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ladywinchester1967 · 6 years

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Hot for Teacher: Part 2

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Kelly Frazier (OFC)

Warnings: Age gap (Kelly is 26, Dean is 35), SMUT (and all the wonderful yummy stuff that goes with it), feels, a little fluff, alcohol usage, language.

A/N: Here’s Part 2 of ?? I guess I’ll quit writing it when it stops being fun :) Until then, you guys enjoy!! Unbeta’d, all mistakes and text simulator images are mine; the rest are NOT. I found them on tumblr and Pinterest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I laid in bed after my shower, scrolling through my Twitter feed when I got a text.

I went to bed that night with his grunts and him moaning my name filling my ears.

The next day, I walked into Dean’s class and waited toward the back of the room. He was talking about the goddess Odessa and showing a slide show. I had already heard this lecture the day before, so I took the time to observe him. He talked with his hands, and with an enthusiastic smile on his face. To the casual observer, it looked like he was just teaching, however, I could see the passion behind his words and motions. I hid my smile behind my hand as he caught my eye.

“Okay; ten minute’s break,” he said and clicked on the light “stretch, go to the bathroom and we’ll pick this up again.”

The class gratefully dissipated as I walked forward. He gave me a tight lipped smile and pressed a set of keys into my hand.

“Make yourself comfortable,” he said in a low tone “I’ll head that way in half an hour or so.”

I nodded and said

“See you.” And gave him a subtle wink.

He gave me that legendary smirk again and I trotted off.

Once I was inside his office; I found a stack of papers that had a yellow sticky note on it.

Grade these please :)

The next stack also had a sticky note on it

These as well :D

I smiled and sat down in his chair and began to work.

I didn’t notice that forty five minutes had gone by until Dean walked in.

“Good lord.” He said exasperated as he shut the door.

“Long day?” I asked, looking up from the paper I was reading.

He rolled his eyes

“That doesn’t even begin to cover it,” he groaned “how’s the grading going?”

I rolled my eyes

“I hate this paper,” I told him as I held it up “How can a second year be so,” I trailed off, looking for the right words.

“Let me guess,” he said as he threw his coat down “Cassie, period four?”

I nodded

“It’s pretentious okay?” I asked “Every word in here REEKS of pretension and I hate it.”

He laughed as he took his tie off

“You and me both sweetness,” he said fondly “sounds like we need a drink.”

“We drank the beer you had remember?” I asked

“I keep the good stuff hidden,” he said and walked over to a bookshelf and opened a shelf, producing a bottle of whiskey seemingly from nowhere “for just such an occasion.”

I smiled and stood up as he fished around, finding two shot glasses. He poured both of us one and handed me a glass.

“Don’t shoot it,” he said “you sip this.”

“Very dignified,” I smiled “Professor.”

We clinked our glasses together and I sipped the whiskey down. Much to my surprise, it didn’t burn on the way down like I expected it to, in fact it was smooth.

“Hm,” I said “doesn’t burn like I thought.”

“I’m not fond of the burning myself,” he said “an old friend gave me this and said I’d know when to drink it.” He said as he held the bottle.

“Good friend,” I said and sipped from the glass “now, how can I put this so she understands her paper isn’t the best?”

For another hour, I graded papers while Dean worked on his article. I stole glances at him as he typed on his laptop, he brow was furrowed with concentration and he sipped from his glass of whiskey. I got up to stretch and walked behind him. I placed my hands on his shoulders and began to massage his tense muscles. He looked over his shoulder and said

“Thank you, I needed that.”

“You’re welcome.” I said “I find a good stretch or shoulder rub helps me concentrate when I have writer’s block.”

He hummed in agreement, surrendering to my touch as he leaned back in his chair. He closed his eyes as I worked out the knots in his shoulders, and then lightly rubbed his temples. He looked so relaxed that I never wanted to stop, but his eyes fluttered open.

“Keep that up and I’ll go to sleep.” He said gruffly and sat up. I smiled and said

“Anything to make you comfortable.” And patted his shoulder.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough for one night.” He said and shut his laptop “Looks like you got over half of period four’s papers graded, which is a huge help.”

I nodded, marking where I had left off

“Looks like you’ll make your deadline after all.” I said as I gathered my things. He did the same and nodded

“Yeah, finally, hand back papers when I say I’m going to.”

We walked out of the building together and once again, he insisted on driving me home. He knew the route now, so I didn’t have to give him directions. When he pulled up in front of my apartment, I asked

“Do you have anywhere you need to be?”

He thought and asked

“No, why?”

“Did you want to come in or?” I asked, motioning toward my front door. At first, he looked confused and I worried I had over stepped my boundaries. I watched as a grin slowly spread across his face.

“I would like that,” he said “a lot.”

“Come on in.” I told him and got out of his car. He shut off the car’s engine and climbed out, locking the door behind him. He followed me to the door and I unlocked it, letting both of us in. I lived alone, so I didn’t have to worry about a roommate bothering us, I thought as I flicked on the light switch. I suddenly realized how dirty my apartment was; random shoes, sweaters and scarves, various magazines and piles of mail were laying around. It looked like a closet had mailbox had thrown up and my cheeks flushed.

“Sorry,” I said as I locked the door behind us “it’s kind of messy right now.”

He looked around and said

“It isn’t that bad, I’ve seen WAY worse.”

I gave him a tentative smile and set my bags down in their usual place as he took off his coat, stowing his keys in his coat pocket.

“Are you hungry?” I asked “or want anything to drink?”

He shook his head and turned to face me.

“No, I’m fine.” He said and then walked toward me, closing the gap between us. It had been a long day for both of us and it felt like we both needed some relief from that tension. He swiped his finger tips across my cheek, tucking my hair behind my ear as he leaned in, kissing me. I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed him back; the electricity between us from the night before seemed to be renewed as we both dove in for another kiss. I ran my hands up and down his back as he pulled me close to him, pressing my breasts fully against him.

“Mmmhhh, Dean.” I sighed as I pulled back a little and unbuttoned his dress shirt.

He sighed as I reached the last button and ran my hands up his torso. I slid his shirt off and as it hit the ground, he backed me against the wall, his palms flat against the wall. I ran my hands up his back as he moaned against my mouth.

“Bedroom?” He asked

I pulled back, took his hand and guided him back to my room. Once I turned on the light, he wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly against him, his chest pressed into my back. “Been thinking about you since last night.” he murmured in my ear as I felt his teeth scrape against the outer shell. A shiver ran down my spine as I tried to play it cool.

“That right?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady “What’d you think about?”

He snapped his hips into my butt; he was rock hard. His hands running all over my body, which he seemed to cover in no time, due to the size of his hands.

“This gorgeous body,” he said “all pink and strung out for me.”

I let out a moan as his fingertips dragged along my arms as he started to kiss my neck. I squirmed, grinding my ass into his erection and he let out a growl.

“Mhhhh,” He said and swiftly spun me around. He picked me up and carried me over to the bed where he laid me on my back “grinding into me like that is gonna get you in trouble.” He said and pinned my hands above my head using only one of his hands.

Our eyes met and I grinned

“Aw, I thought you LIKED when I’m a trouble maker.” I said playfully.

“Oh I do,” he said “you may not.”

“Show me.” I said

His mouth dropped open a little, but then he regained his composure.

“Another time,” he said and kissed me “I want something different this time.”

He released my hands only to thread his fingers through mine. He pressed his hips into mine as I moaned below him. I felt totally consumed by him, like I was drowning but I wasn’t afraid. I wanted it. I wanted him, all of him. He sat up a little bit and let go of my hands as we both removed our shirts, tossing them to the floor and kicking our shoes off. I sat up with him on his knees between my legs. I placed my hands on his hips and kissed all over his bare torso. He gently gripped my hair and let out a shaky breath.

“You okay?” I asked quietly and looked up at him. His eyes met mine and he nodded, biting his lip.

“Feels good.” Was all he mustered out before our mouths collided. His hand slid down my back where he quickly unhooked my bra. I slid the garment off and he gently ran his fingers up and down my spine.

He pulled back as he moved his hand over my shoulder, giving me a crooked grin.

“What?” I asked, hooking my fingers into his belt loops.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” He asked.

My cheeks immediately turned pink and I looked away from him, grinning like an idiot. “What? You are.” He said, tucking my hair behind my ear and tilting my face up, using his fingers. His gorgeous green eyes held my gaze as my heart thudded in my ears. He lowered his face to mine and kissed me oh so gently, like I was made of glass. I unbuckled his belt and slid his pants off as he laid down on top of me. He kicked his pants aside and slid my leggings down and off of me. He gently caressed my skin, leaving trails of goosebumps in his wake. I let out a sigh as our eyes met again.

“You’re being very gentle with me.” I commented as I slid my hands up his back.

“Too gentle?” He asked, stroking my face.

I shook my head

“No, not at all.” I said

In truth, I’d never had anyone be this gentle with me. Sure, I’d fucked guys and made love with them, but this felt different than anything I’d experienced up until this point. He dipped his head down and planted feather light kisses down my neck and chest. He cupped my breasts in his hands and tweaked my nipples between his fingers. The sensation shot straight between my legs and I let out a moan as I dug my nails into his shoulders.

“Deeeeeeean,” I moaned, my back arching as he rutted his covered erection into me.

“You want me inside you baby girl?” He asked as he took my right nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue around it.

“Oh god,” I said quietly “yes, please.”

He switched to the left nipple and did the same thing until I was writhing under him. It didn’t take long for both of us to rid ourselves of our underwear and then he was buried in me to the hilt with a moan. I placed my feet flat on the bed as he began to move. His fingers tangled with mine again and he used this leverage to pump into me. Our moans and sighs mixed with the sounds of kissing, skin hitting skin and the bed moving under us.

I breathed his name over and over again as he moaned in my ear.

“Fuck sweetheart.” he said, sounding wrecked.

I cried out as his movements became more and more erratic, he was hitting my sweet spot relentlessly and making my toes curl.

“Oh fuck, Dean, please I wanna-“ I cried out

“That’s it,” he answered “come for me baby.”

His mouth sealed over mine. I cried out, squeezing his hands as I came. He thrust harder into me, finding his own release as he moaned into my mouth. He rolled off of me and we laid in silence for a minute before I looked up at him, grinning like an idiot.

“That’s a happy face if I’ve ever seen one.” He said and I laughed, nodding.

“Definitely.” I said and we kissed.

After a few more minutes, we laid our heads on the pillows and talked quietly.

“So we may be past the point of no return on this,” Dean said as he traced nonsensical patterns on my palm “but we haven’t exactly been practicing safe sex.”

I laughed

“Definitely past that,” I told him as I watched his fingers “I’m clean, I got tested two months ago if you want to see my results.”

He shook his head

“I believe you, and I’m clean too, but that’s not what I’m worried about.” He said.

I looked up at him and he looked scared. I softly smiled at him.

“You don’t have to worry,” I told him “it’s physically impossible for me to get pregnant so you’re off the hook for that.”

He raised an eyebrow at me

“I’ve heard that before.” He said

I shook my head

“No, I’m being totally serious. I can’t get pregnant.” I told him

“No offense, and if I sound like an asshole, I’m sorry in advance, but how?” He asked

I shrugged

“I haven’t had ovaries for,” I trailed off an counted back “like six years? And if I remember sex ed correctly, I need those to have babies, so yeah.”

He looked shocked

“Wait, what?!” He asked and I laughed.

“I’m not a freak of nature or anything.” I told him

“You just said it so nonchalantly,” he said “that’s the shocking part.”

I scratched my head, and said

“It happened okay? It’s part of who I am,” I sighed and then said “I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at eighteen, so to keep it from spreading, I had to get my ovaries removed and undergo intense chemo.”

He blinked and I went on

“Yes, all my hair fell out, yes it sucked and yes, that’s why I waited so long to start college; just to answer some of the commonly asked questions.” He stared at me, studying my face as if looking for a trace of a lie. “That’s what the scars on my stomach are from.” I told him and pulled back the sheet; I pointed to two, small but identical scars on my abdomen. He glanced at the scars and then up at me as I covered myself back up. “So, you won’t be getting any surprises out of me.” I told him.

“So, never for you?” He asked

“I had the option to freeze some of of eggs, which I did. Just in case I ever wanted that option,” I told him “but without medical help, no. I can’t, at all.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking sad “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I’m not upset,” I told him “the most important thing is that I’m alive.” I sighed “In a way? Going through that gave me a second chance at life. I was coasting; I didn’t have direction and I didn’t care. I figured I was young and I was going to enjoy it. Getting that news,” I bit my lower lip “put everything in perspective, as cheesy as that sounds. After surgery and chemo, once I was better, my grandmother and I lived in France for a year and that was one of the best times of my life.”

“Why France?” He asked, he seemed genuinely curious.

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to laugh.” I told him

“Scout’s honor,” he said “I won’t laugh.”

I smiled

“Because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie and it took place in France.” I told him. I watched as a grin crossed his face.

“Can I tell you something?” He asked and I nodded “It’s one of my favorites too.”

“Really?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up and he nodded.

“The beginning, where the narrator opens the story? Always gives me goosebumps.” He said

I gasped

“No shit, me too!” I said excitedly and he squeezed my hand.

“I knew I liked you for a reason.” He said.

We laid in bed talking for so long that we were both shocked when we looked at the time.

“It’s after one a.m,” he said and yawned as he put his phone down “I better get going.”

“Or you could stay,” I suggested “I wouldn’t mind the company.”

He gave me a sideways grin and shrugged.

“I can go for that,” he said “since you don’t mind.”

I shook my head

“No, not at all.” I said. I switched off the light and curled up next to him; my head on his chest. He gently wrapped his arm around me and stroked my hair.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Did ya ‘ll like that?! A little more fluff than what I normally do, and the smut was more tame than normal but hopefully it was a nice change.

I think you guys are gonna like part 3 though; so brace yourselves for that! Kind feedback is always welcome; please like, comment and follow (if you want). My boxes (in, submission and request) are all OPEN, so feel free to drop me a line!

The Squad:

@waywardbaby @waywardnerd67 @familybusinesswritingbro @ain-t-bovvered @mrswhozeewhatsis @girlborninstorms @dacleverfox @emoryhemsworth @bobasheebaby @salvachester @myinconnelly1 @mogaruke @imma-winchester-addict @theworldiscolorful

Hot For Teacher:

@wayward-gypsy

#dean winchester #professor!dean #lady winchester writes #dean winchester smut #supernatural #Supernatural smut #18 plus

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huntypastellance · 6 years

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hi its me @keithkog on twitter and since you so conveniently forget to mention all the times i’ve apologized and when i deleted the video or any of my explanation, let me tell you about it. there was no excuse for me to post videos without the parent’s consent. that i agree with. it was stupid and wrong, and i genuinely regret that. once i realized my mistake, i deleted the videos. there is NO EXCUSE FOR THAT. but the “sexual assault” thing was unprompted. i never talked about that with her (1/)

and i also never said anything about it. obviously she doesn’t know what that means, since as an anti i still dont think “sexual assault” is a correct term for sheith, its more statutory rape if you’re going to put it into that category w the age of consent. but of course she wouldn’t understand that, and i only laughed in the video bc i was taken aback by her knowledge of that word. regardless, i didn’t press the issue further because you’re right, i have no right to talk about that with a (2/)

a child im babysitting. so i just left it at that. look, i understand if you’re upset by it because you’re a shaladin but you’re making me seem like some huge monster. voltron is literally made for kids their age, and the term “force” was a joke. we’ve watched it together before, and they only protested bc they’re stubborn but they actually rlly enjoyed it after i showed them more. the point i was making about them being mature was in response to someone saying “she’s only 9 she shouldn’t be(3/)

watching voltron” which i disagreed with because both of the girls are mature for their age and can understand it. the only reason they thought it was confusing was bc when we watched episode 1 we were making cookies and they werent paying attention the whole time. i would appreciate if you would take down your posts or at least remove some things because in no way did i force them to talk about sex or bring it up in the first place. thank you.

ps, you have no proof that i fed anyone lines about sexual assault and i promise you i DID NOT. the kid’s parents let them watch a lot of older shows and they have older sibblings and thats how they know about it im guessing. i was surprised to but please don’t accuse me of feeding them lines about sexual assault because thats absolutely disgusting and you have no proof of that

do you exist purely to ignore people’s apologies? Bc my friend the one y'all keep talking about from Twitter, yeah she’s apologized multiple times so could y'all maybe just leave her alone? Bc she had literally 0 intentions for what happened to happen and the fact you all ignore her constant apologies here y'all are being petty and I’m honestly sick of it. Grow the FUCK up y'all she’s a minor too CHRIST. You think it’s ok to harass a minor? Bc if so y'all are even worse than my abuser lmao :/

Okay, I’m going to answer this seriously & without the whole “We, the Great & Glorious Lord Pastel Lance” schtick even though I don’t think you actually deserve it. I’m just trying to prove my point here.

> If you were so shocked that a 9 year old said the phrase “sexual assault”, why did you POST IT ONLINE AS A VIDEO TWEET?

>Oh boohoo, you took it down. What, do you want a gold star for that? Well newsflash asshole, if you had bothered to read through my post, you’d know that someone archived your entire tweet thread before you took down the videos. So now there are PERMANENT screenshots of the kids’ faces that were put online WITHOUT PARENTAL PERMISSION because of YOU, you illiterate jackass.

> Why would you EVER laugh at a child, who you’ve claimed to know & babysat for YEARS, having ANY knowledge of what sexual assault is?

> Nice try deflecting dumbass, I’m a Klance shipper AND a Sheith shipper, not just some gross shallie.

> Again, you don’t MAKE kids like the stuff you like. My brothers don’t like Ben 10 after the first 5 minutes of showing them it, (& without me trying to convince them by telling them that gets “really good” later & spoiling shit for them), so I switch the channel to Paw Patrol or search up a Youtube about Minecraft for them instead. I don’t MAKE them continue to marathon Ben 10 with me. You are a shit babysitter.

> Why do you keep suddenly being surprised when people get mad at your own freaking words when you are the one leaving out information & context?

> It’s still really creepy that you keep saying that the kids are “mature for their age”. That’s literally fucking pedo logic right there, I don’t care about the fucking context, that’s a skeevy thing to say about kids.

> Seriously, what the fuck is stopping you from using the phrase “they’re old enough to watch Voltron, see the TV rating for it?” That is literally so much less creepier.

> You can’t just fucking ASSUME that the kids learned the phrase “sexual assault” from watching TV shows for older kids! That is something you NEED to tell the parents about!

> And you’re not even worried about those older siblings casually talking about sexual assault in front of their baby siblings? At all? Bitch, there are some things that SHOULDN’T be talked about in front of kids!!

> Well, you’re right in that I don’t have actual proof. But given how you & your friends constantly lie & refuse to provide any proof, I don’t give a shit. At this rate, a freaking ANON comment is more trustworthy than your own words.

> Her apologies don’t mean SHIT because as I’ve pointed out before: they’re not real apologies. There was no notion to make amends, to promise to not do the same thing again, etc. Her apologies are HOLLOW. And, frankly, so are your’s. Especially with your friends commenting below about the “nasty shallies” forcing you to apologize. You didn’t “TECHNICALLY” do something wrong, you ACTUALLY did something wrong & fucking illegal, jackass!

> I don’t give a shit if she or you are minors. That doesn’t fucking excuse your behavior. You both can still be arrested or legally punished for this kind of crap.

> When you say shit like that, that I, some random asshole on the Internet documenting your own freaking words, am WORSE than your abuser…..

that just proves to me that you’ve never actually been abused before.

That you don’t give a shit about real abuse & don’t know what it’s like.

No abuse victim would ever make such a flippant comparison to their trauma like that.

You’re the one who’s sick here, not me.

Disclaimer: This response is entirely the opinion of Lord Pastel Lance & NOT of anyone else. Just me. If you have problems with it, criticize me, not other people.

#k1ance #she1th #vld discourse #anti-shaladin #pro-shaladin #lpln #anonymous

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suzanneshannon · 4 years

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The Thirteenth Fourth

Well boy howdy. The 13th birthday of CSS-Tricks has rolled around. A proper teenager now, howabouthat? I always take the opportunity to do a bit of a state of the union address at this time, so let’s get to it!

Design

Technically, we’re still on v17 of the site design. This was the first design that I hired first-class help to do, and I’m still loving it, so I haven’t had much of an itch to do massive changes to it. Although it is quite different¹ today than it was on launch day.

For example…

The search experience is totally different, as it is powered by Jetpack’s Instant Search now.

The Almanac pages (e.g. background-blend-mode) have an additional sidebar that helps you navigate between pages

I re-did the typography using Hoefler&Co. Sentinel and Ringside. The monospace font code snippets are in Operator Mono and the logo has long-been Gotham Rounded, so it feels like one big happy family of typefaces.

Maybe next year we’ll do something different again. My list is starting to grow for some behind-the-scenes tech stuff I wanna re-jigger, and sometimes that goes hand in hand with redesign work.

Closed Forums

The forums on this site have been a mental weight on me for literally years. Earlier this year I finally turned them off. They are still there, and probably always will be (so the URLs are maintained), but nobody can post new threads or replies.

It was a painful move. Even as I did it, there was still some regular daily activity there and I’m sure it didn’t feel good to those people to have a place they have invested time in shut down. Here’s why I did it:

Nobody here, including me, checked in on the forums with any regularity. Unmoderated public forums on the internet are not acceptable to me.

The spam volume was going up. There were periods where most posts, even after the automatic spam blocking I get from Akismet, where spam that required manual removal. Even if we had a dedicated forums employee, that’s no fun, and since we didn’t, it was just a random job for me and I don’t need a time sink like that.

The forums represent a certain level of technical debt. They need to be updated. Their design needs to be functional in the context of this site. At one point I ripped out all custom styles and left it be the default theme, which was a good step toward reducing technical debt, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

I can handle some work and some technical debt, of course. But when you combine those things with the fact that the forums don’t contribute much to what I consider to be the success of the site. They don’t exactly drive page views or advertising demand. There isn’t really money to hire help specifically for the forums. But that’s a small part of it. I want this site to help people. I think we can do that best if we focus on publishing with as little divided attention as possible. I think there are places on the internet that are better for forum-like discourse.

Now that they’ve been off a number of months, I can report that the lifting of the mental weight feels very good to me and there has been little if any major negatives.

Social

Here’s another mental weight I lifted: I stopped hand-managing the Twitter account (@css). I still think it’s good that we have a Twitter account (and that we have that cool handle), but I just don’t spend any time on it directly like I used to.

In the past, I’d queue up special articles with commentary and graphics and stuff and make sure the days were full with a spread of what I thought would be interesting tweets about web design and development. That’s fine and all, but it began to feel like a job without a paycheck.

We don’t get (or seem to drive) a lot of traffic from Twitter. Google Analytics shows social media accounts for less than 1% of our traffic. Investing time in “growing” Twitter just doesn’t have enough of an upside for me. Not to mention the obvious: Twitter can be terribly toxic and mentally draining.

So now, all our posts to Twitter are automated through the Jetpack social media connection (we really use Jetpack for tons of stuff). We hit publish on the site and the article is auto-tweeted. So if you use Twitter like an RSS feed of sorts (just show me the news!), you got it.

The result? Our follower count goes up at the same rate it always did. Engagement there is the same, or higher, than it ever was. What a relief. Do ten times less work for the same benefit.

When I have the urge to share a link with commentary I use the same system we’ve always had here: I write it up as a link blog post instead. Now we’re getting even more benefit: long-term content building, which is good for the thing that we actually have on our side: SEO.

Someday we could improve things by hand-writing the auto-tweet text with a bit more joie de vivre, crediting the author more clearly, and, #stretchgoal, a custom or fancy-generated social media graphic.

Opened Up Design Possibilities

One aspect of this site that I’ve been happy with is the opportunity to do custom design on content. Here are some examples of that infrastructure.

On any given blog post, we can pick a template. Some of those templates are very specific. For example, my essay The Great Divide is a template all to itself.

In the code base, I have a PHP template and a CSS file that are entirely dedicated to that post. I think that’s a fine way to handle a post you want to give extra attention to, although the existence of those two files is a bit of technical debt.

I learned something in the creation of that particular essay: what I really need to open up the art direction/design possibility on a post is a simple, stripped-down template to start from. So that’s what we call a “Fancy Post” now, another template choice for any particular post. Fancy Posts have a hero image and a centered column for the content of the post. From there, we can use custom CSS to style things right within WordPress itself.

For example, my recent post on DX is styled as a Fancy Post with Custom CSS applied right within the block editor.

The Block Editor itself is a huge deal for us. That was one of my goals for the year, and we’ve really exceeded how far we’d get with it. I think writing and editing posts in the block editor is a million miles ahead of the old editor.

The hardest challenge was (and still is really) getting the block transforms set up for legacy content. But once you have the power to build and customize blocks, that alone opens up a ton of design possibility within posts that is too big of a pain in the butt and too heavy on technical debt otherwise.

Another door we opened for design possibilities is a classic one: using categories. A sort of freebie you get in WordPress is the ability to create templates for all sorts of things that just sort of automatically work if they are named correctly. So for example I have a file called category-2019-end-of-year-thoughts.php and that fully gives me control over making landing pages for groups of posts, like our end-of-year thoughts homepage. Not to mention our “Guide Collection” pages which are another way to programmatically build collections of pages.

That’s a lot of tools to do custom work with, and I’m really happy with that. It feels like we’ve given ourselves lots of potential with these tools, and only started taking advantage of it.

Speaking of which, another aspect of custom design we have available is the new book format…

eCommerce

We’re using WooCommerce here on the site now again. I just got done singing the praises of the Block Editor and how useful that has been… WooCommerce is in the same boat. I feel like I’m getting all this powerful functionality with very little effort, at a low cost, and with little technical debt. It makes me very happy to have this site on WordPress and using so much of suite of functionality that offers.

So for one thing, I can sell products with it, and we have products now! Lynn Fisher designed a poster for our CSS Flexbox guide and designed a poster for our CSS Grid guide, which you can now buy and ship anywhere in the world for $25 each. Look, with the Block Editor I can put a block for a poster right here in this post:

CSS Flexbox Poster

Find yourself constantly looking up the properties and values for CSS flexbox? Why not pin this beautiful poster up to the wall of your office so you can just glance over at it?

$25.00

Shop now

Another thing we’re using WooCommerce for is to sell our new book, The Greatest CSS Tricks Vol. I. If we actually made it into a proper eBook format, WooCommerce could absolutely deliver those files digitally to you, but we haven’t done that yet. We’ve take another path, which is publishing the book as chapters here on the site behind a membership paywall we’re calling MVP supporters. The book is just one of the benefits of that.

WooCommerce helps:

Build a membership system and sell memberships. Membership can lock certain pages to members-only as has programmatic hooks I can use for things like removing ads.

Sell subscriptions to those memberships, with recurring billing.

Sell one-off products

And I’m just scratching the surface of course. WooCommerce can do anything eCommerce wise.

Analytics

They are fine. Ha! That’s how much I worry about our general site analytics. I like to check in on them from time to time to make sure we’re not tanking or anything scary, but we never are (knock on wood). We’re in the vicinity of 8m page views a month, and year-over-year traffic is a bit of a dance.

Sponsors

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

That’s what I have to say to all our sponsors. We’re so damn lucky to work with a lineup of sponsors that I wholeheartedly endorse as well as literally use their products. We have different sponsors all the time, but these are the biggest and those who have been with us the longest.

Automattic: Thanks for building great software for the WordPress ecosystem. This site is made possible by a heaping helping of that software.

Netlify: Thanks for bringing the Jamstack world to life. I’m also a big fan of this way of building websites, and think that Jamstack should be the foundation for most websites. Beyond that, you’ve redefined modern developer experience.

Flywheel: Thank you for hosting this website, being a high-quality host I can trust and who has been helpful to me countless times. This is what high-quality WordPress hosting looks like.

Frontend Masters: Thank you for being an education partner that does things right and helps me have the best possible answer for people when they are searching a more structured formal education about doing web work: go try Frontend Masters.

If you’re trying to reach front-end developers with your products, that’s literally how I make a living and can help.

My Other Projects

CodePen is no spring chicken either, being over 8 years old itself. I repeat myself a lot with this particular aspect of talking about CodePen: we’ve got a ton of ideas, a ton of work to do, and we can’t wait to show you the CodePen of tomorrow. 2020 for CodePen has been a lot different than the last 2-3 years of CodePen. Some technical choices we’ve made have been starting to pay off. The team is vibing very well and absolutely tearing through work faster than I would have thought possible a few years ago, and we haven’t even unlocked some of the biggest doors yet. I know that’s vague, but we talk in more detail about stuff on CodePen Radio.

ShopTalk, as ever, is going strong. That’s 420 episodes this week, friends. Dave has me convinced that our format as it is, is good. We aren’t an instruction manual. You don’t listen to any particular episode because we’re going to teach you some specific subject that we’ve explicitly listed out. It’s more like water cooler talk between real world developers who develop totally different things in totally different situations, but agree on more than we disagree. We might evolve what ShopTalk show is over time, but this format will live on because there is value in discussion in this format.

Life

My wife Miranda and I are still in Bend, Oregon and our Daughter Ruby is two and a half. She’s taking a nap and I’m looking at the monitor as I type.

We have the virus here like everywhere else. It’s sad to think that we’re this far into it and our local hospital is pleading with people to be careful this holiday weekend because they are very near capacity and can’t take much more. Here’s hoping we can get past this painful period. Stay safe and stay cool, friends, thanks for reading.

I always feel bad when I make design changes away from an actual professional designer’s work. Is the site design better today than Kylie‘s original? Uhm probably not (sorry for wrecking it Kylie!), but sometimes I just have an itch to fiddle with things and give things a fresh look. But the biggest driver of change is the evolving needs of the site and my desire to manage things with as little technical debt as possible, and sometimes simplifying design things helps me get there.

The post The Thirteenth Fourth appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

The Thirteenth Fourth published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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minnievirizarry · 6 years

Text

15 Tips to Building a Better Social Media Presence

If you’re a brand today, there’s a non-zero chance you’re on social media in some way, shape or form.

But many brands have an active, thriving social media presence?

And how much of them are just sort of there?

Reality check: you can’t expect much from social when you post random links, @mention a few folks and call it a day.

You need some structure. You need a strategy.

After all, you don’t reach the level of Wendy’s on Twitter totally by accident.

Remember when you were like 7 and thought changing your name to Thunder BearSword would be super cool? Like that, but our cheeseburgers are still better.

— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 11, 2018

And likewise, there’s a reason why GoPro’s Instagram posts get “likes” by the tens of thousands.

Photo of the Day: Not knowing where the path leads is what #TravelTuesday is all about. 🗺 @brymza explores the wetlands of Costa Rica while on vacation with his wife. 🛩 Share your #GoProTravel with us at gopro.com/awards. • • • #GoPro #CostaRica #LandscapePhotography #Exploring

A post shared by GoPro (@gopro) on Jun 12, 2018 at 9:50am PDT

And although some of these brands might have blockbuster budgets, the principles they use to create an awesome social presence can be replicated by businesses of all sizes.

Struggling for followers? Stuck on what to do with your social accounts? We’ve all been there.

That’s why we’ve broken the bite-sized tips any brand can follow to get their social media presence off the ground.

Now, let’s dive in!

1. Set SMART Goals

Pop quiz: why are you on social media in the first place?

If your answer is resounding “Uhh…” or “Everyone else is on it,” you might have a problem.

The concept of SMART goals has been around for decades, but they are so important to your social media presence today.

In short, brands should set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

An example of a good SMART goal for social media marketing would be something like “Well increase our Twitter response rate by 25% by the end of the first quarter.”

Specific: “We’ve specifically identified the social channel (Twitter) and a metric (response rate).”

Measurable: “The response rate can be measured from the Sprout Social dashboard.”

Achievable: “We didn’t make an outlandish goal of say, a 100% increase in 10 days.”

Relevant: “Our goal will have an impact on our overall social media presence, making it very relevant.”

Time-bound: “The goal has to be met by the end of the first quarter.”

Assigning your social media efforts a concrete purpose helps you avoid the trap of posting aimlessly.

2. Identify Your Audience

After you’ve outlined your goals, you need to outline your target audience.

Pro-tip: “everyone” is not an audience.

Maybe it’s prospective customers. Perhaps it’s industry players and influencers. Either way, breaking down your audience will help you figure out the following:

Which social media sites you’re active on

Your posting schedule

The type of content you publish

Your brand’s voice

The information in your profiles

Many brands spin their wheels because they don’t post content that speaks to a defined audience. Spend some time looking at your audience personas, understanding what their challenges are and what brands they already love via social. This sort of competitive analysis can help you understand how your own social media presence can stand out from the crowd.

3. Be Human

This is a big one.

One of the worst mistakes to make on social media is coming off as the faceless corporation with zero personality. In the modern age of transparency, people want to get to know your company on a more personal level.

Many brands today crack jokes and aren’t afraid to talk to their followers like they would their friends. Whereas brands were once lambasted for coming off like robots, a human social media presence has become an expectation among many followers.

We got you 👀 https://t.co/Rw1tf3geVr

— Warby Parker (@WarbyParker) June 14, 2018

Similarly, showing off the human side of your brand means showing off the faces behind your social feeds. Whether it’s office photos or snapshots of your team “in the wild,” getting personal with your followers can help you form a much-needed connection.

Yesterday, #TeamModCloth took the day off to give back to Los Angeles Mission @thelamission, PATH West LA @hopeforla, Golden Gate National Parks @goldengatenps, Larkin Street Youth Services @larkinstreetyouth, SF Public Library's #SFPride Programming @sfpubliclibrary, The Garment Project @thegarmentproject, Free Store 15104 @freestore15104, Heritage Community Initiatives @heritageserves, Raphael House SF @raphaelhousesf, Venice Beach cleanup, and #PittsburghPride cleanup. Watch our IG Story for more highlights from the day. #ModClothGiving #ModCloth ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Regram: @shibby_15 So proud to work at a company that takes time to give back. #TeamModCloth went clean the beach today. Also, our design team made us these super cute shirts. ❤️

A post shared by ModCloth (@modcloth) on Jun 13, 2018 at 4:45pm PDT

And hey, that leads us directly to our next point!

4. Seek Relationships, Not Just Followers

We can debate all day whether or not your follower count is a vanity metric.

That said, having 100 followers who regularly engage with you and your content are infinitely more valuable than 10,000 that ignore you.

It might be cliche to say, but don’t leave the “social” out of your social media presence. The beauty of social is that you can form relationships in an instant with followers from just about anywhere.

For example, Sprout Social’s own #SproutChat gives us the opportunity to regularly connect with our lovely followers who are likewise stoked to get in touch with us.

Got my jams going for #sproutchat with sprout-stagram famous @sproutdarryl!! My desk dance isn't as good as his data dance but whatevs… pic.twitter.com/p9Any0zmVZ

— Shannonigans (@mausi_nana) June 13, 2018

If you’re not exactly sure where to start when it comes to relationship-building, here are some quick ideas:

Always @mention people you reference in your social media posts

Answer questions people ask

Reply when people @mention you or share your content

Don’t just Retweet and Like other people’s content; reply with a comment to start a conversation

5. Create an Editorial Calendar

Spoiler alert: sticking to a content schedule isn’t just something “extra” that brands do.

If there’s a common thread between the biggest brands on social, it’s that they post on a consistent basis.

Chances are you’re juggling multiple social channels and are trying to make sure you tick a lot of boxes in terms of descriptions and when to post, right? Consider how a content calendar can make the process much easier by…

Allowing you to fine-tune each of your posts for each platform without having to jump between sites.

Timing your posts to maximize engagement, keeping you from having to constantly post in real-time.

Avoid repeating the same content over and over again, ensuring each of your articles or pictures gets the most love possible.

In short, taking the time to make a schedule does double duty of keeping your social media presence organized while also maximizing your contents’ reach.

6. Automate the Right Way

Automation is all the rage in marketing right now, and for good reason.

However, you can’t expect to successfully put your social presence on autopilot and walk away.

For example, mass auto-replying has gone the way of the dinosaur as it typically comes across as insincere. This now-classic tweet from Bank of America is a good example of how to turn your social followers off via improper automation.

Fast-forward to present day and it’s clear that customer care is a piece of social media that should be personalized, not autmoated.

That said, automation in the form of scheduling or curating content is totally fair game. Just avoid it when you’re dealing with actual customers or followers’ questions.

This is why brands rely on social tools to help curate pieces of content already approved by marketing leaders. Bambu by Sprout Social, is in fact, just that piece of software needed to turn your employees into brand advocates. Tap into your workforce to help build your presence!

7. Focus on Helping Over Selling

Although social selling is indeed on the rise, rarely should your social media presence be about the “hard sell.”

Sure, if you’re in ecommerce it makes sense to push offers and deals to your followers. What’s more important, though, is answering the questions of followers whether through replies or content marketing.

Thanks for reaching out! For information on where savings for Prime members are available, see https://t.co/tx5kV2YYCf

— Whole Foods Market (@WholeFoods) June 14, 2018

If your followers ask a question, you should respond in a timely manner.

And if your followers seem to be buzzing about a particular problem, you should craft content that speaks directly to it.

By offering solutions to problems instead of just pitching your products all the time, you’re proving your company is an authority and potentially earning a lifelong customer.

8. Optimize Your Accounts for Engagement

First thing’s first: don’t let the word “optimization” freak you out.

Unlike SEO, social media optimization isn’t particularly technical. That said, profiles can be optimized through imagery, keywords and fully filling out your account information.

For example, brands can use their Instagram bio to link to promotions, advertise their hashtag and let their brand’s voice be heard.

Similarly, a well-crafted Twitter profile with the right @mentions and HD imagery can signal your authority, helping you attract more followers.

And as noted in our guide for conducting a Facebook audit, a fully optimized page with complete business info can actually help your page rank better in Google.

Some quick ways to optimize your social media presence across your various accounts include:

Adding relevant keywords in your profile (hint: but not stuffing them)

Sharing content related to your industry—including keywords and hashtags in your posts

Connecting with popular accounts in your industry to additional exposure (hint: don’t be afraid to follow others)

9. When in Doubt, Get Visual

No matter where you’re posting, photo and video content are totally killing it right now.

Instagram’s image-based platform is exploding.

Facebook notes that Live videos get six times the engagement versus any other type of content.

And for those looking for more Twitter followers, graphics and videos get way more shares than text-based posts.

The highest exposure of fake news:https://t.co/9uerk7wZBI pic.twitter.com/QX2ZhoVUzL

— Forbes (@Forbes) June 15, 2018

The good news is that getting visual doesn’t mean you need any sort of insane equipment or a full-blown production budget. Instead, consider imagery such as:

Team photos or videos

Photos of customers

Photos of events

Behind-the-scenes photos and videos

Quote photos

Infographics

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.0'; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Juantastico: Break the Trend

It's easy to get stuck in a routine, but creativity lives outside the lines. Take it from Juantastico, grab a #Sharpie and Break the Trend! #SharpieSquad

Posted by Sharpie on Friday, December 1, 2017

And with so many tools to create social images and videos already out there, it’s easier than ever to get visual with your audience.

10. Make Your Presence Known

If you’ve gone through the legwork of establishing your social media presence, you need to let the world know.

From homepage feeds to icons on your site footer or email signature, anyone who comes in contact with your brand should only be a click away from becoming a long-term follower.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram feeds can all be easily integrated into your site with little more than a copy-paste code. Check out how ThinkGeek makes their social feeds a must-see on-site.

Cross-promotion on your website and through other social channels is a proactive way to grow your following over time.

11. Stay Active

Inactive social feeds are a bad look for brands, plain and simple. Rather than let your Facebook or Instagram gather cobwebs, you need to “show up” day after day with fresh content.

Some quick tips to help you stay active include:

Incorporating social scheduling and automation to save time and energy.

Picking and prioritizing your social networks based on your audience location.

Finding ways to repurpose content so you’d not always trying to reinvent the wheel.

Staying active on social doesn’t have to be a total time-suck. Through scheduling or simply blocking out 10-15 minute chunks throughout, you can post content and respond to customer concerns without wasting time. Also, you can try to base your activity around best times to post on social media to maximize engagement.

12. Piggyback on What’s Trending

Between breaking news, trending hashtags or whatever the latest meme might be, brands always have room to get topical with their content. This is a great opportunity not only to build off of buzz of an existing trend, but also show off your brand’s personality.

Oreo came through with a jelly donut flavor just in time for #NationalDonutDay. Would you try it? https://t.co/IjPsqB1Uhc pic.twitter.com/xIrvEb8pxQ

— Complex (@Complex) June 2, 2017

For example, understanding the in’s and out’s of hashtags can help you brainstorm time-sensitive topics you can piggyback on. Of course, tread lightly with anything overtly political or controversial that could isolate your audience.

13. Don’t Be Afraid to Pay

Like it or not, social media at large isn’t the totally “free” channel it once was. While there’s still plenty that can be done organically, Facebook’s updated algorithm and new business features being rolled out Instagram signal a clear need for businesses to experiment with ads.

It’s not just ads that deserve your attention, though. Looking at the recent boom of influencer marketing, paid relationships among social movers and shakers is becoming more and more common.

The good news is that both social ads and influencer marketing can have an insane ROI. Between laser-targeting on Facebook or tapping into hyper-engaged influencer audiences, a paid strategy certainly has its time and place depending on your business’ social goals.

14. Use Tools to Monitor Your Activity

When people complain about the lack of ROI they’re seeing from social, there’s a good chance they aren’t taking social seriously.

Just like we’re often knee-deep in Google Analytics data, marketers need to treat social with the same sort of scrutiny. There are tons of analytics tools out there to help you identify your top-performing content, performance trends and essential break down your social media presence by the numbers. These data points can help you treat social media less like a guessing game and more like a science.

15. Create Content People Actually Want to See

If you want to stand out on social media, you can’t just parrot the content everyone else is posting.

In short, you need to create.

Whether you’re trying to build yourself up as a thought leader or want to stand apart from your competitors, original content is exactly how you’re going to make it happen.

Perhaps it’s your original blog posts, research or infographics.

Maybe it’s an eye-popping snapshot you took during your last vacation.

Or hey, it might be an opinionated rant on the state of your industry.

Either way, you should strive to post content that forces your followers to stop in their tracks. There’s a lot of noise out here on social media: make it a goal to break through it.

@ronnaldong takes creativity to new heights 🦒. This month we're sharing images that are out of the ordinary. Share your eye-catching work using #Adobe_Unexpected for a chance to be featured.

A post shared by Adobe (@adobe) on May 1, 2018 at 3:28pm PDT

What Does Your Business’ Social Media Presence Look Like?

Listen: there is no “secret” or turnkey solution for a better social media presence.

Instead, there are small tactics and strategies that can help you build toward social accounts that prime for engagement.

And yeah, fifteen tips might seem like a lot on the surface. That said, these principles are staples of brands killing it on social right now. If you can follow them yourself, you’re already way ahead of the game.

We want to hear from you, though. What’s something you struggle with when it comes to your social media presence? Any tips or tactics that we missed? Let us know in the comments below!

This post 15 Tips to Building a Better Social Media Presence originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://sproutsocial.com/insights/building-social-media-presence/

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russellthornton · 7 years

Text

How to Entertain a Girl Over Text: Excite Her Mind with Words

The song was right! Girls just want to have fun. Here’s how to entertain a girl over text and keep her coming back for more of your wit and charm.

Have you ever wondered how to entertain a girl over text? Does it make a difference? I’ve found that you don’t have to entertain a girl through text to get her out and on a date, but having the skill set still helps me:

#1 Keep long-term female friendships going even when we don’t meet often.

#2 Keep long-term intimate options open, even when we’ve yet to meet up.

#3 Convince a girl to meet up if she’s unsure about me or busy.

#4 Get a girl excited about me.

#5 Have lots of hilarious conversations over text that make me actually LOL and my week feels that much cooler.

For me, entertaining a girl is not about tap dancing for her. Rather, it’s about getting my unique voice across. Obviously, communication limitations occur with texting.

However, I’ve not only used text to convert a girl from being unsure about me to saying I was super fun and amazing. Once I even had a girl text me that she would leave her boyfriend because I’m the man she really needs in her life. *I actually told her I would not go out with her because she already had a boyfriend, which is why she decided to leave*

How to entertain a girl over text

You can absolutely keep a girl’s interest and excite her over text. Here are a few tips on how to go about it.

#1 Using memes. If you’re like me and don’t want to work when you send text messages then memes are invaluable. Memes are shared pictures, sayings, general ideas, or sometimes very short video clips that for whatever reason have become so popular that they get shared over and over again within a culture.

Maybe it’s a still from a movie or some YouTuber who went viral or a presidential blooper moment that got snapped and used by journalists all around the world. Others are specific to particular cultures such as Jamaican patois. People sometimes write text on top of these images or videos or sayings—to support or make a point or just be funny or satirical.

Maybe you have a still of a cat wearing a small top hat and looking untrustworthy. If a girl says something that seems unbelievable, rather than reply with words, hit her with the meme. Or surprise-meme her during your day with one that made you laugh.

Memes are great because they don’t need a proper reply. They are casual, but often start a fun conversation. Here’s where the skill comes in: if you use memes that show you’re playful and fun but also show you get the type of culture she’s into, you tap right into her world, which may well be her Twitter and Facebook feed—people these days… [Read: Smartass quotes: 48 smart and sarcastic lines that kick ass]

#2 Writing how you talk—just more punchy. Example:

Her: Hey how are you sweetie? Me: Good hun x. I went for a run. Super thirsty now @_@

I think sometimes the more you try to be clever or invulnerable or whatever ‘supreme confidence’ persona, the more you come off as odd or insecure. Not everyone has time to sit down and craft a well-thought out text. We all have busy lives. I trust she knows this and doesn’t expect that with every text she sends, I’ll spend 15 minutes thinking about my reply. [Read: 18 casual things to text a girl and leave her addicted to you]

#3 Not overanalyzing her. This probably just makes you seem try-hard. I prefer going with the flow and if something doesn’t make sense I might just text her ‘okay… I’m following you *insert confused emoji*’.

#4 Making statements not questions. You know the saying *I’ve just made it up by the way*: ‘it’s easy to make a question, it’s hard to make a statement.’ Making a statement tells her about your personality, the way you think, and that you have your own opinion. It’s entertaining to try and decode somebody.

However, a barrage of questions usually makes me feel as if the person’s trying to get something out of me. So, I never drill her for answers. Although it can be fun to drop some daring questions about her interests and personality suddenly and briefly, to catch her off guard. [Read: How to text a girl you like and make her want you]

#5 Being casual *think Twitter*. Nothing kills entertainment more than when someone cares too much about what others think of them. Or when they’re too structured. When I’m texting to entertain, I write as if for some crazy blog, not for a formal essay.

I’m never afraid to be random, instant, or shocking when looking to entertain. Entertainment is all about holding attention and moving it where you want it to move. I’m not long-winded. I’m thinking 150 characters rather than 1500 words. I want to leave her wanting more and not as if she has homework to do when she receives a text message from me.

Here’s the key I use, which serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk calls ‘document, not create’: I don’t need to create a new text idea or thread every time I send a message. I might post a photo of me hanging out with a mate. I ask myself: what’s happening right now? Or when something happens I share it, sometimes with a twist.

Example:

Me: ‘My neighborhood cat is just watching me.’ Her: ‘LOL, what?’ Me: ‘It’s expression kind of reminds me of when you look surprised.’

You can always go back to an old thread if one dies out, because new things are always happening to you. [Read: How to start a text conversation with a girl – 15 rules to impress]

#6 Disagreeing. Nothing is more annoying than a people pleaser. I’ve definitely been there before. You are way more interesting when you have your own opinions. I’ll avoid being too serious when I disagree if she doesn’t know me well.

#7 Talking about ‘we.’ This can be used in the silliest of contexts: ‘We should climb Mount Everest this weekend or maybe that’s a bad idea?’ Using ‘we’ creates a feeling of progress in a cool way, as if you build something together. [Read: Texting etiquette: 20 unwritten rules of savvy flirting]

#8 Not setting a date/place/time to meet. It can be boring and even annoying when you know what’s going to happen before it happens. Yeah, maybe it’s safe and secure but not exactly exciting.

So, even though I might use ‘we’ to let her know that I intend on doing something with her at some point, I’m not overeager to put it all in digital ink. This is an adventure together, not a business deal.

#7 Matching the length of her text messages. The only time I ignore this rule is if I’m in a particularly no F’s given sort of mood or tipsy. But generally, if a girl always replies to my messages with a much shorter reply, I take this to mean she’s not as invested in me as I am in her.

In that case, I slow it down. Anything too abundant in supply and too low in demand usually has low value, let alone low entertainment value. [Read: How to play hard to get with a girl and do it just right]

#8 Avoiding emojis if she doesn’t reciprocate. This keeps more mystery with regard to my level of excitement and interest. I’ve experimented with using lots of emojis and I suspect it makes you seem too keen if it’s only one-way. [Read: 18 really obvious signs a girl likes you over text]

#9 Being cheeky. I’ve written about this before because it so damn useful. The problem with text messages is that you can’t give a nod and a wink when you’re being playful. But you don’t need to when you can send a ;-).

Emojis also let you get away with more than you would think. So when you send a risqué message that might surprise her, just add a 🙂 afterwards. We all have busy lives and don’t have the time to read between the lines constantly, this helps her know you’re being cheeky.

#10 Doing these and seeing how she reacts. I’ll show different sides of me and see how she reacts to it. I might:

a. Be bold – ‘Yeah, I kill people for a living.’

b. Be cheeky – ‘Sp, what are you wearing right now?’

c. Be cocky – ‘My nickname is God.’

d. Be complimentary – ‘Wow, you are seriously cute, love that pic.’

[Read: What to text a girl – Dos, don’ts and all the secrets to know]

#11 Responding to her tests fearlessly. The key I use when keeping an entertaining conversation going is to respond rather than to react. For me, being reactive becomes like an addiction that makes my mood shift with each reply. Whereas, when I’m responsive I just share my good energy and invite her to also share.

So if she becomes rude then I just call her out on it fearlessly and without getting emotional. Sometimes I improvise a joke out of it, because I don’t really care what some girl thinks of me if she doesn’t know me. I try not to text if I’m in a crappy mood or if she’s pissed me off.

Example *this is roughly how it’s panned out in the past for me*:

Her: ‘That’s not funny. You actually sound like an asshole.’ Me: ‘Yes, I keep getting rewarded with coitus for it. I’m a victim.’ Her: ‘Okay… sure weirdo.’ Me: ‘Listen, I was having fun, but if you really don’t like my sense of humor then maybe we just won’t hit it off as I like to banter. It’s a pity because I liked you when we met.’ Her: ‘LOL. Okay… actually I was just teasing you :-).’ [Read: How often should you text a girl? 17 must-know rules of texting]

#12 Not always being available. Distance makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t text a girl on a Friday or Saturday unless I already created the habit of meeting her on those days. I don’t text her because those days are for people who are actually part of my social life in person.

I also don’t always reply immediately. I might leave it a day in some cases. Other times we might have a text marathon—I play it by ear. Also, if she delays in her reply to me for a significant amount of time then I might give it a bit of time before I reply.

Casual, playful, unpredictable, challenging, and fearless are good approaches for entertaining text. Keeping some mystery and unavailable at times lets her do the rest of the work for me in her imagination.

[Read: Texting your crush: A step-by-step guide to doing it right]

Use these tips on how to entertain a girl over text, and be that textual drug that makes her want to read your messages before any of the other boring texts she receives from the other guys.

The post How to Entertain a Girl Over Text: Excite Her Mind with Words is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.

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suzanneshannon · 4 years

Text

The Thirteenth Fourth

Design

For example…

The search experience is totally different, as it is powered by Jetpack’s Instant Search now.

The Almanac pages (e.g. background-blend-mode) have an additional sidebar that helps you navigate between pages

Maybe next year we’ll do something different again. My list is starting to grow for some behind-the-scenes tech stuff I wanna re-jigger, and sometimes that goes hand in hand with redesign work.

Closed Forums

Nobody here, including me, checked in on the forums with any regularity. Unmoderated public forums on the internet are not acceptable to me.

Now that they’ve been off a number of months, I can report that the lifting of the mental weight feels very good to me and there is been little if any major negatives.

Social

The result? Our follower count goes up at the same rate it always did. Engagement there is the same, or higher, than it ever was. What a relief. Do ten times less work for the same benefit.

Opened Up Design Possibilities

One aspect of this site that I’ve been happy with is the opportunity to do custom design on content. Here are some examples of that infrastructure.

On any given blog post, we can pick a template. Some of those templates are very specific. For example, my essay The Great Divide is a template all to itself.

For example, my recent post on DX is styled as a Fancy Post with Custom CSS applied right within the block editor.

Another door we opened for design possibilities is a classic one: using categories. A sort of freebie you get in WordPress is the ability to create templates for all sorts of things that just sort of automatically work if they are named correctly. So for example I have a filed called category-2019-end-of-year-thoughts.php and that fully gives me control over making landing pages for groups of posts, like our end-of-year thoughts homepage. Not to mention our “Guide Collection” pages which are another way to programmatically build collections of pages.

That’s a lot of tools to do custom work with, and I’m really happy with that. It feels like we’ve given ourselves lots of potential with these tools, and only started taking advantage of it.

Speaking of which, another aspect of custom design we have available is the new book format…

eCommerce

We’re using WooCommerce here on the site now again. I just got done singing the praises of the Block Editor and how useful that is been… WooCommerce is in the same boat. I feel like I’m getting all this powerful functionality with very little effort, at a low cost, and with little technical debt. It makes me very happy to have this site on WordPress and using so much of suite of functionality that offers.

CSS Flexbox Poster

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WooCommerce helps:

Build a membership system and sell memberships. Membership can lock certain pages to members-only as has programmatic hooks I can use for things like removing ads.

Sell subscriptions to those memberships, with recurring billing.

Sell one-off products

And I’m just scratching the surface of course. WooCommerce can do anything eCommerce wise.

Analytics