#>:)) effectively tricking myself to post art. its genius | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

whenislunch · 6 years

Video

This summer I saw my favorite artist perform live on an island off of Manhattan that used to serve as a jail/mental health institution.

When Frank Ocean came out with his screen grabbed text file posted as a “photo” on Tumblr in 2012, I knew the platform was something special - the one niche he could safely post something so revealing and vulnerable and still not open himself to the direct hate-filled or homophobic comments of any other forum. I had signed up for Tumblr the year prior. I joined with the fantasy of becoming a famous food blogger (and later as a nail artist) so I could quit my publicity job and score all of the PR perks that I so readily dished out to any 'mommy' with a touch of digital pretense.

Personal space on the vast internet was never my craving. I resisted being too present, and enjoyed the ability to control how much I “put myself out there” on facebook, twitter, and later Instagram. With my original two tumblrs, like Frank, I could focus on sharing and following the things I cared the most about: in early cases, it was fan art of Bill Murray, gifs of Daft Punk, and mostly photos of food I had eaten from the everyday life of a new New Yorker discovering the cult nature of the restaurant scene (a similar practice to my behavior as a teen taking shitty photos at punk shows in St Pete, Florida to pin on my bedroom wall). Tumblr became my collection of “curated cool," and nobody cared how hard I was trying or what I put up there, except for me, and it became my favorite place on the internet. Eventually, I realized all of the writers I was admiring on The Awl were including their Tumblrs in their bios, and I was there to follow them. I saw Rebecca Black become a meme before her one-hit would become a wedding band wonder. If sitting at the open kitchen counter at an edison bulb-lit restaurant was the closest you could get to a food industry version of “backstage”, then a Tumblr dashboard filled with all of the blogging generation of the “fake news media” was the analogy. It’s human nature to want to be seen and understood. Selfies perform better than friendies on Instagram - and GPOY’s on Tumblr… well I challenge anybody on music.ly to define the acronym without that peeking at the Childish Gambino Genius page first.

And that’s the tip of the iceberg for where I stand with Tumblr now. After three years of hanging out in the same field, they invited me to meet them at the dugout. After four months of interviewing and pitching challenges and pretending like I was at a digital optimization workshop, I was offered a job. After five years, or nearly, I’m ready for another one. I had the BEST time and the BEST TEAM working at Tumblr. Sentiment is incalculable, and being the Comms professionals that we are, we can swear to the moon that the effect of press results on a brand is unquantifiable when one piece can qualitatively alter the nature of the public’s perception versus the reality of a goal. And I had the the immeasurable luxury to be surrounded by the smartest, most creative, intensely productive, and to borrow a food world phrase - hardiest colleagues in the history of the internet.

My first day at Tumblr also belonged to six others - together we endured a questionable onboarding interaction and then were sent with laptops and branded hoodies to our respective seats at our superdesks on various floors. There were dogs everywhere. I was told that I’d be introduced to the company on Friday and to submit two truths and a lie to help them get to know me. Here they are:

I have photo credits in the New York Times and New York Magazine

I appeared as a backup dancer in a rap video in high school

I watercolor paintings of crustaceans as a hobby

Leave your guess in the comments (oh wait, it’s Tumblr, you can’t).

Friday lunches were my lifeblood for a couple of months. Every week for at least seven thereafter unloaded a new set of amazing humans to be introduced in some absurd way by Sean from recruiting. I remember @sexpigeon vs Homer’s owner in game of pictionary, Johnny and Jake quickly competing for my heart as #1 engineer dudes, and of course, the instant classic game of Mark Coatney/ Marc Cote/ Marked Coat. Tumblr ramped up fast thanks to Lee, a fundraising series and at the tireless behest of my personal champion, Lindsey Dole.

Meanwhile, more magic was brewing in the cauldron. I heard @amandalynferri talking about some game she invented called Pretty Little Lasagna box, or I heard Maddie recalling the time she had her palm read in 14th street psychic's booth seeking refuge from a snowstorm, or @lexkap who sat on the other side of the building with a dog on her lap DM’d me on hip chat to show me her own nail art blog. Then a few of us won a chance to see a sneak preview of a new arthouse film by Harmony Korine and featuring an ensemble cast of former Disney talent that had been filmed in my hometown with a y2k airbrushed aesthetic - there was something innately emotional tied to each of us with this first viewing of Spring Breakers. When we left the midtown theater alongside the ATL Twins, I realized that this company had curated a community to match the intended behavior of its user base. We all connected on a level beyond any workplace I had experienced before.

And there was the professional side to the job - the work wins came quick because I was so lucky to sit under leaders who wanted the team to succeed. Rick Webb and Katherine encouraged me to dig in, and get deep with these shiny new toys called “evangelists” - Valentine, Nate, Liba, Annie, Max, Rachel, Jen, and briefly DCH. An enviable group of brilliant minds and creative energy who have all gone on to accomplish even more for their respective industries than a marketing budget at a start up could have enabled - and I had the pleasure to help share their Tumblr stories with the world - from a puppy bowl to annual southby's to groundbreaking art auctions to thirteen fucking fashion weeks to 35+ art and music shows (brrr)?

And then Tumblr got acquired and the Jenna Wortham turned the New York Times blue, and I got to do something I’m sure will never happen again in my entire career: I threw a party where the goody bag included a free tattoo, and multiple brave souls got them (Tyler, @bryanasortino, Megan & Johnny, among others).

And then Karen (aka #takingitallin aka @beautifulliving) joined, and me and Katherine gained a new teammate at the same time that I gained a new soul sister (and because of her self-described passion for advertising I never had to write an announcement about a new ad product ever again.) I’ve never been more challenged to succeed as I have over the three years I sat next to Karen - a generous and driven woman with endless dreams of supporting others (literally, ask her about the gap in the undergarment sector), who will always find a spot to squeeze me into a photobooth. Even at her wedding.

And lucky us, because then we invited @lilders into the #teamcomms fold and wow, wow, wow was life good. It was my honor working with Lily as she grew from FIT intern into somebody we should all aspire to work for someday.

Which leads to me to the poker faced improv master of all - Katherine. Allora @alittlespace! I am so lucky she believed that this girl who came into talk about a hypothetical strategy to get Eleven Madison Park on Tumblr and then pitched her a fantasy football launch party hosted by Nick Kroll and Mark Duplass could fit in and have the privilege to join the Tumblr Communications team. KB - I’ve already written you the dopiest thank you letter and shared my orchid growing miracle secrets - but it can’t be said enough - I am so grateful to have worked for you for all of these years. You are the best boss, and we will always be the #bestteam.

Because of Tumblr (and @david), I had the pleasure of working with so many additional incomparable people on projects outside of my designated Marketing Comms position, wearing more hats than we even produced for branded activation swag:

Designing and contenting for months with the relaunch of the precious Staff blog with David, Peter, Damien, Tag, Toph, among others

Setting the inaugural year in review with Danielle, Amanda, Christine loose (and then doing it again and again and again, with the wonderful team at DKC - especially that time we added a serving Kale to America’s breakfast.

Marathoning dozens of events with amazing producers like Julia, Suzanne and Magic - and encountering the native talent that thrives on Tumblr like Humans of New York, Chloe Wise, Sam Cannon, Johnny McLaughlin, Jillian Mercado, to a point where I can honestly say “I knew them when.”

Participating in the first ever Sales Offsite aka the greatest bar mitzvah ever thrown by Lee Brown, Dan Walsh and Sarah Won and the rest of the coolest sales team ever assembled (here’s to you @katemaxx, @jeffdtaylor, Meredith, Ari, Kira, and so many more)

Reaching back into my fashion bag of tricks and launching three different clothing lines.

Creating partnerships to show off super surprises at nerd parties at Comic Con and another breaking the internet for Art Basel

Interviewing the CEO of Shake Shack for the one-time-only live episode of “5 with a side of fries" in front of the whole company.

Urgently dealing with Legal, Ads, Trust and Safety on one of the definitive news story of a generation after nine months of back channeling and reporting.

DOING IT FOR THE CULTURE: Racing with the content and analytics teams for stats on the contentious day of #thedress, and then bling rings, witches, boneghazi, superwholockians, wholesome memes, studyblr, emojis, and of course, the toe thing! Thus redefining what it means to “go viral.”

Cleaned a ball pit for the dude from the 1975 to make a splash into them and trolled a legacy music publication

And wow - it took me this long to mention Post It Forward…I am so proud of everyone who helped make Tumblr the most empathetic community on the internet: Nicole Blumenfeld, Jeff D’Onofrio, @skiphursh “Dolphin", @dougrichard, Andy Sebela, Jess Frank, Sarah Won @swon, @pauwow, the brilliant and diligent Michelle Johnson. From building the blog, commissioning the art, recruiting and onboarding the partners, writing the endless number of give/gets, planning the sponsored posts and social content, running the day to day on the blog (and bequeathing that role to Lily), then doing it again with the Mental Health Quilt and IRL with the Post It Forward Summit - I’ve found my new track as a special projects person who can take on any issue, even suicidal teens. If this is my legacy, I’ve planted seeds in the garden I might never see. And special thanks to Victoria, who allowed me to speak at Obama’s White House about why kids need a place on the internet that can help heal - so long as they can find each other.

As it turns out, adults need that, too. From tailing Frank Ocean’s Ferrari to the most woke, mentally aware community and on to, thank god, a bonafide company to match - I will forever cherish my time at Tumblr and I’ll forever been asking #whenislunch. But from every tomorrow on, it will be somewhere else. And you can find me on the internet!

Here’s my LinkedIn, I’m looking.

#bye tumblr #good luck david karp #this is my job #this is my life #memes #tumblr hq #tumblr staff

8 notes · View notes

nofomoartworld · 7 years

Text

Hyperallergic: A New Account of Robert Lowell’s Mania Risks Glorifying It

Robert Lowell (photo by Steve Schapiro, Life magazine, February 19, 1965)

Pulitzer Prize-winning and manic-depressive poet Robert Lowell was fond of fire-related imagery: “this night, this night, I elfin, I stonefoot, / walking the wildfire,” he writes in the poem “Long Summer.” “Fire will be the first absolute power, it will be the last to rule. I am burning in my own fire,” Prometheus utters in his translation of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound. What is perhaps Lowell’s most memorable mention of the element is found in the personal poem “Reading Myself,” that goes “…I took just pride and more than just/ struck matches that brought my blood to a boil/ I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire.”

It was thus quite fitting for clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison, professor at Johns Hopkins University, to title her psychological account of Lowell, Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character, recently published by Knopf. In it, she details his lifelong mental illness, and tries to establish how he coped with it and how his psychopathology shaped his poetic output. The link between mental illness and creative output, as a topic, is both delicate and controversial. At its worst, the comparison romanticizes a life-threatening disease on the basis of the ‘tortured artist’ stereotype.

Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character by Kay Redfield Jamison (image courtesy Knopf)

Thanks to the cooperation of Lowell’s daughter Harriet Winslow Lowell — who provided Jamison with letters, notebooks, and clinical records that were never shared with a scholar before — Jamison deals with Lowell’s illness in a thorough, and academic, manner: she describes his violent outbursts and religious fervor in intimate detail; she traces a long history of mental illness in his family; she gives us a glimpse of the mostly toxic relationships and the affairs he pursued while manic; and she provides a play-by-play of his 16 hospitalizations, quoting him, his clinical reports, and the writings of the friends and loved ones who witnessed them.

The book is largely about how “mania and imagination come together to create art,” and, two-thirds into the book, Jamison attempts to argue how a heightened mental state is per se conducive to poetry. She profusely quotes from Lowell’s poems, many of them rife with a pounding metric rhythm and images of bubbles, blood, saints, death, and decay. These stylistic devices, according to Jamison, indicate manic or hypomanic mind work. “I write my best poetry when I’m manic,” Lowell is quoted saying in the book. His depression, by contrast, came in handy for thoughtful revisions of poems that had gotten out of hand — a variation on the theme of “write drunk, edit sober.” Mania, wrote Philip Larkin in a letter to Lowell’s third wife upon his 1976 hospitalization, is “the price one pays for being such a rich, inventive and variegated writer.”

According to Jamison, this his how mania works on creativity: when speed of thinking increases, word associations form more freely, as do flight of ideas, because the manic mind is less inclined to filtering details that, in a normal state, would be dismissed as irrelevant. She embellishes these explanations with her own descriptions of mania: “Mania is more than fevered mood and pelting thoughts. It is a disinhibiting force to act on ideas, fearlessly and however rashly; put ambition to action; scald the earth, splash color against the gray; to harm, to create.” She also goes so far as implying that psychotic breaks can encourage a bolder, unexpected form of art, as they “scorch and broaden the mental landscape in a way that not only changes the content of thinking, but also its form.”

Robert Lowell (image courtesy the Harry Ransom Center, the University of Texas at Austin)

Early on in the book, Jamison warns the reader against the “naive romanticization of mental illness,” and were it not for her relying on the scientific method, extensive documentation, and 10 eminent studies that link creativity and mental illness, it would be easy to see this biography as a glamorization of Lowell’s mania. Because, at times, her descriptions of his mania not only seem superfluous, but make the onset of a manic episode actually covetable.

Jamison has written about bipolar illness before. In her 1993 scientific study, Touched with Fire, she analyzes how art and madness are closely associated throughout history. In it she asserts that creative archetypes such as the “night journey,” where the hero has to undergo ordeals in order to find enlightenment, are a metaphor for the cyclical nature of mania and depression, while inspiration is a pre-rational act that requires the artist to dip into “irrational sources.” Even in Touched with Fire, she does not intend to glamorize a serious disorder, deeming that “irresponsible” — but that disclaimer only appears on page 257, after an onslaught of lofty quotes by Byron, Schumann, Berlioz, and many more. Take this quote she cites by Edvard Munch, who, in response to someone suggesting he could get rid of his troubles, said “[My troubles] are part of me and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and it would destroy my art. I want to keep those sufferings.”

I am not here to dispute Jamison’s findings, which are supported from a scientific and anthropological point of view. Several others have agreed with her. Classical scholar Eric Dodds, in his anthropological and philosophical study The Greeks and the Irrational (1951), explains that prophetic and poetic madness were documented in ancient Greece, to the point that the Greek word for seer and the Greek word for madness share the same Indo-European root. Psychiatrist and Brown University professor Arnold Ludwig in his study The Price of Greatness (1995) reached similar conclusions as Jamison in Touched with Fire, but avoided the usage of excessively embellished language while describing the association of art and mental illness. On a slightly different note, clinical psychologist and Rutgers professor Louis A. Sass in Madness and Modernism (1992) analyzes how schizophrenia and modern art share characteristics such as fragmentation, defiance of authority, and multiple viewpoints. However, he clarifies, “I certainly do not wish to glorify schizophrenic forms of madness — to argue, for example, that they are especially conducive to artistic creativity, or to deny that they are profoundly dysfunctional and in some sense constitute a disease.”

Robert Lowell and his stepdaughter, Evgenia Citkowitz, 1972 (image courtesy Evgenia Citkowitz)

As a sufferer of manic depression, Jamison wrote about her own wrenching struggles in her memoir An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (1995), where she painstakingly chronicles the financial messes and nearly lethal overdoses that came with her condition. Here, she offsets whatever glint of fascination she had for her own illness with passages describing gut-wrenching suffering, fear, and regret for things that would never come back to her. Setting the River on Fire doesn’t ignore the pain Lowell went through — we learn about his multiple hospitalizations, violent outbursts toward his father, as well as one case of lithium poisoning. However, when it comes to the poet’s creativity, his mania is portrayed almost like a guiding force.

Jamison is to be commended for offering a near-complete and clear picture of Lowell’s mood disorders and how those impacted his output: his masterwork Life Studies, after all, was the product of a two-month long bout of mania, and he candidly acknowledged the effects of mania on his poetry. But we really could have done without sentences such as, “Like the Australian banksia flower that needs fire to release its seeds, mania sets loose dormant thoughts and emotions.” In the end, these long-winded and often flowery descriptions of mania actually distract the reader from the psychological profile Jamison otherwise thoroughly put together.

Kay Redfield Jamison’s Robert Lowell, Setting The River on Fire is out now from Knopf.

The post A New Account of Robert Lowell’s Mania Risks Glorifying It appeared first on Hyperallergic.

from Hyperallergic http://ift.tt/2qEnDA0 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Hyperallergic

0 notes

wellmeaningshutin · 7 years

Text

Short Story #55: Swindle.

Written: 3/2/2017

“Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere? Are you famous or somethin’?” I hear that all the time, and its hard for me to go outside without people asking me similar questions, or staring me down, quietly trying to figure out where they know me from. Maybe its my face or something, I don’t know. I’m not famous at all, and I really haven’t done anything very notable, aside from several run in’s with the law when I decided to get my income by grifting people. Sure, I may have conned a couple of people, but it was never anything big, or morally bankrupt, just small time stuff, believe me. I don’t do nothing to anybody that doesn’t deserve it.

Then again, if anyone falls for my tricks, then you know that they deserve it.

One of the best things about the way I work is that everyone always tends to think that I’m somebody else, I have one of those faces that resembles every face. “Hey, didn’t we go to high school together?” Why yes we did, and I can see you’re doing very well for yourself, but I’m in a bit of a deep end. I was doing great until my wife died from ovarian cancer, and now the governments taken all of our money in death taxes, which leaves me unable to pay for the funeral. “Hey, aren’t you on that television show about the female detective?” Why yes, yes I am, and I will give you an autograph for twenty bucks. Okay, I never said I was good at my job, I’m very small time, believe me. The only time I can make money off of people is when they approach me, thinking that I’m somebody I’m not, and everything I try to do just doesn’t work out too well.

I think the worst part is that I’ve never even failed in a spectacular manner, and my highs are pretty similar to my lows. Either I get around $20, or somebody refuses to pay me and just walks away, nothing of interest, nothing to really even talk about. I guess I should be pleased about how entirely forgettable I am, since it does wonders in my line of work, but sometimes I wonder if I really even should call myself a con man, a swindler, grifter, pretender, smooth talker, hustler, swindler, charmer, fake, louse, whatever you want to call me, I’m probably not. I’m no more than a mere opportunist, and everyone worth their salt creates their own luck, instead of waiting for it to happen to them. Woe be to me, the world’s lousiest conman! I am of such low repute, and my story is of so little of interest that you’ll forget about it after hearing of it! A couple minutes later the tale will completely leave your mind, and you will move on with your life, forgetting a forgettable man such as myself, vaguely familiar due to his lack of defining features.

Now, all of this misery led me to fall into a deep depression, which I eventually tried to keep at bay by exercising. Every day I lifted weights until I was too sore to even worry about how little I was worth worrying about, and all I had to do to get inside of the gym was to use a membership card that I found outside, on the ground. I looked vaguely like the man on the card, and they let me in without any questions. It may have been the biggest con of my life, worth hundreds of dollars with the year’s membership it carried. The second biggest con was when I lied to myself, saying that working out made me a happier person. The year spent doing this was completely forgettable, just like myself, and is not worth mentioning.

Well, there was one bit in the year that I guess could be considered something of importance, or interest, and it was when I met the steroid salesman who lurked around in the locker room, and he had mistaken me for one of his clients, and handed me a large shipment of his that had already been prepaid for. All I had to do was walk up to him and say, “Hey, did my package finally arrive?” and he assumed that I was one of his customers. A pathetic grift for a pathetic man such as myself, having to swindle drugs. You can’t call it very important, because no matter the monetary price of what I had swindled out of the possession of that vulgar man, I instead paid the price through addiction, anger, and a large amount of broken possessions. I can not tell you how many mirrors I had punched during that year, but I can say there were a lot. It must have given me such terrible luck, a lifetimes worth, because of how poorly my life had become when my training had ceased.

All bulked up like an action figure, I was finally ready to begin the scam that I had been planning throughout that year. I mean, well, its not like I was planning it too much, and it really wasn’t my idea in the first place, because I’m really not very good at these sorts of things. What happened was a man, that’s right, a tall, charming fellow with a voice perfect for radio, and a face for movies, he came up to me when I was at a restaurant, and he asked me if I knew him from somewhere. Yes, this is what happened. And I tried to get him to at least pay for my meal, claiming that I was a war hero, or some other sort of pathetic lie, and he saw right through me, but he knew that I looked perfect for a con that he had planned for quite some time. It was just another instance of me being an opportunist, a kite in the wind, a jellyfish in a sea of swindlers, only able to bob up and down and having to travel wherever the currents take me. It was just another random occurrence in life, and I had no choice but to go along with it, and I was sure that something so intelligent, genius, extravagant, something that a real master of manipulation would only be able to come up with, well, it was certainly art, yes, so why didn’t I go with it? You would have chosen to do the same thing, because its not every day that we get to work alongside the intellectual elite.

So, I start working with this dashing stranger to do the job that he had presented to me, and that I had in no way come up with myself. I’m too pathetic to think of something so grand. He told me about how wrestling had been making a huge come back, and with my age, appearance, and size, well, I could certainly pass myself off as some old wrestler coming back to earn his former glory. It wasn’t unheard of, and the people who were mainly into wrestling now had little knowledge of the very old stars from back in the day, so all I-we had to do was simple.

First, he hired some other big lug, and we dressed him and I up in some old style wrestling get ups, and we did a couple fights. Sometimes we had the other man change outfits so that we could pretend that these were all footage from different fights, and we even rented out this older boxing ring, then used trick photography to imply there was a crowd out there, when it was mainly bleachers full of cardboard cut outs and mannequins. The man who came up with this must have been really smart, dedicated, and impressive in the field if he was not only able to put all of that together, but also make it so that people actually believed-when they were placed around the internet-that the faked matches had been genuine. I must say that even I would have been fooled by the whole display, and I guess that shows that I am no more of a conman than a victim myself. The most impressive part was the camera and film that he used, which made it really seem old school, and gave it that found footage effect.

We also made a couple videos of myself, or my wrestling persona-Wild Card-yelling at a camera about made up beefs with other wrestlers. The names I would yell out were a mix of real ones and fake ones, so it would show that there were some credible names for these younger people, but would also display to them that there were other forgotten and obscure figures out there, lost to time since they were big in a world where the internet never existed, and obscurity was a bottomless pit. This was probably the best part of the whole act, even if I did have to memorize the man’s scripts, since I am terrible at improvising duologue, but it doesn’t matter who wrote it, its still fun to yell things such as:

“Mad Gator, you slept with my girlfriend and her mother, so now I’m going to get you in the ring or outside, its your choice. I’ll skin you and turn your shoes into a nice pair of shoes, that I will use to walk around carelessly in a yard full of dog shit.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I’M SO FUCKING ANGRY AND YOU CANNOT STOP ME FROM TEARING YOUR HEAD OFF IN THE RING!”

“Hogan, you tan son of a bitch, I’m going to pay you back for giving my daughter that abortion. I kidnapped your father and have hidden away his heart medication, so even if you free him from my thugs, you wont be able to save his life unless you meet me in the ring!”

On top of all of that, we also paid fake news sites to start posting articles about Wild Card’s downward spiral, due to his son dying in the war, which only reminded the wrestler of all of the young men that he saw die in Vietnam, and which led him to step out of the ring for good. It was a very sad story, even if it was a little pandering to veteran crowd, but I still am very proud of the work, that the guy who brought me in on the con did, and I can only wish that I would be able to write so well. I swear, if that man wasn’t spending all of his time tricking poor saps into giving him their hard earned money, then he would probably be able to do so much other amazing things with his life. It makes you think that the man has to love what he does, because he could easily become a millionaire just by playing it straight.

Anyways, there’s also some rumors that were placed around, talking about Wild Card’s interest in returning to wrestling. There’s some stuff about how he saw the light of the lord, and now he’s almost ready to face his inner demons in the ring, using the power of Christ to absolve himself, and blah blah blah. I would judge the guy for pandering this hard, but nowadays its really the easiest way to do things. Hell, it hasn’t been this easy to manipulate people since 9/11, but then again what do I know? The only thing I can pander to is somebody who mistakes me for somebody else. Pandering is the art of creating a situation, opportunity, a cause, while I am a slave to opportunity, and can only find it when it falls into my lap. After the story was put out there, we started getting all sorts of fan mail, saying how they wanted Wild Card to get back in the ring, saying how inspired they were by him. One man even wrote about how the character used to be his childhood idol, but I suspect his mind hadn’t been too solid, but money is money.

Then, while we have all of this momentum behind us, we did the next logical step, which was setting up on one of those crowd-funding sites, to get enough money to rent out a large arena where Wild Card could have his big come back match, as a way of his return to wrestling. The price we needed was much more than it actually cost to rent out the place that the man had in mind, so when we reached our goal there was already some extra cash in our pockets, plus when we went over it we were basically rolling in dough. I was shocked, because that’s the most money I had ever tricked out of anyone in my entire life, and I don’t think I could be able to get anywhere near that amount again. Although, there were a couple snags when some people tried to call the match out on what it was-a scam-but somehow this only made our fans even more devoted to the match, and they started claiming that everyone who called it a scam were actually scammers, and somehow threw politics into there for good measure.

“You think being a veteran was a scam? Go out and die for the country, and then try to say how much of a scam this all is!”

“Why do people keep trying to call this fake? What are they trying to cover up?”

Or my personal favorite: “This man lost his son. HIS SON. If he was lying to all of us (just like the lieberal media) then why did he drop out of wrestling all of those years ago? Why would he have to trick people out of money if he could’ve easily been bigger than Hogan? You know what’s a scam? Sending donations to the Democratic party, now that’s a scam. You guys think anything outside of your echochanmber is made up, when rational people know to call it what it is: THE REAL WORLD.” I don’t even know what that person was even talking about, but they donated $126, so God bless them. ———————————————————————————————————

Now, when it came to the day of the match, my plan had been really simple: take all of the money from the tickets that were sold, no refunds, and then board a flight out of the country. Everything else had been going as I had planned it, so why would this go any different?

Nothing but cheering could be heard from inside the arena, the place was packed not only with people, but with noise, with hope, and I was hearing that there weren’t even enough seats to hold everyone, so people were sitting in the aisles, stairs, everywhere they could be fit. The mastermind behind it, that suave bastard, told me that he bribed the staff to ignore the fire code, and anyways he said that if the place burned down then it would all be even better. If people died in the fire, then there would be less people to call it out as one big hustle, and then we could stage a second match in honor of all of the fans who died. This was when things started to look bad for me, and I was realizing how hard it was going to be for me to go through with the guy’s plan, I didn’t want to disappoint all of those kind people out there, but he was better than me, he was a real con artist, and he convinced me to go through with it.

Sure, there have been stories in the media that are claiming that police were investigating the match, suspecting that it was all a ploy to take the money and run, so that’s why I ended up going through with the match, and ended up in my current condition, but that’s not true at all. They even claim that I was the one behind all of it, but as you have seen, I am in no way capable of being able to pull off any of this. In order to clear my name, and prove that I am a victim of circumstance, I will tell you why I ended up fighting in the ring, and why I am where I currently am.

Now, the guy I was supposed to wrestle against was one huge mother fucker. He was like a mountain on steroids. His teeth were completely made of metal, and he had earned the name “The Compacter”, because he had reportedly crushed another wrestler, with his bare hands, and the guy not only had to go to the hospital, but due to spinal damage he was also six inches shorter than he was before that dreaded match. If there was ever a villain in wrestling, then this guy was the man who the villain was afraid of. You get the point, and you can also probably tell why the ringleader had chosen him for Wild Card’s come back, even though I had to have it explained to me three times before I was able to piece it all together. I’m surprised the guy was so patient with me, it really took me a long time to understand the scheme since I’m really just not cut out for that line of work.

So, the both of us have our bags, are dressed up to not gain any attention, and we’re all ready to skip town with all of the money from the big match. Problem is, I’m already guilty about the magnificent scam that we were about to pull off, and on top of that I see the Compacter getting ready for the match, and he’s talking to his kid. First its a sweet moment, and I sort of feel bad for how great of a father he is, but there’s no reason to risk death with a man just because he’s good to his kid. He was already paid anyways. What I saw afterwards really led me to stay, because I saw him flat out clock his own child in the face, and the poor thing is sprawled out on the floor, blood gushing from his nose, she’s-that’s right, it was his daughter-crying quietly, probably because she didn’t want to anger the beast any further. As this awful, horrible, gut-wrenchingly tragic scene plays out, guess what the monster is doing? He’s laughing his head off, that’s what.

In order to stand up to this cruel man, this bully-not because I would’ve been arrested if I tried to flee-I had to face him in the ring, to hopefully show him that he can’t treat children like that. Somebody had to stand up for the ones who can’t protect themselves, and I knew I had to be that person. Don’t call me a hero. What I did is what anyone, any Christian, should have done, and I’m glad that I did my part, even if I paid dearly for it. Sure, I might have been hospitalized for quite some time, and I’ll never be able to walk right again, but in my heart I know that I had done the right thing, because I was able to cast away my life of sin, and was able to stand up for everything that was good and righteous. If we allow evil to spread around the world, unpunished, then doesn’t that make us evil? Who are we to judge horrible deeds if we do not risk everything to seek justice?

Now, you might be wondering why there were no reports of the mastermind that I have talked about, but that’s because he is also a master of disguise, and was able to slip past the police with no problem. I heard rumors of him being able to forge passports, and he is most likely living in some foreign country under some fake name. You can tell that he is a very dangerous man, because he was able to pin many of his other schemes onto me, but like I have demonstrated, I am just a victim of chance. The only reason that they claim I have swindled all of those people, were involved in all of those multi-million cons, was because they never had pictures of the real expert, the man who got me wrapped up in this awful business, and I was the only one who was left behind.

Is this the price I should have to pay for doing the right thing, the just thing? Should I have to spend my time disabled, risking time in prison for crimes that I did not commit, all because I was a victim of a con myself? No, that cannot be right, and that’s why I must implore you to donate, because if I cannot build the funds for an appropriate defense, for private detectives to track down the real swindler, then he will only continue to trick the unsuspecting out of all of their hard earned money, and I will rot in jail in his place. Does that sound like justice to you?

#Free Write #Short Story #Writers on Tumblr #Wrestling #Con

0 notes

allenmendezsr · 4 years

Text

Power Of The Pen Plus Law Of Attraction Equals Success

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/power-of-the-pen-plus-law-of-attraction-equals-success/

Power Of The Pen Plus Law Of Attraction Equals Success

Buy Now

Self-development gurus say the most successful 3% write their dreams & goals on paper. Learn how to use the Power of the Pen PLUS the Law of Attraction to attract massive success. The Newest Secret Vision Kits help rewrite the Story of Your Life to propel you in a whole new direction!

A Published Vision Book Offers these Self Improvement Options

The Newest Secret Vision Kit—SILVER

Retail Price: $286 | $77.00 Sale

Produced personally by self-publishing goddess Deborah S. Nelson, The Newest Secret Vision Kit SILVER Edition gets you started with the basics. After spending decades in the printing and the publishing business, Ms. Nelson created some very practical resources. These tools, tips, and tricks that will save you time money and frustration—and will help push you all the way through the finishing line!

The Newest Secret Vision Kit SILVER Edition features various tools in the form of digital downloads and a paperback book. Allow 7-10 days for the delivery of your paperback book. The digital information is immediately available after purchase. Utilize your one-hour consultation with Deborah S. Nelson when ready to work one-on-one to complete your dream journey. Schedule your private consultation with the author within 30 days.

The Newest Secret Vision Kit—SILVER Curriculum is a $286 Retail Value

The Newest Secret Textbook E-book PDF

(Immediate Direct Download)

The Newest Secret Workbook Paperback

(Mailed Via Amazon Books)

60 Minute Vision Coaching Session with Author Deborah S. Nelson

(Schedule Via [email protected])

Ten Dreams to Reality Steps to Reach Your Goals PDF

(Immediate Direct Download)

Busting Negative Thought Habits: 10 Episodes PDF

(Immediate Direct Download)

“Ms. Nelson is a great partner and important member of my team. Without her tireless efforts, I would have stopped long ago. She’s an angel and wields the powerful art of dreaming, writing, and publishing. As a coach, she balances the paradox of gently coaxing your story from your inner being, while firmly guiding your book to its published completion.” Read More.

—Mannie Jackson (Las Vegas, NV) Harlem Globetrotters

“Like a gentle midwife, Deborah S. Nelson skillfully and gracefully coached me past my resistance and procrastination to give birth to my first book of poetry; and managed to make it a painless, playful, and flowing process.”

—Maya Shaw Gale (Carpinteria, CA) Poet & Life Coach, Creative Edge Coaching

“Deborah S. Nelson is a wonderful book writing coach and generous mentor. She knows how to gently and patiently coax the book out of a person—then firmly guide them to bring it to published form.”

—Patty DeDominic (Montecito, CA) Founder, DeDominic & Associates International Woman’s Festival

“In these uncertain times, an action plan is more necessary than ever, and this book and Deborah’s courses lay out the steps in practical, do-able ways. Entrepreneurs are going to save this country in this economic downturn; this book will help you to let go of your fears and start building on your own unique dreams to achieve them like never before.”

—D. S. Beasley (Colorado Springs, CO) Owner, Angel Arts

“This book is easy to read and will get you motivated to take action the day you read it! The author breaks it down step by step so that anyone at any age can accomplish any goal. The author is down to earth and doesn’t include any hocus-pocus mumbo jumbo common in other books of this genre.”

—J. Nelson (New York, NY) Photographer

“Dreams to Reality, when used with its workbook, truly helps the reader define their dreams (goals), and list them—which is very important. Then, you pick one and ride it to fruition in a wonderful way. I was pleasantly surprised since I don’t think of myself as a dreamer. Well done, Deborah.”

—Larry Melby (Carpinteria, CA)

“Being a published author is the best feeling in the world! With Deborah Nelson’s professional, creative, practical and informed guidance, you can be a published author too! Why try to navigate this crazy publishing world by yourself, or reinvent the wheel? Hiring Deborah to assist me in publishing my book ended up saving me money, time and the endless frustration, because she knows the world of self-publishing like no one else.” Read More.

—Julia Loggins (Santa Barbara, CA) Author, Dare to Detoxify, It Takes Guts to Be Happy!

“I took Deborah’s Author Your Book Course. I was at a stage in my book where I hit the wall. I met with Deborah privately who brainstormed with me on the message I was trying to convey. I did not have a solid title yet and Deborah helped me to see how important that was. Once I got the right title, the whole book came together. I am grateful for her insight, guidance and ability to see the whole picture”

—Eve Briere (Santa Barbara, CA) Founder, Successful Organizing Solutions Author, 31 Days, 31 Spaces

“Just as others, you will no doubt by now have been inundated with books that promise all sorts of miracles—wealth, happiness, success, spiritual growth, inspiration, motivation and the proverbial more—if only you will buy the book. The problem is that all of these books expect you to follow the author’s dream, the author’s plan, the author’s timeline, the author’s goals.” Read More.

—Bill Hood (Austin, TX) Bill Hood Books

“The author distills and simplifies centuries of wisdom in this little easy to read the guidebook for setting & accomplishing life goals. Well worth owning a copy. You’ll likely keep it as a long-term guidebook to your universe.”

—Carol Stall (Austin, TX)

“For a lot of us, it’s not that we don’t have dreams. Life gets busy and all we get to do is what needs to be done. This book is a call to action to get started with bringing your dreams to reality. Dreams to Reality [rewritten and rebranded as The Newest Secret] helps you define your dream and get you started with actually making the steps to fulfill that dream. Want to get started working on your dream? Get this book!”

—Peter Kahuria (Oklahoma City, OK)

“Deborah S. Nelson’s course, Author Your Book, which uses the Author Your Reality Textbook along with the Author Your Book Action Plan Workbook, was fantastic! The material was easy and straightforward. Her 10 step Author your Reality Curriculum takes you through the process which can be applied to manifesting any dream, I suppose. However, my dream was to become an author.” Read More.

—Cindy M. White (Santa Barbara, CA) Author, The Ripple Effect Game

“I am in East Africa serving as CEO of Inspire Africa Academy and consulting using the vehicle of my own firm, Audrey Addison Williams. Deborah Nelson’s course, which she gifted me with two years ago, is a major reason why I am now living my best life. Thank you, Deborah.”

—Audrey Addison Williams (Kapala, East Africa) CEO, Inspire Africa Academy

Visualization in a New Way!

“If you are looking to live your dreams or visualize your dreams—this book is for you. Living your dreams is not easy these days, especially in this down economy. Using a dream board or a vision board is often cited as one of the best ways to achieve your goals when striving for your dreams. I really enjoyed reading this book—highly insightful and very informative.”

—Taylor Reaume (Santa Barbara, CA) Search Engine Pros

“When I first started with my publishing coach, Deborah S. Nelson, I did not even know how to cut and paste. I was at a kindergarten level in the presence of a Masters’ degree teacher. After eight or nine months, I have made it to the third grade and progressing all the time. However, Deborah, patiently, has given me the skills I need to publish my second book within one year. Deborah possesses an ocean of skill and wisdom which she readily shares.” Read More.

—Robert Munster (Portland, ME) Author, Still Surfing, Forty Eight Years on Waves, Who Are We, Really?, Learning to Listen to Life’s Clues

“This workbook is a genius creation for writers, like me, who have wanted to publish a book but never knew the right order or steps to take to complete it! This insightful guide provides a step-by-step approach to help budding writers organize their thoughts and includes all the necessary components to publish. I took a fabulous publishing workshop with Deborah where, with her guidance, my book blueprint was delivered in the mail.” Read More.

—Emily Yurcheshen (Santa Barbara, CA) Author, An Odyssey of Song

“Great Tool for establishing dreams suitable for junior high students through college and adult seekers. Positive affirmations and simple step by step activities make this a must have tool for those ready to plan for future, write a practical life plan, or even write a book!”

—Dr. Deborah De Vries (Ventura, CA) School Trustee and College Instructor

How Can The Newest Secret Curriculum Help You?

Making Dreams Come True—on Purpose

From fifth grade on, I studied personal development writers, speakers, teachers, and gurus. I spent enough on self-development resources and events to buy a small home! From eating fire at Tony Robbins’ seminars to practicing meditation, and studying Seth Speaks and Abraham Hicks⁠, I transformed myself many times over. After practicing personal transformation for five decades (from fifth grade to 50); I had a dream to share my knowledge, wisdom, and experience. I wanted to give my readers some takeaway—rather than just the positive hype I had embraced from decades of workshops and events. The two-part The Newest Secret series was my dream come true.

Law of Attraction PLUS Power of the Pen EQUALS Success

So about 10 years ago I stumbled onto a powerful secret—the secret to making dreams come true—on purpose! This formula combines the Law of Attraction with the Power of the Pen. Once you manifest your vision in the form of a vision book, you have taken the first step of bringing your dream to reality. Your dream has started to become physical in the form of a book. Now you can take away a published vision plan for your new life story.

Real lasting change can happen when using the Power of the Pen combined with the Law of Attraction ! When you write your dreams, goals, visions in storybook form, you will soon see them entering your reality. Just like a vision board, your vision book will bring your plan into focus. The vision book you write and self-publish in The Newest Secret Workbook will propel your dreams to reality.

Not Ready to Buy—But Want to Start Anyway?

Free E-Course—Busting Negative Thought Habits

Busting Negative Thought Habits explores the “10 Big Action Steps” to activate your dreams. Essentially, this e-course walks you through life-changing action steps in a simple and easy way. Busting Negative Thought Habits discusses various new topics teaching you how to move towards your dreams. This course also includes a thought habit overview in the end. The big key is for you to practice and commit a few minutes per day. Use the discount code TNSbnth to purchase the e-course for free. Learn more.

The Newest Secret Vision Kit—SILVER

Retail Price: $286 | $77.00 Sale

The Newest Secret Vision Kit—SILVER Curriculum is a $286 Retail Value

The Newest Secret Textbook E-book PDF

(Immediate Direct Download)

The Newest Secret Workbook Paperback

(Mailed Via Amazon Books)

60 Minute Vision Coaching Session with Author Deborah S. Nelson

(Schedule Via [email protected])

Ten Dreams to Reality Steps to Reach Your Goals PDF

(Immediate Direct Download)

Busting Negative Thought Habits: 10 Episodes PDF

(Immediate Direct Download)

Publishing a Vision Book Is Like Printing Money

INVEST IN YOURSELF: To invest in yourself, is the best investment ever! Getting the right training and information helps you move from mediocrity to excellence—from depression to exuberance.

AUTHENTIC CONFIDENCE: Once you publish a vision book, expect a confidence surge to increase by 25, 50 or 100%. More confidence translates into more earning power.

CELEBRITY STATUS: Living the life you always dreamed of exudes a certain star quality. Friends, family, and business associates see you in a new whole light. You’ll be invited to more social and business events. More connections mean more money.

FINANCIAL GOALS: Focus your vision book on abundance and setting financial goals. With your new vision, start practicing an abundance mindset and money will come to you.

PROMOTIONS: Write and publish career goals in your vision book and see your career take on a whole new direction. Surprise yourself with a career change or promotion. A career change or promotion can also translate into more money.

Not Ready to Buy—But Want to Start Anyway?

Free E-Course—Busting Negative Thought Habits

Our Popular SILVER VISION KIT Below Includes Books & Author Consult—$77

The Newest Secret Vision Kit—GOLD

This powerful Gold Vision Kit is designed for those who desire to transform from wimpy to invincible. Imagine yourself enjoying a richer lifestyle, with supportive new friends. Change begets change—and your career soars as well. With more income, you will develop golden connections. Launch the best years of your life with the Gold Vision Kit today. Learn more.

The Newest Secret Vision Kit—SILVER

Do you want to be your own super hero? Ready to rev up your super powers? Have you realized that doing the same things over and over is not getting results? Perhaps you are transitioning—off to college, getting married, divorcing, or children are leaving your nest. Not born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you must make the change. But how do you start? Learn more.

The Newest Secret Vision Kit—PLATINUM

If only the best will do, this Platinum Vision Kit aims to super charge your being—kryptonite will not compromise you. The Newest Secret curriculum leads you through an inner journey to bring out the best in you! Plus, a 120-minute private session with Author-Coach Deborah S. Nelson, who has reinvented herself seven times over, will inspire you to greatness. Learn more.

You too can enjoy the life-changing experience of becoming a published author. Listen, as Cindy White shares her excitement!

Have you ever asked yourself, how do dreams come true?

Ever wanted to make your dreams come true … on purpose?

Julia Loggins describes how fun the publishing process is with Deborah’s step-by-step self-publishing curriculum.

Deborah S. Nelson, Author-Publisher-Speaker

Dreaming and writing—what do they have in common? Perhaps it is Deborah S. Nelson, who has united her two greatest talents within her personal development book series—The Newest Secret with its companion workbook.

Nelson wrote and published 22 books, including Change Your Story, Vacation Rental Owner’s Manual, Do-it-Yourself Vacation Rental Branding, The Vacation Rental Travel Guide series, and the Author Your Reality series. As a publishing coach, she has guided over 100 authors to publish their books. Recently, she introduced her latest innovation—Vision Kits.

Nelson’s experience includes two decades in the publishing, printing, and advertising industries. Her passion is getting your book to the finish line. Her newest book, Publish Your Book Blueprint shows aspiring authors each step of the self-publishing process. Authors produce a published book proof which prepares them for publication on Amazon.

Nelson’s digital publishing curriculum has guided numerous writers through their publishing journey on the way to publish a total of 120+ books.

Many clients are publishing their second, third, or fourth books! Author of 22 published books, Ms. Nelson is writing her most exciting book yet: THE SOLO PUBLISHING GUIDE—Publish Your Book to Ignite Yourself & Your Fortune, to be released Fall of 2020. Visit Publish in Paradise for more information about self-publishing books, courses, and tools.

FREE BONUS—Busting Negative Thought Habits With Purchase of Any Vision Kit

Ignoring the elephant in the room? Ignore him no more. Busting Negative Thought Habits explores the “10 Big Action Steps” to activate your dreams. Busting Negative Thought Habits walks you through life-changing action steps in a simple and easy way. Each module discusses a new topic on how to move towards your dreams. The big key is for you to practice and commit a few minutes per day.

Claim The Newest Secret Gift Now!

Since you have read to the end of this presentation, you now know that I am dead serious about preparing you to create a new vision of your life! Once you visualize your dream on paper, it is just a matter of time before your dream comes true.

Regardless of your buying decision today, I want to help you redesign your life!

When highly abundant, successful, and wealthy people started, they put their vision in writing. This action separates the successful from the mediocre. Take this first step by jumping over to our shop to receive the free Dreams to Reality Sampler right now! Use the coupon code: TNSgift during checkout.

You Receive a 90-Day Money Back Guarantee

Listen: I don’t care if it’s one hour from now, or three weeks from now—if you ain’t happy, I ain’t happy. Purchase now. Try it out. If you like it, great! We have exchanged a small amount of money for a large amount of value.

No need explain why you want your money back! Just ask for it—and we will return it. Plus, we can still be friends. For Product Support, please contact the vendor HERE. For Order Support, please contact ClickBank HERE. Keep the Busting Negative Thought Habits series. It’s our gift to you!

DISCLAIMER: ClickBank is the retailer of products on this site. CLICKBANK® is a registered trademark of Click Sales, Inc., a Delaware corporation located at 1444 S. Entertainment Ave., Suite 410 Boise, ID 83709, USA and used by permission. ClickBank’s role as retailer does not constitute an endorsement, approval or review of these products or any claim, statement or opinion used in promotion of these products.

0 notes