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byamylaurens · 3 years

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On Structuring Plot: A List Of Useful Resources + My Recent Process

I was asked on Instagram last week how I go about structuring my stories, whether there’s a set way I like to do it, or if it’s different for every story, or what. I promised an answer last week, and that didn’t happen, but hey! It is this week and now I can answer! 😀

The truth of the matter is, I feel very self-conscious about plot structure. It’s the area of writing I’m least comfortable with, and so my attempts either end up with me just writing and ignoring structure entirely (A Fox Of Storms And Starlight), or else plotting everything else in meticulous detail, usually with the help of Liana Brooks (How Not To Acquire A Castle, as evidenced in our epic plotting video).

And then there is everything else, which tends to fall in the middle. Honestly, it depends on the book, and the mood, and how much of a concrete, specific handle I need on the story before going in.

Because that varies widely, too. When Worlds Collide, the final book in the Sanctuary trilogy that won Best Children’s Book 2019 in my state? You’re reading the first draft, prettied up with some proofreading for typos. The first book in the series, on the other hand? That’s the …eighth, I think, draft? And again, everything else falls somewhere in the middle, though generally speaking I plan my novels more than my short stories, and things that feel “fast paced” more than things that luxuriate more in the prose. Though even that’s not entirely true. And it overlaps with the length tendencies.

SO. Rather than continuing to ramble about my actual processes (variable), I thought I’d share with you a range of resources that you might find useful (if you’re a writer) or simply interesting (if you’re not, or even if you are I guess).

1. Liana Brooks’ Outlining Sheet

Liana, who you probably know is my writer-buddy and co-conspirator with regards to Inkprint Press, is excellent at plot. She does developmental edits for a really reasonable rate, and is absolutely stellar at what she does. So it’s without shame that I recommend first up her outline sheet, which is a take on the Lester Dent Plot Formula (google it).

2. Beat Sheets.

For when a general outline with key touch points isn’t detailed enough, there are beat sheets. The best ones I’ve found came from Jami Gold, and you can download them here. I’ve also converted them to word docs with scenes numbered for a 40-scene/chapter book and a 20 scene-chapter book, and you can grab those here (word docx download).

3. MICE Structure.

I posted this video on Friday, but Mary Robinette Kowal’s MICE theory has been hands down THE most useful plotting resource I’ve encountered for me personally. I’ll elaborate on this a little more below, where I’ll talk specifically about a project I’m working on right now.

4. Brandon Sanderson’s Plot Lectures.

I listened to these nearly a year ago, then relistened recently and was interested to discover I’d done something similar with Moon Shot, the project I’m currently plotting. Definitely worth a listen. It’s a little more general in scope than the preceding resources, but very necessary for a sound understanding of what your plot should be DOING.

You can also check out the posts I wrote on plot structure years ago, starting here.

Okay, now to the specifics. On Tuesday, I posted the following to Instagram, which is what precipitated the question that resulted in this post:

This is me working on Moon Shot, and it’s the first time I really used the MICE process on a longer work very deliberately, and I LOVED IT.

So I thought I’d quickly delineate for you here exactly what I did. (ETA: Quickly, ha.)

Worldbuilding. I had a giant conversation with Liana about the worldbuilding for the world, and how the main sci fi element works. She took notes and emailed them to me.

Brain Dump. I did a stream-of-consciousness dump into my notes just rambling through things roughly sequentially, and stopping to research the sciencey stuff I needed.

List Of Questions. From this, I listed out on my small whiteboard (A4-ish size) all the questions that would be asked and answered in this book. Will they escape? Why can’t they go to Earth? Who are the kidnappers? Etc.

MICE. I then colour-coded each question according to it’s MICE category: milieu, inquiry, character, event. If that doesn’t make sense, go watch Kowal’s video first (resource 3 above).

General Plotting. I broke out the bigger whiteboard (A2 size?), separated it roughly into quarters across the ‘page’, and added every question to the board. Some questions are asked right at the start of the story, so that’s where their coloured line started, then I estimated roughly when the question would be answered in-plot, and ended their coloured line there. This was hands-down the most useful part of plotting, because it let me see a bunch of things in macro: I’d overloaded the third quarter with too many answers, and there wasn’t enough in the second quarter. Certain questions COULDN’T be asked until other ones were answered, and if I left the answering too late, the next arc would be too squished before the end of the book. And so forth. So I played around, adjusting arcs until I got a fairly even spread of questions and answers across the book, with little clusters at the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks. I also looked to make sure that I had enough strong questions asked in the beginning that weren’t answered until the very end.

Specific Plotting. For each arc, I now knew WHEN in the book it had to be. So I grabbed three A3 pages, taped them together in a long line, divided the page into 25 columns (see point 8 for why), and wrote headings with the basic beats of a story. Call to action, midpoint, final puzzle piece, act 2 antagonist, and so forth. See resource 2 above. Then I took my MICE arcs and started filling things in: this scene needs to answer this question and raise the next one. This scene needs to answer this question. That sort of thing. Not the specifics of what the characters are doing, but the underlying bones of what the SCENE needs to be doing.

Conflict! Once the beginnings and ends of each MICE arc were in place, I referred back to the MICE principle to figure out what kinds of conflict I needed to add. For example, one of the opening MICE arcs is a milieu question: How did the kids escape? Knowing that this is a milieu, I know I need to add points throughout the story where they run into dead ends in their attempts to escape, all the way until they actually make it out. Another MICE arc revolves around a mystery, so I knew I needed to throw red herrings and misleading information in there to influence the decisions the characters are making. I used different coloured highlighter to mark the main long-running arcs to make sure I was sprinkling them evenly throughout the book, and not accidentally ignoring one for too long.

Point Of View. I now had a really good idea of what was happening in each scene, so on to POV. Most books wouldn’t need this step necessarily, but part of the POINT of this book is that it has POV scenes from all 25 of my Year 8 students from a couple of years ago (you have not LIVED until you’ve tried this, oy, my head). AND on top of that, every character has one of eight different superpowers. So I wrote out all the character names on sticky notes, colour coded according to superpower. Then I played around. Which superpower would be useful in this scene? Which would lend an interesting lens to the events? Post-its meant I could test things and swap them around easily, until I got an order I was happy with, with the superpowers kind of evenly sprinkled throughout the book (as much as possible; they’re based on Myer-Briggs personality type, which, yes, most of the students were kind enough to do the test for me so I could allocate their powers accurately, HA, but it means some superpowers are more common than others).

Text Type. One of the only ways I could think of making this book hang together cohesively was to tell it via epistolary, which means including a bunch of other text types as well as narration (or instead of). So there are story bits, but also emails, letters, maps, interviews, transcripts and more. So once I had everything else in place, I figured out which scenes were going to be which text types so that again, there was a balance of them throughout.

PHEW. What a process. Still, overall it only took me about three hours, and it was SUPER FUN AND SATISFYING to do. I’ll DEFINITELY be doing at least steps 1 – 7 for a couple of future books, because it was just a really inherently enjoyable process for me, and makes me confident going into the book that the scenes will do what they need to do.

Here’s a sneaky peek at what some of the final outline looks like… 😀

On Structuring Plot: A List Of Useful Resources + My Recent Process was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #beat sheets for writers #before you write #Brandon Sanderson #Canberra writer Amy #how to plot a novel #How to Write #Jami Gold&039;s beat sheets #Mary Robinette Kowal #plot plot plot the book #plotting masterclass #structuring stories with story structure like a well-structured story with structure #writing #writing resource #writing workshop #you too can write a story woo

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michaelandy101-blog · 3 years

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Google Superior Search Operators for Aggressive Content material Analysis

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/google-advanced-search-operators-for-competitive-content-research/

Google Superior Search Operators for Aggressive Content material Analysis

The thrill of ending a aggressive key phrase analysis venture typically offers method to the panic of fleeing from an avalanche of alternatives. With out an organizing precept, a spreadsheet stuffed with key phrases is a bottomless to-do record. It’s not sufficient to know what your opponents are rating for — you have to know what content material is powering these rankings and the way you’re at the moment competing with that content material. You want a blueprint to craft these key phrases right into a compelling construction.

Just lately, I wrote a publish concerning the present state of long-tail search engine optimisation. Whereas I had an angle for the piece in thoughts, I additionally knew it was a subject Moz and others had coated many occasions. I wanted to know the aggressive panorama and ensure I wasn’t cannibalizing our personal content material.

This publish covers one methodology to carry out that aggressive content material analysis, utilizing Google’s superior search operators. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll pare down the key phrase analysis and begin our journey with only one phrase: “long tail seo.”

Discover your greatest content material (website:)

lengthy tail seo website:moz.com

“long tail seo” website:moz.com

First, what has Moz already revealed on the topic? By pairing your goal key phrases with the [site:] operator, you may search for matching content material solely by yourself website. I normally begin with a broad-match search, but when your goal phrases are made up of widespread phrases, you possibly can additionally use citation marks and exact-match search. Right here’s the primary piece of content material I see:

Our greatest match on the topic is a Whiteboard Friday from 5 years in the past. If I had nothing new so as to add to the topic and/or I used to be contemplating doing a video, this may finish my journey. I don’t actually need to compete with my very own content material that’s already performing nicely. On this case, I determine that I’ve bought a recent take, and I transfer ahead.

Goal a particular folder (inurl:)

lengthy tail seo website:moz.com inurl:study

lengthy tail seo website:moz.com/study

For bigger websites, you may need to give attention to a particular part, just like the weblog, or in Moz’s case, our Studying Middle. You’ve a few choices right here. You might use the [inurl:] operator with the folder title, however which will lead to false alarms, like:

moz.com/weblog/study-seo-in-30-minutes-a-day

moz.com/weblog/what-seos-can-study-from-adwords

moz.com/neighborhood/q/subject/20117/what-is-the-best-way-to-study-seo

This can be helpful, in some circumstances, however when you have to particularly give attention to a sub-folder, simply add that sub-folder to the [site:] operator. The helpful factor concerning the [site:] operator is that something left off is basically a wild card, so [site:moz.com/learn] will return something within the /study folder.

Discover all competing pages (-site:)

lengthy tail seo -site:moz.com

Now that you’ve got a way of your individual, currently-ranking content material, you can begin to dig into the competitors. I like to begin broad, merely utilizing adverse match [-site:] to take away my very own website from the record. I get again one thing like this:

That is nice for a big-picture view, however you’re most likely going to need to focus in on only a couple or a handful of recognized opponents. So, let’s slender down the outcomes …

Discover key opponents (website: OR website:)

lengthy tail seo (website:ahrefs.com OR website:semrush.com)

By utilizing the [OR] operator with [site:] and placing the lead to parentheses, you may goal a particular group of opponents. Now, I get again one thing like this:

Is that this actually totally different than concentrating on one competitor at a time? Sure, in a single essential approach: now I can see how these opponents rank in opposition to one another.

Discover associated content material #1 (-“phrase”)

lengthy tail seo -“long tail seo”

As you get into longer, extra focused phrases, it’s potential to overlook related or associated content material. Hopefully, you’ve completed a radical job of your preliminary key phrase analysis, but it surely’s nonetheless price checking for gaps. One method I exploit is to search in your principal phrase with broad match, however exclude the precise match phrase. This leaves outcomes like:

Simply glancing at web page one among outcomes, I can see a number of mentions of “long tail keywords” (in addition to “long-tail” with a hyphen), and different variants like “long tail keyword research” and “long tail organic traffic.” Even in the event you’ve turned these up in your preliminary key phrase analysis, this mixture of Google search operators offers you a fast method to cowl plenty of variants and doubtlessly related content material.

Discover associated content material #2 (intext: -intitle:)

intext:”long tail seo” -intitle:”long tail seo”

One other helpful trick is to make use of the [intext:] operator to focus on your phrase within the physique of the content material, however then use [-intitle:] to exclude outcomes with the exact-match phrase within the title. Whereas the outcomes will overlap with the earlier trick, you may generally flip up some attention-grabbing aspect discussions and associated matters. After all, you too can use [intitle:] to laser-target your search on content material titles.

Discover pages by dates (####..####)

lengthy tail seo 2010..2015

In some circumstances, you may need to goal your search on a date-range. You’ll be able to mix the four-digit years with the vary operator [..] to focus on a time interval. Observe that this may search for the years as numbers wherever within the content material. Whereas the [daterange:] operator is theoretically your most exact choice, it depends on Google having the ability to accurately determine the publication date of a bit, and I’ve discovered it troublesome to make use of and a bit unpredictable. The vary operator normally does the job.

Discover prime X lists (intitle:”#..#”)

intitle:”top 11..15″ lengthy tail seo

This will get slightly foolish, however I simply need to illustrate the ability of mixing operators. Let’s say you’re engaged on a prime X record about long-tail search engine optimisation, however need to make sure that there isn’t an excessive amount of competitors for the 11-15 merchandise vary you’re touchdown in. Utilizing a combo of [intitle:] plus the vary operator [..], you may get one thing like this:

Observe that operator combos can get bizarre, and outcomes could differ relying on the order of the operators. Some operators can’t be utilized in mixture (or at the very least the outcomes are extremely suspicious), so at all times gut-check what you see.

Placing the entire knowledge to work

For those who method this course of in an organized approach (if I can do it, you are able to do it, as a result of, frankly, I’m not that organized), what you must find yourself with is a listing of related matters you might need missed, a listing of your at the moment top-performing pages, a listing of your related opponents, and a listing of your opponents’ top-performing pages. With this bundle of associated knowledge, you may reply questions like the next:

Are you susceptible to competing with your individual related content material?

Do you have to create new content material or enhance on present content material?

Is there outdated content material you must take away or 301-redirect?

What opponents are most related on this content material house?

What effort/price will it take to clear the aggressive bar?

What niches haven’t been coated by your opponents?

No instrument will magically reply these questions, however through the use of your present key phrase analysis instruments and Google’s superior search operators methodically, you must be capable to put your human intelligence to work and create a particular and actionable content material technique round your chosen subject.

For those who’d wish to study extra about Google’s superior search operators, take a look at our complete Studying Middle web page or my publish with 67 search operator tips. I’d love to listen to extra about how you place these instruments to work in your individual aggressive analysis.

Life rushed again into Jayda’s lungs, sharp and unforgiving. To her left, shards of a thousand synonyms. To her proper, the crumbling stays of a mountain of long-tail key phrases. Because the air crammed her lungs, the reminiscences got here speeding again, and with them the crushing realization that her group was buried beneath the particles. After months of effort, they’d lastly completed their aggressive key phrase analysis, however at what price?

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davewakeman · 4 years

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Talking Tickets 13 March 2020--Coronavirus!

I send this email out each Friday morning. You want this deliver, FREE! Sign up here!

Hey There!

Wow! What a week!

I know the next few weeks are going to be rough for everyone. I’m not sure exactly what that will look like for folks, but I want to be here to support everyone as they work through what is going on during the coronavirus crisis and the economic meltdown that is accompanying it.

To that end, I’m going to do a few things:

If any of you just need someone to chat to, give me a call or shoot me an email. You can call, text, or WhatsApp me at +1 (917) 705-6301 and my email is [email protected].

If you are around DC, let me know if you want to get together in person to talk through your contingency plans or special challenges.

I’m going to host an online meetup with executives to talk through shared challenges and developing strategies for moving forward as this pandemic plays out. I’m going to look to do that at the end of the week, so if you are interested…send me an email so I can coordinate folks in many countries.

For your sales and marketing teams, I’m going to be posting a few free webinars ASAP on selling in challenging times, increasing your prospecting opportunities, and strategies to enter new markets. I’ll be looking to do things for the sports folks, the theatre folks, and the secondary market. You’ll be able to find those by visiting my website www.davewakeman.com and I will post them regularly on my blog.

I’ll have more…but all of these are ways for me to give back to the industry and allow me to share my knowledge and experience with y’all in uncertain times.

To the tickets!

———————————————————————————————–

1. The Coronavirus changed the world of entertainment and sports for the foreseeable future:

Okay, you don’t need me to tell you that the week started with Pearl Jam postponing the first leg of their tour. Which would have been crazy enough, but pretty quickly Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert acted like a knucklehead and a #FakeNews genius before testing positive for coronavirus.

Then, the NBA suspended their season, followed by the NCAA canceling the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and a whole lot more. You don’t need me to list the entire, but if you follow me on Twitter…I’ll post a bunch of pieces over the next few days to share all the stories.

Here are a few:

Broadway Live Nation Champions League Festivals The AFL SXS and they aren’t refunding their tickets! Ultra Festival isn’t on and isn’t refunding. Italy is on a shutdown!

More importantly, what’s next? No one knows for sure!

The real answer is, it depends. That’s unsatisfying but true.

Let me try to give you something that helps you take action:

Attendance is going to be an issue for the next few months because for too many events attendance has been an issue anyway. So you’re going to need to think about how to incentivize attendance, ensure safety, and give the best experience.

For folks selling tickets, your focus on process is going to need to be tighter.

While I mentioned attendance being an issue, you also need to think about the idea that there will be pent up demand because if people are quarantined or ill, they will be stir crazy after a few weeks of hanging out in their flats and their homes. So how will you deal with that?

2. NFL continues to negotiate a new deal with the player’s association:

This negotiation has played out for a longer period of time and in public in a way that I don’t remember other deals playing out.

I’m sure there are a number of reasons why.

The League wants to add another game. They want to get a lot more TV money. They want it all and they want it now.

What does all of this mean?

Mark Cuban has called out the NFL before, but if I were pointing to managing by spreadsheet…

The NFL isn’t slowing up business due to the pandemic.

The NFL is in the off-season, so they are likely insulated from the immediate impact of the coronavirus.

3. Betway receives the largest fine in UK history:

I’m not a prude on gambling, but just throwing away my money on something I don’t control isn’t my gig.

Don’t believe me, ask my son…he wants to bet on whether or not he can beat me in a penalty shootout or something else. He can’t but I talk him off betting.

I bring this story up because I worry that the US sports business is rushing into betting as its latest savior and that the unintended consequences are likely to be challenging.

Take this week as an example: no NCAA tournament is a big hit to the gambling industry.

Why do I bring this up?

We really have to think through what role we allow betting to have in our sports consumption? Mark Cuban said it might make baseball interesting to folks, but is that good?

How are we protecting kids and consumers?

Does betting steal from the live experience?

Spoiler: I don’t know the answer. But I feel like the rush to sports betting is covering up the inability to market and sell the live experience as well as it should be sold.

What do you think?

4. US Soccer continues to fight the Women’s National Team:

The women’s national team is super successful, entertaining, and they have an ongoing battle going with the US Soccer Federation.

Tonight as I write this, the head of US Soccer resigns.

I’ve also followed the WNBA challenges a lot over the last few seasons.

Here’s where I am:

The ladies’ games want equal pay and the way I understand it with the WNBA is that they just want the same percentage as the NBA.

I think we want to pay our top female athletes more because we don’t want them to have to play in 2 leagues or more…because that’s not healthy for them or their leagues.

Finally, if you create value…you deserve to earn some of it.

I don’t know if this applies well to tickets, but I think there is a bigger audience for women’s sports than we always recognize.

5. Brokers, Touts, and all…

StubHub is working to get a RICO case dismissed.

Do laws even matter anymore?

Gary Adler says that a lot of the ills of the secondary market are possibly fixed by the BOSS Act.

In general, the secondary market is in the news around the world. And, the UK and Europe are on top of reigning the secondary market in.

Again, I’m pro-secondary. And, I’m curious how this will shake out with the coronavirus…but:

The secondary isn’t your enemy if they buy through a partnership.

The secondary can add a lot of value to poorly selling events.

Keep an eye on the secondary in every market, things have a tendency to jump continents.

—————————————————————————————————————-

What am I up to this week?

I had Don Vaccaro on the podcast!

I’m in DC. So keep an eye on my website and I’m going to do a lot of virtual stuff.

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets 13 March 2020–Coronavirus! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

#coronavirus #tickets

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liodensim · 7 years

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Friday 13th! Spooky! Lots of Tweaks and Fun Stuff!

Adjustments

* You can now donate more than one item at a time to your clans. Suggestion

* If you have your offer accepted on a trade that includes a cub, the cub's survival bar will be boosted to 60% if it's underneath that amount. This is in case you are offline when the offer is accepted and you can't get online before your next Rollover to protect it. Clearly it has some good bodyguards on its journey to your den. Suggestion * The battling UI has been updated to make the health bars of your lion and the enemy clearer, easier to distinguish the health from the container, and they have now been aligned so that the health bar reduces from left or right rather than shrinking into the middle. Suggestion

- Old bar

- New bar * Bookmarks pinned to your sidebar and Bookmark Folders are now sorted alphabetically rather than by which order you add them. This allows greater customisation in how your bookmarks appear to you - if you want to customise their orders, you can now edit their names so they sort how you want them to be sorted. Suggestion * When putting your king up for stud, you can now specify the minimum lioness fertility that you will accept. This will automatically filter out any ineligible lionesses from a player's dropdown list of lionesses.

* Issue hub has had some minor upgrades - helpers, moderators and admins now have their badges next to their names, and similarly to the forums moderator posts are now green, and you can see when another member is currently online. There is also a bigger reply box for tickets. * Trades can now be reported to the Modbox in the same way that members, lions and topics can be reported. * Den, Hoard and Chatter pages now have corresponding browser tab names, instead of Profile, Inventory and Message Boards. * We have also added some behind-the-scenes updates for moderators.

Bug Fixes

* Terms of Service has had the Role Play Forum Rules link updated. * Private trades will not prioritise food's rotting time for expiry and will expire in 2 days when created. * A lot of October event bugs have been caught this week. If you are still having issues with your event storyline, please PM Abbey (#1) or create a Modbox ticket to the Moderator Hub. * Display Bug: Random backslashes appearing in King names should no longer appear * Event bar percentages will now round down to the nearest integer so that they don’t show 100% when really it should show 99.5%-99.9% as this causes confusion over whether or not the next tier should be open

Our newest Community Admin Baroness (who mainly deals with GB issues) has gotten her own explore encounter! :D No karma requirement for this one!

Friday 13th

As promised, we added something unique for this very day. These decors will only appear on Lioden if October's 13th day is.. a Friday. OooOoOoOOoo. You might have noticed a notification that said that the special decors will be available full 24 hours in Monkey Business - we wanted to be sure they're noticed before news post. The decors are: Spiderweb - Veil, Spiderweb - Thick, Spiderweb - Scarce, Frame - Dark, Frame - Rust, and Falling Petals - Black.

Shad has updated tags - Appreciation (2), Arcane (6) and October (9). Dwarfism markings are still being done and will be updated as soon as they're all finished, they did not make the Friday cut.

Raffle Lioness

Congrats Archaleos II (#49779)! You have won the last raffle lady! New lady with the Simien Mountains BG is up for impressing in Special Lioness area in Explore or in NEWS section under News Post List! We have adjusted the event bars to be more consistent with the player activity for this month!

Polls and Dev Notes

Hey guys! Of course Penumbra won - but we decided to add Fossil base as an Applicator craftable from Fossils! Woo! :D I also decided to next time never poll bases against the colour groups, but within same groups. Ya'll are too horny for black! LINK - New poll! Just... don't vote for the Hippo. No.

#lioden-sim #lioden-news #lioden #friday the 13th #october

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kissmeinlimbolove · 5 years

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I thought the curse of Ghost Month isn’t real

or maybe, I just really fell short.

Today, at 12:06 P.M., I received an e-mail that I have been waiting for. However, the e-mail’s content was not what I was expecting. The subject says, Regret Letter. Meaning, I did not pass the application.

I took a leave last August 6, with high hopes of nailing the job interview. I was confident because I like the post. It was for a Sr. Copywriter for an events and production company. It got me excited. What excite me more was I just applied through a job board the day before the interview. Upon arriving home, as I connected to the WiFi, my phone buzzed. It was an interview invite notification. Their current office was just walking distance from my girlfriend’s condo. That’s one of the things why I wanted the job, aside from a better pay from my current. Despite being said that they will relocate to their original office, it was still a lot nearer from my girl’s crib. I can be with her more. Also, the job description was what I used to do before which I miss. I suddenly thought, someone can pay me better with all the things I used to do before. It is possible.

I took a leave, despite having it as another unpaid day. My first interview went well, with HR. It wasn’t like the old ones but the usual why am I leaving my current employer when I just turned two months in it. But before that, I had a booboo while answering the questionnaires we were handed. I answered the wrong sheet. I apologized for it and it seemed nothing was wrong.

I had an interview with I the associate director. Another booboo, my phone alarmed despite in silent mode. The interviewee was OK with it but I think, this and the other booboo can be included in the reasons why I didn’t get the job. I was given a homework – an event concept which I had to e-mail by Friday, end of the day.

I had fun doing the deck despite the challenge of limiting the slides to three. I sent two concepts. They were personal. The AD told me, and I saw on their office, that they want inclusivity. They try their best to be inclusive so I guess, it wasn’t because of the topic of my deck or the people involved in it.

I slept late because of the decks, especially the first one. I gave two concepts yet they weren't enough. Or maybe, because I sent two decks, they thought that I can't choose. Or none between the two was worth it. That saddens me more.

The regret letter was polite. They said thank you for my interest and while my background, my qualifications, and my concept were strong, they conclude that there are other candidates who are aligned to their needs.

To my sadness, I just replied a simple Thank you, with the name of the recruiter. This is not the first time I received a regret letter.

Months ago, I applied for an online job. I had a Skype interview. I was nervous since it was a first. I also thought and felt that I will get it. The next day, as they promised, they sent an e-mail. I asked what was missing during my application so I would know how I can work on it. The recruiter answered. It had the same tone with the regret letter I received today. He said that if it weren’t for the other applicant who had experience handling the line of business of the client, he would pick me for he was impressed on how I handled the interview. For that, I was happy. But with today, I ask myself, Were they just using a template?

Whatever the answer is, I am glad they took time to tell the outcome of one’s application.

It’s just that, I feel sad. I don’t know if it was because I hoped too much, like I thought it was a sure ball; or because now I feel, I have lost my luster. That my years of experience in an NGO of a media company, was nothing. That I have become rotten, like how I look at the tenured ones there. I hope I did not. After leaving that place, despite the bravery at the beginning, as I entered to a new place, it made me feel what my friend and I talked about before. It seems that place will question you if you can do better things elsewhere or that is just where you are meant to stay and no longer move forward. I know. My pessimism.

Even being a Magna Cum Laude, I will tell you, when you get into this world, will be nothing. It’s just a bragging right.

As much as I want to just think that it is their loss of not getting me, I feel like it was mine. It was my loss. I applied to another job post I saw which I said, I will submit my application if this one wouldn’t happen.

I wanted to leave my current company for different reasons. My boss is a good person despite being demanding and I feel that she wouldn’t allow me to do things in the ways I want and know. However, I don’t see myself staying there. I don’t see growth for me, and even for the company as a workplace. It is a good business, I bet, but for me, right now, it feels like a retirement facility. I do not have much of workmates my age, and the systems and process of things are antiquated. That is how I feel. The only person I regularly talk to is leaving by the end of the month. I think that adds up.

Also, I still have remnants of anxiety from what happened as I turned one month, which makes me think of the company’s culture. Someone reported me to HR, which was OK with me. I advocate people who speak up. However, what I didn’t like was when that person spread the word around like it aimed to start a rumor mill. She did those things without knowing the context. I found her actions of spreading the word to almost everyone in the floor offensive. Every day, I think people have judged me.

I definitely do not know what this means. Is God telling me to be patient as He has bigger things and plans for me? That maybe, I am meant for the other applications I sent before this one? I sent an application to an international NGO, by the way. Or do I have to stay longer in where I am right now?

I don’t believe in those things. I am skeptic and pessimist, yes, and no matter how hard I try to claim things, I just think they wouldn’t end up well. Just like this one. As I’ve been told, I don’t feel the signals. I don’t go with the vibes. I do things and comment on them as a matter of factly.

Through this course, my regrets are coming back again. My what ifs. I am so frustrated with my career. What if I said yes to that interview invitation before, even if I already signed the papers from my current employer? That was just near our house. I can definitely bike that, if ever. Or what if, I applied to the job post my classmate was telling me before? What if, I didn’t leave? What if I just transferred departments or programs?

The thing is, I don’t know. It’s the not knowing that makes you worried, or even crazy.

I wish I knew. I wish I have the power to know what’s next but, yeah. I say, Where’s the fun in that?

I am feeling better now that I have written this. I was trying not to cry as I read the regret letter yet, I cried. I wanted to bawl in the toilet but I had a scheduled 1:00 P.M. meeting so I told myself I’d do it at home. I cried upon arrival, yeah, but not that much. Just had teary eyes. I think delaying your cries stops the tears from flowing.

And as much as I want to say, Where’s the fun in that, I still wish I know what’s next so I don’t have to feel this way.

#personal #career #ghost month #work #millennial #regrets

0 notes

lioden-sim · 7 years

Text

NEW SERVER, Explanations, Some(brero) Update

Downtime Again?? This will be a bit technical, if you're not too bothered about what happened, please skip to the next header. On Friday 5th May at approximately 7am server time, Lioden started lagging very heavily. We initially thought it was just a small blip and that it would all sort itself out. Upon further investigation we discovered that our database had corrupted pretty badly, which we believe was caused by the disruption earlier in the week with the physical data centre migration. The admin team very quickly went into alert mode; we discussed a plan of action. We weighed up whether it would be worth a 24 hour downtime for DNS propagation or whether it would be quicker to wait for our host to diagnose and repair whatever was going on. We also had the option of a new database server. The database server was sold to us under the promise that it would take 8 hours - we asked to be fast-tracked as we wanted to get the game back up ASAP. We were then told 4 hours (this was after 4 hours of downtime already, after first thinking it was a temporary blip and then having to diagnose the problem ourselves). 20 hours later, we finally get the message that the server is up and running. Throughout this time we took turns in sleeping and staying up to see if the server would come up, so the communication between admins was unfortunately very disjointed for a time. Had we known sooner that our total downtime would be upwards of 25 hours, we would have switched hosts immediately. We are extremely unhappy with the customer service we received while trying to get our server fixed/moved. Since we are on a new server, expect some lag for first 24-36 hours of your gameplay as your data is being cached. What will happen next? We will be moving host. We do not want to give this company any more money. We are temporarily staying put until we can set up a server with another company. We will then be requesting a refund for all of our pre-paid services (we like to pay a year in advance). We will schedule game maintenance for later this month, on a week day, early in the morning (server time) so that we can switch hosts. In 5 years of Lioden's life (and in 15 years of having our websites hosted) we have never experienced something like this that was also handled so poorly by the hosting company, and we aim to never experience this again.

I lost out on time playing! If you go to the main News page, we have set up a Downtime Care Package for you! This bundle gives Food & Toy bundles and Nesting material based on the number of lionesses you own, along with a bunch more goodies (some GB items as well). We can't apologise enough for this downtime - it has been completely out of our control. Your lions should be also maxed out on happiness and hunger. This item will be available until Tuesday.

Have you lost our messages again? >_> Thankfully we were able to retrieve some messages. We only have from Tuesday when we came back up, up to a certain time on Thursday evening, but we have been able to restore at least a partial backup this time. If you purchased GB and your new GB are no longer on your account, please send a PM to Abbey #1 with your PayPal transaction ID and we will refund it for you. BACKUP RESTORATION TIMES: Rough Estimate on backup times, as depending on specific Lioden feature, they are stored at different hours: 4 and a half hours before rollover for main backups, 3 hours 50 minutes before rollover for lions, 4 hours 15 minutes for Hoard. This means userlogs, inboxes, lions and other things can be restored from different times and there might be some discrepancies. If you notice "ghost notifications" just delete them please, we tried to restore inboxes but the data was still corrupted a bit. What about May Event and our lost progress? What about the storyline? If you guys will struggle with the event tiers due to downtime we'll see about tweaking them as the month goes! May Storyline will help you gather some Tokens and Manticora Beetles! Unfortunately we were unable to code or work on it ... again. So we might launch it within a day or two and include it in May news post along with a notification that it was launched.

Friday Update

Unfortunately thanks to the downtime our Friday update was cut short. We were able to implement a couple of nice moderating tools, including a tool to make moderator posts stand out more when they want to get your attention ;)

We will be working very hard to bring you a much bigger coding update next week. Bug Fixes * Roasted Lamb notice showing on all lions when applied to king has been fixed - it will now only show on your king. * When cubs are born, the cub number given by the ultrasound bat will be removed - you will need to visit the bat for each new pregnancy to find out the accurate number of cubs. * Patrolling males are no longer chaseable, killable or reserve-able. * We have attempted a fix of aging lionesses dropping to negative fertility - please let us know if you still experience this bug. * We have also attempted a fix of lionesses not going into heat immediately for the tutorial. Terms of Service Change We have made a minor change to the Terms of Service based on a confusing situation that has arisen lately. In order to address this properly, here is the new rule regarding referrals which will apply from now. "While the referral rewards and monthly referral contests exist, referring a friend to the game should not be incentivised in any way. This includes, but is not limited to, offering in-game or off-site rewards for signing up and rolling over enough to earn the referral points. Anyone found to be incentivising referrals will have any referral points revoked."

Remember that the event ends on May 31st at 11:59 pm, and all your currency will be stored in your account until next year. There are new avatar Tags made by Shad, for May and Misc, check them out as always!

Raffle Lioness

We had to run the Raffle again as the progress from yesterday was wiped. Our apologies. Congrats Khorshid (#8241)! You have won the last raffle lady! New lady with the Sunset over Entabeni BG is up for impressing in Special Lioness area in Explore or in NEWS section under News Post List! ;D She has first Margay marking!

Polls

Poll LINK - We plan to add a new Mutie on Demand item for 2017's Black Friday sale (don't worry, we're not replacing previous MoD, we're just adding new stuff), We had some ideas so maybe you can help us decide which exactly would go well on Lioden? Twin MoD - Another 6 piebald designs, completely new and unique to the new item. We'd call it MoD: More Piebald or something. Somatic Black Patches - basically what I'm linking below - would look like somatic breaks that you can see on horses etc. I am open to suggestions on their shapes. Visually it'd look a bit like Melanism cutouts. Real life black patch on a lion - LINK - Front leg :D

#lioden-sim #lioden-news #lioden

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mila-regan · 7 years

Text

Enough

Little fic that adds to my challenge but also not?? Makes sense, I hope. This fic covers a little about Ethan, a phonecall with Tracie and Aliya and more of Mila’s thoughts! The mistakes in the letter were made on purpose. Edit made by the wonderful Cashew. Thanks to @tracie-beauchamp @aliyatyson and @sophiaravensfromillea

The mood was bright and jokes were being told as the beer was passed around.

For one evening, they were allowed to have fun, tonight they could drink and laugh. Tomorrow they would be back on the field, not knowing who would get hurt or who wouldn’t make it to the next day.

He kept avoiding the events on the television on purpose. Staring at the ground as he tried to laugh along with his mates but he didn’t found their jokes funny. Mostly because all the jokes were about him. They weren’t fond of him. They knew why he was there and what he had done. He disgusted them.

These men had all been randomly selected. They were proud to serve Illéa. Proud that they would die in pride and with a cause. They had real families that were proud of them. Some had wives or were engaged and expecting babies.

He had no one.

He would die in shame and without a purpose.

The guy on the chair next to him slapped him on his shoulder and pointed to the screen. It was his punishment to watch along. Watch the three girls standing next to each other. There were smiles plastered on their faces but he could see that none of them was truly happy.

She wasn’t. He had spent way too much time with her to see her genuine happy. Her eyes would have been smiling. They didn’t.

‘’You have good taste dude.’’ one soldier s houted from the other side of the room as the cameras on television zoomed in on her face. ‘’I would totally do her.’’ Another one yelled. There was agreeing murmur and he gritted his teeth. He had trouble controlling himself. To not punch one of them squarely in the face. No one had the right to talk about her like that.

‘’I would go back for such a pretty face too.’’ There was loud laughter. He clenched his fists in anger what made them laugh even harder.

One of the older men shushed the younger guys as they focused back on the television again.

He didn’t want to see her. He wanted her to be happy but not with a Prince. She should have been living a happy life with him in Bankston. She hated him now. He fucked it all up.

He had nothing left and he knew it. The girl he still loved, was nowhere in reach and hated him. He had left his grandmother all to herself in Bankston without a word from him. She didn’t know that he was left here, left here to die. He abandoned the only family that has ever cared about him.

He was unwanted, unloved and a coward.

One last glance at the television and he knew he couldn’t stand to watch this any longer. When the commercial break cut in, he stood up from his place. The soldiers stick their feet out in order to let him trip but he didn’t fall.

Outside he pushed himself against a brick wall as he started to cry.

Enough. He decided that it was enough. He wouldn’t cause harm anymore. Not to anyone.

They didn’t hear the loud shot.

They didn’t notice his empty seat as the next daughter of Illéa was announced. They clapped their hands, proud of the girl that had won while others had rather picked the other one. They were proud of the next King in line. Proud to serve him.

They finally noticed his absence when they got back to their barracks. The lower bunk was empty, except for a yellow note on his pillow. They recognized his neat handwriting and the founder of the note frowned as he read the text.

‘’Have any of you seen Barret?’’ the founder asked while he looked around the barrack. He didn’t recognize any of the faces that belonged to this bunk.

‘’No. He left the cafeteria when there was a commercial break. Mummering something about shooting a fucking guard.’’ The tall soldier with dark hair laughed loudly as his mates smacked him on the shoulder and laughed with him.

They had been picking on their fellow soldier ever since he came into the group, a couple weeks ago. He was a Three, an aspiring scientist who thought he was better than the rest and a traitor to the Crown. He had committed a crime against Illéa and would not leave this camp unpunished for that.

At first there were small harmless jokes. Hiding his uniform and giving the wrong times to eat dinner so he would be late and didn’t get to eat anything.

Those small things grew into bigger plots. Aiming at him with real bullets instead of practice ones or let him defuse a defect bomb that had a high percent of exploding. He got out of it unharmed every time.

At some point, they just started to ignore him. The traitor was just a stupid guy. A psycho who had love get him so far it had damaged his common sense.

‘’What do you have there?’’ another soldier grabbed the piece of paper out of his hands as he took a quick look. ‘’Is this a joke?’’ he asked as he read the few lines. ‘’I don’t know, dude. I’m asking again, did anyone see or talked with Barret?’’ all the other men shook their heads and murmured no’s.

‘’Damnit.’’ The soldier who found the note whispered and pushed through the crowd of men. He went outside to the barrack where this camp kept their weapons and other protection. All soldiers were assigned to their own weapons but he saw it instantly.

The traitors’ one was missing.

When he ran back to alarm the rest of the camp, it was too late as he already heard shouting.

They had found the traitor already..

‘’Those weren’t real guns, that was just your imagination.’’ I whisper to myself hugging my legs close to my chest. ‘’If it were real guns’ guards would’ve burst into my room, they would have brought me into safety and everything would be fine. No one will get hurt. No harm. Not anymore.” my bedsheets are tangled around my feet and drenched in sweat.

I can’t stop my body from shaking anyway. Shivers run down my spine as the imaginary shot echoes in my head. Why does it come to haunt me right now? This was almost two months ago, I should leave it behind. But when I started to think, it was hard for me to stop. My mind started going places where I didn’t want to go.

They went to Ethan, they always shifted to him.

They were about Haiden too. I haven’t talked to him ever since we came back from the shelter. My great idea of taking him here didn’t end up the way I hoped and suddenly, it made me doubt everything. Him, my reasons to be here and all the recent events.

The darkness of the night changes slowly as the hours pass. When the sky has turned yellow and pink my maids come into my room and get me ready for breakfast. I don’t mind going back to the dresses but I prefer my sweater over any dress. But as Saniya helps me in a soft pink day dress I give her a tight hug. Just because I’m so thankful for her.

‘’Oh Miss, before you leave.’’ Dana stops me as I already stand with one foot in the hallway.

‘’You have special mail today, take a stop at the post office if you can.’’ She winks and pushes me carefully out of the door. I shake my head with a little smile and take a deep breath. I hope it’s from the girls, I could use a little courage before seeing Haiden again. It would be as awkward as I would make it myself but with all the doubt, the tension would still be in the air.

I hurry to the post office and walk in the room as the doors are already opened. ‘’Good morning, Lady Mila.’’ Two guards greet me with a small bow as the one immediately starts searching through a pile of envelopes. ‘’I think this belongs to you.’’ He hands me a bright blue envelop and my smile widens as I see my name messily written on the front.

Kian.

‘’Thank you, gentlemen.’’ I say and make a deep curtsy what makes them laugh a little as I run off with my letter.

In the dinner room, it’s rather quiet and I sit down with the two other girls. As breakfast is served no one talks to one another so I take my opportunity to open and read the letter.

Dear Mila,

Momma helped me write this letter to you but I wrote the most of it on my own. I’m really proud of you and all the other girls too! But those dresses you wear seem heavy, do you get to take them off in your room?

Momma has let me stay up every Friday night to watch you and your amazing but that’s good.

Is the Prince still nice to you? Does he know how to do sign language when I get to meet him? I hope so. Papa is still not home. He will be when the Prince announces, but that might be weeks away.

I miss you and I love you very very very much, hope you have a fun time at the palace.

Greetings of your little brother, Kian!

When I look up from my letter the girls heads are turned to me and I realize I must have been laughing out loud. ‘’Excuse me.’’ I mutter and hide the letter away as I take a sip of my orange juice and try to avoid all the eyes. I had to write a letter back soon to him. he would love that. I would send some pictures of the palace along with it.

With my camera in my hand and the phone in my other I walk around the garden, snapping pictures of flowers and the backside of the palace. With the phone, I am planning on calling Tracie. It has been a long time since we have talked and I miss hearing her voice.

When I arrive at the greenhouse, I let out a deep sigh and sink down on the metal bench. This whole greenhouse beams Haiden.

First date, second- first kiss, maybe a goodbye to be added to this list. Who knows..

I dial Tracie’s number and wait for her to pick up. ‘’Hey Trace, it’s me. I haven’t talked to you in ages.’’ I say and hear her laughing.

‘’Oh Mila! I feel like it’s been years honestly. The future Princess is busy.’’ I shaky my head sadly as I hear her say that. I try to laugh with her. ‘’Not so sure about that anymore Trace. By the way, is Ali there?’’ there comes a strange sound from the other side of the line, as if she is spitting her drink out. ‘’You what? Hum yeah, she’s here and not with Ray for once.’’ Tracie sounds almost annoyed.

‘’Hey Mila! Is Tracie talking to you? How does that feel? I wouldn’t know?’’ I guess I’ve been put on the speaker and I frown pushing the phone closer to my ear.

‘’Is everything okay there?’’ ‘’Perfectly fine.’’ Aliya answers. ‘’Can’t be better.’’ Tracie adds but I can sense the tension. ‘’Why are you not sure about winning? I thought you were going for it.’’ I shrug, they can’t see. ‘’I don’t know anymore.’’ I confess. ‘’Not sure? What?’’ Ali asks confused.

‘’I’m so lost in him after the trip to the shelter.’’

‘’What happened? I thought he seemed even more quiet than usual when we brought you home.’’ She comments and I hear Tracie mumble something about the shelter. I remember the ride back to the palace, it was quiet and uneasy. Even Ray noticed.

‘H-he isn’t a determined to erase the Castes, and it isn’t feeling good to him. Because the Castes have been around for such a long time. He thinks too many people will disagree.’’ I explain and feel that heavy feeling again. failure, the feeling that I hate the most.

‘’You brought him to the shelter? You didn’t tell me that.’’ I shake my head. Sorry Trace.

‘’How can he not- I mean, I’m sorry Mila.’’ Aliya says and after that she and Tracie start arguing about curfews and rules. Something I can’t say anything about to mix in. I just listen.

‘’But have you spoken to Haiden after that?’’ Ali asks after the argument.

‘’We haven’t. I feel that my affection for him is so one sided.’’ ‘’You should talk to him Mila.’’ Tracie insists and I nod. I should, but how?

‘’He doesn’t understand that I love him.’’ I try but Ali defends him immediately. ‘’He can be scared.’’ ‘’He is scared.’’ Trace confirms. ‘’I am scared too! He has two other girls to pick out from but I only have one heart. I am sacrificing my whole future for one decision that he will make!’’ my voice becomes louder and I feel tears burning behind my eyes.

This is my future too, I am making sacrifices too.

After a long pause, Aliya asks the burning question that I have asked myself maybe a hundred times. Often late at night. ‘’Do you think you’ll be happy with him, Mila? Because if you won’t- You can still step out, you don’t have to force this because you came this far.’’

‘’I don’t know Ali, I don’t know anything anymore. it’s all a big mess.’’

‘’You would need a break from him if you want to know what I think. You need to think clearly without him being around.’’ Somehow, I like that idea of Tracie. She has some good ones once a while. ‘’We’re barely talking already.’’ I mutter.

‘’I can kidnap you.’’ ‘’Tracie, seriously.’’ Ali scolds.

‘’I can’t let him break her heart.’’

‘’Rational ideas please.’’

And so it went on.. ending with Tracie and Aliya talking it out. Tracie spilling her heart out which I’m glad she did. She cried, I cried and with jokes of her kidnapping me I hung up. If only she would really do that.

I spend the rest of my day in the garden and my room. Writing a letter to Kian with the balcony doors wide open. My maids play games of cards and read my books. It’s good to have distraction and they are the best at doing that.

In the evening, Dana prepares one of the nicest baths ever. She knows me so good, exactly when I finally could use one she knew it. I take my medicines which were assured to be fine and enjoy the warm water and the comfort of the bath. For once there is no place for Haiden, no place for worry and doubt about love and broken hearts. There isn’t even Ethan to spook around. There are only bubbles and that one book I have wanted to finish for ages.

After an hour or three I get out of the tub and dry myself off with a clean towel. I wrap one around my dripping wet hair and around my body as well. I would sleep early, get some energy and speak with Haiden tomorrow. Yes, I’ll do that.

I even hum to myself as I walk back into my bedroom. As I notice the two figures standing in my room I let out a scream and clutch the towel closer to my body.

‘’TRACIE, SOPHIA!’’ I back away in confusion as Sophia waves a little awkward. ‘’Hi.’’

Tracie smiles bright and crosses her arms. ‘’Told you I was going to get you kidnapped.’’

#mila regan #not a challenge #mine #fic

4 notes · View notes

velmaemyers88 · 5 years

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Tech Stocks Google, Snap, Twitter Jump Higher

Another busy day in the land of tech stocks, and the news is still (mostly) good. You’ll recall that on Tuesday, Snap impressed and on Wednesday it was Facebook’s turn. On Thursday, the good cheer spread to Google, Intel, and Expedia, though Amazon was less pleasing. And by Friday morning, Twitter was in on the party, too.

Given how much ink and/or pixels we’ve spilled on the story of the “tech-lash” and all the regulatory problems ahead, it’s worth noting that the core businesses of the largest companies are still chugging ahead. In an economy where the U.S. gross domestic product is growing at less than 3%, Snap’s revenue grew 48%, Facebook grew 28%, and Google increased 19%. Even “disappointing” Amazon grew sales 19%. And it’s all been pretty well anticipated on Wall Street, as these same companies have (mostly) been among the best performers on the stock market as well. As of yesterday’s close, Snap’s share price was up 221%, Facebook’s 53%, and Amazon’s 31%. Google was lagging with only a 9% gain, but it’s up another 8% in premarket trading this morning.

“Like a championship boxer that had been momentarily and unexpectedly knocked to the canvas, Alphabet delivered a series of well-timed punches that returned them to previous winning form,” analyst Michael Nathanson observed.

It’s always clever to predict that things are about to change, but most of the time, they stay the same. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, as Sir Isaac Newton phrased it. The basic trends feeding the tech giants, like the shift to online entertainment and e-commerce and the proliferation of more computing power and connectivity to more people and more places, continue unbated. It will take some awfully significant regulatory changes to alter that momentum.

Next week, we hear from Apple. Wall Street analysts expect Tuesday’s report will show that sales came in around $53.4 billion, unchanged from last year (when Apple’s revenue was still growing a healthy 17%). Falling iPhone sales should be offset by rising sales of services, wearables, and maybe iPads, according to the consensus view. But apple’s stock price has also risen a healthy 32% in 2019. Let’s see if Tim Cook & Co. can keep the party rolling.

Aaron Pressman

On Twitter: @ampressman

Email: [email protected]

NEWSWORTHY

Called it. The much-rumored sale of Intel’s flailing smartphone modem business to Apple for $1 billion is finally official. The two companies confirmed the transaction on Thursday, though Intel retains the right to use the modem tech in non-phone devices likes PCs and cars. Not-so-confirmed is the closing of T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint. The latest hang-up is the Justice Department apparently trying to convince the 14 state attorneys general that have sued to block the deal to back down. That led to the bizarre situation on Thursday of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison issuing a statement blasting the deal, then pulling the statement off his web site, then having his spokesman say “it wasn’t supposed to happen.” Stay tuned. The DOJ has scheduled a mystery press announcement for 11 a.m. ET on Friday.

Called it, II. Speaking of news events you probably anticipated, Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group closed the fundraising for its second massive tech investing fund, dubbed the Vision Fund 2, with $108 billion commitments from investors including Apple and Microsoft.

Called it, part three. Okay, I know those last two items were fairly predictable, but this one was an absolute lock. Remember at the height of bitcoin mania in late 2017 when small-cap stock Long Island Iced Tea Corp. changed its name to Long Blockchain, sending its share price up almost 300%? Now the FBI is investigating the company for possible insider trading and securities fraud, Quartz reports. Shocker.

So called it. Predictable? This one was fated, set in stone, undeniable. the Senate finally released a redacted version of its investigation of Russian attacks on the 2016 election. You will not be surprised to learn that the attacks were far more extensive than previously reported and that vulnerabilities likely remain, even as Mitch McConnell is blocking action on a bill to bolster election security. Sigh.

A small addition. We noted yesterday that Chinese ride service Didi Chuxing created a new joint venture with Toyota. the venture also includes a third party, GAC Toyota Motor, which itself is a joint venture between Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile Group.

FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE

A few longer reads that I came across this week that may be appealing for your weekend reading pleasure:

Apple Music’s Next Era–And the New Leader Spurring Global Growth (Billboard) “You hear Tim talk a lot about humanity–how we’re at the crossroads between the liberal arts and technology,” says Oliver Schusser. “It’s got to be both.” The new leader of Apple Music (the Tim in question would be his boss, Apple CEO Cook) is relaxing in his sun-drenched corner office at the company’s Culver City, Calif., headquarters on a June morning, explaining–in his typically measured way–why the service he oversees hasn’t gone all-in on algorithms.

The Video Game Industry Can’t Go On Like This (Kotaku) The wheels of the games industry keep turning, in spite of the strain. So how much bigger can video games get? Video games are only getting more costly, in more ways than one. And it doesn’t seem like they’re sustainable.

Khashoggi fiancée Hatice Cengiz: ‘Jamal was not their enemy’ (The Financial Times) The doctorate student talks over the chain of events that led to the Saudi journalist’s killing in Istanbul.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone (The British Museum blog) You’ve probably heard of the Rosetta Stone. It’s one of the most famous objects in the British Museum, but what actually is it? Take a closer look…

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

With all the problems Facebook faces in Washington, D.C., it needs all the allies it can muster. Apparently, co-founder and former top exec Chris Hughes won’t be among them. Hughes, it seems, is making the rounds on Capitol Hill to explain why Facebook should be curtailed. It’s kind of…ironic, given his half a billion dollar haul from Facebook stock. But as Washington Post reporters Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tony Romm discovered, that hasn’t stopped Hughes from making the anti-Facebook case.

After House lawmakers embarked on their broad antitrust investigation of Facebook and its fellow tech giants in June, one of the first people they consulted was Hughes, said Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust law. Hughes quietly paid a visit to members of the House’s top competition-focused panel earlier this month, meeting with lawmakers and their staff members to pitch many of the issues he raised in his op-ed.

Hughes presented his views as a former Facebook insider, something that lent credence to his arguments, Cicilline said. “It’s remarkable and significant to me and my colleagues that someone with such a role in creating the company has the capacity and courage, really, to say, ‘We have some challenges, some things to look at.’ ”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Proposed Federal Law Adds to the Backlash Against Facial-Recognition Technology By David Z. Morris

Netflix’s Cancellation of ‘Tuca & Bertie’ Renews Criticism of Its Perplexing Algorithm By Isaac Feldberg

‘Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test’: Investors Question Recent Developments at WeWork Ahead of IPO By Rey Mashayekhi

Why WeWork Embodies Everything You Need to Know About Investor Sentiment Right Now By Ben Carlson

3 in 10 U.S. Homes Don’t Have Broadband: Study By Chris Morris

Ripple’s CEO Worried About Regulatory Backlash Over Facebook’s Libra Plan By Jeremy Kahn

160 Million Government Records Exposed in Data Breaches Since 2014, Study Finds By Natasha Bach

BEFORE YOU GO

This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman. Find past issues, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters.

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rickhorrow · 5 years

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15 + 5 + 5 To Watch 61719

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 17

with Jacob Aere

Perhaps The Ringer’s Rodger Sherman said it best: The NBA Finals "weren't just a prelude to free agency: The two exist hand-in-hand." As if the Raptors thrilling last minute victory in Oakland wasn’t NBA blockbuster enough, the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday agreed to a deal to acquire Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for a package of players and draft picks, including the No. 4 pick in Thursday's NBA Draft. The trade, noted ESPN, is a "massive game-changer that reshuffles the deck and could affect every major decision in what already was shaping up to be a monster offseason.” Davis’ trade not only shifts the balance of power in the Western Conference, it will also impact the Eastern, starting with the Pelicans, who will add another marquee player alongside their all but certain acquisition of Duke forward Zion Williamson at No. 1 in the NBA Draft. The NBA Finals were the "opening chapter of the league's future." How free agency now proceeds will shape the NBA’s competitive balance for many years to come.

Kevin Durant will likely miss all of next season after injuring his Achilles during Game 5 of the NBA Finals, throwing NBA free agency into even more chaos. Now, as the Washington Post noted, a "bigger-picture question" has emerged, as it remains to be seen "which teams, and which star players, can afford to wait on Durant’s return to health.” It is a question that "touches nearly every corner of the league, as Durant has been linked in rumors" to the Knicks, Clippers, and Nets outside of the Warriors. What Durant decides to do will obviously impact what other players like Kyrie Irving and Kawhi Leonard decide to do. Durant can choose to opt in to the final year of his contract with the Warriors at $31.5 million and become a free agent in 2020. Durant’s other suitors now have to "calculate whether he’s still worth offering a maximum contract over four years, even if he might not play for the first year of the deal.” Durant’s future also has medical undercurrents. It will impact how other athletes manage devastating injuries like Achilles tears, companies like Embody whose mission is to treat such injuries via technology, and the global financial funds that underwrite NBA teams and medical startups alike.

Forbes just released their world's highest-paid athletes list, which highlights the top 100 earners over the past year. Forbes calculated earnings include prize money, salaries, and bonuses earned June 1, 2018-June 1, 2019, as well as endorsement estimates for the same period. No. 1 Lionel Messi led the way at $127 million, with $92 million in salary and $35 million in endorsements. That put the Argentine well ahead of fellow soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo’s $109 million ($65 million in salary, $44 million in endorsements) and Neymar’s $105 million ($75 million, $30 million). Quarterbacks Russell Wilson ($89.5 million, $80.5 million in salary) and Aaron Rodgers ($89.3 million, $80.3 million in salary) ranked sixth and seventh, respectively. Boxer Canelo Alvarez was fourth with $94 million ($92 million in winnings), while tennis icon Roger Federer was fifth, counting $93.4 million, led by $86 million in endorsements, the highest total among the group. Of note: 62 of the top 100 earners play in a U.S.-based league, with the NBA alone accounting for 35, including No. 8 LeBron James ($36 million in salary, $53 million in endorsements), No. 9 Steph Curry ($37.8 million, $42 million), and No. 10 Kevin Durant ($30.4 million, $35 million).

While golfer Gary Woodland is not on the Forbes’ highest-paid athletes list, he did just add his name to the U.S. Open Championship trophy. At a little over $25 million in total PGA Tour earnings, Woodland does not breathe the rare air of the Forbes’ elite. On Sunday, however, Woodland joined the prestigious club of golf’s Major champions, winning the 119th U.S. Open, pocketing $2.25 million for the win, and denying runner up Brooks Koepka the opportunity to become the first player to win three consecutive Opens in 105 years. Woodland, of Topeka, Kansas, is No. 25 in the official World Golf Rankings, with three prior PGA Tour wins. He is also the first University of Kansas graduate to win a Major and only the sixth player age 35 or older to do so. “This is a really popular win,” said FOX commentator Paul Azinger. “Everybody loves Gary. He has a heart of gold.” Likely loving Woodland more than ever are his sponsors, including Puma and its Volition Collection – benefiting Folds of Honor, which provides for spouses and children of fallen soldiers; Wilson; NetJets; and CDW, the PGA Tour’s official tech partner since 2008.

The LPGA and Group1001 have announced a new LPGA Tour event in Boca Raton. The first edition of the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio will be held January 20-26, 2020 at Boca Rio Golf Club. “We are thrilled to support women’s professional golf and to provide a platform for the sport’s best to compete and showcase their talents,” said Dan Towriss, CEO of Group1001. “We want to thank our good friends at Group1001 and Boca Rio Golf Club for their support of the LPGA and their desire to host a world-class event in South Florida,” added LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. The inaugural Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio will feature a 108-player field competing for a $2 million purse over 72 holes of stroke play. The new event will be one of two LPGA Tour tournaments held in Florida in January 2020. The year will kick off with the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions on January 15-19 in Lake Buena Vista, one week prior to the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. The Sunshine State will also bookend the LPGA Tour season, with the year culminating at the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples in November.

NBA Finals merchandising deal proved a slam dunk for Instagram and the league. According to SportsBusiness Daily, as soon as the final buzzer sounded on the last game of the NBA Finals, the NBA and sportswear manufacturer New Era were shooting to score by offering instant sales of championship gear on Instagram. This was part of a growing effort to turn sports highlights, as well as the social media posts of celebrities, influencers, and retail brands into shoppable moments. The minute the Raptors clinched their first championship last night, the NBA offered Toronto Raptors championship gear on its Instagram account @NBA. The Raptors' championship hat and T-shirt by New Era will be offered exclusively on Instagram for the first 24 hours after the game. Additionally, the Raptors winning their first NBA title in franchise history led to “record merchandise sales at the official NBA store." The NBA said that by Friday afternoon, the "combined online sales through NBAStore.com and NBAStore.ca had eclipsed the previous record" by 80%. Pairing an exclusive merchandise drop with an event like the NBA Finals leverages the strength of the NBA with fan enthusiasm around championship titles.

The NFL and NFLPA have initiated “preliminary talks” on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. While the existing CBA doesn’t expire until after the 2020 season, Pro Football Talk has reported that the NFL wants a deal in place before the start of the 2019 season. Players would like to address several concerns in the next CBA including limits on Goodell’s authority in player conduct cases, increased roster sizes, improved medical benefits, and eliminating marijuana from the league’s banned substances list. There’s “definitely a deal to be made. The NFL is so healthy financially, it seems unlikely that either side would be inclined to shut it down. The NFL generates upwards of $15 billion per year in revenue – roughly 50% more than the next sports league, MLB – and the salary cap has risen more than 40% since 2014. Meeting a self-imposed September 1 deadline would ensure that the league’s 100th anniversary season is celebrated without the distraction of labor negotiations, and guaranteed long-term labor peace would allow the NFL to begin negotiating its next round of broadcast rights deals.

Major League Baseball announced that the St Louis Cardinals will host the Chicago Cubs in a rivalry matchup in London in 2020. Taking place June 13-14 at London Stadium, the series follows this year’s Red Sox vs. Yankees matchup in that city. Said William DeWitt Jr, Cardinals chairman and chief executive, “I have no doubt that the passionate sports fans in London will love these games and we look forward to creating some new Cardinals fans overseas.” This year, Taco Bell is exporting its “Steal A Base, Steal A Taco” promotion to Europe for the two-game Red Sox-Yankees series in London June 29-30. A successful stolen base in either game will win fans in the U.K. a free taco on July 4 from 2:00-6:00pm local time at any of the 38 U.K. Taco Bell locations. The chain has staged the same promo in various World Series since 2007. Meanwhile, as presenting sponsor of this year’s MLB London Series, Canadian telecom giant Mitel will get its logo on both team’s batting helmets. Baseball, clearly, is no longer just an American pastime.

NBC reportedly reaped an eight-figure haul from the Blues-Bruins Stanley Cup Final Game 7. According to Nielsen, before last Wednesday, the most recent Stanley Cup Final Game 7, in 2011, averaged 8.54 million viewers and a 4.8 household rating, making it the most-watched NHL game in 38 years. Media buyers last week claimed NBC was asking north of $200,000 for each 30-second ad unit in Wednesday’s Blues-Bruins broadcast. According to Standard Media Index data, the average unit cost in the three 2018 Stanley Cup Final games that aired on NBC was $113,702, and overall spend for the five-game series added up to more than $27 million. NBC said that roughly 25% of its Game 7 ad sales inventory is pre-sold, mostly to traditional NHL sponsors. As with all Game 7s, the network’s ad sales execs scrambled to sell the remaining 75%. AdAge noted the last Game 7 on record also featured the Bruins, which likely helped advertisers “justify the expense of their additional investment in hockey." The Blues history-making victory also provided NBC with a significant ratings boost.

Europe’s triumph over the USA in last year’s Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris provided France with an economic boost of more than $266 million. The figure represents almost double the $134 million of economic activity generated in Scotland from Gleneagles staging the 2014 edition of the biennial golf match. The economic impact study commissioned by Ryder Cup Europe and supported by the French Golf Federation (FFG) took into account spending by all spectators, with over 270,000 fans from over 90 different countries turning out to see Europe’s victory. The figure also accounts for all organizational spending by the FFG and French authorities on course and infrastructure upgrades, developing 100 municipal golf facilities, and other indirect or induced spending. Meanwhile, the 2018 Ryder Cup also delivered a major increase in social media engagement, with more than 22 billion global impressions throughout the week of the event. As the golf world now turns its attention to The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, it’s interesting to note that last year’s Open at Carnoustie boosted the Scottish economy by $152 million.

The 2019 French Open generated more revenue for Tennis Channel’s streaming service than any tournament in the subscription platform’s five-year history. With a record high presentation of up to 12 live courts per day, Tennis Channel Plus took in more than $1 million in subscriber revenue from Roland Garros’ first day of qualifiers all the way through to championship Sunday. This marks a 25% uptick from 2018, and a more than 500% increase compared to the 2014 French Open, when the Tennis Channel Plus service first launched. Tennis Channel's 15-day live coverage of the French Open averaged 266,000 viewers in 2019 according to Nielsen, up 42% over the 187,000 average viewers in 2018. Tournament coverage led to live tune-in growth across key demographics for Tennis Channel as well, with a 35% rise in adult viewers aged 18-49, 41% increases in adults aged 25-54 and 55% increases in adults aged 35-64. This is all terrific news for Tennis Channel CEO Ken Solomon and his staff, now gearing up for a busy summer of tennis coverage highlighted by Wimbledon and culminating in the U.S. Open in New York come August.

Amazon is the world's most valuable brand, according to the 2019 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands rankings. The other brands in the Top 10 include Apple, Google, Microsoft, VISA, Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, McDonalds, and AT&T. Amazon moved up from the No. 3 spot in 2018 with a brand value of $316.5 billion, a 52% change, while Apple held fast at No. 2. In related news, according to Recode, Bond Capital Partners' Mary Meeker released her annual Internet Trends Report at Code Conference in Scottsdale. Some notable data points from her presentation: Some 51% percent of the world -- 3.8 billion people -- were "internet users last year," up from 49% (3.6 billion) in 2017. Internet ad spending in the U.S. was up 22% in 2018. Most of the spending is "still on Google and Facebook, but companies like Amazon and Twitter are getting a growing share." The number of interactive gamers worldwide grew 6% to 2.4 billion people last year, as "games like Fortnite become the new social media." Between gaming and the billions in advertising and sponsorship spent by the top brands, sports is clearly central to these annual conversations.

USC and United Airlines announced an agreement last week that names the field at the school's football stadium, "United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum." The deal will go into effect in August. According to the L.A. Times, "under the terms of a previous agreement announced in 2018, United would pay USC $69 million over 16 years to "have the Coliseum named United Airlines Memorial Coliseum." But that deal "came under scrutiny this spring." USC and United did "not disclose revised financial terms of the agreement but announced this deal will be for 10 years instead of 16.” Naming rights for the Coliseum have "long been seen as a key component to renovating the aging stadium." In 2015, USC "enlisted the help of Fox Sports" to find a naming rights partner. USC was looking for about $5 million per year, and “'Memorial Coliseum' had to remain part of the name." However, USC lost out on an estimated $25 million when the original deal between the school and United Airlines was scrapped. The new 10-year agreement is only for the naming rights to the field.

MLS and SeatGeek partnered for a new in-depth study on female fans of the league, coinciding with the launch last week of a new campaign, “We Fan,” which highlights what women fans are looking for from the league. The study found that close to half of MLS’ fans overall are minorities, while 42% of the league’s fan base comprises women. The study also found that 71% of women say they are MLS fans because they “like bonding with family and friends who are fans,” while 75% of women usually attend games with family members. The “We Fan” campaign, created in-house, launched across social media and digital, MLS’ website, and various SeatGeek partner clubs. Of course, it’s likely no coincidence that the campaign launch was timed to the perfect quadrennial intersection of women and soccer, the opening of the Women’s World Cup in France. The Women’s World Cup typically has a carryover effect on women’s interest in top level soccer competitions all over the globe, as well as increased amateur participation.

And since it’s summer, we end with travel and a leisure sport. It was reported last week that Michelle Obama will lead a USA dodgeball team versus late night host James Corden’s “Team U.K.” crew when CBS’s “The Late Late Show” broadcasts from London for four days starting this Monday. In the episode, which airs June 17, the former First Lady leads an all-star and all-female American team that includes Melissa McCarthy, Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Lena Waithe, and Kate Hudson as they do battle with Corden's all-male team of Brits Harry Styles, Benedict Cumberbatch, “Game of Thrones” star John Bradley, and “Late Late Show” bandleader and American ringer Reggie Watts. The transatlantic dodgeball showdown will be the highlight of four London episodes of the CBS show to be broadcast from Central Hall Westminster. No word on early odds from British sports betting houses like William Hill famous for their colorful prop bets.

Top Five Tech

Women's World Cup gets an assist from Google Doodles. Google is celebrating all the teams in the Women’s World Cup tournament with a series of doodles. Some of the recent homepage banners on Google’s search page represents work by artists of six different countries: Chile, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Thailand, and the U.S., teams from each of the countries that competed the first Tuesday of the tournament. Google says the doodles portray a distinct message about what the tournament means for each artist and their country. According to C|Net, there is a full list of 24 artists, one for each country in the tournament, in a blog post by Google. The banner rotates around different teams and features four to five designs in one day. Google also said soccer fans will be able to use Google Assistant and the search app to follow real-time match updates. While the Google search app will let you subscribe to team updates, Assistant can answer specific questions. Having one of the world’s largest search websites feature Women’s World Cup content will get even more casual fans talking about the tournament, now entering its second week of play.

Super League Gaming acquires esports video network Framerate. Super League Gaming is a platform for competitive and social gameplay experiences, and it acquired the independent social video networks in esports and gaming for a price of $1.5 million in cash and $1 million in stock. Earlier this year, Super League Gaming went public to expand its business of running esports events in places such as movie theaters and TopGolf venues. According to VentureBeat, Framerate boasts more than 100,000 followers and generates millions of video views and engagements per month across Instagram, InstagramTV, Facebook, and Facebook Watch. The esports video network has become the largest independent gaming media channel on Instagram and a top five channel overall, driving more video views across Instagram video than traditional gaming outlets. Super League Gaming will make esports even more available to the outsider through this move as they will use social media channels to bring esports to the masses in public locations.

Play video games with Miller Lite's new Bluetooth-enabled beer. The "Cantroller" is a 12-ounce can of beer that doubles as a gaming controller. The limited-edition, dual purpose can is being made in partnership with comedian and gaming fan Eric Andre. The brand also will launch its own Twitch channel later this week. The high-tech drinking container is Bluetooth-enabled, contains a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for a three-hour charge, offers haptic feedback, and can be refrigerated. According to Marketing Dive, Miller Lite produced 200 Cantrollers for the launch and intends to make hundreds more. Developed with tech company Unit 9, the controller was a reward for winning a game of “Street Fighter” against Andre at the video game industry's E3 event in Los Angeles. Gamers are big drinkers; 40% are drinking while they play – as such, Miller Lite looks to embed itself as a frontrunner for the beverage of choice in the gaming industry.

TikTok is growing amongst large sports teams. According to SportsPro, the short-form video app has reached one billion downloads and is catching the attention of sport’s social media strategists. TikTok only hit the international market in 2017. A year later it was merged with Musical.ly, a teen-friendly U.S. video app built around lip-syncing, which was purchased by ByteDance at the end of 2017 with the aim of leveraging the digital platform’s young user base. As of March 2018, unofficial data from App Ape Lab claimed that more than 60% of TikTok’s global users are under the age of 30. In addition, 40% of that user base is said to be under 20. This may be the platform for sports leagues to reach the young audience they have been striving for – since the launch of Liverpool’s TikTok on May 24, that club has amassed over 194,000 TikTok followers, which means over 100,000 fans under the age of 30. Leagues such as the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NASCAR that are looking to engage with younger audiences can use TikTok to build a new generation of fans.

The Yankees’ broadcasting future is taking shape. The Yankees and the YES Network are beginning to look into developing YES Radio. They are now leveraging current content while creating new shows, which seems to be starting a series of moves that could have huge implications for the future of sports media. After completion YES networks’ $3.5 billion deal, expect more broadcasting changes to switch up the broadcast game thanks to Amazon and Sinclair, who back the network and are positioning YES to be a leader in high-tech broadcasting in the future. According to The New York Post, the new ownership setup could eventually have a major impact on how fans watch games as the finances of cable/digital sports viewing further change in the next decade and beyond. Additionally, YES Network changes could foreshadow Amazon’s move as a major sports video player on par with ESPN, Turner and the broadcast networks. Amazon Prime could eventually become a place where some Yankees games are digitally housed, while Yankees/YES audio, YES, and SiriusXM have had discussions about housing the radio network on the satellite service. By adding Amazon to the YES Network mix, the Yankees will have a major league tech broadcasting edge.

Power of Sports Five

World Surf League gets sustainable with Ikea. Determined to improve sustainability, the partnership between surfing’s largest association and the Swedish furniture giant is designed to raise awareness of climate change and to promote environmental initiatives, with the aim of inspiring people to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans. The WSL and Ikea will also collaborate to produce a specially-designed range of surf-centric products, using recovered ocean-bound plastic where possible. According to SportsPro, this partnership will be Ikea’s latest environmental team up. The Swedish company also works with the World Wildlife Fund to promote responsible forestry, environmentally friendly cotton cultivation, and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. It is also a member of the Clean Cargo Working Group, which promotes sustainable product transportation. The WSL pledged to become carbon neutral by the end of 2019 and aims to set a new standard for pro sport. The WSL-Ikea initiative includes eliminating single-use plastics at its competitions and leaving venues in a better condition than before events took place.

Athletic company Saucony kicks off an Instagram relay race for charity. According to Mobile Marketer, Saucony launched a social media campaign called "Run for Good" that aims to raise as much as $50,000 for charity. The sportswear brand is urging Instagram users to run a mile and post selfies on the image-sharing app with the #RunForGoodRelay and @Saucony tags, then challenge three friends to do the same. The campaign began on Global Running Day, June 5, as the world’s first Instagram relay race, with a goal of collectively running one full lap around the Earth. If completed, the total challenge would eclipse 24,901 collective miles. Saucony will make a donation for every mile run to the Saucony Run for Good Foundation, Laureus Sport for Good, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Saucony’s "Run for Good" utilizes Instagram and its younger consumer base in an effort to go viral for charitable causes, as the ALS Ice-Bucket challenge did in the past.

Prince Harry’s charity and MLB team up before London Series 2019. Major League Baseball has announced that the Invictus Games Foundation, of which Prince Harry is a sponsor, will be an official charity partner of the MLB London Series 2019. The partnership has been announced ahead of MLB’s first foray into London later this month, when “The Rivalry” between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox takes place at the London Stadium June 29-30. According to The London Mirror, Invictus Games Foundation is an international charity that oversees the development of the Invictus Games, the multi-sport event created by the Duke of Sussex. In an attempt to bring America’s pastime to the U.K., the Invictus Games Foundation will have a team participating in London’s Softball60, the social softball series built for the city and targeted to introduce the sport to new audiences

Tom Coughlin delivers “A Day Off from Cancer.” According to People Magazine, Super Bowl-winning ex-coach Tom Coughlin runs the event through his charity, the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation, which supports the families of children suffering from cancer. For one day, children had the run of MetLife Stadium. The children went into the locker room, tried on equipment worn by the players, met former Giants legends, and ate all the ice cream they could. Since the inception of the Jay Fund in 1996, it has granted $11 million to 5,000 families with children suffering from cancer. The organization’s guiding belief is that the sacrifices made by these families are extraordinary and often overlooked. The original recipient of the charity was Jay McGillis, a college football player when Coughlin was the head coach of the Boston College Eagles in the early 1990s. McGillis was diagnosed with Leukemia during the 1991 season and died eight months later, but Coughlin started a team fundraiser for his family that blossomed into the Jay Fund today. Last year, the charity honoring McGillis raised $1.7 million, going to families in the New York and Jacksonville areas with children suffering from cancer.

Maggie Murphy aims for the world's biggest game of soccer to support women in sport. According to the BBC, Maggie Murphy works in anti-corruption in sport and is determined to make sure the excitement and new investments in women's soccer translates into more participation in grassroots soccer for women and girls around the globe, beyond the Women's World Cup. In 2016, Murphy founded Equal Playing Field – a voluntary, non-profit organization – to encourage women’s soccer participation around the world. Now, overlapping with the Women’s World Cup, Murphy and Equal Playing Field will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of players involved in a single football match. She aims to bring together more than 3,500 women, girls, and allies from about 70 countries with the match to take place over the course of five days, from June 27 to July 1. If successful, this will be the third Guinness World Record that Equal Playing Field has helped break, as it recorded the highest altitude game ever played (on Mount Kilimanjaro) and the lowest altitude game ever played (in the Dead Sea). Murphy noted the U.S. is one of the best countries for women to play soccer, even as they continue to face economic struggles, while a woman playing soccer in Afghanistan may face death threats.

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kansascityhappenings · 5 years

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Joe’s Weather Blog: The one thing that’s not getting enough attention about the snowstorm (THU-2/14)

Well the “table-setter” cold front is moving through the region as I type this. Temperatures have dropped from 53° at noon at KCI to 28° as I start this blog late this afternoon. This is the injection of cold air that was expected and this cold air will further deepen tonight into tomorrow morning. That sets the stage for a snowstorm tomorrow…with additional snows expected over the weekend and then something more significant (again) later Tuesday into Wednesday. I mentioned a few days ago on the air that the next 10 days may not be forgotten about by snow lovers (and haters) for a long time and that thought is still in my mind.

Meanwhile the snow situation tomorrow is concerning to me for a reason that I feel, at least in my opinion, is not getting paid enough attention too. IF you follow me on FB (Joe Lauria FOX 4 Meteorologist) you know about my concern already. More on that in my discussion.

Forecast:

Tonight: Clouds and colder with gusty north winds. Lows in the teens

Friday: Lowering and thickening clouds in the morning with snow developing later in the morning towards lunch or so. At first light it will then start to come down hard and several hours of moderate to potentially heavy snow in places is likely. Accumulations of 3-6″ (average) are likely. A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for the region for tomorrow. Temperatures only around 20° Not a lot of wind though tomorrow mostly north at 10-20 MPH. Enough to make shoveling very cold!

Friday night: Snow ends during the evening. IF skies clear out temperatures will tank to 0-5°

Saturday: Increasing PM clouds with some light snow possible Saturday night into Sunday AM. Accumulations are possible (1-3″?). Temperatures in the 20s

Sunday: Morning snow ends then variable clouds and cold with highs in the 20s

Discussion:

So let’s start the blog with the headline of the blog. I have strong concerns about tomorrow’s weather. It’s not the fact that I’m expecting a 3-6″ snowstorm…and there are some signs that some may get a bit more than that…it has to do with the timing of the snow.

Here is the way the day is going to play out…and it is a mess in the making. Hopefully this doesn’t happen.

When folks go to work Friday…there won’t be a flake of snow out there. All good. Here’s the thing though…the snow will develop quickly later in the morning. Folks will be in the office watching the snow get harder and harder…and at some point in the early afternoon they may decide…you know what…I better leave to beat traffic. By the time they decide to leave there may be 1-2″ of snow on the ground.

They going to head north or south from downtown and they may find that others have decided the same thing. By then snow plows will be out treating and plowing the roads…they will do their best but the plow convoys…the extra traffic and the snow falling will slow traffic down more than normal for the early to middle part of the afternoon. Now we start seeing back-ups and the snow is increasing in intensity in the afternoon.

Now the folks who have been looking out their office windows are getting more nervous. They’re starting to hear from others about the crummy road conditions and how it’s taking XX long to go from point A to point B…and they are going to start seeing more traffic developing and slowing…so around 3-4 PM their going to decide to get out of work and head home. Now we’re adding many more cars onto congested roads.

The snow is really coming down good between 2-6PM or so…before it lightens up. Now we have the normal rush hour traffic leaving downtown KC and encountering all the folks on the roads already. You can only move so much traffic so fast when the cars are moving so slow. The plows now are being affected because they can’t efficiently plow the main arteries because there is too much traffic. Now you have big problems.

It’s a bad scenario that I hope doesn’t develop…but I’m concerned it will.

The same thing (maybe not to the degree of the snow amounts) happened last month in St Louis.

Now St Louis traffic is a mess on a dry sunny day…you add in 3-6+” of snow like what happened last month…in the afternoon…and well it wasn’t pretty.

See this article for a playout of the day via the St Louis Post Dispatch.

What I hope won’t happen…but I’m concerned will is this…pic via KTVI.

What I don’t want to see is this story being done…locally…

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I’m concerned.

IF you are working downtown tomorrow…please watch the weather carefully. IF the snow comes fast and furious in the afternoon…and IF you have access to radar (and you will be checking out my blog) watch that carefully and leave at the right time. I’d hate for you to end up spending hours on an snow choked road. Make sure you have a way of keeping your phone charged as well.

OK..now about the snow.

Things are playing out as expected at this point. The snow will initially fight some rather dry air in the morning hours. This dry air will, in time, get saturated and we’ll see the snow, that is being evaporated…”snirga” as we were referring to it this afternoon at the NWS in Pleasant Hill, make it to the ground. Data today indicates that the dry air may chew on the snow for maybe 1-2 hours with the best snows starting in earnest by about 10AM-12PM from the west to the east. It should accumulate immediately and I think the potential is there for 2-5″ of snow by the evening rush tomorrow. Add on another 1-2″ after that as the snow winds down by 6-7PM and we come up with a solid 3-6″ forecast.

This will be the average. There is some data that suggests the north side may favor the lower side of those numbers while the south side favors the higher side of that range.

The other thing that perhaps is not getting the attention it deserves is the snow ratios. This won’t be a 10:1 snow event…1/2″ liquid equals 5″ of snow…this is a 13-15:1 ratio snow…and I’m concerned that IF we end up with 4/10″ of liquid (melted snow) that may end up being closer to 6″ of snow…so my concern is that perhaps a 3-7″ forecast may be a tad bit better. Regardless you get the idea that this will be a high impact event.

Can we miss out? Well we’re going to get something from this…the only way I can see lessor totals is 1) if the dry is is a bigger thing than I think it will be…and chews at the snow for a longer time period. 2) if the wave coming into the Plains, which generates this “lift” at around 10,000 feet is even more broken up or has less “list”. The orange and red areas represent areas of higher “lift” in the part of the atmosphere where snow likes to form the most.

Here’s the thing…the latest model data indicates that some of the best “lift” will be sliding towards the SW/S of KC later in the afternoon. That is still a yellow flag to me…and is a way we can end up with the lower totals in the range above.

It’s something to watch in the overnight data. With that said these areas of mid-level lift can often be poorly forecast by the models, especially in systems that are somewhat “messy” and quickly flying through the area.

So there are indicators for 3″of snow and indicators for 6″+ in the KC region…so that’s why I’ll just stick with 3-6″ of snow.

Snow odds:

Dusting to 2″: 20%

3-6″: 70%

6-10″ (widespread): 10%

The snow maps from the morning blog are still pretty valid. Some slight upside to those numbers.

This is the midday run of the HRRR model for the snowstorm…seems mostly reasonable to me. Graphic via Pivotal Weather

Again that heavier band of snow needs to be watched for shifting north or south.

Austin Hamilton has the feature photo of the day from a snowy Chariton, IA

I hope I’m wrong about the traffic situation tomorrow afternoon.

Joe

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/02/14/joes-weather-blog-the-one-thing-thats-not-getting-enough-attention-about-the-snowstorm-thu-2-14/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/02/14/joes-weather-blog-the-one-thing-thats-not-getting-enough-attention-about-the-snowstorm-thu-2-14/

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inawickedlittletown · 6 years

Text

Walking The Wire (29/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

Masterpost

Chapter Twenty Eight

Tony heard about it all later, after he was trying to calm down from having the picture of a dead boy shoved under his nose by an angry mother. All of it had taken him unawares and yet Tony felt the grief in her stare and her anger and the guilt settled over him the more he thought about it and the more that he realized her child could have been his. Peter was brilliantly smart and he could go anywhere or be anywhere and it might mean that one day he could be in danger for no other reason than because things just happened. This boy was dead and no one had been placed before a court of law or admitted any guilt. So, when hearing about Lagos in the immediate aftermath of having to face his own mistakes, Tony knew that something had to be done. He just didn’t know what.

Once, Tony had been presented with the problem that his company and the weapons they manufactured had made and he had made it better. This was a similar problem and Tony knew there had to be a solution. Steve had told him that he wouldn’t be able to stay away and he was right, because he needed to be a part of the solution.

The whole presentation at MIT had gone well aside from a few hiccups when the person in charge of the prompter hadn’t changed the introduction into Pepper’s bit which had made for an awkward pause before Tony could continue, unprompted.

At some point, he remembered telling Peter about the presentation at MIT and Peter had definitely been interested and Tony had wished that he could just whisk him away for things like this so he could be a part of it but he hadn’t been able to find an excuse to do so. He hoped that in the future he wouldn’t need to.

Giving all of those kids the funding they needed and just being able to be frank about his feelings when it came to the death of his parents had been nice because Tony just generally didn’t share that with anyone and yet it had seemed fitting to include it and truly show off the power that B.A.R.F had. It was also Tony’s way of letting the world see that it was helping him and that it was making a difference.

It was too bad that Tony didn’t get to enjoy any of the stuff after the presentation. Not only because of the picture shoved at him but because of Lagos. It meant that Tony had to excuse himself from a party and from a few other events going on at MIT. Instead of going back to his hotel room, Tony was back on the jet and on his way to New York. This was exactly the kind of thing that meant that whatever Hill was warning about would be in play.

Sure enough, by the time he was back in New York, there were stirrings of it on the news but even more so elsewhere and Tony was surprised that Hill and Fury hadn’t contacted him already. President Ellis was being pressured not just by U.S. Citizens but the world at large because The Avengers were seen as a threat -- a dangerous weapon that went unchecked, or at least that’s what they were calling Wanda.

It took merely two days for The Sokovia Accords to be finished and for a copy to land on his desk. The UN had been working on it for over six months, a result of everything that happened in Sokovia, but the events of Lagos made them dust it off and bring it all forward. It wasn’t public knowledge yet but the leaders of 117 countries stood behind it and Tony could see that it was no coincidence that it was rushed forward and yet he couldn’t fault them. He couldn’t fault them when such loss of life should have never happened.

Tony spent the next few days reading over The Accords and he found that they made sense. Overview was what they needed. It was what the people wanted which meant that it was what needed to happen. He passed the document on to his team of lawyers and Pepper even though his mind was already made up and after they found nothing glaringly wrong with it, Tony signed on the dotted line and had it sent to the UN. After sending it in, he realized that not doing so would probably bring more problems than they needed. The Accords weren’t going to be optional.

“Although,” Pepper said through a video call, “I don’t know why you’re signing it at all. Aren’t you retired?”

Pepper was the first person that Tony was having direct contact with since he’d returned from MIT. There had been a few emails with Peter, sure, but Tony hadn’t even tried to get in contact with Steve even though he desperately wanted to talk to him.

“That isn’t exactly the point,” Tony said. “And I’m not really retired. I’ve tried it -- I don’t think it suits me. Pepper, I will always be available when Iron Man is needed and if I am needed then I need to work inside of the law. Not to mention that for this I think I’ll be needed and not just for the suit.”

“Steve’s not going to like it,” Pepper said.

Tony was well aware that he wasn’t going to like it. He had known Steve long enough to know where Steve might bring out his stubborn side. This would be a hard sale. Tony was aware of how the fall of Shield had affected Steve seeing as Steve had truly believed that Shield was doing some good. It had opened his eyes to how easily something could be corrupted.

“And since when have you colored inside the lines?” Pepper asked. She was splitting her attention between him and something else but it didn’t matter because she was Pepper and probably the only person that could actually multi-task properly.

“Since I’ve realized that we pose as much a threat to humanity as the bad guys.”

“Wanda--”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have let her on the team. I don’t know -- but they’re calling for her arrest and they don’t want to see that she’s a person. They see her as a weapon of mass destruction just waiting to go off and if we don’t step up and find a way to fix this who knows what will happen.”

Not just to Wanda, either, to anyone that might be in opposition. He could tell that it could become a bigger and more gruesome problem. The Accords themselves weren’t even all that bad. It was all about respecting boundaries and working within some sort of rule of law and not whatever they thought was best. It would be almost like when they were a part of Shield and overlooked by Fury.

“What about Rhodey? Talk to him yet?” Pepper asked and tilted her head to the side.

“No. Rhodey already knows about it, I think, if he’s been in contact with any of his old friends lately. I don’t know about the rest of the team even if it’s all over the news.”

“You haven’t spoken to them?” Pepper asked, surprised.

“No,” Tony said and left it at that. He wanted to. He really did, except that they were all still in Lagos trying to help in the best way that they could and Tony couldn’t imagine telling them about The Accords over a phone call.

Tony also didn’t know if he could talk to Steve about it or anything else. It was just better to wait it out until they were back stateside and then he could do it in person. It was going to be any time now. Friday would alert him when they were on their way back.

“I thought you and Steve were better about the whole friendship thing,” Pepper said with a grin.

Tony had yet to tell Pepper about the kiss that he and Steve shared or all the feelings that were swirling around inside him about it. Telling her would truly make it more and Tony just wanted to keep it to himself for a moment longer so he could enjoy it.

“We are. Anyway, I did get a chance to scope out some possible candidates for SI to start wooing. I’ll send you a list--”

Later, when Tony received notice that The Avengers were heading home, Tony let out a sigh of relief because it was becoming clear that for the most part no one was happy with them. He wasn’t too surprised when Steve arrived at the tower looking down trodden in a way that Tony had only ever seen him after they failed to find Bucky once more. It was a search that had settled down some for the time being mostly because they all agreed that it was likely that Bucky actually had his right mind and he himself was staying away. Steve arrived long past midnight still in his uniform and entered from the terrace which told Tony enough about how he had arrived.

“Hey,” Tony said as Steve approached him.

Tony wanted to tell him about the accords and everything that was coming and yet the words didn’t want to come out, stuck in his throat like words never tended to be, because Steve just didn’t look like he was in the right mind to hear it. He was pallid, evidence of exhaustion all over him, and full of sadness and pain and Tony couldn’t add anything more to that.

“It was my fault,” Steve said and let out a long breath, his words coming out a bit raspy and full of emotion.

“What happened?”

“Rumlow. He mentioned Bucky and I just couldn’t think and couldn’t see.”

Steve’s eyes were blown, still surprised at what had occurred -- still beating himself up for it.

“And Wanda should have never had to get involved,” he let out breath and shook his head, keeping it bowed down. He closed his eyes tightly and Tony just had to approach him.

“And yet she had to because I -- and she just feels terrible. I can’t even — I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to her.”

Tony opened his arms and Steve walked into them without another word, and it was so easy for him to just drop himself into Tony, press himself into Tony as if Tony and Tony alone could just hold him together and it was all that Tony wanted to do. His arms were wrapped around Steve tightly, his nose buried in Steve’s shoulder not caring that Steve smelled of sweat and dirt and smoke and maybe even blood. Not when Steve shuddered into Tony’s neck and his cold nose pressed into Tony’s neck.

“Do you need to go back to the compound?” Tony asked when they finally pulled away.

“I think Nat’s got it,” Steve said. “I just -- I wanted to see you. I needed to.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, “I can tell. I think this calls for some food and cuddling, but first you gotta shower.”

Steve laughed. They hadn’t stepped too far from each other, but Steve did then, looking down at himself. “You’re right. Order us something and I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Sure thing,” Tony said, “and I expect kisses too, you know, not just cuddling.”

Steve’s lips quirked up and he leaned forward to press their lips together in a quick chaste kiss, before he was walking off in the direction of the bedrooms in search of a shower. Tony really did love that man.

Chapter Thirty

#peter and tony fic #iron dad fic #stony fic #mcu #iron dad and spider son

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