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myastrologyblog · 5 years

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Meaningful New Year’s Resolutions for the Signs

Aries: Plan for your dreams

Aries is a fiery sign who is all about doing, doing, doing, but not so much about planning. They get bursts of quick energy with genius ideas but often never act upon them. This year, Aries, use one of those strokes of genius and see it to completion. Whether this is investing in a new property, creating a business plan, writing a manuscript or planning the trip around the world that you always wanted to take, make plans to take small, incremental steps to achieve this. Whatever big project that you always dreamed of doing, but always seemed so out of reach–now is the time to believe in yourself and see this project of yours come to life.

Taurus: Try minimalism

Taurus, with Christmas and New Years having recently passed, I’m sure you have a plethora of new gifts and clothes in your over-bustling wardrobe, while your poor desk fights for space with your new impulse buys. A good resolution for you is to give up your lesser-used objects and see how much more relaxing life can be without the clutter of them. Minimalism is a lifestyle all about appreciation and value. While not only being more aesthetically pleasing, it can teach you a lot about self-control, the purpose of items and freedom from material fixation. Plus, think of how shocked your friends will be when you stroll up to your next weekend getaway with only hand luggage!

Gemini: Pick up new books

In this busy, digital age, life can become a bit repetitive. We work or study, then we come home and procrastinate on the internet. Reading is a brilliant and great gateway between the two. It’s relaxing, fun and educational. Often in life, after we grow up and leave school, we forget to continue our learning and education. And often when we are in school, we forget about the fun and magic that can be found in learning. Being such a mentally curious sign, there’s no doubt you read a lot anyway, but setting a goal to read styles of writing you haven’t previously explored will open up your mind to new ideas, perspectives and worlds thus adding a bit of well-needed stimulation in an otherwise monotonous week.

Cancer: Practise Gratitude

Cancer is a sign that truly appreciates the good things in life, it’s one of the many great qualities about them. But when things turn bad, Cancer puts on a pity-infused blindfold to the wonderful things and people they do have in their life. To combat those rainy mood days, try practising gratitude often to get you into the groove of positivity. Set a reminder on your phone, keep a gratitude journal or have someone remind you and begin to write down or say aloud three things you are grateful for that day. Gratitude is the opposite of lacking and so you cannot feel both at the same time. Gratitude can instantly turn a bad day into one of the best you’ve ever had, life is all about perspective and Cancer can benefit greatly from learning this!

Leo: Spend more time in nature

In such a busy working age, it’s hard to find the time or energy to do anything other than commute to and from one industrial building to the next. Did you know that three-quarters of children in the UK spend less time outdoors than prison inmates? I’m sure the same can be said about adults. There are so many benefits of engaging with nature. As a bold Leo with so much energy and a real passion for adventure, the perfect resolution for you is to go on more hikes and spend more time doing outdoor activities such as sports or even gardening. Studies have reported how nature is good for our happiness and healthiness. It’ll give you, the ever-venturesome Leo, a sense of adventure as you discover new things, a sense of productivity and good use of your energy.

Virgo: Be kinder to yourself

Dear Virgo, you work yourself so tirelessly sometimes only to come home to more self-criticism. While being a perfectionist has led to many great things in your life, it’s important to remember that it’s okay not to be productive 100% of the time, and it’s also okay to take time to yourself. While your sign is naturally the provider/server of others, you need to learn to use that trait on yourself and serve your own needs. Learn that they are important and that kindness begins at home. You will only learn to be less critical of the world by starting with yourself. While you may not be the pampering type, some self-love and lazy days are exactly what you need in order to ultimately be your most productive and loving.

Libra: Strengthen your existing relationships

Libra, you are a social butterfly, you charm any room and your genuine politeness makes you a lovely gem in everyone’s minds. Unfortunately, you have a way of getting carried away with this gift and end up making more superficial relationships than deep ones. This becomes a problem when you face tough times and realise you are alone in your problems. Your resolution is to reach out to some old or existing friends that life has led you to lose contact with. They’ll appreciate it, and this way, you can rekindle some amazing friendships and thus create stronger, more valuable bonds with people. Taking time out to appreciate and spend time with the people in your life who have been there for a long time will make you, and them, much happier.

Scorpio: Solo-travel

Scorpio, the deep, mysterious and soul-seeking sign. Well, guess what? You’re not going to learn the mysteries of the world by sitting on the couch in your hometown. While extended solo-travelling may not be the most viable options in everyone’s lives, it’s good to experience a trip by yourself no matter how short it may be. It’ll not only give you more insight into the world but also into yourself. This time in a foreign place will allow you to truly be yourself as you shed any reputations you have back home and appreciate the benefits of your own company. You can also forge many new connections, experience once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and learn to trust in yourself, your independence and see the value in transient relationships.

Sagittarius: Start a blog or channel

You have so much to say, and not enough hours in the day to say it, so why not start a blog? Because you are such a busy and often convoluted talker, you might find your comments being brushed off or going unheard by others. However, by sharing your voice on a louder platform you may see the importance of your ideas. You have the gift of the gab so why not make use of it? Blogging, or vlogging, is a great hobby (or career) for an innovative and intelligent Sagittarius. It channels all your creative energy into an organised and thus readable (or watchable) segment that others can understand. Blogging always requires research as well, which makes you learn more every day. It hones many different skills that you excel in such as writing, research, creativity, planning and execution and also connects you with like-minded others.

Capricorn: Get off social media

Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, the planet of rules and restrictions. Yet, you have such a hard time with your unconscious addictions. More than any of the other signs, Capricorn relies on old-fashioned status for respect. That self-respect gets lowered when faced with everyone else’s highlight reels being broadcasted on Instagram and Facebook. Suddenly, you start buying things just for the likes or going places just for the photo-opportunity. Learning to live authentically, in spite of anyone else’s happiness or progress, is vital for you. By comparing yourself to others, you will always be striving for a false sense of happiness. Perhaps a good length of time disconnected from social media would be a great way to boost your real happiness.

Aquarius: Volunteer

Aquarius, the world lover. You are a unique paradox. As much as you love the idea of world peace, ending world hunger and bringing people together–actually having to react to people’s emotions is entirely uncomfortable and awkward for you. But, no true saviour lies behind a screen. People often donate some pocket change to charity at the end of the year and say they did their part, but this will not suffice you. By actively going out into the world and giving people your most important resources– your time and empathy, you will positively be helping the world, and the world will be helping you. This will bring you closer to overcoming your uncomfortable emotions, affecting people’s lives for the better and getting outside your own head with real life issues.

Pisces: Talk to strangers

Now, hear me out Pisces. I know you’re probably already pulling back just from reading the title. Talking to strangers–why would I ever do such a thing? You ask. Because there are so many benefits from this that outweigh the risks. Pisces is naturally a loving and social sign but you are often held back by your own insecurities. Try talking to that person on the bus, or introduce yourself to the cute person sitting alone in a cafe–you never know what will happen and you will be grateful you did it no matter the outcome. By building this essential skill, you will feel so much happier and more free from your internal restrictions. You will also be surprised at how receptive people are to being approached and gain so many new and wonderful connections this year.

#new year's resolution #new years #motivation #wellness #positivity #aries #taurus #gemini #cancer #leo #virgo #libra #scorpio #sagittarius #capricorn #aquarius #pisces #all #astrology #2018 #2019

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storybycorey · 5 years

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Happy Halfway Point, guys!

Thanks so much to all of you who’ve been following along with this fluffy, romantic alphabet of Mulder’s! I hope you’re all enjoying reading Mulder’s thoughts about Scully as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Since we’ve gotten to M (halfway through the alphabet), I thought I’d post the fic up til this point, for anyone who may have seen the individual letter posts floating around and been intrigued. Here is A-M all in one place, for easy reading!

The Fox Mulder Phonetic Alphabet

author: @storybycorey

rating: PG-13

wordcount (so far): 2163

A is for Apple

She brings her lunch from home most days. Well-balanced, just as he’d expect— portions of protein, fruit, and grains—while he grazes a bit less elegantly on a plethora of offerings from the upstairs vending machine.

She packs an apple once, eats it right in front of him. Red and juicy, but not nearly as red and juicy as her lips, or at least the way he’s imagined her lips to be after nearly seven years of imagining such things. He wonders whether, if he ever works up the nerve to kiss her, he’ll taste her on his mouth afterwards, the way you taste an apple—tart and sweet and lingering there.

He realizes he’s staring, goes quickly back to his bag of Funyuns (Onions, Scully! They’re vegetables!). Later, when she throws her apple core in the trash, he feels a sudden urge to retrieve it, as a reminder of things he wants but probably doesn’t deserve to have.

B is for Basketball

She beats him at basketball one day. Unbelievably. Finds him in the gym one evening after an endless day of seminars. She knows how to find him the way a dog finds its bone—even when he’s buried, even when he’s mangled and chewed-upon and disgusting. On this day though, he’s none of those things; instead he’s just plain bored.

In her black suit and heels, she stands out like a sharp smear of ink, poignantly distinct amidst the wooden floors and the bleachers. He doesn’t expect a response to his hey Scullz, wanna go one-on-one?, but she lifts her eyebrow in challenge and slips off her blazer. The tank top hidden beneath is tight and it’s blue (and made of a soft, shiny material his fingers ache to touch).

He could say he lets her win, but honestly, imagining that mystery material sandwiched between his palm and her skin leaves him much too distracted to pay attention to the game.

C is for Candles

He’ll forever associate candle-light with her pale and trembling back. With a maroon satin robe and hair that curls up sweetly in the rain (she’d never allow that now).

Before that night, the only candles he owned were a melted-down cluster from some birthday or another, remnants of a relationship he’d rather forget. He owns an assortment now though, scented and not, but all at the ready should the opportunity arise. His greatest want is to see the rest of her body lit by that warm, amber glow, to trail his fingertips across more than just her back, to chase the soft shadows around her curves as her breath hitches with desire.

He and the candles are prepared; they’ve been prepared for seven years now. She and her curves and her shadows? He thinks they’re getting there. He hopes anyway.

D is for Dana

Her first name is a secretive, foreign thing to him these days. Scully is Scully—strong, competent, loyal. But Dana is an enigma. He catches glimpses of Dana sometimes—a woman, a girl—and he wonders whether she’s fighting to break free. It saddens him to think he may have stolen that girlish part away from her, filed her inside a metal cabinet down in a basement office like everything else that crosses his path.

Sometimes he whispers it and it gives him a small thrill, like there’s a hidden part of her he has yet to know. He imagines saying it intimately, with his mouth pressed to her ear, but can’t decide whether it feels terribly wrong or perfectly, undeniably right. He only know that his lips are ready, should he ever earn the chance to try.

E is for Earrings

He almost buys her earrings once. Foolish, really. But while waiting for a watch battery to be replaced, he can’t help but browse. The sapphires would match her eyes so stunningly. Has he ever seen her in anything but small diamond studs or pearls? Anything but a business suit or hotel room pajamas? He wonders whether she likes dressing up, whether she stands before her mirror and admires herself, deciding between this evening gown or that one, holding earrings up next to her cheek.

He stands at the counter and looks at the earrings for ten minutes, picturing the delicate arc of her neck and the auburn of her hair and those earrings sparkling between. He’d be lying if he doesn’t also admit to imagining his tongue tracing around them and his teeth scraping against them and the moan he’s sure would slip from her throat while he plays.

A pushy saleswoman interrupts his thoughts, asks “For your wife? Girlfriend?”

He shakes his head, “Neither.”

He leaves with a hard-on and a working watch, but the earrings stay behind for someone with a little more courage.

F is for Friends

They use the term friends sometimes. Usually it’s partners, occasionally colleagues, coworkers, but really, none of those words does their relationship the slightest bit of justice. He couldn’t define it to a stranger (should one ask) if he tried. Hell, he can’t even define it to himself.

How do you define someone so ingrained in your bones, you taste marrow at the back of your throat each time she walks away? Webster would be hard-pressed to condense that into a single word, he’s sure. Even best friend feels trite and inadequate where Scully’s concerned. She’s not just a friend, not just a partner, not just a lover (even in his most daring of fantasies)—she’s not just anything.

She’s Scully, and she’s everything.

G is for Globe

He used to play a game with Samantha. Spin the Globe it was called. They played it when their parents were fighting, when they wanted nothing more than to be far, far away. He tells Scully about it once, when he can tell she can’t get out of her head. Luckily, amidst the files and slides and mess of the office, he happens to have a globe.

“Spin it, Scully. Close your eyes and point, and I’ll take you on an adventure wherever your finger lands.”

She rolls her eyes, but plays along, extending her French-tipped fingernail to land upon the spinning globe. Antarctica.

“Spin again,” he murmurs quickly, “That one didn’t count,” but she stops him with a hand curled around his like a comma.

“You found me, Mulder. That was more extraordinary than any adventure.”

H is for Hands

Once on a stakeout, he holds her hand.

Hours in a darkened car breed strange and wonderful things sometimes—discussions and games that only boredom can inspire. He tells her he can read palms (he’s lying, of course, but at least it’s something to do), and she scoffs, but then surprisingly offers her hand. It’s really too dark to see, but he tickles her palm and bullshits his way through, blathering about wealth and fate until her giggle makes his heart stand still.

“According to your palm…,” he says softly, “…true love awaits…as soon as you’re ready.”

She’s silent at first, and he worries he’s ruined things— ruined seven years’ worth of things in the span of a minute.

But then, in a quiet voice he’s never heard before, she responds, “I’ll be ready… soon.”

He holds her hand until their shift is over.

I is for Ice Cream

Her favorite ice cream flavor is Mint Chocolate Chip. He knows this (even though she doesn’t know he knows this), and once, during a rough case, he brings her some. He sneaks from his room after dinner, stops at three different gas stations before finding his prize. Sylvia’s Sundries and Smokes perhaps wouldn’t have been his first choice of establishments, but beggars can’t be choosers where ice cream’s concerned.

Surprise in hand, he knocks on Scully’s door and, with flourish, whips two plastic spoons from his pocket. The nice thing about it? She doesn’t even pretend not to want it. She smiles a shy little smile and invites him in. They climb up onto her bed where they scoop big whopping spoonfuls right out of the tub. She’s full after only a few bites but sits with him while he finishes, lays her head on his shoulder. They watch the Late Late Show until it’s late late late, until it isn’t even the same day anymore.

J is for Jacket

Her suit jackets (he supposes they’re probably technically called blazers) have shrunk over the years. Dana Scully of the plaid and boxy, of the oversized shoulder-pads, is now Dana Scully of the sleek and fitted, of the black and stylish and sexy. He finds himself tugging his collar from his overheated neck sometimes. More than sometimes.

He wonders when things changed, because he can’t quite place a pin on it, when she went from a woman he loves to a woman he lusts after as well. Or maybe it’s unclear because he’s always done a little of both where Scully’s concerned.

She left a jacket (blazer, whatever) at his apartment last year and he keeps forgetting to tell her he found it. It hangs now in his closet next to pairs of pressed dress slacks. He catches a glimpse of it sometimes, stands there wondering how soon ‘soon’ will come.

K is for Kiss

Back in the 60s, the 70s, when the turn of the millennium seemed ridiculously far away, Fox Mulder fantasized about the future. His comic books predicted: In the year 2000, there will be flying cars, teleportation devices, vacations on the moon and Mars...

He imagined the party awaiting him on New Year’s Eve, complete with robot wait staff and space-age hors d’oeuvres. Never would he have guessed he’d actually spend the evening in a hospital corridor, arm in a sling, nary a party nor robot in sight.

They were wrong about more than just the robots though, dead wrong, because not a single one of those comic books predicted this: In the year 2000, there will be Dana Scully and her flame-red hair, Dana Scully and her skeptical sighs, Dana Scully and the world not ending while she presses her lips to his for the very first time.

To think that at one time he wanted robots and jetpacks. It’s laughable really, to have ever wanted anything on this earth (or on the moon, or on Mars) but Dana Katherine Scully.

L is for Lists

He arrives earlier than usual one morning, finds Scully’s open notebook lying flat on the desk. The beginnings of a list, he’s sure. Scully loves lists. Books to Read, Articles to Write, Times Mulder Has Driven Me Crazy… He hasn’t physically seen that last one, but he’s sure it exists, somewhere in her purse or briefcase, or maybe just hidden away in her head.

A quick glance confirms his suspicions. Personal Goals.

He’s taken aback; he’d expected something trivial. Pros and Cons of Sunflower Seeds perhaps, but this…

He stalls, waits a minute, maybe two, but in the end is much too intrigued not to peek.

1. Call Mom more often

2. Reach out to Bill

3. Volunteer at the church

They’re all so wonderfully Scully. He’s not sure what else he expected. Curiosity satisfied, he’s about to turn away when:

15. Stop being afraid of my feelings

and below that:

16. Mulder

He stands stunned. He’s joked about appearing on Scully’s lists, but never like this, never as #16, never as a personal goal.

He makes a list himself that night, condenses every one of his own goals down into just six letters.

1. Scully

2. Scully

3. Scully…

372. Scully…

1049. Scully…

He types her name until dawn has broken, until the printed ‘S’ has all but disappeared off his keyboard.

M is for Maybe

Maybe tomorrow’s the day. He’ll toss her an innuendo, and instead of just catching it, she’ll throw one back herself.

The sun’ll come out tomorrow, isn’t that how the song goes? Good things happen in the darkness, too, though—cemetery downpours, X-marked stretches of highway where her hair grows wavy from the rain. He and Scully manage just fine with no sun at all; they thrive in the darkness, no matter what the song says.

He packs up his things on a Friday afternoon, grabs his coat and offers his usual weekend farewell. But instead of Have a nice weekend, Mulder, she stops him, hand to his forearm, “It’s supposed to be beautiful tomorrow… Do you wanna… Maybe…”

Her cheeks are pink as she ducks her chin to her chest, and it’s the prettiest thing he’s ever seen.

“Yeah,” he interrupts quickly, “Yeah, I do.” He’s a bit too enthusiastic probably, but maybe tomorrows don’t actually happen that often for him on Friday afternoons.

She smiles, cheeks still flushed, “Okay, then. Tomorrow…”

On his way out the door he finds himself humming. Maybe the forecast for tomorrow is sunny after all, and not just because a little orphan girl told him so.

to be continued- we still have N-Z to go, and I promise Z will have been worth the wait!

#The Fox Mulder Phonetic Alphabet #A-M masterpost #msr vignettes

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kamino-ink · 6 years

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Human Canvas | Bang Chan

✧ Genre: Soulmate!au, fluff, wee angst

✧ Summary: You were six years old when you got an inkling of what kind of person your soulmate is; they would draw little doodles on their arms all day, and you would draw back. But as an adult, its as if you two are at war with each other, with them covering your right arm with tattoos and you occasionally painting on your left arm for the fun of it.

✧ Word Count: 2.9k

✧ Want to read other parts of this series? Check out my masterlist!

✧

Growing up as a child in the era of booming technological advances and rising platforms of social media, it was hard not to become a member of at least one standing media presence. In your case, you were a well-known star on Instagram, showing off your strange yet classical renditions of paintings on the canvases covered with colors - or, on other occasions, your left arm.

As a child you loved to experiment with colors and silly doodles, even if you didn't have the creative capacity to paint your own designs. Your mother would frequently have to force you to take baths so she could scrub the childish splashes of color off of your arm - however on one occasion, you had noticed a little sketch of what looked to be a sad excuse of a shark on your right arm. Here’s the thing, your right hand was the only one that could paint or draw, so you had zero clue as to how or why the shark got on there.

When you’d asked your mother about it, her lips had suddenly parted as wide as the sea. “Honey, quick - write something on your arm!” She had told you, her shaking fingers handing you a blue-ink pen she had been writing with just moments ago. You didn't question her, since you were still just a kid that listened dutifully to everything your parents told you to do, and wrote out the word ‘hello.’ on your left arm.

Within seconds you felt a strange sensation on your opposite arm; when you glanced over at it in confusion, you saw red ink being scribbled onto your bare skin to spell out ‘who are you?’

That same day, your mother had the “the talk” with you - in which she explained that every single person on Earth had someone they were essentially destined to be with; no one knew why or how it came to be, but the evidence was there.

Your mother recounted on how she found her soulmate, your father, in high school. Apparently her bond was one where she could write something down, anything, on any sort of material and it would appear on the closest object (albeit reasonable) within minutes by your father. It was somewhat similar to your bond with this other kid, except if you drew something on your skin, it would appear on the same part of his body in seconds.

The boy you were bonded with, Chan, was apparently ambidextrous but preferred writing with his left hand, which was why he never doodled on the same arm as you. Within months you two had made interesting splashes of colors, silly sketches, and much more on each other’s skin.

However, as you got older, this came to be a rather pressing issue; in one of your college classes, you had been in the midst of a serious presentation when the professor cleared his throat awkwardly to signal you to stop. You’d looked over to him in confusion, as well as your giggling classmates, only to glance down at your right arm now covered in some rather... inappropriate designs. Why did you have to wear short sleeves that day?

In retaliation, you casually asked Chan what classes he took at school and when he had them; clearly he mistook your questions as just plain old curiosity, because the next day during his history class you had decided to paint a mural of bright yellows and pinks onto his skin. He was stuck with the neon colors all day, as none of his friends would lend him a jacket or coat in favor of laughing their asses off at him.

From then on it was like an all out war - he would doodle obscurities on your arm and you would stain his some ugly combination of colors. Then, one day, you’d woken up to a fucking tattoo on your right arm.

You were tempted to rant about it in a caption on a post, but decided you were better than that. Instead you took out all of your frustrations on painting your left arm with a plethora of delightful blues and yellows, creating a sort of rendition to the piece Starry Night by Van Gogh.

You snapped a picture of your artwork, feeling quite proud of yourself, and posted it on your Instagram page, it being only one of the many other art pieces you had on your page. In minutes the comments had been flooded with mostly positive remarks and a few mindful critiques, not that you minded; feedback was feedback, and all of it would hopefully further your progress as an aspiring artist.

Still, you knew that you needed to find Chan before he put even more tattoos on your body; you were a person who kind of needed to be presented as classy, and that meant no tattoos on your skin - sure you found it ridiculous, but you also didn't mind the pay you got from your job at the hospital.

“Y/N - is that, is that a tattoo?”

“For the love of - zip it, Minho!” You hiss at your amused yet stunned coworker, a fellow nurse by the name of Lee Minho. Both of you had gone through the basic stages of medical school together, and now you both happened to be some of the best nurses the hospital had seen in ages; so naturally, the two of you were rather close. “I didn't choose to have it, okay? That stupid soulmate of mine got it a few weeks ago.” You explain softly under your breath so passing doctors and nurses couldn't hear you.

Minho lets out a small noise of understanding, though his lips are still pulled into an amused smirk. “I see, I see. But why don't you just let it be seen, it's actually really cool.”

You sigh at his question, knowing he was just curious as to why you didn't want to show it off or anything. It wasn't like tattoos weren't allowed, per say, but you knew that it came off as more professional if the ink wasn't visible, no matter how cool it looked on your arm. “It’s just more professional this way, Minho. Don't get me wrong, I think the design is really interesting and beautiful, but now I have to wear long sleeves even though its hot as hell in here.”

“Fair point. So, you don't know where this Chan guys lives, or what his full name is?” The nurse asks, waving to a senior doctor that passes by you with a clipboard in hand.

“Nope.” You reply simply.

“Then why not ask him? All you need to do is write it somewhere on your arm, right?” He presses on, the curiosity eating him alive as to why you hadn't just asked your soulmate who exactly he was and where he lived so you two could actually meet each other.

You blink at him, once, twice, and then once more. “You... have a point,” you admit to the man, who is now smirking all too victoriously at you, “but - whenever I asked for his name all those years ago, he said that his nickname was Chan. I’m guessing he doesn’t like his real name or isn’t ready to find me yet.”

Minho whines at your explanation, his fingers going to the that had ridden up to expose the ink, tugging it down for you. “It wouldn’t hurt to ask now, right? I mean, you’re both adults now. There’s no way that he doesn’t want to meet you yet.”

You shrug softly to yourself, subconsciously tracing over the part of the sleeve that was covering the tattoo. While you had been ready to finally meet your soulmate, you had an odd hunch that Chan just wasn't ready, and you were afraid to accidently pressure him into it so soon.

“I’ll think about it.”

About a week later you finally decided that you really needed to find Chan, because he had gotten yet another tattoo on his arm - now along with the stunning rose covered in dark thorns just under your shoulder, there was a shorter cluster of thorny stems; it seemed like he was working towards getting a full sleeve.

It's not like you disliked the tattoos - in fact, you were amazed that you didn’t have to go through the pain or process of spending the money on the beautiful designs. You just wanted to lay out a few ground rules - like, nothing on the face... what, tons of people got face tattoos these days, you had a right to be worried about what else the guy wanted on his - and your - skin.

You’d been in the middle of scrolling through your feed, a french fry lazily resting between your lips as you nibbled on the salty snack, your eyes trained on the bright screen of your phone. Suddenly you stopped mid chew, eyes widening at what had caught your attention.

It was the same exact tattoo inked onto your right arm, except the stems had been extended towards the wrist where they wrapped around the skin to look like roots, and there were falling, wilting rose petals drifting down the sketch. Within seconds you had clicked on the suggested account’s username, waiting anxiously as it redirected you to an account run by what appeared to be a tattoo parlor. If you were right about the sleeve being an original design, then that meant there was a big possibility Chan had gotten his ink done at this particular parlor.

Furthering your investigation and completely abandoning the fries next to you, you click on the linked website in the parlor’s description, praying it wasn’t too far away.

Oh my god, you thought to yourself in a mixture of pure shock and growing excitement, staring at the directions from the map that had popped up when you allowed it to use your location, its only three miles away!

Not caring that you were still wearing loose sweatpants covered in cat hair along with a baggy, very wrinkled shirt, you literally jumped out of bed to run and slip a pair of shoes on, swinging your door open and shutting it quickly. You stared down at your phone as you hopped into your car, activating the GPS as you began your drive to the tattoo parlor.

The entire drive you felt like you were either going to puke or cry - maybe both. After all this time, after all those years of communicating through scribbles of messily written words on your skin, along with the silly drawings, you might actually be able to meet Chan... your soulmate.

When you arrived it was just another hour before it closed for the night, so you could only hope that someone working there would recognize the tattoo on your arm and be able to tell you who else got it recently. You quickly locked your car, nearly dropping your keys you were so jittery, and walked into the parlor. At the front desk there was a man with dyed blonde hair and darker brown roots, and the second you walked in he had glanced up at you with a warm, welcoming smile.

“H-hi,” you breathe out after a second of silence, still trying to catch your breath from rushing out of your house so fast, “um, weird question, but has anyone else gotten a tattoo like this recently?” You ask the receptionist, turning and lifting your sleeve so the entire piece was visible.

The man lets out a small hum, looking up at you from the desk curiously. “Our main tattoo artist designed that himself a while ago, he’s been working up to a full sleeve since about... four weeks ago, maybe?”

“Is - is his name Chan, by chance?”

“That’s his sort of nickname around here, yeah. His actual name is Chris. Are you... a friend of his?” He asks you, chuckling softly at your disheveled head of hair and red cheeks. Clearly you had been in a rush.

You shake your head at first, but remember that you are the guy’s soulmate, and technically you have known each other since you were kids - in a sense. “Is he here, right now?”

The receptionist nods again, jerking his head to a door behind the desk. “Yeah, he’s alone cleaning up right now. Go ahead.”

You send him a thankful smile, nearly stumbling into the corner of his desk as you walk slowly towards the door that is acting as the only barrier between yourself and your soulmate. Your mind is screaming at you to walk away out of sheer fear, but your heart is pounding so hard in your chest that you ignore any other thoughts racking your brain - and you walk inside.

Holy shit he’s gorgeous. Is the first thing that pops inside your head when your eyes land on the man, his right arm dotting the same tattoo on yours, his hair a pretty sort of silver color. The man raised an eyebrow at you, then glanced down at your arm as you quite literally held it out towards him.

“Um... what am I looking at?” Chan hesitates on his words, glancing back up at you in confusion. Your eyebrows furrow in wonder; was he seriously choosing now of all times to play around?

“We have the same tattoo, Chan - it’s me, Y/N!” You insist after an awkward pause, only to recoil in shock as his eyes narrow into a glare.

“Alright sweetheart, you’ve gotta be high as shit right now because I don’t see one dot of ink on that damn arm.” The artist retorts lowly, as if he was offended by your rash outburst. “I don’t believe you - Y/N would have to have my design on her arm, and you don’t.”

Your lips part in hurt, and a bit of... pride? Here Chan was, standing right before you with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring down at you because he thought you were some random chick claiming to be his soulmate.

Then it hit you.

“Um - you know what - never mind, I guess I got confused.” You apologize to the man. “Actually I came in to get a - a tattoo. I completely forgot to make an appointment, so I can come back tomorrow or-”

“Just lay down and tell me what you want, I could care less about an appointment right now. No one else is scheduled to come in.” Chan instructs and you listen, going to lie down on the leather chair. You were nuts - here you were, getting your first real tattoo just to try and prove that you were his soulmate. Were there easier ways to do so? Obviously, but the adrenaline pumping through your veins mixed with the loss of any rational thought had skewed any other possible plans to convince Chan of your identity.

“Can I get... three birds on the back of my shoulder?” You blurt out suddenly, knowing that it was a simple tattoo. Chan hums at your choice, telling you to lift your shirt off so he can prep your skin. He tells you that he has a design like that and shows it to you for approval, and you of course nod in agreement and wait for him to get everything ready.

The next thirty minutes go by as a blur, with Chan inking your left shoulder with tiny black birds and tiny details of wind and feathers. Once he’s done patching it up, you tap his arm to catch his attention.

“Can you um... look at your shoulder?” You ask him, your cheeks heating up when he snorts at you in disbelief. You’re not sure if he’s just trying to flatter you, since to him you were some weirdo who’d popped into his tattoo parlor out of nowhere for no real rhyme or reason; but he does as you suggest, walking over to a mirror hung onto the wall. He dips the hem of his shirt downward and tilts his head to see - nothing.

There wasn’t a trio of black birds on his skin.

“Holy shit - you really are Y/N, aren't you?”

You glance up at the baffled man in bewilderment, wondering how he had figured it own even though your tattoo hadn’t showed up on his shoulder.

“Didn't you... didn't you see the birds?” He questions you quickly, only to furrow his eyebrows when you shake your head slowly. “Wait - maybe, maybe we can’t see what we’ve done to the other person’s body - I’ve heard of it before, in cases like this-” The silver haired man starts to speak a mile a minute, taking short steps towards you with each rushed word that escaped his lips.

“Sometimes, when soulmates are close to each other in terms of distance, the bond acts on its own and can make a sort of - barrier, I guess? Here, look at your wrist.” He says after he’s grabbed a stray pen from his cluttered counter, doing a quick doodle on his own wrist. You flatter him, looking down to see a cute little smiley face staring back up at you - then you glance to his wrist, seeing the same exact doodle in black ink.

“You can see it, right?” You nod, too shocked to speak. You had finally found him, your actual soulmate.

Chan lets the pen drop to the floor and wraps his arms around your body tightly, pulling you into his chest.

“You found me, Y/N.”

✧

A/N - thanks, I hate it! :)

#skzwriters #stray kids au #stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #stray kids drabbles #stray kids #stray kids soulmate au #bang chan #chan soulmate au #chan scenario #chan imagine #stray kids angst #stray kids fluff

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wtfzodiacsigns · 5 years

Text

Meaningful New Year’s Resolutions for the Signs

Aries: Plan for your dreams

Taurus: Try minimalism

Gemini: Pick up new books

Cancer: Practise Gratitude

Leo: Spend more time in nature

Virgo: Be kinder to yourself

Libra: Strengthen your existing relationships

Scorpio: Solo-travel

Sagittarius: Start a blog or channel

Capricorn: Get off social media

Aquarius: Volunteer

Pisces: Talk to strangers

Source: myastrologyblog

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rovvboat · 5 years

Text

Paper Planes

Colossus/Piotr Rasputin x Reader

A/N: Prompt by the wonderful @candle-light-writings!! <3 <3 Sorry it took me awhile!! Hope you like it hehe

word count: 5.2k (I DONT KNOW HOW?!)

Summary: You’re a young mutant-in-training at the newly opened Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. You (quite literally) run into Colossus on a packed day, and end up becoming friends with the mutant, who offers to help with your combat training. The friendship soon grows into something more, and takes flight to bring him home.

You were running late yet again. Stupid alarm clock. It just had to get busted on one of the most important days of your time in Xavier’s school.

You dash through the hallways that were clogged with students as you weave through them on your way to your training class. As you reach the end of the crowd, you see that it’s a clear route for you – through to the training grounds – and you pick up speed.

Your thoughts were so focused on reaching the class on time that you neglected to watch out for the blind-spot at the adjacent corridor that joins the hallway.

In a split second, you make contact with a tall, brawny student – whose stacks of paper goes flying all around the corridor.

‘’SHIT. I’m so sorry!’’ You quickly got up before he did.

You wave your arms around, the papers spiral above the fallen man’s head as he watches – baffled by the flying papers – before once again becoming a neat stack – categorized exactly as it was before the fall. The papers come to rest gently into your right arm, as you offer your other hand to the unfortunate student. He takes it, lifting himself up with the help of your anchor.

You quickly pass the stack to him, before zooming off again – leaving the man to watch you disappear as quickly as you appeared.

As the man returns to his duties, he catches something shimmering on the floor and bends down to pick it up. It was a beautifully folded paper crane, though it felt a lot sturdier and tougher than your average origami crane. He picks it up and inspects it – catching the name of the owner scribbled under one of its wings. He carefully places it on the top of the stack, before making his way to his own training room.

‘’You oughta’ be more careful about these things, darlin’.’’ Logan explains. ‘’You can’t keep being late for these important trainings, especially not when your skills ‘ave yet to be mastered fully in terms of combat.’’

You look to the ground, one arm across your stomach holding onto the other, embarrassed at the fact that you were late once again.

‘’I’m sorry, Logan. I just… don’t think that my powers would be the best for offensive tactics…’’ You sigh.

‘’Listen, darlin’. All that doesn’t matter. Most of our ops are on the offensive, and if that is what you’re weakest at, then we are going ta’ have to train that the most.’’

You nod as he pats your back. ‘’Have more faith in your abilities. They might surprise you.’’

You sulk all the way back to your dorm room. Most days in the school were like this. Mostly disappointing. You plop down onto your bed and let out a heavy sigh.

If everyday is going to be this disappointing, I don’t think I want to be here anymore. Maybe I could just sell paper cranes for a living.

Your train of thought is halted by a knock on the door.

‘’Coming!’’

Great. They probably want to add some after school combat training lessons.

You open the door, and your eyes meet the large torso of a man, who was looking down on you. Your eyes trail up to his face, and you’re greeted by a set of serene blue eyes.

You pause for a moment, not knowing what to say or do. The man staring back at you was obviously Piotr Rasputin, or Colossus – as he was called on the field. You’ve heard many stories about this student, mostly about how good his fighting skills were and how strong he was, not to mention how he was set to be one of the main members of the X-Men team.

He was also very, v e r y easy on the eyes. His hair was neatly styled up, wearing a white t-shirt that fit snugly over his muscles. Torso tapered down like a V. The other students nicknamed him Hercules, built like a Greek demi-god.

You notice his mouth moving, snapping you back into the present moment.

‘’Hello. I am sorry to intrude, but are you Y/N?’’ He asks.

‘’Yes, did Logan send you?’’

‘’Oh no, he did not. I just found this–‘’ he shows you something in his palm– ‘’beautifully made paper crane. It fell this morning when we… collided. I thought you might want this returned. It looks absolutely wonderful. And I thought it would be missed.’’

‘’Oh my God, you were the person I banged into this morning! I’m so sorry about that! Are you alright? Here, come on in.’’ You open the door wider for him to make his way into your room.

He slowly enters your room, taking in all of the different kinds of paper stacked neatly on your shelves. He stops by your small display case of a plethora of foldings– from roses of various colours, to plants, to animals. They all looked so realistic and intricate.

‘’Don’t mind them too much.’’ You laugh nervously.

‘’They are… very beautiful.’’ He says to you, clearly impressed.

You quietly watch as he takes his time to admire them. You clear your throat in the silence.

‘’I could make one for you if you’d like.’’ You wave at the papers across the room and, as if on command, they glides towards you and fold intricately into several shapes – tearing and twisting in impossible ways – before floating gently onto your palm in a shape of a confidently roaring tiger.

Colossus watches all of this in awe.

You present the tiger to him, shimmying your fingers over it – bringing it to life as it gives a mighty roar.

‘’Bozhe moi! That is amazing! What beautiful powers you have!’’ He exclaims.

‘’Well… they’re not much use for fighting… I thought you came here because Logan sent you to ask me about some combat lessons or something.’’

‘’Oh, no he didn’t. But is it something that you would be needing help with? I am happy to help out a fellow X-Man whenever I can.’’

Your eyes light up at the proposition.

‘’Are you sure? I’m kind of known to be… difficult. Especially with combat.’’

‘’No such thing! I will do everything in my power to make you the best combat X-Man the world has ever seen!’’ He says, flexing in a dramatic way to drive the point home.

You laugh at that, before nodding at the proposal.

‘’That is really nice of you to do, Colossus.’’

‘’Please, call me Piotr.’’

‘’Alrighty, Mr Piotr. I’ll meet you when you’re free?’’

‘’Of course! We will start as soon as possible! We shall meet at the break of dawn tomorrow.’’

Your face changes from a grin to a shocked expression, causing Piotr to laugh.

‘’You’re not kidding, are you?’’

‘’Early bird catches the worm.’’ He responds cheekily. You respond with a palm to your face, before laughing.

‘’Alright then, I’ll see you tomorrow. But seriously, thank you so much for helping me out. I’ll have to give you a treat for that.’’ You say as he checks his watch.

‘’It is not needed.’’ He holds his palms up with a smile. ‘’We are X-Men, and X-Men do not hold favours. Now, you would have to excuse me. I have some matters I need to attend to. It was nice meeting you today, Y/N. And thank you very much for the pet tiger you have gifted me. I appreciate it very much.’’ He admires the paper tiger on his palm, before bidding you farewell and stepping out of your room.

You thank whatever god or fate that helped you get this arrangement, before getting ready for dinner and heading to bed.

Your eyes open at the sound of your new alarm clock, blaring a rendition of I’m Still Standing, playing on the radio. You whine, and flip over onto your stomach, holding the pillow tightly, promptly burying your face in it – before hammering down on the alarm clock’s snooze button.

Not 2 minutes later, Elton John’s voice breaks the silence yet again.

Don’t you know l’m standing better than I ever did. Looking like a true survivor, feelin’ like a little kid.

You let it play, before a knock sounds at your door. You snooze the alarm, and get up to greet whoever was at the door. You catch your reflection in the adjacent mirror – hair fuzzy from sleeping, a big long sweatshirt draped over your body with just a little bit of your shorts peaking out from the end of it. Peak dating material.

You open to door, and it feels like the same scene from yesterday plays out.

Piotr takes a pause, looking at you at your most comfortable state; you bring up a hand, trying to rub your eyes out of sleepiness. He chuckles a little. Your eyes adjust to Piotr standing in front of you and you flash him a smile.

‘’I guess I was right in my assumption that you would not be ready before I was. I am sorry if I woke you up, but it is almost time for our training.’’ He says, tapping at his watch.

You yawn and tiptoe into a stretch – extending your arms up to really get your muscles working. ‘’Yeah, I’m up. Gimme 5 minutes to get ready.’’ You say as you close the door. You quickly wash up before throwing on your training outfit – a white tank top paired with black sweatpants. You open the door to Piotr waiting for you in the hallway.

‘’Morning! Sorry it took me a while to get up. I’m still feeling a little tired. Not used to the whole early bird thing, yknow? I assume you do this every day. Why would you want to be up this early, anyway?’’ You jokingly ask as you lock your door.

Piotr’s deep laugh rumbles down the quiet corridor. ‘’I have been known to be an early riser, yes. But worry not, you will get used to it. Working in a farm as boy helped me a lot.’’

‘’You were a farmer? I never would’ve guessed!’’

‘’Yes, back in Russia my family used to run a farm. It was hard work but… it was with family, and it was home.’’ A sadness was etched in his voice. You decided not to press the matter, instead you tried to get his spirits up a little.

‘’But hey, family is always with you,’’ you place a hand to his chest, near where his heart would be, ‘’right here. They’ll always be here’’ You give him a few pats. ‘’Now c’mon! I’m itching for some learning!’’ You say as you walk ahead, out onto the training field. Normally you wouldn’t be this excited, but being trained by one of the coveted X-Men? You best take all you can out of it.

The sun was just looming over the horizon, the heat slowly replacing the chill of the morning. You and Piotr do a few laps around the track, warming up for the training session.

‘’Before I teach you anything, I would like to know where you stand with regard to your combat.’’

‘’I’m just really bad, I don’t know what to tell ya.’’ You shrug.

Piotr laughs. ‘’We can get better, no matter which stage we are. I would like for you to attack me. Feel free to not hold back.’’

‘’But you’re not in your metal-man form. Is that alright?’’ You ask. Piotr nods an affirmative.

You stand up, dusting yourself off the freshly chipped grass on your ass. You get into your fighting stance – the one Logan always emphasized.

‘’Good stance, but you need a wider footing.’’ Piotr remarks. You shift accordingly.

Piotr gets into his fighting stance. You contemplate what you are going to do, before lunging towards him with a hand balled into a fist. He expertly dodges it, and you switch to the other hand – trying again to make first contact. He dodges some, while blocking others.

‘’You are aggressive, but you have to be smart. Look for openings.’’

You knit your eyebrows in concentration. You try again, jabbing at him multiple times – never once actually hitting him. At one instance, whilst he was too focused on blocking your blows, you find an opening near his stomach. You retract your arm, and spring a punch towards it – stopping right before making contact.

‘’Why did you stop?’’

‘’I didn’t want to hurt you.’’

‘’It is alright. You need not be afraid of that. Training requires that we take some risks. On the battlefield, there is no such thing as mercy.’’ He says solemnly.

You stare at him in disbelief. A tension rising in the air, before you both erupt into laughter. These moral dilemmas were so prominent in your lives that it becomes more of an inside joke than anything – meant to be laughed away instead of brooded over.

Piotr wraps up the training session by teaching you some offensive tactics, before you both head towards the showers.

From that day onwards, you notice just how much you’ve been running into the him without actually noticing. Your paths had crossed almost every class, though you shared none with him for this year, and you never once thought about it until now.

At the beginning it was just shy hellos and see you laters. But as you trained with him more often, it transformed into a kind of friendship that you never knew you needed. You built a confidence that you never knew you had from the time you spent with him. You’d spend mornings training with Piotr, afternoons training with Logan, and evenings painting with Piotr. (Though your painting normally consisted of getting paint on yourself when you accidentally use your brush contemplate your next stroke – inevitably landing some on your face.)

Your hand-to-hand combat improved tremendously, which Logan takes note of instantly from the way your body moves so fluidly and confidently against him.

‘’That’s some good fightin’ you brought to the table. ‘M glad you’re improvin’ Y/N.’’ He commends, proudly crossing his arms. You beam at him. Finally, finally some improvement. Logan lets you off way earlier than usual, on account of your excellent performance.

You run towards the library’s art studio, because you know that’s where Piotr would be, excited to tell him the good news. You hadn’t had the time to have a proper meet up or training with him for the past week, and you felt happy to finally be able to do so.

You greet the librarian with a curt nod, before moving up the stairs towards Piotrs’ art cave. The room is open for people to move freely in and out, but today there wasn’t much traffic due to the upcoming exams.

You stand at the doorway, scanning the room for the uncanny figure of the burly Russian. You spot him sitting on a tall bar stool in front of an easel with a canvas. He was dressed in a white wifebeater – much like what Logan would wear, but with additional paint smudges and ink stains – paired with baggy sweat pants. The canvas in front of him was empty, which was highly uncharacteristic. He’s usually halfway through his works by the time you come to visit.

You hunker down, sneaking up to a nearby shelf, and watch as he holds onto something – a photograph – in his hand. He longingly stares at it. You catch a glimpse of blonde hair and cheery smiles on it, and you know right away what made him look so forlorn. He heaves a sigh, tucking the picture into his chest pocket.

Your heart breaks for Piotr. And even though his power is his strength, in this moment – with the rays of the sun filtering into the room, dust particles dancing around him in this musky room – he looks so alone. You decide that you couldn’t bear to see him this way, as you stealthily pull a few papers from the cabinets. The wind rustles through the window in perfect fashion, just as you will the sheets to fold into each other in front of you, the winds helping you to mask the noises of the paper. Once you were finished, a grey-metallic coloured figure of Colossus floats gently onto your palm – a folding which you fittingly dub ‘’mini-Colossus’’

You send in mini-Colossus, as Piotr stares at the empty canvas – with one hand positioned over it to make a stroke with the paintbrush. His shoulders slump over, before bringing a hand over his forehead in conceded frustration – covering his eyes. It was very unlike him to look so… tired. And it tugged at your heart how sad and distressed he looked.

You make mini-Colossus get Piotr’s attention by making it dancing infront of him. First, it does the macarena, then disco dances, and even does a split on the easel. When none of this gets his attention, you finally make mini-Colossus pat Piotr on the hand – surprising Piotr. He watches with confusion as mini-Colossus repeats the macarena, before noticing that it’s a paper cut-out. His head swerves around the studio looking for you, when you finally emerge from the back shelf.

‘’Y/N. I’m sorry. I hadn’t realized that you were done with your classes already.’’ He gives you an apologetic look, but his eyes looked tired, and his smile felt forced. You go over to him, draping an arm over his shoulder, and placing a hand to his chest.

‘’Hey, buddy, it’s alright. You feeling okay? I saw you looking at that picture of you and Illyana.’’

‘’I am not sure. I… miss home. And my little snowflake. Dearly.’’ His voice wavers a little. ‘’I wish I could visit more often, but the Professor says it is much too risky. And that I am needed here.’’ He looks away at that. You reposition your arm, and allow your hand to find his back, slowly stroking down to provide any semblance of comfort that you can. You move in front of him, before embracing his large body in a big hug, holding onto him as tightly as you can. His hands slowly come up to hold you close, his face feels like it’s burning hot against your shoulder.

‘’It’s alright, Piotr. Your family is always with you no matter where you are. And I’m sure Illyana is happy to know that her brother is out here making the world a better place for her.’’ You console him. You feel a slight wetness on your shoulder, and you pull away to look at him. His eyes were red and teary – and you feel your heart drop. You cup your hands around his face, using your thumbs to wipe away the stray tears. He closes his eyes and let his head fall forward. You pull him back into a hug, and allow him to let it out.

Your hand moves to comfortingly stroke down his back. He’s silent, and you can tell he feels embarrassed to be crying like this, but you also know that he needs this right now.

Several moments pass, before Piotr shifts in his seat. You instinctively step aside, giving him some room to breathe.

He goes to the washroom to wash his face before coming back to the room. You patiently wait for him to say something, as he perches on the high stool again, his body facing you. He takes a deep breath.

‘’Thank you, Y/N. For being here. I… It can be difficult sometimes. Usually I am not… this way.’’

‘’Hey, don’t worry about that. We all have our days and I understand. I just hope you know that… you’re family to me too.’’ You offer as you move closer to him. He holds your gaze, his lips curving into a warm smile. His arm stretches out and pulls you into another, more mellow hug. He speaks in a low voice.

‘’Mne tak povezló tebyá vstrétit. I am so lucky to have met you, Y/N.’’

You feel a blush creep up your cheeks as you slowly bring your arms up to his back, returning the hug.

That night, you couldn’t catch a wink of sleep. You catch yourself thinking about how Piotrs’ arms felt around you, and the warm way he regarded you in his thick Russian.

I am so lucky to have met you.

The phrase lingers around you; your stomach exploding with butterflies, as a warmth spread across your chest. You’ve always considered him a friend, and, of course, you loved him unconditionally. But seeing him today, made you feel like there was maybe more to be found in this friendship – for the both of you.

The next day, you head over to the Professor’s office. You carefully look out for anyone else before approaching his door. And there it stood, tall and heavyset, in all of its’ oak brown glory – the Professor’s name written boldly across in gold metallic letters. It was the only thing standing between you and the arduous task that would be talking to the Professor.

It’s not like the man was going to eat you up. You just had a kind of reverence for him. You gathered your courage and knocked on the door. Part of you was hoping that he would be out, but you knew that him being available was important, and tried to push those hopes away.

A few seconds pass, and just as you turn to leave, a voice sounds through the door.

‘’You may come in.’’ The voice reverberated through the hardwood door, but so much clearer than it should be.

Is he in my head?

You hear a laugh, which unnerves you to no end. But the twisting of your nerves gives you a strange sense of confidence, as you walk up to the door and swing it open in one swift motion.

‘’Welcome child. What is it that you need on this fine day?’’ He enquires. He has his elbows on the table, hands clasped together expectantly.

‘’Well, I assume you already know what I’m here for, but I guess I have to tell you anyway, won’t I?’’ You give him a little snark. He gives you a smile as you go about stating your business.

‘’Okay. Well, I just think it would be good for Piotr if he got to visit his family. Just for a few days. I can cover his teaching classes and help him out with the stuff he’s missed out. I’m doing pretty well in all other areas, and I’ve gotten much better at my combat too.’’ You lay out your credentials and it feels like the tides are pushing in your favour.

The Professor smirks at you. ‘’You make a compelling argument, child. But do not underestimate the commitments that Piotr has as Colossus. He is our strength on the battle field. Would you be able to fill that role, considering your powers?’’

He has you pinned down, and you know the answer he’s looking for.

‘’You are the only person who knows what my paper is... capable of. I’m pretty sure I can handle it. I just need… more control over it.’’ You clench your fists a little.

‘’Very well. If you allow me to train you, I will let you take on the responsibilities of Colossus, and he may visit his family.’’

You grow wide-eyed at the proposition. Trained personally by the Professor? It felt too good to be true. And the fact that in return you get to give Piotr a chance to visit his family? It was an offer that was impossible to resist.

‘’Hell yeah! – I mean, that would be wonderful. Thank you so much, Prof.’’ You reply sheepishly, in an effort to downplay the fact that you were absolutely ecstatic about the arrangement. ‘’Can I go tell Piotr now? We can arrange training sessions later on! Can he take the X-Jet? Does he need a pilot? Do you have a pilot? It’s going to be a long trip to–‘’ You’re interrupted by the Professor clearing his throat.

‘’There is one jet available. Piotr’s a trained pilot, so he should be able to fly to and from his destination. You need not worry, arrangements will be made for him to leave tomorrow morning.’’

You do a fist pump, with a celebratory ‘’YES!’’ as the Professor watches with amusement. You excuse yourself from the room and dart towards the training field where you know Piotr would be. The timing was perfect as well, seeing as he was just about done with his field training session with some of the other senior X-Men.

Piotr stands on the field, stretching his arms after the session, when he sees your figure belting down the steps. He tilts his head quizzically at you. ‘’Y/N…?’’

‘’Piotr! I have a surprise for you! Piotr Piotr Piotr Piotr!’’ You repeat with increasing excitement as you speed across the field at top speed. Piotr raises his hands in defeat, and chuckles at your exhilarated movement that translate into almost comical, before he realizes that you had no intention of slowing down.

‘’Y/N, wha–‘’ You crash into him – arms wide and moving to loop around his neck – as his arms open to embrace you; his body does a small 180 turn to stop you from toppling him over. You hang onto him as he holds you up by your waist, and you give a hearty laugh, making Piotr chuckle from how utterly delighted you look. You shift your head to look directly at him and share the news.

‘’I have a surprise for you!’’ You cheer as you beam at him, before realizing that the other X-Men are staring at what looks like an incredibly loving reunion. Piotr realises it as he catches you watching the others. He clears his throat and sets you down.

‘’Perhaps we could discuss this in private.’’ A bashful Piotr says as he moves to walk away from the crowd, ushering you with him.

Once you were at a considerable distance from the rest, you couldn’t help your excitement translate into you hopping in place as you spoke.

‘’Guess what I got you.’’

Piotr puts a finger to his chin, trying to guess with a hum. ‘’I am not sure… Is it new paint colours? I’ve been running out so quickly…’’

Your eyes grow wide in anticipation as you continue to grin at him.

‘’Is that not it? Hmm… Is it another mini-Colossus? Or a mini-You?’’ He asks playfully.

‘’I got you… A trip back home your family!’’ You announce triumphantly. Piotr looks dumbfounded at your words. He was at a loss for words, and he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

‘’Are you… You’re not… But how?’’ He staggers for an explanation.

‘’Pulled some favours from Prof X. You don’t have to worry too much about the details, buddy. He said you could take the X-Jet with you but you gotta get ready to leave tomorrow morning! How amazing is that!’’

Piotr continues to stare at you, looking completely stunned.

‘’I… I cannot believe my ears… Bozhe moi… This feels like a dream. Y/N, you did not have to do this for me.’’

You raise both palms up in surrender to halt his train of thought. ‘’Woah, woah – No such thing. You’ve helped me regain my confidence, and better yet… you gave me a good friend. You’ve done more for me than I can thank you for. I can only try my best to make you happy.’’ Your voice goes soft as you look away with a coy smile. His blue eyes regard you with warmth, and holds your gaze when you look back to him. You feel your cheeks burn up with feeling as your heart rate soars through the roof. You decide to break the feeling and grab his hand, dragging him behind you towards his room.

‘’C’mon, we gotta get packing! I’ll help!’’ You say as you try your best to mask your emotions.

The next morning, you get up before your alarm clock and get yourself ready in record time, before dashing out the door towards Piotr’s room. You slap the door repeatedly, mostly out of excitement. He opens the door with a bemused look. Your eyes grow wide and your jaw drops.

He’s dressed in a crisp white button-down shirt and khaki pants, matched nicely with a brown leather belt. He has his hair styled up, and you notice that his eyes are now a different colour – a gentle russet-brown.

His hand finds the back of his neck as he flashes you a sheepish smile. ‘’Too much?’’

‘’You look… beautiful, Piotr.’’ You say with sincerity in your voice. ‘’There is no other way to describe you… Handsome doesn’t even get close to covering it.’’

‘’I am glad you like it, Y/N. Though I do not like wearing contacts… But the Professor says I need to have a secret identity. A small price to pay.’’ Piotr chuckles.

Your face hasn’t fallen from its’ awe, and you realise how obviously you were gawking. You immediately bring up your watch to check the time. ‘’Oh uh, I guess it’s time soon. Let’s get going. The sooner you leave, the quicker you can reach Russia.’’ You urge.

You tell him about the arrangements as you both make your way to the hanger.

‘’I packed some extra protein bars and milkshakes for you – don’t worry, they’re healthy. There’s also a crate of fruits that I made them put in the jet. Unfortunately you’re going to have to eat some ready-made meals though and also–‘’ You ramble on about his inventory. He nods at everything you say, admiring the way you put yourself to task. He thinks about how you would’ve stubbornly insisted on the crate of fruits, and chuckles to himself.

‘’What’s so funny?’’ You tilt your head as your brows furrow.

‘’It is nothing.’’ He smiles.

Once all the last-minute checks were made, the hanger door opens – allowing the chill of the early morning to rush into the large area. You instinctively embrace yourself from the cold, when Piotr’s arm comes up around behind you, rubbing your shoulder to try to keep you warm. The small rush in your chest warmed you up instantly, as you look over to Piotr, smiling back at you.

You lower your arms to your side as he moves to face you.

‘’Please, no more words. You’ve got a family to visit, dumbo! You gotta go!’’ You insist – though part of you didn’t truly want him to leave so soon.

His lips were still curved, tenderly watching you do your best to get him home as quickly as possible. You hold his gaze, and he steps forward, gathering you tightly in his arms – his head lowered to your shoulder as he talks.

‘’Thank you so much, Y/N.’’ He breathes, and it feels like he’s just let go of a mountain on his shoulders. You hug him as tightly and hold onto him, arms snaked around his neck. He shifts his head back, tilting your head up to him, before placing a kiss on your forehead.

‘’I will be back soon, myshka. I will write to you.’’

‘’Wait! I almost forget! Here–‘’ you pull out a polaroid out of your pocket and present it to Piotr. ‘’Something to remember me by.’’ You grin at him.

He looks at the picture and beams. It was the first picture that you took of the both of you in his studio; when you tried painting with him – both of you covered in paint stains – smiling with undeniable happiness. ‘’I will keep this close to my heart.’’ He looks back at you.

You wave at him, pushing him to make a move. He walks into the jet, turning back to wave at you as the jet door closes.

You watch as the engine rumbles and zooms out of the hanger. You stay in the hanger for a moment, before moving to go about the rest of your day – one week without Piotr would pass by quickly, and you were already excited to greet him once he comes back home.

Taglist!

@emma-frxst <3 <3

#Colossus x reader #piotr rasputin x reader #colossus #piotr rasputin #x men fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #requested!#colossus/piotr rasputin x reader

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shaswat2000-blog · 5 years

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Project 2- Final Draft

Race has been a matter of debate, which has been dividing the opinions of many scholars, authors, researchers and even common people over the years. In this research paper we will look back into the history to find the “circumstances” which led to race being a criteria of segregation, how it evolved overtime to take physical and cultural differences (in case of indigenous people) into its realm along with the contemporary and hidden forms of racism which are seen by the people as self-explanatory and natural. In the end we will also look at the negative impacts of racism on whites (which sounds hard) who without noticing play a vital part in sustaining racism. In all the research paper will reflect the history of race, and portray that racial segregation has never stopped in America, rather it has continuously redesigned itself over and over again to be a reason behind social and political security.

Method- For the references in my research paper I first looked for the sources which could explain the origins of race as a term, when it was introduced and how the term evolved, so I got a source which was rather a history book talking about colonialism, but it was effective. Looking for the sources on contemporary forms of racism was quite easy but I took those books which explicitly gave examples (in writings or images) of different forms of racism in modern society. One of the books led me to many different words in modern racism like racial profiling, institutionalized racism, minimization of racism etc and so this is how I got another source which had a plethora of these newly described words. The line which continuously repeated in all of my sources was the negative impact of racism on Blacks, something which everybody knows, so I searched for books on influences of racism on Whites and after a lot of searching I finally found a helpful book.

Methodology- I wanted a synthesis of resources from 2 different (may be opposite) views/angles in my research paper, so I got one of the books written by Englishmen David Allen talking about history and perpetuation of racism without taking a stance and a contemporary book extremely critical of racism. Then I took 2 different books but written in nearly same time so that I can get to know more about modern racism with 2 viewpoints. Both the books talked about the same thing but with different examples which helped me understand the basis of modern racism. Finally, I took a book which analyzed the relationship between young white children and what happens when they are first exposed to racism.

If we look at a brief timeline of race starting from 1600′s we will see that it was non- existent till early 1700′s, then in 1700’s and 1800’s it played a major role in determining servant and master status (which infamously led to slavery and servitude for life), was at its peak during English colonialism and Jim Crow segregation laws, became somewhat of a lesser force after civil rights and it was after the civil rights movement that the modern, indirect and unseen forms of racism developed.

Remember the Jim Crow rules?

Source- Google Images

Looking into the history we find that the term race had been used to refer to humans occasionally since the 16th century in the English language but was rarely used to refer to populations in the slave trade. It was a mere classificatory term like kind, type or even breed or stock but had no clear meaning until the 18th century (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). It was at this time the English began to have wider experiences with varied populations and gradually developed attitudes and beliefs that had not appeared before in Western history (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). The English had a long history of enmity with the Irish on their borders and out of their hostility with the Irish, created an image of “savagery” in which they (Irish) became institutionalized as “the other”. Savagery soon embedded in English life which led to the construction of their own identity as “civilized” Englishmen. Every new experience, along with growing technological superiority, political and material success widened the differences and denigrated all other people who were not part of the civilized world or who resisted the English much like indigenous people (Allen, 1994). With the early rise of merchant capitalism, development of new forms of wealth, notions about individual freedom, property rights, self-sufficiency, the English identified themselves uniquely from other Europeans and started calling them lower-class Europeans (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015).

The “invention” of the white race took place after an early, but unsuccessful, colonial revolt of servants and poor freedman known as Bacon’s rebellion in 1676 (Allen, 1994). The colonialists subsequently decided to establish a division among the masses of poor to further prevent their collaboration against government authorities. Since European servants, had the protection of English law, colonial leaders developed policies backed up by law that separated African servants and freedmen of European origin. The laws provided resources and benefits to poor, white freedmen and restricted the rights of Africans, Indians. Sooner class divisions diminished among poor whites and they started to symbolize themselves as “whites”/upper class/colonialist due to their light skins and common grounds in Europe and started to accumulate power and wealth (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). By mid 19th century racial class and racial ideology had already been established with whites being the superior and the masters and African-American being inferior and the slaves.

After knowing the history of race we shift our focus on contemporary forms of racism, something that has largely gone unnoticed and seen as naturalized or in other words it has the green light of the people. Best example that comes in the mind is that people have naturally accepted that whites and blacks cannot live in the same neighbourhood. However except for members of white supremacist organizations, few whites in the United States claim to be “racist”. Infact most whites assert that they “don’t see any color, just people”? (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, Chapter-3, 2013) (Ryan, William. 2004). So the natural question arises is that who are the people that are making this housing segregation among whites and blacks. It is because Blacks have less access to the entire housing market because whites, through a variety of exclusionary practices by white realtors and homeowners, have been successful in effectively limiting their entrance into many neighborhoods. The thing that strikes is that white people still think that race is no longer prevalent in America, but the above example was one of many methods of discrimination. Another such discriminatory method that comes in our mind is the increased mass incarceration of blacks where white cops (who are being paid by the taxes given by the citizens including black people) intentionally prison and even kill the black people for most minor of offenses and sometimes even for no offense. This is something called “racial profiling” (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Framework Essay 2, 2015). One of the example of racial profiling in Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Framework Essay 3 (2015) stands out where it says that when crack consumption increased among white people the government responded by increasing treatment tables in hospitals and extending insurance plans whereas when crack started influencing black people the government increased the prison numbers and started a “war on drugs”. This is what we call “color-blind racism” or “racism without racists” (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013).

Color-blind racism can be understood when comparing Jim Crow rules (a direct method of discrimination) and what we call “victim blaming”. Jim Crow racism explained blacks’ social standing as the result of their biological and moral inferiority, color-blind racism avoids such facile arguments. Instead, whites rationalize minorities’ contemporary status as the product of market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomena, and blacks’ imputed cultural limitations (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013). We have heard white people accusing blacks of being like thugs, lazy and advising them to work hard in order to gain wealth and power thus getting up in the societal ladder. This is the best example of what we call “victim blaming” (Ryan, William. 2004). Segregated houses are defended by saying that is natural and obvious that people from the same community and color want to live with one another and is something which has been accepted by the people (both blacks and whites) as well.

This is what the press had to say about the image- “A young man walks through chest-deep flood water after looting a grocery store”.

Source- Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008

The press said this about the image- “Two residents wade through chest-deep waters after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store”.

Source- Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008

As we know that media impacts the whole society, or its sphere of influence includes everyone. With a careful consideration we might be able to find the “race card/ race angle” as in the case of black man it is written “looting the store” whereas in case of white couple it says, “finding food from the grocery”. Without a doubt the captions and the images stirred up significant controversy with people saying that the images were racially suggestive that whites “find” and blacks “loot” (Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008).

It does require a great deal of imagination to think that how did the photographer knew that the black man looted the food whereas the white couple found the food. Had the captions been not there the same meaning would have been interpreted because race of the subjects inscribes those meanings (Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008). This stereotype that blacks are bad boys portrays the frame of mind of the people. Dr. King was not wrong saying that “people are judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.” (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013) but he must have never predicted that character of black people would be associated with murder, rapes, smuggling and of course loot and that of white people exactly the opposite. It was during the aftermath of Katrina only that the round of media speculation started where the media was showing that properties and people near the flood-affected area were being harmed, the news of rapes, murders were circulating the whole time on T.V. The people most affected from Katrina were poor black only, who were dying due to inadequate arrangements of the government after the flood and improper care of people by the government before the flood. The media changed the attention of the people from government ineffectiveness and the number of people dying to over-representation of blacks as criminals. So, media at the same time does under-reporting (what would be the future of affected people, government carelessness) to over-reporting (blacks are criminals) (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013).

Think of a renowned white person who would you call racist, you will find many examples. However, think of a renowned white person you would call anti-racist activist, you will have a hard time remembering the name of any such person, but you will ultimately find someone. Not very often we had heard of impacts of racism on white people (especially young children). Consider a young white boy growing up, according to whom everyone is equal, realizes that the people of his color/community have commited some atrocious crimes against the blacks and he is the superior race and thus privileged. If he overcomes this realization of guilt he will take one of 2 extreme steps either completely avoiding the topic of race and racism and becoming the so called “neutral” and completely assimilate oneself to the hidden structures of racism or having a lot of black people as friends, spending a lot of time in the black community and ultimately wanting to act like a black person (Tatum, Beverly, 2009). Both these steps are the reasons behind the lack of white anti-racist activist. As we might know from the two options above that people will go towards the first one or the safer one and stop critically analyzing the things around them.

“Blacks came to America because the whites brought them here. It is due to their cheap labor, the economy of America is so good so why are they being forced out of the country with titles like “freedom from negro” becoming very common”.

In conclusion we can say that the introduction of racial segregation and racial identities was done by the English because of their fear of poor whites and possibly slaves engaging in rebellions together. From all the way to contemporary times what we see is “institutionalized” racism in popular culture and is reflected in the attitudes and beliefs of the people who have naively accepted it.

Works cited-

Allen, David, Elliston. The Naturalist in Britain :- A social history, Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 1994, Print

Rosenblum, Karen E and Toni-Michelle C. Travis. The Meaning of Difference: American Construction of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, sexual Orientation, and Disability- Framework Essay 1, Framework Essay 2, Reading 1. McGraw Hill, 7th edition, 2015

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2013. Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. Plymouth, UK: Blue Ridge Summit: Chapter 1, Chapter 3, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013. 4th edition.

Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008. "Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?" in The Meaning of Difference : American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability, edited by Karen Elaine Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, c2008.5th Ed.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. 2009. "Teaching White Students about Racism: The Search for White Allies and the Restoration of Hope." Pp. 277-88 in Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education, edited by Edward Taylor, David Gillborn, and Gloria Ladson-Billings. New York: Routledge.

Ryan, William. 2004. "Blaming the Victim." in Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, edited by Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. 6th ed.

Reflections

1st reflection

With the help of multi-modal compositions, I was able to portray how media plays a role in sustaining racism and creating a vibe against Blacks. Also in the 1st project I had to give a long, written examples of contemporary racism, whereas in the 2nd project I was able to add more meaning to what I was trying to convey in less words by providing the images of a black man and a white couple wading through high waters in the aftermath of Katrina by putting the images first and then somewhat of a little explanation. By just reading the first few lines the reader will be able to understand what I am trying to say. In a way the multi-modal components created a good balance between images and words thus increasing effectiveness of my topic.

2nd reflection

In the 1st project I was not able to get the main point of in-class texts and my sources and used to write around the main points of the texts which was evident from my long summaries in annotated bibliography. However, the more sources I went through, I was more able to be more “specific” about the main theme of my research topic and was able to get the main gist of the text in general as well which can be seen in the conclusion of this project.

During my searching of sources, I encountered various sociological and modern words defining contemporary racist ideologies. Hence words like racial profiling, institutionalized racism, minimization of racism added more depth to my topic and helped me take a “critical” stance against existing racial structures and thinking.

3rd reflection

My research paper is an argumentative essay which tries to persuade the reader to think critically of the existing racial structures. Another genre that I could have used would be a blog as a research paper is less impactive in comparison to a blog, which is more effective and to the point. For a research paper we think about a certain topic and then search for our reference sources whereas in a blog we write what we think is right or wrong. In all, blog comes from the inside of a person whereas research paper comes from scholarly sources and is hence influenced.

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digilance · 3 years

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10 Essential On-Page SEO Factors you would like to Know.

Discover what on-page SEO is, why it matters, and 10 of the foremost important on-page SEO considerations you need to focus on to succeed.

Succeeding in organic search today requires optimizing for a mixture of things that search engines consider important – technical, on-page and off-page.

Over the years, we’ve seen increased focus toward off-page techniques – like link building – and other technical elements.

But the truth is, off-page SEO won’t do much good if you don’t concentrate to the basics – on-page SEO.

Smart SEO practitioners know that on-page optimization should be constantly prioritized.

And because the search landscape is ever-evolving, it’s important to form sure your on-page knowledge is up to date.

in this post we will cover what on-page SEO is, what it matter, and 10 of the most important on-page SEO considerations today.

What Is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO (also referred to as onsite SEO) refers to the practice of optimizing sites to enhance a website’s program rankings and earn organic traffic.

In addition to publishing relevant, high quality content, on-page SEO includes optimizing your headlines, HTML tags (title, meta, and header), and pictures . It also means ensuring your website features a high level of experience , authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

Why On-Page SEO is vital On-page?

SEO is vital because it helps search engines understand your website and its content, also as identify whether it's relevant to a searcher’s query.

As search engines become more sophisticated, there's a greater focus toward relevance and semantics in program results pages (SERPs).

Google, with its plethora of complex algorithms, is now far better at:

1,Understanding what users are literally checking out once type a query.

2,Delivering search results that meet user intent (informational, shopping, navigational).

Adapting to the present development is important , and you'll roll in the hay by ensuring that your website and its content – both what's visible to users on your webpages (i.e., text, images, video, or audio) and elements that are only visible to look engines (i. e; HTML tags, structured data) – are well-optimized according to the latest best practices.

Additionally, you can’t simply ignore on-page SEO because you've got more control when optimizing for onsite elements – as against off-page SEO that consists of external signals (i.e., backlinks).

If you set effort into on-page strategies, you’ll see a lift in traffic and an increase in your search presence.

This guide will walk you thru the foremost important elements of on-page

SEO.

Paying close attention to those 10 areas will help improve your content and authority – and increase your rankings, traffic, and conversions.

1. E-A-T

EAT, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, is that the framework that Google raters use to assess content creators, webpages, and websites as a whole.

Google has always put a premium on high quality content. It wants to form sure that sites producing high quality content are rewarded with better rankings and sites that make low quality content get less visibility.

There is a clear relationship between what Google considers high quality content and what appears within the search results.

Call it correlation or causation – whatever it's , E-A-T is somehow playing a task in Google’s organic search results. which suggests E-A-T must be a consideration in your SEO strategy.

2. Title Tag

The title tag, an HTML tag that exists within the head section of every webpage, provides an initial cue or context on what the topical material is of the respective page it's on.

It is featured prominently within the program results pages (typically used because the clickable link) also as within the browser window.

The title tag by itself has little impact on organic rankings, this why it’s sometimes overlooked.

That said, missing, duplicate, and poorly written title tags can all negatively impact your SEO results, so confirm you’re optimizing for this element.

3. Meta Description

Since the first days of SEO, meta descriptions are a crucial optimization point.

Meta descriptions, meta tags that provide an outline of what the page is about, are often displayed within the SERPs underneath the title of the page.

While Google maintains that meta descriptions don’t help with rankings, there's anecdotal evidence that indirect attributes of higher descriptions do help.

Optimizing meta description correctly can help improve:

A. Click through rate (CTR).

B. Perception of the standard of the result.

C. Perception of what your website offers all change.

4. Headlines

Want your website content to perform well on search? Then start writing compelling headlines.

Coming up with a title for a blog post might sound too basic, but an excellent headline can mean the difference between a click and an impact – that’s why it’s important to make them strategically.

Your headlines got to spark interest for it to face out on the SERPs – enticing users to click through and continue reading the remainder of the content.

5. Header Tags

Header tags are HTML elements (H1H6) wont to identify headings and subheadings within your content from other sorts of text (e.g., paragraph text).

Header tags aren’t as critically important for your site rankings as they wont to be, but these tags still serve a crucial function – for your users and your SEO.

They can indirectly impact your rankings by:

A. Making your content easier and more enjoyable for visitors to read.

B. Providing keyword rich context about your content for the search engines.

6. SEO Writing

SEO writing means writing content with both search engines and users in mind.

There is a technique behind writing solid SEO content – and it's quite just keyword research and fill within the blanks.

Simply producing content for the sake of it won’t do. Remember that you’re writing content for people – therefore that content must be high quality, substantial, and relevant.

7. Keyword Cannibalization

True or false? The more pages you've got targeting a keyword, the higher you’ll rank for that keyword.

False!

Targeting a selected term across multiple pages can cause “keyword cannibalization” which has some potentially disastrous consequences for your SEO.

When you have multiple pages ranking for an equivalent keyword, you’re actually competing with yourself.

It’s important to spot whether keyword cannibalization exists on your website and resolve it directly.

8. Content Audit

Most content creators are focused on creating new content that they forget to audit their existing content. And this is often an error.

Auditing your existing content is crucial because it helps you:

A. Evaluate whether your existing content is achieving its goals and gaining ROI.

B. Identify whether the knowledge in your content remains accurate or has become stale (or even outdated).

C. Determine what sorts of content are working for you.

Content audits can greatly help your SEO strategy and that they should be done on a daily basis.

9. Image Optimization

Adding images may be a great way to form your webpages more appealing. But not all images are created equal – some can even hamper your website.

Optimizing images properly will assist you make the foremost of a valuable SEO asset.

Image optimization has many advantages, such as:

Additional ranking opportunities (show up on Google Image Search).

A. Better user experience.

B. Faster page load times.

Images shouldn’t be an afterthought. confirm to include images that support your content and use descriptive titles and alt text.

10. User Engagement

Enhancing your website’s on-page SEO elements is merely half the battle.

The other half lies in ensuring that users won't bounce – but instead, they’ll continue viewing your content, interacting with it, and keep returning for more.

Retaining engaged users may be a great challenge in itself, but it’s certainly doable. to extend user engagement, focus on aspects such as site speed, user experience, and content optimization, among others.

Conclusion

On-page SEO is vital if you would like to extend your website’s chances of exposure within the search results.

Optimizing for onsite factors on a daily basis can help improve your rankings, traffic, and conversions.

#SEO Company in Patna SEO Services in Patna SEO Agency in Patna White hat SEO in Patna

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bonbrizzle · 6 years

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Here you Rise, Furiously and Fearlessly

Log Line: Labeling in Tattooing: Seemingly Disastrous or Actually Misconstrued?

For my lovely Tumblr followers, this piece is written especially for you.

To give a bit of info about myself to those who are new or aren’t familiar with the writer of this blog, I’m Bonnie, an undergrad at UC Davis. If you’re an OG here, you’ve seen me experience tremendous changes throughout the years I’ve maintained this blog. Due to a mish-mash of circumstances I’m unfortunately not as keen about writing long feel-fests as as often as I did in high school. Back then, days were slower, school meant less, and we all had so much more much needed free-time. As many of you may or may not know, I’m a first generation Vietnamese-American girl born and raised in the most ecstatically eccentric part of the country, the (San Francisco) Bay Area. While I was able to grow up in one of the most progressive areas in the world, my parents weren’t given this luxury we take for granted here. The rift between our two cultures forced me to grapple with a singular sense of “identity” throughout the majority (or entirety? actually) of my life. Many of you fellow Asian Americans are aware of the difficulty in regards to finding a comfortable medium between the lifestyles of both your parents and yourself.

Any-who, I am writing to my fellow tattooed folk in zealous hopes. I have a willful and fire-y desire to push you all to keep on fighting. Fight the stereotypes burdened upon us as a people. Fight to change the way we, society (as a whole), interpret labeling. If you haven’t already noticed, our culture is bizarrely infatuated with the need for identification. Let’s try to undermine this idea with a grand plan.

While I usually materialize just my subjective POV in this diary-like blog of mine, at this instant I’ll be tacking on a little something extra. This piece has the familiar anecdotal experiences that one is familiar with in reading my style, (mixed with subjective thoughts, etc) AND will have some interlaced informative/factual bits to provide you with some background info. If you are compelled, you’re more than welcome to investigate further...and or skim as you wish! I mainly chose to write about resistance and tattooing’s marriage with labeling because I’m enamored about tattoo as a culture. Don’t be alarmed! It is not a research paper. It is a branch of anthropology that requires me to provide some sort of anecdotal recollection of my experience(s) with resistance. In actuality, I haven’t updated in so long, I’m not even sure if anyone’s listening. “Posting into your Tumblr is like talking to your cat. You’re not sure if anyone is listening, but it feels good anyway.” To those who will continue to be loyal to my musings, I hope this piece leaves you with a sprinkle of new insight or a refreshed perspective.

You may or may not be familiar with the newfound anxiety that tags along with getting your first piece. Going into the shop on the day of, I was like anyone else...ridden with anxiety and feverishly wondering if this life-changing decision would alter the way I fit into the world. Would the modified version of me be rejected and outcasted by society? My cocktail of feelings was mixed with a variation of things. Some of it dismal, because maybe my parents would disown me. Others were optimistic, I finally was getting one step closer to the way I only dreamed to look. As I was being escorted onto the tattooing chair, I discovered my circumstances were changing everso quickly. Was I leaving my previous identity behind? Yes, this does seems dramatic, but to be frank, I didn’t fully realize the intensity of this horrifying possibility until the days to started to dwindle. Imagining my future around my family and wanting their acceptance seemed grim, but I stayed positive because I knew this was exactly what I wanted.

Maturing through the lessons of traditional Vietnamese folks meant I was constantly torn between accepting the traditional aspects of being a Vietnamese daughter, while also trying to navigate myself around what being American means to me. Pressure to fill the image of a traditional Vietnamese woman in the eyes of my parents surrounded many reasons behind my actions and plagued my subconscious. I feared they would judge their ability to raise a child by watching me grow into what they dreamed, while evaluating me by my qualities of submissiveness, obedience, and "normality,” But I didn’t want to blend into the rest of the colors and become a muddled brown, being arbitrarily mixed with everybody else. I am not only Vietnamese, but American. Being American means a plethora of things. To me, it is mainly founded upon the notion that you should always allow yourself to have an opinion. Not only in America should you be informed and form opinions from what you’re surrounded by, you need be unabashedly outspoken. In my specific case, being an American in the bay meant even moreso using these exclusive opportunities to fight courageously both for your rights and for what’s right. In an overall sense, this meant acceptance. Let yourself thrive, be who you want to be––without a care in the world––and bloom wherever you are planted.

Let’s take at a comparison between my brother and I. To someone like him, the identity route resembles straight line. My brother seems to lie on the side of the scale that’s on the complete opposite end of what I’m on. He is undoubtedly a gifted child. With that being said, he became simply a breeze for my parents to teach. Never to stray to committing anything outlandish, my brother willfully blended into the cloak of “normality.” I want to note that there is nothing wrong with the desire to be normal. So for my parents, he was a prize, a gifted student with not a single note of resistance; a child who was everso far from the idea of “troubled.” On the other end of the spectrum however, was little ‘ol me, a small Asian girl who started out as a little bit obnoxious and is still honking and tonking with confliction to this day.

It originated early on in my life but came to show it’s face in high school. The amount of worrying about my future my parents were plagued with increased every time I dyed my hair abnormal and kooky color. In high school I died my hair more than 30 times. Throughout the process of maturing, gnawing teenage angst hindered me from communicating the way I needed to with my folks. Because of this, my parents didn’t understand me at all, and thought even moreso that I was trying to erase my identity as a Vietnamese woman after dyeing my hair bright blond for the first time. “Are you trying to be white?!” My dad roared at me as he stared at my bright, freshly bleached blond hair in disbelief. This idea of me that I was running away from the idea of being normal was devastating to my parents. “Will she be okay? Will the kids at school make fun of her?” The idea of me being bizarre to hasn’t stopped there though, unfortunately. However, it’s started to take a change in direction.

After adding several new piercings to my ensemble of body modifications, I eventually broadened myself to a new and considerably “outlandish” form of self expression, the tattoo. Writing this now, I just wanted to say that luckily for me, my parents were able to find a a new meaning for my eccentric taste and childlike imagination. Going out of my way to receive this tattoo, a completely unfamiliar form of body modification meant I was changing myself drastically. This fear only translated to one thought: I would never be the same. Being tattooed meant permanent “disfiguration,” to my parents, and that frightened them immensely. With their somber fear riding on my shoulder, in moved in my old pal anxiety. Would I regret this? Would my family be ashamed to be seen with me, or even worse, reject me fully? Making this conscious decision to permanently alter myself opened a new door of unfamiliarity, something so scary but something I wanted so badly at the same time. I argued with this little voice in my head, the voice that kept telling me that I wasn’t making a bad decision, and would still of course, be a respected member in society. This dream of mine, looking and feeling the way I wanted to unapologetically and fearlessly, gave me the the courage to make the decision to finally make the change. This new drive to bravely make conscious decisions for myself gave me a sense of empowerment and even security. My skin was my own, and I can bravely defend that idea. In getting tattoos, I am forever altering my identity and resisting the labels primarily associated with being an Asian female in today’s world.

So first, what is it about tattooing that’s so special to this project about resistance?

The tattoo on my arm in Davis is a nouveau form of self expression. To the myriads of people around me, it might be perceived in many different ways, depending on the individual is who’s looking at it. Those of you who are familiar with me know that in me is an immense appreciation for art. So tremendous that I even applied to UCLA as an art major 3 years ago. This blossomed into the supreme desire to be inked, having a permanent form of art to adorn on my body forever. I dealt with bullying in the past for dyeing my hair the range of the rainbow, but nothing felt like what I was about to do to my skin. Hair is always able to grow out and revert back to the way it was. Skin, however, was not. But the possibility of bullying didn’t scare me. It never scared me because it always came from doing something I wanted, and loved. In this case, it was the same, but not...the new audience was my parents, my respected relatives, my extended family...not my immature classmates from school.

Tattoos can have a lot of stigmas behind them. Stigmas come from a variety of individuals who interpret something in a certain light. Here in reality there obviously is a plethora of different perspectives one can interpret the tattoo as. Because of this diversity, I must connect what I learned in my anthropology class this fall, to the idea trying to be expressed in this blog post, that there is a multiplicity of ways we as a people can digest the things around us, depending on who we are as people, whether be in groups like socio-economical or individually, like “Asian American,” for example.

On a personal scale, the tattoo on my arm to me is a beloved form of self-expression. It is an area of my body that represents, or shows some indication about who I am and the things I love. It is a form of my identity that gives me confidence and comfort in my own skin, it makes me feel more beautiful, special, etc. But to others, it can be taken in a completely different light.

To authoritarians, like my future employers, it may look entirely different. These authoritarians, based on the previous history of tattoos, may believe that I may be harboring some criminal tendencies, may not take school or my education seriously, or am frankly––even a “good for nothing,” individual. This all depends on many different things, however, like what environment the authoritarian grew up in, what kind of environment they are surrounded by now, what their personal views on “x” and “y” are, etc. Because of this dangerous tendency, individuals like me who like to wear tattoos may be slightly more secretive, and get pieces done that are easily hidden. In places like Portland, in Oregon, however, tattoos are very common and popularized by the rising modernity scene. You can easily see a bunch of tattoos individuals hanging out at multiple joints in the city, all without a care in the world. This is because the city of Portland is open to this form of art, and has gotten moreso used to it by now. In other places, say maybe more conservative states where tattoos are less popularized, like Philadelphia as a friend once told me, tattooed individuals can be shunned, stared at viciously, and even treated with disrespect.

To older-generations, tattooing comes off as taboo and an indicator of poor-morals. Because tattoos are constantly shown off on criminals, adorned by gang-members, etc. These stigmas in tattooing have been constantly perpetuated by tattoo culture in criminalized areas, or jails and prisons. Those who spend some of their time in these institutions typically get tattooed by non-professional “friends,” who don’t use cleanly measures like sterilization. Those who get these “homemade tattoos,” can give tattooing a bad rep, because the public views these individuals as a whole image, a criminal with tattoos, so a person with tattoos will most likely have some tendency to do immoral things. Because of this constantly breathed idea, the tattoo to the public can give a lot of citizens anxiety. They can be immediately threatened by this individual who looks like they’re up to no good, and if they were to assume who the tattooed individual is, they would probably not reach for the guess of say, a doctor or a lawyer.

Likewise to the Japanese, tattoos are an indicator of a troublesome individual who is associated with some type of Yakuza group, or “gang,” in Japanese. Those who are dedicated to the lifestyle of their respective gangs in Japanese culture prove their loyalty by getting big tattoos spread all over their body, because obviously if you weren’t a dedicated member why would you A) subject yourself to that type of pain B) be committed to permanent body art for the rest of your life? Because of this traditional idea, Japanese people, although conservative already, are not able to be comfortable around tattooed individuals, and even go as far as banning tattooed individuals at public bath-houses, the “onsen,” they call it.

To give an even more extreme example, take tattooing during WWII. Jews who were captured and wrongfully imprisoned by Nazi concentration camps during the war were not only cruelly mistreated and tortured, but were also branded like caged animals. Jewish prisoners had numbers etched into their wrists in order to mark them as prisoners but also label them so they were easier to keep track of. This marking gave them a huge sense of shame and misery, and was forever a reminder to them of a nightmare so horrible they wish it didn’t really unfold. Because of this, Jewish people, as I noted when browsing on Quora this one day, are not at all interested in getting tattoos. They may not be so critical of others getting ink done, but for themselves, would never because of the terrible past and memories associated behind it.

To tattoo artists, on another note, tattoos are a form of art that they create, but also prosper from. The tattoo on my arm may look like a mark of criminalization on me to naysayers, but to these artists, the creation of the tattoo on my arm meant they were able to eat dinner or have a roof over their heads for another day. After meeting a couple artists while searching for the perfect artist for me, I learned a little bit more about the tattooing scene in their perspective. Lianna deFleur, a floral specialized artist in San Francisco, noted to me that tattooing to her is a form of valuable and beautiful expression. Every time one of her clients leaves with a new piece, she feels like she is giving the world another beautiful piece of artwork to be loved and cherished, and that all those who are marked by her all share a beautiful piece of herself, that she worked so long and dutifully to create. Likewise, because of those who want tattoos, the industry has grown so large and normalized that you can now see cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, and Portland full of tattooed individuals. The rising scene has given birth to an abundance of careers, whether giving ink or tool shops more business, or giving an artist more fame. These artists give rise to individuals who are selling certain materials: ink, tattoo needles, sterilization tools, spaces for rent, etc. Such a new industry has also gifted communities with more openness and awareness to the trueness of tattooing, that it is an art-form that shouldn’t be feared. While I usually don’t support capitalism and the monetization of everything, the monetization of the process of tattooing has gifted certain individuals with a new way of life, while blessing others in the process.

To other tattooed individuals, my tattoo may be a source of common ground, another way to connect to a stranger that they’ve never met before, even without ever speaking to them. I know that when I go out and I see a fellow tattooed person, I feel a little more connected and comfortable with them, because they understand the way it feels to be marked and forever changed by ink. There’s a quote that I heard that I believe is exceptionally true. It is as follows, “The only difference between tattooed people and non tattooed people is tattooed people don’t care if you are not tattooed.” I think this quote represents our population pretty well. When hearing the quote for the first time, I am reminded of American politics. This is because a lot of individuals who fight against something sometimes fight for things that don’t relate to them. For example, I can speak about the issue of marriage equality when talking about gay marriage. A lot of conservatives who voted against gay marriage argue that it is to protect the purity of marriage between a man and a woman, and to allow marriage to be in a different form would be allowing the sanctity of marriage to be at risk. Although allowing gay marriage to exist may not apply to the person directly who is voting against it, it hurts those that want it. Similarly to how people who aren’t tattooed despise tattoos and don’t want others to get them, although it doesn’t directly affect them. I say if it’s not hurting anyone to let it be. However, in this case I am no way trying to equate tattoo culture to the need for marriage equality, for those who feel like I am being insensitive, I apologize, and wanted to use a simple example, although not perfectly appropriate.

There is a great deal of types of tattoo in the community. Because of this, many different genres of tattoos have developed over time. From the homemade, branding types that scare people away, to other more recognizable types like “Old American,” tattooing. I think all the people who get the same genre of tattoo also feel a strong sense of connection towards each other, the connection through mutual appreciation of the same artform. In my case, I especially love blackwork tattoos, a tattooing style that places special appreciation and priority for black and grey ink only, without color at all. This style of tattooing to me, as a form of art, looks very crisp and clean cut. Other styles I especially love are florals. The different genres in tattooing allow smaller groups to form from the overall larger group, and allows individuals like me to seek out other people who also enjoy the same art form, again a part of tattooing that specializes individuality but also the seeking of mutual common ground.

After announcing to my housemate about the subject on my final project, he asked what about tattooing am I trying to write about? I told him that tattooing has so many different genres, and sub-genres, and subgenres of those sub-genres, for example. He noted to me, “Actually, I was just going to mention that. That tattoos can have so many different meanings. A tattoo can represent a positive, happy thing, but also a terrible negative thing. Like if someone has an anti-semitic tattoo sprawled largely across their backside.” I think this is true. While I for one try to always see the positive side of tattooing, there is a stigma for a reason. I have to admit that this is true. The problem of the stigma arises because some individuals choose to get tattoos that are hurtful, and are negative, and this hurts the community in a general sense.

Likewise, you could get a tattoo that is both sad and positive. Some individuals get the date of their loved ones deaths tattooed. This is both to commemorative in the best, loving way, but also melancholic and can be opening up to a sad memory, a bad thing. Tattoos can be viewed in so many different ways, but to me I want to try to alter it to be more accepted as less of a bad thing and more of an individual thing, like dyeing your hair for example.

The enormous stigma behind tattoos have created a rift between people who understand and perpetuate the culture and those who resent and fight against the culture. Let me talk to you about how tattoos fit in our world and how we fit in the world of the tattoo.

My tattoo was produced by an artist at Black and Blue Tattoo named Michael DeMatty. He first drew up a drawing and presented it to me, asking me how I wanted it tweaked, trying to adhere to my taste as much as possible. This is a time-consuming process that he needs to get right perfectly in order for the tattoo to exist in the most positive light. The drawing may take a long time, need a considerable amount of retouching, and may have many opportunities to change into something else. Most often busy artists charge a fee for a drawing that they use as a deposit to the tattoo, because they only want committed clients who will not back out and waste their time. After my initial consultation with him, DeMatty drew up my design, then stenciled it onto special tracing paper. On the day of it was his responsibility to adhere the stencil precisely and accurately onto my bicep so all the lines would match up as accordingly. This was a tiring process because the horizontal lines wouldn’t line up much of the time, and the stencil had to be redone time and time again. Afterwards, when everything was stenciled on and placed correctly, DeMatty started tattooing me, a process that took multiple tattooing needles of different sizes, widths, and amounts. All these needles were stabbed a gazillion times into the skin on my bicep.

The ink involved in my tattoo is from a laborer that DeMatty has sought out himself, the ink supplier is a trusted laborer and that creates ink that went from their own production line to now inside my skin, for the rest of my life.

Tattooing history has come a significantly long way. It went from being a practice in villages in Southeast Asia and even the earliest Native Americans to being a common form of self-expression in many countries and the beyond, in this case, the US. Villages used tattooing as a form of marking, status, and symbol. In the past it has been traditionally done with needles tied around sticks, dipped in ink that was made from mashed up flowers. It has it’s dark history, however, as a means to mark Jews during WWII, in concentration camps.

Nowadays, tattooing has evolved, because mine was made through the effort of a tattooing needle machine, which is automatic, and electric. The creation of the tattoo happens primarily in the shop, it sometimes originates from the ideas of the individual getting tattooed, but after the action has been completed at the shop, the tattoo is generally maintained on the person.

After I got my tattoo, I healed it with special burn victim ointments, like bacitracin. I kept it covered for the first weeks, and now I maintain the color with sunscreen, everyday.

The tattoo originated and inked into my arm in San Francisco, California, but it’s traveled to a plethora of places. It’s traveled to my hometown in San Jose, the cities on the way to Davis, California where I go to University. It has even traveled to Los Angeles and all the cities on I-5 N and I-5, so the cities in between.

Here is a picture of myself, staring at the Seattle sky during a great weekend in May. I wasn’t reluctant to wear a tank-top here because Seattle is more progressive than other places, and I happily and gratefully noticed that there were other tattooed individuals scattered across this city as well! I think my tattoo is simple enough that people won’t judge it very much, and if they do, I wouldn’t know what they would really say about it anyway. The three band tattoo sitting on my right bicep pays homage to Native American styles of tattooing. One that places special emphasis on lines. The three lines represent each member of my family: mom, dad, and brother. I would assume no one would really know this by looking at it, which is nice. I think it also looks really aesthetically pleasing, which is a good reason to get a tattoo too if you like it!

A Wide Angle View

Tattoos are generally scrutinized as a categorization, one that links criminal or suspicious looking citizens into a group as a whole, unfavored by most of society. However, tattoos also can mean a plethora of different things. In this case, tattoos as a form of historical art are a form of self-expression, and continue to act as a visual culture to all those who love and adorn them.

Tattoos, in a historical sense, were meant to mark tribe members with important symbols to shine light upon them as special group members. This could mean adorning the leader of the tribe with the most detailed and beautiful ink, or even to brand criminals as those who need to be taken note of and feared.

The economy behind tattoos as a form of art has grown tremendously throughout the past decade, from being labeled as an illegal act in the state of Massachusetts previously to be a bustering new business in the city of San Francisco, where tattoo shops are in full demand. While tattoos before looked simply like a way to brand those who broke the law, there now is a whole new meaning to the act of tattooing itself, one could look at it in a whole sense as a form of resistance against society, but on a more personal sense––as a form of belonging, one that allows us to express ourselves, but also be a sort of rite-of-passage to those who are old enough to get it done legally.

I for one, felt like I was breaking the stereotype culture of Asian women as submissive and obedient when I went into Black & Blue Tattoo in San Francisco to adorn myself with new ink. I got 3 bands done around the bicep of my right arm, in thus paying homage to the Native American tribal style of tattooing, one dating back to as far as 2000 BCE. This style of tattooing was prominent when the natives were tattooed, becoming a religious ritual, usually during war-time. The band style of tattooing was usually present to distinguish different tribes from each other.

To me, it meant personally to rid myself of the submissive stereotype but also be there to remind me of my family’s permanent impact on me, with 3 bands being for 3 family members––my mother, father, and brother. My parents at first, were not crazy about me getting tattooed. I thought to myself, that this was a choice for me to make. I loved the artistic side of tattooing, and wanted to be a collector, but was also afraid of all the prejudices society already has set up for me. Tattooed individuals are not looked at with the most equal and honest eye by society due to the general criminal stereotype. I think personally, with the general introduction of good-mannered, kind-hearted individuals with tattoos being present in society, there will be at least a small shift in the perspective of those who still view tattooing as a negative categorization of criminals, with my existence being as useful as possible.

So what does this all have to do with labeling and resistance?

I feel as though these two aspects of tattooing go hand in hand with each other. Tattoos, on one side are a form of categorization. Those who are tattooed are lumped together as a group, judged collectively in a lot of time bad ways, and are stereotyped as a group accordingly. At the same time, the idea that tattooed individuals are looked as a group has its perks as well. I mentioned earlier that when I meet a fellow tattooed individual, I feel a little more connected to this person, even if I don’t know them personally. This is because I feel as though the person also experiences the same judgements placed upon them by society as me, and because of that we can be empathetic towards each other. Likewise, when we are grouped together as a collective, I feel as though we can resist the stereotype together, not while acting as a group, but changing people’s of tattoos on an individual scale, making it better for the group in general.

Tattooing as a group can be seen as a special thing to help individuals relate and understand each other. While we can be judged harshly as a group, the same group is able to help each other feel and understand each other’s feelings and experiences, which I deeply appreciate. Knowing the stereotype for tattooed individuals and then taking heed this information and changing it by not being the stereotypical “criminal,” or “suspicious,” person will make our group look less daunting as a community. These little steps to resist the stereotype together are what I think can be considered as a new way to interpret the verb, “tattooing,” and “labeling,” Labeling our group as a whole may mean categorization, but it also is a means to help our group come together and resist together.

There is this mutual experience with tattooed individuals about the dilemma about openly showcasing your tattoos. We bond as a group when we know the annoyingness of people who intrusively come up to you to touch your skin or ask you what your tattoo means. We have this silent agreement in the tattooing community that those who come up to you musn’t be intrusive, disruptive, or too invasive to you as they see you. If they do, it’s fine for you to ignore their interaction if you wish. I feel that this is true, and some people don’t have respect for others space when they try to inquire knowledge about another person’s body modifications. This is a way for the group of tattooed individuals to understand each other.

The visual culture surrounding tattoos gives a whole new meaning to the practice now, than it did before. Before, labeling could be seen as a harsh way to judge a tattooed person, instilling upon them stereotypes that they didn’t ask for that may not accurately depict them. Nowadays, tattooed individuals are now in a community that expresses new principles. The tattooed community focuses on the sharing of visual culture through self expression. Tattoos are meant to portray an artist’s best work that also physically symbolizes something a person values, loves, or wants to remember, all in the form of ink.

In tattooed culture, it is wrong to copy another artist’s work, stroke for stroke. There is however, welcoming attitudes to inspiration from another artist, but it is the new artist’s responsibility to make the new piece unique and in a style individually connected to them, therefore keeping the work’s integrity. It is also a very important point to remember that “tattoos are not for today, they are for forever.” This rings true to those individuals who knock down a couple of drinks in a sitting and want to get inked. Artists refuse to ink these people, one because they are making a decision without being sober and therefore have impaired judgement, and two because alcohol thins the blood, making the individual bleed more during the tattooing process, which is dangerous.

There are a couple of conflicts in the community, however, about certain things. A lot of artists scoff at trendy tattoos, while others don’t really care enough for them to reject them outright. This is true for trendy tattoos like: native American dreamcatchers, feather tattoos, infinity signs, Chinese characters, etc. These trendy tattoos can sometimes be harshly judged in the community when an artist refuses to do them, a lot of the reason because society doesn’t respect tattoos that are cultural appropriation, which they shouldn’t be anyway. Those who get tattoos that appropriate another individual’s culture usually make fools of themselves, this is because they usually don’t get the right word they were trying to communicate tattooed. I remember watching a YouTube video on Chinese character tattoos where one individual thought it mean, “bravery,” but when they showed it to their Chinese friend they soon learned that it meant “refrigerator,” which I thought was both humorous and tragic...humorously tragic. On this kind plane, it is easy to see why some people don’t respect tattooing. If you are going to get another culture’s language permanently etched into your body, why not go through some research to get the write meaning instead of making yourself look like a fool? This creates a negative image on those who get tattoos in general.

There is also a firm understanding in the culture that novices should not tattoo professionally. This is because homemade tattoos give professionally done tattoos a bad rep, and make tattoos look bad, or “trashy,” and not respectable. Novices are supposed to learn from professionals by being “apprentices,” and must be recommended and backed by a professional typically to get a permanent position in a tattooing group. There is a special gripe in the community about “tattooing schools,” that artist are insulted by. Tattooing schools serve to simply turn tattooing into a monetized means of production. That is, those who want to start tattooing others to make money can just apply for some generalized class to start their new career. This is dangerous to those who perfected their art and have taken special time to develop their own sense of style, go through hoops to secure a shop, and have learned through the help of fellow tattooed artists. Going to a school for tattooing that doesn’t really care about your work or you individually as a person is a joke to the tattooing community. You can see this easily by reading up posts about “tattooing schools,” on your own.

The fact that there is rules in this new community makes the whole thing so much more special. You can easily see the form of resistance to the stereotypical ideas of tattooing and strip away the previous label placed upon it. The tattooing culture has grown so large that those who love the culture have made strong rules to live by to practice integrity, respect, and mutual understanding of each other. To follow these rules means that you are giving tattoos a new label, one that can connote respect, sensibility, and cultural awareness.

Tattoos as a form of art, contrary to the belief of group categorization, are obviously a way to promote individuality. Many of us individuals who choose to get tattooed look for unique artforms to get adorned onto our bodies. Because of this, you can see in the tattooing world that often tattoos are not repeated exactly as they are, not only because copying another artist’s work is wrong in tattooing culture, but because you usually want a unique piece.

Snake tattoos are common in tattooing culture. Why would anyone get a tattoo of a snake, you might ask? This is a time for me to give you some cultural awareness of tattooing culture. Snakes can be interpreted as vile beings to be feared, but to some, they are beautiful. One point is that snakes have to do with religious texts, such like the inclusion of the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. Secondly, in some cultures, snakes represent healing and rebirth. When a snake sheds its skin and grows into something new, it is like it is being reborn, and healed again into something new. You wouldn’t have really thought about this if you didn’t get an explanation right? It does make sense.

Likewise, when people get tattoos of say, scary symbols such as skulls, this is sometimes an expression of their lack of fear to death. People who are not moved by death sometimes get skull tattoos because they accept that life has it’s unexpected turns and you should live it to its fullest potential. I see that skulls get a bad rep in tattooing culture because some people think it’s a tacky symbol, but it’s there in the traditions of tattooing for a reason.

People are nowadays also placing special emphasis on floral tattoo designs. I see that many individuals think that flowers are beautiful, so why not let them wear them in the form of permanent art? I too stand behind flowers being a beautiful thing to tattoo, and support this movement completely. I love it. The image of a flower is also less scary to people who don’t understand tattoo culture, and therefore can help resist the stereotype of scary tattooed people, one step at a time. I think this movement of including tattoos that aren’t super traditional helps us relabel the idea of tattoos as less of a way to label someone in a negative way, but allow people to think that some people just like the way things look and want to wear them permananently.

So how does this affect me on a more personal scale?

For instance, I noticed you wrote at length about 'labeling' - how others label you, how you sought to relabel yourself, how tattoos can be a way of (re)-labeling, and also how you seek to escape labels entirely.

When I started growing up and noticing the realities of life, I noticed that everyone around me will judge me without my consent, no matter if I like it or not. This is not necessarily a reflection of who they are as people, although it can be, but I think is a simple and integral part of what makes us human. With this being said, I remember in high school sulking and being hurt over the bullying I incurred do to my taste in hair color. I routinely mocked by constant whispers around me when I came into class, and I especially remember those who called me names such as, “Crayola,” and “carrot-head.” While my classmates at school chose to judge me on that part of myself I chose to reveal, I noticed that some individuals who judged me prior decided to still try to be my friend and therefore try to get to know me. My best friend to this day was one of the individuals who thought my hair made me “odd,” and somewhat unapproachable even, but she chose to disregard that for the most part to get to know me personally. Through this, she was able to understand who am as a person and discard her previous idea of me. I want to work this way continuously to escape labels entirely, person by person.

To convert my parents to my side, I first started to warm them up to the idea of me getting a tattoo by slowly hinting at it, and showing them designs that I liked. They didn’t believe me at first, because to them, it was such a preposterous idea. No one in my family has a single tattoo. It is not spoken about, ever, and no one has dared or desired to get one either. I think in Vietnam at least, tattoos are not popular at all, and are simply a part of the idea of a typical street-gang member or institutionally jailed individual. Because of this, my parents weren’t keen on me also “branding” myself and making a choice that I could possibly regret my entire life. Sure enough, I realized that they were going to react this way, and chose to try to educate them instead of permanently resist and do what I want. I started out by telling them how common tattoos are nowadays and noting what percentage of my classmates had big and small tattoos, and also showing them multiple Instagram pages of tattoos, so that they would see how wildly common they are. I also let them know that employers nowadays are more understanding of body art, if it is in moderation. At the end of the day, they just wanted me to be comfortable in my own skin and not bullied or mistreated for being a certain way. I understood this and assured them that this was my dream, and if it would help, I’d get it in an easily hidden place, just in case.

Sure enough, everything ended up alright. I guess my parents are more understanding than others, but I’m glad I was able to convince them from downright rejecting it and saying no, to giving me their blessing, as long as I do my research and get it done at a reputable shop. My extended family however, is a different story. I haven’t gone out of my way to show my tattoo to other family members, who I don’t know as personally, and who I feel won’t choose to accept me in a positive way. I am still taking my chances with these people, and choose to hide it, at least until I’ve gotten a secure job in the outside world. I know that I cannot convince everyone to see my side of the field, but I will continuously try to change people’s ideas of me personally by acting in a different way than they expect me to be.

I admit, to get to know people on a personal scale is extremely difficult. If I were to try to befriend everyone who judged me and get close enough to them where they would learn that I am not “weird,” in a bad way or odd, is too time-consuming, difficult, and honestly, just unrealistic. However, I do want to make it a point to come across to every individual I have an interaction with to change their opinion of me just a little bit, just enough to make me seem like less of a stereotypical person. I go about this in my everyday life, when I’m getting coffee, when I meet a classmate for the first time, etc. At the beginning of a relationship, I usually try to escape from labels by firstly, covering my tattoo. This may seem backwards because I shouldn’t be hiding it, but I find that it is a strength of mine if I can allow myself to be known first, as a non-tattooed individual, and then later, reveal it, to not make it as big of a deal as it usually would be if they just met me for the first time and saw it.

I have this dream that someday people who are tattooed will slowly change the minds of others who think tattoos are are indicator of a person with low morals, etc. I honestly think that this can be accomplished on a small scale, one step at a time. I know that it may take years and years to get to this point, but I feel that if we slowly show others that we are normal, loving, caring, understanding, feeling people like themselves, people will slowly understand

#personal #tattoo #tattooing #project #art #anthropology #paper #creative #seattle #washington #explore #travel

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suzanneshannon · 5 years

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Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution

I LOVE my Amplifi Wi-Fi Mesh Network. I've had it for two years and it's been an absolute star performer. We haven't had a single issue. Rock solid. That's really saying something. From unboxing to installation to running it (working from home for a tech company, so you know I'm pushing this system) it's been totally stable. I recommend Amplifi unreservedly to any consumer or low-key pro-sumer who has been frustrated with their existing centrally located router giving them reliable wi-fi everywhere in their home.

That said...I recently upgraded my home internet service provider. For the last 10 years I've had fiber optic to the house with 35 Mbp/s up/down and it's been great. Then I called them a a few years back and got 100/100. The whole house was presciently wired by me for Gigabit back in 2007 (!) with a nice wiring closet and everything. Lately 100/100 hasn't been really cutting it when I'm updating a dozen laptops for a work event, copying a VM to the cloud while my spouse is watching 4k netflix and two boys are updating App Store apps. You get the idea. Modern bandwidth requirements and life has changed since 2007. We've got over 40 devices on the network now and many are doing real work.

I called an changed providers to a cable provider that offered true gigabit. However, I was rarely getting over 300-400 Mbp/s on my Amplifi. There is a "hardware NAT" option that really helps, but short of running the Amplifi in Bridged Mode and losing a lot of its epic features, it was clear that I was outgrowing this prosumer device.

Give I'm a professional working at home doing stuff that is more than the average Joe or Jane, what's a professional option?

UniFi from Ubiquiti

Amplifi is the consumer/prosumer line from Ubiquiti Networks and UniFi (UBNT) is the professional line. You'll literally find these installed at business or even sports stadiums. This is serious gear.

Let me be honest. I knew UniFi existed. Knew (I thought) all about it and I resisted. My friends and fellow nerds insisted it was easy but I kept seeing massive complex network diagrams and convinced myself it wasn't worth the hassle.

My friends, I was wrong. It's not hard. If you are doing business at home, have a gigabit network pipe, a wired home network, and/or have a dozen or more network devices, you're a serious internet person and you might want to consider serious internet networking gear.

Now, UniFi is more expensive than Amplifi as it's pro gear. While an Amplifi Mesh WiFi system is just about $300-350 USD, UniFi Pro gear will cost more and you'll need stuff to start out and it won't always feel intuitive as you plan your system. It is worth it and I'm thrilled with the result. The flexibility and customizability its offered has been epic. There are literally no internet issues in our house or property anymore. I've even been able to add wired and wireless non-cloud-based security cameras throughout the property. Additionally, remember how the house is already wired in nearly every room with Cat6 (or Cat5e) cabling? UniFi has reintroduced me to the glorious world of PoE+ (Power over Ethernet) and removed a half dozen AC wall plugs from my system.

Plan your Network

You can test out the web-based software yourself LIVE at https://demo.ui.com and see what managing a large network would be like. Check out their map of the FedEx Forum Stadium and how they get full coverage. You can see a simulated map of my house (not really my house) in the screenshot above. When you set up a controller you can place physical devices (ones you have) and test out virtual devices (ones you are thinking of buying) and see what they would look like on a real map of your home (supplied by you). You can even draw 3D walls and describe their material (brick, glass, steel) and their dB signal loss.

When you are moving to UniFi you'll need:

USG - UniFi Security Gateway - This has 3 gigabit points and has a WAN port for your external network (plug your router into this) and a LAN port for your internal network (plug your internal switch into this).

This is the part that doles out DHCP.

UniFi Cloud Key or Cloud Key Gen2 Plus

It's not intuitive what the USG does vs the Cloud Key but you need both. I got the Gen2 because it includes a 1TB hard drive that allows me to store my security video locally. It also is itself a PoE client so I don't need to plug it into the wall. I just wired it with a single Ethernet cable to the PoE switch below and left it in the wiring closet. There's a smaller cheaper Cloud Key if you don't need a hard drive.

You don't technically need a Cloud Key I believe, as all the UniFi Controller Software is free and you can run it in on any machine you have laying around. Folks have run them on any Linux or Windows machine they have, or even on a Synology or other NAS. I like the idea of having it "just work" so I got the Cloud Key.

UniFi Switch (of some kind and number of ports)

8 port 150 watt UniFi Switch

24 port UniFi Switch - 24 ports may be overkill for most but it's only 8 lbs and will handle even the largest home network. And it's under $200 USD right now on Amazon

24 port UniFi Switch with PoE - I got this one because it has 250W of PoE power. If you aren't interested in power over ethernet you can save money with the non-PoE version or a 16 port version but I REALLY REALLY recommend you use PoE because the APs work better with it.

Now once you've got the administrative infrastructure above, you just need to add whatever UniFi APs - access points - and/or optional cameras that you want!

NOTE/TIP - A brilliant product from Ubiquiti that I think is flying under the radar is the Unifi G3 Flex PoE camera. It's just $75 and it's tiny but it's absolutely brilliant. Full 1080p video and night vision. I'll talk about the magic of PoE later on but you can just plug this in anywhere in the house - no AC adapter - and you've got a crystal clear security camera or cameras anywhere in the house. They are all powered from the PoE switch!

I had a basic networking closet I put the USG Gateway into the closet with a patch cable to the cable modem (the DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem that I bought because I got tired of renting it from the service provider) then added the Switch with PoE, and plugged the Cloud Key into it. Admin done.

Here's the lovely part.

Since I have cable throughout the house, I can just plug in the UniFi Access Points in various room and they get power immediately. I can try different configs and test the signal strength. I found the perfect config after about 4 days of moving things around and testing on the interactive map. The first try was fine but I strove for perfect.

There's lots of UniFi Access Points to choose from. The dual radio Pro version can get pretty expensive if you have a lot so I got the Lite PoE AP. You can also get a 5 pack of the nanoHD UniFi Access Points.

These Access Points are often mounted in the ceiling in pro installations, and in a few spots I really wanted something more subtle AND I could use a few extra Ethernet ports. Since I already had an Ethernet port in the wall, I could just wall mount the UniFi Wall Mounted AP. It's both a wireless AP that radiates outward into the room AND it turns your one port into two, or you can get one that becomes a switch with more ports and extends your PoE abilities. So I can add this to a room, plug a few devices in AND a PoE powered Camera with no wall-warts or AC adapters!

NOTE: I did need to add a new ethernet RJ45 connector to plug into the female connector of the UniFi in-wall AP. Just be sure to plan and take inventory. You may already have full cables with connectors pulled to your rooms. Be aware.

There are a TON of great Wireless AP options from UniFi so make sure you explore them all and understand what you want.

Here's the resulting setup and choices I made, as viewed in the UniFi Controller Software:

I have the Gateway, the Switch with PoE, and five APs. Three are the disc APs and two are in-wall APs. They absolutely cover and manage my entire two story house and yards front and back. It's made it super easy for me to work from home and be able to work effectively from any room. My kids and family haven't had any issues with any tablets or phones.

As of the time of these writing I have 27 wireless devices on the system and 11 wired (at least those are the ones that are doing stuff at this hour).

Note how it will tell you how each device's WiFi experience is. I use this Experience information to help me manage the network and see if the APs are appropriately placed. There is a TON of great statistics and charts and graphics. It's info-rich to say the LEAST.

NOTE: To answer a common question - In an installation like this you've got a single SSID even though there's lots of APs and your devices will quietly and automatically roam between them!

The iPhone app is very full-featured as well and when you've got deep packet introspection turn on you can see a ton of statistical information at the price of a smidge of throughput performance.

I have had NO problem hitting 800-950Mbs over wired and I feel like there's no real limit to the perf of this system. I've done game streaming over Steam and Xbox game streaming for hours without a hiccup. Netflix doesn't buffer anymore, even on the back porch.

You can auto-optimize, or you can turn off a plethora of feature and manage everything manually. I was able to twitch a few APs to run their 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi radios on less crowded channels in order to get out of the way of the loud neighbors on channel 11.

I have a ton of control over the network now, unlimited expandability and it has been a fantastically stable network. All the APs are wire backed and the wireless bandwidth is rock solid. I've been extremely impressed with the clean roaming from room to room while streaming from Netflix. It's a tweakers (ahem) dream network.

* I use Amazon referral links and donate the little money to my kids' school. You support charter schools when you use these links.

Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider with WinForms designer, Edit & Continue, and an IL (Intermediate Language) viewer. Preliminary C# 8.0 support, rename refactoring for F#-defined symbols across your entire solution, and Custom Themes are all included.

Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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philipholt · 5 years

Text

Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution

Give I'm a professional working at home doing stuff that is more than the average Joe or Jane, what's a professional option?

UniFi from Ubiquiti

Plan your Network

When you are moving to UniFi you'll need:

This is the part that doles out DHCP.

UniFi Cloud Key or Cloud Key Gen2 Plus

UniFi Switch (of some kind and number of ports)

8 port 150 watt UniFi Switch

24 port UniFi Switch - 24 ports may be overkill for most but it's only 8 lbs and will handle even the largest home network. And it's under $200 USD right now on Amazon

Now once you've got the administrative infrastructure above, you just need to add whatever UniFi APs - access points - and/or optional cameras that you want!

Here's the lovely part.

There are a TON of great Wireless AP options from UniFi so make sure you explore them all and understand what you want.

Here's the resulting setup and choices I made, as viewed in the UniFi Controller Software:

As of the time of these writing I have 27 wireless devices on the system and 11 wired (at least those are the ones that are doing stuff at this hour).

NOTE: To answer a common question - In an installation like this you've got a single SSID even though there's lots of APs and your devices will quietly and automatically roam between them!

The iPhone app is very full-featured as well and when you've got deep packet introspection turn on you can see a ton of statistical information at the price of a smidge of throughput performance.

* I use Amazon referral links and donate the little money to my kids' school. You support charter schools when you use these links.

Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution published first on http://7elementswd.tumblr.com/

0 notes

oxfordeliterp · 7 years

Photo

CONGRATULATIONS, VICTORIA!

You have been accepted to play the role of GWENDOLYN ARMSTRONG with the faceclaim of ZOE KRAVITZ. Please create your account and send it to the main in the next 24 hours. I am swept off my feet by your application, although this time, once again, I had to choose between two marvelous ones. Yet, the way you know Gwen’s skin and what a piece of art you have turned this into captivated me and I know I couldn’t possibly see anybody else writing this character now that I have read your application. I want to read your writing forever, if possible, because you’re no Medusa, Euryale or Stheno, but a siren trying to lure people to their deaths with a breathtaking choice of words and an impressive depth that you have offered Gwendolyn. Thank you for giving me a spectacular reason to stay up all night and I already know it is going to be an honor writing with you. Based on the description of every Quarrel Club member at the end of the para sample, I would have given you any of those characters; but instead, have the queen. She’s yours.

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name and pronouns: Victoria, Vee, V for Vagina, she/her … sheeeet I don’t care, I’m just excited for a group like this to come along, a group that has pumped me up to be in the RP world again!

Age: Quarter century

Time-zone: PST

Activity level: My life is currently a clusterfuck, but a clusterfuck that is in desperate need of distraction and creative outlet. The only thing keeping me away from the interwebs is a part-time job and the graduate school application process. Sooo… I don’t know numerically out of 10? 6? 7? I never know how to answer this part - lets just say I spend more time procrastinating online than I should.

Triggers: N/A

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION

Desired character: I instantly connected with Gwendolyn the moment I read her bio. I’ve always had the tendency to be drawn to troubled, complex, introverted men - obviously, Gwendolyn is the opposite of all of the above, which shocked me when it came to how drawn I was to her as a character. It became quite obvious why she felts so familiar after reading her biography and her circumstances a few times through – she is the version of myself that I always wished to be but never had the balls to go through with in college. As I sit here and finish out writing this application, I realize just how much of a joy it has been simply to hash out my own feelings in an introspective way through this character. For me being a year out of college and looking back on my own experience, I recognize that her extreme black and white views on female/male dynamics and radical feminism are so familiar due to a lack of experience in the real world. I know I can play this character so well because I understand exactly what motivates her whilst also having the hindsight to understand why her extreme views will be her downfall if she doesn’t learn to compromise her brilliance. It’s so easy to see the dichotomy of men vs. women in the small bubble that is the college experience, but to be able to play it out with the self-righteousness that Gwen has for her cause, not to mention her ability to back it up with hours of research and intelligent debates, is an opportunity that I would be far too excited about!

Gender and pronouns of the character: She/Her

Changes: If it works, I have used Zoe Kravitz as my muse for this character. When it comes down to it, the writing of the character is far more important than the face but I honestly could not get her badass, renegade essence out of my mind when I was typing out her app.

I was also thinking Naya Rivera as back up #2, and then Eiza Gonzalez if you don’t see either of the other gals meshing with your vision of the RP.

Traits:

+ Charismatic, Principled, Loyal, Contemplative, Ambitious

- Sanctimonious, Arrogant, Fanatical, Vindictive, Stubborn

Extras:

Gwendolyn is following the History and Politics course as her major of choice. A natural fit, her aims to alter the prevailing, patriarchic gender dynamic extend much further than simply Oxford. She firmly believes that hidden in history are stories of matriarchies that have been purposely buried by the predominance of male historians. Determined to pair the wisdom and lessons of the past with a future game plan to get into politics, she knows to make a difference globally, you must know and analyze the cycles of history. Gwen is a news junkie, her cell constantly pinging with the latest updates stemming from hundreds of diverse news sources. She subscribes to a plethora of sources, never wanting to fall into the trap of an echo chamber and finding sick joy in reading viewpoints she disagrees with so she can shred the arguments apart with gusto.

Gwen is constantly challenging the syllabus and her professors for not having enough diverse content (i.e female and P.O.C authors) – much to the annoyance of her classmates. She will consistently ramble on in debate and find ways to weave in a complaint even in the most simple of question-answer class discussion. It’s gotten to the point where she has been kicked out of a class for being too confrontational. But don’t think that’s stopped her – she now stages her formal complaints in the form of unassigned essays that she will turn into her professors detailing the long list of her objections to the proposed subject matter. She knows its drives everyone crazy, but she feels she’s doing a service to them all – it’s a well researched fact that diverse classrooms paired with varying points of view in reading material leads to the most productive learning environment, a talking point she will gladly back up with a bibliography of sources that she knows by heart.

A trait about Gwendolyn that no one would ever realize is her tendency to be exhausted by her own ambitions. Although she insists on being the loudest in a group of people, she is most comfortable when she is at one with her mind, challenging it with complex novels are articles, or if she’s lucky, finding another like-minded individual who is interested in tearing idea to shreds just for the interest of mental sparring. Although she is active in the social scene out of necessity, it’s not her goal in any way to be the life of the party unless it’s in the interest of bringing more notoriety to the Quarrel Club.

Personality Type: The Debater (ENTP)

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ’crack-pot’ than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.” – Thomas J Watson

Taking a certain pleasure in being the underdog, Debaters enjoy the mental exercise found in questioning the prevailing mode of thought.

Treating others as they’d be treated, Debaters have little tolerance for being coddled, and dislike when people beat around the bush, especially when asking a favor.

I also have an inspo blog I’ve been using for her, the account that I applied with. It contains general quotes, people of interest, and things that I think either define Gwen as a person or better explains what she cares about. Please consider when reading the app: http://cooperxmathis.tumblr.com/

PARA SAMPLE

Everybody knows the story of Medusa, that she was a petrifying woman to be reckoned with. That her name loosely translated to Queen. That she was so terrifying that one glance into her steely eyes would turn her victim to stone. Only some people know that she hadn’t always been a hideous monster. That she had been one of the most beautiful and devoted servants of Athena, and although many men sought to marry her, she fell for Poseidon. Those with even the slightest of Greek mythology knowledge can recall that Medusa was ultimately weak and succumbed to the mortal men who hunted her down. She became a famous symbol for another man’s strength. Perseus paraded her defeat on his shield as a badge of honor – another woman down, another head on a platter, another female used as an ingredient in a trumped up legend for whatever man needed an ego boost. But there is a much more interesting story behind Medusa, a mere-mortal who squandered her time on hope and regrets, always fantasizing about returning to her mortal life of worshipping another whilst she herself was originally worshiped for the most dull of female qualities – beauty and purity.

Of course Medusa became one of the most famous female villains in Greek mythology – she was a fantastic tale of an innocent girl who lost her chastity and transformed into a seductive woman whose power was to great and finally put in her place by a cliché male hero. Male historians eat that shit up, happy to pass on a tale of a woman who got what was coming to her. The real cherry on top of this sexist shit pie, the little detail that your grade school history class always leaves out, was that the female Goddess, Athena, transformed Medusa into a monster. That in the original myth, Poseidon raped her in Athena’s temple, and out of jealous spite, Athena turned her into a monster, transforming each of her satin locks into a snake. That small detail is always left out of grade-school mythology week, probably to avoid harnessing the awareness of girl-on-girl on crime and victim blaming in young impressionable teen women. Can’t let them catch on too quick; when second class citizens are divided the patriarchy thrive – divide & conquer.

Alas, Medusa was essentially victim-blamed after being raped by Poseidon – a sick twist that Gwen was all too happy to see her history teacher squirm over when she pleasantly brought it to light in her freshman mythology class. Gwen learned early on that if she wanted to learn relevant history outside of the ‘triumphs’ of what rich white dudes did for the benefit of other rich white dudes, she would have to dig for herself. For buried within the legend of Medusa, Queen of the Gorgons, there are two much more worthy recipients of the title, two older, immortal sisters – Stheno and Euryale. It’s no surprise that these so-called villains soon became heroes in Gwen’s mind.

The younger of the two sisters, Euryale, was the calm before the storm. Just as vicious as the others, but with a completely different approach, luring her victims in with a stillness and calming peace that would give no warning to their fate. Her eyes described as still pools of violet that tranquilized all those who looked upon them, blessing them with a feeling of control over a hectic universe, the ultimate tease. Giving no warning for the immediate havoc that was about to be released, they would lose all desire to retaliate. Hypnotized by her presence, they would remain blissfully still until the last moment, relishing in the moment even as she sank her fangs through flesh and tore skin from bone.

Then there was Stheno, her muse, her identity, the fiercest of the three, known to be the most murderous of the Gorgon sisters, having killed more men then both of her sisters combined. Her approach was on a complete different side of the spectrum, her eyes explosive with a fierce reminiscent of Hades’ fire. No hypnotic placidity could be found within them. She yearned for the indulgence of human flesh, indulged in the taste of warm blood. No attraction on earth is as tempting as that of a powerful force - and none came more powerful as Stheno’s presence. A temper as violent as no other on this earth or in any other existence - she was the unstoppable force that brought a swift and total destruction.

Gwen was going to rewrite Oxford history, her legacy would be destroying the façade that the Riot Club had created, revealing them for the petulant children they are, little boys creating messes for play and throwing money to clean them up. This was her pet project, her practice round before she was unleashed onto the real world. A smaller, test version of how the rest of the world works, where rich men create problems that affect the rest of us and then jack each other off for fixing the mess they had created in the first place. She somewhat knew this was child’s play compared to raiding and destroying the ultimate boys clubs outside of Oxford, but hey, if she could tear down a centuries old tradition and replace it with a far superior female legacy within a four year span, she would finally prove to herself that she was the unstoppable force of nature that Stheno had inspired her to be.

She knew it was crucial to pick the right women, that this very first group of ten girls would be everything as they would be setting the tone for centuries to come. One of her best qualities had always been her ability to see past the bullshit of girl-on-girl crime. She never bought into the idea that in order to move up in the world she had to put other women down. It was a fact that that very notion is what has kept women as powerless for millennia, and she was determined to prove that if she brought ten of the best and brightest together, that claws would not come out, at least, not against eachother. However, her place as the leader of the group is something she would never sacrifice. Not that she is buying into an idea that she is better than any of the other women, but positive that only she has the pure, clear-cut vision of boosting them all up for the better; not to mention she hadn’t planned on being exactly forthcoming on her actual motives. The appeal of the Quarrel club was first and foremost an illusion that she was presenting. That it was something of a petty, social badge of honor that would include frivolous spending, ludicrous parties, and a bit of fun competition with the most ‘desirable’ men on campus. Little would her recruits know that she was hand picking them for their potential. She would take these confused women and show them what the world really could look like if they only had the power, if they only had the desire to restore the natural order of the world where women were destined to lead. It would be a slow process, she knew, she would have to lure them in, which would be easy. The hard part would be making them see how pointless the perks and values of the Riot Club were and showing them that true satisfaction will come from tearing down the men and everything they stand for, not just downing shots and fucking around with Oxford’s golden boys.

After months of careful planning, she had nine pristine envelopes in hand, their thick cardstock stamped with wax seal, the fierce stare of the Gorgon head piercing through the deep red. A satisfied smirk wove its way across Gwen’s lips, her eyes lighting up as she ran her fingers across the raised edges of the insignia. She knew the women would all assume it was Medusa, probably never even hearing of Stheno, but soon she was to teach them the buried history of the much stronger women that existed in not only fabled myths, but the real world as well. Soon, they too would be the legends used to inspire leagues of women to write their own history, to never be forgotten by the bias of time told through the eyes of men. The future will be rewritten and the pen will be held by f e m a l e s. Flipping over each envelope, she dipped her vintage, sterling silver pen into ink and began to write out each woman’s name.

L A U R E N H A S T I N G S - A crucial member for a multitude of reasons. The most obvious, everyone not only knew Lauren, but also idolized her. She glided across campus with an ease and poise that was unseen in most modern women, she epitomized the essence of old movie stars. Although Gwen in no way embodied these qualities, nor would she ever want to, she still understood the effect that this old-fashioned femininity had on the masses. Frankly, she found Lauren to be an extremely dull Betty Draper-esque robot, but if there was one thing that Gwendolyn respected it was discipline, a quality that Lauren certainly exuded with her picture perfect image. She knew that nobody could truly be that flawless, but whatever Lauren was hiding, the façade that followed her had never cracked, no scandal had ever erupted - an amazing success in Gwen’s eyes. In her mind, Lauren could be the Euryale to her Stheno. That level of control and composure was something she admired and could learn from. More importantly though, was Lauren’s connection to Jamie Heather. Her smile faltered. She would never admit to herself how much of a catalyst he had been in creating the woman she had become; that he was the very reason why the Quarrel Club would exist in the first place. No, Gwen quickly shook the beautiful face from her mind, refusing to let him run away with her thoughts once again - he doesn’t deserve that much credit. Moving on, she poised her pen to the next ivory envelope in the stack.

E L I Z A B E T H P E M B E R L Y – Gwen can’t exactly put her finger on what draws her to Elizabeth, but there is an infectious energy that surrounds the girl wherever she goes. Gwen knows that she is indulgent and a bit of a narcissist, but fuck it, what man doesn’t get away with the same qualities and still labeled a charming cassanova? Elizabeth has a way about her that makes everyone desperate to please, a very distinct feminine essence that is subtle but inevitably intoxicating. Better to have that on her side, to harness that sort of brilliant charismatic energy and exploit it for her own purpose than to let Elizabeth waste away her own potential. She has a power that makes people do whatever she wants without asking them, for motivations that they don’t even understand but desperately urge to simply satisfy her.

V I C T O R I A D E T E R R E R O S Another choice that although overwhelmingly dissimilar to herself, came with a connection to the Riot club paired with the bonus of an old family name. Although Lauren had the essence of a celebrity, Victoria actually was one. Not that Gwendolyn was one to give a shit about tabloid fodder. There were far too many important events and people in the world to waste time on the likes of People magazine or throwing meaningless likes to Instagram ‘stars’ desperate for validation from thousands of strangers. No, she was not one to be starstruck by celebrity influence, but she couldn’t deny that in today’s times, Victoria’s tabloid status could be of use. If she could have an early influence on the young royal, there’s a chance that she could make sure that Victoria didn’t become another pretty face simply peddling Vitamix or whatever bullshit beauty product down the throats of millennial lemmings glued to their phone screens. Plus, Gwen’s obsessions with history meant that an old, royal family name couldn’t help but pique her interest. Package that in with a brother in the Riot Club and Victoria was a given.

A R I A B E L L E F O N T E – She could never put her finger on exactly what drew her to Aria, but she in some ways has always envied her. Her effortless charm and impassivity are qualities that Gwen knows she could never enjoy but admires greatly. A woman like Aria is crucial to the group, a perfect example of the type of women who should be, no – will be – running the world. Aria never smiles to please, never wastes her time nor believes that her appearance is anything but an asterisk to her entire being, never felt the need to parade whatever it is her parents do to enable her to afford attending such a prestigious university. Aria simply exists, in complete authenticity; a woman who has never tried, let alone needed, to impress anyone yet has a bounty of influence at her fingertips. The only negative that Gwen can assess is the utter lack of appreciation that Aria has for her own influence. She seems completely satisfied to drift among their entitled peers with little motivation to do anything with her gifts. Pressing her silver pen as she dotted the I of Aria’s name, Gwen was sure she could inspire the girl to follow through with her full potential.

A L E X A N D R A R O S S E S S E N – Whispers could be heard all over campus of the brilliant young woman who at only sixteen had earned early admission to Oxford. Whispers turned into full blown shouts as soon as everyone realized such a brilliant mind came packaged in a red-haired, statuesque beauty. She and Alexandra had a class together where Gwen got to witness the full blown arrogance of the child genius, a quality that turned the rest of the class off but Gwen absolutely adored. At such a young age Alexandra had the confidence that most women never find after years of soul-searching and worthless self-help guides. Alexandra had a quick wit and didn’t abstain from questioning authority, a quality Gwen quickly picked up on after witnessing her challenge many of the key points in several lectures. Not to mention the rumors that she was behind the gossip maven Ace, a serious advantage that Gwen knew if she could harness for the benefit of the Quarell Club could be a crucial cog in the warhead she was creating against the Riot Club. After all, everyone knows to win a war people need to believe the rookies have a fighting chance; it brings morale up among underestimated troops and breeds allegiance in new acquaintances determined to prove themselves. And in the court of public opinion, Ace could weave a narrative of success and manipulate gossip during the inevitable hiccups that come with starting such an exclusive group.

A R A B E L L A W I N D S O R – Everyone knows about Arabella Windsor and her midnight escapades. Judgments surrounding her loose reputation never cease and what Gwen adores is the fact that she seems to revel in them. Gwen abhors the double standard that tells women they must be as beautiful and sexually desirable as humanly possible but once they take control of said sexuality and use it for their own pleasure are labeled slut and presumably undesirable, a catch twenty-two that would be amusing if it wasn’t so prevalent and capable of destroying a woman’s self worth. Female sexuality has been the number one weapon manipulated by men to keep women in their place since the dawn of time. That much is most obvious even now when you look at every government funded female health legislation dictated by literal (and figurative) dicks with not one woman in sight to speak for her own body. The key to the male ego is his ability to womanize, to show he’s the big man on campus by tricking women into his bed and then ignoring their very existence the next day as a power play. Gwen isn’t sure if Arabella knows just how much of a social renegade she is just by simply sleeping with as many men as she pleases without guilt, but she is determined to take that unabashed female sexual prowess and harness it into more meaningful pursuits. She knows there is a bit of risk involved, seeing as many of Arabella’s conquests are men of the Riot Club, but with the right amount of loyalty to the Quarell club instilled, Arabella’s sexuality could be used as a weapon. After all, it’s a well-known cliché that a man is most weak with his trousers around his ankles.

C O R D E L I A M C Q U E E N – Cordelia attracts the gaze and curiosity of many, not only because of her world-famous last name, but because of the mysterious way in which she carries herself. She is a walking oxymoron – charismatic yet unforthcoming with the few words she speaks at all, a wallflower in theory and yet impossible to ignore. She is the type of girl that you always want to know more about but refuses to share what she doesn’t meticulously allow to be public. Gwen was determined to have her be a member of the club the moment she saw her. Her effortless appeal and unwavering mysterious persona perplexes many, Gwen herself falling under the spell. She isn’t sure what exactly the girl can bring to the club, but the magnetism she exudes is sure to be harboring an untapped potential that Gwen could use to the club’s advantage. Plus, if Gwen is honest with herself, the connection Cordelia holds to high-fashion royalty adds an essence of exclusivity and publicity that Gwen is just shallow enough to take advantage of.

C H A R L O T T E Z E R I L L I – With a twin in the riot club, Gwen knew that Charlotte would be a risky choice that could pan out to be a fountain of knowledge into the inner-workings of the Riot Club or backfire in a nuclear fashion if she couldn’t harness her loyalty to fall into step with the Quarrel club. Gwen had a feeling that Charlotte had always been the brilliant one out of the Zerelli twins, that she had been living in her brother’s shadow and was looking for an opportunity to stretch her legs in a role of influence. With the right coaxing and a group of brilliant women surrounding her, Gwen was sure that Charlotte was a harbor of untapped potential that could prove to be one of her finest choices of all. There wasn’t an exact quality that she could put her finger on when it came to what drew her to Charlotte, but Gwen wasn’t one to silence her intuition. Too many women choose to ignore that little voice in their head that all too often is screaming the right answer because they have so little trust in their own minds that they choose to silence their own power. Women’s intuition isn’t a myth, and Gwen is out to prove that hers is spot on.

L A N A C H A M B E R S – With a mind as sharp as her own, Lana was the last woman to make the cut. It’s not that she didn’t have the right temperament for the club, she was there on scholarship after all, proving that she had a keen mind and was determined to fight her way to the top. It’s just that Gwen was aware that her combined choice of women has an overall image to maintain. It was crucial to show that the Quarrel club would not have money be an influential factor in membership. Gwen is apt to criticize capitalism and is she is a firm believer that white imperialism has lead to the huge income inequality gap that exists between the worlds most wealthy and most poor. Gwen won’t admit to herself that she is using Lana as a tool to show off her own biases towards wealth and money in general. In her mind, she’s doing the right thing, offering a woman a spot in a money-driven social circle and coming off as a selfless queen who is above such superficial things such as monetary measures, despite knowing little of actual poverty after growing up in family of extreme upper-class means and opportunities.

Pressing the final wax seal with satisfaction, Gwen felt the high rush that comes whenever she feels she is on the precipice of a brilliant scheme about to be realized. This would be her master project, her legacy, her own personal legend. Oxford would be forever altered, the gender dynamic pushed in a completely different direction with women, her women, leading the pack. Sliding the ivory envelopes into her tan leather backpack, she sauntered out the door, her head raised high, already balancing the inevitable crown she was about to take as her own.

#accepted #gwendolyn armstrong

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eurolinguiste · 6 years

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One of the greatest outputs of technology, for language learners at least, is the plethora of resources available to us. At the same time, however, one of the most troubling things about technology and all of our recent advancements is that we now have a huge selection of language learning materials to choose from.

Figuring out which resources work for you and which don’t can be a considerable enterprise.

I’ve found myself on both ends of the spectrum. I went through phases where I owned more language learning resources than I could reasonably use and I’ve also found myself with too few to really be successful.

Today, I like to think I’ve found a balance with the number of resources, I use. But it isn’t just the quantity I use with which I’ve settled into a groove. It’s also with the quality. Now that I have a few years of independent language learning under my belt, I have the experience needed to better discern the quality of a resource and thus, make better choices when evaluating new resources.

If Your Goal Is Conversation, Stop Counting on Textbooks or Apps to Help You

Before I get into selecting physical resources, I want to point out one particularly important thing. If your goal is reaching a conversational level, you need to stop counting on course books or apps to help you.

Yes, they’re great for offering up new vocabulary and explaining grammar rules, but they will not help you get better at speaking the language. The only way you’ll get better at speaking is by speaking.

I began learning my second language in school, buried in grammar books and vocabulary exercises. I was focused on memorizing words and conjugations that would be stored on my mental hard drive until the next test, only for that information to be dumped immediately after. Not a very useful way to study language long-term.

It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to use the language outside of school that I really began to see any significant progress. Suddenly, I had a reason to really hang on to the vocabulary and grammar I was learning in school.

What changed?

I went from learning the language in order to pass exams to learning it to communicate with friends and family.

It felt incredibly rewarding to carry on a conversation in another language and it drove me to continue my efforts. In just a few months, my abilities far surpassed what five years in school had offered me. And that was all the motivation I needed to keep going, and even take on new languages.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use coursebooks, flashcards, or apps. They’re a great supplement. But you shouldn’t use only those means. Personally, I use a number of resources to pick-up and develop vocabulary, figure out sentence structures, and gain insight into the cultural or historical features that influence the language. But the truth is, it’s the native speakers I converse with who steer me in the right direction. It’s with them that I really make the most progress.

That said, conversing isn’t for everyone. If your goal is to read or understand a television series, then exchange partners or tutors might not be for you. Which leads me to my next point…

Not All Resources May Be The Right Resource for You

Everyone learns differently and everyone finds enjoyment in the process of learning in their own way. But just because you enjoy learning a certain way, doesn’t mean you’re learning the right way.

There are a lot of theories about what the right resources are or what the right methods are for learning a language. In my experience, however, I’ve found that there are really two things that matter when it comes to choosing resources and methods:

You enjoy them and thus spend time using them or doing them and;

They help you move towards your goals in the language.

As long as a resource does these two things (or at the very least, the second thing), then it’s a good resource for you.

Just Like Coursebooks and Apps Aren’t Enough on Their Own, Speaking Isn’t Enough Alone Either

Just like coursebooks and apps aren’t enough on their own, speaking isn’t enough alone either. The vocabulary and grammar need to come from somewhere.

Using a language with other speakers is by far the BEST way to improve your accent, your grammar, your vocabulary and your overall skill in another language (there are other ways to do it), but only once you’ve set up a foundation on your own. You can’t expect to launch into a discussion of Russian literature or French politics without having learned the vocabulary to use in that conversation.

This is where online learning programs, podcasts, grammar and vocabulary books, audiobooks and flashcards come in handy.

Here is what you need to consider when you’re choosing a language resource:

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish in the language? Are you aiming for a conversational level? To use the language at work? To read a certain book or books? To understand your favorite tv show? To travel? What you aim to do with the language plays a big part in selecting the kinds of resources you use.

What level are you currently at? If you’re anything above the beginning level, most coursebooks won’t be the right choice. Instead, you’ll want to start focusing more on using the language, using audio resources, or finding a more advanced grammar. Someone who is completely new to a language will have to implement an entirely different approach than someone who is more advanced.

Where are the gaps in your current abilities? Do you struggle most with reading, speaking, writing or listening comprehension? Find resources that help you fill those gaps.

What will you actually use? When all is said and done, the best language learning resources are the ones that you’ll use. You can have the “best” books and the “best” podcasts, but if you don’t work through them, it doesn’t matter. If Duolingo is something you’ll use, then go for it. If learning the lyrics to songs is something you’ll do, then go for it.

As I mentioned before, there is no one-size fits all approach when it comes to choosing the right combination of resources. The various methods and tools available are going to work differently for you than they do for me, so I cannot emphasize enough the importance of trying things out to find out what works best for you. I’ve spent several years playing around with different resources and discovering what works for me and what doesn’t. I would be remiss to suggest that you do the same.

Let’s break things down with a couple of specific examples.

You’re Aiming for a Specific Language Learning Goal

If you have a specific goal you’d like to reach, then choose resources that will help you get there. If you want to converse, don’t choose resources that don’t give you opportunities to speak. Or listen, for that matter.

If you aim to one day be conversational in your language, then the two most important skills you can work on are your listening and speaking abilities. For this, I would suggest something like Pimsleur – it’s call-and-response. That way you get the chance to practice both speaking and listening. Personally, I listen to Pimsleur lessons whenever I’m in my car for an extended period of time. They’re a great way to establish basic speaking and comprehension skills. When you’re ready to take things further, a tutor is your best investment.

Your Goal is To Read or Write in the Language

If a grammar-focused method works better for you, or you’re more interested in reading and writing than speaking, a grammar or vocabulary book may work best for you. As far as resources I recommend, I like Assimil, the Routledge Grammar Books, and if you like exercises, Schaum’s.

There are also dual-language books that come with one language on one side and another on the other (or one language printed immediately under the other). If you’re at the intermediate or advanced level, you can try diving right into foreign language books, translating words you don’t know as you come across them (or after you finish each passage). For this, my absolute favourite application is LingQ. It’s fantastic if you love reading.

Playing in the Language is More Your Style

If gamification methods work best for you (or you just enjoy earning points for your efforts or just playing games), some of the online tools available may work for you. I personally like Memrise, Clozemaster and Drops. Duolingo is another big player in this field, and for Chinese, I’ve enjoyed Ninchanese.

You’re Not Sure Where to Start

If you’re unsure of where to start, or what your learning style is, there are a few resources that serve as a great introduction.

The first is a coursebook that includes audio. The popular options are Teach Yourself, Colloquial and the aforementioned Assimil.

You can also go with a good phrasebook to help you build a foundation in any language. The Lonely Planet series is pretty good, but if you’re just getting started, almost any one will do.

If you’re looking for more recommendations and reviews, you can check out my favorite language learning resources here. I’ve also created resource pages for each language I am studying. You can check out the pages here – French, Italian, German, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Breton, Korean, and Croatian.

What about you?

What materials do you use to study and practice the languages you’re learning? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

For more language learning tips like this, check out my collection of articles on Pinterest!

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