you’ve decided to spend some alone time with donnie!

donnie is thrilled with this news! this is the perfect chance to raise (y/n)’s intelligence skill or build trust and lower “infection”!

to raise skill stats, (y/n) must dedicate a certain amount of hours of dedication towards that certain skill.

keep in mind! each time (y/n) levels up a skill stat, the more time is required to reach the next level.

SKILL LEVEL UP REQUIREMENTS

lvl 1: 1 hour

lvl 2: 3 hours

lvl 3: 5 hours

lvl 4: 10 hours

lvl 5: 15 hours

if there are spare hours, they will be saved and will count towards (y/n)’s next study session.

hours of a certain skill cannot be transferred to another skill.

if (y/n) agrees to stay, they will be with donnie for 4 hours.

it is currently 1:20 p.m. on sunday.

CURRENT MISSION: SPEND TIME WISELY

A) “i need help studying”

B) “let’s just hang out”

C) “let’s do a little bit of both”

D) back out

VOTES CLOSE THURSDAY MARCH 2, 4:00 P.M. CST

you may vote through comments, reblog, or asks

VOTES ARE CLOSED

helpful notes from players!

nothing yet

What are all your fandom tats if you don’t mind me asking

nonny, thank you for asking omg. I just LOVE talking about tattoos - not just about mine but also about tattoos in general. They're just. So cool. And everyone has such an individual taste and style, it's awesome!

(Cut for length and pictures)

My first tattoo is a pink and purple Wayfinder from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep on my wrist (because BBS is my fav Kingdom Hearts game and Xigbar/Braig used to be my fav character until a certain plot twist in KH3 that fucked up 12 years of stanning.) I haven't completely lost hope, but depending on where the games go, I just. Might get it modified or redone or touched-up or expanded. We'll see.

I got it in 2019 during my first burnout to remind myself that I belong to myself and my body is mine and only mine, so I guess it's something between a self-healing and a trans thing. I don't even know anymore. Anyway, I don't regret it, it still looks nice, but since I don't know where I'm going with it, I won't take a pic for now.

I got my second one in 2021. I've been a fan of Resident Evil ever since I was 12 years old (yes, I know, I was too young, but this was before I could piss off people on the internet by sliding into adult spaces as a kid), and while I kind of lost interest in the franchise for a while and while I HATED 7 (yes, I know. Unpopular opinion), 8 dragged me back. I commissioned a friend for the design because while I knew what I wanted - Umbrella, Steampunk, the Heisenberg logo) I'm not an artist.

I will link Vincent here, please go check out his art and buy some cool things from him, okay?

Anyway, this is the finished piece:

Since my tattoo artist fucked up a bunch of things, it's very much faded already and looks like it's like 10 years old instead of 2 already, sigh sigh, and I'll have to get it re-done soon-ish. Once I have the spare cash because this is gonna be expensive as fuck.

The third one was also designed by Vincent (no, for real, go give him money) and it's basically a glorified ship tattoo for The Quarry. I wanted something for the Travislaura working together + Lauramax reunion + Travislaura killing each other achievements, and I told Vincent I wanted it with the base of the broken mirror shards and the flowers being mirrored in them while needle and thread and hold everything loosely together. It's gorgeous, and I love it a lot. I'm very unashamed about wearing it on my chest because literally nobody gets that it's a ship tattoo until I tell them lmao

I got it last November.

Once we clean up the Resident Evil tattoo, my studio and I will also expand the Quarry one and make them look like they belong together. Which means we will make sure to give them both a water colour background blending from my left shoulder (reddish-brown/rust coloured RE tattoo) to my chest (blue and purple hues for the Quarry), we will also add a few more smaller mirror shards to my shoulder.

And. Well. Now there's the 4 birds. I initially only had a mock-up picture from the internet, but I asked my spouse to trace them off an ingame screenshot. I'm very glad we did that lmao because the mock-up would have looked way worse than what I have now. Like. I was... hoping it would look halfway okay. I had never believed it would look just fucking incredible. It's probably gonna peel in a day or two already, it's healing perfectly!

........................I want more tattoos. I grew up with games. And books. But it's mostly games that made me feel and fall in love with them. So it's gonna be more game tattoos.

(Also hi, I stream video games sometimes because *clenches fists* I just love video games.)

hellraiser 3 funtime carnival, pt 2

PREVIOUSLY

so my dude @yvenly, unbeknownst to me, loves a hellraiser and has a fuckin shirt of the scary man that he was wearing while reading the first part. jake assures me that the scary man is not going to come and get me and nothing i own is haunted. i trust jake, so fortunately i am able to continue what i started to do the other night, which is watch a scary gory movie starring a space angel. i can confirm it is both gory and scaring me. let me remind you, me, and god that i am only 20 minutes into it, and it took exactly 6 minutes to get to the point where i was gently pissing myself. i shudder to think what the remaining hour and ten minutes hold.

i would very much enjoy if it held more of this:

and less deep crimson rivers, but i know i'm wishing for too much.

hot topic is making breakfast, terribly. this charred, molten husk, for instance, lying atop a burner, is either toast or a severed steak. i think it's toast. everything is burning and she should stop. now, just last night, hot topic was bumming smokes, recklessly flipping curtains open, sitting on the couch weird, and emptying the contents of her backpack all over the floor. but now all of a sudden it's "hey what's up let me make breakfast", so, great, now i'm invested in this blossoming love story. god, what if hot topic dies??? i don't think i could handle that. she and joey are friends now! hot topic's trying to make her food to repay her kindness! it's all fine with me as you might guess.

hot topic's name actually is... terry... or teri... or something. hmmmm. i like to imagine the mental force of will required to not constantly go "yeah?" at your own name not being used to address you. acting!

here's where it starts to cross over into the gay danger zone, when hot topic says it's her first time cooking. and the turn of phrase she uses is that she's a... kitchen... virgin...?

is that... so...?

joey offers to boil some water and says it's a specialty of hers and they laugh awkwardly like two heteros having a hetero time. joey also starts to make a suggestion to hot topic, and i thought to myself, "is she going to tell her to go watch cartoons?" and that's Exactly what she fucking did. i bet hot topic is a big fan of the snorks.

that cookbook appears to be campbell's microwave cookbook, which is wonderful on about 15 different levels. microwave cookbook being levels one through ten.

hot topic dances on the edge of the gay event horizon by sneaking a peek in joey's closet Come On Now is this for real

and joey is apparently not that great with toast either so i don't know how these girls are going to feed each other after they defeat the hellraiser and get married.

one LITTLE detail left out until the change in camera angle is that hot topic isn't wearing any pants. that seems like it was pretty important information for me to have, for the f/f hellraiser 3 fanfic i am now writing.

everything is all fine and dandy until the music starts going again and hot topic gets upset. she really loves it here. she wants the movie to flip into a lesbian romcom instead of being the mind-crushing hack-and-slash that it is. you guys what if she gets hacked and slashed?! oh god i don't want it

"uhhh a guy's head exploded in the first six minutes; we can't go back." yes, joey has to solve this mystery, which, i mean, she's braver than me; if i watched a guy get blasted all over the hospital walls after chains pulled his head apart i'd have a repressed memory that wouldn't resurface until years and years later, at which point i'd pass out in the grocery store as a grown adult with kids or something, and when i came to i'd remember the hell out of it and wouldn't stop screaming until my vocal chords snapped.

oh my good god

there's something important happening here but all i heard was "we're going shopping." forrrrrr strap-ons?

oh, they came to the hobo man's art gallery that's only open at night, and that i keep calling the pyramidhead gallery in my head. also check out those pants. yikesaroo! i can hear 1992's sears catalog calling from a landfill!

gracious me this whole ensemble! noooo.

"maybe they're closed." they're not closed, they just cannot let you in dressed like you belong in a parade on stilts. it will offend the art and we'll have more bad guys roaming around in the spooky shadows.

some man with a dog across the street says the pyramidhead gallery is closed every day, except for he apparently doesn't know it's open exclusively at 12:01 am. he says it's been there for months, closed. hot topic says that's bs; her boyfriend just bought something there last week. ew so the boyfriend that threw her out is imitation danny zuko. girl, run far away because that guy's busy communing with unholy messenger rats.

then for no reason at all, this poor pup gets dragged away by its neck, growling because dogs know stuff. does the dog also know its owner is an irresponsible sack of shit who needs to learn what a proper harness is? sheesh.

"chill," hot topic says. "there's a back door, right?" and then she pulls a lock pick out of her tits. like, not on a chain or anything, so i guess it was just resting freely in her cleavage. another important detail for my fanfiction.

there are more ugly paintings inside but joey gets right down to business and finds a file drawer that's pretty much exactly like every file drawer we have at work. just full of accordion folders with papers shoved in them.

"ughhh," joey says, "this is gonna take Forever." i literally... had that moment with my boss at work yesterday trying to find some paperwork. but it's not gonna take forever, not with the music going, it's not...!

the most illuminating revelation is that the gallery is a total scam; everything they have comes from bankruptcy sales, high school art classes, insane asylums... wait, what? uh oh.

uhhhhh ohhhhhhh.

thankfully we leave immediately and head straight back to the loser room. yeahhhh fistbump brah! fistbumps existed in 1992! imagine that. we can truly trace all tradition back to our ancestors.

danny zuko spies a hot blonde and motions to his mark sheppard-looking bartender that he wants to hit that, so the bartender pulls a rose out from the... ice bin...? "here babe take a cold-ass rose" "oh baby the frozen petals are burning me up" - is that what's supposed to happen?

so danny zuko comes over, the girl's like, "oh, it's you~" and he tells her she's beautiful she says "oh no there's lots of girls here more beautiful than me" and he pretends like he cares about how she feels blah blah blah

and then we come to sex noises so the arctic rose worked pretty well. i think i'll spare you a screenshot of the actual sex; i'd rather take a picture of a head split in half. my favorite part though is that he constantly has his hands on her tits so you don't see any nip. so we can watch the other graphic shit we've seen and yet we're not allowed to look at a boob? the fuck?

oh ps the statue is in the background, watching them.

and at the exact moment danny zuko comes (ugh) the statue's eyes open. ohhhhhhhhhhhohohoho fcukinggfkhgkldhgl

then the eyes close again.

hot topic and joey are back at her apartment. joey's broken out of a pair of scully specs so i guess things have gotten serious in here.

hot topic prepares to walk out the door and joey is like HOLD ON???? WHY LEAVE??

she's trying to get some tape and succeeds and this is extremely untoward and i am offended!!!

hot topic guesses joey got what she needed, and prepares to show herself out. joey's face immediately falls and she's like no????? and she invites hot topic to stay in her spare room.

hot topic gets very emotional and says that's great, and offers to do breakfast! oh boy!!

even at the thought of inedible trash breakfast, joey is thrilled. this is Fucking Gay

"so cool... Radical!"

the girl danny just boned stands in front of this painting which, to be honest with you? kind of looks like dukat? maybe dukat if he roided up before the reckoning.

danny's already done with this and has important things to do like getting a scuff off his ugly red cowboy boots. it all goes south pretty fast.

"but you gave me a rose."

"and tomorrow, i'll give one to somebody else." ooooooh

"you shit," the girl says, speaking the truth.

there's yelling, the girl backs up toward the statue, i'm biting my nails because something's clearly gonna happen

LAUGHS NERVOUSLY OHHHHHH NOOOOOOO

chains, chains, it's always chains, hooked chains come out of the statue and sink into her. danny zuko, for as vile as he is, didn't plan this at all as even he's like "what the ffffuuuuuuccckkkk"

hello!! furby's awake!

the statue gets one more hook right into her forehead and then? and THEN, the all-time grossest fucking thing happens, and i swear to god i'm not making this up but also you're kidding if you think i'll actually screenshot it: the hook pulls THE ENTIRETY OF THE GIRL'S SKIN OFF HER BODY IN ONE SHOT, and THEN, STILL ALIVE and screaming bloody fucking murder, the girl, looking like a page out of any muscular system biology book, is DIGESTED BY THE STATUE.

and then once properly absorbed, her face appears SO ALL THE FACES ON THIS STATUE ARE PEOPLE WHO'VE BEEN SKINNED AND EATEN HKFLGRHLGKLSKB I'M SCREECHING

i guess a nutritious meal was just the thing to get ol stoneface back to normal. HE'S HERE, THIS IS HIM, THIS IS THE GUY!! jake says his name is pinhead? just going to call him pincushion, hope that's okay. honestly it's more like nailcushion, those look like a bunch of nails sticking out of him. why does he love metal so much!!!

and all danny zuko has to say is "jesus christ!" like he couldn't even pretend to barf.

and pinhead FUCKING RESPONDS: "not quite." buddy, i'll say.

he starts getting poetic and i never expected him to have an accent. who do you think you are, shakespeare? i've never heard of shakespeare writing a scene where taming of the shrew ends with a flesh barbecue.

pinhead does one fun thing which is compare himself to danny zuko, which in my mind is exactly right but danny zuko cries and whines and says "no that's fuckin evil man!!!" yeah, just. like. you!

according to pinhead, there's no good, there's no evil, only flesh. is this what he does, just eats people? i didn't expect this either.

"you will help me," he says.

no Fuckin way danny zuko says, bringing out a gun like this is going to do anything other than increase pinhead's desire for flesh cakes.

oh my god and then pinhead laughs and says "how touching, that is the gun you used to kill your parents?" LMAO WHAT????

zuko unloads the gun and pinhead spits every bullet out of his mouth. just lets em drop right out onto the floor. danny zuko then drops his gun.

looks like you're in this for the long haul, pal!

he drops to the floor and starts sobbing. puny man sobbing in his boxers dot jpg.

there is a place, pinhead says, at his right hand for this manchild. yucky.

aaaand true to form, danny zuko takes a minute to think it over and then signs right up. this is so insulting to danny zuko; maybe i ought to start calling him his real name which is JP, which also is not really a name.

meanwhile, joey is full on channeling murphy brown and lookin cute. her friendly grandpa cameraman runs up to give her a package. something for her story? mmm something for something. grandpa cameraman, ever a decent person (oh god what if HE dies?) says if there's any way he can help, just give him a call. i think the first thing he can do to help is contact a priest specializing in exorcisms, get to that statue, and end this before it starts hopping railroad tracks.

scully specs are back on, tape is in the vcr, quest to quit smoking is shot, and we are go.

the tape is of a girl in a room at what looks like that asylum that was referenced before, and she's talking about The Box.

"demons," she says. "demons live in the box." well girl, we are way past that, the demons are out of the box, in statues, in hospitals, that box barely has anything to do with anything anymore.

"it's a gateway to hell." yeaarrrrgghhhhh somebody close it, then!

this is a really nice shot, i just wanted to stop everything and have you look at it. hands!

uhhh thennn the tv switches to an image of a dude

and that dude

starts talking

to joey

NOOOOOOOOPE

"she's telling the truth, joey," this guy that sounds Suspiciously like pinhead says.

joey tries to rewind the tape to see what the hell that was, but there's nothing out of the ordinary there... nnnnggghhhhgdhflk

anyway, demons live in the box. it "opens itself", they come out, that's the sitch. fuck all this.

s-s-s-speaking of the b-b-b-box, here it is at joey's apartment, where hot topic is currently all alone. god if anything happens to her i will be devastated beyond belief. pleeeease don't eat her please don't eat her.

hot topic stares at the box the same way i stare at the box: with off-the-charts trepidation. but she notices what i also noticed, that it looks a little different, like now it has color.

"man, joey must've polished you up some, huh?" oh no please don't

i'm pretty much. gonna shit. please put it down please please please joey will be so sad if you are dead and i can't take it!

oh god and then the phone rings and she puts it down thank jesus

absoLutely not the phone call i wanted her to get.

jp wants hot topic to come over. no no, no, no no no, no, and no!

pleeeeeease just wait for joey to get home she'll protect you and you can both be safe! if you go over to jp you're literally going to be devoured by a hell beast aaaaahhhhhhhh

well thank the lord she says she just can't and slams down the phone. score one for pure love! can you win against the delicate softness of girls being nice to each other, pinhead, can you?!

uh wait, then hot topic triggers joey's messages and it sounds like cameraman telling her she got a job that she wanted across the country. ??? what happened to pure love?!

joey comes home and the place is just a sty. it's dark and hot topic's not there.

and she finds this note that says, "enjoy monterey, you liar".

welp, love is dead and the demons are coming! might as well start breaking ourselves down into bite-sized chunks!

that's all for this evening. we’ll have another fun jaunt tomorrow! now, what do you think is the best technique for cutting off your own arm? just grab a hacksaw and go to town?

So this:

Let’s talk about this. Or more specifically:

Let’s talk about this.

So you want to know something weird? That I see this image get used for anything and everything Joker related. The image I made, myself.

For reference, here's the original frame I made it from.

It's just... so bizarre to see Mark Hamill himself tweeting pictures with my edit in it ALL THE TIME.  Even more baffling is seeing actual articles, videos, and even other edits try to pass it off as the original.

I guess it's kinda flattering that I made a version that's so commonly used in place of the original screenshot? Even if I never get any credit for it whatsoever? Not that I want any mind you. It's literally just a trace job. But yeah, this is actually my edit. It's just... so weird to see it used so often.

I mean, hell, I did it years ago too. With only my mouse pad on a laptop. I just wanted a higher quality version of the original frame. It's the background that gives it away as mine. The background and the lines themselves. The thickness and the spacing. And if you pay close attention to the original and compare it to my edit, you can tell not everything matches up perfectly.

I mean if you really want proof of this whole thing, here:

Boom, my deviantart and everything. (x)

It’s just... SO WEIRD. I made this edit back in 2012. Yeah it’s one thing to have everyone else making stuff with your image (it’s not a drawing and I refuse to call it that), but it’s another thing entirely to have the voice actor, Mark Hamill himself, tweet out photos of it every so often.

All the while being completely ignorant of my existence and where said image came from.

And to a degree I get why people would use mine instead of the original frame. I mean just look at this:

I don’t believe there’s any HD versions of Return of the Joker, where this frame is from, which makes my 1604x1204 remaster that much more appealing. Less upscaling issues. But also because of the glare on the glass. Not as appealing when you’re trying to edit a thumbnail using this image, so why not just use a fan-made edit that’s virtually identical?

I do apologize for not putting this under a read more, and cluttering up everyone’s dashes with a long post, but I also realize this wouldn’t be read at all if I did. So why make this post? It’s not like this is a huge issue or anything, I don’t really mind people using my image if I’m being honest.

I don’t know, recognition? A sense of accomplishment? A better understanding of what actual artists go through all the time in regards to people using their work without their permission? I am not an artist in the slightest. I may dabble in editing existing images, I do not by any means consider myself an artist. Still, for although it is merely an edit designed to remaster a single frame of a copyrighted movie, the edit itself is undoubtedly my work.

It was made from scratch, I put a lot of hours into making it.

Or maybe I just needed to vent and process this information, seeing old work come back to haunt me, so to speak. Ain’t that a kicker?

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Cailey Golden of The Patchsmith, a brand that sells custom embroidered patches.Some stats:Product: Custom embroidered patches.Revenue/mo: $6,500Started: September 2017Location: New York CityFounders: 1Employees: 0Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hey there, my name is Cailey Golden and I started The Patchsmith in the later months of 2017. I’m the only company based in the USA that offers no strings attached, no custom embroidered minimum patches. All of my production is done within New York City.Within 18 months working part time, I’ve grown the company to make $6,500 a month on average. I expect to transition over to full time in 2019 or early 2020.imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I’ve been in the customization industry for over 10 years. I started with screen printing first. Eventually I was hired to work for the Yankees and was taught how to embroider caps. A company reached out to me for a production embroidery job and I accepted. I was taught how to run production but was left alone a lot. I ended up teaching myself a lot of different embroidery methods, it was also the place I made my first patch. I ended up creating patches for my supporters club of the local MLS team, NYCFC, and sold them for $7 each. I stopped after a few months and didn’t think about patches for awhile.In 2017 I was going through a huge change in my life, a previous employer in the City attempted to permanently remove me from the industry, very unsuccessfully. I’d say it’s part of the reason why I’ve been able to be as successful as I have been so far. I spent months grasping at straws to come up with a business idea that I knew could do while keeping my mind busy while I was on a rollercoaster of repercussions from that employer.I was in the bank one day after work and was sitting down with a representative, I did that a few months prior with the same guy and we spoke a bit about my career. This time he asked me if I was able to embroider patches for his fantasy football league called “Fight Club”. It was the first time anyone had ever asked for patches, I had no idea what to charge him but I knew I could definitely do it. I said yes and charged him $6 per patch for 25 of them. He was all too excited and agreed. I had no idea if I undercharged, overcharged or was right on the money but it was too easy. I was completely hooked.imageTake us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.To get started on orders I need the artwork and I take the full payment upfront. If a customer doesn’t have artwork, I charge $50 an hour to create something from scratch. My competitors don’t charge at all for artwork. I think that’s a waste of potential profit. I also charge a high rate because I don’t feel like doing graphic design 99% of the time, so it better be worth the while for me.After their art is sorted out, I send them a digital proof before I digitize the art. Once everything is approved, I use Wilcom to digitize the graphics. It’s what 95% of people in the embroidery industry use to digitize artwork so it’s machine ready. It involves tracing over the artwork to create a digital file that the computer in the embroidery machine can read to be able to punch through the fabric to stitch the design.From here I get the design on the machine, play around with the exact thread color combination to get as close to the artwork as I can and hoop up the fabric that I’ll be embroidering the patches onto. For the fabric, I use twill that’s the same color as the satin stitch finishing of the patch for a cleaner edge or a color that is the majority of the background so it’s a lot less stitches.When everything is set, I get the hoop onto the machine and then get the actual patch going. A typical run length is usually 12 minutes. I can run 9 patches at once. On an average day I can get 250 - 300 patches done with little problems. After they’re done running on the machine, they get backing which is usually heat seal, sometimes velcro. Small orders will be hand cut, large orders will be laser cut. Just depends on the day.For the Smith’s Shop, which is what I call my retail store, all the patches have packaging. They all come on branded cardstock backing with instructions on how to apply the patches.imageDescribe the process of launching the business.My first attempt at a website was horrific. I don’t even have screenshots and examples of it, but it was bad. I knew I would be making a website on Shopify. It’s easiest for me as someone extremely inept with web development and web design could do. I wanted to keep my costs as low as possible while growing, so I put lipstick on a pig and ran with it. The Shopify mobile app is also extremely easy to work with compared to Wordpress for me and it keeps everything in one place.imageI’ve spent most of my time growing my business visually through Instagram. It’s the easiest way for people to see the product. “Seeing is believing” or so they say. I’ve done a ton of paid promotions as well. A lot of the promotion was just to gain brand recognition, this did however bring on a lot of time wasters so I’d have to weed through many messages.I didn’t take out any loans, didn’t find investors, do a kickstarter, etc. I’m lucky that I’ve been in my industry long enough to know people that I could buy equipment from cheaply, and to know what’s a good price for other vital pieces of equipment like heat presses, laser cutters, softwares.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?So far I’ve been doing the same thing, Instagram promotions. I’ve spent about $15,000 on Instagram promotions sporadically, I started off very small with $5 -$10 per post and then got confident enough with the more I made. I didn’t start spending $800+ a month until September of 2018.imageI was stupid and had Instagram targetting my ads for awhile based off my followers. It actually did work out well. Now I’m doing a lot of testing and am yielding much better results only very recently from more targeted ads.I did experiment with Google, but my keywords were terrible and I was getting more people wanting direct embroidery instead of custom patches. I spent around $1,000 on Google and the same on Facebook, Instagram is definitely the bigger pull for me since it’s so visual.My two lifesavers have been Hotjar and AHREFS. With hotjar I’ve been able to watch and see exactly what people click, how they search through my site, how much time they spend in certain places. It’s been a huge help in changing my site little by little to make it more user friendly. I had literally no idea what SEO was 2 years ago and how to implement it, and honestly it’s still not done well but I have a structure to work off now. I plan on outsourcing that once I have a better handle on the subject so I can tell if someone is actually succeeding with the money I’m spending. The little infographics, directions and descriptions AHREFS gives me was written like a 5 year old needed an explanation so it was great to learn from.I don’t run any sales, I don’t give coupons out like candy, I don’t see the point for me. If a customer is wanting patches, they’re either going to go for extremely high quality with short turnarounds or cheap with very slow turnarounds. I also have a leg up on my direct competitors by offering no minimums and large full back pieces. I stand behind my product and I think it’s easy to convey that to a customer. When they find out my turnaround for small orders is about 5 days, compared to the 3 weeks they’d get their order from outsourcing overseas, the price doesn’t look as terrible.Once I do get a customer, I have a decent retention rate. The business so far has mostly been B2C, so while the retention rate is just about 35%, the orders aren’t as frequent. I’m looking to change that and expand much more into B2B in the very near future with very direct marketing.I’ve done expos as a vendor and have built up a bit local brand recognition for The Smith’s Shop, which is my small online store that has retail patches. I’m trying to pull back from that because it's a small amount of profit for the amount I put into it, it hasn’t really brought back any return customers either.imageHow are you doing today and what does the future look like?Currently I’m working on a major rebrand. Logo, marketing tactics, packaging, so my sales have dropped off while I don’t do any marketing with my older promotional material. I’ve created a landing page which no other custom patch company seems to have. I’m working on more B2B customers. I’ve done a lot of work into finding event marketers for different companies and am sending them very...unique boxes that are custom made with my logo, with their companies logo embroidered as a patch. Just trying to get them to see the quality and the product.Here’s the part that no one likes to post in these. I make $6,500 on average per month. There’s dips in that and then there’s months I clear $9,000. The most expensive part of the entire process is my time and knowledge. The materials cost less than a pack of gum. I make roughly 55% profit every month once all is said and done. However, 95% of that goes back into growing the business somehow.No matter what, I make sure I always charge $50 an hour for my time to customers. If I think a single patch that’s 4x4 is super detailed and will take over an hour to embroider, I will make sure I charge well over $50.I run ads for $500 - $1200 at a time and I usually like them to last me anywhere from 2 - 4 weeks depending on the ad. Conversion on ads tends to hover around 6%. It doesn’t cost too much for me to acquire new customers and usually after one order, I’m able to get extremely positive feedback in regards to the embroidery and patches so I take that as a win and make sure to check up and email the customers about a month after purchasing. It’s also a good way for me to ask them if they need more patches.Short term goal for 2019 is to land three large event marketing companies and to dip my toes into live embroidery events with a marketing plan I’m working on. Long term goal is to have a large warehouse in The Bronx with many multi-head machines and laser cutters.imageThrough starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?I��ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve spent thousands on the wrong types of marketing. I had a logo that fit me and my business but not my customers and that made marketing extremely hard.I’ve learned to let things go easier. I would get burned out trying to cram everything into one day and my life as a regular person suffered, like going to the grocery store. I never had time for that and felt guilty for walking away for a few hours. That’s changed a lot now.I’ve learned to say no to customers because I simply don’t want to do their work. You get very good at reading customers after a short while and it’s easy to spot a problem customer a mile away. Instead of charging more, I turn them down. It’s not worth the stress.What platform/tools do you use for your business?My two lifesavers have been Hotjarand AHREFS.With hotjar I’ve been able to watch and see exactly what people click, how they search through my site, how much time they spend. It’s been a huge help in changing my site little by little to make it more user friendly.I had literally no idea what SEO was 2 years ago and how to implement it, and honestly it’s still not done well but I have a structure to work off now. I plan on outsourcing that once I have a better handle on the subject so I can tell if someone is actually succeeding with the money I’m spending. The little infographics, directions and descriptions AHREFS gives me was written like a 5 year old needed an explanation so it was great to learn from.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I know it’s not very conventional for 2019, or most business owners you read about. But I don’t read books, listen to podcasts or attend conferences. I have no time for that. I’m a learn as I go type of person and seek out videos on YouTube if I have something in that moment I need to learn about. There’s also not many books and podcasts about my industry once you pass the “How to start a starting a screen printing company” since it’s the lowest barrier for entry in the industry.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Don’t put off opening until everything is “perfect”. Nothing will ever, ever be perfect. It only prolongs your ability to make money. Adjust and update your site, your tools and marketing as you go.People in the customization industry always want to be the cheapest. Don’t be the cheapest. Pick one thing, be the best that you possibly can. Blow people out of the water with the quality in the work and they will pay your price. I charge almost double what you would pay from a Chinese manufacturer and I have plenty of business and foresee plenty more coming my way.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I will never hire someone to actually do the embroidery. It’s my favorite part of the business and my biggest stress relief.I’m always looking for salespeople to sell patches. I mostly look for young college kids who have a wide network of clubs, Greek life connections, sports connections. Then people who are event marketers for my live embroidery events.Where can we go to learn more?thepatchsmith.comthepatchsmithNYCthe.patchsmithcontact@thepatchsmith.comIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

Epi-pins: Epigenetics on Pinterest

This post has been co-authored with Cath Ennis, University of British Colombia, Vancouver (author of Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide).

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Cath and I are interested in how epigenetics is made public, for example through visual aids, such as drawings, photos, diagrams, infographics and so on. We thought one way to access such visuals would be by looking at Pinterest, an image-based social media network; but, as you’ll see below, looking at Pinterest actually brought us back to words rather than images.

Epigenetics has a long history and is still evolving, but it is safe to say that “[r]esearch in epigenetics today is primarily concerned with the investigation of changes in gene expression, where the mechanism for this is something other than a change to the underlying DNA. The focus of research is on the dynamics of chemical modification upon the DNA, which enhance, decrease, initiate or silence gene expression.” (Pickersgill et al., 2013)

Epigenetics in its current form, as part of molecular biology, began to flourish in the scientific literature after 2003 (the end of the Human Genome Project) and has been popularised through at least four main channels of communication:

Through the work of celebrity scientists or epigenetic champions who give TED talks, appear on YouTube videos, write comment and opinion pieces, and become go-to experts for journalists and film-makers.

Through the dissemination of epigenetic stories by journalists and science writers.

Through targeted campaigns by advertisers promoting (mostly unproven) alternative health and well-being products using traditional and social media.

Through the labour of academic bloggers, podcasters and tweeters (some them prominent scientists), almost all of whom are quite sceptical of some of the claims being made about epigenetics in the popular sphere.

Some of these efforts leave traces on Pinterest if they include images.

We searched Pinterest using the term “epigenetics” (on 18 August 2019 at 15.30 GMT [when we looked an hour later, things had changed]). (There are also ‘boards‘ or collections where individuals choose and collect pins dealing with epigenetics, which would deserve a separate analysis).

There was not only a wealth of images on display, but also a banner above the images showing the main themes, presumably found by an algorithm. We could have jumped straight to epigenetics-related content on the theme of, say, stress or trauma or diet or even art.

Screenshot taken on 22 August 2019

We decided to look more closely at the first 20 ‘pins’ (more about pinning and pins here). What surprised us was that many of them didn’t contain visuals but rather words.

The following ‘analysis’ is just a rough sketch. This is not a systematic study of epigenetics on Pinterest, using, for example, visual content analysis (see Conclusion below for some examples). We selected the first twenty pins (which now have changed substantially, so make of that what you will) and sorted them into three categories: university outreach, science/news communication, and alternative health promotion and pseudoscience.

We have a hunch that a very similar pattern of dissemination can be found on Twitter, but we haven’t looked at this closely yet.

University outreach

The first pin we saw (on 18 August) displayed an educational poster on “What is Epigenetics?” with relation to child development, produced by the University of Harvard’s Centre for the Developing Child. Another poster “adapted from” this one was displayed in another pin using similar words but ‘cuter’ pictures of children, not the more abstract representations used by the Harvard original.

Both posters talk about how “Epigenetics explains how early experiences can have lifelong impact” (both positive and negative ones) and that “[y]oung brains are particularly sensitive to epigenetic changes”. They point out that through epigenetics the environment affects gene expression, which means that “the old idea that genes are ‘set in stone’ has been disproven” (they don’t point to a source for this ‘old idea’ though). Experiences can, they say, “leave a unique epigenetic ‘signature’ on genes”… These changes can, the posters claim, be reversed, but the best thing is to reduce stress ”from the beginning” and bring up children in a nurturing environment.

Science/news communication

One pin links back to a neuroscience news item on daytime sleepiness. Another pin refers to a popular science book on epigenetics, showing its cover. This is The Epigenetic Revolution (2011) by Nessa Carey.

A pinned YouTube video tries to provide an answer to the question “What is epigenetics?”. It’s by Carlos Guerrero-Bosagna and has gathered almost a million views. Carlos is a researcher at Linköping University looking at links between epigenetics and society, including autism. The video should be analysed together with other popular videos about epigenetics.

Another pin displays a sciencey-looking diagram entitled “Genetics vs Epigenetics” which was used in a popular article published in 2013 in Discover Magazine and entitled “Grandma’s Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes”. The article begins by saying: “Your ancestors’ lousy childhoods or excellent adventures might change your personality, bequeathing anxiety or resilience by altering the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain”. This was one of several articles dissected and found wanting by Kevin Mitchell in his 2018 blog post on Wiring the Brain entitled: “Grandma’s trauma – a critical appraisal of the evidence for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in humans”. We’ll come back to this topic in the next section/category.

Alternative health and pseudoscience

The rest of the twenty pins link to rather less reputable sources, mainly websites (two from Instagram) selling ways to enhance body and mind through changes in nutrition and lifestyle, through meditation, detoxification and so on. As an aside: If you follow the pins recommended underneath these pins you get into quantum physics, quantum consciousness, astrology and, we kid you not, ‘star shit’, an image saved to a board titled “Brainiac facts” along with the note “Human body ingredients. Everything, every element that exists, everything we are composed of was created in the death of a star. We are literally made of star stuff”.

Many of the pins in our alternative health and pseudoscience category display stock visuals of the double helix, mostly in blue, but many more depict what one may call inspirational texts, such as:

“Epigenetics: Science is proving that our bodies (sic) ability to heal and repair itself is greatly effected (sic) by our beliefs thoughts emotions and intentions for they have a profound vibrational effect upon our continually evolving genetic code We’re the programmers of the code DNA activation is our software upgrade.” [no punctuation] These words appear against a dark background and underneath readers can see a hand touching and lighting up a piece of a double helix.

Another pin from the Mindful Design Feng Shui School says: “90% of what happens to you – including how your genes get expressed – is determined by your environment. This is the science of epigenetics. And the most important part of that environment is created by your beliefs, most of which you are not consciously aware.”

One pin is a combination of words and visuals, in this case drawings of a bicycle, a man and a woman, healthy fruit and veg, etc. The words say: “Your gene expression can change based on what you eat, how you move, your thoughts, feelings and social connections.” (After reading things like this, it’s always good to go back and read Kevin Mitchell’s blog post)

If you want to be more ‘out there’, you can look at a pin saying “Epigenetics is catching up to what Yogis have always known”, illustrated again with a double helix. The article itself talks about the Holy Grail, the Da Vinci Code etc. and says: “The Holy Grail, or the sacred chalice, is blood that holds high vibrational DNA.” And: “Science is now proving that DNA can be altered and programmed through a field called behavioral epigenetics. We are no longer victims of the past, but creators of our destiny. Epigenetics has proven what Yogis have always known: that your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, environment, and diet can change your life.”

A pin showing an image of a woman’s head and the words “How your mind can reprogramme your genes” leads to an article saying: “You are the ‘driver’ of your genetic roadmap. And not only your roadmap, but the thoughts and emotions you feel, the foods you eat, and how well you detoxify also pass down 3 generations!” An interesting verbal image or metaphor.

Underneath this article are two intriguing comments. One says: “Epigenetics explains naturopathy, prayers, good intentions, karmic law and even reincarnation of physical self in scientific way.” The other asks: “Hello, can this help with Huntingtins Desease [sic]?” This shows just how dangerous such hype can be!

Some pins link up with the work of Bruce Lipton who wrote a book entitled The Biology of Belief – Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles (2005), stressing the power of thoughts and beliefs and the way we can harness them to improve our health.

Many pins include promises about the power of epigenetics to change people’s genes. One pin relating to nutrition, again referencing Lipton, claims that “Genes are equivalent to blueprints; epigenetics is the contractor. They change the assembly, the structure.” Another novel metaphor. Another pin goes further and says: “’It’s in my genes, I can’t do anything about it.’ BULLSHIT. The field of epigenetics, led by Bruce Lipton (sic!), is proving that genes are not the end all be all of your health. What is more affective (sic) on your body is your beliefs, thoughts and feelings.”

Lipton is, according to Wikipedia, “an American developmental biologist who supported the theory that gene expression could be influenced (via epigenetics) by environmental factors i.e. environmental factors have a greater impact on their health than genetic research has previously determined”. The wiki article also stresses that his work remains on the sidelines of mainstream epigenetics – although he is widely cited as an authority on other social media platforms such as Twitter, often in support of pseudoscientific claims about alternative health products and services.

Another pin, related to an article on epigenetics and autism, is a PowerPoint slide with a double helix on the left-hand side and various bullet points, one of which claims “Can be transgenerational”, a rather contested assumption when it comes to humans.

Finally, a pin, linked to what one may call spiritual wellness, talks about epigenetics as “healing generational memory and inherited family trauma”. Another displays the title: “Epigenetics: The weird science behind inherited experience”, referring to “Holocaust survivors passing on certain behavioural traits to their offspring”, tapping into the fascination with transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and trauma, a topic of which scientific bloggers are greatly sceptical.

Conclusion

What can we learn from this quick survey?

We tried to study visuals used to make epigenetics public. What we found was that words seem to trump visuals and that the visuals used were mostly conventional stock images of the double helix. These science-symbolising images were even used in combination with the weirdest claims, perhaps in an attempt to lend scientific authority to unscientific content.

Epigenetics is portrayed as a way to escape the power of genes and (the strawman of) genetic determinism (blueprint, set in stone, blank slate, programme). Epigenetics, we are told, overcomes these barriers through diet and exercise but, more importantly, the power of the mind, thoughts and beliefs.

Epigenetics is linked to trauma and ‘the ghost of generational memory’. An article pinned up on Pinterest refers to a 2016 book by Mark Wolynn entitled It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle. (The cover of this book also features a double helix as part of its design). The article also says that “Slaves in the 1800s and before left a heavy generational footprint in the DNA of their descendants”. Trauma in all is forms resonates with many popularisers of epigenetics.

The majority of pins link to articles or blog posts or book about epigenetics that are steeped in pseudoscience. The pseudoscientific pins we looked at are only the very tip of a large iceberg that has been growing for a decade. In 2015 Adam Rutherford, said (first on Twitter, then in print): “The legion purveyors of flapdoodle love a real but tricky scientific concept that they can bolt their pernicious quackery on to.  […] Epigenetics is a real and important part of biology, but due to predictable quackery, it is threatening to become the new quantum.” (The Guardian, 19 July 2015). This is no longer a mere threat it seems!

Some of the researchers who have published Pinterest content analyses have concluded that aspects of the platform’s content related to public health topics can be actively harmful, for instance in the cases of vaccination, electronic cigarette and waterpipe smoking, skin tanning, and weight loss.

While scientifically inaccurate pins about epigenetics seem likely to have less direct and less serious impacts, they do have the potential to spread misinformation and false hope, and may contribute to the rejection of conventional medicine approaches. This first dip into the Pinterest pool highlights the need for a deeper dive, to understand the opportunities for dissemination of accurate scientific information to wider audiences as well as the potential harms of users sharing pseudoscience and other inaccurate content about epigenetics.

Image: Pixabay

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