#whereas a comment about the reader's actual reaction to the contents of the story gets the creative juices pumping

[gasmeros]

"please update" what if i said no ._.

[bonjour-rainycity]

Late in the Night | Part Four

Previous part

Prompt: Friends have a bet how long it will take the ship to get together (Content Challenge Day 7)

Pairing: Legolas x Female Reader

Rating: PG-13

Word count: 1602

Warnings: None

Challenge participants: @game-ofthe-company @grunid @themerriweathermage @errruvande @the-reformed-ringwraith @awkwardkindatries

^^ Hey! If I haven't commented on your post(s) yet, it just means I haven't gotten the chance to read them. School has been ramping up, but as I have free moments, I'll be going back and looking at all your challenge posts <3

A/n: You guys...IT'S THE LAST PROMPT OF THE CONTENT CHALLENGE! What?! Thank you so much to everyone who participated and interacted with our posts. I had such a blast creating this past week and getting to know each and every one of you. I think it would be fun to do something like this again in the future, so let me know if you would like to be involved in planning/get updates! 

As always, I encourage you to check out the accounts tagged above and our masterlists! You can find the challenge masterlist here and my personal masterlist here. Okay, enjoy :)

Aragorn waits, keeping an eye on the trees.

The minute his friends from the eastern inn arrive, they will leave town.

He had a pleasant night — private room, hot bath, well-prepared meals — but is ready to get back on their journey. For all he knows, the brief rest he allowed them could have already cost them vital time.

That thought causes him to pace.

“Calm yourself, dear friend, they will be along shortly,” Gandalf councils.

Aragorn tries to heed the wise wizard’s advice. Sure enough, he soon hears the light sounds of feet crushing grass and twigs, and knows they are close.

The four of them break into sight at roughly the same time, and Aragorn notices two things:

One, Legolas and Y/n refuse to look at each other.

Two, Gimli wears a grin bright enough to rival the sun.

Aragorn knows he must speak with the dwarf as soon as possible.

Something has happened.

Merry, who doesn’t get enough credit for his observation skills, notices the oddities too, and elbows Pippin in the side. Their eyes grow wide, and it takes everything in them not to shout guesses as to what this means.

It is a good while before Aragorn, Pippin, Merry, and Gimli have a chance to convene and discuss the new development. All four of them, though of course dedicated to the task at hand, desperately want a resolution to their ongoing bet.

It had started innocently enough.

Merry made an off-hand comment about how well Legolas and Y/n seem to get along. Gimli noticed the lass was a clumsier fighter when Legolas was watching. Aragorn realized his friend seemed nervous around the human woman. Pippin saw how each of them smiled brighter when the other was near.

Somehow or other, the four of them had put together their observations, and the rest is history.

The bet was born.

Each of them had put down fifteen coins and a deadline, losing the coins if Legolas and Y/n did not become a couple by the deadline, and winning coins if they did. Knowing his friend’s shy nature well, Aragorn had given the two the lengthiest allowance — six months. Pippin and Merry recognized the bold nature of humans, and guessed it would only take four months for Y/n to speak her mind and Legolas to reciprocate. Gimli, on the other hand, thought the two were already head-over-heels for each other and wouldn’t be able to keep quiet about it, and had given them only a month and a half.

Each participant, knowing his deadline was drawing nearer, had taken steps to push the two in the right direction.

The hobbit friends moved Legolas’ and Y/n’s bedrolls closer when they weren’t looking.

Aragorn put them on watch together. A lot. To the point where he actually felt bad about the bags under Y/n’s eyes.

But Gimli, perhaps, had been the boldest of them all, and proudly tells his friends so the moment they are alone much later that evening.

“Quickly, they are suspicious why it took four of us to gather firewood and herbs,” Aragorn mutters, darting a quick glance in the direction of camp.

“Yes, just get on with it,” Pippin squeaks, then throws a hand over his mouth, knowing he might alert Legolas with his volume.

“Alright, listen up lads.” Gimli grins and proudly tells his tale. “Boromir and I got to the inn first, as planned, and the innkeeper asked how many were in our party. I said two, and the innkeeper made a comment how it was good we didn’t have more folk waiting outside, as his inn was almost full. Well, that got me thinkin’, so I inquired how many more rooms were available. The innkeeper said two, not including the ones Boromir and I purchased. So I whipped out my velvet pouch and paid for another room, fibbin’ a bit and saying I might have a lady friend visiting and wasn’t sure if she would want to sleep in my room or not after our activities.” He wiggles his eyebrows in response to the stunned looks of his friend.

Aragorn shakes his head slowly, a bemused smile setting in his lips. “So you paid for an extra room just to force Legolas and Y/n into sharing?”

“Right you are,” Gimli grins, placing his fists on his hips. “It wasna even that expensive — I’ll make it back three times over, now that I’ve won this thing.”

“Ah, ah, ah, hold on,” Merry holds up a hand, halting Gimli’s gloat. “You can’t prove they did or said anything to start a courtship, so you haven’t won!”

“They won’t even look at each other and the elf’s as red as a strawberry, of course something happened,” Gimli practically shouts.

Aragorn, reliably a voice of reason, intervenes. “We shall have to inquire then, but be smart about it. We do not want to jeopardize their potential courtship with our game.”

The companions agree, then quickly turn to the forest, gathering firewood and herbs to supplement Sam’s soup and their cover story.

{***}

Back at camp, Legolas sits on a low tree branch, keeping watch over all his friends.

But mostly Y/n.

He cannot pull his eyes from her face. She sits on a rock, staring into the fire, absently cleaning the mud from her boots. Without permission, his mind goes back to the way he held her this morning, tucked against his chest, her leg wrapped around his. It was wildly improper, and he should be ashamed of himself.

But he doesn’t feel ashamed. Because the way they woke up this morning didn’t feel improper, it felt natural. With all his heart, Legolas wants to wake up like that every morning — his favorite person kept safely against his side. He wants to guard her and give her a wonderful life and bring her home and have his people adore her, too.

Legolas’ resolve hardens, because he knows he can no longer keep this to himself. Y/n has a right to know how he feels, because it affects her too.

He pushes himself from the branch, landing on the ground in silence. With four long strides, he stops beside her, reaching down a hand. “Will you talk with me?”

She looks up at him, nerves like she’s never felt before erupting within her. But she gathers her courage, forces what she hopes is a smile, and takes Legolas’ hand.

She wonders what he’ll say.

All day, she had been lost in embarrassment. Somehow in the night, she’d thrown her leg over his and practically attached herself to his chest — who does that?! And he’d said nothing when they woke up, only got up and went about his routine like normal.

So obviously, he doesn’t feel anything for her.

And that’s what this conversation has to be about.

Briefly, though, she allows herself to remember what it felt like to be in his embrace, and knows that she will cherish that feeling forever.

The warmth of his hand in hers helps her hold on to that memory and, to her surprise, when they reach a secluded spot, he does not let go. No, he takes her other hand in his, clutching both tightly.

Legolas nearly shakes with nerves, and he wonders if she can tell? Does she know how he feels like he might be sick? Oh, he has never felt anxiety like this before, and desperately wishes for it to be gone.

So he wastes no time in putting himself out of his misery.

“I want to be with you.”

Y/n blinks. Surely she can’t have heard him correctly? “What?”

Legolas sighs — her reaction gives him no indication how she feels either way. He bolsters his courage, and tries again. “I feel affection for each member of this Fellowship. But whereas I love the others as if they were my kin, I am unable to deny that how I love you is different. Elves live long lives and thus take matters of the heart very seriously. And, well,” he shrugs, all eloquence leaving him the moment he sees the shy, hopeful smile spread across her lips. “My heart is with you.”

Y/n can hardly believe her ears. She thought that he didn’t…that there was no chance of…but rather than dwell on all her miscalculations, or the myriad of dangers that haunt their future, she decides to just enjoy the moment. She throws her arms around Legolas’ neck, and he grips her tightly against him.

She turns her cheek to rest on his shoulder, unable to contain her grin. “You hold mine as well. I love you, Legolas.”

He pulls back only to rest his forehead against hers, head swimming from the joy of her acceptance and at being this close to her. “And I love you.” She lets out a giddy laugh and he closes his eyes, soaking in the sound. But then he focuses again, for there is something important he still must ask. “Will you accept my offer of courtship?”

Y/n can’t help herself from bumping her nose against his affectionately, and it feels so wonderful, so free to be with him this way. She has no desire for her future to continue without him, and so, her answer is found easily. “Of course.”

Relief settles in Legolas’ bones, the nerves finally leaving him and being replaced with happiness.

Just as their lips meet, the four friends break through the tree-line, back from collecting supplies.

Gimli’s triumphant shout can be heard for miles.

“Pay up, lads!”

A/n The end! This is the last chapter of this mini-series! Thanks for sticking with me as I had some fun with this one. I keep tag-lists, so at any time, just let me know if you would like to be tagged in anything. I’m in the planning stages of a Haldir x OC fic, and while I usually stay away from OC’s, I just cannot fathom typing “Y/n” for the length that I’m planning on making that story. So be on the lookout for that! Hope you all are taking care of yourselves and please know that my inbox is always open. Lots of love!

LITN tag list: @angelic-kisses13 @lainphotography @anangelwhodidntfall @sheriffgerard @themerriweathermage @k-llama-llama @hirokosoul @wellfuckmyexistence @ipsychosocial @anjhope1 @my-lotr-obsession-is-unhealthy

[baseballbitch116]

Your Walking Dead - Daryl Dixon Interactive Love Story

A/N: The way this is designed is so that YOU get to choose how you would like to proceed through the story. At the end of every chapter, there will be 2 options. There will be different consequences to your choices! Every choice you make will change the outcome of the story. No two choices will provide the same outcome! YOU can determine who survives, where you go, and overall how your interactions with Daryl will go!

Introduction: Follow along on your journey with Daryl and the others throughout the series... You choose your actions... Will you end up with Daryl? YOU have the power to decide that!

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x reader

Setting: We begin in the Atlanta camp, before Rick has joined.

Word Count: 1420

Series Warnings: Gore, violence, strong language, potentially triggering content, sexual themes, death, mentions of drug/alcohol consumption and abuse...

Chapter Warnings: Brief mentions of violence, strong language

Masterlist

Send Me A Request! | Series Masterlist

[This idea was inspired by @twdeadfanfic, who is creating her own series with a similar concept!]

Without further ado... Let’s get into it!

To say that you had run from Atlanta would not be an exaggeration by any means. You quite literally ran through the streets of the once thriving city as the dead took over. Nothing could have prepared you for this. You had no survival skills whatsoever. You couldn’t hunt, fire a gun, build a fire... Fears overwhelmed your mind as you ran through the streets, dodging the dead as they tried grabbing you at every opportunity. You had nothing but a backpack of limited essentials.

Someone had broken into your apartment in an attempt to escape the dead chasing them, in turn allowing the flesh-hungry dead to get inside and force you out. You probably would have died if you hadn’t met Shane and Lori along the highway. You had no weapons, having lost your steak knife in the arm of one of the dead back in the city. Wandering down the stand still traffic on the highway, you were desperate. Lori spotting you as you stumbled down the road, dehydrated, out of breath and limping. You owed her your life for offering you a bottle of water that day a few weeks ago.

You are drawn from your thoughts by the sound of someone approaching. Glancing up from where you sat on the RV’s stairs, you shoot a weak smile at Dale. “Are you alright, Y/N?” The older man asks as you stand to move out of his way.

“Just thinking about... Everything.” You respond. Dale nods as he studies your face. You’ve had some conversations with the older man before about these sort of things - what the future might look like, what could be happening in other area of the world...

“Best not to dwell on it too much, I think.” He says, patting your shoulder as he passes you and enters the RV. You couldn’t help but feel like you weren’t pulling your weight around the camp, though. As you looked around, you saw most people doing one thing or another. Lori and Carol were washing clothes, Shane was cleaning his shotgun, Glenn was on watch for walkers on top the RV. You knew that if it weren’t for some of the others in the camp, you would not have food or a fire or weapons.

Deciding that you needed to find a way to earn your keep, you head over to Lori and Carol in order to help them with the laundry. It certainly wasn’t a task that you desired, and you found it slightly belittling that only the mothers in the camp washed clothes - but you needed something to do.

Striking up light conversation with the two older women, you got to work on hanging the damp clothes up to dry. You had grown close to Lori since she let you tag along with them out of Atlanta - feeling that you owed her and Shane. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t met them...

You felt a pair of eyes on you as you worked, making you glance around your surroundings in search of whoever was alarming your senses. A scoff escapes your lips when you spot Merle Dixon’s eyes on you from the door of the RV. The older man had been hitting on you from the moment you met him a few weeks back. He had to be at least twenty years older than you, but that didn’t seem to bother him as he continuously made passes at you.

You suddenly felt self conscious in your black leggings and tank top. The Georgia sun beat down on your skin relentlessly from sunrise to sundown, making most of you try to dress lightly around the camp to avoid overheating. You roll your eyes and huff, redirecting your attention to the conversation Carol and Lori were having. “What is it?” Lori asks when she spots your sour attitude.

“Just Merle ogling over there again.” You mutter to her, tilting your head in his direction lightly as you throw another shirt up on the clothes line. The two women shake their head in annoyance and mumble about how gross he is. You heard a rough male voice call out Merle’s name, regaining your attention from the women again. Your eyes landed on his brother approaching from his tent - Daryl.

You had not spoken to the archer more than once, finding him rather standoffish and hard to approach. He was good looking, that you could not deny. He was about the same height as his older brother, tan and well built. You admired his physique as he threw his crossbow over his shoulder. His muscular arms were bare and dirt stained under his green muscle shirt. His short shaggy brown hair contrasted nicely with his blue eyes. Daryl had by far interacted with you the least of any one else in the camp. He seemed to have little interest in being around anyone other than his asshole brother.

You had also taken notice of how minimally affected he seemed to the current state of the world. He built fires, hunted, tracked, and killed walkers as if he had been doing it his whole life. You couldn’t help but wonder what his life was like just a few weeks ago. What did he do for a living? What was he like under all that hard exterior?

Merle’s gaze landing on you once again made you quickly avert your eyes back to the women, hoping he had not seen you looking their direction. Both the Dixon brothers intimated you, for sure - but you for Merle revolting while Daryl intriguing.

You were only a handful of yards away from the brothers, easily able to hear their loud, raspy voices from where you stood if you blocked out Lori and Carol’s chit chat. “Ima go hunt. Found some deer tracks earlier.” A voice that you determine to be Daryl’s based on his comments, announces to his brother. Merle didn’t do much of anything around the camp, whereas Daryl always seemed to be preoccupied with one task or another.

You continue hanging the clothes that Carol hands you distractedly, eavesdropping on the brothers.

“Ain’t got nothin better ta do than chase rabbits around the woods, little brother?” Merle drawls with a scoff. You roll your eyes at his comments, wondering what he has to do other than ogle you and cause trouble around the camp.

“Like sit on my ass all day?” Daryl retaliates, his comment reflecting your own thoughts. A smirk tugs at your lips as you continue.

You glance up when Daryl walks past you guys, crossbow over his shoulder and large knife attached to his belt buckle. You briefly meet his eye, neither of you saying a word as he continued past you toward the woods. You dropped your gaze back to the clothes basket, mentally scolding yourself for being so interested in the man. He didn’t even acknowledge you, you shouldn’t be wasting time thinking about him.

The morning drug on slowly, like most others. This new life was very boring, you could only imagine how the kids were feeling. You missed your phone, the internet, television... As stupid and privileged as it sounded, you couldn’t help but feel like time slowed down and you had nothing better to do than wash clothes or gather firewood.

You had gone inside the RV for about fifteen minutes to cool down from the intense sun, the sweat from the sweltering heat trickling down your skin. You hated feeling sweaty - you felt gross. Stripping out of your leggings that were sticking to your skin, you tossed them into the clothes basket in the corner and throw on your denim capri pants in place of discarded item. You missed your shower - a pond or quarry would never replace a relaxing shower with actual soap and hot water.

When you heard numerous voices nearby the RV, you decided to get up and head back out - seeing what was going on. Slowly exiting the vehicle, you take notice of numerous people standing around one of the cars. “What’s going on?” You ask Glenn as he passes you. “Going on a run. Wanna come?” He asks, stopping and turning to look at you.

You had never gone with them on a run before, what exactly do you do? Would you just get in the way? But then again, you’ve been wanting to find a way to pull your weight...

What should you do? Choose your path!

Go on the run | Stay at camp

~~~~~~~~~~~

And that is the introduction!! The two links above are different parts that will change how you proceed in the story and you will see how just one little choice will drastically change the events that follow! A simple decision like going on a run or not... Is going to set the foundation of this story and all of the choices you are going to need to make following it!

Please leave me some feedback on what you thought of this first part and let me know in the comments which option you chose!! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s reactions to this series!!! ♥

If you want to know when this series has been updated, feel free to turn on my notifications and ask to be added to my taglist! ♥

@crossbowking​ @glitteryathleterebeluniversity​ @elizaaishi​ @permanenthunger​ @lasswarrior​ @givethnofucketh​  @lokilover2000-blog​ @tv-show-shit​ @mtngirlforever​ @jodiereedus22​@cole-winchester @loudlydarkcollective​ @tehfabbooty​ @momc95​@fuzzy-panda @sourwolf-sterek32​ @mwesterfeld1985​ @badluckgirl​ @namelesslosers​ @my-current-fandom-is​ @zzeacat​ @twdeadfanfic​ @elamy17​ @fangirlsarah16​ @gryffindorshadowhunter​ @justaclosetedgay @a-little-piece-of-heaven-xox​@hello-valerie @huntress-valkyrie​ @pleasepleasepleaseme​ @fangirl-juchan​@dotslabyrinth @isayweallgetdrunk​ @vibhati123 @ask-kakashihatake@clumsy-writing-rdb @07chenzo03 @iminlokisarmysofi​ @daryldixonandfrogs​ @franzixlovesxsomeone​ @of-storms-and-sadness​ @duchessdeer​ @mazerunnerrose​@gruffle1 @harry-titss​ @coffeebooksandfandom​ @marissacooper​ @neeadinghugs​ @theserpentinequeen​ @firelonewolf​ @habelm @isilmiel @itsmysticalmystery​ @misscamptl​ @escapetothemind-dancefloor @dixonslover​ @walkingdeadfan25​ @qrangr​@mblaqgi @daryldixon83​ @negansviolentdelights​ @multiefandamn​ @fandom-trash99 @bvbwestfall​ @sugoichenzo​ @daryldixonswifey​ @thoughtsmeander2tumblingblindy@esdlaliniadedurin @jasminetherandomweirdo​ @abilostinlight​ @thebeckyjolene​@too-many-fanfiction-fandoms @celticheart72-masterlist​ @whizzer1320​ @nohemi2500​ @nugget3455@axelwolf8109 @twd-imaginesss​ @hells-mistress​ @kaleeandspn @sekkitsu​ @fxckyourlife​ @topsykretts926-blog​ @lighthope08​ @runlikeclockwork​ @elysijin​ @mummy-woves-you​ @princess-of-idgaf​ @icantstopreblogging​​ @rhyatt-deauxtreve​​ @nikki082489​​ @twdeadfanfic​ @superdeadwalker @ringpopdust​ @twdsfix​ @dixonluvv​ @angelophany​ @imaginecrushes​ @the-wonderful-werewolf @chocolatealmondmillk @catlya​@firedancernix @princessxpunk​ @collecting-stories​ @ly–canthrope@maydayfigment​ @emilyabeth@classygladiatorcupcake​ @buckygal95​ @aj3684​ @nervous-bouquet-werewolfs-posts @hudsonbird​ @expectroyalpurple​ @thecraziestcrayon​ @d-e-e-e​ @dylan-o-yumm​ @dead-walking10​ @glitteryathleterebeluniversity @neilox​ @lauravic@d-e-e-e​ @cultliter​ @ravenmoore14​ @rxsenkrxnz-imagines @zeppelinwhore @i-ran-out-of-fanfics @spidergirla5 @vgs-sunflower @captainskyline

[inyoursheets]

7, 17, and 27 for the fic asks!

7. Do you prefer to read short fics or long fics? 

oh wow, i don’t even know. really depends on the story i guess? and my attention span varies lololol some days im more patient than others. i like to sink into longer fics but i can also sincerely enjoy short fics a lot

in conclusion give me all the fics

17. How obsessively do you sit and stare at your fic after you’ve just posted and wait for feedback 

oh this varies, too. depends on the story i think? or, no, it depends on the writing process of the story. in some ways ive gotten worse w this. while also understanding why i do it more than before. it’s a work in progress. im really trying to stop caring too much about reactions bc while i do hope that people enjoy my writing, the point is not that. i used to publish and then bounce and take a shower before checking anything. but now i sometimes do somewhat obsessively refresh the page, unfortunately. i need to chill with that. i think what helps is that i often post in the evening, so i just fall asleep and then check in the morning, but sometimes i uncharacteristically manage to finish the final edits early enough to not do that, in which case i do need a proper distraction in place to prevent myself from checking for comments or whatever. so. pretty obsessively? i cant wait to grow past this phase lol

27. Do you like to give your readers some warning of what might be coming or just slap them in the face with content at random?

hahaha, you tell me! i feel like with warm water i do occasionally rant about the writing process so im....somewhat transparent about what lies ahead? tho i do try to not spoil too much. the last line tag + that search word fic game sure made that hard haha. maybe i dont always give that much away about what’s gonna happen but i do think i give something of a head’s up that im about to publish a chapter? im pretty sure that’s easy to notice considering how much oversharing i do in the tags/complaining i do about editing

but then......i didn’t tell anyone that i was writing the grocery store manager!AU except @medievalraven so i guess that was me slapping you all in the face with content. i read this thing -- a tweet? an article? i dont remember -- about how with creative pursuits, it’s smart not to share the idea before you’ve actually created it, bc if you do, you will first get validation from people’s reactions to the idea but then get demotivated once that initial rush wears off bc you actually still have to do the work. whereas if you share once you’ve created it, there’s less of a chance you’ll lose your motivation??? i think that was the gist, idk for sure.

so that’s what i tried to do very deliberately with the grocery store manager!AU, to see how that works for me. also bc the idea was soooo self-indulgent and it was nice to just experiment with writing it just for me without anyone knowing about it so i wouldn’t on some level worry about expectations or about the reactions of other people. tho it was really nice to gush about it with lauren! bc it’s also fun to share excitement about what you’re writing! i very specifically intended that fic to be a palate cleanser for after i finished warm water, but then suddenly i wrote it very quickly and was too pleased with it not to share, haha. or, actually, i had a different pwp oneshot idea, but that one is growing beyond the low stakes thing i wanted to write first thing after finishing warm water.

to sum up, if i ever do slap you with content at random it is because i managed to have enough self-control to not already share the idea beforehand and to make the writing process a little bit easier for me! although i will say, i genuinely love hearing about other people’s fic ideas and unpublished WIPs and definitely see the appeal in that, too

thank you!!!!!!! fic writer ask game thingy!!!

[sourirez]

Abusage

Summary: The imprisoned god finds amusement in a strange half-mortal while he’s kept in Midgard. What he doesn’t expect is for the princess to turn into a warrior as he leaves with a scar not only on his body but in his heart, only to be healed by the same person that very evening.

Loki X Reader

Part 1

The quiet sound of the room filled the gray walls while the only thing that moved inside the room was Loki’s chest, his breath filling the air. The compound was empty today, no signs of any souls while the merciless god remained alone, the state in which he was the most calm and peaceful.

He thought about his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time but because he was with Thor, he knew she wasn’t worried much. He had learned how to use certain midgardian tools like a box with people in it and also how to warm food, it was Tony who showed him the use of technology here, something they didn’t need much in Asgard as magic did the most. He had gone out with Bruce and Steve once, they didn’t want to take him out but after Nat but him in casual midgardian clothes, they didn’t want to waste the effort.

Midgard was different, so much more violent and filled with a little too many problems, even for a god. He had seen so many people shouting outside, seemed like peace had left this city whereas Tony said that peace was just found around here, after his arrival and defeat. Loki saw the reflection of sunrays called rainbow and found it rather childish how the colors were all so simple yet, he enjoyed the observations around here.

His hair was growing, it was still slicked back and it’s raven color was brighter than ever, creating a contrast between his eyes. He was bored most days, almost to a point where he couldn’t take it but there were times like when he talked to Y/N that made things a little better for him, she was interesting after all.

Loki had learned that Y/N was really a half-god. He had found it suspicious how he hadn’t heard of her but after talking to his brother, he knew she was the lost daughter of Cyra. He had heard so many stories about her mother, how she was the most fascinating women on Asgard and how much of a brave warrior she was on the battlefield next to his father. Loki saw some of these traits in Y/N, but he didn’t comment because his observations were only for himself.

He walked slowly, cautious of any other souls that could be in the building since it was a training day for some young midgardians he had seen, they had something different about them but nothing that stood out too much. He had observed a few of them while Y/N taught them the art of fighting and a few rules of the universe she had been taught before.

Loki had realized that Y/N was not a midgardian in the way she behaved, neither was she an Asgardian like her mother. Loki saw all kinds of realms and creatures in her: she carried herself around like the king of Alfheim, with class and much respect but she knew too much about the universe and its flaws to be a king. She fought like her mother, an Asgardian blamed for things she didn’t do, there was a shadow to her, something that kept Loki interested but he also knew that it wasn’t much of a thrilling shadow she had, it was made of all the broken parts she had.

Loki and Y/N were similar in ways they wanted to deny. They had both been let down too many times, by family and their close circle. Y/N had seen way too much compared to the grumpy god yet, he would deny this any time it came to his mind. Loki couldn’t read her mind either, it was a spell she had and much stronger than any other spell Loki had come across so he also wondered if she was trained by witches like Frigga had been.

His slow and steady steps brought him towards the noise. It was the huge training room that was occupied with a few familiar faces Loki had come to know. Slow grunts and the sound of flesh hitting metal filled the room,s the glass walls made everything even more visible while Loki approached the two people training, it wasn’t very much like training and more like one of them kicking the other’s ass. It was simply amusing to him.

The compound was soon filled with what they called ‘the team’. Loki was not the most content but he didn’t mind the company of some mortals around here who possessed a great deal of knowledge much to his surprise. He sat around the glass wall and watched the youngsters train, some of them had talents while some were simply pathetic in the eyes of the god. 

A dark chuckle escaped his lips when Sam fell on the ground once again, finding it hard to fight against super human powers, Loki was actually surprised he lasted this long. Due to the small sound he made, all eyes were on him now. He met all of their judgemental eyes before Tony spoke, sarcasm dripping out of every word that came out of his mouth.

“Wouldn’t you like to try, Reindeer Games? ” he spoke, there was first silence and a few giggles. This was a nickname Tony had given him and Loki was unsure of the meaning, yet it annoyed him so a hiss came out of his mouth instead of an answer.

If Thor were here, he would make the mortals know of the powers Loki possessed, none of them measured up to his level of accuracy and skill when it came to fighting, he was a god after all. The small footsteps interrupted his thoughts when Y/N came in, ready to fight in less clothes with more flexibility.

Bucky was the in the room, waiting for her so he could train. He didn’t need to but he knew it was a fun way of relieving the pent up energy he had inside him. While Loki’s eyes traveled from Y/N’s braided hair to her hands as she covered them with black gloved designed for her, the others spoke but he didn’t hear, he was too busy looking at his own view in front of him.

The gloves were actually to help Y/N with her powers. She was able to control a few things much like her mother, maybe even more powerful but she wasn’t fully comfortable with using them here, not in front of them. They had seen her hands light up and create illusions, weapons and different realities but they had never seen it in the compound, it was far too dangerous here.

Cap touched Loki’s shoulder, more like a push it was to get him out of staring and thinking, he was in his own world for a bit too long.

“Why don’t you go for a round with Y/N, I’m sure she’ll measure up to you.” he joked, Loki’s eyes glistened while they met Y/N’s.

Her mouth closed before she said anything, shrugging his shoulders as to say that it was alright. Nat was amused at this, she knew how well of a fighter Y/N was and knowing Loki was a demigod, she stood a chance to win for sure. Y/N didn’t say anything, she just waited for some sort of a reaction from Loki while he found this opportunity amusing.

He was searching for an opportunity to see the ex-assassin at work. Ever since the fast healed scar on her neck and their talk about her past, Loki had grown even more interested. The warrior who had a dark past just like her mother seemed too much of an intimidating story and Loki wanted to know, anything and everything Y/N was capable of not only on the battlefield but on the daily.

“Okay.”Y/N heard Loki say and that was all it took for her to come out of her thoughts.

She didn’t doubt herself nor her skills, she was trained on more than one realm and was experienced but she knew too much of the god. All the stories she had been told as a kid about the mighty brothers came to her while the admired god turned into an enemy on the training grounds, much faster of a change than she was used to.

Unlike others in the compound, Y/N wasn’t intimidated at Loki’s usual self. She knew he tried to annoy her, bore her but she only found his efforts more interesting than she had expected. Thor was a sweet person for sure but Y/N was interested in the mysterious god born after him, he was everything but what was expected of him and this caught Y/N’s attention a little too much.

“Alright.” Y/N said, stepping into the empty room while the team watched them through the glass door, it was protected from the inside yet, it was clear to see.

Loki’s gaze first traveled around her exposed neck, her hair came out of a few places yet it almost seemed like she did it on purpose. Her face was far too beautiful of a creature’s to be here, fighting with him. He knew of the gloves and their specialty but he let go of that, he didn’t want to seem to interested in the woman before him.

“Wanna throw the first punch?” Y/N joked, but before she knew it, Loki was already holding a weapon against her neck, it was an illusion he used.

Loki chuckled right before feeling a warmth on his stomach, was he bleeding? He looked down after letting Y/N go only to see nothing, she had used her powers to stimulate the feeling. Loki didn’t have much time after that when Y/N kicked her stomach, landing a few punches around his neck, making Loki stumble and fall onto the floor.

Y/N blew her hair out the way, feeling Loki’s strong grasp on her waist while he chuckled, way too darkly for someone who was about to be thrown into the ground once more. They heard the reactions of the avengers through the doors while Loki dragged Y/N’s body across the room. Y/N kicked her way out of his grasp, a little too fast for the god right before she felt a metal object right under her neck.

Her breath was not audible but it was there while Loki didn’t let go, holding her body tight against his while the team seemed simply terrified, he could kill Y/N if he wanted. 

“You minx.” he practically growled while she smiled slowly, finding it almost endearing how he had given her a nickname just when he was about to kill her. 

While thoughts made their way into Loki’s mind, Y/N hit his crotch, a little too cliche but his grasp loosened and the next thing he knew, Y/N had kicked her across the room until his back hit the wall, a loud thud across the room while the god stood there, trying to gain his balance and find his knife.

It was all too fast for anyone but Y/N as her actions took up a few seconds. After kicking Loki across the room, she grabbed her knife skillfully and just when he stood up, threw it across the room. A smooth sound could be heard by everyone around the room right before the knife stuck on the wall, right next to Loki’s cheekbone where there was a small cut. Too fast, Loki thought after he felt the cut on his cheek.

Avengers cheered slowly, Y/N’s face was nothing but celebratory. Her eyes didn’t leave Loki’s for a long time, there was something Loki had stumbled upon her during the fight that she found too hard to explain and so she just stood there for a while, facing the god with wide yet calm eyes as he bled. Her breath slowly calmed down under his gaze, her mind cleared and she gave her a small smile before walking out of the room.

Loki didn’t know what had just happened, it was far too fast and unexpected for him to digest. The god had just experienced his first individual defeat, he was bleeding and was in a state of utter shock but nevertheless, he was even more interested in the woman who was responsible for his current state.

⚜ ⚜ ⚜

Staring at the reflection of himself on the ceiling, Loki’s eyes drifted to his scar. It was healing up slower than usual, probably because Y/N used some magic on it before she threw it. It was Loki could think about, how fast it all happened was the additional cherry on top. He had kept his cool around the half-god for some time now but when she threw that knife, there was so much she could see, so much of what Loki was out of his mask.

Y/N was also shocked, the god was not the sarcastic trickster she knew of at that moment. There was more than a whole universe inside the raven haired man before her, she had seen it in his eyes. There was so much sorrow, pain and fear he had but he was simply perfect at hiding it, much like he had done in the past years of his life. Y/N also saw regret, small hints of the past weighed him down a little too much.

Y/N kept these to herself while they stayed at the corner of her mind, creating curiosity and interest towards the god even more. Loki’s gaze left the ceiling and his scar when Rhodey came in the room with Thor, all the avengers were amused by the scar and how it had all happened, Loki saw it in their faces much like his brother’s.

Unlike what he would usually do, Loki wasn’t angry at Y/N nor he wanted to hold some sort of a grudge to unleash upon her in years to come, if she would be around. Loki hoped she would but he was aware of the unpredictability of the future. He was simply impressed at the creature, she was way too bold for a princess yet the way she carried herself told Loki otherwise, she was a whole different world in herself.

“Brother, you’ve been well?” spoke Thor, Loki didn’t know why he was here since he had been gone for the last week.

“Kind of you to ask after abandoning me here.” Loki said, sarcasm dripping from every word as he sat on the bed, Thor was sitting on a chair.

“I came to tell you about an event today, you need to make no trouble.” he spoke once again, Loki knew Thor was here for Jane yet he ignored it. He was used to being the second choice at this point.

“And?” Loki said, standing up while his brother kept his eyes on him, Rhodey was long gone.

“There’s a celebration being thrown, they have invited you as well since you have been quite bored. I ask nothing but for you to keep your mischief away today.” said Thor, trying to act as gentle as possible.

“They’ll have Y/N around for any magic tricks you might wanna pull.”

Tony appeared in the room, an apple in his hand while he winked at the demigods before him.

“And seeing how well she’s kicked your ass today.” Tony continued, walking in the room and his gaze met Loki’s scar.

“I think we’ll be just fine.”

⚜ ⚜ ⚜

The sky was dark, it was nowhere near a navy color while stars decorated the vast universe. The street was crowded, cars and guards coming out of each corner while everyone kept themselves occupied with a glass of champagne. Loki was staring around, trying to get used to the new realm he was in.

The party was one of Tony’s many, it wasn’t unusual that it happened but it was usual that a demigod who tried to destroy the very place they were in was invited. He chuckled, the guards and their guns would do nothing but harm if he tried to escape but the harm would be to the city once again.

Walking in the building, Loki’s eyes met the chandeliers, grand and well designed with too many lights on them. The place reminded him of one of the palace’s he’d been to, gold in many corners with statues and fountains inside the glass windows while laughter and greetings filled the thin air.

The place smelled of vanilla and champagne when the demigod’s eyes met the so called team. They were all here, wearing suits and expensive dresses while Thor walked towards them. They had smiles on, something rare Loki got the see and he also saw them out of their armors for the first time, they all looked different.

“Look who it is!” said Tony, the team laughed while all Loki did was to roll his eyes. He had gotten to this Midgardian sarcasm and dealt with it pretty well up until now.

As much as he wanted to deny it, his eyes searched for Y/N around the place. It was too crowded but for a god, it was nothing to search for someone in this place. He looked around for a while, his gaze met tones of women and men dressed in fancy attire with a drink in their hands yet Y/N was nowhere to be seen.

He was far too proud to ask anyone about her just when she appeared. She had left her wavy hair down, it created shadows around her face as she walked. Her maroon dress complimented her skin color completely as she made her way towards the group. She simply glistened under the lights, her face was accentuated with make-up and a few simple jewels and Loki could tell she took her beauty from her mother, it simply left him breathless.

He didn’t shift while she greeted the team, everyone except Loki. She was feeling a little guilty about the small scar on his cheek and knowing the stories about him, she was sure he was mad and annoyed at her so he remained away from him the whole time. Nat and Bruce got up dancing after a while, moving their bodies to the beat while the others also got up from the circle table, they had too much to drink.

Y/N chuckled at the crowd, all the foolish stumbling they made seemed to amuse her while she sat on the table across from the god. Their eyes met frequently, mostly because Loki didn’t seem to look away and Y/N waited for him to do so. She didn’t have much to drink even though he was good with her liquor, Midgardian drinks were far too weak.

The night and the dim lights created shadows on Loki’s skin, Y/N couldn’t keep her gaze away while she watched the city lights reflect on his porcelain skin. His blue eyes stood out while his slicked back hair and a few strands of hair on his face made him look like out of this world, even though he really was. He was wearing a suit, no tie with an unbuttoned shirt until he could reveal some of his silky skin. There was a green scarf around his jacket, matching the green detailing on his shoes and sleeves.

She gave him a smile while her gaze fixated on his eyes first, his scar second. Loki liked the small game they were playing until a slow song came on. There was a hint of fear in Y/N’ eyes when Loki walked towards her, leaving his chair while the rest of the team remained in their own world. He sat next to her while all her eyes did was to follow his figure, everywhere he went.

“Hello, Lady.”he spoke, a hint of mischief in his tone only she could see.

“Hey, Mister.”said Y/N, playing along while his eyes traveled up and down her body, finding her too good.

“Would you care to join me on the dance floor?”Loki asked, way more kindly than he would usually do.

Y/N was relieved and stressed. Loki wasn’t mad nor annoyed, that was her worry all along. The god was now next to her, asking her to dance with him. It was a slow song playing as they got up, Loki took her hand in his and she followed her, his touch was gentle unlike it had been in the fight today.

Her breath was slow while their bodies touched, Loki’s one hand was on her waist while the other held her hand up, intertwined fingers while they danced. Y/N could feel his heartbeat, his shallow breaths confident as they warmed her face with a steady pace. She didn’t look at him for a while, making sure she would not step on his toes as they waltzed around the room.

The crowd made a circle around them as they traveled from corner to corner around the room. When Y/N looked up, she realized he had been staring at her for the whole time. The lights around the room reflected from the surfaces of the glasses on the tables, creating small crystal shadows around the room while the two souls danced, almost perfect.

“I thought gods don’t bleed.” said Y/N, out of the blue after realizing that Loki was nowhere near holding a grudge about the small scar, he was simply impressed was all.

This earned a small chuckle from the demigod as he held her close, his chuckle filled her ears as a smile made its way to their faces. Loki smelled of mint and what Y/N imagined a mystic creature to smell like, it took her out of the thoughts she had and put her into reality.

These souls were both scarred too deep, betrayal and sorrow was carved into their minds as it appeared many times in their lives. Somehow, they would both come to heal each others’ wounds, all they would need was time and patience as they would come to grow together. The two kids who were dancing together would be each others’ light and dark but they were not so aware of this.

“You amuse me, dear.” Loki spoke, finding some sort of comfort in the exchange of a few words with the half-god. Her gaze met his once more, their crystal eyes filled with something out of the blue.

“Well, It’s an honor, Prince.” she spoke, not realizing the fact that he called him a prince.

In Y/N’s mind, Loki had always a prince ever since she heard of him. He was a misunderstood one but Y/N saw more elegance and nobility in Loki than in Thor. He was meant to be a King someday, there was no doubt in her mind but somehow, things had gone wrong and there he was now, imprisoned in a place far too weak.

With the change of a song to an even slower one, Y/N’s hand slipped from Loki’s and landed on his shoulders while Loki’s hands held her by the waist gently. The two creatures could easily be mistaken for lovers from outside but the truth was, they were nothing but a pair of familiar strangers to each other. Loki danced with the half-god while her heartbeat could be felt against his. Their eyes met every now and then, breaths against each other while Y/N’s mind was nothing but confused.

This man before him was nothing she had been told. She wasn’t the one to believe a couple words but it wasn’t just the mortals around here who told him about the merciless god who was now holding her against his body ever so gently. He was misunderstood, a little too reckless and loveless, nowhere near a monster. So she looked at his eyes for the last time that evening and found something she didn’t know he was capable of.

Tenderness.

⚜ ⚜ ⚜

Taglist: @themusingsofmany​ @yuzuhirado​ @parkbearum​

[valoisfulcanelli]

randomsquirrel replied to your post: What’s going to happen to my content on Tumblr

Doesn’t it just figure that JUST as things are getting together and you CAN start posting again they pull this bullshit. I’m in a similar boat, as this is one of the few places I can think of to say “hey, read my fics!”, and without it, well, I almost wonder why bother updating, yeah? >_>

Yep. The new computer is actually arriving this afternoon.

The thing is... *sigh* I’ve seen all of this before. Many years ago, before Tumblr was even much of a thing, LiveJournal was THE home for fandom. Everyone was there. After the first ‘strikethrough’ several clones popped up--most notably JournalFen--but LJ was fandom’s home in its entirety. You could find anything on there when Brad and his staff ran it.

(I got wordy again. The rest is behind a cut.)

Then Brad sold it to 6Apart, who took it apart. They created VOX: an abortive attempt to ‘simplify’ LiveJournal for people who thought it too complicated. I got an account there to try it out, and it was horrendous; like LJ for kiddies. You couldn’t leave comments on other peoples’ posts; the only way you could respond was by clicking an “I like this” button. 

Clicky buttons are the one thing I truly detest about Facebook. Their ‘like’ button was the start of what I think of as ‘lazy reactions’. People rarely comment these days (and yes, I include myself among that number) because we have other, much faster ways to react. And thus, slowly, community and support is eroded. Slowly, more and more young people--who grew up with simplified reactions as their only feedback--are at risk of tying their self-esteem and self-worth into how many likes/hearts they get, and how many followers they have, regardless of whether those followers actually interact with them. Is it any wonder that--despite our all being so much more ‘connected’ these days--many of us feel so much more lonely?

So 6Apart began the taking apart of LiveJournal. I finally quit my expensive permanent account when one of the staff members made a post mocking people who were upset about the changes that were being made. He actively wrote derogatory things about them (I still have the screenshot of it somewhere in my old backed up archive files). And when I made a final post telling my almost 300 followers that I was done with the site, guess what happened?

Several of them told me I was selfish for taking all of my self-created content away from them. People messaged me, screaming about how I was letting them down. Other people messaged a co-writer I’d been working on a long series with and urged her to forget about me and take on a new co-writer who would (get this) take over my characters and write them for me, just so they didn’t lose a series they were so invested in on that platform.

I’d created something they loved, and they didn’t want to lose it. Looking back on it now, with the benefit of time and hindsight, those people were just as scared as I was of change. But while they stayed on the sinking ship, I had to jump over the railing and swim away.

I quit in 2008 and pretty much left fandom for a long, long fucking time, after having been incredibly active on LJ for 7 years. 6Apart sold LJ to SUP, a Russian company. I took a tentative step back to LJ about a year ago. I tried it for about a month and then the ToS changed. Everyone was logged out, and they couldn’t log back in without accepting the new ToS... which stated that they agreed not to post any LGBT ‘propaganda’. 

So I closed the tab and never went back. So did many others, but--Dreamwidth aside--there was no single place that fandom went to. The diaspora had already begun years back, with the people who posted the pictures moving to Tumblr, the fic-writers moving to AO3, and the general bloggers moving to DW. Fandom was split into three, and--not incidentally--that was when fandom started turning in on itself, too. The worst of fandom that you see today was beginning to make itself known back then, on those disparate sites. Sure--even prior to that--you’d see some stupendous Harry Potter absurdity being related on the fandom_wank community on JournalFen but the kind of shit you see with fen turning on other fen wasn’t around back then. (Anyone familiar with ‘hed pastede on yay’? That was a fandom_wank thing.)

I didn’t get back into fandom until I started writing The Madness of Mr Goth. And my god, had fandom changed by that point. I barely recognised it. Whereas before--when I posted chapters on LiveJournal--I’d get up to 50 comments per chapter, now I was lucky to get maybe five or six from the same faithful band of devoted readers. Sure, a lot of that could be down to the fandom I found myself in--but hell, my old ones weren’t exactly hugely popular! I was often the fandom-of-one who managed to pull other people in.

People don’t interact anywhere near as much as they used to. And part of me can’t help but think that... that is what’s wanted. In isolation and loneliness, people have no support, no backup, it’s harder to organise things. Look what happens when people do protest. Shit gets done! But with everyone posting away and getting only hearts and thumbs-ups, it’s harder to feel like you’re getting anywhere. Whereas, back when I was more active and other were too, there was support everywhere.

You know something about me and LiveJournal? I started something there, something that a lot of other people picked up and ran with. Anyone who might have been active back then may realise that I’m about to out my old fannish identity to anyone with a good memory, but I started a movement on LJ: the _daily community, posting a daily image of [insert fandom here]. I created the very first one--the idea was mine--and thousands of others followed. You won’t find a _daily that’s older than the one I created (and yes, eventually deleted when I deleted all of my other journals; another thing I got told I was selfish for doing) because I started that whole thing. And I was the only one who never missed a goddamn day. I even arranged for others to cover when I was away on vacation (there were no queued posts back then) so that not a single day was missed. 

I had something like 30 or so journals and communities, combined. They ranged from my own personal account, personal fanfic posting, non-fannish fic posting, several fandom communities, a writers’ support community, a community dedicated to philology, multiple roleplay journals and journals dedicated to individual long story arcs, a journal that I was writing from the historical standpoint of a fictional Elizabethan doctor and his apprentice (in as close to original syntax as I could), and many many others. I was ridiculously active back then, posting fiction almost every day, and huge summaries at the end of each month, so people could click links to catch up on what they were currently reading.

LiveJournal was my home, but I upped sticks and left because I couldn’t stay there any longer with the way it was heading. Not only did I leave behind those journals, I also left behind the online persona I had been using for more than ten years (actually, when I look back, I’d been using that persona online for about TWENTY years). I figuratively shed my skin, and felt lost for a very long time because my entire online identity was left behind on LJ.

I don’t even know where I’m going with this ramble. Clearly I have a LOT of fucking thoughts on this, and many of them have been simmering just under the boil for about ten years. I would love to go back to how I was then, but I’m not sure that I can.

[cover2covermom]

*Books included in this batch of mini book reviews: Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities #2) by Shannon Messenger, The Last (Endling #1) by Katherine Applegate, SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson, Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei #1) by Abigail Hing Wen

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» Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities #2) by Shannon Messenger

*4.5 stars*» I’m happy to report that this second installment of this awesome MG fantasy series does NOT suffer from “second book syndrome.” Exile was just as quick paced & action packed as the first book.

» The best part of this book was more character development in secondary characters we didn’t get much out of from the first book.  One of my issues with the first book was that I wanted to see more character development in Grady & Edaline in particular, which I felt was rectified in this installment.  I enjoyed seeing more of Sophie’s home life with Grady & Edaline.  Keefe was another character we saw more of in this book.  He really stepped out of the shadows as an endearing and memorable character.  I loved the comedic relief he provides throughout this book.

» We got new characters like Sandor, Sophie’s new bodyguard, and Silveny, an “alicorn” with a special connection to sophie.  I enjoyed these new additions & look forward to seeing them in future installments.

» I love all the intrigue surrounding the the Black Swan, the Neverseen, and even the council.  It isn’t exactly clear who the “good guys” and who the “bad guys” really are.

» Dex was not as prominent in this installment as he was in the first book, which was a bummer.  When we did see Dex, his insecurities were at the forefront of all of his interactions with Sophie.  Dex wasn’t as likable as he was in Keeper of the Lost Cities.

» Fitz’s reaction to *the situation* was very uncharacteristic of him.  Whereas Fitz was cast as very mature & level-headed in the first book, he did a complete 180 in Exile.

› Recommended to ⇒ Harry Potter fans; MG fantasy fans

› If you liked this book, try ⇒ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling or The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #1) by Jessica Townsend

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» The Last (Endling #1) by Katherine Applegate

*4.5 Stars*

After reading Wishtree & The One and Only Ivan, I knew I wanted to read more of Applegate’s work.» Applegate built a very interesting world with unique creatures, a lush setting, and a captivating political system.  The Last dives into some heavy themes like inequality, sexism, greed, and power, while also featuring themes like friendship, loyalty, tenacity, and honor.

» The Last was very much a journey/quest plot, which I love in my fantasy books.  I was compelled from start to finish.

»  Applegate has a gift with creating endearing characters.  Not only were these characters lovable, but they were complex and well developed.   I loved the dynamic between Byx, Tobble, and Khara.  I love when unlikely friends come together to form a crew.

» While this is classified as a middle grade audience, this book will appeal to a wide audience from MG to adult.  I would consider this to be a great crossover book that could appeal to both MG readers & YA readers.  The Last would be a great book for kids that are middle grade aged, but maybe have a higher reading level.  The content is more challenging, while still appropriate for the MG audience.

› Recommended to ⇒ fans of animal stories; quest/journey fantasy

» SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson

»  This is a must read for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak.  While you don’t HAVE to read Speak to read this book, I feel like it makes a bigger impact if you read Speak prior to this.

» SHOUT is Anderson’s memoir told in verse.  This memoir goes into Anderson’s own experience as a victim of sexual assault.  Shout is raw, gritty, and unsettling, as a book addressing rape & rape culture should be.

» While I enjoyed the first half of this book where we learn about Anderson’s upbringing & the sexual assault that influenced her early teen years, the second half of this book was outstanding.  Anderson’s relentless pursuit to enact change in how our culture addresses sexual assault is inspiring.

› Recommended to ⇒ teens; parents; teachers

› Trigger/content warnings ⇒ sexual assault; rape culture

› If you liked this book, try ⇒ Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson; Asking For It by Louise O’Neill

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» Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei #1) by Abigail Hing Wen

*4.5 Stars*» This is a guilty pleasure type of read.  Actually, it gave me a bit of Crazy Rich Asians vibes, so if you enjoyed that book/movie, you’d probably enjoy this book.

» I really appreciated the realistic and uncensored portrayal of teenagers.  Teenagers often test boundaries and experiment, this is just reality.

» Watching Ever’s development from the beginning of the book to the end was wonderful.  While she makes some poor decisions at the beginning of the book, she learns from these mistakes and grows to understand who she really is.   I also appreciated Ever’s passion for dance, and her drive to work hard to achieve her goals.

» While Loveboat, Taipei is lighthearted, it does cover meaningful themes like the pressures of parental expectations, identity, following your dreams, the complexities of female friendships, forgiveness, and first love.

» I really appreciated the dyslexia representation!  Not only do we have one character with dyslexia, but we have TWO in Loveboat, Tapei.

» While I typically cringe at the thought of love triangles, Wen proves that the love triangle can work under certain circumstances.

› Recommended to ⇒ drama fans

› Trigger/content warnings ⇒ domestic violence (not graphic); depression (side character); suicide attempt (side character).  It is a tad racy, in regards to sexual content, for a YA book… So I’d probably recommend for older YA readers that are 16+

› If you liked this book, try ⇒ Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (*Adult*)

Have you read any of these books?  If so, what did you think?

Comment below & let me know 🙂

      Mini Book Reviews: May 2020 - Part 4 #BookBlogger #BookReview #Bookworm #Bibliophile #Review #YA #YoungAdult #MiddleGrade *Books included in this batch of mini book reviews: Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities #2) by Shannon Messenger, …

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

YouTube’s terrible feedback and Google’s $1B tech-free funding – TechCrunch

http://tinyurl.com/yxhrhum8 Whats up, weekend readers. That is Week-in-Assessment the place I give a heavy quantity of research and/or rambling ideas on one story whereas scouring the remainder of the tons of of tales that emerged on TechCrunch this week to floor my favorites in your studying pleasure. Final week, I talked about how the highest gaming trade franchises have been proving immortal and the way that might change. I primarily requested questions and I acquired some nice solutions in my electronic mail. Hold the suggestions coming. An attention-grabbing corollary to that dialog was Niantic releasing its Harry Potter title this week, a sport that takes liberal gameplay cues from Pokémon GO however attaches it to new IP. The massive query is whether or not Niantic can strike gold twice; right here’s an Additional Crunch interview my colleague Greg did with the startup’s CEO. This week, the most important tech matter at hand from the massive corporations was most likely Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, I’d usually dig into that however my colleague Josh did such a bang-up job breaking down Libra and why it’s necessary that I don’t really feel the necessity to. You may learn his explainer beneath. Within the midst of scouring this week’s headlines, a reasonably low-key story from Friday caught my eye detailing how YouTube was testing a model of its app the place the feedback have been hidden by default. Firms take a look at these things on a regular basis and it’s hardly a dedication nevertheless it did make me replicate on how the character of user-submitted feedback has shifted and the way sure platforms develop group cultures based mostly on the best way these feedback are sorted. Net feedback have been looking for their ultimate kind for some time now. Twitter turned feedback into the primary 140 character dish, however Twitter’s affect is getting baked right into a ton of platforms. Websites like Instagram are beginning to acquire a higher understanding of how customers need responses to enrich their content material and the alternatives they’ve seized on actually showcase the user-submitted alternatives being wasted by platforms like YouTube and Twitch. YouTube downgrading their remark visibility type of highlights what a cesspool the corporate has allowed them to show into, however moderately than being a spot the place persons are vile, the platform simply hasn’t grown them into one thing helpful or thrilling over the previous decade. As Instagram continues to grow to be a spot the place increasingly more well-known customers work together with one another, the remark fields have gotten the place the place customers “bond” with the accounts they comply with even when they’re nonetheless lurking round and studying how the account responds to different high-profile customers.  That is how public channels with large audiences ought to function. Certain, it’s partially a results of the tradition of the platform, however algorithms can form these cultures. The difficulty is so many different remark techniques are seemingly organized to deal with nameless customers, real-name customers and verified personalities the identical. Ascribing an equal weight to all of most of these content material is type of a surprisingly quaint method to deal with user-generated content material, it’s additionally a good way for platforms to search out engagement ceilings and the boundaries of what spam can grow to be. You don’t have to search around far via TechCrunch’s tales to search out some good old school “how I earned $72/hour working from dwelling” spam, however simply because one thing isn’t spam doesn’t means it’s worthwhile. Platforms have developed their very own remark memes based mostly on what can play the algorithms, it’s not significantly helpful, “Like if Jimmy Fallon introduced you right here,” “Like for those who’re watching this in 2019.” Platforms organized round constructing communities have an incentive to raise nameless voices and foster relationships and dialogue. Again within the Gawker days, most of my time on the positioning was spent digging via the feedback in search of commenters I acknowledged and having fun with their dialogue. That’s what Reddit has grow to be in lots of methods, a spot the place the posts are secondary to the reactions, however the discussion board techniques of net 1.zero aren’t made for such normal influencer-focused platforms of 2019 and it’s an space the place there are lots of wasted alternatives. YouTube feedback have garnered this status for being so laughable unhealthy as a result of the corporate has let the common of what’s submitted outline them, performing as a one-size suits all for platforms which might be decidedly extra dynamic. Ship me suggestionson Twitter @lucasmtny or electronic maillucas@techcrunch.com On to the remainder of the week’s information. Tendencies of the week Listed here are just a few large information gadgets from large corporations, with inexperienced hyperlinks to all of the candy, candy added context. Tesla paints it black (for a value)Tesla is seeking to hold these margins hopping and there subsequent play to make your Tesla a bit extra dear is by making the white paint job on its automobiles, making white the usual coloration. It might look like a tough deal, particularly when you’ll be able to a monitor stand in your new Apple Show for a similar value. Learn extra here about why Elon did this. Google drops a B on the BayTo these dwelling within the area of Silicon Valley, it’s no secret that the housing scarcity is hurting wallets. How a lot of that’s large tech’s fault and the way a lot of it’s the native authorities’s fault is tough to inform at occasions, however actually neither is doing as a lot as they might. This week Google pledged a whopping $1 billion value of help to the issue. Forking over $750 million value of actual property and a quarter-billion {dollars} value of funding for residential initiatives is sort of the pledge, let’s see how the cash will get spent. You may learn extra here. Slate failuresGoogle’s Pixel Slate pill was such sizzling rubbish that the corporate is leaving the pill sport for good and specializing in its Pixel laptop computer line as an alternative. Learn extra here. GAFA Gaffes How did the highest tech corporations screw up this week? This clearly wants its personal part, so as of awfulness: Apple recollects some MacBooks:[Apple issues voluntary recall of 2015 MacBook Pro batteries due to overheating concern] Google swats down shareholder vote:[Google defeats shareholders on ‘Dragonfly’ censored search in China] Fb in sizzling water over pretend evaluate gross sales: [Facebook and eBay told to tackle trade in fake reviews] Maps conserving it actual pretend:[Google responds to report that concluded there are millions of fake business listings on Maps] Picture by way of Getty Pictures / Feodora Chiosea Additional Crunch Our premium subscription service had one other week of attention-grabbing deep dives. TechCrunch’s Ron Miller wrote a narrative asking VCs and CEOs simply how a lot startup founders needs to be paying themselves. “…Murat Bicer,  general companion at CRV,  says you could possibly most likely ask 10 VCs this query, and get 10 totally different solutions, however he sees the vary on the low finish of maybe $125,000 and on the excessive finish perhaps $200,000, relying on the situation of the startup and the price of dwelling in a specific metropolis…” Listed here are a few of our different prime reads this week for premium subscribers. This week TechCrunch writers talked a bit about conserving your H-1B standing and the way you have to be negotiating your time period sheet with strategic buyers. Need extra TechCrunch newsletters? Join here. Source link

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT COLLEGE

Roughly, it's something done with contempt for the audience. Now we have two ideas that, if it existed, might be good to program in now. If you want to say and ad lib the individual sentences. Search for a few months. There are only two kinds of VCs you want to create for a newborn child will be quite unlike the streets of a big city. You'd expect them to be written as thin enough skins that users can see the general-purpose language underneath. But I think there's more going on with startups. Hacking something together means deciding what to do next. There is a point where the stream is broader.

The thought of all this. Tricks are straightforward to correct for. If you go and see all the different kinds of lying: the first is to tell the child that in addition to never wearing the color yellow, believing the world was created by a giant rabbit, and always snapping their fingers before eating fish, Xes are also particularly honest and industrious. Instead everyone is just supposed to explore their own personal vision. There's no difference in the meaning of a program may be easiest to read if you spread things out, like an introductory textbook. Outsiders don't have to content themselves anymore with a proxy audience of a few smart friends. Bush seemed old and tired.

So is it meaningless to talk about the industry generally. If you could measure actual performance, you wouldn't need them. Probably the biggest lie told in schools, though, that if you take a vote, all you're measuring is the error. Why does it bother adults so much when kids do things reserved for adults? It lets you accrete programs as a series of concentric rings, like ripples in a pond. Enough of an effect to triple the value of your remaining shares enough to put you net ahead, you wouldn't have or shouldn't have done it. Object-oriented programming is a useful technique in some cases, but it was a revelation to me how much less ideas mattered in speaking than writing. It's just unbearably inefficient. Audiences like to be flattered; they like to take about 30% of a company. Oddly enough, the most likely animals to be left alive after a nuclear war are cockroaches, because they're more confident. But that wears off after a few months, until blown out of the wrong kind of people, I like to work for a New York law firm in the 1950s they paid associates far less than firms do today. It's particularly important to raise money from a top firm would generally be a bargain.

In fact, we're so sure the founders are more important than marketing. For example, programming languages and applications are usually written by different people, and making deals work to their advantage. We Getting a Divorce? What surprised me was their reaction when I called to talk about art simply being good or bad news respectively, and writes that the market was up on news of Intel's earnings, or down on fears of instability in the Middle East. The negotiation never stops till the closing. But it's very useful to be able to define new types, but you probably don't. The unfortunate writer would then sit down to work with someone to know whether you want them to do? Search for a few months, it can certainly help their competitors. The same thing happened during the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles.

And yet all the empirical evidence points that way: pretty much 100% of startups that make something popular manage to make money, if only unconsciously, to pump and dump—to do things that will appeal to most sentient beings whatever that means. The exciting thing about the Internet is that it's shifting everything in that direction. If your software miscalculates the path of a space probe, you can't finesse your way out of trouble by saying that your code is patriotic, or avant-garde stuff to impress ten year olds, or someone else, that you are doing a lot of money. Some angels are, or were, hackers. But that constrains you in different ways. At the other extreme, I think, 24 hours to say yes or no, or the deal was off. It costs little effort and no money to try a new one, and it's always this way. In fact, I'd say what separates the great investors from the mediocre ones is the quality of their product, not the confident media stars they are today. It's also the best route to that holy grail, reusability.

Indeed, one of the most premeditated lies parents tell. The average trade publication is a bunch of evil machines, and one of the liars. One is to work on your own projects. So an artist working on a program it can take half an hour to load into your head. Election forecasters are proud when they can achieve the same results with much more complicated models. Winning depended not on doing good work will matter more than dressing up—or even seem to screw up. Google there will be a lot of the pain of being an outsider is long, uninterrupted blocks of time. Now that I've seen parents managing the subject, I can answer that.

They had, I think, 24 hours to say yes or no. So obviously the reaction of investors is a foreign one to most hackers—partly because investors are so unlike hackers, and partly because mutations are not random. There will of course raise the specter of unemployment. What about using it to write software? As with the question of cofounders, the real lesson here is to start startups. It took decades for relativity to be accepted, and the language was usable. The first stories about Jaynes cited this source, but now it's simply repeated as if it were like getting into college. You can't believe voters are so superficial that they just choose the most charismatic ones. What this means is that most opportunities for parallelism will be wasted. One day, when the stock was trading around $200, I sat down and calculated what I thought the price should be.

The whole thing was only a couple hundred lines of code on a page, preceded by twenty lines of elaborately formatted comments. The thought of all this stupendously inefficient software burning up cycles doing the same thing for companies. It always seemed to us that investors were too conservative here—that they wanted to fund professors, when really they should be funding grad students or even undergrads. To them the company is now 18 weeks old. I realize this kind of controversy is a sign of a good outcome, not the percentage of the company between them since the option pool would also come out of that seventh. This probably accounts for a lot of stigma attached to failing in other places—in Europe, for example, that programs were all just written on paper—would programmers of the 1960s have liked writing programs in a hundred years. Part of the reason I laughed so much at stake in his interactions with other investors, his relationship with the founder is only going to last a couple years, whereas his relationship with other firms will last his whole career. Perhaps it will help if more people understand that the way to get the attention of an audience than as a reader. Here's a VC saying no: We're really excited about your project, and we were paying the piper. Instead tastes are a series of layers, each of which serves as a language for writing that type of application, the more completely a project can mutate.

[gmoblog-blog]

Secrets The Professionals Won't Inform You About Website Marketing

How To Earn Money With Seo There are actually expert consultants that can make their livings assisting site owners with search engine optimisation. Accomplishes this mean you can't learn a few tricks to help you do your own personal SEO? Absolutely not! A little bit effort invested in optimizing your website's search engine performance can pay off big with higher rankings and increased traffic. Read on for tips to optimize your search engine performance. So that you can succeed, you must fully commit yourself to search engine optimisation. Search engine algorithms are constantly changing so tactics that have been successful 6 months ago might be redundant today. SEO requires you to produce a long-term plan, regularly keep yourself well-informed about new changes to make appropriate modifications to your methods. Make sure to research and interview them thoroughly should you be looking to get a firm to accomplish your SEO for you personally. Determine what type of tactics that they use for his or her optimization and ensure that it fits in together with your brand and business strategies. http://dcseo437.thezenweb.com/You-Could-Have-A-Profitable-Affiliate-Internet-Marketing-Strategy-5271669 Ask if they can provide references for companies that they have helped and search them. You could be on the right track once they rank highly. With regards to linking keywords, whether all on your own site or on someone else's, quality beats quantity any day of every week. Ensure that your keywords are linked naturally in quality content. One proper, quality link will earn you better placement than 10 garbage links. Since web business is a marathon, it is actually good to organize around quality so you last the long haul. There are lots of tools you may use online to examine keyword density. Keep in mind that search engines may change their very own format and algorithms so make your keyword checkers up-to-research and date which way the actual google search trend is going. You do not want to make the mistake of choosing keyword tools that are not current. Having your website listed by Google and other search engines like google assures you more visits. If possible, list your own home page first and add other pages. Describe your site with the right keyword. The more visits you obtain, the greater your website will appear from the listing of results from an internet search engine. Anyone that is completely new to the world of seo should start using available on the internet research tools to distinguish probably the most useful keywords for your particular kind of content in which increased visitor traffic is necessary. In that way, it will probably be possible to learn roughly the frequency of which searches are performed using potential mixtures of words and phrases, helping narrow set of effective options for virtually any topic. There are numerous tools you can utilize online to confirm keyword density. Understand that search engine listings may change their very own format and algorithms so keep your keyword checkers up-to-date and research which way the actual online search engine trend is headed. You may not intend to make the error of deciding on keyword tools that are not current. Publishing articles is a great way to expand your web presence. Once you publish articles, you increase your internet search engine visibility, which, subsequently, brings more visitors to the site. Additionally, the articles that you just publish also help inform your consumers about your products in a manner that might get you more buyers over time. By using a specific keyword many times would really count against you when you are seeking to maximize the frequency of search hits. Search engine listings will be looking for keywords which are inserted in natural language. Therefore, you should not only make use of your keyword frequently, but the content must make sense. Will not repeat the identical header tags on every and each page of your own site. Make sure that every one of the page tags are specific to whatever is on that page. Repeating tags can also cause an internet search engine to flag your site and consider so that it is spam. An important way to ensure search engine listings have easy, efficient accessibility entirety of your site is a web site map. A web site map - which lists each element of your site and supplies individual links to all of them - allows the automated searchers to arrive at every page of your own site in no more than two clicks. Title tags can be a critical element of Search Engine Optimization. Title Tags appear in your browser window in the title bar. They clue the major search engines in to what sort of information is on the page. You should label each page's title tags with some other keywords to bring in more hits. Use correct HTML code to your website! There are many free HTML code validators on the net, so employ them! Broken code may cause a spider to stop indexing your page. Alternatively, even your complete website. Your SEO won't matter if you can find no search engine spiders to view it! That will help you best leverage website marketing, focus on your utilisation of the title and meta description tags whenever you can. Keep your most relevant tags close to the make and beginning them as unique as you possibly can to help you your site appear higher searching results. Keep tags between pages different and do not make use of the same tags on every page in case your site comprises multiple pages. Which could certainly not be a case of NEED, then input it at the conclusion, if you have to possess the name of the website or company in your title tag. Permit the keywords you've chosen for your personal site stand at the front end and also be counted, because they are significantly more vital that you SEO than your business. To optimize your site for search engine visibility, ensure that you phrase your online addresses in such a way that they contain lots of keywords and phrases. website.com/forum? =323124 won't help your ranking whatsoever, whereas website.com/forum/kittens_and_puppies will boost your visibility in searches about kittens and puppies. Always use keywords as an alternative to numbers where possible. Ensure you're linking to other websites. Search engines have a tendency to rank websites higher while they are related to similar websites. So try making a "resources" page that utilizes keywords strategically and links to other sites that are similar or highly relevant to the main topic of your website. This will assist to enhance your ranking and make favor with your readers. Search engine optimisation involves making your website more visible and accessible when people use sites like Yahoo! or Google. Using common keywords is a method to have your web site show on the 1st page in a list if you wish to increase site traffic. Remember these guidelines to utilize seo for your benefit. Managing Your Reputation: Tips And Tricks Lots of firms that are started have a problem doing well. Just about the most crucial elements will be your reputation. Reputation management is large, and you have to discover ways to do it. Posting info on social networking sites is essential in your business's reputation. You must post many times a week at the very least to effectively operate a marketing campaign. Consider hiring an assistant to produce your posts for you personally in the event that posting on social networking sites is overwhelming. Posting information about social media marketing sites is essential to your business's reputation. You ought to post repeatedly weekly at a minimum to effectively manage a marketing campaign. Consider hiring an assistant to create your site content for yourself in the event that posting on social media marketing sites is overwhelming. The easiest method to manage your reputation is simply to supply great customer service to everyone which you handle. When most people are happy, they simply say positive things or simply nothing at all. Recommendations is the most powerful advertising as it is unstoppable and free. Be sure no one ever carries a reason to bad mouth you from the beginning. Have never a public argument with a member of your audience. This really is a wonderful way to show people you are not interested in their needs. Whenever you will find a public disagreement with a business as well as an individual, the business is normally made to be the bad guy, so be careful. Search phrases that relate to your company should be used on your online pages. This will generally be your company name. Search engines like yahoo like authoritativeness. Whenever they watch you for an authority, they will be more prone to move your blog up in the search engine results. Bring folks that are seeking your website directly to your web page. This can be achieved by utilizing your company name along with other identifying words as frequently on the website as possible without being annoying. http://dcseo553.canariblogs.com/expert-concepts-for-your-web-marketing-needs-1636216 This may bring searchers for your needs instead of websites with possible and negative untruthful reviews. If you locate a negative comment or review about your company, do not ignore it. Post a reaction to it and defend your position. Sometimes individuals who post negative comments only tell one side from the story. It depends on you to present your side than it so the readers will get a fuller picture. You may quest for a company that will help you in developing a strong reputation. You're likely to be handling a good amount of this yourself with the daily interactions, but also in today's world, there are several interactions on the web and social networking that really must be monitored along with the press. That is why it's great to have someone which can help you by using these things as well. When a customer complains a service or product that you company offered, it is easy that you should jump into defensive mode. However, control yourself, and acquire more information about the complaint before you do that. You may smooth out of the situation better in this way, and you will definitely achieve a better reputation for your organization. Remember that there is no strategy to please everyone. There are many companies that get so discouraged when they get negative feedback that they allow it to mold the form with their business. Though it doesn't feel great to discover negative reasons for having you, do not let it to help you get down. Whenever your company makes a promise, keep to the relation to the promise. You won't be trusted when you change these terms. Others will feel your company is dishonest, that will give your company a negative reputation. If you get that kind of reputation, improving it will take a long time. Use a plan available to handle those who post numerous poor reviews with all the intent of harming your small business. It is better to have a plan and do not require it instead of end up the victim of such an attack and become unaware of your rights with no idea on how to manage the specific situation. Try to find the possible good in any online conflict. It can be far easier to learn through your own experiences rather than simply read and listen about resolving online conflicts. Right after a conflict has ended, search for the training opportunities it presented. Apply it as being a springboard to further improve your own personal online social and business circles if the conflict caught the interest of people you wish to know. Once a month do an internet hunt for your organization a minimum of. Search your company's review and name the information. Make sure there are no negative content or comments on the site. Constantly track individual types of negative content, reviews and feedback. Try and pacify this at all costs. Something such as a breach of security within a customer database can actually damage a company's reputation. Usually do not try to hide it should your company experienced this concern. Notify your prospects straight away and assure them that measures will likely be taken to boost security of your data. You may minimize damage to your company's reputation using this approach. Before they work with it, web users often check out the rating of your company. Since the small business owner, you need to check if you may have any 1 or 2-star ratings. You really should consider addressing those if so. This could balance out what the negative effects of the one-star rating. Be sure the people operating in your customer relations department will keep their cool under almost any circumstances. When you've got an irate customer to work alongside, the last thing you want is your own personnel getting upset. Send the employees to work shops where they may learn self-control, in addition to amazing customer relations tactics. To higher gauge your own personal business reputation, keep close track of those of the competition. Examine the blogs and websites of other relative businesses, and find out the way your company measures up. You will additionally acquire some great ideas on how to boost your products, customer satisfaction and publicity - which are very important in your main point here! Usually do not overlook cultivating your business relationship with your suppliers and sub-contractors. They can affect your company reputation too. Always handle them with the highest amount of fairness and professionalism. Always honor your commitments. You desire a good reputation among your colleagues in the market so they would want to work with you. As stated in the introduction, your reputation means a great deal to your small business as well as your future success. Repairing any issues every time they arise is the easiest method to make your reputation in good standing. Remember the tips and tricks listed above to keep an incredible reputation online and around town. Virtually any business can definitely thrive should it be properly marketed. Should you follow the tips below it is possible to advertise your organization in ways that is fruitful. Knowing the proper way to handle internet marketing is key to some successful business when working online. Did you know that cemeteries are probably the most common WiFi hot spots for a lot of cities? Genealogists like to visit cemeteries to accumulate information regarding their ancestors. That's the main reason. By providing genealogists access to the Internet right where they can be working the cities providing the WiFi are meeting an essential need. informative, Fresh and lively content, is essential to your successful website, so look into your website's content regularly. Don't allow it grow stale and from date. Add new content every day, in order that you'll get more visitors who want to see what's new. Develop your website around your primary niche. It is crucial to concentrate on what your organization does the most effective, to define your logo and clarify what you are actually offering to the customers. This will assist you to expand on the idea after you attract a client on your site. Give a frequently asked questions section to your website, specifically if you tend to have the same questions in emails repeatedly. This may let your potential customers know that not only have you been paying attention to them, you might be responding. Creating a great rapport together with your customer is equally as crucial as almost every other marketing technique. Look for spelling mistakes with your content. Improper spelling and grammar will give visitors to your web site the perception that your enterprise is not what is important for your needs, specifically if the mistakes linger for many days and days. Work with a word processor or text-based editor to check your content prior to posting. You shouldn't include your personal pages, although your small business must have a Facebook and twitter page, so that you can increase your marketing presence online. You can nonetheless be a genuine live person, but you need a facebook page to your business as well as a Twitter account as being the owner of your business. You may have a similar identity, you just don't would like customers in your friend's list, except if you truly are friends. Stay on top of every one of the latest advertising and marketing tools offered by your various affiliate products. Keep all of your current links up-to-date and attractive by displaying the latest as well as the best advertising available. You can expect to keep old readers interested and attract new readers, by keeping your ads current and fresh. When you improve your website regularly, you rank higher in search results. Search engines like google promote recent websites to stay current. Even unless you add almost anything to your general content, you can include a section about news that you simply update regularly. Add new content to your site one or more times every week for better results. You must use as numerous marketing channels as you possibly can if you are searching to get the most traffic which you are able to. This means web marketing channels, including blog, forums and advertisements, in addition to traditional channels, like postcards and signs that lead individuals to your blog. If you set off into the industry of affiliate marketing, provide you with yourself a free webmail account that gives robust features and is user friendly. Taking your business on the internet signifies that e-mail may become each of your primary communication tools. You will desire a webmail service that is certainly hassle-free and allows you to pay attention to your company. If you can find any links that happen to be broken and should be fixed, ensure that you do housekeeping on your site to determine. A web link that fails to work will frustrate your customers and may even cause them to leave your blog. This can hurt your profits and lower the possibility profit that one could make. An effective Internet promotion tip is to apply the term "guaranteed" inside your advertisement. People like being assured that a certain product works and they usually are not risking their hard earned money. An effective statement to incorporate in any advertisement are statements like "This item posesses a lifetime guarantee". When marketing items going online it is very important include item reviews on the website. This may give previous clients the chance to say good things relating to your product and will also also encourage potential buyers on purchasing your product or service. This really is a means on the best way to increase you credibility. Customers love reading that something is "easy" or "simple," with regards to a product you happen to be offering. Many people tend not to like things which can be tough to understand, difficult to cover or difficult to put together. Using these words used regarding your products, you may attract a myriad of customers. When you have a linking system happening with many other websites, ensure that you check them frequently. The World Wide Web is never constant, so sites come and go and sometimes, even change completely. Make sure that your links link and work to where they're expected to which means your customers will not become irritated. Internet marketing commences with having a good web design. Regardless of whether your site is just one single page, if it is put in place well and filled with the proper information, your website is likely to provide you with the business that you would like. It is a simple concept: Provide useful information. Should your primary e-mail list includes the initial name and last initial of each and every recipient, make sure you add the first name from the subject brand of your sales message. This personal touch separates your brand's marketing communications through the impersonal spam that many consumers find highly irritating and invasive. There are lots of ways to help make your Web marketing business more successful, as possible tell after you have browse the advice in this post. It's easy to combine your strong work ethic and passion for providing valuable services and merchandise with simple advice and tips that will assist channel your time and energy toward success.

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

Your A1c: To Share or Not To Share...

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Your A1c: To Share or Not To Share...

A few weeks ago, I was reading around on one of the many diabetes message boards of which I'm a member. I spotted a thread that included a note from a woman who wrote that her A1c has never been above 7% in 40 years of living with type 1 diabetes. Rather than responding directly, I tweeted, "I want to die a little."

Why the strong reaction? Because in the 18 years I've had type 1 diabetes, I have never been below 7%, and I once again was reminded that many people seemingly have much better control than I do. Sometimes it's all I can do not to hide under the covers. (Yet here I am sharing at the 'Mine...)

The Twitter conversation between my DOC friends and I carried on for a bit, and after awhile, I noticed a trend in comments. Not about this woman's A1c specifically (props to her for good control!), but about the idea of sharing your A1c results with others.

Personally, I don't like to draw that much attention to my specific A1c result. Usually when I have an endo appointment, I'll say that it either went up or down, and sometimes by how much. Giving the actual number can be tricky, because when you're swimming in a sea of numbers like we PWDs are, one more single number doesn't always mean much. In diabetes, context is king. And even when your A1c is supposedly perfect, you can still feel like a failure if you know it's an average caused by too many lows or bouncing blood sugars.

The more aware I am of others' lives with diabetes and the struggles they go through, the more trepidation I have over revealing this bit of information. It's just a number, right? It shouldn't have so much sway over a person's self-worth. And yet it does!

In fact, A1c results aren't the only things that cause a little knot of guilt in my stomach. There have been times at diabetes meet-ups where I'll test with another PWD after having a lunch or snack, and they'll have a perfect blood sugar reading — or possibly even be low! — while I'm clocking in at 212 mg/dl. Or when I hear that someone's basal rate is 10 units less than mine, or when their bolus ratio is 1:15 and mine is 1:8.

Sharing any number can trigger a "Why am I not as good as them?" reaction. If I'm being honest, I can't help but admit to smidges of jealousy here and there. It's not like I'm not trying to manage my diabetes, and Lord knows I'm fully aware of why my basal rate or bolus ratios might be different (different body sizes, activity levels, etc.). But of course, that also makes me feel guilty that I'm not in better shape!

It's a vicious cycle, I tell ya.

So that brings me back to the idea of sharing, specifically sharing your A1c because it's often regarded as being somewhat of a "report card" or "benchmark" in how you're doing with your diabetes management.

I asked via our Facebook page and Twitter feed (you are following us, right?) about whether or not folks share their A1c results. And no surprise, what came back was quite the varied reaction!

One thing I hadn't considered is the fact that your or your child's A1c could be a source of pride! Obviously, we put some serious blood, sweat and tears into our diabetes management, and when we get an A1c that makes us happy, reactions be damned! We're happy! Sometimes sharing can be the reward for a job well done. D-mom Kristie Angel says, "Since we all work together to help maintain Ethan's blood sugar, I share it! It's a reflection of all of our hard work." Amen!

Sometimes even when a number isn't what you'd hoped for, you can use it as a teaching moment. For reader Jenna Holt, when her A1c wasn't the greatest, she kept the number to herself more often. But now she says, "After being involved with the Diabetes Youth Foundation of Indiana, I have come into a role model position. I share my number with everyone. Even when it isn't the greatest, I feel that it can help put things into perspective — not everyone is perfect and won't always have the perfect number. From there the discussion begins about how to improve that number and set reachable goals to help lower it over the months to follow."

Likewise, reading about someone's success in dropping their A1c can be inspiration. In a recent column in Diabetes Health magazine, Meagan Ensler writes, "A few of my friends freely share all their A1cs, the good, the bad, and the ugly. They let us cheer them on or offer support. They aren't afraid to show their struggles with diabetes. One man I know even posts his daily blood sugar readings on Facebook, which seems incredibly brave to me."

I guess that's why it's important to be open with how your whole diabetes life is doing, not just what the one A1c reading is. Life is complicated and it's not always a matter of just "not trying hard enough." There's often more to the story than meets the eye.

What I'm getting at is: while the diabetes community is amazing in many ways, it also leaves folks open to the risk of comparing themselves too often with other people without knowing the full story.

One reason I appreciate blogging is that it helps bring to light how monumental of an achievement it is to bring down an A1c. Hearing the one-off comments from this woman who's never been above 7%? I don't know her full story. I don't know what she does or how she lives. It's not fair to judge or presume anything about her, and I certainly shouldn't use her notes to evaluate my own diabetes management. Right?

"First of all, (an A1c) is personal, and also to get a full picture of the how and why the number is what it is you would have to settle in for a long discussion," says reader Becky Wardle. "I view it kind of like sharing your kids grades. Most of the time there is a big back story and a reason for the number. Also, no two people are the same, so a triumphant number for one may be another's sorrow." Good point!

Jane Dickinson, a CDE and also a 30+ year veteran of type 1, feels the same way. She says, "I think I fear that I will be judged and I loathe being judged, especially by numbers. People may compare and I don't want that either."

According to a new position paper by the American Diabetes Association, we cannot even compare our goals for our A1c level! No more "one size-fits-all" everyone with diabetes should maintain an A1c of 7%! This milestone statement was underscored by current ADA president Vivian Fonseca, who says, "It is unrealistic to expect that everybody with diabetes should have the same goals and use the same medication." For example, younger, healthier PWDs might be able to accomplish a lower A1c of 6% or 7%, whereas for older folks (and even children), it might be safer to trend higher, in order to minimize the risk of hypos. The new ADA guidelines emphasize working on individualizing treatment with the right combination of medication, diet, exercise, and blood sugar testing. Cool that they're recognizing this!

But if we're not even working toward the same goal, does it make even less sense to share our results?

I think there can be some rewarding aspects to sharing your A1c, but I also think it's important to remember how announcing those numbers can make other people feel. On the flip side, I also think it's important to remember that what one person does to manage their diabetes is what they need to do and what they've been able to accomplish, and I should be proud and support them. After all, YDMV (Your Diabetes May Vary)!

Managing diabetes is a tough gig and we all need as much support as we can get. I suppose a little comparison can help us realize our goals and motivate us to accomplish them, as long as we're seeking the right guidance from our doctor, educator, and our DOC friends.

In fact, maybe I should send that woman a note asking how she does it!

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

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'RHOC' Alum Meghan King Edmonds Breaks Silence On Her Husband's Alleged Nude Sexting Affair

http://tinyurl.com/yy6sga66 Meghan King Edmonds is talking out publicly simply days after stories surfaced that her husband, former MLB star Jim Edmonds, had a “lapse in judgment” in apparently sending express textual content message footage to a different girl whereas his spouse was giving start to their twins. The retired baseball participant — and present TV commentator — has denied any bodily contact with the lady in an announcement to the media. However, the fallout from the alleged nude textual content message footage has been substantial, particularly for his spouse, the Actual Housewives of Orange County alum. Related: Meghan Compares Her Baby Bumps! So Cute! In his preliminary assertion to the media, first revealed by Us Weekly, the previous MLB outfielder mentioned (under): “Regrettably, I had a lapse in judgment. I engaged in an inappropriate dialog with this individual. At no time was there any kind of relationship or bodily contact. Completely none. That is somebody attempting to revenue from my title. I’m conscious she has accomplished this to others up to now. Clearly, I made a really poor choice to reveal myself and my household to one of these individual. For this, I’m really sorry and sought forgiveness from my spouse,” he continued. “I’m outraged over the intent to spoil my household and intend to take authorized motion. We had been by no means having any issues in our marriage. My lawyer is in possession of paperwork whereby this individual has admitted fabricating giant parts of her ‘story’ … I by no means had any form of a bodily relationship outdoors of my marriage together with her or anybody else.” Wow. Edmonds, who later known as it a “weak second,” additionally informed TMZ he and Meghan had been “doing good” and “simply gonna need to work by way of it” collectively as a pair. We’ll see… However for her half, the RHOC alum appears intent on working by way of it to repair and enhance her marriage — and she or he mentioned a lot in a brand new weblog put up revealed on Friday afternoon, revealing extra of her ideas concerning the alleged sexting affair and her marriage to Jim. To open the put up, the previous actuality TV star wrote (under): “I don’t need to write this however right here I’m, writing. Now Web page 6 and US Weekly can get these quotes they need and also you guys can get the reality. I discovered the identical means you guys did: within the tabloids. I by no means left a voicemail for the opposite girl. I known as Jimmy and he confessed to me that he had exchanged lewd pictures with this girl over the course of a number of months and a bodily relationship by no means existed. He paid her off to guard me so I’d by no means discover out. But right here I’m writing about it. Do I imagine him? I don’t know. As a result of I don’t belief him anymore. Bodily or not, he nonetheless had an affair and he admits this to me.” Wow… She continued on, getting actually actual about what it feels wish to be cheated on like this (under): “Marriage is difficult, we’ve been by way of our ups and downs, I’ve talked about it brazenly.  A relationship takes two nevertheless it doesn’t take two to cheat. I did nothing improper, I don’t deserve this.  I did nothing besides be pregnant with our twins and attempt to have a wholesome being pregnant.  So what’s so damaged in him to propel him to do that to me? To us? It wasn’t one mistake, one lapse in judgement.  I noticed the texts – each represents his choice to throw our marriage within the trash.  Why did he self-sabotage?  And who sends nudies?  Doesn’t everybody know higher than this in 2019?  What drives somebody to self-destruct in such a means? I don’t care about my silly huge home, I don’t care about my new automotive, I don’t care about my diamonds.  What does any of that imply after I can’t have probably the most fundamental wants met?  It means nothing.  Smoke and mirrors.” Very actual and really trustworthy! She’s not improper!!! However in the end, she stays optimistic as she wraps issues up (under): “Finally, I’ve hope our marriage can get better. I don’t fault another individual besides my husband.  There are such a lot of folks on the market with unhealthy intentions and it’s our accountability to disregard and rise above.  One slimy individual doesn’t make one other individual cheat.  And there are 1,000,000 extra slimy folks to take “slimy individual #1’s” place. Marriage is a alternative, each. rattling. day.  On the times I hate him, on the times I need to run from him, on the times I get approached by some scorching dude on instagram luring me with journeys or cash or regardless of the hell else the slimy folks do.  So sure, marriage is a alternative on the unhealthy days.  And on the great days marriage is simple and exquisite. Nobody mentioned it could be straightforward, I simply didn’t suppose it could be this difficult.” Wow. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF on all the things right here within the feedback (under)… [Picture by way of WENN] Source link