Little anomalies are inspired by @htsan awesome design! ♡

Part 2: [CLICK]

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What will you do?

wash the dishes

tell him to kick rocks no, come on, don't be like that.

Come on, do the dishes. For Sans.

Vacuum the carpet. Mop the floor. Do the laundry.

Take the trashbags out. Guys, what are you doing? Take that one back in. That one stays.

Huh? What about me? Yes, he convinced me. Look at me breezing through the chores. Thanks Sans, I needed that.

angry clatter of dishes against the sink

Thank you very very much.

Just had some headcanons about Machi pop into my head that I wanted to share with yall. So we know this poor girl struggles with "perfect"/neat things right? Well I was thinking about some healthy coping mechanisms she could develop to replace the whole 'breaking property/living in a dump' thing & here's what I got so far -

1. She always tries to wear odd socks (unless she's invited somewhere nice)

2. Ayame & Mine help her find cool asymmetrical stuff to wear, how to make clashing colours/patterns work for her & teach her how to sew up her old clothes in a more "punk rock" way (after Yuki & Kakeru explain some of her issues with perfection)

3. Tohru gently points out that she dosn't have to tie her laces the same way on both shoes if she dosn't want to

4. Haru & Rin (awkwardly on her part) teach her the power of acessorising (ie. wearing only one earing, putting on an uneven amount of bracelets/rings/necklaces, adding paper clips of different sizes & colours to your clothing & Machi later ends up adding stuff like buttons to her outfits/belongings as well which Haru & Rin are tottally surppotive of despite thier difference in style) & hair/makeup which (thanks to Yuki's advice) they make sure to keep slightly messy (Kimi laughed at it at first until Momiji made her feel bad after he told her that Machi had gone to the bathroon & wiped off all the make up & undid the hair style so Kimi bought her some limited edition Mogeta merch, after asking for Yuki's advice, in apolgey & started referring to Machi's new hair/makeup style as "punk chic" whenever anyone tried to mock Machi about her new look)

5. her & Momiji go on a crazy tie dying adventure (much to Hatori's grumbling & Mayu's amusement)

6. Kormaki gets her into collecting second hand fridge magnets which she then later uses in her work (my version of post-serise Machi is an artist) once the magnetism finally wears off

7. Kagura teaches her how to fix up old plushies (Machi likes creating Mogeta inspired characters) & gives Machi all her old cat ones to work on (Machi descides not to ask why Yuki's cousin was seemingly once obssesd with orange cats because she looks rather embrassed & a little sad when she hands over her collection)

8. Kyo reluctantly teaches her how to cook a few simple dishes (Tohru comes over as well & Yuki insists her food is better but Machi prefers Kyo's simple style of presentation so it's eventually descided that Kyo & her will do the cooking & Tohru & Yuki will deal with the cleaning which Yuki agrees to becuse cleaning is still difficult for Machi but Kyo says it's actually because no matter how much Tohru tried to train him rat boy knows he would never be able to do anything in the kitchen but burn water)

9. Kakeru teaches her the skills of 'excessive badge & sticker decorating' as well as giving eachother fake tattoos (Kisa congratulates Hiro on not saying anything rude to Yuki's girlfriend about her appreance after they first meet her)

10. Cuts her hair short (she delibretly makes it very choppy) once she enters university, where the rules are less strict about your apprence (at least it is if your at art college), & she also regulary wears diffrent coloured wigs (her favourites being a dark red one & a rainbow one) whenever she wants to temporarily change her appearance (beacuse she didn't want to commit to just one look, still wanted to have the ability to quickly "become invisable" again & she heard from Kimi that exsseive hair die-ing could permantly destroy her hair & scalp) it takes her until she's 30 to try out shaving all her hair off (she worried she'd look sick/crazy or not feminine enough) & everyone's really surppotive (though Kimi dose cry a bit, Rin & Haru aren't there when her hair is being shaved & Kyo is a slightly confused as he'd always thought women liked having longer hair then guys) especially Ritsu (who's growing out thier hair again) & they all throw her a big party (Haru & Rin are there for the party bit just not the hair removal bit because it brought up some bad memories) where Kakeru films it & posts it (with Machi's permission) & they give her cut off hair to a charity chosen by all thier followers (despite her disbelief Machi has manged to gain a small group of loyal fans from all her art stuff & her apprences on her loved ones social media), Kakeru also later uploads a video where they help Machi rainbow dye her buzz cut, (she later explores many diffrent types of buzz cut patterns such as flowers & geometric shapes but, at Kimi's insistence, gets them done by a professional)

11. She recycles & D.Y.I's like crazy (Momiji started singing Do Re Mi from The Sound Of Music after she told him that her new dress was actually made from curtains & Yuki cried when she gave him a little rat plushie made from felt, after he came clean to her about the curse)

12. She almost never wears an apron while working on her art because she likes getting messy

13. When her & Yuki go out to eat she loves things like fondoe (both the chocolate & cheese kind), eat N mess & is genreually just a fan of finger food & it becomes a tradition between her & Yuki (& later Mutsuki) to go on a stroll through the park after thier meal & (if it's autumn) look for piles of leaves to jump in (Machi & Yuki also like playing a game where they try to look for the weirdest looking leaf to give eachother & whoever wins gets to pick what they'll eat for dinner that evening & the looser has to cook it, Mutsuki is the "impartial" judge)

14. Machi is amazing at scrapbooking & collarge making (Tohru is more of a dream journal kind of girl)

15. When it's Summer her, Yuki & Mutsuki go down to the beach to see who can find the weirdest looking rocks (the less impressive ones often get used in Machi's art work, the coolest ones Mutsuki gets to keep & any that are too perfect get tossed back in the ocean & Mutsuki likes to score the splashes they make on how big/loud they are)

16. She loves helping Yuki out with gardening for lots of reasons (it's therapeutic & she loves seeing Yuki happy) but she can't deny it's also just fun getting muddy

17. Machi, thanks to Kakeru, devolpes a love of paint ball (but instead of using guns they just throw the paint at eachother like in 10 Things I Hate About You because apparently the gun pellets actually hurt) & will bring it up as an activity idea to her loved ones any chanse she gets

18. Decorates as much of her flat (& later her home with Yuki & Mutsuki) with Mogeta merchandise, random things she collects & her own art work as a big fuck you to her bitch "you have 0 personality/hobbies or talents" of a mother

19. Kisa (happily) & Hiro (reluctantly) introduce Machi to the magic of glitter

20. Machi & Rin eventually become proper friends due to bonding over being abounded by their asshole parents & one of the things they like to do together is work on thier seprete art peices while listening to music (Machi dosn't do any of her "aggressive" art, like plate smashing, around Rin though thanks to Yuki & Haru warnings)

21. When stuff gets to be too much & none of thier other coping strategies are working (like watching Mogeta stoned- which Kisa, Tohru & Momiji do not partake in) Machi & Haru bond by going to rage rooms together to destroy shit & scream (Haru obviously dosn't want Rin around for any of that though so Momiji, Tohru, Kagura or Hana will often take the opportunity to hang out with her, one time Yuki offered & it wasn't bad but it was definitely awkward as they had never really hung out without Haru before & Haru teases her for ages afterwards about her ending up liking Yuki once she actually spent some time with him which, like the precious tsundere she is, Rin will forever deny)

22. (I actually made a whole seprete post about this ages ago but now it seems to have vanished so in case other Machi fans are unable to find it l'll add it here) on the days that it's supposed to snow but dosn't Yuki takes her (& later Mutsuki) skating so she can enjoy scratching up the perfectly smooth ice (they would have gone on double dates with Tohru & Kyo if Tohru wasn't freaked out at the idea of having blades on her shoes & Kyo hadn't claimed to "not trust" ice, he's dislike comes from all the times Kagura had forced him to ice skate with her on the lake near Kazuma's place in the winter when they were kids, so they would instead go with Haru & Momiji - they had thought about going with Haru x Rin & Kakeru x Kormaki once but he proudly revealed that he'd been banned from thier local ice rink years ago for trying "perfectly safe" Olympic level stunts in he's attempt to recreate one of he's favriote episodes of Power Rangers, much to he's fiancee's anger, & Machi reminded Yuki that though Haru & Kakeru were fine with eachother Rin isn't reall able to stand Kakeru for longer than 5 minuites)

Between Stars Part 3 {Arvin Russell x reader}

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

When you stepped into the church, everyone was crowded in the back watching Teagardin serve himself from the plates. You made your way to where your father and Mrs. Russell were standing. 

“But friends… the poor soul… that brung in them chicken livers on that beat-up plate… let’s just say I’m inspired to preach on it for a minute before we eat. Sure… some of us are better off than others. And I see… plenty of white meat and red meat laid out on this table. And I suspect that the folks that carried them platters in eat mighty good sometimes.”  Teagardin continued. “But poor people…got to bring what they can afford. So them organs…is a sign to me…telling me that I should, as the new preacher of this church, sacrifice myself. so that y’all can have a share of the good meat tonight. And that’s what I’m going to do, friends. I’m going to eat these organs. ‘Cause I model myself on the good Lord Jesus whenever he gives me the chance. And today…he’s blessed me with another opportunity to follow in his footsteps.” Teagardin picked up Mrs. Russell’s chicken livers and plopped a big scoop onto his plate.

You couldn't believe the nerve this man had, disrespecting Mrs. Russell like that, embarrassing her in front of the whole congregation. Arvin slipped his hand out of yours looking at you with a sorry expression and moved to his grandmother. He was practically fuming and glaring daggers at the preacher. Once Teagardin finished his speech, Arvin, who was holding onto Mrs. Russel’s shoulders, looked back at you and gestured for you to come over. 

“Now, don’t you worry about that pus-gutted blowhard. I bet he ain’t got two nickels to rub together.”

“Don’t worry about him Grandma, you have nothing to be ashamed of.” Arvin said, comforting Mrs. Russell. 

“That’s right, I bet he just wanted it all for himself, did you see how much he piled into his plate?” You added, receiving a thankful smile from Arvin.

After everyone had eaten their share of the meals, Arvin led the way out of the church, not bothering to say goodbye to the new preacher. 

“I have to say Mrs.Russell, your cooking is amazing, don’t you listen to anything that man says.”

“Oh don’t worry about me y/n. It didn’t bother me none.” She said, clearly lying. “Will you and your father be able to join us for dinner tonight?”

“Yes, I’m looking forward to it.” You said, stealing a glance from Arvin. “What should we bring?”

“You only need to bring yourselves, don’t worry about anything.”

“Nonsense! I insist, I can make up a cake in no time.”

“We shouldn’t be too indulgent.” Lenora spoke up. “It’s not right to celebrate for nothing.” 

“Well, we are celebrating something.” Arvin said, “We are celebrating y/n coming to town and to our family.” 

“What about me?” Your dad said, walking towards you and the Russell’s. 

“Don’t think I forgot about our date y/n.” Arvin whispered from beside you while your father and Mrs. Russell talked about the dinner.

“I should hope not.” You responded. “ You would be a pretty bad boyfriend if you did.” 

After setting the details with the Russells, you and your dad headed home to get ready. You spent the rest of the afternoon making a chocolate cake, carefully decorating it to perfection. After all, you wanted to leave a good impression on Arvin’s family. Obviously you knew the whole dating thing was a joke, and it would likely not make it to your families… but nonetheless, Arvin was taking you on a date right after you met his family. Shit felt pretty real to you. 

Once you were finished covering the cake in cream cheese icing, you went upstairs to freshen up. Quickly re-applying your makeup and swapping out your flour-covered skirt for a sage green dress. 

“Y/n, get down here.” your father called, making you look at the time. 

Shit. 

“I’m coming.” you called down, almost tripping over your own feet. Your father was already waiting in the truck with the cake in the middle seat. 

The ride there was to say the least, uncomfortable. 

“So… y/n…”

“Yes?”

“We have not been here yet a day, and you’ve already got a boyfriend?”

“Well Dad- It’s-I-Please don’t tell anyone about it. We haven’t really made it official or anything.”

“Don’t worry about me.” He said “I have better things to do than pay attention to teenage drama.” 

“We both know that’s not true daddy.”

___

“Welcome! Come in dear.” Mrs. Russell ushered you into the house off of the front porch. 

“Thank you for having us Mrs. Russell.” Your dad said, handing the cake to Lenora.

“This looks amazing y/n.” she said, admiring your handiwork.

“Let’s hope it tastes as good as it looks.” You said.

“I’m sure it tastes even better, if that’s possible.” Arvin said, coming up behind his grandmother, making you blush.

When you were all seated at the table, Arvin, who opted to sit next to you was listening to you talk about your old town. His thigh nudged slightly towards yours, until it rested beside it, making you heat up. 

“It was bigger than knockemstiff, but much less welcoming and homely…” You continued, feeling your body and face heat up. How could such minimal contact get you so riled up? 

The entire dinner, you and your father talked about your past, filling in Mrs. Russell on everything she had missed. After dessert, you and Lenora were doing the dishes, much to Mrs. Russell’s dismay. You worked in peaceful silence, one person filling your thoughts.

“He likes you, you know.” Lenora said, quietly enough for only you to hear. “I bet he’s watching your right now with that same puppy-dog look in his eyes.”

Slowly, you turned your head to face the table that Arvin, your dad and Mrs. Russell were sitting at. Sure enough, he was looking at you, seemingly zoned out in a trance. Those puppy-dog eyes were to die for. 

Turning back to the sink, Lenora smirked at you.

“He’s probably just listening very intently to the conversation at the table.” You said, trying to deflect the conversation off yourself.

“Yes of course.” Lenora said sarcastically, “Because house sales’ puts a love-sick smile on every teenage boy’s face.”

“Oh shut it.” You said blushing, splashing Lenora with water. 

The laughter coming from one side of the kitchen made your father roll his eyes. 

“Those girls and their giggling.” he grumbled.

Arvin was indeed watching you intently as his mind went through different scenarios. You and him as parents. You and him as grandparents. You and him on your wedding day. Something about you was so captivating that he couldn’t keep his eyes off. Finally, after gathering up the courage and picturing what he was going to say, Arvin sneaked up behind you and pulled you outside, saying bye to everyone quickly before jumping into his truck with you seated beside him. 

“To the creek?” You asked

“To the creek.”

Deobi Playlist (EP 2) | The Boyz Imagine

The Boyz x Hospital Playlist inspired drabble series.

Episode 2: in which Hyunjae is a drama queen.

Genre: fluff, friendship, slice of life

EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11

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Hyunjae is in the middle of playing a battle game when the sound of someone busting the door open causes him to yelp, fingers slipping over the keyboard as he watches his character die in front of his very eyes. 

He swivels around in his seat, glowering with anger, “KEVIN!” 

“Oops,” the said man slides in, totally unfazed by the glare that would’ve killed anyone else off, before looking around at the empty office that is stacked with piles of paperwork, most of them probably belonging to Hyunjae since he had always been messy. 

“Where’s everyone?” Kevin frowns while checking his watch, “I thought we were having dinner tonight.” 

“Too slow, romeo,” a voice chimes from behind. The pair turn around to see Mae holding up three takeaway bags. Kevin squeals in delight, rushing over to throw his arms around her in a hug.

“You are the best,” Kevin singsongs before grabbing one of the bags. Mae tuts at him, “woah wait a minute Kev, that’s not--” 

Too late, for Kevin’s hands have already opened up the box. He stares at the multitudes of shrimp on a bed of fried noodles, and a grimace falls over his face, “ew no, that’s not mine--”

Mae proceeds to snatch it away, “that’s why I told you to wait,” she huffs, handing him his rightful dish; fried pork and vegetables with rice. 

“Wouldn’t mind having him choke on some shrimp,” Hyunjae mutters gloomily, still sulking in his desk chair like a five year old child being denied cookies. Mae’s brow quirks up in curious amusement, before they flicker towards Kevin. 

The latter, already stuffing his face in like he hasn’t eaten for days, mumbles out through a mouthful of rice and meat, “he’s mad ‘cause I distracted him and his character died. The usual.” 

“You always lose, anyway Hyunjae. It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Mae opens up her own takeaway, a Chinese Korean dish named Jajangmyeon. She motions him over, “come on.” 

But Hyunjae’s pout only deepens. He slides into his seat, unwavering.

“You sure you don’t want it?” she taunts him, “I ordered it specially for you.” 

Still, the caramel-haired man twists his head away adamantly. Mae huffs, turning back to roll her eyes at Kevin, “fine then, suit yourself. I’ll just--” 

Hyunjae’s out of his seat in mere milliseconds, grab his dish, and sits down onto the shared couch with crossed legs and face looking as though he’s going to murder anyone who even tries to get within touching distance. 

“By the way, you remember the patient I was telling you guys about?” Kevin says, chewing on a mouthful of food, “the one that had a weird extra bone in her foot?” 

“The one who kept asking you to marry her?” Mae confirms. 

“She mustn't have high standards,” comes Hyunjae’s mumble, causing Kevin to cluck his tongue at him in disapproval before answering, “yeah, we had to shave it off cause she’s a rising ballet star. Her mother was livid when she heard that she wouldn’t be able to dance for a good six months.” 

“Sunji, was it?” Mae asks. 

“She came to see me today,” Kevin beamed, warmth practically alighting over his face, “gave me flowers and a box of chocolate.” 

“Did she give you a ring too?” Hyunjae adds mockingly.

“At least she likes me,” Kevin retorts while sticking out his tongue.

“Please! It’s not like she had a choice. You’re the only doctor she sees.” 

"Just a game, Hyunjae," Kevin reminds him, gesturing towards the computer with a roll of his eyes since he knows exactly why the older man is being salty at this particular moment. 

“Do you know how much time and effort I took into staying alive all that time?!” Hyunjae shoots back, leaning forward in his seat, “It was my fifteenth time!” 

“It. Is. Just. A. Game,” Kevin’s words punch through like staccato notes.

“I care about that game, like it or not!” Hyunjae moans, “now my life is over!” 

“Shakespeare needs to see this,” Mae mumbles behind her bowl of noodles, “he would’ve loved to write a story about you.” 

“I think that’s the greatest compliment you’ve ever given me,” Hyunjae smirks.

“It’s...not a compliment.” 

“I hate you. I hate you both,” Hyunjae sniffs before pouting and looking away, once again the very picture of a spoiled brat. The pair meet each other’s eyes before Kevin throws Mae a shrug. 

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t raise him.” 

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The week, it seems, keeps getting worse for the titled drama queen, who proclaims that the heavens must be against him this week and that his astrological must be definitely off balance. Hyunjae’s shifts seem longer, tougher to handle this week, while the line of patients have suddenly multiplied by a tenfold the moment he thought that he could use a bit of a break. A few nurses have taken some time off for some last-minute vacation, meaning that he’s had to scramble around for help with no assistant by his side to jot down his every day needs. 

Most of all, he still hasn’t been able to finish that damn game, and he has no one else to blame but dear Kevin for that. 

“You look like shit,” is the first thing that pops out of Juyeon’s mouth the moment he stumbles into their shared office. He’s looking particularly dapper, with his freshly cut bangs and his usually hooded eyes alight with a sparkle that can only mean one thing:

“Did you guys kiss or something?” 

Colour blossoms across Juyeon’s cheeks, hooded eyes widening in alarm, “What?” 

Seemingly undisturbed by lack of sensitivity, Hyunjae proceeds to shrug off his beige coat as he opens his locker, “you look like freshly snogged material." 

“I--That’s--That’s not--” Hyunjae can’t help but smirk at the flustered expression on the younger man’s usually bland face. One of his favourite pastimes is to make fun of Juyeon, mainly because he seems so much younger than what he appears to be, for they are only a few months apart in age. Not to forget the fact that he's so innocent, despite his mature, bedroom eyes and the lazy, sensual smile he gives to women. It's, as Hyunjae had once stated, incredibly misleading.

"Want to shadow my surgery?" Hyunjae asks, picking up his clipboard to scan the patient's profile. The younger man stretches out in his seat and yawned, "what kind?" 

"Brain tumor I believe."

"Hm, I might shadow noona--"

"Oh right, loverboy's got a girlfriend now," Hyunjae rolls his eyes and lets out a soft sigh, "ah well, I'll just get one of the newbies on board. I love teasing them."

"They're all scared of you, you know," Juyeon can't help but point out.

"Oh really?" Hyunjae flashes a wicked grin.

Juyeon proceeds to roll his eyes, "that is not a compliment."

"You know, Mae said the exact same thing."

"No surprise there."

A few hours and a long trail of patients later, Hyunjae lets out a loud, noisy sigh when he finally allows his body to flop in his office chair, his feet aching from constantly running back and forth between wards. Mondays are always especially tiring, but he's quite satisfied that most of his patients seem on the track to recovery. 

His hand quickly darts towards his mouse, when his phone suddenly rings. 

Pressing the device to his ear, he murmurs out a quiet, "hello?"

"Son," his mother's terse soprano echoes through the receiver, "how are you?"

"Are you stressed, Ma?" Is the first thing that pops into his mind. There's only two reasons why his mother would call; either 1) she wants to give him food or 2) she has fought with his father yet again. 

It is no secret that Mr. And Mrs. Lee have been living apart for more than seven years now. The scar that Hyunjae still bears is now covered by nonchalance, and the fact that his two parents have kept an amiable relationship has helped balance out his upbringing. He has to admit that for a child with divorced parents, they handled him pretty well.

"Can't I call to ask about my son?!" Mrs.Lee retorts back. 

"Ma."

"Alright alright," she huffs, "I might have made some extra Kimchi stew and--"

"Ma, I told you not to cook so much," Hyunjae groans, one of his hands going up to ruffle his hair, "can't you just freeze it?"

"Freeze Kimchi Stew? Are you insane? I would never! Anyway, I already let the leftovers with--"

Knock knock!

Hyunjae glances back just in time to spot Mae standing in the doorway,  holding out a cooler towards him. 

"Ah," Hyunjae gestures for her to come in, "you met Mae?"

"Right right! Such a wonderful girl that one! Are you sure you've never had anything for her?" 

"Ma--"

"No no, if you're going to tell me that you're just friends, I don't want to hear it."

"Listen Ma, she's--"

"I can't believe you didn't even try it out with her--"

"Hey Ma, I got a surgery soon," Hyunjae hurriedly says while watching Mae stuff the cooler inside the fridge he shares with Juyeon and two other doctors. He holds out a finger for her to wait, "I'll talk to you soon  okay? Okay. Bye."

Cutting off the call right before she's about to keep on insisting how amazing Mae would be as a wife, Hyunjae lets out another trepid sigh before shaking his head at the said woman, who's gazing at him with raised eyebrows. 

"My mother really wants me to go out with you," Hyunjae rubs a hand over his face, clipboard in hand, before following her out into the corridor.

"Yeah I know, she told me the exact same thing when I bumped into her in the lobby," Mae shoves her hands in her pockets, smiling slightly. 

"I mean, if you weren't so much into Kevin, maybe--"

He doesn't get to say anything more because of Mae's hand slamming down atop his mouth. He groans in part pain and part protest, "that hurts!"

"I should've sewn your lips shut when I still had the chance," Mae hissed under her breath, careful to drop her hand and smile as they pass by a group of older doctors. 

"You guys are like turtles. By the time you ask him out, you'll both be dead," Hyunjae mutters loud enough for Mae to hear. 

She scowls back, "last I checked, I was the only one who decided what I could and could not do with my love life."

"You're doing a terrible job of it."

"I am not!"

"Okay, then where are the four children you said you wanted!? That's all you could talk about in college!"

"I was young and stupid, as were you."

"Ah, to be young and in love again--"

"Hyunjae?" 

The pair turn instinctively towards the sound only to fall upon a familiar face, a face that Hyunjae remembers almost instantly as one of the girls who had pined after him for years' on end. He briefly recalls breaking her heart once and for all when she'd decided to give him a box of chocolates during their second year Valentines. 

"Oh," Mae seems to be thinking the same thing as he does, for she doesn't waste time to smile up at him, clap him on the back and say, "see you then!" 

 And she's off, running down the hallway and leaving him to deal with the awkward aftermath of a rejected confession. 

-------------

I honestly just love Hyunjae because he's so loud and annoying and straight up transparent. Surprisingly, I wasn't attracted to his physique as much as I was to his natural genuine personality.

Hope you enjoyed this one! Next Ep will be out on Monday!

Episode 3: in which Juyeon has a complicated relationship with food.

A Cheat II

Summary: Y/N and Harry are drifting apart, Y/N reminisces

Warnings: angst

Word count: 1.8k

———————————

Studio. He was at the studio wasn’t, he? Didn’t he say that he was at the gym, though? Y/N nibbled on her lip trying to form logical conclusions from the information she just gathered. Could he be cheating on her?

“Y/N, I just remembered that I have to do some work for the new album. I can’t go with you tonight”

Her thoughts blank out as she receives a text message from an unknown number. She opens the text,

“Attachment 1: Image”

What she saw silenced the inner turmoil she was debating over in her head but broke her fragile heart in two.

———————————————————

Y/N gasped with tears beginning to gloss over her eyes. The text message induced such a great shock in her tired, worn out body that she immediately collapsed on the hardwood floor below her; heels clattering loudly on the ground, resembling her heart furiously cracking. Her vision fogged causing the picture to become a blurry vignette of Harry in the sound booth, with a pair of headphones adorning his ears and a pair of lips smashed against his own. The woman’s hair cascaded down her slim waist, as to which Harry’s hands enclosed it. His hair was lengthy and was the occupation for her hands to tug lightly. Harry’s dimple showcased itself slightly, indicating the he was, indeed, enjoying this kiss. The control board prohibited the camera lens to pry further from the couples’ obviously intimate time alone. It was too real to be photoshopped, she knows because she’s not stupid. But there’s a certain part of her openly hoping that someone out there was just really really good at it to be able to adjust the reflections as perfectly as they did—if they did, for she could not imagine Harry purposely ruining their relationship just like that.

Of course, it couldn’t be Y/N’s because she hasn’t been there with him for a long time, so any hopes of it being an old picture of her and Harry are down the drain. He mumbled something along the lines of ‘professionalism’ and how there’s a potential that she could somehow, do something wrong while he was out of the room. She recalls that statement from when she had offered to stay late nights with him since they haven’t spent a lot of time together recently. He rejected that idea and let her down easy.

Sugar coating the whole thing, Y/N thinks now.

Regardless of his reasonings, maybe he didn’t want her there. Maybe her suggestion of herself being an ‘inspiration’ to him meant a nuisance and a burden to his work. After all, he wanted his second album to be something that he was proud of. Following the success of his debut, he didn’t want to let anybody down; especially not himself.

As she looked at the picture once again, her throat closed and dried up, constricting the passage way to keep her breathing. It was as if Harry was her lifeline and he just cut her off. Her dress was too scratchy to be comfortable, she could feel her mascara clumping on her eye lashes and forming black streaks down her cheeks, ruining the contour and highlight she had so pretentiously applied in hopes of impressing her boyfriend—can she still call him that?— and possibly igniting the fire they once had. The previous pain she felt from her heels was nothing compared to the betrayal Harry introduced to her. Her heart ached so much that every time she breathed deeply, it was scorching her to the core.

Her phone ‘dinged’ once again, buzzing in her clutched hand. Another message from the unknown number made Y/N furrow her brows and part red her lips in wonder.

“Heard they’ve been at if for a while. She works at the studio.”

That sentence alone sent chills down her spine. Y/N they’ve been distant for the past, maybe, 4 or so months. Maybe he started being unfaithful, then? Typical questions zoomed through her mind: how long has he been doing this? Who is she? Does he still love me? If it did start right when she felt his indifference towards her, it meant that he’d lied to her during their anniversary. The day of exemption from the rocky months they were having where he had forgotten their declaration to the start of a blossoming relationship—he would have lied then.

——————————

Y/N reminisces the day. She woke up in a cold bed; it wasn’t a surprise by that point, but she hoped that this day would’ve made him act differently. Her feet pattered on the floor to the bathroom where the light was turned off. She walked down the stairs with a bounce to her step. Maybe he was preparing breakfast for us! Y/N thought. Already smelling the fruity scent of the automatic air freshener, it wasn’t masked by any breakfast goodies that Harry could’ve been making. And as she turned down the corner, she finds the kitchen barren of any life forms. The dishes were still piled in the sink, but there was no Harry. The day was spent with Y/N reaching out for Harry through text, only to be met with delayed messages of “will be home late” Y/N tries to play it off as him surprising her for later. She smiles to herself at the thought of her sappy, romantic boyfriend.

Hours later, Y/N finds herself doing her psychology homework due in 3 weeks. Perhaps you could call her productive, or maybe just someone who’s trying to occupy their mind, especially since the clock hit 10:00 PM a few minutes ago, and it would now be too late to go out to eat. She sighs, scribbling the answer after reading the question on her laptop. Her eyes skim from the door to the clock on the wall, pen tapping excessively on her notepad. Y/N focuses on her homework once again, but was interrupted by the front door bursting open.

Hastily kicking off his shoes, Harry arrives with a bouquet of flowers, balloons that read ‘happy anniversary’, and a gift bag on his left hand. He held a medium-sized cake on his right. How he managed to open the door, Y/N would always wonder.

“Baby, I’m sorry. I was caught up in the studio until about 15 minutes ago, an—and I didn’t realize the time. I drove home as fast as I could,” Harry panted out loud. His eyes drifting to Y/N’s own, trying to get a feel of how and what she was feeling.

Y/N forgave him immediately, seeing that she was always forgiving and just wanted to spend whatever time she can with Harry without having argument over the little things. Harry had gotten her a Marc Jacobs perfume that evening; it smelled amazing. She hugged him tightly, fearing that he’d disappear once again. Y/N sniffled Harry’s neck, smelling perfume all over. She lets go of his embrace, taking a step back and asking him why he wafted like cheap perfume. He reasoned that the air from the shop must’ve sunk deep in his clothes when he was shopping for her gift.

He pulls away completely, but not before pecking her forehead lovingly.

“Have you eaten? I’m gonna go cook something for us to eat, yeah?” Harry mumbled against her hair. She nodded. His legs picked up speed, heading to the kitchen with cake in hand.

—————————

Y/N gasps as she realized how his lies jumbled up into a big mess. He’d just left the studio ‘15 minutes ago’ meant that he couldn’t have had time to buy her the perfume, especially since the mall closed at 9.

Well, maybe he bought it a day before.

Y/N changed into a shirt and pajamas, her feet covered in socks to keep her warm. She was nibbling on her lip profusely, walking back and forth from their bed to the dresser. What was she supposed to do now? Confront him? Act like she didn’t know? She’d never thought that she’d have to go through this again. Sprouting from bad relationships, Y/N told Harry that she can’t stand cheaters and liars–her exes being a prototype of a relationship that failed her over and over again. She found faith again with Harry, and so far, he had not done anything stupid until now.

She stared at the luminescent bottle on her dresser with spite. The bottle was mocking the hell out of her; how could she have been so stupid. Realizing that his words didn’t even make sense together should’ve been caught right away. She was blinded by love and was so desperate to feel his warmth again that she completely disregarded all common sense. Y/N tugged on her hair, stressed at the situation beforehand. Not only that, but she had yet to get her sleep before tomorrow’s class that she was in no way, in the mood for.

The front door opened from below, Y/N’s eyes widen as she couldn’t remember a time where he came home while she was awake. She panicked and ran to the bed, slipping on her knees because of her socks, and emitting a whimper from her lips when her knees thumped against the hardwood. She shuffled forward anyway, making it to the bed, flicking off the lights and shooting her head underneath the thick duvet.

Upon hearing such noise, Harry’s head snaps up to the direction of his bedroom, midway of taking off his shoes towards the side. He chucks his keys in the bowl beside the door before jogging up the stairs. He was met with darkness, but with a swift flick of the switch, he finds Y/N’s figure wiggling underneath the sheets. He chuckles lightly.

Silly girl, he thought.

“Hey”

The figure pauses, Y/N timidly pulls the cover over her head. Her eyes make eye contact with his.

“Why are you on my side?” Harry asks, accusingly.

Realizing that she was, indeed, on his side Y/N quickly shuffled to the other side, tangling the sheets against her legs.

“Sorry!”

“It’s fine, Y/N. I’m not gonna sleep here tonight anyways.”

“W-hat? Where are you going, H?” Y/N sits up from her position. Where could he be going now?

“I’m sleeping in the guest room. I think I need a change of scenery.”

He was about to turn in his heels, suddenly annoyed by her pestering.

“Wait! I think we need to talk,” Y/N stands swiftly, putting her palm against his shoulder to which Harry curves immediately. He retracts with great speed, almost as if her hand was poison. His eyes catch hers with loaded surprise.

Nonetheless, he sighs, saying, “Look, I’m tired. We’ll talk tomorrow,”

“But Harry, I th-,” She gets cut off by Harry’s booming voice.

“I said we’ll talk tomorrow, Y/N” He said sternly, Harry’s mind flashes to a memory of his actions and makes a decision quickly, “I have someone I want you to meet at work anyway.”

Part 3

k for real, part 3 she’s gonna confront his aSs

please give feedback and what y’all wanna see next

Taglist; @ynm1505 @boundtomyfate @kylaharvey54 @juicynylander @youraveragefandomgirl @rose-water17 @lovely-larents @love-is-my-phone @marielourot @iphone235 @peachyunx @famouszipperpeanutlawyer @tpwkwrites

RECIPE: Baked Rigatoni (from Matty Matheson: A Cookbook by Matty Matheson)

This is an incredible dish made straight from the heart. Crisp, burnt rigatoni edges; melted mozzarella cheese; rich, sweet tomato sauce; and little meatballs all nestled inside this beautiful mess. Dishes like this are low risk and high reward. Carol and Trish make different versions of this, and now I make my own too. How many renditions of this dish are out there, I have no idea: Every nonna or nonno or Italian American or Italian Canadian parent has his or her own version. Some may add basil leaves, dried oregano, more Parmesan, maybe even some Asiago, or all pork balls, all-beef, or a combination or the holy trinity: veal, pork, and beef. I want to make you my version, which is inspired by my mother-in-law and my lovely wife.

I had another mind-blowing experience the first time Carol made this for me. I thought pasta was powdered cheese and overcooked little noodles that were mixed with water instead of milk or cream, and not even a nice little knob of heavenly butter. But then I saw this bubbling, glowing, cheesy casserole coming out of the oven like a newborn rigatoni baby, and it was instant love. I knew I would fight for this dish if anyone ever disrespected it—I would stand behind it like an overprotective uncle who’s had one too many brown pops at a little league baseball game. I hope that when you pull this casserole out of the oven, it’s one of those moments like seeing the Sistine Chapel or the ocean for the first time.

Serves: 4 Prep time: 1½ hours

½ pound (225 g) ground pork

½ pound (225 g) ground veal

½ pound (225 g) ground beef

1 egg

1 cup (100 g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup (50 g) dry bread crumbs

1 handful chopped flat-leaf parsley

Kosher salt

10 turns freshly cracked black pepper

1 tablespoon dried red chile flakes

2 tablespoons peeled and minced garlic

Olive oil

8 cups (2 L) Sunday Gravy (see below) without the meat

2 (16-ounce/455 g) boxes dried large rigatoni

2 balls mozzarella cheese, one cubed and one shredded

Place all the ground meat in a large bowl. Crack the egg on top and add the Parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley, 2 teaspoons salt, the pepper, chile flakes, garlic, 4 tablespoons (60 ml) oil, and 2 tablespoons water. Mix with your hands—make sure to dig deep with your fingers and use your shoulders to really work the mixture.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place two spoons in a cup of water; use one spoon for scooping and the other for scraping off. Make sure to dip your spoons into the water every other scoop. Scoop 1 tablespoon meat and scrape it onto the baking sheet; make little rows until done. Lightly coat your hands with oil and form the meat piles into perfect little balls.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C). In a Dutch oven, pour ½ inch (12 mm) of oil and set over medium-high heat. Place the balls in the pot, but don’t overcrowd the pot. Brown the meatballs in batches and place on a rack while you build your casserole.

We are going to build the casserole hot so it just has to brown in the oven. In a small pot, heat the gravy. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; cook the pasta until al dente. Check the pasta every few minutes to make sure you’re not overcooking. Because we are baking in the oven, we don’t want mushy noodles! We want perfect rigatoni.

Drain the pasta and pour most of it into a 9 by 13-inch (23 by 33 cm) baking dish, then add enough sauce to cover the noodles and stir. You don’t want the casserole soupy and you don’t want it dry; you can always add, but you can never take away. That’s why I like building this by eye once all the ingredients are ready: You can add more sauce, meatballs, and rigatoni depending on your tastes. Stir the cubed mozzarella into the casserole, then add as many meatballs as you want. Stir to evenly disperse everything, then cover with a few ladles of sauce and the shredded mozzarella. Bake 20 minutes, or until the edges are almost burnt, the cheese is golden brown, and the sauce is bubbling. Remove from the oven and let rest 10 minutes.

RECIPE: Sunday Gravy

This is something I loved eating when I first started dating Trish. Her mother is Italian Canadian and comes from a long line of amazing cooks from Calabria. I never had real Italian food until I met Trish. Maybe that’s why I was so in love with her initially. It was her mother’s cooking! I remember the first time I was allowed to help make this meal. Her mother watched me like a hawk soaring in the bright blue sky, searching for trout. If I did something wrong, she let me know right away with a slap on the hand. If I overworked the meatballs, she would make a comment that cut deep. This was before I went to cooking school—I was just an eager kid looking for the secrets to this dish. A red sauce is the foundation of every Italian family, and it was a privilege to help. I had a duty to make the best meatballs I could so I didn’t let down Carol and Bill and the Spencer family. Making this sauce is like painting: You need to know when to stop. It’s a powerful sauce that still needs restraint.

I used to think that spaghetti sauce had green peppers and mushrooms in it. It took me a long time to understand the power in simplicity. This sauce is the cornerstone to most of the dishes in this section; once you’ve made this sauce, you can add it to so many dishes. When I make it, I like to take out all the meat and divide the balls, ribs, and sausage in containers and cover with just enough sauce. Then you can take as many of these little gems as you want and reheat for days to come, or you can make little bundles of meat and sauce and freeze for a special day. Serving the meat on a massive platter and then tossing fresh spaghetti in the sauce and topping with fresh grated Parmesan is the way to go!

Serves: A large Italian-Irish family and one white kid from the maritimes Prep time: 5½ hours

1 loaf day-old bread, torn into small pieces

1 cup (240 ml) milk

1 pound (455 g) ground beef

1 pound (455 g) ground veal

1 pound (455 g) ground pork

2 cups (200 g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup (100 g) freshly grated Pecorino-Romano cheese

½ cup (70 g) peeled and minced garlic, plus 1 cup (145 g) whole garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin

1 handful chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 cup (100 g) dry bread crumbs

4 eggs

2 tablespoons dried red chile flakes

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

2 pounds (910 g) Italian sausage

2 racks (2 pounds/910 g) pork ribs

½ cup (15 g) tomato paste

6 (28-ounce/794 g) cans tomato puree

1 pound (455 g) any shape pasta

Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Line a baking sheet with lightly oiled parchment paper.

Soak the day-old bread with just enough milk. You don’t want soupy bread; you want milky bread.

In a large bowl, place all the ground meat and mix with your hands so it’s incorporated. Next, add the cheeses, minced garlic, parsley, bread crumbs, eggs, chile flakes, milk-soaked bread, salt, and pepper. This is the fun part: Deep-dive your hands into the meatball mixture, and with your fingertips, disperse all the ingredients evenly, using your full arm to reach down to the middle and flip the mixture. Imagine you are a human bread mixer. Keep pushing down and knead it almost like a dough. Once it is truly mixed, you’ll know—it will look like a piece of beautiful meat marble, with the cheese, parsley, and garlic all glistening through like rock layers.

With lightly oiled hands, roll the meat mixture into perfect 2-inch (5 cm) balls, making sure they are worked just enough. Do not squish the balls—just keep rolling so they stick together. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Drape a kitchen towel over the balls as you roll so they don’t air-dry at all.

In a large heavy pot, pour ½ inch (12 mm) of oil and set over medium heat. Sear the meatballs on all sides. As each ball is fully browned, remove and place on another baking sheet until needed. In the same pot, sear the sausages, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

Cut the ribs into 2-bone pieces and season with salt and pepper; sear them, about 5 minutes per side. You will find that there is a lot of crisp golden meat on the bottom of the pot. This is called fond. This is the gold.

Turn down the heat to low—there is enough residual heat to get the garlic cooking. Add the sliced garlic to the pot and cook until golden brown. Then add the tomato paste; cook 5 minutes to cook out the tin flavor and develop the rich, deep flavor tomato paste is made for.

Add all the meat and the tomato puree. If it’s a little thick you can add just enough water to make it easier for you to stir the meat. You don’t want it too thick right now, as it’s going to cook at least 3 hours, and as it cooks, it will concentrate. We will cook it to the consistency we desire.

Don’t turn the heat to high to bring it to a boil. We have to bring it up slowly to make sure nothing burns. It may take almost an hour to start bubbling and simmering the way we want it to. Once it starts simmering, turn down the heat even lower. Stir the pot gently, making sure not to break up the meatballs. Cook 3 hours.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta as the label directs; drain and return to the pot. Ladle in enough sauce to coat the noodles—you don’t want this to be saucy. Place the pasta on a platter, then ladle extra sauce into another bowl for those who want more sauce. Remove the meat and place on top of the pasta; add more sauce. Top with cheese.

Matty Matheson, star of Viceland’s It’s Suppertime and Dead Set On Life, reveals his favorite recipes and stories in a cookbook that his devoted fans have been waiting for.

Matty Matheson is known as much for his amazing food as his love for life, positive mental attitude, and epic Instagram account. This debut cookbook is about Matty’s memories of the foods that have defined who he is. With a drive to share his zest for life, he creates dishes within these pages that reinterpret the flavors of his youth in Canada, as well as the restaurant fare for which he has become so well-known. Interpretations of classics like Seafood Chowder, Scumbo: Dad’s Gumbo, and Rappie Pie appear alongside restaurant recipes like Bavette, Pigtail Tacos, and his infamous P&L Burger. This is a very personal cookbook, full of essays and headnotes that share Matty’s life—from growing up in Fort Erie, exploring the wonders of Prince Edward Island, struggling and learning as a young chef in Toronto, and, eventually, his rise to popularity as one of the world’s most recognizable food personalities. His no-nonsense approach to food makes these recipes practical enough for all, while his creativity will entice seasoned cooks. This book is like cooking alongside Matty, sharing stories that are equal parts heartwarming and inappropriate while helping you cook dishes that are full of love. Matty Matheson: A Cookbook is a new collection of recipes from one of today’s most beloved chefs.

For more information, click here.

How to Fake A Marriage Ch. 29

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(AO3) (FF.net)

Marinette was in the middle of puzzling over a kid's summer romper at work when she noticed her phone flashing with a new message next to her elbow. She set the design to the side for a moment to check it, and found a new email waiting in her inbox. Marinette clicked on it and found another commission request, this time from what was apparently a symphonic metal band.

Nibbling on her lip, Marinette considered the email for a few minutes before opening a new tab on her computer and emailing the band name to find out a little more about them. It didn't take long for Marinette to skim the first page and find out that they was a relatively well-known band in their genre, as far as she could tell. If she took the commission and did a good job with the outfits that they were asking her to create- a few stage outfits and some screen-printed t-shirts, and wow were those ever some interesting concepts, her imagination was already sparking- then maybe they could become a long-time client, or at the very least another strong point on her resume for when she was applying to things back in Paris again.

Maybe she could do it. If she set a long deadline, pointing out her normal job and vague other obligations (read: the commissions she had already committed to), then she could push to finish her other projects while getting the initial sketches done during her breaks at work and then approved. The cape they had asked for- well, there would be some screen printing on it, and bedazzling, but overall it wouldn't take long. The rest of the pieces would take a little more time, but nothing too bad.

Marinette really wanted to say yes. Sure, it would be a busy few weeks to catch up, but requests had been slowing down after that initial burst right after Jagged Stone's album dropped (and half of the requests had been dropped after people who wanted custom designer outfits but didn't want to pay custom designer price learned that yes, she did actually expect to be paid fairly, oddly enough). They would no doubt slow all the way to a stop soon, and then Marinette would be left with nothing to do in the evenings while Adrien studied.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. She could do her own for-fun designs, and she did have some mending that she could do as well- her pajamas had a rip at the moment so she had stolen an old t-shirt of Adrien's to wear instead (and Adrien had looked a bit surprised when she told him that she was too busy to do the mending, but he definitely hadn't protested her wearing his clothes). But neither of those things would result in her getting paid extra money, which she needed right now if she wanted to build up any real savings by the time she and Adrien left London. Sure, next year they wouldn't have the expense of her apartment to pay, but that was still months away.

Giving herself a good shake to refocus, Marinette read over the email again and reminded herself to not get ahead of herself. She hadn't even given these people a quote yet and she didn't know if they would be willing to pay the right price. They might drop off when she emailed them back, just like so many others had.

Marinette made a mental note to get back to the band over her lunch break- she could use the general response email that she sent out to everyone requesting a commission and just tweak it a little bit to fit their request- and then set her phone aside to refocus on her design.

With that spark of inspiration still lingering from the band's aesthetic, it didn't take long for Marinette to make a few tweaks on the romper to make it unique. She cleaned up the drawing, and then got it uploaded into her team's shared folder so everyone else on her team could see it and give her some feedback. With that assignment done, Marinette turned her attention back to the pile of runway designs that she had to alter into streetwear looks.

"Nice design, Marinette!" Emily called from her cubicle thirty minutes later. Marinette glanced up from her work and grinned in Emily's direction, even though the junior designer wouldn't be able to see her.

"Thanks!"

"Dibs on making a dress for that line!" Sarah called. "I already have an idea for one to go along with the romper!"

"I'm making overalls!" Abbey chimed in. "And a sun hat. Whatever your inspiration was for that romper, Marinette, I approve."

Marinette ducked her head, grinning shyly as she did. She hadn't expected her piece to be the focal point for their summer kid's line, but it was a good feeling to be so appreciated.

By the time lunchtime had rolled around, Marinette had drafted up three potential runway-to-streetwear outfits. She headed to the break room and powered up her laptop while the leftovers she had brought heated up in the microwave. It didn't take long to alter her basic letter to fit the band's requests, and then it was ready to send.

Before she hit Send, Marinette paused one more time, wondering if she should really even be considering taking the commission. After all, she was already pretty busy, so much so that Tikki had even argued with her about Marinette insisting that she plan at least part of her and Adrien's Valentine's Day date. Tikki thought that she should leave all of it to Adrien, since he was clearly eager to do it, but Marinette hadn't been about to just sit back and not put in some effort for Adrien on their first Valentine's Day as a couple.

Besides, it had been nice to have an excuse to take a break from the designing and the commissions to bake a cake. It was really nice to have the near-instant gratification that came with starting a project and finishing it in only a little over an hour and a half.

"I can handle it," Marinette assured herself, hitting send. Most of the commission would be the screen-printing, and that wasn't hard at all. In fact, she rather enjoyed those kinds of commissions, because just like the cake, they were relatively quick to do and check off the list. Besides, she had already seen how the band's aesthetic inspired her. She wanted to work with them.

Right after her email sent, her phone lit up with another message. Marinette set her laptop aside and grabbed her phone, just as a second and third text came through in quick succession. They were from Alya, and Marinette grinned as she read the messages.

"What is it, Marinette?" Tikki whispered so that the sewing room workers who were taking a break wouldn't hear the voice coming from Marinette's pocket. "What did she say?"

"Alya was just told that she got past the first round of the competition," Marinette whispered back, grinning.

Tikki perked up. "Oh, that's amazing!"

Marinette shook her head, checking her phone again. "Not really. About half to three-quarters of the entrants make it past the first round. The first cut is just to make sure that there's enough research that they've done and recorded to justify needing a trip. Alya knew that she would make that first cut, but it's good to have that confirmation, at least." She texted Adrien with the news, just on the off chance that Alya hadn't let him know as well. "It'll be the next two cuts that we're more interested in."

"Working over lunch again?" Sarah asked, appearing at Marinette side with a sandwich and Marinette's food from the microwave. She slid the hot dish over to Marinette before sitting down to eat her own lunch. "You gotta take a break sometime."

"I was just responding to some email," Marinette defended herself, though she knew Sarah was right. Every other day of the week, she had had sketches to work on over their lunch break. "And I was responding to a text from my friend Alya back home- she's made it past the first cut in this research competition."

"Oh, cool!" Sarah said immediately. "What is she researching?"

By the time Marinette finished telling Sarah about the kinds of things Alya was researching, the rest of her team had arrived and most were listening.

"Oh, I remember hearing about the superheroes in Paris," Abbey said. "Only vaguely, though. Some of my classmates were super excited that there were real-life superheroes. But I bet you know all about them, since you were there and all."

Oh, the irony. "Yeah, they were at my school all the time," Marinette said, only years of practice allowing her to keep a straight face. "There were a lot of akuma fights in my neighborhood."

"Oh, I would hate that," Emily said, shivering. "That would be so scary, to have superhero fights nearby all the time!"

The rest of her team nodded. Marinette managed to just smile and nod, trying not to laugh at what her coworkers' reactions might be if they ever found out that she had been right in the middle of every single one of those fights.

The rest of the afternoon flew by as the entire team came together to toss ideas around for the summer lines and to discuss the upcoming spring/summer Runway week. They ended the day with a strong plan going forward, a good start on their summer kid's line, and a bunch of sketches for the runway-to-streetwear pieces.

(Marinette also ended the workday with a response from the band- they had already heard about her prices from one for the other bands Marinette was already working with and were fine with it, so now she had a whole slew of new outfits and screen-printing screens to design.)

"How's the husband?" Sarah asked, appearing at Marinette's side as she walked towards her apartment building. "I've seen him in passing, but we haven't be able to talk for long. Either he's trying to get somewhere or I am. Or both. Often both."

"One of these days, one of those annoying reporters is gonna overhear you calling Adrien that and they're going to take you seriously," Marinette said, rolling her eyes fondly. Plagg would get along well with Sarah, what with his insistence on calling Marinette Adrien's wife and Sarah's insistence on calling Adrien Marinette's husband. She had even gotten the rest of the team in on it from time to time.

Sarah shrugged. "Eh, who cares about them. I'm not going to say anything to them to get you in trouble, though," she added quickly. "And if they do overhear me, I can just explain that duh, I'm referring to the prank because I was there, don't they recognize me from the bridesmaids photo? I won't say anything about how ridiculously married you two are."

Marinette thought about protesting that and then decided against it, because Tikki had said that in the past, too. If it weren't for the fact that they apparently couldn't hide their "married-ness" from everyone else, acting married would be quite a good thing, really. To her, acting married meant that she and Adrien were comfortable with each other and worked well together, and that was a good thing.

"Have a good evening with your husband," Sarah told Marinette as they separated once they were in the building. She grinned at Marinette's groan. "Don't be too cute."

"Right, right, of course," Marinette grumbled, waving her friend off and trying not to grin as she did. She headed through the door to her floor's hallway and made an immediate beeline to Adrien's door. Her boyfriend would surely be working on homework- he had a lot of projects and papers to do this semester on top of his usual studying- but that didn't mean that he wouldn't welcome the interruption.

And just like she suspected, Adrien was hunched over in front of his computer at the dining room table, headphones plugged in as he worked. Marinette grinned, dumping her bag on the couch and heading over to greet him.

"Hey, kitty," Marinette sing-songed, sliding up behind Adrien and sliding the headphones off. She dipped down to press a kiss to his cheek, and he twisted in his chair to return the kiss. She didn't miss his wince of pain when he twisted and she frowned. Clearly he had been sitting and studying for too long. Again. "Where's your heat pad? You should be using that if you're going to be sitting for so long."

Adrien jabbed a finger over his shoulder. "I was using it when I was sitting on the couch, but Plagg claimed it when I got up to use the bathroom and threatened to bite me if I moved him off of it. I think he likes the heat, because he does this whenever I have the rice pad out."

Marinette huffed and turned to glare at Plagg. Sure enough, he was napping on top of Adrien's rice heat pack on the far end of the couch, looking deeply content even though the heat from the pack was sure to have mostly dissipated by now. She stomped over and grabbed the pack out from under Plagg, ignoring the kwami's squawks.

Tiny god or not, she was not letting him steal Adrien's heat pack, especially not when Adrien clearly needed it. And even worse, it sounded like the stealing the rice pack was a common occurrence.

"I was sleeping!" Plagg complained, floating after her. "And there was some lovely residual heat still, and-"

"This is Adrien's," Marinette scolded as she brought it back to the microwave. "And he needs it. Go sit in the sun or something."

"But I like the heat!"

"It's not yours!"

"But I'm-"

Tikki zipped up after Plagg and twisted his tail, making his squeak. "You can't steal from your Chosen, Plagg!" she snapped at him as Marinette set the timer on the microwave. "You can maybe perch on the pad if Adrien allows, but you can't claim it and not let Adrien use it. And your poor Chosen is in pain right now because he couldn't use his heated pad!"

Plagg scoffed. "No, he's in pain because he was hunched over like an old man all afternoon. If he ever got up and stretched for a bit then he wouldn't have this problem."

Tikki let out a wordless shriek in Plagg's direction.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Plagg is at least partly right," Marinette said as she removed the newly-heated bag out of the microwave. She swatted Plagg away when he started drifting closer, drawn by the heat. "Adrien has to stop sitting in place for so long without getting up and stretching and taking breaks. But having this available to him would have helped." She tugged her (ridiculous) boyfriend off of his chair and face first onto the couch. Once he was settled, she draped the heating pad over the small of Adrien's back and he let out a happy sigh, relaxing into the couch.

"You gotta take better care of yourself, Adrien," Marinette sighed, rubbing his shoulders. A quiet purr floated up into the air between them. "I know your classes have really stepped up this year, but you need to take breaks and stretch. You're all tense."

"I have an exam on Friday," Adrien explained, voice muffled by the couch. "I was studying for that, and then trying to work on my paper. I swear that once I get both of those done I'll be able to relax a bit more."

Marinette dug the heels of her hands into the knotted muscle in Adrien's shoulders, making him yelp. "You'll be able to study better if you aren't stiff as a board, you dweeb."

"Rude."

They fell into silence, broken only by Adrien's quiet purr as Marinette worked on his tense muscles. Plagg floated over and settled on top of the hot pad, burrowing around to make a little divot in the heated rice. After a few more minutes, Tikki joined him.

"Feeling better?" Marinette asked after several minutes. She ran her hand up Adrien's back and into his hair, mussing it further. She adjusted the heating pad so it wasn't in danger of slowly sliding off. "I'm starting to think that I should have made two of these things. Then you could have one on your upper back, too."

Adrien made a happy little noise and wriggled slightly.

"I want one, too!" Plagg announced, rolling over and staring up at Marinette with pleading green eyes. "One that I can carry around wherever I want!"

Marinette gave Plagg a Look. "Will you stop stealing Adrien's if I make you a heat pack of your own?"

"Yes!"

Marinette made a face and gave Adrien a few light scratches behind his ears. She didn't want to reward Plagg by giving him a gift when he was stealing from Adrien (and she didn't exactly have a ton of spare time to spend making a kwami-sized rice pack, especially with the newest addition to her list of commissions to do), but Adrien was apparently unwilling to cross Plagg and risk being bitten. If she gave Plagg a miniature heat pack of his own, then Adrien wouldn't have to deal with his spoiled kwami stealing his when he needed it.

Fine. She would make a mini heat pack for Plagg, then. Maybe Adrien could occasionally steal it for his neck or something, just because turnabout was fair.

"D'you wanna order takeout tonight?" Marinette asked after a few more minutes. "I don't think there's much in the fridge right now and I don't really feel like cooking." She really wanted to get a good chunk of work done on her commissions tonight, and cooking and cleaning up just took up time that she didn't really have at the moment. She reached for her phone, scrolling with one hand as the other rubbed up and down Adrien's back. "Sarah recommended this Greek place. I've actually been there before with the people from work. It's not too expensive and they deliver."

"Sure." Adrien reached his arms forward and stretched, arching and twisting back and forth. "Mmm. I think I'm gonna bring this thing to bed tonight. If I stay here much longer, I'm going to fall asleep."

Marinette giggled and ran a hand up Adrien's spine as he stretched again. "You can take a little cat-nap while our food comes. It might help you focus better once you wake up again."

Adrien laughed and started to wriggle his way upright. Marinette hopped off of his legs so he could sit back up. "It's a little too late in the day for a cat-nap, I think. I'd just end up tired."

"If you say so."

Marinette went to order their dinner while Adrien moved his study materials to the floor so he could lay down and finish some assigned problems for one of his classes while keeping the hot pad on his back. Once their order was in (maybe Marinette had ordered a little more than they would eat, but she liked leftovers for lunch and so did Adrien), Marinette grabbed her tablet and settled down on the floor next to Adrien so she could draw with one hand and rub his shoulders with the other hand.

It was comfortable. Adrien leaned his head to the side, resting it against Marinette's knees as he worked. Partway through their wait, Marinette got up to reheat the rice bag and then resettle it on Adrien's back.

"Thanks, bug," Adrien said as she settled the bag across his shoulders. He smiled over at her as she settled back down at his side and picked up her new tablet again. "My back is feeling a whole lot better now."

"Promise me you'll take better care of it this weekend, when you have your test and the paper out of the way?"

Adrien grinned. "Well, then I'll have another two papers to focus on and another test to start studying for... but I suppose I could manage to screw up my back less than normal once my test on Friday is done."

Marinette sighed. She supposed that that was as good as she was going to get. "It seems like you have a lot more tests than normal this semester." Normally he just had a cluster of exams around the middle of the semester and again at the end, but now he had exams and paper due dates sprinkled through the semester. Adrien always seemed to be studying, but that wasn't a huge problem.

After all, she certainly had enough commission work to keep her busy. More than enough, even.

So much for their be-done-with-classwork-and-projects-by-a-certain-time pact from the fall. It seemed that these days, they worked up to it or over regularly, but it really couldn't be avoided. At least they did try to spend a chunk of time together without commissions or studying distracting them several times a week, even if those times had been shortened somewhat. And of course they tended to try to go to bed around the same time, too, and early enough that they didn't have to go to sleep right away.

"Yeah, I seem to be having tests at the end of every large unit for one of my classes," Adrien agreed. "I think it's because the units are so different, it wouldn't make sense to stick them together. And there's some other classes with a strange exam schedule, or that just have papers instead of exams."

Marinette hummed in acknowledgement, and kept sketching. She was currently working on finishing up a set of preliminary drawings for an earlier commission, and she wanted to get them down and approved soon so she could go and get the fabric and other things she needed at the same time she was picking up the stuff she needed for yet another order over the weekend. Not getting feedback and approval in time would mean that she would have to waste time going on a separate trip to the fabric store, unless she wanted to put to put off getting supplies for that commissions off until she was getting the things for her latest commission.

Needless to say, she would rather not have to do more trips than strictly necessary. And sure, maybe she should be focusing on finishing up her in-progress commissions first, but it was nice to have options for when she got to the fiddly work on a piece and she was too tired to do anything but sew long straight seams for one evening.

She had just finished the basic sketch when the take-out arrived. Marinette grabbed her wallet and trotted downstairs, meeting the delivery guy at the front door. One exchange of food and money later, and Marinette was trotting upstairs with her prize.

"That's a lot of food, Marinette," Adrien said with a laugh after Marinette set everything out on their table. He rolled to his feet with a quiet grunt, snagging his rice bag before it could fall to the ground. "Are we expecting guests?"

"It's not that much." In her defense, she had kind of thought that the serving sizes would be a little smaller. She must have misremembered how large they were. Whoops. "I mean, we'll have enough for two meals, but that's not a bad thing."

They dug in eagerly. Adrien still wasn't looking completely comfortable in the chair- clearly his back was still bothering him at least a little bit- but the discomfort hadn't affected his appetite at all.

Maybe they wouldn't have enough for two full meals after all.

"I might go to bed early tonight," Adrien told her as he scraped his plate clean. "I think that with all of the work I've done this afternoon, I should be in good shape."

"Lots of homework?"

To her surprise, Adrien shook his head. "Well, some. It was mostly cleaning up a rough draft for one of my papers this semester and writing up a lab paper for another class. That stuff always takes forever."

Marinette could understand that. Writing in English tended to take an annoyingly long time as she puzzled over the right words (and the right tenses, and the right form of the word to use, in some cases), and while Adrien had Ben to help get things polished up, he didn't like to give his papers to his tutor in too rough of a shape. "When are your papers due?"

"Most of the rough drafts are due close to midterms, but the lab paper is due next Thursday," Adrien said, making her start in surprise. That was ages out- right? Or had more of the semester passed her by than she realized? "I just want to get the bulk of the work out of the way now, because I never know what will come up closer to the due date. Ben has said that sometimes things can get intense around midterms and that people who tend to put stuff off until closer to the due date end up pulling all sorts of all-nighters. I've been trying to avoid that."

Marinette was of the opinion that Adrien was going a little over the top with trying to be prepared, but maybe Ben was right. Since it took Adrien longer to research and write in his second language, maybe it was a good idea for him to get that as much out of the way as he could now.

"I'm going to stay up a little longer, I think," Marinette said, glancing over at where her sketchbook and tablet sat side-by-side on the small side table. "I have some stuff I want to finish up tonight for commissions."

Adrien pouted at her for a moment, then sighed. "Okay. Honestly, I'll probably just take that rice pack with me and end up falling asleep straight off anyway. And I'll take better care of myself tomorrow, I promise. Really. I don't like my back hurting, either. It make it harder to focus. And it makes me feel old besides."

Only half an hour after they finished dinner, Adrien started getting ready for bed. He wandered into the kitchen to get Plagg his evening cheese chunk and to heat up the rice bag, then paused to kiss Marinette good night before heading back to the bedroom. Marinette watched him go, then turned back to her tablet.

One last cleaned-up sketch, and then she could send the files to her client. It still wouldn't be that late by that time, as long as she didn't spectacularly mess up and, like, delete the file once she was most of the way through it. Saving her work periodically would keep her safe from that, and then she should have time to start on the album cover art that she had just gotten the details ironed out for earlier in the week.

Hopefully.

"I thought you were just telling Adrien about how he shouldn't be overworking himself," Tikki said disapprovingly once Marinette had sent her email with the six attachments and immediately started some quick outlines for the cover art, general sketches and lines to get an idea of where she wanted different elements to go. "And now you're working later than you two agreed on your commissions."

"I'm not overworking myself," Marinette protested. "I just have some things that I need to get done to even come close to staying on track with the number of commission requests that I've been getting. And this particular art needs to get done sooner rather than later, since the shirt designs depend on it."

Tikki did not look impressed.

"I just want to get my general ideas for this drawn out while I still have them in my head," Marinette added. "I'm not going to complete the whole thing tonight. It'll be two hours at most, and you know Adrien went to bed really early."

Tikki's expression didn't change. "One hour more, tops."

"One forty-five."

"One fifteen."

"An hour and a half, and that's all I'm willing to budge."

Marinette went back to her work, drawing and re-drawing lines as she tried to get a rough sketch done. Fifty-seven minutes in and Marinette's rough outline started taking on more detail- though not too much, because then it would get too difficult to replicate as a print on a shirt. Since the band had also commissioned her to do the screen-printing of their shirts for them, Marinette had to make sure that she delivered an interesting, unique cover while still keeping it clean enough that it wouldn't be a pain to print.

Needless to say, Marinette was very happy that the band had wanted the cover in only black and silver, because having to print multiple colors on one shirt was just a pain. It would be simple enough to print in silver-grey on a black shirt or black on a grey shirt, as long as she didn't give in to the temptation to add too much detail.

"I thought you said that you weren't going to design the whole thing tonight!" Tikki complained as Marinette cleaned up more of the sketch. Slowly but surely, it was starting to look less like a quick sketch and more like a proper album cover, though it wasn't anywhere close to completion yet.

"I still have five minutes to work on it!" Marinette protested. She carefully erased a section and redrew a line. "And I'm not going to finish it tonight, you don't have to keep mother-henning me about that. I've still probably got two hours of work left on this for another night, and more than that if the band requests any changes."

Tikki let out a little hmph and zipped off. Marinette checked the clock one more time- now she only had four minutes left to work- and then worked on evening out a line. She had just finished cleaning the upper corner up when her watched chimed, letting Marinette know that her time was up and she had to go to bed.

Trying not to grumble (if she didn't have work the next day, then she definitely would have tried to power through another hour or two of work), Marinette saved her work one last time and powered down the tablet. It got carefully tucked away in her bag, in the carefully padded pocket that she had made just for it, and then she headed back to the bedroom to wash up. It didn't take long, and then Marinette was slipping into bed next to a sleeping Adrien. He was sleeping on his stomach, which puzzled her for a moment until she remembered that he had mentioned going to sleep with his rice bag.

Sliding her hand over, Marinette felt for the bag. It was cold under the blankets, so Marinette carefully tugged it off of Adrien. After a moment's consideration, she headed back out to the kitchen to warm it back up again. Adrien didn't stir when she replaced the pack on his back, but he did let out a happy sigh that trailed off into a purr.

He was such a cat. Marinette couldn't deny that it was really, really cute.

It only took a few minutes more to set up her alarm for the next morning and get it arranged on the bedside table, and then she was sliding back between the sheets. Marinette could feel the heat from both Adrien and the heat pad as she curled up next to his side. His face was relaxed and angelic in sleep, finally free of stress and tension.

"Sleep well, chaton," Marinette murmured, leaning over to press a kiss to the part of his forehead that wasn't obscured by hair. "You need it."

Real Life Recess

The idea of being mindful—or being present, being more conscious of life as it happens—may seem contradictory to those who are used to sacrificing living for pursuing their goals but cultivating mindfulness will help you achieve your goals and help you enjoy life more. In fact, you’re more productive when you’re mindful – and when your body is feeling less anxious it reduces stress and lowers blood pressure.  When you are mindful and able to live more in the moment you can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened, you are more aware and excepting of your weaknesses- which reduces the kinds of impulsivity and reactivity that is associated with depression, binge eating and attention problems, mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic and more secure which could also lead to more satisfying relationships with friends and family.

So, if being mindful and being present and more conscious of life in the moment can create a recipe for a more fulling life and - on paper seems like such an easy thing to do then why are there so many stressed out people out there who work more then they live for themselves or more importantly when was the last time you took a shower that didn’t feel rushed because you had something more important to do (like raising a child?)

How on earth do we become more mindful?

I remember growing up, every morning I would hear my mama’s alarm go off and I would hear her get out of bed and find her way to the kitchen where she would sit at the table quietly sipping on her freshly brewed coffee and after about half hour she would then shower and get ready for work, she did this every morning until I moved out and you would think that would have taught me some sort of structure but I am lucky if I even remember to set my alarm clock and 9 times out of 10 I am rolling out of bed at 20 after 8 rushing to get Colton to school on time (which we are getting better at).  I wish I was that person that could get up with sun but this girl is not a fan of early mornings and I don’t drink coffee so my mornings consist of running around like a crazy person, waking up a 7 year old, getting him dressed, making him breakfast – reminding him 17 times to brush his teeth, to put socks on all while trying to put together a healthy lunch (this is where I wish I had more then two hands) and when I finally feel like I have everything under control and his backpack packed and ready to go, I score the last 10 minutes to myself- just to put clean underwear on! Lol And up until about 6 months ago I had the mentality that being productive meant working 12 hour days and coming home to cook, clean and parent- I made zero time for myself and when I did I was more concerned with the work that would pile up in my absence. My days would start as chaotic as they ended – and I struggled to find time to even get the oil in my car changed within 3 months of the expected change date, but that was my normal and I had accepted that. I started working at 15 and I was managing my own retail store by 17. I went onto bigger and more amazing things throughout my 20’s to now and I have worked really hard to get where I am- but I believed that in order to be successful I needed to dedicate myself to work – at whatever cost (which I realize now was my own happiness)  

Looking back now, I wonder what my mom was thinking about in that half hour of caffeinated bliss, was she planning the day ahead, what we were going to have for dinner, what bills were coming out that week or was she simply just enjoying 30 minutes of pure silence before her own chaotic day started?

I have started taking an hour to myself everyday (sometimes two) however I am not in need of that hour to plan my day or drink my coffee - I have learned that in my life, I can no longer plan ahead because… well… “shit just happens” and if you can’t learn to roll with the punches then the anxiety of not being prepared (for me at least) takes control - I have had to learn to let go of the “what ifs” (like “what if” I picked up that call- the not knowing drives me absolutely bonkers) but I’ve spent a lot of time reminding myself that life is full of what ifs and maybe we should spend more time taking risks and just accepting whatever happens, BUT anxiety is a bitch like that – doesn’t wait for the welcome mat to be rolled out before it pushes its way in.

So as my mama would say “why borrow trouble” – and, I find myself repeating this daily.

After I quit my job I got stuck in this routine of dropping Colton off at school, and going straight to the gym where I would stand and chat with the girls for about 20 minutes, workout for an hour (or dance) massage, chat with the girls (again) only to leave to come home to do the dishes, clean the house, feed the fish, do the laundry, pick up Colton, make dinner and so on, from there it was just on repeat- I became a “house hold CEO” I managed my house like I did my gym because I was so lost and the only thing I knew how to do was work – and at no time did I think to myself, “hmm, maybe I should stop and think about what I need for once”-

How terrible is that- one of the worst things I could be going through right now and I still couldn’t put myself first.

Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

But slowly things have started to change, I am no longer worried about having to go home to clean or cook or pick up Colton every day and so that leaves me with a few more hours to do things for myself and although my mornings stay fairly consistent, my day to day has really changed – I took a solo trip to Ikea, I walked around every room and just took in all the quiet- the drive was probably my favourite part- no where to be, and no 7 year old child yelling at me to put “loud night” on lol- and even though I have done that drive about a thousand times – everything seemed so fresh! But that is part of the problem, we simply cannot live in the moment, when we are at work we fantasize about being in warmer climates and when we are on vacation we worry about all the things we aren’t doing while we are being “lazy” on a beach somewhere, I still stressing out over things I know are not getting done at a job that isn’t even mine anymore -  we dwell on intrusive memories either from the past or things we may stress about for our futures.  We become mindless that we stop paying attention to the things around us that we should be taking the time to appreciate, we go about our morning routines in a haze because we’ve done it a thousand times and so we stop being mindful.  

Here is what I do know and the only thing I can 100% plan for - my day is going to start at least 20 minutes late hectic from the second it starts and I am going to question if we will make it for the bell (still snap a quick selfie (late or not) because well, it’s me) and as we get there we will hear the first bell ring and he will start running towards door with his little back pack on which is half the size of him and I will casually stroll behind him because I know he is going to get half way there and run back for a quick kiss from mama (leaving him even more late, lol) and then within a few seconds he is gone I can tell you that chaos is my favourite part of the morning (HE is my favourite part of our mornings) - But the need to have a plan or at least have an idea of what to expect used to consume me at least 23/7 (yes, even when I am sleeping) and I would be lying if I said my anxiety didn’t get the best of me every time I found myself in new environments/situations without having a plan of being there – I can say I may not have this down pat yet, but something I am working on.

So finally, last week Andrea, Ankush and I went to Toronto to check out this place called HideSeek they call it an “immersive pop up experience inspired by childhood nostalgia” and let me tell you- its description meets the experience- from 90’s pop music to rooms full of beautiful childhood colors like pinks, whites and oranges I felt like a kid again (and going with Andrea and Ankush just made the experience that much better) Ankush, beside being just a really good friend is also an amazing photographer who was wonderful enough to take some photos of us while we explored this indoor adult playground-the rooms were all really interactive and we were the only people in there so we took our time and among 600 beautiful photos to show for it the three of us had a BLAST, I have not laughed so hard in years – and the moments he was able to capture on film are a serious reminder that being mindful and humble and appreciative for the moments we are in happens to be SO much more fulfilling then always planning the next step.

So, to answer the question above, how do you become more mindful? It’s simple really, you give yourself your own 30 minutes of caffeinated bliss - a “real life recess” – whatever works for you! 

Sense of Home

AU: More than a year after her father passed away, Lucy Heartfilia sat surrounded by 200 unpacked boxes in the apartment she moved into months ago. Ashamed of being incapable of unpacking, she shut herself out from the rest of her friends. But one pink-haired idiot of a boy decides to take a risk and show her what it feels like to be home. One-shot. 

Fandom: Fairy Tail Word Count: 3000 Characters: Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Erza, Mirajane, Gajeel, Levy, Lisanna, Jellal, Loke Rated: K Genre: Friendship & Hurt/Comfort Can also be found here

*Inspired by a post floating around on tumblr, just so I can get my feet wet in a new fandom. Please let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is very welcomed! 

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Lucy Heartfilia unlocked the door to her apartment, keys jingling as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She slipped off her ankle-high boots and shrugged off the light jacket she had worn to keep away the autumn chill in the air. As if it were routine, she pulled a frozen dinner out of the freezer and popped it in the microwave, before moving to pour herself a glass of wine.

As the microwave hummed and she sipped on a glass of Merlot, her dark eyes scanned the living room with half-hearted interest. Boxes sat piled haphazardly throughout the apartment, black lettering scrawled on the sides. She was sure she had dishes packed away somewhere - beautiful china that had been in her family for generations - and a more suitable glass for wine other than the plastic disposable cup she was currently using, but the dread of unpacking heavily outweighed the desire to have finer dishware.

Her cell phone buzzed from its place on the counter, and she reached over to read a text message that had come through.

[Hey Lucy! Will you be home Thursday night?]

She sipped on her wine thoughtfully as she pondered her best friend's question. Natsu Dragneel certainly wasn't one for asking questions before action, which made her curious as to why he needed to know her plans.

[Yeah. Why?]

It took about a minute for her phone to buzz again with his response. [Can I stop by?]

Lucy rolled her eyes, part of her apprehensive about how she was going to reply. For all intents and purposes, Natsu was a very good friend to her. She couldn't say how many times he made her laugh until her sides hurt, and held her when she needed a crutch to lean on. But his insistences over the past few months were beginning to wear on her, and honestly she wasn't sure if she was up for his company this week.

Her gaze trailed to the rest of her apartment. He had already seen the disarray several times, but if she was being truthful, every time he laid eyes on her unpacked apartment, she felt mortified.

It had been over a year since her dad died. She really couldn't recall ninety-percent of what had happened in that year. One minute she was crying in a hospital room, the next she was an orphaned college student in a new apartment with an inheritance she never asked for.

She couldn't remember packing away her father's things - or her things, for that matter - as she moved from the grand estate she had called home into an apartment that was no bigger than her old bedroom. And every night as she came home from class to stare at the boxes taunting her from every corner of her new living quarters, she felt ashamed.

Lucy couldn't unpack. Months had passed since she moved, and for some reason, she just couldn't find the will power to empty the boxes that held her home. Natsu had been the only guest she had allowed over because she had known him since the fourth grade and thus her oldest and dearest friend. She knew he wouldn't judge her, but she still felt humiliated knowing her life remained packed in cardboard boxes.

Like, how could she be unable to unpack? "Just open the damn boxes" she would curse to herself every time she found herself staying in and staring at the offending objects. But the more she stared at them, the more she felt the heartsick eat away at her.

After the first night in her apartment, she cried for nineteen days straight.

Glancing back at her phone with Natsu's text message waiting patiently for a response, Lucy let the wine make the decision for her and decided she needed some kind of company to off-set the silence of her past.

[Sure. I'll be home by 5]

He sent her a winkie-face in response, which only caused her to smile with amusement. As she exited out of his message, she let her gaze wander to the list of other texts she had received, some she had never responded to.

[You are loved <3 <3 <3]

[We need you bunny girl]

[Smile Lucy!]

[You're amazing. Don't forget that.]

The few she had responded to left a biting tone, words between the lines asking them to leave her to grieve in peace.

[Doesn't matter, but thanks]

Lucy knew her friends were only trying to make her feel better, but they couldn't. They knew she was struggling and felt helpless. Lucy understood that. However, her friends couldn't take away the ache in her chest and she was sick of them putting in the effort.

So, she had left the last few messages untouched. Alone with her glass of wine, she padded to her bedroom - occupied by a mattress that sat on the floor - pulled out her laptop, and began streaming a movie she had seen a dozen times before.

She ignored the two-hundred unpacked boxes that mocked her as she did so.

At six o'clock on Thursday evening, there was a knock on her door. Lucy unfolded herself from the one chair in her living room and mentally prepared herself for a Natsu-shenanigan-filled night. "I'm coming," she called as she side-stepped a stack of boxes and reached the door.

When she opened the door, she was in no way prepared for the barrage of people who pushed their way into her apartment, saying, "Surprise, Lucy!" while bearing platters of food, cleaning products, and complete unconcern for her, "Wait… You can't come in here! I haven't unpacked yet!" protestations.

Her apartment filled with chatter as people she had grown deep friendships with began moving about the space - pointing in different directions, walking down the hallway to scope out the layout, setting up the kitchen as if for a party. There were her old classmates and work friends and people she hadn't physically seen in years. And at the end of it all stood Natsu with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Hiya, Luce!"

"Natsu!" she practically screeched, hands curled into her hair with panic as her eyes skirted between him and the group of people who were now scattered around her apartment. "What are you doing?!"

He slung an arm around her shoulders, both of them watching as her friends began dividing up the rooms and unpacking what was left of her life. He pulled at her blonde hair playfully. "We're here for you."

Before she could corner him and question exactly what the hell he meant by that, he had disappeared into the kitchen, more than likely about to gorge on some of the food platters their old friend, Lisanna, had begun unwrapping. Lucy could only open and close her mouth like a fish as she watched her perfectly stacked boxes begin to take shape of disarray.

"Hey there, Lucy," a silver-haired woman greeted with a smile.

She turned to look up into bright blue eyes. "Mira?" She hadn't seen the woman since working as a waitress at a bar before her dad died. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged and swept her gaze to the rest of the organized chaos. "Natsu sent us a group text the other day. He told us you were struggling and you needed our help. So he asked us to all come over and help unpack your apartment for you. He told us to bring food." She giggled. "And to make it fun."

As if on cue, Levy McGarden (a friend she had met in her Creative Writing class two years prior) pulled out a Bluetooth speaker and put on some tunes that made it seem more like an actual party instead of Lucy's personal pity party. Levy threw up a wave in Lucy's direction, her expression forming an unspoken apology as she shrugged.

"Wait," she tried again, hands up to grab the attention of all her uninvited guests. "I didn't know about this. You guys can't just come over!"

"Give it a rest, Bunny Girl," a man named Gajeel Redfox (who she met at a college Halloween party) said as he pushed passed her with a case of beer and bag of ice. "You ain't gettin' rid of us that easily."

Mirajane Strauss giggled and nudged Lucy in the side. "Just try to have a little fun, okay?" she said with a wink before disappearing into the throng of friends that crowded her apartment.

Lucy stood with wide-eyes, watching as Levy unpacked her fifteen-hundred books and found places for them on her bookshelf (in alphabetical order by genre, if she knew Levy). Her hands wrung nervously as her friend Loke (the son of one of her father's old business partners) hung pictures on her walls. Her heart felt like it was beating right out of her chest with anxiety as her friend Erza Scarlet (a woman who forced her friendship in the cafeteria one day over strawberry cake) organized her closet and put away all her clothes. Sometime during the evening, Mirajane and Lisanna had managed to set up a taco-making station in the kitchen, as Gajeel filled a cooler with the beer and ice.

Before she could process what exactly she was going to do next, another knock came to her door, and Lucy turned to answer it. On her doorstep stood Gray Fullbuster (a man she met senior year of high school out by the baseball dugouts) with a grin and a handle of Jack in his hand.

"Hey, Lucy. Sorry I'm late."

"L-Late?" she stuttered. "You aren't even supposed to be here!"

He shrugged with a lazy grin. "Well, I am. So put me to work."

"Um… well…" she tried, her brain fumbling to come up with something to say, because they weren't supposed to be here! and she didn't know what he was supposed to do.

"Perfect! Fullbuster, give me a hand!" Loke called from within the apartment, and Gray gave her arm an affectionate squeeze before he pushed passed her. Lucy shook her head in complete awe, softly closing the door, and turning to look at the commotion.

She somehow managed to make her feet move from beyond the doorway and found her way to Loke as he ripped open the paper wrapping on a framed picture. "I'm really good at measuring stuff," he answered her as she approached, Gray with an amused smile as he examined another framed picture nearby. Loke flashed a confident grin as he stood to look at her walls. "Let me put these up in your hallway."

Curling blonde hair around her finger nervously, Lucy hovered near Loke, not wanting to give up control. She watched as Gray held up a picture on the wall, Loke scrutinizing its placement, before pointing to another one instead. "Wait," Lucy said, pointing to a different spot on the wall. "Put that one there, maybe?"

Loke chuckled, but never missed a beat. "Go away, Lucy."

And without even meaning to, she did. And he was so much better at hanging stuff than she was! For the first thirty minutes, she had been embarrassed about her unpacked boxes, but as the night wore on and her apartment began to take shape, filled with distracting conversations and laughter she hadn't felt in forever, she let it all go.

They took a break for dinner, everyone's paper plates overwhelmingly full of tacos, as they sat on unopened boxes, on the floor, on the one chair in the living room, on each other's laps, someone resting a dinner plate on her DVD player. Some of them had never met before, some of them were the best of friends, some of them had only crossed paths. But they found conversation between them, lives intertwined, interests abound.

Lucy watched as this group of misfits of her friends found a common objective and came together so beautifully it made her heart ache.

"Speaking of date night," Erza interrupted as Mirajane finished telling a story about a first date gone horribly wrong. "Lucy, I'm concerned for your abundance of intriguing choices of underwear. What occasions do you have a need for such things?"

Heat seared her cheeks as Lucy turned a cherry red, her eyes widening as she practically choked on her food. Gajeel laughed out loud as Levy waved her hands dramatically in the air, saying, "Erza! You can't just ask a girl that!"

Natsu scrunched up his nose with a thoughtful look, before adding, "A family party?"

"Definitely not," Gray immediately responded with a shake of his head. "You got flames for brains?"

Her best friend was immediately on his feet, empty plate sliding to the floor as he clenched his hands into fists. "You wanna fight, pervy flasher?"

And true to his words, somehow during the evening, Gray's shirt had disappeared. Lucy hoped she wouldn't stumble across it later.

"That's enough, you two," Erza attempted to intervene, standing between them. "There will be no fighting."

Gajeel cracked his knuckles. "Aww, come on, Scarlet. Let us go a few rounds."

She silenced him with a glare that could kill.

Natsu grinned, pumping his fists into the air a few times. "Yeah, come on, fight me! I'll take you all on."

Mirajane giggled, circling the group as she gathered empty dinner plates, taking note of the warm flush to Natsu's cheeks. "Oh dear, I think someone needs to be cut off."

Gray rolled his eyes. "I told you not to drink Jack, you moron."

"I feel like the idiot's only job is to drink," Gajeel grumbled, leaning his chin in his hand.

"Do I have to make you all play nice?" Erza threatened again, her frustration peaking from being ignored.

Gray smirked. "Play nice? We don't 'play' or do 'nice'."

Lucy suddenly laughed, and all eyes turned to the surprising yet welcoming sound. She laughed until her stomach hurt, as her friends joined in, and tears came to her eyes. Here she was, Lucky Lucy Heartfilia, not even able to do the simplest of tasks. And nobody had judged her. Her friends simply swept into her apartment like superheros, somehow finding a way to do what she couldn't.

As dinner was cleaned up and everyone returned to work, she was overwhelmed by the sight of all her crazy friends turning themselves into Santa's workshop. On her behalf. Without asking her. They just showed up and barged in. They were all so practical and bossy, she couldn't even hold onto her embarrassment.

At the end of the night, Lucy looked at Erza's fiance, Jellal - a quiet, tactiturn guy who drove a tugboat on the Hudson, a practical man of few words - and she just gazed at him, speechless. She had no idea how to say thank you, especially to such a tough, resilient, self-sufficient man.

Jellal looked down at her with a gentle smile, sweeping his blue hair from his eyes. He saw the expression on her face, and he understood everything that was behind it. "Listen, Lucy," he said, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. "What we did today was a barn-raising."

And Lucy nearly cried right then and there as he wrapped her in a tight hug.

When they all swept out of there four hours later, her place was a home. Lucy gazed around the newly-furnished apartment - her crocheted blanket she spent winter nights curled under, a picture of her parents sitting on the fireplace mantle, decorative towels hanging from her oven door - and then turned to Natsu, who stood by the door with a toothy grin and a flush to his cheeks. "Better, Luce?"

Not only was everything put away, but now it had a memory attached to it - a group memory. Friends, laughter, dirty jokes, hard work.

This pink-haired idiot took a risk. It very well could have ended badly. Lucy could've lashed out. She could have been really offended. But this silly man with a spirit of fire took a risk and sent out a text to all her local friends.

"Yeah," she whimpered, wiping a tear away as it spilled down her cheek.

He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, Lucy breathing in the scent of ash and charcoal from his time on the railroad. She could've been offended, insulted, hurt. But Natsu took a risk.

The 'ask for help' advice was well-meaning, but not really thought through. There was shame. There was the enforced helplessness. There were the feelings she wasn't worth it. But her friends didn't wait for her to ask for help. They showed up. They took over. They didn't ask.

And they left her realizing that no matter what happened in her life, what tragedies she faced, home wasn't a place. It was a feeling. Somehow, her weirdo of a friend had found a way to create a sense of home for her here.

It felt authentic. And true. And everything she had ever longed for.

— answer these questions then tag 20 blogs you’d like to know better!

Name: Mindia is the name and yes that's actually my stupid fucking name. I'm not on anything in the thrift stores. Can't share a coke with me, nope.

Zodiac: Saggitarius

Height: 5'5"

Time: 12:57 PM

Favorite Band / Artist: Its hard for me to have just one because there are so many artists who have inspired me throughout my short life so far. For music, John Powell knocks it out of the park. I've spent hours listening to the soundtracks of many of the movies I grew up with. I can't wait to hear what he comes up for How To Train Your Dragon 3! And the biggest artistic influence in my life has been @vivziepop . She's always inspired me to keep chasing my love for art, and to draw for myself. Seeing her come out with her own production with her own characters just proves that with hard work and persistence you can achieve your dreams. Check her out if you haven't yet because she's amazing.

Song Stuck In My Head: "Flying With Mother" from HTTYD 2 because now I'm thinking of John Powell.

Last Movie I Saw: "Cold Skin" with David Oakes. It was okay, a simple concept really. Some of it didn't really make sense, I think there were some holes in the plot, but other than that it was.. cute.

Last Thing I Googled: If nitenpyram is effective for killing fleas. The answer is: yes, but after about 72 hours, the fleas come back.

Other Blogs: Nah.

Do I Get Asks: Once in a blue moon.

Why Did I Choose This Username: I didn't choose this username. This username chose me. ( Aik is the nicest of my characters, and the most approachable. When I roleplay with new people I try to introduce her first because she's not a jerk. You could say she's my main when it comes to my characters and roleplaying. )

Following:  199 ( whoa, when did this happen )

Average Amount of Sleep: I go to bed around 9, and wake up at 5 usually. So you're typical 8 hours. I have insomnia, so I try not to go to bed too late, because once I wake up, I'm up. For some reason, I just wake up at 5 in the morning. Occassionally I'll wake up at 6:30 or 7. I consider that sleeping in. Bad days are when I wake up at 3.

What I Am Wearing: Uhm... Khaki's.. Nah. I'm wearing a dirty plaid shirt and a pair of messy pants.

Dream Job/Career: Y'know, I'm not sure. My dream would be to be fully self sustainable. Whether I'm some mountain man in the Rockies, living off the land and what I farm, or a small successful artist in a little apartment with all the necessities, I'd be happy. I just don't want to work a dead end job, and I certainly dont want to work up to be someone who manages people who end up working that dead end job. If that makes sense.

Dream Trip: I want to go to Yellowstone. It's not much, but I've always wanted to see the rainbow pools and see the hot ass water shoot out of the ground yeah!

Favorite Food: Pizza

Play Any Instruments: In high school I played this bong looking instrument called the Bassoon! I miss it sometimes, it had this amazing, deep-rich sound that went great with bass brass instruments.

Eye Color: Hazel

Hair Color: Brown

Languages You Speak: English

Most Iconic Song: Uhm. Eye of the Tiger?

Random Fact: Emetophobia is the fear of vomiting, and I have it.

Describe Yourself as Aesthetic Things: Water stain on the ceiling in your ninth grade classroom; a mildew-soaked, military-green sponge on the bottom of a pile of week old dishes in the sink; large, endless fields of nothing but porcupines.

Tagged by:  @zimvasion

Tagging: @littlegreeneyedinvader @little-gaz @radio-gentleman @couch-house @tallest-spork-greenbean And anyone else who wants to do this because boy I can NOT think of 20 people.

iKON TV Episode 5: A Recap

For the episode 5 of iKON TV, Yunhyeong took the baton & became the next PD to direct the episode. He planned a ‘Healing Trip’ for his team that would take them to an island where mostly people age 60 and above lives.

His plan was inspired by a Korean variety show called “3 Meals A Day”. Meaning, the boys would make their meals from scratch. As expected from the ahjussi of the iKON (“old man”, teased because of his old taste), this theme is so Song Yunhyeong.

The episode started with iKON going out to watch the horror movie, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. They first bought foods and snacks then proceeded to the cinema. When the movie started, Yunhyeong got scared his members sitting behind him would scare him so he transferred beside Hanbin, which was also sitting at the back, leaving Jinhwan alone.  Scared, Jinhwan tried to convince his other member to sit beside him to no avail.

The segment introduced us to the different types of movie-goers the iKON boys are. Yunhyeong, the fussy scaredy type who get scared easily & reacts loudly. Jinhwan, the peeking type, covers his eyes & ears while watching. Hanbin, the peaceful type, meditating even while watching horror movie and carefully watching and studying the movie. Lastly, Junhoe, the one who keeps asking because he doesn’t understand. He don’t get scared because he can’t understand >< Thankfully, there’s Donghyuk to answer his questions.

The second segment is iKON’s self-camera on what they do during their day-off. Chanwoo cooked a meal & shared it with Bobby. After eating, sleepy-head Bobby went back to his dorm downstairs dumped the poor self-cam to his pile of clothes & slept.

Meanwhile, Donghyuk visited his producer friend Ihwak on his studio. Together, they went shopping for couple shirts. The foodie trio, Junhoe, Jinhwan and Yunhyeong went to a restaurant to eat. By which we’ve learned Junhoe’s wisdom on twirling wine: to mix it. Lol.

Hanbin went to his studio where his producer friends also hang out. He introduced to us the co-producers to his hit song Love Scenario, Seung and Rae( Raesung, producer, trainee in YGE), his new producer friend Dustyy and of course, his best friend who is also a YG artist, ONE, whom he greeted for his birthday. Together, Hanbin calls them his ‘Funny Friends’.

On the day of the trip, Yunhyeong started his self-camera at 5 AM to wake his members up. A rare sight that most ikonics waited for, ‘woke up like this’ theme, thank you Song Yunhyeong! Though the members were surprised by the sudden visit of today’s PD, we, ikonics, are blessed of the rare sight of iKON’s just-woke up beauty. Now I wouldn’t dwell deeper than that just watch the episode!

Though the members have no idea of Yunhyeong PD’s plans, they went with his instructions and prepared for the day’s activity.  They arrived on a port and went on a ship to Deokjeok Island. While sailing, Yunhyeong PD introduced his three golden rules for their trip which are (1) They must be happy till the end (2) The must not defy Yunhyeong PD, and lastly, the most important rule, (3) PD is the king xD He was bombarded by strong objections from the members but PD is the king so, nice try I guess? Lol

After arriving to Deokjeok Island, they transferred boats, and sailed again to Munggap Island. There, the boys were welcomed by the village head and their guide for the day, Chief Lee. Mr. Lee escorted them to their lodge. There, Yunhyeong PD introduced their theme and their tasks for the day.

Jinhwan, Donghyuk and Chanwoo were assigned to pick herbs and vegetables while Bobby, Hanbin and Junhoe were assigned to the mudflats to pick clams and catch fish and octopus. Vegetables team wore working pants while the mudflat team wore jumper with boots. Fashion A++!

Vegetables team rode a monorail that will take them to the top of the mountain where they can pick herbs. Though a little scared, the team sure enjoyed this unique experience which they compared to riding a rollercoaster (Jinhwan singing rollercoaster in the background).

After arriving at their workplace, they were introduced to Chief Kim, who taught them how to apply fertilizers to the plants. They do what they’re told to, and though it’s their first time, the trio did a good job at farming. Donghyuk even found a new skill which he is good at!

They applied fertilizers, carried sacks, picked up herbs and … made Kalopanax shoots CF xD there’s really no limit to how extra these boys can be.

Though sceptical at first, the boys agreed that the experience is really healing and amazing.

Meanwhile, The Mudflat team were amazed at their first experience of the mudflats. They sink whenever they take a step, and even bobby’s cameraman is not an exception. There, the grannies taught them how to harvest clams. They get so busy catching clams and crabs that they forgot to catch octopus first. Uh-oh.

The tide has already risen so they were not able to catch any octopus. Pitying them, a local ahjussi gave them octopus. (Thank you ahjussi<3) The locals were so nice, giving them a taste of octopus and fish sashimi. Of course, Bobby who can’t eat raw fish was sitting alone on the corner trying to catch a fish.

The local gave them fish because they can’t catch any. The boys, feeling grateful, gave him crabs and octopus in return. The ahjussi seems to be a fan of iKON TV as well as he even wished them to enter Billboard charts. (Hanbin’s wish from episode 2) Thank you ahjussi! <3

The mudflat trio loved the peaceful atmosphere of the village, even planning to live in a place like Munggap village in 30 years’ time.

Making your own food from scratch is really no joke. After arriving home, the mudflat trio tried to chop logs. Meanwhile, herbs team Jinhwan and Chanwoo were sent to get some mushrooms. Donghyuk was assigned to make a fire. But when Donghyuk couldn’t light the fire, thankfully, Bobby was there to help.

 Yunhyeong PD, or more widely known as Song Chef, stayed at the lodge the whole time. He made stocks, potato noodles from scratch, potato jeon for Bobby who can’t eat seafood, and cooked the shoot and clam noodles – today’s main dish!

There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing my favourite boys enjoy their food. After a day of hard work, they can finally eat their first meal.

 Overall, the episode is refreshing and heart-warming. I’m soo excited for the 6th episode next week!

Goal Setting Formula Masterclass - Relaunched

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Goal Setting Formula Masterclass - Relaunched

 Buy Now    

DISCOVER THE SECRET HOW TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU WANT AND START LIVING THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE YOU DESIRE

Here’s how to find out what you truly want out of life and achieve amazing success through the power of goal setting…

Hey you, yes, you…

Have you ever felt like there are so much to achieve in life, seeing others achieving outstanding results, but you just can’t seem to find a way to make things work?

The fact that you’re reading this right now simply shows that you know you have the potential to achieve more in life, but somehow, you can’t seem to produce the results you want, right?

Most people want to be successful. They want to live a great life. They want to be financially free. They want to have fit and slim body. They want to have the freedom to travel first-class without worrying about the money. Etc.

But, there are 2 main problems that stop people from succeeding in life…

You may know Tony Robbins as the world’s #1 success coach, you’ve probably read 1 or 2 of his books (remember Unlimited Power?), and perhaps, you may have also attended his life-changing seminars.

However, that was not how Tony Robbins started.

He once considered himself a failure. He was almost 40 pounds over-weight. He was physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially “broke.” And he was living in a small studio apartment where he had to wash the dishes in the bathtub because there was no kitchen.

And like most people, Tony Robbins wanted to make a change. He wanted out. That’s not the kind of life he had signed up for.

On a day when he was traveling on train throughout Russia, Tony did one thing that completely change his life forever.

He spent hours on the train from Moscow to Siberia and back to Leningrad. With nothing to write on but the back of an old Russian map, he wrote down all the goals and the success he desired in life.

Tony told this story in his best-selling book, Awaken The Giant Within:

“Eight years ago, in 1983, I did an exercise that created a future so compelling that my whole life changed as a result. As part of the overall process of raising my standards, I established a whole new set of goals, writing down all the things I would no longer settle for, as well as what I was committed to having in my life. I set aside all my limiting beliefs and sat down on the beach with my journal.

I wrote continuously for three hours, brainstorming every possibility of what I could ever imagine doing, being, having, creating, experiencing, or contributing. The time line I gave myself for achieving these goals was any time from tomorrow to the next twenty years. I never stopped to think whether I could actually achieve these goals or not. I simply captured any possibility that inspired me, and wrote it down.”

Clarity is true power.

Tony Robbins transformed his life around and became one of the most sought-after success coaches in the world. Today, his name is often associated with success and motivation.

First, most people don’t know what they want to achieve out their lives. They have dreams or very general wishes like “I want to be happy”, “I want to be rich”, or “I want to live a good life”. But that’s all they got.

Next, even if they have clearer goals and they know what they want in life, they will still fail because they don’t understand how things work.

Success starts from within you. You can have all the dreams you want and you have all your goals, but if you don’t learn how to master the inner game, you will never materialize and accomplish your goals.

Finally, the process of achieving your goals is not an easy path. You’ll have to go through a lot of ups and downs, you’ll face plenty of bumps and roadblocks, and only if you learn how to overcome these obstacles, you will never achieve your goals.

Truth be told, nothing changes if you don’t change anything.

Meaning, if you want to achieve all your goals, live the dream life that you have longed for – financially, physically, emotionally – you need to do something DIFFERENT than what you’ve been already doing. 

My friend, if you keep on doing what you’re doing, you’ll get the same old results that have gotten exactly where you are right now. 

And if you’re not satisfied with your current states and the life, or if you desire for something better, something good, something more exciting, then you’ve got to do something different.

What if you become crystal clear with your vision and know exactly what you want to achieve in life? You can then fly like an arrow, straight to the bull’s eye (your goals).

What if you can have all the drive and motivation you need to go through every day and accomplish your work like a super-achiever? Your productivity will increase tremendously, and you will feel extremely fulfill because you become a producer than a procrastinator.

What if you can find your core purpose and find the meaning to live an amazing life? Life can become so much more interesting. You’ll never find it hard to get out of bed. Heck, you can’t even wait to wake up because you have a real purpose in life and you want to make an impact to the world.

​What if you can achieve all of your goals and live a successful life? What kind of dream lifestyle do you want to have? What will you do if you are successful in every area of life – financially, physically, emotionally, etc.?

​What if you can finally take charge of your life and craft the lifestyle that you desire? Do you want to increase your income and build wealth? Do you want to lose weight, get into shape, and build 6-pack abs? How about getting out of debt, paying off your mortgages and car loans? Do you want to build a successful side business or even travel the world?

I want to introduce you… Goal Setting Formula Masterclass

Goal Setting Formula is the masterclass I created where I share the highly effective step-by-step method of how anyone can set and achieve their goals, so you don’t have to crack your head to search for the secret of achievement anymore.

Here’s one thing you need to understand – Goal Setting Formula is not your ordinary course where you learn just the theories. It is a complete masterclass where I cover how you can master your inner self, set your goals, and also how you can build supporting ‘pillars’ to make sure you follow through and actually achieve your goals. 

Not only that, I also share the action and goal setting templates that you can use to immediately produce significant results. 

According to a study done by Scranton University…

“97% of people who set goals fail to achieve them, so what do the other 3% do to guarantee their success…?”

My friend, please understand that goal setting is a skill. And in order to get better at a skill, what do you need to do?

You practice it deliberately on a regular basis. Remember, you can train yourself to become a super-achiever to accomplish all the goals that you set.

MODULE 1: Building the Foundation and Mastering the Inner Game!

MODULE 2: Setting Empowering Goals and Creating Your Future!

 This is where you will discover the step-by-step formula in creating goals that will change the course of your life.

​You will learn the SMARTER goal system and the two measures that determine your results.

​Not only that, you will also be given the goal setting templates that I used for free. No additional charge. You will go through examples of how to do everything too.

MODULE 3: The 6 Pillars of Goals Achievement

“I just finished your excellent program, Goal Setting Formula. I have to say I really liked it and went through it all until I finished it. I went through the program from beginning to end in one sitting, step by step, as I thought about my goals.

What I loved about the program was its simplicity, in language and presentation, making it easy to follow and understand.  I highly recommend it to anyone who seriously wants to move ahead in life. Thank you, Shawn.”

Hani Al-Qasem

You’re going to need tools. And we’re talking about workable and actionable goal setting templates and worksheets. Yes, you can just print out these easy-to-use templates and fill-in your goals. There are more than 50 templates for you to choose from. With the right and suitable template, you’re able to focus better and achieve real results faster.

This is a must-have guidebook that aims to develop the right habits that are going to help you reach your goals. You see, setting a goal can be quick, but the progress of achieving the goal isn’t. As what Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” And yes, you have to develop the productive habits to get yourself going in the long run. Success isn’t coming overnight. So, you need to build the right habits and this guidebook will show you how.

We all know that success is not a short-term sprint, but a long-term marathon. Hence, it will be extremely difficult and challenging if you can’t maintain your productivity and keep your drive high throughout your journey to success. This is why understanding concept behind Pomodoro Technique is important. And if you apply this technique, you can maintain your productivity and keep your motivation strong until you achieve your goals.

You will also get Surefire Productivity Launchpad training course for FREE when you join Goal Setting Formula Masterclass today. (This course itself is valued at $97)

One thing that holds most people from living their full potential is productivity. A lot of people fail to realize that they’re doing things in an unproductive and ineffective manner.

Go through this 9-part video course to understand everything you need to double your productivity and get more done.  Ask yourself: 

– Are your tasks piling up? 

– Are you overwhelmed by having so much to do with so little time available?

– Do you end up forgetting or missing out on tasks?

– Do you have a disorganized calendar?

– Do you find yourself always cramming in a bunch of unfinished errands?

If your answer is a yes, then Surefire Productivity Launchpad is for you! 

A lot of people simply get stuck because they feel overwhelmed and lost. But with the simple techniques shown in this video course, you can put yourself on the path to becoming a more productive you.

This is going to be priceless! Do you know that Goal Setting Formula began as a short eBook? And today, it has developed into a full training masterclass that covers almost everything from A to Z. And in future, I will be updating the course from time to time. Plus, when I relaunch the course, guess what, I’m giving existing customers the full access, without charges. When you join me today, you will be entitled for the same benefit.

“From someone who learned about goal setting and success the hard way I can tell you that Shawn Lim outlines a great way to get going with your plans and start living life to the fullest.  Anyone who go through this course will move on with a clearer head about their goals.” 

Andrew Maule

I’m not crazy, however I want you to understand that Goal Setting Formula is a full-proof system that I have spent thousands of hours to develop. Many have joined the masterclass and your satisfaction is extremely important to me.

And this is why I’m giving you a 60-day (More than 8 weeks!) refund period, in case if you don’t like the course. 

And if you think that my Goal Setting Formula masterclass does not help you in your journey to success, I don’t want your money. I’ll gladly return every single cent you invest here with no questions asked!

Join Goal Setting Formula and Get:

Goal Setting Formula Masterclass – The core training program with 3 complete modules on setting and achieving your goals.

Goal Setting Templates and Worksheets – Over 50 templates to help you set your goals.

Goals Achievement Habits – This guidebook will show you how to develop the core habits you need to crush your goals.

The Pomodoro Technique Short Guide – This short guide will help you maintain your productivity and keep your motivation strong for the long-term.

How to Stop Procrastination Video Training – Learn how to become an action taker and never delay your projects and goals again.

Goal Setting Formula Lifetime Membership – This pass gives you lifetime access to updates and upgrades of the course. 

Choice #1:

1) You could leave this page and continue with your life. This way, nothing changes, and I highly believe that you’re going to live your life the same way and at the end of the day, fail at your goals.

Choice #2:

2) You could join me in this masterclass and learn the most about self-growth. Once you unleash your inner potential, you can achieve massive success within months from now.

You don’t have to repeat your last year this year. Make a change. This is the best time for you to decide and to transform your life.

You have to understand this: 

“Your dreams, your goals, and the success you want won’t work, unless you work on them.” 

And I’m providing you the formula to make it all work. 

Are you going to let this opportunity slips and continue with what you do every day with no significant improvement in life, or are you going to take the shot and make it worth your while? 

The choice is yours…

I believe we’re all destined to be successful. But in order to live your dream life and achieve all the great things that you desire, you must be willing to make the decision and take the necessary action.

Now’s the time.

“What would you expect from this course? That’s the first thing came across my mind, but after learning it, it is giving me a crystal clear view about goal setting.

Why we need to set our goal? For me if you do not set any goal in your life yet and I am pretty sure you shall live your life the same before.

I can tell you that this is not the an ordinary goal setting course. Shawn will guide you step-by-step to setting up your goal. Grab this Goal Setting Formula.

So my advice to you, for those who seeking a success in his or her life and dare to be extraordinary people, take your first action by getting this course and you would be thankful to Shawn by making this program.”

Hapiz Rajali

Do you offer any guarantees or refunds?

Yes! Your satisfaction is important to me. if you don’t think this masterclass is for you, you can take back your money for a full 60-day period. No questions asked. 

How long do I have access to this masterclass? 

The answer is forever! You will gain lifetime access to the course, which will also be updated with new information, strategies, and course materials. 

What format is the masterclass delivered in? 

The main content of this masterclass is delivered in video presentations. There are also resources like goal setting templates and other worksheets to help you along the way. You’ll be well covered after the course.

Could I just find the content in this masterclass elsewhere for free?

You can find almost anything online these days, but that doesn’t everything you discovered is going to be helpful. I’ve compiled the masterclass in such a way that helps you understand the real framework of goal setting and how you can achieve what you want in life. Some of the techniques and information you’re going to learned are scientifically proven!

Is this course going to work for me?

I believe in action. You can read any book or attend any workshops or seminars, but if you’re not going to apply what I’m going to share with you, nothing is going to work. 

For just the price of a weekend dinner at McDonald’s, you can now afford to learn the secret to changing your life and making your goals a reality. Are you in?

“I have gone through your course, Goal Setting Formula, to say the least I am impressed. I would like to call it a life changing guide to a goal setting break through.

It offers a step by step guide through the process and giving a more participative and practical approach which are very easy to understand and apply. I would like to recommend this course to any aspiring persons who are serious about goal setting and achievement. Thanks to Shawn Lim.” 

Lennimore Dauda

GoalSettingFormula.com – All Rights Reserved

Happy Birthday to a beautiful and diverse country

July 4, 2020

Happy Independence Day!  Today’s the 4th of July, and tomorrow we’re heading to Yellowstone, America’s first National Park!  

It’s been almost a month since we set out on a loooong vacation.  We didn’t really have a route in mind and we don’t have a destination or timeline.  On June 11th, 2020, our family of four went north from Benicia, California, in our Infiniti QX56, pulling a 25 foot Lance travel trailer that we named the RolyPoly.

We’ve been planning for this trip for many years. A few years ago we started learning how to operate and function as a family in a travel trailer.  For years we’ve been thinking about what stuff we really need and don’t need to be happy and comfortable.  In May of this year, we put the stuff we didn’t want to get rid of and couldn’t take with us in a storage trailer.   We changed our ‘official’ address back to the ‘ol parents’ house (they just love getting our mail!).  The result... so far... is that full-time RV life is going very well.  

Our hope going into this is that the kids might remember bits and pieces, but that their development over this next year will have lifelong benefits.  One of my recent favorite quotes is a Charlotte Mason quote: “An observant child should be put in the way of things worth observing.”  I love this quote because it reminds us that kids don’t learn from being told, they simply need to experience (be put in the same vicinity of something) and to a certain extent be left alone to figure things out.  My kids’ reactions to travel and new experiences make the ordinary seem extraordinary.  Everything is awe-inspiring, from amazing waterfalls to tadpoles to dirt piles to the other side of the river being a different state (and they don’t even know what a state is).

Bill and I hope for ourselves that, by temporarily eliminating work, organized kids activities, school, meet ups with friends, housework, and certain luxuries and conveniences, we can live more in the moment, pay extra attention to our kids and each other, learn how to incorporate this free and simple life into a more normal life that we will eventually adopt, and let nature and adventures be the background for reflection and self-improvement.

So there might not be enough hot water to wash dishes and take a shower in the same hour, but what there is plenty of as we move our home every 3-6 days, is new scenery, new activities, new birds, new craft beers, new weather, new neighbor friends old and young, new cell signal challenges, etc.  The pandemic is keeping us from some experiences, but we are exceedingly grateful for the strength and infrastructure of America, that is allowing us to continue with our plans despite the crises occurring.  We are doing our part to both support small town economies and reasonably minimize our interactions with and breathing on others.  2020 will be a year to remember, for both good and sad reasons.  I look forward to the day when everyone can travel the world with their family in a little box because it’s time well spent, instead of quasi-quarantining with their family to lessen the spread of disease.  

Happy Birthday to a beautiful and diverse country!

RECIPE: Purple onion rings—with Action’s special sauce! (from F*ck, That’s Delicious by Action Bronson)

Onions make you cry like a baby.

Serves 6 to 8

The best part about onion rings is you can pile them up when you serve them. I use red onions because they have a little more zip to them. You could dip the rings in a coat of flour first before you dunk them in the batter for a puffier, more tempura-like crust, but in my taste testing the thinner rings are lighter and superior and stay crispy once they’ve started to cool off, like a kicked-up version of Funyuns. A rule of thumb: You can feed about two people with a really big onion.

2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons salt

½ heaping teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Tapatío or another red hot sauce

2½ cups (600 ml) cold

seltzer or sparkling water

2 quarts (2 L) vegetable oil

3 to 4 large purple onions, peeled

My Special Sauce (below), for saucing

Whisk together the flour, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl. This has to be mad peppery. I just grind until the top looks like black snow.

Now hit it with about 3 tablespoons of hot sauce, then whisk in that seltzer. (You don’t want to add flat water, because the bubbles make the batter airier and crispier.) Whisk until you have no lumps and it looks like a pancake-ish batter—when you move the whisk through the batter, you should see ribbons. Whisk in a little more hot sauce until the batter is a nice light pink, like the color of Russian dressing. You won’t taste the heat so much, but the rings will fry up a nice golden brown.

Put the batter in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to let it settle a little bit, then line a baking sheet or a plate with paper towels.

Fill a Dutch oven or stockpot with the oil just a little more than halfway up the sides of the pot. Heat the oil over high heat until the oil begins to shimmer. It should be around 400°F (205°C) if you have a thermometer, but otherwise you can tell when it is ready because of the shimmer.

While the oil heats, cut the onions into ½-inch- (12-mm-) thick slices, making sure to separate the rings. It’s better to make them a little bigger than a little smaller.

When the oil is hot, dip a few of the rings in the batter with tongs, flipping them once or twice so that they’re fully covered. Shake off the excess and then add them to the hot oil just 2 to 3 at a time so they have lots of room to swim.

Flip them with a clean fork when they just begin to turn brown—this should only take a minute or two. Let them cook for another minute or two, until the other side is golden brown, then remove to the paper towels.

Repeat, adjusting the heat of your oil as necessary. Don’t let it get too hot or too cool. But since you’re only making a few at a time, you’re good either way.

Serve these piled high with a side of Special Sauce. Obviously, the cook should keep the Special Sauce nearby the stove and just eat these as they’re ready.

RECIPE: My Special Sauce

I learned to make My Special Sauce about a decade ago at this Frenchie-type place on Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side, where I worked for like two weeks. I was the garde manger, which meant I was the one making salads and sauces and cold dishes and other small little shit. The head chef was amazing—it was a Frenchie vegetarian type of place, whole ingredients and organic, right about when I first started hearing about organic. But the owner—I didn’t like her and she didn’t like me, and she fired me. Even so, I learned four things from that chef that I’ll always keep with me. Number one is this herb and mayonnaise sauce, something he said he learned from his old head chef in Provence or some shit like that. He also made these chicken thighs where he cooked them skin-side down in a pan, letting them brown and brown and brown in their own fat, and then you eat those with this sauce. He taught me how to make real triple-fried fries, which also went with this sauce, and finally how to make cassoulet, which I also love.

Here we go, we’re gonna zap.

Makes 2½ cups (600 ml)

The actual making of the Special Sauce is fast and simple—you just zap it all in a blender—but it is phenomenal. These flavors are perfect together, which is why the Special Sauce is also now my universal sauce, meaning it goes on everything: chicken sandwiches, roast beets, smoked lamb, French fries, and the Purple Onion Rings above—that’s the combination I used to serve as a bar special. I often use twice as many garlics—I love that burn. I will say that the French chef used Hellmann’s, but when I first started making it I used Admiration, which is a little shittier, meaning it’s the cheaper brand you get at the restaurant supply store. And for some reason, in this, it tasted better.

5 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 cups (480 ml) mayonnaise

2 tablespoons drained capers in brine

1½  tablespoons caper brine

Juice of 1 medium lemon (2 to 3 tablespoons)

1 cup (32 g) loosely packed, roughly chopped parsley, tough stems removed

1 cup (24 g) loosely packed, roughly chopped dill, tough stems removed

Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the garlic, mayonnaise, capers, brine, and lemon juice in a blender or food processor. Zap to roughly blend.

Add the herbs to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Zap for a second or two.

Now add ludicrous amounts of black pepper and zap it all until it’s all totally smooth and creamy, pausing occasionally to wipe down the sides of the bowl with a spatula so that you get it all in there. The end result should be somewhere between a dressing and a dip.

Taste for salt, adding more capers or caper brine if needed, or pepper or lemon juice, etc.

That’s it. This will keep in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days.

New York Times bestseller Winner of the IACP Cookbook Design Award

This ain’t no cookbook. This ain’t no memoir. This is Action Bronson’s devotional, a book about the overwhelming power of delicious—no, f*cking amazing—food. Bronson is this era’s Homer, and F*ck, That’s Delicious is a modern-day Odyssey, replete with orgiastic recipes, world travel, siren songs, and weed.

Illustrated, packed with images, and unlike any book in the entire galaxy, Bronson’s F*ck, That’s Delicious includes 40-plus recipes inspired by his childhood, family, tours, and travels. Journey from bagels with cheese that represent familial love to the sex and Big Macs of upstate New York fat camp and ultimately to the world’s most coveted five-star temples of gastronomy. And: the tacos in LA. The best Dominican chimis. Jamaican jerk. Hand-rolled pasta from Mario. Secrets to good eating from Massimo. Meyhem Lauren’s Chicken Patty Potpie. And more! more! more!

For more information, click here.

16 Habits You Should Do Everyday (This Changed My Life) ... 1 Exercise – Exercise is huge. I briefly touched on what happens to you in the short term but consider also the long term effects of regular exercise. As you maintain a regiment of exercise your body fat percentage drops, your flexibility and strength increase (less chance of injury) your lifespan extends, your immune system is bolstered, you maintain your youth longer, you carry over a sustained vigor to other parts of your life, your resting heart rate goes down, and you have a general feeling of well being. Pretty sweet. Clearly exercising is very important; given both its short and long term benefits. But do you have to do this every day? That seems strenuous. Try expanding your definition - You don’t give it your 100% every day. Some days may be 10 minutes of simple light stretching, just to keep the habit. Other days may be 2.5 hour monster gym sessions. I use this habit to help me accomplish two other things very important to me, mediation and getting in nature. Often times my physical exertion is a one hour walk through the park or along the water front. Practicing a walking meditation is a great way to center yourself and help carry the skill over to everyday life. Being in nature has a similar balancing effect on your well being. But you don’t need me to tell you to work out. The benefits are all clearly documented by scientists and people. There are networks and resources for support and endless sources of inspiration to motivate you. 2 Meditation – This habit is fucking HUGE. You need to meditate. Think about what part of the human experience spirituality addresses – the ego and fear – two concepts that are SO tied up with hitting on girls. I think a lot of people get messed up here because the benefits are very intangible at first. The “S curve” of Mastery that I described above has a very looong period of ‘sucking shit’. If you’re not experienced then your image of what meditation should be like is wrong. Fighting your expectations will be a constant battle as you learn to meditate. Here are some resources to help you learn. Reddit Article – Very concise introduction to meditation Mindfulness in Plain English – Amazing book that covers the topic clearly and in depth. Meditation Retreat – 10 day intensive mediation retreat Holosync – Tapes that induce a meditative state (great training wheels) A fortuitous person may discover means of acquiring the audio. (make sure its .flac and not .mp3 format + listen with good headphones) Practice – Hurr durr. Start meditating everyday. The evidence is in by a landslide, both anecdotally and empirically. Meditation will change your life so start today, any reason your not is an excuse. Once you get the hang of it you will leave your meditation sessions feeling centered, calm, and relaxed. It has an ego-lessening effect and awareness increasing effect that spills over to your everyday life. If you keep up the practice you’ll notice that your focus and attention span increases dramatically, as does your sight and sound sensitivity (think of the most visceral things you do – sex, eating, sports etc.) Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing will literally [url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361002/ ]become thicker[/url]. In the long term, meditation offers a ‘profound transformation of how you experience reality’ It will bring you joy, peace, and happiness. This is real and you need to be doing it. 3 Reading - If you read the right books you will be moved, inspired, and motivated. Think about what you expose yourself to. There’s a million shitty blogs on the interent written by whoever. But then theres books out there that will change your life. Books that the most gifted human beings on earth have spent years writing. A lifetime of experience, insights, and lessons learned given to you in a nice handheld easily digestible form. :) I started this habit at a half hour a day. Recently I’ve started reading about an hour a day and am burning through books. With a constant flow of information in you increase your ability for information to flow out (applying knowledge to your life) Reading is an easy habit to put off and you need to make it a priority. If you’re not regularly reading then you may start to fall asleep as you pick up a book. Your mind is not conditioned properly and you need to force yourself through that period. Your reading speed and comprehension do pick up over time – just stick to it. 4 Creative Recreation - People are going to approach this one very differently but if there is something you can sit down and do purely for your enjoyment than that’s awesome. Think of a flow state activity that you can put your full expression into. For me it’s playing an instrument. If you’ve ever seen someone play the guitar or piano at an extremely high level in a non performance setting then you’ll know what I’m talking about. The “S” curve of learning an instrument is very, very, very long. But you get out what you put in. Your amusements will leave you feeling rejuvenated and can often break up and lighten the day. As you invest in your hobbies you will get more and more out of them I generalized this habit as ‘creative recreation’ because I want to emphasize the fact that recreation is not a spectator sport. Vegetating on the couch watching commercials is not recreation. 5 Nutrition - As you build a productive life your ability to stay focused and have energy becomes very important. What you eat has a huge effect on how you feel. If you eat right you can avoid energy crashes, fight off sickness, and generally just feel ‘good’. I know that I’m definitely not the best person to give nutrition advice but the resources are out there. It should be obvious that what you put in your body is very important. Do yourself a favor and learn how your body works. For me, I don’t eat sugar or processed food. I drink 1.5L of water a day and I make an extra effort to eat more plant based foods. I supplement my diet with fish oil etc. I think what’s most important though is that you proactively decide what you put in your body. Make the time to cook your meals, keep your fridge stocked, and don’t buy convenience food. 6 Reasonable Spending - Like nutrition, this habit is more of a choice you make rather than an active investment of your time. Its pretty straight forward, every day I try to manage my money reasonably. Apply the concept of reactivity/proactively to your spending and you have an excellent framework for managing your money. Did you plan on making this purchase? If not then don’t do it. The nature of planning a purchase is that it is in line with your goals and budget. The nature of making an impulsive/reactive purchase is quite the opposite, ‘it is right here and will satisfy me right now’ (mostly consumer/convenience items ) 7 Brain Buster + Current Events - Part of my morning routine is to check out the economist, my local news site, or the new york times and read two or three articles. Given my background and where I want to go in life it is going to serve me well to be informed and have the ability to notice trends and understand the complexity of global issues. I also work very hard to develop my critical and lateral thinking. Every day I challenge myself to solve one extremely difficult problem. Actually I only figure them out about 30% of the time. On my computer I have a repository of IQ, Mensa, brain buster type books that would take a lifetime to work through. Some problems I solve in five minutes others take me thirty until I break down and look at the solution. If you run a business or are any kind of decision making authority (or eventually want to be in that position) then I can’t vouch enough for this habit. You need to be sharp and informed. Period. 8 Social - Every day I make an effort to advance my social skills. Your ability to communicate effectively with human beings has so many implications in your personal and professional life. I’ve gone through experiments with this habit and I think the less your around people the more you need to make it a priority (my lifestyle right now has me around new people ALL the time, but there have been other times in my life when I actively had to make that happen) I’ve tried a few different things. For a while I really focused on listening to people with the intent to understand, pushing the urge to get my point across aside and giving other people the floor when they were expressing themselves. I’ve done different experiments with eye contact and physicality while communicating as well. Regardless, going out and approaching trumps all when it comes to developing your social skills. 9 Personal Management - This is the easiest of all habits to implement. Just 10 minutes a day and your bachelor pad is looking clean and fresh. Not many long term benefits here except maybe you don’t lose your possessions as often and they have and increased lifespan. In the short term doing your laundry, not letting your dishes pile up, and making your bed can offer you a peace of mind and allow you to work unfestered on other projects. 10 Project 1, 2 or more times a week - For me I set aside a two hour block twice a week to work on a personal project. This could be fleshing out a business feasibility plan, recreating my weightlifting routine, catching up on some reading, creating a budget, doing research, or writing a mega post for rsd :) At the beginning of each week I choose what two projects I plan to work on and within the week I find time to fit them in. Use this habit as a way of revitalizing old projects that are collecting dust or to begin something new that you’ve been thinking about but haven’t got around to. The effects this habit has on your short and long term productivity are huge. 11 Podcast/TED Talk/University Lecture - If you’re a thinking human being with a desire for knowledge then you should be listening to podcasts, watching ted talks and viewing the thousands of lectures professors and researchers have on the internet. This is a habit I integrated for both its short term and long term benefits. In the short term I find it interesting to learn about new topics. A lot of times it’s on a subject I’m interested in at the time, other times its something completely new. Either way I’m exposing myself to the best and brightest minds of today and expanding my understanding of the world. If you engaged yourself with this material every day, what would the long term effects be? Besides a vast and varied wealth of knowledge you would begin to draw disciplines together. Your understanding and awareness would grow so large that the value and wisdom you could offer other people would be incredible. *For a practical tip, throw a queue of talks you’re interested in on your ipod and listen while exercising. 12 Language - Every day I spend thirty minutes learning a new language. This is an ongoing task that I struggled to integrate. You realize almost no immediate benefit and that makes it exceptionally difficult to do every day. The “S” curve of mastery is very, very long (years). But alas, the benefits in the long term must be exceptionally rewarding. I can only speculate as I currently only speak one language, but from my time studying in Italy I can tell you I would have got a lot more out of the experience had I spoke the language. Coming from a business perspective being bi/multi-lingual would likely be a huge advantage. For me, I intend to spend a large part of my life travelling. If you expect to live another 50/60 years of life on this earth then imagine the lifetime of opportunities and experiences other languages may open you up to. Don’t cut yourself off. For some practical advice getting started I recommend the rosetta stone. It’s a visual program that is a great way for getting you started. Listen to talk radio (via internet) and get a language book with exercises to help you practice. Get a women your seeing to join in. It accelerates the process so much if you have someone to practice speaking with. We are the first generation with ready access to the internet. The resources to help you pick up a language are out there and they are free – use them. 13) Plan the next day - This is so huge. Note that there is a small learning curve to this as you figure out a system that works for you. Maybe you like to manage your timetable through your phone, or maybe you just pencil out what you do on a list. Whatever the method it must satisfy two requirements: 1) The document must be easily accessible to you throughout the day, and 2) it must specify approximate times when you will complete each task. It’s pretty simple. When you have some time to think with a clear mind you plan out what you want your next day to look like you do it. The time you know you have to yourself (mornings usually) you can set a more ridgid structure than the times where there are many variables as to what you may be doing. The plan is your servant, not your master. Never get upset if things don’t go the way you thought – it’s just a guideline to keep you on track. Lost time, interferences, failing to execute out of laziness or apathy, unforeseen events, all of this will happen. Don’t be worried, the element of proactivity you introduce into your life by planning your days out already places you way ahead. Another thing to keep in mind is that your primary goal is not to be efficient. It is to be effective. Don’t be so worried about having some intense schedule that will burn you out quickly. Allow a good amount of time for transitions and even more for other forms of time you will use organically. If you have in your head a picture of someone ruthlessly triaging priorities, feverishly executing tasks and running around from one item to the next then you should rethink your understanding. As you go through your day you will apply yourself to each activity wholly and with everything you’ve got. You will take things slow and execute with passion, care and effort not with haste or carelessness. 14 Sleep - Your either plugged into the matrix or you’re not. If your plugged in you’re a spectator – you watch tv, you kill time on facebook, you days slip by as you wander through in lower consciousness. If your unplugged you’re a player – You are taking consistent and massive action, you are constantly ingesting new information, you are pushing your boundaries and limitations, you are growing. So naturally if you’re living your life fully engaged you need a good night’s sleep. The amount of stress you experience by pushing yourself, the information your internalizing, and the focus and stamina you need to keep going can all be facilitated by a good nine hours on the pillow. Take this shit seriously – you will notice a difference. If you’ve ever studied sleep you know that your body goes through approximate 90 minute cycles (from deep sleep to REM sleep), you know the amount of light you are receiving effects your bodies melatonin production, you know that what you eat before bed can affect your sleep, and you also know that sound can disrupt your sleep. You know that sleep plays an integral role in learning and memory. You are also aware that the human body associates certain surroundings or conditions with sleep (think when you walk into a bathroom you feel like you have to pee. The same thing when you are in your bed – you get sleepy. Therefore only use your bed for sleep and sex). I sleep in total darkness, in a cool room, with a fan for white noise (drown out traffic and creaks in house that would otherwise wake me up). I have comfortable mattress and I wake up to an alarm clock that gets brighter instead of making noise (simulates the sun rising) I don’t set my alarm for the same time every morning, I set my alarm either 7.5 or 9 hours from when I fall asleep (so I don’t wake up in the depth of a sleep cycle – you may have to tinker with the times but you will learn your body). Try some of this and you will be amazed with the effects on your energy levels, retention of information, and how you enter your days in the morning. 15 Professional Development - You’re either working in the industry you want to be in or you’re not. Either way you should spend some of your day developing the skills necessary to succeed in the industry you want to be in. If you’re stuck in a job you don’t like then this daily ritual is the key to breaking through. You will develop yourself in the area of your interest until you have the credentials, credibility, or opportunity to move permanently. Maybe you’re stuck working as a bank teller, but you want to get into internet marketing. You should begin to spend a part of your day learning the skills you are going to need to be an internet marketer. Think of it this way, most people are reactive. Most people land a job through connections or convenience and after they have that job they then learn the skills necessary to succeed. You are not that person. You will do the reverse. You will gain the skills through your own force of will and then land ‘the job’. This is the formula to carve a life of your design and live your dreams. If you’re already in the industry of your dreams then you should never stagnate. Constantly focus on learning new material, keeping up with trends, observing competitors, or expanding your professional reputation. Focusing on this will allow you to offer more value in whatever you do and will facilitate success. 16 Journal + Research - Keep a journal and update it every day. What is a journal? A journal is a place where you write out your thoughts and then look back at them and ponder. You then write about what you thought of your thoughts and think about that. (meta-meta cognition) Do you see how this can be a valuable tool for personal insight and growth? This isn’t a high school dairy. It’s a tool you use to track your thoughts, expand on insights, accelerate your growth, and look back on your progress. Shits happening? Write about it. The very act of consciously creating syntax to your thoughts can help you become more rational and can facilitate problem solving in your life. There is a second part to your journal writing ritual that you need to engage in. Research. As you make discoveries and insights you should seek out truth and guidance. We have the internet and it is an amazing tool for feedback. Our parents generation had to live with misinformation their whole lives. Our generation enjoys the luxury to – with incredible ease - access the forefront of human knowledge in the snap of a finger. Use this luxury to fuel your growth. Falling Apart – Four types No matter how hard you try, or how much effort you put in, you will – at times – fall apart. I would say theres four ways this happens: Getting sick, apathy, ‘short term mating strategy’ and consuming commitments. If you don’t have a lot of self discipline then the most common way you will fall apart is apathy. You need to understand that apathy is death. Apathy IS death. It will kill your growth and suck you into laziness. It happens as you slip into lower consciousness. Correlatory displays in your behaviour emerge: depression, apathy, negative and low self esteem thought patterns, etc. There are so many things that can throw you off track and sink you into apathy: Loss of progress, negative feedback, feeling ‘blue’, video games, addictions, poor diet, lack of sleep, fear, financial/family/social stressors. This is where taking responsibility is key. This knowledge helped me fight myself when my brain would come up with rationalizations and excuses for why I coped out on my duties. The rationalizations were pretty good sometimes (I didn’t have enough time, I wasn’t physically able, I was sick, it would be counter productive etc (your brain is very clever)) but the facts were in. I couldn’t gloss over the correlation between my daily choices and how they affected my productivity. Eat shitty food, get poor sleep, and you will be less productive. When you fall into the gutters of apathy the only way out is to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you have ever taken the time to write out your values then they can be a key extremely helpful in this situation. Read them over, ponder them and commit yourself to them. The quicker you can recommit yourself to your values and get back on track, the better. You will go through this process many, many, many times The second way you completely fall of track is when you get sick. The average adult catches two to four colds a year. That’s two to four weeks of setbacks, suffering, and disruption. Not much you can do about it other than prevention (and as it turns out prevention is pretty effective! You don’t ever have to get sick… [drink water, avoid binge drinking, get all your vitamins and minerals, sleep, oral hygiene, washing your hands, and regular relaxation. Only anecdotal evidence but I found that when I got sick poor sleeps for many consecutive days was always a factor]) The third type of falling apart is what tyler would call your ‘short term mating strategy’. To be honest with you, I don’t think this is that bad. I look back at my excel chart of times where I was in this mode, nothing would be getting done. I would be drinking and smoking and doing drugs. Say a five day bender where I pull two or three times in that period. Retrospectivly I wouldn’t change a thing though because in those moments I was having SO MUCH FUN. I met so many people and developed so many relationships. When your in this mode you are just ‘on’. Its so amazing to me that your brain has these two levels it can operate on. From my experience, the more resources you have (money, leisure time, lack of responsibility) the more intense the effects of the ‘short term mating strategy’ mode can be. Think, if you have a job or no more money etc. external forces like that can FORCE you to get your shit together. But when you’re in the mode you’re sure fucking good at rationalizing away your money, time, and responsibilities – but holy fuck does it help you pull girls. So I think the key is to take an element of proactively into this. Acknowledge that this is going to happen to you and that it’s OK. You know you’ll get your shit together eventually. Just be smart about your life and don’t cope out on any major responsibilities. The fourth way I would consistently fall off track with my habits is when I had a consuming commitment to honor. Maybe this was a family obligation or a travel day, or a big exam I had to prep for. Whatever it is you just do what you need to do and get back on track as soon as you can. When these kinds of things come up though I notice it’s a lot easier to bounce back as opposed to sinking into some apathetic hurr durr state – that’s the worst. Rebounding – Two Phenomena In my explorations I noticed two phenomena. The first is that you can’t just focus on one area of your life. If you start seriously working on one discipline everything follows. You start fixing yourself in ALL areas of your life. The second phenomenon that I noticed when falling off the path is that you will come back stronger than ever before. I am not sure if this is because you have lessons learned from falling off or because your definition of what being on the path has now been expanded. Either way the process of growth is obvious, you fall and you get back up stronger that before. Keep in mind that falling off the path is an inevitability and will happen (a lot). Its how quickly you notice (awareness and higher consciousness) and recommit (take right action) that will determine your growth rate. Streaking Looking back over my performance I noticed that my habits would streak. Theres an element of general momentum (Excercising in a day may give you momentum to complete other tasks) and then there is an element of discipline specific momentum (If you meditated yesterday it is more likely that you will today) On the flip side there’s negative momentum. If you don’t do something today then it will be harder tomorrow and even harder the next day. The result is that disciplines streak. You have runs where you’ll stick with it every day, but then you will have runs, sometimes for weeks, where it just never seems to fit in your schedule. For this reason extra effort has to be made to revitalize individual habits that are falling apart. The Anxiety Response The anxiety response is so key to your growth. I left this section last for a reason… this is such a POWERFUL concept. Your body comes equipped with the tools for your growth and that anxious feeling you get IS THE TOOL. When you realize you don’t know what you need to know there is an uncomfortable anxiety. Your poor ego is exposed and your feel good belief systems are shaken. Do not run from this feeling of anxiety. It is SO human nature to suppress the feelings and rationalize them away. You look at your bank balance and you realize you barely have enough money for next months rent, an uncomfortable anxiety comes over you. Maybe you got caught lying and an uncomfortable anxiety comes over you. Maybe you see an approach you know you should do and an uncomfortable anxiety comes over you. Your emotions are your feedback system. Do not let your ego get the best of you. Your ego will rationalize your life away, giving you all the reasons to be O.K. with your mediocrity and failure. When you feel that uncomfortable anxiety you need to ruthlessly seek out the cause and address it. Take full responsibility for what has happened to you. Maybe you realized you have been financially irresponsible. The ego response would be to justify your situation, “I needed to get that stuff, I had to make those purchases” This is unacceptable thinking if you want to grow. Consciously ponder the anxiety and take responsibility for your situation, “Wow I was managing my money extremely poorly this last month. I need to figure my shit out, etc etc" By diving into that anxious response, figuring out what’s going on and taking FULL responsibility for whatever is happening, you will facilitate your ability to CHANGE and GROW in the future. Do not sabotage your growth and buy into your ego. The key to your growth is your emotional system, and you would do well to get in touch with it (hint- meditation)

Goal Setting Formula Masterclass - Relaunched

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Goal Setting Formula Masterclass - Relaunched

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DISCOVER THE SECRET HOW TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU WANT AND START LIVING THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE YOU DESIRE

Here’s how to find out what you truly want out of life and achieve amazing success through the power of goal setting…

Hey you, yes, you…

Have you ever felt like there are so much to achieve in life, seeing others achieving outstanding results, but you just can’t seem to find a way to make things work?

The fact that you’re reading this right now simply shows that you know you have the potential to achieve more in life, but somehow, you can’t seem to produce the results you want, right?

Most people want to be successful. They want to live a great life. They want to be financially free. They want to have fit and slim body. They want to have the freedom to travel first-class without worrying about the money. Etc.

But, there are 2 main problems that stop people from succeeding in life…

You may know Tony Robbins as the world’s #1 success coach, you’ve probably read 1 or 2 of his books (remember Unlimited Power?), and perhaps, you may have also attended his life-changing seminars.

However, that was not how Tony Robbins started.

He once considered himself a failure. He was almost 40 pounds over-weight. He was physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially “broke.” And he was living in a small studio apartment where he had to wash the dishes in the bathtub because there was no kitchen.

And like most people, Tony Robbins wanted to make a change. He wanted out. That’s not the kind of life he had signed up for.

On a day when he was traveling on train throughout Russia, Tony did one thing that completely change his life forever.

He spent hours on the train from Moscow to Siberia and back to Leningrad. With nothing to write on but the back of an old Russian map, he wrote down all the goals and the success he desired in life.

Tony told this story in his best-selling book, Awaken The Giant Within:

“Eight years ago, in 1983, I did an exercise that created a future so compelling that my whole life changed as a result. As part of the overall process of raising my standards, I established a whole new set of goals, writing down all the things I would no longer settle for, as well as what I was committed to having in my life. I set aside all my limiting beliefs and sat down on the beach with my journal.

I wrote continuously for three hours, brainstorming every possibility of what I could ever imagine doing, being, having, creating, experiencing, or contributing. The time line I gave myself for achieving these goals was any time from tomorrow to the next twenty years. I never stopped to think whether I could actually achieve these goals or not. I simply captured any possibility that inspired me, and wrote it down.”

Clarity is true power.

Tony Robbins transformed his life around and became one of the most sought-after success coaches in the world. Today, his name is often associated with success and motivation.

First, most people don’t know what they want to achieve out their lives. They have dreams or very general wishes like “I want to be happy”, “I want to be rich”, or “I want to live a good life”. But that’s all they got.

Next, even if they have clearer goals and they know what they want in life, they will still fail because they don’t understand how things work.

Success starts from within you. You can have all the dreams you want and you have all your goals, but if you don’t learn how to master the inner game, you will never materialize and accomplish your goals.

Finally, the process of achieving your goals is not an easy path. You’ll have to go through a lot of ups and downs, you’ll face plenty of bumps and roadblocks, and only if you learn how to overcome these obstacles, you will never achieve your goals.

Truth be told, nothing changes if you don’t change anything.

Meaning, if you want to achieve all your goals, live the dream life that you have longed for – financially, physically, emotionally – you need to do something DIFFERENT than what you’ve been already doing. 

My friend, if you keep on doing what you’re doing, you’ll get the same old results that have gotten exactly where you are right now. 

And if you’re not satisfied with your current states and the life, or if you desire for something better, something good, something more exciting, then you’ve got to do something different.

What if you become crystal clear with your vision and know exactly what you want to achieve in life? You can then fly like an arrow, straight to the bull’s eye (your goals).

What if you can have all the drive and motivation you need to go through every day and accomplish your work like a super-achiever? Your productivity will increase tremendously, and you will feel extremely fulfill because you become a producer than a procrastinator.

What if you can find your core purpose and find the meaning to live an amazing life? Life can become so much more interesting. You’ll never find it hard to get out of bed. Heck, you can’t even wait to wake up because you have a real purpose in life and you want to make an impact to the world.

​What if you can achieve all of your goals and live a successful life? What kind of dream lifestyle do you want to have? What will you do if you are successful in every area of life – financially, physically, emotionally, etc.?

​What if you can finally take charge of your life and craft the lifestyle that you desire? Do you want to increase your income and build wealth? Do you want to lose weight, get into shape, and build 6-pack abs? How about getting out of debt, paying off your mortgages and car loans? Do you want to build a successful side business or even travel the world?

I want to introduce you… Goal Setting Formula Masterclass

Goal Setting Formula is the masterclass I created where I share the highly effective step-by-step method of how anyone can set and achieve their goals, so you don’t have to crack your head to search for the secret of achievement anymore.

Here’s one thing you need to understand – Goal Setting Formula is not your ordinary course where you learn just the theories. It is a complete masterclass where I cover how you can master your inner self, set your goals, and also how you can build supporting ‘pillars’ to make sure you follow through and actually achieve your goals. 

Not only that, I also share the action and goal setting templates that you can use to immediately produce significant results. 

According to a study done by Scranton University…

“97% of people who set goals fail to achieve them, so what do the other 3% do to guarantee their success…?”

My friend, please understand that goal setting is a skill. And in order to get better at a skill, what do you need to do?

You practice it deliberately on a regular basis. Remember, you can train yourself to become a super-achiever to accomplish all the goals that you set.

MODULE 1: Building the Foundation and Mastering the Inner Game!

MODULE 2: Setting Empowering Goals and Creating Your Future!

 This is where you will discover the step-by-step formula in creating goals that will change the course of your life.

​You will learn the SMARTER goal system and the two measures that determine your results.

​Not only that, you will also be given the goal setting templates that I used for free. No additional charge. You will go through examples of how to do everything too.

MODULE 3: The 6 Pillars of Goals Achievement

“I just finished your excellent program, Goal Setting Formula. I have to say I really liked it and went through it all until I finished it. I went through the program from beginning to end in one sitting, step by step, as I thought about my goals.

What I loved about the program was its simplicity, in language and presentation, making it easy to follow and understand.  I highly recommend it to anyone who seriously wants to move ahead in life. Thank you, Shawn.”

Hani Al-Qasem

You’re going to need tools. And we’re talking about workable and actionable goal setting templates and worksheets. Yes, you can just print out these easy-to-use templates and fill-in your goals. There are more than 50 templates for you to choose from. With the right and suitable template, you’re able to focus better and achieve real results faster.

This is a must-have guidebook that aims to develop the right habits that are going to help you reach your goals. You see, setting a goal can be quick, but the progress of achieving the goal isn’t. As what Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” And yes, you have to develop the productive habits to get yourself going in the long run. Success isn’t coming overnight. So, you need to build the right habits and this guidebook will show you how.

We all know that success is not a short-term sprint, but a long-term marathon. Hence, it will be extremely difficult and challenging if you can’t maintain your productivity and keep your drive high throughout your journey to success. This is why understanding concept behind Pomodoro Technique is important. And if you apply this technique, you can maintain your productivity and keep your motivation strong until you achieve your goals.

You will also get Surefire Productivity Launchpad training course for FREE when you join Goal Setting Formula Masterclass today. (This course itself is valued at $97)

One thing that holds most people from living their full potential is productivity. A lot of people fail to realize that they’re doing things in an unproductive and ineffective manner.

Go through this 9-part video course to understand everything you need to double your productivity and get more done.  Ask yourself: 

– Are your tasks piling up? 

– Are you overwhelmed by having so much to do with so little time available?

– Do you end up forgetting or missing out on tasks?

– Do you have a disorganized calendar?

– Do you find yourself always cramming in a bunch of unfinished errands?

If your answer is a yes, then Surefire Productivity Launchpad is for you! 

A lot of people simply get stuck because they feel overwhelmed and lost. But with the simple techniques shown in this video course, you can put yourself on the path to becoming a more productive you.

This is going to be priceless! Do you know that Goal Setting Formula began as a short eBook? And today, it has developed into a full training masterclass that covers almost everything from A to Z. And in future, I will be updating the course from time to time. Plus, when I relaunch the course, guess what, I’m giving existing customers the full access, without charges. When you join me today, you will be entitled for the same benefit.

“From someone who learned about goal setting and success the hard way I can tell you that Shawn Lim outlines a great way to get going with your plans and start living life to the fullest.  Anyone who go through this course will move on with a clearer head about their goals.” 

Andrew Maule

I’m not crazy, however I want you to understand that Goal Setting Formula is a full-proof system that I have spent thousands of hours to develop. Many have joined the masterclass and your satisfaction is extremely important to me.

And this is why I’m giving you a 60-day (More than 8 weeks!) refund period, in case if you don’t like the course. 

And if you think that my Goal Setting Formula masterclass does not help you in your journey to success, I don’t want your money. I’ll gladly return every single cent you invest here with no questions asked!

Join Goal Setting Formula and Get:

Goal Setting Formula Masterclass – The core training program with 3 complete modules on setting and achieving your goals.

Goal Setting Templates and Worksheets – Over 50 templates to help you set your goals.

Goals Achievement Habits – This guidebook will show you how to develop the core habits you need to crush your goals.

The Pomodoro Technique Short Guide – This short guide will help you maintain your productivity and keep your motivation strong for the long-term.

How to Stop Procrastination Video Training – Learn how to become an action taker and never delay your projects and goals again.

Goal Setting Formula Lifetime Membership – This pass gives you lifetime access to updates and upgrades of the course. 

Choice #1:

1) You could leave this page and continue with your life. This way, nothing changes, and I highly believe that you’re going to live your life the same way and at the end of the day, fail at your goals.

Choice #2:

2) You could join me in this masterclass and learn the most about self-growth. Once you unleash your inner potential, you can achieve massive success within months from now.

You don’t have to repeat your last year this year. Make a change. This is the best time for you to decide and to transform your life.

You have to understand this: 

“Your dreams, your goals, and the success you want won’t work, unless you work on them.” 

And I’m providing you the formula to make it all work. 

Are you going to let this opportunity slips and continue with what you do every day with no significant improvement in life, or are you going to take the shot and make it worth your while? 

The choice is yours…

I believe we’re all destined to be successful. But in order to live your dream life and achieve all the great things that you desire, you must be willing to make the decision and take the necessary action.

Now’s the time.

“What would you expect from this course? That’s the first thing came across my mind, but after learning it, it is giving me a crystal clear view about goal setting.

Why we need to set our goal? For me if you do not set any goal in your life yet and I am pretty sure you shall live your life the same before.

I can tell you that this is not the an ordinary goal setting course. Shawn will guide you step-by-step to setting up your goal. Grab this Goal Setting Formula.

So my advice to you, for those who seeking a success in his or her life and dare to be extraordinary people, take your first action by getting this course and you would be thankful to Shawn by making this program.”

Hapiz Rajali

Do you offer any guarantees or refunds?

Yes! Your satisfaction is important to me. if you don’t think this masterclass is for you, you can take back your money for a full 60-day period. No questions asked. 

How long do I have access to this masterclass? 

The answer is forever! You will gain lifetime access to the course, which will also be updated with new information, strategies, and course materials. 

What format is the masterclass delivered in? 

The main content of this masterclass is delivered in video presentations. There are also resources like goal setting templates and other worksheets to help you along the way. You’ll be well covered after the course.

Could I just find the content in this masterclass elsewhere for free?

You can find almost anything online these days, but that doesn’t everything you discovered is going to be helpful. I’ve compiled the masterclass in such a way that helps you understand the real framework of goal setting and how you can achieve what you want in life. Some of the techniques and information you’re going to learned are scientifically proven!

Is this course going to work for me?

I believe in action. You can read any book or attend any workshops or seminars, but if you’re not going to apply what I’m going to share with you, nothing is going to work. 

For just the price of a weekend dinner at McDonald’s, you can now afford to learn the secret to changing your life and making your goals a reality. Are you in?

“I have gone through your course, Goal Setting Formula, to say the least I am impressed. I would like to call it a life changing guide to a goal setting break through.

It offers a step by step guide through the process and giving a more participative and practical approach which are very easy to understand and apply. I would like to recommend this course to any aspiring persons who are serious about goal setting and achievement. Thanks to Shawn Lim.” 

Lennimore Dauda

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