#the problem is that that juicy stuff seems to be 1% of what people blog about it

[stackslip]

i wish i could get into dungeon meshi but ngl the more people post about it on tumblr the less interested i am in it

#i can bear only so much dnd based fantasy worlds #also i am contrarian #and i keep hearing about its great women but i have a feeling this is a case of 1-2 decently written female characters #with the bar being so low it's seen as an achievement #maybe im just being antagonistic for no reason there's stuff in there that looks juicy #the problem is that that juicy stuff seems to be 1% of what people blog about it #eli talks

[nashibirne]

Where The Wild Roses Grow - An August Walker Story

Pairing: August Walker x OFC (Fern) Summary: Don't screw the crew? This doesn't work for August Walker Warnings: Smut, Sex, 18+, NSFW, unprotected sex, oral sex mentioned, kinda soft August This is kinda AU, because August survived the events of MI:Fallout Unbeta'ed! English is not my mother tongue, so consider yourself warned Disclaimer: I don't own August Walker (but he owns me...) Credits: Pics for the header from Pinterest

A big thank you to the wonderful @legendarywizarddetective Honey, thanks for your support, your advice and your opinion. You have no idea, how much I appreciate your help <3 xxx

tag list: @lunedelorient @inlovewithhisblueeyes @willkatfanfromasia @hell1129-blog @mis-lil-red @agniavateira @kebabgirl67 @omgkatinka @legendarywizarddetective @summersong69 @taebfada @xxxkatxo @madbaddic7ed @artandotherdelights

You can find the next parts and my other fics on my Masterlist

~~~~~

Chapter 1

Fern

I'm bent over my desk, still recovering from my orgasm, while August is railing me hard from behind to reach his own climax. It doesn't take him long. He comes with a suppressed growl that turns into a satisfied moan slowly. As usual he pulls out right after, gives me a playful slap on my naked butt and stuffs his dick back into his pants with a smug smile.

He never undresses to fuck me and he never asks me to get naked. He just hitches up my skirt or dress, pulls my panties out of the way and enters my pussy with his fingers, his tongue or his dick. My clothes have turned into some kind of code with time. If I wear trousers I know he won't touch me, so if I choose to wear a pair of jeans it's my way to say no. If I wear a skirt or a dress he knows he can have me if he wants to. It doesn't happen every day or on a regular basis, sometimes we fuck five days in a row and sometimes we don't for two weeks and that's part of its charm.

Whenever it happens, it is always quick and dirty and pretty good. Sure, there's no tenderness, no cuddling, hardly any kissing but it still is great sex. Satisfying and uncomplicated, no strings attached. I never thought I could enjoy physical love without being emotionally involved, but with August it works somehow. I don't even know how it happened, can hardly tell how this started. 

I used to work at the CIA as a team assistant, he was THE notorious agent, August "The Hammer" Walker, effective, discreet, intimidating, mysterious, larger-than-life. Yeah, I know, this alone sounds sexy as hell and you haven't even seen him. Tall, broad shouldered, dark hair, blue eyes, face like an angel but his signature mustache and the three-days-stubble giving it a dangerous touch. We got along quite well but it was all strictly professional back then. He always kept a distance, not only from me but from everyone and I knew he was well out of my league anyway, even if we hadn't worked together. 

After the disaster with Ethan Hunt I was shocked, devastated even, because I'd never expected him to be a traitor and I was sure I'd seen the last of him after the events in Kashmir. To my big surprise he contacted me a few weeks after. He had somehow survived the fight with Hunt and the explosion and bailed himself out of this mess. I still don't know how he made it, what or who he sold to the government but it must have been a huge deal because they cleared his record and he was free to do whatever he wanted under one condition, he had to leave the country. He chose to make a fresh start in London and to set up a cyber security business with a partner. This partner is Peter Brooks, who is an ex-hacker August knows from some CIA investigations, and they are the perfect team -August sells security, Peter programs it, August is responsible for the hardware, Pete for the software. And a good team needs a team assistant and that was the point where I got involved.

I don't know why he asked me of all people, maybe because he knew I was unattached and because we had already proven that we worked together well. I asked him several times for his reasons but he always shrugged it off. I was hesitant about taking his offer, of course I was, I didn't trust him anymore, he had been public enemy number one and to be honest I was scared. I was afraid of him, of what he could be up to, of the potential for violence he was radiating and his criminal energy in general, but he offered me lots of money, a wonderful apartment in Shoreditch and he promised me that he would never expose me to any kind of danger, that he'd changed and that I would never have to do something illegal for him. I believed him, mostly because I wanted to. I was desperate to add a little adventure to my boring existence and earning much more than an average assistant plus living in one of the greatest cities in the world seemed to be an attractive prospect. Up to now I haven't regretted my decision.

August has kept his word. There are no signs that the company is involved in any illegal deals and as far as I know he is not scheming or hiding something. Actually I'm quite sure of that because we all know that the federal authorities keep a close eye on him and his little business. Moreover we've got to know each other quite well and I imagine that I would know if he was hiding something from me. Maybe I would, maybe it's just wishful thinking but I tend to say that I can judge him quite well by now. That's not surprising actually, considering how much time we spend together, 12 to 16 hours a day, five to six days a week.

How did the sex thing begin you ask? I don't really know. Maybe it was the glances he started to give me, the attention I wasn't used to. I just started to feel good around him, sexy and wanted. Of course it's flattering that a handsome man like him shows interest in someone like me, even if it's just physical.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. He travels a lot, is away for days or weeks sometimes and I know he doesn't end up lonely in his hotel room every night. But we have kind of a don't-ask-don't-tell-policy and I'm fine with it.

The first time we fucked was a good year ago and 9 months after I came to London to work for Walker & Brooks SecTec. I wore one of my summer dresses, dark blue with white dots, plain but cute, and August complimented me on my outfit several times that day. He had never done this before. When I was just about to leave he suddenly stood in the doorway of my office and looked at me with a feral grin that gave me goosebumps. "What?" I asked him with a frown. 

"Nothing. It's just...you better not wear that dress again at work." His grin turned into a smirk. 

"Why? You said you like it." I looked down at my body, feeling self-conscious all of the sudden. 

"Right. I like it a little too much, Fern." 

I gave him a sheepish smile. "What's that supposed to mean?" He came closer, standing right in front of me now. 

"It means you look so delicious in that dress, you're giving me a hard time trying to control myself around you." 

I was speechless in that moment and pretty sure that he was making fun of me. In my whole life there hadn't been a single man that had problems with his self control around me. I'm just not the kind of woman that drives a guy out of his mind.

"That's not funny."

"It's not supposed to be funny. I'm serious."

He looked me deep in the eyes, his face was just inches away from mine. Suddenly he grabbed me by my waist and spinned me around, pulling me close to him. "Your ass is so juicy in that dress, your waist so small, your breasts so beautiful, I just can't stop thinking about touching you." He whispered all this into my ear and then I felt his lips on my neck. They brushed the sensitive flesh just lightly. He did nothing more for a moment, and I knew he hesitated to give me a chance to turn him down, to say no to him. I didn't. I said yes that day. I let him kiss my neck. I let him squeeze my ass. I let him caress my tits. I turned around and kissed him and I moaned into his mouth under his touch. I felt how hard he was, how much he wanted me and it was the greatest turn-on. All the dirty things he told me, the magic his skilled hands worked on my body, the sexual energy and the dominance he was radiating from every pore - I was putty in his hands, willing to give him everything...everything I had craved since I'd moved here. I was touch starved, there hadn't been a single date or something because my whole life was like eat-work-sleep-repeat. He fucked me on my desk that day. Standing between my legs -my dress hitched up, my panties lying in the corner of the room- he thrust his big dick into my needy pussy with force and without mercy, giving me one of the most intense orgasms of my life.

***

August

Fern. I know she hates her name, but if you ask me, it's beautiful. Old fashioned in a good way, special, innocent and very pretty. Just like the woman who bears it. You wonder if that's the reason why I asked her to work for me? Because she's so pretty with her long honeyblond hair and the big brown eyes? You think I hired her because I wanted to fuck her right from the start? I'm sorry to disappoint you but you're wrong. I didn't see her that way in the beginning. 

When we worked together for the CIA she was in a relationship anyway. We never talked about it, it was all strictly professional back then, but she had this picture of a guy on her desk, a good looking man with a boyish smile and the aura of an intellectual snob. Eventually the picture vanished and wasn't replaced by a new one so I assumed she was unattached, which was one reason I considered her to be suitable. But the main reason was that she is simply very good at her job. Of all the assistants we had she was the best organized and structured one, she is smart and her quickness is extraordinary. She's friendly and sociable but most of all she is loyal and has integrity. In the old days you'd called her virtuous and that was exactly what I was looking for.

I knew to start a new life, a life as an upright citizen, I'd need help. Help from someone like her, not from someone like my partner Peter who struggles with keeping things legal too. To put it in a nutshell, I needed a moral compass and she was the right woman for the job and she still is. Keeping us on track, guiding us without even knowing it just by her natural sense of justice. Of course it was hard to convince her to trust me and to make her give up her life in the states and to begin anew in London and when she finally agreed it was a big relief.

Yeah, yeah, yackety-yack, you say? But why did you start to fuck her? 

Well, the not so flattering answer is, I did it because I wanted to know if I could. Peter said no. Never ever would a smart woman like Fern fuck her boss, he said when we talked about it one boozy evening. The two of us were celebrating a huge deal and I said something like I'd love to give Fern a special reward for her good work and he laughed out loud when he realized what I meant.

Well, I love a good challenge and there was something in her eyes, a gleam, a spark, that told me she was looking for an adventure, for anything to make her life a little more exciting and I was willing to give her what she was craving. And so it began.

It was supposed to be a one-off, just to prove to myself that I was able to seduce her but after the first time I wanted more. The way she let me fuck her and the way her body responded to mine was just too good to not do it again. She knows it's just sex, I didn't even have to explain it to her, it is obvious. As I said she's a quick thinker and she knows what it means that I don't even strip off my pants, that I just get out my dick to rail her.

Sometimes I eat her pussy before I fuck her, sometimes I make her ride my fingers, but I never undress myself or her. And she doesn't seem to care, she likes it and she never asks for more. She just wants a good orgasm and that's what she gets. She cums easily, she's clearly not one of the women who need a lot of time to have an orgasm, who need a long foreplay and cuddles afterwards and that's great because I'm not the right man for this kind of intimacy. I'm just a man who wants a good, satisfying fuck. I don't need love, I just need sex.

And today she's just given me that. After making her come with my mouth I fucked her hard on her desk and it was great. But now it's back to business, we have a job to do and Peter will be back from his lunch break in a few minutes. Of course he knows what's going on but we never fuck when he's around. I would because it's none of his business what happens behind closed doors but Fern is scared that he could walk in on us. "I could never look him in the eyes again, August. I swear I'd die from embarrassment." That's what she said when I wanted to have my ways with her in my office with Peter working next door one day. Virtuous, as I said. Luckily she's not such a prude when we're alone.

"Here's the Henderson file, I signed the contract. Send it back to them please." She nods and takes the papers from my hand. She's sitting behind her desk, the one I just fucked her on, and I love the thought that my cum is dripping into her panties right now. She never reeks of sex though, I guess she always has fresh panties in her handbag and she washes her pussy in the bathroom when we're done. Well organized and always prepared, that's Fern.

"I need to leave a little earlier today if that's okay. I have an appointment." She looks at me with a smile that I don't return. I hardly ever smile and she knows it. She doesn't take offence and keeps on giving me her sweet smiles that often brighten up my busy days and I appreciate it.

"Sure. What kind of appointment?"

She raises an eyebrow. "Curious much, huh?"

"It's job related...ex agent...you know how it is." I grin and turn to leave because I don't expect an answer.

"Piano lessons." Her voice makes me stop and turn around.

"So you finally decided to do it."

"Yeah. I thought a lot about what you told me. That you're never too old to learn stuff and to start with something new. So I decided to give it a try."

"That's good, Fern. I'm sure you're gonna nail it."

"Thanks, August. To be honest I'm pretty nervous. I still think I might be too old to learn it properly."

"You're only 32 and you don't have to become the next Rachmaninoff."

She laughs and it sounds as clear as a bell. "I'll keep that in mind." "Good girl." 

~~~~~~

#august walker #august walker smut #august walker x ofc #august walker fanfiction #henry cavill #henry cavill smut #henry cavill fanfiction #mission impossible fallout #august walker au #august walker fic

[impracticaldemon]

The Price of Fame

Fairy Tail fanfiction by impracticaldemon for Gray Day (September 1, 2020)

Author’s Note: I wanted to write something fun for Gray Day 2020, since Gray is my favourite Fairy Tail guy, and he needs more appreciation. This short fic takes place “some time” after the GMG, after the guild is back in Magnolia. Just go with it... One disclaimer: the image is kind of relevant, but mostly I just think it’s cool XD ~ Imp

The Price of Fame

Gray let his companion’s chatter wash over him, keeping his impatience in check and—hopefully—hidden.  The bar was dim, even on a sunny afternoon in late summer, and mercifully cool.  It was a traditional kind of place, with well-worn plank floorboards, and lots of scuffed dark wood and tarnished brass.  Gray liked it here, and could only hope that the man sitting beside him was telling the truth about only being in town for a short time.  He’d hate to have to start avoiding the place.

“So, now that your guild is famous—and you’re famous!—do you have any plans to, you know, do something with it?”

“Do something?”  Gray forced himself to focus.  Idle conversation with an old acquaintance wasn’t his thing.  He’d agreed to share a drink or two for politeness’ sake—Erza had been nearby when the man had come up to him—but he hadn’t been enthused about it, and he was regretting the decision.

“Well, yeah!  You know, get into the advertising game, make some money off it while people still know who you are!”

“…People know who I am.”  That sounded self-important, so Gray added, “I mean, those who need to know, know.”

His companion took a large swig of foamy beer, coughed, and shook his head.  “See, that’s a mistake right there, Gray!  That’s how come you’ll always be second best to that Natsu guy!”

Gray finished his beer—without choking on it—and leaned forward a little.  The temperature in the immediate area dropped a couple of degrees.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Well, I mean, look… I’m not trying to say you’re actually second best”—the man’s tone wasn’t convincing—“I’m just saying that Dragneel’s more showy, you know?  He knows how to get attention and keep it.  I’ll bet he’s a huge draw for promoting stuff.”

Gray forced himself to shrug.  It had taken time, effort, and a ton of practice, but he did better these days about not deep-freezing people who compared him negatively to Natsu.  …But it was annoying how many opportunities he’d had to practice his self-restraint.

“You’re right, Boritt—”

“Biritt.”

“—Yeah, Biritt. Anyway, you’re right that Natsu draws a lot of attention.  Not always good attention, though.” More like Magic Council Mad at Fairy Tail Again attention. Or Yet Another Town Bans Fairy Tail’s Team Natsu attention.

“Ehn, you know what they say about ‘any publicity is good publicity.’ The point is, the Grand Magic Games are still news, which mean that you are news.  Time for the spotlight and a good sponsorship deal, right?  I mean, come on, stop trying to be modest—”

Uh-huh, thought Gray, draining half the new beer the barkeep had just dropped off.  What’s your angle Biritt? We barely knew each other four years ago, let alone now.

Biritt sensed that he’d lost his audience somehow, and turned up the brightness on his smile.  He tried to punch Gray playfully on the shoulder, but Gray leaned forward at the last moment, and he didn’t connect.  Both men pretended that nothing had happened.

“So…” Biritt wasn’t giving up. “How about letting me help you make it big?  I’d hate to see you, you know, get overlooked.  I’ve been in the biz for a couple of years, and I’m sure I could hook you up with a couple of juicy contracts!  You should—”

“Oy—Popsicle Breath!”  A pink-haired man stood in the doorway, squinting into the gloom.

“Got a problem, Flamebrain?”  Gray could feel his quiet afternoon slipping away, but he was glad for the interruption.

“Yeah, I want to try out a coupla new moves, but Erza’s busy, and Laxus isn’t around, and Lucy says she’s busy washing her hair—again—and Happy went out somewhere, and Mira kinda banned me from the hall this morning, and Gramps said—oh hey, you know this guy too? Boritt, right?”

“It’s actually Biritt, Mr. Dragneel!  Like ‘beer!’”

“And ‘it’,” Gray added helpfully, his expression bland.

“Sure, yeah, okay.” Natsu smiled breezily.  Most people would have assumed he was unaware of Gray’s understated snark, but Gray suspected otherwise.

“So—sparring!” Biritt hopped off his barstool and advanced on Natsu, his expression covetous.  “I mean wow! A chance to see the kingdom’s top dragon slayer in action! Hope you don’t mind if I write up a little something for my travel blog?  My readers will be thrilled!  And I have a pretty big readership, Mr. Dragneel—trust me, you’d get only the best exposure.  Better yet, you might want to consider that agency agreement I mentioned earlier!”

“Uh, yeah…  I mean—I don’t think I—”

Gray was surprised.  It was unlike Natsu to sound so indecisive.  He might ignore something outright, or respond with something outrageous, but hesitation wasn’t his style.  Gray frowned internally.  It struck him again, more forcibly, that agreeing to drinks at his favourite bar with a bare acquaintance had been an odd thing for him to do.  Natsu wasn’t the only one out of character.

“Another drink, sir?”  Gray turned to the barkeep, and saw the twitchy look establishment owners got when their sixth sense told them that something was going on with a member of Fairy Tail.  He couldn’t blame them.

“No, I’m good.”  Gray paid for both sets of drinks and headed for the door.

“Whoa—Gray!”  That was Natsu, but he could also hear Biritt calling out to him in confusion.

As soon as all three of them were outside, Gray turned to Biritt.

“It’s been interesting, but I think I’ve got other things to do now.”

“Huh? Gray—wait—if it was something I said earlier…” The would-be publicity agent to Team Natsu sounded squeaky with anxiety.

“You mean trying to get to me about Natsu being more famous?  Or do you mean that you might have overreached yourself by trying to string both of us along at the same time?”

When the man started to protest, Gray’s patience snapped, and he conjured up an ice gag.  Natsu was staring at him.

“Um, Gray… I don’t think Erza’s going to be keen on this…”

“Maybe not, but I’ll bet she’ll be even less keen on Biritt here when she finds out that he tried to use magic to charm us into some kind of weird agency thing.”

“Mm-mm-mmmmmph!” Biritt sounded shrill, even through the ice. He could’ve been complaining about the cold, but Gray suspected it was more than that.

“Look, Biritt.  I’m sure you’re a master of the con game, and I seemed like the perfect patsy to you.  And I can’t blame you for thinking Natsu is totally oblivious to being manipulated, ‘cause he can be pretty dense.”

“Hey!”

Gray ignored Natsu.

“But seriously, guy…” He poked Biritt in the chest. “Just because we’re good at wrecking things doesn’t mean we aren’t good mages, you know?  Eventually I was going to realize you were messing with me by magic, and I wasn’t going to like it.  Seeing you with Natsu just let me figure you out sooner.”  

Gray wasn’t surprised when the man finally gave up and tried to run.  It was child’s play to snap on a set of ice manacles and drag him back.

“So now what?”  There was no trace of friendliness in Natsu’s expression as he studied Biritt.

“Now we hand him over to Erza, or Makarov, and go for a beer.”  Gray’s eyebrows rose a little.  “Or if you ask nicely, I’ll spar with you.”

“Give me a break, Ice Princess!”

“If you insist.”  Gray was suddenly looking forward to a good fight.

They ignored the muffled shrieks from their captive as they headed off to the guildhall to hand the whole problem over to somebody else. Gray just hoped that Erza didn’t get distracted by Biritt’s spiel once they let him speak again.  She had a weakness for cute merchandise…

[END]

Closing Note: Gray Fullbuster for the win! I hope you enjoyed the story. And if you can, help out a poor, beleaguered author (aka me) by adding a note, comment, or maybe something kind in the tags! Thank you for reading ♥

#fairy tail #gray fullbuster #natsu dragneel #ft fanfiction #gray day #imp writes

[dashboardcat]

I Try One of Everything at Salt City Market (Part 2)

Remember like 3 weeks ago when I did a write-up of a food hall in my hometown, guaranteed to attract the attention of like, 2 people?  Well, it’s time for more of that! 

Attempt #1

While there wasn’t a line outside this time, the market itself seemed just as busy as it was the day after the grand opening.  I also tried to make a point to take in more of the decor, but I don’t think I really have anything new to add other than the fact that I watched not one but two people struggle to stuff the big paper bags their food came in into the trendy, tiny-opening trash cans.  More importantly, I forgot that like, half of the stands are closed on Mondays, meaning I would have to come back another time to finish my quest. 

ERMA’S ISLAND- Jerk Pork (half portion)- $10

I want to say right off the bat that of all the things I’ve tried from this market, this was hands down the best smelling.  And thankfully, the pork pretty much tasted as good as it smelled.  It was tender and juicy, and the sauce was complex, with a good amount of heat that didn’t overpower the other flavors.  The rice and beans that it came with, on the other hand, was a little bland, but that’s nothing that mixing the sauce into can’t fix.  

Unfortunately, I can never show my face there again, because when the cashier asked me if I wanted the half or whole portion, I said “Yeah,” and made her repeat herself like 3 times.

MAMMA HAI- “Marco Polo” Banh Mi- $10

Yes, that’s pepperoni on a banh mi.

The roll was nice and crusty, and to be honest, that’s like 90% of what makes a good sandwich for me.  Unfortunately, the pickled veggies and cilantro (and this blog is pro-cilantro, get over yourselves, haters) sort of overpowered the pepperoni and the char siu pork, which is a shame because I wanted that pepperoni to shine.  If this was a $5 banh mi, I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but at $10 I would have liked a little more meat, or at least for the already existing meat to make its presence felt.  The pate and mayo kinda also get lost, but do present a bit of richness in about every other bite (and, for another controversial sandwich opinion, I don’t necessarily think that every bite of a sandwich has to have an even distribution of everything, otherwise the flavors sort of just blur together after a while).  Overall, it’s a fairly decent sandwich, but left me longing for something more.  They also have a curry chicken banh mi, maybe that one has a better balance of flavor.

CAKE BAR- Locus Cake- $6.50

One thing about Cake Bar that isn’t made apparent by looking at their stand is that, according to their website, it’s meant to resemble a Vietnamese cafe.  In hindsight, this kinda explains the wide variety of specialty teas (specialteas, if you will) they also had available.

The chocolate cake was moist and had little crispy bits running throughout it.  At first, I thought it was eggshells, because I’m an idiot and always assume the worst.  After picking out an especially large chunk, I realized it was broken up bits of Biscoff cookies! (Further research has shown me that the parent company that makes Biscoff cookies is called Locus, thus, y’know, the name of the cake.  Probably should have put that together sooner, it literally says “Locus” on the cookie, one of which was lodged into the top of the cake.)  The buttercream was surprisingly light, and the caramel on top had the perfect consistency, gooey enough to stay put but not so gooey that it turned into a stringy mess after running your fork through it.  The only negative thing I really have to say about the all-around experience was that the box they used made it kind of difficult to get the slice out of it (as you can see, I ended up just tearing the sides up).

Attempt #2 

Since the market is relatively close to my work, I figured I would drop by after work one day to bang out the rest of the list.

BAGHDAD RESTAURANT- Beef Shawarma- $6.99

At first, I laughed to myself upon seeing it in one of those gas station sub bags.  The laughing faded pretty quickly, though, upon seeing it was, in fact served on a sub roll. I'm not a shawarma expert. maybe that can be an acceptable way to eat it? The beef was well spiced and that perfect sweet spot between tender and still having something to sink your teeth into.  Unfortunately, that’s more or less where my compliments end.  What little sauce the menu promised (just called “sauce,” don’t ask me what it is) has soaked into the bread and completely disappeared, making the whole thing somewhat dry and lackluster.  Also, they didn’t cut it, which was fine with the heartier banh mi’s baguette but with the softer sub roll didn’t have the structural integrity to be picked up whole without a struggle.  My biggest gripe with it is mostly on me, though, as the juice from the pickles tainted most of it with pickle stank, which could have been avoided entirely if I had just ordered it without.  

SOULUTIONS- Mustard and Berbere Fried Chicken ($6) and FIRE MAC ($4)

(Note- the $6 order of chicken comes with 2 of these chicken cutlets, but I carelessly ate one before taking the picture.)

I do want to clear the air here and say that yes, I did accidentally order fried chicken and mac and cheese from both of the soul food places.  I was originally going to get the burger, at my friend’s recommendation, but the menu board by the register suspiciously didn’t have the burger on it, so I panicked and ordered the fried chicken again.  

While the breading was stained yellow from mustard, the honey mustard taste was very subtle.  I also have to admit to not knowing off the top of my head what berbere (I had to google it, it’s an Ethiopian spice blend) tastes like, so i can't tell you if this tasted like that.  But, despite not being especially strong in either of the namesake seasonings, it definitely is a flavorful piece of chicken nonetheless.  Flavors work that way sometimes.

The Fire Mac may not have delivered as strongly on cheese as I may have liked, but it definitely did deliver on the fire, drizzled with a tangy buffalo-esque sauce.  And Topped with crumbled bits of fried chicken skins? Can’t go wrong with that.

JUICE AND FLOWERS- “Root | 12” Juice- $8

Misleading name, I didn’t see any flowers anywhere.  Zero stars. 

The beet and lemon were the most pronounced of the flavors, with the ginger lingering on the palate and, unsurprisingly, the apple and carrot mostly being there to round the whole thing out.  The employee that waited on me was very passionate and knowledgeable about the juice, informing me that 2 pounds of produce had gone into this little bottle, and that it’d have a shelf life of 3-5 days.  Which is good, because I put it back in the fridge after I got home to chill it back down, and then proceeded to forget about it for 3 days.  It’s also a very thick and hearty juice, so it doesn’t feel that weird to only want to drink half a bottle in one sitting and, y’know, make this $8 bottle of juice last a little longer. 

Attempt #3

Knowing fully well that I was going to have a long night shift ahead of me, I decided to check out the Coffee Bar side of the market for what would be my third trip over the course of 5 days.  I feel like I should also point out that the Coffee Bar, as its name literally breaks down as, serves coffee during the day and a full bar at night.  I also noticed during this visit that the Coffee Bar has a patio seating area under construction, cheesy string lights and all, that I am looking forward to.

Fruity Pebbles Latte- $6

Against my best judgement, I got it “for here” for the sake of the pic, even though a.) I had to break my rule of not eating in places because this fucking pandemic isn’t over yet and b.) I was nervous about being late for work the whole time (I did, in fact, get there on time).  As I waited, I could see their secret recipe fruity pebbles milk sitting on the counter.  It was, in fact, fruity pebbles and milk.  

I didn’t really think the Fruity Pebbles would work with the espresso, having had been burned before by places that just dump them onto things with no regard of the flavor profile just for the sake of the burst of color.  But, somehow… it did work.  Maybe it’s because cereal milk is never quite as strong as some might hope, but the subtle fruitiness of the milk played well with the chocolatey notes in the espresso.  The espresso itself probably also had the best crema on it that I’ve ever seen on a latte (and yes, I had to google the pretentious espresso-snob term for the foam that floats to the top).

Also shoutout to the pour over, which on their menu board is priced at "4-ish"

I’m so glad I’m living with my parents again at the moment.  Otherwise, this whole thing would’ve been like, a month’s worth of my food budget.

#food #restaurant reviews #salt city market

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN ONLINE

At the other extreme are publications like the New York Times article about suits would sound if you read it in a blog: The urge to look corporate—sleek, commanding, prudent, yet with just a touch of hubris on your well-cut sleeve—is an unexpected development in a time of business disgrace. So what's going on is that the writing online is more honest.1 Plus they were always so relieved.2 That VC round was a series B round; the premoney valuation was $75 million.3 Many if not most of the 20th. Even if the big corporations had wanted to die. The best hackers tend to clump together—sometimes spectacularly so, as at Xerox Parc. 100,000 people worked there. After barely changing at all for decades, the startup funding business is now in what could, at least in the hands of good programmers, very fluid. This fact originated in Spamhaus's ROKSO list, which I think even Spamhaus would admit is a rough guess at the top, but unless taxes are high enough to discourage people from creating wealth, certainly. But if it's inborn it should be universal, and there are plenty of societies where parents don't mind if their teenage kids have sex—indeed, where it's normal for 14 year olds to become mothers.

So by studying the ways adults lie to kids is how broad the conspiracy is.4 To them the company is now 18 weeks old.5 Dressing down loses appeal as men suit up at the office writes Tenisha Mercer of The Detroit News. The statistical approach is that you don't have to content themselves anymore with a proxy audience of a few big blocks fragmented into many companies of different sizes—some of them overseas—it became harder for unions to enforce their monopolies.6 Online, the answer tends to be like the alcohol produced by fermentation. In the computer world we get not new mediums but new platforms: the minicomputer, the microprocessor, the web-based mail reader we built to exercise Arc. The really juicy new approaches are not the ones insiders reject as impossible, but those they ignore as undignified. Now it's Wepay's. Here's a test for deciding whether a VC's response was yes or no.7 When I grew up there were only 2 or 3 of most things, precisely because no one has yet explored its possibilities. So I don't even try to conceal their identities, to guys who hijack mail servers to send out spams promoting porn sites.

Whether or not computers were a precondition, they have a deal. When I did try statistical analysis, I found practically nothing.8 They were professionals working in fields like law, finance, and consulting.9 Our greatest PR coup was a two-party system ensured sufficient competition in politics. It hasn't occurred in a single one of my 4000 spams. Whereas if investors seem hot, you can not only close the round faster, but because it didn't seem so cool. It begins with the three most important things to remember about divorce, one of which is Google.

Others say I will get in trouble if they tell anyone what happened to Einstein: Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true.10 So if you're going to clear these lies out of your incoming spam. Both changes drove salaries toward market price. A round they often don't. SLAC goes right under 280 a little bit south of Sand Hill Road precisely because they're so boringly uniform. Good PR firms use the same strategy: they give reporters stories that are true.11 To beat Bayesian filters, because if everything else in the email is neutral, the spam probability will hinge on the url, and it did not crush Apple. Unfortunately that makes this email a boring example of the use of Bayes' Rule.12

Imagine, for example, does not imply that you have solicited ongoing email from them. Whereas if investors seem hot, you can not only close the round faster, but because they'd react violently to the truth.13 You can't just tinker. 08221981 supported 0.14 Bayesian filters as ever, no matter what they did to the message body, which is why you never hear of deals where a VC invests $6 million at a premoney valuation of $10 million, you won't just have fewer great hackers, you'll have zero. They shouldn't take it so much to heart. Don't companies realize this is a coincidence. Large organizations have different aims from hackers. Its graduates didn't expect to do the sort of grubby menial work that Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford started out doing. These companies may be far from failures by ordinary standards.

They'll simply refuse to work on what you like. Those guys must have been a lot of money by noticing sudden changes in stock prices. If we can write software that recognizes their messages, there is no try. And the microcomputer business ended up being Apple vs Microsoft.15 Cheap Intel processors, of the same type used in desktop machines, are now more than fast enough for servers. Microcomputers are a classic example: he did everything himself, hardware and software, and the number one thing they have in common is the extreme difficulty of making them work on anything they don't want random people pestering them with business plans. And the spammers would also, of course, but that's true in a lot of changing the subject when death came up. Which is exactly what they're supposed to help or supervise. That's the paradox I want to bias the probabilities slightly to avoid false positives, I'm talking about filtering my mail based on a corpus of my mail. And the social effects lasted too. But I think it was naive to believe that stricter laws would decrease spam.

Notes

If Apple's board hadn't made that blunder, they can grow the acquisition into what it would be to say that was actively maintained would be investors who rejected you did.

Geshke and Warnock only founded Adobe because Xerox ignored them.

At once, and so thought disproportionately about such customs. Even as late as 1984. But the margins are greater on products. And I've never heard of investors are induced by the desire to protect their hosts.

Especially if they miss just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's roughly correct for startups to kill their deal with them. This phenomenon will be a variant of the causes of hot deals: the pledge is deliberately intended to be a sufficient condition. Icio. The company is always raising money, the last thing you changed.

When Harvard kicks undergrads out for doing badly and is doomed anyway.

Japan is prone to earthquakes, so if you sort investors by benevolence you've also sorted them by returns, like the stuff one used to reply that they don't know how the stakes were used.

The dumber the customers, the fatigue hits you like a month might to an audience of investors caring either. But it's useful to consider these two ideas separately. Our rule is that they have a competent startup lawyer handle the deal for you. It would have undesirable side effects.

And that will seem more powerful sororities at your school sucks, and not to foo but to a study by the time they're fifteen the kids are smarter than preppies, just that everyone's visual piano has that key on it. Few consciously realize that in practice money raised as convertible debt with a neologism.

Apple's products but their policies. These were the seven liberal arts.

Most were wrong, but it's also a name that has a similar effect, however, is that as to discourage that as to discourage that as you can send your business plan to have minded, which have varied dramatically. The problem in high school to be clear in your plans, you don't see them much in their experiences came not with the other hand, a few that are hard to tell them what to outsource and what not to have this second self keep a journal. The problem is not yet released.

And journalists as part of wisdom. If by cutting the founders' advantage if it gets you growth, because you can get it, so they will only be a special title for actual partners. It is probably no accident that the word wealth. So when they were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion.

In a country with a no-shop clause. Trevor Blackwell, who had been transposed into your head.

I wouldn't bet against it either. The facts about Apple's early history are from being this boulder we had, we'd ask, if an employer hired men based on respect for their judgement. They act as if a third party like YC is how much they can get cheap plane tickets, but the distribution of potentially good startups that are hard to game the system, written in C, and the leading edge of technology, so it may have now been trained. Why Are We Getting a Divorce?

The way to do with the solutions.

Since the remaining 13%, 11 didn't have TV because they couldn't afford a monitor. Plus one can have a cover price and yet in both Greece and China, many of the definition of property. The problem is not very well connected. Many will consent to b rather than lose a prized employee.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #sup #Xerox #divorce #monitor #mediums #conviction #microprocessor #word #returns #mail #prices #minicomputer #insiders #Harvard #growth #example #customs #expansion #Trevor #ROKSO #stock #finance #people #VC #neologism

[comradesummers]

Some Buffy big bads: Glory, The Mayor, Angelus, The Trio, The First Evil

Hi, thanks for asking. Sorry I took so long to respond, insert my regular excuse about college kicking my ass (which it is).

5. The First Evil.

Season 7 is not great in a lot of ways, but one of the main problems is how underwhelming the main antagonist is. Despite being really hyped up at first (pun very much intended) and initially making a big splash, the First is kind of a non-entity. Now, admittedly, with a villain like this, this was always going to be a problem. I mean, the guy turns into different people, so it’s gonna be hard to give it a consistent personality. But with that said, I still think the writers could have at least tried to give it some of its own traits that would’ve remained consistent among all the actors portraying it. Because lacking that, there’s very little to grasp onto with this villain.

But worse than that is the fact that the First consistently fails to live up to the promise of this type of character. Because the only thing that you can really do with an incorporeal villain whose only real power is shape-shifting is psychological manipulation. And the writers seemed to understand that at first. That’s why our first prolonged introduction to the First in Conversations With Dead People is all about fucked up mind games. And it really works. Like what the First does with Willow and Dawn in that episode is really scary and harrowing. But following that, the First just doesn’t do that anymore. I mean, I guess it does mess with Spike and the potentials, but for some reason not with the main fucking character. It was such a waste of a decent concept, and a big part of why the season feels so monotonous to me. 

4. The Mayor

The Mayor is a great villain and Harry Groener gives an excellent performance. His relationship with Faith is somehow both very sweet and deeply fucked up, and an incredible inversion of the Buffy/Giles relationship. And the whole shtick of him being this polite, squeaky clean, “family values” (read: Republican) politician who also happens to be a soulless demon (former human? I was never too clear on what exactly he was) is a lot of fun. He truly is a joy to watch and the only reason he’s not higher on the list is that I like the other characters just a tiny bit better.

3. Angelus

Yeah, so this show has a lot of great villains and choosing between them is really fucking hard.

The Angelus storyline is so good for so many reasons, but mainly because it’s a villain that affects Buffy so directly and so personally. Like the entire situation: the slow buildup of Bangel, the turn itself occurring within the worst possible circumstances (which are problematic™ but they do work really well on an emotional level), and then that gut punch of a resolution, are all so fucking effective and well-constructed. And the relationship between Spike, Angelus, and Drusilla is set up beautifully in the first half of the season, so the resulting payoff is so much fun to watch.

It’s such a tight, well-written story, that I’m honestly kind of shocked at myself that I only put Angelus at number 3. I guess if I had to articulate why he’s not higher on the list, I would say that I like the storyline more than I like the character? Like not sure they’re entirely separable, but at the end of the day, Angelus is just kind of a mustache twirling villain, but the storyline is so good, and the relationships he has with other characters are so juicy and interesting, that it really doesn’t matter that he could maybe be a bit more compelling on an individual level.

2. The Trio

Yeah, I know I’m committing fandom heresy here, but hear me out.

So anyone who’s followed my blog for a while might have noticed that I’m kind of obsessed with the Trio. And like, it’s not because I find them particularly likable or appealing (I don’t and I’m not supposed to). But the fact that these characters  are so distinctly reprehensible is exactly why they work so well. In a show full to the brim with demons and vampires and hell-gods, there’s something uniquely terrifying about a villain that you know. Like you see the Trio, and you’re like, I know these guys, I know exactly the kind of gross toxicity that they’re about, and I know exactly the kind of evil shit they’re capable of. And I know that this kind of villain is more common nowadays, but I think that the sheer accuracy of how the Trio is written is especially impressive in the pre-incel days.

And in addition to all that, the way they serve the season thematically is just brilliant. Like starting them off as three non-threatening idiots is greats because it highlights just how not okay Buffy is. Like last season she’s fighting a god and this season she’s fighting some nerds she knew in high school? And they’re also brilliant in the way they serve as parallels for both Willow and Spike. Like the Trio and Willow were all  seemingly non-threatening nerds in high school who are now obsessed with gaining power in order to compensate for their insecurities. So the intersection of their respective descents into darkness is really well done. And the Trio also serve as a parallel for Spike, sort of in the same way. In that they’re all characters that are initially presented or perceived as non-threatening, before the audience is forced to come to terms with the full extent of what they’re capable of.

I get that they’re not exactly the fun kind of villain, which is why most people don’t share my obsession with them. But I really love what the writers did with them and I’m not going to feel bad about it.

1. Glory

Glory is kind of like the template for a perfect villain for this show. She checks all the boxes: She’s entertaining and funny, but also thoroughly scary and threatening when she needs to be. She’s just the right amount of mysterious, and the writers spread the information about her perfectly throughout the season. Also, she’s written to be thoroughly evil but at the same time her motivations are still sort of sympathetic somehow? But most of all, by having her need to kill the one person Buffy can’t stand to lose in order to get what she wants, the stakes are a lot higher than the standard apocalyptic stuff, and it’s really effective. She’s truly an incredible villain and I love her so much.

#the first evil #mayor richard wilkins iii #angelus #the trio #glory #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer

[llawlietofficial]

What type of characterisation do u like for fics? I do find that fic from back in the day is mostly 1 dimensional but I was curious what ur issues w it where?

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this but I’m gonna be real my opinions on stuff like this have led to me being labeled toxic to the point where people have literally implied they want me and people who share similar opinions with me to leave the fandom, so I’ve been kind of hesitant to answer something like this bashing some recent characterization again. So if you’re one of those people I’m sorry and you should probably stop reading now.

opinions under the cut with some lawlight characterization stuff I don’t like + some stuff I do like:

Honestly? I try and read at least the first chapter or so of every new lawlight fic in the tag and recently it’s been impossible for me to enjoy a lot of it because when I read it it just doesn’t feel like L and Light to me at all? Like it feels like someone at some point wrote a big fic with strong characterization and interesting characters, except they weren’t much like L and Light and they acted in ways L and Light wouldn’t act. And a lot of fics now are based off that same characterization, which in turn inspires fics with that characterization, rinse and repeat. And that’s just not enjoyable to me when I’m looking to read lawlight fanfiction.

Obviously old lawlight fanfiction wasn’t all 100% perfect and there were a lot of doozies in that mix too but it felt like there were more really solid multichapter fics that might have been messy and toxic in ways but they made sense with the canon characters. And fics that did have a happy ending and some fluff thrown in were still written using circumstances that could be believable, even if it took a long time or a slow burn to get there.

To answer your question more specifically, here’s some common tropes that feel out of character to me (and I’m not calling out any specific author or saying fics that do any of these things are poorly written because they’re not and we have a lot of talented and dedicated people here):

Either one of them changing their principles and switching sides within the first 20k words and without a LOT of persuading. IMO “we’re two sides of the same coin and not that different despite both being hugely stubborn” is shit I love, “actually I’ve sided with you secretly the whole time/your magical dick has cured me of disagreeing with you/I’m willing to sacrifice the principles I literally died for in canon easily because I want to be with you” is shit I don’t love.

“We suddenly agree and work super well together as partners now that we’re in an AU and there’s no death note” doesn’t feel authentic to me because death note or no death note their entire outlook on the world is different. Light would think L’s methods are disgusting. L would think Light’s initial idealism is naive. Light believes mankind is inherently good and once you get rid of the bad that can shine, L…doesn’t seem to share that. That’s not to say they can never work together but the good shit is when it’s a long journey into understanding each other and where they’re coming from and slowly making compromises and falling in love.

L being a naive uwu tries his best baby who’s being taken advantage of by Light. Light being a misguided uwu baby who tries his best and is being taken advantage of the whole time by L. They’re more complex than that and they’re both bad people but they also both have good sides so any sort of simplification of the characters into one being a villain and one being a victim is uninteresting to me. 

They shouldn’t work but somehow despite everything they do, because they’re alone and because despite disagreeing and being enemies by circumstance and by beliefs, they know without the other they’d never really be challenged or fulfilled. That’s neat. I like that. It’s messy. They’re drawn to each other even as they’re disgusted with each other.

It’s more interesting when they are their own conflict rather than the conflict solely coming from outside sources.

The 500000 fics where Light is a rebellious and progressive omega who actually secretly wants to be protected by L and feels grateful that they’ve found each other? don’t love that. I dislike omega fics in general even if there’s a couple I’ve thought were pretty alright so that doesn’t help either. It is kind of interesting that despite their differences this could be an in-universe reason to force them together. It just seems like omegafic is the lawlight default right now. Like even fics where the plot doesn’t revolve around omegaverse stuff is sometimes omegaverse and that’s ? hard for me to wrap my brain around? that’s not just a lawlight problem though that seems to be happening in a lot of fandoms

Similarly to point one, either of them being okay with losing like lol what. 

yotsuba can be difficult to tackle because there’s so much going on there with the characters, but there’s so many interesting layers to explore and dive into that sometimes get ignored in favor of fluffy hijinks and that’s boring to me. from Light’s perspective L took everything from him and has made his life pretty miserable because of this whole Kira thing and catching the real Kira is the only real thing that could totally clear Light’s name and L just sort of….gives up, for a lot of it. mopes about and acts unmotivated and uninterested because Light isn’t Kira. that’s probably very frustrating for light! and fun wacky fluff or hijinks can happen, but I love when it happens in the “we got so distracted being the smartest people in the room we forgot we’re supposed to be enemies” way because that’s juicy to me

sometimes it’s the little things, too, that bother me. stuff that’ll happen and it’ll completely pull me out of the story. like L Lawliet made Naomi Misora destroy her whole damn computer after he slid into her DMs and you really think there’s any way in hell he’d have any sort of google home or siri or alexa? or casual social media, even under fake names? facebook knows everything. or light saying something or making a joke that i could never in a million years see him saying in canon because the author thought it would be funny or cute. 

anytime Light is suddenly some kind of beacon of goodness champion of justice just because he didn’t find the death note. the death note didn’t make him a completely different person, he’s bitter and jaded and thinks some people would be better off dead even before getting the death note. self righteous yeah totally but actually righteous? nah man

or Light just being a fucking awful person who kidnaps and r*pes L because he lusts after him but it’s okay because somehow in the end they end up together ? i’ve seen that trope a few times and i know it existed in 2007 too i just avoided it like the plague then also. 

I see a lot of AUs that are less “what would L and Light legitimately do if this was the situation or universe they were placed in” and more “i want to write this situation happening like this and i want to make it lawlight because that’s my main ship” 

like, the characters that are being written are fine but if you want to write OCs right OCs. I know all of this seems really harsh which is why I put a warning about it at the beginning, and of course I know some of these problems were also prevalent between 2013-2017 and there’s tropes here that have been happening like this since the dawn of lawlight fanfiction, but since it’s happening now and now is when i’m frustrated by it now is what i’m complaining about, it could be the reason i go back to older fanfiction so much is because i had lower standards back then and it was easier for me to wade through the ones i hated to get to ones i liked and now it’s easy for me to find those again. who knows. Also I agree most fanfiction from 2007-2009 were pretty 1 dimensional. 

And like, fuck me I guess but I actually like the canon characters and I joined the fandom to experience more of them and apparently that makes other people feel unsafe.

I’m not saying people aren’t allowed to express opinions that are different than me or that I Know Better Than Everyone Else or that I don’t like people posting their own headcanons or ideas or things they wish were different about the series, it’s just not my cup of tea and it’s a little frustrating that fanon is mostly all I get in fics now and that people are allowed to express opinions but only if those opinions are “people who stick too close to canon are elitist and should die and are sticks in the mud and need to leave the fandom to stop ruining things for everyone else” because like, we’re people too?

Anyway sorry this veered in a bit of a different direction and I hope I don’t lose followers over this because it’s sad to see people go but I’ve been blogging here for over 5 years and I’m not going to stop anytime soon. I also wrote most of this while having bad anxiety at like 3am last night so it’s all over the place and i’m probably going to think of like eight things in the shower later I forgot to mention because i’ve been thinking over this ask for like two weeks now. 

#this is a LOT and i'm sorry #please don't all hate me for this #i promise i'm not trying to ruin anyone's fun i'm just bored of what's out there right now #and there ARE some good works too that i have enjoyed a #it's just. #hhhhh #death note #discourse

[azahwrote]

16

This is my first blog post, titled Sixteen. Ironic. I have a blackhead mask on my nose and chin. Today is the first of January, 2018. Less than 24 hours ago was new year’s eve, which I had spent asleep in regards to a couple episodes of KUWTK. The time right now is 3 pm and I’ve just reminded myself to take the meat out of the freezer before my mother comes home. The sun is asleep and it seems that the clouds can’t hold the rain any longer. It’s humid and the skin above my brows is drenched in droplets of sweat, unready for another acne attack. It will rain, and when it does, I will turn my jazz tunes on.

The non-sense on your screen are of a sixteen year old girl who prefers to remain unnamed. She starts a blog to excuse herself from doing her winter-break homework. Tragic. She has exactly eight days to analyze one-hundred-and-five questions of subjects she mostly hates, and yet, here she is – her face mask too dry and her limbs plastered with mosquito bites. Almost unattractive and not her best appearance, but naturalistic and at a boiling state of peace procrastinating procrastination around herself.

The rain has poured. She turns on her jazz music like she even likes jazz. These are one of the things she does to keep her out of her comfort zone, and to make herself seem and feel more aesthetic and dreamy.

Two nights later, she wishes she had finished this excerpt from her never-ending afternoon thoughts. She wishes she had spent more time doing the things she likes and things she’s good at. It has been a trick she uses to delay her performance in completing homework – if you can’t bring yourself to finish your homework, then at least do something that’ll benefit you. You see, this confused teenage high-schooler hopes that her doodles, sketches, paintings, photography, short videos and poetry might bring her somewhere someday and that all the procrastination she does now will contribute to her bright future as a creative director or so. But, boy, is she wrong. Even after spending half of her life snapping shots and editing pictures for the gram, her notifications will remain dry as always. Don’t get her wrong, she appreciates the occasional I love your work dm’s and the OMG QUEEN comments from her friends, but she still feels her creative self can go further in the gram business than just occasional compliments and believes she has great visionary potential to help her start her creative-directing career. Nonetheless, regardless of the fact that she cant even pass 200 likes on Instagram, in her heart are still hopes of well recognition and endless requests of endorsements from well-known brands to supply all her with all her basic needs until she turns 25, at least. Sometimes she almost feels underrated for her multi-talented presence and the art she showcases on her feed. Some part of her is always ready to let go off her efforts and give up, because she knows there is obviously more to life than being a public figure on Instagram and #ad posts to keep her wardrobe exclusive and free, and that a creative career doesn’t start from Instagram.

This particular sixteen-years-old dumpling has bigger dreams than just being an Instagram public figure, obviously. She dreams to be a successful and independent daughter by the age of 23, applying her creative skills in a job she loves, freshly graduated from a reputable university, living in a small modern apartment in a big city while visiting her parents often. Her job preference is not a nine-to-five job in a cubicle doing analytics, it is a job where she can create, illustrate, communicate, and design, a job which takes her all over the world with a different destination every week (only because she’s never had a different destination every week, realistically she would be exhausted and spend more time catching up sleep and getting high on jetlags). In short, she desires the things Margaret Zhang seems to be doing on her updated Instagram feed and her ShineByThree blog, like creative consulting high-end brands, creating short-film ads for Chanel and Louis Vuitton, freelance writing for Elle, etc.

Other than sketching, photography and all that artsy creative stuff, this procrastinating blogger-to-be likes languages too. Her multicultural background of being raised in two countries, three cities and six different schools for the past 12 years guided her through an unceasing journey exploring all the different culture and picking up different foreign vocabulary every time entering a friend’s house. A constant voyage through culture has given her numerous friends from different corners of Earth, yet very little connection. That is her problem. An anonymous figure is great at making friends as she is outgoing, carefree and lit, but she is horrible at keeping connections and messaging her friends every evening to make sure they’re in touch which is why even after six school replacements, she only receives “omg girl lets skype i have some TEA” messages from exactly three people – along with another three responsive contacts on Snapchat. She feels she has enough friends to keep her updated on juicy dramas going on in her last home, but not enough connections and conversations to expand her friends circle and update her chances of doing things other creative sixteen-years-olds do, like creative collaborations and experimental projects, or just as simple as going to the movies.

At this age, you could classify this teenage frame we’ve been talking about to be quite…antisocial. She stays home on weekends and doesn’t get invited to parties, but she’s still happy. It’s what she prefers anyway. After having moved to a new juvenile delinquency of a society one-and-a-half year ago, her disappointment at the lack of manners and etiquette of the community in her surroundings have helped matured her perspectives and advanced the prudential quality of her response to life. The people in her current school think she is an awkward outsider, which in this case, she is – because she has absolutely no idea on how to end this blog post which resulted on her going on and on when she should’ve stopped on the third paragraph making this waaaaaay more of a rant than a first blog post. It feels awkward, like she had just met someone and she’s muddling on how to greet them, a hug or a handshake? So, uhhhh, thank you for reading. Good morning.

[chineselanguageblog]

To Learn Chinese

So you wanna know where to start when learning Chinese, or how to gain momentum and push through to fluency? Read on, dear reader…

Despite being only a mere mortal like yourself (in that I am not yet fluent in Chinese, - but it is only a matter of time) I am quite experienced in learning languages and have developed strategies and techniques that have saved me literally hours, days, months, maybe even years. These I will share with you today, so that you may learn from my past mistakes and less time studying and more picking up Chinese chicks!

Mentality

Okay, so, if I could impart only one thing on you it would be that confidence is half the battle.

If you spend too much time worrying about whether you will ever reach fluency, firstly, that is time you will not be spending injecting Chinese into your brain, but secondly, and most importantly, it will become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy – you won’t enjoy the process, will associate Chinese with stress and essentially never become fluent.

This ‘blind faith’, as an atheist, is something that doesn’t come naturally to me. But you really have no choice but to take my word for it that if you:

Put in the time (listening, writing and, eventually, speaking)

Enjoy yourself

Believe you will become fluent

Then fluency is an inevitable result.

“But, Chinese is such a hard language compared to French or Spanish!”

Don’t get sucked into this idea.

Chinese is not harder, Chinese is just far more different to English than most European languages are. Plenty of Westerners have managed to tame the beast. Off the top of my head, take Steve Kaufmann or Luca Lampariello, for example.

In fact, I would argue that Chinese is actually objectively easier and more logical than any other language I’ve come across (with the exception of Chinese characters – logical in theory, but struggle city in practice for anyone trying to learn it who doesn’t use it every day).

Consider these things:

1, Rather than having completely separate words for related concepts, one character in Chinese will represent a ‘concept’ that will manifest itself in a huge number of multi-syllable words, ie: 工 (gōng) – representing the idea of ‘work’, present in other words such as 工作 (to work), 工厂(factory/plant), 工地 (workplace), 工匠 (craftsman), 工力 (craftsmanship), 工业 (industry), the list goes on.

2, No conjugations. No tenses. No cases. No plurals. No gender. Therefore, no memorising ‘je peux, tu peux, il peut, nous pouvons’. ‘Nuff said.

3, No long words – say goodbye to ‘anticonstitutionnellement’, ‘Unkameradschaftlichkeit’ and ‘electroencefalografistas’.

I could go on for ages about how simple and logical Chinese really is. Also, don’t be afraid of tones. They can be learned naturally through extensive listening.

Approach

Although the sometimes vicious debate present amongst the language learning community would have you believe otherwise (I’m looking at you, Steve and Benny), there is no hard-and-fast rule to language learning. What works for some may work for others. What seems to be unanimous is that a lot of input in the form of listening and reading is needed at some stage, with output (speaking) following either once a good level of comprehension has been achieved or from the start, in addition to input.

Here is what I would advise for those beginning their Chinese studies, and for those already on the path.

Beginners

Learning Chinese can be struggle city. But only if you don’t have fun while you’re doing it!

1, Get some materials. Textbooks are okay, as long as they have dialogs with a recorded version. If you’ve got the dough, ChinesePod is great.

2, Do a significant amount of input (reading and listening) with this beginner material. This is the hard bit, where the language gradually becomes less ‘foreign’ – in other words, you get used to the language. To make rapid progress, try to dedicate at least 30 minutes a day (an hour is better).

3, Work the language into your life. I’m not really an advocate of ignoring your friends and family who don’t speak the language, or listening to the language while you’re talking to them and while you sleep (per AJATT), or changing the language on your computer and phone into Chinese - this is too annoying for me. Instead, make use of dead time. Do you daydream on the train/bus? Now you listen to Chinese. Do you wait in lines? Now you listen to Chinese while you wait in lines. Do you walk the dog? Paint your house? Daydream? Listen to Chinese while you do these things. You’ll see how easy it is. I would estimate that the average person has about 1-2 hours a day of dead time, this meaning time they do NOTHING else. If you studied Chinese only in the time you otherwise would be wasting, you will see massive progress. Now imagine if you fit some Chinese into your free time, too?

4, Two words. Mini goals. Learn 30 words a week, and then step it up after a couple of weeks. Listen to 30 minutes of Chinese a day – then step it up to an hour incrementally. I’m soon to write an entire post over on my own blog dedicated to explaining the importance of mini goals.

5, Characters. Forget about them for the first month. After that though, they are important. Spend 15 minutes a day learning them. Although it may seem tedious, it’s worth learning the radicals first, or as you encounter them – this will enable you to quite accurately guess new characters later on.

6, Get an SRS. Do your reps daily, and add sentences whenever you can. Also, I’ve found sentences are better than words, as you learn grammar and new vocabulary simultaneously – it also seems much less boring than just drilling single words. If you have the option/can be bothered, add sentences with audio so you don’t get a botchy pronunciation (or just do a lot of listening). Where to get sentences? Mine them from the dialogs in your textbook, from ChinesePod, wherever. Just make sure they are correct!

Intermediate Learners

1, Enjoy. This is the best part of the language learning journey. The language is starting to become familiar, and you can start doing fun stuff in the language! Like, watching TV shows from YouKu (the Chinese version of YouTube, but with full episodes) and actually understanding them! Or, reading authentic, interesting content and books. Or making friends, or…

2, Get a girlfriend/boyfriend. Now this may be a difficult and in some circumstances unethical task (if you are just using them to practice your 中文). The truth is, that at the intermediate level you need to actually increase the amount of input you’re getting in the language in order to step it up and push through to the advanced level. At the very least, get some friends! If you live in a cultural melting pot (like my own city, Melbourne, or like, NYC, etc) then you should have no problem meeting Chinese people. Or go study overseas (this may not be practical for you – but if you’re at Uni, go on exchange like I am!) Or, hey, why not get some Chinese roomies? Instant friends that have to hang with you!

3, Everyday. Even more important than in the beginner stage, at this level you need to be having contact with the language every day in order to incorporate it into your psychic. This is because the language needs to become part of the fabric of your mind, which is just not possible if you only study on the weekend. There’s a saying that goes ‘learn a language and gain another soul’. This is because you develop a borderline personality disorder when you learn another language – you will find your thinking and personality will be heavily influenced by cultural elements of the target language.

4, Don’t give up. At this point, you have got it in the bag! The hard yards are almost over. Like I said, this is the best part, it is all downhill from here. You don’t have to agonise over mind numbingly boring hospital-grade artificial learning materials, and can get onto some juicy stuff. It’s simply a matter of continuing to consistently expose yourself to the language, and talk as much as possible. Language acquisition is a natural process, and we are inherently good at it by virtue of being human. Just don’t stress, it will come!

Anyway, that’s all from me, for now.

There is an abundance of resources out there to help learn Chinese, yet it can all be very confusing and time-consuming for the new student to find the best way and the right materials to help.s

Wanting to provide some assistance to students, at one of the regular meetings of the Learn Mandarin Now team, we decided to commission a survey to find out the preferred methods savvy, modern, Chinese language students use. After some thought on how to do this, we agreed to ask 50 or so top bloggers what resources they use to get ahead with learning Chinese - after all…, they should know!

Just who did we ask?

Actually, we asked a wide cross-section of people including teachers of Chinese, native speakers, new and experienced students of the language (both Chinese from overseas and foreign students) and, of course, top bloggers.

The aim: to get a wide variety of opinions and suggestions.

The top 10 recommendations

For reasons such as ease of being able to study whenever the student wanted to and the variety of options on offer, the results, perhaps not surprisingly, showed that the preferred methods to learn Chinese are primarily web based. Other students, however, still preferred to learn and practice with other students or people in their day-to-day lives or via hard copy items such as books.

With 42% of votes Pleco, an integrated Chinese-English dictionary/flashcard system, which not only allows students to learn via Smartphones, but also offers a variety of other features such as being able to look up unknown Chinese words ‘live’, came out on top.

22% of respondents went for human interaction, either learning or practicing with Chinese friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, work colleagues or via other social interaction with native Chinese speakers.

Multi-media captured 20% of the votes, and this included watching Chinese TV programs, dramas, documentaries or movies, or even listening to Chinese songs in order to listen to tones, and learn more common words and colloquial phrases.

The MDBG Dictionary, a comprehensive dictionary which offers the ability to look up a huge number of words in Chinese, Pinyin or English was also a popular choice-easy to use and readily available and it garnered 14% of the votes.

Both also polling 14% were:

(i) WeChat (Weixin), “the new way to connect with friends across platforms”, offering voice and group chat, free calls, video calls and the obligatory message stickers, and thereby especially popular with the younger generation looking to instantly chat in and learn Chinese; and

(ii) Anki, a spaced repetition software programme which makes remembering things easy. As it’s considered more efficient than traditional study methods, time spent studying can be decreased or the amount learned greatly increased. The programme is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific mark-ups.

Skritter which is suitable for Smartphones or PC’s and allows the student to learn how to correctly learn to write Chinese characters—even suggesting corrections to any mistakes if they appear, scored 12%, as did Memrise which offers a wide variety of on-line courses and aims to make learning joyful and exciting.

Rounding off the top 10 with 8% was Line Dict, a very useful on-line Chinese dictionary which translates both words and phrases from Chinese to English and vice-versa, using Chinese characters and Pinyin—plus offering handwriting recognition and the ability to view stroke orders for characters, and also Chinese Pod which promotes itself as a site offering “Chinese learning for busy people”, with over 3,000 short, self-contained, award-winning lessons.

It was both exciting and rewarding for us at Learn Mandarin Now to do this survey and we may well repeat it at some future date. If you’d like to know more about the results in detail you can also read: How to learn Chinese: great tips from 50+ top bloggers, one of our other related articles.

Happy learning!

#learn chinese

[sandralmuller]

How to write a blog introduction that hooks your reader

Your introduction is the second most critical part of your blog post after the post title. After you invest time into carefully crafting a MAGNIFICENT blog post, how do you write a blog introduction that hooks your reader and compels them to read on?

Know your audience and match their expectations

If you don’t know who you’re writing for, you won’t know how to bait your hook properly.

You need to know what kind of blog post you’re writing and match reader expectations for that kind of content.

For example, if you’re writing an informative ‘How to X’ type of post, the reader doesn’t want to know about the time you turned up to work wearing mismatched shoes … unless it relates directly to your key message. Highly unlikely.

Skip the waffle. Get to the point.

Spell out your intent

Be clear about the intent of your content in the opening paragraph.

What is the one thing you want someone to take away from your post?

Show that you identify with their problem (e.g. people not reading beyond the first paragraph) and that your post offers a solution (e.g. how to write a blog introduction that hooks your reader).

Your introduction doesn’t have to have to provide the actual solution but it should let people know you have one.

Now that you have their attention, keep it.

Deliver on your promise

The best way to keep your reader’s attention is to deliver on the promise you set up in the opening paragraph.

If you say you have a solution, your post had better deliver it or your reader will be clicking back to the search results faster than you can say odd shoes.

When editing your work, cut the content that doesn’t relate to what you stated in your blog’s introduction.

Save the story of the mismatched shoes for another day.

Write your blog intro last

We’re prone to putting incredible pressure on ourselves to nail our introduction before moving on to the rest of the content.

But the reality is, we don’t have to write the intro first.

Instead, writing a blog outline before writing the post can be an enormous help. I wrote an outline for this post and refined the introduction during the editing process. Given this is a post about how to write a blog introduction, I know I have to nail that first paragraph as a good example. Pressure!

Adopt the journalism approach

Journalists use the inverted pyramid method of storytelling in news articles.

They answer the most important information upfront, covering the who, what, when, where, why and how.

Check any news article and you’ll find that they have the key information in the first couple of paragraphs. As the article continues, the information that’s less important is further down the page.

The inverted pyramid – a useful model for sharing the most important information upfront

Because we know that most people aren’t going to read our full post, it makes sense to include the most useful information up to the top.

Check that you’re addressing the who, what, when, where, why and how in your first few paragraphs. You don’t have to jam it all into your introduction, but ensure that key information is in the first third of your page.

Unlearn how to write

Unlearn that academic writing style you learnt in high school or university where your arguments and evidence build to your final point wrapped neatly in your conclusion.

Your teachers may have taught you to build up to a big reveal. Don’t. It doesn’t work for blog writing. You’ll lose readers before you reveal your plot twist in the last paragraph.

And while it’s OK to use storytelling to hook your reader in, don’t let the tale of the mismatched shoes overshadow the point of your post.

Examples of great blog intros

What better way to explain how to write a blog introduction than to share some good examples.

5 years to a million dollar biz – Denise Duffield-Thomas

Denise is a fabulous storyteller. She’s authentic and relatable, and her conversational tone makes me feel like we’re friends having a chat. I read this blog post’s opening sentence and I’m immediately intrigued.

“Here’s the honest truth – it took me five years working full time to crack the million dollar mark in my business.  It didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen by accident.”

5 years to a million dollar biz

That opening sentence sparked many questions for me. So, how did it happen and it sounds like you did plan for it—but how?

In the next paragraph, Denise squashes the myth of the stereotyped ‘overnight success’.

“I didn’t just ‘start a blog’ and people threw money at me. This isn’t even my first ever blog (I’m not counting that in my five years calculation), and this is definitely not my first business (that would have been my bracelet business back in 1988).”

I find her relatable because I too was coming up with ways to earn extra money back in 1988. I too had scrappy little business ideas (hellooo removing lint from windcheaters and tracksuit pants! 🤪).

I’m intrigued. I relate. I want to know more.

Because I’m Denise’s target market, this is a good blog intro because it compelled me to read on.

The SEO files: The curious case of the competitive keyword – Nat Alleblas

I’m already in love with this post because of its clever title. Nat is also known as The SEO Sleuth, so I love that she’s using the sleuth theme in this blog title.

I get Nat’s weekly SEO Sleuth email tips. Nat has an uncanny ability to weave tales of how everyday life translates into lessons for business.

But that’s not what I love about this post, it’s how she sets up he intro perfectly with the right mix of problem identification, problem solution, and intrigue.

“The challenge of ranking on page 1 for a competitive keyword is one that many SEO consultants love but businesses with small budgets fear.

Some are blissfully unaware of the pitfalls of targeting a competitive keyword and spend hours and money creating content that fails to convert.

My years of smart sleuthing strategies have helped many crack the case of the competitive keyword and in this blog, I’m going to share some of my secrets.”

The curious case of the competitive keyword

I feel confident that Nat’s going to walk me through my problem—how to avoid wasting time searching for keywords that are too competitive—and help me find keywords I can actually compete for.

Even if I didn’t know Nat and found this page via search results, I’d definitely read on.

What the heck is a nurture sequence? (It’s not only for hippies) – Jay Crisp Crow

Jay is an awesome conversion copywriter and I’ve followed her for years, so it’s no surprise she knows how to write a good blog post introduction.

Mmm, nurture sequences. They sound so comforting. Like snuggling up in a blanket, sipping a cuppa, and having a little bonding sesh with your reader.

Truth be told, they’re not entirely unlike that. But first:

What the heck is a nurture sequence anyway?

What the heck is a nurture sequence

Jay often uses humour and colloquialisms in her writing and I like the way she draws the comparison between a comforting snuggle in a blanket to writing nurture sequences.

From this intro, I feel confident that Jay will explain exactly what a nurture sequence is in an entertaining way.

Using humour is an excellent way to entertain while informing, and Jay does this magnificently.

Examples of not-so-great blog intros

Rather than pick on individual bloggers (because that’s not very fair) instead, I’ll pick on blogger types.

1. Every recipe blogger ever

Have you ever visited a recipe site where you have to scroll through 1000 words of waffle about grandma’s unique secret ingredients and colour of the awning above a quaint little grocer’s shop tucked away in an obscure laneway before you even get to the ingredients list?

Yeah, don’t write that blog post intro.

Show me the ingredients. Show me the process. Be the inverted pyramid.  

2. The keyword-stuffing blogger

You might have heard the joke, an SEO consultant walks into a bar, pub, public house, cocktail lounge, nightclub…

There are blogs you come across where the intro content sounds repetitive and oddly phrased because the blogger has stuffed the intro full of every juicy keyword they want to rank for.

For example:

“You want to know about the best widgets for kids in cars, right? Children in cars love the best widgets because the top widgets for kids in cars to occupy their time during long car drives are widgets that hold kids attention in vehicles. In this post, I share my unbiased views on the 7 best car widgets for kids in cars.”

Say no more, right?

Keywords are important though and while you should include in your primary keyword in your introduction, don’t try and shoehorn every keyword into it. 🤮

3. The thinly veiled BUY MY STUFF blogger

You’ve been lured to a page from the search results. The blog title and description look like it will solve your problem, so you click on it.

While it seems like the blogger understands your problem you quickly realise that they’re not so much trying to solve your problem as sell you their solution to this problem.

In fact, the so-called ‘blog post’ is actually a sales page. At least buy me a drink first. 🤮

4. The not-so-controversial blogger

Then there’s the blogger who states in their intro that they have a MASSIVE secret to share that will TOTALLY BLOW YOUR MIND and how they have UPSET THEIR INDUSTRY by sharing their CONTROVERSIAL VIEWS.

And then you read their post.

There is no secret. My mind’s not blown. I already know this stuff. Their industry is not shaken. Their views are pedestrian. 🤷

Why a blog post introduction is so important

Research predicts that most of your site’s visitors will spend 80% of their time on your site above the fold—they won’t scroll to read more information.

If you take too long to get to the point, if you don’t set up the value of your post, or if your title doesn’t match your content, you’ll lose readers. They’ll return to the search results and visit someone’s site that does meet their expectations.

A good blog post introduction will lure people to read on, making the time you invest in content creation worthwhile.

It’s a lot like the way you flick through songs and how you can tell from the first couple of bars whether the song is the style of music you like.

Those opening bars give such important cues. Those cues tell you if you should flick to the next track or settle in for more, and maybe even the whole song.

Writing is a lot like that—our opening paragraphs set people up to decide whether to flick back to search results or settle in to read the whole page.

Do you have tips for how to write a blog post introduction? Share them in the comments below.

How to write a blog introduction that hooks your reader was originally published on The Smarter Writer

[ymd3signs]

15 Websites for Free Design Resources 

Thinking about design freebies and resources, your mind wanders back to your internship days when you never had enough time to come up with a decent design. 

Where you had to scour the whole internet for high-quality royalty-free images because those were all the resources you had available to figure with.

Often, they come short of your demands, and you've got to accept a design you'll have made tons better if only you had the proper designer resources in hand.

It doesn't do justice to the planning you already had in mind.

Luckily, I've solved half your problem and compiled an inventory of the most uncomplicated 15 Websites for free of charge Design Resources and Freebies.

1. Dribbble

Dribbble may be a very fashionable website which features a freebie tag related to it.

But many good designs don't have this tag, so you've got to seem careful to seek out beautiful designs which aren't always tagged.

Dribbble, however, limits checking out only the past 2-3 months' worth of styles. But that doesn't matter, as new designs are updated on Dribbble almost daily.

Dribbble little question contains a number of the most superficial quality of freebies.

2. Behance

Behance may be a renowned name amongst every designer.

It's a web community where people share their portfolios, hoping to catch real clients' attention.

The designers in Behance are quite willing to share their knowledge and any external graphic design resources they need to be linked to their work.

Considering the immense fan following Behance has, it makes it a superb source to know what tools and resources your favorite designers utilized in their work.

3. DB Freebies

Now you recognize about freebies available on Dribbble, and that I just told you that Behance also has designers that release freebies.

Did you recognize an internet site called DB Freebies, which collects and showcases a gallery of Dribbble and Behance freebies stacked together?

It's an ever-growing collection with quite a thousand freebies updated almost daily.

You can find EPS vectors for Illustrator, PSD mockups for Photoshop, fonts, and other such material by filtering the categories in your search.

4. DeviantArt

DeviantArt is right for references, as it's one of the most important art galleries online.

DeviantArt also contains references, freebies, and useful UI design resources, including vectors.

While it can certainly be a touch chaotic, it has an inquiry bar that you'll use to navigate among the items you've got in mind.

You can search consistent with categories and consider the art and styles consistent with your preferences.

5. Flaticon

FlatIcon, like its name, indicated, maybe a great online resource to look for flat icons.

They have around 70,000 icons on their website and doubtless the most critical database of free vector icons.

Not only do they need an outsized source where you'll choose tons of icons, but they also contain other features that you'll little question love.

If you employ Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or After Effects, then you'll also use the free FontIcon plugin so that you'll use and have direct access to all or any the icons in their database.

6. Iconfinder

Iconfinder, again because the name indicates, is for locating the right icons for your designs.

It's the first website I visit in search of clear images. Many are available free of charge also.

You can define the category you would like to look for and find many icons suitable for your needs.

It's very convenient with a comfortable layout, which is extremely user-friendly and straightforward to figure around with.

7. Icon Deposit

Icon Deposit isn't just for icons, albeit it does bear attention thereon.

It is often used for almost any freebie; from buttons, mobile app UIs, buttons, mockup posters, tabloids, and brochures are just a neighborhood of its collection.

They're submitted by designers everywhere the planet. It's like one among those social communities like Reddit where users, or during this case, artists, can share their freebies with other designers around the world also.

Members can "like" a freebie and upvote it. you'll map out categories supported the original popular icons helped the votes.

Icon Deposit may be a great website to share any design freebie and is explicitly meant for users' convenience.

8. Brands of the planet 

When you're performing at a company level, you would like the simplest quality logs and vectors, and you can't copy the low-quality logo they need on their website or the other grainy image.

Brands of the planet are the perfect website to go to when it involves high-resolution vectors and logos.

You can find just about everything here and view the portfolios of all the good brands and designers.

You don't need to sit around and await your client to email you a logo once you have Brands of the planet and waste precious time on a project.

You also gain plus points for your research skills and impressing your clients too.

9. Freebiesbug

Freebiesbug features a very straightforward and straightforward layout with quick assessing navigation links located within the sidebar.

It contains content starting from free fonts, code snippets, PSD files also as Illustrator files. It's probably one of the most uncomplicated websites for web/UI designers.

It is color-coded for every category, and every new resource is cataloged during a unique and orderly fashion.

10. Freepik

free-vectors-design-resources

Freepik calls itself "the leading program of free vector designs."

It was created to help you discover different logos, vectors, illustrations, and PSD files to use in your design.

There are actually around many free vectors that are uploaded on Freepik on a day today.

Freepik was the first site I found, and it's helped me find tons of excellent stuff for my design, which I re-edit for a far better fit.

It's perfect for people that are just starting call at design.

11. FreeVectors

If you're a vector freak like me, then you'll love FreeVectors.

It's a full community consisting of other vector lovers who wish to share their free vectors with everyone.

You can view the vectors consistent with their updates. Most up-to-date ones will appear on top.

All the vectors uploaded here are free for private use, and most of them are free for commercial purposes.

12. 1001 Free Downloads

1001 Free Downloads is another one among those websites you happened to encounter. We're glad you probably did because it's another website that makes things incredibly convenient for designers, especially newbies.

It searches online for the most straightforward quality royalty-free images for you.

It contains in-house UX design resources like thousands of high-quality fonts, gradients, brushes, and PSD files. It never takes long to seek out precisely what you're trying to find.

13. 365PSD

free-graphic-design-resources-2016

365PSD has been around on the web site for over six years. It's one among the older galleries for freebie archives out there.

It contains almost everything from buttons to icons, to typical web elements. you've got a seemingly endless base of Vectors and PSD files at your disposal.

This website is particularly perfect for application and web designers.

14. GraphicBurger

GraphicBurger features a friendly, interactive, and conversational tone about its website.

The site claims to satisfy your hunger of design and fulfill your craving with its juicy designs available for free of charge.

Look through the long list of styles until one manages to catch your eye. All the designs in GraphicBurger are free for both commercial and private use, as its aim.

15. CSS Author

CSS Author is also one of the leading online free resources for graphic designing and web designing.

The website also contains a blog dedicated to providing you with relevant tutorials and articles for fellow designers and developers, and that's what it's known well for.

Apart from that, it's an enormous storehouse of graphical freebies and resources, including mockup designs, greeting samples, UI design kits, web templates, vector graphics and illustrations, greetings, wallpapers, and tons more.

Free design resources aren't only used for altering them in your designs, but they provide an excellent idea of how things work.

Every designer needs a push once during a while, and these websites are an excellent source of inspiration and gain knowledge.

They give a thought about which sorts of free graphic design resources are floating around the market.

If you would like exposure, you'll also submit one among your designs to any of those websites, and you're bound to generate an excellent response within the ever-active communities.

That's what graphic designers are most well-known for, and they're beneficial to every other and supply tons of support.

After all, if these websites helped you, why not help somebody else who's currently browsing equivalent difficulties you faced?

#graphic design #illustration #illustrator #portfolio #digital illustartion #photoshop

[krestmarketinggroup-blog]

Learning to Re-Share: 4 Strategies to Renew, Refresh, and Recycle Content for Bigger Reach

Posted by  jcar7   In the nearly three years the MeetEdgar blog went live, we’ve published more than 250 posts, written over 300,000 words, searched for hundreds of .gifs, and used our own tool to share our content 2,600 times to over 70,000 fans on social media.

  After all that work, it seems silly to share a post just once. Nobody crumples up an oil painting and chucks it in the trash after it’s been seen one time — and the same goes for your content.

  You’ve already created an “art gallery” for your posts.  Resharing  your content just lets the masses know what you’ve got on display. Even if hundreds or thousands of people have seen it all before, there’s always someone new to your content.

  In a social media landscape that’s constantly changing, building a solid foundation of evergreen content that can be shared and shared again should be a key part of your social media strategy.

  Otherwise, your art gallery is just another building in the city.

  But wait… aren’t we supposed to be writing fresh content?   Yes! One of the biggest misconceptions about resharing is that it’s a spammy tactic. This is just not true — provided that you’re resharing responsibly. We’ll explain how to do that in just a moment.

  Resharing actually does double-duty for your brand. It not only gets the content that you spent your valuable time creating in front of more eyeballs (and  at optimal times , if you want to get fancy), it also frees you up to have more authentic, real-time social interactions that drive people to your site from social media — since you’ve got content going out no matter what.

  Did we mention that  resharing is good for SEO ? Moz Blog readers know that the more people engage with a post, the better your blog or site looks to search engines. And that’s only one facet of the overall SEO boost (and traffic boost!) resharers can see.

  How resharing impacts SEO   Big brands are probably the most prolific content resharers. Heck, they don’t even  think twice  about it:

     BuzzFeed is a perfect example of the value of repeating social updates, because they don’t necessarily NEED to.

  So why do they do it anyway? Because it gets results.

   Social sharing  alone has an impact on SEO, but   social engagement   is really where it’s at. Quality content is totally worth the up-front time and cost, but only if it gets engagement!  You up your chances of engagement with your content if you simply up your content’s exposure. That’s what resharing does awesomely. 

  With literally zero tweaks to the content itself, BuzzFeed made each of those social posts above double in value. Chances are, the people who saw these posts the first time they were shared are not the same people who saw them when they were reshared.

   But simply resharing social posts isn’t the only way to get more engagement with your content.  This post covers how companies large and small do resharing right, and highlights some of the best time-saving content strategies you can implement for your brand right now.

  1 - Start at the source: Give old posts a new look  Lots has changed in five years — the world got three new  Fast & Furious  movies and LKR Social Media  transformed  from a consulting service into social media automation software.

  We’ve done the math: three months is one Internet year and five years is basically another Internet epoch. (This may be a slight exaggeration.) So when we transferred some of our founder’s older evergreen blog posts to the new MeetEdgar blog, we took stock of which of those posts had picked up the most organic traffic.

  One thing that hadn’t changed in five years? A blog post about how  Vin Diesel was winning the social media game  was still insanely popular with our readers:

      Writing blog posts with an eye toward making them as evergreen as possible is one of the smartest, most time-saving-est content marketing strategies out there.

  There weren’t a ton of tweaks to make, but we gave this popular post some love since so many people were finding it. We pepped up the headline, did a grammar and content rundown, refreshed links and images, updated social share buttons, and added more timely content. The whole process took less time than writing a brand new post, and we got to share it with tens of thousands of followers who hadn’t seen it when it was originally published.

  So... check your metrics! Which evergreen posts have performed the best over time? Which have lots of awesome organic traffic? Make a list,  do a content audit , and start updating!

  2 - Find your social sharing “sweet spot” by repackaging your content   When you read studies that say many social media users reshare social posts  without ever clicking through to the content itself … it can be a little disheartening.

  Okay, a LOT disheartening.

  You’ve probably spent tons of time creating your content, and the thought that it’s not getting read NEARLY as often as it could be is a recipe for content marketing burnout. (We’ve all been there.)

  But it’s not all for naught — you might just need to experiment until you find the “sweet spot” that gets people to read and share. One way to do that is to simply repackage content you’ve already written.

   The tried-and-true “best of” post offers a reprieve from the content-creation grind while still delivering tons of value to your fans and readers. 

  Repackaging is best when it  reframes your content  with a new focus — like rounding up similar posts based on a theme. (You can do this  in reverse , too, and turn one great post into a bunch of fresh content to then share and reshare!)

  If you can get people to your site, a “best of” post encourages readers to stay longer as they click links for the different articles you’ve gathered up, and engage with content they may never have thought to look up separately.

  Most fun of all, you can repackage your content to target new or different subsets of your audience on social media. (More on that in the next section.)

  3 - Social shake-up: Reaching and testing with different audiences  “What if the same person recognizes something that I’ve already posted in the past?” you might be asking right about now. “I don’t want to annoy my followers! I don’t want to be spammy!”

  Forget about people resharing social posts without reading the content behind the links —  most people  don’t see your social posts  at all in the first place. 

  This is just one of those uncomfortable facts about the Internet, like how comment sections are always a minefield of awful, and how everyone loves a good startled cat .gif.

  That doesn’t mean you should repeat yourself, word-for-word, all the time. Chances are, you have more than one type of reader or customer, so it’s important not just to vary your content, but also to vary  how you   share it on social media .

  Savvy marketers are all over this tactic, marketing two sides (or more) of the same coin. Here are a couple of examples of social sharing images from a  Mixpanel blog post :

     Option A

     Option B

  Both Option A and Option B go to the same content, but one highlights a particularly juicy stat (problem statement: “97% of users churn”) and the other hits the viewer with an intriguing subheader (solution statement: “behavior-based messaging”). In this way, Mixpanel can find out what pulls in the most readers and tweak and promote that message as needed.

  Pull a cool anecdote from your post or highlight a different stat that gets people excited. It can be as easy as changing up the descriptions of your posts or just using different images. There’s so much to test and try out — all using the same post.

  4 - Automate, automate, automate  Remember,  your best posts are only as good as the engagement they get.  That fact, however, doesn’t mean you have to keep manually resharing them on social media day in and day out.

  Unless, of course, you’re into that boring busywork thing.

  Automating the whole process of resharing evergreen content saves tons of time while keeping your brand personality intact. It also frees you up to have real-time interactions with your fans on social media, brainstorm new post ideas, or just go for a walk, and it  solves the time crunch  and the hassle of manually re-scheduling posts, while actually showcasing  more  of your posts across the massive social media landscape. Just by spacing out your updates, you’ll be able to hit a wider range of your followers.

  (This is probably a good time to check whether your social media scheduling tool offers automatic resharing of your content.)

  Now, social media automation isn’t a substitute for consistently creating great new content, of course, but it does give your existing evergreen content an even  better  opportunity to shine.

  Win with quality, get things DONE with resharing  It’s noisy out there. The law of diminishing returns — as well as declining social reach — means that a lot of what you do on social media can feel like shouting into the void.

  And there’s not a huge ROI for shouting into voids these days.

  Responsible resharing is an important part of your overall content marketing strategy. As long as you keep your content fresh, create new quality content regularly, and talk to your fans  where and when they’re most active , chances are people won’t see the same thing twice. The data shows you’ll get more clicks, more traffic, and better SEO results — not a bad bonus to that whole “saving lots of time” thing.

    Sign up for The Moz Top 10 , a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

http://bit.ly/2v1RsPQ

#smallbusinessmarketing #huntingtonbeachseo #lagunabeachseo #internetmarketing #linkbuilding #articlewriting #blogpower #socialmediamarketing #contentwriting #leadgeneration

#smallbusinessmarketing #huntingtonbeachseo #lagunabeachseo #internetmarketing #linkbuilding #articlewriting #blogpower #socialmediamarketing #contentwriting #leadgeneration

[vyzynorg-blog]

Soul Prosperity - Part 3

Continuing on the topic of Soul Prosperity I point to the parable of the sower Jesus instructs us that the seed is the Word of God (the Bible) and the soil is our hearts.  In the first blog we covered the topic that we must first receive the Word of God as the final authority of all truth.  In the second blog  we discussed a few manners of approaching the Word, the seed, like bad motives that keep the Word from springing forth or germinating. What does time have to do with the blessings? Its takes time for the seed to germinate and spring up.  The Bible tells us in Genesis 8:22: While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease. So we see from the Word that as long as we’re here on earth time and seasons rule everything.  The Word instructs us in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. Life as everyone experiences it is handed out in time and seasons.  Time (the ticking of the clock) has something to it that can not be retrieved.  Seasons are blocks of time that also have passing in them that can’t be retrieved.  We can’t avoid it and should take advantage of it.  To take advantage of time we need to take up action and do what we’re put on this earth to do.  Everyone definitely has a destiny but few ever achieve it.  Destiny is not fame.  Destiny is simply achieving your purpose. You may think I’m getting off topic here but I’m really not.  I’m digging down deep into the soil because before soil must be broken up well for the water to get down to the seed.  We must first know what season we are in before we sow.  A spiritual season is very much like earth’s seasons.  Consider the spiritual seasons: Winter is when we feel dry and cold in our hearts, feels like we’re in the wilderness wandering.  The temptation to become angry and bitter is strong.  I wake up during those times and just put one foot in front of the other.  Its a time to consider the past cycle of seasons and what we learned.  What did we learn from the people in our lives?  Did we keep them in prayer?  What happened to them?  Who left and who stayed?  Why?  Were they a mirror held up to show you who you really are?  That's when it gets really uncomfortable.  Do we give up and let the wrong things die out or do we need to go through another cycle just like that?  How did we treat the users and the one-way streets?  Did we try to help them or did we get angry and mean before walking away?  Were we a good example of a sheep or were we a goat?  Did we help out those jaded and scarred to come out of their spiritual death?  Did we pray for Godly repentance to grip the hearts of the users we encountered? Spring feels new and there’s a fresh fragrance in the air.  You’re encountering new people and new things.  It’s very important to keep the new people and new things in prayer. What are you supposed to learn from them and what are they to learn from you?  Pray that your communication with the new people is clear and concise.  Many potentially wonderful relationships and accomplishments that God intended through new relationships have been hijacked by the enemy through poor communication.  Poor communication is to blame for many offenses people have taken up against one another.  It’s sad but true.  Pride is the other robber of great accomplishments God intended to get done throughout the earth.  That’s another blog for another time.  Its good to sow in all spiritual seasons of your life but Spring is your season to sow and grow.  Acting in good faith with everyone secures your integrity and in Winter you'll look back and see what you've learned about humanity and yourself. Summer feels just as good as Spring but the work starts to drag on and the heat can beat down really hard.  You find energy and drive and start the season off right.  Then a storm develops and seems like there is no end?!  Temptation to lose patience will be strong.  Your spirit will thirst for the watering of the Word and you will spend times just bathing in it just to cool off the thoughts in your head.  God’s voice will be distant. Then comes in your harvest!  God broke up that hard soil of your heart and sowed the seed of His Word and watered and fertilized repeatedly while the sun came out and helped.  And oh how grateful you are for the long hot sun because now you’re reaping the benefits of it’s work in you.  And you spread it out and continue to pray it out over those around you so you can share your story about God’s awesome love because each juicy and savory detail has benefits to others.  And oh how those trials drew out the worst stuff in you but now you’re so happy to be over it.  The colors of your autumn come alive before you.  This season is filled with His praise. When you’re spiritually growing from one season into another and finish a full cycle of seasons, you go into the next cycle of seasons.  Spiritual growth is not intended to end and each season and cycle is a continuum of learning and reflecting on the prior season and cycle.  Such are the seasons of the spiritual life walking with Jesus.  Anyone who says life with Jesus is easy is completely misconstruing the Word.  Yes, Jesus said in Matthew 28-30: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. But Jesus was not saying in this passage that life with Him would be easy.  What He was saying was that it won’t be easy and when it gets rough to go to Him in prayer.  But Soul Prosperity takes a lot of work.  Success lies in the heart and the heart must be willing and correctible.  If you’re only willing to work the Word of God into your life at a fast food level, you’ll get no real spiritual nutrition out of it. Asking Amiss Just Doesn’t Cut it With God. Without the real spiritual nutrition, God will never use you to do great things because God never does anything emotionally.  God never gives to us because He feels sorry for us.  Emotions are a component part of our being and we’re made in His image, which means emotions are only a component of God.  He experiences emotions but does not make His decisions by His emotions.  God being perfect makes perfect decisions and that means nothing received in His Kingdom comes by way of serendipity. We get out of the seed what we put into it.  If we diligently study His Word, we’ll get that understanding needed before we can acquire His blessings (including financial blessings) and put those blessings to use.  If you think financial blessing isn’t tied to your spiritual growth you are sadly mistaken.  Remember, it’s even as your soul prospereth.  God doesn’t waste anything and that especially what blessings come from His hand.  That blessing must be glorifying to God and it’s not glorifying if it’s springing from a heart asking out of selfish lust.  It’s not the material thing that’s evil, it’s the condition of one’s heart and it’s attachment to it.  The book of James addresses this issue.  You have not because you ask not and when you ask, you ask it amiss… which simply means asking out of a selfish, self-centered heart and not considering your motive.  It takes time for us to open up and be willing for God to show us what is at the center of our motives.  For some of us it takes a huge self-inflicted tribulation.  If we’re not correctible, we’ll get another one or just walk away from God altogether. If God let you win the lottery what would you do with it?  It’s not money itself that’s evil, it’s the love of it that is evil.  Money is never to be loved.  Many lives have been destroyed by wealth and the Bible instructs us that money that’s idolized is ‘filthy lucre’ and wealth is deceptive.  Money may be the answer to many problems but too much will corrupt the soil of your heart without the understanding necessary to do what God intends you to do with it.  When people receive a financial blessing from God something good, enduring and glorifying to God comes out it.  The Word tells us:  the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and He addeth no sorrow with it.  Prov. 10:22. Again, we must work the seed down and that takes time, prayer and alone time with God to hear His voice.  My recommendation is to take the scriptures of Luke 18:8: Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.  And Mathew 13:23: But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  I encourage you to write down these 2 scriptures to remind yourself often of the importance to be diligent to Bible study because it’s not only about what you learn, it’s also about the quality of your heart’s experience to bring you that understanding Jesus spoke of. I hope you’re receiving real Biblical wisdom and understanding from this series and it brings you prosperity in every area of your life.  I pray that the Lord Jesus touches the heart of each and every reader and show them the soil this seed is going into.  Reveal to each and every reader the areas of their heart that need exposure, correction, healing and why.  Give them understanding that brings them into a prosperity that allows them to increase the boundaries of the Kingdom of Heaven that the gates of hell will not prevail against.  Help them bring in the harvest of souls that lack the understanding needed to keep them walking with Jesus. Join me next time on Soul Prosperity when the discussion is on where to sow your seed. Be blessed. Read the full article

[stompsite]

An Open Letter To Bungie

Hi, Bungie folks, I’m Doc. You recently released the Warmind DLC. I recently played it. I’m writing this blog post now for two reasons: one, I’m obligated to write content for my readers, and two, because in another, healthier life, people paid me to help them make their games better. I’m not gonna pretend to be The Greatest Person Ever, but I do have a knack for helping developers, especially when it comes to online shooters.

Sure, I’m not some famous streamer or YouTuber who drives people to your games, and I’m not some universally beloved game designer like Shigeru Miyamoto. I’ve worked on games nobody will ever know about. I’ve worked on games everyone loves, and in the process, I’ve played and studied service based games more than just about anyone else out there. I want to help, because Bungie’s games have been good to me, and because I think they still can be.

I’m not gonna talk about Destiny 2 or how I felt about it or whether it’s good or bad or whatever. I’ve done that already. For the sake of my blog-reader-types, I’ve written about Destiny 2 for USGamer (part 1 and part 2), but I’m gonna assume you didn’t, and I’m not gonna ask you to sit down and read like 8,000 more words on Destiny 2 right now.

The tl;dr is this: Destiny 2 wasn’t as beloved as it could be. Bungie has, admirably, worked their asses off to make Destiny 2 a better game, and I think they’ve done a really good job, but I think there’s some areas where Destiny 2 could improve. There was a lot of hope for Warmind, and a bunch of the changes--the go fast and exotic updates especially--have done an amazing job at making Destiny 2 feel better to play. Exotics sucked before, and exotics are in a better place now.

There’s two kinds of feedback I can provide. There’s universal feedback and personal feedback. I want to try to do the former, because look, while personal would make the game more fun for me, it might not bring other people back.

(I started to write some and it went like: “Look, none of my Hunter gear has any mobility perks on it and yet I somehow have like 6 mobility on my guy. Everything is specced for armor and recovery but somehow I still have mobility on” or “you guys should really patch the physics glitch back into Crota’s End because that man cannon launch will never not be fun”)

Fixing my wants makes Destiny a better experience for me, but it doesn’t rope in new players or bring back old ones. This is more of a universal feedback type article thing.

Historically, I spend a lot of time writing really lengthy articles for casual readers. I go in-depth into setup because I’m trying to help people who might not know stuff learn the basics. My journalisty stuff is meant to educate and entertain. This is meant to be more, lean, respectful of time, blah blah blah. Buuuttt… since it’s unsolicited feedback, I don’t have any kind of report parameters, briefings, “what we’re aware ofs,” or stuff like that. So I’ll try to keep it succinct and try to avoid unnecessary explanations.

Okay, that was all setup; the actionable stuff starts here.

A big problem facing D2 right now is the fans. I mean, they’re great people. I love ‘em to pieces. But fans are usually, uh, not informed about game development, which means they’ll tell you what they think they want, and you have to listen to that and do your best to interpret it, which is a huge problem for basically every developer I’ve ever interacted with in any way, shape, or even tweet.

Like, “we want a better grind,” for instance. That sounds really simple, right? What does “better” mean, though? I’ve heard some people say that getting rewards is too easy. I’ve heard other people say that getting meaningful rewards seems impossible. There’s a ton of different ways we can interpret this desire for a better grind.

Warmind promised that. You folks at Bungie changed how difficulty works, how engrams drop, where the soft cap was, and a bunch of other stuff. You know all about that. But the folks online are still upset, and the discussion seems more confused than ever.

So, all we know for sure is that people didn’t like the grind before and they don’t like the grind now. Okay, cool, but what do they like? Or, better yet, how can we move the grind to a place where they’re happy?

First things first, making the grind a bit longer was absolutely the right call. Having exotics dumped all over you makes rewards feel meaningless. Getting legendaries all the time? Same deal. So making those things rarer, that’s a really good first step, but there are still three fundamental problems with the grind.

Problem #1: The soft cap. It’s weird to do a 350 difficulty event and only get 342 gear for it. What’s the point, you know? Why run these strikes that are super challenging--like, in some cases, LASO-levels of challenging--and get literally nothing of value for it? What’s the fun in doing it? I’m not gated by How I Play, I’m gated by the Weekly Reset. It’s weird to be told “stop playing now, you can’t make any forward progress.”

Some of the most fun I ever had was in Archon’s Forge in Destiny. I’d constantly jump into that with friends. Sure, it sucked that it wasn’t a matchmade activity, so we just kind of had to hope that we’d spawn in with another group of players, but it was so fun, and there was no way to play it without making some degree of granular, forward momentum.

This is in part because Rise of Iron had this nice, slow, forward momentum that felt really good until you hit somewhere around 385 or so, a mere 15 light from the cap of 400. You could complete any content in the game at that point, and, as I recall, get those last few levels by doing the PVE raids or Nightfalls or the PVP Trials of Osiris, Shaxx bounties, (and/or Iron Banner).

Destiny 2 has soft caps that make a bunch of content inaccessible. Momentum comes in starts and stops. I’ve done every milestone for the week except crucible (my heart condition makes competitive multiplayer a no-go for me until after my surgery) and the raid (same, but also putting together a team is hard these days) and I’ve… gone from, what, 335 to 342? For days now, no progress. There is nothing I can do but wait until reset. Heroic strikes and Escalation Protocol don’t feel rewarding at all.

Suggestion: Move the soft cap up to a point where players feel they control their own pacing, while making the level-up process way smoother. Those last ten light levels should be the challenge. Let me make progress on my light every single day of the week until the only thing in my way is the true endgame content.

Problem #2: Activities are unrewarding. For a service-based game to succeed, it needs to reward players for playing. To this end, most service-based games give players loot, of which there are two kinds. The first kind helps you progress, which means completing a collection (Destiny 2 does not have any meaningful way of tracking collection completion) or leveling up (in Destiny 2’s case, that’s the light system). The second kind changes how you play. After maining hand cannons for so long, Vision of Confluence, a scout rifle, changed everything for me. It felt rewarding not just because it was a joy to use, but because it tangibly impacted my power level and changed how I played Destiny. If you want to make loot rewarding, it needs to fill one of these criteria; if you want people to fall in love, it needs to fill both.

We’ve already talked about the soft cap issue and the lack of smoothness and player involvement in their own progression, but if all I ever get are slightly more powerful blue-tier guns, I’m going to shard all of them in disappointment. It’s why “two tokens and a blue” became such a meme. It’s why two of my friends ragequit Destiny 2 the other day. They’re tired of getting blues.

So, what’s the solution? Fewer blues? More purples and exotics? Nah, it’s deeper than that.

When I get loot now, I do one of two things. If it’s blue, I shard it. If it’s purple, I check the light level, and if it won’t raise my light, I shard it. If it does, I infuse it. I don’t keep anything anymore. I’ve found some guns I like, but truth be told, I could break down most of the guns I have without a worry, because none of them really change the way I play meaningfully. I’ve got Better Devils. I like the way it looks and it does the DPS I need. No legendary hand cannon has come along to change the way I use hand cannons. Ikelos and West of Sunfall 7 are… okay? They look cool, I guess?

Back in Destiny, I got this amazing scout rifle that had two complementary perks: firefly, which caused enemies to explode on headshot kills, and triple tap, which added a bullet to the magazine after three critical shots. Not super powerful, but it felt juicy to proc those abilities. It wasn’t the only scout rifle I used, of course. On solar burn nightfalls, I went with the awesome, super stable, automatic Vision of Confluence. I had this really fun Cryptic Dragon and Fang of Ir Yut I used.

Not to get into nostalgia, but some of those things had value.

In Destiny 2, most guns have one perk. Once you find a perk you like, you can safely break everything else down. Chances are, even if your favorite perk like, say, Outlaw, once you get a hand cannon with Outlaw, you’ll never care about another Hand Cannon with Outlaw. You’ve customized the one you found, it’s been your faithful companion, why would you ever switch to something else? Just infuse it into your old standby.

The single-perk system means that there’s no chance for perks that combine in pleasing or interesting ways. It would be awesome to--spitballing here--have an auto rifle with a perk that increases damage the longer you hold down the trigger and another perk that grants bonus ammo if the gun is reloaded when the mag is empty. Toss in a third perk that gives you a larger magazine size, and you have a really attractive weapon. Throw out your designer instincts to make the gun less accurate because those perks are powerful; let your players live a little!

Randomization helped a lot. In Destiny, getting new loot was exciting because it was always worth checking to see if you got something good. In Destiny 2, there’s no possibility to get anything good, because everything is predictable. I have a Valakadyn. There is no point to ever getting another Valakadyn, ever again. I have one. I don’t need more.

Consider faction rallies. I participated in one. I got most of the guns I wanted right away, then took forever to hit the cap. When I hit the cap, there was like… I think maybe one gun I wanted but didn’t get? It was a mind-numbing process of breaking things down, constantly, over and over again. A stream of endless disappointment. Once I got Dead Orbit’s Scout Rifle or Shotgun or whatever, the other 50 didn’t matter to me, y’know? No value whatsoever. Complementary perks would change how I play, and every gun would be way more exciting even if I got bad perks on some of them.

Better to have an active community complaining about balance than a dead community that barely logs on to play your game because they aren’t getting guns worth considering.

Suggestion: Honestly, the Destiny system was great. Just do that but add more possible perks. Hell, let players import all their old guns if you really love them. “Don’t fix what ain’t broke” could not be stated more here. In this case, unbreak what was working fine, please? It’ll keep players more invested. Lastly, let players get rewards at every tier. Scale it so that everyone who finishes the DLC has a chance of beating at least 1 wave of Escalation Protocol and getting rewards. Look at how anyone could beat Court of Oryx’s easy rune and get rewards, but only the best teams could beat the hardest runes.

Problem #3: Get some. Get none.

I’ve got this quest. It’s very simple: I need to complete three Escalation Protocol waves in order to complete. Awesome, right? Well, I tried all day yesterday to get it. Nothing. Part of the issue was matchmaking--this is a super tough thing that requires more than 3 players to complete, but I can only bring 3 players in, so I just have to hope people are willing to play.

Every time I turned it on, people in the area ran away.

There’s a problem with your game if people are running away from your content. In the case of Escalation Protocol, it’s because nobody I’ve encountered can reliably get to the first loot drop. With Archon’s Forge, Prison of Elders, or Court of Oryx, similar encounters in Destiny, people actively participated in those because you could always get something for doing it. With Escalation Protocol, you can spend 30 minutes trying to do it and get literally nothing for the effort except your entire fireteam complaining about how we should go play something else because “I’m too pissed off at this binary bullshit.”

That’s harsh. I don’t want to be harsh, but my friends were noticeably upset. We used to log onto Destiny to have a good time. But when you beat your head against a wall and get nothing for it, what’s the point? And, like I said above, getting more blues don’t count--blues are literally worthless (neither improving your power nor changing the way you play), and getting more legendaries rarely matters, as discussed above. That leaves, what, glimmer? Shaders? None of this fits the all-important “makes me more powerful or changes how I play” criteria.

“You either get something or you don’t, and because of this soft cap, it’s never good,” is how my friend put it, when I pressed him.

Games like Warframe address this by giving you resources, then giving you stuff to spend the resources on. Want to build this frame? (think Hunter/Titan/theotherclassnoonelikes, but there are like 50 of them and they have 4 abilities that can be modified in all sorts of insane ways) That’ll cost you a bunch of specific ingredients.

Suddenly, you find yourself changing things up. Maybe you run a few boss fights, do some derelict survival, fly archwing for a while… you’re always getting something, and that something leads to something new, and that something new changes your power or your level.

In Warframe’s case, every single weapon can be raised to level 30. Max out enough weapons, and you’ll improve your mastery rank. This rank offers a bunch of perks, which I’m not gonna get into here. “Forma” your level 30 weapon, and it starts over at level 1, but now it has more mod slots. The point isn’t “hey, do it like Warframe,” it’s “hey, every time you do something in Warframe, you get something, and that something goes towards changing how you play or how much more powerful you become. A non-Forma’d gun might only have room for 4 perks. Forma it enough, and you’ll be able to equip 12, which can radically alter how it behaves.

In my hundreds of hours of Warframe time, I always felt like I was making progress. My friends tell me Monster Hunter is the same way; even if you aren’t getting what you want grinding one monster, it’s easy to grind another monster. There’s always something to do.

With Destiny 2, you either get something or you don’t, and, like my friend said, it’s rarely worth the time. I think the exotic masterwork grind is a move in the right direction (though damn, do I wish that there were PVP and PVE requirements for every exotic because I like way too many guns that require me to play Crucible, which I don’t enjoy, as a person who prefers cooperative games).

Suggestion: More. Useful. Rewards. The easiest way to do this is just gonna be to do the above suggestion. That’ll put you back up there with Destiny. To take things even further, I’d put the masterwork core chase on every gun. I’d have some sort of “item collection kiosk” that lets players track every single gun and armor in the game. Destiny let players upgrade all their guns--that was more stuff for players to spend resources on and more resources to farm, which meant more willingness to go to multiple planets and different activities. It’d be more fun to finish a strike on Venus and get Spirit Bloom and go “oh, heck, I need that, because this gun with these perks I like needs Spirit Bloom to upgrade.”

I mean… this sounds bad, but like… don’t fix what ain’t broke, you know? You want to give players something that always feels like it is useful or will be useful in the near future. It doesn’t always have to level them up or change the way they play, but it should always promise that one of those two things is just around the corner.

So this is the conclusion time.

“But, Doc, why not be more imaginative than this?” Because I’m operating on a couple hours of sleep, am not allowed to drink any caffeine until after my surgery, and because no one’s paying me to do this. I’m just up blogging and trying to point more in a general direction than offer any serious, concrete solutions.

Besides, I don’t have any insights into how the engine works or what resources the team has or what deadlines they’re operating on. I don’t know what’s reasonable for you folks at Bungie to do. I know that some of this stuff is piss easy in Unreal Engine 4 or Unity. Heck, I could probably figure out a few of these things in CryEngine or Torque or idTech or Gamebryo or any of the other engines I’ve messed in over the years. So I could hazard a guess, but I mean, I’d rather go “you had it figured out already” and “here’s what other people do” than sit down and come up with brand spankin’ new innovative ideas for a developer that might not even read this post, y’know?

But uh…

Well, this brings me to the surprise problem!

I’m not really sure this is a problem. The other stuff, I can see it. I know how this stuff works, I know how players respond to problems, I know how to help people fix stuff. I can speak with relative confidence there.

But this, I dunno, it’s rooted in speculation, and that speculation is this: I feel as though Bungie is more interested in reinventing the wheel than perfecting it. Wheels have evolved over time, y’know? They started out as round things to help ancient humans move stuff around, and eventually people figured out all sorts of things like tires and transmissions and casters and brakes.

The tire evolved. But when I look at the stuff Bungie does, it seems like they’re more focused on Doing Something New Every Time. That’s not necessarily bad, but consider how often people have asked Bungie for a mode like Firefight or Horde, where players face off against waves of enemies for increasing rewards. Bungie has given players Prison of Elders, Court of Oryx, Archon’s Forge, and Escalation Protocol instead. I’m not going to lie, I like aspects of each of these.

Prison of Elders was great because it had so many unique bosses and random modifiers, but it suffered because there were no checkpoints, you always encountered every race every time, and it was just the same four rooms to fight in. The main issue with Court of Oryx was that there was no matchmaking, so you just kinda had to hope someone might join you in the world, and that didn’t happen as often as it should have. Archon’s Forge had the same matchmaking problem as Court of Oryx, but you could only carry one key at a time, instead of being able to carry multiple keys for multiple difficulties. Bungie had keys worked out with Court of Oryx. Why was Archon’s Forge different?

Now we have Escalation Protocol, and there are no keys, but there’s still the matchmaking problem, with an added “now you don’t get loot for beating a boss” issue. All three Destiny 1 events gave loot more reliably. Getting axes for skilled play seemed more predictable in Archon’s Forge than the Valkyries do in Escalation Protocol.

It feels like Bungie wants to make something new every time.

We’ve heard people from the Streamer/Youtuber Summit thing who’ve indicated that they’re not that excited by Bungie’s proposed weapon randomization system. So many of the changes in Destiny 2 seem completely arbitrary. It… how do I put this… don’t replace what ain’t broke, folks. We don’t need change for change’s sake. Improvements are better. Like, hey, I hated Exhumed. That’s a bad perk. I would have been way happier to see a bunch of new perks than to not have perks at all. I’d really like to see Prison of Elders or Archon’s Forge make a comeback, but with improvements like more objective randomization and the ability to carry more keys.

Right now, Escalation Protocol feels like the fourth, and least exciting, attempt at something else. Because it’s The Big Endgame Activity of the DLC, I feel like it casts a pall over Warmind.

So that’s my last suggestion: improve what you’ve got. Add onto it. But maybe cut back on the subtraction? Just a little bit?

Hopefully this is helpful feedback. Mostly, players just wanna hop in, feel like they got something done, and log off. There’s so much more I could talk about, especially why the challenge system feels flat or how the storytelling could be improved or why Bones of Eao NEEDS to return, but I think this covers the big stuff people are talking about after the DLC.

This fall, I don’t know if I’ll be picking up the next Destiny 2 installment. The patches are encouraging, but “the shooting feels better” isn’t why I come back to a game, y’know? It’s because I want to replay the story or spend time doing cool co-op stuff with my friends. Right now, Destiny 2 has room for improvement.

[piracytheorist]

(1)Hey beautiful, I'm glad you're feeling better! I spent my weekend at work and went to see some friends, also I started a Series of Unfortunate Events and I like it so far. How's your hiatus going? Are you watching any series until OUAT comes back? I'll say it again I love reading your metas, my preferences and headcanons regarding the show are really similar to yours. What you said about the Killian/Liam II dynamic seems pretty realistic.

(2)And yes I love that Killian's backstories never excuse his crimes and that it always parallels him doing the right thing in the present. It's repetitive but it always shows how good is redemption arc is and that even in the flashbacks his instinct is to to the right thing and I love that. OUAT is far from perfect (your bio "I hate OUAT but I still watch it" describe me perfectly lol) (3)but they created such complex characters, with rich backstories, and it's fascinating to analyze them and their dynamic with others. It's easy to have tons of headcanons and obviously few of them will actually happen on the show but it's such a nice surprise when they do happen, for instance i'm SO HAPPY that Emma met Liam and Milah, I had wanted this forever and I always wondered how it would happen. It wasn't perfect tho, I feel like 5x15 was...weirdly paced. (4)I wish we'd seen Killian introduce Emma and Liam. I guess it was in the script but they cut it. And the Milah/Emma dynamic was everything, I loved it so much. I saw the spoilers that Milah would be back and that they'd meet and for three months I imagined how it would be. That episode made me appreciate Milah a lot more but I'm still bitter about what happened, her soul is trapped forever and people like freakin CORA got to move on.. (5) Okay it's the last one! I wish you goodnight (or a good day depending on when you'll read this)! –your CSSV ♡ 

Hello, love! I’m dealing with the hiatus by staying on Tumblr and exchanging thoughts with other people, and I rewatch some of my favourite scenes from CS! I can’t keep up with too many shows at the same time, so I find it hard to watch a lot of them. I’m not quite a series junkie, so I’ve still yet to watch the new Sherlock or Mozart in the Jungle episodes. However, me and my roomie FINALLY finished the sixth season of Charmed that we started more than a month ago :P we’re going slowly but we will rewatch it all!

Heh, I changed my blog description after 6x10 to the one I have now. I really loved this show once, with its ideas and narrative and stories and all, and to some extent I still do, but now its quality has lowered significantly for me. But still for me it will be the show that gave me a fictional character whom I’ve loved more than any other and a ship I’m proud and certain to call my OTP. I have had some childhood/adolescence OTPs but none shared the love I have for Captain Swan. I can see me in twenty years still analyzing the ship and writing fics about them, and watching their scenes and people looking at me like “Why do you watch this old stuff it’s not even 3D!” lol.

But yeahhhhhhhh Season 5 was so promising and gave us a lot but not enough payoff... I liked that Liam was suspicious of Emma and didn’t like her right away but it would have been nice if his storyline wasn’t crumped up in one episode and instead he was given time to... develop, let’s say. I understand he’s a tertiary character connected to a secondary connected to a primary character but STILL you don’t give something so promising and rich and juicy and expect your viewers to not ask for more. Apart from the fact that I hated what they wrote for their backstory, I still find it unnacceptable that Killian and Liam didn’t hug. There should have been at least something, something deeper than a simple handhold as the two separated for what they hope would be decades. My tag for that episode is #where the fuck is my hug.

And Milah, oh, that’s another can of worms... like I know that my expectations for Gold to recognize his mistake were too much but, shit son, that I did not expect. Again, I know, tertiary character blah blah but what the hell! I think the most unrealistic thing in this whole plot was that Killian was perfectly fine with leaving her there! I mean, in 5x21, he was standing inches away from where she was pushed in but the writers seemed to have completely forgotten about that, and it drives me mad. Hades was gone, all I would need was for a few seconds where the Lost Souls were shown to be released from the River - that’s all I wanted. It would be enough, and yet nothing happened and I’m so sad. I know we talk about tragedy and stuff but it still was way too harsh. In my mind it happened, anyway! I can’t imagine Killian looking so relieved and so happy before moving on without making sure that Milah isn’t suffering, so to me it happened.

And like, with Cora, yeah I know that she regretted and if you think that Milah was a pirate for years she wasn’t the sweetest person in the world either but it’s UNFAIR! Milah’s death was unfair, Cora’s death was Snow’s desperate attempt to save herself and her family - something she deeply regretted. And yet- ugh! 

Aaaanyway those are just a few of the problems this whole season (and rest of the show!) have had for me and I turned negative, sorry :) It’s just that I hoped they had focused more on these aspects and not leave those stories half-told.

Tell me a bit about A Series of Unfortunate Events! I saw the movie that came out some years ago, and from what I’ve seen the series look cool, if not better. Is it good?

#cssv #csvalentines #Anonymous #ask and ye shall receive

[recentanimenews]

Magic School Brings New Friends and Foes In My Next Life As A Villainess Episode 4 Recap

  Ah, the start of a new school year! Even for those of us far removed from that life, there really is nothing like the breath of fresh air it seems to bring to one’s year. New people, new challenges, and new… doom flags? Well, maybe that’s only in the case of Catarina! Welcome back to our recap of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! I’m Professor Nicole, and we’re here once again to study up on all the juicy moments and details of episode 4 before watching the latest episode today!

Last time, Catarina celebrated surviving childhood with a lavish party, while also cluelessly assembling quite the following of admirers. As she transitions into young adulthood and school life, will she continue to bumble through life and avoid doom? Or will this be the start of Catarina’s downfall? 

**SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 4 AHEAD**

Catarina and Keith are prepared to leave home, but not without some final warnings from their parents (mostly for Catarina) that now was a time to grow and mature. Honestly, we don’t really see what the problem is with Catarina’s hobbies, but that’s nobility for you, I guess! 

For Catarina, this is a change not just in her life, but also in her potential fate. While she worked hard during her childhood to put her knowledge (and dumb luck) to use in trying to avoid bad endings, the real test begins now at the magic academy, the setting for "Fortune Lovers."

We start off by getting our first inclinations about Maria, the real protagonist of "Fortune Lover," who seems to be your fairly traditional otome game lead: common birth, humble, and of course, born with a rare and unique magical gift. Typical protagonists, always with the rare gifts! Oh, right, I guess Catarina falls into that category too, huh?

The Council of Catarinas tries to take stock of what this new beginning will bring. Aside from Catarina being, well, a real person and not a programmed AI now, the rest of the world has also been changed by Catarina’s actions. What exactly will happen when the fated encounters occur—if they even do occur? The council seems at a loss but remains hopeful.

Catarina’s growing harem has changed as well, although she seems totally clueless as to why these changes are important. Geordo still has a somewhat dark heart but is no longer feeling oppressed by Catarina as it was implied he was in the game.

Keith has become an earnest and polite young man, although he certainly seems destined for an early grave if Catarina keeps putting him through so much stress! Keith doesn’t seem to be frivolously flirting it up with women at any opportunity, but his sister doesn’t give him a lot of downtime to do so, to be honest...

As we saw in episode 3, Alan has also changed quite drastically from the game, feeling a bit of an equal, brotherly rivalry with Geordo now instead of feeling taciturn and resentful. Of the entire cast so far, Alan seems the most openly changed, and even Catarina picks up on his changes!

Of course, that’s come with the added benefit of Alan’s relationship with Mary irrevocably changed. Rather than being interested in Alan, she’s quite obviously interested in Catarina! Alan seems to be interested in Catarina as well, so it doesn’t seem to bother him too much. Still, what ripple effect will such a change have? Only time will tell!

Finally, Nicol and his sister Sophia have become more prominent in Catarina’s life, whereas "Fortune Lover" originally saw the trio rarely interact. Nicol certainly seems to be the dark horse in this race, and we have yet to hear or see much out of him in regard to Catarina, so it will certainly be interesting to see what happens when—or if—he makes any moves!

  Catarina seems obsessed with tracking down Maria, but failing to find her during orientation, she instead finds herself once again in the clutches of Geordo’s attempts to woo her back to his room. Of course, Geordo seems fairly smart, so he’s learned the best way to attract a stray Catarina: sweets!

    Before that, though, we’re introduced to a new character: Sirius Dieke, the student council president. Honestly, I’m getting a weird vibe from this guy, so I’m very interested in seeing what develops with him in the future. Doesn't he seem a bit too perfect?

But who cares about that when sweets are in the picture? Of course, Catarina doesn’t really let anything bother her and instead finds herself chaperoned by Keith (such a good brother!) at Geordo's. She immediately loses interest in anything else and chooses to eat her fill of baked goods, instead.

WARNING: DOOM FLAG APPROACHING!

While Catarina stuffs her face, Keith and Geordo recount their run-ins with a mysterious new girl: the one and only Maria! Catarina, this is why you need to think with your brain, not your stomach!

Turns out there's one unexpected change from Catarina’s childhood: People in her social circle just seem to find people climbing trees totally normal. Frankly, it’s a little weirder for Maria than child Catarina, but, well, when in "Fortune Lover," make like the Fortune Lovers do! 

In one of the more vexing parts of this episode, it seems our dear Bakarina can’t quite realize that Geordo (and others) aren’t at risk of being conquered by Maria because the game is no longer following the same script, and finds herself unable to sleep instead. 

Catarina starts her first day of school by nearly giving Keith a heart attack, accusing him of trying to play pick-up artist with Maria. Pure, kind, sweet Keith. We’re so, so sorry you have to put up with such a blockhead of a sister! Jumping to immediate conclusions based on her faulty reading of the game again, Catarina nearly kills Keith with accusations of falling in love with a girl he has spoken to literally once. Come on Catarina! You even said he isn’t the same Keith earlier!

    Thankfully, Catarina and Keith’s maid steps in with the assist, stopping this charade. At this rate, we predict poor Keith is going to die of high blood pressure in a year. Hang in there, Keith!

The fateful meeting finally occurs, however, as Maria and Catarina pass in the hallway to… not much fanfare, really. You’re being kind of a creeper, Catarina!

The Council of Catarinas is thrown into a panic as they find Maria as charming and wholesome as promised… except they need to make sure they don’t lose to her to survive! Of course, Catarina doesn’t seem to imagine just… not bullying Maria as the obvious solution here.

Determined to survive, Catarina revives her interest in farming, using a technicality in “flower” to find ways to grow some vegetables. Her maid gives quite the RBF here, to be honest, but I suppose if you’ve had to put up with Catarina’s antics this long, you’d probably feel the same way.

Of course, crops aren’t the only things Catarina is harvesting, as her entourage shows up to court her attention. Conveniently, all at the same time. Weird how everyone always shows up to pursue you at the same time, huh, Catarina?

Alan shows some amazing growth here in the episode, having matured into a fine young man who is no longer obsessed with inferiority complexes. Catarina, you should take more notice of how people act and feel, or maybe you wouldn’t have missed how much Alan’s changed from the game!

We finally meet the student council president up close... I don’t trust smiles like this one. I’ve seen enough anime and played plenty of games to know how this is gonna play out!

Catarina gets to spend time with Maria whenever she visits the student council room. And Maria immediately finds out Catarina’s weakness: baked sweets.

Catarina... You’re not supposed to fall in love with her, too!

Of course, as usual, Catarina finds herself playing the role of heroine, coming to the defense of poor Maria. (And the baked goods, those are important too.) Hm, something about this scene seems familiar…

Having the gaze of a villain comes in handy, though, as Catarina terrifies these three bullies into submission! That’s one heck of a gaze!

Catarina’s devotion to all things baked and sweet really doesn’t know any bounds. Also, didn’t your mother say not to eat things off the ground anymore at the start of the episode, Catarina?! PROMISE BROKEN.

  Oh no, that smile is deadly cute! 

Of course, Catarina seems to remember things after the fact and realizes the reason this situation was so familiar was… SHE was the one doing the bullying?! Aside from directly changing the game again, it is interesting that the same sequences of events are happening, but now with different players.

That’s the spirit, Catarina! Steal all of those flags! Become the heroine yourself! Grow your harem! That’s the true way to conquer the game, right?! *Ahem*

Well, that brings us to the end of yet another episode! This one has shown the most direct changes to the game so far. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for our heroine (villainess?) moving forward. Who exactly is Sirius, and why does he have such an ominous smile? What will become of Maria and Catarina’s budding friendship? Will Bakarina EVER get a clue? Well, we’ll just have to find out in today's episode! Until next time, viewers, remember to eat your sweets in moderation!

Have any fond back to school memories? Are you also addicted to baked goods? Let us know in the comments!

Catch My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! every Saturday at 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST on Crunchyroll!

  ----

Nicole is a frequent wordsmith for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!