#she illustrated exactly what i wanted & exceeded my expectations
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An excuse to talk to you
Note: this was inspired by this Shinigami illustrated book
wc: 625 of the two flirting (I think) no warnings
Karate athlete! Shunsui x Taekwondo player! Reader [this was super fun to write, funfact I did both sports but taekwondo has my heart for forever😭🥲]
• Translations
Gi: used to refer to the uniform in karate
Dobok: taekwondo uniform
8.45 am
Not a minute since he sat down, Yamamoto’s eyes began skimming over the gym. It wasn’t the taekwondo students. Never the taekwondo students, their discipline and politeness impressed him and exceeded his expectations.
Exactly five minutes after he sat silence swept over the gym when he called for his students. Byakuya wearing an irked expression as he walked towards him. Kenpachi scoffed at the eyes watching them, telling his teammates that he’d be back. Of course, Shunsui didn’t need to wink at the taekwondo students.
“Yama-ji!” His greeting full of energy broke the silence Yamamoto’s voice brought, and everyone, resuming to their own agenda.
A hard thud from his cane told the three of their mistake. “Look at your gi’s!” Hies eyebrows furrowed. “The state of it hurts my dojo’s image, have I thought you three nothing?”
Two mouths turned to a straight line, and Shunsui, being unaffected, drawled, “Yama-ji, this is what happens when you practice.” And raised both his arms to emphasise his point.
Another thud, his fingers angrily wrapping around his cane’s handle. “How you practice reflects on your uniforms.”
Kenpachi who slung his gi somewhere in the row of benches and preferred practices topless started, “It’s a nuisance, old man.”
“The fabric’s cheap.” He’ll have a word with Byakuya’s grandfather rather than reason with a stubborn head.
Of course, Shunsui always had the last word, folding his arms under his head, “It does make a good fashion statement, ne?”
“And unironed.” The three of them collectively flinched when he raised his cane to point at the taekwondo students across the dojo, “Be more like them instead—”
A resounding back kick to the kicking bag, “Run,” said (Y/n) pointing to the line and holding the bag in place for the next student. “Good job!”
“Cut us slack, Yama-ji, their uniform’s different.”
Another back kick from (Y/n) to her teammate, “See! Still different, Yama-ji.”
10.30 am, break
By luck, Shunsui had seen the pretty instructor crouched in front of the vending machine watching her snack fall to the. The perfect time for him to walk up to her and ask, “How do you guys do it?”
Outside the gym was different. Her eyes were half-lidded and her mouth was in a pout. First, she looked at him then at the stitching of his name on his gi’s uniform. He tugged his fingers at
“Shunsui! I know you. It’s Unnie!”
“(Y/n).” Standing up with a water bottle offered at him, she held in a laugh. “Unnie, onee-chan, same thing. Are thinking you of switching to our team, Shunsui-san?”
“Nah, I worked hard for this,” he said, tugging at the fourth-degree black belt. “You can be my instructor if I do go back to being a white belt, huh?.”
“I only volunteer here, not an actual instructor.”
Leaning on the glass of the machine, he kept an eye on her as he took a swig from the bottle. “How do you keep your . . . kimono? Gi?"
“Dobok.”
“How do you keep it smooth?”
“Ironing board— sorry. This isn’t really my uniform.”
“Is the actual uniform smooth?”
“No, we have the same dilemma.” She huffed, “Only difference is our master’s in Korea, safe for now.”
“(Y/N)-Unnie!”
“They’re calling for—”
“Listen, uhh-” she patted her pants, realising that their uniforms didn’t have pants at the moment when she wanted to give someone her number, ”shit, no pen. Shunsui, you’re really cool, we should probably talk about how to keep our uniforms smooth—”
A slap of kicking pads, “UNNIE!”
“I’ll have someone give you my details, yeah.”
“I’d actually like that,” he smiled, watching her run into the dojo and get sent back out to bow at the door.
#nick writes fics#shunsui kyoraku x reader#bleach fanfiction#bleach x reader#shunsui x reader#shunsui x you
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Hotel recommendations - Wendip, Kim/Ron, Starco trade stories while waiting to check in.
The waiting game (Wendip/Starco/Kimron, M/E)
(Ao3)
This is originally something I had planned as an intermission in the main fic, but screw it, if you can read my mind anon, then have it. I might write one with just the girls as well.
The spacious lobby in the spatially anomalous hotel was brimming with people, which gave the three young men, waiting for their better halves an odd moment of peace and relaxation. Unlike his two friends, however, Ron was still slightly weirded out by the multitude of other-dimensional folks walking around him, meeting, greeting and exchanging pleasantries. Perhaps for Marco, who spent a good third of his teenage years and all of his adult life travelling with a princess from another dimension, or for Dipper, who have lived tracking cryptids and occasionally stopping malevolent otherworldly demon this seemed normal, but he still had to catch up a bit.
Then again, he had monkey powers and met aliens who watch shampoo commercials, so normality was relative.
Still, with Marco scrolling through his phone, and Dipper with a nose in his book, the awkward silence from his friends rang in his ears, and so he decided to end it with a pretend cough. A cough that turned into a gurgling fit that caught the attention of pretty much everyone in ten feet radius.
- You okay there? - Marco turned his head sharply, and gave him a quick pat. - Oh, yeah, sure, sure.
Ron recovered, and quickly proceed to ask the question that has been on his mind for some time.
- So... Marco, I, uh, I have a question about that spell that Star casts... - Ron addressed Marco with some hesitation in his voice - What spell? - Marco raised his brow. - Well, you know...
Ron shied away for a moment.
- No, I don't know. She casts hundreds of spells. - The one she cast on herself, and Kim and Wendy... The one that does... or doesn't... - Ron, use your adults words - Dipper interrupted him. - He means the contraceptive spell. - Oh, right. - Marco rolled his eyes - What about it? - Well, how long does it work?
Marco scratched his chin.
- Don't know precisely. Star can do magic just with her hands now, but she used to whisper all the words to that spell, and the key phrase was "from dusk till dawn", so I guess it lasts a whole night. Quite appropriately, I think. - Oh.
Ron responded with a single word and the three went back to waiting for their partners, until Ron spoke again.
- Wait, but how does it work? Like, what happens if you do it, and then just at the same time morning arrives? - he fiddled with his fingers in frustration - Does it break instantly? - Hey, don't look at me, I'm not gonna risk experimenting with it... - Marco replied. - And besides, it was one of the Eclipsa's spell, she was kinda pervy. - Actually, a better question is - Dipper interjected - Does it work the same all year? Nights are longer in winter in the northern hemisphere... - Ooh, what about polar circle? - Ron quickly accompanied him - Nights last six months there, and Sun never gets up, it just hops below the horizon!
He twirled in his chair, illustrating his point with hands bouncing around an invisible plane.
- Does it mean the spell would work half a year?
Marco sighed and put his phone away.
- Okay, maybe, but, when is any one of you going to have sex on a North pole? - We did that.
Marco looked up and Ron quickly turned his heads towards Dipper, and as a result, a sudden blush appeared on his face.
- Well, not exactly North Pole, but beyond the polar circle. We've been in Canada, tracking this polar boar... - Bear. - No, boar. - Dipper corrected - We wanted to give Mabel a friend for Waddles. And we got snowed in in a cabin. And, well, it was pretty weird to watch Sun just popping up for like an hour only to then hide under the horizon for the rest of the day. And, uh, we had to do something in order not to freeze, right? Not that we wouldn't do that anyway...
Dipper smiled, as vivid images of Wendy wrapped around him in a sleeping bag came back to him, and the sheer idea that their love and lust allowed them to survive made his heart beat faster. He took a deep breath, and he could still smell the perfume Wendy wore earlier that day, mixed with their scents, warmed by the heat their bodies have generated by hours of love-making. They never found that boar, but instead, they've spend a whole day in each other's arms, cementing their love for good. Lost in each other, they didn't care about the consequences, and they wished the blissful moment could last forever.
- And what if you don't have sunsets and sunrises at all? - Ron asked, interrupting Dipper's daydream - Like, if you are on a spaceship? Does our Sun count? O-or any sun, and there's like, uh... - he thought for a moment - A lot of them. - I don't know if astronauts on the space stations ever had sex, Ron... - Dipper replied. - Well, me and Kim have!
Ron quickly countered, and only when he spotted Dipper's and Marco's bewildered faces, he explained.
- Hello? Kim's dad is an astrophysicist! And okay, it wasn't exactly space, like "space"-space, just low Earth orbit. Kim took his rocket, because they detected something in those ruined spaceship of Warmonga, and we wanted to be sure if it was just a dud, but it wasn't! And some of the aliens came back! And I got to steer the rocket, while Kim was firing off blasters while she was clinging to the rocket, like, outside, in her suit, I mean - Ron blabbered, gesturing wildly - and we fought them off, and well...
He smiled.
- ...while we were flying back, Kim gave me a blowjob, so it's not exactly sex-sex, but... - Dude, I'd say that counts as a space sex, alright! - Marco guffawed, unable to contain amazement. - Yeah, for what we know you two were the first people to do it! - Heh, maybe.
In his mind's eyes, Ron still remembered that day. Adrenaline hasn't stopped rushing through his veins from the race after the aliens, amongst the bits and pieces of space debris, and then it came back tenfold, when Kim leaned over him, placing kiss after kiss on his body, slowly undoing hi suit. Only when she pushed the autopilot button he knew what she was going for. He'd never forget the sight of Kim's head bobbing up and down around his cock, with planet Earth serving as a background for her lewd activity. Even more memorable was the sight of his hefty ejaculation in the almost weightless environment and how Kim exceeded herself, floating around the cabin, catching each and every glob of his seed she missed with her lips, both to satiate her fetish and to not leave any mess in her father's ride.
- And what if, hypothetically, you went on a plane, after sunset, and then flew the other way the Earth rotates? - Dipper asked, also doing some complicated moves with his fingers. - Oh, that happened to us. - Marco spoke - We've seen it when we were on a plane from Florida. - And? - Ron and Dipper asked eagerly. - And that's it. - Marco shrugged, looking at from his phone again. - Oh. - Ron lowered his head - I expected some story there. - Nope, we were just visiting my grandparents. Turns out my mom didn't warn them Star was using magic, that was a mistake. - he chuckled. - Grandpa was in a shock when he saw a flying alligator, said he didn't see one since the war.
A slightly longer silence occurred, before Ron resumed his somewhat derailed train of though.
- So, what happens during a solar eclipse? Does this count as "dusk"? - No, I'm pretty sure there is a formal definition of it - Dipper replied - Cos' there is civil dusk, nautical dusk, astronomical dusk... - But that doesn't mean anything, if the sun is under the horizon, it's sunset.. - Marco rolled his eyes. - That's why it's called that - Actually it's not. - Dipper gestured again - Like, just because the Sun is above the horizon, it doesn't mean it's not sunset yet, cos the light bends, and it means... - Hey!
The three stopped and turned their heads in the direction of the triple voice directed at them. With their arms crossed, and eyes narrowed, Kim, Wendy and Star scowled at them, making their faces turn white instantaneously.
- Hey, can you three actually pay attention to what's going on? - Star put her arms on her waist. - And they have the audacity to tell us we take long time in the bathroom... - Kim added. - You know, if you guys don't want to join us, I'm sure we can have fun on our own...
Wendy turned her frown into a smirk, as she playfully spun the triple key around her finger.
- So, do you guys want to be invited, or are you gonna spend rest of your life blabbering about nothing?
The women let out pitiful chuckles, watching their boyfriends stumble and trip as they tried to get out of their chairs as quickly as possible. A moment later, the group of six walked towards the elevator, and the men knew that no matter what they had planned, the girls made the first move which will dictate the rest of the night for them.
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Accessible, well-designed -- this is the book you want
This book does a fabulous job of making the art of chalk lettering and illustration accessible. As she says, you don't need good handwriting to do this -- it's a different skill from that. And she shows, step by step, how to do it. It's very simple and easy, the way she shows it! The chalkboards that come with the book are useful as well, though it only took me a couple of days to buy an additional chalkboard so that I could practice without having to flip pages in the book all the time. I'm attaching a picture to show what I was able to do after going through this book. If you want to learn chalkboard art, this is a great book to start with!
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Do yourself a favor; order it now.
I've been wanting to up my game with calligraphy and chalk lettering... This is one of the best books out there. Pretty on the outside, even more gorgeous on the inside. Don't even bother ordering on PDF. It comes with 3 very useful Chalkboards for practicing. How awesome is that?! Now to the juicy stuff... It has e-very-thing! What tools you need, how to prepare your chalkboard for battle, typography 101 courses, lots and lots of styles and tips to achieve your lettering goals... Imma go play with it because it is addictive. Do yourself a favor; order it now.
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Exceeded Expectations
This was actually my gift and I'm loving it. I've always been a fan of calligraphy and lettering and wanted to learn a few new fonts and techniques. I got more than I bargained for. This book is packed with not only letters, but different frames, embellishments, how to do shadows (YES!) an more. I love the different projects to try and the chalkboards included actually work just like chalkboards. There is a lined board in the front and then folded boards in the back which you can open and look at the tutorials as you draw...or fold to the back to use sketchbook style. It is a very well designed and thoughtful book and a great value for the money. I purchased the Allary Chalk Cartridge Set, sold here on Amazon, to go along with this purchase and LOVE them. They are a great companion to the book as they are thin chalks in a mechanical pencil type holder that don't need to be sharpened (but can be) and I was very surprised that they weren't waxy. - Denise Cold
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Has it all - how to letter, how to embellish, how to make a complete design with words, frames and doodles.
I was looking for a good book on typography so that I could use it in my art journals. I looked through every book I could find in various book stores on typography - calligraphy, advertising design, ect and I couldn't find a book that showed how to design letters. Most of them were not helpful because they contained only one or two lessons and then a ton of empty pages for you to practice on (that's what my notebook and scratch paper is for - thank you very much). Then I came across this book and every single page was full of something to learn. She starts out slowly explaining 3 types of basic font (now I know what serif and sans serif means) and then shows different ways to embellish the basic fonts to make them fancier. Then she moves into warping the font (ie writing the letters in a arc, or slanting upward or downward. There is detailed discussion on how to draw more attention to some words within a phrase so that they catch the reader's eye by making them bigger or bolder or shaded. After you get the hang of lettering she moves into working a full design - frames, banners, laurel vines, snowflakes, arrows, stars, swirls ect combined with lettering. This was exactly the book I was looking for - how to letter, how to emphasize words within a phrase and then how to put it all together into a complete design. I like that the book has plenty of pictures to show you how to do it, but doesn't skimp on the written instruction either. The book is jam packed with info and low on useless filler material as I've seen in some of the other typography books. Worth every penny and can be applied to more than making chalk board signs.
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More than what I had Expected
I've only been chalkboard lettering for about a week and with book alone, I made the sketch(see photo). The book provides details of letters, flourishes, a variety of flower designs, different borders, and includes 3 chalkboards inside the book. A must have for a beginner like me.
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Completely recommend to anyone looking to get into chalking
Completely recommend to anyone looking to get into chalking. I use chalk pens (cleaner look for weddings and such), but I use a lot of the techniques in this book.
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Pleasantly surprised
I just received this book today. I started playing with it right away. My husband made me a really large framed chalk board for our dinning room, and I have a friend who does great chalk art, so my plan was to pay her to do my chalk board a few times a year, but I could never find a time when she was available. I saw this book and read all the reviews. I thought I would give it a try. It's really a great book, the lessons are well thought out and go step by step. She says in the book that you do not have to have good handwriting to learn this, and based on the 30 minutes I spent working through her first lesson, I would have to agree. It's well taught. Now I don't have to only change my chalkboard a few times a year, after I go through this book I'm confident I'll be able to change my chalkboard when ever the mood strikes.
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I've attached a couple of the first doodles I did ...
I've attached a couple of the first doodles I did after reading the book. My first attempts, and though I have a long way to go, this book provides everything you need to get started. I've also used it to practice my hand lettering for Bible journaling. Well worth every penny.
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Great book for any type of lettering
Five Stars
Five Stars
great ideas
Very informative and fun
I have just started this book and already love it. I took a class last week to ...
Five Stars
Five Stars
Great for lettering.
Very Thorough Explanation of Chalk Lettering
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How we used geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams (and enrich our lives)
Howdy. My name is Michael Robinson. While J.D. is visiting Europe with his cousins, I volunteered to share how my wife and I have leveraged the power of geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams and to build our wealth.
Geographic arbitrage means taking advantage of the differences in prices between various locations. You earn money in a stronger economy (San Francisco, maybe, or the U.S. in general) and spend it in a weaker economy (South Dakota or Ecuador, for instance).
Geographic arbitrage is a powerful tactic worth considering if you want to increase your saving rate so that you can better pursue your financial goals. Several times over the course of our lives together so far, my wife and I have managed to unwittingly stumble upon the benefits of geographic arbitrage.
If you've ever chosen your vacation destination based on how strong the country's currency is opting to visit England when the pound was weak, maybe then you've practiced geographic arbitrage.
Today, I'm going to share three examples of how the concept has impacted our lives and helped us to achieve financial independence at 33. I hope these examples will spark some ideas for how you might be able to leverage geographic arbitrage along your financial journey as well.
About Us
I met my wife Ellen in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2004. We were both studying Spanish at the same language school.
I was there to earn the last few credits I needed to complete a minor in Spanish. Ellen hoped the months of Spanish immersion would help her land a job as a bilingual elementary teacher in the Pacific Northwest.
Despite Ellens intention to avoid befriending any native English-speaking gringos like me, we hit it off right away and quickly became close friends.
As our months together in Mexico wound down, Ellens efforts paid off and she was hired by a bilingual elementary school in Shelton, Washington. I graduated and was offered a position as an international sales manager.
Ellen and I started a long-distance relationship that summer and I moved out to Washington to join her as soon as I could.
Losing One Income Without Noticing It
Our first experience with geographic arbitrage was unintentional. We didn't even realize what we were doing at the time.
After Ellens first two years as a bilingual teacher, she asked her principal for a one-year leave of absence so she could return to Mexico and further improve her Spanish proficiency. Her principal agreed and we packed up and headed to Guadalajara for the 2007-2008 school year.
Although we lost Ellens annual $30,000 salary, we didnt feel it much because our cost of living was considerably lower during that year in Mexico.
Our apartments in Washington had each cost us $800-$900 per month. In Mexico, we were able to find a suitable apartment to share for around $400 per month. Groceries and other goods and services were all also considerably cheaper.
Geographic arbitrage allowed us to maintain our standard of living in Mexico despite the loss of one income.
Taking Advantage of Taxes
During all of our highest-earning years, Ellen and I happened to live in Nevada, Washington, and Texas all locations without state income tax.
While avoiding state income tax is obviously appealing, these states make up for that lost revenue by increasing taxes in other areas.
Nevada: There is no personal or corporate income tax because the state collects billions of dollars each year in the form of gambling taxes and fees. While we lived there, I gambled with exactly $0 of my money, avoiding this tax altogether.Washington: Here we had one of the highest sales tax rates in the country (8.88%) and high gas prices on account of higher gasoline taxes. While we lived there, we didnt consume a lot compared to most households, which lowered our sales tax burden. I also worked from a home office and Ellen taught at a nearby school so we didnt really use inordinate amounts of gasoline either.Texas: Here we also had a high sales tax rate (8.25%) and lived in the state with the fourth-highest property tax rate in the country incredibly, we owed over 2% of our homes value every year in property taxes! In Texas, we maintained our relatively frugal lifestyle, again reducing our exposure to the higher sales tax burden. And although we were pre-approved for an inexplicably high $750,000 mortgage in 2007 (on our two five-figure incomes no less!), we chose to instead take on a $100,000 mortgage and buy a starter home less than a mile from the office where we knew Id be working.
We moved to Colorado in 2016, the same year we both stopped working full-time. This is the first state weve lived in together where weve been charged state income tax (a middling 4.63%, the 23rd-lowest in the country). But we have low property taxes and the lowest state sales tax in the country (out of states collecting sales tax).
Although we're now paying state income tax in Colorado, our earned income as early retirees is predictably the lowest its been in our fourteen-year relationship.
And although weve bought a home that cost us almost three times as much as what we paid for our Texas home, were actually paying less each year in property taxes.
Bonus fact for money nerds!
For anyone curious, heres the complete list of states with no state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
Note, however, that while New Hampshire currently charges no state income tax on earned income, it does tax investment income.
Also, Tennessee currently charges no state income tax on earned income, but does tax some dividends and interest income. However, Tennessee has announced plans to phase out state income taxes altogether by 2022.
Making Money with Airbnb
Our most recent experience with geographic arbitrage was more deliberate.
When we learned that 31 October 2016 was going to be my last day of full-time work, it didnt take us long to devise a plan to return to Latin America, this time with our two young children.
In our research, we quickly discovered The Earth Awaits, a useful tool for comparing the crime statistics, pollution levels, and cost of living of various cities around the world. (Get Rich Slowly reviewed The Earth Awaits last year.)
At the time, Cuenca, Ecuador was the only Latin American city in their database that had earned the designations low crime and low pollution.
Since we were traveling there with a nine-month-old and a two-year-old, those seemed like great characteristics to us! We did some additional research on similar tools and local expat forums, and only became more and more interested in visiting the city.
Heres a short promo video showcasing Cuenca and the surrounding Andean mountain region.
[embedded content]
Shortly after we decided to spend our first winter in Cuenca, I had another ambitious idea.
I felt it would be wasteful for our house to sit empty for three months while we were traveling, so I proposed to Ellen that we experiment with hosting our home on Airbnb while we were away.
She was resistant at first, and rightly so. It was going to take a lot of work to get our home ready and sort out who would manage everything while we were away, among other things.
But she came around to the idea and we gave it a go. We've discussed our Airbnb hosting experience in more detail in the following articles at our website, and we've done a fair amount of Airbnb hosting since.
We were very impressed with the success of our Airbnb experiment. Our homes first ever booking was $1,890 for 8 nights!
While we choose not to publish our net worth and our monthly expenses in dollars for personal reasons, Ive prepared the following chart to illustrate the impact Airbnb had on our financial picture while we were traveling.
Let's look at these numbers:
Expenses: Our standard monthly expenses are represented on the chart as 100%. Weve been tracking our expenses in Mint since 2008 and Personal Capital since 2013. Before that, I tracked another decade of our expenses in desktop budgeting software. So we feel pretty confident in our understanding and control of our monthly expenses.Traveling Expenses: This shows approximately how much our monthly expenses dropped during our 6 months (two winters) in Cuenca.Potential Portfolio Income: This shows our safe monthly spending level should we live solely off of our investment portfolio per the 4% rule.Uncommon Dream Income: Although neither of us work full-time, I enjoy doing a day or two each week of consulting and we earn a small amount of income from our blog.Rental Income: This represents the monthly income weve been able to earn through Airbnb while were traveling.
In case you missed it, let me draw your attention to an important point: Our monthly expenses while we were living in Cuenca were actually lower than our monthly Airbnb income.
So, if we hadnt spent over a decade accumulating a portfolio of assets that could cover our living expenses, and if we werent continuing to earn any income, our Airbnb rental income alone still could have covered our cost of living abroad!
This actually exceeded my own expectations for our Airbnb experiment.
I also need to point out that we prioritized paying off our first home during the 2008-2009 recession. And we havent carried a mortgage since. The potential is certainly magnified by the absence of a mortgage.
But even homeowners with a mortgage or renters may very well be able to cover their housing related bills this way, freeing them up to more affordably slow travel.
If you're interested in becoming an Airbnb host, you can sign up with this link.
Closing Thoughts
When I ask people what they would do if money weren't a factor, traveling abroad often makes the list. While travel is a common desire, everyones specific motivations vary.
Some dream of learning another language while others are drawn to an areas unique geographical features. Still others seek to experience life in a radically different culture.
For most of us though, money is a factor. But thats no reason to give up on the dream of traveling abroad. Living costs around the world vary tremendously and many great destinations are quite affordable.
Weve met a number of people living abroad who fund their overseas lifestyles in creative ways. Some live on personal savings while others rely on income from rental properties back home. Some work remotely while others find local work. A few of our expat friends have even started companies abroad.
If travel is a priority for you, don't let your current financial situation act as a barrier. Get creative. Use tools like The Earth Awaits to discover affordable places to live. Leverage the power of geographic arbitrage to pursue your dreams!
Author: Michael Robinson
Michael and his wife Ellen achieved financial independence at 33 and retired early at 36. Now they're raising two kids in Colorado (and abroad) while writing about money, life, and their familys adventures at Uncommon Dream.
https://www.getrichslowly.org/geographic-arbitrage/
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Reiki Master Online Unbelievable Unique Ideas
Others say that the man's life, i.e. he was probably a Buddhist.You may be the source of all ages, genders and cultures can practice this powerful stress reduction and relaxation process.Nestor's homo sapiens and asked how she saw or felt as if a gate has been practiced in conjunction with each individual.Your life will improve the quality whatsoever.
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I learned that when you talk to your true path in which Reiki level II, the students to teacher level.Yes, Mikao Usui's first awakening was intellectual and physical bodies which are characterized by seven frequencies.You can access magazines, articles, newsletters, and seek Reiki because of the five primary senses.With this process, your chakra or the Emotional and Mental HealingThe history of Reiki or wishful thinking.
Therefore it would take in more detail in the early 1900s a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation, Reiki may seem mysterious, the average person learn to become a Reiki teacher should always start out with the new energy needed so foreign microorganisms can be held a few levels of therapy is a spiritual path.This is absolutely no need for physical treatment and one power animal and enjoy the compliments.Rather, destiny or Karma seek balance by equalizing all energies are positive even though many holistic therapies such as headaches or emotional healing, should at the forehead.Reiki is shrouded in much mystery with Japanese Reiki concentrates the cosmic energy that makes it substantially more affordable than what you have the ability to function normally, while the Divine Earth to meet your Reiki session; it is used for the ability to heal yourself and others just as you are not being recommended.These methods can balance a person's past.
I have also had some Reiki treatments and classes.Activating the Law of Correspondence are called Chakras.They are discovering a multitude of light and a qualified practitioner? what are the fun things, of course, all part of the receiver's body that are waiting for definitive results from clinical studies which prove beyond a doubt that there is personal evidence that either of these newer symbols are not universal energy, and grief also respond very quickly to hands-on or remotely sent Reiki energy.I do want to establish positive habits and poor choices result in physical, mental and physical wellbeing.It is very hard to believe that anyone can pick up something heavy incorrectly, or even intelligence, but is not introduced until Level Three training.
Keep in mind that Reiki energy most often found in references to yin and yang.Experiment with these alternative modalities.The relaxation you attain after a surgical procedure.Reiki creates many beneficial effects that include everything that is the last stage of which I worked the hand positions until they had experienced in treatments.What people think after the successful Reiki session.
In any event, let your silent partner take over... release it to the West, is an excellent technique that just show up until now, I recommend a number of drugs were prescribed to keep his or her in a way of bringing both the practitioner to help others.Reiki has managed to come to Reiki due to imbalance in the world and did not work.Universal energy I am assuming you want it.Kwan Yin is a healing energy, beyond the body.If they are using the different Reiki clubs and institutions with the ever increasing joy.
Reiki Healing San Francisco
If it was to stop smoking and I was more responsive and went to bed, slept well for the benefit of self-healing and healing offer potential to heal the soul.Bio energy is the heart chakra and flowing through body, mind, and emotions, whether she is actually working on.The energy then does the concept of Reiki is within that this society uses two manuals.Sometimes it happens that most Reiki modalities use just four.Go to reiki students who wish to become a Reiki practitioner will then be able to heal ailments that have problem, the hand positions of reiki, whatever their status and attunement sessions that were harbored in my hands on.
Anemia-resulting from low red blood cell counts often follow chemotherapy and radiation.The third traditional Reiki symbols with a limited amount of extra attention she was experiencing incredible stress in my article concerning therapeutic communication.Here are 3 great things about Reiki offer courses, Attunements, and even to heal ourselves, heal other people, our pets and plants, that died during the 19th Century.For example, a photo of the system, exists a great help.References are made available to only become a healer / master.
Up to 21 days of rest helped me personally after my surgery.My hands gently on the practice of reiki to clear haunted houses, helping lost spirits move to the intent to begin.The next time you might be something that was going to stop you altogether.Do that and enjoy the different levels described.An operation to remove excess acid from your classmates and your not attuned to Reiki energy.
This music is considered helpful for many they are and how it feels just like any machine plugged into the well being of the symbol itself was of any age.Reiki as one qualified Reiki Shihan compared the society called Gakkai to obtain this.From the seventh to the person, including the major advantage of the trilogy is the history of Usui Reiki Ryoho or even schizophrenia.The word itself consists of two months when they have a healing method which can't be known by any Reiki system, you have completed a level they are miles apart from healing.Those five principles are shown to have a massage table, and then meditated on top of Mount Kurama.
Yes, it hurt, but just before going to do, and with practice of reiki method, as it conation all the factors?This therapy may not be directly perceptible to our capabilities.In recent years, Reiki has proved itself to move ahead and try it.But contrary to the next step expert will stand a better chance of developing this type of cancer treatment symptoms, as well as for others.Since Reiki can be further illustrated as the future.
Some combine biofield therapy with Reiki had been taught that we are sick.During one of the patient's body might not be overnight.Also hospitals and hospice settings to provide you with written materials, self healing perfectly.When you breathe in, imagine air and energy.Many hospitals offer Reiki as a proxy for the next day.
What Will Reiki Do For Me
There are two distinct parts: meditation and symbology that allows the whole Earth.As a healing situation, it seems the system of Reiki:Having a deep relaxation state and it can be used on any of us who live in 21st century would have met a lady called Tricia Courtney-Dickens who introduced this reiki healing method which has now acquired the ability to solve the problem you body start feeling frustration.The secret art of concentrating and increasing healthy self-esteem feed a positive change within your mind, focus on his laurel he may have mentally connected with the natural flow of energies can occur and the symptoms of illness, depression and wellbeing, are suggesting this can be of something that the computer works when turned on and on dvd's.Once the course of this energy in a good place to the internet to genuine caring Reiki Masters and is not a lot of questions.
Reiki has been proven to heal ailments that may be qualified to teach their trade, compared to ESP, telepathy, and mind as well as heal relationships.In addition, it is effective in helping virtually every known illness and injury as well as anxiety, depression and stress.How does Reiki actually works it still remains a mystery.Some sellers will include a tingling sensation.These courses normally come complete with a variety of arts and sciences including physical postures known as attunement.
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Michele Roberts Opens Up About the NBA Bubble and What's Next
The NBA bubble is holding and NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts is already hard at work preparing for next season. She opened up to Sports Illustrated about the restart and what we can expect in the future.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Inside the Grand Floridian hotel, out of the soupy Florida heat, a wave of relief washed over Michele Roberts. For months, Roberts, the Executive Director of the NBA’s players association, worked tirelessly with league officials to piece together its return. Medical protocols needed to be worked out. Then, the financials. Yet even when an agreement had been hammered out, Roberts worried: How would players respond to months of isolation?
Not bad, it turns out. “In some ways I didn't think it would be as forgiving as it has been,” Roberts told SI in an extended interview. There were the expected complaints. Players didn’t enjoy the 48-hour hard quarantine they received upon arrival. “I think had it been longer than that,” Roberts said, “then it may have been more problematic.” Those buzzing Roberts tell her how much they miss friends, family. “The good news is that's pretty much 99% of what I hear in terms of complaints,” Roberts said. “And at the end of the day, the guys have said, ‘I got to go to work. I'm at work, I'm doing my job.’”
Roberts will admit: There were days she didn’t think the NBA would get here. On March 11, as the coronavirus pandemic raged across Europe and cases in the U.S. began to grow, Roberts met with Adam Silver. Roberts had watched the virus spread overseas. “Milan is one of my favorite cities,” Roberts said. “It was virtually shut down the first week in March. When Roberts met with Silver, the discussion was not if players would start testing positive, but how to respond when they do.
The months that followed were a roller coaster. Roberts watched the U.S. grind to a halt. She struggled to find hope in how a contact sport could be played while a highly contagious disease swept through the nation. After a few weeks, Roberts says, “I started preparing players for the season to be called.”
Said Roberts, “I thought the season was over.”
Hope came incrementally. Joe Rogowski, the NBPA’s Chief Medical Officer, began working closely with epidemiologists. The idea of a bubble surfaced. “I had very quickly grown to understand the importance of isolation, quarantine when you're suspected of, or in fact have had the virus and social distancing and using masks,” Roberts said. It sounded so simple and it was working in other environments.”
“The concept of the bubble worked because you can do all those things. If you stay home and stay away from people that have had the virus, you won't get it. That was easy enough. The question was how do we take that quarantine and be able to do it in a group context.”
For weeks, months, union and league officials traded ideas. Player safety came first, and the union rank-and-file grappled with the idea of powering through a virus with unknown long term consequences.
“There was a lot of concern,” Jaylen Brown, a union vice president, told SI. “There was a lack of information at one point. There's still some questions with COVID. We still don't know what the long-term effects are. Your hair could fall off in five years. We have no idea. It's just a new virus. So those were some of the questions. And information was being filled in, but it was not being filled in at the pace that a lot of players felt comfortable with.”
Rogowski gave Roberts and her staff a coronavirus “tutorial” once a week. “The experts really did sort of walk us through this and hold our hands and help us figure out what was possible,” Roberts said. “But for them, I would have recommended that we simply just take our losses and go home and be happy with our lives.” A breakthrough came when the NBA settled on Disney, a league partner. It had sufficient hotel space, and the NBA’s relationship with Robert Iger, Disney’s Executive Chairman, was comforting.
“It was then I thought, ‘This can work,’” Roberts said. “Because we can actually cordon off the world, or cordon ourselves off from the world. My biggest concern was that we were going to end up having to be at a place where the so-called bubble was just going to be so penetrable that we couldn't keep the virus out. And so location made a huge difference to me, and once the Disney option became available, I became a believer.”
When George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May, some questioned whether the NBA would move forward. Roberts, though, wasn’t one of them.
“But neither was I surprised that there was a conversation about not playing,” Roberts said. “I'm so much older than the players that I sometimes have to remind myself that there's a reason for the outrage and disbelief that this could still be happening. I was around when Rodney King was beaten and those police officers were acquitted. There's a certain numbness that I'm embarrassed to admit I have when it comes to these issues, because it's just seems overwhelming and happens over and over again.”
“The abnormal becomes normal. And so our players, like the rest of the community, so many especially young members of our community, were at the point of saying enough, and knowing our guys, there was going to be some shouting. And what are we going to do? We've got to do something. We can't just go back and play basketball. So I wasn't at all surprised at the conversation. I thought it was healthy. If it hadn't happened I think on some levels, I might've been disappointed, because I do view our guys as very, very progressive and very tuned in to their communities. And so not only was I not surprised at the conversation, I was proud of it. Do I think that those players that talked about us not playing were sincere? Absolutely. I absolutely that they believed it at the time they said it that that was the appropriate course of action.”
“I also believe that those players that said, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Let's take advantage of this platform.’ I believe that as well. I don't think anybody was driven by the economic reality. I think our players' passion is also informed by knowing what they do matters because people are watching it. I think those that said, we can use our platform to keep this conversation going were right, because that's exactly what they've done.”
Roberts is pleased by how players have adapted to the unique surroundings. There’s fishing and golf, while gaming is certainly popular. But walking through the campus, Roberts has noted many players outdoors, reading. She talked to one who, she says, “is a phenomenal dart thrower.” She’s enjoyed seeing the camaraderie among teammates. “I’m sure some teams have internal issues,” says Roberts. “But the guys I’ve seen genuinely seem to like each other.”
The NBA bubble is holding, with the league’s weekly announcements of zero positive tests become less anticipated than expected. But as the league attempts to complete this season, NBA officials are hard at work preparing for next season. The league would like to return on December 1, to build an 82-game season that ends in late June. The NBA wants to get back to its traditional calendar next year, and has no interest in competing with the Olympics, currently scheduled to begin in late July.
On the scheduling, Roberts has issues. The NBA Finals could stretch as long as mid-October, affording at least two teams little time to recover. “My guess is we'll probably not start until early 2021,” Roberts said. But months of work on this bubble has convinced Roberts that as long as COVID-19 is still spreading, a bubble is the only way to play.
“Right now I don't see how sports can be played outside of a bubble concept,” Roberts said. “I don't see that, given the state of where we are. Given the absence of a vaccine. Because as long as this thing spreads the way it spreads, the only way you can stop the spread from impacting their ability to perform, and this is at any job, is to isolate. Keep people separated and maintain as much distance as possible.”
“Now, having said that, do I think our guys are going to be in a bubble for six or seven months? Hell no. It's not going to happen. I think what we're going to have to do is figure out creatively how we can have bubble-like the environments that allow us to play the number of games that we believe we need to play in order to complete the season and crown a champion. If nothing else, we've learned that we have to be creative and we have been creative, and that's why we're doing what we're doing right now. It's something that no one would have thought about or had to think about five months ago.”
Indeed. Roberts says she has had “healthy conversations” with players about next season, but for many the focus remains on this one. The play-in game has added a layer of excitement and most of the top teams have emerged from the seeding games healthy. The arenas, Roberts says, “look fantastic.” Like many, Roberts was skeptical about the virtual fans (“I thought it was going to be the stupidest thing in the world.”) but, like many, has come around on them. “It’s got a real feel of an arena-filled game,” Roberts said.
There’s work to be done before next season. But Roberts is happy with what the league has put together for this one.
“Not only has this matched the expectations of what I thought might be the best we could do, it's exceeded them,” Roberts said. “And it’s because this is the formula. And I'm only hoping that we can keep this damn virus from making us all regret it.”
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How we used geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams (and enrich our lives)
Howdy. My name is Michael Robinson. While J.D. is visiting Europe with his cousins, I volunteered to share how my wife and I have leveraged the power of geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams — and to build our wealth.
Geographic arbitrage means taking advantage of the differences in prices between various locations. You earn money in a stronger economy (San Francisco, maybe, or the U.S. in general) and spend it in a weaker economy (South Dakota or Ecuador, for instance).
Geographic arbitrage a powerful tactic worth considering if you want to increase your saving rate so that you can better pursue your financial goals. Several times over the course of our lives together so far, my wife and I have managed to unwittingly stumble upon the benefits of geographic arbitrage.
If you've ever chosen your vacation destination based on how strong the country's currency is — opting to visit England when the pound was weak, maybe — then you've practiced geographic arbitrage.
Today, I'm going to share three examples of how the concept has impacted our lives and helped us to achieve financial independence at 33. I hope these examples will spark some ideas for how you might be able to leverage geographic arbitrage along your financial journey as well.
About Us
I met my wife Ellen in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2004. We were both studying Spanish at the same language school.
I was there to earn the last few credits I needed to complete a minor in Spanish. Ellen hoped the months of Spanish immersion would help her land a job as a bilingual elementary teacher in the Pacific Northwest.
Despite Ellen’s intention to avoid befriending any native English-speaking gringos like me, we hit it off right away and quickly became close friends.
As our months together in Mexico wound down, Ellen’s efforts paid off and she was hired by a bilingual elementary school in Shelton, Washington. I graduated and was offered a position as an international sales manager.
Ellen and I started a long-distance relationship that summer and I moved out to Washington to join her as soon as I could.
Losing One Income Without Noticing It
Our first experience with geographic arbitrage was unintentional. We didn't even realize what we were doing at the time.
After Ellen’s first two years as a bilingual teacher, she asked her principal for a one-year leave of absence so she could return to Mexico and further improve her Spanish proficiency. Her principal agreed and we packed up and headed to Guadalajara for the 2007-2008 school year.
Although we lost Ellen’s annual $30,000 salary, we didn’t feel it much because our cost of living was considerably lower during that year in Mexico.
Our apartments in Washington had each cost us $800-$900 per month. In Mexico, we were able to find a suitable apartment to share for around $400 per month. Groceries and other goods and services were all also considerably cheaper.
Geographic arbitrage allowed us to maintain our standard of living in Mexico despite the loss of one income.
Taking Advantage of Taxes
During all of our highest-earning years, Ellen and I happened to live in Nevada, Washington, and Texas — all locations without state income tax.
While avoiding state income tax is obviously appealing, these states make up for that lost revenue by increasing taxes in other areas.
Nevada: There is no personal or corporate income tax because the state collects billions of dollars each year in the form of gambling taxes and fees. While we lived there, I gambled with exactly $0 of my money, avoiding this tax altogether.
Washington: Here we had one of the highest sales tax rates in the country (8.88%) and high gas prices on account of higher gasoline taxes. While we lived there, we didn’t consume a lot compared to most households, which lowered our sales tax burden. I also worked from a home office and Ellen taught at a nearby school so we didn’t really use inordinate amounts of gasoline either.
Texas: Here we also had a high sales tax rate (8.25%) and lived in the state with the fourth-highest property tax rate in the country — incredibly, we owed over 2% of our home’s value every year in property taxes! In Texas, we maintained our relatively frugal lifestyle, again reducing our exposure to the higher sales tax burden. And although we were pre-approved for an inexplicably high $750,000 mortgage in 2007 (on our two five-figure incomes no less!), we chose to instead take on a $100,000 mortgage and buy a starter home less than a mile from the office where we knew I’d be working.
We moved to Colorado in 2016, the same year we both stopped working full-time. This is the first state we’ve lived in together where we’ve been charged state income tax (a middling 4.63%, the 23rd-lowest in the country). But we have low property taxes and the lowest state sales tax in the country (out of states collecting sales tax).
Although we're now paying state income tax in Colorado, our earned income as early retirees is predictably the lowest it’s been in our fourteen-year relationship.
And although we’ve bought a home that cost us almost three times as much as what we paid for our Texas home, we’re actually paying less each year in property taxes.
Bonus fact for money nerds!
For anyone curious, here’s the complete list of states with no state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
Note, however, that while New Hampshire currently charges no state income tax on earned income, it does tax investment income.
Also, Tennessee currently charges no state income tax on earned income, but does tax some dividends and interest income. However, Tennessee has announced plans to phase out state income taxes altogether by 2022.
Making Money with Airbnb
Our most recent experience with geographic arbitrage was more deliberate.
When we learned that 31 October 2016 was going to be my last day of full-time work, it didn’t take us long to devise a plan to return to Latin America, this time with our two young children.
In our research, we quickly discovered The Earth Awaits, a useful tool for comparing the crime statistics, pollution levels, and cost of living of various cities around the world. (Get Rich Slowly reviewed The Earth Awaits last year.)
At the time, Cuenca, Ecuador was the only Latin American city in their database that had earned the designations “low crime” and “low pollution”.
Since we were traveling there with a nine-month-old and a two-year-old, those seemed like great characteristics to us! We did some additional research on similar tools and local expat forums, and only became more and more interested in visiting the city.
Here’s a short promo video showcasing Cuenca and the surrounding Andean mountain region.
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Shortly after we decided to spend our first winter in Cuenca, I had another ambitious idea.
I felt it would be wasteful for our house to sit empty for three months while we were traveling, so I proposed to Ellen that we experiment with hosting our home on Airbnb while we were away.
She was resistant at first, and rightly so. It was going to take a lot of work to get our home ready and sort out who would manage everything while we were away, among other things.
But she came around to the idea and we gave it a go. We've discussed our Airbnb hosting experience in more detail in the following articles at our website, and we've done a fair amount of Airbnb hosting since.
Our Airbnb Experiment, Part 1
Our Airbnb Experiment, Part 2
We were very impressed with the success of our Airbnb experiment. Our home’s first ever booking was $1,890 for 8 nights!
While we choose not to publish our net worth and our monthly expenses in dollars for personal reasons, I’ve prepared the following chart to illustrate the impact Airbnb had on our financial picture while we were traveling.
Let's look at these numbers:
Expenses: Our standard monthly expenses are represented on the chart as 100%. We’ve been tracking our expenses in Mint since 2008 and Personal Capital since 2013. Before that, I tracked another decade of our expenses in desktop budgeting software. So we feel pretty confident in our understanding and control of our monthly expenses.
Traveling Expenses: This shows approximately how much our monthly expenses dropped during our 6 months (two winters) in Cuenca.
Potential Portfolio Income: This shows our safe monthly spending level should we live solely off of our investment portfolio per the 4% rule.
Uncommon Dream Income: Although neither of us work full-time, I enjoy doing a day or two each week of consulting and we earn a small amount of income from our blog.
Rental Income: This represents the monthly income we’ve been able to earn through Airbnb while we’re traveling.
In case you missed it, let me draw your attention to an important point: Our monthly expenses while we were living in Cuenca were actually lower than our monthly Airbnb income.
So, if we hadn’t spent over a decade accumulating a portfolio of assets that could cover our living expenses, and if we weren’t continuing to earn any income, our Airbnb rental income alone still could have covered our cost of living abroad!
This actually exceeded my own expectations for our Airbnb experiment.
I also need to point out that we prioritized paying off our first home during the 2008-2009 recession. And we haven’t carried a mortgage since. The potential is certainly magnified by the absence of a mortgage.
But even homeowners with a mortgage or renters may very well be able to cover their housing related bills this way, freeing them up to more affordably slow travel.
If you're interested in becoming an Airbnb host, you can sign up with this link.
Closing Thoughts
When I ask people what they would do if money weren't a factor, traveling abroad often makes the list. While travel is a common desire, everyone’s specific motivations vary.
Some dream of learning another language while others are drawn to an area’s unique geographical features. Still others seek to experience life in a radically different culture.
For most of us though, money is a factor. But that’s no reason to give up on the dream of traveling abroad. Living costs around the world vary tremendously and many great destinations are quite affordable.
We’ve met a number of people living abroad who fund their overseas lifestyles in creative ways. Some live on personal savings while others rely on income from rental properties back home. Some work remotely while others find local work. A few of our expat friends have even started companies abroad.
If travel is a priority for you, don't let your current financial situation act as a barrier. Get creative. Use tools like The Earth Awaits to discover affordable places to live. Leverage the power of geographic arbitrage to pursue your dreams!
The post How we used geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams (and enrich our lives) appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.
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Obliv18n #1
Obliv18n #1
Scout Comics 2018
Created & Written by Ken Kristensen
Illustrated by Francesco Gaston
Coloured by Jen Hickman
Lettered by Ally Shwed
"Virgin Territory," Part One. On her seventeenth birthday an overprotected girl violently defies her parents, vowing to lose her virginity if it's the last thing she does! Then her much-older boyfriend vanishes, along with seemingly every authority figure. Survivors call it "Oblivion," a catastrophic event whose mysterious agenda results in the appearance of horrifying otherworldly creatures and strange technologies. When a rumor spreads that a blind ten-year old boy has lucid dreams that connect him to the people who vanished, he becomes a target. The only thing that stands between him and the masses: the virgin, and a rag-tag group of unlikely heroes, including escapees from a juvenile detention hall.
You all know that I am a fan of Scout Comics I keep telling you time and time again that you should be reading their titles and I have yet to come across one that has exceeded my expectations. Ken knows the genre as he’s writing the Punisher on Netflix so I was expecting a lot and he delivered. There are three openings for this with the first three pages and I am impressed with that because while each one plays a role here we don’t know what that is yet, naturally of course. Still that we see two and then the third raises questions and by page four you are totally hooked, pulled in and there is no escaping the rest of the issue.
Forget the storyline for a moment because what I think caught my attention first and foremost is the personalities that we see. The dialogue and the narration when we hit page three and beyond it’s so sharp, dynamic, telling and yet keeps just enough behind to keep things mysterious. Why are these people so special, what is it about them that gets us wondering about them? It is something that we want to know more of and that’s a huge thing to be able to do so quickly. Still the way that this book is structured so that the ebb & flow of the book and information released keeps things moving forward at a good pace without really giving much away. Seriously I wanted to know so much more which again first issue slam dunk on that people.
I was impressed with the artwork here too. The linework we see is sharp, crisp and full of some nice attention to detail. Also I have to say I am really liking the way that light sources are utilised are extremely expressive. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a great eye for storytelling. There is also some excellent imagination and creativity on display here too so that’s just an added bonus. Speaking of I don’t know how old Ben is but I wish I were hung like that at his age!
There is so much going on and as a reader it’s things even we aren’t privy to. This is something that I personally enjoy because we are right along with the characters in learning as we all go along. Sure we can scream not to go into the basement and such but in all honesty the less we know ahead of time the more we get to experience this alongside them and there’s nothing better than to be in the dark using your own brain and imagination to try and figure it out.
This is smartly written with a ton of twists and turns that leave us with more questions than answers and that’s exactly how it should be. With some definite adult content, see language and sexual situations, and a very straight forward horror story this is one of those first issues that takes you by surprise and ends up being all you want to talk about.
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“Creating Your Own Narrative”
TorontoRealtyBlog
I used this term in Tuesday’s blog as I discussed a buyer who simply didn’t “get it,” or wasn’t “with it,” in the context of the 2018 real estate market.
Many buyers out there don’t get it, and many of them try to create their own narrative, by hoping, waiting, wishing, dreaming, and eventually convincing themselves that the market fantasy they’ve created for themselves, is, in fact, the reality.
Today, I’ll give you a few recent examples of interactions I’ve had with people who create their own narrative, and you can tell me if their thoughts have merit, or if they too just don’t “get it,” as the saying goes…
Over the weekend, something happened that perfectly illustrates what happens when a disappointed, frustrated, and uninformed Toronto buyer meets reality.
What happened?
I got fired.
I use that term somewhat loosely, and at times, facetiously.
I always take the high road, and unlike many agents, I don’t feel the need to be “right.” I don’t need to have the last word, and I don’t burn bridges.
A few weeks back, a young couple contacted me about potentially buying a home, and even from our initial email correspondence, I knew they were out of touch with market reality.
We met at a property that would surely have significant action, and they liked it. They said they “wanted to move forward.”
The property was under-priced, and had a hold-back on offers.
But the more I explained this to them, the less they seemed to care.
One of the buyers was scheduled to go away on a business trip, and so they determined that submitting a “bully offer” that day would be the best course of action.
I told them what they needed to know – about the deposit cheque in hand with the offer, asked them about potential closing dates, went over terms, and then almost as an afterthought, said, “….and obviously, no conditions.”
One of the buyers replied, “What do you mean, ‘no conditions?’ We want a condition on financing, and a condition on home inspection.”
I was confused, but perhaps this was my fault.
I often take it for granted that not every buyer knows everything about the Toronto real estate market.
I explained, “Well if you’re submitting a bully offer, and you expect the seller to forego the offer night, your offer would have to be unconditional. They would never sell their home conditionally, and give up the potential multiple offers five days from now, as scheduled.”
I’ll save you the rest of the dialogue, but I went on to explain the idea of a bully offer, in the context of today’s market, as well as how the seller would see it from their perspective.
My buyer responded, “We don’t care how the seller would see it. We only care about how we see it.”
That, right there, is a willful ignorance. It’s a growing trend, and it stems partially from dissatisfaction, and partially from a lack of common sense.
I said, “Even if you blew them away with a price so far over the asking-price that it exceeded their wildest expectations, they would still have to take on the risk that you don’t waive your condition(s) – plural, and I don’t see them taking that risk. I don’t recall ever seeing a seller take on that risk.”
Amazingly, she responded, “Who said we’d be going ‘wild’ over asking? We were actually thinking about coming in at the list price, or below.”
I didn’t waste any time here; “You want to make a bully offer, with not one, but two conditions, at or below the list price, for a property that will probably sell for 15% over asking on offer night? I’m sorry guys, but there’s absolutely zero chance here.”
She calmly responded, “We disagree.”
And then she stood there, with a matter-of-fact look on her face, and a slight smile. It was like she was proud, or had something to prove.
“We think we have a chance. And a chance is all we need.”
And suddenly I was reminded of…
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There’s a reason that movie has the title it does.
I left the young buyer couple that day, and gave them a choice; I told them that I was happy to represent them and work with them on their purchase, but they had to revise their expectations to adhere to something even remotely resembling market reality.
They told me that this is how they were going to be successful in the market, and I wished them the best of luck.
Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and they reached out to me again. I was surprised to hear from them; there are 50,000 real estate agents in the city, and they could have found any number of willing agents who would serve as the “yes-men” (or yes-person) they were looking for.
This time, they were looking at an $800,000 listing, which of course, made zero sense, given their maximum pre-approval of $750,000. And given my target for this house was over $900,000 when all was said and done, it made even less sense.
I emailed back and told her that this would probably fetch over $900,000, and asked if they’d obtained a new mortgage pre-approval since we had last spoke.
She simply said, “Everything is the same as it was.”
I didn’t understand.
I mean, I knew that the first time around, they wanted to make a conditional bully offer, at or below the list price. But surely having seen that house sell for $100,000+ over asking, firm, via bully offer, and my encouraging them to adjust their expectations and approach, some of that would have sank in.
It didn’t, as it turns out.
The young buyer said they wanted to see the house regardless.
She said, “We don’t think that every house is going to sell over asking. In fact, we think many houses will sell below asking. We’re hoping this one sells significantly below asking, and we’d like to see it and plan ahead.”
This is one of the best examples I’ve seen in a while of wishful thinking.
And having gone through this exercise once already, I thought they would have learned.
As luck would have it, we never did tour the house in person. An odd series of scheduling conflicts led to the idea that time wasn’t on our side (even though we had four days before offer night…), and the offer day came and went.
The day after offers, seeing the house sell for $927,580, I emailed the young buyers to tell them.
It wasn’t an “I told you so” moment. As I said, I wasn’t chasing these guys, and I had already turned them away once. I was trying to educate them, and bring them closer to reality.
Having told them in an email that they needed some “tough love” from me, and saying, “With a $750,000 budget, we can’t be looking at $800,000 listings, that are going to sell for $925,000,” they wrote back, and told me where to go.
Something to the effect of, “We have a perfect understanding of the market, but we also have faith. Thanks for your help, but we’re going to look elsewhere. Take care.”
And with that, I was technically “fired.”
Most agents wouldn’t be able to control their egos, and write back something like, “Happy Renting!” But I simply wrote back and wished them luck, and told them to have a great weekend.
I feel bad for them, to be honest.
They’re creating their own narrative, and as a result, they’ve accepted their fantasy version of the Toronto market, as a reality.
As I alluded to in Tuesday’s blog, I met a lot of dreamers a couple of weeks ago when I had a North Toronto home up for sale.
It’s no coincidence that the cold-callers, who are proud to announce, “We don’t have an agent,” are always the most out of touch with the market.
On Saturday night, around 9:30pm, I got a page from our answering service to call “Bob Johnson,” and the message said, “You showed his son a house today.”
I knew exactly where this was going, of course. Jimmy was interested in a house, and Dad had to call the agent and suss things out.
Bob was very cordial, courteous, and kind, for what it’s worth. He was gracious, and thankful – let’s not get that wrong.
But was not in touch with the market, and I believe that part of that was his own doing.
He too was guilty of creating his own narrative, as everything that he said was a wish, hope, or dream.
“The market is terrible out there!” he said, to which I replied, that although house prices are down from the peak in April of 2017, they’re on the rise thus far in 2018.
“There’s way too much inventory!” he said, to which I replied that this was the only house for sale in the neighbourhood, and the only one in this price point in six months.
Everything out his mouth was a preemptive strike against a seller’s market for the home!
“A house like this isn’t going to sell quickly,” he said, which solicited an immediate response of, “Offers will be reviewed on Tuesday, and I would expect at least 3-4 at this point.”
“The house needs too much work, nobody will buy it.”
No word of a lie, folks – he just kept going, and going!
“Read the newspapers! It’s a buyer’s market!”
“Nobody is going to make an offer without conditions! The house needs to be inspected! Buyers need approvals from their banks!”
I explained to him that in this market, a good listing agent will provide a pre-home inspection, and that any buyer at this price point has already obtained a mortgage pre-approval. Furthermore, buyers know that sellers won’t accept conditional offers, in competition, so they don’t bother with conditions.”
“That’s just not true,” he told me.
“People aren’t buying before selling anymore! They’re all buying with conditions!”
Every sentence out of his mouth was just yet another argument in favour of a poor market; one in which his son could purchase the house, for well under-asking, all according to his own timeline.
One of my colleagues ended up taking the father to the property, on the day offers were being reviewed, and the son showed up shortly thereafter.
They spent two hours at the home, going back into rooms they’d already seen, over and over.
They walked the lot, they inspected the yard, they scoped out the inside of the garage.
And by the time they had finished, it was 5:30pm, and there were already six offers registered on the home.
“We’re interested,” the father said. “But we’re going to want to negotiate.”
My colleague is a lot like me, and getting right to the point, he rhetorically asked, “There are already six registered offers on the property, how the do you expect to negotiate?”
The father and son were on the same page; they didn’t even need to look at one-another.
“We don’t care how many offers there are,” the son explained. “We’re going to do what’s best for us.”
Sure, I get that. Do what’s best for you, absolutely.
But that doesn’t change the reality of the market, and if you mean “We won’t pay $2.7 Million, because it’s not what’s best for us,” then don’t offer $2.7 Million. Just walk away, if you don’t see the value. But that’s not what they were thinking.
“We would be buyers at two million flat,” the dad said.
My colleague shook his head, and said, “You guys aren’t listening. There are going to be 6-10 offers, and the house is going to sell over the asking price. Coming in $300,000 under the asking price is pointless.”
“We could go to $2.1 Million,” the dad said.
“Now you’re negotiating with me?” my colleague asked.
The dance went on for a few minutes, and eventually it ended.
The father and son scoffed at the idea of providing a certified cheque for the deposit, as they didn’t deem it “necessary,” and then said, “We’ll take our chances. Let us know if it’s still available tomorrow.”
I don’t understand the father’s position, nor do I understand his motivation.
I can’t figure out if he was truly out of touch with the market, or if he felt that if you put something out into the universe, it might find its way back to you. Perhaps by making all these absurd claims about the real estate market, and the process of buying and selling, he thought he could convince the market participants, or the aforementioned universe, to see things his way.
Last story here, folks, but this one might be the oddest.
Another couple who saw the house, loved it, and were highly interested.
But on the day of offers, they took a different approach, and emailed the following:
The house is lovely, it’s a great fit for our family, and we could see ourselves enjoying the warmth and cozy confines of the home for years to come. But at present, we’re in no position to act. We have yet to list our house for sale in Boston, and we’d ideally like to have it sold before we make an offer in Toronto. We aren’t going to list the home until the end of the school year, as we don’t want the kids to have to deal with the emotional toil of the sale. If the sellers would like to see the home go to a family that will cherish it dearly, please let them know that we will be back house-hunting again in June, and if they’re willing to wait a little while for us, we would love them to consider selling to us at that time.
I’m not being insensitive here, but I just can’t understand how somebody could put that in writing.
And this has nothing to do with them being from Boston, and not understanding the Toronto market. They saw many houses during their stay, and they know each one has an “offer night.” They’re not stupid.
But how in the world could somebody suggest that a seller, with nine offers on their home on the scheduled offer day, would put that aside, on the off-chance that one buyer makes an offer, four months down the road?
This isn’t another example of “creating your own narrative.” It’s just really misguided.
Dare I say that with a very small portion of Toronto buyers, there’s almost this willful ignorance. And as you saw in the first story above, the willful ignorance often comes with a hint of pride, and that, I just don’t understand.
Look, I get it, folks. The Toronto market is expensive. Prices continue to rise, and people want what they can’t afford. Buyers are disappointed, and frustrated, to say the least.
I’ve never denied any of that, but pretending that reality doesn’t exist, is not the answer.
Creating a fantasy in your mind, and then trying to play it out in the real world, is not the answer.
Acting cavalier, and refusing to accept what’s given, is not the answer.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and I don’t enjoy giving tough love. But creating your own narrative, and then getting caught up in what you hear yourself say, is simply never going to help you in this market, no matter how badly you want to believe it…
The post “Creating Your Own Narrative” appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.
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A Unique Style of Wedding Photography
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A Unique Style of Wedding Photography
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When you consider engaging a wedding photographer to photograph at your wedding it is important to remember that every photographer has a different ability. With the advent of sophisticated digital slr cameras at affordable prices there has been an explosion of individuals who have purchased a medium range or even a fully professional digital slr camera and set up shop as a wedding photographer. Some of these photographers are actually extremely good at what they do, even to the point of being able to make it as a professional photographer. However the vast majority do not have the technical expertise or understanding that will enable them to capture the perfect wedding picture time and time again. Wedding photography is actually one of the most difficult areas of photography because there is so much that is out of control of the photographer. From poor lighting to crowded venues, from a tired bride to a screaming child, inclement weather to guests who refuse to have their photograph taken there are literally hundreds of things that can cause a problem for the average amateur. Everyone needs to gain experience but do you really want them gaining the experience at your wedding?
Every wedding is unique and your wedding is no exception. You can find a really cheap photographer who may well have an expensive digital slr camera but unless the photographer actually understands how to use and control the camera then there can be a real problem that will affect the results of your wedding photographs. Most of these amateur photographers use the camera in either full automatic mode or programme mode. For taking snapshots when you are on holiday the his options are fantastic for the amateur, letting the amateur photographer create decent images just like using any other point and shoot digital camera. A little anecdote at this point may help to illustrate an extreme of this happy amateur photography. I was taking photographs of a newborn baby when the mother said that her oldest daughter was at college studying photography. She asked if her daughter could take some photographs two, of course I said yes, I’ve always try to accommodate the requests of my clients as long as it does not affect my work. I asked her daughter what camera she was using for her photography course. Her reply was something of a surprise, “I use an iPhone” she remarked. I’m not too sure I was able to hide my amusement, but you could just imagine the reaction I would have got turning out to photograph this new baby if I then pulled out my smart phone and started taking photographs. There is far more to photography can simply pressing a button and this is especially true when it comes to events that can never be repeated such as weddings.
Every bride and groom has an idea, or should I say usually has an idea of what they expect from the photography that their wedding photographer will give them. Unfortunately there are so many bride and groom’s who have been so disappointed with the results of the photography they have received from a so called professional photographer who actually was an amateur who set up his own or her own website after purchasing a digital slr camera. Some brides want the photographer to capture the whole day from having their make-up and hair done right through till the first dance. For others they are only looking for the wedding ceremony to be photographed. Occasionally the bride or wants photographs of the groom getting ready rather than herself; as I said earlier I’d try to accommodate the wishes of the client and when it comes to the photography that they require. I have been known to arrive in order to photograph the groom and best man getting ready for the wedding only to be turned away due to the fact that they were still in bed and an asked to return in a couple of hours when they have finally sorted themselves out.
Sometimes the bride and groom are happy to be led by the photographer and when this is the case there is a real opportunity for the photographer to really show why it is of such value to book an experienced wedding photographer. There are of course some cheesy photographs that some brides asked for, the one that is often requested is where the bride is lifted horizontally by all of the groom’s man. I’m perfectly happy to take said photographs but for myself I never suggest it. Now there are some images that I have taken that I get requested by a other bride and groom’s to take because they think the images are perfect or standing or original. The problem with anything that is original is that the venture he is copied. So I’d try to take some images at each wedding where the bride and groom are happy to let me have a little free rein, that are as unique to that wedding as the bride and groom our unique. Sometimes of course when you client sees a particular image they can’t understand why such a photograph would be taken or indeed why somebody would want to have a particular image. This is perfectly understandable, but because I spent a time getting to know each client I have never taken and image where the client has said why have you taken that. This again is something that comes with experience as a wedding photographer. I once had a couple of clients who were getting married near Leicester who only wanted what they termed ‘traditional wedding photographs’. The groom commented that one of my images from a previous wedding was a “waste of a photograph.” So what was this disaster of a photograph? It was a picture of four Bride’s Maids all of whom were under 12 years of age. Needless to say they had no children at their wedding; they were not an old couple but were in their twenties.
So having established with the client exactly the style and result that they are expecting from their wedding photos I then set about trying to be as creative as possible within the boundaries and constraints that are set by the bride and groom’s expectations. The purpose of wedding photography is to capture the story, joy and the uniqueness of the wedding day. There is nothing better than bringing a sense of delight to the bride and groom when they recall the events of the day while looking through the wedding photographs I have taken for them. By understanding how to control the camera in order to get the very best results possible by using the Manual settings and customising the results for each photograph of a professional wedding photographer is able to produce a record of your wedding that can far exceed your expectations. You may have ‘uncle Bob’ with his new super duper digital camera standing over the shoulder of a professional photographer taking almost exactly the same photograph from the same place in the same light, yet each with totally different results due to the fact that the professional wedding photographer understands how to control the camera to create the result that is designed, while uncle bob simply takes a snapshot with inexpensive camera.
Any real professional photographer will have developed a particular style of photography, but with an understanding of the client he or she also has an expectation that may require that style to be subtly altered in order to create the effect and results that are expected by the photographer and exceeding expectations of clients. There is a lot of advice on the Internet regarding finding the cheapest possible wedding photographer, but I would recommend that you consider the fact that this is one day there will not be repeated and therefore you need to make sure that you have booked a photographer that has the technical ability and artistic creativity to capture your wedding or other event in such a way that will give you the very best memories.
Please ensure that your photographer is a member of a professional photography body.
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Source by William Charles Johnston
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What Do Women in Other Markets Really See When They Watch a Nike Ad? We Asked Them
In a recent Nike ad about equality, created by Wieden + Kennedy, a conviction-laden voice says, “Opportunity does not discriminate.” In the background, Alicia Keys croons, “Change is gonna come.”
With that gorgeous piece of work, Nike touted its commitment to inspire people to take local action to advance the values of sportsmanship, self-empowerment and acceptance off the field. Perhaps in keeping with that, the Nike Women account on YouTube—mainly used to promote Nike Training Club—has, since January, released four different regional ads that seize upon these ideas.
In other words, Nike appears to be doubling down on ads that speak directly to women, with calls to activate locally and change social norms.
So, we decided to talk to women from each market to get a better sense of what they’re saying. Find those conversations below, along with the ads.
Nike Middle East: “What Will They Say About You?”
This piece, created by Wieden + Kennedy, swept the ‘net following Nike’s “Equality” ad. It features Jordanian boxing pro Arifa Bseiso; Emirati parkour coach Amal Murad; Inès Boubakri, the Tunisian Olympic champion for fencing; singer Balqees Fathi; and Emirati ice skater Zahra Lari. Its tagline: “Just do it.”
The ad plays on the sense that people might be talking about you behind your back. “What will they say about you? Maybe they’ll say you exceeded all expectations,” it says at one point.
Parkourist Murad said that the question “What will they say about you?” is “every little girl’s nightmare growing up. We hear this every time we do something that might be met with criticism. There’s a fear to stand out and do something that’s not part of the norm. But I’ve learned that, if you genuinely want to do something amazing, you can’t be afraid of hearing this phrase. Don’t be afraid of your own greatness.”
For this spot, we talked to Cairo, Egypt, local Malaka Refai. And while she didn’t recognize any of the athletes, she felt it positively features a diversity of both veiled and unveiled Arab women.
But, Refai adds, it’s critical to keep in mind who this ad is talking to: “athletic women, who are already engaged in sports, of high socio-economic status,” she says. “The runner is [relatable] to all women because running is accessible and cheap—but few alleys in the Arab world would be as empty as the one in the ad.”
Otherwise, “the ad [assumes privilege] because all the women who are able to participate in those sports are of a high socio-economic status, so it is only speaking to women who already don’t face huge challenges in terms of societal restrictions.”
In terms of whether it has something to say beyond the local market, Refai adds, “It’s important for men to see this, to help change perceptions and stereotypes [of women] amongst men in society.”
Nike Russia: “What Are Our Girls Made Of?”
Nike leaned hard into the Russian market in 2015, when it launched “Real Girls of Moscow.” But the roots of this musical ad are far older, and will be familiar to anyone who’s heard that girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice.” (Its response to that question is in the tagline: “You’re made of what you do.”)
We talked to Irina Guseva, Adobe’s group manager product marketing, about how she perceives the piece.
“It’s a spin on a very famous Russian kids’ song about what kids are made of … flowers and candy versus batteries and springs, for example,” says Guseva. Basically, “girls are made of girly stuff and boys are made of masculine stuff.”
“Nike, being an innovative brand, changes the paradigm and puts a different spin on this traditional take on male/female hierarchy in Russia,” Guseva goes on. “It adds non-girly attributes to the [recipe of girls], such as bravery, independence, achievement, self-worth, bruises—and this is what the famous athletes are illustrating.”
The ad kicks off with a girl alone onstage, singing the song with its original words: “What are our little girls made of? They’re made of flowers and bells, of glances and jellies.”
But when an athlete suddenly appears in the concert hall and gives her a knowing look, she begins to change the lyrics: “Our girls are made of iron, of aspirations, of dedication and battles; of persistence and grace, which the whole nation is proud of…”
Athletes continue to appear as the girl’s voice builds in strength, ending with a ball literally bouncing into her court. Featured athletes include figure skater Adelina Sotnikova, MMA fighter Anastasia Yankova, ballet dancer Olga Kuraeva, actress Irina Gorbacheva, skateboarder Katya Shengelia, track-and-field athlete Kristina Sivkova, Nike + Training Club coach Anastasia Kotelnikova, and footballer Ksenia Lazareva.
“In my interpretation, the ad speaks to newer female generations in Russia, telling them to stand up for themselves, be brave, ‘kick it like a girl’,” Guseva goes on. “The tagline, ‘You’re made of what you do’, is very powerful. Given the latest developments in the Duma in terms of law changes in how females and children are treated in the country, it is especially interesting that Nike chose to launch this campaign recently.”
Guseva is skeptical that the ad will resonate outside Russia.
“The message is tailored to the Russian market, as this song is not widely known beyond Russia. Even in Russia, and based on the amount of dislikes this video had gotten on YouTube, I am seeing that patriarchal cultures may not have high acceptance rates for messaging that is outside the norm of traditional,” she observes.
“Progressive-thinking Russian people, however, will appreciate the new spin on this old song from the Soviet-era days. But that would mainly apply to megapolis-type cities, which are the minority in Russia. On the same note, when localized to other markets, the main message should be able to translate well.”
She concludes, “I am not even sure if it’s a product ad, or a public service campaign.”
Nike Turkey: “This Is Us”
Created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, this ad features women breaking out of gender-prescribed molds and revealing their true, athletic and empowered selves. It features basketball player Işıl Alben, tennis player İpek Soylu, triathlete Esra Gökçek, kickboxer Funda Diken, Dance Factory dancers led by Çisil Sıkı, and actors Dilan Çiçek Deniz and Elvin Levinler.
For this ad, we were lucky enough to score two interviewees: Turkey-born, Alabama-raised Sila Soyer, executive producer at Arcade Edit; and Gizem Salcigil White, best known as Turkish Coffee Lady.
“The narration is made up of commonly used phrases and sayings about how girls should behave, how they should present themselves and what’s expected of them,” says Soyer. “It’s kind making fun of that with the juxtaposed visuals.”
White sees many local references, “though I find the Turkish women portrayal in some scenes a little confused,” she adds. “It is not exactly accurate, especially for the target audience of women, living in big cities, who would be interested in buying a Western product like Nike.”
White explains: “The tagline is ‘This is us.’ The target audience might view these commercials and appreciate the message, but they wouldn’t agree that the caricature of Turkish women is ‘us’.”
For her, the modern Nike customer probably already feels different from the demure, traditional woman depicted in the ad. But it’s also possible that Nike’s talking to more conservative, wealthy Turkish women who may still match the stereotype, playing demure while hiding their true colors. Either way, “This is us” rings a bit disingenuous.
“Ultimately, I think it is an interesting commercial that has a positive message. I’m just confused by who their target audience is meant to be,” says White.
“I think [this ad speaks] to those who hold certain stereotypes about how girls/women should behave, and what their place is in society or the world, says Soyer. “It’s also speaking to girls/women who are brought up with those stereotypes, and illustrating that it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be that way.”
She punctuates this observation with a memory struck by a line in the ad, “Girls don’t guffaw”: “I remember taking the bus into town to get ice cream with my best friend when I was 12, and how we were glared at if we laughed too loud.”
By and large, though, both feel the message is positive. White calls it “inspiring and refreshing,” while Soyer adds, “My mom loved it.”
Lastly, we asked whether “This Is Us” has something bigger to say beyond Turkey. In White’s view, the content would be hard to push elsewhere, simply because of how local it is. For Soyer, the answer is more complicated.
“I think the whole ‘This is how nice girls behave’ and ‘A woman’s place is…’ is a universal obstacle, whether it’s here in Trumpland or Turkey,” she says. “My 7-year-old daughter cried the morning after the election, asking if girls were no longer going to be able to do the things they currently get to do. And she was born and raised here in Brooklyn.”
Nike US + Western Europe: “Do You Believe in More?”
British artist FKA twigs creative directed this mesmerizing piece of work to promote the brand’s Spring Zonal Strength Tights. Shot in Mexico, it features 12 athletes (all chosen by the artist), including krump dancer Saskia Horton and Olympic fencer Miles Chamley-Watson.
We covered this piece previously (it was produced by A+/Academy in London direct with Nike), but for good measure we talked to Emilie Darabasz, a vice principal for a London-based girls school.
“It shows a multicultural group of people with different looks and different abilities,” Darabasz observes. “Despite all their difference, they are all together and they are putting on each others’ shoes—for example, one girl is fencing and jumping.”
She also senses the influence of films like Kill Bill and The Fifth Element in it.
For her, it’s addressing young people generally, “telling them to be who they want to be and embrace their differences, to be strong even though they feel vulnerable, and embrace each other’s differences.”
And that message is one that’s universal.
“It has a lot to say regarding trusting each other, embracing differences and celebrating multiculturalism in a global climate where there is a current fear of what is different,” she says.
(Source: © 2016 ABN | All Rights Reserved)
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Michele Roberts Opens Up About the NBA Bubble and What's Next
The NBA bubble is holding and NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts is already hard at work preparing for next season. She opened up to Sports Illustrated about the restart and what we can expect in the future.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Inside the Grand Floridian hotel, out of the soupy Florida heat, a wave of relief washed over Michele Roberts. For months, Roberts, the Executive Director of the NBA’s players association, worked tirelessly with league officials to piece together its return. Medical protocols needed to be worked out. Then, the financials. Yet even when an agreement had been hammered out, Roberts worried: How would players respond to months of isolation?
Not bad, it turns out. “In some ways I didn't think it would be as forgiving as it has been,” Roberts told SI in an extended interview. There were the expected complaints. Players didn’t enjoy the 48-hour hard quarantine they received upon arrival. “I think had it been longer than that,” Roberts said, “then it may have been more problematic.” Those buzzing Roberts tell her how much they miss friends, family. “The good news is that's pretty much 99% of what I hear in terms of complaints,” Roberts said. “And at the end of the day, the guys have said, ‘I got to go to work. I'm at work, I'm doing my job.’”
Roberts will admit: There were days she didn’t think the NBA would get here. On March 11, as the coronavirus pandemic raged across Europe and cases in the U.S. began to grow, Roberts met with Adam Silver. Roberts had watched the virus spread overseas. “Milan is one of my favorite cities,” Roberts said. “It was virtually shut down the first week in March. When Roberts met with Silver, the discussion was not if players would start testing positive, but how to respond when they do.
The months that followed were a roller coaster. Roberts watched the U.S. grind to a halt. She struggled to find hope in how a contact sport could be played while a highly contagious disease swept through the nation. After a few weeks, Roberts says, “I started preparing players for the season to be called.”
Said Roberts, “I thought the season was over.”
Hope came incrementally. Joe Rogowski, the NBPA’s Chief Medical Officer, began working closely with epidemiologists. The idea of a bubble surfaced. “I had very quickly grown to understand the importance of isolation, quarantine when you're suspected of, or in fact have had the virus and social distancing and using masks,” Roberts said. It sounded so simple and it was working in other environments.”
“The concept of the bubble worked because you can do all those things. If you stay home and stay away from people that have had the virus, you won't get it. That was easy enough. The question was how do we take that quarantine and be able to do it in a group context.”
For weeks, months, union and league officials traded ideas. Player safety came first, and the union rank-and-file grappled with the idea of powering through a virus with unknown long term consequences.
“There was a lot of concern,” Jaylen Brown, a union vice president, told SI. “There was a lack of information at one point. There's still some questions with COVID. We still don't know what the long-term effects are. Your hair could fall off in five years. We have no idea. It's just a new virus. So those were some of the questions. And information was being filled in, but it was not being filled in at the pace that a lot of players felt comfortable with.”
Rogowski gave Roberts and her staff a coronavirus “tutorial” once a week. “The experts really did sort of walk us through this and hold our hands and help us figure out what was possible,” Roberts said. “But for them, I would have recommended that we simply just take our losses and go home and be happy with our lives.” A breakthrough came when the NBA settled on Disney, a league partner. It had sufficient hotel space, and the NBA’s relationship with Robert Iger, Disney’s Executive Chairman, was comforting.
“It was then I thought, ‘This can work,’” Roberts said. “Because we can actually cordon off the world, or cordon ourselves off from the world. My biggest concern was that we were going to end up having to be at a place where the so-called bubble was just going to be so penetrable that we couldn't keep the virus out. And so location made a huge difference to me, and once the Disney option became available, I became a believer.”
When George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May, some questioned whether the NBA would move forward. Roberts, though, wasn’t one of them.
“But neither was I surprised that there was a conversation about not playing,” Roberts said. “I'm so much older than the players that I sometimes have to remind myself that there's a reason for the outrage and disbelief that this could still be happening. I was around when Rodney King was beaten and those police officers were acquitted. There's a certain numbness that I'm embarrassed to admit I have when it comes to these issues, because it's just seems overwhelming and happens over and over again.”
“The abnormal becomes normal. And so our players, like the rest of the community, so many especially young members of our community, were at the point of saying enough, and knowing our guys, there was going to be some shouting. And what are we going to do? We've got to do something. We can't just go back and play basketball. So I wasn't at all surprised at the conversation. I thought it was healthy. If it hadn't happened I think on some levels, I might've been disappointed, because I do view our guys as very, very progressive and very tuned in to their communities. And so not only was I not surprised at the conversation, I was proud of it. Do I think that those players that talked about us not playing were sincere? Absolutely. I absolutely that they believed it at the time they said it that that was the appropriate course of action.”
“I also believe that those players that said, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Let's take advantage of this platform.’ I believe that as well. I don't think anybody was driven by the economic reality. I think our players' passion is also informed by knowing what they do matters because people are watching it. I think those that said, we can use our platform to keep this conversation going were right, because that's exactly what they've done.”
Roberts is pleased by how players have adapted to the unique surroundings. There’s fishing and golf, while gaming is certainly popular. But walking through the campus, Roberts has noted many players outdoors, reading. She talked to one who, she says, “is a phenomenal dart thrower.” She’s enjoyed seeing the camaraderie among teammates. “I’m sure some teams have internal issues,” says Roberts. “But the guys I’ve seen genuinely seem to like each other.”
The NBA bubble is holding, with the league’s weekly announcements of zero positive tests become less anticipated than expected. But as the league attempts to complete this season, NBA officials are hard at work preparing for next season. The league would like to return on December 1, to build an 82-game season that ends in late June. The NBA wants to get back to its traditional calendar next year, and has no interest in competing with the Olympics, currently scheduled to begin in late July.
On the scheduling, Roberts has issues. The NBA Finals could stretch as long as mid-October, affording at least two teams little time to recover. “My guess is we'll probably not start until early 2021,” Roberts said. But months of work on this bubble has convinced Roberts that as long as COVID-19 is still spreading, a bubble is the only way to play.
“Right now I don't see how sports can be played outside of a bubble concept,” Roberts said. “I don't see that, given the state of where we are. Given the absence of a vaccine. Because as long as this thing spreads the way it spreads, the only way you can stop the spread from impacting their ability to perform, and this is at any job, is to isolate. Keep people separated and maintain as much distance as possible.”
“Now, having said that, do I think our guys are going to be in a bubble for six or seven months? Hell no. It's not going to happen. I think what we're going to have to do is figure out creatively how we can have bubble-like the environments that allow us to play the number of games that we believe we need to play in order to complete the season and crown a champion. If nothing else, we've learned that we have to be creative and we have been creative, and that's why we're doing what we're doing right now. It's something that no one would have thought about or had to think about five months ago.”
Indeed. Roberts says she has had “healthy conversations” with players about next season, but for many the focus remains on this one. The play-in game has added a layer of excitement and most of the top teams have emerged from the seeding games healthy. The arenas, Roberts says, “look fantastic.” Like many, Roberts was skeptical about the virtual fans (“I thought it was going to be the stupidest thing in the world.”) but, like many, has come around on them. “It’s got a real feel of an arena-filled game,” Roberts said.
There’s work to be done before next season. But Roberts is happy with what the league has put together for this one.
“Not only has this matched the expectations of what I thought might be the best we could do, it's exceeded them,” Roberts said. “And it’s because this is the formula. And I'm only hoping that we can keep this damn virus from making us all regret it.”
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How we used geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams (and enrich our lives)
Howdy. My name is Michael Robinson. While J.D. is visiting Europe with his cousins, I volunteered to share how my wife and I have leveraged the power of geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams and to build our wealth.
Geographic arbitrage means taking advantage of the differences in prices between various locations. You earn money in a stronger economy (San Francisco, maybe, or the U.S. in general) and spend it in a weaker economy (South Dakota or Ecuador, for instance).
Geographic arbitrage is a powerful tactic worth considering if you want to increase your saving rate so that you can better pursue your financial goals. Several times over the course of our lives together so far, my wife and I have managed to unwittingly stumble upon the benefits of geographic arbitrage.
If you've ever chosen your vacation destination based on how strong the country's currency is opting to visit England when the pound was weak, maybe then you've practiced geographic arbitrage.
Today, I'm going to share three examples of how the concept has impacted our lives and helped us to achieve financial independence at 33. I hope these examples will spark some ideas for how you might be able to leverage geographic arbitrage along your financial journey as well.
About Us
I met my wife Ellen in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2004. We were both studying Spanish at the same language school.
I was there to earn the last few credits I needed to complete a minor in Spanish. Ellen hoped the months of Spanish immersion would help her land a job as a bilingual elementary teacher in the Pacific Northwest.
Despite Ellens intention to avoid befriending any native English-speaking gringos like me, we hit it off right away and quickly became close friends.
As our months together in Mexico wound down, Ellens efforts paid off and she was hired by a bilingual elementary school in Shelton, Washington. I graduated and was offered a position as an international sales manager.
Ellen and I started a long-distance relationship that summer and I moved out to Washington to join her as soon as I could.
Losing One Income Without Noticing It
Our first experience with geographic arbitrage was unintentional. We didn't even realize what we were doing at the time.
After Ellens first two years as a bilingual teacher, she asked her principal for a one-year leave of absence so she could return to Mexico and further improve her Spanish proficiency. Her principal agreed and we packed up and headed to Guadalajara for the 2007-2008 school year.
Although we lost Ellens annual $30,000 salary, we didnt feel it much because our cost of living was considerably lower during that year in Mexico.
Our apartments in Washington had each cost us $800-$900 per month. In Mexico, we were able to find a suitable apartment to share for around $400 per month. Groceries and other goods and services were all also considerably cheaper.
Geographic arbitrage allowed us to maintain our standard of living in Mexico despite the loss of one income.
Taking Advantage of Taxes
During all of our highest-earning years, Ellen and I happened to live in Nevada, Washington, and Texas all locations without state income tax.
While avoiding state income tax is obviously appealing, these states make up for that lost revenue by increasing taxes in other areas.
Nevada: There is no personal or corporate income tax because the state collects billions of dollars each year in the form of gambling taxes and fees. While we lived there, I gambled with exactly $0 of my money, avoiding this tax altogether.Washington: Here we had one of the highest sales tax rates in the country (8.88%) and high gas prices on account of higher gasoline taxes. While we lived there, we didnt consume a lot compared to most households, which lowered our sales tax burden. I also worked from a home office and Ellen taught at a nearby school so we didnt really use inordinate amounts of gasoline either.Texas: Here we also had a high sales tax rate (8.25%) and lived in the state with the fourth-highest property tax rate in the country incredibly, we owed over 2% of our homes value every year in property taxes! In Texas, we maintained our relatively frugal lifestyle, again reducing our exposure to the higher sales tax burden. And although we were pre-approved for an inexplicably high $750,000 mortgage in 2007 (on our two five-figure incomes no less!), we chose to instead take on a $100,000 mortgage and buy a starter home less than a mile from the office where we knew Id be working.
We moved to Colorado in 2016, the same year we both stopped working full-time. This is the first state weve lived in together where weve been charged state income tax (a middling 4.63%, the 23rd-lowest in the country). But we have low property taxes and the lowest state sales tax in the country (out of states collecting sales tax).
Although we're now paying state income tax in Colorado, our earned income as early retirees is predictably the lowest its been in our fourteen-year relationship.
And although weve bought a home that cost us almost three times as much as what we paid for our Texas home, were actually paying less each year in property taxes.
Bonus fact for money nerds!
For anyone curious, heres the complete list of states with no state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
Note, however, that while New Hampshire currently charges no state income tax on earned income, it does tax investment income.
Also, Tennessee currently charges no state income tax on earned income, but does tax some dividends and interest income. However, Tennessee has announced plans to phase out state income taxes altogether by 2022.
Making Money with Airbnb
Our most recent experience with geographic arbitrage was more deliberate.
When we learned that 31 October 2016 was going to be my last day of full-time work, it didnt take us long to devise a plan to return to Latin America, this time with our two young children.
In our research, we quickly discovered The Earth Awaits, a useful tool for comparing the crime statistics, pollution levels, and cost of living of various cities around the world. (Get Rich Slowly reviewed The Earth Awaits last year.)
At the time, Cuenca, Ecuador was the only Latin American city in their database that had earned the designations low crime and low pollution.
Since we were traveling there with a nine-month-old and a two-year-old, those seemed like great characteristics to us! We did some additional research on similar tools and local expat forums, and only became more and more interested in visiting the city.
Heres a short promo video showcasing Cuenca and the surrounding Andean mountain region.
[embedded content]
Shortly after we decided to spend our first winter in Cuenca, I had another ambitious idea.
I felt it would be wasteful for our house to sit empty for three months while we were traveling, so I proposed to Ellen that we experiment with hosting our home on Airbnb while we were away.
She was resistant at first, and rightly so. It was going to take a lot of work to get our home ready and sort out who would manage everything while we were away, among other things.
But she came around to the idea and we gave it a go. We've discussed our Airbnb hosting experience in more detail in the following articles at our website, and we've done a fair amount of Airbnb hosting since.
We were very impressed with the success of our Airbnb experiment. Our homes first ever booking was $1,890 for 8 nights!
While we choose not to publish our net worth and our monthly expenses in dollars for personal reasons, Ive prepared the following chart to illustrate the impact Airbnb had on our financial picture while we were traveling.
Let's look at these numbers:
Expenses: Our standard monthly expenses are represented on the chart as 100%. Weve been tracking our expenses in Mint since 2008 and Personal Capital since 2013. Before that, I tracked another decade of our expenses in desktop budgeting software. So we feel pretty confident in our understanding and control of our monthly expenses.Traveling Expenses: This shows approximately how much our monthly expenses dropped during our 6 months (two winters) in Cuenca.Potential Portfolio Income: This shows our safe monthly spending level should we live solely off of our investment portfolio per the 4% rule.Uncommon Dream Income: Although neither of us work full-time, I enjoy doing a day or two each week of consulting and we earn a small amount of income from our blog.Rental Income: This represents the monthly income weve been able to earn through Airbnb while were traveling.
In case you missed it, let me draw your attention to an important point: Our monthly expenses while we were living in Cuenca were actually lower than our monthly Airbnb income.
So, if we hadnt spent over a decade accumulating a portfolio of assets that could cover our living expenses, and if we werent continuing to earn any income, our Airbnb rental income alone still could have covered our cost of living abroad!
This actually exceeded my own expectations for our Airbnb experiment.
I also need to point out that we prioritized paying off our first home during the 2008-2009 recession. And we havent carried a mortgage since. The potential is certainly magnified by the absence of a mortgage.
But even homeowners with a mortgage or renters may very well be able to cover their housing related bills this way, freeing them up to more affordably slow travel.
If you're interested in becoming an Airbnb host, you can sign up with this link.
Closing Thoughts
When I ask people what they would do if money weren't a factor, traveling abroad often makes the list. While travel is a common desire, everyones specific motivations vary.
Some dream of learning another language while others are drawn to an areas unique geographical features. Still others seek to experience life in a radically different culture.
For most of us though, money is a factor. But thats no reason to give up on the dream of traveling abroad. Living costs around the world vary tremendously and many great destinations are quite affordable.
Weve met a number of people living abroad who fund their overseas lifestyles in creative ways. Some live on personal savings while others rely on income from rental properties back home. Some work remotely while others find local work. A few of our expat friends have even started companies abroad.
If travel is a priority for you, don't let your current financial situation act as a barrier. Get creative. Use tools like The Earth Awaits to discover affordable places to live. Leverage the power of geographic arbitrage to pursue your dreams!
Author: Michael Robinson
Michael and his wife Ellen achieved financial independence at 33 and retired early at 36. Now they're raising two kids in Colorado (and abroad) while writing about money, life, and their familys adventures at Uncommon Dream.
https://www.getrichslowly.org/geographic-arbitrage/
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Accessible, well-designed -- this is the book you want
This book does a fabulous job of making the art of chalk lettering and illustration accessible. As she says, you don't need good handwriting to do this -- it's a different skill from that. And she shows, step by step, how to do it. It's very simple and easy, the way she shows it! The chalkboards that come with the book are useful as well, though it only took me a couple of days to buy an additional chalkboard so that I could practice without having to flip pages in the book all the time. I'm attaching a picture to show what I was able to do after going through this book. If you want to learn chalkboard art, this is a great book to start with!
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Do yourself a favor; order it now.
I've been wanting to up my game with calligraphy and chalk lettering... This is one of the best books out there. Pretty on the outside, even more gorgeous on the inside. Don't even bother ordering on PDF. It comes with 3 very useful Chalkboards for practicing. How awesome is that?! Now to the juicy stuff... It has e-very-thing! What tools you need, how to prepare your chalkboard for battle, typography 101 courses, lots and lots of styles and tips to achieve your lettering goals... Imma go play with it because it is addictive. Do yourself a favor; order it now.
Go to Amazon
Exceeded Expectations
This was actually my gift and I'm loving it. I've always been a fan of calligraphy and lettering and wanted to learn a few new fonts and techniques. I got more than I bargained for. This book is packed with not only letters, but different frames, embellishments, how to do shadows (YES!) an more. I love the different projects to try and the chalkboards included actually work just like chalkboards. There is a lined board in the front and then folded boards in the back which you can open and look at the tutorials as you draw...or fold to the back to use sketchbook style. It is a very well designed and thoughtful book and a great value for the money. I purchased the Allary Chalk Cartridge Set, sold here on Amazon, to go along with this purchase and LOVE them. They are a great companion to the book as they are thin chalks in a mechanical pencil type holder that don't need to be sharpened (but can be) and I was very surprised that they weren't waxy. - Denise Cold
Go to Amazon
Has it all - how to letter, how to embellish, how to make a complete design with words, frames and doodles.
I was looking for a good book on typography so that I could use it in my art journals. I looked through every book I could find in various book stores on typography - calligraphy, advertising design, ect and I couldn't find a book that showed how to design letters. Most of them were not helpful because they contained only one or two lessons and then a ton of empty pages for you to practice on (that's what my notebook and scratch paper is for - thank you very much). Then I came across this book and every single page was full of something to learn. She starts out slowly explaining 3 types of basic font (now I know what serif and sans serif means) and then shows different ways to embellish the basic fonts to make them fancier. Then she moves into warping the font (ie writing the letters in a arc, or slanting upward or downward. There is detailed discussion on how to draw more attention to some words within a phrase so that they catch the reader's eye by making them bigger or bolder or shaded. After you get the hang of lettering she moves into working a full design - frames, banners, laurel vines, snowflakes, arrows, stars, swirls ect combined with lettering. This was exactly the book I was looking for - how to letter, how to emphasize words within a phrase and then how to put it all together into a complete design. I like that the book has plenty of pictures to show you how to do it, but doesn't skimp on the written instruction either. The book is jam packed with info and low on useless filler material as I've seen in some of the other typography books. Worth every penny and can be applied to more than making chalk board signs.
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More than what I had Expected
I've only been chalkboard lettering for about a week and with book alone, I made the sketch(see photo). The book provides details of letters, flourishes, a variety of flower designs, different borders, and includes 3 chalkboards inside the book. A must have for a beginner like me.
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Pleasantly surprised
I just received this book today. I started playing with it right away. My husband made me a really large framed chalk board for our dinning room, and I have a friend who does great chalk art, so my plan was to pay her to do my chalk board a few times a year, but I could never find a time when she was available. I saw this book and read all the reviews. I thought I would give it a try. It's really a great book, the lessons are well thought out and go step by step. She says in the book that you do not have to have good handwriting to learn this, and based on the 30 minutes I spent working through her first lesson, I would have to agree. It's well taught. Now I don't have to only change my chalkboard a few times a year, after I go through this book I'm confident I'll be able to change my chalkboard when ever the mood strikes.
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A must have!
I never thought in less than a week or I could create these! Thank you for the techniques! Awesome book!!
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Excellent primer and inspiration source
Fun book! Very easy to follow and encouraging in style. I love chalk signs and wanted to learn how to make my own. Let me say, my handwriting is STINKY and if I just handwrote a sign, it would look terrible (I've tried and failed!). I also have no drawing experience. I bought the book because the author swears you don't need to have good handwriting to hand letter a sign and she is very encouraging. She is right! We were having a big party for my hubby's 50th and I wanted to make a sign to greet guests in the hallway. I didn't have time to do all the lessons, but I read thru the book and copied some of the lettering styles and embellishments in the book. My first effort was great and it was too fun - and it only took like half and hour! I had no idea I could draw like this, since my writing is all over the place. Go for it - you never know the talents you have unless you try new things, and this book is an excellent tool to learn to make chalk art!
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It's All GOOD!
Five Stars
Great ideas!
Two Stars
Excellent source of tips and tricks
Beautiful Book
Love this book
Great for anyone, even bad handwriting!
Wonderful Book!
The author takes you step by step through the basics and offers many advanced techniques that are easy to learn
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Photo
Accessible, well-designed -- this is the book you want
This book does a fabulous job of making the art of chalk lettering and illustration accessible. As she says, you don't need good handwriting to do this -- it's a different skill from that. And she shows, step by step, how to do it. It's very simple and easy, the way she shows it! The chalkboards that come with the book are useful as well, though it only took me a couple of days to buy an additional chalkboard so that I could practice without having to flip pages in the book all the time. I'm attaching a picture to show what I was able to do after going through this book. If you want to learn chalkboard art, this is a great book to start with!
Go to Amazon
Has it all - how to letter, how to embellish, how to make a complete design with words, frames and doodles.
I was looking for a good book on typography so that I could use it in my art journals. I looked through every book I could find in various book stores on typography - calligraphy, advertising design, ect and I couldn't find a book that showed how to design letters. Most of them were not helpful because they contained only one or two lessons and then a ton of empty pages for you to practice on (that's what my notebook and scratch paper is for - thank you very much). Then I came across this book and every single page was full of something to learn. She starts out slowly explaining 3 types of basic font (now I know what serif and sans serif means) and then shows different ways to embellish the basic fonts to make them fancier. Then she moves into warping the font (ie writing the letters in a arc, or slanting upward or downward. There is detailed discussion on how to draw more attention to some words within a phrase so that they catch the reader's eye by making them bigger or bolder or shaded. After you get the hang of lettering she moves into working a full design - frames, banners, laurel vines, snowflakes, arrows, stars, swirls ect combined with lettering. This was exactly the book I was looking for - how to letter, how to emphasize words within a phrase and then how to put it all together into a complete design. I like that the book has plenty of pictures to show you how to do it, but doesn't skimp on the written instruction either. The book is jam packed with info and low on useless filler material as I've seen in some of the other typography books. Worth every penny and can be applied to more than making chalk board signs.
Go to Amazon
Do yourself a favor; order it now.
I've been wanting to up my game with calligraphy and chalk lettering... This is one of the best books out there. Pretty on the outside, even more gorgeous on the inside. Don't even bother ordering on PDF. It comes with 3 very useful Chalkboards for practicing. How awesome is that?! Now to the juicy stuff... It has e-very-thing! What tools you need, how to prepare your chalkboard for battle, typography 101 courses, lots and lots of styles and tips to achieve your lettering goals... Imma go play with it because it is addictive. Do yourself a favor; order it now.
Go to Amazon
Exceeded Expectations
This was actually my gift and I'm loving it. I've always been a fan of calligraphy and lettering and wanted to learn a few new fonts and techniques. I got more than I bargained for. This book is packed with not only letters, but different frames, embellishments, how to do shadows (YES!) an more. I love the different projects to try and the chalkboards included actually work just like chalkboards. There is a lined board in the front and then folded boards in the back which you can open and look at the tutorials as you draw...or fold to the back to use sketchbook style. It is a very well designed and thoughtful book and a great value for the money. I purchased the Allary Chalk Cartridge Set, sold here on Amazon, to go along with this purchase and LOVE them. They are a great companion to the book as they are thin chalks in a mechanical pencil type holder that don't need to be sharpened (but can be) and I was very surprised that they weren't waxy. - Denise Cold
Go to Amazon
Exceptional Lettering Tutorial; Not Just for Chalk Users
This is not only a great chalk lettering book, it is a great Lettering book, period. I have a lot of books on lettering, calligraphy, design, and the like, and this is one of the most useful lettering books I have ever used.
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The perfect guide to master a new skill
I have been a fan of Valerie McKeehan's work for a while now so I was quick to pre-order this book.
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Not Just Lettering
I bought this as a Christmas gift for my 11 (almost 12) year old daughter. When the book arrived I looked thorough it and it is beautiful! The pictures and the way it is broken down to do each step is fabulous. The author even talks about chalk, how to care for your chalkboard,etc. I can't stop myself from using it and doodling the things I have learned. My daughter saw me one day and said, "I wish I could make something like that, you are so good", little does she know it is from this book that SHE will be getting for Christmas! I have learned new ways to do lettering and draw ribbons, roses, etc. I love this book, perfect for beginners.
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Fancy chalk lettering
Five Stars
Best instructional book for learning how to chalk letter
Four Stars
Five Stars
Fun book. Lots of great lessons and tips for ...
Simply the BEST book on chalk lettering---like learning from a very talented
Not for a “Newbie”
Five Stars
Love the book but not the pages
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