#I am never. EVER doing a 5 panel edit without a plan EVER again.

[maranello]

TAKE MY FUCKING HAND AND NEVER BE AFRAID AGAIN

dedicated to my best friend ames ( @ivettel ), with whom I share a singular braincell with. 

[just-like-playing-tag]

A totally self indulgent compilation of my favorite works on this blog of the year June 13, 2020 - June 13, 2021

2019-2020

The following lists are all in chronological order according to the date each post was first published.

Top 10 panel edits:

#1: It's our first morning

Date: Aug 20th, 2020 Time: ~ 2:18 h I really like how this one turned out!!! The 2020 Emma b-day edit has a lot of major panel redraws, but this is probably my favorite. I I really enjoy how I made the shadows work!! And the ear banfage looks pretty neat. Nice!!! Immagine

#2: Norman birthday edit 2021

Date: Mar 20th, 2021 Time: ~ 2:21 h Awww, soft Norman :') There was a bit to redraw, but I think everything turned out pretty neat!!! I believe everything works out fine. Though looking back at it, the part of the ID I added is definitely top small :')

#3: Manga dub: Yuugo gets knocked out

Date: Mar 27th, 2021 Time: ~ 5:05 h Here start the Manga Dub redraws to which I gave my everything ahah. This one turned out nice! I think the shoes turned out particularly good eheh. I like how Yuugo's clothing lineart- for the texture, I wanted to go for something heterogeneous, but I'm not fully confident in the final result. Gilda looks very rushed but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#4: Manga dub: Yuugo makes his dramatic entrance

Date: Apr 5th, 2021 Time: ~ 4:02 h This is pretty cool!!!! The coat took ages to redraw, but sis it turned out perfect!!! I'm very proud of this.

#5: Manga dub: RayGildEmma hug!!!

Date: Apr 9th, 2021 Time: ~ 1:31 h Awww, a beautiful panel I was really happy to have the chance to redraw. Taking into account what there was to redraw, I'm actually surprised with how little this took! Ray's backpack was a pain to make, but I think it turned out fine. I'm very happy with Emma and Ray's heads!!

#6: Manga dub: Formalities

Date: Apr 12th, 2021 Time: ~ 5:31 h It is not always easy to give sense to Demizu's perspective, but I do my best!!! In this I am *so* happy with how Don and Ray turned out, they look neat! The background on the other hand... It took hours to make ahah. I'm not fully confident in the perspective, but I'm happy with the details I've added- I really did my best to make it look like athe other manga panels and I think it paid off!!!

#7: Manga dub: We may be weaklings, but we're still alive

Date: Apr 30th, 2021 Time: ~ 1:37 h This little Emma is so cute!!!!!! I think the redraw turned out pretty perfect. I'm really satisfied with how this one turned out, and it's such a cute little Emma!!!! She's so brave and optimistic, I love her. It's a shame this panel didn't make it to the episode :')

#8: Manga dub: Goldy Pond Gang

Date: May 7th, 2021 Time: ~ 8:44 h lmao This is probably the panel redraw I'm the most proud of ever :') Just think everyone turned out very nice!! The ceiling is not exactly perfect, but it still works somehow. I'm very happy with how Gillian's back turned out!! I don't really like the fading effect on the right, but 8h in I got pretty tired of working on this ahah

#9: Manga dub: This is Goldy Pond

Date: May 21st, 2021 Time: ~ 1:29 h I'm very glad for how the Manga dub has been challenging me to learn to redraw backgrounds, something I had quite literally never tried before. It can be a little frustrating, but it's so satisfying to see the final cleaned piece!! With this panel, I also learnt to use copy and paste, which is something I had never done before beyond texture

#10: Manga dub: Good morning doctor

Date: May 21st, 2021 Time: ~ 3:42 h This is another background that turned out pretty good!! That one Norman is one I knew I would have had to fully redraw sooner or lager- the background was a bonus ahah. I'm very happy with the final result!!

Top 5 edits as whole:

#1: The Promised Neverland manga ending edit

Date: Jun 14th 2020 Time: ~ 12h 41min (5h 45min of cleaning panels in the edit + 5h 37min of cleaning panels that didn't make it to the edit + 1h 19min of resizing) + time spent cleaning panels I've deleted the file of so I can't see lmao This is overall very nice!!! The concept of an Emma evolution through her back is cool, and I think overall the edit turned out very aesthetically pleasing. The concept idea came to me while I was working on the 2019 Emma's birthday edit, a long time before the manga ending announcement- back then I wouldn't have imagined using it in occasion of the manga ending, but I think it ended up making a nice tribute. The colors add a nice touch, since so far my edits had always been black and white- it makes a sweet closure. To make that edit I selected 76 panels of Emma framed from her back; I plan to make other versions of that edit using the discarded panels eventually!

#2: Emma - Chapter 181: Beyond Destiny

Date: Jul 12th 2020 Time: 2h 57min My last edit for the manga 🥺🥺 I think this one is my very "manga ending edit" because to me it really signed the ending of weekly chapters and their weekly chapter edits. It makes me a little sad to look at it, but it's also, I don't know, kinda sweet to see how I grew both in my panel cleaning and as a person since I first started my blog. I'm glad I got into TPN!

#3: Emma birthday edit 2020

Date: Aug 22nd 2020 Time: 8h 54min This one turned out so well!!! Though I used the same concept for all the trio edits, I think this one is the best one. The two panels on the left / two panels on the right alternation combo never fails ahah. The colors are nice (shout-out to my sister for making me a palette), despite the fact that it was hard for the lighter ones to make them work with the images without having those disappear. I'm very satisfied with the panels I chose for this, I think they work really good together! Also, it got me very happy to read everyone's comments saying they liked the fading effect in the last panel :)

#4: Emma + Eyes Close Ups [1/?]

Date: Jan 24th 2021 Time: 5h 55min This one was really nice!! Another idea I got when working on the 2019 Emma birthday edit I was glad to finally execute. Started the edit in September, finished it in December. I'm overall very happy with how it turned out... I hope I will be able to make more in the future!

#5: The Promised Neverland Parallels → (9/?) » 114 // 122

Date: Feb 23th 2021 Time: 5h 7min (panel cleaning only) Aaaaahh I really like this one!!!! A parallel I love very much, and I'm really happy with how the edit turned out. All the hair redrawing looks neat!!!! The gif is maybe a little excessive, but I think overall it's a nice edit. I like it!!! Fun fact, I completed it on August 26th 2020, but I couldn't find the right moment to post it ahah.

Honorable mention: The Promised Neverland Parallels → (5/?) » 08 // 16

Date: Aug 30th 2020 Time: 2h 52min (Second picture cleaning only; I deleted the first picture art file so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) I don't have much to say about this one except!! It turned out very nice!!!!! Love the pen lmao.

Top 10 analysis:

Too many analysis,,

#1: Post chapter 181 Emma analysis

Date: Jul 9th 2020 Mmmh a nice analysis. I think it was important for me to put down in words what I think of Emma's characterization and the manga ending, so I'm happy I did it!

#2: A long Oliver analysis because I love him very much

Date: Dec 6th 2020 What can I say I just love Oliver tons 😔😔💕💕 This was very fun to make!!!

#3: TPN s2 previsions

Date: Jan 14th 2021 Really love the effort that went into this + me proving that 11 episodes GP could have possibly worked + it's just a lot of fun to read again after s2 ended pffft

#4: More s2 delusional previsions lmao

Date: Jan 27th 2021 I think the points and previsions I made where pretty neat!! In my defense, it was pretty impossible to predict the anime would have ended with this season. I always feel honoured when friends and Anon ask for my opinion, I'm like "you wanna know what I think? Wow. I'm flattered (◍•ᴗ•◍) " Thank you to anyone who ever sent me an ask!!

#5: Why Emma not wearing pants is 𝕨𝕣𝕠𝕟𝕘

Date: Jan 29th 2021 Really proud of this!!! Pants Emma is important!!!!!

#6: Post episode 5 manga Emma analysis

Date: Feb 4th 2021 A depressed analysis, but a necessary one 😔

#7: Norman analysis

Date: Feb 12th 2021 I love him!!!! And I'm happy I eventually got to put down in words what I love about his character. The day I posted this ww3.readneverland was in maintenance so I couldn't use the volume scans for it- the thought of that post having fan edited and fan translated scans still haunts me

#8: RayDon rambles

Date: May 12th 2021 I had a blast writing this and like. It's likely the post of mine I reread more often of them all. I love this ship tons!!!!! I'm satisfied with how I put down in words what I like about them. I LOVE THIS SHIP

#9: Chapter 58 analysis

Date: May 23th 2021 I've wanted to express this concept since like the first time reading the manga- I'm so happy I finally did!!!! This concept is one of my absolute favorite things about tpn- the feelings that people are good. The concept that kids who got to live in an healthy and supportive environment will always be inclined to kindness and altruism, because humans are just inherently good. From the Three Character Classic: “people at birth are inherently good”. I want to have faith and courage to hold on the goodness in myself, and to hold on the goodness in the world, no matter how difficult it to do that (Chloé Zhao).

#10: Norman and Lambda squad relationship analysis

Date: May 24th 2021 I think this was a pretty sharp analysis and I like what I did with it!!

Other stuff:

#1: Krone birthday edit

Date: Jul 15th 2020 This edit is so good ;; Like not perfect since it was my first attempt at coloring gifs but still I believe it turned out so good ;;;;;; The time and effort that went unto this is crazy, but... Maybe I'm happy to have dedicated time to something I like for a satisfying result.

#2: Get to know my ship- Wolfpack Trio

Date: Aug 24th 2020 Uuuh a good post. A good ship.

#3: Gilda + blank glasses

Date: Aug 27th 2020 This is such a cute nice compilation!!! I love looking at it. A few panels are missing but still :')

#4: Apollo Ray AU

Date: Sep 7th 2020 (Though it was written Sep 2nd 2019 lmao) I'm so happy I finally gathered the courage to post this 😭😭 I really enjoy what I did with this AU, so this one and its other installments are all posts I have a lot of fun rereading. More than everything, I was astounded and overjoyed by the positive response it got: that gave me tons of confidence to put my ideas out there, no matter how unique they sound!!! Here's to hoping I will be able to post my RayEmma Hadestown AU, by other big AU from late summer 2019 :')

#5: TPN timeline project

Date: Dec 2nd 2020 This is like. I don't know it's a lot ahah. Arguably the project I'm the most proud of ever making. I'm just so happy of all the months long hard work and of the final result!! The post didn't receive much response (though the ones I got were extremely kind and sweethearted so that totally makes up for it), but in the end I don't really mind? I'm just so proud I accomplished that idea :')

#6: TPN calendar

Date: Jan 4th 2021 A nice sum of the tpn timeline + everyone's birth dates!!! I really like how it turned out visually. It's a cute little tpn calendar!!!

#7: Ray smiles compilation

Date: Jan 17th 2021 Ray's smile. That's it that's the post :')

#8: Trans Oliver headcanons

Date: Jan 24th 2021 MMMH really like this headcanon I think about it a lot

#9: Thoma and Lani theory

Date: Jan 28th 2021 I really don't want to brag but this is the best joke I've ever made :')

#10: My TPN AUs

Date: May 10th 2021 Ok you gotta admit those are very good AUs, I'm glad to have made a list out of them!!!

#11: Ranking Emma promotional art outfits

Date: May 16th 2021 This is one people seem to have liked a lot which makes me happy ahah. I'm glad to know we can all agree Emma deserves more pants outfits!! Please stop it with the gendered clothing :') This is the post I want to be remembered for

#12: TPN musicals AU part 2

Date: May 20th 2021 A GREAT POST I can't stretch enough how happy I am with those character-song associations. I hope I have time to make a part 3 in the future!!

#13: TPN Drive folder

Date: May 30th 2021 This was born as a way for me to have all the tpn extra contents easily accessible, but I'm happy to have shared it with people- I hope it will turn out to be useful to others too!

#14: TPN s2 recolorings

Date: Jun 12th 2021 A more diverse children cast is good for the soul :')

That's it, this year was really fun!! Thank you to everyone who supported me through it, I can't express how grateful I am for all the kindness and validation I received. Here's to many more months in the fandom!!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

[sailorspazz]

10 Dance Special Booklet - Taboo and Habanera [English Translation]

I present to you my project of the last few weeks: an English version of the comics that came with the Japanese special edition of vol. 4. (Thanks to @words-unleashed​ for providing cleaned scans!) Since it’s definitely not Tumblr Safe, the full scanlation can be found at imgur. com/a/HgbwYk1 (sorry to write it out weird, but Tumblr hides posts with external links when you tag search, so just copy and delete the extra spacing and you should be able to access it).

As a bonus, I also made a subtitled version of the track from the drama CDs that includes the “Taboo” portion of the story. The dialogue is mostly the same, with some additions/deletions, but if you want to hear all the steamy action as well as read it, definitely check that out, too. Since it was long, I had to split the video on Tumblr; start with the first half here (or escape this hell site and go to YouTube, where it’s all in one part: youtu.be/ B95vNjt-e6M , again need to copy and delete extra spacing)

Recently, I’ve been working on serious summaries of the chapters that have been released since vol. 5 (starting with #29 part 1). My true nature, though, is to be more snarky and make dumb commentary, so click below if you want a summary of these bonus comics (along with select Tumblr Safe images) where I just poke fun and be thirsty.

So after several volumes of the Shinyas making out without sexing each other, I guess the manga artist was like, “you know what, I’m not gonna have these guys fuck anytime soon (or ever, lol just kidding...or am I?), so I guess I’ll throw some smut crumbs to the poor, deprived shippers.” And we’ll take it and enjoy it, because we’re desperate.

The first story, called “Taboo: Just a bit” continues immediately after chapter 21, where Suzuki said that he’s okay with kissing, but no more! To which Sugiki’s immediate reaction seems to be, “Cool, cool...I’mma go ahead and find a way around that.” Also, he may be a bit insecure about the size of his nipples.

Note: Sugiki’s nipples are important to the plot of this story. I’m dead serious.

Sugiki wonders about Suzuki not seeming to be bothered by him saying he’s adorable, but apparently Suzuki gets called that all the time. And in one of the greatest leaps in logic in history, Sugiki says that, since everyone always found you so precious, surely you and your male friends all touched each other’s naughty bits when you were kids, right? Suzuki’s like, UMM, NO, WHAT THE FU-okay, yeah. yeah, we did. And he assumes, oh, since Sugiki brought this up, he probably did the same thing.

“lol, no, I didn’t do that. But I made you admit that you did.”

Sugiki’s closest experience to something like that was when he was in high school and another boy insulted him, beat him up, and then paid him and said he wanted to suck Sugiki off (quite the roller coaster, but okay). Suzuki’s like, oh shit, that sounds super fucked up, sorry to make you remember that, but Sugiki actually used the situation to his advantage by using the boy to develop his own skills. Those skills involved whipping the other kid with a stick, and teasing him with the fact that he never actually agreed to what he proposed.

Baby sadist in training.

Look at this man. That is all.

So as Sugiki uses their childhood experiences as a flimsy excuse to propose some dick touching, Suzuki notices something shocking: Sugiki’s nipples are hard!

Suzuki Needs An Adult after making this discovery. And he’s so distracted by those sexy nips that he isn’t able to stop Sugiki from making a grab at his dick. Which, as it turns out, is a bit stiff.

Top 10 Manga Betrayals: Suzuki’s dick getting hard from man nips.

Suzuki stays in panic mode for a bit, and when he snaps out of it he finds that his dick is no longer in his pants, but in Sugiki’s hand.

He protests a bit, but then is like, fine, I guess I’ll let you jerk me off. And goes back to thinking about those nips and how bad he wants to bite them and squeeze them, and also how he’d really like to just fuck Sugiki for good measure, too.

But as for the eternal question of who would be fucking who, Sugiki tries slipping a finger in to test the waters.

Which results in a big fat NOPE from Suzuki, so Sugiki just keeps jerking him until he gets off, getting just a mini facial as a splash lands near his mouth (we don’t see him lick it...but you know he wanted to).

As they’re getting ready to leave the studio, Suzuki brings up the “adorable” conversation from before, saying he’d imagine no one calls Sugiki that. Sugiki confirms that’s true, and Suzuki responds with:

Look at this man. That is all (again).

The second story, called Habanera, shows us what the Shinyas do when they’re each home alone. Suzuki, in a desperate attempt to prove his straightness to himself, is planning a porn marathon.

Meanwhile, Sugiki plans to watch a special DVD that features Suzuki doing a Q&A session. Which, for him, we can assume is the equivalent of watching porn.

A look at Suzuki’s selections. Bruh, I don’t mean to kinkshame, but...pig farm?

Just as he’s about to get started, he gets a call from some random chick he used to bang. He has no desire to chat, though, and hangs up on her, but while jabbing at his phone, he accidentally hits Sugiki’s speed dial, and quickly disconnects in a panic.

Rocking the Winnie the Pooh look here with his red shirt and no pants. Also, there are helpful warnings throughout the story whenever his (heavily mosaiced) dick is on panel.

Meanwhile, Sugiki is watching DVD-Suzuki talk about how to wink while dancing, and it’s making him feel A Lot Of Things

Back at the fap shack, Suzuki claims that just seeing Sugiki’s name made him go limp, because, you know, he’s Definitely Not Attracted To Him. He talks to his dick, trying to get it to firm up again. His dick has a girl’s name (Machiko) and is shown in some shots as having a face and wearing a little bow (yes, it’s as weird as it sounds. no, I can’t show it here).

The next video he has queued up starts, and well, I guess this is that pig farm stuff he’s into (which really just seems to be a domme lady berating the viewer)

Back at Sugiki’s, DVD-Suzuki has moved on to teaching how to blow kisses.

Yeah, this is definitely porn for Sugiki. And as he watches this he’s a bit miffed that it seems like Suzuki acts a lot cooler when they’re not together.

Meanwhile, Suzuki’s fantasizing about the sexy lady dominating him...except, the person in his fantasy starts to change from a porn star to...

Oh look, the man he’s Definitely Not Attracted To happens to show up in his fantasy while he’s beating off. He tries to make the image go away, but then eventually settles for keeping the face but having the rest of the body be the porn star.

Sugiki is practicing his kiss-blowing with DVD-Suzuki as his imaginary partner. And when he finds out that there are other DVDs like this one, he quickly starts searching for the back issues of these pornographic very educational videos.

After Suzuki shamefully blows his load to the thought of the Sugiki-faced female porn star, his phone starts ringing. It’s Sugiki, returning the call he accidentally placed earlier. Though to Suzuki, the timing feels suspiciously like Sugiki had been watching him or something...

[eerythingisshaka]

I made this post on Monday, and just now got around to edit and post

I’m basically going through the whole plot of Endgame and how I felt, I just had to hammer it out.   If you haven’t seen it yet, please come back when you have! First things first, I did not cry!  I feel like I’m in the minority, and I swear I am a devoted MCU fan and love Tony and Cap and them, but I did not cry and I’m so disappointed with myself!  I got more emotional thinking about it in the days leading to the premiere than I did while viewing.  I think it was too entertaining for me to find it sad?  Not like movies I cry at aren’t entertaining but the action and substance was making my nerd heart pitter patter so much, I was over the moon and couldn’t come down.  I will say though, ever since watching Endgame, every past Marvel movie makes me somewhat emotional.  This whole thing is like a high school graduation, like I’m never gonna see my friends together again like this, an era is over!  All I have are memories, aaaaggghhhh!

That being said. the movie grips me from the beginning with the song Dear Mr. Fantasy by Traffic.  Marvel has some pretty good picks for songs to set the tone for their movies, to this day this song kinda pulls at my heart strings because of its message 

 Dear Mr. Fantasy play us a tune

Something to make us all happy

Do anything, take us out of this gloom

So of course, we all felt this way with the ending of Infinity War, having so many of our faves being sacrificed to dust for Thanos’ plan of rectifying what he saw as the decrepit state of the universe.  Walking away from part one with the villain winning was a fresh slap to my face and a year of agony to find out how the heroes pull this off in the end.  Take us out of our gloom Marvel! 

And the characters must feel the same, as the film opens with Clint and his daughter doing some archery in their yard as a very American lunch of mayo and mustard hot dogs are being served.  As his daughter Lilah is putting things away, Clint calls out to her only to see dust and turns again to his family with the same result.  So much for freedom from our gloom, right?  In case you somehow forgot, this little scene gives us a friendly reminder of what we were left with in 2018.  If that’s not enough, Nebula and Tony playing the little hand goal, paper flick game that is just darling to witness.  Nebula plays like a rehabilitated puppy still unsure about being around humans as Tony instructs her like a child on every development of the game.  Her little perk up when he announces her win is so cute as they shake hands, finally sealing her character development from ruthless, blood-thirsty appeaser of a sadistic father, to a more stoic, regretful soft spoken but hoarse matured version of herself.  All the while, Tony is beginning to starve from being malnourished and depleting oxygen.  Nebula sets him in a piloting chair as he drifts off, losing consciousness until the homie we have all assumed would be coming appears as a glow in his irises, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel.  

Carol flies the ship back to Tony’s compound where Cap, Rhodey, Natasha, and Pepper wait for him to descend.  We get a moment with him and Cap that is sweet as Cap walks him down, Tony tells him he lost Peter Parker, an obviously huge loss for this to be the first thing he mentions.  The warmth is lost quickly though as the next step of Tony’s grief comes afoot: anger and finger pointing.  Tony, on an IV and all, is relentless as he festers in bitterness while lashing out at Cap and company that the fight was lost and even encouraged by Cap because they were together.  This optimism is obviously not enough for Tony, who grows weary of Cap’s positivity, opting that he finish the work alone or that Danvers takes on the task herself before collapsing from exhaustion.

Carol, Thor and the gang have a slight dick measuring contest on kicking Thanos’ ass once and for all before Nebula offers to take them straight to him.  And where is he?  Why on a farm on a planet in the galaxy, nursing his wounds from the snap.   His entire right side is burned to a crisp due to the snap, and at the same time has obliterated the stones much to their dismay.  Thor wastes no time in chopping off Thanos’ head, a little too late but satisfying none the less.  However, in the end, the stones are nowhere to be found, the last person to have them is dead, and no one from the snaps is back yet.  Cue music!

So, the gloom we are supposed to be rescued from, when does that start right?  Not for another five years according to a time lapse card.  Our heroes have no means of figuring out the solution to the snap; Cap forms a support group for survivor’s, Natasha has grown out her blonde hair and is constantly checking in on happenings around the world, and universe since the snap, jumping at even the mention of an earthquake.  Rhodey briefs her on a terrible killing spree of gang members that appear to have a style that is well known to them as Clint Barton’s aka Hawkeye.  Despite Rhodey’s hesitance Natasha insists he keeps an eye on him, inferring that she may track him down eventually.  (Quick side note here, something to be seen as a possible plot flaw:  Hawkeye’s bloodlust and disregard for lives after losing his whole family in the snap isn’t dug into very deeply after this.  Rhodey said it’s so bad he didn’t even wanna find him!  But there wasn’t any in fighting or push back after that between them.  He has one instance of almost interacting with his family on a test run for time travel which is against the rules, but other than that he isn’t killing people recklessly or even triggered to tears or drinking incessantly over his loss.  But more on Thor in a minute). 

If it hadn’t been for that rat running across the panel in Scott Lang’s van to activate his return from the Quantum realm who knows how long, if ever, would they figure out the means of traveling back to get the stones.  I was so glad I watched Antman and Wasp right before seeing Endgame, so I knew the van, Cassie, and a little bit about the Quantum Realm.  I’m actually upset that I didn’t realize the realm could be used for their benefit because I was always betting on the Time Stone being the corrector in all this, but anyway.  Scott returns highly confused as he realizes the state of the world since his entrapment in the realm.  Seeing his baby girl become a young lady was a powerful scene to witness, and had my heart dent a little bit, but I held it together.  Soon after that, Scott makes his way to find Cap and Natasha, explaining how 5 years was really five hours for him, so time is different in the realm which could possibly mean something for them getting the dusted back.  At one point in the movie, I’m blanking on which comes first but for now I’ll dive into this bit, we are reintroduced to Bruce Banner as Hulk…as one person.  I completely forgot that we didn’t see Bruce in trailers, which is for this reason.  Comic book followers would know, but there is a iteration of Bruce Banner becoming Professor Hulk, so he functions as his normal scientist self, while also being a big green being.  Oddly enough, it does not take long for me to grow accustomed to The Bruce Hulk hybrid, he is hilarious and sweet and more confident even then he was as a regular man despite his appearance.  He has fans, people love him and this is a far cry from when we are introduced to him in the original Avengers as Nat tracks him down somewhere in Southeast Asia, a nervous wreck loner who is quick to anger.  I could see this Hulk being fanfic fodder, not my cup of tea, but he was just that damn appealing, I could see it.

But even with Bruce’s brain, time travel isn’t exactly hammered down as an absolute possibility so they reach out to another source on the matter.  Which brings me to my love/hate relationship with Tony.  I ADORE that he finally had a baby with Pepper, Morgan “Cussin Queen” Stark.  Tony is living his best life in the natural air in his log cabin, as off grid as he possibly can be before Black Widow, Cap, and Lang pull up to question the possibilities ahead of them.  The strength of his cold shoulder gave me an insatiable chill down my spine.  Tony is the King of Petty, but rarely passive so I was surprised by that moment of mean girl attitude from him.  But luckily he served up something to drink (I’m thinking it’s iced coffee or chocolate milk.  I’m still confused by what that held.)  Tony basically tells them they are crazy and hoping for nothing, because he’s good where he is.  He has his girls and no stress which is honestly what the Avengers always seem to guarantee for him since joining the group with SHIELD under Nick Fury’s insistence years ago.  I do wish I could remember the theories and scientific laws he said would be fucked up with their plan, just to see if they are real ones but also I love when Tony just spouts his knowledge like it’s IKEA instructions.  He makes it seem so simple until you have to break it down, and up until this point Scott seemed like the smartest one on the team but really Tony could’ve been figured this out if he wasn’t so granola now, which is great and happy for him, but he really did give up very quickly.  Once again, probably good reason, self-care.  But still.

Gotta say, I love a selfish Tony though.  Quick shoutout to Robert Downey Jr. in showing his chops by bringing the emotional fortitude to this Disney movie.  The man has been THROUGH IT and has had enough.  Tony only has so much optimism in him that the cheerleading squad can provide before his is completely done and baby was DONE.

But without Tony’s help they test run moving through the quantum realm only to discover what Tony says later, that time kept moving though Scott instead of him moving through time, making him a baby, and old man, a kid again, and back to an adult.  But with a fancy time GPS Tony doctor’s up on the fly after discovering that the group isn’t crazy about the time travel being an option, they are good to go like it’s day one!  (Another side note to Paul Rudd aka Scott Lang giving us much needed comic relief.  I have never laughed so hard at my precious baby trying to eat a taco in my life. Also, Cap’s yeehaw attire in this scene?  The checkered white shirt with his dark jeans pulled up?  Truly save the horse and ride the cowboy instead man.)  

Now at this point we have to check in on Thor, our sweet pirate angel.  How has he fared?  Him, Valkyrie, and the surviving Asgardians establish their own town  on Earth.  Thor and Rocket go to find him, with a preview from Valkyrie of what Thor’s mental state is by the piles of beer kegs outside.  So, when they enter his home, giving a wave to Korg and Miek playing video games on the couch, Thor tumbles out behind Thor and Rocket reaching for another cold on, camera to his back.  By now we can see his hair is overgrown and greasy, and his midsection has a new pair of love handles we aren’t used to seeing on our svelte, brutish god of thunder.  So when he turns around, audience erupts in the theaters, as do I, to see him now looking like a melted ice cream cone with a beer belly that somehow still has some toned abs on top if you look closely, paired with some man titties to complete all billowing over his pajama pants to complete his depression ensemble.  This was more shocking to me than the Hulk/Banner hybrid reveal.  We hadn’t seen an image of Thor outside of him giving Carol Danvers the Stormbreaker scare test in the previews, so thanks for another surprise.  Despite his crumbling emotional stability at even the mention of Thanos’ name (tip of the hat to Chris Hemsworth for making my heartache with every crack in his voice), I have to get on my soapbox and say Thor’s body is beautiful!  He is a supreme King, deliciously made who can still smash any pair of cheeks to ash and dust with the power Mjolnir in each thrust quicker than any counterfeit gauntlet.  Just watch him later on, you’ll see!  I’d have that belly slapping on top of me in a quantum realm millisecond after he takes a shower and attends therapy.  A lil pudge ain’t killed no part of his power, whew.  Don’t make me shout.

Back to plot, with the promise of beer, Thor the Dude tags along to start the plan of going back to retrieve infinity stones.  After a synopsis of each one and where they were located, the crew drums up the plan to retrieve each stone from the past, bring them back to the future to put into a new gauntlet  and snap the other half of life’s creatures back.  This part of the movie is so stellar because if you have watched past Marvel movies (the first Avengers, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, Captain America First Avenger, and Thor Dark World) you will recognize the scenes that are featured with their past selves going through their past-current scenes.  Natasha and Clint go to Vormir for the Soul stone, which I am surprised Nebula did not warn them that someone would have to die to retrieve it.  What if two characters that didn’t love each other went for the Soul stone, is it over and done?  But luckily, or unluckily, Clint and Natasha are able to get the stone with a sacrifice of Natasha’s life (who honestly sacrificed herself but it counted.  And I need so much more clarity on the specs of the soul stone, it ain’t even funny.  Will we ever see what the realm Gamora and Black Widow are in is like?)  These two characters have been last on my list always so the scene was crazy watching them battle back and forth for a chance at ending their lives but the end result didn’t hit my heart but still great.  I kinda would’ve wished little Gamora was there again to talk to us.  

Then Hulk has to go see Ancient One to retrieve the time stone, which she will not relinquish until Hulk says that Strange gave it up willingly.  On his word alone, she gives it to him, sensing the imminent danger that could come that is worse than the alternate reality she faces for not having the time stone with her.  Then Rhodey and Nebula go to Morag for the Power Stone.  So this is the first sign of overall trouble in their plan because apparently having two Nebula’s mix memory frequencies that reveal the whole entire plan to Thanos.  I thought for sure at some point that Nebula’s eye was gonna have to be dug out to ensure the completion of the mission but it winds up that Nebula and Gamora take her hostage before past Nebula takes current Nebula’s place with the crew going back with their stones, none the wiser.  Not even Rhodey gives her a check in like “why did you not come back with me when I jetted back to the future?  what happened?”  Nothing!  The death of Natasha kind of takes precedent over anything else and leave Nebula to finish off bringing Thanos back with her to wreak havoc.  

Lastly, Cap, Tony, and Scott are in New York circa Avengers number 1, fighting the space aliens and keeping Loki from the tesseract.  And I am not exaggerating when I say this part of movie is possibly the greatest cinematic feature I have ever seen, or will ever see my natural life.  You have Tony, creeping in the shadows to get Antman ready to help retrieve the tesseract, all the while admiring Cap’s ass!  He does it, critiquing that his outfit does nothing for his ass, when we all know nothing holds back them cheeks from making an appearance.  Scott, ever the voice of standom, downplays Tony’s critique and coins his rear end as “America’s Ass”.  I EXPLODED.  Ever since Captain America: the First Avenger, I have pined, no, thirsted, nay, LUSTED for that man in Marvel cinema.  He has the BAWDY to be Cap, and never slacks.  I have also always been a big fan of Tony and Cap having a torrid love affair that Marvel refused to implement but teases anytime they stare deeply into each other’s eyes or argue feistily until they are nose to nose, just get a room you two!  Ten points to Gryffindor for feeding the fans what they want!

So, New York is the only place that doesn’t go smoothly, as Cap retrieves the scepter containing the Mind Stone after a quick “Hail Hydra” to throw off the double agent SHIELD opponents from Winter Soldier.  All this time, Tony and Scott lose the tesseract in a freak incident that causes the case to fall into Loki’s vicinity, who picks up the cube and disappears to God knows where.  And it is never figured out where past Loki goes, or what timeline he creates for himself now that he has the tesseract at his disposal with no one to oppose him.  That is another thing I would love to know, all these alternate realities that have been constructed due to them tinkering with time, what happens?  What damage is done to the Ancient One without time?  What does Loki do with space?  How is Jane and Asgard without the reality stone ravaging her?  (Rocket got it btw as Thor got caught up talking to his mother, which was a very sweet scene and really amplified her character for me to love her more than I already had).  But at least Cap got the scepter until he is met with his past Cap, leading to my most favorite fight scene in the MCU.  Something about those two classic suits running at each other with the cacophony of the shields, and current Cap saying some choice expletives now and getting tired of the bullshit while past Cap still has all that giddy up and pure heart and “I can do this all day” attitude is an exceptional treat to be had.  I love Cap’s development, as much as he has stayed the same, he has changed, grown more into his age even, getting weary with the world but never losing his positive outlook, just shifting his focus gradually.  But to correct the tesseract blunder, Tony and Cap go back to 1970 to get the original tesseract from SHIELD in its infancy.  Both Tony and Cap have a soft moment.  Tony see’s his father who talks to him about his expecting wife (aka baby Tony) and Cap sees Peggy again in her youthful glory, panging our heartstrings.  But in the end, the supplies are collected and they move on.

So after they get the stones, they construct the gauntlet out of Tony’s suit Iron man material and it is decided that Hulk must do the snap since gamma radiation is part of the stones and so is he. It is not a simple easy thing as he writhes in pain and burns under the pressure of power but does the snap anyway and successfully brings back half the world.  This win is shortlived once Thanos bombards the compound and sends Nebula off to retrieve the stones.  This is the start of the longest game of flag football/hot potato/rugby adjacent.  Hawkeye has the gauntlet at first as everyone tries to pull themselves from the rubble (side note:  seeing Rocket so distressed shook me.  He is usually so cool and wily, getting out of so much bullshit that his helplessness when he couldn’t breathe almost sent me over).

So since they retrieved the stones, it’s not like they change their past, just create alternate realities.  Once they return them, things go back to normal again.  So Hulk uses the gauntlet to bring back the rest of the population again, we just don’t see them yet until later.  Past Nebula gets killed by current Nebula after Gamora helps current Nebula out to stop Thanos because as we know from Infinity War, Gamora never wanted Thanos to find them all.  Thor, Cap, and Tony all team up to spar with Thanos who was waiting patiently for the gauntlet to be brought to him.  Much to my dismay, the fight is very even, no side truly overpowers the other.  Thor really wants to put in work, but can’t quite get through until Cap does what I have been waiting for since Ultron: HE PICKS UP MJOLNIR!  (which Thor took back from Asgard in his time travel).  Wheew, I coulda passed out when I saw Cap wielding that thing like it’s his the star spangled banner itself, sending lightning down on Thanos, busting him upside his head and all!  I was spent and feeling aftershocks until Thanos gets the upperhand again and bombards his shield with that weak ass helicopter blade sword thing.  It breaks the shield up!  Which is made of vibranium!  THE STRONGEST METAL IN THE UNIVERSE!  This how I know Russo’s were just grasping at straws; the only thing I can say is since Tony made him that one after the snap, he probably used bootleg vibranium because obviously nobody called Wakanda for input on a damn thing to make this mission happen which is a rant I can say on a completely separate post.  Sure, take T’Challa and Shuri in the snap, it’s not like the whole country isn’t composed of melanated geniuses that could give y’all a lesson on quantum physics that would make your central nervous system dry out.  No, don’t call Wakanda to make vibranium anything for y’all to help in the fight, it’s cool cuz y’all didn’t try and clean up anything after shit hit the fan!  I wanted a 10 minute Wakanda clean up scene: I got DUST.  The underutilization of such a great people while at the same time using them frivilously is a *blink blink* mindfuck.  But I digress again!

Once Cap seems to be against the wall, he tightens his shield band around his arm and says slap me bitch.  But before it continues,  Sam gives him a quick “on your left” signaling the return of everyone, with first none other than our Wakandan royalty: T’Challa, Okoye, and Shuri.  Dr. Strange’s portals open up as populations come to join the fight from Gaurdians and Asgard, Wakanda and other Marvel movies.  The fight scene that begins I can’t wait to own at home becuase I know I have to pause and slow motion to capture everything.  Someone said Howard the Duck is in the fight which I HAVE to see. Can you imagine getting your ass impaled by a cartoon space duck? 

The game of keep the gauntlet from Thanos continues as Spiderman, T’Challa, and others all have a go at running the guantlet away from Thanos.  This is a part that I kind of have to think to remember.  I know that Antman and Wasp had to spark up the quantum realm van and I think the plan was to send the gauntlet into it, but I’m not sure.  Eventually Tony is alerted by Strange that the one in 14 million chance at winning is upon them and Tony goes ham to get the gauntlet from Thanos, who nearly succeeds but Tony yeets them off the glove and onto his suit, proclaiming himself as Iron Man one last time before snapping the bad half of the population into obliteration.  All the bad aliens and Thanos dust away, leaving the original population the watch them float away.  However Tony’s sacrifice is his life as he dies after goodbyes from Peter, Pepper and Rhodey.  

The funeral occurs with everyone there, even the kid from Iron Man 3.  This is a really emotional scene, especially seeing Tony left a last message in case of his demise, ending it with telling Morgan “I Said What I Said” Stark that he loves her 3000.  Once again, I almost got choked up there, but it just wouldn’t happen. One thing that took me out were Wakanda’s outfits at the funeral.  All black everything, but the fit and the make of Okoye and Shuri’s dresses?  With the gold accessories????  I can’t mourn when all that beauty is in my face!

And in the end, Cap goes back in time to send the stones back to where they belong but stays in the past to reunite with Peggy, finally bust her open and returns as an old man to give his shield to Falcon and that is it!

I almost got choked up just now thinking about that last scene but I still didn’t cry.  A tear came down when the end credits showed the actors pictures and their signatures of the original Avengers though.  There will never be a better Cap or Iron Man bruh, taking that to my grave.

 I’ve been in this MCU life for just about the whole length of it; watching these amazing superhero action flicks for the fun of it before recognizing the structure of each film forming towards an ending so grand. “You see where you’re going? Now let’s focus on how you get there.” This is a statement that is about to be my mantra for life! This is a huge project for a studio to put together properly, having all of our superheroes in one place, sewn together with the journey of the infinity stones to take out the big purple meanie Thanos who is hellbent on controlling the universe the easy way (50% of all living creatures annihilated) or the hard way (100% gone, starting from scratch).

But Marvel has given me so much great entertainment to look forward to.  Ever since I graduated high school, it’s been the May or November of each year, what’s Marvel putting out next? And it’s gonna be tough not expecting an Avengers film anymore, but I’ll be here for the new build up of superheroes, supporting Black Panther still of course as well.  I will miss the Cap thirst, wardrobe really did their part in this one with the Black sweater, the grey Henley, the yeehaw outfit previously mentioned and EVERY CAP UNIFORM HE HAS WORN!  I love this fucking fandom.  

And now I just wonder where past Gamora went, because she came to the present and “present” Gamora died at Vormir so we have a Gamora alive now but she went MIA, or did she get snapped back when Tony snapped all the henchmen back?  Thor at the end joins the GOTG  or Asgardians of the Galaxy, so I can’t wait to see how they fair in I assume GOTG 3.  How will Falcon do as the new Cap?  What does Bucky do now??  He was the original ride or die for Cap until he became Winter Soldier, but Cap was very forgiving of him in all that.  Yet, his closure seems open for anything, he got no special stuff in the end so maybe more for him?  How is Spiderman and the whole teenage snap population going back to school when it is five years in the future but they are the same age?  Where did Valkyrie keep her Pegasus this entire time?  When Cap went back to Vormir, what was his reunion with Red Skull like?  And what did Thanos do with the stones before they were destroyed?  They said he used them again and that’s how they found him at the beginning but on what? Answer these questions for me please!  

If you made it this far, I love ya 3000 and I owe you cheeseburgers (oh God TONY!!!)

[friendlyneighborhoodborg]

Marc Appreciation Week 2019| Day 6: Collab| “Working Together”

Okay, this is actually late.  It is past midnight, technically Day 7.

I am actually posting Day 7 later today, hopefully before the week is out.

Anyway here’s the 6th day, and the only chapter in the dumpster fire to actually follow the prompt given.

Disclaimers were in Day 1.

Chapters:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

AO3 Link

(~3200 biddling words.  Why do I do this to myself?)

           Marc didn’t know what he was.  Today was weird: he didn’t feel girly anymore after last night, but at the same time he didn’t think the “he” suited him today.  He realized this must have been what Alix was talking about before, about non-binary gender.

           Being something that wasn’t a boy or a girl was trippy.  Marc had felt it before, probably, but knowing what it was (which felt obvious now, considering… well, everything he was currently feeling) made it… something.  For all the words he knew, he couldn’t peg one for the experience.

           It occurred that he ought to have been surprised by how quickly he had taken to reconsidering his pronouns.  But then, that’s what his gender did, didn’t it?  Didn’t he always know that his gender did that?  Hadn’t that been such a large source of his anxiety for years?

          And now he was just rolling with it.

          That morning, he had glanced at himself in a mirror, per his usual routine.  His old adjectives, “Not him again” and “Could be worse” were absent this time.  Instead, he had felt heavy.  Overdressed, perhaps, only in his own skin.

          But he could live with that.

          It still stank, because French didn’t have a third-gender pronoun.  That meant that, regardless of his actual self, he had to use male pronouns.

          So, he comfortably got dressed, did up his face in a way he thought would suit him, and left for school.

          Something was different that afternoon.  Alix wasn’t in for some reason, which automatically meant the art teacher (he still kept forgetting his name) was more relaxed.  Juleka and Rose were separated, for once.  Rose was sitting in a corner, feverishly scribbling down notes in her pad.  Juleka was in the opposite corner, reading a horror novel, and her ankle was shackled to a protruding pipe.

          He approached Juleka cautiously, eyeing her restraints warily. “Did, uh…” He glanced up at the teacher, making sure he wasn’t listening.  “Did Alix tell you?”

          “Yeah, she got your text.”  Juleka glanced up meaningfully at her girlfriend, by herself in the corner. “Lucky someone in this club has their head on straight.”

          Marc chuckled.  “I don’t know if we can say that, there’s like one straight person in this club.”

          Juleka smiled for a second, then went back to reading her book. “And where was she, huh?  Crazy overworked, fixing up stuff our last class rep neglected.  Notice she couldn’t drop by all week?”  She calmly flipped the page she was on.  “Once again, Chloé got us into another fine mess that Marinette’s gotta pull us out of.  Again.”

          “What?” said Marc.  “No, I meant… wait, Marinette’s straight?”

          The musician shrugged.  “So she claims.  It is impolite to assume.”  As normal, her expression and tone betrayed little.

          “Biggest shock of my week,” was Marc’s jested reply.  “But I was talking about Nathaniel.”

          “Hm?  Oh yeah.” She pulled up one hand to do finger-quotes.  “‘Straight.’  That’s definitely an adjective that can describe him.  Marc, have you seen the way he draws Chat Noir?”

          “Of course, what about it?”

          “Well, maybe you’re both blinded by the superhero’s skintight leather, but the boy is not that ripped.”

          Rose hummed loudly.  Juleka glanced up at her.

          “I’m not trying to push anything, unlike some people,” she protested.  “I’m merely pointing out that he should have already noticed by now, in a manner he will not pick up on for purposes of dramatic irony.”

          “What’s going on?” he asked. “And what’s with you two?”  He looked at the chain.  “And… that?”

          “She’s on probation,” explained Juleka.  “Until she realizes what she did was wrong.”

          “Probation of what?”

          “Getting to run my hands through that soft, dark hair,” Rose replied for her, rubbing her fingers over the pages of her lyrics.  “Holding her close to me, closing my eyes and breathing in her clove-scented perfume.  Feeling the warmth of a heart matched beat-for-beat with mine.”

          Marc looked back at Juleka.  She was nose-deep in her book, but her forehead was sweating, her knuckles were white, and she refused to look anywhere near where Rose was sitting.

          “Is that why you’ve chained yourself to this pipe?”

          Juleka whimpered a little before answering.  “It’s funny, in a tragic sort of way.”

          “So, what’s holding Rose back?”

          “Pity, mostly.”

          “This isn’t about the makeup thing, is it?” questioned the writer.  “I don’t blame Rose for anything that happened.  I mean, it worked out, sort of.”

          “Yeah, no thanks to me,” sniffed the poet. “If I’d have known…”

          “Hey.”  He approached her and offered his hand.  “Hindsight is 20/20.”

          “Still.”  She rubbed the brimming tears from her eyes.  “I was such an idiot, and you had to go through all of that because of me.”

          “You’re still the first one who listened.  Let’s be honest, that could have gone a lot worse.”

          “I overreacted.”  She looked down and continued to write, though it was mostly an excuse to avoid Marc’s eyes. “I thought I knew what was happening, and I thought I could help.  I was wrong to try and do it by myself without seeing a second opinion.”  Sniffing, she closed the notebook.  “I’m sorry.”

          “Oh…” groaned Juleka.  “So close, Rose.  Come on, I know you can do it.”

          “Do what?”

          “We aren’t be allowed to touch each other until she figures out exactly where she went wrong.  She’s got most of it, but I’m not allowed to tell her the last one.”

          “Okay, but why are you doing,” he gestured wildly at both girls, “this?”

          “Because I don’t have the key and Rose is really trying, bless her.”

          He looked between the two of them a few times, both of them equally miserable.  “I get the feeling this wasn’t your guys’ arrangement.”

          “It was Alix’s,” admitted Juleka.  “We both went along with it.  The chain was my idea, though.  It’s the cruelest and most elaborate punishment ever devised, who do you think dreamt it up?”

          “I mean,” Marc disputed, “I wouldn’t have pegged her specifically.”  Particularly not after their little heart-to-heart yesterday.

          “Never tick off someone with a small body-mass-to-temper ratio,” Rose advised.  “Especially if everyone in her family is an ancient history buff.”

          “What’s that got to—”

          “Look, she knows a little something about torture.”

          “Ah,” Marc commented, thoroughly confused and only pretending to understand.  “You two look like you’re busy, I’ll leave you to it.”

          He quietly took his seat at the back of the room, leaving the two to sort out their issues in peace.

           All things considered, life was pretty good.

          So why was Marc still feeling so anxious?

          Nathaniel crept in through the door with his head down, answering the question.

           “Nathaniel,” Juleka said.  “Unlock me.  I need to go use the bathroom.”

           “Sure thing.”  Nath approached her, holding something else up.  “Brought your headphones, too, you left them in class.”

           “It won’t work.  She’s stuck in my head.”

Rose cast a saddened, dramatic gaze towards the writer in the back. “Pray you don’t become like us, Marc.”

           Marc blushed.  Of course Rose figured it out.  She probably told Juleka, too.

           Yet another thing to watch out for.

           ‘Wait, so is Nathaniel straight or not?’

           Nathaniel joined him at their usual table once Juleka had been freed.  “Hey.”

           “You know,” Marc bet, “one has to wonder if that’s some sort of metaphor for something.”

           The artist burst out laughing, but quickly shut himself up when he realized he was making noise.  “Yeah,” he confessed.  “Probably. But they’re good for each other. Rose helps Juleka’s self-esteem, Juleka keeps Rose grounded.”

           “Yeah.  They really are kinda fun to write.  Speaking of…”

           “Right!  Back to work.”

           “If we end off our comic there, Rose is never going to forgive us.”

           “I know,” expressed Nathaniel, glancing over at the person in question.  She was the only other student who hadn’t gone home yet.  Volume up high in her earbuds, she wasn’t even looking at them. “But this story is way too interesting for one issue.  With a cliffhanger like that, she’ll keep breathing down our necks to make more.”  He blushed, realizing he had gotten ahead of himself.  “I mean, if you’re okay with… I’ve really liked working with you and I want to—”

           “Yes!” Marc blurted with a blush of his own.  “I mean, um, yes.  I would… I would love to keep working with you.”

           “Okay.”  He turned his attention back to the work.  “So, if we end the issue with Princess Fragrance’s reveal, then that’s going to take a full-page panel.”  He drew a border inside another blank page.  “Right, so we’ve got that planned out.  Now to just get cracking on those last few pages.”  He surveyed the pages of blank boxes in front of him, each with a little note of what went in each.  “And we know what has to be said at each bit, so if you want to edit specific dialogue, now’s the time to do that.”

           “Cool.  I’ll get on top of that.”

           Marc’s brain suddenly took a dive, and he hastily tried to delete the previous sentence from his brain.

           Each of them had the plans for everything, so they didn’t see a reason to talk much, a silence Marc respected even if he himself wasn’t comfortable with it.  If it made Nathaniel more comfortable, he could swing that.

           His brain needed to stop it immediately with the double-entendres.

           The two of them worked for another few minutes, with only the sound of their pens scratching their paper.

           Nathan, surprisingly, was the one who broke the silence.  “So… last night you were a girl.”

           Marc exhaled nervously.  He wasn’t wrong, but it still felt weird to acknowledge the elephant in the room.  “Uh, yeah.”

           “Earlier yesterday you were a boy.”

           “Yep.”

           “So…”  Nath bit his lip, which Marc had to avert his gaze from.  “I don’t want to just assume, in case I get it wrong.  What are you now?”

           Marc had been stewing this over while he worked. Truth be told, he found he didn’t actually care as much today.  He knew he wasn’t a boy, and he wasn’t a girl, but… he wasn’t really much of anything else either.

           “I don’t think I’m anything right now.”

           “Really?”

          “Nothing, right now.”  He shrugged.  “I’m just… nothing.”

          “How does that work?”

          “Search me.”  He shrugged once again.  “I don’t have much of a gender today, I guess.”

          “So…” Nathaniel paused.  “It’s like there’s no… asterisks.”

          “Asterisks?”

          Nath winced.  “Sorry. I was trying to be poetic, y’know, like you?  You have this great, flowing… your words are just, they click.  Does that make sense?  It probably doesn’t make sense, forget I said anything.”

          Marc smiled at the compliment, going back to his journal.  “They’re just words.”

          “They’re not, though, alright?” he declared.  “They’re not just words, they’re you! The way you get words to line up, only you can do it that way.  You’re so… smart, and creative, and… your writing style is just great.”

          “Th-thanks.”

          “I mean that.”  Nathan looked away, holding his arm sheepishly.  “You’re great, you’re really…”  He shut his eyes.  “Forget it.”

           Marc blinked.  “What was that?”

           “Never mind.  Where you at?  Panel 9-g, the security guard is revealed to be possessed, Ghostlight comes out, and we need a good, punchy line to start the fight with.”

           “No…”  Marc closed his journal.  “This can wait.  What were you going to say?”

           “Nothing important.”

           “I doubt that.”  He reached over the table and took his hand.  “Nath, whatever it is, it’s important.  You want to say it, say it.”

           Nathaniel blushed.  His mouth opened and closed, flopping like a fish, and he started to sweat.

           Marc looked down and realized oh wait, he was actually holding Nath’s hand.  He instantly let go, which seemed to shock Nath back into coherency.

           “I can’t,” he told him.

           “You can’t?”

           “No,” he restated.  “I’ll just mess it up, just forget it.”

           “I’ll listen.”  This gave the author pause.  “I’ve been keeping up with you for the last week.  I’ll understand what you’re trying to say.”

           His face had determination etched into it. He opened his mouth and began.

           “Oh!” Rose said suddenly, breaking his momentum. “Look at the time, I have to… go make an excuse.”  She scooched off of her seat and sashayed out the door.  “I’ll leave you two alone,” she called back, leaving the door ajar.

           Both collaborators stared after her.  The art teacher glanced in her direction, then he, too, left the room.

Nathaniel and Marc were alone.  Nathan, only a little deterred, summoned back what little courage he had left.

“You…”  He stopped. “You’re my friend, right Marc?”

           “Yeah,” was the immediate, nodding answer.  “I hope so, anyway.”

           “And… I’m your friend, right?”

           “Of course.”

           “You… you’re so much of a better person than I am.” The boy gulped.  “No matter… who you are.  And today, it’s like… I’m so glad I get to see you happy.”

          “Uh…”  Marc nodded again in appreciation. “Thanks.”

          “I mean, look at you, you’re happier, even if you’re still the same person who’s come in to help me with this stupid thing—”

          “Nathan, it’s not stupid—”

          “It is, though, and sometimes it feels like we’re the only people here who care about it.  Only now you’ve changed, and you’re so much more relaxed now, and… And it’s good for you, right?  You get to be so much more confident.  Like just now, when you said you had no gender, you said it and you were sure.”

          “I’m still not really sure.”

          “You sounded sure, and that’s better than I can do.  With pretty much anything.  I’m not strong or witty, but you are. There’s just so many little things, here and there, and I can’t concentrate right.  There’s just so many things about—”

          The sudden halt from the speed at which Nathaniel had been talking gave Marc whiplash.

          Marc looked at him, expecting him to finish what he was saying.

          “I can’t…” he mumbled.   “Just… that’s it, then.  I don’t know how I was going to end that.”

          “You feeling okay, Nathan?” queried Marc.  “I don’t think I’ve heard you talk so much in one go.”

          “It’s…nothing.”  Nath took a deep breath.  “I’ve been trying to… think of things I wanted to say—”  He got out of his seat, turning away.  “Never mind, it’s stupid.”

          “No,” Marc stated, standing up behind him.  “You’re not.  If you need to say something, just say it.”

          “I think—”

          “Go on.”

          “I think you’re—” Nathaniel swallowed his tongue and hunched over, covering his mouth.

          “Nath!”  Marc rushed to his aid.  “Breathe slowly, okay?  Are you alright?  You look like you’re going to puke.”

          “I didn’t say anything, just…”  Nath’s voice broke.  “Please, just drop it, I don’t wanna…”

          Marc couldn’t believe it.  Nathaniel, whose creativity knew no bounds, was censoring himself.

          That could not happen.

          And Marc needed to know.

          “What if I don’t want to drop it?”

           “Marc, please…”

           “What if I don’t want you to be afraid to talk to me? What would you say if you could talk to me?”  He looked into his icy-blue eyes, piercing through with his warmth.  “What if you were about to say what I thought you were going to say?  What if it’s that important that I hear how that sentence was going to end?”  He snatched Nath’s hands from where they had covered his mouth and cradled them in his own. “And what if, by some miracle, I cared about how you felt and what you thought?”

           Nath stared back at him, and both of them reeled from the shock of Marc’s outburst.

           Then Nathaniel slowly started shaking his head.

           “Don’t do this… don’t do that to me,” he murmured. “Stop doing that, you’re going to just regret it.”

           Marc tightened his grip.  “Just say what you wanted to.  Stop putting up all these filters in your head.”  He grasped at something.  “Do the thing about the asterisks.  What did you mean by that?”

          Nath took a deep breath and tried.  “Well… right now, you’re… no gender.  No asterisks.  No added stress.  You’re just… Marc.  Pure Marc.” He scowled.  “I mean… that’s not good, is it, that’s not clever.  Cause you’re not just genderless, are you?”  He wrenched his hands from Marc’s ironclad grip. “Look, you could be a girl and I’d… you’d still be you.  Same for if you end up a boy.  You just get to be you.  And… I like it when you’re you.”  He stopped, looking to Marc for criticism.

           After a moment, Marc smiled warmly.  “That was pretty poetic.”

           “Y-you do it so much better than me.”

           They both smiled.

           “C-can I—” Nath gulped, shutting himself down.

           “What?”

           “N-nothing.”  He shook where he stood.  “Forget it.”

           “No chance.”  Marc wasn’t sure where this courage was coming from, but he didn’t shake it away.  “You don’t have to filter yourself.  I won’t judge anything you say from here on out, you hear me?  It’s the least I can do for what you and Alix have done for me.”

           Nathaniel drew closer suddenly, his hand touched Marc’s cheek, and their lips barely touched.  For a single half-second, their lips brushed against one another, and then Nathan drew back like Marc was a burning stove.

           Both creators were left in a state of shock.

           “Oh… my… God.”  Marc gaped.  “You…”

           “Cute,” Nathaniel muttered.  “I was gonna say cute.  Before.”  He looked down.  “I’m… sorry, I’ll just…”  He made his way to his bag, tripped on a chair, and started to bolt for the door.

           Seeing Nathan start to panic and run away triggered something in him.  He suddenly found a good reason to raise his voice.

           Nathaniel had given him strength.  Now he had to return the favor.

           “Hey, get back here!” Marc called out, and the artist stopped. “I’ve had a crush on you for over a full month now.  You get a do-over.”  Marc surged forward, turned him back around, and kissed him again, this time much more solidly.

           A few seconds passed and they separated.  “You have a crush on me?” Nath said, confused.

           Marc laughed a little at his expense.  “There were times, even just this week, where something you did just completely killed me, stone dead.”

           Nath blinked.  “Do you want to go out sometime?”

          “You see, this is what I’m talking about.”  He pulled him close and hugged him tightly.  “Son of a gun, yes, but don’t give me heart attacks like that.”

          Nath’s arms awkwardly returned the embrace.  “I, uh… I’ve never had a… an actual date before. What’s the, uhm… protocol, here?”

           “Are you serious?”

           “Half-serious.”

           “Well don’t worry.  It’ll be a learning experience for the both of us.”

           We have always belonged together!

           Nathaniel tore away from the embrace, turning sharply towards the door.  “Rose, what the hell!?”

           The little pink devil held the phone up high, volume turned all the way up.  We will always belong together!  Just keep moving on!

           “Sorry,” Rose giggled.  “My hand slipped.”

           The collaborators looked at each other.  Nodding a silent agreement, they chased after Rose together.

Okay.  I don’t have much else to say right now, so... *shuffles away*.

[mariajustinteriordesigns]

Enrolling: New Course for Creatives + Small Biz Owners - Attract, Engage and Grow!

Hello my dears, I hope you’re doing well and ready for a new week. I’m totally energized because I just started enrolling for my new course, ATTRACT ENGAGE GROW… This is the perfect online class for creative types who run a small or mid-size business (or plan to), and who want to really expand more online to really REACH people and earn a better living…. To figure out new ideas for our business, reach more customers, and grow… But with heart, not hustle! But before we get into all the details, let’s play a little game of “Do You Ever…” small business edition.

If you say YES to even one of these, this course may be the one for you. If not, you don’t really need me. ;) Okay, ready?

DO YOU EVER

01

Feel like the only way to grow your business online is to put in years of hustle and show up on social media every day, even when you’re feeling burnt out?

02

Feel called to market your business from the heart, but felt stuck because what everyone is teaching and preaching feels like selling out to you?

03 

Get overwhelmed by influencers and the overall competition?

04

Wish to be as successful as others in your industry, but don’t want to sacrifice your family life and personal “me” time?

05 

Feel frustrated because you’re not growing and you’re unsure of why?

06 

Can’t figure out where to invest your time and energy, Instagram, your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, email marketing, helllpppppppppp! (insert head exploding emoji.)

07

Feel like you need fresh new eyes on your work and could use some feedback from me and a community of other small business owners and entrepreneurs for some honest, open feedback?

...did I get you on all 7??!

I completely understand these feelings because I’ve been there myself. That is exactly why I created this course, I have a sense that it’s needed right now more than ever before amidst the crazy past year we’ve all suffered. I want to tell you a little story before I explain what this course is about because I know hearing it can make you feel better.

I left my corporate job way back when because I wanted to be independent and do something creative, on my terms, that felt better than my 9-to-5 job and the excruciating two-hour Boston commute each day. I resigned back in 2005 and never looked back. I solely built my business from nothing using only my blog (the very one you are reading) to grow for the first several years. Man, it was scary at first, and hard, but I was willing to roll up my sleeves because I knew that I was building something for me.

It took time before I figured out a simple formula to success, and that formula changed everything. I became a bestselling author with four books in nearly 20 languages, toured my books in 15 cities, developed a few product collections, started a podcast, lectured at international fairs and moderated panels, won awards for my work, I even ran my own magazine. I also started teaching online in 2009 when I launched Blogging Your Way and here I am, teaching again under decor8 courses, after a two-year pause (I was working on my magazine in Hamburg and I'm a mom so, you know the drill - limited time).

Anyway, I'm back to teaching because I felt like it was time. I have so much more insight into what works and what doesn’t, and this experience is worth gold - and I want to share it. When you run a business and need to market it, you need a solid system in place and when you have it, you really don't need to stress because things organically fall into place, and working for yourself can actually be a lot of fun.

In my course, I want to share my 15 years of experience with you because once you learn what to use, and how, then heartfelt, organic marketing can be so much easier than if you don’t have a clue where to start, and no reliable systems in place. 

“You need to be more transparent”

We've all heard that a trillion times, right?

Well, if you’ve ever wondered how I run my business as a self-made one-woman show and mother, minus the fluff and filters, I’ll tell you during this course, I'll be totally transparent for you. In fact, I welcome my students to ask tons of questions (don’t hold back!) because I want this learning experience to be as real and honest as possible. 

I also want to challenge you to think differently about how you approach your brand and audience because we’ve all been fed the hype on how important it is to “grow a massive following” and become multi-millionaires. There are lots of us who want to live a happy life, enjoy time with our family and friends, and earn an incredible living doing what we love without non-stop hustling. I can definitely teach you how to do that because my business has made me happy for 15 years, and I’ve been able to support my family financially by doing what I love.

What’s inside the course?

Module 1: Find Your Voice

With so much competition, some of us have lost our motivation, positive voice, and even our way. For Module One, we’ll work together on powering up you and your brand to make you feel more invigorated than ever before and to help you to develop an authentic, likable voice to attract a more dedicated following.

Module 2: Blogging Your Way

More than ever before, a blog is what you need to sell your brand and products. We’ll cover ALL things blogging, from content to design, because it’s still one of the key ways to find, and keep, a happy and loyal audience.

Module 3: Email Marketing That Works

Become a newsletter believer in just one week. Learn the platforms available, how to use them, why email marketing matters, effective sales strategies through email marketing that feel genuine and real, and more.

Module 4: Win at Instagram

It’s time to level up your Instagram game and to enjoy using Insta again! You’ll learn branding, strategy, planning posts, writing copy from the heart, increasing engagement without hustle, growing your account, and tips for Insta Guides and Stories.

Each module is supported by a guest expert on the respective topic, with me always as your teacher and guide. 

Meet The Experts

Garance Doré, Founder of Doré - Garance is a beloved French photographer, illustrator, and the best-selling author of LOVE STYLE LIFE who lives and works in Los Angeles, France, and New Zealand with her partner, Graham, and her dog Lulu. She recently launched a membership community for women about love, life, and style called L’île. Garance has built a loyal following with over 700k followers on her Instagram @garancedore through some of the most beautiful storytelling I’ve ever seen. In our 60 minute video inside the course, Garance will share how you can find your voice online and share it to attract a dedicated following.

Paige Brunton, Founder of Square Secrets™  - Paige is a newly married Canadian entrepreneur based in northern Germany, best known for her online courses where she teaches how to set up websites using Squarespace and how to run a profitable web design business. Paige has had over 2,000 students go through her online courses, they’re the most popular in the Squarespace industry. Paige also built her business through blogging, and as a Squarespace web design expert, she’ll be sharing how to incorporate SEO best practices into your blogging to start appearing in the Google Rankings, and tons more. Find Paige on Insta at @paigebrunton

Desha Peacock, Founder of Sweet Spot Style - Based in Vermont, Desha is the author of two interiors books, Your Creative Work Space and Create the Style You Crave. (My home office was actually featured in her work space book!) Desha is also an email marketing expert, retreat leader, business/lifestyle coach, and mother. Inside the course in our 60-minute video, Desha will be sharing her strategies and stories on how to make email marketing work for you and your blog. Find Desha on Insta at @deshapeacock

Niki Brantmark, Founder of My Scandinavian Home - Niki authors a hugely popular blog and Instagram specializing in Scandinavian living and has three best-selling books about interiors and Nordic lifestyle (I love them all so much!!!) Lagom, The Scandinavian Home, and Relaxed Rustic. Originally from England, she lives in Malmö, Sweden with her husband and two daughters. Niki has built a loyal following of over 350k on Instagram @myscandinavianhome, and in our video, she’ll be sharing how she built her following and how to enjoy using Instagram again!

SO my dears, if you’re dreaming of building your business (or improving the one you’ve got!) without the hustle, want to be part of a caring community of like-minded entrepreneurs, and receive expert advice and education from others who have built their businesses in a heart-centered way…

“Holly’s course paved my way and was the founding base of my own blog and social media. her profound knowledge and experience were a real treasure for me.”

— IGOR JOSIFOVIC KEMPER / Bestselling Author and Founder of the Urban Jungle Bloggers

So now it’s time to insert the sale-sy bit…

Dah dah dada da dahhhhh!

It’s time to save your seat inside my brand new e-course, Attract, Engage, and Grow!

Class runs from April 19 - May 31 (6-week course) and you get 35 lessons, 4 expert videos, 4 live chats with me, 4 homework assignments (optional), bonus downloads, a private community to meet others, and you can return to the class again and again because you have lifetime access!

LEARN MORE

Please note: Today is the last day to get in on the early bird special for $100 off, and there is a payment option, so click ABOVE to check out more information on this course.

[bluerene]

river, part three [starx]

Hellooooooo

Finally wrapped up part three! Phew, got a little lost in writing it, especially because I want the characters to feel real and I don’t want to get wrapped up in too much plot.  I wanted to get this out of the way before I put up Chapter 5 of Liability, so that I can continue editing and writing with a clear conscience <3 Parts one and two are linked here and at the bottom in case a refresher is needed. 

take note of the following: stubborn laptop + late writing = formatting issues. bear with me, edits shall be made. Story is post-tokyo, sans kiss, slightly aged up Titans...lots and lots and LOTS of love for @fireflyxrebel who never fails to gush and fangirl and make me cry with her insanely kind words. Show her some love, she’s written some pretty incredible fic. <3 <3 <3

I invite and appreciate critiques, requests, reblogs, and reviews! even the tiny ones :) <3

without further ado, part three, my friends. 

A couple of days passed and I was still a little lost on how to plan the date. I was out of practice as it was, it had been a while since I’d had to put in the effort to impress a girl. And I don’t mean that like, “I’m a fucking champ at getting laid without even trying”. I honestly have no idea where to begin.

It couldn’t be outside; we would meet too early in the day and I wasn’t about to greet her maskless. That ruled out a picnic or a restaurant or the movies. I couldn’t take her to the botanical gardens or go stargazing on the beach.

I didn’t think it would be a good idea to bring her back to my place. She’d probably kill me anyway, thinking that I was presuming.

Eventually, I settled on an old planetarium that was partially in the process of being remodeled. Construction had been halted for about a month already, due to some issues between the co-owners. Didn’t matter to me, I had a spot and I had an idea.

Starfire and I hadn’t talked much since our conversation a few nights ago. She wanted to keep our communications lowkey and preferred that we text at night when the other Titans weren’t around to peek over her shoulder or express interest in who she was speaking with. It made things easier for us both, especially because I worked long hours during the day. Not that she knew that piece of information. If she did, she’d never quit on the little redemption story she’s trying to write me into.

I could picture her, gorgeous eyes wide, our hands clasped together, asking me why I did what I did. If I ever let it get there, I wouldn’t be able to resist telling her. And that was something I wasn’t willing to risk.

I thought about not going on the date. Never giving her a time or place, or worse, blowing her off completely. Prove to her I’m as terrible as I want to be. Kill the hope she has for me.

But it’s Starfire. I could never do that to her.

I kept thinking about all of our interactions over the years, brief and non. The first time I had her pinned to the wall, her expression shifting from confused to furious before I could finish my suggestion. The night we found ourselves trapped in a LexCorp vault, her fingers gripping my arms as we were squished into a corner, surrounded by various menacing devices. Her look of wonder when I caught her from a nasty fall a few months back, the surprise in her eyes when she realized I wasn’t Boy Blunder.

Jesus Christ, I was totally gone, wasn’t I?

Fuck.

I had a job I needed to do that night. I’d trip an alarm and get her attention, pull her aside and tell her the whole thing was off. It was stupid of me to suggest in the first place. And it was stupider of her to accept.

I preferred to not compromise the assignment, but she’d already made it clear that it was difficult to sneak out at night. Once the Titans finished patrol, they returned to the Tower and went into total lockdown. If a window or door was opened or broken, Cyborg would get the alert. That had been news to me, and I realized that their security had probably been heightened since the theft of the suit and everything else that followed.

That evening, I broke into a private laboratory. Wasn’t too heavily guarded, I counted five, maybe six security officers stationed around the perimeter of the building, and three patrolling the halls inside. Lots of cameras, but I could mess with the feed by transmitting an older tape on a loop to the surveillance room. I was careful not to use my belt while I made my way to the main lab. There were energy sensors set up all over, designed to bring attention to any odd bursts of power that might be expelled across the premises. I fucking hate scientists sometimes.

No confrontations occurred. A+ for me. I made it into the central lab with ease, keying in the numbers my client had instructed me to use. It was a circular room with several stations, each one cluttered with tools and paperwork. Red lasers crisscrossed the area, but there were little pockets of space around the tables. Towards the back of the lab, there were wide glass windows mounted on the paneled wall, but it was too dark to see what was behind them.

“Here we go,” I muttered, cracking my knuckles and shaking out my hands. One run, not too challenging.

I leaped forward, careful to avoid the scarlet lines that cut through the air. Every action was precise, my hands and feet never lingering on the ground for more than a few seconds. I used the momentum of each handspring to push myself forward, each jump allowing me to twist through the air, clear of any obstacles.

I stumbled a little when I landed, bracing myself against the wall, relief washing over me when I realized I hadn’t tripped any alarms.

I ran my fingers along the grooves in the wall, pulling gently to see if any would budge. There was supposed to be a door to the main office somewhere…

I heard a faint click, and the panel I was gripping hissed open. Sweet.

I was in and out pretty quickly. My day job taught me some pretty cool tricks, including how to hack an “impenetrable” firewall. I accessed the desktop and downloaded several encrypted files onto a pair of flash-drives I’d brought with me. One for the client, and one for me, so I could see what I’d gotten myself into. Shut down the computer, slipped out of the office, closed the door - easy. Getting the Titans here, isolating Starfire, and keeping what I came for - that would be hard.

I darted through the lasers, flinching when the klaxon alarm screeched. I shoved the door open and hit the center of my belt quickly, teleporting to the roof. And then, I waited.

----

I had been lying on the sofa with my legs hooked over the side, deeply engrossed in a romance novel when the Titan alert rang. I glanced up, unsurprised to find Robin glaring at the console.

“Red X,” he said scathingly, turning to address the rest of us. I did not listen to what he said, my eyes immediately finding Raven’s.

I did not wish for X to come to any harm. Perhaps I was being foolish, but I would feel I had failed him if I did not follow through with our arrangement.

My anger flared for a moment - it was unfair that he had not even considered my offer, or at least avoided thievery prior to the date.

“Clorbag,” I grumbled, crossing my arms.

“ - all of us, so Starfire and I can go instead.”

I snapped to attention, “What?”

Robin shrugged, “Nothing was reported stolen, so I don’t think all of are required for this one. You and I can bring him in. It’ll make up for Monday night.” He gave me a half-smile when he said that, quiet butterflies awakening in my stomach. I rarely felt that way around him anymore.

“I do not think-”

“Awwww, ain’t that cute,” Cyborg grinned, nudging Beast Boy, “takin’ down criminals together.”

“I would like to go alone if that is okay,” I said meekly.

Robin tilted his head, confusion evident on his face, “What? Why? Starfire, you can’t go without backup.”

“I will be brief, I promise, I would simply like to have the ‘words’ with him.” It was not a lie, I planned on speaking with him, although it may not have been what Robin thought.

“Red X does go pretty easy on her,” Raven added helpfully, “if you want, I can go with. Keep an eye on her.”

I disliked that phrasing, but I was grateful for her assistance.

Robin pursed his lips, “I don’t want-”

“We do not have the luxury of time,” I interjected.

He sighed and hung his head, “just go.”

I nodded and flew to Raven’s side. Moments later, her powers engulfed us, carrying us to the location Robin had instructed us to investigate.

“Alright,” she said upon arrival, placing her hands on her hips, “what do you want me to do here?”

“Accept my humble gratitude with a hug and keep the security officers busy while I find X.”

She rolled her eyes, “The second one I can do. Save your hugs for later. Keep him out of trouble.”

I did not smile - it seemed that he could not help but get himself into trouble time and time again.

Raven spoke with the guards, which allowed me the opportunity to fly around the building. I could not find any broken windows or weaknesses in structure, which made me wonder if he had left the building at all.

As I floated higher, I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye.

Of course he was waiting on the roof.

I landed softly, allowing energy to flood my eyes with fury. This was truly disappointing to find.

He had been peering over the edge cautiously, but once he was aware of my presence, he shot up and faced me, a hand hovering in front of his belt. He relaxed when he realized I was the only one.

“Starfire.”

X’hal, I cannot explain how much I enjoyed hearing him say my name. It was strange, there was a gentle lilt to his tone, a soothing quality that calmed me. My eyes dimmed slightly, but I did not relinquish the blaze completely.

“Red X.”

“You sound unhappy, beautiful. Am I not what you wanted?”

I was taken aback by the bitterness in his voice. I had only heard it once before, on an occasion I doubt he even remembers.

We were battling the Hive Five. I had been knocked out of the air, and in my panic, forgot to fly. I still relied on Robin, back then, and often put myself in his way in hopes that he might catch me.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I neared the ground, bracing for the impact that never came.

Arms had caught me. I had touched his chest and quietly murmured, “Robin”. I felt him chuckle, and in a low voice, whisper, “not quite, Cutie.”

My eyes opened to find my savior was someone else entirely.

“Red X!” I squeaked.

He set me down gently, and in the same tired, bitter inflection, replied, “Sorry to disappoint,” before shimmering into the midst of the fight.

It hurt to hear him speak that way.

“I am disappointed that you thought you could continue to commit crimes, despite our-”

“Agreement? Starfire, you made this happen. You pushed me into it. I didn’t want a date,” he said sourly.

I raised my eyebrow, “this was not your goal? Then please, X, explain the flirting. Explain the constant requests. Explain the kindness you show me, the compassion you show only me.”

“I’m teasing, cutie. It’s what I do. I mess around. I steal, I cheat, I lie. Get over it.”

His words sounded rehearsed and detached. I had been on the receiving end of such words before.

“I do not accept that.”

He shrugged, “your problem, not mine. See you around, cutie.”

I growled and launched myself at him, throwing my arms around him as his fist hit the center of his belt.

He yelped in protest, but it was too late.

We landed in a tangled mess on soft carpet, my hands still gripping him tightly as he fumbled around in the dark.

I loosened my hold and rolled away from him, feeling my surroundings until I found a wall. I leaned against it and rose.

“Where are we?”

He cursed, but did not move to turn on the lights, “my apartment.”

That interested me.

“Oh, wonderful. Perhaps now you will be willing to sit and talk.”

“Nothing to discuss. You’re leaving.”

“You think so?” I asked, stretching my hand out hesitantly. I found his arm and curled my fingers around his hand.

“I’ll make you leave,” he said tonelessly, removing his hand from mine. He moved closer and settled his palms on my biceps, wary of holding me too tight.

“I would like to see you try,” I retorted.

He made a little noise of frustration and dropped his hands, “Jesus, Starfire, why are you being so difficult? It was stupid of you to ask, it was stupid of me to accept. Let it go. I can’t be what you want.”

“Cannot or will not?”

“Does it matter?” He asked incredulously, “Bottom line, nothing’s different. This...whatever, never happened.”

“But you wanted it to.”

“Of course I did,” he exploded, backing away from me, “how could I not? But I’m not an idiot. You can’t be around someone like me. You can’t make me change, you can’t ‘fix’ me or make me think you’re interested in me so that you get what you want. Heroes and thieves don’t play nice.”

“You have,” I pointed out, trying to ignore the pain his familiar words brought me.

He let out a bark of laughter, though it was clear he found no humor in this, “you got me there, cutie, that changes everything.”

My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, the faint shapes of the furniture surrounding us becoming more evident to me.

X was leaning against a...couch? An armchair, it seemed, once I squinted. I kept my distance, drawing circles on the wall behind me absentmindedly.

“I am more than just a hero,” I said finally, “I have heard your words before. All this talk of being one thing...humans are so much more complex than that.”

“You’re more than just a hero,” he agreed, “but beautiful, I am what I am.”

“Not without purpose.”

“What is it with you? Give it up already,” he snarled, “why do you trust me so much?”

“You have had too many opportunities to hurt me and my friends. Instead, you have protected us. Protected me,” I paused, “I will not push you to be ‘fixed’. Trust means I must have faith that you are doing what you must.”

“Thanks,” he muttered.

“I still want the date.”

He tilted his head, “what?”

I gave him a tiny smile, “I have often heard the phrase ‘do not mix business with pleasure’. I should not have coupled my heroic agenda with my personal agenda. Our date shall commence as planned, with no talk of you joining the Titans.”

He shifted uncomfortably, tugging at the collar of his suit, “Ah, cutie -”

“You have already admitted you would like to date me. Is it so farfetched to think I could feel the same?” The words spilled from my mouth before I could stop myself. I flushed, thankful for the darkness.

He stiffened and fell silent. I could almost see him working through my words, deciding if he should believe me or not.

“No,” he said finally. I was relieved to hear amusement trickling into his tone, “I guess not.”

“Wonderful. Please take me back to the laboratory, now,” I stretched out my hand expectantly.

He took it and tugged me into him, settling his arm around my waist, “anything for you, beautiful.”

We landed on the roof of the building far more gracefully. He released me from his grasp quickly, laughing quietly when I stumbled into his chest.

“I am not used to chemical transportation,” I said apologetically, blushing yet again.

“You should get going,” he said, jerking his head in the direction Raven and I had come from, “your teammates are probably wondering where you are.”

“That is likely. I thank you for your honesty tonight. I shall see you Saturday,” I lifted into the air and glanced around for Raven. I was certain she sensed my disappearance and return, and would no doubt be very cranky and concerned.

“Starfire,” he said quietly, pulling on my ankle gently.

I frowned and dropped beside him, “yes?”

“Don’t kill me for this,” he breathed. He flipped up the bottom of his mask quickly, revealing a smooth, square jaw and a mouth that was quickly pressed to mine.

[end of part three] part two  part one

[dirtylevi]

The Mystery Lurker: Is It Eren?

Okay, so apparently me writing an entirely too long meta about why the lurker, long haired beardy man might very well be Eren based on a metric fuckton of speculation and the fan translation won out over waiting for the official translation. I will be putting this under a Read More due to spoilers and because it’s quite long. So first and foremost, before we even get started:

DISCLAIMER: This is my personal opinion. In no way am I stating what I say here is canon or completely accurate. if you disagree with my opinion, that’s perfectly fine! Everyone has a different point of view, but if you are going to send me messages trying to argue points of view with me or send me hate messages, do me a favor and please just don’t even bother.

Please try to read this with any other method outside of the mobile app because the app will butcher this post in the worst of ways. Also, I am far too tired to edit this ridiculously long ass post so sorry for any grammer or spelling errors. Now then, I’m am still on the the fence with this, but with each passing minute I lean closer and closer to truly believing this man is Eren, and for a ton of reasons too, but since I am always a slut for some imagery, let’s start this with some panels, shall we?

I won’t lie, when I first saw speculation that this mystery man may be a Paradis spy last month when chapter 93 dropped, I brushed it off immediately. Thinking that it was too easy and just kind of cliche. Also believing that maybe the armband being worn on the wrong side was a mistake. But, then we see this same man wearing his armband on the wrong arm AGAIN this month:

I have a lot to say about these panels so allow me to delve a bit deeper here:

1:) Falco just so happens to be the soldier that helps Myster Man, when at the beginning of the chapter, this kid seen silently thinking that he desires to free all Eldian’s. Not just the one’s on the mainland, but the one’s on the island too. He is also wondering if Reiner is thinking the same and if he can trust someone who was so dedicated to Marley and the iradication of those on Paradis island:

I have a lot to say about Reiner in this chapter too, but that’s for a different post when the official translation drops. For now, let’s focus on mystery man. 

Falco has been shown to think quite differently from his counterpart, Gabi. He’s sensitive to human life, even that of enemy soldiers that he blatantly tries to save on the battlefield in the midsts of war. He doesn’t see inheriting one of the titans as an honor. He see’s it as a burden, and he obviously hasn’t been so easily brainwashed into thinking he’s superior than those who share the same curse as him solely because they walk on different soil.

If Mystery Man is indeed Eren, he just stumbled right into a potential ally. 

2:) What Flaco says to Mystery Man. “You don’t have to fight anymore.”. That is one hell of a statement to make if it is Eren because if it is actually him, I imagine his entire reasoning for being there would be to scout for a way to fight and win. Foreshadowing, anybody???

3:) Mystery Man just so happens to be with mentally injured soldiers who have no family in the city. However, he seems quite calm compared to the rest walking in the line. Seems quite convienient. 

4:) He also happens to be walking into a hospital in the very city where The Owl spoke of a Doctor ally for the walled Edlian’s. 

5:) He’s seen wearing the armband on the wrong arm in two different chapters, not once showing his full face, and NO OTHER CHARACTER IS SEEN WEARING IT LIKE THAT. This character is obviously new to wearing military uniforms from Marley. 

On top of these things, It is painfully obvious Isayama is going out of his way to hide this character’s face. I’m sorry, but I do not see why he would do that for some random character we have never seen before (such as the elusive 9th titan shifter). Isayama might as well be planting a neon sign over this guy stating that he’s someone extremely important that we already know and probably doesn’t belong in Marley considering his armband is on the wrong arm and we’ve seen him lurking covertly in Reiner’s vacinity for two chapters now.

Logically, I can only pin this man as Eren. 

The last time we saw Eren, his hair had grown out considerably, and yet no other character’s hair had changed at that point in time. We see him pointing across the ocean with his long locks and asking if killing the enemy across the water would free them. 

He stares across the sea with this question heavy question and his newly grown out hair. Again, forshadowing anyone?! Eren is also the only known character with that hair style, and the ability to regenerate his limbs. Now, I’ve seen a lot of people debate over this so allow me to add my two cents. Titan regeneration abilities can be controlled or postponed. We’ve seen it before. 

Once with Reiner after his arm is bitten at Castle Utegard:

Once with Eren after his failed titan transformation in the well:

And once again with Annie as the female titan:

So this is easily probable for Eren to do after five years of using his titan ability and learning how to control everything he can and can’t accomplish while experiementing with Hanji. Plus, an injured soldier with no family in the city doesn’t draw much attention. It’s a perfect disguise. But this leaves us with two massive, burning questions so let’s start with question one.

Why would Paradis send Eren, one of their greatest assets, to an enemy nation?

I can think of a lot of reasons for this, but two ideas stick out the most. 

INFORMATION:

Something I notice a lot of people overlooking here is the fact that Eren is a member of the Survey Corps. The Survey Corps main duty as a military force is to SURVEY. Whether that be survey new territory, enemy forces, or search for truth; all apply to this situation. Scouting is their primary objective. Especially now that all of the titans that posed a threat on Paradis have been exterminated. 

Also remember that Hanji is now their Commander. This is the same individual who stated that the best way to defeat your enemy is to study them down to the finest detail until you find a weakness you can exploit for victory. I wouldn’t be surprised whatsoever if this was entirely Hanji’s idea and being followed through on her orders. Mainly because she isn’t one to simply sit around and consistently wait for the enemy to attack over and over again, but especially after fighting off a number of enemy battleships. 

They have taken out every single one of those ships and I’m positive they would have managed to capture a few soldiers on board for questioning. An opporation like this would be nearly impossible if they hadn’t, and Hanji isn’t one to miss out on a opportunity to gain knowledge, and an upperhand. This would also explain how Eren would have gotten his hands on a Marlian uniform, knew where to find Reiner, knew to pose as an injured soldier, where to go, and so on. 

But, why send Eren for information, right? Well, if that man is Eren, I doubt very, verrryyyyyyyy highly that he is there alone. Regardless though, Eren is the only one with access to memories that paint a vivid picture of Marley. He’s also one of two people with the ability to shift into a titan. If you were going to send one out of two of your greatest weapons to an enemy nation, probably best to leave the Colossal behind to deal with any enemy ships that may pop up, and send the one with the most information already at his disposal instead, yeah? Also best to send someone who can easily disguise themselves as an injured soldier in a believeable manner without permanent damage. Especially if part of their plan was to seek out a Restorationist doctor. 

Also, for those of you wondering how he would find said allies: 

All Eldian allies wear that scar, and Eren knows this thanks to Grisha’s memories.

COVERT OPPORATION:

I’m sure that after four years of taking out battleships without any shifters present aboard them, the Survey Corps knew that the clock was ticking on their end. Eventually, Reiner, Zeke, and Pony Titan would return along with whoever ate Ymir to attack again. Plus, since they are all aware of the 13 year life limit thanks to Eren having Grisha’s memories as well, after some basic math, they most likely quickly figured out that Reiner was running out of time. 

Personally, I believe they quite possibly sent Eren to the mainland for the sake of both information, and also for a covert opporation to take the power of any titan shifter within grasp before it could be passed off. Obviously this would need to be done very delicately, but pulling an opporation like this is the best chance they would have even though it is very risky.

No one in Marley would ever expect someone from Paradis to infiltrate their land, let alone their ranks in military. As far as most of them are aware, those on Paradis are still boarded up behind walls thanks to the hoards of titans they created from other Eldians. Plus, they are known to be very behind on tech and have no clue about how to build or steer ships. No one would even expect them to be able to get there. 

They had tried to kill Reiner a number of times and failed. Levi also failed to kill Zeke. However, if they could sneak in unexpectedly and catch them off gaurd at a point of weakness they discovered thanks to going undercover; game over. Taking the titan power’s away from Marley’s control would render them as a nation completely powerless which they would know by questioning enemy soldiers captured from the ships as I stated before. Not only that, but it would also grant Eren the ability to control the Coordinate. 

Eren has Grisha’s memories and his notes. He knows his father birthed a son with royal blood that was enlisted as a Warrior, and Eren figured out in chapter 90 that in order to control the Coordinate, he needed blood of the first king. Not wanting to risk harm to Historia, he kept this a secret, but I am positive Eren figured out that Zeke is his half-brother. Especially after Zeke’s little spill of how he knew Grisha, and that he would save Eren from their father’s brainwashing. Eren even saw the resemblance as he spoke to him. 

So not only does Zeke have the power to turn people to titans, to control pure titans, and have the ability to shift into the beast titan - which makes him a severe threat - but he also has royal blood which allows him a lot of his abilities. If Levi happened to be there with Eren, he could fufill his promise and Eren could gain another titan, and the full use of the Coordinate.  

Not then. Question two:

How in the ever-loving fuck did Eren get there?

Truthfully, I have no idea, but I have a couple of guesses. 

BY AIR:

This is an extreme long shot, but not impossible. I won’t rule it out entirely solely because it isn’t all that ridiculous to consider it an option. 

BY SEA:

This is the most likely option, but I see a lot of skepticism here too, but let me explain. It is entirely possible that in four years, those on Paradis could learn how to make a functioning ship using rubble from these Destroyers. Hanji made the thunder spears in a freaking month, and it’s been shown that Eren can build large structures extremely quickly in titan form. 

Though I doubt they would sail straight to Marley on one of their own ships. Too suspicious. The more likely option would be that they redesigned a new ship using scrap from the wrecks they caused, and pinpointed a good landing spot on the coast using info gathered from captured soldiers aboard the original Destroyers. 

                                            IN CONCLUSION

In all likelihood, the long haired beardy man is indeed Eren. I cannot, for the life of me, think of any other character that he could possibly be. If it was a character we hadn’t been introduced to yet, Isayama wouldn’t be so inclided to hide their face while still making it obvious they’re important thanks to thrusting him into two chapters with his armband on the wrong side. 

If my theory is correct (which you never know!), I imagine Eren’s purpose for being in Marley would be to seek allies within Marley’s ranks, to gather information about the enemy and pinpoint a weakness to exploit, and to snatch any of the four titan powers they have in their military pocession if at all possible without discovery.

Essentially, it would be to try and shred Marley’s hold of power from the inside out. Exactly like RBA did when they infiltrated the walls. It also aids Paradis to do something like this in the midst of Marley’s combat with another nation. Infiltrating Marley in the middle of a war would make it a LOT easier to get in unnoticed. Also a strategy RBA pulled to cover as citizens in the chaos of Shiganshina falling.

The greatest weapon against an enemy is another enemy. Especially when you don’t expect your first enemy to make a move against you while using your own strategy.

[shamelessmilkshakepanda-blog]

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Is there a law in California for mandatory Health Insurance now?

What is the process of renting a car through your insurance?

Im calling about it tomorrow but I just dont want to sound completely clueless. So how does the process go for this? Does the insurance just tell you where to go and when to pick up the car and you just go get it or is there more??? This is assuming insurance pays for it completely.

How do I get health insurance for my newborn?

I am 6 months pregnant and 21 years old. I am still on my parents' health insurance, as I am an unemployed student. My boyfriend, who is an independent, is an unemployed student as well. He is currently uninsured and, as we have found, is uninsurable due to the fact that I am pregnant. My parents' health insurance WILL NOT cover grandchildren (dependents of dependents) and so my baby will not be covered on their plan. Individual health insurance plans will not cover my infant until up to 30 days AFTER he is born (and we can apply for medical insurance for him). How do I secure health care coverage for him BEFORE he comes so he can start going to the pediatrician immediately?""

How Does Full Coverage Auto Insurance Work?

How Does Full Coverage Auto Insurance Work?

Car Insurance what companies have the cheapest rates?

Please help me! What Insurance companies have the cheapest insurance. ( male )

General concepts of health insurance?

What are the general concepts of health insurance? What arevarious types of private health insurance options? Difference between them?

Does the Affordable Health Care law really prevent insurance companies from denying pre-existing conditions?

They say that now, insurance companies can no longer deny insurance to people with pre -existing conditions. So what was HIPAA passed in 1996 for? This law states that insurance companies CAN NOT deny people with pre -existing conditions. The only change I see is it gets rid of the 12 month exclusion period. I had two aunts with lupus, both lived in California and had insurance, until they moved to Texas. If they could have kept their insurance, they would have, but for some odd reason liberals are against insurance across state lines. They had no problem finding insurance, they just had to be out of pocket for 12 months. HIPAA also states that if you can go six months without any medical visits, advice/procedures, insurance companies are not allowed to look further than that and must not apply the exclusion period. So did the Affordable Care Act really stop insurance companies from denying coverage for pre existing conditions, or was it ALREADY a law? http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_hipaa.html""

Is it possible to get Mexican insurance (not tourist) for US plated car ?

I have a US plated car (calif plates) not currently registered in the US, Not currently insured in the US. I am in mexico on FM2. Car has been here for over 4 yrs with temp permit. Is it possible to get insurance in mexico? For tourist policy I have been told car must have current US registration and insurance, For mexican policy I have been told need to have mex plates. Anyone with US plates been able to get Mexican insurance (not tourist) for their currenlty unregistered un insured US vehicle in mexico? If so what is your insurance company. Thanks""

Tenaha Texas Cheap car insurance quotes zip 75974

Tenaha Texas Cheap car insurance quotes zip 75974

""How can I tell the difference between regular car insurance policy ,and a group insurance policy?""

How can I tell the difference between a regular car insurance policy ,and a group insurance policy?""

I was at-fault in a car accident. How much will it cost to repair? Should I report to insurance?

Here are the details of what happened: - I hit an illegally parked car, popping the side mirror out of it's place and scratching it slightly on the side. - My car's tire blew and the axle is completely f**ked up. It looks like my car is doing a turn-out in ballet. I also have to fix the bumper which popped out of place and the mirror popped out of place. How much will it cost if I take it to the Volvo dealership? - My car is a black 2006 Volvo V50 stationwagon. - Should I report this to insurance? How much will my insurance increase if I have AAA and this is my first accident on record?""

Do you get cheaper insurance if you drive less miles to school?

if i lie and tell them i drive barely any miles to school would it be cheaper? its 87 a month right now but imma tell them scool is like a 2 mile drive

Can my Health Insurance cover for my Car Insurance?

I currently have AmeriChoice as my health Insurance and High Point as my car Insurance. Does anybody know how this works? I've some people say that they have their car ins. with their health ins. and they end up paying less $$ for their car Ins. Help!

""Ohio motorcycle insurance, 18 years old.?

I want to buy a motorcycle and I have the money but the only question I have is where I can find reasonable insurance rates. I am 18 and have never owned a motorcycle before. I am interested in buying a 1970's Kawasaki 400. Can someone give me advice or point me in the right direction regarding insurance?

How much does Ensure cost?

I'm striving to gain weight and I was wondering how much Ensure costs? I'm thinking Ensure Plus in packs or as a single purchase. Please name stores that sell it too. Thank you!

""Can I buy a car under my name, and put it under my parents insurance policy?""

Ive been looking into purchasing a new vehicle, Im 18 and fresh out of high school and my car is okay, but its just a money pit. I want to put the car under my name to get a better intrest rate, but i cant afford paying expensive insurance policy. So can i purchase the car in my name and put it under my parents insurance policy?""

Will insurance cover getting a rental car after a wreck?

Today I was stopped at a red light, when a Mustang ran full speed into the back of my car, sending me into the car in front of me. The Mustang owners insurance is covering the damage done to my car (front and rear bumper, hood bent, most all cosmetic). Does anyone know if it is at all possible for me to get a rental car? If so who's insurance would cover it? And I am under the age of 18 so I don't know if that affects the situation. My Dad is going to try and make some calls to our Statefarm ppl tomorrow, but I was just wondering if anyone could answer any of my questions. Thanks so much.""

How would I go about trying to lower my car insurance?

I know after so many years of having car insurance, paying it on time, and having no accidents, that your car insurance is lowered every so often. When I first received car insurance, I did it online, received a quote and payed it. I've been paying that amount ever since. How would I go about trying to get it lowered or at least seeing if I can lower it? I'm with Allstate. Thanks!""

Do classic/muscle cars cost more to insure?

Im 16 years old with my driving permit going to be g2 in a few months (can drive alone with g2) Im looking to get a classic or muscle car so cars such as late 60's camaro or mustangs to something later such as late 80's monte carlos the car will likely be a project (im up for a small to medium restoration) so id try to get antique insurance? my cousin has antique insurance on his '81 camaro thats almost mint and its been appraised and everything and he can drive it on weekends and theres a set km's that he can drive according to his insurance im fully able to do a restoration as ive worked in an auto shop and I know a bunch of parts suppliers & garages (including one of my cousins) basically ive got the place, the tools, the know-how (im an auto student) and a parts suppliers anyways what I want to do is have it on my dads insurance, his record has been clean since started driving which around 30 years do insurance companies charge more for say cars that have options such as SS or other things that make is look sporty or make the car faster (bigger & better engine) say car with a 267 chevy v8 would be less insurance than one with a 350 v8? is it cheaper to say my dads the primary driver while I drive it? do older cars generally have cheaper insurance? is there such a thing as project car insurance? (do I even have to have insurance on a project if im not driving it say for a month?) im just so confused with all the insurance talk like premiums and deductibles etc etc.""

Will the check from the auto insurance company be in my name or my mom's?

under name of insured it has my mom's name and my name. the car is in my name. I hit a car and the insurance company is sending a check for the repair costs after the deductible. will the check be in my name or my mom's name??

""I been in a car accident with no car insurance, so I want to know how much should I pay the person who's suing?""

I was in a car accident with no insurance and they claim I owed over $6,000. I end up talking it down to $3,000 even. I wanted to know did I over paid or was that a fair amount. The person had whiplash and received treatment and the car was damage at the rear end.""

**Average Homeowners Insurance for Condo in DC???**?

If the condo was $50,000 1bd/1bth in washington DC not many amenities cept fire alarm and enxtinguisher. once car garage.""

Why does a rental app ask for my car insurance info?

I got an application from an apartment complex on the app it ask's for a copy of my car insurance card why?

About how much would the insurance cost on a 2010 Mercedes Benz C300?

BTW I'M 16 YEARS OLD. Big factor, I know. I know I don't deserv it, I'm too young, yeah, I know. But I don't want any of those answers. Just please answer my question with no complaining about how you didn't get a nice car when you were 16. I just want an estimate. Thanks!""

Car Insurance Question?

Hi, im 16 and 17 in August living in Ireland, and i'm thinking of buying either a Honda Civic 1999-2001 or a Honda integra 1998-2001 aswell, i'm a guy and i'm wondering how much it'll cost to insure either one of them, and also what car is better""

How can I lower my insurance?

I m paying 660 for insurance I have liability I live in upstate ny they told me my insurance was so high because they spotted me in brooklyn run a red light I work in brooklyn n my agent say I need to have a lease to lower my insurance again I wanna lower it to the max If any body got any advice or idea I will be glad to hear a few of them list all the possible options

Car insurance claim but no MOT?

my partner had a crash today and it was totally the other persons fault as my parter was indicating to turn right and some idiot tried to overtake him on the right , hitting his side. the police said not probs its totally the other persons fault and we claim off his insurance not ours but when the police checked the car they discoved the mot ran out a month ago, my partner explained we though we had updated it and they were fine about , prob believed us as we had tax and insurance, they dont worry just tell your insurance about the crash. i know car insurance is not vaild but surely its okay if its only the other person paying out? car in the garage and does not seem to be any probs so far......do you think we will be ok, it really was a genuine over sight""

Running red light- effects on car insurance?

I'm listed as the third driver on my insurance plan and I recently turned right on a red light and apparently didn't stop before as long as i should have. Needless to say I got 3 points and a 300 dollar fine. I'm with td insurance currently. How much can I expect the rates to go up?

Is auto insurance legally required to drive your motorcycle in NYC?

I have tried googling the question, and all I get are all ad junk sites trying to get my personal information for free quotes. I cannot seem to find any legal information as to driving a motorcycle uninsured in NYC. I understand it is mandatory to have auto insurance on your car for liability damages, to other parties as well as medical bills. However, I cannot find any information if this applies to motorcycles as well. Do motorcycles fall under this statute as it is an Auto Vehicle? I am not looking forward to any fines and revoking of my license. Thank you in advance.""

Whats the best auto insurance for me?

i want a insurance company that gives gives checks to me for claims and lets me fix my car not shops. geico? AAA?

Who s liable for car insurance in the state of MN?

Here's the deal...My bf took my car for the weekend out of town. While he was gone, someone hit my car in a parking lot and drove off....smashed my driver's side door in. It's a new car so I want it fixed ASAP. My thought is that his insurance should be covering it because he was in posession of my car...even if the person hit it and left. He is saying that my insurance should cover it....who is right? And why?""

Cheapest car insurance in florida?

I know insurance is very important, but I simply do not have the money right now to get a good plan. I have a minimum wage job, and I need to go to work and I need a way to get there. So I need the cheapest plan I can find. At least for now. These premiums are up to 500 a month and I really cant do that. Anybody know of a cheap cheap CHEAP car insurance company?""

Free health insurance coverage in the state of California ?

My mother In- law has come to join us to live in the united states. I was wondering can she qualify for MEDICAL in the state of california. Free health insurance

Any Cheap insurance companies for Aprilia RS125?

My son has a RS125 Aprilia and i am just looking for some cheap insurers, hes 18 on thursday. want Third party fire theft, and i also dont want to pay more than 600 please help""

Tenaha Texas Cheap car insurance quotes zip 75974

Tenaha Texas Cheap car insurance quotes zip 75974

How much does insurance cost and hoe much does licencse/registration cost?

plz hurry and answer

""How much will my insurance premium go up after a speeding ticket, I'm 17?""

I am a 17 year old male whose car insurance is roughly $200 a month from Travelers. My parents (unlike me, haha) are perfect drives and have had no recent violations. On the other hand, I got pulled over in MASS for doing 86 in a 65. It won't happen again. I live in CT. How much do you think this will increase by? and when I renew could my insurance company decide to not run my DMV record?""

Renters insurance in California?

What does renters insurance cover? I'm renting a room from a friend but want my own insurance to cover personal injury without using the homeowner's coverage as well as if something gets accidently damaged by me for it to be covered. Is this included in renters insurance?

Motorcycle Insurance (600cc vs 750cc)?

I am picking up a new sportbike (Suzuki GSX-R) here in a couple weeks and I was wondering the average cost of motorcycle insurance per month (or year if you pay gross). The bike will be totally paid off when I purchase. Thank you for your time, Kevin BTW: I am 25yrs old in Florida. It will be either a 600cc or 750cc.""

Help! im trying to find car insurance!?

help ! i am trying to find car insurance for a bog standard vaxhaull corsa and each time I have done a quote for TPFT the price is no less than 1800. I am 19 and have held a clean license for 1 year. Any suggestions? I am going in an hour to buy a car.

Car insurance for teens !! Help?

So I live in Benton Louisiana and I'm 15. I'm about to turn 16 and my mon said that she won't let me drive or get me a car because insurance is expensive. How much is insurance for 16 year olds?! It just really makes me mad because at first she was all for it and said that she would get me a car since she ruined my 15th birthday. Now, she just let my hopes down once again. That's why I want to know like about how much is car insurance for teens. Thank you!!""

My car insurance has been cancelled?

i need to know if i have to pay more or is the same amount in my billing if i pay for it this is for a car insurance the insurance company is aig

Got an insurance check for hail damage on my car do i have to repair my car?

I have had the check for the insurance company sitting for two months due to the fact I havent had the money to pay the deductible. Well I am 35 weeks pregnant and this week my phone, water, car insurance, will all be shut off or canceled this week and my car payment was due three weeks ago. So This is my last and final option but my car is not paid of I still owe on it and the check is for 2,000 due to hail damage and it is made out to me and the bank so it says pay to the order of (name) AND (bank) only! Can I put the check into my bank account wait for it to clear and then pay my bills? I know this sounds very wrong but sometimes you have to do what you can with you've got.""

That great republican healthcare plan of out of state insurance co.?

Like here in California where an Indiana company, Wellpoint, buys out Blue Cross of California, renames it Anthem and jacks up private rates 39%. How is that going to save me money?""

Which of these is the correct Republican opposition to universal healthcare?

A. The government can't run anything right B. Government-run healthcare will be too successful, and private insurance companies won't be able to compete As with the Obama is simultaneously a Muslim, a Radical Black Christian, and Godless Communist argument, sooner or later you are going to have to pick one and go with it...at least in this place some of us like to call reality ...""

What is a good company for individual dental insurance?

What is a good company for individual dental insurance?

How to get cheap insurance?

i am 17 and i have a fiat bravo 1.4 2008. i hear that insurance at my age is very high and some made option of being named as a second driver. my problem is i live with my mom and can it be possible if she named me as a second driver though she doesn't have no licence. if not how can i get another option of getting cheap insurance.

I am 30 and just got my UK licence and want to buy a car. Any tricks to getting cheap insurance?

I have had my NZ drivers licence since I was 16 and many years of no-claims. However, I haven't owned a car or insurance policy in the UK. Any tops for not having to pay very high premiums? I would love to get a sports car, but it's looking very expensive. (Would it be worth registering in girlfriends name and being a named driver?)""

Should fat people and smokers get a discount on their health insurance?

Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars... -- AP/wired.com, Feb 6, 2008 http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/O/OBESITY_COST?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-02-05-02-58-08""

Anyone here have car insurance with a company called 'Ladybird'?

How much insurance do you pay and on what car?

How can I get auto insurance in my name when the car is registered in someone else's name?

My mom currently has a loan on my car in her name in California. My car is registered in California, but because my husband is active duty military, we relocated to South Carolina. Is there a way I can obtain insurance in my name without being a registered owner?""

Will my home owner insurance go up if I make a claim? How much?

I live in Massachusetts. Let's say a homeowner has a flood, and claims a $3000 loss, minus a $500 deductible. Will they be punished severely with increased rates? What will it cost them? Will it make a difference if the damage was someone else's fault (e.g. in a condo where a first floor unit could be flooded by a broken water heater on the second floor, or by a fault in the building's plumbing which is owned by the association?) Will the insurance company send their lawyers after the party at fault, and in that case would they not raise the rates on the claimant? People tell horror stories, usually about car insurance, where the rates go up so much you pay the insurance company back for the whole claim. But I pay all of $220 per year for $30,000 in personal property coverage. If I claimed a loss of a few thousand dollars, how much could they really raise my $220 premium?""

What car insurance provider is best In NC?

I am 18 and ready to get a car and insurance. I have responsibility's already and insurance is not cheap. I have a part time job and get anywhere from $150- $200 dollars a week depending on fluctuating hours. I need to know which insurance company is better an will provide a $250 deductible and not jack up the price too much. Which is better i understand that it is a matter of opinion but i need some opinions.

Buying a new/used car & insurance?

Okay, if you are buying a new/used car will they refuse to sell it to you if you have a warrant? How about insurance will the insurance company refuse to insure you & your vehicle if you have a warrant?""

Does anyone have knowledge of supplemental insurance that helps pay for Maternity cost?

My daughter is pregnant and needs a supplemental insurance policy. I know of Affordable HealthCare Options (AHCO) but don't know anyone that has used them. She lives in Norman, OK. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank You""

What is the cheapest van insurance for a 18 year old with no previous insurance with a full lience?

What is the cheapest van insurance for a 18 year old with no previous insurance with a full lience?

Where can I find affordable health insurance for my son who has a mental illness.?

my son has a mental illness and maxed out of my husbands policy due to his age. He works 15 hrs. a week and his employer doesn't offer insurance for part time employees. We've checked numerous policies on line and the cheapest we've found for him is $800 a month, way more than we can afford. Because he still lives at home, our income is considered as far as government paid plans. We need to find a policy for him but I'm at a dead end. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.""

Is Believing in God Similar to Having Car Insurance ?

Believing in God is like having Car Insurance Lls HOPE is Beautiful If you get in an accident you are covered (safe) If not you just short and out of luck ...You can not rule out that God does or doesnt exist....I have Faith that he does so when I die hopefully I meet him...For the rest that dont have Faith they're just cool with the idea that death is just the End and that's their opinion They're not dumb to me at all

Does where you buy the car affects its insurance?

so im thinking about buying my first car, i know that the kind of car i buy will affect my insurance, but what if i buy the same car (lets say a porsche 911 turbo) in an auction or on craigslist (which would be significantly cheaper). would i have to pay the same price for my insurance or ould it be cheaper ...""

Insurance on newly bought car?

When you buy a car, you kind of have to drive it home without insurance. What happens if you get in an accident or get pulled over? I'm talking about buying a used car, if that makes any difference.""

Tenaha Texas Cheap car insurance quotes zip 75974

Tenaha Texas Cheap car insurance quotes zip 75974

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/minneapolis-minnesota-cheap-car-insurance-quotes-zip-55488-kevin/"

[formerdestielshipper-blog]

Rant of a Recent Former Destiel Shipper

I am destiel shipper...a moderate one. I always enjoyed my ship through fanarts and fanfics on my own, without disturbing anyone with it. I always enjoyed SPN for what the show is: a story about two brothers, one angel and now a (former, maybe) nephilim fighting supernatural evil to save the world with the help of their family, blood-related or not. I always stayed out of fandom drama in general, especially the ones related to ships, because I refused to let that ruin the fun for me regarding my ship and SPN in general. But – even so – it was hard not to see a lot of them, since they always kept popping up on my TL because some of my followers – also destiel shippers – RT them, answered them or caused them. But I always did my best to just ignore them. I ship destiel, but I never wanted it to become canon because romance – heterosexual or LGBTQ + - isn’t what the show is about. I know destiel will never be canon and I’m cool with that.

With the recent events, I realized keeping silence about it was being conivent  with the harassment, blame shifting, hate (tagged and untagged) against the SPN cast and crew and fans of the show who ship a different ship or that don’t ship anyone, pushing that ship on the cast and crew on conventions and on SM. I realized it would be very hypocritical of me disagreeing with that kind of behavior coming from shippers of other ships, but not having the same reaction when said behavior comes from the same segment of the fandom I’m part of.

I’m not comparing the level of abhorrent behavior of some destiel shippers (the hardcore ones) with the abhorrent behavior of bronlies/tinhats or even defending them, because the attitudes of the latter are borderline psychotic/psychopathic that truly makes me worry about the safety of the cast, their families, friends and coworkers and some professional help would be really beneficial for them if they didn’t think they weren’t doing anything wrong…but I digress.

I saw some accounts – some of them really popular among the fandom and with a considerable amount of followers – calling out on the awful behavior of bronlies/tinhats and asking for those who are fans of J2, to regulate them and expose them, report them when they see bronlies/tinhats sending hate against the cast, crew, their families and friends instead of turning the blind eye. But this request of them will fall on deaf years, since they don’t do the same thing.

Lead by example. Practice what you preach. There’s no use you asking other people that if you don’t do the same thing yourself. You obviously know that some destiel shippers do harass and send hate against the cast and crew, tagged or not.  And yet, you’re not vocal about it. The same way bronlies/tinhats attack even the actors’ charities (RA and YANA), I’ve seen plenty of destiel shippers attacking Jared’s AKF campaign over the years.

Tweeting a very superficial message when that happens or ignoring it completely doesn’t help anyone, just validate their awful behavior and they will never realize what they’re doing is wrong. Do with them the same thing you do with the bronlies/tinhats: expose them, ask them to stop because what they’re doing isn’t cool, and report them if necessary. Make them accountable just like you make bronlies/tinhats accountable.

It would be like if I called out the Star Wars fandom for being toxic against the SW cast and directors and ignoring the exact same behavior in SPN Family, by sweeping all the dirt under the rug, just because I’m part of the fandom.

Many of destiel shippers still falsely accuse Jensen of being homophobic/biphobic based on a bad edited video that was posted 5 years ago, that was taken out of context and many still believe Jensen meant to offend the fan even when said fan broke her silence once she found out her name was being used to foment those accusations against Jensen, by telling the fandom what truly happened at that panel. I could see those false accusations and attacks against Jensen again after that click bait article that was full of inaccuracies and lies against some SPN actors came to the surface.

And don’t even get me started on the hate and false accusations of being homophobic/biphobic Jensen got from a lot of destiel shippers just because he said destiel doesn’t exist on the show…which is true, since the ship isn’t canon.

I saw hate – tagged and untagged – being sent against Jared from some destiel shippers (some of them weren’t even at the con, I might add) because he “crashed” the JenMish panel at JIBCon. After all, how dare Jared participate in a panel that he was probably invited to by Jensen and Misha themselves, right? (insert sarcasm here, please).They sent hate against Daniela too, for that same reason among others aka prohibiting shipping questions and ship fanarts, specially the NSFW ones in order to avoid fandom drama in an event that’s supposed to be fun for everyone and to avoid the cast being uncomfortable by such things. You don’t have to agree with Daniela’s rules about the con she organizes, but the moment you buy the ticket, you have to follow them instead of acting like a petulant child to the point of attacking her and one of the three leads of SPN.

Over the years, I saw watching the con panels at YouTube, destiel shippers asking shipping questions to Jensen, Jared, Misha, Samantha Smith, etc., which is considered pushing your ship on the cast. I saw destiel shippers accusing the showrunners, producers, writers, actors, even Kripke of homophobia and queerbaiting just because destiel wasn’t canon.  This has been going on for almost a decade.

The recent episode about the destiel stickers proves exactly that. They aren’t just stickers, they represent a ship and distributing that around is exactly pushing destiel on the fans and even on the cast, since the person in question isn’t going to even bother asking if the people she’s going to give those stickers to at Denver are shippers, let alone destiel shippers too. That attitude is similar - in a way - to fanatic religious people that shove their religion on other people by giving them pamphlets without having the decency to ask those people if they are interested in the first place. By doing so, that person is creating more drama and divide in a fandom that is already divided. Not to mention she’s violating a Creation rule about not bringing shipping related stuff to their cons. It’s the same thing that I said about Daniela and JIBCon: if you buy a ticket to a Creation con, you have to follow their rules, even when not agreeing with them. Just because you paid hundreds of dollars for their ticket, it doesn’t give you the right to do whatever you want at the event at the expense of others. Respect is mutual and it isn’t unconditional.

About the queerbaiting, destiel shippers are queerbaiting themselves by demanding a fanon ship to become canon and then being disappointed when that doesn’t happen one season after the other.

I’m LGBTQ+ myself and shipping destiel helped me a lot at being comfortable with my sexual orientation. I consider LGBTQ+ representation to be very important, but I also believe that representation can’t be pushed or used as prop to force a LGBTQ+ ship on a show, especially when the characters of that ship aren’t LGBTQ+, canonically speaking.

LGBTQ+ representation has to happen naturally in order to be convincing, in order to have good and convincing LGBTQ+ characters. And SPN had plenty of good and convincing LGBTQ+ characters over 13 seasons and I don’t mean by that only Charlie and Chuck. SPN had almost 30 LGBTQ+ characters in 13 seasons and destiel shippers ignore those characters or dismiss them just because the canonically heterosexual two characters they ship aren’t amongst them. Maybe those destiel shippers should revaluate if their worry about LGBTQ+ representation on SPN is legit or it’s just something they use as an excuse/blackmail to demand destiel becomes canon.

Other thing that bothers about some destiel shippers. One thing is – outside the show – having the interpretation that two heterosexual characters are LGBTQ+ in order to enjoy fanfics and fanarts, it’s okay. What’s not okay is distorting lines, scenes and even answers of actors whose characters they play for a decade or more (therefore knowing said character better than you ever will) just to fit your destiel agenda. Or worse, ignoring the answers of the actors and even Kripke himself when their answers refute your arguments about destiel. Kripke created those characters. Jensen and Misha play Dean and Cas for years…the three of them know those characters well and way better than you. None of your mental gymnastics, twisting and the incorrect use of the meanings of subtext and archetypes and appeal to fanmade theories will change that. You are basically letting your destiel shipper brains cloud your judgment.

Keep it in your minds that subtext is in the eye of the beholder and your personal interpretation of the characters and how you perceive them will not always coincide with the official view and plans the showrunners, writers and creator of the show have for the characters and their stories. That’s why fanfics exist: so you can read and/or write your own personal interpretation of those characters and how you want their story to be. If you’re going to use subtext as evidence for “my ship is canon” argument, the same thing goes for all the other ships this fandom has, including that one that makes you cringe (believe me, that ship makes me cringe too).

That being said, something that used to bring me joy and helped me in so many ways lost all the fun for me. You won. You managed to turn something beautiful into something ugly and that makes some people hate the character or even the actors who play them due to your very insisting, annoying and hypocritical behavior.

I’ll still continue to enjoy SPN for what the show really is: a story about two brothers, one angel and now a (former, maybe) nephilim fighting supernatural evil to save the world with the help of their family, blood-related or not. I will still continue to love and support the cast and the crew. I will always be thankful for them to making such an amazing and magical show. I will always be thankful for the actors for bringing to life the characters I love and cherish since I watched the show for the first time years ago. I will always be thankful to all of them for sharing the BTS and even a small part of their personal lives with us. I’m thankful for the amazing and positive fans – shippers and non-shippers - I met both online and on IRL and for them being part of my life. But I’ll no longer be a destiel shipper. Thanks for reading and please, be kind…always.

A Former Destiel Shipper.

[podcastcoach]

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Last week we talk about media hosts, this week we are talking about your Web Host, and what to do if you hate yours.

Sponsor: Podcast Movement

I am so looking forward to Podcast Movement. This is the largest Podcast Event that is solely geared toward podcasting. Being face to face with people is the best way to grow your network, and take advantage of all the opportunities. Starting a podcast is a great way to build your network, and coming to an event is like building your network on steroids. I got to talk to Marc Maron a couple of years ago. He just showed up to one of the networking parties, and I said hello and started talking. I can't do that sitting in my chair in my office.

- Podcast Movement is the world's largest gathering of new and veteran podcasters, or anyone looking to start their own podcast the right way

- Join over 2,000 podcasters from around the world in Philadelphia this July 23 through 26 for three days of workshops, panels, parties and more

- The conference offers over 100 sessions on topics ranging from the technical aspects of setting up your equipment and the audio production to marketing and monetizing your current or future show.

- The expo hall features over 60 podcast service and equipment providers, so whether you're in the market for a microphone, or trying to figure out where to host your podcast, anyone who matters will be on site to help you out

It's Jule 23 - 26th in Philadelphia PA.

Use the code SOP when you sign up at www.podcastmovement.com

Do You Need a Podcast Website?

After all, can't I just use a media host and a Facebook page? To this I say, would you buy a car from a person selling them out of a tent? If you ever plan on telling people where to find something, you NEED a website. Case in point, if you do a real estate podcast and say "Find me in Apple Podcasts" you have a very good chance of not being found. Not because the search tools bad (it could be improved) but because there are so many real estate shows. The same goes for Entrepreneur shows.  The solution is instead of saying "Find me in (whatever) app" is to say go to mywebsite.com/subscribe and I've got a tutorial that will walk you through the process.

You Can Get A Website For Free

Of the media hosts I recommend (Libsyn.com, Blubrry.com, Podbean.com) they all have a basic website that comes with your plan. How basic is basic? You can listen and have people subscribe to your show. If you're looking to add products, newsletters, scripts to see what they click on, etc, then you need your own website. You can do some of that with their basic site. For example, while you can't put a MailChimp sign up form on a site that doesn't' allows javascript, you can use the link they provide to link to your sign up form that mailchimp provides. With this in mind, there are ways to work around some of the things that are out of bounds.

What Do You Need On Your Podcast Website?

A Play button.

An About page

A Contact page

A subscribe page

A Play Button

You need a play button because asking someone to subscribe to a show they've never heard is like asking someone to pay for a sandwich they've never eaten. Your play button is like the person at the mall who gives out samples of chicken at the food court. They give you a sample and hope your purchase. With podcasts, you make it easy to play and hope they subscribe. One other note, there are still some people who do not have smartphones.

An About Page

Your About page should explain how your audience is going to benefit from listening to your show. Think of your target listener looking at your listing. What are you going to say to convince them? I recently look at my description of the School of Podcasting and it needs work. In the first sentence, I mention that I've been podcasting since 2005. I often introduce myself that way is it speaks to my experience, but I'm not sure that is the first thing to lead with. In general, most people don't' care how the sausage is made. Explain what they are going to get, how they are going to benefit or fell upon listening to your show.  The beauty of this is you can always change it late

The tough part is some consultants have a website for their consulting, and then add a podcast. Do you have a paragraph for the show or for the host? The answer is both. The harder question is which one is first? If your goal is to get hired as a consultant, then put your paragraph first. If you are hoping to use your podcast to build that relationship that leads to more consulting, then maybe you put the podcast paragraph first.

Your Contact Page

I put every way you can contact me on my contact page. Email, voicemail, social media, etc. This way if someone wants to contact me, they only need to look in one place. If you are using some sort of form, be sure to use the form yourself and make sure you get the message.

A Subscribe Page

As more and more podcasts are added to different directories, telling people to find you is becoming less and less of a good thing to say. As more NEW podcast listeners get involved with podcasting telling them to subscribe may fall on deaf ears. Instead, make a page that shows people how to subscribe to your show with links directly to your show on the top platforms. Currently, in 2018 I recommend Apple Podcasts/iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, and Google Play Music (I have tutorials for all of these inside the School of Podcasting)

Web Hosting Has a New Breed

In past, I've used Hostgator (and was even a reseller), and BlueHost (I've never had great luck with them), Godaddy (I am a reseller at www.coolerwebsites.com). Recently I new breed of websites came on board and these were geared to host sites built on Wordpress. I tried a few using Godaddy as a platform and thought I saw some increase in speed. Then I put a Wordpress website on what I will now call "Traditional" hosting, and can say the difference is notable. The fees are typically a little higher (A few dollars more a month), but the speed is higher. That's the good news. The bad news is most of these Wordpress Hosting Packages come with email addresses. This was the case when I hosted a WP Engine. I solved this by getting email through Google at the price of $5 a month per email. WP Engine is a fine company, but to make a long story short, if you get any kind of traffic you pay through the nose (At one point I was paying between 50-70 a month). This is why I liked Godaddy's Wordpress Hosting as it was around $10 a month for 400,000 visitors. I've been using them (again my reseller is www.coolwerwebsites.com) but then I heard about Siteground.

Siteground has Wordpress Designed packages, and they offer your email addresses as well. I moved some sites to their platform to test, and again noticed a speed increase with my pages loading. I finally chose to move the School of Podcasting to their platform (from WP Engine) and again saw an increase, plus I got as many email addresses as I want. Their support is AWESOME And I couldn't be happier. Oh yea, the price? $11.95 a month.  I am very happy to be saving some cash each month and getting more services.

How Do You Move Your Site?

The good news is most web hosts will move your site for free. Siteground did the School of Podcasting for free. However, I wanted to move more sites. They charge $30 to move your site over. So here is how I did it. I used ManageWP. I love this service. I installed a free plugin to my site, and paid $2 to back it up. I then installed WordPress with a few click on Siteground and updated my domain name to point at my blank site.

I know, there are all sort of ways to do this without having your site go offline, but this is a way to do it without having to go into a cpanel, use ftp, etc

I put a message on the front of the website saying we are moving and we would be going temporarily offline. I would refresh my screen every five minutes, and the minute I saw the deal Wordpress screen, I went into ManageWP and had them restore website from my backup. It worked flawlessly. So instead of paying $30, I paid $2. If I had used their service, they probably could do it without the site going offline, but you can choose your own path.

How Many Sites Can You Have on One Site Ground Plan?

(images at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/603 )

Currently, on their biggest plan I loaded the following sites: http://podcastreviewshow.com http://betterdave.com http://davesblanksite.com http://feedingmyfaith.com http://podcastingresources.com http://powerofpodcasting.com

As you can see on the left, I've got some room to grow. Most of these sites are fairly dead. You can see this information by going into the cpanel and looking on the left-hand side of the screen.

Wherever you host your website, be sure to have a backup, keep your themes and plugins up to date, and remove any plugins and themes you are not using (don't just deactivate them).

    Adding Apple Podcasts Episode Numbers How

Last year Apple added the ability to add episode numbers to your show. These may come in handy later with different apps. Currently, you can now ask Siri to subscribe to your show. That makes it easy. In the future, there is speculation that you will be able to request an episode number if it is in place. There is also speculation that this field may be used by Amazon in skills for your podcast.

What if you already have a bunch of episodes?

If you're on Libsyn, currently ask Rob Walch (rob@libsyn.com ) to send you the secret link (as it's not public) and he will send you a link that makes it super easy to add your episodes to your entire back catalog in minutes.

If you're using Blubrry, you can edit your episode to enter the information

  In terms of where do you start? I would start with the latest episode and work backward. It's not as easy to count that way, but for me, I feel your latest episodes are getting the most attention. If you are using Wordpress, you can right-click on the edit link and open in a window. This keeps you in the same location.

   Start Your Podcast at 

www.schoolofpodcasting.com/start

Got a Comment?

888-563-3228

Check out this episode!

[shotbydalonewolf]

2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl

2017 will be another incredible year to remember. I felt like this was the year that we hit our stride and finally past the foundational part of growing our business. I can’t stress how long it takes to continue working on growing your brand and finding the right business model until things click like they did for us this year. There were so many days that I could have given up along the way and would never have gotten here. Other people make it look easy to grow a business but I am always asking myself, “Do I love what I am doing still?” If I don’t, I know something needs to change. This is why my business model has changed over the years and my focus this year changed a lot as well. I believe change is good and the self-reflection is important every single day you are running your business.

This year we didn’t change our business model or create any new products or services. Can you believe it? It felt amazing to just take the foundation we had built in 2016 and keep running with it. I’m an entrepreneur and I love creating new things. But, consistency is when the stress starts to decrease and you can start to get in a groove. That’s exactly how 2017 felt. We just did more of what worked. It took 6 years for us to figure out what works really well but when we found it, we just stayed there. This was the key to our success in 2017.

January: For the first time, we launched the Freedom Workshop. I put everything into this video series and worked for months preparing for it. I had never worked so hard on a launch in my life. This was a pivotal point for our brand because I felt like I created some of the best content I have ever made. And the best part of it was that it was completely free and it helped thousands of women start their businesses in 2017. If you missed it, we are doing it again in January 2018! You can register here.

February: We re-launched the Classy Career Girl podcast and started coming out with 2-3 episodes per week and received over 20 5 star reviews!

March: Classy Career Girl’s SEVEN Year Anniversary and 2,000 posts published.

April: We hit a big outrageous goal of 500 members in our membership sites. Love Your Career Formula and Corporate Rescue Plan. This was huge for us because just one year ago, we didn’t even have a membership site. There was definitely some celebrations at Team CCG this month!

May: This month we took a little break. We needed it. We stayed in Coronado for the month and this is when I really learned the value of new locations and the impact on my creativity and stress-level. It was so good to work from a different location than our home and the downtime really re-energized us for the next 6 months in our business and a really busy June launch of Corporate Rescue Plan.

June: This month was crazy busy! I realized I needed some help so I purposely went out and hired a meal prep service, a regular housekeeper and a personal assistant to help me get through the month.This was also a month we took my daughter out of daycare because we wanted to hangout with her more. It was kind of a trial month because I knew if I just had a little more time to focus on my launch and enjoy my daughter more, I would be happier, my business would grow and I would easily be able to afford these new expenses. All three I still have today and my personal assistant has now turned into a much bigger role at CCG. We love you Jenn. I learned that you can’t continue to grow and uplevel your business by doing everything yourself. June was also the month that John and I flew to Toronto to attend Stu McLaren’s TRIBE Live event. We learned a ton and I was featured as a success story on a panel of other membership site owners like Carrie Green and Susan Garrett which was a huge highlight of my year! We also held a meet up with our members which was so fun too!

July: Another month where we realized we needed a little family downtime. We headed to Minnesota for two weeks to spend time with family and get ready for another busy fall launch. This month we also changed up our brand on our CCG Instagram profile. We went from posting 4 times a day to just once a day but started putting a lot more care into the design and look of our feed and brand. We also started planning out our Instagram a month ahead. This made things so much easier because we weren’t scrambling last minute trying to figure out what to post each day.

August: We launched the third annual Fall in Love With Your Work and Life challenge which is always so much fun to do. When you can rinse and repeat stuff you know is good, that’s when you can really get confident in the growth of your business and the impact you can have. This month we worked crazy on our September re-launch of Love Your Career Formula. We didn’t originally plan to have a September launch because we were a little burnt out but we decided to put the hard work in now to re-create the videos so that in 2018 we can use them again and again. So August was a crazy month of content creation in prep for September. Another huge thing we did in August was we launched a Business Class to Build a Classroom in Kenya and raised over $4,000 for a new school in Kenya with World Teacher Aid.  What an incredible things we did TOGETHER. This was a highlight of my year!

September: We came out with our brand new Get Unstuck Workshop which felt so good because again it was some of the best free content I had ever created. John and I recorded and edited all of the videos and there were many late nights. All the hard work is worth it when you start getting the feedback from others of how much it helped them with their career transitions. This is why we do what we do!

October: This month was a month of reaching goals on social media and our website. We reached 2 million unique visitors to this site since we started and 13,000 Instagram Followers! We also hit 10,000 members in the Classy Career Girl Network.

November: For months we had been working hard so that we could  spend a month in New Zealand with my family. My original goal was to not work at all. I did pretty good and worked a lot less than I normally do but John and I still had work to do while we were there. One of my favorite memories was working in a coffee shop in Auckland with John while my mom watched Mila. Wifi was not as easy as we hoped so there was a little stress involved with trying to work but overall, it was such a great month of rest and creativity. I started working on my book proposal and made my blog editorial calendar for January. While looking at such beautiful scenery I got so many ideas of what I want my brand to look like in 2018. Another example of how taking time off can really help re-energize me for the coming months of my business. While in New Zealand we held #MyStartupStory in our Classy Career Girl Network and it was so fun to read about how brands grew just by posting 7 days with our writing prompts. I even joined in on my AnnaRunyan Instagram account too which I decided to keep posting on daily so I can build my personal brand into 2018 as well.

December:  We are about to celebrate an updated version to our free 90-day planner (coming soon!) We also launched the Freedom Workshop that will start January 2nd, 2018 and we hit 26,000 followers on Pinterest!

We are beyond excited for what’s coming next in 2018. Thank you so much for all of your support. Classy Career Girl would not be here without you all! Stay tuned for a post soon about my social media plan for 2018!

Anna Runyan + TEAM Classy Career Girl

The post 2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl appeared first on Classy Career Girl.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265703 http://ift.tt/2ABqxeU via IFTTT

[s-kinnyheaven]

2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl

2017 will be another incredible year to remember. I felt like this was the year that we hit our stride and finally past the foundational part of growing our business. I can’t stress how long it takes to continue working on growing your brand and finding the right business model until things click like they did for us this year. There were so many days that I could have given up along the way and would never have gotten here. Other people make it look easy to grow a business but I am always asking myself, “Do I love what I am doing still?” If I don’t, I know something needs to change. This is why my business model has changed over the years and my focus this year changed a lot as well. I believe change is good and the self-reflection is important every single day you are running your business.

This year we didn’t change our business model or create any new products or services. Can you believe it? It felt amazing to just take the foundation we had built in 2016 and keep running with it. I’m an entrepreneur and I love creating new things. But, consistency is when the stress starts to decrease and you can start to get in a groove. That’s exactly how 2017 felt. We just did more of what worked. It took 6 years for us to figure out what works really well but when we found it, we just stayed there. This was the key to our success in 2017.

January: For the first time, we launched the Freedom Workshop. I put everything into this video series and worked for months preparing for it. I had never worked so hard on a launch in my life. This was a pivotal point for our brand because I felt like I created some of the best content I have ever made. And the best part of it was that it was completely free and it helped thousands of women start their businesses in 2017. If you missed it, we are doing it again in January 2018! You can register here.

February: We re-launched the Classy Career Girl podcast and started coming out with 2-3 episodes per week and received over 20 5 star reviews!

March: Classy Career Girl’s SEVEN Year Anniversary and 2,000 posts published.

April: We hit a big outrageous goal of 500 members in our membership sites. Love Your Career Formula and Corporate Rescue Plan. This was huge for us because just one year ago, we didn’t even have a membership site. There was definitely some celebrations at Team CCG this month!

May: This month we took a little break. We needed it. We stayed in Coronado for the month and this is when I really learned the value of new locations and the impact on my creativity and stress-level. It was so good to work from a different location than our home and the downtime really re-energized us for the next 6 months in our business and a really busy June launch of Corporate Rescue Plan.

June: This month was crazy busy! I realized I needed some help so I purposely went out and hired a meal prep service, a regular housekeeper and a personal assistant to help me get through the month.This was also a month we took my daughter out of daycare because we wanted to hangout with her more. It was kind of a trial month because I knew if I just had a little more time to focus on my launch and enjoy my daughter more, I would be happier, my business would grow and I would easily be able to afford these new expenses. All three I still have today and my personal assistant has now turned into a much bigger role at CCG. We love you Jenn. I learned that you can’t continue to grow and uplevel your business by doing everything yourself. June was also the month that John and I flew to Toronto to attend Stu McLaren’s TRIBE Live event. We learned a ton and I was featured as a success story on a panel of other membership site owners like Carrie Green and Susan Garrett which was a huge highlight of my year! We also held a meet up with our members which was so fun too!

July: Another month where we realized we needed a little family downtime. We headed to Minnesota for two weeks to spend time with family and get ready for another busy fall launch. This month we also changed up our brand on our CCG Instagram profile. We went from posting 4 times a day to just once a day but started putting a lot more care into the design and look of our feed and brand. We also started planning out our Instagram a month ahead. This made things so much easier because we weren’t scrambling last minute trying to figure out what to post each day.

August: We launched the third annual Fall in Love With Your Work and Life challenge which is always so much fun to do. When you can rinse and repeat stuff you know is good, that’s when you can really get confident in the growth of your business and the impact you can have. This month we worked crazy on our September re-launch of Love Your Career Formula. We didn’t originally plan to have a September launch because we were a little burnt out but we decided to put the hard work in now to re-create the videos so that in 2018 we can use them again and again. So August was a crazy month of content creation in prep for September. Another huge thing we did in August was we launched a Business Class to Build a Classroom in Kenya and raised over $4,000 for a new school in Kenya with World Teacher Aid.  What an incredible things we did TOGETHER. This was a highlight of my year!

September: We came out with our brand new Get Unstuck Workshop which felt so good because again it was some of the best free content I had ever created. John and I recorded and edited all of the videos and there were many late nights. All the hard work is worth it when you start getting the feedback from others of how much it helped them with their career transitions. This is why we do what we do!

October: This month was a month of reaching goals on social media and our website. We reached 2 million unique visitors to this site since we started and 13,000 Instagram Followers! We also hit 10,000 members in the Classy Career Girl Network.

November: For months we had been working hard so that we could  spend a month in New Zealand with my family. My original goal was to not work at all. I did pretty good and worked a lot less than I normally do but John and I still had work to do while we were there. One of my favorite memories was working in a coffee shop in Auckland with John while my mom watched Mila. Wifi was not as easy as we hoped so there was a little stress involved with trying to work but overall, it was such a great month of rest and creativity. I started working on my book proposal and made my blog editorial calendar for January. While looking at such beautiful scenery I got so many ideas of what I want my brand to look like in 2018. Another example of how taking time off can really help re-energize me for the coming months of my business. While in New Zealand we held #MyStartupStory in our Classy Career Girl Network and it was so fun to read about how brands grew just by posting 7 days with our writing prompts. I even joined in on my AnnaRunyan Instagram account too which I decided to keep posting on daily so I can build my personal brand into 2018 as well.

December:  We are about to celebrate an updated version to our free 90-day planner (coming soon!) We also launched the Freedom Workshop that will start January 2nd, 2018 and we hit 26,000 followers on Pinterest!

We are beyond excited for what’s coming next in 2018. Thank you so much for all of your support. Classy Career Girl would not be here without you all! Stay tuned for a post soon about my social media plan for 2018!

Anna Runyan + TEAM Classy Career Girl

The post 2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl appeared first on Classy Career Girl.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265703 http://ift.tt/2ABqxeU via IFTTT

[shmow-zows]

2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl

2017 will be another incredible year to remember. I felt like this was the year that we hit our stride and finally past the foundational part of growing our business. I can’t stress how long it takes to continue working on growing your brand and finding the right business model until things click like they did for us this year. There were so many days that I could have given up along the way and would never have gotten here. Other people make it look easy to grow a business but I am always asking myself, “Do I love what I am doing still?” If I don’t, I know something needs to change. This is why my business model has changed over the years and my focus this year changed a lot as well. I believe change is good and the self-reflection is important every single day you are running your business.

This year we didn’t change our business model or create any new products or services. Can you believe it? It felt amazing to just take the foundation we had built in 2016 and keep running with it. I’m an entrepreneur and I love creating new things. But, consistency is when the stress starts to decrease and you can start to get in a groove. That’s exactly how 2017 felt. We just did more of what worked. It took 6 years for us to figure out what works really well but when we found it, we just stayed there. This was the key to our success in 2017.

January: For the first time, we launched the Freedom Workshop. I put everything into this video series and worked for months preparing for it. I had never worked so hard on a launch in my life. This was a pivotal point for our brand because I felt like I created some of the best content I have ever made. And the best part of it was that it was completely free and it helped thousands of women start their businesses in 2017. If you missed it, we are doing it again in January 2018! You can register here.

February: We re-launched the Classy Career Girl podcast and started coming out with 2-3 episodes per week and received over 20 5 star reviews!

March: Classy Career Girl’s SEVEN Year Anniversary and 2,000 posts published.

April: We hit a big outrageous goal of 500 members in our membership sites. Love Your Career Formula and Corporate Rescue Plan. This was huge for us because just one year ago, we didn’t even have a membership site. There was definitely some celebrations at Team CCG this month!

May: This month we took a little break. We needed it. We stayed in Coronado for the month and this is when I really learned the value of new locations and the impact on my creativity and stress-level. It was so good to work from a different location than our home and the downtime really re-energized us for the next 6 months in our business and a really busy June launch of Corporate Rescue Plan.

June: This month was crazy busy! I realized I needed some help so I purposely went out and hired a meal prep service, a regular housekeeper and a personal assistant to help me get through the month.This was also a month we took my daughter out of daycare because we wanted to hangout with her more. It was kind of a trial month because I knew if I just had a little more time to focus on my launch and enjoy my daughter more, I would be happier, my business would grow and I would easily be able to afford these new expenses. All three I still have today and my personal assistant has now turned into a much bigger role at CCG. We love you Jenn. I learned that you can’t continue to grow and uplevel your business by doing everything yourself. June was also the month that John and I flew to Toronto to attend Stu McLaren’s TRIBE Live event. We learned a ton and I was featured as a success story on a panel of other membership site owners like Carrie Green and Susan Garrett which was a huge highlight of my year! We also held a meet up with our members which was so fun too!

July: Another month where we realized we needed a little family downtime. We headed to Minnesota for two weeks to spend time with family and get ready for another busy fall launch. This month we also changed up our brand on our CCG Instagram profile. We went from posting 4 times a day to just once a day but started putting a lot more care into the design and look of our feed and brand. We also started planning out our Instagram a month ahead. This made things so much easier because we weren’t scrambling last minute trying to figure out what to post each day.

August: We launched the third annual Fall in Love With Your Work and Life challenge which is always so much fun to do. When you can rinse and repeat stuff you know is good, that’s when you can really get confident in the growth of your business and the impact you can have. This month we worked crazy on our September re-launch of Love Your Career Formula. We didn’t originally plan to have a September launch because we were a little burnt out but we decided to put the hard work in now to re-create the videos so that in 2018 we can use them again and again. So August was a crazy month of content creation in prep for September. Another huge thing we did in August was we launched a Business Class to Build a Classroom in Kenya and raised over $4,000 for a new school in Kenya with World Teacher Aid.  What an incredible things we did TOGETHER. This was a highlight of my year!

September: We came out with our brand new Get Unstuck Workshop which felt so good because again it was some of the best free content I had ever created. John and I recorded and edited all of the videos and there were many late nights. All the hard work is worth it when you start getting the feedback from others of how much it helped them with their career transitions. This is why we do what we do!

October: This month was a month of reaching goals on social media and our website. We reached 2 million unique visitors to this site since we started and 13,000 Instagram Followers! We also hit 10,000 members in the Classy Career Girl Network.

November: For months we had been working hard so that we could  spend a month in New Zealand with my family. My original goal was to not work at all. I did pretty good and worked a lot less than I normally do but John and I still had work to do while we were there. One of my favorite memories was working in a coffee shop in Auckland with John while my mom watched Mila. Wifi was not as easy as we hoped so there was a little stress involved with trying to work but overall, it was such a great month of rest and creativity. I started working on my book proposal and made my blog editorial calendar for January. While looking at such beautiful scenery I got so many ideas of what I want my brand to look like in 2018. Another example of how taking time off can really help re-energize me for the coming months of my business. While in New Zealand we held #MyStartupStory in our Classy Career Girl Network and it was so fun to read about how brands grew just by posting 7 days with our writing prompts. I even joined in on my AnnaRunyan Instagram account too which I decided to keep posting on daily so I can build my personal brand into 2018 as well.

December:  We are about to celebrate an updated version to our free 90-day planner (coming soon!) We also launched the Freedom Workshop that will start January 2nd, 2018 and we hit 26,000 followers on Pinterest!

We are beyond excited for what’s coming next in 2018. Thank you so much for all of your support. Classy Career Girl would not be here without you all! Stay tuned for a post soon about my social media plan for 2018!

Anna Runyan + TEAM Classy Career Girl

The post 2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl appeared first on Classy Career Girl.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265703 http://ift.tt/2ABqxeU via IFTTT

[willafigg]

2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl

2017 will be another incredible year to remember. I felt like this was the year that we hit our stride and finally past the foundational part of growing our business. I can’t stress how long it takes to continue working on growing your brand and finding the right business model until things click like they did for us this year. There were so many days that I could have given up along the way and would never have gotten here. Other people make it look easy to grow a business but I am always asking myself, “Do I love what I am doing still?” If I don’t, I know something needs to change. This is why my business model has changed over the years and my focus this year changed a lot as well. I believe change is good and the self-reflection is important every single day you are running your business.

This year we didn’t change our business model or create any new products or services. Can you believe it? It felt amazing to just take the foundation we had built in 2016 and keep running with it. I’m an entrepreneur and I love creating new things. But, consistency is when the stress starts to decrease and you can start to get in a groove. That’s exactly how 2017 felt. We just did more of what worked. It took 6 years for us to figure out what works really well but when we found it, we just stayed there. This was the key to our success in 2017.

January: For the first time, we launched the Freedom Workshop. I put everything into this video series and worked for months preparing for it. I had never worked so hard on a launch in my life. This was a pivotal point for our brand because I felt like I created some of the best content I have ever made. And the best part of it was that it was completely free and it helped thousands of women start their businesses in 2017. If you missed it, we are doing it again in January 2018! You can register here.

February: We re-launched the Classy Career Girl podcast and started coming out with 2-3 episodes per week and received over 20 5 star reviews!

March: Classy Career Girl’s SEVEN Year Anniversary and 2,000 posts published.

April: We hit a big outrageous goal of 500 members in our membership sites. Love Your Career Formula and Corporate Rescue Plan. This was huge for us because just one year ago, we didn’t even have a membership site. There was definitely some celebrations at Team CCG this month!

May: This month we took a little break. We needed it. We stayed in Coronado for the month and this is when I really learned the value of new locations and the impact on my creativity and stress-level. It was so good to work from a different location than our home and the downtime really re-energized us for the next 6 months in our business and a really busy June launch of Corporate Rescue Plan.

June: This month was crazy busy! I realized I needed some help so I purposely went out and hired a meal prep service, a regular housekeeper and a personal assistant to help me get through the month.This was also a month we took my daughter out of daycare because we wanted to hangout with her more. It was kind of a trial month because I knew if I just had a little more time to focus on my launch and enjoy my daughter more, I would be happier, my business would grow and I would easily be able to afford these new expenses. All three I still have today and my personal assistant has now turned into a much bigger role at CCG. We love you Jenn. I learned that you can’t continue to grow and uplevel your business by doing everything yourself. June was also the month that John and I flew to Toronto to attend Stu McLaren’s TRIBE Live event. We learned a ton and I was featured as a success story on a panel of other membership site owners like Carrie Green and Susan Garrett which was a huge highlight of my year! We also held a meet up with our members which was so fun too!

July: Another month where we realized we needed a little family downtime. We headed to Minnesota for two weeks to spend time with family and get ready for another busy fall launch. This month we also changed up our brand on our CCG Instagram profile. We went from posting 4 times a day to just once a day but started putting a lot more care into the design and look of our feed and brand. We also started planning out our Instagram a month ahead. This made things so much easier because we weren’t scrambling last minute trying to figure out what to post each day.

August: We launched the third annual Fall in Love With Your Work and Life challenge which is always so much fun to do. When you can rinse and repeat stuff you know is good, that’s when you can really get confident in the growth of your business and the impact you can have. This month we worked crazy on our September re-launch of Love Your Career Formula. We didn’t originally plan to have a September launch because we were a little burnt out but we decided to put the hard work in now to re-create the videos so that in 2018 we can use them again and again. So August was a crazy month of content creation in prep for September. Another huge thing we did in August was we launched a Business Class to Build a Classroom in Kenya and raised over $4,000 for a new school in Kenya with World Teacher Aid.  What an incredible things we did TOGETHER. This was a highlight of my year!

September: We came out with our brand new Get Unstuck Workshop which felt so good because again it was some of the best free content I had ever created. John and I recorded and edited all of the videos and there were many late nights. All the hard work is worth it when you start getting the feedback from others of how much it helped them with their career transitions. This is why we do what we do!

October: This month was a month of reaching goals on social media and our website. We reached 2 million unique visitors to this site since we started and 13,000 Instagram Followers! We also hit 10,000 members in the Classy Career Girl Network.

November: For months we had been working hard so that we could  spend a month in New Zealand with my family. My original goal was to not work at all. I did pretty good and worked a lot less than I normally do but John and I still had work to do while we were there. One of my favorite memories was working in a coffee shop in Auckland with John while my mom watched Mila. Wifi was not as easy as we hoped so there was a little stress involved with trying to work but overall, it was such a great month of rest and creativity. I started working on my book proposal and made my blog editorial calendar for January. While looking at such beautiful scenery I got so many ideas of what I want my brand to look like in 2018. Another example of how taking time off can really help re-energize me for the coming months of my business. While in New Zealand we held #MyStartupStory in our Classy Career Girl Network and it was so fun to read about how brands grew just by posting 7 days with our writing prompts. I even joined in on my AnnaRunyan Instagram account too which I decided to keep posting on daily so I can build my personal brand into 2018 as well.

December:  We are about to celebrate an updated version to our free 90-day planner (coming soon!) We also launched the Freedom Workshop that will start January 2nd, 2018 and we hit 26,000 followers on Pinterest!

We are beyond excited for what’s coming next in 2018. Thank you so much for all of your support. Classy Career Girl would not be here without you all! Stay tuned for a post soon about my social media plan for 2018!

Anna Runyan + TEAM Classy Career Girl

The post 2017 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl appeared first on Classy Career Girl.

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[game-refraction]

I built a new PC - A Technophile's Journey

There comes a time in every man, women and child’s life when their current computer just isn’t up to the daily tasks you throw at it.  It’s time for an upgrade.  Recently I did just that, and I want to take you on the journey into my new PC experience.

The FX6802-07c

Let’s go back to where my current system started.  Back in Late 2009 (September or October, I don’t recall) I walked into my local FutureShop store and started browsing, like I always did.  I loved looking at electronics and I enjoyed ogling all the stuff I wish I had.  I don’t recall what computer I had at that time, but I know it was some cobbled together mid spec’d system that did just enough to do what I needed it to do, which was gaming.  In the FutureShop Computer section a shiny black and orange motif caught my eye.  This was a Gateway FX 6802-07c, a FutureShop exclusive model that had a Core i7 920 CPU, 12GB of memory, and an Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 graphics card.  This thing was light years beyond my current system, and the price was amazing.  $1,500 +tax, including a 23” wide-screen LCD.  I was sold.  I wanted it.  No – I NEEDED it.  After a phone call to the (ex)wife to convince her that I needed this beast of a machine it was decided to go ahead.  Lucky for us, the FutureShop employee discussed with me that if I got a FutureShop credit card, I could pay for this computer monthly with no interest.  It was as if the stars and planets had aligned and I was destined to get this computer.  The transaction processed flawlessly and it was mine.  I was giddy as I walked out of the store with my 2 big boxes.  I couldn’t drive fast enough to get home and tear into the packages and get this machine running.

Fast forward 7 years and 8 months later, this time it is June 2017.  The FX6802-07c sits on my desk, seemingly happy to chug away at my games of World of Tanks or a moderately modded Skyrim.  Our video editing from conventions, slow but still get done.  This machine, which at the time I named back in 2009 as ‘IX’ (from Dune, the planet of new machines, as I am a huge Dune fan) had been slightly upgraded over the years.  A new Asus GTX 560ti in 2014, a 120Gb Kingston SSD in 2014.  Everything else was stock, aside from a new 32” LG LCD TV as bigger monitor.  The 23” one still worked, and was my transportable screen when I went over to a friend’s house for our Lan parties.

I take good care of my computers, and my family’s computers.  Every 6 months they get a decent dusting and maybe a system tune up.  I always keep them running as smooth as possible when I can, and always fix any issues with them that arise. IX had been solid and never let me down, but I knew that his age was catching up with him.  While windows always ran smooth and fine, and other than video editing and rendering taking a long time, which is normal, things were seeming fine.  Skyrim ran decently fine, but did crash from time to time, and I attributed that to the mods, which probably was 99% accurate.  I had switched cases from the stock Gateway case a month earlier, needing a visual refresh of the computer.  This new case had a small window on the side panel so I could see in.  I don’t know exactly how I discovered it, but I was looking in the window one morning while I was killing time before work, and it practically hit me in the face.  A puffy capacitor.

Now for those of us not technically savvy like myself, the motherboard has lots and lots of capacitors, they are like little batteries that charge and discharge, and generally help stabilize voltage and signal levels in circuit paths.  I won’t go into too much more detail, because it isn’t really that important.  Generally, the capacitors (or caps) used in computers are of the electrolytic type.  They have an electrode and a dielectric, which is generally a fluid.  Over time the fluid dries out or expands, which causes the pressurized can of the cap to bulge or pop.  You see this type of failure lots on older motherboards.  When this happens, the machine will begin to fail and it’s time for a new computer.  Here is a quick video from Linus Tech Tips which explains a little more detail.

Those of us who are capable in electronics have the ability, tools and knowledge to attempt a repair of this type of failure, but a repair shop might charge a lot of money for this repair because it is tricky and time consuming (well not really, it’s more of an annoyance).  Since I am one of these people I decided to attempt the repair.

The bad capacitor, it looks puffy

2 Similar caps that are still good

So, after dismantling all the components from the motherboard, and removing the motherboard from the case, I took it to work where my soldering station is located.  I won’t go into too much detail of the repair, but I did end up removing and replacing the damaged cap, and when hooking everything back up it continued to work.  IX was back to his old self and things were back to normal.

But this isn’t exactly true.  You see I am a technophile, and I love tech, which is probably why I work in the R&D department of an Oilfield instrumentation company.  I work with electronics every day, and I work on a computer at least 16 hours a day.  I used to be a big follower of computer modding, and tried keeping up with the tech back before 2009, but without ever having a budget to spend on these new parts and gear, it was always just a pipe dream to build a monster system.  When I purchased IX, which was my first boxed system, I kind of let all that slip away, because this was the monster system (at the time) and it ran every game and task I threw at it without blinking.  Now in the months leading up to the cap issue with IX, I was determined to build a new gaming system again, as Skyrim wasn’t running as smoothly as I wanted, and with all the new PC titles out there I wasn’t able to fully enjoy them to their visual glory.  I shopped online, looked over specs and prices, compared pre-built systems to base parts and I wasn’t set on any one thing, and I needed money.  Due to the age of IX, this was going to be a full upgrade.  As a starting point, I know I needed a new video card, but the limitations of my older CPU meant a bottleneck.  The CPU, being a 1st generation i7.  It would need to be upgraded, and because a new CPU was needed, so was a new motherboard and ram.  So, I decided I needed a new CPU, motherboard, ram and video card.  I could reuse the power supply and hard drives, since they were still good and I could save a little bit of money, possibly getting me a new system sooner (I hate waiting).  I browsed some pre-built system sites, to give me an idea of what the cost would be for a pre-built system, then I went and priced out comparable parts on the main retailers I use (NCIX, Newegg Canada and Memory Express).  In any case with just the base 4 components I mentioned above, I was looking at about $1,000CAN or more as a starting point.  I would need time to save up and get a budget together to allow me to buy something.  Often the pre-built systems seemed the most tempting, as they were complete and tested, and I could also remove parts most of the time like the hard drives to save a little on the price.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do, I just needed time to get some funds together.  Did I mention I hate waiting?

No Pax – Boo, New House – Yay!

As luck would have it, time was on my side.  Every year, Tali and I plan to go to Pax West in Seattle.  We “try” to save up for it, but you know how that goes.  Now before you get the idea that I spent our vacation money, no, that isn’t what I did, and we cancelled our trip to Seattle for different reasons.  You see we bought a house, and we move in August.  So, when we were discussing the option of buying a house, or going on a trip to Seattle to take part in the amazing Pax West convention for my 5th time.  It was a tough choice, but ultimately, we decided buying a house was better for the long run.  Don’t worry Game-Refraction is still going to Pax West, just Tali and I are not going.  We will go next year.  You see we have also been working diligently on our finances this year, and we’ve made amazing progress on our debt load.  Anyway, it seems I went off topic a little.  Where was I ……

Oh yes, we decided to buy a house, and to make that possible we cashed out a bit of both our RRSP’s to make the down payment.  This is a standard practice with buying a house in Canada, so we decided that if I withdrew a little extra, say $1,000, I could potentially use that to build a new PC.  Now as nice as I would love to build a monster system with an unlimited budget, I have always had some sort of financial end cap that would restrict the amount of hardware I would be allowed to purchase.  While this makes me financially responsible, it can be restricting in a sense that I won’t be able to get the latest and greatest.  I felt this was a challenge, I had a limit of $1,000, let’s see if I could get everything I needed and stay within the budget.  Going over the budget meant that item would have to wait until I had saved up a little more funds. Challenge accepted.

I knew a pre-built system was totally out of the question unless I felt I would get lower end stuff, and I wanted to go a little higher end.  Did I mention I hate waiting?

I spec’d out the 4 main components over the course of a few hours on a Saturday, tossed the list to a few tech savvy friends to make sure that I wasn’t a fool in my picking.  They all said it looked decent.  The parts I settled on were as follows:

Motherboard – ASUS ROG STRIX B250H GAMING LGA1151 DDR4 HDMI DVI M.2 USB 3.1 B250 ATX Motherboard

CPU – Intel BX80677I57400 7th Gen Core Desktop Processors

CPU cooler – Corsair Hydro series H60 AiO

Memory – Kingston HyperX FURY Black 16GB Kit (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL14 DIMM Desktop Memory (HX421C14FBK2/16)

GPU – ASUS Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB ROG STRIX HDMI 2.0 DP 1.4 Gaming Graphics Card (STRIX-GTX1050TI-4G-GAMING) Graphic Cards

  Now the cost on all the items above, including tax and shipping, came to $991.14CAN.  Amazingly I stayed within my budget perfectly, with a little to spare.  My original plan was to reuse the new-ish case IX was currently occupying.  I decided to pick up the following

Case –be quiet! Pure Base 600 ATX Case

the be Quiet base 600 case, fresh out of its box

Now with the case I was over budget, but I had a little cash saved up and I could make it work (it was on sale for $79CAN).  I wanted my new system to be as silent as possible, while still performing great, which is partly why I went with the AiO cooling system, plus I know liquid cooling performs so much better, and it was pretty much the same price as a decent high-end air cooler.  So, Memory Express shipped my order on the following Monday, and it arrived on Tuesday (I hate waiting) and NCIX shipped the case also on Monday, and it arrived on Wednesday.  It was like Christmas to me, and well my Wednesday evening was spent disassembling, and assembling this new system.  I think the hardest part for me was the Corsair H60 AiO since I have never worked with one before, but in the end, it worked well and everything went together.  The be Quiet base 600 case is a little taller than my old case, and the PSU coming from IX had a little bit of a short motherboard power lead, which I needed to creatively run behind the GTX1050 for it to reach the very top of the Asus motherboard, since they decided to put it at the very top of the board, when all new cases have the power supply at the bottom (not smart).  When it came time to power on everything and see if it all worked, I was presently surprised that it fired up on the first try, and everything worked amazingly well.  The best part, was I hear nothing.  This setup is so quiet I had to check to see if all the fans were working because they are so quiet.

So now that I have new computer, I plan to be good for the next 7 years and 8 months before I begin looking again for upgrades.  I am sure I will upgrade a part here and there (new modular power supply?), but in the end this computer will keep me going for the next while.  Thank you for joining me on this journey, please browse the gallery of the build, and let me know what you think.

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I built a new PC – A Technophile’s Journey was originally published on Game-Refraction