I'm trying to get into Arcana Twilight but it's really fucking hard when the gacha system sucks ass like it does

I should be able to get SOMETHING good after spending some money, but it's not guaranteed which is garbage

So far I like the story, the characters, and obviously I like the game mechanics since it's just obey me with different paint but. not a fan of the gacha >:(

Hey ! Can I ask for a male!reader that is a 4th or 3rd year at the NRC (in the dorm you want), and Yuu, Grim and Ortho after seeing him just decided to adopt him like their father ?

The reader is the definition of a good father, and Yuu, Grim and Ortho made him sign the adoption contract (give by Azul).

(Maybe the reader can be the boyfriend of Idia ?)

I just want a reverse adoption with Grim, Yuu and Ortho bc they need a good father.

characters: ortho, yuu and grim with fourth year male reader

tags: platonic, fluff, fic format

warnings: none

author's notes: sorry i didnt do the characters separately, i think they would have similar reactions. also reader isnt with idia bc im keeping this blog fairly romance-free :) thank you for giving me an excuse to write fourth year reader tho, the concept is so interesting and fun to explore!! and hes not in any specific dorm, wanted to keep it ambiguous hehe. honestly this whole thing was my own spin so word count: 974 words

You haven't gone back to NRC in a while. Despite the absolute chaos that goes on way more than often in that school, you’ve grown to harbor fondness for that familiarity. Luckily, you're due for a report of the progress of your internship. Instead of merely sending an email to your professor, you’ll go meet up with him yourself and check up on your underclassmen (maybe even get to know the freshmen) in the meantime.

You are just one of the many seniors of NRC but you found that your dorm members are quite fond of you for whatever reason. So when you come back for that short time period, a few of them come to greet you and catch up with you. Apparently, the abandoned dorm is now occupied by not one but two new students. You didn't even know there was an abandoned dorm!

“One of them can't even use magic and came from a different universe or something? And one of them is literally a magical monster! The school totally got weirder when you left, (Y/N),” one of your dorm members explains. You try to imagine it in your head. Yeah, no, if nobody told you that’s exactly what happened, you wouldn’t have known. You only believe the dorm member because you trust them enough.

“Oh, and remember Idia? The one with the robot brother? He’s a housewarden now. And his brother's a student now. He's an actual freshman,” more gossip makes their way to you. Your eyes widen at the news. You feel like you may remember them, the Shroud brothers - you could tell Idia was trying really hard to stay on the down low so you did him a favor and left him alone for the most part.

You don’t stay at your dorm for very long - you did come to NRC for a reason - and that was to send in that report of yours. Though you already dropped it off before checking up on your underclassmen, you plan just walking around school and taking in the sights that were once so familiar to you. And you haven’t even really graduated yet.

You walk down the hallways and say hi to whoever you recognize, basking in that comfortable familiarity. Some friendlier students stop to chat with you and to be perfectly honest, you feel a little old compared to everyone. You don’t mind but what’s rubbing it in is how some of the students are calling you “Dad” to tease you. You know they’re being playful for the most part but you can’t help but feel a little awkward with the nickname.

Then you run into those three.

You recognize the younger Shroud brother - hard not to with his flames for hair - but you can only guess the other two are the new students occupying that abandoned dorm; one’s uniform seems foreign and the other is not even remotely humanoid. They're definitely eye-catching, especially together. And apparently, you're pretty eye-catching too, with the way they lay their eyes on you while you were talking to another student.

The younger Shroud brother leads the group as they make their way to you excitedly. You're already preparing yourself for what you assume is a normal conversation with these kids. Too bad normal is the wrong thing to expect from these three, you will come to know.

“(Y/N)! You’re back at school!” The younger Shroud - Ortho, that’s his name - exclaims as he flies slightly upwards, happy to see you again. The other two look at you curiously, head tilted to the side and all. You offer them a jolly laugh as you tell the other two who you are and update all of them of how your internship is going. They’re eerily silent when you’re relaying your story but you appreciate not being interrupted. ‘What polite freshmen,’ you thought.

Until they aren’t, because they interrupt you with-

“Can you adopt us?!”

Their eyes twinkle as they clasp their hands together and gaze at you with their best puppy-eye look. Oh, they’re being genuine. This is escalating way too quickly - the nickname was weird enough, you’re not sure what to feel about a bunch of age-ambiguous freshmen wanting a fellow (though presumably older) student to adopt them. You sigh and put on your best smile so as to not disappoint them.

Truth be told, it really isn’t as bad or weird as it sounds. People were already teasing you about it so might as well run along with it. But still. Legally adopting these freshmen would still be too much for you to handle. After all, you’re still going to be preoccupied with your internship. You won’t be present for most of their school years and the last thing you want to be is a father who forgot to bring the milk back home.

You tell them you will think about it, in case they were actually joking and you’re somehow dumb enough to not catch on. They agree to allow you to take your time… but then they start muttering about “getting a contract from Azul” and you immediately step in to stop them from taking any drastic measures.

After that whole ordeal, you leave school more exhausted than you thought you would be. After all, three freshmen literally asked you to become their father and adopt them and were about to get you to agree to some contract.  But then, you find out, they turn out to be the best children you’ve ever had. 

They can be a handful, sure - Ortho is way too curious for his own good sometimes, Grim can’t sit still and picks fights with people often, and Yuu is… Yuu. Being a single father is definitely not the easiest thing to do with them as your children.

Yet you wouldn’t trade them for the world.

now hear me out,,, an au where lan wangji is an editor who works for an erotica publisher and wei wuxian is essentially chuck tingle. (also lwj writes romance novels on the side)

wei wuxian didn’t plan to write erotica he wants to make that really clear, he was actually studying like biomed or something equally “oh wow my parents can brag to the other parents about this”

but, as frequently happens in wwx’s life, he got drunk with nhs, like really drunk and they woke up the next morning with a laptop on the floor beside them and loose paper strewn everywhere

they don’t really remember what they were doing or thinking last night but they’ve both drawn a bunch of really shitty and weird porn (the less said about the anthropomorphic version of wen chao’s pet turtle the better) and wei wuxian has like 20,000 words of an erotica story on his laptop

when he starts reading it, at first he’s like haha what the fuck this is so weird but then it turned out to be really good??? and nhs blushed at some of the ~sexy~ scenes so that’s how wwx knew he was writing the good stuff

anyway they’re sitting there, eating their hangover food and wei wuxian goes so uh my story was good right? and nhs is like yeah it was, top stuff i would buy it and wei wuxian goes what if i actually wrote it,,, haha just kidding,,,,, unless?

and in his defence he doesn’t actually write anything for the story for another like three months but then he finds himself in the middle of exam season and he’s like fuck it stress relief let’s write some erotica

he finishes the book and his exams (which he does well in but whatever) and then spends his summer holidays editing the book

when he comes back, he slaps down a paper copy on nhs’ desk and is like i finished it. nhs, thinking he meant his latest lab write up, opens it up to a random page and starts reading it out loud which was a Mistake

he trails off mid-sentence, and whips around to glare at wwx with all the wrath he can muster. it’s raunchy nhs says and just read it wwx tells him so nhs does

like 2 hours later nhs turns to him and says if it wasnt for you and the librarian staring at me the whole time i definitely would’ve felt something and wwx is like so it’s good? and nhs is like fuck yeah it is but i dont get what you want from me?

pretty much wwx passed out after exams, slept for like 20 hours and then woke up and went i should publish this and decided that nhs should draw the cover art.

nhs agrees of course and a month later wwx self-publishes bc there’s no way he can walk into a publishing house with his porn and not just combust on the spot and he decides to go by the name yiling patriarch

wwx clicks the final button to upload the fic and nhs just toasts him and goes yknow what,, this is the closest you’ve ever gotten to having sex and i’m proud of you

wei wuxian is the man who guarded his first kiss for the first twenty years of his life for someone special,,,, wwx definitely wants his first time to be special and there’s no way he’s putting out for someone he doesn’t think is important & despite having dated before, he’s never gotten close enough to someone to go yeah let’s do it so our boy is still a virgin

so wwx’s entire erotica writing inspiration comes from porn, nhs’ way too in-depth answers as to how his latest date went and uh more porn

wwx blusters about a bit bc how is he meant to respond to that and nhs is like maybe you’ll finally move on from reading those trashy romance novels and read something more exciting and wwx is like how dare you call them trashy!! hanguang-jun is a master of the romance novels!! he understands the heart in a way that no other person has ever!! 

and nhs just chugs a bunch of wine and is like yeah hon okay, do you still blush when the main characters hold hands? and wwx is like no! of course not! (it’s a lie, he blushes a lot)

so nothing really happens with the book at first and wwx forgets about it for the most part but then he wakes up one morning and he’s got an extra like RMB 1000 (i dont actually know much about currency so it’s roughly $200 if my quick interneting is legit)

wwx is like wtf? and once he finds out it’s from his novel he’s doubly like wtf? but then he finds out that someone had purchased his book and did a dramatic reading on youtube bc wwx decided that regular erotica was boring and decided to make it satirical or whatever and people loved it??

he’s got nothing better to do so he just goes hm yeah remember that Author i dated who had an “incredible idea that would absolutely amaze The Critics and helped explore his own convoluted mind” let’s make something of that and he writes another book kinda mocking that idea in a very horny way.

he publishes it and someone writes a review of his two books on their blog and now he’s actually starting to get popular - he’s got more money from those two books than he did by working at the local cafe for the whole week

wwx is poor and broke and semi-disowned anyway by this point so he goes fuck it and spends every moment he’s not studying writing erotica. 

he publishes another like five books by the time the year is out (i know the maths isnt working here but this is a book world where wwx can just do that via the power of loneliness and friends who egg you on)

also?? he varies his books. some of them are porn parody things a la chuck tingle and some of them are genuine porn and one book was just him writing a recipe book but making it sound as horny as possible

by the time he’s published his like 8th book or so he starts getting reviews that are critiquing his book and most of them boil down to the fact that he needs an editor or something 

he ends up asking nhs for help and he’s like oh sweet my brother’s boyfriend works for a publisher who does that sort of thing

cloud recesses actually specialises in erotica and i hate the idea that lqr has spent years reading and editing erotica but sacrifices must be made

(side note that i know nothing about the writing or publishing process so pls don’t judge me too harshly)

wwx goes in with his latest manuscript and ends up arriving like ten minutes late, he rushes into the room sweaty and hot, takes one look at the guy sitting on the other side of the desk, flushes an even brighter red and runs back out of the room. he checks the plaque on the door and walks back in slowly and goes hm i didnt expect you to be so hot

cue lan wangji

lwj has always enjoyed being an editor. what do editor do specifically? idk? edit? regardless, he enjoys it. 

while most of the time he’s happy working from this side of things he also likes writing

lwj fucks. he deserves it tbh. but, while he’s had a tonne of one night stands and fuckbuddies, he’s never actually dated someone. so the fact that he’s writing romance novels under the pseudonym hanguang-jun makes his friend jzx laugh a lot

he tried writing porn once and he just couldn’t do it. it was always too clinical or vague and lacked any actual passion bc he was always going oh okay mc sucks a dick but the guy i slept with last week was like a 6.4/10 when it came to sucking dick so maybe mc should also be bad at it or whatever and it just ends up falling apart,,,, but romance he can do

as an editor lwj has pretty high standards for good erotica but he’s really found himself enjoying yiling patriarch’s work even though he’s clearly just been editing himself so when the guy sent cloud recesses an email asking whether they’d be interested in his latest book lwj was ecstatic. 

he also didnt expect wwx to be so hot

anyway,,, we now get to enjoy a week of lwj thinking that wwx is super hot but even more annoying and then him deciding that annoying is hot and now wwx is just absolutely amazing and wwx is just panicking the entire time 

i want my publisher to rail me so hard wwx texts nhs and nhs just responds has he read the bdsm scene with the alien who has a tentacle dick and a knot yet? and wwx is like no??? nhs just goes shame, it will give him so ideas for if you ever grow a backbone and just ask him out

they publish one book together and nothing happened between them the entire time other than yearning and horniness,, of the heart and body. 

when wwx realises this means that he won’t get to see lwj again he immediately writes a new book and like a month later he’s back in lwj’s office, lying on his couch while whining about the cafeteria prices at university

lwj is very enamoured by the fact that wwx is writing erotica and studying biomed bc wow

they do this for like another three books and wwx’s eroticas evolve from here’s a dinosaur man fucking a politician while a mary sue watches on to be like here’s a dinosaur man with black hair and golden eyes and a stern look to his face fucking a politician while a mary sue watches on

and hanguang-jun’s latest book?? i dont want to say that this au’s version of wangxian is hanguang-jun finally finding inspiration to write porn (his muse is wwx of course) and writing the most amazing porn with feelings and plot novel ever,, but it is. 

wwx read it five times in the first week and when nhs finally tried to read it he was like uhhh wwx are you a narcissist, the love interest is exactly like you? and wwx is like ??? no???? he’s nothing like me??

anyway one day wwx gets called into lxc’s office and lxc is like so i’ve read your latest book (not the dinosaur man, a serious one with like normal people and not overly humorous thank fuck but still full of lwj yearning) and wwx is like okay? and lxc goes yes, see i was worried that you didn’t care very much for my brother but after reading your book i’m not so sure and wwx gets the weirdest shovel talk ever which is interspersed with like compliments for his porn writing skills

anyway lxc accidentally mentions that lwj writes books too and before he can take it back wwx is like who??? and lxc is like are you fucking stupid?? you told lwj to his face that you loved his books,,, he broke his theme of tender romance to write kinky sex with a character that’s a lot like you and wwx is like .,,,,,,,,, hanguang-jun??? HANGUANG-JUN???!!

lxc barely manages to confirm it before wwx is sprinting out of his office and across to find lwj.

regretfully for everyone else, lwj is in the lobby so thirty people get to hear it when wwx comes in and shouts LAN ZHAN!! back then, i really wanted write porn about you! ... i think i have actually? but i want to write porn about you and i want to be able to do the research to make it accurate! and i also want to go on dates and hold hands and feed each other food! and i love you a lot! 

lwj is dying inside bc his brother’s bf is there, his uncle is currently waiting for the elevators and a whole bunch of staff are also there but also wwx likes him??? dinosaur man was lwj??

he goes over and they make out for a really long time right there in the middle of the lobby but no one wants to get between them when they’ve been pining for so long

after that they start dating and they do all the romantic stuff but also,, let’s just say that the next book wwx publishes is a lot more creative than all of his previous books

and they become some writing power couple with horniness of the heart and body and sometimes wwx will be like hey lwj i don’t really know how the logistics of this sex scene will work and lwj will be like we could try it out ourselves? and wwx just pats him on the head and is like im sorry but you dont have enough dicks for it to work ),: better luck next time

my uwc story

i remember reading through uwc blogs when i had just found out about uwc and when i was applying and going through all those months of WAITING for the next step...and they were so helpful. im so glad these exist

i first found out uwc through my brother’s friend, who actually went to UWC atlantic college (where im headed!!!!) a few years back. it was one ordinary saturday afternoon (idk if it was actually saturday but that sounds right) and we were carpooling with said friend (usually i dont participate in these but i happened to be in the car that day) and we were talking about next year and whatever and she just kinda said that she wasn’t going to be back next year bc she was going to this ‘abroad’ program. i didnt even really think about it that much. i in fact forgot about it after that...apparently my dad did not.

so my dad would talk about it here and there but i was NOT INTERESTED for that whole year..then...i started researching a bit myself and thought oh this sounds kind of cool. i still didn't really get what UWC even was or if was even a legit thing. it just sounded like another boarding school (a huge NO for me). then i saw that there was a such thing as a “short program” (or maybe someone actually told me about it) and i decided to apply for the one at the USA campus in New Mexico. i remember writing the essays over winter break and thinking they were pretty terrible (there was also a skype interview involved and that was rough) so i was pretty shocked when i found out i had gotten in but it worked out well bc my fam was going to arizona anyway a week before that so i just flew to new mexico myself after that (i say that casually but we had to cancel tickets and get new ones so that i could go to new mexico instead of home PLUS i had to fly for myself for the first time and i was pretty confused). (also, the program is called global leadership forum or GLF)

after hermit’s peak hike (ALL UPHILL FOR A SOLID 4-5 HOURS) i think it was like 8 miles IDK. view was so nice though 10/10

GLF turned out to be an amazing experience and really solidified my trust in UWC and confirmed to me that it was indeed a real thing. i really loved how much we did in those 2 and half weeks or so - camping, hiking, interacting w wolves, having important discussions - and it really pushed me to decide to apply to UWC for real. maybe ill talk more about it in another post!!!!

ok so coming home i did even more research and really really started liking UWC and decided that i might as well try to apply. i knew they never had a certain ‘criteria’ for students but i also knew it was a long and stressful process and involved really digging deep so i really didn’t think much of it (didn’t think i really had a chance) after submitting my written application. and then began the long waiting game...

here’s a nice picture of the sky @ a wolf reservation! just wanted to add a nice pic 

i never joined any of those fb groups or college confidential things for applicants and good thing bc looking at some of them now stress me out so i wouldve probably been even more stressed if i had been involved in that. also i didnt even know they existed until later so thats also probably why.

anyway i had totally forgotten about UWC (more like i was sure they’d forgotten about me or there had been something wrong like my application wasn’t submitted or something) bc i didnt hear back until the end of november (i submitted the application early october). but finding out i was a semifinalist was kind of traumatic bc in my GLF snapchat group one of my friends (who’s going to Pearson this year!!!) said he’d moved on to the next stage and i hadn’t GOTTEN ANY EMAIL. i think i just accepted it that that was the end. but then a few hours passed when i finally decided to check a different email and, alas, there it was. so a few days later, i got an email from my interviewer when we should do our skype interview and it turned out to be the same day i was taking the ACT. good

the interview turned out to be completely ok and actually really great (enjoyable even!!?). if youre at that stage, seriously the best advice i have is to just chill and be honest when youre answering. also, make it more like a conversation rather than the interviewers (yes there are prob going to be more than 1 but i assure u its ok) asking u questions back and forth. think of it as a conversation- that helped me so much to relax. the interviewers just wants to talk to you and find out what kind of person you are and if youre the same one that wrote all those deep meaningful essays from the written application - so if you were honest from the start youll be completely fine...if not, well..sry

after that, school and extracurriculars and life really went up for me and i just forgot about UWC again. i never really told any of my friends about it or anyone except for my parents. i kind of wanted it to be a personal thing- get in or not in the end.

after a really good last day of school before winter break, i went to the town library (lol) and checked my phone and therE IT WAS. I WAS A FINALIST WHICH MEANT I WOULD BE GOING TO THE UWC USA CAMPUS FOR FINALIST WEEKEND. did not know what to expect

waiting for finalist weekend felt looooong

but it came

i flew there myself AND IT WASNT EVEN DIRECT and i remember feeling so independent and proud for making it. it turned out i was one of the later ones and in the last group to be bussed over (but i met a friend on the bus who i still talk to here and there who is going to RBC this yr!!). we were so late we missed the initial meeting and first night of activities and just went straight to the hotel. at the hotel i saw my interviewer and she gave me a hug (<3) and that helped calm me down and it was also really nice to see her in person bc i remember really liking her during our skype interview. then finalist weekend happened. and im pretty sure im not supposed to expose the process so all i can say was that it was actually so genuinely fun and a real good time 

UWC USA <3 

at the end we all exchanged social media and fb and all that and started a messenger group chat -- as nice as it was to be able to connect to everyone, i think it really stressed everyone out. they told us that results would come out early that week (FALSE). THAT WEEK AFTER FINALIST WEEKEND WAS THE MOST STRESSFUL THING EVER. IT TOOK YEARS FOR IT TO GO BY. i remember constantly checking my email between classes and everyone in the group chat wondering if anyone had heard. then on wed night, we all got an email that said the results would be notified by friday instead. the worst

i remember that friday evening i was packing for my first hackathon (it was fun) and thinking the call wouldnt come until later that night. people were freaking out all over the group chat. then, as i was scrambling packing my sweatpants into my bag, the home phone started ringing and i ran..RAN TO THE PHONE. it said my interviewer’s name on the caller ID and i was like OK THIS I S REAL. and i picked it up and it turned out i was too late so i frantically called back probably 10 times on multiple different phones (my efforts did not work). but then, i got a call to the home phone again and it was her so i picked up RIGHT AWAY and when she told me... i kid you not that i screamed and ran around my house a few times. so thats it. it was kind of a really long and sstressful process for sure, but SOO WORTH IT. i definitely learned a lot just from that process bc it makes you think and reflect a lot all throughout. weeee

if youre even thinking about applying please GO FOR IT (well as long as ur in the right age limit, 16-18.... and also make sure you’ve done some research to get a feel for it).. but just DO IT. and u can ask me questions if u want and ill answer to the best of my personal ability (but remember that im just one person and one experience and each person’s experience is completely different)

here is the general website btw:

https://www.uwc.org/

i will probably do another post to explain UWC - at least in my own words and perspective!

<3 <3 <3

My Idol: Part Fifteen

My Idol From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My Idol is a South Korean competitive reality dating game show. It currently airs on Wednesday nights on Jae-bummer’s blog. First broadcast in 2016, the show offers the opportunity for a lucky fan to go on seven blind dates with seven idols. The idol plans the date with the show throwing in specific missions to complete during the day. At the end of the initial dates, the show opens up an audience vote to decide what three idols will move on to the second date.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21 - Part 22

In this very moment, you envied those who could numb themselves to emotion. You envied individuals who could turn off the nerves, flip a switch, and put up a facade as if everything was okay. Especially in times such as this, when everything was very much not okay. 

In less than fifteen minutes, you would be ushered on stage, wearing a dress that was too scratchy on your delicate skin, and your skull aching from the amount of bobbie pins woven into your scalp. You weren’t even sure if half of what was on your head belonged to you at this point. 

You closed your eyes, feeling oddly reminiscent of the moment just before you met Jaebum. Your palms were sweaty, heart feeling as if it was going to explode. This time though...it wasn’t an excited anxiousness that pumped through your senses, but rather an ominous dread. Four men would hear the news that they would be promptly ushered from your life after only meeting once. After making an initial connection, you would be ripped away from anything that could be and it wasn’t even your decision. You were not a navigating factor in your own life. 

You opened your eyes again, beginning to pace the small green room that you were sequestered in. When you and your friends had thought it would be an exceptional idea to sign up for a silly reality dating gameshow, the thought of being selected was so foolish to you that you had never even began to consider it. When you actually received an email from the producers, you still thought it was an elaborate joke, not even thinking ahead to the men you could possibly meet. 

But now that you were here...only halfway through the journey you never thought you’d descend upon, you’d give anything just to take it back. You loved interacting with the different personalities. You loved connecting with exceptional men on a level you haven’t done in the entirety of your life. But you didn’t love the pressure. You didn’t love the constant attention. And you didn’t love the idea of creating relationships, only to sever them. 

You were here though, and you were strong. You wouldn’t quit and you’d find happiness. You would make sure of that. Even if it ended with you alone, only chalking up the entire program as an experience you’d never forget. 

“Y/N, are you ready?” one of the production assistants cooed, breaking you out of your thoughts. You gave a small smile and light nod. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The initial boom of the live audience and glare from the studio lights was overwhelming as you took your spot on the stage. You settled into your seat, giving a casual side eye to the two couches placed diagonally from you. They were placed in two levels, one directly behind the other. They were still bare, but would soon be filled up with the seven men you had grown to appreciate. 

“Hello Y/N!” the host smiled warmly, placing a hand lightly on your shoulder. “Welcome to the My Idol Live Results Special. How are you feeling?”

“Is nauseous an acceptable answer?” you chuckled, playing with your fingers in your lap. The audience and host let out a series of laughter as well, putting you a bit more at ease. 

“Y/N, always the jokester,” the host cooed, looking down to her cue cards. “Your rise to fame was almost instantaneous. Almost as soon as your face appeared on screen, you became South Korea’s sweetheart. Of course though, this came with a bit of a cost. How are you adjusting to all of the attention?” 

“It was definitely...new at first,” you nodded, chewing on your lip. You looked out to the crowd and scanned the faces, trying to avoid thinking too hard about the situation you were in. “The initial attention was rough because I wasn’t used to it. I’m still not very used to it...and I stay in my apartment a lot, but fans of the show have been very kind and accommodating.”

“That’s heartwarming to hear!” the host smiled, leading a round of applause. “We all know My Idol has the best fans, don’t we?”

You took a deep breath as the crowd surged in noise around you. The whole situation was so foreign that you felt incredibly inept, unsure of how to really act. 

“Now that we’ve checked in with Y/N, why don’t we bring out the idols. Would you all like that?” the host nodded, standing from her chair. You did so as well, prepping yourself to meet the men you hadn’t seen in weeks. “First, let us welcome a bright and positive energy! The V stands for visual! BTS member, V!”

The crowd erupted once again into applause as Taehyung approached the stage from the opposite side that you had appeared from. He clapped as he walked, his smile wide as it erupted onto his face from the mere sight of you. You grinned back in response as he took his spot on the couches prepared for the men. 

“Next we have a leader who needs no introduction, the chic and sexy Im Jaebum from Got7!” 

JB strolled from the same wing Taehyung had, throwing up a brief peace sign as he sauntered across the stage. He tried to keep a smile from his lips as he made eye contact with you, opting for a cocky smirk instead. He took his place beside Taehyung, giving his friend a quick handshake and hug before he sat down as well. 

“Our favorite maknae and flower boy, EXO’s Oh Sehun!” 

Sehun shuffled out of the wings with a bit less confidence than the two men who proceeded him. Nearly missing the steps as he stumbled up them, he gave you a kind smile before taking his spot at Jaebum’s side. 

“The mysterious rule breaker and king of k-hip hop, Jay Park!”

You found yourself subconsciously holding your breath as Jay strolled onto the stage, a shit eating grin on his face. He walked as if he commanded the entire situation, throwing subtle winks and smiles to the girls seated in the crowd. You couldn’t confirm, but you thought you saw Jaebum roll his eyes at the man before he took his spot beside Sehun. 

“Excuse his charisma, we have Monsta X’s Lee Jooheon!”

Jooheon had a very distinct swagger as he wandered from the depths of the wings and out into the bright lights of the studio. His dimples were deeply etched into his face as his smile went from being directed at the crowd to being directed at you. You felt your heart skip for a beat as he found a spot on the second couch. 

“Gifted with height and visuals, Seventeen’s Kim Mingyu!” 

Mingyu nodded, quickly looking over his shoulder as he walked. His cheeks were pink, but his smile confident as he shuffled onto the stage and avoided eye contact with nearly everyone. His shoulders dropped into an easier state as he found his spot by Jooheon’s side and gave his friend a quick handshake. 

“And last, we have a man who is already a legend in his own right. A man who half of the idols on this stage look up to, Choi Seunghyun, otherwise known as...BigBang’s Top!” 

You tried to hide the chuckle that flopped from your lips as some of the men on the couches looked on in glee and others with mild interest. Top emerged from the side of the stage with a charming and comfortable expression, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He made direct eye contact with you as soon as he possibly could and lifted his brows. He took the final spot on the couches and all of the men settled in. 

“Alright! Why don’t we give another round of applause to these phenomenal men?” the host smiled, settling in her own seat as well. 

You sat down as the crowd erupted and took a deep breath. It was almost too much handsome in one room. You felt your face growing suddenly hot. The causes of all of your butterflies and quick heartbeats had appeared directly in front of you, all together, at once. You weren’t sure if you were going to dissolve into a fit of giggles or simply pass out from the pulsing emotions ravaging your heart and mind. 

After a few moments the crowd quieted down, causing the host to perk up. “Alright guys, let’s get this out of the way right now. How many of you think you proceeded to the next round?” 

Your attention quickly adjusted to the seven idols you were trying desperately to avoid looking at. You immediately felt the heat on your face deepen as your eyes glanced across the rows. 

Each man was making a particularly focused face as they thought on the question, except one. Jay had already shot his hand high into the air, looking casually around at the idols surrounding him. “Ah, come on. For a group of celebrities, you’d think they’d be more confident!” 

Top rolled his eyes before slowly lifting his hand as well. Mingyu, who was sat beside Seunghyun looked at him with wide eyes and dark cheeks. He was starstruck by the rapper beside him, keeping his fingers stuck beneath his thighs as he sat on them. 

“Well we see Jay isn’t shy!” the host smiled, causing the men to look at each other and chuckle lightly. Jay’s smile lit up as he finally lowered his hand and directed his gaze toward you. “So that means five of you don’t think you’ve moved on? Jooheon, why would you say you weren’t voted to a second date?”

“How can I compete with a spa date?” Jooheon gasped, pointing to Jay. “Or a private museum tour!” 

“We were outnumbered by smooth date ideas,” Taehyung laughed. “A lot of us are so young, so we think to do things we find fun.”

“We were thinking about having a good time,” Sehun nodded. “And not necessarily impressing Y/N or leaving a lasting impression.”

“Do you think you left an impression Sehun?” the host asked, tilting her head. 

“I think that’s more of a question for Y/N,” Sehun murmured, readjusting in his spot. “I’d like to think I did.”

“Who left the biggest impression on you, Y/N?” the host asked, suddenly turning to you. 

Your eyes grew wide with the ambush as you looked uneasily from her to the group of men. “I...uh..”

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t know if I want to know this answer,” JB laughed, his eyes kind as he gazed at your panicked expression. You let out a light sigh at his attempt in saving you. 

“I agree with Jaebum hyung,” Jooheon nodded quickly. “I don’t want to hear about how badly I failed. If by some miracle I make this second date, wouldn’t it be awkward if she said I didn’t make an impression?” 

The men erupted into laughter as they began to nod, in overall agreement with the younger man’s statement. 

“Alright, well why don’t we move onto something meatier then?” the host nodded, quickly switching subjects. “Amongst you all, who did you feel picked the most likeable date? Mingyu?”

Mingyu cleared his throat and nodded for a moment. “I..I uh...like Top hyung’s date. It was very classy. It left a positive impression.”

“Until he sent her to the hospital,” Jay muttered beneath his breath. 

The host’s eyes widened for a moment as she looked down at one of her cards. “Ah, yes. Seunghyun, during your date, Y/N took a spill down the stairs. How did you feel during that moment?”

You watched carefully as Top glared into the back of Jay’s head, only looking up after a few moments. “Of course I felt bad. I didn’t want that to happen on my watch.” 

“But it did,” Jay nodded, he spun around in his seat to look up at the man. “I’m sure when I say this, these other guys gotta agree. We weren’t given the opportunity to check up on Y/N after that. We had to watch it on screen with the rest of the world. It was more than just feeling bad.”

Seunghyun shut his eyes for a moment and cleared his throat. He reopened them and looked carefully down at Jay. If looks could kill, he would have been on the floor taking his final breaths. 

“I understand Y/N was under a great deal of stress,” Seunghyun said slowly. “It was an accident.”

“An accident caused by you,” Jay grumbled, spinning back around. “Trying to lock her ass down before you even moved on to the second date and shit.” 

“I’m sorry, do you have something to say to me?” Seunghyun asked, his voice on edge. 

“Nah,” Jay grinned, looking kindly up to the host. “I’m good.”

“Really? Because I’m under the impression that you aren’t,” Top growled. 

“Whatever beef you have with me can be handled after the show,” Jay said, casually glancing over his shoulder. “And believe me, it’ll get handled homeboy.”

The host looked toward you, her expression mirroring something similar to panic. “Okay! So...Jaebum, how did it feel-”

“I’m sorry, can I switch seats?” Jay interrupted, throwing his thumb into the air to point at Seunghyun. “it’s like I have a dragon breathing down my neck.”

“Please, the stench of your cologne is suffocating,” Top muttered, leaning back and rolling his eyes. 

Jay launched up, spinning around to face the man. “What’s the problem? Not used to smelling something so expensive?”

“I’ll switch seats,” Taehyung nodded, quickly pulling himself to his feet. He gave a brief bow to Jay as he passed him and settled into the seat before Top. Jay sucked his teeth as he walked, plopping alongside the other Jaebum. 

“So...Jaebum,” the host tried again. “Viewers and fans know of your close friendship with Taehyung. How did it feel competing against a friend?”

“Well several of us are friends here,” JB nodded. “I’m close with Monsta X and Seventeen members as well. I think we all didn’t let the competition ruin our friendships.” 

“We all hope the best for each other,” Taehyung smiled. “We are close, so we want each other to do well and be happy. The only problem with that is if the others do well, it means they may get farther in the competition.” 

The younger men on stage laughed, nodding in agreement. 

“You see your hyungs do well and you get excited for them,” Jooheon continued. “But then you realize, oh man, maybe I don’t want them to do well. This doesn’t help my odds. It’s a very conflicting feeling.” 

“It is a competition after all,” the host nodded, flipping a cue card. “Which is why, if the crowd is ready, we’ll be revealing the first idol to be moving on to a second date!” 

The crowd audibly gasped at once before exploding into applause again. 

“Alright! Please, if I could have the envelope!”

In that moment, you thought you were going to pass out. You watched as a production assistant struggled toward the stage, a bright red envelope in her hands. It was eerily reminiscent of the mission envelopes you had grown to despise. It seemed as if time had suddenly began to move in slow motion as she passed the paper over to the host and she took it in her hands. 

“Alright guys, in your opinion, who do you feel like has their name in this first envelope?”

“I think it’s Top hyung,” Mingyu nodded without skipping a beat. “His date was too good.”

“Do I gotta go over this shit again, she-” Jay began, but the host quickly cut him off. 

“Jay, who do you think is written in this envelope?” 

“Me,” Jay nodded confidently. 

“Alright, what about you Sehun?” the host asked. 

“I would like to hope it’s me,” Sehun smiled warmly. “But if it’s not...I think it could be Taehyungie. His date was cute and well suited for his age.”

Taehyung’s smile faltered for a moment as he narrowed his eyes. “For my age?”

“Yes, very innocent,” Sehun chuckled, his smile never faltering. 

“You took her to see the lego Batman movie though,” Taehyung grumbled, his eyebrows furrowing. 

“It wasn’t meant as an insult!” Sehun whispered uneasily. “It’s a compliment, really!” 

“I think it’s time one of you are put at ease,” the host nodded with a grin. “Now, the first idol to be moving on to a second date is...”

Her fingers slipped gently under the lip of the envelope as she gave a hopeful glance up toward you. Little did she know that you were choking on what small amount of saliva was left in your mouth. You tried to count to ten in your mind, calming down the nerves pumping like electricity through your veins. 

“Im Jaebum!” 

The crowd dissolved into an array of screams and gasps as the men on stage all nodded to themselves and clapped. Jooheon leaned over, smacking a proud hand on the Got7 leader’s back. Jaebum’s eyebrows were raised nearly midway into his forehead to accommodate for how wide his eyes had become. 

You stood instinctively as Jaebum did, his steps slow in approaching you. He took your hands carefully as his mouth formed the smallest of smiles. “Me?” 

“You,” you whispered. He smiled gently and squeezed your hands, his eyes disappearing with a smile rapidly growing in size. 

“JB, how do you feel!” the host exclaimed. 

“Shocked!” Jaebum answered honestly. “All of the men on this show are so deserving. To know I was selected first is very humbling.”

“Before we continue any further,” the host sighed, looking down at her card. “Should we maybe...reveal another name?”

You let out something similar to a scoff, not being able to stop yourself from making the noise. Several of the men laughed gently at your emotion. 

To be honest, you weren’t sure if you could handle announcing a second winner so quickly. With just one date decided, you could use a glass of wine to make it through another. 

“Alright then!” the host smiled mischievously, reacting to the crowd going wild around her. “If you all insist...”

To Be Continued...

PART 1 - PART 2 - PART 3 - PART 4 - PART 5 - PART 6 - PART 7 - PART 8 - PART 9 - PART 10 - PART 11 - PART 12 - PART 13 - PART 14 - PART 15 - Part 16 - PART 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21 - Part 22

The Ora Experience so far - Part 1

As you know from my last blog post, I recently had my first session of a new therapy a friend of mine has started. So much has happened since I had this therapy I just had to write about it, also I am hoping this should cover some of the homework (Tanya?)
I came away from the first session with a whole new sensation in my body, the only way I can think to describe it is like a bubbling, to the point of bursting with a mixture of excitement and a real positive feeling, it's a bit like when you've bought someone a gift and you know they are going to love it, an excited anticipation.
The first noticeable thing that happened, was the day after my first session. I woke up all snuggled in bed feeling what can only be described as content. I thought to myself, "I could really do with a couple more days off and start the new job on Monday" I got up, made some tea and tended to the boyfriend, who had come down with a deadly bout of man flu (a cold). A while later I got a text message from my friend who I was going to work with saying that they made need to delay my start date due to the snow and people not being able to get in. Blimey, I'd only thought about this this morning, the snow hadn't even been bad the day before.
I spent my day writing and doing little odd jobs, I felt full of enthusiasm and with the principles I'd been given to try out in mind, I found I was noticing quite quickly if I was about to judge, I found myself, rather than focusing on someones dodgy hairstyle or dress sense on TV, finding something positive and actually vocalising it "I like her nail colour" for example. I instantly felt better, this was weird.
My friend text me that afternoon to confirm that my new start date was to be on Monday, well this was going well, I had been reading one of the books Tanya had told me to read and in that it said that you should not doubt things and believe that everything is coincidence, so I thought, you know what, I wanted this and that's why it's happened.
The ultimate test came later that evening, when my sainsburys shopping delivery was cancelled 45 minutes after it was due to be delivered. I had no bread in the house and the food I'd planned to have for dinner was in the delivery. My immediate reaction would usually be to be annoyed and throw a hissy fit, but I didn't, I felt oddly calm. We had food in the cupboards and if need be I could put my wellies on and walk up the shops and get some bread, bread wasnt the centre of the universe anyway (wine is). I picked up my phone, went online and emailed Sainsburys and arranged for the next available slot, which was Friday morning. I noticed that the delivery charge for this slot was £5 more, so I just emailed sainsburys and asked for them to refund the difference. Sorted, along with a dominoes pizza order which is definitely not on the slimming world plan! Oops. But still, I didnt complain, I didnt even get upset (alright the pizza might have helped) I just did something I never ever do. I took it in my stride! ME, I've never even taken my stride in my stride before!! Not without worrying about it first.
The following day, the boyfriends man flu had dissipated (slightly) and he went back to work. I was supposed to be having the first of my hen do's the following day, it was just a small group of us for a couple of people who couldn't make the main one, it was in London and I thought to myself, I don't really fancy trekking all the way into London tomorrow. When the original plans had been made I was going to have been at work so it wouldn't have been far for me to travel at all, but I really wanted to take this time off to relax, I had a really busy week last week and would have another busy week next week.
Later that day one of the girls messaged me saying she may not make it because she may have difficulty travelling in, but to go ahead without her. I said we should wait and see what the weather is saying as we may all have problems getting there. Could this really be another thing I have "manifested"?


NBA Offseason Player Move

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Blog Chapter 2.2: So You Wanna be a Picker?

Nowadays, in the industry, everyone loves the self labeled title “picker”. Truth is that very few people do this full time. I’ve seen people with primary jobs anywhere from a doctor to a construction worker to a cop to a grocery store manager. Picking is more of a passion, hobby, or sidegig for the majority, but there are those out there who do it as a career and make a hell of a nice living for themselves. So how do you make that transition? Here’s our opinion based on some our real life experiences we’ve encountered so far.

I guess the question to ask is where do you draw the line? If you open up an antique store than you are pretty much a business owner. Self Employed, and you can call that your career. From that I would assume you can call yourself a picker, but the majority of antique shops I know usually get their inventory from antique dealers and aren’t out there actually picking. This isn’t the case for everyone, but I’ve seen it more often as of recently.

If you’re an antique dealer than you’re definitely out there in brunt of it picking every day, but I guess its picking in a different way. We’ve seen antique dealers at shows, sales, and auctions as well though. Also, at the same time, a dealer has his contacts who call him when they find stuff. The majority of dealers we’ve dealt with usually aren’t picking anymore but just getting calls from their contacts, buying their items for cheap, and than reselling it cheap to an antique shop so that particular store can also make money on the items. This doesn’t go for everyone in this career field but just the majority we’ve dealt with in the past. So what do you think? Picker or not?

So now for those others. The ones selling to the antique dealers. Based on our experience, we call those guys the weekend warriors. These are the hobbyist. Attending Flea Markets and Estate Sales every weekend. Most of them we’ve run into are either older and retired or it’s their side job/hobby on weekends. They’ll attend these sales and find cheaper (usually under $25 items) and sell them to the dealer to flip it and make some money. I will warn you about these guys. They all pretend to be friends, and in this small state everyone knows each other, but watch out when the doors open to an estate sale. We’ve seen people nearly come to blows over certain items. To compare, try and picture black friday when a store opens at midnight. Now picture everyone is 60+ years of age. It can get ugly. They call themselves pickers, but I wouldn’t give them that label personally.

Other sub categories I’d say associated with pickers are Auctioneers, Appraisers, and Restorations. All three definitely have the most knowledge out of the bunch, because these are all crafts that you can learn and be trained in. All worthy of mention, and definitely a job you can call a career, but I’d still refrain from labeling them a picker.

Before we go any further, lets break down what a pick is in my opinion. You need 3 things to actually go on a legit pick:

1. You need to find someone who has an extraordinary and overloaded collection of items. You need to find this person BEFORE anything they have is even for sale.

It’s a lot more difficult than it sounds. Where do you even start right? Plus, that’s hoping the person would even be open to selling some stuff. If you want to be a picker bad enough, you’ll find a way.

2. You need to be the so called “foot soldier” digging through that dwelling getting completely covered in dirt or dust to find those items.

Admittedly, we’ve been on both ends of it. We’ve shown up to a pick where someone has 10 items on a foldout table waiting for us, and we’ve been on picks where its a barn overflowing with stuff and the owner saying go ahead guys, go crazy. I know one of the top guys in this game said to us once “I dont go in barns anymore”. Well, picker status revoked my friend.

3. The items need to be in your wheelhouse.

We’ve been to houses where all the items were brand new. Unfortunately when people hear you pay cash for things they think all the stuff they have we’d want. A lot of sellers can make a good living selling stuff like this on ebay, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a pick. People in this field call it “garage sale crap”. There’s a difference between garbage you throw out and garbage you keep. Once you can figure out the difference, you’ve got yourself a pick.

Those 3 things-The people, the stuff, and the work put in, and you can say you went on a legit pick. It doesn’t always go as planned, and sometimes people do have quality stuff but they don’t have a barn full of items. In that case you bought something. You didn’t go on a pick to get one item, you knew what it was and probably had pictures of it before you drove there.

So now that you have our opinion of what a pick really is, than what is a picker?

I think if you asked 100 people you’d get 100 different answers. I know what everyone sees on TV. I know Mike and Frank have set the bar way high for anyone in this field to live up to. I also know as much as television shows may be scripted or faked, that Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are legit without a doubt. They only have an hour of airtime to show you the coolest of the cool and the funniest parts, but they’ve done this way before cameras were on them. It’s definitely entertaining, and they’re definitely the reason we even started this whole thing as I’ve said in previous blogs, but trust me “Picking aint easy”.

The fun you see picking on TV? Absolutely. We’ve had so much fun doing this. We love it, wouldn’t want to do anything else. The stuff they don’t show is what knocks people out of this game. For every great transaction you deal with, there is 5 bad transactions. As much as we love our customers, you also deal with bad apples as well. Scammers, Spammers, and Frauds. You also have people who love to tell you their opinion on every item we have for sale. I’ve personally never understood this one. I was brought up that if you dont have anything nice to say, than dont say it at all-but people just love to shoot you down all the time. They feel the need to tell us our price/shipping is too high just to name one example. We pride ourselves at trying to be more than reasonable and usually list stuff lower than what it’s worth, but people just can’t help themselves I guess. They never intend on even buying it, they just want us to know there opinion. Get 5-6 emails a day about this and it gets frustrating. Frustration goes away a week later when someone buys it for asking price. 

We’ve been doing this on and off for a while, but it wasn’t until recently when we started going full throttle that we realized a bunch of people with the same story. I was talking with a guy I met through an online auction one day. We bought one of his items, and soon after became friendly when he would buy some of our stuff as well. Anyway, he basically told me what I hear all too often from the full time pickers. 

“I was working a job I didnt enjoy, one day decided I’m going to quit, and do this full time.”

This was 3 years ago, and he’s still here doing what he loves. Some may call him crazy. No guaranteed paycheck, no benefits, and no guaranteed longevity or retirement plan, but it was a risk he took and so far it has paid off. There’s always the unknown though I guess. Where will he be in ten years? At the same token, I’ve spoken to people that are 70 years old who have that same story and lived a good life picking for 50+ years. I guess it’s a crapshoot. On the other side of it I also know people doing this for a living who are self admittedly broke.

Being a picker is never about being a millionaire or owning a multi million dollar corporation. If you can make a good living, and this is truly what you enjoy, then what else can you ask for? Sure, there may be safer career choices, but would you really enjoy what you’re doing or will it be a prison sentence counting down the days until you retire? I think one thing we have going for us is that we’re friends. There’s plenty of guys out there in business together who are partners, but only partners because they’re in the same industry. We can go a week talking without talking business, and just bs-ing. We both know each other and what we have to do to make this thing keep rolling. Both of us bring more to the table than anyone else I know that’s doing this right now, and I know that for a fact.

After a year of success doing this I’ve had several newbies to the game reach out and ask “How?”. How’d you do this? How’d you do that? What did you do with this? A year of doing this full time and people want our input? Why not reach out to someone doing this 20 years? It’s because the game is changing and we’ve figured out what to do already. Not being cocky at all, but with social media, internet, and the various tools that are available now its leaving the older style of doing things in the dust. Things aren’t selling the same way they used to, and even the people doing this 20+ years are asking us for advice now. We brought a whole different angle than anyone else is used to and it shows.

So you wanna be a Picker? Here’s what to expect from the things you won’t see on TV. Long hours and no set schedule. If someone calls you better believe if you dont respond you’re going to miss out on a sale or a lead. Road trips. You can’t stay in one little bubble and expect everything to come to you. Tons of researching and listing. If you want things to sell you have to know every piece of information about it, and you have to list it on multiple sites which is very time consuming. Boxing and shipping. Break a few high dollar items in transit and you’ll learn how to package really well! We’re on a first name basis with Fedex, UPS, and USPS. Cleaning. Everything we buy is “barn fresh” thus it hasn’t been touched in decades. If you saw our cleaning concoctions you would think we owned a cleaning service business. Lastly, storage. Luckily Luke lets us use his basement as our main headquarters. Both that, along with his garage and mine, is 75% full of Tricity Items. 

Overall, there’s perks and downsides to everything in life. Do the perks outweigh the downsides to it all? With what we are doing, the answer is yes. It’s hard to put a label on a picker, and this whole blog is our opinion based on our real life experiences. We’re not here trying to be the “Picker Police” and tell anyone who they are, or who they aren’t. We’re just simply trying to bring notice to one of our most loved career choices. It’s a cool job, it’s fun, its interesting, and it’s something we love. People automatically think you’re Mike and Frank when you say you’re a picker, but it goes way deeper than what you have seen. Even with all the nonsense you have to deal with we wouldn’t trade it for anything. We encourage everyone whether it be picking or something else you’re passionate about to take that leap and go for it, because ultimately this is the direction we’re headed to, and it’s coming fast.

Blog Chapter 1.8: Flea Market Flip...and our run in with TV Shows Most of you probably don't know we were selected to be on Flea Market Flip. Well, kind of sorta were selected. Here's the story of our experience with the process and the producers of that show. In the early days I had come across an ad on craigslist for Flea Market Flip. We were a fan of the show and we had recently restored a bunch of furniture among other things as of late. I applied, sent pictures of our items, all of our info and they wound up getting back to us within the hour. They wanted us! Sent a huge packet for us to fill out with a ton of information we had to give them. The process was moving fast.  Luke was unsure about it from the beginning, but like any good business partner and friend was supportive of it. We take each others word a lot in our business. I may not see the vision sometimes and he does, or vice a versa. My thinking was go on, win the show, get five grand to play with as a winners prize, and most of all get some exposure for our new and upcoming company. Simple enough. At this point we were in 100%. We had a skype meeting with the producers all set up and the morning of the meeting they had to cancel for some reason, but rescheduled for a few days later. It was kind of a good thing they did because we were able to take a step back and look at this as a whole. In those few days, they contacted us again asking for more pictures of items we had restored. We didnt have many more pictures, but sent what we had. They immediately responding saying "Those are great, but we need more pictures so do what you have to do". In other words, they explained send items we have and than Google what our vision would be and send a completed product or someone elses work we could find a picture of. We weren't really feeling that. Taking someone else's work and claiming it was ours. They said it wasn't taking their work but taking their vision. To us, that's basically saying Ok you want to be an NFL Quarterback? Send over some tapes of the QB's you like and than explain to us how you're going to do what they do. We just really weren't feeling it. We told them that and one of the Producers wound up calling Luke on the Phone and he was brutally honest "Listen, I dont even want to do this show, but my business partner does, so I'm taking his word on it". The producers being subtle enough they were still pushing us for more photos of other peoples work and saying how we'd do great in this competition. We decided to shut it down. "We are out" Is all we said in the email, and they got the point of our frustration after a week of back and forth texting and e-mailing.  A more pleasant experience we had would have to be the time we met a producer for the Treehouse Masters Show on Animal Planet. I had never seen the show, but when the guy arrived and explained where these items were going I heard Luke say how much he loved the show. He explained to us how these vintage windows he was buying was for a Treehouse in Upstate New York and that the whole house is going to be built with vintage windows. Lucky for us we just had a huge score on about 30 vintage windows. They cleaned us out, bought every window we had, and than starting looking at our other items to see if they could use them. He couldn't have been any nicer or genuine, and was a great overall experience doing business with these guys. You can see our windows on Treehouse Masters Season 7 Episode 2: GlassHouse Treehouse. They have even contacted us after looking for certain items if they are in the East Coast shooting an episode, but so far all they have bought are the windows, because its usually short notice, and random bulk items they need. We still maintain a good relationship with them and hope to find some more items they could use in the future. I think its either a sign or something that TV shows are surrounding our business. Maybe were destined to be "found" and be the next American Pickers?  In this last example, we were just going about our everday business attending estate sales when we pulled up to a house in Wyckoff and were overwhelmed with the amount of big money items this guy had. His name was Mitch, and he previously had an antique shop in Midland Park, but was now filming his new show for The History Channel. American Pickers will be going off the air soon, and History is trying to find a show to replace that and its popularity. Mitch is called the History Chaser and he basically connects families and people with items that have been found elsewhere in the world. So if you're grandfather's military helmet is found by a guy in California and you live in NJ, he tracks you down and reconnects you with your families item. It's a great basis for a show and definitely something I would watch. Anyway, we met Mitch and his crew and probably spent a good 4 hours there looking thru his stuff and just conversating. We hit it off almost immediately and after about an hour, he decided to take us in his house to show us his not for sale personal collection (Mind you, there was hundreds of people lined up just looking at his stuff for sale and his crew and sons were equipped with walkie talkies to be able to contact Mitch at any point in this ruckus). Mitch has a great eye for items and finds a lot of stuff you just dont see anymore. Anything from movie posters to circus items, and sports memorabilia. We spent the most we have ever spent at an estate sale in the history of our business. It was worth it, and we made a great contact and someone who is genuinely a good person. He took a liking to us, because I think he saw a little bit of himself when he was starting up back in the day when he saw us. We wish Mitch the History Chaser nothing but the best in his upcoming show, and he'll always have our support. Be sure to keep an eye out very soon for the Pilot Episode! Besides that, there have been some minor run ins with people from TV shows- nothing really with an interesting story but we have talked to Robbie Wolfe thru Facebook before, and hes a great guy. We hope to one day take the trip to Iowa and stop by his shop! Most recently, we've starting filming some of our picks, road trips, and adventures. You can look forward to us putting them together as a mini-series with short episodes very soon. We get so many messages and emails that people want to come on picks with us, and although we havent had the opportunity to bring anyone yet, we want our audience to feel like they are right there with us by making these videos. We want everyone to see everything that goes into finding a pick, selling items, everything that we do will be an inside look of whats going on with us. We look forward to releasing these by years end, and hope you guys look forward to seeing them and continuing to support us! Overall TV, Producers, Show Runners can be a hit or miss. As you've seen we've had both positive and negative experiences. Being a new business you have stars in your eyes when you think your brand could have its own TV show, but there's just so much that goes into it than the final product you see on an episode. I personally think it would be A+ TV if you took us and all the personalities we surround ourselves with and gave us a show, but than again maybe we all have the same sense of humor in our group and everyone outside of it would look at us like we are weirdos. Either way, there's not a day that goes by that we aren't doing something interesting or having fun. So TV Show or not, well continuing to chug along and just maybe one day someone else will be writing a blog about their experiences with us when we make it big with our own TV show, but if not, we're just fine with that.