#what can i even offer except a single dm every 3 months?

[bloodystray]

feeling normal

[the-magpie-collective]

[Part 3/3]: It gets worse

Part 2

Because yes, the writing gets worse.

First, it's very clearly implied that the pact has already been broken when Mizora first arrives in camp in Act 3. Mizora offers Wyll a new pact to both herself and Zariel: 'Option one. I show you the way to your father. I guarantee him no harm except that from you and your allies. And you pledge your soul to me and the archdevil Zariel in a pact eternal.' A warlock cannot have more than one pact in DnD, the mechanics do not allow for it, a soul cannot be forfeit twice. But then she goes on to state: 'Option two. I break your pact. You are freed from your duty but retain your devil form. Your father dies by his enemy's hand.' So his pact isn't broken? Which is it?

Why didn't they write something like, 'Or Option one. You rescind your request to have your pact broken, I offer an alternate boon, and you continue to pledge your soul to me.' Why would you ever write it like that if that Pact isn't broken? Why does Mizora need to break the Pact if it is? It makes no sense.

As if that isn't bad enough we come to my least favorite part: Addendum F.

Addendum F. 'The Absolute must be avenged for the soul-binder's detention at Moonrise. The soul-bearer retains his gifts until such time as the Absolute is slain.'

What?! What do you mean Mizora can just add on addendums willy-nilly to the Pact without even so much as needing to run it by Wyll first? How the fuck does this make any sense? If Mizora can just add whatever she wants to Wyll's pact then why would she ever actually break it? Why not have Wyll dress up as a clown every full moon and run around terrorizing children? Why not use Wyll's pact to make every single soul in Baldur's Gate forfeit to her? 

This addendum is so stupid. I hate it. The only reason for it to exist is so that the in game mechanics make sense and Wyll doesn't have to be respecced as something other than a warlock at the 11th hour. But if that's the case why not just add something into the six months clause? Easy fix to add 'Clause Z, Section Thirteen: 'If the soul-binder consents to separation, she will release the soul-bearer from all obligation and rescind all gifted powers within six months. Like really why? What possessed them to add this addendum? Why make it seem like Mizora can change the Pact at any time and for any reason? Were they so oblivious to their own writing that this is the only way they could think of to patch that potential plot hole?

I just can't.

This is Wyll's narrative Arc and the writing is so slap-dash. It doesn't make sense. The player feels like they have little to no choice in the outcome. Wyll has no choice in the outcome. The stakes feel pointless because there's no reason why breaking Wyll's pact should endanger his father. The path the player has to follow is inane. And when we get to the end we find out it was all pointless anyways because the pact is clearly whatever shit Mizora makes up on the spot that comes to her mind because that's the only way any of this makes sense. This is the level of writing I'd expect from a DM who suddenly needed to pull something out of their ass, not a team of writers who have had plenty of time to sit down and plot out a story.

In the story they built there's no point in Wyll struggling to escape. This isn't a 'well, Wyll's story was hastily rewritten' issue. This is a bad writing issue. No attention or care was paid towards making the narrative crux of Wyll's story actually make sense. No one bothered to make Mizora's pact make any sense. You cannot tell me there wasn't a planned ending for EA Wyll to break his pact; I won't believe you. The writers clearly just didn't care to make it make sense.

Mizora's Pact might just be the symptom, but it really shows how poorly Wyll's narrative arc was written.

[tourmalinne]

I just want to take a few minutes to say I love tumblr. Of all the places online that I frequent, it’s the only one where I’ve been able to keep my privacy. My family and coworkers can’t find me here, and I love that. It’s a space just for me. I’m on here everyday, even if I don’t post on tourmalinne, I make vision boards on different sideblogs, and they’ve all come true in the past 3 years. 

I don’t remember mentioning this, but I’m 4-months pregnant, and I’m severly lacking any feeling of relaxation and grounding. I found it so much easier to feel relaxed and grounded when I was single, but one of the most anxiety producing things in my life has been my partner’s extreme extrovertedness, and the fact that he comes from a huuuuge family and has a million friends, every one of them married with children, which means more and more and more and more people orbiting my life and wanting my attention. I reached a point in the beginning of pregnancy that I began to ignore everyone’s wassaps. I don’t even read them, much less respond. I feel mean, and I feel shame about it, but I don’t know what else to do. I also stopped posting anything personal on Ig, because I would get flooded with DMs from my million in-laws, and I don’t use social media to have long conversations. Too tiring. I told my sister-in-law four times that I don’t feel well and I prefer to be home sleeping, but she would say one thing “I totally understand!”, then wassap me again 10 hours later to meet up at her house with her baby. And this is something most people do. They say they understand, but they do contrary actions. I decided to stop efforting to express my feelings to people (I’m terrible at expressing feelings and it takes a lot from me to do it) and just shut them out. My in-laws and my partner’s friends are super nice and kind (but super boring) and they all appreciate me and go far and beyond to show the appreciation with actions. But they became even more obsessed the moment we announced the pregnancy. They had never wassaped me or followed me on Ig, and all of a sudden people were wassaping me 3 times a day, and following me on Ig. This created tremendous stress, as I had to turn down daily offers to meet up with people I find boring, and they kept asking my partner about me everyday. I expressed to him how stressed out I am, because I already have a super social job, and all I want to do when I leave work is be alone, or be with my own family, and be with him. I want a quiet solitary life. I have very few hours in the day to enjoy my own company, in fact right now I only have 23 minutes to finish this post, because I have to go to work already. I sleep a lot according to the people around me, but they don’t understand that being pregnant feels so physically exhausting that I feel I don’t get enough sleep. Sometimes I fear I will crash my car driving home from work, because I feel soooo tired my eyes itch and I have to close them. 

I can’t talk about my pregnancy on iG because at work nobody knows about it, except my boss. My work place is very complicated when it comes to socializing, and I know that the moment I announce it, coworkers are going to be a nightmare, and when that happens I’ll be under so much emotional and mental stress that I’ll have to call my doctor and get a sick leave until 2022. But if I get a sick leave, they’ll cut my paycheck in half, and I already make minimum wage, so I have no choice but to work myself to sickness, or be homeless. I already have a pregnancy illness, called preeclampsia, and my doctor is angry with me because he wants me to stop working until baby is born. He calls me every now and then on the phone, and conversations consist of me getting frustrated trying to make him understand that I HAVE to work. It breaks my heart, honestly, I didn’t expect to have preeclampsia, I thought I’d be able to work until 7 months pregnant at least.

I’ve been journaling a lot of extra stuff lately, asking myself questions and putting more effort into my emotional and mental well-being, holding on to the small bits of time I get with myself. I mostly journal in my car, in 15-minute bits of time, multiple times a day. I can’t finish this properly, I have to go. I’m a bit sad, it’s all I can say. But the privacy of tumblr brings me comfort.

One last important thing. I’ve been efforting to improve my money mindset for a long time, but my job and my in-laws stress and the lack of alone time (when I’m not sleeping) have made me so difficult to focus on the proper mental diet. I did manage to triple my income last month, because I used all of my alone time in my car to practice my mental diet, and I listened to subconscious tapes while sleeping. I know this stuff works because I have manifested my dreams over and over and over. My life is unrecognisable from 3 years ago. But as humans we always have more growth to do, it never stops, and money is my number one thing right now. I hope I can be more disciplined and motivated this month with my mental diet.

[krissy-kat]

PJOverse Headcanons Pt 6:-

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 7, Part 8

Harley

• The senior year wasn’t fun at all like in those high school dramas that Abbie likes to see, instead it was filled with stress of checking out the best scholarships, applying into colleges and worrying about getting in

• But throughout his senior year, Harley followed Spiderman news religiously

• “You know your celebrity crush on spiderman is worst than your pinning for Peter”

• “Nobody asked you Abbie”

• “Yeah whatever, I came here to tell you I want to go to Camp Half Blood this year because it’s probably your last year and I want to go there with you”

• “Really!”

• “Yeah”

• “Ok I’ll IM Chiron and ask him right away”

• “Calm down it’s getting late, ask him tomorrow”

• About 2 months before summer vacation, Harley receives a IM from MJ

• “Not that I’m complaining but you don’t IM me without a purpose, so what is it”

• “You are right, I trained you well ”

• “So”

• “You complained way too much when Peter stopped coming to Camp”

• “I’m sorry but what does this IM have to do with it ”

• “Let me finish first loser, Peter’s coming to Camp for the first week of Summer and you don’t come to Camp in the first week like ever, so I thought I let you know because I won’t be able to listen you whining about it all summer ”

• “Really!”

• “Yup, I gotta go now talk to you later ”

• “Bye”

• Harley informs Tony about change in plan

• “What urgent business do you have that has to be done in the first week, it’s like every one wants to abandon me that week ”

• “What happened Old Man”

• “Pepper have to Europe to check on branches there, Spiderman is going on a trip with his best friend and now even you aren’t coming that week”

• “Don’t be overdramatic, you’ll be fine and you are acting like we aren’t staying at all, we’ll staying with you in the last week of vacation ”

• “Wait a sec, we”

• “Did I not mention Abbie will be coming too”

• “What do mean Abbie is coming doesn’t she have Roman Camp to go ”

• “We have Exchange programs, so Abbie will be coming this year ”

• “So you are saying during the last week of summer, I’ll have handle not one, not two but three demigods, one of which will be starting high school, one senior year and one college next week, you guys are gonna make all my hair grey with stress of handling 3 overexcited ADHD teenagers”

• “Wait, three”

• “My intern is a demigod too, that’s why you guys won’t be meeting anytime soon”

• “Awww”

• Meanwhile in New York

• “What do mean you told Harley I’ll be coming in the first week”

• “It means exactly what you said ”

• “But MJ, I’m a bi disaster you can’t do that to me”

• “I already did ”

• “B..But”

• In the summer vacation Peter and Gang go to Camp

Summer Vacation

Day 1

• Ned stays in Athena Cabin with Peter

• “So when will I finally get to meet the famous Harley Keener”

• “He told me he’ll be coming in Evening so he’ll here soon” - MJ

• As of on clue, they hear a bantering between 2 voices, one that MJ recognize as of Harley’s

• “I can carry own luggage, I’m 14 not a toddler, you don’t need to carry it for me”

• “But I want to”

• MJ wanted to see how it unfolds, but Ned decided to be his sweet self and help them without even knowing that was Harley

• “Do you guys need any help, my friends and I would love to help you both” - Ned

• “Are new because I don’t remember seeing around last summer ” -Harley

• “He’s Ned, hey Harley, it’s been a long time ” - Peter said with heart eyes

• “Hey Peter ” - Harley

• They stare into each other’s eyes, Abbie couldn’t take the sexual tension and interrupts their longing gaze

• “Harley care to introduce me your friends”

• “Umm.. Yeah, this is Peter, he’s a son of Athena” -Harley

• “Hi” -Peter

• “This is Betty, daughter of Apollo ”

• “Nice to meet you”

• “That is MJ, daughter of Ares ”

• “Sup, loser”

• “That is Flash, son of Aphrodite, I don’t why he’s with them”

• “Ha Ha, very funny ”

• “No seriously I’m really confused last I heard MJ still had a grudge with you and now she is letting you hang out her”

• Abbie controls her laughter at Harley’s lack of tact

• “Well it’s been a whole year and we go to same High school, we can resolve it during the school year, you know ” -Flash

• “Wait a second, you go to same high school as MJ” -Harley

• “Harley we have been going to same school since before High School” -Betty

• “You go to same school too, next you’ll telling me Peter and the new kid go there as well” -Harley

• Betty, Peter, Ned and Flash avoids his stares, and MJ smirks meanwhile Abbie trying her best to not laugh at her brother’s dummbassry

• “Why the hell did I not know about this ” -Harley

• At this Abbie couldn’t control her laughter

• “You truly are a dumbass, let’s go keep the luggage in the Cabin, have dinner and discuss this in tomorrow, so you can recover from the shock ” -Abbie

• “You seem to be a smart person, this dumbass forgot to introduce you ” -MJ

• “I’m Abbie, this Dumbass’s sister”

• “Are you sure” -MJ

• “Unfortunately ” -Abbie

• “I’m right here” -Harley

Day 2

• “Sooo… was anyone of you planning to tell me that you all go to same school” -Harley

• “Don’t look at me, it wasn’t like we ever talked outside of when necessary ” -Flash

• “I thought you would know since you never asked how we knew each other already” -Peter

• “I thought MJ must have told you ” -Betty

• “And I thought everyone knew” -MJ

• “Why?” -Harley

• “Everyone knows, you were to busy staring Peter’s butt to notice” -MJ

• Harley and Peter turned red

• “So what do you guys do here exactly ” -Ned

• “We…. I don’t think even I know what we do exactly, most of time we do our own things and come together during Camp Activities ��� -Flash

• “So, like we don’t have any schedule ” -Abbie

• “Well there are cleaning duties, the team that loses in the game are stuck with them” -Betty

• “No other duties” -Abbie

• “Nope” -Betty

• “You Greeks are so disorganized ” -Abbie

• “Of course, you would think that ” -Harley

• “You’re the one talk, Mr-I-can’t-work-without-mess” -Abbie

• “Can we please not have a sibling argument right now ” -Peter

• “I wanted to see that, what happened to you” -MJ

• “There was fight about spiderman in the morning, one his sibling said that she thought spiderman was cool and it escalated from that, Peter was right in middle of it” -Ned

• “Poor Peter” -Betty

• Ned quickly changes the subject

• “So what do you guys mean when you say you do your own things ” - Ned

• “I draw and sometimes spar” -MJ

• “I help out in infirmary and practice Archery ”-Betty

• “I work in Forges on my inventions” -Harley

• “When I came during the freshman year, I used to design the weapons so I spend most my time in Forges too” -Peter

• Flash mumbles something

• “What did he say” -Abbie

• “I do Aphrodite stuff, and spar” -Flash

• “What do you mean Aphrodite stuff” -Ned

• “He means gossiping, makeovers and meddling with others relationship ” -MJ

• “Well I’m pretty good fighter too” -Flash

• “That’s because you are on Instagram all the time and you have to defend yourself against the monster you attract” -MJ

• “Wait, you can do that” -Harley

• “He attracts atleast one monster every week” -Betty

• “It’s really hard to keep up with you guys, do even complete a discussion before jumping to another ” -Abbie

• “No” “Nay” “Nope” “Never” “Who does that” “That’s what you do” they say all at once

• “No wonder why Roman gets irritated while talking to you guys” -Abbie

• “Technically I’m a roman too” -Ned

• “Wait, I thought you were Peter’s half sibling ” -Harley

• “He’s Peter grand-nephew” -Flash

• “Flash, how many times I have to tell you not call him that ” -Peter

• “What are you going to do beat me?” -Flash

• “Maybe, I’ll do that ” -Peter

• “Than I’ll challenge you to a duel” -Flash

• “I accept ”-Peter

• “I got a idea, how about we make it in a team of two” -Flash

• “Why not?” -Peter

• “I’m a Archer, I can’t play so I’m out” -Betty

• “I don’t even have a weapon so I’m out too” -Ned

• “That leaves us with MJ and Harley, I pick MJ” -Flash

• “Sure, why not” -MJ

• “I thought you would team with me, MJ” -Peter

• “He picked me up first ” -MJ

• “But” -Peter

• “No Buts” -Flash

• “Okay we’ll meet here in an hour, if I win you’ll stop calling Ned my grand-nephew and if you win I’ll do the photo you wanted me too” -Peter

• “I agree” -Flash

• Flash and Peter took off into opposite directions and MJ following Flash while Harley follows Peter with Abbie chasing after him

• “Wait, what just happened and what is Ned’s parentage again ” -Abbie

• “Flash and Peter are having an impromptu duel while they team up with MJ and I respectively and one of Ned’s grandparents is child of Minerva, keep up ” -Harley

• “You got all that from the conversation and you still didn’t knew they all go to same school ” -Abbie

• “Yes, now I need go prepare with Peter for the fight” -Harley

• “You really are a dumbass” -Abbie

• Meanwhile

• “You knew Peter would take the bait and team with Harley didn’t you, it was your elaborate matchmaking ” -MJ

• “Maybe, plus I knew he would offer to finally take a picture in spiderman suit with me for my insta and I needed to win that bet” -Flash

• “What if I sabotaged the fight” -MJ

• “You haven’t lost a single fight except the one you and Clarisse fought each other, you don’t want to ruin your reputation ” -Flash

• “Ok, you got me there” -MJ

To be continued

( If you were wondering why I took so much time for Pt 6, I wanted to post it with this post)

Also I’ll be tagging those who want me to undercut, if you want me tag you DM me

@doodleddaisies

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Yhidothrus, the Ravager Worm

Chaotic Evil Hybrid Fiend* of Age, Time, and Worms

Domains: Chaos, Death, Evil, Repose Subdomains: Ancestors, Demon, Entropy, Murder

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 104~105

Obedience: Meditate in a closed coffin partially filled with leech-infested mud or worm-infested soil. During the obedience, you must swallow or inhale at least a dozen living leeches or worms. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against effects that cause magical aging, slowness, or anything that damages, drains, or penalizes ability scores.

Oh man that’s a painful Obedience. Not only have you got to lug around a coffin big enough to fully enclose you, but you have to lug around a coffin packed with a dozen pounds of soil that’s filled with squirming things. I won’t even get into how to hide this ritual from prying eyes or explain yourself if you get caught because it’s basically impossible to do if you’re in a Good-aligned party. If you’re among Evil, you can at least have your allies stand guard while you go eat your breakfast in the seclusion of your coffin so that no innocent civilians see you. Also, hefting that thing around basically necessitates some sort of extradimensional space, or a luggage-strewn cart and a very good cover story if gate guards check the contents out and spot it.

Yeesh, the logistics of this are giving me a headache. A normal funeral-grade coffin is usually as weighty as the corpse it’s meant to contain, but you can likely get by with a shoddy and lightweight one you’ve made yourself. In fact, the Worm may find that charming! Especially when you fill it with dirt and start eating worms in its name. Keeping the coffin filled with life is likely going to be a hell of a project in and of itself, basically necessitating turning the thing into a terrarium; make sure to weatherproof your coffin or it’s going to rot from the inside-out before you even make it a few months into your new faith! The Worm may offer a more generous interpretation of ‘closed’ if your coffin has worm-eaten holes in it, but the more they chew through it, the more likely it is the thing will break open like cheap plywood the next time you lay down.

All that trouble however is worth it, even before getting into the Boons. The benefit from the ritual is huge, basically giving you a +4 on saves versus just about every status ailment in the game, because it says “ANYTHING” that damages, drains, or even penalizes ability scores. Not only are poisons, diseases, and most curses affected, but frightened, blinded, exhausted/fatigued, negative levels, grappled, and many more conditions inflicted as secondary effects from enemy attacks can be more easily resisted thanks to the protection the Worm offers, and this is ON TOP OF the extra resistance versus Slow effects and magical aging. So, yes, this is an A+ benefit!

So lets see what kind of Boons the great devourer of time has to offer...

Boons are acquired slowly: the first once you reach 12 hit dice, the second at 16, and the third at 20. However, the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel Prestige Classes can be entered as early as level 7; doing so grants you the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Servants of demons may also take the Demoniac Prestige Class; you don’t get the Boons any faster than E/E/S, but you may select which Boon set you get, and you get cool demon-related powers!

*Yhidothrus is technically both a Demon Lord and a Qlippoth Lord. This has no effect on whether or not you can enter the Demoniac Prestige Class, but it’s worth noting that its true loyalties will likely lay with the True Rulers of the Abyss. I’m mentioning this because it’s another cute little detail a DM can play with and a character can consider. 

------

EVANGELIST

-----

Boon 1: Consumption of the Worm. Gain Corrosive Touch 3/day, Acid Arrow 2/day, or Vampiric Touch 1/day.

Nice! Except for Corrosive Touch, I mean. It’s a melee touch spell that deals only 5d4 damage and, while that may be helpful when you need to break an object, but unless you’re an Evangelist-Fighter/Barbarian, there’s probably someone in your party better at breaking things. Both Acid Arrow and Vampiric Touch are better, with VT granting you some much-needed vitality when trapped in an enemy’s melee radius, and Acid Arrow’s low damage somewhat mitigated by the fact that it’s ongoing and stacks with itself.

Three damage spells with very obvious uses. Makes them easy to cover and move on, at least! I’d personally stick with Acid Arrow unless you Evangelized yourself from a more melee-oriented class.

Boon 2: Nightmare Below. You gain a burrow speed of 30ft that can be used to tunnel through sand, mud, soil, or other soft substances. You have +10 to Stealth checks while burrowing. Once per hour as a standard action, you can burst from the ground with a terrifying roar; all creatures within 30ft of your emergence that were unaware of your presence must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Cha mod) or be stunned for 1 round and shaken for 2d4 rounds after. The burrow speed is an Extraordinary, but the emergence ability is a Supernatural mind-affecting fear effect.

I appreciate that there’s no indication as to how your character burrows, so I assume you move just like a worm does, slinking through the ground like an accordion. However, note that the burrowing IS an Extraordinary ability, not a Supernatural one, so there’s some sort of physical action going on that you presumably need at least one limb for. Perhaps you’re just eating the dirt?

Anyway, a semi-permanent burrow speed--and a decently speedy 30ft one, at that--rates pretty high on ‘things that are spooky for players to have’ because of the nonsense players can think up. Grappling someone and dragging them underground and leaving them there is just one of the many shenanigans you can pull. Being more than 5ft underground makes you immune to a great many attacks and spells, making it a solid defensive option too! However, as strong as this ability could be, it’s held back by something that’s extremely important:

You can’t see anything while underground.

Creatures that can burrow normally navigate by Tremorsense or the power to see through earth, but unless you’re a really weird race or have specific and rare magic items/effects on you, you’re as blind to your enemies as they are to you. That puts a huge damper on an otherwise incredibly powerful ability, because it forces you to rely on an above-ground ‘spotter’ to help you find your way around... Unless, of course, you pop your head out like a meerkat every so often to check on your surroundings, but that also runs the risk of ruining your terrifying arrival.

The terrifying arrival is a pretty good initiator, if we’re being honest. Sneaking around and seeing where your foes are clustered before burrowing over to that spot is a decent way to have a bunch of them trip over their own feet trying to get away from you... Or, rather, not getting away at all due to the supernatural stun. Stunning even one or two enemies out of a group of 6~10 during the surprise round means two less enemies get to roll initiative before being cut down. You have to give up your standard action to do it, but it’s a decent Save-or-Suck if your allies are waiting in the wings, ready to pounce when you explode from the ground like the world’s filthiest jack-in-the-box.

Boon 3: The Very Worm That Gnaws. When you perform your Obedience upon attaining this Boon, you are devoured utterly by the worms, your consciousness transferring into the swarm. You gain the Worm That Walks Template. Creatures that become shaken by your Nightmare Below emergence are also sickened for 1 minute.

Alright, alright alright alright ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT

This represents one of the very, very few ways for a player character to obtain a Template this powerful without jumping through some pretty hefty hoops. I mean, yes, you have to serve the Ravager Worm for years and years without being put down permanently, and you also have to meditate in a wormy coffin for more or less the entire time... But by god does it ever pay off.

Worm That Walks is one of the stronger Templates one could ever hope to obtain. Not quite on the level of the Vampire or the Lich, but certainly in the upper tiers, and with fewer obnoxious weaknesses! You become immune to physical single-target spells and effects, as well as spells/effects which target a specific number of creatures, such as Disintegrate and Magic Missile due to your wormy constitution, though you remain vulnerable to mind-affecting effects or effects which attack your senses. However, a great number of powerful effects such as Slow, Finger of Death, Harm, and most forms of Smite simply do not work against your innumerable tiny bodies, which can die off in droves without harming your overall consciousness. In fact, the worms comprising your form breed with such alarming swiftness that you gain Fast Healing equal to your CR (which is typically roughly equal to your level, but you gain an automatic +2 from the Template) and they reflexively dodge out of the way of incoming attacks so fluidly that they grant you DR 15/--.

Yes, you read that right. Fast Healing 18 (at least) and an insurmountable DR 15. If you were the party caster before becoming an Evangelist, you are no longer squishy in the gamer sense of the word. And if you were the party tank? You’re basically indestructible now, aside from your unfortunate weakness to area-of-effect attacks (from which you take half-again as much damage). The DM should be wary of people wanting to worship the Ravager Worm, if only because of how hair-pullingly resilient a WTW can be if played right. You even overcome the WTW’s biggest weakness, in that once they drop below 0 HP they become permanently staggered and lose access to all of their defensive abilities (including Fast Healing and DR), because Nightmare Below allows you to dig down to safety until you can recover.

I really don’t want to stretch this little article any more than I should, despite the fact that a character becoming a Worm That Walks is a huge can of worms that deserves a lot of explanation, but here: Take a look at the Template’s page again for yourself. Just take a look at all the stuff you get! I will close with a note for DMs though: if you find yourself needing to keep an unruly PC in check, note that their life becomes inextricably linked to the Ravager Worm’s will now. As written, you do not lose the template if you fail your Obedience (which, by the by, is much easier to perform now that you are the worms)... But failing too often for too long could cause Yhidothrus to simply cease providing you with divine energy, unbinding your mind from the worms and killing you instantly before pulling you into its Abyssal palace.

------

EXALTED

------

Boon 1: Blessing of the Worm. Gain Ray of Enfeeblement 3/day, Gentle Repose 2/day, or Slow 1/day.

In case you forgot that Yhidothrus was related to time, here’s a good reminder! Gentle Repose is a bit of an odd duck since the Worm holds dominion over the negative aspects of time’s passage, such as the wearing down of one’s body and mind as the ages move on. Stopping time from devouring the dead, then, is strange for the Worm to grant.

And I wouldn’t take Gentle Repose or Ray of Enfeeblement, either, since Slow is available and can completely turn an encounter on its head with a single casting. That’s all you get, but that’s all you really need. This one was easy to do, too, letting us move on to the meatier Boons here...

Boon 2: Curse of Brittle Bones. 1/day, you can cast Heightened Bestow Curse at 7th level as a spell-like ability. This curse is unique, advancing the victim to venerable age and imposing a -6 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution without granting them bonuses to their mental ability scores. These penalties do not stack with age-related penalties already present.

The save DC against this ability is 17+Cha mod, a high enough save that whoever you swat with it will likely struggle to surmount it. However, this is a touch attack negated by a successful save with an effect that does not instantly end combat on its own, which you all know by now is something I do not like seeing. Age penalties can’t reduce a victim’s stats below 1, and while this is a curse effect and not listed as an aging effect, it’s commonly accepted that Constructs, Undead, Outsiders, and Dragons simply do not age as mortals might and thus this curse would have no effect on them.

However, NONE of those creature types are inherently immune to aging effects unless it is specifically mentioned in their individual sheets. They can still experience the ravages of time, they just have to be magically forced to do so. especially in the case of Dragons (which normally get more powerful as they age) and Outsiders (which remain in physical stasis until something forces them out).

In case that’s not a convincing enough argument, the language of the ability is also important; the curse advances the target to venerable age, but it’s a separate sentence entirely that says “this curse imposes a–6 penalty to the target’s Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores,” which requires emphasis as it clarifies that it is the curse itself which brittles the victim’s bones, rather than their new head of gray hairs.

... anyway, all that being said, I still don’t really like it. Probably the most important part is the fact that -6 Dex means -3 AC and -3 to Reflex saves, while the penalty to Con means the victim loses 3 HP per HD they have. It combos well with stat-damaging poisons or spells, but on its own it’s pretty underwhelming.

Boon 3: Call of the Worm. 1/day, you may place your hand to the ground and whisper a prayer to the Ravager Worm. This acts as Summon Monster IX as a spell-like ability, except it always calls an avatar of Yhidothrus (an Advanced Fiendish Purple Worm) to your aid. 

THIS, however, is anything but underwhelming. Aside from SM9s painful casting time of one full round (which can be mitigated by using it just before combat, or to initiate), being able to call a CR 14 encounter to your side even once a day is pretty big for a Boon. Sadly not as meaty as some final summons, as a Purple Worm is little more than an enormous tube into which enemies are shoveled (as you can read here), but the Advanced and Fiendish Templates at least give it a few new toys to play with in the form of a +2 to all the numbers it hits enemies with and a +2 to its AC. Fiendish also grants it 10 Resistance to both Cold and Fire, DR 10/Good, Spell Resistance 16, and a further +1 to attack and damage rolls versus Good targets.

If you need enemy mooks to back off, an enormous Purple Worm will either send them scattering or swallow them all down one by one. There’s also the potential to use it as an enormous battering ram, slamming its cow-sized head through walls and doorways because, lets be honest, a 35 in Strength means that only mithral and adamantine really stand a chance of keeping a Purple Worm out of whatever location you’ve decided it very much deserves to be in.

Given the casting range of SM9, ‘location’ can also mean ‘directly next to the enemy’s backline.’ Just note a few important things: While this is a spell-like, it has built-in somatic and verbal components in that you must put one hand on the ground and you must be able to speak a prayer to Yhidothrus. No having the monstrous aspect of your lord come to your rescue while you’re bound and gagged! Secondly, since it’s specifically a summoning, it can be dispelled or banished with relative ease. It also only lingers for 1 round/level, unlike a Called creature would, so you likely only get to summon the beast for one big battle.

Still, though, how many priests can summon a reasonably powerful facsimile of their own god to their aid? I think the fact it looks like Yhidothrus is a nice touch, though it’s a bit of a flavor snarl since no one has ever seen the back end of the Ravager Worm, while a Purple Worm very obviously has a backside (that’s where the stinger is).

------

SENTINEL

------

Boon 1: Hasten the End. Gain Expeditious Retreat 3/day, Silence 2/day, or Sands of Time 1/day.

I’ve spoken of Sands of Time before, so I won’t reiterate much here other than I wouldn’t take it when Silence is an option. Expeditious Retreat also pales in comparison to the tactical applications of Silence, since you can slap the dampening field on yourself or an ally to assist with sneaky sneak missions... Or, you know, slapping it on your hulking martial self and then charging at the enemy caster to tie them up for the rest of combat. The number of spells that can solve that situation which can also be used in Silence can be counted on one hand with fingers left over, and it quickly spells death for the poor fool you slither towards.

Silence ends encounters, is what I’m saying, and can sometimes do so without even offering a saving throw. Faced with that kind of utility, why take something as paltry as +30 to your walking speed, or waste your valuable action making a touch attack that may end up doing nothing?

Boon 2: Specter of Time. As a swift action after confirming a critical hit with a weapon against a living foe, you may instead deal normal damage and force the target to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + Cha mod). Failing the save causes the victim to painfully advance into the next age category, taking all the penalties to their physical ability scores but gaining no benefits from their advancing age. This is a curse effect which lasts for 24 hours, and the creature returns to their normal age if they die. A venerable creature (this does not include creatures who have become venerable through a means beyond natural age, or this ability, such as through Sands of Time) that fails a saving throw against this ability is immediately slain and can only be raised with Reincarnate, Wish, Miracle, or True Resurrection.

And here’s even more reason to not take Sands of Time, it doesn’t even work with this ability!

Not to say that this ability is particularly good, mind. You need to confirm two or even three critical hits to kill most creatures, and confirming two or three critical hits will typically kill the creature through damage anyway. I do appreciate that there’s no per-day limit on this ability, letting you just use it whenever you have the swift action to do so and potentially swatting some stats off an enemy at the cost of damage... provided you can make it past their Fortitude. Yeah, complete negation by a save really makes Big Damage more attractive in most cases, except for the times when you can’t kill a creature through damage alone (such as if you have nothing to overcome a creatures Regeneration). This ability does get better if you have a crit build, obviously, but again--once you have a crit build in place, why would you want to do less damage?

That being said, critting an enemy that’s already venerable and forcing them to save or die is satisfying. The ancient warlord facing you in single combat, the elderly wizard who stepped a little too far forward, the old Rogue ready to teach you a new trick (play dead)... Just swatting the life out of them with a confirmed crit is tasty, especially since them being venerable means a -6 to Constitution, and thus a -3 to Fortitude saves in the first place.

Boon 3: End Time. "You can call upon the Ravager Worm to temporarily consume time itself in an area surrounding you. You can cast Time Stop once per day as a spell-like ability. When you use this ability, those in the area of effect are subjected to a powerful vision—that the world they are in becomes wrapped in the endless coils of the Ravager Worm. The affected creatures never glimpse Yhidothrus’s head, and know only for the brief instant of eternity they spend in your Time Stop area that the world around them is fully wrapped in the coils of something more foul than they even imagined.“

I quoted this directly from the book/website rather than simplifying it for a few reasons, mainly because it’s difficult to simplify this down. Why? Because Time Stop is not an area of effect spell. It affects you and ONLY you, speeding you up to the point that everything else appears to have stopped moving. Other creatures are not affected and do not even realize what you’ve done because, for them, basically no time passed at all.

This ability is worded as though it reverses how Time Stop works, instead trapping everyone around you in stopped time for a subjective few seconds while you slither off to do your evil deeds, subjecting them to the knowledge that the Ravager Worm exists and has circled the whole of Golarion a thousand times over. In fact, looking into it, NO version of Time Stop works like this ability’s wording suggests it does; D&D 3.5 and 5th Edition and Pathfinder 1st Edition all note that Time Stop affects only you. 

The ability says “consume time itself in the area surrounding you,” which would seem to indicate that time only stops for a small section of the land containing you, but gives absolutely no details about how big this area is. For the sake of saving myself further headaches and further article space uselessly hammering against this concept, we’ll say that time only stops for an area that is 300ft around you. That way, everyone in that area (including your allies!) knows something is truly, deeply, and terrifyingly wrong. If people in the area weren’t alerted to your presence before, they will be now, provided they don’t immediately flee because--honestly--suddenly having your field of vision dominated by endless greasy coils of a pitch black worm and being forced to Know that their world is caged by this horror? Terrifying enough to make the weaker-willed quit on the spot. There’s no mechanics attached to this vision, but I like to think of it as the mother of all intimidation tactics.

Let me put it this way:

You can force your enemies to come to terms with the fact that Pathfinder is a cosmic horror story.

And that’s beautiful! Did you think your petty squabbles actually mattered in the face of the machinations at play beyond this pathetic world? No. And I’m here to tell you that, personally. I’ve appeared in your throne room to do so!

And that’s all you, the martial Sentinel, can really do with Time Stop, because without any easily-deployed traps, scrolls, or magic items or whatnot, you can’t actually make use of the rounds of freedom like a caster could. If you were a martial caster before entering Sentinel, good on you! You’ve got some extra rounds to get your buffs going! But for Barbarians, Fighters, and other Hit Things Hard classes, you don’t really get as much out of this as you may believe. Except, again, scaring the absolute everything out of everyone in the area not expecting their vision to suddenly be overwhelmed by nightmares.

Just... warn your allies ahead of time. Or don’t! It’s funnier that way!

You can read more about it here.

[renegade-is-in-my-blood]

Being in the blogging business for around 8 years now I came to learn a lot. Let’s hear from the old bitter blogger about the difference between being an ambassador and being a customer. When you’re investing more than you’re gaining from the collaboration it’s not really a collaboration you’re looking for.

There is a new trend going around social media, especially Instagram. I’ve been getting collaboration offers on a daily basis even pre COVID times but now the amount of pseudo collaborations increased.

Hands down it is an incredible business strategy from the business point of view.

Everyone wants to be an ambassador.

Ambassador became an even more prestigious title than an influencer. Influencer posses some sort of responsibility for their actions whilst ambassador is just being paid for simply being.

Who wouldn’t want that?

Many brands use this knowledge to the fullest and offers these pseudo collaborations.

So what is a pseudo collaboration?

Well, it starts off by being contacted by a brand.

You’ll receive a ctrl+c ctrl+v message from a brand-name-scout. The message contains several cute emojis and addresses you as a gorgeous, pretty, cutie, love, honey, sweety, and if they really want to get you, even by your Instagram name.

It’s usually followed by a bunch of compliments about your fashion style, vibe, Instagram, or whatever. Then there is a lie about following or just generally noticing you for a while without ever seeing your insta story, like any of your posts, or even actually following you.

Now it’s time for an offer beneficial for you.

Usually, it’s free products, a way to earn a commission, or just the sheer option to be able to call yourself an ambassador. Every single brand out there offers a “support” like anyone really knows what’s that supposed to mean. I had several ones even offering me a travel trips, but never elaborated on it after my further questioning.

Now comes the hook with a “do you want to learn more?” question.

If you think I’m exaggeration for the story and I can’t be generalizing all of the collaborations offers into a simple standard form I wish you were right. Here are some of the screenshots of my current Instagram DMs:

You might think: “What’s wrong with that? They’re trying so don’t be mean. Just ignore them.” let me remind you how dumb Instagram algorithm is.

If your account is followed by bots, messaged by bots, liked by bots Instagram assumes you’re one of them or you got hacked by them. Sweet of them for trying to protect you thought, but holy hell did that made everything super complicated for me.

I got several messages from the brand scouts messaging me again because their previous account got deleted.

No shit Sherlock, it’s like you can’t keep creating accounts, following and messaging a bunch of people at once and ask for money anymore.

So now every time my account gets suspicious activity such as too many likes/follows/messages Instagram suspects my account got hacked. Each time they require I change my password and let me tell you I ran out of password ideas months ago.

That’s not the worst part though.

After each time I change my password I’m blocked for 7 days from liking, following, or adding tags to my posts and that sucks. Just to get a better picture of this issue I’m blocked approximately once sometimes twice per month.

The block comes hand in hand with a shadowban that lingers for god knows how long, meaning Instagram is not gonna support you in any way. That’s why I have around 40 likes on a posts with 47K followers most of which are bots anyway.

I loath Instagram app yet I spend hours a day on the hellish site and I’m not only one.

We spend so much time on Instagram anyway so when a chance to earn money form it comes along you’re tempted to take it. Brands know that.

Imagine you’re a small-town girl with around 400 followers on Instagram. You already feel pretty popular right?

Now imagine you get the messages I shared above but you get just one. Someone out there thinks you’re so popular they want you on their team, you are just like the big influencers, you get job offers for being an Instagram star. You’re the next Kardashian.

You can have all of the things they said to you BUT you need to do something for them first. You have to pay for it.

And here is the catch with all of the pseudo collaborations.

What they don’t say to you in their first message is what it’s gonna cost you.

Many offers you free stuff but you need to pay for the one-time shipping. Some brands offer you a unique discount of around 40-60% off so you’ll pay just a part of the price and you can call yourself an ambassador.

I don’t know about you, but I thought that was called the customer. You buy a product, you wear it and occasionally you take photo of it on your social media sites. The new term is an ambassador apparently.

I get why so many people agree to this kind of collaboration. It’s new for you. It makes you feel good and successful in your friend’s and families eyes. And there is that hopefully undertone of making money from it.

Aren’t the brands unprofitable when they give away discounts and free stuff?

In a theory, yes, but there is one thing all of the brands that messaged me had in common except for the audacity.

Overpriced products.

I got messaged by jewelry stores, fashion stores and gym equipment stores most of the time. I took the time and did my research on every one of them.

When a store sold jewelry, they had the same products as the rest of the jewelry stores I got contacted by. A small variety of around 8 products most of them sold out anyway. And let’s not forget the ridiculously high prices. You can’t charge a cheap Chinese necklace you can get on amazon or aliexpress for under a 1$ for 40$.

So even if you’re paying just around 30$ for your ambassador order they are still making a profit on your wannabe Instagramer need cuz they purchased said items for far less.

Well, I’m being a little miss know it all right?

How can I talk about pseudo collaboration like this when it’s all based on assumptions. Well you know me, I’m curious as hell and I actually went through 3 pseudo collaborations myself just to prove a point.

I literally spend money so I can tell you about it right now so here is how my 3 pseudo collaborations went like.

All of the ones I choose were jewelry based pseudo collaborations. With the corona times, post offices are overwhelmed with parcels. I ordered big parcels in recent times and they arrived with around a month delay. I figured smaller jewelry in an envelope form would be quicker to arrive and I was right.

Pseudo collaboration number one VONACHI:

A simple yet luxurious-looking website with very few decent pieces of jewelry, offered me 3 free pieces to take a photo in and promote. I would also get a 60% discount code and every time my code would be used I would receive 30% of the money amount. Incredibly overpriced amount in the first place.

Here is the list of all of the benefits they offered.

The scout that approached me was very eager. They kept insisting I place my order right away. No time to waste.

To make it clear I got a simple code to apply in a check out that subtracted the price and I got the pieces for free. All I had to do was pay a 20$ shipping fee what seems like nothing but for 3 small necklaces, it is way too much.

Another thing that was odd was that I was required to take a screenshot of my order and send it back to scout. I guess to prove I was legit.

After bunch of further compliments and claims how excited they are to be working with me we ended our conversation.

If you think I was being reckless to give my credit card and home address to such a questionable site don’t be.

Honestly, I trust zero people, sometimes I don’t even trust myself. I used a card I have no to very little money on and I got it shipped to a work address.

My parcel from china arrived in around a month and a half. I got one black box with one necklace and the other 2 necklaces were in small plastic bags. I received a note about welcoming me to the program and asking me to contact vonachi’s official Instagram account for setting up my discount code and that’s exactly what I did. The official page responded after longer time period with just a “this is your code” message. I took a photo, tagged vonachi as a business partner, and shared my code. I did my part and I was never contacted by them again.

My 60% code is VONAMBNAT and as you might have guessed no one used it so far.

Or at least no one told me it was used. If someone were to use my code I would be contacted by vonachi and here is the problem. I’m supposed to trust them with their credibility cuz there is no other way for me to check it for myself. This is what it’s missing from the old Time collaborations of mine. I would get a tracking code, an account login, graphs, statistics, and one on one communication with a brand in my previous collaborations. But you know Golden times for influencers are long gone.

Now I’m left to just simply trust them.

Why would they ever confess someone used my code? If a customer gets 60% off and I’m getting 30% from already discounted item there is just a very little left for vonachi. They don’t say anything and get to keep my 30% share.

They didn’t put much effort into tracking system cuz they are not expecting their ambassadors/customers to make any sales anyway.

The products were not that bad. They came in a bit rusty and tangled but I was excepting much worse.

Hell, I was not expecting them to legitimately arrive.

Pseudo collaboration number 2: ENGELSINN

I initiated this pseudo collaboration myself. Engelsinn paid a significant amount of money to Instagram promoted post and that’s where I found out they are looking for ambassadors.

I filled out an application form.

This one felt more legit cuz they actually asked for followers count and all of the communication occurred via email. Automated emails but still it reminded me of good old days.

I was given a 40% discount code to use on my first order. The shipping was free but it still cost me another 20$ to get the product. Since placing my first order I got a 20% discount code “nat7x20” for my followers to get 20% off their engelsinn order.

When my code is redeemed 2 times I get one jewelry of my choice for free.

Do I even need to mention that I didn’t get any email since?

Well, that’s not exactly true I got 2 more emails each with another discount code I could use for 24 hours and buy more of their stuff. But none about redeemed code.

Engelsinn is a german based brand and living so close I got my parcel in around a week. I got myself a rose gold knot bracelet and I feel like a hypocrite but I actually really love this one and wear it every day. I know I wouldn’t get it if it wasn’t for the research but I’m glad I did.

Btw the ad about engelsinn looking for ambassador is still up there and it still says they have only a few places left. It’s been 2 months.

Pseudo collaboration number 3: CUZETTE

I got messaged by them on my Instagram and their offer was super confusing. They promised it all. 3 free stuff now, free stuff every month, paid trip to several destinations, and even 50$ voucher. The scout called me sweety exactly 9 times during our conversations. It was super annoying.

So I choose another 3 free items and paid another 20$ for shipping. When I asked about the 50$ voucher I was told I would need to refer 5 friends who would also become cuzette ambassador or delegate as they named it, to get the 50$. No info about the travel trips though.

I was told to contact the official page for more info but it took days for them to finally reply with nothing new just more compliments and excitement about the future. It’s been 2 months and I still haven’t received my order just as I was expecting.

Later on, I endorsed in conversation with several other brands asking for more info, looking for something different than standard copy and paste form. Unsuccessful.

Every time I asked how many ambassadors they have in their program the answer was always “around 3000“. Once again, you have 3000 customers and not 3000 ambassadors. If the only people who buy from you are people you ask to buy from you, you’re doing something wrong.

But your business plan is on point.

When I asked about who and where makes their products I was either met with a silence or a sweet talk about a responsible brand.

These brands are providing people with content. You get to take photos of the items you ordered and you get to be as creative as you want. In these COVID times so many brands had to cancel or postpone their collaborations with bloggers or Instagrammers. I saw huge travel/luxurious instagramers switch form hotel and travel collaborations to promoting kitchen wipes. Times are tough and you got to do what you got to do.

Yet these small businesses with hight prices are thriving?

You know it’s not about the product but about the potential.

Profiting on greediness.

So smart.

To prove my point even further I got to confess one more thing. I mentioned before that I manage Instagram accounts for different brands and among them is one fashion store. I was not only at the ambassadors’ side but on the scouting side as well.

All I had to do was search for people who looked like they would be willing to become an ambassador for our store and had decent amount of followers. I had saved message form and all I did was try to guess peoples names so the message seemed more personal. Once they agreed to a discussion I let my boss take the lead.

So yeah, try to really think about the offers you get.

Look at it from all points of view and ask yourself if it’s profitable for anyone else but the brand.

If you want to have offers pouring your way try adding #ad #spon #collab to your next Instagram posts. That’s how they look for their next ambassador.

Everyone wants to be an ambassador. 

Pseudo Collaborations- Everyone wants to be an Ambassador Being in the blogging business for around 8 years now I came to learn a lot. Let's hear from the old bitter blogger about the difference between being an ambassador and being a customer.

[brookscharis]

christian girls & pornography

Ever since I posted a Tik Tok video with the same title as this post, my inbox has been flooded with girls and grown women who struggle with the same temptation that I have.

It might be pretty jarring to come across a Christian girl talking about her struggle with pornography but, it happens. And if my DMs are only .0001% of the population of Christian girls who struggle with lust, then I’m pretty sure every 1 in 2 girls probably has a secret habit of this too –– not even exaggerating. Women are humans with sexual urges too, just because we love Jesus doesn’t mean we don’t wanna do the do (after marriage, of course). But that’s where the struggle starts. As a single woman, we know that it’s God’s will for us wait until MARRIAGE. How can you wait that long and not explode? How is it even practical in terms of knowing your body before your husband does? It leads to a lot of curiosity about sex and a need to understand why it’s so forbidden. 

I saw my first pornographic video as a computer pop-up at 8-years-old. Since that day, it opened a curiosity about sex and what that entire “grown-up world” was about. Like any kid who grew up with the internet and didn’t know something, I googled “sex”. You can only imagine what I got myself into. It’s almost funny but it’s actually super traumatizing. I was bound to watching porn until I was a Sophomore in college. I always felt wrong and knew it wasn’t right after I finished, but I just took the few green lights from articles I found online about the joyous health benefits of masturbation and plugged my ears to my conscience screaming at me. I googled, “Is masturbation bad?” and of course, nothing but, “Nooooo, noo not at all! It’s healthy! It’s good for you to know your own body! It’s good for you to know what you like!” was all that I found. I didn’t think to google, “Is masturbation a sin?” I was 8, but maybe I would’ve had confirmation of the bad feeling that I had on the inside if I asked that question. Because, yes, masturbation is a sin (Matthew 5:27-30). Someone close to me could’ve told me this too, but that would mean admitting that I watch people have sex in my spare time... nah, I’m good. I isolated myself and felt so overwhelmed with shame. No one could know I dealt with this, I hid it and swore I would take it to my grave. But, like the saying goes “what is done in the dark comes to light” and my issues manifested in other ways. This habit led me to lust after my friends (bi-curiosity), feeling like a baby for being a teenaged virgin, and seeking validation from boys by wearing revealing clothes that I never actually felt comfortable in. 

The question that I get asked the most is, “how did you conquer it?” How did I overcome, stop the habit, break the stronghold?

A little backstory. 

So, my lifestyle and spiritual practice at 19 years old was anti-Jesus. I was down for anything, pretty much, except submitting my life fully to God. I didn’t have a religious affiliation, I just considered myself “spiritual.” My open-mindedness landed me in a toxic relationship with one of my closest friends who I knew was bisexual. When we began talking, we bonded over the law of attraction, manifestation, angel numbers, and we confessed to each other that we both watched porn –– it was attractive to her. Fast forward, after much emotional manipulation on both ends (I used her for validation and attention, she did the same), I ended it and I was ready to get serious about God. You see, I grew up a Pastor’s kid in church my whole life, I knew better and I was rebelling. I wanted the peace that surpassed all understanding, I wanted contentment, joy, and favor. That Christmas break, when I went back home from college, going to church felt different. I was engaged and hungry, I was spiritually poor and starved. That’s when my pastor read Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” That’s all I needed and I started pursuing God like never before. I blocked her number, I went back to school after my break and got rid of everything I owned that didn’t please God. I switched up the music that I was listening to, I fasted for the first time (and made it a real spiritual challenge for myself in order to get the most out of it), and I cut back on hanging out with my friends at the time. That’s when I stopped watching porn entirely, and it’s been a year since. Four months since I fell into masturbation. 

Now, I understand how that didn’t really answer the question. That’s because there’s nothing that we can do to conquer anything, but abide in God. It’s the Holy Spirit that gives us a desire to live for Him, He speaks to us and called us to Himself before we say to ourselves, “I think I’ll give Jesus a chance.” That’s Him choosing you! There’s a moment when you snap out of it and notice how you’ve been living in the scraps of what this world has to offer, that moment for me was blocking the girl I was dating. Everything that represented that life had to go, from posters to clothes to what I watched online. I refused to be enslaved to that sin and I surrendered my sexuality over to my Creator.

One thing I want you to take away from this is that we are not the hero in our story. We don’t vindicate ourselves or conquer anything, God is our hero and Savior. It’s through Christ that we are more than conquerors. Not through our own strength or practical tips. 

But they do help! Here are a few:

1) Guard your heart - don’t watch shows/movies or listen to music that’s centered around sex or has a lot of sex scenes in it. Otherwise, it will trigger you.

2) Be mindful of the company you keep - when you want to break free from sexual sin, you won’t find the support or good influences you need if your friends encourage casual sex. Entertaining conversations about sex might be triggering, too.

3) Remember that it takes physical effort and restraint to stop - this isn’t passive, you have to literally refuse and fight against it. 

4) Call on the name of Jesus - forreal, tho.

5) Tell someone - it doesn’t have to be right now but, tomorrow isn’t promised and confessing your sins will set you free. James 5:16.

You’ve probably tried all of that and it didn’t work, that’s because it will never be enough. You’re not strong enough to resist something as desirable and satisfying as sexual sin, as humans (even Christians!) we love sin. There’s something in us that can’t get enough of it –– unless we love something even MORE than we love sexual sin. We must love God, He is our strength. The more time you spend with Him (reading His word, praising Him, worshipping Him, learning more about Him) the more you’ll be disgusted by sin. God changes your desires and you’ll get to a point where you can’t even bring yourself to open that website again. It’s a fight against the Spirit and the Flesh, principalities, and powers, it’s not one you can just grit your teeth and power through –– ya need Jesus! 

Some of you will leave this post and have the spiritual motivation to spend some time with God for a few minutes, then you’ll be bored. You’ll think to yourself, “I really want to stop falling into this sin, but I guess I don’t want it enough because I keep falling asleep when I read the Bible.” That’s not true, beloved. We’ve all been there. Your level of engagement has nothing to do with how badly you want God to work in your life, you need the Holy Spirit to help you. Pray to your Heavenly Father and ask Him to give you the Holy Spirit so that you will enjoy and look forward to knowing more about Him. 

This temptation can either destroy your relationship with God or bring you closer to Him. He can break this thing off of you, but it will be His working in you — completely. He fights our battles, our job is to be still and abide in Him. The more you love Him, the more you’ll hate sin because sin separates *you* from the One that you love, Him. However, it never separates *His* love from *you* (Romans 8:31-38), we can begin to feel distant and guilty which leads us to continue because we feel too far gone anyways. That’s a lie from the enemy. The more you sin, the farther you stray from God, but He never will give up on you. Read Luke 15, it’s never too late to come home — it’s all about having a relationship.

God could instantly deliver you from this but, how would that change your heart and bring you closer to Him? You would be grateful for a bit, then you might slip into another temptation to replace the porn. It’s through a relationship with God that your heart changes and you will not desire any sin. Because outside of looking at others with lust by watching porn, are you a liar? Do you steal? Are you disrespectful to your parents? Are you easily angered and offended? If you are, you’re guilty of more than just watching pornography, you’ve committed crimes against God. But, He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to take our punishment for the sins we committed. Jesus experienced God’s condemnation so we never have to, all we have to do is trust that God’s punishment for us was finished in Jesus’ sacrifice and repent – turn from our old ways and be a new creation. We don’t do this in our own strength, we do this through the Holy Spirit, there’s no way any of us can be more like Jesus without His help. If you truly accept Jesus (not just say the Sinner’s Prayer but allow it to change you), you won’t just go to Heaven, but you’ll receive the love, validation, contentment, and the intimacy that you’ve been searching for here on Earth. 

I haven’t arrived fully to this point yet, it’s a process to become satisfied in Him as a Child of God. At times I fear that I haven’t really surrendered my life, there’s a lot that I still want to control like people’s perceptions of me and making sure nothing impedes on my nap time. However, I don’t doubt that God is greater. It takes time and devotion to love Him, I will continue to learn how to love Him for the rest of my life. But with love comes trust and trust leads to obedience, it’s like that for all of us.

God is not mad at you, He’s not ashamed of you, He doesn’t find you embarrassing and He is NOT disappointed in you. He loves you and He will fight this for you, all you need to do is receive His love by surrendering your life to His purpose for you and start living as the new creation that you are. You are a daughter of the Most High God, no longer are you a slave to sin. 

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV

[megatrendingnews247-blog]

What's StorieBot?

OTO Inch: Guru Upgrade ($67)

100 Chatbot Efforts Each Month

 StorieBot has been 3-solutions incorporated in Inch monster bit of technologies:

 A simple touse Story Builder Editor to provide you instant Insta-gram Recommended Story Styling with associated quotation stock and bank image bank, frames and stickers to create exactly what you may could imagine.

 Insert count-down and surveys into your stories.  That raise your participation leading to more individuals seeing your own stories, building your bigger list and earnings from the long term.

 This feature lets you send DM broadcast together with url to each of your audience to always participate them and promote will in their mind.

It is pretty well-known that Insta-gram is a huge supply of exposure and traffic.  Therefore I am gonna b.s you concerning how new and fresh it's.  It Isn't.  However, for whatever cause, to the date..beginners without a followers were unable to decode the Insta-gram code in any way.

 DM listing

Infinite potential, how many traffic can be the niche becoming on Insta-gram?  Countless likely, at least.  That is YOURS.

Social Sharing to Ten websites, much more eyeballs, construct larger listing quicker

This chatbot lets you offer and remarket and remain intouch with your readers 24/7/365.  It's two manners essentially, active and passive. Passive sells to you personally after initial simple installation while busy provides you with more control and lets you send the information you'd like, if you desire!

Insta-gram and also Insta-gram stories particularly aren't just sexy, but they are also a gigantic cash generating gold-mine that'll EXPLODE your small business to levels you've never believed possible.

This convenient feature enables one to quickly check and understand very well what people already are speaking about which is trending so that you might will have a Storyboard match with articles which only about every one would like to chat around or acquire your own opinion.

That really is actually the heart problem fixer, which grab all the leads from people seeing your stories that are published.  Together with the audience technology you're able to observe the name, email, phone, ultimate message delivered and fame standing of most viewers to a Story.

Front End: StorieBot ($ 4-7 )

However Insta-gram at the Upswing, Insta-gram tales are climbing at a rapid rate..."Accroding To Forbes, Over 400 Million People-watch Insta-gram Stories Every Day!" .

Auto-DM

  Expand markets, move infinite, do have significantly more control, power & of course without even paying yearly or annual.

Media

  I truly expect it'd help you with your buying choice.  This method is coming outside with many bonuses to early bird.  Require your actions ASAP to your best bargain.

Media

The stories founder is magnificent.  It generates professional reports with out to consider about thoughts or manual or design work, and only stocks them on your own accounts, making you traffic extremely fast.

That can be absolute Goldand while there are a number of restrictions about how you're able to collect & see to the leads (to prevent by abusing the device and spamming leads) there is certainly not any affirmation, significance every viewer automatically reaches your contributor!

 Pricing

No 3 -- A.I ChatBot -- that chatbot feature subsequently hastens your own list and boosts supplies on them without you being forced to work in any way.  

OTO two: StorieEngage ($ 4-7 )

For a brief period, it is possible to catch StorieBot using earlybird discount price in these types of options below.  Let us select the best suitable alternatives for you personally before this exceptional deal !

 Inch Click Query Catch

​No specialized abilities needed whatsoever, everything is explained so clearly from the modules so you can begin as fast as you can.

​ $0 funding, no advertisements, no manual function, no domain names, no sites.  All you have to is that and also an Insta-gram account.

And also to top off it, it makes it possible to receive followers and proceed viral.  It's an advanced, all in 1 way that CRACKS Insta-gram wideopen and lets you acquire incredible results even for those who don't have any experience.

No 1 -- Story Creator -- make professional, attractive and engaging stories even in case you don't have any experience at all.

 http://groupspaces.com/TrendingNews247/pages/storiebot-review

This really is feature enables one to produce an Instant automobile DM therefore that instantly a Insta-gram user viewpoints that your Story a follow up Immediate Message is delivered into his in box, that you might add a hyperlink and also this has prompt notification and of course has elevated open pace.

4x Your Own Traffic & Income Potential With The Guru Version.

Export Checklist

Well... it unites 3 strong and innovative tools :

​Manage the capability to catch leads eternally and market to them by blending a chatbot, leadbot and narrative creator in 1.

Insert 5 More Insta-gram account

 Insert into email, get narrative audiences to a email lists.

Program Story

 Lately you might also catch information on additional Insta-gram users which aren't your own followers.

Hash-tag Spy, mechanically includes trending, related Hash Tags for a tales

It is no secret the generating prospects and earnings will be getting tougher and harder every single day. Your rivalry on face book and Google Advertising are always .  The adverts cost are always .  The conversions have reached the time low.  Most techniques have become obsolete.

And thus do not be afraid to take a look at the upcoming pieces with the StorieBot Review as I will show you how successful it really is!

This Inch Click Recruitment Cloud According Computer Software Creates Stories For You And Happens Every Story Viewer Right into a Lead Immediately Without Proof -- Never Heard Before.

We all are aware that the life line of an Engaging Story using Insta-gram is contingent upon the naturalness of this Visuals used, thus we've countless of Stock collections on Videos, Photo, illustrations and Vectors that you can just hunt from the niche keyword attention, select and rely your narrative.

Export your narrative audiences together side their name, email and contact number.  It's possible to reach them out via emailand contact them via phone after.  Until now it was not feasible to leverage Insta-gram traffic and leads similar to this.

500 Chatbot Efforts Each Month

Continuing Forward to the very revolutionary IG technology for Several Years.  Every viewer that sees your narrative becomes added into a own lead list in the pc software, at which you are able to remarket in their mind again and again again and again and also have the listing grow incrementally which makes you money .

Most programs only make it possible for you design Insta-gram stories...that is all.  And only posting and designing these stories wont require you anywhere unless you are generating leads and closing sales.

This feature lets you place the date you'd want a specific narrative to be released live for your Insta-gram Account n Story.

 Let us have a few minutes to see each of the Tremendous benefits develop together:

Just influencers, brands along with societal websites expert's appear to receive all of the power. This varies completely (last but not least ) to day.  Let me unveil a brand fresh program named StorieBot which could be your very first A.I applications which may in fact build you immense Insta-gram lists at no cost and mechanically sell them even in the event that you don't have any followers no Insta-gram experience.

We hunted anywhere but we couldn't locate one applications that could let us AUTOMATE our own Insta-gram Stories while generating leads and closing sales for people... That is where StorieBot -- a fantastic, cuttingedge solution comes in to playwith.

That really is really where it will become sexy.  Face-book chatbots such as Manychat are popular and have a wide number of qualities that turn every firm on FB to a power station.  Well... Insta-gram never needed it.  Until today.

You'll Be getting lots of this seller's Best bonuses to get the quick activity (and also a Lot More in the Bottom of the StorieBot Review):

Benefits and Features of StorieBot

Anybody can try so and get outstanding results.

https://karno27.blogspot.com/2019/11/storiebot-review.html https://sites.google.com/view/trendingnewsupdates/storiebot-review

 https://www.digitalforumtv.com/storiebot-review/

http://jvreviewwithbonus.over-blog.com/2019/11/what-s-storiebot-no-specialized-skills-demanded-at-all-everything-is-explained-so-clearly-from-the-modules-so-that-you-can-get-started-as-fa.html

http://xtrathings66.eklablog.com/storiebot-review-a177537670

No 2 -- inch Click LeadBot (never done before) -- that may be actually the very first time ever that this is authorized.  Every individual who sees your narrative, becomes your contributor -- without verification, inch click as 100% optin speed.

Program Story

Neighborhood Agency, an individual gets access in order to add up to 50 sub-users.  It includes an entirely designed search engine optimisation willing website that they are able to simply upload for their own server and begin marketing within an Insta-gram lead creation and promotion bureau.  You could even pay off these 50 accounts also bill 1-time or recurring commission in the clientele.

This very first IG stories founder, leadbot & chatbot assembles massive Insta-gram lists at no cost & auto sells for you.  This inch Click Integration cloud established applications creates stories foryou personally and turns every narrative viewer to some guide immediately without verification -- not achieved previously.

 Trends

[mystieres]

hello

it’s swagoru. this will be a message for the people who care about me or just don’t have anything else to do. (sorry if this is straightforward.) it is april 3 today, so please don’t treat this as a prank.

includes: general mood for the past few months, notice of hiatus, where else u can find me, and my plans while i’m on hiatus

once you’ve started reading this, please read through everything. i might cause misunderstandings if only part of this is read.

i am posting with the risk that people will not see this. and that’s alright. i just want to say it. i’m used to people not saying anything back for now. i never expect responses of any kind until they are actually given. this is a little pessimistic but i promise you all that i will not be doing anything reckless. and i promise that i do not blame anyone for this. the message was intended for the sole purpose of expressing how i feel and what i will be doing, and it is not against anyone.

i’ll start with the bad stuff first.

i’ll be frank, and i won’t blame anyone. i feel unwanted on social media and in general. and i don’t want anyone telling me that they did want me around all along, because that doesn’t change the way i experienced or the way i currently feel. i don’t want anyone to apologize for this either, because maybe they really don’t want me around, or they didn’t know how i felt. in any way, none of you are ultimately responsible for how i feel. don’t be. don’t feel responsible. in the end, i should be the one responsible for my own feelings and happiness. it’s just what i’m feeling right now. but i really do love and appreciate the messages of help i have gotten, all the gifts. they have pushed me forward.

while i tried to be as accommodating as possible before, i somehow ended up becoming selfish. as much as i tried to prevent people becoming uncomfortable, somehow i did. i unknowingly hurt others or made them uncomfortable. i do have my own personal problems but i won’t use them as an excuse. i’ve been through a lot, but it shouldn’t have changed the way i talked with others. i’m sorry.

i know i might have been rude or weird without being aware of it. but i just wanted you all to know that i appreciate you all a lot. everything has been causing me anxiety lately. i don’t know what i’m supposed to feel on social media anymore. i feel like i don’t belong anywhere anymore. irl, all my other friends are in relationships, and i’m really starting to feel that i was meant to be a lone wolf. right now, everyone’s already developed close ties when i started interacting with them.

in short, when it comes to building relationships and socializing, while some of you consider yourselves bad at doing this, i am a complete failure. i don’t know how to interact with past friends. even a hello seems awkward and like a burden. but i am afraid of hurting, of being hurt, leaving, and being left behind. and it always feels like something is going out of my control. and i am creating and maintaining the status quo of being alone. i am hoping that this will change. of course, i should be changing the way that i look at myself. but i see myself as nothing more than a problem to others, and have been for the past six or so years.

now, some of you might have offered or will offer your dms for me, and i appreciate it. it really means a lot. unfortunately, i’ve never been the type to want to rely on anyone because then, i’d feel like a burden. most of the time i’d prefer to just rely on myself instead of giving other people more problems as i know they’re busy, or i’m just not close with them. i have been so used to people spoon-feeding me, or completely leaving things to me, that asking for help is a completely foreign idea. someone like me, who is completely aware of her weaknesses, needs to learn how to rely on others. i would like to change this someday, but it’s just improbable for me to do that right now.

i have been having periods of silence where i would refuse to talk or reply to anyone for a few days at a time unless necessary. this has happened at least twice in the past month. i don’t want to feel rude or like a problem. another reason is that i don’t get that much interactions anymore. so i just don’t see any point. my lack of self-esteem aside, maybe i’m not that likable, i’m not very fun to talk to, or maybe what i make sucks or i’m just not talented enough. the algorithm has something to do with it too, i guess. all of them are good explanations.

a lot of you can understand how disheartening that must feel. personally it makes me feel inferior or unwanted. often i get told, “well, screw what they do. just continue to do your stuff!” and i will. i tell this to other people a lot. i’ll continue to draw and write. but as for small talk, i don’t know what exactly to say. there has to be a point now. i can’t say things that don’t make sense anymore.

so to the people i know on tumblr, instagram, twitter, and discord, thank you so much for being a great part of my little circle of friends. i’m going to admit i don’t keep many. i love you all so much that you’ve all made me cry with your kind words, gifts, and playlists. the music, art, writing, and advice you share. a bunch of you even met me before i turned into a legal adult, and even saw me through graduation. although i can’t recall every single thing i’ve experienced, i just wanted you all to know that i’ve been thankful for everything so far. you’re all great and amazing people. and i feel like i can’t express it enough. i am hoping that this is just another phase of me trying to break out of my shell.

there is a high likelihood of me going on an indefinite hiatus. this has happened before. all these past breaks have been half-assed and only making my emotional health worse. if i feel unwanted, then something must be wrong with me and i must change it myself. but i can’t do it while being problematic to others. it’s self-defeating. i must go on and better myself. and most of all, i’m tired of treating my depression and adhd as excuses. i’ll experience problems, but i don’t want to talk about them anymore when i could just do something.

i have logged out of my current discord because i always feel compelled to open messages and talk. i’m not forced. but i’m making myself uncomfortable.

twitter will probably be the exception (handle: swagoru_), and i will continue posting online, waaay less on tumblr. i cannot guarantee replies to messages. i’ve tried socializing but i just suck, so i’m too afraid to reply to anything. i have also put up a wordpress (check reblogs for the site) but there’s nothing in it yet. best site ever, because i won’t feel pressured or forced to interact or gain clout.

and here’s some slightly better news. please let me flex for now.

i am graduating with around/at least 11 awards bagged in total for my entire high school life (grades 9-12). some math contests and journalism stuff. and i am going on to college. 

it leaves me with just one issue: money. i am budgeting the inheritance i received from my late mother. aside from her, no one else is earning money for me. i have the support of my grandparents but i want to establish financial independence as soon as possible. i tried to apply for a job a while back but i was so busy. but i might take it this summer. for months i have been considering commissions, but it’s either i don’t have enough clout or talent to do them. my works barely get any notice so i’m deciding against it. but i am always going to try improving my art, writing, and myself. one day i will be brave enough to open commissions. i hope some of you will consider when i have my portfolio ready.

this means that i will be a lot busier preparing and improving myself. this also serves as my adjustment period from a high school student who was sheltered and completely dependent all her life to someone who is slowly being introduced into adulthood and reality.  i’m still learning how to live. i can’t let others befriend me while i’m still a mess. and most of all, even with my conditions, i don’t expect the world to adjust to me.

but when i become active here again, i hope that i’ll have the courage to speak and reply like usual. i hope to get rid of all this negativity and this shyness i must overcome.

i hope you read through everything. i’m going to miss you guys. i don’t know when i’ll be more active to talk. hopefully when we do, i will have become a better person by then.

all the love,

swagoru 💙

[massielandnetwork]

Thriving in an Economic Bubble during Anarchy

18. The Christian Succession – American Inflation amid a Chinese Financial Collapse

Three more Chinese real estate developers have joined China Evergrande Group (CEG) in not being able to service their debt (a total of $500 Billion). Combined with soaring costs forcing Chinese electrical producers to limit manufacturers to having electricity three days per week with ripple effects, China is now in a severe financial crisis. China’s ponzi real estate market is imploding from declining values of millions of empty speculative apartments (unbelievably overbuilt) reminded me of the old USSR joke where a bureaucrat in Moscow decided there was a need for more screws so they sent an order to the government factory for “one ton of screws”. The manager of the factory saw no description of the type of screws so he ordered his employees to make a one-ton screw. When the employees finished the single one-ton screw, they collected their pay and left work early celebrating their success. Marxism always fails.

Every week I enjoy numerous conversations relative to the land market. Many are in the new housing industry which provides me with a great insight into the most important economic leading indicator. Last week I had a conversation with the owner of a local manufacturing company that sources its material globally and serves customers around the globe. He described the daily supply chain crises he is experiencing because of plants being shut down, limited production capacity being shifted to only the most profitable products, a shortage of employees, raw material costs doubling with little warning, the lack of shipping containers, and overwhelmed ocean ports around the globe. Similar to conversations I hear in the homebuilding industry, this one offered a slightly different perspective on what is happening in our economy. It connected some data points in a unique way that you may find beneficial.

When our mostly capitalistic economy is functioning “normally”, every company is striving to maximize sales. They identify every possible niche of demand and create products for them while pricing each product or service as low as possible in order to reach every potential customer who will buy at a price that is profitable to the company. That pressure to maximize sales exerts downward pressure on the sales price of the goods or services. Downward pressure on price equals low inflation.

Under the Biden/Demented Marxists (DMs) administration, it seems the cost of most products have increased at least 50% while some have doubled. The Fed says this is “transitory” inflation. But last month The Fed sped up by one year their tapering of Quantitative Easing (QE) which is The Fed buying our national debt and mortgages to reduce mortgage rates thus stimulating new housing construction. Additionally, they moved forward their forecasted increase in the Federal Funds Rate by a year. Is The Fed worried? Yessir, and they should be.

But why are the prices of products increasing so quickly? What I realized is that companies today are not focused on maximizing the number of units they sell as they would in a “normal” economy as described above. Instead, because their supplies of raw materials and employees are insufficient, producers are focused on maximizing revenue so that they can cover their operating costs. The pressure on publicly traded companies is particularly intense because they need to show increasing profit so their stock prices go up even if their unit sales are stagnant or decline. In short, the prices of products are being raised to maximize revenue not unit sales.

This strategy is unsustainable long term. As the price of a product is raised, it eliminates some potential customers. Some homebuilders have told me that is now happening in the new home industry. How long can companies continue to raise prices to maximize revenue to keep their doors open? The better question, if a company continues to increase the price of its product and lose customers, when does it no longer have enough sales to cover its operating costs?

I miss my America where the manufacturers are looking for all of the market niches and producing a plethora of products at the lowest price at which they could make a profit. That is capitalism and sustainable. What we are experiencing is a form of Marxism and it is not sustainable. The transition back will be bumpy and bring some short-term pain. But the rewards are worth the pain if we do it. We need honest elections to get there.

Talking about the goal of honest elections, there were some notable happenings last week:

1. Delaware joined the growing list of states that are considering a forensic audit of the 2020 “election”. Is it now seven states that are preparing for forensic audits?

2. Nationally the number of state legislators supporting election audits more than doubled.

3. Virginia only has one legislator with enough testosterone to demand a forensic audit, Senator Amanda Chase of Chesterfield County. She makes the other Republican legislators look like eunuchs. Virginia does not need a Recount. Virginia DOES need a Forensic Audit. Only those who committed vote fraud should oppose a forensic audit. We put men on the Moon, we can have honest elections.

4. Mr. Durham issued more subpoenas amid rampant speculation about the potential outcomes. There are few tangible results publicly but I bet there is a lot of drama occurring. Watch for a spike in the number of unexplained deaths.

5. Some commentators have celebrated that the Demented Marxist Show (aka DMS) failed to pass the two massive “infrastructure” bills last week. I believe it is delayed until the DMS has enough dirt on some politician to remove the barriers. “Build Back Better” is a misnomer for the financial crater those bills would create.

6. “Let’s Go Brandon” became popular.

Economic Forecast:

It appears that the Federal government is intentionally creating a constant series of crises even so bizarre as labeling parents worried about their kids’ education to be “Domestic Terrorists”. The DMS have the FBI tracking soccer moms but not Antifa. Getting Momma Bear mad does not seem a good idea to me. But the result of the incessant crises is that shortages are everywhere – employees, computer chips, various products. I believe American managers deserve accolades for their success to date of minimizing the impact of the DMS Pandemic Bubble Economy.

As mortgage interest rates increase because The Fed begins tapering their QE in November, all real estate markets will be impacted - residential, commercial, and land. Some segments of the commercial market are already in distress - retail because of the inability to operate profitably and office with some projections of future occupancy being reduced by 50% due to remote work. In any event, the highest probability is an ugly real estate market unfolds next year.

Despite the experience of Germany who committed to all green energy only to see their electricity prices SOAR and become UNRELIABLE leading to their demand for natural gas (Nordstrom II Pipeline) and building coal fired electric generation plants, Biden/DMS has made us dependent on OPEC for oil and wants to force us to “Green Energy”. That means we face a combination of higher energy prices, higher mortgage rates, and higher taxes of a magnitude that each individually would cause a recession. That is a disastrous combination.

Add to this toxic mix the collapse of the Chinese Evergrande Group (CEG) and three other developers, compounding the Chinese economic crisis. Yes, the Chinese banks owned by the CCP will take the direct hit from the default by CEG. Yes, the CCP has bailed out their banks three times in the last 20 year, and here comes bailout number 4. But the economic ripple effects will hit the world including the USA. Keep one eye focused on the ripple effects from the collapse of China Evergrande Group and the other eye focused on the coming Biden/DMS stagflation.

Slashing taxes, decreasing the size of government, and providing tax incentives to re-build the American manufacturing economy is the proven way to increase the size of the American economic pie allowing more assistance to those who need it. America prospered under the hand of God because our country enjoyed the combination of Christianity, capitalism, and democracy.

Biden and the DMs have us on a path that is a self-destructive and decreases the size of the economic pie. Everyone loses except the “Elites”.

Pray that our Lord and Savior raises up and protects the Patriots that demand forensic audits of the 2020 election in every state. Honest elections are the fulcrum of our American experiment. It is not vengeance to demand honesty and that everyone play by the same laws. Men make plans, but God ALWAYS wins. Every portfolio should contain some cash and a great piece of land remains The Best investment long term.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of the prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:16-22) New Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press)

Please allow me to also share these words from Lin Wood:

“If you trust God, when there is chaos, you will see a plan. When there is fear, you will be fearless. When there is anxiety, you will be calm and at peace.”

Stay healthy,

Ned

October 6, 2021 Copyright Massie Land Network. All rights Reserved.

[putmyteethtorest-blog]

on leaving and being done

If you begin reading this, read it to the end. It’s important.

The idea of this is to get a few things off my chest about the past few months.

When we broke up, I asked, I desperately wanted to make sure you weren’t going to hate me.

Yet you have come at me filled with nothing but that.

I’ve done nothing wrong to you, I have not harrassed your friends. I reached out to Tommy a month ago when I had no one else to speak to, because I mistakenly believed he was my friend and was willing to support me in my time of vulnerability, cos I’d done the same for him in the past. I hear later both of you decided to mock me and call me a bitch, laughing at me.

You sent a friend of yours my way to ask something you could have asked yourself. I made it pretty clear when I messaged you about Andy harrassing me that my sole intention was to warn you of that. I had an opportunity there to complain to you or try and strike up a conversation, but I avoided doing so because I knew you wouldn’t want to listen and because it doesn’t do any good anymore. I told your friend that I meant no offense, but that in the future there was no need to play messenger. Based on the heated nature of your dms to me after that, I can only assume one or both Tommy and Cass lied about what I said to them or the way I treated them. Cos i sure as fuck haven’t been harrassing them.

There isn’t really a lot left to say exactly, except that in the time I’ve not been interacting with you I’ve learned a lot about myself. I have things I carry with me, reflex responses, built on months of stress and tension between the two of us. I have damage I literally have to unlearn because of us. I ignored warning signs and gut feelings because I was in love with you.

I knew for a long time that things didn’t feel right. But I remember a different person than the one that exists right now. You come to me, you lie to me. You try to make me feel bad for ever having had feelings for you, when you know that wasn’t my fault at all. You pretend I’m somehow to blame for any unresolved feelings you had for Shay while we were together. How insecure can you be, Em? How insecure do you have to be right now to try and rub my face in the dirt when I literally don’t have anything to do with you anymore?

You lie when you insist I should have known. You deflect blame from yourself for not being honest with me, and you try to shunt the burden of this relationship onto my shoulders even though that’s not how it was. You used to look in my eyes when we were together, tell me I was the best thing to ever happen to you. You would tell me how other people (including Shay) had made you feel bad about yourself. About your scars, about how it sometimes takes you extra time to read something or process what’s been said. I’m not perfect, but I was in no way responsible for reading your mind. You either are an extraordinarily good liar (which I doubt because of the way you’re acting now) or you were in fact in love with me.

Your heart never “belonged” to me because I didn’t try to possess you like that. I was clingy and a piece of shit sometimes. But I never wanted you to be unhappy. I never tried to force your hand with Shay.

It feels like you expect me to be jealous of Shay in some way. I am not, because I already know there’s a slim chance in hell that your relationship with her can ever hope to be healthy. Neither of you are healthy. Unhealthy people don’t have healthy relationships. You and I both have to learn how to be alone before we can find our people. But you’re running, you’re running as fast as you can. You hated me for holding you accountable for anything you did. You didn’t like that I picked up on your desire to be married and said I’d propose. I started representing real life consequences to you and that was far too much to handle.

But you can’t keep running your whole life, baby.

You gotta stop sometime. You have so much work to do.

Both of us know damn well what love is supposed to look like. But we don’t give it properly. We both historically put others needs before our own and it turns us into unhappy people.

I fell in love with you because we had that in common. I hated seeing you sad, so I did everything I could to fix that. I ignored the flaws and tried to force my way of thinking on you because I thought if it worked for me it had to work for you. I know that’s not how it works now and I’ve been working on letting other people speak and deal with things in their own way, and only offering my advice if they explicitly ask for it.

It can’t always be about the other person! You think you did this for yourself, but you didn’t! Because there’s comfort to be found in habit, and habit is easy. Habit is giving yourself back to what you said you were done with. Habit is refusing to admit to anyone you know that your relationship with Shay ended for a reason, even if you were still in love with her at the time.

You have shit in your life that’s scary. I don’t blame you for dumping me. Now that I’m alone, even though some days i’m nearly crushed under the weight of emptiness, I can see the things I forced to be a certain way for you. I’m a damn fool. When I dated Andy, I didn’t like spending time around her, but when I dated you, we both seemed to want it. And then I couldn’t let it go. It shouldn’t have been as hard as it was, obviously.

Dating you has ingrained stress into my body. I literally don’t know how we ever made it as long as we did, fearing that the other would somehow ruin a perfect day every single day. Now, in theory, I’m supposed to feel liberated. But I’m not, because somehow you keep coming up, long after I’ve left. If you must talk about me to your friends, if you must dm me on tumblr and immediately block me. Stop hating me.

I didn’t do enough that was wrong to you to merit that. You don’t get anything out of it. I’m already dumped, there is no need to keep making me relive it whenever you feel particularly rude.

I had wanted to romanticize the idea of you coming back to me, but I can’t. For a few reasons.

1. It is unhealthy and unproductive to do so, seeing as you aren’t going to come back anyway.

2. The person I remember who showed me the vulnerable kindness of her heart doesn’t exist in my world anymore. She might in someone else’s world, but not to me.

3. Whenever I have to interact with you, or talk about you, or talk to someone who behaves like you did whenever we fought, I shut down completely. I get bowled over by anxiety. I want to throw up. It’s crippling. If under some strange circumstance you try to get back into my life as my girlfriend, don’t. I can’t trust you anymore. Even though I still have feelings for you somewhere in my heart, I can’t trust you. I can’t look at your face and not be reminded of the unnecessary cruelty you treated me with.

I’ve wondered if perhaps the reason why you’ve been so mean is to try and force me to dislike you. But it doesn’t work properly, because that literally isn’t how being in love works. You should KNOW that, better than anyone. So if that’s your goal, please, stop. All you’ve done is caused even more damage and confused my heart more. It’s not what I need right now.

I still love you even though you’re bad for me. You don’t have to feel the same way or give a shit about me. But if you don’t want to be civil with me...leave me alone. It’s over, Em. It has BEEN over. Go away. You’re 21 years old and you’re acting like you’re 14. Stop telling your friends lies about me, stop lying to yourself, stop lying to me, stop being a petty asshole and dming me rude shit and then blocking me cos you know you don’t want me to respond.

[topicprinter]

Let me guess:You have followed all the best tips found on the Interwebz.You create fresh content daily. You use the right hashtags. You post 3 times a day. You reply to everyone who comments on your posts.Yet.The number of followers on your Instagram account remains pitiful. You don’t even remember the last time your follower count went up.At this rate that this is going on, you are going to give up.How can Instagram be a profitable channel for your restaurant, if your number of followers don’t grow?Fret not.I am here to help.I reached out to several Instagram marketing experts, and got them to answer this one question:“If you were to grow a brand new Instagram account from zero followers to 10,000 followers in under 30 days, how would you do it?”Below are their answers.And I am 100% sure you will find something new to try… and skyrocket your Instagram following.1. Zach Benson (Assistagram)Powerliking methodCost $1200-$1700 a month, depends on how many likes per day 1-3x.What are powerlikes and why does it work?Powerlikes are likes/comments from a network of large accounts (100k+ accounts are considered large) as soon as your post goes live. The intent is to play into Instagram’s algorithm where a post’s first ten minutes are most crucial for gaining traction and determining how it’ll do in reaching beyond your current following.It works two-fold: By flooding traffic from the large accounts over to yours from the ‘Following’ tab, as well as triggering the algorithm to recognise that large accounts are enjoying that piece of content.This will not only increase the post’s reach to more of your current followers but increases its chances significantly in hitting the Explore page, where you’re reaching beyond your current audience and grow organically and quickly.Telegram groups/roundsTelegram is a messenger app that has become solely used for Instagram engagement groups. It’s hugely popular as you can code bots that take over the entire process for you, making everything automatic.Below are screenshots of arguably the best and most exclusive engagement group, XPLOR Rounds.Prerequisites: 80k+ followers, 2k+ likes per post avgNiche: General/allDirect message groups (free method)Create a DM engagement group of 15 people with similar accounts, niche and a high quality audience— in this strategy, multiple Instagram accounts help each other grow organically by mutually liking & commenting on their content. The larger the accounts participating, the more effective it is. You will need to be in 50-100 groups and participate constantly throughout the day, each and everyday.Better to hire a VA to do this.Shoutouts/giveaways/contestsNetwork with other big Instagram accounts in your niche and try and set up a giveaway contest with them. This is a great way to grow your following fast. By collaborating with a 3 million follower account and 300k + account, you could grow up to 2,500 -3,000 + in less than a week. For example, maybe you have a hotel page and want more travel followers, you could create a 2 night all inclusive stay in your best suite for 2, full-board. To be entered into the contest, you have to follow these accounts (the two large travel accounts and yours) and the more friends you tag, the higher chances of you winning. The set up price of these contests vary in price and could cost you anywhere from $500 to a couple thousand dollars. It just depends on who you know, like how big your network is and what you can offer these huge accounts in return to create a mutually beneficial business relationship.Post viral contentOpen up your Instagram app, look at whats on your Explore page tab. All viral videos and pictures with thousands and thousands of views and likes. Most of this content is what we call viral content, unique and original and “way out there”. The more open you are to posting viral content the higher chances you will have of going viral on instagram while using the above methods.Be consistentTo be good at anything, you must do it every single day. For example, you aren’t going to be an awesome sports player if you only play 1-2x a week. You have to practice each and every day. Same with social media, you have to be consistent and posting each and every day, respond to comments, direct messages, like and comment on your target market, do market research, research and rotate hashtags daily, participate in engagement groups, use Instagram lives, stories, etc and create original epic content. Easily 3-4 hours a day. If you don’t have time to do this, outsource it. Build your brand. Your name is your most important asset. Reputation is what other’s think you are. Character is what you are. Grow your following, provide great value for your fans, teach, inspire, give, give, GIVE and watch your circle of influence grow, network expand, and more opportunities will come your way. You will find that it’s a lot easier to negotiate anything, seal deals, pretty much do anything when you grow your following and brand. You are the brand. You are the commodity. Think of Instagram as your new name card, so when you are out and about and you meet someone, exchange biz cards but then say hey let’s stay in touch via Instagram, pull up your account on their phone and then they are like WOW you have 100k followers. You are legit! Definitely peaks their interest more and helps you stand out from everyone else they met that night.2. Nathan Chan (Foundr Magazine)I would research the market I’m looking to serve, then create great looking content and post 3x a day.Then I would find other Instagram pages that serve this target market and get them to share my content as much as possible from either paying, or working out reciprocal deals using my own accounts as leverage.Then I would find other big accounts that serve this niche and convince them to like and comment on my posts.Then I would run at least 2 competitions/giveways to get people to like and follow us – I would give away something that of super high value that would attract my target audience / niche – (that way we’re building a following of buyers too around this market).3. Alex ToobyMy answer will help you reach 10,000 REAL and TARGETED followers.. Not just any follower because what’s 10k followers worth if they’re not going to engage with your content or purchase your products or services?So having said that.. here’s my approach: if you want your account to take off quickly you need to create a feeling of authority – like you’ve been doing this for ages and have perfected every inch of your Instagram strategy. To do that you need to laser focus on what your account is all about. It shouldn’t be “food, fitness, healthy lifestyle, travel, etc” it should be just ONE of those thing.Niche down as far as you can then curate images that fall into a very specific theme.Aesthetics are everything.. are your images white and bright? dark and moody? are they all desaturated except for the pinks and greens? Figure out what your aesthetic “style” is and stick to it like glue.Upload a variety of photos to populate your feed, then post at least once per day moving forward. Select hashtags that aren’t too large (limit yourself to 5 tags that have over 1million posts associated with them) and write engaging captions that evoke a feeling, educate, or provide some sort of value to your audience.Then.. the most time consuming part. Put yourself out there and start engaging with your target market. Like, comment and follow as much as you can (without getting blocked by IG) in the most authentic way possible. Make real comments, start true conversations, show your audience that you’re a real person who cares and is present behind the account. You could easily spend upwards of 1 hour a day doing this.On top of this you can add SFS with complimentary accounts, run a giveaway, add relative content to your Instagram stories daily and go on IG live often to answer your audiences questions.Bottom line is – Be present! Show up, be authentic and provide value.Good luck!4. Ali Mirza (ISocialYou)I would piggyback on the giant. Let me explain…You are just starting out and have no audience. Right?But there are so many other people in your niche who are 10 steps ahead of you (with huge audiences).So reach out to them and ask them to feature you.Yes, you may have to pay a little bit but it’s totally worth it.If you pick the right influencers, their followers is your target audience also.So don’t hesitate to spend some money.Let’s create a step by step process so we can easily follow1 — Find 10–20 Instagram influencers in your niche2 — You can search on Instagram or use 3rd party tools (e.g. RightRelevant, Kear, Ninja Outreach)3 — Find the contact info of the owners. Note: If their contact info is public on their account, this means they open for business)4 — Reach out and find out how much their charge for a “shout out” or “feature post”5 — I would pick 10 and have them feature my brand new account. Then pick the best 3 to 4 best performing influencers and do it again.“You either build the audience from scratch or go to someone who already has the audience you need.”5. Leon Benjamin (TripleYourTribe)Here’s my answer.The main steps are 1. Who I’m looking to attract 2. My content + hashtags 3. Get easy quick followers 4. Shout campaign 5. Giveaway campaign 6. Engage with existing fans dailyFirst determine who’s my account for. And think about who else is serving them right now. What other instagram accounts are currently BIG that have them. I’d make a list of at least 30 of them who have over 40k followers and a fairly active comment section where discussions arise.Next, I’d find out what type of content those accounts put out thats interesting for them to engage with. Make at least 30 posts that are similar to those kinds of post and add a twist to them with my brand. The rest can be posts with quotes related to the market.Also from the previous listed accounts, scrape some of the hashtags that are in the medium range 20k-200k posts. And some in the more popular range +500k. From there I’d look a bit deeper to find more related tags through suggestions. From there, I schedule the posts with later.com to go out once per day. And another post uploaded manually. While rotating 60 hashtags across 2 posts per day. (that’s 30 tags per post. NOT 60 tags per post – which can get you into trouble!)Next, I’d ask my current network of friends, or fam to follow my new account. Just for the sake of growing momentum and some social proof.Now for the giveaway campaign. I’d create a document of value either from my knowledge or from interviewing influencers in the market or get an existing product of value (maybe around +100$) that that audience will want. Something thats related to the market. And offer it for free. In a giveaway. They would have to follow and tag in someone to enter for a chance to win. The winner would be announced on the last day of the 30 days. All participants receive part of the document or online product as well as a bonus.Then, while that’s being promoted in the account, I’d get others to share it as well. I’d reach out to that list found in step 1 and ask them to give us a shout on their page. In exchange, shout them out on my page, or give them something of value in return.While they promote the contest, I’d manually get traffic. The way I’d do that is by engaging (by liking or commenting or replying to stories) to the people who are active on the posts from accounts of list one.In summary, 1. find my audience, 2. the content they’d like, 3. the tags that attract them,4. Ask existing network for some social proof followers 5. Create a contest 6. Get shouts from relevant accounts 7. Manually engage with the marketThat could make me hit 10,000 followers easy. But in reality, hitting the 10k mark can be done by purchasing them.. however, would not make your account valuable to you or your market..What would be the most bang per buck (your buck being in terms of your energy and time), would be to have an engaged and interested following instead.So growing through the steps above, ensures you get interested followers. And less of the ones that unfollow you later.If you like more strategies recommended by 14 other top Instagram marketing influencers, you can read them here.

[j-wonwootrash]

Jun || Scarred Pt.2

Word count: 4k  Genre: Angst, drama, romance, slice of life A/N: So sorry for the super long wait! It’s been months I know. Thanks for being patient with me huhu. BTW, if the dialogues are in bold then they’re speaking in different language. ^^ ENJOY P.S. Please DM me if your want requests! ^^ or post on my wall for drabbles! 

“Your eyes hid a lot of words.”

———

Quietly you waited for the staff and crew in a room. You sat on the sofa, swinging your legs in alternate movement to kill time. Lips pursed as you looked around the room with curiosity. You’ve never heard of Pledis Entertainment nor its stars, so your mind at the moment filled with excitement and anxiety. 

“Hello Miss Y/N. Please follow me and meet with our idols and some of the trainees. They’re around your age so don’t sweat it.” You nodded as you followed him to a meeting room, filled with 13 boys and 10 girls, sitting on a long black table. “Ah Y/N-sshi! Welcome! It’s so good to see you again! I mean even if we saw each other earlier, but I’m happy to see you again!” Seungkwan stood to greet you. “It’s good to see you too, I guess.” You happily shook his hand. The rest of the boys followed the boy and did their greetings. If Seungkwan is here then.. ‘he’ must be-

“Bet you’re looking for the most handsome in Seventeen.” You hear this particular voice you never wanted to hear. You turned to his way and girl you hated the smirk on his face. “You’re looking at him now.”

The members cringed at his self-praised comment. “Yah hyung! You’re already making a move on her?” Chan hit the boy’s arm.

“Whoa hold your horses there Chan. I was just..” He paused “Being friendly..” He looked at you again. Oh the smell of sarcasm! If this was a movie where you could stop this scene and beat the poop of that guy you’d definitely do it. Even for a hundred times. Heavy breaths started to go up and down your lungs as you glared at him. You felt as if smoke were coming out of your nostrils.

“Friendly my butt..” You whispered. You immediately sat down as you saw the man in suit you assume he’s the one of the heads of the company.  

“I called you all today to formally introduce to you a new star who’d be joining us this year.” He pointed at you and Seventeen cheered, knowing there will be lots of time to get to know you. “Miss Y/N. Do you have words to say?”

“I am most honored to work amongst the idols that have been rising to the top of industry. I hope we could make memories together at my time here in Pledis. Please take care of me.” You bowed.

Oh boy, how bad can this be? 

The meeting ended soon enough you were on your way out. A hand called out for you and you were surprised to see Hoshi. “Can I help you with something?” You asked, the boy smiled and pointed at the rest of the members.

“We’re making new choreography for the upcoming event we’re participating in. I was hoping if you could join us and maybe give feedbacks. And since you’re new here, we’d like to show you around afterwards.”

It was alright for you to join them, except you’d see the face of the guy you hoped you didn’t meet today. “Sure I’d love to.” You smiled as he pulled you to their practice room.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“..and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, 6, and 7 and 8.” Hoshi inhaled as he clapped to take a break. 

“Everyone! Food’s here!” S.Coups yelled and the boys gathered in a circle to eat. You thought how much they worked so hard and being able to do what they love is a beautiful sight, especially when they get an award in the end, that is, chicken. “Y/N-sshi! Come join us! Chicken’s delicious!”

You nodded as you walked to them. They created a space for you to sit down and eat. “I’ll enjoy the food.”

“Y/N-sshi! What are your thoughts of chicken here in Seoul? Do you prefer it dipped in sauce, fried, seasoned or just the way it is?”

“I think all is fine. I’m not a picky eater.” You giggled. “Although I prefer garlic flavor over the original.” You took another piece.

Your giggles echoed the practice room and some of the members found your voice sweet and gentle, they could listen to it all day.

“Ah!” Dokyeom stood up. “Y/N-sshi, do you sing?”

“Uhm, I do sing from time to time but I don’t really consider myself good.” Embarrassed, you drank water to calm down. 

“We’ll be the judge of that Y/N!” Dokyeom smiled. “I bet your voice is beautiful.”

Encouraged, you sat properly to start singing. “Then, I’ll sing-” 

You felt a hand pulling you up. “I’m sorry boys, you have to listen to her some other time.” Jun spoke softly yet there’s darkness in every word he uttered.

“Jun? That’s kinda rude to interrupt her-” Joshua started. 

“And I think it’s rude of you all to force on the things she can’t do.” Jun glared.

“Hey I did it in my own will, Junhui. Besides I can sing, in case you forgot.” You sternly said as you let go of his grip. Jun furrowed his eyebrows, eyes in disgust.

You weren’t sure why Jun was suddenly acting this way, but he was getting onto your nerves. You didn’t want to show your relation with Jun to the boys, just to avoid the issue you had from years before. 

“You have to go.” Jun said. “Now.” The tension was getting far and the boys can sense the situation, at least you think it that way. “Just go.”

The members started to speak to themselves and some are too confused to even ask. “Hyung you can’t ask her to leave when she’s just starting to-” Seungkwan got interrupted.

Jun pulled your arm out of the practice room, making you to catch up to his speed. “LEAVE.” This time there was a hint of anger in his voice. “Don’t act all comfortable around my friends just because it’s your first day.”

“Look who’s acting all professional for goodness’ sake. I am new in this company and your friends made me feel at home. Unlike someone who isn’t doing any effort. Can’t you at least be happy for me?” You raised your voice in an obvious manner, though he sensed the sarcasm in you.

“Just to make things clear. I’m not who you think I was before. I don’t know why on earth you ended up here, I expected not to see you again. But here you are, the almighty Y/N never changed. Even here you’re still chasing me? I’m crystal clear that we broke up.”

“Chasing you? How stupid do you think I am? I was offered work. And if you think I’m trying to be flirty with your friends, y-you’re wrong. Why were you mad anyway?!” You stuttered.

A laugh came out of Jun’s lips. Evil, he thought. “Mad? Of course not.” He fell silent for while before he began to speak, walking closer to you, just centimeters from your face. 

“I’m very mad you even have the guts to lie to my friends. ‘Sing’ you say? How could I forget that word that never existed in your dictionary. Now tell me, who among them do you fancy-”

You slapped him so hard the members came out, wondering what took Jun so since pulling you out of the room. “You jerk.. You have nothing to do with me anymore. So stop acting like some ‘know-it-all’ smarthead who doesn’t even care a single of my feelings. You- you left me..” You turned around. 

“‘Know-it-all’ huh?” Jun licked his lips. “Sure I got nothing to do with you but, Well.. Mr. Know-it-all here knows you were faking around with my friends. And I didn’t leave you. You did, without letting me explain further!” 

You began to walk. You didn’t know why you gave in. You thought you were fine but you weren’t. You thought seeing him would be alright but he angered you. You thought remaining normal would work but you just couldn’t read him anymore. His sudden act in front of his friends confused you. A tear slid down your cheek. I’m not a flirt. 

And you thought you moved on.

He was not Jun you knew. 

He was not the Jun everyone knew.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Jun went inside the dorm, not surprised to see his friends having their jaws dropped or stare at him in shock. They’ve been like that back in the van. He sat down on the sofa, not wanting to look up.

“So you both have dated. And you didn’t tell us.” Jeonghan started.

“What’s there to tell? It’s all in the past anyway. Waste the time for all I care.” Jun’s voice raised as he gripped on the pillow.

“Your eyes hid a lot of words.. for a guy who’s confident in himself.” Wonwoo told him. “You couldn’t even look at us now.”

“You can’t carry the burden yourself. You have us.” Mingyu smiled, comforting Jun.

Jun didn’t understand why the boys were trying to calm him down. They didn’t experience the same, he thought. “Just leave me alone.” He didn’t want the members to force him out of it.

“No. We’ll wait for you to speak up, even if it costs us sleep.” Minghao patted Jun’s back.

“Wait for me to speak up you say? Just how much do you know what I’m going through huh? You all saw the whole thing!”

Minghao furrowed his eyebrows and his anger got the best of him. “We won’t know unless you tell us! We can’t have a troubled member doing poorly that’ll ruin the performance!”

Jun stood up, furious to even know what Minghao has to say. “Then I guess you’re performing without me!” He flung his arms in the air with exaggeration everyone knew was fake. He then tried to leave the living room.

“We can’t let you do that!” Minghao stood up, pointing at Jun with his finger. “If you have what it takes to burden the team, I suggest you to not join us in this performance.” 

“You have no say because you’re not the leader!” Jun stomped forward to Minghao, only to be stopped by Hoshi.

“Either you tell us or you’ll be suspended for two weeks. You can’t hide from us anymore, now that we know your heart is scarred.” Hoshi said with a low voice as he held Jun’s shoulders. Jun didn’t want anyone to interfere in with his issues.

“Urgh!” Jun’s voice quivering. “You.. all just don’t understand!” He went straight to his room, slamming the door.

“Give him time. Her coming was probably too sudden for him. He probably was too shocked to even contemplate.” Seungcheol stood up, rubbing his eyes. 

Jun leaned against the door with fists covering his face. I fought them because of Y/N. That girl.. You’re gonna pay for this.

The words of revenge clouded and soon blinded him, for the things he planned to do in the later days.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

You rubbed your eyes to the rays of morning light that peeks through your pink blossomed curtains. It is only 7 a.m and you couldn’t wait to start your day with the company.

Only then you remembered what happened last night. Jun interfering with you was unpleasant. Why would he think that you were flirting with his friends? His words stung, but you didn’t understand why it hurted you. They shouldn’t have. 

You moved on and so did he. Clearly he was bitter over the breakup but treating you like trash in front of his friends was something you never expected. You thought he would set it aside. 

You just couldn’t believe it. You rolled side to side on your bed and screamed to your pillow to let your anger out. “WHYYY. AARE. YOUUU. SOOOO. STUPIDDD. JUUUNNNNN???”

Your roommate, Yoojung rushed to your room and banged on your door. “Y/N! Are you okay?? Answer me!” There was a pause. “Yo Y/N?? Are you even alive??”

Annoyed, you got up and opened the door. “Thank goodness you’re awake! I was just about to tell you-” She looked at you with mouth agape. You knew she was staring at your puffy eyes. “Girl you look awful.” She gestured the all of you. 

“Yes I know I’m aware of it.” You scanned her with her bedhead and morning face. “And you’re no different.” You gestured to the all of her. She hit you and you turned around to lie on your bed again. 

“Anyway, as I was saying. We will film a CF with Seventeen starting from today at 9. Well, briefing actually, at the swimming area. Then the training will be in three days.”

“So soon? I just had a meeting yesterday with Pledis.”

“Can’t complain, can we?” She sat down beside you. “C’mon, I know just the thing to cheer you up.”

“Take a wild guess Yoojung.”

“Erm, it could be movies, right? I mean you starred in countless of movies! There’s gotta be something you like!” She wiggled you and you love how she brings joy to day even if she doesn’t invade your privacy.

“Alight alright. Just one movie before we go to our schedule.” You finally agreed to her persuasive attitude.

“Let’s watch something that reminds you of home! Hm.. Maybe Ip Man?? You starred in it! Aww I wanna see a young Y/N!”

You blushed at her comment but later faded as you remembered Jun was casted as the young Ip Man. You were just one of the little kids with little screen time, let alone your first film. Back then he was full of himself, and still is. The young Jun was so confident he bragged his role to the others. 

“I’m the young Ip Man, and you’re just all extras.” He’d hit his chest several times for exaggeration, smiling as he scanned all of you in the crowd behind him. You could tell some were pissed and others were in awe, inspired even.

Then it was getting too much, he would look at the rest of you, grinning if Donny Yen would go near him. Enough was enough.

“Stop acting like you’re the star. In any way you see, you’re still one of the extras.” You stood up, standing in front of the crowd you came from.

He saw you and chuckled, walking towards you. “An extra.. with special roles, a.k.a. young version of the protagonist. I’m still ahead of you.”

Since then you decided to compete with him. Trying to get into several movies and soap operas as much as possible.

However, the thought of Jun made your eyebrows furrow. As you watched his part, you grabbed the remote and switched off the T.V.

“Hey! I was watching!” Yoojung complained.

“We’re late.” You excused, rubbing your face in irritation. “Well? Are you going to prepare or not? I’ll definitely leave you.”

“C’mon! We still have an hour!” She flew her hands in the air, pointing at the owl-shaped clock hung on your room wall. “See?”

“An hour’s short. Get up buttercup.” You pulled her off your bed.

“You’re treating me breakfast!” Yoojung ran out.

“Yes yes.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Jun stared at the remaining raindrops on their van, tracing the trail of water the dew leaves behind. He didn’t know how to act towards his friends after misbehaving like a kid last night. The members treated him like nothing happened, some patting him at the back and some verbally asking him if he was okay. Perhaps they did try to understand. 

Minghao was the only one who neither talk or notice him. Maybe he has his reasons for ignoring him, but he shouldn’t keep it for long.

“Wahhh! The swimming pool! This is cool!” Hoshi screamed, placing his hands on the window of the van. “We’ll film the CF here??”

“Yeah, if you were listening yesterday you won’t be asking us the 5th time.” Vernon pulled Hoshi down to sit. 

The boys got off the van and stared at the blue sky. “Great weather for filming.” Joshua said. Their manager soon went to them, panting. 

“You’re late.” 

“We came on time, Hyung.” Jeonghan said, fanning himself with an pocket electric fan under an umbrella. 

“The girls were earlier than you all. Come inside.”

“Girls always be girls. Early.” 

The meeting of the CF was not something new to you. You’ve been to many and for you, this is a piece of cake. You knew Jun was staring at you and you did not bother to look him at all. He should apologize. Though in your chest there was an urge to look at him at least for a bit. Ignore him for now, you thought.

Jun thought you were pretty in your ivory white off-shoulder top, your hair styled in low a braided bun, your choker that matches with the petal-pins on your hair, denim shorts that showed your slender legs. He was not so sure why he was looking at you in admiration. He’s supposed to not notice you even after last night, but there wasn’t any choice. You’re too stunning he can’t make himself look away.

“Staring at her although you fought her?” Jun heard Minghao go up to him. 

“I wasn’t.” Jun broke away from your beauty. “She just happen to be in front of me.” He excused.

“Yeah I saw the whole thing. Got a hawk eye, remember?” Minghao pointed his eyes, smiling. 

“You aren’t mad?” Jun asked with wide eyes.

“I was mad..” He paused. “..until I figured out you still love her.”

Jun didn’t move or react. He just looked at his friend who was still smiling at him. “Bullseye bro?”

“Yeah.. Bullseye.” Jun nodded, trying to think what else he has to say to his friend.

“I’ll support you, but if you break her heart, I’ll take her okay?” 

“What did I do to get myself a rival?” Jun chuckled.

“You didn’t do anything. She did. Her beauty.” Minghao pointed at you, who now are looking at Jun. “She’s pretty.”

You didn’t mean to stare at Jun. You were just observing the new place. Lies.

“Y/N ah.” Yoojung called. Not getting a response from you, she looked at where you were looking at- Jun. “Haaa? Y/N you like-” Your eyes widened and your hands were fast enough to cover the girl’s mouth.

“Shhh! Your voice is loud.” You hissed.

“I can’t breathe.”

“Sorry.”

You let go of the girl, walking pass her and into the meeting room. You knew the way you acted, Yoojung probably took it as a yes by now. 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

You all were on your way to the area for the CF. The wind brushing through the leaves of the palm trees made you feel like in another world. You find funny how the boys lined up in two lines. Like kindergarten, you thought.

As if time were trying to let you finish the day, the trial filming started, each of you holding onto a product you’re promoting. You had the area to yourselves and you couldn’t believe how much money it took to book the place. 

The CF was simple, yet hard to decide. It could be you or Yoojung that would jump from a 5m diving platform, along with two other members from Seventeen. It’s not that high and you’re not an aqua-phobic either. So why do you feel nervous over a CF? Your stomach churned in pain for a good minute then it was gone. You looked over to Yoojung and she was excited as ever. 

The director started filming the scenes and all you had to do was to enjoy the moment promote the product, then the rest of editing is up to the staff. It didn’t take long for the diving scene to arrive. You noticed one of Yoojung’s swimsuit laces are close to becoming undone. But before you could speak up, the director made his signal. 

“Yoojung, Mingyu and Seungcheol. Are you ready?”

Looking up at them, the three nodded and dived, cheers and applause were slowly coming to volume. Mingyu and Seungcheol were the first ones to get out of the water. Yoojung hasn’t. 

“Yoojung, you can come up now. Get out of the water!” Her manager called. There was no answer. “Yoojung-ah!”

The staff gave whispers and comments if Yoojung couldn’t swim, or if the pool is too deep for her. Gosh you all call yourselves staff and yet you don’t double check her outfit. 

it’s been more than 20 seconds and your instincts tells you to save her, save her from exposure of skin. Immediately you grab a towel from a table and dive into the water. The rest were shocked to see you do that, quick to act.

As you dive in the cool water, your vision of small bubbles began to disappear and you felt the sole of your right foot sting you with cramps. Ignoring the pain, you grabbed Yoojung and cover her upper body with a towel and she immediately grasped for air. You stayed underwater and held your foot. But the more you touched it, the more it hurted. 

“Y/N! How can you be so dumb saving me and not yourself?! You’re a confident idiot!” Yoojung cry-yelled, earning the boys’ attention. Jun heard this and wanted to get you out of there. Yet he couldn’t because of your fight. 

“Y/N-sshi can’t swim??” Seungkwan asked Jun.

Jun had a dilemma for a good 5 seconds. If I save her, it’ll be good but.. He thought. If I don’t, that’ll be a bad impression on the members. 

He looked at Minghao and he has his fists on his chest- “Get her.” is what he meant.

“Agh, screw it!” Jun ran to the pool. The members were low-key cheering for him now that they know his relation to you.

To your surprise you see Jun swimming to you, grabbing your waist, and you knew what he was doing. You felt irritated, thankful, but irritated. He helped you out of the pool. Yoojung came to you, handing you a towel. “Are you okay?”

You felt Jun’s hands still on your waist. You shrugged it off, glaring at him. “I didn’t need saving, especially when it’s coming from you.”

“I could at least get a ‘thank you’.” Jun stood up. 

“Didn’t I tell you that you have nothing to do with me anymore?” You turned to him. “‘Crystal clear’, right?”

Jun flinched at the word you used against him. “Shut that mouth of yours until I hear the words of gratitude from you.” He said in a low tone as he threw his towel to your face, silencing your complaint. 

“I’ll have a break of 5.” Jun told his manager. He didn’t understand why. He didn’t catch up why you didn’t thank him. He knew it was a little help but that’s all he could offer. 

You took off the towel from your face. “Wen Junhui! I’m not done with you! Get back here!” You yelled, Yoojung pulling you back.

“Leave him alone. Why aren’t you thanking him? He saved you for crying out loud.” Minghao interrupted. “You’re a beaut with no brains.”

You looked at Minghao. “I didn’t need saving! I can swim!” You caught Jun walking away. “WEN JUNHUI! I swear if you didn-”

Pitch black vision slowly entered your eyes, legs limping, weakening. 

There, you fainted.

“Y/N!” Yoojung wiggled you. “Hey can you hear me?”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The smell of strong meds woke you. Sitting up, you rubbed your temples. “Yoojung-ah, how long was I out?” Vision’s still regaining, you found a figure on your bedside, assuming she’s your manager. “Ah unnie.. Get me a glass of water and hot towel please.” 

She didn’t respond. Is she cross because of the way I behaved?

“Here you go.” It’s a male?

That voice.. It’s Jun.

Accepting the water, you drank it. “What are you doing here?” You bitterly spoke.

“I guess it’s about time we talk.”

You chuckled in disbelief. “Mm, what changed your mind?” Stirring the spoon in your glass cup.

“Nothing changed my mind. I just came to tell you something; something we both could probably do, and abide to it.” He sat down again. This time, he’s right beside you. Too close, you thought.

“Let’s stop adding injuries to the person who’s already wounded and scarred. Do we have a deal?”

━━━

scarred masterlist

>> a relationship with jun was all going well, not until a certain situation got in between that made everything crumbling down. forgiveness was key but it was the progress that was essential to make forgiveness happen.

< prev. || part two || next >

[nahoo883]

Transportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheel

Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch. We love the reader feedback. Keep it coming.

Never heard of TechCrunch’s Transportation Weekly? Read the first edition here.  As I’ve written before, consider this a soft launch. Follow me on Twitter @kirstenkorosec to ensure you see it each week. An email subscription is coming!

This week, we’re shoving as much transportation news, tidbits and insights in here as possible in hopes that it will satiate you through the end of the month. That’s right, TechCrunch’s mobility team is on vacation next week.

You can expect to learn about metamaterials, how traffic is creating genetic peril, the rise of scooter docks in a dockless world, new details on autonomous delivery startup Nuro and a look back at the first self-driving car fatality.

ONM …

There are OEMs in the automotive world. And here, (wait for it) there are ONMs — original news manufacturers. (Cymbal clash!) This is where investigative reporting, enterprise pieces and analysis on transportation lives.

Mark Harris is here again with an insider look into autonomous vehicle delivery bot startup Nuro. The 3-year-old company recently announced that it raised $940 million in financing from the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Harris, during his typical gumshoeing, uncovers what Nuro might do with all that capital. It’s more than just “scaling up” and “hiring talent” — the go-to declarations from startups flush with venture funding. No, Nuro’s founders have some grand ideas from automated kitchens and autonomous latte delivery to smaller robots that can cross lawns or climb stairs to drop off packages. Nuro recently told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it wants introduce up to 5,000 upgraded vehicles called the R2X, over the next two years.

The company’s origin story and how it’s tied to autonomous trucking startup Ike is just as notable as its “big ideas.”

Come for the autonomous lattes; stay for the story … How Nuro plans to spend Softbank’s money

Dig In

What do metamaterials and Volvo have in common? Absolutely nothing. Except they’re both worth higlighting this week.

First up, is an article by TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey on a company called Lumotive that has backing from Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures. The names Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures aren’t the most interesting components of the story. Nope, it’s metamaterials.

Let us explain. Most autonomous vehicles, robots and drones use lidar (or light detection and ranging radar) to sense their surroundings. Lidar basically works by bouncing light off the environment and measuring how and when it returns; in short, lidar helps create a 3D map of the world. (Here’s a complete primer on WTF is Lidar).

However, there are limitations to lidar sensors, which rely on mechanical platforms to move the laser emitter or mirror. That’s where metamaterials come in. In simple terms, metamaterials are specially engineered surfaces that have embedded microscopic structures and work as a single device. Metamaterials remove the mechanical piece of the problem, and allow lidar to scan when and where it wants within its field of view.

Metamaterials delivers the whole package: they’re durable and compact, solve problems with existing lidar systems, and are not prohibitively expensive.

If they’re so great why isn’t everyone using them? For one, it’s a new and emerging technology. Lumotive’s product is just a prototype. And Intellectual Ventures (IV) holds the patents for known techniques, Coldewey recently explained to me. IV is granting Lumotive an exclusive license to the tech — something it has done with other metamaterial-based startups it has spun out.

Shifting gears to Volvo

Automakers are rolling out increasingly robust advanced driver assistance systems in production cars. These new levels of automation are creating a conflict of sorts. One on hand, features like adaptive cruise control and lane steering can make commutes less stressful and arguably safer. And yet, they can also cause overconfidence in the system and complacency among drivers. (Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk has noted that complacency is a problem among owners using its advanced ADAS feature called Autopilot). (And yes, I wrote advanced ADAS; it sounds repetitive, but it’s meant to express higher levels of automation and a term I recently encountered from two respected sources)

Some argue that automakers shouldn’t deploy these kinds of automated features unless vehicles are equipped with driver-monitoring systems (DMS are essentially an in-car camera and accompanying software) that can ensure drivers are paying attention. Volvo is taking that a step further.

Driver Monitoring Camera in a Volvo research vehicle

The company announced this week that it will integrate DMS into its next-gen, SPA2-based vehicles beginning in the early 2020s and more importantly, enable its system to take action if the driver is distracted or intoxicated. The camera and other sensors will monitor the driver and will intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not respond to warning signals and is risking an accident involving serious injury or death. Under this scenario, Volvo could limit the car’s speed, call the Volvo on Call service on behalf of the driver or cause the vehicle to slow down and park itself on the roadside.

Volvo’s plans raise all kinds of questions, including privacy concerns and liability. The intent is to add a layer of safety. But it also adds complexity, which could compromise Volvo’s mission. The Autonocast, a podcast I co-host with Alex Roy and Ed Niedermeyer, talk about Volvo’s plans in our latest episode. Check it out.

A little bird …

We hear a lot. But we’re not selfish. Let’s share.

Remember two weeks ago when we dug into Waymo’s laser bears and wondered whether we had reached “peak” LiDAR? (Last year, there were 28 VC deals in LiDAR technology valued at $650 million. The number of deals was slightly lower than in 2017, but the values jumped by nearly 34 percent.)

It doesn’t look like we have. We’re hearing about several funding deals in the works or recently closed, a revelation that shows investors still see opportunity in startups trying to bring the next generation of light ranging and detection sensors to market.

Spotted …. Former Zoox CEO and co-founder Tim Kentley Klay was spotted at the Self-Racing Car event at Thunderhill Raceway near Willows, Calif., this weekend.

Got a tip or overheard something in the world of transportation? Email me or send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec.

Deal of the week

Lyft set the terms for its highly-anticipated initial public offering and announced it will kick off the roadshow for its IPO. That means the initial public offering will likely occur in the next two weeks. Here’s the S-1 that Lyft filed in early March. This latest announcement also revealed new details, including that its ticker symbol will be  “LYFT” — as one might expect — and that the IPO range is set for between $62 and $68 per share to sell 30,770,000 shares of Class A common stock. Lyft could raise up to $2.1 billion at the higher end of that range, or $1.9 billion at the lower end.

The Lyft news was big — and it’s a story we’ll be following for awhile. However, we wanted to highlight another one of Ingrid Lunden’s articles because it underscores a point I’ve been pushing for awhile: not every important move in the world of autonomous vehicles occurs in the big three of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley.

This week, Yandex, the Russian search giant that has been working on self-driving car technology, inked a partnership with Hyundai to develop software and hardware for autonomous car systems. This is Yandex’s first partnership with an OEM. But it’s not Hyundai’s first collaboration with an autonomous vehicle startup. (Hyundai has a partnership with Aurora too)

Yandex will work with Hyundai Mobis, the car giant’s OEM parts and service division, “to create a self-driving platform that can be used by any car manufacturer or taxi fleet” that will cover both a prototype as well as parts for other car-makers.

Other deals:

Indonesia’s Kargo comes out of stealth with $7.6 million from Travis Kalanick, Sequoia and others

Ford to invest $850 million to add more production capacity for EVs

Toyota is deepening its relationship with Nvidia

GM is investing $300 million to build its next EV in Michigan

Snapshot

One year ago, I parked on a small rise overlooking Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. The mostly dirt knoll, dotted with some trees and a handful of structures known out here as ramadas, was hardly remarkable. Just one other car sat in the disintegrating asphalt parking lot, the result of so many sun-baked days. A group of homeless people had set up at the picnic tables under a few of the structures, their dogs lolling nearby.

And yet, it was here, or specifically on the gleaming road below, that something extraordinary had indeed happened. Just days before, Elaine Herzberg was crossing Mill Avenue south of Curry Road when an Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed her. The vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, with a human test driver behind the wheel.

I had been in the Phoenix area, a hub for testing autonomous vehicle technology, to moderate a panel on that very subject. But the panel had been hastily canceled by organizers worried about the optics of such a discussion. And so I picked up Starsky Robotics CEO Stefan Seltz Axmacher who was also in town for this now-canceled panel, and we drove to site where Herzberg had died.

I wrote at the time, that “March 18 changed everything—and nothing—in the frenzied and nascent world of autonomous vehicles.” One year later, those words are still correct. The incident dumped a bucket of ice water over the figurative heads of autonomous vehicle developers. Everyone it seemed, had sobered up. Testing was paused, dozens of companies assessed their own safety protocols. Earnest blogs were written. Lawsuits were filed.

And yet, the cogs on the AV machine haven’t stopped turning. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Innovation can sometimes “make the world a better place.” But it’s rarely delivered in a neat little package, no strings attached.

I’m hardly the first to reflect or write about this one-year anniversary. There are many takes, some of them hot, others not so much. And there are a few insightful ones; Autonocast co-host Niedermeyer has one entitled 10 Lessons from Uber’s Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash that’s worth reading.

Right now, I’m more interested in those lessons that haven’t been learned yet. It’s partly what prompted us to launch this newsletter, a weekly post that aims to be more than a historical record or a medium to evangelize AV technology.

Tiny but mighty micromobility

It’s been said before, but we’ll say it again. Data is queen. This past week, mobility management startup Passport partnered with Charlotte, N.C., Detroit, Mich. and Omaha, Neb. and Lime to create a framework to apply parking principles, data analysis and more to the plethora of shared micromobility services.

And, in case you missed it, Bird had to let some people go late last week. We’ve learned a few more details since the news broke. That came out to about 40 people out of the ~900-person company. The layoffs were part of Bird’s annual performance review process and only affected U.S.-based employees, TechCrunch learned. Those laid off are eligible for severance, including health and medical benefits. Despite the layoffs, Bird is actively looking to hire for more than 100 positions throughout the company.

Meanwhile, Ford-owned Spin partnered with mobility startup Zagster to deploy scooters in 100+ new cities and campuses by the end of this year.

— Megan Rose Dickey

Notable reads

Traffic affects more than people. Take a look at the map pictured above. See the red line? That’s Interstate 15 in southern California. To the east, are inland communities and eventually the San Bernardino National Forest and San Jacinto Mountains.

To the west, are the Santa Ana Mountains and an increasingly isolated family of 20 cougars, the Los Angeles Times reports this week. The 15 and the heavy traffic on it is putting pressure on the gene pool. In the past 15 years, at least seven cougars have crossed the 15. Just one sired 11 kittens. This lack of genetic diversity — the lower documented for the species outside of the endangered Florida panther — could have devastating effects on mountain lions here. A study published in the journal Ecological Applications predicts extinction probabilities of 16 percent to 28 percent over the next 50 years for these lions.

In this specific case, the last natural wildlife corridor in the area — and perhaps the difference between survival and extinction —  is little Temecula Creek.

This phenomenon is happening in other areas as well, causing communities to toy with possible solutions. One option: shuttling the lions over the other side, a move that could cause all sorts of problems. In other places, such as an area near the Santa Monica Mountains, a wildlife overpass has been proposed.

Transit pain points

Meanwhile, digital and mobile ticketing and payment company CellPoint Mobile released a report this week that examines the rising cost of acquiring new riders, mobile technology limitations and outdated procurement processes. The titillatingly named report — Challenges Facing Municipal, Regional and National Transit Agencies in the United States — surveyed 103 ground and mass transit operators in the United States.

Some takeaways and key findings:

30 percent of mass transit providers collect fares through a mobile app; only 39 percent have an app at all

26 percent of transit operators say costs are their biggest challenges. Among metro mass transit agencies, that concern jumps to 40 percent

Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of national operators and 24 percent of large transit agencies (1,000  to 10,000 employees) say that implementing mobile technology is their single biggest challenge.

Customer acquisition is the second-most common challenge in US transportation, cited by 23 percent national, 33 percent regional, and 17 percent of private operators.

Other items of note:

The Information’s Amir Efrati has yet another piece on Alphabet’s self-driving car business Waymo. This time Efrati analyzed confidential Waymo customer feedback on 2,500 rides this quarter. The upshot: autonomous ride-hailing services face considerable headwinds in their attempt to replicate Uber and Lyft.

The New York Times magazine takes a trip across the U.S. in an Amtrak

Google released a report on how design can improve trust in autonomous vehicles

Testing and deployments

Dockless scooters have been all the rage; now it seems that cities and scooters startups are considering whether free-floating micromobility might need to be reined in a skosh.

Lyft, which has scooters in 13 cities, recently experimented with parking racks. These parking racks or docks are designed specifically for scooters. The company set up these docking stations in Austin during SXSW and released a handy Guide to Good Scootiquette to encourage better and safer rider behavior.

Meanwhile, an industry around scooter management is emerging. Swiftmile, a startup that developed light electric vehicle charging systems for bike share, has new solar-powered charging platforms for scooters. TechCrunch met Swiftmile CEO Colin Roche in Austin earlier this month and learned that a number of cities are interested in deploying these systems. Swiftmile’s system not only charges the scooters, it also can provide scooter companies with diagnostics and keep the device locked in the dock if it’s malfunctioning. The docks can be programmed to lock the scooters up during certain hours — bar closing time would seem like an optimal time — to keep them from being misused. Systems like these could help scooter companies like Bird and Lime extend the life of their scooters and keep local officials happy.

Autonomous street sweepers

ENWAY and Nanyang Technological University are deploying autonomous street sweepers in the inner city of Singapore as part of a project with National Environmental Agency Singapore. The project began this month and will run into September 2020.

Under the pilot, ENWAY’s autonomous sweeper will clean an area of more than 12 kilometers of roads every day. The sweeper is equipped with numerous sensors, including 2D and 3D lidars, 3D cameras, GNSS. The base vehicle is a retrofitted all-electric compact road sweeper from Swiss manufacturer Bucher Municipal.

The company aims to commercialize autonomous cleaning on public ground in Singapore and abroad.

A demo of the sweeper is in the video below.

Silvercar scales up

On the other end of the transportation spectrum, Silvercar by Audi has rolled out a delivery and pick up service in downtown locations in New York and San Francisco. Silvercar customers can request their rental be dropped off and picked up at home or a location of their choosing for an additional fee. Silvercar also announced plans to bring its premium rental experience to Boston at Logan International Airport on April 15.

If you’ve never heard of Silvercar, you’re forgiven. It’s not exactly widespread. The company aims to remove the headache of traditional car rental. I recently tried it out in Austin during SXSW and found that it is convenient, and works pretty well, but doesn’t remove some of the annoying pinch points of car rentals. Yes, there are no lines. When I got off the plane in Austin, I received a message that my car was ready and to hail my driver who picked me up curbside, drove me to the Silvercar operation, and brought me to my Audi. I used the app to unlock the vehicle.

That’s cool. What would be even better is skipping all those steps and being able to access the vehicle right there in the airport without interacting with anyone. (Granted, not everyone wants that) This new delivery and pickup service in New York and San Francisco gets closer to that sweet spot.

Other stuff:

Optimus Ride brings self-driving cars to private communities

On our radar

New York Auto Show is coming up and I’ll be in the city right before the show. But then it’s back to the west coast for TC Sessions: Robotics + AI, a one-day event held April 18 at UC Berkeley. I’ll be interviewing Anthony Levandowski on stage and moderating a panel with Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson and Uber ATG Toronto chief Raquel Urtasun to talk about building the self-driving stack and how AI is used to help vehicles understand and predict what’s happening in the world around them and make the right decisions.

Also, the PAVE Coalition is hosting its first public demonstration event April 5-7 at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. The public will have an opportunity to ride in a self-driving car, and interactive displays will help visitors understand the technology behind self-driving cars and their potential benefits.

Finally, one electric vehicle thing we’ve been following. Columbus, Ohio won the U.S. Department of Transportation’s first-ever Smart City Challenge and we’ve been tracking the city’s progress and its efforts to increase electric vehicle adoption.

One of the organizers told TechCrunch that since the beginning of 2017, the cumulative new EV registrations in the Columbus metropolitan area have increased by 121 percent. New EV registrations over this period outpaced the 82 percent expansion in the Midwest region and the 94 percent growth seen across the U.S. over the same time period.

Thanks for reading. There might be content you like or something you hate. Feel free to reach out to me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share those thoughts, opinions or tips. 

Nos vemos en dos semanas.

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2TTx95f via IFTTT from Blogger https://ift.tt/2HSdcV6 via IFTTT

[toomanysinks]

Transportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheel

Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch. We love the reader feedback. Keep it coming.

Never heard of TechCrunch’s Transportation Weekly? Read the first edition here.  As I’ve written before, consider this a soft launch. Follow me on Twitter @kirstenkorosec to ensure you see it each week. An email subscription is coming!

This week, we’re shoving as much transportation news, tidbits and insights in here as possible in hopes that it will satiate you through the end of the month. That’s right, TechCrunch’s mobility team is on vacation next week.

You can expect to learn about metamaterials, how traffic is creating genetic peril, the rise of scooter docks in a dockless world, new details on autonomous delivery startup Nuro and a look back at the first self-driving car fatality.

ONM …

There are OEMs in the automotive world. And here, (wait for it) there are ONMs — original news manufacturers. (Cymbal clash!) This is where investigative reporting, enterprise pieces and analysis on transportation lives.

Mark Harris is here again with an insider look into autonomous vehicle delivery bot startup Nuro. The 3-year-old company recently announced that it raised $940 million in financing from the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Harris, during his typical gumshoeing, uncovers what Nuro might do with all that capital. It’s more than just “scaling up” and “hiring talent” — the go-to declarations from startups flush with venture funding. No, Nuro’s founders have some grand ideas from automated kitchens and autonomous latte delivery to smaller robots that can cross lawns or climb stairs to drop off packages. Nuro recently told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it wants introduce up to 5,000 upgraded vehicles called the R2X, over the next two years.

The company’s origin story and how it’s tied to autonomous trucking startup Ike is just as notable as its “big ideas.”

Come for the autonomous lattes; stay for the story … How Nuro plans to spend Softbank’s money

Dig In

What do metamaterials and Volvo have in common? Absolutely nothing. Except they’re both worth higlighting this week.

First up, is an article by TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey on a company called Lumotive that has backing from Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures. The names Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures aren’t the most interesting components of the story. Nope, it’s metamaterials.

Let us explain. Most autonomous vehicles, robots and drones use lidar (or light detection and ranging radar) to sense their surroundings. Lidar basically works by bouncing light off the environment and measuring how and when it returns; in short, lidar helps create a 3D map of the world. (Here’s a complete primer on WTF is Lidar).

However, there are limitations to lidar sensors, which rely on mechanical platforms to move the laser emitter or mirror. That’s where metamaterials come in. In simple terms, metamaterials are specially engineered surfaces that have embedded microscopic structures and work as a single device. Metamaterials remove the mechanical piece of the problem, and allow lidar to scan when and where it wants within its field of view.

Metamaterials delivers the whole package: they’re durable and compact, solve problems with existing lidar systems, and are not prohibitively expensive.

If they’re so great why isn’t everyone using them? For one, it’s a new and emerging technology. Lumotive’s product is just a prototype. And Intellectual Ventures (IV) holds the patents for known techniques, Coldewey recently explained to me. IV is granting Lumotive an exclusive license to the tech — something it has done with other metamaterial-based startups it has spun out.

Shifting gears to Volvo

Automakers are rolling out increasingly robust advanced driver assistance systems in production cars. These new levels of automation are creating a conflict of sorts. One on hand, features like adaptive cruise control and lane steering can make commutes less stressful and arguably safer. And yet, they can also cause overconfidence in the system and complacency among drivers. (Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk has noted that complacency is a problem among owners using its advanced ADAS feature called Autopilot). (And yes, I wrote advanced ADAS; it sounds repetitive, but it’s meant to express higher levels of automation and a term I recently encountered from two respected sources)

Some argue that automakers shouldn’t deploy these kinds of automated features unless vehicles are equipped with driver-monitoring systems (DMS are essentially an in-car camera and accompanying software) that can ensure drivers are paying attention. Volvo is taking that a step further.

Driver Monitoring Camera in a Volvo research vehicle

The company announced this week that it will integrate DMS into its next-gen, SPA2-based vehicles beginning in the early 2020s and more importantly, enable its system to take action if the driver is distracted or intoxicated. The camera and other sensors will monitor the driver and will intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not respond to warning signals and is risking an accident involving serious injury or death. Under this scenario, Volvo could limit the car’s speed, call the Volvo on Call service on behalf of the driver or cause the vehicle to slow down and park itself on the roadside.

Volvo’s plans raise all kinds of questions, including privacy concerns and liability. The intent is to add a layer of safety. But it also adds complexity, which could compromise Volvo’s mission. The Autonocast, a podcast I co-host with Alex Roy and Ed Niedermeyer, talk about Volvo’s plans in our latest episode. Check it out.

A little bird …

We hear a lot. But we’re not selfish. Let’s share.

Remember two weeks ago when we dug into Waymo’s laser bears and wondered whether we had reached “peak” LiDAR? (Last year, there were 28 VC deals in LiDAR technology valued at $650 million. The number of deals was slightly lower than in 2017, but the values jumped by nearly 34 percent.)

It doesn’t look like we have. We’re hearing about several funding deals in the works or recently closed, a revelation that shows investors still see opportunity in startups trying to bring the next generation of light ranging and detection sensors to market.

Spotted …. Former Zoox CEO and co-founder Tim Kentley Klay was spotted at the Self-Racing Car event at Thunderhill Raceway near Willows, Calif., this weekend.

Got a tip or overheard something in the world of transportation? Email me or send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec.

Deal of the week

Lyft set the terms for its highly-anticipated initial public offering and announced it will kick off the roadshow for its IPO. That means the initial public offering will likely occur in the next two weeks. Here’s the S-1 that Lyft filed in early March. This latest announcement also revealed new details, including that its ticker symbol will be  “LYFT” — as one might expect — and that the IPO range is set for between $62 and $68 per share to sell 30,770,000 shares of Class A common stock. Lyft could raise up to $2.1 billion at the higher end of that range, or $1.9 billion at the lower end.

The Lyft news was big — and it’s a story we’ll be following for awhile. However, we wanted to highlight another one of Ingrid Lunden’s articles because it underscores a point I’ve been pushing for awhile: not every important move in the world of autonomous vehicles occurs in the big three of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley.

This week, Yandex, the Russian search giant that has been working on self-driving car technology, inked a partnership with Hyundai to develop software and hardware for autonomous car systems. This is Yandex’s first partnership with an OEM. But it’s not Hyundai’s first collaboration with an autonomous vehicle startup. (Hyundai has a partnership with Aurora too)

Yandex will work with Hyundai Mobis, the car giant’s OEM parts and service division, “to create a self-driving platform that can be used by any car manufacturer or taxi fleet” that will cover both a prototype as well as parts for other car-makers.

Other deals:

Indonesia’s Kargo comes out of stealth with $7.6 million from Travis Kalanick, Sequoia and others

Ford to invest $850 million to add more production capacity for EVs

Toyota is deepening its relationship with Nvidia

GM is investing $300 million to build its next EV in Michigan

Snapshot

One year ago, I parked on a small rise overlooking Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. The mostly dirt knoll, dotted with some trees and a handful of structures known out here as ramadas, was hardly remarkable. Just one other car sat in the disintegrating asphalt parking lot, the result of so many sun-baked days. A group of homeless people had set up at the picnic tables under a few of the structures, their dogs lolling nearby.

And yet, it was here, or specifically on the gleaming road below, that something extraordinary had indeed happened. Just days before, Elaine Herzberg was crossing Mill Avenue south of Curry Road when an Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed her. The vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, with a human test driver behind the wheel.

I had been in the Phoenix area, a hub for testing autonomous vehicle technology, to moderate a panel on that very subject. But the panel had been hastily canceled by organizers worried about the optics of such a discussion. And so I picked up Starsky Robotics CEO Stefan Seltz Axmacher who was also in town for this now-canceled panel, and we drove to site where Herzberg had died.

I wrote at the time, that “March 18 changed everything—and nothing—in the frenzied and nascent world of autonomous vehicles.” One year later, those words are still correct. The incident dumped a bucket of ice water over the figurative heads of autonomous vehicle developers. Everyone it seemed, had sobered up. Testing was paused, dozens of companies assessed their own safety protocols. Earnest blogs were written. Lawsuits were filed.

And yet, the cogs on the AV machine haven’t stopped turning. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Innovation can sometimes “make the world a better place.” But it’s rarely delivered in a neat little package, no strings attached.

I’m hardly the first to reflect or write about this one-year anniversary. There are many takes, some of them hot, others not so much. And there are a few insightful ones; Autonocast co-host Niedermeyer has one entitled 10 Lessons from Uber’s Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash that’s worth reading.

Right now, I’m more interested in those lessons that haven’t been learned yet. It’s partly what prompted us to launch this newsletter, a weekly post that aims to be more than a historical record or a medium to evangelize AV technology.

Tiny but mighty micromobility

It’s been said before, but we’ll say it again. Data is queen. This past week, mobility management startup Passport partnered with Charlotte, N.C., Detroit, Mich. and Omaha, Neb. and Lime to create a framework to apply parking principles, data analysis and more to the plethora of shared micromobility services.

And, in case you missed it, Bird had to let some people go late last week. We’ve learned a few more details since the news broke. That came out to about 40 people out of the ~900-person company. The layoffs were part of Bird’s annual performance review process and only affected U.S.-based employees, TechCrunch learned. Those laid off are eligible for severance, including health and medical benefits. Despite the layoffs, Bird is actively looking to hire for more than 100 positions throughout the company.

Meanwhile, Ford-owned Spin partnered with mobility startup Zagster to deploy scooters in 100+ new cities and campuses by the end of this year.

— Megan Rose Dickey

Notable reads

Traffic affects more than people. Take a look at the map pictured above. See the red line? That’s Interstate 15 in southern California. To the east, are inland communities and eventually the San Bernardino National Forest and San Jacinto Mountains.

To the west, are the Santa Ana Mountains and an increasingly isolated family of 20 cougars, the Los Angeles Times reports this week. The 15 and the heavy traffic on it is putting pressure on the gene pool. In the past 15 years, at least seven cougars have crossed the 15. Just one sired 11 kittens. This lack of genetic diversity — the lower documented for the species outside of the endangered Florida panther — could have devastating effects on mountain lions here. A study published in the journal Ecological Applications predicts extinction probabilities of 16 percent to 28 percent over the next 50 years for these lions.

In this specific case, the last natural wildlife corridor in the area — and perhaps the difference between survival and extinction —  is little Temecula Creek.

This phenomenon is happening in other areas as well, causing communities to toy with possible solutions. One option: shuttling the lions over the other side, a move that could cause all sorts of problems. In other places, such as an area near the Santa Monica Mountains, a wildlife overpass has been proposed.

Transit pain points

Meanwhile, digital and mobile ticketing and payment company CellPoint Mobile released a report this week that examines the rising cost of acquiring new riders, mobile technology limitations and outdated procurement processes. The titillatingly named report — Challenges Facing Municipal, Regional and National Transit Agencies in the United States — surveyed 103 ground and mass transit operators in the United States.

Some takeaways and key findings:

30 percent of mass transit providers collect fares through a mobile app; only 39 percent have an app at all

26 percent of transit operators say costs are their biggest challenges. Among metro mass transit agencies, that concern jumps to 40 percent

Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of national operators and 24 percent of large transit agencies (1,000  to 10,000 employees) say that implementing mobile technology is their single biggest challenge.

Customer acquisition is the second-most common challenge in US transportation, cited by 23 percent national, 33 percent regional, and 17 percent of private operators.

Other items of note:

The Information’s Amir Efrati has yet another piece on Alphabet’s self-driving car business Waymo. This time Efrati analyzed confidential Waymo customer feedback on 2,500 rides this quarter. The upshot: autonomous ride-hailing services face considerable headwinds in their attempt to replicate Uber and Lyft.

The New York Times magazine takes a trip across the U.S. in an Amtrak

Google released a report on how design can improve trust in autonomous vehicles

Testing and deployments

Dockless scooters have been all the rage; now it seems that cities and scooters startups are considering whether free-floating micromobility might need to be reined in a skosh.

Lyft, which has scooters in 13 cities, recently experimented with parking racks. These parking racks or docks are designed specifically for scooters. The company set up these docking stations in Austin during SXSW and released a handy Guide to Good Scootiquette to encourage better and safer rider behavior.

Meanwhile, an industry around scooter management is emerging. Swiftmile, a startup that developed light electric vehicle charging systems for bike share, has new solar-powered charging platforms for scooters. TechCrunch met Swiftmile CEO Colin Roche in Austin earlier this month and learned that a number of cities are interested in deploying these systems. Swiftmile’s system not only charges the scooters, it also can provide scooter companies with diagnostics and keep the device locked in the dock if it’s malfunctioning. The docks can be programmed to lock the scooters up during certain hours — bar closing time would seem like an optimal time — to keep them from being misused. Systems like these could help scooter companies like Bird and Lime extend the life of their scooters and keep local officials happy.

Autonomous street sweepers

ENWAY and Nanyang Technological University are deploying autonomous street sweepers in the inner city of Singapore as part of a project with National Environmental Agency Singapore. The project began this month and will run into September 2020.

Under the pilot, ENWAY’s autonomous sweeper will clean an area of more than 12 kilometers of roads every day. The sweeper is equipped with numerous sensors, including 2D and 3D lidars, 3D cameras, GNSS. The base vehicle is a retrofitted all-electric compact road sweeper from Swiss manufacturer Bucher Municipal.

The company aims to commercialize autonomous cleaning on public ground in Singapore and abroad.

A demo of the sweeper is in the video below.

Silvercar scales up

On the other end of the transportation spectrum, Silvercar by Audi has rolled out a delivery and pick up service in downtown locations in New York and San Francisco. Silvercar customers can request their rental be dropped off and picked up at home or a location of their choosing for an additional fee. Silvercar also announced plans to bring its premium rental experience to Boston at Logan International Airport on April 15.

If you’ve never heard of Silvercar, you’re forgiven. It’s not exactly widespread. The company aims to remove the headache of traditional car rental. I recently tried it out in Austin during SXSW and found that it is convenient, and works pretty well, but doesn’t remove some of the annoying pinch points of car rentals. Yes, there are no lines. When I got off the plane in Austin, I received a message that my car was ready and to hail my driver who picked me up curbside, drove me to the Silvercar operation, and brought me to my Audi. I used the app to unlock the vehicle.

That’s cool. What would be even better is skipping all those steps and being able to access the vehicle right there in the airport without interacting with anyone. (Granted, not everyone wants that) This new delivery and pickup service in New York and San Francisco gets closer to that sweet spot.

Other stuff:

Optimus Ride brings self-driving cars to private communities

On our radar

New York Auto Show is coming up and I’ll be in the city right before the show. But then it’s back to the west coast for TC Sessions: Robotics + AI, a one-day event held April 18 at UC Berkeley. I’ll be interviewing Anthony Levandowski on stage and moderating a panel with Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson and Uber ATG Toronto chief Raquel Urtasun to talk about building the self-driving stack and how AI is used to help vehicles understand and predict what’s happening in the world around them and make the right decisions.

Also, the PAVE Coalition is hosting its first public demonstration event April 5-7 at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. The public will have an opportunity to ride in a self-driving car, and interactive displays will help visitors understand the technology behind self-driving cars and their potential benefits.

Finally, one electric vehicle thing we’ve been following. Columbus, Ohio won the U.S. Department of Transportation’s first-ever Smart City Challenge and we’ve been tracking the city’s progress and its efforts to increase electric vehicle adoption.

One of the organizers told TechCrunch that since the beginning of 2017, the cumulative new EV registrations in the Columbus metropolitan area have increased by 121 percent. New EV registrations over this period outpaced the 82 percent expansion in the Midwest region and the 94 percent growth seen across the U.S. over the same time period.

Thanks for reading. There might be content you like or something you hate. Feel free to reach out to me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share those thoughts, opinions or tips. 

Nos vemos en dos semanas.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/24/transportation-weekly-nuro-dreams-of-autonomous-lattes-what-is-a-metamaterial-volvo-takes-the-wheel/

[fmservers]

Transportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheel

Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch. We love the reader feedback. Keep it coming.

Never heard of TechCrunch’s Transportation Weekly? Read the first edition here.  As I’ve written before, consider this a soft launch. Follow me on Twitter @kirstenkorosec to ensure you see it each week. An email subscription is coming!

This week, we’re shoving as much transportation news, tidbits and insights in here as possible in hopes that it will satiate you through the end of the month. That’s right, TechCrunch’s mobility team is on vacation next week.

You can expect to learn about metamaterials, how traffic is creating genetic peril, the rise of scooter docks in a dockless world, new details on autonomous delivery startup Nuro and a look back at the first self-driving car fatality.

ONM …

There are OEMs in the automotive world. And here, (wait for it) there are ONMs — original news manufacturers. (Cymbal clash!) This is where investigative reporting, enterprise pieces and analysis on transportation lives.

Mark Harris is here again with an insider look into autonomous vehicle delivery bot startup Nuro. The 3-year-old company recently announced that it raised $940 million in financing from the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Harris, during his typical gumshoeing, uncovers what Nuro might do with all that capital. It’s more than just “scaling up” and “hiring talent” — the go-to declarations from startups flush with venture funding. No, Nuro’s founders have some grand ideas from automated kitchens and autonomous latte delivery to smaller robots that can cross lawns or climb stairs to drop off packages. Nuro recently told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it wants introduce up to 5,000 upgraded vehicles called the R2X, over the next two years.

The company’s origin story and how it’s tied to autonomous trucking startup Ike is just as notable as its “big ideas.”

Come for the autonomous lattes; stay for the story … How Nuro plans to spend Softbank’s money

Dig In

What do metamaterials and Volvo have in common? Absolutely nothing. Except they’re both worth higlighting this week.

First up, is an article by TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey on a company called Lumotive that has backing from Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures. The names Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures aren’t the most interesting components of the story. Nope, it’s metamaterials.

Let us explain. Most autonomous vehicles, robots and drones use lidar (or light detection and ranging radar) to sense their surroundings. Lidar basically works by bouncing light off the environment and measuring how and when it returns; in short, lidar helps create a 3D map of the world. (Here’s a complete primer on WTF is Lidar).

However, there are limitations to lidar sensors, which rely on mechanical platforms to move the laser emitter or mirror. That’s where metamaterials come in. In simple terms, metamaterials are specially engineered surfaces that have embedded microscopic structures and work as a single device. Metamaterials remove the mechanical piece of the problem, and allow lidar to scan when and where it wants within its field of view.

Metamaterials delivers the whole package: they’re durable and compact, solve problems with existing lidar systems, and are not prohibitively expensive.

If they’re so great why isn’t everyone using them? For one, it’s a new and emerging technology. Lumotive’s product is just a prototype. And Intellectual Ventures (IV) holds the patents for known techniques, Coldewey recently explained to me. IV is granting Lumotive an exclusive license to the tech — something it has done with other metamaterial-based startups it has spun out.

Shifting gears to Volvo

Automakers are rolling out increasingly robust advanced driver assistance systems in production cars. These new levels of automation are creating a conflict of sorts. One on hand, features like adaptive cruise control and lane steering can make commutes less stressful and arguably safer. And yet, they can also cause overconfidence in the system and complacency among drivers. (Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk has noted that complacency is a problem among owners using its advanced ADAS feature called Autopilot). (And yes, I wrote advanced ADAS; it sounds repetitive, but it’s meant to express higher levels of automation and a term I recently encountered from two respected sources)

Some argue that automakers shouldn’t deploy these kinds of automated features unless vehicles are equipped with driver-monitoring systems (DMS are essentially an in-car camera and accompanying software) that can ensure drivers are paying attention. Volvo is taking that a step further.

Driver Monitoring Camera in a Volvo research vehicle

The company announced this week that it will integrate DMS into its next-gen, SPA2-based vehicles beginning in the early 2020s and more importantly, enable its system to take action if the driver is distracted or intoxicated. The camera and other sensors will monitor the driver and will intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not respond to warning signals and is risking an accident involving serious injury or death. Under this scenario, Volvo could limit the car’s speed, call the Volvo on Call service on behalf of the driver or cause the vehicle to slow down and park itself on the roadside.

Volvo’s plans raise all kinds of questions, including privacy concerns and liability. The intent is to add a layer of safety. But it also adds complexity, which could compromise Volvo’s mission. The Autonocast, a podcast I co-host with Alex Roy and Ed Niedermeyer, talk about Volvo’s plans in our latest episode. Check it out.

A little bird …

We hear a lot. But we’re not selfish. Let’s share.

Remember two weeks ago when we dug into Waymo’s laser bears and wondered whether we had reached “peak” LiDAR? (Last year, there were 28 VC deals in LiDAR technology valued at $650 million. The number of deals was slightly lower than in 2017, but the values jumped by nearly 34 percent.)

It doesn’t look like we have. We’re hearing about several funding deals in the works or recently closed, a revelation that shows investors still see opportunity in startups trying to bring the next generation of light ranging and detection sensors to market.

Spotted …. Former Zoox CEO and co-founder Tim Kentley Clay was spotted at the Self-Racing Car event at Thunderhill Raceway near Willows, Calif., this weekend.

Got a tip or overheard something in the world of transportation? Email me or send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec.

Deal of the week

Lyft set the terms for its highly-anticipated initial public offering and announced it will kick off the roadshow for its IPO. That means the initial public offering will likely occur in the next two weeks. Here’s the S-1 that Lyft filed in early March. This latest announcement also revealed new details, including that its ticker symbol will be  “LYFT” — as one might expect — and that the IPO range is set for between $62 and $68 per share to sell 30,770,000 shares of Class A common stock. Lyft could raise up to $2.1 billion at the higher end of that range, or $1.9 billion at the lower end.

The Lyft news was big — and it’s a story we’ll be following for awhile. However, we wanted to highlight another one of Ingrid Lunden’s articles because it underscores a point I’ve been pushing for awhile: not every important move in the world of autonomous vehicles occurs in the big three of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley.

This week, Yandex, the Russian search giant that has been working on self-driving car technology, inked a partnership with Hyundai to develop software and hardware for autonomous car systems. This is Yandex’s first partnership with an OEM. But it’s not Hyundai’s first collaboration with an autonomous vehicle startup. (Hyundai has a partnership with Aurora too)

Yandex will work with Hyundai Mobis, the car giant’s OEM parts and service division, “to create a self-driving platform that can be used by any car manufacturer or taxi fleet” that will cover both a prototype as well as parts for other car-makers.

Other deals:

Indonesia’s Kargo comes out of stealth with $7.6 million from Travis Kalanick, Sequoia and others

Ford to invest $850 million to add more production capacity for EVs

Toyota is deepening its relationship with Nvidia

GM is investing $300 million to build its next EV in Michigan

Snapshot

One year ago, I parked on a small rise overlooking Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. The mostly dirt knoll, dotted with some trees and a handful of structures known out here as ramadas, was hardly remarkable. Just one other car sat in the disintegrating asphalt parking lot, the result of so many sun-baked days. A group of homeless people had set up at the picnic tables under a few of the structures, their dogs lolling nearby.

And yet, it was here, or specifically on the gleaming road below, that something extraordinary had indeed happened. Just days before, Elaine Herzberg was crossing Mill Avenue south of Curry Road when an Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed her. The vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, with a human test driver behind the wheel.

I had been in the Phoenix area, a hub for testing autonomous vehicle technology, to moderate a panel on that very subject. But the panel had been hastily canceled by organizers worried about the optics of such a discussion. And so I picked up Starsky Robotics CEO Stefan Seltz Axmacher who was also in town for this now-canceled panel, and we drove to site where Herzberg had died.

I wrote at the time, that “March 18 changed everything—and nothing—in the frenzied and nascent world of autonomous vehicles.” One year later, those words are still correct. The incident dumped a bucket of ice water over the figurative heads of autonomous vehicle developers. Everyone it seemed, had sobered up. Testing was paused, dozens of companies assessed their own safety protocols. Earnest blogs were written. Lawsuits were filed.

And yet, the cogs on the AV machine haven’t stopped turning. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Innovation can sometimes “make the world a better place.” But it’s rarely delivered in a neat little package, no strings attached.

I’m hardly the first to reflect or write about this one-year anniversary. There are many takes, some of them hot, others not so much. And there are a few insightful ones; Autonocast co-host Niedermeyer has one entitled 10 Lessons from Uber’s Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash that’s worth reading.

Right now, I’m more interested in those lessons that haven’t been learned yet. It’s partly what prompted us to launch this newsletter, a weekly post that aims to be more than a historical record or a medium to evangelize AV technology.

Tiny but mighty micromobility

It’s been said before, but we’ll say it again. Data is queen. This past week, mobility management startup Passport partnered with Charlotte, N.C., Detroit, Mich. and Omaha, Neb. and Lime to create a framework to apply parking principles, data analysis and more to the plethora of shared micromobility services.

And, in case you missed it, Bird had to let some people go late last week. We’ve learned a few more details since the news broke. That came out to about 40 people out of the ~900-person company. The layoffs were part of Bird’s annual performance review process and only affected U.S.-based employees, TechCrunch learned. Those laid off are eligible for severance, including health and medical benefits. Despite the layoffs, Bird is actively looking to hire for more than 100 positions throughout the company.

Meanwhile, Ford-owned Spin partnered with mobility startup Zagster to deploy scooters in 100+ new cities and campuses by the end of this year.

— Megan Rose Dickey

Notable reads

Traffic affects more than people. Take a look at the map pictured above. See the red line? That’s Interstate 15 in southern California. To the east, are inland communities and eventually the San Bernardino National Forest and San Jacinto Mountains.

To the west, are the Santa Ana Mountains and an increasingly isolated family of 20 cougars, the Los Angeles Times reports this week. The 15 and the heavy traffic on it is putting pressure on the gene pool. In the past 15 years, at least seven cougars have crossed the 15. Just one sired 11 kittens. This lack of genetic diversity — the lower documented for the species outside of the endangered Florida panther — could have devastating effects on mountain lions here. A study published in the journal Ecological Applications predicts extinction probabilities of 16 percent to 28 percent over the next 50 years for these lions.

In this specific case, the last natural wildlife corridor in the area — and perhaps the difference between survival and extinction —  is little Temecula Creek.

This phenomenon is happening in other areas as well, causing communities to toy with possible solutions. One option: shuttling the lions over the other side, a move that could cause all sorts of problems. In other places, such as an area near the Santa Monica Mountains, a wildlife overpass has been proposed.

Transit pain points

Meanwhile, digital and mobile ticketing and payment company CellPoint Mobile released a report this week that examines the rising cost of acquiring new riders, mobile technology limitations and outdated procurement processes. The titillatingly named report — Challenges Facing Municipal, Regional and National Transit Agencies in the United States — surveyed 103 ground and mass transit operators in the United States.

Some takeaways and key findings:

30 percent of mass transit providers collect fares through a mobile app; only 39 percent have an app at all

26 percent of transit operators say costs are their biggest challenges. Among metro mass transit agencies, that concern jumps to 40 percent

Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of national operators and 24 percent of large transit agencies (1,000  to 10,000 employees) say that implementing mobile technology is their single biggest challenge.

Customer acquisition is the second-most common challenge in US transportation, cited by 23 percent national, 33 percent regional, and 17 percent of private operators.

Other items of note:

The Information’s Amir Efrati has yet another piece on Alphabet’s self-driving car business Waymo. This time Efrati analyzed confidential Waymo customer feedback on 2,500 rides this quarter. The upshot: autonomous ride-hailing services face considerable headwinds in their attempt to replicate Uber and Lyft.

The New York Times magazine takes a trip across the U.S. in an Amtrak

Google released a report on how design can improve trust in autonomous vehicles

Testing and deployments

Dockless scooters have been all the rage; now it seems that cities and scooters startups are considering whether free-floating micromobility might need to be reined in a skosh.

Lyft, which has scooters in 13 cities, recently experimented with parking racks. These parking racks or docks are designed specifically for scooters. The company set up these docking stations in Austin during SXSW and released a handy Guide to Good Scootiquette to encourage better and safer rider behavior.

Meanwhile, an industry around scooter management is emerging. Swiftmile, a startup that developed light electric vehicle charging systems for bike share, has new solar-powered charging platforms for scooters. TechCrunch met Swiftmile CEO Colin Roche in Austin earlier this month and learned that a number of cities are interested in deploying these systems. Swiftmile’s system not only charges the scooters, it also can provide scooter companies with diagnostics and keep the device locked in the dock if it’s malfunctioning. The docks can be programmed to lock the scooters up during certain hours — bar closing time would seem like an optimal time — to keep them from being misused. Systems like these could help scooter companies like Bird and Lime extend the life of their scooters and keep local officials happy.

Autonomous street sweepers

ENWAY and Nanyang Technological University are deploying autonomous street sweepers in the inner city of Singapore as part of a project with National Environmental Agency Singapore. The project began this month and will run into September 2020.

Under the pilot, ENWAY’s autonomous sweeper will clean an area of more than 12 kilometers of roads every day. The sweeper is equipped with numerous sensors, including 2D and 3D lidars, 3D cameras, GNSS. The base vehicle is a retrofitted all-electric compact road sweeper from Swiss manufacturer Bucher Municipal.

The company aims to commercialize autonomous cleaning on public ground in Singapore and abroad.

A demo of the sweeper is in the video below.

Silvercar scales up

On the other end of the transportation spectrum, Silvercar by Audi has rolled out a delivery and pick up service in downtown locations in New York and San Francisco. Silvercar customers can request their rental be dropped off and picked up at home or a location of their choosing for an additional fee. Silvercar also announced plans to bring its premium rental experience to Boston at Logan International Airport on April 15.

If you’ve never heard of Silvercar, you’re forgiven. It’s not exactly widespread. The company aims to remove the headache of traditional car rental. I recently tried it out in Austin during SXSW and found that it is convenient, and works pretty well, but doesn’t remove some of the annoying pinch points of car rentals. Yes, there are no lines. When I got off the plane in Austin, I received a message that my car was ready and to hail my driver who picked me up curbside, drove me to the Silvercar operation, and brought me to my Audi. I used the app to unlock the vehicle.

That’s cool. What would be even better is skipping all those steps and being able to access the vehicle right there in the airport without interacting with anyone. (Granted, not everyone wants that) This new delivery and pickup service in New York and San Francisco gets closer to that sweet spot.

Other stuff:

Optimus Ride brings self-driving cars to private communities

On our radar

New York Auto Show is coming up and I’ll be in the city right before the show. But then it’s back to the west coast for TC Sessions: Robotics + AI, a one-day event held April 18 at UC Berkeley. I’ll be interviewing Anthony Levandowski on stage and moderating a panel with Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson and Uber ATG Toronto chief Raquel Urtasun to talk about building the self-driving stack and how AI is used to help vehicles understand and predict what’s happening in the world around them and make the right decisions.

Also, the PAVE Coalition is hosting its first public demonstration event April 5-7 at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. The public will have an opportunity to ride in a self-driving car, and interactive displays will help visitors understand the technology behind self-driving cars and their potential benefits.

Finally, one electric vehicle thing we’ve been following. Columbus, Ohio won the U.S. Department of Transportation’s first-ever Smart City Challenge and we’ve been tracking the city’s progress and its efforts to increase electric vehicle adoption.

One of the organizers told TechCrunch that since the beginning of 2017, the cumulative new EV registrations in the Columbus metropolitan area have increased by 121 percent. New EV registrations over this period outpaced the 82 percent expansion in the Midwest region and the 94 percent growth seen across the U.S. over the same time period.

Thanks for reading. There might be content you like or something you hate. Feel free to reach out to me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share those thoughts, opinions or tips. 

Nos vemos en dos semanas.

Via Kirsten Korosec https://techcrunch.com