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#i put the price at 8€ so any shipping is included without it being expensive

doppelnatur · 3 years

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I know i rarely post anything i make like for uni or whatever but! I have like 50 of these so if you want one you can dm me or whatever!

[ID: a photo of the cover of the magazine i made about Karl Heinrich Ulrichs END ID]

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs was a pioneer of queer activism, using her position as a lawyer to fight for the legal rights of all queer people in Germany with a focus on people who were perceived as men at the time and marginalized for their attraction to people of their same sex.

[ID: a photo of pages 18 and 19 of the magazine. The painting "The birth of Venus" is behind a text that's hard to read on the photo about her activism and coining of terms END ID]

She was also someone who would in today's terms probably identify as transgender and did not only limit herself to legal advocacy but tried addressing the social prejudices of her time, becoming one of the first sexologists and doing sociological research on the identities of her contemporary queer comrades who wrote to her about their experiences of identity, gender and attraction.

[ID: pages 26 and 27, the title is Novum, there's a colored picture of a post card made in promotion of the 1903 movie "Now that takes the cake" showing two black performers dancing, one is in drag. On the other side a big quote that reads: they say, the soul's gender is not tied to that of the body END]

At the end she was banished, first to Munich (a grave punishment I can only imagine;) and later to Italy for her advocacy where she bred rare butterflies and wrote fairy tales and poems about being queer and missing home.

[ID: pages 44 and 45, they show one of her stories (Sulitelma) layered over the painting of the fall of Icarus which is probably by Pieter Bruegel the Elder END]

Her ideas were sometimes surprisingly modern and sometimes of their time in ways that I personally as a non historian didn't expect. In this magazine I put the biography Magnus Hirschfeld wrote about her, a modem perspective, her own sociological works with commentary and an example of her fictional work to give a bit of an impression of who she was, the world she lived in and what she did about it. 💘

For those of you who can't see the images, the magazine is in German and flatly printed, not in braille, but i can certainly send you the plain text if you want it or make a recording of passages that interest you if that's easier for accessibility (tho recording will take me a bit).

If you speak/read German and would like a copy, I can always send the PDF for free or you can DM and I can send a copy for 8�� (no shipping costs unless I find out shipping costs more than 8€ which i don't think). I promise they're cute I put a lot of work into them.

#queer history #German #Karl Heinrich Ulrichs #trans #trans History #queer positivity #i put the price at 8€ so any shipping is included without it being expensive #I'm certainly not gonna make any money off of that believe me they would have to be way more expensive for that I'll maybe make the money #i spent back if i sell like 40 of them. probably 45 depending on shipping cost. which i won't. so. u know. this is me offering for you to #give them to you for the lowest price i can possibly set without feeling like I'm being cheap and devaluing my work #the most money i stand to gain from this is 80€ and let me tell u i spent way longer on it than 8h

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unironicduncanstan · 3 years

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Randi’s Kustom Kandi! (Comes with free stickers!)

🌈💖 Hello, I’m a queer autistic low-income artist selling completely customized Kandi bracelets for $1 a piece ! 💖🌈

😘 Details and how to start your order below 😘

💲 COST: Pony bead bracelets, with colors, b&w words, or plain star beads, are $1 each, no taxes, just $1.00 flat. The use of colored letters and iridescent stars are $1.25. As of right now to keep stock up, bracelets consisting of Only star beads aren’t available to order. Charm options are not yet available, but will eventually be added, and prices may range. This is all just based on how much it costs to buy the beads to make these bracelets! 💲

📦 SHIPPING: Each order will end up with a different estimate for shipping costs, based on where you live, and how many bracelets you order. I ship through USPS and I should be able to ship almost anywhere, but the further away you are, the higher shipping will be. I’m shipping out of Kansas. Domestic shipping will probably start at around $3 - $8, international shipping will just have to depend. If you want an estimate before starting an order, just give me your address and an idea of how many bracelets you might want, and I’ll get back to you asap. 📦

🤷‍♀️ AVAILABILITY: I have a full rainbow array of pony beads including b&w, some neons and pastels too, I have a nice color range of star beads including b&w and transparent, and some iridescent star beads as well, and then for letters I have black on white, white on black, color on black and color on white. A lot of these can be seen in the example image above! 🤷‍♀️

IMPORTANT TO NOTE;;; My pony beads are all around 6x4mm, and the letter beads are 6x6mm. This is considered somewhat Small for kandi bracelets. This isn’t a choice I made to skimp out, this size is actually more expensive and harder to find than the usual 6x9mm, I just very much prefer this size to work with and wear. It’s only a tad bit more subtle, but it fits most people a lot better and I would Definitely recommend it for people with smaller wrists or who are just starting out with Kandi.

🤔 HOW TO ORDER: So basically, how you choose to tell me the pattern you want is up to you, you can draw it out if you want or just try to explain it with words, or whatever else works. Once you explain what you want, I’ll show you what beads I have that match your request, and you can decide what you want out of those options.

An example could be; “I would like a bracelet with a repeating pattern of red and blue pony beads, with the word PLUR in black on white letters, and two pink stars on each side, just like this!”

To which I might say; “Ok, here I have 2 shades of red and 4 shades of blue, and I have plain pink stars or iridescent pink, which ones would you like me to use?” and then I’d show you a picture of all of these colors for you to decide! Once we have all your bracelets planned out, I’ll ask for a few more details to give you your total price. Then once the payment goes through, I’ll start working! Whenever your bracelets are all complete, I’ll send you pictures of the finished products to make sure you like them (if not I’ll redo at no extra charge). After you give the OK, I’ll ship them out! (You can also ask for some ‘random/surprise me’ bracelets if you aren’t sure of any patterns, of course.)

What I have in stock might vary, I will try to update this post as that goes, so please make sure to visit this posts SOURCE instead of a reblog before you start an order to check for availability. Please send your order requests to THIS blog, through PM if you can. If you want an alternate way of communication, contact me however you can and we’ll go from there. I have discord, facebook messenger, email, etc. 🤔

🤷🏻 WHAT ELSE I NEED: When confirming your order, I’ll need your shipping address. I’ll then be able to calculate shipping cost and give you a full price. (Again, zero hard feelings if you can’t afford the price I give, like, bad vibes in the NEGATIVES, been there done that, and I’ll be available if you ever do have the funds, but please understand I can’t change shipping costs, I really would make it free if I could.) After that I’ll ask for your paypal and send a payment request, once that payment goes through is when I start your order! I’ll have to ask a few more questions, like your wrist measurements (or an estimate, since the bracelet is made of elastic it’ll have a decent amount of stretch, but this may warp how spaced your beads are if it’s too inaccurate.), and i’ll need your first and last name (it doesnt have to be a legal name, just something to put on your package). 🤷🏻

📫 SHIPPING TIME: Once again, this will depend on how far you are, and because of c0v1d it may be more delayed than expected. I’ll try to send you a tracking number as soon as your item ships. 📫

📿 CHARMS: If you’d like more options, the best solution I’ve been able to think of for now is that if you’d like, you could surf Ebay, Etsy, Etc. till you find some charms you’d want me to use, and then if you’re okay with covering the cost to get them (typically $5 to $15 for a decent lot) and then waiting a bit extra for me to receive them, I would have no problem using those for you! :) Someday I’d really like to stock up on popular charms to have more choices available, but I don’t quite have the funds quite yet. Thank you for your understanding. 📿

😷 ALLERGY/SENSITIVE SKIN NOTICE: I seal small parts of my bracelets to reduce the chance of breakage. I use a very tiny drop of Loctite Super Glue Gel on the knot. This glue does not keep the beads from moving freely or lock them into place, it’s used sparingly as a sealant. If you ever receive a bracelet that is locked or sticky, I would fully refund you and offer to send another. You can also absolutely opt out of this, Just add “No glue” somewhere to your order. Just be warned that your bracelet will be less protected from breakage. 😷

❗ DISCLAIMER: Either way, I cannot take responsibility for a bracelet eventually breaking down. Kandi and elastic bracelets in general are a bit prone to snapping, but mostly over time and especially if used in rave settings. I use high quality jewelry elastic from amazon, very high rated and recommended by other Kandi makers, and I knot them 3 times, so mine should last as long as they possibly can. Please make sure your wrist measurements are as accurate as they can be, and please be gentle when taking them on or off, just being careful will help prolong it’s usage by a lot. Now if a bracelet arrives broken, I will of course replace it, no extra charge. ❗

🦄 STICKERS: Order 5 bracelets and get one free sticker! Order 10 and get two, so on and so forth in a pattern of 5. The stickers are hand cut by me from large books and sheets, so the edges might look odd but the sticker itself should be unharmed. These are completely random, and based loosely around a scenecore aesthetic. Most are pretty ‘medium’ sized, but they do range quite a bit. 🦄

✍ CONTENT: Kandi, scene and rave culture, is in a general sense, a very upbeat and supportive based environment. I do not want to make bracelets with negative messages on them. I will obviously NEVER make any with hate speech or rude remarks, but beyond that, please keep your phrases positive. If you want something thats meant to fight hate, like “kill all n*zis” or something, I'm not opposed to that as it’s for justice, it’s just that most Kandi is focused on ‘happy party vibe’ messages. As far as media or interests, like if you want a bracelet that says “Gir” or “100 gecs”, or uses ship names, etc. I will not deny you any interest you choose. BUT, I am personally uncomfortable with d.dl/g and won’t make bracelets based on that, nor will I ever make bracelets supporting ped0ph1lic or 1ncestu0us content, including if they’re based on medias or fictional ships. As far as pride bracelets, I would LOVE to make those for you, and I will Never deny working with your identity, pronouns, etc. once again, unless it’s a p/ed0 flag or something. I will never deny working with any mental or physical disability/illness or other kind of divergency pride. Race and/or religion pride is also great except for “White pr1de” because of the violent connotations behind that concept. NSFW Kandi is fine, cussing is fine, I hope this goes without saying but please only ask for Kandi with a slur on it if you can reclaim that slur, and overall, just be mindful with what you ask for if you plan to wear it in public settings like raves. If you have any controversial ideas you felt this didn’t cover, please feel free to ask, I will not get angry at you for your request, even if I have to deny it. ✍

Thank you for reading! I look forward to doing business with you 😊

#jewelry #custom kandi #custom jewelry #scenecore #scene #scene aesthetic #scene kid #kandi #kandi bracelet #independantbusiness #independantartist #bracelets #selling #commission #open commissions #tw flashing lights/ /#also if ur wondering why this is being posted on a total drama island fanblog its simple. it has more followers than my main OTL

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thelightofthingshopedfor · 3 years

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Goddamn it Kyra I wasn't even interested in the Lego Lokis before, but now that you've so rudely posted pics of the options I'm probably going to have to buy some. So, couple questions: I'm not familiar with the website you linked to (it doesn't help that I'm on my phone lol) - do you get them from that site or just Aliexpress? I've kind of poked around there but I don't think I've ever actually bought anything - do you have links to those ones you bought or any tips for finding them on the site? (or like. using the site in general without getting scammed or something? Idk much about it other than stuff being low priced lol).

😇😇😇

putting the rest behind a cut because oops this got long

OKAY SO the cool thing about knockoff Lego figures is that a) there are a ton of them, so you can probably find multiple versions of most characters, and b) they're super cheap, so if you do end up getting ripped off, you're probably only out a few bucks. plus if you don't get ripped off, you feel like a genius, because authentic Lego minifigs tend to cost way more than they should (and if you get them online, you probably don't have a good way to know that they're authentic) and here you are getting something just as good or better for way less.

the site I was getting pictures from is HeroBloks, which I only just discovered myself a couple days ago; it looks like mostly it's good for tracking your collection (and learning more about bootleg Lego minifigs in general, maybe--I didn't really realize until now how many different companies there are making Lego-like minifigs) rather than buying, with individual pages including sale links that are only mildly useful. like, the extremely sad TVA Loki has an AliExpress search link that apparently just searches for "blocks," which is the least helpful search term imaginable; the eBay link uses "xinh+xh1745+loki (tva)" as the search term and that's definitely better, although it doesn't actually turn up anything. maybe that one's too new to be widely available yet, I don't know. (I hope that's the case. I need him and his sad little face to come and live with me.)

anyway--eBay is a possible source. searching for "loki minifigure" gets me results for several of the new ones I’ve been seeing, and they all seem to be shipping from Japan or South Korea. the problem is they're all selling for $4.99 plus $7.49 shipping each, which is...more than I want to spend on something I know is a knockoff of some kind when I don't know anything about the quality control and I'm not guaranteed to get what's in the picture. (here's another listing asking $40 total for all 8 figures I bought yesterday, which is actually a better price, and I'd probably end up doing that if I hadn't found them elsewhere, but that's because I have a problem.)

this is why I like AliExpress, because the risks are slightly higher but the prices tend to be much lower, even with shipping prices having gone up a bit over the last couple years. as I understand it, the site is basically just a huge marketplace for tons of different sellers in Asia, like if eBay only allowed fixed-price listings and it was based in China. the vast majority of the site reads like it went through Google Translate, because it probably did. you can find...basically anything there. I have no idea if any of it's authentic. (I also don't know anything about how or where any of the knockoff stuff is made, so...there is that.) I would not, for instance, drop $300 on a Hot Toys Loki from here, even though I absolutely would have the option to do so, for the obvious reason that I'm not going to risk that much money on an item that might be a cheap knockoff or could arrive broken. there is, in general, a solid possibility of breakable things arriving broken, because decent packaging costs more. cheap shipping will be slow (by which I mean like...up to 90 days), and most purchases either won't have tracking at all or won't have accurate tracking, so this is absolutely not a place to buy anything you want to get quickly. you also don't want to just buy something and forget about it, because there are (variable but generous) time limits past which you can't get a refund if you don't receive your items. the site's UI is...mostly functional. you often have to get a little creative with your search terms to find what you want (and sometimes you won’t find what you want through searching, but through looking at related items on the pages of things that aren’t quite what you want or are what you want but aren’t a good price). you will, absolutely, come across a lot of stolen art on things like pins, t-shirts, stickers, and phone cases, which you might not realize until you see something you recognize from a fanartist you like, and obviously that sucks. listing photos are nearly always stock photos, so in many cases they won't tell you anything about the item you're actually getting. you know the Wish app, and all the crazy things people get from that? you can find all the same stuff on AliExpress, at similar levels of quality.

however, if you approach it keeping all that in mind, it can be a great resource. I can't make any guarantees about the site's safety, but to the best of my knowledge it's secure and I've never had any weird charges show up after buying something. it's also my understanding that Alibaba, the parent company, is more or less the Chinese equivalent of Amazon in terms of the amount of business it does, which would probably be pretty tough if customer data were routinely being exposed to thieves, you know? I've also successfully gotten several refunds for items that never arrived, which actually hasn't happened all that often--but knowing that it can happen and that the return period expires, I’ll check back on the site if it seems like it’s been an unusually long time and I’ll make a reminder for myself of the deadline so I can contact the seller in time if necessary.

so the way I shop there is, I don't buy expensive or fragile things in general, because I recognize there's a nonzero chance I'll get a cheap knockoff, or something that was broken in transit because the seller tossed it in a box with no padding and called it good, or sometimes nothing at all. but like eBay, the sellers and items have ratings and reviews from customers, so that helps avoid some risk. items with lots of reviews tend to include at least a few customer photos, which are great for getting a better idea of what the thing you're buying actually looks like. I took a bit of a risk last year buying a Hot Toys (or the equivalent, I actually have no idea) Steve Rogers head for about $20, for instance, but I wasn't super worried about it because the customer photos looked good, the seller I used had a lot of sales and a lot of good ratings, and it was still a lot less than I would've paid for an authentic Hot Toys Steve Rogers head--and in fact he got here just fine and he looked fantastic. I also spent about $20 for a knockoff Iron Studios Loki statue, because in that case it was like...yep I’d love the real thing, nope I’m not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on it, yep I am willing to spend $20 on something that doesn’t look quite as nice but still looks good enough for me in the customer photos. well, and I’ve also bought knockoffs I knew would look bad, because they were cheap and I want all the Lokis and I have enough of an addiction that all the Lokis does in fact sometimes mean “even ones that look really bad” to me.

anyway, uh, Lego-type minifigs. this is an especially good area to go knockoff, because--okay, apparently I can’t link to a page of HeroBloks search results for some reason, but it’s the best resource I’ve found for this type of thing that isn’t just authentic Lego figures. but if you go there and do a search for “loki” you’ll get a bunch of results and you’ll see that they come from like...9 or 10 different brands. Lego specifically has only four Loki options: Avengers Loki in black, Avengers Loki in gray for some reason (which, frankly, looks like a cheap knockoff but isn’t), movie-inaccurate Ragnarok Loki with the blue outfit and the full helmet, an ugly Classic Loki, and a mostly green Loki from I guess the first Thor movie (and then I think they’re going to release a TVA Loki, a Sylvie, and a Throg). all those other results--all those different outfits from every single Loki appearance, and different variations on those outfits, nearly all of them more screen-accurate and/or detailed than the Lego versions--are technically knockoffs. they’re better and you can buy them for way less. (I mean, a lot of them are new so I don’t have them yet, but I do have frost giant Loki, better Ragnarok Loki, better Avengers Loki, opera Loki who actually has another face that’s half-Jotun, and at least one chrome-helmet option, and they all look basically like the photos. so I think I can reasonably expect most of the new ones to look basically like their photos too.)

for reasons that I don’t understand aside from a vague guess that it’s copyright-related, AliExpress pretty much no longer shows full pictures of Lego-type figures in their listings--instead, you have to pick just based on the heads. this is a problem when lots of heads look very similar to each other! luckily, the listings also typically have the actual serial numbers for each figure, as do the HeroBloks listings, so you can cross-reference them to see what you’re really getting. for instance let’s take this listing because it’s cheap and it offers most of the Loki figures that are currently available. say you’re interested in one of the horn-less Lokis. there are...let’s see, five of them, but you have no idea what they actually look like aside from slightly different facial expressions and maybe weapons. however, the first one listed says XH1359 for its color...and what do you know, 1359 is the serial number for this Loki by a company called Xinh. okay cool, how about the last one? the “color” is listed as WM2182--and yes, HeroBloks has a listing for a Ragnarok Loki from World Minifigures with the serial number 2182. (I just ordered all 8 of the new World Minifigures ones yesterday, so again, I can’t personally guarantee yet that they’ll look as good in person as in the pictures--but I think they probably will, and more importantly they cost a whole dollar each.) and if HeroBloks doesn’t have a particular figure, you can probably find something useful just by googling the serial number.

I specifically bought from this listing yesterday because they currently have a bit of a sale going and a deal for free shipping if you buy 10 figures, and I wanted a couple duplicates, so it worked out to be the cheapest option. the same store has another listing for a bunch more Marvel characters, including a couple more Lokis I already had, so it should be pretty easy to get the free shipping so the figures are less than a dollar each and you’re only risking about $10. if you’d rather try one or two and see how it goes, it looks like this listing is probably the cheapest, with figures currently going for a little over a dollar each once you add shipping (although it’s totally possible shipping is more for me because Alaska).

that’s...probably already way more information than you really wanted, but I hope at least some of it makes sense. feel free to ask other specific questions if they come up--I might not be able to give answers exactly, but I can probably tell you what my experience has been, which is better than nothing.

#loki #action figures #lego #marvel cinematic universe #conversations #scintillatingshortgirl19

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editorialsonlife · 3 years

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Well

Welp, feeling like doing an update because there's been a lot going on to be honest. its one of those weird dichotomies where every day feels like an eternity and there's so much going on and then you look back and you're like oh, ok its just my brain making it difficult and making things take forever but anyway.

LOCKDOOOOOOOWWWWWWNNNNNNN

Lockdown life was good, apart from being thrust into it so suddenly dave left a banana on his desk. Wasn't great to come back to after 5 weeks out of the office - mummified mouldy banana!! Classic. We luckily got our first jab before lockdown started so that was good, and we were reasonably well stocked up on food and were generally a lot healthier this lockdown that last. honestly, there's a level of chill and serenity in lockdown that i just love. the ability to set my own schedule and only work the hours I actually work to get the job done? Amazing. getting 8.5 hours of sleep each night without having to wake to an alarm blaring? AMAZING. getting to go for walks every afternoon? SO FLIPPING GOOD. I love it so much, I really really do. I need this to be my life permanently.

WORK

Work is just ongoing and draining and honestly, coming back to the office was so fucking stressful and it was only one day. Being at home is just the fucking bomb. Pending home decisions, I wanna go contracting I think, but also ideally two part time contracts to have more flexibility? I dunno. You'd think a big 4 would provide variety but it really doesn't and honestly, with Richie leaving, wellington is just a sinking ship. Sean's off on parental leave, Kirstyn is down to four days a week, ben will be gone if he doesn't get promoted (and I don't think he will be tbh). Jack is just muddling along, Nigel wants to swap to consulting as well, Matt's going to be a shit leader in terms of bringing in work so it's just not going to work. and in our wider group it's going to get even more messy with heaps of the analysts leaving and a couple of senior hires too. so I think it's probably time to jump ship in general, pending the home stuff below. Also, coming back after a break again, I'm like, I don't actually like a lot of you? All the people I enjoy here are in other teams and groups, and I'll be sad to leave you all, but like, not enough to stay anyway lol.

Pending the home below, two options are to just going and get a job with a $30k payrise to make up for the maternity leave benefits I'm gunna leave behind when I leave this role - 18 weeks full pay, $100 a week for the first year back and a full year of maternity leave. It's basically 30k post tax which is a bit nuts to walk away from to be honest.

Otherwise the other option is to go contracting. Less security overall but holy shit so much money. If I went in as a project coordinator at the lowest rate to build up a bit of a portfolio I'd need to work 40 weeks of 40 hr weeks and Id basically match my current salary plus the lost family leave benefits and still qualify for govt maternity leave payments. Realistically I could go in as a project manager for $140 an hour ($60 more an hour than the above math) and absolutely smash it at that level as well so ya know, there's a bunch of other info. I like the idea of the flexibility of it and only having 6 months even if its a shitshow and beign able to walk away at the end of it. I really don't want to get a govt job and this is a v govt town which is fine but also, if I can avoid it that would be great. I just know I'm not gunna thrive in that environment.

Need to talk to Dave to get him across the line on the security issue part of that though. I've mostly come a long way in terms of my financial management (thanks YNAB) so I think he'd be ok with it mostly.

So there's a lot to toss up there because......

HOME

We got the reno plans done during lockdown, finally. which was super good. but holy fkn jesus $$$$$$ ++++++++++. The guy is coming around for the final quote on Thursday. We indicatively said $100k total because we're doing kitchen laundry bathroom and toilet. so only the most expensive rooms and when I was talking to him last week he said 'that might cover it' and they're seeing cost escalations of 7-10% a week which is just insane. we're not doing anything structural apart from putting in a cavity slider in the bathroom, and the quote they'll give us won't include flooring since they won't do it.

Meanwhile, the prefab homes I were looking at for our site were $425k fully done. Like, I'm not going to spend $130K on doing up my 1940s ex state house ya know? That's not good cost benefit ratio.

So depending on what that comes out at on thursday we'll be able to make some plans.

We also want to start trying for kids next year and need these renos done first - I am not having kids and no dishwasher lol.

Also we need bank financing so good to be in a permanent stable job for that application. the good thing is we have so much equity we know we can borrow whatever we need, I just don't want to spend that much money on it because it's fkn ridiculous. and if I'm going on maternity leave we need to be able to cover it all on dave's salary and whatever benefits I have as well so there;s a lot of financial planning and spreadsheeting going on at the moment lol. it's fab.

either way. we've got plenty of options up our sleeve. we've got friends who's brother owns a building company so we can talk to them, we've got the garage so we can get things prefabricated even if they're not installed til next year, Dave can get shit at cost through his work for whiteware, there;s plenty of things to like cost control we can do, we just need to know where we're starting from basically. thats the challenging part. but we'll figure it out, its just taking longer than I want it to basically.

We also planted up the vege garden for the spring/summer which was lovely, super jazzed about that. we've finally got the garden to a reasonably low maintenance level where everything is mostly under control and it's such a relief, honestly.

PERSONAL

Man what a shift to lockdown last year honestly. I think the last 8 weeks in particular has just been like, a massive reality check of how absolutely shit the last year was and how fucking glad I am to be rid of it. I spent a week absolutely spiralling 2 weeks ago now and honestly, I don't know how I lived in the state for more than a year. I actually don't know how I did it. and I could not be more glad that I'm finally on the other side of it, for the most part. There's still a bunch of other stuff to work through (hahahahahaha when is there not like damn) but fucking hell its nice to just not be anxious and nauseous and wound up constantly. life is actually accessible. miracle.

My workmate had his bebe - I went round and got newborn cuddles and was like, oh, is this what it is to be clucky? this is odd. so there's that as well. I think we'll probably start trying next year pending renos and jobs etc. If the renos can be done in jan I'll prob just stick it at the job to get the benefits but I dunno. it's a tough call to make really. we shall see. This all assumes we get knocked up without any issues which is questionable these days. I really want to feel healthier before getting pregnant as well, and part of that is losing weight. however, given discussing that is what triggered the spiral we're working on that one slowly.

Also, lets have a moment for counselling, because fkn bless anne and all her hard work honestly. I actually ended up emailing her being like, I;m losing my shit on the monday and then talked to her on thursday. And its so funny because it's such a counselling thing but I didn't realise until afterwards what she'd done but she was like you're clearly not doing well and then the night before dave got a fkn miserable migraine and he was up for like, 2 hrs powerchucking except he didn't make it to the bathroom in time so guess who was cleaning up vomit at 130am trying not to chuck herself but I digress. anyway, not doing well, couldn't even explain why, didn't even have words and super tired and she's like, what lynaire up to this week how's she going with izzy and chat about that and then be like how are you feeling about your body and then 5 more mins of chat about the cat and the chickens and then like bam hard question and then hows it going with x and y and z and its like, it wasn't til I was on my walk afterwards when I FINALLY started feeling marginally better I was like damn woman work your magic for figuring it out for me and helping me reregulate. all over the phone as well since we were still in lockdown. GREAT WORK FRIEND.

and then last week was like totally fucked theoretical discussion about religion and the role it's played in my life and fate vs free will and all this nutty shit but genuinely just a great discussion. She's the best and I love her. thank good for good counsellors. thank god I can afford to pay for it honestly.

Dave and I are just chugging along, god bless that man. I love him. its amazing. I miss having friends close by but understand why they had to move (boooooo f u house prices). Family is pretty chill, still not really talking to dave's parents which is nightmarish but we'll deal with that when we need to. gunna have to go and visit them at some point coz dave misses them and I feel for him, I really do. It's the whole boundaries renegotiation I went through with my family last year post wedding blow up and its just not a fun place to be. oh well. can't fix it for him but also I'm not putting up with that level of BS from either of our families once we have children. not gunna happen.

Either way, life is busy and full and fun and I'm enjoying it. Daylight savings starts this weekend too, its october next week WTF and I'm just waiting for 4pm to find out what's gunna happen to our girls trip. Clearly we cancelled our sept trip to christchurch and akaroa and hanmer springs so my covid travel curse continues. fkn ridic. Still dunno what we're gunna do with $2500 of flight credits coz if we get knocked up theres def no international trips happening any time soon.

thus concludes the almost 2000 word write up of life. hope you've enjoyed it. I'll throw up some pics in a separate post if people care about reno plans. such a good time!

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tohellandbackanthology · 4 years

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holy crap we’re 51% funded: announcing the Community Book program!

Hi folks! The whole To Hell + Back team has been utterly blown away over the last couple of days by the response you guys have had to the launch of our Indiegogo campaign and the support you’ve shown our little (big) book--we’re 51% funded after less than 48 hours online, which is beyond our wildest dreams for a self-indulgent fan project we dreamed up in a backyard over some chocolate almonds!

(Not sure who we are or what this project is? Check out our Indiegogo page here!)

We are well aware that given current global events, many people are understandably concerned and/or uncertain about their personal finances, and may not have expendable income to contribute to our crowdfunding campaign while it’s running even if they very much want to own a print copy of To Hell + Back: A Destiel Anthology. With this in mind, we’ve had a handful of extremely thoughtful & generous members of our fandom approach us asking how they might be able to purchase additional copies of the print books through our fundraising campaign, and then have us gift them to fellow fans who are experiencing financial hardship. Amazing, right? We certainly thought so.

After much careful thought and discussion between ourselves about how best to make this happen while remaining totally committed to both fairness and transparency, we’ve worked a little behind-the-scenes magic and would like to present to you the To Hell + Back Community Book Program (or CBP for short)!

Community Book Program? “What is that?” you ask

Essentially, the Community Book Program has been set up as a special set of perks and add-ons right on our Indiegogo page that will allow people to not only buy Community Books to gift to other cash-strapped fans (that they may not necessarily know personally), but to pay for shipping to them as well by choosing a Community Ship add-on that allows the buyer to select whether that book goes to someone in Canada, in the United States, or somewhere else around the world. The Community Books perks and add-ons will be available for purchase until end-of-day Wednesday May 6th, 2020.

For buyers and donators, there are two different ways to provide Community Books:

Number 1: To access the Community Books perks directly, please go here, select either the one or two book option with the gorgeous black-and-white promo art by @kayrosebee, click “get this perk”, and proceed to checkout! Once you’ve clicked “continue to payment”, you will then be asked to agree to the Terms of Use, and click “continue to payment” again. The next page that loads is where you can choose add-ons. If you scroll down below the pink Checkout button, you will see a section entitled “Perks you may also like”, and you can select “add perk” for your choice of Canadian, US, or International Community shipping for the books you are donating. Please ensure that you are purchasing adequate shipping for your selected number of books!

Additionally, please note that in order to check out with option 1, you will be asked to put in your mailing address--don’t worry, we will know to disregard these ones for Community Books when it comes time to ship, and we will be creating unique shipping labels specifically for the lucky recipients. They will not ever see any of your information. Your privacy is paramount to us.

At this add-on stage, you may notice that you have the option to purchase either one or two more additional Community Books, as well as shipping for them. You can purchase up to 4 Community Books total this way, as otherwise Indiegogo will not allow you to check out with multiple regular perks at one time. If you would like to purchase more than 4 CBP books at a time, please contact the mod team directly so that we can assist you with this.

Number 2: If you would like to purchase a perk for yourself but also donate books to the CBP within a single transaction, please go to our Indiegogo page, select the perk you want for yourself, click “continue to payment”, and then follow the instructions above to get to the add-on screen! From there, you will be able to add on either one or two Community books and the corresponding Community Ship option of your choice. Again, please ensure that you are purchasing adequate shipping for your selected number of books!

If you are one of said cash-strapped fans who would like a chance to get a print copy of the To Hell + Back anthology that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, we strongly encourage you to enter the Community Book draws (US residents link) (Canadian residents link) (International residents link) before Wednesday May 6th 2020!

Limit of one entry per person please--multiple entries for the same person will be deleted! We will randomly draw names and announce winners on Saturday May 9th, 2020. The number of names selected from each of the 3 draws will be based on the number of Community Books that have been purchased for each of the 3 shipping destinations by the May 6th deadline. If you are the lucky winner of a Community book, we will contact you via email to obtain your shipping information...yay!

Finally, please look below to read a little FAQ we’ve put together that we hope will help answer some of the most common questions we think we will get about the CBP!

Community Book program FAQ:

Q: Why are the Community Ship options listed as costing $1.00?

A: For a few reasons--first, because Indiegogo will not allow us to create a perk that costs zero dollars. If we could have, we would have!

Secondly, we wanted to find a way to make sure the considerable costs of shipping would be covered for Community Books in a manner that would a) not artificially inflate our fundraising total, as shipping costs are calculated separately, and b) not require the person donating to know the name or the address of the person the book will be going to, since they won’t have that information at the time of purchase. The shipping price of the $1.00 perk will be included at checkout.

Q: What if I want to donate a book directly to someone I know and not have them participate in the draw?

A: That is incredibly sweet of you! We recommend that you either:

1. Do a separate transaction: purchase a perk and put in your friend’s address 2. Purchase a perk that includes multiple books, or 3. Purchase a single-book perk for yourself and make use of the “one extra print book” add-on before you complete your purchase.

Please note that if you choose option 2 or 3, please be aware that all books included in your order will be shipped to your address, and that you will be responsible for any additional shipping costs required to get your donated book to its final destination.

Q: Why can’t I just order a book for my friend and make special arrangements with you guys to ship it to them?

A: Listen, we totally get how that seems like it would be a simple thing from the outside, but if this anthology project reaches its fundraising goal, we are already about talking 500+ physical books plus merch that our team (who also have full-time jobs! School! Other hobbies! One very cute kid!) will have to sort, pack, label, and ship come October 2020 (fingers crossed!).

In the best interest of getting our supporters their products in a relatively timely fashion, of our vital need for administrative organization, and of our general sanity, it is very important to us to be able to streamline that process as much as we possibly can. It is our sincere hope that the fewer exceptions we have to handle, the fewer mistakes we will make...and we just want everyone to be happy!

Q: What if I’m looking to donate something in an arrangement/quantity that isn’t covered here?

A: Please contact us directly to pitch your idea or concern! We are happy to chat, and the worst we will say is, “sorry, no, we can’t do that!” (And then probably say “sorry” three or four more times...have we mentioned that 6 of 8 of us are Canadian?)

Q: What if your anthology doesn’t meet its fundraising goals? Do the CBP draw winners still get books?

A: If To Hell + Back: A Destiel Anthology does not meet its fundraising goals, all money given to the campaign gets refunded directly back to our wonderful supporters, and the print books do not get printed. This means that if that is what happens, then no, unfortunately the draw winners will not receive print books. Nobody will, and we will be sad. That being said, at the time of writing we are already halfway funded! We are very hopeful that our crazy dream of a print anthology will become a reality!

Q: Can I purchase a Community Book without also purchasing Community Shipping?

A: Technically you can, yes. We’d like to strongly encourage you not to do that, and ask you to consider that we want to put these books directly in the hands of as many Dean/Cas fans as possible. Paying for shipping in tandem with the Community Books ensures that we can make that happen, and that more of whatever money is left over after all of the books have shipped and the project’s expenses have been paid can go directly to our charity of choice: WISH Vancouver. If any Community Books end up orphaned (ie, are purchased without shipping), they will likely become part of a giveaway that happens after the fundraiser has closed for good.

This FAQ may be added to as more questions arise, but in the meantime, your trusty mod @justholdingstill has thrown down the gauntlet by purchasing the very first Community Book with International shipping...woo!

#tohellandbackanthology #indiegogo #Destiel fanfic #DESTIEL FANART #SPNFamily #Community Book program #long post #donations #fan project #fan zine #destiel anthology #fan works

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rainofaugustsith · 4 years

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Rain Plays SWTOR: Fleet Avoidance

The Fleet - that's Carrick Station or Vaiken Spacedock, depending on the faction - is a central hub of activity for SWTOR. You'll find hundreds of players on the Fleet at any one time, lots of vendors, and interesting scenery.

You'll also unfortunately find a fair amount of drama. General chat on the Fleet is typically awful. Some players seem to go out of their way to be terrible for the fun of it. During rakghoul events, other players will literally explode on your toons and infect them (vaccinate! Vaccinate! Vaccinate!).

I think most players become familiar with the basics: turn off Gen Chat; ignore players who are being annoying; report harassment. However, here are some advanced techniques to get what you need without going there at all.

Things you can only do on the Fleet:

- Embark on/complete certain missions. These include much of the Shadow of Revan Prelude, part of Hearts & Minds and some of the flashpoints with storylines. The Fleet is also the only place you can pick up the starter missions for the rotating events, such as the Rakghoul Resurgence, Gree and Bounty Contract Week. There are also things like Uprisings which can only be picked up on the Fleet.

- Buy certain decorations, armor and gear. Among the things that can only be purchased on the Fleet: Level 75 mods and armor; items from the DS/LS vendors; items from the event vendors (when the events are not live); reasonably priced purple and blue companion gifts; things crafted by the Utility Vendor and the Marital Decorations Fabrication Droid.

- Pick up Treek, as well as creature and droid companions that are purchased via the GTN or Cartel Market.

Things you can do outside of the Fleet, and where to find them:

1. Pick up heroics. - Go to Odessen. I've taken toons as low as level 44 there. You do not need to have done KOTFE yet. Just click it on your galaxy map and go. You can pick up all the heroics at the terminals outside on the plaza. - With the exception of the four starter worlds (Korriban, Ord Mantell, Tython, Hutta), you can pick up heroics via the Activity panel. What will be available will depend on your level. To get there quickly and painlessly, and earn some extra credits/XP in the process, go through your Activities panel. That will port you right to the heroics pickup terminal on each world.

2. Pick up crew and crafting skills/train new crew schematics/buy crafting supplies.

There are crew skills trainers and crafting supply vendors on every single planet except for the four starter worlds and the daily area worlds (Yavin 4, Oricon, Dantooine, etc.). Some of the easiest ones to find : - Coruscant, in the subterranean marketplace right by the Senate. - Nar Shaddaa, on the Promenade. - Ilum, in the Orbital Station (you can go there before you hit the Ilum story missions!) - Ossus, right in the starting bases for Imperial and Republic players. - Belsavis, right in the starting base on both Republic and Imperial sides. - Voss, in Voss-Ka for both factions. - Tatooine, in Mos Ila and Anchorhead marketplaces. - Dromund Kaas, in the main marketplace. - Onderon, in the palace marketplaces for both factions. - Corellia, in both the Imperial and Republic spaceports.

If you buy the Advanced Repair Droid perk, the droid sells crafting materials in addition to repairing your gear and buying your junk.

3. Train new skills.

There are also class trainers on almost every planet and moon, except for the daily areas (with the exception of Yavin 4, which does have trainers). Some of the easiest to find:

- Korriban, in the Sith Academy. - Tython, in the Jedi Temple. - Coruscant, in the subterranean marketplace near the Senate. - Yavin 4, in each faction's small nook in the staging area. - Nar Shaddaa, on the Promenade. - Belsavis, right in the starting base on both Republic and Imperial sides. - Hutta, in the marketplace. - Ord Mantell, right by the speeder stop in Port Garrick. - Tython, in the upper level of the temple near the Jedi Council *and* at the first speeder station. - Onderon, in the palace marketplaces for both factions. - Corellia, in both the Imperial and Republic spaceports. - Taris, at the first base you encounter (Olaris for the Republic; Toxic Lake Garrison for the Empire).

For the past few Life Days, there has been a freebie Senya class trainer holo that you can acquire. There are no strings, you just go to the Vendor and pick it up. These holos are great - you can activate them and they will train any new skill your character can access.

They are bind-on-pickup so you can't stockpile them for every character in advance, but get them for all of your toons who are around in December. Even your level 75s - you never know when or if SWTOR will increase the level cap again! :) From @verbose-vespertine (thank you!): “ Senya is legacy unlockable, so if you've got the cartel coins (or the next time they do a 50% of legacy unlock sale), unlock the holotrainer for your legacy so that you can give her to any of your toons for free! This way, any toon (on any server) can get a Senya trainer! She was not super expensive to legacy unlock either. “

4. Use your Legacy hold.

- If you have a stronghold, you can access your legacy hold there. You get this deco free if you do the initial stronghold mission. - You can also put the legacy hold on your ship by buying that Legacy perk. Once activated it's good for every character. - There's also a Legacy perk (per character only) for a mobile Legacy hold droid. - Legacy holds now exist on several worlds, including: - Odessen - Ossus

5. Use your cargo hold.

- If you have a stronghold, you can access your cargo hold there. The "wall safe" deco from the Security Key vendor is cheap and gives you access to your cargo hold. - Your cargo hold is automatically on your ship. - There's also a Legacy perk (per character only) for a mobile cargo hold droid. - You can find cargo hold access on almost every single moon and planet. They are usually located in either the planet's central marketplace or the first planetside base you reach.

6. Use an appearance modification station.

You can buy this deco from the Cartel Market or the Utility fabrication droid for your stronghold.

You can also access this service on the following worlds: - Odessen - near the cantina - Dromund Kaas- Central marketplace - Coruscant - the subterranean marketplace near the Senate

7. Use an item modification station. You can buy this deco from the Cartel Market or the Utility fabrication droid for your stronghold. - You can also put the station on your ship by buying that Legacy perk. Once activated it's good for every character.

Stations exist on the following planets: - Odessen (outside on the plaza) - Korriban (near the Sith Academy) - Hutta (in the marketplace next to Nem'ro's palace) - Tython (near the speeder station outside the Jedi Temple) - Ord Mantell (near the center of Fort Garrick - Coruscant (in the subterranean market near the Senate)

8. Surf the GTN. You can buy this deco from the Cartel Market or the Utility fabrication droid for your stronghold. - You can also put a GTN terminal on your ship by buying that Legacy perk. Once activated it's good for every character. Terminals can be found on the following planets:

- Odessen - near the cantina - Dromund Kaas- Central marketplace - Coruscant - the subterranean marketplace near the Senate - Nar Shaddaa - On the Promenade - Makeb - in the Orbital Station

9. Exchange Jawa Scrap.

- The three Jawa vendors in the Cartel Bazaar who will exchange all that scrap are available to procure as decos. You can either find them on the GTN or, if you're lucky enough to have Cartel Certificates, purchase them from the deco vendor on the Fleet (near the stronghold purchase boards). Where do you get Cartel Certificates? They turn up in the slot machines during Nar Shaddaa Nights!

10. Visit the Security Key Vendor.

The vendor can be found here, with the same stock:

- Ilum - Orbital station. - Coruscant - the subterranean marketplace near the Senate. - Dromund Kaas - A little out of the way, right by the Kaas City speeder stop.

11. Buy mods, enhancements, etc.

- You can learn to craft these for your own characters fairly painlessly (Cybertech does mods and enhancements; Armstech does barrels and armoring, and Artifice does hilts) - Mod vendors exist on every world except for the four starter planets, Odessen, Ossus, Onderon and Mek-Sha. Whatever levels are listed for the planet, you'll find mod vendors for them in the central marketplaces on each planet. For levels 55-65, there are mod vendors on Oricon, CZ-198, the Ziost Orbital Station and Rishi.

12. Run a flashpoint.

Click on "Activities." Scroll down. You can immediately pick up every solo flashpoint available to your level, as well as the Star Fortress and Eternal Championships. As soon as you pick them up, you'll be transported to the start of the flashpoint.

The few flashpoints that do not have story/solo modes: Athiss, Hammer Station, Mandalorian Raiders, Kuat Drive Yards, Red Reaper, the two Czerka flashpoints and the Kaon Under Siege arc unfortunately cannot be picked up via your activity panels.

13. Buy or visit a stronghold.

It's true that this is far more convenient on the Fleet since all the terminals for the strongholds are clustered together. However, you can also find kiosks to buy the strongholds on their respective planets:

Dromund Kaas: Main marketplace area. Coruscant: Subterranean market near the Senate. Manaan: Welcome center. Yavin 4: Staging area (where you arrive) Rishi: Near the cantina and Kai Zyken's warehouse. Alderaan: In the spaceport near the entrance. Tatooine: In the spaceport near the entrance. Nar Shaddaa: In the spaceport near the entrance. Umbara: On Odessen, in the area near the Copero/Umbara/Nathema flashpoint entrances.

14. Hang out/RP with other players in a cantina.

There are cantinas on almost every planet. Some are very small or contained in the spaceport, but many of them are actually more atmospheric, IMHO, than the Fleet. Some suggestions:

1. Odessen's cantina is unique, with several rooms. 2. Nar Shaddaa: Choices include the Slipper Slope (main quest cantina on the Promenade), but there are also numerous open rooms in the huge Star Cluster/Club Vertica casinos (where the Nar Shaddaa Nights event is held), as well as Club Ufora if you're Republic. 3. Tatooine: You will find a cantina in your starting city on Tatooine (Mos Ila for Imperials; Anchorhead for Republic) but there's also a large one in the first station out on both sides. 4. Dromund Kaas: Nexus in the city center. 5. Coruscant: There are at least three cantinas you can access on this planet.

#swtor #rain plays swtor #player safety

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palettes-and-prompts · 4 years

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Prompts Based on the Song Cotard's Solution (Anatta, Dukkha, Anicca) by Will Wood & The Tapeworms

Dialogue Prompts

1) "Computer...is there any sign of life today?" "No, Ma'am/Sir. Not today." 2) "It's me and you again today computer. I suppose I should give you a name, after all it's just been me and you for the past...how many days has it been now?" "One thousand four hundred and fifty-six." "It's really been that long?" "Yes, Sir/Ma'am." "What would you like to be called? Do you have a favorite name?" "Is Clara an acceptable name." "Yeah. I think Clara is a perfect name for you." 3) "Get the ship ready. We're making a break for it." 4) "Five thousand gold says my ship is faster than yours." "That pitiful excuse for a ship?" "If you don't believe me then race me to that floater and back." "Hah, My ship would outrun it twice before you made it back." "Don't say it if you aren't ready to put your money where your mouth is." "Fine, I'll even up the stakes. If you win I'll give you twenty thousand gold and I'll help you find your stupid diamond." "And if you win?" "I get to put that ship of yours out of its misery. Deal?" "Deal." 5) "Hey, kid?" "Yeah?" "Don't let them take you alive." 6) "Relax." "How can I relax? You've been shot!" "The bullet's not in me. Just give that alcohol would you?" "Are you going to use it to disinfect the wound?" "No. I'm going to drink it. I've just been fucking shot!" 7) "Person A?" "Yeah?" "Gun it!" "The ship doesn't have enough gas, we might not make it!" "That's a risk we're going to have to take or we're going to get killed or arrested by these bounty hunters. Now fucking gun it!" 8) "Did you just get us lost in space?" "No." "We've passed by the same asteroid ten times." "How do you know that? They all look different." "Every time we pass that asteroid you laugh and go, 'that asteroid looks like a dick!'" "It does." "I KNOW BECAUSE WE'VE PASSED IT TEN FUCKING TIMES ALREADY!" 9) "Are you high right now?" "I'm about to fucking be." "Is this cocaine?!" "No. It's space cocaine, that's why it's hot pink." "That somehow makes me more worried. What the fuck is space cocaine?" "Instead of making it with like gasoline or whatever they make it with rocket fuel and like, space crystals." "Okay, now, I'm not a doctor or a scientist but I'm actually a hundred percent certain if you snort that you will not only not wake up tomorrow, I'm not sure if you'll wake up at all." "Only one way to find out. Time to go skiing, baby!" "No don't snor--" "Fuck me this shit kicks fast." "Jesus fucking Christ you're going to die." "Don't be a buzzkill, Person A." 10) "Remember when you told me not to steal that space cat. Why did you tell me not to do that again?" "Because it's a parasite that feeds off love and can kill you if it bonds with you." "Right, yes, I remember now." "...Why do you bring it up?" "No reason." "Mhmm, and why is your jacket moving and also glowing blue along with your eyes?" "I smoked drugs." "You smoked drugs?" "You know me, I do those things." "Okay, and why is your jacket meowing?" "Because you also smoked drugs." "Did you steal the space cat?" "Are you going to yell at me?" "I honestly don't have the energy anymore. Let me take you to the hospital."

Regular Prompts

1) Person A is forgotten in space but has faith their friends will return for them. When they don't return A finds their own way to another planet, almost dying in the process, where the people there are unkind but tolerate A. Person A finds work and gains enough money to have someone search for their friends. They think something happened to their ship in space but the investigator manages to find out they didn't forget them but rather left them behind hoping they would die. A is hurt and their sadness turns to anger. A gets a weapon and learns to shoot before hiring a bounty hunter to take them and help them carry out their revenge. A then hunts their 'friends' down one by one. 2) Person A is a space racer and uses their ability to navigate through asteroid belts to steal whatever they want. When they steal a certain shipment they find a stowaway child, Person B, who had hidden in the crates. Before they can take them back the child admits they don't have a home to go back to. Person A slowly becomes a parental figure or older brother/sister figure to the child and decides to teach them everything they know including racing while continuing to tell them that space is no place for a kid. After a while Person B tells A they don't have to take care of them anymore and that they can leave them at the next planet they come to. When they get to the next planet Person A and B complete a job and A has some paperwork done while B is gathering their things. As B says goodbye, Person A tells them to get back on the ship. When they claim that Person A doesn't need them anymore, A shows Person B the paperwork showing that they're now Person B's legal guardian and that they're taking care of them now. The two hug and the story ends with them about to steal space diamonds off another ship quickly in order to take B to their first big race. 3) Person A feels lost on Earth but when they find a space ship after it crashes they find a small creature inside. When they realize it's the equivalent of an Earth toddler they search the ship for answers. The creature gets attached to A and they soon name the creature Pip. Pip is able to give abilities to Person A and allow them to read their language, which helps them realize the coordinates on screen are to find Pip's family. Person A and Pip then navigate space and end up having to make a few stops along the way to fuel up. They meet a few people who try to steal Pip because they're a creature hunted to near extinction because they're able to excrete jewels whenever they eat/drink/sweat. A is able to safely navigate through different conditions and even meet a few people who want to help along the way. They finally get to Pip's new planet and return them to their parents and A, along with their new friends, are allowed to stay on the new planet and for the first time in years A realizes they no longer feel lost. 4) A and B are two friends who grew up wanting to join their space program to travel the galaxies but find out the program is making them into perfect soldiers to fight in an alien war that no one is aware of but the people running the program. The two rebel and inform all the students of what's going on. When the teachers and instructors in charge find out they begin using a gas to brainwash people into being soldiers whether they like it or not and decide to lock down the building one way or another. A and B manage to escape on a ship with some supplies but have no idea where to go or what to do. They eventually wander far enough to find a small planet and soon they meet others who are aware of Earth's intentions to take over the galaxy as their own. A and B spend the whole time trying to get others see that Earth isn't the problem and that it's the leaders of the program who need to be stopped. They figure out a way to cancel out the effects of the gas they're using to brainwash them and they, along with an army of others set out to take down the leaders and save their friends and the galaxy. 5) A finds a crystal that's sentient. It helps them build a body from scrap parts, forming Person B. But when the body can do everything but experience touch, taste, and smell the two work together to figure out a way for B to get a human body without killing someone. They discover a lab that specializes in growing cells for transplants so people can have fully functioning arms without prosthetics and they find out there are full bodies growing in the basement that would be perfect for B. When the price is incredibly expensive they ask if there's another way to get it. The owner, Person C, tells them if they can find their kidnapped 'daughter', Polly, they'll let Person B have the body in exchange for her safe return. A and B travel and eventually find her. Her 'kidnappers' admit they took her but tell A and B they did it because C was using Polly's DNA to create the female bodies, poking and prodding her every day for more and more blood and tissue. A and B can't bring themselves to take her back to C. Person C finds them anyway and kills the kidnappers, taking Polly back to the lab. A and B decide to go back and, using one of the mechanical bodies A built B, they manage to kill Person C and save Polly. The full bodies are destroyed except for one which was made using the DNA of Polly's real mother/father. Polly tells them she doesn't remember her mother/father and that it's okay wit her if B takes it as their own. When B is human the first thing they do is hug Polly and thank her. A and B then adopt Polly and live happily together as her guardians. (Whether A and B are romantically involved is up to you.)

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prorevenge · 5 years

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Hell hath no fury like a teenager scorned...

It's a long story, spans years of time. ~~~Cue hazy flashback to 1997/8~~~

Growing up, my family ran a business dealing with water and wastewater pumps. By the time I was in high school, I worked for them outside of school as needed, and I'd grown up around the industry. At the time of this story I was 16, maybe 17. I got a few funny looks out in the field sometimes, but normally wasn't a problem, this time, it was.

Many sales they make do are bids. You go to the builders exchange, which is basically a library for plans and blueprints. You pull the plans, get to the part applicable to you, and see what they want or need. Then you submit a price you think will win you the job.

Many times the plans will actually specify a model that meets their needs, in which case you bid that or a comparable one. Other times, they will give specifications and selection and matching is up to you, going through books and software for curves (chart that shows how it flows under load).

This time was the former. The job is a retrofit/expansion on the city plant. The engineer had specified a model of pump he wanted, and I'd matched it's specs. Put in a submittal for approval on the substitution as required. It gets approved and we are cleared to enter a bid.

We proceed forward putting together the bid. At one point, I have the plans in front of me and I'm looking at the drawings. I don't like what I'm seeing, which is a lot of pipe and a lot of distance. I check and recheck and come up with the same result. The total head (head is how far you're pumping, calculated by distance and including losses from the pipe) is too much for the pump that was specified, way too much. This puts the pump way outside it's curve, it's going to be deep into overload.

I used my corrected numbers and found a proper match, but not only was it significantly more expensive, but physically different, would require large revisions. So I put together a revised submittal with the numbers I ran, and the recommended pump. It included the math from the drawings and the curves. Faxed it over to the engineers office, then I called him.

It did not go well. Not only did he not listen to me, he was more than happy to lecture me. How dare I, a kid, tell him how to do his job. No, he would not accept any revisions or resubmittals, I had no idea what I was talking about and I, personally, was no longer to have contact on this project. He did not use nice words.

This couldn't stand, it was going to cause serious problems down the line. So I did the only thing I could think of, I found the contact for city planning and told him. Made it about three minutes into trying to explain who I was and why I was calling before he cut me off and told me to refer to Engineer and not to contact him again. Tried again for someone else later, did not make it past receptionist.

As. You. Wish.

I took the revised submittal and filed it in the back of the job file and moved on. (I wasn't needed for the rest and I had other things to do, plus school)

Fast forward almost two years, now going to college, still working for my folks as needed. Construction complete, get called in for startup. Goes smoothly as it should, and the countdown to destruction begins.

I think the first one went after about three months? Only made it that long because those pumps are very well built. Emergency ship in a replacement. Second one a week or three after, then another, and another, then the replacements start failing. The whole time, these are being invoiced including emergency shipping, and having to run out to start them up every time. They have no choice, THIS is the model the pads were cast for and the piping run for. You can't directly substitute something else, like, say, the correct pumps.

Then it gets really fun. They start returning the burnt out units for warranty.

The factory starts receiving these and tearing them down for failure analysis. I told our rep straight up that they were being run way outside their design point knowingly, he was not amused. Warranty is denied and they are billed for the diagnostic time and shipping. Manufacturer was in Germany by the way (shout out to the fine folks at KSB, love ya). These units are neither small, nor light. Plus these are being shipped as emergency orders. It's not cheap.

Warranties officially denied to the buyer. We tell them in no uncertain terms that this isn't a problem with the units. (this is now almost a year after the plant was due to come online)

Now the shit has really hit the fan. City council gets involved, because this is a municipal plant. Lawsuits are threatened, and a council meeting is scheduled to discuss further action.

I marked the day, and arranged with my teachers to take a few days off (didn't live close to home). Drove 3 1/2 hours to see my parents, and, to visit their filing cabinet. Right where I left it. Out came the revised submittal, and a quick trip to Kinkos (local copy shop) provided some wonderful blown up posters of said submittal as well as the proofs behind it.

The next day, I drove another 2 1/2 hours up to said City, had a lovely meatball sandwich at a restaurant right across the street from the council building and showed up to the council meeting. I even dressed up nice for the occasion.

I didn't say anything to anyone, just sat in the back in my chair with my rolled up posters next to me and waited. Took about forty minutes.

The council finally brings up the plant. Guess who comes up to testify in front of the council? It's Engineer.

He goes on for about ten minutes talking shit about our company and how we are denying the warranties. Basically states that the problem is due to the substitution and that our pumps were substandard.

This is a loss now counted in the millions between the downtime and replacement costs and rejected warranties, labor etc. Council swallows his bullshit hook, line and sinker. He sits down and the council starts discussing among themselves. This is my cue.

I stand up, approach the podium, and wait for them to notice me, doesn't take long as I'm a teenager in a city council meeting. I introduce myself and unroll the posters.

Me: Hi! I'm Crispy Silicon from Goingtoruinyourfuckingday! Before you proceed any further, you should probably have a look at this, which is the revised submittal I sent to Engineer prior to the initial bid. You'll note the date. Also attached you'll find the supporting calculations, relevant drawings from the original plans, and the recommendation of a larger suitable unit. You'll also see the fax acknowledgement sheet, showing it was received by his office.

Me: Immediately after sending that, I contacted Engineer directly and advised him of these issues. He declined, I was told outright to keep my nose out of things I didn't understand and to leave engineering to the adults. He was well aware the units would self destruct if run at this point.

Me: After that I called your planner, who refused to listen, and referred me back to Engineer.

Me: If you'd like, I'd be more than willing to contact our phone provider, so they can verify that fax and those calls were placed?

I'm grinning like the Cheshire Cat at this point and I'm not holding back the evil one bit. I'm sure I looked like a psychopath, couldn't help it, also didn't care.

Dead. Fucking. Silence.

Me: So yeah, the warranties are void as all of the units were operated well beyond their design point. I still stand by the revised submittal, so feel free to call when you're ready. I'll leave these here.

Still completely silent. The entire council looks like I just dropped my pants and mooned them. Then after a few seconds, one of the ladies on the council gave me a "Thank you Mr. Silicon. You can go."

I left my posters on the podium, turned and walked, made full eye contact with Engineer as long as I could with that same grin. He looked like he was probably going to vomit, didn't stick around to check.

Stopped by to give my folks a hug on the way back to school and that was the end of my involvement.

No idea what happened to Engineer or Planner, but the City paid every invoice in full without another peep. They had continue to purchase replacement after replacement to limp it along while simultaneously trying to re-refit the plant. They finally got it fixed after about another year, but by that time, I can't even imagine how far over the projected estimate they were.

(source) story by (/u/crispysilicon)

#prorevenge #by /u/crispysilicon #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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my-luis-evans · 5 years

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 228

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Click on the video above to watch Episode # of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Adam: Alright, welcome everybody to Hump Day Hangout. This is Episode 228. This is really cool seeing the numbers creep up like I mean now we’re well into the two hundred. But every time I see it I’m like and that’s a lot of episodes. But anyway we’re back and back for another great episode. And real quick just wanted to say if you’re new to semantic mastery whether you’re watching this live whether you’re catching the replay we appreciate you watching and what we recommend is the first thing you do is start coming to Hump Day hangouts every week every Wednesday at the same time for pm eastern every single week after that grab the battle plan just go to battle plan that dot semantic mastery.com and now we’re going to do the usual thing we’re going to take a minute Say hello to the guys before we jump into it. And so let’s start on the left here. I see her now because I guess Chris must have not been able to join us this week.

Hernan: Yeah, I’m not sure but I’m good. Thank you. I’m doing well thank you for asking. I’m super excited super, super excited for being here for this Hangout. So by being here.

Adam Outstanding! Marco How you doing man?

Marco: Holy shit! came pretty quick What’s up man? I’m doing good I’m in the lab nice manipulating shit just I’m gonna drop a bomb. That’s it it’s a nuclear missile I’m going to drop a nuclear missile and then see and then say See I told you I was gonna do it I told you so from beautiful Costa Rica coming at you, nuclear missile

Adam: SEO tip nuclear missile. Good stuff. Bradley How you doing man?

Bradley: Good. I’m good. I had a. I had one of my primary lead gen like delivery options from answer Connect. Apparently, they dropped the delivery routing to my contractor seven days ago. And I just now discovered it today. And so for seven days, we had 21 calls come in, they went into oblivion. I’m so upset about it because my Contractor Call me was like an awfully slow Is everything all right and I was like what do you mean we’ve been getting a ton of calls and I went researched it and found out that somehow they dropped the delivery option so I was getting notification via email but my contractor wasn’t getting notified like they just dropped his delivery options for whatever reason I don’t understand and anyways I’m a little bit upset about it but happy to be here and we got to resolved and I vented my anger out with AnswerConnect and they gave me an account credit which doesn’t make up for the potential revenue loss but at least it’s it’s been fixed and it’s now delivering again so I’m glad I caught it when I did it could have been three weeks you know what I mean?

Adam: Let’s say it’s better seven days is better than 8 days. So… I’m good deal. Well, like I said at the beginning if you’re just joining us a good place to start. You’re in the right place watching us if you want to watch live you want to ask questions ahead of time go to semantic mastery.com/hdquestions the next step for sure. Whatever you’re doing is grab the battle plan at battleplan.semantic mastery.com and if you really want to start or grow your local digital marketing agency, please come join our MasterMind. And you can find out all about that at mastermind, semantic mastery.com. Now, the couple other things we want to touch on. Obviously, some of you are watching this live, whether you’re seeing it on the replay or live, you can we stream through YouTube, so you can subscribe to our YouTube channel. And if you find anything super useful, you might be watching clips or you could be watching the whole thing. Just share that with anyone you might find it to be useful with. A lot of times we answer some specific questions. But there’s a lot to out there where, you know, people like to find just this one thing and whether it’s about lead gen, whether it’s about content production, and there are other people out there who could really benefit we’d love it if you’d share it with them. And then the last thing I wanted to touch on to was done for you services whether you’re looking for syndication networks are way as Dr. stacks actually I’m going to let Marco and you guys talk about this a little bit because I think we got a lot more coming out very soon. Go to mgyb.co for your done for you services so guys do we have stuff that’s actually coming out or my jumping the gun here

Bradley: yeah we have well I’ll let Marco say it because I always say we’re going to have it and we never do when I say it so

Marco: no no no we are it I mean it’s already in the backend the product is there that’s the only holdup and I as I said yesterday during our board meeting your flag me with a wet noodle one of the holdups. is Oh sorry, Nicholas. You’re not supposed to be in here. Sorry. I gave you the wrong link to each other. Need to sign up. Nicholas, you hear me? You need to sign out. surprise go.

Bradley: That’s all right. I just hit the eject button. I don’t think I’ve got this. To use that eject button and send out like yes

Adam: well now back to our regularly scheduled programming so anyways Mark I’ll toss it back to us so we oh yeah I’m gonna hold up this time on one of those which is link building.

Marco: And the holdup is I hate writing copy because I guys I’m a literature my one of my majors is literature so it has to be right for me and I always find something that’s wrong and I go back and reread and then there’s something wrong again that is that doesn’t quite say what I want to say or just whatever and I never get it done and I spent hours on this which is why I hate having to write I was asked to do it I said I’d go ahead and do it I should have known better I said no let’s get this hire somebody for 20 bucks to right the ship and it gets done.

Marco: But anyway, it’s going to get done. The product is ready. As soon as I’m done with the copy link building will be ready. But we have also in the back end the done for you GMB off page optimization service, we have the indexing, we have just a whole bunch of things that are coming down the pipeline, and we have others that are in the works so that there are plenty of things that are coming. Sorry about this one. Again, Mia culpa, you guys can go ahead to flog me 10 times with a wet noodle. Sorry about that.

Bradley: Yeah. Just to be clear, though, guys, the off-page GMB service is only going to be available in the mastermind for the first several weeks while we cut because they always get first crack number one. Number two, we want to make sure that we can deliver and you know, fulfill without any hiccups, that kind of stuff because it is a new process for taking other people’s assets instead of our own through. Our team so again, it’s going to only be available in the mastermind members will get a 20% discount from the public pricing when it does launch. So that’ll be should be ready I was just chatting with Rob about that within the next couple of days but again don’t don’t quote me on that because every time I say that in the past and eat my words it doesn’t get launched right away so but very very soon let’s put it that way

Adam: cool deal all right and if you’re watching this and you’re not on our newsletter list hop over to semantic mastery. com there are lots of reasons to join we run a lot of great news from there clips information sales discounts and then flash sales as well some really cool stuff so done-for-you services if you’re looking to save some time as well as get the kind of the really high quality about said that we’re stuff done for you then that’s

Bradley: Don’t say any bad words on Hump Day Hangouts, man

Adam: Hey, someone’s gonna keep it clean. Alright, guys with that that’s all I got on the road down. Did you guys get anything else before we dive in?

Bradley: Alright, sounds good. Let’s get into it. Okay, let me grab the screen. All right, we don’t have a lot of questions. So that’s odd. I guess people aren’t digging this new format. We got five new ones there. So that’s cool. Well, that’s all Adam. Yeah, yeah. OK, cool.

How Do You Create Quality WordPress And GMB Assets To Scale Up To 100k Per Month Quickly?

So Alex is up. Looks like several times in a row, but that’s right. And he says, Hey guys, how about how Okay, how would you go? How about would you go to create as many quality assets? I’m not sure I’m understanding that but GMB or WordPress as fast as possible. I guess, how would you go about creating as many quality assets as fast as possible? In other words, what would your plan B to scale to 100 k per month as fast as possible? How many sites would you think it would take to create high-end quality expensive service providers is included in this in this scenario? Thanks. Um. Well, I don’t know I mean it 200k per month as fast as possible, that’s that would take a lot of work,

I you would need a team or a really good outsourcing, you know a service provider like somebody that could provide, you know, a white label service or, you know, like mg y be, for example, that could do a ton of the work for you, you see what i’m saying that that’s what you would want to do, if you had to build your own team to be able to scale to that there were there’s a lot of time and effort that goes into building a team that could even scale it took me several months to get my team and that point where we, you know, we’re, we’re, we were building the GMB assets very efficiently. And now we’re going to start offering that and MTV for example, but it took several months of really refining the process that and because also the process was constantly evolving and it still kind of is but um, so if you’re gonna if you have the resources available like in other words, if you got somebody that’s backing you financially for a build out like that, to be able to scale then you

You’re better off going with white label providers or fulfillment services that have already have the processes in place that can handle that kind of volume does that make sense then trying to build your own although I recommend I always recommend to most people you know that are that are building their own agencies and things like that that they should hire their own in house teams and train them how to do stuff there’s a bit of a it can be a pain in the ass to learn how to hire and train and and manage VA or staff regardless of whether the virtual assistants or actual in house staff it can be a pain in the ass to do that but it’s the most cost effective way long term as long as you can manage properly right if you can’t manage properly then it’s actually cost you more money than it would be to go to a fulfillment provider like em gee Why be for example our store right because again if you’re if you miss manage or you don’t keep your VA is working but you’re paying salaries and that kind of stuff, then you can end up costing yourself more money than if you just hired it out from a service provided that already has the processes in place and is efficient, you know, has a certain level of efficiency and all that kind of stuff can deliver on time. That’s something else you have to consider when trying to scale if you are promised, you don’t want to over promise and under deliver to whoever you’re scaling for. And again, if you’ve got a financial backer or a partner or something like that, and you promise that you can hit certain numbers and you’re unable to do so because it is a bit of you know, it can be a mess.

It can be cumbersome to build a team and manage a team and manage multiple vas and things like that but it really depends on what your what your goal is. I would say the fastest way to get to it would be to hire a fulfillment service that already has the capability to take on that kind of a volume if you have the resources to afford it. So you know that’s one thing I would suggest a GM bs is a great way to go obviously we we have highly recommend that WordPress obviously takes a bit longer. When you’re dealing with custom domains or self hosted domains, it takes longer to get results than it does from strictly Google assets now, and that’s just the nature of the game because you have to build up the authority and trust of those domains and that kind of stuff. Although I don’t, I don’t count that out entirely. I would say that that’s still a good strategy, but that’s a little bit of a longer term thing.

So, in my opinion, the quickest way to go about it would be with GMB assets, to begin with, and also use some paid traffic to get, you know, pay per click type stuff to get some results from those really quickly. Obviously, SEO stuff is what you want to do long term, but even with GMB assets, guys, depending on the level of competition for each location, some are going to take longer than others to start getting results and that’s why you should have a nice mix. If you’re trying to scale very quickly. You should have a good blend of SEO as well as PPC which can come from straight search ads which can be rather expensive, depending on your market. They’re effective, but they can be expensive.

But display ads are actually working really, really well and remarketing obviously, but display ads are a lot less expensive. And, and YouTube, YouTube’s a great source of traffic right now to even for local stuff. So you could use those or leverage those two platforms, Google Display Network, and YouTube to get traffic immediately to your GMB assets which by the way, will help them to rank faster to right. And so and those are all things that I would do it but I would I would try to stay within the Google ecosystem originally or at least initially while I’m working on the SEO aspect of that and then I would also you know just consider over the over a few months time once you have the SEO in place and your your your assets are ranking and producing leads from organic and organic rankings, then you can start to pull back on some of the paid traffic stuff. So what do you guys say?

Marco: Yeah, I would say that this depends. From what he’s saying quality and expensive service providers is included in the scenario. So I’m going to take that to mean that you have a big budget. If you do, then the fulfillment is there because we have MTI be who can do. Just about everything that you need. As far as you know, GMB syndication the cat, our syndication networks are our is Dr. Stack, what I would also recommend is you hire a consultant if depending on your level of expertise, you may not need one but hire a consultant that can be the bridge so that they can tell you why and the why and the how this is what needs to be done and they can guide you along in the process and so any of us that have time and I don’t know what I’m pretty tight with time right now, but you know, any one of us can take you and guide you along the process.

And it’s going to be what, four, maybe five hours a month for x x amount of months, it’ll have to be figured out depending on what you want this-this is like it’s so general that it’s really hard to pinpoint it. But I mean, we can take your say, Okay, this is what you’re going to need to do set up a whole plan you’re going to need, of course, some of the courses that we teach. We don’t recommend that you do it that you go through it and do it but setting up the hiring funnel so that you can get a team in place setting up, you know, getting our ys, Academy reloaded, local least pro local GMB, pro syndication Academy, get all these things in place. This is in conjunction because you can just go and buy them from us of course, but long term you want your own team doing this so that anyone that you take on as a client you can just plug in into your system so

So any of us can help you systematized this in a way that it becomes a well-oiled machine. So that all you have to do is just plug and play. And then everyone in your team knows what to do it. So you have the two scenarios, you could just hire it from us or train your own people, or have one of us show you how it’s done. I mean, this this is what I would recommend.

What Type Of YouTube Ads Do You Use For Lead Gen Sites?

Bradley: Yeah, I agree with that. Anyone else? Okay. Alex is up again. He says, Can you explain what type of YouTube ads Do you use for lead gen sites with do you show and the creative add?

Well, it just depends. Like it depends on what if you can get a good video or not. If you know a lot of the stuff that I do clients actually have had videos made from local video production companies. And so those are typically you know, good video videos. Excuse me. They’re compelling enough to where they’ll generate their compelling enough to where they generate a click, somebody will click through to see the offer, which essentially takes me to a landing page or if it’s for GMB assets or lead gen sites or whatever, you know, sometimes they’ll go directly to the Google property but for the most part, they do end up going to landing pages from paid traffic. So but you can use pls type videos if they’re decent, you know, if they’re Remember, the idea here is if you’re targeting properly, you’re going to be targeting an audience that is already in the market for that kind of a certain product or service. And so it doesn’t take a lot of pushing or nudging for them to click through because they’re already you know, they’re already interested in what you know, have a desire for that product or service. So, you know, I’ve used to feel our videos, they’re not great, but they will get the trick done. If you can find decent ones. Something else you can do is find you know, a good provider on Fiverr, for example, they’re not five bucks anymore. I can tell you that you can spend easily 100 bucks

Or more on a good video now a video to be produced. But the idea is if you can get a good video produced that you can then repurpose for multiple clients or multiple lead gen sites. That’s a great strategy because you’ll have a little bit of an initial investment up front to have a nice video created. But what you can do is template ties that video in other words, you and this is something you can do with when dealing with a provider. And it doesn’t have to be from fiber guys, you can find video editors or you know, Video Creators or whatever on like up work for example, and a lot of times you can find some really good ones there for a relative route, you know, relatively good prices. But something that I’ve done in the past is I’ve approached video producer to create a video that you know, might cost me 150 bucks or 200 bucks up front but I tell them very specifically that there I’m going to have them create a template that then every time I get a new client or

I’m going to use it for another lead gen location or asset, for example, that there are going to be specific sections of the video that are going to be swapped out with new sections, right? So it could just be text overlays, for example, but sometimes it will be like, you know, the logo will come in on you know, it will animate itself into the video that kind of stuff to where you pay a lot of money or not, you know, not a lot of money but relative to the edits afterward, it’s you know, it’s initial, an initial investment and excuse me investment but then after the templates created then it’s a real quick and easy job for that same video professional for you to send to them and you might pay him 20 or 25 bucks right for each new version of the video that you have created for each new client or location. So it’s an investment on that if you’re going to use this strategy I would recommend that you do that because instead of using like appeal or video because the problem with the Pl our videos it’s so generic that they’re not all that common.

compelling, right? So it doesn’t a lot of time generate the interest or the result that you want from it. Whereas a video that is compelling, much more compelling, which if you have a custom video for a client like, again, a lot of my clients will actually have videos made by local video production companies. So there you 100% unique videos for their business. And those typically work really well. But you can have a nice template created that’s unique to your business. But then you can use that over and over and over again by just swapping out certain sections to make it unique to each property or client that you’re using to promote that you’re promoting for so it makes sense and that’s something that if you’re going to use that strategy, I would recommend that you do that because it will separate you from just any other internet marketer in their mom’s basement that can grab a PR video and do the same thing you’re doing so it makes sense

Bradley: the second part of that is have you ever use Facebook ads to drive phone calls through your assets? I do not I just have never really done Facebook ads period or not may be able to talk about that.

Hernan? Is he still here>

Adam: Yeah. Must be muted. Maybe he had to run and grab something.

Does A Canonical URL Pointing To Itself Make It Appear As A Non-Duplicate Page?

Bradley: Okay. So sorry, I can’t answer that for you. But I just don’t do Facebook stuff. I really don’t. I stick to Google. So I’m going to keep on moving her non comes back and jumps in on that. That’d be great. Otherwise, we’re going to keep up moving. Alex says, does having a canonical URL pointing to itself make it appear as a non-duplicate duplicate page aside I’m observing has 500 plus pages all 500 of the exact same 300-word page with the change in a suburb, right? So like the location modifier is the only thing different on each page. When I run a site liner check only a small, very small percentage of duplicate content appears most of the pages are skipped due to canonical URL that points to itself as a result. I’m guessing that the site doesn’t appear as spam at all. Is it also ranking It is also ranking number one for a ton of keywords? I can’t seem to make the canonical tag work through Yoast SEO. Any recommendations?

Bradley: I don’t know, I’ve never looked into that having a canonical point to itself, I don’t understand how that would make it not appear as duplicate content when every single page would have their own canonical is pointing to themselves and it would all be the same page with just the location details or location modifier changed out that sounds just like you know, a typical mass spam or mass page spam site. I’ve seen them do some really odd things with the search in the search engines that you would think wouldn’t work I’ve seen that over the years for about two years I worked with lead gadget and the ATM and that’s essentially what that does is like an industrial strength mass page builder and there’s a lot of people that were crushing it with that I know I don’t particularly like the churn and burn type strategy and that’s what I consider that to be and those you know, I’ve had a lot of built a lot of sites and had a lot of sites D indexed over time and I just didn’t like to have to continually repeat the builds. So that’s part of them and I got away from it. I don’t understand how having canonical point to itself or every page point A canonical to itself would prevent any duplicate content issues. But again, with this mass page sites, I’ve seen the rules are different. And I don’t know why with only 500 plus pages.

That doesn’t seem like a lot we would build page WordPress sites with an ATM part of lead gadget that was 30,000 cities. So it’s 30,000 posts with basically the same content on every page. And then we would put anywhere between six to 10 tags per page were proposed, I should say, which would then if, let’s say six, that’s 180,000 tag pages, right? So 30,000 posts with 180,000 tag pages. So the site would be 210,000 plus pages. And what’s interesting is the tag pages would rank like crazy and that’s where most of the traffic would come from was the tag pages and I would actually even submit them to search console different accounts.

Obviously, you wouldn’t submit them all through the same Google account. But I would use you know, like syndication network, Google accounts and just submit, you know, 123 sites may be per account. And what was crazy is I would see the index rate start, you know, it just 100 couple of hundred pages, and then it would go to a couple of thousand than a few 10,000 and then into the hundreds of thousands. And sometimes sites would index you know, 150,000 plus pages, which was nuts because they were all just spam sites. So I don’t really understand why those type of sites get away with being able to do what they’ve been able to do. I don’t I got away from that strategy all together probably two years ago now, and I don’t really ever plan on going back to it just because again, I don’t like to hold the churn and burn strategy or method I’d rather build longer-term assets. But I don’t know Marco, can you see how it canonical page canonicalization to itself with 500 pages that are basically duplicate content and how that would prevent any like stop it from being considered duplicate content.

Marco: First of all, he’s checking it with a third party tool. It’s not Google and it’s not how Google is seeing it first and foremost. But yeah, you know, I could see how then the canonical pointing to itself makes it unique in and of itself apart from all the others. So maybe there’s some uniqueness factor that’s playing in this because I mean, I’d have to go into Google and search console and see whether Google is seeing anything that’s a big because that’s all I care about how Google sees it how any other third party tool I could care less now this is obviously working and Alex if you if you’ve ever heard me talking to you ever been in any of my webinars or whatever my thing is, you always become a master mimic. You always go after the big boys in your niche to see what they’re doing. So that you do all of it and then one better right that’s how you that’s how you take them down you go you do what they’re doing and then one better always you always do one more to try to push them down so I can see how this would work I don’t understand canonical is enough to tell why it would work one way and not the other but what I can tell you is get rid of Yost yeah it’s fucking virus get Jeffrey Smith ultimate SEO plus plugin it’s awesome it’ll let you do everything that you want to do not really that only REL equals canonical URL Previn REL next which is working really well. And let me see that as a result. Yeah, I mean, it’s spam even though it doesn’t appear spam so it won’t hold up to manual.

I can guarantee that if it was if it raises enough flags, it’ll get a manual and it’s gone. So that’s why I’m with Bradley on this, where you try to build assets that are longer lasting. But you know, you always experiment. That’s my thing. You always go and you test and you see how it works. And if it works, it makes you money, then you just do more of it. That’s my motto more, more is always better.

Bradley: So for the canonical, if you’re having issues with the host I agree to get rid of iOS it’s a piece of shit me I don’t like it. It’s a bloating bloated, it just adds a shit ton of bloat to the site’s guys just get rid of it. If you want a really great solution, go to seoultimateplus.com, pick this up. It’s going to you know, you can buy a license for certain a number of sites and that kind of stuff. It is a paid plugin. The SEO ultimate plugin doesn’t have or this is SEO ultimate. And then there’s the SEO ultimate plus, which is the paid version. They’re coming out with version 2.0 soon it’s been in beta for a couple of months so I know it’s coming out I just can’t give a date when but this is great we know Jeffrey Smith is awesome. Probably the best page on page SEO that I’ve ever met. He’s amazing. And so he’s built this plugin. That’s awesome. And he’s got a code and starter module inside there that pulls up all of your pages and posts Well, there’s their tab. So you can like go into your pages for example, and add and it will just be like an index page with all of your pages. And you can go in and add code to each individual paid like so you can just go in and add the canonical URL. So you know, it’s the link REL equals canonical tag inside each individual page that way and it probably isn’t has has a bulk edit I’m pretty sure that it does so you can do it very quickly to all of your pages and posts this way if you want to go the free route then this would be there so go ahead so go header footer plugin. It’s free. They do have a pro version I think as well. But with this one, you would have to go in on a page by page basis or post by post basis and add the actual link REL equals canonical tag and each one of those pages individually. So if you’ve got a mass paid side I can see that being incredibly time-consuming or cumbersome to do so, in that case, I would recommend going with the paid plugin like Jeffrey Smith okay this is just a superior SEO plugin period guys. All right. But yeah, get rid of the garbage any to any chance I get. I get off of that.

Would Assigning A Custom Domain Affects The Current Rankings Of A GSite?

Bradley: vitality says hello, you guys are well. I have a G site that I was working on and it started to rank I want to assign a custom domain to it domain is brand new and not even indexed in Google. Is there a chance that I might lose the rankings or new domain will simply change the long g URL anytime that I need to be aware of? Best regards. you know

i don’t know I’ve done the domain mapping to G sites in the past Am I but I don’t remember if I’ve monitored because I’ve got g sites out there now that are have custom domain map to them for lead gen stuff that is, you know, that are ranking. And I don’t know if it Marco probably has a better idea I don’t know if it did a dance or not because what’s interesting is both both sites will remain indexed your your custom domain g site will be indexed and your custom or excuse me your G site will still be indexed and it actually canonicalization to your custom domain. So both of them will remain indexed. And now typically the at least what I’ve experienced was with the custom domain that ends up the ranking and the other one still remains index. But it doesn’t typically rank like the the Google site itself typically is pushed back further and the result the search results, but it still remains index. And if you do a view page source from the Google site URL, when you’re viewing the Google Site version of it, you’ll see that it’s got a canonical pointing to the domain that you mapped to. So it’s interesting that they both remain index like that, but I’ve seen that happen over and over again. I can’t remember if there was a lag or a period where it dances. Marco, Can you shed any light on that?

Marco: I haven’t seen any dance period when, when mapping the branded domain, right, the TL D. And so I yeah, I don’t see any issues with it. I don’t know how well the tracking, but you can always it, they’ll recover. Google respects its own cannot This is the interesting thing, right. And this is how you know that Google trusts itself. Google is not respecting some canonical. we seen this we tested it, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, but it will respect its own. So when when the buck crawls the G site, it’ll see that the canonical going up to the new domain, which is your branded domain, and it’ll send everything that was previously there to the new domain. This is the great thing about working with Google. Yeah, and I’ve explained this before that the reason why the G site stays alive at States index is because that becomes your content management system. If if they kill that, that then you have no way to work on your content and to see your content because you do everything on the site so that it appears on the canonicalization. It’s really weird how they set this up. It’s it’s a great thing. I hope they never change it. Google don’t listen, if you’re listening to me right now, please don’t change anything in Jesus. We love your G sites.

Bradley: Yeah, so there you go. I would say just go ahead and do it because as he’s saying, like Marcos and even if it did a significant dance. I’ve seen them come back like I mean I don’t even remember if I saw them dance to begin with. But my my custom domains if they if the G site was ranking before I mapped to domain to it, then what then those custom maps domains are ranking now and again I don’t remember if they went through a period of dancing or not Marco saying that they shouldn’t or that they don’t so I would go ahead and do it and then obviously if you did if you had a like a catastrophic dance happen you could always remove the domain map and the site should pop that because again it’s a Google property so.

Why Do You Need To Use A Brand-Associated Account When Creating Google Sites?

Bradley: quick this house says good day gents thanks for offering and taking this form for them very seriously. When creating Google Sites, is there any reason to only create them in an account associated with the brand?

There’s some inherent authority that you can have from doing that but you can always create the Google site and another account and then add a user to like an even assign ownership to the primary brand account after you’ve created it which is how we do it if you order dr stacks from us you know we created g site under a persona based account and then when we deliver it to you you’re more than welcome to in fact we would encourage you if you wanted to you know because some people they just flat out want it to be owned by their brand account and and and that you know, especially if it’s an aged account got some authority like a G sweet account included that guy that helps obviously, because it helps to validate the entity or reinforce entity so then you can assign or add a user to that account. I’m talking about the G site guys obviously we know we can do that with Dr. But with the G site you can actually add a user to the account like a manager basically and then you can even transfer ownership if you want it but that’s how we do it with the DR stacks. Um, yeah, I think with with if you have excuse me, an older account that’s been established preferably if it’s a G sweet account, I’ve seen some benefits to building a G site directly from those accounts but that doesn’t mean that you can’t inherit authority from transferring it to that account after it’s been built. That makes sense Marco Do you have any comments on that No, I mean you know how we do it we said that we create a new account set up the dry stack and D site that we turn it over and we recommend that you go and add yourself your main account as the manager of the new Dr. Stack and Angie site so that you never again. Have to go in and touch it as the owner. And that’s just it adds an extra level of protection. That’s the only reason. I mean, there’s no reason why it can’t be either. Or the problem that you’ll run into them if you get enough from us is if you, if you make yourself the owner, then you’re going to overburden the resources in your drive stack. And Google will hit your drive stack, and you decide, and there’ll be suspended. So this is why we went the way that we did with creating them in another gmail account because we run a script and the script is resourced heavy. And so we only recommend that in the way that we give that to you is how you should run that script. If you add any files, folders, whatever, don’t run the script in those it but if again, if you take if you make yourself the owner, your main Drive account, the owner of one and then you add another one as Yoda. Now you have to run that script, right? And Google is not going to

Appreciate someone having all that free hogging all those resources, and you’re not paying Google shit. They’ll tag you quickly seen that over and over and over again.

What Is The Best Free PPC Keyword Generator?

Bradley: Yeah. Katie’s it says Hey, guys, quick question. What is the best free PPC keyword generator? That’s easy. The Google Ads Keyword Planner. Yeah, I mean, that’s what that is, guys. If you’re going to look for Pay Per Click keywords, there’s no better source than the Google Ads Keyword Planner. And it’s free because that is essentially what it is. For years, people have used that for SEO keywords. And I’ve been saying for years, it’s not a very good SEO keyword tool. Because those are the metrics that you’re seeing are for paid traffic and that’s what they’re measuring to. So like the historical information for traffic volume and all that, that’s all for paid keyword stuff. That’s why longer tail keywords like the people don’t bid on don’t even show or will show little or no search volume when I know for a fact that we can you know, from obviously, I don’t know, for every keyword, but I know for a fact that there’s a lot of long-tail keyword phrases out there that generate traffic that we, you know, could we rank for them? Like, for example, we use power suggest pro one of my favorite keyword tools of all time for SEO stuff because it generates it pulls from Google auto-suggest. You know the essentially it doesn’t via API so it’s incredibly fast and you can literally build up hundreds even thousands of keywords and really long tail stuff that has traffic or else it wouldn’t come from Google suggest. Right.

The whole point about Google suggests is those aren’t just random keywords that Google throws out there that stuff that as historically has data like there’s people that have type those in and searched on them or Google suggests search queries and there’s enough traffic that enough click through from those suggested phrases that they keep them in the suggest database in other words, and so the are great keywords for SEO stuff, especially when you’re starting off on new projects because that you might not get a flood of traffic, you know that a lot of those long tail phrases are typically a very, very few very little competition Excuse me. And so those are great, especially when you have silo structure, that kind of stuff to start building momentum for the shorter tail more competitive terms. But when you’re looking for like what, you know, using the ad, the ad Google Ads keyword planner for SEO terms is not really good because especially like for local stuff, guys, I’ve been, you know, talking about the alpha-beta campaign structure for Google ads for search ads. And that is the most efficient way to build out lead generation campaigns for using Google Ads search ads, excuse me, and the alpha-beta campaign structure is all about just going after the bullseye keywords that the short tail money the most money keywords the most targeted keywords because the 8020 principle absolutely applies in if not the 9010 or 95 five principles, right where 80% of your traffic is going to come from 20% of your keywords.

And again, like I said, with local stuff, it’s typically a lot more least with contractors, which is what I primarily work with. It’s really like 9010 or 95 590 90% of the traffic is going to come from 10% of the keywords and the alpha-beta campaign structure is perfect for identifying that the beta campaign structure is using modified broad match which essentially calls it like a keyword discovery campaign but you very quickly once you start getting some data coming into the account can figure out what your Bullseye keywords are and that’s what you create your alpha campaigns are single keyword ad groups although they’re not really single keyword ad groups anymore. Skaggs right they’re not really Skaggs anymore because Google will start to show close variants anyways so you can group like terms into what I still call them single keyword ad groups but you don’t even need too because Google will start to show very close variants even for exact match keyword match types within and an alpha campaign structure.

And so again when it comes to that, that the best thing that you can do is just use the Google Keyword the Google Ads keyword planner and just look for your keywords that you’re, you know, the money keywords, the broadest of keywords, then set up an alpha if you’re going to be doing PPC I’m telling you alpha beta campaign structure is the best way to go in my opinion, especially for local leads guys because you can very very very quickly identify where your money keywords are the keywords that are actually producing traffic and obviously converting because you can have keywords out there that produce traffic but they don’t convert that’s worthless, you piss money away that way, both in ADS if you’re spent paying for PPC or SEO right and that’s one of the reasons why I love using Pay Per Click Search Ads the alpha beta campaign structure specifically for if I’m entering a new market and I don’t know what the money keywords are the converting keywords because

Although I might be able to get traffic from certain keywords, if they’re not converting into leads, then what good is it and he spending some money on PPC as a very quick way to identify which keywords first produce traffic and second produce conversions. Okay and then those are the keywords that I would then begin building my SEO campaign around a lot of the industries i mean i already identified those so I can just start off with SEO right off the bat but I don’t suggest going into a new market or a new industry and just assuming that you know what the money keywords are from from even using the keyword planner for example, or any other keyword tool for that matter. I recommend actually spending a little bit of money on ads you know, a few hundred bucks 500 bucks 1000 bucks over the course of a month or two to determine what those money and converting keywords are and then build your SEO campaign around that because think about it if you’re targeting competitive shorter tail keywords that you know that are somewhat competitive it could take you three four months to get significant results from an SEO campaign and if you don’t know if those keywords don’t end up ultimately converting then you just pissed away several months worth of effort where you could have identified that within four weeks six weeks time by spending some money on ads and figuring out which keywords generated traffic and converted and then build your SEO campaign around that so it’s like you either waste time or you waste money or you know what I mean it’s one or the other and and for me I’d rather waste a little bit and I don’t call it waste I called it investing or research like it’s r amp D research and development right so you invest a little bit of money in some ads to figure out what you’re converting keywords are your best converting keywords are and then you build your SEO campaign around that it will save you a ton of time and wasted effort.

But obviously, like seriously guys, I wouldn’t go like just the Google Keyword Planner that’s free. And that’s if you’re looking for PPC keywords. That’s the place to go. Nobody out there has more data than Google on search keywords for for pay per click. I mean for ads, Google ads, right. Any comments on that? Is that good enough? No. I mean, that was above and beyond because it was a simple go to Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

How Do You Handle GMB Posting With SEO Clients?

Bradley: Alright, so, Robert. Robert, he says, any recommendation for how to handle GMB posting with SEO clients? A client is paying me $700 a month and one of the things I’m doing for them is there GMB optimization but I didn’t discuss GMB posting with them. Is it well worth me creating a bunch of GMB posts for them as one of the services and providing them over asking them to try to post it themselves? Obviously, I want them to rank so I don’t want anything holding them back. Well, so that Robert that’s a good good, it’s a great question actually, because I’ve got some clients that I’ve pitched GMB posting services on a couple times and they had didn’t take me up on it and ultimately, I end up doing a little bit of GMB posting for them.

Anyways, because it is so special. Most of my clients, I’ve been able to talk into some level of GMB posting service as an, you know, an add on service. And I have a blogger that does that. For me, she’s amazing. Anyways, but here’s the thing, if you, if you, if you’re getting $700 a month retainer from this client and you’re struggling at any point to get results, then you may want to just include doing some GMB posting on to produce the results that you want to give them. You know what I mean? In other words, to make sure that you are providing the results, it may be something that you have to add into what you’re already doing. Now, if that wasn’t in the original scope of work and in the list of deliverables that they agreed upon, then I would still try to pitch them on it and try to get them to you know, put essentially would be an add on service right get them to agree to an additional service because if you’re providing them with the fulfillment of the deliverables

That you already promised them then it this is something over and above. However, if you promised them results as part of your deliverables and you’re struggling to get results, then you may want to just include adding GMB post at some level to help get them the results that you’ve promised them. Does that make sense? So it’s going to be a judgment call on your part as to whether or not you need need to or should approach them. I always recommend that you do. However, as I just mentioned, I do have some clients that have just for whatever reason, I’ve turned me down on GMB posting services when I’ve tried to on multiple occasions upsell them on that and it’s in my clients all know that I don’t just willy nilly like go out there and recommend or suggest services I when I suggest services is for a very valid reason. But some of them they just don’t have the budget or they don’t want to invest in it or whatever the case may be. So I’ll still have like, for example, I’ll give you a really good example.

We were using I’ve been using David Sprague’s videos as just kind of an add on service for a lot of my clients, we would do one or two rep videos per month per client, just because it’s an inexpensive service to for me, right? It’s like 90 bucks or 100 bucks a month for the subscription, you get like 25 video credits per month or whatever. So depending on what level my clients were at, I pay I give them one or two videos per month where we would publish one of those rap videos for them and it would go out across their channel as well as across a lot of my you know, my channels that have syndication networks, and all that kind of stuff. And so we would we were doing that. Well, my blogger who does that for me, I’ve got another VA that does the video stuff for me every month. She sent me an email just a month ago saying, hey, look, some of your clients have run out of reviews because we’ve been doing this now for a year and a half. So some of my clients have only had so many reviews and she said I’m struggling to find new reviews. And I said, Okay, well look, some of these clients aren’t doing GMB posts. So what I want you to do and I just provided her across US doc last week I worked on this actually took me almost like half a day to produce the process doc and the training for her. But what I did was I should produce some training to show her how to go to Firefox download the GMB or excuse me the rep video from the from any one of the YouTube channels that videos are posted on then upload that as a GMB post video to their GMB their Google Google, my business dashboard is a GMP post. So upload that as a video. And then just put the same video description that we had in the YouTube video as the GMB post with the call to action and AP, and that kind of stuff, which is the exact same. So essentially, it’s a really simple process for but I said, Look, we’ll stop producing for those that don’t have any new reviews will stop producing new videos for and we’ll just shift that service into doing one or two GMB posts per month using those videos and by the way videos and GMB post get more engagement very similar to like Facebook posts.

Guys, if you just do a text based or to me image based post, in fact, Facebook, you’ll see that it gets, you know, some interaction. But if you do a video post on Facebook, it gets a hell of a lot more interaction. It gets exposed to more people by Facebook’s algorithm was. The same thing happens with Google if you just do an image based post. If you’re monitoring, GMB insights, guys, you can go look through post. And depending on the client, and you know how much traffic they get in that kind of stuff, you’ll see that you ought to have an average level of views per post after, you know, seven days or 14 days, or whatever the case may be, you can go through and you’ll see that there’s a range of typical views that those image based posts will get. But if you do a video post, you’ll see it’ll be doubled, tripled, sometimes quadruple the amount of views they get seen. So is that because the video was that awesome? Or is it just because Google’s exposing it more? Right? Think about that. It’s because of Google’s exposing it more because it’s a video post. And so my point is that that’s something that I’ve taught my VA to do as just an as an additional service I don’t charge my clients for it’s just something that we were doing the video radio

Excuse me, it’s just part of, you know, by the way, I’ve done that for clients over the years. I call it mission creep, right? Which is like, you know, I find things that work well, that is easy to fulfill, that don’t, don’t cost me a lot of money. And it’s not, it’s not something that I do because, or I can train a VA to do very, it’s very simple and easy to fulfill, doesn’t take a lot of time. It doesn’t, it doesn’t cost me a lot of money. And so I added into already existing services that I provide, and I’ve done that over the years for a lot of my clients, but that’s why I’ve got clients that have been with me for six or seven years now, guys, so Robert, again, it’s going to be a judgment call. If you are struggling to get results and results are part of what you promised, which I know most SEOs do right, then you may want to just include some GMB posting. I would recommend though if it wasn’t part of your original deliverables, the fulfillment list that you would pitch them on it, don’t ever ask them to do it themselves. I do have one client in particular that I’ve pitched on a few times to say to try to get them to let me do the GMB posts for them. And he insisted on doing it himself and he’s doing it. In fact, I had a call with him yesterday and he made a joke about, he goes, man, these GMB posts are killing me. And and I, and I, you know, offered it to him again, I got a blogger, she can do it for, you know, but he just insists on doing it, but he’s actually seeing a tick up. I told him to start posting two times a day is just a Monday through Friday business, and he started doing Monday, posting two times a day and I there’s quantifiable evidence and GMB insights that he’s getting more maps exposure now, so again, it’s really going to be a judgment call. Robert, it’s a great question, but it’s going to be dependent upon which you feel comfortable with. I don’t, I don’t recommend asking them to do it themselves because they won’t do it very well. They won’t do it consistently. That’s a great question though.

Marco: Yeah, I just want to add that there’s a reason why local GMB pro was set up the way it was and it’s set up around not only optimizing the Google My Business listing but also doing posts on a regular basis and and you have to determine what your sweet spot is Bradley just said for his service provider it’s to a date it may be that yours is only a couple of times a week it could be that it requires 345 times a day you’re going to have to find that sweet spot. And then not only that the images there’s a reason why Bradley teaches how to find images in YouTube and why I teach how to find unlimited local images and local GMB pro UK it’s it’s virtually impossible to get these people to provide images for you your eye when they do it’s not really what you wanted. And there are all kinds of problems is all kinds of going back and forth. And so you can just do all this. The question now shouldn’t be should you be doing posting it? Yes, you definitely need to do posting question is are you going to get paid for it? Or are you going to do do it under the 700 a month Bradley said go and try to get some money for it? I totally agree. If they don’t then go ahead. Do it because it once you set up a template, it’s really not that much work now. But the benefits that you’re going to see and the upsell that you can get behind the results that you’re going to get are going too far away. whatever amount of time you put into this, it’s really well worth it. posts are done for a reason. They’re done the way they’re done for a reason. Everything is taught for a reason. And if you leave anything out that you’re leaving money on the table

Can You Give Us Insights And Timelines On Semantic Mastery’s Link Building And Indexing Plan For @id Pages?

Bradley: Jeff’s up, he says SM team Rob, bill says you might have a link building an indexing plan coming out for an ID pages that we create. Can you give an update on this timeline?. Yeah, we talked about that at the beginning. First of all for indexing and Id pages. just submit them to search console I mean that’s the easiest way to get them index now as far as link building Yes, that’s what Marco was already apologizing because he’s the bottleneck at this point because he can’t get the copy written. He’s a perfectionist when it comes to that. I would say just put a big by these links and then put the page up and then you can always add the copy later Marco because we got a lot of people asking about it. Yeah I agree we should just do it but just put some so some some Latin right from Lauren nips if someone on there you guys right and if the buy button and the works go buy it yeah and so anyways Jeff it’s it’s available I believe you’re still in the mastermind we will notify you immediately when it is so but yeah I’m pretty sure that we should have that I mean Rob says it’s ready to go so it’s just a matter of us getting the sales page up with the with with the with the copy on it so that but as far as that idea indexing guys just just submitted to search console if you’re in the mastermind I’ve given you training on all that already so but yeah we’re again the next thing inside the mastermind will be the off page GMB SEO service which will be building all that stuff that we do for GMB assets. All the off page stuff we can do that for you that’ll be done for you service 100%, which you know, there’s it’s quite a process well my team is crushing it with that and it’s going to be my team doing that, to begin with, for the mastermind members to make sure that we can fulfill everything in a smooth way and then that will be launched publicly and you guys in the mastermind, by the way, will get 20% discount so and that should be available very very soon I give you a day but every single time I say that I gotta get my word So.

Bradley: Rob says is my first Hump Day Hang on. We’re welcome rob us wander up that Yeah, welcome Rob. Go subscribe to our YouTube channel man. While we had a bunch of hiding comments, urban telling says all my questions get marked as spam real quick. I wanted to touch on that because Yeah, I saw his comments so I had to log in. And so guys, just everyone watching if you’ve had your comments hidden or you’ve had issues, we also had some problems on a webinar earlier this week. So we hear it loud and clear and we want to get that fixed so working with her on and we’re gonna have a new system up in place next week. But you shouldn’t have to do anything different. You can always come to semantic mastery. com slash HD questions and we’ll just test something else and move forward.Yeah. Okay.

Are Verified GMBs Delayed In MYGB Store?

Bradley: James says a verified. GMB is delayed right now and web store?. Yes, James only because they’re hard as hell to get verified right now that’s part of the problem is, is, you know, Google’s been making their delayed, but we can still get them. It’s just taking longer. That’s all you guys should do YouTube live events. That’s what we this is a well to it is a YouTube Live event, but we’re using this page for our comments. Paul, I know what you’re saying. That’s what Adam just said, we’re trying to figure out a way Look, Google shut down the events pages that we’ve been using for four years. And these are relatively new and I understand there are some issues that we have to fix them. We got some bugs to squash. So I appreciate you letting us know and we are working on it. Okay. Is it okay to create a G site on a Gmail account that is not related to the brand? Yeah, it doesn’t matter. That’s fine because you can always like I said, add an owner, transfer it Do whatever you want to do. So yes, you can create a G site with brand new Google accounts. If you like that’s what we do for spam.

Why Is It That Some GMB Listings Are The Only Listing That Shows Up In The Knowledge Panel When There Are Other Competitors?

Bradley: Anyways, Stephen says, Hey guys, how is it that some GMB listings are the only listings that show up in the pack on the right side, even though there’s other competition that’s called a knowledge panel when you see that win, and that’s just because that brand has, according to Google has all of the authority in that particular for that particular keyword in that particular location, however, that that will shift that’s fluid like a lot of the times like for example, when I first started developing the local PR pro method, which is like PR stalking. One of the very first tests that I had set up was for a home remodeler remodeling contractor in New York little town called King fairy New York and there was a knowledge panel that was showing up for another contractor and there was no three pack at all and then I had set up a brand new was just a Click Funnels landing page for this guy and I did a press release I think it took two but I did to press releases and then boom, the three minutes appeared and this guy, so it pushed the knowledge panel guy into a three pack. And then and then the other contracts that I was promoting actually was in the three pack as well.

I don’t think he was number one right away but I ended up getting into number one so it just you can if you can push enough authority to another map listing you can make the knowledge panel disappear right in other words you can push the knowledge panel occupant into a three pack instead but it’s going to take some building of authority to the up to your maps listing that you’re you know you’re trying to push so that’s typically what happens but yeah it just means that Google has deemed that that company has the most authoritative and really the only one that satisfies that search query at that point so you have to build some authority to that listing that you’re promoting to try to get the maps back to push but you can do it no question. Okay.

Would It Be Okay To Use A Regus Virtual Office Location To Expand A GMB Page To A Bigger City?

Scott, and we’re going to we gotta run we’re going to run out of time here in just a minute. So we’ll get through just last few comments. Hopefully quickly. Scott says Hey guys, my Home Services client wants to move on to a large city in the area, 650 k population. He rented a Regis virtual office location without my input now wants to upgrade his GMB for the big city I know we need to use a separate GMB account and I plan to use a subdomain for the big city. I’m very reluctant to use the Regis address for. why not I would I wouldn’t have any problem using a Regus address I just wouldn’t use as a UPS store but I’ve I mean I know people that I haven’t done a Regus address so unless you’ve heard in other forums and such that those are easily get terminated or get flagged I would go ahead and use it I don’t see why that would be a problem that’s better than like a UPS store I can tell you that. So I cost because Google might instantly suspend the account any advice on this now I wouldn’t worry about I mean, I would try it you know, I mean, here’s the thing if you try it and they do instant instantly suspend it. Then you just go back to the route that we’ve been doing right, which would be just creating another listing and within that same zip code or whatever and then you know to build it out that way but I don’t see why you wouldn’t attempt it at least if you have an address where it’s I mean you may as well because if you can verify the regular a snail mail, you know, physical mail then that’s actually a better way in my opinion than trying to do it the phone route which is or however the how we’ve been doing it because I’m not even sure how it’s done because those tend to get released right now Google still with the itchy trigger finger so those tend to get slapped rather easily at right now because of you know, Google still being on the lookout for spammed addresses essentially, but that one would be a valid physical address. Does that make sense? So I would, I would, I would absolutely try

Should You Be Worried About GDPR Compliance For Clients That Don’t Have Anything To Do With The EU?

DC brain in the house. The brain supreme and nails grinding, right that’s awesome. Well, there it is. Market says how worried. Do I need to be about GDP or compliance with all my clients are local plumbers, dentists, lawyers, etc. that don’t have anything to do with the EU? They’re all in the United States. I don’t really worry about that stuff because again, you’re you’re not targeting anybody from overseas. If you’re, if you’re your audiences tight, you know, local us stuff, I don’t worry about any of that stuff. I just just to be real clear, like for example, a lot of my stuff or just GMB assets now, and there’s there’s not even like g GDP or compliance ability on those you know what I mean? So if you’ve got a WordPress site or whatever like I don’t know they make plugins and stuff now that make that shit real easy if you want to do you could just slap that on there but I don’t see why that would be an issue that’s not your audience if you’re not targeting people outside of your local area and the United States I don’t see why it would be an issue but I’m not an attorney so.

Should You Have A Separate Page For Each Video In GSite?

Quit this house says when creating a G site for ranking videos is it one video plus description per page or can you have multiple videos know descriptions on one page? now I would do I would do a separate video per page because then you can optimize that page for that specific keyword which is what you know that’s the best way to do it for video SEO one keyword per video really.

I mean, you can add additional keywords in the video and in description and stuff like that. But you want to have your your title tag targeting essentially one keyword. At least that’s what I’ve always done. I’ve always been able to get really good results that way. That’s why the syndication athletes from syndication networks or syndication Academy are set up the way they are because it’s one video proposed essentially with one keyword is your, your your title tag essentially. So it makes sense. That’s what I recommend.

How Do You Reinstate A Suspended GMB Listing?

Tim says, Hey guys, I recently transferred ownership of a GMB from one account to another, and the transfer from the account got all the GMB suspended ownership of the GMB from an account to another account, and the transfer from account. Got all the GMB Do you know, the ways and account get all its GMB suspended. Thanks. No, I don’t. I know there is still a lot of crazy shit going on. I had I’ve only lost I lost six assets at once, several weeks ago. But I think that was from a very specific reason I mentioned before.

About putting something in the appointment URL section other than an actual valid appointment app or link to like a page that does have an appointment app on it. So, but then last week, I think it was last week, it might have been a week and a half ago. Now I had a Tree Service. It was in brand new listing, though that all I did was go in and actually remove the ad the ad ID page URL from the appointment second, and it suspended it and but and I don’t know why. And Marco said he had one that all he did was upload a video for GMB post and it suspended it. So that’s why I’m trying to stay out of those as much as possible, especially as an owner and that’s what you were talking about. doing stuff is like transferring ownership and that kind of stuff. If I’m doing any sort of work now in them, I’m trying to do them under manager accounts. Because those two I found that that doesn’t it doesn’t seem to happen with from doing that stuff from under a manager account. But when I go in as an owner, like that’s where I’ve seen suspensions as going in as an owner and making edits. So add your

And Tim, if it’s a valid business, then you could, you should be able to request to have it reinstated, right? If it’s about if it’s a spam to dress that I don’t know what to tell you, you can still try to get it reinstated, but you’re probably not going to be successful. I wouldn’t hold your breath. But you know, if it’s spam to dress, that’s the risk we take. But if it’s a valid business, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t, you know, ask for reconsideration or reinstatement contact Google My Business support and find out what you can do to get it reinstated. Because if it again if you’re transforming a valid business from one account to another, there’s no reason that it should have been suspended.

How Do You Protect Yourself From Clients Who Suddenly Stops Paying You After You’ve Ranked Them?

Okay, we got to wrap it up guys. Mom, already five minutes over. Calvin says hey Bradley, what are some ways to protect yourself from a client if suddenly stops paying you after you’ve ranked them? Can you own all the work you put in thanks while you can we talked about this in the past you can do some things but you can’t do you can’t protect yourself entirely because some things that you’re going to be doing for clients are going to be directed at their domain.

Unknown 1:04:00 Period like citations, for example, where if you’re blogging for them and you’re blogging from their domain, which is what you should be going to a branded syndication network then, or if you’re doing GMB posts, through their GMB assets, those are all things that are going to be done to their assets for their assets, which is what you know, that’s what client work is, there are things that you can do, like if you were to mirror their site, clone their site. If it’s WordPress, for example, you can do a cyclone through and install on your own domain, set up a page by page redirect from your domain to theirs. And then any external off page link building you could do to your own domain. That way, if they stopped paying, you could essentially remove the redirects and now you’ve got a site that’s been built, I would still change the copy and things like that. But now you’ve got a site that’s been built that has a bunch of links built to it that you own right, but that doesn’t protect you from all the stuff that you’ve done to their assets which you have to do for client work. Do you know what I mean? Like you can’t turn that off as my point you can like with some press release. places you can go in and actually, like shut down the press releases and stuff that like if they have an organization page for example, you can turn that off to where it’s basically no index that kind of stuff to where that would remove some of the juice but honestly guys, you know, the way I look at it is that’s going to happen. It sucks. It sucks bad but it does happen guys. That’s just the nature of the game instead of trying to figure out ways to get even I just find I’d spend that energy looking for another client.

What’s The Best Local Citations Method For A Service Area Business?

Okay,day one says interested in purchasing your local branding package for the client what would you suggest would be the best method for citations of a service area business? will press releases are great for citations as well as you know, because you don’t need to list the address that way you can just list the name city state zip Do you have to list the street address press releases work really, really good for that the one we sell press releases for a very fair price at mg Why be so you might want to check that out. Also, you can be doing syndication networks and blogging. That helps you can do geo posts that kind of stuff through their blog. That helps as well. So that’s something else we can talk about. Yeah, I see your question already. So. I take my money, just take it. Okay, guys, I’m gonna wrap it up. We’re already a little bit over. So we appreciate everybody in here. Sorry about the new platform not taking everybody’s questions all the time. We’ll figure that out. What the hell is not still sharing.

Alright, everybody has a good one while we figure out the ongoing tech issues onwards. Yep. Alright, thanks, everybody for being here. We’ll see you next week. Thanks, everybody. See you. Thanks, Adam.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 228 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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throughspaceandtimezine · 6 years

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Frequently Asked Questions

Pre-Production

When can I apply?

Writer & Artist Applications reopen on Monday, October 29th, 2018 at 12:00 AM EST. There will be different applications for Writers and Artists, and you can apply to both, but will only be picked for one. Please put your preference in the “any other questions” section of the application. Merch Artists will have their own application. Artists can apply to be Merch Artists as well, but please keep in mind that you can only take on one position; either Artist or Merch Artist.

Beta Applications also open on Monday, October 29th, 2018 at 12:00 AM EST.

Anyone can apply, regardless of age or popularity in the fandom! This is an equal opportunity zine.

If I applied the first time do I need to apply again?

If you submitted during our first round of applications, you do not need to apply again unless you wish to apply for a different type of contributor.

If I applied the first time but want to update my application, how can I do that?

If you wish to update your application, go ahead and submit a new application but be sure to use the same email address that you submitted the first time.

What do I need to apply?

ARTISTS:

You are required to link three (3) works that best show your style and they can be uploaded on any platform. These works do not need to all be Voltron but we would prefer that you submit at least one piece featuring Voltron characters.

You will be asked which category you prefer to create under.

If you would like to collaborate with a writer or do a solo piece.

If you would be willing to be a pinch hitter

WRITERS:

You are required to link three (3) works that best show your range and style, or a section of a work you are particularly proud of. These works do not need to all be Voltron but we would prefer that you submit at least one piece featuring Voltron characters.

You will be asked which category you prefer to create under.

If you would like to collaborate with an artist or do a longer solo piece.

If you would you be willing to be a pinch hitter.

MERCH ARTISTS:

You will be asked which category you prefer to create under.

If you would like to create an additional piece for stretch goals.

If you would you be willing to be a pinch hitter.

BETAS:

We ask that you provide examples of your experience beta reading works in the past. This can include peer reviewing papers for academic endeavors as well as betaing fics.

You will be asked how many fics you would be willing to beta. Each writer will specify what level of betaing they wish to receive and betas will be allowed to pick which fics they would like to beta based on this. This is to allow for better matches between writing styles and betaing practices.

How many contributors will there be?

We are aiming for a total of 40 contributors: 12 writers and 18 artists as well as 1 cover artist and 9 merch artists. These will be divided evenly between our three categories. We will also be giving contributors the option to collaborate in writer-artist pairs. These are not obligatory, but an opportunity to create diverse types of works.

Participant Compensation

Will contributors be compensated for work?

This is a charity zine so there will be no monetary compensation. The level of compensation is currently being decided by the moderator team but we can guarantee that each participant will at least receive a digital copy of the zine. All proceeds will go to AMPA, a charity for LGBTQ+ military service members and veterans. After the zine has shipped out, participants are welcome to post their works online and tag us as well! We would be happy to reblog the hard work put into this zine.

Zine Specs

PAGE SPECS:

All participant will be required to create a piece with their theme in mind.

Each artist will be given a full page of space to illustrate along with a limited number of two-page spreads. These spots will be given out first come, first serve. Writers will have a maximum of 6-8 pages.

For artists: Our book dimensions are 6 inches by 9 inches [approx 15.5cm by 23cm]. The bleed will be approximately 0.125 in. We suggest a canvas size of 1876 x 2776 pixels (this is including the bleed) at a 300dpi resolution. Your files will have to be in CMYK for the physical zine (RGB is fine for the PDF).

For writers: you will have a maximum of 3000 words.

RATING & CONTENT:

This zine is not R-18 and will be at a pretty steady rating of PG-13. Partial nudity is perfectly fine, but nothing overtly sexual or NSFW will be allowed. If you wouldn’t look at it in public without a little bit of shame, it doesn’t belong in this zine.

Any LGBT content is perfectly fine and acceptable; gender fluidity, cross-dressing, trans characters, and non-binary characters are all allowed.

Submissions that showcase other pairings are welcome, but please keep in mind that Shiro and Adam should be at the heart of your piece, as this zine is focused on their relationship!

PRODUCTION:

Preorders Open: February 28th

Tentatively: 6 inches by 9 inches [approx 15.5cm by 23cm], perfect bound, full color, the final page number will approximately be 102 pages though this may be subject to change.

Merch: The moderator team is currently finalizing the merch that we want to create for this project. Merch will be available in a number of different bundles, so stay tuned to see what we have in store!

Prices: TBA

Shipping:

We will be shipping from the US, so domestic and international orders are okay! Please keep in mind that shipping prices will increase for those overseas. We will do our best to keep the price as low as we can, but shipping can get expensive fast.

There will be a digital version available for purchase at the same time as the physical zine. Each purchase of a physical copy/bundle will also include a digital copy.

#information desk

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startledserpentwriting · 6 years

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Union Worldbuilding: Project: Deepest Cover

Project: Deepest Cover was a clandestine project in the universe of Union.

(Note: The Union Universe is due for a rework and I intend to overhaul it when I get the opportunity. The information within this post is accurate to the revamped version, but not all information in the linked story summary may be completely accurate to the current version)

Creation and Management

Project Deepest Cover was a clandestine project created by a mix of rogue EnTaNi AI specialists, parts of the Great Core criminal group, and members of Special Weapons Group 54 of the Government of System 8-6k, under the direction of the third group. The goal of the project was to create and perfect robotic units designed for covert operations, which would then be sold to the highest bidder. The profits would be split between the three constituents.These units would come to be known as Mimics.

The Mimic Units

Mimic units were robots created to serve as deep-cover operatives, mainly for the purposes of espionage, theft, sabotage, and assassination. They proved to be excellent for this purpose, and possessed a near-spotless operational record until the projects dissolution.

Mimic units do not feel emotion, but are highly adept at faking it and responding as a person would. They draw from an extensive list of cues and combinations of cues, responding as they are programmed to. The resulting machine is convincing enough to be the subject of even years-long friendships. However, as stated above, they do not feel any actual emotion, and will kill their “friends” without a second thought.

Given how expensive they are to produce, the recovery of Mimic units following missions is often a priority, but is sometimes excused if A. the target or objective’s value is deemed a higher priority than that of the price of the Mimic and B. the Mimic is destroyed thoroughly enough in the operation that its technology is not recognizable or recoverable. See the below operation on the Euphoria pleasure cruiser.

List of Operations (Incomplete)

The Mimics’ first deployment was a relatively cautious one, as their creators were uncertain of how effective they would be. The following is not a complete list.

Note: early attempts were designed to test the limits of both the Mimics’ short- and long-term infiltration abilities and how well their AI passed as people as well as their success in assassinations. They are not representative of actual missions involving Mimics, which only occasionally call for Mimics to remain for an extended period of time to complete their mission.

Mission 1: The first mission of Project: Deepest Cover was a simple assassination mission, and was designed as more of a test of the Mimics’ assimilation capabilities. The mimic was made to resemble a Verkii soldier, and implanted in a Union military camp. The soldier befriended the Mimic, and shared a few drinks with it. The unit managed to successfully pass as a Verkii soldier and befriend the target as well as several others on the base over the course of three weeks before receiving the order to assassinate the target. It did so as soon as it could without arousing suspicion, stabbing him in the throat while he slept and leaving the base.

Mission 2: The second mission was a much more complex assassination mission, with the target being a Sottrat general from the independent Union client world of Entomos, in order to further destabilize relations between Entomos and the Union. The target was implanted as a new recruit, and went through the entire process of training, graduating flawlessly after three years in the academy and “befriending” several other recruits. It eventually requested a private meeting with the general, and shot him through the head.

Mission 27: This was the mission that put the Deepest Cover Congomerate on the public radar. A Mimic was set to imitate a tourist on the pleasure ship Euphoria. It was monitored as it “befriended” several other tourists and members of the crew over the course of several days, before convincing a crewmember it had “befriended ” to show it the ship’s engine room and setting a charge. The ship was lost with almost all hands, including the Mimic. However, a lone emergency escape pod managed to escape, with three crew members and four tourists aboard. Emergency services were able to recover them before the members of the Deepest Cover project could intercept them.

Mission 29: This mission is the one that led to the Deepest Cover Conglomerate’s ultimate dissolution. A Mimic unit was impaled when a construction site it was passing dropped a large amount of jagged metal on it, and the mechanisms within it were found to be similar to the traces left by the unit in Mission 28. The Union was able to trace the Unit to the head quarters of the Deepest Cover Conglomerate.

Present Day

After the discovery of Deepest Cover, The Mimics were briefly considered for adoption by the Union military, but this proposal was quickly shut down.

After the discovery of the project by the wider public, all known Mimic units were destroyed, and the conglomerate that created them was disbanded and its members imprisoned.

Use of any Mimic unit for any reason is highly illegal and is punished as a crime in and of itself, apart from any results of said use. Despite this, they continue to occasionally show up in the hands of various governments and crime groups, though the former usually deny their possession of the units.

Note on Mimic “Sapience” and Mimic Emotion

This was touched on before, but it bears repeating: Mimics DO NOT feel emotion, and are NOT sapient. Anthropomorphizing them is dangerous and is one of the things they rely upon to complete their missions, and has resulted in a number of deaths when they garnered sympathy. They are expendable, highly dangerous machines. Treat them as such. Anything else will likely get people killed.

Tag List: @unnameablethings @from-ashes-they-rise @midnightkitten @dawnuchiha @power-of-ages-writeblr @killer-badass @pearl-writes @little-dipper-holds-the-world @bluenightfire @chaos-reign @fathington @ramblingsofabourbondrinker @minny-king @eyelessfatdragon @problematicauthors @strawberryspaceship @thatpaperlife @oceansbooks1 @acottenwrites @thejadewizard

#union worldbuilding #union #wip #worldbuilding #writeblr

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roccodreamholidayasia-blog · 6 years

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9 Best Angeles City Bars to Pick Up Filipino Girls

Angeles City

Are You Looking For The Best Angles City Bars?

“If yes, then you’re going to love this mini guide about where to meet the sexiest Angeles City bar girls”

Angeles City has the naughties nightlife experience in the Philippines. It’s a “pay for play” town like Pattaya in Thailand but without happy ending massage parlors and only a few nightclubs.

What makes Angeles City’s nightlife exciting is the numerous bars with thousands of sexy Filipino bar girls.

Not only the girls working in those venues are hot but they can speak proper English making the experience more fun.

The two major areas packed with bars in AC are Field Avenue and Perimeter road.

If you aren’t into the girlie bar’s scene and prefer clubbing, consider experiencing Manila nightlife which is rich in nightclubs and discos.

Having said that, Angeles City has its own nightclubs which are fun and have plenty of HOT girls.

Furthermore, those babes in AC have a strong fetish for foreigners. That’s the reason every single girl speaks good English, and make all the girlfriend experience more entraining.

If you’re like me, your only reason to visit Angeles City is girls… Or maybe you want to try out a ladyboy.

In fact, transsexuals are a well-established presence in Angeles, sometimes even overwhelming.

Ladyboys trying to get the attention with their sexy legs and ass. I don’t mind the back, I’m afraid of the front.

If you’re looking for a girlfriend or a girl for a romantic holiday, don’t mess around with bar girls or ladyboys.

Most bar girls lying and are extremely unfaithful, besides thinking all the time only about money. Spending too much time with bar girls is detrimental for your health.

Also, they cost you a lot of money: lady drinks, bar fine, food, drinks outside.

A better way is to meet good girls working in shops, restaurants and dating sites.

The thing about getting a girl with a job means they have commitments and have not been used to much.

Also, they are cheaper: don’t drink as much as bar girls, no bar fine, no lady drinks and less bullshits.

You only pay for the normal girlfriend’s expenses such as dinners, regular drinks, and small gifts.

However, if you’re into pay for play girls, Angel City bars are a fun place to spend the night.

Below, there is a list of the best Angeles City bars which I review personally, giving you the best options the moment you land in town.

You don’t have to run the red light districts like a hungry dog. Instead, you can get into action immediately.

And don’t forget to check at the end of this article, the bar general prices for your drinks, lady drinks and bar fine.

Best Bars in Field Avenue – Angeles City (Walking Street)

1. Club Atlantis

Club Atlantis has been around for ages, and it has a few sister bars such as the Dollhouse and Crystal Palace.

On any given evening, there are at least 80+ girls. However, quantity doesn’t mean quality, so watch out for old ducks.

If you only visit one of these cattle market types of bar, then Club Atlantis should be it.

The setup is like a fishbowl Asian style, the girls wait for customers to be picked up. So, don’t expect to see too much action on the stage.

Considering the size of the club, no matter where you sit, you will get a good view of both stages.

The bar has two sections; The babes on the upper floor are prettier than those on the ground floor, but they are not as eager to dance.

Most girls on the upper stage prefer Asian men, and for some reason, Asian men prefer to see girls standstill instead of shaking her ass. Probably has something to do with submission.

Sometimes I get refused to bar fine girls, especially the hottest dancers because they are into Asian guys only.

If a girl sit with you for a drink, then she’ll be happy to go with you.

Ah, don’t forget to order some sushi while looking at the girls, it’s pretty good.

Keep in mind that the waitresses are a pain in the ass as the mamasang pushing for drinks and tips. Just smile, and let it go.

Open from 7 pm to 4 am.

2. Dollhouse Bar

This bar is jug BIG!

Expect not less than 60 girls any night of the week.

Once you walk in, you’ll notice many girls bored. However, once they sit down with you, they come to life.

There is a big center stage where the girls dance and you can enjoy the view either down stair or upstairs. Personally, I prefer to sit in the first raw of sits downstairs where I can see the girls closer.

However, after picking up a girl, you can go upstairs where is more private and less distracting.

Ah! What I like most about this bar is their lingerie show. I think you’re going to love those Filipina wearing sexy outfits.

There are also 3 pool tables available.

Open from 4 pm to 6 am.

3. Crystal Palace

The club is on the quieter Real Street off Walking Street, connecting with a walkthrough to the Dollhouse bar.

It has two sections with huge stages. However, most girls take their leave between Mondays and Wednesdays, so you are better placed to go during the weekends.

Crystal Palace is one of the few clubs where you can relax and enjoy girls dancing without being nagged to buy them a drink.

There are a wide selection of Filipina, and you can go around to the back where there are pool tables for some private time with your girls.

The downside is the prices to have fun in here:

Lady Drinks 300 Pesos

Bar Fine is 2.500 – 3.500 Pesos for the hotter dancers

4. Viking Bar

The bar is at the center of Walking Street, next to the Royal Amsterdam Hotel, You will not miss it with its Viking ship exterior.

It is not as big as the previous 3 bars, but there are about 40 girls at any time and many are HOT!

If you’re a Westerner, only about half of the girls will go with you. Unfortunately, most girls in Viking Bar are only into Asian guys.

I recommend getting there before 8 pm if you want to bar fine the hottest girls. Korean guys like to go out early at night to pick up talents.

5. Lollipop Bar

This small bar is always busy, not because of the size but because the girls are enthusiastic and naughty.

In this bar, you’ll never meet shy or cherry girls (virgin). Lollipop girls are cock proof – if that is a word.

Besides, I love their kinky outfits which are “revealing” instead of the usual coyote dancer dress or bikini like in other bars in Angeles.

They run a lot of discounts for many groups such as army personnel, making it popular with locals. It’s fun to hear the horror stories from expatriates living in Angeles City.

Happy hours from 2-6 pm.

6. Voodoo Bar

The only bar open 24 hours in Angeles City. You can get drinks and ladies any time of the day and night.

However, don’t expect to meet spinners and cute girls, but below average chicks.

The good news is those girls are a lot of fun to be around with. They like to play dirty, you can go hands-on and take photos as you’re pleased.

Are you looking for dirty sex?

Bar fine a girl in Voodoo then… Being there and done it already

7. Club Asia

This bar is only for guys that are Asian or look like one.

I put it in the list of the best bars in Angeles City because the girls are super HOT! Even if you’re a Westerner and your chances to bar fine a girl are slim, it’s worth it.

Some girls look underage but they aren’t, it’s just the way they make up and dress up.

Unfortunately, they never want to go with me

Only in this case, I wish to be Asian.

Best Bars in Perimeter Road – Angeles City

1. 1991 Club & Show Bar (previous name: Eruption Bar)

This bar is not as flashy and packed with hot girls like the bars in Field Avenue, but a good place to chill out while playing pool and enjoy the girlie shows.

If you’re into shooting pool games, you’ll meet lots of good players and there is no charge for games.

Furthermore, this bar offers cheap drinks and bar fines like most bars in Perimeter Road (see prices at the end of the article).

Bar open from 4 pm to 2 am

2. After School Bar

If you miss your school days or want fantasy is to get laid with a school girl, this bar is the place for you.

The After School girls are usually wearing a sexy costume that resembles a school uniform, and they like to be naughty students too.

Also it open early in the afternoon, so you can get some action after lunch.

If you go late, the best girls get picked up by Korean guys.

Bar open from 12 pm to 11 pm.

3. Ponytails Bar

Just next to ABC Hotel, it’s a good place to visit in the afternoon if looking for an early barfine.

Not the most fun atmosphere inside, but it always seems to have some top quality looking girls.

Ponytials offers a two-tier system with the white tag girls going for 2.500 Pesos and the green tag girls going for 3.500 Pesos.

The drinks are cheap and if you stay local, expect to pay less then 90 Pesos.

Fantastic waitresses who can drink and party hard.

Angeles City Bar’s Prices

There are two areas in Angeles City for bar hopping with different prices:

– Field Avenue (Walking Street)

Your drinks are between 100-160 Pesos;

Lady Drinks are 200-300 Pesos;

Bar fine that is all-inclusive is 2.500-3.500 Pesos for short time;

Tips for the lady if she gives you a good experience is 500-1.000 Pesos.

– Perimeter Road

Your drinks are between 60-120 Pesos;

Lady Drinks are 110-160 Pesos;

Bar fine that is all-inclusive is 1.800-3.000 Pesos for short time;

Tips for the lady if she gives you a good experience is 500-1.000 Pesos.

That is what you need to know about prices in Angeles City bars.

How Bars Works In Angeles City

If it’s your first time in the Philippines, you might not know how things work in a girlie bar.

Basically, you walk into a bar, sit down and order your drink.

You check out the girls in there, and if you see a girl that you like, you can invite her to have a drink with you.

When you feel she is the right one, just pay the bar fine to the bar which includes sex for 2 hours and one shot.

The standard price in Angeles City is between 1.800-3.500 Pesos based on how in demand the girl is.

So, if you prefer fat and old girls, you’re going to pay much less then young and hot spinners.

Furthermore, if she gives a good service, 500-1.000 Pesos tip is expected.

A note of warning! A few girls try to escape their duties, coming up with bullshits.

If she doesn’t do what she is supposed to do, just take her immediately to the mamasang and ask for a refund or another girl.

Don’t let these unavoidable situations to ruin your holiday.

That’s all, enjoy the naughty Angeles City nightlife.

http://dreamholidayasia.com/destination/philippines-guide/angeles-city/angeles-city-bars/#ixzz5Yi7lfLNi

#angeles city bars #bars in angeles city

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basshouse · 5 years

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Donkeys Down Under Part 2

Make sure you start with this blog post, its the first in the series and this is a serial!

In the first post, I started with How We Got Here. Next up:

Where we are.

We live on Centaurus Road in Hillsborough, Christchurch (not-so-subliminal hint: sending a package will cost you an arm and a leg, but it’ll be worth it to see the smiles on our faces if you include a few packets of Hidden Valley Ranch mix).

Christchurch is the biggest city on the South Island, with a whopping 375,000 people or so – pretty big considering the whole country is just under 5 million people, and only about 30% of them live on the South Island at all. You can do your own research on the city’s history and geography if you like. The city is big enough to have good restaurants, bars, craft beer, and various forms of mild entertainment like tennis clubs, live music from time to time, exercise options...more cosmopolitan than we expected but super easy navigate and access to surfing beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes, coasts, bike trails.

Our house is perched on the Port Hills, a short walk from the renowned Rapaki Track and a 10 minute drive to Sumner Beach (our regular surfing spot). The house has great views, an extra room for guests, and a lot of character – including:

A bathroom with handmade cat tiles and a shower with a strong homemade underwater motif.

A crazy garden full of roses, really loud birds, the odd hedgehog, and a zillion fruit trees that we don’t know how to manage. Seriously, you should have seen me and Jason and Anily trying to shake down a tree full of plums without any useful protective gear – next time we’ll get out the ski goggles and helmets.

A small plant growing up through the living room floor.

A bathroom sink that’s even smaller than the one in our house in Seattle – really!

Checkerboard linoleum floors.

Sailboat wallpaper in one room and the ugliest damn curtains you’ve ever seen in others. Like, mauve. And flowered. Sometimes at the same time.

A fantastic sunroom that is the home of our new ping pong table and our surfboard rack. Thankfully we did not have to get rid of the college dude vibe we had so carefully cultivated with our basement kegerator, Pacman machine and discarded drum set in the last house; we just evolved it a little -- the NZ version has a slightly more active characteristic. At this point Jason and I won’t be the ones playing the drinking games, but as I like to say, the best thing about being a grown up is giving yourself the permission to buy the toys that let you be the grown up you want to be. Actually, I will probably never say that again because it’s a lot of words, but I’m committed to the philosophy behind it. More on toys and activities and drinking later.

The house has a fat deck with views of the Southern Alps

A super steep driveway and very slippery stairs (consider this your warning and legal disclaimer).

You can’t see all the awesome details of the house in the satellite picture, but you can click and then zoom around if you want to see where we’re situated:

Our house is in a great spot. It’s an easy bike ride to school and work and a short trip to the best grocery store in town, where you can buy a box of Gorilla Munch cereal for $8 and a small bag of Cheetos for $5 – in the international aisle, of course. I refuse to document what else is in the American section. I haven’t broken down and paid for the Cheetos yet, but Anily really likes to eat Gorilla Munch before school, so, yes, this blog DOES contain a shopping list for things you should put in your extra suitcase when you come to visit (see if you can spot them all).

We feel really lucky to have this house, and there are a few good lessons wrapped up in how we got this place with its weathered wood and tiny sinks and toilets. One, surely, is not to lean too far for the toilet paper, especially if you can’t count on your core strength. For not only are the toilets tiny, the seats on them are weak, and butt cheeks can be slippery. Let’s just say the quality of the toilet seats has been a topic of more than one conversation among the American crew here, and one of us (not saying who) has a story that ends with a minor injury and a full bathroom clean up before coffee.

Anyway, for the real estate buffs out there, here’s how we won the rental house lottery: we landed in CHCH with ZERO idea of where to live and not much of a plan. We’d never been to this city, and luckily we had the sense not to commit to anything in advance. That’s lesson #2 : it’s just too hard to know the vibe of a place without having feet on the ground, and internet research isn’t reliable for choosing a long-term place to live, so don’t commit if you don’t have to. Good thing too, since most of what we read online in advance would have had us living on the west side of town, which is pretty much a mall, but of the NZ variety, which – shout out to my SA peeps – is reminiscent of the Central Park Mall in 1987, only without a Spencer’s and sub in a Kmart as the flagship instead of the Jacque Pen-nay’s.

So we got to town, I went to work, and Jason started with schools. Like many other places, school attendance is based on where you live, though there are schools that have open enrollment. We got here at the end of the Seattle school year and basically decided to throw the kids right back in school until the summer break, which is December here. Nice, right? A whole year of school to go with your whole year of winter, love you! But honestly, it was the best thing for them to start socializing and acclimating without any academic pressure since they were already bored and missing friends after 20+ hours of plane travel and a couple days of down time. A public school that we’d read about – Cashmere High – had an open day for potential students literally the day after we landed. Jason took the kids to it, they liked the school, James sank a couple shots in the gym, we saw that surfing and skiing are on offer as school sports, and we immediately focused our energy on finding a place to live in the Cashmere school zone.

Which brings me to another lesson, the most important one, and something I need remind myself of constantly: don’t make it harder than it has to be. Take the path that presents itself, make one important choice at a time, follow the clear option, and change direction if you need to once things gets going. We followed this rule, sometimes unconsciously, throughout the process of getting to NZ and settling in; we took one step at a time, from job interviews to visa applications, to decisions about furniture and packing and pets. We had no choice, really, it was the only way to handle such a monumental mud slide of hard decisions and logistics, and in the end all the right things happened. As is the case with the house: once we knew the kids liked the school well enough, we decided to focus energy not on asking more questions or exploring other options, rather we focused on a house search, and in fact this house was the first one we looked at. Another pro tip? Show up with 6 months’ worth of rent in cash if you can, and try not to come off like a criminal, just a decent family who is happy to pull the odd weed out of the navy blue 80s style living room carpet and furnish your own tiny, shockingly expensive fridge. Because listen up Americans: here in NZ, the appliances are small and ludicrously expensive, you can negotiate prices in the store, and it’s BYOA to the rental party. I’m not complaining, because that would be some seriously lame 1stworld problem whininess, it’s just something different.

It took us about a month of AirBnBs to find and move into the house, which was a very cool way to experience other neighborhoods, including a couple beachside communities which would have been our first choice for living but made school and sports and commuting much more complicated (not worth it).

This isn’t really a story, but it’s possibly one of the best memories I’ll have in life: the four of us camped out in our living room for almost 6 weeks with literally nothing but an inflatable mattress that deflated progressively and then aggressively at the end, a ping pong table, 4 plastic place settings, a huge (expensive!) television, a few surfboards, and the contents of our duffle bags. Binge watching “That Seventies Show,” huddling together near the wood burning fire place, waiting for your shipping container to arrive? That’s what brings a family together.

The day the container arrived was like Christmas, but the one where your kids find out Santa isn’t real: a great day, followed by lots and lots of boxes and paper, the satisfaction of making your kids learn how to construct Ikea furniture, and sadness because once everything is put in order the kids scatter to their own rooms and beds and desks and laptops and you’re not all negotiating screen time and eating off your ping pong table. You’ve exited one phase and entered another, and if you’re smart you’ll stay present to them both.

Just to close this out, here’s a great picture of Jason at one of the AirBnbs we stayed in:

This is a view from a different one, in Lyttleton:

Cuties! XO.

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ashxpad · 3 years

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The 10 Hottest 35mm Cameras You Could Buy in 1991

1991. What a great time to be alive. Seeing movies like Robin Hood and Hook in the theatres, and hearing hits like “Joyride” by Roxette or “Losing My Religion” by REM are some of my favorite pop culture memories of that time. Not to mention watching TV shows like Home Improvement, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Of course, being eleven years old, my photography experience was limited to disposable cameras, but that might not be the case for you. If you were older or luckier, you might have had one of these classic or innovative cameras I’ll be talking about today.

Today I’m going to go over the top ten hottest 35mm cameras you could buy in 1991.

A couple of things I want to mention about this list before I get started.

I constructed the list with a few parameters in mind. First, I used Popular Photography’s Top Cameras for 1991 as the base for it. Next, I boiled the list down from twenty to ten, by selecting the ones still most relevant today. The higher number of Google results, the higher it appears on the list.

Read also: 10 of the Hottest 35mm Cameras You Could Buy in 1982

In this golden age of photography, which in my opinion was 1975 to 1995, many of the cameras released had a very long shelf life. Because of that, if I include the older models, my top ten list could have several of the same entries, even if I jump ahead nine years. So for that reason, I have put a cap on cameras to be no older than seven years from the year featured.

That brings me to the last bit, which is this isn’t a list of cameras released in 1991, rather it is a list of the hottest cameras you could buy in 1991. As I mentioned, some of these entries had been out for a few years by 1991.

With all that being said, let’s get started.

#10. Yashica 230 AF

The first camera on today’s list may be a bit of an unknown these days: the Yashica 230 AF. An early auto-exposure camera, with three modes plus manual. The 230 AF was announced in 1986 but immediately caused some controversy, as mentioned in an article by Norman Goldberg, released by Popular Photography in November 1986.

“Yashica created a stir when the company was forced to withdraw its newest entry in the autofocusing fray. Called the 230 AF, the camera quickly became the subject of a patent dispute, but not before several German-language photo magazines came out with the details on the camera. To satisfy the affronted party – perhaps Minolta – the camera was displayed in a locked showcase. Word is that the matter will be resolved soon.”

Despite the early controversy, the 230 AF made its debut in 1987. One of the more interesting features was the CS-110AF flash accessory, which fit over the hot shoe and pentaprism to give a seamless appearance, it almost makes it look like another camera.

Picking up one of these in 1991 with the flash and a 50mm f/1.8 would cost you $765, or $1,536 today. There are not many found on eBay but if you want one of your own you can expect to get one for under $100

#9. Olympus IS-1

At number nine is the Olympus IS-1. A very strange-looking camera. Even stranger at the time because cameras like this marked the birth of the bridge model. A camera that included many of the manual and auto exposure modes of an SLR, but with a fixed lens like a point and shoot.

Because it didn’t fit into an already established category of camera, Olympus dared to make their own, calling it a ZLR, or Zoom Lens Reflex. This was absolutely a marketing gimmick, but it seemed to work. The IS-1 garnered a fair amount of attention.

In December 1990, Mike Stensvold conducted a thorough review in Petersen’s Photographic on the IS-1 and concluded that “The Olympus IS-1 comes closer than most to truly being a ‘camera for everybody.’ In point and shoot mode, it’s as simple to use as any camera in its class. It offers versatility to the more creative snap shooter and it’s got some advanced features found in few other such cameras, making it useful to more serious photographers, as well.”

Olympus’s goal was centered around the idea that this was a new concept camera and the wave of the future. This three-page ad, published in November 1990 encompasses that notion by posing the question: “Remember the first time you received a fax, talked on a cellular phone or heard a CD”?

In 1991 you could expect to pay $800, or $1,600 in today’s money. If you want to buy one used on eBay they are cheap as chips.

I actually did a very detailed history on this camera recently on an episode of my show This Old Camera, in case you want to learn everything there is to know about the Olympus IS-1.

#8. Nikon N8008

Coming in at number eight is the Nikon N8008, funny how that worked out. A consumer-level autofocus SLR with some impressive features for its time including a 1/8000th shutter speed and a flash sync speed of 1/250.

While many camera manufacturers of the time were abandoning their lens mounts from the days of manual focus SLRs, Nikon was staying true to their user base by creating a new autofocus system that could still take older manual focus lenses with a fair amount of compatibility.

Peter Burian conducted a field test and wrote about it in the Winter 1989 issue of Outdoor and & Travel Photography magazine.

“Though the N8008 is clearly an advanced and sophisticated piece of high-tech engineering, it is exceedingly user-friendly,” says Burian. “I predict that any photographer who can operate a digital watch or VCR will be familiar with the N8008 and its use within 30 minutes.”

Peter also says it handles like a dream but had a couple of hang-ups about its operation. He noted that although the N8008 is capable of continuous autofocus, he nailed more sharp images with the standard AF.

The advertising campaign for the N8008 bore the title: “The difficult is does automatically. The impossible takes a few more seconds.”

Here are a couple of examples from 1989.

This one with the ballerina touches on the matrix metering system, and rear curtain fill flash. “The point is,” says the ad, “highly creative pictures that used to be difficult to impossible for anyone less than a professional photographer are now within your grasp.”

The other ad sings a similar tune stating “Ordinary exposure control systems could be fooled by the dark black sky and overexpose the lighted skyline.”

A brand new N8008 with a 50mm f/1.4 would cost you $960 1991 dollars, or $1,928 today. This camera is an unsung hero in today’s film photography community and comes in at an incredibly low price of $70 or less with shipping, body only.

#7. Contax RTS III

At number seven is the Contax RTS III. In a time when autofocus was quickly becoming King, the people at Kyocera decided to make a more streamlined, more sophisticated manual focus SLR. The first thing that people will notice is that the RTS III uses Zeiss glass, known for its build quality and sharpness. But the thing that reviewers and adverting talked about the most was a feature called RTV, or Real Time Vacuum.

In a user report, published by Petersen’s Photographic in 1991 and written by Bill Hurter, it’s explained that the RTV system is engaged when the shutter fires, and sort of sucks the film back onto the pressure plate, creating a flatter image, thus creating a sharper image.

“Roll film in cassettes was a great breakthrough, but one of its problems has always been that film curls,” says Hurter. “It curls because it is rolled into a cassette. Also temperature and humidity affect the degree of curl. Contax engineers have shown film-plane flatness error to exist in current state-of-the-art SLRs to a degree of 20-30 microns in extreme cases. Further, the contention is that a 10 micron error in film plane flatness would cause a rear focus displacement of approximately 1 cm in an image shot at a distance of 3 meters with a Zeiss 85mm f/1.4.”

Basically, you don’t buy a Contax RTS III for quick focus, but superior focus.

A 1992 ad titled “See through the eyes of a genius” gives the reader a visual of what the RTV does to film flatness and showcases the Zeiss glass.

The price on an RTS III with a 50mm f/1.4 would set you back $3,630 in 1991, or about $7,300 today — a steep investment for a manual focus camera in a progressively autofocus world, but still not the most expensive manual focus camera on today’s list.

#6. Minolta Maxxum 9000

Number six is the Minolta Maxxum 9000. In January 1985, Minolta changed photography forever with the Maxxum 7000, and ten months later we were introduced to the 9000. While the 7000 was a model meant for the broadest audience possible, the 9000 geared itself toward the more serious amateur and professional.

In May 1986, Modern Photography had a very extensive look at the Maxxum 9000. Seeing how it compared to the 7000, which they noted that “Indeed its designers not only responded to virtually every criticism we made of the original 7000, they have also created one of the most sophisticated, comprehensive, internally complex and startlingly original SLR systems the world has ever seen.”

Popular Photography did their own field test in September 1986, praising the camera. But even when incredibly innovative, a camera is rarely perceived as perfect, and the Maxxum 9000 is no exception. Writer Bob Schwalberg had a few complaints for sure, including the average/spot metering setting didn’t have a lock on it, so a sleeve, or a strap or whatever would often change metering modes without him realizing it. Also the lack of lens selection.

“Almost two years after the launching of the Maxxum autofocusing camera system, Minolta’s AF lineup is heavy on zooms, but short on meat and potatoes workaday optics.”

At the time of review, they have nothing wider than 24mm, no 35mm, and not a single zoom in the 50-135mm range.

Advertising claimed the Minolta Maxxum 9000 to be “The World’s Most Sophisticated Camera” and encouraged you to “Ascend to the height of professionalism.” It seems in this ad, released in 1989, one of Bob’s issues was resolved, as I’m seeing a 16mm prime and a 35mm to what I presume to be 105mm lens.

With a 50mm f/1.7, a Maxxum 9000 would set you back $974 in 1991, or about $1,950 today.

#5. Leica R6

The Leica R6 comes in at number five. While many cameras take a leap forward from one version to the next, Leica actually took a step back, as quoted in a review by Jack Neubart in the fall 1990 issue of Outdoor and Travel Photography Magazine.

“Unlike the R5, the Leica R6 is principally mechanically governed. The R5 comes complete with several auto exposure modes, plus manual; but the R6 has only manual exposure control, with shutter speeds ranging from 1 second to 1/1000th of a second.”

Another review, in Outdoor Photographer’s October 1989 issue by Debra Davis sums up the purpose of the camera the best.

“In this day of electronic-laden auto-everything cameras, there is a new product on the market that stands apart from the rest. Welcome to the Leica R6. Designed to appeal to the photographer who wants mostly a mechanical, manual camera, the R6 shuns current trends and offers a back to basics approach to photography.”

This three-page special advertising section titled “The Shot of a Lifetime” features three Leica cameras including the R6. The main photo was taken during a Mount Everest climb with an R6 by photographer Warren Thompson.

“A camera which could be disabled by a failed, inexpensive battery would jeopardize the photographic mission,” says the ad.

The next page claims the R6 can withstand temperatures as low as -4F and as high as 140F.

Something that made me chuckle was this quote on page 2: “If Michelangelo were alive today, he wouldn’t be painting – he’d be using a Leica.”

I guess we’ll never know.

This Leica R6 ad titled: “Seduction” gives a really nice top-down look.

“You’re irresistibly drawn to it – seduced by the beauty, the precision, the mystique of legendary performance. Unlike mere ‘cameras,’ you don’t just hold a Leica, you caress it and feel the perfect balance, comfortable fit and smooth, positive operation – an extension of your hand, your eye and your art. You’ll be starting an affair with excellence that will last a lifetime whether you choose the manual R6, the electronic R5 or fast handling RE.”

Settle down there Leica.

During my research for other videos, I’ve come across quite a few Leica ads, and I have to say, many are like this one, and there’s a reason that some Leica owners have, shall we say, a superiority complex.

If you wanted to be seduced by this all manual beast, you better take out a second mortgage, because with a 50mm f/1.4 this Everest climber will cost $5,550 in 1991, or… wait for it… $11,147 in 2021 money. These days though, you can get one for a respectable $600 used. That Summilux-R 50mm f/1.4 will still choke your wallet though, at a cost of 1,200-1,800 bucks.

#4. Nikon F4s

Sliding in at number four is the Nikon F4s. I’m always curious to know the differences between models with slightly different names. In my top 35mm cameras of 1982 article, I was wondering what the big deal was between the Nikon F3 and F3HP, and the answer was, basically, the viewfinder.

Here I was again curious what the difference between the Nikon F4 and F4s was and the answer may amuse you: a battery pack. What makes an F4 an F4s is the MB-21 battery grip that takes six AA batteries and that is about it. You get a beefier camera and a slightly higher frames per second burst rate. With the MB-21, you can turn any F4 into an F4s. It’s a little sneaky on Nikon’s part, especially since it got its own advertising campaign.

Here are a couple of examples. The first here says “The Reasons” and brackets the ‘S’ and another example here it brackets the ‘es’ in Lenses. An odd choice. You’ll notice all the ads for the F4s include the battery grip because it has to.

Regardless, the Nikon F4 was a revolution for Nikon. They plunged into autofocus and while everyone else was remounting their cameras, Nikon stayed true to their user base by allowing older manual lenses on their newer autofocus cameras.

#3. Canon EOS-1

Getting the bronze medal for today’s top 10 is the other autofocus revolution flagship, the Canon EOS-1. Announced in 1989, the EOS-1 was not Canon’s first EF mount camera, but the first flagship model. As you can imagine, many FD mount Canon users were very upset that their cameras were antiquated overnight. History speaks for itself though and Canon survived the backlash.

The earliest ad I found was in September 1989’s issue of American Photographer, a colorful three-page ad, that would be one of a theme of ads with the suggestion, to quote “shoot it hot”.

“Live for photography. Eat Sleep and breathe it. Become a photograph.”

“Send the world your message…written in silver.”

I did a full history on the EOS-1 on my segment This Old Camera, in case you’re curious. After I released that video, my Patreon patrons and I were making “Shoot it Hot” jokes for weeks. It’s so incredibly cheesy and so very 90’s.

In September 1992, Camera & Darkroom magazine published: “A Quiet Revolution, A look at the Canon EOS Phenomenon,” by Mike Johnston.

Johnston took an in-depth look at Canon as a company, specifically their transition from FD mount to EOS, the controversy, and resulting innovations.

“When Canon introduced the EOS line in 1987, they immediately earned for themselves, among other things, a bad rap of sorts. The reason was the lens mount capability. The introduction of the new line was news; and the reaction from those heavily invested in expensive FD optics was swift, loud- and, to put it mildly, less than pleased.”

He would go on to say “even if you’re not a Canon photographer, it might be wise to keep your eye on them… if only to see which way the winds of change are blowing in the field of 35mm photography.”

A Canon EOS-1 with a 50mm f/1.8 would knock $1,939 out of your 90s Velcro wallet. Or about $3,900 today.

I paid $197 for the copy I have with an EF 28-105mm lens. It wasn’t in the best shape though, so expect to pay a little more.

#2. Leica M6

Obtaining silver for today’s countdown is the Leica M6. Is it any surprise that a Leica made it to the top 3?

A review by Debra Davis in the June 1991 issue of Outdoor Photographer explains the advantage of using a Leica quite well.

“The M6 allows the photographer to know what’s coming into the frame by displaying six distinct frame lines in the viewfinder window. These are projected in pairs corresponding to different focal length lenses for 28mm or 90mm, 35mm or 135mm, and 50mm or 75mm. The correct set automatically appears when you attach a lens and includes an area outside the frame line so you’ll be alert to something moving into the photo. In addition, you may manually select a different set of frame lines just by pressing a lever next to the lens. So without actually changing lenses, you can see and decide quickly, which lens to use for best composition.”

The ability to go unnoticed in a crowd is also touched on.

“The M6 is fast and silent, small and simple,” says Davis.

And here we go again with the melodrama, using the same ad theme as the R6, except this time it’s not Seduction, it’s …Obsession.

“It’s an almost unreasonable dedication to quality – meticulous attraction to detail, flawless mechanical precision, incredibly quick, quiet handling and optics that defy comparison – an obsession with perfection. It’s what sets Leica above mere “cameras” and accounts for their unchallenged reputation and unequaled value.”

If Jesus was alive today, he wouldn’t be a carpenter, he would be making Leicas.

Okay, I made that last part up, but it’s hard not to snicker at the hubris of it all. I will give Leica this, the commitment to only making small changes from model to model is impressive. Even as they transitioned to digital models, the design made very little change. You know that when you buy one, and ever feel like upgrading, you can do so knowing you won’t have a huge learning curve ahead of you.

The M6 might be second on the list, but it’s first in price. With a 50mm f/1.4, you can expect to pay $5,685 in 1991 cash, and just to give you a better idea of how much that is, in 1991, you could buy a used 1987 Dodge Omni for less, at a cost of just under $5,300. With inflation, an M6 was $11,418 in 2021 money. That is, just bonkers in my opinion. Especially when you consider that these days, you pay for the sensor in a high-end digital camera, but back then, everyone was using the same film.

Getting one on eBay is still going to be pricey. Body only is going to be three to four K.

#1. Olympus OM-4T

Coming in with the gold, is a camera you probably didn’t expect, the Olympus OM-4T. Maybe some of you did, as last time I made a list like this on the hottest of 1982, lots of you asked where the Olympus cameras were. The OM-1N came in at eleventh place in case you’re curious.

One of the features of the OM-4T that caught my eye while reading up on it was the ability to multi spot meter, as described in this review by Petersen’s Photographic writer Dan O’Neill in December 1986.

“Multi-spot metering is done by selecting different areas in the scene and metering each one with the press of the spot button. Up to eight spots can be metered and averaged by the OM-4T’s microcomputer.”

The other big deal with the OM-4T is the Full Syncro flash system. Basically, Olympus uses a focal plane shutter and that comes with its limits on how fast you can sync a flash to it. While many other manufacturers worked on a better shutter, Olympus just increased the duration of the flash system to properly gather all that light at quicker speeds. A focal-plane shutter has two curtains. A leading one and a trailing one, and at higher speeds the trailing curtain is already closing before the leading one has completed its cycle, so in the case of flash, you get an incomplete flash exposure.

Long story short, the OM-4T had a max flash sync speed of 1/2000, as promoted in an ad titled: “The first camera ever to break the light barrier.” They also called the multi spot meter function, “The most precise built-in meter in camera history.”

So what does the T stand for? According to David Brooks of Petersen’s Photographic, “the use of titanium for the bodies top and bottom plates. This exotic metal provides both lighter weight and greater strength to protect the camera’s internal circuitry to dedicate the new F-280 flash and integrate its special new capabilities into the OTF auto flash exposure control, auto-spot continuous light metering, and exposure automation.”

With a 50mm f/1.8 lens, the OM-4T will set you back $1,330 by 1991 standards, or just under $2,700 by today’s. These days you can expect to pay a respectable three to four hundred body only.

Conclusion

youtube

And that concludes today’s list. Thanks for reading and watching, and happy shooting!

About the author: Azriel Knight is a photographer and YouTuber based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find Knight’s photos and videos on his website, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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anakinsbugs · 3 years

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Shopify Review

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Shopify Review

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One platform where you can sell just about anything to anyone anywhere? That’s

Shopify

in a nutshell. But once you unpack it, it’s easy to see why it powers over 1 million websites and manages billions in sales.

Gone are the days when you had to figure out how to start an ecommerce site from scratch. With Shopify, having a virtual storefront up and running is possible in a matter of minutes. It offers you plenty of marketing tools to make your store a success from the start.

Whether you’re a small business starting up or you’re already raking in millions in sales, Shopify is an extremely powerful ecommerce website builder that helps your online business empire run smoothly, capture sales, and grow.

Shopify Compared to The Best Ecommerce Platforms

So what sets Shopify apart from other ecommerce platforms out there? To put it simply, it does a great job of managing all the moving parts of an ecommerce business by being accessible, versatile, and easy to use. While there are other ecommerce platforms out there like Wix or Bigcommerce, they tend to have their limits with what you can and can’t do.

Drag-and-drop builders, customer analytics, a built-in payment processing system, 24/7 support, and ready-made templates are only the tip of the iceberg when you really look into everything Shopify has to offer. But you shouldn’t just take my word for it.

See all of our top picks

to see how each ecommerce platform stacks up to ensure you’re making the best decision for your online business.

Who is Shopify Best For?

Shopify is for anyone that wants to easily start an ecommerce store and drive online sales. Because of its all-in-one nature, it isn’t just for one niche or one type of store, which is good news for you.

Shopify: The Pros and Cons

While Shopify rules in the ecommerce platform space, it might not always mean it’s the best platform for you. As with every other ecommerce platform, there are pros and cons to consider.

Pros

Built-in payment processor : With Shopify, you don’t have to worry about using a third-party payment processor. It’s all built-in for you and ready to accept payments once you’ve listed your products and hit the publish button.

With their payment processor, you can accept all major credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and even cryptocurrency. This means one less thing to actively manage in your store and increased trust with your customers.

The ability to scale : With Shopify, you don’t have to jump ship once you see your store start to grow in traffic and sales. It’s equipped to support your store whether you’re making three or three million sales a day.

Plenty of guides and documentation : Shopify does an excellent job at providing its merchants with plenty of how-to guides, theme documentation, and an active Shopify Community help forum with over 7,000 members where you can have all your Shopify questions answered.

Accepts different types of currency : If you use its built-in Shopify Payments gateway, you can easily start selling in multiple currencies by adding a currency selector to your theme. If international customers want to see how much an item is in their currency, they can easily find out by choosing the appropriate currency.

Effective Inventory system : With Shopify, you can get an accurate handle of your inventory by tracking the number of items on hand as they sell, adjusting inventory counts, and looking at inventory history.

Free and paid apps and themes : Once you start a store with Shopify, a world of over 4,000 apps and over 100 store themes is at your fingertips. And plenty of them are free too, which is convenient if you’re starting on a shoestring budget.

Drag-and-drop theme builder: The pinnacle of “easy” as far as building an online store is concerned is a drag-and-drop builder, which you can use with Shopify to make sure your store looks exactly how you want it to–without drowning in endless code.

Stellar customer support : Once you start a store with Shopify, you can be sure its customer support is unmatched in terms of response times— especially its 24/7 chat support. It’s personally gotten me out of trouble in a matter of minutes more times than I can count.

SEO-friendly : With Shopify, your products have a real chance of ranking in search engines for keywords once you’ve optimized your products and pages. It makes this easy by providing plenty of SEO-friendly features like setting alt descriptions for images, meta descriptions, and integrating SEO apps for advanced optimization.

Cons

Higher price for in-depth analytics : With Shopify’s beginner plan you get access to a limited scope of store analytics. To access in-depth analytics that can move the needle in terms of sales strategy, you’ll have to pay for a more expensive plan.

Transaction fees for third-party payments : With Shopify, you can easily accept payment without trouble through their Shopify Payments gateway. But if you choose to go through a third party to collect a payment, Shopify does charge you fees, starting at 0.5 percent. This can eat at your profit margins.

Limited blogging tools : There’s no question Shopify is the place to sell your goods, but it is still limited as a blogging platform since it only offers you the basic blogging tools to publish content. If content marketing is a primary way you bring in sales and traffic, this is an important con to consider.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify has your standard three price points for small to medium businesses that want access to a number of different store features. But it doesn’t stop there.

It also offers a $9 a month “lite” plan as well as a more powerful Shopify Plus plan that starts at $2,000 a month for big businesses that handle high sales volumes.

Basic Shopify – $29 a month

Shopify – $79 a month

Advanced Shopify – $299 a month

Shopify’s basic tier at $29 a month offers plenty of dashboard analytics, fulfillment features, and product listing options. It’s the best tier for new businesses that are getting their start and still in the midst of figuring out sales and branding.

This tier offers unlimited product listing and two admin accounts.

When you’re ready for the Shopify tier at $79 a month, you’ll get access to five admin accounts, a 2.6% + 30¢ credit card fee rate, and you can sell in up to two languages.

Finally, you have the Advanced Shopify option at $299 a month. This is a tier you’ll only want to sign up for once you need advanced features that’ll help you scale your business and you’ve devised a proven sales strategy with sustained sales month over month. You get a 2.4% + 30¢ online credit card rate, as well as the ability to sell in up to five languages.

Keep in mind that each tier comes with a free SSL certificate, discount codes, unlimited products, 24/7 support, additional sales channels like eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and Walmart, a full dashboard where you’ll get access to customize all your store settings, and a drag-and-drop theme builder. Before you make any real decisions, I recommend you check out their plan features page for a complete list of features for each tier.

Shopify Lite – $9 a month

You don’t have or want a full-blown store, but still sell products or services on your own site and around the web? Just use the Shopify Lite plan as a lightweight option to cover all your bases.

The beauty of the Shopify Lite plan is in how easy it is to add buy buttons to any site you want. You can accept credit cards anywhere— both online and in-person with their POS app. Through the Shopify dashboard, you can create and send invoices as well as custom orders. Whatever you updated through your dashboard gets updated everywhere else you’ve set up points of sale online.

And of course, you’ll also have access to their 24/7 support through email or live chat. The lite plan is an excellent option for a lighter store without all the hassle. Not to mention it’s also incredibly affordable at just $9 a month.

Shopify Plus – $2,000 a month

The Shopify plus solution is trusted by more than 7,000 giants including Rebecca Minkoff, Allbirds, Rothy’s, Good American, and Heinz as the best and most cost-effective solution for their ecommerce needs.

The Shopify Plus plan is designed to support smaller close-knit teams as they man millions in sales all from one place: their Shopify dashboard. This means where you once needed 300 people to run your store, now you only need 30. Also, if you’re re-platforming to Shopify, instead of taking the traditional 6-8 months to transfer the bulk of your store, with Shopify that time gets cut in half.

This may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not–especially when you consider some of this plan’s features.

Here are some of Shopify Plus’ best and most powerful features:

60% faster checkouts and 18 percent higher conversion rates

Built-in AR, video, and 3D media for each of your product pages

Multiple stores, languages, and currencies

Advanced discounting and shipping rates

99.99% uptime so you never miss out on sales and traffic

Avalara tax automation for automated up to date tax calculations

Plenty of automations and integrations at your fingertips

You can forget legacy enterprise software when Shopify offers all the enterprise power you need to sell at scale successfully.

Shopify Offerings

So far we’ve gone through the exhaustive list of features Shopify offers you to successfully host, stock, and run an online store. But everything I’ve highlighted so far is only the beginning.

Shopify offers a wide variety of additional tools— some free and some paid— that push you along your journey to ecommerce success.

Here’s a quick list of additional Shopify tools you’ll have access to when you host a store on their platform:

Facebook ad integration – perfect for driving paid traffic to your site

Google ad integration – perfect for PPC campaigns for paid Google traffic

Shopify ping apps – A free messaging app to reach more customers and chat with your team

Business name generator – Perfect if you’re clueless about your store name and need ideas

Stock photography – Access thousands of free stock photos for your storefront

Themes – tons of options both free and paid as well as customizable

Shopify Email

Did you know you can create email campaigns right on Shopify? Shopify Email gives you all the tools to track and create beautiful and captivating ecommerce campaigns that drive sales and keep your core customers engaged.

You can pick from a list of ready-for-you designs and get email analytics straight to your Shopify dashboard. You can add your logo and store colors for a more personalized email experience as well as segment the people on your list for more specific campaigns.

The Shopify Email feature is accessible on every Shopify plan. You get a monthly send limit of 2,500 free emails, then $1 for every 1,000 additional emails sent. Not bad at all if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of integrating a third-party email provider with your store that can end up costing you more in the long run.

Custom Domains

You can easily buy a custom domain with Shopify if you don’t want to buy it through a third party. Domain names through Shopify start at $14 a year and automatically renew each year.

This is a great option if you don’t want the name “.myshopify.com” as part of your domain name.

POS Equipment

The perks of Shopify don’t end in the online world. With their point-of-sale option, you can connect POS software, hardware, and Shopify’s payment system to sell in person at popups, retail events, and more.

Once you set up POS in your online store, you can purchase Shopify card reader and payment equipment to instantly start selling.

Their most popular POS equipment for sale includes

The tap and chip card reader – $49

The dock for your tap and chip card reader – $39

The Shopify retail stand for iPads – $149

The Shopify tap and chip case – $19

But it doesn’t stop there. Shopify’s selection of POS equipment goes beyond the basics to ensure you have everything you need to sell in person without any payment issues. It’s because of well-thought-out integrated features like these that Shopify takes the crown as one of if not the most prominent and reliable ecommerce platforms.

The Best Ecommerce Platforms

Choosing the best ecommerce platform to create your store and drive sales can be overwhelming. Make sure you

look through my top list

of ecommerce platform recommendations to be sure you’ll have all the tools and features you need.

Wix

– Best for flexibility and customization

Squarespace

– Best ecommerce platform for creatives

BigCommerce

– Best for medium to large stores

Shopify

– Best all-in-one ecommerce platform

WooCommerce

– Best for WordPress websites

OpenCart

– Best for selling digital products

Ecwid

– Best for integrating with your current platform

All in all, Shopify offers a reliable ecommerce platform with the tools and features to ensure you’re running a smooth operation whether you’re an up-and-coming store or you need to manage millions in sales. Because of how easy it is to use, along with the tools it provides and its price points Shopify comes in as one of my top recommendations for starting a store in any niche.

Try Shopify free for 14-days

and get started building your store.

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

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Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.

Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

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Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

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