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aijee · 3 years

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is this a life update or a novel?

Hi all, long time no post! Nice to meet you new followers, and nice to talk to you again for those who’ve stuck around. Just as a reminder, my blog is as much of a fic blog as it is a journal for me to sort my thoughts.

In that vein, here’s a personal update. CW for mental health/anxiety, physical pain, big life changes. There’s lighter stuff at the end!

It’s been both a long and short summer for me, after deciding to quit work and focus on my mental health. I’m a millennial twenty-something whose mind, like many, is tragically crippled with the capitalistic and individualistic values America has brainwashed me with, so I’ve had a hard time coming to terms with being unemployed and depending on my parents. I’m extremely privileged and humbled to be in a family that still maintains income during unprecedented times. I’ve been trying not to let my internalized struggles turn into this self-imposed shame for partaking in pleasures (I remember second-thinking buying a digital comic book for hours). My parents often say, “We worked hard and struggled because we didn’t want our kids to do the same. Don’t feel guilty for enjoying yourself.” Nowadays, they add that I’ve worked hard during college and my post-college job; in their eyes, I’ve more than “earned” a break, especially after losing my graduation, summers, and trips.

I constantly wonder why I impose so many limitations of myself even more during a pandemic. While being aware of global struggle is important for not becoming out-of-touch, I need to remind myself that people don’t have to earn the right to play or be happy or enjoyment. Obvious lack of nuance aside, it’s crazy to think how much capitalism—largely the idea worth is contingent (work) productivity—has deformed my sense of what’s a basic human right versus what should be earned. I think I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I struggle with thinking in extremes; it’s either starvation or hedonism, and the latter earns far more societal vitriol. I think my Asian upbringing has made me hyperaware of what others could be thinking of me, regardless of how accurate those projections are. I’d fact, I rarely assumed positive opinions. Outside of external validation, I realized how poor my self-image really was. Tearing myself down before anyone else could rarely, if ever, softened the blow.

For the first time, I’ve begun to think that my life is my own and no one else’s. It sounds logical on paper, but so much harder in practice in real life, I’ve realized. This isn’t a constant or ingrained thought yet, often peaking in between longer and more familiar strings of anxiety. But it feels like an important realization during a time full of sadness and uncertainty, let alone in my lifetime at all.

And then I injured my spine.

It happened towards the end of the summer, when I was starting to feel more put-together internally. I felt so creatively productive (in avenues I don’t care to share online) and even closer to family. I had a ball revisiting old shows. I ate food I hadn’t eaten in years. And this was suddenly interrupted when, while showering, I was wracked with unimaginable, nonstop pain. I nearly passed out alone in the shower and barely managed to crawl to my bedside to call my parents; I was lucky they came home early. I couldn’t stop crying for almost twelve hours. I was terrified at the possibility that I may be paralyzed or my legs would be affected. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, but I was bedridden and wracked with nausea. I could barely stomach anything, not even water. I couldn’t sleep. I was never brought to a hospital, either on the fear of COVID transmission. The whole time, it was so, so debilitating on a physical and mental front. My head was a nightmare.

Like a bad habit, some of my worst thoughts centered around productivity. I worried about the work I couldn’t do. I felt shameful about canceling plans with friends. I hated being helpless and not being able to take care of myself, and felt guilty for wasting other people’s time taking care of me. And yet, if I was someone else, even a stranger let alone a friend/loved one, I’d be scratching my head over why that person would think these things. Fuck work and other life plans, getting better is the most important thing because you can’t do any of those compromised activities if you’re not at capacity! Duh. Anxiety can really a number on you sometimes and it’s awful just how irrationality fuels the spiral.

I’m grateful to be back on my feet. I’m trying to hold on tightly to that victory, to this positive point that I have worked towards. It’s going to be a challenge to do my recovery exercises daily for my 2-3 month recovery period when I barely remember to floss. Moreover, I’ll be in the middle of moving and working full-time again in the next month, alongside the ridiculous anxiety over some applications and maybe interviews for a different part of my life. But I’m doing my best to take each day at a time and celebrate the good things when they come, however small. I don’t have to ace a final exam or burn my retinas studying for them to deserve victories because, hey, again, happiness is a right and I need to stop gatekeeping myself from it.

Frankly, the injury is largely why I haven’t posted sooner. I don’t think anyone should ever feel obligated to use social media when they aren't up to it. But I actually wanted to ease back into writing before I was injured, starting with this blog.

Some other positive things:

God, I missed the Avatar (Aang and Korra) series so much. What a damn good franchise, what a damn good magic system and world. IT’S. SO. GOOD, GOD. Revisiting it all and reading the comics while I was sick was the single biggest joy that kept me going. I hope the magic lingers for as long as possible.

Even in my inactivity, I’ve received some really lovely comments on my AO3. I read the emails primarily. It really warms my hear to see them. I revisited old comments recently, too, and they’ve helped keep me going and reminded me that I am capable of putting joy into the world.

I’ve taken a liking to Youtube playlist-videos and Spotify playlists that encompass a very specific story scenario, like “dancing with the villain in a masquerade ball” or “driving around the French countryside”, etc. Japanese 80′s urban pop is SO GOOD.

Smosh has been putting out such great content y’all. I was BIG on old Youtube (Nigahiga, Smosh, Michelle Phan, Jenna Marbles, etc.) and it warms my heart to see their renaissance. Amazingly entertaining and down-to-earth content. I don’t fall squarely into their demographic anymore, but the periphery is still fun.

Food is great. I love food still. I’ve eaten a lot of good food during this break. It almost pains me to go back to living by myself and eating healthier. :’(

I didn’t realize how expensive moving was. But, after living in the same apartment from sophomore uni to post-uni work, I’m moving into a bigger “adult” apartment with appropriately sized appliances instead of the mini student kind. The possibility of treating myself to a king-sized mattress and decorations is also very exciting.

It warms my heart to see people in my vague social circles indulging in home art projects, like paint by numbers and “diamond” painting. As a kid I thought “not real art” was a waste, but by god as an adult do I not give a shit about what “real art” is anymore. If it’s fun, it’s fun. That’s that!

That’s all I can think about for now.

#aijeepost

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yogpetshame · 4 years

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Hi all, following on from my update post last week, today I want to share some more thoughts and apologise for something that I feel particularly bad about.

In 2016 screenshots emerged on tumblr of Sjin chatting flirtatiously with fans online. During a livestream and reddit post I angrily defended him and insulted those who were sharing the screenshots - something I deeply regret doing and am very sorry for.

At the time I thought a few overly-sensitive individuals were blowing things out of proportion and getting angry on behalf of others. I hadn’t received any complaints and to me it appeared that no one was hurt. I reminded Sjin that chatting with fans in this way was not okay and if it were to happen again he would be removed from the Yogscast. Sjin was a close friend and I stupidly believed him when he said nothing inappropriate had happened (emphasis added).

Last year, a number of women shared their stories with me and I finally realized that he had, in fact, caused a great deal of hurt.

I understand now that his position of power allowed him to emotionally manipulate and sexually harass members of our community.

I don’t think he really understood that his actions were not okay - or the impact of them - but that is no excuse, people were hurt and they continue to come forward.

Over the last week I’ve seen many courageous women and men share their stories only to be insulted, shamed or threatened with lawsuits or violence and I have been very upset by this. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last year, it’s that accusations against influencers deserve to be taken seriously and those speaking up should be met with compassion, respect and support.

Yes, there will be a rare bad apple with a false claim. But if multiple victims have come forward then no doubt there are more who can't speak out in public. This could be because they’re protecting their family, reputation, mental health or career. And they should not feel guilty for waiting until they are ready to come forward.

It's a privilege to be a professional YouTuber or streamer - not a right. I applaud Twitch for taking action to remove poisonous individuals from the platform and I hope other big platforms do the same. But we need to do more: we need to educate influencers that fans are real people with real feelings - something that can be hard to see through the veil of anonymity on the internet.

We have a HR rep at the Yogscast and are implementing a sensitivity training course that all current and future creators will be expected to complete. Perhaps something like this should be built into requirements to join “partner programs” on Twitch and YouTube, just as you’re required to complete a short online training course to get certified for Google Adsense.

I encourage everyone to stand up when they see or hear something wrong and call it out. My [e-mail](mailto:[email protected]) is always open to anybody who has concerns about how we do things.

To conclude, it’s become apparent to me that my past inaction and ignorance contributed to the hurt caused by Sjin and others and I feel deeply ashamed about this. I want to say sorry to everyone who has been affected.

There’s been a lot to think about and consider so I’ve decided to take a few weeks away from everything and I’ll be back in due course.

Be good to one another,

Lewis

I felt like taking ages to get around to responding to this - that’s why it took me a while. When I see a long letter and I agree with every point I don’t feel like throwing myself at it. I’m not chasing it down like I’m trying to hunt the post and kill it.

In case you were missing the context, Lewis is referring to what we’ve been calling the “Fuck You Stream,” a Deck Rippers stream from April 2016 in which Lewis screamed “fuck you” at least five times to people who had brought accusations against Sjin. The Yogscast appear to have delisted the video, so I’m having trouble giving you the context you deserve here. This post contains a large transcript of the things that were said, and I might have archived it somewhere, but if it’s already up somewhere, let me know.

How fucking long ago was “Yogscast needs HR” a slogan? All it took was one errant flail in their everyday uncontrolled brawl to punch a hole in Yogcon, and suddenly focusing on sensitivity and tackling the harmful repercussions of their behavior began to make financial sense. One year later and the Rooster Teeth partnership as well as pressure from Twitch finally forced the Yogs to get HR.

It’s easy but often toothless to say “They should do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.” Which is why my main point was always, “the right thing to do will make financial sense in the end.” The fact that Sjin was leaving dozens of victims in his wake doesn’t seem to have immediate financial repercussions, but £100,000 and a crater in their reputation later... An ounce of prevention, £100,000 of cure. You could attribute MadCat leaving to his shitty behavior and insubordination, or, as Madcat says they described it, you could call him a “brand risk.” You get to the same place in the end.

There’s one thing Lewis does state clearly but is easy to miss, and probably wasn’t something he wanted to emphasize.

In 2016 screenshots emerged on tumblr of Sjin chatting flirtatiously with fans online.... At the time I thought a few overly-sensitive individuals were blowing things out of proportion and getting angry on behalf of others. I hadn’t received any complaints and to me it appeared that no one was hurt... Last year, a number of women shared their stories with me and I finally realized that he had, in fact, caused a great deal of hurt. I understand now that his position of power allowed him to emotionally manipulate and sexually harass members of our community.

The only difference between 2016 and 2019 was... empathy. Really. I don’t see Lewis stating that he discovered any missing information. I see a man in 2016 who saw these women complaining and couldn’t take them at their word until it came explicitly paired with an explanation of the harm.

I don’t find that so surprising, considering he initiated the Fuck You Stream four years ago by dragging Minty, calling her a jealous and unsatisfying ex of Sjin’s. You have to really forge a person to change them from that kind of beast into someone who actually empathizes with other people, who actually wants to ask and to learn who has been harmed rather than read and pass instant judgement.

We need to educate influencers that fans are real people with real feelings - something that can be hard to see through the veil of anonymity on the internet.

Because Lewis didn’t always know that.

So while I’m being slow and ponderous instead of a screaming eagle for once, I have an actual mellow suggestion for Lewis. If he thinks there should be sensitivity training, really dig into the experience of changing your mind and share that. Why you thought they weren’t real people, what you heard that changed you the most. Bring it to the Yogscast’s audience, and to leadership at Twitch. You’re among the vaccinated now, go share the vaccine.

It’s been interesting to me, watching those final hardcore dregs of Sjin’s fanbase try to smell out some weakness in this. Lewis says “Sjin was a close friend,” and they go, “hmm, does not compute, they are clearly still friends,” or possibly more desperately, “maybe there’s a chance they’ll be friends again!”

They put it down to pressure the way Lewis did in 2016, and say it’s not Lewis’ fault, it’s those guys on Reddit running the whole conspiracy who are to blame. Much like how Reddit used to blame the accusations against Sjin on Tumblr. Because clearly the only valid source of information is the social media platform you yourself are using.

Some of the real Einsteins say, “well none of the damage would have happened if they’d just kept this private matter private.”

Sjin would never be stopped if it was kept private.

Sjin behaving this way was never a private matter, it was an abuse of his professional position.

He would not have been enabled to cause this damage without combining his private and professional life.

Sjin literally harassed his professional contacts within the Yogscast. It’s literal workplace sexual harassment.

At any rate. There’s always going to be doubters. It’s just good to know we’re not watching the Yogscast management pander to them anymore.

There’s been doubt about it but again, this blog’s going to continue to exist. It started because people were being censored on Reddit, and they still are, and because Lewis and others were muffling complaints sent in through their emails which may or may not have come to an end. Lewis watched while Turps and Sjin helped reinforce systemic issues in the Yogs, and we’ll see whether Lewis is serious about dismantling what he did.

Starting with earnestly tackling that subreddit that Bouphe doesn’t like, maybe?

#yps brindley #yps turpin #yps sykes #yps merideth #yps yogscast #yogscast

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alightwhendarknessfell · 4 years

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Let’s Talk

I’ve thought a lot about the situation concerning Ashley/Black Veil and the greater issues at hand here over the past few days. I’ve also spoken with a lot of people about things.

Personally, this situation has turned into something that is causing myself to lose sleep and become very anxious. The likelihood that Ashley actually gets formally reprimanded for his actions is low just based on how cases like this typically go, and it’s quite clear that while people now know the type of person he is and that his career in music is over, those who still support him will continue no matter what. He will more than likely dwindle into irrelevancy and probably end up in jail for drinking and driving eventually.

I have personally witnessed how this has affected the people involved, some of which are even close friends of mine. I believe that Twitter is great for some things, and catching people’s attention and spreading information is one of those things, but it can also be an incredibly toxic place. As a victim of sexual assault myself I feel for every one of the victims and fighting with people every day on Twitter who are willing to go to disgusting lengths to defend monsters like Ashley is exhausting. In my personal opinion at this point I believe people’s mental health is being harmed by the back and forth (not speaking for everyone, but I have personally seen how this is affecting people’s lives). And I don’t know how much more good can come from more Twitter arguments.

With my MCAT approaching I need to get myself in the right head space and jumping every time my phone goes off because is it someone attacking me? Is it another victim? Is it someone in pain? That’s not a good head space. I also see the conversation at times going in a direction that I am not comfortable with or that I do not have enough information to put myself in.

I do not want to out victims or people that do not want to have their story out there. I do not want to hunt down people and make them relive their trauma or pressure them to speak when doing so could cause a significant disruption to their lives. I’m not saying that is what is happening but I just don’t want it to A) come off that way or B) become that. In addition to that, it is very clear from a legal standpoint that Black Veil cannot say what people want them to say without breaking the NDA (at the benefit of Ashley). Ashley has retreated to his subscription only accounts and so that kind of leaves everyone at a stand still. This situation is incredibly complicated and perhaps in time there can be a conversation had but I just don’t think that time is right now.

Speaking broadly, I will say that I am not for the cancellation of entire groups of people based of the actions of one person. I believe doing so can bring down innocent people or even potentially other victims. Should there be some punishment for succumbing to the bystander effect? I think that is fair, I think you can’t make blanket one size fits all statements but inaction can hurt too. And I think you should try and gather as many facts before deciding on any form of punishment for actions or inaction. Should you give people the chance to own up to their shortcomings and change for the better? I think so. Should inaction receive the same punishment as actions? I don’t think so, I think doing so allows the truly evil to fade into the background and minimizes their actions.

I want to see significant change in the music industry with not only more protection for fans but for musicians as well. I see young kids, sometimes not even 18 thrown into an industry that has a habit of making monsters and addicts. The amount of leeches that feed and prey on these young musicians and don’t give a second thought to if that harms them is a big issue. Stop normalizing alcoholism and addiction. Stop watching your bandmate drink themself into a blackout every night. Don’t create situations where a power dynamic allows people to get away with criminal actions. Check your bandmate when they say or do problematic things. I think there’s been a culture of ‘everyone looks after themselves’ but that’s clearly not working. I think if you are a band and you want to continue into the future that attitude has to change. The past can’t be changed, but the future sure as hell can.

Beyond that, fan safety needs to be a priority. COVID-19 will change concerts and live music. And honestly, good. There should be more sanitation precautions when you have thousands of people packed together. The Route 91 mass shooting changed security at shows, and good, people should be searched for weapons.

I think there are ideas that could prevent or reduce the situations in which sexual assault happens to fans. I think these should include things like ID scanners operated by individuals not employed by the band. No one under the age of 21 (unless they are direct family, significant other or a member of the band) be allowed on the buses. Venues need to do better ID-ing every single person that enters the venue. Tour managers and tour organizers need to do more to ensure that there are strict rules enforced as far as conduct. There needs to be a zero tolerance policy for giving alcohol/drugs to people underage and sexual misconduct. That will not prevent everything but it will make it safer and hopefully start to change the culture.

I do not believe that every single musician is a pedophile. I think there is a disturbing number of them and I think there is another group that gets off on the power dynamic of 16-18 year old girls who worship them and that ability to control. I think there are decent people who have failed to speak out and protect their fans due to fear of their job/reputation/etc and this should serve as a notice that that’s got to change.

This conversation tends to be very female centric but men can also be sexually abused. That’s not okay either. Band members can be sexually harassed and abused as well. It’s not okay to grab at them on stage or yell obscene disgusting things. It’s not okay for your bandmates to pressure you into drugs, sex or drinking. I will also say that physical violence is not okay. Not towards fans and not towards fellow bandmates. There’s a lot of toxicity and it’s all gotta stop.

I will leave it up to people to make their own choices as to who they want to support or not support, I won’t tell anyone what to think. I will say that I believe it is best for this discussion to change on my blog as far as answering asks assigning blame or innocence to certain people. I stand by my accusation that Ashley Purdy is not only a sexual predator but a predator in general. But going forward I will be very selective in my answering of or posting of this topic.

I am more than willing to continue the conversation of the issues in the alt-rock scene at large. I would love to hear people’s ideas on what can be done or just your thoughts. But for my own legal protection and sanity I would prefer that it not become specific to certain people/bands. I am open to private discussions about that and you can send in asks for only me to read but know I think this is the best move going forward. Obviously, other topics are all open and you can comment about anything else but it’s just... been a lot these past few days.

Obviously, if something new comes out or if future incidents occur (not necessarily concerning Black Veil/Ashley but any band/person/etc) there could be more specific discussions but while I might personally believe or think certain things if I don’t have physical evidence that I am free to share (without harming the source) I don’t think it’s fair for me to open up a free for all.

I hope that is okay with everyone. After my test and things in my life are back to a more ‘normal’ state I have further things I would like to discuss and post in regards to making my blog a more positive environment while of course still having conversations about ‘hot button’ issues, and a place where people can have discussions/comments and still speaking out when shit is fucked up. But perhaps in a way that doesn’t make me appear so hateful, because that is not who I am as a person.

That all being said, if you are at all struggling because of the discussions being had right now. Please reach out to someone. That could be a therapist, doctor, friend, family member, counselor, etc. If you are dealing with trauma please consider seeking counseling to help you process and deal with what happened. If you feel you have evidence of criminal activity I encourage you to make a police statement or at least document it the best you can.

I will end with this. I turn 25 this year and the past year of my life I have grown up and matured more so than I have ever before. I have learned a few things that I would like people to at least give thought to...

Please are a contradiction. Every single person has something for which they hypocritical about. Anyone who tells you differently is lying. There is no pure person, there is no one who is free of mistakes there is no one perfectly pure and consistent in ideology. It’s okay to get new information and change your opinion. No one person can change the world and evil will always exist. You will drive yourself crazy trying to eliminate all the bad out there. At the end of the day all you can do is try and help more people than you hurt.

There are very few black and white things in life and you can’t always classify people as purely good or purely bad. People can change and that can be for better or worse. People have free will but they are also the product of their environments. It is easy to point a finger and say YOU/THIS is responsible and destroying this will right the wrong. It doesn’t. I think cancel culture can do good but it can also be toxic. Not just for the people ‘cancelled’ but also for the people doing the canceling.

Don’t over analyze any of this or try and read between the lines, just think about it.

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yepafa3882 · 3 years

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The Psychology of Successful Dog Bathing

"Can I wash my own dog? It can't be that hard can it?" These are the words that I hear everyday as I go about my business working at the Pooch Parlor in Northern Idaho. Each time I walk a customer through this process, I find myself wondering why in the world something so simple is so doggone hard to explain. Washing your own dog may seem simple, but - only if you think and speak 'dog' - the language of your own dog. https://namingyourdog.weebly.com/blog/selecting-memorable-dog-names

I run a shop for full service and self-service dog grooming and bathing, and I LOVE it! There are dogs, and owners, of every size, every breed, and every temperament that come in to use the self-service doggie wash. Most owners are excited, some are scared, and some are cocky, but no matter who they are, or what they do for a living, there is nothing quite as intimidating for them as washing their own dog in public! The thought of doing this can give even the most confident person, performance anxiety, and for good reason! It is a true test of trust and tolerance and friendship for the person and dog companion. And, on a very basic level, it is an honest mirror for the owner, and how he or she deals with life, and with conflict. The likelihood of a successful experience for both is completely dependent upon the psychological relationship that exists between them, and, to a large extent, the ability of both to comprehend the body language of the other. You may be surprised to know that I have found that dogs are supremely better at reading their humans than their humans are of reading them. It is this relationship between human and canine, that shows itself without modesty during bathtime, and, keeps me coming to work day after day with a smile on my face.

My clients have been giving their dogs baths in my shops for 10+ years now, and, each year is more entertaining than the last when it comes to watching regular people washing their own regular dogs. The average person that comes through our doors is highly successful, which usually means - intelligent - and, because like attracts like, so is their dog. And, so why oh why, they ask me, should this simple task of cleaning their dog be so difficult? I ask them time and again, "Well, how well do you speak dog?" Invariably, their reply is a blank stare. So, this is the time to ask yourself, "How well do YOU speak dog?"

There is a lot to say about the theories of why dogs and humans behave the way they do, but I'm going to get back to the practical things to look for while bathing your own dog. The bottom line to remember is that your dog's energy and personality traits are a mirror to your own. Take this into consideration when attempting to get him into the tub and have him be happy about it.

1. Deciding when to bathe your dog. Timing and Personality traits: Timing is important. Look at your own needs regarding timing to know how your dog will react. Are you the kind of person that is up for anything anytime? Or do you need to accomplish your day in a scheduled, systematic way? How do you do with new experiences? Do you find them refreshing and fun, or do you feel fearful until comfortable with a new activity? Your dog is going to deal with the bathtime experience in the same way you deal with life experiences. Remember that your dog is going to reflect your own personality traits - not necessarily the traits you show the world, but the traits that are truly inside you.

a. Fun-loving, extroverted, and social humans. If you enjoy regular physical activity, then so will your dog. For this type of person and dog, I suggest you take your dog out for a bout of exercise before the bath. In the city where I work, we are fortunate to have a designated beach on the lake just for dogs and their humans - dogbeach. There is a long path to run or walk on, and there is a large beach area to swim and play in. This is the perfect scenario for pre-bath timing. The dog can choose to get muddy, run, socialize, or just enjoy being outside. In any case, the dog is able to spend big reserves of energy outside in a fun way, just like letting human children play before naptime. If you love exercise, do something like this with your dog before taking him into your own tub or a professional facility for a dog bath. A common fault of the social dog and owner: Just because you are friendly, out-going person does not mean everyone wants to accept your friendly, and out-going gestures. It's hard to fathom, I know, but it is true. If you have a very social dog (if you are a social person), it is easy to forget that many dogs (like their owners) are not social and do not appreciate the social requirements (like butt-sniffing) of others. Please remember to respect their space when in public or otherwise. Keep your dog restrained and under control, even if your dog has the friendliest intentions.

b. Non-social, active, or inactive humans. If your personality is not conducive to social interaction, then I still suggest that you walk your dog or do something that is comfortable within your life that involves light exercise before bathing your dog. Taking a walk with your dog does wonders to alleviate excess tension or stress for both human and dog. By getting rid of stressful energies during a walk, it does not present itself during bathtime. Getting exercise is especially important for those humans,( I mean dogs), that are highly nervous. I recommend giving your dog Valerian root (liquid form) or Rescue Remedy (liquid or spray) orally 30 minutes before the bath. Both of these products are natural remedies to calming down jittery nerves- and it works great for humans too. If timing is important in your life, take your dog to a self-service bathing facility when the least amount of people are there, usually early or late in the day. A common fault of the non-social dog and owner: they communicate poorly within their own species and with other species. Many people that tend towards isolation, often do this because they never figured out how to communicate effectively in human society. Their dogs typically have the same problem. I have seen it happen many times that owners of aggressive dogs unwittingly encourage their dog's unwanted behavior, when they think they are doing the opposite. They do this by projecting their worrying thoughts about the 'what-ifs' of a social situation. Dogs of this type of owner act out their dog interpretations of their human owners signals. The dogs often pick up the 'what-if' fears of the human as the request of their human, actually creating the 'what-if' behavior to occur. Without human intervention and boundary setting by the owner (requiring advanced communication skills), it is quite common for this type of dog to exhibit increasingly aggressive behavior. Most owners are dismayed by their dog's aggressive behavior, but they simply lack the skills required to communicate what behavior they will and won't allow from their dog. I recommend that if you have a dog that is displaying increasingly aggressive behaviors to consult a professional dog behaviorist or trainer. Just a few simple tricks will convey an accurate message to a dog that is most likely misunderstanding your expectations.

Language barriers for humans and dogs. Its no surprise that miscommunication between owner and dog happens often. If you are a human that is finding you don't understand why your dog does what he does, remember, you are learning a whole different language and culture. Give yourself time and give your dog time to understand each other. Just don't expect your dog to act like a human, especially during conflict. It takes time and practice for anyone to learn a new human language. It's no different learning dog language. We all know how to interpret a human smile in society. When a dog pulls his lips back over his teeth, it typically doesn't mean he's happy! Would a human dream of greeting a new acquaintance by sniffing their butt? Right! But, in doggie language, that's the equivalent of shaking hands. A dog that shakes his head to get the slobber off of his mouth is no different than a person smoothing his slacks or dusting off his shirt to look more polite. The differences are huge, so give yourself and your dog a break if you have hit a communication block wall.

2. Deciding where to bathe your dog: There are not a lot of choices when it comes to bathing your dog. A. You can use your own bathtub at home which requires no human socializing - hard on your back, it's very messy with extended after cleaning, and potentially traumatizing to human and dog. B. Bring your dog to a self-service doggie wash shop - easier on your back, requires some basic social skills by owner and dog, can be noisy and hairy, requires no after cleaning, and it does cost more than just the shampoo. C. Tie the dog to a fence and wash him with a hose in the yard (hopefully on a hot, sunny day) - not easy on the back, hard on the dog with cold water, potentially traumatizing for nervous dogs, but does not require human or dog socialiaing. D. Wash the dog in your nearest lake -which is very popular in my neck of the woods - hard on the back, requires advanced human and dog social skills, is potentially harmful to the environment, and how clean can you really get a dog in lakewater?

Regardless of where you wash your dog, take into account your own physical limitations, and your dog's physical limitations. Is it worth wrecking your bathroom and hurting your back to wash your dog at home? For the clients I see, the answer is a definite, no! Emotional requirements are often a factor for dogs. For instance, (in general) Labrador retrievers have no issue being bathed in a lake (even though they don't get clean), but they often resent being restrained in a tub with a sprayer hose pointed in their direction. For a farm dog that has never been away from home, tying them to the fence is a better solution than trucking them to the city and asking them to have manners in a grooming shop, or in a populated lake. At least next to the fence, even with cold water, they are comfortable with where they are and what is expected of them.

My vote is, of course to find a self-service doggie wash facility. The equipment is professional and easy to use, the water is warm (most of the time) and typically the dogs get treats when they walk out the door, which makes them happy campers. So, for those that want to know about washing your dog at a laundradog facility, here you go:

2. Getting your dog in the tub and getting him to stay there! At this grooming shop, the average dog that comes in for self-service is around 100lbs. All the dogs are washed at waist level where they stand on a grate in the tub. Getting them in the tub can be a trick. It's kind of like asking a human to put ice skates on, and stand on the ice and not worry about how to do it. The easiest way for dog and human is to not give the dog time to decide whether or not he wants to. (Not the easiest task for shy or overprotective owners). The owner is given a large choker chain or cloth noose which goes around the dogs neck.

Leading: We have the owner quickly lead/pull the dog up the stairs with another person on the other end of the dog to give a quick boost on the butt end. The dog is on the grate, and in the tub before he has decided to be worried about it. Once the dog is in the tub, the owner hooks them in (not something you can do in your tub at home) to a variety of metal hooks inside the tub.

Choking: The dogs that are new to having a bath will sometimes turn in the tub and pull on the choker chain. We prefer the choker chain to a regular noose because the dog quickly learns with a choker that he is in control of whether or not he feels the choking sensation. The second the dog realizes he controls his own choking, AND realizes his owner is going to allow him to learn this (this is very difficult for the overprotective and/or mother types of owners-most all of us!), the pulling behavior stops. With a regular cloth noose, or one that does not self-regulate, the dogs will pull and pull and often never learn that they have the control over their own pulling more than any other behavior during the bath. Owners feel like they are directly causing their dog injury and should rescue them immediately when they hear them coughing and sometimes gagging. It is natural to feel concern over your dog choking, but it helps to think of the dog's pulling and coughing similar to putting a toddler into his crib for a midday nap.

Many human toddlers HATE taking a nap and will cry hard enough to cough and gag. If parents rescue them from their cribs when this happens, they are reinforcing this coughing behavior for their child. Parents that monitor the crying, and coughing from a safe distance where the toddler cannot see them, soon find that their babies submit quietly to naptime without expecting to be rescued each time he utters a sound. Naps and baths may not be pleasant to begin with, but they are both essential habits of life. Dogs have the same learning behaviors regarding rescue. Owners that react with excessive concern over the pulling (as the dog is expecting), or crying and screaming tantrums, find they are only encouraging more pulling and tantrums from their dog. This point is so crucial that it is worth repeating. The more upset and worried the owner gets over the dogs behavior, the more they get of that dog behavior. If the owner is calm and without fear - and projects this to their dog, it is not long before the dog understands that pulling on the chain is only hurting himself, and that tantrums are a waste of their energy. When the owner believes everything is fine despite pulling and tantrums, the dog does too, and he stops the undesirable behavior accepts that today is bath day!

So many nurturing owners find this part difficult, but try to remember, when you expect your dog to learn how to control his own anxiety, he will learn, but it requires that you LET him learn. The best ways to learn to control ones own anxiety is to actually go through the experience of having the anxiety and dealing with it. If you are the type of owner that cannot allow your dog to experience this emotion without taking over and stopping the experience, your dog will learn to go into an anxious state more and more easily because of the reaction that he can expect from his owner. This becomes upsetting for both dog and owner and as you can see becomes an escalating cycle. If you allow your dog to go through this experience of the bath, anxiety and all, you will see that they will calm down and before you know it, you have a dog that allows you to bathe him! And having clean dog is essential to most dog owners. When your dog does calm down, i.e. quits pulling on the noose and allows the bath experience, that is the right time to express heightened emotion of happiness through praise and treats. If you take this time to praise your dog, it won't be long before your dog asks to be washed with a happy, wanting-to-please attidude.

However, as with any rule, there are a few exceptions: old, very young, asthmatic, and dogs with neck or throat problems should be closely watched if they exhibit excessive pulling on the choker chain.

Ignore or not to Ignore: Most of the time, I recommend to owners to simply and quietly ignore their dogs protesting to get the behavior to stop (and it does), with the only exception being a small puppy (like a yorkie) or an old and fragile dog. Both the young and the old dogs that are not used to baths can injure their tracheas or create a medical problem (like asthma) if their nervous behaviors are allowed to escalate. It is in this circumstance that I tell the owners to use a harness to hook the dogs in the tub or in the case of a small and wild puppy, to use a sink or bucket in which they can immerse the dog in warm, soapy water. Puppies are wired to swim and that's what they do if they find their bodies in water. Swimming is easier to work with than a freaking out jumping bean. If you do choose to ignore your dog's protesting to the bath, REMEMBER to give lots of praise when the dog show's signs of acceptance and/or begins to calm down.

Drying Your Dog: Drying a dog depends on the type of hair, type of temperament and grooming experience the dog has. If you have a shorthaired dog, towel drying is generally adequate. In the grooming shop, we use high-power dryers that blow the water out of thick or double-coated dogs like shepards, collies, and huskies - and in this case - standard poodles.

Put cotton in the dog's ears before you begin as the dryer is loud. Make sure there is a minimum of play in the noose or chain that connects the dog to the tub, as the more room the dog has to throw a tantrum, the more room he'll use. Start the dryer on the back end of the dog and aim the dryer side to side moving towards the head until the water is not dripping off the dog any longer. Most private owners go home with their dogs still dripping because of the tantrum factor. This is where the above information comes into play. The majority of dogs are nervous at first, but they quickly learn that the air is only loud, not painful. If the owner stays calm, the dog will quickly find this state during the drying process.

There are a few more minor steps that do occur in the grooming shop, such as brushing, nail trimming, anal expression, ear plucking and cleaning, teeth brushing and scaling and more. You can check out more 'how to' information on these specific techniques at www.thepoochparlor.net. Regardless of who you are or what you do for a living, the chances of your dog having a pleasant experience during the bath is highly dependent upon the ability of the dog's owner to understand his or her own needs regarding life and society. Consider all the factors, energy reserves of your dog - spend them before the space wherever you go will increase your odds for success. Consider how much you actually do know about dog language. Above all else, remember that you, the owner, are in charge, and that if your dog is temporarily distressed with a new situation, you have to stay calm long enough to allow your dog to understand and accept the experience. It's a curious notion that a human would have to delve into the basics of his or her own psychological needs to give their dog a great bath experience, but if you do that, you and your canine friend will have many years of happy and successful bathing experiences.

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thelazyeye · 5 years

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oh okay, internet famous Losers, like they're all youtubers and insta famous kids doing really different stuff around the nation, what do each of them do? who connects with who and how?

Ooff I love this idea. I used to be moderately into youtube people. Mamrie Hart anyone? She cracks me the fuck UP. Anyway this got super long so its under the cut. I hope you enjoy anon! Thanks for sending something it!!

Okay. Here we go.

Richie

is a youtube personality. Duh. He started out vlogging and his Voices and somehow his channel picked up. He writes comedy bits, does personal blogging, and tests his voices.

When he was starting out he had a bit where he was a weatherman that had multiple personalities (Voices) and it got insanely popular. He received some backlash due to the offensiveness of the bit and has since retired it, but references it from time to time to credit his fame.

Now he focuses a lot on his comedy routines and improv acting with other members of the community. He does challenges from time to time as collabs as well

People are super invested in his personal life (bc people seriously get like that with youtube people) and started speculating about his sexuality. It took him a few years to address all the rumors that he wasn’t straight and how he was probably dating this youtuber or that youtuber.

Eddie

is an LGBT Activist that has a youtube channel as well (think Laci Green but LGBT and not sex ed, though he does do sex ed work)

He got his start when he was in college. He became the president of the LGBT club. He wanted to reach a large number of students and he figured the best way to do that would be youtube

The entire club helped him out. Every week he would have another club member on the channel to talk about their sexuality and experiences

It didn’t get big at the school but he got lowkey noticed by the HRC after about 6 or 7 videos. He was contacted by a social media manager on the team to commend him on his work

From then on out he started to work harder on his videos, including more in depth information and he included links to more resources

Eventually, his videos started to rack up views from young LGBT kids thanking him for his channel

He started to collab with famous LGBT youtubers (troye sivan, hannah hart) and that’s when he really blew up

Bill

actually got his start on Vine. He mastered the art of the 6 second story and when the platform went down he migrated to youtube, snapchat, and twitter. He’s got profiles on almost every social media platform and he’s written a couple of webseries, as well.

His first webseries (pre-vine) focused on comedy. He and some college friends got together and wrote the script/acted it out. It wasn’t very big but the following for it had a cultish feel.

It blew up after he became famous on vine

After that, he started writing more webseries and partnering with other youtube actors

He wrote and completed two successful comedy webseries before he got bored of it. He decided to make the jump to horror work

Think Marble Hornets

He ended up getting a scholarship to a film school and has been working on becoming a movie director ever since

His youtube work is on a hiatus but he still posts blogs and updates of his life. He’s active on Snapchat and Twitter the most. He still does dumb, funny shit from time to time and tweets out very random jokes

Stan

is an adventure youtuber. He travels all over the world, seeking thrills and exploring nature. His videos usually have some kind of educational component but they’re always entertaining. Stan has explored the Savanah and Rain Forrests, he’s sky dived and scuba dived. He’s done a lot

He has a side channel for his love of birds because how can I not throw this in here?

When Anti semites started showing back up in the world Stan started to dedicate more of his channel, and his other platforms, to Judaism. He’s uses his popularity and fame to educate people and create awareness around the issues Jews face

As a result, he blogged his Birthright to Israel. It was a weeks worth of videos, some candids that he just uploaded on the whim, and some he took the time to edit. They were adventurous, educational, and full of his personal journey

Stan has also faced a lot of backlash for his involvement with the jewish community. He voices this in his videos. To combat the threats against him, he recruits other members of the youtube community to collab with and talk about issues. He makes it fun. He’s cooked Jewish foods, celebrated Jewish holidays, and had fun discussions with other personalities.

Bev

is a famous fashion designer and makeup artist. She got her start on Instagram, posting her designs and outfits that she created. Sh started young. Like 15 years old. As she grew up and went to school, her fashion instagram grew. People got to see her skills improve and they watched as she turned into a teenager designing clothes in her bedroom to a design student to a professional

She gives fashion tips to people and her favorite hobby is making posts that help girls and boys create fun, new, and exciting clothes out of what they already have in their closet

She firmly believes that you don’t need to have money and status to dress well. She wants fashion to be accessible.

She started a youtube channel out of request from her followers. She got a lot of comments about her makeup and she started to do makeup tutorials there (Think Sailor J)

People really started to see how funny she was, then. She would always throw little bullshit videos onto her story but this was the first time she posted video content that didn’t disappear after 24h

Her youtube is not nearly as active as her instagram. That’s where you can find all of her content

She is also a vocal activist against child abuse on her insta. She frequently donates to various organizations and she does it very publicly. She runs clothing drives for those in need and has even hosted makeover days for young girls whose families can’t afford good clothes/makeup.

She has recently expanded her fashion designs to male clothing, promoting Non Binary, Trans, and other identities in her lines. She says “Clothing has no gender” and pushes that despite advice to lay low on the issue.

Mike

is a super unlikely case of internet fame. His instagram is composed almost entirely of his farm animals. He really didn’t think he was going to get famous from it. He just loves his farm so fucking much

The first half of his internet fame just consisted of pictures and videos of his animals. Namely, his dog Mr. Chips and his cow, Barely. They were best friends and Mike posted pictures of them napping together, playing together, and helping him run the farm

Once he started to gain an unreasonable about of followers he would pepper in posts that were educational. He talked about the importance of farmers, the work that he does, and how he maintains his animals. He worked to debunk a lot of myths about farming and really promote the work that he does.

He still posts a lot of videos of him with his animals being all cute, but he uses his activism to reach large numbers of people at a single time.

He also promotes healthy eating on his instagram. He talks about balanced diets and how to moderate sweets intake.

Eventually he talks about working out (because Mike Hanlon is ripped sorry I don’t make the rules) and helps build an all around healthy lifestyle for his following. He kind of accidentally becomes a life coach of sorts. Motivation, healthy living, and cute animals.

He has no idea how it happened but he doesn’t regret a single minute of it

Ben

is a singer! This sweet old mother fucker started out on youtube when he was 16. He bought a Ukulele and started writing love songs for the girl he was pining after

We all know that one mother fucker who owed a Ukulele in high school

His voice was like velvet, though. He wasn’t popular enough for anyone to really see it so he didn’t get teased in high school for it. His first couple videos got only a handful of views

What kick started his fame is a cover video. When he decided he wanted to do an acoustic cover of Lady Gaga’s Love Game

He did it on Ukulele

It ended up being such a fun and unique cover of such a popular song that he got noticed. Like. The video fucking blew up. He ended up getting over 5 thousand views overnight and the number just kept growing

Ben ran with it. He covered other popular songs (I Kissed a Girl, Viva La Vida, So What, etc)

He blew up so hard and fast that people started to notice his original works

He got noticed by a label and signed the summer after he graduated high school

His first album was a love album because it’s Ben come on

He doesn’t have much of a social media presence after his youtube channel. He has the mandatory instagram and twitter that all famous people seem to have but they’re fairly inactive

Collabs

Richie and Bill

Richie and Bill were the first to collab with each other. Richie acted in Bill’s first webseries and it built a friendship that lasts a lifetime.

The two of them do stupid youtube challenges with each other whenever they’re in the same city

Bill used to guest on Richie’s channels and play improv games to help both of them work on their comedy. They always turn out ridiculously funny and normally involve some level of alcohol

When Bill lost his younger brother in a car accident (sorry georgie dies in like every single universe) Richie flew out to see Bill and spend time with him. The two of them filmed a vlog together where they talked about the loss and then they both donated to anti drunk driving campaigns and urged their followers to do the same and never drive drunk

Richie and Eddie

They met for the first time at vidcon when they were first starting out. Richie was already pretty big but Eddie was working on his following. They hit it off immediately and they filmed a video for Eddie’s channel that focused on Eddie debunking stereotypes surrounding the LGBT community. Richie added a tasteful comedic flair that brought in views and he taught Eddie that things don’t always need to be serious 100% of the time

They kept in loose contact after that, always meeting up at vidcon and filming a ridiculous video for Eddie’s channel

2 years later, Richie reached out to Eddie and asked him to film a video for Richie’s channel

He wouldn’t tell Eddie what it was until they were in front of the camera, but Eddie readily agreed. He loved working with Richie. He thought he was fun and witty

When they got in front of the camera Richie revealed that he was bisexual and that Eddie’s videos helped him learn about bisexuality and come to terms with it

They spent the video talking about Richie’s journey to self acceptance, why he decided to come out, and Eddie’s knowledge surrounding sexual identity development. The video ended up being 15 minutes long and had the highest comment numbers Richie had ever seen. Not every comment was positive, but he took the experience in stride and started doing little bits of advocacy here and there for his and other channels

Richie and Eddie end up dating, but not for a long, long time after that video when they’re both living in LA and well established in their youtube careers.

Bev and Mike

An unlikely combo for an unlikely youtube star! Bev and Mike do a collab that focuses on self esteem and loving yourself!

Mike gives health tips and Bev gives fashion advice, but both of them talk about the importance of self worth and how external image means nothing if you don’t love yourself first. They both talk about their own journeys.

The collab starts because Bev finds out about Mike through insta and she ends up contacting him about wool. They partner up business wise and Mike helps provide wool for her fashion line while Bev promotes his farm work.

They don’t do many intentional collabs after they one, but they do show up on each others stories and in pictures together very frequently. The two become best friends

Ben and Bev

They don’t collab. But they do get married.

They meet through the fame and bustle of L.A. Ben’s music career makes him end up at the same Gala as Bev, where they’re introduced to each other. They hit it off immediately, connecting with their childhoods and such.

They date for 3 years before Ben proposes via Flash Mob and song written just for Bev

Bev loves the song so much she insists Ben release it. It becomes a Billboard hit

Eddie and Stan

Stan finds himself in NYC where Eddie lives and he reaches out to do an educational collab on LGBT politics in the Jewish community.

He takes Eddie rock climbing and the two film the video with go pros.

Eddie is terrified at first and it makes for a funny introduction but he eventually gets his bearings and the two of them scale a cliff together, talking about issues and getting to know each other.

Stan and Richie

Eddie introduces them after the Coming Out Video.

They collab as frequently as they can

They do ridiculous shit and Stan films Richie’s commentary. Its hilarious

They have a natural chemistry and they feed off of each other. Stan didn’t know he was a funny guy until he met Richie. Then it just kind of came out of the woodwork. Richie really highlighted Stan’s eccentric sense of humor.

Everyone

Richie and Bev are childhood best friends

Eventually, they all end up meeting. They don’t really film videos with each other. Sometimes there’s a vlog that includes more than two of them but very rarely are they all in the same video at the same time.

It happened intentionally once. It was chaos. Everyone was drunk. The video had to be edited so severely that it was only 1 minute and 30 seconds

They do however show up in snapchats, insta stories, and pictures as a group. By the time they’re all 30 they’re very, very good friends

#richie tozier #eddie kasbrak #mike hanlon #beverly marsh #stan uris #bill denbrough #ben hanscom #youtuber au #headcannon #hc #my writing #this is unedited and unproofread please go easy on me #Anonymous #Em Answers #reddie

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unsuccesscr · 5 years

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I suppose this could be considered a part 2 or redux of my original bias list which was posted more than six months ago. The blog has changed a lot since then and I appreciate all of you sticking around for this long; through every revamp and rewrite, periods of inactivity, and general nonsense.

Of course, it’s not possible for everyone to be listed. If you’re not mentioned please don’t take it personally, it likely means that we simply haven’t interacted much; which can always change!

1. The Deku Squad (i.e. portrayals that have been absolutely crucial to the development of Izuku as a muse, and the AU as a whole)

@amplifyingtrace

Kit! One of the very first people I interacted with on here, back when I was still building my timeline and even had a different url. I don’t think it would have been possible for me to predict that that random ‘first meeting’ thread would snowball to where we are today. I know I tell you this a lot, but I absolutely adore Leia as a character. To the point where she’s so ingrained in my portrayal of Izuku that I honestly can’t imagine what he’d be like without their dynamic. The wonder trio is a central theme to the AU as a whole and Izuku truly is a stronger character with Leia’s presence. All the scenarios, both written and plotted out, are absolutely integral to my timeline. I am so grateful that you’ve allowed Leia to become part of this world, and the amount of time and effort you’ve spent building it with me, thank you.

@invisiquirk / @rrenao

Cinder; you are a truly creative and wonderful person. I am, of course, incredibly attached to your Tooru, but each and every single one of your muses is always such a unique take on the character in question that I am always blown away without exception. I can make a thousand jokes about Stanning Cinder but it’s important that you know that i’m truly grateful that I’ve met you through this RPC. Sometimes it feels like we share a brain we’re so in sync. Tooru is a realistic and dynamic character, and sometimes (frequently) I forget that your portrayal isn’t canon to the point where watching the anime gives me whiplash at times. Izuku wouldn’t be the same character without their dynamic, and even when you’re breaking my heart I adore your writing. In particular, they bring their own unique brand of recklessness to the table which has tested Izuku’s ability to handle situations well beyond his control (such as Tooru’s past) and continues to hold a mirror to his own terrible habits. Not to mention that he just? loves Tooru with his whole heart.

@steelhardpecs / @defrostiing / @sweatbombhands / @dcrkpassenger

Soda; You are kind, patient, and brilliant. I will always admire the way you speak your mind, and your amazing insights into your muses. Each new blog and each new character are completely different, but equally wonderful.Not all of your blogs are tagged here, though I love them all, I stuck with tagging the muses that have been the most central to building the Quirkless AU and Izuku as a character. Tetsutetsu, who has played a crucial role in helping Izuku recognize that he isn’t as unaffected by his past as he pretends; and continues to be a pivotal emotional support. Todoroki, who has helped flesh out large scenes within the story, such as the sports festival, and has forced Izuku to confront that not everyone with a quirk has it easy. Bakugo, who also has a major role in a lot of scenes in the AU (such as their confrontation in the elevator) and who’s growth is parallel to Izuku’s own. And poor, long suffering, Colby who’s a father figure and trying desperately to help Izuku form healthy coping mechanisms. There is a lot more, but i’m getting a bit long winded, so let me just end with this; I can’t wait to hear your next idea

@sappines

Kona! Your writing and art are both phenomenal, and drawing your own icons is such an indescribable power move. Just, the time and effort that takes in and of itself! is amazing! And beyond that, Kazue is a well rounded and well written character. She’s kind and strong, but not invincible and not infallible. And you, yourself, are delightful to talk to. I love plotting with you or just discussing your characters. Our interactions both out of character and in character have really played a huge role in how Izuku interacts with other muses; not just Kazue. In particular, when it comes to physical affection. It’s something that she’s helped him become more comfortable and open with. She’s also one of the few people who’s openly gotten him to admit that he was shaken by his encounter with Shigaraki. (she’s just got a way of getting under people’s skin I guess, in a good way) I can’t imagine writing here without you, and without Kazue as a character. As far as i’m concerned, her being in 1-A is canon.

@aemulo

Ish; Our actual in depth interactions have started just recently but I’m already incredibly attached to your take on Monoma as a character. You’ve stayed true to the source material for the most part while also building upon it and making a completely new and complex character in the process. Your edits are outstanding, and it’s difficult not to appreciate the amount of effort and time you’ve put into them in order to provide visual context to your portrayal. I absolutely mean it when I say you’re doing a better job than canon, and I know you’ll only continue to improve even more over time. Monoma himself in such a short time has had a profound impact on how I approach Izuku as a character, as well as his dynamic with other characters; particularly those from class B. Even interactions in AUs (which, side note, every single AU you come up with is incredible) help build their dynamic.

@yuugxn

Cereal; There are a lot of unexplored dynamics in canon that RP gives us a chance to see and write where they will go, but I don’t think any friendship was as unexpected (yet incredible) as Jirou and Izuku. I absolutely love the way they interact, their similarities and their differences. I love that it started with a joke about Jirou stealing Izuku’s phone so he won’t continue to destroy his eardrums and I adore that I can tag you in videos of people doing the macarena to Every Time We Touch and have it somehow be a perfect depiction of their dynamic. Your writing and portrayal are fantastic and you’ve made me cry more than once not only in our threads but in your interactions with other people. Jirou has forced Izuku to confront not only how his actions affect himself, but how they affect those around him via imitation, and also via just plain worrying about him. And the whole Blue Rose imagery? I’ll never be over it. I love flower language and I love the idea of ‘unattainable’ for Izuku, because of how he views himself; and also how Jirou views him as well.

@needlxd

Deedee; I don’t care what you say you can pull Kitiara Itou from my cold dead hands she’s a babey who needs to be protected at all costs. Villain babey, evil babey. Ok, in all seriousness; Deedee, I love Kit so much as a character, she’s a wonderfully complex and believable villain to the point where I can’t help but root for her a little bit. Even out side of her redemption verse. I also, already love Trina, but we haven’t interacted too much in character yet (emphasis on yet). Writing in a language that’s not your first is incredibly difficult, especially one as unnecessarily complicated as English. And it is, frankly, impossible to tell based on your writing that it’s actually been translated. Your writing is fantastic in and of itself, and that’s already impressive in and of itself but you literally put twice as much effort into a single reply than just about anyone else and the kind of dedication that takes is just as impressive if not more so. Kit forces Izuku to confront his morals and his views of villains as a whole, and that’s as important as it is painful. Plus, autistic solidarity.

2. Team Plus Ultra (aka blogs that I love and admire even though we haven’t interacted much in character)

@obliterus // @quirkgifter // @oneshockyboi // @bcdtouch // @ksri // @explsnmrdr // @iinko // @ukubi // @aidonneus // @katsubi // @eighthilles // @floatsaver // @gxlitxr // @hcwks // @empyrrrean // @negatiiv // @dimensionalprinter // @inneall // @shintsohi // @b-nnyhero // @inventii // @icyht // @round--face // @hero-hopeful // @amazetm // @pyrrhe

3. The Greatest Hero (aka duplicates that I absolutely adore)

I don’t want to tag any duplicates, as I know that can make people uncomfortable. However, I absolutely adore these portrayals and so I highly recommend that you give them a follow!

tikkvn // noquirk // herosname // quirkdysfunction

#;;out of character #;;bias list #;;long post

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antagonistchanremade · 5 years

Text

One flaw that exists in all my themes, even Evolution, is that videos and particularly large images sometimes roll right off the post, like this.

Man this is ugly.

I don’t think this is a problem in the default theme, so I’m gonna look into seeing why the default theme doesn’t have that problem.

I mean, I’ve generally had a good time when it comes to reverse-engineering the default theme’s post formatting.

Most themes use Tumblr’s pre-2015 post formatting (where, you know, reblogs are shown in a plain pyramid of blockquotes and links), mainly because the basic implementation of posts just automatically applies that particular formatting; the default theme, however, uses the current style of post formatting. After a brief look at the default theme’s code, you quickly discover that it takes a lot of extra code to make posts look like they do on the dash... and that said code can be reworked to make posts look like just about anything.

Like, here’s the Default Implementation of post formatting, as seen on most Tumblr themes including Antag01 and Bliss, as well as the dashboard until 2015:

If you don’t do anything fancy with the coding for the posts, this is what you’ll get. Because deep down, this is how the site actually stores multiple series’ of reblogs.

Then, here’s the Official Implementation of post formatting, as seen on the Default Theme and the dashboard:

(ignore the fact that carnival-phantasm’s URL is green and in a green box, that’s from the Shinigami Eyes extension, not from the post formatting)

I don’t know how this is implemented on the dashboard, but on the Default Theme, you have to add a whole bunch of extra code to the post formatting to make it look like this. It’s honestly kinda scary-looking at first. I would say that it’s a good example of Tumblr’s Spaghetti Code at work... but then again, this was a late addition (remember, they had to very suddenly find a way to implement real formatting to the posts instead of the hack the site had previously been built around with just having pyramids of blockquotes, AND make it so all the OLD posts WOULD ALSO FIT INTO THIS FORMATTING), AND the complexity actually adds a lot of depth to it. When I first decided to try reverse-engineering the Default theme, I just wanted to implement the modern post formatting, which is why my initial reaction to seeing the code was “Oh, ew”; but then, after starting to understand how it worked, I realized that I could actually totally play with this and create my own entirely new post formatting from scratch, which in my opinion is better than the Official Implementation in most ways but also inferior in a few ways (namely, some things that are missing from my formatting). There is code in place to separate different additions to the post from each other, and code in place to retrieve the avatars of different users, and to disable the links leading to inactive blogs. Honestly, again, while my initial reaction to seeing this was negative... it’s probably the only thing Staff has done since all the way back in the Yahoo buyout in 2013 that’s actually impressed me. Reverse-engineering this was fun and gave me a lot of freedom. A lot more freedom than I would have gotten if I’d gotten what I was expecting and hoping for. There are still problems, of course- for instance, it’s utter nesting hell- but overall, it works.

So, finally, here’s my Evolution Implementation, how Evolution does things, featuring the same post as the Official Implementation:

(again, ignore carnival-phantasm’s green URL, that’s still from Shinigami Eyes)

So, part of the really complex coding for the Official Implementation is built around each individual post testing whether or not it’s an original post. Like, each post has a property that determines if it’s an original post, or if you reblogged it from someone. This is so that the post will run different code depending on if it’s original or not; it’s essential for making any non-Default implementation work. So, after I did all my other work, I realized something crucial- because I created my own formatting that didn’t necessarily fit with what people were used to, I should make it slightly more obvious which posts were original or not. So, I added a bit of code that only executes when the post isn’t original that adds that little “(reblogged post)” marker to the top of the post. It’s not too obvious, but it doesn’t need to be; again, it’s only there as a backup plan in case my formatting didn’t make it immediately obvious what was going on in the post.

Also, in my implementation, I decided to give each different player in the post a bit more gravitas. A big box dedicated to telling you who’s saying what. In my opinion, it’s a bit easier to parse posts with multiple replies.

And, actually, let’s take a look at something from Evolution’s preview blog:

There’s a very similar big box for Asks, in particular for the question and the answer. The box is slightly taller, but also doesn’t quite reach the edges of the post the way the URL box does. The avatars are slightly bigger, and are given a bit more room to breathe. So, it’s a bit consistent, but also there’s just enough going on to communicate that this is a separate style of conversation.

AND ALSO, quotes and links:

Again, a similar-yet-different style of big box. I will admit, formatting the links and the quotes themselves has nothing to do with the Implementation. Even with the Default Implementation, you can play a bit with the CSS formatting for links and quotes. But having the Evolution Implementation gave me the freedom to make that formatting consistently match up with how reblogs and asks are indicated.

Also, that quote is reblogged, but because Quote posts are formatted stupidly to begin with, I can’t have it really display the OP without breaking things. Quotes are.... not good. Even in the modern style of post formatting, Quotes still work the same way that they did in the Default Implementation.

Also also, that bottom part- the part that’s like “Five months ago, 4 notes, via”- that’s not part of the Implementation. Like the links and quotes, formatting those is something you gotta do even under the Default Implementation.

And just to give you an idea how complicated the non-Default implementations are, here’s the code for text posts in Antag01 (again, basically the simplest way to code them that most themes use and until 2015 they all used):

This is it. It basically just says, “This is a text post, and the title is a size 3 header that is also a permalink to the post itself.” There’s more code dedicated to formatting the post’s title than there is to formatting the post itself. Literally “{Body}” is the entirety of what’s responsible for that screenshot of the Default Implementation. The Default Implementation is just what Tumblr does on its own.

Meanwhile, here’s the code for text posts in the default theme (aka, the Official Implementation):

And here’s the code for text posts in Evolution:

Evolution’s “IsDeactivated” block is larger than Antag01′s entire “Text” block. There’s literally more code in Evolution dedicated to deciding what to do if someone involved in the post is deactivated than there is code in Antag01 about text posts period.

Anyways, if I do end up starting Antag 04 soon, I’m gonna come up with another style of implementation. As much as I like the Evolution Implementation, I kinda came up with it on the fly when I realized that I could make my own implementation, and it’s not as well thought-out as it could be. There are a couple oversights, and it’s very aesthetically tied to Evolution, and I wanna make a theme where I know from the beginning that a custom Implementation is possible and thus can tie things even closer together.

#importantagonist

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lawinformation · 5 years

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Mistakes that men make in Texas Divorces

On the off chance that you have require a best reasonable Texas Divorce Law encounter, Mistakes that men make in Texas Divorces with the immense procedure!

Divorce Lawyer in Houston: Men and women are different from one another. Perhaps no truer statement has ever been uttered or written in the history of humanity. If you are going through a divorce you too would probably agree with this assertion.

In a recent blog post written by the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC I wrote about how a father can prepare to win primary conservatorship (custody) of his child. At the top of the list was being a good dad (go figure) but there were other tips that we could provide fathers who are entering into a family law case in Texas.

Although any biases that the law has towards mothers have been erased in large part there is still the lingering assumption that courts have a preference towards awarding primary custody in a case, as well as property assets to the wife rather than the husband.

Even if you don’t have children involved with your divorce you may be concerned with how a court views you as compared to your wife. Is her being a woman and you being a man an actual disadvantage?

I would argue that it is not but men do seem to harm themselves with certain behaviors more consistently than do women regarding divorces. What sorts of mistakes are we talking about? Read on to find out more.

Taking advice from the wrong people.

Divorce Attorney Houston: Listening to friends and family causes men to feel more pessimistic about their chances in a courtroom than they ought to. It is normal to look to friends and family for advice when you are facing a divorce.

When you first find out that your wife is divorcing you there are few people that you can probably turn to in order to talk through the issues that you are facing. I would never tell a client to not speak to their family about their case if that makes them feel better and if doing so will not harm their case.

However, the helpful ear and consolation from a friend or family member can be hurtful to your psyche if you allow negative opinions about the legal system, Texas divorce attorneys or your rights as a father if you allow them to be.

This is especially true if your friend or family member has no experience in the legal field and specifically in family law. These are folks that have been with you for years and years and will continue to be there for you after your divorce is finalized.

Of course, you are going to seek out their opinion and counsel. However, it is best to verify that their advice is accurate by speaking with an attorney who is actually knowledgeable about the law in Texas. A support system is great. A qualified and effective attorney is great. If you find a way to combine both you increase the chances that the resolution to your divorce will be great as well.

Not filing an answer within the required time period

Houston Divorce Lawyers: Some men refuse initially to participate in the divorce and simply place the Petition for Divorce from their wife on the side to deal with later. Other men don’t see the point in responding, don’t prioritize the case correctly and forget to respond altogether. Others simply don’t know where to start and do nothing as a result.

By failing to file an answer to your wife’s Original Petition for Divorce you run the risk of having a default judgment rendered against you. In Texas, a person has until the first Monday after the expiration of twenty days from the day that they were served with the divorce papers by which to file an answer.

If you fail to meet this deadline your wife and her divorce attorney can draft up their own orders and then go to court a few weeks afterwards without you being present.

As long as you were served properly, there is a record of service on file and the paperwork has been on file for at least ten days the odds are good that you wife will walk out with a signed divorce decree. Your voice will not be heard in the process and you will be unable to make an argument for or against anything contained in her version of the decree.

Inaction is not the way to go when it comes to a divorce. Rest assured that your wife is hoping that you don’t respond so she can have her way with the case and get what she wants out of it.

Don’t let her have that satisfaction: go ahead and file an answer as soon as you’re able to. This protects your rights to participate in the legal proceeding and gives you some immediate peace of mind about the divorce process.

Agreeing to items in a divorce negotiation “just to end the divorce”

Family Law Attorney Houston: For some reason, at least in my experience, men bend more in negotiations than do women. I don’t know why this is. It may not be true- after all, I’m just writing about my personal experiences as a southeast Texas family law attorney.

But when men are faced with making offers or counter offers during the negotiation stage of a divorce they will more often than women give in to an unreasonable request by the wife just to end the case and move on with their lives.

While in some ways I can understand this (I am a man, in the interest of full disclosure) but in the long run this is not advisable. Despite rumors from other people who aren’t divorce lawyers, divorces typically do not last a year.

Most divorces resolve themselves within nine months and many finish much sooner. If there is something that you cannot bend on, something that in your mind is so important that you can’t step back from your position then doing so just to finish your divorce is a bad move.

At the very least you can take that issue to a judge and if your spouse gets her way, that’s fine. It’s more likely that the judge would issue a decision that is much more down the middle and suited to please both parties at least to some extent.

Facing a divorce? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC

Houston Divorce Attorney: Whether you are a man or woman, the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC is here to assist you with your legal matter. We represent clients from all backgrounds in counties across southeast Texas and would be eager to do the same for you. Contact us today for a free of charge consultation ... Continue Reading

#divorce #family #Family Law #fagan #bryan fagan #attorney #attorneys #texas attorneys #law #lawyer #lawyers #Houston lawyers #Houston #Texas

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drylic-arc · 6 years

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SHIPPING INFO !! Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog. REPOST ! Do NOT reblog.

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER?:

so, ships I HAVE done with Marc in the past, are Marc & Lucina and Marc & Severa. Aesthetically, I prefer Marc & Lucina. Though that is in regards to my Marc, being a Plegian Prince and the like. I’m open to most anything really? Just these are the two I’ve done, and that is the one I enjoyed writing the most!

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO WRITE WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?:

Just about anything really?? unless its no-zone things, ie; pedophilia etc.. that shit. Not gonna do that. But outside of that, I don’t really have any withholdings on things. I like to write as an outlet of creativity, and as a means of therapy sometimes. Really though, I just... like writing psychological stuff b/c the human brain is a mystery in how it works. So, if you want something that delves into a lot of angsty dark topics that two people have to work through? I’m okay with that.

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?:

I can deal with 20ish year age gaps, more than that and i’ll doot doot my way out. Though I’m not expecting any sort of ship like that happening on Marc, this is just a general in reference type of thing. But, I’ve rped age gap ships and stuff, it’s not a big deal so long as its consenting adults really? idk, I’m not going to not rp things that I know happens irl because I really just like seeing how different situations work lol even if I myself personally would never do it.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?: I can say yes all I want but, I have had situations where ships just sailed themselves in front of me just by conversing with a mun about how the two characters are while plotting out our thread. So while yes, I am to an extent, also no? Like, just talk to me about it and we can see where it’ll go lol. Truth be told I’m used to rarely getting ships, and I’m not expecting much here since I am very slow at roleplaying at this point in my life dsjafks

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NS.FW?: Listen, anything that goes above kisses is technically not safe for work. and I’m not talking like heavy kisses, I’m talking like, your s/o pecks your lips before they leave after dropping you off lunch at work type of thing. So. Yeah, anything and everything can be not safe for work. People don’t want to see two kids dry-humping on a bench, or pressed against a tree kissing irl, so it’s kind of the same etiquette in writing? Now, this isn’t to say I’m about to read more steamy make outs or some shit. I’m not, but I would probably tag. I don’t even consider characters being written as undressing as something worth being shoved under a read more yet unless someone starts touching a diddle and then ye.

WHO ARE THE CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?: bruh you got me. I haven’t really interacted with anyone enough, and majority that I HAVE interacted with so far.. is people related to Marc. So... yep. Outside of my like ships I’ve done previously, I don’t have any CURRENT ones.

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?: Like.. yeah but nah? yes like, just double check with me, but nah because like if your muse develops feelings for my muse we can just handle it icly if you’re too shy to talk to me oocly. Ie; Marc can either reject your muse, or accept your muses feelings. Or it can be a whole friendzoned scenario situation idfk. shits up in the air with me.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP?: This is something that can depend on the muse tbh? Some characters are sluts and like to freely ship as openly as possible. Others are more picky and hard to even get to make friends. Marc happens to be one of those muses. In fact the last time I roleplayed him, he made an enemy of so many people boy was that fun... haha.... ( can you sense the sarcasm? ) but.. like. if you bring it up to me, I’ll probably be interested.

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE - OR - LESS?: I’ll probably swarm you with ideas about the ship tbh. cute fluffy things. angsty ideas. etc... thread ideas even plot ideas

ARE YOU MULTISHIP?: Yes but no. I’ve decided considering how inactive I am and with how hard it is to get Marc to a point like that as it is, that each “verse” I have, will be single ship. So, I have a total of six verses I think, right now, so that’s a total possibility of 6 ships. I suppose I would probably make a special exception for things if two characters were showing a lot of good chemistry, despite already having a ship in a verse or smth... but yeah lol

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?: Still Marc & Lucina tbh. It’s something that I hold very near and dear to my heart tbh. Cause I’ve rped it in different scenarios/aus. In fact, I’ve got a new AU currently of it with my fiancee lol. though that is all private anyway.

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?: You can probably come up to me saying that you supported marc with X character in the games, and want to try writing it with my version of Marc. Honestly just asking me is easier. We can go back and fourth discussing how we write our characters and finding out if they would at all click and go from there.

tagged by: stole it

tagging: whoever wants to do it

#[ fill it out; meme ]

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itswomanswork · 6 years

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7 Content Marketing Tools You Need To Be Successful

Did you know that 59% of B2C marketers and 55% of B2B marketers are planning to increase their content marketing spend this year?

Content marketing has become an extremely competitive arena now. Businesses are vying to develop their strategies with an eye on engaging their audience with interesting content, that encourages profitable behaviors of the target clientele.

In today’s competitive market, you have to invest wisely to make your brand hog the limelight. It’s equally important to judge how well your content marketing strategies are performing against the industry standards. That makes planning your content marketing strategy a vital element in your business success.

Ideally, your strategy should have one simple tenet at its heart – to deliver unique, fresh and informative content that entices your target audience, taps into their interests and drives them to engage with your brand.

For this, you need to understand the buyer’s journey. It’s interesting to note that 70% of the buyer’s journey gets complete before they even reach out to a sales rep.

So focusing just on sales would make you miss out on a major part of the buyer’s journey.

With marketing automation tools, you can influence this journey at different stages:

Awareness: This is the start of the buyer’s journey, where your buyer is probably unaware of your business and that they have a need. At this stage, you should focus on creating awareness for your business and offerings so that your buyers start to understand what you do, and how you can help them address their needs/overcome their pain points.

Consideration: Buyers now have already shortlisted a few companies and start to do deeper research to arrive at a decision. You should use your marketing automation tools to keep track of their growing interest and adjust your content so that they see what can influence their decision in your favor.

Decision: Buyers are ready to make a purchase and start thinking and comparing about implementation, costs, customer support etc, which will decide the company they’ll finally buy from. This is the time to get brand-specific with your content. You can use customer testimonials and case studies to brag about how others have had a positive experience with your offerings.

Let’s have a look at some tools that will help you experience content marketing success, and nurture buyer’s all the way along this journey:

1. BuzzSumo for research

This tool lets you find what works in your niche, for the competition and who to promote your content to for optimal exposure.

From finding hot and trending content around a topic, viral pages on competitor sites, content to share and curate, quality guest posting targets and influencers in a niche. To locating target placements for your infographics and promoting your content on Twitter, you can do it all with this tool.

Without a doubt you can boost your content marketing ROI with BuzzSumo.

BuzzSumo’s available plans are:

Pro at $99/month – the starter plan for small teams and bloggers.

Agency at $299/month – Agency teams can opt for it where they will get the Facebook Analyzer along with all Pro features.

Enterprise at $999/month – This the best bet for brands and publishers that need advanced functionality for large teams.

Where is it used?

When referred to a number of instances where business owners and webmasters use this tool, it is seen that most of them use it either to find influencers within their industry, or writers who can contribute to their blogs.

Richard Moynihan, Social Media Editor at the Telegraph, and Jimi Smoot, an entrepreneur, use BuzzSumo to search influencers in their respective fields. Whereas, AJ Ghergich, of Ghergich & Co. uses BuzzSumo to track which content is performing well and then outreach and contact bloggers and writers to write for their website.

2. CoSchedule for organization

Managing the content on your website or blog is a breeze with this editorial calendar. With Co-Schedule, you can now keep your content as fresh, consistent and engaging as possible. This will help you fortify your web presence and grow your readership.

Thanks to its great layout, CoSchedule lays out all your scheduled posts with ease. You can even see all your scheduled social media posts in one place. It’s drag-and-drop feature, seamless integration with WordPress, easy scheduling of social media posts, rescheduling an old post (after checking from the dashboard how many times it has been shared and from where it has received the most traffic) are other features that make your content marketing job that much easier.

You can even use asks and comments on posts to create workflows for your team without emails. Some other features of CoSchedule are:

Manage Google Docs Content

Convert Google Docs & Evernote Content to WordPress

Manage Evernote Content

Several integrations to simplify your content marketing tasks

CoSchedule plans available are:

“Solo Standard” at $15/month (per calendar billed annually) or $19 month-to-month for a single user, 5 social profiles; it’s suitable when you start building your audience.

When you plan to use premium integrations and custom workflows to save time and publish even faster, “Solo Marketing” for a single user, 10 social profiles is suitable. It’s available at $39 month-to-month or $30/month (per calendar billed annually).

“Solo Automation” is fit for those aiming to work smarter with auto-pilot publishing, robust social automation and data driven intelligence. This plan is available at $79 month-to-month or $60/month (per calendar billed annually).

Where is it used?

CoSchedule is a widely used editorial calendar that helps keep content fresh, consistent and engaging. Webmasters and site owners have claimed that they have seen a considerable growth in readership after they started using CoSchedule.

Arienne Holland, the Director of Marketing and Customer Experience at Raven said that their marketing team had to send about 75 fewer emails than before.

3. Crazy Egg for optimization

Apart from a heat map, Crazy Egg offers scroll maps, overlay maps and the confetti report. All these together help you get valuable insight into how your content is performing.

The heat map report displays actual clicks of your visitors to let you know how they engage with your website. Scroll maps gives you insight into time spent by visitors in viewing particular sections of your page.

You can use Crazy Egg to re-prioritize your vital content to areas of your more popular pages. The overlay displays a bunch of little colored markers, attached to every section that has been clicked.

To get more information about a particular section, you just need to open the relevant marker attached to it. Extensive information about each click is given by the confetti report. So, you can categorize clicks by country, browser, referrals and devices used to check how your content is doing and make adjustments where needed.

Available plans for Crazy Egg are:

The Basic plan at $9/month for starting out. This plan provides daily reports for 10 active pages and 10,000 visits per month.

Growing businesses should use the Standard plan at an annual fee of $19/month. This plan provides daily reports for 20 active pages and 25,000 visits per month.

Plus at $49/month is Crazy Egg’s most popular plan. It offers hourly reports for 50 active pages and 100,000 visits per month. It also comes with mobile heat maps, advanced filtering and priority email support.

To get all that you need, Pro at $99/month is your best bet. It offers hourly reports for 100 active pages and 250,000 visits per month. Other features are same as the Plus plan.

Where is it used?

When researched about the areas and reasons people used Crazy Egg for, it is seen that many use it to increase conversions, a few use it for improving their website design, while others use it for Local SEO.

Softmedia and Conversion Rate Experts saw a rise in conversion by about 51% and 25.9% respectively. Pagely used this tool to identify Design Flaws, while Local Visibility System used it for improving their Local SEO.

4. Convert Pro for increasing email subscribers

The most recent and powerful lead generation plugin, Convert Pro is known as the most advanced solution in its category. This WordPress plugin allows you to create call-to-actions that hold back abandoning visitors, engage inactive users, redirect them to another page and much more that you wish to do in order to increase your mailing list and increase conversions on your website.

With Convert Pro, you can:

Build a robust email list

Promote videos

Drive traffic to your website/blog

Offer lead magnets

Share updates and offers that attract visitors

Capture more leads and boost ROI

Segment users with multistep popups

A/B test call-to-actions to track the one that works bes

Integrate with 30+ Email marketing softwares, CRMs and auto responders

Get useful insights by integrating with Google Analytics to fine tune your content and boost visitor engagement.

Two things that encourage us to try Convert Pro is its lightweight nature and the reasonable cost that it is available at. Figures prove that Convert Pro is by far the fastest and lightweight plugin of its kind.

It offers two pricing options that allow you to use it on unlimited websites. You can choose to purchase an annual license for $99 or a lifetime license for $399. You pay a complete amount for the plugin and its features along with updates and support that last until your license period. Any of these are a deal and definitely better than the other costlier options in the market.

Where is it used?

When you are about to try something, you would want to know how different is it from the existing solutions, what difference does it make and well yes, how will it affect your pocket. Convert Pro by far has all the advanced options including some unique ones that you’ll need in a lead generation plugin. It is lightweight and does not bloat your website. What’s more? It gives you all these features with world class support at a price you cannot really imagine.

5. MailChimp for email marketing

Email marketing plays a key role in a business’s overall content marketing strategy. You can use MailChimp to automate your emails and send them to different audiences.

This tool lets you:

Create your own newsletter or leverage one of its several elegant templates.

Target different audiences by segmenting your mailing list based on preferences, behavior and previous sales.

Send out your newsletter every time you update your blog, thanks to its RSS-to-email option.

Know how well your marketing campaigns are doing by sending reports detailing who’s opening your newsletters or sharing them on social networks. With hundreds of app integrations for apps you already use, importing content from other sources and tracking your campaigns’ performance is made easy.

MailChimp also has apps that facilitate work on the move from iPhones and Androids.

Pricing plans for MailChimp:

Free: If you have less than 2,000 subscribers, you can send a maximum of 12,000 emails every month for free.

Growing businesses: Businesses with varying subscribers (from 1,001 – 1,500; 1,501 – 2,000; 2,001 to 2,500 and 2,501 – 2,600) can take their pick from plans costing $20, $25, $30 and $35 respectively.

Pro Marketer: This enterprise-level package is suitable for 1,001 – 1,500 subscribers to 2,501 – 2,600 subscribers. Pricing varies from $20 to $35.

Where is it used?

The average open rate for emails is usually seen to hover around 20%. But, with the use of the automation feature of MailChimp, it was seen that the open rate was doubled instantly.

6. Buffer for social media scheduling

For busy business owners, managing their social media accounts and keeping them updated with fresh posts is an ordeal. Buffer brings a great solution by automating the process.

With Buffer, you can:

Manage multiple Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Accounts

Set up your own updating schedule

Add/Change/Delete updates Easily

Use Buffer with different browsers, leveraging its many extensions, apps and extras

Pricing for individuals:

Individual for Free: For 1 user, 1 social profile per platform and 10 scheduled posts.

Awesome at $10: For 1 user, 10 social profiles per platform and 100 scheduled posts.

Teams and agencies can choose from three plans namely Small ($99), Medium ($199) and Large ($399).

Where is it used?

When you think of promoting your business on social media – time, consistency, statistics and analysis are among a few things you need to think of. Buffer is an effective tool that has been helping a number of companies and businesses spread across social media. In a case study that speaks about Campaign Monitor using Buffer, it is seen that using the right features for the right purpose will help triple social media shares.

7. Google Analytics for tracking traffic

Gaining insight into which content your users are engaging with the most, as well as what works and what doesn’t, can help your content marketing strategy significantly.

With Google Analytics, you can:

Find out your most popular web pages

Find out your most popular/most shared blog posts

Spot the type of content users are looking for on your website (with the site search functionality)

See the clickable page elements your visitors interact with the most (using In-Page Analytics Reports within the Google Analytics’ Behavior section)

Leverage UTM parameters to attach additional information to links that point to your website, thus collecting more in-depth data about the clicks leading visitors to your website

Determine the location of visitors who make up the major chunk of your web traffic

Detect the online campaigns that bring the most traffic and conversions.

Where is it used?

Google Analytics is a trusted tool that can be used to track the performance of all your marketing efforts.

Companies like Panasonic have used Google Analytics to improve the Return on Investment (ROI) obtained through their digital marketing campaigns. While tracking the performance and sharing it with various media tools, they managed to increase ROI by about 30%.

Wrap

Content marketing isn’t just about framing what to write and how to write. It’s much more than that. You not only need to create interesting, precise and engaging content, but have to ensure that it reaches your target audience and is shared by them across various social networking platforms.

It’s an uphill task but with the tools mentioned above, you can automate a sizable chunk of the job and get useful insights to fine tune your content to make it work.

Wooing your visitors and keeping your existing and potential customers happy with tailor-made content was never this easy!

Guest Author: Soumya Nair. Dedication, timely efforts and passion are the key protocols that keep me succeeding as an outstanding Digital Marketer, blogger and trainer. I love what I do. My main target is to get conversions. Believe in learning and exploring digital marketing. Thanks for reading

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Soumya_M_Nair

The post 7 Content Marketing Tools You Need To Be Successful appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

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learningrendezvous · 3 years

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Economics

RETHINKING CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY: SOMETHING DEEPER THAN THE TRUTH

By Maria Isabel Alfonso

A young man in a baseball cap with "MIAMI" emblazoned on the front sits on a curb, looking at his phone. Beside him, an older man looks over his shoulder at the screen. Other Cubans sit on the curb or on the steps behind it, staring at their phones and tablets. In Cuba, a scene like this would have once been unthinkable. But since 2015, the government has loosened the rules on Internet access, allowing citizens to go online with their devices (for a fee) at designated WiFi hotspots.

The spread of online access-and people taking advantage of it for activities like blogging about politics and culture-is one of the signs of a renewed interest in bolstering Cuban civil society. But Cuba faces unique challenges in bolstering citizen engagement.

Near the start of RETHINKING CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY, the film offers a definition of its central theme. "Civil society: The aggregate of non-governmental organizations and individuals that manifest the will and interests of citizens." Then, on the screen, the word "non-governmental" is crossed out. It is a striking visual illustration of Cuba's unique situation-one in which the public sector dominates much of society, playing an ambiguous role in civil society institutions.

Since the mid-1990s, Cuba has seen a rise in independent media, and a resurgence of movements fighting against racism, for economic justice and LGBTQI rights, and for greater democracy and citizen participation. In RETHINKING CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY, Cuban academics, journalists and bloggers, and writers and musicians grapple with what it means to encourage healthy public participation and dissent in the context of Cuba: a country under embargo in which foreign-funded dissidents seek to overthrow the government, and at the same time a country in which the Communist Party has placed itself above the State.

In city parks and apartments, on stairwells, in classrooms, and in magazine offices, the people featured in RETHINKING CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY grapple with these questions. Can more competitive elections and greater democracy exist in a one-party State? How can LGBTQI activists successfully influence government policy? How can access to the benefits of economic reforms allowing private business be extended to marginalized populations? Can the government help encourage a healthy, independent media eco-system? And how much of the stifling of civil society can be blamed on the embargo and how much is simply home-grown?

Thoughtful and engaging, the film is conveniently divided into chapters on class and activism, media, Internet and the blogosphere, political opposition, and Cuban civil society across international borders.

DVD (Spanish, With English Subtitles, Color) / 2018 / 37 minutes

SILENT TRANSFORMATION, A

By Simon Brothers, Luke Mistruzzi, Anton Smolski, Mark Preston

The transformative power of the co-operative enterprise model, illustrated with many inspirational examples.

The co-operative movement was built by people who took on the responsibility for their collective well-being in the face of government neglect, economic exclusion and cultural discrimination.

As the modern economy increasingly denies vast sectors of the population basic amenities for decent life, this co-operative spirit is as critical as ever. However, over the years the co-op sector has become insular and poorly understood.

A SILENT TRANSFORMATION sets out to explore the innovative self-help efforts of different communities across the Province of Ontario, Canada. By addressing their needs collectively they are helping to regain the radical vision of co-operation.

In these communities are the seeds of economic democracy, global solidarity, and a new popular movement to transform society!

Will it grow and flourish?

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 70 minutes

TIME THIEVES

By Cosima Dannoritzer

Forget water, oil and rare minerals - there is a new resource everyone wants: our time. TIME THIEVES reveals how companies monetize our time without our knowledge and how the social networks have, in their own words, become 'the new clockmakers'.

TIME THIEVES is an eye-opening investigation into how our time became a currency; why 'time poverty' is on the rise and how the more we try to save time, the less we have. Who hasn't come across the situation where an airline has us printing our own boarding passes and checking in our own luggage, saving the company a fortune in working hours? Who hasn't spent hours assembling a piece of furniture, or struggled with an automatic cashier? Haven't we all asked ourselves who should be paying whom for doing all the work? Award-winning director Cosima Dannoritzer blends remarkable archival footage and heart-breaking stories with testimonies from leading experts in a documentary that was filmed on location in Japan, USA, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany.

TIME THIEVES investigates how time has become money, how the clock has taken over both our working and personal lives, and how we can take back control over this precious, but finite resource.

DVD (English, French, German, With English Subtitles, Color) / 2018 / 85 minutes

FREE LUNCH SOCIETY

By Christian Tod

What would you do if your income was taken care of?

Just a few years ago, an unconditional basic income was considered a pipe dream. Today, this utopia is more imaginable than ever before-intense discussions are taking place in all political and scientific camps.

FREE LUNCH SOCIETY provides background information about this idea and searches for explanations, possibilities and experiences regarding its implementation.

Globalization, automation, Donald Trump. The middle class is falling apart. One hears talk about the causes, rather than about solutions. Time for a complete rethinking:

An unconditional basic income means money for everyone - as a human right without service in return! Visionary reform project, neoliberal axe to the roots of the social state or socially romantic left-wing utopia? Depending on the type and scope, a basic income demonstrates very different ideological visions. Which side of the coin one sees depends on one's own idea of humankind: inactivity as sweet poison that seduces people into laziness, or freedom from material pressures as a chance for oneself and for the community. Do we actually need the whip of existential fear to avoid a lazy, depraved life in front of the TV set? Or does gainful employment give our lives meaning and social footing simply because we haven't known anything else for centuries? And because we've never all had the freedom to self-actualise in other ways?

That basic income is a powerful idea is indisputable: land, water and air are gifts of nature. They are different from private property that humans create by their individual effort. However, when we receive wealth from nature, from the commons, then that wealth belongs to all of us equally.

From Alaska's oil fields to the Canadian prairie, from Washington's think tanks to the Namibian steppes, the film takes us on a grand journey and shows us what the driverless car has to do with the ideas of a German billionaire and a Swiss referendum. FREE LUNCH SOCIETY, the first international film in cinemas about basic income, is dedicated to one of the most crucial questions of our times.

DVD (English, German, Color, Closed Captioned, With English Subtitles) / 2017 / 92 minutes

SYSTEM ERROR

By Florian Opitz

Politicians, economists and the media are obsessed with economic growth. But why do we still cling to this concept? Clearly it is impossible to have infinite growth on a finite planet.

This investigative documentary seeks to educate audiences about the term "growth", particularly in the world of economics. It seems today's society and financial markets are dictated by an ever-present need to grow. This film uncovers what this means and how it has developed through history. It looks at how and why it stopped during the Great Depression and the growing importance it took on in the '70s and '80s. We also see how growth looks in various industries, such as in the world of agriculture, manufacturing and on Wall Street. Capitalism is explored, as well as the ways in which financial markets determine - perhaps more than governments - the functioning of societies and countries. Finally, SYSTEM ERROR looks at the economic crash of 2008, its origins and its effects on the way we view growth. Is there a limit to this growth, especially now that technology is developing?

In SYSTEM ERROR award-winning director Florian Opitz ("Speed, In Search of Lost Time" and "The Big Sellout") examines the fundamentals of capitalism. He reveals unexpected correlations and lays bare the pathological nature of the current system. He also examines the continuing impact of Karl Marx as an analyst of capitalism.

Filmed in Brazil, China, Germany, the U.K and the U.S.A, System Error gives a fresh perspective on the capitalist system and where it is leading us.

DVD (English, German, Portuguese, With English Subtitles, Color) / 2017 / 96 minutes

WHEN BANANA RULED

By Mathilde Damoisel

Bananas are everywhere: Americans eat nearly 10 billion of them per year, consuming more pounds of bananas than apples and oranges combined.

WHEN BANANA RULED tells the story of the men who made bananas the most ubiquitous fruit in the world, through a multinational empire that dominated production and sales, overthrew governments, and created a business model still largely used by today's tech giants.

The story of bananas as commodities begins with a failed railway project started in Costa Rica in 1871, led by American Minor Cooper Keith. When the Costa Rican government defaulted on its payments to Keith for its construction, the businessman faced ruin. His salvation? Bananas. Keith would go on to co-found the United Fruit Company and within decades-after a concerted campaign led by the father of public relations, Edward Bernays-bananas became a staple of the North American diet. Animated mascot Miss Chiquita Banana was a pop culture icon, doctors recommended bananas as an ideal food for children, and bananas popped up in movies and Broadway musicals.

But, as WHEN BANANA RULED documents, the entire enterprise was built on a rapacious, imperialist business model that required the domination of countries including Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia. United Fruit took over critical national infrastructure like railways and ports, rapidly expanded plantations by displacing small (often Indigenous) farmers, bought itself favorable legislation, and, like today's largest companies, sheltered profits offshore to avoid taxes.

Life on the plantations was a world within a world: A strict hierarchy with white managers from the best business schools, foremen from the US South (recruited for their knowledge of slavery), and black laborers paid largely in company food coupons and strictly forbidden to unionize. When a new, revolutionary government was formed in Guatemala, United Fruit's plantations were nationalized. What happened next came straight from the playbook that would dominate US foreign policy in the region: claim a Communist threat, persuade legislators back home of its dangers, bomb the country, and install a new, pro-American and pro-business regime.

Using a rich trove of archival footage and documents, including letters to and from lobbyists, telegrams, vintage ads and movie clips, and gorgeous, hand-tinted stills, WHEN BANANA RULED is a story of intrigue that touches on economics, international politics, the history of multinational business and reveals how an array of forces conquered the world through a simple fruit.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 52 minutes

COMPANY TOWN: THE DARK SIDE OF THE SHARING ECONOMY

Directed by Deborah Kaufman, Alan Snitow

A grassroots movement challenges Citizens United, corporate power, and moguls of the "sharing economy" to stop gentrification and wrest back control of San Francisco's future.

The once free-spirited city of San Francisco is now a "Company Town," a playground for tech moguls of the "sharing economy." Airbnb is the biggest hotel, Uber privatizes transit. And now these companies want political power as well.

Meanwhile, middle class and ethnic communities are driven out by gentrification, skyrocketing rents and evictions, sparking a grassroots backlash. Can an insurgent electoral campaign overcome corporate power and billionaires' megabucks to change a city's course?

COMPANY TOWN shows how a grassroots coalition of unions, tenants, neighborhoods of color, activists and artists can come together to win.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 77 minutes

FOOD FOR CHANGE: THE STORY OF COOPERATION IN AMERICA

Directed by Steve Alves

The deep history of cooperatives in America -- the country's longest-surviving alternative economic system.

FOOD FOR CHANGE looks at the current resurgence of food cooperatives in America and their unique historic place in the economic and political landscape. Born in the heartland, cooperatives are seen as the middle path between Wall Street and Socialism.

The film profiles several food co-ops that have revived neighborhoods and communities - right in the shadows of corporate agribusinesses and supermarket chains. It's an inspiring example of community-centered economies thriving in an age of globalization.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 82 minutes

SINGULAR STORY OF UNLUCKY JUAN, THE

By Ricardo Figueredo Oliva

Seven pounds of rice, five pounds sugar, four ounces coffee, half a pound cooking oil, five eggs, 10 ounces beans, a small bread roll and a pound a half of meat - that's the monthly allotment for Cubans under the country's rationing system.

An independent film financed through crowd-funding and without the financial support of traditional Cuban film institutions, THE SINGULAR STORY OF UNLUCKY JUAN is a comprehensive, accessible examination of the particularities of the Cuban economy. Using a fictional worker called Juan as an example, the film shows how the economy affects the daily lives of ordinary citizens - and how badly it squeezes those who don't have access to hard currency.

Cuba has two currencies: the Cuban Peso and the CUC - a far more valuable currency pegged to international exchange rates. Tourists pay in CUCs and shop at CUC stores, which stock higher quality goods at a huge premium.

Divided into chapters covering rations, the marketplace, CUC stores, private business, corruption, economic migration, and future Cuba, the documentary walks us through how each of these affects Juan and those like him. The film interviews a cross-section of Cuban workers and an economist who favours a more free-market approach, and offers sometimes hypnotic shots evoking economic activity: butchers cutting meat, fruit vendors at markets, shops lined with luxury goods inaccessible to most.

Juan starts the month with 250 Cuban pesos. But once he's paid for his food rations, extra food to meet his needs for the month, transit, utilities, and the new energy-efficient fridge he was obliged to buy (and use 20% of his monthly salary to pay off over a 10-year term), there is little left. No wonder so many Cubans rely on living with relatives, overseas remittances, or getting involved in corruption and the black market.

As bad as things are, Cubans worry about what the future will look like once relations with the United States eventually become normalized. Speaking about the US, they worry the Americans "will swallow us whole" and use words like "crushed" and "assimilated" to describe what may lie ahead. The door has already been slightly opened - with a new foreign economic development zone and relaxed rules allowing some Cubans to own private businesses. But these are no panacea either. Small-business owners report frequent harassment, ticketing for endless infractions, and bureaucratic roadblocks. "I don't own this business," says a tired-looking woman, "I am its slave."

DVD (Spanish, With English Subtitles, Color) / 2016 / 52 minutes

WECONOMICS: ITALY

Directed by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin

Weconomics: Italy reports on the extensive and innovative cooperative economy in the region around Bologna.

The Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy has one of the highest concentrations of cooperative businesses in the developed world. The capital, Bologna is an industrial powerhouse, where prosperity is widely shared, and cooperatives of teachers and social workers play a key role in the provision of government services.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 19 minutes

CHICAGO BOYS

By Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano

After the 1973 coup which brought Augusto Pinochet to power, a group of Chilean economists were given the power to turn Chile into a laboratory for the world's most radical neo-liberal experiments. These men, including Sergio de Castro and Rolf Lüders, both of whom would serve as ministers of finance during the Pinochet years, met in the 1950s at the University of Chicago, where they studied under the famed economist Milton Friedman, and the man who would become their mentor, Arnold Harberger.

CHICAGO BOYS is their story from their student days through the dictatorship, told by the Chicago Boys themselves. Could their program for 'economic freedom,' such a drastic restructuring of the Chilean economy, only have been implemented by an authoritarian regime? What were they willing to do to achieve their goals? And how do they see the long-term results today?

Even though they do eventually acknowledge some of the darker sides of their work, Lüders "couldn't care less about inequality," de Castro feels bad for the torturers, and they all seem completely baffled by those Chileans who have filled the streets, for five years now, in protest against their legacy.

DVD (Color) / 2015 / 85 minutes

FOOD COOP

Directed by Tom Boothe

Looks at the workings of a highly profitable supermarket, Brooklyn's Park Slope Food Coop, which for 44 years has been a shining example of a successful alternative economic system at work.

FOOD COOP takes us deep into the belly of the Park Slope Food Coop, one of America's oldest cooperative food supermarkets, with a healthy dose of insight and wit.

Nestled deep in New York City, which, for many, exemplifies both the glory and the horrors of the capitalist spirit, you can find this highly prosperous institution, just as American and certainly more efficient than Wall Street, but whose objective is entirely non-profit. Working against everything that defines "The American Way of Life," the basic principles of the Park Slope Food Coop are simple: each of its 16,000 members work 2.75 hours per month to earn the right to buy the best food in New York at incredibly low prices. This Brooklyn coop founded in 1973 is probably the best implemented socialist experience in the United States.

Through FOOD COOP, you will see this institution come to life and witness how the enthusiasm that animates the Park Slope Food Coop demonstrates a potential for change; how the coop's mode of participation viscerally teaches democracy to those who take part in its activities.

DVD / 2015 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 97 minutes

GENERATION JOBLESS

In Canada, while the economic recovery has eased for many, the youth unemployment rate remains staggering-double that of the general population. The documentary Generation Jobless explores the crisis of over-educated youths being underemployed, scraping by in low-paid, part-time jobs that do not require a degree just to pay off their debt while struggling to find real jobs. Some call them the lost generation, but it is not only young people who will pay the price.

If this generation is unable to forge a way into the economy, whose taxes will support the social safety net? If young people can't afford to buy homes, will the real estate market come crashing down again?

Youth unemployment and underemployment is a ticking time bomb with consequences for everyone.

DVD / 2015 / 43 minutes

CAPITALISM

Capitalism has been the engine of unprecedented economic growth and social transformation. With the fall of the communist states and the triumph of "neo- liberalism," capitalism is by far the world's dominant ideology. But how much do we understand about how it originated, and what makes it work?

CAPITALISM is an ambitious and accessible six-part documentary series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world.

Blending interviews with some of the world's great historians, economists, anthropologists, and social critics, with on-the-ground footage shot in twenty-two countries, CAPITALISM questions the myth of the unfettered free market, explores the nature of debt and commodities, and retraces some of the great economic debates of the last 200 years.

Each fifty-two minute episode is designed to stand alone, making these ideal for classroom use or as an additional resource for students:

Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries and took root in the practices of colonialism and the slave trade.

Episode 2: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel? Adam Smith was both economist and moral philosopher. But his work on morality is largely forgotten, leading to tragic distortions that have shaped our global economic system.

Episode 3: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom? The roots of today's global trade agreements lie in the work of stockbroker David Ricardo and demographer Thomas Malthus. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market.

Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right? Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of on his critique of how capitalism works - a critique that is relevant and as penetrating as ever?

Episode 5: Keynes vs Hayek: A Fake Debate? The ideological divide between the philosophies of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek has dominated economics for nearly a century. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond this dualism?

Episode 6: Karl Polanyi, The Human Factor An exploration of the life and work of Karl Polanyi, who sought to reintegrate society and economy. Could the commodification of labour and money ultimately be as disastrous as floods, drought and earthquakes?

CAPITALISM is an impressive series that makes economics accessible through an interdisciplinary approach that explores the work of great thinkers, while embedding economics in specific social, political, and historical contexts. The series can be watched as a whole, but each episode also stands alone.

The series features some of the world's top economists, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, including Thomas Piketty, Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Nicholas Phillipson, Kari Polanyi Levitt, David Graeber, and Abraham Rotstein.

3 DVDs (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2014 / 320 minutes

DOWNTOWN DREAM

By Aaron Matthews

For decades, small town life in the United States has been slowly and quietly eroding. But there are overlooked stories amidst the talk of America's economic decline: the stories of individual men and women in the "Rust Belt" community in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. Once one of the country's largest steel manufacturing centers, Lewistown lost its manufacturing base and industrial might a generation ago and has since become a "ghost town." DOWNTOWN DREAM follows the lives of five dynamic men and women living in Lewistown who refuse to be counted out and instead struggle to reinvent their lives and their dreams in America's chilly economic climate.

Over the course of two years, in DOWNTOWN DREAM, viewers witness five dynamic personal journeys that also concretize the struggles of the town itself. Jon, a developer, reflects Lewistown's wistful remembrance of nobler days; Bernard, a pastor and one of 150 African Americans in Lewistown, embodies the town's potential resurrection; Pam, a would-be salon owner, reflects the can-do spirit that may be a remedy for Lewistown's business community; Barb, a recovering addict, and Katie, her daughter and an aspiring actress and singer, personify its potential physical rehabilitation. Lyrical and intimate, the film reveals typical Americans in a typical American place grappling with the question on everybody's lips today: How do you make it in America anymore?

After more than 40 years of decay, Lewistown is now at a crossroads. The town leaders have drawn up a comprehensive redevelopment plan, and it is taking shape. In order to beautify the deserted downtown, streets have been widened, trees have been planted and buildings have been razed. The centerpiece of the plan-spending $250,000 in state funding to install a park in the town's center-is underway.

The situation in Lewistown mirrors the fate of the nation at this critical point in history. How do Americans make sense of economic and political forces beyond their control? Will they make a go of it and if so, how? In DOWNTOWN DREAM, Jon, Bernard, Pam, Barb and Katie reinvent their dreams in the face of devastation and decay.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2013 / 45 minutes

DETROPIA

Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

A vivid portrait of Detroit, America's first major post-industrial city, as it struggles to deal with the consequences of a broken economic system.

Detroit's story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century...the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos.

With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, DETROPIA sculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand city teetering on the brink of dissolution. These soulful pragmatists and stalwart philosophers strive to make ends meet and make sense of it all, refusing to abandon hope or resistance. Their grit and pluck embody the spirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America and begins to envision a radically different future.

DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 86 minutes

SURVIVING PROGRESS

Director: Mathieu Roy & Harold Crooks

Technological advancement, economic development, population increase - are they signs of a thriving society? Or too much of a good thing? Based on the best-selling book A Short History of Progress, this provocative documentary explores the concept of progress in our modern world, guiding us through a sweeping but detailed survey of the major "progress traps" facing our civilization in the arenas of technology, economics, consumption, and the environment.

Featuring powerful arguments from such visionaries as Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood, Stephen Hawking, Craig Venter, Robert Wright, Michael Hudson, and Ronald Wright, this enlightening and visually spectacular film invites us to contemplate the progress traps that destroyed past civilizations and that lie treacherously embedded in our own. Leading critics of Wall Street, cognitive psychologists, and ecologists lay bare the consequences of progress-as-usual as the film travels around the world - from a burgeoning China to the disappearing rainforests of Brazil to a chimp research lab in New Iberia, Louisiana - to construct a shocking overview of the way our global economic system is eating away at our planet's resources and shackling entire populations with poverty.

Providing an honest look at the risks and pitfalls of running 21st Century "software" (our accumulated knowledge) on 50,000-year-old "hardware" (our primate brains), Surviving Progress offers a challenge: to prove making apes smarter was not an evolutionary dead end.

DVD-R / 2012 / 86 minutes

MARX RELOADED

By Jason Barker

MARX RELOADED is a cultural documentary that examines the relevance of German socialist and philosopher Karl Marx's ideas for understanding the global economic and financial crisis.

The recent crisis triggered the deepest global recession in 70 years and prompted the US government to spend more than 1 trillion dollars in order to rescue its banking system from collapse. Today the full implications of the crisis in Europe and around the world still remain unclear. Nevertheless, should we accept the crisis as an unfortunate side-effect of the free market? Or is there another explanation as to why it happened and its likely effects on our society, our economy and our whole way of life?

Today a new generation of philosophers, artists and political activists are returning to Marx's ideas in order to try to make sense of the crisis and to consider whether a world without or beyond capitalism is possible. Is the severity of the ongoing recession a sign that the capitalist system's days are numbered? Ironically, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, could it be that communism might provide the solution to the growing economic and environmental challenges facing the planet?

Written and directed by Jason Barker - himself an experienced writer, lecturer, translator and doctor of philosophy - MARX RELOADED includes interviews with leading thinkers on Marxism, including those at the forefront of a popular revival in Marxist and communist ideas. The film also includes interviews with leading skeptics of this revival as well as light-hearted animation sequences which follow Marx's adventures through the matrix of his own ideas.

Interviews with leading experts include: Norbert Bolz, Micha Brumlik, John Gray, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Nina Power, Jacques Ranciere, Peter Sloterdijk, Alberto Toscano, and Slavoj Zizek.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2011 / 52 minutes

RISE OF DISASTER CAPITALISM (NAOMI KLEIN)

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism features Naomi Klein explaining the ideas and research behind her bestselling book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. In this riveting lecture and interview, Klein challenges and exposes the popular myth of the free market economy's peaceful global victory.

Around the world there are people with power who are cashing in on chaos, exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally implement their policies. They are the shock doctors. From Chile in 1973 to Iraq today, this is the chilling tale of how a few are making a killing while more are getting killed.

DVD / 2009 / 77 minutes

WHAT'S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY?

Directed by John de Graaf

Ecological economist Dave Batker questions whether GDP is an adequate measure of society's well-being and suggests workable alternatives.

Fame, ecological economist Dave Batker presents a humorous, edgy, factual, timely and highly-visual monologue about the American economy today, challenging the ways we measure economic success--especially the Gross Domestic Product--and offering an answer to the question: What's the Economy for, Anyway?

Using Gifford Pinchot's idea that the economy's purpose is "the greatest good for the greatest number over the longest run," Batker compares the performance of the U.S. economy with that of other industrial countries in terms of providing a high quality of life, fairness and ecological sustainability, concluding that when you do the numbers, we come out near the bottom in nearly every category.

Batker shines a humorous light on such economic buzzwords as "productivity," and "consumer sovereignty," while offering ideas for "capitalism with a human face," a new economic paradigm that meets the real needs of people and the planet.

DVD / 2009 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 40 minutes

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: HOW WE ARE CONNECTED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

Everyday we can see things in our lives that show us that we are connected with people all over the world. But exactly how is Australia connected to the other countries in the world, and what are our responsibilities? This program looks at how Australia is connected with the rest of the world in three key areas - trade and travel, communications, and global organisations and agreements. It features interviews with representatives from:

An export firm (Staedtler Pacific) ABC NewsRadio The United Nations The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade There is also a case study of AusAID.

DVD / 2003 / 21 minutes

MONEY AND BANKING: WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW

Taught By Professor Michael K. Salemi

From the invention of coins by the ancient Lydians to the 21st-century eurozone, human history tells the story of ingenious financial systems and the never-ending quest for economic solutions. Today, our global economy is both fascinating and dizzyingly complex-challenging even experts to comprehend it fully. But one thing remains clear: Money and finance play a deeply fundamental role in your life.

Money is a social contract that affects the decisions of nations and individuals. Our financial institutions drive our political systems and the growth of nations. And money and banking are indispensable in both your daily financial transactions and your most essential long-term plans. A working knowledge of money and banking systems is critically useful in several ways:

It helps you understand the complex and often bewildering world of finance. It helps you to "read" the current economic climate, to make sense of what you see in the media, and to gauge where the economy is headed. It gives you key insights into society and the economic issues in life. It allows you to comprehend integral aspects of history and the way civilization developed. Perhaps most important, it helps you to plan your own life and to make key financial decisions for yourself and your family.

Speaking to all of this in Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know, economist and award-winning Professor Michael K. Salemi of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill leads you in a panoramic exploration of our monetary and financial systems, their inner workings, and their crucial role and presence in your world. In 36 incisive and detailed lectures, he gives you a penetrating look at the financial institutions that are fundamental to your life and well-being. Beginning with the colorful history of money, including the monetary history of the United States, you investigate pivotal topics, including

the crucial role of public confidence in the stability of our financial system; how money is created by commercial and central banks; how "Wall Street" and "Main Street" are inextricably intertwined, each requiring the success of the other; the dramatic history and causes of hyperinflation; the uses of "local" currencies and nontraditional monetary systems; the thorny problem of financial firms that are deemed "too big to fail," and why being named "TBTF" gives firms an incentive to engage in risky investments; the irrational psychology of stock market "bubbles," in which investing becomes speculative gambling; and why the value of the dollar depends on interest rates elsewhere in the world.

6 DVDs (With Course Guidebook) / 1080 minutes

UNDERSTANDING INVESTMENTS

Taught By Professor Connel Fullenkamp, Ph.D.

Understanding Investments helps you do just that. In 24 lectures, it introduces the fundamentals of investing to those new to the subject while broadening and deepening the knowledge of more experienced investors. Taught by Professor Connel Fullenkamp, an award-winning educator from Duke University who regularly consults in the world of international finance, these lectures clearly explain the various kinds of financial markets, the different kinds of investments available to you, and the pros and cons of each. Even more important: The course shows you how to evaluate each of these in terms of your own financial situation.

4 DVDs (With Course Guidebook) / 720 minutes

WHERE IS THE WORLD GOING, MR. STIGLITZ?

Director: Jacques Sarasin

Simply and eloquently, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz explains how the world's economy works. Drawing not only from his academic expertise but also from time spent on the ground in countries around the world, Stiglitz offers fresh thinking about the questions and challenges facing all of us - from well-off Americans to those mired in Third World poverty.

This five part series will appeal to experts and non-experts alike, as Stiglitz's clear and concise reasoning about the complexities of globalization is revealed. The topics covered include an overview of the world economy; the challenge of global warming and the environment; the future of global trade and immigration; how globalization can benefit (and harm) developing countries; and issues of security and terrorism.

Jospeh Stiglitz is one of the most respected economists in the world today. Some of his positions and achievements include:

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Chairman of Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors Chief Economist at the World Bank Chair of the Management Board of the Brooks World Poverty Institute Consultant to World Leaders Professor at Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Stanford and (currently) Columbia University Author of the Best-Selling Book Globalization and Its Discontents (translated into 35 languages) and its followup Making Globalization Work

2 DVDs / 380 minutes

http://www.learningemall.com/News/Economics_202011.html

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droesslervalente1996 · 4 years

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How To Mentally Beat Premature Ejaculation Eye-Opening Diy Ideas

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#How To Mentally Beat Premature Ejaculation Eye-Opening Diy Ideas #How Can You Prevent Early Ejaculati

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rwilcox · 4 years

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2019 New Technologies (for me) / end of year review

I hate to break long standing traditions, so here's my tech in review blog entry for 2019.

If you are super bored, here are my previous revisions:

2015 in review

2016 in review

2017 in review

2018 in review

This may be a little bit different from the other in review articles, as many of the things I learned this last year were project leadership skills, and less understand the details about some tech. I sometimes joke that I've become an OOP programmer: Outline, OneNote and Powerpoint. There's a lot of truth to that.

Languages

Upon review, I played with a lot of languages this year. With the exception of TypeScript, most of these were for tool or future development. That last one is the most interesting: I learned Julia, for example, knowing that eventually Julia may be a thing we want to deploy, in some AI/ML microservices.

Other languages were me looking for a good language for tools: simple syntax, good target environment, and developer OS support that we can use in the mixed OS environment I find myself in.

In 2020 I know which existing decision I want to lean into (we have a smattering of Python), and where I want to advocate for change (broader adoption of Powershell). Which isn't as revolutionary as I was hoping.

TypeScript / Angular 5

I found myself, by default, sheparding a bunch of teams on Angular 5 for a while. I did some work in Angular 1, but that may have just when ES6 was released.

So I found myself coming up to speed in modern Angular, which includes Typescript. If just enough to make architectural decisions that made sense in practice. Which also meant learning about some other related topics: RxJS and Pupetteer.

I found TypeScript an interesting compromise of a language. It makes some of the same tradeoffs as Flow, but is more willing to introduce syntax. But I played around with it enough to find the weird corners, and understand some of the code style tradeoffs I could make (fully immutable structures with RxJS and clever abusage of the (weak) type system.)

ReasonML

This was a for fun language. I was interested in a functional language that didn't couple a bunch of type syntax with the rest of the functional programming goodness.

Reason is a modern syntax layer on top of OCAML, which cool. Reason can target both the OCAML compiler (native binaries), or Javascript. This versality is very interesting: can I trade off a static binary experience with a "whatever, Node is everywhere anywhere" when it's appropriate?

Juila

Read the book. Thought it was an interesting take on Go's "eh, maybe OOP isn't such a good idea" general philosophy. (Yes, I know I'm being reductive in both cases).

Racket

It's fun to see languages with really good macro functionality, and especially languages that claim to make it easy to make languages with the language. Part of me wants a language with a simple, consistent syntax and good standard library. (Smalltalk is certainly the former). That's what I was looking for here.

It was interesting to sometimes feel that I was playing with "new and optional" libraries... that were introduced shortly after 9/11. Not sure how I got that feeling, and it might be slightly unfair, but sometimes it felt like it.

I was able to protype an HTTP(s) request interface I really liked: based on curl's config file syntax, with a couple more parans. So that was kind of cool.

Was hoping to find a good language I could use for scripting type tasks. Racket turned out to not be in: in addition to having to think inside out a bit sometimes (lisp), I had issues with the package manager across the proxy at work.

Powershell

Oddly, I think Powershell might be the shell scripting language I want. It's a little awkward and verbose, but at work the default platform is Windows, and as a development team we support Linux VMs and eventually OS X. Powershell Core is availiable for all of those, without having to worry about exactly what version of bash (or not) is installed on the box.

(And no, we're not using WSL..)

I played with Powershell back in 2016, but I've moved my daily driver Windows shell to it, and it's trying to be my default for shell scripts (in spite of having a bit of a shelljs) culture and an blossoming Python culture.)

Oh, but one thing I hate about Powershell: it assumes you're running a back background, and if you don't text becomes hard to read, in some cases without a way to change it lighter. Could not believe my shell had opinions about my terminal coloring.

DevOpsey Stuff

Mostly stayed away from this side of the fence this year. Or minor improwements over work done last year.

Misc

Graphing

I looked around for graph building tools. Not just graphics tools, but tools to help build graphs specifically. DAGs, bar charts, etc etc. Can I hook it into some scripting language and make it go. Can I use embed something like it in a language I'm using, or render it to something useful in the 2020s (markdown, for example, over LaTeX.). While knowing about graph primatives (nodes and edges, not me manually drawing lines)

I think graphviz may still be the winner here, oddly enough.

Technical Team Leadership across teams

2018 was laying down infrastructure that I knew dozens of developers would come to use, and they did. Then (late 2018), they got chopped up into small teams.

The last half of the year turned into how to affect technical change across a bunch of direct teams, while other stakeholders in the business had either questions or wanted onboarding too. All the while migating Conway's Law and dealing with the ways this project's Agile implementation is broken (Agile is like family: everyone's is broken in their own special way.)

I found some of my old notes on Agile implementation issues I've seen in the past. here. I've been enhancing these, but it's interesting to me to see this at a different level now: those experiences in those teams were both invaluabile in seeing not just one team, but 10, in an Agile implementation effort... but mostly of my time is the worries on top of those worries.

I am very grateful I'm able to inact as much influence as I do without having to go into the management track (where my sphere of influence would, directly, likely be less.)

Quiet revolution was my job in 2018: making decisions that would be accepted by existing technical leadership (looking technically famililar) in places, and in other places driving forward the wheel of tech change.

In 2019, many of the early technical players in that effort are still in place, and I respect them (and I hope they respect me too). I found myself gaining that respect from the non-developer side of the project too. Now revolution can have a very high price, and figuring out when to fight for revolution, where to reduce major revolutions to "2 lines of code and you get this new thing for free!", where to toil and where to automate, when to evolve towards a change and when to rip the bandaid off... and what's the best for a particular situation.

So: 2018: quiet revolution. 2019: air traffic control at a large airport: avoid two planes crashing into each other, add new routes, try to use premonition to figure out that two half full flights to Atlanta are going out 5 minutes apart and fix that, and keep the runway moving. And why is this person wanting us to fly directly to Toledo now, and who, exactly, are they?

When you say it that way it's been a busy year.

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suzanneshannon · 4 years

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The Rising Complexity of JAMstack Sites and How to Manage Them

When you add anything with user-generated content or dynamic data to a static site, the complexity of the build process can become comparable to launching a monolithic CMS. How can we add rich content to static sites without stitching together multiple third-party services?

For people in the development community static site generators are a popular choice over traditional content management systems (CMS) like WordPress. By comparison static sites are usually lightweight, highly configurable, fast, easy to use and can be deployed almost anywhere.

With static websites, no code is generated on the server; we've replaced databases and server-side code with APIs and build processes.

This has become known as a JAMstack, which stands for JavaScript, APIs and Markup. I have a strong persuasion towards JAMstack sites because I feel more in control of the output than I do when working with the often large and monolithic CMSs I’ve sometimes had to use on client projects.

Despite my enthusiasm, I'm often disheartened by the steep complexity curve I typically encounter about halfway through a JAMstack project. Normally the first few weeks are incredibly liberating. It's easy to get started, there is good visible progress, everything feels lean and fast. Over time, as more features are added, the build steps become more complex, multiple APIs are added, and suddenly everything feels slow. In other words, the development experience begins to suffer.

It usually looks something like this:

One of the reasons for this steep rise in complexity is there are limits to the type of data that markdown can easily represent. Relationships are one example where static sites struggle. Relationships between pages or collections of assets (such as an image gallery) can only be represented by markdown in inefficient ways. It requires significant preprocessing to resolve anything more complicated than a simple set of tags or categories. If you’ve ever had to do it, you will also know the authoring experience of managing relationships in markdown isn’t ideal.

User-generated content is another area that can cause a steep rise in the complexity of static sites. Adding features like comments, ratings, likes or any other kind of dynamic content will require third-party services — each has its own account that needs to be managed, not to mention that adding third-party scripts can have a negative impact of page performance.

If a service doesn't match your specific requirements, sometimes it’s possible to cobble solutions together using generic platforms like Google Forms or AirTable.

The end result is we've outsourced the database, fragmented the content management experience and stitched together a bundle of compromises. That’s a stark contrast from the initial ease of setting up and deploying a JAMstack site.

Although this complexity curve is not unique to JAMstack projects, adding rich features to markdown-driven sites is far more difficult than we care to admit. What happened!? A lack of complexity was one of the reasons we favored JAMstack in the first place.

We did that thing that web developers do. We moved the complexity from one space into another and congratulated ourselves 😂. Not having complexity on the server-side is good for front-end performance, but there is little incentive to optimize any further once we do this. Ridiculous build times and complicated tool-chains have become an acceptable reality for modern front-end web development.

JAMstack Plus

Before I come across as sounding too critical, I should make it clear that I absolutely love static site generators. I think they are a perfect solution for many simple sites and you should still use them. However, I feel like a simple content management layer that I own and can configure is preferable to:

poor content management experiences,

complicated integration of third-party services, and

inefficient build processes.

I want to combine the benefits of a CMS with static site generators.

And it seems I'm not the only one who has reached this conclusion:

WordPress (et al) is often pitted _against_ static site generators.

I get it. They feel like different worlds.

But SSG’s just take input and make static output. You may still want/need a CMS, and WordPress can be that. It has APIs that a SSG can injest.

— Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier) June 11, 2019

My encounters with static site generators lead me to the opinion that they are incredibly compelling as a way to work, but be sure you really do want a static site. Too often what I see is a messy compromise to deal with stuff a DB would make easy.

— Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) September 20, 2019

WordPress is a fantastic and familiar content editing experience, but what if you could deploy your site statically for ultimate speed, stability, and security? ⚡️You can, and here’s a great rundown of plugins for doing headless WordPress on Netlify: https://t.co/lz6fscbX3q

— Netlify (@Netlify) July 30, 2019

The solution doesn’t need to be another third-party service or require abandoning static sites entirely. You can use a personalized content management layer and unified API to enrich a static site. It might not be as hard as you think.

The first step is to create an API for your site. You can use any headless CMS, but the challenge I’ve had with many options is they make a lot of assumptions about the type of content you want. You might not want the CMS to manage pages and posts, but rather use it to store comments or images. I find this particularly difficult with WordPress. I often feel like I’m forcing a blogging platform to be just the service I need.

The new version of KeystoneJS (Keystone 5) is an excellent alternative to more opinionated content management systems. It's made up of tiny independent components, so you only add the parts you need. This means it doesn’t feel like modifying a blogging platform. Instead it's like creating a personalized mini-CMS and API to work specifically with your site.

I call this approach JAMstack Plus.

To help you get started with this idea I've created two projects:

Supermaya, a starter kit for the static site generator Eleventy.

Keystone JAMstack Plus, a blog enrichment platform.

Introducing Supermaya

The first project I want to share with you is Supermaya, an Eleventy starter kit designed to help add rich features to a blog or website without a complicated build process.

It comes with the all "blog standard" features including:

Posts and Pages

Pagination