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beautifulhigh · 13 days

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jen hey! tell me about the time you went on the radio to talk about asexuality!

So I would link you to it in this message except that I'm introduced as "Jen from place-near-me" and I like holding some anonimity online. Joys of having what was the MOST popular girls name for pretty much all of the 80s.

I am the Olivia of yesteryear.

And while it is a pretty big place and Jen is not exactly an unusual name, not sure I want to narrow down where I am in the UK. "Oop North" does me just fine.

ANYWAY

It was my lunch break and I turned on the radio and the presenter is talking about asexuality. And it literally makes me stop because no one talks about this. The presenter is explaining what it is, how under represented it is, and how there's a storm on Twitter (what else is new) about the Asexuality Day Of Awareness.

I'm calling before I realise it and I'm put on air and I talk about how this is so important because I didn't hear this growing up. We knew about gay and lesbian and bisexuality. We knew about trans people. But that was kinda it? And so not fitting in any of those made me feel like I was broken and wrong and different all through my teen years when my friends were exploring fun times with people they fancied.

And then, when I was approaching my 30s, the internet in a rare good moment told me that there is an A in the initialism and it stands for asexual and when I say it was a cloud parting, angels singing, beam of light moment I'm not kidding. And so I talked about finally finding something that worked for me and explained things and made me realise how I wasn't broken or wrong or weird.

We talked about what it's like being Ace in a world where Sex Sells! is the default (basically I like the aesthetic but sure isn't he cold without a shirt on?) and how people think this means we're lonely and will never have relationships (I have two good Ace friends: both married, one has a kid).

I said how important it was that the teens coming after me have what I didn't - something that helps them understand there is nothing wrong with them. And maybe it will mean I won't be so damn exhausted being someone's Google (I dont mind answering questions and I will talk about it but jfc you can do the basics yourself) and how more people knowing about it will help.

I explain a bit about the spectrum using the cake analogy: some Ace people won't have any cake at all. Some Ace people will share a cake with their loved one because it's a nice thing to do but they're not going to having it with anyone. I vaguely hinted at some Ace people who just make cake for themselves! But the idea is basically we're not going "I want cake!", we're on a spectrum of no cake (simplistically put as sex-repulsed) to "will have cake for the occasion" (sex indifferent, usually within a relationship).

I also think(?) I said that being Ace doesn't require a kind of "coming out" that other orientations/identities might need. Me being happily single and having no interest in sex doesn't mean anything or give you an any clues to my identity. And that's a good thing (because fuck this concept of having to know everyone's identity) but also a bad thing (because we also need visibility). I was not as eloquent as this because I was nervous and speaking on a national radio station on the most popular slot that they have. But I hope that came across.

Anyway, if any mutuals I have known for a while want to hear it I clipped up my part so you can listen. Drop me a message and I'll send over the link!

#cobbbvanth #jen answers stuff #asexuality #asexual day of awareness #thanks for asking - and being interested #means a lot

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quickspinner · 1 year

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LBSC Lukanette Week Day 3 - Pick / Cool Down

I really only used pick for this one. Again, no real planning, just let the words spill on the page.

Luka turned the familiar shape in his fingers as Marinette, practically vibrating from excitement, watched from her desk chair with her hands squeezed between her knees and her mouth shut tight.

It felt right in his hands, and he ran a finger around the edge. It seemed smooth. It didn’t weigh more than usual. He took it between thumb and forefinger, hand curling in a motion that was second nature to him by now, and swept the pick down the strings, listening carefully to the reverberation of the strings.

“Yeah, I think it’s good,” he said, smiling at Marinette, and she bounced out of her chair with a squeal. “The tone’s a little different, but it actually sounds really cool, I like it. Unique.” He played another chord, just for fun, because he actually did really like the tone.

Marinette let out a breath she’d clearly been holding in a breath. “Oh, I’m so glad! I only just started working with resin but the idea came to me and I found the mold and I HAD to try it, but I was afraid it wouldn’t actually work—” She whirled her chair to face the desk. “I have so many ideas! These things take such a small amount of resin, too, I can really experiment and if something goes badly, who cares? I’m gonna have so much fun with this!”

Luka laughed at her enthusiasm. “Well, when you start taking orders, let me know.”

Marinette turned to look at him, eyes rolling. “Don’t be ridiculous, Luka, before long you’ll be begging me to stop giving you the stupid things.”

“Hardly,” Luka grinned. “Do you know how hard it is to keep track of picks on the Liberty?”

“You wouldn’t lose them so often if you and Juleka would quit throwing them at each other.”

“Well, I definitely won’t be throwing this.” Luka held the pick up, watching the play of light across the electric blue swirled with sparking black. “I might wear it out though.”

Marinette made a dismissive noise that wasn’t quite a snort and waved her hand. “That one was super easy, I can churn those out by the dozen. I’m thinking about maybe embedding a rose petal in one for—well, Rose. Ooh, maybe I can get a lavender petal and a pink petal and put them in one together…would that be too big? I could cut them up into pieces I suppose, and then she and Juleka can have matching ones—”

“Rose doesn’t even play guitar,” Luka protested.

“But she would wear one as a necklace I bet! I’m already thinking about linking some together to make a bracelet. I could really get creative with what I put in the resin too since I wouldn’t have to worry about it being too thick to play with or how it sounded.”

“I want a bracelet if you’re handing them out,” Luka told her, taking off his guitar and coming to lean over her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders as he looked at the scattering of supplies on her desk. There was a pad of paper off to one side with several sketches and a long scribbled list of ideas.

“A lock of hair?” he asked, and Marinette whisked the list out of sight.

“It was just a thought. I don’t know if it would be too weird. I’m not always super clear on what’s weird and what’s ‘metal,’” she said, fingers quirking into air quotes. “Lots of people had a loved one’s hair set in jewelry in old times. Rings and lockets and stuff like that. I saw someone online selling custom resin jewelry with a lock of hair from baby’s first haircut in it, so I made a note.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be peeking if you weren’t ready to show.” Luka kissed her cheek. “I never get tired of seeing you inspired. Personally I would absolutely wear a pick necklace with your hair in it, but Jules would tell you I’m weird anyway, so my opinion might not be worthwhile.”

Marinette blushed, and fidgeted around with the things on her desk, but Luka’s mind had already moved on. “If I buy you a spray of plum blossoms can you make one with the petals?”

Marinette’s mouth dropped open slightly, and she sputtered for a minute before she said weakly. “Sure, um, I can try that. If you can even find plum blossoms—”

Luka grinned. “Couffaines have connections. I want a whole stack of plum blossom picks. I want enough that Juleka throws a fit over finding them everywhere.”

“Luka!” Marinette covered her face with her hands. Luka just leaned around her and kissed her fingertips.

“And at least one ladybug pick,” he teased, and laughed again at the look she gave him.

I have decided that Marinette’s signature flowers are plum blossoms and you will pry that headcanon from my cold dead hands. I had vague thoughts of Marinette making him sentimental picks over the years with a piece of something meaningful to the moment embedded in them, that end up on display at their home someday, but I didn’t really get there with this one. I’m filing that thought for the future though so don’t be surprised if you see it pop up again someday!

#quickspins #lbsc lukanette week 2022 #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #miraculousladybug #miraculous ladybug #pro lukamari

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sevilemar · 1 year

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Hey,

anon beginner to dnd from before, with many additional and build-on questions. Thanks for answering these!

What's some ways to find a dnd or rp group? What if I'm bad at acting or get really nervous and closed-off with people I don't know? How can I make the time for this? What materials would I need to bring?

What are good strategies to start a dnd or rp group? Do you have to be dm, as founder? Is it from scratch and from the ground up? What materials would be needed to start off? What if there are people you know and think might be interested? And what if there's no one you know that may be interested in such a group?

You rock!!!!

I'm glad to share what I know, since I believe ttrpg is just awesome! 😍

- My first table was just me and my friends trying something new. But not everyone's friends are interested, so for my second group, I googled if there was a local ttrpg, roleplay, or DnD forum. I found a national one, with sections for each region, so I answered someone's post there. I would have asked in my local comic book stores next, or in other stores that sell nerdy stuff. Maybe you already have a coworker or acquaintance who is playing and can hook you up with some people, or at least with some links?

If you don't find anything locally, you also can opt for online groups. I don't have any good starting spots, but you should be able to google it pretty easily. Look for people who are roughly in the same time zone than you, it makes scheduling easier^^

- You do not have to be GM to look for or found a group. It's very common to look for groups as a player, though it might take you longer to find one. People who want to GM are rarer, and usually a GM has an easier time finding players than the other way around. If a group cannot find a GM, people who wanted to be a player sometimes take up the mantle so that they can play.

- Most groups who find each other start from scratch, but it is possible to enter an already established group as a new player. Both have their own challenges and advantages.

- If there are people you think might be interested, just ask them. Role play is all about communication and relating to people, and this is a good start. If there's no one in your vicinity, find a new group. It's very interesting how easily strangers become friends when you regularly slay monsters together 😉.

- I find that a regular playing schedule works best for everyone when it comes to sessions. My two online groups play regulary every other Monday and Wednesday for 2-3 hours, and my local table meets roughly once a month on the weekend for longer sessions. When our GM didn't have the time to prepare, he tells us so, and we just drop the session. That gives him two more weeks of preparation.

GMing is a lot of work for me. I find myself thinking about campaign stuff while doing mundane tasks, or while crafting. I also spent hours as needed writing notes, or drawing maps, etc., mpstly a day or two before the next session. I find session logs are best written down the next day, so I tried to give myself half an hour for that the day after a session.

- The only materials you need as a player are your character sheet (physical or digital), some way to take notes, and either a set of dice or a digital dice roller. As a GM, you also need monster stat blocks, your campaign notes, and whatever rule set you're using for references. That's all you need to get started, really.

It is helpful as a GM to use some kind of grid for encounters, and something that represents PCs and monsters. In a physical space, easel paper works well, or a grid-based map. You can draw a battlefield or locaton on it in preparation, but it's not necessary. In our first campaign, we just used whatever pens where at the table to make a battlefield, and we used dice or random snacks as PCs and monsters. White Othello or Backgammon pieces are nice, because you can write names on it, or whatever damage your monster has taken with a removable marker. In a digital space, you can use tools like map tool or roll 20 to upload maps and PC tokens on to it, but don't bother if it's too much hassle.

- A good strategy to start a new group is talking to each member individually while recruiting them, making a group chat for orga stuff, and having one or multiple session zeros where you get to know each other and can talk about what kind of game you would like to play, and create characters together. Recruitment and orga can be done by anyone in the group, session zero(es) is (are) usually lead more or less loosely by the GM once they know more about their world and the kind of story you all want to play.

- Every person in the group will be nervous when you meet for the first time, especially when you play with strangers. That helped me a bit when I met my group for the first time. It also helps that ttrpg is something that takes a lot of love and passion for something that's still a bit weird to most people. It's still very much the domain of nerds and theatre kids, so chances are high that you are one of those types, and you will have both types in your group. I meet more nerds in DnD, and more theatre kids in larp, but thats highly subjective.

- There are things you can do to help you with role playing, either as GM or as player. It's too much to list it all, so let me give you a few online ressources I found helpful:

Ginny Di's role playing tips

Matthew Coleville's thoughts

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #ttrpg #role play #ask answers #first time dm #first time player

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camgirlsurvivalguide · 1 year

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Goooood morning Survivors -- back at it with my favourite procrastination strategy: making e-books instead of shooting for OF! Love that for me.

Anyhow,

Tier systems and exclusivity marketing have always been at the forefront of my personal approach to my business. My two overarching goals with online SW are to make a lot of money (duh) while also keeping myself and my subscribers happy. For the camgirl migrators who used to live stream and then worked our way over to content creation platforms - I feel like some of our foundational knowledge has been forgotten, and I’m here to remind everyone that the way we used to do things is still a really good approach even on OF.

On M/FC, we focused our energy on premium members, and always offered more attention to tippers than to basics or non-tippers. This helped us focus on where the money was actually coming from, and rewarding tippers with more attention/special treatment plus access to things that others didn’t receive (videos, VIP status, club memberships etc) made tipping look more attractive to non-tippers.

Somehow on OF, practices have shifted - and I argue they’ve shifted in ways that really don’t benefit all of us very well, or very often. I’ve paid for “shout outs” from top creators twice now, and both times it’s involved giving out a number of free trials to my page. Both times I’ve paid over $200 and received a grand total of zero fucking dollars in the end - the free trials were used over 50 times, and NONE of those new “subscribers” paid me a damn dime. The only people benefiting were the seller, who pocketed my $200, and the seller’s subscribers who got free access to my page for a month (and then proceeded to spend absolutely nothing). Maybe this works for others, maybe there are criteria that I need to follow more carefully, bla bla bla - the bottom line is I think this practice mainly circles around from top creator to top creator while providing the buyer themselves - aka me, in this situation - with next to nothing. Now if I sold a “shout out” with a free trial link to someone else and then gave all my subscribers a month of free access to a different creators page, sure, some of them may click it - but they’re also more likely to stick with me for the chance to get free subs elsewhere.

Make sense? Because when it makes sense, it just kind of sucks. For me, I mean. For the other two parties it’s great - but I’m out here trying to make me money first and foremost. The second piece, as per old M/FC knowledge, is I’m trying to make the people who actually support me happy so they continue to do so.

This is where my e-book comes in. I’ve had more than half of my current subscribers for more than a year, with probably a third of that half having been subscribed for two or more years. At current, 125 active subs have spent $1000 or more on my page - and that’s out of just 275 total subscribers at the moment (it’s low bc I broke my fucking wrist and can barely lift a spoon to my mouth without dropping food, let alone shoot sexy content lol).

What I’m getting at here is that I’ve learned how to make people happy enough to stay long term and spend a lot. I do this using exclusivity marketing, which helps me maintain my own boundaries (I only really want a small group of top tier supporters seeing my most explicit content, which helps me keep leaks lower and makes me feel better about what I release) and allows me to charge $100 plus for a single video, because I know the individuals I’m sharing it with are way more likely to purchase expensive stuff. This is personal experience that I feel strongly enough about to sell to you as a tutorial book. As always, I’m never going to offer something for sale that I haven’t personally utilized with strong reward, so the book is a massive source of information not just for newbies but especially for long term creators.

At this point, because of how I’ve set myself up, even if I lost access to every single social media account I own, I know I’d still be able to make a handsome income because I don’t rely on advertising or a constant influx of new subscribers for the bulk of my income. Advertising is always necessary, but if you set yourself up right, it’s not 100% crucial to be doing every single day. As always, I’m sleepy and I have a huge brain so I prefer to work smart, not hard.

Anyhow, thanks for listening to me rant. I really hope the book benefits some of y’all because I think we could all use a bit more of this strategy and a bit less mad scrambling to secure new subs every day. Are you tired? I’m fucking tired. Doing things this way is a little less tiring.

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bigolivediamondsbeansgenerator · 4 months

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simonsayswebdesign · 9 months

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If the package only includes a few keywords, then it is probably not worth the money. This is important so that you can track your progress and see how your SEO efforts are paying off. Without monthly reporting, it will be difficult to tell if yoursearch engine optimisation packages are working or not. When you are looking for an affordable SEO package, remember to keep these things in mind. If you take the time to do your research, you should be able to find a package that will meet your needs and help you achieve the results that you are looking for. Purchasing an SEO package is similar to hiring the services of an SEO agency. You need to understand that you are paying for expertise, and thus potential – not guaranteed results. Why should I use your SEO Packages? There are a number of reasons why you might choose to use my monthly SEO Packages. Firstly, my monthly SEO packages are designed to help you achieve your desired results quickly and easily. Secondly, I am always on hand to provide you with the best possible service & recommendations. Thirdly, my rates are affordable for any business. I make it possible for business owners to gain more web traffic from their websites and more web traffic leading to more enquiries and sales through higher SE rankings. Although an SEO package requires an initial financial outlay, it could potentially save your business money in the long term Is SEO free of cost? Definitely not. SEO packages are an investment for your business that will bring a return in more traffic and more custom for your business. Contact me and arrange a time to talk about SEO package today Do the Cheap SEO Packages Contain Black Hat Methods? No, my cheap SEO packages do not contain black hat methods. Black hat methods are tactics that go against Google guidelines, and they can get you penalised or even banned from Google. That's why it is important to make sure that the SEO package you choose does not include any black hat techniques. A good SEO package should focus on providing quality content, optimising for relevant keywords, building links naturally, and using ethical tactics to achieve organic growth for your website. This kind of approach will ensure that your website will get better visibility in Search results without risking any penalties. Where are you based? I work as a Freelancer from a home office in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, I work alone and do not outsource. I will always be your first point of contact Do you offer web design as well? Yes, I offer web design services. I am well-versed in the latest web technologies such as WordPress and eCommerce. I can provide custom-built websites tailored to meet your needs and requirements. I also offer maintenance and hosting services. My web design services are designed to help you create a website that will stand out from the crowd and make the most of your online presence. With my knowledge and expertise, I can help you reach your goals with a professional website that will look great on any device.

#SEOTips

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financialsecrets · 1 year

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Making Money Online With Digital Marketing

Gma Kelly dropping in to your life to say Hello and I hope your day is Beautiful.

Today I want to talk to you about Digital Marketing and Making Money Online. This is a pretty wide title. There are many, many, many ways to Make Money Online. So, I want to start with a warning. Always follow thru with the Due Diligence. Check into every company you consider. Read Reviews, Testimonials, Look them up in Google, check Facebook, etc. It's never a bad idea.

What is Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is simply Marketing through Blogging, Social Media, Ads, email, texts, etc. Spreading you Brand with the benefits the Internet brings to us. The Internet provides amazing opportunities for Global Branding. And Makes is so much easier to draw Traffic to your Site/Building. Your Business is no longer bound by 4 walls, or City Limits, County Roads, State Lines, or even Oceans. There are no longer boundaries to the reach your business could have. I just checked some data on my site and I had visitors from France, Philippines, Malaysia, Russia, Brazil and of course, the USA. Did you ever think, for even a minute, that your business could have that kind of reach?

How to Start with Digital Marketing

The first thing you have to do is to choose your goal. What to do you want to sell or promote? What is the name of your Website, your Business? Will you write Blog Posts, make Videos or both? You'll need a Website. That means a Host, Website Builder, etc., someone to write content, etc. If you have followed my posts, you already know its a lot of work, time and effort. Make a Logo. Make it Unique to You. Something you like, it represents You, Your Business, Your Website and Your Brand. It should be something you can be proud of for many years to come. Just in Case, The Nike Swish wasn't formed in a day and went thru many design changes over the years, while still maintaining the Brand Recognition.Now that the housekeeping is done with, lets move on to Social Media.

Social Media and Digital Marketing

Once all those questions are answered, you can move on to Social Media Marketing. I suggest you make accounts in all the Social Media outlets your aware of. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest, etc. These Platforms bring with them unique groups of people that search for very specific Keyword Phrases and Your Business can slide right into an already made group, or create a group for your Niche.

When setting up these Platforms, be sure to use your Business Name as often as possible. XYZ Co. on Facebook. Use your Logo or even your own picture. Build your Brand. But you need to decide will it be the Logo or the Picture, you can't have both. You want your Audience to have one vision of Who You are and What You look like Online. To Buy or Not to Buy Some of the Social Media Platforms offer paid for Ads. Facebook and Google for example both have paid ads that you can purchase. Personally, my budget can't afford such a bonus at this time, and honestly, there are a lot of free resources online. There is no reason to spend money on Tools you can use for free. Search for Free Trials, or Free Starter Programs. A Lot of the Resources you will look to use have Free Versions. In most cases, the Free Version covers everything you need to get started. Connect your Social Media to WordPress Site I recommend using a WordPress Plugin called Blog2Social. You simply enter the profile addresses of your Social Media Accounts and Blog2Social will Post to all of them for you. Its quite amazing. I wrote a Review of Blog2Social, if you would like to read it, you can click here. This is, in my humble opinion, one of the most time saving components of Digital Marketing. Can you Imagine if you had to sit and log into each one of those sites and copy paste your Blog or Paste a Link. It could take a couple of hours, this takes a minute. Now you should be set up and ready to start posting to your Site. Your Brand is set to post to Your Site as well as all of your Social Media Accounts. Now that's some kind of exposure!

Final Thoughts:

Without Digital Marketing, Nike, the NBA, Facebook, Google, would be a lot less visible today. The took a chance on a "New Technology" and got the jump on all of us. But like I said the WWW is a big place. There's room for all of us. I hope you enjoyed this Post. If you have any Comments or Questions, please leave them below. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for spending your time with me, and Have a Beautiful Day GmaKelly Read the full article

#Blogging #DigitalMarketing #MakingMoneyOnline

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makemoneyonlineebooks · 2 years

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What are the benefits of KDP Publishing?

To fully answer this question, we should clarify that we’re not talking about the benefits of independent publishing. Those upsides are numerous and covered in great detail in our article comparing self-publishing and traditional publishing. Instead, we’ll look at the edge Amazon and KDP has over its competitors, such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple Books.

1. Amazon is the largest bookstore in the English-speaking world

To be more accurate, it’s the largest bookstore in the world, period — though Amazon doesn’t quite have the same iron grip in non-English language book markets. One retail news site suggests that in the US, Amazon held an 83% market share of ebooks in 2019 — with the remaining 17% spread between its competitors.

Some indie authors will spend a good part of their week managing their titles across a half-dozen retailers, only to find that the majority of their sales still come from one source: the Kindle store.

2. The Kindle Store is algorithm-driven, which is good news for indie authors

Amazon’s book stores do not have a merchandising team. Where Apple Books, Kobo, and other online retailers have groups of humans who choose new titles to promote (or authors whose backlist they’ll feature), Amazon doesn’t care about merchandising. They let their algorithm decide which books to feature and promote.

Why is this good news? Won’t the algorithm just promote famous authors and big new releases?

Well, actually, that won’t always be the case!

It’s as if The Terminator worked at Barnes & Noble: the algorithm is a heartless book-selling machine that doesn’t get star-struck by big-name authors. It looks purely at data to determine — in its cold, calculated way — which books to put in front of more readers. Indie authors have an equal chance of seeing their book rise in its category — as long as you can get pre-sales, sales, and user reviews (and you’re able to get people who land on your page to press the ‘buy’ button). This may sound like a big ask, but it’s a lot easier than calling up every bookseller around the country and begging them to stock your book.

You can sell ebooks and print books from a single account

Despite the ebook revolution, print books aren’t going anywhere. For self-publishing authors who want a handsome paperbound edition to put in their bookcase (or you know, to sell to paying customers), there are several print-on-demand services available. With print on demand (POD), a supplier will churn out copies only when someone orders them — making this system an affordable alternative to large-scale print runs.

You have access to some pretty cool marketing tools

When you’re self-publishing a book, you can’t just set it live and hope for the best. Thankfully, Amazon offers a whole suite of marketing tools that help authors reach their target audience on the Kindle store. This includes Amazon advertising, which lets authors feature their books as ‘sponsored products’ on the pages of comparable titles

In addition to paid advertising, Kindle Direct Publishing offers free promotional options that can be accessed through their KDP Select program. You can check out our deep dive into KDP Select for all the juicy details, but in short, they include access to:

Kindle Unlimited – Amazon’s subscription-based service (Netflix for books)

Kindle Free Promotions — Turbocharge your downloads by making your book available for free (for five out of every 90 days)

Kindle Countdown Deals — Run a week-long price drop that will see your book promoted in the Kindle store’s Countdown Deals section.

If you like a make money online and online marketing ebooks then check a below link for more details

#amazon #kindle #makemoneyonline #onlinemarketing

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sander69dowd · 2 years

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5 Get Android Apps 2010

Many people today who already been cutting inside the Mac version of Avid's Media Composer have felt a bit neglected within the last few few years, and several certain extent, rightfully which means. autocad free sat and watched as Avid got the wind bumped out of it by Apple's introduction of Final Cut Pro. Apple's lower prices and integration with newer versions in the Mac OS came for a great advancement in the democratization of media and Apple ran a full court press on Avid's dominance of the digital editing tools arena. Avid struggled to find their way as the expense of editing tools dropped, along with the company that created and dominated modern digital editing found themselves having toplay catch-up. However most video editors seem to use Final Cut Pro and have come under increasing pressure from colleagues to move across to it. As it happened I already been there on the shelf like a few years ago Apple stopped selling DVD Studio Pro as a stand alone program. autocad download for pc desired DVD Studio Pro planning to spend had get the bundle which happened to include FCP. Somewhere along the line, though, Syntrillium thought i would add multi-track functionality too. It worked pretty well for basic stuff. They had a toggle button allowing you to change between the multi-track and editing tv screens. As version progressed, they added more and a lot more to the multi-track a part of the assistance. But things discovered kind of complicated and also the midi stuff was not great. Faster Reaper (by Cockos) became available in about 2006, I jumped when you strike it as my primary DAW and stopped using the multi-track bit of Audition, though I still use it for editing and having. The onscreen commands ApowerEdit are limited and and won't be confronted by multiple windows on the computer. Most programs have crammed screen space so that it hard for beginners to determine the proper command on this. With limited buttons in the screen, a person are simply maneuver through program. With iMovie, really can easily drag, drop, and employ the mouse to check out. You can also import photos, music, and kinds of tv. The program is integrated automatically and access links are in addition supplied. The look of cell phone as already stated is very attractive. Improving your general health black metallic body and red full QWERTY keyboard is great combination that pulls the eyes of the users. On the front portion of the phone you will discover a TFT resistive touch screen which measures 2.8 inches. The display of this touch screen boasts 16 million colors at 240 x 320 pixels judgment. The device is a side slider and the QWERTY keyboard becomes visible by sliding the device towards right. The measurement of the phone is 105 x 60.8 x 15.7 mm and its weight is 135 grams. The main point is this: YOU Focus on CHOSE Your own own! We all make personal choices depending precisely what is important or whatever you value at this point our own lives. Generally if autocad activation code are small all of us feel they are better served by us saving for their future by working with regards to their college tuition, that's a personal choice any has products and are. If the students are in college and need someone in order to them more closely, the bride and groom may value more highly to have one in every of the parents at home during that season their lives. So how could you fail? Give it a try and find out how far you go. Seeking really that will match it then can certainly upgrade into the pro version which really helps to use all of their features and it is still an competitive benefit. Who knows you may be on how one can building your online empire.

#AUTOCAD

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wheelsupin-five-inactive · 3 years

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Does anyone have spn cross stitch ideas? I've had a (quick) look online and I'm not really vibing w any of the ones I saw so any and all ideas welcome :)

#or if you know someone who sells them online drop the link #idk bro i wanna do something for it but the stuff ive seen isnt really something id want to display yk #and if im gonna devote that much time to it i wanna show it off #lincoln.txt

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scribblelegs · 2 years

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Please remember to get some fentanyl test strips and even narcan if you’re going to use, I’ve lost 6 friends in 2 years.

Can’t trust people, must protect yourself or you will die.

The streets have all become infected with this poison. People are dropping like flys in every city across the country.

They’re buying Xanax, coke, meth, or whatever and dealers are cutting it all with fetty.

Yes even pills, they just buy a pill press on wish and press the powder into pills. I know because a local died a few months back from exactly that. They were only 26 years old

Idc what anyone does with their body, drugs should be decriminalized and regulated and body autonomy should exist. But until then protect yourself and your friends. Harm reduction and less death please for the love of god. My best friend didn’t get to live to see 30, think about that before u use a drug not knowing what’s in it.

There should be more needle exchanges to reduce disease and death, and more funding should go into treatment centers to help the sick.

Addicts need treatment and thearpy, not fucking jail.

Please for the love of god don’t buy drugs from people you don’t know and fucking test them no matter who or where they’re from. And get NARCAN just incase. Never use alone .

Your life does depend on it. And life is a precious thing to waste.

They’re 1.99 online or free at most libraries and treatment centers/rehabs. NARCAN is free at these places, I seen now Walmart and target sell it

If you’re struggling with staying sober like myself, read these things I’ve found on reddit.

Eye opening and helpful

Thank you for reading

* The top photograph I did not take if you know where it came from please comment the reference link below*

(Please reblog - could save someone)

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1ddiscourseoftheday · 3 years

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Mon 14 June ‘21

Louis Tomlinson Cooks is here!! Yeah it’s 100% for sure as delightful to watch Louis make himself a sandwich as you might have hoped, but how was his cooking? Well I’ll let Louis rate himself-- “I’m not gonna lie not that appetizing is it, I mean look at it,” he says when it comes time to taste his creation, plus, “chopping peeling slicing not great to be fair- everything else I’m all right” (he’s… not wrong, even aside from the peeler issues has this man ever held a knife??) but- “it probably tastes nice though as I said it’s not about presentation for me… [munches cutely]... it’s actually pretty banging, that’s actually quite nice!” Success! Maybe it’s cause he knows the secret to faking good cooking- “as you can see I don’t have a lot of cooking ability so the more butter the better,” I mean the experts can tell you, that’s advanced stuff right there! #Louis-aChild! Substituting mustard and ketchup for coleslaw is a bit of a bold move, but in a belated attempt to convince the kiddos to eat some healthy veg even though he won’t he does bravely try the cucumber strips despite being “not really a man for cucumber” and makes a pained attempt to be positive- “bit of crunch.” Oh and speaking of crunch I’m relieved to have learned that the waffle is NOT a waffle, it’s a crispy waffle shaped bit of potato; a much more reasonable fish sandwich addition than the American version of a potato waffle! Full Time Meals polled to see what people think of Louis cooking; the two choices are “it was amazing” and “the best,” THEY GET IT. My kind of Louis poll! Helen Seamons rated him a “10/10 for effort and entertainment”, Masterchef acknowledged Louis as one of their own, and Marcus Rashford keeps it simple- “my guy” with a lil heart. YEAH, SAME.

Harry showed up in Italy, where he was papped in Venice being driven around (with PA Luis) on a boat (as you do, in Venice). He’s in a cool embroidered Bode shirt and shades and fancy hair, looking good. He’s seen carrying his suitcase, taking photos, and resting his head on his arms looking like a model. One might think, since we just saw the My Policeman cast and crew on set celebrating the wrap of the shoot, that they were done filming and Harry was off to do something different, but nope, he’s there to film! The book has key scenes in Venice that folks had been wondering about the filming of, and David Dawson is also being boated around Venice for the paps, so, it seems that was just for the wrap of the *UK* filming, which makes sense I guess since it would mostly be different crew I imagine, and perhaps some of the main cast are done as well.

Liam’s NFT sale is happening tomorrow! If you’re confused and want more info, I’M NOT GONNA HELP THAT MUCH… uh but I mean you can check out Liam’s youtube video explaining though I would guess that won’t help much (even Liam thinks so; “there’s probably websites that explain a lot better than me” he admits). There is a roundup now posted of what’s on offer for the buyers of the NFTs but I’m gonna be really honest with you, I’m more confused now than I was before. It’s clear that there are only SIX LONELY BUG NFTs right? They for sure said that I believe. But the packages for each different piece (token bundles) seem to me like they’re available to multiple buyers? Like maybe you don’t get the NFT but multiple top bidders on each get the extras? Like they can’t be selling multiple copies of the NFT... can they?! Isn’t the WHOLE POINT that only one person gets to own it? I DON’T FUCKING KNOW I AM SORRY. What I think I understand to be true: the six NFT buyers get to go to “a once-in-a-lifetime immersive dining experience at Resorts World Las Vegas” (this is the dinner with Liam and “a selection of crypto leaders from around the world” which takes place on display inside a giant glass box) and also “a bespoke commemorative presentation box containing the world’s leading holographic display... with audio... and a custom made Lonely Bug commemorative coin,” and “a unique QR code directing the owner to a special ‘Director’s Cut’ edit of the short digital film ‘Making Of Lonely Bug Collection’ which features unreleased footage from the day of the drop showing the creators' reactions when the winning bids came in” (I mean YEAH I would think it’s unreleased it literally hasn’t happened?) But then there are really a lot of other extras including tickets with Meet & Greet access to any Liam Payne headline show around the world, admission to pool and cinema parties in Vegas with Liam, signed art, non-Liam extras (I will literally bid to NOT have 20 minute phone calls with those crypto entrepreneurs PLEASE… but that’s just me), and access to an online party hosted by Liam; I really get the impression many of these, especially the last one, are just crypto tokens that are for sale that aren’t linked to the main Lonely Bug NFTs and many more than 6 people can buy them but a lot of the extras I’m not clear on which it is. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll understand better WE WILL SEE.

Liam also dropped by the discord last night to say some hellos (after a “long long day”) and that he “bought a piece of NFT art of myself tonight I’m going to give it as a prize Monday night so someone can own a piece of art that was owned by me” (an even less tangible bragging point than simply owning an NFT wow that’s an achievement) and the most important update- “I want a French Bulldog”! Oh and he said “that’s like one I did myself” in his fanart channel to a pic of a tiny crocheted illustration of Louis and Harry holding up a rainbow flag. Didya Liam?? (...Liam is crocheting??) Anyway I recognize who it’s supposed to be because it’s based on a familiar piece of fanart, but Liam definitely might NOT realize it’s meant to be someone specific, and tbh I’m more <eyeballs> at him saying that at the rainbow flag crocheted thing than at it being shippy.

Our Song acoustic version is out this Friday!! And Niall talked about NH3 some in an interview today; “I’m in the studio most days, it feels really good. I’m kinda in the latter stages of it and then I’ll go get a band together and go in and record the whole thing. I’ve just kind of been writing for the past 9 or 10 months and really enjoying it” and “It sounds like a complete album. God knows when it’s coming out because I’d like to be able to get around the world to see all the fans as well” and “It’s different. It sounds a lot more grown up. I’m 27 so it’s about time. I really wanted to kinda cement a sound. The singles I’ve released previously have all been kinda different sounds. I would like to have my ballad sound & like a cemented uptempo sound.” He and Anne Marie also talked about one of the other songs they wrote together saying, “It’s kind of like a, how do you describe it- guitar driven meets Tom Petty meets Katy Perry meets…” but say “We haven’t really decided if we are putting it out yet, the conversations are kinda happening... but it’s completely different (from Our Song).”

#liam payne #whyyyy so confusing #niall horan #louis tomlinson #YES BABE please do bake off now PLEASE #Harry styles #looking so good even though those shorts are AWFUL IMO hilariously frumpy #love that #14 jun 21 #overall I do not think liam should get any more dogs #but a small dog he took everywhere with him would be ADORABLE #(more dogs than he has previously owned I mean he currently has no dogs)

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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The music monopolists

Writing in Wired, Institute for Local Self Reliance researcher and anti-monopolist Ron Knox gives a thorough, important account of how music industry monoplization resulted declining revenue for artists, even as the industry itself has reaped greater profits.

https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-big-music-needs-to-be-broken-up-to-save-the-industry/

Importantly, Knox describes how concentration has come to every link in music’s supply chain, from radio to recording, streaming to live performance. The monopolists who dominate these sectors fight fiercely between each other, but no matter who wins, artists lose.

Let’s go segment by segment. Two thirds of all North American music comes from three labels. The labels grew through anticompetitive mergers: giant companies, awash in investor cash, bought out mid-sized, successful labels, turning them into subdivisions of the Big Three.

The more concentrated the labels got, the worse they were for everyone. They spent the nineties and naughties price-gouging record companies, pocketing hundreds of millions from an illegal price-fixing conspiracy. The fines they paid were smaller than the profits they reaped.

But at least they distributed music. Today, the struggling physical record store industry — a network of passionate music sellers who serve the most intense music fans — find themselves getting “record shipments” that turn out to be boxes of random stuff like cough syrup (!).

That happened when the Big Three all piled their distribution into a single company, the monopolist Direct Shot Distributing. As Direct Shot started to fail, its operations descended into chaos, and record stores started to receive boxes of random consumer packaged goods.

It was bad news for the non-monopolized, music-first record stores, but it barely registered for the Big Three labels — today, they buy an average of two new acts every day.

The labels don’t make money from selling records, of course. They get their money from streaming.

Streaming is also massively concentrated, gathered into the hands of just a few companies: Spotify, Apple, Youtube, Amazon — with the notable exception of Spotify, the industry is dominated by companies that also monopolize other sectors.

Monopolies are good to these companies. Spotify’s market-cap doubled during the pandemic — the market values its 150m subs (twice as many as subscribe with Apple) at $50b. The major labels get $1m/hour from streaming. 99% of their artists see $25/year in streaming royalties.

Spotify may be the biggest streaming service, but it’s not the lowest-paying. Youtube — a Google division, whose unsuccessful attempt to launch an in-house video service convinced it that it had to buy someone else’s success — drives the worst bargain.

Spotify uses its industry dominance to extract heavy fees from the labels — creaming 30% of the total revenue generated by a typical track. Big Three monopolists with fat margins can absorb this. Indies? Not so much.

Spotify’s market cap growth is in part due to the new ways it’s come up with to shake down the labels — a variety of tactics that all boil down to one thing: payola. Spotify will sell labels pop-up ads, placement in “radio” algorithms, and access to “Discovery mode.”

Like all forms of payola, Spotify’s rate-card is a way for monopolists to edge out indies, buying their way into your ear-holes. I’m sure that the Big Three would rather keep the bribes they pay to Spotiify, but the consolation prize is pretty sweet.

If the Big Three are the only ones who can afford to buy access to Spotify’s audience, then creators are driven to sign with them, and have less bargaining leverage when they negotiate their deals.

Spotify, meanwhile, can consolidate its gains by driving up those fees, pitting labels against each other in a bidding war for access to listeners. This effectively drives down the royalty rate Spotify pays, because every new track will have to buy in to get any reach.

Spotify talks a good game about how it uses big data and machine learning to pick the songs you hear, but increasingly, the algorithm is getting far less compute-intensive, a simple sort-by-highest-bidder system you could operate from a laptop running Windows 3.1 and Excel.

In theory, streaming losses can be made up with touring. Acts who attain digital popularity can charge access at the door to clubs and other venues. The only problem is that live performance is also a monopoly business.

The 800lb gorilla there is Livenation, a division of the ticket monopolist and notorious arm-breakers Ticketmaster — spun out of Clear Channel, the monopolist that we now know as Iheartradio.

Livenation parlayed its access to the capital markets to buy out $1b worth of venues and promoters, before being acquired by Clear Channel for $4.4b in 2005. Today, it’s a division of Liberty Media, consolidated with Ticketmaster, Pandora, and Siriusxm.

What goes around, comes around: Liberty’s private equity owners are in the process of buying up Iheartradio, re-merging all of Clear Channel’s spinouts into one giga-monopolist.

The conglomerate already coerces artists to book exclusively in its clubs and using its ticketing, starving independent venues. Add 850 terrestrial radio stations to the mix and it will choke off all the oxygen that independent venues, promoters and ticketers rely on.

Liberty didn’t buy all these companies because it’s passionate about music and wanted to ensure artists got a fair shake. By rolling up the entire live music/radio supply-chain, it bought the power to extract vast sums from musicians, and to keep rivals out of the market.

Well, not all competitors. Lollapalooza co-founder Marc Geiger raised tens of millions for “Savelive,” a new would-be monopolist that offered to “rescue” live music venues in exchange for a 51% stake in them.

Savelive illustrates an important point about the nature of monopolies: they beget more monopolies. Consolidation in the labels meant that only the largest streaming companies could negotiate a sustainable rate.

But consolidation in radio drives consolidation in labels — and many of the indie radio stations that survived the first wave of consolidation were picked up cheap by Iheartradio once monopolistic streamers ate their lunch.

This is a pattern across the whole entertainment industry: bookstore mergers and big box retailers drove consolidation in publishing; that was accelerated by consolidation in online ebook and physical book retail.

It’s not limited to the entertainment sector either. As David Dayen describes in his essential book MONOPOLIZED, hospitals didn’t start consolidating until the pharma industry underwent a wave of brutal mergers and started gouging for drugs.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

Hospital consolidation led to gouging insurers, leading to a wave of insurance consolidation. Today, nearly every part of the health industry is monopolized, from pharmacy benefit managers to medical labs.

The only parts of the supply chain that doesn’t monopolize — that can’t monopolize — are the ends of the chain: the people who work in the system, and the people who use it.

Monopoly punishes doctors and nurses and other health workers — and it punishes patients.

It punishes writers and publishing workers, and it punishes readers.

It punishes musicians and independent venue owners, and it punishes listeners.

When every part of the supply chain gets so monopolized that it can’t easily be squeezed by any other part of the supply chain, these giants turn on us — the workers and users of the system. We, the atomized and fragmented, cannot resist the squeeze.

But as Knox writes, the tide is turning. After 40 years of waving through anticompetitive mergers in the name of “efficiency,” the DoJ and FTC are under new management, with two-fisted trustbusters like Lina M Khan at the helm.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

This new cohort of monopoly fighters reject the “consumer welfare” theory of antitrust (the idea that monopolies drive prices down and are therefore good for society), going to war against the hegemonic orthodoxy that began with Ronald Reagan.

https://doctorow.medium.com/epic-v-apple-d3e59893b4f3

The new antitrust is surging, with bills in the House and Senate, executive orders from the White House, regulatory proceedings at the DoJ and FTC, and an interagency-cabinet coordination committee that ties it all together.

This new antitrust promises workers and users of monopolized industries a better alternative than rooting for one giant to beat another in hopes that they will drop a few crumbs for the rest of us to enjoy.

Creative workers don’t have to choose between Big Tech and Big Content based on their assessment of which monopolist will abuse them the least. Instead, we can root for antimonopoly, for giant-slaying, and the right to self-determination.

The most important immediate step towards that future is blocking new anticompetitive mergers, like Sony’s bid for AWAL, or Liberty Media’s use of a $500m SPAC to go on a vertical monopoly shopping spree.

The agencies have the power to stop these. They should. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

But ending anticompetitive mergers won’t get us out of that hole: most industries (from beer to cheerleader uniforms to wresting to eyeglasses) are already monopolized.

The new trustbusters — and the ILSR — want to use antitrust law to break up these conglomerates. I think that’s right: vertical monopolies will always engage in self-dealing to the detriment of independents, workers and customers. Break. Them. Up.

But breaking up is hard to do. When the DoJ tried to break up IBM, the company’s lawyers outspent the entire DoJ antitrust division, every single year, for twelve consecutive years, and in the end, it escaped breakup.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. IBM escaped justice because Reagan was elected and neutered antitrust. And even though it remained intact, it was never the same — for one thing, it decided that it was too risky to make its own PC OS.

IBM knew that antitrust enforcers were very suspicious of tying software to hardware — so it tapped a couple of hacker kids, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, to sell it DOS, from their new company “Micro-Soft.”

Unfortunately for all of us, antitrust enforcement only declined after that, so IBM was able to return to its monopolistic ways, and Microsoft escaped from antitrust scrutiny after a mere seven years in regulatory hell.

Antitrust enforcement can sap monopolists of the will to power, as they become increasingly concerned that their actions will attract aggressive legal reprisals.

Think of how Apple “lost” the Epic lawsuit but still “voluntarily” rescinded its heretofore hard rule against apps providing links to web-pages where you can use third-party payment processors to make purchases.

As monopolists lose their nerve, space opens up for all kinds of pro-worker, pro-user interventions, far beyond those afforded by traditional antitrust.

Next year, Beacon Press will publish THE SHAKEDOWN, a book I co-wrote with Rebecca Giblin about the monopolistic corruption of creative labor markets and how creative workers, regulators and fans can resist it.

The Shakedown catalogs the ways that monopolization of investment, distribution and sale of creative works allows entertainment companies, Big Tech, and major retailers to shift an ever-larger share of the creative industry’s revenues from workers to themselves.

More importantly, we identify tools beyond breakups that we can use to de-monopolize the industry — things we can do right now, without having to wait for the conclusion of an antitrust suit that might run for decades.

Take reversion rights: many copyright systems allow creators to take back their rights after a set period (35 years in the US). This lets artists who signed bad deals — before they were proven successes — to resell their catalog or extract reparations by threatening to.

But reversion is really hard to do, and 35 years is way too long. Only an handful of creators — even those with valuable catalogs that could be renewed through reversion — ever manage it.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/06/backsies/#take-backs

Congress (and other legislatures around the world, including Canada, where this is likely to come up in the new Parliament) could fix reversion: make it easier to do, and make it available after a shorter period — say, 14 years.

And what about those bad contracts? The “freedom to contract” has always been subject to limits, where some clauses are deemed unenforceable “as against public policy” or because they are “unconscionable.”

With the entertainment sector consolidated into just a couple of states, state legislatures could act to void the most abusive clauses — for example, clauses that allow labels to claw back royalties indefinitely to recoup (often inflated or fictitious) “expenses.”

Our book explores dozens of these kinds of ideas, from co-operatives to trade unions; better accounting practices and direct arts subsidies; radical interoperability and collective licensing; minimum wages for creative labor and collective bargaining.

None of these are replacement for reducing the size and power of conglomerates throughout the supply chain, but all of them are interventions we can make as the power and nerve of conglomerates declines, changes that will hasten that decline and open more space for breakups.

And all of them are applicable, to a greater or lesser extent, to helping workers and users of all the other consolidated industries, from health care to cheerleading.

For example, expanding California’s ban on noncompete clauses would help fast-food workers nationwide — because today, fast food employers are the most aggressive abusers of noncompetes.

That means that a fried chicken cashier earning the tipped minimum wage can’t quit to work at a burger joint across the street for a $0.25/hour raise. Creative workers aren’t the only ones suffering from monopolization — we’re not even the worst off.

But by definition, creative workers have a platform. We reach people. We have the potential to help form the kind of unstoppable coalition that we’ll need to reverse the generations of oligarchic, post-Reagan consolidation.

You may have heard about how Danish McDonald’s workers earn $22/hour and get six weeks’ paid vacation and sick leave. That didn’t come about because McDonald’s was required by law to pay it.

It was worker solidarity that did it. As Matt Bruenig writes, McDonald’s initially refused to sign the voluntary “hotel and restaurant” collective agreement. So its workers went on strike.

https://mattbruenig.com/2021/09/20/when-mcdonalds-came-to-denmark/

Now, if McD’s workers had struck alone, they’d probably have lost. But Danish law allows for sympathy strikes — that is, it allows workers in other parts of the supply chain to take industrial action to support their sisters and brothers who are striking.

When the McD’s workers walked out in 1989, sixteen other sectoral unions joined them. They didn’t just help picket at leaflet in front of McD’s restaurants!

Dockworkers wouldn’t unload McD’s shipments. Printers wouldn’t print their cups and placemats.

Builders downed tools on McDonald’s construction projects. Typesetters wouldn’t set the McD’s ads in the daily papers. Truckers wouldn’t deliver to McD’s restaurants. Food industry workers wouldn’t produce the drink syrups, fries and other inputs to the McDonald’s kitchens.

McD’s caved.

Now, as Bruenig points out, these kinds of sympathy strikes are illegal in the US, but it’s a mistake to think that workers don’t have power because sympathy strikes are illegal — rather, sympathy strikes are illegal because workers don’t have power.

Workers across all sectors face the same kinds of monopolistic exploitation. Workers across all sectors have a common enemy (literally, thanks to “common ownership” where companies like Vanguard and Berkshire Hathaway hold significant stakes in almost every major company).

With a shared cause, shared tactics, solidarity and a renewed sense that we can do more than root for the giant we think will mistreat us the least, creative workers and their sisters and brothers in every sector can reverse generations of losses.

That’s why the new antitrust matters — because it is an assault on the consolidation that gives all industries the power to shift money and other forms of value from workers and users to a small elite of investors.

#pluralistic

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likeawildthing · 3 years

Text

Not to be morbid on main, but everyone dies and people are rarely prepared for it. It’s so much easier when you know your loved one’s wishes. So even if you’re a teenager or twenty-three and healthy, I hope this helps you start thinking about end-of-life wishes, because it can happen to us all (both the dying and, rudely, being died upon).

Cremations are an affordable way to subvert the funeral industry, but going this route puts the burden of “the little things” on the family. I’ve learned a lot in the last 36 hours and wanted to pass those things that weren’t on any checklists, because the burden is on you to navigate the process.

Putting this under a cut because it’s so long (although not comprehensive). Obviously some of this is altered because COVID and some is meant to be applicable in some distant, theoretical future when we can go out to lunch again.

Before you die

Think about it, talk about it, write it down

Think about what kind of rememberance you want, if any. If it doesn’t matter, tell people that so they don’t fret about it and grieve in whatever way works best for them.

Communicate now to save your family and friends angst later.

Build an “in case of death” binder, zip drive, google doc with links, etc. Make sure your passwords are up to date so that’s not an administrative nightmare for your loved ones.

Advanced directives. Here’s a great article explaining the types of medical advanced directives and decisions to make before an accident or illness happens, including whether you want to donate your organs.

We lost grandma for about twenty minutes yesteday because we couldn’t find the paperwork and grandpa couldn’t remember where they signed up for services. Death. Binder. Have a death binder/folder/zip drive so no one loses grandma.

Insurance.

You likely have insurance through work, so consider that. It will also expire if you leave your job.

You can usually get, with minimal fuss, a 10- or 20-year term policy with enough to cover your arrangements and debts for less than $20 a month. Death expenses are anywhere from $5-$20k, conservatively.

Talk to your auto insurance agent and score a multi-line discount.

Body snatchers.

If you want to be cremated, talk to a local crematory beforehand and give them your basic information. It can be paid out of your estate (i.e. by your family or a life insurance policy) when it happens.

Most funeral homes (I believe) require pre-payment. It’s super morbid but there are TONS of heavily discounted grave sites for sale on Craigslist if that’s the route you want to go.

Here’s a list of certified green burial sites in the US.

Donating your body to science 101.

Memorial service.

The idea of a “proper” funeral is more or less out the window, especially in the time of COVID. Celebration of life? Religious ceremony (or not)? A picnic at your favorite park? Anything goes, so figure it out now.

When my sister-in-law died, we had a celebration of life at a non-profit who donated the space and had a poker tournament with her ash tin (she lost).

Whether you have strong or no preferences, write that down to guide decision-making.

Memorials.

Traditionally people would donate money in the event of a death to a charity, foundation, or family account, or flowers to a funeral home or church.

Family accounts (like for children) are traditionally done in care of the deceased’s bank but online fundraisers are a thing.

If you have a particular charity you love, add this to your list of wishes.

Food.

Before COVID it was pretty typical for there to be some kind of meal after a funeral. Will this be a restaurant?

This is ultimately up to the family but if you have strong preferences (i.e. no church or Italian food), tell people now.

Obituary.

Writing down the basic facts of your life, hobbies, and accomplishments you want included in your obituary means your family doesn’t have to do a guessing game.

Plants, animals, stuff, etc.

Do you want your clothes to go to a specific charity?

Do you NOT want your stuff to go to a specific charity? (Goodwill is terrible!)

Who will get your car (person, donate, sell)? Want to have your record collection to go one sister? Obviously family will divvy up stuff how they like, but write down any special considerations.

Have a plan for your pets (insurance, vet info, guardianship).

Please organize and digitize your photos if they aren’t already.

If you lose someone close:

Identify the primary griever

Support that person/those people by providing feedback when solicited, running errands as needed, and running interference so they aren’t inundated with all the little things.

Notifying people

Use the phone tree method. Great Aunt M will be happy to help by calling your cousins. Your boss, coworkers and HR. Your mom’s best friend/your adoptive aunt, your mom’s bunco group.

Ask that family not put anything on social media until the principal people are informed. I found out my grandpa died on facebook!

Esp these days, set boundaries for visits (who, where, and in what capacity).

Designate one person to be the primary contact for extended family to keep the burden off the primary griever(s).

Give this persons’ information when the first phone calls are made. It also makes sense for this person to be the travel coordinator.

This person should have a good handle on family dynamics (i.e. my aunt is flying in and would drive my grandma nuts so she’s staying with Mom).

This should be their only task because it’s time consuming.

Food

When people die, people gather, even in the time of COVID. Be responsible but expect a ton of drop by food. Clean out the primary griever’s fridge in anticipaton.

Organization

Start a shared family Google doc or sheet. Consolidate to do lists, anecdotes, important contact information, questions and inquiries, etc.

Pay to have the houses of anyone hosting (gatherings, people coming in from out of town, etc.) cleaned. Or, delegate. This can be an act of service for someone who wants to help and doesn’t mind doing the work.

Find the death binder (hopefully), legal documentation, etc. Get a folder or binder for papers if one doesn’t exist. And start a shared google doc for loved ones to track everything.

Delegate

I know I have said this three times, but it’s important. If you’re a primary decision maker do not be the primary do-er. My mom is the primary decision maker so my sisters and I are doing literally everything else.

Say YES when people ask if they can help you. Look at your running list of to-dos and say yes.

Pay to have the houses of people who are hosting cleaned. It will seriously be such a life saver, or this can be an act of service for someone who wants to help.

Social media

You will need to decide what to do with a person’s social media. Do you start a tribute page? Turn their facebook (if they’re old) into a tribute page for a time? Indefinitely? Things to think about.

Thank yous

Keep a running list of people to thank after via hand-written thank you notes. The link includes guidelines on

who should receive a thank you note (gave flowers, brought food, made donations, helped with arrangements or the service(s), did readings, or went well out of their way to warm your heart or show up)

when to send them (ideally 2-3 weeks after the funeral)

here’s how to write them (it doesn’t matter if you buy fancy, ones or dollar store ones, make sure they’re hand written).

Receipts.

Don’t be the petty biatch your cousins hate, but do save significant receipts to be reimbursed by the estate. (I.e. catering hundreds of dollars of food, paying $250 for programs and thank-you cards like I just did, etc.)

Service.

You will have a million decisions to make including

what kind of service to hold, if any

where to hold it

costs

hymns, readings, and anecdotes to share

who will be pall bearers, readers, vocalists, and give eulogies

Crematories handle cremation only, not the service details.

you will need photo boards (Hobby Lobby has nice black foamcore ones) or a powerpoint (and a way to display it depending on the venue)

a guest or memorial book

a card basket,

memorial cards, possibly programs, and thank you cards

Officiants, musicians, religious institutions, etc. all need to be paid (and tipped) for their time.

If we ever wrangle this pandemic, donating funeral flowers to a nursing homes is a fantastic way to brighten residents’ days.

Obituary.

Obituaries are expected, but traditionally costly ($200-$800). As part of the publishing fee, most newspapers keep the obituary on legacy.com indefinitely.

A funeral home will assist you with this, but the burden will be on you and your loved ones if using other methods.

These take hours to write and many hands does not make light work. Keep it to 2-4 key people. Having the facts laid out will help, and so will looking at other obituaries. I read a great tip which was to write about your loved one in present tense first, then change the tense before submission.

Newspapers will update your spelling and grammar but that’s about it. Cheaper alternatives:

Death notice which gives age, date and location of death, and who is handling funeral arrangements. Our crematory put in the death notice for us because they had her body, but the requirements on this likely vary state-to-state.

Here is a place to put a free online obituary.

Plants, animals, stuff, etc.

Save the plants and pets.

Household misc. are usually not dictated by the will, except in special circumstances or contested items. Closest members will go through possessions first. Voice early if you want something in particular, but understand that you may not get it. That’s ok.

Going through someone’s life is an overwhelming process. You may be repulsed and sad and overwhelmed and amused, all at the same time.

In deciding what to keep, as I’ve now cleared out three houses, I’ve found that quality over quantity is the way to go. The sweet spot? 1-2 sentimental + useful things. My great grandmother’s thimble and juicer? Use them all the time, and I remember her lemonade.

It’s okay to throw away some keepsakes and let things get thrown out or donated, depending on the thing.

Don’t give into guilt if you don’t want the china your Aunt Karen is pressuring you into taking when she doesn’t want it either.

Legal stuff.

If someone dies, there will be all kinds of legal things you will need to do (bank accounts, utilities, debtors, education, etc.), investments or 401k, etc.

This varies too much by state and circumstance to talk about in depth but there are guides to specifically help you.

If someone you love has lost someone they love

Do not give platitudes or ask if they’re ok

Don’t expect a response from someone grieving

Do send a card! It’s so thoughtful. I keep a stack of blank condolence cards and a set of forever stamps in my closet. It doesn’t have to be a $20 card to be special.

Don’t judge someone by how they grieve

Offer specific, actionable help if you’re close enough to give it

I am going to come over and clean at 10, leave the house unlocked

I’m at the store and am going to buy cheap vodka unless you tell me what kind of wine you want

oops I got you an uber eats gift card in your gmail sorry/not sorry

Buy thank you cards with stamps as a condolence gift, depending on the person and situation

Send a plant instead of a bouquet of flowers

Make a donation in the loved one’s name if you have the funds

If the grieving person is someone super close (best friend, sister, etc.) add the date in your recurring calender so you can check up on them this day next year with a card and/or phone call

#cw death #grief #end-of-life decisions

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numbaoneflaya · 3 years

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Can I get a list of all ur ocs?

Well anon youve done it, you made me make a list of all my major OCS in one place. I hope your happy with yourself. Under the cut for obvious reasons, may link in my blog desc later.

Modern/BTD verse!!

Jilly- Ferret beastkin little creature, was recently turned into a werewolf by vincent as well so she's running around on full moons in a wereferret wolf hybrid creature form. Chaotic and friendly and wants to be everyone's bestie. She has the most energy in the world and is very kind hearted. Banned from most Claires for stealing and from one Home Depot for climbing the shelves. Prone to living life with rose colored glasses on and seeing the best in everything/everything even when there's nothing there. Socialization is a must for her and is why being basemented/kidnapped broke her psych so quickly and developed severe stockholm. Sometimes overly talkative/enthusiastic and can scare people off. Even if she sees someone shes decided shes friends with be noticeably 'evil', will convince herself it must be for some reason/her fault and ignore it.

Ciggy- Undead punk still learning to harness his powers to interact with the world as a ghost. Was sacrificed by a cult he joined for free concert tickets and to get laid. Likes to cause problems on purpose both pre and prior death and he's not above possessing someone once he learns how to. Was called Rooster in high school before he dropped out because he's loud, obnoxious and always screaming. And also has bright red dyed hair. Looking 4 ways to become less ghosty bcs he wants to be able to help raise his infant daughter, whom he died before he could meet. Bit annoying and in your face, likes poking at bruises, his or others. Kind of a sad heart seeking attention through volume and persistence.

Mike: Vampire loser! Sells drugs and lives at raves. Was turned when she was attacked by a coked out vampire (whom she supplied the product to) and has major scarring on her face and chest. Needs a somewhat constant influx of blood so shell sometimes take victims back to her place and chain them up, slowly draining them over time. Feels bad (ish) about it tho so it is possible to survive her if you are nice and or interesting enough. Kind of desperate for a friend and for love. Is a stalker. If she likes you enough/finds you interesting, she might just appear in your house one night and start rummaging through your fridge like nothing is wrong and youve been besties for years. Its best to indulge her and be friendly, otherwise she could turn violent quickly if her feelings are hurt.

Kilaine- Regular human woman, but fucked up. Born and raised by an elite waspy society she had an interest in the human body and pain tolerance since she was young. Quickly learned that these traits were socially unacceptable in most professions, so she became a doctor. The only family she cared about was her younger sister who she lost in a car accident, where they were flipped over and trapped inside while it was afire. While her sister burned up in front of her Kilaine only lost her left arm and had major burns on her body. This tipped her descent into sadism and she is now madly obsessed with bringing her sister back no matter the cost. Rude and offstandish, clinical.

Dragon age verse!

Thurwen- My main Hero of Ferelden with a bad temper and a heart of gold. City elf from the Denerim Alienage, 18 at the start of origins. She's a reaver warrior with a lot of pent up rage which sometimes scares others when she lets it out in battle. Over the years she's grown less moody as she's had to take the role of Commander. Crude sense of humor and violent impulses, very sensitive to the plights of others and tries often to help. Never seen crying in public but only cries to herself at night- major martyr and hanged man complex.

Caz- My circle mage elf inquisitor who was an apostate before the conclave. Blood magic, but make it sneaky. Wary of strangers and new faces, always dealing with the impulse to flee/find a high vantage point. Endless curiosity about the unknown/ the forbidden/ naughty, was supposed to be made tranquil for it but she escaped. Kind of a little creature as well, lived on her own for a while as an apostate in the woods, filed her teeth down to sharp ends to make herself look more intimidating (shes 5 ft tall) and less cute (her elf ears are huge and expressive, which shes embarrassed about)

Dag and Thagna- Carta twins! Professional lyrium smugglers since birth pretty much. Raised casteless in dust town and had to work their way up the chain of command by themselves. Dag is the brother, Thagna the sister. Their father traded them to the carta for drinking money and their mom died in childbirth so they have somewhat of a codependent relationship. Both charismatic and calculating, friendly and agreeable but won't hesitate to put a dagger in your back. Hard to pin down morally or physically, squirrelly bastards.

Reila: Dalish elf who works for the inquisition/ is the inquisitor in some aus. She has an extreme fixation on elvhen history and rebuilding what they have lost. Not a people person, prefers solitude. Takes some time to warm up to shemhlen as she has a hard history with them. Good friends with Caz, who recruited her in the first place. Doesn't understand very many social cues and finds societal expectations limiting and frustrating. Fondness for halla and hooved animals, which she finds graceful.

Elder scrolls verse!

Valkya: Near seven foot nord woman whos over a thousand years old by the events of skyrim. Tall and buff, two handed warrior and compulsive hero there to bask in the spotlight save the day. She was killed at the start of the events of Elder scrolls online and had her soul ripped out and sent to coldharbor and she's just been a pain in the ass about it since then. Her body can physically die and will not regrow pieces. Her soul however will escape and teleport to the nearest source of power where her body will regrow from an aetherial plasm until its whole again. Loud and brash, friendly and jovial. Actually pretty keen especially after centuries of life but prefers to play dumb as it makes people underestimate her. Plus, she really does enjoy mud wrestling and drinking contests and acting generally like a rambunctious frat boy. Ha developed a bit of a substance problem and a problem with acting out, as after being alive so long she would turn to anything to dull the ache inside of her that never goes away.

Espira- My Dragonborn! Redguard from Hammerfell who was briefly in the Ash’abah due to killing undead while protecting her parents water farm as a child. Ran away from them after years and went to Cyrodille, then to Skyrim and was caught crossing the border. Reserved, kind and soft spoken, she's a sword and shield warrior who's committed herself to doing good in the world by helping others. Dislikes killing and anything messy but believes it is often necessary in order to protect the weak. She blacksmiths often to save money on the upkeep of her own equipment, and takes up metal jewelry working as a hobby with the excess material. Prone to trusting others too much and giving too many second chances, as shes always looking for ways to make even the most hardened criminal a second look at life.

Riley- Espiras little brother who she locked in the wardrobe during the event of the water farm attack. In preventing him from doing violence against the undead she kept him from being conscripted into the Ash’abah. He's way more chaotic than his sister, and suffers from a case of little sibling syndrome in which he will often pester/poke at people just to get a rise out of them. Still kind hearted as his sister, he tries to hide it because he believes that the world is a cruel place and the cruel survive. Despite that belief he is often still unable to force himself to be cruel/careless, only making a show of it so that others leave him alone and don't see that he's very sensitive and emotional. Deaf in one ear due to a magic mishap in his youth, he trained and enchanted his most beloved rats to live for years and sit on his shoulder, alerting him to noises he would not otherwise notice.

Felria: Evil vamp :/ chaotic evil dunmer necromancer. Small and devilish and likes dead bodies too much. Manipulative and cunning, she loves acting. She's a trained assassin for the dark brotherhood and is the speaker. Likes dressing up for missions and wearing disguises like its all a play. Loves toying with people more than she loves killing them, will act in ways that cause as much trauma as possible for other people just for fun and she finds the reactions interesting. Considers herself too far removed from most people's perception of morality and of her so it's hard for her to trust someone or see them as worthy of knowing her. Finds the psychology of grief and fear to be interesting and wants to study them first hand. The hero of kvatch.

Herren: Fifty something year old rat woman looking for something to keep her going. Ran away from her wealthy family in her youth when they wanted her to take charge of the household, instead became an infamous jewel thief and swashbuckler. Spent most of her life traveling and stealing and double dealing. She's smarmy and sarcastic, a serial romancer of the highest caliber. Bit of a show off and a hedonist, always looking for the next good party or new product to snort. Her family died off due to the hard times she wasn't there for and she keeps looking for bigger and bigger heists to fill her appetite as she's chronically bored and lonely, though wont accept intimacy and will scoff at it out of the belief she doesn't deserve it. Irresponsible and selfish, lonely and terrified of any sort of commitment. Fun to party with though!

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