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#also in the first pic I stacked them the way they are on the marketing so no one be mad at the order
deadhawke · 1 month
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MY TRIGUN MAXIMUM BEANS HAVE ARRIVED!!!
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Also behold: my Vash plush collection. All I’m missing now is that hideous(affectionate) 98 anime plush.
EDIT: HOLD ON VERY IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
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WOLFWOOD HAS EYES UNDER THE SUNGLASSES
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wisteriagoesvroom · 6 months
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playing pinterest roulette and seeing what AUs i can make up based on the pics (part 3 of ???)
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Classical Music AU: Max is second chair at the London Contemporary Orchestra - a newer but well-respected group lauded for their fresh approach to music, marketing, and sponsors. Max’s meteoric ascent looks to continue with first chair Seb Vettel's departure, which is coming up in a year.
That is, until the LCO bring in a shock contender, Charles Leclerc. Leclerc is a traditionalist and highly marketable classical violinist, with a star-studded CV including the Paris Conservatory, and a star-making stint at the Berlin Philharmonic.
Charles's working style is also a problem. He's warm in a way that Max is not, understands music in a way that's fundamentally different to Max, and he builds an easy rapport with Vettel from the start (Max's jealousy has nothing to do with it.)
As the season winds on, Max and Charles continue to clash about everything. Playing styles (speed and correct interpretation), the relevancy of classical music (Max is all for moving the genre forward and bending the rules, Charles cares about deference to old ways), and even a loud argument in the caf about whose name gets to be written first in the program ("do not push me down the list", one of them says. The marketing team eventually agrees to write them both on the same line to reflect equal status).
This continues until the LCO asks them to work on a special project, composing a score for a new indie movie. It's both musicians’ first foray into cross-medium production, and the LCO thinks it wouldn't hurt if the soundtrack won a couple of awards too. Max and Charles reluctantly accept the project, knowing the first chair position is the prize if they can be the star contributor. It doesn't matter that there's only one first chair position, because each is convinced that they will win.
As they're heading to the studio for recording one day, Max asks to stop at his apartment to grab a hard drive that has some instrumental stems for a tricky piece they're working on.
While waiting at Max's doorway, Charles sees a loose sheaf of paper fall from a table. He walks over and picks it up.
Charles realises it's one of the earlier librettos he'd written while he was still at the Paris Conservatory. Not many people know about it - it was an experimental piece, from his earlier work, rough around the edges and vaguely embarrassing. He didn't even think anyone liked it, let alone heard it or went through the effort to source it.
Stunned, Charles tucks it back into the stack of papers on the table, only to see there are more relics from his early career. A pamphlet for a summer performance in Switzerland, a train ticket to Berlin for the same performance date that landed him in a review as a once-in-a-generation talent.
Max reappears in the doorway with his bag, and freezes. Charles stares back, and speaks first.
"Have you had these all this time?"
Max's blue eyes are cool, even as his face burns. "We have our differences. But it'd be impossible, not to notice you."
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fanofthelamb · 1 month
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Hey just wanted to say about the most recent comic, I hope you dont feel bad or shame about it!! Its very lovely and I will personally fight anyone who says otherwise.
hehe ty,,,,,, this ask has been on my mind for a while tbh. it makes me feel so nice <3 so here's some sketches, new and old!!!!!!!!! ill throw it all under a cut so ppl dont drown in all the pics. enjoy anon!!!!!!! (sketch dump the squeakquel!!!!!!!!!!!!)
i made these like 3 weeks ago but i only really posted a cropped version w/ just the giant kallamr squid , featuring @aychama and @paintpaintpaintman lambs :D
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i've been sitting on them bc i wasnt entirely sure about how everyone felt about each other, and while i still am not I feel like everyone likes each other at least!!!
i also wanted to draw people's lambs reliving a bunch of my childhood memories, but i felt the idea wouldn't be accepted because i don't know how many people would related to em. these sketches are new since all i had was a jpeg of thumbnails, but they are @paintpaintpaintman , @spiderin-space , and my lambs!! the first pic is just them enjoying some honeysuckles, trying to buy some candy at the weekend market, and visiting kids in better looking neighborhoods than they lived in AHHSASHHSA i dont think i care to complete this but it is really fun drawing the lambs being lambs.
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a sketch of heket nd leshy i appearantly NEVER posted because i wasnt happy with how leshy turned out. a shame, really.
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i also wanted to draw all the cultists in different outfits, but it turns out i really was not interested in finishing it at the time. i do think valefar and narinder turned out kinda cute tho !!!!!!!
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some motherfuckers WAY too happy to see a corpse (i still think its hilarious when my whole cult gathers around a corpse and makes googoo eyes at it what is their problem LMAOOOOO)
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i ended up changing how i draw the 3 wives so the wifestack is no longer relevant (also there's 2 more that werent existing when this was drawn) but i still look at it sometimes. i think we should stack every wife on top of each other.
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and the last one is part of me figuring out how i wanted the lamb. ive always known i wanted them JACKED i just cant decide how ripped i want this lil bastard. i think the current lamb is a good fit for me personally.
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anyway that's doodlestack jr,,,,,,,,,,,,, SORRY FOR THE PINGS TO EVERYONE I PINGED I LOVE U GUYS LMFAO <33333333333 and everyone else CHECK OUT EVERYONE I PINGED THEY ALL MAKE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING CONTENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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mx-misty-eyed · 3 years
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SAI livestream things that I noticed (ongoing post)
we’re going to edit this post with more stuff we notice.  everything is going under the cut, since this is gonna get pretty long.
during the dema “commercials” (when it cuts to the bishops plugging the album), the cd’s are subtly getting rearranged
during the first commercial, the black slipcase is on the right and the blue slipcase is on the left.  all the way in the back going from left to right, theres the casette, stack of three cd’s (white on top, pink in the middle, blue on the bottom), what appears to be the limited edition box set (sold on their website), and what im 99% sure is a lyric booklet.
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during the second commercial, things appear to be the same at first glance, but there are some subtle differences.  the black slipcase is on the left and the blue is on the right, and the three cd’s in the back are in a different order (pink is on top, blue is in the middle, and white is on the bottom).
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during the third commercial, the three cd’s are still stacked on top of each other but it looks less neat.  the order is white on top, pink in the middle, blue on the bottom, like in the first commercial.  the products appears to be more centered (before, the blue box was more to the right and the casette is now fully on the stand), except for the central cd’s.  the cd’s are now on the right, stacked underneath the lyric booklet (blue on top, black on the bottom)
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we have no idea what this means yet, but its too deliberate to be insignificant.  we’re going to add to this post with other things we’ve noticed, but for now that’s it
first edit: it seems like the bishops are being controlled, too.  during the last commercial:
-“sometimes i close my eyes to try to escape.”  “you know you cant escape, sally”
-”you need to get this collection in your life.”  “but remember, you should-” *static* (if the bishops are in charge of dema and genuinely trying to spread its message, why would they get cut off?) (of course, its possible that the banditos cut them off, but who knows if they have that power)
-the *control room* has nine buttons, with the bishops’ names on them.  the control room.
it kinda seems like sacarver (sally) is the one that wants to escape more, while lisden (dan) is the one thats either buying into dema more or is hiding his will to escape better.  also, the bishops were getting more and more beat up every time, and sacarver/sally’s makeup was getting more, uh, conspicuous?
first commercial (completely normal looking, unless you count their fake smiles):
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second commercial (notice the blood on the front of dan’s shirt/sally’s scarf):
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third commercial (notice the, uh...everything (yellow eyes, more blood, sally’s makeup and hair, etc):
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bonus pic of sallys eyeshadow, which is a lot more noticeable than in previous commercials:
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second edit: the songs they played at the end were pretty interesting.  after the livestream, they played instrumental versions of some of their songs.  two of the songs they played were the hype and we don't believe what’s on tv.  wdbwotv is pretty self-explanatory, and the hype has the lyric “just don’t believe the hype” repeated several times in it.  they both have the “don’t believe” theme going on, which i think is a pretty big coincidence.  honestly, i could be reading too far into it (especially since i hooked up my computer to my tv and watched the livestream on my tv), but i dont think that the similar meanings of the song are an accident.
they also played the song doubt, which has the lyric “gnawing on the bishops” (thanks to @myrebelred​ for pointing that out)
third edit: @isdreamingfree​ pointed out that josh didn’t do a backflip during the livestream.
in the q&a, they specifically said that he would, and then they didnt.  they also didnt do the deathdrop (that thing tyler does where he just kinda falls backwards), and they didnt end the concert with trees like they normally do (instead, it was a little more than halfway in).
fourth edit: during lane boy, tyler keeps repeating "dont trust a perfect person and dont trust a song thats flawless”.  maybe thats nothing special on its own, but a) the livestream seemed way too perfect/smooth (at least to me) (although it was done live) and b) sally/sacarver, one of the people trying to market the album, mentioned during one of the commercials (i believe it was the last one) how “perfect” the collection was
which reminds me, why do they call it a collection instead of an album??
fifth edit: in the beginning when it shows the twenty one pilots livestream intro while he’s singing choker it says who the stream is presented by, but on the other side it says “controlled by: DMA ORG and Good Day Dema”
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sixth edit: i (crow) have made a list of all my observations of stuff that happened during the livestream, its a lot longer than this but like half of it is pictures lol.  it took me forever, so id appreciate if you took a look at it!
https://mx-misty-eyed.tumblr.com/post/651931663100723200/a-bunch-of-sai-livestream-observations
seventh edit: during chlorine, ned’s silhouette appears in the background
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-admin crow and admin frankie
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hii, i wanted to ask a question about my bestie xx
i’ve typed her as an enfj bc she’s always seemed like a high Fe type to me and the enfj function stack and descriptions of them on various websites were describing her very well. me and her are very different “people-wise”: she always talks abt ppl behind their backs while maintaining friendly attitude talking WITH them, always compliments ppl to get something she wants(some of our teachers always loved her bc she knew how to get their love and trust); then me…i’m an isfp…totally opposite, i have only a few friends, i hate talking behind people’s back, never “sucked up” on anyone, including teachers(some of them still love me, but for different reasons), i can’t compliment people i don’t like(tbf, i can’t compliment AT ALL, very bad at words, unlike my friend) and etc. I also don’t like lying to people and friends, and she, on the other hand lies or manipulates her words quite a lot(sometimes it helps her getting what she wants tho, i must admit).
But i’ve noticed recently that she’s very secretive…like…really secretive. She never shows her true feelings or struggles to her friends(or me, at least, lmao)…We both keep our feelings inside, but I have high Fi and I thought this kind of way of dealing with emotions was kinda Fi-ish. Not that she shows her friends her fake emotions, but more like she deals with them on her own.
also, she’s very impulsive in terms of her interests? more than me sometimes(and i have aux Se)…she gets heavily invested, for example in her choice of her future career and has her future in this career all planned(what uni will she graduate, how successful she might be, how “cool” will she be, etc.) and she talks about it(her new interest/hobby or her career choice) so passionately, that you think “omg, she REALLY wants to be a therapist/marketing specialist/dentist/whatever”, and she seems really invested in it, but then she DROPS it…like, she suddenly “realizes” it’s not what she wants or that that profession isn’t as good/profitable as she thought. She also cancels plans last minute a lot. It can be her, who encourages and organises our friend group’s gathering, but then gets out of it last minute herself, sometimes trying to make really pathetic excuses(but sometimes they’re very well-thought, such as “my parents asked me to babysit my little siblings” so none of us could blame her for telling that she won’t go w us last minute). I’m not telling it’s always lies. I’m sure sometimes her parents really don’t allow her to go somewhere or ask to babysit, but why does she always tell us that last minute!? sometimes she does things for her own benefit, like she’d rather go out with a person who has a good camera(so they could take pics for her), rather than someone she’s closer to and will have better time with. she’s also very insecure deep down. me too, but i don’t want people’s approval as much as her. she’s always scared to gain weight or look bad to her boyfriend, even though he’s the nicest guy i’ve ever met and has always told her that she’s the most beautiful girl ever and he would love her no matter what. perhaps i could also describe her as “all talk, no actual actions” and it hurts me isfp ass very much :((
we also have a lot of passive aggression in our relationship, bc we’re both hate conflicts in some way, and sometimes supress our anger towards each other(i tend to sometimes burst out tho), so ig she’s more passive aggressive than me and never tells me what’s wrong, therefore i can never tell if i offended her or not. idk, maybe she thinks the sam abt me?
she’s not a bad person tho, she’s a good friend and we’ve been friends for a long time, but sometimes she acts very very strange and i’m not the only one who has noticed this.
maybe you could help me…from what i’ve described, does she seem enfj type 3(have difficulty telling what her wing is)? ty in advance ❤️
Based on this it sounds like you are both in your mid-teens, and so honestly I would just give it some time if you want to type her because while your personality certainly exists at this time, it’s very much in flux. A lot of this just sounds like she’s dealing with a lot of insecurity and expectations and it’s hard to say if it’s typology governing these actions or if it’s just like...being 16 or 17 (which is what I’ve assumed from this).
I’m not sure what her type is but here are a couple of things that might help you, and I will say that ENFJ doesn’t sound wrong given that assumed age. It could be - looking at ENFP or ESFP wouldn’t hurt - but a lot of her behaviors seem in line with high Fe and even with Ni I would expect a certain amount of impulsivity and indecision at her stage of development.
First, try to think about her in terms of who she is without comparing to yourself. I don’t know for sure if you’re an ISFP - you might be, or you might not be - so if you compare to yourself and you are mistyped then you’re working off an incorrect basis for comparison in the first place and that will make everything harder. Try to think how she compares to people you know in general - and especially your peers. Is she more impulsive than most of your classmates? Less? Around average?
Second, I have found the idea that high Fi users are more private and high Fe users are less private to be absolutely false; I think it is partly based on a Tumblr user who mistyped as an Fe user for a long time but then realized they were a high Fi user and was trying to make that fit and it’s persisted long past that. A lot of high Fi users, especially extroverted ones, are very expressive, and a lot of high Fe users can be private - Fe users are typically very attuned to what others think of them and so might keep their emotions on lockdown or hide them in order to elicit a certain response (Fe-dom 3s, for example, will absolutely do this). As a rule thinkers and introverts are more private with their emotions than feelers and extroverts but that’s about the extent of it.
And finally, and I tell most people this especially when they bring up not just a typology question but also some conflicts or personal difficulties; I get that you are asking me for help with MBTI, and that’s the main help I feel like I have any ability to give and I know unsolicited advice is often unwelcome so feel free to ignore, but: MBTI does not solve interpersonal (or intrapersonal) problems. It can be a very helpful and powerful tool, but knowing is only half the battle (or something). A person who knows literally nothing about MBTI but is an empathetic and thoughtful communicator who does not shy away from healthy confrontation will do better than a typology expert who lacks even one of those traits. If you want to know her type, review the first few paragraphs and see if that helps and feel free to revisit after some time, but if you want to like, know why she keeps flaking on you, then unfortunately getting over the fear of confrontation and potentially upsetting someone will be a far more effective use of time.
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atlantathecity · 3 years
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505 Courtland tower now under construction
Fair warning: I'm about to seemingly contradict many things I’ve posted before by writing favorably about a new luxury apartment tower, but bear with me.
Pic 1: what the southeast corner of Courtland Street and Renaissance Parkway looks like today.
Pic 2: what it used to look like (empty)
Pic 3: what it's gonna look like.
This is construction for a new 280-unit apartment tower at 505 Courtland in the SoNo area (yeah, I know - you don't like it, I don't like it, but 'SoNo' is what they call it; I've gotten chewed out for calling it northern Downtown which is technically what it is, so no one wins here.)
There will be no affordable units in the building, only luxury ones. It will put lots of new wealthy people intown. I'm not against it. Here's why...
First, the developers did not seek any tax incentives. That's refreshing.
Second, wealthy people who want to live near intown jobs and amenities will find their way in somehow. It's not a question of "if" -- it's a question of "where" and "when" and "which little house got torn down to build an oversized luxury box."
This is the best way to do it: stacking them in a compact space on a formerly-empty property (where tax revenue will be increased) in walkable distance to stuff, with no tax giveaways included.
This is good. No, it's not great. It'll have 5 stories of parking and have no mix of incomes and the design is boring, so I'm not going to give it a medal. But it's good. [EDIT: Since I somewhat imply it in the post, I have to add a caveat that I've yet to come across data-supported evidence that increased market construction in itself is a reliable tool for preventing the loss of lower cost homes. Let me know if you've seen some. Likely we need also need government-backed tools for the prevention of that as well, via financed anti-displacement initiatives.]
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prorevenge · 5 years
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Got my boss arrested for possessing child porn also resulted in CEO arrested for embezzlement.
I apologize for the long-windedness of this story. I'm not a writer, so I am just writing from memory and it got a bit longer than I had originally anticipated.
Almost 2 decades ago, I worked in the magazine publishing industry as an advertising and marketing manager. What this meant is that I sold advertising spaces in our line of various publications. You know those fancy clothing ads or product ads in between articles? Yeah those. And when you're good at it, you can make embarrassingly large stacks of cash. I was about 20 years old, making a very healthy $150K/year. So I thought I nailed a dream job.
My director, on the surface, seemed like the most awesome boss. He was charismatic, he knew how to lead. He was a retired Marine and was incredibly good at motivating his subordinates. He was friends with the actual Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, and had him come in to our company to teach us how to close sales. And yes, I know how to "sell you this pen."
My director, we'll call him D, was in actuality one of the shadiest people I've ever met and his over confidence in his skills led to not only his downfall but also led to a huge scandal in the company resulting in multiple investigations including his arrest and the CEO's arrest on different charges.
I won't get into the backstory of how I started there or how I rose up the ranks under D. All you need to know is that he took me under his wing to train me as his protégé. D was known in the company to create advertising initiatives that would be insanely profitable. He would then move one of his subordinates into managerial role on that project so he would move on to the next initiative. What most people didn't realize was that his initiatives were only sustainable for maybe 2 to 3 years before they would start losing money. But because D was such a prominent figure in the company, the manager who took over the project would take the blame for it, citing "lack of proper management skills." So D was largely untouchable and never took the blame.
D put me in charge of one of those initiatives. But instead of losing money, I was able to sustain it for more than 7 years. This gave me a staff of 200 additional sales reps to oversee. I was also the supervisor, the graphic designer, IT, HR, and I had my own accounts to manage as well so I was working from 6am to 11pm 6 days a week. Not including my commute of 1 hour each direction in Los Angeles traffic. I knew I was working myself into an early grave.
One of the things I always thought was weird about how D managed his subordinates was that he required everyone to provide him with their PC login and password. Keep in mind this was the early 2000's and our IT was barely able to build a corporate network so this was our best way to monitor what people did on their PC's (or so I was told).
It turns out, after hours, D would log on to their PC's and would not just go through their company emails (it was against company policy to use Outlook for any non-company related communication. And this was audited by D weekly). He would also look through people's browsing history. He would set everyone's browsers to automatically save any passwords entered, so he'd read their browser emails (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.). His justification was that he was looking for any evidence of corporate espionage or violations of proprietary information.
One of the most irritating was that he required everyone to save their company Outlook .PST files (where emails are stored) to his network drive. This allowed him to monitor people's company emails from his own computer.
So when our team got so big, we had to hire our own accounting team. Because they fell under D's jurisdiction, he had access to their PST files as well (but our accounting team didn't know this). This allowed him to monitor a lot of financial communication between our parent company, and also predict where budgetary changes were being made.
D would use this to maximize how he strategized his next project initiatives. He clandestinely knew where the money was going to be before anyone else so he had time to come up with plans on how to get a bigger chunk of that cash. On the outside, his ability to do this seemed almost preternatural. But all he was doing was just reading confidential emails without anyone knowing. All accounting information was kept confidential just within the finance team, so they didn't know D was readily accessing this information. Like I said, our IT team was barely conscious.
D decided he wanted to take a 2 week vacation and left me in charge of monitoring duties. He showed me where the PST files were. Internally, I was utterly aghast at how much he was looking at our personal communications. But, I was young, naïve, and making a salary that most 20-somethings could only dream of so I thought this was normal corporate operations.
During D's vacation, one of our reps dropped a cigarette down a plastic drain pipe outside the office. Turns out he'd been doing that for weeks and the back up of cigarette butts eventually caught fire and it set off the smoke alarm in the building. We were forced to evacuate and close up shop for the day. Because I could work remotely, I copied all the PST's to my laptop and headed home. That's when I discovered something that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
In my haste to copy the PST files, I inadvertently copied D's to my computer as well. Out of morbid curiosity, I figured what the hell, why not? So I started looking through his emails. At first, I found emails to another director, where he was disclosing how he was able to 'go where the money is.' Turns out, another director in another branch was also doing the same thing and they were joking about how they were able to make so much money and set up the manager they left behind to fail. They talked about how they would share this financial information with advertisers, other publishing firms, etc. to put themselves in strategically advantageous positions for prime accounts. In a nutshell, what they were doing was sharing corporate information without tacit approval from the legal team. I saw junior associates get taken to court over this.
I also saw emails from several female colleagues who were mysteriously "removed" from the company. Turns out, D had 9 sexual harassment claims against him from these female colleagues. But because he was so profitable to the company, the CEO turned a blind eye, settled them out of court and then moved D to a different team to avoid any negative perceptions. Many of these emails between D and these female colleagues was very explicit, and it was very clear his advances were unwanted. Lots of dick pics, lots of pics of D and his wife engaged in sexual activities hoping the female colleague would want to join in, etc.
D also had a folder called "New Accounts". By this point, my image of D was shattered. The guy I thought was a great mentor was just a sleazebag. So I looked into that folder, and found a massive collection of some of the most explicit child porn. My mind will be forever haunted by the filth that I found there. Even just thinking about it now makes me want to cry for the lost innocence of those poor children. So I wanted to sink this guy.
My thought process was this: If I straight up reported the CP, it would be obvious where the reporting came from since I was the only one who had access to his PST file. I didn't want to have a vindictive angry Marine breathing down my neck. So instead, I reported the accounting irregularities through our anonymous company hotline. This would trigger an immediate investigation which includes a thorough audit of a person's computer. Even though D had his laptop with him on his vacation, his desktop computer was still very much online at the office.
Accounting and legal took the investigation insanely seriously. Things moved so fast that I got a call from D the next day with a request. "I need you to write up two notes. One note says 'This is my two week notice.' and the second note says 'I tender my resignation effective immediately.' If the CEO asks about me, hand him which ever note you think is best."
He wanted to resign and collect a severance before the investigation concluded, knowing that the company would have to call the police when they found his CP stash. If he resigned before the investigation finished, chances are the company would just sweep it under the rug since the "problem is now gone." I never handed the note to the CEO. And the police were called. D was arrested. His wife was also arrested. His daughter, which turns out, was one of the kids in the stash, was taken in by another family member who completely cut themselves off from D.
An added bonus to this was that the subsequent accounting investigation led to a discovery. Turns out the CEO filed bankruptcy for one of the magazines to secure additional $15 million in funding. But instead of applying that money to the failing magazine, he pocketed $12 million of it and spent it on lavish homes in other countries. This led to the CEO also being arrested as well.
I left the company shortly after, realizing that the entire place was a toxic shithole of backstabbing and the kind of behavior that went on was actually the norm at this place.
Last I heard, D was still in jail, the CEO was penniless, and the entire company was sold off to another parent company because it had gotten so toxic to be associated with it.
TLDR: Boss did some shady accounting stuff and I discovered he had CP on his computer. Accounting stuff was reported and police got involved to arrest my boss. Further accounting anomalies led to discovering CEO was also doing shady stuff with money and he was arrested as well.
Addendum: Hey all, I've been reading some of the comments and thought I would add some additional insight and thoughts behind my post.
Yes this story is factual. While the identities of the company and those involved will remain private, for those who have worked in high pressure sales environments will know that people like D are not a rarity. It's the nature of the type of people that get hired for those kinds of roles. If you've ever seen the Wolf of Wall St, you'll know the kind of people that were hired at this publishing firm.
Yes I was making that much in my 20's. I had been in magazine publishing since my mid teens. In the 90s I started my own print publication in the whole import automotive racing scene. It started small, but did gain some notoriety in street racing circles and help caught the attention of some very worthy advertisers. Being bilingual in Japanese and English, this allowed me to expand my magazine's advertising reach overseas to Japan where the street racing scene was in full swing. I learned very early on how to do advertising, marketing, sales, and publishing. However, once that scene started dying down the magazine lost its appeal so I took a lot of my advertising accounts with me to the publishing firm where the above story took place. Many advertisers are loyal to the sales rep and not the client.
The event of the story took place around 2008. While I had a team of 200 sales reps under me, most of their PST files were relatively small since most of their work was via phone sales. This company was incredibly old fashioned with tech. Like I said, I was the graphic designer. I knew how to use Photoshop, InDesign, etc. from my old magazine but I would never actually consider myself to be a professional graphic designer by trade as it was all self taught and very limited. I just knew how to make things "camera ready" (this means high enough resolution for print...300 dpi). Because I did a lot of graphic design work, I was given a pretty high end laptop for the period. The hard drive alone was 640GB (it was two 320GB drives in RAID0 array).
Evacuation of the office. Perhaps this was strongly assumed to be an immediate emergency evacuation. We sent everyone home while management assessed what the cause was with the fire department. That is what I meant by closing up shop. So it did give me ample time to copy over the PSTs knowing that I'd be working from home later that afternoon.
To whose who say they would happily work those hours for that kind of pay. I used to think the same thing, which is why I took the job. My base pay was $60K plus commission. And I made a lot of commission and I never missed a sales goal. I also made commission of my teams. Those 200 people were divided up into various sub-teams for each magazine we published. I earned commissions of their total sales as well on top of a monthly sales commission bonus for goals reached. Keep in mind this was just before the housing crash in 2008. People were spending money like it would never end. And our company raked it in. But here's the rub...I was so perpetually stressed. My girlfriend at the time, she was a sales rep on a different team, would cry in the car on our way in to work every day. I worked 6 days a week. I would be so stressed that my Saturday nights were spent in isolation on my computer playing video games. I wouldn't sleep until the sun came up on Sunday, then I would sleep all through Sunday until Monday morning. I was subsisting on 4 to 5 hours of sleep per day during the week. It took an incredible toll on my body. Many of my reps were coke addicts and we turned a blind eye to it because it helped them dial faster and sell more. Some of the managers would staff sales reps from temp agencies asking for people specifically who came out of rehab, knowing they'd relapse at this place where we'd either fire them for performance issues and not pay the staffing agency their hiring fees or they'd be so coked out they'd make a killing in sales.
To my shame, I never reported the CP. I had this image of corporate lawyers coming after me and fighting this never ending legal battle of trying to maintain my innocence. I was young, naive, and didn't know what options I had. That is why I went with the accounting route through the anonymous company hotline. I knew they would do a scan of D's computer and audit his emails which is why I moved his CP folder into a more prominent place for it to be found. Like many corporations, they are more concerned with maintaining a public image and this is something they wouldn't want getting out if it was reported to law enforcement agencies by an employee. I knew once they found that folder, they would be compelled to contact authorities anyway, so it removed the onus from me and removed me from the equation. Plus, after learning about D's darker side, I didn't want him or someone sent by him coming after me for ruining his cushy job. I went with the route I felt would involve me the least and protect my own self the most. I wish I could have reported it to the authorities. Now that I'm much older, looking back, I don't know what things I would have done differently. But now that I'm married and I have a stepson, I think about if I found his photo in there, I can definitely imagine me waiting for him to return so I could exact revenge personally. But that is a bunch of "what if's" and life tends to go very differently.
Our company IT. My office was a satellite office in downtown Los Angeles 45 miles away from our main HQ where the IT team was. It was set up specifically for my team of 200. To give you an idea how inept our IT team was, our IT project manager was tasked with hiring a consultant who would scope out and build us a custom sales/phone software that would link with our database of advertising accounts and other businesses in our database. We had one of the largest databases of businesses in this industry where competitors would offer us very large sums of money just for a portion of this database. Our IT team spent close to $1.6 million on this consultant, and in the end what we were told was a custom program was actually just a turn-key software...for inbound call centers. We were an outbound sales team. What this means is that we were given a program that wasn't custom built for us, had problems using our database, and was designed for call centers that received phone calls (eg - cell phone or cable company call centers). We were an outbound center. We weren't just a call center as many of our reps also traveled nationally to visit advertisers, so an inbound software was absolutely junk to us. Because of our IT's ineptitude, I had to learn a lot of IT basics myself. As far as browsers, most of our staff was using Firefox since it used to be fairly lightweight and quick.
Like many of the stories in this thread, I understand the skepticism. Some of the stories sound so over the top and sound like a fabrication. One thing I've learned from being able to experience quite a lot in life from early on is that there really are shitty people out there like D. The reason for the throw away account is because my main reddit account is used for work in my current industry and I, unfortunately, deal with the public in my job and I don't want this associated with my actual identity.
So why post this at all? I don't care about internet points or accolades, but I do appreciate the comments of support. In a way it's been a bit cathartic for me to share this publicly. I've told the story to coworkers before, and I've felt I never really had any closure with it. This doesn't give me any closure either, but being able to share it on a forum designed for stories like this does help with that burden just a bit. I hope D's daughter grows up to be as normal as can be expected from a situation like that. I still keep in contact with a few of my old sales reps. While I now live quite far away from Los Angeles, I do like to hear back from them to see they're doing ok in life.
Addendum 2:
After I posted this story, I reached out to a few of my former colleagues who I worked with during this time just to see if there were any additional bits of information I might be able to learn. Even with the few friends and colleagues I do keep in contact with, many of them left before this story happened and many were moved to other teams before the following hammer dropped.
One thing I found out tonight from a former colleague was what the aftermath was. After the CEO was removed, the parent corporation was deciding what to do with my branch. Because the embezzled money came from one of the magazines my team was on, during the legal hearings the entire office was shuttered. And it was done in a really shitty way.
Every employee at that branch received a FedEx letter on a Saturday stating their employment with the company was terminated. Again...on a Saturday. This was done to avoid having to do it face to face while everyone was at the office. Because this was a surprise, many of them immediately drove down to the office to retrieve their personal belongings only to find hired security guards who were instructed to not let anyone in. The now-ex-employees were understandably upset. Part of the reason was because of the amount of embezzled money, the legal teams needed to make sure employees weren't removing any potential evidence. But what this meant was that they weren't able to retrieve their personal belongings, and some even had their cell phones, valuables, and other items they wanted to retrieve inside the office. Apparently the office was locked for nearly a year before the staff was able to get court-assisted permission just to retrieve their personal items.
Since then, the building we worked in has been leveled and is now an area being gentrified and has totally turned into a modern, hipster apartment complex. When the toxic magazines/assets were sold off to a new publishing firm, luckily many of the employees were able to be rehired by the new publishing firm and are still working there. Fortunately, the new publishing firm is quite the opposite of the one we worked for.
(source) (story by FalconerXV)
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flojocabron · 5 years
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12/11/19: Here's my Wednesday flea market finds! I went late, almost around noon. It was still quite busy. I had a look at few gaming things, and I had most already so I didn't feel like buying again. I left them for other people. The first buys were Street Fighter ps3 and a ps4 Assassin's Creed game. Both were $10. Then for $5, I found two Disney Cinderella blurays and Captain Marvel; all sealed! Then a Word of Warcraft book for about $0.50 cents. I made it to a table full of media. I heard everything was a dollar each, so I made a stack. It's the stuff in the second picture. I got some games, anime and music cds. The guy charged me $13 all of it. I was happy. So then I kept going. I next came across a 128mb generic PS2 memory card. I don't have one of these, so $5.00 seemed okay. Then A three pack of James Bond 007 bluray for $3.00. I spent the next hour or two looking for free clothes, cause later in the afternoon, people give stuff away. I got four bags of free stuff. By now everyone was packing up to go. I took a trip back to the guy selling discs. And this time he was selling stuff at $5.00 fill a bag! Damn. I wish I had waited. But that's just the way it is. But this second time around, I had competition. A guy was looking for games too. He was fishing out some that I had left behind. I didn't feel like paying a dollar for them earlier. But now at a few cents each, they're worth it. I grabbed a few more games again. A bunch of audio cds, and more anime. I also pulled out some disc only games where the outside case was damaged, but the insides were good. All of that 3rd pic was $5.00! The bag was almost bursting! And finally, my last purchase was a box full of comic books for $30 dollars. A bunch of mid 2000 DC and marvel books. The guy had them at a dollar each a few hours before, but gladly took my offer as he was leaving.
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lexacourtney · 5 years
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Hey Jen!
I can’t believe I’ve been reading Jen’s books since 2012. I remember the first time I ever met her – it was in Boonsboro at Turn the Page (Nora Robert’s bookstore). I honestly can’t remember if my friend and I went up for Jen, or for Nora, but I know we both left with copies of Obsidian and Half-Blood. My mom was heading up to Frostburg (Maryland) for a high school reunion and luckily Boonsboro is on the way, so we managed to convince her to take a detour for this signing.
Upon arriving at my grandparent’s house, my friend and I promptly sat down and started reading. I don’t remember which book I started with – probably Obsidian because my friend insisted that we read the same book at the same time.
From then on, I was a fan. We were fans. We scoured bookstores on and near release days for the next books and they were always read instantly. At the time, our local Books-A-Million always had our most anticipated books out a day early and we always bought them. (This was well before either of us were aware of release week sales and how they impact making best seller lists) We were avid readers and had found a new favorite author.
I’ve been a fan of Jen’s books since a Senior in High School – I’ve been reading them for quite a long time. Her stories often feel like coming home. I know if I pick on up, there’s like a 99% chance that I’m going to enjoy it. Her books are often the ones to get me out of reading slumps.
Since Jen is semi-local, I’ve been fortunate enough to see her at a bunch of events – from the Baltimore Book Festival, to launches, conventions and her own creation: Apollycon.
My friend and I went to the first one in Philly in 2015 (I think), and then to the fourth and fifth ones in D.C. in 2018 & 2019. And I’m going again next year, 2020!
(Pic – left: 2018, right: 2019 with Drew Leighty and Jennifer L. Armentrout and my bff / I definitely prefer 2019’s pic more)
Apollycon is always fun – you can see my recap of 2019 here! I always enjoy going and seeing Jen and all the other amazing authors. I usually have bruises on my shoulders by the end of the weekend. But even if Jen were the only author there, I wanted to see, I’d still go. I’ll support Jen and her books for as long as she’s writing. I love them and her so much.
(Pic – left: 2018, right: 2019 with Drew Leighty and Jennifer L. Armentrout / I definitely perfer 2019’s pic more)
I’m fortunate to consider Jen a friend and any way I can support her, I will. I remember finding her books. I remember how the light filtered through curtains as I laid on a bed at my grandparents and fell in love with her characters. I remember the anxious anticipation for the next book in her various series and showing up to each event with new copies of her books for her to sign. I love her characters, her stories, her worlds and I will read and reread them for forever.
I’ve been reading and supporting her for years now and I love doing it. I love promoting her work and getting people to fall in love with Daemon, Aiden, Seth, Luc, Roth, Zayne and the various other hot, swoon-y love interests she’s created over the years. I mean, who doesn’t want hot and snarky alien neighbors, or Greek God descendants with kick ass powers or a Prince of Hell and his Gargoyle opponent? She writes anything and everything and has you wishing that these characters were real.
Let’s finally jump into the reason you probably clicked on this post – the books! I’m going to be eternally broke if Jen’s books keep coming out with revamped covers, because I need them all. All these books currently occupy almost an entire shelf (minus 3 spots). It’s a long shelf too, like 6 feet and basically a shrine to Jen’s books.
I thought I had a lot of Brigid’s books…Jen’s occupied 2 bags and it was beyond difficult to carry both down the stairs. I managed, because there was no way I was making more than one trip. I also fought my glasses trying to slide right off the end of my nose the entire time. Setting them up on the banister and trying to fit them all in and have them look good was a challenge as well. It’s funny how, on a shelf they don’t look as numerous, but the minute you take them off and stack them up, it’s glaringly evident.
A quick run-down of Jen’s books – (This is going to be anything by quick, but here we go!)
Phew. Typing them all out also puts the number of books she has into perspective. I don’t own every single one of her books. Besides the de Vincent books and the Anthologies (not a fan tbh) I’ve read everything else. I opted to post a screen grab, over actually typing them out in WordPress because this post would have been a mile long otherwise.
Okay, I’m going to start with my favorite, the Covenant Series! Here I have pictured the original paperbacks (bottom),then the new paperbacks with the gorgeous covers – I still need to buy the rest of the series (middle). Then I have the UK edition of Half Blood (purple spine) and finally the Titan Books. These aren’t necessarily part of the Covenant Series, but they’re a direct spin-off!
Here are some links – make sure you check them out!
Covenant / Titan
Pic: (top to bottom) The Return / The Power / The Struggle / The Prophecy / UK Half Blood / Half Blood (New US) / Pure (New US) / Deity (New US) / Daimon / Half Blood / Pure / Deity / Elixir / Apollyon / Sentinel 
Next up, the Lux series! I’ve since added a finished copy of The Burning Shadow to my collection, but unfortunately it’s not pictured. I took all these pictures weeks ago when the weather was still guaranteed to be nice. Which is a good thing since it’s rained for days here. I love Katy and Daemon and they will always have a special place in my heart. Here I have pictured the original paperbacks (top) I need to get the new covers. Opposition is the redone cover to match the first four books. Then Oblivion is Obsidian from Daemons POV and Obsession is an Arum novel. Then I have the US ARCs for The Darkest Star and The Burning Shadow , and finally a finished copy of The Darkest Star. 
Here are some links – make sure you check them out!
Lux / Arum  / Origin 
Pic: (top to bottom) Shadows / Obsidian / Onyx / Opal / Origin / Opposition / Oblivion / Obsession / The Darkest Star US ARC / The Burning Shadow US ARC / The Darkest Star 
Next we have the Dark Elements Series – which is another favorite, shocker! I have the second one on my TBR to read before the end of the year, just because. It’s time for a reread. I love Roth and Zayne and these books are just fun. Here I have pictured the new US covers (top) I freaking love them. Then the original covers, plus an ARC of Stone Cold Touch (my first ever Jen ARC!) and then a US ARC of Storm and Fury plus a finished copy. I’m super excited for the next book in the Harbinger series as the first one left me with my jaw dropped.
Here are some links – make sure you check them out!
Dark Elements / Harbinger 
Pic (top to bottom) White Hot Kiss (New US) / Stone Cold Touch (New US) / Every Last Breath (New US) / White Hot Kiss / Stone Cold Touch US ARC / Stone Cold Touch / Every Last Breath / Storm and Fury US ARC / Storm and Fury 
Then we have the Wicked Trilogy and these books are great! I loved Ren and Ivy and I can’t forget Tink and his Amazon Prime addiction. New Orleans, fae and tons of drama and romance, you don’t want to miss these characters or this world Jen has created. It’s fantastic. These books are definitely due for a reread and I would honestly love nothing more than to drop everything I’m currently reading to do so. Here I have pictured the original paperbacks, plus the 1001 Dark Night’s novellas, and there’s a third on the way!
Here are some links – make sure you check them out!
Wicked Trilogy
Pic (top to bottom) Wicked / Torn / Brave / The Prince / The King 
We’re coming down to the wire – two photo’s left!
Next is the Wait for You Series. The great thing about these books, is that you can read them in order, but they’re also standalones and can be read in whatever order you want. I love these books, my favorite being Stay with Me, but I do have one gripe, you might be able to see what it is from the picture.
These books aren’t stacked in order – which is listed above in the backlist photo. The mass market paperback style seriously annoys me to no end. That, and there are various pubs and none of them are uniform. Shelving them is a nightmare. But anyways, I have the whole series, with Trust in Me (green spine) being a novella, as well as the 1001 Dark Night’s novella Dream of You (bottom).
Here are some links – make sure you check them out!
Wait for You Series
Pic (top to bottom) Forever with You / Fall with Me / Trust in Me / Wait for You / Be with Me / Stay with Me / Fire in You / Dream of You
Finally, we are at the end. This stack is a mix of YA standalones and some NA.
The Dead List is probably my favorite of of this stack of books. I read it back when she published it on Wattpad. It’s definitely a bit of a thriller murder mystery and it’s so fun!
You really can’t go wrong with any of these books and they all range in genre! That’s one of the things I love about Jen and her books – she writes everything and they’re always pretty good and easy to get lost in.
Here are some links – make sure you check them out!
de Vincent / Till Death / The Dead List / Frigid / If There’s No Tomorrow / The Problem with Forever / Don’t Look Back / Cursed 
Pic (top to bottom) Moonlight Sins / Moonlight Seduction / Till Death / The Dead List / Frigid / Scorched / If There’s No Tomorrow / The Problem with Forever / Don’t Look Back / Cursed 
Phew! The scary thing is that this collection is only ever going to get bigger. Jen’s latest release The Burning Shadow just came out earlier this month, and the cover for Rage and Ruin was revealed, it’s gorgeous! I cannot wait to read it! If you haven’t yet fallen into the world that is Jennifer L. Armentrout, you’re missing out and you should fix that immediately. I would recommend starting with the Covenant Series (I have a whole review for the entire series here) but if you were to ask my best friend, she would insist on the Lux series. So, really you can’t go wrong with either!
Book Collection: Jennifer L. Armentrout - there's a lot. #newpost #blogpost #bookpost #bookblog #books #blog #blogger #bloggerswanted #bloggerstribe #bloggingcommunity #bookish #bookcollection #jenniferlarmentrout Hey Jen! I can’t believe I’ve been reading Jen’s books since 2012. I remember the first time I ever met her – it was in Boonsboro at Turn the Page (Nora Robert’s bookstore).
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mommysites884 · 3 years
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Reviews On Blk Dating App
BlackPeopleMeet review will help you knowing some important criteria, including features, pros, cons and more Read our experts and customers reviews, compare with other dating sites and apps or find an alternative. For Black & Interracial Dating. Elite Singles doesn’t share its membership demographics, but we’re willing to bet it has a sizable African-American following. As a general dating site and app, Elite Singles supports a diverse crowd of singles with different backgrounds and values — but very similar life goals.
Reviews On Blk Dating App Reviews
Blk Dating App Online
Lia & Fahad
Zoosk inactive profiles. On the whole, the process of online dating is a great thing.
Singles dress up their bios with pithy zingers in an attempt to match with other bae-less individuals. Sometimes this pairing leads to an awkward exchange. Or, if both parties skip the coy act, it leads to a pre-first date.
Plenty of Fish Online Dating Women Not to Date List updated their profile picture. April 10, 2017 If you have had a bad experience with an individual on the Plenty of Fish online dating site, please JOIN THE YOUTUBE GROUP and add their user name and help guys everywhere out. Why online dating is good. It’s interesting how, with certain patterns, you can make a great online dating profile.I spoke with Whitney Perry, the founder of the Single Online Dating Guide, who shared a great analogy.If you are wearing a dress that has zippers up the side, you can show what the dress looks like in a different way to different people by zipping it up a bit. What to say online dating first message examples. Online dating to do the job. Your credit can never be overlooked when paying for your dream date. And you can always share what you have to offer – be it a good job, professional skills, bank balance or kids. Because dating is meant to be fun. Never online date on an office computer: Keep your personal life and your office life separate. Remember you company will have access to anything you do on their equipment. Don’t get seduced in online “shopping”: Beware of juggling too many people at the same time. While it’s perfectly okay to go slowly and initially see more than one. Dating can be expensive, and no guy wants to break the bank and go to fancy. Online dating do not date list.
As a black woman, however, trying to find love online isn't so simple. I've hit a few road blocks.
You see, it's an established fact that dating for black women is terrible. On dating apps, which were created to increase the chance of finding love, prejudice abounds.
OkCupid data shows that 82 percent of non-black men are prejudice against black women in some form, and I've found that to be true. My non-black friends typically receive right swipes from every Tom, Dick and Harry. Meanwhile, I can only guarantee matches with the Jamals and Akeems of the online dating world.
It's no secret Bumble and the like are largely used by non-black romance-seekers, therefore my chances of finding the one, if I want a black husband, are slim. This trend also makes BlackPeopleMeet, SoulSwipe and BAE (Before Anyone Else), a new dating app specifically made for people of color, absolutely necessary.
Brian Gerrard created BAE in April 2015 (along with his brother Justin and friend Jordan Kunzika) after seeing the racial disparities in digital dating. Scarred from their own letdowns, they wanted to stack the odds in favor of black singles.
Because of a few failed rounds of my own with Plenty of Fish, I'm averse to finding a boo online. Still, I downloaded the app to see if I had a better chance of snagging an eligible suitor.
As I expected, matching was easy.
The 'find a bae' formula? Spot a fine guy and swipe right. Sprawled across my bed, I signed up via my Facebook profile and the app automatically plugged in four profile pics. I don't know how BAE knew to use my super-cute selfies, but I wasn't complaining.
Basic stats like the city I live in, my age and occupation were also automatically filled in. I skipped over the whole 'witty bio' thing, then got back into the groove and browsed through my colorful options.
I was looking for medium brown-skinned cuties who were at least 5-foot-10 and had decent jobs. I'm also a sucker for well-lit photos and a smile. If you can't even find good lighting, a date with me certainly can't save you.
After I swiped on a few fellas I thought would be entertaining, it didn't take long for the match notifications to start rolling in. There were also a few non-people of color profiles, like one from a Channing Tatum lookalike I swiped right on. But, mostly I stuck to swiping right on black men.
Silver singles dating site cost. Altogether, I racked up 28 matches over two days. Not too shabby.
But, the messages were still awkward.
There I was, poised to reply to 28 matches I'd gotten based on mindless right-swiping.
I wasn't necessarily shocked at the amount of replies, though, because connecting with black men online is truly as simple as the click of a button. The problem boils down to interest beyond superficial physical attraction, like a connection based on chemistry and correctly spelled words.
Reviews On Blk Dating App Reviews
Most conversations started off as casual small talk, but quickly became banal. The worst of them revealed just how awkward and unfunny men can be toward women they don't know.
Don't get me wrong, some standout guys were pleasantly sweet. But, the fact is, I just don't enjoy inorganic interactions. I prefer reading a person's vibes IRL, striking up an easy exchange over Jameson shots or meeting in the pasta aisle at Whole Foods.
Additionally, men tend to be way more predatory behind the safety of a computer screen, which completely turns me off to digital dating.
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Ultimately, I want to find bae offline.
While I love the fact that black women have tailored dating options with this app, it's just not my thing.
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Online dating, as an idea, is cool. Even Twitter can double as a dating site if you play your DMs right. But, the cheesy lines about how gorgeous I am and the guy who spelled 'together' as '2gether' reaffirmed my deep disdain for finding a mate online.
If I have to weed out f*ckboy BS, I prefer to do it in person. However, if I ever venture back to the Internet for a date, I'll stick to the kind (like BAE) with less racial bias.
Blk Dating App Online
Overview
BLK is a newcomer in the world of online dating, which aims at creating a friendly and genuine community for black women and men to connect based on kindred interests and likes. The community of black is full of different characters, and the BLK was designed with this thing in mind. You can take advantage of this dating app to get in touch with like-minded people and find your connections.
Since its launch and introduction on the market, the BLK dating app has evolved and grown its user base, which is elite to black singles living in Canada and the United States. Thanks to its stringent registration procedure, you are certain that the majority of its users are authentic and have quite genuine intentions for using the app.
You were wondering how does BLK work? Just like most other dating apps available out there on the market, all you need to do is to swipe right if you like someone or swipe left if you don’t like it. You can even tweak settings for what and who you’re looking for. If your interest is to meet black singles, then it’s definitely the right choice to find your connection and start chatting with other like-minded singles. For that, all you have to do is to BLK app download today to explore who’s around you and looking for matches like you. One thing is certain that BLK experience will be great for you if you would like to meet and connect with black singles near you.
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andrewdburton · 3 years
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Three Months of Slacking
Unsuccessfully but Refreshingly trying to climb the local waterfall
“MMM, are you still alive?” – somebody on Twitter
Holy Shit! I just realized that the last time I wrote a blog post for you was on April 18th, and now it’s late July. That’s an entire quarter of a year that I have let this wonderful, golden field of interesting opportunities and people sit untended.
 How could Mr. Money Mustache, a reliable stalwart of bossy financial advice since 2011 and usually good for at least one post per month, have drifted so far from his original dedication? It’s a question that earnest fans have been asking, and that I have even started asking myself.
When you break out of any habit, it can be hard to get back into it: the psychological barriers start to stack up and the pressure rises and you find yourself waiting for more and more unattainably perfect conditions that, surprise surprise, never really come.
If it’s a workout habit that you have broken, you might tell yourself,
“Oh, I just need to get over this injury or this cold.. And then my Mom is visiting next week but after that I’ll be ready to get back to the gym.“
With my blog-writing hobby I make excuses like,
“Oh, now that it has been so long, I have to wait until I have something really interesting or worthwhile to say. And yeah okay, maybe I have a few articles like that in the drafts folder, but those ones take a lot of thinking and focus to write, so I’d better wait until I am feeling really smart and focused to crack into that subject.”
But in both cases, the correct solution is just to say,
“Fuck it. I am going to just do something towards my goal, no matter how tiny.”
To get back in shape, you just need to start with at least a few pushups, which you can do right now on the floor of your office or kitchen. To resurrect the MMM Blog, Mustache just has to type some shit into the computer, and heck, why not just an easy breezy article telling you about some of the interesting things I’ve been doing in lieu of blogging?
Some stories from a real life of early retirement, which may be more relevant than plain old financial analysis and reader case studies anyway. And once we’re all caught up in life, maybe it’ll be easier to keep in touch on a more regular basis henceforth.
So in fairly rapidfire format, here’s what I’ve been up to this spring and summer:
1) Renovating The Shit Out of Our New Two-House Compound
We found the previous shower had been leaking for years and creating the most interesting scene of decay. We tore out and rebuilt the whole area, and cut in a nice window for good measure.
You may recall that back in January, I teamed up with a friend to buy the house next door, with cash, at a below-market price. Once she moved in, we realized that it needed even more renovations than we originally planned. So I’ve had a joyful time tearing down walls, framing in new windows and doors, reworking the floorplan and changing the wall surfaces, as well as fixing the shoddy plumbing and electrical work that was found along the way.
On my own house right next door, I’ve been going just a bit wild with metalworking, making all sorts of fences and decks and even a “Juliet Balcony” which features a fireman pole allowing me to slide quickly down from my master bedroom to the ground where we have a shared hot tub between our properties – in case of Hot Tub Emergencies, of course.
Cutting a giant hole in the back of my house (in February!), adding a sliding door where there was previously only a silly little shitty window, then many fun, casual days of metalworking. The last pic is my side deck, which I built mostly out of wood but also features lots of metal and a fun little outdoor kitchen including coffee machine and induction cooktop!
2) Working on a Pretty Big Documentary Project
Hmmm.. something seems different about the HQ kitchen.
I have said for years that I would never do it, but somehow a very persuasive filmmaker who has made some documentaries that I really respect, roped me into helping out with a probably-pretty-big documentary.
I did a casting call in March and found a couple that I am now coaching and working with throughout 2021. The film company doesn’t want me to talk about it much until they are ready to announce it, but suffice it to say that it is taking a lot of my time and energy, which comes out of what would otherwise be my blog-writing time budget.
However, this is the good kind of hardship – forcing me to experience things I wouldn’t otherwise get to do, and the end result will be reaching a lot more people than I could by just writing on this website alone. My fingers are crossed that it will come out the way I hope!
3) Switching 120,000 Underserved MMM Email Subscribers over for Better Newsletters
Easier signups, and better eventual emails.
Since the beginning, I’ve mostly ignored the fact that I sorta have a list of email subscribers, with predictable lackluster results. People were able to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves automatically, and the only thing it got them was an automated mailing of any new blog articles on the day that I posted them. The emails were poorly formatted, people who had non-gmail addresses often had trouble subscribing, and many probably wondered why I couldn’t make it work better.
Thankfully, a mini-crisis happened that has forced me to do the work to solve this problem, at last: Google announced that they were shutting down the aging Feedburner email service, so all of the old-school bloggers like me who were still using it were forced to migrate to a more modern platform.
I did some research, and in the end I decided to go with a higher-end option called ConvertKit, which is one of the most popular email services. It can do a lot more cool stuff, and I have taken advantage of this to create an automated (and free of course) “MMM Boot Camp” email series that people can sign up for. 
It’s just a curated feed of some of my most useful articles (about 35 out of the 500), which automatically go out to people once per week until they have graduated, so you’d think it would be pretty easy for me to create this.
But as I read through my old stuff, of course I realized that much of it was crappy and outdated so I ended up partially rewriting every one of those 35 posts as I went through, which took some time. The good news is, the updated versions are here on the website as well, so the work should benefit anyone who happens to read them in the future.
4) Having lots of Fun Times (and Hard Times) In Real Life
Just another cool sunset/storm in my back yard, taken during the traditional Evening Walk.
I’ve had a series of wonderful visitors who came and stayed at my house, sometimes for a week or more. Friends and I have hosted some big events at the HQ Coworking space, which left me both energized and drained at the same time. Then I got Strep Throat in mid-July, which knocked me out for the count for a full week or more – even well after the antibiotics worked their magic, I have still been having some ups and downs with energy. 
And then of course there’s the heat – I am always more energetic in cool weather (The typical 50 degree sunny days of a Colorado winter are some of my favorite for outdoor work in t-shirt and jeans). So the summer season here is always a challenge for me, with an endless procession of cloudless 95 degree desert days making me resent the very Sun I normally worship so much. I’ve been taking refuge indoor more than I should, hiding in my air conditioned house and making excuses and accomplishing less because of it. At least this has led me to the keyboard today, to write this blog post.
5) “Cutting the Pipe” at HQ and Installing a Giant Fancy Heat Pump system.
I had fun working alongside my co-owner Mr. 1500 for this work. Everything was easy about this install … except rebuilding some of the filthy century-old ductwork we found once we took out the old furnace.
Since I first bought the building in 2017, the MMM-HQ coworking space has been limping along with a clunky decades-old gas furnace, a gas water heater that was about 20 years overdue to spring a leak, no central air conditioning at all, and very high utility bills due to the way our local gas company charges commercial customers.
When you combine these irritants and contrast them with the fact that we happen to have a glorious solar electric array on the rooftop that makes a surplus of power, you can see why I would be itching to tear out all the gas appliances, cancel the service account permanently, and install all-electric replacements that are more efficient and will also save an estimated shit-ton of money each year.
I’ll save the full details of this for my very next blog article, but as a spoiler: we found and successfully installed a unit that should be able to cool and heat our building year-round, is very DIY-friendly, and cost only about $4000 to buy. It should prove to be a great annual return on investment, and I am excited to start installing these things on all of my properties and those of any friends who are doing upgrades.
And with that, I’d say we are all caught up.
In the comments: what have YOU been up to these past 3 months? And what subjects do you think we should be covering here on MMM in the next three?
from Finance https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2021/07/25/three-months-of-slacking/ via http://www.rssmix.com/
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rawrevive · 6 years
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted here; this year so far has been very busy! Lots of amazing opportunities and positive life changes! I was so blessed to have a chance to visit Bali again this year and I just returned from a month long stay teaching a raw chef certification course in Ubud, participating a detox and taking some time to relax.
I LOVE Bali for many reasons, but most of all for the food! The best meals I have ever had in my life were in Bali. Nothing back home in Canada compares to the restaurants in Bali. You can get fresh cold pressed juice anywhere, and Ubud is a raw food haven!
There is a brand new plant-based and gluten-free restaurant in Ubud called ZEST.  I was so impressed with this place; not only is the food so flavorful, presentation was on point! I follow their amazing Chef Simon on instagram – New Earth Cooking, his creations are mind blowing and he is always doing good in the community. Pictured above is the Sexy Stack salad and a few dishes from the tapa menu. All ingredients are locally sourced, the location is on a hill overlooking the lush green landscape of Ubud and they are open for breakfast and lunch. If I stayed longer I would have visited Zest more to try more items on their menu.
I have a huge list of restaurants in Ubud I wanted to visit but was never able to get to them all. One I finally visited this year was TAKSU RESTAURANT. They have a raw vegan restaurant upstairs called Fresh or you can order from a raw vegan menu in the restaurant downstairs in the garden and they even have a cold pressed juice and smoothie bar. My friend and I sat in the beautiful garden in the evening for dinner and ordered off the raw vegan menu. I was so impressed with their presentation, dishes were really fancy. I can’t remember the names of these dishes but the first was a vegetable roll made from pumpkin, a hearty salad and of course, raw lasagna.
My #1 FAVORITE restaurant in Ubud is THE SEEDS OF LIFE! I visited this place a lot during both visits and have tried many dishes on the menu. The entire menu is raw vegan and they even have tonic bar. Not only is all the food out of this world, I am in love with the ambience of this place; super chilled and laid back, just how I like it! Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of all the food I had; but pictured above is their famous SOL bowl (includes almost one item from every dish on the menu), brownies and a caramel cheesecake. My two favorite dishes here are the Mexican Lasagna and Indian Pizza, which are a MUST try if you visit.
The owner, Ben Richards also runs an EPIC Chef Certification Course twice a year; you can find more information on his website.
My 2nd FAVORITE restaurant in Ubud is SAYURI HEALING FOOD. In Bali last year I was staying just down the road from Sayuri’s so I basically lived here. Sayuri Healing Food’s menu is all plant-based and a good balance of raw and cooked. Again, I did not get a picture of everything I had here but pictured above is the raw breakfast burrito and a green smoothie bowl with Dragon Fruit granola which I probably had 5 times this year. One item on their menu I order every time I visit is Jamu Tonic; a healing tonic containing turmeric, ginger, apple cider vinegar, fermented garlic, lemon, tamarind, cinnamon and coconut palm nectar. I love all their smoothies and the dessert case is something only dreams are made of!
Sayuri also has a brand new academy just built behind the restaurant where she holds a lot of classes including a Raw Chef Certification and a new Raw Chocolate Certification. If you want to learn about raw food, Ubud is the place you want to be!
There is one restaurant in particular in Ubud that has stolen my heart; MOKSA. 100% plant-based and a mix of raw and cooked, this restaurant I visited during both stays seizes to amaze me. Located in Sayan-Ubud in a breezy grove overlooking vast gardens and rice fields, it’s a little out of the way but SO worth it! Most of their ingredients come from their permaculture garden and/or locally sourced. You can take a culinary class on Wednesdays or Fridays with Executive Chef Made Runatha or visit their Farmers Market on Saturday.
I went here with a group of ladies for a birthday lunch for a very special lady. Pictured above is the sweet symphony dessert tasting platter, raw vegan wraps and a hummus plate. Not only is the food spectacular, I am always impressed with their presentation and I want all their beautiful pottery dishes which I believe you can purchase onsite.
Another place in Bali with the best healthy plant-based options is Canggu. Both my visits to Canggu were short so I did not have the chance to visit a lot of restaurants but I did find the best restaurant there called TWO TREES EATERY. My friend and I visited this place 4 times in the 2 days! The menu is not 100% plant-based but has a lot of vegan and gluten-free options. This is honestly one of the best restaurants I have ever been to. I loved everything about this place; food, presentation, ambience and decor, their menu has something for everyone and is environmentally friendly.
Two Trees is owned and operated by two french women and the menu was developed by a chef in South Africa. Pictured above is a smoothie bowl, golden chia pudding and the rooted salad which consisted of roasted pumpkin, quinoa, miso hummus, lentils, pumpkin seed butter dressing, cranberries, broccoli, and spiced nuts. I was so blown away by presentation of the food; especially the salad and smoothie bowl.
There are so many healthy plant-based restaurants in Bali, these are just a few I remembered to snap pics and had time to visit. Here are some on my list I did not mention or had a chance to visit (I guess I’ll just have to go back!):
UBUD: 
Clear Cafe
Mudra Cafe
Alchemy
Earth Cafe
Sage
AA Juicery Cafe
La Pacha Mama
The Elephant
Sari Organik
CANGGU: 
Betelnut Cafe
Motion Cafe
Cafe Organic
Nude
Peloton Supershop
Nalu Bowls
The Shady Shack
Alkaline
Ubud and Canggu Restaurants Review It's been a while since I've posted here; this year so far has been very busy! Lots of amazing opportunities and positive life changes!
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toytalesindia-blog · 4 years
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8 Baby Essentials for a 7 Months Old Baby
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My boy just turned 7 months old this April 2020 and I have seen sudden changes in his behaviour. For example, he smiles back when you smile at him. He has started lunging forward towards his mom, me and my mother. His sleep patterns have changed, grasping power has increased and my baby suddenly prefers my wife over me these days. He has started crying when he is separated from his mom. There are a few essentials for the baby this age.
1. Solid Food Diet Plan
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Babies generally start solid food at around six months. We feed our son three solid meals a day. It is generally a mixture of fruits like papaya, banana and pumpkin. We have also started giving Ghiya ( Bottle gourd in english) and the baby seems to like it. My wife has also prepared a baby cerelac mixture by mixing some rice, almonds, cereals at home. The mixture is then roasted and grinded finely. I recommend that you do some research on which baby food to give before deciding on a diet plan. This very popular recipe site is a good starting point. Apart from the recipes there are many other items that you would need to be ready for when the baby starts to eat solid foods. Here's a list: A Baby High Chair: A high chair will help you feed your baby properly and without hassles. We have a Chicco High chair and it is fantastic. We have written a detailed post about it and given the best recommendations here: Top 5 Baby High Chairs in IndiaA Blender to mash foods like bananas and papayas. Baby Spoon Usually the grandparents gift a silver spoon and a Katori to the baby but I have found that the silver spoon is really isn't very suitable for feeding because the baby leaps forward and latches on to the spoon and the hard spoon may hurt the baby sometimes so it's better to get a silicone spoon. Dish Set: Prefer a steel set to a plastic one. Steel doesn't impart flavour to the food and is safe. Bib: Get some nice bibs for your baby so that you don't have to change his clothes every time you feed him. There will be a lot of spillages and you would want a cute bib so you can click some cute pics after the meal. A sipper: Though you wouldn't require it exactly at 6 months eventually you will require it.
2. Baby Sleeping Kit
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Baby sleep patterns will change once the baby turns six months old. I understand that this is different for every kid but I am talking about the general trend. Baby will sleep more at night and the first six months of erratic sleep patterns will get better. You would want to ensure that your baby gets enough rest. You will want a list of items such as a mosquito net, good quality baby beds etc. I have written a detailed post on baby kit for a good night sleep. In a nutshell you will require: Baby BedsBaby PillowsBlanketsDry SheetsA cribMosquito netsStory BooksBaby MusicToys
3. Child Safety
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As your kid completes his sixth month you will start seeing changes in his behaviour. You will need to start preparing for times when he will be crawling and walking because only when you start now you will be ready for when you really need it. Baby proofing your house should be your number one priority Starting at 6 months will allow you enough time to be ready when the baby walks. The perfect baby proofing list tells you exactly how to baby proof your house. In a nutshell you should look at these babyproofing items: Baby GatesElectrical outlet coversBed RailsCorner safety guardsDrawer LocksDoor LocksCord Shorteners Furniture anchors
4. The Outdoors Kit
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I am writing this post on the 9th April 2020, when we are already 2 weeks into the covid 19 lockdown and there is nothing more I want than to take my kid out. In the winters he was too small to go out and in the summers we haven't been able to take him out due to the pandemic. Anyway, you would invariably go for walks with your baby in your society, malls or in the parks. Here are a few things that you would require: Strollers: At the onset let me tell you that most stroller companies in India get their strollers manufactured in China. I am at a loss of alternatives to this situation. I have written two posts detailing the best value for money strollers in the Indian market at the moment. Luvlap strollers & R For Rabbit strollers. Both companies are Indian but they get their strollers manufactured in China. Read the above-linked posts to know the advantages that a stroller brings. Baby High Chair: So you can enjoy little picnics with your baby. Make sure your high chair is portable and easy to carry.Snack Cup: Babies this age can eat/drink fruits through these cups. Put in some watermelons and let the baby suck on the cup while outdoors. Keeps the baby hydrated and full. Diapers: Obvious. You don't want to be changing the baby's pyjamas when outside. We use supples baby diapers and quite like it. There is this diaper that promises 98% water-based. I will try it once I finish this lot of diapers. ( Although we have stopped using diapers at night now because the baby has better bladder control now and does not pee as often. If he has to peer, he'd wake up and cry. He will then pee and go back to sleep. Hat, Sunglasses and sunscreen if you plan to take the baby outside during the day.
5. Toys
Between 6 to 12 months kids are super active and lay their hands on practically anything that they can. It is important to buy age-appropriate toys for kids at all times. All toys come with a minimum age recommendation from the manufacturer. Teething toys are a superhit and more of a necessity than a toy. Kids are getting new teeth and they absolutely love to chew anything including toys, shoulders, hands etc. Get them a testing toy. Stacking and nesting toysShaking toys such as rattlesPushing toysSorting toysMake sure these toys are safe to chew on. Again Try and avoid Chinese toys.
6. Books
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Storybooks are a great way for you to bond with your child. Bright coloured illustrations attract child and you can read these stories loudly and with a lot of dramatic expressions to your baby. Remember loud and more dramatic is better. Baby will laugh and enjoy. I recommend the following baby books for this age Soft Crinkle BooksMy First LibraryCaterpillar
7. Audio Books
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101 Panchtantra Stories Amazon Audible is an audiobook service from Amazon that offers free audiobooks for the first month and then one audiobook each month. You can try their free trial and see if it is of interest to you. Audiobooks are a good way to relax and something to put on while working with the baby. Try it, It's fun (and free) Get a free audible account here
8. Youtube Videos & Youtube Kids
Ok, first of all this is not what it seems like it is. Your baby will love your mobile/tablet screen and will smile as soon as you put on a video but avoid the temptation. We are in a similar situation now and our baby will smile at the mobile scree like it is his best friend. He forgets that his mom or dad are holding him. He just wants to see the mobile. Thankfully he does not cry when we take away the mobile. Ok, We do not let our baby watch the mobile but I do like a couple of songs that I sometimes let him watch. These songs are: Hathi Raja Kahan Chale and Snowflakes. The most use for you tube is when the baby wants to sleep. I have noticed that the baby recognizes music and responds well to it. My Son's favourite song for sleeping is Tim Tim Karte Tare. Even if my son is fussy he will sleep 8 times out of 10 whenever we play this song.
Conclusion
I have compiled this list of baby essentials at seven months from my experience as a father of a seven month old baby boy. I hope you liked this post and I invite you to comment below and tell me your stories. To know more about me see our About us page. To get in touch send us an email here. If you liked this blog post and would like to get updates on baby development adn receive exciting brand offers, Subscribe to our newsletter. Finally, Share our content with your friends and support me in reaching more people. Read the full article
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jeremystrele · 4 years
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Creating The Best Kids Bedroom Ever!
Creating The Best Kids Bedroom Ever!
Interiors
Lauren Li
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Dulux ‘Pancake Mix‘ elevates this nursery to the perfect shade of neutral. Photo – courtesy of Dulux Australia. Stylist – Bree Leech. Photographer – Lisa Cohen.
So many designers admit that their first ‘project’ was their own bedroom. It seems that designing their own rooms sparked a lifelong passion for interior design, which made me think about how our childhood bedrooms are so influential in all of our lives.  Childhood bedrooms are a place of independence, where little people can carve out their own space in the world. It’s where they go to sleep and dream, read and play – and sometimes for time-out! It’s a place to keep their books and the things that are precious to them. Kids bedrooms should be a space to spark imagination, feel safe and comforted.
I love kids’ rooms that let them be kids. There should be an opportunity for them to put their stamp on the space, even if their preferred ‘colour palette’ may not flow with the rest of the house. After all, it’s their way of expressing themselves through their surroundings, which is so important! However, at the end of the day, we need to balance their ideas with what will look good. In my experience with my daughters, their influences range from the plastic fantastic Barbie Dream House to Sylvanian Family country cottage. They need guidance!
The best kids rooms happen when their ideas are integrated into the concept for a room, but executed in a more refined way. Above all, the space should show their personality. So if that means a crazy stack of books here, a fleet of plastic trucks there, or a Barbie campervan, then so be it. They won’t be kids forever!
When I design kids’ rooms for my clients, I love to ask the kids a few questions so that I incorporate their ideas. Some kids have never given what their bedroom looks like a second thought, while others provide mood boards! It’s a lot of fun. Be careful what you wish for though, I have been asked to do a cactus/outer space theme… that one was challenging!
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Dulux ‘Pancake Mix‘ elevates this nursery to the perfect shade of neutral. Photo – courtesy of Dulux Australia. Stylist – Bree Leech. Photographer – Lisa Cohen.
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Dulux ‘Pancake Mix‘ adds warmth to this nursery. Photo – courtesy of Dulux Australia. Stylist – Bree Leech. Photographer – Lisa Cohen.
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This is how to create a pretty pink room, while avoiding the princess clichés! The home of Melissa Harris and family. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Kids rooms don’t have to be just blue or pink! This old gold colour painted to dado height is bright and fun yet sophisticated. In the South Yarra home of Mardi Ola. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Room by Studio Giancarlo Valle. Photo –  Stephen Kent Johnson.
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Room by Studio Giancarlo Valle. Photo –  Stephen Kent Johnson.
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There is hardly a more classic combination than navy and tan, which is perfect for a nursery that will carry through to their teen years and beyond. Room by Nest Design Studio. Photo – Kate Monotti.
Colour
If there is one room in the house you can avoid white, it’s the kid’s bedroom! Even a subtle shift from white to a buttery cream wall (we love Dulux’ Pancake Mix, as seen above!) adds so much warmth and interest to the room, whilst still offering a calm, neutral base.
Painting all of the walls a beautiful colour creates a different feel to the rest of the house, and makes the room feel like it’s really ‘theirs’. Even painting the bottom half of the wall is a great way to introduce colour in an impactful way, without committing to the entire room.
When choosing a colour for the walls, firstly think about what kind of mood you want to create. Sometimes the first thoughts are to go fun and bright, however if you want the room to feel restful (ie. if you want young kids to actually go to sleep!) then maybe consider some more calming and muted colours.
But paint is just one way to use colour in a room, consider how fabric can add gorgeous colour. An upholstered bedhead or curtains can be a great way to incorporate colour, while an incredible canopy over the bed is sure to delight and make bedtime a little more fun!
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Using an over-scaled design keeps a floral look young and contemporary. Room by Aimee Tarulli of Archer Interiors. Photo – James Greer.
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Room by Sisalla Interior Design. Photo – Tess Kelly.
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Room by Sisalla Interior Design. Photo – Tess Kelly.
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Room by Sisalla Interior Design. Photo – Tess Kelly.
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Room by Nest Design Studio. Photo – Melissa Lau.
Wallpaper
Using wallpaper in a kid’s room is a lot of fun – but it can be totally overwhelming to decide on a design! The more colours in the design, the busier the room will feel. However, if the pattern is quite busy, but incorporates just a few colours, it will look more harmonious overall. I encourage my clients to consider wallpaper on all of the walls in a room, as it creates a continuous backdrop to the room, with less breaks in colour and pattern. My tops pics for wallpaper are:
1. These Walls is an Australian brand perfect for a youthful yet sophisticated look suited to tween – teenage rooms.
2. Anewall print murals to suit the wall size you need and they have some beautiful painterly and overscaled designs.
3. Sandberg is another go-to. The designs are floral but with a sophisticated Swedish twist.
4. If the wallpaper designs out there are not quite right, consider commissioning a mural from a local artist like Kelly Thompson or Leah Bartholomew.
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Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Kids bedroom from the home of Melissa Harris in Box Hill. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Kids’ bedroom from the home of interior architect Edwina Gelann and family. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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A kids’ bedroom from the Melbourne home of interior designer Karin Altman. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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The teenage bedroom from the home of Chloe Quigley and family. Photo – Eve Wilson.
Art
There is absolutely no reason that kids shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy art in their bedrooms. There are so many types of artwork – consider prints, vintage posters, fabulous tea-towels by Third Drawer Down, mobiles and even kids’ own masterpieces!
Art can also be found in more traditional gallery spaces, however, broaden your search to markets (like The Big Design Market), Etsy, antique stores and auction houses. Try using different coloured frames and arranging them in creative ways.
Artists such as Pete Cromer, Rachel Castle and Hello Miss May are great places to start. Check out the collections by Pinky’s Store, Contemporary Editions, Minted and Paper Collective.
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The Sorrento weekender of Kate from Kip & Co features clever under bed storage in the kids bedroom. All bedlinen and blankets from Kip & co.  Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Front-facing perspex bookshelves from Ubabub, in the adorable kids’ bedroom in the Fitzroy apartment of Imogen Milford. Photo – Amelia Stanwix. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Plywood crates by Like Butter, in the kids bedroom in the home of Georgie Cleary and Pino Demaio. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
Storage, shelving + keeping things tidy!
Storage is key in keeping my sanity at home, but I’ve found that there is some storage that works better than others. To get the kids to pack up their own things (I can dream right?), storage needs to be accessible. High shelves don’t work, because they simply can’t reach them, so opt for low shelving and cupboards. There needs to be a combination of open and closed storage; they like to keep some of their favorite things on display, whilst games can go in a cupboard.
Too many baskets filled with toys can just take up floor space, so put your baskets into shelves. The key is to have a place for everything to go – lego, games, toys and barbies all have a ‘home’.
Kids love to have a special drawer or cupboard for their precious things (mostly consisting of rocks from the garden, erasers from Smiggle and stickers). Mustard have a great range of lockers that make perfect bedside tables for small people.
Plyroom do an open shelf that suits books and baskets, with a range of furniture that suits little kids and transitions into pieces to keep for life.
Ubabub design and manufacture a clear acrylic shelf, the Booksee that allows the books to front face so that kids can easily see and access their books.
Pinky’s Store has cute colourful crates that stack.
The String Pocket is a perfect way for them to display their favorite toys (let’s face it, maybe your idea of a nice wooden handmade toy is different to the Shopkins and matchbox cars given to them by the grandparents) but almost anything displayed on this nifty Swedish system looks good.
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Gorgeous kids bunks in the home of Alex McCabe of Kip & Co. Photo – Amelia Stanwix. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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A tent-style bed in Finn’s bedroom in the Fitzroy apartment of Imogen Milford. Photo – Amelia Stanwix. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Kids quadruple bunks (!) in the gorgeous Eltham home of Sunni Hart and family. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.
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A sweet kids bedroom in the former home of Poppy Lane and Scott Gibson and family in Eltham.  Photo – Annette O’Brien.
Sleep Zone
Bunk beds are having a moment. They certainly have the novelty factor, especially custom-made bunks, with curtains for added bonus points! Bunks give kids the kind of space where they can hide and feel cocooned and safe. A little shelf to keep their favorite books close, with a reading light inside makes bedtime a little more enticing. Well, we can hope!
In terms of bedlinen – this is the quickest and most affordable way to add impact easily to a kids room. Letting them choose their own bedlinen (from an edited selection!) is a way that they can take pride in their own choices too. A great way to create a room that looks cohesive is to select the bedlinen first and then choose a wall colour based in the bedlinen. Afterall, the bedlinen selection is limited compared to the paint colours available!
Pony Rider, Kip & Co, Sage & Clare, Rachel Castle, Society of Wanderers, Little Louli and even your local Adairs proves there is absolutely no shortage of gorgeous bedlinen for kids!
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sheilacwall · 5 years
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Jesus Walks… in Adidas
Jesus Walks… in Adidas
Jesus is King has finally dropped. This is Kanye West’s first Christian rap-gospel album since turning into a born-again Christian in April after the hedonistic indulgence of Coachella.
The Lucifer, Mercy and New God Flow producer has given up secular music and has now turned his career toward the servitude of God.
However, his return from hospital and new found faith will flow nicely into his plans to expand his fashion, music & entertainment empire as well as possibly delivering him the top spot in the White House. This is a man not to be underestimated.
Saint Pablo
‘Ye recently turned around a personal debt of $53 million into a nearly $50m profit. Back in 2016, ‘Ye went out cap in hand to Mark Zuckerberg for $1bn for his ideas, but was promptly ignored. Zuckerberg was raised in a Jewish household, although his wife is a Buddhist and he hasn’t publicly stated his faith. But, this wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by ‘Ye and may have pushed Kanye toward his born-again Christian position.
Soon after, the “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” star seemingly finally started listening to his wife.
“My wife said, I can’t say no to nobody, and at this rate we gon’ both die broke,” West raps on Saint Pablo. “Got friends that ask me for money knowin’ I’m in debt, and like my wife said, I still didn’t say no.”
Stronger
Whilst facing the cold shoulder from Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey – the Square & Paypal founder who was raised a Catholic, offered to invest in Kanye early on.
Jay-Z also kicked in a loan of $20m triggering tensions between the two ending in a public feud.
Here’s Jay-Z on “Kill Jay-Z”:
“You dropped outta school, you lost your principles / You gave him 20 million without thinkin’,” Jay-Z raps, seemingly confirming the rumor that he lent West money. “He gave you 20 minutes on stage, f–k was he thinkin’?”
Recently, Kanye has tried to dead the beef with the recent track “Brothers” with Charlie Wilson.
Power
‘Ye never got that billion from Zuckerberg, although they apparently became friends and even performed karaoke together, but it appears West has now healed his own financial woes: His apparel brand Yeezy is a billion-dollar empire, according to Forbes and over the past 12 months, Forbes estimates West has earned over $150 million before taxes. His wealth is due largely to Yeezy’s Adidas deal, a line that is expected to top $1.5 billion in sales in 2019.
The Jordan line does approximately $3 billion in annual sales, so the Yeezy line is catching up fast. If he can latch onto the Christian vote, sales could explode even more rapidly.
Touch the Sky
Christianity is the most adhered to religion in the United States, with 65% of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019. This is down from 85% in 1990, 81.6% in 2001, and 12% lower than the 78% reported for 2012. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation.
Kenneth Copeland is the number one pastor in the USA and his net worth is $300m. After the backlash for supporting Trump, the natural progression seems to be for Kanye to target the Trump supporters and Christians who make up the large majority of America with around another 20% of the population perhaps open to conversion back to Christianity. It is a huge target market… and that is just America.
Christianity is by far the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth in 2010.
Jesus is King
The new sound track has been carefully crafted to be sung by large audiences to worship god. With tracks such as “Follow God” and “Use This Gospel”, Kanye is on a mission to convert. He has brought the Church to the streets and into the hills… No Church in the Wild.
His carefully chosen purple hair and purple cloths are to portray himself as an Emperor, clergy-like figure, if not Jesus himself, I don’t think it will be long before Kanye professes himself as a Prophet of some sort.
Kanye pronounced himself “I am a God” back on Yeezus.
I just talked to Jesus He said, “What up, Yeezus?” I said, “Shit—I’m chillin’ Tryna stack these millions” I know he the most high But I am a close high Mi casa, su casa That’s our cosa nostra I am a god I am a god I am a god
Rappers as Jesus
This isn’t new in rap. Check out the images below from Kanye, Nas, Tupac, DMX and The Game.
Jeru the Damaja, who follows the Nation of Islam, like Wu-Tang, Rakim & Brand Nubian, famously wrote a song “Can’t Stop the Prophet”.
Rappers have always seen themselves as street prophets, telling war stories, from Rakim, Nas & KRS-One right back to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five in The Message.
Purple Robes
Throughout history, purple robes were worn by royalty and people of authority or high rank. Many believe this to be true because the rare occurrence of purple in nature made it one of the most expensive color dyes to create.
Purple and violet represent the future, the imagination and dreams, while spiritually calming the emotions. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while, at the same time, keeping us grounded.
At the time of Jesus, the dye used for making the colour purple, extracted from shell-fish and was one of the most expensive dyes. The colour-fast (non-fading) dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes, usually worn by Emperors. The very fact that purple was an expensive color made it affordable only to the royals. That Jesus was made to put it on before his crucifixion, implies that the Romans were sending a strong signal to the Jews against any coup.
A.D.I.D.A.S.
ADIDAS was founded by German, Adi Dassler (Adolf Dassler). In fact, one of the founders, his brother Rudolf Dassler later went on to found Puma and started a bitter rivalry between the brothers. There is a popular myth among fans (not true) that Adidas stands for All Day I Dream About Sports, whilst in 2003, Killer Mike dropped a hip hop track called A.D.I.D.A.S. (All Day I Dream About Sex).
Like many of their fellow citizens, the brothers joined the Nazi party after Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933. Their shoe business remained modest until 1936. In that year, Germany hosted the Olympics.
In an ironic twist, the two party members got legendary African-American runner Jesse Owens to wear their running shoes while competing. Owens went on to win four gold medals during the games. The exposure of their product gave Dassler Shoes a huge boost in sales. You can read more in Sportsweek History.
It does seem ironic, given Kanye’s sex addiction that he would align himself with this particular shoe and his plans are to get the shoes made in America and give “second chances” to inmates.
But, he is going to run into problems with the media as the average wage of a prison inmate ranged between $0.23 and $1.15 an hour  – According to the International Labor Organization, in 2000–2011 wages in American prisons 
In Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, inmates aren’t paid at all for their labor.
The “New Slave” indeed. I initially thought another way to make money would be to make inexpensive Jesus style sandals and sure enough, I found that is exactly what ‘Ye is planning. They are called “slides” in America and Adidas will be making these from injection moulding and it hasn’t gone unnoticed from Twitter that they are basically prison shoes, but now they are being remarketed as a high fashion item for children of rich kids. That is marketing genius.
Why do the yeezy slides look like the slides worn in prison.. pic.twitter.com/LsR8dbFyqE
— Cyn ☕️ (@Kingxxcyn) October 17, 2019
ADIDAS YECHEIL
The first shoe in Ye’s collection is the Yecheil, which is a Hebrew masculine given name meaning “May God live” or “God shall live”. Several people in the Bible also have this name.
ADIDAS YEEZREEL
For the second shoe of ‘Ye’s collection, there is the“Yeezreel”. It has no exact translation but it seems he might’ve been inspired by the word “Jezreel” which was an ancient Israelite city and fortress originally within the boundaries of the Tribe of Issachar, and later within the northern Kingdom of Israel.
ADIDAS YESHAYA
The third shoe is called the “Yeshaya” which directly translates to “God Is Salvation”. The name Yeshaya (Yesha’yahu) translates from Hebrew to English as the name Isaiah, who was one of the four major prophets of the Old Testament, and the author of the Book of Isaiah. He was from Jerusalem and probably lived in the 8th century BC.
Many of these shoes use Adidas “Cloud” foam, so ‘Ye and his fans are figuratively walking on clouds.
Click the pic to get the best prices on Adidas below
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Through the Wire – Prison Reform
Kim Kardashian announced her decision to study law back in April. Since then, she’s met with President Trump to discuss prison reform, teamed up with the 90 Days of Freedom campaign, and is producing a documentary on the subject.
CNN reported that Kim Kardashian West helped free 17 inmates in 90 days.
Kanye West has donated $1m to prison reform, but is now getting US prison workers to make his shoes at 25% of the cost of having his shoes made in China, unless somehow, he is quadrupling the prison wage.
There will be Church factions and sections of the media who will most likely attack Mr. West for essentially using slave labour in prisons to increase profit. Chinese factory workers are now getting paid more than ever: Average hourly wages hit $3.60 in 2017 compared to around $1 for an American prison worker.
Kanye West’s Interview with Zane Lowe
If you don’t want to watch the lengthy interview below, scroll down for a quick summary.
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In the interview Kanye talks about the following:
How billboards are guilty of sex trafficking
How he became a born-again Christian in April after Coachella
Why he wants to create jobs and bring jobs back to the USA
How he experimented with Domes & living in them then “the man” tore them down as a metaphor for tearing down his ego
How his farm will be growing cotton & wheat
He will employ prisoners to make his shoes as a “second chance”
His respect for founders, especially Warren Buffett, Amancio Ortego (Zara), Elon Musk, James Turell (artist concerned with light & space) and Jack Dorsey (Paypal)
He calls himself a Christian innovator
How his daughter North drives his passion for church
How Sunday Service may become a church and how he may become a Pastor
He is asking people to fast & not have premarital sex
How he had a porn addiction due to seeing Playboy at 5 years old & his sex addiction
People should pray together, fast together, stay together to increase power
Getting stumped by Zane Lowes question on whether he had to work for his 4th house
How white owners controls hip hop
How God is using Kanye to show off
Compares himself to Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, diagnosed of Bipolar disorder. This was also the ship in the film The Matrix which “woke” people up
According to the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar II was king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who reigned c. 605 BC – 562 BC and conquered Judah and Jerusalem and sent the Jews into exile.
How he will become the President of the United States, perhaps as early as 2024
How Facebook & social media is a disease
How porn is ruining marriages and brainwashing children
How to keep the eternal, imaginative 3 year old at all costs
How he’s undeniably the greatest artist of all time, no question!
How wearing the red cap was a joke on all the liberals as well as Drake living four blocks down from him was also a joke from God.
I guess him wearing blue fur whilst talking and making a blue record is also a joke on the liberals
How he will now rewrite and censor all his old songs for performances
How some of the merchandise money will go to the church
How the Louis Vuitton boss reneging on a handshake to make him the LV don and his wife getting robbed helped put him in a mental hospital
Jokes about being the pastor at Drake’s wedding
How he objects to the censorship of speech of the left
Jesus is King is out now on Spotify, mp3, vinyl & CD
Jesus is Born, another new album, is arriving on Christmas Day this year.
Kanye West’s Journey
There is a bigger story here. How hip hop can be cathartic. Hip hop is bashed left, right and centre in the mainstream media daily, mainly times rightly so, for enforcing stereotypes. But, real hip hop can be a spiritual journey.
Some artists have found solace and teachings much earlier on in their lives such as Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, KRS-One & Jeru the Damaja. Other artists take longer to mature. It seems to me to be better rapping about street crime then taking part in it. This is something most non-hip hop heads seem to not understand.  Hip hop is way out the streets, just like a sports contract.
Everyone has their own journey and Kanye’s has taken him into Christianity. If record sales pick up, it will turn into a bigger movement. Time will tell what happens if it “All Falls Down”,  streams sour and Adidas sales start to Fade. In such a scenario, it may be very hard for Kanye to stay on the straight and narrow, but I wish him luck. Time will tell.
I’m looking forward to see how he reacts surrounded with Angels in future fashion shows singing his new songs.
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I’ll leave you with the last verse from Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message”, possibly still the greatest hip hop song ever written. The message is as relevant today as it was back in 1982.
A child is born, with no state of mind Blind to the ways of mankind God is smiling on you, but he’s frowning too Cause only God knows, what you go through You grow in the ghetto, living second rate And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate The place, that you play and where you stay Looks like one great big alley way You’ll admire all the number book takers Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money makers Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens And you wanna grow up to be just like them Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers You say I’m cool, I’m no fool But then you wind up dropping out of high school Now you’re unemployed, all null ‘n void Walking ’round like you’re pretty boy floyd Turned stickup kid, look what you done did Got send up for a eight year bid Now your manhood is took and you’re a may tag Spend the next two years as an undercover fag Being used and abused and served like hell Till one day you was found hung dead in a cell It was plain to see that your life was lost You was cold and your body swung back and forth But now your eyes sing the sad sad song Of how you lived so fast and died so young So, don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge I’m trying not to lose my head It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under
Watch Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message
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Vietnam, Part 2
Hitting the road again, or the skies I should say (although we did one bus ride during our trip – more about that later…), we touched down in Da Nang, specifically to visit The Museum of Cham Sculpture, a museum that is not to be missed if you’re in Vietnam.
I forgot all my deities since I stopped doing yoga (such as Ganesha and Shiva, and how one guy got that elephant head, and why Shiva is wearing that snake around their neck – and smiling about it), so it’s good to do a little reading about them before you go to help you understand more about the artifacts in this museum. We took an 8am flight out of Ho Chi Minh airport, landing about an hour later, and taking a taxi right from the airport to the museum, which is only 3km away (I’ve given some tips at the end of the post about using taxis in Vietnam, that are worth noting), so it was easy to get there and spend the morning looking at the remarkable sculptures and friezes, many dating back to the 4th century.
I have the lowest museum attention span in the world, and two hours in this museum was just the right about of time to take it all in. Then I grabbed a Grab to take us to Hoi An, where we spent the next two nights. The old town of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and its traditional architecture is well-preserved, although not overly so. It still has a bit of funk, in spite of quite a few tourists (including us) roaming the streets.
Someone told me Hoi An is the most touristed town in Vietnam and it’d be hard to disagree. At night, the historic old town is jumping with people strolling by, and shops selling stuff, as well as locals offering everything from boat rides and fruit, to silk scarves (the town is known for its silk) and leather sandals. People also come to Hoi An to have suits and clothing made for them, and you’ll find several streets lined with custom tailor shops. Someone told me that if you bring a picture of what you like; a suit, a dress, or a shirt, they’ll make it for you, and have it ready in a day or two. I grew up wearing ties and jackets to school every day, so it takes a pretty compelling reason (or event) to get me into a suit, so I passed, but could have used a few more linen shirts since the ones I brought were splattered with Pho and dragon fruit stains.
Outside of the old town, we found more interesting things than in the old town, like the jumble of housewares being sold on a sidewalk, below, and spa treatments at White Rose Spa. We learned back in Ho Chi Minh City that massages and facials are very inexpensive in Vietnam, and mostly very good, so we’d indulged with our friends there, and now, here. (Note that it’s customary to tip if you had a good treatment.)
In Hoi An, we had a very good meal at Vy’s Market (the lime leaf chicken skewers were particularly good, as was the tofu skin salad), which someone online wrote was “sanitized” street food. It may have been, but we liked it all the same. Very fresh ingredients, nice servers, and tasty. Cao Lau Bale Well (45/3 Train Hung Dao) was recommended by several people (not locals) and while we found the place interesting, the Cao Lau noodles weren’t all that compelling. It was, however, charming, located off a side street in what was probably part of their home. They were also really nice, which made it…fine.
Another meal was at Nu. A sweet little place where the steamed pork buns were good, as was the chili ice cream we had for dessert. You won’t be the only English-speaking people dining there, but we liked it. There’s also a night market with an indoor eating area for street food, which I’d check out if I went back. If you want a taste of Egg Coffee, I had one at Passion Fruit coffee that even my skeptical partner liked. (I tried to compare it to sabayon, but he wasn’t having any of that.)
We stayed at the Vinh Hung Riverside hotel located on the river, not far from the old town, but far enough away so you were a decent distance from the fray. The staff was unfailingly polite and helpful and we had a nice room on the river, although I’d recommend perhaps staying in a room that’s not on the ground floor. I didn’t want to sleep with the door open so we shut everything and turned on the AC. The button on the machine was so bright that it was like a spotlight over us, in the room, which made it a bit difficult to sleep. It wasn’t really hot enough to warrant the AC, but we used it instead of keeping the door open. (Unfortunately, the unit was high on the wall and there wasn’t anything to block the light with, but I just discovered these, and am thinking of traveling with them because so many hotels have appliances and switches with really bright lights. Can people really sleep with all those lights flickering and glowing in the dark?) But we liked the hotel, which had a nice pool, and the breakfast offered a variety of Vietnamese foods and fruits. I gorged on rambutans, mangoes, and passion fruits.
We then took the 2-hour bus to Hue, which ended up taking a little more than 4 1/2 hours. The bus had funny, sort-of lie back seats, which looked appealing when I first saw them, but anyone taller than 5 feet (or who has never done yoga) might feel a bit squished after a while. (Another spoiler: You couldn’t sit upright in the seat, even if you wanted to.) While the bus had pillows, which Romain and some others grabbed for propping themselves up, the driver bellowed at anyone who took one, so they sheepishly put them back. I was okay lying halfway down for an afternoon, although some people were going all the way to Hanoi, and I’m sure they will need a few massage treatments to uncoil them once they arrive.
I hate to post the obligatory “I’m in paradise” shot, especially when so many of you (or us, which now includes me) are back in the cold. But this was a pretty beautiful spot in Hue.
It was our hotel, the Pilgrimage Village. It was located a little out-of-town, but the hotel had a shuttle and cabs were inexpensive (about $3 -4) to take you anywhere you wanted to go. So it wasn’t a problem going back and forth.
I was especially interested in going to the Dong Ba market in Hue. There was a lot to see there, and when our taxi driver dropped us off, he took Romain’s shoulder bag off his shoulder, and wrapped the handles around his neck, letting him know the keep his eyes on his things.
The market is pretty much an all-out assault of foods, spices, people, stuff, cookware, raw meat, kids, hats, seafood, fabric, jewelry, eyeglasses, bins of rice, tropical fruits, and more. Once you’re inside, you’ve pretty much go to go all-in. Even though the electricity seemed to be off in the market, we surged forward with everyone. If you stand still, within seconds, someone will slide past, through the narrow aisles with tables heaped with stuff on either side of you, and while it wasn’t at all dangerous, it’d be pretty easy to lose a billfold if you weren’t mindful of it.
Some people have said that the sellers were very aggressive here, although we didn’t find that to be too much of the case. Like other markets in Vietnam (except for the ones we went to in Ho Chi Minh City, if you stopped to look at anything, or even glance at it, the vendor will do their best to engage you and negotiate a price, even if you don’t really want it. It’s not my preferred way to shop, but that’s the way it’s done. Which was probably better for me anyway, as I didn’t have as so much to lug home. Although those colorful jars of pickled vegetables were certainly tempting!
We did track down the well-known Bun bo Hue (beef soup) stand, which is in the “street food” section of the market. (There’s a story about how to find it here.) We were a little underwhelmed, as the people next to us seemed to be. Maybe it was an off day, but if you look at the Bun bo Hue we had later that evening, two pics down, I’ll let you decide which soup looks better to you.
If you do go to the market in Hue, I would hire a guide, or take a tour of the market with someone who knows it well. It’s pretty overwhelming and there’s a lot of see, and taste, which isn’t so easy to do on your own. It’s definitely one of the great markets I’ve been to in the world, and worth exploring. But there was so much I wanted to know more about, it would have been nice to have someone navigate for us, and explain what things were, like these orange fruits (or vegetables?)
We ate well that night at Tai Phu where the Bun bo Hue (below) was more to my liking.
We also had some good Banh cuon (rice paper rolls) at Tai Phu, and Romain liked his Bun thit (vermicelli noodles with chicken) but the dish of the house seemed to be the pork skewers (nem lui), which came in a plentiful portion with green mango slices, noodles, and herbs, to roll in rice paper.
[A reader who lives in Hue was kind enough to chime in with some local spots for Bun bo Hue – thanks smallhue! – suggesting Bún Cam at 45 Le Loi and Bún Mụ Roi at 14 Nguyen Che Dieu, that she advised getting to before 8am for the best selection of “options,” as she called them. Our hotel had breakfast on a dock under a thatched roof, with unlimited Vietnamese coffees, so I wasn’t leaving there.]
If you eat at Tai Phu, be sure to arrive in the area early and walk around the streets, where an open-air market takes place. It’s pretty laid back, and like all the markets in Vietnam, you want to cry at how beautiful all the fruits and vegetables are, stacked, lined, and piled up. I think it’s called the Ben Ngu market.
The most beautiful meal we had in Vietnam was at a place whose name I forgot (I know…right?) It had a little open-air area within the restaurant, and from the outside, you’d never know such a charming place existed. When I remember the name, I’ll update the post.
However beautiful the meal was, it was a challenge to eat. Absolutely no offense to the restaurant, but the flavors were very, very strong, and hard to describe. I think, like Vegemite, natto, and blue cheese, some things don’t translate outside their culture. I can’t describe it but I felt bad leaving most of it behind. I also wasn’t feeling so great that day, so it was hard to power through a meal of distinctive flavors. But I will say, the others in the restaurant were eating everything and enjoying it, so it was definitely our tastes, and didn’t reflect on the quality (and the beauty) of the food.
We liked eating at HANH, in Hue, the night we arrived, which was recommended by a woman at our hotel. We started with tiny bowls holding steamed rice cakes with fresh shrimp and bits of crunchy pork rinds, which you pry from the bowls with a spoon and eat with fish sauce. I ordered a bottle of what was called “local rice wine” in English on the menu, and out came a 500ml (2 cup) bottle of “Men vodka.”
When I posted a picture on Instagram, one reader noted it was “just awful stuff” and another said, “terrible…unpleasant.” I asked the server if I could exchange it for shochu, which was so strong, I think I lost a few layers of enamel on my teeth trying to, and a couple of layers of my stomach lining, as I didn’t want to be impolite and leave a lot behind. I drank what I could, then chalked it up to a “lesson learned”! Perhaps the kitchen staff enjoyed the rest after their shift.
After returning to Ho Chi Minh City, we didn’t get to go back to Spice, which we really like the first night of our arrival, because it was Tet (New Year’s), which most of the city shuts down, including restaurants.
But we did eat at Quan Bui Garden (in District 2), where you can also buy beautiful contemporary Vietnamese pottery (I brought six plates back), and Restaurant 13, where we liked the beef and onions cooked in vinegar, which you wrap in rice paper rolls at the table, as well as the little crisp rice cakes, with shrimp and scallions, known as Banh Khot (above), which you wrap in leaves and eat.
At Com Nieu Sai Gon there were several families there celebrating Tet, and having a good time. We had jellied pork, crispy fish on rice (above), Caramelized clay Pot pork, and grilled prawns. (The menu had “fake dog meat” on it, which we didn’t order.) We kept hearing plates shatter, while people cheered, and weren’t sure what was happening. But the restaurant bakes rice until a crisp coating forms on the bottoms in small earthenware bowls. The rice is “presented” by smashing the bowl. It’s called Com Dap, and here’s a video of it:
I also met up with pals Marge Perry and David Bonom, who just happened to also be traveling through Vietnam at the same time, for Banh Mi sandwiches from Banh Mie Huynh Hoa, eating them at a local beer garden, whose men’s room was definitely rated R (or maybe X, depending on your sensibilities). I did take photos but worried that they would violate Instagram’s guidelines (and trust me, even after a few decades of living in San Francisco, I thought nothing would shock me), so didn’t publish them anywhere. But David and I are still recovering from it, and even Marge, who I insisted go into the men’s room for a look.
But I don’t want to leave you on that note, as Vietnam was wonderful. Some readers asked me how it was to travel through the country and I thought it was pretty great. On the whole, it was fairly easy to travel there and people were friendly and helpful. The food was very good, it’s not expensive, and the country is small enough so that you can visit several places if you’re there for ten days or so. It’s a country that’s in transition (they’ve gone through a lot), and has some challenges, but it was one of the most exciting places I’ve ever visited and next year, we’re planning to go back.
Here are some tips and suggestions for traveling in Vietnam:
1. Change money when you can. It’s not as easy to change money in Vietnam as it is elsewhere. While there are banks, locals don’t use them, instead preferring to change money elsewhere, if they can. Citibank and HSBC have ATMs which work with western credit cards; some local bank machines don’t work with U.S.-based cards. Citibank and HSBC ATMs are not everywhere, though, so use them when you find them. 
Many places take credit cards in Vietnam, but some places don’t. Taxis have credit card machines but over half the time, the driver told me they weren’t functioning. (One held up a broken wire, to show me.) So have cash available. Also be sure to call your bank before you go, to let them know you’ll be traveling in Vietnam.
2. Carry tissues or napkins. Some restaurants supply them, others have very small squares of wispy-thin paper to use, and others give you a pre-moistened towelette. The food can be saucy (and restrooms don’t always have towels or tissues) so I was glad I have little tissue packets on hand. You should also carry toilet tissue as restrooms don’t always have it.
3. Drink a lot of (bottled) water. The tap water should not be consumed and it’s easy to get dehydrated due to the heat. I was felled for a day with a mild fever, which maybe was attributed to not getting enough water. (Or perhaps something I ate.) While there are drugstores in Vietnam, they are more like counters with a pharmacist and pills are sold individually. Although we didn’t need them, some travelers find they need Immodium or a similar product, which traveling, so I recommend bringing a box along rather than trying to find a box when you’re desperate.
Similarly, you can get sunscreen in Vietnam, but it’s not as widely available as it may be at home. I recommend bringing a bottle or two, especially if you’re planning any beach time.
4. When eating out, especially at the markets or street food stalls, go to places that are crowded with locals. They won’t return to places that don’t have good hygiene. Use common sense when eating at stalls; look at how clean the surrounding area is, how the food is kept, how the food is prepared, and even the condition of the tables, chairs, and dining area. As someone who’s worked in a number of restaurant kitchens, a messy, disorganized place is not the sign of a diligent cook or owner.
At Pho places on the street, I buried the herbs in the hot soup if I thought they may have been washed with non-filtered water. If you’re unsure about the chopsticks, leave them in the boiling-hot soup a short while before using them. The Vietnamese enjoy cold drinks with ice and I drank plenty of drinks with ice, and didn’t have any issues. Most ice is purchased and made with filtered water. But if you have any doubts, skip the ice.
5. If taking a cab, always take a cab with a meter. Our friends who live there said that Vinasun and Mailinh (the green cabs) are two that have meters in them, and I always looked for one of those cabs. In our experience, it’s better to let them use the meter than agree on a fixed fare in advance. (The one time I did that, the ride was 30% more than the metered fare.) Taxis are very inexpensive and the fare from Ho Chi Minh City to or from the airport was around 150,000 VND ($7).
At places like airports, you’ll find nicely dressed guys with badges who will “guide” you from the cab line to a taxi, then tell you what the fare is. Those guys work for specific cab companies and I found it better to ignore them (in spite of their repeated, and sometimes relentless, pleadings…) and just get in a cab that has a meter. 
6. Grab is an Uber-like service that works the same way, via an app, which you can download before you go, but you’ll have to enter your credit card information while you’re in Vietnam. The service works like Uber. Note that you can order a car, or ride on the back of a scooter. (They provide a helmet for you if you choose the scooter option.) I used them a couple of times, including when we were swarmed by very aggressive cab drivers going into a museum (one even followed me around the museum), so I had a Grab driver meet me on the way out, and took his phone number down for future rides.
7. The currency conversion is a little complicated, at least to my non-mathematical brain. At the time of this writing, $1 = 23,000 Vietnamese Dong. There are no coins in Vietnam (yay!), but it’s easy to get confused. (And note that prices on menus and in shops will often be listed as just “230” when the price is 230,000.) I used AppBox Pro for currency conversions.
8. While it’s nice to learn the local language, Vietnamese is a challenge. I’m going to take some basic lessons next time I go, but Google translate was very helpful when I wanted specific information and couldn’t communicate. Some people do speak English, but most cab drivers (etc) don’t, so take a screenshot of an address or write it down (or have someone write it down for you), which helps, especially directions to the hotel. (Note that hotels that have names in English often have a different name in Vietnamese. Ask your hotel in advance to send you that information and print it out to bring with you, for the driver.) I often shared a screenshot with a cab driver of my destination on Google Maps, which they easily understood, too. Restaurants often have menus with pictures, which helps when ordering. 
9. People in Vietnam were quite friendly. I only got scolded once for taking a pic and most people were fine with it. When in doubt, ask first, but most people were surprised that I even asked, a few even posing.
10. SIM cards are super cheap – and my internet was at least four times faster than it is in Paris. (I wanted to bring it back with me!) If you have an unlocked phone, you can pick up a SIM card for a pittance and have internet access while you’re traveling. I got a SIM card at Mobifone and I think I paid the equivalent of $10 for an enormous amount of data. I went to one of their offices and the clerk was super-helpful and she took care of everything, making sure it worked on my phone before I left. Be sure to have a copy of your passport when purchasing a SIM card. (If you go to a currency conversion place, they’ll want to see it, too.)
11. If you travel within the country you’ll likely take VietJet. (The other option are long-distance buses.) Airfares are reasonable but note that they have a very, very restrictive carry-on allowance of only 7kg and if you go over, the supplement is $100. You can buy tickets that have more generous luggage allowance, but our friends who bought our tickets bought the least-expensive, which are how most Vietnamese people seem to fly (carry on only). Every flight we took that left in the afternoon or early evening was delayed for a couple of hours, so don’t schedule things too tight. We also weren’t able to check in online for any of our flights, but the process at the airport isn’t too difficult and the staff at the airports were pretty efficient. 
12. As for what to wear, I recommend dark-colored clothes as the food is a bit messy to eat, especially the soups. I ended up wearing the one dark, short sleeve linen shirt I’d brought most of the time, which was perfect, and I was miffed at myself for bringing light-colored items. It’s normal to wear sandals in Vietnam so bring a pair or two that are already broken in. Many people wear simple, non-fancy rubber sandals, which you can purchase inexpensively in Vietnam. I wasn’t anywhere where I needed to wear shoes, and once I took mine off, I didn’t put them back on until we headed to the airport for the plane home.
Depending on where you’re going, and when, you might want to pack a light sweater and a rain jacket. We only needed summer-weight clothes, but other places get chillier, depending on the latitude and season. Check the local forecast and pack accordingly. Unless you’re going to a formal event, you shouldn’t need any dressy clothes. If you plan to visit religious sites, such as temples and pagodas, men are expected to wear long pants and no tank tops; women should have something to cover bare shoulders, and you may not be admitted to certain places if wearing a short skirt or wear something with a low neckline.
13. If you want to ride a scooter, technically you are supposed to have a Vietnamese driver’s license. Some say that you can use an international driver’s license, but my friends who live there (who have Vietnamese ones) said that wasn’t the case. I rode on the back of my friend’s scooter for two weeks and it was a great way to get around. Some hotel rent bikes and scooters and I would use them, as they’re more familiar with the rules.
14. If you’re interested in cooking Vietnamese food, Andrea Nguyen’s cookbooks are great sources of recipes for Vietnamese dishes. This write-up of 25 Must-Eat Dishes in Saigon is helpful for identifying certain dishes, and where to find them in Ho Chi Minh City and these articles on best Hoi An restaurants and street food have some enticing addresses, too.
15. Lastly, to go to Vietnam, if you are traveling with an American passport, you’ll need a visa. If you search online, you’ll find a lot of websites which are fake visa processing centers. We used Vietnam Visa Center, which was recommended by Lonely Planet, and it worked well. (A friend who goes to Vietnam regularly uses this company.) We paid the extra small fee to have “fast track” service, and have someone meet us upon our arrival at the airport, and take us through. (Update: Several readers noted that Vietnam does have its own website for processing visas electronically. You can also obtain one from a Vietnamese embassy, too.)
For more on my trip to Vietnam, check out my Instagram Stories from Vietnam archived Here and Here, with videos and geo-tagged addresses.
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Source: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/vietnam-part-2-hue-da-nang-hoi-an-phu-quoc-travel/
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