#fun story i nearly scored a green one of these like 2 years ago before i bought my 03 impreza

[demoness-one]

i have some sort of brain worms. LOOK at how sad and alone this poor little impreza outback is. its like beanie babies, i have to collect them all and lose a ton of money doing it that ill never get back

#hes sooo cute #fun story i nearly scored a green one of these like 2 years ago before i bought my 03 impreza #these things are so fucking rare around here #old cars dont last #this one has a smidge of rust and the paint is shot but thats part of the appeal #like a sad kitten at a shelter missing an eye #if it werent an automatic and if i had 4 grand i would be slightly more tempted #subaru #subaru impreza #subaru impreza outback

[lumosinlove]

Sweater Weather Roster Description:

(So I probably definitely forgot some things. There’s a lot of complicated matching up that went into this. But, regardless, I wanted to post it, so we’ll fix and add as we go! <3)

James Potter: (Pots, Pothead, Potty)

Position: Left Wing, First Line

Number: 7

Years In The League: 7—drafted, no college.

Previous Teams: None

Description: 25. 6’1”. Dark brown hair, hazel eyes, white. Can usually be seen wearing whatever Lily buys him. Known on the team for being a joker, but also someone you can go to for any reason. Hyper.

Nationality: American. Hometown: Boston, MA.

S/O: Girlfriend, Lily Evans.

Closest to on the team: Sirius Black and Sergei Ivanov, but basically everyone.

Rooms With: No one

Sits with on the bus/plane: Sirius Black

Lives With: Girlfriend Lily Evans

Injury: Multiple concussions

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Putting his contacts in, because he usually wears glasses, gets him really into the game mode. His favorite food is treacle tart, which he had when he took his girlfriend Lily to England—now she makes it for him on his birthday.

Favorite Moment On Team: When he told them that he and Lily were pregnant and they all celebrated.

Superstition: He has to call his girlfriend, Lily, before every game.

Warm Up Song: Eye of the Tiger

What the announcers say when he scores: “Aaaaannndd Potter is wheeling tonight!!”

~

Sirius Black: (Padfoot, Cap, Captain)

Position: Center, First Line

Number: 12

Years In The League: 6—First pick overall, no college.

Previous Teams: None

Description: 24. 6’3”. Black hair, gray eyes, white. Hair gets really fluffy in humidity and it drives him insane. Short hair, curls above his ears. Loves a good backwards hat. One of the strongest on the team.

Nationality: French-Canadian. Hometown: Montreal, Canada.

S/O: Remus Lupin—secret.

Closest to on the team: James Potter and Adam Fox and William LeBlanc

Rooms With: No One

Sits with on the bus/plane: James Potter

Lives With: No one

Injury: Badly broken ankle, one mild concussion

Puck Personality Fun Fact: He had a very hard time coming up with one, so James chose one for him. He pretends to hate the rookies, but will drop literally everything for anything they need. He’s also really bad at taking his pre-game nap.

(Pascal Dumais from the background: “He does not understand household chores!” “Shut up, Dumo!”)

Favorite Moment On Team: His first game after deciding to stand up to his mother about getting a trade. He could finally relax, and enjoy himself. When he scored the first goal, he let his teammates celebrate with him.

Superstition: There are so many. There are too many. Has to go out onto the ice last, has to have a butter and honey toasted sandwich before the game at 5:00 pm, has to do his stretches in a certain order, has to put on and sharpen his left skate first. Cannot even talk about the Cup without freaking out. Will wear the same gross hat until it literally reeks if they’re on a hot streak.

Warm Up Song: Doesn’t really have one.

What the announcers say when he scores: “Seriously!!! That is one serious goal!!” “That Black back-hander will kill a fella!”

~

Finn O’Hara: (Harzy, Fish)

Position: Right Wing

Number: 17

Years In The League: 3. Went to Harvard College.

Previous Teams: None

Description: 23. 6’0’’. Dark red hair, luscious and fluffy. White. Wavy. Light freckles. Brown eyes. Is a single eyebrow raiser. Habit of saluting. More on the slender side of muscle. Is a bit of a worry-wart. Super sarcastic.

Nationality: American. Hometown: New York, New York.

S/O: June Calder—sort of.

Closest to on the team: Logan Tremblay and Leo Knut and Olli Halla

Rooms With: Timmy Jones

Sits with on the bus/plane: Kasey Winter

Lives With: Leo Knut

Injury: Two bad concussions in college.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: He wanted it to be that he’s real fucking good in bed, but it’s that he likes eating grilled cheese with strawberry jam because his older brother, Alexander, used to make it for him all the time when they were kids.

Favorite Moment On Team: Probably that one team dinner where Blizzard got drunk and tried to swim in a fountain. Or when he found out that Logan also got drafted to the Lions the year after him.

Superstition: Has to have a grilled cheese and strawberry jam before every game. Has to tape his own sticks on the bench. Has a handshake with Logan they do before walking down the tunnel.

Warm Up Song: Hollaback Girl, Gwen Stefani

What the announcers say when he scores: “OOOOOOOO’HARA HOW DARA!! WHAT A GOAL!”

~

Timmy Jones: (Timmers)

Position: Defenseman

Number: 62

Years In The League: 10. Went to Boston University

Previous Teams: New York Islanders

Description: 31. 6’1”. Black hair, braided, reaches his shoulders and he likes to tie it up sometimes, hazel eyes. Black. One of the most popular jerseys because he’s such a crowd pleaser always riling them up and talking to fans through the glass. He’s also one of the biggest Instagram users and is always posting really funny locker room videos.

Nationality: Canadian. Vancouver, Canada.

S/O: Single

Closest to on the team: Olli Halla and William LeBlanc and Thomas Walker

Rooms With: Finn O’Hara

Lives With: Olli Halla

Sits with on the bus/plane: Olli Halla

Injury: Fractured foot a few years ago.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Kasey’s rival for best hair in the league. Famous for his crazy cellys

Favorite Moment On Team: Conference Finals! And when all the boys touch Moody’s leg for good luck.

Superstition: Has a lucky towel that no one is allowed to wash.

Warm Up Song: Where are Ü Now, Jack Ü, Skrillex, Justin Bieber

What the announcers say when he scores: Timmers strikes again!!

~

Olli Halla: (Olli)

Position: Defenseman

Number: 5

Years In The League: 10, Undrafted.

Previous Teams: Winnipeg Jets.

Description: 6’2”. 32. Very, very blonde hair, nearly white. Pale blue eyes. Cute little nose. Cannot grow a beard to save his life. Total baby-face. Is sort of shy and awkward. What a sweetheart.

Nationality: Finish. Hometown: Helsinki, Finland.

S/O: Single.

Closest to on the team: Timmy Jones and Finn O’Hara

Rooms With: Elias Cook

Lives With: Timmy Jones

Sits with on the bus/plane: Timmy Jones

Injury: Concussion, twice. A few bruised ribs.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Wins the pre-game team kick-around almost every time. Brings awareness to charities that contribute to doing research on the brain and brain injuries. 

Favorite Moment On Team: When the team welcomed him back from his pretty serious concussion (he missed nearly a year) by all wearing the number 5 out on the ice during warm ups.

Superstition: Wears his cross and says a small prayer after the national anthem. Also has to play in the kick-around.

Warm Up Song: Replay, Iyaz

What the announcers say when he scores: (G)oooooolllliiiii!

~

Brady Smith: (Smitty)

Position: Right Wing

Number: 92

Years In The League: 10. Drafted.

Previous Teams: Washington Capitals

Description: 28, 6’3”. Black hair, blue eyes. Black. The sweetest person you will ever meet in your life. Is adored by all of the hockey wives and girlfriends. Can speak Spanish and (ofc) German. Has a tattoo he has on his back shoulder blade of the Stanley Cup which he won with the Washington Capitals. The cup says his wife and two kid’s names on it with room for more—this man loves his babies.

Nationality: German. Hometown: Berlin, Germany, where his mother is from, but moved to the Boston, MA when he was 15 years old—where his father is from.

S/O: Married to his wife Allison, and they’re expecting their third child. Their first is a boy named Max, their second a boy named Noah.

Closest to on the team: Evgeni Kuznetsov and Jackson Nadeau.

Lives With: His family

Sits with on the bus/plane: Evan Kane

Rooms With: Evan Kane

Injury: Frequently separates his shoulder :(

Puck Personality Fun Fact: He’s part of the Lions’ power play. Is actually a really good tattoo artist and has inked Kris Lavolie and Evgeni Kuznetsov. He gave Kris the date of his daughter’s birth, and he gave Evgeni a tiger on his left bicep.

Favorite Moment On Team: He really loved when Sirius became Captain. He felt a shift in their team’s drive.

Superstition: Has to read the note his son wrote him a few years ago.

Warm Up Song: Anything Drake

What the announcers say when he scores: Braaaddyyy Smith! What a goal!

~

Pascal Dumais: (Dumo)

Position: Center

Number: 9

Years In The League: 24, drafted first overall.

Previous Teams: New York Rangers, Colorado Avalanche.

Description: 41. 6’1’’. Brown hair, cut pretty short but brushes up at the front or superman curl.  White. Hazel/green eyes, dark eyelashes and brows. Scruffy beard always. Is the dad of the team. Well tell anyone who asks the hilarious stories of when Sirius lived with him.

Nationality: French Canadian. Hometown: Montreal.

S/O: Celeste Dumais, wife. And four children. Adele (13), Louis (10), Marc (9), and Katie (7).

Closest to on the team: Logan Tremblay and Sergei Ivanov.

Lives With: His wife and four kids—and Logan of course.

Rooms With: No one

Sits with on the bus/plane: No one, he enjoys the peace and quiet (not that anyone gives him any)

Injury: Broken wrist. Bruised ribs. Mild concussion. Lost too many teeth to count.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: The BIGGEST prankster on the team. Loves fine wine.

Favorite Moment On Team: Whenever the crowd chants “Duuummmooooo,” or the first time Sirius smiled.

Superstition: Slaps Sergei’s ass before they walk down the tunnel. No one knows why.

Warm Up Song: Eight Days A Week by The Beatles

What the announcers say when he scores: "Pascal Dumais everybody! One of the oldest in the league—he’s still got it!”

~

Logan Tremblay: (Tremzy, [Finn: Lo])

Position: Right Wing

Number: 10

Years In The League: 2. Went to Harvard College.

Previous Teams: None.

Description: 22. 5’9’’. Dark brown hair, long enough to be wavy and always wearing a snapback. Green eyes. Light freckles. White. Always sinfully tan. Really broad and strong. Those arms and chest muscles damn. Really dark, long eyelashes. Clean shaven. Really loud, always mildly grumpy. Flirts with EVERYTHING. 

Nationality: French Canadian. Hometown: Rimouski, Quebec, Canada.

S/O: Single…..

Closest to on the team: Leo Knut, Finn O’Hara, and Pascal Dumais, Thomas Walker.

Lives With: Pascal Dumais

Rooms With: Leo Knut

Sits with on the bus/plane: Leo Knut

Injury: He broke a finger and a foot and frequently has black eyes from fights.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Has a fleur-de-lis necklace that he never takes off. Spends his summers in Nice, France where his mother is from. Bites his nails.

Favorite Moment On Team: Playing with Finn again.

Superstition: Says he isn’t superstitious but he is. Won’t touch the kick-around soccer ball before he decides to play. Has a handshake with Finn they do before walking down the tunnel.

Warm Up Song: Whatever It Takes, Imagine Dragons.

What the announcers say when he scores: “Scooorree!!! Oh, the tremble before Tremblay!”

~

Thomas Walker: (Talker, Walkie-Talkie)

Position: Defenseman —also an enforcer.

Number: 43

Years In The League: 8. University of Wisconsin.

Previous Teams: None.

Description: 30, 6’2”. Short hair, brown eyes, one of the most ripped guys on the team. Black. Pierced ears, usually small gold hoops. Takes them out for play. The Lions organization does a segment with him called Walkie-Talkie where he goes around the locker room and interviews his team mates with funny questions.

Nationality: American. Hometown: Chicago, IL.

S/O: Single

Closest to on the team: Timmy Jones and Adam Fox and Logan Tremblay.

Lives With: No one

Rooms With: Adam Fox.

Sits with on the bus/plane: Anyone who wants to CHAT.

Injury: Broken foot, some broken fingers.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: He got his nickname Talker because he never shuts up on the ice. Starts a lot of fights. 

Favorite Moment On Team: When Kasey jumped in the fountain.

Superstition: Needs to take a three minute nap between periods. He puts a towel over his head right in his stall and literally falls asleep for three minutes. (James: it’s fucking weird”)

Warm Up Song: Top hits, just needs the background noise.

What the announcers say when he scores: “Goal!!! He just walks right up there, don’t he?”

~

Sergei Ivanov: (Vans)

Position: Defenseman 

Number: 55

Years In The League: 23, Drafted, no college.

Previous Teams: Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights.

Description: 40. 5’11”. Light brown-gray hair—was blonde, losing it at the front a little.  White. Really stern blue eyes that transform and crinkle when he smiles (but it’s hard to get a real smile out of him, and the boys feel really accomplished when they do).

Nationality: Russian. Hometown: Omsk.

S/O: Anya. They have three daughters: Aleandra (10), Evenlina (8), and Katya (7).

Closest to on the team: Kris Lavolie and Pascal Dumais and James Potter

Lives With: His wife and children.

Rooms With: No one.

Sits with on the bus/plane: Kris Lavolie.

Injury: Shoulder injury

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Loves classical music

Favorite Moment On Team: One of his daughters was born the same night he got his first hat-trick. Some of the team came to the hospital with him.

Superstition: Stops at a Church on his way to the rink everyday for a few quiet moments.

Warm Up Song: He doesn’t have one, he prefers to talk to everyone instead.

What the announcers say when he scores: SERGEI SCORES!

~

Jackson Nadeau: (Nado)

Position: Left Wing

Number: 58

Years In The League: 8. Went to College but didn’t finish.

Previous Teams: Chicago Blackhawks 

Description: 26, 6’0”. Dark brown hair, chin length and straight, blue eyes. White. Is very laid back and a big flirt. Has cheek bones that could kill and a very stark scar running down one of them from a skate in the face.

Nationality: French Canadian. Victoria, Canada.

S/O: Single

Closest to on the team: Evgeni Kuznetsov and Brady Smith

Lives With: Evgeni Kuznetsov

Rooms With: Evgeni Kuznetsov

Sits with on the bus/plane: Evgeni Kuznetsov

Injury: Skate to the face, other minor things.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Rival with Evgeni for most pick ups on the team. Has many tattoos—one full sleeve, working on the other.

Favorite Moment On Team: Probably when Evgeni got traded, he found his best friend.

Superstition: Has a handshake with Evgeni.

Warm Up Song: He won’t tell you up front but Hamilton.

What the announcers say when he scores: Rapidly repeating “Nadeau, Nadeau, Nadeau!!!”

~

Evgeni Kuznetsov: (Kuny)

Position: Center. Enforcer.

Number: 86

Years In The League: 10. Drafted.

Previous Teams: Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres.

Description: 27. 6’4”. Short cropped light brown hair and puppy-dog brown eyes. Has a slightly chipped front left tooth. White. Very heavy Russian accent, doesn’t speak perfect English and uses this fact to get out of interviews. Is very charming. Literally a giant.

Nationality: Russian. Magnitogorsk, Russia. 

S/O: Single and ready to mingle—or already does mingle. Excessively.

Closest to on the team: Brady Smith and Jackson Nadeau

Lives With: Jackson Nadeau 

Rooms With: Jackson Nadeau

Sits with on the bus/plane: Jackson Nadeau

Injury: Had to have knee surgery.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Will tell you he has the most pick-ups on the team, but it might be Nado. He’s always making jokes in Russian that basically only Sergei and Henrik can understand and Sergei just rolls his eyes while Henrik laughs.

Favorite Moment On Team: He loves team dinners, just hanging out with the guys.

Superstition: Has a handshake with Jackson.

Warm Up Song: BLASTS Russian rap.

What the announcers say when he scores: THE RUSSIAN BEAR STRIKES AGAIN!

~

Evan Kane: (Kaner)

Position: Right Wing

Number: 51

Years In The League: Two. Went to College at Boston University.

Previous Teams: Calgary Flames.

Description: 23. 5’11”. Tan skin with freckles and brown eyes, black, short hair. Hispanic. Super strong and holds lots of team workout records. The brightest smile. Eyebrows on point. Loves to read, was an English major at school.

Nationality: American. Hometown: Boston, MA.

S/O: His girlfriend, Caroline Hall.

Closest to on the team: Brady Smith and Elias Cook, and Leo Knut

Lives With: His girlfriend.

Rooms With: Brady Smith

Sits with on the bus/plane: Brady Smith

Injury: Nothing major up to date.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Wicked fast. One of the fastest in the League.

Favorite Moment On Team: Probably meeting Pascal Dumais. He’s looked up to his playing style for a long time.

Superstition: Tapes his own sticks, sharpens his own skates.

Warm Up Song: Eminem

What the announcers say when he scores: “Yes he Kane!!!”

~

Adam Fox: (Foxy, Sexy)

Position: Defenseman

Number: 32.

Years In The League: 19. Drafted.

Previous Teams: New York Islanders.

Description: 36. 6’2”. White. Light brown hair that pushes up at the front and is shaved close at the sides. Blue eyes that will kill you. 

Nationality: American. Hometown: Boston, MA. 

S/O: Girlfriend, Lucìa Perez.

Closest to on the team: Thomas Walker and Sirius Black

Lives With: His girlfriend.

Rooms With: Thomas Walker

Sits with on the bus/plane: Elias Cook

Injury: Nothing too serious.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Is constantly made fun of for being the prettiest. Ever.

Favorite Moment On Team: Bringing his girlfriend to her first game.

Superstition: Stretches in a certain order.

Warm Up Song: They boys will tell you it’s SexyBack but it’s actually just heavy metal.

What the announcers say when he scores: “A foxy goal!!”

~

Henrik Sunqvist: (Sunny, Sunshine)

Position: Defenseman

Number: 33

Years In The League: 10. Played in the Swedish league for a while.

Previous Teams: None in the NHL.

Description: 39. 5’11”. Blond hair, cut short, pale blue eyes, white. Warmest smile you’ve ever seen. 

Nationality: Swedish. Hometown: Uppsala.

S/O: Linnea Sunqvist, his wife and their daughter and son, Maja (10) and Hugo (11).

Closest to on the team: Evander Bell

Lives With: His wife and family.

Rooms With: No one

Sits with on the bus/plane: Likes to sit alone with a nice audiobook sometimes.

Injury: Nothing major, a few minor concussions

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Almost never fights, but when he does…ouch. Can speak French and Russian.

Favorite Moment On Team: When he gets to morning practice and has coffee with the boys.

Superstition: Has to do a few somersaults in the locker room—we don’t know why.

Warm Up Song: Russian rap—no one knows why/how he knows Russian so well.

What the announcers say when he scores: “The sun is shining on Sunqvist!"

~

Elias Cook: (Cookie, Crock-pot) 

Position: Left Wing

Number: 29

Years In The League: 7. Drafted.

Previous Teams: Toronto Maple Leafs

Description: 25. 5’11”. Hazel eyes, Black hair, baby curls so cute we love the curls. 

Nationality: Canadian. Toronto.

S/O: Fiancee, Jamie Barrow.

Closest to on the team: Kasey Winter

Lives With: Jamie.

Rooms With: Olli Halla

Sits with on the bus/plane: Adam Fox

Injury:

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Loves spicy food. Once made Sirius cry by daring him to eat some really spicy dish.

Favorite Moment On Team: Listening to ABBA in the locker room.

Superstition: Does a few laps around the hallways. The press love to try to catch him for interviews while he’s doing this.

Warm Up Song: iSpy, KYLE and Lil Yachty

What the announcers say when he scores: “The stove is HOT for Cook tonight!”

~

William LeBlanc: (Bluey)

Position: Center

Number: 44

Years In The League: 3. Drafted.

Previous Teams: SKA Saint Petersburg.

Description: 24 6′1″. Brown hair, wavy, green eyes. White. Goes to Russia during his summers.

Nationality: French Canadian. Sherbrooke. 

S/O: Single

Closest to on the team: Tyler Wright, Sirius Black.

Lives With: No one

Rooms With: Kris Lavolie

Sits with on the bus/plane: Tyler Wright

Injury: Concussion.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Never learned Russian well, despite playing in the KHL. 

Favorite Moment On Team: When Kasey jumped in the fountain.

Superstition: Has to touch all the boys’ names above their stalls

Warm Up Song: Russian rap.

What the announcers say when he scores: LeGOALLLLL

~

Evander Bell: (Ringer)

Position: Right Wing

Number: 21

Years In The League: 15. Drafted.

Previous Teams: Bruins, Red Wings.

Description: 33. 6’3”. Sandy blond hair and brown eyes. White. Pretty shy, but really kind. Laughs really loudly which then makes himself blush.

Nationality: American. Hometown: L.A.

S/O: His fiancee, Emily.

Closest to on the team: Henrik Sunqvist

Lives With: Emily and his son, Xavier.

Rooms With: None

Sits with on the bus/plane: Likes to sit alone, besides joining the card game.

Injury: Broken wrist.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Can play the guitar and the piano. Is one of the team’s biggest You Can Play ambassadors (Pascal and Sergei are the other two most active). Always goes to the Gryffindor pride parade.

Favorite Moment On Team: The entire locker room singing We Are Never Getting Back Together. Beginning to see hearts on the glass at the team’s You Can Play Night.

Superstition: Wears the same hat and socks. 

Warm Up Song: Taylor Swift. 

What the announcers say when he scores: “A dead Ringer from Evander Bell!”

~

Kris Lavolie: (Volley)

Position: Defenseman

Number: 11

Years In The League: 3. Went to University of Michigan.

Previous Teams: None.

Description: 24, 6’1”. Dark hair that’s straight and falls to about his chin, brown eyes. White. Broadly built. Kind and a really good listener.

Nationality: French Canadian. Hometown: Quebec City.

S/O: Single

Closest to on the team: Sergei Ivanov

Lives With: His daughter, Aveline.

Rooms With: William LeBlanc

Sits with on the bus/plane: Sergei Ivanov

Injury: Broken rib.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Kris is a single dad. One of his best friends, Lee, she takes care of his baby girl who is four now while he’s on the road. Sometimes she gets to go stay with Sergei’s family, too. Sergei helps him so much, and he’s thankful for him <3. His daughter’s name is Aveline and he will do ANYTHING for her.

Favorite Moment On Team: Taking his daughter to the Lions’ family skate for the first time.

Superstition: Talk to/call his daughter before every game.

Warm Up Song: XO, Beyoncé

What the announcers say when he scores: “La gooaaaaallll by Lavolie!!”

~

Tyler Wright: (Wrangler)

Position: Defenseman

Number: 8

Years In The League: 

Previous Teams:

Description: 27. 6’2”. Hair that is shoulder length, really dark brown. Blue eyes. Square jaw. Has a bit of a temper on the ice, but is a sweetheart otherwise. Ironically doesn’t like fighting.

Nationality: American. Hometown: Minnesota, Minneapolis.

S/O: His girlfriend, Elsa, who lives in Sweden and is a professional football/soccer player.

Closest to on the team: William LeBlanc

Lives With: No one

Rooms With: No one

Sits with on the bus/plane: William LeBlanc

Injury: Nothing serious.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Has four dachshunds named Puck, Deke, Gordie, and Stanley.

Favorite Moment On Team: Like many, when Kasey jumped into that fountain. “It was just so fuckin’ out of character, you know?”

Superstition: Has to participate in the kick around, and has to kick the ball last with his right foot.

Warm Up Song: Royals, Lorde.

What the announcers say when he scores: “Wright in the net!”

~

Kasey Winter: (Kase, Blizzard)

Position: Goalie

Number: 30

Years In The League: 8 years. Drafted, no college.

Previous Teams: New York Rangers.

Description: 26. 6’2’’. Light brown hair down to his shoulders. Known for being the most beautiful hair in the league. Softest brown eyes that psych shooters out. Grows a really gorgeous beard whenever the fuck he wants. 

Nationality: Canadian. Home town: Ontario, Canada.

S/O: Girlfriend, Natalie Darcy

Closest to on the team: Elias Cook and Kris Lavolie

Lives With: His girlfriend, Natalie.

Rooms With: No one.

Sits with on the bus/plane: Finn O’Hara

Injury: Torn hamstring.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Will have his girlfriend braid his hair for practice sometimes. (“You can say what you want, but keeps it out of my face. Good old boxer braids. It’s where it’s at.”)

Favorite Moment On Team: When the team got to the Conference Finals seven years ago.

Superstition: Has to do stretches in a certain order.

Warm Up Song: Wasabi by Little Mix (Thanks, Natalie)

What the announcers say when he makes a safe: “The Blizzard is blinding!” “It’s a squall!”

~

Leo Knut: (Nut, Knutty, Peanut, Peanut-butter)

Position: Goalie

Number: 1

Years In The League: His rookie season, so almost one. No college.

Previous Teams: None.

Description: 18. 6’3’’. Dark blond Hair, pretty wavy and falls over his forehead. Blue eyes. Button nose. Blond eyelashes. Cannot grow a beard to save his life.

Nationality: American. Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana.

S/O: None….;)

Closest to on the team: Logan Tremblay and Finn O’Hara and Evan Kane

Lives With: Finn O’Hara

Rooms With: Logan Tremblay

Sits with on the bus/plane: Logan Tremblay

Injury: Nothing major.

Puck Personality Fun Fact: Has a small gray-streaked patch of hair by the front of his head from hitting his head really hard when he was little.

Favorite Moment On Team: Well, the first moment he felt most at home was when the rest of the boys started imitating his accent. Logan is the worst at it, but he does it the most.

Superstition: Not very superstitious…yet.

Warm Up Song: Violet, Bad Suns and Love On Top by Beyoncé

What the announcers say when he saves a puck: “Another nuts save for Knut!” “We’re nuts about Knut!” “Right in the nuts!”

#sweater weather #sweater weather player roster #hockey!au #sirius black #remus lupin #wolfstar au #wolfstar #sirius x remus #remus x sirius #lumosinlove #lumosinlove ocs #lumosinlove oc #Harry Potter fic #Harry Potter au #writing

[phoenotopia]

2020 March Update

Happy New Year! Well, I guess it's a bit late for that...

Much of what transpired in the past few months will fall under polish and bug-fixing. Will and I have a mutual friend who got married, so I had the occasion to visit Will to attend the wedding as well as have Will playtest the game in its most complete form yet. He logged 24 hours of playtime and just reached the entrance of the final dungeon. Then we had to call in for the night since it was 5 AM, and I had a flight to catch in the morning.

His completion rate where we stopped was 42% of Heart Pieces, 33% of Energy Gems, and 44% of Moonstones. So... I think we have a pretty lengthy game!

This will take a while to playtest & polish... Will's daytime profession is QA Engineer so he's pretty great at catching bugs. From his playtest, we jotted down 200+ items to fix/adjust. Some as small as a simple misspelling, and some more significant (like Gail being unable to jump when standing at the edge of a steep slope). I'm about half-way through fixing that list...

(Will’s living room where much playtesting was done)

Here are some other things we've accomplished in the past few months. A lot of it falls under polish and bug-fixing, which won't sound outwardly impressive, so I'll dive in a bit under the hood.

-------------------------- Item Balancing --------------------------

There are over 200 items in the game. Of which, 90+ are healing items. While much of their flavor text was already written, their stats weren't yet finally decided. So a large effort was spent to balance them as well as possible. Initially, I balanced items by observation (ex: "The player is relying on this item a lot, so I will nerf it...") Now, I've moved to a more systematic way of doing things. I made an equation that takes in all of an item's parameters, and spits out a score. The higher an item heals, the higher the score. The longer an item takes to consume, the lower the score. And so forth.

As usual, I used google spreadsheets, since they support equations. I could tweak the values of a healing item, and immediately see how its final score was affected. I also made use of automatic color formatting, so a field becomes highlighted red, if it's particularly bad, or green, if it's particularly good. Of course, the sheet is just a guideline. The aim wasn't to make all items have the same final score, but that they made sense for what they were and when you could get them. Late-game items tend to have higher overall scores versus early-game items. Some items, like doggy biscuits, have notoriously low scores across the board - as a joke!

-------------------------- Cooking Systems --------------------------

Another thing that had to be done with the healing items was finally determine their cooking sequences. 38 healing items could be cooked and will transform into something else. The way I specified that an item could be cooked was to add a a little snippet to an item's "meta data". An example would look something like, "COOK,57,62,ABXY,10,1.5,1".

In order, this specified the item_ID that would result on success (57), the item_ID that would result on failure (62), the button sequence (ABXY), the time you had to complete the sequence (10 seconds), how quickly the cursor should move (1.5x speed), and if the item multiplied on success (1). The system appears simple enough - but it was actually extremely inefficient!

For one, this system didn't allow random button sequences - all "berry fruits", when cooked would have the same button prompts and in the same order every time (ABXY). Initially, I thought having set button sequences would be a feature, but in practice, it was less fun. 

Two, this system wasn't human-readable at all. I'd see a sequence of numbers, forget what they were, and have to look them up over and over.

But the biggest problem was that you couldn't evaluate an item's cooking difficulty from these numbers without manual testing. At 1.5 cursor speed, how many times does the cursor pass the center panel in 10 seconds? Maybe that's 15 times... for a 4 button sequence, the player has 11 opportunities to miss - that's too wide a berth for failure. The system also had variable penalties - if you misspressed a button prompt you loss time on the cooking meter. If you didn't press anything, you missed the opportunity, but not the time - but the clock was still ticking, so you did lose time, just not as much. In the end, the difficulty of cooking each item was all over the place. It was also possible to create "unwinnable" scenarios if I made the button sequence too long, the time too short, or the cursor speed too slow. Testing each item manually to ensure doability was too tedious and unreliable - it was a mess!

Which is why, the underlying cooking system was revamped. The new meta data looks like : "COOK,57,62,seq_length,5,spd,1.5,ease_add,2". This is a lot more readable. Beyond the first 3 entries, the arguments could be specified in any order. And their meanings were easy to understand.

"seq_length,5" means a random button sequence of 5 will be generated (no need for me to personally generate it)

"spd,1.5" means the cursor moves at 1.5x speed. I could also leave this field out to get a default value of 1x cursor speed.

"ease_add,2" - the biggest improvement to the system is how we now approach difficulty. We streamlined a miss-press and a missed opportunity as the same level of "mistake", and difficulty is framed as, "how many mistakes is the player allowed to make and still have a successful result?" By default, the player is afforded the ability to make 2 mistakes, and "ease_add,2" bumps the number of allowable mistakes to 4. We then automatically calculate how much "time" the player should have to cook something based on its cursor speed, how long the button sequence is, and how many mistakes the player is allowed to make. This was a more sensible and efficient system that let me knock out all 38 healing item cook sequences in one sitting!

-------------------------- Badges Nearly Done --------------------------

As you may recall from the last update, I was working on implementing the badges.

Thinking up the badge and having its graphic drawn is just the first half. Underneath, the code also needs to be made to track all the relevant player stats - how many times the player fished, ate, got money, used a certain move, etc. Some badges require extra guards, because they can be spoofed. For instance, the "Treasure Hunter" badge is obtained when the player has collected XXXX RIN through the course of your journey. However, there is something like a "gold exchange" in the game, where you could circularly trade gold and RIN to boost this number artificially. It's important to guard against cases like those.

So far, 30 of 33 badges are implemented. The last three have to do with late-game things that have inter-dependencies that we're still figuring out. The Speed running badge for instance is still dependent on two things. One, I need to speed run the game a few times to see how fast it's possible to beat the game and decide finally what's a reasonable time-limit. Two, there's actually a time-keeping bug which can inflate the game time if the system is left in sleep mode. I don't expect either things will be too hard to figure out - just gotta find the time for it.

-------------------------- Script Extra Polished --------------------------

We continued to polish the script, which I thought was basically done before. We added some extra NPCs here and there, and fleshed out the world with lore text where it seemed appropriate. In the end, the game's script ballooned to over 100,000 words! Hah... It's definitely DONE now however!

Some interesting things I noted as I was polishing old text - there were quite a few instances where Gail talks. I began the game's development with the idea that Gail should definitely talk since I wanted her to be a more active participant in what she chose to do. But I discovered later that if Gail talks, but only talked a little, she comes off as a very reticent person. There's no middle lane here - you're either all in or all out.

If Gail was a silent protagonist, she still talked symbolically. She is understood to be talking based on how people react to her - kinda like Link. So that's the direction I went with in the end (again). When Gail has occasion to talk, it comes in the form of a player dialogue choice. She also has an inner voice when she needs to remind the player to do something.

Another reason I went with this direction, is for brevity. Take this exchange for instance: QUEST GIVER : Can you help me find this super rare ingredient? GAIL : Maybe. I can't make any promises...

If Gail is silent, I can reduce those 2 lines to 1. QUEST GIVER : Can you help me find this super rare ingredient? GAIL : ...

-------------------------- Business Taxes --------------------------

Not too exciting, but new year means I gotta do taxes for the business. They're a lot more complicated than personal taxes, and more expensive! Since the game hasn't sold anything, you would think there'd be nothing to file. Hah! If only... The business is there so we can act as a legal entity and record expenses for when we do start selling. I really want to focus on making games, but there’s a small percentage of it that is sometimes boring and dreadful (-_-) ... still it needs to be done.

------------- Why no Public Beta Testing? -------------

As you may have noticed, I haven't put out any public calls for testing help despite being at that stage. Some have offered to help, which I appreciate! But sadly, I cannot accept. Here's the story for that.

Two and a half years ago, I got my hands on a console dev kit - that's very exciting, so I hurriedly took the steps to convert my dev station to be console-capable. After about two weeks, I had the console version working and integrated into my workflow, so all appeared good...

4 Months later, an artist needed an updated PC build to test some new art assets, so I went to build a new PC version. We use Unity, so generally you just need to click your desired build target, and hit "build". However, I now discovered that by attaching the console "hooks" into my work environment, I could no longer build to PC... It was possible, from my end, to test the game from the dev station in dev mode, which was why it went undiscovered for so long.

I did try to excise the hooks, but proved unsuccessful after a day of work. I decided to take this as an opportunity to focus exclusively on the console version first, which afforded me some niceties. Knowing that there's a standardized control scheme meant I could make full use of the control stick for the fishing mini-game. I also didn't need to create a rebindable keys menu - which is a MUST for PC versions... Most importantly, it lets me focus on making the one version as good as possible before moving onto the next. I have NO idea how those other guys release on all platforms at once...

Chalk it up to inexperience. In my defense, this will be my first commercial release, so bear with me. Don't worry, I still plan to make the PC version! It's a bit unconventional, but we're just going to go in the reverse direction of the usual. Console first, then PC, then other consoles. Wherever it makes financial sense, there we will be. (Sorry Ouya!)

Back to the original question - that's why I haven't sent out any public calls for playtesting. Current playable builds of the game are locked to my console dev kit. So actual playtesting unfolds in a very closed setting. Like what I did with Will, I literally sit behind the playtester, breathe down their neck, and watch them play, taking notes all the while.

But since I'm observing the player directly, even just one playthrough nets me a TON of bugs and adjustment tasks. So it evens out I think.

-------------------------- Trailers, Release Dates, etc. --------------------------

Alright, get your frowns ready...

We finished two trailers, and they're raring to go. BUT! We can't show them yet... We're sort of at an awkward spot where we're waiting on some conversational threads to conclude. Say we win a slot in a show - that'd be a HUGE plus for us - but that may also be contingent on us having NOT shown anything substantial yet. The game in its unrevealed state is a negotiating chip. So we're trying to leverage that... and you can only do the reveal once...

We also want to have some "actionable" items in the trailer - a launch date you could mark on your calendar, a wishlist, a website you can visit, etc. So since those things aren't entirely lined up yet, we can't let the trailers rip just yet...

Right now, I can only say we're *aiming* for a late Q2/early Q3 launch. But I can't commit to anything concrete yet. As soon as we know, we'll happily sing it from the rooftops. I hope I can update this blog sooner with good news, but if things move slowly again, I'll send out the next "we're alive" update 2 months from now (end of April).

I know it's frustrating to have nothing major after so long still, so I captured some gameplay footage... May it sate your hungers!

-------------------------- Footage 1 : Fishing --------------------------

You've seen pictures of the fishing, but never video of it in action. Well, here it is!

(And right after I uploaded the video, I noticed there actually was a video of fishing before. D’oh)

The idea is simple. First, get the lure in front of a fish, and assuming the fish isn't scared, it will soon bite. Then begins a fight sequence, where your energy meter is pitted against the fish's energy meter. Whoever's energy outlasts the other's wins.

The fish's resistance is represented by a red moving circular subsection. You fight the fish by pushing the control stick and keeping it on the subsection, which will dart around and try to escape you. Bigger and tougher variants of fish will do a "shake" which will reverse the wheel. When the wheel is reversed, so too are the controls, so it gets extra tricky!

While fishing, your energy meter doesn't recover, so one of the ways you level up your fishing ability is by finding energy gems to increase your max energy. There's another way - but we'll keep that a secret.

-------------- Footage 2 : Kobold Boss Fight --------------

You can actually skip the next section if you'd prefer to be surprised and you find your hunger for info sated. That's how I prefer to consume the games that I know I'm going to get. If you're still hungering for info, and you don't mind the slight spoilers, then feel free to proceed!

The next video shows the new Kobold Boss fight. Let's take a moment to reflect on the old game's visuals and how far it's come...

(we've come a long way since the time of the flash game)

You'll notice the Kobold boss has a name now - Katash! He's a significant enough character that he's earned it. The second thing you'll notice is that he looks better!

Some people have humorously pointed out that the old boss looks like Wolf O'Donnel from Star Fox. There's a funny story behind that. Basically I asked an artist to draw me a space wolf. And the artist, whom I'm assuming wasn't familiar with Wolf O'Donnel, drew that - all of it - all the animations and everything. The first time I laid eyes on it, it was already done, so it was too late to ask for edits. So I just ran with it.

That was seven years ago. Nowadays, I know to involve myself more in the process. I ask for just the design first, and we don't move forward with animations until we're happy with the design. Life lessons!

By the way, if you like Katash’s personal boss theme, give it a lesson on Will's Sound cloud (LINK)

-------------------------- Fan Arts -------------------------- Lots of fan art came in over the past 3 months!

This one is a pixel animation made by Pimez, and shows Gail singing a Christmas carol in various parts of the game. So cute! Years ago, I too was making little animated gifs for my favorite games, so it really brings me back!

This one was made by cARTographer (twitter link) after a request by Deli_mage, so thank you both. Gail rocking stylish boots with a pose that shows confidence in her batting skills. Very anime - Love it!

Another submission of laptekosz of the Last Song of Earth area. Whereas the last picture depicted the night sky, now the orange trees are lit by a rising sun. Artfully done! Kinda makes me want to eat eggs. I hope you'll like the new Last Song of Earth area just as much :D

A new artist to the scene, Not_Quin, submitted two pictures, one of Gail and one of the Sand Drake re-imagined as a centipede. I'm always a fan of these re-imaginings! I like how it's spiky all over and appears to be wearing a skull mask. The Sand Drake is often pointed out to be too similar to Zelda's Dodongos, so maybe a long slithery body would have indeed served better. Fun fact, long ago, when we were working on Phoenotopia 2 in earnest, we actually had a giant man-eating worm planned - WIP animation depicted below. One day... one day...

Negativus Core made two cool new arts! I'm really impressed by their use of unique perspective! Having characters run towards the screen or reaching close to the screen from afar is tricky since the proportions get all distorted - but not an issue for Negativus Core! Love the blur on Gail to show speed, with 66 in focus - really skillfully done! And the cube. Amazing!

--------------------------

I'm really honored by the huge fan art community. Thank you all! 

[loadlonestar494]

Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple Ova 12 Release Date

Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple Ova 12 Release Date 2

Kenichi Ova Episode 12

Shun Matsuena's Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi manga already inspired TV anime

This year's 47th issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine is announcing on Wednesday that an original video anime (OVA) project of Shun Matsuena's Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi (History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi) manga has been green-lit. The anime studio Brains Base will produce the project. More details and the release date information will be provided in future issues of Weekly Shonen Sunday.

Hey has anyone heard any news about Kenichi: History's Strongest Disciple ova getting a dub or if there will be anymore, i have done a little looking but found nothing on the matter and really don't know where to look. I just finished 1-50 and it was soooo good and i want more haha, so is there any news on 51+ or the the ova getting a dub. Short Special bundled with the Fourth and Fifth OVA episodes. History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi: Specials Special 12 (0) OVA Special 1. Just announced History's Strongest Disciple OVA 10 coming soon. Shogakukan will ship the limited edition bundle in Japan on May 16. Kenichi the mightiest disciple ova op full - Duration: 3:52. Mar 14, 2012 OVAs of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi bundled with volumes 46, 47, 49, 53, 54, 55, & 56 of the manga. Alternate Titles: 史上最強の弟子 ケンイチ, Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi, 'History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi' Genre: Action, Comedy, Martial Arts, School, Shounen, Sub Type: TV(Fall 2006) Status: Finished Airing Number of Episodes: 50 Episode(s) Views: 1370 Views Date: Oct 7, 2006 to Sep 30, 2007 MyAnimeList Score: 8.16.

The manga already inspired a television anime series that Funimationreleased in North America.

(Via Manga News)

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Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple Ova 12 Release Date 2

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Kenichi Ova Episode 12

Kenichi STORY:ShirahamaKenichi is an average 15-year-old high school student who has earned the nickname 'Weak Legs' fromalways getting bullied. One day he meets a cute girl named Furinji Miuwho helps him build the courage to begin training at a mysterious dojowhere she lives. Here Kenichi faces intense training from masters of manydifferent martial arts styles as he attempts to become stronger. Kenichi eventually becomes a full disciple of Ryōzanpaku, and becomes enamored of Miu. Subsequently, Kenichi's daily routine is divided between training under the six masters of Ryōzanpaku, and his fights against the members of 'Ragnarok', a gang of bullies trying alternately to recruit or to vanquish him. After Ragnarok is disbanded, Kenichi andMiu are targeted by Yomi, a group of disciples personally trained by a master of an organization rivaling Ryōzanpaku, Yami. While the masters of Ryōzanpaku and their allies follow the principle of always sparing their opponents' lives (Katsujin-ken), the members of Yami believe that any means of defeating an opponent is valid, including murder (Satsujin-ken). In the struggle between the two factions, Kenichi, Miu, and their allies fight the members of Yomi, while his mastersconfront the members of Yami.

A pretty snazzy character selection screen, that is.

ABOUT: ShijouSaikyou no Deshi: Kenichi (literally translated asHistory's Strongest DiscipleKenichi) is a 3D fighting game developed and published by Capcom, based on the manga and animeseries of the same name. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple began as a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Syun Matsuena. The first tankōbon was published in August 2002. An anime adaptation made by Tokyo Movie Shinsha aired from October 2006 to September 2007 and had 50 episodes. The Kenichi PS2 fighting game was the first ever videogame based on the Kenichi series, releasing only in Japan in March 2007.

Kenichi features 12 selectable characters, each representing their unique fighting styles seen in the original manga and anime. Modes include Story, Versus, Practice, Score Attack, Time Attack, Survival, Mission, and Gallery. For each character,you can choose two battle styles 'Quiet' and 'Motion'. Quiet focuses ondefense and counter attacks, while 'Motion' focuses on attacks and explodeanger (super combos). During battles there are 3 types of attacks: shockskills (strikes), truth skills and return skills (counter attacks). Shockskills are stronger than Truth skills; Truth skills are stronger than Returnskills; and Return skills are stronger than Shock skills.

https://loadlonestar494.tumblr.com/post/657336202910908416/firefox-os-x-104. Download Old Version of Firefox for Mac for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (PowerPC) Skip Development Versions tead. 13 March, 2012 (9 years ago) 18.77 MB. Mozilla Firefox 3.5.19. 28 April, 2011 (10 years ago) 17.84 MB. Mozilla Firefox. I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11 'Intel,' TenFourFox doesn't help with that. Whenever I load Firefox it tells me to upgrade to 12.0 for security reasons. 12.0 is most definitely not compatible with the version of OS X on my MacBook Pro.

Where have I seen this stage before?

In more ways than one, Kenichi resembles Capcom's well known 3D fighting game series starring high school stereotypes, Rival Schools. From the cel-shaded 3D graphics style of Kenichi to the stylized anime characters, Kenichi is an attractive looking PS2 game for the time. The fighting stays mostly on a 2D plane, but there are somesidestepping techniques as well. The gameplay is comparable to several Capcom fighters, but focuses more on martial arts techniques and less on projectiles. The gameplay isn't nearly as solid or deep as comparable fighting games of 2007, but features plenty of fan service for those familiar with the manga and anime series.

Page Updated:January 29th, 2020Developer(s):Eighting Co.Publisher(s):CapcomPlatform(s): PlayStation 2 Release Date(s): March 2007 Characters: Kenichi, Takeda, Miu, Ukita, Siegfried, Hermit, Nijima, Valkyrie, Thor, Loki, Freiya, Berserker, Odin, 20

Featured Video:

Related Games:Project Justice, Rival Schools, Fate/Unlimited Codes, Hokuto No Ken, The King of Fighters 2006, The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation A, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Fighter 5 R, Battle Fantasia, Sengoku Basara X, Martial Masters, Sunday X Magazine

Gameplay EngineStory / ThemeOverall GraphicsAnimationMusic / Sound EffectsInnovationArt DirectionCustomizationOptions / ExtrasIntro / PresentationReplayability / Fun'Ouch' FactorCharacters

BOTTOM LINE

Final Words:

Kenichi is one of the few fighting games with 'Capcom' written on the box that I haven't played. (Although, the game was developed by Eighting.) Out of many of the 'me too' anime fighting games that spawned in the mid / late 2000's (and after), Kenishi seemed like one of the more interesting ones. The series seems like aperfect fit for a fighting game. From whatI've seen, the animation quality is rather decent. I've only caught a few episodes of the anime, and it's actually not too bad from what I remember. Some of the character designsare a bit stale, in my opinion.. but others are worth checking out. Honestly what I like most about Kenichi is that the characters seem like they could share the same universe as Rival Schools. Anyway, I don't have a modded PS2 in order to play this game.. but ifever get around to it, I'll give this game a proper review. ~TFG Webmaster

.

[junker-town]

3 winners and 2 losers from the NFC and AFC Championship games

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Brady led the Bucs, and the Bills settled for field goals.

So much has changed in the last year, but with all the world turmoil there remains an ever-present constant: Tom Brady will be in the Super Bowl. Sure, he might have missed last year, but 2021 will mark Brady’s 10th appearance in the game since entering the league 20 years ago. That’s mind-bogglingly absurd. Most players wait their entire careers to play in the Super Bowl, some (like Philip Rivers) can have incredible careers with out experiencing the pageantry once. Brady averages an appearance every other year.

This is different, and Brady made it to the Super Bowl in a very different way. Unless you’re blinded to the game, he really didn’t play very well against the Packers. There was a concerted effort to turn this into a story of Brady conquering the No. 1 seed in the NFC, but in the end it was, much like the prior week against New Orleans, a case where the Tampa Bay defense prevailed. It wasn’t so much that Brady got “bailed out,” as much as the defense ensured that Rodgers couldn’t make a concerted comeback.

Davante Adams, the NFL’s best receiver this season, was held to 67 yards and 9 catches. They reduced his average yards per reception from 11.9 yards in the regular season, to 7.4 yards. While that might not sound like a lot, it’s a huge drop off — and even more astounding considering Tampa Bay was without their two starting safeties for the majority of the game. Antoine Winfield was ruled out before kickoff, and Jordan Whitehead left in the first half. This was destined to be a game where Adams ate the secondary alive, but players stepped up, filled gaps and made the difference.

It’s why it’s okay that Brady threw three touchdowns and three interceptions on the day. Which is hilarious when you think about it, because the Buccaneers moved on from Jameis Winston precisely because he threw as many picks and touchdowns last season. No, obviously Brady and Winston aren’t the same player — it’s just humorous.

Tampa Bay was bad last season because they were close in so many games, and Winston let them down. Brady doesn’t need to be the hero this time around, he just needs to be good enough to be part of the team, not the team. It’s probably a role he relishes a little bit, where he can sit back and be a sounding board for younger players who are bound to be intimidated by the moment. That’s what Brady brings to the table at this point in his career, and honestly, before Sunday I didn’t know if it would be enough — but the Buccaneers proved me wrong. They are a complete football team ready to make a run at the Super Bowl, and while that will be tough against the Chiefs, it’s not impossible.

Loser: Everyone on the Packers except Aaron Rodgers.

A week ago I offered effusive praise for the Packers for how much fun they were having on the field. All of that seemed gone on Sunday. Perhaps it was the pressure of playing at home in front of fans for a berth in the Super Bowl, but everything just looked difficult for a team that made everything appear so easy for much of the season.

The end to this story is the same familiar refrain: Aaron Rodgers was let down by his teammates and coaches. There were a few pivotal moments that Rodgers couldn’t do anything about, that either took the momentum away from Green Bay, or never gave him a chance.

Davante Adams drops a pass in the end zone that’s right on target. The Packers settle for a field goal.

Rodgers throws an interception after referees no-call holding on Sean Murphy-Bunting. It ends a drive at the GB 33 yard line, two plays after a 23 yard completion that had the Packers marching.

Aaron Jones fumbles following a reception at the 25 yard line. Tampa Bay get the ball and score a quick touchdown.

Matt LaFleur elects to kick a field goal with 2:09 left on the clock, instead of letting Rodgers attempt to score and tie the game.

That last point is a little up for debate, because either way the Packers would have needed to stop the Buccaneers in order to win, but it’s the pervasive feeling that the game was taken out of the hands of Green Bay’s best player, and it happened multiple times.

Now Rodgers is sounding pensive about his future, and honestly, who can blame him.

Aaron Rodgers: “A lot of guys futures, they’re uncertain, myself included.”

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) January 25, 2021

Loser: The referees in Bucs vs. Packers.

I’m not one to complain about refs. I think it’s an easy cop out to single out a missed call and blame a game for it. However, in this case there’s a lot of warranted criticism. The officials decided early on that they were going to let the Buccaneers and Packers go in the secondary. Both teams were jostling, holding, impeding each other all game long.

It benefitted Tampa Bay, it benefitted Green Bay. There were numerous times each team was helped by the lax attitude of officials towards contact in the secondary. The problem arose on the game’s final drive, in which officials called pass interference on Kevin King for grabbing the jersey of Tyler Johnson.

The call came on a 3rd and 4, the last chance for the Packers to get a stop. Instead of seeing a player win the game, we witnessed it taken away by inconsistency. Again, King definitely committed a penalty — on that there’s no question, but there needs to be some form of accountability when players are led to believe they can get away with stuff in coverage, only to see it altered at a pivotal moment.

It was an unfair way to end the game.

Winner: Gutless-ass football.

Big week for fans of conservative boring football, courtesy of the Packers and Bills. We’ve discussed the Packers’ decision to kick a field goal and how it may have led to their loss, but Buffalo’s decision was even more mystifying.

If you watched Bills vs. Chiefs then you know the game wasn’t nearly as close in the first half as the score showed. The only scoring success Buffalo had was courtesy of a muffed punt, which they recovered for a touchdown. Outside of that there really wasn’t much to write home about.

Sitting at 4th and 1, the Bills elected to kick a 20 yard field goal, rather than try for a touchdown. There were 14 seconds left on the clock, and they still had a timeout in hand. This meant they could run a safe play, pick up a yard, and give Josh Allen a few chances at the end zone. Instead they kicked, taking the game to 21-12. It was going to be a two-score game either way, it was just a cowardly move.

Then, without any sense of urgency, the Bills elected for ANOTHER field goal with 5:50 left in the third quarter, cutting the Chiefs to a 24-15 lead. Yep, another two score lead. I know there’s logic about slowly chipping down the lead, but this format just meant Kansas City needed to keep on par by hitting field goals of their own. In totality the Chiefs were out-driving Buffalo, so a field goal made no sense.

The Chiefs scored on the next drive and ended the game.

Winner: The Chiefs.

There is perhaps nothing more difficult than the weight of expectation, and living up to those expectations is so difficult in the NFL. From the first snap of Week 1 everyone predicted the Chiefs would return to the Super Bowl, but actually doing it is an entirely different story.

Patrick Mahomes was incredible on Sunday, but he’s a known quantity at this point. Where the Chiefs really shined was on defense, where they managed to mitigate all the Bills’ weapons and turn them into a shadow of themselves. The biggest regret in football isn’t losing, it’s not living up to your potential — and nobody on the Bills will be happy with how they were unable to move the ball against the Chiefs.

Kansas City is just so dangerous in so many different ways. Their defensive line is stout, their secondary is athletic, they have offensive weapons for days — and every week they’re so well coached they find new ways to needle opposing teams, finding their weaknesses and opening them wide up.

That’s why in two weeks time we’re going to have one hell of a Super Bowl. It’s going to be so fun to see Mahomes and Co. try to work against a tough Buccaneers defense, while seeing one of the greatest minds in NFL history in Tom Brady try to find gaps in Kansas City’s defense.

It’s going to be a blast.

[familyvisionis2020]

Day 1 - Asheville (2 of 2)

We got to The Mothlight around 6 and loaded in our gear. The sound guy is kind, learns or names, gives more bass mix in the monitor when the singer asks for it. I see our band name on the big movie broadsheet sized monthlong show poster and feel excited. In Asheville we take a walk and make fun of the murals, I tell the band about the Asheville 11 riots and the vegan restaurant that used to hook us up and memories of the anarchist scene that fees antique on my tongue. Kabir passes the rose water spray and so I take off my glasses and spray my face.

There’s a green room beneath the stage floor with a ping pong table and two dozen Battle Star Galactica VHS tapes and two water bottles with pee and an abandoned rocks glass. I beat Kabir in ping pong, Jeremy beats me, I think about the basketball game I quit last month because I habitually got too competitive and hurt or upset someone every week for weeks. I’m still on the group text for that game but I have it muted but I still read the texts.

We go upstairs and I read the first chapter of The Left Hand of Darkness over the course of an hour on a dusty velveteen mustard colored couch. Labor and Jeremy and John socialize and I’m happy to be left with my book, the sunset comes, the bartender arrives with a fuzzy jacket on, turns down the lights, puts on a playlist, takes plastic wrap off of limes. I’m able to get my friend from Carrboro who’s visiting in on the guest list which is nice. I get to share the kit of the headliner which means nicer than usual gear and mic’ed drums too which sounds so solid and big when I kick. I bring my own breakables though: snare, cymbals, sticks.

I find out there’s a few arcade cabinets in the back, make a b-line to the 1989 Atari Tetris cab. It’s not my favorite Tetris iteration but it’s a good one, joystick and two rotate buttons, kind of a soft high score situation because you can feed the machine quarters and prolong a game indefinitely. The longer the game goes the harder it gets though, and I’m rusty so it’s still a challenge. It’s a joy to play. The ecstasy of order, the familiar grid and cascade; the solid thunk of the joy stick isn’t unlike the satisfying fullness of a mic’ed kick drum. With a dollar I put up a casual second place high score and stop short because the opening band, Yeller, is playing. The lead singer is a femme with a merit colored crushed velvet cape, exaggerated mascara that I would call ‘corpse paint lite,’ dainty lace socks, torn fishnets, middle length brown hair that’s pretty but that has split ends. They remind me of how I looked when I dressed femme in Philly in 2015. I miss the way my girlfriend used to treat me when I dressed like that; I don’t miss the way most other people treated me. I miss feeling superior to boys who dress the way I dress now. I think about whether or not I’m much of a feminist as I was since I have conceded the battleground of the aesthetic, since I won’t show up for that fight anymore. I feel a wisp if fear and I am very comfortable. Earlier Jeremy Sharéd his kimchi with me; he said sometimes he just eats a whole jr in a sitting. Their band is hard to describe, it is rock, there is some bass solos. It does not sound like black metal or power pop or glam rock which are the genres my mind assumed the singer’s outfit signaled. The vocals remind me of folk punk, which in my narrow experience tracks with Asheville. Here are people in the front of the crowd bouncing around to the music and they look like they’re having so much fun and I try to let myself dance how they are, I find myself stiff but not too stiff to bounce a little. My body hasn’t done this movement pattern in a long time. In 2010 I would’ve called these people ‘muppets,’ a derisive epithet used primarily to excoriate such people for their putative positivity, lack of dourness, loud outfits and their bubbly interpersonal comportment, something like crunchy twee. Or is it deportment? I’m unbound by rigor typing with my thumbs in the van on the way to Knoxville. It’s nice to write slower and imperfectly.

The opener mentions us before finishing up which fees nice. We set up, slapdash soundchceck, I set up the breakables, change into shorts, fill up a water bottle, settle in to the cage of hardware, make it to the throne only after nearly falling over the cables slopped over the stage like black spaghetti. Big black electric udon, and is it the amps or the guitars who eat the noodles?

Before I know it Kabir has done his intro banter and my body knows it’s time to start the set, and it’s my responsibility as drummer to count off the first song and luckily we practice plenty and so my body knows just what to do and we’re playing and it’s smooth and tight and I let myself loosen up and I head bang and make faces and bounce all around. I know I don’t need to but I think the crowd likes it and I know the band likes it and as long as I don’t get too carried away and forget where we are in the song then it’s a great way to drum as so fun and exhilarating for me. I’m not so nervous like I was last tour. The set is smooth, over before I know it. I pack up quick and try to be courteous by coming back on the stage to ask Kabir if I can help him break down and I carry his combo off stage and get some water. The set was 20 minutes and my shirt is soaked with sweat, it’s a little gross but I feel proud like I have proof I worked hard for my band and the crowd.

I go back to check out the headliner, Yawpers, mostly to be polite and not at all because I am interested in hearing them play. I catch up with my friend from Carrboro before it gets too loud to talk, he tells me about when he was in his early 20s trying to teach his daughter to potty train and not doing a good job because he didn’t understand, anatomically and ergonomically, how exactly girls peeing worked. I like hearing about the story and when the band cuts the conversation short it feels like a mercy because I don’t have to respond or find a way out of the conversation. I wish that I didn’t treat conversations like a trap. I want to not be scheming for a way out of connecting with people. It’s something I can work on improving. I bounce around to the headliner, they sound like Led Zeppelin I guess, no bass at all, cool effects on the vocals modulated by a hdand-operates effectsbpedal mounted on the mic stand. After ~2.5 songs I slip into the back room where he Tetris cab is, pull up a stool, feed the machine 3 quarters and settle in. I push earplugs in and wipe sweat from my palms onto my jeans. I feel really really happy. I love playing Tetris so much. I forbade it for the most part in the last two years, one of dozens of activities I associate with a less stable past, a throwaway activity in a life where nowadays I believe my time is valuable, where I avoid ‘wasting’ time, which is the only way I used to spend my time. It is silly and pointless to play Tetris and I am the best at, here and now. I’m in the zone, my mind feels sharp, the joystick is responsive, I shake off the rust and I am knocking pieces around and finessing rotations in a groove, in the pocket, rhythmic and precise ad drumming, plus with visual proof. I lose track of time! That never happens lately anymore it seems like. Out of the corner of my eye I see Jeremy has trickled in and is spectating from a respectful distance. I love this, I love showing a small audience my curious pointless skill, I play harder and focus and do well. I get out of tight jams with ease. My play is a silk tightrope, or like watching a diligent curling pushbroom operator and the stone slides just exactly right into place. And I do that over and over and when I see my score surpass the high score I point to the score on the screen and later I find out Jeremy captured this on his phone and that makes me feel special and talented and seen.

I finally die but only after I’ve beaten the old high score by 100,000 points, a solid and respectable showing of ~488,000 over 3 credits and about an hour of play. I’ve gotten more than a million points on this same cabinet at the Quarter Horse in Durham but it took more than Han two hours and closer to $5 in quarters if I remember right. I get off the stool and Kabir is losing his mind in that warm exited way he does over my play, tells me I’m incredible, he kept thinking I would die and I kept not dying. This reminds me of how I felt about myself almost exactly two years ago. I feel happy and healthy and hale and held and whole, Kabir gives me dap and somehow Yawpers has not finished yet. There’s a weirdly long spoken word soliloquy from the frontman about his cocaine habit, ex wife, their divorce, some other stuff. Evidently this band had a write up in Pitchfork describing their sound as ‘an expansive vision of Rock.’ Expansive is the watchword as their set tips the scales at about 75 minutes and mercifully ends. I get to introduce my friend from Carrboro to Kabir and watch them connect which is lovely.

We get our cut of door plus extra plus we sold merch so we leave in the black which to me is a shock bc im used to playing show costing money. Our band is good and people really liked it and danced and came up to us after and gave what get to me like sincere earnest praise.

[theothercourse]

Down with Love - Chapter 4

TITLE:  Down With Love CHAPTER NUMBER: Chapter 4 AUTHOR: theothercourse WHICH TOM/CHARACTER: Actor Tom GENRE: Romance/Drama FIC SUMMARY: In the winter of 2011, Tom returns to New York City for the War Horse premiere and visit his Broadway singer ex-girlfriend, hoping to rekindle their flame. Deep in denial, she struggles with his reappearance in her life and his desire to overcome the obstacles that forced them apart more than once since they fell in love almost two years ago. These two ambitious and successful actors fight their families, careers and each other along the course of true love. And in the words of Shakespeare himself, the course of true love never did run smooth. RATING: Mature (NSFW chapter - reunion sex and a ton of angst) AUTHORS NOTES:  Sequel to The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth 

Book Cover - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3

Down with Love

         New York City, December 5, 2011

The Taylor Family Bakery stood in between Wexler’s Stationary Store and Samson’s Photography on Main Street in Cold Spring, New York the last time I laid eyes on the place. The only bakery within a twenty mile radius served a few small towns for residents and weekend visitors a little over an hour by train from New York City. The brick face structure had been built in the 1800s, and looked like it. All the businesses on the block had been retrofitted from something else and now served to fulfill the needs of a community of around 2000 souls, the quintessential everyone knew everybody else’s lives kind of town.

 I attended school with the Wexler twins and the postmaster’s son and the grocery store manager’s daughter. My parents didn’t contribute much to the community or participate beyond the doors of the bakery, only if and when it served the good of the business. They were hands off people, and it translated to them as parents to me. All their efforts served the bottom line, and keeping the money in the black instead of the red. Those were constant phrases I heard as a child, red meant danger, black meant less stress and oppressive tension around the house.

Because my parents were absent from me as a child, I found people and places I fit in, even as a six year old until I found my voice, my love for the stage, and my desire for a round of applause. I didn’t wander far from the backroom of the bakery, where I was put with a coloring book or a toy, anything to entertain a small child without supervision. Instead I ventured out into the neighborhood, Main Street, and found myself in Cold Spring’s only pizzeria, owned and operated by an older Italian woman who traded her disco roller skating rink in New Jersey for tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese in the early ‘80s in Upstate New York.

Everyone called her ‘Mama Raina’ though the licenses for her restaurant had been issued to Julie Caruso. All her stories began with ‘When I cashed out in dirty Jerz…’ It was her catch phrase, and she’d been well settled in as the neighborhood hangout before the bold and bored six year old version of me found the place. I visited every day after school, attracted to the strange but colorful marriage of 70s disco glam and 80s electric pop music atmosphere that exuded from inside. Record album covers littered the walls, collages of top 10 singles decorated the cheap laminated tables, and music blared from a black boom box in the back corner. I learned early on not to touch the underside of the table, all sticky with abandoned pieces of pink and green chewing gum.

When the high school kids survived past the 3pm end of the day bell, the popular set all funneled in and crowded into Mama Raina’s for a slice and a soda, burning two or three hours before flitting off home to their white collar, working class parents for family dinner. Because it was such a small almost-tightknit community, at six years old, I became an honorary teenager, with Mama and the dozen or so teenagers watching after me. They all knew who I was and where I’d come from, and adopted me as little sister between the hours of 3pm to 6pm on weekday afternoons.

One particular afternoon remained burned into my memory. Seated in the back booth, I could still remember the smell of the garlic knots and the well-cooked tomato sauce and the Hawaiian punch from the teenagers’ snacks. As most afternoons went, everyone including Mama sang along with the boom box, cranked to 10, playing whichever popular song of the week. It was the regular activity to blow off steam and create a cohesive sound, singing along with the radio.

Whitney Houston’s Where Do Broken Hearts Go made the cut, and it was the first song that I remembered learning the lyrics to, after so many afternoons in Mama Raina’s sanctuary. The teenagers were so proud when I sang along, and they all shook my hand or ruffled my hair with affection. That was the day I felt included somewhere, with likeminded people, treated like an equal. I mattered.

Twenty years later, as I rested against the Marriott Marquis Hotel’s down pillow, folded in the arms of the man I loved, I mattered. To him. Starring into Tom’s eyes, our bare legs threaded through each other’s, I counted for something. My hands were tucked up under my head as I faced him. The smile upon my face pushed through the hesitancy of spending time with him, and being intimate with him again.

Straight white teeth peeked out from behind the ginger goatee as a matching gleeful expression met mine. “Did I really put a smile on your face?” The raspy bedroom pillow talk continued to be Tom’s strong point.

“You did,” the giddy bubbling inside me made that smile grow, and a truthful confirmation for him.

The afterglow of our lovemaking found us snuggled beneath the sheets with the bedside lamps on, so we could see our reunion glow.

“Where did you go just now?” he asked mimicking my relaxed pose.

“Mama Raina’s. Whitney Houston singing in the background.” In our time together, I rarely talked about my childhood. Not from shame or embarrassment, but simply, for me, my life began when I found theatre and the acceptance that I found within that community.

Tom acknowledged it with a silent nod, sensing that it was ancient history and he didn’t want to tread there unless I led the way. Instead he brushed locks of my hair behind my ear and behind my shoulder, baring my neck. His fingers lingered at my naked shoulder, an internal debate playing behind his eyes: to ask or to listen.

“My composer—the one who wrote Bonnie and Clyde—Frank, he wrote one of her songs, one of her hits. Whitney Houston, I mean. It actually went to number one here. It—I used to sing it as a kid with a bunch of older teenagers that, well… babysat me.” I avoided the topic of family since that was a sensitive subject between Tom and me, something that came between us more than once. “Can you imagine it? I get to sing his score, and I listened to his songs on the radio. Me!” I said with incredulity.

“Why not you?” His British pronunciation ticked my inner ear. If it were possible to fall in love with the sound of one single word, it was Tom’s ‘not.’ The nasally resonance made my heart pitter patter a quickstep. “You’re extraordinarily gifted.”

I giggled airily at his compliment and his subtle approach, closing the shallow gap between us. “Tom, thank you… but what I meant to say—it blows my mind! A composer, that one on the radio back then, wrote a song. For me. I get to perform his songs every night. They pay me to do that. And a room full of people, almost 1000 people, listen to me sing his songs.”

I mattered then as I mattered in the arms of this man. He made me feel that.

“You’ve been with this show… since… April was it?” He flattened his hand to the small of my back, maintaining our positions but eliminating the gap between us. The king-size bed nearly swallowed us up and the bedclothes glued us together.

“I’ve been attached as Bonnie since then- when Daddy Long Legs closed-when I saw you—“

He interrupted me with a kiss on the lips before I could rehash that painful part of our history. When we were apart…

Changing the subject, I explained how the past year had gone though he’d been there for some of it. “1776 was a limited run, and playing Martha was fun, a different pace from Bonnie. Peppy and lively, Martha was, and Bonnie is spirited and loyal. Martha gave me a reprieve from the darkness in Bonnie and Clyde.” I reached out and touched the bristles of his goatee. I was used to scruff on him, the day or two old stubble, but not the full on facial hair that Tom sported.

“I liked you in that one too,” he complimented evenly rolling me over onto my back. The aroused man positioned himself between my legs and propped himself over me. “Are you enjoying that?”

My fingers played and softly yanked at the brush of hair on his face, enchanted by the coarse yet ticklish feel of it.

*

Smirking into another pass of Kristiane’s fingers over my whiskers, I told her plainly, “Henry.”

Her eyes lifted to mine almost in surprise. With a coquettish grin, she reminded, “No, I’m Kristie. Expecting someone else?” Her foot grazed up the back of my leg inching her way to hook around my waist, her body language asking for physical affection. She wanted me again.

The gesture went straight to my groin with a jolt, the knowledge that this woman wanted another go of it excited the masculine and primal part of my being. Blood drained from my brain to my cock fueling my lust for her, but the need to talk with her stayed strong. “Clever that, but I meant the facial hair, the moustache and beard, they’re for Henry.”

Playing coy, she grinned wider, “And I thought it was for me.” She brought my face down to hers and licked the shell of my ear. “I’ve been enjoying the burn.”

Fuuuccckkk.

Maybe this wasn’t the time for talking. In our history, I had to break down her defenses and grant her patience to get her to honestly open up to me. I did want to revel in her, every bit of her, in the physical and philosophical sense. Her feminine and sexual side were a temptation, a best kept secret that she only shared with me, and I was blessed for it.

Brokenly, while laying claim to her neck, working my way down, I breathed, “The BBC—the… Hollow Crown—Henry the fifth…”

Her breath hitched and caught when my lips made contact with her breast, kisses and scrapes left along the path from her cheek southbound. “…Shakespeare,” she moaned, identifying and making the connection to our conversation. Another moan, and her meaning changed, “My Shakspeare.”

I was hers, from that first note I heard her sing at a friend’s birthday party before careers and family and friendships got in the way. The woman brazenly took to the stage with a karaoke microphone in hand and sung a song written for a man and made it her own. As confident as she was performing in front of a room full of people, she’d shown me her inquisitive and sensitive self, her vulnerability and her intelligence. She captured my heart and my imagination within a few short days and enriched my life.

Where I was confident in wanting her for the rest of my life, she needed convincing. I didn’t understand her aversion to marriage, but I was determined to bring her around. We were too good together, and we understood each other’s lives outside us as a couple. I rose above her, assuming a bruising kiss, anxious to change her mind about our future. It wouldn’t become just another night of sex, amazing mind-blowing, life-altering sex. I could get her to see beyond her fears and know that I’d be there to support her if she fell.

I kissed her until we were both out of breath and she smiled again for me. “I shouldn’t like this,” she touched my chin, tugging at the facial hair there, “as much as I do, but it’s sexy. You’re sexy and it’s rough and scratchy, but I want to feel it everywhere.” Kristiane had never been shy or ashamed of her sexual appetite, once we’d been together. Cautious with new positions or locations or experiences, she followed my lead, knowing she could trust me and I’d never abuse that trust. I’d been the first man to go down on her.

Hearing her desire to be devoured in sensation, the grounding and real pleasure-pain of tender worshiping kisses and the chaffing burn of prickly beard, spurned me into action like a race car when the flag drops. Kristiane applied pressure to the gas pedal and I took off with 900 horsepower behind me. Groaning at the strain in my cock, I gruffed, “Details, woman and I’ll do it. Every explicit detail.”

A flame of acceptance lit behind her eyes, a fierce loyalty and willingness to show me her choice. Her arms circled above her head into the folds of the pillows, her right hand holding her left wrist in a tight grip. “Pin me to this bed and make me squirm, make me feel it. Your tongue, your teeth, your lips, your skin, your hair, your scruff, your fingers, your hands, your cock—all of you on me.” Without shame and hesitation, she possessed all the beauty in the world, especially when she asked for sexual gratification.

My knuckles grazed along the inside of her thigh towards her sex and then teased away from her cleft. Like a siren, her heat called to me. “The first solo you sang tonight, what was it?”

The blush of arousal rose from her chest up her neck into her cheeks, her skin luminous with the color of a rose. Her hands splayed over my chest as if to push me away but it turned into a caress, her thumbs playing along the patch of hair in the middle, and her fingertips stroking my nipples. Her mouth opened slightly in invitation, the expression of heightened want. “Touch me.” An urgent plea. A pressing beg.

I licked her lower lip before dipping my tongue within her mouth swiftly, only a brief taste. “Sing for me and I’ll do everything you crave.” My hand slid back up her thigh and swiped a light caress over her center.

“How ‘Bout a Dance?” her tone light, following my question about her song… just barely. The provocative touch stealing her train of thought, focusing on my hand instead of the song she knew in her blood.

“Yes,” I encouraged, ghosting my facial hair across her cheek. “You sang it beautifully.” If the woman wasn’t naked beneath me, I might’ve been a bit more articulate but it took more than enough effort to say that. “Us—” I sunk my teeth into her shoulder, marking her as I had earlier. “I heard us in that song.”

The lyrics spoke to me while I watched her portray Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde, and her voice had been silvery and sweet, crisp and clean.

“How ‘bout a dance? What do you say? I’ve got some moves… that I’d love… to show… you. Let’s find a spot… and dance the night away,” she sang quietly just for me.

The attempt to sing through my enticement on her skin was impressive at first but descended into heavy breathing as I trailed down her body with my tongue from her neck to the crease between her legs. I scraped my goatee along her flesh as she asked me to, behind the moist path.

Her fingers combed into my hair and held me fast against her damp slit. Her thighs clamped against my cheeks, my beard undoubtedly prickling the sensitive flesh pressed around my face. I pushed the flat of my tongue against her, savoring the tang of her wetness.

*

New York City/London, August 22, 2010

“Tom, we haven’t been the same since Paris,” Kristiane’s voice lost some of her pep that I longed to hear. The tension between us, the strain of the distance and the stress of our last two days together ate away at her confidence in our relationship, and it tore me up. The time difference and the difficulty finding a slot for us, just to talk around dying mobile batteries and overheating phones.

She didn’t understand – couldn’t understand what was happening, how could she when I barely understood it myself? I inhaled slowly, taking in the oxygen, letting the fresh evening air fill my lungs. I swirled the last of my drink around the bottom of the glass. This vivacious woman felt even further away than the 3000 plus miles between us, and I loathed each and every emotional mile that separated us.

Solemnly, I replied, “I know.” The truth was I knew it wasn’t entirely her fault, and it certainly wasn’t mine. Neither one of us could’ve anticipated this when we got involved. I think I heard her heart break at the admission when she hissed as if in pain. Because if allowed myself to admit it, she was in pain. This wasn’t what I wanted for her, especially not so close to her birthday. She deserved all the happiness and all the smiles, but I kept the frown on her face.

She was quiet for a long time, looking for something concrete to hold onto while she felt like she was suffocating or drowning. I heard every splinter of her shattered heart when she finally spoke again. “Are we breaking up? Is that what this is?”

Under all the hurt, the feisty girl was fighting for her place in all of this, but I knew that her pain could bury her and leave her as the girl I met a year ago, broken, afraid, searching for a friend. “Kristie, I don’t want that. You know how much you mean to me.” I stood up, unable to sit still any longer, doing nothing but nursing my drink.

“Tom, please… tell me what’s going on. I’m losing you.”

I couldn’t deny it. Part of me disconnected from her and I despised that. I was utterly in love with her, and I wanted her in my life, but a small part of me wondered if we could survive.

“I’m sorry… unreservedly sorry. But I question where—Kristie, us… where we’re going…”

“Tom, you’ve got me as long as you want me. We’re together.”

I didn’t say anything as the issues swirled around my head in a jumbled mess. My feet beat a worn tread in the hotel carpeting from my pace back and forth. The walls seemed to close in on me as my heart seized in my chest. No words came, no denial, no confirmation, no comfort.

Instinctive Kristie picked up on the silence immediately. “We’re together, right?”

Again, I let the question stay there, fester like it had since Paris, since London, since my mother laid into Kristiane. I couldn’t answer for sure. I adored this woman, but she confounded me. Yes, we were dating, as much as two people could, living in two different countries with an ocean between us. But together? I wasn’t so sure.

Panic rose in her voice, “Tom, we’re together, right?”

I paced another lap in my hotel room, seeking sanctuary from the chill air, knowing that the cold came from the inside, not the August evening. “Kristie, I’m not certain…”

“What is happening?” Her vulnerability and apparent agony seared through me. “Why is this happening?” Her tears soaked her voice, the melody broken and disjointed in her torment.

I hated my doubt and I hated myself for putting her through this. “Kristie, my love, I’m having a rough go of it. I- this- I want… that- we’re moving towards something.”

The vision and memory of her crying at the airport taunted me, knowing from the shaky labored breaths she took that I’d put those tears in her eyes again. This sensible, composed woman was a shadow of who she was because of me.

“What are you saying, Tom? We’re working to be together in the same country.”

“To what end?”

“I’m uh- mmm- I don’t understand, Tom. Don’t you want that? Please… what is happening with us?”

I sighed into the phone, her belief in us rocked, the fallout of something in her inhale. “Kristie, I… what you said… to my mum… I don’t think we are.”

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fanfiction #tom hiddleston rpf #tom hiddleston fanfic #down with love #multis #romance #drama #angst #tom and kristiane #the course of true love never did run smooth #sequel #my fiction #kristiane #multi chapter

[stopsubstanceabuse1-blog]

Microsoft 070-465 Exam Collection Real Exam Questions And Answers = Latest Version 070-465 Exam Collection Vce Real Exam Questions And Answers

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Thinking in bets: How to make smarter decisions

I read a lot of books. Nearly every book has some nugget of wisdom I can take from it, but its rare indeed when I read a book and feel like Ive hit the mother lode. In 2018, Ive been fortunate enough to read two books that Ill be mining for years to come. The first was Sapiens, the 2015 brief history of mankind from Yuval Noah Harari. I finished the second book yesterday: Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke. Duke is a professional poker player; Thinking in Bets is her attempt to take lessons from the world of poker and apply them to making smarter decisions in all aspects of life. Thinking in bets starts with recognizing that there are exactly two things that determine how our lives turn out, Duke writes in the books introduction. Those two things? The quality of our decisions and luck. Learning to recognize the difference between the two is what thinking in bets is all about. We have complete control over the quality of our decisions but we have little (or no) control over luck. The Quality of Our Decisions The first (and greatest) variable in how our lives turn out is the quality of our decisions. People have a natural tendency to conflate the quality of a decision with the quality of its outcome. Theyre not the same thing. You can make a smart, rational choice but still get poor results. That doesnt mean you should have made a different choice; it simply means that other factors (such as luck) influenced the results. Driving home drunk, for instance, is a poor decision. Just because you make arrive home without killing yourself or anyone else does not mean you made a good choice. It merely means you got a good result. Duke gives an example from professional football. At the end of Super Bowl XLIX, the Seattle Seahawks were down by four points with 26 seconds left in the game. They had the ball with second down at the New England Patriots one-yard line. While everbody expected them to run the ball, they threw a pass. That pass was intercepted and the Seawhawks lost the game. [embedded content] Armchair quarterbacks around the world complained that this was the worst play-call in NFL history. (Ive linked to just four stories there. Theyre all brutal. You can find many more online.) Duke argues, though, that the call was fine. In fact, she believes it was a smart call. It was a quality decision. There was only a 2% chance that the ball would be intercepted. There was a high percentage chance of winning the game with a touchdown. Most importantly, if the pass was incomplete, the Seahawks would have two more plays to try again. But if the team opted to run instead? Because they only had one time-out remaining, theyd only get one more chance to score if they failed. The call wasnt bad. The result was bad. Theres a big difference between these two things, but humans generally fail to differentiate between actions and results. Duke says that poker players have a term for this logical fallacy: resulting. Resulting is assuming your decision-making is good or bad based on a small set of outcomes. If you play your cards correctly but still lose a hand, youre resulting when you focus on the outcome instead of the quality of your decisions. You cannot control outcomes; you can only control your actions. Note: As long-time readers know, I grew up Mormon. One of the songs we were taught as children has this terrific lyric: Do what is right, let the consequence follow. This has become something of a mantra for me as an adult. If I do the right thing whatever that might be in a given context then I cannot feel guilty if I get a poor result. Its my job to do my best. Beyond that, I cannot control what happens. Luck and Incomplete Information Why dont smart decisions always lead to good results? Because we dont have complete control over our lives and we dont have all of the information. Fundamentally, Duke says, results are influenced by luck. Randomness. Chance. Happenstance. She writes: We are uncomfortable with the idea that luck plays a significant role in our lives. We recognize the existence of luck, but we resist the idea that, despite our best efforts, things might not work out the way we want. It feels better to imagine the world as an orderly place, where randomness does not wreak havoc and things are perfectly predictable. Duke contrasts poker (and life) with chess. Chess is a game of complete information, a game of pure skill. Theres no luck involved. At all times, all of the pieces are available for both players to see. There are no dice rolls, nothing to randomize the game. As a result, the better player almost always wins. (When the better player doesnt win, its because of easily identifiable mistakes.) Because chess is a game of complete information, luck isnt a factor the outcome is only a matter of the quality of your decisions. In poker, however, theres a lot you dont know. What cards do your opponents hold? What cards remain in the deck? How likely are your opponents to bluff? And so on. Experienced poker players learn to think in terms of odds. With this hand, I have a 74% chance of winning. I should fold. These cards only give me a 18% chance of coming out ahead. Its because our decisions are made with incomplete information that life sometimes seems so difficult. You can do the right thing and still get poor results. You can opt not to drink on New Years Eve, for instance, but still get blindsided by somebody who did to drink and drive. You made a quality decision, but happenstance hit you upside the head anyhow. Duke cites a scene from The Princess Bride as an example of how incomplete information affects the outcomes of our decisions. Criminal mastermind Vizzini and the Dread Pirate Roberts engage in a battle of wits: [embedded content] Vizzini pours two goblets of wine, then Roberts (actually our hero, Westley, in disguise) poisons one of them with deadly ioacane powder. The challenge is for Vizzini to choose the non-poisoned goblet. Vizzini cackles with glee when Roberts/Westley downs the poison but then falls dead after drinking his own goblet. It turns out both goblets had been poisoned, but Roberts had spent the previous few years building an immunity to iocane powder. Vizzini made a quality decision based on the information he had, but he didnt have all of the information: both goblets were poisoned, and his opponent in this battle of wits was immune to the poison in the first place! Thinking in Bets Duke argues that in order to make smarter decisions, we have to embrace both the idea that theres a lot of luck in life and the reality that were swimming in uncertainty. Theres a stigma in our culture about appearing ignorant, about being unsure. Duke says that becoming comfortable with uncertainty and not knowing is a vital step to becoming a better decision-maker. Admitting that we dont know has an undeservedly bad reputation, she writes. What makes a decision great is not that it has a great outcome. A great decision is the result of a good process, and that process must include an attempt to accurately represent our own state of knowledge. That state of knowledge, in turn, is some variation of Im not sure. Duke suggests that by moving to a framework of Im not sure, were far less likely to fall into the trap of black and white thinking, of false certainty. She cites Stuart Firesteins TED talk about the pursuit of ignorance: [embedded content] We should be pursuing high-quality ignorance. Based on all of this, how then can we make smarter decisions? Duke says that we should stop thinking in terms of right and wrong. Few things are ever 0% or 100% likely to occur. Few people are ever 0% or 100% right about what they know or believe. Instead, we should think in bets. Decisions are bets on the future, Duke writes, and they arent right or wrong based on whether they turn out well on any particular iteration. An unwanted decision doesnt make our decision wrong if we thought about the alternatives and probabilities in advance and allocated our resources accordingly. Duke says that because pro poker players learn to think in terms of odds during their games, they transfer this way of thinking to everyday life. Job and relocation decisions are bets, she writes. Sales negotiations and contracts are bets. Buying a house is a bet. Ordering the chicken instead of the steak is a bet. Everything is a bet. Just as each poker bet carries a different chance of success (based on the quality of the hand, the hands of the other players, etc.), so too the bets we make in life carry different chances of success. And our personal beliefs have (or should have) varying degrees of certainty. Duke wants readers to begin thinking about their beliefs and decisions in terms of probabilities rather than in terms of black and white. Turns out I already do this to a small degree but usually for minor stuff. In fact, Ive done it several times in the past week. A few days ago, I was listening to a Big Band station on Pandora. The song Green Eyes came on. I wonder what year this is from? I thought. I listened to the vocals, to the band, to the recording quality. I think theres an 80% chance this song is from 1939 give or take two years, I thought. I looked it up. The song was released in 1941. (I listen to a lot of older music, and I play this game often.)Because its been hot in Portland lately, folks in my neighborhood have all been taking early morning walks. We all tend to follow the same two-mile loop because its easy. Ive started playing a game when I pass somebody. Okay, the dog and I passed David Hedges at the llama farm. Where will we encounter him on the top side of the loop? Ill be its between Roys house and the bottom of the hill. Its fun for me to see how accurate my guesses are. Duke believes that we should each do this sort of thing whenever we make a decision. Before we commit to a course of action, we should think about possible outcomes and how likely each of those outcomes is to occur. Lets say youve only got $200 in the bank and its a week from payday. Should you join your friends for that weekend motorcycle trip? Or should you save that cash in case something goes wrong? Or, thinking farther in the future, what outcomes are you seeking in life? What decision will improve the odds of achieving those outcomes? Or, imagine that youre trying to decide whether or not to buy a home. As you consider the possibilities, think about the probability that each possible future will occur. Dont simply cling to the outcome youre hoping for. Be objective. If the odds of success seem reasonable, then pursue your desired course of action. But if they dont, then pull the plug. Duke writes: In most of our decisions, we are not betting against another person. Rather, we are betting against all the future versions of ourselves that we are not choosing. We are constantly deciding among alternative futures: one where we go to the movies, one where we go bowling, one where we stay home. Or futures where we take a job in Des Moines, stay at our current job, or take some time away from work. Whenever we make a choice, we are betting on a potential future. Every choice carries an opportunity cost. When you choose to save for the future, for instance, youre giving up pleasure in the present. Or, if you choose to spend in the present, youre giving up future financial freedom. Final Thoughts

For a long time, Ive argued that the best books about money are often not about money at all. Thinking in Bets is another example of this. While Duke uses plenty of personal finance examples, the book itself is about self-improvement. Its not a money manual. Yet the info here could have a profound impact on your financial future. Theres a lot more in this book that I havent covered in my review. (Ive really only touched on the first third of the material!) For me, the biggest takeaway comes early: Its vital to separate decision quality from results. The rest of the book explores how to improve the quality of your decisions. Among the strategies Duke advocates are these: Learn to examine your own beliefs. Be your own devils advocate. If youre certain about something, explore the opposing viewpoint. (If youre liberal, seek conservative opinions. If youre conservative, look for liberal voices.) Be skeptical of yourself and others.Build a network of trusted advisors, people who can give you feedback on your beliefs and decisions. But dont make these support groups homogeneous. Draw on people from a variety of backgrounds and belief systems. If you only associate with people who think the same way you do, you never give yourself a chance to grow, and youll never spot possible errors in your thinking. (This is like the current problems Facebook is facing with its deliberately-created echo chambers, which only serve to reinforce the way people think instead of challenging them.)When you make decisions, think of the future. Use barriers and pre-commitment to do the right thing automatically. Practice backcasting, a visualization method in which you define a desired outcome then figure out how you might get there. The book is dense dense! with ideas and information. When I finished it, I wanted to go back and read it again. Plus, I wanted to plow through the nearly 200 other works that Duke lists in her bibliography. I feel like I could spend an entire year diving deeper into this book and its related reading. But, as much as I wish it were, Thinking in Bets isnt perfect. A strong argument could be made that this material would work better as a TED talk or a 5000-word essay in The Atlantic (or on Get Rich Slowly!). The book is so packed with info that it sometimes loses its way. Theres also a lot of repetition too much repetition. Plus, it seems to lack a clear sense of organization. These quibbles aside, Thinking in Bets has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf. If I ever get around to putting together a Get Rich Slowly library (a project Ive been planning for years!), this book will be in it. I got a lot out of it. And I bet you will too. https://www.getrichslowly.org/smarter-decisions/

[lindyhunt]

11 Virtual Reality Apps That You Won’t Be Able to Put Down

A few weeks ago, I experienced virtual reality for the first time. One of my colleagues brought her Oculus into the office and let our whole team try it out. I picked the VR mini golf experience, which I wasn’t initially excited for -- I’ve never really liked mini golf. But when I slid on the Oculus, I was pleasantly surprised.

Entering the realm of VR mini golf was refreshing. Instead of playing on a grimy, green mat in a dingy amusement park, I was enjoying a round of putt-putt on a clean, sleek golf course floating in the clouds.

Even though the environment and obstacles on the VR golf course were obviously not realistic, I still felt like I was there. After my first putt, I tried walking toward the ball. I ended up slamming into a pillar in the office. When I dangled my foot over the platform, I freaked out. I thought I was going to fall for a split second.

After too many double bogeys in a row, I slid off the Oculus and returned to reality. I felt like I was just transported to a different world. I couldn’t believe how well VR played to my senses and tricked my brain into thinking I was on a mini golf course in the sky, even though I knew I was in an office.

The experience made me want to try to it again. Heck, I even thought about buying an Oculus.

But before you drop $400 on a VR headset like I almost did, you should know you can have nearly as much fun playing VR mini golf as you can interacting with VR apps that you can download on your iPhone or Android.

Below, we’ll list 11 of them, most of which are free and work with affordable headsets like Google Cardboard.

11 Virtual Reality Apps That You Won't Be Able to Put Down

VirtualSpeech

Jaunt VR

NYT VR

Orbulus

Discovery VR

Google Arts & Culture

Inside Abbey Road

InCell VR

Minos Starfighter

Romans from Mars 360

VR Street Jump

1. VirtualSpeech

Practicing a speech without an audience can be helpful, but the experience doesn’t emulate the pressure of an evaluating crowd. You can nail a dry run ten times in a row on your own, but when you actually step on stage and see your audience, the nerves can debilitate your abilities.

Fortunately, VirtualSpeech can help you hone your public speaking skills -- the app places you on a virtual stage with a virtual crowd, where you can practice your speech or presentation in front of an audience that imitates the mannerisms and sounds of real people. Their movements and sounds are fully customizable, so you can ramp up the distractions and virtual judgement as much as possible. And at the end of your virtual speeches, the app will analyze and score your verbal and nonverbal communication.

You can also add your own slides into your virtual presentation, practice for job interviews, learn how to network, and sell in a wide range of sales situations.

So far, people mostly use virtual reality to entertain themselves. But VirtualSpeech stands out as one of the first VR apps that can actually train you to become a better professional.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

2. Jaunt VR

Jaunt VR wants to make immersive storytelling the future of entertainment. The app offers hundreds of 360-degree films, shows, documentaries, tours and concerts, all in virtual reality.

When you put your headset on, you’ll transport to a virtual room where you can choose from a massive collection of immersive experiences, segmented by 20 different channels. At the touch of a button, you can tour the awe-inspiring Redwood National Park, go through the San Francisco Giants pre-game routine and take the field with them during opening day, or sit back and enjoy Emmy winning documentaries.

Jaunt’s content is already engaging on its own, but in virtual reality, you’ll actually feel like you’re experiencing the events they’ve documented.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

3. NYT VR

For years, journalists have written articles and created videos about events that most of the world could never experience on their own. Their job is to be a surrogate for the general public. And in 2015, the New York Times wanted to truly take on that role by making journalism more immersive.

They started experimenting with virtual reality as a news format, and since then, they’ve created over 300 VR news reports. The NYT VR app tells some of the publication’s most captivating stories -- virtual reality has a knack for evoking empathy and interest in audiences. By placing the public into a life they might never experience but definitely need to see for themselves, like the lives of three refugee children from Ukraine, Sudan, and Syria, audiences will be more willing to help people who are truly in need

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

4. Orbulus

Teleporting to a destination at the press of a button is probably a long way from becoming a reality, but, in virtual reality, it’s, well, a reality. If you want to visit a location before you pay for an expensive vacation, or if you just want to see more of the world but don’t have the funds, check out Orbulus. You can experience the sights and sounds of various cityscapes and landscapes -- ranging from Paris at night to the northern lights in Scotland.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

5. Discovery VR

Have you ever wanted to swim with sharks? Or play with pandas? Well with the Discovery VR app, you still can’t really do those things ... but you can get pretty close. When you put on your headset, the app immerses you in the habitat of different animals, landscapes, and cityscapes. This is the most fun you’ll have learning about science since watching Bill Nye the Science Guy in middle school.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

6. Google Arts & Culture

Google Arts & Culture partnered with more than 1,200 international museums, galleries, and institutions from 70 countries to create the most accessible and immersive art and history experience in the world. By offering guided virtual tours of the world’s most famous museums and curated exhibits, you can learn about the artwork, artifacts, and stories that have molded the many unique cultures of our world.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

7. Inside Abbey Road

Legendary artists -- like The Beatles, Queen, and Oasis, among many others -- have all recorded their best hits at Abbey Road, and the music created in the famous studio will continue to impact our culture for many years to come.

Google and Abbey Road decided to create Inside Abbey Road to guide the public through a virtual tour of the studio, allowing you to explore the origin place of some of the most popular songs in the world.

The tour starts with a nine-part series of the studio’s history from the 1930s until now. After that, you can explore different recording rooms that famous musicians have used, and even enter a mixing studio to try your hand at producing music.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

8. InCell VR

Most of us probably vowed to never touch a book about the human cell after suffering through high school biology class. But would you be willing to learn about it again if you could shrink down to microscopic size and explore an actual cell? Better yet, would you do it if you could race a virus in it?

InCell VR let’s you do just that. When you play the game, you’ll speed through a human cell with a robot assistant who helps you protect it from malicious viruses.

InCell VR is a traditional racing game and an educational lesson blended into one experience. You have to gain points and dodge obstacles to save the cell before the virus can destroy it, and you’ll learn little tidbits about biology along the way.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

9. Minos Starfighter

Minos Starfighter is like the modern, first-person version of the arcade game Galactica. By just tilting your head, you can maneuver a spaceship and blast your enemies in space battles, leveling up to face more challenging enemies as you destroy each wave. The game has never-ending play, so you can upgrade your ship and weapons to fend off your enemies as they become stronger.

Available on: IOS and Android for $0.99

10. Romans from Mars 360

Playing Romans from Mars 360 might be the perfect training session for combating an alien invasion. Endless waves of martians bent on world domination are attacking your castle, and since you’re a roman soldier, you can only defend your castle with a crossbow. As you earn more points, you can upgrade your crossbow to shoot flaming arrows and summon earth’s elements like fire, earth, ice, and lightning to squash your enemies.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

11. VR Street Jump

Remember Frogger? Well, VR Street Jump is the modern, first-person version of the classic game that almost feels too realistic -- you’ll think you’re actually dodging traffic. Remember to look both ways, though. Or else a car might just send you soaring across the road.

Available on: IOS and Android for Free

[minnievirizarry]

12 Ways to Boost Brand Awareness on Social Media

Social media doesn’t feel very “social” when you’re just another face in the crowd, does it?

And then we look at the likes of GoPro, Wendy’s or Starbucks with their rabid followers and wonder how we can replicate just a fraction of their performance.

The reality, though? If you’re struggling to stand out as a brand, you’re definitely not alone.

No, seriously.

Based on data from Sprout’s 2018 Social Index, brand awareness represents social marketers’ top priority right now.

But given how competitive the modern social landscape has become, perhaps this isn’t much of a surprise.

With more and more people taking to social media to research and sound off on brands, getting your target audience’s attention is easier said than done.

So what does an effective brand awareness strategy look like, anyway? How do you become a familiar face within your followers’ feeds versus someone they just scroll past?

We’ve highlighted twelve strategies businesses of all sizes can take to boost their brand awareness. From fine-tuning your profile to experimenting with your content, any combination of these tips are fair game.

And with that, let’s dive right in!

1. Give Your Social Presence Some Personality

First thing’s first: your social media presence shouldn’t look like everyone else’s.

And while this may seem obvious, many brands fall into the trap of becoming robotic.

They play it totally safe. They post a picture or link, tack on a few hashtags and call it a day.

Here’s the deal, though: that’s not how you stand out. Not by a long shot.

Moonpie is a shining example of a seemingly “boring” brand that’s exploded in popularity because of their distinct voice and sense of humor.

Tips for a safe and fun Fourth of July   1. Do not eat any fireworks 2. Eat a MoonPie – the American Classic! 3. Respect the heck out of some bald eagles 4. You may also eat hamburgers and a hotdog

— MoonPie (@MoonPie) July 4, 2018

Sure, it’d be easy for them to post generic promos. However, it’s their off-the-wall personality that’s made them so endearing to followers.

And “personal” is the keyword here. Followers want to see more than promos and links: they want personal, human-centric content. That’s why selfies and story-driven posts typically perform so well.

On this Rio history walk, your host Thais will share the long past of the Afro-Brazilians. She's spent years learning about traditional communities like Quilombos. Get ready for an eye-opening experience, photo opportunities at historical sites like the Pedra do Sal and a new dear friend in Thais. For more #AirbnbExperiences created by locals like Thais, click the link in our bio.

A post shared by Airbnb (@airbnb) on Jul 7, 2018 at 9:05am PDT

Instagram pages like that of Humans of New York post almost exclusively story-based content. They’ve amassed nearly 8 million followers solely through tugging at the heartstrings of their fans.

“A couple weeks ago we were coming home from visiting my brother in Long Island and we stopped at a burger place off the highway. He had a Junior Whopper. I had a Whopper. We split the fries. And while we were eating, he said: ‘You know what Daddy? You’re a really great Daddy. I love you Daddy.’ And that got me. I almost choked on my burger. Because it wasn’t bedtime. He wasn’t leaving for school. It was just off the cuff.”

A post shared by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Jun 17, 2018 at 7:46am PDT

Marketers are told time and time again to create “unique” content. It might sound corny, but the person behind your social presence represents a one-of-a-kind voice.

Before you hit “post,” make a point to ask yourself: “Does this sound like something a bot would say?”

2. Fine-Tune Your Profiles

Recognition is a key element of building brand awareness.

When followers glance at your social profiles, they should be able to understand what you’re all about. Likewise, they should recognize that you are, well, you.

From social bios to profile images, how you set up your profile determines whether or not people recognize you. Check out how ThinkGeek has a clean logo and nerdy Facebook cover photo to match…

  …while boasting the same logo and branded bio copy on Pinterest.

Spoiler alert: people’s attention spans are microscopic. You only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention and say “Hey, this is who I am.” A clean, well-optimized profile and photo is key to spelling out your brand to someone who might not know you.

3. Make Your Posts Pop

Here’s a common thread between most of our brand awareness tips: a bit of creativity can score you major brownie points with followers.

For example, check out how oVertone makes bold use of color throughout both their Instagram bio and content.

This sort of content does double-duty of highlighting their brands’ voice and making scrollers stop in their Instagram feeds to drop a “like.”

casual. @deathcats in #overtoneextremeyellow

A post shared by oVertone (@overtonecolor) on Jul 1, 2018 at 8:00pm PDT

Not taking eye-popping images featuring your products? No problem. The principle of making your posts pop rings true in content marketing, too.

Notice how Sprout’s blog posts are all coupled with these colorful illustrations instead of generic stock photos?

Pinterest’s users are far-reaching and high spenders. Did you know: 55% of users use the network to shop? Keep this in mind as you plan your next marketing campaign! https://t.co/dW2eAP1YhT

— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) July 10, 2018

Or how brands like Hubspot couple their Twitter chats with image macros instead of just using text?

Question 4: Do you think in quantity or quality? #HubThoughts pic.twitter.com/a7hPODqB6c

— HubSpot (@HubSpot) July 10, 2018

Anything you can do aesthetically to make your posts stand out is a point in your favor. Even if you’re not a design master, there are plenty of image creation tools to help you whip up some eye-catching imagery.

4. Tag Others to Get Them Talking

Tagging (@ mentioning) is a brilliant brand awareness strategy because it only takes about half a second and instantly amplifies your content.

Think about it. Anyone you tag via Twitter or Instagram instantly receives a notification, meaning you win an extra opportunity for engagement. Not only that, but it’s a surefire way to make positive impressions on others players in your industry.

If you have an opportunity to give someone a shoutout, go for it.

So many metrics, so little time. In this nifty list, I broke down some pretty sweet #social monitoring tools including @simplymeasured @BuzzSumo and @Brandwatch (and of course, @SproutSocial !): https://t.co/Z6bC3L4ULC #smm

— Brent Barnhart (@brentwrites) March 5, 2018

5. Harness the Power of Hashtags

In our guide to how to use hashtags, we note that social posts with hashtags receive more engagement than those without them.

While each network has its own best practices, hashtags don’t have to be rocket science. Hashtags instantly make your posts searchable and smaller, niche tags help introduce your brand to dedicated communities of potential fans.

Awesome Dr Strange project by #Repost @billybolt ・・・ Some people asked if I was going to make the green time spell from Doctor Strange. I already made those haha . . . . . #cosplay #cosplayer #drstrange #marvel #craft #marvelcomics #drstrange #mcu #magic #comiccon #green #spell #dnd #anime #fullmetalalchemist #fma #manga #otaku #drfate #zatanna #dc #dccomics #batman #cosplayprop #lit

A post shared by SparkFun Electronics (@sparkfun) on Jun 16, 2018 at 5:25pm PDT

Also, consider how creating your own hashtag is a smart move from a brand awareness perspective. Smaller, local brands can use their own branded hashtag like bigger brands: it’s all about reinforcing your identity and encouraging others to engage with you.

This is our Elvis doughnut but a filled version. Chocolate Bavarian Cream filling, with banana icing, chopped peanuts and banana chips 🙂 We also have: Fruity Pebz Cotton Candy Caramel choc chip Strawberry Lemonade Passion Fruit Strawberry Blueberry Sprankle Glazed Churro UFO Apple Fritter Don't forget to tag us in your photos! #valkyriedoughnuts #dairyfree #eggfree #notglutenfree #tonsofgluten #orlandogoods

A post shared by ValkyrieDoughnuts (@valkyriedoughnuts) on Jul 5, 2018 at 4:07am PDT

6. Creative Commenting

Not unlike tagging, people receive notifications in real-time for social comments.

Let’s be honest: most social comments aren’t exactly compelling. This spells good news for brands who are willing to put a bit more thought into comments beyond “Nice! or “Cool!”

Posting creative or thoughtful comments is a great way to break through such noise. It’s also another opportunity to show off your brand’s personality to potential followers.

7. Repurpose Your Content

If you’re like most marketers, you’re probably trying to boost brand awareness across multiple networks, right?

In that case, it’s important to repurpose your content to fit in with the best practices of each platform. After all, what works best on Instagram might not be prime for Facebook or Twitter.

For example, let’s say you publish a killer case study. Rather than post a mere link, taking the time to package it into an infographic is a surefire way to score shares and links alike.

Where are the world's self-employed based? https://t.co/tuJN9xzLUt pic.twitter.com/tPmwOGA3LR

— Forbes Asia (@ForbesAsia) July 10, 2018

As such, one-size-fits-all content and captions aren’t going to win your brand much attention.

Photos. Videos. Blogs. Your stuff. Other people’s stuff.

To keep your feed from growing stale, you should always have new social media ideas on the backburner to keep your feed fresh.

8. Break Your Own News

According to Buzzsumo’s current state of content, the best performing pieces on social media are those that people can reference.

Stats. Case studies. Surveys.

If your brand is conducting any sort of original research, it can be a huge authority booster that does wonders for brand awareness, too.

THE 2018 SPROUT SOCIAL INDEX IS HERE! See it for yourself and find out why @SproutDarryl is doing the data dance. https://t.co/qW8ODNDAPc

P.S. If you're as excited as we are, send us a video of your own data dance! #SproutData pic.twitter.com/GrvkHMCeRD

— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) June 5, 2018

And if you’re not in a position where such research is possible, don’t panic.

Consider how you can comment on industry trends and happenings from your point-of-view. The takeaway here is that you should be contributing to the ongoing conversation of your industry at large versus just sitting on the sidelines.

9. Experiment with Your Captions

Social captions are yet another opportunity to let your brand’s voice be heard.

Again, no big brand or influencer simply drops a link without some sort of commentary. Captions can pique people’s interest and encourage engagement, giving a sort of taste to readers before they click through.

Seattle, we have a serious, insidious problem. https://t.co/oAmOJJGOxN

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) July 4, 2018

As evidenced by the wealth of creative Instagram hashtags and captions out there, creativity counts. Whether through emojis or cracking jokes, captions are prime real estate for connecting with followers and letting them know exactly who you are.

Waffle cones are scientifically proven to taste better when eaten with friends.* 👯‍♀️🍦 *we don’t actually have any data to support this claim but trust us.

A post shared by Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) on Jun 29, 2018 at 12:20pm PDT

10. Use Social as a Tool for Teaching

In the marketing world, the brands that tend to stand out are the ones that strive to teach their audiences.

Educational and “how-to” content is widely sought after on just about every social network. Posting such content regularly positions you both as a positive resource and a thought leader.

I've always been a side projects person because it helps me avoid burnout. Do you have a side gig that helps keep you creative? https://t.co/X1nG9RHe96

— Kaleigh Moore (@kaleighf) May 30, 2018

This principle applies to non-marketers, too. The more opportunities to show off your brand’s product or know-how, the better. Just think about how popular tutorials are on Pinterest to see the power of educational content in action.

11. Don’t Be Afraid of Being Opinionated

According to our own data, people want brands to take a stand.

Parroting what everyone is saying might be “safe,” but doesn’t do much in terms of brand awareness. The previously noted Buzzsumo study also highlights that “political and tribal” content performs particularly well these days.

That’s not to say you should go out and alienate your audience, but you should stand by your brands’ principles and beliefs. Wearing them on your sleeve can get people talking and serve as a way to stand out against your competitors.

You almost surely haven’t budgeted time, energy, or dollars for “whatever it takes”. That’s also code for “at all costs,” and when you stop discussing costs, you know they’re going to spiral. #ItDoesntHaveToBeCrazyAtWork

— Jason Fried (@jasonfried) June 25, 2018

Of course, the key here is to tread lightly. The name of the game is being bold for the sake of your brand, not stirring the pot just because you can.

12. Show Up Consistently

Finally, consider that nobody can truly be aware of your brand if you don’t post consistently.

Based on Sprout’s own data on the best times to post on social media, brands are expected to push content out multiple times per day across multiple networks.

And if your brand isn’t, there’s a non-zero chance that someone else in your space is.

To help you save time and to make the process of showing up easier, having a scheduling tool such as a Sprout on deck can be game-changer.

The more ground you and your brand can cover, the better. It all comes down to having a specific strategy which makes the most out of the time you spend on social media.

And with that, we conclude our list!

What Does Your Brand Awareness Strategy Look Like?

Building buzz around your brand might take a bit of experimenting, but having a dedicated awareness strategy remains the number one concern of businesses today.

And by following the principles outlined above, you poise yourself toward becoming a brand that sticks out in the minds of your audience.

We want to hear from you, though. What makes a brand stand out to you on social media? If you’ve been struggling to figure out how to increase brand awareness, what’s been tripping you up? Let us know in the comments below!

This post 12 Ways to Boost Brand Awareness on Social Media originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://sproutsocial.com/insights/brand-awareness/

[jessette20]

Brand Awareness

Social media doesn’t feel very “social” when you’re just another face in the crowd, does it?

And then we look at the likes of GoPro, Wendy’s or Starbucks with their rabid followers and wonder how we can replicate just a fraction of their performance.

The reality, though? If you’re struggling to stand out as a brand, you’re definitely not alone.

No, seriously.

Based on data from Sprout’s 2018 Social Index, brand awareness represents social marketers’ top priority right now.

But given how competitive the modern social landscape has become, perhaps this isn’t much of a surprise.

With more and more people taking to social media to research and sound off on brands, getting your target audience’s attention is easier said than done.

So what does an effective brand awareness strategy look like, anyway? How do you become a familiar face within your followers’ feeds versus someone they just scroll past?

We’ve highlighted twelve strategies businesses of all sizes can take to boost their brand awareness. From fine-tuning your profile to experimenting with your content, any combination of these tips are fair game.

And with that, let’s dive right in!

1. Give Your Social Presence Some Personality

First thing’s first: your social media presence shouldn’t look like everyone else’s.

And while this may seem obvious, many brands fall into the trap of becoming robotic.

They play it totally safe. They post a picture or link, tack on a few hashtags and call it a day.

Here’s the deal, though: that’s not how you stand out. Not by a long shot.

Moonpie is a shining example of a seemingly “boring” brand that’s exploded in popularity because of their distinct voice and sense of humor.

Tips for a safe and fun Fourth of July   1. Do not eat any fireworks 2. Eat a MoonPie – the American Classic! 3. Respect the heck out of some bald eagles 4. You may also eat hamburgers and a hotdog

— MoonPie (@MoonPie) July 4, 2018

Sure, it’d be easy for them to post generic promos. However, it’s their off-the-wall personality that’s made them so endearing to followers.

And “personal” is the keyword here. Followers want to see more than promos and links: they want personal, human-centric content. That’s why selfies and story-driven posts typically perform so well.

On this Rio history walk, your host Thais will share the long past of the Afro-Brazilians. She's spent years learning about traditional communities like Quilombos. Get ready for an eye-opening experience, photo opportunities at historical sites like the Pedra do Sal and a new dear friend in Thais. For more #AirbnbExperiences created by locals like Thais, click the link in our bio.

A post shared by Airbnb (@airbnb) on Jul 7, 2018 at 9:05am PDT

Instagram pages like that of Humans of New York post almost exclusively story-based content. They’ve amassed nearly 8 million followers solely through tugging at the heartstrings of their fans.

“A couple weeks ago we were coming home from visiting my brother in Long Island and we stopped at a burger place off the highway. He had a Junior Whopper. I had a Whopper. We split the fries. And while we were eating, he said: ‘You know what Daddy? You’re a really great Daddy. I love you Daddy.’ And that got me. I almost choked on my burger. Because it wasn’t bedtime. He wasn’t leaving for school. It was just off the cuff.”

A post shared by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Jun 17, 2018 at 7:46am PDT

Marketers are told time and time again to create “unique” content. It might sound corny, but the person behind your social presence represents a one-of-a-kind voice.

Before you hit “post,” make a point to ask yourself: “Does this sound like something a bot would say?”

2. Fine-Tune Your Profiles

Recognition is a key element of building brand awareness.

When followers glance at your social profiles, they should be able to understand what you’re all about. Likewise, they should recognize that you are, well, you.

From social bios to profile images, how you set up your profile determines whether or not people recognize you. Check out how ThinkGeek has a clean logo and nerdy Facebook cover photo to match…

  …while boasting the same logo and branded bio copy on Pinterest.

Spoiler alert: people’s attention spans are microscopic. You only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention and say “Hey, this is who I am.” A clean, well-optimized profile and photo is key to spelling out your brand to someone who might not know you.

3. Make Your Posts Pop

Here’s a common thread between most of our brand awareness tips: a bit of creativity can score you major brownie points with followers.

For example, check out how oVertone makes bold use of color throughout both their Instagram bio and content.

This sort of content does double-duty of highlighting their brands’ voice and making scrollers stop in their Instagram feeds to drop a “like.”

casual. @deathcats in #overtoneextremeyellow

A post shared by oVertone (@overtonecolor) on Jul 1, 2018 at 8:00pm PDT

Not taking eye-popping images featuring your products? No problem. The principle of making your posts pop rings true in content marketing, too.

Notice how Sprout’s blog posts are all coupled with these colorful illustrations instead of generic stock photos?

Pinterest’s users are far-reaching and high spenders. Did you know: 55% of users use the network to shop? Keep this in mind as you plan your next marketing campaign! https://t.co/dW2eAP1YhT

— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) July 10, 2018

Or how brands like Hubspot couple their Twitter chats with image macros instead of just using text?

Question 4: Do you think in quantity or quality? #HubThoughts pic.twitter.com/a7hPODqB6c

— HubSpot (@HubSpot) July 10, 2018

Anything you can do aesthetically to make your posts stand out is a point in your favor. Even if you’re not a design master, there are plenty of image creation tools to help you whip up some eye-catching imagery.

4. Tag Others to Get Them Talking

Tagging (@ mentioning) is a brilliant brand awareness strategy because it only takes about half a second and instantly amplifies your content.

Think about it. Anyone you tag via Twitter or Instagram instantly receives a notification, meaning you win an extra opportunity for engagement. Not only that, but it’s a surefire way to make positive impressions on others players in your industry.

If you have an opportunity to give someone a shoutout, go for it.

So many metrics, so little time. In this nifty list, I broke down some pretty sweet #social monitoring tools including @simplymeasured @BuzzSumo and @Brandwatch (and of course, @SproutSocial !): https://t.co/Z6bC3L4ULC #smm

— Brent Barnhart (@brentwrites) March 5, 2018

5. Harness the Power of Hashtags

In our guide to how to use hashtags, we note that social posts with hashtags receive more engagement than those without them.

While each network has its own best practices, hashtags don’t have to be rocket science. Hashtags instantly make your posts searchable and smaller, niche tags help introduce your brand to dedicated communities of potential fans.

Awesome Dr Strange project by #Repost @billybolt ・・・ Some people asked if I was going to make the green time spell from Doctor Strange. I already made those haha . . . . . #cosplay #cosplayer #drstrange #marvel #craft #marvelcomics #drstrange #mcu #magic #comiccon #green #spell #dnd #anime #fullmetalalchemist #fma #manga #otaku #drfate #zatanna #dc #dccomics #batman #cosplayprop #lit

A post shared by SparkFun Electronics (@sparkfun) on Jun 16, 2018 at 5:25pm PDT

Also, consider how creating your own hashtag is a smart move from a brand awareness perspective. Smaller, local brands can use their own branded hashtag like bigger brands: it’s all about reinforcing your identity and encouraging others to engage with you.

This is our Elvis doughnut but a filled version. Chocolate Bavarian Cream filling, with banana icing, chopped peanuts and banana chips 🙂 We also have: Fruity Pebz Cotton Candy Caramel choc chip Strawberry Lemonade Passion Fruit Strawberry Blueberry Sprankle Glazed Churro UFO Apple Fritter Don't forget to tag us in your photos! #valkyriedoughnuts #dairyfree #eggfree #notglutenfree #tonsofgluten #orlandogoods

A post shared by ValkyrieDoughnuts (@valkyriedoughnuts) on Jul 5, 2018 at 4:07am PDT

6. Creative Commenting

Not unlike tagging, people receive notifications in real-time for social comments.

Let’s be honest: most social comments aren’t exactly compelling. This spells good news for brands who are willing to put a bit more thought into comments beyond “Nice! or “Cool!”

Posting creative or thoughtful comments is a great way to break through such noise. It’s also another opportunity to show off your brand’s personality to potential followers.

7. Repurpose Your Content

If you’re like most marketers, you’re probably trying to boost brand awareness across multiple networks, right?

In that case, it’s important to repurpose your content to fit in with the best practices of each platform. After all, what works best on Instagram might not be prime for Facebook or Twitter.

For example, let’s say you publish a killer case study. Rather than post a mere link, taking the time to package it into an infographic is a surefire way to score shares and links alike.

Where are the world's self-employed based? https://t.co/tuJN9xzLUt pic.twitter.com/tPmwOGA3LR

— Forbes Asia (@ForbesAsia) July 10, 2018

As such, one-size-fits-all content and captions aren’t going to win your brand much attention.

Photos. Videos. Blogs. Your stuff. Other people’s stuff.

To keep your feed from growing stale, you should always have new social media ideas on the backburner to keep your feed fresh.

8. Break Your Own News

According to Buzzsumo’s current state of content, the best performing pieces on social media are those that people can reference.

Stats. Case studies. Surveys.

If your brand is conducting any sort of original research, it can be a huge authority booster that does wonders for brand awareness, too.

THE 2018 SPROUT SOCIAL INDEX IS HERE! See it for yourself and find out why @SproutDarryl is doing the data dance. https://t.co/qW8ODNDAPc

P.S. If you're as excited as we are, send us a video of your own data dance! #SproutData pic.twitter.com/GrvkHMCeRD

— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) June 5, 2018

And if you’re not in a position where such research is possible, don’t panic.

Consider how you can comment on industry trends and happenings from your point-of-view. The takeaway here is that you should be contributing to the ongoing conversation of your industry at large versus just sitting on the sidelines.

9. Experiment with Your Captions

Social captions are yet another opportunity to let your brand’s voice be heard.

Again, no big brand or influencer simply drops a link without some sort of commentary. Captions can pique people’s interest and encourage engagement, giving a sort of taste to readers before they click through.

Seattle, we have a serious, insidious problem. https://t.co/oAmOJJGOxN

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) July 4, 2018

As evidenced by the wealth of creative Instagram hashtags and captions out there, creativity counts. Whether through emojis or cracking jokes, captions are prime real estate for connecting with followers and letting them know exactly who you are.

Waffle cones are scientifically proven to taste better when eaten with friends.* 👯‍♀️🍦 *we don’t actually have any data to support this claim but trust us.

A post shared by Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) on Jun 29, 2018 at 12:20pm PDT

10. Use Social as a Tool for Teaching

In the marketing world, the brands that tend to stand out are the ones that strive to teach their audiences.

Educational and “how-to” content is widely sought after on just about every social network. Posting such content regularly positions you both as a positive resource and a thought leader.

I've always been a side projects person because it helps me avoid burnout. Do you have a side gig that helps keep you creative? https://t.co/X1nG9RHe96

— Kaleigh Moore (@kaleighf) May 30, 2018

This principle applies to non-marketers, too. The more opportunities to show off your brand’s product or know-how, the better. Just think about how popular tutorials are on Pinterest to see the power of educational content in action.

11. Don’t Be Afraid of Being Opinionated

According to our own data, people want brands to take a stand.

Parroting what everyone is saying might be “safe,” but doesn’t do much in terms of brand awareness. The previously noted Buzzsumo study also highlights that “political and tribal” content performs particularly well these days.

That’s not to say you should go out and alienate your audience, but you should stand by your brands’ principles and beliefs. Wearing them on your sleeve can get people talking and serve as a way to stand out against your competitors.

You almost surely haven’t budgeted time, energy, or dollars for “whatever it takes”. That’s also code for “at all costs,” and when you stop discussing costs, you know they’re going to spiral. #ItDoesntHaveToBeCrazyAtWork

— Jason Fried (@jasonfried) June 25, 2018

Of course, the key here is to tread lightly. The name of the game is being bold for the sake of your brand, not stirring the pot just because you can.

12. Show Up Consistently

Finally, consider that nobody can truly be aware of your brand if you don’t post consistently.

Based on Sprout’s own data on the best times to post on social media, brands are expected to push content out multiple times per day across multiple networks.

And if your brand isn’t, there’s a non-zero chance that someone else in your space is.

To help you save time and to make the process of showing up easier, having a scheduling tool such as a Sprout on deck can be game-changer.

The more ground you and your brand can cover, the better. It all comes down to having a specific strategy which makes the most out of the time you spend on social media.

And with that, we conclude our list!

What Does Your Brand Awareness Strategy Look Like?

Building buzz around your brand might take a bit of experimenting, but having a dedicated awareness strategy remains the number one concern of businesses today.

And by following the principles outlined above, you poise yourself toward becoming a brand that sticks out in the minds of your audience.

We want to hear from you, though. What makes a brand stand out to you on social media? If you’ve been struggling to figure out how to increase brand awareness, what’s been tripping you up? Let us know in the comments below!

This post 12 Ways to Boost Brand Awareness on Social Media originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from http://bit.ly/2NObEfq

#Social Media Marketing

[phooll123]

In Turkey, Music Takes You Where a Travel Visa Can't

We talked with Ozoyo, a Turkish DJ and producer, about the music scene in Istanbul and what it's like to be an artist in a country where political rights and civil liberties aren't guaranteed.

Apr 2 2018, 4:46pm

All photos by Yannick Müller

A version of this article originally appeared on Noisey Germany. 

In Turkey, journalists at magazines critical of the government, likeCumhuriyet, are currently being thrown in prison. Authors are under constant surveillance, and since 2017 the number of academics who've been fired from their jobs in the public sector has risen to over 5,000. Under President Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish government has aggressively rescinded political rights and civil liberties, with media freedom sharply declining after a violent political coup in July 2016. According to Freedom House, Turkey's press freedom status is listed as "not free," and the country's current "Freedom in the World" score is 32 out of 100 (zero being the least free, 100 being the most free).

But what's it like to be a musician in Turkey? Noisey spoke with Ozoyo, a DJ and producer in Istanbul, to find out. The 27 year old was born in Turkey, but lived in Germany with his family for eight years during his youth. He's been back in his home country for nearly ten years now, and lives in Istanbul as a musician and student. The music he makes is largely instrumental: Chill beats with hip-hop samples, with a hint of jazz and electronic music throughout this smooth sound. We asked him about the local music scene in Istanbul, what's its like to be an artist in Turkey's political climate, and his plans for the future.

Noisey: How would you describe your sound? Ozoyo: The music I make is pretty laid-back. When I first started my music project as Ozoyo, I was listening to a lot of jazz. And I grew up with hip-hop. But I’m not someone who just gets stuck within one genre—I’m open to new sounds and enjoy getting experimental. The first two EPs were laid-back, but my next project is definitely going to be a little harder in terms of its sound.What sort of influences inspire you?Everything I experience, everything I still want to experience, and everything that’s still waiting to cross my path. Might sound philosophical, but that’s the way I feel. I released my EP Wanderlusttwo years ago. Back then, I just wanted to travel but never had the time. So I decided to produce an EP that tells a story about traveling and the yearning for faraway places. If you take a close look at the track list, you can see what sort of trip I was imagining for myself.

From the protests in Gezi Park in 2013 to the attempted political coup in July 2016, all the way to the current imprisonment of artists and journalists who are critical of the government: The political landscape of Turkey has changed significantly in recent years. What is your impression of the current political climate in the country? The protests didn’t go unnoticed by me. At the Gezi protests in 2013, people initially gathered together to peacefully prevent the trees there from being cut down. Of course there were then groups who acted in a questionable way. But overall, it was about solidarity with a positive underlying idea: the preservation of something old, of the green spaces in the heart of the city in opposition to the construction of another large shopping center. It’s tragic that people wound up dying in the end.

To what degree have the living conditions in Istanbul changed for you? My life hasn’t changed drastically, but you can see that the prices have risen rapidly. Everything is getting more expensive. The minimum wage is 1,400 Lira (roughly $350 USD) a month, and a beer in a typical bar costs about 15 Lira (close to $4 USD). Of course alcohol isn’t good for your health, but having fun is a privilege for the rich here. Even traveling has become difficult and expensive. First you need to get a passport, then you have to pay to get a visa, and on top of that you have a catastrophic currency exchange rate. For one dollar you’ve got to toss out nearly 4 Lira. That doesn’t leave much room for luxuries like vacation. But luckily, music allows me to travel in a different way. For a majority of the population that just isn’t possible, which is really too bad.

How have the political changes manifested in your daily life?Not a lot has changed in my personal, day-to-day life. I willingly moved back to Turkey with my family in 2008 after having spent eight years in Germany. But since I've come back, I've noticed that a lot of people are trying to move to Germany, England, or Austria. So I’m often asked why I came back [to Turkey]. I'm currently studying linguistics in Istanbul and I'll probably be done with my studies this year. Only once I’m finished with university will I know where I’ll be living.

What do you miss—any not miss—about Germany? What are the perks in your life in Turkey?Döner kebab tastes way better in Germany than in Turkey. That said, I’m not a big fan of the weather in Germany. But I really need to see more cities in Turkey and in Germany. Only then will I be able to form a solid opinion about both countries. I used to live in the Stuttgart region [in southwest Germany], and now I'm in Istanbul. But it’s difficult for me to make generalizations about people. Everyone grows up differently, here and there.

How would you describe the music scene in Istanbul?Like anywhere else, the scene is split up into different genres. Pop music, of course, sells the best. But there are a lot of people who are into less popular music. Thanks to Spotify, musicians here can show the world what they’re capable of. In terms of Istanbul specifically, I’m tight with all the hip-hop people, but also with the electronic community. I also prefer people who aren’t just all about partying, but who have a deep interest in music.

How easy is it to network with others in Istanbul?Just like anywhere else in the world, it’s easy to connect with other people through the internet. Through SoundCloud, Facebook, or Instagram, it’s easy to contact others and make connections that way. There’s a large community for electronic music here, but sadly most of them have gotten stuck in cliché genres like house and techno. That doesn’t mean I don’t like house or techno—on the contrary. I’d just find it better if others would be more open to different styles of electronic music. But still, there are small groups of people that are interested in subgenres of electro and other sounds.

So then is there anywhere you’re even be able to perform your music?I’ve been getting booked for shows, yeah. Here in Istanbul I sometimes perform live and play [DJ sets]. Last year I performed in Berlin, Essen, and Munich, and this summer I’ll likely be performing somewhere in Berlin again.

Where do you like to perform the most? Anywhere there’s music. When I’m in clubs, I play danceable music, from trap to house or techno. Sometimes there are events where I perform jazz or play only instrumental beats. A DJ and producer shouldn’t limit himself to just one genre, but rather be open to all sorts of music and then perform them.

Your sound is awfully smooth. You’ve been working with more hip-hop samples recently and they have a pretty chill vibe. What inspired you to do so?Until now, my music has mirrored the quieter side of Istanbul. But my next project will show the darker sides of the city. My next EP is already finished. This time, there won’t just be simple loops, but also entire songs. I look forward to seeing how people respond to it.

Istanbul is a city of extreme contrasts. Not just because it’s split between Asia and Europe, but also because the districts represent contrasting poles—Fatih is very religious, Beyoglu is very open and liberal. How do you experience the contrasts there? Have the different fronts become hardened? A lot of people came to Istanbul at the end of the 80s to work—people with various backgrounds and sexual orientations. Sometimes living together works quite well, other times not so much. Sometimes a woman will get harassed because she’s wearing a short skirt, and sometimes women who are completely veiled get made fun of by other people. Everywhere you go, people are good and bad at the same time.

What keeps you in Turkey? What is it there that makes a difference for you? My studies, my family, and the amazing weather. Besides, you always find up discovering new and amazing little spots in Istanbul.

What projects are you currently working on? Are you collaborating with musicians from other countries? Because I’ve been living in Istanbul for almost ten years, I can’t just travel anywhere at whim. Before I travel, I have to get a visa, that’s why most collaborations take place via the internet without me having to leave the place where I live. But aside from that, I currently have some collaborations with musicians from Germany and Turkey. I’ll be releasing my new EP in May or June. It’s a mix of trap and lo-fi jazz beats. Other than that, I’m still studying and will get my degree this year. And then hopefully I’ll continue to make music for a long time, travel around the world and get to know new, creative people.

Follow Ozoyo on Spotify,SoundCloud, Facebook, andInstagram.

STREAM OF THE CROP

Stream of the Crop: 5 New Albums for Heavy Rotation

New albums from Kacey Musgraves and Frankie Cosmos top this week's list of essential new albums

ByColin JoyceandAlex Robert Ross

Apr 1 2018, 7:33pm

Every week, the Noisey staff puts together a list of the best and most important albums, mixtapes, and EPs from the week just gone. Sometimes that list includes projects we’ve written about on the site already; sometimes they're just great records that we want everyone to hear but never got the chance to write about. The result is neither comprehensive nor fair. We hope it helps.

Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour

Inspired by LSD, at ease with the world, in awe of the beauty of everything, Kacey Musgraves finally has her country-pop masterpiece. For all of its carefully worked honesty, debut LP Same Trailer, Different Park only hinted at this sort of songcraft; on the follow-up,Pageant Material, Musgraves wasn't sure where she belonged. Here, on her third LP, she seems to have nothing to prove. There's plenty more to be written about Musgraves's talent and worldview but, for now, just listen to "Butterflies," "Happy & Sad," and "Golden Hour," three of the best pop-country-adjacent love songs of this or any other year. And definitely listen to "Rainbow," a stunner, which makes majesty out of familiar balladry. — Alex Robert Ross

Frankie Cosmos: Vessel

Kline seems content on Vessel to keep putting as much of herself out there as ever. The record consists of 18 songs, recorded like her last two albums with a full band and the producer Hunter Davidsohn, written over the course of a tense and tenuous time in her life. In the two years since her last album Next Thing, she’s ended up with a whole new band around her. Her long term relationship with Frankie Cosmos’ former drummer Aaron Maine (who also records as Porches) came to an end. She toured endlessly, spending eight to nine months out of each year on the road, with rarely more than two weeks at home. These things aren’t all in the songs literally, butVessel carries the spirit of these trying times, the incredible lows of romantic dissolution and tour burnout channeled through brief, but potent indie pop songs plumbing the depths of her own psyche. — Colin Joyce, Frankie Cosmos Is Alive, Even If It Feels Like Shit

Mary Halvorson: Code Girl

Often, the seemingly spider-limbed avant guitarist Mary Halvorson makes music that feels like its spoken in another language. It’s melodies are abstract, passages fit together in ways that don’t entirely make sense, it just feels deliciously wrong. That’s great sometimes, but her new projectCode Girl is an inclination of her more rock-oriented tendencies, which is nice for the jazz-curious listeners like me who’ve always scrambled for a way into her work. She made a playlist for The Wire suggesting that this new full band effort was inspired, in part, by the relatively straightforward songwriting of people like Yo La Tengo, Elliott Smith, and Fiona Apple. There’s comfort in the moments that lean that way, when vocalist Amirtha Kidambi is centered—which provides a nice ballast for the passages where Halvorson stretches out into barely tonal hinterlands. None of it’s easy, but the vibrant bursts of double-jointed playing have context, which only makes them hit harder. — Colin Joyce

mdo: Enamel

Ryan Loecker’s new tape of damp and swirly drones is short—just under 20 minutes—but I’d argue that in a lot of ways that’s the perfect length to get to know an ambient project. Replaying it, you get to untangle it’s deceptively rich contours, conjured here through aqueous pads, twitchy concrete sounds, and other electronics collaged. Like a body of water you splash into over and over again, expecting to find the bottom,Enamel has a hidden depth. And then when it’s over, you can just dive right back in. — Colin Joyce

TRANS FOREVER: OUT OF FLUX WITH THE UNIVERSE

Some of the best hopes for the future of pop live on the internet, issuing compressed-to-hell missives of digitalist bliss and cheery chaos straight to Bandcamp. If you’ve not been keeping up, OUT OF FLUX WITH THE UNIVERSE—a new compilation of trans and nonbinary artists put together by the Toronto musician Girls Rituals—is a great showcase of a few of the best of this overstimulating scene. Tracing underexplored connections between abstract rap (KC Oritz’ “30 Dollar Coat”), acid gabber meltdowns (astrofolk’s “IDFWU [BOOTLEG GABBER MIX],” synthetic emo-ish balladry (Felix Astroblade’s “Demons), and a whole lot of other disparate forms, it’s a perfect document of pop music in the URL era. Katie Dey and osno1, two of my absolute favorites in this whole world of pitch-warped pop artificers, turn in some of their best works, the cosmic orchestra-synth exploration of “Darkness” and the morbid carol “creep 4 your bones,” respectively. On top of all that it’s free. Can’t beat that. 

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This Bullshit World Was Predicted by Pulp's 'This Is Hardcore'

The Brit-pop icons' sixth album is dark, filthy, and essential for understanding modern life.

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Andrea Domanick

Mar 30 2018, 8:50pm

Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images

This Is Hardcore is often hailed as the death knell of Britpop, a fiercelyBritish cultural movement marked by working class grit and pop candor. Acts like Oasis, Blur, and Suede arrived to shake off the sad-sack fuzz of shoegaze and the US’s grunge movement, girded by a kind of sardonic cultural pride that aligned nicely with the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour.

Pulp would join those acts to make Britpop’s “Big Four,” but they’d always remain outsiders, in their own way. The band had already been around for 15 years by the time Britpop took hold in 1993, and wouldn’t find success until the following year’s His ‘n’ Hers. Even then, frontman Jarvis Cocker didn’t fit in with the posterboy cool of Damon Albarn and the Gallagher brothers. Pale and lanky, he grew up an introspective misfit in oversized government-issued spectacles. As a teen, he was kidnapped by pedophiles in a van after his mother told him to be more sociable, only to outwit themwith sarcasm. Accordingly, Pulp’s songs—like “Pink Glove,” “Mis-Shapes,” and, of course, the smash working class diatribe “Common People”—always maintained a degree of observational skepticism, less keen on celebrating or winking at being British, than really going in on it. That underdog ethos that would take Pulp all the way to a headlining slot at Glastonbury in 1995.

By 1998, “Cool Britannia” was being shamelessly co-opted by the newly-elected Tony Blair, as the once-hopeful voices of Britain’s working class towns were drowned out by mine closures and New Labour’s champagne socialism. (Blair’s team supposedly tracked down Cocker while on vacation in New York to ask him to support the election campaign, to which Cocker told them to kindly “piss off”; he’d later formally clap back on the underrated Hardcore B-side “Cocaine Socialism.”)

Britpop was now the stuff of tabloid fodder, a bonafide pop craze distorted into a prefab Spice World, with the baton of dissent yielded to the more palatably cynical hands of Radiohead. Blur ditched the movement the year prior to go full Pavement on its self-titled album, and Oasis had become a caricature of itself. Cocker, for his part, was courting it-girl Chloe Sevigny and a coke habit, his now-spectacle-less pout adorning magazine covers and bedroom walls. A rock 'n' roll sex symbol at last, just in time to be neutered by the inane whimpering of Coldplay and Travis. The sanguine momentum of the impending millennium Pulp heralded on hits like “Disco 2000”—the momentum that got Cocker to where he was—had come to a screeching halt.

Then Pulp threw the gauntlet ofThis Is Hardcore, an unsparing send-off and hangover for the day after the revolution—or was it all just a fashionable party? The group’s sixth album was immediately met with controversy. Its cover, by artists Peter Saville and John Currin, features an uncanny valley portrait of a Hollywood blonde, her nude torso bent over red satin sheets. Her elongated neck arcs unsettlingly towards her open mouth and detached eyes, the album’s hot pink title stamped obscenely across her skin.

“This is Sexist,” would read the graffiti scrawled over Hardcorepromo posters in London’s Underground, along with “This is Demeaning” and “This Offends Women.”

It’s hard to say whether the subway vandals missed Pulp’s point, or helped make it. This is Hardcoresaw Britpop’s working class heroes reckoning with fame, hedonism, success, money, and the grotesque distortion of reality that come with them. It’s not their best album, nor their most popular—even die-hards tend to skip around to the singles—but that’s also what makes it an artistic achievement that still resonates, perhaps more than ever, beyond the decaying “Cool Britannia” from which it was born.

Perhaps more unsettling than the cover art was the music. Gone were the disco-drunk anthems for misfits, the suburban nostalgia, the major synth momentum, and sexed-up class critiques that propelled the long-toiling Sheffield quintet to stardom on their previous two albums, His ‘n’ Hersand 1995’s landmark Different Class. In their place was something darker, something off, rife with porny brass and hollow lounge ballads, bleak sex and claustrophobic mortality. The first note of opener “The Fear” suggests, for a moment, the rising momentum of past hits like “Lip Gloss” and “Do You Remember the First Time,” but quickly reveals itself to be quite the opposite with a minor sustain collapsing to a diminished. The whole thing feels rotten, like a bad cover version of itself.

“This is the sound of someone losing the plot / Making out they’re OK when they are not,” Cocker sings over a creaking, horror movie guitar. If the song’s title hadn’t make it clear, the track is an ode to coked-out paranoia that doubles as the mise-en-scène for the existential vertigo of the songs to follow. The chorus arrives with a choir—screeching, hyperbolic, almost intolerable to listen to—a musical device associated with the ethereal and uplifting, twisted into something disturbing and overwrought.

These unsettling tweaks to Pulp’s signature disco pop are subtle—synth breaks that are a little too emphatic, horns that are a little too processed—but, in tandem with Cocker’s lyrics, underscore how the trusted and familiar can easily, and insidiously, turn foul without us really realizing it. None of it feels particularly intentional, or like the band is trying to make a statement. It’s Cocker and Pulp, off the cuff, the only way they know how to be.

After a career spent pulling back the curtain on the lives and worlds around him, Cocker here turns inward. Hardcore isn’t storytelling, but self-reflection. He sheds the dark horse self-loathing worn as proud armor on albums past, along with the ill-fitting skin of celebrity. There’s no ego or self-pity to it; actually, it’s often funny (“I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials”), a tool not to be undervalued given the album’s tough-to-swallow themes. Most often, though, it’s a frank reckoning with moral complexity, and how the hell we got here. Cocker may be famous, but in turning his incisive lens on himself, he holds a mirror to his audience.

Subsequent songs see him grappling with his father’s abandonment (“A Little Soul”), aging and marginalization (“Help the Aged”), social expectation (“I’m a Man”), and—what else would a Pulp record be?—sex, and its myriad implications, on the title track. Cocker trades the deviant, salacious appetite of past songs like “Pencil Skirt” and “I Spy” for something more clinical, likening success to the life of a porn star. It’s sex as rote dog-car chase (“That goes in there / And that goes in there, oooh / And then it's over”), sex as power (“This is me on top of you / And I can't believe that it took me this long”), sex as inevitable concession of modern life (“You can't be a spectator, oh no / You got to take these dreams and make them whole”). He cleaves at mystique and the seduction of that which is just out of reach, until we are left with nothing but ourselves, naked and alone.

The whole of Hardcore, in that way, plays like the unflinching anticlimax to Different Class; the amorous whimsy of “Something Changed” becomes the predictable relationship failure of “TV Movie”; the psychedelic youth of “Sorted for Es and Wizz” become the desperate, aging hedonists of “Party Hard”; the potential of “Disco 2000” becomes the mundanity and impotence of “Dishes.”

“I'd like to make this water wine, but it's impossible / I've got to get these dishes dry,” Cocker sings. Well, that’s life, isn’t it? “And aren't you happy just to be alive? / Anything's possible,” he belts in the next verse, his voice cracking and slightly off key, as if singing it bigger will somehow make it more true. Or maybe it’s a little too true. If we’re alive, none of us—and especially Cocker—really can complain, but that doesn’t make us feel any less empty. It’s a masterful reckoning of a familiar paradox that most of us would prefer not to parse, and makes for one of the most heartbreaking moments of the album.

Hardcore did well, hitting number one in the UK, but Pulp and its fair-weather fanbase were never really the same again. It’s a difficult album, and to an extent, you can’t really blame people for not wanting to hear their champions of the common people lamenting partying hard and getting older. But that’s not because, as with everyone from Elvis to Taylor Swift, its subject matter comes across as self-indulgent and unrelatable, but rather because it’s so relatable.Hardcore offers a brutally honest look at humanity’s dark side, the myth of meritocracy, and the fallacies and concessions we make to keep up with the competition in modern life. Today we lionize Radiohead for capturing that us vs. them disillusionment on OK Computer, but it’s Hardcore that offers the harder, more unflinching truth: We became them.

The reality of common people, overlooked by Cocker on the song version, is that we all settle, in one way or another. Hardcore is the OK Computer for those of us who chose to indulge and participate. And, if we’re honest, that’s everyone. We all choose pleasure if we can. We’d all be rich if we could. Thom Yorke DJs fashion week parties, but you won’t hear him reconciling with that on the next disaffected Radiohead joint. He’d likely argue, rightfully, that there are bigger, more corrupt fish to fry.

But that’s why it’s all the more important to have a band like Pulp, and an album like This Is Hardcore, there to connect the uncomfortable dots between The Everyman and The Man. Cocker looked around and saw the individualism he eulogized cannibalize the collective action and social conscience it was supposed to give rise to. It’s not hard to see the parallels today—the fleeting pop momentum of “Common People” in the momentary self-satisfaction of hashtag activism; the smug, Yorke-ian satisfaction that these issues aren’t your fault. The takeaway from Hardcore, and its story, is that change—real change—requires taking ownership of some sense of moral complexity and complicity. It’s a tough pill to swallow. Belying the perpetual culture shock of post-2016 life is the more difficult, personal truth that our good intentions don’t mean shit. This Is Hardcore is here to remind us of that—not a crisis of faith, but a shrug of, “I guess we had this coming.”

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Big win for Jason Day and Tiger Woods shows he can play Weekly 18 ESPN Golf

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Big win for Jason Day and Tiger Woods shows he can play Weekly 18 ESPN Golf

Jason Day needed an extra day to finally win again; Rory McIlroy could have used a few more holes; and the slow play issue reared its ugly head during a major moment.

I’ll get to all of that in this edition of the Weekly 18, but Tigermania is running wild once again, as Tiger Woods did just enough to keep us intrigued and excited about what the future holds.

The W18 begins with what we learned about Tiger, what we didn’t learn and what we still don’t know.

Tiger Woods grabbed headlines at Torrey Pines, but Jason Day was left holding the trophy Monday. Donald Miralle/Getty Images

1. First things first: It doesn’t take an expert to understand that the most important part about Woods’ successful return to a full-field event is what it portends for the future. His performance at Torrey Pines wasn’t about this week itself. It’s like golf is planning a party and just set the date and sent out the invitations. There will be plenty of hot takes in the wake of his first full-field tournament in a year, but it’s impossible to argue that a healthy, motivated Tiger isn’t good for the game. I’ve been crowing about this for a while now: If he’s capable of contending for tournaments again (and upon first glimpse, that answer is fairly obvious) and so many of the game’s terrific young players continue playing the way they have, golf could be hurtling toward a cross-generational golden age. I’m sure contrarians can find a problem with this, but it seems like the best of both worlds.

2. Here’s another one that’s tough to argue against: With his T-23 result, Woods defied expectations this week. I predicted in last week’s W18 that he’d finish T-14, but that hardly means I “expected” it. Even the most rabid Tiger fans should understand this was an unmitigated victory for a player who hadn’t made a cut in 888 days and has only one other tourney with four rounds of par-or-better in the past five years. This should be classified as somewhere between one giant leap and baby steps, but it certainly puts him on the right path for a long journey.

3. Now we can get to the debate — or at least one of ’em. Whenever there’s discourse as to whether Woods is “back,” I remember asking him what he considered “back” during one of his previous comebacks a few years ago. Tiger just sort of smiled and shrugged, as if to say he’d rather just play and let everyone else argue about it. The truth is, there’s no correct answer because it’s all in the interpretation. I certainly don’t have an answer, either, but I do think he dropped a clue this week toward moving in that direction. Before the opening round, Tiger stopped short of his usual pre-tournament statement: “I’m here to win.” Which was perfectly sensible, considering his layoff. By Sunday afternoon, when interviewed on the broadcast, he was already in old Tiger mode: “I really wanted to shoot something around 65. I thought that might be a playoff number.” I’m not saying that means he’s “back.” Just that his comments from Wednesday to Sunday suggest a change in mindset.

4. Oh, and that quote? Tiger said it nearly three hours before the final group finished. As it turns out, 65 would have gotten him into the playoff. His prediction game is in midseason form.

5. The biggest question with Woods’ game moving forward is, without a doubt, the driver. He found just 17 fairways this week — three fewer than he’d hit during any other 72-hole PGA Tour event in his career. On a 1-10 scale of worry, though, I’d rate this about a 3.2. It would be a lot more troubling if he couldn’t dial in his distance control (which was decent but not great) or started yipping chips again (which he didn’t). Here’s assuming that over the next few weeks, Woods will tinker with both his swing off the tee and the driver itself, finding a more comfortable combination that limits those errors.

6. We learned plenty about Tiger this week. Here’s what we didn’t learn: We don’t know whether he’s “ready” to win again; we have no idea if he’ll bring his A-game to the majors; we have only vague clues about his impending schedule; and we’re not even sure if his surgically repaired back can withstand an entire season of practicing and playing. All of those will be answered in due time. Point is, anyone ready to make huge proclamations about his impending results is just guessing.

7. Here’s something we did learn: Despite having no wins in five years and no majors in a decade, Woods is still golf’s greatest needle-mover and its most relevant asset. Love him or love to hate him, fans flock to the gallery ropes and TV screens when he’s in competition. They used to do that to see the game’s most dominant force in his prime. Now they do it because he’s the great unknown — and we’ll never know when or if he’s ready to again unlock some of that magic.

8. Woods was standing over a 9-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole Sunday, when just as he began his putting stroke, a fan yelled, “Get in the hole!” Why? Well, for the same reason anyone ever yells anything — to be heard. I did a deep dive into the psyches of these “fans” a few years ago, interviewing nearly two dozen people who had screamed inane things at professional golfers during tournaments. I found out a few things, none of which should come as a surprise. First, they’re almost exclusively men ages 18 to 30. Second, they were nearly unanimous in having a little liquid courage. Third, they yelled after texting friends watching on TV at home to listen for their voice. You probably could have guessed all of that. What you might not realize — and what the guy who screamed at Tiger is only starting to grasp — is that most of them regretted causing a scene and said they wouldn’t do it again.

9. Last thing on Tiger: I absolutely loved this quote from him after a third-round 70 during which he hit the ball all over the place and saved himself with a brilliant short-game performance. “The only thing I had was my short game and my heart,” he said afterward, “and that got me through it today.”

Tiger Woods put himself in some tough spots but recovered well at the Farmers Insurance Open. AP Photo/Gregory Bull

10. Three years ago, Day opened with a disappointing 1-over 73 at Torrey, then went on to win the golf tournament. Must be a smart strategy. This week, he again opened with a 73 and again won in a playoff. It’s the first victory for Day in 20 months, as he’s dealt with some personal situations that presumably affected his on-course performance. He should be commended for hanging in during an extra long Sunday afternoon, then bouncing back Monday morning in the continuation of a playoff with Alex Noren, stiffing a third-shot wedge on the sixth hole to all but clinch the title.

11. Feel-good story of the week (non-Tiger division) goes to Ryan Palmer. Three years ago, I sat with him days after his father had died in a car accident, and he explained why he needed to keep playing for has dad. Last year, his wife, Jennifer, underwent treatment for stage 2 breast cancer. As a result, he made only 20 starts and entered this season needing to keep his PGA Tour playing privileges in his first six events. Things are looking up. Jennifer is healthy, and he needed only two of those six starts to keep his card. Palmer was eliminated on the first playoff hole Sunday, but the smile on his face afterward told the story of a guy who can still be happy without getting the win.

12. I get it. The tournament was on the line for J.B. Holmes as he stood over his second shot on the final hole, and the wind was gusting, and he was trying to make a decision. Quite simply, though, the decision took way too long. It took Holmes more than four minutes to hit his layup, which is egregious on a Thursday morning but downright detrimental to the game on a Sunday afternoon in the final group, when it shines a spotlight on just how plodding professional golf can be in its biggest moments.

13. The worst part? Holmes essentially iced one of his playing partners. After waiting and watching, Noren finally stood over his ball, swung and flew the green. That’s not fair.

14. All of that said, I’m not an advocate of shot clocks or more fervently enforced slow-play penalties, especially during the final holes of a tournament. For a game infused with purity, it just feels too artificial. Think about it: Your favorite player is tied for the lead on the final hole. He stands over his ball. A big wind gust comes through. He steps away. Then, suddenly, a horn sounds, noting that he took too long, will be penalized and has lost the tournament. Sounds brutal, right? Besides, if you’re going to police the last few groups on Sunday, you’ve got to police all of them for all four rounds. There needs to be a more organic cure for slow play than some of the ideas that are out there.

15. Haotong Li is a stud. The 22-year-old didn’t just stiff-arm McIlroy down the stretch on Sunday in Dubai, but he also moved into the world’s top 50 and earned his second European Tour title. He’s also really fun to watch. Li plays with some fire and passion, which could translate into his becoming a global star once his game reaches full potential. If this week was any indication, he might not be too far off.

16. Of course, McIlroy owns more than a few stud qualities himself. For those scoring at home, he’s now returned from that 3½-month layoff to finish third and second in his first two starts. You can almost see him building more confidence each round. If he continues at this pace, those thirds and seconds soon will translate into wins.

17. Imagine this: You’re a young person, tops in the world in your field and ready to start a job that could soon prove to be extremely lucrative — except then you’re offered an amazing-yet-unpaid opportunity that’s too good to turn down. OK, so maybe it’s not a perfect analogy to other situations, but this was the one facing Joaquin Niemann before he won this week’s Latin America Amateur Championship. With it, of course, comes an exemption into this year’s Masters, and so the 19-year-old No. 1-ranked amateur from Chile will delay turning pro for three more months, until he gains that invaluable experience at the year’s first major.

18. Nothing against Phoenix, nothing against Pebble — two really fun weeks coming up on the PGA Tour. But it’s going to be lit, as the kids say, at Riviera in a few weeks. Defending champion Dustin Johnson is in the field, as are McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Oh, and that other guy. The tournament host. Some dude named Tiger.

#Golf