im being so serious besties i am not cut out for academia

3 Ways to Stay Healthy in Your 40s

This week, FoundHealth is excited to publish a guest blog by Oneika Mays, co-founder and writer for A&O ‘Discover Inspiration’. ‘Tips for Staying Healthy in Your 50′s’ is coming soon! Stay tuned and enjoy!

“I want to feel my life while I’m in it.” - Meryl Streep

By the time that I turned 40 I was comfortable in my own skin. It wasn’t a parting of the Red Sea moment and angels didn’t sing. No huge party. The birthday itself was okay, but the sense of peace I’ve gained is constantly evolving and endlessly gratifying. I no longer obsess about what people think. I define my life by who I am and not by what I do for a living. And while I think the best years are ahead, I need to pay close attention to my health. My life journey now means incorporating changes to my mind, body and spirit.

1. Keep Your Mind Young

I can’t speak for all women (and at 40, I know not to), but I make sure to do the things that truly fulfill me. It’s important that I connect with my inner political animal and stay in touch with the world around me. Things weren’t always this way. In my 30′s I was informed but more centered around my own career. I didn’t have time for much else. While that definitely had its downsides I wouldn’t have changed anything. The life I have now is one that I love and without the path I created with my actions I might not be where I am. And while I’m not religious I have an appreciation and respect for the planet and my part in it. ‘An attitude of gratitude’ is my mind mantra.

2. Age Gracefully but Be Smart

I know that 40 is the new 30. Heck, I believe it! I’m lucky enough to have a mother who looks 20 years younger than she is, so I don’t look or ‘feel‘ 40. However, you can’t ignore some truths about getting older no matter how young you look. I keep a youthful glow by using  an anti-aging moisturizer and drinking lots of water. Eating less is also a fact of life when you get older. The metabolism slows down. If you think the shift that happens in your 30′s is big, wait until 40. It was really big for me. Diet. Diet. Diet. I’ve cut down dramatically on white sugar and white foods. I’ve also embraced working out. My yoga practice and runs sustain me physically. Oh I’m not the size 4 that I was in my twenties, but I do love how I look and feel. When I was younger I lifted quite a bit, and when I hit 40, I realized that I needed to bring weights back into my life. Weight lifting can help women stave off osteoporosis. Speaking of my aging bones, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B and Omega 3 are a part of my daily regimen. My 40 year old body mantra is ‘you are your own best investment’.

3. Keep Your Spirit Young

Yoga is more than something I do, it’s a way to live my life. By learning to move my body in different ways, I’ve also learned how to move my heart. Stress, anger and negativity does more to make me unhealthy than all the fat in the world. When I stay connected to my mat literally and metaphorically, I move through my day with a greater sense of self and responsibility to the world.

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Anime Newbie in her Twenties Ranks her First 10 Anime

With the recommendations of my sister @ging-ler​ and friends, I started watching anime just over a year ago and within that time I’ve watched a total of 10 - some clocking in at almost 200 episodes and some with only 12. I told myself a while ago that once I had finished 10 anime shows I would rank them like some Anime Newbie WatchMojo list, so, here we are. Really this is just an excuse to force more of my unwarranted opinions onto unwilling followers.

I should also preface this by saying I don’t think any of the anime I watched this year was bad, and I enjoyed a lot about every show even if I ranked some low. However, the top three anime on my list are the ones I would recommend to anyone following me even if they don’t watch anime.

10. Death Note

Despite absolutely loathing the “protagonist” since episode one, I really enjoyed the first half of Death Note! The story was intriguing with all of its wild twist and turns and I found myself immediately invested in what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, after the death of who I thought was by far the best character, the show seems to go off the rails as it introduces new characters and contrived plot devices in the second half that were frankly hard for me to care about at that point. The ending was satisfying but I forced myself to sit through a lot of painful meandering to get there.

9. Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop was the first anime I watched as suggested to me by @mcsherrybr​. The smooth and jazzy art, atmosphere, animation, action, and music were all a lot of fun, as were the lovable ragtag group of misfits that made up the main cast. I enjoyed myself a lot while watching this western/sci-fi melding pot of a show, and I only ranked it so low because the last few episodes were a huge disappointment to my found-family-trope-loving heart.

8. Violet Evergarden

Violet Evergarden, following the story of a child soldier learning to love, is absolutely beautiful to look at and listen to. The music in this anime is, for me, THE best music from any show on this list. This is also the only anime that made me sob several times while watching it. The collection of short episodic stories that explore the deep facets of human love and connection are incredibly resonant and will stay with me for a long time. However, the strength of the small story arcs made the rushed overarching war story and finale weaker in comparison. Similarly, the memorable characters introduced in the one-off side plots were more interesting to me than the cast of rather bland reoccurring supporting characters. While I will remember a lot of great individual moments, I can’t seem to remember a single character’s name besides Violet’s, but that might also be due to being one of the shorter entries at only 12 episodes.

7. Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Going from one of the shortest anime on this list to the longest, Hunter x Hunter was an great and engrossing story during the entirety of its 160+ episodes. It’s colorful and playful, but can also be very dark and at times even heart-wrenching. Because it contains so many distinct arcs, there is a wide variety characters and stories to get attached to, and some, like the Chimera Ant Arc, I even cried over. But this also left me with issues regarding the pacing. The show has great action and introspective moments but will often drag with long drawn-out pauses between fights to explain simple concepts (though I understand that’s a common trope in old shonen anime in general). The world-building is rich but also caught me off guard with some strange ideas, and admittedly not all of them I liked. Some eccentric characters and concepts rubbed me the wrong way and ended up hindering my enjoyment of the show. Overall though, it was a lot of fun and I left with a few more endearing favorite characters, like Leorio and Killua.

6. Erased

Also a 12 episode anime, Erased was amazingly impactful for how short it was. Even as I followed the unfolding murder mystery, I was also touched by the meaningful themes and kind-hearted characters I met along the way. The already-strong story is accentuated with great symbolism, art, and music. The only problem I had was with the mystery itself; I was able to tell who the true killer was within the first 4 episodes, which didn’t lend itself well to suspense and I spent the remaining episodes frustrated that the main characters couldn’t see some obvious clues.This is a minor problem, though, since the finale has less to do with mystery and more about the morals and resolution of themes that I felt was satisfying.

5. Demon Slayer

Demon Slayer is gorgeous. The stunning art style, fluid animation, and breath-taking music are all valid reasons to watch it, but the main character Tanjiro and his unwavering devotion to find a cure for his sister-turned-demon Nezuko are the reasons to stay. Tanjiro is unbelievably gentle as he shows even the evil demons he has to slay a hard-fought kindness, and it’s those tender moments between all of the amazing action sequences that really elevate this show for me. The issues I have lie with the rest of the cast. While I love some supporting characters, like the pig-headed Inosuke and the stoic Giyuu, others have very niche personalities that can get annoying if they’re on screen for too long, which they definitely tend to be. Still, the bond between Tanjiro and Nezuko is so strong that it gets me through even those dragging scenes.

And it’s written by a woman!

4. My Hero Academia

Hey so this might come as a shock for anyone who’s followed me for a while: My Hero Academia is not my favorite anime! I do love it a lot - it’s the only anime on this list that has inspired me to read the manga, write fic, and buy merch. There are so many lovable characters and exciting arcs in this show that there is bound to be something for everyone to enjoy, both inside and outside of canon. It’s a wonderfully paced and animated deconstruction of the superhero genre and besides its deeper themes and commentary, there’s also just a lot of endearing teenage goofin’ to be had, and the show balances the tone of these two almost-equally engaging aspects of the story fairly well.

The downside, for me, is the show’s sexualization of female characters, especially the teenagers. With the likes of pervy fellow classmate Mineta, it’s a flaw that’s hard to avoid and takes up an unfortunate amount of screen time. There are in-universe characters that protest against this behavior, and the female characters are still well-written for the most part, but that doesn’t make up for the canon material including it at all. It’s not a huge part of the show but it’s present enough that it really knocks the ranking down for me.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Out of my top 5, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the only one that is complete. Because of that, I can tentatively say that so far, it is the best completed story on this list. From beginning to end, the pacing was perfect - the action never dragged, the characters were never unnecessary, and the plot twists were never unearned. I found myself more invested than I thought I would ever be for the large cast of characters, and everything, including its ending, was satisfying to watch. The animation is fluid and lent itself well to the most impactful scenes, especially involving the flame alchemist Roy Mustang. It’s also written by a woman! Really, the only nitpicks I have were with tonal problems - serious moments would sometimes be ruined by too much slapstick or visual gags.

As I mentioned before, my Top 3 are shows I would recommend to anyone who’s unfamiliar with anime simply because they’re good solid stories with almost no distracting anime tropes. This is a good place to start.

2. The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland is deceiving; on the surface it looks like a sweet show about a bunch of adorable kids playing together in the spacious green backyard of their quaint orphanage. Once you finish the first episode, however, you will quickly discover that there is definitely something more sinister lurking under the surface. This show is an expertly executed dark horror/thriller that always had me on the edge of my seat. The cute aesthetic never distracts from the suspense, in fact, it adds to the discomfort when the horrific visuals and expressions are contrasted against the character designs. I loved all of the characters, including the antagonist, who manages to be just as sympathetic as she is menacing. The sound design and music are also beautiful and adds so much to the rich atmosphere. I am definitely excited to see where this series will go!

1. Mob Psycho 100

ONE, the creator of Mob Psycho 100, said the single word he used for the concept for the series was “kindness”. Kindness shines through so much of this story following the life of Mob, a super-psychic kid that just wants to fit in, and I adore every second of it. While many shonen anime stories force the child protagonist to get stronger, become more powerful, and fight in battles against hostile adults, Mob Psycho 100 says “that’s stupid. Kids shouldn’t have to be traumatized by immature power-hungry adults. The only strength that anyone should pursue is strength of character, motivated by self-love and love for others.” And it says it with the most beautiful animation I have EVER seen in a show. The simplistic character designs mean the animators can have as much creative freedom as they like with expressions and movement, and they absolutely use that freedom. Humor is a large part of this mostly-comedy anime, but it makes the serious and introspective scenes so much more important when they do happen. The shifts between these two tones never feel awkward or imbalanced.

Mob Psycho 100 has inspired me to become more experimental and joy-seeking with my art, as well as just become a better person in my own life, which I can’t say for many other anime or many other pieces of media period. Even though a Season 3 hasn’t been officially announced yet, I can still safely say Mob Psycho 100 will forever hold a special place in my heart.

The Guardian

Hello everyone!! I just edited this again and decided to re upload because I wasn't happy with it originally and I wanted to write something id love, now I can say I am super happy with the outcome!! This will be a slow burn, eventually nsfw! Currently working on the next part! Id love and appreciate some feedback! Please feel free to DM me! Thank you so much for reading!!!  ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ 

A little over eighty years ago Earth scientists sent out a signal into space in an attempt to make contact with other beings. In a surprising turn of events an alien alliance ship happened to be passing by, how had they missed earth before? Well the milky way was merely a skid mark compared to the rest of space. After months of back and forth between the alliance and Earth. Many planets had decided to make contact with earth with wonderful intentions and were more than willing to share their technological developments. In exchange most species requested to study human life and their history. After many trials and errors the Earth officially joined the planetary alliance. Together they worked out many systems and programs to mix species and learn from each other, Thus our current story begins!

Planet Yalnak was an unearthly forest filled planet with cool days and a deep purple sky. The program they had implemented was different from others in the Alliance. Humans could only sign up to live on Yalnak to be of service to the home species, the Nuks or to study a trade. Yalnak was one of the more stubborn planets who were hesitant, after learning of Earth’s hatred they were the last from the alliance to make contact. It wasn't until learning and witnessing of Human’s surprising endurance and loyalty that they joined and formed an earth acceptance program.

On Earth, Azura flipped through all the different planetary Alliance program brochures.She had been working as a hospitality and business specialist. Working towards her degree and getting to her dream job in less than three years time. After chasing her career goals she thought she would be happier. Another busy day of working had her coming home drained for what felt like the millionth time. She sure could use a change she thought. Sighing deeply she placed the brochures on the coffee table in front of her. ‘’Pfft’’ She blew a piece of coily raven hair out of her face, Maybe a hot bubble bath would ease her stress instead. Azura drew herself a relaxing milk bath, filling it with different oils; after setting out lots of candles she slipped into the hot soapy water. She sank into the tub closing her eyes, these were the only times she felt that she could truly relax. Her big bundle of raven curls spilled out of her clawfoot tub. Rubbing her rich mahogany body with her creamy bath butter, she whimpered. Her lathered up pink loofah traveled all over her , leaving a trail of bubbles all over her curvy body. It had been a long time since she’d had any sort of real pleasure. Not that she felt she wasn’t attractive, at twenty - four she was a small chocolate woman with a lean body and a bosomy frame ,or so she had thought. It had been a long while since she had been with anyone, let alone on an actual date. She sunk deeper into the warm bubbles as she roamed her body with the loofah, slowly caressing with the soft fabric. With closed fluttering eyes she imagined the type of person she fantasized to be with her. He was strong and tender as he gripped her throat tightly squeezing as he circled her clit with his strong roughened fingers. He caressed her hot button as her head fell back against his solid chest, nibbling her bottom lip as she let out a muffled moan. Azura imagined such a thing could happen to her. She’d gone through college as a studious maverick, putting her grades above all else. She was paying for it now she felt, getting nicely along in her career but feeling very lonely at times. She had been getting a degree in helping others have fun essentially, without ever really having any herself. Without even having any close family or even friends she was starting to feel more alone  than ever. “UGH” she grumbled aloud, splashing her hand against the water and huffing in frustration. Now she couldn’t even relax with herself! Of course, only she could make herself sad in the middle of a fantasy. She pouted and decided to drain the bath and cut her losses. After drying off and oiling herself up for bed, she slipped on a satin red slip with a lace peekaboo. Another night of eating dinner alone to the sound of terrible reality tv, after two episodes of bad reality she clicked it off deciding it was time for bed. On her way out of the living room she decided to toss her brochures into the recycling, none of the programs were right for her anyway she thought. Huffing she tossed them into the bin. One dark colored brochure had fallen out, she hadn’t noticed it before. It said very plainly in black letters on the outside the word “YALNAK” . Azura had heard of this planet, it had accepted the least amount of humans into their program, only posting new ads when they had specific positions open. She picked it up reading the first and only page which had ads for tradesmen to study and helper companions. Azura thought being a helper could be interesting but didn’t want to waste her time being a glorified errand girl. Every ad was submitted by individuals of the planet it seemed. There was an entry that caught her eye and was offering triple the pay! The only downside was that she had to submit qualifications and pass an assessment, she’d never been great at taking tests she thought.  The description was vague but seemed to offer interesting benefits and career opportunities. Her interest was piqued of course, so she decided to give in and opened her telepad to do the application, what's she got to lose?  After uploading her resume and completing the exam online she uploaded both to her telepad. This could be a long shot but she was ready for a new adventure, besides being a helper companion couldn’t be so bad. She decided to send an introduction to the ad placer to tell them about herself and to say how she could be right for the job and how she was ready for a change, whatever it was. Maybe it sounded desperate? No, she shook off that silly anxious thought and hit submit. After sending she smiled to herself and decided to go to bed, excited about new possibilities. A few days later Azura decided to check the ad to see the status of the position , since she hadn’t heard anything back yet. Checking her telepad she frowned, it said in bold red letters “FULFILLED”. She was disappointed but she knew it was a gamble to begin with and probably not even worth her time. Shaking off her unexpected disappointment she went on a run to clear her mind and think about her future. Her big coily space buns bounced on top of her head as she ran, her rich skin shining in the sunlight. After a few times around the block she was tired and decided to walk the rest of the way home to enjoy the cool breeze. Approaching her apartment door she noticed her mail had been delivered. She had received a large metal box and a thick black envelope place on top. Taking the huge box into her house she carefully sat it on her coffee table. “What the hell..” she whispered to herself. She sliced open the letter and it read  “ Congratulations Azura Elaine Emem from Earth, You have been chosen to be a helper companion for the honorable guardian Mirin”. She reread the letter in confusion, she was great at what she did but she wasn’t sure how she could be of any assistance to some honorable guardian! The letter continued “Please read the inclosed packets for further briefing on your new assignment”. Azura opened the box to find it contained brief information about the planet, it’s customs, and a request form for Earth foods she’d want while there, and last but not least a black square and a note. Azura picked up and inspected the intricate wax seal before carefully peeling it off and carefully unfolding the letter. In beautiful writing it stated simply ‘Dear Ms.Emem, I wanted to personally contact you because I am looking forward to working with you and want to set you up for success. Inside the black holding bonds I have included your uniform for the beginning days of training along with my crest, please wear this on your right side of your garment.’ With a short goodbye it concluded. Azura was stunned, she wanted a new life but wasn't expecting it to actually happen. She felt a new fire ignite inside of her, she was nervous for a new life but excited nonetheless. With a slurp of her melting iced coffee Azura smiled, wondering what sort of life she had signed herself up for.

Jilly gets together part one

Lily was looking forward to this week sense the start of the summer break. She had invited the Maurders over to her house to stay a week. They had gotten to be close friends the last part of the school year and she didn’t like the idea of not seeing them all summer, especially James, so she sent an owl to her parents asking them if it was alright if they came. They were excited to meet some of her friends so told her that they could come. When they arrived, her heart skipped a beat when she saw James. He was impossibly handsome. She couldn’t help but blush a little. She introduced james, peter, remous, and Sirius to her parents and showed them to the guest room. She had hoped that petunia would have been here to meet them as well but petunia set up a week long sleep over with one of her friends because “Why would I want to meet any more freaks like you?”

After they unpacked Mrs. Evans asked the boys if they wanted to go with her to pick up some groceries and snacks that they would like. James, peter, and Sirius said they would be delighted, Remus said he would rather hang back and chill with lily. Lily knew it was because of the full moon a couple of days ago.

“what do you say evans, fancy a game of chess?”

“sure, I do have to warn you though, we don’t have wizards chess so you might be a little disappointed you have to move the pieces yourself and such.”

“it is alright, I will stomp you either way.”

“probably”

They set up the chess board and started playing. They talked about how school and how it is nice they are finally friends.

“there is only one downside to it though.” Lily said with out really meaning to say it out loud but at least it wasn’t infront of all the boys.

“oh yeah? What is the down side?” replied remus with a little hesitation.

“If I tell you something promise not to tell anyone? Not a soul, not james, not sirius, not peter, no one?”

A little frightened remus responded “sure”

“I have a huge crush on James, my timing suck because he doesn’t feel the same way anymore, I mean he use to drive me nuts with the asking me out all the time. I use to loth him and thought he was a real jerk and bully. Then we got to know each other and everything but now he doesn’t even act like he is interested in me anymore.”

remus busts up laughing “lils, he is madly in love with you, I just told him to try and move on, give you space to come to terms with things and everything.”

Lily blushed “oh, well thank you for telling me and for giving such great advice to james but now what do I do?”

“just like in this game, it is your move.”

“I guess I need to think about what that move will be.” Lily said as she moved one of her chess pieces.

They talked a bit more and joked about how james would react when he was on the receiving end of a love declaration. Their chess match finished up shortly after the others got home from the store. Lily had everything planned out on how she was going to talk to him. She was a little nervous but she had practice her speech on remus. He laughed the whole time but said it sounded good and that james was going to flip out. After gathering her nerves she asked james if they could talk in private. remus immediately giggled. This giggle earned him a death glare from lily and a curious look from the rest of the boys. Mrs. Evans was to busy in the kitchen to notice. Lily lead james upstairs into the guest room that he and the other boys would be sleeping in and as soon as they crossed through the door way she threw herself at him and began passionately kissing him. He pulled her closer and returned the kiss before breaking away long enough to ask her “are you sure about this?” Her hands slid into his back pocket and grabbed his wand which she used to shut the door. “I have never been more sure about anything in my life” With that he kissed her like she was the last breath of air for his drowning lungs. They made their way to one of the beds as she removed his shirt and exposed his defined muscles from the long hours of quidditch practice. She explored the terrain of his torso with her hands and pulled him on top of her. He began kissing her neck and undoing some of the buttons on her blouse when there was knock on the door they barley heard before Mrs. Evans came in. with a start james jumped up and pulled his shirt on. He then looked at the floor and started messing with his hair as he mumbled sorry to mrs. Evans. Lily sat up and started to do up the buttons that had been undone. “I hope I am not interrupting anything dears?” “oh you know just a really good make out session.” Gruffed lily as james blushed and sighed.

“well, dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes, I hope I didn’t kill the mood”

“oh it has been adequately extinguished” said lily.

“good, see you two down for dinner in twenty minutes”

“yes mom”

“yes mrs. Evans.” As she left they looked at each other and laughed.

“next time you take my wand to shut the door be sure to lock it as well” said James.

“oh, you noticed that?”

“I notice everything you do lily, I must say I am happy with what happened just now, minus the interruption, but what made you decide to lure me up here for a make out session? I thought…”

“I don’t james, I have a huge crush on you” James face lite up like a Christmas tree. “You do? Sense when?”

“ yes, you see it started after we became friends this year, you were so nice and thoughtful. It almost scared me when you didn’t ask me out to the last Hogsmeade weekend like you always to. I thought I had missed my chance, but then I talked to remus today and he told me everything. How you still loved me and how he told you to give me space and that I would come around.”

“Remus’ advice worked then?”

“for both of us, I think.”

“what do you mean you think?”

“well I followed his advice and made a move, but it seems maybe it was the wrong move considering you havn’t as….”

“LILY EVANS WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?”

“YES!!” James rushed over and picked her up and kissed her. He twirled around a bit before putting her down and kissed her forehead “you have made me the happiest person on the planet right now.”

“wait till you have some of the dinner mom had prepared, it will lift your spirits even more.” “ yeah um…. Before I go down to dinner I think I should take a shower, you know to cool down.”

“yeah, cooling down is a good idea. Go for a walk in the wood later?”

“absolutely”

should I write more? message me if you think I should?

Talk to Me (Part One)

A/N: So I have officially given up on trying to finish this in one go. It would be a month of writer’s block most likely. So I have decided to post it in two parts. If you have ANY funny/cute ideas of ways they might try to make each other talk, DM me! Also important note: keep in mind this would be around 2013/14 before El was the ‘queen of crop tops’. 

Thanks and hope you like it :)

“Do you two know how to shut your mouths?” Harry screamed, suddenly turning every head in the room and ceasing Eleanor and Louis’ sarcastic debate of the day.

Eleanor gathered her senses. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

Harry took two steps towards her, his words slow and deliberate “I said, do you know how to shut up? Close your mouth? Not speak?”

“Are you talking about me or him?” El gestured to her defensive looking boyfriend. “Because he is the problem, not me. He’s the one who starts these things.”

Louis gaped at her, “I most certainly am not, you are the one always going on about-”

“Stop!” Harry returned to shouting. “Just stop! I bet you two couldn’t go a whole day without talking to each other. Arguing, Flirting, and everything in between. There’s never any peace around here anymore.” That wasn’t exactly true, El and Louis just hadn’t been together in a while, so they were making up for lost time with extra arguing and flirting over the past few days.

Liam chimed in from the couch after a moment of tense silence, “What does the winner get?”

“The winner of what?”, Louis asked. All of them looked confused now.

“Well Harry said a whole day without talking to each other, so clearly it’s a competition, something you two love, so whoever talks to the other first, loses. What does the winner get?”

Eleanor and Louis thought for a moment, or El did at least. “She already knows what I want,” Louis smirked.

El rolled her eyes, “Have I mentioned you are an insatiable little shit today?”

Harry laughed, and Liam covered his mouth to keep from doing so.

“I don’t know what insatiable means, but probably. Have I mentioned you’re an annoying know-it-all today?” He smiled sarcastically.

Zayn was paying attention from a bean bag on the other side of the room now, “Lou, it just means you really like sex, dude.”

“This is going to be easier than I thought”, El crossed her arms and put her hip out defiantly. “Fine, I’ll participate. But next time we go out, I get to pick something out and you have to get it for me. Within reason.”

Louis was a bit baffled by her answer. He usually bought her what she wanted anyway, which wasn’t much, but he was excited to beat her, which he was quite confident he could do without much effort.

“Alright then.” Harry smiled but looked exasperated. “From 9 AM tomorrow morning until 9 PM, you two can talk to anyone but each other. First person to talk to the other within the time frame loses. If you both make it, somehow, I will personally pay for all of us to go on a fucking cruise. That’s how confident I am that this will fail.”

“Deal.” Louis shook Harry’s hand. Eleanor eyed them looking for a downside, but eventually offered up her own handshake.

“Deal.” She agreed. She had no idea what she was in for.

Eleanor stood in the hallway of the hotel, arms wrapped around her boyfriend’s neck as she kissed him goodnight. “You better tell me you love me tonight, because tomorrow you have to go a whole day without saying it”, he jokingly informed her, hands on her waist.

“Mmm. How will I ever survive?” She grinned at him, sliding her hands down his arms and leaning back to look at him. “You’re going down, Tommo”, She announced to him confidently.

Louis took her hands and spun her while she squealed in delight, landing so her back was against him and his head rested on her shoulder, he moved his chin slightly and spoke softly into her ear, “We’ll see about that Calder, I have a habit of making you say lots of things.”

Eleanor turned her head back and raised an eyebrow at his suggestive comment. “Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.” She kissed him again quickly, “Okay, okay, I have to go.” She disentangled herself from him and he frowned.

“Go where?” Louis questioned her, fully intending to spend the whole night with her.

“To my own hotel room. And you are sleeping in yours or on the bus. I’m not dumb enough to wake up in your room. I know you Louis Tomlinson and you would turn off my alarm and wait until after nine to scare me awake to get me to talk.”, she informed him pointedly, crossing her arms.

“…I wasn’t necessarily going to scare you to get you to talk”, he defended, grinning.

Eleanor let her head fall back as she sighed, “Oh, bloody hell. You’re impossible, Boo. You aren’t going to be able to trick me with the allure of sex, especially not before the bet ‘as even started. And when I win, I’m going to ask for a way more interesting prize.” She started walking down the hall, but Louis quickly turned and blocked her.

“I’m sorry, when you win? You just know you’re going to win?”

El was actually pretty confident that she could pull this off, but she humored him anyway. “Fine. If I win. So better bring you’re A-game Tomlinson.” She stepped around him and turned back, “Goodnight Louis.”

“Wait!” He almost shouted. She raised her eyebrows in frustration, shaking her head, when he reached his arms out, wiggling his fingers until she surrendered and hugged him. “I looove you.” He told her emphatically to make her smile.

Eleanor breathed in the comfort of her boyfriend’s sweatshirt, “Love you too, Baby.” She felt him kiss her forehead and then tilted her chin up to press his lips to hers. “Ok, I actually ‘ave to sleep now.” She pulled away from him.

“Night, Love.” He winked at her as they turned in opposite directions.

Louis had decided by morning that he did not favor sleeping without Eleanor when he knew she was down the hall. It was strangely discomforting. The boys got up early and ate breakfast before heading out to the huge venue they were playing that weekend. They didn’t have a concert tonight, but since they did the following two days, they had to go do soundchecks and figure out the stage among other things. Plus, they had been promised the following morning off if they got this mess over with today.

El woke up in the same room as Sophia around nine. “Soph”, she attempted to ask her passed out friend a question. “Sophia!”

The other girl groaned and rolled over, “What?”

“Where are the guys at today?”

Sophia sat up, “The…stage place…whatever it’s called”, she replied wearily, “Why do you care, I thought you were avoiding him.”

El raised an eyebrow at her, “Avoiding him? How am I supposed to get him to break if I’m not there for him to talk to me?”

Soph laughed then, “And just how are you planning on catching Louis Tomlinson, of all people, off guard?”

“You don’t think I can win the bet?” El questioned her.

Sophia was quiet for a minute. “It’s not that you couldn’t win, per say…. but if we were gambling, I might, possibly, bet on someone else in the chances of increasing my cash flow…”

El crossed her arms from where she was sitting on the end of her bed, “So basically, what you’re saying, is that not only did everyone else place actual money on this but that you bet your own personal money on Louis winning and me losing?”

“Well it sounds rude when you put it like that!” Sophia threw her hands up, but El just laughed at the interesting circumstances.

“Okay fine, you didn’t bet on me, but as my best friend, you are bloody obligated to tell me who did, at least.”

Sophia chewed on her lip, “…Harry…and Zayn.”

“Well, those odds aren’t too bad. Maybe they’ll give me proper help.” She smirked at her friend as she grabbed her clothes for the day. She looked at the dress she had picked out and second-guessed the cutesy flower pattern, stuffing the dress back in her luggage and grabbing cutoff shorts. Unfortunately, all the shirts she had packed seemed to scream modesty, which was not a look she felt like would help her today. “Hey Soph, where’s the black and white crop top you got at Anthropologie the other day?”

Sophia raised an eyebrow at her, “The one with the flowers? Why are you looking for that?”

“No reason…. just wondering if I could borrow it.” Eleanor tried not to make a big deal of it.

“For what? It barely covers anything and it’s not exactly warm out. You’re already wearing the shortest pair of shorts you brought with ya- ohhh.” Realization hit Sophia as she grasped El’s motive for wanting to borrow her top. “Nope. No way girl. If you’re going to be sexy, you ‘ave to do it right. Hold on.” Sophia came over to the closet with her and started going through her luggage. El tended to dress more on the modest side, partly out of necessity for comfort, although she always managed to look adorable while doing it.

“How exactly do I ‘do it right’, then?” Eleanor asked, rolling her eyes.

“It means you still look like you, rather than me…Actually, you should really look more like whatever Louis loves, if your goal is to get him to talk.” She was still throwing things from El’s suitcase aside.

“He likes it when I wear his T-shirts…but I only have one of those and I wouldn’t say a t-shirt is really the look I’m going for.” El sat on the edge of the bed.

“Which shirt?”

“Just a black Adidas one.”

Sophia smiled at her devilishly. “Hand it over, Love.”

El’s eyes widened as she answered her friend, “What? Why? What are you going to do?”

“Never mind I found it in here.” Sophia grabbed the t-shirt from the bottom of El’s bag.

“Sophia!” She was starting to worry now.

“You should probably switch to skinny jeans, it’s kind of chilly out.” Soph ignored her grabbing a pair of scissors.

“Oh no.” El looked at the scissors.

“Oh yes.” Sophia grinned.

Twenty minutes later, El had on her favorite ripped skinny jeans, black ankle boots, and an Adidas T-shirt…minus the bottom half. She had piled all her hair up in a messy bun and done her makeup quickly before Sophia was grabbing her by the arm to catch their car outside to the stadium.

The boys were running through the stage setup when El and Soph arrived. They came in through the side entrance, quietly watching the boys finish what they were doing before walking onto the stage. El put a finger to her lips as she caught Harry’s eye. Liam and Louis’ back were still turned away from her and Soph. Harry winked at her. Allies were always important.

Louis set his water bottle down, “Okay what if we changed the third song to- ohmygod there is a person on me!” He shouted as he turned to find El smiling from where she had jumped on his back. “Liam! Come remove this parasite!” Liam burst out laughing as Sophia stepped in his path.

“Hi, Love.” Despite betting on Louis’ side, Soph was still helping her best friend out. “Can I borrow you for a moment?”

“I think Louis needs me first…” Liam trailed off.

“Nonsense, Tommo’s fine!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the dressing rooms.

Louis rolled his eyes, “Well that worked out well…Harry, a little help here?” He clearly had no idea that everyone had bet on them, El realized. She smiled feeling like this gave her a distinct advantage.

Harry leaned against a table and crossed his arms, “Course, Lou…. El did you need help getting down?” He asked her, and Louis’ jaw dropped at his support of El instead of him.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking, think I’ll actually get down myself.” She smiled and hopped back off her boyfriend’s back, walking to stand by Harry while Louis regained his composure, which he promptly lost all over again when he saw her outfit.

Niall appeared from backstage where he had been up until that point. “Hey El, nice shirt, matches Louis’ black one!” He genuinely complimented her, and Harry covered his mouth as he burst out laughing. He had figured out fairly quickly exactly what her t-shirt was.

Louis threw his hands up in frustration, “Zayn, remind me not to loan my things to anyone in the future”, he said to the only band member who had yet to comment.

“I don’t know…”, He looked up and down at El, “Personally I think it looks better like that.”

“Keep your eyes to yourself!” Louis told him emphatically as he huffed off the stage to his dressing room.

“Nice one, El!” Harry double high fived her as soon as Louis was gone. “How did you know I would back you up?”

“Soph spills everything. She’s actually where I got this lovely outfit despite her loyalties lying elsewhere apparently. You think someone is your best friend until they bet on your boyfriend instead of you”, She told them laughing.

Zayn wandered over, “You better not let us down, Calder”, he jokingly told her.

El inhaled, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Meanwhile, Louis banged on the door to Liam’s dressing room. He opened it reluctantly, clearly having been involved in something with Sophia. “Can I help you, mate?”

Louis opened the door the rest of the way. “You.” He looked at Sophia who smiled innocently, despite the strap of her tank top hanging off her shoulder. “You helped her and I know it, she doesn’t do stuff like that on her own! Cutting up shirts and all that.”

Sophia looked like she was contemplating something deeply, “I can neither confirm or deny that I was involved”, she stated firmly. “Not that it would matter, we’re all allowed to help whoever we want. In the end, it’s just you two who can’t talk to each other that decides who gets the money.”

Louis froze. “What money?” He asked, and Liam turned to glare at Sophia. “Oh my God. You guys bet on us! Spill it Soph, who’s on my side. I know you told El.”

Sophia looked from Lou to her boyfriend, “Fine”, She conceded. “Me, Liam and Niall bet on you. Zayn and Harry bet on El.”

“How much?” Louis asked, knowing it would affect how much they were involved.

“Nope, not telling. El doesn’t know either.” She stood up, “Speaking of, I better go find my girl.” She smirked and left the room.

Louis looked to Liam, “How do I get her to talk? She’s better at this than I thought.”

Liam pondered the question, “I’m sure if you be yourself long enough, she’ll say something.” Louis did not look amused. “Alright, fine. Have you got a story that she doesn’t necessarily want the whole world to hear but she wouldn’t kill you if it got out?”

Louis thought about it for a moment. “I think I have just the thing.”

They talked over their plan and eventually joined the rest of the group for lunch at a cafe. Lou hugged El from behind and kissed her cheek, trying everything to see if she would slip up. She was one step ahead of him on that one as she pulled his arms tighter around her bare waist and grinned. Louis frowned and let her go, sitting down on the other side of the table.

“So how’s our favorite couple?” Harry asked chuckling.

“You mean Beyoncé and Jay-Z?” El asked politely as she opened her water.

“I’m pretty sure he meant you and Louis, Eleanor”, Liam was clearly involved in things now. Shit, Eleanor thought to herself. Louis must have figured out the bets and teams.

“Louis and I? Well, I can’t speak for him, but I’m doing fine”, she skirted around the question.

Louis smirked and pretended he hadn’t heard Eleanor answer. “We’re doing great actually. You know just the other day we were at that giant hotel in Italy and you know I always stay on the tour bus, unless El is here with me, for the experience and so on. Well, you wouldn’t believe what we did.”

He saw Eleanor’s eyes widen as she realized what he was talking about. She glared at him. Two could play at this game.

Part two coming...soon?

An Introductory to Good Ol' Johnny A

Prompt: This was the first fanfic for Hamilton I ever wrote, but it was written in first person. I went back and edited it to a standard imagine format. It’s going to be a series, most likely Poly!Hamilsquad X Reader, and it’s going to be a loosely based Moulin Rouge AU. Pairing: This chapter is just Lafayette X Reader, but the series is Poly!Hamilsquad TW: written more eloquently like a book instead of an imagine or a one shot, so it’s not in depth??? A/N: here’s another series. I hope y'all enjoy it! If you want me to tag something, please let me know! I want you to feel safe when reading my work! Word Count: 1692 Your Sons of Liberty Chapter 1

Everything starts out small and insignificant. Atoms are infinite and meaningless until they combine and interact to form the most complicated structures and organisms known to man. We cannot even begin to comprehend their complexity. These glorious combinations of stardust and galactic energy are byproducts of something smaller than small. Something meaningless. The best, most beautiful things come from nothing.

I guess I could say that the meaningless act that started it all was when your parents decided to bareback it into the night, and you were mistakenly (and regrettably) conceived. This began your ever so casual, uneventful, dreadfully boring existence. Your life consisted of mistake built after consecutive mistake; atoms on top of atoms until it formed a huge, complex mistake known as yourself. However, by some act of God, you miraculously managed to make it through high school. It took a lot of tears, lies, and countless bullshitted assignments, but you made it. Considering you had major authority issues and crippling depression, your accomplishment still boggles my mind. The most surprising part of it all, however, was the fact that you somehow had managed to get yourself into college. All of your mistakes had snowballed on a slippery slope into this. So there you were, standing at the gates of this new Mt Bullshit, and you were ready to climb it. You had your grappling hook of manipulative tears, your safety harness of reliable mental illness to fall back on, and the determination of a scorned liberal. You could do this. On the downside, in the literal sense of what you had on your person was a pencil and a notepad shaped like a paw print. You were not prepared for college. This, to me, was a major accomplishment considering that you had also remembered to put pants on this morning. When you first went into the enormous lecture room of the reasonably priced, ninety-four percent acceptance rate university, you were overwhelmed. You weren’t used to classes this large. The room was already considerably full with a full roar of chatter. You also noticed how out of place you were next to the kids who were actually prepared for class. Some even had text books and laptops. Joke’s on them; you have depression! 

You scanned the room for an open chair in a quiet corner, and to your orgasmic delight, there was an empty row in the back, shadowed out by the awkward angles of the lecture hall. You quickly made your way to my safe haven and sat down. You pulled out your phone and slid your headphones in, glad that you remembered the items that actually mattered. You began to listen to your song of the week, your most recent obsession, “Cecelia and the Satellite.” You stared at your paw print notepad you had gotten on clearance and smiled to yourself. You loved cats so much. Just then, the bell rang above the background noise of the song, and you pulled your headphones out. You saw, although you had to squint to make it out, a stout, old man make his way across the room before he stood in front of his chalk board. This uni was so outdated. Glad to see they used the tuition reasonably. “Good morning, whipper snappers! I’m your history professor, Dr. Adams. Only Dr. Adams. Not John, not Doc, not Good Ol’ Johnny A. Strictly Mr. Adams!” He had a low, hoarse voice as he shouted, and you winced. That was… less than enjoyable. “For those of you that heard it’s an easy A in here, you heard wrong. I expect your best in this class. I have a few ground rules…” he paused as he looked around the room, scanning the crowd, and you slumped down in your seat, seeking refuge from his searching eyes. “One, do not sleep in my class. I do not go into your bedroom and shout lectures at you, so do not come to my class and snore. Two, show up on time or don’t show up at all. Tardiness is distracting and rude. If you don’t want to be here that bad, then just don’t come.” It was official. You did not like Dr. Adams. No, in fact, you already resented the man. “Three, this is not gossip hour. If I am speaking, you are listening. Your parents did not spend thousands of dollars so that you could show up late, snore through half the class, and gossip for the rest.” You rolled your eyes and stopped listening to him. Like I mentioned, authority issues. This guy was such a hard ass. Who pissed in his cereal this morning? And you were actually offended that he assumed you were all born with silver spoons in our mouths. Not all of you had precious daddies to pay for college. Not all of you were born rich. You were torn from your internal scowling by the slamming of a door behind you, and the room shuffled as all eyes turned. A man, about twenty-two, strode in. He was tall in stature, his curly, unruly hair pulled back into a bun, and his skin glowed. He had a shy smile on his face as he quickly walked towards you, his eyes set on the empty seats by you. Please no. Not your safe haven. “Mister…?” Dr. Adams trailed off, distaste in his voice as he stared at the man. “Ah, Lafayette. Sorry I’m late! The office-” the man began, a slight French accent to his tone. Dr. Adams rudely interrupted, dismissing any excuse the man had. “You know the phrase ‘better late than never,’ Mr. Lafayette? In this class, never is always better,” the old man’s voice was full of chaste as he glared at Lafayette. He waited for a response, and when he got none, he turned on his heel and approached his desk. Lafayette quickly scampered to the chair next to you and dumped his bag in the empty seat next to him. You cringed away, annoyed. “What a jerk!” He whispered to you, mischief twinkling in his eyes, before he leaned over and pulled a notebook from his messenger bag. You didn’t say anything; you just stared at your paw print notepad. Dr. Adams began to drone in the background, but you weren’t paying attention. You weren’t feeling it today. Your focus was elsewhere. You glanced over at the bronzed, radiant skin of your neighbor. His fingers gripped a fountain pen as he wrote notes in elegant, blue cursive across a gridded page. His tongue poked from his mouth in concentration, and every now and then, he would glance up at the professor, who was furiously scribbling away on the board in messy lines similar to chicken scrawl. Lafayette glanced up at you to catch you staring and grinned, which caused you to turn crimson and quickly turn away. You bit your lip in disdain as the clock slowly ticked on the wall, counting down the seconds, minutes, hours, that you’d be confined to this dungeon of a class. At some point in the middle of Dr. Adams shouting about Britain, the phone rang. He muttered something before he turned and answered it. He said a few words. Shortly after, he covered the receiver and barked out permission to converse quietly. Then he went back to his conversation. Mr. Lafayette looked up from his notes and gave you a small smile. “I heard that Adams was an asshole, but I never imagined he would be this bad!” You nodded in agreement, not meeting his eye. You weren’t sure why he was talking to you. After a long pause, he spoke again, “I’m Marquis de Lafayette, but mes amis call me Lafayette… it’s a pleasure to meet you, mademoiselle…?” You glanced up at him as he stared at you expectantly, his French still dancing across your mind, “Uhh…” was all you got out as you stared at him stupidly. “Y/N” Thank God. You managed to form a sentence. We’re going places. “Ahh, that’s nice. So why are you here, y/N?” His accent made your name sound so erotic, and you felt your lips twitch in a smile. “To get a degree in psychology… or writing… or music… I don’t know… how about you?” How were you doing this? How were you managing to actually carry a conversation with him? Oh yeah, I forgot, you’re you. You’re dazzling. “Ahh, the American experience? I’m actually planning on being a doctor eventually!” His face lit up at the mention of his dream, and his smile was contagious. “I can’t wait to help people! I want to be the good in the world!” You stared at him in awe as he went on, the occasional French slipping into his speech as he got more excited. The faster he talked about his dreams, the heavier his accent got until he was rambling in full French, and all you could do was watch in wonderment. Amazing. You picked up on a few phrases that brought forth your vague understanding from French III back in high school such as “mon père”, “m'aide”, “j'espère”, and the occasional “mes amis” or “mademoiselle”. Other than that, his accent was so thick, and your French was so incompetent, you had no idea, whatsoever, as to what he was talking about. Luckily, the bell finally rang, interrupting his spew of French, and he paused for breath. He gave you another grin as he brushed some curls out of his face. “Ahh, au revoir, Y/N, à tout à l'heure!” He stood up and grabbed his bag, slinging it over his shoulder, then he turned and began to leave. Before you could stop yourself, you called back, “Salut!” Which was basically the only French you remembered aside from the occasional “oui, oui, baguettes.” Lafayette paused before he looked over his shoulder at you with wide eyes. A full blown grin contorted his face before he waved and was ushered from the room by the crowd. Perhaps that small “salut” you called out was the real atom that started it all.

I think the biggest thing that I looked forward to after Book Expo and Book Con was the launch party for Sarah Dessen’s ONCE AND FOR ALL at Books of Wonder. I had been on the fence about being able to go, but things worked out and I was so excited to also see both Jenny Han (ALWAYS AND FOREVER, LARA JEAN) and Jennifer E. Smith (WINDFALL) again. I knew that it was going to packed since it had been one of Sarah’s first appearances in NYC in a while and good gosh, I was right. 

I think that the Penguin staff had gone all out for the launch since the date (6/6) was also Sarah’s birthday. So there was a huge banner where people could write messages and take photos (w/photo-taking opportunities to hashtag them #SayYestotheDess), balloons, flowers, and cake (of which ran out before I could partake L) The energy in the bookshop was really buzzing and I could certainly feel the excitement everyone felt.

Once the three authors came out, the attendees sang a chorus of HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sarah which really did seem to touch her and it was so nice to see how happy she was to be spending her birthday this way. Jenny sat in the middle of the three because it seemed that she was going to be moderating the panel, which I find so freaking awesome because she’s just so funny and always has a great repartee with whoever she talks to. She went over how Sarah’s book was about weddings, her own book had a wedding, and Jennifer’s book…had a lottery! If you were in that room, you could feel the ease at which these three authors were at while they talked – it was just so funny and easy going.

Jenny kicked off the event with what each of them would do if they won the Powerball lottery:

Jennifer: We’ve actually talked about this. Jenny thinks my ideas are impractical. I would wanna buy a little cottage in Scotland. I would want to give a lot to charity. I’d want to do random acts of kindness. And I would also just want to travel a lot. I travel a lot anyways, but I would wanna do even more and potentially in first class.

Jenny: Just for the record, it is impractical to have a cottage in Scotland when you could just go visit there and stay in a lovely hotel instead of committing yourself. What about you, Sarah?

Sarah: I would travel also. I was asked during one of these five hours’ worth of interviews where I’ve always wanted to go that I’ve never been. I’ve never been to Italy. I haven’t been to Europe since I was twelve. I was really afraid to fly for many years and so now I have a daughter and I don’t really wanna put an ocean between us and I’m just a little nervous about that. But she’s getting old enough for us to go. We’ve been watching MASTER OF NONE and now I’m just like we’ve got to GO. But I think the first trip for us is London – lottery or not. I feel like it’s user friendly for a nine-year-old moreso without the language barriers. I would definitely travel because I haven’t done that. I would just yank my kid out of school and pay for an awesome tutor because then I wouldn’t feel guilty about dragging her around the world with me.

Jenny: I have to say that these are very modest wishes.

I think one of the things I really love and admire about Jenny is that she can be so extravagant and have these beautiful and expensive things, but at the same time – she’s just so down-to-earth and relatable. If she had won the lottery, she would have wanted to start her own production company focused on stories about people of color and women (to which Sarah emphasized that Jenny would always best them). It’s an answer like this that just enforces why she became a NYT Bestseller and became so widely appreciated for both her thoughts and stories. They enforce the idea of #WeNeedDiverseBooks.

They went back to talking about Jennifer’s book and we heard a little more about what it was about. It’s pretty much about a girl who gets a lottery ticket for her best friend (who she’s obviously in love with) as a joke but he really ends up winning. If you have not read this yet or have yet to put it on your TBR pile, then do it now! It’s very much in the same essence as her bother novels and it just grounds you into realizing that things are more than romance (but romance doesn’t hurt). It was then that the news was dropped that WINDFALL as optioned for a movie which earned plenty of collective gasping and applause. I am very excited to see how it comes across film. Both Jenny and Sarah expressed their excitement for the news. Sarah, in particular, thought Jennifer had done a good job of showing what effect the lottery can have on someone and what dreams could really come from winning so much money. Jennifer talked a little more about what she had done as prepwork for WINDFALL (in terms of research). She spoke about the more research she had done, the more happy she was that she hadn’t won. When you get past the idea that there’s just so much money won, there’s also a grim side to it too. There are winners that have lost the money and gone broke and winners that were taken advantage of as well. However, she’d apparently done a questionnaire and asked multiple people what they would do if they won the lottery. She had been surprised by the responses, most of them being very big-hearted and generous. I imagine that if I won $140 million, I would definitely spend a million of it first and give half of it to my parents so they could live happily and without worry. What would you do if you won the lottery?

I think the conversation grew much more lighter when Jenny asked her second question: In a few words, describe your ideal bachelorette night.

Sarah: My wedding anniversary is actually June 10th. So my birthday is today and my wedding anniversary is 4 days later. We don’t ever celebrate our anniversary because it’s right after my birthday. But gosh, I had a really good bachelorette party for my actual wedding back in 2000. My friends from high school and some girls I’d made friends with since high school – we just went out and had a big dinner and went to a bar and danced. And we had this big joke that I had all these leis around my neck, or maybe they were bracelets. So at the bar, the deal was that I had to give these bracelets away to different boys…or men.

Jenny: Did you kiss them or no?

Sarah: No, it was a kiss on the cheek!

I couldn’t help but laugh as she talked about how there was a box of Polaroids (hidden away from her daughter ;)) of her kissing various people on the cheek that were not her husband. I do think that Sarah hit the nail on the head about the essence of bachelorette parties – that beyond the risqué plans that it’s a night about a woman and her friends having her last hurrah as an unmarried woman.

Jennifer: I’d go to the cottage in Scotland.

Jenny: That’s not a bachelorette party – that’s a writer’s weekend away in the woods…Mine would be like…Paris. We’d get a suite at the new Ritz and they would be photoshoots and cake.

Sarah: I want to be invited to this bachelorette party by the way.

And how do you follow up a question about your bachelorette party? Well, who would be your bridesmaids? I’d taken this to mean a whole, OH, WE WOULD BE YOUR BRIDESMAIDS! Like each other. Of course, Jennifer answered Jenny and Sarah automatically. Jenny was a little more extravagant with her picks, (Oprah, her sister, a few of her friends like Morgan Matson and Siobhan Vivian). I laughed when Jennifer countered this by saying she would have family and friends, but not Oprah because she probably wouldn’t be invited.

Sarah explained how she only had one bridesmaid because she had been to so many weddings that it was either pick one or have twenty people in her bridal group. But I couldn’t agree more with her fantasy picks of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. This segued into Jenny asking about Sarah’s research on wedding planning since both she and Jennifer were impressed by the amount of detail that went into that side of the story – to which she confessed that she made up a lot of it, haha (especially the acronyms). She did mention that some details were from her own wedding and the planning that went into that for her. I mean, have you seen THE WEDDING PLANNER? Or even 27 DRESSES? But it was kind of fun to listen to her talk about the downsides of her wedding (like how hot it was in the Carolinas and uninvited people that her guests invited). Of course, then there was talk of Instagram and Pinterest and the pressures of having the perfect photo wedding that was not present back when Sarah got married (to which I felt like she was grateful for, XD).

I thought one of the most interesting tidbits was when she brought up how she had gone to her first wedding since writing ONCE AND FOR ALL and how she was very aware of the wedding planning aspect. The wedding had started an hour later since there was an accident on the highway and this would not have been a good thing for Natalie (the wedding planning mom in OAFA). She emphasized that since she knew what it was like to go through a wedding that she was far more sympathetic and enthusiastic about the endeavors of a bride (like how “This is a beautiful napkin.”). She just notices everything now.

AND THEN THEY TALKED ABOUT FOOD. What food they would have at their wedding:

Jenny: What are your visions for the food?

Jennifer: I would have funfetti cake. Just kind of your…standard…

Jenny: Carving station?

Jennifer: I’m just gonna have Jenny plan my wedding.

Sarah: Jenny would be a great wedding planner.

Jenny: I would definitely wanna do Korean food meets Southern. So there would be kalbi with the barbecue. You know…corn on the cob, potato salad, and that kind of thing. And a late night nacho bar.

Can Jenny and I just be friends? I want to go to her wedding and pretend to be Oprah and partake in pink champagne and a nacho bar where I would pile on the sour cream and cheese. Mmmmm. All of the food talk is making me hungry as I write this (even after having a cupcake and a turnover).

I think there was definitely a chorus of AWEs when Jenny asked Sarah about the first song she and her husband had danced to – which was AT LAST. When I think of that song, I think of two things entirely – it’s for cheesy moments on television, or it’s definitely for romantic moments like Sarah’s wedding which seemed really low-key despite the trials and tribulations she went through. She talked about their relationship and how they had gotten together in college, broke up a few times, and by 1989 – no one thought they were going to get married because they’d been together for so long. To me, that is a very fitting song.

And of course, she delved into the drama side of weddings – the bridesmaid that has to make it about herself, the crying, when something doesn’t go right – and she told us the most adorable story of when her daughter was four and she had been a flower girl. Sarah had given the people in the procession before her M&Ms to lure her daughter so that she wouldn’t stop or veer off the aisle – which earned a lot of laughs.

I was pretty sad when the discussion was coming to an end – but Jenny definitely ended with a great question:

Jenny: If you could pick your signature cocktail, what would you call it and what would be in it? I’ll start. (which earned a lot of ooh’ing and laughter)

Jenny: Mine would be…True Love Waits. And it would have a delicious raspberry – fresh raspberry with strained, no seeds and a premium vodka and a nice champagne on top and taste really refreshing and delicious.

Sarah: How am I supposed to follow that? I’m a wine drinker. So I would probably have a really nice wine and just call it…At Last. I’m not a signature cocktail drink. I would probably outsource that. My sister does that. She would do it for me. It’s fantastic.

Jennifer: I’m not a cocktail drinker either.

Sarah: She would have a really nice beer.

After that, there were a few questions from the audience that were written on index cards prior to the event starting which I will do a quick recap and talk about the conversations I found really interesting.

1.       Because they had all written a number of books, they were asked if they ever went back and read their old books.

a.        Sarah does not – her philosophy was that once the book is printed, there was nothing that she could go back and change. There’s so much time spent writing, editing, and copyediting that it would only make her wish she could go back and improve upon things she wasn’t 100% about. She told this hilarious story about being on a plane a while ago and her seat mate had asked her what she did for a living (trying to get her to divulge more and more information). When Sarah told him/her that she was a writer, she was asked if the book she was reading was written by her. The answer was no. I am constantly surprised by the way that people go through their thought processes and how they come to ask the questions that they ask.

b.       Jennifer expressed the same sentiment, especially as an editor as another job for her. For her, she spoke about how it’s hard to read anything that’s finished without wanting to do something to it.

c.       Jenny – being the only one that’s written series, she has to go back and read. She made a great point in saying that despite having three different series, she thinks of those separate books equating to one whole story which is definitely a concept that I’ve never realized until now.

2.       How do they feel about reviewers tagging them when reviewing their books?

a.       According to Sarah, there seems to be a lot of discourse about this. She said that she doesn’t often click on the links and learned that Googling yourself is like looking for your name on the bathroom wall. She expressed that she’s a curious person and would always have that urge. Because OAFA is her thirteenth book, the idea of negativity is easier to roll of her shoulders, but she still resists.

b.       Jennifer answered that she appreciates when people take the time to review her book, but she tends to not click and if she does, it’s just to read the first few sentences. I felt like a lot of authors would agree with her – that when a review is like…90-99% positive, it’s that fractional remainder that hits the hardest to a writer. I so agree with her because reading that sort of thing can become addicting and unhealthy. She equated that kind of moment to someone walking to her front door and just saying, “You suck.” It came off as great comedic timing, but at the same time – it’s so true.

c.       Jenny believed that reviews are meant for readers and not for authors to look at. She’s looked at reviews for some of her books before but does not make it a habit because of its ability to squander her enthusiasm for the rest of the series. There was a brief moment of laughter when she talked about reviewers who don’t leave the best reviews, but then show up at said author events. I didn’t even know that sort of thing happened!

d.       Sarah’s words of wisdom (borrowed from Meg Cabot) – You’re not a $100 bill, not everyone’s gonna want you. She led with an anecdote about how people had been complaining about how similar her books are to one another and when she wrote THE MOON AND MORE, she had meant it to be different than her other books. When that came out, people were also dissatisfied and frustrated with how different it was from her other works. SPOILER ALERT for THE MOON AND MORE – The girl and guy don’t end up together and Sarah expressed a sense of female of empowerment: the girl doesn’t need to end up with a guy in the end.

3.       What book did they write was their favorite and why?

a.       Sarah – To her, it was hard to pick a favorite since each one was a representation of a different part of her life and where she was at. But she did say that ONCE AND FOR ALL was special to her. After writing SAINT ANYTHING, she hadn’t been sure that she had another book left in her since she’d been writing for 20 years and all good things come in 12, but ONCE AND FOR ALL was just that bonus book that made her happy to be where she was.

b.       Jenny – SHUG was her very first book to be published and that probably had a special place in her heart.

c.       Jennifer – the same sentiment was expressed from her as Jenny – THE STATISTICAL PROBABILTY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT (which is being made into a movie if you hadn’t heard! And it’s starring Hailee Steinfeld whom is an ultimate fav of mine).

4.       This question was to Jenny Han and Asian representation in teen lit (which I have a deep interest in ;)):

a.       She spoke about TATBILB and how it was something that she remained thoughtful about. She had the idea about a girl who wrote love letters to boys and how she wanted to cast the girl as an Asian American because she thought the idea had enough effervescence to it that people would be drawn to the idea. And she asked herself why the main girl couldn’t be Asian? Why did the story need to be relevant to the fact that the girl was Asian? This was a story about an American girl that just so happened to be Asian. She talked about the girls who came up to her and talked about how meaningful it was to them that there was an Asian character, but also girls who were not Asian that came to her and talked about how relatable Lara Jean was to them. Something that hit me really hard was Jenny’s whole goal behind TATBILB was that when someone walked into the bookstore that this Asian character was front and center on the cover. It was something that you couldn’t hide. As an Asian American girl, I found this so freaking important and even when I sit here writing thing and thinking back to that moment, I truly find myself bonding with this idea and just how thoughtful Jenny Han is. I am so happy that she and this series were so warmly and well-received because she has done so much for the diverse reading community as a whole.

After one last question, Jenny presented flowers similar to the ones on the cover of ONCE AND FOR ALL with the intention of having her throw them over her shoulder like a bride with a bouquet. I have to say that I love these sort of spontaneous (but not really spontaneous) things that transpire and it was so great to watch her do that to just round out her launch event. I will say that there is nothing to end an event than giving the birthday girl her birthday cake. When her cake was brought out to her and she made her wish, everyone was surprised to see that she had gotten frosting all over the top of her white dress. How can an event end anymore perfectly than this? Of course, Sarah seemed to brush it off and it was in such good humor that people wanted to make sure she was okay.

Once the signing line started, I was grateful that I was in the first ten so that I could leave sincem y commute is long. I had a fleeting moment with Sarah since I only had one book to sign and I loved chatting with Jennifer and Jenny because they’re both such personable and down-to-earth. I couldn’t help but mention to Jenny how much when she talks about the spot gloss on the covers of the new editions of THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY just because I’m in production and I totally understand the effect it has on a book’s aesthetic.

I left in such good spirits and it was another great event to remember for me. Were you at the same event? Let us know how your experience went!

[Fan Account] ai-da-ice at Tokyo’s Tonikaku HEY Pre-release Event/Handshake Meeting

So, previously I wrote a guide to attending in-store-lives after going to FlowBack’s for their single “Booyah!”, but a pre-release in-store or live event is a slightly different beast since you can’t just buy a physical copy at the store and receive a lottery ticket. I went into this experience of going to a pre-release event for Tonikaku HEY a little blind, not really understanding how it would work but praying I would figure it out as I went along. Still, since I’ve had a bit of bad luck attending events such as missing the priority seating ticketing (Da-iCE’s Stickyle event), getting the worst lottery number and missing the autograph session (FlowBack’s in-store), and getting on the wrong train and blowing some of my shopping money on taxi fare (Chiruran), I was actually expecting for things to go wrong, but I think it went incredibly smoothly, so I’m a little shocked!

These were the basics I knew before the event: at 9, the venue (in this case, a pretty decently sized stage near the movie theater MOVIX at a shopping village in Akishima) would begin opening preorders for Tonikaku HEY as well as the handshake tickets, which vary from order to order. Basically, if you pre-ordered one album, you could get a ticket to have a brief handshake with all the members. If you pre-ordered all three versions, you could get an extra ticket for a longer handshake with an individual member. At 10, you could start participating in the priority seating lottery (sticking your hand in a mystery box and pulling out a ticket to determine how close to the stage you will be) after you secured your pre-order receipt. At 2 PM, the mini-live would begin.

Naturally, I was wondering about the huge gap between drawing the lottery at 10 and the actual performance starting at 2, so I was thinking I would have a lot of extra free time in Akishima. I even skipped breakfast, thinking I’d grab something when I was there. Also, since most of the events I had been to in Japan thus far hadn’t been big on letting people line up too early, I decided to arrive exactly at 9 for the preorders.

This wound up being kind of a mistake, although it wasn’t one with as many consequences as I had thought. When I arrived at the venue, the line was snaking all over the place and was looooooong. I arrived at 9, but didn’t even reach the pre-order tent until closer to 12. Naturally, I severely regretted skipping breakfast. Luckily, they played Da-iCE’s “Next Phase” album to keep us entertained, but it was still a long wait. Here’s an idea of what the line was like:

(PS I FAILED ART LOL)

There were a few downsides to this other than just waiting a long time and starving, though, like I said, nothing wound up being too big of a deal in the end. One was that we were allowed to choose which member we wanted to do the individual handshake with, and they had a limited number of tickets for each member, to keep everyone from all going to the exact same person and having one member with a gazilion more visitors than another. Sota’s tickets ran out pretty early into my wait, and Taiki ran out about an hour later, and so on. Also the priority seating tickets were also a limited number, so I was pretty convinced I’d miss out on both since I was so far back in the line.

As I finally got close to the pre-order booth, I received a form to fill out to let the staff know which albums I wanted. At that point, the all-member handshake tickets were available and Toru and Yudai hadn’t sold out yet, so I opted to pre-order all three versions and go for the individual member handshake if it was still available. Toru and Yudai are about equal in popularity, so I wasn’t sure which would run out first, and I didn’t mind handshaking with either because I love them both, so I waited to see which tickets were left before writing down which handshake I wanted. The form was fairly simple Japanese, so I was able to understand most of it-- you could choose whether you wanted the albums shipped to you or if you wanted to pick them up in Akishima. The shipping cost was actually cheaper than a round ticket back to Akishima for me, so I decided to have them shipped.

When I arrived at the pre-order booth, I was relieved that both the member handshake and individual handshake tickets were still available. Phew! I wound up with Yudai’s individual ticket, which I was very excited about. Unfortunately, the priority seating tickets were all gone (the bad luck finally strikes!), but the venue was set up in such a way that even people outside of the priority area were close, and when we actually got into the mini-live, the members looked at our area to the side frequently.

By time all this was finished, it was already around 12:30, so I made a break for the vending area so I could finally get something to drink and eat. I was a bit short on money, so I wound up getting an ice cream cone from the 17 Ice machine (the company Da-iCE/AAA/TRF rep for-- Hayate was on the vending machine), which also was kind of a mistake since it was very hot and promptly melted all over my hands. But since I got the handshake tickets I wanted, nothing could bother me. (Naturally, I washed my hands right away after finishing my messy ice cream out of respect for the members haha)

Around 1ish, the priority people started being admitted, and at a little after 1:30ish, guess who appeared a bit early...Sota and Yudai!! The two did a mic test and rehearsed Tonikaku HEY and Paradive right in front of us! Of course, this was just to check their mics and make sure the speakers were positioned correctly, so it wasn’t a full vocal performance, but it was still amazing to see them a little extra! They even had a little bit of audience participation by having us sing the songs when they were adjusting their sound sets.

At promptly two, the full group came onstage to kick off with Tonikaku HEY... or at least they tried to, but there was a slight technical difficulty in the intro, and they had to stand on stage for a second waiting for the music to come back on. Then it was off to showcasing their new single. It’s definitely a song suited to live performance like all their summer releases, and calls for several instances of audience participation through chanting the “HEY!” part along with them and mimicking the choreo during the chorus. I think it’s a really fun release which blends retro and modern music and am looking forward to the full release.

After, the five members had an MC about several subjects including the recently wrapped up Chiruran performances and Golden Week, the holiday going on in Japan right now which is one of the reasons the stage was so crowded--students are out of school, and a lot of adults are also off of work. They also did a brief Q&A, which I’d normally love to translate, but i‘m not quite sure what the audience members said because of the high levels of wind during the performance. I have a feeling there was something about ideal types and something about food based on Da-iCE’s responses. Da-iCE also went through and asked what areas of Japan we all came from. Since it was Golden Week, several people had come from quite far since they had the vacation time.

With the MC finished, they moved on to their final song, their hit from last summer “Paradive”! This song is truly a fan favorite for several reasons, but mainly because there is a lot of fan participation from the towel twirling during the chorus to the “HEY!” fan chants during the “come on and feel the heat...” breakdown. The energy whenever “Paradive” is performed at an event is crazy.

Since it was a mini-live, there were only those two songs, but thanks to the hand-shake event, there was still plenty to do afterwards. The group handshake was first, and went by pretty quickly-- I would say you have about time enough to say one quick thing to the members before being pushed along. I decided just to go for “ganbarimashita”-- “You did a great job”--since it’s short and to the point.

If I’m remembering correctly, the handshake order went Taiki-Toru-Yudai-Hayate-Sota. Though it was brief, it was a legit handshake where they clasped your hand in both of their hands while make eye contact. 3/5 members said “Thank you for coming” to me in English (Taiki, Toru, and Sota), while Hayate and Yudai said “arigatou”. Toru and Sota seemed to remember me from Chiruran since they both said “Thanks for coming again” T^T. For both Toru and Sota, I responded coolly with “Oh, it’s no problem,” but YES, it was a problem, because I felt ready to die of happiness~

I was naturally freaking out, but had to run back to the other side of the venue where everyone was lining up for individual handshakes. How this worked was after the group handshakes were over, the members went backstage to change out of their Tonikaku costumes, and the staff set up queues using partitions in front of the place each member would be standing. We lined up behind the signs of whatever member we had a ticket for. If people ordered A LOT of albums, they could potentially have multiple tickets, but they were advised to line up in the longest line first, and if there was enough time, to go back to another line to handshake with a second member. However, there was a cut off point for the event so the members wouldn’t be there all day (once again, it was quite hot).

Since I always blank out when speaking to idols, this time I spent some time practicing the general idea of what I would say depending on which member I was shaking hands with. I had to wait in Yudai’s queue for about twenty minutes before reaching him, so I felt like I was ready by time I reached him. Of course my heart was fluttering like crazy, but I stepped up, and he took both of my hands, and the following conversation occurred (in Japanese):

Yudai: Hello again, do you speak any Japanese? Me: Yes, a little. I met you last year in California. Yudai: Oh, that was [he couldn’t remember the name of which city]... Me: San Jose Yudai: Yes! Waaa, you came so far Me: I'm really happy I got to meet you again Yudai-kun! Yudai: Yes, me too me too (in English) me too 😃

Unfortunately, since my Japanese is so slow, that’s all we were able to say, but just having a longer length conversation with him made me so happy. Yudai, I’ll work harder next time!

After that, I was about ready to pass out from lack of food, so I had to hurry home. But overall, this was one of my most special experiences with Da-iCE. They’ve been so kind by greeting me in English all the time, but I’m going to improve my Japanese more so I can be more confident next time!!

Voyager Review

           I started reading the Outlander series just last year, and within the first 50 pages of Outlander, I fell in love with the series, the characters, the story, but most of all, the writing. Having just finished the third installment, Voyager, I can say that Diana Gabaldon has consistently created an epic tale in each book thus far. Each subsequent book has been a delight to read, and with each book I have found myself fully immersed and captivated by the stories she weaves.

           Gabaldon has created such a clear and distinct voice in the protagonist, Claire, which has carried over flawlessly from book to book. However at the same time, each book feels unique and the story inside is told in a slightly different way. And yet the books still feel very much connected, mainly due to the strength of Claire’s voice and narration.

           Voyager started out very differently from the first two books, as much of the first half was told in third person and jumped from different character’s point of views. This then shifted to primarily Claire’s first person narration in the second half, and caused the story to feel as if it was split into two distinct books. However as Voyager opened with Claire having returned to her time in the 1900’s and separated from Jamie with no clear way back for the first time since they met in Outlander, I found the third person created a feeling of disconnect that really amplified the feeling of Claire and Jamie being trapped in their respective time periods and have no way back to each other. Only when Claire returns to Scotland and the past does the first person narrative return and the story feels much more natural to read through.

           The downside to this though, was that I found the first half much slower to get through. Gabaldon did however have to fill the reader in on what Claire and Jamie had been up to for twenty years, so it’s understandable, but I do prefer the story when Jamie and Claire are together (as I find any interaction between them either heartfelt, or absolutely amusing) and I adore Claire’s point of view. She is absolutely one of my favourite characters, as she is kind, smart, resourceful, sharp, and very strong-willed.

           Voyager reintroduced many old characters and introduced new characters, but in many cases it felt as if you were meeting everyone for the first time, because Claire was in fact seeing her friends and family in the 1700’s for the first time in twenty years. Even her relationship with Jamie felt new, as they had to rebuild their trust with each other, and come to realize that both of them had lived their own lives and changed over the years spent apart.

           Jamie had lived in hiding for many years, and spent further time in prison and then made a living for himself in Edinburgh as a printer – with some smuggling on the side. Claire went back to her time and brought up their daughter, Brianna, and went back to school to become a doctor. After they are reunited, circumstances lead them to sail to Jamaica and to new worlds. This voyage is filled with excitement and danger and the book ends fantastically and yet too soon. I am more than willing to dive headfirst into the fourth book, but will rather unfortunately take a break before continuing the series, as each book is a huge (but worthwhile) time investment.

           The series is full of such vivid and real characters that jump off the page and come alive, and has writing that is structured so precisely yet flows beautifully that you’ll be swept into the world and never want to leave.

WARNING!! BITCOIN TO $1,200 VERY SOON!! According To Ross Ulbricht | SUBSCRIBE!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

In this video, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who is currently in prison since seven years back, he thinks that the Bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one thousand dollars. And here you can see the technical analysis that he has been writing by hand from prison. And I’m going to show exactly what he thinks here and why he believes, based on the Elliott wave theory, that the bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one point two thousand dollars. And also, Credit Suisse says that the U.S. economy will shrink 33.5% the next quarter, the biggest drop in history. So I want to talk about the financial markets. What’s happening in the real estate market. I want to take a look at how this plays into the bitcoin having, which is coming up in 30 days. And I also want to take a quick look at the bitcoin price in the shorter term to take a look at where Bitcoin is going in the immediate future. And guys, a massive move is coming within the next two days. I’m going to show exactly what is going to happen. And if you think that that sounds interesting, then I think that you should definitely be. Hello, guys. Welcome to the Moon. My name is Carlin. I’m here to bring you this figure. Crazy video. Let’s start off with Bitcoin here on the daily timeframe. And as you can see, it does seem like Bitcoin is forming this classical bearish flag where a bear flag and as I’ve shown you before, if we were to make a targeted move here, we just do it like that. We pull this down like this. And basically, if we were to break this key support here, then we should be looking for a move down towards 3.3 thousand. However, very important, we need to see a big spike in the volume at the point of the breakout. If we don’t see it, then we should not expect any bigger movements to the downside. And as I’ve shown you also before, if we are able to break the 7.7 K level here, this level has previously been very significant resistance. And I think that if Biffle could break through this level, then we can start looking for more bullish targets. But so far, we’re below that resistance level. And another level that I’m, of course, watching still is this line. And this line is a very, very obviously significant as we’ve seen 1, 2, 3, 4 touches up there. And we’ve got our fifth touch right there. And we can clearly see how Bitcoin has been basically struggling to breakthrough. And we actually saw one bear flag get formed there. We got rejected and got another leg to the downside. We’re seeing it bear flag here. If we get rejected here, then as you can see here, we definitely have the bear scenario quite obviously laid in front of us. But I think we also should be aware of the fact that if we could break through this level here, I mean, that should happen very soon. If that’s even possible. But we should also keep in mind that the bullish scenario where Bitcoin breaks through this level and also breaks through, of course, the several whatever level, this would mean that Bitcoin is getting back the bulls momentum. And I think the bulls are back in control. If that happens and as you see, we are seeing a convergence of support appear resistance here. And Bitcoin is going to have to choose either to break the resistance or break the support within, let’s say, two days, within two maximum three days. We are going to see a huge, decisive move here that will be exciting and very, very tradable, of course. And if you are an experienced trader and if you’re looking to trade bitcoin, you can use these three exchanges. Personally, I prefer BYB it because of the liquidity and the outstanding customer service they have. If you use my link in the PIN comment, you will get a bonus after signing up and depositing 0.5 bitcoin. And look, guys, just a quick update. Now it’s only 30 days to the next bitcoin having this is based on the average BLOK generation time of 10 minutes. If you take into consideration that the current block time is actually below nine minutes, then you can see that having could take place a little bit sooner, maybe even in twenty-six days. But no matter how you calculate the estimated time of arrival of having it is coming up very, very soon. And this is one of the very, very key properties of Bitcoin and events that’s going to for sure, but some buying pressure on Bitcoin, especially in these times where we see the Federal Reserve and other central banks print money out of nothing, increasing the inflation and increasing the supply of dollars and other fiat causes. We are living in historic times and I think Bitcoin is definitely going to play a major role in the next few months and years. And next up, here comes a very, very bearish prediction from Ross Ulbricht. He says Bitcoin is likely to plunge to 1000 dollars if you don’t know who Ross Ulbricht is. He is the founder of Silk Road and he’s currently in prison for starting this Web site where people were free to buy and sell goods and services wherever they wanted and whatever they wanted. And now he’s in prison for that. But this is not stopping him from doing some updates about his price analysis. And he’s been in prison for seven years back. So he hasn’t really been a part of the Bitcoin community other than from small updates ever known then. But this is the most recent updates. And according to his new price analysis that relies on Elliott wave theory, the price of the leading cryptocurrency could plunge to as low as one point two thousand dollars. And this is something that many people believe actually based on this Elliott wave count. And I’m going to quickly go through why this is something that people are taking seriously. So let’s go over to Ross’s medium article here. He says that a strong signal for lower prices. And basically, if you go down to his little image here, he is showing us this Elliott wave count. And in Elliott waves, first, you want to count five waves and then an ABC correction. So this is the thing that he laid out here. One, two, three. Five waves. And then the A, B, C correction. And essentially you can see here that he says that we have not bottomed out yet. And because going even lower than the bottom that we got way back here. So basically A, B, C and. Yeah. Like he says he’s B believes that will go down to one point two thousand dollars potentially here and he is not alone. I’ve met many people that say that this is something that they believe based on Elliott waves and some people that have traded Elliott waves very basis successfully. They are very confident that this is going to take place. Personally, I think that it’s possible. But personally, I wouldn’t really take this count too seriously, because the thing about Elliott Waves is that there are always equally as many different ways to count. Elliott waves as there are different Elliott waves. Analysts are very, very hard to find the objective way to count these waves in guys. I would love to know if anyone of you or using Elliott waves, please comment down below if you are taking Elliott waves seriously if you’re using it for trading. And if you’re using it even on the longer timeframe, I will. No, no. And I would love to know your thoughts about this specific way to counter the Elliott waves on Bitcoin. And also, I would love to know if you think that Bitcoin could go down to approximately $1000, please vote in this poll. Yes or no? Can be it can go all the way down to these levels. And next up, guys, I just want to quickly say thank you so much. I got almost 3000 likes on my video yesterday. Thank you so much for liking this video. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, make sure to do so. I am trying to reach one hundred thousand subscribers before having. And like I said, the having is coming up in 30 days. Can this number go to a hundred thousand? Let’s see. Thank you very much for watching my videos, guys. And next up, let’s talk about the financial markets. Credit Suisse says that the US economy will shrink thirty-three point five percent next quarter. And listen to this. They say it’s going to be the biggest drop in history. And so it’s not the biggest drop in the past decade or decades, but in history. And this is something I’ve been talking about for the past few years, that what we’re going to see in the next few years is going to be something that we have never seen before. And now finally, we see more and more people realize that we are seeing something that simply hasn’t happened before. And here we have some news from the real estate market because so far we’ve seen real estate hold up quite well. Wild stocks have been plunging, but we’re seeing here that missed rent payments cascade across the real estate industry. So we’re seeing more and more people fail to pay rents. And also more and more people are failing to pay mortgages and pay the interest on all of this debt. And this crisis on the surface has only gone on for a few weeks. And of course, below the surface, this crisis has been going on for months, maybe even years and decades, depending on exactly how you measure it. But on the surface, we’ve seen a very dramatic crisis for a few weeks. But what happens when we see another month, two months, three months of people not being able to pay rents, pay their mortgages, pay all of the other debts that they hold? And when some guy cannot pay the other guy, that the other guy cannot pay the next guy. And then you have this domino effect. And the big risk is that we see a massive tsunami of defaults happening. I really wished that this was not going to happen, but it is inevitable. And I’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now on my channel that this financial crisis that is going to happen is inevitable. You cannot just push the can down the road by lowering interest rates, printing money out of nothing that solves nothing. It only magnifies the problem and pushes the problem further into the future. That’s the only thing that they’ve really been doing for the past decades. And look at us now. We’re sitting here with a bigger problem, even much bigger problem than back in 2008. And we can blame the bank. The banking system, because it is the banking system and in collusion with the governments that have created this problem. And just like I’ve told you before, the governments can not help you. Do not rely on pensions or any other type of cash handout. Governments, in the long run, cannot help you from this financial disaster. You have to take your responsibility for your life and your financials make go out there and use your mind to to to create opportunity, make money, save money, buy assets that are not inflatable, hide your wealth and don’t put too much money in the bank. Not more than you can afford to lose because you never know when the bank is going to completely default. We’ve seen it before. We are going to see it again. And especially now as the world economy is completely unpredictable and we’re seeing things that. As I said, has never happened before. So take your own responsibility and just realize that the only one that can help you and your family is you guys. This is it for this video. Please me thumbs up. If you enjoyed the video and if you haven’t seen my bit makes a video that I made a few weeks ago, click right there right now and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-to-1200-very-soon/ source https://cryptosharks1.tumblr.com/post/615364965075943424

WARNING!! BITCOIN TO $1,200 VERY SOON!! According To Ross Ulbricht | SUBSCRIBE!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

In this video, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who is currently in prison since seven years back, he thinks that the Bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one thousand dollars. And here you can see the technical analysis that he has been writing by hand from prison. And I’m going to show exactly what he thinks here and why he believes, based on the Elliott wave theory, that the bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one point two thousand dollars. And also, Credit Suisse says that the U.S. economy will shrink 33.5% the next quarter, the biggest drop in history. So I want to talk about the financial markets. What’s happening in the real estate market. I want to take a look at how this plays into the bitcoin having, which is coming up in 30 days. And I also want to take a quick look at the bitcoin price in the shorter term to take a look at where Bitcoin is going in the immediate future. And guys, a massive move is coming within the next two days. I’m going to show exactly what is going to happen. And if you think that that sounds interesting, then I think that you should definitely be. Hello, guys. Welcome to the Moon. My name is Carlin. I’m here to bring you this figure. Crazy video. Let’s start off with Bitcoin here on the daily timeframe. And as you can see, it does seem like Bitcoin is forming this classical bearish flag where a bear flag and as I’ve shown you before, if we were to make a targeted move here, we just do it like that. We pull this down like this. And basically, if we were to break this key support here, then we should be looking for a move down towards 3.3 thousand. However, very important, we need to see a big spike in the volume at the point of the breakout. If we don’t see it, then we should not expect any bigger movements to the downside. And as I’ve shown you also before, if we are able to break the 7.7 K level here, this level has previously been very significant resistance. And I think that if Biffle could break through this level, then we can start looking for more bullish targets. But so far, we’re below that resistance level. And another level that I’m, of course, watching still is this line. And this line is a very, very obviously significant as we’ve seen 1, 2, 3, 4 touches up there. And we’ve got our fifth touch right there. And we can clearly see how Bitcoin has been basically struggling to breakthrough. And we actually saw one bear flag get formed there. We got rejected and got another leg to the downside. We’re seeing it bear flag here. If we get rejected here, then as you can see here, we definitely have the bear scenario quite obviously laid in front of us. But I think we also should be aware of the fact that if we could break through this level here, I mean, that should happen very soon. If that’s even possible. But we should also keep in mind that the bullish scenario where Bitcoin breaks through this level and also breaks through, of course, the several whatever level, this would mean that Bitcoin is getting back the bulls momentum. And I think the bulls are back in control. If that happens and as you see, we are seeing a convergence of support appear resistance here. And Bitcoin is going to have to choose either to break the resistance or break the support within, let’s say, two days, within two maximum three days. We are going to see a huge, decisive move here that will be exciting and very, very tradable, of course. And if you are an experienced trader and if you’re looking to trade bitcoin, you can use these three exchanges. Personally, I prefer BYB it because of the liquidity and the outstanding customer service they have. If you use my link in the PIN comment, you will get a bonus after signing up and depositing 0.5 bitcoin. And look, guys, just a quick update. Now it’s only 30 days to the next bitcoin having this is based on the average BLOK generation time of 10 minutes. If you take into consideration that the current block time is actually below nine minutes, then you can see that having could take place a little bit sooner, maybe even in twenty-six days. But no matter how you calculate the estimated time of arrival of having it is coming up very, very soon. And this is one of the very, very key properties of Bitcoin and events that’s going to for sure, but some buying pressure on Bitcoin, especially in these times where we see the Federal Reserve and other central banks print money out of nothing, increasing the inflation and increasing the supply of dollars and other fiat causes. We are living in historic times and I think Bitcoin is definitely going to play a major role in the next few months and years. And next up, here comes a very, very bearish prediction from Ross Ulbricht. He says Bitcoin is likely to plunge to 1000 dollars if you don’t know who Ross Ulbricht is. He is the founder of Silk Road and he’s currently in prison for starting this Web site where people were free to buy and sell goods and services wherever they wanted and whatever they wanted. And now he’s in prison for that. But this is not stopping him from doing some updates about his price analysis. And he’s been in prison for seven years back. So he hasn’t really been a part of the Bitcoin community other than from small updates ever known then. But this is the most recent updates. And according to his new price analysis that relies on Elliott wave theory, the price of the leading cryptocurrency could plunge to as low as one point two thousand dollars. And this is something that many people believe actually based on this Elliott wave count. And I’m going to quickly go through why this is something that people are taking seriously. So let’s go over to Ross’s medium article here. He says that a strong signal for lower prices. And basically, if you go down to his little image here, he is showing us this Elliott wave count. And in Elliott waves, first, you want to count five waves and then an ABC correction. So this is the thing that he laid out here. One, two, three. Five waves. And then the A, B, C correction. And essentially you can see here that he says that we have not bottomed out yet. And because going even lower than the bottom that we got way back here. So basically A, B, C and. Yeah. Like he says he’s B believes that will go down to one point two thousand dollars potentially here and he is not alone. I’ve met many people that say that this is something that they believe based on Elliott waves and some people that have traded Elliott waves very basis successfully. They are very confident that this is going to take place. Personally, I think that it’s possible. But personally, I wouldn’t really take this count too seriously, because the thing about Elliott Waves is that there are always equally as many different ways to count. Elliott waves as there are different Elliott waves. Analysts are very, very hard to find the objective way to count these waves in guys. I would love to know if anyone of you or using Elliott waves, please comment down below if you are taking Elliott waves seriously if you’re using it for trading. And if you’re using it even on the longer timeframe, I will. No, no. And I would love to know your thoughts about this specific way to counter the Elliott waves on Bitcoin. And also, I would love to know if you think that Bitcoin could go down to approximately $1000, please vote in this poll. Yes or no? Can be it can go all the way down to these levels. And next up, guys, I just want to quickly say thank you so much. I got almost 3000 likes on my video yesterday. Thank you so much for liking this video. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, make sure to do so. I am trying to reach one hundred thousand subscribers before having. And like I said, the having is coming up in 30 days. Can this number go to a hundred thousand? Let’s see. Thank you very much for watching my videos, guys. And next up, let’s talk about the financial markets. Credit Suisse says that the US economy will shrink thirty-three point five percent next quarter. And listen to this. They say it’s going to be the biggest drop in history. And so it’s not the biggest drop in the past decade or decades, but in history. And this is something I’ve been talking about for the past few years, that what we’re going to see in the next few years is going to be something that we have never seen before. And now finally, we see more and more people realize that we are seeing something that simply hasn’t happened before. And here we have some news from the real estate market because so far we’ve seen real estate hold up quite well. Wild stocks have been plunging, but we’re seeing here that missed rent payments cascade across the real estate industry. So we’re seeing more and more people fail to pay rents. And also more and more people are failing to pay mortgages and pay the interest on all of this debt. And this crisis on the surface has only gone on for a few weeks. And of course, below the surface, this crisis has been going on for months, maybe even years and decades, depending on exactly how you measure it. But on the surface, we’ve seen a very dramatic crisis for a few weeks. But what happens when we see another month, two months, three months of people not being able to pay rents, pay their mortgages, pay all of the other debts that they hold? And when some guy cannot pay the other guy, that the other guy cannot pay the next guy. And then you have this domino effect. And the big risk is that we see a massive tsunami of defaults happening. I really wished that this was not going to happen, but it is inevitable. And I’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now on my channel that this financial crisis that is going to happen is inevitable. You cannot just push the can down the road by lowering interest rates, printing money out of nothing that solves nothing. It only magnifies the problem and pushes the problem further into the future. That’s the only thing that they’ve really been doing for the past decades. And look at us now. We’re sitting here with a bigger problem, even much bigger problem than back in 2008. And we can blame the bank. The banking system, because it is the banking system and in collusion with the governments that have created this problem. And just like I’ve told you before, the governments can not help you. Do not rely on pensions or any other type of cash handout. Governments, in the long run, cannot help you from this financial disaster. You have to take your responsibility for your life and your financials make go out there and use your mind to to to create opportunity, make money, save money, buy assets that are not inflatable, hide your wealth and don’t put too much money in the bank. Not more than you can afford to lose because you never know when the bank is going to completely default. We’ve seen it before. We are going to see it again. And especially now as the world economy is completely unpredictable and we’re seeing things that. As I said, has never happened before. So take your own responsibility and just realize that the only one that can help you and your family is you guys. This is it for this video. Please me thumbs up. If you enjoyed the video and if you haven’t seen my bit makes a video that I made a few weeks ago, click right there right now and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-to-1200-very-soon/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/04/warning-bitcoin-to-1200-very-soon.html

WARNING!! BITCOIN TO $1,200 VERY SOON!! According To Ross Ulbricht | SUBSCRIBE!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

In this video, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who is currently in prison since seven years back, he thinks that the Bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one thousand dollars. And here you can see the technical analysis that he has been writing by hand from prison. And I’m going to show exactly what he thinks here and why he believes, based on the Elliott wave theory, that the bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one point two thousand dollars. And also, Credit Suisse says that the U.S. economy will shrink 33.5% the next quarter, the biggest drop in history. So I want to talk about the financial markets. What’s happening in the real estate market. I want to take a look at how this plays into the bitcoin having, which is coming up in 30 days. And I also want to take a quick look at the bitcoin price in the shorter term to take a look at where Bitcoin is going in the immediate future. And guys, a massive move is coming within the next two days. I’m going to show exactly what is going to happen. And if you think that that sounds interesting, then I think that you should definitely be. Hello, guys. Welcome to the Moon. My name is Carlin. I’m here to bring you this figure. Crazy video. Let’s start off with Bitcoin here on the daily timeframe. And as you can see, it does seem like Bitcoin is forming this classical bearish flag where a bear flag and as I’ve shown you before, if we were to make a targeted move here, we just do it like that. We pull this down like this. And basically, if we were to break this key support here, then we should be looking for a move down towards 3.3 thousand. However, very important, we need to see a big spike in the volume at the point of the breakout. If we don’t see it, then we should not expect any bigger movements to the downside. And as I’ve shown you also before, if we are able to break the 7.7 K level here, this level has previously been very significant resistance. And I think that if Biffle could break through this level, then we can start looking for more bullish targets. But so far, we’re below that resistance level. And another level that I’m, of course, watching still is this line. And this line is a very, very obviously significant as we’ve seen 1, 2, 3, 4 touches up there. And we’ve got our fifth touch right there. And we can clearly see how Bitcoin has been basically struggling to breakthrough. And we actually saw one bear flag get formed there. We got rejected and got another leg to the downside. We’re seeing it bear flag here. If we get rejected here, then as you can see here, we definitely have the bear scenario quite obviously laid in front of us. But I think we also should be aware of the fact that if we could break through this level here, I mean, that should happen very soon. If that’s even possible. But we should also keep in mind that the bullish scenario where Bitcoin breaks through this level and also breaks through, of course, the several whatever level, this would mean that Bitcoin is getting back the bulls momentum. And I think the bulls are back in control. If that happens and as you see, we are seeing a convergence of support appear resistance here. And Bitcoin is going to have to choose either to break the resistance or break the support within, let’s say, two days, within two maximum three days. We are going to see a huge, decisive move here that will be exciting and very, very tradable, of course. And if you are an experienced trader and if you’re looking to trade bitcoin, you can use these three exchanges. Personally, I prefer BYB it because of the liquidity and the outstanding customer service they have. If you use my link in the PIN comment, you will get a bonus after signing up and depositing 0.5 bitcoin. And look, guys, just a quick update. Now it’s only 30 days to the next bitcoin having this is based on the average BLOK generation time of 10 minutes. If you take into consideration that the current block time is actually below nine minutes, then you can see that having could take place a little bit sooner, maybe even in twenty-six days. But no matter how you calculate the estimated time of arrival of having it is coming up very, very soon. And this is one of the very, very key properties of Bitcoin and events that’s going to for sure, but some buying pressure on Bitcoin, especially in these times where we see the Federal Reserve and other central banks print money out of nothing, increasing the inflation and increasing the supply of dollars and other fiat causes. We are living in historic times and I think Bitcoin is definitely going to play a major role in the next few months and years. And next up, here comes a very, very bearish prediction from Ross Ulbricht. He says Bitcoin is likely to plunge to 1000 dollars if you don’t know who Ross Ulbricht is. He is the founder of Silk Road and he’s currently in prison for starting this Web site where people were free to buy and sell goods and services wherever they wanted and whatever they wanted. And now he’s in prison for that. But this is not stopping him from doing some updates about his price analysis. And he’s been in prison for seven years back. So he hasn’t really been a part of the Bitcoin community other than from small updates ever known then. But this is the most recent updates. And according to his new price analysis that relies on Elliott wave theory, the price of the leading cryptocurrency could plunge to as low as one point two thousand dollars. And this is something that many people believe actually based on this Elliott wave count. And I’m going to quickly go through why this is something that people are taking seriously. So let’s go over to Ross’s medium article here. He says that a strong signal for lower prices. And basically, if you go down to his little image here, he is showing us this Elliott wave count. And in Elliott waves, first, you want to count five waves and then an ABC correction. So this is the thing that he laid out here. One, two, three. Five waves. And then the A, B, C correction. And essentially you can see here that he says that we have not bottomed out yet. And because going even lower than the bottom that we got way back here. So basically A, B, C and. Yeah. Like he says he’s B believes that will go down to one point two thousand dollars potentially here and he is not alone. I’ve met many people that say that this is something that they believe based on Elliott waves and some people that have traded Elliott waves very basis successfully. They are very confident that this is going to take place. Personally, I think that it’s possible. But personally, I wouldn’t really take this count too seriously, because the thing about Elliott Waves is that there are always equally as many different ways to count. Elliott waves as there are different Elliott waves. Analysts are very, very hard to find the objective way to count these waves in guys. I would love to know if anyone of you or using Elliott waves, please comment down below if you are taking Elliott waves seriously if you’re using it for trading. And if you’re using it even on the longer timeframe, I will. No, no. And I would love to know your thoughts about this specific way to counter the Elliott waves on Bitcoin. And also, I would love to know if you think that Bitcoin could go down to approximately $1000, please vote in this poll. Yes or no? Can be it can go all the way down to these levels. And next up, guys, I just want to quickly say thank you so much. I got almost 3000 likes on my video yesterday. Thank you so much for liking this video. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, make sure to do so. I am trying to reach one hundred thousand subscribers before having. And like I said, the having is coming up in 30 days. Can this number go to a hundred thousand? Let’s see. Thank you very much for watching my videos, guys. And next up, let’s talk about the financial markets. Credit Suisse says that the US economy will shrink thirty-three point five percent next quarter. And listen to this. They say it’s going to be the biggest drop in history. And so it’s not the biggest drop in the past decade or decades, but in history. And this is something I’ve been talking about for the past few years, that what we’re going to see in the next few years is going to be something that we have never seen before. And now finally, we see more and more people realize that we are seeing something that simply hasn’t happened before. And here we have some news from the real estate market because so far we’ve seen real estate hold up quite well. Wild stocks have been plunging, but we’re seeing here that missed rent payments cascade across the real estate industry. So we’re seeing more and more people fail to pay rents. And also more and more people are failing to pay mortgages and pay the interest on all of this debt. And this crisis on the surface has only gone on for a few weeks. And of course, below the surface, this crisis has been going on for months, maybe even years and decades, depending on exactly how you measure it. But on the surface, we’ve seen a very dramatic crisis for a few weeks. But what happens when we see another month, two months, three months of people not being able to pay rents, pay their mortgages, pay all of the other debts that they hold? And when some guy cannot pay the other guy, that the other guy cannot pay the next guy. And then you have this domino effect. And the big risk is that we see a massive tsunami of defaults happening. I really wished that this was not going to happen, but it is inevitable. And I’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now on my channel that this financial crisis that is going to happen is inevitable. You cannot just push the can down the road by lowering interest rates, printing money out of nothing that solves nothing. It only magnifies the problem and pushes the problem further into the future. That’s the only thing that they’ve really been doing for the past decades. And look at us now. We’re sitting here with a bigger problem, even much bigger problem than back in 2008. And we can blame the bank. The banking system, because it is the banking system and in collusion with the governments that have created this problem. And just like I’ve told you before, the governments can not help you. Do not rely on pensions or any other type of cash handout. Governments, in the long run, cannot help you from this financial disaster. You have to take your responsibility for your life and your financials make go out there and use your mind to to to create opportunity, make money, save money, buy assets that are not inflatable, hide your wealth and don’t put too much money in the bank. Not more than you can afford to lose because you never know when the bank is going to completely default. We’ve seen it before. We are going to see it again. And especially now as the world economy is completely unpredictable and we’re seeing things that. As I said, has never happened before. So take your own responsibility and just realize that the only one that can help you and your family is you guys. This is it for this video. Please me thumbs up. If you enjoyed the video and if you haven’t seen my bit makes a video that I made a few weeks ago, click right there right now and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-to-1200-very-soon/

WARNING!! BITCOIN TO $1200 VERY SOON!! According To Ross Ulbricht | SUBSCRIBE!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

In this video, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who is currently in prison since seven years back, he thinks that the Bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one thousand dollars. And here you can see the technical analysis that he has been writing by hand from prison. And I’m going to show exactly what he thinks here and why he believes, based on the Elliott wave theory, that the bitcoin price is going to go all the way down to one point two thousand dollars. And also, Credit Suisse says that the U.S. economy will shrink 33.5% the next quarter, the biggest drop in history. So I want to talk about the financial markets. What’s happening in the real estate market. I want to take a look at how this plays into the bitcoin having, which is coming up in 30 days. And I also want to take a quick look at the bitcoin price in the shorter term to take a look at where Bitcoin is going in the immediate future. And guys, a massive move is coming within the next two days. I’m going to show exactly what is going to happen. And if you think that that sounds interesting, then I think that you should definitely be. Hello, guys. Welcome to the Moon. My name is Carlin. I’m here to bring you this figure. Crazy video. Let’s start off with Bitcoin here on the daily timeframe. And as you can see, it does seem like Bitcoin is forming this classical bearish flag where a bear flag and as I’ve shown you before, if we were to make a targeted move here, we just do it like that. We pull this down like this. And basically, if we were to break this key support here, then we should be looking for a move down towards 3.3 thousand. However, very important, we need to see a big spike in the volume at the point of the breakout. If we don’t see it, then we should not expect any bigger movements to the downside. And as I’ve shown you also before, if we are able to break the 7.7 K level here, this level has previously been very significant resistance. And I think that if Biffle could break through this level, then we can start looking for more bullish targets. But so far, we’re below that resistance level. And another level that I’m, of course, watching still is this line. And this line is a very, very obviously significant as we’ve seen 1, 2, 3, 4 touches up there. And we’ve got our fifth touch right there. And we can clearly see how Bitcoin has been basically struggling to breakthrough. And we actually saw one bear flag get formed there. We got rejected and got another leg to the downside. We’re seeing it bear flag here. If we get rejected here, then as you can see here, we definitely have the bear scenario quite obviously laid in front of us. But I think we also should be aware of the fact that if we could break through this level here, I mean, that should happen very soon. If that’s even possible. But we should also keep in mind that the bullish scenario where Bitcoin breaks through this level and also breaks through, of course, the several whatever level, this would mean that Bitcoin is getting back the bulls momentum. And I think the bulls are back in control. If that happens and as you see, we are seeing a convergence of support appear resistance here. And Bitcoin is going to have to choose either to break the resistance or break the support within, let’s say, two days, within two maximum three days. We are going to see a huge, decisive move here that will be exciting and very, very tradable, of course. And if you are an experienced trader and if you’re looking to trade bitcoin, you can use these three exchanges. Personally, I prefer BYB it because of the liquidity and the outstanding customer service they have. If you use my link in the PIN comment, you will get a bonus after signing up and depositing 0.5 bitcoin. And look, guys, just a quick update. Now it’s only 30 days to the next bitcoin having this is based on the average BLOK generation time of 10 minutes. If you take into consideration that the current block time is actually below nine minutes, then you can see that having could take place a little bit sooner, maybe even in twenty-six days. But no matter how you calculate the estimated time of arrival of having it is coming up very, very soon. And this is one of the very, very key properties of Bitcoin and events that’s going to for sure, but some buying pressure on Bitcoin, especially in these times where we see the Federal Reserve and other central banks print money out of nothing, increasing the inflation and increasing the supply of dollars and other fiat causes. We are living in historic times and I think Bitcoin is definitely going to play a major role in the next few months and years. And next up, here comes a very, very bearish prediction from Ross Ulbricht. He says Bitcoin is likely to plunge to 1000 dollars if you don’t know who Ross Ulbricht is. He is the founder of Silk Road and he’s currently in prison for starting this Web site where people were free to buy and sell goods and services wherever they wanted and whatever they wanted. And now he’s in prison for that. But this is not stopping him from doing some updates about his price analysis. And he’s been in prison for seven years back. So he hasn’t really been a part of the Bitcoin community other than from small updates ever known then. But this is the most recent updates. And according to his new price analysis that relies on Elliott wave theory, the price of the leading cryptocurrency could plunge to as low as one point two thousand dollars. And this is something that many people believe actually based on this Elliott wave count. And I’m going to quickly go through why this is something that people are taking seriously. So let’s go over to Ross’s medium article here. He says that a strong signal for lower prices. And basically, if you go down to his little image here, he is showing us this Elliott wave count. And in Elliott waves, first, you want to count five waves and then an ABC correction. So this is the thing that he laid out here. One, two, three. Five waves. And then the A, B, C correction. And essentially you can see here that he says that we have not bottomed out yet. And because going even lower than the bottom that we got way back here. So basically A, B, C and. Yeah. Like he says he’s B believes that will go down to one point two thousand dollars potentially here and he is not alone. I’ve met many people that say that this is something that they believe based on Elliott waves and some people that have traded Elliott waves very basis successfully. They are very confident that this is going to take place. Personally, I think that it’s possible. But personally, I wouldn’t really take this count too seriously, because the thing about Elliott Waves is that there are always equally as many different ways to count. Elliott waves as there are different Elliott waves. Analysts are very, very hard to find the objective way to count these waves in guys. I would love to know if anyone of you or using Elliott waves, please comment down below if you are taking Elliott waves seriously if you’re using it for trading. And if you’re using it even on the longer timeframe, I will. No, no. And I would love to know your thoughts about this specific way to counter the Elliott waves on Bitcoin. And also, I would love to know if you think that Bitcoin could go down to approximately $1000, please vote in this poll. Yes or no? Can be it can go all the way down to these levels. And next up, guys, I just want to quickly say thank you so much. I got almost 3000 likes on my video yesterday. Thank you so much for liking this video. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, make sure to do so. I am trying to reach one hundred thousand subscribers before having. And like I said, the having is coming up in 30 days. Can this number go to a hundred thousand? Let’s see. Thank you very much for watching my videos, guys. And next up, let’s talk about the financial markets. Credit Suisse says that the US economy will shrink thirty-three point five percent next quarter. And listen to this. They say it’s going to be the biggest drop in history. And so it’s not the biggest drop in the past decade or decades, but in history. And this is something I’ve been talking about for the past few years, that what we’re going to see in the next few years is going to be something that we have never seen before. And now finally, we see more and more people realize that we are seeing something that simply hasn’t happened before. And here we have some news from the real estate market because so far we’ve seen real estate hold up quite well. Wild stocks have been plunging, but we’re seeing here that missed rent payments cascade across the real estate industry. So we’re seeing more and more people fail to pay rents. And also more and more people are failing to pay mortgages and pay the interest on all of this debt. And this crisis on the surface has only gone on for a few weeks. And of course, below the surface, this crisis has been going on for months, maybe even years and decades, depending on exactly how you measure it. But on the surface, we’ve seen a very dramatic crisis for a few weeks. But what happens when we see another month, two months, three months of people not being able to pay rents, pay their mortgages, pay all of the other debts that they hold? And when some guy cannot pay the other guy, that the other guy cannot pay the next guy. And then you have this domino effect. And the big risk is that we see a massive tsunami of defaults happening. I really wished that this was not going to happen, but it is inevitable. And I’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now on my channel that this financial crisis that is going to happen is inevitable. You cannot just push the can down the road by lowering interest rates, printing money out of nothing that solves nothing. It only magnifies the problem and pushes the problem further into the future. That’s the only thing that they’ve really been doing for the past decades. And look at us now. We’re sitting here with a bigger problem, even much bigger problem than back in 2008. And we can blame the bank. The banking system, because it is the banking system and in collusion with the governments that have created this problem. And just like I’ve told you before, the governments can not help you. Do not rely on pensions or any other type of cash handout. Governments, in the long run, cannot help you from this financial disaster. You have to take your responsibility for your life and your financials make go out there and use your mind to to to create opportunity, make money, save money, buy assets that are not inflatable, hide your wealth and don’t put too much money in the bank. Not more than you can afford to lose because you never know when the bank is going to completely default. We’ve seen it before. We are going to see it again. And especially now as the world economy is completely unpredictable and we’re seeing things that. As I said, has never happened before. So take your own responsibility and just realize that the only one that can help you and your family is you guys. This is it for this video. Please me thumbs up. If you enjoyed the video and if you haven’t seen my bit makes a video that I made a few weeks ago, click right there right now and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.

Via https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-to-1200-very-soon/

source https://cryptosharks.weebly.com/blog/warning-bitcoin-to-1200-very-soon-according-to-ross-ulbricht-subscribe

Hotel Review: The Arctic Treehouse

I thought I’d review this one whilst the crunch of the snow is still fresh in my head; it’s the Arctic Treehouse hotel and rather a different affair to the little London rooms I’ve been trying out recently. Actually, in terms of room size, not so very different, I suppose, but the Arctic Circle location is wildly exciting and there’s a piece de resistance in the room that really seals the deal when it comes to spectacular views.

I was toying with the idea about going to Lapland last Christmas but couldn’t quite decide whether it would be magical or dreadful; did I want to go there with two small children and queue up to see Santa in temperatures so cold that my nose hairs would freeze? Were the kids too young to appreciate it? Would we get there and find that Santa World (TM) was basically like an IKEA warehouse with elves in, a huge queue of parents drunk on mulled wine snaking their way around the cavernous, echoing space whilst children swung between wildly different moods and nerve-shattering music piped in from speakers in the ceilings?

I still can’t answer that actually, because I didn’t end up going to Lapland en famille; instead I was there on a press trip with the beauty brand Lumene. Seeing Santa wasn’t on the agenda, but we did drive past Santa Claus Village and thankfully it seemed to be more Disney than IKEA. Appropriately…red. From outside the high, inpenetrable walls I could just about see turrets inside, though they were a bit like the guard towers that prison snipers sit atop, waiting to shoot at escaped convicts, so who knows what goes on in there.

Anyway, after a couple of wonderful days in the (very powdery) Rovaniemi snow, I did decide that my own children were probably too young for Lapland and an Arctic Santa visit. For a start, getting them into the snow gear would take about a week, then they’d need a wee, the whole thing would be a nightmare. I’m imposing a ban until 2021.

I’ve gone off piste – quite literally! – because I was just going to keep this review short and sweet and give anyone, if they were thinking of booking a Lapland trip, a few pointers. I am by no means a Rovaniemi expert from my 48 hours there, but an evening pottering on Google tells me that this is one of the best (if not the best) hotel there. Purely for its simple – yet genius – design.

The Arctic Treehouse Hotel is formed of a main hub – in which there’s a reception and excellent restaurant, as well as a shop selling furry snow gear that’s straight out of Frozen – and then, across the forested grounds, pairs of stilted treehouse suites with wooden cladding and enormous windows. They rise out of the snow on their legs like sixties prefabs, except the coolest prefabs you’ve ever laid eyes on.

And it’s those huge windows that make this the hotel to stay at; basically the whole end of the long room is glass, meaning that your entire view is of snowy forest. It’s absolutely beautiful. The furnishings inside the treehouse are simple but feel luxe with their mix of textures (furry chairs, pale blonde wood, brass lampshades on the night lights) and the houses are equipped with most things you need (wine, tea and coffee, underfloor heating in the bathroom and hallway) but none of it really matters much, because all you do is stare, open-mouthed, out of the window.

It’s not even really as though you’re staring out of the window, because the view from the window engulfs you, especially if you’re lying on the bed. It’s not a view you need to search for – you’re right there, in the forest, getting freaked out because you’re imagining tall demons hiding behind the thin trees.

Now because of this view, this glorious unspoilt view, I have a massive tip for you: only book one of the treehouses that’s on the front row. I was in 50, and I think that there were around ten treehouses on my row – from 42 to 52 – but please don’t take that as gospel. Anyway, the reason I say this is that the other rows have rows of treehouses in front of them and so you don’t get quite the same view at all. I would hazard a guess that most of the hotel pictures and images online have been taken from that front row – I had a good poke around, and maybe some further up the hillside would be similar, but nothing beats being right up close and personal. Unadulterated vistas.

Look, I’m not saying that other treehouses would be rubbish – they’re all lovely, hidden away in the trees – but after my rudimentary recce of the place I would definitely be requesting one of the rooms 42-52 if I could help it.

Oh wow, I’ve just had a little look online at something called the “executive suite”; whereas the normal treehouse has a double bed, a little fridge/kettle area and then a tiny but perfectly formed shower room, the executive suite has (wait for it!) a separate lounge with a sofa bed that sleeps another three, two bathrooms and a wellness area with a bath, makeup area and sauna with a view! I mean that would be the one to go for if you were in Lapland with two small kids who could nest up on the sofa bed. Jackanory. Mind you, it’s over twice the price, so it would need to be one of those “lifetime treats”. If you were booking for tonight then the standard one would be 694€ for the night and the executive would be 1409€.

I’ve just seen that there’s another option, which has even more room but (oddly) costs less; two proper bedrooms and a lounge that sleeps another two, real fireplace, sauna and deck area with amazing views. The glasshouse cabin is yours for 1344€. That’s if you go tonight, so better get your skates on.

(I’ve gone off piste once more, because you should write what you know and I only know about the Treehouse Double Suite. Those with one accompanying child, though, could bag one of the standard suites with extra nest bed – they look to be the same price as a double.)

What else can I tell you? The restaurant is just excellent – I had the freshest, most delicious seafood I think I’ve ever had. And the water is the most pure water in the world (according to UNESCO), so you can drink it straight from the tap. And the salmon – the bloody salmon! It’s amazing! I had it in various ways (sounds rude, shouldn’t) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I lived in Lapland I would be the healthiest person alive.

Any downsides to the hotel? No onsite spa or guest sauna – it’s a twenty minute drive away. If I was being really nitpicky – which I am, ask Mr AMR – then I’d say that you’re far from being absolutely in the middle of nowhere as there’s a busyish road around half a mile away. But that’s it. I’m surprised that they don’t have a spa or sauna onsite, maybe they’ll add one. I’m not usually fussed about that kind of thing – if there’s a spa then I feel obliged to use it rather than drink wine wearing just my pants – but it’s curious.

And that’s it. No real downsides. The cocktails are marvellous, the food is exemplary, breakfast is just a whacking great feast of stuff that tastes amazing but is better for you than a week at one of those absurd health camps, but it’s the view – the VIEW, people – that steals the show.

So if you’re braving Santa’s grotto then I can highly recommend this as a place to stay – it’s a hell of a lot more expensive than most of the other options, and I imagine the price rises steeply around Christmastime – but wow. Instagram fodder if I ever did see it.

Unfortunately I hardly have any pictures of the treehouse itself, mainly because I spent most of my time at the hotel dicking about in a leotard and snow boots, trying to do a funky picture for my social media (see above – I’m smiling but so, so cold inside). What I do have, however, is a video – a room tour – so if you fancy a first-hand trot around a Treehouse Double Suite then press play below!

You can find out more about the treehouse hotel on their website here.

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Hotel Review: The Arctic Treehouse was first posted on March 30, 2019 at 8:46 am. ©2018 "A Model Recommends". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at [email protected] Hotel Review: The Arctic Treehouse published first on https://medium.com/@SkinAlley

“Sometimes the Road Calls (or It’s A Midlife Crisis)” Part 2 Of 3.

So, back to my newest bike… When I was looking a few months ago, I found a motorcycle that I just fell in love with at first sight. It was a Janus Halcyon 250. They are handmade in a small shop in Northern Indiana and they look like a throwback to the 1930s style of motorcycle. It’s a compact bike with a 250-cc engine but I didn’t care. I just wanted a new experience.

I already have a Harley Davidson but the Road King that I have is just too big for some things. Don’t get me wrong, the Road King is nice. It rides well, has a lot of power and is great for touring, or highway use, but it’s just too big to enjoy zipping around town on (at least for me). And to be honest, it has been a few years since I have ridden on it. The last time I took it out, I was living in Arizona and roads out there have a way of petering out into primitive dirt roads, even some that are supposed to be “highways.”  It’s a heavy bike and my wife was on the back and we were just enjoying the ride. We decided to take the Florence-Kelvin Highway because it looked like it would shave a few hours off of the trip we were on. However, about 18 miles into, this “highway” became a primitive dirt road that was washboard in some areas going through the mountains. By the time we made it to the dirt road, we were too far along to turn around. I’ll be honest, I haven’t had white- knuckle riding like that in a long time, if ever. The bike bounced around a lot and with my wife on the back, I was just praying I didn’t get her or myself hurt. And when we got back home, I was just reluctant to go back out again, as that experience kind of soured it for me.

A funny side note about that Harley…. I remember when I was looking to buy it.  It was in 2005 and I was overseas doing security work and living in the middle of Kabul, Afghanistan. Yes, some places in that country were downright stone age with mud huts and dirt floors but where I was staying in Kabul had electricity and even internet.  The military and government had a program where you could buy brand new vehicles with little markup, so a person could get a really good deal. The only downside was that you bought it unseen, and undriven, and it would be delivered to a dealership near your hometown. I was sitting in the communal computer area which sat just off the living room of our compound house, and there were four computers we could use sitting side by side. I was looking at the different motorcycles and I will never forget what happened next. A buddy came walking in and saw what I was looking at and exclaimed,” You are getting a motorcycle?! Those things are dangerous!” I just stared at him dumbfoundedly. The things we get used to. Here we were doing security work, aka armed taxi/protection service in a war zone, where we had to avoid roadside bombs and the occasional rocket attack and this guy remarked how dangerous a motorcycle was. The irony of the moment was not lost on me.

Fast forward to now… I felt like I needed adventure and so I decided, what the heck, I am getting this bike. I went online to the Janus Motorcycle website, picked what I wanted on my Janus Halcyon and plopped down the initial deposit to get the ball rolling. They said it would take about twelve weeks to complete so I patiently waited for the bike to arrive. It was during this time, I also decided foolheartedly that I was going to drive it back from Northern Indiana to New Orleans, where I now live, after picking it up. That would have been quite a challenge for such a small bike. The motorcycle wasn’t made for interstate 65+ miles per hour driving.  It was made for back roads, country highways, county roads, so the trip would take much longer… several hours longer.

Here again, there but for the grace of God goes I and sometimes, things happen fortuitously. Every year on Memorial Day weekend, my mother’s family has a reunion that takes place in Southern Illinois, which just happened to coincide with the time that the motorcycle’s assembly would be complete, and it would be ready for pickup. The more I thought about riding it all the way back to New Orleans, the more I was rethinking that idea. Between Southern Illinois and New Orleans, I would have been going through many areas that were remote and where I didn’t know anyone close by; on an untested bike, I thought maybe it would be unwise. Thankfully, my mother who lives in Florida, wanted to go to the reunion, so my wife decided to pick her up in our truck in Pensacola, then we would have the means to transport the bike back to New Orleans.

I flew out on a Thursday morning and met a friend, who I served with in Afghanistan, in Chicago.  To fly into Northern Indiana would have cost quite a bit more than if I just flew into Chicago. Thankfully, my buddy responded after seeing a post on Facebook asking if anyone could give me ride. Of course, another mutual friend who we served with together in Afghanistan made sure to tag him, so he would see it. I am fortunate to have the best of friends, even ones I haven’t seen in years. We all may not be close, or talk all the time, and years could pass, but we can still pick up like nothing has happened. Originally, the idea was to get dinner, hang out, maybe spend the night; I wasn’t quite sure but come the day of the trip, my buddy had to work that evening and wouldn’t be able to hang out long.  He met me at the airport with his beautiful daughter, who was maybe three or four, and even though he was going to be late to work, he decided to drive me the 2 to 3 hours anyway because he said he would. It’s so important to surround yourself with good people. We spent the whole trip talking, reminiscing about old times and old friends, life, and future plans. It was a really good time and one I look forward to doing again.

By the time we got to the Janus Motorcycle shop, it was around 3 p.m. and my buddy had to get back, so we said our goodbyes. Then the good people of Janus Motorcycles showed me around the shop, where the bikes are made.  I was also introduced to all the talented people who had a hand in building my motorcycle from the ground up, from putting it together to the artistic painting to the test drives; I met each one responsible for putting together my bike. They showed me my bike and it was beautiful, a solid British racing green color with gold lettering and brown leather seats. The clouds parted, and the sun’s rays shined down like a finger onto my bike while I heard the angels’ chorus reverberating through the sky… just kidding…but it wasn’t too far off the mark. They gave me a quick class on the bike such as “this is where the choke is,” “this is where the fuel switch is to switch to reserve,” etc. Originally, the plan was to get the bike, spend the night in town or with my friend and start off early in the morning on Friday. However, since it was late May and only 4:00 in the afternoon, there were several hours of daylight left. I was also feeling pretty excited and energized, so I decided that I would go ahead and start the trip and see how far I could get that night before finding some hole-in-the-wall along the way, to recharge for the remainder of my excursion. I loaded up the bike with my gear, which was quite a pain. I had brought saddlebags with me but they could only hold a small amount.  I filled them to the brim with my extra jackets, water, and camera bag. I had my helmet, my leather jacket (the same one that kept me safe twenty years prior) and I had an old military style duffle bag that held my laptop, extra clothes, travel items, rain gear, tools. I tried to cinch the duffle bag down with tie downs, but it was just an awkward load. It was very precarious looking indeed. Even the Janus owners stepped up and offered me an extra come-along- styled tie down, for which I was very grateful.  I finally was semi-successful in securing my gear, but due to bumps and vibrations, there were several times during the trip where I would have to stop, readjust and move on. In fact, somewhere later that day along the way, the tie down that the Janus folks gave me flew off.  I wish I had known when it had come off, because I would have returned to get it. I hated it that I lost something that was given to me, but such is life sometimes.

I left the shop in Goshen, Indiana, heading south on 5th street and hit Main Street for a couple of blocks before turning right onto Route 119. It was a beautiful day and the sun was warm without it being unbearable. The Janus folks told me of some good places to eat nearby and I had thought about it, but it being such a nice day and as excited as I was, I decided to just keep going.  I passed a golf course as I was leaving Goshen and just took in the beauty of my surroundings. I have never been to northern Indiana before and let me tell you something, it is truly a charming area. It’s picturesque with farmland as far as the eye can see and definitely Amish farm country, as I had to pass several horse-drawn buggies while driving past huge grain silos and big red barns off in the distance while I rode along the country roads. There were so many places I wanted to stop and take a photo but sadly, I felt like I had to get as many miles as I could in since I was traveling slow and stopping to take pictures every couple miles would have made the trip even longer.

The first place I stopped to gas up was the little town of Bourbon, Indiana on Route 331. It was quaint, small town, middle-America. I filled up the tank and decided to take a break. It was still less than an hour since I had started the trip, but the bike is a hardtail, meaning there are no shocks to absorb bumps in the road, and also meaning you really experience the road, both good and bad. I pulled the motorcycle over to a parking area in front of the store where I called my wife to let her know my plans, that I was going to try and see how far I could get that day before stopping. On trips and in life, it’s always a good idea to let people know what you are up to. If, God forbid, something ever happened, it would give people a good starting point to come look for you. Three teenage girls, too young to drive but old enough to venture out by themselves, came walking up to the store as I was gassing up. They were all wearing skirts that went past their knees and reminded me of a Christian upbringing where skirts were highly encouraged to wear. In fact, they almost reminded me of some of my extended family. Just wholesome (hopefully) kids and high on life.  They laughed and joked on stories and thoughts I had no knowledge of. Just an innocent time of life going up to the store to buy soda pop and walk back home.

(Bourbon, Indiana)

As I was sitting there, an older guy, maybe mid 50s, came walking up.  He looked a little rough around the edges, but he stopped as he passed by, talked and admired the bike. I told him a little about it and he liked what he heard; I told him that the motorcycles were made less than an hour away which surprised him. He had no idea such a nice motorcycle was made so close by. He didn’t stop to talk for very long before he went inside the store. That’s one thing I can say about the bike - it’s a conversational piece, which in all honesty, is part of the reason I bought it. I went into the store to use the restroom and as I was walking back to my bike to saddle up and leave, the three young girls were giggling about something and one of them said, “Well the owner is right there,” to which they all turned around and looked. The girl that initially said something looked embarrassed and said something quickly to effect of, “No I mean, I like your bike.” The other two just kind of laughed at her. I didn’t hear what she originally said; I just smiled and kind of nodded in acknowledgement and they quickly walked on. It was a moment in time that no one will remember but sheds light on life in a small town, middle-of-nowhere America. I hopped back on my bike and continued on.

I rode past little towns with names like, Old Tip Town, Tippecanoe and Talma. I couldn’t help but wonder about the origin behind some of the names I saw. The countryside, although beautiful, became a slow-motion blur. Even though I wasn’t driving fast, averaging anywhere from 45 to 55 miles an hour, the landscape started to run together. A small town, country, houses, farms, a small town and all over again. At this point of the trip, it had been a long day already.

All throughout the trip, I was listening to music via Pandora on my phone. For most of the first day, I was listening to the channel based on John Denver.  During one of the many times I had to stop to adjust my duffle bag, I changed the music to the Boston channel to play music that was a little more upbeat. As soon I started again, Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” came on and I got an instant second wind and I started to nod my head to the rhythm of the music and the drum beat, “Da-da-da-na, da-da-da-na, "Ah-aaa-aaaaaaaa-ah!". I will remember that moment for the rest of my days. Although I am sure that I was quite a sight… almost head-banging with my helmet on while riding a small bike overloaded with a duffle bag that looked suspiciously like it would topple over any moment. Thankfully, there wasn’t a ton of traffic out there with me.

Pretty soon, I came to Logansport, Indiana and veered right towards Lafayette. Once I got to Lafayette, I took a small county road and rode past subdivisions and up and down winding roads. It wasn’t long before my fuel and my bike was letting me know that it was time to fill up. It doesn’t have a fuel light; it just shuts off, which made it interesting because you couldn’t start the bike unless it was in neutral. I had to pull off the road a couple of times because at first, I didn’t realize that I was almost out of gas. I switched to the reserve gas tank and started looking for a gas station. By this time, I was outside Lafayette and there was a small town on my map up ahead a few miles. I decided to stop there.

The sun wasn’t quite set, but it was getting to the tree line. I have to admit - I was getting a little sore. I was also getting pretty tired, as I didn’t sleep well the night before the trip because I knew I had to get up early. I pulled into the gas station and my mind was kind of numb where I faced a challenge that I haven’t seen in some time. It was a gas pump without a credit card reader. I just starred at it dumbfounded, thinking “What do I do?” I walked into the station and asked the young lady behind the counter what I needed to to – “Do I need to prepay inside or go fill up and come back inside?” She said, “Well, you can pay for it afterwards.”  This is what I did my whole life growing up, but it’s funny how reliant upon technology we have become. I haven’t seen a gas pump without a card reader since… Well, I can’t even remember when. So, after I had a good laugh at myself, I filled up the tank and went back inside to pay and use the restroom.

(Arni’s and the gas station in Pine Village, Indiana)

There was a small restaurant called Arni’s that was in the same building as the gas station. Before I went inside, I called my wife to let her know where I was and then I went inside to eat. I was pretty spent and walked up to the counter. The inside was a lot homier than the outside looked with a natural wood tongue and groove paneling and various pictures and items hung up around the room.   The kid behind the counter was wearing glasses and friendly. I asked him what he suggested, and he asked how hungry I was. He ended up recommending the chicken quesadilla and we talked for a little while longer. He asked me about the trip so far. I had my duffle bag with leather jacket and helmet with me so it was plain to anyone who looked at me that I was traveling. I told him a little bit about it and then I went to find a seat. Not long after, he showed up and put the food in front of me. He then asked me if I knew what town I was in and proceeded to tell me the name, which was Pine Village. It was a small town, the kind of place that makes you wonder how people got there and why they stayed. It didn’t look like there was much was around the area. It was a pretty little town, but so far off the beaten path, it makes you wonder about the stories of all the people that live there.

I noticed a young, cute couple sitting at a table next to me. They looked to be high school sweethearts or maybe college-aged. I have no idea what they were talking about but they seemed to enjoy each other’s company. The joys of youth and excitement at that age. It wasn’t long before they finished and when they went outside, they got into a huge pickup truck and it was off to the next adventure.

There were also two older couples eating together on the other side of the restaurant. I didn’t pay them much mind, but it struck me how that young couple that just left will one day (if they stay together) will be one of those old couples over there, especially if they never leave town.

As I sat eating my food, which was outstanding by the way, and I would highly recommend it, I looked outside and watched an old timer walk up the street, stop to look at the bike and then walk into the store. By the reaction of everyone in there, I believe they knew him. In small towns like that, I am sure everyone knows one another. The old timer came over and saw my jacket, which has a Marine Corps patch, as well as several sewn-on flag patches from various countries I have served in.  He told me he was a captain in Korea and started talking about not seeing that brand of bike since he was overseas decades ago. I hadn’t the heart to tell him that he was wrong and that it was brand new bike sitting out there. I just smiled and engaged him in conversation. He told me that he also served in Vietnam and just kind of rambled on. I am not writing that in a derogatory sense but more like he felt a need to make a connection. He told me he was 78 years old. While we talked, he said some questionable things, either because I didn’t quite hear what he was saying quite right or what he said didn’t make perfect sense, but I ignored it and just kind of went with it. 1) because I was tired and 2) at that age, I think he was just happy to have someone listen to him. After a while, he thanked me for my service and I thanked him for his and continued on his way outside and back on down the street from where he came.

(A view of Pine Village, Indiana)

I finished my food and sucked down the last of the soft drink before getting up and taking my dishes back up to the counter. I expressed my thanks for the recommendation and I headed back out.  By this time, the sun was setting and it was taking on that greyish look that you see when it’s not bright, but it’s not dark either, “twilight” if you will. I stayed on the road that ran through that village until it hit Highway 41. It was a four lane highway but there wasn’t much traffic on it on Thursday night, and since I was going slower than pretty much everyone else, those I did see passed me on by.

It wasn’t long before the temperature dropped and I had to zip up my jacket to stay warm. It also wasn’t long before the bugs were out and I had forgotten what it was like to ride a motorcycle without a full-face helmet and/or a windshield. Those bugs hurt. They get attracted by the headlight and then kamikaze right into your cheek or ear… or wherever. It was pretty bad.  I had to pull over and put on my wet-weather over-jacket because it had more of a neck to it. Then I had to snuggle my face and scrunch my neck a little to bring the neck material up to my glasses, so I could protect my face as best I could. I rode on and it was a little better.

Now, another issue started to take effect that was slowly getting worse throughout the day. Since it had been a couple years since I had ridden any type of motorcycle and with it being a new bike, the clutch was stiff and my hand started to cramp up after a while. It started a couple hours into the ride and it was steadily getting worse to the point that I could hardly change gears without great discomfort. Thankfully, being on that back-road highway with little traffic, I didn’t have to shift as much and was probably the only reason I made it so far that first night.

It was getting later into the evening, close to eleven o’clock, when I hit Terre Haute, Indiana, which turned out to be a sizable town. I was really tired at this point but I was also on the verge of saying “Screw it,” and riding it all the way to my destination in southern Illinois, but that would have been a few more hours. Finally, I thought to myself, well, if I find a roach motel with ground floor doors because I didn’t want to leave my bike outside, I would stop. Maybe it was God’s way of telling me to stop because immediately after having that thought, I saw a roach motel in the guise of a Travel Lodge. I pulled up and hobbled off my bike. The staff was friendly and gave me a ground floor room where I promptly manhandled my bike through the front door. After getting the motorcycle in, I realized that I really needed to turn it around so I could get it back out of the door. The room was set up rather weirdly with the bed being in the middle of the room. The bed couldn’t be moved, so I had to roll my bike to the other side of the room and try to turn it around. I almost felt like I was playing life-sized Tetris, all while trying to stay quiet and not bump the walls because I didn’t want to raise a commotion. Finally…. finally, I got it turned around and saw that I had dead bugs all over the front of the bike. I also noticed my jacket was covered. I went into the bathroom and wet a wash cloth and started to clean the bike as well as the jacket. It was a little disgusting, but I am glad that I cleaned it right away before it had time to settle and become really crusty... gross.  At this point, I was beat. I called my wife and then went to bed.

(Playing Tetris in the motel room)