#you know how entitled wp can get

[tariah23]

I’m glad Lindsay is doing better but I still remember when she was on camera trying to kidnap a Muslim child away from their mother under the guise of white saviorism-

[naughtynanzhu]

new copypasta just dropped

guy was mad that another guy posted a video of him setting up a romantic date night at home for his wife, saying women never do anything for men except give bjs and MAYBE stay loyal and it was very long winded and wild:

image text:

"Why don't girls/females/woman do nice things for men?? "oh such a beautiful date thanks babe, I ensure I won't cheat on you for a little while and will stay loyal, until the next time you do this, unless you take too long, oh and and here's a bj... because that's all i've ever bring to the table.." Why don't woman set up nice things for men??? Do they not like men and prefer men suffer while they enjoy the luxurious of all the things men provide..... Like what do woman do to court or cater to their husbands needs??? This is what's complete BS about the dynamics of society and it really halves the enrichment of the civilization... Because Woman just want a free ride always and give nothing back but a "bj" Imaooo That's the most love a woman can show to a man???? And being loyal... (which is day one fundamental behavior for a relationship) Really???? I don't get it... Seriously what do woman do above and beyond like this?? I know a woman can't name nearly one example.... And just say some incomplete nonsense like "you have issues " hahaha. That's woman projecting their issues that they don't do anything for men. Sad world to live in. because they think their existence is good enough.. how about a man's existence is good enough? Because men run and protect the entire world. Woman need to be doing these things for men. Actually. I'm a warrior at heart and am willing to go the greatest lengths. The woman need to be catering to the men. I'm as manly as it gets and i'll challenge that against any man.. Making woman much less powerful, but we are inherently equal by existence. So actually the woman need to be courting the man.. The man holds a much more important role. This is called Simping for entitled girls who believe they deserve this. While they're probably cheating and being disloyal. Woman really are the devil."

he was then asked what he does for the world and had the most amazing reply:

image text:

"If you only knew little man. My father was airlifted to the hospital on the job, he was paid less his entire life. My mother was the breadwinner. He also stepped in front a man with a gun to save our families life. My mom worked inside the A/C her entire career. Her brother fell off a 2 story roof from heat exhaustion working construction his entire life and died on the job a few years ago. My grandfather has a purple heart. I protect this entire world in ways no one walking this Earth knows. I also have multiple documented rescues in Ocean Rescue where civilians would had died without my attendance. I have double rescues, meaning two adults at once, and other rescues on multiple occasions. I've had 12 street fight KO's protecting my family and friends all in self defense. All bigger than me. My friends call me the Giant Slayer. There's no woman on the planet that could endure the circumstances i've been in. I grew up surfing, in athletics, trained in the harshest environments during hurricanes with Navy Seals. I won National Championships in College Water polo in California. You can't be a stronger swimmer than a water polo player, not even a navy seal, because they don't practice water combat and wresting for 7 years. Only a summer at BUDS. WP is an olympic contact sport, with cuts and stitches every game. I've knocked ppl unconscious in the water in self defense during games. I carry lethal. capabilities with my bare hands and am willing to execute those actions to protect people I love from evil. I grew up with world champion fighters CFFC and in the UFC, my uncle was also a golden glove boxer in FL. Strangers have personally thanked me for protecting them, saving their child's life. These occasions could have been you or one your family members. It's all relative, you wouldn't wonder who I am then. I also fight the good fight for civilians. Against the biggest cooperations and banks in the world. Recovering millions of dollars in settlements for disadvantaged policyholders in neglected claims. Working along the top forensic engineers, attorneys, the biggest contractors, and private judges in my state."

amazing. fucking g*d tier.

[hedghost]

Another Arsenal fan here. Frankly I could not give less of a fuck about the booing. Alessia didn’t care so why are there fans who still do…? I find booing in general to be a waste of time but I’m not going to get mad or complain when people do it, because it’s my opinion. Just because I think booing is unnecessary and choose not to do it doesn’t mean everyone else has to feel and act the same way. In the grand scheme of things booing is incredibly insignificant anyway and I’m bored now

Regarding the Arsenal fanbase, I’d say it is not as common for there to be a fan who lands in between the following two main types: the ones who understand and practise what it means to be a respectful fan, and the ones who typically lack self awareness, don’t view players as actual humans and/or cross boundaries. You encounter the second type more than any other type because they are the loudest on social media. Obviously this is the case for every club fanbase but I think Arsenal has more of the second type than the first at the moment (not to mention the influx of younger fans post-Euros), making the whole fanbase seem more obnoxious. There is very much a “either you’re one of us and follow our rules or you’re not a true fan” vibe so being passive/neutral isn’t really an option. In my experience at least

The culture of the team and fanbase is intense and intimate but not always in a good way, in my opinion. My theory about how it got this way is related to the WPS vlogs. Those gave fans an inside look on the team and player dynamics. They made it easier for fans to connect with players in a way that fans of other clubs maybe weren’t able to with their players at the time. Made the whole thing more personal. Over time people began to feel entitled to knowing personal information about players, so they’d do weird shit to try and figure it out if the player wouldn’t say anything. This mindset has stuck around and fans now treat any new player the same way because it’s been normalised (fans rarely face real world consequences for it so it’s easy to continue). They are infantilising Alessia because it has been accepted as a normal thing to do with players for years. All of this is why parasocial relationships, especially unhealthy ones, can be common among some Arsenal fans. I could talk about this for hours but my ask is already long as hell (sorry)

nah this is such a good take thank you!! i know i talk shit about arsenal fans but let it be known i am not talking about fans like you bc this is a very sensible and intelligent take so cheers! i agree 100%, it’s a shame that these kind of fans are so vocal on social media because it taints the experiences and voices of normal fans with sense ! 💕💕

[ultramaga]

@theliterarywolf  “I don’t care about the Writers’ Strike because a few of the shows I watched had shitty episodes” Holy cow, a few? I WISH IT WAS JUST A FEW. It’s more like a few shows and movies exist now that aren’t shitty, and they are vilified by the Leftists on this strike.

Hell, I remember the denunciations Alita got! And the film maker himself was pretty far left. They just hated the fact it wasn’t woke ENOUGH.

“ no Starbucks employee should get paid ...because their quality has tanked in the past few years.” Exactly. They should be fired, and replaced with people who can do the job. Or the franchise should fold, because it no longer knows how to make fucking coffee.

“ or treated like a human being “ Where the fuck are you getting that from? I would call it a strawman, but it’s more like a straw exo-planet. It’s just not even in the same solar system as the arguments brought up against the strike. Ok, for the record, every human should be treated as a human. NOBODY IS ENTITLED TO MONEY. You are not entitled to get money for shitty products. Hollywood has crapped out turds, and customers have refused to pay. If you don’t like the Hollywood system, DON’T WORK FOR THEM. Write a book, or stack shelves, or work for uber. But don’t work for them if they refuse to pay what you think you are worth. But here’s the kicker - maybe you aren’t worth what you think you are. If no employer will pay you a million dollars a minute, you are not oppressed, you are delusional. @whistleinthegraveyard “ people don’t realize the connection between overworked underpayed writers being unable to put out good work “ We can hear these writers. All day long. On twitter. Moaning about how everyone outside the Leftist bubble is a Qanon white supremacist Nazi deserving only of death. Hell, this hit the comic book industry a long time ago. The writers spent all day long tweeting instead of working, and then complained that they were expected to meet guidelines. I was there when Dan Slott explained to me that the purpose of Leftism was to erase the white people in all media. The goal of the movement was the total eradication of those it hates - the whites, the men, the straights and so on.  And yes, he had no problem with that. Leftists do not have the capacity to think rationally or see the problem with advocating the genocide of your own demographic. And what garbage do we see pumped out daily? These are the dwarves of german myth, apparently

Don’t forget Coal Black herself. 

Just like they did with Ariel and countless other movies. And just like those movies, the writers have come out and said they eliminating the troublesome heterosexuality, because [STRONG FEMALE PROTAGONIST] don’t need no man. Yep, she saves herself because she is awesome and just needed to realise it.

Whoops, sorry, that one is actually not bad.

KNEEEEL BEFORE ME, WORTHLESS MAN-THING! When I think of Hollywood, I think of Brie Larson explaining how movies from Hollywood WEREN’T MADE FOR YOUUUU.

Ok, but why the fuck do you still expect our money? How the fuck do you expect to get paid, if nobody is buying tickets to movies that are nothing but racist, sexist propaganda? Hell, you know what I wanted to see?

Barnie looked great! Until the makers tweeted how it would all be about how useless males are, and how Barbie don’ need no man. Fuck that noise. Every single thing Hollywood does is just a better made version of Nazi propaganda, with a different target. It exists to spew hatred- not to entertain. With exceptions - 

Low budget films that could easily still be made if Hollywood choked to death on the Hunter Biden cocaine stash. Films that are completely loathed and vilified by Hollywood’s Leftists. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/joker-criticism-fallout-891081/ “ Many claim the film is a romanticization of incel culture. “ Yes, Leftists did. Note that Rolling Stone didn’t have the balls to source the claims. Because what it showed was endless hordes of hacks desperately trying to sabotage one of the few films people actually LIKED.

"I don't care about the Writers' Strike because a few of the shows I watched had shitty episodes"

Under that same logic, no Starbucks employee should get paid or treated like a human being because their quality has tanked in the past few years.

Under that same logic, no nurse should get paid or treated like a human being because of the few who were being obnoxious on TikTok during the Pandemic.

Under that same logic, no one working for an ISP (be it Customer Service or maintenance) should get paid or treated like a human being because of shitty response times.

If you can't understand why that logic is faulty as hell, then could you just admit that you don't see writers as human beings and move along?

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Youtube, fair use, competition, and the death of the artist

Today we have three major record labels, the meanest, most voracious gobblers-up of the competition, companies that clawed their way to global dominance through absolute ruthlessness, particularly to the musicians who did the work that brought in the money. For example: the Beatles earned $0.01/record. Split four ways. But 15% of that was creamed off by the label to account for "promotional copies" that they later admitted they sold at full price without giving the Beatles their (one penny* of royalties. When Napster and other digital distribution platforms appeared, many musicians were angry about them, but many were hopeful: was this - finally - a way to be free of the labels? It was! For a while. The subsequent record industry lawsuits combined with runaway mergers and acquisitions in *both* tech (5 giants) *and* entertainment (4 studios, 4ish publishers, 3 labels) killed the dream of a pluralistic, fair alternative to the content oligarchy. This was confirmed when Youtube launched its music service in the early part of the past decade. After hammering out a deal with the Big Four (now three) labels, YT told all the independent artists and labels that this would be their deal too - or they could leave Youtube. In other words, Youtube was now an honorary member of the Big Four (now three) and every musician in the world who wanted access to the monopoly audio-video distribution platform would have to toe the Big Four's (now three) line...or else. The fusion of Youtube with the big entertainment companies includes a complete disregard for fair use - the limitations and exceptions to copyright that are so necessary to free speech, criticism, and new artistic expression. It's hard to square copyright with the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law.. abridging the freedom of speech"). I wrote this, it attracted a copyright at the moment of fixation, and now the US government gives me to the power to bar you from repeating it. How can a government that is constitutionally barred from abridging your speech also have a law telling you what you're allowed to say? The Supreme Court explored this in Eldred v Ashcroft, with RBG calling fair use copyright's "safety valve." Fair use is how you can ban people from saying stuff without abridging their free speech: it allows for transformation, criticism, commentary, education, parody, archiving and a host of other uses. Without fair use, copyright is unconstitutional censorship. In 2007, Viacom sued Youtube for $1b; the court released emails between Viacom execs admitting that their goal was to "steal" Youtube and take it over (the emails were *very* sweary and included vicious fights about which exec would get to run YT) https://www.fastcompany.com/1588353/steal-it-and-other-internal-youtube-emails-viacoms-copyright-suit As the suit was making its way through the courts, Youtube launched Content ID, its automated takedown system. Content ID - which cost $100m to build and run - allowed select rightsholders to "claim" certain audio and video elements as their copyrights. Content ID scours uploaded videos for matches to claimed works, then (depending on rightsholders' preferences), Content ID either removes the matching video, takes the money it is generating, or (if it's ad-free) puts ads all over it and gives the money to the rightsholder. And Content ID can't figure out if a use is fair or not. No algorithm can. How software tell if something is parody? If it's commentary? If it's sufficiently transformative to constitute a fair use? It can't, and so Content ID doesn't. What do you get when you mix automated takedown, entertainment and tech monopolies and the absolute annihilation of fair use? The contemporary arts world. https://www.eff.org/wp/unfiltered-how-youtubes-content-id-discourages-fair-use-and-dictates-what-we-see-online In a superb white paper, my EFF colleague Katharine Trendacosta painstakingly documents how Youtube transfers gigantic sums from working artists to rent-collecting rightsholders in a system that incentivizes false copyright claims and punishes those who appeal automated verdicts. The paper starts by documenting how Content ID *really* works, and shows how the pretty, streamlined, easy to follow flowcharts that YT publishes to prove that it has a fair and transparent systems are a sham.

The reality is a giant, gnarly hairball of rules, threats, ultimatums and dire punishments, where videos that pass muster one day can be taken down the next, and where challenging the robot (or a rightsholder) can annihilate your Youtube account - and thus your artistic career.

It's a system where creators producing major video essays can upload them in five minute chunks to YT to check for copyright claims, find none, piece the whole feature together and upload it - only to get five copyright claims. It's a system where a ten-hour video of white noise attracts *six* copyright claims - one for an "infringement" that allegedly lasted for less than *one second*. Trendacosta's paper revolves around deep interviews with three very different Youtubers. The first is Hbomberguy, a long-form video essayist with 600k subscribers, who spends weeks playing blind man's bluff with Content ID, slicing more and more sections out of his video to get rid of copyright claims (and doing it over again when the algorithm changes). The second is Todd Nathanson, a musicologist who produces videos that dive deep into one-hit wonders and other musical oddities. He has given up on getting any of the money his wildly popular videos generate through YT ads; it's impossible to fend off the Content ID robots. Instead, Nathanson relies on Patreon subscribers to pay his bills, and allows the rightholders who lay claim to the money from his legal, canonical-fair-use musical excerpts to simply steal the money he is entitled to. Finally, there's Lindsay Ellis, a bestselling novelist with 1m subscribers who has been shunted from one service to the next as all of Youtube's competitors were driven out of business, landing on Youtube after she ran out of alternatives. Ellis's high profile means she can sometimes actually reach a human being at Youtube to discuss copyright claims against her work, but they are monumentally unhelpful. Ellis knows an awful lot about copyright, but that's actually a detriment when it comes to Content ID. That's because defending yourself to the Content ID system means that rightsholders can deny your defense and generate "copystrikes" against your account. Rack up three strikes and your account gets suspended or even deleted. Ellis wonders "why I bothered playing by the rules all these years because fair use doesn’t matter. Content ID is all that matters." Youtube's Content ID statistics are opaque and out of date, but Trendacosta estimates that the system rendered automated judgements in 122,500,000 copyright claims in 2017, a number that has surely climbed since. Once, creators dreamed of the internet as an escape hatch from the airtight cell that the Big Four (now three) labels had crammed all the world's music into. Today, most creators have been corralled into a single online platform. That platform colludes with the Big Three to misappropriate the incomes of artists who never signed their one-sided record deals, and the ripoff continues with a long tail of penny-ante grifters who claim copyrights over silence, white noise and birdsong.

[nikkiseesworld]

Pinay Au Pair in Germany

Hey friends! This is your girl Nikki from Manila, Philippines. I'm currently in Germany working as an Au pair. I have created this post to help my fellow kababayans on how to be become an au pair here in Germany.

What motivated me to create this post?

I have done countless research on the internet with regards to any Filipina/Filipino blogs on au pair experiences specifically in Germany but found very little, so I have decided to make one which can possible contribute some help if you plan of becoming an au pair in Germany. I hope this helps!!

What is an Au Pair?

“Au Pair” placement is the temporary reception by families, in exchange for certain services, of young foreigners who come to improve their linguistic and possibly professional knowledge as well as their general culture by acquiring a better knowledge of the country where they are received. Such young foreigners are hereinafter persons placed “au pair”. -Article 2, European Agreement on Au Pair Placement (1969).

source: https://cfo.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/publications/aupair_2017_Apr17.pdf

And that folks is the end of this post. Just kidding! but I highly suggest you girls and guys to visit the link because it is very informative.

Going back...

This au pair plan started in 2019. I got my visa for Germany with no help from any agency and it is possible that you can do it too! It was around April 2019 when I got connected to a Host Family in Germany through a Filipina colleague of my uncle.

My host family and I exchanged some emails giving each other our personal backgrounds, work expectations and a video call. We then decided to push through with the Au Pair program. To my fellow Kababayans, here is the link for the Visa application requirements in Manila, Philippines.

https://manila.diplo.de/blob/1792036/37342c9e79b99b007a1664edc335a243/mb-au-pair-eng-data.pdf

Some of the required documents took me some time to accomplish. (Again, just a reminder, this were all processed last 2019.)

These are the following:

#1: A1 Language certificate. I enrolled myself in the Goethe Institut Makati for Saturday classes which cost me (I can't exactly recall, but estimated) 6,000 thousand pesos, per level, because they have level A1.1, A1.2 and A1.3 and (if my memory serves me right) 500 pesos for the book entitled Schritte International. The A1 language exam costs around 5,000 pesos for Goethe enrolled students and 5, 500 for non-students.

I intentionally enrolled myself because I know that I do not have the discipline to self-study, but hey! if you believe you can then you can book straight ahead for the A1 exam when you feel like you are ready for it.

#2: Au Pair Contract

It took my host family and I weeks before I received my notarized/red ribbon contract. You can look up online some templates for the contract like aupair.com or aupairworld.com but this is the exact contract template that my host and I used

http://philippine-embassy.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Au_Pair_Contract.pdf

#3: Embassy Appointment

If you check the list of the requirements, you will find there where to book an appointment for the German Manila embassy. I believe it also took me some days or maximum of 1 week to get an email for an official date of the appointment.

#4: Appointment Interview

I book for an appointment in the embassy June 2019 and I received the interview appointment date November 2019 so I waited more or less 6 months just to be accommodated by the embassy. This was before the pandemic so I assume a lot of applicants were applying for different types of visa making the wait really long or I guess it is their standard waiting time.

5#: This Visa

The website of the embassy stated that it will take around 3 months to get your visa but I received mine in 1 month.

#6: CFO Seminar Certificate

Now this document is not stated in the list of requirements in the German Embassy in Manila but it is very Important because you will need it for IMMIGRATION. The seminar you will attend is called Country Familiarization Seminar for Au pairs. You can book your appointment online through their website. In this seminar you will also meet other Filipino/Filipina au pairs going to different European countries and of course there is a fee to pay for the certificate.

https://cfo.gov.ph/overseas-filipinos-cfo-online-registration-system-or-of-cors/

When I received my Schengen visa it was valid for 3 months in Germany because I will be extending it in Germany afterwards. When your documents are complete then you are ready to go!

I will be posting another Au Pair visa process experience when you get to Germany in another blog. But for now, I hope this helps you in processing your papers while you're in the Philippines. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message. See you around Germany!

Regards,

Nikki

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the German Embassy Manila, Goethe Institut Makati and CFO Manila. This write-up is based on personal experience only, hoping this can help with future Filipna/Filipino Au pair aspirants.

[angelllawfirm]

Law Firm Shares Why It Is Worth Getting A Personal Injury Lawyer in Georgia After a Car Accident

The Angell Law Firm, a Georgia-based law firm shares a new blog post, suggesting the need for hiring a personal injury attorney in Atlanta after a car accident.

Anybody injured in a car accident with substantial property damage may be entitled to compensation for their pain and suffering.

"There are many instances where even the most minor collision will require legal expertise. It all depends on the accident's circumstances like your injuries, the damage to your vehicle, and who was negligent," writes The Angell Law Firm.

The blog post starts with a piece of advice on what one should do after a car accident. It advises the victim to immediately file a personal injury claim with the negligent driver's insurance company. The goal is to receive compensation for damages like lost wages, medical bills, vehicle repairs, and prescription drugs needed to treat injuries resulting from the accident.

Insurance companies are often unwilling to accept full claims, even in minor injury cases, unless they are genuinely minimal.

The blog post says that most insurance companies try to make a much lower settlement than expected. It is here that hiring a car accident attorney in Georgia is the best way forward. An experienced lawyer knows how to fight for justice.

They will work towards receiving compensation for the victim's injuries that need long-term treatment, besides all forms of physical, emotional, and financial distress caused by the accident.

The Angell Law Firm has dealt with several car accident claim cases where both sides disagree over negligence charges. On top of it, insurance companies are unwilling to pay much on claims at all.

An experienced Atlanta car accident attorney helps ensure that victims do not have to bear the burden of expenses caused by someone else.

Sometimes victims are unaware of the severity of their injuries. "You should also consider the severity of your injuries, even if you feel fine after the accident. Many car accident injuries, like whiplash, can become more severe and painful with time. After a car accident, your body is in 'fight or flight' mode, suppressing pain for hours or even days afterward. You need to see a doctor immediately after a car accident, even if you don't feel injured."

Sadly, even a minor rear-end collision can also result in a severe injury to the neck, head, and spine. These injuries require a long recovery time.

The Angell Law Firm's team of attorneys help victims of car accidents in the insurance claim process keep their legal rights protected. This way, they are not taken advantage of by the insurance company with an unfair settlement.

The Georgia-based law firm suggests that a car accident attorney is well-aware of the legal process and statute of limitations in Georgia. Their work starts as soon as the victim hires them, starting with gathering the evidence and filing a claim.

Car accident lawyers take responsibility for ensuring the victim meets all deadlines, reducing the stress associated with the claim's process. The goal is to receive the compensation the victim deserves.

https://youtu.be/tNHKGFDBn_o

For those who have been injured in a car accident in Georgia, The Angell Law Firm can help get full compensation for the costs of injuries and property.

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[kintsugi-sheep]

BeelzeBossBitch Demon Conjuring Services

Good afternoon! And congratulations for taking the first steps in joining the BeelzeBossBitch family!

We here at Triple B love our clients, but love our employees even more and we want to make sure we can help you so that you can become the bad bitch you know you are deep down!

So many of the contracts forged with mortals of the terrestrial plane are created by our male counterparts, who will literally push people down to be the first through the summoning circles. And whenever a female demon is specifically called for, it's always by some pervert who treats our ability to appear anywhere in the world at any time as a quick-and-easy way to a booty call!

But we at BeelzeBossBitch say that's bullshit! While the Belphegors and Leviathans of the world have hogged the spotlight since the first sin, we have been around just as long, are just as strong, and willing to do just as much wrong!

Here's how our system works.

First, you let us know which of our company's boss bitches helped you sign up! This bitch will get a one-time bonus for every new employee she brings into our family. You can also consider her your manager. She will be taking a small portion of the souls you manage to collect, but remember, she's just your assistant.

You're the boss bitch!

Now I will admit, the next part requires a bit of leg work. You see, every mortal wants to sin. They love to sin! They're dying for an opportunity to break free from the shackles of order superimposed by them in their patriarchal, patrilineal societies.

But, not every one of them feels comfortable going through the effort of tracking down a grimoire, drawing the runes, learning Latin, and purchasing a sheep for sacrifice. These obtuse and archaic rituals are what have bogged us down for generations!

Instead, we go to our clients directly and we ask them what they want. Once they agree to offer up their soul to you, you give it to them! No matter what it is!

They want some gold? Break into Fort Knox! They want some ass? Put out! They want world peace? Sure, but make sure it costs as many human lives as possible to get there! Remember, in addition to taking their soul to fulfill their wishes you're also entitled to any soul you take as collateral!

Follow this simple one-two process, and you'll be well on your way to becoming the boss bitch we all are rooting for you to be!

And when you do, why not become a role model for other boss bitches trapped in their own shells? So many strong, independent, demon women out there are being put down by society.

But, you can be their role model! You can be their icon! You can be their idol!

Share the news, teach and inspire others, and you can truly become a...

BEELZEBOSSBITCH!

 Prompt: [WP] Demons try a new tactic. The Boss Moms love the product and get a portion of their downline’s soul.

[christinaengela]

Hello friends and fans!

Welcome to my 45th newsletter – September 2020!

On A Personal Note

August was a blurry month – it really doesn’t feel like September, it feels more like March the 342nd! Know what I mean? Anyway, between work and everything else I have going on the side, the last six months or so have literally disappeared! For most people, this year has been a complete loss, for me I’ve at least published 7 new titles. Not to brag, but this brings my tally up to 30 books!

On the home front, my workshop is where I indulge my creative side in wood and metal work. Some years ago however, I got sick and tired of sharing my workspace with the rest of the garage! When it rained, it meant I couldn’t run my vintage bug outside, and the small space available meant I wouldn’t be able to work in there that day! About two years ago, I built a greenhouse against the side of the house across the alleyway between the house wall and the boundary wall, bordering on the back garden, which in the end my love convinced me to use as a workshop space instead! For the past two years, this has been where I worked on various projects, regardless of the weather. The only problem with that was again, space. While I had more permanently accessible space to keep my tools and to work, quite a lot of my tools were actually kept in shelving under the work benches. I needed more space – or to be more specific, a broader room to work in.

So, finally, last week I finally gave up on the bar area. It was where we entertained friends and it consisted of an actual bar room with an adjoining dining area with casual benches and a table for when we had barbeques etc. It’s been a considerable amount of time since we’ve entertained anyone who drinks, and neither of us actually drinks much more than a brandy now and then – scarcely enough to warrant wasting the useful premium real-estate on a bar! It would be far better to just dedicate a cupboard inside the house to housing the drinks, glasses and accoutrements – and all my collectibles, antique cameras and telephones etc. on the walls could be redistributed around the rest of the house.

That said, Wendy could have her greenhouse back – and so last week I relocated my workshop to the larger space where I have more room to work on projects and store and organize my tools and materials! For the first time, I feel I actually have the right space to indulge my creativity! The adjoining stoop will still be reserved for chats, game nights and barbeques – should they ever arise again.

Aside from that little personal ramble ,I also have some very good writing-related news to share with you this time – another two of my books have come out as audiobooks, and I’ve also published a new novelette called “Lifetime”! Moon Books also released an anthology I was the Editor for, so it’s really been a productive year for me so far!

Art

I also indulge in painting from time to time – and no, I don’t mean walls! The following paintings are in my portfolio:

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“Human Nature” 2017 A4 acrylic canvas

“Balancier” 2020 A2 acrylic canvas

“Rescuer” 2020 A2 acrylic canvas

“The Awakening” 2020 A2 acrylic canvas

“The Earth Wept” 2020 40x40cm acrylic on canvas

You can read more about my art projects on the Art page.

What do you think of them? Feel free to let me know!

Music

Yes – I also make music from time to time!

A selection of music tracks I made using eJay and other similar apps between 1999 – 2008 are available on my YouTube channel.

You can read more on the Music page on my website!

Activism

For those of you interested in my activism-related posts and activities, you can follow them at “Sour Grapes: The Fruit Of Ignorance“.

Current Writing Projects 

On a suggestion of Brandon Mullins from Moon Books, I agreed to a combined edition of “Duck Blind” and “The Next Room”, to replace the two novellas published in February this year. The new book is novel length at over 46000 words, and I also wrote a short foreword and an introductory portion to precede the first part of the story.

As I mentioned several times previously, I have still a lot of work to do! I have a number of part-way completed stories awaiting my loving attention! Unfortunately, life and work have a nasty habit of getting in the way!

Also, thanks to Lulu.com’s spite in throwing their entire publishing platform into a mincer and expecting users to just shut up and like it, I have left the platform entirely – but aside from the immense amount of work that precipitated on my side with having to relocate all my books from there to other platforms, it also means I’ll have to rebuild one of my books entirely from the ground up! “The Pitfalls of South African Self-Publishing” is now out of print thanks to Lulu. Why? Because the second half of the book details the ease of self-publishing using Lulu’s old platform – the one they entirely scrapped and replaced with a vague, useless monstrosity – and gives a step-by-step example with screenshots, and is practically a love-letter to Lulu! I will now have to redraft that entire portion of the book, thanks to them!

In the past week or so I’ve been working on an editing project for Moon Books, and you can read more about that in the next section.

Editing

I completed editing an anthology for Moon Books in mid-August entitled “Moon Books Horror Anthology V”. This book contains 7 short stories filled with pure dread – and it was released on 20 August. It’s already available in eBook and paperback.

Currently I’m close to finishing the edit of a sci-fi tale for Moon Books. “Avenging Aranis” is by UK writer Steve McElhenny, and it’s the first part of a trilogy!

Marketing – The Dreaded “M” Word! 

Portfolio 2020!

I thought it would be nice if I could produce a neat, organized catalog of all my books that interested parties could download and browse – a free, distributable and shareable catalog, and so I created “Portfolio 2020!” – a listing of all my currently available titles!

Portfolio is more than that though, because it also contains a biography as well as synopses for most of my titles – and I have a plan to update it regularly, perhaps on an annual basis! Portfolio 2020 is available as a free download from my website.

Videos

In August, Nigel Peever made this amazing audiobook trailer video for the newly released “Demonspawn” – have a look, isn’t it beautiful?

https://christinaengela.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/demonspawn-video-by-nigel-peever.mp4

Sales

Let’s start with the good news! Audiobook sales over July were truly amazing – with a massive (by my previous standards) 42 copies of “Blachart” sold from Audible during that month! This frenetic surge in sales didn’t last very long, just to the end of July, with just 3 sales of that book in August. I realize a slowdown is inevitable as a new title stops being new. In fact, August proved to be rather dull in comparison, with just 3 sales of “Blachart“, and 3 sales of a new audiobook title, “When Darkness Calls“. This of course led me to formulate a new personal theory regarding sales, popularity and choice of narrator when publishing an audiobook – one I will probably explore later in the second edition of “The Pitfalls of South African Self-publishing”, which I am working on as time allows.

But I digress! Ebooks sales on Ebooks2go have picked up a bit over August since I transferred my titles there at the start of the month, culminating in three whole sales (sarcasm definitely intended). To give you an idea how writers get ripped off by some distribution channels, just check out the screenshot below:

The three top-most entries show three eBook sales via Hoopla – and each of those titles sold for $2.99. What do I get out of it? 14 US cents out of $2.99 per sale! It’s positively downright bloody criminal! For comparison, the one beneath that – a sale via B&N at least gave me $1.64 out of $2.99 – but only one of those from July. No wonder so many writers give up!

Over-all though, I’ve got the idea that sales have been dwindling globally and not just for me, so I’m by no means feeling picked on. I realize that with economies teetering on the brink of disaster – and so many of my contacts on Facebook posting the sad news that they will be homeless and sleeping in their cars or on the streets within days – how very, very lucky I am. I may not be raking it in as an author – but at least I have a secure job, for which I’m very thankful indeed!

Publishing

These are the books I’ve released so far this year!

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Between January and September 2020 I released eight new titles! Of these, two – “Duck Blind” and “The Next Room” have been replaced by one combined title, “Mirror, Mirror” which includes both of them. Of course, this reduces my count back to 30 again – but when you already have 30 or so books to your name, what’s one here or there?

New Releases:

“Lifetime”

On August 07 Moon Books Publishing released a novella of mine called “Lifetime“, bringing my title-count up to 30! Here’s a look at the back cover blurb for the book:

“An entrepreneurial couple, happily married, run their deep-space prospecting company together. They are unexpectedly separated when the ship one of them is aboard is lost during a prospecting voyage. The other spares no effort in an attempt to find her, and immediately sets out on another ship to find her. Meanwhile on a remote planet, surrounded by wreckage and the bodies of her crewmates, she has survived and treated her injuries, and fights to stay alive while she awaits rescue…”

Buy now: eBook Paperback Audiobook (coming soon)

“Lifetime” is available in ebook and paperback and will be coming out in audiobook format soon, narrated by Miciah Dodge.

“Mirror, Mirror”

This was shortly thereafter followed by another new title “Mirror, Mirror”, on August 11, which repackages “Duck Blind” and “The Next Room” into one single novel-length book. “Duck Blind” and “The Next Room” are also now out of print – being henceforth exclusively available in “Mirror, Mirror”.

Buy now: eBook Paperback Audiobook (coming soon)

Here’s a look at the description:

“Things aren’t always as they seem. Neither was Charlie Branson – or Andy Niksn.

Outwardly, Charlie appeared to be the successful, respected, somewhat over-paid Captain of a commercial space liner.

In truth, it was 2025 – space liners did not yet exist, and the space liner Freedom was really just a very expensive set – a fancy simulator for wealthy clients the company took on simulated cruises into deep space to forget the real world for a while, to get away from it all – and they loved them for it!

In an atmosphere where people were locked away from reality for weeks at a time, and cos-playing and roleplaying redefined ‘normal’, telling fact and fantasy apart became more complicated than expected. For those who preferred the pleasant escape from the harsh realities of life outside, like Charlie, wishing it could all just be real became something almost like a prayer.

Andy Niksn, by contrast, was the very successful respected and somewhat over-paid Captain of an actual commercial space liner in the year 2773. Trouble was, Andy felt trapped! He was in a relationship – a dead-end partnership that had no future and promised both even less happiness. On top of that, his friend Jim had died recently, leaving Andy in the darkest place he’d ever been – and he didn’t mean space!

Andy wished he could just wake up to a different reality where everything could make sense again! For Andy, this too became something almost like a prayer!

As it turned out, someone heard them.

The answer wasn’t quite what they expected.”

Audiobooks

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“All That Remains” JEA (2019)

“See Them Aliens” MBP (2019)

“Blachart” MBP (2020)

“When Darkness Calls” (2020)

“Demonspawn” MBP (2020)

On August 7th I received the completed audiobook of book 2 in the Galaxii series, “Demonspawn“, narrated (and dramatized) by Nigel Peever! The audiobook was finally released on August 31, and it was worth every minute I waited for it!

Nigel has also committed to narrating book 3 in Galaxii, after the five or so other books he has waiting in the queue, so he should only get round to that one somewhere around January ’21. In the meantime, that gives me time to work on Galaxii book 4! 😉

On August 20, “When Darkness Calls“, narrated by Miciah Dodge, was released via Audible! You can read more about it here.

Coming Soon

In the meantime, here’s a look at the covers for hot new audiobooks currently in the pipeline:

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“Malice!” (2020) COMING SOON!

“Lifetime” (2020) COMING SOON!

Stay tuned for updates!

Reviews

You can see all my previous reviews here.

Currently Available Titles

I now have 30 unique titles available in 4 series (not including books I’ve been the editor for, and my 16 free promotional items)! My books are available in three different formats: EBooks, Paperbacks and Audiobooks. Click the links or images below to view titles available in these formats.

Communication

Below are links to a few of my most recent posts and articles since my last newsletter:

New Release: Demonspawn Audiobook

New Release: When Darkness Calls Audiobook

New Release: Horror Anthology V

Sinotec SJ86C LED Projector Review

New Release: Lifetime by Christina Engela

New Release: Mirror, Mirror by Christina Engela

“Demonspawn” Audiobook Now In For Review!

New Release: Lifetime by Christina Engela

Some Great Resources For Writers

Another Round At The Crow Bar #44 August 2020

If you want to see more articles, just click on the category links below:

Elements of Horror

FAQ Answered

Fun Facts

LGBT Heroes

The Tech Side

Secret Weapons of the Resistance

Writing Advice

Guest Writers

Newsletters

Interactions

Fan Mail, Reader Reviews & Honorable Mentions

I found the following awesome items to show you this month!

Great Book July 20, 2020 review on Audible for “Blachart” (audiobook):

Excellent story! “This is a very well written Sci-Fi tale that is told by an awesome narrator. I can’t wait to hear book 2!” – D. Sturgeon, Aug 13, 2020 on Audible for “Blachart” (audiobook).

Epic!!! “Another great tale told by narrator Nigel Peever. I look forward to the continuing Adventures of Blachart and Michael.” – Justin Bradley, Aug 16, 2020 on Audible for “Blachart” (audiobook).

Great Narrator “The story is pretty creepy, it takes place in South Africa. I’ve never heard haunting stories from this area. It’s a fun little story if you’re doing a drive on a dark night. The narration sounded excellent, and the protagonist in the story wasn’t taking no crap from the evil dead!” – Jeff Spencer, Aug 21, 2020 on Audible for “When Darkness Calls” (audiobook).

I display my Fan Mail, Reviews & Compliments with pride, gratitude and humility. You’re always welcome to have a look.

Hate Mail & Horrible Mentions

I’m rather proud of my hate mail, and you can review my collection here – but be forewarned, don’t do it while eating or drinking, or you might choke while laughing!

Interviews

All my interviews are linked to from this page. If you would like to do an interview with me about my work, please do get in touch!

In Closing

Well, that’s all for this time, folks! 🙂

Thanks again for all your support, friendship and interaction!

Feel free to email or message me via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn if you have any comments or questions!

Until next time, keep reading!

Cheers! 🙂

Catch me on social media!

Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Academia | Minds | Instagram | GoodReads | Author’s Database | Library Thing | YouTube | Pintrest | Stage32 | The Book Marketing Network

If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina’s work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2020.

Another Round At The Crow Bar #45 September 2020 Hello friends and fans! Welcome to my 45th newsletter - September 2020!

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

Liam Neeson

I want to start this off by saying I am one black person. I do not speak for our entire community fuck I don’t even speak for the rest of the mods in this moment this is just me talking.

Now I’ve read the initial interview. I’ve watched him on GMA. I’ve listened to John Barnes. I have “full scope” of the situation. 

This entire thing has been super fucking distressing and the way I know that is the case is the way I handle stuff is by laughing about it. I had a close friend once tell me that a family member of their’s died and I had the hardest time not laughing. I moved recently so I was on the phone catching up with a friend and I asked if she heard about Liam Neeson and she hadn’t so I told her and the entire time I’m just laughing and she asked me why am I laughing it’s not funny. And I said you’re right it isn’t I think it’s just really fucking with me. 

I know I won’t be able to stop any of you that wanna cry “oh this is fake outrage” and want to stick to your guns on that rather than acknowledge how traumatizing it can be for black people to hear racist shit like this but for those of you on the fence I want you to pause for a moment and just think about something you’ve heard or experience frequently that has literally just worn you down to bone and continues to do so. 

Having listened to GMA now I do think he is remorseful for not just the revenge but also the racism. But me coming to that conclusion hasn’t erased this knot I have in my chest over this entire thing. 

I recognize that everyone (myself included) is at the least casually racist because we are in part the society we were raised in. Even those of us that had really forward thinking parents that tried make sure this wasn’t the case still have the same casual racism the rest of us do - at bare minimum. 

But the level of racism required to wander around for up to a week and a half with a weapon hoping to be provoked so you can murder some random black person is beyond the casual racism we all have in us. That’s the type of active racism that got Emmett Till killed. That’s the type of active racism that has gotten so many other black men/people killed. That’s the type of active racism that could get me killed or my brother or my mom or my dad or my niece.

There are so many people that are defending him like “he experienced a trauma/tragedy.” Okay y’all think experiencing a trauma/tragedy is an excuse to wander around with the intent to commit a hate crime but you can’t recognize that Black people can be traumatized by racism and then be angry with him for that extremely high level of active racism that has gotten us killed. You can’t seem or just don’t care that y’all dismissing and diminishing our trauma is making this entire situation worse. 

I saw a tweet that put it well “There have been to many incidents really close together lately where some white person says or does or said or did some incredibly racist thing and people can’t rush fast enough to tell those of us viscerally affected by it to suck it up cause we gotta center WP’s feelings. Or we aren’t even supposed to process it out loud with each other before being told it’s now time for healing and reconciliation and acknowledgement of growth and change and redemption and whatever. It’s exhausting.”

It would be great if for once you guys could center our feelings, our pain, our trauma in conversations revolving around racism and black people. It would also be great if yall recognized that while people are fully entitled to grow and change as a person no one is entitled to give a fuck. 

Again I do think that he is remorseful for not just the revenge but also the racism. That being said I don’t give a fuck because that remorse does nothing for my trauma. 

I do believe in conversations being had to talk about racism and whatnot in a constructive manner that helps alleviate it but what Liam has done hasn’t done that. What it has done is brought people out the woodworks admitting to thinking like him not to own up to their racism but to defend him. What we have is people centering white feelings over black trauma again. 

I am reminded of something from AA. If making amends would cause harm then you don’t do it. This entire thing has caused nothing but harm.

What do I want from Liam?

Now that he has started this whole thing I want him to address the people trying to defend what he did. Like so many people are out on social media trying to say the tragedy he felt for his friend justifies his behavior. 

If his intention was to start a conversation about race relations an bigotry  then he needs to step up and address the people that are missing the point he claims to be trying to make on GMA. 

I want Liam Neeson to address the people trying to dictate how we as black people react to hearing about that level of racism and let them know it’s not their place to decide how we should or shouldn’t be feeling.

I want Liam Neeson to have a conversation about how if he wasn’t a white man he wouldn’t be received so well. The droves of white people coming out to defend him would be silent or they would be vocal about using that non-white man to paint his entire race as violent and racist.

This is his story and he started this. If he truly meant this to be the start of some good dialogue he has a responsibility to this conversation now. 

mod velonius

[tnrealestatelistings]

Simplifying the Market™

In today’s real estate market, low inventory dominates the conversation in many areas of the country. It can often be frustrating to be a first-time homebuyer if you aren’t prepared.

In a realtor.com article entitled, “How to Find Your Dream Home—Without Losing Your Mind,” the author highlights some steps that first-time homebuyers can take to help carry their excitement of buying a home throughout the whole process.

1. Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage Before You Start Your Search

One way to show you are serious about buying your dream home is to get pre-qualified or pre-approved for a mortgage before starting your search. Even if you are in a market that is not as competitive, understanding your budget will give you the confidence of knowing whether or not your dream home is within your reach.

This step will also help you narrow your search based on your budget and won’t leave you disappointed if the home you tour, and love, ends up being outside your budget!

2. Know the Difference Between Your ‘Must-Haves’ and ‘Would-Like-To-Haves’

Do you really need that farmhouse sink in the kitchen to be happy with your home choice? Would a two-car garage be a convenience or a necessity? Could the ‘man cave’ of your dreams be a future renovation project instead of a make-or-break right now?

Before you start your search, list all the features of a home you would like and then qualify them as ‘must-haves’, ‘should-haves’, or ‘absolute-wish list’ items. This will help keep you focused on what’s most important.

3. Research and Choose a Neighborhood You Want to Live In

Every neighborhood has its own charm. Before you commit to a home based solely on the house itself, the article suggests test-driving the area. Make sure that the area meets your needs for “amenities, commute, school district, etc. and then spend a weekend exploring before you commit.”

4. Pick a House Style You Love and Stick to It

Evaluate your family’s needs and settle on a style of home that would best serve those needs. Just because you’ve narrowed your search to a zip code, doesn’t mean that you need to tour every listing in that zip code.

An example from the article says, “if you have several younger kids and don’t want your bedroom on a different level, steer clear of Cape Cod–style homes, which typically feature two or more bedrooms on the upper level and the master on the main.”

5. Document Your Home Visits

Once you start touring homes, the features of each individual home will start to blur together. The article suggests keeping your camera handy to document what you love and don’t love about each property you visit.

Making notes on the listing sheet as you tour the property will also help you remember what the photos mean, or what you were feeling while touring the home.

Bottom Line

In a high-paced, competitive environment, any advantage you can give yourself will help you on your path to buying your dream home.

Content previously posted on Keeping Current Matters

Who do you know that is thinking of selling their home? They can get the free SOLD Seller’s Guide delivered in the mail – request it at: https://tnrealestatelistings.com/sellers Who do you know who is looking to buying a home? They can get the free Buyer’s Guide at: https://tnrealestatelistings.com/buyers Sharing is caring 😉 *** Renee Harrington Realtor (Since 2003) Buyer’s Agent (♥ 1st Time Home Buyers), Relocation, Listing Agent, New Construction. As an agent at Cope & Associates Realty and Auction, LLC 615-384-7500 Renee offers old fashioned customer service, using leading edge technology. Call me! I’m at your service!! 615-943-7384 Cell *** #gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Growing home sales 3D illustration – real estate market

Houses in a village, Ring Of Kerry, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland

beautiful country home

contemporary american house, recently constructed

contemporary american house, recently constructed

contemporary american house, recently constructed

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Starting the Search for Your Dream Home? Here Are 5 Tips! Simplifying the Market™ In today’s real estate market, low inventory dominates the conversation in many areas of the country.

[advancetotraining]

How Do I know There Are Active Links in the PDF file that was Just Saved From MS Word?

I recently did an article entitled

MS Word 2007-365 - Using The Hyperlink Feature When Setting Your Cross References...

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/advancetoclassesandmaterials/698557522262556673

The essence of the article went through properly inserting cross references so that not only do you have hyperlink capability in the MS Word document but also in the PDF document if it were requested that it be converted with hyperlink capability.

So the question that came up was after one converts the document, how will the attorney know that the hyperlinks work because I no longer see the grey shading that I had when I was in my MS Word Doc.

So, you went through the entire document and as requested, set the cross references.

As anticipated, the attorney decided that they want the client to receive a PDF version of the document with active hyperlinks.

When you set the cross references in MS Word, you made sure that you checked the “Insert as Hyperlink” section in the Cross Reference Dialog Box.

You now saved the MS Word file as a PDF.

When the attorney receives the PDF he/she will go to the first cross reference to check that they are active. Anywhere he/she places the cursor on the screen that is NOT a hyperlink the attorney will see a “full hand” icon. When the attorney places the cursor over an area with a live hyperlink the “full hand” will turn over to a “pointer finger”. That is how the hyperlink areas are identified within the PDF.

Training From An Inside Perspective....

Basic-Advanced MS Office Legal and Corporate 2007-365 Training

You can contact us at

888-422-0692 Ext. 1 and 2

International Zoom based training as well.

www.advanceto.com

www.awalkinthecenter.com

Email:

Louis@advanceto.com

Students@advanceto.com

Hey Students: AdvanceTo is offering a class based on the 3 volume set “A Walk In The Center”. During this class, we will go through the 4 separate assignments of Volume 1 and put them together piece by piece. The documents contained in the second and third volume are strongly within the intermediate/advanced level and we offer those two volumes as classes as well. M

The class is designed to get one used to working in a top tier Word Processing Center Environment. We will go through the class as if we are taking care of the documentation that has been dropped off into the center to be processed. You will learn a lot of new jargon, technique, strategy formatting and styling which you can then use to your advantage whether you are a WP Center Operator, a Secretary or Paralegal. This class is designed to strongly increase the depth of your knowledge as to working with MS Word and Microsoft Office. You will be that much more comfortable with editing, creating and formatting documents.

This 4.5 hour hands on Zoom or Phone class cost 175.00. Those who purchase 2 or more classes (of any type), will be given a discount. All groups receive a discount.

You can check out www.awalkinthecenter.com to read about the “Walk In The Center Type Class”. On our main site www.AdvanceTo.com, we offer Basic through Advanced MS Office, Adobe/Nuance training as well as Outlook. All classes offered by AdvanceTo include great narrative material and as well as homework.

[itsmyrayeraye-blog]

A Few Quick Tips to Help You Find the Best SEO Company

In our planet SEO needs no introduction. Carrying away technical SEO for local research engines is really a comparable process. These aspects may involve websites content technique and its user relevance, SEO optimisation, length of time since on the web presence was established and more. A good starting point whenever using keywords for SEO will be to identify existing pages that will can use some optimization. You can review your page's SEO health, evaluate SEO metrics for a quantity of pages, and analyze each external and internal links upon any given web page. But, I'm quite certain that by the end associated with 2020, voice search will end up being very common, and you will have a lot of talks going on in the particular SEO world on how in order to optimize the content to get a tone of voice search, similar how it's today about mobile. But there is definitely another significant SEO trend through the rise of voice queries. The brandname is powerful for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION even though it may not really be a specific ranking element.

On the similar note, great SEO articles needs keywords but if a person overdo it, Google and individual visitors will hate it. Wanting to keep a healthy keyword thickness of 1-2% is recommended. SEO is usually optimizing digital documents for individuals who use search engines. Search engines has stated publicly they think brands” are good for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, as people trust them plus want to see them offered in search results. Once we appear ahead to SEO in 2018, discover our predictions for exactly what we think will be one particular of Google's biggest years however for search. Meta explanation plays a major role within search engine rating of your post so composing an SEO friendly meta explanation is essential for ranking element. SEO is not just about building search engine-friendly websites. When you're working on SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, you need to be conscious of the existing factors that will influence your ranking. We might like to increase visibility, all of us want it to look in Lookup Engine Results Page (SERP), All of us should go with these alleged SEO techniques. The proximity of your local business's address to the centroid can have a large role to play in the Local SEO ranking positions for your business. I possess two. 5 + years of knowledge in Internet Marketing and have got strong understanding of an Web Marketing like Search Engine Marketing (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Cell phone SEO, Ecommerce SEO, WordPress. A a lot more recent post appealing is entitled This Changes Everything: How AI Is Transforming Digital Marketing” The particular blogger notes that SEO is definitely the subset of digital advertising most affected by artificial cleverness (AI) with Google changes causing consumer metrics to become some associated with the most important ranking indicators. Nowadays mobile-friendliness of a website will be now considered as a significant lookup ranking factor and one need to know that mobile site offers an impact on your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking. Meta keywords would be the minimum priority in ranking factors within SEO. Together with the ever-changing lookup engine algorithms goes the ever-evolving search engine optimization (SEO) exercise. The use of tone of voice search technology is the cause why voice search SEO will certainly be so popular in 2018. By perfect I not just mean SEO-wise but also content-wise like this article, so you keep people on the site and also generate business from this. Send me a topic via email and I'll write something to suit your needs. Once you are into SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, Google Zero rank or amount one spot is basically the particular favorite location for everyone. As SEO guidelines evolve, the very unlikely ranking hack will be emerging. SEO helps to make a great image for the website simply by creating blogs, adding to fresh material and new site hyperlinks towards the website to create it remain active on various search platforms. Most people in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (myself included) divide keywords directly into three main categories: head, entire body and the (long) tail. Now you should to finish off this off-page SEO techniques guide. In the success story associated with a website, both design plus search engine optimization (SEO) have fun with an important role as their own work is vital for the successful online presence. Since the onset associated with Google's Knowledge Graph SEO's about the globe are typically in a craze marking up their websites along with semantic markup. As it is usually still the beginning of 2018, it will be exciting in order to find out these and additional SEO trends emerge as the particular year progresses. This is just going to be a little more popular therefore an SEO prediction for 2018 is that websites that normally are not reachable by voice searches may lose some of their search positions. What SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION does in a nutshell is usually convert all your web or even forum pages into a great deal more user friendly links, which usually in turn can then become indexed by search engines very much easier and faster. In essence that without proper keyword research, you simply cannot nail local on-page SEO - or any type of SEO for instance. This SEO offpage technique involves submission of content and websites on high quality webpages to get authoritative backlinks. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION may generate a sufficient come back on investment However, search motors are not covered organic lookup traffic, their algorithms change, plus there are no guarantees associated with continued referrals. The increase in Voice Searcher will need hard work simply by SEO experts. Therefore, it would end up being a good ploy to make use of effective SEO methods to increase your own website traffic FAST. We've gone heavy on off-page SEO techniques revolving around articles. SEO trends that a person could use in 2018 in order to rank your page online are usually brand loyalty. The best possible presence originates from SEO marketing techniques geared toward mobile searches. So really time for you to gray the lights, cue the spectacular movie trailer voice and get ready, as next year within SEO is looking pretty highly advanced. This shows how slow local businesses have been around the web in updating to SEO and web technological updates. SEO is important as this will certainly make your website relevant in order to your keywords throughout the lookup engine ranking process and will certainly lead to improved search motor ranking. Many spamming sites have the tendency to make use of such Black Hat SEO procedures. From targeting the right keywords using Google Keyword Adviser to sharing valuable information- content material marketing was and will continually be one of the most essential SEO trends for a lengthy time to come. Whilst classical techniques will continue in order to be effective, the SEO tendencies and tactics mentioned on this particular page can significantly change the particular way we perform search motor optimization. Content marketing and advertising is maturing and trying away infographics and video marketing may just add value for your own SEO techniques. ⭐ One of the best strategies adopted by businesses nowadays is an SEO focused content material strategy. John - we have around one, 000 video podcast episodes, plus currently kicking off a restore in our site specifically to enhance our SEO (we've decided really easier to rebuild than in order to try to fix our frankenstein monster).

Updates searching algorithms and within people's searching patterns and the particular mobile over desktop preferences are usually changing the nature of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. The remedy to this question is in order to create a YouTube channel plus make video content using movie SEO strategies. It's also a great idea to start your strategy to SEO with On-Page given that you have much more handle of your own website's problems, so you'll be able in order to eventually begin a successful linkbuilding campaign on a website that will is well-structured and provides useful information to its users. I feel that specialized SEO mistakes that affect examine budget - and also dirty Google with non-SEO-friendly content like as social landing pages, Wp media archives, offer pages plus cloned e-commerce product pages : will have a more harmful impact on sites moving forwards. For us SEOs it hasn't been within getting traffic to our websites regarding several years and, for Search engines, it's not profitable. She provides some awesome tips on SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION for voice search, including thinking of how people ask questions plus understanding local queries and intention. Moreover, when it comes to Nearby SEO, long-tail keywords become also more important. Nearby SEO will play a excellent role in mobile searches is usually all about content. That's why optimizing your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION technique for voice search nowadays is of vital importance. To rest guaranteed that the right SEO Firm has been selected, the earlier projects must be looked with. See the ranks of the projects on the particular top search engines. Adapting to tone of voice search in your SEO technique calls for careful attention in order to the keywords you try in order to rank for. To put it briefly, content and hyperlinks will still be the developing blocks of SEO in 2018. From the above-mentioned information, crafting link-worthy content seemed in order to be the winning choice, since chosen by 35. 2% associated with the 100+ participants as properly as the close runner-up choice came out to become -- guest blogging on sites along with high Domain Authority for constructing reliable backlinks gaining 30. 8%. Outreaching top influencers of the particular niche to write articles and insert links in this; bagged the support of twenty one. 3% of the SEO experts, whereas the option of damaged backlink although being highly efficient in white-hat SEO practices obtained the selection rate of twelve. 7% of the total sharers in the survey. Causing, new SEO trends of 2018 are evolved. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION today, particularly link building, is focused on relationships because ranking highly needs quality links from authoritative sites. Well presently there are more than enough affects of SEO but the almost all worth mentioning impacts of this are typically consisted of elevated website visibility, availability of natural traffic, rapid sales volume, consistent return on investment (ROI), inexpensive business promotion and marketing, improved website exposure and awareness, enduring business identity development, and aggressive edge over the other companies in the global marketplace. Power Suggestion: Like with a blog write-up, I've found that you obtain a slight video SEO increase by putting your keyword in the beginning of the name. The good news is definitely that there are plenty associated with excellent tools you can make use of to tackle SEO and get the data you need in order to improve your rankings. Once the article is drafted up, it's time for an SEO check always via Yoast (WordPress Plugin). There are usually many guides out there upon the web which can end up being found quite easy using Search engines like a search tool to discover them, which will explain just how you can SEO your web site yourself "DIY". But more than time, SEOs have identified a few of the factors they think about when ranking a page. Another post of curiosity might be this one: nine Ways to Use Heatmaps in order to Improve Your SEO” Ways outlined include to determine the perfect length of your articles plus its structure, to improve inner links, and to boost sales. It's a complicated and frequently expensive process but, as along with social listening, the goal will be for SEO experts, business experts, and entrepreneurs to be capable to map how websites web page link to one another and extrapolate larger SEO trends and development opportunities. User encounter signals are a major SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking factor once your articles reaches the very first web page of Google. Within short, content and links may still be the foundation associated with SEO in 2018. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is known as the steps you get to make sure you are usually ranked highly in the lookup engines like google when somebody searches for a related term, such as "how to quit my dog from barking". Hopefully this article has assisted inform you of all the particular things you need to understand about the upcoming SEO styles for 2018! These are a few associated with the SEO trends which may yield greater results in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION in 2018. In reaction, she lists multiple SEO common myths related to content and attempts to clear them up in order to ensure that people can advantage from the best of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION without needing to deal along with the dregs. Clearly, there are a quantity of new SEO trends shifting to the forefront in 2018. SEO at the end associated with the day will always depend on content and links. Thus, SEO strategy will certainly try to create a back-link profile to avoid spamming within 2018 and yes, backlink will certainly remain an important key in order to making your company rank upon top in search ranking. Off-page SEO services assist customers to boost their visitors, increase brand awareness, helps a person to reach the target market and maximise your(ROI). Off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is the act of customization your brand's on the internet and offline to get high quality backlinks that help to position high on Google along with other Lookup Engine's. These types of SEO Trends of 2018 are usually ruling the digital world. Key word density is really a main thing in SEO optimization, however, to increase the density a person cannot ruin the quality associated with the content. In 2018, your SEO success won't rely on how well you improve your site for Google. Movie marketing, infographics, link building had been among the most talked SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends for quite a whilst now, however if you possess limited yourself with only individuals may not earn you advantages that are to be provided by other effective methods that will you might not have identified. Search engines nearly makes possible for breaking the code of its web page ranking algorithm, continually updated in order to accommodate a thousand different problems, which will be the problem for SEO professionals this season and in the coming many years.

For instance, pictures to show which you got best position on Google's first web page for high competitive keywords might definitely help to talk regarding the search engines optimization (SEO) tool. More significantly, you can track exactly exactly how much traffic, leads, and clients you are getting via Nearby SEO and organic search visitors. Rankwatchโ€ A simple SEO Management Platform with geo-specific results allowing users to optimize their local SEO. On-Page SEO is the particular practice of optimizing various internet pages for high rank plus earning more relevant traffic looking engines. In 2018, SEO's need to answer this question: Would I actually be carrying this out if search motors didn't exist? Google's mentioned mission has been to supply worth to users, and this furthermore lies at the core associated with great SEO. Showing up during these lookup features is critical for productive SEO in 2018. Businesses, therefore, need to align their work frame plus campaigns that complement the most recent SEO updates If you are usually searching for optimizing your internet site that speaks the true vocabulary of internet marketing, e mail us We all will be there to help you.

All of us make reference to them because ranking factors, plus they are usually the focus of an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy. Be conscious that this is actually the particular only possible way to actually lose rankings, because if within desktop search we have noticeable content material and pages that were thrown away within our mobile version, whenever mobile-first deploys, it will reduce that SEO visibility. Prior to going cloud, LTP was currently one of the most well-known keyword research tools in the particular SEO field. Finally, Amazon will dominate e-commerce questions SEO 2019 Slide in 2018 via Alexa tone of voice, touch, and other innovative interfaces, leaving many e-commerce SEOs to target in on the content-side associated with their marketing. The huge array of search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques are typically organized under two umbrellas: black head wear and white hat. Making it relevant to these search queries and optimizing the particular blogs to align with these search algorithms would be the big win in stay forward of the SEO game within 2018.

Unfortunately, SEO - plus search in general - will be typically soloed into focusing upon The Google” and not actually considered for other tactics. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is all about providing proprietors with a positive content encounter on the right moment in their own user journey across different systems and devices. Whichever SEO trends plus techniques you choose to make use of, it's important to keep within mind that whatever your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION approach is the underlying objective is definitely an informative plus enjoyable user experience. For this to take place a variety of local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies, have to be applied to get the site rated on search engines like Search engines, business directories such as Yelp, Superpages, Google My Business position etc. But before we speak more about how they function, here's what SEOs mean whenever talking about links. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and SEM will continue in order to shift as major search motors like google are continually transforming their parameters for rankings. This enables you to react quickly within case of unwanted new inbound links, and therefore avoid common SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques like negative SEO assaults. SpyFu is the paid tool that uses eleven years of historical data in order to assist you find your competitors' most profitable keywords and the particular keywords they've utilized for SEO plus ads. Hence, a person would not like to disregard the importance of content marketing within your SEO strategy 2018. While that theory will be sound (when focused on a single page, when the intent is usually to deliver utility content in order to a Google user) using aged school SEO techniques on specifically a large site spread away across many pages seems in order to amplify site quality problems, right after recent algorithm changes, and therefore this type of optimisation with out keeping an eye on general site quality is self-defeating within the long run. 1. I do not think Google uses the content within the comments as an on-page SEO signal. That's why SEOs are usually starting to element in the objective behind each search query plus optimize the content and consumer experience accordingly. As Bing's Duane Forrester said, all SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Ranking signals revolve around content material of some kind” highlighting the particular impact good content has upon your internet site. Coming up with clean and unique ideas day within day out is incredibly tough, however necessary to keep your own site not only relevant plus engaging for the audience, yet optimized for search engines such as google. Soon after this article focused around a major on-page SEO factors that will impact the search ecosystem was published by Google, a debate about prominent Offpage SEO trends that can disrupt the world of SEO in 2018 sparked in the industry. Nonetheless, auditing your competitors SEO gives you new ideas on how you can grow your local business, improve its SEO, target new keywords, and beat your competition in the process of doing so. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION involves communicating aboutness” in the specific context to both individual users and technology. Here are Top five SEO trends and techniques intended for 2018 to boost search motor ranking that you must maintain in mind. Google is definitely constantly rolling out updates in order to its search engine algorithm… plus while the basics of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION will never change, you need to make use of updated tactics to get your own website ranking higher in the particular search results. However, before we get to our main event, I must note that after our 2017 edition of SEO trends launched last year on Search Engine Journal, we heard a couple of complaints about just how long it was. Utilized by more than 3 mil websites, Yoast SEO is the particular only SEO plugin that a person will ever need to create your content appear on SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Mobile SEO, within my opinion, will dominate SEO styles in 2018. While the core SEO procedures won't change too much, the particular way we do keyword analysis and form our strategies may. Keywords would be the basis of SEO. Then upon your post and pages the particular Yoast SEO plugin now provides a section to type within your meta keywords as noticed in the example below.

[muitindia]

Raising Legal Age of Marriage for Women

The Parliament increased the minimum age for marriage realizing the urge to evolve the law according to the changing times and evolution of the society. Women should be given equal opportunity to earn and be equal to men but the same is not possible when the women’s marriageable age is not at par with men’s. All in all this legislation The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 brings out the importance of gender parity backed by the social acceptance that women of today’s era are equal in all aspects be it socially, culturally or even economically. Recently in this context, the Parliament had debated on the bill, which raised the age of legal marriage for women from 18 to 21, shall apply to all communities in the country and, once enacted, will supersede existing marriage and personal laws. The Bill was introduced in LokSabha by Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Women and Child Development. Irani said the proposed legislation was secular. “All women from all faiths, under Hindu Marriage Act or the Muslim Personal Law, should get equal rights to marry,” she said.

The difference of marriageable age between men and women has no scientific reason, or logic behind it rather seems to have a misogynistic approach that perpetrates de jure and de facto inequality against women. Almost all the statutes like the Indian Christian Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, the Special Marriage Act, the Hindu Marriage Act, and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act were responsible for the discriminatory bar. The proposal for equal marriageable age, i.e. to raise the age for marriage for women was made based on recommendations by the 10 member Task Force Committee that was headed by former Samata Party leader, Jaya Jaitley set up by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.  Emphasizing the importance of gender parity, equality and empowerment, she contended that the same cannot begin if there are some age differences. If the voting age is the same then marriageable age should be the same as well.

Also read – Things That You Should Know About Law as A Field of Study

Our society has duly accepted some socially wrong attributes and has been comfortable without realizing its unreasonableness and vagueness. Even in some rural areas, the most righteous women are those who just stay at home and reproduce children and there is no need for them to be given the opportunity to study and add to the national wealth of the country. It is not fair for girls to get tied up. The only way we can stop girls from becoming a financial burden is to help them earn.

The Parliament relied upon a judgment, Independent Thought v. Union of India, WP Civil No. 381 of 2013, wherein the Supreme Court had laid down importance on the evolution of law stating that “law cannot be hidebound and static. It has to evolve and change with the needs of society.” It held that, “the state is entitled and empowered to fix the age of consent.Although the State enjoys the freedom to make reasonable classification but while making any classification it must be able to justify that the particular classification has been made with the intention of achieving a certain end. The classification must have a reasonable nexus with the object sought to be achieved. Further, it was important for the Centre to take appropriate steps to remove the anomalies in the minimum age of marriage and make it ‘gender-neutral, religion-neutral and uniform for all citizens’ in the spirit of the fundamental rights of equality and right to life and various International conventions.

Also read – 5 Obstacles Faced by Every Law Student and How to Overcome them

Further, it was also enumerated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, for example, covers the right to protection from child marriage in Article 16, which states: “The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage….”

Although marriage is not mentioned directly in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, child marriage is linked to other rights – such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to protection from all forms of abuse, and the right to be protected from harmful traditional practices – and is frequently addressed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Despite the enactment of ‘The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, which was later replaced by the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, to prohibit solemnization of child marriage, this pernicious practice is still not completely eradicated from our society. Bringing in reforms as part of the evolution of the society such changes that fulfill the urge of gender-based equality is quintessential after years of independence. The enactment of a Uniform Civil Code could enhance equality before the law but it would undermine the individual’s right to freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.

The question of the right marriageable age does not only impact gender neutrality or equality but other social attributes too. Maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, as well as improvement of nutritional levels and sex ratio at birth as these, would promote possibilities of responsible parenthood for both father and mother. The equal age in marriage will lead to parents that are equally responsible for their child at all levels which is an important phenomenon in today’s era.

Child marriage often compromises a girl’s development by resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupting her education, limiting her opportunities for career and vocational advancement and placing her at increased risk of domestic violence.

After the enactment of this bill into the act, this will empower women to be equal to a man, which also gives a positive move in the field of national development.

source

[loreweaver-universe]

The first time I killed a man, I swore I'd never do it again.

We're more than just the sum of our experiences.  People, I mean; there's always that core of who you are, whether you're human, andlarian, an eighth-dimensional overbeing from the planet Klaaarg or just an uplifted, intelligent dog. I guess it's probably what you'd call a soul.

Your experiences shape that, mold it and twist it every which way; in another life, Steadfast might have been an insurance salesman, or Revenant a waitress, or Kinetic a soldier.  Instead: Paragon.  Avenger.  Scientist.

Superhero.

Your experiences may not be the be-all, end-all of your existence, but they play a role in who you are in this life...and I can take that all away.

I discovered my abilities as a child.  I was able to take...moments, from people.  That candy bar I'd walked out of the store with.  That chore I never did.  I was an entitled little brat, to be honest, but none of that part of my life really stuck with me.  A haze of childish hedonism, taking advantage of everyone I could get my hands on.   (Literally.  That's how my powers work.)

The first time I killed a man, it was my father.

He'd started to piece things together.  Missing moments, missing tidbits that he remembered but my mother didn't, or vice versa.  I'd had a good run--I was fifteen at that point--but I was a child, sloppy and careless.  One night when my mother was out, he confronted me.  I, being the arrogant, self-centered little shit that I was, tried to reach him, to make him forget the whole thing.

He grabbed a knife.

The details of the scuffle were unimportant, really.  He didn't get to take many swings at me before I got my hand on the back of his head. What I remember most clearly about that fight was what happened after: my father, confused, frightened, and entirely unaware of who he was, who I was, who he had been.  I took his whole life after high school away from him, and so the man who raised me was as good as dead.

He ran.  I did, too.

I don't know what my mother thought when she came home to find us both gone.  I know my father eventually turned up at his childhood home, confused and scared, and eventually had one too many nervous breakdowns and jumped from a thirtieth-story office.

Steadfast caught him before he hit the ground, but the light had gone out inside of him.  He made it two more years before drinking himself to death.

As for me...it goes back to a blur.  I didn't accomplish anything worthwhile in my late teens and early twenties.  I stole, I took advantage, I lived for me.  What else could I have done?  What else should I have done?

The second time I killed a man, I found out the answer to that question.

Firebug was a small-timer, in the grand scheme of things, but to me, he was the most frightening man in the world.  I happened to be in the lobby when he decided to hold up a bank.  I watched him burn frightened tellers, people I'd been fooling for months into helping me live in the lap of luxury, and I did nothing.  I watched him burn terrified hostages, and I did nothing.  I watched him turn on a wailing toddler, watched him flick that gaudy lighter he used to kick-start his flames, watched--

--I watched his arm fall to his side, the lighter clattering to the ground, his eyes meeting mine through those horrible tinted goggles of his, the confusion and fear playing across his face as I pulled his head back, until--

--until the light went out, and Firebug was gone.

The hostages ran.  I did, too.

I kept his stupid lighter, though.

I remember...I remember the shame of it.  Like I'd done something wrong by saving all those people.  I remember running from myself as much as from fear of recognition.  I remember...I woke up, days later, in a puddle of drool and vomited pills, and decided it was time to be someone new.

The third time I killed a man, I was as kind about it as I could be, considering the circumstances.

Doctor Kringle, to be quite frank, (and I am), didn't deserve it.  He was a real bastard, and only a real bastard would have hit on the theme of being an evil Santa.  Of all things, an evil Santa.  He couldn't even name himself something clever, or Krampus-themed, or any of that.  No, he'd dress up like Saint Nick, ghost himself into people's houses, give their children exploding presents or poisoned cookies, and then disappear.  He'd hit a few dozen homes each Christmas night and then vanish, and the American superhero community was running itself ragged after two consecutive Christmases of his heinousness.   They were finally zeroing in on his base of operations.  It was sheer luck that I got to him first.

The damnedest thing about Doctor Kringle was that he looked for all the world like that jolly-faced white-bearded corporate-controlled goofball image that was the modern-day representation of Saint Nicholas.  He looked the part, and so...

I found him through some old friends of mine, friends who quickly forgot I'd ever been there.  I snuck in while he was out buying groceries.  I hid in a maintenance closet under a pile of spare Santa costumes, and when he went to sleep that night, he never woke up.

Well, Doctor Kringle never did, anyways.  Christopher Freudenberger woke up just fine, in a motel ten miles down the road, with no memory of his crimes, or his abusive parents, or his failed attempt at starting a candy store in his youth.  All he remembered was that children were joyful and innocent, and that all he really wanted to be was Santa Claus for them.

He embraced his new life wholeheartedly.  I did, too.

I wasn't responsible for every disappearing supervillain.   Some of them were killed by their own plots, some retired or gave up, some just decided to melt back into the population and pretend nothing had ever happened.  Me, though?  I took down dozens over the years, from nobodies like Billy the Squid all the way on up to heavy-hitters like the first Earthmover.  Still don't think I did a great job with that one--you all found him pretty quickly after I got him.  I'm not gonna blame you for hauling him off to Faraday; the man'd held whole cities hostage before.  Still...I was pretty proud of having successfully shifted him over to wanting to start a family and settle down.

I hear his daughter's stirring up trouble in New York, these days.   Maybe you should look into her before she causes some real damage.

Yeah, I can see you out there, Steadfast.  You always were terrible at blending into the background, even in civilian clothes.  I know you can hear me through the walls, and I...want to thank you for letting me finish this recording.  It's terrible, to be forgotten.  I should know.

Still, maybe I'm not as forgotten as I thought I was.  This morning's paper, for instance.  That article by Kinetic's reporter friend was a gripping read, and it's really good to know that you heroes never stop looking into the unsolved cold cases.  Learning about the ongoing mystery surrounding the brain-death of small-time supervillain Firebug and the disappearance of his longtime partner Oblivion, well...

Sometimes, I wish I could forget that day.  I suppose in some ways I already have, but they were important ways.  Ways that made me who I am now.  The things I'm missing, I didn't need.  They made me...someone different.  Forgetting who Oblivion really was made me...better.  Reading this article just highlights the cruelty and callousness of my youth, and that, too, is something I don't need anymore.  I'd really like to forget it.  Until today, I already had.

I already threw the paper in the fireplace.  Used Firebug's stupid lighter to start the fire, too, and I'm now certain that this isn't the first time I've done that over the years.  I'm not asking everyone else to forget about Oblivion, you see; I'm just asking that you let me forget him.  In fact, all it takes is for me to grip the back of my head, like this--

[spiritualvirago]

How Attractive, Confident, Independent Women Intimidate Men

How attractive, confident, independent women intimidate men? Well, let's ask a man. In indie rapper Immortal Technique's song "You Never Know," he shares the story of an attractive, confident, independent woman who intimidated men (him included). In addition, to writing her a song, the music video shows him as an old man pulling out a love letter from her that he has saved for decades. Certainly, he married this woman, right? No. Was her boyfriend then? No. At least tried to make love to her? Also, no. It's the perfect example of what continues to happen to women just like us year after year. Let's examine a few excerpts from the song:

"She was on her way to becomin' a college graduate/ Wouldn't even stop to talk to the average kid/ The type of Latina I'd sit and contemplate marriage with/ Fuck the horse and carriage shit, her love was never for hire/ Disciplined, intellectual beauty is what I desire/ Flyer than Salma Hayek or Jennifer Lopez/ Everyone told me, kickin' it to her was hopeless." "'I'm not even interested' is what her body language would say/ Everyone around the way gave up tryin' to get in it/ It didn't matter how good your game was, she wasn't with it/ On the block, bitches was jealous but wouldn't admit it." "She spoke intelligently and they bit it, always tryin' to copy/ But when they tried to use her vocab, they sounded sloppy/ She had a style, all her own, respectful and pure/ I was sick in the head for her, and there wasn't a cure." "We talked about power to the people and such/ We spent more time together, but it was never enough/ I never tried to sneak a touch or even cop a feel/ I was too interested in keepin' it real/ Perfectly honest and complete/ She would always call me 'cariño' and never Technique/ Bought me a new book to read every two or three weeks." "Ended up locked up like an animal for a year Where the C.O.'s talk to you like they were the overseer Then I got sent to the hole when my exit was near At night in my cell, I'd close my eyes and I'd see her Hold her close in my dreams, but when I woke she disappeared." "Fuckin' lots of different women, but I still felt alone/ Relatively well-known around the New York underground/ But I kept thinkin' of her and how we used to be down/ The sound of her voice, and the beautiful smell of her hair." "Technique don't fuckin' fall in love with people/ Hold the person that you love closely if they're next to you/ The one you love, not the person that'll simply have sex with you/ Appreciate them to the fullest extent and then beyond/ ‘Cause you never really know what you got until it's gone." https://genius.com/Immortal-technique-you-never-know-lyrics     A MAN'S SOCIAL PROGRAMMING "Get comfortable with being alone. It will empower you." -Jonathan Tropper In an article entitled "Most Men Are Cowards, But Too Cowardly to Admit It," author Paul Hudson writes: "Men set ridiculous and stupid expectations for themselves and then do all they can to hide their inability to live up to them. Men aren’t evil bastards; they’re stupid bastards who are too cowardly to admit how cowardly they really are. When did fear become a bad thing? When was it that we decided that the most basic of evolutionary traits was something that was to be overcome and avoided? Instead of being seen as advantageous, fear in man is believed to be a weakness. This backwards way of thinking is the reason why the world is constantly in a state of war." https://www.elitedaily.com/life/culture/men-cowards-cowardly-admit/643275 In the song, what is Immortal Technique's reason for never even attempting to touch this woman he's desperately in love with (just talking)? He claims he wanted to "keep it real." It is completely normal and natural for a man who is in love with a woman to pursue her. Nobody thinks sharing the physical expression of their mutual love for one another is a cop-out. It's one of the greatest joys and blessings in life, in fact. Saying that he is "keeping it real" is one of the typical tried-and-true justifications men give for not pursuing women who scare them (coupled with intense feelings for these women that also scare them). Dating coach veteran Katja Rembrandt validates that it is harder for successful women to find a partner due to this social construct of modern masculinity. “It is tougher because it takes a very confident man who probably isn't on the same rung of the corporate ladder, not to be intimidated. Very ambitious and very capable women are still very scary for the majority of men.” https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/dating-expert-explains-why-it-s-harder-for-successful-women-to-find-love-20180805-p4zvo6.html

In the book The Love Gap, Jenna Birch explains, "Until men can provide for a family...they don’t feel comfortable dating seriously or making a lifelong commitment. And no matter how much men say they want an equal partner (a woman who’s smart and independent), studies find that such women often make men feel emasculated or inferior." Birch told the Washington Post that, "There’s a lot of survey data that said men were really into these smart career women. But I looked around at who was struggling with dating, and they tended to be that type. If this type of woman is the dream girl, then why are they having so many problems?" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soloish/wp/2018/02/02/men-say-they-want-smart-successful-women-so-why-do-these-women-have-trouble-dating/ Well, Birch discovered in writing her book that something known as "psychological distance" may come into play. Essentially, psychological distance is when an idea feels good in the abstract, but when one encounters it in the flesh and blood, it loses its appeal. Her research revealed that men liked the concept of dating what Immortal Technique called a "disciplined, intellectual beauty" from a distance, but, in reality, it was not appealing to them.   "A LADY IN THE STREET BUT A FREAK IN THE BED..." "In solitude, the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself." -Laurence Sterne The Madonna/Whore Complex (or it is sometimes called "Madonna/Whore Dichotomy") is when men believe that a woman can be either good (nurturing mother, helpful nurse, kind school teacher) or bad (someone who enjoys sex, wears sexy clothing, has a high number of sex partners) but not both. This concept, in a nutshell, says that men find it difficult to see a woman as both "motherly" and "sexy" at the same time. Rapper Usher famously sang in his song "Yeah" that he wants "a lady in the street but a freak in the bed" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxBSyx85Kp8--this is the Madonna/Whore Complex. Let me explain it another way: some women are fuckable--freaks (women in sexy clothes with a high number of sex partners); some women are lovable--ladies (educated, classy, smart, conservatively dressed). Immortal Technique spends the entire first verse telling us how the woman in his song is clearly a "lovable lady." Any surprise that he brags about "fucking a lot of different women" but never had sex with the one that mattered? Any surprise that, in the last verse, he distinguishes between "the one you love, not the person that'll simply have sex with you"? Of course not.   WHERE DOES "MARRYING UP" LEAVE TOP WOMEN? "If you want to be strong, learn to enjoy being alone." -Buddhist saying

So let's talk about the pink elephant in the living room here...why is the heroine in Immortal Technique's song turning her nose up at all the guys coming on to her but she develops a friendship and ultimately falls in love with one who ends up getting arrested and going to jail? Why is she buying him books or borrowing on his behalf from the library? He made it pretty clear to us that this young lady could have whoever she wanted, right? Well, it actually makes perfect sense. I remember learning about something called "marrying up" in one of my Sociology classes. Historically, men tend to marry women with less social status than them, such as less-educated, younger women with less money and less impressive careers (or no careers). Likewise, women prefer "marrying up" (men with more education, more money, better jobs, and older than them). This has been the system since the dawn of time. Unfortunately, it leaves women of the highest social status and men of the lowest social status chronically single. Ladies, we have all dated men from this category at one point or another. We tend to beat ourselves up about it, but, in reality, there are very good reasons why the most amazing women are often involved with the least amazing men--beyond just their on-going availability (see the chart to the left). First of all, bottom men have absolutely nothing to lose by approaching top women. They are expecting to be shot down. Psychologist and coach Perpetua Neo told Business Insider that successful women are willing to put in hard work and effort--when it comes to making partner at the firm or dating a "fixer-upper" guy. While a pink collar woman might think, "He's not working? I need a guy who can help me. No way," a white collar woman might think, "He's not working? It's so hard to find a job after graduation. I can ride it out until he gets hired on somewhere." https://www.businessinsider.com/why-intelligent-and-high-performing-women-fall-for-toxic-partners-2019-7?r=MX&IR=T#1-high-performance-women-are-willing-to-put-in-the-work-1 What some think of as this woman "giving too much," the top woman probably thinks of as "trying hard," something for which she is typically praised. Now let's take into consideration the "masculine social programming" experienced by bottom men. Unfortunately, the pressures of masculine performance are eating at these guys the most, which turns a lot of them into narcissists. Bobbi Palmer of Date Like a Grownup told the Huff Post, "These pathologically self-centered guys want a strong woman who has a lot to give...these types of men look for women who can constantly stroke their 'surprisingly fragile' egos. They also want someone 'steady and strong' they can count on to take care of them--particularly someone empathetic to attend to their 'child-like needs' and someone smart who they can prove they're even smarter. They also tend to want self-sufficient women so they don't actually have to take care of the woman's needs..." https://www.businessinsider.com/why-intelligent-and-high-performing-women-fall-for-toxic-partners-2019-7?r=MX&IR=T#1-high-performance-women-are-willing-to-put-in-the-work-1 Furthermore, bottom men are often alpha males--just because they don't have pensions, college degrees, or stand 6'0" tall, doesn't mean they don't have commanding presences. Plus, sex with them is a big no-no, and taboo is a huge turn-on.   LESSONS FROM "SEX & THE CITY" "I want to enjoy my success, not apologize for it." -Miranda, Sex & the City Dating coach Katja Rembrandt says, “Women are groomed to think that the man should have an even better job than them, so he can be the provider, even when she's perfectly capable of being the provider herself. These men are not usually looking for a very ambitious, hardworking, probably overworked wife...99% of the men you want to meet don't want to meet you. They might want to meet you for business contracts, but not as a future partner.” https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/dating-expert-explains-why-it-s-harder-for-successful-women-to-find-love-20180805-p4zvo6.html Ouch! Let's look at the most famous "top women" we all know and love...who did the characters from Sex & the City end up with? Charlotte traded the man in her "box of dreams" (JFK Jr.) for someone still super successful, just not famous or GQ-esque, Harry. By focusing on his qualities (loving, caring, supportive) instead of his credentials (bald, short, not a celebrity), she found someone she truly loved. Miranda traded her dream man (Jon Stewart from the "Daily Show") for a patient, caring bartender who first broke up with her because he was intimidated by her money. It took Steve about 2 years to move past that, but he got there (opening his own bar helped). Despite all of Samantha's efforts to not let her on-going boy toy Smith hold her hand in public or call her his girlfriend, in the end, his unfaltering love, support, and care turned the tide. He was working several part-time waiter and caterer jobs when they met and was two decades younger.

Some say that couples must choose between "being right or being in love," but for modern bad ass single women the choice looks more like, "Do you want to be coupled up or do you want to wait for Mr Big"? Carrie and Mr. Big dated on and off for ten years before they unceremoniously agreed to marry for asset protection purposes. In John Gray's Mars & Venus on a Date, he lays out some great advice for women on Carrie's path: - understand that it is natural for all men to pull away periodically--it's not about you - uncertainty is a normal, natural phase during the dating process--and some men dwell in uncertainty for years (or, as Miranda would say, they are like taxis driving around with their lights on that never pick up any passengers) - a woman must resist the tremendous urge to start pursuing the man when he stops pursuing her (let him experience the uncertainty), which leads me to the final bulletpoint... - while uncertain men should just focus on one woman at a time to see if he is interested in getting further involved, women in uncertainty should date around and fill up their time with a variety of different guys to see who is most fulfilling and keep expectations low at this point If you want to wait for Mr. Big, you need to understand the above 4 concepts. If waiting is not your bag, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, "Rembrandt encourages women to look for, and appreciate, the value of partners who are willing to support their success rather than compete with it. These men may have lower incomes and lower status. And, no, this isn’t the age-old advice to 'settle.' Settling is when you lower your standards and effectively put your needs second. Finding a man who’s going to support your success is about putting your needs first." https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/dating-expert-explains-why-it-s-harder-for-successful-women-to-find-love-20180805-p4zvo6.html Birch, author of The Love Gap, echoes this sentiment as well, saying, "There were a lot of women in my book who ended up dating men who all their friends and family said: 'Don’t do it. He’s not going to put a label on it. He’s taking forever. He’s so skittish.' But a lot of the women learned that they had to be patient and work through it on an individual level with these guys who were putting so much pressure on themselves to provide, which I thought was really great." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soloish/wp/2018/02/02/men-say-they-want-smart-successful-women-so-why-do-these-women-have-trouble-dating/ HOW TO DEAL WITH BEING AN "INTIMIDATING SINGLE WOMAN" "Being alone has a power that very few people can handle." -Steven Aitchison First of all, let's acknowledge that a really big percentage of the world is completely controlled by their inability to be alone. They are chasing after abusive basement-dwellers, visiting their X's in jail, accepting booty calls from guys who don't give them orgasms back, and so on...all because they can't do what we do. Standing alone takes courage. It is an act of bravery. Remind yourself of this frequently. Also, remember to make gratitude a daily habit. We never have to deal with his snoring, don't have to share the remote, never have embarrassing arguments in public, and never have to cry ourselves to sleep because of some off-hand comment a man made. One of my personal favorite things about being single is that my vibrator has never asked me for a blow job 3 seconds after I come.

I was once involved with a guy 20 years younger than me (one of the perks of being a single M.I.L.F.). We had agreed to have casual sex. There we were sitting in my kitchen, no-strings agreement reached, and nothing happening. He told me he was still too nervous to kiss me and get the ball rollin.' For fuck's sake! I felt like Mrs. Robinson in the phone booth telling Benjamin to give me our hotel room number. The next day we went out with a group of friends, and I saw my "Benjamin" walk right up to some random young lady in the crowd, start dancing with her, and by the 2nd or 3rd song, grab her and kiss her like nothing. Clearly, he had labeled her a non-intimdating "fucakable" woman, and I realized he had a serious crush on me! It used to be, "He's just not that into you." But, for powerful women like us, when a man stalls, postpones a date, or disappears for two weeks, I read that the opposite way--it's just a historical fact. If he's "just not that into me," he'll drop some hints (or just directly ask) for casual sex before disappearing. If he is that into me, he won't. Most "dating rules" were not written for women like us. A/B split test your own rules since the conventional ones most likely don't apply. Like starting out with casual sex and then seeing what develops...this has always been discouraged by dating gurus. In my experience, casual sex can keep him coming back long enough to realize you aren't going to bite his head off like a praying mantis. Just be careful to be honest with yourself about what's happening because he can turn into a deer in headlights at any moment during this phase. Again, John Gray writes in Mars & Venus on a Date: "These women (who remain single) mistakenly approach their relationships with men the way they want men to approach them. They are repelled by the thought of a needy man, so they are very careful not to need a man...They are surprised that their self-reliant attitude does not make them attractive...A woman needs to understand within herself why she may need a man and then learn how to express this vulnerability in a healthy way...The more self-sufficient a woman becomes, the more she hungers for the nurturing support of a man's romantic affections, friendship, and companionship. Women today experience a deep longing to feel the intimate passion that only good communication and romance can provide." (p. Read the full article