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xovvo · 1 year

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English Wordsmithing Pt. 1: From PIE to Proto-Germanic

Ok, so intro post with the basics of PIE is done. Now we can actually get to making these words! Today, I'm feelin' like I want some good words for clergy/pagan priestly roles since pretty much all native English words for them have been Christianized.

There are a few PIE roots we could select (including *weh₂t-, which yielded Latin "vātēs" for an Oracle, prophetess, or seer, Odinn, and several words in English and other Germanic languages meaning "madness", "excitement", "singing", "rage", etc. It's a fun root, but not what I'm looking for right now. Maybe later.), but for this purpose, I want to explore *seh₂k-, which gave us Latin "sacer", "sanctus" and English "sacred" and English/French "saint". It has meanings of making or being holy, as well as making a pact---which is great! Perfect!

A note on Orthography: since my system can't render ḗ correctly, nor é̄, a long vowel bearing accent will be written as e̋.

Now we need to choose endings. I'm going to focus on endings that derive agent nouns from roots or verbs. The first that springs to mind is *-te̋r, which throws the stem into the ø grade. Because it derives nouns from adjectives, I could actually append this not just to the bare *seh₂k- root, but also the various infix-presents, and the factative and causative forms. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough yet with PIE word-formation, so I don't have a good idea of what happens when I need to adjust stress/ablaut on more than one syllable.

Wiktionary also claims that *-lós is also a suffix that derives agent nouns from roots/verbal nouns. Great, add it to the pile.

Lastly, I want to explore is actually three endings connected by ablaut. We have *-mén(s) > *-mën, *-mon(s) > *-mō, and *-mn̥. I'm tempted to think *-mn̥ is the original ending since *-mō is its collective/plural, and that was a common path for new words to get coined in PIE (and it's how we got the feminine gender in Post-Anatolian PIE!) and *-me̋n created in analogy, but I don't have data for that. It should be noted that *-mn̥ is neuter and both *-mō and *-me̋n are masculine. Also technically only *-me̋n and *-mō create agent nouns---but in Proto-Germanic two of the endings collapse together, and by the time we get to Old English, they're all the same ending.

as a bonus, I'm also including *seh₂klōys, which only has descendents in Anatolian languages and meant something like ‘custom, customary behavior, rule, law, requirement; rite, ceremony; privilege, right’, according to Dr. Kloekhorst, in his Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon which is great and I love it.

So, our candidate words are:

*sh₂kme̋n ~*séh₂kmō ~ *séh₂kmn̥

*sh₂klōs

*sh₂kte̋r

*seh₂klōys, for funsies

Now, the forms for the genitive and the plurals were distinct, so I'll be listing these words in tables with these four forms of the word (Nominative Singular, Nominative Plural, Genitive Singular, Genitive Plural). Because the oblique cases merge so fast (to the point where we go from PIE's fulll Nominative-Accusative-Genitive-Vocative-Ablative-Allative-Dative-Locative-Instrumental system to Old English's Nominative-Accusative-Genitive-Dative system that was already just a Nominative-Genitive system except for a few rare forms.) and I'm currently not looking to make new words out of oblique forms, we're good leaving them off.

So! our initial tables are:

Image captions coming once I figure out how to trick screanreaders into pronouncing IPA

So, for the purposes of this post, I'll be following a roughly chronological order for the sound changes, but if you're following along at home, the chronological summary of sound changes can be found on page 152 of A Linguistic History of English, Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic by Don Ringe, but it's recommended that you definitely follow along by reading from section 3.2.1.

Now, Immediately, several sound changes are relevant to our words:

Syllabic resonants prepend an epenthic "u"

Word-final bimoric ("long") -ō lengthens to trimoric ("overlong") -ô

Word-initial laryngeals are dropped before consonants, laryngeals that precede a vowel color /e/ and /ē/ and are dropped, laryngeals that follow vowels lengthen them and color /e/ and /ē/ and are dropped, AND because neither Cogwill's nor Osthoff's law apply here, laryngeals between consonants are replaced by epenthic "ǝ"

Giving us:

Once again, this image uncaptioned until I can make a reader read it comprehensibly, I'm so sorry

At this point, the biggest changes we need to handle are Grimm's and Verner's Laws.

Grimm's Law shifts the "voiceless" series of consonants to voiceless fricatives ([ p, t, k ] > [ f, þ, x(orthographic "h") ]), "voiced" obstruents to voiceless obstruents ([ b, d, g ] > [ p, t, k ]), and "voiced-aspirated" obstruents to voiced obstruents (which also had voiced fricative allophones in many positions; [ bʰ, dʰ, gʰ ] > [ b, d, g ]). Now, clusters of obstruents block the shift such that only the first obstruent shifts. Which means for our purposed, only one consonant---the final "k" in the root is affected and nothing else.

Verner's Law and is more complicated. To quote Dr. Ringe in Section 3.2.4: """ After the PIE voiceless stops had become voiceless fricatives by Grimm’s Law, they became voiced by Verner’s Law if they were not word-initial and not adjacent to a voiceless sound and the last preceding syllable nucleus was unaccented; *s was also affected, and became voiced *z under the same conditions """

Also, really only affecting the genitive singular of *-ós: *-ósyo, is apocope, wwhich actually ends up chopped back to *-ós.

So now, at this crossroads we have:

At this point, stress moves to the initial syllable (so I will no longer be marking stress) which strengthens ǝ > a, and then two sequences of changes happen at the same time:

m > n at the end of words, then Vn > V̨ word-final /n/ is lost while nasalizing the preceeding vowel, and then ę̄ > ą̄

unstressed /e/ > /o/ before wC, unstressed /e/ > /i/ everywhere else

after this, the next two big changes happen before the Late contraction of vowels in hiatus wraps everything up:

ji > i, kicking off the general loss of j between vowels except the environments *ijV > *ijV and ǝjV > *jV

After stress moved to the initial syllable the low rounded back vowels unrounded: [ o, ō, ô ] > [ a, ā, â ], then after ę̄ > ą̄ and VjV > VV, the long low vowels re-rounded, regardless of nasalization: [ ā, â ] > [ ō, ô ]

The contraction of vowels in hiatus wraps everything up. For the most part, the contraction meant /o/ and /a/ got lengthened, capping at trimoric length.

So, our words are now in their Final Proto-Germanic state:

It's almost comprehensible to screen readers!

Right?

Well, not quite. Because we have to take into account he morphological changes that were made as native speakers remodeled declensions and shit to suit how they interpreted their language to work.

Here, it's just Nom. sing. "saglas" > "saglaz"

And also the leveling of sag- and merger of -mǫ̂ + -mō endings (with light remodelling.) Now we're ready to head into the next post where we cover the Intermediate stages between Proto-Germanic and Old English, with this set:

Soon, I promise

#linguistics #proto indo european #proto germanic #conlanging #conlang #I still feel like I missed something during the o > a change bc that was more remodelling than expected #Sound changes say -mnes that /m/ is a syllabic resonant and should receive an epenthic /u/ if it doesn't have a vowel against it #yet all the endings have -minis or -miniz

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klaineownsmysoul · 2 years

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I just want to say I’ve always found your posts about Darren and M a bit ridiculous but after his latest insta post I’ve been like ??? Maybe you’re right. That post seemed so unnecessary and weird

Umm - ok. Thanks, I think? Not sure what to do with this. I'm not here trying to convert anyone; you are welcome to believe what you like. I am just posting my opinion on things and again, you are welcome to read my posts or not, follow me or unfollow me.

The post in question? Completely obvious and definitely unnecessary, especially 5 days later and especially considering we'd already seen a lot of those pics posted by others. He basically gathered up pics taken by others, threw them together in a post, and then included a caption that had nothing to do with the pics themselves. And then went ahead and added pics to a story that were actually relevant; almost like a balm to counteract that first set and remind us of how empty a role she plays.

And he finally gets to bring his mom to something - his favorite awards event to boot - and we get nothing? No post at all from him? Now that is something I can see him wanting to take his time with. He'd said previously that he doesn't post because it takes him too long to choose a pic and then a caption for it. I can see a wordy emotional post from him talking about how excited he was to bring his mom, her getting to see him perform and how lovely she looked all dressed up. That is a post I would have savored and absolutely adored: from someone who does actually love him and has supported him his entire life and isn't in it for the comments and attention. But no - she and everything and everyone else in his life falls down the ladder of importance far behind the undeserving little wifey.

#anonymous

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bhavishya-gautam · 2 years

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15+ Best Tips To Earn Money From Instagram: (Easy & Simple) In 2022

How To Earn Money From Instagram

Introduction

Instagram has become the most popular social media platform in the world. Instagram is a great place to Make Money From Instagram your business and it doesn’t have to be hard. There are plenty of ways to get paid for posting on Instagram, in this article we’ll go over 15+ Best Tips To Earn Money From Instagram in detail now but you must know how the market works before diving in headfirst.

#1. Look to the Bible and not your feelings as the basis of the Christian life.

– Author: R.C. Sproul

How To Make Money From Instagram

How To Earn Money From Instagram | Make Money From Instagram | Earn Money From Instagram (With Or Without 10K Followers) | Earn Money From Instagram In 2022

Finding your Instagram Niche

Now that you have your Instagram bio, it’s time to start posting. There are many ways to make money on Instagram and the most effective way is by finding a niche that you are passionate about and then capitalizing on it. You can do this by creating a product or service that relates directly to your audience or niche community. The key here is consistency in branding, content creation, and promotion through consistent hashtags, links, and calls-to-action (CTAs).

If you want more tips on how to increase engagement on Instagram visit my website at [link].

Here are a few Tips to help you get started:

-Create a bio that is short, sweet, and clearly states what your content is about. If it’s too long people won’t read it! Try not to go over 75 characters in your bio.

-Create a catchy caption, that pulls the reader in and makes them want to click on your link.

-Use hashtags sparingly but make sure they are relevant to your post and not just used for self-promotion. Use no more than 3 hashtags per post and make sure they are not obscure or too long.

-Use images that are high quality, clear and interesting. Take your time to find a good photo you like and then optimize it by uploading it at a higher resolution than the original.

-Use the right tools. Many apps can help you with this including:

-Instagram

-Canva

-Hootsuite

-Buffer

-Spruce

-Gramfeed

-Tailwind

-Schedugram

#2. When I read something, I want to be surprised. So I read something and go, “Wow, I never, ever would have thought of playing this kind of role. This is exciting me, let’s go do this.”

– Author: Guy Pearce

Creating a killer profile

Use a good profile picture

Include a bio

Use hashtags

Add location tags, captions, and links to your website or other social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter)

Developing your Brand

A brand is the most important part of any business. It’s what makes you stand out from your competitors, so if you want to make money from Instagram, you must make sure that your brand reflects what makes you unique and special. Branding is about consistency—being consistent with your message, tone, and style; being consistent with who follows you on Instagram (and why); being consistent with how often and where they see the posts from their feed; being authentic when posting content; etc., etc., etc…

Bringing in the Crowds

Make your profile public. This is the first step to getting more followers on Instagram. Making your profile public means that anyone can see it and follow you, so don’t be shy about making sure this happens!

Share content on other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter too! They have millions of users who will also see what you have to say if they are interested in similar topics as yours, so why not give them another reason why they should check out your account?

Use hashtags for visibility purposes: This is another thing that makes people want to spend time looking through photos or videos posted by others because it helps them find new content quickly when scrolling through their feed (and remember: more engagement = more views!). If someone posts something interesting but doesn’t use any hashtags at all then how will anyone know where else they might find similar things? So make sure each post includes at least one relevant hashtag—this way everyone knows exactly what kind of content was shared without having wasted any time searching futilely while waiting impatiently until someone else posts something new before realizing there wasn’t anything good enough yet!

#3. Everyone loves to dance. I’ve realize that’s a part of what I do more and more every day.

– Author: Ciara

Monetization Techniques

Photo by Andre Sebastian on Unsplash

There are many ways to make money from Instagram, including advertising and sponsorship. Here are some other ways to monetize your account:

Affiliate Marketing – You can link your account with an affiliate program so that when someone buys something through your link, you get paid a commission. This is also one of the best ways to make money on Instagram!

Product Placement – If you have an awesome product or service that people want but don’t know about yet (and if they’re like us), we recommend contacting companies directly about getting them featured on our feeds for free! We’ve had great success doing this ourselves—and it doesn’t take much time either! We’ve been able to get featured on tons of accounts without spending any money out-of-pocket (just our time).

Creating an income from Instagram takes time, but it is doable.

Create a Facebook page and/or Twitter account.

Create an Instagram account.

Use hashtags and add captions that are relevant to your industry, niche, and audience. Try using the same hashtags you use on other social media platforms so people who follow them will also see your posts on Instagram too!

Engage with followers by commenting on their photos or replying to comments left by others in the comments section of each post you make (this helps build relationships). Don’t forget about likes as well! You can see how many likes each post gets by scrolling through its feed within Instagram itself – if there’s anything worth sharing then chances are good that someone else already shared it before – check out those Top 10 Lists we mentioned earlier again if needed too!

Make money from your own Instagram posts.

When it comes to making money from Instagram, there are a few basic steps that you should take. These include creating a business account and profile, creating a hashtag for your product or service (if applicable), posting about your product or service on the platform itself, setting up landing pages with more information about those offerings, and sending out email newsletters to customers/clients in exchange for their addresses (and thus collecting emails), using social media as an advertising platform (such as Facebook) where they can engage directly with each other. And then there are even more options like:

Creating landing pages so people can buy products online right away without having to pay any extra fees – this is especially useful if someone buys several thousand dollars worth at once!

Sending out freebies like eBooks etcetera in exchange for their email address – again this helps increase traffic coming into websites because people will want information before making any purchases themselves…

#4. Self realization of strengths and weaknesses is the first step towards salvation.

– Author: Mayank S. Sengar

Become an influencer or a brand ambassador.

Becoming an influencer or brand ambassador is a great way to make money online. You can become an influencer by posting interesting content that your followers will like, and getting them to follow you on Instagram.

If you want to become an influencer, start with the basics: post photos of yourself doing something fun (like playing soccer), then tag it #instagoodmakemoneyontheinternet or #instagramidontknowifitsworkingbutthatsokaybecauseimnotgoingtogetpaidanywayiamjustmakingcontentinsteadsofthatlikethisideahereonthispage!

Once your account has more than 50 followers, start promoting other people’s products using hashtags such as:

#buymyproducttodayandgetfree shipping! People will see these posts and buy what is being advertised even though they don’t know who posted them (you!). You’ll get paid by advertisers and brands alike because everyone loves free stuff! You may also want to consider starting up YouTube channels or other social media platforms such as Facebook where there are lots of users who watch videos instead of reading text-based articles.”

Sell products on Instagram.

Use a hashtag that is relevant to your product.

Find a product that has a large following.

Find a product with high demand, but not too much competition.

Find an affordable item with high-profit margins for reselling on Instagram and make sure it fits into your niche!

Sell presets (filters) for Instagram photos.

A preset is a filter that you can add to your photo before posting it on Instagram. You can create presets by using an app or website called InstaPix.

You can make money from selling these filters in different ways:

Sell on Etsy, which is a popular place for people who are selling things online (like art or crafts)

Make money with affiliate marketing programs, where a company pays you when someone buys their product through your link (for example Amazon)

Grow other people’s accounts and get paid to do it.

#5. I still love to play chess. So I do not even spend a minute on the possibility to step back.

– Author: Anatoly Karpov

There are a couple of ways you can grow other people’s accounts, and get paid for it.

Find people with a large following on Instagram and reach out to them – make sure you have the right credentials to do this, like being able to provide proof that they have an audience interested in what they’re doing. You could also use tools like Instagress or Hootsuite (both free) to help manage your social media presence more effectively. If you’re looking for more advanced features such as analytics tracking or scheduling posts at specific times of day/weekend days then check out Crowdfire ($10/month).

Get paid for growing other people’s accounts – this is something I’ve personally done before but it’s important not only because it gives us something else besides just likes which isn’t necessarily what we want from our posts but also because if we build up our following then even though there may not be very many followers yet still earning money off each post makes sense since these numbers add up quickly over time!

Affiliate marketing on Instagram.

How to get started with affiliate marketing on Instagram:

Open an account at Marketo and set up your profile. When you’re ready, follow these steps:

Sign into your Marketo account and click “Help” in the top right corner of your screen. Then AAclick “Create Plan.”

Select “Start a New Campaign” from the menu that appears next to this option. You’ll be prompted for some basic information about yourself (name, email address), which we recommend filling out before proceeding further with this process. Once you’ve filled out all of these details successfully, click Save Changes when prompted by our system so we can encrypt them before storing them securely in our servers!

Sell your photography prints and products online with Printful and Instagram.

If you’re looking to get started in the world of affiliate marketing, Printful is a great place to start. Here’s what you need:

An account with Printful

A product you’d like to sell (or have already made)

An Instagram account and a connection between it and your Printful account.

Make sure you pay attention to the market and keep up with trends so your account stays popular.

Stay relevant by posting content that appeals to your followers, engaging with them regularly, and building a following of people related to your niche.

Be creative with your content (you can always find inspiration on Instagram). Posting new photos is also a good way of keeping people interested in your page!

#6. It is the winners who write history – their way.

– Author: Elaine Pagels

7 Ways to Make Money on Instagram [2022 Update]

How to Make Money on Instagram: 5 Ways for 2022 - NerdWallet

How to Grow Your Instagram Followers Organically in 2022 - Business 2 Community

Conclusion

Instagram has become the most popular social media platform in the world. Instagram is a great place to find Opportunities and start making money from your photos. You can use it as a portfolio for your business, or you can make money selling products on Instagram. It’s also possible to get paid by affiliate marketing, or even grow other people’s accounts and get paid for doing so! If you’re interested in any of these options, follow all the steps outlined above until you find something that works for you.

Affiliate Disclosure :

This article contains Affiliate Links, If you purchase through our affiliate links, we get paid for the referral at no additional cost to you! For More Information Visit my Affiliate Disclosure Page. Check out The BhavishyaGautam.com blog!

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ewokedigitalservicekochi · 11 months

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SEO's Future in 2023: Is It Dying?

One word answer is “No”. SEO is not dying! SEO is still a very effective digital marketing technique. SEO will continue to evolve as Google’s algorithm is updated, but this cannot be predicted.

SEO practices are constantly evolving, and what worked a year ago may not work today. In 2023, Google will be heavily focused on helpfulness and uniqueness in its latest algorithm updates. Long gone are the days when you could rank a 500-word article you hired someone on Fiverr to write for $10. Therefore, it is important to write unique and helpful content that is human-centric and meets user search intents. It is also important to focus on one main topic and create content that serves the real purpose of that topic.

Additionally, it is important to focus on getting more traffic and ranking higher for your main keywords, but not to create an echo chamber of false and damaging information. Instagram optimization will become increasingly important in 2023, with the recently implemented feature of keyword search spreading across accounts around the globe. Best practices to improve Instagram SEO include using relevant keywords in your bio, captions, and hashtags, and posting high-quality content consistently.

Potential Factors That Could Affect SEO in 2023

Search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving, and there are several potential factors that could affect SEO in 2023. One of the most important factors is website architecture and technical SEO, as slow load times, unresponsive or unsecured sites, code bloat, and missing XML sitemaps can all negatively impact SEO. AI content and content writing software, mobile-friendliness, backlinks, search intent and content relevancy, domain authority, keyword optimization, website structure, website security, and on-page experience are also important factors. It is important to stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and best practices to ensure that your website is optimized for search engines and ranks well in search results.

Is SEO dead due to the rise of A.I ?

No, SEO is not dead due to the rise of AI. AI writing APIs are changing the SEO landscape, but SEO is still a highly effective digital marketing strategy that continues to grow as businesses compete for online visibility. While some people are excited and worried about how AI might be able to do a better job, AI content still needs a person to tell it what to do and make the writing look nice. Also, the internet will be flooded with AI content, although some AI-generated content may be superior to human-generated content.

Companies that already make SEO-writing and checking bots are likely to roll out some fresh new models soon, which will be even better than before. These bots will write good articles and product descriptions that are almost perfect, but they still need a person to tell them what to do. Therefore, as Google’s algorithm changes, SEO will continue to exist, and businesses will need to keep up to remain competitive. In short, SEO is not dead, and it will continue to play a vital role in digital marketing in the future.

Wrapping It Up

Google often changes its algorithms to provide the best experience to its users, so it is important to focus on providing the best user experience if you want to win the SEO game. Follow the best SEO practices, such as creating helpful content, having a faster website, and following Google guidelines, to get better rankings.

SEO is still alive, but it constantly changes as search trends, algorithms, and other factors change. Instead of worrying about factors you can’t change, focus on modifying your SEO strategies when necessary to maintain control. The ROI that SEO can bring to your business will be the basis of consistent growth for years to come.

SEO is a necessary part of improving your website’s ranking; without improving your SEO ranking, you will be unable to drive traffic to your website. eWoke is the best SEO company in Kochi to help you improve the ranking of your website.

Connect with us to know more.

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digitaldestinations-blog · 2 years

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5 ways to make the most out of Instagram hashtags

HASHTAG STRATEGIST

1. Create a branded hashtag

A branded hashtag is a tag you create yourself to promote your brand, product or campaign.

After creating a branded hashtag, you can inform your audience about it by including it in your Instagram bio and highlighting it in your captions and Instagram Stories.

You can even run a contest with your branded hashtag to collect user generated content and make the hashtag even more popular.

You should also follow your branded hashtag This allows you to monitor how people use your hashtag, and identify opportunities to repost great content and/or connect with influential people in your industry.

To follow a hashtag within Instagram, just click it, and then tap the blue Follow button on the hashtag page.

2. Use Instagram Insights to see the most effective hashtags

If you have an Instagram business account, you have access to Instagram’s native analytics tool, Insights, that show you how many impressions your posts got from hashtags.

To find this data, select the specific post and tap View Insights below the post. Scroll up to see all the insights for that post, including the number of impressions it got from hashtags.

This data helps you identify the hashtags that are most effective at increasing reach.

3. Don’t use irrelevant or redundant hashtags

It might seem easier to just copy and paste the same long list of hashtags on every post, but that does more harm than good.

Instagram’s guidelines clearly state that “posting repetitive comments or content” is wrong. If you use the same hashtags for all your posts, Instagram will penalize your content.

When you make a post, only use relevant hashtags. For instance, if you tag a post with #skincare, your content should be something that beauty enthusiasts will want to like, comment on, and share.

Instagram marketing is not about getting seen by many people, it’s about getting seen by the right people. So take the time to pick the right keywords for each post.

4. Understand how hashtag pages work

Hashtag pages are a great way to get your content in front of a new audience, especially if your posts are featured in the Top section.

Hashtag pages show all the content associated with a particular hashtag. So if someone searches for a hashtag, and your post is the most recent one with that hashtag, it will be the first post the person sees in the Recent section.

But as you might know, it’s much easier to stay at the top of the Recent section if you use a niche hashtag, as opposed to one of those ultra-popsr ones listed at the top of this guide.

Note: The Recent section is sorted based on when each post originally went live. So if you add hashtags later, whether you edited the caption or put them in a comment, that won’t push your post up in the Recent section.

5. Save hashtags for future use

If you use the same hashtags often, you can save them in a note so you can copy/paste them. This reduces the time you’d take to type them in over and over.

And yes, I did say that you shouldn’t use the same hashtags on all your posts earlier. That still holds true.

However, it’s a good idea to have a list of relevant hashtags you use often. You can even create different lists of hashtags that are relevant to the various kinds of posts you create. Just make the list in your Notes app, and copy/paste them to your Instagram post when you’re ready.

Be sure to remember that all the Instagram hashtags you use on a post must be relevant to the content and shouldn’t be too redundant. Don’t copy/paste your entire list onto every post.

Still, have a question on your mind? Just, give me a knock and I will be your Best Friendly Consultant.

#facebookmarketing #digitalmarketing #googleads #socialmediamanager #tiktokmarketing

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bergnixon8 · 2 years

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More Internet Marketing Advice That Will Maxmize Your Profits

Learning about internet marketing can be very overwhelming, but just like anything else, it can also be very easily researched, taught and then, applied. Now that you have found this list of tips, hopefully you can come out a little more informed when it comes to the internet marketing of your website. Take a day off. Internet marketing can very easily consume your whole day, since you're sitting in front of the computer. This can make you tired, irritable and someone who is not good to be around. Take some time off to exercise or clear your mind and you'll come back to work, well-rested and invigorated. To make Indonesia Data Center Market , you should target your customers carefully. Advertise products related to your website. Think about what kind of people would visit your website, and what kind of products they might be interested in. Choose products that you can actually sell and target your audience carefully when advertising. When you are attempting to market a product or business using a website, it is important that you be constantly adding new content to the site. The newer your relevant content, the higher your search engine rankings for those keywords. Also, new content will draw repeat visitors to your site, who are then more likely to buy your product. When working with Internet marketing, do not forget to jump on the Facebook boat. It is not going to sink for a long time and you can attach a simple "visit us on Facebook" to any form of advertising, such as fliers, billboards, television or radio. Invest some time in learning basic web design techniques and principles. You can look up a lot of information online about learning HTML, CSS or other things that go into web design. Spending just a half an hour every day learning about good web page design will give you a lot of ideas in as little as a few weeks. Add short captions underneath images. Search engines are not able to easily classify images like they can with text. Writing captions for all of your images means that search engines will be able to recognize the content on your pages. The text simply needs to describe background information about the image and should include a keyword. If you want to reduce shopping cart abandonment on your Internet marketing site, keep your checkout process simple. Less than four steps from cart to completed order confirmation will make it more likely that the deal will go through. Another way to keep it simple is to make guest checkout an easy option. Always allow people to comment on your blog posts as an Internet marketer. You can always go in after the fact and delete the spam or the abusive comments, but it is important for you to see what other people are saying related to the content you're posting. Do not neglect to engage in a dialogue with people. Every website owner should customize his or her 404 page. A 404 error occurs when a visitor tries to access a missing page. Every web host provides a default 404 page, but this default is generally unhelpful. Web authoring programs and free tools, can generate a better 404 page that links back to a website's main pages. This not only helps visitors but also search engines. Niche markets are very important in Internet marketing, but you also need to make sure that you're tapping into an active market. During periods of recession like the one we're in now, some markets will completely dry up, and even catering to the most specific branch of this market is going to be a failing venture. If part of your marketing strategy is to include links in your email communications, make sure you change them up and send new material with each new email. By keeping the links in the same spots, your customers will start to ignore them. The person who receives your email needs to be captivated by it to continue to keep reading, so keep things exciting and original. Not as bad as you thought, correct? Like any other subject, the world of internet marketing is vast and there is a wealth of information available on it. Sometimes you just need a little direction as to where to begin with it. Hopefully, you received that from the above tips.

#Indonesia Data Center Market

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corbettejlersen72 · 2 years

Text

More Internet Marketing Advice That Will Maxmize Your Profits

Learning about internet marketing can be very overwhelming, but just like anything else, it can also be very easily researched, taught and then, applied. Now that you have found this list of tips, hopefully you can come out a little more informed when it comes to the internet marketing of your website. Take a day off. Internet marketing can very easily consume your whole day, since you're sitting in front of the computer. This can make you tired, irritable and someone who is not good to be around. Take some time off to exercise or clear your mind and you'll come back to work, well-rested and invigorated. To make more sales, you should target your customers carefully. Advertise products related to your website. Think about what kind of people would visit your website, and what kind of products they might be interested in. Choose products that you can actually sell and target your audience carefully when advertising. When you are attempting to market a product or business using a website, it is important that you be constantly adding new content to the site. The newer your relevant content, the higher your search engine rankings for those keywords. Also, new content will draw repeat visitors to your site, who are then more likely to buy your product. When working with Internet marketing, do not forget to jump on the Facebook boat. It is not going to sink for a long time and you can attach a simple "visit us on Facebook" to any form of advertising, such as fliers, billboards, television or radio. Invest some time in learning basic web design techniques and principles. You can look up a lot of information online about learning HTML, CSS or other things that go into web design. Spending just a half an hour every day learning about good web page design will give you a lot of ideas in as little as a few weeks. Add a i powered grammarly comes to google docs underneath images. Search engines are not able to easily classify images like they can with text. Writing captions for all of your images means that search engines will be able to recognize the content on your pages. The text simply needs to describe background information about the image and should include a keyword. If you want to reduce shopping cart abandonment on your Internet marketing site, keep your checkout process simple. Less than four steps from cart to completed order confirmation will make it more likely that the deal will go through. Another way to keep it simple is to make guest checkout an easy option. Always allow people to comment on your blog posts as an Internet marketer. You can always go in after the fact and delete the spam or the abusive comments, but it is important for you to see what other people are saying related to the content you're posting. Do not neglect to engage in a dialogue with people. Every website owner should customize his or her 404 page. A 404 error occurs when a visitor tries to access a missing page. Every web host provides a default 404 page, but this default is generally unhelpful. Web authoring programs and free tools, can generate a better 404 page that links back to a website's main pages. This not only helps visitors but also search engines. Niche markets are very important in Internet marketing, but you also need to make sure that you're tapping into an active market. During periods of recession like the one we're in now, some markets will completely dry up, and even catering to the most specific branch of this market is going to be a failing venture. If part of your marketing strategy is to include links in your email communications, make sure you change them up and send new material with each new email. By keeping the links in the same spots, your customers will start to ignore them. The person who receives your email needs to be captivated by it to continue to keep reading, so keep things exciting and original. Not as bad as you thought, correct? Like any other subject, the world of internet marketing is vast and there is a wealth of information available on it. Sometimes you just need a little direction as to where to begin with it. Hopefully, you received that from the above tips.

#a i powered grammarly comes to google docs

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mothfishing · 2 years

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still hung up on this attitude i've see claiming that all art should have image descriptions that are as bare as absolutely possible and contain absolutely no details about the contents of the image

listen, when people criticize overly long IDs, it's mostly because that's the general trend on this website, because a lot of people put them in captions and then everyone copies each other's bad habits instead of looking up a real guide. but like, while overly long IDs are bad practice too, the core lesson is not "make a description as short as possible" but "make an image description as relevant as possible". details are therefore necessary depending on the situation, and it's very common for art to be one of those situations

like...okay so, if i show a picture of the mona lisa that isn't intended to have the sighted reader focus on the piece too much - say, i simply drew a clown hat on her and it's a funny joke - then an image description can be, "The Mona Lisa with a clown hat scribbled onto her head." most sighted people will not be peering at the picture to take in the details very much, so the image description doesn't need to go in depth about it either - it can simply note it's a famous painting with a fairly well known subject, who in this particular case has been given a clown hat.

however, a description for a piece of art can absolutely get very wordy! it all depends on the circumstances. let's say i posted this art, which is an officially licensed annihilation movie screen print

maybe i posted this image so that others can appreciate its artistic value. in that case, the image description should absolutely go into details

one might be:

"An Annihilation movie poster featuring the silhouette of a figure formed out of leaves and blue flowers. A butterfly rests on their shoulder, and a snake winds through their uplifted arms and open hands. The figure's face is empty of vegetation, leaving a blank hole. The word 'Annihilation' spans the entire image, with the letters spaced out and split into 4 even rows of 3 letters each. Smaller text at the bottom reads, 'A film by Alex Garland.'"

could i have just said that it was an annihilation movie poster? yes, and that would be accurate. but that would have made it so that anyone using a screen reader interacting with the post would have had a much worse experience! is that short ID better than nothing? yes, but we should strive for better than "better than nothing", no? at least if vision impaired people are to be treated as members of a community rather than set apart from it

the reason i was annoyed that people would say art shouldn't have an image description that gives any information about the details is that, yeah it's not possible to give every viewer the exact same experience, but to say that blind people can't possibly appreciate something for the same reasons a sighted person might, and therefore don't deserve to appreciate it at all...well, that kind of sucks!

this is also why it's best to describe YOUR own art. you know the image better than anyone else, you know what you wanted the reader to see - after all, you drew it! other people describing images for you will never do as good of a job as you can.

(as a note to the visual reader - the actual alt text i wrote for this image is not the alt text i have shown in plain text above! in fact, it's rather bare bones. why is that? because i gave another image description later in the post, which makes including it in the image redundant. please try to think about what the experience of reading the post would be if you removed all images and replaced them with their alt text! thus, if you post a piece of art, and then spend a long time discussing it in detail, it's okay in that instance to have a very brief description, cause you get to it later. context matters etc etc etc)

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aroclawthornes · 3 years

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Blooming Brilliant, an Aroace Willow Park Manifesto

[id: a gif of a heart locket opening. One half of the locket displays a picture of Willow Park from The Owl House, winking and making peace signs with her fingers. Blue and yellow stars surround her. The other half reads "willow park my beloved." /end id.]

Greetings! It’s me, User Aroclawthornes, and instead of working on all the time-sensitive homework I have I sat down and wrote an essay explaining why I think Willow Park OwlHouse could plausibly be read as aroace, and why it would be a thematically enriching interpretation. I’ve never written anything like this before, so it’s oddly formal, a little pretentious, and contains a lot of qualifying language, but I'm confident that it gets my point across. I’m not intending to speak over other interpretations of Willow or assert that it's the only true way to read her, but it's a headcanon I find interesting, and I think there’s a lot of evidence to back it up, between certain elements that Willow’s arc employs to some good old overanalysed symbolism. If you're aspec, I hope this is validating; if you're not, I hope it's interesting; if you don't care, scrolling past it is quick, free, and easy.

Some disclaimers on terminology: I’m speaking from an aroace perspective, and so when I say “aspec coding” I’m generally referring to both orientations as a catch-all - a lot of the coding surrounding Willow could go either way. I’m also going to be talking about commonly accepted “aspec” narratives, but I’m aware of the limitations of this insofar as my experiences are only a single facet of the diverse range of aspec people in this world, so anyone who wants to add or argue anything - respectfully - is encouraged to.

Analysis below the cut!

The Thing About Plants

I’m not going to pretend that an association with plants is historically indicative of aspec coding, because, frankly, there haven’t been enough aspec characters to establish it as a convention, and it’s also a fairly wide-reaching branch of symbolism. However, I am going to propose that lighthearted comparisons between asexual people and plants (however misguided on functions of plant reproduction they are) are fairly common elements of budding ace teenage humour, as are related quips about photosynthesis.

[id: a screenshot of Willow from "I Was A Teenage Abomination", depicting her sitting on the ground while casting a spell over a small, pink flower. /end id.]

I’m also not going to claim that the colour green Belongs To Aromantics, and therefore that All Plants Are Belong To Us, but in tandem with everything else I’m about to cover, the connection between Willow and plants seems like a fairly plausible nudge to a relatively common element of aspec humour.

“Half-a-witch” Willow and the Late Bloomer Experience

[id: a screenshot of Willow with glowing green eyes, from "I Was A Teenage Abomination", depicting her summoning a mess of thorned vines. /end id]

Willow is literally nicknamed “half-a-witch”, in reference to her supposedly incomplete state - this is a sentiment eerily reminiscent of the pressure to find one’s “other half”, which affects aspec - especially aromantic - people particularly profoundly. She’s considered a late bloomer, someone who hasn’t reached the societal milestones of growth at the expected age, and who is derided and considered immature as a result of this perceived failure. However, we quickly discover that Willow is, in fact, an exceptionally competent and powerful witch - taken out of the restricting frame of the Abominations track, she’s able to grow into her own, “complete” person, therefore proving that she was never really lacking in anything in the first place. Like real-life aroace people, she was perceived as limited and immature based on the expectations and judgements of other people, but Willow was never deficient in anything, least of all herself.

[id: a screenshot of Willow and Luz from "I Was A Teenage Abomination". They are holding hands - the former is laughing with her eyes closed, and the latter is grinning, while covered in abomination goop. /end id]

As far as symbolism goes...the track Willow is initially put in literally requires her to conjure up another humanoid entity, with the expectation that she will therefore prove herself to be a whole and mature person. Only with this ability, she’s told, will she be successful and happy as an adult. The shapelessness of her attempts at conjuring an abomination reinforces this connection in my mind - if I may reference this quote from Ducktales 2017‘s (absolutely stellar) A Nightmare On Killmotor Hill, in which the protagonists explore their own subconscious fears via. the dream realm, for a second:

“I think that’s supposed to be my romantic interest, but I’m too threatened by the concept, so it never takes shape.”

A lot of young aroace people find themselves in situations where they attempt to convince themself of their interest in someone in an attempt to be “normal,” or end up lying in response to family members or friends’ questions about crushes. While Willow’s abominations, first and foremost, represent the expectations from her school, classmates, and family to be a successful, “complete” witch with a profitable future, I think that with an aroace interpretation of Willow they could also very easily be read as representing some latent insecurities over a lack of attraction, or pressure to find a significant other.

(I’m not condemning Willow’s dads, by the way - they seem like perfectly lovely fellas, and I’m confident that they were doing what they thought was best for her. They’re certainly very quick to drop everything to assure her future in Escaping Expulsion, so obviously they care about their daughter very much.)

Greens, Blues, and Yellows: Colour-Coding Willow Park

A while back, I made this post comparing Willow’s palette to the aromantic and aroace flags:

[id: a screenshot of a post depicting the aromantic and aromantic asexual flags, colour-picked from images of Willow in her Hexside uniform and casual dress respectively - these are overlaid on top of the flags. The caption reads "observations on willow park". /end id.]

The grey-and-green aromantic flag has long been the accepted mainstream symbol of aromanticism, and, as the above post - and many others - demonstrate, Willow’s palette reflects it near-perfectly. This could easily be a coincidence, owing to the palette of the standard Hexside Plant Track uniform, as well as her hair and eye colours - which are obviously supposed to be reflective of her plant-related abilities. However, given how fond of employing hidden meanings The Owl House has shown itself to be, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to claim that there’s at least a chance that her palette was constructed with the flag in mind.

The latter is...a bit more problematic for me, although it’s fun to joke about. The blue-and-yellow aroace flag was only created in December 2018, relatively late into The Owl House’s initial production, and it’s still relatively obscure, although on the rise in popularity as the accepted aroace flag (I only recently started using it myself), so I don’t know if Willow’s casual wear is enough to verify the presence of any deliberate subtext. I think it’s a fun coincidence, however, and (as was pointed out in this post) it’s cool that these blue and yellow stars surrounding Willow occur in the same frame as Luz’s bisexual decor:

[id: a photograph of Luz, Gus, and Willow, all surrounding a disgruntled-looking Principal Bump. Luz has flowers in the colours of the bisexual flag decorating her hair, while Willow is surrounded by bright blue and yellow stars. /end id.]

also seen above: powerful bi/aspec solidarity

Conclusion:

Do I genuinely believe that Willow is being deliberately written this way? If you’d asked me, say, two months ago, I’d have said probably not - as far as queer representation in kids’ cartoons has come, it has a ways to go, and focusing on transgender characters seems like a more obvious (and equally invaluable) route to go down. I can name maybe five explicitly aspec characters off the top of my head, two of whom have been written as alloromantic and/or sexual in adaptations or continuations of the source material (I have...some grievances with 2005 Doctor Who). But the emergence of Raine, an explicitly nonbinary character on Disney Channel, has given me a little spark of hope, and so, even if it’s never confirmed, it’s comforting to be able to see a character with such strong elements of aspec coding and think to myself, just maybe, that there might be some intent behind it.

I also...really want to see interesting things done with Willow. We’re halfway through Season 2, and despite some promising setup for her arc in the Season 1 finale, she’s sort of been left by the wayside lately in favour of developing the more “plot-relevant” characters, such as Luz, Amity, Eda, and Hunter. Frankly, I think it’s a disservice to her Season 1 development, despite how much I adore all the characters I just listed - beyond any personal motivation, the prospect that Willow could be aroace adds a lot of sorely-sought depth to her, and, as detailed, a lot of this has already been set up in her earlier episodes. I just...I think it’d be neat. Rarely do you get a kids’ show so brazenly queer in its themes as Owl House, and aspec people deserve to be included in that.

Willow would also be great aroace representation because, well - those five or so aspec characters I mentioned being aware of are all white or “raceless” (...also written as white, basically), and so an aspec Asian character would be a really lovely step forward in this area. Additionally, all the characters I referred to are also conventionally skinny, and Willow is not only fat, but written in a way that doesn’t treat this feature as a caricature. People who are more knowledgeable on these topics than I are absolutely free to make additions, as is anyone who feels like I’ve left certain details out.

tl;dr: Willow’s association with plants could be read as a cool nod to aspec humour, her “late bloomer” narrative is eerily reminiscent of some common aspec experiences, her palette speaks for itself, and it’d be really cool if we could diversify the so-far fairly bland sphere of aspec representation.

I’m going to conclude this by linking Rose by The Oh Hellos, because they’re my favourite band, they share The Owl House’s initials, and I also think it’s a good Willow song. Peace out.

youtube

#the owl house #willow park #pspspspsps you will read my 1.5k word aroace willow essay #hooting #meta #willow #aroace willow manifesto #fuck it. this is getting posted

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canary3d-obsessed · 4 years

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 06 part two

(Masterpost)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Bathing Boy Beauties

So, now we and Wei Wuxian get to see Lan Wangji with his shirt off. Eventually Lan Wangji will realize that his brother set this up, and will think of some way to get back at him, possibly by spending three years being stubborn in a cave or maybe by chopping an arm off of someone his brother cares about.

This is A+ Yibo fanservice but it's also a male-male version of a trope that's ubiquitous in c-drama, in which the male lead takes a bath and the female lead sees him. The purpose of the scene is almost always so a woman can look a man’s body over and decide, not to put too fine a point on it, whether she wants to fuck him.

Examples:

The Pillow Book - “Which part of Shen Ye is better than me?”

Women’s sexual agency is not often at the forefront in c-dramas, but the bathtub scenes are an acknowledgement of the female gaze, and of male objects of desire being subject to evaluation & approval.

Tientsin Mystic is a show with a lot of muscley swimming in it, In case you’re looking for your next Netflix show.

As a CGI artist I have to mention that water does not reflect or refract 100% of light. If you look at a naked dingle-having person in a bathtub full of clear water you will definitely be able to see their dingle. But C-drama water is magic and nothing is visible below the waterline, to the point that Bai Yu is modestly covering his thoracic surgery scar chest in Detective L while leaving his lower half uncovered.

Note: that caption isn’t fake; she is really saying this on her way out the door, after having a long chat with him in the bathroom. You can find the whole series on YouTube.

Seen in this context, The Untamed’s two bathing scenes are saying quite a lot. Wei Wuxian, being a boy, doesn’t display any female-encoded shyness or modesty, but he and his sword pause for a moment of admiration.

(more after the cut!)

16 years later, Lan Wangji will sit quietly in this pool and let Wei Wuxian examine his wet body thoroughly from multiple angles, in a more prolonged invocation of this C-drama mating ritual.

Carrying on - was Xiao Zhan supposed to kick his boot in the water like that? Because if not, he rolls with it like a champ.

Wei Wuxian starts trying to be direct with Lan Wangji, giving him the worst, most neg-filled compliment ever, bless his heart.

Then he says that there are benefits to being his friend, and starts taking off his clothes.

Wei Wuxian here takes his first step into the bold new world of respecting Lan Wangji’s boundaries, asking Lan Wangji to stay and saying he will keep his clothes on.

Lan Wangji actually does stay, so he's apparently not too angry with Wei Wuxian about the drinking. Wei Wuxian invites him to visit Lotus Pier sometime (see my gifset here), but the promise of lotus pods doesn’t impress him. Then Wei Wuxian tries to tell him that the Yunmeng chicks really knock me out, they leave the rest behind. This also doesn’t impress him.

You could read this macking-on-ladies talk as a sign that Wei Wuxian is oblivious to LWJ's feelings for him. But I read it as a bisexual boy being horny on main with a boy he likes, not understanding yet that some boys don’t share all of his turn-ons.

Lan Wangji is sort of mildly startled when Wei Wuxian disappears under the water. His eye makeup is good here, isn’t it?.

Ice Cave

They end up in an ice cave and both spend the rest of the episode showing how good they look with wet hair.

When the guqin starts attacking, Lan Wangji is only mildly perturbed about Wei Wuxian getting his shit rocked over and over.

Eventually he sends Bichen to protect his very bedraggled date. Lan Wangji’s sword is faster than the speed of a very slow sound wave.

Beauty's where you find it not just where you bump and grind it

Gusuship Down

I feel like there are a couple of things in this show that are so problematic the fandom has silently agreed to never discuss them. Well, I’m here to talk about this one:

There are rabbits in this ice cave and they are wearing headbands. HEADbands. On RABBits.

EXCELLENT FUCKING QUESTION, LAN WANGJI

*deep breath*

Are these rabbits lineal Lan descendants? Who makes the headbands? How do they stay on because “headband” here means “glowing cloud on forehead” without any actual band. When rabbit babies are born, how do they stay safe while they’re waiting for someone to make them baby-sized headbands? Do these rabbits adhere to the other 3499 Lan Clan principles or just the headband one? Is any ol' rabbit allowed to touch a rabbit’s headband or is it limited to parents and significant others and is that even relevant when presumably these bunnies are all fucking each other like...bunnies?

The characters are like “oh, the rabbits are wearing headbands; killer guqin problem solved.” And then they move right the fuck along with their lives and the rabbit headbands are never seen or discussed again and I just want a hit of whatever the author or creative team was smoking when they came up with this whole idea.

Headband Sharing

When Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji to hand over his headband, Lan Wangji understands his entire rabbit-based thought process without asking

Gen-X Joke Alert

Wei Wuxian is awfully impressed by this sword-recall trick, considering that he did it himself when they went to the lake.

I see you know your way around a sheath

Killer Guqin

When they approach the guqin I hope that the subtitles are mistranslated, because Wei Wuxian keeps promising not to touch it and then says he can't look at it without touching it. I'm not going to touch it, I just need to touch it.

Lan Wangji is going to teach Wei Wuxian some goddamn boundaries no matter how many times he has to make him fondle his sword.

Nothing suggestive here

Lan Wangji sits down to play the guqin and immediately goes off into the ether where there are seagull noises and plenty of fans. This is either a state of pure bliss, or he just really likes seagulls.

Did Lan Wangji just have a stealth orgasm?

Speaking of getting off, get your ass off of my desk

The Yin Iron

Lan Wangji does some spirit whispering, and suddenly the cave starts yelling at them. A bunch of clans are chanting in unison about a plan, which is the cultivator version of a battle cry.

Lancestor Lan Yi shows up. She is elegant and has a combination of sweetness and gravity that is similar to Lan Xichen’s. And none of Lan Qiren’s douchiness.

Search Party

Lan Qiren is worried and Lan Xichen is worried and they have sent people to look for the boys. It's really too bad nobody around here knows magic.

All these powerful cultivators search for missing people by running around outdoors yelling for them.

Yanli is excused from PE class because she’s not feeling well, so she sits on a rock in the woods instead of, you know, staying home in the first place. She gets bored sitting down and unwisely decides to walk two or three steps. Xuan Lu, seen here competing in a gymnastics event, gamely pretends she can’t climb a small rock.

Yanli falls into Jin Zixuan's arms and they gaze at each other for a long heterosexual moment.

No homosexual explanation possible

This means two things: 1. he isn't looking very hard for her brother if he's hanging out here catching wobbly girls 2. soulful longing looks from him ain't shit, because he's going to dump her in the next episode.

Lanny Granny

Lan Wangji intros himself to Lan Yi and does a full prostrate bow. Wei Wuxian does a standing bow since he's not a descendant, just a future in-law.

No I mean come on, HEADBANDS

Lan Gran explains the entire history of the yin iron. It's bad, it's full of resentful energy, no-one should use it. She’s going to dump it on a couple of 16 year old boys, one of whom has a woody for using resentful energy, because it’s destiny and her battery is about to run out.

Props to the Prop Department; this thing does look pretty cool

Xue Chonghai was the most problematic cultivator back in the old days. He killed a lot of dudes and fed their resentment to...a turtle? To the disk? I don’t know; I literally am unable to pay attention when anyone is explaining the intricacies of the unobtanium Yin Iron.

Anyway there’s a disk and it’s soaked up a lot of resentment.

Using it makes people evil. Well except..clearly this dude started off evil, yeah? If he was feeding people to his turtle.

Side effects may include: being fucking crazy

Here Wei Wuxian brings out his "resentful energy is awesome" theory and has an experienced grown-up grand master tell him that she also thought this, and has spent 100 years locked in a cave with headband-wearing rabbits because she was super fucking wrong. Does this deter him? ...nope

Baoshan Sanren

Now she name checks Baoshan Sanren, and Wei Wuxian has a big reaction and Lan Wangji has a big noticing of Wei Wuxian’s reaction. He’s very attuned to Wei Wuxian’s emotional state, in the moments where WWX lets his actual feelings show through the sass and swagger.

Lan Gran talks about her search for the Yin iron, and Lan Wangji wisely says, if you can't neutralize it, why look for it? And she says, I was filled with hubris just like ya boi Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji points out the exact same shit he will later point out to Wei Wuxian.

So now we have a parallel in which Lan Yi is just like Wei Wuxian and Baoshan Sanren is just like Lan Wangji, yeah? Which is kind of sweet; it shows how these types are drawn together and how your clan doesn't determine your personality. Also it shows how the Lan clan has room for an unorthodox clan leader. Also it shows how the Yin Iron causes some really bad breakups.

These boys are standing on snow barefoot which has got to take a pretty high cultivation level. Look how short Lan Wangji is without his stilettos, aww.

Flashback to Baoshan Sanren, just long enough to appreciate how beautiful she is.

Did OP give up on recoloring that flashback-blue-hazed image and just start fucking around with random filters? Yes she did.

We also get to see that Lan Yi and Lan Wangji have more common than just guqin, because they both like to solve problems by kicking them.

So after breaking up with her girlfriend, Lan Gran became invisible in this cave for 100 years while trying to contain the Yin iron and put headbands on rabbits.

Soundtrack: Vogue by Madonna Writing prompt: Watership Down rabbits meet Lan rabbits

Bonus extended bath clip:

Bai Yu, Detective L

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #wangxian #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #the untamed stills #chen qing ling #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs #cdrama #tw:cussing #more cussing than usual #that is #this is so long I can no longer edit it to fix my typos #even in html editor it won't save #good lord #must have fewer thoughts from now on #if you make it to the end there's a bonus bath gif

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brockadoodles · 3 years

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Snow doesn’t fall in scottsdale - a. matthews

AN: Uhh just ignore the text in the gif since it’s obviously not relevant to the story. (even though Ema is the best) But here’s what might be the last Christmas fic in my eight weeks of Christmas series. I’ve been finding myself inspired for other stuff, and there’s so much wonderful Christmas content out there that I’m sure you don’t need 47837584 more from me. So enjoy this one, a nice anon requested more Auston content, so that’s why I wrote it. But, I really liked it and hope you do too.

This is also for @broadstbroskis who I love to send things at absolutely inappropriate times for her so, I hope this hits you at a bad time ;)

Word Count: 4628

Warnings: None, it’s floofy.

Auston felt himself sigh as he looked at you. You were sitting out on the roof and holding an old mug of tea. He noticed the way you held the mug close to your chest and looked out at the skyline. The sun was just beginning to set, the deep orange and purple hues and the hot dry air were some of his favorite things about where he was from and lived during the offseason. But as he carefully looked at the somber expression coming from his limited view of your face, he could tell that you missed Toronto.

You were the type of person who had a firm belief that Christmas wasn’t really Christmas without the snow, and Scottsdale, Arizona might have felt cold at 20 degrees celsius to those that lived there, but to you all it was, was a dry desert with fake Christmas trees and a painful lack of snow covering the ground. Your favorite memories included carrying a small sled down the street while holding your mom’s hand, or sitting on your dad’s shoulders at the Christmas market every year, snow piling onto your beanie as you stuck your tongue out hoping to catch flakes. Those were your favorite memories of the holiday and even if the view was stunning, the palm trees simply didn’t hold a match to the thick, evergreens covered in snow. But you were thankful to have Auston, and his family, who had been nothing but accommodating to you. So you kept your homesickness away from them, plastering on a smile that faded as soon as you came out to the roof to take a moment to yourself.

You didn’t want to complain, because you were genuinely grateful that Auston had invited you to spend the holiday with him. Before you could contemplate the weight of the question, or think about how spending Christmas with your friend who always felt like something more would only entangle your heart further into the mess of feelings that it was already nestled in, you said yes. The decision didn’t phase you until you were waiting for a flight, your thigh brushing his and his head resting on your shoulder, that maybe this was only going to end up hurting you in the long run because of your own harbored feelings for one of your closest friends.

You’d liked Auston for almost as long as you’ve known him, having met in a chance run in when he bumped into you on a night out with your friends, spilling your drink all down your dress. He offered you a new one, and soon you found yourself tumbling into a dangerous friendship with him that your heart always wanted to pull more out of. It was a bad idea, going home with him. It was something that was debatably far too intimate for two people who were supposed to be just friends. But you didn’t know that Auston harbored feelings of his own, and you didn’t know just how much he’d do to make your Christmas special.

Auston watched carefully as you set the mug down and snapped a picture, one that would later end up on Instagram for the world to see, captioned “there’s no snow but the view is great.” You flipped your phone back over, presumably hiding any potential interruptions from your time up on the roof. He took your pause as his moment to make his presence known, and he carefully opened the tall glass sliding door and stepped out onto the roof. You looked over at him before curling your feet underneath your legs to make space for him to sit.

“Are you okay?” He tentatively asked. You simply nodded and leaned your head on his shoulder, causing him to instinctively pull you closer into his body. It was almost terrifying how well he knew your mannerisms, each breath you took or movement gave away everything about how you were feeling. It scared him how well he could read you, but he paid attention because he cared. Auston knew this was about Christmas, and while didn’t know how to pull any of it off, he'd drive to Colorado and back if it meant bringing you a dusting of snow to the desert in December.

----------

The following afternoon, your mood had improved and the melancholic moment shared between you was nearly forgotten as you sat across from him at the small coffee shop. Auston had this ability to know your every emotion. He knew when you wanted to talk about what was bothering you and when you didn’t, and you appreciated that when you woke up the next day, he offered nothing other than a soft smile and asked if you’d like to check out this new small coffee place with him.

“I can’t believe you managed to get this much time off this season, normally you don’t even go home.” You hummed as you sipped on your drink. Auston held the door open for you as you walked out, the heat hitting your skin almost instantly as the loss of air conditioning from the shop became more apparent.

“I know, but it’s good.” He shrugged, offering no indication that there was any deeper meaning to that statement as he followed you out of the shop. The truth was that the extra time was much needed, as it gave him the perfect opportunity for an impulsive trip out of town that just might lift the mood you were so desperately trying to conceal.

You handed Auston your iced coffee for a moment so that you could toss up your hair. The sun was starting to beat down, heating up your skin and causing a light sweat.

“It’s too hot, how can you even be wearing that?” You gestured to his outfit, which in contrast to some of the clothes he normally wore, was relatively relaxed and normal. He was wearing black joggers and a dark t-shirt, with a light flannel on top. You were sweating just looking at it in comparison to the oversized Nike t-shirt you had stolen from him that morning, and your soft shorts. You couldn’t deny that it looked good on him though, and if it wasn’t so hot and you lived in a reality where you could act on your feelings, you wouldn’t mind tucking yourself right into his chest.

“Ah well, that’s because we’re not staying here.” He shrugged, shaking you out of your daydream and tugging you back toward his car. He laced his fingers in yours and it sent fluttering right to your chest. The simple display of affection was something that you were likely reading entirely too much into. But you didn’t care, because your brain was communicating chemicals of fondness that were being sent straight to your heart with the simple gesture, and you were going to let yourself enjoy it even if it ultimately didn’t actually mean anything substantial.

“What? Where are we going?” You asked. Auston just smiled nervously at you as he unlocked the car. He untangled his fingers from yours and walked to the driver’s side door, a sensation that you subtly frowned at.

“Uh, well I hope you don’t mind but…” His voice was muffled as he got into the driver's seat.

“But what, Auston?” You pressed.

“We may be going on a road trip.” He bit his lip slightly as your eyes went wide. He knew this was spontaneous, and maybe too much. But all he wanted was to see a smile on your face and if he had to spend all night looking up weather reports and finding a town that had a substantial amount of snow and drive you there, that was a task he was more than willing to do.

“To where? And why?” You laughed. Auston smirked at you as he started the car.

“This small town in the mountains in Colorado. We have a cabin, we’re bringing Felix, and there’s a ton of snow right now.” He smiled at you, watching out of the corner of his eye to see your reaction as you took in what he was saying. Your eyes widened and your heart rate quickened. You reached over the center console and grabbed his hand and slid your fingers through his once more.

“Thank you.” You whispered, hoping that the simple words could accurately depict just how appreciative you were of him. He pulled your hand up to his mouth, pressing a light kiss to the back of it and smiling at you once again. The adoration in his eyes was more than what a friend should show, but this entire trip was more than friendly, and you didn’t really care that you were setting your heart up for the inevitable disappointment you might face by the end of it, because you at least somewhat had Auston. He may have not been your boyfriend, you couldn’t kiss him whenever you wanted, or hold him beyond small gestures but he cared about you, probably more than he cared about most of his friends, and that was enough. So you packed a bag, loaded Felix into the car, and drove just over eight hours with him to spend a few days in the snow before Christmas.

----------

The first night you got there, the two of you were exhausted. You were so tired that you couldn’t even register the lines you were crossing as you climbed into bed next to him, Felix tucked securely under your feet. You were so tired that you didn’t question it when his arm came around your waist and slid just underneath the waist of the sweatshirt you were wearing. He was warm, and you felt safe, so you let yourself drift off to sleep without thinking of the emotional consequences of the romanticization of all of this.

The second night, Auston had insisted on another surprise for you. One that he was tight lipped about, but swore that you would love. All he told you was that you needed to dress warm and be ready to walk around. So, you threw on more layers than was probably necessary and let him lead you into town.

You grabbed onto his arm to not lose him. The crowd was larger than you’d expect for the small mountain town he had brought you to. Auston just pulled you in closer, wrapping an arm around you to tuck you safe and secure into his side. It was another simple gesture, adding to the annoying list in the back of your mind of things that Auston Matthews could do that caused a flutter in your stomach and slight heartache in your chest. But it was cold, and the gesture was one that made you feel calm and content as he led you further into the town.

The small town was quant, and reminded you of some picturesque stereotypical German town that went all out for the holidays. The Bavarian style cottages and buildings were all decorated with lights, and the snow on the roofs was a sight that made you smile even more as you kept walking. You were about to ask Auston where you were headed when suddenly the lights came into view. Your eyes went wide as you looked at the giant tree in the center of the town square, it was lit up with white lights and shiny, multicolored ornaments. Snow was settled into the branches and littered on the ground. You nearly cried when you realized where he had brought you.

“I can’t make it snow in Arizona, I can’t replicate the tree, but I found this place and thought it was pretty close.” He looked down as you with a subtle smile on his lips. You reached a hand up to his cheek, running your thumb along the stubble from where his beard was growing in, feeling his cheeks shift into a larger smile. He wrapped an arm further around your waist and pulled you into his chest. Auston looked at you like you were his entire world and his heart lurched in his chest at yet another grip you were securing on it. He wanted to lean down and kiss you. He wanted to walk through the door to your soul that he had been waiting behind for so long because for the first time, standing there with your hand on his cheek and you looking at him the way that you were, it felt like it was finally opening for him.

But the moment was fleeting and as your eyes scattered away from his and you stepped back, his heart dropped. Because in that moment he could almost see the intricate parts of your mind racing, probably regretting getting so close to him in the first place. He didn’t get to kiss you that night, but as you threw on his sweatshirt and crawled into bed next to him, letting your head fall onto his chest, he let himself wander back to the idea of your feelings being reciprocated. It was that feeling that left him softly smiling as he fell asleep.

----------

“I have one last surprise for this trip.” Auston came out into the kitchen. He stood behind you and reached an arm around to grab a mug, resting his other hand on your waist as he did so. You were growing almost too accustomed to the subtle touches shared on this trip, to falling asleep in his arms. You were in your own almost blissful world, and there was a part of you that had been thinking about taking the leap and kissing him. Because in this blissful world, reality didn’t exist. You weren’t going back to Arizona tomorrow, and you weren’t ultimately going back to Toronto to your separate apartments. In this reality, you could stay with Auston forever, without the pressures of everything that real life brought both of you.

“Do enlighten me on the latest Auston Matthews surprise experience, because I must say that I am enjoying it.” You teased, passing him the coffee pot that was in front of you. You spun around to face him and his smile grew. There was a soft glow to his smile and his eyes that had your heart racing even faster than it already was previously, and you bit your lip as you waited for a response.

“We’re going skating.” He grinned, a satisfactory laugh coming from him as he watched your eyes go wide and mouth hang open just slightly. You had only skated once in your life, and it was when you were seven. Your older brother had shoved you onto the ice and you tumbled, breaking your arm in the process. Ever since then, skating was the one fear you had, which was slightly ironic considering the person you were essentially in love with did it for a living.

“Auston… you know I don’t know how to skate.” You glanced over at him, his hand reassuringly came to rest on your hip, a soft squeeze that sent shivers running through your body at the contact. He pressed a soft kiss to your forehead and you nearly fell over. The line that the two of you were balancing on felt like it had been crossed with the intimacy of the kiss. It was a simple, quick, but tender kiss to the forehead, and it was rushing into your heart, causing it to react and demand more from him.

“Time to learn, babe.” He patted your hip and walked out of the kitchen. The disconnect from his body no longer pressed almost against yours was almost excruciating. You stood there in the kitchen for what felt like hours just replaying the moment in your mind. You were so focussed on how badly you wanted him that you didn’t even register the fear that you normally felt when it came to the idea of skating.

Later that afternoon, after resolving yourself to the fact that you were definitely not getting out of this surprise, and realizing that he even bought new skates for you, Auston led you through a snow-covered pathway on your way to the frozen lake. The walk was quiet, the only sounds coming from your feet crunching in the snow. As you got closer and the lake came into view, you were regretting leaving Felix at the cabin because he could have been a great excuse to use to get out of this.

Auston spotted a small bench and instructed you to sit down on it. He sat down beside you and lifted a leg into your lap, sliding the skate on and beginning to tie it securely for you. You watched as his hands moved, tightening the laces. When he was done with both skates, his hand slid up your shin, a soft reassuring smile on his face as he tapped your leg indicating that you needed to move so he could put on his own skates. You were starting to get more and more nervous as he finished lacing his up and grabbed your hands, helping you stand on the edge of the lake. Auston took a few steps backwards, guiding you to the very edge of the frozen lake. Your stomach dropped when he stepped out, the sound of skates hitting the ice shocking you back into the reality of what you were doing.

“No railing baby, you’ve got to hold onto me or accept that you might fall.” Auston teased as you stood at the edge of the lake. This felt like a disaster waiting to happen, a tragic ending to what would have been the cute cheesy skating scene in one of those terrible lifetime Christmas movies. You felt slightly ridiculous out there, but Auston didn’t see it that way. He saw this as another opportunity to help you have the best possible Christmas even if you were away from your family.

“You know.. what if I just sit here and watch you?” You offered, biting your lip as he skated to the edge of the lake. He positioned himself right in front of you and took your gloves hands in his, guiding you slowly onto the ice.

“I’ve got you, I won’t let you fall, okay?” He reassured you. If only he knew that falling on the ice was the least of your concerns when it came to the meaning of that word. Auston reached for your hand, silently lacing his fingers with yours as he guided you into taking your first step. You crashed into him, hands flailing into his chest as he laughed softly at you.

“It’s not funny!” You whined, grasping onto him as tightly as you could. Auston didn’t mind the contact, he wanted to be with you all the time, his heart carefully locked in your possession to keep, whether you knew it or not. If anyone told him that he’d have gone through all of this for a person who he wasn’t even dating, he would have laughed in their face. But you were different, and no matter how hard he tried to pretend you were just a friend, he knew he was potentially setting himself up for a shattered soul if you didn’t feel the same way that he did.

You let Auston guide you around the ice, his hands secure on your body to prevent you from falling. When he guided you off the ice, you sat straight down onto the same bench you had previously. Auston leaned in front of you, grabbing the back of the bench with his hands on either side of you. For a moment you let your mind drift, thinking about what it would be like to reach out and grab the strings tauntingly hanging from his sweatshirt and pulling him into you from where he was standing. You thought about how you could press your lips softly to his, reaching your hand through his hair to pull him closer into you. You felt your stomach in knots as you thought about kissing him, something you’d been wanting to do for a while, but never had the courage to, and it wasn’t until he waved a hand in front of your face that you realized you weren’t kissing him, it was just an image projected from your imagination as you sat there, wishing your feelings away so that you wouldn’t constantly be rejected in your own head.

----------

The two of you set off on the drive back to Scottsdale the next day, leaving behind the bliss of being unplugged and away from everyone for just a few days. The whole experience almost felt like a melatonin induced dream, the last three days spent with him. But as you settled back into the guest room in his Arizona house on Christmas Eve, your bed felt cold and empty without him.

Christmas day had come and was nearly over, and you smiled more than you thought that you would. It was weird how the short trip had changed your perspective over the whole holiday. You weren’t nearly as homesick as you had been. You were genuinely enjoying yourself, and felt like you belonged right where you were as you helped Ema in the kitchen with Christmas dinner. You felt a sense of ease finally about Auston, clarity slowly drifting from your heart to your brain about how you felt about him.

You had excused yourself after dinner to go up to the roof once more, just taking some time to let all of your feelings settle. The reality of going back to Toronto was starting to creep back in. Soon you would be home and back in the routine of the second half of the hockey season. Auston would go back to being gone all of the time, and you would go back to work, the fleeting feelings you were experiencing would pass, and you’d get back to the place that you had been before where you were content with him just being your friend.

Auston however, had different hopes for the last few hours of this short escape from Toronto. He loved his job, he loved his teammates and the city, but he’d be lying to everyone and himself if he didn’t admit that you were one of his favorite parts of the whole thing. He lit up whenever he’d see you in the crowd, the same old Maple Leafs beanie you had since your high school days adorned on your head. You fit seamlessly into his life in every single way except for the most important one, and he had enough of it. This week spent with you had shown him that he needed to be honest. He needed to release his heart from the weight of his own growing feelings for you, and there were moments where he truly thought that you were going to catch it. He needed to take the chance, he might explode if he didn’t.

The gift was entirely too much, it was too sentimental, too heartfelt, too every other adjective in the dictionary for the word much, and Auston knew that. He knew that this gift sealed any chance at keeping his feelings opaque, the transparency of the glass felt like a metaphor for a window into his own heart. But he didn’t care. He didn’t care that it was too much, all he wanted was for the horribly wrapped confession to somehow be enough for you. Auston took a deep breath as he held the box, the one that Bre had helped him wrap just the night previously. You were up on the roof, sitting peacefully as you watched the sunset over the skyline. The palm trees and dry terrain are vastly different than what you were used to in December. It was almost like you had a sixth sense he was behind you because he swore he felt his heart drop into his stomach when you turned your head just enough, showing a warm and soft smile as he tentatively stepped toward you.

You were in one of his sweatshirts and your hair was up, a look that in all your years of knowing each other he never got tired of. You were everything to him, and he had been so sure about how he felt about you right from the beginning. But, you weren’t ready. At the time you had just had a bad breakup, your heart was tucked in a locked box in your chest, no hope of it being unlocked by anyone else for a long time. But, a long time had been coming, and now that you were here, in Arizona, in his sweatshirt, smiling at him, he could only hope that you would at least consider giving your heart to him.

Auston stepped out onto the roof again, a familiar feeling settling into his chest from just a few days prior. You lifted your eyes up to meet his, this time a genuine smile adorning your lips as the moon and small patio light lit up your face. He sat down next to you once again, handing you the small, wrapped gift that he had been holding.

“I have one last surprise for you.” He quietly spoke.

You took the box in your hands and you slowly unwrapped the gift. You set the paper down under your thigh and pulled out the small snow globe, letting it feel heavy in your hands. Your fingers traced over the details, the fetched mountains in the glass and the hint of green pointing through the white snow. It was a simple gift, something plucked straight out of a bad holiday movie, but you didn’t care because it came from him, and the thought behind it was better than any tangible gift he could have bought for you.

“Turns out, snow is very hard to come by around here.” He smiled down at you. You looked at Auston with a new perspective filling your mind, you noticed all of the things about him that you were blissfully ignoring before for the sake of guarding your own heart and hiding your own feelings. You knew his eyes softened when he looked at you, you just chose not to see it until now.

“Auston-“ you started, but his eyes shifted as he spoke. His entire speech was tossed off the side of the roof, he was going with his gut here. He was going to tell you how he felt, because he simply couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“This is probably the worst time for this. And you deserve better than some shitty rooftop confession on Christmas. But, I like you. I like you so much, I have probably since shortly after we met, and I know I didn’t make snow fall like I promised, but that doesn’t change how I feel about you. How badly I want to kiss you, how badly I want to just say that I love you all the time.”

“Auston, you talk too much.” You smiled at him. Everything felt warm, and it wasn’t just because of the slight heat in the air, or his body closely hovering above yours. You were warm because you loved him, a concept that you weren’t expecting yet somehow ended up prepared for.

“Well, I’ll shut up and kiss you, then.” He teased, smiling into a soft kiss. Your hand tangled in his hair, and your eyes fluttered closed as you melted into him.

“Oh, and I love you too.” You smiled as you leaned in to kiss him once more. Sure it wasn’t Toronto. It wasn’t that blissful three days in the mountains. There weren’t lights or trees or snow or anything that you’d traditionally associate with December 25th, but you had Auston in exactly the way that you had wanted him for a long time, and somehow that was better than all of it combined.

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