#3AM me is my most productive self unfortunately so

[artcupcakes]

TIUR UWYSKDK YOUR FIC!! ART!!!!

DESTROYED BRUHHH

Yes I can already see a lot of improvement in this new fic you wro— YOU USED THE *fist slam PROPER NOUN THING!!!

You worked on your parsing a lil bit, I can see that! I don’t know if you meant it but the contrast between blue screens and “golden light” is metaphorical too?? YEAH I LOVE METAPHORS

“His” no I’m dead op I’m deaaaddd. I use “his” one single time in my fic, that is, when Dallas is being pulled away in that flashback sequence.

“A Mastermind controlling the Controller,” very potent. Hits hard. I like.

In-character internal dialogue: Bain sometimes uses the same word in a different way in a single sentence. Makes a bunch of jokes about gold, too.

OHHH READING BETWEEN THE LINES. Feelings of uselessness, self-depreciation, the works. “For treating him like something valuable,” mirrors stuff that they steal!

(Ch. 3 of my fic says ‘it made him feel important, like he mattered.’ What do they say about great minds, op??)

“RELEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIVING AND SURVIVING” 👏 STANDINNG OVATION FOR THIS LINE YEAH SAY IT LOUDER

Yooo Bain never thought they’d be meeting like this;; he wanted it to go down differently but he’s stuck with this insteAD

So I see a small grammar thingy here.

“It’s” = “it is” while “Its” = akin to “his” or “hers.” If it is a name you’re referring to, it’s “(Name)’s.”

Unless the name ends in the letter S, then just add an apostrophe to show possession/ownership. “Dallas’ medic bag.” (Pronounced ‘Dallas-is,’ kinda stupid)

The use of the one curse word (that I avoid typing) is,, VERY in-character. Bain says that one a bunch, also the one that starts with S. He says the F-bomb on two occasions only. How do I know? ..uhhhhh

MEDIC IS A GOOD NOUN. But also WAIT he learns into his touch? Oh and you use both “protect” and “tumultuous” two times, might want to try “keep” and “conflicting” as substitutes???

HE TELLS HIS NAVIGATOR. WAAAAAAAA

See the word “visions?” It should be “vision’s,” because “his vision is blurry.” No apostrophe suggests that he’s a seer and his visions are fuzzy. Maybe whitehouse should be White House? it’s a building like Taj Mahal, but proper nouns are capitalized? Idk actually I’m just speaking from memory here

HIS PARTNER!!! Mmmmm unlabeled is a juicy word hheeee

A SOFTER ALTERNATIVE!!! DUDE I— YOOOOOOOOO

“All the world's money and yet what Bain wants is forever out of reach,” CLAP CLAP CLAP money can’t buy you happiness, homie!! FAVORITE LINE best summary yeha.

Next line you switch to a ripple metaphor instead? It’s a little jarring and such because you already had something going! The pond?? You didn’t mention a pond yet,, not to say that the metaphors AREN’T good, just that they would be better separate!

I will give you my all, is that a reference to the song? YES there was this thing I wrote before, where Bain gets betrayed by his partner in my friend’s AU. Quote: “he gave him his all, but his all wasn’t enough.”

The tunneling mental vision;; THE FOCUS is like AAAhhhhh it hurts so much,, possessive promouns hhhehhhhuurrttsss but GOOD yeah ANGST

ONly thing that could make it better is that he doesn’t want to burden Dallas with a love confession cus he knows that he’s dying. Wouldn’t that be cruel?

HAHAHAHA *maniacal laughter* KEEP IT UP OP I love getting emotionally demolished

Oh boy this is a long one, so buckle in for the responses under the cut!

Hey I can learn from critiques >;3

Also yes "His" >:). Bain has always been a bit possessive of his crew, so why not bump that shit up.

Also so glad you the little in between the line stuff ^u^

I would say in my defense that I have ADHD and it causes my head to get think farther ahead from what I'm typing(I've spelt 'the' as 'teh' to give an example of this word scrambling) and also it was 3am.

But I edited this shit afterwards. Also that doesn't explain my misuse of comma's later. So I aint got no excuses. XD

But hey apparently I also just don't use hyphens as I should as pointed out by my friend and Beta, so I'm still learning stuff. An example of this was me realizing that I forget spacing a lot. Such as gun smoke being gunsmoke(like the tv show) or each other as eachother.

So I'm still getting the hang of writing with a lot more revision and editing. This is the "first" time I got critique on writing I cared about. (First being the feed backing I'm getting from both this fic and The Revenant Mastermind).

My mom(An English Teacher) tried her best; sadly I'm my daddy's daughter. But I try and that's all that matters lmao

Your avoidances of cursing, whether it be for professional reasons or do to personal taste, is admirable. Like damn that's a lot of self control.

Yeah proper nouns are capitalized, hence why I capitalized Roles, Skills, and other such things in reference to characters such as Medic, Controller, and Mastermind. I guess I just missed that one. Oh well at least it's just the White House and nothing important XD

Partner is vague word I love. Also it has yeehaw energy!

He's so close yet so far from what he want's, like a lot of things in his life. How could I not write that line about the money.

Oh god I never even thought about metaphor set ups, payoffs, and consistency. FUCK! ...Time to go back to one of my almost finished WIPs. Damn.

Listen, I Will Give You My All is technically a Bain song(Technically also a Cloaker song by that logic too but shhh). Also I Will Give You My All 2017 finally after forever dropped on Spotify so I got a little hyped.

The Good Angst PainTM

I kinda implied that he didn't want to confess his love do him dying, but I guess it didn't come across well. Big L on my end lmao.

Me and the boi's emotionally devastating each other with glee

But yeah! Thank you for the feedback! I appreciate it so much when people leave comments or kudos and stuff! Plus you're very nice and polite about your critiques. A rare combo indeed!

So I hope you have a love day ^u^

#DesPaaCeeToeee #3AM me is my most productive self unfortunately so #Example would be my previously mentioned and current WIP which has been for the most part written and edited at night #Which is not ideal considering my beta lives like 5 hours ahead of me give or take #It's You and Only You - Armcannos #Fanfic Feedback #It's You and Only You #AO3 Feedback #My Fanfic #AcWrites #ACresponds #ask #Bain/Dallas #MasterGuide #Bain #Payday #longpost #textpost

[winsomelychic]

Night Time Routine

When I found out I was pregnant, I was given a lot of advice from family. One thing that really resonated with me was creating a “night time routine”. I knew I didn’t want to be someone that had to have their kids in the bath by 7:00 and down by 7:30. (If you are that mother and it works for you, you’re doing awesome), that just wasn’t realistic for us. We have no “routine” at home and knowing my husbands job schedule alters so often, I didn’t want to be tied to a set routine. However, I did want Marleigh to have a loose routine that was consistent to let her know when it was time for bed.

My night time routine is something that I think has been the foundation for Marleigh’s good sleep skills. I might be incorrect but when we skip a bath or forget our sleep sack, I feel like she wakes up more. I never focused on the time we put her down, but more so her cues and the actual steps themselves. Today, I’m going to share with you all my night time routine. If we are home, we start her night schedule when she seems tired. This is usually sometime in between 7pm-9pm! If we are out and about, I start the routine when we get home. If we are on vacation or away from the house, I try to make the environment feel as much like home as I can and go when she is tired. I told y’all - we are really flexible. Marleigh often takes a late afternoon/early evening nap. I try not to let her fall asleep after 5pm and I entertain her to get her wiped out for bed time. Before her night time routine, we play together and get her mind stimulated so she gets really tired!

When we realize it’s time to start our night routine this is what we do:

Step 1: Nurse/ Bottle

Marleigh will show cues that she is tired so I will nurse her as much as I can. I try to make sure she is FULL. Often during this feed, she will get drowsy because she is tired. I will sit her up and switch sides! I want to make sure she eats as much as possible. I used to feed after the bath but after talking to a sleep consultant who suggested I feed first, Marleigh has slept longer in the night. She explained to me that Marleigh was associating nursing to falling asleep, therefore in the middle of the night if she woke up she would need to nurse in order to put herself back to sleep. This little switch in our routine made a world of difference. If you bottle feed, this is perfect time to give a bottle. If it were me, I would alternate who feeds the baby different nights so they get used to everyone. (I’m not a scientist or baby expert, but I feel like this would help in the long run for anyone to put them down. Don’t quote me!)

Step 2: Bath

After Marleigh is full, I put her in the bath. This is the time for her to relax in the warm water, release gas bubbles so her belly is settled, and get all cleaned up. Lavender body wash is my favorite to set the mood for calming. We have some little toys that I let Marleigh play with herself but I try to keep a calm voice when engaging with her. Some nights we definitely have her splashing and going crazy, but for the most part I try to keep a calm environment. Kids will be kids though, so if gets crazy I join the fun with her. Memories outweigh a clean bathroom!

Step 3: Baby Self Care

During this time, I give Marleigh a baby massage with lavender lotion. I put her night time diaper on, her footie pajamas, and I brush her hair (she loves this). I try to keep the mood super calm by talking very softly, humming, and giving little kisses. I only turn on a lamp so it isn’t super bright in the room. Marleigh usually wipes her eyes, pulls at her ears, and yawns during this time. This is my cue that she is ready for bed! I did my job well as a mama!

Step 4: Sleep Sack- Lay in Crib

Okay. I find the Sleep Sack so important. We use the Nested Bean Zen Sack for Marleigh! I linked it here for you to check out. They are such a wonderful company dedicated to making our lives as mamas so much easier at night. We started her with the newborn Nested Bean Swaddle but now that she is older, we transitioned her into the sack just in case she rolls. YALL, I swear by these sacks! My friend used them and introduced me and I fell in love. (Thanks Erin!!) Not only do they come in cute patterns, but the weighted center provides comfort for self-soothing. It sits on their chest, unless they are belly sleepers you can have it where it is placed on the center of their back. I highly, highly suggest you all try these sacks if your little one is having trouble at night. When I lay Marleigh in the crib in her sack, I make sure she is either drowsy but awake or wide awake. She will self-soothe herself to sleep on her own. The first week Marleigh cried and fussed for a few minutes when I put her down, but with the sack and getting used to the routine she now falls asleep like a champ with no fuss.

Tips

White Noise Machine: Some people use a white noise machine to play while their little one is asleep. I don’t use this because we never have with Marleigh and she does fine without it. If you are having trouble, it’s worth investing and trying it out. Unfortunately, I don’t have a great brand for you but I’ve heard there are many good ones on Amazon!

Pacifiers: Some babes love the comfort of a soother. I did not give Marleigh one because she would wake up when it would fall out. So, I just had her learn to sleep without it. It’s been easier for us to not have it. Again, it might be better for your babe so you can give it a try.

Book: We want to incorporate reading into our routine permanently. Some nights we will throw in a book after we have her in the sack but before we lay her down. When she gets older, this will be something we do every night. Right now it just depends on the night if we read or not. If she doesn’t seem too sleepy then I will definitely read and wait for her to get more drowsy.

Middle of the Night Wake Up: Ok, sometimes Marleigh will wake up at like 3AM. You know your child the best and I’m sure you can differentiate between hunger cry and fussy/attention cry. I usually wait 10-20 minutes and during this time Marleigh will fall asleep again on her own - usually. If I see her cry is getting stronger into a hunger cry and she is waking up, I walk in and feed her. It’s completely normal to feed 1-2 times a night when they are young. Marleigh still wakes up sometimes but her sleep stretches are growing longer and most often she sleeps through the night.

If you have questions about sleeping, regressions, swaddle and sack questions - CHECK OUT NESTED BEAN’S WEBSITE. They have so much helpful information about sleeping that will make life easier. During the four month sleep regression, I loved having them as a resource. They partner with a lot of sleep experts on Instagram that will takeover their stories and answer your questions personally! Nested bean is the one stop shop and info center for sleep. The best part is their products actually work!!! Check their website out here.

I’m not a sleep expert, nor do I know if my routine is 100% solid. I’m learning just like you are. All I can say is if you are finding yourself having issues with bedtime and sleeping through the night, this might be something for you to consider looking into. It could be you just need a slight change in your routine or a product to help make the process easier. Hope you find your sleep soon mama. Like everything, “This too shall pass”. You will get there one day but enjoy this moment now. We will miss it when they get older.

xoxo,

Jeana

#mommy #newbornsleep #mom #sleeplife #baby stuff #momsupportingmoms #momlife #sleeptime #fedisbest #babyfed #newborn #baby #breastfeeding #sleepcycle

[sussex-nature-lover]

Tuesday 4th May 2021 Goodnight?

Throughout my blogs I often speak about my struggles with sleep. It weighs heavy on my mind as I used to be such a good sleeper. I’d drop off without any trouble and sleep very soundly unless there were babies or children needing attention - and it’s rather a lot of years since this was the case. Over time the ability to make myself comfortable and sleep right through has packed up and left me. I’ve never really accepted it, it’s always something of a shock.

When your sleep pattern becomes disturbed and you struggle both to get to sleep in the first place, and to maintain it for a good session, you feel cheated. As it happens, you probably do get sufficient hours in, but it’s unfulfilling when it comes in fits and starts and when you lie awake at 3am worrying about getting off again, it’s a vicious circle, a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more you think about it, the worse it seems to get. I know from conversations with friends and family that it’s a very common problem, intensified perhaps by the worries of the last 12 months or so,

I’d done the usual sleep hygiene things and we have no TV in the bedroom. Even the clock wears a shroud, the curtains are thick and double lined and I have a lavender pillow spray. All that must help? but not enough. Then I heard about how woollen top bed clothes can also help and started to do a bit of research. So in the interests of information sharing, the following is all taken from the website I purchased from (there are no stockists near us) but this is not an advert or sponsored in any way: it’s just my personal experience.

Feather, down and polyester are all fabulous insulators, but they make the body hot and then they hold onto that heat, which is fine when you first get into bed, however, during the night our body temperature needs to drop slightly in order to achieve deep sleep.  

Insulators bring our body temperature up until we're at the point where we wake up, throw the covers off and try to cool down, then we go to sleep again and repeat the process. But this time it maybe our partner is too hot in the bed and so the great duvet war starts with us pulling and pushing off the duvet. This is not natural sleep and it prevents essential deep sleep.

That’s exactly what happens to me, but of course, Crow thinks he can never get warm enough, how he stands it is beyond me. We have a lightweight duvet and then a silk quilted bedspread dressing the bed, which he pulls up over him. I throw off everything and still lie there feeling like I’m in the tropics. What they say about insulators sounds common sense, so this required further reading...

Wool isn't just an insulator like polyester and feather. Wool is actually a regulator, it regulates your body temperature the same way as it does on the sheep. When it's hot the wool passes the heat mainly in the form of moisture from the sheep's body out and when it’s cold it keeps the heat in. Easy really and it will do the same for humans. 

All wool products can do this but the more you process the wool, i.e. spin and weave it, then the less the wool can regulate heat. So we keep the wool in the same state as it is on the sheep. But the amazing thing about wool is that it will actually regulate the temperatures of two different people in the same bed.

This actually sounds like magic to my ears.

So What’s So Good About Wool and a Wool Duvet? (apart from what’s up above)

Wool is 100% sustainable. Every year a sheep naturally grows a fleece to keep it warm in the winter. There are over 4 million sheep in Wales alone. (So think of wool as a by-product of the sheep hairdressing industry, or should that be baarbers….?)

See, there really are people with jokes worse than mine!

♦ note that the background here is not a quilt, it’s the reverse of our bedspread

The products come in three weights. This is a sample of the lightweight duvet and a little gift of a lavender bag, which smells wonderful.

So can you use any old wool in a duvet? To be honest, yes you can, even polymered wool or chlorinated wool but there are certain wools which are much better than others. There are 2 reasons why we have different wool and different sheep breeds.

First we have different breeds of sheep which have, over hundreds of years, been bred specifically for different parts of the world and for different climates. So the very small,hardy Hebridean Sheep with its thick long coat thrives on seaweed on the extreme northern outer reaches of the UK. Then we have the Downs sheep of lowland Britain with a short tight fleece, and our own Welsh Mountain and Herdwicks of the Lake District and Cumbrian fells with their heavy thick coats to withstand harsh cold winters, and many more. It's quite an interesting subject if you care to check it out

The second reason we have different sheep breeds is because each breed has a very different wool with completely different qualities for different uses. The wool has different micron sizes,and staple lengths.

So the Wensleydales and Blue Leicesters produce a lustre wool, soft and silky, with a long staple length and fine micron size, which is great for spinning and weaving into clothing, while the tough Welsh Mountain is great for hard wearing carpets. It's also possible to cross breeds of sheep to get differing qualities of wool.

Isn't Merino wool the best wool? Some companies claim to have all or some Merino wool in their duvets this is just a marketing ploy aimed at creating a selling image recognisable by the general public. Most Merino wool is beautiful wool and excellent for fine clothing but it isn't really the best wool for duvets, it's too long and lies flat so it won't have loft to trap air. You need a shorter springy staple to have the same thermal qualities as our lofty springy wool. The market is also being flooded now with cheaper Merino wool duvets from Eastern Europe, these Merino sheep haven't been bred for their fleece but for their meat so the wool tends to be much coarser and much, much cheaper, so don't be conned, not everything labelled Merino is high quality.

So what wool is used in a Baavet? Well not any Merino for sure, and not the pure Welsh Mountain unfortunately, as we are surrounded by thousands of Welsh mountain sheep here in Snowdonia. We spent months researching and testing wools in association with the Wool Authority Testing Station (where wool for the whole Northern Hemisphere is tested, hence our knowledge of competitors duvets) which is only 20 miles from where we live. We found there are excellent British breeds and specifically Welsh Breeds, especially pedigree sheep breeds and cross breeds, which have good micron wool size and staple lengths which we can then blend into just the right optimum British wool, with excellent thermal properties yet with the lightness and loft (bounce) that we want in our Baavets. We need good quality wool that has no or little kemp, (that's spiky sheep hair in poor quality wool) We also use wool from specific traceable farms, again we are the only company able to do this.

The quality of the construction and stitching is very good

Sheep here are posed by local models and not necessarily representative of the wool in the duvets mentioned above 😉

I’ve learned about micron size, about kemp and about loft and being impressed with the science, I felt ready to wade in and find out for myself. We started by ordering some pillows - when I wake in the night I’m always turning my pillow over and over, to find the cool side. The pillows are sold by the amount of wool filling which comes in a zipped cover. You can also order more loose wool if you need to add some, or of course, you can also remove some if you find the pillow filling too dense or too high. I got spare covers at the same time too (above)

They seemed to work for us, and so I took the plunge and ordered a duvet. There was hardly anything to lose with a 30 day’ try it and if you don’t like it, we’ll have it back’ guarantee. We’ve had it a week now and gradually I’ve found I’m having a better and better night’s sleep.

I would say, it’s a good idea to air the products for a couple of days before use as they come with a slight sheepy smell (it wears off) and the style takes a little getting used to after having a much fuller and springier ‘pouffey’ duvet filling, but it does feel ‘just right’  - warm enough to be snug, but not too warm...which is exactly what it promised. Even better, I think Crow’s converted too, which frankly, seems like a minor miracle.

I can remember writing last year about how our wool market has absolutely crashed and farmers have sometimes resorted to burning because the cost of marketing the product outweighs the gain in sale. Why on earth the construction industry hasn’t hoovered up every possible amount to use in insulation materials is beyond me, it seems a perfect solution. The Government is pursuing some green credentials to cut emissions by promoting electric or hybrid vehicles and  promised the scrapping of gas and oil central heating boilers in new build homes from 2025, but natural insulation, which surely would be an easy change, seems to lag (NPI!!!) behind as a rather niche product.

If you wanted to read up, I found an FAQ Here.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

Technical:

♦ Graphic taken from this link, where you can read more about sheep wool.

♦ A Micron is the measurement used to describe the diameter of a wool fibre. The smaller the Micron measurement, the finer and softer the wool. The finest gauge wool comes from Merino sheep, all Merino wool is considered Very Fine, meaning the fibres are smaller than 24 Microns in diameter.

♦ Loft = depth/bounce, or as I termed it ‘pouffeyness’

*NPI up above = NO PUN INTENDED, well, not really intended, more a happy accident.

Sweet Dreams.

Also posed by models 😊

#sheep sleep duvet #wool

[d00dt00nz]

Obligatory promo stuff at the top because it sucks and I hate it and let's get it out of the way! follow me on twitter where I'm active, check me out on spotify for music, or like my facebook for sparse updates on music stuff. Thank you. The Cover art is by Ellie Tison

I'm 27 years old. It's a really frightening number to look at. It's been frightening for about two years. Honestly I'll probably only come to terms with being that age when I reach 30 – a much more frightening number. I'm told that at 30 is when my body will just absolutely start falling apart, so that's something to look forward to. That said, mostly I just try not to think about it. Obviously a high number is not a problem in and of itself, but I definitely feel like I haven't accomplished things that I'd like to have accomplished by this point. That said, if you're a millennial and you're on the internet and especially if you're reading this, then you probably are in a similar crisis. We simply don't have the economic and social mobility that our parents had.

Many people my age don't dream big. Our dream is of comfort – of building something of our own, carving out our own nook in life. Somewhere deep inside, we want to live as our parents did. We want to brazenly rush into things as our parents did but we cannot. I think a lot of millennial anxiety comes from growing up in the colossal fallout of mistake after mistake from a generation that not only could, but did rush into things. It's made us hyperaware of our own place in the world while being envious of people who don't know their place – people who just seem to fuck up over and over again while running away from their problems and pretending they don't exist.

Some people are good at running away from their problems. I'm very bad at it. It's not for lack of trying either. You'd better believe I'm prone to clearing out like Fred Flinstone. Unfortunately it doesn't work out for me. I'm bad with change and easily stuck in the past – like many people my age. Others seem to handle it better. It's not some kind of moral blame game either. In a world where we don't have a lot of freedom, escape is the only real power. Escape is, after all (in theory), a change.

Which is all to say I know a bunch of people who went to china to become english teachers. On the surface it can seem like a fun white middle class adventure. Personally I feel the reasons are much more complex and (sometimes) a little bit more sad. Most people, I've noticed, go to escape a life where they feel stuck and unsatisfied. China the final cheat-code of the aimless middle class slacker. Of course it's a fantasy because you can't escape yourself. You'll just be you in a different place. The goal I guess is that you become thrown into such an intensely alien situation filled with so much stimulation that you'll temporarily become somebody who isn't you. Again, there's no blame here. I'd probably do the same, but I've got that nagging hyperanxiety about losing what I do have.

That basically wraps up the “inspiration” of the song. Specifically it came when me and one of my good friends shared a beer on my driveway in the middle of the night. He was leaving the next day to teach english in China. I had a sneaking suspicion he was doing it to escape from a relationship where things had fallen apart, but both were too afraid to let go. I remember feeling incredibly alone. There was so much movement around me and I felt like I was staying still.

Instrumentally the song started out as my third attempt to capture the feeling of Fleetwood Mac's Think About Me from Tusk. I heard the song and immediately became obsessed with it's relatively minimalist groove and vaguely manic energy. I've always admired how Lindsey Buckingham can write an interesting song on a small amount of meaningful chord changes. I also very much enjoy that 70s production style of having a million different guitars, organs, and keyboards in that make up a big, simple, layered groove.

The melody was difficult for me because it's at the edge of my vocal reach. It took a long long time to get a good performance and then it took another long time to get another good performance as to double track the vocals. As well, the chorus melody that I originally planned was too high to song so I had to figure out another melody. In theory I could have took the song down a key, but I'd already recorded the verses as well as the backing track at that point and liked how they sounded.

I mentioned earlier that I was trying to mimic the minimalist vibe of a Fleetwood Mac singing-blindfolded-naked-at-3am type song but this finished product is obviously a little less minimalist. I'm not sure if it was actual good decision making or self consciousness, but I felt like the song felt boring (I am deeply afraid of moments in songs where nothing is happening). I added the Phil Spector sounding oo-la-la's in the pre-chorus purely as a “uh I gotta put something there” type reaction, and I guess it just turned out like that because it's my default mode of indulgence.

The whistle at the beginning was put there because the opening sounded pretty dull. There wasn't anything to grab onto, and frankly the guitars were just .... there ... There wasn't any feeling like “ta-da! I'm here!”. The song just felt like somebody strolling into your house and eating your food without acknowledging you. I didn't like that. The whistle might sound synthesized, but it's not. It just sounds like that as a result of the double tracking, and the compression, and the limiting, and the eq, and the reverb, ect. It's a penny whistle that I found lying around in my basement, which, who knows what bacteria was on that mouthpiece (am I patient zero of coronavirus?). The thing was actually a little bit difficult to record because the penny whistle was in C and the song was not. I saw a guy on youtube half covering holes on a penny wistle to get sharps and flats so I just kinda imitated that technique and figured out which fingerings I needed in sequence. It took some pitch bending with my mouth as well but that's okay, it worked out in the end. I doubletracked it for good measure to make it better mesh with the existing instrumentation. I'm actually worried that it sounds a little “asian” now, which makes me worry that people might miscronscrew it as a racist gesture, given that it's also on a pentatonic scale which some people associate with chinese music (don't get me started on that). I promise it's not mean to sound “chinese” or anything stupid like that, and it's not even on any kind of asian instrument.

In general, love the song. I'm very happy with it turned out. It might be my favourite song on the album. I tinkered with it for almost a year, which typically just ends up with a big vortex sludge of a song, but somehow it came out better for it.

#music #rant #songwriting #album #fleetwood mac

[lydiamarshall92]

Entrepreneur Interview: Tim Gallagher, SafeSwiss

You’d be forgiven for believing Tim Gallagher was born an entrepreneur.

From starting a nationwide trellis fencing business in his garage at 3AM, to glow-in-the-dark stair nosing, to importing jet skis, to running the world’s most secure private messaging app, Gallagher’s journey is an embodiment of Kiwi persistence and perseverance. Along the way Gallagher has experienced some incredible successes along with some devastating lows; moments which would cause even the heartiest of entrepreneurs some sleepless nights.

As his latest venture SafeSwiss is poised to become his most successful to date, I spoke with Gallagher to hear more about the story behind it, to discuss the future of privacy in our digital age, and to hear what he’s learnt in his years as an entrepreneur.

I began the call asking Gallagher to tell us a little bit more about SafeSwiss.

“SafeSwiss provides encrypted communication solutions designed for the masses. Our secure messaging apps for Android, iOS and Windows utilise state-of-the-art 256k elliptic curve end-to-end encryption.”

For those unfamiliar with encryption this kind of security was (until very recently) available only to governments, banks, the military and HNWI (“high net worth individuals”). Effectively, SafeSwiss claims to provide the highest level of protection to any individual on the planet wishing to safeguard their communications.

I figured the story of how a humble entrepreneur from Christchurch came to build the world’s most secure messaging app must have been a good one, so I asked Gallagher to tell it.

The journey began when he and business partner Kerry Bird had developed a unique digital media storage card and were in talks about building them for a few major movie studios in the US.

However the cards were unsecured after being decrypted at the point of sale, and the pair were forced to find a way to re-encrypt the cards. As Gallagher says, “all roads in encryption lead to Germany and Eastern Europe”, so that is where they went.

The initial costings on the digital media card would end up rendering it cost prohibitive. But whilst in Munich Gallagher and Bird were introduced to an encryption specialist.

“This guy had a very basic genesis of a secure VOIP (Voice Over IP) engine utilising next-generation 256K Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), but nothing to turn it into a viable consumer solution.” The duo saw this as their opportunity to pivot and focus their attention on a total end-to-end encrypted communication solution.

“We came up with the name SafeSwiss, as Switzerland is synonymous with security, privacy, and quality. We purchased the SafeSwiss.com domain name, travelled to Switzerland to set up a company office, Swiss banking facilities, and a company registration.”

This was around the time that Facebook acquired WhatsApp for US$19 Billion, something that “only further sparked our enthusiasm in developing a secure instant messaging VOIP offering, [and] confirmed that we had made the right decision.”

The SafeSwiss secure messaging app has achieved over 100,000 downloads since launch.

Staying on this topic, I was interested to hear more of Gallagher’s views on the trends in what is a very competitive messenger market; did he believe the general trend in this market was towards a more secure form of communication? His answer was immediate.

“Definitely. Almost daily we hear about these massive cyber attacks which steal the data or communications history of hundreds of thousands of people.” As these attacks affect more and more people, the market demand for a greater level of security grows. Despite this however Gallagher feels there is still misconceptions around encryption.

“People still tend to think encryption is for those who have something to hide; the exclusive property of criminals or government spy agencies. In reality everyone has a right to privacy, and should take greater steps to ensure their communications are safe and secure… WhatsApp brought encryption to the masses, which is fantastic. However our service is much more secure.”

This is primarily as SafeSwiss does not harvest data from user’s contact lists, a decision which has most certainly slowed their organic growth, but ensures SafeSwiss stays true to their values as a company.

As the conversation went on I changed direction slightly, away from SafeSwiss and onto Gallagher’s journey as an entrepreneur. I knew Gallagher had been through an enormous amount to get to this point and I wanted to hear more about it.

“Where do we start here? I went to the school of hard knocks and the university of life”. Leaving school at 15, he completed a butchery apprenticeship. But it was clear that wasn’t his ultimate calling.

“At the time, I used to read about how high-flying companies like Rainbow Corporation, Ariadne, or Chase were creating business, and the lifestyles that went along with this. This was all the inspiration I needed.” Having heard so much about property, Gallagher decided that would be a good place to start.

“I saved two weeks’ salary and went to a Bob Jones property seminar in ‘86, and from this bought, renovated and sold houses in Christchurch.” Gallagher would complete every aspect of the renovations himself, including building his own trellis fencing, something that would lead to his first business.

“I still recall working in my garage using pneumatic staple guns and a compressor when the garage door burst open with an super angry neighbour! Mind you, it was 3 AM… he had every right to be agitated!”

“I ended up with a factory manufacturing thousands and thousands of trellis sheets.”

Gallagher went on to design a semi-automated machine to build trellis – which he had an agricultural engineer build – and supplied Placemakers and Carters with trellis fencing nationwide.

“I ended up with a factory manufacturing thousands and thousands of trellis sheets… crazy times.”

A short while later the property market soured; interest rates rose, and Gallagher was unable to cover mortgage repayments.

“I had recently purchased a large property within Christchurch CBD and used security in other properties as collateral. A good idea at the time, but this lead myself and my young family losing everything we had worked so very hard to build. We ended up sleeping on my mother in-law’s lounge floor.” In what must have been a rock bottom moment, Gallagher was forced to simply make ends meet, and went back to his trade as a butcher.

But his entrepreneurial spirit never died and it wasn’t long before he “became a self taught expert in photoluminescence and electroluminescence” and developed the world’s first glow-in-the-dark stair nosing – the bits that provide grip and protect the edge of stairs.

But unfortunately relationships soured and he was forced out of that business. He went on and built businesses importing bathroom units and supplies from China, and importing quad bikes, jet skis and motorbikes from the US – the latter of which would nearly cost him everything again.

Glow-in-the-dark stair nosing was just another stop on Gallagher’s entrepreneurial journey.

After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake Gallagher developed a system to neatly manage the inflow of reports from builders, engineers and other tradesmen relating to earthquakes. Something Gallagher says has “really been the catalyst to allow the funding of SafeSwiss Secure Communication.”

Going into the interview I knew that Tim had been involved in numerous businesses across multiple industries, and thus was interested to hear the common lessons he’d learnt through all this experience. Yet without asking, it was clear that Gallagher’s number one lesson is to never give up.

“Continual persistence and perseverance will ultimately prevail… It’s a statistical fact that you cannot achieve any form of success without some form of failure. It’s not just inevitable, it’s necessary. As Steve Jobs famously said, ‘Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith’.”

However, it’s Gallagher’s roller coaster career that is really the testament to how he truly embodies this belief.

With any successful individual there is commonly a deeper motivation that inspires them even in the toughest of times, and I was curious as to what this was for Gallagher.

“My primary motivation for being an entrepreneur is to create and add value, to try and solve what you see as an existing problem. Obviously if done successfully, wealth will be acquired.”

Furthermore, I asked Gallagher for one weekly habit that he would suggest a reader adopt to better themselves as an entrepreneur. His answer was quite simple. “Reading motivational books by well-respected businessmen, businesswomen and entrepreneurs is an absolute must. Also take notes, go to seminars.”

Right before we ended the call, Gallagher shared a few details of the new B2B offering that SafeSwiss would launch soon. Even over the phone you could sense the excitement in his voice, speaking of how the product would solve a problem that to date has remained unsolved.

It was clear to me in these last few moments of our conversation that Tim was an entrepreneur to the core, and a man who loves every single aspect of building businesses.♦

Interview by Nicholas Lane | [email protected] | @nicholasrlane

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The post Entrepreneur Interview: Tim Gallagher, SafeSwiss appeared first on NZ Entrepreneur Magazine.

Read the original here: Entrepreneur Interview: Tim Gallagher, SafeSwiss

[nonychat]

I'm an owner/partner in two ecommerce business, two franchises, a SaaS company and just purchased a B2B service business. I know Shopify, drop shipping, Amazon, Alibaba, SEO, Facebook, PPC, affiliates and domain flipping. My eBook is called getting a cold reality check on being an entrepreneur.

Normally I've got my business neutral demeanor, but it's late and I've -had- it after seeing the umpteeth upvoted post of complete BS. There's some idiot doing a ridiculous live stream building an ecommerce site. 50 websites making 20k in revenue? A guy that makes an average of $400/mo per site is simply a hustler. Even worse, he's a con man and you're the mark if you buy into it.

I've been in this game a long time. I cut my teeth on the early days of being an affiliate and SEO. The internet industry is filled with trash up to the eyeballs. And as long as you think the getting is easy and some ebook, YouTube video or other fundamentally flawed model that says: Input X unit of effort in exchange for a 100X return, then you have exactly what is coming. Which is nothing.

Are there 100x opportunities? Of course. In the early SEO days, it existed, when you could just spam meta tags, followed by link spam, then content spam, then blog spam, then PBN spam and so on. In the "golden" email spam days you could bombard millions of inboxes with zero filters via open relays. Most recently, with the Amazon boom, anything with a right keyword can go exponential.

But here's the thing. Shit changes. Fast. Inefficiencies don't last long.

Suddenly the golden goose that was your little secret gets out and is run over by the truck. Google bans you. Amazon delists you. A competitor copies your t-shirt. You cry a little, you complain on a forum, talk about how unfair it is. Maybe you pick yourself up. Maybe you go back to your day job. Maybe you keep hunting for yet another golden goose, because once you've had a taste of easy success, it's hard to think of anything else.

But here's the problem. You never learned any skills. You were just lucky. Sure, maybe you learned to spam Google. Or you learned how to arbitrage branded goods on Amazon. What good are those skills now? Other than some coin in the bank, you're no better off now than you were a year or two ago. Five years from now, you'll be that guy no one wants to talk to at the party because you're "that guy" trying to pitch some stupid MLM scheme or looking to get the scoop on some easy money or chasing the coat tails of those who hit escape velocity.

So, for all you new people trying to get into the game, you have to ask what you're here for: Are you here for the easy money? Or are you here to learn skills?

Alibaba? That's a website, not a skill. Retail arbitrage? You're a peddler, not a merchant. Launched a Shopify store? You and the other 100,000 people. Social media / SEO consultant? If you could truly do this, you would make it on your own. But since you can't, you're left with selling bullshit. That's the truth. Kickstarter? Don't even get me started.

What are actual skills? Coding. Sales. Writing. Marketing. Engineering. Product Design. Accounting. Web Design. Photography. Trade skills.

What do these have in common? They all take time to learn and more importantly, you can take them wherever you go. What is the best place to develop these skills? At a job. Yes, a real job, working for "The Man", where you can hopefully learn from those better than you and have time to hone your craft. And at the risk of being highly unpopular, if you don't have at least 2 of the above skills, you should seriously reconsider your path into entrepreneurship. And if you don't even have one of those skills, then best of luck kiddo. I wish I had half the skills on that list to run CuttingBoard.com (Edit: I do have a business, thank you for the hate mail PMs).

When you have a skill set, all it takes now is creativity. Vision. A business idea. And now you can execute. You have the tools. You can create ideas into being. You MAKE things. If you don't have skills, what are you left with? You're just copying, being an imitator, pretending to have the skills of someone else. You feed off the scraps of others, always hungry. You'll never stop being a hustler when all you do is listen to other people.

All of us want easy cash, so I don't look down on you. I was young too and damn if I didn't get lucky when the going was good. But I also was fortunate enough to learn that easy money is only easy for so long. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the internet peddlers are here to tell you otherwise. Because they know the biggest cash cow of them all, is selling the entrepreneur dream.

The golden rule is this: if someone is as good as they say they are, then why are they spending time selling to you instead of running their own business? I knew guys in one of the most competitive SEO industries. None of those guys ran a blog selling SEO advice. They just shut the hell up while making fuck you money.

You want to know what the real secret is of being an entrepreneur? It's realizing you're working 80 hours to avoid working 40. It's working weekends when your buddies are out partying. It's working 3am because the server fucking bricked again and you're the IT department. It's realizing that you always have to be the adult in any situation. It's realizing that you can't buy a golden goose.

But if you have enough patience, grit, empathy, self-reflection and STARTING CAPITAL, then you can make yourself into that goose.

If you're young, broke, desperate or indecisive, do yourself a favor and don't play the game. Work on yourself. That's the best possible investment you can ever make. Gain marketable skills. Learn how to sell and talk to people. And for the love of god stop listening to idiots that have no idea what they're talking about online.

Best of luck.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/5yejyl/im_an_ownerpartner_in_two_ecommerce_business_two/

#repost

Motivation of the day.

[topicprinter]

Normally I've got my business neutral demeanor, but it's late and I've -had- it after seeing the umpteeth upvoted post of complete BS. There's some idiot doing a ridiculous live stream building an ecommerce site. 50 websites making 20k in revenue? A guy that makes an average of $400/mo per site is simply a hustler. Even worse, he's a con man and you're the mark if you buy into it.I've been in this game a long time. I cut my teeth on the early days of being an affiliate and SEO. The internet industry is filled with trash up to the eyeballs. And as long as you think the getting is easy and some ebook, YouTube video or other fundamentally flawed model that says: Input X unit of effort in exchange for a 100X return, then you have exactly what is coming. Which is nothing.Are there 100x opportunities? Of course. In the early SEO days, it existed, when you could just spam meta tags, followed by link spam, then content spam, then blog spam, then PBN spam and so on. In the "golden" email spam days you could bombard millions of inboxes with zero filters via open relays. Most recently, with the Amazon boom, anything with a right keyword can go exponential.But here's the thing. Shit changes. Fast. Inefficiencies don't last long.Suddenly the golden goose that was your little secret gets out and is run over by the truck. Google bans you. Amazon delists you. A competitor copies your t-shirt. You cry a little, you complain on a forum, talk about how unfair it is. Maybe you pick yourself up. Maybe you go back to your day job. Maybe you keep hunting for yet another golden goose, because once you've had a taste of easy success, it's hard to think of anything else.But here's the problem. You never learned any skills. You were just lucky. Sure, maybe you learned to spam Google. Or you learned how to arbitrage branded goods on Amazon. What good are those skills now? Other than some coin in the bank, you're no better off now than you were a year or two ago. Five years from now, you'll be that guy no one wants to talk to at the party because you're "that guy" trying to pitch some stupid MLM scheme or looking to get the scoop on some easy money or chasing the coat tails of those who hit escape velocity.So, for all you new people trying to get into the game, you have to ask what you're here for: Are you here for the easy money? Or are you here to learn skills?Alibaba? That's a website, not a skill. Retail arbitrage? You're a peddler, not a merchant. Launched a Shopify store? You and the other 100,000 people. Social media / SEO consultant? If you could truly do this, you would make it on your own. But since you can't, you're left with selling bullshit. That's the truth. Kickstarter? Don't even get me started.What are actual skills? Coding. Sales. Writing. Marketing. Engineering. Product Design. Accounting. Web Design. Photography.What do these have in common? They all take time to learn and more importantly, you can take them wherever you go. What is the best place to develop these skills? At a job. Yes, a real job, working for "The Man", where you can hopefully learn from those better than you and have time to hone your craft. And at the risk of being highly unpopular, if you don't have at least 2 of the above skills, you should seriously reconsider your path into entrepreneurship. And if you don't even have one of those skills, then best of luck kiddo. Fuck, I wish I had half the skills on that list.For the rest of you, those looking for easy cash, I don't look down on you. I was young too and damn if I didn't get lucky when the going was good. But I also was fortunate enough to learn that easy money is only easy for so long. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the internet peddlers are here to tell you otherwise. Because they know the biggest cash cow of them all, is selling the entrepreneur dream.The golden rule is this: if someone is as good as they say they are, then why are they spending time selling to you instead of running their own business? I knew guys in one of the most competitive SEO industries. None of those guys ran a blog selling SEO advice. They just shut the hell up while making fuck you money.You want to know what the real secret is of being an entrepreneur? It's realizing you're working 80 hours to avoid working 40. It's working weekends when your buddies are out partying. It's working 3am because the server fucking bricked again and you're the IT department. It's realizing that you always have to be the adult in any situation. It's realizing that you can't buy a golden goose.But if you have enough patience, grit, empathy, self-reflection and STARTING CAPITAL, then you can make yourself into that goose.If you're young, broke, desperate or indecisive, do yourself a favor and don't play the game. Work on yourself. That's the best possible investment you can ever make. Gain marketable skills. Learn how to sell and talk to people. And for the love of god stop listening to idiots that have no idea what they're talking about online.Best of luck.TL;DR? Buy another fucking ebook.

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit