#which means that instead of going to 2 1.5 hour meetings a week

[waugh-bao]

*

[fleurcareil]

Leaving Canada

After finishing the road trip, the last 2 weeks of September were a whirlwind of activities to sort out things and say goodbye one more time before leaving the country. Although I may have benefited from staying a bit longer, having been on the road for so long made me ready to close off this phase and look forward to the next one, going back home to Europe! 🤩

First priority was to clean everything that I had been traveling with (with thanks to lots of space and a garden hose😁) and then figure out what to put into storage and what to bring as luggage. Initially my intent had been to travel straight from France to Chile, however due to exorbitant one-way air fares, I ended up booking a return ticket back to TO for mid-January.... not sure how this is all going to work out but for now it means that I'm only travelling with one suitcase instead of the 3 that I had already pre-packed. Easier to carry but harder to fit my clothes! 😅

Second key item was to get my car sold, so I got the car deep cleaned over lunch with Tara... something I've never done but should really have given myself as a gift much earlier! 😄 I thought the guy had done a great job at making my car look brand-new again, but he actually apologized to me as he hadn't managed to remove all bug residue from the grill nor the grit of the endless unpaved roads from the tires...the downfall of such an extensive road trip!

That afternoon, 3 accidents on the QEW highway meant that traffic was jammed for miles around, so I tried to wait it out by visiting the first 2 car dealers to get a sense of their offer... suddenly everything seemed wrong with my fab drive, as it needed new tires, new brakes, a chip in the window etc etc... 😯😪 I recognize the sales tactics for what they were but they still pulled me down, so by the time I got back home after taking 1.5 hours over a 20min drive, I was shaken & thoroughly fed up!

Next day, I toured a few more dealers who all basically said the same and then just cut my losses to get it over with (I must be the worst negotiator on earth! 🤣) ... I absolutely have had an amazing time driving my Rogue and I still loved everything about it, but it was time to say goodbye and move on.

Being a bit emotional after signing the papers, I drove by my old house in Burlington (where the new tenants are neglecting the pretty roses I had planted 😣) and then sat on my favourite bench in Paletta Park overlooking Lake Ontario. A mere 10 minutes' walk from where I used to live, I would often come here over my lunch break or after work, a great spot to relax! 😊

Next day, after having handed in the car & safely deposited the cheque at the bank, I was happy to go over to Priyanka & Arnie for a traditional Hungarian dish and meet again with their lovely parents. I first met Priyanka's parents at our MBA graduation over 10 years ago and we've been in touch ever since, having shared many dinners (including with my parents and in Delhi 🤗), theater plays, a powwow and ofcourse the wedding in India! 😍😍

On Friday, I spent hoouuuurs on the internet and phone to arrange anything from bank accounts & medical insurance to booking flights for my travels in Europe. Felt good to clean house and try to close as many things as possible before leaving. In the evening, we had delicious pizza & craft beer in the "Shed" in downtown Dundas.

That Saturday, it was fun times at the Ancaster Fall Fair with Arpita, Navneet and his cousin Nithia. 🤩 I had never been to a farm fair, which had everything from a hot sauce contest, cow & chicken displays to nitro-chilled snacks and prizes for the prettiest tomatoes, hay bales and funny-looking veggies! 😂 Quite an experience and a great afternoon!

On Sunday, I went with Heather for a hike in nearby Dundas Valley conservation area, my favourite forest west of the GTA. I've been here so often that I know most trails by heart but this time we walked in from a residential area on the side so that the forest still felt new. 😀

I spent the second week in Toronto where I lived for 11 years - my personal record of living that long in one city! 😊 - and it felt really good to roam the streets (albeit only for a short period of time before the craziness got to me 😫). For four days I crammed in as many friends as I could see, starting with a great backyard dinner with my old team. Having 9 different cultural backgrounds being represented leads to ever-interesting diverse conversations! 😍

On Tuesday, I had cozy lunch and dinner with my two good friends Kathryn and Lynne, both a bit senior to me hence always providing me with valuable insights that help me put things in a different perspective. 🥰 They're both great examples of how we can continue to have fulfilling lives for many years to come! 😘

Then on Wednesday, a lunch walk with Dana through my old 'hood and the Riverdale Farm, followed by relaxing tea with Natasha, Lance and their mother who I've also known since coming to Toronto and by whom I spent a memorable Christmas in Trinidad & Tobago. 🤩 In the evening, the drinks were tasty as usual when meeting with a loosely connected 😅 but somehow gelling group of Real Estate friends... always a good time!

On my last day in Toronto, I caught up with Harvey over Indian Roti and then had a few lovely hours at the new Love Park at the harbourfront. My final date was with my camping-sailing-drinking group of friends 😎 at the Queen Mother Café, a downtown thai restaurant where I used to go often in the first years. We're all a bit wiser (?!? 😂) then when we first met years ago but the laughs are still there!

Tired & having a terrible cold but feeling blessed with all those friendships, I made my way back to Dundas, where I was grateful to spend the last day with Arpita and Navneet, working a bit in the garden and playing the cool card game Dominion at night.

On the 30th September, they dropped me off to the airport, ready to fly home! 💖💖💖

[halogen2]

okay i havent done a life + writing update on here in a hot minute so here we go

hello! things r okay. i am almost halfway done with senior year which is horrifying but also rlly exciting. theres some bad news with my debut novel that i will have to release sometime soon (nothing too bad -- just stuff on my publishers side bc everyone is overworked and the whole paper shortage thing and etc etc etc ... will talk more abt this when i know if i can). butttt im getting my FINAL line edits back sometime this month, including notes from an authenticity reader, so im excited to c an outside perspective on my book (meaning, like, not just my agent or my editor or my friends). also hopefully cover things will rlly get going soon lol.

while im waiting for all of that, ive decided to do nanowrimo for the first time in my entire life. so far its been fun and a lot less stressful than i expected! i think mainly b/c ive decided that my daily goal is 1k and not 1.5-2k, b/c my goal is NOT to completely finish a novel at the end of this month (altho maybe that will happen considering how ive been going so far!), but instead to get back in the habit of writing for an hour every day. its only be a week obvs but ive felt. rejuvenated, honestly. i missed writing new words and just letting myself be In the writing instead of editing, revising, worrying about publishing stuff, etc.....

with school, ive been rlly stressed tho b/c im taking an asl class and altho i rlly like learning the language, my teacher. sucks. she is Not teaching us and she doesnt seem to understand why every single student is failing, so it just makes going to class and taking the exams miserable, even tho i want to learn. also, ive been stressed bc im the editor-in-chief of my schools lit mag, which has been dead for the past 2 years (partially cuz of the pandemic), so im having to revive it almost entirely on my own.... we're at crunch time now where i have to teach myself adobe indesign and make sure it all gets done in time to print so we can have a launch party at the end of the semester. so thats been stressful, altho i am rlly excited to have a finished project and stuff.

also last week was my bfs and my anniversary ! which was rlly nice. i got him a cute star chart of the day we started dating as a present (dont tell him) and thatll come in the mail this week so :). and my 22nd birthday is this upcoming saturday! which im excited abt mainly b/c my bf and i are driving to philly so i can meet his friends for the first time, and then we're going to DC on sunday for a half waif concert!! im so so soooo excited to see her live. she is definitely my top artist of the year and mythopoetics meant so much to me this summer. so overall next weekend will be fun i hope!!

anyway thats abt it probably <3

[junquisite]

Dangerous Love 9

WORD COUNT : 1.1K

GENRE : Mafia OC X NIS agent! Park Junhee

WARNING : None. it’s fluff or angst. idk which category sorry!

PARTS :  1  1.5  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9

 Junhee was a very patient man, generally. Now it has been 4 hours since apparently she left Chan (yes,Chan texted him) but she still isn't back. Now logically he should call her and ask her instead of sulking in her bedroom but he was getting antsy. And again, he should listen to her because she left him saying he should stay in the room but it was getting frustrating so he ventured out. He didn't go down from that floor, worried to come across anyone other than he had seen this morning and creating a problem for her. So he stuck in the shadows, anxiously waiting for her to be back.

He heard her before he saw her. To be exact he heard her laughing as she came with a younger looking boy and saw Seungyoun  approaching them. He could clearly hear the conversation.

“Seungyoun hyung!” the younger boy exclained as he hugged the older one.

“How’s the baby doing?” seungyoun said and Junhee stared. What? Baby?

“I’m 19 hyung. Not a baby.” the younger said and he saw her laughing and joining in with Seungyoun and cooing at the younger.

“It’s almost like yesterday Seungwoo hyung and she brought you here and now you’re so big! Completing studies overseas and here back with us!” Seungyoun said as if drying an imaginary tear as the younger boy flushed and she laughed.

Junhee felt someone come stand beside him and he stiffened - recognising the looming figure.

“Aaah Subin-ah! I have missed him.” Seungwoo mused beside Junhee as Junhee kept staring at the three people on the floor below.

“You know me and her found Subin years ago on the streets. He was a lonely child, close to death by starvation. We brought him up ourselves, like his parents. He's basically a child for us Agent Park. Aaah I should go down now.” he said with a notable smirk in his voice as Junhee stayed in the shadows.

Junhee watched Seungwoo go to them and call for Subin as his baby and the younger hugged him bashfully. He saw as Seungwoo pulled her in the hug and heard Seungyoun yelling “happy family!”

It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He went back to the room, fidgeting with the burner phone in his hand and counting the minutes she stayed away from him. 4 minutes and 32 seconds later (yes, he was watching) he heard her knock on the door and peak in.

“Junhee-yaaa!” she cried as she came to hug him, forcing him to lie on the bed and flopped on top of him. He could not help but laugh and she joined him.

“I heard you force fed Yuchan and left him with groceries worth a month.” he mumbled in her hair as she snuggled close to him.

“I want him to be safe. I got him the documents, he should be easily able to get 2 weeks off or atleast  week. I'm anticipating a warning by NIS in a  day or two.” she said and he nodded.

It had already been almost 24 hours since he was brought here. And she had told him in the morning - they had already sent a message to NIS with his picture. They are bound to revolt.

 A shy knock at the door made her sit up and giddly open the door, the younger boy or Subin as he had heard, walked in and bowed to him.

“Hello, Junhee-ssi. I'm Subin, nice to meet you.” Junhee got up and bowed himself, vaguely thinking this was the most proper introduction he ever got since he got here.

“Junhee-ya, this is the baby of the gang.” she said as she ruffled the hair of the boy who was slightly taller than her and he smiled. The kid did nothing wrong, he was sweet.

“I have heard a lot about you, I hope you can keep on making her happy.” he said as he bowed again and she laughed as Junhee waved his hand.

“Call me hyung okay?” he said and Subin nodded, happily.

“Yes hyung!” he said with a big smile on his face and somehow Junhee was reminded of Chan.

 Her phone rang suddenly and she looked down to see a message about a meeting, so leaving Subin with Junhee, she went to the meeting. For once, Junhee did not feel alone in here with the younger, slightly shy man, telling him small stories about her from the time he didn't know her.

Half an hour later, she came back, tensed shoulder and stiff mouth. Junhee felt a cold shiver go down his spine. 

“NIS responded. They called war in 48 hours if we don't hand you over. They denied negotiation.”

It was 5pm. 48 hours from now on, the gang would stand against NIS for a fight with everything at stake.

~ 

She had brought their dinner in their room that night, saying everyone was too tense to have a peaceful dinner. Even if she tried to smile for him, he could see she was worried. And she should be. It was her family against the NIS and he had a gut feeling NIS would ask for more support. It would be an unequal fight - a handful of gang members against the NIS and probably the police force.

That night, she had a fitful sleep. Junhee stayed awake for hours to see her fidgeting every few minutes even after falling asleep.

He got out of bed. He needed fresh air.

He went out to a window he had seen a few rooms away from hers. He went there only to see the gang leader standing there who smiled at him as he approached him.

“You look like you could use some fresh air.” Wooseok mumbled as he moved slightly away to let Junhee stand beside him.

Junhee mumbled a small thank you in return.

“Say Agent Park, how much does she mean to you?”

Junhee was expecting this question sooner or later. “A lot.”

The leader nodded.

“You are at a crossroad now. You can leave and go back to where you came from and everything will go back to how it was - sneaking around with no future. Or i can offer you  a better alternative.”

Junhee looked at the leader’s face. He had an unreadable expression on but he knew there was something more behind it.

“I’ll choose the alternative.” he said, watching the eyes of the eader light up.

He gave the agent a small smile.

“Welcome aboard Agent Park.”

[fizzingwizard]

;______; just heard that from September we’re gonna have three students in our cluster who are under 1 year old... (5 in the school total)

aaahhh im exhausted just thinking about it

and whats crazy is in one of the classes with under 1 yos there is a kid who is between 1-2 yo and she cannot walk yet. We have been trying to help her learn and have begun wondering if there is some reason beyond her mother just didn’t really encourage her to walk before. (Like maybe she needs leg braces etc.) So far no news on that but this kid only drags her feet around, obviously she needs constant help, and there are 12 other kids in the class, two of whom are under 1 and three teachers, HOW are they supposed to do it???

and the class that will have three under 1s has two first year teachers in it, that makes me so nervous... They’re both awesome coworkers, this is no shade on them, but under 1s can be TOUGH, it’s SO easy for them to get hurt. idk it feels like an accident waiting to happen.

i’ve been at schools where 5 students was an entire class, if we’re gonna have this many under 1s we should just have a class for them, come on! I love them but they are twice the work of kids on year older than them.

Also the recommended teacher-student ration for 1-3 yos is 1:6, which we abide by, but I believe it’s actually 1:3 or 1:4 when the kids are belong 18/12 mos. Apparently the head office does not care.

These kids are not in my class, I currently teach 2-3s, however I am a long care teacher and I look after them during morning and after care. I do their nap and their snack and play time supervision etc. From 10-2 they’re part of their class, but the rest of the day they belong to all of us.

More work ranting under the cut because I guess I just need to vent to the air.

And we have a LOT of students now - two clusters of going on 30 in each, in very small classrooms where the teachers are expected to watch them like a hawk AND keep constantly busy with numerous tasks at the same time.

Plus our prep time has been cut down this year despite additional work getting put on us, and we have no extra help.

If one teacher is out sick, no one gets prep time.

Don’t remember if I whined about this before, but a month or so ago we had a meeting in which the leader said “If you find you don’t have enough prep time, that’s on you to manage your time better.” It was super condescending and annoying. I’m like, dude, my contract says I get 1 hour prep and 1 hour break. We never ever EVER get the full two hours (and I should mention this is never consecutive, it’s 15 min here, 30 min there, 1 full hour if you’re really lucky). It’s usually at most 1 hr 45. But a 30 min break is fine! I’d love to take a 30 min break. Almost never do. Way too busy.

Like, I won’t get into it, but the laundry list of Stuff To Do recently has been ENORMOUS. In my class, I have 19 students. One of my co-teachers is part time, meaning she’s not around to help during much of prep time, and the other is a leader meaning she’s constantly in meetings or doing leader assignments. They are both fantastic co-workers, but yeah, this means I do ALL the class stuff. I prepare all the crafts, I do a ton of the organizing, and I’m often the only teacher from my class available in the afternoons because part-time teacher went home and leader teacher is in a meeting. So I end up with a lot of the after care stuff.

We have to hand out these big projects that teachers are responsible for preparing for each student on 8/16. We know these are coming and prep for them as soon as possible, but like, I won’t get into this either lol, but it’s so hard. It’s time-consuming by itself, and made worse because all the school computers are crap (like takes-15-min-to-start, another 10 to open the browser, 5 to go to the website, then it freezes, then 5 more, another freeze, etc) and like you have 15 min break time hahahahaha.

I wanted to get such a head start that I just started doing what I could back in the beginning of the year but we lit can’t do the bulk of the work until a certain kind of envelope is delivered and that doesn’t come till summer for some stupid reason. Soooo our long prep days in April when there are no kids around... can we use those to prep for this project? Heck no!

Anyway. This year’s is due on 8/16. This coming week we are off for obon break. This year also, the company is doing the project slightly differently. Instead of staggering what class gives out their projects to their students when, we all have to do it at once. We are our company’s biggest school, sooo my honest thought is no one at the head office thought about us when they made this change. The other schools don’t have to stagger anyway, they have at most two classes. We have four.

So this means everyone is printing their projects at the same time. For one student, you need 10 sheets on A3 paper. For my class of 19, that is 190 sheets of paper. For four classes, we’re over 700 sheets total. THAT IS A LOT OF PAPER.

So I get to work this morning and boss says “Yeah so we’re out of A3 paper.”

!!!

IT’S DUE MONDAY.

There was a little bit left so I just charged and printed as much of my stuff as I could in the morning before anyone else could. Then, miraculously, another packet of A3 paper appeared out of nowhere, and we were able to print most of the rest of our students’ projects. (My coworker who is a leader has not printed hers yet because she is super busy and isn’t finished. Again, she’s an awesome coworker, I wish I could have helped her more, but uh, I’m also swamped and not taking breaks, so. Hopefully she can do it before we really do run out of A3 paper.)

Getting more paper is no big deal, it’s just that no one has the time, and this is due Monday.

So I was super stressed. Sooooo super stressed for such a dumbbbb reason. And I don’t understand why these projects have to go out on Monday anyway. Some kids don’t even come to school on Mondays. Like. Just make sure they get them next week, isn’t that good enough?? Why make us stress and panic.

Everyone else seemed fine though, I was the only one tearing my hair out because I’m the type who finishes everything a day early so I have a day to check it over... I am not spontaneous and I hate to rush...

I lit told my coworkers, because regardless of the paper situation we are still behind because we have not had any time to organize the projects, that I will just stay late tomorrow to do it. It’s the Friday before a break so I don’t mind too much. I am really tired tho and would of course rather just go home and sleep but. I’ve done this before. Finishing up this project will take 1.5 hours - 2 hours at the current state it’s in, IF I can just sit down and do it uninterrupted. (Have I mentioned these projects are HEAVY?? And there’s 19 of them?? It’s a big job just to take them out and start putting them together >.<)

So tomorrow evening that is what I will likely be doing -.-;

There are INNUMERABLE other STUPID parts of this project - the idea behind it is great, but the way we are required to make it is absolutely bonkers and desperately needs a revamp but does anyone listen to a preschool teacher? heck no lol

uggh.

I feel better after venting tho.

I like my job, I just wish humans in general gave a shit, not even about quality of life (since obvs that’s expecting too much lol, also as a person with privilege I’m aware I’ve already got it pretty darn good), but just about not making jobs that are ridiculous. Just plan them out better, sheesh. There’s no reason for all this running around. The projects don’t need to be printed. Or they don’t need to be so huge. They don’t need all this fuss and nonsense. They are a good idea, but we could do them in a way that would be sooo much less stressful.

(The funniest part of all being, it’s a project for the parents mainly, and the parents... don’t like it x’D No they really don’t. They are happy to have the project, but first they’ve got to get it home, and it is HUGE and HEAVY and UNWIELDY lmao. And some of them are carrying twin 2 year olds and both of their futons home as well, and we’re like “here you go, two giant projects for you to take home!” And the parents are like “thanks????”)

[badbackgroundscience]

Science of “The Seven”

I watched Amazon’s The Boys this week. So instead of the usual 60′s Marvel fare, here’s some tangential science relating to the superpowers featured in the show:

1. Homelander can’t see through zinc.

This is obviously a play on Superman not being able to see through lead, but the switch brings up some problems with the physics involved. X-rays - light with wavelengths ranging between 0.01 and 10 nm* - can’t travel through a lump of lead because lead is super dense. It’s nearly the heaviest non-radioactive element, with (usually) 208 protons+neutrons and 82 electrons. And its atoms pack very closely together.**

Combining that density with the fact that lead atoms are also very good at attenuating x-ray light (meaning the amount of x-ray photons that can penetrate a certain thickness of lead drops exponentially as that thickness increases), it makes sense that Superman’s x-ray vision’s weakness is lead.

But zinc is a smaller atom (usually 64 protons+neutrons and 30 electrons) and its atoms don’t pack as tightly; it’s about 1.5 times less dense than lead. It’s X-ray attenuation is generally lower, but not too different, from lead (compare this graph vs this one). Together, this makes it easier for x-rays to penetrate zinc than lead.

So why can’t Homelander see through zinc, but (supposedly) see through lead? It could be that the x-rays he emits correspond to a wavelength that zinc absorbs more than lead does. Annoyingly, the absorption spectra I can find all seem to be dealing with zinc compounds (e.g. ZnO, ZnS) instead of pure zinc metal. So I can’t tell you exactly what wavelength that would need to be.

Sorry.***

2. The Deep has torso gills

Fish are ectotherms, meaning their body temperature is regulated by their environment. Mammals - including cetaceans (i.e. whales, porpoises, and dolphins) - are endotherms. We generate our own body heat. Kevin presumably does, too.

This means that a man needs more oxygen than a man-sized fish does. About 15 times the oxygen, in fact. It’s the gills’ job to extract oxygen from water and pump it into the fish’s bloodstream; bigger fish have bigger gills, but a 75-kg man needs gills 15 times the size of a 75-kg fish’s. Not necessarily in length, but in collection area. And that’s assuming you’re not doing any physical activity that ups your oxygen requirements.

But on top of that, oxygen is far less abundant in water than it is in air - about 20 times less for the same volume. If an average human needs a quart**** of oxygen per minute, their gills would need to strain 51 gallons of water every minute to meet that requirement.

Combining these two factors, designer and material scientist-dabbler Jun Kamei is developing a set of artificial gills, and claims the final device will have a surface area of 32 square meters (344 square feet).

The human lung surface area is somewhere around 75 square meter range, so if you’ve got gills that can pack as efficiently as lungs do, you probably could fit them into your abdomen. Maybe not Chase Crawford’s abdomen, but a stockier human’s abdomen.

The real problem here is that Kevin’s doing himself no favors by covering the gills up while he’s underwater. Water rushing through the gills is the whole point, and you’ve just made it 1000% harder.

3. A-Train (and Popclaw) booms and bu(r)sts

According to the race announcer that one episode, A-Train can reach speeds over 1000 miles per hour. Assuming that’s true and not a horrible exaggeration, as soon as he passes the speed of sound (767 mph at sea level), A-Train would create sonic booms. Not a single boom. Constant booms for as long as he’s going fast enough. You (as a single individual) only hear one, but that’s only because you’re not moving.

We never see him do this, so we must conclude he’s not a complete idiot and only goes this fast when he’s far away from people and architecture. (If I read the screen right, he only clocks in at 371 in his race.)

As for the secret girlfriend he murdered, there are several species of amphibians that can stick their own bones out through their skin to use as weapons. For example, species of frog within the genus Astylosternus, and Trichobatrachus robustus (aka the hairy frog). The Spanish ribbed newt can push its ribs out through its torso; when threatened, its skin also secrets poison, turning its bones into poisonous barbs.*****

4. Translucent isn’t see-through. He’s see-around.

As the man explains to Jimmy the late night host (No, not that Jimmy the late night host...the other Jimmy the late night host), his skin can convert at will to a “carbon metamaterial” that bends light around it. 

We don’t know if there are other elements involved besides carbon, but if there aren’t, the real-world comparison is graphene -- an atom-thick layer of carbon atoms bonded to each other forming a honeycomb pattern.

Given its thickness, it’s translucent itself. [Side note: yes, “translucent” doesn’t mean invisible. However, some dictionaries (e.g. Merriam Webster and the OED) include alternative definitions identical to "transparent"...which goes against everything I ever learned. But either way, he actually is translucent when he isn’t “translucent”. Because human skin is translucent, assuming there isn’t too much melanin in it.]

A 2D sheet of graphene has a breaking strength of 42 Pa (0.0061 psi). That number seems super small, but it's actually reflecting the strongest material we know of. You'd need 4,300 pounds balanced on a pencil (pointy end on the graphene) to break through that atom-thick sheet.

Alternatively, if I did my back-of-the-envelope math right, you’d need a 50 gram .50-cal bullet traveling at ~770,000 mph (and coming to a stop in ~1 millisecond). Now, the human epidermis averages ~1mm thick. That's 3 million layers of graphene. 

However, if you manage to put a crack into your graphene, it becomes brittle on par with a ceramic.`*

As for being able to electrocute Translucent because carbon is “highly conductive”, graphene is indeed so; however, other carbon compounds aren't (e.g. diamonds). It all depends on the positioning of electrons within the solid (moving electrons = flowing charge). Since we don’t know what Translucent’s metamaterial is, we’ll have to take the show at its word.

Though here’s some bonus info: metamaterials are all synthetic. Which would mean that Translucent had this skin installed somehow. Or, it’s a very subtle dig at Compound V being used to create superheroes that only I caught.

The one thing that the season left bugging me about Translucent was his eyeballs. Somehow those are see-through.

5. Starlight pushes it real good

Our newest member of the Seven can use concentrated light to knock baddies off their feet, as well as throw them several meters back. This is an exaggerated form of reality. Light can actually push stuff. 

Photons do exert a teeny tiny amount of pressure on whatever they hit. It’s called radiation pressure. The amount is sufficient for something like a solar sail (The above image is LightSail 2), but not wiping the floor with a criminal.

According to (more) envelope math, Starlight would need to emit ~30 PetaWatts to deliver a good boxer-level punch to a baddie standing ~2 meters away. That's the equivalent amount of energy released by 7.2 million tons of TNT exploding, in 1 second. 

Also, given the color of the light she emits, she’s probably emitting a spectrum identical to our Sun, meaning she’s emitting a ton of light that normally gets blocked by our atmosphere, including x-rays and ultraviolet radiation.

She’s definitely given someone a melanoma at some point during her life. Or at least a very bad sunburn.

Bonus: Ice Princess shatters wangs

Final back-of-the-envelope math, calculating how fast that guy's (presumably erect) penis would freeze being enveloped by an ice vagina at -346 °F (-210 °C). A combination of calculating the heat lost per second via conduction, and the amount of energy lost as body-temp water cools and converts to ice.

Came out to 0.1 seconds. 

Faster than I expected...

_______________________________________________________________________

* Visible light is ~400-700 nm

** There are several (nonradioactive) metals more dense than lead, but more rare/expensive, like gold and iridium. 

*** Also, brass can be up to 45% zinc. Does that mean Homelander can only sort of see through brass?

**** Get out of here with your imperial units, self...

***** Fun fact: it can regenerate lost limbs, heart tissue, brain cells, and its spinal cord

`* Butt cracks don’t count.

_______________________________________________________________________

Image credits:

Zinc - CC BY 3.0

gills By Chris 73, CC BY-SA 3.0

frog claws from Barej et al 2010

sonic boom By I, Melamed katz, CC BY-SA 3.0

graphene By U.S. Army Materiel Command, CC BY 2.0

lightsail 2 By Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society CC BY-SA 3.0

ice by Ian Mackenzie CC BY 2.0

[stephhannes]

new year, who dis

what would be the use in becoming a symbol of walking desolation? awash in multiple griefs, elaborating on anguish. even if i never get to see you again, i’ll know that when we collided we both broke each other open. 

                                                   -mount eerie, love without possession 

i guess it’s been four months since i’ve sat down to write an actual blog. i figured i should at least try to get something out before the new year. 

i’ve tried to write an update a few times over the last couple of months, but every time i tried to write something, it’s just aggressively sad. like that one st. vincent lyric— i try to write you a love song, but it comes out a lament. and while an aggressively sad tone is appropriate to how i’ve been feeling, i’ve been trying to bring less sad energy to the table. (a surprise to everyone, because sad energy is my entire brand). 

I planned to get this blog up by january 1st. and then i kept putting it off. hence why this starts off saying things like, “i guess it’s been four months,” and “i figured i should at least try to get something out before the new year.” today is february 4th, which means it’s officially been a year and a half since nathan died. 

in the last few weeks, i’ve been under a lot of stress. i’m juggling three jobs right now, and somehow still don’t make enough money to survive. i’m sure that at this point, i’ve described to you my bona-fide money saving technique. it’s called “i only eat three days a week because it’s too expensive to feed myself every day,” sometimes, i get lucky, and get the scraps from events at work, and that’s literally like the one (1) thing i look forward to. 

i’m still out here searching for a salary (and health insurance) and hopefully, by my birthday, i’ll have that. but we’ll see, the job search has been uhhh…..abysmal to say the least. 

anyways, in the midst of being stressed, i’ve realized that i really don’t think about nathan all the time like i used to. sometimes i’ll go like two days before i’m reminded of him. the other day, i was like “am i a bad person because of this?” and like, logically, i know that it’s totally normal, but on the other hand, i can’t help but feel guilty because of it sometimes. i feel a sense of responsibility to exist as a reminder of “hey, this person existed, and they mattered,” and while i realize that’s a huge weight to put onto myself, i feel like if i don’t, then who will? 

last night, i was reading house of leaves (which, despite owning a copy since high school, i’ve actually never read it before) and i found nathan’s bookmark (a ticket from a baseball game he went to right after he moved to new york) in it, from when i let him take a few of my books when he moved to nyc. i got weirdly emotional and was like “wow what a fun coincidence to find this item of nathan’s that i’ve never seen before in my life on the 1.5 year anniversary of him dying.” i’m not saying i’m superstitious, but maybe i am a little stitious. 

+++

since the last time i wrote a blog, i’ve kept notes on my phone every time something happens that i feel holds some sort of importance- so here’s what’s been in my notes since august 4th. 

august 24, 2019. 4:17am

when i went into work on august 5th, a coworker of mine asked how i was doing. i was doing alright. the anniversary of nathan’s death really didn’t hit me too hard. i assumed i would have a huge nervous breakdown, and i didn’t. 

then my coworker, who’d also lost a partner, told me, “i hate to sound negative and be the one to tell you this but the second year is a lot harder than the first.”

that’s what i’d been reading online for months, but to hear someone say it to my face i was just like… oh shit. 

and so far, the second year has been harder. 

i’ve officially been out on my own for a month now. 

the best part about having depression is that no matter where you are, you still have depression. i don’t know why i was expecting moving to just alleviate all of my sadness when i know that i’ll always find a way to be miserable wherever i am. 

it’s nice to be out of abilene and at least have the option of opportunity, but i basically just spend all of my free time asleep or crying. 

as the ancient oracle, britney spears, once said- “my loneliness is killing me.”

now that i’ve started getting into a routine, i’m starting to feel that hole in my life again. 

i’m on the same schedule that i was when i lived in new york, almost. 

when we lived in new york, i would leave for work around 4, i’d get home around 11:30, and then nathan and i would hang out until around 4am, and then go to bed. the next day, he’d usually wake me up at a normal time, (or at least 2 hours before i had to be at work). 

and now i have to leave for work around 4:30, i get home around 11, and when i come home i’m just alone. and i lay in bed until i’m finally exhausted enough to fall asleep, usually around 5am. and then i wake up ten minutes before i have to go to work. 

i have been feeling this deep, existential sadness for awhile now. every night, i lay in bed and think about all of the conversations i wish i could revisit with nathan. all of the things i wish i’d said. i relive all of my favorite moments of ours. i am still so desperate to feel close to him again. 

i cannot remember a time in my life when i was excited to wake up. i cannot remember a time when i looked forward to my future. in fact, when i think about my mental health as a child, the only thing i remember is one time when i was 12, my dad bought me tickets to see my favorite band. i was obviously so incredibly excited, and expressed the human emotion of joy, and my mother accused me of being on drugs because she’d “never seen me act like that before.” it was so surprising to her to see me happy that she literally thought i was on drugs.

i’ve been like this for as long as i can remember, except for the two years that nathan and i were together. i was still so depressed when we lived together, but for the first time, i was looking forward to the future. for the first time, dealing with my depression seemed worth it. for the first time, putting effort into getting better made sense.  

for the first time in my life, i didn’t feel alone. 

and it took a lot of effort on nathan’s part to make sure that i didn’t feel alone. the loneliness i’ve always felt is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. i actively choose to retreat from friendships and relationships. i stop responding to texts. i hide away and cancel plans. it’s my fault that i feel isolated- because i isolate myself. and nathan refused to let me do that. when i get stressed, i internalize everything and take it all on my own- and nathan would recognize when i was doing that and beg me to let him help. and i wouldn’t let him help. but he would still do it, because he knew what i needed without me asking and would just quietly provide it for me so that i wouldn’t lose my mind. and a lot of the time the help was just him actively sitting me down and reminding me that i’m in fact, not alone. i’ll never forget when i was so stressed after moving to new york because i was so poor, and nathan telling me that “it’ll be okay. we’ll figure it out.” i never asked him for money, or for help, because i have too much pride for that. but even when i was working, i was struggling to make ends meet for myself, and he would sneakily do things like go to the grocery store and be like “oh hey, i was at the store today and just picked up some chicken for you so you don’t have to go yourself.” there were a few times when i asked him to pick up something from the halal cart for me because i didn’t want to get out of bed and i’d be like “there’s cash in my wallet just grab it” but instead of taking the money from my wallet, he’d just get the food for me, and put the change he had leftover in my wallet for me to have.

but even past that, just emotionally, he’d always reassure me that i wasn’t alone. as soon as he started to sense me doing the thing where i try to isolate myself, he’d just cling to me even harder. 

here’s the thing: i’m too tired to fight for myself, and i don’t have anyone that’ll fight for me the way that nathan did. 

august 29th, 2019. 5:32pm

so here’s the tea: i went on a date for the first time since nathan died. i went out last night, got drunk, got on bumble and agreed to go on a date this morning. so yeah, i was aggressively hungover, which is maybe not the best version of me for someone to meet- but it’s the version i brought to the table nonetheless. and like, it was fine. well, up until the point he was trying to relate to me and my career in theatre and told me that his favorite musical is CATS. his favorite cat is the rum tum tugger, and he can’t wait to see the movie in december. 

it’s not going to work out. CATS is an abomination and i refuse to spend time with anyone who disagrees with that statement. 

on a more serious note: i realized that i definitely don’t have the emotional capacity to date. i just can’t bring myself to care about anything anyone has to tell me about themselves. you have two sisters, your parents divorced when you were 8 and and you love CATS? zzzzz….sorry, that was me blacking out for 7 minutes. 

y’know, i’m unsure about a lot of things in my life. like, don’t try to ask me what i want for dinner because i refuse to make a decision about anything. don’t ask me what my favorite movie is, or my favorite book. i have no idea, dude, sorry. BUT the one thing i have incredible clarity about is what i deserve in a relationship. i had impossibly high standards before nathan and i were together and now they’re even higher- but that’s fine when you don’t have the emotional capacity to deal with scrubs to begin with. 

the other day, i found my journal that i kept in college. it starts in august of 2015, with the eulogy i wrote for my dad’s funeral. an excerpt: “despite me acting like an awful teen at times, he always was on my side. i think that’s what i’ll miss the most. i’ll miss having someone who had my back 100%. i’ll miss having someone who was always making sure i was happy…” and after reading that, i realized why my relationship with nathan was so successful. i’ve always heard that “girls always end up marrying someone like their dad” thing, and for the most part always chalked it up to weird patriarchal bullshit, but maybe there’s a little truth in it. because i definitely see some of my favorite things about my dad reflected in my favorite things about nathan. 

september 30, 2019. 1:09am

sometimes the saddest things must be sung. 

every time i try to write, it’s impossible to say anything that’s not just “i’m sad.” i haven’t been feeling great lately. i just feel trapped in this infinite loop of sadness and it’s so exhausting. i don’t like being like this. nathan would always get so frustrated with me when my depression was really bad, and i’d always be like do you think this is fun for me??? do you think i like being like this??? do you think i wake up and want to be a goblin??? newsflash my dude, i don’t. 

here’s the thing: when nathan first died, i was sad all the time. but it made sense. i had a reason to be sad all of the time. 

but i’m still sad all of the time. i wake up, i’m sad for 10 hours and then i go to bed. and then i wake up, maybe go to work, come home and be sad until bedtime. it’s a constant loop of sadness and i am so tired. 

nothing i do fulfills me. nothing satisfies me. i have neither purpose nor direction. i’m tired. and i’m sad. 

october 2nd, 2019. 7:34pm

i went to urgent care today- turns out i don’t have depression, i just have a torn ligament in my ankle. 

for context: i fell down the stairs at work the other day, crunched my ankle like it was an empty ozarka water bottle, and just wrecked my shit. i think this injury has me sadness spiraling a lot more than i normally do. now i get why nathan used to get so depressed whenever he’d injure himself.

the first time i got really sick after nathan died, i was so sad. this is my first ever really bad physical injury- i’ve never broken a bone or torn anything before, and i’m really feeling the loss of nathan right now. like how am i supposed to feed myself when i can barely walk to the kitchen? who’s supposed to remind me to take my ibuprofen every few hours? 

senior year of college, i kept getting strep, and the only reason i didn’t die is because every 12 hours nathan would call me to make sure i took my antibiotics, even when i had to take them at 2am. i only have two voicemails from him saved on my phone and literally one of them is from 3am and he’s like “hello wake up, your penicillin is calling, i’m gonna keep calling you until you wake up.” 

even though spraining my ankle was a nightmare, it could’ve been worse. just think, if i was a framing device in an emily bronte novel, i would have just had to live at work for five weeks until it healed.

october 11th, 2019. 5:37pm

i haven’t been sleeping lately, and last night i fell asleep around 6am. the cold front had just blown in and it was raining and i finally fell asleep. before i went to bed, i cracked my windows open for the first time this year and when i woke up this morning it was chilly in my room. i woke up in a little cocoon of all of my blankets and pillows and for a moment, before i completely opened my eyes, it felt like i was back in new york, waking up with nathan on a fall wednesday morning. it’s the little things.

october 25th, 2019. 2:19am

i keep thinking about all the things that have returned to me. all of the things that i gave to nathan that are back in my possession, tucked away in my room. like the grey ut shirt that was 3 sizes too big for me- so i gave it to him as a christmas present our first year together. he had been in new york for a semester, and he surprised me by coming to austin for new year’s- we hadn’t talked about christmas gifts or anything, but we ended up giving each other almost the exact same gift. he had gotten me a columbia sweater, and he slept in it for a few days before giving it to me, so it smelled like him. i did the exact same thing with that grey shirt. we couldn’t stop laughing when we exchanged the gifts because we were so amused that we’d gotten the same thing for each other. 

after he died, that shirt was one of the few that i kept of his, he slept in it all the time when we lived together. it still smells like him. 

i don’t wear my rings anymore, but when i see them in the bottom of my jewelry box, i think about the day that i gave him the engagement ring. he was so afraid of me saying no if he were to propose to me, so i told him that when i knew i’d say yes- i’d give him the ring i wanted him to use. on our first anniversary, i was visiting him in new york, right before i flew back to texas, i left a letter on his desk, with the ring attached. it returned to me a year after that, on our second anniversary when he proposed.

the day after nathan died, i went through all of his stuff. mostly because i knew i was about to fly back to texas and i didn’t know when i’d return to our apartment, so i wanted to collect all of his important documents that i didn’t want to lose. social security card, IDs, cards, passport, etc. but when i was digging through his backpack, i found a folder, where he’d kept all of the letters and cards i’d given to him throughout the years.

my personal favorite was an envelope that had two things in it: a sample size of the perfume that i’ve always worn, and a letter that just said “for when you miss me.” i gave that to him before we were even together. it was during that weird ambiguous era of our relationship where we were too afraid to commit, but were definitely in too deep to not commit. every time i would leave his apartment, he’d comment on how his pillows smelled like me, and how he missed me- right after he made his decision to go to columbia, we assumed we would never see each other again, so i gave him that letter. 

i was surprised to see all of those letters because that meant that he moved them from his apartment in abilene, to new york, to our apartment in new york, back to texas, and then to philly. 

so in turn, i moved them from philly, back to abilene, and now they’re with me in a box in austin. 

and i hope that one day all of the love that i gave to nathan will return to me. 

november 4th, 2019. 12:31am

in the deepest, blackest night of despair if you can get just one pinhole of light, all of grace rushes in.

november 19th, 2019. 2:20am

i’ve started taking up space again.

december 20th, 2019. 1:41pm

y’know, i’ve been doing pretty well for myself lately, and by that i mean that i haven’t had any major meltdowns. well, except for a couple of days ago. it was a christmas party, and as we all know- i’m not great at being social. but i also never turn down an invitation, which is a strange combination of things that happen to exist at the core of my being. but luckily, i got a plus one. see, with a plus one, i have a buffer there. i can bring one of my more interesting friends to carry conversations for me and then by proxy i become more able to socialize because i have to expend less energy by having that buffer there. anyways the person i was bringing as my plus one cancelled two hours before the event which meant that i had no time to try to get someone else to come with me. and this threw me into a major breakdown. i didn’t even want to go to the party at this point, but i had spent so much money on an outfit that if i didn’t go i would have wasted like 60 dollars. and i sat there trying to put makeup on to go but i kept crying and ruining it and then i chugged three white claws before even showing up at the party and i didn’t eat beforehand because there was supposed to be food there but by the time i was done crying and arrived, there was nothing left and then i drank 5 glasses of wine because it was free and i have social anxiety, and somehow i made it through the night without making a fool of myself, which is a miracle. 

the thing is, i really don’t get upset about a lot of things. but if someone cancels or changes plans on me, especially plans that we’d had set for at least a month in advance, i lose my god damn mind. there is historically nothing that upsets me more. 

but this time around, i realized that it really hurt me because it was the first time that i was confronted with the fact that i no longer have anyone in my life that prioritizes me. like, if nathan was begrudgingly my plus one to an event, he can’t get out of it- it’s non-negotiable. but like, i don’t hold that level of importance in anyone else’s life- there’s always something more important to them and uhhhhh that feeling sucks. 

+++

and that was the last note i wrote in 2019. which brings us to january 2020. when i think about my relationship with nathan, i feel like january always ended up being a special month for us. in 2016, january was the first time i ever spent the night with nathan. in 2017, nathan came back to texas to see me for the new year, after we’d been long-distance for five months. at the end of 2017, he went out of town for like three weeks, and i was miserable and all alone for the holidays, but in january 2018, his last day of vacation back home in abilene coincided with my first day of vacation back in abilene so we got to see each other for a little bit instead of having to go an entire month apart during the holidays. 

so i always end up getting weird and do a lot of reminiscing in january- but i feel like that’s kind of universal. 

like the #1 thing that everyone does is get all existential and contemplative when the new year hits. 

+++

in 2018, i never stopped moving. like a shark, i would have died if i stayed in one place for too long. and there i was in 2019, finally staying in one place.

it was a lot easier to ask for help when i had a reason to be sad. but now enough time has passed since nathan died that i feel like a burden when i’m not doing well. 

in my blog post wrapping up 2018, i said that my goal was to be kinder to myself. i also said that 2019 was going to be for starting a new life.

and while i’ve been no kinder to myself, at least i’ve made strides in living in this new phase of my life. in 2019 i moved out of my mother’s house, and back into my best friend’s apartment in austin. i got 3 jobs. i cut off all of my hair and pierced my nose. i started taking up space again. 

a few weeks ago, a coworker of mine told me that she had also lost a partner before. but what stuck with me was when she said, “you will never be the same. you’ll be happy again, and you’ll fall in love again- but you’ll never be the same person again”

and i’m realizing how true that is. 

i think one of the scariest scenarios is waking up one day and not remembering who you are. and that’s exactly what happened to me in 2018. i woke up one day without nathan and couldn’t remember who i was. 

one thing everyone’s been talking about lately is how this is the end of the decade, and i realized that nathan was in my life for the entire decade. he was in my life before the decade even started. and then when he died, i lost such a huge part of my identity. there’s a bear’s den lyric that’s like “i don’t want to know who i am without you,” and that’s what 2019 was for me.

kintsugi is the japanese art of fixing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with a lacquer mixed with powdered gold. i’ve always been a vase held by shaky hands, constantly on the precipice of shattering- and in 2018 i was dropped. in 2019, i’ve been finding tiny pieces of myself and trying to piece them back together to form a whole person again. 

recently, i’ve been realizing all of the little pieces of me that are missing. like the part of me that used to be good at holding conversations with people. and the part of me that had the ability to be a person for more than like 3 hours a day. and the part of me that showed excitement about things. i don’t even know what things excite me anymore? do i have interests or hobbies? not really. one time, i described myself as a robot that powers off if i am not at work, and wow, what an apt description.

the other day, one of my friends called me out about how she can never tell if i’m actually excited about something or not. my language is always very vague and even when i’m really stoked about something, i rarely show excitement about it. 

+++

so now it’s february 2020. it’s been a year and a half since nathan died. i’m feeling better. the other day, i came to the realization that i think my emotions have finally leveled off. i’m back to my normal amount of unstable, rather than that really virulent level that i was at for awhile at the end of last year. it feels good to finally have a little bit of control back over my life. i’ve finally really settled in at work, and i’m starting to feel more confident in my capabilities. 

so what are my goals for 2020? i think the biggest thing is to find something that i care about. honestly, probably a big part of the reason why i’ve been having such a hard time finding a Big Girl Job to settle into is because there’s just nothing that i’m 100% passionate about. it’s hard for me to find an answer other than “i’m just trying to not die,” whenever i get asked “so why do you want this job?” i really want to find lasting stability this year. i’m tired of not being able to enjoy anything because i don’t have money. whoever said money can’t buy happiness obviously was never poor because let me tell you, i’d be a lot happier if i could afford to go out with my friends more often. or if i could like…….eat 3 meals a day without feeling guilty for wasting food because i know i can live on just one meal a day. 

i also started doing a skincare routine that involves like 4 different serums and i’ve been doing really well keeping up with doing it twice a day and if i could carry that energy through the rest of the year that’d be dope. i would make a comment about how i’ve been going to the gym every day and how i’m trying to have a 2020 glo-up but i was going to the gym every day for awhile but i haven’t been in like two weeks. 

also my chemical romance just reunited so i guess my other 2020 goal is to see them on this reunion tour.

[nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany]

Trump Promised Massive Infrastructure Projects—Instead We’ve Gotten Nothing

Digital Elixir Trump Promised Massive Infrastructure Projects—Instead We’ve Gotten Nothing

Yves here. In a bit of synchronicity, when a reader was graciously driving me to the Department of Motor Vehicles (a schlepp in the wilds of Shelby County), she mentioned she’d heard local media reports that trucks had had their weight limits lowered due to concern that some overpasses might not be able to handle the loads. Of course, a big reason infrastructure spending has plunged in the US is that it’s become an excuse for “public-private partnerships,” aka looting, when those deals take longer to get done and produce bad results so often that locals can sometimes block them.

By Tom Conway, the international president of the United Steelworkers Union (USW). Produced by the Independent Media Institute

Bad news about infrastructure is as ubiquitous as potholes. Failures in a 108-year-old railroad bridge and tunnel cost New York commuters thousands of hours in delays. Illinois doesn’t regularly inspect, let alone fix, decaying bridges. Flooding in Nebraska caused nearly half a billion dollars in road and bridge damage—just this year.

No problem, though. President Donald Trump promised to fix all this. The great dealmaker, the builder of eponymous buildings, the star of “The Apprentice,” Donald Trump, during his campaign, urged Americans to bet on him because he’d double what his opponent would spend on infrastructure. Double, he pledged!

So far, that wager has netted Americans nothing. No money. No deal. No bridges, roads or leadless water pipes. And there’s nothing on the horizon since Trump stormed out of the most recent meeting. That was a three-minute session in May with Democratic leaders at which Trump was supposed to discuss the $2 trillion he had proposed earlier to spend on infrastructure. In a press conference immediately afterward, Trump said if the Democrats continued to investigate him, he would refuse to keep his promises to the American people to repair the nation’s infrastructure.

The comedian Stephen Colbert described the situation best, saying Trump told the Democrats: “It’s my way or no highways.”

The situation, however, is no joke. Just ask the New York rail commuters held up for more than 2,000 hours over the past four years by bridge and tunnel breakdowns. Just ask the American Society of Civil Engineers, which gave the nation a D+ grade for infrastructure and estimated that if more than $1 trillion is not added to currently anticipated spending on infrastructure, “the economy is expected to lose almost $4 trillion in GDP, resulting in a loss of 2.5 million jobs in 2025.”

Candidate Donald Trump knew it was no joke. On the campaign trail, he said U.S. infrastructure was “a mess” and no better than that of a “third-world country. ”When an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia in 2015, killing eight and injuring about 200, he tweeted, “Our roads, airports, tunnels, bridges, electric grid—all falling apart.” Later, he tweeted, “The only one to fix the infrastructure of our country is me.”

Donald Trump promised to make America great again. And that wouldn’t be possible if America’s rail system, locks, dams and pipelines—that is, its vital organs—were “a mess.” Trump signed what he described as a contract with American voters to deliver an infrastructure plan within the first 100 days of his administration.

He mocked his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton’s proposal to spend $275 billion. “Her number is a fraction of what we’re talking about. We need much more money to rebuild our infrastructure,” he told Fox News in 2016. “I would say at least double her numbers, and you’re going to really need a lot more than that.”

In August of 2016, he promised, “We will build the next generation of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, seaports and airports that our country deserves. American cars will travel the roads, American planes will connect our cities, and American ships will patrol the seas. American steel will send new skyscrapers soaring. We will put new American metal into the spine of this nation.”

In his victory speech and both of his State of the Union addresses, he pledged again to be the master of infrastructure. “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, school, hospitals. … And we will put millions of our people to work,” he said the night he won.

That sounds excellent. That’s exactly what 75 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll said they wanted. That would create millions of family-supporting jobs making the steel, aluminum, concrete, pipes and construction vehicles necessary to accomplish infrastructure repair. That would stimulate the economy in ways that benefit the middle class and those who are struggling.

That contract Trump signed with American voters to produce an infrastructure plan in the first 100 days: worthless. It never happened. He gave Americans an Infrastructure Week in June of 2017, though, and at just about the 100-day mark, predicted infrastructure spending would “take off like a rocket ship.” Two more Infrastructure Weeks followed in the next two years, but no money.

Trump finally announced a plan in February of 2018, at a little over the 365-day mark,to spend $1.5 trillion on infrastructure. It went nowhere because it managed to annoy both Democrats and Republicans.

It was to be funded by only $200 billion in federal dollars—less than what Hillary Clinton proposed. The rest was to come from state and local governments and from foreign money interests and the private sector. Basically, the idea was to hand over to hedge fund managers the roads and bridges and pipelines originally built, owned and maintained by Americans. The fat cats at the hedge funds would pay for repairs but then toll the assets in perpetuity. Nobody liked it.

That was last year. This year, by which time the words Infrastructure Week had become a synonym for promises not kept, Trump met on April 30 with top Democratic leaders and recommended a $2 trillion infrastructure investment. Democrats praised Trump afterward for taking the challenge seriously and for agreeing to find the money.

“It couldn’t have gone any better,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., told the Washington Post, even though Neal was investigating Trump for possible tax fraud.

Almost immediately, Trump began complaining that Democrats were trying to hoodwink him into raising taxes to pay for the $2 trillion he had offered to spend.

Trump and the Republicans relinquished one way to pay for infrastructure when they passed a tax cut for the rich and corporations in December of 2017. As a result, the rich and corporations pocketed hundreds of billions—$1 trillion over 10 years—and Trump doesn’t have that money to invest in infrastructure. Corporations spent their tax break money on stock buybacks, further enriching the already rich. They didn’t invest in American manufacturing or worker training or wage increases.

Three weeks afterthe April 30 meeting, Trump snubbed Democrats who returned to the White House hoping the president had found a way to keep his promise to raise $2 trillion for infrastructure. Trump dismissed them like naughty schoolchildren. He told them he wouldn’t countenance Democrats simultaneously investigating him and bargaining with him—even though Democrats were investigating him at the time of the April meeting and one of the investigators—Neal—had attended.

Promise not kept again.

Trump’s reelection motto, Keep America Great, doesn’t work for infrastructure. It’s still a mess. It’s the third year of his presidency, and he has done nothing about it. Apparently, he’s saving this pledge for his next term.

In May, he promised Louisianans a new bridge over Interstate 10—only if he is reelected. He said the administration would have it ready to go on “day one, right after the election.” Just like he said he’d produce an infrastructure plan within the first 100 days of his first term.

He’s doubling down on the infrastructure promises. His win would mean Americans get nothing again.

Trump Promised Massive Infrastructure Projects—Instead We’ve Gotten Nothing

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[xgchristina]

just for a quick minute, i’m gonna spill a little bit about some of the things i've been stressing about this year.

1. once i finish up my contract here in korea, i’m gonna go back home and start school again for my credential and master’s. hypothetically, when i start my credential, which would be IMMEDIATELY once i return, i will need to purchase a new car (in addition to insurance and gas). enrolling in a credential program also means that i won’t have time to work, mornings will be spent student teaching and afternoons-evenings will be spent in class lectures. 

in order to even enroll, i need to have certain prerequisite courses completed. currently, i am in the process applying to two schools, in case my first choice doesn’t go through. for my first choice, there are two courses i need to complete before enrolling, and three for my second choice. of the total five courses, two have to be from a university while the other three can be completed at my local community college. 

the two courses i need to take are offered at different universities, which means i need to apply to two separate schools and then pay for those courses. because i am not a student of those universities, i am enrolling through their open university option, which means i have to pay for the course by the unit. both courses will be during the schools’ winter intersessions, which means the courses will be completed in a short matter of time but still cost me around $2,000. $2,000, ya’ll. i’ve already paid for one course a few weeks ago, so that one is out of my hair. but i have the other one to pay for and i am stressed the fuck out about it. i’m going to have to ask for help on this one and i don’t even want to. it’s nobody’s responsibility but mine to further my education and i am so fucking angry at myself for having to need to ask for help.

1.5. the actual credential program applications are kicking my butt. 4 different papers i need to write all with different prompts. i am a terrible writer. i hate writing. i hate it more than science. it is my worst academic skill. i have been trying to get myself to complete everything by the end of this month and i haven’t even completed half of my work yet.

both credential programs also start the very beginning of august and require in-person meetings prior to starting. i’m returning literally the last week of august. so, all this stress about prereq courses and paying for them, writing these goddam papers, and just applying to the programs might not even happen. if that happens, idk what i’ll do. i’m just trying to stay positive and not let it take over my feelings right now.

2. when you are a foreigner teaching english in korea, you are not given importance. i have all my vacation days ready to go, but i never know when i can actually take them. all other staff in the school know their vacation dates, but i usually have to wait until a week or two before my camp dates to be told when my vacation dates are. by that time, flights are extremely expensive and my wallet cries along with me.

because we, english teachers, never know our camp dates until a week or two prior to the start date, it’s difficult to plan our vacation. so this time, i took the liberty of just booking my vacation without knowing my camp dates. i based it off of last winter’s and thought it’d be better to just ask for forgiveness rather than permission beforehand. BUT, since i was able to find my prereq courses for winter intersessions, i need to change my flights to about a week later because they intersect with my vacation. they’d only be overlapping with the first week of vacation, but i wasn’t planning on flying with my laptop and leaving it around the hostel while i’m out and about. so there goes more money...

**IF YOU ARE GONNA BE IN SPAIN/GREECE ANY TIME FROM JANUARY 17TH-FEBRUARY 4TH, LET YA GIRL KNOW!!**

2.5. as an english teacher, part of our job entails a winter and summer camp, unless your principal is hella hella hella cool and doesn’t require you to do them. these camps are basically an extra week or two of teaching alone, usually only 2-4 hours/day (during the regular school year we-at least elementary school-always have a korean english teacher in the class). but instead of the curriculum from the textbook, we can choose to do whatever we want. it could be a camp about space, science, movies, reading, or literally anything. for the past winter and summer camps that i’ve already completed, i’ve been on top of them and had them ready to go at least 2 months in advance cos i didn’t want to stress about them when the time came. however, i’ve been so preoccupied with other things on my plate that i keep forgetting about it.

-----

actually, i think that’s it. i thought i had at least 5 things to list, and technically there 4 there, but i guess they’re all connected anyway. i’ve been holding up with the stress pretty well, but i think as the year is coming closer and closer to an end and deadlines are coming up sooner, i’ve been feeling the pressure so much more. i’ve been crying this whole afternoon about everything, including what i haven’t even added onto this list, and i just want this period to be done and over with. 

i don’t want to be that person, cos i know how goddam blessed i am to be where i am today and i am always consciously grateful, but i’m gonna say it just this one time. it really really fucking sucks to be broke and poor. i’m not even saying it like i’m trying to get sympathy or use it as an excuse to not give myself certain things, but it just sucks. growing up poor fucking sucks, and living poor fucking sucks. it sucks to have to depend on money to further any part of life cos it adds so much stress and takes away so much livelihood. 

okay. done with the self pity-party. time to get some more work done now.

[bloojayoolie]

Anaconda, Children, and Click: Jolly black and white package of a young dog. So handsome, Gentle, Energetic and Fun. Happily Playful Loves to play with balls and toys. Kissy, Huggy and Sweet. ЕЕ 3 yrs old, 59 Ibs Strambeli SEDH 3120 ent Ready o hoeManon ACC ****TO BE KILLED 6/26/18**** Indulge yourself with Delicious Stromboli <3 Handsome, Playful and Super Friendly Boy @ MACC A volunteer writes: A very good time awaits you in the form of Stromboli. Not the tasty Italian roll, but our very own delicious boy. A jolly black and white package of a young dog keeps a clean kennel, and pounced with gust upon balls and toys pitched his way. Stromboli's exuberance is best channeled through plenty of exercise, and obedience training. Walks will be a pleasure with this active chap if Stromboli is harnessed with a front clip model, or head halter. A meeting is recommended for homes with older children and resident dogs. Indulge yourself with Stromboli, available right now at the Manhattan ACC! VIDEOS: https://youtu.be/6CNxvNZvV2M Stromboli and Nala https://youtu.be/gmmzLlgkFj0 Playful Stromboli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpVCLWBZ37UPlayful Stromboli ID# 31120 MANHATTAN ACC 3 years old, 59 lbs BLACK / WHITE MALE Large Mixed Breed Cross Found Stray Intake Date 6/13/2018 SHELTER ASSESSMENT EXPERIENCED HOME / No young children (under 5) My health has been checked. My vaccinations are up to date. My worming is up to date. I have been microchipped. BEHAVIOR NOTES Date of intake: 13-Jun-2018 Spay/Neuter status: No Means of surrender (length of time in previous home): Stray SAFER SCORES: Date of assessment: 14-Jun-2018 Look: 1. Dog's eyes are averted, with tail wagging and ears back. Allows head to be held loosely in Assessor's cupped hands. Sensitivity: 1. Dog leans into the Assessor, eyes soft or squinty, soft and loose body, open mouth. Tag: 1. Dog assumes play position and joins the game. Or dog indicates play with huffing, soft 'popping' of the body, etc. Dog might jump on Assessor once play begins. Paw squeeze 1: 2. Dog quickly pulls back. Paw squeeze 2: 2. Dog quickly pull back. Flank squeeze 1: Item not conducted Flank squeeze 2: Item not conducted Toy: 2. Dog takes toy away, keeps a firm hold. His/her body is between you and the toy, and is loose and wiggly. No growling or stiffness. Summary: Stromboli quickly approached the assessor with a soft body. He jumped up high and hard during the assessment, in a playful social manner. He displayed a high level of excitement and barked at both the assessor and the assistant in an excitable manner. He allowed all handling and was social throughout. Summary: Stromboli has mostly displayed attempts to mount female dogs during off leash introductions. He has at times displayed brief interest in play. When offered correction, Stromboli briefly ceases before attempting to mount once more. Stromboli has allowed approach from other male dogs. Slow introductions are recommended to social dogs who are playful and also may be tolerant of the observed behaviors. Summary (1): 6/14: When introduced off leash to the female greeter dog, Stromboli offers brief sniffs, roams away. Summary (2): 6/15: Stromboli mostly follows the female dog sniffing and posturing to mount, occasionally engaging in brief bouts of running play with her. Summary (3): 6/17-18: Stromboli follows and attempts to mount. Summary (4): 6/19: Stromboli engages in play when introduced to a playful female dog. He is tolerant of approach from a larger male dog. Date of intake: 13-Jun-2018 Summary: Stormboli had a soft body and allowed handling. BEHAVIOR DETERMINATION: EXPERIENCE (suitable for an adopter with some previous dog experience, especially with the behaviors outlined below) Recommendations: No young children (under 5) Recommendations comments: No young children: Due to the high level of jumping seen at the care center, we recommend a home without young children. Older children who are comfortable around large, jumpy dogs should have an in-depth interaction prior to adoption. Potential challenges: Basic manners/poor impulse control Strength/leash pulling Potential challenges comments: Basic manners/poor impulse control: Stromboli is a large dog who jumps up high and barks when excited. It is recommended that default behaviors such as "Leave it", "Sit/Stay", "Down" are reinforced to substitute any frustration and teach him to control his impulses instead of simply reacting; proper management is also advised. Force-free, reward based training only is recommended. Strength/leash pulling: Stromboli is a very large, strong dog with the capability to pull over an average adopter. His adopter must be prepared and able to handle a dog of this size and strength. It is recommended that he be walked on a front clip harness or head halter, which help diminish his strength through leverage, and that he be trained using positive reinforcement, reward based training to not pull on leash MEDICAL EXAM NOTES 15-Jun-2018 DVM Intake Exam Estimated age: 4 years old Microchip noted on Intake? No Microchip Number (If Applicable): History : Found tied to pole prior to surrender Subjective: BAR Hydr wnl Observed Behavior - Very compliant for exam including rectal Evidence of Cruelty seen - None observed Evidence of Trauma seen - None observed Objective T = 100.8 P = 160 R = wnl BCS 3-4/9 EENT: Eyes clear, ears clean, no nasal or ocular discharge noted Oral Exam: fx dital crown r upper k9, mild to mod tartar PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupnic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated, perineal area appeared to have distention from superficial exam, rectal exam -diverticulum ventrally but distal colon palpated normally U/G: MI, prostate could not be palpated -feces in colon (wnl) MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, mod to severe pododermatitis bilat front paws, mild to mod bilat hind paws CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Rectal: see above Assessment: r/o early pah, other pododermatitis Prognosis: good Plan: Cephalexin 500 mg 1.5 bid x 1 week SURGERY: Okay for surgery * TO FOSTER OR ADOPT * If you would like to adopt a dog on our “To Be Killed” list, and you CAN get to the shelter in person to complete the adoption process *within 48 hours of reserve*, you can reserve the dog online until noon on the day they are scheduled to die. We have provided the Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan information below. Adoption hours at these facilities is Noon – 8:00 p.m. (6:30 on weekends) HOW TO RESERVE A “TO BE KILLED” DOG ONLINE (only for those who can get to the shelter IN PERSON to complete the adoption process, and only for the dogs on the list NOT marked New Hope Rescue Only). Follow our Step by Step directions below! *PLEASE NOTE – YOU MUST USE A PC OR TABLET – PHONE RESERVES WILL NOT WORK! ** STEP 1: CLICK ON THIS RESERVE LINK: https://newhope.shelterbuddy.com/Animal/List Step 2: Go to the red menu button on the top right corner, click register and fill in your info. Step 3: Go to your email and verify account Step 4: Go back to the website, click the menu button and view available dogs Step 5: Scroll to the animal you are interested and click reserve STEP 6 ( MOST IMPORTANT STEP ): GO TO THE MENU AGAIN AND VIEW YOUR CART. THE ANIMAL SHOULD NOW BE IN YOUR CART! Step 7: Fill in your credit card info and complete transaction Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC)nycacc.org HOW TO FOSTER OR ADOPT IF YOU *CANNOT* GET TO THE SHELTER IN PERSON, OR IF THE DOG IS NEW HOPE RESCUE ONLY! You must live within 3 – 4 hours of NY, NJ, PA, CT, RI, DE, MD, MA, NH, VT, ME or Norther VA. Please PM our page for assistance. You will need to fill out applications with a New Hope Rescue Partner to foster or adopt a dog on the To Be Killed list, including those labelled Rescue Only. Hurry please, time is short, and the Rescues need time to process the applications.

[orbemnews]

What Warren Buffett Is Buying Warren Buffett is playing it safe Berkshire Hathaway’s latest annual results, and the accompanying letter to investors from the Oracle of Omaha, reveal a clear theme: Warren Buffett isn’t taking as many risks — or big swings at deal-making — as he used to. Berkshire is spending more of its $138 billion in cash on smaller investments, as opposed to deploying it on the huge acquisitions that he famously made in the past. The conglomerate bought back nearly $25 billion of its own shares last year, a record for a company that until recently was reluctant to spend its cash this way. Mr. Buffett admitted a big mistake in his last foray into blockbuster deal-making. He wrote that the $37 billion he paid for Precision Castparts, a maker of airplane parts, was too much. (The 2016 transaction resulted in a $10 billion write-down last year.) “No one misled me in any way,” he wrote. “I was simply too optimistic.” Berkshire’s biggest bets don’t look particularly contrarian. They include a $120 billion stake in Apple and majority stakes in the Burlington Northern railroad and Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Berkshire’s stock is up but has underperformed the S&P 500 in recent years. Mr. Buffett isn’t bullish on bonds, writing that bond investors face a “bleak future” amid signs of anxiety in the debt markets, and he warned that “risky loans” and other ways to juice fixed-income returns would lead to ruin. Investors don’t seem to mind that Mr. Buffett has put down his so-called elephant gun for big acquisitions, at least for now. “He doesn’t really have to find the elephant because he has two elephants already corralled that need to be fed,” said Thomas Russo, a Berkshire shareholder, referring to the railroad and energy companies. That suggests investors are on board with Berkshire focusing on buybacks and its existing businesses rather than bold new bets — for now. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING Senate Democrats will drop a minimum wage increase from the stimulus bill. The move came after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that increasing the federal rate to $15 an hour broke the chamber’s rules, The Wall Street Journal reports. The House, which had approved the wage increase in its version of the $1.9 trillion bill, must sign off on the change. The F.D.A. approves Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine. The one-shot treatment is the latest to win emergency approval, as the decline in new coronavirus cases appears to have plateaued. But supplies of J.&J.’s vaccine will be limited at first. President Biden won’t sanction Saudi Arabia’s No. 2 leader over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. The decision not to punish the country’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, over his approval of Mr. Khashoggi’s killing in 2018 was the latest sign that there are limited consequences for the act. Nasdaq presses forward with its board diversity proposal. The stock exchange’s plan to require companies listed on its market to have more diverse directors has overwhelming public support, it told the S.E.C. Nasdaq is making some tweaks, including giving companies a one-year grace period and offering more flexibility to companies with smaller boards. Streaming services dominate the Golden Globes. Netflix collected 10 awards last night, while Amazon’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was the first title from a streamer to win best motion picture comedy or musical. What’s next for WeWork? SoftBank said on Friday that it had settled its legal dispute with Adam Neumann, opening the way for WeWork to go public just 16 months after SoftBank rescued it from collapse, The Times’s Peter Eavis reports. A recap: At the time of its rescue, SoftBank offered to buy $3 billion of stock from WeWork shareholders, including the co-founder Mr. Neumann, who stepped down as C.E.O. during the company’s disastrous I.P.O. attempt in 2019. Then, as the coronavirus was emptying WeWork offices, SoftBank said in April that it wouldn’t go ahead with the purchase, prompting Mr. Neumann to sue. Who came out ahead in the settlement? SoftBank is now spending only $1.5 billion on the stock, instead of $3 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the settlement. But the lower bill is because SoftBank is cutting the number of shares it will buy in half; that means Mr. Neumann will get $480 million instead of up to $960 million. (SoftBank has invested well over $10 billion in WeWork.) Mr. Neumann also secured some concessions, according to these people. SoftBank pledged to pay $50 million for his legal fees, to extend a $430 million loan it made to him by five years and to pay the last $50 million of a $185 million consulting fee it owed him. Now what? Settling the dispute removes a big obstacle to taking WeWork public. SoftBank has been in talks to merge with BowX Acquisition, a SPAC run by Vivek Ranadivé, the founder of Tibco Software and owner of the N.B.A.’s Sacramento Kings. Such a deal would raise some crucial questions: SoftBank owns 70 percent of WeWork’s shares but has direct control over just under half of shareholder votes. Would those numbers change after an offering? Who does control WeWork? Would investors balk at WeWork’s financial performance, again? It’s not clear how the company has performed recently; it last publicly disclosed its financials some 18 months ago. And a glut of office space is coming, which might be more attractive to companies than taking WeWork space. Individuals, meanwhile, may be less likely to use a co-working space now that they’ve gotten used to working from home. The week ahead The state of consumer spending is a theme, with a wide range of retailers reporting earnings, including Kohl’s, Nordstrom and Target on Tuesday; Dollar Tree on Wednesday; and Costco and Gap on Thursday. In other earnings news, later today Zoom is expected to release another blockbuster report, but executives will be quizzed on whether the company’s growth can continue when many workers return to the office. The annual meeting of the National People’s Congress of China begins on Friday, where the country’s latest five-year economic plan will be announced, among other measures. The latest U.S. jobs report is released on Friday, with economists expecting a gain of 165,000 jobs in February, up from 49,000 the previous month. Citi may face a shareholder vote on a racial equity audit Citigroup has no legal basis for blocking an investor proposal demanding a report on how its practices affect minority communities , the S.E.C. ruled Friday. That increases the likelihood that the bank’s board will have to examine itself in the glare of the public. Citi had asked the S.E.C. for permission to keep the proposal off its annual shareholder proxy. DealBook first reported last year that two investment groups linked to unions, the CtW and SEIU, would call on the country’s six largest banks to conduct “racial equity audits.” The unions asked them to work with civil rights groups, employees and customers on examinations of practices that would then be made public. In its submission to the S.E.C., Citi said it had already “substantially implemented the essential elements” of the proposal. But Dieter Waizenegger, the executive director of CtW Investment Group, told DealBook, “It’s important to establish an independent assessment” of the banks’ practices. Citi could face a legal fight if it chooses to ignore the proposal, after the commission refused to give the firm cover. A spokeswoman for the bank noted in a statement that it has committed more than $1 billion to help Black homeowners and entrepreneurs, as well as to better diversify its work force. “Citi is acutely focused on addressing racial inequity, especially in terms of the wealth gap it creates,” she added. A warning for ‘reckless’ buyouts Until recently, those who sold companies to private equity firms were not held liable if things went awry after the sale — that, after all, was the new owner’s problem. Those days may be over, Bill Cohan writes for Times Opinion. Officers and directors can be held responsible for approving a “reckless” sale, a New York federal court judge concluded in December. Jones Group, the struggling apparel company that owned Nine West and Stuart Weitzman, sold itself to Sycamore Partners in 2013. The buyout firm later changed the terms of the deal and the company’s debt exceeded bankers’ recommendations. Nine West filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and shareholders sued the Jones Group’s former directors. There is still a trial looming, but would-be sellers “had better think twice before agreeing to sell a company to a buyout firm,” Mr. Cohan wrote. In a message to clients, the law firm Ropes & Gray wrote that the ruling was “a serious warning,” noting that even though the selling directors may not be involved after an exit, they “cannot ignore” a company’s post-exit balance sheet. If a precedent is set, private equity firms could suffer, Mr. Cohan suggested: “The days of just selling a company to the highest bidder regardless of the consequences — the legal standard on Wall Street since the Delaware Supreme Court decided the so-called Revlon case in 1986 — might just be over.” Or not: lawyers at Fried Frank believe the broader implications of the case are “overstated,” noting that the facts of this case raised specific “red flags.” For more on the prospects for private equity deal-making, Bain’s latest annual report on the state of the industry is out today. “A number of headwinds will make for a uniquely challenging recovery,” it writes. THE SPEED READ Deals Robinhood reportedly plans to file confidentially for an I.P.O. as soon as this month. (Bloomberg) Retail investors in the SPAC that plans to merge with the electric carmaker Lucid are trying to rally support for its depressed shares on Reddit forums. (Business Insider) Politics and policy Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York offered an apology for “insensitive” comments after a second former aide accused him of sexual harassment; he faces an independent investigation. (NYT) China is charging ahead with a national digital currency, rethinking how government-backed money works. (NYT) Tech Walmart hired Omer Ismail, who helped build out Goldman Sachs’s consumer finance arm, to lead a new fintech venture founded by the retail giant and Ribbit Capital. (Bloomberg) “Bias, disrespect, and demotions: Black employees say Amazon has a race problem” (Recode) Coinbase’s I.P.O. prospectus highlights how a few men control the biggest companies in cryptocurrency. (Bloomberg) Best of the rest The ousting of McKinsey’s leader underscores deep cracks in the consulting giant’s partnership. (WSJ) McDonald’s C.E.O. pledged support for women who have raised allegations of sexual discrimination and harassment at the fast-food chain. (McDonald’s, CBS News) Is Japan’s central bank a meme stock? (Bloomberg) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Buffett #buying #Warren

[smireyac]

fuck this year man u dont even get cute emojis in the title this time

so lemme just start by saying fuck 2020 

now that we’re on the same page, lets get into it

so i dont have to explain all the reasons why this year sucked bc u just need to google 2020 and there will be a million reasons why it was TOTAL FUCKING GARBAGE...... usually when so many people collectively say a year sucked ass, i can be like “oh it wasnt *all* bad for me, personally” haha not this year!!! 

its super fucking depressing to look at how hopeful and positive i was about 2020 a year ago..... ofc there was no way for me to have known it would all go to shit but i still really appreciate the tone i had set... reading over the previous reflections and seeing how harsh and negative i was @ myself made the softness of last years post super refreshing.... 

now i said i dont *have* to explain all the ways 2020 was shitty, but i am gonna explain the biggest reason this year was shitty for me, personally..... it might seem really small in comparison to the ways 2020 was shitty as a whole on like a global scale? but really the biggest reason 2020 sucked ass was i didnt get to really hang out with any of my friends in real life for 9 out of the 12 months of the year.... and really it was like the first week of march that shit hit the fan so like really it was only 2 months that we got to see each other....... if u rmbr p much every previous retrospective post ive made, there was a big emphasis on friends..... ive come to realize that im actually a very *extra*verted person??? despite my overall shyness and homebody attitude, i would always choose to hang out with people over being alone so stay-at-home orders FUCKING SUCKED??? when we all thought it would be over in a couple weeks, maybe a month it was fine?? hey its a good time to draw or catch up on that reading and/or writing i said i was gonna do maybe even start learning to drive?? it’ll be no big deal THEN it wasn’t over in a month and it wasnt gonna BE over anytime soon and no one important was doing anything about it and its an election year and black lives have always mattered and yet everything is so uncertain and

[inhale]

[exhale]

this year was..... a lot...... too much in fact

in 2018, i had said that i watched vox’s video on the year in 5 mins and cried... if i watched this year in five minutes, i dont think i would be able to breathe...... 

SO instead of making myself CRY..... lets try to think about any GOOD things that happened and think about what we can do to make 2021 good for ourselves:

GOOD THINGS THAT HAPPENED:

-i *didn’t* lose my job!! sad that so many others cannot say the same but im trying to make myself feel *better* not WORSE so i got to keep my job and i actually work more hours than before so!!

-i actually *did* learn to drive this year!!!! and im pretty good at it??? for someone that just started this year anyway?? i probably *would* have my DRIVER’S LICENSE right now if it weren’t for a surge in cases in a certain STATE that i happen to live in......... but w/e its fine i get more time to practice and im ~~**DEFINITELY**~~ going pass my test and get my license ~whenever it is that i can reschedule my dmv appt~

lmfao its so funny that last year, i was absolutely *dreading* learning to drive but i so fucking get why everyone was like ‘you need to learn how to drive’ i legit love it so much???? ive always been a car person but that was like purely for the aesthetic but now that i can drive im just....... WOOOW this really is what freedom feels like.... like ik that public transportation is amazing and i will always champion it but nothing beats being purely in control of your destination.... i also wanted to buy myself a car for my birthday even tho i couldnt really drive yet but then sien had to fix smthg on her car and it was EXPENSIVE AF and my mom was like “u dont need to buy a car yet” so i put the brakes [haha] on that... but soon... once i get my license,,, then i will have u my love................. so with that being “my most serious goal of 2020″ im glad i did it

-i was one of lucky ones and got unemployment when i couldn’t work so i have a lot of money saved in the bank??? pls no one steal my identity i wanna use that money to buy myself a car and/or for when we move out 🤞🤞 we’ll just have to wait and seeeeee....................

-i had mentioned playing dnd last year too and thats been going STRONG as hell thank goodness....... we couldnt keep playing in person but when we moved it to online, not only did we actually get to hang out a lot more, we made more friends??? introduced new people to the group?? its so good and in fact probably the only thing that kept me even a little bit sane this year...... 

-this is more of an honorable mention than an accomplishment but im this 🤏close to catching up with critical role and thats partially thanks to the pandemic lmao sooooo ??? 

aaaaaaand thats p much it lol i didnt really accomplish any of my other goals bc reasons................. but!!! as cliche as it sounds, with a light at the end of the tunnel, im confident that i can turn that all around this year.... so if 2016 was the year of change, 2017 was the year of getting used to shit, 2018 was the year of getting *too* used to shit and 2019 ended up being the year of friends, 2020 was the year of absolute shit and it doesn’t fucking count....... i learned a lot this year, biggest lesson of all is that life is short and if i were to have died at any point last year, what the fuck would i have to show for it??? so usually i end up giving a theme or name to a year after its done but this time im determined to make 2021 into what i want it to be SO i am declaring this year, the year of our lord 2021, the year of new experiences!!!! what the fuck does that mean you ask? well ill tell you!!! im gonna try new things this year!! make a very pointed effort to do things outside my comfort zone?? and for my goals this year, im going back to my old way of making a huge list of stuff u wanna do and seeing how much i can actuallly accomplish!! now i said theres a light but we really dont know when all this shit will end and life will go “bAcK tO nOrMaL” so whos to say ill get to accomplish any of it? at the same time, there are plenty of stuff on the list that i can do within the pandemic set parameters so!! lets see this list!!

2021 GOALS:

[check boxes bc there is no plain box emoji lmao]

☑️ read new books!! i’ll keep last years goal bc i didnt meet it and i have good reads now which tells me i just need to read 1.5 books a month to reach that goal!! huzzah!

☑️ watch new shows and new movies b4 u end up watching shit you’ve already seen a million times... i bought an old planner for 2020 instead of 2021 by accident but i hope it will help keep track of the movies/shows along with the books too!

☑️ listen to new music!! this years spotify wrapped was garbo it only had like 3 albums and a bunch of other shit i always listen to so i gotta fix that lmfao

☑️ write new stories!! i am comforted by the shit ive been writing for the past like 7 years but if my screenplay class taught me anything its that there are a lot of stories to tell and i got so many ideas floating around in this noggin!! instead of an arbitrary word count, why dont i say write idk 3 new stories, start to finish, in whatever medium idc screenplay, short story, comic, twine WHATEVER!! do it!

☑️ eat new food!! lmao this one seems the most silly to me but ive never had indian food, ive never had [not really anyway] korean food, i want to find new restaurants and eat new food!!! yum!

☑️ go on a road trip!!

☑️ visit some place ive never been before!!

☑️ go on a hike??

☑️ go to mexico again

☑️ ride a scary rollercoaster you previously wouldnt have

☑️ go to a club

☑️ get silly drunk fr 

☑️ FUCK IT go on dates!! self date friend dates sister date cousin dates R- Romantic... dates ??? FUCK IT!!! YEAH!! DATE ALL UP IN THIS BITCH!!

☑️ learn to use blender

☑️ animate something 

☑️ make a big painting

☑️ cosplay ???? AHH

☑️ learn to roller skate lmao u bought the skates and were so excited for them!! 

☑️ go somewhere SUPER DARK and go see some real stars!!!! 

☑️ and to top it all off, throw the airbnb house party that we’ve been talking about for MONTHS lmao 

hmmmm,, i think thats a good enough list for now ?? another thing i wanted to accomplish.... that im scared to speak into existence bc then i cant back out of doing it...........and it doesnt align with the whole “new” spirit of 2021 but.......... i want to like start making apartments for rent????? like i want to have something of it to show by, if not the 8th anniversary then by the end of the year HHUFF THERE I SAID IT......... no turning back now.......... 

alright its almost midnight on.... whats this? its already jan. 1st??? lmao yeah fuck it i didnt keep up with anything i normally did this year who cares i made up the rules i can break them too lol  

so yeah 

we’ll see what this year brings us,,,,

hoo boy

[steamishot]

Bleh

i’m feeling pretty bleh right now. this weekend, i didn’t really have plans besides eating hot pot for saturday lunch at my brother’s place. i filled up my weekends for the past month when matt was on night shifts - and i felt independent/accomplished for being on track with my goals. it wasn’t hard committing to and following through with what i set out for myself (driving to the beach early in the morning to get in a 4 mile run, etc). matt finally finished night shifts last wednesday morning, and things changed drastically after that. before night shifts, he had warned me he may be grumpy and we may be fighting more than usual. interestingly enough, we barely fought during his month of night shifts, but fought a lot this past week as he was adjusting from night shifts. i get excited to finally be able to spend time with him, but i underestimate the time he needs to adjust to being normal again and i end up feeling disappointed. i guess it’s like the feeling where someone is absent (there is no expectations of attention) vs. neglect (someone is there, but they do not have the energy to give you attention). 

i also got my period during this time, so there’s some external factors going on as well. the things we fought about were brought on by apartment searching. whenever we do something “big” together - like book vacations, book flights, book shows, there’s always some stress involved and we tend to fight over it. with the apartment searching, it was pretty similar, but more intense just because he was super overworked and delusional. i know it’s very difficult on both of our ends. the timing for him wasn’t good, but i found a perfect apartment that fit all our criteria and even had the ideal move in date. since i knew the listing was gonna go quickly, i hurried him to get me the requested documents. he snapped at me for hurrying him because it was during the 30 min he had right after waking up to go to work (80 hour work weeks). it was also the the only 30 min window i get to talk to him per day so it’s not like i had any other time to ask. it was frustrating on both of our ends. we ended up getting passed up for another applicant. 

i think he does tend to be very forgiving with me, and is almost always the one apologizing. i can see how i got used to this behavior of “i’m always right, you’re always wrong” that is so stereotypical of wives lol. finally today, he started overreacting to the little things i do, the way i overreact with him. he was trying to give me a taste of my own medicine and i think it worked. because he never holds a grudge against me, i never really understood how annoying i could be when i do it to him lol. so i’m reflecting on my flaws and will try to correct them or at least try not to do it as often. 

that said, there was also a long process with ava dobro. ava dobro is a luxury apartment that is very close to the brooklyn hospital and a number of matt’s coresidents live there. i was back and forth with their representatives through phone and email - but it was frustrating because it seemed no one was helpful or responsive. we first applied for 14Q, which is a 487 sqft 1 bedroom apartment. we decided to apply even when we weren’t 100% sure because there was a promo of 1.5 months off and we wanted to meet the deadline. the application is online, where one person first applies and then notates any roommates - the roommate will then receive an email to complete their portion. i created an account for matt and applied through his account, and then tried to complete my portion. however, i ran into technical difficulties (i believe because i had already half started the application on my account and it confused the system). the one helpful representative - frankie - finally reached out to me a few days later asking me to complete a paper application due to the technical difficulties.

within this timeframe, and after talking to some friends/watching youtube videos on apartments and gauging the size - we realized that 487 sqft may be a tad too small, especially because of the quarantine. a 1 bedroom 546 sqft is too expensive, so we canceled the 14Q and applied for 12J which is a 542 sqft studio. fortunately, they also extended the promotion to be until 8/15 and are offering 2 months free instead. i’m currently waiting for them to confirm if we have been accepted. if so, our move in date would be sept 12/13. this is a little earlier than desired - meaning matt will be paying for rent at two places for 3 weeks. however, i guess it’s worth it knowing that we have secured a place for a reasonable price.

now this move is feeling pretty real. i’ve been having mixed emotions about it. on one hand, i’m super excited to have my own place and be in a new city. and finally be able to see my boyfriend more than once every few months (what’s that like?). i’m already obsessing over how to decorate the studio and have been making a list of essentials so we know how to budget. i do realize that i am quite childlike and stunted living at home, as i’m pulled from different directions and have less energy to focus on myself. i tend to my mom, dad, uncle and grandma. although i really appreciate the time i spend with them, some independence will do me some good. 

on the other hand, i am afraid of judgmental comments from my family (why are you moving there for him, you need to get engaged to protect yourself). i would feel less embarrassed (in front of family) to move there if i had something lined up for me. i’m also a bit nervous about work and how to pull off the move while keeping my job. i’ve decided to keep the move on the down low because i’ll be back and forth for the holidays. however, i will also start job searching. i just don’t want to resign without having something else lined up. nyc ain’t cheap lol. after typing this out, it seems what is holding me back is fear - and it’ll be good for me to overcome this. 

[sandralmuller]

10 tips to help you become a more productive, prolific and profitable writer

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to be a more productive, prolific and profitable writer.

These tips work for me. I experiment a lot and love discovering how our brains work. I use this to my advantage. I like knowing the hows and whys behind our behaviour.

This list is what I do to improve the quality and quantity of my output. This isn’t about what you SHOULD do. I hate that word ‘should’. You need to find the things that will help you focus and become a more productive, prolific and profitable writer. Not all of these tips will apply and fit the way your brain works.

I can smash out blog posts and sales pages for my paying clients quite quickly. I can easily write 1000 quality words in about an hour. This is for tasks where I don’t have to worry about content design, ponder high-level concepts and how all the bits fit together. Those sorts of pages take a lot longer.

The quicker I can write, the more profitable I become.

So can you.

1. Decide yesterday

I decide each evening what to wear the next day, what my son will wear, what he needs to take to school, what I’ll eat for breakfast, what I’ll do if it’s pouring and I can’t go for my morning walk.

We all get crippled by decision fatigue as the day wears on, so any decisions I can make the night before leaves more space in my day for the more important decisions.

2. Don’t look at your phone for the first hour of your day

Most days I don’t switch on my phone until after I’ve done the school drop off, and even then it’s just to listen to a podcast on my walk home.

The longer I leave it to check email, social media, notifications and other messages, the less hold those things have on me during the day. I feel less drawn to checking my phone during the day and less likely to feel the lure of Facebook as a distraction.

This has been like magic for me.

Give it a go for a week and see if you notice a difference, too.

3. Believe you’re a good writer

I’ve been doing this word herding thing for years.

I know I’m a good writer.

I don’t worry or fret about what my clients will think because I know I’m a good writer and whatever their feedback, I’ll be able to action it.

I don’t let that nagging doubt get in the way of smashing out the words. It’s rare that I miss. A tweak here or there and lately my first drafts have ended up online without a second look from me. The amount of fretting we do does not equate the outcome.

Why bother fretting about the words when I know my clients will be happy? Less fretting helps me become a profitable writer.

I don’t doubt myself. Neither should you.

In situations where I’m writing about an unfamiliar topic, I pay someone to run their eyes over it for me to give me that assurance.

4. Outline outline outline

I rarely, if ever, write a page without an outline.

It’s something I’ve built into my process.

Then when I sit down to write those posts, I can smash them out in about 1-1.5 hours. But my clients pay me for the outcome, not my time. This is one way I’m becoming more profitable.

In my outlines, I include:

headline

dot points for the introduction

heading 2s and 3s

bullet points of ideas under each heading

the wrap-up

the call to action (CTA)

Two things happen when I follow this process.

I fiddle with the structure the order of priority and while I’m doing that…

My subconscious mind writes the thing for me.

Sometimes I’ll share these outlines with clients before I write them to make sure I’m on the right track. This avoids wasting time and helps deliver the content my client wants.

5. Set time limits and be accountable

I run Pomodoro sessions, which are 25-minute work sprints, with my mastermind business buddies.

Apparently, 25 mins is the sweet spot for getting stuff done.

Pom sessions, as we fondly call them, are a great way to keep you and your business besties focused and accountable.

Plus they have the social benefit of being a virtual water cooler. A bit of banter, a problem solved, and we’re all back into it for another 25 minutes.

We meet face-to-face via a video chat tool like Google Meet, Whereby or Zoom. We turn the sound off, but leave the video on.

6. Avoid social media

Last year I tracked all my social media usage and found I was on it 20-25 hours per week. That’s like a solid part-time job.

Once I realised that, I dropped my usage back to something more reasonable, under 10 hours per week. That left me with more hours to create and invoice. Hello, profitability.

Avoiding my phone in the morning helped with that. When I’m super focused, I won’t even check socials until after hours.

But if I need to visit Facebook to check something or round up my business buddies for a pom session, I set an alarm. Facebook is designed to suck us into its vortex. That quick check is lost to 20 minutes of scrolling. Ooops.

7. Ditch the To Do list

Controversial, I know. I hear the intake of breath from here.

If it ain’t scheduled, I ain’t doing it.

Just like I don’t run a notebook for capturing ideas (because if it’s a good idea I’ll remember it – if it’s crap, I won’t nor should I), I don’t run a To Do list.

I used to have notebooks filled with To Do lists of all the ideas for each of my businesses listing all the things I would, could and ‘should’ do… one day.

I’ve killed that that stuff to lighten my mental admin load. And it feels great.

If it’s important, instead of writing it down as a task to tick off a list, I’ll schedule it in my calendar and actually do it.

There’s a massive mental load that comes with carrying infinite to do lists around with us. I’d rather give that energy to something that will make me more profitable.

If a task is important enough, I’ll remember to do it. But otherwise, there’s my calendar spreading out tasks over the week. I know at a glance how much capacity I have (or don’t have) to take on more work.

8. Write faster

I am forever grateful for learning to touch type on a rickety old typewriter in high school. And for my job as a media monitor during my last year of uni. I had to summarise news — radio and TV — for about 9 hours a day, 3 nights per week.

My typing speed jumped from a peckish 40 wpm to more like 100 wpm.

I probably do about 80 wpm these days and 100 wpm when I’m in the zone.

If you’re doubtful you could ever become a fast typist, experiment with dictation software like otter.ai and the dictation function in Google Docs. We speak faster than we type.

I’ll experiment with dictation software over the coming months to see if it improves my writing speed and overall productivity.

9. Junk in = junk out

Y’all are prolly gonna hate this one. No sweetie treats to fuel your day.

I also experimented and found that I work well when I’m a bit hungry. Not hand-shakingly fatigued hungry. But a little hungry.

So, I eat lightly for breakfast and lunch. I don’t snack at all in between meals.

I’ve been doing this for 6 weeks straight. It has improved my focus and output immensely.

On the weekend, I cook a big batch of soup or lentils and eat that for lunch every day. Again, it means less decision making. I don’t mind eating the same thing every day, so long as it’s yummy.

The same junk in= junk out theory applies for what you’re binge-watching or reading.

I haven’t watched commercial TV for years now when I come across it, it’s as irritating as a fly stuck in my ear.

When I lived in Korea, I didn’t watch any TV for about 3 years other than Game of Thrones and the odd series here and there.

I finally succumbed to Netflix earlier this year, and Disney and Amazon Prime, and my reading level dropped off from 1 to 2 books per week to zero per month. Ooops. But I choose my programs judiciously and I’ve since reduced my Netflix time and started reading again.

10. Schedule exercise

If I don’t exercise first thing in the morning, it doesn’t happen at all.

Taking a brisk 30 minute to 1 hour walk is the best thing for my focus and clarity.

I don’t think of it as taking time out of my day.

Even if you do none of the above tips, this trumps it all.

Exercising adds time to your day.

Blaze your own trail to becoming a profitable writer

This is definitely not a list of shoulds. And I don’t do all the things on this list all the time. But the more I do, the more productive and profitable I become.

If your goal is to become a more productive and profitable writer, then I recommend experimenting with what works best for you.

What are your best tips for improving your writing efficiency? Let me know in the comments below.

10 tips to help you become a more productive, prolific and profitable writer was originally published on The Smarter Writer

[weannewashere]

Unbelievable sights...

Hey there, all you six million loyal blog readers! Welcome to what is possibly a four-part blog series on my whirlwind trip to the two biggest countries in the world (at least in terms of population) AKA India and China. It’s going to be quite an eventful ride and I would apologize in advance for the unprecedented length and informality of this post, but come on now, you all knew what you signed up for when you decided to start reading a blogpost from me haha. With this warning being given, if you agree to the terms and conditions of this post, then by all means, please click on the “Keep Reading” tab. 

First off, the main characters of our story:

Weanne - aka our fearless heroine and star of the not-so-widely syndicated but critically acclaimed Keeping Up With Weanne. You already know about her and her propensity to be a klutz, so let’s move along here.

Vishal - trusty sidekick  close friend from the WHO who’s based in India for the year. He’s alright, I guess. Jk he’s kind of the best but I know you’re reading this, you do not get to use this against me ugh

Ines - poor innocent IT professional from Taiwan who finds herself inadvertently running around the Indian subcontinent with two strangers she just met (this sentence alone is a movie plot in itself)

Rayan - our auto-rickshaw driving savior

Vishal and I had been planning this India trip for months, and the whole itinerary seemed pretty straightforward. We had this whole Google Sheet painstakingly outlined over Skype with dates and accommodations and attractions written all over them. I mean, what could go wrong, right? We got this, right? Things are going to go according to plan!

Narrator: Things aren’t gonna go according to plan.

Before we go any further, I think it’s important that we set a few things straight right from the get go, because I refuse to take any responsibility for any of the events to be described in the succeeding paragraphs. Because you see, apparently, our good friend Vishal has a travel curse so notorious it even spawned its own hashtag (#TravelingWithADasari). According to the terms of this curse, any trip associated with him is bound to have its fair share of unusually unfortunate events, including, but not limited to: flat plane tires, hot tea spillages on the plane, missed flights, misplaced visas, border-detained buses, wrong directions, horrible weather, etcetera etcetera. To be fair, I was warned about it beforehand, but like that blonde girl who still runs through dark hallways in her underwear we scream “DON’T RUN THROUGH THAT DARK HALLWAY IN YOUR UNDERWEAR” at in horror movies, I still decided to go through with the trip. I didn’t really believe in the curse, I guess. But alas, to experience is to believe. And experience it I did hahaha.

If you don’t believe me, here’s a sampler of all the shenanigans that happened before the trip had even started:

My passport was expiring. All the Manila appointments for passport renewal were full, so I had to do mine in Baguio, a full six-hour drive away, only four weeks before the actual flight.

On the day of my passport renewal, we got stranded in Baguio because of heavy rain, hence I missed work the next day.

After multiple calls and emails to the DFA, I found out my passport processing was delayed, giving me barely one week to process two visas for the whole trip! 

I ended up being scammed out of P7000 after I went to the wrong website for my Indian e-visa application. Sumit, the guy scamming me, even had the frigging gall to sarcastically scold me for trying to process the visa so late and pressure me into paying even more for an expedited visa.

On the morning of the trip, a typhoon hit Manila and we realized the vehicle that was supposed to drive me to the airport was not allowed in Manila that day due to the coding scheme!

But alas, dear friends, all’s well that almost ends well, and despite all the unfortunate series of events, our heroine still found herself safely checked into NAIA that day, with a fresh passport, all the right visas, and a gigantic 15kg pink backpack as tall as her, all pumped and ready to go… and receiving a text from AirAsia to tell her her flight had been delayed by one hour.

Psh no worries, a delay of one hour still gives me two hours to make it to my connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur to Delhi. 

Because just a few minutes later, I received another text from AirAsia, this time telling me my flight was delayed by yet another hour and a half. This meant I had only 30 minutes at the KL airport to make my connecting flight to Delhi! At this point, I was almost in tears at the thought of missing the flight and losing at least one out of my five days in India. The good news was, I think I was finally starting to grasp that this wasn’t going to be a regular trip, as evidenced by this text exchange as I was waiting for the flight to board:

So to make this long story just a little less long, here are the FAQs:

Did I make it to my connecting flight? HAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahaha no. The plane took FOREVER to take off and I got to Kuala Lumpur 1.5 hours late.

Aww you poor thing. Did they give you a new flight then? NOPE. I stood in line for an hour, searching for Delhi wedding venues online so I can believably spin a story to the agent about needing to be in Delhi ASAP for a friend’s wedding, only to be told that the next flight they could put me on was two frigging days away. I was all, nope, to heck with that.

I’m at the edge of my seat in suspense. So what did you do? It turns out my department chair was flying in to Kuala Lumpur from the Philippines at the same time and she managed to find me at the connections counter. She offered to let me stay the night at her place. On the way to her apartment I booked a completely new flight to Delhi using her husband’s phone, went back to the airport at 5AM the next day for this new flight that took me to an eight-hour layover in Bangkok, where I ventured out into the city to the Chatuchak weekend market to hang out with a couple of friends from Loma Linda who coincidentally just happened to be in Bangkok that particular week, hightailed it back to the airport on an Uber only to realize I didn’t have enough baht on me to pay the driver huhuhu. Good thing he was the nicest person who just smiled and waved me off. #faithinhumanitymaintained 

Late dinner with my boss in Malaysia

A quick Bangkok escapade with my LLU Weannies.

So now there I was, at the Bangkok airport, finally about to board a flight that would hopefully bring me to New Delhi by evening… and I somehow started feeling anxious about everything. I’m not sure what it was, really - sort of a mixture between “am I really doing this” and “do you know what you’re getting yourself into,” intensified by the fact that I seemed to be the only Filipina in the whole boarding area and was already receiving curious stares from fellow passengers. Now that it was actually happening, I guess it just hit me that I was heading off to this huge, famously overwhelming country thousands of miles away, to see a wonder of the world, to meet a friend I had really only hung out with for one week a year ago. It was this weird paradox where I had expectations but also didn’t know what to expect at the same time.

Nevertheless, on July 29, 2017, at around 10PM, a full day later than originally scheduled, after having breakfast in Malaysia and lunch in Thailand, I was now going to have dinner in India. I exited the airport and strained my eyes to look for a strange, bearded, polo-shirt wearing guy and yup, found him!

The poor guy had flown in from Chennai to Delhi on July 28 as we had originally planned, and I was feeling quite bad about leaving him alone in New Delhi for the day, but nope, I shouldn’t have even worried. In true Vishal fashion (I have this theory he makes 50% of his friends this way), he had somehow made a friend at the hostel, invited her to attend a concert at a basement with him (I mean this by itself sounds sketch, right?), and somehow convinced her to ditch all her previous plans and gallivant around India with a guy she just met and a girl she hadn’t yet.

And that was how I met the adventurous Ines.

I didn’t know whether to applaud her spontaneity or question her sanity hahaha for all she knew we could have been serial killers preying on unsuspecting travelers, but whatever possessed her to trust Vishal that day, I’m thankful for it haha.

Since we had lost an entire day due to my delay, we couldn’t meet up with Alvira (another WHO friend who was supposed to join us) and go around New Delhi anymore. Instead, we immediately hopped on an Ola cab to take us straight to Agra in the middle of the night. It was a good four-hour cab ride - you would think I’d be tired from traveling for more than 24 hours, but there was so much to catch up on with Vishal and so much to learn about Ines and so much about my flight to whine about that we spent a good portion of the cab ride in animated conversation. We finally made it to Zostel Agra at around 2:30 in the morning.

We forced ourselves to wake up 1.5 hours later at 4 AM. Blog reviews had said that it was worth seeing the Taj Mahal during sunrise, and I’d be darned if I missed out on that haha. We somehow made it out of the hostel without causing a ruckus, rode an auto rickshaw through the sleepy streets of Agra, and found ourselves at the west gate (I think) of the Taj. A tour guide offered us his services, which we gladly accepted.

And boy am I glad we did. Because not only was he able to provide us with an excellent historical background of the Taj, he was also quite good at taking our photos and directing our poses hahaha.

The west gate of the Taj.

Team No Sleep

Hands on hips as directed by our tour guide, taken from the Janine Tugonon Miss Universe School of Posing.

GUYS. GUYS. ITS… ITS… *SPUTTERS* IT’S THE TAJ. *GESTICULATES WILDLY* LIKE, THE TAJ MAHAL. *MAKES HEAD BLOWN GESTURE* THE REAL THING. *GENTLY CARESSES THE TAJ WHILE WHISPERING* I HAD HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT YOU I HAD ONLY SEEN YOU IN PHOTOS AND NOW YOU’RE HERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME IN THIS VERY SPECIAL MOMENT YOU’RE SO BEAUTIFUL I mean what, I was totally cool I didn’t lose my chill at all, Ines didn’t look at me all amused and say “you look very excited”

Okay but seriously. Guys. The only correct reaction to seeing the Taj Mahal in person is to draw a sharp intake of breath with your hands on your heart and your eyes tearing up and promptly freak out. Which may or may have been my shameless reaction and I make no apologies for it.

Okay fine, let me try to make like a proper travel blogger and give you a few interesting facts about the Taj Mahal. The Taj was commissioned in the 1600s by the emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his one great love, Mumtaz Mahal. It is made of the most exquisite marble inlaid with precious stones that were handcrafted in by artists. It is symmetrical on all sides, meaning from whichever side you look at it, it will look the same. And fun fact: there’s an optical illusion surrounding the Taj. When you stand in one of the archways and walk towards it, the Taj seems like it’s receding, as if it’s trying to move away from you. But when you walk away from it, the Taj actually looks like it’s growing bigger, drawing towards you. Parang pag-ibig lang yan, guys. Pag nilalapitan mo, lumalayo. Pag ikaw na yung sumuko at nag walk away, saka niya pinipilit lumapit sayo CHOS.

It was definitely worth visiting the Taj at sunrise, as the crowds were still quite small. Take for example, this photo with the Princess Diana bench, so named because well, the great Princess Diana sat on it lol. Apparently, during peak hours, it takes hours to line up and have a photo on this bench. For us though, it took less than a minute.

We walked around the structure for a bit, finally finding a spot to sit down and admire the famous monument. It was quite a surreal moment for me, just quietly watching this famous world wonder bathed in sunrise. I think in my head I was trying to grasp the sheer magnitude of love that caused the emperor to spend 53 billion rupees just for his wife to have a resting place as majestic as the Taj. I even questioned his sanity, at one point. But love is quite powerful and crazy that way, I guess. (Also didn’t hurt that he had the money for it lol.)

Photographs weren’t allowed inside the Taj itself, but we did get to see the replica tombs of the emperor and his wife. We then walked around the building again and just sat on the marble floor, taking in the view. We could’ve stayed there the whole day, but alas, we had things to do, places to see, food to eat.

After the Taj, our tour guide took us to this alleyway which seemed to be a hotspot for souvenirs and pasalubongs. 

We then stepped into this dessert store selling a classic Agra specialty: soft candies called petha.

Ugh how do I even begin to describe petha? Have you ever tasted a smell? Like, have you ever inhaled something fragrant and aromatic and flowery and wondered what it would taste like? That’s what petha tastes like - like an explosion of fragrance in your mouth, but light and airy and not overwhelming. It was so good, I think I bought two flavors - butterscotch and something else. (Also, I’m so mad now because I’m reminded of the fact that I actually forgot these pieces of heaven in Vishal’s fridge :( )

Enter Rayan. He was the auto-rickshaw driver that our tour guide reserved to take us around the rest of the area. For breakfast, he took us to this cozy roadside store that gave me my first glorious taste of aloo paratha and reminded Ines of how much she loved masala chai (I don’t remember just how many cups she had haha!).

After breakfast, we headed to the Agra Fort, a grand, imposing sandstone structure seen across the river from the Taj Mahal. Entering it felt like entering the world of Game of Thrones, particularly Dorne, with its reddish fortresses and bright spacious courtyards.

Three interesting facts about this place that I really liked:

The Agra Fort houses Jahangir’s Chain of Justice, a giant chain fastened with bells that people who were in need of justice could just shake in order to get the emperor’s attention. I thought that that was absolutely fantastic, to have a ruler who recognizes that not everyone is able to access justice, and to have a mechanism that allows those people to get his attention regardless of their caste or status. 

The fort is home to the “prison” of Shah Jahan. Name sounds familiar? Yup, he’s the same guy who built the Taj Mahal. Apparently his son declared him incompetent to rule and hence placed him under house arrest. His only comfort was that he was given a room directly across the Taj, allowing him to view his wife’s memorial every day until his very last breath :( Awww.

You can see the Taj through one of the holes.

Akbar the Great, the third Mughal emperor created the religion Dīn-i Ilāhī, which is basically a conglomerate of all the different major religions at that time. You could see this evidenced in the design of the fort - for example, the particular archway in the photo below is adorned with a swastika (Hinduism), the lotus flower (Buddhism), arches (Islam), the Star of David (Judaism), and the cross (Christianity).

Entrance reflecting the symbolism of the major religions

Mehehehehe naiinitan na si koya pero waley siya choice siya, kailangan magpapicture mehehehehehe.

After the Agra fort, we were feeling quite sweaty and tired, so we decided to forego the Baby Taj and the other Agra attractions. Rayan took us back to the hostel so we could rest for a bit and pack up before we left for Fatehpur Sikri, a town 43 kilometers away (this involved a hilarious encounter with a not-so-hidden bathroom inside our hostel room, but I digress lol). We were feeling quite proud of how our day was going relatively smoothly - so many things accomplished in just half a day! What was it we said? Oh yeah, things are going according to plan.

Narrator: Things aren’t going to go according to plan.

Vishal had booked an Ola cab to take us from Agra to Fatehpur Sikri days in advance, but apparently, as we found out that day, the reservation request failed. No worries, we can rebook again! An Ola cab soon came to us, we piled all our luggage into it, settled in, only oops, our driver changed his mind, he didn’t want to take us after all! No worries, Rayan had said he has a cab! So we piled out of this cab, picked up all our luggage, and asked Rayan to come to our rescue! He agreed, and pulled up several minutes later… in his trusty auto rickshaw. No worries! We can totally do a two-hour ride through major highways with all our luggage in just an auto! Yay!

At this point, I think Ines was questioning her life choices hahaha. 

So there we were - four adults and several huge backpacks crammed into one auto rickshaw, trying to eat our lunch (biryani and paneer) without spilling anything on ourselves as we flew through a highway. Rayan opened up about how he was abandoned as a child but turned things around and made a living as a rickshaw driver, Vishal told us about how this ride reminds him of certain childhood memories, Ines told us about her aversion to dry food, and I… I don’t remember if I shared anything, actually haha!

We made it to Fatehpur Sikri at around 4:30 PM. We visited two complexes in the area: the palace complex and the Jama Masjid. The palace complex was quite interesting, because it was home to the emperor’s three wives: a Muslim, a Hindu, and a Christian, and their residences each reflected their faiths. Also, tip for the traveler: get a guide. It’s quite surprising how much symbolism is embedded in the designs of the palace itself - even just the number of pillars in one structure represented something significant. By the end of the day we were making guesses about what the four holes in a wall or the 16 steps in a stairway could’ve represented hahaha.

The Jama Masjid was also pretty grand, and since it was a mosque, we had to leave our shoes by the entrance and Vishal had to wear a drape to cover his legs. We went inside the Tomb of Shalim Chishti, a Sufi saint and sprinkled rose petals all over the cenotaph. We also tied red and gold threads around the lattices inside the tomb and made a wish, as per tradition. And as all wish-making traditions go, you’re not supposed to tell anyone your wish or else you won’t get your heart’s/brain’s/stomach’s desire.

Did mine come true? If I remember my wish correctly… I actually think it did.

Team No Shoes

After our tour, we went back to our rickshaw to get our stuff. I looked over and Vishal seemed to be involved in a calm and friendly conversation with Rayan and our tour guides. They were speaking in Hindi so I couldn’t understand, but judging from their calm, even joking, tones, I thought, “Awww look at these bros bonding" lolol.  

Narrator: The bros were, in fact, not bonding.

Hahaha apparently what was really happening was that the tour guides were trying to get Vishal to pay exorbitantly higher tour fees, and what I thought was them laughing at something he said was actually them scoffing at the price he was offering to pay them. Apparently the tension was so intense that Vishal got worried that they would try to start a fight or something. And all this time I was there just smiling brightly at them like an idiot because apparently my situational awareness is just that bad hahaha.

Somehow, things got resolved and the tour guides let us go. But our struggles weren’t over yet. At this point, you probably already know the drill - the Ola cab reservation we had booked to take us all 200 kilometers from Fatehpur Sikri to Jaipur had, guess what, failed yet again. Because of course, of course hahaha.

Poor guy at the local establishment just trying to cool down from the stress of babysitting two tourists lol

We (well mostly just Vishal) kept trying to book a new cab, until finally, we had to accept the inevitable fact: no cab was coming. If we wanted to get to Jaipur tonight, we need to get ourselves on a bus, and soon, because it was starting to get dark.

Abandoned by Ola Cabs, we positioned ourselves by this roadside, hoping that a sleeper bus would soon materialize in front of us (I mean, we did try sticking our wand arm out heh). A bus did drive past us, but it was one of those regular buses that already seemed pretty overcrowded, so we decided to try the next one. We also got approached by a few guys offering to take us to Jaipur, but we were like nah mate we’ve had too much bad luck on this trip already, at this rate you’re probably gonna turn out to be the zodiac killer or something lol.

A full hour passed and we were still bus-less by the side of the road, in the dark. At this point, the travel gods were all, “Hey you know what would be kinda funny? If they got rained on too.”

And rain, it did.

And I loved it. Call me a masochist, but I was honest to goodness getting quite the kick out of every second of our consistent misfortunes hahaha they were just so ridiculous! Or maybe you should call me an unintentional sadist, because apparently, while your heroine was internally gushing “THIS IS AMAZING MUCH RAIN SUCH RICKSHAW MUCH BLOG CONTENT WOWE IS THAT CORN ON THE COB YASSS I’LL HAVE SOME THANK YOU,” our poor Indian-American host was stressing out so much about our safety and comfort that he actually found the contact number of a taxi company online, asked to be put in touch with its CEO, and requested for a cab to pick us up at any cost hahaha. Yup, my situational awareness was as poor as ever haha. (Also, the best direction Vishal could give the cab company was, “uhhhh we’re by the side of some road” lololol).

And then suddenly, like the first drop of rain after a drought, like the sight of the meal you ordered finally making its way out of the restaurant kitchen, like a piece of Cinnabon for the weary soul, a sleeper bus did materialize out of nowhere. Okay fine we saw it coming from hundreds of yards away, but still. Rayan flagged it down for us (yes, he had been waiting with us this entire time!), and we immediately jumped on it, no questions asked.

We found an empty compartment on the top half portion of the bus, and crammed us and all our luggage in it. It was quite comfortable and private actually, like a mini mattress with just enough space for three people.

And so commenced our four-hour commute to the Pink City.

We realized we hadn’t had dinner yet, but we remembered we still had some leftover biryani and paneer from lunch! So we opened those up and ate it with our hands. 

We also tried to entertain ourselves by attempting to play Uno and Mao in the dark cabin lol. Eventually though, our conversation drifted off to the serious topic of faith and religion. We had, after all, just spent the day going through religious places of worship and palaces that incorporated the different faiths, so it was perfectly natural for us to reflect on what that personally meant for us - three people from three different faiths and varying levels of practice. It was honest, thoughtful conversation that made me realize just how little I knew about other world views and how we, as humans, regardless of all our differences, are all just trying to find our truths and do good in this world. 

So there we were, our main characters, in an open air sleeper bus in the middle of the night, on a long stretch of highway miles away from nowhere, with no idea where we were supposed to get off other than what a tiny dot on GoogleMaps showed us. We were drunk on sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and adventure, the past 24 hours giving us a lifetime’s worth of stories we couldn’t have written better ourselves. It was 12 AM and we were falling asleep, but before I let the tiredness wash over me, I couldn’t help but think about how the past two days had seen me through three countries and six cities and 9000 kilometers of distance and how nothing had gone right yet somehow everything was right, and how this was never in the plan but in this moment there was no place in all the planet’s 510 million square kilometers I would much rather be.

In this moment, everything was right with the world.

We made it safely to our hostel in Jaipur none the worse for wear at 12:30 AM.

It was a great day.

Narrator: It was, indeed… a great day.

P.S. Shoutout to Rayan, the real MVP for sticking with us the entire time and making sure we got to our destinations safely in the Little Autorickshaw That Could. He literally went the extra mile for these cursed tourists lol, getting home late to his family for our sakes. And even after all that, he barely even looked at the money we handed over to him in the end, because according to him, he’s just happy showing people around India and making sure they have a good time. There are, indeed, a lot of good people in the world. (For the extra warm fuzzies: We told Vishal’s dad about how Rayan had saved us, and he got his staff members to track Rayan down and wire him a good amount of money for his family. <3)

Also, shoutout to my powerbank for keeping our phones alive enough for me to take all the photos and for Vishal to contact people and figure out where we were going lol.

Coming up next: the second installment of the India-China mini-series. If you made it this far, congratulations - I PROMISE THE NEXT ONE WON’T BE AS LONG PLEASE STILL READ MY BLOG PLEASE LMAO

[clarencenicholsonata]

10 Amazing eCommerce Instagram Accounts and Examples We Learned From

Instagram has become a key player for eCommerce stores. It's no longer about selfies, and it's about reaching global leads and making your eCommerce store presence known.

Around 500 million, people use Instagram Stories every day. Not to mention, there are more than 800,000 shoppers use Instagram every month, and brands around the world are using the platform to share their stories and products with consumers in a visually engaging way.

Today we're taking a look at the top 10 brands that have mastered Instagram for their eCommerce store and the lessons that we learned from them.

Let's dive in.

1. Always Answer Comments and Direct Messages

This the number one mistake I see most eCommerce brands making on Instagram; they avoid answering comments and answers. Whether your customers are saying something good or negative about your products, you need to answer.

Gartner found that if you don't respond to comments on social media, it can lead to a 15% increase in churn rate.

Customers that follow or engage with brands now expect a response. After all, around 40% customers who complain in social expect a response within one hour or less.

They expect the same customer service experience in the store online as well—anything less than says that your Instagram eCommerce store is unprofessional and unreliable.

Answering comments and dm's sends the message that your brand is active online, and there's a human being that they can reach out to make their shopping journey more comfortable.

Convince and Convert found that answering a social media complaint can increase customer advocacy by as much as 25%.

eCommerce Instagram Account: By/Rosie Jane

No matter how simple or repetitive the request may be, it's vital to schedule time on social media to respond to comments and messages.

If there are negative comments or "haters" on here page here are the Best 4 Ways Brands Can Respond to Haters on Instagram.

2. Always Keep Active on Instagram

Always treat your Instagram account like your eCommerce store; keep it active. If you want to successfully use Instagram to drive traffic and customers to your store, you'll need to upload content and engage consistently.

If you want to grow organically on Instagram, you need to keep your account active with content and view comments, likes, and shares. So, where do you start?

The answer: By keeping your content fresh on a consistent posting schedule and encouraging engagement on your Instagram account.

Instagram users are spoiled, they’re used to brands posting content 1-5 times per day. They scroll, turn on notifications, and look out for the latest content in stories. The moment your brand falls off the radar, you're easily forgotten by your followers and users on the app.

eCommerce Instagram Account: Taste of Home

View this post on Instagram

What type of home cook are you?? Follow tasteofhome on TikTok for more videos! #tiktok #streetfighter #chooseyourcharacter #funny #cook #chef #foodie #tasteofhome

A post shared by Taste of Home (@tasteofhome) on May 14, 2020 at 6:50pm PDT

Find a posting schedule and stick to it. If you're going to post once a week, then followers will expect content every week and no less or no more, likewise if you decide that you want to post daily.

Social Buddy suggests that you should aim to post on Instagram between one to three times per day. Major brands post on average of 1.5 times per day, so if you aim to follow the same rule, you should do well. While this is a general rule to follow, it may not work best for you. So you'll have to experiment with what works best for you.

The more consistent and active you are on Instagram, the easier it is for customers to find your content, the algorithm to work in your favor as well.

3. Always Optimize Your Instagram Profile

As an eCommerce store, your Instagram page is another digital storefront that customers engage with on their buyer's journey. It would help if you took the time to optimize your Instagram profile and use all of your digital real estate as a business.

This means adding links to your eCommerce store, creating a compelling bio, an easily recognizable display picture, and more.

People judge Instagram profiles quickly and harshly, so if it's not professional or eye-catching, they'll move on to the next eCommerce Instagram account to buy products. Your Instagram profile also gives your brand credibility

eCommerce Instagram Account: FabfitFun, Kaja Beauty and Passion Planner

If you're not sure where to start, take a look at brands that you admire on Instagram. What are they using or saying in their Instagram bio?

What kind of images or hashtags do they have on their profile, and how can you emulate the same sense of professionalism on your eCommerce profile.

Treat all your social media profiles with the same care and professionalism as your online store.

Need help increasing sales on Instagram?

Book a free call to learn how our team of marketing experts can help you create high Instagram ad campaigns today.

4. Do Cross-Posting Across Your Profiles

You can also grow your eCommerce Instagram account off Instagram! You read that right.

You can share your content on Instagram on your other social media platforms with the Instagram cross-posting feature! This allows you to share content without moving from platform to platform effortlessly. You can also let your followers on other social media profiles know that you're active on Instagram.

Bath and Body Work shares content across all their profiles; not only is it helpful to their brand, but it also shows their consistency with the information and content they provide.

eCommerce Instagram Account: Bath and Body Works

View this post on Instagram

Now this is the perfect way to spread love ? not germs! Click the link in bio to download a ready-to-print gift tag so you can share some love with neighbors, frontline workers, family & friends!

A post shared by Bath & Body Works (@bathandbodyworks) on May 14, 2020 at 7:27am PDT

Now *this* is the perfect way to spread love ? not germs! Download a ready-to-print gift tag so you can share some love...

Posted by Bath & Body Works on Thursday, May 14, 2020

5. Stay Up to Date with Latest News

If there's anything we've learned, it's that brands should always be ready to make a change. You always have to ensure that your Instagram content is up to date with the latest news and changes that will directly affect your customers and their spending habits.

Ignore it, and you'll end up looking tone-deaf, which will only drive customers away. Instead:

Put a halt to your usual content and take the time to acknowledge what's happening.

How it's affecting your customers.

What your eCommerce store will do to cater to your customers or new crisis policy.

Start reflecting those changes on your eCommerce store and social media pages.

When the coronavirus hit the world, many brands and customers scramble to meet with the new changes. Macy's as a brick and mortar and online store took the initiative to go above and beyond.

They took major health measures for their customers, especially those who were elderly and in need. Not only did it increase their online presence as an eCommerce store, but it also made them fan favorites of new customers.

eCommerce Instagram Account: Macy's

If you need more help with your business, don't forget to check out Wishpond's COVID-19 SOS Marketing Series. We share expert advice from the world top marketers, sharing their best tips and tactics for service providers and eCommerce stores.

6. Create Content Your Followers Love

Instagram is a visual platform, and two main aspects can make or break your Instagram. The 1# tip for creating a trending Instagram account is great content.

What kind of content do people want to see from you? If you think about taking your Instagram theme or aesthetic to the next level you can start off with these three steps:

A mood board (or inspiration board) is a physical or digital collage of ideas to visually represent your brand or idea. If you think a mood board might work for you, you can try using Canva, an easy to use and free graphic designing tool, to make one.

Maybe mood boards seem too much for you? You can use color swatches instead to help keep your color scheme consistent. You can create fast and easy color swatches with Coolers if you’re ready to start.

If you'd like to dive deeper into the world of Instagram aesthetics, I found that this Later guide on How to Create a Cohesive Instagram Aesthetic seems to do the trick. It gives you step by step instructions and great examples to follow, take a quick look if you’re interested.

Share Content You & Followers Will Love

Most people will tell you to share content that your followers will love, which is right, but first you have to make sure you share content you love first.

Create content that speaks to your brand's lifestyle, products, and services, mission, or long term goals. Here are a couple of different categories of content you can share on your Instagram account.

Behind the scenes images

Product images

Customer reviews

Social Contests or Giveaway

Sale or Promotion

UGC (User Generated Content)

If you're not sure what type of content to post, look at these 21 Top Instagram Post Ideas & Examples and see which works best for you.

Having a second opinion on an image can go a long way. Sometimes we're too close to our product or brand that we may start to think that an image is great when in reality, it's a hot mess.

eCommerce Instagram Account: Nordstrom

7. Run Savvy Mobile Instagram Ads

We've learned from the best eCommerce Instagram accounts that creating savvy mobile Instagram ads is a must for success. According to research by Wyzowl, 83% of business owners are happy with the ROI they have seen from mobile marketing.

Most Instagram users are on their mobile phones, and Instagram prides itself on seamlessly adding ads into users' feed, which can either work in your favor or against you.

Think about it.

If ads are placed into your followers' Instagram feed, then it's all the more important to make an ad that will stop them before they scroll past.

Check out Wayfair's Instagram story ad, showing off all the cool items customers can buy to work from home effortlessly and in style. They know that people are checking their phones, so they create high-quality mobile ads that will meet their ideal customers in that space.

eCommerce Instagram Account: WayFair

8. Always Keep Your Instagram Stories Active

Instagram stories are a great way to keep your Instagram account active. Around 62% of people say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories.

With Instagram stories, you don't have to put as much thought into your content as it would with content posted on your feed (which stays forever).

All Instagram Stories disappear automatically after 24 hours. Plus, you can save that content in your Story highlights where it will stay permanently.

Not to mention, you can use hashtags, gifs, and more in your stories to appear on the discovery page where other followers and potential customers can find you.

The Business of Fashion (BOF) is a magazine that prides itself on the latest fashion trends and news for business. They often post news on their stories to alert customers before making an official post on their feed.

eCommerce Instagram Account: BOF

9. Always Use Hashtags (Always!)

When it comes to Instagram, hashtags are everything. The only brands you'll see use little to no hashtags are big brands that already have a following of a million followers or more. But for everyone else, it's the holy grail of brand awareness, increasing followers, and boosting engagement.

A common mistake is that brands are using hashtags are very business-related. They're not wrong, but it's unlikely that customers are going to follow #shopifybuisness.

Instead, use hashtags that customers engage with daily without thought like #ootd or #sundress. This brings more exposure to your content and eCommerce Instagram account.

If you need help finding hashtags for your eCommerce store you can use for your next post, check out these two guides:

The Most Popular Hashtags: The Ultimate List

150 Best Hashtags to Get More Likes

eCommerce Instagram Account: Superette

10. Start Using IGTV to Increase Brand Awareness & Sales

For creative brands, IGTV offers a much greater breadth of expression. This feature allows you to upload videos as long as 60 minutes. (For verified accounts or accounts with large followings, videos can be up to an hour.

Like YouTube, IGTV allows you to create evergreen content that can boost your brand's online presence. You can share video ad campaigns, FAQ's, product displays, behind the scenes, and sharing what happens in the office.

eCommerce Instagram Account: Nike

Summary

Maintaining your eCommerce Instagram account is just as important as maintaining your business. If you want to get good results you have to be consistent and creative. As you begin to grow on Instagram you should always ensure that your engagement is growing as well.

Without engagement from your followers you’re simply shouting out into a social media void. With the help of engagement you can spark a conversation with potential customers and attract new leads.

Here’s a quick recap of the 10 amazing eCommerce Instagram account and examples we learned from:

Always Answer Comments and Direct Messages

Always Keep Active on Instagram

Always Optimize Your Instagram Profile

Do Cross-Posting Across Your Profiles

Stay Up to Date with Latest Updates

Create Content Your Followers Love

Run Savvy Mobile Instagram Ads

Always Keep Your Instagram Stories Active

Always Use Hashtags (Always!)

Make Use of Your Instagram URL Real Estate

Start Using IGTV to Increase Brand Awareness & Sales

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Here's What to Post on Instagram: 21 Top Post Ideas & Examples

How to Get More Likes on Instagram: 30 Ideas, Strategies & Tips

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