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rory-for-short · 3 years

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New Crossings New Horizons: Chapter 1

So I'm writing an animal crossing fan fiction. Never thought id say that but I'm really exited about it. Ill be posting it here this is Chapter one:

The beginnings of summer, and a 4pm flight. That's how this adventure started. The lights were all fluorescent in the airport terminal and the afternoon air as warm with the promise of summer on the horizon. Of course the private “plane” you were supplied scared you. It was an older model helicopter that was run by DAL and taking you to an island. You agreed to be part of this little venture, simply for the college credit. One semester of “city planning,” if you could even call it that. It was a program run by Thomas Nook. Mr. Nook had approached you via email, as he did many NewLeaf college students with the same major. Only you and three others responded, likely due to the difficult nature of his program. But the promise of a job directly after graduation was simply too appealing for you.

So here you were at 4pm with your suitcase full of necessities and a carry on of any food you could get past customs, walking down an airport runway to a questionable aircraft headed to a deserted island. A man greeted you. He looked about 30. He was wearing aviators, and a DAL pilot uniform, and scruff that made him look a bit more human than your fellow passengers did. His frame was of a muscle bound frat-boy that drank too much and let himself get just a bit squishier. He was talking to someone over a talk system. “Dodo 1 to Dodo 2, we’ve got walkers starting to onboard. Tango Tango Yankee Lima,” he finished as he turned to address us.

“Welcome civilans to Dodo airlines. Leave your luggage at the rear of the craft and ill load it into storage,” he commanded with a deep vibrato. Likey, he didn't intend to seem intimidating, but he was. Looking at him was like seeing a 6’3 wall walking around. You and your fellow passengers did as commanded. You struggled just a bit with your luggage as you moved your carry on bag and a strap on it broke. A temporary loss of balance and stumble from the weight shift, was quickly followed by two hands grabbing the now strapless bag with ease.

“Careful there, flyer. You alright?” asked the concerned pilot. It was at this point you noticed his name tag, a silver bar pinned to his lapel with the name “Wilber” etched into it. Wilber, how fitting for a pilot.

“Yeah, I’m good… Thanks” you managed as he lifted your luggage into the storage compartment.

“Not a problem,” he replied in a measured voice, unchanging despite the amount of weight he was lifting. You began to board the aircraft with you fellow passengers. Apollo, a stoic young man in ROTC, an alt girl who introduced herself as ‘Cherry’, and Bob who had eyes shiftier than a non-automatic car. These were the people you would be stranded on an island with. ‘Better make the best of it and make nice with everyone’ you thought to yourself.

“So, you guys ready to ruff it in the tropics?” Bob asked, breaking the silence.

“I've done training like this for the army. Anyone has any concerns you can ask me,” Apollo shrugged. Well at least one of us was a survivalist. That's a good sign.

“So, like, I did research on this Nook guy and he seems to be some capitalist robber baron. Hope we aren’t part of some get rich quick scheme.” Cherry huffed as she pulled out her phone. Your stomach dropped realizing you knew little about the man you would be working under, while stranded on an island. You should have done research but you were busy reading fine print and filling out your internship paperwork.

“I’m sure we will be fine.. NewLeaf is a prestigious college after all, I’m sure they don't hand out students to just anyone, right?” you said in an attempt to convince yourself more than anyone.

“Eh, I heard rumors he was a shady ass fellow. That's why I agreed to all this. Kinda like a twin flame thing,” Bob laughed. Apollo chucked at his announcement.

“Well I hope for our sake, you are the only ‘shady ass fellow’ we deal with on this trip,” Apollo shot back. you hoped so too.

It was 10pm when you landed. You and your cohorts hadn’t gotten any rest on the flight. Well, except Cherry who had no problem propping her head on Apollo’s shoulder to get some rest. Not that he seemed to mind. He just talked spout survivalist training the whole ride, and didn’t even register the small black and red haired girl leaning into him. Wilber had gotten a duffle bag out of storage to help you move you stuff that was in your now broken bag.

“This should be a bit more durable. Expecting a food shortage?” he asked as he helped move your dried fruits and trail snacks into the not as broken bag. You gave a half hatred laugh.

“Well its better to be prepared. I was a girl scout after all” you quipped. Wilbur nodded his head to that as he zipped up the duffel bag.

“Alright here you are. Watch your fitting as you make your way to camp. Your cohorts got the jump on yah,” he cautioned as you gathered you stuff.

“Thanks Wilber”

“Anytime Civilian”

With that, you made your way to camp. The only saving grace for you to navigate the darkness was the flicker of a fire light a mile ahead. The others had gotten there first, it was a clearing with several tents set up and what looked like a water pump and generator as well. A campfire was smouldering and your schoolmates sat around the fire in a circle on log seating.

“Well look who’s finally decided to join us. Not very nice to leave you behind, hm?” a man of middle age greeted. He was a bit taller than you, tan, with a mustache and a Hawaiian shirt. He kinda looked like Pedro Pascal and tom Sellicks love child.

“Oh don't worry, I made it all the same, just a slight luggage malfunction” you answered the older man.

“I see,” he extended his hand out to you, “I’m Tom Nook, curator of this internship. You must be Y/N.” So this middle aged man with the twinkle in his eye wearing a Hawaiian shirt and slides, was the shady capitalist that indoctrinated you all? Not quite what you had imagined and it relieved you, yet you were still apprehensive to trust him at all. All the same, you took his outstretched hand. “Nice to meet you Mr. Nook.”

#animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #fanfiction #fanfic #new horizons #acnh #x reader #reader insert

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lamarmcarter · 4 years

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A WNBA Wishlist for NBA 2K21 & Beyond

The current state of the world has created newfound time for many of us while we wait for sports to resume and, much more importantly, life to return to some semblance of normal.

To pass the time, and to follow the recent buzz created by the 2020 WNBA Draft, I have taken a deep dive into NBA 2K20’s WNBA integration and created a wishlist of features for the next iterations of the game. The first year of WNBA in 2K surpassed EA Sports’ two-year head start with NBA Live 18 and Live 19 on a number of fronts; that said, for 2K to bring the integration up to the standard W fans deserve and their industry-leading NBA simulation has created, I’ve logged these 20 things need to be added as soon as possible:

Fix the In-Game Commentary Audio One of the most glaring issues for 2K20 with the WNBA were the multiple instances of the in-game announcers misgendering player actions (using “he/him/his” instead of “she/her/hers”). I haven’t heard any actions in NBA modes using female wording so hearing it in the W games makes the mode feel a bit unprofessional. There are some times where these mentions could just be unclear pronunciations, but even that happening in a game where there is usually so much polish on the commentary is a problem. I’ve had fellow gamers on Twitter confirm that this has happened to them so it’s definitely not an isolated incident.

Choose more recognizable and more diverse announcers The all-male trio of announcers in the WNBA modes did an admirable job providing commentary in the games. While I generally enjoyed their commentary (sans point No.1) and it seemed to get better after launch, sometimes their insights into players were a bit formulaic (a descriptor, player name, another descriptor). Initially, hearing these anecdotes about the players was refreshing but noticing this recurring template was disheartening after a while. Also, in a game that has a wide mix of recognizable, veteran NBA announcers on the men’s side and sports the great Doris Burke among that mix, it was hard to understand how the WNBA mode only possessed an all-male crew unknown in WNBA circles.

A list of seasoned WNBA/women’s basketball announcers that should be approached for 2K21 and beyond include but are not limited to: LaChina Robinson, Kara Lawson, Rebecca Lobo, Adam Amin, Ryan Ruocco, Christy Winters-Scott, Carolyn Peck, Doris Burke, Holly Rowe (who could also serve in David Aldrige’s sideline role), Cheryl Miller, Debbie Antonelli, Pam Ward, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, Maria Taylor, and Ann Meyers.

Add the pre-game/post-game shows If any of the veteran announcers could be added to 2K21, it would make perfect sense to create a pre-game/post-game panel package for the W. Any grouping of those announcers could easily create analysis for the teams and give the women the same treatment that Shaq, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson give the men.

Extend the season mode past one season Being able to play a full season in 2K20 was one of the game’s best features. However, knowing that you couldn’t go into multiple years like in NBA MyLeague was disappointing. Knowing this, I still grinded through a season with the Las Vegas Aces from launch until a few weeks ago (for the record: 27-7, Liz Cambage as MVP and Finals MVP, and a title!) only to be left with the empty feeling of not being able to have my curated team (with a few late season trades) run it back in future years. Maybe the full 80-year NBA MyLeague treatment can’t be done, but having the auto draft classes, progressions, and offseason items necessary for a 15-25 year run should be doable.

Allow for creation of female players, custom rosters and draft classes As more and more attention is given to women’s basketball in this social media age, devoted fans may want to create draft classes of future college stars like NBA fans already do. Adding the option to create female players - individually or en masse - is necessary to allow for longer engagement with the league in the game. Outside of visualizing future players, being able to save and load custom rosters is also needed. This year’s one-season MyLeague would have been more bearable if I didn’t have to manually alter any fantasy rosters I wanted to experiment with every time I started a season.

Add a MyCareer storyline/path for Female MyPlayers to make the league In past editions of 2K and past versions of the Madden NFL franchise, game creators have worked around the NCAA’s old name, image and likeness restrictions by getting basic licenses from colleges to use their logos with generic rosters in MyCareer-type modes. Madden NFL 20’s Face of the Franchise mode particularly stood out: your QB chose a college to go to, and then as a senior played against two schools in the College Football Playoff semis and final.

A similar setup could be created for a Female MyCareer story: get a team license for 4-8 of the top women’s college basketball teams and have the created player go through the latter stages of the NCAA tourney before getting drafted to the W. Someone could create a player, choose from the licensed schools to commit, play a handful of games versus the other licensed schools (and their auto-generated rosters) in big moments over four years, and end by going through top teams as a senior (either with or without graduated alums in the W; imagine having to face Sabrina Ionescu, Satou Sabally, Ruthy Hebard and Oregon or Tyasha Harris, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, Dawn Staley and South Carolina for the title to set your draft stock). Simulate the draft with Commissioner Cathy Engelbert like it’s done with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and roll right into your season with the same bells and whistles as a male MyPlayer.

Allow Female MyPlayer into the Neighborhood/Park areas I personally don’t play too much of the online Park games in 2K (another story for another day) but just like on basketball courts around the world, if female MyPlayers are available, they should be able to run with the guys. The Neighborhood could be broken up three ways: a portion for guys only runs, a section for girls only runs, and a co-ed section. Give the female MyPlayers the same access to all the perks of the Neighborhood (gear, the Gatorade training center, MyCourt, etc).

Allow for Playoff Only Mode The WNBA Playoffs are probably the most unique in all of the major sports leagues. Adding a Playoff only mode to the season mode would allow for more content to be created and simulations to be run, especially if All-Time and Classic teams are added.

Continue to improve on strong face scan data 2K’s face scans were great out the gate in both quality and quantity. Continuing to improve on that start to gain 100 percent accuracy has to be the goal. Scanning sessions will probably be difficult in the current age of coronavirus, but if fans can scan their faces in the game with an app, I’m sure something can be done with the W’s players remotely.

Scan in and/or properly gender each head coach We heard that some WNBA coaches - if not all - were scanned for 2K20 but none of them are in the game. If correcting this can’t be done in 2K21, at least put in generic stand ins of the correct gender and race. Example: Minnesota (Cheryl Reeve - white woman) and Las Vegas (Bill Laimbeer - white man) both have black male avatars as their head coaches in the game. All 12 coach avatars in the game are men and even though there are more male coaches than female ones in the league, the virtual stand-ins are still incorrect. If the game could get unique scans for cheerleaders and female characters in MyCareer, I’m sure some stand in men and women could be added if the WNBA coaches can’t be added like their NBA counterparts.

Align commentator and arena PA announcer pronunciations A subtle tweak: making sure the game announcers and the in-arena PAs are announcing players’ names correctly. I’ve heard some very off names on both sides

Halftime: show team stats screen for longer than four seconds When I’m in a game and want to look at the halftime stats to figure out how I’m doing, I’ve felt rushed because the team stats graphic that shows in-between halves comes down just as quickly as it goes up.

Allow for online Play Now The NBA and 2K found a way to entertain its fans during our quarantine with online competitions that were aired on TV. If the WNBA season is postponed or cancelled, the league cannot facilitate a similar tournament in 2K20 because the only way for two people to faceoff with W teams is in the offline Play Now mode. Bringing in an online option will expand opportunities for fans to learn about the WNBA players and teams.

The defending champion Washington Mystics recently decided to do streams of their games on 2K but only as CPU vs CPU simulations instead of remote player vs player. Not having the ability to play someone else online limited their options and engagement opportunities.

WNBA Finals: actually put in a celebration sequence As I (proudly) mentioned, I won the title in my LVA season and after the final game, there was a quick CHAMPIONS graphic...and that’s it. No trophy celebrations, no locker room celebrations, nothing. In my semifinals win to get to the Finals, the NBA “conference trophy” cutscenes played postgame at least. Adding that touch would surely be appreciated by the W community.

Double check player cutouts Jordin Canada (SEA) won an award in my LVA season and her player image was Jewell Loyd. It’s the only error I’ve personally seen on the player cutouts but checking those are important.

All-Time Teams and Past Champions Adding Classic WNBA teams and/or legends via All-Time teams would be the ultimate way to honor the league’s history and give old and new fans that pick up 2K a virtual time capsule of the W. My suggestions would be to add:

Champions and Runners-Up from every year (1997-present)

All-Time Teams that go 10-12 deep (I took a crack at suggestions here): https://bit.ly/2xFW2HL. I’m sure some W writers with deeper knowledge than mine could fill in the blanks.

Add a 2K League connection/element Tying back into the online Play Now mode, incorporating the NBA 2K League with WNBA action would be amazing. Either have the 2KL teams do special tourneys using W teams; create events or a full league for the W that has to be at minimum 75% women (because, shoot, I’d want to play too!); or do WNBA player-specific events. Imagine how cool it would be to see Aerial Powers and Allisha Gray going at it as themselves in 2K instead of just picking NBA teams.

Put in some general trade logic Currently, any trades in the MyLeague mode are set to automatically go through, no matter how outrageous. Some basic trade logic (at minimum based on overalls, salary and position) would be nice to give things a realistic feel.

Fix the jerseys screen in season In WNBA Play Now, when you go to adjust jerseys, there’s a graphic with WNBA players in the background. In Season, that graphic is of NBA players.

Honor Gigi Bryant, Payton Chester, and Alyssa Altobelli, and Kobe Bryant Follow Commissioner Engelbert’s lead and find a way to honor Gigi and her Mamba Academy teammates. Maybe permission can be granted to create older versions of the girls to be placed into the game’s free agent pool.

At minimum, having some kind of graphic commemoration would be classy (maybe banners throughout the game or at Staples for Sparks games, since they were California natives). There’s also been the obvious rumblings of putting Kobe and Gigi on the cover. That would be amazing. If that can’t be done, a cover with Kobe and a WNBA player he was close to (Ionescu, Diana Taurasi, Loyd) would be fitting.

I do not want this list to diminish what 2K has excelled at with its first run with the WNBA. The gameplay is fun and true to form, the graphics are high quality, a very large amount of the face scans are on point, being able to play a full season is an excellent touch, and the features that are in the game are strong. However, 2K as a whole has a decades-long reputation for putting out a pace-setting game every year so wanting the WNBA’s section of it to be fully developed is something every true basketball fan can agree on.

I can’t wait to see which of these suggestions or others are implemented. What features would you want added for the WNBA?

#wnba #nba #nba2k #nba2k20 #women's basketball #video games #xbox #playstation #basketball

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eerythingisshaka · 5 years

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I made this post on Monday, and just now got around to edit and post

I’m basically going through the whole plot of Endgame and how I felt, I just had to hammer it out. If you haven’t seen it yet, please come back when you have! First things first, I did not cry! I feel like I’m in the minority, and I swear I am a devoted MCU fan and love Tony and Cap and them, but I did not cry and I’m so disappointed with myself! I got more emotional thinking about it in the days leading to the premiere than I did while viewing. I think it was too entertaining for me to find it sad? Not like movies I cry at aren’t entertaining but the action and substance was making my nerd heart pitter patter so much, I was over the moon and couldn’t come down. I will say though, ever since watching Endgame, every past Marvel movie makes me somewhat emotional. This whole thing is like a high school graduation, like I’m never gonna see my friends together again like this, an era is over! All I have are memories, aaaaggghhhh!

That being said. the movie grips me from the beginning with the song Dear Mr. Fantasy by Traffic. Marvel has some pretty good picks for songs to set the tone for their movies, to this day this song kinda pulls at my heart strings because of its message

Dear Mr. Fantasy play us a tune

Something to make us all happy

Do anything, take us out of this gloom

So of course, we all felt this way with the ending of Infinity War, having so many of our faves being sacrificed to dust for Thanos’ plan of rectifying what he saw as the decrepit state of the universe. Walking away from part one with the villain winning was a fresh slap to my face and a year of agony to find out how the heroes pull this off in the end. Take us out of our gloom Marvel!

And the characters must feel the same, as the film opens with Clint and his daughter doing some archery in their yard as a very American lunch of mayo and mustard hot dogs are being served. As his daughter Lilah is putting things away, Clint calls out to her only to see dust and turns again to his family with the same result. So much for freedom from our gloom, right? In case you somehow forgot, this little scene gives us a friendly reminder of what we were left with in 2018. If that’s not enough, Nebula and Tony playing the little hand goal, paper flick game that is just darling to witness. Nebula plays like a rehabilitated puppy still unsure about being around humans as Tony instructs her like a child on every development of the game. Her little perk up when he announces her win is so cute as they shake hands, finally sealing her character development from ruthless, blood-thirsty appeaser of a sadistic father, to a more stoic, regretful soft spoken but hoarse matured version of herself. All the while, Tony is beginning to starve from being malnourished and depleting oxygen. Nebula sets him in a piloting chair as he drifts off, losing consciousness until the homie we have all assumed would be coming appears as a glow in his irises, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel.

Carol flies the ship back to Tony’s compound where Cap, Rhodey, Natasha, and Pepper wait for him to descend. We get a moment with him and Cap that is sweet as Cap walks him down, Tony tells him he lost Peter Parker, an obviously huge loss for this to be the first thing he mentions. The warmth is lost quickly though as the next step of Tony’s grief comes afoot: anger and finger pointing. Tony, on an IV and all, is relentless as he festers in bitterness while lashing out at Cap and company that the fight was lost and even encouraged by Cap because they were together. This optimism is obviously not enough for Tony, who grows weary of Cap’s positivity, opting that he finish the work alone or that Danvers takes on the task herself before collapsing from exhaustion.

Carol, Thor and the gang have a slight dick measuring contest on kicking Thanos’ ass once and for all before Nebula offers to take them straight to him. And where is he? Why on a farm on a planet in the galaxy, nursing his wounds from the snap. His entire right side is burned to a crisp due to the snap, and at the same time has obliterated the stones much to their dismay. Thor wastes no time in chopping off Thanos’ head, a little too late but satisfying none the less. However, in the end, the stones are nowhere to be found, the last person to have them is dead, and no one from the snaps is back yet. Cue music!

So, the gloom we are supposed to be rescued from, when does that start right? Not for another five years according to a time lapse card. Our heroes have no means of figuring out the solution to the snap; Cap forms a support group for survivor’s, Natasha has grown out her blonde hair and is constantly checking in on happenings around the world, and universe since the snap, jumping at even the mention of an earthquake. Rhodey briefs her on a terrible killing spree of gang members that appear to have a style that is well known to them as Clint Barton’s aka Hawkeye. Despite Rhodey’s hesitance Natasha insists he keeps an eye on him, inferring that she may track him down eventually. (Quick side note here, something to be seen as a possible plot flaw: Hawkeye’s bloodlust and disregard for lives after losing his whole family in the snap isn’t dug into very deeply after this. Rhodey said it’s so bad he didn’t even wanna find him! But there wasn’t any in fighting or push back after that between them. He has one instance of almost interacting with his family on a test run for time travel which is against the rules, but other than that he isn’t killing people recklessly or even triggered to tears or drinking incessantly over his loss. But more on Thor in a minute).

If it hadn’t been for that rat running across the panel in Scott Lang’s van to activate his return from the Quantum realm who knows how long, if ever, would they figure out the means of traveling back to get the stones. I was so glad I watched Antman and Wasp right before seeing Endgame, so I knew the van, Cassie, and a little bit about the Quantum Realm. I’m actually upset that I didn’t realize the realm could be used for their benefit because I was always betting on the Time Stone being the corrector in all this, but anyway. Scott returns highly confused as he realizes the state of the world since his entrapment in the realm. Seeing his baby girl become a young lady was a powerful scene to witness, and had my heart dent a little bit, but I held it together. Soon after that, Scott makes his way to find Cap and Natasha, explaining how 5 years was really five hours for him, so time is different in the realm which could possibly mean something for them getting the dusted back. At one point in the movie, I’m blanking on which comes first but for now I’ll dive into this bit, we are reintroduced to Bruce Banner as Hulk…as one person. I completely forgot that we didn’t see Bruce in trailers, which is for this reason. Comic book followers would know, but there is a iteration of Bruce Banner becoming Professor Hulk, so he functions as his normal scientist self, while also being a big green being. Oddly enough, it does not take long for me to grow accustomed to The Bruce Hulk hybrid, he is hilarious and sweet and more confident even then he was as a regular man despite his appearance. He has fans, people love him and this is a far cry from when we are introduced to him in the original Avengers as Nat tracks him down somewhere in Southeast Asia, a nervous wreck loner who is quick to anger. I could see this Hulk being fanfic fodder, not my cup of tea, but he was just that damn appealing, I could see it.

But even with Bruce’s brain, time travel isn’t exactly hammered down as an absolute possibility so they reach out to another source on the matter. Which brings me to my love/hate relationship with Tony. I ADORE that he finally had a baby with Pepper, Morgan “Cussin Queen” Stark. Tony is living his best life in the natural air in his log cabin, as off grid as he possibly can be before Black Widow, Cap, and Lang pull up to question the possibilities ahead of them. The strength of his cold shoulder gave me an insatiable chill down my spine. Tony is the King of Petty, but rarely passive so I was surprised by that moment of mean girl attitude from him. But luckily he served up something to drink (I’m thinking it’s iced coffee or chocolate milk. I’m still confused by what that held.) Tony basically tells them they are crazy and hoping for nothing, because he’s good where he is. He has his girls and no stress which is honestly what the Avengers always seem to guarantee for him since joining the group with SHIELD under Nick Fury’s insistence years ago. I do wish I could remember the theories and scientific laws he said would be fucked up with their plan, just to see if they are real ones but also I love when Tony just spouts his knowledge like it’s IKEA instructions. He makes it seem so simple until you have to break it down, and up until this point Scott seemed like the smartest one on the team but really Tony could’ve been figured this out if he wasn’t so granola now, which is great and happy for him, but he really did give up very quickly. Once again, probably good reason, self-care. But still.

Gotta say, I love a selfish Tony though. Quick shoutout to Robert Downey Jr. in showing his chops by bringing the emotional fortitude to this Disney movie. The man has been THROUGH IT and has had enough. Tony only has so much optimism in him that the cheerleading squad can provide before his is completely done and baby was DONE.

But without Tony’s help they test run moving through the quantum realm only to discover what Tony says later, that time kept moving though Scott instead of him moving through time, making him a baby, and old man, a kid again, and back to an adult. But with a fancy time GPS Tony doctor’s up on the fly after discovering that the group isn’t crazy about the time travel being an option, they are good to go like it’s day one! (Another side note to Paul Rudd aka Scott Lang giving us much needed comic relief. I have never laughed so hard at my precious baby trying to eat a taco in my life. Also, Cap’s yeehaw attire in this scene? The checkered white shirt with his dark jeans pulled up? Truly save the horse and ride the cowboy instead man.)

Now at this point we have to check in on Thor, our sweet pirate angel. How has he fared? Him, Valkyrie, and the surviving Asgardians establish their own town on Earth. Thor and Rocket go to find him, with a preview from Valkyrie of what Thor’s mental state is by the piles of beer kegs outside. So, when they enter his home, giving a wave to Korg and Miek playing video games on the couch, Thor tumbles out behind Thor and Rocket reaching for another cold on, camera to his back. By now we can see his hair is overgrown and greasy, and his midsection has a new pair of love handles we aren’t used to seeing on our svelte, brutish god of thunder. So when he turns around, audience erupts in the theaters, as do I, to see him now looking like a melted ice cream cone with a beer belly that somehow still has some toned abs on top if you look closely, paired with some man titties to complete all billowing over his pajama pants to complete his depression ensemble. This was more shocking to me than the Hulk/Banner hybrid reveal. We hadn’t seen an image of Thor outside of him giving Carol Danvers the Stormbreaker scare test in the previews, so thanks for another surprise. Despite his crumbling emotional stability at even the mention of Thanos’ name (tip of the hat to Chris Hemsworth for making my heartache with every crack in his voice), I have to get on my soapbox and say Thor’s body is beautiful! He is a supreme King, deliciously made who can still smash any pair of cheeks to ash and dust with the power Mjolnir in each thrust quicker than any counterfeit gauntlet. Just watch him later on, you’ll see! I’d have that belly slapping on top of me in a quantum realm millisecond after he takes a shower and attends therapy. A lil pudge ain’t killed no part of his power, whew. Don’t make me shout.

Back to plot, with the promise of beer, Thor the Dude tags along to start the plan of going back to retrieve infinity stones. After a synopsis of each one and where they were located, the crew drums up the plan to retrieve each stone from the past, bring them back to the future to put into a new gauntlet and snap the other half of life’s creatures back. This part of the movie is so stellar because if you have watched past Marvel movies (the first Avengers, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, Captain America First Avenger, and Thor Dark World) you will recognize the scenes that are featured with their past selves going through their past-current scenes. Natasha and Clint go to Vormir for the Soul stone, which I am surprised Nebula did not warn them that someone would have to die to retrieve it. What if two characters that didn’t love each other went for the Soul stone, is it over and done? But luckily, or unluckily, Clint and Natasha are able to get the stone with a sacrifice of Natasha’s life (who honestly sacrificed herself but it counted. And I need so much more clarity on the specs of the soul stone, it ain’t even funny. Will we ever see what the realm Gamora and Black Widow are in is like?) These two characters have been last on my list always so the scene was crazy watching them battle back and forth for a chance at ending their lives but the end result didn’t hit my heart but still great. I kinda would’ve wished little Gamora was there again to talk to us.

Then Hulk has to go see Ancient One to retrieve the time stone, which she will not relinquish until Hulk says that Strange gave it up willingly. On his word alone, she gives it to him, sensing the imminent danger that could come that is worse than the alternate reality she faces for not having the time stone with her. Then Rhodey and Nebula go to Morag for the Power Stone. So this is the first sign of overall trouble in their plan because apparently having two Nebula’s mix memory frequencies that reveal the whole entire plan to Thanos. I thought for sure at some point that Nebula’s eye was gonna have to be dug out to ensure the completion of the mission but it winds up that Nebula and Gamora take her hostage before past Nebula takes current Nebula’s place with the crew going back with their stones, none the wiser. Not even Rhodey gives her a check in like “why did you not come back with me when I jetted back to the future? what happened?” Nothing! The death of Natasha kind of takes precedent over anything else and leave Nebula to finish off bringing Thanos back with her to wreak havoc.

Lastly, Cap, Tony, and Scott are in New York circa Avengers number 1, fighting the space aliens and keeping Loki from the tesseract. And I am not exaggerating when I say this part of movie is possibly the greatest cinematic feature I have ever seen, or will ever see my natural life. You have Tony, creeping in the shadows to get Antman ready to help retrieve the tesseract, all the while admiring Cap’s ass! He does it, critiquing that his outfit does nothing for his ass, when we all know nothing holds back them cheeks from making an appearance. Scott, ever the voice of standom, downplays Tony’s critique and coins his rear end as “America’s Ass”. I EXPLODED. Ever since Captain America: the First Avenger, I have pined, no, thirsted, nay, LUSTED for that man in Marvel cinema. He has the BAWDY to be Cap, and never slacks. I have also always been a big fan of Tony and Cap having a torrid love affair that Marvel refused to implement but teases anytime they stare deeply into each other’s eyes or argue feistily until they are nose to nose, just get a room you two! Ten points to Gryffindor for feeding the fans what they want!

So, New York is the only place that doesn’t go smoothly, as Cap retrieves the scepter containing the Mind Stone after a quick “Hail Hydra” to throw off the double agent SHIELD opponents from Winter Soldier. All this time, Tony and Scott lose the tesseract in a freak incident that causes the case to fall into Loki’s vicinity, who picks up the cube and disappears to God knows where. And it is never figured out where past Loki goes, or what timeline he creates for himself now that he has the tesseract at his disposal with no one to oppose him. That is another thing I would love to know, all these alternate realities that have been constructed due to them tinkering with time, what happens? What damage is done to the Ancient One without time? What does Loki do with space? How is Jane and Asgard without the reality stone ravaging her? (Rocket got it btw as Thor got caught up talking to his mother, which was a very sweet scene and really amplified her character for me to love her more than I already had). But at least Cap got the scepter until he is met with his past Cap, leading to my most favorite fight scene in the MCU. Something about those two classic suits running at each other with the cacophony of the shields, and current Cap saying some choice expletives now and getting tired of the bullshit while past Cap still has all that giddy up and pure heart and “I can do this all day” attitude is an exceptional treat to be had. I love Cap’s development, as much as he has stayed the same, he has changed, grown more into his age even, getting weary with the world but never losing his positive outlook, just shifting his focus gradually. But to correct the tesseract blunder, Tony and Cap go back to 1970 to get the original tesseract from SHIELD in its infancy. Both Tony and Cap have a soft moment. Tony see’s his father who talks to him about his expecting wife (aka baby Tony) and Cap sees Peggy again in her youthful glory, panging our heartstrings. But in the end, the supplies are collected and they move on.

So after they get the stones, they construct the gauntlet out of Tony’s suit Iron man material and it is decided that Hulk must do the snap since gamma radiation is part of the stones and so is he. It is not a simple easy thing as he writhes in pain and burns under the pressure of power but does the snap anyway and successfully brings back half the world. This win is shortlived once Thanos bombards the compound and sends Nebula off to retrieve the stones. This is the start of the longest game of flag football/hot potato/rugby adjacent. Hawkeye has the gauntlet at first as everyone tries to pull themselves from the rubble (side note: seeing Rocket so distressed shook me. He is usually so cool and wily, getting out of so much bullshit that his helplessness when he couldn’t breathe almost sent me over).

So since they retrieved the stones, it’s not like they change their past, just create alternate realities. Once they return them, things go back to normal again. So Hulk uses the gauntlet to bring back the rest of the population again, we just don’t see them yet until later. Past Nebula gets killed by current Nebula after Gamora helps current Nebula out to stop Thanos because as we know from Infinity War, Gamora never wanted Thanos to find them all. Thor, Cap, and Tony all team up to spar with Thanos who was waiting patiently for the gauntlet to be brought to him. Much to my dismay, the fight is very even, no side truly overpowers the other. Thor really wants to put in work, but can’t quite get through until Cap does what I have been waiting for since Ultron: HE PICKS UP MJOLNIR! (which Thor took back from Asgard in his time travel). Wheew, I coulda passed out when I saw Cap wielding that thing like it’s his the star spangled banner itself, sending lightning down on Thanos, busting him upside his head and all! I was spent and feeling aftershocks until Thanos gets the upperhand again and bombards his shield with that weak ass helicopter blade sword thing. It breaks the shield up! Which is made of vibranium! THE STRONGEST METAL IN THE UNIVERSE! This how I know Russo’s were just grasping at straws; the only thing I can say is since Tony made him that one after the snap, he probably used bootleg vibranium because obviously nobody called Wakanda for input on a damn thing to make this mission happen which is a rant I can say on a completely separate post. Sure, take T’Challa and Shuri in the snap, it’s not like the whole country isn’t composed of melanated geniuses that could give y’all a lesson on quantum physics that would make your central nervous system dry out. No, don’t call Wakanda to make vibranium anything for y’all to help in the fight, it’s cool cuz y’all didn’t try and clean up anything after shit hit the fan! I wanted a 10 minute Wakanda clean up scene: I got DUST. The underutilization of such a great people while at the same time using them frivilously is a *blink blink* mindfuck. But I digress again!

Once Cap seems to be against the wall, he tightens his shield band around his arm and says slap me bitch. But before it continues, Sam gives him a quick “on your left” signaling the return of everyone, with first none other than our Wakandan royalty: T’Challa, Okoye, and Shuri. Dr. Strange’s portals open up as populations come to join the fight from Gaurdians and Asgard, Wakanda and other Marvel movies. The fight scene that begins I can’t wait to own at home becuase I know I have to pause and slow motion to capture everything. Someone said Howard the Duck is in the fight which I HAVE to see. Can you imagine getting your ass impaled by a cartoon space duck?

The game of keep the gauntlet from Thanos continues as Spiderman, T’Challa, and others all have a go at running the guantlet away from Thanos. This is a part that I kind of have to think to remember. I know that Antman and Wasp had to spark up the quantum realm van and I think the plan was to send the gauntlet into it, but I’m not sure. Eventually Tony is alerted by Strange that the one in 14 million chance at winning is upon them and Tony goes ham to get the gauntlet from Thanos, who nearly succeeds but Tony yeets them off the glove and onto his suit, proclaiming himself as Iron Man one last time before snapping the bad half of the population into obliteration. All the bad aliens and Thanos dust away, leaving the original population the watch them float away. However Tony’s sacrifice is his life as he dies after goodbyes from Peter, Pepper and Rhodey.

The funeral occurs with everyone there, even the kid from Iron Man 3. This is a really emotional scene, especially seeing Tony left a last message in case of his demise, ending it with telling Morgan “I Said What I Said” Stark that he loves her 3000. Once again, I almost got choked up there, but it just wouldn’t happen. One thing that took me out were Wakanda’s outfits at the funeral. All black everything, but the fit and the make of Okoye and Shuri’s dresses? With the gold accessories???? I can’t mourn when all that beauty is in my face!

And in the end, Cap goes back in time to send the stones back to where they belong but stays in the past to reunite with Peggy, finally bust her open and returns as an old man to give his shield to Falcon and that is it!

I almost got choked up just now thinking about that last scene but I still didn’t cry. A tear came down when the end credits showed the actors pictures and their signatures of the original Avengers though. There will never be a better Cap or Iron Man bruh, taking that to my grave.

I’ve been in this MCU life for just about the whole length of it; watching these amazing superhero action flicks for the fun of it before recognizing the structure of each film forming towards an ending so grand. “You see where you’re going? Now let’s focus on how you get there.” This is a statement that is about to be my mantra for life! This is a huge project for a studio to put together properly, having all of our superheroes in one place, sewn together with the journey of the infinity stones to take out the big purple meanie Thanos who is hellbent on controlling the universe the easy way (50% of all living creatures annihilated) or the hard way (100% gone, starting from scratch).

But Marvel has given me so much great entertainment to look forward to. Ever since I graduated high school, it’s been the May or November of each year, what’s Marvel putting out next? And it’s gonna be tough not expecting an Avengers film anymore, but I’ll be here for the new build up of superheroes, supporting Black Panther still of course as well. I will miss the Cap thirst, wardrobe really did their part in this one with the Black sweater, the grey Henley, the yeehaw outfit previously mentioned and EVERY CAP UNIFORM HE HAS WORN! I love this fucking fandom.

And now I just wonder where past Gamora went, because she came to the present and “present” Gamora died at Vormir so we have a Gamora alive now but she went MIA, or did she get snapped back when Tony snapped all the henchmen back? Thor at the end joins the GOTG or Asgardians of the Galaxy, so I can’t wait to see how they fair in I assume GOTG 3. How will Falcon do as the new Cap? What does Bucky do now?? He was the original ride or die for Cap until he became Winter Soldier, but Cap was very forgiving of him in all that. Yet, his closure seems open for anything, he got no special stuff in the end so maybe more for him? How is Spiderman and the whole teenage snap population going back to school when it is five years in the future but they are the same age? Where did Valkyrie keep her Pegasus this entire time? When Cap went back to Vormir, what was his reunion with Red Skull like? And what did Thanos do with the stones before they were destroyed? They said he used them again and that’s how they found him at the beginning but on what? Answer these questions for me please!

If you made it this far, I love ya 3000 and I owe you cheeseburgers (oh God TONY!!!)

#avenger #avengers spoilers #avengers endgame #endgame spoilers #marvel

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earthbornanchor · 7 years

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Log: A Journey of a Fangirl

05.17.17

Hello everyone.

I’m writing a post dedicated to seven boys who changed my point of view in every aspect. This might be tiring and I know no one has the patient to finish this but I just want to post and share this for everyone. I’m going to be really thankful if someone will read this.

Please look forward to it.

I’m listening to BTS’ “You Never Walk Alone” album while doing this.

I just want to tell you how much I’m amazed by the group BTS. I’m speaking formally, but I want all of you to know that I’m a very big fan of them – an A.R.M.Y. It’s really amazing how these boys started from the bottom and now they’re getting recognition that they deserve in every part of the world.

As an introduction, let me tell you a story on how I became a fan of them. I actually knew BTS because of my cousin who is a very big KPOP fan and she also introduced me to the KPOP world. At first, she was a fan of both EXO and BTS. While before I was a fan of One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, The 1975, and more western bands. I actually used to hate KPOP before (forgive me) because in our country KPOP is has the reputation of being jeje. But anyways, I gave it a try on 2013 I downloaded EXO’s songs – yes I became a fan of EXO first. Once, I even judged a BTS group photo of them wearing school uniforms and they’re like having this photoshoot in a classroom because it was the wallpaper of my cousin’s laptop and I have to use it she even told me ‘forgive me for my wallpaper’ as a joke. Then I had a hiatus with my curiosity.

I think on the start of 2015, I research about EXO and I really liked them – I even went to their concert in 2016. Then, I stalked my cousin and I saw on her bio and it says ‘kim taehyung’ so because of my curiosity I searched ‘kim taehyung’ on Google. A video compilation of Kim Taehyung showed up and the thumbnail of that video was him and Jimin’s “beach? bitch?” (if you know what I’m saying) and I also saw that he was part of the group BTS. I also searched him on Google images and the first thing that I said was “he’s not even handsome why does she like him” (but man, I was wrong) it contains a lot of fetus pictures of him and I think there was a photo of him where he is pouting. After that, I watched the video compilation on Youtube and I admit, I was entertained by him so I watched more videos of BTS. I don’t know what get into me but yeah 2015 was a year of me stanning KPOP. I used to be a loyal EXO-L but as days passed BTS is getting my attention and I didn’t realize that I focused more on them than EXO.

2016, one of my most regretful year because BTS went to our country for 2 times to have a concert and I wasn’t able to attend one. First one was the Epilogue and I really had no money that so I can’t attend the concert. But I can remember that I cried on the day that they came here and saw their airport previews (I came home from school and that’s what I’m going to see lmao). The next concert was the MBC Show Champion concert I think? That time I have the money for a Gen Ad ticket but I was in a real dilemma because I felt like it’s unfair if I just came for BTS and they’re just gonna perform a few songs and I don’t even know the other groups that are going to perform. So I didn’t come.

[~] Let me add something, during the ticket selling of BTS’ TRB concert in Manila it was the same ticket selling for the The 1975’s concert in Manila and I was there during the ticket selling because I will buy a ticket for the The 1975. Before I bought my ticket, there were two girls before me and they were jumping around because they got their tickets and I was wondering what ticket did they buy and I looked at the screen and it says “The Red Bullet tour” with a picture of seven boys in black and then I said to myself “ah it’s KPOP” because I remembered my cousin whaling about it. It’s just a funny story. After all of that – missing Epilogue and Show Champion – I told myself that the next time that BTS would visit our country I MUST ATTEND the concert no matter what.

Around the ber-months of 2016, my bestfriend (who I used to rant about me missing BTS concerts – became a fan of BTS due to reaction videos that she’s watching), and I was so happy about it! It was also that time that the management who manages KPOP in our country is giving us some hints about iponing (saving) and I was like “holy shit this is it, BTS are coming”. So I bought a coin bank and save some money – even the money that I got from Christmas goes straight through in my coin bank. 2017 around February (I think) came and they announced that BTS are having a concert in our country. I was so shook and I don’t even know how to ask permission to my parents since the last time that they give me a money for a concert was at One Direction’s concert which was like 2 years ago and they don’t also know that I’m a fan of BTS so I was in a real state of panic. My mind is like going to explode because I have some money but I want to be closer to BTS especially that I’m waiting for years to see them (I don’t want to be in the Gen Ad section sorry for being ungrateful to this one). Days past and they revealed the seat plan and I don’t really know what to do because my money is just enough for a Gen Ad section and two of my bestfriends are planning to buy an Upper Box A ticket. I know that my father can add more money to my savings, but I was too scared to ask! But a week before the ticket selling, I finally had the guts to ask my father about it because it’s getting really close!

Do you want to know how I asked for permission? Lol, I printed it out on a short bond paper and left it in his room before I go to school since he’s driving me to school he would see it after he drop me off. I was so anxious while I was at our school, my classmates and friends are even wishing me luck. When I got home, I don’t even know but my hands are trembling to see the paper but when I looked at it I screamed because I was so happy that he agreed to it! April 2, it was the day of our graduation and the same as the day of the ticket selling. The ticket selling is at 10 am and our graduation is at 4pm. Around 7am we arrived at the mall and we waited for hours and they finally opened the gates at 10:15AM I was really pissed because of the unfair opening of the gates. My dad told me to go home at 1pm even if I still don’t have a ticket and I was really anxious because it’s been hours at the counter and line is not moving a single inch. But around 12pm a miracle happened and me and my friends got our tickets so we rushed off to go home and had a successful graduation. I actually worked hard to be an annual honor so the concert ticket can be my reward after all of my hardworks since I never asked something from my parents even if I achieve something in school. May 7, 2017 – I finally saw them and it really changed my life.

BTS, an amazing group of seven boys, I know I wasn’t here during the start of the career but I’m very thankful that I knew them. But even as a fan of them for 2 years, you can really see their humble beginnings and their rich success today. You can really see how they worked hard to receive all of their achievements. You can feel their love for the fans to the point that they unite as not just as a fandom but as a family. What’s more important is the passion that I felt after seeing them live. I actually been in a lot of concerts but I never cried so hard before when I attended their concert. During ‘Not today’ I admit I cried a lot even if it’s just the start, but what amazed me is there were some songs that made me cry like my tears would just fall and I would not realize that I was crying especially on their solo songs. One thing that I felt during the concert was the DEDICATION. It’s just WOW! I just realized how fast the concert went by because they were both talking in English and our native language which is really amazing because it was clean and you can see the perseverance that they had to memorize those phrases and words. They didn’t need a translator the whole concert to communicate with us, isn’t that amazing? What I also liked is the unity of the ARMYs inside the arena especially in singing their songs, fanchants, and doing the fan projects. Their amazing talent to perform live also touched my soul.

Moving on (wow this is long), this part is where I’m going to tell you on how much I appreciate the members one by one.

Kim Namjoon

I just want to give applause to this guy. His performance (Reflection) is really heart-touching. How dedicated this guy can be? – from guiding his members, producing songs, his warm words, never forgetting to thank ARMYs, working hard to communicate to other by language, being a leader, and many more. I just can’t believe that someone like you truly exists. Always remember that we’re thankful for you uri, leader-nim! You also have the patience on everything. Your music works are actually a real masterpiece that cannot be destroyed especially that it shows your real passion in this industry. I also want to thank you for being the foundation of the group and without you I cannot imagine what BTS would be.

Kim Seokjin

I am truly thankful for this guy. His patient is really amazing especially when it comes to the maknae line like he always let them tease him even if he’s the eldest one. Thank you for bringing us jokes and for making us laugh through it (let’s be honest here his jokes are not really funny but what’s funny is the way that he’s delivering it), for taking care of six kids and being like their mother in the group, making sure that they eat well, for being also sweet to the fans (I will never forget the ‘mahal kita’ that he wrote on a paper to show us). I also want to praise you for your great visuals, your amazing vocals, and the most important is your willpower on dancing even if it is your weakest point you worked really hard to keep up with the other members despite of the group’s killer choreographies.

Jung Hoseok

A beautiful ray of sunshine. This one really got me during the concert. He was all smiley! Then one second he would turn into a sexy monster. His dancing and vocal skills are really amazing in person! You can really feel his happiness and when he’s there the surrounding’s actually turning into unicorns and sunflowers. As you can see, he’s really one of the most hardworking members in the group – from doing choreographies and teaching the members about the choreography. What I also like about you is you’re never afraid to show you emotions to the fans. He’s also very patient. I really wish for your happiness for a long time ♥ you’re always going to be our hope and angel!

Park Jimin

To our no. 1 mochi, we all know how much you’ve worked hard to take care of every member. You never let someone left out and there were times that you acted like the oldest brother because of your concern to everyone. I hope that you’ll have more confidence on yourself because honey you’re so talented! You never fail to show how grateful you are to every member and you never fail to be support each one of them. Your thoughtfulness melts our heart as well as your beautiful eye smile. Thank you also for showing your love for us, ARMYs!

Jeon jungkook

You really deserve the title of being the ‘golden maknae’ hands down! To the youngest in the group, I really have a lot to say to you. I know how much you care for your hyungs and you don’t want to be a burden on their shoulders. You show how strong you are so your hyungs won’t have to worry and I think it’s very thoughtful of you for the members. I also like your carefree personality. You always show how you worked hard on something. Day by day, you made us realize that you’re no longer the baby Kookie that we used to see but now you’ve grown up as a very manly man. But forever and always you’ll still be the baby in the group!

Min Yoongi

First of all, if Min Yoongi would have his own solo concert I would definitely attend it. If you ever see this guy perform infront of your own eyes, you will never doubt his experience in life and can truly feel every words coming from his mouth are coming from his heart. From being the guy who’s having difficulty to sell his mixtape to a guy who’s now producing songs for himself, the group, and also to other artists. Min Yoongi, you’re really an inspiration to everyone. We all know that you have a tsundere personality and it’s all fine because even if you don’t show it we know how much you love Bangtan and ARMYs. You’ve reached far and became an inspiration to us because you never once gave up to reach for your dreams.

Kim Taehyung

Get ready for this one. To my ultimate bias in the group, to the guy who made me curious and discover about BTS, can I just tell you how much I love you? No one has actually made me feel like this and it sounds really cheesy because you don’t even know me. I just want to tell you the things that I like about you. I like the way you smile, your deep voice, your funny attitude, your fanservice, how true you are to yourself and to the people around you, your seriousness at times, the way you treasure your family, there’s a lot more but I just want you to know that I love every single thing about you. You make my heart flutter by just seeing a photo of you. What more when I saw you live – I can’t believe how unreal you look but you’re just there infront of me even if you can’t see me from the crowd. I waited for a long time to see you and the moment finally came. I know it’s unfair but I really focused a lot on you during the concert because it might be the last chance that I’m going to see you (but I’m hoping not). After the concert and happenings, I really told myself that the next time that I’m going to see you I hope that I won’t be sections away from you but I’m hoping that the stage and the barricades would just be the barrier between us. I hope that the next time that I’m going to take a picture with you it would not be a standee anymore. Am I dreaming too much? But I don’t think it’s not bad to dream big if what you’re aiming for is your inspiration for a long time. I already told you that I love you but I’m pretty sure that you didn’t hear it because I’m just one of those people who told you that in the crowd. But it’s really nice to shout it out while you were infront of me. I hope that I can tell that to you in person even if you would just take it from me as a fan. I hope that I can thank you how much you’ve changed my life in a better way. Thank you for introducing me to BTS. I love you. I wish for your endless happiness, healthy life and a bright future for you and the boys.

All in all, thank you BANGTAN SONYEONDAN for touching our hearts with your hardworks. It’s definitely worth it to be destined as your fan because you never disappoint us. You deserve the recognition that you’re getting from your music, your bond as a group, focus and courage. I also want to thank the roots of this group, BANG PD-nim and of course to the staffs who are always taking care of boy – to Big Hit Entertainment. I wish for your long-time success. Now back to the boys, please don’t stop on giving your best and please live happily because that’s what we really want for you. Don’t also forget to be healthy at all times! Please don’t listen to the people who are hating on you and questioning your success because they don’t even know what you guys went through to achieve what you are now.

Lastly, in my journey as a fangirl I want to give a shoutout to my supportive bestfriends – 7H. To my childhood bestfriend, Ysa. To Zoe, because she’s also my main fam. Of course, to Happee Sy who managed BTS’ concert in our country. I’m really thankful for her because she made it possible for us to see BTS and even gave us hints about it so we can save some money beforehand. To my ever supporting parents you da best!!

All in all, BTS and to the people who I encountered through this journey, I salute you!

Yours truly,

Geleen

#bts #bangtan #bangtan boys #kim seokjin #min yoongi #kim namjoon #jung hoseok #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeon jungkook #rap monster #j-hope #suga #jin #fangirl #kpop

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technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

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When we go online to communicate, hang out or play, we’re typically logging on to platforms conceived of and built by men.

Mark Zuckerberg famously created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room. Evan Spiegel and his frat brother Bobby Murphy devised a plan for the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat while the pair were still students at Stanford. Working out of a co-working space, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger built Instagram and yes, they also went to Stanford.

Seldom have social tools created by women climbed the latter to mainstream success. Instead, women and girls have battled the lion’s share of digital harassment on popular social platforms — most of which failed early-on to incorporate security features tailored to minority user’s needs — and struggled to find a protected corner of the internet.

Squad, an app that allows you to video chat and share your phone screen with a friend in real-time, has tapped into a demographic clamoring for a safe space to gather online. Without any marketing, the startup has collected 450,000 registered users in eight months, 70% of which are teenage girls. So far this year, users have clocked in 1 million hours inside Squad calls.

“Completely accidentally we’ve developed this global audience of users and it’s girls all over the world,” Squad co-founder and chief executive officer Esther Crawford tells TechCrunch. “In India, it’s girls. In Saudia Arabia, it’s girls. In the U.S., it’s girls. Even without us localizing it, girls all over the world are finding it.”

Squad, the social screen sharing and group video chat app, has pulled together a $5 million investment led by First Round Capital.

Learn from the best but get rid of the shit

A remote team of six people led by Crawford, who’s a graduate of Oregon State University, Squad’s compelling founding story and organic growth helped them close a $5 million seed round led by First Round Capital general partner Hayley Barna, the only female partner at the historically all-male early-stage investment fund known for being the first institutional check in Uber.

Betaworks, Alpha Bridge Ventures, Day One Ventures, Jane VC, Mighty Networks CEO Gina Bianchini, early Snapchat employee Sebastian Gil and Y Combinator, the startup accelerator program Squad completed in the winter of 2018, have also participated in the funding round.

“We want to be a place where girls can come and hang out,” -Squad co-founder and CEO Esther Crawford.

Crawford describes Squad, which she’s built alongside her co-founder and chief technology officer Ethan Sutin, as the “anti-bro startup.” Not only because it’s led by a woman and boasts a cap table that’s 30% women and 30% people of color, but because she’s completely rewriting the consumer social startup playbook.

“We are trying to learn from the best in what they did but get rid of the shit,” Crawford said, referring to Snap, WhatsApp, Twitch and others. Twitch, a live-streaming platform for gamers, has become a social gathering place for Gen Z, she explains, but like many other communities on the internet, it’s failed its female users.

“Girls have been completely pushed off of Twitch,” she said. “The Twitch community didn’t want them there and they weren’t friendly to them. For boys, there are places you can go to consume content with other people, like Fortnite, but for girls there hasn’t been a place that’s really broken out. We want to be a place where girls can come and hang out.”

What Crawford and the small team at Squad have realized is that you don’t have to sacrifice growth for user safety and comfort. From the beginning, Squad has made sure users could easily block and report inappropriate behaviors and users, a feature that was an afterthought on many other social tools. They also made users unsearchable unless another user knows their exact username. By prioritizing the security of its primarily female audience, Squad is betting girls will continue coming back to the app and telling their friends about it.

“It’s possible to make girls feel safe and still have growth as a consumer product,” she said. “If people don’t feel safe on your app, they won’t stick around long-term.”

A new playbook

Squad quietly launched in January after pivoting away from building an information-sharing tool called Molly, which was backed with $1.5 million from BBG, Betaworks, CrunchFund and Halogen Ventures. Crawford’s now 14-year-old daughter unintentionally inspired the transition, when she proposed her mom create an app where she could peer into her best friend’s phones from afar.

This reporter and Squad CEO Esther Crawford discuss the startup’s growth via Squad video chat.

Using Squad, people can browse memes, pore through DMs, plan a trip on Airbnb, peruse Tinder or a photo album with a friend via its video chat and screen share features. As Crawford describes it, it’s all the stuff you don’t want to post to Snap or Instagram but want to show your best friends. An app that may seem frivolous or non-essential seems to have quickly become a space online where girls can are opting to spend hours intimately engaged with their friends — without fear of stumbling into a troll.

“People can use this digital tech to hang out together instead of it being so performative,” Crawford said.

The downside of Squad’s screen sharing capabilities is a user can view another user’s Facebook friend’s profile, even if, say, they themselves were blocked from viewing that content. Most apps are available for viewing through screen share aside from premium video streaming apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, so its entirely possible someone could use Squad solely for the purpose of viewing social content they are otherwise barred from seeing. In response to this possibility, Crawford says they are considering alerting users when their Squad chat’s been screen-shotted. To avoid additional privacy issues, Squad users can’t record or save anything from their calls or replay what happened on Squad.

Like many early-stage startups, the company isn’t making any money yet because the app is free and without ads. As soon as next year, however, Squad plans to monetize the product with in-app purchasing, scraping another rule from the consumer social playbook that has long encouraged companies to expand their user base first before trying to profit off users at all. (See: The Snapchat Monetization Problem).

Techno-optimism

Crawford, a product marketing veteran, grew up in a cult in Oregon where girls were barred from wearing makeup and from watching television or listening to music. But because the internet was so early, the dangers of it were yet to be discovered and miraculously, she was allowed to go online. Quickly, she made connections with people all over the world thanks to everyone’s favorite messaging tool at the time, AOL Instant Messenger.

The experience planted in her a deep love for the internet and a desire to share her life online. After developing a community through AIM, Crawford became one of the very first original content creators on YouTube and garnered millions of views on her videos. Without trying, she became an influencer, long before the term entered the zeitgeist.

She used her newfound digital prowess to launch one of the first social marketing agencies, where her clients included Weight Watchers and K-Mart, legacy brands that had no idea how to tap into her native digital communities. Ultimately, Crawford landed in the tech startup world, hopping from Series A startup to Series A startup, offering up her product marketing skills before her daughter’s idea prompted her to go into business on her own again.

“I’m a techno-optimist and yet, so many of these tech companies we thought were going to connect people turned out to have accidentally made people more lonely,” she said. “With a different lense and approach, I thought there could be an app that built bridges.”

Now with a new bout of funding, Squad can implement strategic marketing campaigns, continue adding integrations with complementary platforms (the startup has just announced a new integration with YouTube) and hire product designers. The next few years will be critical to Squad’s success as it looks to young people to give them a permanent spot on their home screen.

For Crawford, what’s most important, aside from growing group of teenagers using Squad, is to make sure only good people see a big payday thanks to her great idea: “I am ready to do everything I can to make Squad successful and make sure our success has a positive downstream effect so that we have great people on our team that get rich off our success.”

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

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Squad, the ‘anti-bro startup,’ is creating a safe space for teenage girls online

When we go online to communicate, hang out or play, we’re typically logging on to platforms conceived of and built by men.

Squad, the social screen sharing and group video chat app, has pulled together a $5 million investment led by First Round Capital.

Learn from the best but get rid of the shit

“We want to be a place where girls can come and hang out,” -Squad co-founder and CEO Esther Crawford.

“It’s possible to make girls feel safe and still have growth as a consumer product,” she said. “If people don’t feel safe on your app, they won’t stick around long-term.”

A new playbook

This reporter and Squad CEO Esther Crawford discuss the startup’s growth via Squad video chat.

“People can use this digital tech to hang out together instead of it being so performative,” Crawford said.

Techno-optimism

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ethelbertpaul444-blog · 6 years

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These 50 founders and VCs suggest 2018 may be a tipping point for women in tech: Part 2

On Friday, we featured 25 founders and VCs who are having a notable 2018 — and who happen to be women. Herewith, 25 more who deserve some kudos for getting it done in the first half of this year. This list, meant to highlight the growing number of women with interesting companies or starting venture firms to watch, could easily be several times longer, we’re gleefully aware. Please feel free to tweet us or nominate in our comments section other women who’ve reached a particular milestone in 2018 and should be included in future profiles of female leaders who are on the rise, along with their organizations.

Shan-Lyn Ma, founder and CEO of Zola

Shan-Lyn Ma has huge ambitions for her wedding registry startup Zola, and her investors clearly trust her instincts. We can see why, too. Ma — a former executive with the e-commerce companies Gilt Groupe and Chloe + Isabel — originally started Zola to reinvent the traditional registry process. Now, Ma sees instead an opportunity to eventually address every need a young couple may have, from caterers to Cuisinarts, to eventually, perhaps, even home mortgages.

It’s well on its way, connecting engaged couples to 600 brands and 60,000 products. With the $100 million in Series D funding that Zola closed last month, its technology will presumably only grow more efficient — and ubiquitous. “Right now, we’re investing for growth. But we’re marching toward that goal where we are a huge company, serving companies across the entire wedding-planning journey, and have a business that supports that mission. Absolutely,” she tells us.

Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Solv

For nine years, Stanford MBA Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez led advertising product, marketing and sales strategy for Trulia, which builds tools and sells subscription services to real estate agents. But after Trulia was acquired by Zillow, Fernandez decided she’d learned enough to become a founder herself, co-founding Solv, a healthcare startup that, in the words of Forbes, “wants to do for urgent care what OpenTable did for restaurants, by bringing transparent pricing and easy-to-book appointments to the industry.”

There’s “something working in healthcare today, and it’s a category called convenient care,” Fernandez, who is CEO, told the outlet. Investors think Solv is particularly adept at booking urgent care visits through its products, providing the company with $21 million, including $16.8 million that Solv closed this past May.

Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller, co-founders, Mented Cosmetics

Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller met as Harvard Business School classmates. Now, they’re the founders of Mented, a cosmetics company for women of color whose message, and products — including nude lipsticks that match deeper skin tones — is resonating. As Miller told Forbes last fall, “Girls have been tagging their friends in their posts . . . Women of color were used to being treated as an afterthought. It’s not every day that you’re a priority.”

The company seems to be at the top of investors’ minds, certainly. After closing $1 million in seed funding last year, the outfit last month closed another $3 million round of funding that Johnson and Miller are using to expand Mented’s product range, which currently includes lip glosses, eyeshadows, nail polishes and accessories aimed at helping spread the word.

Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, co-founders of Away

Jen Rubio and Steph Korey met while working at eyeglass outfit Warby Parker, and they together spied what looked like a gap in the market between junky travel offerings that threatened to fall apart and richly priced luggage that was too expensive for even gainfully employed millennials.

Their solution was Away, which makes “first-class luggage at coach price,” which Rubio and Corey say they can offer by selling directly to consumers, rather than through third parties that would eat into profit margins. The price belies some sophistication: Away’s polycarbonite bags come with 100 parts, including a lithium-ion battery located underneath the handle that travelers can eject to remain compliant with airline policies and which investors seem to like. Just last week, they provided the company with $50 million in fresh funding led by earlier investors Forerunner Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Comcast Ventures. Away has now raised $81 million altogether.

Lea von Bidder, co-founder and CEO of Ava

Lea von Bidder knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur. She trained for it, nabbing degrees in entrepreneurship at Zhejiang University, Purdue University and Ecode de Management de Lyon while also burnishing her operating skills via a marketing stint at Proctor & Gamble, and strategy consulting at Estrin & Co. in Paris.

Despite plenty of competition from other ovulation trackers, investors think Ava is on to something, providing the company with $30 million in Series B funding late last month. The majority of Ava’s new funding came from earlier investors, with prominent European VC firms btov and SVC also joining the round.

Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy, co-founders of Modern Fertility

A San Francisco-based startup called Modern Fertility wants to educate women about their reproductive health much earlier in their lives, enabling them to become more “proactive” instead of reactive, says co-founder and CEO Afton Vechery, a former product manager at the genetic testing company 23andMe and, before that, an analyst at a healthcare-focused private equity firm. In both jobs, Vechery learned of the growing number of companies that are empowering customers with information about their own bodies. At 23andMe in particular, she also came to appreciate the importance of making that information affordable. Indeed, after shelling out $1,500 for tests run by a reproductive endocrinologist to get a better picture of her own reproductive health, Vechery and her friend and co-founder Carly Leahy, a creative strategist, set out to create similar tests that one needn’t be a Rockefeller to order.

The product they built — an at-home finger-prick hormone test that sells for $199 — is something investors are betting will take off. The day that the tests were made available to customers for the first time, in late May, Modern Fertility also announced $6 million in funding, co-led by Maveron and Union Square Ventures.

Sarah Smith, partner at Bain Capital Ventures

Sarah Smith spent roughly five years at Facebook in a variety of roles before logging another roughly five years at the question-and-answers site Quora, where she served as the company’s vice president of advertising sales and operations. While Smith was gaining operating expertise, the one-time music education major knew she wanted to break into the world of venture capital. Part of that effort included helping out Village Global, a young venture firm that relies on a network of entrepreneurs and angel investors as deal scouts, and is backed by big wheels like Reid Hoffman and Bill Gates. Smith also worked three years as a partner with Graph Ventures, a seven-year-old, early-stage investment group, where she sourced 20 deals, including Winnie, whose founders we featured here. As Smith recently told Forbes, “When I thought about the next steps in my career, [venture capital] seemed the best way to work with multiple companies.”

Ultimately, Smith decided that the best place to do that is with Bain Capital Ventures, which recruited Smith as its first female investing partner in late May — a big deal, considering the firm has been up and running for 17 years. For Smith, the opportunity isn’t merely to help BCV reshape its thinking and (likely) attract more female founders, it’s also a chance for her to write bigger checks to startups, given that BCV is currently investing out of a $600 million fund (and is likely to close another big fund in the not-too-distant future).

Preethi Kasireddy, founder and CEO of TruStory

Investing in initial coin offerings, or ICOs, is a minefield. This isn’t just true for people with absolutely no technical background but also for many investors who may be well-versed in tech but still struggle to understand many projects’ white papers. Enter L.A.-based TruStory, a platform for users to research and validate claims that people make online, whether in a blog post, white paper, website or social media post. The young company’s aim is to “bring authenticity back into the digital and decentralized world.”

At least it will be when it gets built. Right now, investors are betting entirely on the talents of TruStory’s founder, Preethi Kasireddy, a USC grad who studied industrial and systems engineering before taking a job as a banking analyst with Goldman Sachs after graduating and, later, a role with Andreessen Horowitz’s deals group. A third job, with the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, would lead her to teach herself software engineering, enabling her to architect and implement the front-end interfaces and APIs required for the integration of Ethereum onto Coinbase’s brokerage platform, among other things. Maybe it’s no wonder that investors, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, gave TruStory $3 million in funding this year, given Kasireddy’s penchant for getting things done.

Nicky Goulimis, co-founder and COO of Nova Credit

There are more than 50 million immigrants in the U.S. and Canada, and more than 240 million immigrants around the world. In fact, immigrants account for one of the fastest-growing demographics in the world and are expected to drive more than 80 percent of population growth in developed economies. Yet when they arrive in the U.S. as students or for work, they’re basically credit invisible. Nova Credit, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup, is trying to address the issue by providing lenders, property managers and other businesses with real-time international credit reports in order for them to acquire immigrant consumers from around the world.

The company’s founder, Nicky Goulimis, a native of Greece who grew up in the U.K., came up with the idea while attending Stanford’s grad school, where she quickly discovered the problems she faced — including difficulty in getting an apartment without a U.S. credit report (no choice but to pay several months’ rent up front), getting a credit card (which involved having to use small amounts on a very limited card, pay it off, then ask for a progressively larger credit line) — have been the case for all internationals relocating to the U.S. for years. In fact, her two co-founders — Misha Esipov, whose parents moved to the U.S. from Russia, and Loek Janssen, who arrived at Stanford from the Netherlands — experienced the same things.

The good news: investors see opportunity in addressing the issue. Earlier this year, General Catalyst and Index Ventures led a $16 million Series A round in Nova Credit. First Round Capital, Nyca and Y Combinator also joined the financing.

Casey Lynch, co-founder and CEO of Cortexyme

Cortexyme, a five-year-old, South San Francisco-based developer of Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics, raised $76 million in Series B funding at the end of last month, including from Sequoia Capital, Vulcan Capital and Alphabet’s Verily Life Sciences subsidiary.

The company’s CEO? Casey Lynch, a serial entrepreneur with a background in Alzheimer’s research at both UCSF and Stanford, whose biggest fear is that our bodies are living ever longer, while our brains have the same short half-life. She’s trying to do something about it, too. Specifically, Cortexyme believes that toxic bacterial proteins secrete enzymes that digest our brain cells, causing our neurons to fall apart. Toward that end, Lynch’s company has looked at dozens of Alzheimer’s patients’ brains to confirm that the proteins are causing the problem, not merely correlated with it. Whether the narrow antibiotic that Cortexyme is developing to take on these proteins will work remains an open question, but clearly investors — including early backer Breakout Ventures, a venture firm that counts Peter Thiel as its anchor investor — think it has a shot.

Stephanie Alsbrooks and Georgine Muntz, co-founders, defi SOLUTIONS

People in Silicon Valley circles don’t know Stephanie Alsbrooks or Georgine Muntz, but their five-year-old, Texas-based company, defi SOLUTIONS, certainly caught the attention of the folks at Bain Capital Ventures, which provided it with $55 million in the company in January.

What’s the attraction? For starters, Alsbrooks and Muntz have spent the last 14 years, collectively, in the world of auto finance; the experience makes them as well-positioned as any to run a software-as-a-service business aimed at the auto-lending industry. It’s also a huge industry. In 2016, the total balance of auto loans outstanding in the U.S. hit a record $1.2 trillion.

Bain also insists that defi gives lenders far more control and configurability so they can manage a loan’s entire life cycle without expensive and oft-delayed professional services. That’s a big deal in a world not known for being especially insightful about customers’ pain points.

Alexandra Zatarain, co-founder and CMO of Eight

Alexandra Zatarain was born in San Diego and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, where most of her family lived, before she set out for New York and a job in public relations. Zatarain might have stayed in PR, too, if not for her father, who was struck with terminal cancer and suffered the loss of strength and body heat that afflicts so many cancer sufferers. It made Zatarain — missing him from 4,400 miles away — wonder what a product might look that could have monitored him remotely, as well as made him more comfortable.

Enter Eight, an online mattress company Zatarain created four years ago with three co-founders, whose beds also track users’ sleep, allows them to set the ideal temperature for both sides of their bed and sets “smart alarms.” The startup, which already sells three models of mattresses, ranging in price from $699 to $1,299, is certainly a soothing proposition to investors. Earlier this year, Eight raised $14 million in Series B funding led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and Yunqi Partners. The company has now raised $27 million altogether.

Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck, co-founders of Hello Alfred

Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck didn’t set out to create a startup that handles people chores, one to-do item at a time. The friends, who met while at Harvard Business School, decided to explore the idea after they hired help from Craigslist to assist with their own laundry and grocery shopping, splitting the cost and attracting the attention of acquaintances in the process. “It was a little bit of an accident,” Sapone once told Business Insider. “We built the product for ourselves, and over time people in our apartment building said ‘Hey, can I get in on that?’”

Fast-forward and their four-year-old, New York-based company, Hello Alfred, now relies on a growing flock of trained home helpers who help customers of their company with all kinds of chores on a once-a-week basis, enabling the company to charge the kind of monthly subscription fee that investors like to see. Just a few weeks ago, in fact, Hello Alfred closed on $40 million in fresh funding led by real estate developers Divco West and Invesco, with participation from Spark Capital and New Enterprise Associates. The company has now raised more than $52 million altogether.

Alex Friedman and Jordana Kier, co-founders of LOLA

Launched in 2015, LOLA’s founders Alex Friedman and Jordana Kier formed a company around an idea that they thought stood a chance of challenging industry giants Tampax and Playtex: 100 percent organic feminine products. As Kier told TechCrunch a couple of weeks ago, “We founded LOLA with a simple and seemingly obvious idea — as women, we shouldn’t have to compromise when it comes to our reproductive health.” Kier continued, “Like most women, we’d been using the same feminine care products since we were teenagers. But when we found out that brands — including the same ones we were loyal to all those years — aren’t required to disclose exactly what’s in their products, it made us wonder: what’s in our tampon?”

Smart question — and clearly one that Kier and Friedman were alone in asking, given the company appears to be growing at a healthy clip. It’s direct-to-consumer subscription approach — it ships out tampons, pads and liners that are made only with organic cotton and don’t contain fragrances or dyes — appeals to investors, too. Earlier this month, the company closed on $24 million in Series B funding led by Alliance Consumer Growth, with participation from Spark Capital, Lerer Hippeau and Brand Foundry Ventures. The company has now raised just north of $35 million altogether.

Alyssa Ravasio, founder and CEO of Hipcamp

Alyssa Ravasio always loved the outdoors and according to a recent Forbes profile, headed to a developer boot camp after striking on the idea of creating a site filled with everything a camper needs to know about state and national campgrounds, including, say, a nearby surf break they might want to check out. An even bigger insight would come later: that there was an opportunity to partner with private land owners to give camper’s the kind of experience they can’t enjoy at a crowded campground.

Enter Hipcamp, a now five-year-old, San Francisco-based operator of a site for travelers to discover and book camping experiences, and which raised $9.5 million in Series A funding last month led by Benchmark. It’s a big deal for the company, and gives it more ammunition to compete against a newer, New York-based competitor called Tentrr that raised $8 million in Series A funding earlier this year and is making its way West this summer.

Ruzwana Bashir, founder and CEO of Peek

Ruzwana Bashir, a native of England born to Pakistanti immigrant parents, has said that she was always an explorer, including while studying at Oxford, working in investment banking and private equity at Goldman Sachs and Blackstone and dabbling in the startup world — at Gilt Groupe and Art.sy — before jumping into entrepreneurship.

Why make the leap? Because of 20 hours spent trying to plan a friend’s birthday in Istanbul, after which it occurred to Bashir that it’d be awfully nice if there were simply a one-stop that helped users discover what to do on their trips and which vendors to use to do it.

So began Peek, a now six-year-old, San Francisco-based “OpenTable for the $100 billion activities market,” as Bashir has described it, that now claims to offer 10,000 experiences in the U.S., Mexico and numerous European cities. The vision has struck a chord with investors, too. Just two weeks ago, the company closed on $23 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from numerous individual investors. The company has now raised $40 million altogether.

Lisa Shields, founder of Hyperwallet

In mid-June, PayPal announced that it’s paying $400 million in cash for Hyperwallet, an 18-year-old, Bay Area-based company that helps people and small businesses receive payments for products and services that they sell, including through the vacation rental platform HomeAway and the skin care marketing company Rodan & Fields. What was the allure? Well, Hyperwallet interlinks cash networks, card schemes and mobile money services with domestic ACH networks around the world to enable what it characterizes as “disruptively priced” and, as crucially, compliant mass payments.

If you think the company was flying low, its founder, and former CEO Lisa Shields, seems to fly even lower, despite her bona fides as an entrepreneur. The MIT-trained engineer, who originally launched Hyperwallet in Vancouver, last year founded a second company called FI.SPAN, which is an API management platform that aims to allow banks to quickly deploy new business banking products. Before switching gears, however, she was presented with an Entrepreneur of the Year award by EY in 2015, where she’d said she was “honored and humbled, not to mention surprised.”

Cindy Mi, founder and CEO of VIPKid

Cindy Mi started building a global education marketplace from day one with her online education company, VIPKid, which matches Chinese students with North American teachers. The reason, she says: She’d start teaching younger children English at age 15, and she felt, even then, that she was helping to empower these children for a future where the world is increasingly connected.

Following her dream of scaling that effort is certainly paying off, for Mi, for teachers and for students. According to VIPKid, the online company now matches more than 30,000 North American teachers with more than 200,000 primarily Chinese students for one-on-one sessions in English that give teachers extra money and the flexibility to teach when they can. The platform also enables parents to provide the kind of education for their children that might not be available in their own backyards. As for VIPKid, it reportedly brought in $760 million in revenue last year, more than double what it garnered in 2016. Perhaps it’s no wonder that in June, Mi’s company announced a fresh $500 million, at a whopping $3 billion valuation.

Carmen Chang, general partner and head of Asia at New Enterprise Associates Carmen Chang knows the ins and outs of startups in China as well as anyone, having headed up Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s corporate and securities practice in China before getting plucked out of the global law firm by venture heavyweight New Enterprise Associates, whose China practice she has led for the last five years.

If there was any surprise in NEA’s late May announcement that Chang had been promoted to general partner at the firm — the very first woman to hold that most senior role in NEA’s 39 years of operation — it was that Chang, who received her law degree from Stanford and represents the venture firm on 10 different companies’ boards, didn’t hold the title already.

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theinvinciblenoob · 6 years

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Shan-Lyn Ma, founder and CEO of Zola

Shan-Lyn Ma has huge ambitions for her wedding registry startup Zola, and her investors clearly trust her instincts. Indeed, Ma — a former executive with the e-commerce companies Gilt Groupe and Chloe + Isabel — originally started Zola to reinvent the traditional registry process. Now, Ma sees instead an opportunity to eventually address every need a young couple may have, from caterers to Cuisinarts, to eventually, perhaps, even home mortgages.

Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Solv

There’s “something working in healthcare today, and it��s a category called convenient care,” Fernandez, who is CEO, told the outlet. Investors think Solv is particularly adept at booking urgent care visits through its products, providing the company with $21 million, including $16.8 million that Solv closed this past May.

Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller, co-founders, Mented Cosmetics

Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, co-founders of Away

Their solution was Away, which makes “first-class luggage at coach price,” which Rubio and Corey say they can offer by selling directly to consumers, rather than through third parties that would eat into profit margins. The price belies some sophistication: Away’s polycarbonite bags come with 100 parts, including a lithium-ion battery located underneath the handle that travelers can eject to remain compliant with airline policies and which investors seem to like. Indeed, just last week, they provided the company with $50 million in fresh funding led by earlier investors Forerunner Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Comcast Ventures. Away has now raised $81 million altogether.

Lea von Bidder, co-founder and CEO of Ava

All would lead to Ava, a med-tech startup that has been called the Fitbit for fertility because of its popular tracking bracelet that monitors nine physiological parameters to help detect users’ fertility windows, from breathing rate to pulse rate to temperature. Indeed, despite plenty of competition from other ovulation trackers, investors think Ava is on to something, providing the company with $30 million in Series B funding late last month. The majority of Ava’s new funding came from earlier investors, with prominent European VC firms btov and SVC also joining the round.

Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy, co-founders of Modern Fertility

Sarah Smith, partner at Bain Capital Ventures

Preethi Kasireddy, founder and CEO of TruStory

Nicky Goulimis, co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit

Casey Lynch, co-founder and CEO of Cortexyme

Stephanie Alsbrooks and Georgine Muntz, co-founders, defi SOLUTIONS

Alexandra Zatarain, co-founder and CMO of Eight

Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck, co-founders of Hello Alfred

Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck didn’t set out to create a startup that handles people chores, one to-do item at a time. The friends, who met while at Harvard Business School, decided to explore the idea after they hired help from Craigslist to help with their own laundry and grocery shopping, splitting the cost and attracting the attention of acquaintances in the process. “It was a little bit of an accident,” Sapone once told Business Insider. “We built the product for ourselves, and over time people in our apartment building said ‘Hey, can I get in on that?'”

Alex Friedman and Jordana Kier, co-founders of LOLA

Launched in 2015, LOLA’s founders Alex Friedman and Jordana Kier formed a company around an idea that they thought stood a chance of challenging industry giants Tampax and Playtex: 100 percent organic feminine products. As Kier told TechCrunch a couple of weeks ago, “We founded LOLA with a simple and seemingly obvious idea — as women, we shouldn’t have to compromise when it comes to our reproductive health.” Indeed, Kier said, “Like most women, we’d been using the same feminine care products since we were teenagers. But when we found out that brands — including the same ones we were loyal to all those years — aren’t required to disclose exactly what’s in their products, it made us wonder: what’s in our tampon?”

Alyssa Ravasio, founder and CEO of Hipcamp

Ruzwana Bashir, founder and CEO of Peek

Lisa Shields, founder of Hyperwallet

If you think the company was flying low, its founder, and former CEO Lisa Shields, seems to fly even lower, despite her bona fides as an entrepreneur. Indeed, the MIT-trained engineer, who originally launched Hyperwallet in Vancouver, last year founded a second company called FI.SPAN, which is an API management platform that aims to allow banks to quickly deploy new business banking products. Before switching gears, however, she was presented with an Entrepreneur of the Year award by EY in 2015, where she’d said she was “honored and humbled, not to mention surprised.”

Cindy Mi, founder and CEO of VIPKid

Carmen Chang, general partner and head of Asia at New Enterprise Associates

Carmen Chang knows the ins and outs of startups in China as well as anyone, having headed up Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s corporate and securities practice in China before getting plucked out of the global law firm by venture heavyweight New Enterprise Associates, whose China practice she has led for the last five years.

Indeed, if there was any surprise in NEA’s late May announcement that Chang had been promoted to general partner at the firm — the very first woman to hold that most senior role in NEA’s 39 years of operation — it was that Chang, who received her law degree from Stanford and represents the venture firm on 10 different companies’ boards, didn’t hold the title already.

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

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victoriagloverstuff · 6 years

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These 50 founders and VCs suggest 2018 may be a tipping point for women in tech: Part 2 – TechCrunch

Shan-Lyn Ma, founder and CEO of Zola

Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Solv

There’s “something working in healthcare today, and it’s a category called convenient care,” Fernandez, who is CEO, told the outlet. Investors think Solv is particularly adept at the category, too, and provided the company with $21 million, including $16.8 million that Solv closed this past May. Maybe it’s no wonder. In its first year of operations, customers reportedly booked more than 1.5 million urgent care visits through its products.

Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller, co-founders, Mented Cosmetics

Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, co-founders of Away

Their solution was Away, which makes “first-class luggage at coach price,” which Rubio and Corey say they can offer by selling directly to consumers, rather than through third parties that would eat into profit margins. The price belies some sophistication: Away’s polycarbonite bags come with 100 parts, including a lithium-ion battery located underneath the handle that travelers can eject to remain compliant with airline policies and which investors seem to like. Indeed, just this week, they provided the company with $50 million in fresh funding led by earlier investors Forerunner Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Comcast Ventures. Away has now raised $81 million altogether.

Lea von Bidder, co-founder and CEO of Ava

Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy, co-founders of Modern Fertility

The product they built — an at-home finger-prick hormone test that sells for $199 — is something investors are betting will take off. The day the tests were made available to customers for the first time, in late May, Modern Fertility also announced $6 million in funding, co-led by Maveron and Union Square Ventures.

Sarah Smith, partner at Bain Capital Ventures

Preethi Kasireddy, founder and CEO of TruStory

Nicky Goulimis, co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit

Casey Lynch, co-founder and CEO of Cortexyme

Stephanie Alsbrooks and Georgine Muntz, co-founders, defi SOLUTIONS

Alexandra Zatarain, co-founder and CMO of Eight

Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck, co-founders of Hello Alfred

Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck didn’t set out to create a startup that handles people chores, one to-do item at a time. The friends, who met while at Harvard Business School, decided to explore the idea after they hired help from Craigslist to help with their own laundry and grocery shopping, splitting the cost and attracting the attention of acquaintances in the process. “It was a little bit of an accident,” Sapone once told Business Insider. “We built the product for ourselves, and over time people in our apartment building said ‘Hey, can I get in on that?'”

Alex Friedman and Jordana Kier, co-founders of LOLA

Launched in 2015, LOLA’s founders Alex Friedman and Jordana Kier formed a company around an idea that they thought stood a chance of challenging industry giants Tampax and Playtex: 100 percent organic feminine products. As Kier told TechCrunch a couple of weeks ago, “We founded LOLA with a simple and seemingly obvious idea — as women, we shouldn’t have to compromise when it comes to our reproductive health.” Indeed, Kier said, “Like most women, we’d been using the same feminine care products since we were teenagers. But when we found out that brands — including the same ones we were loyal to all those years — aren’t required to disclose exactly what’s in their products, it made us wonder: what’s in our tampon?”

Alyssa Ravasio, founder and CEO of Hipcamp

Ruzwana Bashir, founder and CEO of Peek

Lisa Shields, founder of Hyperwallet

Cindy Mi, founder and CEO of VIPKid

Carmen Chang, general partner and head of Asia at New Enterprise Associates

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medproish · 6 years

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When I was in college, my high school best friend and I had a terrible falling-out. It was entirely because of Facebook.

“I think Allison got engaged?” our mutual friend Kaitlin texted me one day. “I think I saw it on Facebook?”

I denied that it could possibly be true. Surely Allison would have told me if she had — not post about it on the internet. But when I logged on, sure enough — she had announced her engagement to her boyfriend to the whole world without so much as a text message to me.

We had a flaming row shortly thereafter. Were we even friends if she couldn’t make the effort to tell me before she told everyone else? Who Even Does That?

In the black-and-white world of a girl in her late teens, I thought of things like internet etiquette as obvious, rule-bound institutions. Facebook was Facebook, texts were texts, emails were emails, chats were chats, webcamming was webcamming, phone calls were phone calls. I thought iPhones were a fad and didn’t imagine that smartphones would eventually elide many of those distinctions. Allison and I eventually resumed speaking to each other again, but our relationship never quite recovered.

In the early days, I loved Facebook. I loved being able to keep tabs on hundreds of college classmates all at once, of being able to tag all my dorm mates in the photos we took on our garbage 7 megapixel cameras, of creeping on crushes, of keeping up with every person I met at a party or in a classroom without doing very much work. I was terribly awkward and a little lazy and as a result, I never developed the skills that my parents’ generation cultivated in order to maintain their social networks.

Of the twelve years since I created a Facebook account, I only spent one year truly off the platform. And during that year, I think I glimpsed what Facebook is, and what hold it has on us. For years, deriding the fripperies of social media has practically become a national pastime, an easy piece of snobbery. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a frequently heard response would be, “Well, why not quit?” or “Don’t give your data to tech companies.”

It’s not quite so simple, given that Facebook has aimed (and in some cases, succeeded) to become indispensable. Even if you manage to live without it, Facebook may already have a “shadow profile” of you based on metadata slurped up from your contacts who do have Facebook.

But Facebook didn’t become ubiquitous because it’s useless or facile or time-wasting. In the year I was off Facebook, I thought hard about what I was missing.

Facebook had replaced much of the emotional labor of social networking that consumed previous generations. We have forgotten (or perhaps never noticed) how many hours our parents spent keeping their address books up to date, knocking on doors to make sure everyone in the neighborhood was invited to the weekend BBQ, doing the rounds of phone calls with relatives, clipping out interesting newspaper articles and mailing them to a friend, putting together the cards for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and more. We don’t think about what it’s like to carefully file business cards alphabetically in a Rolodex. People spent a lot of time on these sorts of things, once, because the less of that work you did, the less of a social network you had.

Facebook lets me be lazy the way a man in a stereotypical 1950s office can be lazy. Facebook is the digital equivalent of my secretary, or perhaps my wife, yelling at me not to forget to wish someone a happy birthday, or to inform me I have a social engagement this evening. If someone is on Facebook, I have a direct line to them right away — as though a switchboard operator has already put them on Line 1 for me. Facebook is one step away from buying my kids their Christmas presents because I’m too busy to choose them.

Facebook turns a necessary labor of love into a profitable business.

Perhaps that’s what’s so frightening about Cambridge Analytica and the overall surveillance-based ad model. Like a black widow or a murderous butler, Facebook is the poisoner inside your home. Even with the years and years of warnings from privacy advocates, Facebook settled so firmly into the emotional labor niche in our lives, that we resisted the truth that it was spying on us to turn a quick buck. When the realization finally hits, we feel the kind of intense betrayal (and buried self-recrimination) that’s at the heart of an old-fashioned Agatha Christie murder mystery. Maybe if we didn’t want our data leaked, we should have carried our own damn drinks and opened our own damn doors.

Of course, the protagonists at the end of the classic murder mystery just swap out the butler for a new, less murderous one. No one wants to change themselves or their habits, because even if passing that work off onto someone else means placing a dangerous amount of trust in them, doing work sucks. It’s why #deletefacebook has only gotten so far — there’s no real one-to-one alternative for Facebook, and only a few are willing to upend their habits and do without it entirely.

“Who’s your biggest competitor?” Sen. Lindsey Graham asked Mark Zuckerberg in one of the Congressional hearings over Cambridge Analytica. Zuckerberg struggled to answer even after Graham compared it to a car company. If you don’t want to buy a Ford you can buy a Chevy. But what is an alternate Facebook? But really, the harder question is — what is Facebook and why is it so hard to quit it?

In this new national debate over Facebook, it’s become apparent that it’s very difficult to pin down exactly what Facebook even is.

When technological innovations first emerge, we first understand them only in terms of replacing something older. Email replaces the postal service, streaming services replace CD players, e-readers replace books, and ride-sharing apps replace taxis.

Facebook, implicit in its name, is a replacement for a school facebook. Not all of us had these, but I assure you, they really did used to exist: they were a sort of yearbook that gets distributed at the beginning of the year, a roster of your peers with names and faces. But Facebook isn’t quite a facebook. It’s structured around a web of contacts, but it’s not an address book either. You can post status updates, but it’s not a blog. You can message people, but it’s not a chat program. Just because news publications partner with it doesn’t make it a publisher (not just a publisher, anyways). And just because video producers publish video doesn’t make it a television channel.

It’s hard to pin down what Facebook is because the platform replaces labor that was previously invisible. We have a hard time figuring out what Facebook actually is because we have a hard time admitting that at least part of what it supplanted is emotional labor — hard and valuable work that no one wants to admit was work to begin with.

Facebook opened its doors to everyone — not just college students — in 2006. As more and more people — especially parents and older relatives — joined, the social network began to chafe at me. I can still remember with searing detail an incredibly tedious conversation I had with my then-partner’s mother, who had just joined Facebook and was giving me a blow-by-blow of a status update she had made and every like and comment that had followed, in chronological order.

The more people tried to add me on there, the more paranoid I got about the postings I had made when it was just a college network for my college friends. I aggressively monitored the privacy settings of my posts, checked and double-checked what kind of information was available. Just as I was readying to quit the network, I decided to go to law school, and as it turns out, Facebook is a must-have in law school.

Everything was coordinated via a section Facebook group — events, parties, the sharing of notes, even a ridiculous ongoing Word of the Day game in which we awarded each other points for wedging a random word into a comment made in class. We were all on Facebook, every one of us, including one student who “did not use Facebook” but was in the section group via his girlfriend’s Facebook, because even if your privacy is too precious your girlfriend’s of course is not. Holed up in our apartments and libraries, law students loved Facebook, posting with a kind of frenetic regularity that noticeably vanished after graduation when we all had jobs we actually had to pay attention to. Facebook was such a scourge that students regularly deleted their Facebooks during finals. Some found that they could all-too-easily reactivate in a moment of weakness, and turned to more drastic measures: they gave their password to a friend, who changed it and safeguarded it until finals were over.

Even as Facebook took a bigger and bigger role in my social life, I was beginning to dive into privacy law and policy, starting with a reading group where my professor Phil Malone walked us through the terrifying world of data brokers, tracking cookies, ad targeting, predictions based on bulk information-gathering, surveillance by both corporations and governments. Malone, a former prosecutor, was out to provide a balanced but informed perspective. Regardless, the firehose of information about where our data was going and how it was being used could only drive the students in the reading group to the pretty unanimous conclusion: Facebook was the worst.

After being assigned reading about how social security numbers can be predicted using a birth date and place of birth (both of which, for many people at the time, were broadcast publicly on their Facebooks), I changed my birth date on Facebook in a fit of paranoia. I forgot, however, to change the privacy setting, meaning that the next year I got a flurry of birthday wishes on the wrong day.

When I joined Tinder some years later, I had to change my birth date yet again to better reflect my real age. Telling my prospective dates that I was five years older than I actually was, was too high a price to pay for my privacy.

Phil Malone, the man who instilled in me my lifelong distrust of Facebook and all data brokers, is notoriously bad at email. It was pretty well known that you’d have to pop into his office to get an answer if you hadn’t heard back from him in a day. When he moved coasts to teach at another school, we fell out of touch — until he friended me on Facebook. I now read the articles he’s reading, look at pictures of his children, and hear all about his family vacations. Getting ahold of Phil is only a click away.

I’ve never managed to leave Facebook of my own accord. My year off Facebook was kind of my choice, but was really because Facebook temporarily banned me until I agreed to stop impersonating a Pokemon.

In 2015, at the height of the controversy over Facebook’s real names policy, I logged into Facebook one morning to find that I had suddenly been saddled with big bright shiny blue checkmark. It was several hours before a Facebook representative finally emailed me. Surprise! Congratulations! You’re a verified user on Facebook!

The choice was head-spinning. Why on earth did they nonconsensually verify my profile when they had no proof that I was who I said I was? I hadn’t even added my work email to my account.

When I emailed back to ask why I had been selected, the answer was, just as most press communications from tech companies go, completely opaque and noncommittal, something about burgeoning relations with public figures. As much as it caters to my vanity, it was and still is a stretch to call me a public figure.

After a few days, I decided to have a little fun at Facebook’s expense — I changed my profile picture to a Pokemon, and my first name to “A Literal” and my last name to “Psyduck.”

The result was that I could now reply to all my friends with “PSYYYY?” while the glossy blue checkmark of verification appeared next to my not-name.

The fun and games only ended when I posted screencaps to my Twitter. Alex Stamos, Chief Security Officer at Facebook, followed me and DMed me to thank me in his friendly way for “discovering a bug.” The next day my Facebook account was locked pending the submission of identity documents that could prove I was A Literal Psyduck.

Stamos was nice about it, but that only encouraged my stubborn streak. I wasn’t going to submit to the identity police, I was going to be a Pokemon on Facebook if it killed me. An editor agreed to provide a letter verifying that I did go by the name A Literal Psyduck and an amused administrator at Yale also wrote up an endorsement.

@alexstamos not sure how they can object when I’m a literal psyduck. you’ve never seen me in person, you can’t prove I’m not

— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) October 2, 2015

According to Facebook’s guidelines, at least one of the documents had to include a photo ID and a birthdate — presumably to get around tricks along same lines as my dumb stunt. But therein lies the rub: there was actually no way for Facebook to verify that any photo ID actually corresponded to my Facebook profile. My profile picture was a Pokemon; my birthdate had been entered incorrectly years ago, in a fit of paranoia over how much personal information Facebook was collecting. Even if I wanted to verify my actual government-endorsed name, there was no real way for me to do it.

I refused to either provide documentation or to change my name back, and simply quit Facebook.

The first week off Facebook was exhilarating — an annoying responsibility had suddenly vanished from my life. No more obnoxious Facebook statuses from people who I barely liked or knew, no more cringeworthy viral news articles, no more impossibly facile “I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE” memes.

Then the inconveniences began to kick in. I was locked out of third party services like Scribd (which I used to upload documents) and MindBody (which I used to book haircuts). In most cases I was able to create an account with email-only and keep using the service, but in a handful of cases, there was no recourse.

Sometimes I missed being able to contact someone with the immediacy that Facebook provided, but in general, if I really needed to get ahold of someone, I could find an easy-enough way.

The real problem only began to present itself much later. I missed big personal news from people I knew. I missed dance parties and house parties and casual get-togethers. I was the last to find out about births and the last to see baby pictures. Classmates got engaged and married and I didn’t find out until after my hiatus.

The epitome of this phenomenon was when I sat down to interview my friend Dia Kayyali, an activist organizing against Facebook’s real names policy. “You’re coming to my birthday party, right?” they said, as we were leaving the cafe where I had interviewed them.

I froze in my tracks. “What party?”

“Oh,” said Dia. “I forgot you’re off Facebook.”

I experienced a severe bout of depression in the year I was off Facebook. It’s hard to say whether Facebook had anything to do with it, but that year gave me a lot of time to think about how fragile my support network was.

It was entirely my fault, of course. I have a morbid fear of voicemail. I don’t like talking on the phone. I am bad at responding to emails, let alone initiating an email conversation. Friends naturally fall out of touch with me for long stretches of time. I am one of the worst emotional laborers I know.

I don’t do the work partly because in the internet age, I don’t really have to — no one is ever going to be truly out of touch, nearly everyone is theoretically a few clicks away. But I also don’t do the work because I kind of don’t know how.

Every year I wonder if this is the year I begin sending out Christmas cards. How would I even start? I’d probably ask people to fill out a Google Doc form, and link to it on Facebook.

In any case, it wasn’t the ambient loneliness that finally broke me and got me to change my name to “Sarah Jeong” and reactivate my profile. (Facebook, for whatever reason, did not ask to see authenticating documents for that name). It was that I suddenly needed some of my baby pictures and I didn’t have any digital versions of them anywhere except Facebook.

In the twelve years I’ve been on Facebook, I’ve mostly had an uneasy, adversarial relationship with the platform. I was an avid user of Facebook in college. I posted pictures, I tagged my friends, I added interests — feeding the data beast with a granular picture of my late teens that would eventually embarrass me on Tinder over a decade later.

As privacy scandal after the privacy scandal broke in the news, I began to withdraw from Facebook. I added less information, I commented less on statuses, I stopped taking pictures of my friends.

Like every other tech reporter in the country, I downloaded my data from Facebook shortly after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The data they had on me was mostly frozen in amber — bands I didn’t really listen to anymore, movies I was now embarrassed to say I had ever liked. (They were correct that I liked to click on ads for clothes, so it’s not like my reticence had foiled ad targeting entirely).

Mark Zuckerberg wanted Facebook to be a complete reflection of my life, for the Timeline to revolutionize how I looked back on it. He wanted Facebook to not only replace the address book and the family photo album, but all the assorted messy, inconvenient, and time-consuming rituals that bind us together. Of course, Facebook has yet to supplant all of it, but has wormed its way in in more insidious ways. Facebook events, Facebook pages, Facebook photos, and Facebook videos are for many people an integral part of the church picnic, the Christmas party, the class reunion, the baby shower. (The growing scourge of gender reveal parties with their elaborate “reveal” rituals and custom-made cakes seems particularly designed to complement documentation on social media). The completeness of Facebook allows people to create better substitutes for in-person support groups in a wide range of ever-narrowing demographics — from casual interests like Instant Pot recipes for Korean food to heavy life-altering circumstances like rare forms of cancer.

Of all people, I know why I shouldn’t trust Facebook, why my presence on its network contributes to the collective problem of its monopolistic hold on people. Everyone is on Facebook because everyone is on Facebook. And because everyone is on Facebook, even the people who aren’t are having their data collected in shadow profiles. My inaction affects even the people who have managed to stay away. I know this, I barely use Facebook, I don’t even like Facebook, and I find it nearly impossible to leave.

Perhaps it would be easier if I could somehow port all my contacts in a standardized format, to wrest Facebook’s control over my extended social network away from a single platform. But even then I wonder what the point is if I am unwilling to do the hard work of being sociable.

There’s one glimmer of hope, at least — I find that I’m turning more and more to a different technological means of staying “friends.”

These are the apps that piggyback off phone numbers — iMessage, Signal, Whatsapp, Telegram — all just shinier versions of SMS. I switch from one to the other fluidly, depending on what the friend prefers. It doesn’t matter, they all work with the same identity system, the phone number, a standardized format that is regulated and administered far outside of the purview of Silicon Valley. (Of course, if you change your phone number, you may very well be one of those people who lets everyone know through Facebook).

Although WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) might be suspect here, the rest don’t deal in the advertising business, and as a result, don’t go out of their way to coax out of you as much information about you as possible. While all of these services would no doubt prefer to triumph over the others, none of them seek to suck up your entire existence into a Timeline. If they carry dangers, they are different dangers than what Facebook presents.

I have to do more work to stay in touch through these means. I have to be a little more thoughtful about making sure I’ve recently touched base, or to initiate contact to share big news. And it’s harder to cultivate that broad field of mere acquaintances to whom I’d rather not give my phone number. But these are, perhaps, sacrifices that have to be made. We’re all engaged in the project of reconstructing and reshaping our social rituals in the age of technology. It’s an inevitable project that will require invisible, sometimes unthinking work. I suppose if we have to do it, we might as well start doing it intentionally and thoughtfully.

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mialetters460-blog · 7 years

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first time as a girl - What Everybody Ought To Know About Ftv Gils

The bus had picked up the group early that morning. They were all members of a singles activities club, and today the schedule sent the young men and women hiking up to a mountain lake. Nick instantly recognized her, and his thoughts flashed back to a secret moment earlier in the afternoon.

As half the group returned to the water in the hot sun Nick started to hike around the lake. After several miles up narrow trails and steep stairs many of the hikers immediately jumped into the cold water. After lunch the group split up til three, when the descent was to begin. He easily recognized fellow singles on the hike. Hed made out most of the way around when he found a sunlit beach, nestled between old rock slides. The tall redhead was Margaret, an administrative assistant he had first met at his job. The taller of the two brunettes was Alison, a graduate student for whom this was her first event. "So, did you like the view? Excited by the potential of a quick naked swim Nick had started towards the beach only to realize it was already occupied. Shed been the one who persuaded him to join the club but he had transferred departments and they hadnt been to many of the same events. The last woman was a compactly beautiful brunette named Sally. Stopping behind a large boulder Nick stared down at the three women who had already discovered the sheltered cove. Nick had been immediately drawn by her long legs in her tight shorts but she barely acknowledged him when hed tried to talk to her during the bus ride to the trail head. They were as much an item as was allowed within the club. Margaret lay on her back on a flat rock, chatting with Alison. Shed been the first person to greet Nick when hed first joined, raising his hopes of quickly ending his status as a single man, but since then hed discovered she was outgoing to everyone, very flirtatious, but essentially unavailable, going home with mainly one guy, David. Initially he worried that hed been spotted but after a moment none of the women gave any indication they were aware of being watched. Nick had considered her attractive but had never really studied her body and had never noticed just how gorgeous she was. Sally lay next to Alison on a towel, sunbathing in a black tied bikini. Nick only glanced at Alison before staring at his former coworker. From his vantage point Nick could see each woman clearly. " Surprised by the unexpected voice Nick started and then looked up at the young woman standing in the isle of the bus. Due to her dark sunglasses Nick could only guess that she was asleep since she hadnt moved and she wasnt participating in the conversation beside her. Afraid hed been spotted the young man got ready to disappear but Sally never even looked towards him, instead watching where Margaret and Alison had disappeared out into the lake. Margaret had chosen a bright green two piece, showing off her body in the bright sunlight. The brown haired beauty was starting out at the lake, a towel tied around her waist, her body outlined by a dark blue swimsuit. After a moment she grabbed her towel and walked towards the slide nearest Nick. However Sally had declined the invitation and as the other two women started out of the cove Sally stood and watched them go. Glorifying in the beauty below him Nick couldnt help but sigh when Alison persuaded Margaret to go for a swim. Nick knew Sally occasionally slept with other guys but he wasnt looking for a mere hookup, but instead was hoping for something more. For a moment Nick could see her groin perfectly, but then Sally reached down and hid herself with her hand. At first she just massaged between her legs but then she leaned back, spread herself wide, and went to work with both hands. Nicks disappointment didnt last long for Sally began to pleasure herself right below his hiding spot. Quietly he reached inside his shorts and started jerking off as Sally kept pleasuring herself. When he looked back Sallys back was arched with ecstasy, her face holding an expression of intense concentration as her nipples hardened and her body shook with her orgasm. Silently Nick watched her fingers disappear between her lips, her hips bouncing with her own movements, her other hand rubbing her clit hard and fast. Quietly the two lay in their respective positions, the young man hidden above, rubbing at his shorts to spread his ejaculation around to dry, the naked brunette below, sweaty and breathless in the afternoon sun. Intently watching the young woman fondle herself Nick quickly found himself filling his boxers with his load, momentarily distracting him from the spectacle below. Quickly Sally stepped behind a boulder, hiding herself from the water, but unknown to her staying perfectly within Nicks view. Above her, with a perfect view of all the action Nick couldnt help but reach down to his own crotch where his dick had gotten as hard as the rock he hid behind. Completely naked, Sally spread her towel on a log and sat down, spreading her legs. To his surprise Sally undid her top, dropping the clothing on a nearby rock, and then followed it with her bikini bottoms. Hed carefully gone out of his way so he didnt follow the three women to the trail. Nick, sure hed never see Sally undressed and completely unguarded again, carefully committed every inch of her body to memory, from her crinkled nipples to the neatly trimmed hair above her dripping pussy. He didnt want any of them suspecting hed spied on them within the cove, especially not Sally. But barely a minute had passed before splashing announced the return of Margaret and Alison. To get back in time for the hike down Nick had run through the brush and trees around the lake. Hed chosen the spot due to the dried stains of cum that covered the front of his shorts and that he knew Sally could plainly see. With a sigh Nick watched Sally quickly tie her bikini back on and walk out to met her friends. As the group hiked down to the waiting bus Nick carefully avoided the women, but couldnt resist occasionally stealing a glance at them. And now, looking down at him as hed looked down at her only hours before, stood Sally, who Nick would never be able to look at as he had before the days adventure. At first Nick didnt respond as thoughts whirled through his head. He was sure shed try to get him kicked out of the club for watching her private moment. " Nick asked after a second of confusion and uncertainty. But the way Sally was phrasing the question didnt appear to indicate displeasure with his voyeurism. Hoping for the sight of one of the other women changing out of her swimsuit Nick stayed in his hiding spot but was disappointed when the three merely pulled on their hiking clothes and headed back to the trail head. With a chuckle Sally sat down next to Nick. Though yes, I do like to enjoy natures stimulative effects from time to time. " Sally said again, staring at Nick in his seat in the back corner of the bus. " "Tease," Nick said boldly. "Yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly," Nick responded bravely. "Ill remember every minute of it fondly. "Nick, do you really think I like to go out and masturbate in the wild for no reason? Apparently his hiding spot hadnt been as secret as hed thought. " Sally asked in a low voice. " Sally asked with a raised eyebrow. As he fell silent to think back on the afternoons performance Sally reached over and felt his crotch, where his dick had been hardening ever since shed sat down next to him. His confidence was returning quickly due to Sallys open honesty. "Id have to say I definitely enjoyed you pulling down your bottoms," Nick answered after a moment of careful thought. Quickly he looked around but none of the other hikers were close enough to hear their quiet words. As she leaned forward to push the thin cloth down her legs she let the skirt cover herself again before Nick had the chance to see anything, but now she was naked beneath her outer attire. Surprised, Nick looked over at Sally to see her naughty smirk. " "What was your favorite part? "But Im surprised that you didnt think the later parts werent better than me just getting naked. He was sure Sally wasnt fooled by his reply but Nick was curious how she would respond to his obvious game. Sally dropped the bikini into Nicks lap. Nick made his next move, confident that he would be rewarded. "There, a souvenir," Sally said with a smile. " Sally looked at him critically. "Youre not bad looking so Id expect plenty of women would love to spread their legs for you. " For the hike Sally had worn a light skirt that brushed her knees, and now beside Nick she pulled it up, and hidden by the seat in front of them, slid her now visible bikini bottoms down off her hips. " "Now thats just sad, Nick. "Well, true, Ive seen women undressing before, but they dont often spread their legs for me right afterwards. And then you reached down and I thought you were going modest on me. "What, you mean like this? " "I hope I dispelled that impression. "Its hard to say," Nick replied. " Sally looked at him with a raised eyebrow, then stared forward. If you liked this post and you would certainly such as to get additional info relating to xxx girl on girl pics kindly browse through our own webpage. "When you started pleasuring yourself I nearly broke out of my hiding spot to run down and join in. "What exactly would you have done? Shed shed her bottoms but she still had left her skirt protecting her. " As he spoke Nick reached out to gently brush Sallys knee with his hand. "Well, true, but its been a while since one let me watch the way you did. Then he began to move his hand up her thigh, pushing her skirt up towards her naked crotch. " The game had been turned around, and now she was testing him, seeing how bold hed be. As Nick felt the curve of her abdomen Sally looked at him with that naughty smile, and slid her hand into his shorts. "Im not too aggressive so Id have waited til you invited me to join in, but then Id have started by touching you somewhere safe, like your leg. " Still looking straight ahead Sally reached down but instead of halting Nicks hand she merely lifted her skirt back over her legs, covering his advance. "I think you forgot to spread your legs for me, Sally," Nick said with a mock frown. " She had picked up on his game and was playing along. " "That you most certainly did," Nick replied. "I havent forgotten anything, Nick," Sally replied. " "And just how would you have greeted such a brazen move? "Youd see my hair, but thats it. "Well, I know Id have closed my legs, as youve discovered," Sally replied. Then he twitched as Sally squeezed his tip. As her fingers found the tip of his dick Nick slowly slid his own fingers down the warm skin of her belly til he felt short hairs but was blocked by her closed legs from exploring further. " With her free hand Sally reached behind her neck to release the tie there, then reached up under her shirt to untie the back. " "Id have told you to get as naked as I was," Sally replied, slowly pushing Nicks foreskin down his tip. " "And your breasts, dont forget that," Nick threw out, making another play. "But if youd have stepped out instead of just watching, things would have gone much different, and Im going to show you exactly what I mean. " "Trust me when I say you wouldnt have been disappointed. "Id wanted to see how hard my stripping had gotten you, whether or not you were oozing yet, just as Ive discovered how taking off my swimsuit right here has gotten you wet. " "Im sure," Sally replied. Sally responded by running her fingers down his cock. The tank top she wore was now filled with her ample breasts, her nipples pressing against the thin fabric. She pulled out her bikini top and dropped it next to the bottoms in Nicks lap. She echoed his actions, beginning to stroke him within his shorts. She nodded towards the front of the bus. "Then Id start towards the spot youd shown me, where your fingers waited to guide me to your special spots. "Wait," Sally whispered after a few moments of mutual pleasure. " "I cant wait," Sally whispered. Nick looked up to see Margaret staring back at the two of them. "Now, I better go chat with the girls before they suspect anything. "Then, after I had a chance to get a good look at you, just as youd gotten a good look at me, Id have spread myself to your touch. " As Sally finished speaking she relaxed her thighs, opening them just enough for Nick to push his hand lower, where his fingers found her wet lips, and between them her warm pussy. She looked back, then dropped her purse. As she knelt she carefully let her skirt catch on an armrest, hiking it up her bent back, showing off her naked pussy, peaking from between her legs. Hidden behind seat in front of him Nick reached down inside his shorts and stroked himself slowly as he recalled Sallys show in the cove. " As wonderful as things were Nick knew it was time for a break. By the time the bus reached the parking lot where everyone had parked Nick had brought himself to the edge of orgasm several times, but carefully avoided repeating his earlier messy moment. Relishing the view Nick sighed as she stood, covering herself, but after she flashed a smile back at him, he began reliving the afternoon. He wondered if she had any idea of all that had happened that afternoon, both in the back of the bus and up by the lake. Feeling her response Nick began to caress the flower hed seen so clearly earlier in the day. Waiting as the other hikers left the bus, Nick tried to catch Sallys eye, but instead only found an odd glance from Margaret. While unlocking his door he casually looked around and saw Sally leaving the restroom, now dressed in a heavy fitted dress that flared as it ran down her legs to cover her ankles. But now all Nick cared about was what Sally had in mind for him after knowing he had enjoyed her show. Nick could tell shed put on some underwear since bright red straps showed underneath the dress straps and when she bent over to adjust her sandals her butt was crossed by a ft v girl of panty lines. " As Sally walked up the isle of the bus Nick watched her, staring at her behind. " Not quite what hed hoped for. "Ready for some fun, Nick? When he looked at her Nick could see into her car, and Sally smiled. Hed always liked her, but Nick had never gotten the courage to see if they could be anything more than friends. She reached down to her legs, where the buttons of her dress ended at her thighs, and spread, pulling the dress open to show off bright red lace, her dark pubic hair clear underneath. " "Follow me," answered Sally, covering herself. " Nick just grinned as he jumped in his car. "And no playing with yourself til we get there. Sally politely made it easy for him to follow her and they soon stopped in front of a large apartment building. " "Your place or mine? Sally led the way through the maze of hallways til she stopped and unlocked a door. As Nick reached his car his hopes fell when he didnt see Sally waiting for him. As the last button opened she pulled the fabric away and let the straps fall off her arms. " Sally asked as she pulled up next to Nick. He put away his pack, but didnt get into his car. Her bra matched the panties she had flashed at Nick earlier. Her nipples pushed against the transparent fabric, the dark skin around them mirroring the dark hair visible between her hips. The red lace supported her breasts, accenting her curves while hiding no details. She motioned Nick in, then after locking the door she strode past him into the living room. Instantly hard again, Nick looked around and saw that most of the other hikers were already leaving. With her now within arms reach, provocatively attired, exuding sexuality, the sight rendered Nick speechless. The young man quickly shook his head with a laugh as he started pulling off his shirt. Sally stepped closer as he pulled the fabric over his head. Starting with the top button Sally slowly undid her dress. " demanded Sally as Nick silently stared at her. "You are ready, arent you. "Get ready, Nick," Sally said as she turned to face him. Sally pushed his shorts and boxers down his legs and waited as Nick stepped out of the clothing. She looked down at his erection, gently brushing her belly. " "Ill never give in," replied Nick with a grin. " Sally pulled Nick close, pressing her body against him as his cock pushed against her stomach. Sally laughed as she pulled away, a wet smear where his penis had rubbed across her skin. "I am going to fuck you until you beg me to stop. Nick could feel her lacy bra on his chest as Sally brought her lips up to his ear. The room was dominated by a king sized bed. She took his hand and led him into her bedroom. " Sally licked her lips as she ran her fingers across Nicks chest. "There is nothing I dont do. " Nick gently ran his fingers across one of get breasts. She ran her fingers across his chest, brushing his abs as she reached down to unbutton his shorts. Dropping the shirt behind him Nick spread his arms to keep from interfering as Sally ran her fingers around his waist to his hips. "Are you going to get naked, or what? "Give me a bit and Im sure Ill come up with something. She leaned over and grabbed his cock, rolling down to lay across his thighs. " Sally grinned, then sat up, pushing Nick onto his back. Sally looked up at Nick as she began slowly stroking him. ftv girls dani As Nick stared at her he could feel Sally running her tongue across his skin. Quickly she pulled a pack of condoms from a drawer next to the bed. When she clamped her lips around him and sucked, Nick gasped with the intensity of the sensation. " "I dont know, all Im thinking is that Im lucky enough to be with you at all. " "Im very happy to xxx sexy fuck photos hear that. "Tell me, what do you want to do to me? " Sally tossed her hair out of her face with a practiced flip of her head. Sally pulled Nick onto the bed and lay down next to him. Reaching her stomach he slid his hand inside the lacy garment. Then she leaned down to kiss his tip before sliding her lips down his shaft. As she licked at the pre cum oozing out of his penis Nick ran his fingers down the waistband of Sallys panties. Sliding his middle finger between her folds Nick brushed the hard lump of her clit. Feeling the fuzz of her neatly trimmed patch Nick grinned at Sally before continuing down to the wet lips hed seen spread open beside the lake. Gently he ran his fingers across her nub. " Nick reached out to run his hand along her side, from her bra strap down to her hip. Beneath his touch Sally shifted her hips, rolling further onto her side and lifted one leg to open her crotch to his searching hand. As Sally twitched from the sensation of his finger penetrating her Nicks dick twitched inside her mouth at the memory of seeing her own fingers between her legs earlier in the day. Tingles of ecstasy ran up his body as Sally ran her teeth gently up and down his dick. Under Nicks hand Sally gently squirmed before settling her mouth back down on his cock. Though Sallys tongue on his cock felt extraordinary good, her question had gotten Nick thinking, and now he wanted more. Nick knew he had found her g spot when his dick vibrated with her low moan of ecstasy. Slowly he withdrew his finger from Sally, eliciting a sigh from the young woman. As she stared up at him, surprise in her eyes, Nick smiled down at her. "I think I know what you want, too, Nick," replied Sally coyly. With the extra space available Nick pushed his hand further into her panties, sliding his middle finger up inside her pussy. " Emboldened by Sallys words Nick reached down and pulled her thong down her legs. Now naked except for her lacy bra still covering her breasts, Sally licked her lips as she stared up at her guest. Then he pushed her off his legs and got to ftv free nude pics irls his knees above her on the bed. She watched as he put a condom sex in images on "Turn over," Nick ordered. Nick carefully pulled her panties off her raised hip, revealing her crotch. With a smile Sally complied. " Nick reached down to grab a handful of her hair and pull her mouth away from his dick. Sally relaxed, melting into his lap, feeling Nick explore her vagina with his finger tip. She shook her butt at Nick, looking back over her shoulder. " "Maybe later, Sally," Nick replied quietly. "Is that what you want, Nick? He ran his fingers over her ass, tickling her skin as he slid his hand down between her thighs, dragging his thumb down her crack. "I know what I want, Sally. For a moment he paused above Sally, stroking his cock slowly as she watched. Nick quickly knelt between her legs. Nick ran his ftv streaming eyes across her body, relishing the curves of naked flesh on the bed in front of him. Then he reached down, grabbed her hips and lifted her butt up towards him. With his cock barely penetrating her Nick grabbed Sallys hips again and pulled her against him, driving his penis deep into her. "Ive taken it in the ass before, Ill let you fuck me that way. "For now, spread your legs. "Fuck," Sally gasped as Nick held her against him, filling her pussy with his dick. With each shove she grunted, both from the pain of her bra being tugged and from the impact of his cock into her snatch. "Show me how you want it. " Obediently Sally opened her thighs, showing Nick her pussy, glistening from the moisture his earlier attention had brought forth. She gasped as he rocked her body with thrust after thrust. "You feel good, Sally," Nick said as he paused for a breath. He released her hair and shoulders and straightened, keeping his cock buried in her. After several thrusts Nick reached up further and grabbed a handful of smooth dark hair with one hand and a shoulder with the other. Sally came off her elbows as Nick held her head back and banged her hard and fast. Slowly Nick ran his fingers up Sallys back. "Ready for me to take over? He straddled Sally’s butt before reaching down and grabbing his dick. " Inspired by Sallys current pose Nick pulled himself out and rose to his feet. When he reached her bra strap he grabbed the fabric and pulled, keeping her against him as he started sliding himself out of her and slamming back in. He adjusted his position slightly and started banging away, grinding her face into the cushions. His tip felt the smooth skin of her crotch, and then the rippling of her lips, and within the hot fire of her vagina. Finally the sensations of Sally’s hot wet pussy overwhelmed Nick’s self control and he felt the ripples of orgasm rock his crotch. As Sally supported herself on her knees and elbows Nick reached down, grabbed his dick again, and guided it between her thighs. He changed to fast quick thrusts as he came, filling the condom with his cum. " Sallys voice was muffled as she lay her head down against her sheets. Nick could easily hear her moans as he banged into her over and over again. As the waves of pleasure subsided he stopped moving, his dick buried as deep as he could get it within Sally. "Now it’s your turn. Using his thighs he allowed his full weight to thrust his cock down into her. "Fuck you’re good," Sally said finally, lifting her head from the pillows to look back at Nick. Pushing it down he inserted it almost vertically into Sally. " With a sigh he straightened up, pulling out of Sally.

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