business courses at community colleges, senior centers, libraries and community centers to improve your skills. Attend networking events and reach out for better career opportunities,” recommends Sharon Marchisello, author of the personal finance book “Live Well, Grow Wealth,” which is based on her experiences living frugally, saving, investing and retiring early.

When Tran was trying to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, she was always looking for programs or deals that would help.

“Find low-income or income qualified deals. For example, in Seattle and New York, we have income qualified housing. If you make middle-income, you can qualify for reduced housing in these areas. There are also deals for internet, cellular/landline phone service, food programs (EBT), reduced rates for students and low-income [people] at parks and museums, education stipends and grants, and much more. You just need to look for them,” she says.

Be Ruthless About Cutting Costs

Do you really need cable? In this day and age, probably not. What about Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime? Oh, that one might hurt a little more. Opting for a cheaper phone plan? Life will go on, but it might be a little less enjoyable now that you can’t watch funny cat videos anytime, anywhere.

If you’re really serious about carving extra room in your budget to start saving, that money has to come from somewhere. Start by looking at all the things you regularly spend money on, and find areas where you could cut back. You don’t want to make your life miserable – if you really need a streaming service subscription, maybe limit it to just one, with the cheapest plan available – but you do seriously need to consider whether certain amenities are worth the budget space.

“Take extreme steps in the short-term. Maybe you cut the cable and get your TV needs from Netflix alone, which is a huge money saver,” Bakke says.

Additionally, see if there are lower cost swaps you can make. Look for cheaper car insurance or trade in a gas-guzzling car rental for a more fuel-efficient model. Limit yourself to eating out once a month or go out for lunch instead of dinner to get better deals.

Pay Yourself First

“Most people get paid, pay their bills, spend a bit, then save whatever might remain. Many times there is not much left to save, if anything. Instead, put a savings plan in place and save a percentage of money first, then pay your bills,” Kunsman says.

By making your own savings your first priority when you receive your paycheck, you not only ensure that you’re building a safety net, but you make it less likely that you can reason with yourself as to why you need to spend those leftover dollars on something rather than tucking them away for the future.

Even if you’re only able to contribute a little bit, you’ll slowly be building up that safety net, which could end up being a vital part of what gets you out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Ellie Thompson, CEO of Money Therapy, a financial consulting company located in Washington, D.C., explains why.

“Starting an emergency fund is essential to getting out of your paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Why? So you can pay cash for your unexpected expense instead of reaching for your credit card, furthering yourself in debt. Start funding an emergency account that you put money in every month until you reach $1,000. You can start with small amounts – even $25 a month can make a difference,” she says.

The Bottom Line

Getting out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle is easier said than done. These are just some of the ways people have helped themselves out of the cycle, but depending on your situation, your experience may vary.

However, remember that achieving financial security happens like anything else: one step at a time. Just because it feels overwhelming or even impossible doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. Having just a small emergency savings fund can prevent a flat tire or leaky roof from becoming a financial disaster – and that is money well saved.

Have you ever lived paycheck to paycheck? Do you have advice to share? Tell us in the comments below.

The post What to Do When You’re Living Paycheck to Paycheck (and How to Break the Cycle) appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/break-out-of-the-paycheck-to-paycheck-cycle