#well actually my main reason for not buying them is because most are overpriced for what they are so maybe it does matter

[sonknuxadow]

sorry to post about things nobody gives a shit about but mattel has lost their minds if they think that this is worth 90 dollars . what

[deardragonbook]

How I use Trello for Book Series Management (a Free alternative to so many of those overpriced world building programs!)

I constantly see posts about how these world building programs changed the way you write, help you write faster and accomplish more. And then you go in and they’re super expensive and you read comments are people are like, well, I’m too poor for this, shame. 

And I’m just like, okay but... there are alternatives, ya’ll know that right? Right? 

So, today I’m going to talk about my alternative and how I use it. 

This might not be the best tool for everybody, it works really well for me but I do compliment it with a timeline and a map that I keep separate (will eventually get round to an couple of posts about how I do them). 

I use Trello, for this tutorial, I’m specifically going to use this board, I’ve made it editable (I think, I don’t usually work with other people) so you can play around and get a feel for it, please don’t mess it up too much so others can mess with it later. 

I had to make a separate board for this tutorial to my usual book board because spoilers! Like, big spoilers. Like, the entire series outline is up there, but I’ve copied pretty much the same lists: 

Progress: Here I keep track of what I’m up to and more importantly I will store outlines and drafts through attachments. Basically just another backup (you can never have too many). 

Scenes Book 1: Here I write down anything and everything I would like to include in the first book. This can be important things, plot points or silly bits of dialogue. 

Done Book 1: Once I’ve written something into the draft I will move the content from “Scenes Book 1″ here. 

Future Book Scenes: Here I write scenes I plan to include later on in the series but don’t have a specific book for yet. 

Cut Content / Just Writing: If something that was previously in “Futre Book Scenes” or “Scenes Book 1″ gets cut, due to plot changes, fluidity or any other reason, I will move it straight here. This is also a place I use when I get the urge to write something random. 

Locations: a quick list of important locations for me to reference (usually because I forget names or spelling). 

Characters: a quick list of character’s full names and sometimes pictures for me to reference (usually because I forget surnames). 

The second and third I have several off (for each book) and I will drag them to the very end of the screen once I’m done with them. Right now in my original board all the book 1 content is at the very back (where Characters is on this example board). 

Each little white square with text is called a card. As you can see, you can add attachments to cards (the little paperclip), these can be images that show up on the main board, perfect for characters or locations: 

Or they can also be documents (pdfs, word documents...) perfect for saving drafts. (I uploaded a social media planner just to show you can upload PDFs because it’s what I had on my ipad, don’t pay it much notice). 

As you can see below, in each card you have the option to write a description. I don’t think there’s a limit to how long this can be (I’ve never found it), and if you have the time and motivation Trello has several formatting options you can use to make it look more appealing. I don’t tend to use them but it’s nice that they’re there. (This shows up on your card on your board as couple of lines underneath the title, so you can easily see which cards have content in them and which don’t).

If after writing a nice little description you want to add something but don’t want to add it to the description, Trello allows you to add comments, I use this for clarifications or quick added info. (This shows up on your Trello board as the little speech bubble with a number referring to how many comments). 

This is an example of a character sheet with a photo and description I made to give you an idea of how to do this! 

(Yes, there are two characters in the photo as a pose to one, it’s the last picture I saved on my ipad, just roll with it). 

Now that you’ve seen a quick walk through how I use Trello, you’re probably wondering why Trello? Why not posts its or normal lists? Well, Trello has a simple yet powerful feature that makes managing my storm of ideas far easier! The easy drag and drop feature. As well as how quick it is! 

Check out this quick video of me moving cards around like I would when editing my main series, creating a new list for book 2 scenes and adding a card. 

Are there better apps out there? 

Probably. 

But trello had served me extremely well for years now! I love it’s functionality, and none of the features locked behind premium seem particularly important to my personal experience. 

Another thing to keep in mind is it’s online, which means I have Trello on my phone, ipad and computer and use it in all three locations. A lot of programs are not available on all of these systems which can make for a slower experience. Especially when I wake up at 3 in the morning and need to add a card somewhere, being able to just reach out for my phone and throw it in is a huge advantage! 

They also allow you to add Check lists. My current WIP Oppida Institute for Reformation is actually fully outlines in Trello, I use the comments to write out scenes that are important and hide ticked of boxes for a cleaner look. 

I use a different Check List for each Act of the story and so far it’s been a very good experience! 

If you have any questions about specific aspects of Trello, feel free to ask because I’ve been using it for a long time and feel like I have a pretty good idea about most stuff. 

And if you use a different program for managing series, why not tell us about it? You thinking of trying out a new program? 

As always, feel free to:

Buy my book here. (Or read it on amazon unlimited!)

Check out my website 

Check out my wattpad 

Check out my Instagram (you can see some of my art! Plus real time updates on what I’m up to)

[lionews]

Yikes, hopefully it's fine for me to send this as a defense for myself, because clearly people are taking things....way out of context and out of proportion as well as making some super odd assumptions. I hardly ever stand up for myself but fuck, I feel like I need to this time.

To be clear I've purchased exactly two raffle lionesses out of "spite", both being against the same person, and it is exactly who everyone says it is. And frankly I probably would have been interested in the RLs regardless of who was going for them, people exaggerate sometimes (in this case "Oh I ONLY bought them out of spite", it wasn't solely to spite someone but that fact DID help me justify spending GB on the lions). I definitely don't try to hoard RLs from the entire community, I at the very least try to make sure a clone is kinged to keep slots alive. I DO NOT hoard markings slots. I promise you that if I've denied you a marking, it was because other active people own the slot and I know you could get it elsewhere. Most of my lions are simply not for sale but I DO try to make notes of people who have asked for slots and keep an eye on my girls passing cubs with the marking.

Regardless of WHY I purchase a RL, I absolutely adore all of mine and dote on them constantly with art and lore. They're loved and frankly that should be enough of a reason for me to do whatever I'd like with them, whether I sell heats and clones like I have with several or keep them amongst friends until I or my friends are comfortable with heat/clone sales. I absolutely do not get bored of my RLs in two weeks, that part of that conversation was relating to something ENTIRELY different, being that I tend to buy random cool lions and then get bored of owning them (that particular comment was about an Orchid based Dwarf, Dwarves are a pain in the ass and I forget that literally every time I decide I want one again).

If I wanted to "hoard" raffle lionesses, I'd be buying a lot more of them than I have. Lots of raffle lionesses are sold and I own a small portion of them (a total of 8, one of which was gifted to me, two were sold to me privately by friends, one was offered to me after I inquired about her heats, one I won in an auction, two I purchased from the winners the day they were drawn, and one I bought from the public trading center), all of which I genuinely enjoy and most of which were purchased months or even a year+ after their original draw date. I VERY RARELY actually message a winner about the raffle lioness herself, occasionally I message asking about marking slots or future heats but rarely do I attempt to purchase the lioness herself. I genuinely just enjoy raffle lionesses and BO traits, and I've been a majority BO breeder since I began playing LD. I don't really understand why it's such a big thing to just not want to sell clones/heats, the main purpose of raffle lionesses is to introduce new slots and attributes, and all of mine have done that (bar maybe my Flint, she was not very good at passing slots and did not clone). So long as the lion isn't absolutely neglected and the slots don't die I don't see the problem ^^"

My 5ksb RL was purchased off the public trading center, that's what the owner wanted for her so that's what I paid for her. I'm absolutely NOT scamming anyone out of anything, and frankly I offered more for several of them than what the winner actually decided to sell them to me for. I've definitely offered more than I should have for certain RLs, aha.

For the record, I'm not actually going for the current Soul RL and decided that literally the day after I was talking about it. I get excited abt shit and make big plans then when the excitement wears off I go "ah. huh. that's not something i actually feel like doing.", it be like that sometimes. I'm sure a lot of you do the same for things YOU enjoy.

I did not intend to "shit talk" the Temporal RL owner, I simply stated I likely wouldn't sell lots of clones/heats like they did. Everyone knows the Temp NR, it was an example. I easily could have called out one of my own RLs, the Cairn specifically. It wasn't mocking, and tone is often lost over text and I do apologize if it came off that way but that wasn't what I meant. I love the Temp NR and have owned clones of her myself, she's gorgeous. I just prefer that some lions aren't like that, if that makes sense? Like I personally don't want a few of my RLs to be "everywhere" but it isn't BAD if some are. I just don't think ALL of them should be.

"Overpricing" and "not priced to sell, priced for offers" are VERY different things. I put a higher buyout than I'm expecting to get on purpose to discourage lowballs, and it works very well! Everyone is free to offer less than buyout on my trades. I sell my Nadirs for 800 GB because that's what they've proven to sell for in auctions and offer-to-purchase trades, hence why I state now that I'm looking for 800 GB as a price. If they stop selling for that price then cool, that's how a market that's based on supply and demand works.

I have grown from my time in CLFL, I don't associate with people there any longer and I've apologized to several people I know I hurt there and am now friendly with them on their terms. I know I was an asshole but people DO change with time and become better people when they have better support systems and are around people who help them, like I've had. CLFL was not a healthy place for me to be and I removed myself from there to help myself.

This was meant to be short but unfortunately it was not, I don't know how to shut the fuck up and I apologize ^^" I likely won't be back to make another statement as frankly this blog causes me extreme amounts of stress but I've had several people come to me via Discord specifically to tell me people were talking about me here and I feel it's necessary to clear some things up, especially seeing a ton of assumptions being through around.

Also my pronouns are she/her! (And a note to that specific anon, my Nadir clone has been up for sale longer than the RL has been out, I'm very clearly not selling him for RL money. I'm just selling him for extra project funds for both of my kings, thanks!)

- Typh

[lovemesomesurveys]

A How artistic are you? I’m not at all. Do you want to go to Africa? I’d love to stay at Giraffe Manor! AC/DC or Aerosmith? Aerosmith. 
Do you know what Armenia is?
  Yes.

B
 What’s your beer of choice (if any)?  Blech, none. Do you know the title of Buffalo Springfield’s one-hit wonder?  Okay, I didn’t recognize the name so I Googled it and yes, I am familiar with their one hit wonder. I actually wasn’t familiar with the song title either, but after reading the lyrics I quickly realized what song it was. Do you have a brother? (Do you like it that way?) I have two brothers, and yes I love them. Which bank do you use?  Not sharing that. C
 Which comedian do you most enjoy?  I think Kevin Hart is funny. Would you ever live in California?  I have all my life. Is it possible/likely that you’ll become a cat lady?  *Dog lady, but yes. How many different countries have visited? Just one. D
 Do you believe there’s a devil? Yes. But demons maybe?  Yes. Does eating dessert often make you feel guilty?  Nope. Can you legally drive?  I’m definitely old enough to have my license, but I don’t.  What have you been diagnosed with (if you don’t mind sharing)? Depression, anxiety, and other physical health stuff. E
 How often do you drink energy drinks?  I like to drink Starbucks Doubleshot energy drinks often. 
Where did you live when you were 11 years old? The house next door to where I live now, ha. We had our big move to the house next door to us haha about 10 years ago because our landlords wanted to install new flooring and stuff to our house, but since they had just finished this one they offered for us to just move in here lol. Do you like the actor who played Edward Scissorhands in that movie?
 Why not just say Johnny Depp? Anyway, yes, I think he’s a very talented actor. Have you ever felt an earthquake?  No, just aftershocks from one. F
 When was the last time you saw your father one-on-one? Yesterday. Do you think French is the most beautiful language?  I don’t know what I’d say is the most beautiful language. Is Friday your favorite day of the week?  No. All the days are the same for me, so meh. Have you listened to Jimi’s song ‘Fire?’  Doesn’t sound familiar. G
 Do you have real gold jewelry?  No. How often do you watch ‘Gossip Girl’?  I never have. Is Google your homepage?  Yeah. 
Do you like Geico’s commercials? Most of them are annoying. The gecko character is cute, though. H
 When did you last feel happy? Uhhh. Do you prefer Hollister, Hot Topic, or H&M?  Hot Topic is the only one I shop at now, but I used to shop at the other 2 as well. Did you dress up last Halloween?  Nope. I stopped doing that a few years ago. Would you voluntarily watch the History Channel?  Yeah and I do if there’s something of interest on. I
 Have you ever been on an island?  No. I live on one in Animal Crossing, though. ha. Would you be able to locate Indonesia on a globe?  I think so. Do you know if Iceland or Greenland has more ice?  Greenland. I remember it’s the opposite of their name for some reason. 
Did you watch the last presidential inauguration?  No. J
 Do you enjoy jogging?  No. On which instrument could you most easily play ‘Jingle Bells’?  I’ve played it on the piano. How much do you know about John Lennon? *shrug* I know some stuff. Do you know how Jell-O is made?  I know how to make Jell-O with the mix, but no I don’t know how the mix itself is made. K
 Have you tried Krispy Kreme doughnuts? (Was it love at first bite?) Yeah, but no they’re definitely not my favorite. They’re not real donuts to me, they’re just pure sugar.  
How many pairs of khaki pants do you own? “Uh, khakis?” ha, if you know, you know. Anyway, I don’t own any. 
Have you ever been a fan of the Killers?  Yeah. L
 Does it bother you when couples are lovey-dovey in public? No, unless they’re having like full on makeout sessions, straddling each other and feeling each other up and whatnot lol. Hand holding/locked arms/arm around each other, hugging, little pecks, and just being playful with each other is cute.  
Do you have your own lighter (why or why not)?  No. I don’t have a need for one. In how many languages (besides English) can you count to 100?  I can in Spanish. What’s your favorite lollipop flavor? Not a lollipop fan. M
 Do you believe in miracles (why or why not)? I do because I'm a woman of faith. What do you think of shows like Maury and Jerry Springer? I used to like watching Maury, Jerry Springer was just for laughs.  
Do you care that Mars (the candy co.) uses deadly animal testing? I haven’t heard that... I’d have to fact check. How did you form your opinion of marijuana? Based off the research supporting that it has a lot of benefits. I was especially swayed when I saw how it helped cancer patients.

N
 How often do you sleep naked?  Never. I wouldn’t find that comfortable at all, I very much like being clothed.  Do you actually check the Nutrition Facts before eating something?  Not usually, but I sometimes will just out of curiosity. 
Who is your favorite musical artist/band beginning with ‘N’? Nirvana. 
How nerdy are you (in what ways)? I’m socially awkward, for one. I also cared about school and did well, which is often considered nerdy. Also, a book nerd, Star Wars nerd, Marvel and DC movies nerd...  I enjoy those things so I don’t care, but they’re deemed “nerdy.” What do you think about olives?  Black olives are good, green olives are gross. Are you much of an outdoorsy person? Not at all. The only time I enjoy being outside is when I’m sitting out at the beach. How big of an Oprah fan are you?  I don’t really consider myself a fan. How often do you shop online?
  Quite often. P
 Are you looking forward to your prom? If you already went, how was it? My prom was over a decade ago D: Anyway,  I danced with the guy I had a huge crush on at the time, so hey it wasn’t too bad. How are your local policemen? I think they do a pretty good job overall.  What is your ideal PB&J sandwich like? Just peanut butter and grape jelly, pretty simple. What do you think of the movie ‘Pineapple Express’? I could not get into that movie at all.  Q
 How true is the saying, ‘quitters never win and winners never quit’?  I mean, can’t say “never”, but the main point from the saying makes sense. Do you prefer Quiznos or Subway and why?  I’ve gone to Subway many times, but I think I’ve only been to a Quiznos once or twice. Have you learned the quadratic formula yet? (Do you remember it?) I think I actually remember it. What is the one question you most want to ask someone and who?
  I don’t know. R
 How many rooms are in your home?  2 bedrooms. 
Do you like raspberries?
  Nah. What’s one of your best memories from during a rain storm? Hmm. I don’t know, but I just really love that kind of weather. 
Have you actually read Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’?  Yeah, my freshman year in high school. S
 Do you know any Sign Language?  I know the alphabet and a few sayings. What is your sleeping schedule generally like?  Oh, my sleeping schedule is an absolute joke. How well do you sing? I can’t sing well at all. How often do you listen to 60-70’s music? Now and then. I actually have several songs on my main Spotify playlist from those decades. T What do you think of Twitter?  I like being able to post my random thoughts and following certain celebrities and just interesting people for funny and interesting stuff. How much do you value the Ten Commandments?  I value them a lot. Are there many trees where you live?  Not really. 
How much taller/shorter do you wish to be? “I wish I was a little bit taller.” 🎶

U
 Where do you usually buy your underwear?  Various places. How do you define ‘ugly’?  It goes a lot deeper than just the outer appearance. Do you like to shop at Urban Outfitters?  I’ve only been to an actual store a couple times and I’ve checked out their website a few times, but I just think they’re ridiculously overpriced. V
 Would you like being described as ‘voluptuous’? No one would use that word to describe me. 
For listening to music, do you like to crank up the volume or keep it calm? I like it at a reasonable level, I don’t need it blaring.  Do you ever watch the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show? They cancelled that a few years ago, but I never had any interest in watching that. 
Would you agree that ‘variety is the spice of life’?  Yeah. W
 Are you currently on wireless Internet?  Yeah, that’s all I have. I haven’t had to connect to a wifi router or whatever with a cord in a very long time. Can you recall memories of learning how to whistle? I still can’t do it. Do you go to White Castle or just vicariously through ‘Harold & Kumar'? I’ve never actually been to one cause they don’t have one anywhere near me (they’re on the east coast, I’m a west coast gal). I’ve only had the the White Castle burgers from the store that you cook in the microwave. I actually like them, but I’m sure the real deal is even better. X
 Why did you need your most recent x-ray and what were the results? I had to get a CT Scan a couple years ago. When it comes to ‘xoxo’, do you interpret ‘x’ as the hug or the kiss?  It’s hugs and kisses, so the X’s are hugs. What does X stand for in Roman numerals? Can you write the previous number?  X is 10, IX is 9. Why do you think xylophones are only popular with young children? That’s true, that is a pretty common baby toy. At least it was when I was little. Also, I played the xylophone in music class in elementary school. I don’t know why that’s a thing with kids. Y
 Can you explain the meaning of the yin-yang symbol? Opposite, but complimentary principles. Like, you can’t have good without bad, lightness without darkness, etc. It’s about balance. Do people more often mistake you as being younger or older than you are? Younger. Did you know that yawning is contagious?  Yeah.  Would you like a bottle of Yoo-Hoo or it’s not really your thing?  I actually like Yoo-Hoo, but I prefer it in the little carton or whatever with the straw (kinda like a Capri Sun, but it’s a box carton). It’s the perfect size, not too much. The strawberry one is my favorite. I haven’t had one in a long time, though. Z
 How many places’ zip codes do you know by heart?  Uhh, not many. What comes to mind when I say ‘Zero to Hero’? Disney’s Hercules movie.

[moonlit-seren]

Reasons To Stay || Jung Yunho x Gender Neutral Reader

Summary: Y/n’s been working for one of the biggest news companies in Seoul for five years now, and like many others she/he wants a change in scenery. However, there are a handful of things keeping her/him from leaving, and one of them came in the form of an accidental blind date.

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: SOFTNESS OVERDOSE- None

Word Count: 7.7k

A/N: I’m posting my very first Ateez imagine on my two week anniversary as a new Atiny. I’m so psyched to be a part of this growing family and I’d like to thank @every1studio for welcoming me into it UwU. The main character’s best friend was inspired by this ray of sunshine right here @rubyyong, I wanted to show her a little appreciation for being one of the many writers who influence me to become better and let her know that I’m here supporting her from afar. So yeah, happy reading. <3

꧁Masterlist꧂

~

~

I sighed, glancing through one of the floor length windows adjacent to my desk. It was a particularly nice day outside, the fluffy clouds casting dark shadows on the world while the sun lit it up with a brilliant glow. The contrast was nearly eerie, like yin and yang, both the sun and the clouds out of our reach yet seemingly tangible if you lay on your back and reach your hands for the sky.

The streets below seemed busier than usual, the already terrible traffic appeared far more congested than normal. Due to the lack of movement in the streets, the multitude of car horns blared in a messy diarray with one another, the loud sounds varying in pitch but all sharing one thing in common. They wouldn’t stop.

Looking down at the vehicles made me glad that the office’s walls were soundproof, otherwise everyone in the building would have gone deaf by now. However, there were a few unlucky people on the street who had to endure cacophony of car horns as their speed quickened while walking to whatever destination they had in mind.

“It’s terrible isn’t it?” asked one of my coworkers, the newly promoted intern seeming to appear out of the blue. Her name was Chloe and she was one of the few reasons why I hadn’t quit my job yet in this suffocating office building. We worked for one of Seoul’s biggest news companies, her in the creative department and me in the editorial department.

Our departments were located on different floors, so it surprised me to see her standing here, one hand fiddling with her ID badge and the other resting on her hip. Her eyes were trained on the streets below like mine were, before fluttering up to meet mine while waiting for my response.

I simply nodded as my eyebrows furrowed, hoping that the traffic wouldn’t be this bad when I had to drive back to my apartment in the evening. It already took a solid half an hour to drive back home without any traffic jams, and just imagining trying to get back while moving at a snail’s pace… Well, I honestly didn’t even want to imagine that.

“I heard someone in the elevator say that the city closed a few roads to repair them, so that must be the reason why there’s so much traffic,” I stated, eyebrows arched and lips pursed in an expression that read ‘I don’t really know’ while I shrugged to emphasize my lack of knowledge over the situation.

Chloe nodded as if to show that she’d agreed with my thoughts, her sleek high ponytail bouncing with the movement. She was wearing a knee length, peach colored sundress today, with soft magenta roses littering the garment like powdered sugar on freshly baked cupcakes. Her excellent sense of fashion always brought a bright burst of liveliness into the office, regardless of whether she was in a black, leather jacket or a pastel blue sweater top.

The comparison I always made, much to her distaste, was a small, yet thriving plant amidst a world of manmade objects and other inanimate items. I thought it was fitting. She just found it cliché.

It was a little off how we ended up as friends. Originally I thought that it’d be best to keep my distance, as bubbly people tend to get annoying after a while. Although, when I was asked to show her around the building, I realized that her perkiness was a breath of fresh air compared to the droopy gazes of the sleepy workers mulling about on my floor.

She was a ray of sunshine that lit my dim world and inspired me to let loose and remember what it’s like seeing things from an optimistic point of view. To put it simply, she helped me learn to live again, something I had forgotten when I reached adulthood.

Suddenly seeming to remember why she was up here, Chloe let out a small “Oh, right” while snapping her fingers before turning her body away from the window to face me instead. “I just wanted to inform you that it was lunch break, since you tend to forget while you’re immersed in the fancy world of grammar and punctuation.”

Her wild hand gestures accompanying the last three words of her sentence had me rolling my eyes. It was a known fact that no one on my floor, except for me, actually enjoyed correcting the numerous grammatical errors of others.

I couldn’t blame them though, since most of us were just here to make a living. Which brings me to my second reason for tolerating my job. I used to love the idea of doing something in this field for a living, words always had a way to entrance me in them which explains why I practically lived in libraries growing up.

I practically jumped at the opportunity when I was offered this job, but after five years of being stuck here, the magic of it all faded away into oblivion. Originally I was only working part time, since I was in my second year of college, but when I graduated I was given a full time job.

Of course, when I entered the company, I started at the very bottom of the corporate ladder. My main job was to be an errand girl like Chloe was before her promotion. I won’t even lie, it was absolutely horrible, and I know the girl in front of me would agree.

I can’t even recall how many cups of coffee just a single worker needed, as they would all fall asleep otherwise. In the first few hours of the morning, the demand for coffee was so great that I had petitioned for there to be five coffee machines rather than the two that we had.

Needless to say, I went home everyday with at least one new burn from the boiling hot liquid I had to carry around, and my hands really weren’t a pretty sight due to them. Thankfully I learned my lesson after the first week, opting to buy gloves that would help protect my hands and a bright red stop sign I attached to my tray so that people would stop running into me.

It was quite the sight, and really just a mortifying memory I have ingrained in the back of my head. Though Chloe didn’t have it as bad, shortly after I was promoted the company bought three more coffee machines as requested and hired more people so that there were more sets of hands dealing everyone their daily doses of caffeine.

Which brings me back to present day, as a 22 year old who seemed to age mentally far beyond my actual years living on this earth.

“Yeah, I didn’t notice the time. Do you want to go get a drink with me? I heard a new cafe opened up a few blocks down and so far there have only been positive reviews from the people I’ve asked about it,” I asked, kind of hoping that Chloe would agree to go, because who wouldn’t want some company?

However, I could see her response before she verbalized it in the way that she furrowed her eyebrows with a slight pout. “I can’t, there’s a new batch of interns that came in just yesterday, and for some reason none of them know how to work a coffee machine.”

I laughed at her predicament, imagining Chloe surrounded by a small group of college students too used to buying an overpriced coffee at a local cafe than to make their own brews with a machine.

“Okay, have fun,” I teased, standing up to stretch my back and roll a few cricks out of my neck. Chloe cringed at the little pops and cracks, reaching behind me to help pick up my bag that strewn across the back of my chair. It was pretty warm outside still, being in the early months of fall, which is why I didn’t have a coat with me.

I thanked her as I slipped the bag over my shoulder, before walking away with a slight wave. Since Chloe wouldn’t be going with me today, I decided to get her something at the cafe since I knew her taste in pastries and drinks quite well.

The elevator ride was pretty quick, albeit rather crowded as large groups of people were also on their way out to enjoy their break somewhere else.

The company was rather generous with its workers, allowing them a full hour long break before returning back to their 9-5 schedule. Maybe that was my third reason for staying at the company despite being sick of the mountain of words I had to go through daily.

The elevator reached the lobby floor with a small ding, the door nearly closing on me as everyone shuffled out of the metal box. I had allowed myself to get trapped near the back of the elevator as people piled in, which was why I had been the last to leave.

The front lobby was rather big, with a fancy granite front desk with gold accenting, and several marble columns spread around the floor to support the high ceiling.

To the right of the front desk was a small sitting area marked by a sprawling beige rug, dark leather couches, and a bamboo table resting in the middle. To the left of the front desk was a small water fountain with a family of koi fish lazily swimming about the bed of pennies and nickels thrown in.

I never really understood the point of throwing coins into fountains. People were basically wasting change, poisoning the fish, and drowning their elusive dreams in a supposed wishing well.

Still, I never voiced my thoughts out loud. After all, I didn’t want to crush the pure wishes of the children begging for coins from their parents in order to perform the simple act of hoping.

Not to mention that I had also fit into that crowd as a young girl, making desperate wishes to get the boy I liked to like me back. Of course, they were all left unheard, or maybe even ignored, which only served to fuel my distaste for making wishes on copper coins.

I’d much rather save my change to tip baristas, as I finally understood their struggle after having made hundreds of cups of coffee myself. It was a grueling task and I couldn’t help but sympathize with anyone who had to do what I did as an intern for a living.

Speaking of which, I made my way out of the front door of the office building, immediately cringing at the racket of noise that met my ears. Much to my bittersweet relief, the cars seemed to be moving a tad bit faster than earlier.

Albeit, the new set of cars didn’t sound any different from the last set, with their loud beeping at the mini traffic jams that hadn’t quite thinned out yet.

I reached into my purse and pulled out my earbuds, skilled fingers working quickly to untangle the messy knots the cord had fallen into. There had never been a day where I found them neatly folded like I had left them, so untangling them had become a regular part of my daily routine.

It didn’t take very long, and soon enough I had them plugged into my phone and placed in my ears. Going to my usual playlist, a slow smile spread across my face at the song that had arisen first by chance.

The noise of the car horns completely drowned out with the melody playing in my ears, and I happily mouthed along to the lyrics when the sidewalk before me cleared of any prying eyes as I walked down it.

The only people who could see me making a slight fool out of myself was the people in the cars adjacent to me, nevertheless, they all seemed far too preoccupied with their own lives to notice. Some were on their madly typing away at their phones, others messing with toys they had received with their fast food, and in the driver’s case: vigorously slamming their fists on their horns as if it would help resolve the situation.

“Snapping, snapping,” I whispered softly, eyes taking on a playful lilt as I fell into step with the beat of the song. Despite wanting to burst out dancing, I restrained myself as my mouth snapped closed with an audible click when a figure appeared several feet in front of me.

I wasn’t quite ready to let go of my dignity to the extent of having a little dance break in the middle of the sidewalk of a bustling city. I could practically see steam coming out of the nose of the young woman in front of me, so I popped out an earbud wondering what she could be fuming about.

“Stupid date left me waiting there… Screw men… If I ever get my hands on him… He’ll be dead meat…”

The rest of her words faded with the growing distance between us, having already passed by her as she was walking off in the opposite direction.

“She must’ve been stood up,” I thought, almost pitying her if not for her horrid attitude and snobby scowl. Her date might of had a reason for not showing up, who knows?

Realizing that I had reached my destination, I looked up to check the name of the cafe to be sure. The sign was done in a beautiful gradient with a faint blush pink fading into a vibrant fuchsia. Looking out front, there were bright posters taped to the windows advertising popular drinks and desserts.

Just from the prices on the posters, I could this was a higher class joint, as there was even a small seating area outside with large, turquoise blue umbrellas shielding the tables from the sun. Not to mention that the place also offered breakfast and lunch despite just being a cafe.

In spite of the high prices, I stepped through the door, taking notice of the white daisies growing in the pastel green window boxes. The golden bells above the door chimed, notifying my entrance.

Like always, I was instantly hit with the heavenly scent of freshly ground cinnamon and coffee beans that most cafes seemed to boost.

After becoming employed, I never really had to worry about spending a little extra on a higher quality drink everyday. The high paycheck was the fourth reason why I found the idea of leaving my job so difficult. Besides, It never hurt to have a little extra cash in my bank account in case of a financial emergency.

Slowly making my way to a booth, I took in the interior of the cafe. The walls of the joint were painted the same color as the window boxes, with accenting lining the corners of the spacy room matched the color of the umbrellas outside. The round tables had a translucent glass top with black metal legs, and the chairs sitting around them were made of the same black metal twisted into an intricate design.

I highly doubted the large jewels in the back of the chairs were made of real glass, though they shone the same way a real gem would in the soft lighting coming from the beautiful light fixtures dangling from the ceiling.

There was a marble front desk where the cashier was incase someone just wanted to grab a takeout coffee and/or pastry. Speaking of which, there were numerous display cases lining the marble counters filled with various treats ranging from rainbow colored macarons to cream filled mochi.

Although, there were waiters and waitresses that came to you if you get their attention, in case you have the time to sit about, which is what I choose to do. Standing in line in front of the cashier just seemed like far too much work today, so I decided to just skip the wait.

I sat down in one of the empty booths lining the wall of the cafe. They also had glass table tops, however they were rectangular and the seats were made of artificial black leather the same shade as the chairs in the center of the room.

Suddenly a tall figure burst through the front door, the bells in front of the door crashing together rather harshly unlike the gentle tingle they let out when I walked through.

The male seemed to be around my age, though it was rather hard to tell if he was older or younger considering how his youthful face was paired with a ridiculously tall stature.

The straps of his beige jacket fluttered behind him in the small gust of his abrupt entrance, nearly getting caught in the closing door. His almost puppy like features were framed was light blue hair that looked softer than the clouds I had been admiring in the morning.

I was suddenly struck with the creeping urge to run my hands through the strands, causing an immediate flush to race up my neck as I averted my gaze.

“What am I thinking?” I thought, embarrassment and guilt coursing through my veins. This was precisely why I avoided attractive men like my life depended on it, because I knew as a matter of fact that my dignity did.

The moment my eyes settled on someone who was remotely handsome, my heart raced so quickly that I felt a love struck school girl all over again. Nonetheless, I could never keep my eyes off beautiful specimen for long, hence why my gaze subconsciously traveled back to the male standing at the doorway.

His eyes had been roaming the room, his shoulders sinking dejectedly as he didn’t seem to see who or what he was looking for. However, when he continued to look around his eyes met mine, much to my horror.

His eyes lit up, his mouth forming a little ‘o’ shape, as my eyes snapped back to my lap. A string of curses flew across the forefront of my mind at getting caught staring, as I desperately hoped with all of my being that he wouldn’t walk over.

Of course the heavens ignored my plead.

The cute male slid into the seat across from mine with an apologetic smile. Which struck me as odd as I should have been the apologetic one. Yet the words that slipped out of his lips were far odder, in my opinion.

“I’m so sorry for being late, the traffic today truly was horrible and I ended up stuck in this one traffic jam for…” he started, trailing off as he lifted his wrist to check his watch for the time. “An hour.”

“Huh?” I asked, completely confused. An extremely attractive stranger suddenly appeared out of nowhere, approached me out of all the pretty girls sitting alone in this cafe, and started apologizing when we had never met each other before?

I was about as lost as the person across from me was hot. Like dang, his visuals really attracted the curious gaze of all the aforementioned ladies sitting around the room.

Suddenly something nagged at the back of my mind, the vivid image of the woman from early resurfacing from my memories.

Oh.

He must have thought that I was his blind date.

I opened my mouth to explain the situation, but before I had the chance to collect my thoughts, the guy started talking once again. He had been taking off his coat so he didn’t see the way I had been gaping while pondering how to tell him he had mistaken me for someone else.

He looked up at me, eyes widening when he realized that he never introduced himself. A spellbinding smile spreading across his soft features as he held his hand across the table for a handshake. “Right, my name is Yunho, it’s nice to meet you.”

I hesitantly took his hand, introducing myself with a shaky smile. One look into his warm eyes and I knew that I couldn’t break it to him that his real date had left like a fiery hurricane while spitting out curses like a tasteless rapper.

Yunho repeated my name slowly, as if the savor each and every syllable with a thoughtful smile. It was clear that he was about to drop a cliché pickup line from the way his eyes sparkled mischievously, however, that didn’t soften the impact as my cheeks flushed red. “What a beautiful name.”

What he did next completely caught me off guard as he started mumbling to himself with a sly smile. “I wonder what our ship name would be…”

Deciding that my heart wouldn’t be able to take anymore of his cheesiness, I waved one of the waiters over.

“Ready to order?” Asked the waiter, his ears tinting red when I directed my gaze at him. His grip tightened a little on his mini clipboard and pen, eyes averting to Yunho instead.

“How cute,” I thought, slightly flattered over his actions. Although I never really dated before, I could recognize that smitten expression anywhere. It was then that I recalled that I never actually looked at the small menu, however, that didn’t turn out to be a problem as Yunho ordered for the both of us.

“Have you been here before?” I asked, surprised because I never saw him look at the menu either before the waiter walked away. The cafe opened a few days ago, so it wasn’t entirely unbelievable that he had gone before, though I didn’t think that was the case.

“No, I just ordered the special today if that’s okay with you,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. His shy smile was a stark contrast to the confident front he had thrown up while flirting with me.

I smiled, nodding to assure that I didn’t mind as I would’ve done the same thing. From his timid gaze, I could tell that he never really went out on dates, which greatly relieved me as I hadn’t either.

The waiter came back around again in a few minutes with two plates of omelets with hot cheese oozing out of the seams and juicy, cubed tomatoes peeking through pale yellow egg. On the side of both plates were small bowls of freshly cut fruit topped with little mint sprigs.

It gave off a very insta worthy aesthetic, so I fished out my phone before taking a bite, raising the camera. A smile unknowingly spread across my face at how at peace Yunho looked with the warm afternoon sun perfectly catching the soft curves of his full cheeks while simultaneously dusting golden flakes into his umber eyes.

I lifted my camera a little further, so that it still captured the plate before me but also included Yunho’s adorably focused face. His eyes snapped up at the sound of the camera clicking, fork dangling an inch away from his mouth as I had caught him midbite.

I put my phone away, bashfully mumbling that he looked like an angel glowing in the sunlight like that and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture the moment. He blinked a few times in surprise, before laughing softly.

“You should’ve told me beforehand, I could’ve posed,” he teased, cheekily wiggling two peace signs in front of his eyes before drawing up two finger hearts.

I blushed, internally cooing at how cute he looked with such an innocent sparkle in his eye that I thought only existed in children. He was everything he looked like at that moment. A complete and utter angel who radiated purity under the glimmering sun.

Deciding to get something to drink, we called the waiter over once more, who whipped out his mini notepad habitually. And like earlier, he refused to meet my gaze for long, something both Yunho and I noticed.

Yunho flashed me a wink, nudging his head subtly at the waiter as if we weren’t on a date ourselves. I hid a giggle behind my hand at his goofy antics, quickly returning my arm back to the table when the waiter glanced up at me for a second.

“I’ll take two bubble teas with normal tapioca,” I requested, biting back a smile at the bewildered look Yunho shot me. He asked for an iced latte, eyes never leaving mine as the waiter walked away.

“Do you really like bubble tea that much?” He asked, a little awestruck. It wouldn’t have been all that surprising if I did, since everyone on Earth had one big craving they could never get enough of. So, I nodded firmly, looking him dead in the eye with a stoic “yes”.

He looked scared for a moment as if worried he said something wrong and at that I couldn’t hide my snicker.

“I do, but the second cup isn’t for me. I promised a friend that I’d bring her back something since she couldn’t go out for her break,” I explained, smiling cordially as his expression melted back into its usual peaceful bliss.

“How thoughtful,” he whispered, but I heard his sweet words as my disappearing blush suddenly bloomed all over again. I chose to ignore his comment, eyes flashing up to the waiter who reappeared once more with our drinks and a plate of bite size sugar cookies.

He placed all three cups down before putting down the plate with a quiet clinking sound. “Here’s a complimentary plate of sugar cookies for all customers who come during our opening week. Enjoy.”

And with that, he was gone again, almost tripping over himself in his haste to get away.

“Does he think I have the bubonic plague?” I wondered aloud, despite knowing why he was in such a rush. It was written all over the back of his neck and the tips of his ears in various hues of red.

“Maybe you should ask for his number,” mused Yunho, still very clearly amused over the waiter’s crush on me. I narorred my eyes at him, normally if a date encouraged you to pick up someone else then that’s a telltale sign that they’re obviously not interested in a relationship with you.

However, I could tell that Yunho meant everything that he was saying lightheartedly, so I decided to tease him back. “No thanks, I’d rather have yours.”

I could tell the unexpected flirt stunned Yunho, as his jaw dropped. I winked at him the same way he winked at me when the waiter came over, enjoying his flustered reaction. Despite the fact that Yunho would tower over me if we both stood up, he looked no bigger than a child at the moment shrinking into himself with a fiery blush. “Oh.”

I loved how table had turned, with how many times he caused my cheeks to tint pink. It was a small stroke of success, but I didn’t have the heart to continue. Taking the initiative, I asked him about himself, wanting to spend the time we had together developing a close friendship since he seemed to be a fun person to have around.

It wasn’t long before we fell into a deep conversation about ourselves. I learned that he was indeed younger than me by two years, and managed to convince him to call me noona but drop all other honorifics.

Honestly if anyone had told me that I’d end up on a date with someone younger than me, I wouldn’t have believed them. It was always a condition on my ideal type list that the male had to be older. Yet the ridiculous list completely faded away into nothingness in the back of my mind the longer I talked to Yunho.

Instead a new list wrote itself with only two conditions on it: His eyes had to sparkle like a galaxy of stars being reflected on a still lake and his smile had to hold the same warmth as a steaming cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter night.

In other words it was describing the person sitting right in front of me, as he threw his head back, laughing at one of the many comical stories I told him about my fanatical college days.

He was currently in college right now, majoring in the same subject that I majored in. It was nice having someone relate so hard to my past struggles, as he was going through the same things I had gone through with crazy strict teachers and boisterous students marching down the halls like they owned the school.

In return I told him about how I worked as an editor, along with a few facts about me that few people knew or cared to ask about, such as my lowkey love for the artist Chungha.

Yunho said that he had heard a few of her songs before too, leading us down another conversation about our tastes in music and other pop culture.

Sometime during the conversation, Yunho’s phone started to ring as he excused himself from the table. I called the waiter over again during that time, asking for a small takeout bag.

I stuffed the rest of the cookies into it, deciding to take them back to Chloe along with the drink. Pausing for a bit, I pulled out one cookie and placed it back onto the plate incase Yunho wanted one more.

It wasn’t long before he came back, brushing off the topic when I asked him if the call was important. I didn’t want to invade his privacy, hence why I didn’t push the topic. In fact, I only asked because I didn’t want to keep him if there was some sort of emergency.

We picked up on the tail of our last conversation, reengaging in a passionate debate over which Harry Potter book was the best and other things of the sort.

Before I knew it, half an hour past and my break was about to end in twenty minutes. As much as I enjoyed learning about Yunho’s love for sports, fascination over the Harry Potter, and sweet but wild group of friends, I didn’t even want to think about how my manager would breath down my back if I came back late.

Looking down to see my empty cup, I realized with a start that my hand had somehow ended up in Yunho’s. During our conversation his hand had gotten closer and closer to mine, as I had left it lying on the table. I didn’t remember when that had changed, from the tips of his fingers brushing mine to slipping his hand on top of my own.

I wasn’t sure if he noticed this, but when I tried to remove my hand back from his grip, his hold only tightened as his thumb brushed the back of my hand. It became clear that it had been quite intentional.

“Hey, Yunho?” I asked, eyes lifting from our hands up to his face.

“Yeah?” He asked, sweet smile never leaving his lips before the corner of his lips quirked up into a small smirk. It was clear that he was only teasing me by not letting go, as I uncomfortably shifted in my chair.

Deciding not to mention it to save a little bit of my pride, I glanced over at the antique clock on the opposite wall. “My lunch break is nearly over, I have to go.”

He nodded in acknowledgement of my statement, reaching over with his free hand to sling his coat over his arm. “Is it close to here?”

“Yeah, just a ten minute walk away.”

He got up, pulling me up with my hand in his. Before I could comprehend what he was doing, he intertwined our fingers, taking the last sugar cookie off the plate and stuffing it in my mouth to muffle my protests.

My ears were burning scarlet as he led me out of the cafe, pouting slightly as I chewed. This guy seriously… A question floated up, bubbling through my mouth as I looked up at Yunho with furrowed eyebrows. “Did we just dine and dash?”

Yunho shook his head with a little laugh, eyes shifting down to meet mine before looking forward again. “No, I covered the bill earlier.”

That had me pause in my step, causing Yunho to come to a stop too since our hands were intertwined. I don’t recall ever receiving the bill at our table, nor did I hear Yunho say that he was going up front to pay, otherwise I would’ve forced him to split the bill. Although, there was that one time he left to take a call…

That was when the realization of what had happened dawned on me and from Yunho’s knowing smile he could tell that I had figured it out. “You didn’t.”

“But, I did.” he chuckled once more, pulling me forward as he began to walk again. It was clear that he didn’t actually know where we were going, so I widened my stride a little so that we would be walking side by side. It was rather sweet how he intended to walk me back to my office, the same way a guy would take a date home.

Before we got far, my phone went off, the familiar tune of Chungha’s debut song filling the silence between us. My cheeks flushed pink at Yunho’s teasing gaze, deepening as he teased, “Didn’t you say you were just a minor fan?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I brushed him off, excusing myself to take the call. The caller ID read ‘Chlo~’ with a couple of red hearts after it.

“Where are you? You’re usually back by now!” Exclaimed Chloe from the other side of the line, the faint bubbling in the background signifying that she was currently in the lobby near the fountain.

“Sorry, I lost track of time,” I apologized, smiling sheepishly despite the fact that she couldn’t see me. I heard Chloe sigh, telling me to hurry up and get back because ‘she missed me’ before hanging up.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket, before swiftly making my way back to Yunho. “Sorry about that, my coworker was fretting over the fact that I wasn’t back yet.”

Yunho shook his head to dismiss my apology, saying not to worry about it since he was the one taking up my time.

Suddenly, a familiar voice could be heard from the distance coming closer and closer. “Stupid day… No, stupid date… Ditched by a guy now ditched by my clutch… I must have left if in that stupid cafe.”

The girl from earlier appeared in front of us as she rounded the corner, with her head down as she appeared to be typing away angrily on her phone. Pure and sheer panic coursed through my veins at the sight of her. If she was indeed who I thought she was, then the moment she opened her mouth, I’d be exposed.

However, before I could do anything, she slammed in Yunho’s chest due to not watching where she was going. Yunho’s hands flew to her shoulders to steady her, wincing at how he hadn’t seen her coming either since he had been looking at me.

“Watch where you’re- Oh,” she trailed off, eyes widening when she lifted her head up and saw Yunho’s face for the first time. It was almost comical how Yunho could attract the interest of everyone around him without even trying, me being included.

Her hands slowly slipped up to his arms, squeezing lightly while a flirtatious smile replaced her scowl. Since she was so close to Yunho, her back was to me and couldn’t see what I was doing.

Despite being wary of the situation, I couldn’t help but let out an over exaggerated, but silent, gagging noise. I muffled my own laughter at the act with the palm of my hand, however, Yunho didn’t have the liberty to, which was why he couldn’t hide his chuckle.

The girl clinging onto him was confused, but somehow took that as a positive sign as she started to bat her freakishly long eyelashes at him. “Hey, aren’t you Yunho? My name is Hayoung, I’m pretty sure a guy from my class set us up on a date. What was his name again… Junhao?”

I felt like my heart had stopped at her words, hands becoming cold and clammy as I looked at Yunho. Would he get mad at me? Maybe even leave and go on the date that he missed with Hayoung? In my defense I had tried to tell him that I wasn’t his date, though to be fair I really could have tried harder.

Still, Yunho didn’t notice my terrified gaze, instead looking at Hayoung’s hands which were shamelessly feeling up his biceps. He reached up to pry her hands off of him, stepping back to put some distance between the two of them.

“Yeah, that’s me, though I don’t think it’s appropriate to hang off a guy in front of his date,” he commented, shocking me to my core. Yunho finally looked at me with a soft smile, taking one of my hands in his once more.

Hayoung’s wide eyes weren’t nearly as large as mine as we were both baffled over what had just happened. My eyes kept scanning over Yunho’s face to see if I could get a read over his thoughts, yet all I could see in his eyes was the same warmth they always held.

He squeezed my hand in response, assuring me that he didn’t regret his actions as he turned back to look at a gaping Hayoung.

“Now if you’ll excuse us, we really need to go,” Yunho stated, quickly leading us away from the fuming girl.

Once we reached my office building, I stopped in front of it, saying that this was me. I gently pulled my hand out of his, shyly brushing a stray strand of hair out of my eyes.

Yunho, tucked both of his hands into his pockets as he stood in front of me, not quite wanting to leave, yet not having a valid reason to stay.

I took that as my que to ask the question burning in the back of my mind. “You didn’t seem very surprised at Hayoung’s appearance, did you know I wasn’t your date?”

Yunho nodded with a guilty smile, reaching up to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Yeah, the call I took earlier was from my friend Jongho, saying that Hayoung called chewing his ear off. I also may or may not have known what she looked like beforehand…”

My jaw dropped at his confession, and to think that I had worried over nothing. “You knew and yet you approached me out of the blue? Why in the world would you do something like that? Not saying that I didn’t enjoy your company, but that’s kinda creepy you know…”

“Sorry, you were just the most attractive person I’ve ever seen in my life. Not to mention the fact that you seemed to be alone in the cafe,” Yunho apologized, eyes dropping to the floor as he was unable to meet my gaze in fear of being scolded. I was stunned into silence. That was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me, especially from someone so good looking.

Shoving down the reprimand I had in mind, I jokingly nudged Yunho in the ribs to get him to look at me again. “Well she didn’t really seem to be your type anyways.”

Yunho laughed at this, wholeheartedly agreeing with me. “It seems you know my type better than my own friends. Though to be honest, I’m pretty sure Jongho knew that I would never approach a girl like Hayoung and was only trying to get me back for finishing the last bottle of Sprite from his secret collection. We’re housemates.”

I laughed at his in depth explanation, relating to his struggles. Chloe moved in with me in the summer, a few months after we met. The air conditioning unit in her run down apartment kept breaking down and was twice the distance from the company than mine.

It was far more convenient with her as a housemate as we had more spare change to spend on the money we saved on rent with a split bill. However, with every housemate comes the temptation of stealing their things.

Just recalling that one time I finished the last slice of the cake Chloe bought… She deemed it fair play to sprinkle a few pinches of flour in our shared hairdryer while I was in the shower. Though I couldn’t get mad at her for it though, because she apologized immediately after, while laughing her head off. It was extremely fortunate for her that I loved her, otherwise she would have been in for it.

“Hey, you said you were an editor, but you never mentioned the fact that you worked for this particular company,” mused Yunho, drawing me back from the mini memory lane my mind had skipped down.

“Oh I must’ve forgotten to mention it,” I said, arching an eyebrow at Yunho who’s smile spread impossibly wider. I was curious as to why me working at this company sparked his interest so much.

“You know, I just passed my interview here a few months ago?” asked Yunho casually, eyes gleaming playfully at the way my eyes widened at his words.

“Holy spades, though why weren’t you with the other interns today?” I asked, recalling the reason why Chloe couldn’t join me today.

“Well we were toured around the company earlier this morning but when my group was handed off to this other woman I turned out to be the only person who knew how to work the coffee machine. I used to work part time as a barista,” he explained with a mirthful tone of voice.

“That’s explains it,” I thought, nodding at his words. As much as I loved talking to Yunho today, I knew my break was drawing to a close and that I needed to leave soon.

“Well, I guess we’ll be seeing each other more often then,” I smiled at him bashfully, already visualizing what it would be like seeing him around at the office in the future.

“Yeah,” he agreed, hesitating a little with his next actions before stepping forward and placing a chaste kiss on my cheek.

He pulled away with a burning red blush crawling up his neck as he waved goodbye and walked off, back in the direction of the cafe and what I assumed was his car.

I shoved down my own blush, trying to recollect myself as I stepped back into the front lobby of my apartment building.

Chloe was sitting on the rim of the fountain, seemingly preoccupied with her phone. It was clear that she hadn’t seen what went down outside, otherwise she would’ve pounced on me right then and there with a mountain of questions.

Sneaking up beside her, I dangled the paper bag of sugar cookies in front of her face with a small “tada”. Chloe looked up from her phone, smiling at the bag. “Ah, you’re back. Thanks.”

I also handed her the sealed takeout cup of bubble tea and a plastic straw that I had kept hidden inside of my bag. Miraculously there was still a few ice cubes left, as the cafe had its air conditioner turned pretty high to combat the early fall heat. Or maybe it was just that my bag had some sort of secret insulation tech embedded into the interior pouch. Who knows?

She accepted it with yet another “thanks” and popped the straw through the plastic covering. Taking a small sip, she hummed in content with the sweet drink. I grinned at her as she looked down at the sweet drink as if she was trying to see a visible difference between this mixture and every other milk tea she’s tried.

The cafe really did the name of bubble tea justice, with chewy tapioca pearls of a perfect consistency and a tea base with just the right amount of sugar and flavouring. It was a little pricier as expected, however the extra dollar was definitely worth it.

“It’s good isn’t it?” I asked, as she nodded without an ounce of hesitation much like I did at Yunho when he inquired about my love for bubble tea.

We made our way to the elevator arm in arm, with Chloe asking me why I had been gone for so long.

“Were you with a guy?” Chloe asked teasingly, expecting my usual mundane response of “no”. After all, dates were never my thing and she knew that quite well. I glanced at the bright red numbers flashing in the elevator’s screen, noticing that it had reached my floor.

“Actually, yes I was,” I stated mischievously, stepping out of the elevator when the door opened. I spun around, watching as Chloe’s eyes widened.

“What?!” she exclaimed, watching in horror as the door started closing before she could ask anymore questions. I knew that she wouldn’t risk angering her manager by going back late as she certainly would if she ran out of the elevator after me.

I waved at her as the door shut, laughing a little. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get away from her later when we got home, however, I was too giddy to really think about how I’d suffer her wrath for dropping a bomb like that and just leaving.

Making my way back to my own desk, I plopped down in the spinning chair with a soft smile at everything that had occurred today. Sure, the traffic I’d have to deal with later might put a damper on my mood, and sure, I’d have to deal with Chloe’s inevitable interrogation but the carefree giddiness I felt at that moment felt like it would last forever.

When tomorrow comes, the internships will officially start and with them will come the one blue haired male that captured my attention today and heck, maybe he’ll be my fifth and final reason to stay.

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss What’s Up With SSO’s Pricing

So I wanted to bring this topic back up because it’s important to me. Also, this one is gonna be formatted weird because of those pictures, but they’re kinda central to this whole thing. But before we dive into this, I want to remind folks that I absolutely believe SSO’s devs should be fairly compensated and that MMOs are expensive to run (somewhere around $20+ million to run a year). However, I do think the pricing is dangerously high, and I think long term, it’s bad for the game. Let me explain. To start, these pictures.

The picture on the left is a calculation of SSO’s current Star Coin prices and how much you spend a year if you buy them. If you’ve done this survey for me before, this is where that data collection comes from (it’s also about to hit 100 entries and when it does I’m gonna send all of this math to support). If you want to see the findings of that survey broken down, the whole sheet and the math is here. It’s the key tab for these tables, and the SSO’s Current Pricing for the math.

The picture on the right is a table of calculations based on what SSO’s price would look like if they were based on other MMOs in the industry. I started this by looking at other MMOs that have mounts that aren’t just reskins but actually serve a purpose, like GW2 and RDO, and found the average cost of a mount in those games, about $10. Setting 1000 SC, the average about SC you need to buy a horse in SSO, at $10, I worked backwards and built the rest of the table to make a cost speculation of what SSO’s prices would look like if they followed industry standards. 

I think the color alone says a lot just by the decrease in red. To explain, the average gamer will spend about $125 USD on an MMO a year. SSO backed this up with a $120 figure for their average spender in an interview a few years ago. There are resource links peppered throughout the sheet as well, so I’m not going to repeat source a bunch in this post. So, the color coding works like this:

Blue is an underspender, spending less than $50 a year

Green is an average spender, spending between $50 and $150 a year

Pale red is an over spender, spending between $150 to $500 a year

Dark red is a whale, spending over $500 a year

The difference it would make to knock down Star Coins to $10 for a 1000 would mean that someone who wants to buy a horse a month would go from being a whale at $359.88 to exactly SSO’s average spender at $120. That’s an over $200 difference, not to mention that right now spending $120 would only get you 4 horses, where on this new chart, it would get you 12, not counting allowances. That is a massive difference in buying power.

This is why the cost is problematic. The costs are egregiously high when compared to other games in the industry, meaning we have less content to engage with for the money we do spend. Player buying power is a quarter of that in other games, in a game targeted at preteens. I don’t know about you, but preteens aren’t the group I think of when I think of having a lot of money to spend, which makes this system make even less sense.

I did want to be fair though, so there are calculations in that math about the profit loss SSO would have and if this system would be sustainable, so I also did that math. It’s on the MMO Standards tab, and my findings based on the information y’all polled was yeah. So long as players bought about 10% more Star Coins and the group of players spending increased by about 50%, this model would make as much money as the current one, and its distribution of spending looks a lot more like what a normal MMO spender distribution looks like.

That math may seem kinda wild, but I’d like to remind folks that SSO’s last reported group of monthly active players was 400,000, with only 200,000 spending regularly out of 13+ million accounts. That’s 1.5% of their player base. That’s not a huge ask. It’s an increase of about 100,000 people, and asking folks to spend about $40 a year on SSO. Again, check out the math in that spreadsheet, I ran a bunch of tests on this and I’d be happy to run some more. It’s all in color coded boxes to lay it out.

What’s even more, based on all of the bundles you guys averaged at buying, most of you dropped to underspenders on my speculation chart. Most of you would be spending less than $40 for the content you’re already getting if SSO had a system that looked like most other MMOs. Some of you dropped as far as over spenders to underspenders, and I already pointed out the whale comment. Overspenders and whales were actually cut in half as a spending group.

Look, I want SSO to make money, but their current model is short sighted on taking advantage of their current high population of overspenders and whales, which based on early polling from my recommendations poll, also is one of the bigger reasons a lot of you aren’t recommending the game. Further, it’s incredibly dangerous when talking about how this game is marketed towards kids and preteens who don’t need to be trained into overspending.

I know there’s an easy argument that SSO gives us free Star Coins with the allowance, but also, look at SSO’s main demo: preteens, a demographic not well known for its abundance of cash or copious amount of patience. Waiting three months for a new horse doesn’t sound like a good model to encourage people to keep playing, particularly when they’re likely broke and easily distracted, or their parents aren’t willing to pay for that habit. It certainly doesn’t help SSO’s monthly users if most of their players just park their accounts to wait for enough coins for a horse they want instead of logging on, or leave because they don’t want to keep investing in a game that makes them wait with no meaningful reward.

Further, all of the games I used to model my speculation chart on allow you to either buy mounts with ingame currency, earn the premium currency in gameplay, or convert the ingame currency to the premium currency. That is just as free as SSO is with its allowance, if not more “free” since you can actively grind for premium currency without needing to wait weeks at a time. There are guides in GW2 to grind enough gold to buy a mount in a weekend. Those devs still have their premiums at $10 for their average mounts.

I want SSO to make money, and the devs absolutely deserve to get paid well, but this system is abusive to players and wildly overpriced when compared to other games in the same genre with the same or similar types of mounts. By all accounts too, SSO is an indie publisher (or was? There’s some gray area with one of their investors right now). But the point being, SSO is charging at a rate that is triple the industry average, and that if a triple A game asked for this kind of money, it would be laughed for being so comedicly high. And as an indie company, with no prior games besides some old CD-ROMs to back up their credibility, they’re charging nonsensically high for their market. And a lot of the time they can get away with it because their players have no base of reference or because they’re already super passionate and able to spend. This is your base of reference.

Only 1.5% of SSO’s audience wants to spend money on the game regularly. The average business analytic of people who are willing to spend extra on a company is 10%. I love SSO, but something has to give.

[smartaffiliateparadise-blog]

Is Sisel A Scam? (Rare MLM Company With A Dark Secret)

Hey, Welcome to my Sisel Review!

You probably heard about Sisel somewhere, and that’s what led you to this review in the first place, correct? And now you are wondering, Is Sisel a Scam?

Trust me, that would be the question you are asking yourself if you heard about Sisel through some email list or through a social media post.

But if that’s not the case, it is still worth broadening your knowledge on how this MLM company works.

Firstly, I am really proud of you for taking your valuable time to do your own research before purchasing any course or services.

Secondly, that’s how you find the best proven method to avoid scams and make money online instead!

Now, before you think this is just another “Sisel International review”, it’s not. I am not here to sell you or promote Sisel to you in any way.

In fact, I am here to reveal to you the dark side of this famous MLM company, something not everyone know or would even talk about.

If you are interested in this dark secret, keep reading.

Table of Contents

Sisel’s Overview

What Is Sisel International?

How Can You Make Money With Sisel?

Sisel’s Product Line

The Complicated Compensation Plan

How Can I Get Started With Sisel?

What I Like About Sisel International / The Pros

What I Don’t Like About Sisel International / The Cons

Is Sisel International A Scam?

My Final Verdict

Sisel’s Overview

Name: Sisel International

Website: https://sisel.net/

Owners: Thomas Mower Sr and Thomas Mower Jr

Price: $10 for Annual Membership

Launched: 2006

SAP Ratings: 10/100

Best Suited For: Not A Single Person.

Summary: Sisel International or sometimes just Sisel, is a MLM company that manufactures their own product. Products like Tea, Moisturizer etc. Basically a wide variety of products which you can choose from within the health and wellness niche. However, all looks great and shiny from the outside, but there’s a very dark side to this MLM company. Keep reading to find out.

Recommended: Definitely not.

What Is Sisel International?

So let’s talk a little about Sisel first, Sisel International is a MLM company, MLM stands for Multi-level marketing.

Launched back in 2006 by the Mower families, the father and son to be specific.

The company sells a wide range of products for health and wellness purposes.

They sell well over 256+ products and to name a few, skin care, weight loss and make up products.

Their mission is to target environmental friendly and toxic free products for people. The name Sisel is an anagram, and it stands for Science, Innovation, Success, Energy and Longevity.

The Mowers started this company with their own money, with an estimated cost of 150 millions.

And because of that, Sisel International is the only MLM company with their own manufacturing plant. All the products are created by themselves.

Their plant is called Supra Nationals.

But that’s not all, they also help with manufacturing health products for 30+ other MLM companies, and companies like Walmart and Costco.

How Can You Make Money With Sisel?

There are two ways to earn money with a MLM company, and with Sisel international it is exactly the same.

Personal Sales, make commissions by selling the products yourself.

Residual Income and Bonuses, make money through recruiting and achieving certain company goals.

There are actually 6 ways to earn money with Sisel’s compensation plan, but they all fall under the two categories mentioned above.

I will talk about this further down the article.

Sisel’s Product Line

The main niche Sisel finds themselves into is Health and Wellness, but they also have products outside of that niche.

I am not going into all their products on this review, because that would be too much, this is not a full Sisel’s product review, but rather an unbiased review about Sisel International as a company.

The health and wellness products can be categorized into 4 main categories.

Fitness: Health drinks, energy drinks, weight loss and weight gaining drinks, simply put drinks that has everything to do with fitness.

Allure: Make-up, exfoliation cream etc. Products that are used for beauty enhancing.

Health: A full selection of health and wellness supplements.

Legacy: This consists of household cleaning and personal care products.

They manufacture a great variety of products with their own manufacturing plant, but these products can be really expensive for the average person.

Some products are probably two times if not three times the price of products with similar ingredients.

So this makes you wonder whether their product is any different or not, are people actually buying them and are they satisfied?

Aside of having their own manufacturing plant, Sisel international is just another MLM company if you ask me.

The Complicated Compensation Plan

Sisel uses a compensation model called the unilevel structure, and this is how it works.

This pyramid structure of model is one that many MLM company uses, and like most MLM companies their compensation plan are hard to understand.

I am going to be frank with you, I tried to read their complete compensation plan PDF and I still don’t understand half of it.

Tried watching a few lengthy videos about their compensation plan, still very hard to understand and grasp, but keep in mind that I already read the PDF by now.

So I am going to save you the time and trouble of breaking your head over this, I will show you the part of the plan that’s necessary, filtering out all the unnecessary parts.

1. Quick Start Bonus: Get a quick 20% commission from your new recruit’s sales volume

2. Retail Commissions: You get 20% commission on every product you personally sell.

3. Direct Commissions: Earn direct commissions from your recruits all the way down to the 8th level.

4. Master Check Match: When someone within your organization reaches the master rank. You earn 10% commission on the 1st gen, 5% on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation.

5. Luxury Bonus: If you reached the highest ranks within the company, you will get the chance to win a car.

6. Advancement Bonus: Get bonuses from going up in ranks within the company.

And to be quite frank with you, the name Sisel international is not unheard-of. The name has been thrown around on social media.

The chances of stumbling upon something about Sisel is not impossible at all, so you can bet how well they can sell with that much exposure if done correctly.

You can check out the full PDG here.

How Can I Get Started With Sisel?

Aside from paying the $10, you need to become a distributor of Sisel International to finally get started.

But here’s the issue with that, just like most MLM companies, Sisel won’t charge you much for becoming a distributor itself, but they will charge you for something worse.

You are forced to buy their products if you want to do business with them.

To finalize the deal with Sisel you need to sign up for their monthly auto ship which is about $50 in personal volume.

After that you need to get ready to purchase their kit if you plan on staying with them, and a package can cost anywhere from $200-$1000.

– Sisel Fast Start Pack ($250)

– Platinum Triangle Of Life Pack ($200)

– Master Pack ($1000)

You can stop your auto ship whenever you want, so there’s that.

They won’t force you to purchase one last package or anything like that.

But if you want to start a business with Sisel International and become their trusted distributor it is going to cost you a lot of start up cash.

What I Like About Sisel International / The Pros

1. Manufacturing Plant

I have one good thing to say about Sisel, It’s not very often you hear about a MLM company with its own manufacturing plant. That’s almost unheard-of.

This alone shows how much of a success a company is through a consumer’s point of view.

For a company to have their own manufacturing plant means they can decide the cost of their own product, but for some reason their prices are still a little too high in my opinion.

So if they can somehow cut down the prices, that would be great. Since people already know about their enormous factory that’s around 400.000 square feet.

2. 13 Years Of Business

This year will mark their 13 years of business. For a company let alone a MLM company to thrive this long and still growing, I would say, respect.

Most businesses are due to fail after 5-10 years if it’s not going well or the ROI is way too small.

The fact that Sisel’s still doing great is just something worth considering and giving props to.

What I Don’t Like About Sisel International / The Cons

1. Overpriced Products

Like I mentioned earlier, their prices aren’t low and they should definitely do something about it. The fact that one package of product can cost you around $200 is just insane.

From a company that makes their own product you would be expecting the opposite.

It’s no use if you can’t sell even if you have amazing products, so the wise thing to do would be selling it at a cheaper price, but in greater volume.

But then again, maybe they have a reason for that.

2. Too Expensive To Start

The startup fee you pay is not that much, it’s just a mere $10.

But the actual cost to start selling for Sisel is at the very least $260 in your first month, and $50 for every month thereafter. Some can afford it, but most cannot.

Aside from that, there are far better and cheaper ways to earn money, proven methods like dropshipping and affiliate marketing.

Even real estate is much cheaper if you consider the ROI (Return On Investment).

3. Low Commissions

The commission you get for selling Sisel’s products are absurd. You will receive an all time low 2% for every item you sold successfully.

That’s lower that most MLM companies and way below the standards. However, you do make your own money from the retail, but that’s separate.

With a commission rate as low as Sisel’s, you would probably have to sell around $50-100k worth of products a month to make a mere $1000 or $2000 a month.

The amount you get for retail is 10 times higher, around 20%, but I won’t bet on it to get rich either.

4. Dark Secret (Tax Evasion)

One of the owner, Tom Mower went to prison.

Tom was convicted of fraud and was sentenced for 25 months in federal jail. This may not sound extremely bad, and this may not have a lot to do with you joining them.

But if you think about it, a company like Sisel with a dark background like this, can you still trust them though?

If you feel like this secret isn’t as dark as it seems like then by all means, join as you will. I am not going to judge Sisel for the rest of my life, but this a no go for me.

Is Sisel International A Scam?

Now that I have explained almost everything there is to know about Sisel within this Sisel interview, I can tell you that Sisel is not a scam.

A lot of you may think that this is another pyramid scheme and all that, but rest assured, it is not.

However, it is not the best MLM company out there if joining a MLM company is what you really wanted to do, because there are way better ones out there.

Even Javita and Amare Global are better Multi-level Marketing companies than Sisel.

Aside from that, the main reason I wouldn’t even consider joining or becoming a full time distributor for Sisel’s International is because of their past.

I am not one to judge by looking at someone’s past, but I just can’t overlook this one.

The fact that one of the owner had done jail time because he was lying about his total income from the government just makes me wonder whether I can trust him or not.

That combined with their over complicated compensation plan makes me feel like they’re taking advantage of me and anyone that plans on joining.

And also, if making money online or building a successful online business is what you really want then this isn’t the best method for achieving that kind of goal either.

My Final Verdict

I have been in this online business platform for quite a while and I have had success for less than this, a lot less.

In fact, if you are interested in creating your paradise, your own online business without having to spend more than $100 then let me show you.

The online business I am acquainted with and love is called affiliate marketing.

I have a full review about the best platform I know and am a premium member of, read about my Wealthy Affiliate review here.

Like I said, Sisel is a legit MLM company, not a scam, not a pyramid scheme, but I would never recommend it either way.

If you want to start earning big money with a proven method, join me and learn right under my wing.

The best thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that it’s FREE to join, you have to pay literally $0 to start.

==> Click Here To Join For Free <==

I hope you found some value from my unbiased Sisel International review, and if you still have some unanswered questions, just ask and I will get back to you. Stay cool & humble.

[blessuswithblogs]

2018 Game of the Year Top Ten List I guess

2018 has been an interminable mire of exhausting miasma and quite frankly I feel like it has been longer than the entire stretch of 2010-2015 combined. I also didn't play many games released this year because, like last year, I'm still poor. I'll see what I can dig up.

10. Sunset Overdrive PC edition: It's a fun open world game by insomniac. The PC Port is actually balls but like. It's a good game with a unique emphasis on how you traverse the game world, where you can grind and bounce on just about anything and indeed to do so is the only way to not get totally chewed up by the hordes of mutants and scavengers and robots you have to fight. There's also some pretty fun and out there weapons to use, like a gun that shoots vinyl records or one that deploys little auto-turrets kept aloft with propellers or one that shoots out a bowling ball at terminal velocity. The base game didn't actually come out this year (I dont... think it did...?) but it was an XBone exclusive so I didn't play it then. It's got some weird problems with narrative tone and some kind of out of the blue racism but the M rated Nickolodeon toy commercial aesthetic is charming in a weird way. I guess.

9. The Forest: I think this got an official release this year? I don't know I can't fucking keep track. Speaking of a game with weird problems with racism, if you can look past the garbage "main quest" and really deeply uncomfortable racial politics where you murder and steal from cannibal mutants, The Forest is probably the best cool treefort building simulator I've ever played. This game has a love affair with lumber and I respect that. Shouldn't you be looking for Timmy, you ask me? Shouldn't you be shutting the fuck up before I put this airplane axe in your skullmeats? Gazebos are nice. I guess.

8. Spyro: reignited trilogy: haven't actually played this yet but let's be real the spyro games were fucking dope back in the day and giving them an HD coat of paint and packaging them all together is a real standup thing for insomniac to do in between slinging webs and making questionable pc ports. Also its like Dark Souls so it has to be good, right? Everything old is new again. I guess.

7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: haven't played this one either but like. I know that I am a smash-enjoyer. I even liked Brawl. This is the biggest, smashiest one yet and it's also on the switch which means it could also be portable if I decided I never wanted to leave my bed again. I'm probably going to find some money to get it soon. Should be fun. I guess.

6. The Quiet Man: look no game that is THIS hysterical can be all bad alright? Didn't play it. Won't play it. It's awful. But it's so fucking funny like oh my god. Still better than Fallout 76. I guess.

5. Dark Souls Remastered: was this even a good remaster? I don't fucking know. It's Dark Souls. It's better than 90% of released games by default. I miss Solaire of Astora. I guess there's Shadows Die Twice to look forward to. I guess.

4. Subnautica: I wrote a lot about this actually. Subnautica is great. Just fantastic. A wonderful, visually stunning (mostly) (when it works) journey under an alien ocean to unravel an ancient mystery behind a deadly plague. Building seabases is so much fun (when it doesn't hard crash your computer) and the peaceful playstyle you adopt where you really only kill things for food until you can grow your own, much more efficient produce is a welcome change of pace from everything else. Leviathans are scary, especially now that your cyclops is mortal and not indestructible. This game actually Came Out this year so it deserves to be on the spot. I guess.

3. Dragon Ball Fighterz: Honestly I'm hell trash garbage at fighting games that aren't smash but this was a very well put together, visually impressive as all hell fast paced tag fighter where you can have 3 gokus on the same team fight 3 other gokus on the same team. Goku density alone makes this game worth recommending. The eSports scene that has popped up around it is fun too. I guess.

2. Dead Cells: Another game that gets to be on the list by virtue of it actually coming out this year. Wait, was this on last year's list? Let me check. Ok good it wasn't. Early access is a fucking trip. It's fun, stylish, challenging, has a great deal of variety in ways to play, might have erased my entire save because it became obsolete and I'm definitely not bitter, and it has that classic rogue-lite replay value to give you some bang for your buck. There was that one review plagiarism scandal. I guess.

1. Monster Hunter World: If you really want to know what I think of this game my previous piece on it is a good place to start. In addition to everything said there, MHW is just a fun game. The loop is satisfying and, later on, quite challenging. The combat system takes some genuine getting used to and some monsters like Nergigante actually literally cheat but for the most part the game's unique fighting style, spread across several unique weapon types, is rewarding to learn because it demands some effort be put into it and the dividends of fighting well are very cool, like just knocking a flying monster on its ass with a single mighty swing of the hammer. When a game is hard in any capacity games journalists get dollar signs in their eyes and start drooling uncontrollably because they can immediately declare that Farm Sim 2020 is the next Bloodborne because they somehow managed to roll their tractor into a ditch, but MHW is actually quite similar in style and execution to deliberate Souls combat, but the comparison is made in reverse. Dark Souls is quite similar to Monster Hunter, the first game of which was popular and a couple of years old before Demon's Souls was even a twinkle in Miyazaki's eye. There's a lot of parallels between fighting a big ol' rathalos in monhun and going for the toes against a dragon in Dark Souls, but I think MHW actually does that kind of fight better.  There are a lot of modern conveniences present in MHW that are a godsend to newer players, making the game pretty easy to get into if you're willing to try. It was my favorite game of the year that actually came out in 2018. I kind of wanted to put Warframe in this list but it's been out of early access for years now. I guess.

There were a lot of games this year that I wanted to play, but couldn't. I don't think 2018 was a weak year for video games. It wasn't as strong as 2017 but it had some hits, I just couldn't afford to play them all. Maybe next year I'll be able to give a better list. I think that the whole industry is in for some hard choices and major restructuring of how things get done and how they look at the end result. Stocks continue to trend downward - not just for Bethesda but for most mainstream, prominent AAA developers like EA and Take2. Given the well documented volatility of "The Shareholders", I imagine that they would be most displeased by downward trends even if they were still making a modest profit.

The situation has been likened to an economic bubble ripe for bursting. Games as a cultural institution have come a long way since the catastrophic days of Atari's warehouses of unsold copies of E.T., and I don't believe that we're in any danger of a complete collapse of the institution, but the fact absolutely remains That Something's Gotta Give. The increasingly predatory practices that game developers put in place as they pathologically attempt to Make Every Money Ever are intrinsically unsustainable. People are willing to forgive and overlook the now ubiquitous microtransaction if a game is good enough to overlook it, or if it's the game's only real way of actually making money. Warframe's microtransactions, for instance, are reasonably priced, platinum is often heavily discounted as a login bonus, and you can make large amounts of it without ever spending money thanks to the game's surprisingly robust trading economy. So. Yeah. They get a pass. Warframe is also good on its own merits, despite being free to play. They also listen to their community about pricing. Go check out Warframe. It's free. It's free!!! Warframe is my unofficial top spot.

Sorry I got a little bit distracted. So there's only really two instances where people will tolerate microtransactions and lootboxes in the contemporary sense: either a game is good enough and polished enough and the lootboxes are unobtrusive enough that you can just sort of shrug your shoulders and say "it sucks but what are you gonna do" or it genuinely relies on those microtransactions to support itself. When these tenets are violated, people WILL get mad. People raised absolute hell about Battlefront 2's scummy monetization schemes, enough to get EA to back off. Fallout 76 is getting lambasted in no small part due to its utterly overpriced "cosmetic" shop where you pay ten real dollars to get your power armor to look blue. You can buy fullfeatured, critically acclaimed games for half that price and you already dumped $60 on this lemon of a game. Destiny 2 got into hot water for being cagey about how its exp values were calculated and how the previously free and user-friendly shaders became one-time use items you could only get from rolling the dice. The public is getting positively irate about all of this nonsense, and if Fallout 76 (and evidently battlefield V?) is any indication, we are fast approaching a breaking point where shareholder demand for profit will outpace the consumer's ability to provide it and the developer's ability to skinner box it out of us.

Of course Nintendo continues to march on to the beat of its own drum seemingly unaffected by all of this garbage. Not out of any moral superiority, I imagine. More likely it's just a consequence of that company still being in the process of being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Maybe a few years down the line when everyboy else has abandoned microtransactions Nintendo will pick them up, put a cute Mario motif on it, and we'll be back to square one. Time will tell. We're in a volatile time for games and the timebomb keeps ticking. I just hope the explosion isn't too messy. I guess.

[bts-love-sweat-tears]

Julie’s Love Yourself Concert Diary

Concert Date: September 29, 2018

Written: September 30, 2018

Warnings: I curse more than I should?

Words: 3,330ish-added a few  things at the last minute (phew!)

A/N:

[Update: Tumblr couldn’t upload all my photos that I spent awhile choosing and placing, so I’m going to have to pare it down. Sorry bbs! I opted to cut my personal & merch photos in favor of the boys]

So I have one thousand and one things I should be working on-for school, for work, for my eventual job hunt. But instead I am going to write about last night’s experience while it was still fresh in my mind. I was thinking of doing a song-by-song play-by-play, but you can look up the setlist on Wikipedia, so instead I am going to talk about the things that jumped out at me. WARNING: This is essentially one giant spoiler, so I will try to put a “Read More” cut, though it’s been being weird for me lately. So scroll carefully if you’re going to a later date and don’t want to know. All photos taken on my (now ancient) iPhone 6, so I tried to choose the best ones). Will edit as I see typos I made.

I’m a little nervous since I usually write fiction instead of sharing my personal experience. Anyway, full disclosure that this is just my perspective, and I’m (always) happy to discuss things (civilly) if you disagree with me.  <3  Photos and opinions are mine.- please don’t re-post anywhere else.

The Background/ Pulling a Namjoon and Leaving my Ticket at Home

Even though I was going to the Saturday show, I flew into LaGuardia using frequent flyer miles on Friday morning. I was staying with a friend in Queens, so I went straight to her apartment. I’m a grad student as most of you probably know at this point, so I spent most of Friday working on a paper that was due. I had two friends I met at last year’s concert going to the Friday concert, and they went for merch promptly at 9, but I had just arrived and had a deadline to meet for school.  Around 4:30PM, I decided that I was done for the day and opened Ticketmaster to print my ticket for the next day’s show. When I logged in, I saw the notice that the ticket had been mailed to me. I remembered having seen that when I bought the ticket in May, but in my defense I was jet-lagged and ill on that day. Furthermore, I moved to and from NYC in that time for a summer internship, and SO MUCH HAD HAPPENED. The tickets had been mailed while I was living here and I had never seen them, so somehow it slipped my mind. Obviously I lived too far away, but I didn’t know if I could express overnight them, but I think when I called Ticketmaster, the old ones were deactivated when the guy tried to send me the link.

Anyway, print at home was not an option, so I called Ticketmaster and in a panic explained my situation. They said it happened all the time and offered to send me a link. Luckily I kept the rep on the line, because it turned out that even they couldn’t email a link because of the anti-scalpers/fraud/whatever.

Then the rep said that I could show the credit card, but I had literally cut it up the week prior since the Vendor (e.g. the store that the card was through) had switched their card to a different bank (e.g. Visa to Mastercard), so I seemed shady af, even though I was telling the truth. He said as long as I had a login to a statement showing the transaction (I didn’t, since they had opted to close the account at an institutional level).  So I called my mom frantically, and luckily she is the hyper-organized type who keeps paper copies of everything and sent them to me. Seriously, Mom for the win!  I run to this print shop as it’s closing and print everything out.  I had the Ticketmaster receipt & order #, and two photo ID’s confirming my address. The guy said it should be fine, but I was on the verge of a mental breakdown. This was my one birthday gift and something I had been looking forward to for months. Anyway, my friend and I went out to a local bar near the Halsey (yes, the singer took her name from the station) stop on the L line, and I was super anti-social because I was so upset. I also burst a blood vessel in my eye  (it will heal, no worries) because of too much birthday partying the prior weekend, so I’m sure I was a (sour) sight to behold.

I slept poorly for obvious reasons, and left the apartment around 7AM, and arrived to Prudential center around 8:30ish. There were only a few people outside of will call, but the GA line was already wrapped around the building. I made small talk with people outside of the box office, and one woman told me she had gotten soundcheck both days. Seriously, what kind of karma do I need for that to happen to me? She and her friends had been camping out since Thursday, and they were SUPER organized: while she waited in line, one was at merch, and someone else was holding their GA site. I almost wondered if they were a fansite or something. ARMY are a truly organized bunch (except for me, clearly).

Anyway, after another half hour of pure anxiety, they opened up will call and I was panicking, but they were really helpful and gave me my ticket after I verified the order number, showed my id and confirmed some other personal data. I decided then and there that nothing else mattered and I was just happy to be there and be in.

Waiting in line/Logistics/Staff

I left the box office, and got into the GA line. It was probably around 9:15, and the line had already doubled-back on itself all the way around the building. The woman from earlier told me that her friend had got #1000 and was only 3 rows back, so I still had some hope. Basically, you line up to get your spot in line- though it’s kinda dumb that you have to line up twice, it makes security go faster and guarantees that there isn’t a huge surge/stronger people cutting  in line later.

I wore what I thought were my most comfortable shoes, but after standing on concrete for hours, I don’t think it makes a difference. People were so friendly though-  I never once felt awkward even though I was by myself. The same was true last year- the friends who had gone up for merch on Friday I met while in line at last years’ Wings concert. I chatted with people around me, drank the two bottles of water I had, and looked at my phone. Bring an umbrella for shade and sunscreen though-I didn’t and am rocking a nice farmers burn/tan today.  It wasn’t humid though, and it wasn’t raining, so it could have been so much worse.

Even though there were tons of people, everyone was well-behaved. I didn’t see any altercations, though as the day went on the staff seemed a bit overwhelmed with crowd control.  I didn’t see too many people selling unofficial merch like last year, though I did buy a few necklaces (Joon and Chim, ofc).

After 3.5 hours, I finally got my wristband. They told us to be back by 2pm to line up for real, as they were going to try to open the doors at 3 instead of 3:30 (didn’t end up happening).

Merch

I then ran to merch, but there wasn’t much left. The fans/pickets were selling out as I got in line, and people were basically yelling “NOOOOOOOO” everytime the staff put up a “SOLD OUT” sticker. I bought what I could that was left, including a bracelet, which I’m actually in love with, the eco-tote (super overpriced tbh, $50 for a canvas bag), but the shopper bags were gone and I needed something to carry the box and batteries V3 ARMY Bomb I bought. I had one from last year that I also forgot, but I think the new version was cool because they are synced up with the music so you can change colors and patterns along with everyone else. Overall, it’s EXPEN$$$$IVE, but if anyone’s worth it, it’s Bangtan.

Newark

I was getting super tired after this, so I kinda passed on the photo studio table, big poster, and UNICEF stuff. I tried to go to Starbucks, but even though it was the middle of the day, I didn’t feel that safe, even though it was like 11:45 in the middle of the day. I’m a 27 year old who’s lived in Latin America (which is generally stereotyped for violence), solo traveled around the world, and I’m from the Rust Belt (aka home of true urban decay), but that part of Newark sketched me the heck out. Probably it would have been fine, but I opted for caution, and went to a Dunkin Donuts and empanada place right around the corner. The timing was actually good since we had to get back pretty quickly to line back up.

The second line was where the staff struggled, telling people to back up and get in order, but it seemed like staff were doing different things. Plus, if they wanted people to back up, they should have created room at the back first, before telling the front to basically “back that ass up” on the people behind them.

GA vs. Seated

I can say this- if you are short, you probably want a seat. Or if you have any kind of knee, back, or joint problems- I stood for approximately 14 straight hours on concrete yesterday. I am just under 5”5” but I was probably one of the taller people in the crowd, so I had a pretty good view. Even though they asked people to not take videos or record, you WILL be looking through a sea of cell phones. I could see pretty well, but sometimes when they were on the main stage I had a hard time seeing around other people’s arms.

Last time I had P2 seated, and the view was wonderful. I went to the bathroom, charged my phone, and ate nachos (lol), so it was generally a more chill experience. I was still super close but up a little higher and could see absolutely everything. But last night I was SO close I could see Joon’s dimples irl, and got splashed by both Jungkook and J-Hope when they threw the water bottles.  Probably 100 people think this, but I’m also pretty sure Yoongi  (and maybeeee Jimin) saw me jumping and singing along like crazy since I was one of the taller people. At the very least, Yoongi keep looking in the general direction I was in. Ofc I looked gross af with my messed up eye and crazy hair, but what I loved about the concert is that I was 100% able to forget all the insecurities I carry around with me on a day to day basis and have an AMAZING time.

Of course the whole place is crazy high energy, but I feel like last night was INSANELY high. I’m not sure if it was the overall vibe or if that was the GA influencing my opinion.  It just depends on what kind of experience you want to have. Also, if you are claustrophobic, you should probably pass on GA. The guards kept forcing people to back up, at one point even coming in with a flashlight, and people would surge forward whenever a member came close. But someone said the night before was chill, so maybe it’s just luck of the draw.

The Show

The show was absolutely amazing. They opened with IDOL, which got people hyped from the get-go. Their dancing was ON POINT as always. People were chanting during the intro videos and chatting as it filled in, so it was a great vibe once again- just super happy feeling. The audio visual part was AMAZING, though I’m no pro, and I loved all of the concert outfits, especially Jimin’s super sparkly sweater. Lots of jumping, and lots of screams. I didn’t have earplugs and was fine, but if you’re sensitive to loud sounds I definitely recommend them. ISTG I remembered hearing a mashup of FIRE, but maybe not? Wikipedia seems to think not. But they played a few older ones too, which made me so soft and nostalgic.

More on the members during the concert

Kim Namjoon

Ok, this is so so so biased, let me start with that. If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know how much I love this man. Seeing him smiling and happy was amazing. And they had a professional translator for this concert, so I felt like Joon was able to relax a little and enjoy himself instead of worrying about translating for everyone else.  He is just as tall and proportional as everyone says he is.  Everyone talks about how soft he is these days (and I love it), but he has undeniable charisma when he raps. Plus him in sunglasses, ddaeng. Seeing him so close was akin to something spiritual for me (I SAW THE DIMPLES WITH MY OWN EYES), as were people shouting along with him to “Love.” At the end, he commented how we were all sharing the same air, and hearing him think the way (I know at least some of ) us think was so heartwarming.  

Also during some of the videos, there were some NOT AT ALL subtle Minjoon moments.  

Kim Seokjin

The crowd last night ADORED Jin and gave him all the attention he deserves to have all the time. People were chanting his name SO LOUDLY during instrumental breaks in Epiphany. His voice was phenomenal, particularly the high notes. it’s clear how hard he’s worked to make it sound so effortless.  I noticed that people weren’t moving as much during some of his notes and I can only think it’s because we were literally transfixed. It’s well established, but I don’t think this man has any bad angles. Even in the still pictures I took while dancing, he DOESN’T look awkward in any of them. #impossible.

Min Yoongi

Suga was clearly happy about something last night- he was SO cute and happy. Other ARMY on the train back to the city agreed with me. His rapping was fire (duh), but he was really smiley and took out his earpiece a number of times to hear us screaming. “Seesaw” starts with him laying on a couch and I can think of no better way to capture his true soul (lol). He was extra attentive to fans, and  I feel like what Tae mentioned in Burn the Stage, he was trying to memorize ARMY’s faces and live in the moment. I felt bad because there were clearly parts where he wanted us to sing along, but we couldn’t necessarily keep up with his tongue technology :P  But people definitely tried their best.  

Jung Hoseok

Idk what I can say here that’s new. J-Hope is one of the most charismatic members on the stage. And there’s something in the American air that turns him into Jay Hope. Seriously, he’s hard to move your eyes away from. “Just Dance” was the first solo track if I remember correctly and he did not disappoint. His glasses at the end were adorable, and one of the other members called him a “happy grandfather” or something like that.  Seriously, if you’re still sleeping on Hobi, we can’t be friends.  

Park Jimin

Jimin was ethereal as always, and the choreography for Serendipity was…..salacious, to say the least. Like if you thought the “Take Me Down” cover from last year’s Festa was too much, then idk what to tell you. Bring holy water or something. Despite  the free water that fans were providing to others (ARMY are seriously the best) there was a different kind of thirst occurring, if you smell what I’m stepping in. Jimin is pure charisma, like J-Hope. Obviously their styles are totally different, but when they move, you stop whatever you’re doing and watch. Again, I didn’t even see many ARMY bombs moving during Serendipity- I think we were too entranced. I personally thought that he killed his vocals and did great, but he seemed a little tired or like he was working hard at it. Jimin was also the one (at least that I saw from my angle) that got the closest to the fans, crouching down and leaning over the teleprompters/fans/lights/ whatever the black boxes were at the edge of the stage.

Similar to Tae and Yoongi, I saw him looking at fans A LOT during the show. He was exactly how he seems in V Lives and cameras, and I’m fairly certain I would spontaneously combust if I ever ran into him irl (even if I didn’t know who he was)- he just radiates warmth and friendliness. Seriously, if I believed in magic, I feel like he would be able to influence people’s emotions.

Kim Taehyung

So many fic writers have this ultra primal (for lack of a better word?) for Tae, but all I see is a cute sweetheart. Obviously I’ve never seen someone create as much tension with their own arm as he does during Singularity, but when he’s not dancing, I just got a super innocent, cutesy vibe from him. His voice was so smooth last night. I mean, I knew, but now I KNOW.  He actually was shooting hearts at one fan (how lucky they are), and pretended to fall down when they shot him back! They were further back in P2 as well so he really does work hard at paying attention to everyone. He actually called over another member (maybe Yoongi or Jimin? I was too busy trying to remember how to breathe, to see whatever he was seeing).

At the end he whipped a heart out of his beanie (how I pray to god someone got that moment on camera) a la Jin. He just seemed really comfortable in his own skin last night, and I was so grateful for it.  

Jeon Jungkook

I had a hard time seeing most of his Euphoria performance as it was relatively early on and people were taking a shit ton of videos. He also stayed mostly on the main stage, rather than come out to the extension area near where I was. His abs are just as great in person, and the screams were (as is to be expected), absolutely deafening. They’ve talked about it in shows, but his voice is  SO stable. Obviously they stopped at times and don’t use too much backing vocals, but it sounded EXACTLY how it does on the album. He threw something into the crowd  (I think a banner) at the end, and it FLEW so far-back to P2 or further. They’re not kidding when they talk about how strong he is.  

Final thoughts

At first, I was a little exhausted after my emotional trauma of the prior day, and from standing for so long but the minute it started I forgot everything else. I was salty when I couldn’t see that much bc of people recording (esp when they asked us not to), but I understand the specialness of the moment and wanting to have some tangible evidence that you were there. By the time the concert was over, I realized how special GA was, even if it’s more difficult logistically (since I went solo and didn’t have parents or friends to stand in). I still don’t know if it’s hit me that I was like 10 feet away from them, max. It reaffirmed how important they are to me. I didn’t write this to brag, but to hopefully share my perspective and let others live vicariously through my experience. If you want clarification or anything else, write to me!  

[maddiecopesblog]

Deciding what I want my store to look like

I narrowed down the key factors that I think effect customer choice and then I followed this by making sure I hit all of these pointers in my own design.

The main concept is most of the products in my shop are ‘decoy’ products, they are overpriced and underwhelming, but the reason you stay in the store is because, you have received a free snack (probably a very dry biscuit or something that makes you dehydrated) and the shop is leading you towards the promise of water through strategic sound and lighting placements. When you reach the end of the shop, you reach what I’m calling the ‘oasis necklace’ as its meant to resemble the feeling of walking through a harsh desert, then finding water. the product is submerged in water (very arty) and a snobbish employee will reach into the tank and produce the necklace on demand, the price is reasonable, you are thirsty and the necklace looks glistening and appealing. You continue through the store, followed by some more underwhelming decoy products then finally you reach the checkout queue, where you will find the impulse buy section, which has a matching set of earrings to the oasis necklace, you buy them because, well, they match, and then you leave the store, having bought two unnecessary items of jewellery, that look remarkably less attractive in regular natural light, when all you actually wanted, was a glass of water.

^inspiration for the jewellery in the tank

[comicbookuniversity]

What Is a Single Issue Comic?

by Bunnypwn Gold

There are a lot of problems in the current comics industry, and it’s pretty hard to know where things are going. Right now, with DC partnered with Lunar for distribution and Marvel jumping to Penguin for distribution by the end of the year, it’s hard to imagine how Diamond Distributors, the former monopoly of single issue distribution in the industry for the past few decades, will survive, and how losing a monopoly like them will affect smaller publishers. Penguin and Lunar could and likely would be interested in picking up new clients, but that doesn’t guarantee the survival of all publishers or a stable future for retailers. All of this, of course, is about the ability of publishers to get their single issue comic magazines to specialty store shelves, the only place they’re sold, with the financial health of everyone involved almost entirely dependent on the sale of these units. And that brings me to a question I’ve been wondering for a long time: What is a single issue comic? Because as a product they are fundamentally unsuited for their apparent purpose, which affects the entire structure of the industry.

First off, let’s give the literal and straightforward answer to my question: A single issue comic is a magazine-style book containing a single chapter of a serialized comic narrative, or one or more episodes in an episodic comic narrative. They are also literally $4 on average for a single floppy. That’s a lot of money to spend on a single chapter of a series, and a comics reader will be following multiple series a week. There are a lot of reasons for this cost, and I’m not going to quibble with making sure creators and such are compensated appropriately. One of the costs, though, is the premium low-pulp, high-heat paper used for printing a single. It’s glossy and smooth, holding onto high-quality ink (another cost) for glorious colors and inks, contributing to the aesthetic improvements in comics in recent times. Though there are benefits to this, it raises the monetary and environmental cost of making comics quite a bit. The modern single issue is still relatively floppy, as a magazine, and clearly not meant for long term storage, but it’s also more likely to keep over the long term than past singles and is much more durable than, say, a newspaper, as an example of something clearly meant to be temporary. The average readers is reading multiple series a week, each series is looking to last tens or hundreds of issues, and each series will also be collected into a trade paperback or a hardback edition. Trades are far more suited to long term storage and rereading than a single, mostly as it relates to quantity of narrative and binding methods, since the single issue uses the same paper as trades and other collections.

That gets into the main problem I have with single issue comics. What purpose are they meant to serve the narrative? If they are a temporary format to facilitate serialized storytelling and are meant to be resold or recycled in some fashion once a collected volume comes out, then they serve that purpose very poorly. They’re so expensive that buying all the issues that will be collected in the next trade would cost more than that trade; not only would buying the trade be paying more money for something you already have, but you also actually pay less money to get it in the format you wanted in the first place. That is, if your goal is to read comics as a hobby and you want to collect the stories you like on a bookshelf, like I do. If you’re just reading them as they come and don’t want to shelve them, then it’s worth noting that $4 a pop is far more than “reading them as they come” money. It doesn’t seem like the industry is all that concerned with selling trades, at least not to the extent they logically should be, and the format of singles isn’t one you’d associate with a temporary unit. While some people do resell their singles to comic shops, not every reader can do that, and they’re such an upfront investment that recycling them would be throwing away a massive amount of money. Not everyone wants a ton of boxes holding all the singles they’ve bought over the decades or has children to give them to; not that most comics these days are actually appropriate to give to children, which is actually another issue with the cost. Children should be a bigger part of the comics readership, to ensure that there are new readers for the future. Children can’t afford $4 an issue, and it’s hard to imagine most parents buying their kid multiple series a week, on top of other kid costs (I hear they’re pretty expensive). For adults, it’s also a very expensive hobby in general; it’s like $1040/year if you’re buying five issues a week (a small number for serious readers), without considering any trades, OGNs, or manga you want to buy, too.

Singles are also literally at the center of the comics business model. The success of a series is almost entirely dependent on the sale of its singles, with most publishers unable (and in Marvel and DC’s case, unwilling) to step in and support a critically well-received book until sales pick up. If too few people decide they want to try the first issue or to stick with it the next week, which adds to the burden on their wallets, then the book will fail. There’s no waiting for trades to come out and buoy the financial footing of a series. This puts readers in the position of either (maybe guiltily) buying singles they don’t necessarily want to own to support a series they love, or trade wait, essentially abdicating an arbitrary consumer responsibility in the hopes that enough others don’t for a good series to make it to trades. Of course, publishers don’t succeed unless a majority of their books succeed, so they are also almost entirely dependent on singles. Publishers probably get more benefit than creators from trade sales, but their business model isn’t set up to get much benefit from it. This subsequently trickles down to retailers, who can’t make enough of their money on trades if their publishers aren’t focused on selling them. Singles are incentivized and centralized at every level, meaning that this overpriced product that fails to serve its seeming narrative and commercial purpose holds all the weight of a dying industry.

The first single issue that ever came out was, famously, a collection of newspaper comic strips, a collected format. After seeing how well it sold, people quickly began making original stories for this format, first as anthology comics that contained multiple stories in the same genre per issue. The success of Superman and Batman pushed publishers to put out individual stories as an entire single issue, and for a long time that was fine; the single issue was the only format comics came in, and being printed on newsprint with four-color printing, it was cheap. Then people started publishing trades and collections of single issues. Instead of the industry evolving over time around the trade paperback as the primary unit of comics, as it did before around singles, they stuck with singles, and changed single issues into a higher-prestige product, like a miniature trade paperback, leaving collected editions as a secondary concern. This was a huge and pretty obvious mistake, and is directly connected to several problems in the industry, most obviously the fact that the Diamond monopoly formed in the first place and how its collapse could spell doom for most publishers. Since everyone is so tied up in the success of singles, and Diamond is the only one delivering them to comics shops for most publishers, most can’t exist without Diamond.

Another effect, perhaps less obviously, is the shift in the focus of publishers away from publishing good books and towards IP farming for movies and TV shows. Though, so far, people have still been buying enough singles to keep the industry alive, the fact that publishers’ entire business models aren’t very well focused on selling books means that they have to find something else to stabilize their finances, in light of the fickle spending decisions of consumers faced with overpriced choices. So instead of selling comics as a way to sell a good story, they sell comics as a way to attain the licensing rights to that story to sell to a TV or film studio, basically treating the amazing and unique creative industry they are a part of as a fancy elevator pitch for movie, TV, and streaming executives. I’m not arguing that adaptation from comics into other mediums is bad; I actually think it’s pretty cool that movies and TV shows want to use comics stories, as a kind of recognition that comics have and have always had some amazing stories, and film, a sister medium to comics, is a natural place to adapt comics stories. But it’s unhealthy to publish stories in one medium primarily as a pitch to another, especially since it’s meant to enrich publishers at the expense of creators and is a huge disservice to fans and, ultimately, retailers.

And like, how can you have any pride as a publisher if one of your major goals isn’t to publish good stories in the medium you (presumably) love and deeply care for, but to sell the idea of that story to someone else who will make a different thing based on that pitch? Like, have some integrity. Let the studios come to you after you amass a huge and enviable catalog, and form deals that put you and your creators’ needs first, instead of becoming a subservient IP farm for a “dominant” industry. Comics should be the dominant industry! Maybe I’m just too passionate about this, but if you don’t believe that comics should be equal to or dominant over movies and TV in our pop culture landscape, then why are you publishing comics? There’s no money in it at the moment, and an IP farming mindset actually means there won’t be in the future, either.

Now that we’ve talked about their failures from a narrative standpoint and how that affects the industry, we get into another argument about what singles are: Collectibles. So, is the single issue good at being a collectible? Maybe? It’s certainly true that a collector would want their collectible to stay in good condition for as long as possible to improve its value, so there’s something to a higher quality collectible item, like the single has become. At the same time, however, a major factor in the high price tag for old issues of comics is their fragility and scarcity. Old comics printed on newsprint before comics were seen as collectibles are more likely to be damaged, lost, thrown away, etc., making any surviving issue of worthwhile quality that much more valuable. If everyone is keeping their copy of the big twist issue of Spider-Man, printed on comparatively durable paper to its forbearers, sealed carefully in a safe for decades, then scarcity and fragility won’t drive up the value. Making collection a widespread practice only hurts the future value that anything you do collect could accrue. It’s not like paintings, where there’s only the one painting; comics are printed en masse. Collection as a monetary investment is tricky, is my main point.

With the collectibles argument, though, I have to ask a follow-up question: Is that what a single issue should be? No, obviously not. In theory, a book publisher’s job is to sell as many books as possible, publish the best books they can, and push for the success of all the books they publish. They’re not in the business of selling collectible items. Marvel, DC, and Image aren’t Funko Pops; they’re not selling cutesy plastic crap meant only to look good and potentially see value in trade or collection. Comics publishers sell stories, and their business model should reflect that. Instead of commissioning hundreds of variant covers over the course of a year and “accidentally” leaking the amazing, collection-worthy exploits of a book so that people preorder, they should spend money on recruiting new creators and advertising in media outside the comics bubble to pull in new readers. The Big Two are especially guilty of this, pumping out dozens of variant covers for their biggest issues, to increase the need for collectors to buy dozens of copies of a single issue in case only one variant cover is actually valuable in the future. It looks a lot like a grift and a sugar high of sales that distorts spending choices for consumers and negatively impacts the sale of other comics, just to feel like they’re selling enough of something.

We’ve seen how collection as a financial investment has impacted other fields negatively, like the fine arts. I recently watched a Wisecrack video that talked about how the rise of NFTs highlights a growing problem in the art world. Over the course of the last few decades, collectors and buyers went from curating aesthetically pleasing collections for rich patrons’ homes and museums to storing pricey artwork in warehouses to protect their monetary investments. Which, I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain too much, is counter to the point of making art. Painters paint stuff so people will look at and appreciate it, not so some newly rich tech guy who doesn’t understand portraiture can stow it in a crate and brag about how much their old-timey selfie is worth. The video discussed how art collectors mainly interested in money and their advisors who choose what to buy end up chasing trends and going after the same hot items, homogenizing their apparent tastes and distorting an already highly subjective creative field.

The market dominance of the Big Two, who exclusively sell superhero comics, has had a similar effect on the comics market; on top of that, selling comics as collectibles has primarily benefitted the Big Two, who seem to be pushing it as part of a strategy to maintain their dominance, since it’s mostly their comics that anyone expects to have collectible value. If you look in comics shops, you’ll find that most of the non-superhero comics on the shelves are either action-adventure or sci-fi/fantasy, i.e., the kinds of stories that appeal to superhero comics readers. All the issues that are considered most collectible are also very similar: New number ones, the death or birth of a character, super hyped up twists, and finales. The collectible mindset helps entrench a homogenous mindset among publishers and, by extension, creators to appeal to a small and shrinking fan base. Comics are a storytelling medium, and publishers should be focused on telling all kinds of stories for everyone, not selling collectibles with, at best, questionable value to progressively fewer buyers. Comics are meant to be read, any marketing strategy for them should be based on that fact, and the collectible item strategy runs directly counter to that fact, since the collectible comic will drop in value if you actually read it. If you want to collect your single issues and some of them end up becoming significantly more valuable, that should be an organic side effect of publishers doing their proper jobs to put out good stories, not the primary goal and purpose of comics publishing or buying.

So, what is the single issue comic? It’s too flimsy for long term shelving and reading, but too durable and expensive to be a temporary and disposable format. It’s potentially decent quality as a collectible item, but an inappropriate item for a business to sell as a collectible (not that it stops them). It’s literally just one chapter of one series on a shelf full of series chapters demanding your attention and wallet. It’s a product that acts as the backbone of the entire comics industry that poorly serves its intended function and shouldn’t even be this central to the industry. And because it is, it helps drive smaller publishers that can barely stay afloat on singles to become IP farms in an attempt to gain relevance. The answer, then, is the single issue comic is outdated and performing a disservice to everyone at every level.

Of course, this all begs the question: What should the single issue be replaced by? I don’t want to be like, “Manga has all the answers,” but like, they do, in this case. And a few others, actually. In Japan, whose comics industry is far stronger and more financially viable than the US’s despite having half the population, they serialize in anthology magazines containing several series and make decisions about which books to move forward with based on a combination of reader polls and, if the book lasts long enough, tankoban sales. Instead of publishing each series as its own magazine and then letting it sink or swim based on its individual sales, leading to higher prices and fractured attention from readers, they bundle chapters together to reduce cost and ensure that everyone who’s series is published in that magazine gets compensated for their work with that magazine at a similar level. They also center their business model on selling lots of all their books, not just the anthologies, meaning that both publishers and creators do better when they sell more tankoban volumes. You know, because they’re book publishers, who want to sell as many books as possible, like our comics publishers should.

The manga industry also prints in black and white as an industry standard, meaning they can get away with cheaper papers, further reducing costs; since color is so central to the American comics aesthetic, I’m not sure if we can copy everything about the manga anthology magazine or wider business model. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find success borrowing from the model. Like, it just makes sense that Marvel and DC could publish monthly anthologies containing all of a particular franchise, like Monthly Spider-Gang, the X-Verse, Gotham Nights, or People of Tomorrow; Image could publish a Shadowline anthology; etc. By bundling them up together, readers are more likely to try out books they ordinarily wouldn’t read and publishers can sell you five or so books for, say, $10 instead of the $20 they’d cost you as singles. This format would also phase out variant covers and dramatically tamp down the collectible mindset, meaning that Marvel and DC can’t sell a ton of variants of a single issue to individual collectors to boost the sales of an already popular franchise over others of their own books and indie comics. Or maybe they’d do variant covers of trades, but since a trade is better suited for that sort of thing, I don’t see that as an immediate problem. This transition away from singles is a natural and obvious step away from an outdated and unhealthy business model and towards one that serves the primary goal of a publisher and the needs of readers, retailers, and creators.

What is a single issue comic? It’s the source of or a notable element in a surprisingly large number of problems in the comics industry that needs to be done away with. It’s an outdated format of sale and distribution that no longer serves the industry, creators, retailers, or readers the way it used to, and it’s being propped up because it serves the interests of the Big Two and their market dominance in the current landscape. It’s something that needs to be gotten rid of so that it can be replaced by other, obviously superior methods of delivering serialized stories to readers, so that the industry can reprioritize around selling books, the things they ostensibly make. It’s a poorly designed product that, unfortunately, sits at the center of a dying industry that’s trying to reclaim relevance by becoming IP farms for more financially and culturally influential media. It’s bad.

[creeping-shadow-heralds-storms]

Most people never cooked at home more than they did in 2020. If you started last year with no plans to cook more, you might still be stuck with an inefficient kitchen setup that’s miserable to use. No matter your current feelings on cooking, now is the perfect time to overhaul your kitchen organization—and there’s no better system than FIFO.

The first-in, first-out (FIFO) system is exactly what it sounds like; it ensures older things get used before newer things. In order to keep this up, the older stuff has to be the first thing you see when you open the fridge or pantry. That’s why grocery stores put the oldest stock at the front of the shelf, and why everything in professional kitchens is stored with the label facing out.

For home cooks, FIFO is synonymous with labeling everything in your fridge. While it’s an excellent system for keeping track of leftovers and reducing food waste, there’s so much more to it than fridge management. Your entire kitchen can and should be organized around the main FIFO principle: “If you can’t see it, you won’t use it.” Keeping this in mind when reorganizing makes the kitchen you have easier to use, no matter how cramped or inefficient it may be. And, since FIFO is all about using what you have, you can do it without buying a single thing.

The specifics of a FIFO makeover will look different for every kitchen, but the end goal is universal: To arrange the stuff in your kitchen so that you can see as much of it as possible. There are four main ways to do this, starting with your container situation.

Streamline your food storage

Pantry clutter is the enemy of a FIFO system, so unfortunately, that’s where you should start. You might think the solution involves spending a ton of money on identical glass jars—what’s easier to see through than glass?—but it doesn’t have to. Organizing your pantry so that everything (or nearly everything) is visible at all times is easier with similarly-shaped containers in a variety of sizes.

A chaotic jumble of misfit Tupperwares won’t work, either. Sort through your food containers, keep matching sets, and dispose of the one-offs. Next, fill in the gaps, starting with stuff you already have. Repurposed food packaging is fantastic for pantry storage, especially if you’re loyal to a certain brand and have a ton of the same containers. (There are a lot of glass jars that once held Adams peanut butter and Bonne Maman jam in my pantry.) If you need to buy new, soup containers are ideal for small-volume storage because they come in multiple sizes but have universal lids.

For bulk foods, skip the overpriced “bulk storage” bins on Amazon and go straight to the hardware or restaurant supply store. I buy flour 50 pounds at a time, and nothing beats a 5-gallon plastic bucket with a twist-off lid. They cost less than $20 at the hardware store and last forever. Buckets do take up a lot of space, though, and aren’t exactly stackable. If you’re strapped for space, look for Cambro containers at restaurant supply stores. They’re smaller and more expensive than plastic utility buckets, but they come in both square and round sizes and stack securely.

Label everything

Labeling your perishables is a signature element of any FIFO system, and with good reason. Clear labels tell you, at a glance, what’s inside a container and how old it is; FIFO doesn’t exist without them.

If you’re already in the habit of labeling the contents of your fridge and freezer, awesome—but don’t stop there. Most items in your kitchen can and should be labeled. Bulk pantry items in opaque containers are the obvious use case, but slapping a label on DIY cleaning solutions, countertop fermentation projects, and even the shelves in your pantry will make your kitchen easier to use. No more losing track of sourdough starter feedings or wondering which shelf you put the coconut milk on; you can look at the label and get on with it. Just make sure those labels face out. Spring for a label-maker if you like, but masking tape and a Sharpie work just as well.

Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate

Labels are great, but they can’t help you if you you can’t see them. This is especially an issue in the fridge: If last night’s takeout gets buried in a graveyard of half-empty soup containers, it’ll expire before you remember it’s there.

Consolidation is the secret second step after labeling your food. It’s easy: Just transfer the contents of larger containers to smaller ones as you use them up. (Universal lids are especially clutch here, because you can downsize without getting a fresh lid.) Ruthlessly consolidating your leftovers and pantry items frees up precious storage space so you can actually see what you’re working with. It also makes it easy to know when opening a new package is actually necessary, and when certain items are running low.

Bonus round: Take inventory

The final boss of FIFO is taking inventory. To be honest, I don’t inventory my kitchen and have no plans to—but I cook for myself and one other adult. If you’re feeding a big family, keeping a detailed inventory can simplify your life.

Inventorying is all about tracking what you have so you know what to buy and when. If you’ve never done it before, start small. Pick one kitchen area—pantry, fridge, or freezer—and write down the name of every food item, how much of it you have, and its expiration date. (Spreadsheets, paper lists, dry erase boards, and even the notes app on your phone all have their pluses and minuses, so use whatever feels natural.) Update the list as things get used up. When you sit down to make a grocery list, consult your inventory to see what you actually need and what can wait. There’s no one perfect system, so play around until you find what works.

If all of this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. Running a kitchen is an enormous job; doing it on top of your regular job gets old in a hurry, even if you love to cook. A FIFO setup won’t eliminate the relentless churn of daily cooking and cleaning, but it will make it easier to actually use your kitchen.

[ericvick]

I'm retired and won't live to see my mortgage paid off. Should I refinance to lower my monthly payment?

‘The Big Move’ is a new MarketWatch column seeking to answer questions about navigating the world of real estate.

Do you have a question about buying or selling a home? Do you know where your next move should be? Email Jacob Passy at jpassy@marketwatch.com.

I am 68 and became disabled in December 2007; I had to retire in May 2008. In 2010, my home was refinanced with Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac. I have no idea how this works having two mortgages.

My refinanced mortgage started at 3% and has increased over the years. It is now at 4.75%, and the monthly payment is around $780, which includes escrow, except homeowner’s insurance, which increases every year.

I owe $48,000 on my home. Since I won’t live to see my home paid off, I need to lower the principal to help me stay in my home, because the cost of living is increasing every year.

Is it worth having my home refinanced at a lower, fixed percentage rate and paying closing costs? I’m trying to avoid a reverse mortgage, mainly because I don’t understand how they work.

I hope you will help me, because I have no one to help. I’m single and have no children.

Sincerely,

Refinancing while retired

Dear Refinancing,

Right off the bat, I have to commend you for being proactive in considering ways to reduce the burden of these housing costs. In speaking with mortgage experts, it became clear that you’re far from alone.

Many baby boomers are facing similar dilemmas: They haven’t paid off all their debts before retiring, or they’ve found that their fixed income cannot account for inflation as well it once might have. But you’re thinking a few steps ahead.

“More often than not the calls aren’t being made to me as the lender until the mortgage is already behind, which is going to limit the options that we could look at,” Donny Schulze, a mortgage banker with Embrace Home Loans, said.

Before I jump into some recommendations about your situation, I do quickly want to clear up one common misconception. Freddie Mac FMCC, +1.67% is not actually a lender. Like Fannie Mae FNMA, +2.08%, Freddie Mac is a government-sponsored enterprise that was created to provide liquidity to the housing market. What does that mean? Fannie and Freddie purchase pools of mortgages from banks, like Wells Fargo, and securitize them.

By buying these mortgages, Fannie and Freddie not only pump more money into the housing-finance ecosystem — which lenders can use to create more mortgages — but they also take on the risk associated with those loans. Without Fannie and Freddie, 30-year mortgages would be more a rarity than the default in this country.

So it sounds like, in your case, that you actually have a single mortgage from Wells Fargo WFC, +0.24% that was backed by Freddie Mac.

As to your question, refinancing your mortgage could help to reduce your monthly housing costs, but there may be limits. “Refinancing the balance of a $48,000 mortgage with an interest rate that’s in the low-4% range and bringing it down to today’s rates might not have as big of an impact as a homeowner might anticipate,” Schulze warned.

But a refinance could help right-side your finance in other ways that make your life more comfortable. You don’t mention what other debts you have, but let’s say that you also have credit cards or auto loans you’re looking to pay off. Those loans typically carry higher interest rates than mortgages do.

Don’t miss: We want to use our inheritance to buy our dream home in this popular vacation destination — is $800,000 overpriced?

So one option you have is to do a cash-out refinance, where you take a portion of the equity you’ve accrued and use it to pay off those other loans. While you may have a larger principal to pay back, eliminating those loans could reduce your overall monthly outlays.

A cash-out refinance could also help you ensure that your home meets your needs as you get older. “Imagine what you would want when you’re 85, not when you’re 68,” said Brian Koss, executive vice president at Mortgage Network, a Massachusetts-based lender. Taking some money out now to make repairs or improvements that will make your home more livable could pay dividends down the road.

As you indicated, refinancing doesn’t come for free. You’ve indicated that you don’t expect to pay off your mortgage before you die, and that you don’t have heirs who might want to inherit the property. So the cost-benefit analysis may look somewhat different for you.

“ We’ve given 30-year mortgages in the last year to people in their 90s. It’s against the law for us to discriminate. ”

— Brian Koss, executive vice president at Mortgage Network

When most people refinance, their main priority is the aggregate savings — and it can take many years to realize those. For some people, a lower interest rate might not save them money overall even if their monthly payment is smaller because they could pay more in interest, if they’re extending the term of their loan significantly by refinancing.

In your case, you’re looking simply for a lower monthly payment. Let’s say refinancing will save you $100 a month on the mortgage payment, but will cost you $2,000 in closing costs. Those closing costs often can be rolled into the principal, so you won’t necessarily need to pay them up-front. Doing the math, after 20 months, you’ll have broken even when looking at it from this perspective. Ultimately, you’ll need to do the math after getting offers to see if it makes sense.

My advice: Go to multiple lenders, and be up-front with what you’re looking for. And don’t worry about your age or fixed income being an issue. “We’ve given 30-year mortgages in the last year to people in their 90s,” Koss said. “It’s against the law for us to discriminate.”

Once you’ve done the math, determine whether it does make sense to refinance. Should you choose not to go through with one, you’re not necessarily out of luck. You can also go to your existing mortgage lender to explain that you’re having trouble.

“Her problems are also her current lender’s problems,” said Holden Lewis, mortgage expert at NerdWallet. “Her lender doesn’t want her to fall behind on the payments, so it has an incentive to reduce the monthly payments and make them easier for her to afford. The lender might offer a refinance for a lower interest rate, with little or no closing costs paid out of pocket.”

One last thing: I know you said you don’t want to consider a reverse mortgage because you don’t understand them — and that instinct is definitely a good one. But I do think that you should be aware that yours is a scenario where a reverse mortgage could make a lot of sense.

“Recent reforms have made these products much less risky than in the past,” said Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist at LendingTree TREE, -1.27%. “Since this borrower is struggling with cash flow, a mortgage that pays you rather than one you pay could be the way to go.”

Here’s a longer rundown of how reverse mortgages work (and some recent changes to the loan product), but in essence with a reverse mortgage you don’t pay the lender. Instead, they pay you. (Though the loans do come with certain costs, namely the cost of mortgage insurance.)

You can use a reverse mortgage like a line of credit to pay for living expenses in your old age. And then when you die, or when you move out of the home, you must pay the loan back. In most cases, this is done by selling the home.

Read more: Now could be the time for a reverse mortgage—or it could be an expensive mistake

Reverse mortgages have been the subject of scandals in the past. People today are wary of them for a couple of reasons: First, people often will go through most of the equity in their home using one, leaving their children with little in the way of an inheritance. Plus, people who are not careful about ensuring they have money set aside to cover utilities, taxes and insurance can face foreclosure for failing to make those payments.

Because you don’t have children or other relatives to rely on, it sounds as if you may not encounter the concerns many do in worrying about the inheritance they will leave behind. So for you, a reverse mortgage could be a lifeline to stop worrying about monthly mortgage payments — though you would need to make sure to pay your utilities, taxes and insurance.

If you need more direct assistance as you go through this process, consider contacting a housing counselor. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has a directory and hotline that can help you find a counselor in your area suited to your needs. Best of luck!

[audio-luddite]

Preamps....

A preamplifier is a device that feeds a signal to an amplifier.  Hence the pre prefix. In audio it is probably the most critical part of the chain.  That is doubly important if you are into vinyl.

Typically preamps have very high levels of gain.  Gain is the term used for the amplitude of the signal growth.  Signals coming out of a phono pickup are really tiny.  The quality of the gain is CRITICAL.

In the Vinyl world the preamp is actually two preamps which is why I say it is doubly important.  The first stage is a gain stage with a variable response over frequency.  In this stage the Bass is boosted and the treble is cut.  That is ideally the precise inverse of when cutting a record the bass is cut and the treble is boosted. The bass is cut to economize on the space (groove width) and dynamics of tiny needles vibrating.  Well enough of that.

The second stage is linear and is to feed the signal from the first stage to the main amplifier.  This has two aspects one is to buffer and isolate the weirdness of the phono stage from the big amplifier.  The other is to act as a volume control.

Well that is the simple part.

If you want to buy a preamp or do an upgrade how do you decide. First of all lets limit this to separate units like a preamp and an amplifier in their own boxes.  The wisdom is that this is always better than integration into a single box.  There are good reasons for that having to do with power supply isolation and cross talk.  I have never had an integrated system. No really never have.

Well certain brands are a clue.  The solid state (transistor) units from Japan are good.  Pioneer, Technics, Yamaha, Marantz (yes Marantz was originally an American company but everything was made in Japan after a few years.)  There are respected American brands like SAE, Dynaco, Harman Kardon, and Adcom. I am not even going to try to list them all. There are several European brands but I see them all ,used and new, as overpriced.

Vacuum tubes must be discussed.  I have one and prefer it to my solid state unit. There is a lot of bullshit out there rationalizing this stuff.  But rationalizing is trying to find reasons AFTER you make a choice.  Remember that.

If you have a preamp with vacuum tubes do not go out and think it is a quality unit for that reason alone.  There are a lot of not that great units out there with tubes. Dynaco Pas 2s and 3s were obsolete 50 years ago.  They are more collectable than usable. There are a lot of funny units by tiny manufacturers who put one or two tube in and call it good.  They put them there for marketing reasons.

You can have a good preamp with conventional transistors, Fet transistors and OP amps.  All those are solid state.  All FET preamps (and FET amps for that matter) have conventional transistors in the path.  OP Amps are packaged integrated circuits that have many bits often including FETs.  OP Amps is code for Operational Amplifier. It is a gain unit. My first good preamp was based on FET OP Amps. It was a Dynaco PAT 5.  There are not that many on the market.  I think because people are keeping them.

Is this too much yet?

Older stuff is better from a cost benefit aspect.  Also if an old unit has a market value then likely you can sell it on for about what you paid for it.  My Tube Preamp is an Audio Research SP12.  It has three tubes in the phono stage and two in the high level stage.  It sold new in 1982 for around 1200 usd which today is about $3000.  I paid about $400 for it in 1989.  There are a few on the market for about $1000 usd now. 

Buying a new preamp of equal or better quality is a lot more money than that I assure you. Audio Research is a big hitter in Audiophile circles.  Anything they built was good stuff.  I bought mine because of the Brand.  No regrets.

There are many older preamps for sale in our local craigslist for $300-500 bucks that are pretty good.  There is a rich hunting ground.

What to look for then?  If it is from a recognized brand that is good.  There are a few really good resources to look up old stuff and read reviews and comments.  I would avoid any of those funny small beasts with tubes sticking out.  Tubes are fragile they should be inside a box. Also I do not think you are getting into the good tube stuff for less than $1000 bucks unless it is broken.

Heavy as always is better, though preamps can be the lightest units.  Avoid preamps that use a wall wart for power, I mean come on.

Many controls and weird features are a turn off for me.  I do not even like tone controls and if present a bypass switch indicates a better unit.

There is a curious class of “preamps” that call themselves passive preamps.  They are just volume controls in a box. If you have a CD player or any signal source that is strong enough you could connect if directly to a power amplifier if you have a volume control.  The box is the most expensive part.  A knob and a variable resistor is cheap.  I could go to an electronics supply house and get all the parts for $25.  These do not buffer the source and the amp from each other which is an important thing actually. Stay away please.

All that said any preamp is better than no preamp.  Even wall wart USB things (I confess to having one ( I was going to encode some vinyl to my iphone, never got around to it)) 

So what can you expect for you investment? Clarity. Detail. You will hear things you had never heard before. Voices gain character and everything is just better. That really is the point is it not?

[heydaytravelcompany]

Top First Time Disney World Trip Mistakes

There are almost countless Walt Disney World lists out there.  Many of which can be found on our own site here. However, there certainly is some value to these lists and I even appreciate all of the various opinions expressed in them.  This list (or guide if you will) might be a bit more opinion than some of our other pieces. What we list as mistakes others may very well see as a must-do. Please, take advantage of our experience and perspective, use this information to make more informed choices with what works best or is desired for your vacation.  After all, helping you is exactly what we’re here for. We love it and appreciate that you give us the opportunity to help make your Disney dream vacation come true! That first trip to Walt Disney World can be an incredibly painful “learning experience” that comes with discovering how easy it is to make a mistake. As we discussed in our previous Reasons Why Heyday Travel Agents Make your Disney Trip Better, we’re here to help reduce that pain.  Even with the best of planning and help, take some solace in the fact that everyone experiences some mistake on their first trip. No amount of planning can prevent the inevitable error. As I type that I realize that may create more concern than it does soothe. Just know, you’re in good company and sometimes with the passing of time and retrospect, those mistakes make for great stories. ;) Like the time I went to Legoland with my son and we found it was closed that day! Let's begin.

10. NOT PACKING FOR FLORIDA WEATHER

Even more specifically, not packing for the Florida weather that you’ll be experiencing.  Although known as the “Sunshine State” this isn’t always accurate. Plenty of days are overcast, cloudy, and we can’t forget the rain that comes through almost daily.  Although, while snow is incredibly rare, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get cold.   The weather in the area can fluctuate widely and dramatically.  How about a 30-degree swing? It can easily be high 40’s/low 50’s when you head out in the morning, hitting 80 in the afternoon, and hitting low 60’s before you’re back to your resort at night.  We suggest using our Orlando, FL weather resources tab averages during your planning phase and then check back for actual forecasts as you get closer. We are always focused on setting expectations and this is easily one that gets overlooked.  Just because it is sunny doesn’t mean it’s not cold. Just look at nearly any marketing photo for ski resorts!  Late fall to early spring you can easily see temperatures range from freezing to 80’s over the course of a week.  At least during the summer, you can count on high temps, high humidity, definitely sun, and don’t forget the inevitable afternoon shower or occasional thunderstorm. The important thing to remember is to be flexible and pack for a variety of weather conditions.

9. USING DISNEY DINING PLAN CREDITS ON RICE KRISPIE TREATS

This one may raise an eyebrow or two.  Yes, it is your dining plan and you’re free to spend it as you see fit.  All I’m saying is that you may want to be a bit selective about where you spend it.  I love a good Rice Krispie treat as much as the next person, my wife may even say my belly testifies a bit more than most.  However, there are plenty of other options to consider before making that your go-to treat. Our suggestion is that before you use all of your snack credits on those, you take a look at some of the other delicious items you can get.  Avoid the pre-packaged goodies and enjoy some of the freshly baked or frozen goodies that you can find all over the park. Or, in our opinion, if you are going pre-packaged get a classic Mickey Bar ice cream. If you have leftover spending, some packaged goodies make a great "souvenir" to bring home!

8. GOING DURING MAJOR HOLIDAYS

If you choose to go during a major, or even some minor holiday, don’t be surprised by the crowds.  I’ll let you in on a big open secret, there is never an absolutely slow time at Disney. There are always people there! (I mean, it is the most magical place on Earth). The easiest rule of thumb to follow is to look at a typical school schedule. If there is a time that most schools are out, Disney is likely to be busier. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun at these times.  In fact, Christmas is one of our favorite times of year to go! We’re just looking to set expectations with what you may encounter.  Some longer wait times, higher levels of competition for ADRs, etc. Still, we suggest not making a holiday trip your first experience.  Disney can already be an overwhelming experience, you don’t need to add excessive crowds on top of that. If that's your thing, then, by all means, we would still be happy to help with any planning.

7. EATING BURGERS, HOT DOGS, AND PIZZA…

… at the counter-service restaurants.  I’m not saying you have to avoid those items, per se, but not eating only those items.  We are well aware of the reputation that theme park food is overpriced and ‘meh’ at best.  Some of it is and they are absolutely taking advantage of the captive audience and charging more than they would off-property. This is not necessarily the case with everything that Walt Disney World offers. Plenty of locations have your standard fare (see the title). Many have some very interesting and rewarding dishes too. Many of which aren’t significantly more expensive than the titular offerings here. Even Casey’s Corner, known for their hotdogs, takes them a step above what you might find at a street vendor. This part also ties back into the planning pieces we’ve mentioned before.  Something beyond that stock fare is more likely to be found at a table-service restaurant.  The same ones that start taking dining reservations at 180 days before arrival (see our planning timeline). If you missed that reservation window, you may miss out on some amazing food and be stuck eating only burgers, hot dogs, and pizza. We take care of reservations for you, so please don't hesitate to reach out with any dining reservation questions.

6. SLEEPING IN

Early hours can be incredibly productive in the parks!  Being there for rope drop and getting to experience some of the most sought after attractions without a FastPass+ is great.  Especially when you can still use those FP+ later in the day. Getting up super early on vacation doesn’t always match-up with people’s desires. That’s ok too! We can help you with plenty of strategies for maximizing your time in the park or relaxing, or a mix if you want.  One of our favorites is to actually alternate our days. Day 1, we may get up early to hit the park, return to our room for a rest in the afternoon, and then head back out for a late-night at the park. Day 2, we’ll sleep in, head out at our leisure, and then stay out until we’re ready to head back for the night. Day 3, repeat day 1. And so on, you get the idea. That seems to give us the best of both worlds. LOTS of fun, but without the burnout. This was especially effective when my son was younger (like age 4 or 5). This is hardly a unique recommendation and could easily be covered in a Walt Disney World 101 course.  Yet, it is something that we still hear about and could be even higher on this list.

5. NOT ALLOWING ENOUGH TIME FOR TRANSIT

We covered this extensively in our Getting Around Disney article. We love the on-site transit and find it helps make our busy vacation a little bit more relaxing.  However, it isn’t without its headaches too. The buses seem to take some very perplexing routes on a schedule based on the same principles used to determine women’s clothing sizes (my wife could dedicate an entire website to her observations on that one!).  These observations and just from getting to parks from resorts, good luck if you’re trying to go resort to resort! First-timers (or any logical human, for that matter) might assume that a more efficient system would be in Disney’s best interest.  Time lost in commute is time that is not spent doing any of the things that allow you to spend more money while there. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, this does not seem to be the case. Transportation is not always efficient and it will take you longer than you expect to get anywhere. Just like morning traffic when you're in a hurry.

4. BUYING THE WRONG TICKETS

There are plenty of options when it comes to tickets and making them customizable to you.  This creates a double-edged sword situation. The downside is that without research, and possibly some experience, you risk paying for things you’re not going to use.  The upside is that with some research, and a bit of experience, you can really enjoy some extra magic with those add-ons! This, of course, leads to a big dilemma for first-time visitors.  At the risk of sounding cliché at this point, that’s what we’re here for! A great example is that on an extended trip, during warm months, the Park Hopper Plus option can really be beneficial.  Giving you access to the waterparks, in addition to the main theme parks and even some mini-golf time can be amazing changes of pace.  However, if you’re there for only 3 or 4 days in the middle of winter that option is unlikely to be used to its fullest on your trip.  There isn’t any true steadfast rule though. But, at least we can have the conversation and guide you to what makes sense for you.

3. UNDER-PLANNING

Alright, you probably saw this one coming.  Under-planning is a commonly cited diagnosis after a return home and relaying your story to friends or family that go frequently.  Although, we could question their loyalties if they go often and allowed you to go for your first time with barely any planning…   Even if not yourself directly, if you’ve been a Disney fan long enough, you’ve heard from someone that returned home from their first trip and they had an awful time. With a few questions, you can usually see what happened.  Did they make Advance Dining Reservations? Nope. Have even a sense of how they’d like to approach the parks? Nope. Book FastPass+? Book what? Doesn’t that cost extra? You see how this is going. You may lament the ‘death of spontaneity’ all you’d like when it comes to a Walt Disney World vacation.  To an extent, I agree and unfortunately, I don’t see a way back at this point. There are significant things you need to know before you go, which is precisely why we (Heyday Travel Company) and this blog exist.  However, I do visit non-Disney destinations, and no matter where you go there is an increased need for research and planning. Disney is hardly the only childhood destination, looking at you Niagara Falls, which has changed significantly and requires a new approach to visiting.

2. OVER-PLANNING

Wait-what?! Yes, this seems in direct contrast.  Perhaps even odd that the trip “planner” is saying too much planning is bad.  The point is, find a balance that works for you. You can’t go in blind and expect everything to go the way you want on vacation.  Conversely, you can’t plan it down to the minute expecting everything to happen exactly as planned. Remember how I showed up to Legoland with my son on a day they were closed one time? This is exactly why we like to discuss must-do items with clients.  There is always some amount of prioritization that needs to take place.  At worst, we’ll find you a way to get your must-do attractions in. Best, you hit all of your must-dos and a few of them ‘that could be fun too’ items. Approaching with some flexibility and reasonable expectations makes for a much better trip.

1. TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING AT DISNEY

Even with spending almost 30 days of 2019 in Walt Disney World, we didn’t do everything there!  There is just simply no way to do everything in a single trip. Even if you’re looking for an extended, once-in-a-lifetime vacation you’re not going to be able to do it all.  This is perhaps the single biggest mistake of first-timers and attempting this often leads to the kind of experience that causes people to never even consider another Disney vacation.

Bonus: Blindly Following Internet Lists!

So are you or are you not to follow these instructions? Well, we believe that there is more than one right answer.  All of our suggestions here, as with all of our guides, are based on our experiences and opinions.  We offer them to others in the hope to improve their experience. We sincerely hope that you’re taking our comments along with your own research to make more informed decisions on your vacation.  If you read far enough you’ll find lists likely running counter to ours. While I personally avoid TriceraTop Spin, I also see people in line for it on every single trip that I take. In the end, it's YOUR trip. This about sums up our “top” first time mistakes for Walt Disney World.  This is by no means a comprehensive list of any and all mistakes that could be made… just some of the most common or perhaps most impactful ones we’ve experienced or heard of.  If you have any others, please don’t hesitate to comment or share by email. Your sharing, even of a “friend’s” experience, could help save someone else some heartache or a child’s tears.

Overwhelmed Yet? Let Us Help YOU!

Heyday Travel Company can plan a Disney vacation that’s perfect for you. We are a free Disney travel planner with expert knowledge of the entire Disney catalog and Universal Parks destinations. No matter where you want to go, our experienced team is excited to help you make it happen. We provide our service at no charge, so you’ll only have to pay for the vacation itself. If you want help planning a Disney trip that’ll make your dreams come true while also fitting your budget, let’s talk!

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[effect-of-games]

Animal Crossing’s Black Market: Ethics of a “Friendly” Social Simulation Game by Brianna-Marie Joerger

Though the context is of rather sensitive and dark nature, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo’s newest addition to the Animal Crossing franchise, was released at an extremely ideal time. Released on March 20, 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) was, and still is, a source of comfort and escapism for millions through the Coronavirus pandemic. ACNH quickly became the best-selling game in the Animal Crossing franchise, surpassing Animal Crossing: New Leaf as well as becoming the fastest-selling game on the Nintendo Switch to date. 

Animal Crossing has always been beloved for many reasons. From the concept of designing a town (or in ACNH’s case, island) to one’s liking, befriending residents (villagers) who take the form of cute animals, to performing rewarding tasks such as paying off home loans so players can expand their residences, Animal Crossing has something just about anyone would love. ACNH, a game that takes place on an island rather than somewhere on the mainland, introduced new concepts - such as terraforming - and even introduced new villagers for the players to meet and invite to their island (a topic to be revisited later). 

Another thing that makes Animal Crossing so beloved is the interactivity it allows with other players. ACNH utilizes Nintendo Switch Online so players can interact with one another, whether it be visiting each others’ islands or sending gifts and letters to each other using the mail function. Players can spend time with one another virtually, as well as help each other build up their islands; people commonly trade or gift items or materials (to build special ‘DIY’ items) to other players who may want or need certain things. 

In an article by LaFleur et. al, the therapeutic aspects of video games, including Animal Crossing, have even been discussed. “...Within the co-op genre, there is a unique type of game where the players play independently but can interact from a distance. The best example of this is the Animal Crossing (Nintendo, 2001) series, where players create their own homes within a community of interesting characters but are able to check in on one another, visit one another’s houses, and send mail, or aid, as necessary, even when the other players are offline” (LaFleur et. al, 2017). Animal Crossing can be viewed as an unofficial form of play therapy, or a form of therapy in which play is utilized so people can express their emotions in a harmless and maybe even productive way. Animal Crossing has been a source of tranquility for people since the series’ official launch in 2001. Its creator, Katsuya Eguchi, actually created the game when he first moved away from his home. He was feeling lost and lonely, and needed a form of escapism. From that point on, Animal Crossing has become a way for people to escape, but still be able to interact with their friends - as well as new friends they make through internet forums. 

With all of this being said, one may wonder: “what could possibly be so ethically wrong about such a cute and harmless game?” On the surface, that answer would be: technically nothing. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or any Animal Crossing title is not the subject of ethical question. It is, in fact, some parts of the community of players itself that has become ethically questionable. Of course, then, one could argue that there are many games with toxic fanbases, so this is not a true issue, but since Animal Crossing so heavily circulates around community play, the wrong fanbase could make or break the game. This paper’s purpose is to explore what exactly went wrong with important aspects of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in just a few months of it being released to the public. 

Animal Crossing games have always had a multiplayer option, but as the years go on, the multiplayer aspect of it has grown to greater complexities. The development of a fan-made website, Nookazon, by Daniel Luu, took the ACNH community by storm. Functioning more like eBay, ACNH players are able to make listings of items they were willing to trade, sell, or even simply give away items, villagers, DIY recipes, and more. At first, this website seemed ideal, but soon, it would take a dark turn. 

Nookazon’s currency consisted of three main options: bells (Animal Crossing’s classic currency), Nook-Mile Tickets (NMTs) - tickets that allow players to travel to Mystery Islands and meet more animals, and to trade for something by giving someone an item / villager on their wishlist. Of these three options, NMTs became the most popular and desirable form of currency, as it was a bit harder to get them in the game without hacks. In order to achieve NMTs, players have to complete various tasks on their island and get points on a point system. These points could then be exchanged for NMTs. Each NMT is worth 2,000 points. 

Many people soon realized that people could offer ‘hot commodities,’ or items that are rare to get in-game, on Nookazon, which meant that they could theoretically charge more for such items. Thus began the craze of overcharging on Nookazon, and no hot commodity knows how to be overcharged like one in particular - not an item, but a villager: Raymond. 

 Raymond is a fairly newer villager who was introduced in the less popular Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, an Animal Crossing game for mobile devices. Since it did not do nearly as well as other Animal Crossing games, Raymond’s first big debut happened with the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Many are unsure of why Raymond became so popular, but this dapper-looking, smug-behaviored cat with heterochromia took the internet by storm, and he became possibly the most desired villager within ACNH, and arguably, the whole franchise. ACNH players went into a frenzy as Nookazon listings for Raymond began to pop up left and right. People began to charge outlandish prices for Raymond, including thousands of the hard to achieve Nook-Mile Tickets.

Things began to truly spin out of control when someone attempted to sell a move-in package (allowing a villager to go from one island to another) for Raymond on eBay for $1,000 USD. People were floored by the outlandish pricing for the adorable bundle of pixels, but - believe it or not - the situation would only snowball from that point onwards. 

To continue this snowball of events, Nookazon is attached to a Discord server. Discord is a social platform that functions like an instant messenger for people all over the internet to communicate over text, voice, or video chat. People can be added to certain servers and talk to the community of people within that server. For the purpose of this paper, I decided to join the Nookazon server and investigate for myself. Sure enough, the craze around Raymond was real. Things like, “Raymond for sale. 400 NMT,” and “Looking for Raymond. I was scammed out of 10 million bells for him…” were incredibly common in the server’s “villager trade” channel. I was amazed to find out the lengths that people would go in order to buy or sell this pixelated cat. 

Polygon, a gaming website that writes stories on various games, wrote up a whole article on this Raymond phenomenon: 

“Folks will now do whatever it takes to get Raymond. For some, that might mean spending actual money on eBay, where millions of bells can go for a few dollars. For others, like New Horizons fan Alex, it might mean spending 65 hours grinding hundreds of Nook Miles Tickets through in-game challenges — nevermind the 15-plus hours she estimates it took to visit Mystery Islands over and over again, all in the name of finding Raymond. Stories like these are common” (Polygon, 2020). 

If the Raymond phenomenon just consisted of insane overpricing, it would not be that much of an issue. However, players are now using Raymond, or the name of Raymond, to scam people out of hard-earned in-game (and sometimes out-of-game) currency. One example of this was brought to my attention via Twitter, of a Discord conversation where one user convinced another that Raymond was for sale and ready to move out of their island. They used the term “Raymond is in boxes,” which is usually ACNH code for, “Raymond is for sale,” to lure someone to their island. They took the generous charge of 500 NMT up-front, and the buyer was filled with abject horror as they realized they spent 500 NMT to simply look at Raymond, not claim him. 

“Don’t touch Raymond, just look at him,” said Discord user SethJones, to a confused Gizmo7204 in screenshots uploaded to Twitter. When the buyer attempted to get his tickets back, since he was under the impression that he was buying Raymond, SethJones said, “This is for Raymond viewings, not buying him… You saw Raymond. You don’t get your tickets back.” Another person put up a listing on eBay for $5 USD, selling a flea they caught off the beloved Raymond’s fur. Someone seemingly purchased the flea, as the listing was closed soon after its upload. However, there is a glaring issue within this transaction: people cannot exchange bugs in any Animal Crossing game, so giving someone a flea is actually impossible within the game’s code. Therefore, this person scammed someone out of $5. It may not be a lot, but the principle of scamming remains the same.  

People have also been up in arms in general about Raymond on Twitter. One Twitter user received a message from someone claiming that they did not deserve to have Raymond on their island. The messenger demanded that Raymond be handed over to them. This one cat has seemingly torn through the entire Animal Crossing fanbase, leaving chaos in his tiny and adorable wake. Developers have not said a word about any of this, as greedy players continue to bewilder, harass, and scam those who simply wish to have a friendly and fair trade. 

An article by Jin Kim titled, “Interactivity, user-generated content and video game: an ethnographic study of Animal Crossing: Wild World,” discusses the player-base of an older installation of Animal Crossing for the Nintendo DS, that can still be applied to the newer ACNH. “Purposes of Wi-fi gaming are three-fold: earning bells, socializing with other users and collecting items. User collaboration does not merely aim to earn more bells. Socialization of users and psychological satisfaction from item collection are no less important than economic rewards in the game” (Kim, 2014). Animal Crossing can be played alone, but it is arguably not meant to be, all the time. The bonds and interactions users have with other Animal Crossing fans can make or break the game for them. Therefore, when a large-scale threat to this community rises, some players feel uncomfortable opening up for online interaction. 

One may look at this issue, like many ethical issues, through the lens of the Potter Box. The Potter Box, developed by Ralph B. Potter, Jr., consists of 4 “steps” that one should address when facing an ethical issue. The first step is to define the details of the dilemma. Then, one must identify their loyalties in the situation. Thirdly, one must analyze the ethical principles at work in the situation. Lastly, one must understand their own loyalties in the situation, and come to terms on why they have them. 

The details of this dilemma of course lie within the principle of scamming other players within the game and possibly ruining the savings of some players, putting them in a much more difficult spot in the game than before. The prospect of creating an outrageous economy outside of the game via Nookazon is also in question, and since scammers stemmed from Discord servers such as the Nookazon server, it can be seen as an issue within itself as well. Loyalties, however, come into question, because of one simple statement: everyone plays the game differently. Some people alter the time and date on their Nintendo Switches to gain more items, money, and unlock rare DIY recipes that others have not accessed yet, while others play the game in real time. Some people may wish to utilize outside sources such as eBay and Nookazon more than someone else. However, the ethical principles in the situation come down to a very basic one: scamming is not good. It is a simple statement to make, but scamming within the Animal Crossing community has become so common that people are afraid to open the line of communication to make trades with others. These scammers have fully, or mostly, ruined the experience for many other players. At the end of it all, viewing this dilemma from the player’s viewpoint renders almost moot. There is really nothing people can do about these scammers, but is there someone who can? 

I do not wish to make it seem as if I am speaking down on Nookazon itself. I believe its creator is brilliant and working hard to do everything he can to ensure the most productive and authentic transactions over the website. An article by Elise Favis of The Washington Post discusses Nookazon and the subject of scammers on the site. “No one gets “banned” on Nookazon, but users get flagged and labelled as scammers to warn others of the person’s history. Luu is working on the moderation system every day, seeking better avenues to keep the website safe. He’s wary of removing users entirely, in case a ban is handed down unjustly” (Favis, 2020). Despite this, just like in real life, scammers find their way through. Luu’s Potter Box may be slightly different from the average player, and it shows in the sense of removing users entirely from his website. If he removes people unjustly, the backlash he faces could cause the collapse of the entire website. 

Nintendo has not said anything at all about Nookazon, the Raymond phenomenon, or scammers. The question is, though, despite all of the ethical ambiguity, is it their job? In short, I believe that though these players are doing something very ethically wrong, Nintendo cannot (and should not) do anything about it. If Nintendo were to step in, they may have to take action by making changes to the game that players do not like, thus upsetting their consumers as well as hurting themselves in the process. By restricting players from making certain transactions in some way, Nintendo would take some of the precious autonomy that ANCH grants players. Just like in real life, certain things come with pitfalls. Mistakes can be made, and just about anyone can fall prey to a scammer. 

I, for one, know that I am very cautious when making purchases over Nookazon. With that being said, I still do not expect Nintendo to ever say anything on the matter (unless something objectively terrible happens relating to Animal Crossing). I know that I much prefer the Animal Crossing Twitter community, where I have an account with over 900 friendly and trustworthy followers. People are way more tame there, not overcharging for items or villagers. There are frequent free giveaways just because people feel like giving items away and helping others. Though I firmly stand by that the scammers are taking advantage of other players and the Nookazon overchargers are making it difficult for people to partake in the trades that make Animal Crossing multiplayer so special, I know that it boils down to being cautious and knowing who to trust. There are plenty of people out there, for certain, that would not charge an arm and a leg for me to take a glance at a virtual cat with heterochromia.

References: Favis, E. (2020). He created an Amazon-like website for Animal Crossing. It’s getting millions of clicks per day. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/11/nookazon-animal-crossing-ne w-horizons-trading/ Hernandez, P. (2020). Raymond is blowing up the Animal Crossing villager black market. Polygon. Retrieved from: https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/22/21229959/animal-crossing-new-horizons-black-mar ket-villager-trading-raymond-nmt-bells-nintendo-switch-discord Kim, J. (2014) Interactivity, user-generated content and video game: an ethnographic study of AnimalCrossing:WildWorld, Continuum, 28:3, 357-370, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2014.893984 LaFleur, L. B.,  Hebert, Z. J., Dupuy, A. S. (2018) Leveling Up Your Game: The Use of Video Games as a Therapeutic Modality, Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 13:1, 58-67, DOI: 10.1080/15401383.2017.1328293 Mentioned: eBay link for $1,000 Raymond move-in package: https://www.ebay.com/i/233574675397?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-1171 82-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=233574675397&targetid=886124492878&device=c&mk type=pla&googleloc=9004145&poi=&campaignid=9243453728&mkgroupid=93059547 999&rlsatarget=pla-886124492878&abcId=1145977&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cjw KCAjw7-P1BRA2EiwAXoPWA31yE7ESREpqgMIjsnEWfPJ8G9D37K6azlxyvAR9tC7 SJpml9rwpWhoC7REQAvD_BwEeBay link for Raymond’s flea: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Raymond-Acnh-HIS-FLEA-/353072736206?_trksid=p234952 6.m4383.l10137.c10&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=trueScreenshots from Twitter: https://twitter.com/daisyymaes/status/1259488870208606210?s=21