#edit: just went and checked the exact wording of the TL and it's actually 'you like being a hero' rather than 'you want to be the hero' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bananonbinary · 3 years

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Time for a Salty Meta Post about Martin!

people who’ve followed this blog for a bit know that spending six hours combing through text for some goddamn sources is my specialty, so i compiled every time jon ever talked about martin’s work in season 1. which for the record, he stopped complaining about all the way back in episode 26, where he was angry that martin of all people got hurt.

things jon gets mad at martin for:

not being able to find records that don’t exist

not being able to find someone based only on a first name

the Dog

not wearing trousers in his off-hours

being the one that got caught up in the jane prentiss thing

mag 004 and mag 012 both have jon taking potshots at martin over research that was proven accurate by outside sources

things jon has never once complained about:

martin not understanding the filing system and just putting stuff away at random

martin being clumsy, constantly ruining things, spilling tea everywhere everyday, etc

martin turning in incompetent, poorly-edited, or badly formatted reports

martin not understanding the terminology used, skills expected, etc., and generally being extremely new to the field

please for the love of god stop making martin the silly bumbling idiot who can’t do anything right just because he doesn’t have a formal education. there’s zero evidence for it in the text, and it’s really weird to act like a 4 year degree would outweigh the *10 years* of job experience he has, not just in academia, but in the institute itself by season one. my boy has worked there longer than ANY of the rest of the main cast. screw you guys.

tl;dr: martin is never once shown to be bad at his job, jon pretty much only ever gets mad at him for the really stupid first impression and also not finding stuff that no one else was able to find either. after martin got hurt, jon talks about his research basically the same way he talks about tim’s or sasha’s work.

fucking proof under the cut:

(i didnt include the s1 finale or martin’s statement bc that’s just...two entire episodes of them talking to each other, but there isn’t really any notable Martin Complaints in either of them imo)

I swear, if he’s brought another dog in here, I’m going to peel him.

[pre-launch trailer]

Well, technically three, but I don’t count Martin as he’s unlikely to contribute anything but delays.

[...] Alongside this Tim, Sasha and, yes, I suppose, Martin will be doing some supplementary investigation to see what details may be missing from what we have.

[MAG001 Anglerfish]

Martin couldn’t find any records of Ex Altiora as a title in existent catalogues of esoteric or similar literature, so I assigned Sasha to double-check. Still nothing.

[MAG004 Pageturner]

I had Martin conduct a follow-up interview with Mr. Woodward last week, but it was unenlightening. Apparently there have been no further bags at number 93 and in the intervening years he has largely discounted many of the stranger aspects of his experience. I wasn’t expecting much, as time generally makes people inclined to forget what they would rather not believe, but at least it got Martin out of the Institute for an afternoon, which is always a welcome relief.

[MAG005 Thrown Away]

Martin was unable to find the exact date the original house was built but the earliest records he could find list it as being bought by Walter Fielding in 1891.

[...]

We cannot prove any connection, but Martin unearthed a report on an Agnes Montague, who was found dead in her Sheffield flat on the evening of November 23rd 2006, the same day Mr. Lensik claims to have uprooted the tree.

[MAG008 Burned Out]

According to Martin, who was here when they took this statement, it was at this point in writing that Mr. Herbert announced he needed some sleep before continuing. He was shown to the break room where he went to sleep on the couch. He did not awaken; unfortunately succumbing to the lung cancer right there. Martin says the staff had been aware of how serious Mr. Herbert’s condition was, and had advised him to seek medical aid prior to giving his statement, but were told rather bluntly by the old man that he would not wait another second to state his case. I can’t decide whether this lends more or less credibility to his tale.

[MAG010 Vampire Killer]

“Veepalach” might also be a mishearing of the Polish word “wypalać”, according to Martin, which means to cauterize or brand. Admittedly, if Martin speaks Polish in the same way he “speaks Latin,” then he might be talking nonsense again, but I’ve looked it up and it appears to check out.

[MAG012 First Aid]

I sent Martin to look into this ‘Angela’ character - not that I want him to get chopped up, of course, but someone had to. Apparently, he spent three days looking into every woman named Angela in Bexley over the age of 50. He could not find anyone that matches the admittedly vague description given here, though he informs me that he had some very pleasant chats about jigsaws. Useless ass.

[MAG014 Piecemeal]

Martin declined to help with this investigation as he’s “a bit claustrophobic”

[MAG015 Lost John’s Cave]

There simply aren’t enough details given in this statement to actually investigate, short of Martin confirming that Mr. Vittery did indeed live at the addresses he provided.

[MAG016 Arachnophobia]

Oh, he’s off sick this week. Stomach problems, I think.

Blessed relief if you ask me.

[...]

I asked Martin to try and hunt down Mr. Adekoya himself for a follow-up, but have been informed that he passed away in 2006.

[MAG017 The Boneturner’s Tale]

MARTIN

Well, I need to tell someone what happened, and you can vouch for the soundness of my mind, can’t you?

ARCHIVIST

…

That is beside the point.

[MAG022 Colony]

Martin! Good lord man, if you’re going to be staying in the Archives, at least have the decency to put some trousers on!

[MAG023 Schwartzwald]

Martin found one other thing while combing through police reports for the Hither Green area. About a month after this statement was given, on May 15th, 2015, police were called out to once again investigate the chapel.

[MAG025 Growing Dark]

I know, but it would have to have been Martin, wouldn’t it? I mean, anything goes wrong around here, it always seems to happen to him. Anyway, we’re getting off topic. Why didn’t you report this?

[MAG026 A Distortion]

Martin made contact with the son, Marcus McKenzie, but he declined to talk to us, saying that he’d “already made his statement.”

[MAG027 A Sturdy Lock]

Tim and Martin had a bit more luck investigating Tom Haan, though only really enough to confirm that he seems to have completely vanished following his departure from Aver Meats on the 12th of July.

[MAG030 Killing Floor]

Martin’s research would seem to indicate the place employed a reasonable number of international staff they preferred to keep off the books

[...]

TIM

Ah well, that’s actually what he was asking, huh! Um, apparently Martin, uh, took delivery of a couple of items last week addressed to you. Did he not mention it?

ARCHIVIST

No, he… Oh, yes, actually. I completely forgot. He said he put it in my desk drawer, hold on.

[MAG036 Taken Ill]

#the magnus archives #LISTEN #i am once again asking people to remember that martin has MORE job experience at the institute than literally any other character #(except elias or i guess maybe rosie)#he's the goddamn veteran not the newbie #fan wank /

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evilasiangenius · 7 years

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Editing

So this is why I think editing is probably the most important thing about writing. What first gets written down doesn’t have to be perfect or the best; that’s what editing is for, improving what might have started off kind of lackluster. Most of this is from chapter 13 and 14 of Ekstasis, with a little bit from chapter 15 (work in progress):

Original: True to his word, Stonker was waiting for him just after dawn. The tall War Boy's white gleamed in the early light and his still-healing scars, the engine block in 3/4 profile, stood out, a pink-tinged contrast against the whitened skin. He leaned casually against the shining chrome of his car, the silvery metal catching all the colors of the world around it into a bright-hued swirl around the curves of the body, and the tall War Boy absently fingered his black dust wrap thoughtfully, as if recalling a fond memory.

I actually edit while I write. This looks fairly polished only because is after a lot of little sentence-level fixes as I went along, and probably one round of light editing for meaning before I thought to save an early draft of this paragraph. Essentially a “first draft” though it’s hard to describe exact drafts since I am constantly editing. This paragraph has the general idea of what I want to say in rough brushstrokes. It’s not bad, but it’s very plain and not particularly interesting.

Finished version: True to his word, Stonker was waiting for him just after dawn. In the early morning light, the tall War Boy's heavy coat of white gleamed, stained faintly red from the dusty dawn. Over his chest where the white had been applied in a lighter coat to show off his still-healing scars, the engine block in 3/4 profile stood out in pink-tinged contrast. He leaned against the shining chrome of his car, the silvery metal catching and reflecting all the colors of the world into a bright-hued swirl that chased the straights and curves of the vehicle. At this time, Stonker was about 9,800 days old. As Morsov watched from a distance, he saw Stonker absently fingering his black dust wrap, stroking the thin cloth between his fingertips as though recalling a fond memory.

The final draft came after about two or three rounds of serious editing, and a few more re-reads for cleanup. Probably the biggest fix took about 15-20 minutes working on just this one paragraph. The first sentence stays the same and though the overall idea is about the same, I’ve added more details to the rough version to suggest more atmosphere and played with the word order to try to make it more interesting.

The reference to the silver car’s swirling colors was always meant to be a Chinese art history reference (Tang dynasty polychrome ceramic horse sculptures that were made to imitate silver) but now the phrasing is improved and also has some car racing imagery thrown in because War Boys.

Added the line about Stonker’s age as a reference to a common novel writing reference (e.g. ”I saw her from a distance, standing under a tree. She was beautiful, <insert lots of pretty description here> and at this time she would have been about 27″ etc.). Added Morsov as the narrator for this section, to ground the scene and give it a point of view. Without Morsov, it would be pointless character description of a character we’ve already seen before; artistry without significance.

Original: Slit finished, smearing himself all over with the white, even the places that were usually left bare because it made no sense to wear the white under clothing. He stood at the center of the ring of War Boys, gleaming a white statue in the dying light of the world. “Immorta! Accept the offering!” Furiosa shouted, her voice rising above the striking metal. “Accept this War Boy! He is yours!

Finished version: Slit finished, smearing himself all over with the white as he was told, even the places that were usually left bare because it made no sense to wear the white under clothing. Every inch that made him human was covered, obscured, and even his wounds disappeared beneath the heavy coat of white. He stood gleaming at the center of the ring of War Boys, a stark statue in the dying light of the world. “Immorta! Accept the offering!” Furiosa shouted, circling him, metal clashing beneath her fists and her voice rising above the striking metal. “Accept this War Boy! He is yours!”

Not a lot of difference here in meaning of both before and after scenes, but the devil’s in the details. It's probably too wordy to add ‘as he was told’ (I went back and forth a few times on this, added it in the last read through) but I wanted to make it clear to the reader that Slit wasn’t just pulling some Slit shit or trying to hide the scars of his self-harm from the others by covering himself with white. I wanted it to be clear that this level of extra was supposed to be part of the ritual, something Furiosa had decided on. There has also been a running theme in the series about how wearing the white covers up both scars and wounds, as well as covering up one’s humanity, so this was added in a later edit when I remembered the importance of the theme.

Furiosa’s line was fine, but adding a little bit more gives her more physical presence in the scene. Sometimes I think it’s good to leave dialogue as it is, without too much more to let the reader imagine for themselves what the characters are doing. Other times, like here, I think a little additional description can give more physicality to the scene, more dynamism.

Original: Coil held the round flat mirror in his hands, ostensibly checking the stubble on his face, but really he was looking back at her reflection.

Finished(?): Coil opened the round flat mirror, and the first thing he saw before he saw himself were the familiar cracks that ran through it. He held it up in his hands, ostensibly checking the growing stubble on his face, but really he was looking back at her reflection. Here Coil is sitting in the passenger seat of the War Rig and looking back. I checked screencaps of the War Rig interior to see that it doesn’t have a rearview mirror, thought about using the sideview mirrors, but then, remembered that Coil probably had the mirror that belonged to Win (Win uses it in Vincula chapter 17). But to make it more clear that it was Win’s mirror, had to go back and edit in the reference to the cracked surface. This bit will probably will be different by the time chapter 15 comes out, I can already see some things I want to change for clarity.

Anyway, tl;dr this is pretty much what I do with the entire work when I write, though some parts need less work than others. Sadly writing is not so exciting as to be interesting enough to do livestreams and such. it’d just be me sitting in silence typing away, with the occasional google rabbithole search. Speaking of which... I need to go and work on the chapter by chapter notes again, but I thought you guys might find this amusing: I wanted to find kind of ‘sound of surprise’ for Morsov that would be Russian-specific (e.g. Chinese speakers be all ‘aiya!’ and Spanish speakers be all ‘ay ay ay!’) so not knowing any Russian, I spent 20+ minutes watching Russian dashcam car crash videos to get the right one.

#furiosa #slit #morsov #mmfr #mad max fury road #writing #fortunae plango vulnera series #tl;dr warning #I don't know if this is fun or interesting or self-absorbed bullshit #but I thought it might be interesting to compare early versions with later versions #already i have edited this post like 4 times staaahp #maybe some minor story spoilers?

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whyareyouyellingatme · 7 years

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A post I deleted in the end

Here's one of the most personal/long things I've ever posted, and if you hate me you'll probably have a field day laughing at this one. I don't know how long it'll take before I maybe...delete it. I don't want anyone to respond with likes or comments. If you have something to say you can pm me, but I don't enjoy talking about it outside of one ong rant. I rant like this so I can jot it all down for records / evidence I'm not irrational, and then move on.

Here's the TL;DR: Rick Ranquist - 40+ years old, lives in Utah possibly Michael Aigner - mid 20's, probably lives in Bellingham by the pool Cooper Texeira - My age, lives in Seattle and goes to my school

All these men are white sexual offenders that did not get a punishment for their crimes.

When I was seven my 20+ year old babysitter did stuff with me that I did not understand, and I don't properly remember a lot of it. I thought it was a game, but it was actually doing sexual favors for a pedophile. I read a line in "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" about a man trying so hard to forget something unpleasant that he eventually succeeds in forgetting it. I tried to do that with the memory, and it sort of worked until I heard his name, Ricky. My brother said, "Remember when Ricky----" and that's all I heard before I started dissociating and everything was like someone was smothering me with a pillow.

His sister called me a liar when I said "your brother does weird stuff with me and plays games I don't understand". I decided if she didn't believe me, nobody would, because she was my neighbor and my friend. She still doesn't know today I was telling the truth.

I got raped when I was 19 by a 23 year old that had been grooming me since I was 16. I tried reporting it to the police and they laughed at me, nearly hanging up on me. I went to the ER, got a cervical exam while a doctor ogled my vagina with awe (because my relatively young genitals excited him, how professional). The taxi driver saw me crying and said "you put him on a list! Get him on a list!" and nope, he didn't get put on any kind of list. That fucked me up for a long time. I was numb for a long time. I just watched non stop television and didn't think. I can remember the exact outfit I put in a brown paper evidence bag, and I can remember the exact outfit I wore for days afterwards. I really changed as a person after that. Being isolated from all your friends and spending 3 years dedicating all your time to a shitty abusive man that made you think everything was your fault. Not fun.

Weirdly enough, a man who's in my family pushed me not to report the rape or try pushing for anything else from the police, because he thought it would traumatize me further. I gave up. I didn't want to see Michael, he made me sick. I was partially relieved I got out of the cycle of abuse, but I held on to a rage for a while . I still feel it if I think too much about it. I get really angry but it helps nothing because what can I do ? I'd imagine scenarios where I got to kill him as revenge.

It looked really cute on the surface! It looked like I was having a good time. But I was having panic attacks every week trying to make him happy, despite the beatings, despite the yelling (bc that's normal in my household so I thought it was normal in relationships) until the day that he went way too far.

I really thought it was my fault and that I deserved it for being stupid or not good enough. I was too focused on a very heavy school schedule and an eating disorder/self harm problem to realize I could do better for myself. Of course all of his friends saw me as a "crazy bitch" as he was beating me, real nice. His family was really racist and he broadcasted all of our arguments to them. His sister threatened to hit me with a wrench, not knowing/caring that her brother was already beating me. All of them just kind of watched whenever I broke down crying in front of them. His dad said "women get like this", I'm not...a woman. Not for someone like you dude.

Michael showed up at my house a couple days after it happened too. He stalked me for a while. I still get freaked out being alone sometimes. I have a knife collection and pepper spray, and even guns, but none of them make me feel as safe as a genuine friend does. I'm easily startled and for a while I had really horrible nightmares and panic attacks in public. It got a little better with time, but I still have really bad days. It's still difficult going anywhere near medical centers or dealing with cervical exams.

(I tried speaking with a nurse about the possibility that I have PTSD from that event, and she brushed me off with a "Women used to get raped all the time and they would have to just deal with it. You should lose some weight." Which started up my eating disorder again...horribly enough, people have been so cruel to me but I still care so much what they think.)

I tried faking confidence and happiness in college. I don't have a supportive healthy family, I just have me and whoever decides to be my friend. I made a friend group and went to parties with them. That was fun until a person I trusted grabbed at me when I was incredibly drunk. He led me to his room where I passed out. I wasn't sober enough to understand what was going on or even walk properly, and he texted people things from my phone saying that I was okay. It was all just kind of stupid honestly.

I woke up the next day in my room, on the floor, feeling kind of gross and even more gross as I try to figure out what happened the night before. He shows up at my work wanting me to serve him ice cream. I go in to report him because he did end up grabbing me without consent.

I lost my friend group. And after describing him grabbing my chest and ass in a disgusting amount of detail to a man that said "I remember being a young man and partying in college" with a cheerful nostalgia, I lost the case too. He didn't get anything. At this point I was kind of used to being treated like a piece of meat, so I was just mad he didn't learn anything. In fact, he has been checking up on me online to find dirt on me and report ME to the school for talking shit. His girlfriend has been doing the same, angry because she thinks he was trying to cheat with me. Cheating is consensual.

People just don't learn sometimes. I'm not a thing. I'm an nb lesbian though, and the guy that tried stuff with me when I was drunk knew that. He thought he could convert me.

I've been going through all of this without therapy, trying to just go to school. I tried telling a counselor about my situation and he said "those are long term problems that the university cannot handle".

Maybe I seem quiet and aloof, maybe I'm annoying to you, maybe you think I'm a liar or something stupid like that. But god damn it, I am a human being. I've been through some gross shit. I'm tired of people touching me and trying to invade my space. I'm tired of creepy ass college professors comparing me to their girlfriends and saying shit like "things aren't going so well with her". It's never a compliment you're just fuckin weird dude.

I'm super disconnected from reality even now (sometimes) because I don't like thinking about any of this. I stayed silent about it for quite a while because of all the people who probably wouldn't believe me. But uhhhh fuck you guys I know who I am.

This is a really personal story, especially very personal to be posting on facebook. It makes me feel super vulnerable, but not as much as having the memories bouncing around in my head nonstop makes me feel. I have a girlfriend now and I'm living in a pretty safe place at the moment. There's a lot of other shit happening in my life, my PTSD dog (one of my only sources of comfort in a bad time) got hit by a car and died. :( You all probs know about that, I just miss her when I think about the past. So I've just been trying to figure out how to help myself, you know?

This post got really fucking long and I don't feel like editing it. If you ever think I'm quiet, it's because I'm tired of explaining myself. I want to be my usual joke-y self but sometimes that feel really fake. I don't like thinking about all of this, but I think someone should know.

I wanted to write this post when I was sure I could finish it without crying. It has been a while since something super bad has happened to me, and that distance between the event and reality really helps muffle the emotional response.

Cheers to the survivors that aren't "good" survivors that react a specific way. Cheers to those of you that aren't comfortable sharing your story because it's really not anybody's business unless you want to say something.

I don't know, I still try and have fun, pretending nothing happened. I hate this crap. I hate the emotional baggage. Wish I could chuck it, but my brain has a different plan.

Like, all of this shit happened on TOP of me living in an extremely abusive home so you can imagine I tried to kill myself.

I'm a human being. Stop treating me like shit. I'm tired of it. I'm also not as mean as I look, I don't bite. I'm here for you as a friend if you need it. I just couldn't sleep tonight because of all this crap.

Please don't react to this I'm just babbling. I don't want to deal with people that have no empathy for my long ass story just because it's long / badly written. I'm just tired. I'm soooooo fucking tired.

Edit: I'm trying to reread this just once, but I can't even do it. Like not because it's hard, I literally just look at the words and they mean nothing. My brain basically put up a firewall against upsetting shit so I lose touch with reality whenever I get near it for too long. It's hard describing dissociation but if you would like to know more u should google it. A weird time. Anyway gn I'm alright I just needed to fucking let it out.

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smoothshift · 5 years

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How my friend and I bought POS cars for dirt cheap, flipped them and made a killing profit at ages 16 and 17. via /r/cars

How my friend and I bought POS cars for dirt cheap, flipped them and made a killing profit at ages 16 and 17.

Hey guys, long time lurker here, I thought it'd be a good place to tell you guys a pretty interesting story of how my friend and I bought and flipped cars. Disclaimer; When I say "we" bought cars, I mean "We." Not mom and dad giving us money to spend, our hard earned money. We are very close friends. tl;dr at bottom

Junior year of high school. My friend and I had both gotten our license a few months apart. But...we had no cars. So we were stuck driving our parents cars, which was still cool. But we wanted our own cars. My friend, we'll call him Sam, and I both had part time jobs at the same job. So that was cool. We decided to both save some money and buy cars for ourselves. Now, we knew NOTHING about buying cars, (Ironic since we knew almost everything about cars themselves.) How to negotiate, where to even look, how to actually "buy" the car. So we were going in blind. We both had a budget of about $2,000. Not a lot, but for us it was like a million dollars. We didn't really care what we got. We had a few ideas. Stay away from chevy's, GM products, and european cars. Japanese were generally the way to go as far as reliability, cheap pricing and easy to work on.

Sam found this 2003 Honda Civic Ex Coupe with 142k miles for $1,800 about 2 hours away from where we were at. I was stoked to go on a road trip to get a car. So we took my mom's Nissan Altima and drove out to go get it. We did not realize the car was so cheap, we just thought we got lucky. Long story short, we test drive the car, sign over the title, and the car was Sams. So I get in my car, drive off with Sam behind me. Not 20 minutes after we leave, his car was overheating. We pulled over, looked under the hood and saw a coolant leak. There was a lot, so we couldn't tell where it was coming from. We later found out it was the thermostat...We did a full inspection before we bought the car, but no leaks. Oil was clean, transmission fluid was clean. Spark plugs were good. The whole nine yards. So naturally we were confused. We called the previous owner back and yeah, you guessed it. No answer. Great. Sam just got screwed over. We wait a while, start driving back and while the car was overheating, it somehow made it home safely. Sam was pretty tired and so was I. By this time it was already midnight. So he spent the night and we decided to look at it tomorrow while it was cold and try to fix it.

To save you from the unnecessary details, we were at the car all day in my dad's garage trying to fix it. Like I said, we found out it was the thermostat. Living literally 2 minutes away from Autozone and O'Reilly's is really nice when you're flipping cars by the way. We picked up the thermostat, replaced it and bam. Car was fixed...for now. About 2 weeks later, I still found no worth buying. Sam comes to my house one day to hang out, goes to start the car and instantly, it starts overheating, coolant and oil everywhere, white smoke coming out of the tail pipe...Yep. He blew a head gasket. I don't need to explain how much of a kick to the stomach this was for both of us. His problem was mine, simple as that. Now, we were both confident in working on cars. But a head gasket? No thanks. We got a mechanic to do it. Now, working at a part time job doesn't exactly pay the most, and he had just spent the rest of his money getting it in his name, insurance, and registered. So I decided to pay for the head gasket repair. Easy $1,000 no surprise. But he said he would pay me back, since he wants to sell this car now that it was quickly turning into a money pit. So he puts the car up on facebook marketplace and craigslist for $3,500. Got hits instantly. He ended up selling it for $3,700 because of a lady who really wanted the car, but it was already getting bought the next day. So she offered another $200. Sam made a good profit and I got my money back. From there it was on.

We both agreed to pitch our money together, buy cars we could fix ourselves, flip them and split the profit, plus 10% more for me since we use my garage with all my tools, etc. (I would also detail the cars to full extent.) At this point, we had a total of $5,700. And no, we did not tell our parents about any of this. We hit marketplace up and found this 1998 Toyota 4Runner with 120k miles on it. Body was in mint condition, interior was okay, few tears in the seats, stains on carpet, etc. nothing my hot water extractor wouldn't fix. All for $2,000. (We check the blue book price and other cars that are the same for prices so we get an idea of what our profit will be.) The problem was it was leaking oil. A lot. Thankfully it was in our city. So we called a tow truck driver to tow it to my house. We went under the car, found out the oil pan gasket was bad. I had the biggest smile on my face when I saw that a 4Runners oil pan gasket ran for about $30. We changed it and no more oil leaks. Did an oil change as well. After a good detail, the car was a solid 8/10 with little no body damage, small dents, a few surface scratches and light oxidation on the hood. We sold it for $6,000.

Now we had a total of a little over $9,700. We were ecstatic. Once again, we hit up facebook marketplace. It took awhile to find a car worth getting. Now we knew a lot about buying used cars. So we weren't afraid to be picky. We later found a 2009 Lexus IS250 with 80k miles on it for about $5,000. The issue was the alternator was dead, but the owner didn't know that. Luckily we did since we both really liked the Lexus IS350. (Same car, more horsepower.) So we knew the ins and outs of it, but we weren't certain. We were only told it wouldn't start, the owner didn't even care for the car since his ex wife got it for him. He had a corvette in his garage, so this was like chop liver. We took a big gamble and decided to buy it for $4,400. This was about an hour drive for us, so tow truck company here we go, back to my house we go. We tested some stuff out, bought the factory OEM one, (was told not to go aftermarket as those were a lot worse.) We replaced it and...it started up. We were ecstatic. At the time, these cars were going for easily $9,000-$11,000. With it's current condition we wanted an even $10k. We posted it on marketplace and we got a few hits. We ended up getting $9,800 for it since we had someone drive about 3 hours away to get it.

We now had $15,000. We decided to quit while we were ahead and split the money according to plan. I ended up with an even $9,000, Sam had $6,000. I decided to give him $1,000 since 3k was a big gap. So 8k for me, 7k for Sam. We decided to look for our own cars. As you can tell by my flair, I got a 2008 Lexus IS350 with 140k miles, clean title, no CEL, no body damage. Just needed a tuneup for $5,000, and i'd save the rest for a rainy day. My friend got the exact same car as I did, but his was a 2006 Lexus IS350 with 160k miles for 4,600. We fell in love with the IS250, but not enough power. And we already knew a lot about it. We could not be more happier. That was truly an adventure. Doing it with my best friend is something nothing can compare to.

tl;dr: Started out with $2,000 each to get our own cars. Friend bought one first, it was a POS, fixed it, gave me money for buying the new part, we thought it'd be a good idea to fix cars. Fixed a 4runner, then an IS250 2009, ended up with $15,000 total. Quit while we were ahead, got the same car since we both liked it so much. A Lexus IS350. (Mine is 2008, his is 2006 with a few other minor differences.)

Thanks everyone who actually read this. Thought it would be great to share this experience. It was truly something I'll always remember. I will post pictures of our cars together soon. Have a great day. Any questions or comments, I will try to answer as soon as I can.

edit: a word

edit 2: Please don't get it twisted, we didn't buy the first car we first saw. We must've drove up to L.A 20 times in the span of 6 months just to look at cars alone. This was not a couple month process, way easier said than done, but I figured I'd save the trial and error parts.

#reddit #autonews #auto #cars

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salestudy7-blog · 5 years

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BIG News! I’ve Partnered With Peter Manning NYC

I'm excited to announce that I've officially joined forces with Peter Manning NYC!

Big news! I've made the decision to partner with PMNYC. See below for a quick summary of what happened, or read on for the full story.

tl;dr

I’ve joined forces with Peter Manning NYC by becoming a manager and part owner in the company.

I’ll be handling content marketing and helping with branding and product development.

This means I’ll be producing the same educational, easy-to-digest content you’ve come to expect from TMM, now over on Peter Manning’s channels.

I’ll keep running TMM separately, as an independent entity. It will still be a source for unbiased reviews and in-depth content, but I won’t do any paid promotions for PMNYC competitors. The good news is, there are few that truly compete at PMNYC's level.

In fact, you’ll see less sponsored content on TMM, in general.

I’ll be in New York City once a month to hang out with the PMNYC team, create content and work on refining and developing the product line.

I’m so excited about this partnership. It almost feels like it was inevitable. I’m proud to be part of such an awesome, growing clothing brand!

The Long Story

I started The Modest Man in late 2012 as a style blog for shorter men. My mission was to help guys who are below average height feel more confident by improving their style.

The original TMM website from 2012…pretty boring, huh?

At the time, I had no idea that another couple of guys were embarking on the exact same mission up in New York City: Peter Manning and Jeff Hansen.

Peter Manning (right) with CEO Jeff Hansen (left)

We quickly found each other, and Peter Manning NYC was one of the first brands to send me free samples, back when I didn’t have very many readers (and no YouTube channel or social media presence).

I published an interview with Peter on the blog and started recommending (and wearing) PMNYC clothes all the time.

READ: An Interview With Peter Manning

As PMNYC grew, they started buying advertising space on my site. They were one of the first companies to support The Modest Man financially.

They would also send samples of new products they were releasing. They weren’t just looking for promotion – they were asking for feedback too. And I gave them feedback. If something didn’t fit perfectly, I would tell them, and they would listen.

An example of the kind of feedback/suggestions I would give to PMNYC, even before we started working together officially.

Over the next few years, TMM and PMNYC both grew substantially. I started running TMM full time and began putting lots more effort into the YouTube channel.

Led by CEO Jeff Hansen, PMNYC built a team of talented people, and they expanded their operation to include an awesome fit shop in midtown Manhattan.

PMNYC Manhattan Showroom | Source: The New Yorker

They continued to support my work and I promoted them every chance I got because, frankly, I found myself wearing something from Peter Manning NYC almost every day.

I also met the PMNYC team a couple times during trips to New York, and we got along really well. They’re just good people – smart, nice and driven.

Over the past couple years, I thought a lot about starting my own clothing brand for shorter men.

After all, my mission to help guys dress better and feel more confident, and I do this by giving you advice on this blog and over on the YouTube channel.

But advice only goes so far. It’s one thing to explain how a dress shirt should fit, but if you can’t actually find a dress shirt that fits properly, all of the advice in the world won’t really help.

So I always thought that I would start my own line at some point, possibly under The Modest Man brand.

While I never dove head first into the apparel industry, I did get my feet wet when I created a limited run of button up shirts for shorter men a couple years ago.

One of the limited edition TMM button ups (and still one of my favorite shirts)

They were a big hit with TMM readers (more than 100 of you pre-ordered shirts), but the whole process brought to light how little I knew about pattern making, supply chain, e-commerce and all the other stuff that goes into making and selling clothes.

Getting a new menswear brand off the ground, especially a profitable one, is a huge undertaking. I knew that it wasn’t something I wanted to do alone. I needed partners.

And over the past year, several different groups have contacted me about potentially partnering on a clothing line. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that partnering with Peter Manning NYC made sense. Here’s the thing:

If I started my own brand, and everything went well (best case scenario), in five years it would look very similar to what Peter Manning is right now. Sure, there would be small differences in fit and aesthetic, but the big stuff – the important stuff – would be almost identical.

From outerwear to polos, many of my most-worn items are from PMNYC.

So when I told Peter and Jeff that I was thinking about starting something, it didn’t take long for us to start talking about partnership.

We quickly came to an agreement that made me an owner and manager with Peter Manning NYC. I flew to New York to shake hands, and we were off to the races.

Needless to say, I am thrilled about this new role and venture, and I hope you’re excited too! Of course, you might have some questions, so I'll do my best to answer them:

What will happen to The Modest Man?

This partnership agreement is between me (the individual) and Peter Manning NYC (the company). TMM is still a separate, independent entity, and I’ll continue to run it as before.

Will I promote other short men’s brands?

There are more brands for shorter men emerging each year, and I will always check them out and let you know what I think about them.

For example, this page will always be kept up to date.

The only thing I won’t do is paid promotion for competing brands. In other words, you won’t see any sponsored posts or videos featuring other short men’s clothing brands.

Honestly, though, I haven't come across any brands for shorter men that are anywhere near Peter Manning NYC in terms of what they offer and how many people they reach.

What about other sponsorships?

I never wanted TMM to rely heavily on sponsors. There’s nothing inherently wrong with sponsorships, and sponsored content done the right way is totally fine. But I prefer non-sponsored, totally unbiased content.

Since my new role with Peter Manning is a paid position, I don’t need to rely as heavily on sponsors. So you’ll see less sponsored content on TMM going forward.

What will I do at Peter Manning?

My main goal is to make awesome content, just like I try to do here on TMM. So I’ll be producing articles, photos and videos to educate men and help them dress better, featuring Peter Manning NYC’s products.

This is great because they already have some amazing models, a full line of clothing, an awesome photographer, and a sweet NYC showroom to shoot in.

Make sure to subscribe to PMNYC's YouTube channel and follow PMNYC on Instagram so you don't miss anything!

I’ll also help with product development. For example, this includes:

Tweaking the fit of their most popular items

Helping develop slim and athletic fits for their shirts and pants

Choosing colors, fabrics and details for future seasons

Adding new products to the lineup

I’m really excited about this part!

How will this affect you (the readers)?

This is great news for TMM readers. Why? Because you can influence Peter Manning NYC through me. All the feedback you’ve given me over the years about the brand will be taken into consideration.

For example, I’ve heard from a few people about how Peter Manning’s Everyday Shirts fit. Some of you want a slimmer fit, and I agree. Now I can tell you not to worry – we’re working on it.

The team is very open to feedback. They listen to us. My goal is to help make the brand even more awesome than it already is, and I'm looking forward to your help!

Questions or comments? Leave them below!

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