#How to improve Sales Performance

[triridbilling]

How to increase your Buyers Performance

Know your Audience

To make the right decisions for your products and transactions activities, you need to know your consumer’s taste. When your customers are online, you need to take appropriate steps to know more and more about them.

Record your Growth

You must have eagle eye on your business what you're doing well and where you are falling short if you want to improve your sales performance. Do this weekly/monthly basis, depends on your transactions you can track business progress wherever required. Always document your success when you achieve. Positive attitude will keep you ahead and boost your sales performance over time.

Reporting Making

For any businesses the foremost task is generating the report for all your business transactions. Good billing software must have ability to generate reports on Purchases, Sales, GST and other valuable information. The bottom line is that it is important to choose the right billing software for your business so that you can manage your flow efficiently and analyze your business in a proper manner.

Systematized Approach

The most important factors in improving buyer’s performance are to ensure you are focus on the right task at the right time. If you are not taking the proper decisions to allocate time to complete work for an example putting time on your calendar. As result efficiency of sales performance may be decrease in long-term.

User Friendly

Now-a-days most of the billing software is remote-based, in shorts that can be accessed from anywhere anytime as per your convenience. This is only possible with the help of mobile apps including Apple devices, Android devices and other devices too. Using remote based software you can easily access your all transactions in a single click.

For More Information:

Call @ +91 8980010210

Visit @ https://tririd.com/tririd-biz-gst-billing-accounting-software

[mollyjames]

Even in food service, there is the demand for exponential growth. Each store has a profit target you're expected to hit every quarter. Each quarter the target gets bigger and bigger. The only way to make sure you hit or exceed that target is to increase sales or cut costs. Sales can only go so far though, so at a certain point there is the understandable temptation (not justifiable, but understandable) for your manager to start cutting hours. Once they do, your location has entered a Death Spiral.

The thing about the Death Spiral is it is nearly impossible to escape. It starts innocuous enough, with a few hours getting shaved off every week. And true enough at first you probably didn't need those hours. They were the slack, the extra hands that helped distribute the work and made it easier on everyone. You might not even notice they're gone. Maybe the morning rush is a little harder to handle, maybe there isn't as much time to chat as there used to be. But on the whole nothing has changed. You're still hitting your sales quota and, hey, everyone seems to be working a little harder. That's good, right?

Then the next quarter rolls around. You exceeded your quota. Upper management is very excited. But now your new quota is even higher than it would have been if you had simply performed to expectations. You raise prices a bit, push more expensive drinks, and sure, cut a few more hours. Bit by bit the slack gets tighter. The fat gets trimmed. All because continual growth, continual improvement, is not just demanded, but expected.

The endgame of the Death Spiral is the expectation that every worker will operate at 100% efficacy 100% of of the time, and that nothing will go wrong ever. It never reaches this point, as any food service worker will tell you, shit goes wrong. Service gets worse, you lose a few customers, and you miss your quota. This is the point of no return, because the only way to solve the problem is to add more hours. But there's no way upper management will approve spending more money. On a failing store? Don't be ridiculous. Maybe get those numbers up and we'll consider adding hours back. But the only way to get those numbers up is with no hours. It's a Catch-22. You're trapped. Slowly, inevitably, the store fails, and then closes.

The Death Spiral is a doomed strategy, but it is the one corporations push in response to investor pressure. It tricks workers into more work for the promise of relief later, if they do well and succeed, not realizing they'll only be asked to do even more next time. So how do you fight it? Know your worth. Don't let anyone give you more work without some kind of kickback. Don't fool yourself into thinking that being indispensable will lead to a reward later.

But the best defense? Join a union.

[astrologydray]

Ruler of the 3rd through the houses

ruler of the 3rd house through the houses reveals how your mind works, how you learn and speak, your communication style, relationships with siblings, and how you move through your local environment. This also ties into social intelligence, storytelling, and how you interpret the world around you.

3rd House Ruler in the 1st House

Your mind is your identity.

You communicate with intensity and presence. Your thoughts are quick, and your words can leave an impression. People might see you as opinionated, witty, or always “in the know.” You probably need to speak to understand yourself. Talking over others, impatient listening are throngs that can happen.

3rd House Ruler in the 2nd House

Speaking as a source of value.

You might monetize your communication skills — writing, teaching, sales, or media. You think in practical terms, and your thoughts often revolve around worth, values, and security. Grounded, hands-on, slow but lasting retention. Watch for fixed mindsets, and attaching ideas to material worth.

3rd House Ruler in the 3rd House

Ultra communicator.

This doubles the Mercurial energy. You’re endlessly curious, naturally sharp, and likely live in your head. There’s a deep connection to language, possibly a gift for mimicry, writing, or storytelling. Fast, curious, often self-taught or info-obsessed.

3rd House Ruler in the 4th House

The inner voice is shaped by the past.

Thoughts are deeply emotional. You may reflect and process internally before speaking. Early home life or family dynamics may have shaped your communication style — for better or worse. Emotional, intuitive, learns best when feeling safe. Prone to overly subjective thinking, and clinging to the past.

3rd House Ruler in the 5th House

Creative communicator.

You speak with flair and passion. Storytelling, poetry, performance, or playful communication comes naturally. You’re likely the funny friend, the flirt, or the drama-filled texter.

3rd House Ruler in the 6th House

The mind as a tool.

You’re a practical thinker. Your thoughts are often directed toward improving systems, fixing problems, or helping others. You may work in writing, analysis, healing, or admin roles. Systematic, structured, analytical.

3rd House Ruler in the 7th House

Your words shape your relationships.

You’re a natural negotiator, communicator, or mediator. Conversation is your love language. Partnerships (romantic or professional) deeply shape your mindset.

3rd House Ruler in the 8th House

The secret mind.

You think deeply, intensely, and often privately. You may be interested in taboo subjects, psychology, mysteries, or healing. Your words hold weight — and often power. Deep dive thinker, emotionally charged type of learners.

3rd House Ruler in the 9th House

The philosophical mind.

You learn best through big ideas, different cultures, or spiritual exploration. You may be a natural teacher, traveler, or someone who bridges practical thinking with visionary ideas. Expansive, big-picture, philosophical.

3rd House Ruler in the 10th House

Public voice, visible mind.

You may communicate for your career or be known for your ideas. Your thoughts are goal-oriented, structured, and ambitious. Think speaker, writer, CEO, or spokesperson. Authoritative, strategic, often career-focused.

3rd House Ruler in the 11th House

The networked mind.

Your ideas move through community, technology, and social movements. You think about the future, the collective, and what’s next. Possibly gifted in digital spaces or group organizing. Social, futuristic, thrives in collaboration. Prone to overthinking social roles, and groupthink tendencies.

3rd House Ruler in the 12th House

The mystical or hidden mind.

Your mind is imaginative, dreamlike, and intuitive. You may communicate best through art, music, or subtle emotional language. You often process things internally before expressing them. Intuitive, visual, dreamy — needs time alone.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Forcing Google to spin off Chrome (and Android?)

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/19/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do/#shiny-and-chrome

Last August, a federal judge convicted Google of being "a monopolist" and acting "as one to maintain its monopoly." The judge concluded that key to Google's monopoly was the vast troves of data it collects and analyzes and asked the parties to come up with remedies to address this.

Many trustbusters and Google competitors read this and concluded that Google should be forced to share its click and quer y data. The technical term for this is "apocalyptically stupid." Releasing Google's click and query data into the wild is a privacy Chernobyl in the waiting. The secrets that we whisper to search engines have the power to destroy us a thousand times over.

Largely theoretical answers like "differential privacy" are promising, but remain theoretical at scale. The first large-scale live-fire exercise for these should not be something as high-stakes as Google's click and query data. If anything, we should delete that data:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/#extinguish-v-improve

The last thing we want to do is use antitrust to democratize surveillance so that everyone can spy as efficiently as Google does. In theory, we could sanitize the click and query data by limiting sharing to queries that were made by multiple, independent users (say, only sharing queries that at least 30 users have made), but it's unlikely that this will do much to improve the performance of rival firms' search engines.

Google only retains 18 months' worth of click and query data, thus once we cut off its capacity to collect more data, whatever advantage it has from surveillance will begin to decay immediately and fall to zero in 18 months.

(However: the 18 months figure is deceptive, and deliberately so. Google may only retain your queries for 18 months, but it is silent on how long it retains the inferences from those queries. It may discard your "how do I get an abortion in my red state" query after a year and a half, but indefinitely retain the "sought an illegal abortion" label it added to your profile. The US desperately needs a federal consumer privacy law!)

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

And just to be clear, there's other Google data that would be very useful to rival search engines, like Google's search index – the trove of pages from the internet. Google already licenses this out, and search engines like Kagi use it to produce substantially superior search results:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

The DOJ has just filed its proposal for a remedy, and it's a doozy: forcing Google to sell off Chrome, on the basis that both of these are the source of much of Google's data, and no rival search engine is likely to also have a widely used browser:

https://9to5google.com/2024/11/18/us-doj-google-sell-chrome/

This represents something of a compromise position: the DOJ had initially signalled that it would also demand a selloff of Android, and that's been dropped. I think there's a good case for forcing the sale of Android as a source of data, too.

In competition theory, these selloffs are referred to as "structural separation" – when a company that provides infrastructure to other firms is prohibited from competing with those firms:

https://locusmag.com/2022/03/cory-doctorow-vertically-challenged/

For example, it used to be that banks were prohibited from competing with the companies they loaned money to. After all, if you borrow money from Chase to open a pizzeria, and then Chase opens a pizzeria of its own across the street, you can see how your business would be doomed. You have to make interest payments to Chase, and your rival doesn't, and if Chase wants to, it can subsidize that rival so it can sell pizzas below cost until you're out of business.

Likewise, rail companies were banned from owning freight companies, because otherwise they would destroy the businesses of every freight company that shipped on the railroad.

In theory, you could create fair play rules that required the bank or the railroad to play nice with the business customers that used their platforms, but in practice, there are so many ways of cheating that this would be unenforceable.

This principle is well established in all other areas of business, and we recoil in horror when it is violated. You wouldn't hire a lawyer who was also representing the person who's suing you. Judges (with the abominable exception of Supreme Court justices!) are required to recuse themselves when they have a personal connection with either of the parties in a case they preside over.

One of the weirdest sights of the new Gilded Age is when lawyers for monopoly companies argue that they can play fair with their customers despite their conflicts of interest. Think of Google or Meta, with their ad-tech duopoly. These are companies that purport to represent sellers of ads and buyers of ads in marketplaces they own and control, and where they compete with sellers and/or buyers. These companies suck up 51% of the revenue generated by advertising, while historically, the share taken by ad intermediaries was more like 15%!

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/25/structural-separation/#america-act

Imagine if you and your partner discovered that the same lawyer was representing both of you in the divorce, while also serving as the judge, and trying to match with both of you on Tinder. Now imagine that when the divorce terms were finalized, lawyer got your family home.

No Google lawyer would agree to argue on the company's behalf in a case where the judge was employed by the party that's suing them, but they will blithely argue that the reason they're getting 51% of the ad-rake is that they're providing 51% of the value.

Structural separation – like judicial recusal – comprehensively and unarguably resolves all the perceptions and realities of conflict between parties. The fact that platform owners compete with platform users is the source of bottomless corruption, from Google to Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

In other words, I think the DOJ is onto something here. That said, the devil is – as always – in the details. If Google is forced to sell off Chrome, rather than standing it up as its own competing business, things could go very wrong indeed.

Any company that buys Chrome will know that it only has a certain number of years before Google will be permitted to spin up a new browser, and will be incentivized to extract as much value from Chrome over that short period. So a selloff could make Chrome exponentially worse than Google, which, whatever other failings it has, is oriented towards long-term dominance, not a quick buck.

But if Google is forced to spin Chrome out as a standalone business, the incentives change. Anyone who buys Chrome will have to run it as a functional business that is designed to survive a future Google competitor – they won't have another business they can fall back on if Google bounces back in five years.

There's a good history of this in antitrust breakups: both Standard Oil and AT&T were forced to spin out, rather than sell off, parts of their empire, and those businesses stood alone and provided competitive pressure. That is, until we stopped enforcing antitrust law and allowed them to start merging again – womp womp.

This raises another question: does any of this matter, given this month's election results? Will Trump's DoJ follow through on whatever priorities the current DoJ sets? That's an open question, but – unlike so many other questions about the coming Trump regime – the answer here isn't necessarily a nightmare.

After all, the Google antitrust case started under Trump, and Trump's pick for Attorney General, the credibly accused sexual predator Matt Gaetz, is a "Khanservative" who breaks with his fellow Trumpians in professing great admiration for Biden's FTC chief Lina Khan, and her project of breaking up corporate monopolies:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/trump-nominates-khanservative-matt

What's more, Trump is a landing strip for a stroke or coronary, which would make JD Vance president – and Vance has also expressed his approval of Khan's work.

Google bosses seem to be betting on Trump's "transactional" (that is, corrupt) style of governance, and his willingness to overrule his own appointees to protect the interests of anyone who flatters or bribes him sufficiently, or convinces the hosts of Fox and Friends to speak on their behalf:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/comprehensive-review-revolving-door-between-fox-and-second-trump-administration

That would explain why Google capo Sundar Pichai ordered his employees not to speak out against Trump:

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employees-memes-poke-fun-company-rules-political-discussion-2024-11

And why he followed up by publicly osculating Trump's sphincter:

https://twitter.com/sundarpichai/status/1854207788290850888

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[bellestarot]

Anton's Reading

January 11, 2025

Right Now

It seems like he’s being rewarded by the universe for all the bad things he’s been through in his life. He has many scars and traumas that he carries, and they’re being healed because of how he’s dreamed and wished for good things.

Those good things are finally coming his way. He’s realizing that all his effort was absolutely worth it. He’s feeling very fulfilled financially. He’s happy to be part of the group he’s in and to be on stage. He feels like that’s his true home.

He’s also really excited because it seems like the group or maybe just him will be traveling to another place soon. He’s very anxious about it and aware that he’s going through a lot of changes, some of which are uncomfortable, but he’s trying to adapt.

Love Life

He doesn’t seem to be dating anyone, but he doesn’t appear entirely single either. It feels like he’s involved with a few people. He misses a relationship from his past that he hasn’t fully gotten over. He feels like the ending wasn’t fair—he believes he gave a lot of himself. Or perhaps he feels that the love wasn’t mutual in that relationship.

Now, he’s developed an interest in someone—possibly someone a bit older than him—who he’s becoming friends with. They’re a good friend, but at the same time, he’s being cautious with this person because he doesn’t want to get hurt again.

He’s very sensitive right now and hesitant about pursuing a relationship. The thought of starting over, going through the process of getting to know someone, and dating feels overwhelming and like a burden to him. He’s not ready for that just yet.

Even though he’s interested also in another person, who seems to reciprocate those feelings, they don’t have much time to see each other. The lack of free time has been a major obstacle for them.

Career

Something related to justice happened—a decision made by someone in a much higher position. He feels like his hands were tied, unable to do anything to help the person involved. He feels guilty for not being able to act and felt powerless at the time.

Despite this, he’s been celebrating with his group and is deeply grateful for his colleagues. He feels the group is headed for even greater success, something big is on the horizon.

However, there are a few members he’s had issues with. One, who is about his age, makes him feel like he’s walking on eggshells because of their “know-it-all” attitude. Another, who’s older, has made him feel somewhat betrayed—possibly due to something they said or their attitude, which comes off as arrogant or superior. He dislikes this behavior.

Family

He loves his family more than anything in the world and values them deeply. It seems like his family is involved in some sort of business, possibly selling or building things together. He loves participating in that. He enjoys creating things and using his creativity.

One family member, who seems to be thriving in sales or their own business, makes him very proud. But he’s a bit worried about another family member, maybe a sibling or cousin, who seems to be losing their sense of purpose.

He especially cherishes his mother and wishes he could give her more. He feels she deserves more comfort, better health, and a better life. This is something he’s been thinking about a lot. He believes his family faced struggles, but things are improving, especially for his mother.

Friendships

He feels like his work has been consuming him, both mentally and physically, leaving him no time to make new friends or spend time with the ones he already has. He has a few friends, like someone around his age and an older woman, but he hardly has time for them. Even his leisure time has been disrupted by work. All he does now is travel and perform on stage, which is taking a toll on him. He feels completely drained and overwhelmed.

Future

He will soon be there for a friend, possibly a woman, who is going through a very dark time. She might be engaging in unhealthy behaviors that are harming her. He’ll witness her recovery, see her regain hope, and feel immense happiness about her progress. He may rely on his faith—if he has any—to support this person in returning to a healthier state.

Additionally, he will find time for two friends, one male and one female, as he learns to balance work and his personal life better. He will also reconnect with old school friends or people from his younger days. While he’ll be surprised and perhaps nervous about their return, he’ll ultimately welcome them into his life and feel at peace.

He seems to have a strong spirituality and intuition, and many opportunities in the entertainment industry are still ahead of him. Positive judgments and praise for his decisions will follow, with people recognizing his efforts and achievements.

Advice

"Believe in yourself. Engage your mind with your good star and recognize that your inner light will always guide you upwards and forwards."

— Unknown

[cosmic-daydreamz02]

Career Reading

Placements to look at for your ideal career:

2nd house-how you make money

6th house-daily routine and work

10th house-career and public image

MC- career point.

11th house-social networks, long-term goals, opportunities for advancement (2nd from MC, so it shows the income from the career)

North Node - your life purpose and direction ; what you are meant to move towards in this lifetime

Part of Fortune - Where you find joy and success in this life, linked to both material and spiritual fulfillment

Vertex - represents fated encounters in your life. Where and how your destiny unfolds/ your turning point in life (not normally linked to career, but I think it can show what leads you to your true calling in this life especially if yours is in one of the money or career houses)

Saturn- rules discipline, structure, and long-term achievement, where you need to put in consistent effort to achieve success. Indicates your approach to responsibility in your career

Sun- core identity and life purpose, where you shine the most

Jupiter- expansion luck and growth. It shows your opportunities for success

Venus - where you can use your artistic abilities and social charm. It can also be how you attract money and resources

Signs and Career

Aries

• Career style: Assertive, pioneering, energetic, independent.

• Fields: Leadership roles, entrepreneurship, sports, military, anything involving action or competition.

• Drive: You take initiative and thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments where you can be first.

Taurus

• Career style: Steady, practical, patient, and value-oriented.

• Fields: Finance, banking, agriculture, real estate, art, luxury goods, anything involving material wealth or beauty.

• Drive: Security, stability, and a focus on building long-term wealth. Aesthetic and sensory satisfaction are important.

Gemini

• Career style: Communicative, versatile, adaptable, intellectual.

• Fields: Journalism, writing, teaching, marketing, sales, technology, anything that involves communication or travel.

• Drive: Curiosity and intellectual stimulation. You thrive in dynamic, social environments where you can multitask.

Cancer

• Career style: Nurturing, protective, intuitive, emotionally driven.

• Fields: Healthcare, caregiving, real estate, hospitality, education, psychology, anything that involves caring for others.

• Drive: Emotional security and a need to create a safe, supportive environment. You work best when you feel connected to your work on an emotional level.

Leo

• Career style: Charismatic, creative, confident, leadership-focused.

• Fields: Entertainment, arts, fashion, politics, sports, anything involving self-expression and performance.

• Drive: Recognition, fame, and the desire to shine. You excel in careers where you can showcase your talents and leadership.

Virgo

• Career style: Detail-oriented, analytical, service-minded, organized.

• Fields: Healthcare, administration, research, editing, writing, data analysis, anything involving precision and service.

• Drive: Efficiency and perfection. You aim to serve others by improving systems or contributing to something meaningful.

Libra

• Career style: Diplomatic, collaborative, partnership-oriented, aesthetically inclined.

• Fields: Law, diplomacy, art, design, beauty, fashion, anything involving partnership or justice.

• Drive: Harmony and balance in professional relationships. You thrive in roles where teamwork, fairness, and aesthetics are valued.

Scorpio

• Career style: Intense, transformative, secretive, powerful.

• Fields: Psychology, research, finance (especially investments, taxes, inheritance), surgery, anything involving transformation or mystery.

• Drive: Power and control. You are drawn to careers that allow you to dig deep and uncover hidden truths or manage shared resources.

Sagittarius

• Career style: Adventurous, philosophical, expansive, freedom-loving.

• Fields: Education, travel, law, publishing, international business, anything that involves exploration and knowledge-sharing.

• Drive: Freedom and expansion. You seek opportunities that allow you to learn, grow, and explore new horizons.

Capricorn

• Career style: Ambitious, disciplined, authoritative, responsible.

• Fields: Business, politics, government, finance, engineering, management, anything that involves structure, authority, and long-term goals.

• Drive: Success and achievement. You are career-focused and work tirelessly toward building a solid reputation and legacy.

Aquarius

• Career style: Innovative, humanitarian, unconventional, forward-thinking.

• Fields: Technology, science, social reform, innovation, group work, anything involving progressive change or social impact.

• Drive: Making a difference and creating a better future. You work best in collaborative or unconventional environments that allow for innovation.

Pisces

• Career style: Compassionate, imaginative, spiritual, idealistic.

• Fields: Art, music, healing, psychology, spirituality, charity work, anything that involves creativity, intuition, or service to others.

• Drive: Helping others and finding deeper meaning. You’re drawn to careers where you can use your empathy and creativity to make a positive impact.

Houses and Career Focus

1st House (Self-Identity, Public Persona)

You identify closely with your career. You're meant for careers where you're the leader or face of whatever you do, you're meant to be in the public eye somehow.

2nd House (Money, Resources, Values)

Financial stability and security is what drives you in your career. You would do good in careers related to banking and finance or sales (more like selling luxury goods or real estate)

3rd House (Communication, Learning, Siblings)

Communication, education, and travel. Or working in media. Teaching, writing, or sales/ anything that involves exchanges of info

4th House (Home, Family, Roots)

Home design, family business, real estate. Care giving or working from home. Emotional fulfillment through your career

5th House (Creativity, Pleasure, Children)

Creative fields, working with children. Career allows for self-expression. performance or leadership roles

6th House (Work Environment, Health, Service)

Service industry, Healthcare (especially if you have heavy virgo/pisces or 6th/12th placements), administration, work that requires tedious precision and detail

7th House (Partnerships, Marriage)

Collaboration, requires partnerships in career. Law, any counseling/consulting work, diplomat

8th House (Shared Resources, Transformation)

Finance (other peoples money like taxes, inheritance, etc), psychology, research/investigation

9th House (Philosophy, Travel, Higher Education)

Higher education, travel, law, publishing, career could be linked to foreign lands, (travel vlogger, professor, resort owner?)

10th House (Career, Reputation, Public Life)

Leadership, recognition, achieving goals, public image and success are emphasized

11th House (Community, Goals, Social Networks)

Community service/humanitarian work, technology, collective work

12th House (Spirituality, Solitude, Healing)

Healing, spirituality, charity work, hospitals, or creative/behind the scenes work like set design, director etc

[wauzmons]

We have been Betrayed, Backstabbed, Bamboozled: The Future of Elysian Eclipse

So, if you are active on our Discord, you know that EE is made in the Unity Engine and the CEO just decided to massively fuck over all the devs who are using it...

Callum Upton made a great video explaining the situation:

But it gets even worse!

Unity since defended themselves, saying that these fees are only affecting 10% of their customers, because of the $200k and $1m thresholds, so Indie devs don't have to worry about that.

…which isn't true:

Unity Plus

They aren't only introducing these fees but also changed the regular pricing plans! They just removed "Unity Plus" which is the lowest tier and costs about $50/month per dev with taxes. This is what most indies use. The next higher tier costs QUADROUPLE that amount and is also required to remove the universally loathed "made with Unity" splash screen. Oh! And if you have the personal tier, you won't be able to use Unity offline anymore! It now needs to do a license check every 3 days to function!

Unity's Ad Service

The fees will hit devs that do free-to-play mobile stuff especially hard, since they still have to pay the fees even when the players don't buy anything, meaning they could end up owing Unity more than they make in income. But what's this? If you use Unity's advertising service for your game, you will get a discount on the fees! The majority of mobile games run on Unity, meaning they are trying to monopolize the mobile ad market with this!

Publishers

Elysian Eclipse has caught the interest of a really big studio and publisher, who is considering to handle the marketing and publishing for the game. They are obviously planning to make the game come out big with sales, going beyond Unity's thresholds. But since the game is made in Unity, they probably now have to reconsider that carefully, since that would cause a massive amount of fees with Unity's new pricing model. So any game using Unity is now an instant turn-off for publishers, also massively hurting indie devs who don't reach that income threshold yet.

What will happen now?

So, Unity can't be trusted anymore and should be seen as a major threat to us and the gaming industry. Even if they walk back on some of these decisions, what has been said, has been said. They showed that they don't care about destroying thousands of games, as long as it nets them profit, so who knows what they are going to do next?

I will pause the development of Elysian Eclipse and release the Patreon demo, including all the prototypes like Aquatic Stage for free today. I canceled my subscription and it will run out next year, so Unity isn't getting a single cent from my games anymore.

Unreal Eclipse?

In the meantime I'll focus on improving my C++ skills, so I can work more effectively in Unreal Engine 5. Unreal is the current industry leader, offering much better solutions for graphics and performance for 3D games. It is also partially open source and completely free until you reach $1 million in revenue.

It is unlikely that I will be able to just translate the game from C# to C++ and port it over, since it is using a lot of engine-specific features. This basically means, we will start from scratch... I can't tell yet how much work this will be or in what ways the game will change.

But one thing, you can always be certain of: I will NEVER BETRAY MY DREAM. I will finish this project, no matter who or what stands in my way. I hope you will continue to support me on this journey.

That being said,

FUCK JOHN RICCITIELLO!!

Fucking cunt.

[andromeda-nova-writing]

After the Choir Sings

Summary: Modern Au! Fem!Reader. A fluffy teacher and student gift exchange with

Words: 561

AN: @thesteambird 's Secret Santa event. For @woofwoofwolf . I hope you enjoy! This was my first time writing him ever, so I hope this comes off in character.

The auditorium slowly emptied after the choir concert as parents and children met up once again for the night. People who stayed behind were talking with teachers, friends, and family members. The bake sale table had begun to just hand out snacks for free trying to get rid of what was left.

The only somewhat chaotic thing that was happening was the choir director who ran around trying to catch parents and children handing out small gifts to her students. A small gesture to show how proud she was of their hard work after completing the performance they had spent months preparing for.

“Sigewinne!” She called out, her pace quickening to catch up with her and her guardian as they approached the door.

The two of them paused their walk turning around to see who had called out her name. Sigewinne was quick to wave hello with a smile.

“I was worried you left already,” Y/N spoke relieved to have caught up. “Your solo went perfectly today.”

“Thank you. I’ve been practicing at home like you asked me to.” Sigewinne spoke proudly of herself.

“It paid off. I don’t think I’ve had the chance to meet your guardian as of yet. Would you mind introducing us?” She asked looking up away from Sigewinne.

“Oh!” Sigewinne let go of his hand. “This is Monsieur Neuvillette and this is Miss Y/N.” 

Neuvillette held out his hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“You as well.” She shook his hand. “It’s been a pleasure working with Sigewinne. I bring gifts.” She reached into a large almost empty bag bringing a smaller gift bag. The bag was decorated with snowflakes. Some of the goodies inside were peaking out of the top. She handed the bag to Sigewinne.

Her eyes lit up seeing the stickers that peaked out. Plans of the silly variety formed in her head. “Thank you!”

“You're too kind.” Neuvillette thanked her.

“It's just something I remember my teachers doing for me. It just feels right to keep the tradition going. Plus it’s so easy to want to keep the tradition going when you have people like Sigewinne participating. I think some of the other choir students would benefit if they understood practicing in their off time.”

“That’s high praise coming from you. If I remember right, you used to be a vocal coach for some big names. What caused the career switch?” He asked as Sigewinne examined the stickers that were in her bag.

“My cousin had a health scare and while I was helping to take care of his daughter I just found myself enjoying teaching her and her friends how to properly sing. I saw the position open up and I get to do what I love while I get to help my cousin recover. It makes the most out of my situation.” Y/N explained.

“Despite that, I’m glad to have you as her choir director. It has brought me immense joy hearing Sigewinne sing. I do hope you consider staying around after your cousin’s health improves.”

She couldn’t help but smile at the request. “I’m not sure yet but I guess I’ll see where this takes me. I do hope you enjoy the rest of your night. I still have some more gifts to hand out. I hope to see you at the next concert.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

[asordinaryppl]

A3! Backstage Story Translation - Tsumugi Tsukioka SSR: Sequel Performance Announcement From MANKAI Company ~ Winter Troupe ~ - Part 3

also proofread by myuntachis!

Azuma: This is amazing… This sacred and mysterious atmosphere makes me feel like an angel will actually appear.

Guy: Yes, it does feel like angels could descend at any moment.

Tsumugi: Also, when I see the stage like this, I can imagine myself acting on it with you all. It’s so exciting.

Tasuku: Yeah. I’ve been itching to act for a while now.

Hisoka: … That reminds me, look. I made a Winter Troupe marshmallow skewer.

Homare: I tried to imitate Hisoka-kun and made one as well.

Homare: As Hisoka-kun was making his as winter-themed as possible, I decided to spell out the word “WINTER”.

Izumi: Woah, they both look really good!

Guy: They’re easy to associate with the Winter Troupe.

Hisoka: Alice, give me your marshmallow skewer when we’re done filming.

Homare: But of course. That was my intention from the beginning.

Tasuku: Just don’t start eating mid-filming.

Hisoka: … … Okay.

Guy: You paused there.

Tasuku: Hey.

Tsumugi: Ahaha, stay strong, Hisoka-kun.

Izumi: Okay, we should start filming. How about you use the stairs?

Azuma: That sounds good. Let’s all sit and have the video taken like that.

Tsumugi: Are we good like this? Okay. Director, if you’d please.

Izumi: Got it. I’m starting in… 3, 2, 1—

-

Tsumugi: Hello, we’re MANKAI Company’s Winter Troupe. Our new performance will begin its run soon.

Tasuku: Our 11th performance is titled “Yearn for the Angel”.

Hisoka: It’s a sequel to our debut, “Sympathy for the Angel”.

Homare: This story depicts what happens to Michael after the ending… and how the angels have been spending their time since then.

Azuma: The play will still be enjoyable even if you haven’t watched the prequel, so you don’t have to worry about that.

Guy: The stage, costumes, as well as our acting, have all improved drastically. There are also plenty of key points to pay attention to, such as my and Yukishiro’s roles.

Homare: I do hope you’ll look forward to the appearance of these new characters, as well as the reappearance of the familiar ones.

-

Tasuku: I think you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the story, as well as its setting and characters.

Tsumugi: We hope you will come watch our new performance.

Guy: Streaming tickets are also on sale.

Azuma: You can check the overview for details.

Winter Troupe: We hope to see you all there.

Hisoka: … Nom.

-

Izumi: … And cut! Okay! Good work, everyone.

Tasuku: You ate it mid-filming after all.

Hisoka: I did the promotion just fine.

Izumi: The video came out well. It’s okay.

Azuma: Given that the Autumn Troupe released a promotional video, it seems our fans are expecting us to release one as well.

Homare: Yes, you must be right!

Tsumugi: I hope this performance will be enjoyable for them…

Tsumugi: As well as for people who have never watched one of MANKAI Company’s performances, and those who have never even heard of us.

Guy: Yes. I hope our performance will reach as many people as Spring, Summer and Autumn’s did before us.

-

Kureha: I’ve finished cleaning up here.

Café owner: Thank you. You can leave now.

Kureha: Okay. … Ah, I’m sorry, but could I borrow a seat for a while before I leave?

Kureha: I’ll be done quickly…

Café owner: Of course you can.

Kureha: Thank you so much.

Kureha: Okay…

Kureha: (I just got a notification for the Winter Troupe’s promo video…)

Tsumugi: “Hello, we’re MANKAI Company’s Winter Troupe. Our new performance will begin its run soon.”

Kureha: (Amazing… The stage is so well-done that it looks like an angel could descend at any moment…)

Guy: “The stage, costumes, as well as our acting, have all improved drastically. There are also plenty of key points to pay attention to, such as my and Yukishiro’s roles.”

Kureha: (There are lots of key points… Watching it once might not be enough. I’m really interested in what Guy-san’s role will be like…)

[Notification blip]

Kureha: (Oh, that’s BlooCha.)

momo has entered the chat momo: did you watch the winter troupe’s promo video!? Iv: here comes the manpany otaku w Kar: like clockwork lol shiki: i just watched it

Kureha: (I wonder what the setting for the Winter Troupe’s performance will be like… I can’t wait.)

part 1 | part 2 | part 3

[chenziee]

Consequences (of words spoken thoughtlessly)

Witten for the Surgeon of Death - A Trafalgar Law Zine!

I've had this idea in my head for like 5 years or something before I finally got the incentive to finally write it xD I hope you enjoy reading~ 🤍

After sales are live so you can still get your zine rigth here!

[ READ ON AO3 | KO-FI ]

—————

Law didn’t expect to come out of Dressrosa alive. No matter how many miracles the Straw Hat Pirates had worked over the years, Law knew that going against Doflamingo was nothing short of a suicide mission.

Don’t get him wrong, it wasn’t that he wanted to die. But there honestly aren’t many roads to take when your arm gets cut off and your whole vision is filled with pink feathers and the gold-plated barrel of a gun aimed straight at your face.

In that moment, Law had accepted death.

He wasn’t going to go without a fight but he didn’t particularly mind getting killed if he could piss Doflamingo off while at it. If his plan didn’t work, so be it. He was sure Straw Hat would finish the job even without Law’s help—and if he didn’t, well…

Then they would both be dead regardless.

And so, when he told Cavendish and Nico Robin to leave him behind on the Flower Hill below the Royal Palace to await their victory—or demise—, he thought nothing of it.

In retrospect, however, his half-delirious words may have been the gravest mistake of his entire life.

“Here you go, Torao.”

Law blinked, looking away from where he was changing the bandages on his thigh to instead stare blankly at the steaming cup of tea that was now sitting on the table next to him—placed there by a hand that immediately scattered into flower petals and disappeared.

"I didn't ask for tea," Law said slowly, a frown on his face that only deepened when he raised his eyes to look at Nico Robin. 

The woman was gazing back at him with an expression so soft and understanding that Law felt like he was five again, crying to his mother about his Stealth Black figure's broken arm. But Law wasn't five anymore. He didn't hurt any of his toys after performing clumsy surgeries on them. And Nico Robin certainly wasn't his mother.

"It's herbal. Improves mood and helps with recovery," she said with a gentle smile.

Law only stared back at her.

��————

Unfortunately, despite Law's hopes and wishes, the tea incident was only the start of it. Over the course of the next few days, Law was subjected to countless events of "here you go" and "wait, let me get that for you". Law would be lying if he said it wasn't driving him just a little insane.

No, Robo-ya, he was perfectly capable of carrying Kikoku himself.

No, Nose-ya, he didn't need or want his wanted poster framed. (The photo wasn't all that great, not to mention without his Warlord status and after overthrowing Doflamingo, they were all bound to get new bounties any day now.)

And no, Kyros-ya, he didn't want to 'talk about it'. Whatever 'it' meant.

At least Roronoa had the basic human decency to ask if he wanted any sake. Which was the one offer Law did accept without question because after everything, he honestly needed a damn drink of five.

It was only when Straw Hat woke up that it seemed like this… issue was over. While everyone scrambled to get away from Fujitora and his marines, no one even paused at Law’s presence, no one had the time to worry about his wellbeing—aside from his very awkward talk with Sengoku—and that was how he liked it.

But, unfortunately… it didn’t last very long.

“Law-dono!” Kin’emon called as he approached Law in his quiet corner aboard the Yontamaria.

"Kin." Law nodded in greeting. "What is it?"

"Are you enjoying the party?" Kin'emon asked… before casually placing a plate of food in front of Law.

Law took a deep breath and closed his eyes, counting to five in his mind. As if he was physically incapable of going to get his own food.

Not to mention there were umeboshi on the plate. Disgusting things.

Deciding not to comment on the unsolicited food delivery, Law sighed. "No," he said simply. "Parties aren't really my thing."

"I see." Kin'emon hummed. "Might this cheer you up?" Kin'emon reached inside his kimono, pulling out something small and bright red before handing it to Law.

For a moment, Law only stared at the thing sitting on his palm blankly, trying to wrap his head around it. Was this for real?

"A paper crane," he said, voice void of any emotion.

"Indeed. My wife often makes them for people; they carry good fortune, honour, and longevity. You may even make a wish upon them," Kin'emon explained proudly.

Luck and longevity, huh? Law thought to himself—and suddenly, he understood why everyone was acting this way around him.

He was too tired to deal with this shit.

“Oh! Kin’emon! Law-dono!”

Briefly, Law wondered whether he shouldn’t have just let Joker kill him.

Sadly, he couldn’t go back in time so he only sighed deeply, throwing an impatient, long-suffering look at the second samurai approaching them. What was his name? Kanjuro?

“This is perfect, I was just thinking I may have something for you, Law-dono,” Kanjuro announced, gulping down the cabbage roll in his hand before he pulled out his katana-like brush and started scribbling on the floor.

“Of course you do. Fucking everyone has something for me lately,” Law grumbled, but went largely ignored. Not that he expected any less.

It only took a moment for Kanjuro to finish with a satisfied huff. Raising one hand in front of his face in a mock-ninjutsu move, he called out, “Come forth, Kumamaru!”

Law’s eyebrows shot up to the top of his head while he watched this white… pathetic blob peel itself off the ground and stand on two shaky legs. It was barely the size of Law’s hand and so poorly drawn that Law honestly couldn’t tell what it was even supposed to be.

“Kumamaru?” Kin’emon repeated slowly. “Is this creature a bear?”

“Ku… kuma…” the thing said weakly in response, already out of breath.

“Indeed it is!” Kanjuro said proudly. “Luffy-dono told me you love cute white bears, so I thought Kumamaru would help you feel comfortable!”

Law took a sharp intake of breath, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “Straw Hat-ya,” he groaned, full of annoyance. Just because the idiot got so fixated on Bepo’s very existence as if he didn’t have a talking tanuki on his own crew…

“Law-dono, are you alright?” Kanjuro asked, sounding so worried that Law had to bite his cheek to not snap at him.

“Just awesome,” he hissed instead.

He couldn’t wait to get the hell off this goddamned ship and back to his crew.

And he hated to admit that the longer he looked at the terribly drawn aberration… the cuter it became.

He really hated his life.

—————

Law didn’t think it possible but somehow, the situation got even worse the first night they spent on Zou, the night when Nekomamushi declared yet another party in celebration of the country’s saviours.

There Law was, minding his own damn business and chatting with Bepo and Jean Bart, when Straw Hat Luffy himself barrelled his way to them, carrying an armful of meat so large he couldn’t possibly see where he was going. Even before he stopped right over Law, the surgeon was already praying for patience.

“Torao! Hi!” Straw Hat greeted, and Law could just hear the wide grin on his face.

Before he could so much as open his mouth to reply, however, the mountain of meat was dropped in his lap. “What the—” 

“For you. You need some meat, that will help you get better,” Straw Hat announced, nodding in agreement with his own statement.

Law groaned. “I don’t need meat and I’m perfectly fine, Straw Hat-ya. Can you people stop this already?”

Straw Hat tilted his head to the side, regarding Law for a moment. “Of course you need meat, everyone needs meat,” he said slowly, as if he was explaining a simple problem to a child.

“That’s not true and also not the point—”

“Also, you’ve been really out of it since we kicked Mingo’s ass.” Straw Hat interrupted him. “If we leave you alone, you’re just gonna sulk by yourself.” He crossed his arms over his chest when he finished, a small pout on his lips as he stared Law down.

And Law…

Law couldn’t fucking belive it.

He really just got scolded by Straw Hat.

Unbelievable.

Before Law managed to gather his wits enough to at least close his mouth—he wasn’t sure at what point it fell open—Straw Hat was gone and the goddamned pile of meat in Law’s lap became several pieces smaller.

Seriously, what did Straw Hat even come to do and why?

“Captain? Are you… okay?” Bepo tried carefully.

“Bepo, can you do me a favour?” Law asked instead of replying.

Bepo frowned a little but nodded regardless. “What is it?”

“Kill me. Just fucking kill me right now.”

“I—I don’t think I can do that,” Bepo said before his head dropped. “Sorry.”

Law sighed. It was worth a shot.

[dark-frosted-heart]

Beauty and the Beast’s Last Theater - Keith Howell (part 4/4)

As usual, can’t guarantee 100% accuracy on this

nsfw at the end

Keith and Emma: Huh…

The one in front was nice Prince Keith, not wicked Prince Keith.

Sad music could be heard in the distance and within the wings, actors waited for their cue.

The audience was so engrossed in the story that they didn’t notice that something was wrong.

(Did wicked Keith just decide to switch out? But why?)

He was so serious during rehearsals, so he shouldn’t have suddenly switched.

There was still some time before the next scene. The prince and the spirit stared at each other for the time being.

(I need to regain my composure now)

Keith: …

(Ah…)

At that moment, the look on Prince Keith’s face and his aura changed.

He became the prince who had fallen for the spirit, someone I saw many times during the rehearsals between the two of us…

Within the silent theater, the final scene began.

His gentle gaze that made all worries and troubles disappear locked the spirit’s heart in place.

Keith: ‘—If that’s the case, then let me heal your wounds. Even if it takes years, hundreds of years, even when this body can’t maintain its form and returns to a spirit.’ ‘I will love you.’

‘You stole my heart the first time we met in the forest.’

(To the spirit who had been alone all her life, the prince, who persisted with the love within his heart despite being of a different race, was as radiant as the sun and more beautiful than any jewel out there)

(Just imagining it made me want to lose myself in it)

As if to celebrate their love and communicate their feelings, actors appeared from the wings and danced like flowers.

And then the curtains fell—

The round of applause let us know that the performance was a success.

--

Keith and Emma: Haaa…

That night—

After getting ready to turn in for the night and sitting side by side in bed for a while, we were still stuck in the aftermath of the performance.

(It feels as if I was just in some magnificent dream. I really was on stage)

(I was shocked by wicked Prince Keith’s surprise, but it was still a precious experience)

Filled with happiness and relief, all the tension left my body as I leaned against Prince Keith.

Emma: Sonia was really pleased.

Keith: ‘This will improve the sales of my new work. I can still continue with being an author.’ She was in a really good mood when she said that at the party.

Emma: Speaking of being in a really good mood, the director was too. He’s invited you to perform on stage again.

Keith: “His” acting was so compelling so I’m happy he’s getting recognition.

Emma: You’re both getting recognition, you know?

Keith’s eyes widened and gave an embarrassed smile.

Keith: Since you were watching so closely, if you say so, then I guess so. I’m feeling a little more confident thanks to you two.

Emma: Just a little?

Keith: A…a lot more?

Emma: That’s what I think. I thought you looked so majestic and radiant on stage.

I leaned against his burly body and he patted my head.

(It’s like he’s thanking me)

Keith: By the way, I asked him why he switched out. But like I expected, he didn’t tell me.

Emma: Hehe, he’s a wicked one.

(But based on the look on Prince Keith’s face, he was aware)

I was the same. Something I heard between rehearsals came to mind.

~~ Flashback ~~

Emma: I was surprised when you didn’t look nervous at all on the first day of rehearsal and showed a natural performance the director was looking for.

Alter!Keith: It’s probably because I’m used to acting like someone else.

Alter!Keith: That said, I’m just going through the motions.

Can’t compete with someone who really loves the piece of work.

~~ End flashback ~~

(I’m guessing he was talking about nice Prince Keith)

Regardless of how skilled of an actor you are, it’s hard to perform with the same degree of emotion, interpretation, and enthusiasm as someone who loves the work.

(Perhaps that’s why he swapped out during the most important part of the performance)

He was my rehearsal partner and remembered the lines and actions, so there wasn’t an issue.

(But the main reason for that scene was…)

~~ Flashback ~~

Keith: I especially liked the last scene where the two desperately tried to convey their feelings for each other and have reread it several times. 

~~ End flashback ~~

I found myself smiling as I guessed the reason why he didn’t tell him.

Keith: Also, Mireille asked us to come over to her estate some time. No doubt she’ll show us the painting.

Emma: I feel a bit embarrassed, but I’m looking forward to how the painting turned out.

Keith: Me too. I haven’t seen Mireille look that happy in so long…I’m glad I stood on stage. Ah, but it’s a little disappointing how the spirit’s face was covered by a hood.

Emma: She hid the fact that she wasn’t human until halfway through the story.

Keith: …I was a little relieved by that fact though.

Emma: Huh?

Keith: Your outfit and makeup made you look so lovely. I shouldn’t be thinking this, but I didn’t want anyone else to see you. I wanted to keep that look all to myself. 

Emma: Th…thank you. That makes me so happy.

My heart suddenly sped up and I averted my gaze.

(Why am I like this? Why are Prince Keith’s words making my heart race…?)

(I’m glad he didn’t tell me that before the performance)

Keith: Let’s go to sleep.

Emma: Yeah.

When we got under the covers, Keith tucked me in and gave me a kiss on the lips.

Even though this was part of our routine, my heart sped up even faster.

(Prince Keith looks nervous. His cheeks are a bit red)

Thinking back, I realized that it’s been a while since we lay in bed together since we were occupied by the performance and official duties.

(There were days where we didn’t even share a kiss…that’s why my heart’s racing)

Keith: Sorry…Emma.

Prince Keith suddenly planted his hand on the bed hovered over me.

The golden eyes gazing down at me were filled with heat…

(We can’t go to sleep like this)

Keith: I tried controlling myself, but after touching you, I couldn’t anymore. Can I kiss you again?

Emma: …Yes.

His soft olive-colored hair grazed my forehead and our lips met.

Our kiss gradually deepened and his tongue entwined with mine, bringing pleasure.

(My belly…feels warm)

Even though we were just kissing, I found myself rubbing my thighs together and a large hand stroked my leg.

Emma: Nnn…

Keith: Emma, you’re so cute. We’re only kissing and you already have this glassy look.

Emma: Don’t say that. It’s embarrassing. 

Keith: Ah, sorry…It feels good being with you. Don’t hide yourself from me. …I want to touch you more.

Emma: Well…Nnn, ah…

Keith: …Yeah. That one was on purpose. …You look so cute when you’re embarrassed.

After removing my nightgown, he peppered kisses on my skin before rolling a nipple with his tongue.

At the same time, his fingers rubbed along my wetness and my body trembled as waves of pleasure traveled through my body.

Keith: Emma.

Emma: Ahh…

Even a mere whisper was enough to numb my mind and I couldn’t help but cry out.

My breathing was ragged.

But my heart still sought Prince Keith out…

Keith: Tonight, I want to tell you “I love you” through words and actions. And tell you all the things I couldn’t tell you.

The eyes lovingly looking down at me overfilled me with feelings and I found myself nodding.

(I wonder if my heart’s racing because of the pleasure from his lips conveying his love only to me)  

Even though I knew he was just playing a role, I might have felt sad at the sight of him whispering words of love to someone else but me.

(I’m embarrassed…but Prince Keith feels the same)

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close enough to feel his heartbeat. 

(I never dreamed that there would be a day when I’d stand on stage, and I was so anxious and nervous)

(However, I’d like to continue trying different things with Prince Keith)

Another memory bloomed beautifully in my mind like a vibrant flower.

[mariacallous]

Milton Orr looked across the rolling hills in northeast Tennessee. “I remember when we had over 1,000 dairy farms in this county. Now we have less than 40,” Orr, an agriculture adviser for Greene County, Tennessee, told me with a tinge of sadness.

That was six years ago. Today, only 14 dairy farms remain in Greene County, and there are only 125 dairy farms in all of Tennessee. Across the country, the dairy industry is seeing the same trend: In 1970, more than 648,000 US dairy farms milked cattle. By 2022, only 24,470 dairy farms were in operation.

While the number of dairy farms has fallen, the average herd size—the number of cows per farm—has been rising. Today, more than 60 percent of all milk production occurs on farms with more than 2,500 cows.

This massive consolidation in dairy farming has an impact on rural communities. It also makes it more difficult for consumers to know where their food comes from and how it’s produced.

As a dairy specialist at the University of Tennessee, I’m constantly asked: Why are dairies going out of business? Well, like our friends’ Facebook relationship status, it’s complicated.

The Problem with Pricing

The biggest complication is how dairy farmers are paid for the products they produce.

In 1937, the Federal Milk Marketing Orders, or FMMO, were established under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act. The purpose of these orders was to set a monthly, uniform minimum price for milk based on its end use and to ensure that farmers were paid accurately and in a timely manner.

Farmers were paid based on how the milk they harvested was used, and that’s still how it works today.

Does it become bottled milk? That’s Class 1 price. Yogurt? Class 2 price. Cheddar cheese? Class 3 price. Butter or powdered dry milk? Class 4. Traditionally, Class 1 receives the highest price.

There are 11 FMMOs that divide up the country. The Florida, Southeast, and Appalachian FMMOs focus heavily on Class 1, or bottled, milk. The other FMMOs, such as Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest, have more manufactured products such as cheese and butter.

For the past several decades, farmers have generally received the minimum price. Improvements in milk quality, milk production, transportation, refrigeration, and processing all led to greater quantities of milk, greater shelf life, and greater access to products across the US. Growing supply reduced competition among processing plants and reduced overall prices.

Along with these improvements in production came increased costs of production, such as cattle feed, farm labor, veterinary care, fuel, and equipment costs.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee in 2022 compared the price received for milk across regions against the primary costs of production: feed and labor. The results show why farms are struggling.

From 2005 to 2020, milk sales income per 100 pounds of milk produced ranged from $11.54 to $29.80, with an average price of $18.57. For that same period, the total costs to produce 100 pounds of milk ranged from $11.27 to $43.88, with an average cost of $25.80.

On average, that meant a single cow that produced 24,000 pounds of milk brought in about $4,457. Yet, it cost $6,192 to produce that milk, meaning a loss for the dairy farmer.

More efficient farms are able to reduce their costs of production by improving cow health, reproductive performance, and feed-to-milk conversion ratios. Larger farms or groups of farmers—cooperatives such as Dairy Farmers of America—may also be able to take advantage of forward contracting on grain and future milk prices. Investments in precision technologies such as robotic milking systems, rotary parlors, and wearable health and reproductive technologies can help reduce labor costs across farms.

Regardless of size, surviving in the dairy industry takes passion, dedication, and careful business management.

Some regions have had greater losses than others, which largely ties back to how farmers are paid, meaning the classes of milk, and the rising costs of production in their area. There are some insurance and hedging programs that can help farmers offset high costs of production or unexpected drops in price. If farmers take advantage of them, data shows they can functions as a safety net, but they don’t fix the underlying problem of costs exceeding income.

Passing the Torch to Future Farmers

Why do some dairy farmers still persist, despite low milk prices and high costs of production?

For many farmers, the answer is because it is a family business and a part of their heritage. Ninety-seven percent of US dairy farms are family owned and operated.

Some have grown large to survive. For many others, transitioning to the next generation is a major hurdle.

The average age of all farmers in the 2022 Census of Agriculture was 58.1. Only 9 percent were considered “young farmers,” age 34 or younger. These trends are also reflected in the dairy world. Yet, only 53 percent of all producers said they were actively engaged in estate or succession planning, meaning they had at least identified a successor.

How to Help Family Dairy Farms Thrive

In theory, buying more dairy would drive up the market value of those products and influence the price producers receive for their milk. Society has actually done that. Dairy consumption has never been higher. But the way people consume dairy has changed.

Americans eat a lot, and I mean a lot, of cheese. We also consume a good amount of ice cream, yogurt, and butter, but not as much milk as we used to.

Does this mean the US should change the way milk is priced? Maybe.

The FMMO is currently undergoing reform, which may help stem the tide of dairy farmers exiting. The reform focuses on being more reflective of modern cows’ ability to produce greater fat and protein amounts; updating the cost support processors receive for cheese, butter, nonfat dry milk, and dried whey; and updating the way Class 1 is valued, among other changes. In theory, these changes would put milk pricing in line with the cost of production across the country.

The US Department of Agriculture is also providing support for four Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives to help dairy farmers find ways to keep their operations going for future generations through grants, research support, and technical assistance.

Another way to boost local dairies is to buy directly from a farmer. Value-added or farmstead dairy operations that make and sell milk and products such as cheese straight to customers have been growing. These operations come with financial risks for the farmer, however. Being responsible for milking, processing, and marketing your milk takes the already big job of milk production and adds two more jobs on top of it. And customers have to be financially able to pay a higher price for the product and be willing to travel to get it.

[shinygoku]

Retrospective of my Beatles Albums Retrospectives

I'm not sure how to write a snappier title than that! Anyway...

12 Albums, 4 Bugs, 1 Band. And me, having a look, listen and a think at their work and writing it up~ However, while I successfully got each review out in time for the First of each month, I can't say everything was necessarily up to the standard deserved by such a body of work. But then, I also think most of what I said still holds, so this is also a summary as well as a few little corrections or instances where I may've changed my mind on individual songs. I wanna keep my original, possibly flawed, ones unedited to better compare now, and possibly again in the future ;3

Here's a link for each instalment:

Please Please Me

With the Beatles

A Hard Day's Night

Beatles for Sale

Help!

Rubber Soul

Revolver

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Magical Mystery Tour

The Beatles (The White Album)

Let it Be

Abbey Road

And now I'll summarise each, with the Moniker I assigned them with each review. Which I now see was originally to indicate the quality, and became more esoteric and tailor made in time lmao XD;;

Please Please Me – Decent!

Decent feels a bit like faint praise for my liking, and if I were trying to arrange the Albums by quality order, PPM would not be the lowest! It's charming and impressive and I docked too many points on the covers just as they didn't write 'em. As someone who can never see a live performance by 'em, let alone a Cavern Era type gig, this is all the more novel and valuable <3 Therefore I'm bestowing upon it a new moniker of Foundational !

With the Beatles – Improvement

Again I'm annoyed at how simplistic that is, and its not giving due credit to either it or PPM. The same flaws with my approach to covers apply too, but at least 3 of those are actually stand outs on this assortment (Please Mr Postman, Till There Was You, Devil in her Heart), and the Originals that I like most, It Won't Be Long and All My Loving, are absolute bangers. As with PPM, I will give it a new one-word summary... this shall be Elaboration

A Hard Day's Night – Uneven

Yeah, that one still holds up, and it does still irk me how the weaker half of the album drags the iconic and really nice songs down. And part of it is the passage of time and standards shifting, but there's a quiet undercurrent of spite, even in the prettier songs, which I find a little irksome. Like how If I Fell, in the midst of a serenade, finds the time to comment on how the Ex will suffer..... yay? Oh, John!

Beatles for Sale – Burnout Album

I mean, that's literally what it was XD;; However again I have a lot of fondness for it, and the covers ain't all my cuppa tea but I dig several anyway. However I kinda wanna drop 8 Days A Week from my Best 3 grouping and instead put I'll Follow The Sun there. Ironic as IFTS has a similar surprise spite section but 8 Days is indeed more paint by numbers for these here Bug Boys.

Help! – Promising

I think this is where The Beatles reach the perfection of "Old Beatles" style. The themes aren't that distant but everything's refined. The only song I outright think is out of place is Dizzy Miss Lizzy, and I think that was brought in as a quick replacement when they couldn't get Wait up to standard, everything else seems more intentional, even if I'm not wild on all of them. The titular song is bizarrely underrated for a well known number, and Yesterday foreshadows the more varied instrument use and genre dabbling.

Rubber Soul – Amazing

This might be my favourite of the albums, albeit not The Best and some of the numbers here are outclassed by later songs with the same theme, and yet I really dig this Experience. I came down pretty hard on Run For Your Life, but the tedious truth is that it's still an absolute banger, just one where I feel I gotta write an apology to Women after grooving to it. It's the first album I'd consider No-Skips, the first to use a Sitar (for better or for worse lol) and also the first song with a Girl Main Character, so there's lots of fun to be had here :3c

Revolver – Revolutionary

While Revolver leaves a high water mark, it's one I find to be polarised between songs I absolutely love and ones which I kind of dislike. And of course, this is the point where the Sounds become newer and less orthodox and more noteworthy. Unfortunately I am still not impressed by George's whopping 3 songs here =w=;;; – But I find it quite telling that a fab bit of rock in the form of And Your Bird Can Sing gets lost in the shuffle of other landmark songs from one album. So like, a very valid fave album for many, but I prefer a couple others~

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – Intelligent

This one is a bit of a paradox. It's a very strong, impressive album. However for some reason it was the one most touted as The Greatest, which I would disagree with. But, the backlash to the hyperbole also goes too far and doesn't give this fun musical experiment and proto-Concept its flowers, which it does actually deserve! Not as The Greatest Of All Time, but as a look at The Beatles, Edwardian Style, and Liverpool itself, through glass coloured by cool and varied music. And getting robbed of Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane is a shame, but this does still have A Day In The Life as the grand finale!

Magical Mystery Tour – Eclectic .....oops

I... didn't notice at the time that I used the same Snappy One Liner for two albums! In a row! Oh my god!! (In my defence, it does fit both, but the idea was to have a different one for each! Fuck!). Retconning this one as Esoteric instead ^w^;;;;;

Anyway yeah. The MMT (Soundtrack Album) got pumped up with two incredible singles, and All You Need Is Love, and also Baby You're A Rich Man [which I've warmed up to a bit since, but not fully lol]. But they weren't really supposed to be there... As for the songs that were part of the Strange TV Special's soundtrack, it's pretty harmonious and themed, with interesting choices like a lyricless (but not vocal-less, there seems to be A Cappella chanting) song in the form of Flying, and a horrible dirge that I can't stand listening to with Blue Jay Way. But the Paul and the John songs here shine very brightly~

The Beatles [The White Album] – Eclectic

Yeah, I mean. This is the very definition of Eclectic, ain't it? Like Revolver in the polarised song types, but MOOORE. More songs, more wildly varied tones, more duds that I outright avoid, but still more absolute bangers. But!! More duds, or songs that jar so harshly with my own musical preferences, at least, that I have a harder time with this one. If I was feeling more generous, I'd say there's more for everyone, but I also like the Beatles when they make songs that sound Good, y'know? Not to box them into a genre but this feels like Quantity at the cost of Quality.

Let it Be – Sombre

HOWEVER all the criticism I have for the White Album is pretty minor compared to this somewhat underwhelming assortment. Which would have sounded a lot better if it didn't have a deranged, vile, disgusting, scummy, moronic, abusive, terrible excuse of a human being and record producer pissing all over it. BAD.

Y'see, some of the songs are really nice, some are just alright but, ghhhhh, I actively avoid listening to this whole thing and the stupid ass "wall of sound" claptrap. 'Oooh let's cover all the actual music with loud blaring orchestra so the actual compositions are hidden from ears' ...you can tell The Industry was up its own ass that drowning out the real music was seen as a good move. Insane, and not in a fun way, it just makes me angry and sad.

Abbey Road – The Best

Fortunately, the REAL last album by The Beatles is a tour de force of amazing, uplifting, thoughtful and indeed very catchy numbers~ I've only talked about it recently, and at quite a length too, so I won't repeat myself too much here. But it really is their strongest Whole Album of the lot, so even the songs I find weakest are still extremely popular (Maxwell's Silver Hammer, which I think is overrated lol) and enjoyable. And, god, what a Beautiful finale it is!!

💎✨

But before I wrap this up, I wanna highlight the Hidden Gems (or in some cases, most underrated song) of each album... using the Cool Taglines I made for said albums [don't worry, it's in the same order too lmao] !!

Foundational: Misery

The world is treating me baaaaaad, Miiiisery! And yet this is so dang catchy it doesn't feel like a downer, even when the lyrics are very explicit XD An early Original, written for someone else but not taken up, and I think the Bugs made their own version more uptempo than the song as originally presented.

Elaboration: Devil In Her Heart

But her eyes they tantalize! A strong showing from George and a really catchy song. Prolly partially overshadowed as it's a cover (as I've been guilty of too lol), but I always dig this one and the unorthodox cadence to the lyrics.

Uneven: I'm Happy Just To Dance With You

I don't wanna kiss or hold your hand... See, I don't have any Anti-George bias, just the sitar leaves me cooler lmao – but anyway! THIS song is sweet and warm, the only time John wrote a song specifically for George to perform, and something I think oughta have been done more! But this deserves more of a spotlight~

Burnout: No Reply

I know that you saw me, cause I looked up to see, your face ! I wondered if the first song on an album could qualify as Underrated, but I think Beatles For Sale as a whole is, and what attention it does get is pooled mostly into I'll follow the Sun, so yeah, I'm giving this its flowers! I'm A Loser also deserves more attention, for the record.

Promising: Act Naturally

They're gonna put me in the Movies, they're gonna make a big star outta me! Another incredibly strong cover, seemingly tailor made for Ringo to sing, given his charisma on the screen, his Catholic-Stained-Glass Sad Eyes and his own fondness for the Country and Western style. And it's one I go to often as I think he has a lovely singing voice and this is Peak Ringo <3

Amazing: Wait

'Till I come back to your side, we'll forget the tears we cried. I don't have that much to say, but knowing Wait was meant to be on Help! but they postponed it, I think it was worth the........ [title drop]. The drums here are also super underrated, and the maraca sure makes itself known~

Revolutionary: And Your Bird Can Sing

You tell me that you've heard every sound there is, and your bird can swing... This is, in my opinion, THE most underrated, overlooked song on an extremely popular record by the most famous band ever, and yet it's absolutely flawless. The guitar shredding and harmonies are insane here, in a very good way!

Intelligent: Lovely Rita

In a cap, she looked much older, and the bag across her shoulder, made her look a little like a Military Man... Innuendo heavy as this may be, there's oodles of charm in this one. It's hard to pinpoint an underrated song on this album, but this has a good balance of being really strong and yet getting less airtime.

Esoteric: Your Mother Should Know

Let's all get up and dance to a song, that was a hit before your Mother was born... That's right, this song is a strangely endearing spin on "your mom" lines. Well, that and connecting with the Older Generation for knowledge that's otherwise easily lost... so while the lack of lyrical variation may seem simplistic, it has enough hidden depth and infectious rhythm that does indeed make it easier to get up and dance to~

Eclectic: I Will

Will I wait a lonely lifetime? If you want me to, I will. This one is (quite rightly) loved by those who have heard it, but it seems to avoid a lot of Radars too! Maybe as White Album's overly long list of songs makes people black out between the more famous or infamous instalments. This is a song that many long to be longer... but oh god, the lyrics hit different when thinking about the Beatles Meta ;~;

Sombre: The Long And Winding Road NAKED

Literally any song and version without Shitty Wall Of Sound. Sorry. The better songs are well known already and the lesser songs are lesser for good reason :v but for the one I selected, yeah it's one of Paul's most emotionally raw and yet beautiful works, as it's supposed to be presented and yet the defaced one gets more airplay, undeserved as it is. So this version is of it is massively slept on. The wild and windy night, that the rain washed away, has left a pool of tears, crying for the day...

The Best Album: Because

Because the wind is high, it blows my mind... Hey look, a thematic link to my previous one! Again, every song here is a strong one, even real dark horse selections like Sun King, or ones that were in the medley like Golden Slumbers. I'm selecting Because as both another John song for a more balanced list, but also it is one that kinda slips between the cracks, compared to ones about The Sun, or Hammers, or Octopus Botany. And of course, it's beautiful in its own right~

🪲🪲🪲🪲

Well, that's 5 pages of retrospective and elaboration! It was more in depth than I expected lmao, but it was a lotta fun to revisit, all the moreso when the PPM stuff was written a whole year ago...!

Neeeext time on Bug Boys 2025: I'm still not sure to be honest XD;; - I think it's between Early Singles and the film version of AHDN, but I won't tie myself to one just yet. Still, as always I want it to be posted on the First of the Month, so tune back in when February begins~

[mrmoldavite]

Mercury Through the Houses in a Relocation Chart

In a relocation chart, Mercury's house placement highlights how your thinking, communication, learning, and daily interactions shift in a specific location. Mercury governs intellect, speech, writing, travel, problem-solving, and networking, so wherever it lands in a new place will show how your mind adapts, how you connect with people, and how you process information there.

Below is a comprehensive and reliable breakdown of what to expect with Mercury in each house of a relocation chart:

Mercury in the 1st House

Focus: Self-expression, personal identity, and mental agility

In this location, your mind becomes a major part of your identity. You may be more talkative, quick-witted, and eager to share your thoughts. People perceive you as intelligent, articulate, or even opinionated.

You feel the need to express yourself verbally or through writing, and you may naturally gravitate toward activities that require communication, such as teaching, public speaking, or media.

This is a great location for personal reinvention, especially if you want to develop a sharper mind, build confidence in speaking, or take on a more mentally engaging lifestyle.

Mercury in the 2nd House

Focus: Finances, values, and practical thinking

In this location, Mercury influences how you handle money, resources, and financial planning. You may become more focused on budgeting, investing, or finding ways to increase income through communication-related work (writing, marketing, sales, etc.).

Your mindset shifts toward practicality, and you may develop a stronger interest in financial security, business negotiations, or learning new skills that help you build wealth.

A great place for financial growth, particularly if you work in commerce, sales, or intellectual fields that involve managing resources.

Mercury in the 3rd House

Focus: Learning, communication, and networking

This is one of the strongest placements for Mercury, as it naturally rules the 3rd house. In this location, you become highly active mentally and socially.

You might find yourself constantly on the go—networking, writing, learning new skills, or engaging in frequent short trips.

Your relationships with siblings, neighbors, or local communities could become more important, and you may naturally build a social circle in this area.

A great place for studying, writing, journalism, teaching, or any work that involves communication and travel.

Mercury in the 4th House

Focus: Home, family, and personal reflection

In this location, Mercury’s energy turns inward, making you more introspective and thoughtful about your personal life and home environment.

Family connections, childhood memories, and emotional discussions may become more significant here. You may work from home, study family history, or engage in private intellectual pursuits.

Your home may be a hub for learning, communication, or even a business related to writing, teaching, or media.

A good location for deep thinking, remote work, or reconnecting with your roots.

Mercury in the 5th House

Focus: Creativity, self-expression, and playful communication

In this location, your communication style becomes more expressive, fun, and engaging. You might find yourself more interested in creative writing, acting, comedy, or storytelling.

Romantic connections often involve intellectual stimulation, flirting, and playful banter. You may attract partners who are witty, curious, or expressive.

This is a great location for creative projects, performing arts, and writing in an entertaining or artistic way.

Mercury in the 6th House

Focus: Work, health, and daily routines

Mercury in the 6th house makes you more detail-oriented, productive, and focused on efficiency in this location.

Your work may involve a lot of communication, paperwork, organising, or problem-solving. You may also find yourself improving your daily habits, health routines, or diet.

This is an excellent place for career growth in writing, editing, medical fields, analytical work, or technology.

You may also feel more mentally restless, so structuring your daily routine becomes key.

Mercury in the 7th House

Focus: Partnerships, negotiation, and social intelligence

In this location, Mercury enhances your ability to connect with others through conversation, negotiation, and intellectual exchanges.

Romantic and business partnerships often involve a strong mental connection, and you may attract partners who are talkative, intellectual, or involved in writing, law, or media.

A great location for networking, working in public relations, law, or any field requiring strong interpersonal communication.

Mercury in the 8th House

Focus: Deep thinking, research, and transformation

Mercury in the 8th house makes you more interested in psychology, secrets, hidden knowledge, and financial matters. You might become more intuitive, investigative, or drawn to taboo topics.

Communication here may be more intense, deep, or transformative—conversations often touch on subjects like death, rebirth, money, or emotional intimacy.

A powerful location for research, therapy, financial planning, or work involving deep analysis.

Mercury in the 9th House

Focus: Travel, higher education, and philosophical exploration

In this location, Mercury expands your mind—you may feel drawn to learning new philosophies, foreign languages, or engaging in travel.

Communication here revolves around big ideas, cultural exchanges, and academic or spiritual discussions.

This is a great location for studying, teaching, publishing, or international business.

Mercury in the 10th House

Focus: Career, public speaking, and reputation

Mercury in the 10th house makes you more vocal and known for your ideas, intellect, or communication skills in this location.

You may be drawn to public speaking, writing, media, business, or politics.

Your career likely involves communication, networking, or intellectual problem-solving.

A fantastic place for career advancement, especially in journalism, law, education, or leadership roles.

Mercury in the 11th House

Focus: Social networks, technology, and innovation

In this location, Mercury makes you more engaged in group activities, online communities, and intellectual friendships.

You may build strong connections with like-minded individuals, especially in progressive, tech-driven, or humanitarian fields.

A great place for networking, working in digital media, tech, or joining intellectual communities.

Mercury in the 12th House

Focus: Introspection, spirituality, and hidden knowledge

Mercury in the 12th house makes you more inwardly focused, intuitive, and drawn to deep contemplation in this location.

You may prefer writing privately, researching hidden knowledge, or engaging in spiritual and psychological exploration.

A good location for creative writing, meditation, therapy, or any work that involves behind-the-scenes research.

Final Thoughts

Mercury’s house placement in a relocation chart reveals how your communication, thinking, and daily interactions change in a specific place. Whether it amplifies career success (10th house), deep introspection (12th house), or creative expression (5th house), knowing where Mercury falls can help you align your intellectual and social energy with the best opportunities a location has to offer.

[ink-flavored]

HI IM HERE ITS GO TIME FOR SPACE CRUISE WIP LEGGOOOO!!!!!

📅🤔✊😎👾😲

it's TIME!!!!

since this wip is such a baby i'm going to be thinking about a lot of these things for the first time let's do it

📅 How far in the future is your WIP set? Is it a “near” or “distant” future?

It is quite a distant future! It takes place 400-ish years from our present day—we aren't quite ancient history, but it's long enough ago that people don't really consider the 21st century in their daily lives. You learn about it in school and then promptly forget it all

🤔What kind of technology is still being developed in your WIP? What’s something they’re still trying to figure out?

The brain is a fickle little meat sack, and there is no "true" mental hook-up microchip or anything like that. The things you can do to the outside of your body are very impressive, and medical technology has improved a lot of technologies that are inside your body for medical purposes (like pacemakers and stuff), but you can't send/receive text messages with your mind. yet!

✊What is the social climate of your setting? Has society progressed towards equality or regressed? Has it stayed mostly the same?

Progressed in some ways, languished in others.

Since the entire concept of Space Colonialism relies on the idea that planets are big blank slates waiting for Civilization to extract resources and set up tourist traps or whatever, there is still a lot of class disparity and plenty of wealth disparity. Countries and companies can send a "pre-colony" of laborers to terraform a planet and then essentially evict them from the place(s) they built to sell the land to permanent residents. None of the money from that sale touches the pockets of the people who built it, of course, and Space Wage Theft is rampant among these operations.

And of course since colonialism inherently needs to "other" anyone or anything that was already living in the place it colonizes, that also happens quite a bit. Especially when humanity made first contact with aliens who were doing their own space colonialism.

Also Space Cops exist. There are space cops who do predictable cop things. Also robocops (they're not sapient or anything, it's basically a surveillance camera roomba that can call for back-up) are wandering around at most, if not all, space stations, and even some spaceships if you're very important or rich.

Depending on how I structure the rest of the history on the Humans Get To Space Timeline, I will probably be able to add quite a few more to this unfortunate list, but now the good stuff.

Gender is DEAD, being gay is ALIVE, and polyamory is THRIVING!!! Obviously, this varies from planet to planet and country to country, but in the story I'll be telling, it is the case that all of these things are fine and accepted.

Gender first: HRT is so advanced that it can get you all the results in under a year, depending on the dose/method of delivery, and you can get it at any pharmacy. People can transition for a couple years, detransition just as easily, and then switch back! Whatever!

Surgeries are much easier to perform and produce more consistent results across the board, and we ARE at the stage where things like uterus transplants are a thing—either from another person or from a lab-grown organ. They aren't as "versatile" as HRT, in that you can't get your junk swapped in a single day and swap it back the next, but it's easier to customize the results.

Socially, the ease with which transition can occur means that people are more relaxed about the fact that it happens. Especially because it's so easy, it's kind of impossible to ever predict if someone you're talking to is trans unless they tell you (like in real life too but you get it), so everyone is encouraged to just roll with whatever presentation and pronoun combination they're handed by someone. Space bureaucracy means it can be kind of annoying to change your legal name, but there's no such thing as a "legal sex" or "legal gender" anymore, you put your pronouns on your ID instead.

Sexuality next: when people can bang aliens, being gay doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Whether or not banging aliens is in the cards for any given person, experimenting with whoever is normalized. If it turns you gay, people just go "yeah, that'll happen," and move on. Not having any particular label is unremarkable too, because when aliens are in the picture, it's just a lot easier to have a "case by case" sexuality. Humans who exclusively (or almost exclusively) bang other humans do tend to stick with human labels for sexuality for communication's sake.

Polyamory: What with all the experimentation with gender and sexuality, it would be foolish for relationships not to get their own turn in the lab. There are a lot of ways relationships just... work differently, when it comes to existing across the vast distance of space. If you travel a lot, if you're constantly going between the planet and the space station, if you split your life between two different planets, having an open or polyamorous relationship—or to never settle down for a long-term relationship at all—just makes sense for a lot of people. Monogamy still exists, but it's not considered the default state for all relationships ever.

Even with faster-than-light travel, trips through space can take a LONG time, and people can form a lot of really close relationships on those trips. When they inevitably have to leave the ship and go their separate ways, some people stay connected. It's more or less accepted that basically everyone has a "spaceship-ship", either exclusive to that trip or lasting far beyond it. This is foreshadowing for later.

Also, marriage isn't limited to two people anymore. Some people even have a partner on Planet 1 and another on Planet 2, and they're only married on those planets.

And again, when I have better fleshed out this world, I'll have more for the good stuff too.

😎Are there any famous (or infamous) planets known for a particular cultural or material export? What is it? Are the planet’s residents annoyed or proud of this notoriety?

Our protagonist Kavi comes from a Famous Planet (that doesn't have a name, I'm working on it), and they are personally extremely annoyed when it's the first thing people bring up.

Kavi's planet is known as the Pleasure Planet, it's where you go if you want a vacation on a tropical beach, perfect weather year-round, and sex. A lot of sex, from all the not just "legal" sex work, but privatized sex work with franchised brothels. It is the place you go to pay someone to match your freak, and while the population is mostly human, aliens live, visit, and work there too.

The particular area where this tourist hotbed is located is in a single city-state on the other side of the continent where Kavi was born and raised, but nobody really knows, cares, or would want to visit those other places (the ocean geysers can be deadly there), so they are resigned to sighing heavily every time they bring up where they're from. People also tend to assume that people from the Pleasure Planet are just as ready to put out as someone who's getting paid for it, which they also hate.

Outside of Kavi, it's a mixed bag. The people from the Pleasure City can be very proud of their culture's sexual freedom of expression, annoyed at the constant influx of tourists all over the place, or actively hostile toward not just the tourism, but the concept of the city itself. It's a lot less rosy than depicted on the outside, and the sex workers who actually have to serve tourist clients have some... grievances.

👾How many different kinds of aliens are there in your WIP? Describe them!

There will be more than one kind!! But I only have one to describe right now!!

One of the aliens that will be a main focus in this WIP is... a species that doesn't have a name yet, but they're basically crocodile people with neck frills that change color based on their feelings. Their planet has a dense oxygen atmosphere and a slightly lighter gravity than Earth, so they can get up to nine feet (that's 274cm) at the tallest, but tend to hover around 7-8ft (213-243cm) tall on average. They're cold-blooded like IRL reptiles, and don't wear much in the way of clothes because they have to bask (in the sun or under a lamp) regularly to function. They're also obligate carnivores, with like 70-80% of their diets being meat.

They tend to be long and rectangular in body shape, with comparatively short limbs considering how tall they are. They have HUGE TAILS FOR WHACKING!!!! And for swimming, they spend half-and-half of their lives in land and water basically right down the middle. They have the long snouts with lots of teeth, but also they have the single weakness of not being able to open their jaws if literally anything is holding it closed. Their rougher armored scales are on the back and the soft ones are on their bellies, and they can vary in color and pattern based on where they're from. Mostly greens, browns, blacks, and sandy yellows and oranges. Sometimes a splash of red if they're feeling spicy. They live in both fresh and saltwater climates, though the freshwater aliens can't automatically filter salt like the saltwater aliens do (they have the salt-filtering gland, but it's not "active." It can be activated, but it's nasty because they have to drink saltwater).

Their frill colors are a semi-voluntary expression of emotion. Like how humans can force a smile when they're pissed, these croc aliens can force a happy color when they're pissed. However, it is harder to hide, since usually their "true colors" will show for a bit, or start to creep in along the sides. Because their frills are, in a lot of cases, reflective of their True And Real Emotions, trying to hide them on purpose is considered untrustworthy. If an alien keeps their frills closed all or most of the time, other aliens will look at them funny, or consider them closed off and unfriendly.

I'm taking inspiration from a lot of different animals for this bit, but these aliens are capable of randomly transing their gender at any time. The main alien in this story, Zyg, was hatched female along with all of his sisters. As he started to grow up, though, biology randomly assigned him transgender to balance the population of his family, and he transitioned to male over several years—completely out of his control. This happens all the time, throughout the species.

Now, the most important part: what are their sex organs like? I'm glad you asked.

Like most reptiles, all their sex organs are internal and contained in a cloaca. Males have hemi-penes which basically means they have two dicks that drop down from internal sheathes during sex time, and females have two clitorises up there (hemi-clitoris. that's what I call it). They also have scent glands that secrete body oils when they're mating/aroused, both in the cloaca and on the sides of their jaw (real crocs also have these). They lay 5-12 eggs in a clutch, including when the eggs aren't fertilized. It's common to eat unfertilized eggs, it's not considered cannibalism, but it is bad luck to eat your own unfertilized eggs—people trade clutches sometimes. Even when the eggs are fertilized, though, the embryos don't always survive. Those eggs are not eaten, and are treated sort of like a miscarriage. These aliens can also be intersex but I haven't 100% figured out all that stuff yet

The other types of aliens are gonna include at least one other mammal species, and maybe something fish-related? Still deciding.

😲Are there any human customs that the aliens find strange, offensive, gross, or confusing? Which ones?

When it comes to crocodile aliens, they are super weirded out by species that don't swim all the time. Some of them are convinced humans can't swim at all, and many of them consider humans less civilized for this.

Also, the fact that humans have to... choose? To trans themselves? Just move to a new city. What do you mean, you can't just do it on your own? Why are you doing injections? What do you mean surgery????

On a similar note, these croc aliens also have a mating season, and their libidos basically go dormant when it's over. The fact that humans don't have one can lead them in one of two directions: humans exclusively have sex to reproduce and barely enjoy it (how sad), or humans are SEX CRAZED, ALL THE TIME (HORRIFYING).

Those are the funniest ones I can think of. They're not really customs, but whatever

[try out my sci-fi worldbuilding ask game]